Colleague Thaddeus McCotter marks the 40th day of mourning since Neda Soltan's slaughter by the Basiji of the usurper Ahmandinejad's illegitimate regime. The floor of the House is a long way from the streets of Tehran, but these are the same event mourning Neda Soltan's murder forty days later, and the people below will take note that their rash boldness was spoken well of on the "citty on a hill." It is a mystery why the Obama administration lets these moments go by unmentioned. It is a thin fiction that POTUS speaking of Neda Soltan's death would be treated as agitprop or as evidence of American skullduggery. POTUS had energy today to announce the so-called sweeping success of Cash for Clunkers, which is more properly cash for the well-to-do SUV owner. Yet POTUS had not a word for Neda Soltan or her family. The motorbikes roaring in (below) are the Basiji who murdered Neda Soltan and covered up the crime. Tehran's Cash-for-Killers program, unlimited budget.
What's Breaking News Tonight?
August.
Hollywood produces several dystopian romances for the summer and fall that point to the dislocations in film-making. The cash drought hit the producers, too, and now the despair comes forward with stories about survival. Fun. What this does tell me is that the financial crisis is over for now, and we are on to the next surprise category. I am looking around at apocalyptic events and interviewing the game prospects. We begin another August where the unknown unknowns are available, and the the Obama administration is freshly unfocused after the healthcare gamut and the James Crowley adventure.
Georgia and Ukraine.
What I have is indistinct warnings that Moscow is impatient to the point of rashness with Tblisi and the same with Kiev. The provocation by Joe Biden last weekend has not closed the story, rather just pointed to an event that will call Washington to respond or back down. A fertile trouble. August is a traditional month for the topsy-turvy at the Kremlin -- when leaders are away at their dachas.
Syria and Lebanon.
George Mitchell's mission to the Assad regime to provide a down-payment on the appeasement package will not calm the region. Tehran is unstable, and it has cause to use its surrogate Damascus to hammer Israel and untrack the American and EU threat against the regime. Gaza is not as available as it was before the January bombing.
Korea.
The Kim regime continues the succession struggle as the old man, Dear Leader, dies quickly and the three young sons are unavailable for assessment. The PLA in Shanghai supports Pyongyang and will tolerate all manner of nuke tests and rocket tests. The collapse in North Korea involves mass famine of millions of starving human beings.
Krakatoa.
"Towering 1,200ft above the tropical stillness of the Sunda Strait in Indonesia, one of the most terrifying volcanoes the world has ever known has begun to stir once more.
Almost 126 years to the day since Krakatoa first showed signs of an imminent eruption, stunning pictures released this week prove that the remnant of this once-enormous volcano is bubbling, boiling and brimming over." I include Krakatoa here to stand-in for all natural events that are credible but unexpected. The 2004 tsunami. The 2008 earthquake in China. The major cities and densest populations are distributed along fault lines worldwide. Saturday 1 August I will speak with Amos Nur, Stanford, a major earthquake geologist , who has developed a fresh explanation for the end of the Bronze Age as a series of earthquakes over 50 years. The destruction of Meggido, Troy, Mycenae, Knossos, all show evidence of major quakes that destroyed the habitations and dislocated populations.
Paranoids Ate My Party
"The GOP, reduced to hosting loonies who obsess over Obama's birthplace, is slipping into the ash heap." The Daily Beast...
quick2no
Batchelor: "The boss vectors just now are the burlesque artist Rush Limbaugh-"Barack Obama has yet to prove he's a citizen"-and Limbaugh's parasitic rival of bloviation, faux rueful Lou Dobbs: "I don't know what the reality is. No one does." - So, Mr. Batch: RUSH AND DOBBS ARE LIARS? AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS INDEED A DEAD HORSE? MY, WHAT A NOVEL IDEA...you just find that out? Rest of us got on that train 'bout election time...where you been?
nickatdabeach
www.marklevinshow.com for REAL radio commentary
Ritarita
That's perfect
For you Nicky-
I could have guessed it.
The screaming insane angry lunatic
Neo-con is your guy.
Say no more.
nickatdabeach
Didnt realize the no-talent radio man is a RINO but it seems he is.. thanks for coming out of the closet Johnnie.
crymeariver
Are you saying that anyone who can do intelligent analysis is too smart to be a Republican and is thus a RINO?
Ritarita
cry-
I think that's exactly
What he's saying-
He just doesn't know it.
Chuckv
The fact that the word "RINO" exists is a very bad sign. Ideological purity has triumphed over electability. As the moderates are made unwelcome and leave, the party is further removed from mainstream politics. As reasonable people leave, unreasonable people become a larger proportion of the party. Death looms.
Either something will happen to change this course of events or we will witness events similar to those of the 1850's, which saw the death of the Whigs and birth of the Republicans.
Llplo99
Enough of the RINO crap...that is why your party is becoming irrelevant. You do not determine who is in the Republican party or not.
gak001
We're always looking for reasonable people in the Democratic Party. The Blue Dog Coalition has plenty of room for growth.
MurrayAbraham
Paranoia within the GOP didn't start with the birthers. Remember Iraqi WMDs? Sadam & 9/11? Nato in Kosovo is a distraction from Lewinski?
Ritarita
And orange alerts.
Be afraid be very afraid.
