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FRIDAY,  FEBRUARY 6,  2009

OIL DROPS - AT 7:09 P.M. ET:  From AFP:

Oil prices plunged below 40 dollars a barrel in New York on Friday, as grim unemployment data stoked concerns about weak energy demand in key consumer the United States, traders said.

New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, fell as low as 38.60 dollars per barrel. It later stood at 39.54, down 1.63 dollars from the close on Thursday.

COMMENT:  Question:  Why are gas prices at the pump rising? You'll notice that the administration has shown no interest in that.

IN HIS OWN WORDS - AT 4:58 P.M. ET:  Joe Biden, in speaking to Democrats about Iraq, said this, according to the AP:

He said the administration must be "very deeply involved" not just in drawing down troops in a careful manner but also in helping Iraqis reach true political reconciliation. "We're going to have to get in there and be much more aggressive in forcing them to deal with these issues," he said.

COMMENT:  If you were an Iraqi, how would you take that remark?  We're going to be more aggressive in forcing them to deal with certain issues?  Isn't that what they call unilateralism?  Isn't that what they call dictating?  Isn't that what the Dems called BUSH (!) tactics?

Biden also said this:

"We've got to make Afghanistan the world's responsibility, not just the United States' responsibility," he said, eliciting cheers.

COMMENT:  The world's responsibility?  There's that "world" that guys like Biden are always talking about.  How you gonna do it, Joe?  Any strategy involved?  That's the part they never talk about.

Biden goes to Europe this weekend for a security conference.  Feel more secure already? 

SHOCKED, SHOCKED - AT 4:42 P.M. ET: 

JERUSALEM (AP) -- The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees suspended aid to the Gaza Strip on Friday, accusing the territory's Hamas rulers of stealing a delivery of humanitarian supplies for the second time this week.

The announcement by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency deepened tensions between the international body that assists the majority of Gaza's 1.4 million people and the Islamic group that controls the coastal strip.

COMMENT:  Compare please with Jimmah Carter's kind comments about Hamas. 

MORE ON THE KHAN JOB - AT 4:53 P.M. ET: 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says President Barack Obama wants assurances from Pakistani leaders that a newly freed Pakistani scientist accused of leaking atomic secrets isn't involved in any of the activity that led to his arrest.

The State Department said earlier Friday that the release of Abdul Qadeer Khan from de facto house arrest would be ''extremely regrettable.'' Khan is the scientist who helped Pakistan develop nuclear weapons and allegedly leaked atomic secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya.

COMMENT:  So they'll get assurances.  So what.  How do we enforce those assurances now that the man is free?  Pakistan waited until Obama took office to release him.  That will be noticed in a part of the world where any hint of weakness is taken very seriously.

McCAIN IN ACTION - AT 4:12 P.M. ET:   From The Politico:

Sen. John McCain took his most direct shot at President Barack Obama since the presidential campaign on Friday morning, using a Senate floor speech to criticize the president for mocking the Republican concerns over the massive economic stimulus package.

In a fiery speech Thursday night before House Democrats, Obama rejected the GOP’s characterization that the stimulus package was merely another spending bill.

“What do you think a stimulus is? That’s the whole point. No, seriously, that’s the point,” Obama said at the retreat in Williamsburg, Va.

On Friday morning, McCain fought back.

“The whole point, Mr. President, is to enact tax cuts and spending measures that truly stimulate the economy,” McCain said. “There are billions and tens of billions of dollars in this bill which will have no effect within three, four, five or more years, or ever. Or ever.”

COMMENT:  John McCain is the most patriotic of men.  He has looked for ways to help President Obama.  If he is making a statement like this, then the honeymoon is over...after two weeks.  The president can either realize he's in trouble, or face real political combat.

Mr. Obama's speech Thursday night was entirely inappropriate.  It was a raw political speech at a moment when he should be doing everything possible to improve the stimulus package and unite the country behind it.  This isn't change we can believe in.  It's Chicago politics, which never changes.

BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE - AT 3:47 P.M. ET:  From Rasmussen:

More bad news for the media.

Fifty-four percent (54%) of U.S. voters say the news media make global warming appear worse than it really is. Only 21% say the media present an accurate picture, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey...

...Common to all surveys about the media, Republicans are more critical than Democrats.

COMMENT:  The American people are watching, and thinking.  That's bad news for both the media and the fashionable left.

FINANCIAL GENIUS - AT 3:02 P.M. ET:  The Dow is up 210, to 8274, despite the stunning job losses reported this morning.  Apparently, according to the financial gurus, Wall Street "likes" the idea that the losses will lead to passage of the stimulus package. 

COMMENT:  Hey, unemployed father of three, you're a useful statistic!  This is what they call "investing" on Wall Street these days. 

KRAUTHAMMER

Posted at 9:03 a.m. ET

Charles Krauthammer declares that, for Obama, the bloom is off the rose, or the glisten off the ivy, or whatever:

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe."
-- President Obama, Feb. 4.

Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared, "We have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.

And so much for the promise to banish the money changers and influence peddlers from the temple. An ostentatious executive order banning lobbyists was immediately followed by the nomination of at least a dozen current or former lobbyists to high position. Followed by a Treasury secretary who allegedly couldn't understand the payroll tax provisions in his 1040. Followed by Tom Daschle, who had to fall on his sword according to the new Washington rule that no Cabinet can have more than one tax delinquent.

And now, with the secretary of labor-designate in some tax trouble, we wonder if that new rule will be waived.

And yet more damaging to Obama's image than all the hypocrisies in the appointment process is his signature bill: the stimulus package. He inexplicably delegated the writing to Nancy Pelosi and the barons of the House. The product, which inevitably carries Obama's name, was not just bad, not just flawed, but a legislative abomination.

It's not just pages and pages of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections, one of which would set off a ruinous Smoot-Hawley trade war...

...It's the essential fraud of rushing through a bill in which the normal rules (committee hearings, finding revenue to pay for the programs) are suspended on the grounds that a national emergency requires an immediate job-creating stimulus -- and then throwing into it hundreds of billions that have nothing to do with stimulus...

And yet the president defends it.

The Age of Obama begins with perhaps the greatest frenzy of old-politics influence peddling ever seen in Washington.

And yet all the self-righteous on the political left are defending it.

Finally:

After Obama's miraculous 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear that at some point the magical mystery tour would have to end. The nation would rub its eyes and begin to emerge from its reverie. The hallucinatory Obama would give way to the mere mortal...

...I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks.

And we haven't even begun with foreign policy.  Wait for the first crisis.  If the president trips, he'll be Cartered.

February 6, 2009.      Permalink          

PORK WON'T HELP - AT 8:58 A.M. ET: 

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The unemployment rate in the U.S. climbed to the highest level since 1992 in January and payrolls tumbled as the recession showed no sign of abating.

The jobless rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.2 percent in December, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Payrolls fell by 598,000, the biggest monthly decline since December 1974, after dropping by 577,000 in the previous month.

COMMENT:  Now compare the problem to the proposed solution, a "stimulus" package in which much of the spending won't kick in for a year or more.  Some stimulus.

HOW MANY DO WE NEED? - AT 8:37 A.M. ET:  From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is bringing in a team of outside advisers to help steer the economy out of a tailspin, while ridiculing Republicans for clinging to a ''losing formula'' as the nation plunged to the crisis point.

COMMENT:  First, we hope these people paid their taxes.  Second, how many advisers does the president need?  The White House is filled with them.  Is there any office space left?  Telephones?  Ball-point refills?  The president was elected in early November.  It is three months later.  A sound economic plan should be in place.  It doesn't appear to be. 

A CRITICAL MEETING - AT 8:32 A.M. ET:  From The Washington Post:

President Obama will meet today with victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the USS Cole bombing and their families as his administration reviews how to handle detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The meeting comes as the judge overseeing military trials at Guantanamo ordered charges against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri withdrawn, overturning an earlier ruling that the case against the alleged organizer of the Cole bombing should go forward Monday as scheduled.

