FRIDAY,  APRIL 3,  2009

TRAVEL REPORT - AT 11:22 P.M. ET:  From BBC:

Preparations in North Korea for a satellite launch are complete and lift-off will take place "soon", state media has reported.

A carrier rocket was ready to lift an experimental communications satellite from a base on the country's east coast, state news agency KCNA said.

Pyongyang's neighbours suspect the launch is a cover for a missile test and have urged it not to go ahead.

Correspondents say it remains unclear when exactly the launch will be.

North Korea has told international organisations it will carry out the launch between 4 and 8 April, during the hours of 1100 to 1600 (0200 to 0700 GMT).

COMMENT:   Obama and Clinton have promised a tough response if North Korea presses the button.  Let's see if they mean it, and if their definition of toughness matches that of most Americans.  I don't consider an anguished protest to the UN very tough, but that's where our reaction is likely to begin.

This could be Obama's first foreign crisis.  Stand by.

April 3, 2009   Permalink

FRANCE TO THE RESCUE - AT 8:08 A.M. ET:  This just in, via AP:

STRASBOURG, France – In a symbolic gesture, French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he will accept one terrorist suspect being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

COMMENT:  But only if he dresses well and appreciates fine wine.

April 3, 2009   Permalink

TURKEY DEFIES CHOICE OF NATO CHIEF - AT 7:06 P.M. ET:  Lost in all the celebrity-style reporting over the president's trip to Europe is a rather ugly split that's developed in NATO, as reported by London's Telegraph:

Turkey's prime minister has warned that the favourite candidate to take over as Nato leader, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is unsuitable for the position.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, said that Mr Rasmussen had repeatedly failed to address the concerns of his country and the Muslim world over Danish newspapers printing caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that caused widespread offense. Mr Rasmussen had also rejected Mr Erdogan's protests over radio broadcasts by a Kurdish terrorist group.

COMMENT:  Rasmussen's crime, as prime minister of Denmark, is apparently that he stood up for Western concepts of free speech.  Turkey's prime minister is an Islamist, who clearly does not appreciate our concept of freedom.

Turkey, if it wishes, can veto the choice.  We would hope that President Obama, who will soon visit Turkey, will have a heart-to-heart with Erdogan, and will fully support the choice of Rasmussen.  If Obama bends on this, we can conclude that he has very little regard for the Western values he's pledged to defend.

April 3, 2009   Permalink

DOW CLOSE - AT 5:25 P.M. ET:  The Dow closed above 8000.  It closed up 40 points, to 8018, as many "investors" were apparently unbothered by the stark unemployment numbers.  Who needs people with money to spend?

COMRADE? - AT 3:50 P.M. ET: 

LONDON (AFP) - - Russia's Dmitry Medvedev hailed Barack Obama as "my new comrade" Thursday after their first face-to-face talks, saying the US president "can listen" -- even if little progress was made on substance.

The Russian president contrasted Obama as "totally different" from his predecessor George W. Bush, whom he blamed for the "mistake" of US missile shield plans fiercely opposed by Moscow.

COMMENT:  Yuch.  Bush was correct on the missile shield, and East European countries took the risk of signing on to the Bush program.  Words like this from Medvedev, no matter how well he smiles, will not go down well in the capitals of our East European friends.

April 3, 2009   Permalink

OBAMA DOWN IN RASMUSSEN POLL - AT 3:11 P.M. ET:  The Rasmussen daily tracker on presidential approval has 56% of Americans approving of Mr. Obama's performance, 44% disapproving.  That's fairly consistent with Rasmussen's numbers recently, except for a brief uptick earlier this week.

However, Rasmussen has a "Presidential Approval Index," which reports the gap between those who strongly approve and those who strongly disapprove.  That number has shrunk to three points, the smallest gap yet for Mr. Obama.  Some 35% strongly approve, whereas 32% strongly disapprove.

April 3, 2009   Permalink

DOW NOW - AT 3:01 P.M. ET: The Dow is up 14 points, to 7992, despite distressing unemployment numbers.  Now, higher unemployment, which is often accompanied by salary cuts for those still working, means that people have less money to spend.  If they have less money to spend, the very companies represented in the Dow index will probably have less business.  So why is the Dow stable or rising?  Because the stock market has very little to do with the real economy, as we learned during the Depression, when a four-year rally (1933-37) went ahead as the country's economy went down the drain.     

UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES - AT 9:01 A.M. ET:  This certainly hasn't been a morning for good news:

April 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. unemployment rate climbed in March to the highest level since 1983 and the economy lost more than 650,000 jobs for a fourth consecutive month, a sign renewed reductions in spending might slow a recovery.

