FRIDAY,  JUNE 26,  2009

JUST BARELY - AT 7:41 P.M. ET:  The House has barely passed the Democratic energy bill:

WASHINGTON – In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed sweeping legislation Friday that calls for the nation's first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly energy.

The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs.

COMMENT:  Passage by seven votes in the House, which is far to the left of the Senate, is no great victory.  If reason prevails, this bill should die a painful death in the Senate, or face extreme modification.  That modification would require a Senate-House reconciliation conference, which may go nowhere or drag on for months.

We may, with the help of moderate Democrats, defeat this monstrosity and go back to the planning stage for a thoughtful energy program.

June 26, 2009   Permalink

INCREDIBLE - AT 5:50 P.M. ET:  Your elected representatives in action, on one of the most important, and expensive, pieces of legislation of our time:

The House neared a decisive vote on sweeping climate-change legislation Friday afternoon — with Democratic leaders racing to corral votes on a bill that Republicans said they hadn’t even seen yet.

Rep. Geoff Davis, a Republican from Kentucky, said the cap-and-trade bill represented the “economic colonization of the heartland” by New York and California. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) called the bill a “scam” that would do nothing but satisfy “the twisted desires of radical environmentalists.” Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Mich.) called it a “massive transfer of wealth” from the United States to foreign countries.

Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio countered that, without the bill, the United States would remain energy-dependent on people who want to “fly planes into our buildings.”

Republican accused the Democrats of ramming the bill through the House. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) asked repeatedly if there was even a copy of the current version of the bill anywhere in the House chamber. Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher – sitting in the speaker’s chair although she’s already been confirmed as Obama’s undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security — repeatedly dodged the question.

COMMENT:  What strikes us is the arrogance of today's Democratic Party.  This bill is the product of people who believe that they're just a little bit better than the rest of us, just a little bit more intelligent, with better educations and party invitations. 

The bill, from what we know of it, is terribly flawed.  It rests on theories rather than facts, and does not seem actually to solve anything.  Expenses for all Americans will go up, but the "movement" people behind the bill are generally well off, and won't feel the pain.  There is, naturally, no press analysis of who will gain financially from the changes called for in the bill.

Fortunately, we have a United States Senate, where there's a chance this can be stopped, and reconsidered. 

Add this to the Obamacare bill coming up, and the changes to American life can be profound, with almost no real discussion going into those changes. 

In a way, I compare this to Vietnam, where an approved "narrative" was developed by the press and the intellectual elites, arguing that we could never win.  Once that narrative was accepted, the tragic result was predictable.  The narrative was wrong, but it's been maintained for more than a generation.  No, we don't always get the truth, even in a democracy.

June 26, 2009   Permalink

WAS SOMEONE LEFT OUT? - AT 4:44 P.M. ET:  The latest in Washington tributes, and Washington values:

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives paused for a moment of silence Friday to mark entertainer Michael Jackson's death.

Lawmakers briefly interrupted a debate on a global warming bill to stand in silence and honor the "King of Pop."

Rep. Diane Watson of California rose during the debate to suggest the House "pay tribute to the culture that he has left behind, his legacy."
Watson said the lawmakers send their condolences to Jackson's family, friends and his fans worldwide.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois said the singer changed the world and he wants to "thank God for letting all of us live in his generation and in his era."

COMMENT:  There has been no moment of silence for the Iranians murdered in the streets by their government in the last week.  I guess they didn't have the right moves.

June 26, 2009   Permalink

OBAMA AND THOSE PESKY FREEDOM TYPES - AT 9:40 A.M. ET:  We've said before that the Washington Post's editorial page, although generally liberal, has an admirable streak of independence and principle.  Compare please with the editorial page of The New York Times. 

Today, in a stunning rebuke, the Post goes after President Obama, and his indifference to democracy.  This time the canvas is Latin America:

FOR ITS winners, the National Endowment for Democracy's annual Democracy Award can mean a brief respite from a dangerous life as a dissident: a trip to Washington, attention from Congress and the media, and -- during the Bush and Clinton administrations -- an Oval Office meeting or statement of support from the president. No such luck for this year's honorees, who are five leaders of Cuba's pro-democracy movement.

