PrairiePundit

Cooking the books on unemployment data

2012-02-03T10:15:00.001-06:00

A month ago, we joked when we said that for Obama to get the unemployment rate to negative by election time, all he has to do is to crush the labor force participation rate to about 55%. Looks like the good folks at the BLS heard us: it appears that the people not in the labor force exploded by anunprecedented record 1.2 million. No, that's not a typo: 1.2 million people dropped out of the labor force in one month! So as the labor force increased from 153.9 million to 154.4 million, the non institutional population increased by 242.3 million meaning, those not in the labor force surged from 86.7 million to 87.9 million. Which means that the civilian labor force tumbled to a fresh 30 year low of 63.7% as the BLS is seriously planning on eliminating nearly half of the available labor pool from the unemployment calculation. As for the quality of jobs, as withholding taxes roll over Year over year, it can only mean that the US is replacing high paying FIRE jobs with low paying construction and manufacturing. So much for the improvement.

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He has some charts at the link above that dramatically show how the books were cooked. It appears the administration is trying to change the employment numbers by committing fraud.

US believes Iran aiding al Qaeda

2012-02-03T10:09:00.003-06:00

Wall Street Journal/Fox News:

U.S. officials say they believe Iran recently gave new freedoms to as many as five top Al Qaeda operatives who have been under house arrest, including the option to leave the country, and may have provided some material aid to the terrorist group.

The men, who were detained in Iran in 2003, make up Al Qaeda's so-called management council, a group that includes members of the inner circle that advised Usama bin Laden and an explosives expert widely considered a candidate for a top post in the organization.

The assertions are likely to amplify tensions between Washington and Tehran. A U.S. Senate committee on Thursday moved to intensify sanctions to force Iran into negotiations on its nuclear program, while Tehran has largely defied pressure. This week, Iran prevented UN nuclear inspectors from gaining access to sites and scientists, according to diplomats.

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Under the Bush doctrine this information if true would justify an attack on Iran. I suspect Iran is doing this because in watching Obama they believe we are in retreat in the region and will not do anything. I hope Iran is mistaken in this analysis.

Democrats' ridiculous harassment of the Kochs

2012-02-03T09:47:00.000-06:00

Rep Mike Pompeo:

President Barack Obama and his allies, including those in Congress, have shown what a nasty, personal and abusive reelection campaign we are about to experience. A recent sideshow in my committee in Congress provides yet another clear and shocking example.

Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) recently wrote a letter demanding a live witness and testimony from “a representative of Koch Industries” at a hearing on the Keystone XL pipeline, scheduled just two days later. The request’s frivolous nature is proven by that unreasonable deadline. But the partisan tactics go far beyond that.

Even if Koch Industries had a financial interest in the Keystone XL pipeline, what possibly could be wrong with that? Perhaps more important, under what circumstances would such an interest be worthy of a congressional inquisition?

Charles Koch and David Koch, co-owners of Koch Industries, are U.S. citizens, taxpayers, entrepreneurs and employers. Their businesses employ nearly 50,000 people in the U.S. alone. The company headquarters is in the district I represent, employing 2,600 Kansans. The corporation and its employees are among the most hardworking and generous in our community. The company has never been bailed out by the U.S. taxpayers. Given that many Americans are now desperate for jobs, we should be begging entrepreneurs to look for new opportunities — not attacking them because their companies might make a profit.

The facts are clear: Koch Industries does not have a financial stake in the pipeline. Why, therefore, should its officials become part of the all-too-familiar congressional committee circus? The facts are a matter of public record. Koch Industries has repeatedly stated that it does not have a financial stake in the pipeline: It does not own the pipeline, has no role in the pipeline’s design, is not one of the shippers who have signed contracts to use the pipeline and will not build the pipeline.

Democrats dug deep for some excuse to attempt to haul Koch officials in for a public flogging. What did they find? A 2009 attempt by a Koch subsidiary to obtain “intervenor” status in a Canadian legal proceeding, to track the approval process for the pipeline. Wishing to know the fate of the pipeline and having an interest in whether or not the pipeline is built — as thousands of frustrated U.S. workers and consumers do — obviously do not amount to a financial interest in the pipeline’s construction.

Indeed, the Sierra Club of Canada applied to “intervene” in the same proceeding. No one has alleged that Congress should investigate the Sierra Club’s interest in the pipeline project. So the “intervenor” ploy is a patent sham — and provides no basis for harassing Koch Industries.

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Democrats try to demonize the Koch brothers because of their conservative leanings and support for some conservative groups. There is nothing wrong with supporting conservatives. What they are attempting in this particular matter is a distraction because their side of the issue is so unpopular.

The strategic importance of toppling Syria's regime

2012-02-03T09:30:00.002-06:00

Charles Krauthammer:

Imperial regimes can crack when they are driven out of their major foreign outposts. The fall of the Berlin Wall did not just signal the liberation of Eastern Europe from Moscow. It prefigured the collapse of the Soviet Union itself just two years later.
The fall of Bashar Assad’s Syria could be similarly ominous for Iran. The alliance with Syria is the centerpiece of Iran’s expanding sphere of influence, a mini-Comintern that includes such clients as Iranian armed and directed Hezbollah, now the dominant power in Lebanon; and Hamas, which controls Gaza and threatens to take the rest of Palestine (the West Bank) from a feeble Fatah.
Additionally, Iran exerts growing pressure on Afghanistan to the east and growing influence in Iraq to the west. Tehran has even extended its horizon to Latin America, as symbolized by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s solidarity tour through Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Cuba.
Of all these clients, Syria is the most important. It’s the only Arab state openly allied with non-Arab Iran. This is significant because the Arabs see the Persians as having had centuries-old designs to dominate the Middle East.
Indeed, Iranian arms and trainers, transshipped to Hezbollah through Syria, have given the Persians their first outpost on the Mediterranean in 2,300 years.
But the Arab-Iranian divide is not just national/ethnic. It is sectarian. The Arabs are overwhelmingly Sunni. Iran is Shiite. The Arab states fear Shiite Iran infiltrating the Sunni homeland through (apart from Iraq) Hezbollah in Lebanon, and through Syria, run by Assad’s Alawites, a heterodox offshoot of Shiism.
Which is why the fate of the Assad regime is geopolitically crucial. It is, of course, highly significant for reasons of democracy and human rights as well. Syrian Baathism, while not as capricious and deranged as the Saddam Hussein variant, runs a ruthless police state that once killed 20,000 in Hama, and has now killed more than 5,400 during the current uprising.
Human rights — decency — is reason enough to do everything we can to bring down Assad. But strategic opportunity compounds the urgency. With its archipelago of clients anchored by Syria, Iran is today the greatest regional threat — to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states terrified of Iranian nuclear hegemony; to traditional regimes menaced by Iranian jihadist subversion; to Israel, which the Islamic republic has pledged to annihilate; to America and the West, whom the mullahs have vowed to drive from the region.
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It would be a devastating blow to Iran that could topple that odious regime. It would help stabilize the region and deny the terrorist a lifeline. I see little downside to removing Assad.

Romney's communication problem

2012-02-03T09:21:00.001-06:00

Jonah Goldberg:

Years ago, a friend told me a story from her days living in South America. The movie Wayne’s World had come out, and she went to see it. She spoke English, but it was interesting to read the Spanish subtitles.
For instance, early in the film, Wayne says: “Shyeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt!”
The Spanish subtitles read: “Yes, when judgment day comes.”
Needless to say, something was lost in translation.
This, in a nutshell, is Mitt Romney’s biggest problem. A late immigrant to conservatism, Romney doesn’t speak the language naturally. He shares traits with both Al Gore, whose stiffness bordered on the animatronic, and George H. W. Bush, whose contempt for the song-and-dance of elections was transparent. Gore tried to compensate for his inadequacies by shouting, like an ugly American who thinks a foreigner will understand him if he only talks louder. Bush fell back on recitations of patriotic slogans and the generosity of providence that delivered Michael Dukakis as an opponent.

Romney hasn’t cracked the problem yet. He speaks conservatism as a second language, and his mastery of the basic grammar of politics is often spotty as well.

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Many conservatives argue that Romney’s stiffness is a superficial objection, and that he’s a solid conservative who can appeal to moderates and independents. Other conservatives think Romney’s lack of fluency is a real problem, not because it proves he’s faking his conservatism but because it would put him at a severe disadvantage in the general election in the same way authentic but stiff liberals such as Gore and John Kerry suffered from their inability to comfortably interface with carbon-based life.

And others simply think Romney’s a big faker.

It’s this last group of anti-Romney holdouts I’d like to address. First, let me say: I feel your pain. The Tea Party arose in no small part out of a delayed allergic reaction to the rhetorical and, to a lesser extent, policy problems of George W. Bush’s presidency and the deep resentment that came with having to vote for John McCain in 2008. These disappointments were visited upon the conservative base by something the naysayers (often problematically) call “the Republican establishment.”

After what seems like an eternity under Obama, and with the raised expectations from the Tea Party’s earlier successes, conservatives are extremely reluctant to settle or compromise simply on the say-so of the establishment. For good reasons and bad, Romney seems like a compromise. And no matter how begrudgingly a conservative comes to accept the reality of Romney’s nomination, the diehards immediately proclaim any support for Romney to be proof of membership in the establishment. In fact, it seems like the best definition of a Republican-establishment member these days is simply someone who has made peace with his disappointment prematurely.

Let me try to offer some solace. Even if Romney is a Potemkin conservative (a claim I think has merit but is also exaggerated), there is an instrumental case to be made for him: It is better to have a president who owes you than to have one who claims to own you....

I strongly agree with this point. I think Romney will have a harder time compromising on his conservative commitments than Newt. Whether either is electable is still an open question, but their best hope is that Obama is not electable in 2012.

The problems with Obama

2012-02-03T09:08:00.001-06:00

Quin Hillyer:

.... In short, we're in a big heap of trouble.

The recent litany of Obama's odiousness begins with his growing, unambiguous war against traditional Christianity. He has now left no room for any pretense otherwise to be believed. Right on the heels of a unanimous Supreme Court, including his own two appointees, smacking down his administration's attempt to kill the "ministerial exemption" for employment practices of faith-based institutions, an unchastened Obama has decided that even faith-based organizations must provide insurance that covers contraception -- even including abortifacients.

This is not just a narrow policy disagreement; it is, as Bishop David A. Zubik of Pittsburgh wrote, the president's way of saying "To Hell With You" to people of faith -- "To hell with your religious beliefs. To hell with your religious liberty. To hell with your freedom of conscience." Zubik continued: "This is government by fiat that attacks the rights of everyone -- not only Catholics; not only people of all religion. At no other time in memory or history has there been such a governmental intrusion on freedom not only with regard to religion, but even across-the-board with all citizens."

Obama's broadsides, plural, against religious liberty are only a part of his radical transgressions against the U.S. Constitution. Conservatives are rightly up in arms about Obama's illegal recess appointments. Obamacare, of course, contains several anti-Constitutional abominations, including the "individual mandate" and the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Meanwhile, his administration is flagrantly violating precedent by trying to force explicit hiring quotas on the Fire Department of New York, in a case in which a key amicus brief was filed on January 24 at the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

And so on.

Abroad, this man leading the Occupy the Oval Office movement is even worse. He threw away a clear victory in Iraq and may be doing the same in Afghanistan. His fecklessness regarding Iran, perfectly in line with his long record of favoring Shia interests, is now leading to a crisis of the first order. His strange mishandling of the Egyptian revolution has left the United States with very little leverage in a country that for more than three decades was a major American ally, and has left Coptic Christians scared to death. He long ago insulted allies such as Israel and Great Britain, repeatedly and with malice aforethought. He seems to have no real relationship of any positive nature with any allied foreign leader, perhaps with the exception of those in Brazil, whose oil exploration he subsidizes while blocking tens of thousands of jobs that would come from domestic energy production he has snuffed out. And he seems hell-bent on a mission to starve the American armed forces to dangerous thinness.

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There is more.

Hillyer gives a brief summary of most of the things wrong with Obama policies. His ignorance of warfare, tactics and strategy is dangerous to national security and will make things worse for our allies too. His ignorance of economics and history is harming us at home. He must be defeated before he does permanent damage.

Obama's big lie

2012-02-03T08:43:00.001-06:00

Glenn Kessler:

Obama’s claim that some wanted to let the auto industry die

The White House could produce no direct quote. Mostly what they came up with were quotes where some proposed having the companies go through a traditional bankruptcy where they could have shed some of their terrible labor agreements. Instead Obama had the government manage the bankruptcy and manged to screw the bondholders and other investors instead. As a result the companies came out of the bankruptcy in a still noncompetitive fashion. They were further burdened with Obama's myopic version of the auto market and producing many cars people do not want.

Afghan war different from Iraq

2012-02-03T08:27:00.003-06:00

Washington Post:

The narrative that the Obama administration has laid out for winding down the war in Afghanistan has a familiar feel: It is intended to evoke the gradual withdrawal from Iraq.
But the administration faces a fundamentally different challenge in Afghanistan and a host of problems that it did not have in the latter days of the Iraq war.

