Did the administration and the media shoot itself in the foot in the Trayvon Martin controversy?

Gateway Pundit carries an interview of Janet Murgula, President of La Raza, on Keeping it Real with Reverend Al Sharpton (guest host Andre Eggelletion).   The gist of the conversation is Hispanics and blacks should join forces to address common “problems.”  It is curious why such a conversation is taking place at the height of the Trayvon Martin issue.

It seems the controversy is now driving a wedge between Hispanics and blacks.  Janet Murgula wouldn't have made her statement otherwise.  The friction has long been there.  Look at the street gangs of Los Angeles, look at the prison gangs.  They are primarily Hispanics vs. blacks.  Blacks blame Hispanics for their job losses and a host of other ills.  Hispanics think blacks are being dealt better cards in the way of racial preferences.

When the Trayvon Martin case exploded, it was in the interest of the Obama campaign to make it a case of white vs. black.  They wanted to gin up the base with the tried and true "the Klan is coming to git you" mentality.  But it has turned into a renewal of long simmering Hispanic/black tensions -- this despite the sycophant media’s best efforts to create anti-white animus by calling George Zimmerman a white Hispanic from a gated community and various other subterfuges.

Efforts by liberals, the media and black “leaders” for a rush to judgment no doubt has Hispanics worried that this is but one more example of favoring blacks over them.  Obama and the liberal media unintentionally walked into a trap, set by themselves for political advantage.  But it hasn’t worked out the way they hoped it would.  It has ensnared two of the Democrats’ key voting blocks into a renewed rivalry with each other.  And Democrats now want the story to go away.  The NY Times has been virtually silent on the issue for a week now and a White House spokesman has said it has spoken its last on it.  The focus groups and polling data must be terrible for them.

Obama’s deal with North Korea a disaster … His reaction, please don’t report on it

The Obama administration has just proven its utter failure in foreign policy.  It had negotiated an agreement with the North Korea that in exchange for food it would give up its uranium enrichment program, allow IAEA inspectors into the Yongbyong facilities, halt missile tests and cease nuclear weapons tests.  It is now 43 days since the agreement was inked and in that short period of time North Korea has announced plans to launch a satellite with missile based technology (a lightly veiled test of its long range Taepodong-2) and begun preparations for an underground nuclear detonation.  This sets the record for the shortest lived agreement yet.

The reaction from the White House?  Nothing.  Well, almost nothing.  It seems more concerned with negative press coverage than a rogue nation perfecting its long range ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads and threatening its neighbors.  This from the New York Times, datelined today.

The White House has urged media organizations not to overdo their coverage, saying it would give Pyongyang a propaganda victory. The satellite, one official said, was a “dishwasher wrapped in tinfoil.” But that has not stopped news organizations from sending correspondents to Pyongyang, where they have filed frequent reports on preparations.

The agreement was doomed to failure from the beginning and the administration knew it. Obama’s Defense Secretary Gates said in 2009, when asked about buying off North Korea with food, “We are tired of buying the same horse twice.”  But all Obama wanted was good behavior from Kim for 8 months until the election was over.  He reportedly attempted same thing with Netanyahu, when he pressured (unsuccessfully) the prime minister to make a commitment not to attack Iran before the election.  Short term palliatives don’t work. Kim knows that and he knows Obama won’t make tough decisive moves before the election. 

It is now open season for the rogue states of the world to misbehave.  And they are.  Aside from Kim thumbing his nose at Obama, Iran is playing a stalling game of go nowhere talks.  This does give the administration the opportunity to talk tough, really really, really tough.  But no one trusts the administration to back up its words with action, least of all the Israelis. 

Other notable foreign policy initiatives gone bad include Egypt where the administration is playing footsy with the military to keep a lid on, or at least delay until after our elections, a full Muslim Brotherhood takeover of all aspects of Egypt’s government. But instead, Khairat el-Shater’s has entered the presidential race, despite the Brotherhood’s insistence it wouldn’t field a candidate. Obama’s insistence on Mubarak’s ouster and the rise of a fundamentalist Islamic regime in Egypt has eerie parallels to Jimmy Carter’s treatment of the Shah in Iran.  And it will probably result in a theocratic regime, just as it did in Iran.  That’s not a pleasant prospect. And of course there is Afghanistan where Obama’s insistence on a “date certain” for withdrawal is the poison pill that guarantees failure.

Weakness does not win wars, nor does it lead to diplomatic victories.

Why did Judge Smith lecture Obama? Because he simply ignored a court order the judge had approved.

Most lawyers trying a case abide by the maxim: Don’t piss off the judge. 

President Obama disregarded that when he lectured the Supreme Court not to overturn the health care law.  Indirectly the President was challenging the entire judiciary and it struck a raw nerve with Judge Jerry Smith, of the 5^th Circuit Appeals Court.  Judge Smith had, less than two years earlier, rejected, in a 2 to 1 decision, the Interior Department request to stay a lower court order lifting the offshore drilling moratorium (Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar) – thus requiring the moratorium lifted. 

In one of the most blatant examples thumbing its nose at the courts, the administration simply ignored that order.  After the administration’s appeal was rejected, they rescinded the original moratorium order (ostensibly complying with the court), but almost immediately after, replaced it with another essentially identical order, affecting precisely the same rigs in the first order.  When the second moratorium was lifted in October, still no drilling permits had been issued.

The original judge of the 5^th Circuit, Martin Feldman landed on the administration three and a half months later.  He issued a contempt citation against Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar citing a “determined disregard” of his order.  And he added to the insult by requiring Interior to pay Hornbeck’s legal fees.

