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MARCH 4,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:20 P.M. ET: 

TEXAS RESULTS – It was primary day in Texas.  Wendy Davis won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.  State Attorney General Greg Abbott won the Republican nod.  Republican Senator John Cornyn was nominated for a third term, easily defeating a Tea Party candidate, Steve Stockman, who failed to attract much enthusiasm.  Both Abbott and Cornyn are favored to win their races in November, but I would take nothing for granted.

GRIM ECONOMY – From CNS:  "The average annual labor force participation rate hit a 35-year-low of 63.2 percent in the United States in 2013, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
The last time the average annual labor force participation rate was that low was in in 1978, when it was also 63.2 percent. Jimmy Carter was president then."  Carter and Obama, together again.  Let's hear your requests for their next song.  Oh, and welcome to the recovery.

THAT'LL SHOW THE CRIMINAL CLASS! – From Fox:  "A central Ohio principal says she suspended a 10-year-old boy from school for three days for pretending his finger was a gun and pointing it at another student's head.  The boy's father says he thinks it's the adults who are acting childish after the boy was suspended from Devonshire Alternative Elementary School in Columbus last week.  The fifth-grader said he was 'just playing around.' But district spokesman Jeff Warner tells The Columbus Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1jO1rL7 ) that Devonshire Principal Patricia Price has warned students about pretend gun play numerous times this year, and everyone should know the rules by now."  Gotta watch those dangerous fingers.  Don't you think some appropriate counseling would be a better solution?

NEVER-NEVER LAND – New York City is becoming bizarre.  Last week the city's new socialist mayor Bill DeBlasio, got major heat from parents for throwing several high-performing charter schools out of the space they shared with public schools.  But the fact is that DeBlasio, a charter school opponent, approved arrangements for many other charter schools.  That was too much for other New York officials, even further to the left than the Castro-appeasing, Sandinista-loving DeBlasio.  The speaker of the New York City Council, and the laughably called "public advocate," are launching a lawsuit to remove other charter schools from city property, despite the fact that parents and students love them.  They presumably want to bring true communism to the city, and celebrate the equality of mediocrity.  Who needs them smartaleck scientists anyway?

March 4, 2014       Permalink

IF IT LOOKS LIKE A DUCK, AND WALKS LIKE A DUCK... – AT 10:16 A.M. ET:   This incident has been getting increased attention thanks to some alert bloggers.  It's important, especially given last year's attack at the Boston Marathon.  I want to know the facts.  From the great College Fix website, via Fox: 

Conservative news watchers want more answers on why an Iranian grad student at George Tech nearly burned himself to death making homemade bombs inside his apartment.

The incident happened in early February, but gained new steam over the weekend after Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit and Jim Treacher at The Daily Caller posted items on the explosion, which sent Saamer Akhshabi to the hospital with third-degree burns over 90 percent of his body.

“Sounds suspicious,” Reynolds wrote.

Treacher posited: “Why was he making them? I have no idea, because this only made the local news in Atlanta and there was no follow-up. Nobody’s curious about why this guy was making firebombs in his apartment.”

According to First Coast News, “Atlanta police (say) … lighter fluid and a charred pillow and mattress were found inside the apartment, along with the Molotov cocktail and several plastic bottles filled with gasoline and kerosene.

“Akhshabi was transported to Grady Memorial Hospital,” the report states. “His biography on Georgia Tech’s website says he’s a PhD student in the school’s College of Computing and attended the University of Tehran in his native Iran before coming to Georgia.”

COMMENT:  I doubt that he was making firebombs for a July 4th celebration.  This should be treated as a major story, and good investigative reporters should be on the case.  I don't know how this was missed by the media in the first place.

March 4, 2014       Permalink

OH REALLY? – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:  Ah, when liberals see the light it is a rare but beautiful occasion.  The Columbia Journalism Review is a product of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia, my alma mater and a very liberal one at that.   The Review has now come to a welcome conclusion about Fox News:

Pop quiz: which cable news network is more welcoming of opposing voices? The answer: Fox News.