In Afghanistan, heavy fighting is likely to persist well into 2014, particularly in the provinces along Pakistan’s border, senior military officials said. In contrast with Iraq, the Afghan government and security forces will require billions of dollars annually in U.S. support for the foreseeable future. It seems unlikely that the insurgents’ haven in Pakistan will shrink.

“In Afghanistan, you will be fighting a much tougher war over the next few years compared with Iraq post-2008,” said retired Lt. Gen. David Barno, who previously served as the top U.S. commander in Kabul.

Obama administration officials made the comparison to Iraq on Thursday as they scrambled to clarify Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta’s remarks that the United States hoped to end its combat mission in Afghanistan by the middle of next year, more than a year earlier than scheduled, and shift to advising Afghan forces.

“Iraq is a helpful reference point in this,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney. Just as in Iraq, he said, American advisers would remain in the country and would “continue to participate in combat missions.”

But by mid-2010, when the Obama administration declared an end to the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, American forces had already pulled out of the country’s major cities, where the war’s fiercest and bloodiest battles took place. The 49,000 U.S. advisory troops that remained took casualties, but the vast majority of the fighting was carried out by Iraqi forces.

In Afghanistan, Taliban forces still control swaths of territory in the mountainous eastern regions along the border, where they continue to kill Afghan government forces and intimidate villagers.

“Are we ready to take over? In some places, we are,” said one Afghan commander, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “But in others, we aren’t now, and we won’t be in a year.”

The Afghan commander’s concerns were echoed by senior U.S. military officials in Kabul who insisted that Panetta’s remarks did not signal a change in U.S. policy or even a planned diminution in combat operations for U.S. forces.

In many ways, the dust-up caused by Panetta’s remarks reflects a political divide within the Obama administration over how quickly the United States can and should turn over responsibility for security to an Afghan government that remains weak.

Senior military officials cautioned that the U.S. forces would still be in the lead in battles abutting havens in Pakistan, where commanders believe insurgents still receive assistance from that country’s intelligence service.

“We’re still going to be fighting,” said a senior military official in Kabul. “As time passes, we’ll become more distant to the [Afghan forces] as they become more self-sufficient and capable across 2014-2015.” The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to appear as though he was contradicting his civilian leadership.

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I think this is an unwise move. It is in effect a retreat and not a redeployment because the Taliban do not think they have been defeated. You win wars when the other side things their cause is hopeless. The Taliban think they are winning and will win when we leave. Obama will have his Vietnam solution with this move.

Dems trying to hide taxes, fees on airline tickets

2012-02-03T08:07:00.000-06:00

Daniel Horowitz:

When purchasing a product or service, we all like to see the itemized list of charges – one that separates the cost of the purchase from the share going to Uncle Sam through the form of taxes and fees. Needless to say, government bureaucrats don’t like that. They desire that we remain blissfully ignorant of government’s burden on our everyday lives. This is one reason why they concocted the withholdings scheme for income tax collection. Now, they are expanding their tentacles into commercial taxes so they can obfuscate the magnitude of taxes and fees on airfare purchases.
Without much fanfare, the Department of Transportation (DOT) enacted a rule which requires airlines to ensconce all government taxes and fees in a single total advertised price with the fare. For example, if you purchase a $350 plane ticket with $50 of taxes and fees, the DOT is demanding that the airline advertise the price as $400. Airline passengers pay over a dozen taxes and fees on any given airplane ticket, but the government doesn’t want us to know that. The rule was finalized last April, but only took effect last week.
The timing of this rule is very fortuitous. This week, Congress will finalize negotiations for a long-term FAA funding bill. This bill authorizes the collection of all taxes – including taxes on aviation fuel, domestic and international ticket taxes, and cargo –directed to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which provides the bulk of FAA funding. As usual, Democrats want to spend more money on wasteful projects, and are all too hungry to increase aviation taxes. What better way to leverage tax increases than by forcing airlines to hide their cost and to shoulder the blame for the perceived higher price tag at the top!
This is yet another insidious plan to raise taxes and place unconstitutional mandates on private enterprise – all by administrative fiat. It must be stopped in its tracks. Today, conservative Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA) is introducing a bill, the Travel Transparency Act, which will void the DOT rule, and demand that passengers have the right to view all the aviation taxes in separate line items for each ticket purchased. Graves asserted that “the federal government should not be inserting itself in the private sector to limit consumers’ ability to see how much they’re getting taxed. If the American people can’t see these costs clearly, I fear it will be easier these fees and taxes to be raised without their knowledge.”

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Transparency is not on the agenda when Democrats want to raise taxes. That is especially true when they want to get credit for spending those taxes and fees. We need to support the Travel Transparency Act.

Romney wrong on minimum wage

2012-02-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

Diana Furchtgott-Roth:

With sky-high unemployment rates for teens (23 percent) and unskilled workers (14 percent), why does Gov. Mitt Romney support raising the minimum wage with the inflation rate? New jobs numbers come out Friday, and we can be sure that these two groups will still remain behind.
Between 2007 and 2009, the federal hourly minimum wage rose to $7.25 in three steps from the $5.15 rate that had prevailed for a decade. If the rate is indexed for inflation, it will rise every year.
Romney and others assume that if the minimum wage were gradually raised through indexing or other means, all workers would retain their jobs. But this is not the case.
It sounds compassionate to alleviate poverty by mandating that employers raise wages, but employers often replace low-skill workers with machines. Think self-checkout machines in supermarkets, or computerized call centers.
Or, do a thought experiment: Would you have your job if the minimum wage were $75 an hour? Probably not.
At its current level, the minimum wage disproportionately affects teens and low-skill workers, many of whom qualify only for entry-level slots.
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Since the Democrats last raised the minimum wage unemployment has shot up especially among black teens. Allowing this to continue is not compassionate or conservative. We should be looking for ways to replace the minimum wage and let the marketplace set the wage scale.

Obama's 'energy policy'

2012-02-03T07:51:00.002-06:00

Houston Chronicle:

Shell losing $1 billion a year on U.S. Gulf drilling delays

Thanks Obama and Salazar.

Tantrum upon tantrum in Egypt

2012-02-02T21:05:00.004-06:00

Washington Post:

Angered by deadly soccer riot, thousands protest in Egypt

Egyptians sure have a hard time keeping their composure. First the riot over a game of metric football and then they riot over the outcome of the first riot. They need to get a grip on their emotions. Come on people it was just a game. You are supposed to orderly leave the stadium afterwards and not get into a murderous fight. Those who participated in the melee should take responsible for what happened and not start a new fight with the authorities.

Some Egyptians are showing strains of emotional immaturity.

More states move into GOP camp

2012-02-02T20:36:00.000-06:00

Gallup:

Democrats have lost their solid political party affiliation advantage in 18 states since 2008, while Republicans have gained a solid advantage in 6 states. A total of 17 states were either solidly Republican or leaning Republican in their residents' party affiliation in 2011, up from 10 in 2010 and 5 in 2008. Meanwhile, 19 states including the District of Columbia showed a solid or leaning Democratic orientation, down from 23 in 2010 and 36 in 2008. The remaining 15 states were relatively balanced politically, with neither party having a clear advantage.

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Surprisingly California is no longer as solid Democrat state. The states that fall into that category are relatively small with few electoral votes. Texas continues to be a solid red state. The polling suggest a tough year for Democrats.

Obama's one term proposition

2012-02-02T20:26:00.000-06:00

The RNC reinforces its message with Democrat descriptions of the economy.

What Democrats have done to Social Security

2012-02-02T20:08:00.001-06:00

IBD:

Social Security Trust Fund Outlook Takes $1 Tril Dive

Cutting the payroll tax has been and additional disaster for an already over stressed Social Security trust fund.

Struggling Times

2012-02-02T19:56:00.000-06:00

Daily Mail:

New York Times loses $40million in 2011

They have yet to find the formula to attract ad sales in the internet age. They still have some good writers, but most of them are not on their editorial board. In fact, their editorial board seems out of touch with reality in this century.

Going Rogaine

2012-02-02T19:47:00.003-06:00

Daily Mail:

Bald suspect wanted for stealing Rogaine hair regrowth products from NY pharmacy

He was desperately short of hair.

Why Trump endorsed Romney

2012-02-02T19:13:00.001-06:00

It has been widely reported that Donald Trump was endorsing Mitt Romney. There has been speculation about the reason for the brief announcement. Trump wants to be on the side of the winner. That can be helpful to some of his operations. Announcing the support before Mitt wraps things up gives him more credibility.

Panetta reveals Israel Iran strike time frame

2012-02-02T19:00:00.002-06:00

David Ignatius:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has a lot on his mind these days, from cutting the defense budget to managing the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But his biggest worry is the growing possibility that Israel will attack Iran over the next few months.

Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June — before Iran enters what Israelis described as a “zone of immunity” to commence building a nuclear bomb. Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have stored enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon — and only the United States could then stop them militarily.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t want to leave the fate of Israel dependent on American action, which would be triggered by intelligence that Iran is building a bomb, which it hasn’t done yet.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak may have signaled the prospect of an Israeli attack soon when he asked last month to postpone a planned U.S.-Israel military exercise that would culminate in a live-fire phase in May. Barak apologized that Israel couldn’t devote the resources to the annual exercise this spring.

President Obama and Panetta are said to have cautioned the Israelis that the United States opposes an attack, believing that it would derail an increasingly successful international economic sanctions program and other non-military efforts to stop Iran from crossing the threshold. But the White House hasn’t yet decided precisely how the United States would respond if the Israelis do attack.

The Obama administration is conducting intense discussions about what an Israeli attack would mean for the United States: whether Iran would target U.S. ships in the region or try to close the Strait of Hormuz; and what effect the conflict and a likely spike in oil prices would have on the fragile global economy.

The administration appears to favor staying out of the conflict unless Iran hits U.S. assets, which would trigger a strong U.S. response.

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It is not clear whether Panetta is making this revelation to try to stay the operational time table or to put added pressure on Iran. In both instances it is probably a mistake. Iran is not going to change its course no matter what and it now has a time frame to increase it defenses.

For Israel the time frame is really dictated by how quickly Iran puts its nuclear facilities into bunkers that they cannot reach with conventional weapons. That is where the time frame is dictating a strike. I don't think they can be deterred at this point. They view Iran as an existential threat and the nuclear weapons as Iran's vehicle.

Israel has confirmed that it may be too late to attack with effect.

Philippines kills three al Qaeda leaders

2012-02-02T10:13:00.000-06:00

BBC:

The Philippine military says it has killed three senior militants from al-Qaeda-linked groups in a raid in the south of the country.
The air raid took place on Thursday in an area known as a militant stronghold.
Officials said two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders and one Abu Sayyaf leader were among a total of 15 people killed.
Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, or Marwan, who was on the US FBI's most wanted list with a $5m (£3.2m) reward offered for his capture, was reported killed.
According to the military, the militants were killed in the town of Parang on Jolo island, Sulu province, in the Mindanao region.
Regional military commander Maj Gen Noel Coballes told Agence France Presse news agency that troops on the ground had confirmed the deaths.

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There is more.

One of those killed was involved in the Bali bombing. Al Qaeda affiliates contue to suffer attriction in their leadership ranks. This is a good move by the Philippines.

Obama pushes cars people do not want

2012-02-02T09:07:00.000-06:00

Marita Noon:

Mr. President, you are building the wrong car.

In a May 2007 speech before the Detroit Economic Club, Candidate Obama chastised American automakers for building the wrong cars—while they were building “bigger, faster cars,” “foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology.” He stated that “it’s not enough to only build cars that use less oil—we also have to move away from that dirty dwindling fuel altogether.” He noted that “the transformation of the cars we drive and the fuels we use would be the most ambitious energy project in decades.” He promised “generous tax incentives” and “more tax credits” to make this happen. He believed that the additional costs are “the price we pay as citizens committed to a cause bigger than ourselves.” He claimed to be a leader who could make this happen as he intoned, “Believe me, we can do it if we really try.”

While that speech did not mention the Chevy Volt, or even electric cars, it surely laid out his ideology. For the most part, these are campaign promises he has kept. He has driven Detroit to “move away from that dirty fuel altogether.” He has offered “generous tax incentives” and “more tax credits.” To see “the most ambitious energy project in decades” become a reality his administration has handed out loans to virtually every strata in the electric car’s foundation.
He’s bailed out GM—which allowed government manipulation of the market to produce the Volt in the first place.

He’s given billions of taxpayer dollars to “green” energy companies who promised to deliver the electricity—Solyndra is just the one of the myriad of failures in his “ambitious energy project.”
Beacon Power Company received $39 million of its government-guaranteed loan before it filed for bankruptcy. Beacon Power developed new technology that supposedly provides energy storage designed to help the intermittent solar and wind power be used by power grids, which need stable power to remain reliable.

