The First Black President & The Right - Jonah Goldberg

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YjdlZWRhYTczNGU5ZDA3YThlMzdmYjg3Y2NiMDljNjI=

No where in my column do I say — as Mike Gallagher somewhat jokingly put it — that racial quotas and the rest will disappear tomorrow. But I do think I'm right that Obama's election makes the race issue less relevant in American life in ways not entirely helpful to racial liberals. The average American — according to countless polls — does not like racial quotas. Indeed, I think the average black American doesn't either. These policies endure in part because racial liberals successfully argue that racism is still a burning issue in America. Well, doesn't that argument become more difficult to make when the President of the United States is black? I'm not saying activists — or even Obama himself —  won't continue to make very liberal arguments about systematic racism in America. What I am saying is that  I think Obama, simply by being president, makes such arguments less, not more, persuasive.

I think Jonah Goldberg is sincere is his views and hopes that America will be a better place for having our first black president, even if we don't agree with all his policies.  That is my hope as well, but I will be surprised if it turns out that way.  In my opinion, the best way to focus our predictions is with a nominal monetary bet.  If Jonah is right, the racial hustlers such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should see their influence wane during an Obama administration.  My measure of "influence" would include television time on the network news, quotations in newspapers, and government funding and donations to organizations that they lead.  I will wager $10 that by all those measures Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will have more national prominence after two years of the Obama administration than they do today.

Jonah's prediction that racial activists will have a harder time supporting the proposition that America still suffers from racism despite having a black president assumes that people such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will not adapt their strategies for the new administration.  I think it may take them a month or two to figure out how best to make money off Obama, but they will get there.  Remember, Obama is not an "authentic black" in that he is not descended from slaves.  He had all the advantages of a white society, including an Ivy League education.  Until every black child gets the same opportunity as Obama, Sharpton and Jackson can use the plight of poor black people to embarrass the president.  Obama has to prove himself to be racially sensitive everyday, or he'll be just another Uncle Tom.  

The big question is: will the media go along with the race hustlers?  Sadly, I think so.  And any political disagreement with the liberal policies of the Obama administration will be portrayed in racial terms, which plays right into the hands of Sharpton and Jackson.

Al-Qaeda cell killed by Black Death 'was developing biological weapons' - Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/algeria/4294664/Al-Qaeda-cell-killed-by-Black-Death-was-developing-biological-weapons.html

The group of 40 terrorists were reported to have been killed by the plague at a training camp in Algeria earlier this month.

It was initially believed that they could have caught the disease through fleas on rats attracted by poor living conditions in their forest hideout.

But there are now claims the cell was developing the disease as a weapon to use against western cities.

Experts said that the group was developing chemical and biological weapons.

Mark Steyn: Our permanent state of routine emergency

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/federal-emergency-fema-2283617-new-government"

So a "federal emergency" is no longer a nuclear strike on Cleveland or even a Category Three hurricane, but now a snowfall in New England and an inaugural ball at the Mayflower Hotel. As Mister Incredible shrewdly observes to his kid in "The Incredibles," when everybody's special, nobody is. Likewise, when everything's an emergency, nothing is: We live in a permanent state of routine emergency.

The metastasization of FEMA teaches several lessons – the first and most obvious being that any new government program, agency or entitlement will always outgrow whatever narrow purpose it was created for. Which is why we small-government types are wary of creating any new ones in the first place. Thus, an itsy-bitsy bit of inconsequential government tinkering on the periphery of the mortgage market expanded to the point where federally mandated home loans to the uncreditworthy came close to collapsing not just the U.S. property market but the global financial system.

If you'd suggested in the Seventies a new federal agency to cope with municipal snow removal in Connecticut, you'd have been laughed out the room. But, with government, mission creep isn't a bug but the defining feature. In mid-September, the "bailout" was a once-in-a-lifetime emergency measure to save the planet. A mere four months later, it's the new baseline. If your congressman's lousy boondoggle has got six zeroes on the end, it's an earmark: Boooooooooo! If it's got 12 zeroes, it's a "stimulus": Hurrah!

I'm not worried about "change" so much as creep. The Obama administration doesn't have to do anything terribly transformative – overnight socialization of health care, etc. In fact, it doesn't have to do anything at all. It could just sit there, and America would still drift remorselessly, incrementally left, inch by inch. Eventually, you reach a tipping point: At some point in the next four years, we will reach a situation where the majority of Americans pay no federal income tax but are able to vote themselves more goodies from those who do. The most basic of conservative principles is that if you reward bad behavior you get more of it. We now have a government offering trillion-dollar rewards for bad behavior to the financial system, to the housing market, to the auto unions and to individual voters. And the heirs to those Connecticut town meetings that Tocqueville regarded as the best form of government ever devised by man now underbudget their snow-removal costs, secure in the knowledge that the Feds will pick up the tab.