Oh, some of you may raise a skeptical eyebrow, but a new piece from the Columbia Journalism Review credits Fox News for giving a platform, even when the deck is stacked, for liberals on the right-leaning network.

The feature contains statements from Tamara Holder, one of Fox News’ most prominent liberal voices, and Sally Kohn, who used to be another such voice before she moved to CNN this year. Holder says going on Fox News is good because the network gets great ratings, while Kohn says she doesn’t like “preaching to the choir.”

Which brings us to MSNBC. Fox News has all sorts of Democrats and liberals, including Dennis Kucinich and James Carville, two very reliably liberal individuals. But what about Fox News’s counterpart? Well, the CJR feature says, MSNBC has a few “moderate conservatives” like Joe Scarborough and Michael Steele, and these do not normally lead to big debates of any sort with the hosts.

Meanwhile, on a typical Fox News primetime lineup, you’ll have appearances by Kirsten Powers, Juan Williams, Carville, and Alan Colmes, among others, and there have been occasional shouting matches.

COMMENT:   The opposition hasn't yet figured out the secret of Fox News – that it's a thoroughly professional news organization that provides a balance between conservatives and liberals and – this is the key point – does stories the other guys refuse to do, stories that are personally interesting to most Americans, and speak to their needs. 

Maybe the others will learn, but their ideological bias is so great that I doubt it.

March 4, 2014       Permalink 

MARCH 4th – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  This is an important day in American history.  March 4th, up through FDR's first term, was the day we inaugurated new presidents.  We changed the date to January 20th with FDR's second inauguration in 1937. 

The date prompts us to recall the presidents who have served since inauguration day was changed to January 20th – Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, Obama.

You know that's not bad.  Yes, there are some clunkers on that list – the pathetic Carter, the ethically challenged Nixon, the unspeakable Obama.  But look at the other side.  There are some very impressive presidents on that list.  I don't know of any other country that has produced leaders of such caliber (faults and all) in such a short period.  All, except Carter and Obama, were united in the belief that America is a force for good, and that our engagement in the world was a profound necessity. 

Will any of them eventually wind up on the lists of "great" presidents.  Well, Roosevelt is already there.  I think Truman qualifies, and certainly Reagan.  Eisenhower, a president whose reputation has risen steadily, probably won't make the list because of the relatively quiet era in which he served, but is now widely seen as a man of substantial intelligence and judgment.  Kennedy's tenure was tragically cut short so no judgment can be made.  Johnson, despised at the time, might come close, but his mishandling of much of the Vietnam War, will keep him off the list.  He was, though, a brilliant legislator. 

The intellectual classes love to knock America and ridicule its leaders.  But I think, on balance, we've done rather well, although one wouldn't know it looking at our situation today.

March 4, 2014       Permalink   

UKRAINE LATEST – AT 8:45 A.M. ET:  Russia continues to build its forces, as Putin justifies use of military action.  From Fox:

KIEV, Ukraine – Dispatching sizable troop reinforcements into Crimea on Monday, Russia consolidated its military control over the southeastern Ukrainian territory and may be preparing for a wider invasion of the country, senior U.S. officials traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry to Kiev, the restive Ukrainian capital, said early Tuesday.

"We still have a very real concern that the Russians have other plans in the Ukraine," said one senior U.S. official, briefing reporters aboard Kerry's official airplane en route from New York to Kiev. "They may be planning other moves."

For the first time since the crisis erupted, senior U.S. officials complained of difficulty tracking Russian troop movements. They said the expected redeployment of Russian security forces following the end of the Olympic Games in Sochi, as well as routine military exercises in the area, had complicated the task of determining how many Russian troops are still pouring into Crimea.

The officials could not immediately dismiss reports that the number of total Russian troops in Crimea may now have reached as high as 16,000, which if true would appear to mark a surge of an additional 10,000 troops into the area within a period of 24 to 36 hours. "It's clearly a large number," an official said.

At the same time, the officials noted reports of Russian aircraft approaching, or even trespassing in, Ukrainian airspace, and Ukrainian jets scrambling to repel them. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that "it is a fact" that Russian jets entered Ukrainian airspace.