But don't worrry-
Jack Bauer will handle it.
Genni2002
Hey nice article. If this is what it takes to finally get a credible 3rd party option (or with the existing ones..ehem...even a 2nd or 1st!!) then let the birthers continue merrily blithering on abou it...
neverlate
There is no true home for a Conservative anymore. The Republican Party has been taken over by a bunch of loonies and the Democratic Party is owned by the Unions. Something has to give.
chgotchr
As the health care "debate" progresses, it is clear that outside of the loonies, everyone else (Republicans and Democrats) are both owned by large companies and industrial organizations.
Picachu
Nice catch there chgotchr. I just had to respond to neverlate because his observation about the dem party was sooo out of sync with reality. Hasn't he been paying any attention? I have been saying for a while that I believe all the partisan bickering we see is just a distraction so the shell game they are running in congress can continue. Neither of the two parties contingents in congress is doing anything for the American people except allowing us to pay for corporate excess. Welcome to the military industrial complex.
WestVillager
These folks are Republican terrorists. I would include the media who dig to find the pod people mentioned in your article.
You may be my new hero.
periscope
The Republican Party has been the enemy of the American people for a long, long time. They opposed Social Security in the 1930s, and I'd hate to think we're most senior citizens would be today without it. Ditto on Medicare, which they also opposed.
They're modus operandi has been to give huge tax cuts to the rich, and against all evidence, claim it was "good for the economy." Raygun's and Bushboy's tax cuts have contributed significantly to the $10 trillion national debt we now have, while having little to show for it.
They have been the enemies of the U.S. Constitution, ever ready to violate the civil liberties of American citizens in the name of the latest "fear du jour" (communism, terrorism, etc.).
Now the Republican Party is trying to block healthcare reform. Without it another 1 million Americans will go broke this year, because of a failed private insurance system. And eventually this failed healthcare system we have will break businesses and the federal government.
In spite of all this the Republican Party is monolithic in its opposition to healthcare reform. May the GOP R.I.P.
theoPitt
The Rebublicans may have opposed both social security and medicare, but arent both of those programs going broke? dont both of those programs have unfunded liabilities approaching the $100;s of Trillions. So can we pian that future debt on the Democrats? I'd trade 10 trillion with 100 trillion.
southernborn
Yes they are going broke because no one will keep their hands out of the till. We pay a tax for these programs our whole "working" life. If they didn't use the money as part of the budget and left it there soley for SS and Medicare, it would have a huge surplus.
I get sick of hearing people act like these are welfare programs and I hate hearing them called "entitlements", like it is a bad word. You are entitled because you paid every week for years and years to have this benefit. Its like someone complaining because you want to get your 401K when it is time for you to have it.
If we would make them leave the money alone (as Clinton attempted) the programs would be ok.
Picachu
The fact that both those programs are not financially sound has nothing to do with the reason they were instituted. Instead it is a result of fiscal irresponsibility on both sides of the aisle with congress borrowing funds that should have been used to fund these programs and these programs alone. An NO you can't pin that future debt on dems alone, and why don't you take your head out of your arse and realize that your republican party is not the savior and the evil democrats the problem = they are both guilty and both part of the problem.
safariman
Third party candidates lead to idiots like Al Franken and Jessie Ventura. Obama is doing more than enough right now to lead to a Republican comeback next year.
periscope
Your statement is inaccurate Ventura was a third party candidate, but Franken wasn't. And when it comes to idiots, I'd say Republicans and their mindless followers have had a monopoly on that state of mind for the past century.
gak001
Technically, Al Franken is a member of the Minnesota Farmer Labor Democratic Party. But safariman's statement rejects objective reality: regardless of how you feel about the man's politics, Sen. Franken is a well-educated, well-read, thoughtful man.
JackHughes
The election of Senator Franken raised the collective IQ of the US Senate by at least 5 points.
estcruzer
You are too kind
gak001
Spot on.
Picachu
You are truly delusional if you think there is going to be a republican comeback next year. What are you smoking? BTW - intellectually Al Franken for certain, and very likely Jesse the Body - would run circles around you.
keepakeeper43
The Republican Party is disappearing because of race and class.
Republicans have traditionally been white, (male), and affluent.
The demographics of the nation have been changing drastically over the last 50 years.
More and more "minorities" of all kinds have grown in the United States.
There are more "have-nots" than "haves".
These groups are traditionally democrats.
The Republican Party has always been the party of "Big Business".
The Democratic Party has always been the party of the "Working People".
So many Republicans are paranoid.
But that wont be the main " illustration of the slow-motion decomposition of the GOP".
downbytheriver00
Good article. I think it also is a sad commentary on America. Too many of us who are addicted to the political ball-game/freak-show seek out those in the media who will agree with our opinions (right or left). As such we spend our time glued to the TV watching the whack-jobs on MSNBC (for the left) or Fox (for the right), all the while eschewing real understanding and news and opting out instead for the lunatic fringe opinions that will only perpetuate our political proclivities.
I'm as guilty as the next person although I think I'm improving. I stopped watching Fox a year or so ago. I couldn't stand their lack of objectivity. I'm at the point now where I can't stand watching MSNBC anymore (especially those two idiots Olbermann and Maddow) for the same reason.