COMMENT:  This is a critical meeting for the president.  We recall that Bush 41 met with relatives of those who died in the 1988 sabotage of Pan Am 103 over Scotland, and came off as cold and indifferent, in the words of some who were there.  Mr. Obama cannot simply make this a photo op or a time for soothing words.  He must lay out a clear, firm agenda for seeking justice for these victims.  Appeals to "American values," by which some in his camp mean concern only for the rights of the accused criminals, will not go down well. 

IRAQ VOTES - AT 7:41 A.M. ET:  Paul Mirengoff, at Power Line, has an excellent analysis of the Iraqi election, and observes:

The election thus gives the lie to the view, articulated mostly by liberals but also by some on the right, that democracy could not take hold in a country like Iraq. In fact, Iraqi voters behaved just the way voters usually behave in democracies - they rewarded success and punished those seen as obstacles to success; they rewarded those who put the national interest first and punished those who exalted extraneous interests.

COMMENT:  But please note that the Obama administration has uttered not one word of thanks to the Bush administration for making Iraq's democracy possible.  Smallness.

ANOTHER GREAT ALLY AT WORK - AT 7:34 A.M. ET:  From AP:

Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the world's leading rogue nuclear sales entrepreneur, was released from house arrest by a Pakistani court on Friday.

The nuclear scientist, considered the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, sold centrifuges and expertise to countries with secret nuclear weapons programs, including Libya and Iran, before his operation was disrupted in 2003.

COMMENT:  Oh great.  Something else to worry about.  We hope, but cannot assume, that the gent's mail and phone calls are monitored.  Another day in the war on terror.   

VERY GOOD, VERY GOOD - AT 7:25 A.M. ET:  Andrew Malcolm, of The Los Angeles Times, has a wonderful parody this morning, concerning the adventures of one Obama appointee who appears to be under a cloud. Consider:

In an amazing news coincidence, on the very same day as the US Air Flight 1549 emergency radio tapes were released, The Ticket has exclusively obtained the tapes of recent emergency radio conversations between ground traffic controllers with the Obama administration's White House and Rep. Hilda Solis.

She's the California House member and secretary of Labor-designate whose confirmation is before the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Hers is the latest Obama Cabinet nomination in trouble over tax issues. Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer have already gone under the bus.

The dramatic tape excerpts tell a compelling story of confused but calm determination and political professionalism during the sudden tax emergency and unexpected descent this week. Here are the exchanges between Solis and the White House:

This is very good.  We can all use a laugh.  Please read.

THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY 5,  2009

NOT GOOD, NOT GOOD - AT 9:03 P.M. ET:  From The Politico:

This morning, radio host Bill Press brought up the recent closing of liberal station Obama 1260 when speaking with Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, and talked about whether there needs to be a balance to right-wing talk on the radio dial.

BILL PRESS: Yeah, I mean, look: They have a right to say that. They’ve got a right to express that. But, they should not be the only voices heard. So, is it time to bring back the Fairness Doctrine?

SENATOR DEBBIE STABENOW (D-MI): I think it’s absolutely time to pass a standard. Now, whether it’s called the Fairness Standard, whether it’s called something else — I absolutely think it’s time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves. I mean, our new president has talked rightly about accountability and transparency. You know, that we all have to step up and be responsible. And, I think in this case, there needs to be some accountability and standards put in place.

COMMENT:  Now that's trouble.  The Fairness Doctrine, which was administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), was abolished in the 1980s.  There may have been a time when a standard of balance, or fairness, was called for.  It was during an era when there could easily be one radio station for a large geographic area, and that station used the publicly owned airwaves.  Today, though, with so many media outlets, and the internet to boot, there is no need whatever for any governmental oversight of political speech.  Besides, there are serious First Amendment issues.  If the Dems start this fight, they will stir up a hornet's nest, probably lose, and come off as a gang of dictators.  But I fear they'll be reckless enough to start the fight.

