What McCain Should Do Next

By KARL ROVE

Notwithstanding the hype about Barack Obama, here is where the presidential race stands: John McCain was within an average of 1.9% of his Democratic opponent in last week's daily Gallup tracking poll. It shouldn't be this close. Sen. Obama should be way ahead. It's not that Sen. McCain has made up a lot of ground. Pollster.com shows that the Republican steadily declined from March through June as the Democratic contest dominated the news. Mr. McCain stabilized in July, and then ticked up slightly. But the most important political fact of July is that Mr. Obama has lost altitude. Gallup now projects that 23% of this year's electorate will be swing voters, more than twice the share in 2004.

It seems that each candidate is underperforming with his base. Mr. Obama's problem is that only 74% of Democrats in the latest Fox Poll support him, while Mr. McCain gets 86% of Republicans. But Mr. McCain's support lacks the same intensity Mr. Obama receives. The latest Pew poll found that 24% of voters "strongly" support Mr. Obama, compared to 17% for Mr. McCain.

Old doubts about Mr. Obama remain. In a late June Washington Post poll, 46% said Mr. Obama lacked the experience to do the job, the same number as in March, before he spent $119 million to run ads extolling himself. In February 2000, 59% said George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, had the experience to be president. That number grew as the campaign wore on. Now Mr. Obama faces new doubts over perceptions that he's arrogant, self-centered and calculating.

So what should Mr. McCain do? He's rightly raising questions about Mr. Obama's fitness to be president, starting with his failure to admit that the surge in Iraq worked. Mr. McCain should stay at it, though he'll need help to make the case.

Mr. McCain was correct to seize on Mr. Obama's insinuations that the GOP would mount racist attacks against him. Now Mr. McCain needs to find ways to describe an Obama who is running on empty rhetoric. He needs to do to Mr. Obama what Walter Mondale did to Gary "Where's the Beef?" Hart in the 1984 Democratic primaries. Given Mr. Obama's thin r‚sum‚ and accomplishments, this can be done, with a sustained effort.

But to win, Mr. McCain must also make a compelling case for electing John McCain. Voters trust him on terrorism and Iraq and they see him as a patriot who puts country first. But they want to know for what purpose?

In the coming weeks, he needs to lay out a bold domestic reform program. He gave a taste on energy, but with a few missteps. He should appear in front of manufacturing plants where jobs depend on affordable energy, small businesses affected by fuel prices, and farms hurt by skyrocketing fertilizer costs -- and not in front of oil rigs. He needs to describe the consequences of specific domestic policy decisions. He must explain how his proposals on energy, health care, jobs and education will make a difference for ordinary families.

Mr. McCain also needs to elevate his arguments. It's not only that he opposes tax increases and Mr. Obama favors them. Mr. McCain must also make the principled case that there should be a limit to what government can take from its citizens. This argument will appeal to a large majority of voters. The top income tax rate is 35% and, according to the Tax Foundation, 89% of Americans believe that government should take no more than 30% from anyone's paycheck.

Mr. McCain should also talk about issues that increase Republican enthusiasm and win over independents, such as earmarks and judicial activism. And he should not shy away from appeals for bipartisanship. He's done it -- and talking about it undermines Mr. Obama, who hasn't. It also explains who Mr. McCain is. Mr. McCain should welcome opportunities to go against the grain. Defending free trade in manufacturing states is gutsy and feeds his maverick, straight-talk image. He will be pleasantly surprised to find out how many people in Ohio and elsewhere understand that their state's prosperity depends on knocking down trade barriers.

Then there's character. Mr. McCain is the most private person to run for president since Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s. He needs to share (or allow others to share) more about him, especially his faith. The McCain and Obama campaigns are mirror opposites. Mr. McCain offers little biography, while Mr. Obama is nothing but.

The Republican Party's convention next month is Mr. McCain's biggest chance to improve his posture. The best minds in his campaign should be carefully working on its script. Everyone knows conventions are show, but voters want to see if a candidate can put on a good one that rings true.

Mr. Obama has the easier path to victory: reassure a restive electorate that he's up to the job. Mr. McCain must both educate voters to his opponent's weaknesses and persuade them that he has a vision for the coming four years. This will require a disciplined, focused effort. Mr. McCain has gotten this far fighting an unscripted guerrilla campaign. But it won't get him all the way to the White House.

Source

*********************

ELSEWHERE

Gutsy little Georgia: "Georgia claimed today to have downed two Russian warplanes over its territory after the former Soviet neighbours came into direct conflict over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Tbilisi mobilised its army reserves and launched a major military offensive overnight to regain control over the province, raising fears of an all-out war that could draw in Russia. Moscow backs the separatists, most of whom are Russian citizens, and has its own "peackeepers" in South Ossetia. Fighting raged around the city of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, as Georgian troops backed by tanks and warplanes pounded separatist forces today."

From Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's Nobel Literature Prize lecture in 1970: "The spirit of Munich has by no means retreated into the past; it was not merely a brief episode. I even venture to say that the spirit of Munich prevails in the 20th century. The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles. The spirit of Munich is a sickness of the will of successful people, it is the daily condition of those who have given themselves up to the thirst after prosperity at any price, to material well-being as the chief goal of earthly existence. Such people -- and there are many in today's world -- elect passivity and retreat, just so as their accustomed life might drag on a bit longer, just so as not to step over the threshold of hardship today -- and tomorrow, you'll see, it will all be all right. (But it will never be all right! The price of cowardice will only be evil; we shall reap courage and victory only when we dare to make sacrifices.)"

More regulation will invite worse behavior: "Paul Krugman is too sophisticated to think that more regulation will temper excessive risk-taking in financial markets. ('Another Temporary Fix,' July 28) He should know that the more restrictive the regulations, the more opportunities conniving executives have to work the system. Look at the case of Angelo Mozilo and Countrywide. Mozilo and his company thrived on regulation, and they used it to their advantage."



Nine passengers on every British Airways jumbo lose their bags: "British Airways loses more bags and operates more delayed planes than any other big airline in Europe, a confidential report seen by The Times has found. On the day that BA launched its first advertising campaign to rescue the reputation of Terminal 5 at Heathrow using the tag line "Terminal 5 is working", it emerged that BA customers were 80 per cent more likely to lose their luggage than average in the first half of 2008. Britain's third largest airline, bmi, also had one of the worst records for lost luggage this year, beaten only by BA in a table of 29 European airlines. Nine passengers travelling on a typical BA jumbo jet flight between January and June found that their bags were missing when they arrived at their destination. The research found that one third of BA's short-haul and medium-haul flights and roughly one third of its long-haul arrivals and departures were at least 15 minutes late this year, well below the European average. According to the Association of European Airlines (AEA), which carried out the study, Tarom Romanian Airlines was the most punctual airline."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

****************************

Lots to catch up with today so short excerpts only:

China: I believe that all blogspot blogs are accessible in China at the moment. An Olympic games concession to be withdrawn as soon as the games end, I would think.

An Israeli rat!: "The report published by two Palestinian newspapers - one of which, "Al-Hayat Al-Jadida" is an official Palestinian Authority organ directly controlled by the office of PA President Mahmoud Abbas - are accusing Israel of releasing rats to chase away the Arab residents of Jerusalem." According to the PA papers on July 18th, this amazing creature, the "Israeli-Jerusalem" rat, no doubt secretly developed in Dimona, or other secret place is: - Immune to rat poison - Aggressive and larger than usual - Unafraid of cats and able to scare them away - Highly fertile, with females giving birth to 140 young rats a year, four times the normal average. And now best of all!! - Able to distinguish between Jewish and Arab neighbors!!."

