FRIDAY,  DECEMBER 12,  2008

RENEE

Posted at 7:32 p.m. ET:

Regular readers of Urgent Agenda know that Renee Nielsen, president of Republicans Abroad in India, has been sending us superb reports on the situation in Mumbai, site of the recent terrorist attacks.  Here is Renee's latest:

-  The papers are still looking for security failures from the Mumbai attacks.  The Times of India reports:

NEW DELHI: Alertness by an Indian patrol vessel on the night of November 26 could have prevented the Mumbai carnage.  Lakshar terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasav has told investigators that just before the 10 jihadis abandoned the trawler "Kuber" to take inflatable boats to dock at Mumbai, an Indian vessel--either from the Navy or the Coast Guard and seemingly on routine patrol with a sailor scanning it through binoculars.  The scrutiny was close enough to cause the terrorists to take positions and alert their Lashkar bosses. The Lashkar commanders ordered the gang to stay still and avoid a confrontation with the patrol. Soon, the vessel, perhaps taken in by the Indian ownership of Kuber, moved on. But in their haste to move out, the panicky jihadis forgot to destroy their satphone and GPS device.

 This was an instruction that had been sternly drilled into the group by the Lashkar trainers in the camps where they were trained, in the safehouse at Azizabad near Karachi where they had been put up before being sent and, one last time, on board Al Hussaini, the Lashkar ship which they sailed on before capturing Kuber.

The satellite phone, with five logged calls to Lashkar brass, is a trove of information that can blast apart Pakistan's denial that the terrorists were launched from its territory and by a group which is an extension of its espionage agency, the ISI. India's agencies have been familiar with one of these logged numbers which has regularly popped up in the course of investigation into terrorist attacks. It belongs to Abu Al Qama, a known Lashkar mastermind of jihadi violence.

My personal opinion is that the media and especially officials here are talking way too much about these satellite phones and the calls made to/from, as this is an ongoing investigation.  The officials aren't even being quoted as anonymous sources.  It's just straight, legitimate, reporting and a lot of this information is coming from interrogators based on confessions of the surviving terrorist.        

-  Another development is in the basic legal case against the surviving terrorist, Ajmal Qasab, developed by the Indian authorities.  A public defender, Dinesh Mota, who was originally assigned as defense counsel, says his life "turned into a nightmare" when he was told he would have to represent Qasab. He said "I'm a Mumbaiker and all the victims are like my family."  The Mumbai Mirror reported that Mota told the Esplanade court that he didn't want to defend Qasab on "moral grounds," and then waited to see if the court would grant his request for withdrawal, which it did.  No new attorney has been assigned the case as of now.  I would expect lots of problems getting someone to represent this guy.

-  The DNA has reported that Qasab will undergo a narco-analysis test "to corroborate all that he has confessed to so far and to get more information about the conspiracy, police said on Friday."

-  Austria gets in on the terror action.  DNA also reports:

The grenades seized from Mohammad Ajmal Amir, the lone arrested terrorist, were manufactured in Austria.

The Mumbai police have written to the Austrian company asking for the purchase details of the grenades. "It has been learnt that the company has stopped manufacturing the grenades. We want to know which agency has the manufacturing and distributing rights," Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police and the crime branch chief, said. The grenades seized from Amir were of the same make as those used in the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, he said.

The police have seized several grenades with a marking, Arges, in bold letters, followed by 'Spl HG 64' and the serial number 7-93-003, a police source said. The Arges brand name belongs to Rheinmetall Waffe Munition, a company in Austria. And Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) manufactured the grenades under licence for use by the Pakistan Army.

That should be interesting.

Indeed.  Another good report from Renee Nielsen, who provides us with details not available in the mainstream media.

December 12, 2008.      Permalink          

FREE AT LAST? - AT 6:56 P.M. ET - WASHINGTON (AP) - People who have been briefed on the Illinois governor corruption investigation say Barack Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is not a target of the probe. Emanuel, a Chicago congressman who would have been a likely contact between the Obama transition office and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has been a focus of media attention since Obama said Thursday he has asked for an internal review of contacts between his staff and Blagojevich.

COMMENT:  That's fine, but we want to know what discussions took place, and what the Obama team knew about the "seat for sale."