Today Attorney General Eric Holder sent his single spaced, three page answer to Judge Smith on the Supreme Court’s ability to overturn legislation it has judged unconstitutional.  We don’t know what it said, but it should have included:

Don’t piss off the judge

Don’t piss off the judge
Don’t piss off the judge…

Goodbye Andrew Breitbart … your inspiration will live on.

Few conservatives have made such a profound impression on so many in such a short time as Andrew Breitbart, who died this morning at 43.  A lifelong liberal from Los Angeles, he eventually saw through the utter deceit of the liberal establishment and became a conservative.  Unlike ordinary human beings whose lives are spent like flickering votive candles, Andy’s was the blast of a Saturn rocket – short but powerful.  He left this world in a blaze of glory, but far too soon.

His central theme, above all, was exposing the unmitigated corruption of the legacy media.  They parroted false and exaggerated stories in unison to gain impact, the “big lie” technique.  And they withheld, in concert, news that damaged liberal causes.  In one of his most shining moments, the takedown of ACORN in September 2009, Andy with the help of two youthful videojournalists smoked out the corrupt media.  In his Washington Times article, shortly after the sting, Mr. Breitbart explains the trap he set.

Everything you needed to know about the unorthodox roll out of the now-notorious ACORN sting videos was hidden in plain sight in my Sept. 7 column, "Katie Couric, Look in the Mirror."

ACORN was not the only target of those videos; so were Katie, Brian, Charlie and every other mainstream media pooh-bah. They were not going to report this blockbuster unless they were forced to. And they were. What's more, it ain't over yet. Not every hint I dropped in that piece about what was to come has played itself out yet. Stay tuned.

He continues:

Thus was born a multimedia, multiplatform strategy designed to force the reluctant hands of ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post. Videos of five different ACORN offices in five separate cities would be released on five consecutive weekdays over a full week - Baltimore, Washington, New York, San Bernadino and San Diego. By dripping the videos out, we exposed to anyone paying attention that ACORN was lying through its teeth and that the media would look imbecilic continuing to trot out their hapless spokespeople.

If the media, as expected, pretended that the story didn't exist, they'd have another debacle on their hands comparable to the failure to report the shocking views of the White House's "green jobs czar," Van Jones. If they invested in the story, I told Mr. O'Keefe, they would do ACORN's defense work. I told him the focus needed to be on the message, not the messenger. Otherwise, the mainstream media would attempt to direct attention away from the damaging video evidence.

The best example of this came from ABC's anchor, Charlie Gibson. "I don't even know about it. So you've got me at a loss," he told WLS radio when asked about it. "But my goodness, if it's got everything, including sleaziness in it, we should talk about it in the morning." But he also said that what was seen on these videos was best left for the "cables."

Is this not malevolent arrogance?

There will never be another Andrew Breitbart.  But hopefully he has inspired others to follow in his footsteps.

The coming conflict with Iran … Part 2, The refusal to allow IAEA inspectors into Parchin

This is the second of several installments on Iran’s missile and nuclear programs.  The first is here.

Subject: Parchin Military Complex

Coordinates:   35° 31.915'N      51° 45.116'E

The Parchin Military Complex has been in the news lately because for the second time since the beginning the year, Iran has refused to allow IAEA inspectors to go there.  Parchin is important because the IAEA and intelligence agencies of several nations have evidence that it was used to conduct tests of a dummy implosion device.  These tests are important because they measure the accuracy and the degree of compression of the nuclear “pit”, the hollow spherical shell of fissionable material that is compressed to create a nuclear detonation.  These tests use non fissionable material to simulate “assembly” or compression of the fissile material.  Flash X-rays are used to measure the symmetry and compression.  Click here to see an actual experiment using flash X-rays from the 1944-1945 era.  There is no legitimate peaceful use for this technology. 

The November 2011 IAEA report is a damning indictment of Iran’s efforts to pursue and hide its nuclear weapons program.  It is long and dry and technical and written in soft sounding diplomatic legalese.  But it makes its point.  Download it and read it if you are serious about understanding what is happening.  On the Parchin problem it states:

47. One necessary step in a nuclear weapon development programme is determining whether a theoretical design of an implosion device, the behaviour of which can be studied through computer simulations, will work in practice. To that end, high explosive tests referred to as “hydrodynamic experiments” are conducted in which fissile and nuclear components may be replaced with surrogate materials.41

48. Information which the Agency has been provided by Member States, some of which the Agency has been able to examine directly, indicates that Iran has manufactured simulated nuclear explosive components using high density materials such as tungsten. These components were said to have incorporated small central cavities suitable for the insertion of capsules such as those described in Section C.9 below. The end use of such components remains unclear, although they can be linked to other information received by the Agency concerning experiments involving the use of high speed diagnostic equipment, including flash X ray, to monitor the symmetry of the compressive shock of the simulated core of a nuclear device.

49. Other information which the Agency has been provided by Member States indicates that Iran constructed a large explosives containment vessel in which to conduct hydrodynamic experiments. The explosives vessel, or chamber, is said to have been put in place at Parchin in 2000. A building was constructed at that time around a large cylindrical object at a location at the Parchin military complex. A large earth berm was subsequently constructed between the building containing the cylinder and a neighbouring building, indicating the probable use of high explosives in the chamber. The Agency has obtained commercial satellite images that are consistent with this information. From independent evidence, including a publication by the foreign expert referred to in paragraph 44 above, the Agency has been able to confirm the date of construction of the cylinder and some of its design features (such as its dimensions), and that it was designed to contain the detonation of up to 70 kilograms of high explosives, which would be suitable for carrying out the type of experiments described in paragraph 43 above.