Why Are the Media Protecting Geithner?

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/why-are-the-media-protecting-geithner

Connections like this help explain why Geithner's tax problems won't become a scandal or even much of a controversy for major elements of the media. But GE's media properties, including NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC, won't be alone in trying to put this scandal to rest.

Another member of the board of the New York Fed is Lee C. Bollinger, the president of Columbia University, who serves on the board of the Washington Post Company. This is the media conglomerate whose media properties include the Washington Post newspaper, Newsweek, and Slate.

From the point of view of the major media, it's better to remain on the good side of Geithner as well as Obama. That is why Geithner's tax problems have to be whitewashed and senators of both parties have to be provided with an excuse to confirm him. 

Geithner's failure to pay taxes just an 'honest mistake'?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/1383614,CST-EDT-simon18.article

The economy is teetering on the brink, and we need to cut corners a little. We can't be all that scrupulous and nitpicky when the future of the nation is at stake.

So in November, Team Obama announced that Geithner had this little problem and was paying his back taxes with interest and that it was all an honest mistake and no big deal, right?

Wrong. They decided to keep it a secret. But the Wall Street Journal discovered it and blew the whistle Tuesday.

The Senate Finance Committee has been looking into Geithner -- it has to vote on his appointment -- and discovered something else.

According to Gordon and Parnes: "In addition, Geithner included payments to overnight camps in calculating his dependent child care credit in 2001, 2004 and 2005.

His accountant informed him in 2006 that the camps were not allowable expenses. The committee notes that Geithner did not file amended returns to fix the mistake."

Rush on Obama Presidency

Rush Limbaugh's "Pearl of Wisdom":

> I got a request here from a major American print publication asking
> for 400 words on my hope for the Obama presidency. I don't need 400
> words. I need four: I hope he fails. Everybody thinks that's
> outrageous to say. What's unfair about my saying I hope liberalism
> fails? Were the liberals out there hoping Bush succeeded or were
> they out there trying to destroy him? Liberalism is our problem.
> It's what has gotten us dangerously close to the precipice. Why do
> I want more of it?

I think Rush makes a good point. I hope Obama is the next Jimmy
Carter: one ineffectual term and out.

4G war, conflicts of interest loom behind possible DTV delay

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090114-4g-war-conflict-of-interests-loom-behind-possible-dtv-delay.html

Last week, President-elect Barack Obama's call for a delay in the Digital TV transition, long scheduled for February, sent tech and telecom firms into a tizzy. Both Verizon and the Consumer Electronics Association have been pushing back hard against any postponement of the move from analog to digital broadcasting, while AT&T has joined the Consumers Union and several prominent Democratic legislators in supporting the call to give the troubled transition more time. Among those with a vested interest in the debate over a DTV delay is Clearwire, which has been racing to deploy its 4G WiMAX networks ahead of competitors wedded to the LTE standard. And Ars has learned that Clearwire Executive Vice President R. Gerard Salemme has quietly joined the Obama transition team as a key advisor on DTV issues.

The main rationale advanced for pushing back the drop-dead date for analog broadcast is that thecoupon program established to subsidize digital converter boxes for those who rely on over-the-air analog signals has run out of money. Households seeking the $40 vouchers are now being placed on a burgeoning waiting list, and consumer advocates fear that without a delay, millions of older analog sets will go dark in February. Opponents of a delay have argued that changing the date would be "disruptive," upsetting longstanding plans and signaling that companies and consumers need not heed government deadlines.

But the transition will also free up huge swaths of spectrum in the 700MHz band currently in use by analog broadcasters, which the Federal Communications Commission auctioned off last year. As FCC commissioner Robert McDowell noted on a panel at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this weekend, "there are companies paying hundreds of billion of dollars to use this spectrum, and they expect the goods to be delivered." 

One of those companies is Verizon, which ponied up nearly $9.4 billion for spectrum it plans to use for its 4G Long-Term Evolution wireless broadband network. In a letter to top members of the House and Senate commerce committees Monday, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg urged members of Congress to resist any delay of the transition, warning that it could impede the company's plans. "Verizon Wireless intends to begin field testing and deployment of LTE this year," wrote Seidenberg. "Deployment of LTE, however, can only be done if we have access to the 700MHz frequencies. Delaying the DTV transition will delay our ability to upgrade those frequencies to 4G broadband for American consumers and have a negative impact on our nation's international competitiveness."

