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FRIDAY,  APRIL 10,  2009

WOULD YOU BELIEVE THIS? - AT 3:58 P.M. ET:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Navy is moving a huge amphibious ship closer to the scene of the pirate hostage standoff off Somalia.

Defense officials say the USS Boxer will be nearby soon. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss sensitive ship movements.

The Boxer is the flag ship for a multination anti-piracy task force. The Boxer resembles a small aircraft carrier. It has a crew of more than 1,000, a mobile hospital, missile launchers and about two dozen helicopters and attack planes.

COMMENT:  Yes, ship movements are sensitive.  And yet, here is AP publishing information about one of those sensitive movements - something that could put American sailors and Marines in jeopardy, and give the pirate groups advance warning of something we might do.  Brilliant, really brilliant. 

I guess the AP will tell us that the people have "a right to know."  Yeah, sure.  We will give you volumes at Urgent Agenda about what the American people apparently don't have a right to know - like the radical backgrounds and beliefs of many "progressives," including those in government.  Guess it depends on the kind of "knowledge" they want to give us.

April 10, 2009   Permalink

LATEST ON THE PIRATES - AT 3:12 P.M. ET: 

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The American ship captain taken hostage by pirates in the Indian Ocean jumped into the water from their drifting lifeboat in an attempt to escape early Friday, but he was quickly recaptured, a defense official said.

The standoff unfolding on the high seas off the coast of Somalia intensified Friday as American naval reinforcements moved toward the scene. There were also reports that the pirates, desperate to reach shore with their captive, had themselves called in additional vessels and men.

COMMENT:  It's pretty clear that you can't deal with piracy effectively unless you're willing to attack the pirate bases.  Will Obama, once this current situation is resolved, do it?  Well, do you recall last weekend's North Korean missile launch?  Have you noticed how tough we've been?

April 10, 2009   Permalink

CLINTON SLAPPED - AT 2:58 P.M. ET:  This must be considered a put-down of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by the French, who apparently are not overwhelmed with this new administration:

A day after US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton downplayed Iran's claim that it had developed new uranium enrichment technology, France expressed its concern over the assertion.

"These are worrying declarations," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier told reporters. "We need to check the accuracy of the figures ... and for that we'll wait for the International Atomic Energy Agency."

Chevallier urged Teheran to submit to a full IAEA inspection regime at all its nuclear sites and halt its uranium enrichment program.

On Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced advances in the country's nuclear program, including the inauguration of a new nuclear-related facility and the testing of two types of high-capacity centrifuges that he said would speed up Iran's enrichment capacity.

COMMENT:  Clinton, in a display of foolishness, not only downplayed Iran's latest claim, but said that America didn't know what to make of the Iranian nuclear program.  (See our 7:38 a.m. post.)  The French are more vigorous.  We have a situation where the Obama administration, on some issues, may be to the left of Europe.  Incredible, isn't it?

April 10, 2009   Permalink 

THREAT IN BRITAIN - AT 2:45 P.M. ET:  From the Telegraph:

Police investigating an alleged al-Qaeda plot to carry out an "Easter spectacular" of co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks on shopping centres in Manchester are continuing to search a number of addresses in Liverpool.

Eleven Pakistani nationals and one UK-born Briton were still being questioned at various locations in the UK in connection with the alleged plot.

The men, ten of whom hold student visas, can be detained for up to 28 days.

COMMENT:  Y'see, the problem here is that they didn't get the word that Barack Obama was elected.  If they had gotten it, they wouldn't be doing these things because all would be good with the world and their culture would be both respected and "understood."  Well, all right, maybe an occasional bomb on a bus, but we must recongize their legitimate grievances.  That's right, isn't it?

April 10, 2009   Permalink

DISGRACEFUL - AT 8:48 A.M. ET: 

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve has told Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and other banks to keep mum on the results of “stress tests” that will gauge their ability to weather the recession, people familiar with the matter said.