It appears this is the IAEA’s the final step to officially declare Iran out of compliance with Non Proliferation Treaty they signed.  And that will clear the way for further sanctions or actions by member nations.  This is the end of line for diplomacy other than some “peace missions” by willing fools.  Don’t count Jimmy Carter out.  After all he’s the one who got us into this mess in the first place

The coming conflict with Iran … Part 1, Mysterious explosions near Teheran

Island Turtle will cover Iran’s nuclear and missile development programs in several installments.  It will present information and satellite imagery about Iran’s missile manufacturing facilities, test areas and nuclear development sites.  It will show an underground site, part of a vast military storage area, built into a side of a mountain that has yet to be reported by the media.  It will also report on mysterious explosions and offer guidance on what happened and who is likely behind it.  You will be surprised.  The intent is to help Turtle readers follow news events in Iran intelligently when and if they happen, with locations, coordinates and background facts. 

Subject:  Explosion at Shahab-3 missile site November 12, 2011

On Saturday November 12, in the middle of the day Teheran was shaken by two massive explosions, followed by smaller ones.  Western press reports said windows were broken in Teheran from the blasts 28 miles (45 km) away, near Malard. The first report had 27 killed, including Revolutionary Guard’s Major General Hassan Moghadam, the head of Iran’s missile programs.  Later ones lowered that to 17 Guards, including General Moghadam.  There was speculation from Israeli sources that 10 North Koreans died also, though that was never confirmed.  The Iranian state controlled press initially blamed it on an accident of transferring munitions at an ammunition storage area.  Eventually that changed to two Guard run military facilities several kilometers apart that had accidental explosions.  Press speculation, especially in Israel, claimed it was foreign sabotage.  Neither is correct.

On November 28, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) published satellite imagery from Digital Globe taken on November 22, 10 days after the blasts.  It showed utter devastation of the complex.  Every building suffered major damage and one simply ceased to exist.  What is most significant is there is no large crater.  That would be expected from such and explosion. The photography shows the damage came from a massive overpressure and also many small but well placed explosions.  It could not come from sabotage or an accident.  It was too widespread.  It could only have come from the air.

The production site in the Digital Globe/ISIS imagery is one of three facilities west of Malard that are involved with Iran’s missile program, most importantly the solid fuel Shahab-3, medium range missile (range 1200 miles, 2000 km).  The three facilities are within 3 miles (5 km) of each other.

Hq and R&D Facility              35° 39.088'N   50° 52.280'E   Probably also hit

Assembly & Propellant          35° 37.450'N   50° 52.422'E   Destroyed Nov. 12, 2011
Static Test area                         35° 36.464'N   50° 52.354'E

The sites have been in existence at least since 2003, but there was an accelerated effort to upgrade them, especially the assembly site, beginning in late 2009.  An unusual looking moveable building (on rails) was constructed to shelter the pits for loading solid fuel propellants.   And an enclosed tower was built, attached to an existing building that is resembles, on a smaller scale, NASA’s Space Shuttle Vertical Assembly Building.  It is most likely intended to align and calibrate the missile’s guidance systems in a vertical configuration.

What can we learn from the Digital Globe/USIS imagery?  First, the main problem is the quality of what they posted.   It is only 650x431 pixels, and that makes it difficult to do damage assessment of small structures.  But all is not lost.  Some things come through, especially if the sun angle gives good contrast or shadows.  The first impression is the breadth of the utter destruction.  The complex is just short of 300 yards in its widest dimension and every major building has significant damage.  As said earlier, roofs are simply flattened.  Building G is the classic example.  Normally you would see the shadow of the roof on the ground.  Here, it is the wall throwing the shadow, along with the row of windows that show through.  Buildings D and E show the same effect, only the walls have been turned into convoluted skeletons, stripped of their skins.  Such damage can only come from an airburst of a very large weapon.  

The other observation is the scorch marks, penetrations and small craters.  We see them in one form or another at most of the buildings that remain.  The pattern of these small explosions is awesome.  The two hits right along the centerline of building A attest to very accurate, well programmed guidance systems.  Different missile warheads have unique patterns of destruction.  The weapon most likely used here is the GBU-39 with the benign name of “Small Diameter Bomb” (SDB). It is a highly versatile weapon.  (Video here) It is a precision guided autonomous 250 pound weapon that carries a tiny 50 pound warhead.  It is designed to be highly lethal at close ranges while limiting collateral damage.  It does it by mixing ultra small pellets of tungsten into the explosive which when detonated, rapidly slow down from air drag.  It has wings that deploy when released and can glide for 60 nautical miles, making it a standoff weapon.  It can be fused for airburst, timed to detonate at a specified distance after impact or as an earth penetrator.  It was used by the Israelis in operation Cast Lead to collapse tunnels and buried weapons caches in Gaza.

Now the whodunit question.  Only two nations have the will and weaponry to pull this off, the US and Israel.  It is really a tossup but the edge goes to the US.  Here ‘s why:  Both nations have SDBs and both nations can make large bombs.  What the Israelis don’t have is ultra stealthy aircraft.  The F-22 Raptor is in a class by itself, so good we won’t sell it to our closest allies, Israel and Australia for security reasons.  And there is the heavy lifter,the B-2.  It  has been modified to carry two 35,000  pound weapons.  Nothing in Israel’s inventory can come close to that.