Archbishop compares homosexual relationships to marriage : "The Archbishop of Canterbury has claimed that active homosexual relationships are "comparable to marriage" in the eyes of God. [Thus showing complete contempt for the Bible]

Leftist racism is OK, apparently: "The campaign of Democratic attorney Nikki Tinker is increasingly using issues of race and religion to attack freshman Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), a white Jewish congressman representing a majority-black Memphis district. Just days after airing a racially charged ad connecting Cohen with the Ku Klux Klan, the Tinker campaign is up with a new ad not-too-subtly questioning his religious convictions.... Cohen planned to hold a press conference Wednesday morning to respond to the new ad. Cohen already has been the target of an anti-Semitic mailer was distributed earlier this year in the district. The flier said that "Cohen and the Jews HATE Jesus" and called upon "Black Christians" to support one "Black Christian" and oppose "this opponent of Christ and Christianity." [Tinker is a black female]

Saudi Arabia threatens Nissan boycott over Israeli ad: "Saudis may be known for a lot of things, but let's face it - comedy is not one of them. Israelis on the other hand... have you seen The Zohan? In any event, it's not surprising that people in Saudi Arabia are outraged at something from Israel, but this time it has nothing to do with military actions or residential construction, and to be fair, while talk of boycotts is filling the air once again, they're not actually blaming Israel itself for anything. Instead, Nissan is the boycott target. The spate was started by a commercial Israeli TV that depicts Arabian oil sheikhs getting medieval on a Nissan Tiida. The implication is that the car's fuel efficiency is harming the sheikhs' business interests. The Saudi regime, along with other oil-producing Gulf states, is threatening to boycott Nissan - which itself is collaborating on the development of the Project Better Place electric car system in Israel - if the automaker doesn't apologize."

Texas thumbs its nose at international meddlers: "A Mexican man at the centre of an international legal dispute has been executed in Texas for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1993. While protestors both for and against the death penalty demonstrated outside the Huntsville Unit near Houston last night, Jose Medellin, 33, died after being given a lethal injection. The execution came just before 10pm shortly after the US supreme court denied a last request for a reprieve. Pleas for a stay came from Washington, Mexico and the international court of justice (ICJ). They had all urged Texas not to execute Medellin until a hearing had been held to determine whether or not his original trial was sound."

Big Unions Continue to Dock Employees' Wages for Liberal Political Causes : "Imagine for a moment that your boss forcibly docked your paycheck each week in order to contribute to politicians or candidates whom he or she favored, and whom you opposed. Obviously, that would be not only unfair, but illegal. But should it be any different when big labor unions, rather than employers, are the ones doing it? Unfortunately, it happens every day, despite federal laws prohibiting it. And according to the National Right to Work Foundation (NRWF), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) merely provides the latest illustration. This month, the NRWF filed a formal complaint with both the Department of Labor and Department of Justice, alleging that the SEIU violated federal law by requiring local members to fund the SEIU's Political Action Committee. Under a new amendment to the SEIU's constitution, every local must now contribute $6 per member each year to its central PAC. Further, the SEIU's national organization will now impose a 50% penalty against locals that fail to satisfy these political fundraising goals. In other words, play or pay".

Poor countries reject cheap food: "The latest round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations foundered last week over policies that seek to "protect livelihoods." On one side stood India and China who insisted that they be allowed use a special safeguard mechanism (SSM) to boost tariffs to prevent surges of cheap food into their countries. Why? As Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath explained, "The main issue was the security of livelihood of millions of poor farmers in India and other developing countries against import surges which could take place." Specifically, India and other developing countries want to impose additional duties to protect their poor farmers from agricultural product price declines caused by import surges. "When I am negotiating, I am willing to negotiate commerce. I am not willing to negotiate livelihood security, I am not willing to negotiate subsistence, I am not willing to negotiate poverty," insisted Nath." [Sounds like they want to stay poor]

Where there's smoke, there's ... government intrusion: "This is still a free country, right? Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to more closely regulate the wages that firms pay workers and to more strictly regulate tobacco products by putting them under FDA supervision. The Los Angeles City Council also approved a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a 32-square-mile low-income area in the city; the poor, after all, have 'above-average rates of obesity' and must be protected from themselves. ... Barack Obama promises a national ban on smoking in public places. Such micro-managing of people's behavior will likely only get worse."

Moronic ACLU says that more blacks arrested proves bias: "Legislators should toughen a law passed in 2001 to prohibit racial profiling by Louisiana law enforcement agencies, the American Civil Liberties Union said.... Grote said the study, entitled "Unequal Under the Law" and released Wednesday, was conducted in the first three months of 2007, using arrest data from sheriff's and police departments from St. Tammany, Avoyelles, and DeSoto parishes. Legislators have not yet seen the report. Using demographics of communities and parishes taken from the U.S. Census, the ACLU determined the rate at which people of color were arrested compared to whites. "In every town, city and parish examined, people of color were arrested at a higher rate than their representation in the population," the report said."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

****************************

Bruce Ivins Wasn't the Anthrax Culprit

By RICHARD SPERTZEL. (Mr. Spertzel, head of the biological-weapons section of Unscom from 1994-99, was a member of the Iraq Survey Group)

Over the past week the media was gripped by the news that the FBI was about to charge Bruce Ivins, a leading anthrax expert, as the man responsible for the anthrax letter attacks in September/October 2001. But despite the seemingly powerful narrative that Ivins committed suicide because investigators were closing in, this is still far from a shut case. The FBI needs to explain why it zeroed in on Ivins, how he could have made the anthrax mailed to lawmakers and the media, and how he (or anyone else) could have pulled off the attacks, acting alone. I believe this is another mistake in the investigation.

Let's start with the anthrax in the letters to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. The spores could not have been produced at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, where Ivins worked, without many other people being aware of it. Furthermore, the equipment to make such a product does not exist at the institute.

Information released by the FBI over the past seven years indicates a product of exceptional quality. The product contained essentially pure spores. The particle size was 1.5 to 3 microns in diameter. There are several methods used to produce anthrax that small. But most of them require milling the spores to a size small enough that it can be inhaled into the lower reaches of the lungs. In this case, however, the anthrax spores were not milled.

What's more, they were also tailored to make them potentially more dangerous. According to a FBI news release from November 2001, the particles were coated by a "product not seen previously to be used in this fashion before." Apparently, the spores were coated with a polyglass which tightly bound hydrophilic silica to each particle. That's what was briefed (according to one of my former weapons inspectors at the United Nations Special Commission) by the FBI to the German Foreign Ministry at the time.

Another FBI leak indicated that each particle was given a weak electric charge, thereby causing the particles to repel each other at the molecular level. This made it easier for the spores to float in the air, and increased their retention in the lungs. In short, the potential lethality of anthrax in this case far exceeds that of any powdered product found in the now extinct U.S. Biological Warfare Program. In meetings held on the cleanup of the anthrax spores in Washington, the product was described by an official at the Department of Homeland Security as "according to the Russian recipes" -- apparently referring to the use of the weak electric charge.

The latest line of speculation asserts that the anthrax's DNA, obtained from some of the victims, initially led investigators to the laboratory where Ivins worked. But the FBI stated a few years ago that a complete DNA analysis was not helpful in identifying what laboratory might have made the product.

Furthermore, the anthrax in this case, the "Ames strain," is one of the most common strains in the world. Early in the investigations, the FBI said it was similar to strains found in Haiti and Sri Lanka. The strain at the institute was isolated originally from an animal in west Texas and can be found from Texas to Montana following the old cattle trails. Samples of the strain were also supplied to at least eight laboratories including three foreign laboratories. Four French government laboratories reported on studies with the Ames strain, citing the Pasteur Institute in Paris as the source of the strain they used. Organism DNA is not a very reliable way to make a case against a scientist.