The jobless rate increased to 8.5 percent, as forecast, from 8.1 percent in February, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. Employers cut 663,000 workers from staff, bringing total losses since the recession began to about 5.1 million, the biggest slump in the postwar era.

Evaporating jobs and declining pay mean President Barack Obama's pledge to create or save 3.5 million jobs through tax cuts and government spending may fall short of what's needed to revive the world's largest economy. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has conceded joblessness could top 10 percent under a worst-case scenario.

COMMENT:  And there are many states, like Michigan, where unemployment is already in double digits.  However, at one point in the great Depression, unemployment stood at 25%, and we didn't have a social safety net.  So we haven't come anywhere near that horrible situation yet.

April 3, 2009   Permalink 

WE REALLY NEEDED THIS - AT 8:26 A.M. ET:    From The Times of London: 

President Karzai of Afghanistan provoked international outrage yesterday with draconian Taleban-era restrictions on women and laws that explicitly sanction marital rape.

A leaked copy of the laws obtained by The Times details new strictures for Afghanistan’s Shia minority. Women are banned from leaving the home without permission. A wife has the absolute duty to provide sexual services to her husband, and child marriage is legalised.

Details of the legislation emerged as President Obama and other world leaders wrapped up the G20 summit to fly to a Nato summit marking 60 years of the alliance. Mr Obama is pushing for an increase in Nato troop numbers in Afghanistan, but many allies have already rebuffed his calls. The new laws may provide an excuse for remaining waverers to join them.

COMMENT:  This is very bad.  We obviously cannot go along with this sick, medieval nonsense.  And, yes, it's going to complicate our attempts to get further allied support for our Afghanistan efforts.  If anything, these new laws show us what we're fighting - radical Islam at its worst.

We have to find a way to advance our legitimate interests in Afghanistan and Pakistan without endorsing this stuff.  Karzai should be ashamed, but he seems to be a politician first:

Opponents of the Afghan President accused him of selling out basic human rights for women in return for the votes of hardline Shia conservatives for the presidential election in August.

This setback will, of course, provide fodder to our political left, which has not shown any particular interest in the rights of Muslim women.  They may now conveniently notice, as a means of getting us out of Afghanistan.  You watch.

April 3, 2009   Permalink   

GM DOWN THE DRAIN? - AT 7:51 A.M. ET:  From the Washington Post:

DETROIT, April 2 -- The leaders of General Motors have been uncomfortable for months even mentioning the word "bankruptcy." The very idea would scare off customers, they said, and ravage car sales.

But on March 27 it became clear that the American corporate icon would have little choice.

Steven Rattner, chief of the President Obama's auto task force, instructed GM officials to give serious consideration to the tactic.

"They basically indicated it may well be that bankruptcy is the right strategy," Fritz Henderson, the company's new chief executive, said Thursday in an interview.

COMMENT:  This reminds me somewhat of the old practice, in some dictatorships, of people being "suicided."  They're simply forced into it, or murdered in such a way as to make it look like suicide. 

Go to sleep with the government, you wake up with bankruptcy.

April 3, 2009   Permalink 

DISGUSTING - AT 7:38 A.M. ET:  You're going to be reading about this - how the UN Human Rights Council, that vastly corrupt gang of dictators and their friends - has shown ultra-fairness by appointing an esteemed "Jewish" judge to investigate war crimes charges against Israel.  From the Jerusalem Post:

The United Nations on Friday appointed a former chief prosecutor for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda to lead a high-level mission to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip

Richard Goldstone, a Jewish judge from South Africa, was named to head the investigation ordered by the Human Rights Council in January.

According to the mandate, the investigation will focus only on Palestinian victims of the three-week IDF operation against Hamas terrorists.

COMMENT:  This is cynical to the core.  First, note paragraph three.  The "Human Rights Council" has restricted the "investigation" only to Palestinian "victims."  In other words, the probe is rigged in advance.  Second, note paragraph two.  This guy is a judge in South Africa, a country whose foreign policy is militantly anti-Israel.  How did he do so well in South Africa? 

Now add this:  The same "Jewish" Richard Goldstone recently signed a petition calling for an investigation of the Gaza operation.  The signatories said they were "shocked to the core" by Gaza.  In other words, Goldstone has already expressed an opinion.  Other signatories were the usual anti-Israel suspects.

The "Human Rights Council" has done this before, appointing the despicable Richard Falk, a "Jewish" former Princeton professor to head another probe into Israeli actions.  The mainstream media never noted that Falk had a lifetime record as an America hater and Israel hater, and had become a 9-11 conspiracy theorist. 