This was a raid conducted in broad daylight.  It was a “shock and awe” in your face strike designed to tell Iran’s mullahs you can be hit at any time, on any day and you can’t do anything about it.  Shock and awe is a trademark of the US Air Force.   Another tidbit that hints at US involvement – on December 1, just 19 days after the missile site explosions, and 3 days after similar series of explosions removed some buildings at a uranium processing site at Ishfahan Iran, President Obama made this statement to a group of Jewish contributors:

This administration – I try not to pat myself too much on the back – but this administration has done more in terms of the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration….

Was this just a coincidence?  You decide.

The corrupt media and a joke Rick Santorum did not tell.

For anyone who doubts the legacy media are the handmaidens or the Democratic Party and its propaganda arm, Media Matters, has only to follow the story of the aspirin joke.  In some convoluted logic, a joke told by a campaign contributor has become the responsibility of Rick Santorum.  In typical fashion the multiple voices of the three legacy networks and major papers including the New York Times and the Washington Post are parroting in unison the identical message.  It is shoddy journalism to the extreme.

The joke, poorly told by Foster Friess, is most decidedly not anti contraception.  Quite to the contrary the joke pokes fun at the ill conceived anti-birth control law in effect in New York in the 1930s and 40s.  This law prevented birth control devices from being sold and prohibited doctors from dispensing advice on the subject.  Here’s the joke as I heard it in the 1950s.

A lady goes into the doctor’s office as asks how to prevent pregnancy.  The doctor responds that he is not allowed to give such advice.  But he hesitates and says there is a way:  Aspirin.  The lady asks how it should be taken (the unstated choices presumably being orally or vaginally).  To which the doctor responds, hold it between your knees.

The joke was slightly off color for the 50s, but certainly not offensive in today’s more liberated atmosphere.  It is not anti-female.  It is, as I have said, a knock on the idiotic anti-contraception legislation at the time. 

But this is nothing new.  A year ago Sarah Palin was viciously attacked by Democrats and the media (is there a difference?) first as the murderer of Gabby Giffords, and then when she defended herself against these utter falsehoods, for using the term “blood libel” to depict how she herself had been libeled.  The term blood libel was used by Jews when they had been falsely accused of the murder of a Christian.  It was common practice in the Middle Ages for Christians to blame Jews for just about everything.  Just read Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. 

Ms. Palin didn’t accuse Jews of anything.  She simply painted herself in a similar situation by using that term.  But the media went full song in the same attack mode, accusing her of anti-Semitism.  They felt safe in assumption that an identical message many fronts would carry the day.  Even though Alan Dershowithz defended the use of the term, not enough came to her defense.

The networks, the New York Times and the Washington Post are correctly described as an arm of the Democratic Party.  Their utter bias disqualifies them from being considered legitimate media.

Angela Merkel, solve the Greek problem! No more loans, just buy Greece

No, I’m not suggesting she buy more Greek debt, I’m talking about buying the country of Greece.  Buy it lock, stock and barrel,  just like the Americans bought Alaska from the Russians in 1867.  Russia was hurting financially from the Crimean war and Czar Nicolas needed to replenish his coffers.  Alaska was a drag.  Russian hunters had pretty well wiped out the fur seals and nothing would grow in the far north soils because of smelly black stuff that oozed out of it.  So he dumped it for $7.2 million on those gullible Americans.

What would Germany and Greece get out of it?  Well, Germany would have its own Riviera where aging Germans could lounge in the sun wearing ill fitting thong bathing suits.  There would be an unlimited supply of ouzo to cloud their minds.  And German cities would see a ton of new, Greek run restaurants.  The Greeks would get Mercedes and Volkswagen assembly plants.  They, of course, would be manned by Germans so the Greeks, too, could enjoy the delights of ouzo without wasting time working. 

It’s win win for everyone.

If you think our real estate bubble was bad, just wait for China to implode

Thomas Friedman, please take note.  China’s lack of political wrangling is not an asset, it’s what will drag it down.  Friedman’s and other liberals’ utopian dream of a benevolent dictator has never worked.  It fails because unrestrained dictators, with the best of intentions, make mistakes – often grandiose mistakes.  And when they are criticized and challenged, they fight to hold on to power.  And then they become the Stalins, the Pol Pots and the Kim Jong Ils of the world.

And China’s single party autocracy has made a grandiose mistake.  It has embarked on a building spree that according to Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) has resulted in 64 million unoccupied housing units.  Entire cities, designed to house millions, stand empty or nearly empty.  Video here  Yet the madness continues with construction continuing unabated, because China’s command economy demands it to sustain GDP growth.  Why do they sit empty?  Because most Chinese simply can’t afford them.  

Unoccupied development in Ordos.  Note the lack of cars

Speculators own many but it is unclear how many and how they can afford to sit on empty properties with no income.  The value of the unsold property is staggering.  Based on 64 million units at an estimated $50,000 each, the total is $3.2 trillion worth of unsold properties.  It is likely local and provincial governments, which do the actual building, are taking much of the hit.

Newspapers in China are reporting provincial government borrowers are being squeezed.   China Daily is reporting many of them are deferring loan payments and it goes far beyond just the real estate market.

China's biggest provincial borrowers are deferring payment on their loans just two months after the country's regulator said some local government companies would be allowed to do so.

Hunan Provincial Expressway Construction Group is delaying payment on 3.11 billion yuan ($490.5 million) in interest, documents governing the securities show this month. Guangdong Provincial Communications Group Co, the second-largest debtor, is following suit. So are two others among the biggest 11 debtors, for a total of 30.16 billion yuan ($4.757 billion – Ed.), according to bond prospectuses from 55 local authorities that have raised money in capital markets since the beginning of November.