What's really weird about this whole thing is that the media of the left (this website included) continues to pile on to try and bury the GOP. This is truly mind boggling to me! Its as if the left wants only one party. What's the old saying about absolute power corrupting???
periscope
Your statement is illogical on several points. First off equating Fox Noise to MSNBC is like saying there's no difference between Pravda and The New York Times. While Olbermann and Maddow are opinionated, I challenge you to tell me any lies they've told. Lies are the staple of O'Reilly, Hannity and the Fox Noise channel.
In addition, the demise of the GOP is a good thing. The Democratic Party is so fractured and diverse that one wing of it will either split off and become a third Party or it will simply act as an opposition Party- as they currently are doing.
And as far as calling Olbermann and Maddow "idiots," you should have half their IQ.
Bagbabe53
You said it better than I ever could. I am a disaffected centrist Democrat who reluctantly voted for McCain. Both sides are so extreme; I take a bit from both and try to figure out the truth. I live near DC and see the piles of fraud, waste, and abuse by the feds all the time; a friend's husband was a whistleblower on waste and suffered terribly for it. Secondly, if you live near the nation's capital, sooner or later you meet someone who works on the Hill, WH, Secret Service, etc. and they tell you what some of these public figures are really like, and much of it isn't pretty on either side. I become more quasi-libertarian all the time; there's a lot of Medicaid and Medicare fraud, by the way... and we want the government to take over our health care???
Picachu
Bagbabe lets not forget the rest of the picture - extreme corporate greed. The problem of waste and fraud is not restricted to the gov sector.
Dolmance
The story that Obama was really born in Kenya is a smokescreen to turn people away from the real truth - that the President of the United States is a full blooded North Korean Colonel who was given a series of surgeries to make him look African. He answers directly to Kim Sung Il and is their secret weapon to destroy America and get the entire population to submit to a "branding," administered by government tattoo artists who plan to require all citizens to have the numbers "999," placed on their forearms. I don't have to tell you what "999," is when upside down.
Dolmance
The Republicans are disappearing because demographically speaking, Americans are becoming less vile. This "vileness deficit," is threatening their very existence. But professional blabbermouths on the Right are hoping to give vileness in America a boost by spewing fear, paranoia and outright lies 24/7. Only time will tell if they're successful.
Mixpixlix
Excellent article. The Republican party began to canniblize itself when it catered to the the hypocritical religious right.Do what I say, not what I do has been their credo for decades.
However, the GOP wouln't have gotten so crazy IF more people would have voted when it mattered in the 80s and 90s. Becasue so many people stayed home thinking their vote didn't matter, the loonies got control.
So if nothing else this tale of a party that's lost its way should remind everyone to VOTE and pay attention to what our government (national, state and local) are doing.
Things we once believed couldn't happen here have and we need to make sure never again does a party get so far away from the mainstream that it nearly destroys this nation.
Ritarita
I really think
Karl Rove engineered
This horrific downfall-
By installing the talking dummy
As President.
But how much sympathy
Can you really have for a party
When they stood enthusiastically
Behind a talking dummy?
mibwilso
I find it particularly interesting that Republicans are increasingly retreating into a modern-day equivalent of a Southern strategy.
They seem to think that they can stoke White anger and resentment for political gain...it's like Nixon and the '60s all over again.
This party is heading the way of the Whigs unless they can figure out how to make conservatism work for a wider swath of Americans.
mibwilso
The Republicans have basically dropped any pretense of reaching out to minority voters.
Rather than quashing this racist birther nonsense, the Republicans have decided to let it fester and give it tacit approval.
And they wonder why minorities won't vote for them??
JackHughes
Literally EVERYTHING the Republicans now say is a lie, so why should the "Birther" nonsense be any different?
I suspect the Republicans and their vast media machine are rather surprised they've actually been called out and exposed on this particular bit of agitprop.
Downriver
The Republicans need to gain some leadership but FAST.It is unbelievable that this party can't or won't find someone to relate to anyone but the 20% loony tunes base. It will be a tragedy if these clowns leave only one viable party.
REPUBLICANS PLEASE get your act together!
pennsykid2000
Incoherence certainly describes Republican actions lately, but what really killed the Whigs was Irrelevance, and it's not too large a step from incoherence to irrelevance. Continuing to oppose meaningful health care reform and similar feckless efforts will lead to irrelevance soon enough.
plevert
Our dear Republicans..... Love the continuation of the self destruction....Both parties have extremes..but you just can't
stop the bleeding of the Republicans..
More, more,more....Rush, Newt,Ensign,Sanford,Vetter ( he's just snarly along with Eric Cantor....oh and Michelle Bachman, Marsha Blackburn, Ann Coulter, Michele Malkin, Sean Hannity
Picachu
The Republican Party deserve to die.
dgteaneck
John Bitchelor wrote:
The conduct of the Republicans in Congress since January has been astonishingly frail, as if the party had lost immunities to race-baiters like Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich, to liars like John Ensign and Mark Sanford, to yammerers like Eric Cantor and Michele Bachmann, to the goofily vain like Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee.
Your adjectives to describe these people are birtheresque.
This is Batchelor's death knell for serious consideration.
Crymeariver sounds like a birther wannabee.
Lunacy? Listen to Obama for the last 11 days.
Mhussein
two words: great read...
seeksense
Great article.