Just this week, another Obama backed company filed for bankruptcy. EnerDel made lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. It received more than $100 million in government funding from the Obama administration, as part of the economic stimulus package and green energy push. One year before EnerDel filed for bankruptcy, Vice President Biden visited the plant and crowed: “A year and a half ago, this administration made a judgment. We decided it’s not sufficient to create new jobs—we have to create whole new industries.” The reason for EnerDel’s demise? “The company suffered when demand for the batteries dropped as fewer Americans than expected opted for electric cars.”
Yes, the Obama administration has worked hard to line up the dominos to insure a “transformation of the cars we drive and the fuels we use.” They have provided “generous tax incentives” and “more tax credits.” But to what end?

The dominos have fallen, one right after the other—all the way up to the Chevy Volt and beyond.
Last week GM launched “national and television print ads” to try to bolster the slumping sales for the Volt. (Every time you see an ad for an electric car, think of President Obama and your tax dollars.) Dealer orders are down. They report: “We just haven’t been seeing the interest. The cost definitely has something to do with it.” GM is considering slowing production due to the less-than-expected demand and has temporarily laid-off 1,200 workers.

In 2011, instead of the forecasted 10,000, 7,671 Volts were sold—which comes out tothree-hundredths of 1 percent of US carmakers unit sales. Analysts say there has been a “slow initial uptake of the first models to come on the market.” Many of the Volts that were sold were to government. New York City bought 50. The city of DeLand, FL used part of a $1.2 million federal grant to buy five. Perhaps in effort to save his “ambitious energy project,” President Obama has committed the fed to buying 100+. He’s even pushed his Jobs Council leader, Jeffery Immelt, to buy them. GE will purchase 3000through the year 2015.

Of course GE is one of the leading suppliers of the charging stations needed to power the Volt—much like those removed by Costco, due to lack of use. After investing a lot of time and money on recharging stations, GE has to do what they can to not let the market slip further away.

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There is much more.

Noon points out that it takes over nine years to break even on the Leaf, assuming you drive it 60 miles a day during the four hours it is not recharging.

Noon also points out that compressed natural gas is being marketed for big rigs and Honda Civics that have been designed to run on the fuel. These vehicles will supply much cheaper transportation than any electric vehicle.

US needs Canadian oil

2012-02-02T08:45:00.000-06:00

News Tribune:

Here’s an unfortunate but inescapable reality: The world will burn petroleum for decades to come.
Modern industrial economies – in other words, the hopes and livelihoods of billions of people – are sustained by oil. Greener energy alternatives aren’t remotely close to supplanting it.
Until affordable renewables can be ramped up enough to replace petroleum, squeezing off the supply of crude would wreak economic distress of global proportions. By comparison, today’s hard times would look like the good old days.
So the oil will keep flowing; governments do not deliberately create economic depressions. That’s why President Obama’s recent decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas was indefensible pandering – shameless appeasement of overwrought opponents who talk as if the project would seal the doom of planet Earth.
What’s been accomplished? Without skipping a beat, the Canadian government has turned to China as a potentially better customer for Alberta’s tar sands oil.
The China option would reroute that oil through British Columbia and onto tankers plying potentially treacherous Northwestern coastal waters.
Canadian officials seem to be taking Obama’s decision as a wake-up call – a warning that Canada can no longer take the United States for granted as a reliable market for its gas and oil.
There are all kinds of reasons Americans shouldn’t want Canadian oil going to China. Environmental reasons, for starters. Despite all the scaremongering, pipelines are the safest way to transport oil – much safer than the tankers that would carry Alberta’s oil across the Pacific Ocean. (A pipeline would still carry the China-bound petroleum, but to British Columbia, not Texas).

...

The oil is still going to be used and the opponents have accomplished nothing but to make matters worse for the US and the environment. It is a wholly irrational decision to pander to the anti energy left. Someone needs to tape their light switches intothe off position and take away their automobile keys.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/31/2005923/us-cant-afford-to-forfeit-canadian.html#storylink=cpy

Why Obama should be worried

2012-02-02T08:37:00.001-06:00

Politico:

To hear Democrats (and much of the media) tell it, President Barack Obama is a man on the rebound. The president turned in a strong State of the Union speech, picked a smart political fight over taxing the rich and authorized another heroic Navy SEAL mission in terrorist territory. Sounds like a recipe for reelection, they say.

There is a big problem with this Pollyanna punditry: There are a bunch of real-time numbers coming in that tell a much different tale.

In short, there’s a new Congressional Budget Office report that shows unemployment likely to climb to nearly 9 percent by the election, there’s polling data showing Obama tied or trailing Mitt Romney in the most important swing states (and doing only marginally better against Ron Paul), and there is mounting evidence that the assumption of a decisive Obama fundraising advantage for the fall might be flat wrong. All of this is happening while Republicans are at their worst, withMitt Romney and Newt Gingrich spending millions of dollars and using all of their air time explaining why the other is untrustworthy, deeply flawed and eminently beatable by Obama.

Let’s look at each:

A new CBO report grabbed lots of headlines for projecting the deficit will top $1 trillion this year — making Obama the first president ever to pile up $1 trillion or more every year in office. That’s not great politics. But it’s not even the worst news contained in the CBO report. The unemployment number is.

The CBO projects unemployment will rise, hitting 8.8 percent in the third quarter of the year, the heart of the campaign. That’s terrible politics. Obama advisers have told us repeatedly on background that if unemployment is above 8.5 percent in the final months of the campaign, it will be extremely hard, if not impossible, to win. The advisers say independents will not return to Obama if it looks like economic growth is anemic and uncertain and it looks like his policies did little, if anything, to create new jobs under his watch.

...

There is much more.

Obama is losing to Romney in the swing states and the latest Gallup data shows him above 50 percent in only 10 states. I don't think his politics of envy is selling either. Even if he got his tax increases on the rich they would not pay for his new spending projects, much less reduce the deficit. To do that he is going to have to address entitlements, which he refuses to do. In the meantime he is retreating from Afghanistan and weakening the military to continue to try to pay for unsustainable entitlement programs. I think people will catch on.

Foolish Medivac procedures cost lives

2012-02-02T08:24:00.000-06:00

Arthur Herman:

On Sept. 18, Army Spec. Chazray Clark stepped on an IED in Kandahar province, instantly losing an arm and both legs. But the 24-year-old Michigan native was still able to say, “I’m OK,” when his sergeant frantically called out his name. The patrol’s commander immediately radioed for an Army Medevac helicopter, or Dustoff.

Clark’s comrade applied turniquets and carried him back to the landing zone for pickup. There they waited — and waited.

The Dustoff they needed was only two or three minutes away at a forward operating base. It couldn’t take off because, under Army rules, the rescue helicopters with their clearly marked red crosses need an armed-helicopter escort to enter a hot combat zone — and none were available.

An armed Air Force Medevac helowasavailable at Kandahar Air Base. It could have been dispatched to pick up Clark, who was still talking and fully conscious. The Army said no; rules are rules.

Finally, a Dustoff crew did fly off from Kandahar without escort. But by now what should have been a 13-minute rescue operation had dragged on more than an hour. Clark was dead when he reached Kandahar.

Now some in Congress, in particular Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), are asking why Clark had to die — and why the US Army insists on conducting its medical evacuations as if our troops were in the Argonne Forest or at Normandy, instead of fighting a ruthless enemy who respects no civilized rules of engagement, even as we foolishly cling to ours.

In the old days, medics of every country went on the battlefield unarmed — the Geneva Conventions even required it. The red cross markings made it clear that their mission was saving lives, often on both sides — so they weren’t legitimate targets.

Even the Nazis in World War II respected that rule. When the Japanese didn’t, American medics learned to carry a sidearm or even a rifle, knowing they were sitting ducks otherwise. Geneva rules don’t apply when the enemy refuses to honor them.

Today, a Taliban that hides behind civilians, gang-rapes women and shoots children has no scruples about killing an American medic or downing a Medevac chopper. The Army has updated the rules in Afghanistan to the extent of sending along an escorting Apache attack ’copter when unarmed Dustoffs must pick up wounded in dangerous areas — even though that means one less Apache to fight the bad guys elsewhere.

But it still insists on painting its Dustoffs with big red crosses, even though that sends the clear message to Taliban killers thatwe can’t shoot back. It never sends them in alone unless higher-ups deem the area safe — a bureaucratic decision that probably cost Spec. Clark his life.

Interestingly, Marine Medevac choppers are armed and unmarked, as are the Air Force’s. But the Army insists that arming its Dustoffs would only add to their weight, leaving less space for medical supplies and evacuees. The fact that the Marines and the Air Force (and even the British) seem to consider such restrictions suicidal doesn’t faze the Army.

...

The Army rules are double dog dumb. As Herman points out the Geneva rules do not apply when the enemy refuses to honor them. They are in fact a contract which is voided when the other side does live up to its obligations. That is basic contract law, but for some reason some in the US do not seem to comprehend and feel bound what is in effect a unilateral contract which not enforceable.

Obama misleads on offshore drilling opportunities

2012-02-02T08:13:00.001-06:00

Randall Luthi:

President Obama’s ambiguous call to “open” 75 percent of the country’s potential offshore oil and natural gas resources to exploration may sound generous, but the truth is, the areas containing those resources are technically already included in the upcoming 2012 to 2017 offshore leasing plan, and they are virtually the same areas where exploration and production have been allowed for decades.
Look beyond the president’s rhetoric to his record and it becomes clear that jobs and energy security are not high priorities for this administration. The shortsighted decision to deny the Keystone XL pipeline and the unnecessarily long moratorium on drilling in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico are but two examples.
...
Around the same time as the Iranian announcement, the American Petroleum Institute unveiled a Quest Offshore Resources study showing that the deep-water drilling moratorium and subsequent permit slowdown forced 11 deep-water rigs to leave the Gulf of Mexico since 2010, taking their jobs and investments to the shores of Brazil, Africa and elsewhere. Those moves translated to a loss of $21.4 billion for our economy and an estimated 72,000 jobs in 2010 and 90,000 jobs in 2011, according to the study. We must do better.
An earlier Quest study rolled out by the National Ocean Industries Association showed that if permitting rates surpassed pre-2010 levels, 190,000 offshore industry-supported jobs could be created nationwide within the next two years without a single dime of government stimulus....
...
Despite the vital revenue generated, jobs created, wages paid and increased energy security, less than 3 percent of the federal outer continental shelf is leased, leaving more than 97 percent of these resource-rich areas devoid of any permits....

Why not open up the other 97 percent of the outer continental shelf? It would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and bring in billions in revenue to the US treasury in the form of royalties. It would help lower the deficit and balance the budget while creating lower unemployment. Only the anti energy left have a problem with that.

Losing to the Taliban

2012-02-01T21:01:00.001-06:00

NY Times:

Taliban Captives Dispute U.S. View on Afghanistan War

A NATO report based on interrogations portrays an insurgency convinced it is winning even as the United States and its allies enter what they hope will be the Afghan war’s final phase.

You win wars by persuading the other side their cause is hopeless. If the Taliban think they ae winning, they are not going to quit fighting to meet Obama's time table for withdrawal. They are not going to quit fighting because our troops stop all combat operations.

What Obama is proposing is a retreat, not a end to the war which will continue until one side decides their cause is hopeless.

Why the economy is Obama's biggest problem

2012-02-01T18:59:00.002-06:00

Phil Gramm and Mike Solon:

...Never before in postwar America has either real per capita GDP or employment still been lower four years after a recession began. If in this "recovery" our economy had grown and generated jobs at the average rate achieved following the 10 previous postwar recessions, GDP per person would be $4,528 higher and 13.7 million more Americans would be working today....

Those numbers should be devastating to the Obama administration. Republican candidates should jump on these figures and make them a part of their stump speech.

Bottom story of the day

2012-02-01T18:54:00.002-06:00

Washington Times:

Obama’s campaign manager accuses Romney of pandering to tea party

Oh come on. The Tea Party is still a dynamic force in the Republican Party and one that Obama is most afraid of. A Republican would be stupid not to appeal to the Tea Party. They are what will help him defeat Obama.

Religious bigots in desperate fight to save currency

2012-02-01T18:50:00.001-06:00

Washington Post:

Iran threatens currency speculators with death as rial continues to fall

The value of the currency has fallen by about 50 percent in recent days and people are desperate to get into more stable money like dollars. The government is desperate to keep them in rials and is willing to kill to stop the movement.

The Taliban probably have other ideas

2012-02-01T18:46:00.001-06:00

Washington Post:

U.S. seeks to end Afghan combat mission in ’13

We should understand that retreat is not victory and that with our departure the Taliban will seize the opportunity to take over the country again. They might be able to achieve that in as little as six months. The existing government is too corrupt and the military is ineffective without US assistance. They are just not that good.

I think this is a move that is not based on the military reality but on Obama's preference to cut the military rather than deal with the structural problems with Social Security and Medicare. He is willing to put the national security at risk to prop up programs that are unsustainable.