As local governments delay payments for projects commissioned as part of the stimulus to ward off recession in 2009, less money is available for bank lending even as China is taking steps to inject more into the economy. The central bank has held interest rates at 6.56 percent since July to boost the economy, while the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan have kept benchmark rates near zero since 2008.

"When companies start to roll over debt they're not retiring debt, and banks aren't retrieving their capital, so you're crowding out new lending," Patrick Chovanec, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said in a Dec 13 interview. "This is a problem that's going to start to bite next year."

Local governments had 10.7 trillion yuan ($1.7 trillion – Ed.) in debt at the end of last year, 79 percent due to banks, according to the country's first audit released in June. So-called local financing vehicles that meet collateral requirements can have a one-time extension on their loans, Zhou Mubing, vice-chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said at a conference on Oct 24 organized by the Internet portal Sina.com.cn, according to a transcript of his comments on the website.

Guangdong Provincial Communications Group, Hunan Provincial Expressway Construction Group, Gansu Provincial Highway Aviation Tourism Investment Group Co and Sichuan Railway Investment Group Co owe more than 200 billion yuan ($31.5billion –Ed.)to banks, the data show. They plan to defer 34.4 billion yuan ($5.43 billion –Ed.) in interest payments, according to their bond prospectus.

At the heart of China’s problems is the central government’s emphasis on exports.  With the stagnation of Europe’s economy,  imports from China are in decline and that is slowing China’s growth threatening the nation’s highly leveraged economy.  Robert Samuelson in a recent article in Real Clear Politics addresses the problem:

There are warning signs. Economist Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute cites three. First, Europe's slump has weakened China's trade; Europe buys about a fifth of its exports. Second, housing is showing signs of a bubble and is deflating. Finally, China's government will have a harder time deploying a stimulus than during the 2008-09 financial crisis. Government debt rose from 26 percent of gross domestic product in 2007 to 43 percent of GDP in 2010.

He goes on:

Unfortunately, booms breed busts. Buyers ultimately recognize that rising prices reflect artificial demand. Purchases slow. Prices fall. New building declines. The process feeds on itself. With modest imbalances, the result is a correction. Otherwise, there's a crash.

…A popped real estate bubble could exert a big drag. Housing construction exceeds 10 percent of GDP. That's historically high, says Lardy. At a similar stage of economic development, Taiwan's housing investment was 4.3 percent of GDP. In the recent U.S. real estate boom, housing peaked at 6 percent of GDP. In China, housing stimulates much consumer spending (furniture, appliances) and accounts for 40 percent of steel production, notes Lardy. Land sales are also a big revenue source for local governments. All would suffer from a housing bust.

What does all of this mean for the US?  First it will mean a reluctance for China to purchase US debt, to better use its resources for itself.  That may be the reason for Treasury Secretary Geithner’s current trip to China.  With a reluctant China, interest rates to finance our debt will rise harming our efforts to keep rates low. 

But it could go beyond that. Just as the US was in denial that its overheated real estate market was in danger just before it collapsed, China’s could do so also.  An implosion in China would send shockwaves through all developed countries.  While its $3 trillion in foreign debt holdings ($1 trillion US) could be sold and used, any such attempt would ruin its value. 

OCCUPY THE WHITE HOUSE

Has anyone in the conservative spectrum thought about the best campaign slogan for Republicans?  And one that will backfire on the protestors and their Democratic allies.  How about this:

OCCUPY THE WHITE HOUSE

Vote Republican

Horse meat on the dinner table soon? … Only if you can get past the smell

As part of the spending bill signed by President Obama last month, the 2007 funding ban for USDA inspections of horse meat processing plants was allowed to lapse.  With USDA inspection allowed, the door is now open to reviving the horse meat trade.  It hasn’t received much play in the press, but animal rights activists are fuming on the blogs, with derogatory remarks about eating Man-O-War or National Velvet.   But they need not be worried.  There is a reason it won’t catch on – Smell. 

In the late 1940s, after my sister was given a pet cocker spaniel for her birthday, horsemeat became part of his life.  The vet had great disdain for canned dog food and suggested hamburger or ground horsemeat.  As hamburger was pricey, horsemeat was affordable and available at the local butcher shop.  So my mother opted for horsemeat.  And I was called on to cook it.  All three pounds of it.  All I can say is it has a unique odor when cooking and it is not pleasant.  And you will never forget it. 

That happened when several years later the family took a weekend trip to the Poconos in Pennsylvania and had trouble finding a place to eat.  In desperation we stopped at a seedy hamburger joint along the road.  And there it was, the same odor.

Much has been made that the French consider horse a delicacy.  But for me, there isn’t enough garlic in the world to mask that smell.

Why Government can’t run a business ... The Postal Service vs (gulp) The NY Times

The United States Postal Service has spread the alarms.  It has run through a $12 billion federal loan that has kept itself afloat for the past two years and it is now looking for a bailout.  It cites declining revenues because of the internet, the inordinate cost of its pension program and the inability to control labor costs because of no-layoff provisions in its union contracts. It wants to cut service to 5 days a week, possibly more and it is planning to slow the delivery of first class mail.  It has talked about reductions in force of 120,000, but that is probably more of a scare tactic to pressure Congress into approving emergency funding and granting relief on pension obligations.