FROM THE GOLDEN AGE - AT 6:18 P.M. ET:  Van Johnson has died at 92.  He symbolized the term "movie star" during the golden age of Hollywood, in the forties and fifties.  He was the boy down the block, the kid who went to war with all the others.  He may never have been a great actor, but he had a screen presence matched by few others.  We have "boy down the block" actors today, but, after watching them, we often want them to stay there. 

A SHOCKING CHOICE - AT 5:57 P.M. ET:  From the Dallas Morning News: 

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – President George W. Bush urged a life of public service and integrity to Texas A&M graduates Friday morning, picking a friendly crowd of Aggies for his final commencement speech as president.

Picking a "friendly crowd"?  I love that line.  He should have picked, maybe, a convention of the Daily Kos?  Then there's this:

On Friday, some of the advice he offered served double duty, sounding much like a defense of a presidency viewed dimly by most Americans.

Let's keep kicking him, shall we?  But the president spoke words of great wisdom:

“Remember that popularity is as fleeting as the Texas wind. Character and conscience are as sturdy as the oaks on this campus,” he said.

Harry Truman felt that way as well.  He was also "viewed dimly" as he left office.

SOMEONE GIVE THEM A MAP - AT 5:43 P.M. ET:  From The Washington Post: 

BRUSSELS, Dec. 12 -- The leaders of Europe adopted what they described as a historic pact to combat global warming Friday and challenged President-elect Barack Obama to join in their commitment to drastically reduce greenhouse gases despite the global economic crisis.

The 27 European Union nations also endorsed a $260 billion economic stimulus plan, equivalent to 1.5 percent of the bloc's gross domestic product, and urged the Obama administration to prepare similarly ambitious measures and financial reforms for coordinated action at a summit of the world's 20 major economic powers scheduled April 2 in London.

COMMENT:  It's already starting - the Europeans, who believe they're the center of the universe, making demands on Americans.  Someone give them a map.  We are America.  We don't do things just because Europe does.  Despite all the new warnings from first-class scientists that the global-warming "research" is unreliable, they go ahead and do a treaty anyway, the better to be invited to the most fashionable parties.  As far as "stimulus" is concerned, let's get it right, which may not mean getting it European. 

Obama must make it clear that he will be president of the United States, with his first obligation to this country.

THE END FOR BLAGO? - AT 5:39 P.M. ET: 

Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the state’s Supreme Court for permission to seek the temporary removal of Governor Rod Blagojevich following his arrest this week on corruption charges.

“I recognize that this is an extraordinary request but these are extraordinary circumstances,” Madigan said today at a press conference in Chicago.

If the court grants her request, Madigan said she’ll file a lawsuit seeking Blagojevich’s temporary replacement by Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn and an order barring Blagojevich from naming a replacement U.S. senator for President-Elect Barack Obama.

OF COURSE, JACKSON NEVER KNEW - AT 9:27 A.M. ET:  From The Chicago Tribune:

As Gov. Rod Blagojevich was trying to pick Illinois' next U.S. senator, businessmen with ties to both the governor and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. discussed raising at least $1 million for Blagojevich's campaign as a way to encourage him to pick Jackson for the job, the Tribune has learned.

Blagojevich made an appearance at an Oct. 31 luncheon meeting at the India House restaurant in Schaumburg sponsored by Oak Brook businessman Raghuveer Nayak, a major Blagojevich supporter who also has fundraising and business ties to the Jackson family, according to several attendees and public records.

Two businessmen who attended the meeting and spoke to the Tribune on the condition of anonymity said that Nayak and Blagojevich aide Rajinder Bedi privately told many of the more than two dozen attendees the fundraising effort was aimed at supporting Jackson's bid for the Senate.

Nothing to see here, folks.  Nothing to see.

THE ENERGIZER BUNNIES

Posted at 9:03 a.m. ET

There was much relief on the right when Mr. Obama announced his first set of appointments - sane choices in foreign policy, considering the president-elect's liberal background.

That may start to change.  The new environmental team is already raising questions.  Is this the payoff to the left?  Is Al Gore pulling the strings?  Will "In Climate Change We Trust" replace our national motto? 

The Wall Street Journal takes on the president's new choices, and finds grounds for making gray hair even grayer: 

After the selection of a largely centrist economic team, liberals have been asking when President-elect Obama would give them a seat at the table. Well, now we know, and Americans should strap themselves in. Mr. Obama is stocking his energy shop with the greenest of greens who want to move fast on a very aggressive climate agenda. Here come the carbon busters.