Four bladed choppers with swarm capability

2012-02-01T12:58:00.001-06:00

Watch the whole thing. It is pretty interesting. I am sure some are already looking at applications for these nano warriors.

The failure of a command economy

2012-02-01T12:34:00.003-06:00

Miami Herald:

Cuba food prices up 20% in 2011

Even relaxing communism leads to problems. The whole system needs to be replaced.

Obama's corruption problem

2012-02-01T10:54:00.000-06:00

Solyndra was just one of his many "clean tech" screw ups."

Fracking is cracking peak oil myth

2012-02-01T10:22:00.001-06:00

Peter Orzag:

The U.S. oil market could be on the verge of its own fracking revolution, similar to what the natural-gas market is already experiencing. As a result, domestic production is now projected to rise significantly over the coming decades, reducing the relative share of imports in U.S. oil consumption.
Advances in horizontal drilling and hydrofracking, in which highly pressurized liquids are injected into underground rock, have been used increasingly over the past few years to extract natural gas. The result has been a substantial increase in recoverable reserves -- accompanied by a lot of controversy over fracking’s environmental effects -- and an associated decline in the cost of natural gas.
In late 2007, wellhead prices for natural gas were hovering in the range of $6 to $7 per thousand cubic feet; by late 2011, they had declined to $3 to $4, and they have fallen further since. John Deutch, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has written that, given the impact on energy markets and therefore geopolitical dynamics, “it is perhaps a permissible exaggeration to claim a natural-gas revolution.”
The same controversial technologies used to recover natural gas from deep-rock formations are now increasingly being used to extract oil. Oil is already being produced from shale at several locations throughout the U.S., most notably the Bakken shale in North Dakota.
As Jim Mulva, the chief executive officer of ConocoPhillips, recently said, “The revolution has spread to domestic oil production. And it may track the path it followed with natural gas. We just don’t know yet. But it looks promising.”
The federal Energy Information Administration certainly thinks so. An early release of its annual energy outlook projects a substantial increase in onshore production of oil from shale formations -- what experts call “tight oil.”

...

There is more.

It is already happening in the Eagle Ford formation in South Texas. If Obama and Salazar would get out of the way it could be happening in other parts of the Western US. They are also strangling production in several offshore sites as well as in Alaska where there is a nonsensical moratorium on drilling in ANWR.

Castro turns Cuba into antique car museum

2012-02-01T10:02:00.001-06:00

Michael Goodwin:

Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” During my week in Cuba, I saw firsthand the truth of her case.

Havana, a once-glorious architectural gem, is falling down — literally. Much of the central city is crumbling and building collapses are common because there is no maintenance. Many people live without running water, and roosters can be heard crowing a block from the nation’s capitol, which is shuttered for “renovations.”

The sight of American cars from before 1959 plying the streets is charming but an indication of chronic stagnation. Going to the rural areas is like boarding a time machine to the 19th century. Farmers plow by walking behind two oxen, and horses provide basic transportation. Public “buses” consist of horse-drawn wagons.

Fidel Castro’s “revolución,” now in its 54th year, as spray-painted slogans constantly remind you, is running out of other people’s money. First the Soviet Union propped up the Communist takeover, and after its collapse, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela came to Castro’s rescue.

It’s a devil’s bargain. Castro barters young Cuban professionals for oil, with Chavez delivering a reported 100,000 barrels a day. In exchange, Cuban doctors and teachers are sent to Venezuela. Chavez went to Cuba for cancer treatment last year.

Castro himself almost died in 2006, although of what remains a mystery. He still heads the Communist Party, but is rarely seen and there are rumors he suffers from dementia. His brother, Raul, runs the government, though it’s not clear he could survive Fidel’s death.

The brothers’ scramble to keep 11 million Cubans sullen but not mutinous is leading to a patchwork of liberalizations. Tourism is growing, bringing in foreign investment and the dreaded C-word — capitalism. Large collective farms are being divided, with farmers getting plots to use for 10 years and permits to sell their produce.

Some houses can be bought and sold, though the rules are subject to bureaucratic whim. Except for the prerevolution Chevies and Cadillacs, “ownership” remains an elusive concept. The state holds all power, and harassment by the police and military is a reminder that any freedom can be canceled without notice.

A member of the revolutionary generation told me he sees Cuba as “an aging police state.” He said with sadness that the grandchildren of the revolutionaries have fled to America and elsewhere.

Young people who can’t leave largely are cut off from the world. I saw only a few cellphones and not a single iPhone. The Internet is a stranger and Cuban TV is limited to four or five channels.

Still, the world is coming to Cuba. Modern Chinese buses ferry European and American visitors around the country, and whole towns reportedly house Chinese engineers. A Spanish chain has built dozens of hotels, including coastal resorts that cater to Germans, Brits and Argentinians.

...

There is much more.

The squalor of Cuba is the result of Communism and socialism. It is proof that state control of economic activity is a huge mistake. Most of the smart and ambitious Cubans fled long ago and created prosperous enclaves in Florida and other parts of the US. Some like Marco Rubio have had political success, and Ted Cruz looks like a rising star in Texas. It will probably take the demise of the Castro brothers for the rest of the Cuban population to have a chance at freedom and prosperity.

Why electric car mandates are still a mistake

2012-02-01T09:47:00.002-06:00

Kenneth Green:

Electric Cars: Doubling Down On Dumb

He discusses why the mandates are still a bad idea years after California first proposed them and they did not work earlier either.

Proposing a deal on wind energy tax credits

2012-02-01T09:33:00.000-06:00

Steve Milloy:

...There is, however, a pre-election solution to Mr. Obama’s war on fossil fuels.

Vital wind-industry tax credits expire at the end of 2012, and the industry is in a near-panic to extend them. The industry employs about 75,000 people, about half of whom will be laid off if the “production tax credit” is not extended, according to the research firm Navigant Consulting.

Lapse of the tax credit threatens two-thirds of private investment in the wind industry.

Wind is an Obama-favored industry that Republicans just happen to have by the throat. So if Mr. Obama wants wind, he needs to halt and roll back his anti-fossil-fuel jihad. That’s the deal congressional Republicans should offer.

While some may scream at the thought of Republicans agreeing to subsidize not-ready-for-prime-time technologies like wind in a time of budgetary crisis, the subsidy only amounts to about $10 billion - chump change in a $3-trillion-plus federal budget.

Assuming the war against fossil fuels stops, that $10 billion would be counterbalanced by tens of billions not lost to regulatory burdens. It also would unleash the fossil-fuel industry to do one of the things America does best - produce energy for domestic use and export. That could be worth more than $3 trillion in gross domestic product over the next 20 years, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce....

This would be a grand bargain for the energy business in the US and is consistent with Obama's stated policy of an all of the above energy policy. If nothing else it would call his bluff on the policy this election year.

Obama, Democrats' enemies list

2012-02-01T09:23:00.000-06:00

Theodore Olson:

How would you feel if aides to the president of the United States singled you out by name for attack, and if you were featured prominently in the president's re-election campaign as an enemy of the people?
What would you do if the White House engaged in derogatory speculative innuendo about the integrity of your tax returns? Suppose also that the president's surrogates and allies in the media regularly attacked you, sullied your reputation and questioned your integrity. On top of all of that, what if a leading member of the president's party in Congress demanded your appearance before a congressional committee this week so that you could be interrogated about the Keystone XL oil pipeline project in which you have repeatedly—and accurately—stated that you have no involvement?
Consider that all this is happening because you have been selected as an attractive political punching bag by the president's re-election team. This is precisely what has happened to Charles and David Koch, even though they are private citizens, and neither is a candidate for the president's or anyone else's office.
What Messrs. Koch do, in fact, is manage businesses that provide employment to more than 50,000 people in North America in legitimate, productive industries. They also give millions of dollars to medical researchers, hospitals and cultural institutions. Their biggest offense, apparently, is that they also contribute generously to nonprofit organizations that promote personal liberty and free enterprise, and some of those organizations oppose policies advocated by the president.

...

There is more.

The Koch brothers support of the free market seems to be what really upsets the control freak Democrats. They have supported groups like Americans for Prosperity who have been influential in the support of conservatives supporting free market ideals. Let me make clear that I have never received any money from the Kochs or their organization, but I support their objectives and think they are patriots who do not deserve the attacks heaped upon them by the Democrats who seem to have a problem with free speech by people who oppose them.

Good news for Republicans

2012-02-01T09:11:00.001-06:00

Washington Post:

House Democrats to Obama: ‘Let’s stay together’

It will make it easier to run against both of them.

Democrats never take responsibility for their messes

2012-02-01T09:05:00.002-06:00

NY Times:

Report by House Democrats Absolves Administration in Gun Trafficking Case

This is typical of Democrats. When have they ever said they were wrong and that they have some responsibility for things that go wrong? I can't recall such an event.

Reid continues irrational opposition to Keystone XL

2012-02-01T08:58:00.001-06:00

Houston Chronicle:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters Tuesday he would continue to oppose legislation approving the Keystone XL pipeline because some of the oil that comes throughfrom Canada from could leave the U.S.

Republicans in both chambers have mounted a campaign to get Keystone XL approved with legislation that could be wrapped into other bills. House leaders have said they could tack a Keystone XL provision onto a bill that extends the payroll tax break for the year or another bill that reauthorizes surface-transportation programs.

Reid’s support is crucial because of control he exerts over what legislation the Senate takes up, though the GOP would also have to get past President Obama’s veto pen. Reid didn’t close the door on having a Keystone XL provision that specifies the pipeline’s oil would have to stay in the United States.

“If they want to have Keystone, I’ll take a look at it if the oil is not sold to other countries,” Reid said. “But until that’s the case, I think I and most Democrats feel the same way.”

...

This rationale makes no sense. The oil will obviously be going to US refineries where it will be turned into other products such as gasoline. At that point it will be sold primarily in the US and any surplus could be sold elsewhere. What in the world is wrong with that? It is what happens with oil produced in the US too.

Who knew?

2012-02-01T08:48:00.000-06:00

Houston Chronicle:

Rick Perry's support fell off with gaffes

They made it impossible to focus on his successful record.

Obama above 50% in only 10 states

2012-01-31T20:18:00.000-06:00

Gallup:

In 10 states plus the District of Columbia, a majority of residents approved of the job Barack Obama was doing as president last year, according to aggregated data from 2011. His greatest support came from District of Columbia, Maryland, and Hawaii residents, while Utah and Idaho residents gave him his lowest levels of support -- below 30%.

This does not look like a good start for Obama. Some of the states at the bottom of the approval charts are states in the Mountain West where Obama thinks he has to win. Even California is a state where he barely makes 50 percent.

NATO says Pakistan intelligence helping Taliban

2012-01-31T19:49:00.001-06:00

BBC:

The Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services, according to a secret Nato report seen by the BBC.
The leaked report, derived from thousands of interrogations, claims the Taliban remain defiant and have wide support among the Afghan people.
It alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders.
A BBC correspondent says the report is painful reading for international forces and the Afghan government.
Pakistan has strenuously denied any links with the Taliban on previous occasions.
"We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks," said US Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby, adding that the US Defence Department had not seen the report.
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says the report - on the state of the Taliban - fully exposes for the first time the relationship between the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI) and the Taliban.
The report is based on material from 27,000 interrogations with more than 4,000 captured Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters and civilians.
It notes: "Pakistan's manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly". It says that Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders.
The report states: "As this document is derived directly from insurgents it should be considered informational and not necessarily analytical."

Despite Nato's strategy to secure the country with Afghan forces, the secret document details widespread collaboration between the insurgents and Afghan police and military.

...

It appears that Obama's draw down of troops is well before the Taliban are defeated. It is also another confirmation of the roll of Pakistan's ISI. This is not a good sign for future events in Afghanistan.

Obama's next trillion dollar deficit, and bad policies

2012-01-31T19:36:00.002-06:00

WSJ:

Tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to take effect in January 2013 would slow the economy and raise unemployment next year unless policy makers strike a deal to keep those changes from kicking in or offset their impact, the Congressional Budget Office warned.
But while such an agreement would boost the economy in the short term, it also would expand the federal budget deficit over time if not combined with other policy changes, the nonpartisan CBO said.
Policy makers will have to decide soon how to handle the near-term economic strains as well as the future problems caused by rising government debt, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf said.

"The longer that we wait as a country to make the sort of choices that we have to make, the harder it will be to make them," he said.

...

Obama would rather punish the rich than do something to help the economy. Rather than cut spending he will choose job killing policies.

Obama alienates the Catholic vote

2012-01-31T19:25:00.001-06:00

Fox News:

Holy war over health care law? Obama angers Catholic leaders

This is a group that strongly backed him in 2008.

Obama funded by the one percent

2012-01-31T19:21:00.000-06:00

Washington Times:

Sixty percent of Obama funds come from big-money bundlers

I think he is running behind his billion dollar projection.

Romney wins easily in Florida

2012-01-31T19:11:00.002-06:00

Fox has project Romney as the winner with 48 percent of the vote which is getting close to a true majority. Romney also got the late deciders. This means that even if Santorum had withdrawn it would not have made any difference.