 

The plight of the Post Office and how it is handling its fate stands in stark contrast to that of another private sector group – the newspaper industry.  Both are suffering from the effects of internet competition.  Both deliver product daily.  Both are unionized.  Both prefund their pension plans.  And both are declining industries.  Yet, by and large, newspapers and newspaper groups have kept their heads above water, the Post Office has not.  And newspapers have succeeded with far greater rates of revenue declines.

Part of the reason for newspapers resiliency is they have their backs against the wall.   They have to solve their own problems.  Going to the government trough for a bailout is not an option.  It would forever compromise their integrity and believability.

I picked the New York Times as an example, not because it is my favorite paper, it is not.  But it is representative of the newspaper industry.  It has no broadcast subsidiaries and virtually all its revenue is from newspaper circulation, advertising and more recently internet ads and fees.  But the decline in revenue at the Postal Service is nowhere near that of the Times.  In the past 5 years, the loss of revenue at the Times has been triple that of the USPS (almost 27%, as opposed to 8% ).  Even looking at the 2008 – 2010 year comparison (peak revenue for USPS was 2008) the Times revenues losses were more than double the Postal Service (22.9% vs. 10.5%).

Despite this adversity, the Times is profitable (by a smidgen) and the USPS is facing an $8.3 billion loss.  Interestingly, the Times lost money in 2006 and has actually improved its performance.  In the same year USPS was well in the black (by its accounting procedures) and is now threatened with insolvency.

Now, why has the Times shown success and the Postal Service not?  The Times as most other newspapers has taken aggressive action to control costs.  It has reduced force and renegotiated labor contracts.  It has sold its broadcasting operations to bolster its cash position.  It has outsourced its newsstand sales and bought out its employees to do so.  But most of all it has been facing reality.  Contrast that to the USPS which recently negotiated its labor contracts with raises it can’t pay.  It has lobbied Congress for relief and in general has simply ignored the problem.  And it has dug itself into a hole.

The whole mess is an example of the inability of government run enterprises to adapt rapidly to threats.  The meddling of Congress is one reason.  They refused to approve a rate increase last year the Rate Commission requested.  They prefer wasteful Post Offices where they should be either be replaced with private contract operations or simply shut down.  They must get out of the way.  The example of what the NY Times has accomplished should be used as a model for mail delivery.  Nothing should be sacred, be it privatizing major delivery functions, hiring consultants to eliminate inefficiencies, and most of all getting out of the mode of government workplace comfort.  Newspapers are reacting to the threat of extinction and making progress.  The Postal Service looks for largesse, our largesse.

New management with backbone is the only answer.

Why LightSquared is more than cronyism … It’s about safety

The recent revelations by Eli Lake at The Daily Beast that a four-star Air Force general was pressured to alter his testimony to favor Light Squared, revealed a new case of cronyism in the White House.  Now a second individual has now come forward to say he too was urged to parrot OMB suggested text in his testimony - that the OMB wants expedited testing for frequency interference.  He refused to do so out of safety concerns.  From The Daily Beast: 

The four-star Air Force general who oversees Air Force Space Command walked into a highly secured room on Capitol Hill a week ago to give a classified briefing to lawmakers and staff, and dropped a surprise. Pressed by members, Gen. William Shelton said the White House tried to pressure him to change his testimony to make it more favorable to a company tied to a large Democratic donor.

The episode —confirmed by The Daily Beast in interviews with administration officials and the chairman of a congressional oversight committee —is the latest in a string of incidents that have given Republicans sudden fodder for questions about whether the Obama administration is politically interfering in routine government matters that affect donors or fundraisers. Already, the FBI and a House committee are investigating a federal loan guarantee to a now failed solar firm called Solyndra that is tied to a large Obama fundraiser.

Now the Pentagon has been raising concerns about a new wireless project by a satellite broadband company in Virginia called LightSquared, whose majority owner is an investment fund run by Democratic donor Philip Falcone.

LightSquared hopes to become a satellite based phone operation similar to land based cell phone service providers.  It seeks to use additional unused frequencies adjacent to the GPS band that currently provide a buffer to GPS service.  Interference from LightSquared satellites could degrade GPS service both for civilian and military users.  The majority owner of LightSquared is hedge fund manager Phil Falcone who between himself and his wife have been heavy contributors to the Democratic Party (over $60,000 last year).

But this meddling is far more than crony capitalism it’s about threatening the integrity and safety of the GPS system.  GPS has grown from its infancy as navigation system to pilot sailboats or to guide you to Aunt Katie’s house in rural Vermont. With accuracy improvements, it can now position anyone consistently within 3 feet, anywhere in the world.  Because of that accuracy it is now being used by aircraft to conduct precision approaches to weathered in airports without ILS.  Down the road air traffic control will become GPS based, rather than ground radar based, as will collision avoidance systems.  In the future GPS will be used to help drive your car autonomously (hands-off or driverless).  Google is currently testing a fleet of autonomously driven Priuses in the Bay area (using backup drivers) and soon will be testing them in Nevada, driverless.  The DARPA Grand Challenge conducted in the 2004 to 2007 period proved that driverless cars can operate safely even in an urban environment.  And farm tractors will soon be doing the same thing.  It is the very accuracy and dependability of this system that will be applied to yet undreamed of applications. 

The administration and the FCC should refrain from reducing safety margins for this irreplaceable system.  The recent case of the North Koreans jamming a US intelligence plane’s GPS navigation system, forcing it to cut short its mission shows that the system is fragile.  We should be working on hardening it, not putting it in jeopardy with risky, self serving actions.