Just heard the newest hypo-republi-crite lying points.
Health care reform will force the elderly to kill themselves or be killed.
Frightening the elderly is their new agenda.
This is so evil and so wrong I can't even think of a word strong enough to describe it.
Republicans are sick, they need help!
PinkoLefty
Fellow Progressives,
Some of you seem to be prematurely celebrating the death of the GOP. Consider this a friendly reminder of the dangers of dancing on empty graves. There's a big difference between being a regional party and being an extinct party.
Consider also that the death of the GOP might not exactly match your visions of an ideal future. Power-hungry politicians with bad ideas don't typically set themselves up for failure by joining a party relegated to the dustbin. Instead, they'll join the party most likely to get them elected. If you think our current team of blue dogs should be sent back to the kennel then just imagine the chaotic paralysis that would result from quadrupling their numbers.
Personally I'd like to see the GOP return to being the party of Lincoln, Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Powell rather than die out in a blaze of ignorance a la the "Know Nothing" party of the mid 1800's.
Just my .02 worth of Illuminati-backed, one world government reserve currency.
daniel66
OMG...we have huge issues to tend to and this article is intelligent? Newsflash: "The president is a resident"....can we get back to something that matters now!
Nine Minutes?
Thaddeus McCotter extended his argument to suit Chris Matthews's repetitive and suspiciously simple questions as to when and how the resolution calling for POTUS to apologize to a private citizen, Crowley, will come to the floor and to a vote in the House. The answer is self-evidently, "Never," considering who is in charge of the House and Congress and who lives at the White House. A comparable resolution calling for a Republican POTUS to apologize for remarks about a private citizen's conduct, for example, about private citizens camping in front of his home in Texas, would enjoy a much different fate. That is the nature of winning elections. Thaddeus McCotter certainly understands that his resolution is a demonstration, not a floor assault. The congressman uses the world "principle." Chris Matthews avoids the word "principle." The puzzle is why Matthews devoted nine minutes to the segment, twice as long as usual for disdain -- and the sort of time that is useful for roundtable debate, point, counter-point. Did someone refuse to go on with Thaddeus McCotter? Surely Hardball bookers could find a paint-by-even-numbers Democrat, or even a Lanny Davis understudy, to harass Thaddeus McCotter for asking the unlikely of POTUS. Until informed otherwise, a probably guess is that the nine minutes was for two or more, and the Democrat air traffic control officer waved off the inbound missile. Why?
Beer Party.
Chris Matthews twice or more points to a picnic table and a beer party at the White House on Thursday night, 30 July. Why is there a beer party? What is the agenda? To re-examine the event? To apologize all around, including POTUS and Gates to James Crowley and so forth? Professor Gates does not consume alcohol, so we can guess at an iced tea. There will be a press avail, plenty of photos, a churning video, likely more than one video, and then post-op comments by all. Will Crowley speak? Has Crowley already been prepped by PBA lawyers and police union lawyers? What about the media demand on him? All the same for Gates, tough we know his lawyer is Harvard Law School mentor Ogletree. Gates is a savvy, glib, dominating media presence. Why is he holding back? Request of the White House? Is there a Gates lawsuit for wrongful arrest that the White House is arguing against? If the POTUS has not surprised with the beer party announcement last Friday -- and from the remarks it was not a certainty when POTUS raised it -- then this story would already be in the "moving on" bin in media booking. Instead, Thaddeus McCotter did Fox this morning, Matthews this evening, and will likely do Lou Dobbs and more by Thursday. Note that there are now 700 comments on Freep.com re Thaddeus McCotter's resolution, many of them issued by grumpy progressives who do not want POTUS moving a step toward Crowley land. The phenomenon will grow at least till Friday, when Congress goes on break. Though there will be that unusual coda in August when POTUS gathers with Gates and Ogletree on the Vineyard.long way from Oahu.
Script.
George Mitchell's mission to Damascus is part of the script by the White House Politburo to construct an appeasement to Tehran. The plan was put in place after POTUS visit to Riyadh in June. The next step is to offer the criminal Assad regime in Damascus a return of the U.S. ambassador. The White House plan is advanced. The confusion is how to negotiate with Tehran after the usurper Ahmadinejad regime stands as discredited. Tehran source from the Diaspora reports that the usurper Ahmadinejad is consolidating the security forces. Unconfirmed report that the head of the Ministry of Information and Security (the secret police) has been replaced by the head of the Basiji, the para military brownshirts. The Tehran regime is brittle, turbulent, perilous, unrepentant, adamant, sinister.
Jerusalem Watches.
Major Jerusalem source points to irregular activities in Bekaa by a now re-armed Hizballah, which operates freely while the UN supervised watchdogs look the other way. The concern is that Tehran needs to relieve the twinned pressures of the resistance in the streets and the UN sanctions. A blantant and effective diversion would be Hizballah rocketing of northern Israel. Nothing in Gaza has been rebuilt since the conflict December and January. However Hamas is fully re-armed with short and long range rockets. Jerusalem source points to continuing maneuvers by the IDF and IAAF and the Israeli Navy. Preparations for several scenarios continue.
Basiji Weary.