We've seen that not all "Christians" are very Christian, and not all "Jews" are particularly Jewish.  Back in 1940 there were "Jews" who supported the Hitler-Stalin pact, long after the synagogues of Germany started to burn.  These "Jews" had found a new religion in Marxism.  And we've seen "Christian" groups, some associated with the National Council of Churches, who take some very un-Christian positions, like fronting for dictators.  Religious labels are very dicey.  You have to look at the individual and his or her record. 

Oh, among the other signers of the petition that Goldstone signed are Desmond Tutu, a professional Israel hater, and Mary Robinson, who presided over the UN's now infamous Durban conference of 2001, which degenerated into an anti-Western and anti-Semitic hatefest.  Goldstone certainly has great company.

Maybe Goldstone will rise above the UN and do a fair job.  But he'll have to show us.

April 3, 2009   Permalink 

THIS ALMOST GOT MISSED - AT 7:06 A.M. ET:  From The Wall Street Journal:

Please pass Al Gore a Valium -- and better make it a double -- because his cap-and-trade dreams just took a dive in the U.S. Senate. In a vote late Wednesday, no fewer than 26 Democrats joined all 41 Republicans to insist that any new cap and tax on carbon energy would require at least 60 votes.

Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander called it "the biggest vote of the year" so far, and he's right. This means Majority Leader Harry Reid can't jam cap and tax through as part of this year's budget resolution with a bare majority of 50 Senators. More broadly, it's a signal that California and East Coast Democrats won't be able to sock it to coal and manufacturing-heavy Midwestern states without a fight.

COMMENT:  This is big news, buried by the president's trip to London.  It's also a solid example of representative democracy.  Midwest Dems, who have less interest in being invited to parties in Manhattan and Beverly Hills than some of the others, are representing their constituents' interests, and American manufacturing generally, in opposing a damaging tax.  We do want to develop new energy sources, but we can get there without wrecking our own people.  And, once again, proposed legislation is based on global-warming "science" that is increasingly under thoughtful attack.

April 3, 2009   Permalink 

THURSDAY,  APRIL 2,  2009

THE QUEEN AND THE FIRST - AT 7:15 P.M. ET:  The most reported moment surrounding the G20 meeting in London involved the first lady, Michelle Obama, putting her arm around the waist of Queen Elizabeth II.  It wasn't history-making.  It wasn't politically important.  But, no matter what our view of Mr. Obama's policies, it was touching.  The British press, though, in the person of Clive Aslet of The Telegraph, remind us of certain realities.  This is just good writing.  It thought you'd be interested:

And when Mrs Obama – no Lizard of Oz, as Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating was dubbed when he dared to put his arm around the Queen in 1992 – committed a similar breach of protocol by placing her hand on the royal back, what was the response? Could one believe one's eyes? A tiny gloved hand crept around the First Lady's back, the arm attached to it too short to go more than half way. Is this what psychiatrists call the disinhibition of old age? No, the Queen perfectly judged the situation. She wanted the Obamas, two emotionally explicit people, to feel among friends. She bent the rules. She got it right. We knew she would.

But despite her genuine pleasure at meeting the 44th President of the United States and his wife, one thing was clear: she wasn't enjoying the encounter half as much as them. The Obamas may be the world's biggest celebrities, but the minute they walked into Buckingham Palace they were dealing with the biggest box office draw of them all.

COMMENT:  Well said. 

April 2, 2009   Permalink

THIS IS AWFUL - AT 6:51 P.M. ET:   Reader Joseph J. Gallick alerts us to this depressing story from the Denver Post:

Ward Churchill won his case against the University of Colorado today as a Denver jury unanimously decided he was fired in retaliation for his controversial essay on the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The jury gave Churchill $1 for past losses, finding he was fired over protected free speech.

COMMENT:  This is awful, and will have a profoundly negative effect on universities.  It's no doubt true that attention focused on Churchill because of his outrageous comments about the 9-11 attacks.  (He referred to those killed as "little Eichmanns.")  But that is irrelevant.  If attention focuses on a citizen because he ran a red light, and the police then, using legitimate procedures, find he murdered someone, we don't dismiss the murder charge because it wasn't what attracted the authorities in the first place.

The University of Colorado conducted a proper investigation of this "scholar," and found serious academic violations.  This is not a free speech case.  Plagiarism, which the university discovered, is not free speech.  I'd love to know who was on this jury.

This is very bad.  Churchill, a pseudo-scholar, will now become a poster child for a warped, sick version of "academic freedom," a term already misused repeatedly on campuses.  He will become a star on the left-wing speaker circuit.  He will be the Obama of college professors. 