The Journal is sanguine about Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, nominated to be energy secretary:

We trust...that an expert of his sophistication understands not only the promise of clean tech but its real practical limits.

It slides downhill after that:

The same can't be said for Carol Browner, the Al Gore protégé who ran the Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton years. This time she gets a promotion to "energy czar," a new job that Mr. Obama envisions as akin to National Security Advisor but for climate. "Czar" is an apt title for Ms. Browner, who built a reputation as the most left-leaning of Bill Clinton's advisers.

That certainly says it.

During her EPA salad days, she put out air-pollution standards that even the agency itself said would have no measurable impact on public health, purely as antibusiness punishment. She forced GE to dredge the Hudson River of PCBs that posed no threat to the public. Ms. Browner also rewrote a law called New Source Review so that power plants, refineries and other industries were always breaking the particulate emissions rules.

We are in a serious economic downturn.  Browner appears to be exactly the kind of person we don't need in government right now.  There are rational, non-vindictive environmentalists who could have been appointed.  But moveon.org must be pleased.

The Obama Administration is "sitting on some authority," Ms. Browner warned at the Center for American Progress recently. She says the White House is prepared to use that power "in the event that perhaps there can't be some sort of agreement reached with Congress on how to move legislation." In other words, Ms. Browner will use the threat of brute regulatory force as a political bludgeon if Capitol Hill declines to inflict some carbon tax on voters in the midst of a recession.

Not only will this incur colossal economic costs, but it bypasses normal democratic debate. In that sense it's suggestive of the radicalism of Mr. Obama's climate agenda. When Mr. Obama said during the campaign that he favored "nothing less than the complete transformation of our economy" in the name of global warming, we figured he couldn't mean something so utopian. Maybe he does.

Finally...

At a Congressional hearing last year, Ms. Browner declared that trying to eliminate carbon -- a main input of industrial civilization -- "need not bankrupt us." As a standard for policy, that's not exactly reassuring.

We hope that the president-elect, who is a shrewd political practitioner, will restrain this crowd once his administration is actually in place.  If he doesn't, he can prolong the economic agony.  Further, much of the science behind some darling causes of the environmental movement is now being seriously questioned.  We hope, maybe against hope, that Secretary Chu will examine the latest findings and skepticism, and act accordingly.

We all want a decent environment.  We want it achieved thoughtfully, and with attention to real science, not political science.

December 12, 2008.      Permalink          

TALE OF TWO HEADLINES - AT 7:49 A.M. ET:  From The Washington Post, this morning:

Obama Worked to Distance Self From Blagojevich Early On

From John Fund in The Wall Street Journal, this morning:

Obama Was Mute on Illinois Corruption

Please recall that Deborah Howell, the ombudsman of The Washington Post, conceded recently that the Post's coverage of the election campaign was biased toward Obama.  Now, when we see the first headline noted above, what are we to think?  We are skeptical, questioning.  That is what happens when a great newspaper begins to lose its credibility.

LAND OF LINCOLN?

Posted at 7:25 a.m. ET

Having worked in Illinois politics early in my career, the current scandal brings back memories.  I worked for a good guy, the incorruptible Senator Paul H. Douglas, whom President-elect Obama admirably identifies as one of his role models.  I recall Mr. Douglas, in 1960, showing me around New Salem, Illinois, where Lincoln grew up.  It was an incredible experience being taken through a historic site by a truly fine public servant.  As I glance to the right while writing this, I see on my bookshelf a copy of "Lincoln's New Salem," autographed by Senator Douglas. 

But there was the other side of Illinois politics, and we were well aware of it.  The Chicago machine, under Mayor Richard Daley, was in full power.  I was once introduced to man described to me as one of the most powerful men in the city.  He was the parking commissioner - controlled all those meters and those who attended and serviced them.   You wanted a job in the parking business?  He was the go-see guy.

The events of this week are therefore bittersweet.  We have, since the election, wished the president-elect well.  We hold no anger about the result.  As we said from the start, there's no point in being angry over an election.  The idea is to prepare for the next one.  We have praised some of the president-elect's appointments, and have been impressed by the poise an dignity with which he's pursued the transition.  But I just have a sense that the Illinois scandal surrounding Governor Rod Blagojevich is growing, and that it will inevitably touch Mr. Obama, or, more likely, key members of his staff.  It's been widely noted that incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was missing from Mr. Obama's press conference yesterday.  Close adviser David Axelrod has done handstands in the last week to walk back some earlier comments asserting that Obama and the governor had spoken about filling Obama's Senate seat.