PLACE TONGUE IN CHEEK, AND READ - AT 7:26 P.M. ET: 

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) -- Starting a family might be a little easier with a trip to Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Myrtle Beach. The museum on Thursday opens a monthlong display of its fertility statues. The 5-foot tall wooden statues were acquired on the Ivory Coast of West Africa in 1993. The company says they were then placed in its corporate headquarters in Orlando, Fla., and within months, 13 women became pregnant...

..The company says couples wanting to have a baby can touch the statues for free during business hours.

COMMENT:  Is there a charge for an after-hours emergency touching?  Is that the idea?

This is the news service that informs us about global warming.

DANGER AHEAD - AT 5:53 P.M. ET:  From The Jerusalem Post: 

Russia plans to begin operating the nuclear reactor it has been building for Iran before the end of 2009, the Interfax News Agency quoted a top official as saying on Thursday.

"If there are no unforeseen events... then the launch will go according to the timetable," Sergei Kiriyenko, chief of Russia's state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, was quoted as saying. "The launch is scheduled for this year."

COMMENT:  All right, President Obama, what are you going to do about this?  And please don't give us the line about "negotiations."  We haven't got much time, and "negotiations" are neither a solution nor an objective. 

PLAY IT AGAIN, AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN - AT 5:43 P.M. ET:  Been here, done this.  What is wrong with these people?  From The Washington Post:

A Senate committee today abruptly canceled a session to consider President Obama's nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis to be labor secretary in the wake of a report saying that her husband yesterday paid about $6,400 to settle tax liens against his business -- including liens that had been outstanding for as long as 16 years.

The report, by USA Today, came just before the Senate's Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee was slated to meet to consider Solis's nomination, which had been delayed by questions over her role on the board of the pro-labor organization American Rights at Work. A source said that committee members did not learn about the tax issue until today.

COMMENT:  What do you do?  Do you laugh?  Do you cry?  The White House is saying that the nominee has nothing to do with this because it's her husband's business, and there may be some logic to that.  But there is no excuse for the fact that this came out only in the last day or so.  It must be examined.  Did the nominee know?  When did she know?  Okay, it's only $6,400, which is peanuts compared to the real tax-beating champs this president has appointed.  But it is, as they say, the principle of the thing.  I've said it before here:  I've never seen a new administration with so many nominees under a cloud.

GRIM REPORT ON JUSTICE GINSBURG - AT 1:51 P.M. ET:  From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery Thursday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the court said.

Ginsburg, 75, had the surgery at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She will remain in the hospital for seven to 10 days, said her surgeon, Dr. Murray Brennan, according to a release issued by the court.

COMMENT:  You can be sure that the political vultures will be out in force with "speculation" about a replacement.  We prefer not to join in.

THE END IS COMING!  THE END IS COMING! - AT 1:42 P.M. ET:  From AP:

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that failure to act on an economic recovery package could plunge the nation into a long-lasting recession that might prove irreversible, a fresh call to a recalcitrant Congress to move quickly.

COMMENT:  Irreversible?  Really?  You mean, if Congress doesn't pass his bill right now we'll be hauling down the stars and stripes?  As reader Ken Braithwaite comments, "This is the smooth, calm temperament?"

After only two weeks in office, the president is sounding desperate.  Foreign enemies are watching.  They are watching very carefully.  They are taking the measure of this man.  

BIZARRE BARACK

Posted at 9:10 a.m. ET:

Is the pressure getting to President Obama already?  Joseph Curl, in The Washington Times, writes of some rather stressed-out behavior by the president, who hasn't had a great week:

President Obama, fresh off his first Washington apology tour, grew combative Wednesday, asserting that America voted for him, not the other guy, and demanding that lawmakers "put aside politics" -- well, Republican lawmakers, anyway.

Note to the president:  We know who won the election, but 46% of Americans voted for that other guy.  They expect some consideration as well.