Meanwhile, real scholars, who seek the truth in their work, and maintain the highest standards, languish in the ideological shadows.

Make no mistake:  This is a setback for a university system already suffocating from political correctness and corrupt "scholarship."   

April 2, 2009   Permalink

DOW CLOSE - AT 6:32 P.M. ET:  The Dow closed up 216, to 7978, joining a worldwide stock-market rally.  Apparently, there are some analysts who feel the worst of the recession is over.  Others disagree. The Dow did go over 8000 for a time today, and I suspect it will repeat that performance.  But the real economy, in America's towns and cities, does not seem to be improving.  If it does, Obama will get the credit, even though the ultimate result of his policies may be catastrophic, especially for our children. 

April 2, 2009   Permalink

ASSUMING IT IS ACCURATE, FOX NEWS HAS DONE A FIRST-CLASS REPORTING JOB ON A HIGHLY CHARGED ISSUE - AT 1:18 P.M. ET:  Please read.  This is fascinating:

You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- ...90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States...

...There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:

It's just not true.

In fact, it's not even close. By all accounts, it's probably around 17 percent.

What's true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency's assistant director, "is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S."

But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.

"Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market," Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

COMMENT:  This is a classic case of a statistic that gets picked up, is flashed around the world, and goes unchallenged, until an enterprising reporter starts asking tough questions.  A great example of good journalism, still being practiced.

April 2, 2009   Permalink

OBAMA'S POLL NUMBERS - AT 1:02 P.M. ET:  Rasmussen reports that, after a brief spurt upward, President Obama's poll numbers have returned to the less spectacular level they were at early last week.  Some 56% approve of the job the president is doing, while 44% disapprove, a spread of 12 points.  That is the smallest spread since March 21st.  Other polls have approval higher, but Zogby, whose surveys we view with some skepticism, believes it is actually lower.  Trends will give us the truth over time.

April 2, 2009   Permalink

SOVEREIGNTY?  WHAT'S THAT? - AT 12:47 P.M. ET: 

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- World leaders agreed on a regulatory blueprint for reining in the excesses that fed the worst financial crisis in six decades and pledged more than $1 trillion in emergency aid to cushion the economic fallout.

The Group of 20 policy makers, meeting in London, called for stricter limits on hedge funds, executive pay, credit-rating companies and risk-taking by banks. They also boosted the resources of the International Monetary Fund and offered cash to revive trade to help governments weather the economic and social turmoil. They sidestepped the question of whether to deliver more fiscal stimulus in their own economies.

The G-20 statement amounts to an effort to rewrite the rules of capitalism to address an integrated world economy that has outgrown the ability of individual governments to keep it in check. The group, which represents 85 percent of the world economy, devised a model for how finance should be regulated everywhere in a bid to prevent a repeat of the market turbulence which has roiled the world for almost two years.

COMMENT:  Anyone who reads Urgent Agenda knows that we are no friend to incompetent, overpaid "executives" or childlike, fast-buck "investors."  We prefer real free enterprise and real, responsible, visionary capitalism. 

That having been said, and recognizing the problems that the G20 are trying to address, I don't want American economic policy set by a gang of leaders beholden to socialist powers in their own countries.  This president, I fear, will have no problem surrendering a chunk of American sovereignty for "change" that will create a fast feel-good effect, and ultimate disaster. 

I happen to believe in American exceptionalism.  I think we are unique, and part of our uniqueness is a ferocious sense of independence and respect for the individual.  Those are weak causes around the world, and I'm not confident that Mr. Obama will defend them.

April 2, 2009   Permalink

DOW SOARS - AT 10:30 A.M. ET:  The Dow is up 188 points, to 7949, and may well break through 8000, extending a spectacular rally.

April 2, 2009 

THERE IS INDEED NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW  BUSINESS - AT 8:30 A.M. ET:  Former Bush 43 Bush speechwriter David Frum examines the phenomenon of President Obama's high popularity in the fact of grave doubts about his actual policies:

President Obama got a heaping serving of good news in Monday’s Washington Post poll. He remains strongly personally popular, and the public’s heavy mood of pessimism has lifted somewhat: 42 percent now say the country is on “the right track,” nearly triple the number who thought so before the election—and the best number in five years.

It seems unlikely that this jump represents a reasoned response to the president’s actual policies, which have had little time to affect voters directly...

...No, it’s not the policies the public is applauding. It is the energy, the perception of activity, a feeling (understandable enough) that something is finally being done! Once again, the American people are confirming the astute observation of Franklin Roosevelt that voters will forgive the errors of activist government more than “the constant omissions of a government frozen  in the ice of its own indifference.”