The Fed wants to ensure that the report cards don’t leak during earnings conference calls scheduled for this month. Such a scenario might push stock prices lower for banks perceived as weak and interfere with the government’s plan to release the results in an orderly fashion later this month.

COMMENT:  Oh, that is rich.  Now let's hear our pals in the mainstream media scream about "the people's right to know."  After all, these stress tests were federal operations.  We have a right to know what was turned up.  The ball is in the media's court.

April 10, 2009   Permalink

ON BARBARA LEE - AT 8:20 A.M. ET:  One of the things that has outraged me most about the mainstream media is its refusal to correctly identify domestic Marxists.  If you are on the right in American politics, every detail of your past will be examined.  If you are on the left, much is kept vague.  Some "journalists" argue that they don't want to be guilty of "McCarthyism," as if correctly identifying a Marxist as a Marxist is McCarthyism. 

This journalistic disease began during the Vietnam War, when some members of old red groups protesting the war were identified simply as "anti-war activists."  They weren't.  Most were on the other side.  If you dared to say anything, the McCarthyism card was played. 

A few days ago we reported on the trip to Cuba by members of the Congressional Black Caucus.  (Indeed, these patriotic gems won our Pompous Fool Award at the Angel's Corner this week.)  The head of the CBC is Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California, the most left-leaning member of Congress, and the only member to vote against military action after the 9-11 attacks. 

You might be interested in background information on Barbara Lee, and the Washington Times has provided it:

Declassified documents from the National Archives, posted to J. Michael Waller's PoliticalWarfare.org blog, reveal that Ms. Lee has been promoting the cause of Caribbean communism since the early 1980s. According to Mr. Waller, Ms. Lee “provided counterintelligence support to the regime in Grenada in 1980, tipping off the Cuban-backed government to a possible anti-communist spy in the office of Marxist-Leninist Premier Maurice Bishop.” A memo, captured in 1983 after the United States liberated the island from the communist New Jewel Movement, notes that Ms. Lee, then working on the staff of Rep. Ron Dellums, California Democrat, tipped off Grenada's ambassador to the Organization of American States about suspicious counterrevolutionary mailings Mr. Dellums' office had received, postmarked from Grenada.

Ms. Lee, along with Mr. Dellums' Chief of Staff Carlottia Scott, whom Mr. Waller says “was widely rumored to have been romantically involved with [Grenada's communist leader] Bishop,” worked tirelessly to promote the New Jewel agenda in Congress. At every step, they actively opposed the Reagan administration's anti-communist strategy. A 1982 letter from Ms. Scott to Mr. Bishop, typed on House of Representatives letterhead and opening “My Dearest,” details their work for the House Armed Services Committee's subcommittee on military construction, which Mr. Dellums chaired...

...Decades later, Ms. Lee, now representing Mr. Dellums' district, is still fighting for the same cause she was defending at the height of the Cold War. Sadly, this cause is Marxist totalitarianism in the Western Hemisphere. That's what we call antiquated thinking.

COMMENT:  Nice, huh?  Have you been given that material by any TV network, by any other news organization?  Why not?  Because the automatic exemption given to leftists is in play.  It is a journalistic scandal.

Another scandal is the painful historic fact that the civil rights movement has always had a destructive relationship with American communism.  Robert Kennedy warned Dr. King about that, and King understood.  King began separating himself from some of the more extreme elements.  But King was murdered, and the separation stopped.  The Barbara Lees come from that tradition.   Many of America's labor leaders worked to drive the reds out of the labor movement.  Tragically, that same commitment was never made in the civil rights movement. 

April 10, 2009   Permalink

HILLARY STUMPED?  ON IRAN?  WE ARE IN A DITCH - AT 7:38 A.M. ET:  From The Jerusalem Post:

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday night downplayed the significance of the reported increase in Iranian centrifuges and said it would not affect the US decision to resume participation in international talks on the Islamic republic's nuclear program.