The Washington Post runs a semi-whitewash in today's edition, arguing that Obama has tried to distance himself from the governor, and some of the material is persuasive.  However, even the Post says:

But Obama and Blagojevich shared pieces of the Chicago political network, which is why this has been an uncomfortable week for Obama's presidential transition team. Senior adviser David Axelrod once advised Blagojevich. Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a developer who was convicted in June of fraud and money laundering, raised money for both men. Robert Blackwell Jr., a longtime Obama friend, served on Blagojevich's gubernatorial transition team. Blagojevich appointed one of Obama's closest confidants, Eric Whitaker, as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The president-elect's connection to Blagojevich is emblematic of his political rise in Chicago. Obama had contact with corruption, but rarely firsthand. He relied on the establishment when he needed it, but he maintained enough distance to cast himself as an outsider.

Perception, they say, is everything in politics.  The American public has shown enormous good will toward the president-elect, and his approval ratings have risen since the election.  But he will be inaugurated in a bit more than a month, and he now has this scandal pushing at his team's door.  He's got to do more than he has to practice full disclosure, publish any embarrassing facts, and address legitimate concerns. 

Don't be shocked if some members of the Obama operation don't make it to the White House.  There is still space under the bus, and they'd be meeting many other former friends of the president-elect.

December 12, 2008.       Permalink          

THURSDAY,  DECEMBER 11,  2008

BULLETIN AT 11:17 P.M. ET:  CNN is reporting that the auto bailout has died in the Senate after a compromise attempt failed. 

COMMENT:  If there is no further Congressional action this year, there may be some help possible from the Bush administration.  Stand by.

OUR GOOD GUYS, AT 7:52 P.M. ET:  The great Michael Ledeen, who has been more right on Iran than just about anyone else, passes on this gem.  A must read:

One of my regular correspondents, a serious chap, sends the following:

According to a Marine Pilot:

In addition to communicating with the local Air Traffic Control facility, all aircraft in the Persian Gulf AOR are required to give the Iranian Air Defense Radar (military) a ten minute ‘heads up’ if they will be transiting Iranian airspace.

This is a common procedure for commercial aircraft and involves giving them your call sign, transponder code, type aircraft, and points of origin and destination.

I just flew with a guy who overheard this conversation on the VHF Guard (emergency) frequency 121.5 MHz while flying from Europe to Dubai. It’s too good not to pass along. The conversation went something like this…

Iranian Air Defense Radar: ‘Unknown aircraft at (location unknown), you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.’

Aircraft: ‘This is a United States aircraft. I am in Iraqi airspace.’

Air Defense Radar: ‘ You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we will launch interceptor aircraft!’

Aircraft: ‘This is a United States Marine Corps FA-18 fighter. Send ‘em up, I’ll wait!’

Air Defense Radar: (no response … total silence)

 

GOVERNOR?  WHAT GOVERNOR?

Posted at 7:43 p.m. ET

The president-elect has now issued another denial that he or his staff was involved in any way in the seat-for-sale scandal involving the governor of Illinois.  We saw nothing, absolutely nothing:

President-elect Barack Obama sought on Thursday to separate himself from the political scandal swirling around Governor Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, saying he never talked to the governor about who would replace Mr. Obama in the United States Senate.

Mr. Obama added that he was “absolutely certain” his staff was not involved in any deal-making regarding his successor.

Look, that's not the issue.  No one is charging Obama or his staff with "deal-making."  The issue is whether they knew that the seat was up for sale.  And, if they did know, why didn't they report it?

Nonetheless, Mr. Obama said he was gathering an account of any contacts between his staff and the Blagojevich administration, and promised to release those details in the next few days. But he said his staff had acted appropriately.

If he's still gathering an account, how can he issue blanket denials?  The denials come first, then the facts? 

In his first extended remarks about the unfolding scandal, Mr. Obama said he was “appalled and disappointed” by accusations that Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, tried to profit from his power to fill the Senate seat vacated by Mr. Obama after he won the presidency.

Obama has been watching "Casablanca" again.