Gingrich is going to stay in. I think it will probably take Super Tuesday to finish off the contest.

Romney did best with those looking for elect-ability. Romney also has the most cash to continue the fight.

The Washington Post says Romney gets a tea-party tilt.

Iran has been at war with the US for 30 years

2012-01-31T18:58:00.000-06:00

Michael Ledeen:

Almost everything you read about the “increasing tension” between Iran and the United States revolves around the rhetorical question, “will there be a war?” Whether it’s our own pundits or the Europeans who watch us, “war” seems closer every day. Look at the Guardian’s Simon Tisdall, for example:
This is how wars start, through a process of hostile rhetoric, mutual ignorance and chronic miscalculation. Anybody in Tehran following the impassioned US debate on Iran will be aware that an influential Washington constituency, aided and abetted by leading Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, favours military action sooner rather than later. For these American hardliners, it is no longer merely a question of destroying Iran’s suspected nuclear facilities. Regime change is the name of the game because, it is argued, that is the only way to ensure Iran never gets the bomb.
If Mr. Tisdall knew as much about American politics as he should, he wouldn’t have credited Romney and Gingrich with the notion that “regime change is the only way to ensure Iran never gets the bomb.” That actually comes from the editorialists at the Washington Post. And if he knew as much about the origins of war as he should, he’d pay more attention to the Iranians’ messianic vision of global power — the quest for power being the central element in a nation’s decision to go to war, as the great historian Donald Kagan writes in his magisterial On the Origins of War.

But no matter, Tisdall is certainly right to say that war talk is abundant nowadays, in Washington and Tehran. And it often includes Israel, as well. It’s a depressing spectacle, because the pundits have systematically blinded themselves to the real context in which current events are unfolding, and this deflects otherwise serious people from thinking about the real world, which in turn means we do not have a serious strategy.

Serious thinking, and a serious strategy, must begin with the fact that the war is on. To repeat: the war is on. It’s been on for three decades. Ayatollah Khomeini declared war on the United States in February, 1979, and the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran have been killing Americans ever since.

When they demonstrate in the streets and chant “Death to America!” what do you think they mean?

When they call us the “Great Satan,” do you think that’s the opening gambit in a negotiation to “normalize relations”? Iran and the United States had very warm relations before the 1979 Revolution, after all. The Carter administration desperately sought warm relations with Khomeini et. al.
...

There is more.

It seems every new administration must relearn this hard reality. They all think that the can "work with the Iranians." They can't. Iran is run by religious bigots who think they are on a mission from God to destroy us and our allies. I look for the moment when someone in the media asks Iranian leaders whether my statement is true.

Supply and demand lessons--too many batteries too few electric cars

2012-01-31T18:50:00.000-06:00

Daily Caller:

In the future, White House speechwriters might want to check the financial statuses of the businesses the president plans to tout as clean-energy success stories. In his 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama praised Solyndra as a “true engine of economic growth.” Not long after, the solar panel maker went belly up. In his most recent State of the Union address, the president extolled the success of subsidies for manufacturers of electric car batteries. Two days later, battery maker Ener1 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Ener1’s bankruptcy is a blow to taxpayers — the company received a grant of $118 million from the Department of Energy’s $2.4 billion stash to jump-start the electric car industry — but it isn’t a surprise. A recent Scientific American article questioned whether U.S. battery makers would survive the early months of 2012: “In the short term, the world-wide capacity for making batteries far outruns the demand for electric cars. Market analysts expect a multi-year cull starting as early as 2012.” Although automakers have committed to producing over 800,000 electric vehicles in the next few years, battery makers worldwide already have the capacity to supply twice that amount. The Scientific American article singled out Ener1 as the U.S. battery maker most likely to fail. Ener1 had trouble securing customers beyond a single contract with a small upstart automaker that filed for bankruptcy in June 2011. With $90 million in debt, $74 million in assets, withering demand and strong competition from Japan, Korea and China, Ener1 hit the skids.

...

Not many people are willing to live with the limited range of electric cars that also take too long to recharge.

We are also seeing he problem with central planning by the government which is ignoring the basic laws of supply and demand in its push for "clean tech."

Obama misleads about government role in fracking

2012-01-31T15:46:00.002-06:00

Nicholas Loris:

President Obama has been on a kick to promote natural gas production. He said in his State of the Union address, “And by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of 30 years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock—reminding us that government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground.”
There are two very big problems with this statement. First, it makes it sound as if the government invented the technology, commercialized it, and handed it over to private companies. Second, it assumes that if the government hadn’t invested in natural gas technologies, we wouldn’t be where we are today in terms of natural gas production. Both are far from the truth.
Well before the government invested in natural gas technologies, it was the private sector that established and developed hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”), a process by which producers inject a fluid, composed of 99 percent water, and sand into wells to free oil and gas trapped in rock formations. Its roots go as far back as the 1860s, and in the 1940s, Stanolind Oil and Gas Corporation began studying and testing the method, with a patent issued in 1949 and a license granted to Halliburton to frack on two commercial wells. In an overview of the history of fracking, Carl T. Montgomery and Michael B. Smith of NSI Technologies write:
In the first year, 332 wells were treated, with an average production increase of 75%. Applications of the fracturing process grew rapidly and increased the supply of oil in the United States far beyond anything anticipated. Treatments reached more than 3,000 wells a month for stretches during the mid-1950s. The first one-half million-pound fracturing job in the free world was performed in October 1968, by Pan American Petroleum Corporation (later Amoco, now BP) in Stephens County, Oklahoma.
Government involvement came years later. The Department of Energy partially funded data accumulation, microseismic mapping, the first horizontal well, and tax credits to extract unconventional gas. But in the driver’s seat was George Mitchell, who invested millions of his own money in research and development for fracking and horizontal drilling. His company’s geologist, Jim Henry, first identified Barnett shale as a possibility for more energy. Mitchell spent between $7 million and $8 million of his own money trying to successfully extract shale gas and eventually made it economically viable. He is behind the shale gas revolution, not the government.

...

I first learned about fracking in my oil and gas law school course in the early 1970s. It was not a new technology. I also learned about horizontal drilling which was not associated with fracking, but with stealing a neighbors oil. It was Mitchell's genius to combine the two for extracting larger amounts of oil and gas.

The oil and gas subsidy myth

2012-01-31T10:02:00.002-06:00

It is a good explanation of how the tax code works. It destroys the Obama demagoguery about energy firms.

Who knew?

2012-01-31T09:31:00.001-06:00

BBC:

Obama backs Pakistan drone raids

He does order the attacks after all. While I have nothing to do with them, I also back the attacks.

About those 22 million jobs?

2012-01-31T09:13:00.000-06:00

Obama seems to nave a numbers problem. The extra 19 million jobs were probably in the seven states he added to the US in the 2008 campaign.

Navy gets Raytheon to develop rail guns for ships

2012-01-31T09:08:00.001-06:00

Fox News:

A theoretical dream for decades, the futuristic railgun -- which uses magnets to shoot bullets for hundreds of miles at speeds of up to Mach 7 -- just took another step toward reality.

Military supply company Raytheon announced Monday that it had been awarded a $10 million naval contract to develop a way to supply enough juice to power the whopping gun -- which could someday reshape naval warfare.

"This new system will dramatically change how our Navy defends itself and engages enemies while at sea," said Joe Biondi, vice president of advanced technology for Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business.

Rather than relying on a explosion to fire a projectile, the railgun uses an electomagnetic current to accelerate a non-explosive bullet at several times the speed of sound. The conductive projectile zips along a set of electrically charged parallel rails and out of the barrel at speeds up to Mach 7.

But it takes a heck of a lot of electricity to achieve such a velocity.

To supply it, Raytheon’s building a “Pulse Forming Network” or PFN. That's a large power system that stores up electrical power and then converts it to a pulse that is directed into the gun's barrel, John Cochran, the railgun program manager in Raytheon's Advanced Technology Group, told CNET’s News.com.

Navy scientists with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) have been hard at work on the railgun itself for years, even as the agency admits it could take a decade or more to become practical. The ONR hit a new milestone last fall, successfully firing the railgun for the 1,000th time on Mon., Oct. 31, in Dahlgren, Va., -- edging the state-of-the-art weapon toward real-world deployment.

The next step: turning the test versions of the railgun into an actual gun. Current firings have been limited to Naval test facilities on dry land.

...

I think the China threat probably saved the rail guns. They allow the ships to defend themselves from a greater range than conventional weapons. The speed of the projectile is another advantage.

Global warming's frost bite

2012-01-31T08:36:00.001-06:00

IBD:

Global warming alarmists won't give up their campaign to spread fear and backward thinking until an ice bridge stretches from New York to Paris. Science, though, says they should.
Al Gore, who invented global warming hysteria, has most recently been found planning a trip to Antarctica where he will surely find evidence that man is overheating the planet.
This clearly insecure man who so desperately needs an audience that approves of his world-saving efforts says he will be taking with him "a large number of civic and business leaders, activists and concerned citizens from many countries."
He expects them "to see firsthand and in real time how the climate crisis is unfolding in Antarctica."
For Gore's reading material on this trip, we suggest he look at some data released by Great Britain's Met Office. He would find himself meeting head-on a terribly inconvenient truth.
According to the data, there's been no warming for more than a decade. The global temperature that Gore and the rest of the alarmist tribe are so concerned about was about one full degree cooler (as measured in Celsius) last year than it was when temperatures peaked in 1997.

...

The data does not support their theory, but I doubt it will lower their passion to control the world's thermostat through control freak government.

Why would anyone want to go there?

2012-01-31T08:32:00.001-06:00

Washington Post:

Pakistan struggles to attract tourists

The place is full of religious bigots who want to commit mass murder of those they disagree with and the government and the army seem to have only a casual interest in stopping them. They are also doing little of anything to stop these people from crossing the borders into Afghanistan or India to commit their mass murder operations. And, the object to the US doing anything to stop aggression from Pakistan on the ridiculous basis of sovereignty. If they really had sovereignty over their territory they would not let others use is as a base for attacks.

Obama wants to give these people a raise?

2012-01-31T08:01:00.000-06:00

Washington Times:

CBO says federal employees rake in much more pay

... and he would pay for the raise by laying off troops. Republican Sean Duffy is pushing a bill to freeze federal pay for another year.

Self steering bullets?

2012-01-31T07:57:00.001-06:00

Daily Mail:

A bullet that can steer itself has been developed by national security researchers for widespread use by the army.

US military researchers have developed the technology that will see regular army soldiers shooting with the accuracy of snipers.

In fact the four-inch-long, dart-like bullet is so effective that it can hit a target, guided by a laser, two kilometers away.
Wartime game-changer: The four-inch-long bullet has a sensor that activates tiny fins to steer it to its target
It works through an optical sensor in the nose of the bullet which detects a laser beam on a target.
The sensor then sends information to guidance and control electronics that uses an algorithm to calculate direction.

The bullet then steers itself, via tiny fins, to the target.

The game-changing ammunition was designed by Sandia – the US government arm which develops science technologies to improve national security.

...

There is a video at the bottom of the link above.

The bullet may require a team to achieve this accuracy, although the laser could be attached to the rifle firing the high tech shell. It will require a rifle with a smooth bore barrel. The bullet gets its stability from the fins.

Drone kills 15 in Yemen, including 4 al Qaeda leaders

2012-01-31T07:46:00.003-06:00

Daily Mail:

Up to 15 militants, including four Al Qaeda leaders, have been killed in an overnight airstrike in southern Yemen, it was reported today.

An unidentified drone attacked the militants as they were travelling in two vehicles, local residents said this morning.

The militants had been travelling east of the city of Loder in Abyan province when the attack took place.

A tribal leader said that between 12 and 15 people were killed in the attack, including at least four leaders in a local Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

One was identified by local tribal leaders as Abdel-Munem al-Fatahani, wanted by America for alleged links to attacks on the U.S. destroyer Cole in 2000 and a French oil tanker in 2002.

Fatahani had survived at least two previous assassination attempts in recent years.

A spokesman for Al Qaeda confirmed this morning's strike but said only three members were killed and two were wounded. There was no immediate comment from Washington.

...

I suspect the drone in the attack was the more powerful Reaper which carries more Hellfire missiles. Al Qaeda has had some other reverses in recent days in Yemen where they have previously roamed rather freely because of the failure of the Yemen forces.

The drones fly out of nearby countries where the US has recently added bases. Oman is one of those countries.

EPA protecting nonexistent 'victims'

2012-01-31T07:38:00.001-06:00

William Yeatman:

Recently, I blogged about EPA’s big mercury lie. In a nutshell, the Agency claims that its ultra-expensive new Mercury and Air Toxics rule is appropriate and necessary in order to protect fetuses from developmental disorders. Yet, according to EPA’s own analysis, the new mercury regulation serves to protect America’s supposed population of pregnant, subsistence fisherwomen, who eat 300 pounds of self-caught fish reeled in exclusively from the most polluted bodies of water. To put it another way, this regulation, which costs $10 billion annually, safeguards a population that doesn’t exist.
Already, this ridiculous regulation is killing jobs....

