Morning Briefing for May 26, 2009
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MAY 26, 2009
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1. Vichy Republicans
The quislings have formed a fire brigade to shoot at Cheney, Limbaugh, and others for burning down the quislings’ potemkin village.
2. New York Terrorists Radicalized in Prison
Tell us again why it’s a good idea to bring terrorists into the country, Mr. President?
3. Maybe MoveOn.org Planted the Starbucks Bomb
Not really, but talk about crummy timing
4. Obama’s green-tinted glasses distort energy picture
What could possibly go wrong?
5. Comprehensive Immigration Reform Slated for Fall Action
Can Democrats Pass a Bill After Poisoning the Well?
6. WTO: US Must Drop Protectionism for Trade Deal
Will Obama Again Choose Unilateralism & the Status Quo?
7. Gettin’ In Their Kitchen
Dick Cheney is in President Obama’s kitchen.
8. The Lost Heroes of the War on Terror
Gallant Deeds and Untold Tales
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1. Vichy Republicans
The quislings have formed a fire brigade to shoot at Cheney, Limbaugh, and others for burning down the quislings’ potemkin village.
The year is 2003. Tom Ridge is chatting, explaining what’s going on with Homeland Security, having a seemingly good time. His good natured counterpart in the conversation lets Ridge run with the conversation.
The other party in the conversation is Rush Limbaugh. Ridge had called into Rush’s show.
Over the past twenty years Rush has been on the air, people like Powell, Ridge, and others have had no problem using Rush to air their policy views, defend themselves, and chat.
And in those twenty years, as anyone who has regularly listened to Rush can tell you, the substantive coverage of issues has increased, not decreased. As Rush has become better educated over the last two decades on issues, we all have too. But Rush’s consistency of principle, conservatism, and humor have not changed.
Now, twenty years after Rush began, some Republicans who once fell all over themselves to get on the air with him, have decided he is too shrill, too conservative, and too harmful to the cause.
What they do not seem to notice is that Rush has not changed. They have. The ground has not shifted to the left. They have shifted to the left. They have become Vichy Republicans — not Republicans in Name Only. The difference is that they stand on their bona fides as Republicans, patted on the back by other Republicans of unquestioned party affiliation, to sell out the party by collaborating with the Democrats.
Every exit poll in the last three to four Presidential elections shows that roughly 34% of the country considers itself conservative and 21% – 22% considers itself liberal. For a winning coalition, conservatives have to pick off less moderates than liberals do.
Based on recent polling trends, it is clear that, while Powell and Ridge are riding their elephants left, independents are running back to the right — now seeing Obama for who he is. It is worth keeping in mind that Obama is more ideologically aligned with Powell and Ridge than he is with the average independent American voter. Naturally, those two want to be more like Obama and think the game changer is for the GOP to do so too. (There’s also another factor: their rush to embrace the policies of the left is an effort to baptize themselves in media righteousness to wash away the perceived sin of working for George W. Bush, without publicly, directly repudiating him by name)
Ridge, Powell, and others are working the media as fast as possible to promote this view. They are doing so because they have only a limited window for success. Rush, Cheney, and others are burning down their potemkin village — the one the Vichy Republicans built to make their undermining the GOP look reasonable. Increasingly, the public is seeing the flames and, behind the flames, the empty ruins of the failed ideas of the past 100 years that Obama, Ridge, Powell, and others have packaged as new.
The clock is ticking on the advance of socialism in America. Increasingly the public sees it and does not like it. That Rush and company are causing the change in the tide of public opinion is a danger to the Vichy Republicans.
2. New York Terrorists Radicalized in Prison
Tell us again why it’s a good idea to bring terrorists into the country, Mr. President?
“Where demanded by justice and national security, we will seek to transfer some detainees to the same type of facilities in which we hold all manner of dangerous and violent criminals within our borders — namely, highly secure prisons that ensure the public safety.”
— President Barry Obama, May 21, 2009
Authorities in New York have discovered that the four alleged terrorists arrested last week while planning to blow up a synagogue and shoot down a U.S. military plane were all converted to Islam while in prison. The four were attendees at a Newburgh, NY, mosque, where Imam Salahuddin Muhammad is the spiritual leader. Muhammad also serves as a Muslim prison chaplain.
The revelation comes just two days after President Obama uttered the words above, announcing his plan to bring some of the terrorist detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay into the United States to be held in the U.S. prison system. The president assures that no one has ever escaped from one of the federal Supermax prisons. But as the case of the New York terror cell demonstrates, escape is not the only issue.
President Obama wants to close Guantanamo to appease America’s allies, indeed to appease America’s enemies, who see the prison as a blot on the human rights record of the United States. The president believes that Guantanamo has served as a recruiting tool for terrorists around the world, “likely creating more terrorists than it ever detained,” he said. But if his unprovable assertion is taken at its word, one convenient fact about those new terrorist recruits is that they are not here.
