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MARCH 13,  2011

IT'S CLIMATE CHANGE, OF COURSE! – AT 10:07 P.M. ET:  The climate-change brigades are out of their barracks, or asylums, and are marching in lock-step, trying to link the Japan disaster to climate change.  From London's Telegraph:

Did 'climate change' cause the Japanese earthquake?

No.

But that hasn’t stopped one or two unscrupulous environmentalists trying to make the spurious connection. Top prize for shamelessness goes to one Staffan Nilsson, president of an EU offshoot called the European Economic and Social Committee.

The earthquake and tsunami will clearly have a severe impact on the economic and social activities of the region. Some islands affected by climate change have been hit. Has not the time come to demonstrate on solidarity – not least solidarity in combating and adapting to climate change and global warming? Mother Nature has again given us a sign that that is what we need to do.

That Mother Nature.  Always on our case.

And for our quote of the day, this qualifies very well:

The BBC, unsurprisingly, appears to have decided that potential nuclear disaster is the single most important aspect of the entire story. Its every TV news bulletin is now filled aeons of waffling from environment and science correspondent David Shukman on the state-of-play at the various troubled nuclear plants. Which might seem fair enough until you remember that in one town alone as many as 10,000 people may have been killed by the earthquake and the tsunami. Compare and contrast this with the two fatalities so far in Japanese nuclear plants. Perhaps this figure will rise but until it does, the coverage given to what might possibly happen in Japan’s nuclear plants – as opposed to the far greater and very real and present disasters happening elsewhere in the country – seems irresponsible, misleading and overdone.

COMMENT:  I call it "the 48-hour rule."  It generally takes 48 hours after some event, or some catastrophe, for the left to reorganize and start spouting the usual line, a line that never changes.  The rule is usually followed, and we're seeing it followed in the aftermath of the Japanese quake. 

Another accomplishment for the Prussian discipline of the political left.

March 13, 2011       Permalink

IN THIS DAY AND AGE – AT 7:31 P.M. ET:  Another contribution to American society from Barack Obama's Justice Department.  From the Dayton Daily News:

DAYTON — The city’s Civil Service Board and the U.S. Department of Justice have agreed on a lower passing score for the police recruit exam after it was rejected because not enough blacks passed the exam.

The city lowered both written exams a combined 15 points that resulted in 258 more people passing the exam, according to a statement released Thursday by Civil Service officials. The agreement allows the city to immediately resume its plans to hire police and firefighters.

COMMENT:  What is so outrageous is that African Americans and their "leaders" continue to accept this kind of pandering.  If there is a problem with blacks, or anyone else, passing the exam, the answer is some additional help before the test, not lowering the standards. 

Imagine being a black police officer in Dayton, knowing that everyone around you wonders how you got there.  That is the insidiousness of double standards and misplaced affirmative action.

Obama needs a new attorney general.  Eric Holder is a race man, first and foremost, and this kind of outrage is an example of his thinking.  But Obama doesn't realize the problem...because he doesn't think it's a problem at all.

March 13, 2011      Permalink

WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  We have several indications that the president is slipping again in the polls.  Gallup reported slippage earlier in the week.  Now Rasmussen's daily tracker is picking up the trend:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18.

Consider this:

Overall, 45% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's performance. Fifty-four percent (54%) disapprove.

That's a nine percent gap, fairly close to Obama's worst past showing in the Rasmussen survey.  The 42% "strong disapproval" rating is especially significant because it registers passion – in this case negative passion – and passion plays an enormous role in who comes out to vote and who they choose. 

We stress again that polls are snapshots in time, and numbers float around.  But the White House cannot be happy with these results.  The president can be rescued by 1) an improvement in the economy, especially the jobs picture, and/or 2) a Republican suicide mission, which would certainly reflect a proud Republican tradition, starting with legendary loser Thomas E. Dewey in 1948.

Fascinating election year coming up.

March 13, 2011       Permalink

LIBYAN PICTURE GETS DARKER AND DARKER – AT 10:30 A.M. ET:  The rebels in Libya continue to get pushed back.  Yesterday the Arab League, itself a group of nations run by dictators, asked the UN to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.  Gee, wait a second.  Weren't we told by "experts" that the Arabs would resent any outside involvement?  Maybe there's a misprint here. 

We have no doubt that the UN will swing into action and plunge itself headlong into negotiations, studies, intensive discussions and multilateral talks. 

Meanwhile, the president of the United States was at the Gridiron Club dinner last night, doing stand-up.  Must be great reading for the rebels in Libya.  A million yuks.