...

Meanwhile the environmentalist are pushing light bulbs with mercury in them into everyone's home. I think the purpose of the regulation is an excuse to kill coal as a fuel for power plants.

The high cost of finishing Harvard, working for Sen.Kerry

2012-01-30T19:52:00.000-06:00

Daily Mail:

The Zuckerberg roommate who said no to Facebook and missed out on $400million

Sometimes the risk is in not taking chances.

Idiot watch

2012-01-30T19:15:00.000-06:00

BBC:

Afghan killed for birth of girl

Afghan men can be real pigs. This guy killed his wife when she bore their third daughter.

Long range Israeli drone crashes on test flight

2012-01-30T19:01:00.001-06:00

Washington Times:

A long-range Israeli drone capable of surveillance and bombing missions over Irancrashed Sunday near an Israeli air base during a test flight.
The Heron TP unmanned aircraft can stay aloft for 40 hours and has a range of 4,600 miles, theIsraeli air force said. The distance between Iranand Israel is about 1,000 miles.
Gen. Ido Nehushtan, commander of the Israeli air force, said new technology on the drone was being tested when the aircraft crashed into an orchard near the Tel Nof air base outside Rehovot.
A preliminary investigation indicated that human error and a technical malfunction contributed to the accident, the air force said, adding that the investigation is ongoing.
According to military sources, a wing that fell off the drone had been fitted with a highly advanced navigational device that might have interfered with the aircraft’s other flight systems.
The Israeli military’s most advanced drone has a wingspan of 85 feet, nearly that of a Boeing 737, and a payload capacity of 2,200 pounds. It was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries.
Known as the Eitan in Israel, the drone has platforms for surveillance equipment and for firing rockets, and can be used in a variety of mission such as aerial refueling, jamming communications and relaying ground control in Israel to manned aircraft over a distant target.

...

When working the drone would be well suited for flights over Iran and even attacking some targets there. Bombs needed to crash through Iran's bunkers would probably be too heavy, but the drone could help guide manned fighters to their targets.

Democrat tax boondoggle not helpful

2012-01-30T09:37:00.001-06:00

The Hill Poll:

No benefit from tax holiday, say a majority of voters

Voters are smarter than Democrats give them credit for.

Obama's low energy America

2012-01-30T09:12:00.001-06:00

Human Events:

President Obama loves to talk about energy independence. In his 2012 State of the Union address, he said he wanted to “lay out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last—an economy built on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers, and a renewal of American values.” He also called for “an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy – a strategy that’s cleaner, cheaper, and full of new jobs.”

The president mentioned energy two dozen times during his speech, but his actions are so strongly at odds with his words that he deserves credit for being able to keep a straight face while addressing Congress. Does he really think Americans have forgotten that he slapped down the Keystone XL pipeline project, just a week ago? Or that he destroyed the American offshore drilling industry in 2009?

Obama’s actions are not temporary mistakes that can be easily corrected by his successors. Those offshore drilling platforms are mobile. They were towed away to other oil fields, such as those off the coast of Brazil, where Obama spent billions of dollars to encourage the very same industry he forbids Americans to pursue, only to see Brazil decide to sell its oil to China, which struck a far better deal.

As for the Canadian oil that would have been carried into America by the Keystone XL pipeline, well, that’s probably going to China, too. Obama is murder on American commerce, but he has been very good for China.

...

The Sierra Club, in fact, is putting forth an argument that rings familiar and is as empty today as it was 40 years ago. The group argues that building the infrastructure will only encourage and prolong American dependence on oil, suggesting that by not supporting oil infrastructure, America will be forced to turn away from it and pressed to find successful alternatives. For those with long memories, especially in California, this thinking echoes the anti-freeway construction advocates of the 1970s – if new freeways encourage development and population expansion and the objective is to curb growth (at least for the anti-growthers of the time), then let’s not build freeways. Did not building the I-105 freeway stop Southern California growth? Hardly. California’s population nearly doubled to 37.6 million by mid-2011 from 19.95 million in 1970. And the I-105 eventually was built. The point is, the argument is all but empty. America is not likely to stop using oil anytime soon, and energy innovation will come whether or not the pipeline is built. Demand in world energy markets is intensifying and widespread “green sentiment” on left and right will push for it.

...

It is the same old failed argument from Big Green that created the energy shortages of the past. It is time to ignore these people and Obama and pursue and aggressive energy policy that creates American energy.

Obama's latest energy scam

2012-01-30T09:06:00.001-06:00

Institute for Energy Research:

The Obama-Salazar Offshore Charade

No new areas or being opened and what is being reopened is being done pursuant to laws already on the books. They are just trying to cover up for their job killing agenda and avoid the consequences of that agenda in the coming election.

They are just a political issue for the envious

2012-01-30T09:00:00.001-06:00

Washington Post:

President Obama's Tax Proposals Stand Little Chance of Passing

It is just part of his class warfare message. He has been looking for issues that can't pass so he can blame Congress for not passing them.

Immigration issue not hurting Romney with Hispanics

2012-01-30T08:55:00.001-06:00

Scott Conroy:

In this overwhelmingly Hispanic city of 225,000 just outside Miami, Mitt Romney was made to feel right at home on Sunday.
The Hialeah Police Department closed down streets surrounding his rally here and escorted the candidate's campaign bus as it rolled into a restaurant parking lot that was packed with a lively crowd of Spanish-speaking Republicans.

An animated coterie of introductory speakers bellowed into the microphone in both Spanish and English as the audience cheered and waved homemade signs that read “Vive, Romney!” and “Arriba, Mitt Romney.”

With a bouncy demeanor that made his crushing defeat in South Carolina just one week ago seem like a distant memory, Romney let on that he has victory here in his sights.

He beamed as his Spanish-speaking son Craig said a few words to the crowd in their native language, and the candidate’s grandson Parker extended his own “Hola.”

Romney’s appearance here was one of three well-attended South Florida rallies he hosted just two days before the pivotal primary on Tuesday.

As his lead over Newt Gingrich in the RCP averageof Florida polls has stretched to more than 11 percent, Romney brimmed with confidence as he played to the boisterous, largely Cuban-American crowd.

“If I’m president of the United States, I will stand with free people around the world and speak out for them and do everything in our power to bring freedom to the people of Cuba, and the people of Venezuela, and the people of Iran,” he said. “We will stand with freedom fighters all over the world.”

His trouble with winning over Hispanic voters was a key reason Romney lost the 2008 make-or-break Florida primary to John McCain.

But with all of the momentum apparently on Romney’s side this time, campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said that Hispanics were responding well to the candidate’s economy-heavy message. A key component of that message has been a relentless barrage against Gingrich for his past work on behalf of mortgage giant Freddie Mac....

Hispanics are drawn to an economic message that promotes jobs, just like most people. Democrats prefer to play to a tribal image of Hispanics as all former illegals who want all illegals to become Democrats. Their message is one of amnesty without consequences for those who break the law to get here.

Self deportation not a joke

2012-01-30T08:44:00.002-06:00

Karol Markowicz:

In a Republican primary season overloaded with second-tier candidates and gaffes, lots of people seem to be watching the never-ending debates with an ear for the next laugh line. After last Monday’s Florida debate, they seized on Mitt Romney’s suggestion that his immigration policy, rather than rounding up illegals, would have people “self-deport.”

“The answer is self-deportation, which is people decide they can do better by going home because they can’t find work here because they don’t have legal documentation to allow them to work here,” Romney said.

It was an instant joke; everyone was self-deporting. Rick Klein, senior Washington editor for ABC World News, tweeted “pretty soon I shall self-deport from my couch, to gather more liquid to drink.” Andrew Sullivan, hyperventilating, live-blogged that it was “a new Romney verb.” Roll Call’s Ryan Beckwith tweeted that self-deport was a “new phrase to me.”

Later in the week, Newt Gingrich jumped on the Romney-mocking bandwagon, calling the plan “fantasy” and finding a way to work in class-warfare references to Swiss bank accounts, the Cayman islands and “$20-million-a-year income with no work.”

But is it so funny — or new? Why would anyone self-deport?

The answer is in the middle of Romney’s response: You’d self-deport because you don’t have legal documentation allowing you to work here.

So the mockable, hilarious and unlikely idea is an enforcement of existing law. It remains illegal to work in America without proper documentation; that we collectively look the other way doesn’t, in fact, make it legal.

The extremes don’t make serious arguments about “fixing” immigration. We can’t round up masses of people and send them home, despite Rick Santorum’s suggestion we do that because Mexico is “a great country” and “not Siberia.” We also can’t give blanket amnesty to people who broke the law to get here, unless we want to encourage millions more to do the same.

Some paint Romney’s position as far-right because a version of it has been supported by more zealous immigration opponents, but it’s actually a fair compromise. Enforce the laws, secure the border and give those who self-deport a fair track to US citizenship.

...

Actually self deportation has already been shown to be effective from Arizona to Alabama and in small towns in between who have made working here as an illegal difficult.

If you are going to control our borders you have to have consequences for coming here illegally. Democrats off no consequences for those who come without following the immigration laws. The consequence of that would be more illegal immigration as we saw after previous amnesties.

Oh, Come on

2012-01-30T08:10:00.004-06:00

NY Times:

Use of Drones to Protect U.S. Embassy Stirs Iraqi Outrage

Of all the things to be outraged about, this seems pretty low on my outrage scale. The drones are unarmed and they are just flying surveillance. Are the Iraqis afraid they will interfere with attack plans?

It would seem they should be more outraged about their incompetent government and mass murder attacks by terrorist.

It is either global warming or an Al Gore visit

2012-01-29T18:23:00.002-06:00

Telegraph:

Snow to hit Britain
The big freeze will hit again this week with snow, frosts and freezing fog.

Global warming does appear to be overrated. This weather is unusual for Britain because the Gulf Stream nomally keeps the weather muggy, but not so cold.

Or it could be Cycle 25, a mini ice age for the rest of the century.

Canadian guilty verdict in Muslim 'Honor Killing'

2012-01-29T14:28:00.001-06:00

CNN:

A Canadian jury Sunday convicted a family of Afghan immigrants of the "honor" murders of four female relatives whose bodies were found in an Ontario canal.

Mohammed Shafia, 58; his wife, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 42; and their son, Hamed, 21, were found guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of Shafia's three teenage daughters and his first wife in his polygamous marriage. Sunday's verdicts followed a three-month trial, in which jurors heard wiretaps of Shafia referring to his daughters as "whores" and ranting about their behavior.

"This is a good day for Canadian justice. Our democratic society protects the rights of all," Gerard Laarhuis, the chief prosecutor in the case, told reporters outside the courthouse in Kingston. "It's a very bad day, because this jury found that four strong, vivacious and freedom-loving women were murdered by their own family."

At least one Shafia family supporter interrupted Laarhuis with shouts of "lies" and called the verdict a "miscarriage of justice." But others cheered the verdict as Laarhuis continued.

The three Shafia sisters -- Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13 -- were found dead inside a car that plunged into the Rideau Canal in Kingston on June 30, 2009. Shafia's first wife, 50-year-old Rona Amir Mohammad, also died.

The verdicts came on the second day of deliberations for a seven-woman, five-man jury in Kingston, about 280 km (175 miles) west of the family's home in Montreal.

Prosecutors said the girls' father, mother and brother all plotted to kill the four women in an "honor" murder. Investigators claimed that hours of wiretapped conversations reveal a premeditated plan to punish rebellious, Westernized daughters and their permissive advocate, Rona.

...

There is more.

These people remind me of pit bulls. You never know when they are going to go crazy and attack their own family. These crimes are unimaginable in a normal family.

Rubio says Obama made things worse

2012-01-29T09:37:00.001-06:00

It is pretty much classic Rubio.

Emails suggest Holder mislead on Fast and Furious

2012-01-29T09:28:00.000-06:00

Daily Caller:

Latest Friday night document dump shows Holder was informed of Fast and Furious connection to Brian Terry’s murder on day border agent died

The knowledge maybe indirect, but he seems to be definitely in the loop on the day Terry was killed.

Obama out of touch with his spending problem

2012-01-29T09:11:00.001-06:00

Chicago Tribune Editorial:

President Barack Obama knows the federal government has a big spending problem, and he is not reluctant to point it out. "The American people deserve to have their leaders come together to make the tough choices necessary to live within our means, just as American families do every day in these tough economic times," the White House said in November.
In his State of the Union address, Obama was not so keen on preaching austerity. As part of his plan to create an economy that is "built to last," he said it's necessary to "pay down our debt and invest in our future."
The phrase "invest in our future," we regret to report, is Washington-speak for "spend money." And in the current fiscal context, that means "spend money we don't have."
His speech to Congress contained a litany of new spending programs, from creating a new "Trade Enforcement Unit" to helping out homeowners who haven't been able to refinance their mortgages. Each one, taken by itself, can be defended. But added together, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation reports, they would require more than $20 billion in new spending.
The president says that doesn't matter because defense spending will be coming down by some $48 billion, for a net saving of about $28 billion. That sounds pretty good — until you consider that next year (according to the fiscal watchdog Concord Coalition), the government will most likely run a deficit of about $1 trillion.