Bringing high-value terrorists into the United States would definitely serve as a recruiting tool for al-Qaeda, whatever the circumstances of their detention. Even at Supermax, where communication with the outside world is almost certainly very closely monitored if it is even allowed at all, a diabolical terrorist like Khalid Sheikh Mohammad would serve as a symbol for terrorists around the world – a living martyr – inspiring them to acts of vengeance and bloodshed against Americans. He would also serve as a powerful example for other radicalizing Imams and inmates in the general prison population, potentially turning out a new crop of terrorist wannabes like those four in New York.
3. Maybe MoveOn.org Planted the Starbucks Bomb
Not really, but talk about crummy timing
This morning a bomb went off outside a Starbucks in New York City.
This afternoon, I received this email from Justin Ruben at MoveOn.org:
“You’ve probably heard about the illegal, anti-union tactics of retail giants like Walmart. But did you know that Starbucks has been found guilty of those same tactics?
“Howard Schultz, Starbucks’ billionaire owner, has made it a priority to keep unions out of Starbucks. But our friends at Brave New Films are fighting back. They’ve put together a video documenting the harassment and intimidation that Starbucks workers have faced.
“Check out the surprising video below and sign the memo telling Schultz that Starbucks must let workers exercise their rights and unionize.”
Talk about bad timing. Way to go, MoveOn — first you defend terrorists during the war, then you attack a company that just had one of its stores bombed.
4. Obama’s green-tinted glasses distort energy picture
What could possibly go wrong?
If you’ve used put gasoline in your tank recently, you’ve noticed the per gallon price steadily rising.
A good part of the reason for the escalation is seasonal in nature. Pump prices always rise just before the Memorial Day weekend which marks the start of the summer “driving season.”
But there’s more to it than that. Various factors are at play, including recent refinery fires, optimism in the equities markets and the strength of the dollar. A new report from the U.S. Energy Department on Wednesday said crude-oil stockpiles dropped by 2.1 million barrels for the week that ended Friday. One factor keeping prices lower was the glut of oil sitting in storage tanks around the nation. As those supplies get drained down, we should expect to see gasoline above two dollars for quite a while.
With oil above $60 per barrel and climbing, the oil companies are talking about ramping up exploration and production activities again. Once the price moves into the $70 to $80 range, they move beyond just talking and start doing. But they will be looking for and extracting oil in pretty much the same places where they left off when oil prices dropped through the floor.
Congress lifted its ban on drilling off certain areas off the Gulf, Pacific and Atlantic coasts last year, but billions of barrels of the oil there continue to be untapped because the Obama administration has postponed development there. It’s not only offshore drilling where the administration is holding up development. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, after only one week in office, canceled 77 Utah oil and gas leases.
5. Comprehensive Immigration Reform Slated for Fall Action
Can Democrats Pass a Bill After Poisoning the Well?
According to the Hill, Congressional Democrats are planning to run up a trial balloon on comprehensive immigration reform in June, and then take a crack at passing a bill late this year or next.
Far be it from me to suggest that Democrat leaders would ever do anything disingenuous, but I can’t help but wonder if they’re promising passage of legislation that they expect will fail. It’s clear that there’s a lot of active opposition to immigration reform including amnesty, and that the opposition becomes louder, more organized, and more effective the closer Congress comes to a vote. Durbin, Reid, Pelosi, Obama, et al, are certainly aware that Democrats in swing states and districts regard this as an extremely dangerous vote – one that can cost them their seats. Notwithstanding the decisive Democrat margin of control in the House and Senate, this will be an extremely heavy lift.
Given those circumstances, a cynic might suggest that Democrat leaders are raising false hopes, with the full knowledge that their own members will desert them when it comes time to vote. They won’t portray it that way, of course; they’ll do their best to pin the blame on Republicans. And hey: it worked under President Bush – when there were plenty of Republican leaders who supported the goal.
Comprehensive immigration reform will have far less Republican support this time around, because President Obama and his allies in the latino community attacked John McCain shamelessly during the campaign.
6. WTO: US Must Drop Protectionism for Trade Deal
Will Obama Again Choose Unilateralism & the Status Quo?
Barry Obama campaigned on a promise of ‘restoring good relations’ with key US partners, but it’s hard to tell from the way he’s governed so far. From evicting the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, to sacrificing East European allies for better relations with Russia and Iran, to starting trade wars with Canada and Mexico, Obama has done nothing but go renege on this commitment.
And now more pressure is being applied by the Secretary General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy. Lamy recognizes that a deal in the Doha Round of global trade talks could help many economies move toward growth. He also believes that US agricultural subsidies are a critical stumbling block.
Eliminating barriers to trade allows businesses to produce their goods more efficiently (by lowering the price of inputs) and to market their products for less. It increases competition, thereby improving the return to consumers. And since advanced western nations such as the United States are more likely successfully to protect critical markets, the benefits of trade liberalization are felt to a greatest degree by the world’s poorest. Therefore when the U.S. refuses to make concessions, the pain is felt most directly by those that Barry Obama has promised to help.
With all this in mind, it makes sense for Obama to make good on his commitment to be a better world neighbor, by agreeing to open protected U.S. farm markets. For now, he appears unlikely to do so – if only because Democrats in Congress love their protectionism. If he does end up embracing unilateralism and the status quo, that will be one more campaign promise tossed overboard.
