JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Thursday 905P Eastern Time:  Mary Kissel, WSJ editorial board, in re: the politics of smear: does it work for an incumbent president to attack the challenger?

Thursday 920P Eastern Time:  Mona Charen, NRO, in re: the Obama campaign and weakening welfare law of 1996, the Obama campaign and the Joe Soptic charge that Reomney and Bain led to his wife's death by cancer.

Thursday 935P Eastern Time:  Bill Whalen, Hoover, in re:  for VP – multiple offers; John Bachelor favors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota "because he doesn’t get in the way of the candidate." Dennis Miller says that conventions are such a yawn these days that they could be boiled down to about two hours each.

Thursday 950P Eastern Time:  Mary Kissel, in re: California cities intending to use eminent domain to seize underwater homes, repackage, sell, and pay the middleman a cut.   Legal?  Umm.  Fannie and Freddie own a lot of these mortgages; if you seize them, and devalue these assets, you're damaging the US taxpayers; not allowed by law to let you do that.  Let's say Chicago says, I'll seize one mortgage out of a pool and pay you what I think its worth.  Problem: underpays owner, scares the whole mortgage market, and  will drive private investment totally our of the housing mkt – leaving us taxpayers to pick up the tab.  Phil Angelides involved in "some" of these deliberations; is involved with Mortgage Resolution Partners. Crony capitalism!  Hooray, Ed DiMarco.

Above: Fez, the former capital, is one of the country's four "imperial cities," the others being Rabat, Marrakech and Meknes. It comprises three distinct parts, Fes el Bali (the old, walled city), Fes-Jdid (new Fes, home of the Mellah) and the Ville Nouvelle (the French-created, newest section of Fes).

Thursday 1020P (720P Pacific Time): Harold Rhode, Pentagon Ofc of Net Assessment (ret), in re: Nuclear development in Iran.  Esp in Iran, "First you win, then you negotiate."  "O-ba-ma" in Farsi means, "He is with us." 

Thursday 1035P (735P Pacific Time):  Dr Mohsen Sazegara, a founder of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the managing director of the National Radio of Iran (1979–1981), jailed by Khamenei for reformist tendencies, to the UK for medical attention, then Visiting Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute at Southern Methodist University in Dallas; in re: Iran. Yes, govt of al-Maliki is dependent on Iran in several ways; many problems in Iraq because he supports the IRGC. Fifteen thousand(?) Iranians on the ground in Syria.  Three thousand _  have come through the Damascus airport this week? Lots of members of al Qods Force in Syria right now.  The 48 detained by the Free Syrian Army include some high-ranking Iranians. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are working together, are accused by Iran of arming the FSA.  Iran can help Syria in Internet control and street-protest control, in technical matters.  Nonaligned Movement mtg scheduled in Iran: these days, after he end of the Cold War, the appellation "nonaligned" is useless [and therefore bogus].  Iran as involved as it can be in Egypt. The key to the battle in Syria is Russia, above all, and to a lesser degree China. How do Iranians read US policy on Iran? These days, focused on sanctions against Iran as the economic crisis there is escalating day by day. This fall it may have gone "too far" and lead to deep stagflation. During the Iranian Green Revolution. people shouted, Obama, are you with us or the mullahs?  Popular doubt about Pres Obama Administration.

Thursday 1050P (750P Pacific Time): Eric Trager, Washington Institute, in re: Implication of violent unrest on Israel’s borders in Sinai and Syria. The counterattack by Egypt in Sinai is not by Morsi but by Egyptian military.  Power struggle between Muslim Brotherhood and the military. Morsi wants good relations with Iran & to visit Iran soon; apptd as his chief of staff the former Egyptian amb to Libya, very anti-Western. The military let Morsi made a difficult statement because it, also, is under public pressure to be seen as doing something after 15 Egyptian soldiers were killed. Israelis warned Egyptians about forthcoming attack; Intell Chief "didn’t think that Muslims wd attack other Muslims during Ramadan"! 

Thursday 1105P (805P Pacific Time): Malcolm Hoenlein, in re: London: Israel's Defense Chief says new intell changing the assessment of Iran's danger; have discovered that Iran is dangerous.  "Iran has made surprising and significant progress" in nuclear enrichment. "Surprise whom?  You had only to listen to the John Batchelor Show for a few years."  Nukes moved from Iraq to Syria at Saddam's downfall; all material sold to Saddam by Russia.  The US simply needs to take bolder steps. [John Bolton: "If you woke up every morning to serious threats of being obliterated, you'd take major steps, too."]  Lebanon: Syrian Gen Adnan Saleh defects; will Assad use chem. weapons? "Yes, if he feels constricted."  Huge stockpiles. Have same serial numbers as thise originally in Iraqi; need 75,000 troops to guard them, esp shoulder-fired missiles. Sarin gas and nerve agents.   Aleppo abandoned by Free Syrian Army?   Assad cannot afford to lose Aleppo or Damascus. Ten prominent Sunni families defected this week. Iranians to propose an independent Alawi mini-state.  Expect a long and protracted conflict.

Thursday 1120P (820P Pacific Time): Yaakov Katz, military correspondent for The Jerusalem Post, & Israeli correspondent for Jane’s Defence Weekly; in re:  unrest in Sinai. Morsi and Tantawi will station more troops in Sinai. Global jihad in Sinai – Sinai the new Somalia with Salafist cells?  Israel thinks so – Iraq, Afgh, Libya, all sending support for complete anarchy.  Unless Israel starts bombing – not good – its Egypt's responsibility to clean this up.  Bulgarian phone calls traced; attempt to bring explosives into Israel:  20 kg of high-grade C4 found only a month after it was carried in, buried in an Arab Israeli's backyard.  They want to do it by remote control without Hezbollah fingerprint.  If Israel were to retaliate, how so? Can’t bomb Lebanon, which is in the middle of this; but needs to be smarter in its response – trying to get Hezbollah declared a terrorist organization in Europe (it's nuts that it's not).   Morsi declares that one of his first trips will be to Iran, but recall rivalry between Egyptian Sunnis – leader of the Arab world – and the expansionist Iranian Shia.  And on the third hand, Egypt depends heavily on Saudi Arabia.

Thursday 1135P (835P Pacific Time): Bob Zimmerman, behindtheblack, in re:  NASA, crash of Morpheus, Russian proton satellite launch crash, news from Curiosity, Google Lunar X Prize

Thursday 1150P (850P Pacific Time): Jeff Bliss, The Bliss Index, in re:  Jerry Brown's big projects of high-speed rail and big aqueduct - legacy or lunacy? - also Chevron fire in SF Bay,

Thursday/Fri 1205A (905 Pacific Time): Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity by Joel Stein; 1 of 2

Thursday/Fri  1220A (920 Pacific Time): Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity by Joel Stein; 2 of 2

Thursday/Fri  1235A (935P Pacific Time): Bill Whalen, Hoover, in re:  for VP – multiple offers; John Bachelor favors Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota "because he doesn’t get in the way of the candidate."

Thursday/Fri  1250A  (950P Pacific Time): Exeunt. Adam Satariano, Bloomberg, Apple rumors of new iPhone for September.

..  ..  .. 

Music (using East Coast broadcast times)

9-hour:  Mad Max; Ides of March; 10-hour:  The Kingdom; Syriana; Tears of the Sun; 11-hour:  Blackhawk Down; Star Trek; ;Ides of March; midnight hour:   The Artist; Ides of March..