The U.S. officials also cited evidence that Ukrainian and Russian forces have each been massing on opposite sides of the isthmus that connects Ukraine to Crimea -- a development that one senior U.S. official said "raises the prospect" that the Kremlin may be preparing to "extend" its invasion to the mainland.

COMMENT:  Putin said yesterday that force was a "last resort" in dealing with what he claimed was an illegal transfer of power within the Ukrainian government, but that it was justified.  He also launched the usual accusation that the West was being hypocritical, citing Western interventions in a number of places. 

I would not underestimate Putin's ability to maneuver.  As a strategist and international politician he is far superior to Obama, although that standard is low.  I would not be surprised if Putin lies low for a time, to lull us, then consolidates control over Crimea and even Ukraine generally.  It's the strategy being pursued by Iran, with great success.  As Lenin said, two steps forward, one step back.

March 4,  2014     Permalink

MARCH 3,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:35 P.M. ET: 

RUMMY NAILS IT – From Fox:  "Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Monday that he believes 'U.S. weakness has shaken the world' and has created a power vacuum that has led to instability and crises such as the one in Ukraine.  Rumsfeld said under the Obama administration the U.S. has been perceived as a world power in decline, and wields far less influence than it used to. Consequently, the world as a whole has become less stable.  'We have created a leadership vacuum in the world, and it is being filled by the Putins of the world, by people without our values or our interest, and it’s to the detriment of the United States and our friends and allies around the world, he said. 'It is the United States that’s injected that instability into the world equation.'"  He is exactly right, and this has happened before.

MIXED REPORT ON IRAN – From Reuters:  "Iran is reducing its most proliferation-prone nuclear stockpile as required by its landmark deal with world powers but much work remains to be done to resolve all concerns about Tehran's activities, the UN atomic watchdog chief said on Monday."  It's the "much work" that worries me.  So far Iran appears to be complying with the very minimal demands of the interim agreement it signed with Western nations over its nuclear program.  But the real demands, unless Obama backs down one more time, are still to come.  Iran has already said that it would insist that its nuclear program remain "intact."   I'm not comfortable with that word."

RAND MANEUVERS – Rand Paul is maneuvering to hedge his bets in 2016.  This may not go down well.  From the Washington Times:  "Opening a door to hedge his political bets, Sen. Rand Paul has asked the leader of the Kentucky Senate for legislation to ensure that Mr. Paul can run both for the White House and for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2016, The Washington Times has learned.  'Yes, I am working on clarifying an ambiguous state law that Rand Paul believes is unconstitutional if it is interpreted to bar running for re-election to the Senate and for president at the same time,' Kentucky Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer told The Times on Monday.  'The purpose of the bill will be to make clear that Rand Paul or anyone in a similar situation in Kentucky can run for both offices in the same year,' Mr. Thayer explained."  Not good for the image.

March 3, 2014       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:   My Iranian-dissident friend, Banafsheh Zand, refers us to a column by the great Michael Ledeen, a superb foreign-policy analyst who has been right on Iran all along.  From PJMedia.com: 

No surprise that the intel guys, like their political bosses, reassured themselves that Russia wouldn’t invade. Even though they made the same mistake just a few years ago when the morsel was Georgia. Indeed, that kind of error, revolving around the phrase “rational actor,” is the trademark of Western confusion about the world. They refuse to see that our enemies are waging war against us, thus refuse to think about winning that war, thus lose many battles, and happily retreat. After all, if our enemies are rational actors, what could go wrong? We could even slash and burn our own military. Not to worry.

It’s not as if we’re at war, after all.

And we’re not. Only our enemies are. It’s like target practice for them.

And...

They are hard at work over here, too, trying to blow us up, but they’re dismissed, their plain meaning written off, just as the global war against us is written off. Did you notice that remarkable story out of Georgia Tech? An Iranian grad student was carted off to the hospital with severe burns over most of his body, apparently because he blew himself up with a Molotov cocktail. The usual keen-eyed anti-jihadi bloggers were all over it, and both local Fox and CBS reported the event (misidentifying the victim’s home country, but no matter), but as usual one would like to know more, and as usual one doesn’t. Perhaps this will be added to the list of mythological “home-grown terrorist events,” even though the guy got his undergraduate degree at Tehran University.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  Ledeen was one of the first scholars to warn that our opponents were essentially at war with us, while we slept.  Of course, he was ridiculed.  But he was, and is, correct.