...

Obama's spending addiction seems unabated by a lack of money. He thinks that taxing the rich will pay for his "investments." But Obama's history of investments is not as good as that of the rich. the economy would be better off if we let the rich make the investments and crate the jobs.

The biggest waste of money in history of world

2012-01-29T09:02:00.000-06:00

Michael Grabell:

...The stimulus was supposed to work like this: First, a flood of money in tax cuts, food stamps and unemployment checks would get consumers spending. A deluge of education and health-care money would stanch the bleeding in state budgets.

Then, a wave of “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects would kick in, creating new jobs repaving roads and making homes more energy efficient. As the economy got churning again, new investments in wind farms, solar panel factories, electric cars, broadband and high-speed rail would lead America out of the recession and into a 21st century economy competitive with the rest of the world.

But it didn’t happen like that. The White House’s economists, like nearly every forecaster, misread the recession. The state assistance wasn’t enough to plug the budget holes and, in many cases, the school aid merely delayed rather than prevented teacher layoffs. Infrastructure projects took months longer to break ground than the public had been led to believe.
...Even as the stimulus was pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy in its first year, it appeared as if nothing was happening. The jobless rate skyrocketed, easily exceeding the poorly conceived chart Obama’s economic advisers had put together, showing that unemployment would never breach 8%.
Of the parts that were visible, it often seemed that the stimulus was providing money for everything. Instead of investing in a few marquee projects, Congress tried to make the stimulus a cure-all. There was money for every one of society’s ills, from cancer to cogongrass, from ailing infrastructure like bridges and rails to invasive species like Asian carp and Russian olive trees....In Michigan, human services officials estimated that 90% of the homes in line for weatherization work would need a historic preservation review. But as of late fall 2009, the office responsible had only two employees.

Public transit advocates expected a windfall for bus companies like New Flyer in St. Cloud, Minn. But the transit money took longer to get out the door because every grant had to be reviewed by the Labor Department to ensure that it wouldn’t have a negative impact on transit unions. And when the Chicago Transit Authority postponed an order because it couldn’t secure state funding, New Flyer announced that it would lay off employees rather than hire more....One of the little-appreciated aspects of the stimulus is that it was about much more than reining in the Great Recession. It was also about laying the groundwork for a new economy. The second part of the bill’s name, “reinvestment,” was intended to steer federal money toward long-term projects like clean energy, electric cars and high-speed rail — things that will probably take decades to achieve.

In this way, the stimulus was supposed to be a down payment. But all of these investments were predicated on the administration’s optimism that the public would continue to support Obama’s plans — and that Congress would pass comprehensive energy and infrastructure bills.

A fundamental argument I heard again and again was that Americans would come to embrace bullet trains as soon as they saw one up and running. This almost-platitude makes it all the more perplexing why the DOT repeated the flaw of other stimulus program and spread the $8 billion fund out like peanut butter.
...

There is much more in this long piece.

I think Grabell is too kind to this massive boondoggle, that started the trend in massive debt, that the administration doubled down on with Obamacare, and more top down government controls like Dodd-Frank. The Democrats have been a disaster under Obama and this was just the starting point.

Iraq abandons the Sunni al Qaeda fighters

2012-01-29T08:42:00.001-06:00

Washington Post:

Muhannad Mahmoud can’t find a place in the new Iraq.

The American military, which hired him and more than 80,000 other Sunni fighters to take on al-Qaeda-affiliated insurgents, just left. But the insurgents certainly have not.

The Iraqi government, increasingly dominated by Shiite powers, is leery about hiring the fighters as security forces. And even if Mahmoud were able to land such a job, some of his fellow Sunnis are so distrustful of the new government that they would label him a traitor.

As a member of the Sons of Iraq, who were widely credited with helping the United States restore stability to the country several years ago, Mahmoud and his brethren say they have been pushed to the side — even as insurgents come after them daily.

“I am ready to fight them again,” Mahmoud said recently, taking a break from his job repairing power lines that run from a neighborhood generator to homes and businesses.

For years, the Iraqi government has struggled to carry out a U.S.-brokered plan to find military or police jobs for the Sunni fighters — some of them genuine heroes, some of them former insurgents themselves. How the government treats them over the coming months could present a chance for reconciliation — or threaten to widen the country’s sectarian divide, especially if Sons of Iraq members strike out on their own, or, worse, defect to groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq.

These days, even with the increased violence, the Sons of Iraq stand out, targeted by daily assassination attempts. Throughout Iraq, they are known more broadly by the term “Sahwa.” In the past week, four Iraqis connected to Sahwa were assassinated on a single day.

...

These are the people who helped the US break the back of al Qaeda in Iraq and destroy the al Qaeda brand world wide. It is a shame that the current government will not recognize their sacrifice and give them a place in the country. They should not let sectarian differences alienate these people. If they do they may die regretting it.

Don't blame the rich

2012-01-29T08:32:00.001-06:00

James Q. Wilson:

There is no doubt that incomes are unequal in the United States — far more so than in most European nations. This fact is part of the impulse behind the Occupy Wall Street movement, whose members claim to represent the 99 percent of us against the wealthiest 1 percent. It has also sparked a major debate in the Republican presidential race, where former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has come under fire for his tax rates and his career as the head of a private-equity firm.

And economic disparity was the recurring theme of President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday. “We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by,” the president warned, “or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot and everyone does their fair share.”

But the mere existence of income inequality tells us little about what, if anything, should be done about it. First, we must answer some key questions. Who constitutes the prosperous and the poor? Why has inequality increased? Does an unequal income distribution deny poor people the chance to buy what they want? And perhaps most important: How do Americans feel about inequality?

To answer these questions, it is not enough to take a snapshot of our incomes; we must instead have a motion picture of them and of how people move in and out of various income groups over time.

The “rich” in America are not a monolithic, unchanging class. A study by Thomas A. Garrett, economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, found that less than half of people in the top 1 percent in 1996 were still there in 2005. Such mobility is hardly surprising: A business school student, for instance, may have little money and high debts, but nine years later he or she could be earning a big Wall Street salary and bonus.

Mobility is not limited to the top-earning households. A study by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that nearly half of the families in the lowest fifth of income earners in 2001 had moved up within six years. Over the same period, more than a third of those in the highest fifth of income-earners had moved down. Certainly, there are people such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who are ensconced in the top tier, but far more common are people who are rich for short periods.

And who are the rich? Affluent people, compared with poor ones, tend to have greater education and spouses who work full time. The past three decades have seen significant increases in real earnings for people with advanced degrees. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that between 1979 and 2010, hourly wages for men and women with at least a college degree rose by 33 percent and 20 percent, respectively, while they fell for all people with less than a high school diploma — by 9 percent for women and 31 percent for men.

Also, households with two earners have seen their incomes rise. This trend is driven in part by women’s increasing workforce participation, which doubled from 1950 to 2005 and which began to place women in well-paid jobs by the early 1980s.

We could reduce income inequality by trying to curtail the financial returns of education and the number of women in the workforce — but who would want to do that?

The real income problem in this country is not a question of who is rich, but rather of who is poor. Among the bottom fifth of income earners, many people, especially men, stay there their whole lives. Low education and unwed motherhood only exacerbate poverty, which is particularly acute among racial minorities. Brookings Institution economist Scott Winshiphas argued that two-thirds of black children in America experience a level of poverty that only 6 percent of white children will ever see, calling it a “national tragedy.”

Making the poor more economically mobile has nothing to do with taxing the rich and everything to do with finding and implementing ways to encourage parental marriage, teach the poor marketable skills and induce them to join the legitimate workforce. It is easy to suppose that raising taxes on the rich would provide more money to help the poor. But the problem facing the poor is not too little money, but too few skills and opportunities to advance themselves.

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When the poor keep doing the things that make them poor, taxing the rich can't make a difference in their lives. That is true regardless of race. The tendency toward unwed mothers means more children will grow up poor. The rich aren't seducing and abandoning these women. Irresponsible sperm donor fathers are a greater cause of poverty than income inequality.

Income inequality is just another excuse for Democrats to raise taxes so they will have more government money to spend to buy votes with.

Syria losing control?

2012-01-28T21:48:00.001-06:00

Daily Mail on Sunday:

'Half of Damascus falls to rebels' as breakaway army slowly seize control of capital from Assad regime

If true, it is probably caused in part by attrition of government forces.

Brit military cuts puts Falklands at risk

2012-01-28T21:34:00.000-06:00

Sunday Telegraph:

Britain could not reclaim Falklands, warns General

It is a point I have made in recent post. It is especially true with Obama in the White House where they could expect no support.

But the Guardian finds doubts growing in Argentina.

'The Falklanders eat fish and chips. How can they belong to Argentina?'
28 Jan 2012: A growing number of young Argentinians are questioning their nation's claim to the disputed islands

CenturyLink down all day in Texas

2012-01-28T21:14:00.002-06:00

The internet was not available for blogging today, but we will be back strong soon.

The case for Scott Walker in Wisconsin

2012-01-28T21:12:00.000-06:00

Stephen Moore:

The Most Important Non-Presidential Election of the Decade

It is do or die for public sector unions. Hopefully, they will fail in their attempt to remove Walker who is showing how important getting rid of the unions corrupt bargain with Democrats is to the well being of his state.

Tuning out Obama

2012-01-28T08:29:00.003-06:00

NY Times:

Some State of the Union Viewers Tuned Out Fast

People have been tuning Obama out since the debate over Obamacare. The more he talks the less people like him and his policies. I think the coming campaign is going to see his numbers in decline with every speech.

Energy reality check

2012-01-28T08:15:00.000-06:00

Loren Steffy:

President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union speech, called for an “all-of-the-above” strategy to develop energy that’s “cleaner, cheaper and full of new jobs.”

He’ll be lucky to get one out of three.

It’s likely that our energy sources will become cleaner. Stricter pollution and carbon standards are inevitable, and the abundance of natural gas from hydraulic fracturing in the U.S. means it’s likely to become a viable alternative fuel – both for electricity generation and powering fleet vehicles. To drive home the point, Obama was in Nevada on Thursday touting the prospects for natural gas.

By 2040, natural gas will surpass coal as the world’s second-biggest fuel source behind oil, according to a recent study by Exxon Mobil Corp.

Obama wasn’t just referring to natural gas, though. He wants to improve the reliability of other sources – wind, solar, biofuels. For that, he wants to shift tax incentives from the oil industry to renewables programs.

Given that much of new fuel development is moving toward cleaner sources, it makes sense to offer tax benefits, but it shouldn’t be an either-or shift from conventional energy.

As we’ve seen with the collapse of natural gas prices, companies will simply shut in production if it isn’t economical, and the shift to cleaner fuels will stall. So it makes sense to maintain some tax incentives for “unconventional” plays such as shale drilling at least at lower prices, and marginal producing “stripper” wells.

If it’s jobs the president is worried about, we can’t afford to discourage fossil fuel production. While “green jobs” are increasing, they alone can’t solve our economic problems any more than renewables by themselves can resolve our energy issues.

Unfortunately, the administration always pitches its energy initiatives in terms of jobs. That may have political value in a struggling economy, but it undermines the purpose of government-funded research.

Innovation can’t be measured by short-term hiring. The Solyndra debacle should have made that clear. In his speech, Obama touted – and probably overstated – the government’s role in developing hydraulic fracturing, but he seemed to miss the lesson.

Houston’s Mitchell Energy benefited from some early government-funded research and maybe even some cost-sharing on early projects, said Bill Whitsitt, a spokesman for Devon Energy, which acquired Mitchell. But it took decades of private-sector financing, development and risk-taking to turn that government research into the current job boom.

...

Obama clearly overstated the government's roll in fracking tech. If anything the government, particularly the EPA is looking more like an impediment. The interior department is still strangling energy production on government owned tracts both on shore and off shore. If the government would get out of the way hundreds of thousands of jobs would be created in the private sector.

Government attempts to spur development in alternative energy have been a disaster for many. The stimulus money was wasted on technology that did not have a ready market. Some of the disappointments were caused by the failure of market manipulation laws such as cap and trade which would have tried to drive up the cost of convential energy to make the alternatives look more competitive.

Making border corruption harder

2012-01-28T07:59:00.001-06:00

Houston Chronicle:

As the threat of internal corruption dogs the ranks of border security forces, the Obama administration is considering regularly rotating agents to other locations to distance them from the persuasive power and money of Mexico's drug cartels.
Such a decision would subject locally recruited U.S. Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers to the periodic relocations already required for agents within the FBI, U.S. Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other premier federal law enforcement agencies.
"It is something we are looking at very carefully," James Tomsheck, chief of internal affairs for Customs and Border Protection, told the Houston Chronicle in an interview. "It is too early to make a (final) assessment, but we certainly believe it does have an impact."
Four CBP employees have been arrested on corruption-related charges in the last four months. Another 132 CBP employees have been arrested since 2005 as a result of investigations by Tomsheck's 214 internal affairs investigators across the country.
The Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General's 213 criminal investigators have arrested 178 CBP employees across the country as well since 2003 for criminal misconduct - including 26 in the last three years on corruption-related charges.