The FBI has not officially released information on why it focused on Ivins, and whether he was about to be charged or arrested. And when the FBI does release this information, we should all remember that the case needs to be firmly based on solid information that would conclusively prove that a lone scientist could make such a sophisticated product.

From what we know so far, Bruce Ivins, although potentially a brilliant scientist, was not that man. The multiple disciplines and technologies required to make the anthrax in this case do not exist at Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Inhalation studies are conducted at the institute, but they are done using liquid preparations, not powdered products.

The FBI spent between 12 and 18 months trying "to reverse engineer" (make a replica of) the anthrax in the letters sent to Messrs. Daschle and Leahy without success, according to FBI news releases. So why should federal investigators or the news media or the American public believe that a lone scientist would be able to do so?

Source. A Soviet origin would seem the only possibility

**********************

ELSEWHERE

Britain: 'Fakeproof' e-passport is cloned in minutes: "New microchipped passports designed to be foolproof against identity theft can be cloned and manipulated in minutes and accepted as genuine by the computer software recommended for use at international airports. Tests for The Times exposed security flaws in the microchips introduced to protect against terrorism and organised crime. The flaws also undermine claims that 3,000 blank passports stolen last week were worthless because they could not be forged. In the tests, a computer researcher cloned the chips on two British passports and implanted digital images of Osama bin Laden and a suicide bomber. The altered chips were then passed as genuine by passport reader software used by the UN agency that sets standards for e-passports."

Iran faces new sanctions after missing deadline: "Six major world powers agreed Monday to seek new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program after the country failed to meet a weekend deadline to respond to an offer intended to defuse the dispute, the United States said. Representatives of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany decided in a high-level conference call that Iran's lack of response to an incentives package aimed at getting it to halt sensitive atomic activity left them no option other than to pursue new punitive measures, the United States said."

Oil prices dropping: "Oil prices plunged to a three month low Monday, briefly tumbling below $120 a barrel in another huge sell-off after Tropical Storm Edouard seemed less likely to disrupt oil and natural gas output in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, gasoline prices continued their downward trend, with the common price in Tulsa falling 7 cents from the weekend. Crude's steep drop - prices fell more than $5 at one point during the day - dragged down other commodities and mimicked the big nosedives of the past three weeks. Also weighing on prices Monday was a report by the Commerce Department that consumer spending after adjusting for inflation fell in June as shoppers dealt with higher prices for gasoline, food and other items. That fed investors' expectations that a U.S. economic slowdown is sharply curbing U.S. demand for fossil fuels."

Moqtada Packs It In: "Good news out of Iraq is becoming almost a daily event: In just the past week, we learned that U.S. combat fatalities (five) dropped in July to a low for the war, that key leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq have fled to the Pakistani hinterland, that troop deployments will soon be cut to 12 months from 15, and that Washington and Baghdad are close to concluding a status-of-forces agreement. Now this: Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr plans to announce Friday that he will disarm his Mahdi Army, which was raining mortars on Baghdad's Green Zone as recently as April. Coupled with the near-total defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq, this means the U.S. no longer faces any significant organized military foe in the country. It also marks a major setback for Iran, which had used the Mahdi Army as one of its primary vehicles for extending its influence in Iraq. The story, broken yesterday by the Journal's Gina Chon, marks the latest of serial defeats for Mr. Sadr"

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

****************************

Coastal oil drilling

Krauthammer, the psychiatrist, is better at economics than the economist, Krugman. Dr. Charles Krauthammer remains the clearest thinker in the punditocracy. Former Enron advisor Paul Krugman, not so much. The two squared off today on Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco's statement that by shutting down new oil production in the USA, she is saving the world. Krugman in the New York Times:

"In themselves, limits on offshore drilling are only a modest-sized issue. But the skirmish over drilling is the opening stage of a much bigger fight over environmental policy. What's at stake in that fight, above all, is the question of whether we'll take action against climate change before it's utterly too late.

"It's true that scientists don't know exactly how much world temperatures will rise if we persist with business as usual. But that uncertainty is actually what makes action so urgent. While there's a chance that we'll act against global warming only to find that the danger was overstated, there's also a chance that we'll fail to act only to find that the results of inaction were catastrophic. Which risk would you rather run?"

OK, so the economist gives the political and pseudo-climatologist response. We won't drill here and therefore we will be on the road to saving the planet from this generation's apocalyptic fear. The last one was global cooling. Before that it was a nuclear holocaust.

Krauthammer in the Washington Post pointed out the obvious; by not drilling here, we buy oil from Third World venues, where it is drilled under less pristine conditions. That is the economist's response. Wrote Krauthammer:

"There are a dizzying number of economic and national security arguments for drilling at home: a $700 billion oil balance-of-payments deficit, a gas tax (equivalent) levied on the paychecks of American workers and poured into the treasuries of enemy and terror-supporting regimes, growing dependence on unstable states of the Persian Gulf and Caspian basin. Pelosi and the Democrats stand athwart, shouting: We don't care. We come to save the planet! "They seem blissfully unaware that the argument for their drill-there-not-here policy collapses on its own environmental terms."

In summation, not drilling offshore does not "save the planet." It spends it.

Source

*********************

Economic growth doubles

Not good enough for the New York Times, which keeps hoping for a recession. The New York Times headline was dour: "G.D.P. Grows at Tepid 1.9% Pace Despite Stimulus." It goes on to say this dimmed hopes for a "quick recovery." Recovery from what? There has been no recession. Perhaps if the Times did not rely on former Enron adviser Paul Krugman for economics advice, its editors would understand the basic definition of a recession. The AP was more positive:

Economic growth picked up in the second quarter as tax rebates energized consumers and exports boosted businesses. The rebound followed a treacherous patch where the economy jolted into reverse at the end of 2007.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that gross domestic product, or GDP, increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the April-to-June period. That marked an improvement over the feeble 0.9 percent growth logged in the first quarter of this year and an outright contraction in the economy during the final quarter of last year.

And Reuters, "GDP gets stimulus checks boost"

Expansion accelerated modestly in the second quarter as government stimulus payments helped consumers add more buying punch to the economy, a Commerce Department report on Thursday showed. Gross Domestic Product or GDP grew at a 1.9 percent annual rate, up from a revised 0.9 percent rate in the first quarter that previously was reported as 1 percent. Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected a 2.0 percent rise in GDP in the second quarter.

Given the housing bubble burst and a world economy that suffers from inflation in food prices and oil prices, not a bad quarter. And definitely, there will be no recession on Election Day. Tough break, liberals. Just like the one on not losing the war.

Source

*********************

ELSEWHERE

An interesting remark from Bill Clinton: ""I never was mad at Senator Obama - I think everybody's got a right to run for president who qualifies under the constitution," he said." [Looks like Bill has heard about Obama's forged birth certificate too]

Secret deal kept British Army out of battle for Basra: "A secret deal between Britain and the notorious al-Mahdi militia prevented British Forces from coming to the aid of their US and Iraqi allies for nearly a week during the battle for Basra this year, The Times has learnt. Four thousand British troops - including elements of the SAS and an entire mechanised brigade - watched from the sidelines for six days because of an "accommodation" with the Iranian-backed group, according to American and Iraqi officers who took part in the assault. US Marines and soldiers had to be rushed in to fill the void, fighting bitter street battles and facing mortar fire, rockets and roadside bombs with their Iraqi counterparts. Hundreds of militiamen were killed or arrested in the fighting. About 60 Iraqis were killed or injured. One US Marine died and seven were wounded. US advisers who accompanied the Iraqi forces into the fight were shocked to learn of the accommodation made last summer by British Intelligence and elements of al-Mahdi Army"

Religious Tolerance on Display in Ethiopia: Muslim Mob Stones Christians: "A mob of Islamic extremists stoned Seid Ahmed and Musa Ibrahim [names changed for security reasons] in Jijiga, a city on border with Somalia. The attack is the latest attack against Christians in Ethiopia where the spread of radical Islam is fueling the persecution of Christians. ICC (International Christian Concern) www.persecution.org says that on July 19, 2008, Ahmed and Ibrahim were going to a church meeting when they were confronted by nine extremist Muslims yelling anti-Christian slogans. The extremists started hurling rocks at the two Christians. Ahmed, who is a church leader, was hit by eight stones and suffered a severe concussion and injuries on his torso. He was admitted to Karamara Hospital where he was treated for his injuries. Ibrahim escaped physical harm as he fled the scene to call the police who never arrived to stop the attack."