Simple, sad, compelling video, a minute of sorrow far away in a graveyard in southern Tehran, where the body of a young woman was hidden from the world by the usurper Ahmadinejad and his goons, who murdered her and covered up the crime. We have this from resistance. The first weeks after the murder, the regime prevented mourners from reaching Neda Soltan's grave. There looks to have been a change now. A policy change? Or weakening in police controls? The Basiji who killed Neda and covered up the crime look to be be in retreat or perhaps just exhausted by the weeks of turmoil.
Ahmadinejad.
The ursurper is not idle. The decision has been made to hang on, even to the point of removing one of his relatives from the Vice-Presidency in response to crankiness from the mullahs. Meanwhile there is indication that Tehran is planning to disrupt the elections in Afghanistan in August in order to distract attention from the bad vote in Iran. Hamid Karzai is running for re-election, and his major opponent is Abdullah Abdullah, who is backed by Tehran. There are lesser candidates, one of whom is backed by HRC and James Carville. In sum, the elction in Afghanistan will be a mess of US influence peddling and Iran vote-buying and Karzai ballot stuffing. Expect claims and counterclaims of fraud and theft. It will not be untrue that the US interferes in Afghanistan affairs. Neda Soltan's grave will grow colder; there will be fewer flowers; her mother's emptiness will remain.
The
Lynn Sweet Ringer?
Harvard Professor "Skip" Gates flapdoodle was created by POTUS taking a last question of the presser from Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun-Times Washington blogger and long time Obama authority. Questions abound, and the diligent RBO provides a comprehensive curiosity. Sweet says she was called the day before by the White House and asked if she'd attend presser. She says she was told that she might get a question. This was her first ever question at any of the now five POTUS pressers at WH. Sweet says the WH did not cook the question or ask her about it. Sweet's paper Chicago Sun-Times ran an AP report on the story on July 21. Also a blog by a regular blogger who is called "African-American Political Pundit," who reprinted Gate's lawyer Ogletree's version, which is extremely negative on the police officers. Also, following reporting by colleague Aaron Klein, the woman who called in the police is named Whalen, who works at Harvard Magazine, which is three doors away. Gates has been featured in Harvard Magazine. It was daylight when she said she couldn't see or recognize Gates. Other questions remain, created by the discrepancy between the police report and the statements of Ogletree, and now POTUS. Potus is lawyer careful in this video clip of his repair statement at WH to say what he has "heard" about the incident, not read, not been told, not assumed, not read a summary of commission report. POTUS insists upon calling both the policeman and Gates to task for "overreacting." More of POTUS instinct to call for restraint from both sides. POTUS looks to know he is sloppy here, and that is how I read his attempts at humor with the "beer at the White House" schtick. "Coffee" would have done. And the little wit about getting the media off Crowley's lawn didn't go anywhere, since POTUS started the tempest with his "stupidly" wisecrack. Also, on Sunday 26, Craig Unger, Vanity Fair, once editor of Boston Magazine, will relate a droll and revealing "Skip" Gates tale. Gates has long been operatic.
The Polls.
Suspicion starts that the original question was about the polls. POTUS and his Politburo wanted to pump the POTUS numbers on healthcare snoozer presser by getting sympathy with the last question. The audience for the presser was down sharply, nearly fifty percent since the April presser. Politburo aimed to drive the numbers, then claim the good approvals meant the public approves Obamacare. Did it backfire? Rasmussen has POTUS at -8 for strongly disapprove to strongly approve. POTUS overall at 49% approval in tracking poll, first time under 50% ever. And this only includes one post presser night. Second and third nights will see negatives climb and approval sink. The presser was about healthcare. The Gates flapdoodle is a distraction, but an important distraction is that it backfired. POTUS now goes out on a Friday afternoon, when no one is paying attention, to say that he chatted on the phone with Cambridge police officer James Crowley (right). POTUS obfuscating. This guarantees that the Gates flapdoodle gets another day and much attention on the Saturday talkfests on TV and a mention on Sunday shows. The Gates distraction is all negative now, because the week was really about Obamacare. The Senate bailed out the day after the presser. Obamacare is inert of its own incoherence, palaver, coSts and most especially of its taxes. My professionals will have much to say on Obamacare the Frankenstein monster that couldn't get a lightning strike Sunday 26. For now, the POTUS dipping polls will become the story.
Hydra-headed.
Speaking re the mire of Afghanistan Michael Vlahos, John Hopkins, John Loftus, John Loftus Radio Show, Bill Roggio, Long War Journal, and the news will not be cheerful. Above video underlines the rude formula that incomplete July is the worst KIA month of the eight year war. Worse, there is no metric to show progress, advancement, mission accomplished, or even a timetable. Afghanistan is the forever war that the Bush critics claimed of Iraq. POTUS spoke of Afghanistan as the real war during the campaign. It is neither forever or real. It is a civil war of independent factions. The Taliban is hydra-headed. Kabul is a sewer. The Afghans will live on foreign aid as along as we push it into the country. There is no normal after thirty years of killing and depredations by the Russians, the Taliban, the Europeans and Americans. Why are we in Afghanistan? No one has a certain answer.
POTUS Wants a Grand Bargain.