Bloomberg warns of riots … Is he actually encouraging “US Days of Rage” riots in NYC tomorrow?

Matt Drudge’s red and bold headline screams about Mayor Bloomberg’s prediction of civil insurrection by disaffected youth against the government.  But is Bloomberg actually encouraging, rather than predicting, disruptive behavior on the eve of the US Days of Rage protest led by former SEIU official Stephen Lerner?  Surely the mayor is aware of Lerner’s plan and background. 

The US Days of Rage is scheduled as a “nonviolent” protest outside the JP Morgan Chase headquarters
 tomorrow, Saturday, September 17.  It has been organized by Lerner, a far leftist, to bring down Wall Street and the banks and ultimately collapse the economic system of the US.  Lerner has been an acolyte of Andy Stern who resigned the presidency of the SEIU in March, 2010.  Lerner left the union seven months later.  Neither the Days of Rage nor Lerner’s incendiary speech at Pace University in March (see below) have been reported by the legacy media.  Only The Blaze (Glen Beck) and Fox News have given it coverage.

Lerner’s March 19 speech at Pace University is a call to destroy the capitalist system (audio and text from the Blaze here).  The initial plan was to mob the JP Morgan Chase shareholders meeting in May to demand social justice.  That failed because the meeting in Columbus Ohio was held at a motel surrounded by a moat.  The intended tactics there and presumably Saturday are to encourage mortgagees and student loan recipients to withhold payment to force JP Morgan to renegotiate or eliminate their loans.  Cities would follow with the same tactics, forced by the unions under the threat of a strike, to blackjack JP Morgan to write down municipal debt and free up funds for union employee wages.  From the Blaze:

And so the question would be, what would happen if we organized homeowners in mass to do a mortgage strike. Just say if we get, and, and, if we get half a million people to agree, we’ll all not, we’ll agree we won’t pay our mortgages, it would literally cause a new financial crisis.

There are four things we can do that could really upset Wall Street. One is if city and state and other government entities demanded to renegotiate their debt because they’re paying too much interest. And you might say, well why would the banks ever do it? Because they, the cities and counties could say we won’t do this and this in the future with you if you don’t renegotiate the debt now. Meaning, about a third of bank profits generate from dealing with cities and states. So we could leverage the power we have of government to say we won’t do business with you, JP Morgan Chase, anymore unless you do two things: you reduce the price of our interest, since your interest rate is down; and second, you rewrite the mortgages for everybody in the community so they can stay in their homes. We, we could make them do that.

The second thing is there’s a whole question in New York now about austerity and student’s rates and the question of the debt structure. What would happen if students said we’re not going to pay? It’s a trillion dollars. Think about your …sweeping that debt, a trillion dollars from students debt?

There’s a third thing that we could think about, what about if public employee unions, instead of them being on the defensive, put on the collective bargaining table when they negotiate they said we demand as a condition of negotiation that the government renegotiate, we want, we believe in good financial management. It’s crazy that you’re paying too much interest to your buddy the bankers. It’s a strike issue for us. We will strike unless you force the banks to relieve the debt of the city. I’m not going to go through all the detail except to say there’s extraordinary things we could do and if you add on top of that, if we really thought about moving to the kind of disruption in Madison, but moving that to Wall Street and moving that to other cities around the country where we basically said you stole $17 trillion, you’ve impoverished us and we’re going to make it impossible for, for you to operate.

Lerner continues

The folks that control this country care about one thing: how the stock market does; how the bond market does; and what their bonus is. So I think we weed out a very simple strategy: how do we bring down the stock market, how do we bring down their bonuses, how do we interfere with their ability to, to be rich. And if we don’t do, and that means you have to politically isolate them, economically isolate them and disrupt them. So, it’s not all theory, I’ll do a pitch.

So, a bunch of us around the country are thinking about who would be a really good company to hate? We decided that would be JP Morgan Chase.

Lerner’s use of the term “Days of Rage”, the Weatherman inspired riots in Chicago in1969, does not appear to be a call for a peaceful protest.  Lerner, reportedly has been a guest at the White House on 4 occasions, two of them more than ceremonial functions.  Keeping company with folks like that throws a bad light its current occupants.

Pulling the R lever in NY-9

The most important fact that has Democrats in Washington quaking in their boots, is that thousands of Jewish voters discovered last night they could pull the R lever and not be struck by lightning.

“When you’ve lost the New York Times …”

Sunday’s NY Times opens a subject being whispered in the halls of Democratic power.  Will a second run by a severely weakened President Obama destroy the party as it did for the 12 years following Jimmy Carter’s loss to Ronald Reagan?  Is the war of 2008 now lost?  Blame is put on his lack of resolve for liberal ideas, namely killing the EPA’s new ozone dictates, his lack of aggressiveness and of course the economy. 

In English spoken west of the Hudson, it’s called panic. 

Democrats are expressing growing alarm about President Obama’s re-election prospects and, in interviews, are openly acknowledging anxiety about the White House’s ability to strengthen the president’s standing over the next 14 months.

Elected officials and party leaders at all levels said their worries have intensified as the economy has displayed new signs of weakness. They said the likelihood of a highly competitive 2012 race is increasing as the Republican field, once dismissed by many Democrats as too inexperienced and conservative to pose a serious threat, has started narrowing to two leading candidates, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, who have executive experience and messages built around job creation.