Trouble for cheap Indian car: "The Nano, the world's cheapest car, is threatening to be a commercial flop as surging raw material costs scramble its low-cost business model, according to industry insiders. Analysts and rival manufacturers expect Tata, the conglomerate behind the Nano, to suffer heavy losses on the car as its promise to sell a basic model for only 100,000 rupees ($2,500) - a price calculated to tempt India's middle classes away from their motorcycles - proves unexpectedly costly. Ratan Tata, the chairman of Tata, has admitted that he faces a dilemma. "If we pass on all costs to the consumer, it will affect demand, and if we don't, it will affect margins," he told investors recently."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

****************************

Boring, Boring: Same old, same old media bias

The Washington Post tells us that McCain has a "Curious Mind". Not exactly complimentary. Dean Barnett comments below:

A couple of days ago, we glanced at a Jonathan Chait column that whined about the way Democratic general election candidates are always labeled flip-floppers. Well, today it's the Republicans' chance to whine. Every presidential election since 1976, the press has determined that the Republican candidate is less intelligent than his big-brained Democratic opponent. The Republicans who got away with such a simple comparison were the lucky ones. Others like both Bushes and Ronald Reagan were lampooned as dunderheads.

The narrative never really fit. The first blog post I ever wrote that anyone other than Mickey Kaus noticed posited that John Kerry wasn't so bright. I based this conclusion on his failure to get into Harvard Law School in spite of his undergrad degree from Yale and his impressive pedigree as a war hero cum war protestor. I argued that only his grades at Yale could account for his strange failure to attend Harvard Law, and concluded that his grades had to be so dreadful they could accurately be labeled "sub-Bushian." You should have seen the hate mail I received.

The media preferred the narrative regarding Kerry's intellect that Howell Raines peddled. Raines, then the recently deposed editor of the New York Times, said in a 2004 op-ed piece, "Does anyone in America doubt that Kerry has a higher IQ than Bush? I'm sure the candidates' SATs and college transcripts would put Kerry far ahead." When Kerry released his transcripts in 2005 long after his national ambitions had been extirpated, his grades turned out to indeed be sub-Bushian. Naturally, every single lefty who wrote me a piece of hate mail regarding my blog post wrote a subsequent letter to apologize and Howell Raines publicly acknowledged his error and conceded that respectable journalists shouldn't substitute biased speculation for actual knowledge. At least that's how I like to picture our noble friends on the left.

Anyway, today the Washington Post puts John McCain's brain under its microscope. Marc Ambinder a short while ago referred to Barack Obama's "talented, incredible gift of a mind." Obama's no dummy, but any evidence of Obama being an original or particularly insightful thinker is hard to find. Regardless, Ambinder certainly won't be drawing the same conclusion after reading this glib Post expos‚ on McCain's intellect. The "curious mind" sobriquet in the story's title doesn't sound nearly as impressive as a "talented, incredible gift of a mind." And thus, the Post continues an ignoble tradition - the facile and knee-jerk conclusion that the Democratic candidate is always the smarter one.

************************

Rock the House: What should Republicans do now?



"Hit hard, hit fast, hit often." That was the advice Marine hero Chesty Puller gave his men. That's the advice congressional Republicans should follow.

On Friday, GOP members led a revolt on the floor that rocked the House, energized the conservative base, humiliated the feckless Democrat majority, and brought visiting tourists to their feet cheering in the gallery. (Oh, and not coincidentally on Friday afternoon, Barack Obama followed John McCain and flip-flopped on offshore drilling. If you lead, conservatives, the flip-floppers will follow.)

While Do-Nothing Nancy Pelosi jetted off on her pathetically-performing "Know Your Power" book tour and Democrats adjourned for a five-week recess, scores of Republican congressional representatives stayed on Capitol Hill-or rushed back in shorts with suitcases still in hand - to press for votes on energy independence and drilling. Though Pelosi turned the lights out on the House floor, Republicans got their message out-via Twitter, Qik, the blogosphere, talk radio, and grumbly MSM types who derided the upstart effort as "bizarre." Leave it to Beltway snob journalists to call House Republicans who refuse to take vacations while the public's business goes unfinished "bizarre." One of my favorite moments from Friday's revolt:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) just pretended to be a Democrat. He stood on the other side of the chamber and listed all of the GOP bills that the Dems killed. He then said, "I am a Democrat, and here is my energy plan" and he held up a picture of an old Isetta with a sail attached to it. He paraded around the House floor with the sign while the crowd cheered.

Much more here

************************

ELSEWHERE

An anniversary coming up: On August 6, 1945 the USA first dropped an atom bomb on Japan. I don't think the resultant slaughter is anything to celebrate but nor it it an occasion to condemn the USA. A blogger in Eugene, Oregon is fed up with the Leftist pretences at mourning on the anniversary and wants to mount a counter-demonstration.

Dems On Defense And In Denial: "With upwards of 70% of Americans convinced increased domestic oil production may at least help bring down gasoline prices, the Congress became a calamity today as ham-fisted Democrats, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, squashed debate to cut and run on five-week paid vacations at home and even abroad in some cases - with all travel and gasoline expenses footed by American taxpayers, many of whom might just be staying home themselves this summer as a result of rising fuel prices. With a party beholden to extreme environmentalist, who have stifled nuclear generation and increases in domestic oil production and refining for decades, the Democrats are in denial if they think the Republicans will not pull out all the stops to place the current gasoline situation squarely in their laps where it belongs. Meanwhile over in the Senate, Democrats refused to support emergency measures for relief even if gasoline rose to the ridiculous price of $10 a gallon. House Speaker Pelosi has as much as admitted that they fear debate as it will allow Republicans to place blame for the energy situation on Democrats"

Wal-Mart mobilises against unions and Democrats: "WAL-MART Stores is mobilising its store managers and department supervisors across the US to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they are likely to change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionise companies -- including Wal-Mart. In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer has stressed the downside for workers should stores be unionised. According to about a dozen Wal-Mart employees who attended such meetings in seven states, Wal-Mart executives claim that employees at unionised stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return, and might have to go on strike without compensation. Also, unionisation could mean fewer jobs as labour costs rise... Wal-Mart's worries centre on a piece of legislation known as the Employee Free Choice Act, which companies say would enable unions to quickly add millions of new members. "We believe EFCA is a bad bill and we have been on record as opposing it for some time," Mr Tovar said. The bill was crafted by labour as a response to more aggressive opposition by companies to union organising activity. The AFL-CIO and individual unions such as the United Food and Commercial Workers have promised to make passage of the new labour law their No1 mission after the November election."