Camille Paglia on Obama (dump Emanuel!, dump Reid!, dump Global Warming!)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2009/01/14/obama/

The usual tranquil transition period between an election and inauguration has certainly been overshadowed by the murky Blagojevich scandal, but I think most reasonable people would give Obama a pass on it. Any new president must learn crisis management the hard way. No evidence to date directly implicates Obama in Blagojevich's follies. But Obama's future chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, the arrogant Chicago scrapper who was reportedly a conduit to the governor, already seems like an albatross who should be thrown overboard as soon as possible. Nobody wants a dawning presidency addicted so soon to stonewalling, casuistry and the Nixonian dark arts of the modified limited hangout.

Harry Reid is a cadaverous horse's ass of mammoth proportions. How in the world did that whiny, sniveling incompetent end up as Senate majority leader? Give him the hook! 

We should all be concerned about environmental despoliation and pollution, but the global warming crusade has become a hallucinatory cult. Until I see stronger evidence, I will continue to believe that climate change is primarily driven by solar phenomena and that it is normal for the earth to pass through major cooling and warming phases.

The New Deal Metaphor

http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/995prayc.asp

The New Deal metaphor in wide circulation today is based on the illusion that, since New Deal interventions were effective in dealing with the Depression, they are the right medicine for dealing with today's financial crisis and economic slowdown. This illusion is driven by a deep misconception: that the market-oriented policies of the past quarter century were a great mistake and should be replaced by a more coordinated set of policies that (it is argued) will yield more stable growth and a fairer distribution of income. Thus the New Deal metaphor is now invoked as a call to overturn the free-market revolution of the 1980s, just as the New Deal threw overboard the Wall Street-favored policies of the 1920s. Such hopes are based on a fairy tale version of the New Deal and a highly ideological interpretation of recent history. In combination, they provide a shaky foundation for current policy and are a trap for Democrats.

[...]

The real causes of the Depression, on the other hand, are highly instructive for today's problems. Though economists and historians still debate the subject, several interconnected factors appear to have combined to turn a serious stock market correction in late 1929 into a full-scale depression by 1932: (1) an ill-advised tariff policy passed by Congress in 1930 to protect U.S. manufacturers but which had the unintended effect of shutting down international trade and U.S. exports; (2) a monetary policy adopted by the Federal Reserve, which raised the discount rate and allowed the money supply to shrink through 1931 even as the economy faltered; and (3) a cascade of bank failures which wiped out savings and credit for large swaths of the economy. The economic collapse was thus accelerated by policy errors from Congress, and especially by financial authorities who stood by as money contracted and banks failed. Such lessons seem foremost in the minds of financial authorities today who seem determined to stop any parallel sequence of falling dominoes lest we repeat the experience of the 1930s.

Gitmo Closing, States Vie to Woo Inmates as Residents

http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=3209

As news broke that Barack Obama reportedly plans to issue an executive order on his first day in office closing the U.S. terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Democrat governors across the country lobbied Mr. Obama for the privilege of welcoming the remaining 248 former enemy combatants as residents of their states.

I think Obama should offer the Gitmo detainees a night in the Lincoln Bedroom to make up for their inconvenience.

'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html?mod=rss_Today's_Most_Popular

For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

Ultimately, "Atlas Shrugged" is a celebration of the entrepreneur, the risk taker and the cultivator of wealth through human intellect. Critics dismissed the novel as simple-minded, and even some of Rand's political admirers complained that she lacked compassion. Yet one pertinent warning resounds throughout the book: When profits and wealth and creativity are denigrated in society, they start to disappear -- leaving everyone the poorer.

John R. Bolton: The U.S. Votes 'Present' at the U.N. - WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123172081432172351.html

When the U.S. abstains, it cedes the field to others on the Security Council. And our global interests make losing the initiative unacceptably risky, especially on critical issues such as the Middle East.

Ms. Rice's abstention last Thursday, for example, neither mitigated the council's pressure on Israel, nor increased the likelihood of a cease-fire. As a display of weakness, it simply invites a diplomatic feeding frenzy. That will almost certainly happen now in regards to Gaza, where Resolution 1860 is having no effect.

Obama climate czar has socialist ties

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/12/obama-climate-czar-has-socialist-ties/

Until last week, Carol M. Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's pick as global warming czar, was listed as one of 14 leaders of a socialist group's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which calls for "global governance" and says rich countries must shrink their economies to address climate change.

By Thursday, Mrs. Browner's name and biography had been removed from Socialist International's Web page, though a photo of her speaking June 30 to the group's congress in Greece was still available.