Democrats have been deluding themselves in the past nine months that the massive losses they took in 2010 were just a fluke.  The race for Weiner’s Brooklyn/Queens seat is proving them wrong.  There, the central issue is Obama himself because of his treatment of Israel. Polls are now trending to the Republican candidate, and even if the Democrat manages to hold it, it would be a humbling win. The district is a 2 to 1 Democratic and heavily Jewish, one that would normally go at least 60/40 in their favor.  Democrats are very vulnerable especially in the Senate next year, where 23 seats they own or control are up for grabs, versus 10 for Republicans. 

While the Times bemoans the threat Obama presents to the party next year, it doesn’t say how to get to there from here.  That is, who tells Obama he should step aside?  Bill Clinton?  No way, with the presumptive candidate his wife.  Jimmy Carter?  Give me a break!  For good or bad, Democrats will have to stick with their man.   

Republicans could create a little mischief if they wanted.  And that would be to convince either Rasmussen or Gallup to do public polling of Democrats to see who would be the best nominee, Hillary or Obama.   And keep doing it each month.

Now that would cause ruckus!

Anthrax lawsuit against the federal government gets a boost from DOJ gross incompetence

There are times when government agencies exhibit sheer idiocy and ineptness.  That happened this summer when Justice filed papers that, if true, undermines the entire FBI case against Fort Detrick scientist Bruce Ivins in order to win a lawsuit brought by the family of Bob Stevens, the first anthrax victim following 9/11.  Bob Stevens was the photo editor of The Sun, a subsidiary of American Media (AMI) located in Boca Raton, Florida.  He died after inhaling spores from a letter mailed to AMI containing powdered anthrax.  The family is suing the government claiming negligence in the way anthrax was handled at Fort Detrick, resulting in Steven’s death.  The case is now proceeding after the FBI closed its investigation last year declaring Ivins the sole culprit.

What DOJ is claiming is the now deceased Dr. Ivins did not have access to the specialized equipment used to dry the cultured spores in order to weaponize it (make into a fine powder), this to absolve the Fort Detrick command that employed Ivins.   Nice trick!  The problem is access to this specialized equipment was the linchpin in the case to prove Ivins was the sole perpetrator.  The government simply can’t have it both ways.  That was the reaction of the Stevens’ family lawyers and congressional critics.  Mercifully the federal judge handling the Stephens case has allowed it to be amended by Justice lawyers, though it totally undermines its case.  What is ironic is the unamended filing is probably accurate, but Justice is hoist in its own petard and doesn’t want anything to throw doubt on the FBI’s case against Ivins.

Bruce Ivins, a scientist at Fort Detrick, became the prime suspect after almost 7 years of massive FBI efforts to nail Dr. Stephen Hatfill, another scientist at the facility.  The FBI threw the kitchen sink at Hatfill, having him fired from his job, lifting his security clearance, blackballing him from other employment, releasing confidential information to the press and exerting relentless pressure on him.  Throughout his investigation, Hatfill was both cooperative (he voluntarily allowed the FBI to search his home and computers) and resilient (he consistently proclaimed his innocence, volunteered for polygraph tests and took his case to the public).   Eventually the FBI tired, and in late June 2008 settled a lawsuit that gave Hatfill a $5.8 million settlement.  In the meantime the FBI had begun pursuing Bruce Ivins with the same vicious treatment.  However Ivins did not have the fortitude of Hatfill to stand up to it.  He was emotionally fragile and ultimately committed suicide in late July, 2008 shortly after being told he would be indicted.  Now the FBI had their man and unlike Hatfill, he couldn’t fight back.  He was dead.

The FBI’s case against Ivins was weak.  It was based solely on circumstantial evidence.  It based its case on the similarity of the anthrax strain he was working with to the strain found in the letters mailed shortly after 9/11, a fact disputed by an independent National Academy of Sciences study.  The FBI claimed drying equipment used to weaponize anthrax was available to him, others said it wasn’t. Ivins was a vaccine specialist seeking methods to immunize populations against anthrax, not weaponize it.  His experience and expertise wasn’t there. But the FBI was desperate to close out the case.  It was an embarrassment.  It had cost over $100 million, the most expensive case in the Bureau’s history.  The lifeless Ivins was convenient fall guy.

In reality it is unlikely either Ivins or Hatfill were involved in the plot.  Far more likely it was the work of Islamist terrorists.  The text of the letters was anti Israel and anti US, consistent with the rhetoric of extreme Islamists.  Except for the letter to Boca Raton, all letters were addressed to the same two power centers that were the targets of the hijacked jets, New York and Washington.  The postmark dates on the letters suggests a preplanned, coordinated effort to extend the terror campaign.  They were mailed precisely one week after 9/11 (first batch to ABC, NBC, CBS, NY Post and AMI/Boca Raton postmarked 9/18) and the second batch precisely 4 weeks after (Senators Daschle and Leahy to Washington postmarked 10/ 9).

The Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale area was the final staging area for the hijackers in the two months prior to 9/11.  There was contact between two of the hijackers and the wife an AMI editor (not the anthrax victim Stevens).  She rented an apartment to them.  The targeting of AMI may have been more about bad blood than an ideological target.

Both the Justice Department and FBI have not covered themselves in glory.  They have tried to manufacture facts to fit its preconceived notions.  They have been intellectually dishonest.  They have wasted money when the answer should have been, “we don’t know.”  The FBI has ruined the life of Steven Hatfill and was probably the major factor in the suicide of Bruce Ivins, both individuals likely innocent.  It is still living down the major scandal of its crime lab.  And it lives with the legacy of fingering and harassing an innocent man in the high profile Atlanta Olympics bombing case.  It is a shadow of the organization J. Edgar Hoover founded.  It should hang its head in shame.