180 Palestinians flee to Israel: "The majority of more than 180 Fatah supporters who fled into Israel from the Gaza Strip were in Israeli custody yesterday after a dramatic escape from a Hamas crackdown that left nine people dead in fierce fighting in Gaza. Wary Israeli troops allowed the Gazans to cross the heavily guarded border on Saturday, stripping them first to make sure none was wearing explosives. Mortar shells hit near the crossing as the Palestinians fled their homes for the territory of their long-time enemy. The Israeli soldiers prepared stretchers, and ambulances rushed the badly wounded to nearby hospitals. The incident punctuated one of the new realities of the conflict: Palestinian infighting has become so bitter that some fear Israel less than they do each other. The violence began on Saturday when Hamas forces launched a raid on a crowded Gaza City neighbourhood dominated by the Hilles clan, linked to Fatah. The sides battled each other with mortars and machine guns."

Great: Schwarzenegger slashes 20,000 government jobs: "Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed an order cutting 20,000 government jobs and slashing the pay of 200,000 other employees to save California from "a full-blown cash crisis". The state's Republican governor said the action was necessary given California's failure to enact a budget for the current fiscal year, which began on July 1. The state faces a massive $15.2 billion deficit and Democratic and Republican lawmakers have so far been unable to agree on a spending plan. Officials say if a budget is not approved within the next few weeks, the state could be forced to turn to Wall Street for expensive loans in order to pay its bills. Mr Schwarzenegger denied his move was political and aimed at forcing legislators to break the stalemate, insisting it was vital to free up funds given the "terrible situation". Slashing seasonal and part-time jobs and cutting state wages could save up to $1 billion a month, according to estimates."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

****************************

Democrats exporting energy jobs

Two thoughts about recent economic data: first, the Labor Department reported yesterday that private employers cut payrolls in July by 51,000 jobs. (This isn't exactly correct; employers added many new employees over the summer, as they always do, but because the increase was a little less than in most recent summers, it was recorded as a "decline" on a seasonally-adjusted basis.) Democrats hailed the job report as a sign of economic failure.

My question is: why, then, are they so intent on exporting hundreds of thousands of energy jobs? We pay around $700 billion annually for foreign oil. That represents not just an enormous amount of money, it also represents jobs that must number in the hundreds of thousands. Why shouldn't that money go to Americans? If we do our own drilling, pipeline construction, refinery expansion, etc., hundreds of thousands of American laborers, pipefitters, welders, engineers, etc., will have great, high-paying jobs. The Democrats would be happy to fund a government program that would pay a like number of Americans to do make-work. Why, then, are they so determined to stop hundreds of thousands of American workers from making an excellent living in the private sector by supplying their fellow citizens with a desperately needed commodity? The Democrats' policies are simply perverse.

Second: last week, the administration announced increased federal budget deficit figures for fiscal years 2008 and 2009. As the Associated Press reported, "Democratic critics...charged that the soaring deficits showed the total failure of the Bush administration to put the government's fiscal house in order." But why did the 2008 deficit "soar" to an estimated $389 billion? Mostly because Congress decided that the existing budget deficit wasn't large enough to stimulate the economy, and therefore enacted a "stimulus" package in February that included mailing checks to 128 million households.

Democrats are masters of the politics of deceit and fraud, so its not surprising that few have noticed these inconsistencies. But not only are they exporting jobs in the energy sector, they are also exporting revenues and tax receipts that would go to reduce that deficit they claim to be worried about. The royalties alone on the oil and gas they have kept off limit would eliminate the national debt.

Source

************************

Rewards of Wisdom

As McCain's stand on the surge shows, experience cannot be separated from judgment

In January 2007, with Iraq in flames and Democrats set to take over Congress, President Bush had two options. He could side with Senator Barack Obama and begin a gradual drawdown of American troops in Iraq, leaving the Iraqis to a grim fate and dealing a serious and consequential blow to American interests in the Middle East and beyond. Or he could side with Senator John McCain and change strategies, sending additional troops to Iraq in an effort to secure the population and assist the Iraqis in their fight against al Qaeda and the Iranian-backed Shiite militias--the so-called "surge" policy. This latter option was the one Bush eventually adopted, of course. And for that, he deserves the thanks of Americans, of Iraqis, and indeed the world.

The surge is over. The last of the reinforcements sent to Iraq have returned home. The Iraq those troops leave behind is an utterly transformed place. Since their first offensive operations began in July 2007, overall attacks have been cut by 80 percent. The sectarian bloodshed staining Iraq in 2006 and 2007 has almost entirely abated. American casualties have fallen dramatically, with U.S. combat deaths in Iraq in July 2008 the lowest monthly total since the war began more than five years ago. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been routed, and the global al Qaeda organization faces what CIA director Michael Hayden calls a "near-strategic defeat" in Iraq. Shiite radical Moktada al-Sadr remains "studying" in Iran, while his militia has been cut to pieces by U.S. and Iraqi troops. The Iraqi army is progressing admirably; more than two-thirds of Iraqi combat battalions now take the lead in operations in their areas.

As the advocates of the surge predicted, a population that feels secure is a population more willing and able to reach political compromise. The Iraqi government has met almost all of the "benchmarks" the U.S. Congress set for it, and, although a national hydrocarbons law remains elusive, the country's oil wealth is being divided among its 18 provinces. That wealth is increasing dramatically as security has allowed oil production to return to prewar levels (and as prices have soared). The major Sunni political bloc has rejoined the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The Awakening, which began in Sunni-dominated Anbar province in the fall of 2006, has blossomed into a trans-sectarian, national, grassroots political movement. And Iraq is busy preparing for provincial and national elections that will further accelerate reconciliation by broadening and deepening the political participation of all the major groups.

Had Bush listened to Obama and decided to retreat last year, not only would the progress we see today not have occurred, but it is quite likely that the situation in Iraq would be much worse than it was at the end of 2006. Bereft of U.S. security, Iraqis would have turned to the nearest sectarian militia for protection from the widening civil war. An empowered and belligerent Iran would have moved to fill the vacuum America left behind, thus allowing the mullahs in Tehran to pursue unchecked their policy of "Lebanonization" in Iraq. And Al Qaeda in Iraq would have continued its barbaric killing spree, using the departing American soldiers as a recruitment tool, evidence of American weakness and unreliability. It would not be al Qaeda but the United States facing a "near strategic defeat" on Osama bin Laden's chosen front. And a defeated America would have led to a more dangerous world.

Fortunately, none of this came to pass. Bush sided with McCain, who had been calling for additional troops and a counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq since late summer 2003. We wonder what might have been averted--and what might have been accomplished--if Bush had adopted McCain's strategy five years ago.... Contrary to conventional wisdom, experience cannot be separated from judgment. Experience matters. It was a lifetime of service and involvement in national security issues that gave McCain the perspective and insight to urge a change in strategy as early as 2003. When it came to Iraq it was the old man, McCain, not the young, fresh, and cool Obama, who was flexible in judgment and willing to try a new approach. And Obama has been inflexible in his error.

More here

*****************************

ELSEWHERE

Blogger.com apologizes. Apparently the rash of blocked blogspot blogs was a data processing error too. First blogger.com and then sitemeter. Why can't these galoots check their code before they thrust it upon their unwitting users?

Can't beat the colonel: "There's a new Colonel in command in Fallujah. PJ O'Rourke described him as a formidable man. "Some call him a genius. Others blame him for the deaths of millions. There are those who say his military reputation was inflated." Yes, it's Colonel Harland Sanders. The North Shore Journal reports that Kentucky Fried Chicken, Fallujah is now open for business"

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

****************************

Sitemeter problem over

Some readers who kept getting crashing pages yesterday may be interested to read the Sitemeter apology. It's only barely an apology. Some people are excusing them by saying that it is Microsoft's fault for having a limitation in IE but it was a known limitation and putting up new code without testing it was thoroughly negligent. And why did Sitemeter take about 24 hours to fix it? They could have reloaded the older version of their code within minutes! I doubt that I will use sitemeter again. It put people to a lot of trouble trying to fix the error. Some bloggers changed their templates (as I did) and some readers reinstalled their browser. A big waste of everybody's time.