Reporting from Libya, The New York Times's Anthony Shadid makes this observation:

Everyone here seems to have a gun these days, in a lawlessness tempered only by revolutionary ebullience. Young men at the front parade with the swagger that a rocket-propelled grenade launcher grants but hint privately that they will try to emigrate if they fail. Anti-American sentiments build, as rebels complain of Western inaction. And the hint of radicalization — religious or something more nihilist — gathers as the momentum in the three-week conflict clearly shifts to the forces of one of the world’s most bizarre leaders.

What's this?  Anti-American sentiment is building because of Western failure to help?  Whether you favor American intervention or not – and there are powerful arguments both ways – we should take that sentence seriously.  There is a body of thought that holds that two forces with different ideas can never unite because of their ideological differences.  That is nonsense, and ahistorical.  Opposites form alliances all the time.  Witness our alliance with the Soviet Union during World War II.  The rebels in Libya may not love everything about us, or the European countries.  They certainly resent the colonial era.  But they want to succeed...and they want to live.  And people yearning for success and life make deals for their own survival.  Churchill said he'd have made a pact with the Devil to defeat Nazi Germany.

We often quote Fouad Ajami of Johns Hopkins University here.  He is one of most solid of Mideast analysts, and he predicted that America would eventually pay a price for its inaction.  I think he's right.  When you're seen as weak, or uninvolved, and when your side loses, you do pay a price.

March 13, 2011       Permalink

JAPAN – AT 10:07 A.M. ET:  The Japanese prime minister laid it on the line to his people today.  From AP:

TOKYO -- Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan is appealing to the Japanese to unite in overcoming what he says is the nation's worst crisis since World War II.

Kan said Sunday in a television address that the nation's future will be decided by the choices made by each Japanese and urged all to join in their determination to rebuild the nation following a massive earthquake and tsunami.

You mean personal responsibility counts?  Can a prime minister still say that?

Estimates of the death toll from the disaster rose to more than 10,000 in one state alone, as millions of survivors remained without drinking water, electricity and proper food along the pulverized northeastern coast.

The force of the quake and tsunami is still being measured, but was enormous:

(Space.com) The massive earthquake that struck northeast Japan Friday (March 11) has shortened the length Earth's day by a fraction and shifted how the planet's mass is distributed.

A new analysis of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan has found that the intense temblor has accelerated Earth's spin, shortening the length of the 24-hour day by 1.8 microseconds, according to geophysicist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Watch.  The public-service unions in Wisconsin will ask for a schedule adjustment.

What is getting the most attention in the American press is the crisis involving possible meltdowns at several nuclear reactors.

KORIYAMA, Japan -- Japan's nuclear crisis intensified Sunday as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns and more than 170,000 people evacuated the quake- and tsunami-savaged northeastern coast where fears spread over possible radioactive contamination.

Nuclear plant operators were frantically trying to keep temperatures down in a series of nuclear reactors -- including one where officials feared a partial meltdown could be happening Sunday -- to prevent the disaster from growing worse.

At this hour we really don't know the extent of the damage to the plants, or the amount of radiation released.  News reports say that the Japanese are going all-out to prevent damage to human health.  One of the plants in danger is 40 years old, and past its due date for being decommissioned. 

The usual suspects, led by The New York Times and Washington Post, are already running dark pieces about the danger of nuclear power and the implications of the Japan quake for the nuclear-power industry.  We caution that it is much, much too early to be making these judgments.  If Japan can make it through this crisis with little significant radiation release, it could easily turn out to be a testament to nuclear power.  Stand by.

March 13,  2011     Permalink

MARCH 12,  2011

MIDEAST UPDATE – AT 11:11 A.M. ET:  One effect of the Japan catastrophe has been to take attention away from the rebellions in the Mideast.  Those rebellions, at this hour, are not going all that well.

Rebels in Libya are taking a beating from Qadaffi's air force and army, and are losing ground.  Many of the rebels are pleading for outside help, but their appeals are falling on the very chilly ears of the president of the United States and the chilly, soft spines of the European Union.  If the present trend goes on, and Mr. Obama continues contemplating the meaning of life, the rebellion will fail.  And governments will quickly find a way to make peace with Qadaffi, express regrets over the inconvenience, and get back to oil deals. 

Friday was supposed to be a "day of rage" in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil supplier.  It was not, as WaPo points out, but there was some disruption elsewhere:

QATIF, SAUDI ARABIA - A "Day of Rage" planned by critics of the Saudi Arabian government proved relatively calm Friday, with peaceful demonstrations in and around the eastern city of Qatif, a day after police fired on protesters there, and elsewhere in oil-rich Eastern province.

Witnesses reported a heavy police presence in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, but no protests.

In other countries in the region, protests led to violence. Demonstrators in Bahrain who have been on the streets for almost a month calling for democratic reforms were attacked by government supporters brandishing sticks and knives, witnesses said. Police fired tear gas on the protesters as they attempted to march to a royal complex on the outskirts of Manama, the capital.