"We don't know what to believe about the Iranian program," she said, adding that the US government did not "attribute any particular meaning" to Iran's statement with respect to the negotiations.

COMMENT:  WHAT!  She doesn't know what to believe about the Iranian program?  Can you imagine how this is being read in Tehran?  This is truly becoming Carter II, but worse.  This is an appeasement administration. 

April 10, 2009   Permalink 

I AM UTTERLY STUNNED - AT 7:14 A.M. ET:  In doing my research sweep this morning, I came across this:

This will be my last column for the L.A. Times. After four years, I'll soon be starting a stint at the Pentagon as an advisor to the undersecretary of Defense for policy.

The passage was written by Rosa Brooks, hard leftist columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and daughter of leftist author Barbara Ehrenreich.  Brooks has been a standout on the left, a lawyer/journalist, professional Bush basher, far to the left of most liberals.  She is director of Georgetown Law School's Human Rights Center.  She used to work for a George Soros organization.  She also worked for Harold Koh, the Yale Law School dean, currently nominated to be State Department legal adviser, who believes we should subordinate ourselves to international law. 

She will be in the Pentagon?  Don't you feel safer?

A wise observer said, when Obama started naming Cabinet officials, that those people didn't matter.  It was the troops at the mid-level who carried out policy.  So far this administration has appointed the most extreme mid-level staff in memory, especially in the Justice Department. 

I just hope Brook's appointment is just a political payoff for work done during the campaign, and that she will be ignored.

April 10, 2009   Permalink   

THURSDAY,  APRIL 9,  2009

DOW CLOSE - AT 4:23 P.M. ET:  The Dow closed up 246 points, to 8083, after a spectacular day.  Some bank profits were good.  Financial people caution, however, that many other banks are in trouble. 

April 9, 2009

OH DEAR, OH DEAR - AT 2:58 P.M. ET:  We criticize the mainstream media often here, but sometimes a piece of journalism comes along that is so bad it must be reported.  Consider this, from Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ragtag teams of modern-day Blackbeards are posing an annoying distraction for Barack Obama, forcing him to add Somalia to an already long list of foreign policy challenges.

Add?  Earth to Reuters:  Somalia is a major center for Al Qaeda activity in Africa and was already high on the list.  We've had a naval presence in the region for years.

American presidents are told to expect the unexpected, and Obama is seeing that this week. First it was a North Korean test of a ballistic missile last weekend. Now comes a swashbuckling high-seas standoff with armed renegades.

The unexpected?  The North Koreans have been announcing their test for months.  It was entirely expected.  And there was nothing swashbuckling about this latest, seedy act of piracy.

Obama so far has sent U.S. Navy ships to protect an American-flagged freighter that managed to repel a pirate attack but whose captain was taken hostage.

America's recent experience with Somalia has not been good, making caution a key element of U.S. policy in dealing with the country.

When is caution not a key element in foreign policy?  Name an instance.

COMMENT:  This isn't journalism.  This is padding.  Think before you write.  And research helps as well.

April 9, 2009   Permalink

BLOOMBERG WARNS - AT 2:46 P.M. ET:  From AFP:

Sweeping layoffs of government employees are needed to prevent New York going bankrupt, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday.
Bloomberg, who is in tense negotiations with municipal workers' unions, said an extra 7,000 jobs would have to go unless major reductions are made in employee benefits.

"We cannot continue. Our pension costs and health care costs for our employees are going to bankrupt this city," he said in comments broadcast on NY1 television.

Bloomberg, running for a third mayoral term at the end of this year, said that proposals from unions so far were "nowhere near what is adequate."

COMMENT:  There was a time, in the sixties, when one in eight New Yorkers was on the public rolls, in one way or another.  It's better now, but conditions in New York are deteriorating.  The city depended heavily on Wall Street for its tax base, and that's been badly damaged.  I would trust Bloomberg on this.  He isn't an alarmist.  If New York goes bankrupt, the psychological effect on the economy could be substantial.