Leftists shutting down conservative blogs

Shutting down debate is the long established form of the Left, of course. Reason is not their bag. Hate is. Anyway there does seem to have been a concerted campaign to sucker Google into blocking lots of conservative blogs. The Google "flagging" system is very open to abuse like that. Google need to wise up somehow. A flood of bad flags should tell then that it is all just a campaign. I noted that Greenie Watch was one of the victims for about one day but there are heaps of complaints from other conservative bloggers -- see here and here for a few details.

And to get the Sitemeter debacle at the same time is amazing. I will never use sitemeter again. My solution of replacing my templates with simpler ones did the trick but I wish I had realized that it was just the sitemeter component that was the problem. I will have a fair bit of work restoring good templates now.

*******************

Shocking irresponsibility

Those who argue against an urgent expansion of oil exploration because it would not have an impact for many years are unwittingly making an argument to drill now (as well as to implement long-term initiatives generally). The US imports nearly 70% of its oil. The SPR holds a mere 35 days of US oil needs.

If the Strait of Hormuz were shut for any extended period of time, the US economy, and the warmaking capability of the US would be crippled. (What would happen if the Persian Gulf were irradiated or the largest Saudi fields permanently disabled, for example?) This wouldn't happen if our dependence on foreigners for energy were relatively modest, but that is not the case.

The opponents of offshore and ANWR drilling have made a persuasive case that the US cannot materially increase its conventional energy supplies in the short term. That means that the Congress's failure to act now to increase supplies is an act of irresponsibility and gross negligence of stunning proportions. If events go bad at some point, the inquiry into Pearl Harbor would look like a picnic by comparison.

The price of gas makes drilling a popular policy today, according to all the polls. That is fortunate, since it provides an excuse for Congress to act on a strategic matter of the utmost importance, which otherwise would likely continue to be ignored. Not to act today would perhaps come to be seen as the greatest act of political negligence in our lifetimes.

Source

**********************

ELSEWHERE

McCain Goes Viral: "Who would have thought it? The McCain campaign is now running more effectively viral ads than the Obama campaign. The Landstuhl ad, which I didn't like (because of the factual problem) stoked a week's worth of debate that was harmful to Obama. The "Celeb" ad has dominated cable chat and had 1.2 million YouTube hits the last time I looked. Now, there's this brilliant "The One" ad noted by Kathryn earlier which will, I'm sure, be a YouTube sensation because it's so fun to watch. None of these ads need to have-nor have they had, as far as I can tell-a big broadcast run to be effective. And, for political ads, they make relatively shrewd use of pop culture. The "Celeb" ad wouldn't have had the impact without Britney and Paris. And "The One" ends with Charlton Heston. As everyone has said this week, this isn't "worthy" of the old John McCain of 2000. Which is a good thing because: 1) it's a new media and technology environment and he's got to plug into it; 2) he's running behind with fewer resources and less organization, so his campaign has to have a certain guerrilla element and viral video is a cheap way to drive the debate. Bravo...

The Net Effect of Minimum Wage : "Last week, the federal minimum wage increased from $5.85 per hour to $6.55 per hour. While some are celebrating the change as a boon for low-wage workers, the measure's net effect will be negative. Employers will reduce employee hours and job benefits as they attempt to minimize operations costs, and workers will suffer from fewer opportunities and, ultimately, less experience. As has been the case every time the federal minimum wage increases, the low-wage workers are hit the hardest. A higher minimum wage means fewer opportunities for those who need them most. In competitive labor markets, wages are not determined by social custom or "need." They are determined by productivity. Every hour of labor that does not produce more than $6.55 worth of output will not be scheduled. As the legally mandated minimum wage increases, workers will want to obtain more hours but employers will want to give them fewer. The burden will fall disproportionately on the poor, particularly minorities."

Feds Can Seize Laptops at Border Without Cause: "Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.... DHS officials said the newly disclosed policies -- which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens -- are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism."

Black bishop scorches Cantuar: "A leading conservative cleric has launched a devastating attack on the Archbishop of Canterbury, accusing him of "betrayal" and calling his office a "remnant of imperial colonialism". Writing in The Times, the Most Rev Henry Orombi, Archbishop of Uganda, says Rowan Williams has betrayed churches that remain true to the Bible by inviting colleagues who consecrated the openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire to the Lambeth Conference. Archbishop Orombi, a leader of the conservative Global South bishops and one of 230 to boycott the conference, indicates that to ensure long-term unity, future Anglican leaders will need to be more representative of the wider Church. The Archbishop of Uganda stands by the biblical texts that rule against homosexuality but says that he and his peers do not want to cause schism by leaving the Anglican Communion."

At last they get it: "The Anglican Communion is ridiculed as "the Gay Church" and is losing members over homosexuality, say bishops meeting in Canterbury. Mission is being damaged and confidence in the validity of the Anglican Communion is being hurt, they say. The bishops' comments appear in a draft of the final Reflections document of the Lambeth Conference. The document lists unexpectedly strong concerns about the liberal direction that the Anglican Church in the West is taking over homosexuality. The report says: "We wish this wasn't the big issue because there are bigger ones. But we can't now avoid it." It says that some provinces feel the teaching of the missionaries who brought the faith from the West has been betrayed. "It is experienced as a new form of colonisation." The report cautions that the liberalisation of the Western Church is seen as leading to sexual licence: "Confidence in the validity of [the] Anglican Communion is severely damaged." It continues: "Bishops cannot be a symbol of unity when their consecration itself divided the Church."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

****************************

IE problem traced

DELETE SITEMETER is the message to all my fellow bloggers. Your blog will not be readable until you do.

Two problems now beaten

Access to Greenie Watch was restored in record time. New posts are now up and accessible. Any problem I mention on this site seems to get prompt attention from Google. They must have this site on some sort of watch list.

Just as I had beaten that problem, another one popped up. Something strange is happening with Internet explorer. It gave just an error message if you tried to access several of my sites. I am told that Firefox was not giving any trouble, though.

Anyway, until somebody fixes whatever the problem is, I have reverted to older and simpler templates for the blogs affected. That has restored access but the sites are not as well organized as they were. I hope to get back to the former templates soon.

*********************

ZEG

Conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG has just offered his take on the Chinese Olympic censorship issue.

**********************

GREENIE WATCH blocked by Google

On the grounds that it seems to be a "spam blog". Pretty absurd. Abuse of Google's blog "flagging" system by Warmists is the most likely cause of the nonsense. Google need to do something about such abuses. The block should be lifted in a day or two but in the meanwhile, my mirror site is still functioning and has new posts up that are not on the blocked blogspot site.

**********************

Leftism is powered by hate, not facts or ideas

An email from a reader:

I was recently in a small "debate" with a leftist college professor in some forum. And generally, I find that when they are challenged they only respond with a stream of invective and insults, or try to shame you over something silly. For example, he triumphantly expressed: "The US always supported Saddam when it was in our interests!"

I noted, "Well, of course! Should we have opposed him if what he was doing was in our interests?" He had no answer for this.

And then I did what I've found to be the ultimate provocation of a leftist. I suggested that Leftism isn't really a political ideology that it is really just a collection of personality pathologies, that multiculturalism is a sham that even they don't believe in, and that the entire American left had absolutely no positive vision for where they wanted to take the US. I should note that I delivered this in a much less direct way and as politely as possible.