We must not offend Father Fidel, nor the hard left of the Democratic Party, which continues to marvel at the Cuban health-care system, just as some in the 1930s marveled at the Nazi road system.

It's not that the president is too busy to concern himself with Latin American politics. The White House arranged for a Spanish journalist to ask a question at Tuesday's news conference; reporter Macarena Vidal pressed Mr. Obama on whether U.S. allies such as Chile and Colombia were doing enough to help with "less democratic countries." The president replied by heaping praise on visiting Chilean President Michele Bachelet, a socialist who has been promoting Cuba's readmission into the Organization of American States and who has gone out of her way to avoid offending Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez.

Can't we all just get along?

Message to Mr. Chávez and the Castro brothers: We can work with you. Message to Cuba's democratic opposition: We don't have time for you.

It's the same message the freedom fighters of Iran are hearing from this White House.  Ah, Obama has made us so proud again.  Not like that BUSH (!!) and his voting business.  How Texan.

Mr. Obama's hastily drafted statement -- issued after The Post inquired about his silence -- said he wished "to acknowledge and commend" the five dissidents "and all the brave men and women who are standing up for the right of the Cuban people to freely determine their country's future." He called for the release of the three now in prison.

Will the quickly written statement satisfy the Cuban opposition?  No, says the Post:

They, like the beleaguered pro-democracy movements of Venezuela and Nicaragua, are hoping that the American president will focus his policy on supporting them. Yet for now, Mr. Obama's diplomacy is clearly centered on their oppressors.

COMMENT:  Good for the Washington Post!  We can't wait for Obama to compare the Post to Fox News. 

This president claims to represent "American values."  He does not, and he shows it every day.  He has demonstrated far more friendship toward dictators than toward democrats.  He won't have Cuban dissidents to the Oval Office, which, under Bush, had a bust of Winston Churchill prominently displayed.  Obama got rid of that, too.

June 26, 2009   Permalink

IRAN - AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  Michael Jackson's death has pushed Iran off the front pages, as freedom activists, both inside and outside Iran, try to keep the flame of the resistance alive.  Meanwhile, we are getting further assurance from the thugocracy that the recent election was beautiful, fair and elegant:

TEHRAN — As Iran’s leaders push back threats to their authority after the disputed presidential election, crushing street protests and pressing challengers to withdraw or to limit their objections, the country’s main electoral oversight group ruled Friday that the ballot had been the “healthiest” since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

The statement by the 12-member Guardian Council, which is charged with overseeing and vetting elections, fell short of formal certification of the ballot. But it offered further evidence that, despite mass demonstrations and violent confrontation with those who call the election a fraud, the authorities are intent on enforcing their writ and denying their adversaries a voice.

Two weeks after the election on June 12, Mir Hussein Moussavi, the top challenger, issued an angry statement Thursday that underscored his commitment to press ahead — but also his impotence in the face of an increasingly emboldened and repressive government that restricted his ability to do much more than express outrage.

COMMENT:  Charles Krauthammer says in his column today that the resistance needs a real leader.  It's being forced off the streets by bullets, clubs and gas - that much is clear.  It can only continue if it's better organized and led.  It is receiving no real help from the outside, especially the United States, which has abdicated its position, under Obama, as leader of the free world.

Obama's weakness, his showing "respect" for the sovereignty of Iran, is bringing a predictable response from the Iranian leadership, as CNN reports:

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday called the U.S. president inexperienced, compared him unfavorably to President George W. Bush and suggested he apologize for "interfering in Iran's affairs."

"Do you think that this kind of behavior is going to solve any of your problems? It will only make people think you are someone like Bush," the semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

"You are at the beginning of your way and you are gaining experience, and we do not wish the scandals of the Bush era to be repeated during your term of office," the Iranian leader said.

Obama is certainly getting results, isn't he?  If polls are correct, Americans are starting to notice.

June 26, 2009   Permalink

CLEAN ENERGY? - AT 7:52 A.M. ET:  A huge Democratic energy bill is making its way through the House, despite solid Republican opposition.  Even a number of Democrats have their doubts, but the bill is likely to pass narrowly.  Then it goes on to an uncertain fate in the Senate, where sanity occasionally prevails.  Wesley Pruden, of The Washington Times, who minces no words, describes the ugly scene:

You can't blame the Democrats for hurrying to enact their hot-air legislation. The public is finally paying attention, recognizing the global warming crisis for what it is, a giant scam that will cost every American plenty. The globe isn't warming - it's actually cooling, in fact - and there's no crisis.