At Thursday’s news conference, Mr. Obama took pains to divide himself and his promise for a new brand of politics from a political culture in Illinois that had been tainted by the drive for personal gain. While the two men may have lived in Chicago and served in Springfield, the state capital, Mr. Obama drew a bright line between himself and Mr. Blagojevich.

It's 2008, he's president-elect, and he's finally drawing lines?  There was no crayon available in previous years, decades?  You can go to Staples.

A near-unanimous chorus of politicians, including 50 Democratic senators and a host of Illinois leaders, has called for Mr. Blagojevich to resign immediately. The state’s General Assembly, which is out of session, is set to reconvene on Monday to draft legislation that would set up a special election to choose Mr. Obama’s replacement — overriding state law that now gives the governor the power to fill the seat — or investigate impeaching Mr. Blagojevich.

All the sudden righteousness.  Let us not forget that this governor was already under federal investigation.

A key issue here, and we've mentioned it before, is whether the press will do its job, or give Obama still one more pass.  Watch the major media.  Will news organizations redeem themselves, or go further into the tank?

December 11, 2008.      Permalink          

NO CASH FOR OIL!  PASS IT ON! - AT 5:04 P.M. ET:  Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, cut production more than traders and analysts had estimated last month, reflecting the nation’s commitment to halt the $100 plunge in crude prices.

COMMENT:  Okay.  You bring a knife, we bring a gun.  The president-elect should commit his administration to a crash program to reduce our oil consumption, retaliating against the cut in production and neutralizing it.  We cannot allow ourselves, once again, to be manipulated by these OPEC extortionists.  But Obama won't do a thing because 1) of the power of the Saudi lobby in Washington, rarely discussed in the media; and 2) because he has environmental nuts around him who think high has prices are just fine. 

BULLETIN:  NO AUTO REPAIR - AT 4:48 P.M. ET:  From The New York Times:  WASHINGTON — The prospects of a $14 billion government rescue of the American auto industry seemed to vaporize Thursday as the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, spoke out forcefully against the bill, effectively ending its chances despite the urgings of the White House.

COMMENT:  If handled correctly, this could be a great hour for the GOP.  The bailout is terribly flawed.  McConnell's state, where there are auto plants and suppliers, would benefit from it.  His opposition is principled and heroic, and he should be given credit where it's due.  Quote from McConnell:  “A lot of struggling Americans are wondering where their bailout is."

DOW DOWN - AT 4:22 P.M. ET:  The Dow closed down 196, to 8,565.

ECONOMIC FORECAST - AT 9:12 A.M. ET:   SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The "nasty" U.S. recession will tighten its grip next year as unemployment rises and weak home and stock prices imperil consumers, finance firms and debt-laden businesses, a UCLA Anderson Forecast report released on Thursday said.  Additionally, a sustained retreat in prices for goods and services is a very real possibility that would further drag on the economy, according to the forecasting unit's report.

COMMENT:  You know, even U.S. Senate seats may come down in price.

THE BOYS ARE ACTIVE - AT 8:51 A.M. ET:   From AP:  BRUSSELS, Belgium — Belgian police say they have detained 14 suspected Islamic extremists with links to the Al Qaeda terror network.  Police made the arrests Thursday after searching more than a dozen locations in Brussels and Liege overnight.

COMMENT:  Progress.  At least AP uses the phrase, "the Al Qaeda terror network."

THE SCANDAL

Posted at 8:18 a.m. ET:

The words echo in our minds:  "What did the president know, and when did he know it?"  That was, of course, the famous question asked about Richard Nixon during the Watergate investigations. 

Knowledge of wrongdoing is important.  In a major political figure, it's very important.  If an officeholder knows something illegal is going on, he has an absolute moral, if not legal obligation to report it.  And that brings us to the question that is starting to emerge from the Illinois governorship scandal:  "What did Obama know and when did he know it?"

No one is claiming, yet, that Mr. Obama engaged in any illegal activity.  The question is whether he knew that the governor, Rod Blagojevich, was trying to sell the Obama Senate seat to the highest bidder.  If he knew it, and didn't report it, that's major trouble.  If one of his advisers knew it, and didn't tell Obama, that smacks of breathtaking incompetence and tolerance of a corrupt act.  If no one in the Obama camp knew that the Senate seat was for sale...well, do you believe that?