He called me a bunch of very colorful things, such as "f*ckface" in response.

I then asked him to name one US leftist intellectual who had articulated a positive vision for the US and wrote a serious book about our future, our liabilities and assets, strengths and weaknesses.

He called me f*ckface again. I kept asking. He refused to name any, but insisted that I was "full of sh*t."

********************************

ELSEWHERE

Bad ecology is a new blog with a name that speaks for itself.

Sarkozy gets off his butt: " In a few weeks this summer, in volley after legislative volley, he has taken aim at some of the most sacred cows in French social and economic life. If he keeps up this pace, he will indeed change the face of France. The keystone is a law making it easier to set up in business, cutting red tape, freeing up the commercial sector by allowing retailers to negotiate directly with suppliers - which, incredibly, French law proscribed - and creating an independent competition authority. More flexible job contracts have been introduced to free up the labour market, and benefits curbed for jobseekers who reject more than two "reasonable" offers of work. To tackle the huge pensions deficit, retirement age is to be raised by a year - explosive in a country where successive governments failed even to abolish unfair pension privileges for public sector workers. Sarkozy succeeded only after toughing out a nine-day transport strike. He has risked student mayhem by allowing universities more freedom not just to raise private research capital, but to choose which students to admit. He has even announced the privatisation of the ports"

Anthrax case resolved after new FBI investigator appointed: "The chief suspect in the 2001 anthrax postal attacks in the US has died from an apparent suicide just as the Justice Department was to file criminal charges against him. Bruce Ivins, 62, one of America's top biodefense researchers, had been told that he was going to be prosecuted for the attacks that killed five people and sent the country into panic in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. He died in hospital on Thursday after taking a huge dose of prescription Tylenol, a painkiller, mixed with codeine. His imminent prosecution had not been made public but followed a government payout of $US5.82m to a former government scientist, Steven Hatfill, who had been the FBI's chief suspect for the anthrax attacks almost since the beginning. The payout to Hatfill, an unusual development that exonerated him of being the anthrax attacker was an essential step to clear the way for prosecuting Ivins, lawyers familiar with the case told the LA Times. The focus was moved to Mr Ivins after the head of the anthrax investigation was moved. His replacement ordered agents to re-examine leads or potential suspects, and this led the FBI back to USAMRIID, where agents had first questioned scientists including Mr Ivins in December 2001, a few weeks after the fatal mailings."

U.S. gives Israel missile detecting technology : " The United States will provide Israel with a radar system used to detect and track missile and rocket attacks, a senior Pentagon official told CNN Tuesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. assistance will include an agreement to facilitate the sharing of U.S. "early warning" launch data and technical and financial help developing defenses against shorter range rockets and mortars. The technology is called X-band frequency, which has microwave range and provides for ultra-high very precise resolution. It is able to distinguish between real missiles, decoys and debris. The technology would be running before "the new [U.S.] administration arrives" in January, Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, according to Israel's Haaretz newspaper. The plan for assistance was announced after Barak met with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday".

Elitism and the Starbucks decline: "Bad news has been pouring down on Starbucks for a year. The price of the company's stock has been cut in half - and then some. Fewer people come through store doors and those who do buy less. Still when Starbucks, that longtime engine of growth, announced that it planned to close 600 US stores - 50 of them by the end of July - and lay off 12,000 employees, company watchers reacted with surprise. ... The company thrived throughout the past 15 years by giving middle-class Americans exactly what they thought they wanted - and this wasn't really about coffee. It was about creating a product that allowed doctors and lawyers, IT specialists and travel writers, and then their imitators, to portray themselves as they wanted to be seen. That's how products work in the world we live in. We buy things to announce something about ourselves. For the most part, the products that sell the best are the ones that communicate most effectively. That's what Starbucks did with their coffee. Really, then, they sold not coffee but elevated status. Just by buying the coffee and speaking the company's made-up lingua franca, you became a cup-carrying member of the upper class. And that made Starbucks, overpriced as it was, an affordable form of statusmaking. That sense of success - that sense of cool - is what is gone now. Now that there are Starbucks stores everywhere, in Tokyo and Terre Haute, London, and Lancaster (Pa. and Calif.), and Franklin, Tenn., and Franklin, Ind., it is too ordinary."

Brownout: "A year ago, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was enjoying a honeymoon as a new prime minister, building on a decade of Labour Party dominance under Tony Blair. How things have changed. A poll yesterday for the Independent newspaper found nearly a quarter of Labour voters believe Conservative Party leader David Cameron would make a better prime minister than their own Mr. Brown. Among all voters, Mr. Cameron held an 18-point lead on that question. That's why the Scotsman, the leading newspaper in Mr. Brown's native Scotland, is rattling political china with its report that Labour ministers are considering a "suicide election" to give the party a fresh start under a new leader. Under this scenario, Mr. Brown would be dumped either this fall or next spring, and the party would call an immediate election in which defeat would be the most likely outcome".

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

****************************

Is John McCain Stupid?

On Sunday, he said on national television that to solve Social Security "everything's on the table," which of course means raising payroll taxes. On July 7 in Denver he said: "Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won't." This isn't a flip-flop. It's a sex-change operation.

He got back to the subject Tuesday in Reno, Nev. Reporters asked about the Sunday tax comments. Mr. McCain replied, "The worst thing you could do is raise people's payroll taxes, my God!" Then he was asked about working with Democrats to fix Social Security, and he repeated, "everything has to be on the table." But how can . . .? Oh never mind.

The one thing -- arguably the only thing -- the McCain candidacy has going for it is a sense among voters that they don't know what Barack Obama stands for or believes. Why then would Mr. McCain give voters reason to wonder the same thing about himself? You're supposed to sow doubt about the other guy, not do it to yourself.

Yes, Sen. McCain must somehow appeal to independents and blue-collar Hillary Democrats. A degree of pandering to the center is inevitable. But this stuff isn't pandering; it's simply stupid. Al Gore's own climate allies separated themselves from his preposterous free-of-oil-in-10-years whopper. Sen. McCain saying off-handedly that it's "doable" is, in a word, thoughtless.

Speaker Pelosi heads a House with a 9% approval. To let her off the hook before the election reflects similar loss of thought.

The forces arrayed against Sen. McCain's candidacy are formidable: an unpopular president, the near impossibility of extending Republican White House rule for three terms, the GOP trailing in races at every level, a listless fundraising base, doubtful sentiments about the war, a flailing economy.

The generic Democratic presidential candidate should win handily. Barack Obama, though vulnerable at the margin, is a very strong candidate. This will be a turnout election. To win, Mr. McCain needs every Republican vote he can hold.

Why make it harder than it has to be? Given such statements on Social Security taxes, Al Gore and the "inspirational" Speaker Pelosi, is there a reason why Rush Limbaugh should not spend August teeing off on Mr. McCain?

Why as well shouldn't the Obama camp exploit all of this? If Sen. Obama's "inexperience" is Mr. McCain's ace in the hole, why not trump that by asking, "Does Sen. McCain know his own mind?"

In this sports-crazed country, everyone has learned a lot about what it takes to win. They've heard and seen it proven repeatedly that to achieve greatness, to win the big one, an athlete has to be ready to "put in the work." John McCain isn't doing that, yet. He's competing as if he expects the other side to lose it for him. Sen. McCain is a famously undisciplined politician. Someone in the McCain circle had better do some straight talking to the candidate. He's not some 19-year-old tennis player who's going to win the U.S. presidential Open on raw talent and the other guy's errors. He's not that good.