The only "crisis" Thursday in Washington was what to do with Al Gore. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had invited the ex-veep to Washington to appear Friday with senior Democrats to make a last-minute appeal for votes for the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Note there's not a word about "global" or "warming" in the title of the legislation. Once you stink up perfectly good words, you have to find new ones. (That's why liberals now call themselves "progressives.")

COMMENT:  I hope Pruden is right, that the public is finally paying attention.  I also hope we'll have a little investigative reporting by the media.  I'd love to know who actually benefits from this legislation, how much they'll receive, and what their relationship is to the Democratic Party.  I'd also love to know how much the average American family will pay for legislation that is driven largely by untested theories.

June 26, 2009   Permalink

VULGARITY - AT 7:33 A.M. ET:  We will now await day two of the bizarre coverage of Michael Jackson's untimely death.  We're all sorry, of course, that he died at such a young age, only 50, but you'd think by the media bombardment that a president had died.  The wall-to-wall orgy has been largely tasteless and over-the-top.  The man was not, after all, Frank Sinatra, one of the great popular artists of the last century.  Even Jackson's family has had to plead for a little privacy.

I suspect that the lurid coverage has much to do with our worship of the youth culture, a worship that's been magnified considerably since the juvenile decade of the sixties. 

Of course, Al Sharpton was front and center, holding a sidewalk news conference to talk about himself and his relationship to Michael Jackson, which seemed awfully vague. 

I hope the press calms down today.  Fans can appropriately mourn, but there are adult things happening in the world.

June 26, 2009   Permalink

THURSDAY,  JUNE 25,  2009

THE POWERS THAT BE - AT 11:13 P.M. ET:  John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, is one of the most left-wing members of Congress.  His wife has serious corruption charges against her.  Yet, he recently agreed to conduct an investigation of ACORN, the shady political group that "registers" voters and does other things, always on behalf of ultra-lib candidates.  ACORN was instrumental in the Obama campaign.

Well, Conyers's investigation has vanished into thin air.  From The Washington Times:

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. has backed off his plan to investigate purported wrongdoing by the liberal activist group ACORN, saying "powers that be" put the kibosh on the idea.

Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat, earlier bucked his party leaders by calling for hearings on accusations the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN) has committed crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style "protection" racket.

"The powers that be decided against it," Mr. Conyers told The Washington Times as he left the House chambers Wednesday.

The chairman declined to elaborate, shrugging off questions about who told him how to run his committee and give the Democrat-allied group a pass.

COMMENT:  By any standard, this should be a major media story.  ACORN has great influence inside the Democratic Party, and it will participate in taking the census next year, an outrageous arrangement that puts a group with very questionable practices right in the center of the process that determines which states gain and lose congresspeople, and where. 

But is the press concerned?  What do you think the answer is?

June 25, 2009   Permalink

OH - AT 10:52 P.M. ET:  There seems to be so much happening, that most Americans are unaware that U.S. forces in Iraq must withdraw from central cities by June 30th.  Now, though, there are second thoughts, as The Times of London reports:

There are fears that a premature departure will lead to a return of sectarian violence or allow al-Qaeda to re-establish itself. Many would like the Americans to remain until security is restored permanently.

“After you guys pull out from the city I don’t know what our enemies are going to do,Thaban Hassan said. The head of an Iraqi Army battalion in Baquba, he told the American soldiers gathered in his office that “safety is not 100 per cent . . . why are the Americans leaving?”

“If it was up to me,” a US army captain said, “we would stay in the city, take a more active role, even.”

COMMENT:  This is what happens when you establish arbitrary deadlines to satisfy political groups, including political groups in Iraq.  We can easily snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as, in the opinion of many, we did in Vietnam.  There has been a major spike in terrorist violence in Iraq recently.  The Obamans don't seem very concerned.  If things start to unravel in the coming months, they'll just blame BUSH (!!).  But the excuse is wearing out.  We should have tactical flexibility in Iraq to save a fragile situation.