Best signals source tells me that in Riyadh in June, POTUS asked Saudi intelligence to buy the Taliban leaders and end the war so that the US can bug out. Prince Moqrin, head of Saudi Intelligence, is now negotiating with several senior warlords. Will he be successful? Doubtful. The Taliban can try a ceasefire long enough to give the Americans and exit. The aim is to transfer Afghanistan under the control of the Pakistani secret police and other jihadist bullies. I mention this plan not because it is credible to me, but because it is an ongoing delusion of the Obama administration that it can disengage from Afghanistan. Part of the grand bargain with the usurper Ahmadinejad.
Tehran Shooters.
Best Tehran resistance source passed along stunning video of Basiji rifleman firing into a Tehran crowd at the direction of a scooter riding uniformed figure and then a plainclothes man who is also firing a pistol. The comments on the entry indicate the Basiji is firing an AK-47. The shooters flee in confusion when the protest mob does not break up or melt away. Later we can see one protester down and collapsing in shock, then being carried out of the range of fire by mates. Of significance to me is that the shooters are isolated, no support teams; that the shooters must flee on foot and may not have support to fall back on. That the protesters throw stones after them but do not have weapons. That the video was recorded from a distance.
POTUS Silence.
POTUS silence may end this news cycle with 8 pm presser at White House. There will be Tehran questions. White House has alerted who will ask questions. Does this mean they can control questions, order of questions? Surely POTUS will not call on both sides in Tehran to exercise restraint? Will POTUS register that the mullahs are split? Will there be a question about the Syrian ambassador offered to Damascus without concessions, a gift to Tehran? Usurper Ahmadinejad is fragile. Tehran resistance is bolder and bolder. The Basiji shooters are marked men, and they know there will be revenge. The challenge for Obama administration is that Politburo plan was to appease Tehran and make a triumphant visit to Tehran for peace in the Middle East. Now in tatters. How long can POTUS and his Politburo ignore the evidence of Tehran villainy? FDR ignored Berlin villainy form 1933 until 1939.
Anything Goes No More.
Colleague Laura Meckler, WSJ, comments carefully and accurately that the Obama administration is unlikely to meet its self-imposed deadline of the August 6 congressional recess to pass the healthcare reform bills in both houses. My professionals on Sunday 19 were uniform in asserting that the healthcare legislation was bogged down by cross-currents. Chief problem at the moment is that the CBO has scored the legislation as raising costs, not lowering costs, and this destroys the argument for the legislation. The larger issue is politics. The Democrat majorities in the houses are looking ahead to the fall 2010 and see that there is widespread disregard for the spending from stimulus to healthcare. The public is pulling back from the anything goes remedy of last winter. Anything goes no more. John Fund regularly reminds the audience that there are 49 especially at-risk Democrats in the House who won election in districts that voted for John McCain in 2008. There are also a few national polls that show a steady decline in approval for POTUS policies and even for POTUS. The advantage POTUS has is that there is no credible Republican opposition. This is the same advantage that the Democrats in the Congress have, not including the McCain districts. Late in the news cycle, Bloomberg reports that Steny Hoyer is now hinting loudly that the House may depart August 6 without voting on healthcare. RX RIP.
"I don't think staying in session" is "necessary to continuing to work on getting consensus," Hoyer, of Maryland, said at a news conference today. "We are continuing to talk about how to improve the bill," he said. "Obviously, members have concerns."
Taxes.
Also, my professionals, Rob Pollock, James Taranto, Diana West, John Avlon, Larry Johnson, Craig Unger, were adamant that the Democrat majorities in Congress cannot (and perhaps will not) move to lower taxes despite the recession. And that the proposal by Charles Rangel at the Ways and Means, backed up by remarks from the White House, that a surtax on "the rich" is possible for the healthcare bills. John Avlon emphasized that the independents (majority cadre in voting public) are recoiling from the Obama administration's spending, and that raising taxes in a recession is reckless and self-destructive. Astonishing political deafness in Washington. Who is not listening at the White House? The Politburo? POTUS? The cabinet officers are listening, but there has only been one Cabinet meeting since the beginning, and that was on Day 100. I am writing in detail about problems that are now showing in the polling. The jobless number is a poison. Housing is worse. Dawn Kopecki, Bloomberg, told me Sunday 19 that Freddie Mac has adjusted the mortgage interest of exactly one house since the POTUS plan to help underwater homeowners. One. And Fannie Mae has not helped even one. Fannie is getting 80,000 inquiries a day. Congress provided the money. But the lenders are holding up the resets. Rather forcelose than adjust the rates and maintain a cash flow. This is the kind of bad news story that spreads across the country slowly yet undermines confidence fast when it is heard.
The administration has "encountered a few difficulties" in starting the Making Home Affordable refinancing program for troubled borrowers, said William Apgar, an adviser at the Housing and Urban Development Department. The program, intended to help as many as 4 million people, has so far extended modification offers to about 325,000, he told the committee.
Her Crime?