April 9, 2009   Permalink

DOW SOARS - AT 2:40 P.M.:  The Dow is up 211 points, to 8048, even as the latest retail-sale report proved discouraging.  Apparently, "investors," at least today, were encouraged by some bank earnings.  Tomorrow these same "investors" will be sour on something else.  Look, as we've said before, the market is a casino.  Serious, thoughtful investors don't jump around from day to day.

April 9, 2009

NOTHING TO SEE, NOTHING TO SEE - AT 1:50 P.M. ET:  From The Times of London:

A triumphant President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad opened Iran's first plant for producing nuclear fuel today, marking a significant leap forward for his controversial nuclear programme and sparking international fears that the Islamic Republic may be closer than ever to acquiring an atomic weapon.

Just two months before crucial elections in which he is pitted against a powerful moderate candidate, the hardline Iranian leader celebrated the breakthrough in his country's pursuit of nuclear technology, saying that Iranian scientists have tested two new types of enrichment centrifuges with a higher capacity for producing uranium. The President has insisted that the nuclear fuel will be used only for generating electricity, but the international community fears that it could also be used to build nuclear warheads.

COMMENT:  And our tough response?  Asking Iran to talk to us, pretty please.  Any great sense of urgency about Iran's nuclear program left with President Bush.

Oh, and please note the use of "moderate" to describe Ahmedinejad's opponent in June's presidential election.  He is not a moderate.  He just sounds more moderate.  This is an old game in that part of the world, but the American and European left will herald his election, if he's elected, as a breakthrough, and a tribute to Obama's diplomacy.  It will be nothing of the kind.  He will continue the nuclear program unimpeded.

April 9, 2009   Permalink

MARRIAGE UPDATE - AT 1:30 P.M. ET:  From London's Daily Mail:

A Saudi Arabian man has set a new legal precedent by divorcing his wife by text message.

The man was in Iraq when he sent the SMS informing his wife they were no longer married.

In Saudi Arabia a man can divorce his wife simply by saying 'I divorce you' three times.

However this is the first known divorce in Saudi Arabia by text message.

The kingdom practices a strict form of Islamic Sharia law, and clerics preside over Sharia courts as judges.

The unnamed man followed up with a telephone call to two of his relatives, the daily Arab News reported.

COMMENT:  And our president bowed down deeply to this man's king. 

But, after all, who are we to question another culture?  Why, that would be cultural imperialism, insensitivity.  It would be BUSH. 

No, it would be our right and responsibility as civilized human beings, living in the 21st century.  This is another disgraceful example of what our president genuflected to when meeting the Saudi king last week.  And this is a mild example.

Don't expect much from American "women's" organizations on this.  They have become what they claim to hate most - meek followers, beholden to a leftist party line that someone sets for them.

April 9, 2009   Permalink   

OH, WE'RE JUST SO RELIEVED - AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  From AFP: 

Iran poses no threat to the United States, Russia said Tuesday, rebuffing a key argument of President Barack Obama on whether to go ahead with a European missile shield bitterly opposed by Moscow.

Former president George W. Bush had infuriated Russia by striking a deal to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland and related radar stations in the Czech Republic, saying they were needed to counter "rogue states" such as Iran.

The Obama administration says it is reviewing the shield project, studying whether it is militarily justified and cost effective.

But Sergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, said that the Iran threat was a myth.

"I don't see any threat to the United States coming from Iran anytime soon," Kislyak told a conference of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

COMMENT:  Well, now that settles that, doesn't it?  I think we should all thank Russia for its concern with our security.  I love the ambassador's statement:  "I don't see any threat to the United States coming from Iran anytime soon."

How soon is soon?  Do we get a notice?  An e-mail?  I'll try to get the information so we can all mark our calendars.