March 3, 2014       Permalink

CRAZY – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  As if to prove the Washington Post's point – see the post just below – President Obama gave a disgraceful, bizarre interview to Bloomberg, relentlessly attacking Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel while praising President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority.  He did this as Netanyahu was traveling to the United States for a meeting with the president.

It is being buzzed about all over the internet and the foreign-policy press.  It is unprecedented for an American leader to so assault the prime minister of a close American ally.  Allies around the world, being asked for their support in the Ukrainian crisis, will notice.   From Bloomberg:   

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the White House tomorrow, President Barack Obama will tell him that his country could face a bleak future -- one of international isolation and demographic disaster -- if he refuses to endorse a U.S.-drafted framework agreement for peace with the Palestinians. Obama will warn Netanyahu that time is running out for Israel as a Jewish-majority democracy. And the president will make the case that Netanyahu, alone among Israelis, has the strength and political credibility to lead his people away from the precipice.

In an hourlong interview Thursday in the Oval Office, Obama, borrowing from the Jewish sage Rabbi Hillel, told me that his message to Netanyahu will be this: “If not now, when? And if not you, Mr. Prime Minister, then who?” He then took a sharper tone, saying that if Netanyahu “does not believe that a peace deal with the Palestinians is the right thing to do for Israel, then he needs to articulate an alternative approach." He added, "It’s hard to come up with one that’s plausible.”

And that's the kind part.  The moderate Times of Israel responds:

The timing could not have been any more deliberate — an assault on the prime minister’s policies delivered precisely as Netanyahu was flying in to meet with him, and on the first day, too, of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC’s annual tour de force conference across town.

At the very least, that might be considered bad manners, poor diplomatic protocol, a resounding preemptive slap in the face: I’ve just told the world you’re leading your country to wrack and ruin, Mr. Prime Minister. Now, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?

More substantively, the president’s comments reinforce years of grievance that have accumulated in Netanyahu’s circles and some distance beyond, to the effect that the president ignores the inconsistencies, duplicities and worse of the Palestinian Authority and its leader Mahmoud Abbas, while placing exaggerated blame for the failure of peace efforts at the door of the Israeli government.

COMMENT:  What is wrong with Obama?  Is he nuts?  Or just an old pro-Muslim lefty doing his thing?  This is the time to give Israel confidence in the peace talks.  Instead, Obama gives the Palestinian Authority a road map to withdraw from the talks, blame Israel, and incite hatred of Israel all over the world.  In what way would that benefit peace, or the United States?

I suspect that there was some consideration given on Netanyahu's plane to turning the craft around and returning to Israel.  I'm glad that wasn't done, but I'd love to be a fly on the wall at Netanyahu's meeting with Hussein Obama today. 

Obama has a record of trashing our allies and appeasing our enemies.  Who would want to be an ally of a president like that?  Of course, we can ask whether Obama is really an American president, or something a bit more disturbing.  It's the latter.

March 3, 2014        Permalink

BRILLIANT AND COURAGEOUS – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  We've said many times here that the Washington Post has the best liberal editorial page in the country.  The Post proved it again over the weekend with a scathing attack on Obama's foreign policy.  The editorial is called "President Obama’s foreign policy is based on fantasy."  This is required reading:   

FOR FIVE YEARS, President Obama has led a foreign policy based more on how he thinks the world should operate than on reality. It was a world in which “the tide of war is receding” and the United States could, without much risk, radically reduce the size of its armed forces. Other leaders, in this vision, would behave rationally and in the interest of their people and the world. Invasions, brute force, great-power games and shifting alliances — these were things of the past. Secretary of State John F. Kerry displayed this mindset on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday when he said, of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, “It’s a 19th century act in the 21st century.”