Colleague Thaddeus McCotter, 11th Michigan (R), spoke on the floor of the House this news cycle to bring to history the name and face of a young Iranian woman, 19 year-old Taraneh Mousavi, who was arrested and abducted on July 9th by Basij thugs in Tehran. There were witnesses to Taraneh Mousavi's abduction near the Ghoba Mosque. Her crime? Wearing a green scarf for the protest against the illegitimate usurper Ahmadinejad. The report is that Taraneh Mousavi was later found beaten, raped, tortured. The report is that Taraneh Mousavi died in the hospital. What is reported also is that Taraneh Mousavi's body was taken from the hospital by the killers, and her body was found burned in order to prevent an autopsy that could identify the cause of death. Taraneh Mousavi was an only child of elderly parents. Her parents said to be under threat by the regime to keep silent. Best LA/Tehran source tells me bluntly, and told the congressman as well, "the reistance wants her story out." I spoke on air of Taraneh Mousavi's murder on Sunday 19 with Ardeshir Arian, Media Without Borders. Thaddeuus McCotter spoke on the Congressional Record the story of Taraneh Mousavi's murder on Monday 20.
Silence of the POTUS.
The puzzle of the ongoing turmoil in Tehran and throughout the Islamic Republic is how the continuing silence of the Obama administration is aiding the vast resistance to the usurper Ahmadinejad and his IRGC predators. The DoD has consistently detailed the efforts of the IRGC to wreck the Iraq government and defeat the Coalition since 2003. Ahmadinejad is voluble in his threats against Israel and the Jewish people. The Supreme Leader Khamenei is a tyrant and provocateur of naked aggression. All this, and since June the steady stream of reports of the brutality of the Basij militia against the Iranian people, and still neither POTUS nor significant representatives of the Obama administration speak in public to name Teheran as a rogue. The silence does not improve the facts. The well-sourced intelligence that the Obama administration aims to negotiate an expedient bargain with Tehran, to add to a similar bargain offered by the Bush administration, is said to explain POTUS silence. Thaddeus McCotter speaks for the American people who have listened in disappointment for an honest, sturdy voice of liberty from the elected leader of "the citty on a hill."
Shadi Sadr Missing
Late report that journalist and lawyer Shadi Sadr was arrested last Friday 17 in Tehran enroute to the Rafsanjani sermon. She was taken by the secret police, who are said not to have shown a warrant. An LA blog reports that Shadi Sadr telephoned her husband to ask for a password to her mobile phone. Why a password? To unlock the phone so that the secret police can document her contacts. Shadi Sadr's whereabouts are unknown at this time.
Detroit 1967.
Speaking Saturday 18, the first Saturday show to begin the weekend of shows, to Thaddeus McCotter, 11th Michigan, which is west Detroit, called Livonia, in Wayne County. In this video montage of events in mid July no matter the year, after Mata Hari is condemned to death, Pancho Villa is assassinated, there is a quick tour of the damage to downtown Detroit in the riots of July 1967 under Governor George Romney of Michigan. It is forty-two years since it was impossible to ignore that Detroit was in trouble, and now with the extreme collapse of GM, Chrysler, and the retreat of Ford to a hard shell of itself, and the unusual mandates from the Obama administration re how GM must conduct itself as a green manufacturer, we can see that last five decades as the decline and fall of Motor City. Thaddeus McCotter is a candid, passionate voice for his city and his home state, and we will debate if this present disrepair was inevitable since 1967, since the congressman was two years old in Livonia. A deeper concern is to explore if Detroit and the struggling state of Michigan, with 12% unemployment and climbing, with a net outflow of citizens, is the future for other states, for most of urban and industrial America.
Walter Cronkite.
We will also discuss the passing of Walter Cronkite, who was the center of momentous remarks in American media history. During the Tet offensive in 1968, Walter Cronkite remarked on air that Vietnam was "unwinnable," -- a prescient, astute remark at the time -- and afterward LBJ remarked to colleagues, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." Another critical moment was eighteen months later, during the new presidency of RMN, when Walter Cronkite narrated the moon landing. So many of the crises of my early lifetime were narrated by Walter Cronkite, that he sounds to me to be the voice of history.
Al Q Textbook.
Fresh and vital video from the Jakarta blasts, two of them ten minutes apart, both delivered by shahid bombers, which is textbook Al Q working through Islamic Jihad Indonesia. The bombers like the upscale Westerner hang-outs. Am told that the security at the Marriot and Ritz is good, with metal detectors, however there are no body searches. First reporting is that the bomber team walked the parts into the hotels and assembled the bombs in suites. This suggests a large organization, again textbook Al Q. With scouts, intel, recon, bomb builder, command and control, then two two martyrs saps prepared with prayers and last videos to their comrades. Like East Africa, like all the other ops since including especially 9-11 and the London tube strikes. Obama administration has its first taste of a full-scale Al Q op. It will work like this in the US or a US target, too. Walk in the parts and assemble on site. The Indonesia government is not unstable, just moved through safe, status quo ante elections. AlQ/IJ strikes because it can strike. Regard this as a successul op, good for recruiting, good for fund raising.
POTUS Condemns.
White House swift to condemn the bombers. Much swifter than the Tehran terror of the Basij and the thuggery in Honduras -- same linked source to the Tehran mischief sponsorship of jihad and its zesty cousins (Chavez). POTUS silent, totally silent, on Urumqi. Fires closing in on isolationists at White House. Sandbagging fiercely at Politburo. Two bombs in Jakarta and the Politburo must deal with the fact that Al Q has not quit the war even if the Obama administration wants to.
Out with the Old.