And so they will. At least until the full costs of the errors of activist government come home.

COMMENT:  Very well said, and the rest of the piece is definitely worth reading.  One hope we have, in my view, is the 24-hour news cycle and the power of the internet.  Administrations up to, say, 1998, did not have to deal with the sheer volume of material immediately available to citizens, and the speed with which criticisms can be mounted.  Will that help in slowing the Obama power grab?  I don't know, but at least there are some weapons available, if they're used correctly and accompanied by a carefully drawn Republican program.

April 2, 2009   Permalink

CONSUMER COMPLAINTS TO FOLLOW - AT 8:05 A.M. ET:  From AP: 

PARIS — The global economic crisis is leading international oil and gas companies to under-invest in new capacity, which threatens to spark renewed sharp increases in oil prices once the crisis ends, executives from two of Europe’s leading oil companies warned today.

“Definitely this crisis will leave strong traces in the long term and we will probably not see the same world anymore,” Total SA Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie said at an oil industry conference.

COMMENT:  Remember, you did not read that.  Do not read any comments by oil companies.  They are evil and have led us to damnation.  We don't need their miserable carbon product at low prices.  We have Gore to guide us.  So what if gas at the pump goes to five dollars a gallon.  So what if the TV goes out.  Serves us right.  American Idol is a capitalist conspiracy.

These anti-Earth oil criminals make me so mad.  And then I neglect my thatched roof.

April 2, 2009   Permalink 

WHAT DID WE TELL YOU?  - AT 7:44 A.M. ET:  Please compare this to our comments at 7:10 regarding the anticipated North Korean rocket launch, and our confused response.  This is from The Politico:

Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak have agreed to a "united" response to any North Korean missile test.

"They agreed on the need for a stern, united response from the international community if North Korea launches a long-range rocket, and to work together in the course of that," the statement from South Korea reads.

The White House issued a similar statement, but did not use the word "stern" to describe a potential response.

"They discussed the issue of North Korea and promised to continue close cooperation in the effort to peacefully and verifiably eliminate North Korea’s nuclear programs, weapons and materiel through Six-Party Talks. In that regard, they urged North Korea to abide by the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council and agreed on the need for a unified response by the international community in the event that North Korea launches a long-range missile," the White House statement reads.

COMMENT:  Nice, huh?  Our South Korean allies say "stern, united response," and we undercut them by leaving out "stern."  Great message to send to the North Koreans, who are probably laughing in their soup.  The U.S. cuts loose another friend.

Words have consequences.  In January of 1950, Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave a speech indicating where the American defense line was around the world.  He left out South Korea.  Six month later, the North Koreans attacked across the 38th parallel and almost captured South Korea.  Acheson's speech was pointed to as one of the elements that made the North feel it could get away with the invasion.

History doesn't repeat itself.  The psychology of history repeats itself.  Be alarmed. 

April 2, 2009   Permalink

THIS JUST IN - AT 7:24 A.M. ET: 

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- A meeting of Arab doctors in Jordan looking into lingering suspicions that longtime Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned has been postponed.

Jordanian heart surgeon Abdullah al-Bashir said Thursday that due to the short notice, most of the doctors could not attend.

COMMENT:  This is a worldwide problem, isn't it?  You can never get a conspiracy theorist when you need one.  But this will all be changed by Barack Obama's national conspiracy-theorist plan, under which conspiracy theorists will be on call 24/7.  You may not be able to choose your own theorist, but at least you know there'll be someone there to confirm your fears.  That's change we can believe in.

April 2, 2009   Permalink

NORTH KOREA FUELS ROCKET - AT 7:10 A.M. ET: 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- North Korea has begun fueling its long-range rocket, according to a senior U.S. military official.

The fueling signals that the country could be in the final stages of what North Korea has said will be the launch of a satellite into space as early as this weekend, the senior U.S. military official said Wednesday.

Other U.S. military officials said the top portion of the rocket was put on very recently, but satellite imagery shows a shroud over the stage preventing a direct view of what it looks like.

COMMENT:  This may be Obama's first major international test.  The issue is not whether it's a satellite launch.  It may well be.  The issue is the power and accuracy of the rocket carrying the satellite.  If it's an ICBM capable of hitting Hawaii, we have a serious blackmail problem.

Hillary Clinton has reponded to the North Korean provocation with harsh words, nothing else.  The secretary of defense, Robert Gates, hasn't even gone as far as harsh words.  The president seems preoccupied.  The American people are distracted by the economy. 

This is a dangerous time, somewhat comparable to the German and Japanese military buildups in the 1930s, when it appeared that no one except Winston Churchill was interested. 

April 2, 2009   Permalink