7. Gettin’ In Their Kitchen
Dick Cheney is in President Obama’s kitchen.
Ok, so your brother-in-law is lining up his putt tomorrow. He’s beating you badly on that front nine, even giving you strokes, so you resort to the oldest trick in the book. Greenside chatter – ol’ fashioned trash talkin’ – NEVER in his backswing, that would be a breach of etiquette, of course – but enough crap to get him thinking as he hops in and out of the cart. If it works, he yips that next putt and then stares at you – you shoot back that quiet smirk and say “good putt.” If it doesn’t work, he chuckles and snaps up that ball from the cup. You immediately retort that he is playing well and add, “if you just smooth this drive, you’ll break 40 on the front.” You’ve just guaranteed he won’t.
Welcome to his kitchen – you’re in it.
Dick Cheney is in President Obama’s kitchen.
How do we know? Because the White House scheduled a major foreign policy speech this past week for one major reason – to address the concerns about Obama’s recent decisions on GITMO and the release of interrogation memos, raised most prominently by none other than Darth Vader’s twin, Dick Cheney.
When did you ever hear of Bill Clinton feeling compelled to respond to Dan Quayle’s criticism? Or Ronald Reagan feeling compelled to respond to Walter Mondale – before or during the 1984 campaign?
Why then respond to Dick Cheney? Because eventually, even amateurs understand the difference between semi-pro ball and the majors. The few adults wandering the halls of the White House know that Obama has been playing semi-pro ball for the last 4 months, catering to the whims of his far left wing electoral base. In so doing, Obama has miserably attempted to articulate a coherent foreign policy, defined not on what it is, but on what it is not – “it isn’t the Bush Administration.” Yet, time after time, whether it’s the timetable for withdrawal of troops out of Iraq or the renewed use of military tribunals for terrorists, Obama has ultimately endorsed the Bush policy. These reversals, of course, reveal Obama’s election, more and more, as nothing but an irrelevant afterthought in the post-9/11 development of American foreign policy.
In a desperate attempt to resurrect his aimless foreign policy, Obama has blamed his predecessor for “hasty decisions” on matters of national security. Yet, even congressional Democrats have recently and repeatedly pointed out – no one was more “hasty” about GITMO than a president who announces its prospective closing without a plan. Combine that with Obama’s just-announced reversal of his once intended release of Abu Ghraib photos and it’s difficult, if not impossible, to conclude that Obama is a ready for prime time player or that his policies preserve American national security. And, the first and only Republican to skillfully articulate this criticism was Dick Cheney.
By getting in Obama’s kitchen with his commentary over the past month, Cheney has baited the White House into making him its target. Overplaying its ‘blame Bush’ card, the White House mistakenly believed that by drawing attention to Cheney, it would divert public attention from the growing ineptitude of a president, whose adolescence, arrogance and hubris is increasingly apparent – all in favor of an overstated disdain for “all things Cheney.” This is, yet, another foolish mistake by our White House novices.
8. The Lost Heroes of the War on Terror
Gallant Deeds and Untold Tales
Despite taking place in the Information Age, very few of the heroic exploits of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines since September 11, 2001, have made their way into the living rooms of ordinary Americans — at least in any lasting way.
Whether this is the result of changing values among the American people, the general population’s perpetually dwindling attention span, or because there are so many things closer to home our nation is choosing to focus on instead of our service men and women’s gallant deeds and efforts (whether that be a rocky national economy or the latest season of American Idol), the fact is this generation has failed to identify and treasure its incarnations of historic military heroes like Audie Murphy, Jimmy Doolittle, Pappy Boyington, Bill Pitsenbarger, Bud Day, and countless others.
This disappointing reality is not unique to the current decade. Who, for example, can name the most recent pre-global war on terror (GWOT) recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor? The names of Randy Shughart and Gary Gordon — two Army special operations sergeants who received the nation’s highest award for their heroic actions in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993 — are utterly foreign to the vast majority of the same American population that can name the latest movie star to file for divorce, the latest starlet to have borne a child out of wedlock, or the latest teen sensation to enter alcohol rehab.
Part of the problem is a lack of reporting on stories of true heroism among the men and women serving this country in war zones around the world. After all, how can people know of the deeds being done by our best and brightest if the news media — whose sole raison d’être is to report on deeds and events — doesn’t the job it exists to do?
This lack of reporting on American military heroism isn’t due to a lack of media access to the military in any form. On the contrary, Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom have begun a new era of access for journalists who desire to observe firsthand coalition military operations abroad, on the front lines, or in the rear, as part of the Department of Defense’s media embed program.
The ability to embed with coalition troops and report from the battlefront has spawned a new generation of independent combat journalists. Intrepid individuals — often veterans — like Michael Yon, J.D. Johannes, Michael Totten, Bill Roggio, Pat Dollard, and Bill Ardolino have followed in the footsteps of legendary World War II reporter Ernie Pyle, giving generously of their time and resources to travel to and within the combat zones that make up the many fronts of the global war on terror, for the dual purpose of accurately reporting on events (something so many media outlets have demonstrated time and again that they are incapable of doing) and of telling stories that simply would not make it back to the American people any other way.