June 25,  2009   Permalink

THE NATIONAL BUSINESS - AT 7:53 P.M. ET:  There's an old saying that Americans have two businesses, their own and show business.  Show business makes news, and Americans are riveted.  Farrah Fawcett died today, after a struggle with cancer.  But even on her dying day she couldn't get the individual starring role, as Michael Jackson died hours later.  I felt more sorry about Farrah, who suffered greatly, and who tried, over the years, to constantly improve herself as an actress.  Underneath the glamour, she was the real thing, and deserved more credit.

I've been monitoring the news networks.  It's all Michael, all the time.  He was a phenomenon, rather than a great artist.  I can't say that I cared for his music, which was directed at kids.  However, he was an entertainer in the great sense of that term, and had the good sense to work with Quincy Jones in building his career.  I guess there'll be an autopsy, but his death, according to first reports, was sudden and natural. 

Coming a few days after the death of Ed McMahon, we see three pictures of show business.  Ed, the second banana, represented traditionalism.  Basic meat-and-potatoes entertainment for grown-ups.  Farrah was the consummate female "movie star," an image that is hard to forget.  Her famous poster recalled the pinups of Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth.  Michael Jackson was the minority, who came along when minorities could become stars in their own right, cross over to entertain whites, and use the same entrance used by everyone else. 

All three will be missed in their own way.  But Ed, who died at 86, achieved longevity.  The others did not. 

June 25, 2009   Permalink   

OUR RIGHT NOT TO CHOOSE - AT 10:23 A.M. ET:  President Obama appeared on ABC yesterday, in what Republicans have charged was an infomercial for his health-care "reform" plan.  What the president said was chilling to anyone who could read between the lines, and anyone who's ever been to a doctor can easily do so:

Reporting from Washington -- President Obama suggested at a town hall event Wednesday night that one way to shave medical costs is to stop expensive and ultimately futile procedures performed on people who are about to die and don't stand to gain from the extra care.

In a nationally televised event at the White House, Obama said families need better information so they don't unthinkingly approve "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care."

There you have it.  We need "better information."  From whom?  We get our information now from the physicians we choose.  Who will be this new educator that we need so much?

And those dumb families out there had better stop "unthinkingly" approve procedures that may "not necessarily" improve care.  Stupid, unthinking families, trying to do the best for their relatives.  How unintellectual is that?

"Not necessarily" improve care?  What does that mean?  Who decides? 

Oh sure, there are unnecessary tests, often ordered by doctors to cover themselves and avoid malpractice suits.  But reform the scandalous malpractice lawsuit business?  Nothing doing, according to this administration.  Trial lawyers are among the largest contributors to the Democratic Party.

Doctor Obama, showing the same human feeling he displayed toward the Iranian freedom fighters, added:

"Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller."

Obama said he has personal familiarity with such a dilemma. His grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given less than nine months to live, he said.

She fell and broke her hip, "and the question was, does she get hip replacement surgery, even though she was fragile enough they were not sure how long she would last?"

Who decides that, Mr. President?  The physician treating her, or a government bureaucrat with a chart listing alternatives?

COMMENT:  Now, consider this:  Are you familiar with the abortion debates?  This has nothing to do with your position on abortion - our readers are all over the lot on this one - but with the logic of the arguments.  One of the key arguments made by pro-choice forces is that "a woman's right to choose" involves a decision between her and her doctor, with no one else intervening.  Am I right in describing that?  In other words, it is a private decision.

Now, though, the president is changing the standard.  In his world, our right to make medical decisions will not be based on private deliberations.  A third party will be present, providing different information, different suggestions, and giving different orders.  That party will, of course, be the government, as in socialist countries. 

Question:  Why should the standard for life-and-death family matters be different from the standard for abortion?

Yes, our system needs improvement.  And yes, I do believe that, under our moral codes as a Judeo-Christian country, everyone should receive quality health care.  And yes, insurance companies can be both good and bad, and I've been \with both.  But the solutions to our problems do not lie in systems that have failed elsewhere and will reduce the quality of care to one mediocre level. 