In Yemen, security forces opened fire on protesters near Aden, injuring at least six, the Associated Press reported. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital, Sanaa, to demand the immediate ouster of longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh and to mourn the death of a protester killed by security forces at a rally Tuesday.

COMMENT:  Libya is still, by far, the greatest scene of violence.  But surely the message being sent from the West to the Mideast is one of indifference, sluggishness and lack of any real interest in the people of the region.  This may work in the short term, but I suspect that those in the Mideast demanding basic rights will remember America's role in these hours, and forever resent it.

March 11, 2011       Permalink

MUSLIMS IN AMERICA – AT 10:37 A.M. ET:  We had a classic Washington spectacle this week.  Representative Peter King of New York began hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims, and the implications for terrorism.  King was immediately denounced as 1) a racist, 2) an Islamophobe, 3) a grandstander, 4) a McCarthyite, and 5) a right-wing zealot.  What a shock.

The usual suspects came out in force.  Sadly, some Democratic members of King's own committee joined the opposition.  It was particularly sad to see African-Americans leading in this smear campaign.  They might gently be reminded of the number of African-Americans killed in terrorist attacks.  But Islam has made inroads into the black community, which is why black members of Congress feel compelled to oppose King.

Some brave Muslims testified before King's committee about the danger of radical infiltration of their community, one father movingly telling how his son has been radicalized.  They were disparaged and insulted by Democratic committee members and so-called Muslim "representatives."

We have in the past investigated dangers that have had ethnic connections, and have done so without demonizing the members of ethnic communities.  Before World War II, there were probes into Nazi penetration of German-American communities, but no one suggested that the probes were targeting all German-Americans.   Congress has investigated organized crime, where Italian and sometimes Jewish names have come up.  But no one believes the targets have been those communities.  Now, investigations into organized crime might turn up some Russian connections.  But does anyone believe we're targeting all Russian-Americans? 

Muslim-Americans should welcome King's hearings, which will show that the great majority of Muslims are not involved in terror-related activities, but that there is a danger to the community itself.  But we've become so "sensitive," so politically correct, that King has become the target, not the radicals.

A new Rasmussen poll, though, shows that Americans just don't buy the idea that Muslims are particularly targeted by their fellow citizens:

Most voters don’t believe their fellow citizens are unfair to Muslim Americans. They also think Muslims in this country should be louder in their criticism of potential domestic terrorist attacks.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 17% of Likely U.S. Voters believe that most Muslims in America are treated unfairly because of their religion and ethnicity. Sixty-three percent (63%) disagree and say they are not treated unfairly while 20% are not sure.

A plurality (49%) of liberal voters, however, says there is bias against Muslim Americans. Eighty-one percent (81%) of conservatives and 57% of moderates disagree.

What can you expect of modern "liberals"?

But only 10% of all voters think American Muslims are speaking out enough against potential terrorist attacks in the United States. Fifty-seven percent (57%) disagree and say they are not speaking out enough. One-in-three voters (34%) are not sure.

COMMENT:  We encourage Congressman King to be brave, and not break under the whip of political correctness.  He is a leader in cutting through the propaganda and getting to the truth.

March 11, 2011       Permalink

JAPAN UPDATE – AT 10:07 A.M. ET:  As expected, the death toll is rising quickly.  Some 9,500 people are missing from one town alone.

In addition, there has been an explosion at a nuclear power plant, with danger of substantial radiation leakage into the atmosphere.  The Japanese government is distributing iodine tablets to reduce the danger from radiation exposure. 

Clearly, the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe will capture a great deal of the world's attention today.  But be careful.  I don't mean, in any way, to minimize the danger or the extent of the tragedy, but the political actors are waiting in the wings to make their propagandistic points.  Nuclear power, for going on two generations, has been largely safe and critically important.  Yes, of course, there have been exceptions.  But when you balance the exceptions against the good – and the fact that smoke isn't being belched into the air every day, nuclear power comes out well ahead.  And it doesn't depend on Mideast oil sources. 

We will of course have to measure the damage from any radiation release in Japan.  We will have to listen to the best people, not political scientists posing as real scientists.  If mistakes have been made, they must be corrected.  Charles Krauthammer said last night that the tragedy in Japan can set nuclear power back for a generation or more, and he's right.  That would be a terrible blow.  We hope that Japan will be able to contain any radiation damage, reduce casualties to a minimum, and, if it can be done with attention to public safety, build better, more damage-resistant plants in the future.

What continues to impress us is the calmness and resolve with which the Japanese are going about coping with this catastrophe.  There are reasons why societies are successful.  And they are coping with the horror without resort to dictatorial rule, a tribute to the legacy we left in Japan as the occupying power after World War II.  There's a little bit of America in the way the Japanese are facing the danger. 

March 11, 2011       Permalink