Socialist International, an umbrella group for many of the world's social democratic political parties such as Britain's Labor Party, says it supports socialism and is harshly critical of U.S. policies.

Mrs. Browner ran the Environmental Protection Agency under President Clinton. Until she was tapped for the Obama administration, she was on the board of directors for the National Audubon Society, the League of Conservation Voters, the Center for American Progress and former Vice President Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection.

Her name has been removed from the Gore organization's Web site list of directors, and the Audubon Society issued a press release about her departure from that organization.

References have been scrubbed
(via InstaPundit.com)

Dems Melt in the Heat of Burris Fiasco by Jonah Goldberg

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGMwODE1MzRmYjg5YTAyYTg0YzA2ZDRiNjA0NDlkMGE=&w=MQ==

And don't tell me Blago's corruption changes the equation. Has anyone read about the baleful history of minority set-aside programs in cities like Chicago? Cronies and grifters are routinely given sweetheart contracts under the guise of fighting discrimination when in reality it's all a riot of kickbacks, "pay-to-play" and cronyism. People don't call Jesse Jackson a shakedown artist for nothing.

There are two reasons why this spectacle shocks some liberals. The first is that Blago, Burris, and Rush used this tactic on fellow Democrats. And since Democrats can't be motivated by racism, any ploy like this must be cynical. When the same gambit is used on Republicans, it's called "speaking truth to power." Second, some honestly believed that Obama represented a real change of the racial landscape. So far, alas, these folks just look naive.

Pro-Hamas Doctors Caught Faking A Civilian Death... After CNN Airs Footage

http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/280821.php

Mads Gilbert, the radical Marxist Norwegian doctor that was the focus of a Fox News report earlier today for being an anti-Israeli Hamas apologist, has been positively identified as one of two doctors caught faking CPR on a Palestinian boy that "died" in video featured today on CNN.

Fake video at the link.  CNN has silently removed the video, but the fake story is still out there.

More on the hoax from LGF...

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/32393_A_Staged_Scene_in_a_Gaza_Hospital

A Revealing Morning With Sarah Palin

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jziegler/2009/01/07/my-interview-with-sarah-palin/#more-10885

video at the link

Panetta a surprise pick to run the CIA

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-cia-panetta6-2009jan06,0,5514283.story

If confirmed by the Senate, Panetta would be among the few directors in agency history with no experience at one of the nation's spy services.

Largely for that reason, Panetta's selection was met with criticism on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who this week begins her tenure as the first female head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she was not consulted on the choice and indicated she might oppose it.

"I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director," Feinstein said. "My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time."

If you're looking for a Clinton loyalist to run the CIA, I would think that Sandy "Pants" Berger might have better espionage experience.

Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979

http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=13834

Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago, when the year 1979 also drew to a close.

Ice levels had been tracking lower throughout much of 2008, but rapidly recovered in the last quarter. In fact, the rate of increase from September onward is the fastest rate of change on record, either upwards or downwards.

The data is being reported by the University of Illinois's Arctic Climate Research Center, and is derived from satellite observations of the Northern and Southern hemisphere polar regions.

Each year, millions of square kilometers of sea ice melt and refreeze. However, the mean ice anomaly -- defined as the seasonally-adjusted difference between the current value and the average from 1979-2000, varies much more slowly. That anomaly now stands at just under zero, a value identical to one recorded at the end of 1979, the year satellite record-keeping began.

Once again proving that we need to spend more money on Global Warming research -- if only to avoid another ice age!

Funny Business in Minnesota

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123111967642552909.html

Strange things keep happening in Minnesota, where the disputed recount in the Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken may be nearing a dubious outcome. Thanks to the machinations of Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and a meek state Canvassing Board, Mr. Franken may emerge as an illegitimate victor.

Boss Tweed would be proud: "As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?"

Richardson withdraws bid to be commerce secretary

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95GHJPO0&show_article=1

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday announced that he was withdrawing his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama's commerce secretary amid a grand jury investigation into how some of his political donors won a lucrative state contract.

Richardson's withdrawal was the first disruption of Obama's Cabinet process and the second "pay-to-play" investigation that has touched Obama's transition to the presidency. The president-elect has remained above the fray in both the case of arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the New Mexico case.

A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson's political activities won a New Mexico transportation contract worth more than $1 million. Richardson said in a statement issued by the Obama transition office that the investigation could take weeks or months but expressed confidence it will show he and his administration acted properly.

$1 million is chump change.  I wouldn't be surprised if Hillary didn't want Richardson around in Washington after he betrayed her by endorsing Obama. I'm not saying she had anything to do with it, but bad things tend to happen to people who cross the Clintons.