April 9, 2009   Permalink 

QUICK - OUT! - AT 7:53 A.M. ET:  From London's Telegraph:

Bob Quick, Britain's most senior anti-terrorist policeman, has resigned after making a major security blunder that caused an operation against a suspected al-Qaeda cell to be brought forward.

Mr Quick tendered his resignation to Boris Johnson, the London mayor and chairman of the Metropolitan police authority, after admitting that he "could have compromised a major counter terrorism operation".

The Assistant Commissioner was photographed entering Downing Street carrying a secret briefing note on which details of the undercover operation – codenamed Pathway – could be seen.

Mr Johnson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he did not pressure Mr Quick to quit, and said that the counter terrorism head decided to leave of his own volition.

COMMENT:  The comedian Steve Landesberg once did a hilarious routine on the British tradition of resigning.  It's a tradition we ought to adapt here.  You make a serious error, you go.  You don't "reflect."  You don't meet with "spiritual advisers."  You don't call for an "independent, fair-minded investigation."  And you don't declare yourself a victim of "Gestapo tactics."  You go, and do so quickly.

One thing about the Brits, and many Europeans - the best of them take internal security more seriously than we do, despite their softer image.  And yet they maintain free societies.

April 9, 2009   Permalink   

LATEST FROM THE WORLD OF "SCIENCE" - AT 7:44 A.M. ET: 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.

John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.

"It's got to be looked at," he said. "We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table."

COMMENT:  Holdren's appointment was a bow to ultra-environmentalists.   He is a member of the royal family of global-warming alarmists.  We need to hold this man down until other scientists examine what he's doing.  I don't want anything shot into our atmosphere because of someone's theory.

April 9, 2009   Permalink

LEFTIST REVOLT - AT 7:42 A.M. ET:  We must remember that the Democratic Party has a sizable contingent in Congress that is to the left of President Obama.  They like to call themselves "progressives," but they often have a very un-progressive way of cozying up to dictators.  From The Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama plans to request new funding from Congress for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he risks a backlash from antiwar lawmakers.

Mr. Obama is expected to seek congressional approval of $75.5 billion for the wars, perhaps as soon as Thursday. The issue is already raising tensions on Capitol Hill, especially among liberals who are sympathetic to the president's broader agenda but voice concerns about his timeline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq and his plans to beef up forces in Afghanistan.

"I can't imagine any way I'd vote for it," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, a California Democrat and leader in the 77-member congressional Progressive Caucus. It would be her first major break with this White House.

Ms. Woolsey fears the president's plan for Iraq would leave behind a big occupation force. She is also concerned about the planned escalation in Afghanistan. "I don't think we should be going there," she said.

COMMENT:  Other dissenters are mentioned - John Conyers, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Jim McGovern.  These people are not progressives or liberals.  They are leftists.  They represent a branch of the Democratic Party that was unceremoniously expelled by Harry Truman in 1948, but who came back through the civil rights and "anti-war" movements of the 1960s.  Some of this group recently returned from Cuba where they met with, and extended love to, the Castro boys.  If Democrats had a Truman today, he'd toss them out again, no matter what the political risks.  But there is no Truman.

April 9, 2009   Permalink

PIRATE LATEST - AT 7:04 A.M. ET:  From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — A U.S. Navy destroyer kept close watch Thursday on a lifeboat holding four Somali pirates and their hostage — an American ship captain — one day after the pirates briefly seized a United States-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Africa.

The pirates boarded and seized the unarmed container ship, Maersk Alabama, taking 20 American sailors hostage on Wednesday. Although the crew managed to retake the ship within hours, the pirates were still holding the ship’s captain as they fled the ship in an unpowered lifeboat.

The captain was identified as Richard Phillips, of Underhill, Vermont.

COMMENT:  We'll let you know if Hillary Clinton offers to exchange places with the captain.

April 9, 2009   Permalink