As with most things, President Obama has not thought through his proposals.  He sees things intellectually, not related to the real world.  There is a catastrophe in the making here unless we stop and look at exactly what's being proposed, then modify it, or stop it entirely if it does more harm than good.

June 25, 2009   Permalink 

WATCH THIS CAREFULLY - AT 8:43 A.M. ET:  The first lady makes her move, from The Washington Post:

WASHINGTON -- For weeks, Michelle Obama had been telling her staff and closest confidantes that she wasn't having the impact she wanted. She is a woman of substance, with a background in law, public policy and management, who found herself relegated to role model in chief. The West Wing of the White House -- the fulcrum of power and policy -- had not fully integrated her into its agenda. She wanted more.

So, earlier this month, she changed her chief of staff, and now she's changing her role.

Her new chief of staff, Susan Sher, 61, is a close friend and former boss who the first lady thinks will be more forceful about getting her and her team on the West Wing's radar screen. The first thing Sher said she told senior adviser David Axelrod, whom she has known for years: When I call, "you need to get back to me right away."

COMMENT:  First, I love the comment, "She is a woman of substance, with a background in law, public policy and management..."  And if she had chosen to devote all her time to raising her two daughters?  Would that have made her less substantive?  The cultural bias in this piece is overwhelming.

Next, when did "first lady" become an official position?  Was Michelle on the ballot?  I don't recall her name there.

Third, are we seeing the emergence of the next Democratic candidate for president, in 2016?  That is a serious question.  After all, Hillary tried it.  The precedent is there. 

Hmm.

June 25, 2009   Permalink 

WHAT WE CAN DO - AT 7:56 A.M. ET:  A distinguished physicist alerts Urgent Agenda to the fact that Iran imports 85% of its refined gasoline.  There's a bill up in Congress that would try to clamp down on those imports through sanctions.  You can call or e-mail members of Congress to get going on this.  Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee are listed here.  The bill is, naturally, being opposed by the Obama administration.

June 25, 2009   Permalink

CHANGE IN TACTICS - AT 7:41 A.M. ET:  Ace reporter Eli Lake, formerly of the well-remembered New York Sun, now of the Washington Times, reports that the opposition in Iran is changing tactics in a bid to stay alive, against the overwhelming repressive power of the regime:

Iran's pro-democracy movement is changing strategy and will use smaller and more dispersed demonstrations to try to protect protesters from security forces, who dissidents now say have killed nearly 250 people in the past 10 days.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a prominent Iranian filmmaker who is serving as a spokesman in the West for opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, told The Washington Times that the opposition movement is also asking Iranians all over the world to light candles in silent protest Friday to commemorate Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman killed by security forces Saturday.

Her slaying, captured on video and sent around the world via the Internet, has become a symbol of the protest movement and of the Iranian government's crackdown on those disputing the purported landslide victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

COMMENT:  Lake adds that President Obama described Neda's death as "heartbreaking."  We will add for the record that the description had to be pried out of him by a reporter at the president's news conference.  Mr. Obama's coldness will be remembered.

June 25, 2009   Permalink

FROM IRAN - AT 7:23 A.M. ET:  Government forces are clearly winning the battle for the streets, as CNN reports:

(CNN) -- A ceremony Thursday to remember the victims of Iran's post-election protests has been postponed -- a day after security forces crushed a planned demonstration with a show of force...

...The event was postponed for a week, but the Web site did not offer an alternate date.

According to official figures, 17 people have died in clashes with government forces since the protests began.

CNN has received unconfirmed reports of as many as 150 deaths related to the popular uprising on just Saturday alone.

And...

The number of demonstrators venturing into Tehran's streets had fallen since Sunday, said CNN's Reza Sayah, who returned to the U.S. Wednesday from Iran.

He said exhaustion from consecutive days of protest may have combined with fear of government reprisals.

CNN has received numerous accounts of night-time roundups of opposition activists and international journalists by government forces.

COMMENT:  To watch cynicism in motion, note how the "world community" adjusts to the thug regime once it has entirely put down the revolt.  We did it with the Soviet Union once it put down Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.  Sad, but the amoral Obama administration will probably lead the world in its eagerness to "engage" the mullahs, and their President Ahmadinejad.

June 25, 2009   Permalink