Jim Lindgren, at The Volokh Conspiracy, has drawn up an excellent timeline of the events in this scandal.  He comes to this conclusion:

From the evening of Nov. 10 until yesterday, Blagojevich, Obama, and his transition team acted in ways that are consistent with a knowledge of Blagojevich’s bribery attempt and a rejection of that attempt.

We accept that the Obama camp did not pay, or agree to pay, any bribes to the corrupt governor to have their favorite Senate candidate nominated.  But if they knew the seat was for sale, that itself is a scandal. 

It is difficult to say, at this early stage, whether the press will do its job and pursue the facts wherever they lead.  We know where the press bias lies, and it's clear that some news organizations have no problem at all with that bias.  But if the mainstream press doesn't do the job, bloggers and other alternative media will.

This can get very ugly.  The best strategy for Obama is to confront the facts head on, and not wait for an enlarged scandal to envelop his new presidency.

December 11, 2008.      Permalink          

QUESTIONS PLEASE

Posted at 7:03 A.M. ET:

We will apparently have a Nobel laureate as secretary of energy.  Ain't that grand? 

No.

I'm sure that the nominee, Steven Chu, is a fine man, and he certainly is a celebrated scientist.  But I think some real questions need to be asked about this man, nominated to a critical position:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is President-elect Barack Obama's choice for energy secretary, has been a vocal advocate for more research into alternative energy, arguing that a shift away from fossil fuels is essential to combat global warming.

Chu, a Chinese-American who currently is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, has in recent years campaigned to bring together a cross-section of scientific disciplines to find ways to counter climate change.

If action is not taken now to stop global warming, it may be too late, he argues.

An increasing number of scientists is questioning the entire premise behind the global warming scare.  Apparently, they will now be shut out by the glitter of a Nobel laureate who has made up his mind.  This is the time for real inquiry and debate about global warming, not blind acceptance of a party line.  Another Nobel laureate said just recently that he had become a skeptic. 

Chu frequently has used the bully pulpit in a campaign against global warming and the need for alternative energy and greater energy efficiency. During a lecture last summer in Washington he bemoaned the fact that people too often prefer to spend $1,000 on a granite kitchen counter top instead of improving their home's energy efficiency.

Another one who wants to tell us how to live.  If I were questioning this man, before a vote to confirm him, I'd want to know just what "alternative" energy sources he's talking about, why he's convinced they'll work, and how much good they'll do.  I'd also want to find out something basic:  How much does Chu know about the subjects he speaks about?  Winning a Nobel prize in physics doesn't make you an authority on everything scientific.

A few years ago he was one of six Nobel Prize-winning scientists who expressed their concern about global warming by sitting against and climbing into a massive tree on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley for a photograph that appeared in a special environmental issue of Vanity Fair magazine.

Oh boy.  A performance artist.

Despite his broad scientific credentials, Chu has little experience inside Washington or in what occupies much of the Energy Department's business -- maintaining the nation's stockpile of nuclear weapons and weapons research. Nor has he had much involvement in nuclear energy.

We are the only nuclear power that has not modernized its atomic weapons.  I've written about this before.  And now we have a man with no background in nuclear energy or weaponry.  This is great for our security.  Let him go back to the tree and learn.

Chu as energy secretary would head a department with a $25 billion budget and 14,000 employees and more than 193,000 contract workers. Two-thirds of its budget involves activities related to nuclear weapons research and maintenance.

You can be sure the elites will welcome this nomination.  Why, it's another example of Obama's superior intellect.  But why do I sense a disaster here? 

As they say in the personnel business, this just doesn't look like "a good fit."  But that Nobel prize will be waved, people will be reluctant to take on a minority, and Chu will get his department.

What will the people get?

December 11, 2008.      Permalink          

SOMETHING ELSE FOR OBAMA TO WORRY ABOUT - AT 6:34 A.M. ET:  From AP:  A US envoy says that three days of talks have failed to bridge a dispute with Pyongyang over how to have North Korea verify its past atomic activities.  Christopher Hill said Wednesday just before flying out of Beijing that North Korea would not agree to proposals made by the other countries.  North Korea is refusing to allow outside inspectors to take samples from its main nuclear complex at Yongbyon - a crucial method of checking whether it has been truthful in its accounting of its nuclear programs.

COMMENT:  We await Jimmy Carter's rushing to North Korea to announce that it's all America's fault.  Once again we find that "negotiations" aren't a cure-all.