There is a reason the American people the past 100 years elevated only two sitting senators into the White House -- JFK and Warren Harding. It's because they believe most senators, adept at compulsive compromise, have no political compass and will sell them out. Now voters have to do what they prefer not to. Yes, Sen. McCain has honor and country. Another month of illogical, impolitic remarks and Sen. McCain will erase even that. Absent a coherent message for voters, he will be one-on-one with Barack Obama in the fall. He will lose.

Source

And if you want CERTAINTY that McCain has lost his marbles, read this. It is too painful for me to reproduce

****************************

ELSEWHERE

Click here to see what a banknote for 100 billion dollars looks like. Via Michael Darby.

Thomas Sowell says: "What is amazing this year is how many people have bought the fundamentally childish notion that, if you don't like the way things are going, the answer is to write a blank check for generic `change,' empowering someone chosen not on the basis of any track record but on the basis of his skill with words."

ANWR drilling would provide quick relief: "In a previous article, I showed that the proposals to curb 'excessive' speculation in oil futures markets were based on ignorance of how the market coordinates production and consumption over time. In the present article, I will explore the issue of opening up the Arctic National Wilderness Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling. We'll see once again that even friends of the market often don't fully understand its power to fix problems."

The Tax Relief Program Worked: Make the Tax Cuts Permanent: "Tax relief worked. It put the federal tax burden on track toward its historic norm. Combined with an aggressive monetary policy, tax relief helped to restore robust economic growth following the Clinton reces-sion and subsequent shocks early in the decade. It pro-duced a more growth-oriented tax policy for the long term, helping the economy to weather current storms arising in the housing and capital markets. And it made important strides toward fundamental tax reform. The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts will expire at the end of 2010 unless Congress acts. Congress should act quickly, making the tax cuts permanent, and then pur-sue additional pro-growth tax policies. Many major trading partners, including France, Germany, and other countries throughout Europe, are looking to lower tax rates and reform their tax systems to become stronger competitors, while other economic power-houses such as China and India are bursting onto the scene. Standing still is not an option unless the United States is willing to lose ground consistently and persis-tently in the international economy."

The Stubborn Grip : "From the New York Times: "A bill to advance dozens of federal programs stalled in the Senate on Monday afternoon as a narrow majority was unable to free them from the legislative grip of Senator Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who takes pride in being stubborn. The vote was 52 to 40 in favor of the Advancing America's Priorities Act, but 60 "yes" votes were required under Senate rules." That is to say, Coburn successfully filibustered the bill. We'll give a dollar to the first reader who can point us to a story in the New York Times that used the phrase "unable to free them from the legislative grip" or "takes pride in being stubborn" in reference to Democrats' filibustering Bush judicial nominees a few years ago."

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

****************************

Inequality is less than it seems

POPULISTS and professors rarely see eye to eye. But on at least one fact of economic life, they agree: wage inequality has increased in America since the mid-1980s. Many studies outline the same broad shifts. Workers at the bottom of the wage scale have seen their incomes fall relative to those at the top. Within the top decile, the super-rich have left the merely well-off far behind.

Indeed increases in national income this decade have been so skewed towards the rich that, allowing for headline inflation, the spending power of a large chunk of the population has apparently stagnated or even declined. Yet this finding is at odds with the impression of spreading prosperity. Increasing numbers of Americans watch DVDs, rely on dishwashers, enjoy air-conditioning and display other signs of increased material wealth. Are the poor really falling so far behind?

A challenge to the conventional wisdom is set out in a recent research paper by Christian Broda and John Romalis, both of the University of Chicago's business school. They argue that standard measures of inequality do not reflect differences in the way that the rich and poor spend their money. A person's demand for a particular good or service does not rise in exact proportion to his income. As he grows richer, the pattern of his spending changes, as well as the amount. In particular, high-wage households spend a greater share of their income on services and a smaller share on "non-durable" items, such as food, clothing, footwear and toiletries.

For most of the past three decades, the price of non-durable goods has been falling relative to the price of the services-investment advice, personal care, domestic help and so on-that the rich spend more of their money on. If these differences between the inflation rates faced by the rich and the poor are taken into account, the rise in inequality is reduced and may even vanish.

To back these claims up, the authors constructed price indices for 12 income groups, using official figures and detailed private information on the spending habits of different households. This data set, created by shoppers themselves using in-store scanners, records the type of goods bought by various income groups between 1994 and 2005, as well as the prices paid for them.

The Chicago economists found that the share of non-durable spending for the very poorest households was 12 percentage points higher than for the richest households. Because the price of services rose by more than the price of goods during this period, the inflation rate for the rich was far higher than that for the poor. Rich households also buy dearer versions of the same goods than poor consumers. For each product category-a 16-ounce carton of milk, say-well-off households paid an average of 25% more than poor households. This is not because the rich are gullible shoppers but rather, say the authors, because they tend to buy goods of better quality (such as organic milk), the prices of which are higher and tend to rise more quickly.

These differences matter when considering inequality. One standard measure compares the income of a household just below the top 10% of earners with one just above the bottom 10%. The richer household earned 10.6 times more than the poorer one in 1994; that multiple rose to 11.2 in 2005. But according to the authors, this ratio exaggerates how far the poor have been left behind because it does not account for different inflation rates. A fuller picture would consider shifts in relative prices as well as in relative incomes.

Mr Broda and Mr Romalis reckon that around two-thirds of the increase in the standard inequality gauge since 1994 is offset by the poor's lower inflation rate. They find a similar result when they extend their analysis on spending patterns to price and income figures dating back to 1984. That is not all. Their data on shopping habits show that the range of goods consumed by poor households increased by far more than for rich households. The benefit of this extra variety is not captured in income or inflation, but it can be quantified. If that gain is expressed as an addition to real income, the remaining increase in inequality vanishes.

More here

***********************

BrookesNews Update

Obama and his fellow Democrats adopt Hoovernomics: The Democrats are now promoting Hoovernomics presented by the economically illiterate Obama as the only way to create growth.. The brilliant Obama and his fellow imbeciles in Congress have declared that increased government spending and a massive tax rise is just what America needs
The humble light bulb: a victim of political stupidity and green zealotry: Irrespective of what smart-aleck journalists and Malcolm Turnbull think Joe Public is being perfectly rational in choosing the incandescent bulb over the new wonder light. What's more, he might not like mercury-laden lamps
Obama's tax plans will be "lethal" to the economy: Columbia University economist Robert Mundell warned Americans that Obama's proposed massive tax hike could send the US economy spinning into a deep recession
Democrats v. Arctic abundance: America is sitting on over 1,000 billion barrels of oil. Americans who feel squeezed by higher oil prices should know they have a stark choice: More oil and lower prices, or less oil and higher prices. And they should also know who's to blame for this energy mess: the Democrat-led Congress
Obama and the media: In election coverage, 'sizzle' outweighs fairness: The spectacle of the New York Times rejecting McCain's op-ed on the utterly stupid grounds that it does not 'mirror' Obama's vies on Iraq did a fantastic job of getting it across to the public that the media are dominated by politically bigoted leftwing liars
Oil production: Earth to Nancy Pelosi: How does one deal with Nancy Pelosi's idiocy and economic illiteracy? This is the same woman who says increasing domestic oil production will have no effect on prices. She also says that Bush should act on oil prices by releasing the country's oil reserve of 700 million barrels. It is not Bush who embarrasses the US but idiotic Dems like Pelosi
Obama as a false prophet: It is Obama' clarity of vision that makes him so attractive to his supporters. But it is also the source of the greatest danger to his policies. What happens if Obama says, 'Yes we can' and reality says, 'No you can't'? What happens if the hedgehog meets the Black Swan?

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

****************************

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

****************************