A day before he headed to a luxury resort to meet behind closed doors with Democrats, the Harvard graduate lectured the less economically astute, ridiculing the Reaganomics Doctrine held dear by Republicans, who prefer tax cuts to new spending to bounce America out of its financial mess.

A luxury resort?  Is that the message the "change" president wants to send?  Do you get the feeling the train may be leaving the rails?

In the White House's Roosevelt Room, he told a Republican senator who opposed an element of the stimulus package that "I won. I will trump you on that."

Great diplomacy.   "I won, I won."  Maybe a lollipop would help.

Mr. Obama, beaten bloody for weeks over his nominations of high-powered lobbyists and tax scofflaws that have rapidly drained his political capital, is no longer making any pretense of seeking to change the tone of Washington, as he repeatedly vowed to do when campaigning.

Scratch one promise.  More to come.

While President Clinton's first trip as president was to Detroit, where he held a town hall meeting with average Americans to talk about how to fix the economy, and President Bush flew to Fort Stewart, Ga., to visit soldiers in the 3rd Infantry Division, Mr. Obama's first trip aboard Air Force One will take him to a luxury resort in Williamsburg.

If it's good enough for Chicago politicians, it should be good enough for the country.  Right?

"Well, I'd -- you know, I'd -- Williamsburg is -- has a lofty place in our country's history," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said, when asked if there was any special significance to the president's choice.

The man can't be serious.  I mean, could he?

Democrats will ride together to the resort on a chartered Amtrak train at a cost to taxpayers of about $70,000, the Hill reported. Taxpayers will also foot the bill for security helicopters to fly above the train. The caucus will spend thousands: In 2003, for example, they spent $11,200 on food and $6,900 on entertainment, the paper said.

Just put a gun to your head and keep pulling the trigger.  This is unbelievable.

Just Tuesday, the president made the rounds on every TV network to apologize for abandoning what he called the highest ethical standards ever enacted in any administration. But living up to that pledge has been trying from the start, and the White House said on Wednesday that it fully expects to fail in the future to meet that threshold.

Watch us fail!  Watch us fail!  Boy, is this ever encouraging.

"Are there lessons learned here?" a reporter asked the spokesman Wednesday.

"Well, as I said - I mean, you know, we - the president didn't think that we were going to come in here and change everything about the way Washington worked in such a short period of time. You can rest assured that we understand that we've not yet marked off all of our to-dos."

Geez.

Fellas, you'd better sharpen up.

February 5, 2009.      Permalink          

THEY'RE ACTUALLY SENDING HIM? - AT 8:34 A.M. ET:  From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will seek to break with the unilateralist tilt of the Bush years by emphasizing cooperation and diplomacy in a major weekend foreign policy speech in Germany, U.S. officials said.

His remarks on Saturday to the Munich Security Conference, a gathering of defense and security experts, will be scrutinized for more details on the new administration's policies on Russia, Afghanistan, the Middle East and NATO expansion.

COMMENT:  I hope one of his minders reads Joe's speech in advance.  The whole slant of the story, by the way, blames BUSH (!) for all the problems we have with Europe. 

Wonder why Hillary isn't going.  Hmm. 

ENJOY THE SILENCE - AT 8:14 A.M. ET:  From Media Line News Agency:

Iran is furthering its efforts to block international news websites from delivering their reports to the country, the Iranian daily Etemad Melli reported.

Local authorities have recently decided not to allow Iranians access to the Persian websites of Radio France Internationale (RFI) and Germany's Deutsche Welle radio.

This move comes only two weeks after the Persian service of Britain's BBC was declared illegal and "a threat to national security" by Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (MCIG).

COMMENT:  Another sign of warmth prompted by the age of Obama.  But don't worry.  The One will turn all this around.

WHY CAN'T THEY JUST VOTE FOR US AND LEAVE US ALONE? - AT 7:45 A.M. ET:  The American people are once again instructing members of Congress in the meaning of democracy, as CNN reports:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The recent debate over the nearly $900 billion economic stimulus plan and revelations of tax problems by three Obama administration appointees have voters angrily jamming phone lines on Capitol Hill to air their frustrations to their elected representatives.