POTUS in New Jersey on a steamy day with Governor Jon Corzine, making a boilerplate speech that is heavy on blaming the old ways and crushingly heavier on the radiant future of clean energy and clean jobs and clean healthcare and clean education and clean financial regulations. The speech lacks the verisimilitude of a POTUS dealing with the one element that signifies between elections, Congress. POTUS is in campaign mode. Why? Who is voting for his agenda? New Jersey is voting for Corzine's performance, and that means it is voting on one of those state governments from the bad old days before POTUS. Out with the old includes out with Corzine. Maybe it does not come to the White House that Corzine was elected in the first run because he was a famous Goldman, Sachs boss. Also, in this video, POTUS leans very hard into bloviating. Not very cooling. The shouting tells me that negotiations in Congress are on a rocky road:
"Once we clear away the wreckage....investing in the clean energy jobs of the future... controlling healthcare costs that are driving our nation into debt... we're gonna get healthcare reform done... financial regulation reform done... thank ya, God Bless ya, God bless ya..."
White House Politburo.
My source tells me that the Poliburo that runs the Administration is ready and eager to make any deal to get a healthcare bill, to trade anything away including the word "health." They want something that they can add to POTUS slight resume. First he is elected POTUS then he must go looking to collect credits that can get him elected POTUS. Congress can smell how much the White House wants the deal. Politburo will take a total partisan vote, Democrats over Republicans. The blinking that you hear is the Democrats who know how vulnerable their marginal members are to next year when the price tag climbs, jobs do not recover, and the Obama administration is stuck with sour polling. Only way for the small midterm electorate to express frustration is to vote out the 49 Dem members of the House who won in McCain-voting districts. Now you can guess why POTUS is shouting about the wreckage. It could be a vision of wreckage to come.
| Thousands of people gathered to see President Barack Obama at Corzine fundraiser |
Bob Zimmerman, author, "Universe in a Mirror" and "Leaving Earth," and I corresponded after the launch of STS 127 Endeavor, and our debate as ever was on the drama of the shuttle. Bob has taught me that the shuttle program, scheduled to be closed down as early as September 2010, can and likely will be extended indefinitely in order to maintain a vehicle that can service the ISS. The Obama administration does not aim to spend the money needed to build the Ares booster and the Orion six-man spacecraft for the return to the moon. Nor does there look to be money for a new and improved shuttle. NASA is going forward into the fifth decade since the moonlanding with aging equipment, limited manned horizons, a caretaker administration. Space exploration is not a passion of the Obama administration. The shuttle that launched this news cycle is likely to be launching repeatedly over the next four years. The foam that fell off will fall off repeatedly over the next four years. Bob Zimmerman argues convincingly that we need a new shuttle, that we need alternative launch vehicles (such as SpaceX), that we need focus on the next generation CEV. And that none of this will happen soon. "Very sad," Bob closed.G8 Ball.
Spoke Sunday 12 with the always energetic Marc Marano, Climate Depot, re the G8 inability to deliver on the utopian ambitions of the climate control NGOs to mandate industrial down-sizing. It comes to this fact. At the present growth curve, the G8 rich states, plus the G20 rich states, plus the G39 rich states (subsets repeated) will fail to meet all known targets for carbon emissions over the next forty and ninety years. POTUS arrived in Italy with the Cap and Trade 219 vote win in the House, credit Mrs. Pelosi, and he was the natural leader for the other (mostly Euro) climate cultists. Didn't work. China and India balked, and that gave air cover to all the other doubters. Fiona Harvey, Financial Times, told me Sunday 12 that unless the industrial states moderate and make the carbon emissions peak in the next ten years, they cannot meet their goal of limiting to 2 degree rise worldwide by 2050. Further, that unless the US delivers Cap and Trade, the Copenhagen session of the climate cult, chaired by the UN's Ban Ki Moon, is a non-starter. The House bill itself is now troubled (see above, the polite version) after the vote. Many folk jumping overboard after the G8 flop. Why? Perhaps there is no downside to quitting an Eight Ball. Note the mention of Eliot Engel, 19th NY (D), an agreeable, savvy, liberal vote: EE would not be toying with voting no unless there was agreement among the progressive cultists that the Cap and Trade bill is an antique novelty.
Sea Ice.
Meanwhile I read on ClimateDepot that there is a surprising detail this Summer 2009 about sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere. This is not a positive for the "we are melting" chant. Al Gore, call your science officer: "June 2009 monthly sea ice data is now out for NH and SH. The global sea ice anomaly in June 2009 remained positive. Over the 1979-2009 period, there is zero trend in global sea ice anomaly, with a SH increasing trend offsetting a NH decreasing trend. June 2009 NH anomaly was not remarkable." What I understand from the 82 comments is that the NASA projections for the retreat of the Northern Ice Pack do not take into account this "anomaly." Also that the worldwide warming trend may be limited to the North Hemisphere. This seems irregular. The cult gotta lotta "splainin' to do. "Looks like cryosphere is ignoring the Southern Hemisphere. Guess they aren't really talking about 'worldwide' climate, just the Northern Hemisphere...."
Kim is dying. How soon is the question, and what happens while he is dying and afterward is the question. Spoke to Evan Ramstad, Wall Street Journal at Seoul, Gordon Chang, author, "Sho
Wow, this is the most intelligent and insightful analysis of a situation that I have read on ANY on-line magazine in a very long time. Thanks for the brain food, we were starving.
Hope you write more articles in the future as well as consider joining a 3rd party.