...

Sen. John Cornyn points out that we would lose local knowledge that pays off in recognition and tips. There is also the potential taht a shorter widown of opportunity could accelerate the corruption of agents. The move maybe worth a try, but it can't replace improved screening, training and supervision.

Pakistan and bin Laden

2012-01-27T20:55:00.000-06:00

The Hill:

Panetta: Officials in Pakistan had to know about bin Laden

It is informed supposition, but I tend to agree with him. Bin Laden had to feel protected or he would not have had such a small security force in the compound.

Obama's promises

2012-01-27T20:48:00.001-06:00

Mark Steyn:

Had I been asked to deliver the State of the Union address, it would not have delayed your dinner plans: "The State of our Union is broke, heading for bankrupt, and total collapse shortly thereafter. Thank you and good night! You've been a terrific crowd!"
I gather that Americans prefer something more upbeat, so one would not begrudge a speechwriter fluffing it up by holding out at least the possibility of some change of fortune, however remote. Instead, President Obama assured us at great length that nothing is going to change, not now, not never. Indeed the Union's state — its unprecedented world-record brokeness — was not even mentioned.

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It is there is the Democrat Senate's budget... oops. Like the non existent budget, the Democrats try tide their spending ways and spring a spending bill on the Republicans so they can charge them with trying to shut down government.

The problem with Islam ...

2012-01-27T20:39:00.002-06:00

Daily Mail:

Muslim couple 'murdered their three daughters in honor killings' - because they wanted to cut off 'the diseased limb of their family tree'

It makes some people crazy.

Is he supporting Newt?

2012-01-27T20:35:00.000-06:00

Daily Mail:

George Soros says there 'isn't all that much difference' between Romney and Obama

I doubt he is supporting Romney.

Uh-oh, ship carrying space launch equipment hits ...

2012-01-27T20:28:00.001-06:00

The Daily Mail has the story. The piece also has several more photos and a map of the location of the former bridge.

Nigerian Islamic religious bigots make their demand

2012-01-27T20:21:00.001-06:00

Guardian:

Boko Haram demands sharia law

No sane person would want to live under sharia law as administered by these kooks. It would just be a way of institutionalizing their religious bigotry and oppression.

Israel worried about Iran nuclear 'immunity zone'

2012-01-27T20:15:00.002-06:00

Telegraph:

Reviving Western concerns that his government is still contemplating unilateral military action against Iran, Ehud Barak gave one of the clearest signs yet that Israel's support for new US and EU sanctions remains strictly limited.
"We are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear," he told the World Economic Forum in Davos. "And even the American president and opinion leaders have said that no option should be removed from the table.
"It seems to us to be urgent, because the Iranians are deliberately drifting into what we call an immunity zone where practically no surgical operation could block them."
Although Israeli intelligence and military officials have privately spoken of Iran's nuclear programme entering a "framework of immunity", it is the first time that a senior figure in Benjamin Netanyahu's government has done so in public.
Israel's fears that it might soon be too late to launch military action were bolstered earlier this month when Iran announced that it had begun to enrich uranium at its Fordow plant, which is buried so deep within a mountain it may be impossible for Israeli warplanes or missiles to destroy.
Mr Barak's ministry believes that once the bulk of uranium enrichment is carried out at Fordow, Iran will be in the immunity zone. Israel also reckons that Iran could be in a position to build a bomb within months, although US officials have been quoted as saying that Tehran will not be able to fit a nuclear warhead onto a missile for some years.

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This story probably explains the need of the US to make a bomb that will be a more effective at penetration. I think without that bomb the Israels will feel compelled to take action before the material is moved into the deeper facility.

Global Hawk out performed by antique spy plane

2012-01-27T19:49:00.000-06:00

LA Times:

US may rely on aging U-2 spy planes longer than expected

The Global Hawk has been an expensive disappointment. That is pretty damning when you consider that a spy plane developed in the 1950s out performs it.

Obama's premature retreat from Iraq

2012-01-27T19:43:00.003-06:00

NY Times:

434 People Killed in Iraq Since US Pulled Out

And, counting. The Iraqis share some of the blame for Obama's premature retreat. Both sides should have found a way to keep US forces in the area to act as fair arbitrator of the distrust between the Shia and Sunni factions.

US seeks more powerful bomb to knock out Iran's nukes

2012-01-27T19:38:00.002-06:00

WSJ:

Pentagon war planners have concluded that their largest conventional bomb isn't yet capable of destroying Iran's most heavily fortified underground facilities, and are stepping up efforts to make it more powerful, according to U.S. officials briefed on the plan.
The 30,000-pound "bunker-buster" bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, was specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea to cloak their nuclear programs.

But initial tests indicated that the bomb, as currently configured, wouldn't be capable of destroying some of Iran's facilities, either because of their depth or because Tehran has added new fortifications to protect them.

Doubts about the MOP's effectiveness prompted the Pentagon this month to secretly submit a request to Congress for funding to enhance the bomb's ability to penetrate deeper into rock, concrete and steel before exploding, the officials said.

The push to boost the power of the MOP is part of stepped-up contingency planning for a possible strike against Iran's nuclear program, say U.S. officials.

The Defense Department has spent about $330 million so far to develop about 20 of the bombs, which are built by Boeing Co. The Pentagon is seeking about $82 million more to make the bomb more effective, according to government officials briefed on the plan....Developing an effective bunker-buster is complicated in part because of the variables, experts say. Penetration varies depending on factors such as soil density and the types of stone and rock shielding the target.

Boeing received a contract in 2009 to fit the weapon on the U.S.'s B-2 Stealth Bomber. The Air Force began receiving the first of the bombs in September, a time of growing tensions with Iran. The Air Force has so far contracted to buy 20 of the bombs, and more deliveries are expected in 2013, after additional tests are made.

Should a decision be made to use the MOP as currently configured, it could cause "a lot of damage" to Iran's underground nuclear facilities but wouldn't necessarily destroy them outright, Mr. Panetta said.

"We're developing it. I think we're pretty close, let's put it that way. But we're still working at it because these things are not easy to be able to make sure that they will do what we want them to."...

I suspect the bombs will be a priority weapon for Boeing and that they will be ready well ahead of 2013. If not the others may have to do.

I do not think an attack on Iran should be limited to just their nuclear production sites. We should knock out Iran's naval assets which it would use to attack shipping and block the Straights of Hormuz. I would also knock out its weapons and munition manufacturing, particularly those sites used to make lethal IEDs which could be used in countries in the region such as Afghanistan.

Iran is still the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism, and we must knock out her assets used to facilitate terror including in some cases her proxies.

Obama team full of doubters on bin Laden raid

2012-01-27T19:26:00.001-06:00

Fox News:

Vice President Biden claimed Friday that Leon Panetta was the only member of the inner circle who definitively urged President Obama to green-light the raid on Usama bin Laden's compound, as Biden discussed new details about the behind-the-scenes deliberations.

Biden, speaking to the House Democratic Issues Conference in Maryland, candidly admitted that he told the president not to go forward with the mission. Biden said at the time he thought the administration should do more to find out whether bin Laden was actually inside the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

...

I find it stunning that there was so much hesitancy in going after this mass murderer. Panetta seems to be the only one who understood the importance of the mission and had confidence in our special ops team that was responsible for it. It shows you just how weak Obama's national security team is and why some of them characterized this obvious decision as a "gutsy call." It was in fact a no brainer that Americans expect from their leaders.

Moon madness?

2012-01-27T19:18:00.002-06:00

Toby Harnden:

Romney's Moon Mockery vs. Lunar Tunes Newt

I think Romney is closer to the mark on what our priorities should be. Newt is probably a decade or more too soon.

Does science hide its work papers?

2012-01-27T19:14:00.000-06:00

Washington Times Editorial:

Those who say man alone is responsible for overheating the planet frequently dismiss any role the sun might play. As can be seen in an ongoing freedom-of-information lawsuit leveled against the University of Virginia (UVA), sunshine is precisely what the heralds of climate catastrophe fear most of all.
The American Tradition Institute (ATI) is going after 12,000 emails sent or received by Michael E. Mann while he was on the staff of the publicly-funded university. Mr. Mann is famous for coming up with one of the “tricks” used to “hide the decline” in global temperatures. On Wednesday, ATI released a small selection of emails it hopes will convince a Prince William County judge that full disclosure of the rest is in the public interest.
In March 2003, for example, a trusted colleague of Mr. Mann’s emailed to find out how the UVA professor arrived at his conclusions. Mr. Mannadmitted he was missing crucial data and “can’t seem to dig them up.” Though he was working on this project on the taxpayers’ dime, he provided the information for the researcher’s personal use only. “So please don’t pass this along to others without checking w/ me first,” Mr. Mann wrote. “This is the sort of ‘dirty laundry’ one doesn’t want to fall into the hands of those who might potentially try to distort things.”
David Schnare, a scientist and lawyer who runs ATI’s Environmental Law Center, said he was shocked that anyone claiming to be a scientist wouldn’t keep a detailed log of his research activities. “In science, there is no dirty laundry,” Mr. Schnare told The Washington Times. “Science progresses by proving to yourself that you were wrong, that your hypothesis was in error. Every time you’re wrong, it means you can cut off some area of research and start on a better one.”
The institute has about 200 emails that it obtained from a number of sources, including the Climategate leaks. The messages show preachers of imminent climate catastrophe like Mr. Mann weren’t interested in the kind of open discussion that allows scientific progress. Various exchanges included warnings to “PLEASE DELETE” the email after reading.

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The mask of competences is slowly being stripped from those who have claimed a consensus on the theory behind global warming. These emails should be released. To not do so will only confirm in the minds of skeptics that the proponents of the theory have something to hide.

Special ops get amphibious assault ship as base

2012-01-27T19:02:00.000-06:00

Washington Post:

The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats.

In response to requests from the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos. Unofficially dubbed a “mothership,” the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, procurement documents show.

Special Operations Forces are a key part of the Obama administration's strategy to make the military leaner and more agile as the Pentagon confronts at least $487 billion in spending cuts over the next decade.

Lt. Cmdr. Mike Kafka, a spokesman for the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command, declined to elaborate on the floating base’s purpose or to say where, exactly, it will be deployed in the Middle East. Other Navy officials acknowledged that they were moving with unusual haste to complete the conversion and send the mothership to the region by early summer.

Navy documents indicate that it could be headed to the Persian Gulf, where Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping route for much of the world’s oil supply. A market survey proposal from the Military Sealift Command, dated Dec. 22 and posted online, states that the floating base needed to be delivered to the Persian Gulf.

Other contract documents do not specify a location but say the mothership would be used to “support mine countermeasure” missions. Defense officials have said that if Iran did attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz, it would rely on mines to obstruct the waterway.

With a large naval base in Bahrain, and one or two aircraft carrier groups usually assigned to the region, the Navy already has a substantial presence in the Persian Gulf and surrounding waters. Adding the mothership ship would do relatively little to bolster U.S. maritime power overall, but it could play an instrumental role in secretive commando missions offshore.

The deployment of the floating base could also mark a return to maritime missions for SEAL teams, which for the last decade have spent most of their time on land in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Other details of the project became public Tuesday when the Military Sealift Command posted a bid request to retrofit the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport docking ship, on a rush-order basis.

Until December, the Navy had planned to retire the Ponce and decommission it in March after 41 years of service. Among other missions, it was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea last year in support of NATO’s air war over Libya.

Instead, the ship will be modified into what the military terms an Afloat Forward Staging Base. Kafka, the Fleet Forces command spokesman, said it would be used to support mine-clearance ships, smaller patrol ships and aircraft.

The documents posted by the Military Sealift Command in December, however, specify that the mothership will be rebuilt so that it can also serve as a docking station for several small high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEAL teams.

Among the vessels listed are Mark 5 Zodiacs, an inflatable boat that can carry up to 15 passengers but roll up into a bag, and 7-meter-long Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats, which can carry an entire SEAL squad.

SEAL teams also deploy from regular warships, but most vessels in the Navy’s fleet must patrol or move around on a regular basis. A mothership can stay in one spot for weeks or months, effectively serving as a floating base for commandos as they monitor coastal areas or prepare for amphibious operations.

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There are several things I like about this plan, but staying in one spot for extended period of time makes this vulnerable to attack by hostile countries or the terrorist. This is especially true of the attacks similar to that on the Cole.

Having such a large mother ship also makes it harder for the special ops forces to get the element of surprise which is critical to their missions' success.

The idea definitely has merit but it is going to require the kind of execution our special ops guys have become famous for in recent years such as the recent rescue in Somalia.