Voters are calling several congressional offices, complaining about stimulus negotations.

Their reactions are putting pressure on Congress and benefiting watchdog groups on both sides of the political aisle.

Capitol operators tell CNN Radio that phone lines have been jammed for the past two weeks, sometimes prompting busy signals.

COMMENT:  Now you can see why so many "intellectuals" have contempt for democracy.  Who are these people to have opinions?  Do they live on farms?  Do they ever watch PBS?  Do they wear those funny soldier hats?

The American people do speak, and, when they do, they expect to be respected. 

OUR OWN JAMES BOND - NOT - AT 7:31 A.M. ET:  The Senate Intelligence Committee considers the nomination of Leon Panetta to be CIA chief today.  Panetta has no background in intelligence.  The nomination, though, reveals how one more Washington insider has benefited from the who-you-know circuit in the nation's capital.  The Chicago Tribune's "The Swamp" reports:

Some of the senators may be asking about disclosures that Panetta has filed with the Office of Government Ethics detailing his paid posts on a number of corporate boards, including BP Corp., and money made in speeches for Merrill Lynch and Wachovia - part of the $1.2 million he made from clients, firms and investments last year. Panetta, a former California congressman, reports assets of up to $3.7 million.

He has reported $831,500 in speaking and director's fees last year, $251,500 for speaking and $580,000 from boards.

COMMENT:  Just like all the rest of us.  There's probably nothing there to derail his nomination, but the whole recitation of how much these former and future government officials grab from "consulting" is disheartening.  This isn't the "change" we were promised.  It doesn't come close.

WARNING ON DEFENSE - AT 6:40 A.M. ET:  The San Francisco Examiner warns about news reports that President Obama will demand that the Pentagon slash defense spending by ten percent.  The Examiner notes that "the U.S. Armed Forces are already stretched too thin, and proportional military spending has steadily declined for two solid decades after the brief spike under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. Defense spending averaged about 9 percent of gross domestic product in the early 1960s, but now has fallen all the way to 4 percent."   The Examiner goes on:

Both Russia and China are building new aircraft-carrier fleets, and the International Institute for Strategic Studies reports that Russia’s military budget this year will be nearly double what it was just three years ago. Worse, on Friday, North Korea declared every one of its agreements with South Korea “dead” as it bragged about its growing stockpile of nuclear-weapons-grade plutonium and threatening that “a war may break out at any time.” And, Iran on Tuesday successfully launched its first satellite — demonstrating mastery of the same technology required to deliver a nuclear bomb with a missile.

COMMENT:  Dead on.  If Obama actually asks for that cut, Republicans should stand like a stone wall against it, solemnly pledging to try to defeat any member of Congress who votes for it.  You could see a real firestorm.

IS THIS MAN CRAZY, OR WHAT? - AT 6:23 A.M. ET:  I always thought David Ignatius of The Washington Post was reasonably sane, as Post writers go.  But after his column today, I have my doubts.  Ignatius is recommending that Obama send Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft to negotiate with Iran.  The first was national security adviser to Jimmah Carter.  It was on his watch that the mullahs took Iran.  The second was national security adviser to Bush 41.  It was on his watch that we didn't finish the job, leading to the current Iraq war.  Both men are viscerally anti-Israel.  Both opposed the liberation of Iraq.  Neither has shown much interest in democracy.

Sending these two men would be a betrayal.  It would spit in the faces of our soldiers in Iraq.  It would knife our ally Israel, and our Arab allies who fear Iran, it might even dismay European allies who have tried to toughen the West's stand against Iran.  Worse, it could result in a real agreement that would solve nothing, the way the "realist" school of foreign policy likes to solve nothing, and simply kick the problem down the road, when Iran will have nuclear weapons.

COMMENT:  What is this columnist thinking?