That’s a nice thought, and we all know what he means. A country’s standing is no longer measured in throw-weight or battalions. The world is too interconnected to break into blocs. A small country that plugs into cyberspace can deliver more prosperity to its people (think Singapore or Estonia) than a giant with natural resources and standing armies.

Unfortunately, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not received the memo on 21st-century behavior. Neither has China’s president, Xi Jinping, who is engaging in gunboat diplomacy against Japan and the weaker nations of Southeast Asia. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is waging a very 20th-century war against his own people, sending helicopters to drop exploding barrels full of screws, nails and other shrapnel onto apartment buildings where families cower in basements. These men will not be deterred by the disapproval of their peers, the weight of world opinion or even disinvestment by Silicon Valley companies. They are concerned primarily with maintaining their holds on power.

And...

The urge to pull back — to concentrate on what Mr. Obama calls “nation-building at home” — is nothing new, as former ambassador Stephen Sestanovich recounts in his illuminating history of U.S. foreign policy, “Maximalist.” There were similar retrenchments after the Korea and Vietnam wars and when the Soviet Union crumbled. But the United States discovered each time that the world became a more dangerous place without its leadership and that disorder in the world could threaten U.S. prosperity. Each period of retrenchment was followed by more active (though not always wiser) policy. Today Mr. Obama has plenty of company in his impulse, within both parties and as reflected by public opinion. But he’s also in part responsible for the national mood: If a president doesn’t make the case for global engagement, no one else effectively can.

COMMENT:  Read the entire editorial.  It's worth it, and rare for a liberal paper.  We are in serious trouble internationally, yet too many refuse to see, so hypnotized are they by the phenomenon of Obama.  Sadly, retrenchment has now infiltrated the Republican Party.  Rand Paul's only comment on the Ukraine has been to insult members of his own party by charging that they're living in the age of the Cold War.  Paul, in foreign policy, is the GOP version of George McGovern.

A price is already being paid. 

March 3, 2014       Permalink

UKRAINE – WORSE – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  The crisis continues to deepen as the chickens in Barack Hussein Obama's policy of weakness and retreat come home to roost.  From CNN: 

(CNN) -- Russia tightened its grip around Ukraine's eastern Crimean region Monday, drawing condemnation from Western nations and heightening fears of war.

Moscow's G8 partners have condemned its military buildup in the country, demanding that it withdraw. Ukraine's new leaders accused Moscow of declaring war, and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned that blood could be spilled amid growing instability in the neighboring nation.

Ukraine's shaky new government has mobilized troops and called up military reservists as officials say signs of Russian military intervention in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula -- an autonomous region of eastern Ukraine with strong loyalty to Russia -- are clear.

Speaking at a visit to Switzerland on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who spoke with his Chinese counterpart Monday about the crisis, accused Ukraine's new authorities -- in place since President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted last week -- of attacking minorities and violating human rights.

"The opposition ... has fulfilled nothing," Russian state news agency ITAR Tass quoted Lavrov as saying. "Illegal weapons have not been handed in, administrative buildings and streets in Kiev have not been fully freed, and radicals continue to control the capital."

A senior U.S. administration official told CNN on Sunday that Russian forces "have complete operational control of the Crimean Peninsula." The official said the U.S. estimates there are 6,000 Russian ground and naval forces in the region.

COMMENT:  The foreign minister of the UK said over the weekend that this is the biggest crisis facing Europe in this century.  I'm glad he didn't say it was global warming.

Ukraine is a really big deal.  It is Russia, two weeks after hosting the Olympics, using military force on its own borders to create, in effect, an old Soviet-style satellite.  And part of the deal is a weak, vacillating American president who is cutting American defense in the face of the rising Russian threat.

Remember when Mitt Romney said during the 2012 campaign that Russia would be our greatest geopolitical opponent?  He was laughed it.

Remember when Sarah Palin said during the 2008 campaign that Putin's use of military force in Georgia could be a prelude to an invasion of Ukraine?  She was ridiculed.

We see it so often in history – the people who are laughed at often turn out to be right.

March 3,  2014     Permalink