SECOND EVENING UPDATE:  JUNE 19,  2008

Posted at 9:45 p.m. ET

IRANIAN NUKES

The president of Iran is boasting again.  This time, though, I'm afraid he may be right.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday the West has failed to break Iran's will in the nuclear standoff, days after world powers presented Tehran with a new offer aimed at ending the crisis.

"In the nuclear issue, the bullying powers have used up all their capabilities but could not break the will of the Iranian nation," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state television.

World powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- on Saturday offered Tehran a new package of technological and economic incentives in exchange for suspending uranium enrichment activities.

Well, there's some truth to it.  The fact is, with all the "diplomatic activity" going on - a euphemism for ineffective action - the Iranian nuke program forges ahead.  There is no real prospect that a President Obama will do anything serious about it, and a President McCain might be held back by a Democratic Congress.

A nuclear-armed Iran will change the face of the region.  The bomb will give Iran the "street cred" to back increased terrorism without great fear of retaliation.  And nothing is really being done about it, unless you accept Obama's argument that sitting down with the president of Iran might lead to magical results.

June 19, 2008.      Permalink          

FIRST EVENING UPDATE:  JUNE 19,  2008

Posted at 7:30 p.m. ET

MAJOR ALERT

There is a major alert on for a possible Hizbollah strike:

US and Canadian intelligence agencies warned Thursday that a Hizbullah attack on Jewish targets around the world could be imminent.

ABC News quoted intelligence officials as saying that Hizbullah had activated sleeper cells in Canada, and that top terror operatives had left Lebanon - to the US, Canada and Africa.

According to the officials, Hizbullah wishes to avenge the assassination of arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh in February, for which the Shi'ite group holds Israel accountable.

Israel has repeatedly denied the allegation.

And...

"They want to kill as many people as they can, they want it to be a big splash," former CIA intelligence officer Bob Baer, who claimed he met Hizbullah leaders in Beirut last month, was quoted by ABC News as saying. "They cannot have an operation fail and I don't think they will. They're the A-team of terrorism."

According to officials quoted by the report, up to 20 suspected Hizbullah members have been under surveillance and their activities were being coordinated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.

"Hizbullah would not carry out an attack in the west, or wherever this attack is going to occur, without approval from Teheran," Baer was quoted as saying.

If they're willing to attack Jewish targets, they're willing to attack any targets of "infidel" nations.  This apparently is a serious alert, and reminds us once again that the threat of terror, considered by the Democrats as a law-enforcement problem, remains grave, and its practitioners beyond the reach of the law.

June 19, 2008.      Permalink          

SECOND AFTERNOON POST:  JUNE 19,  2008

Posted at 6:09 p.m. ET

POLLS

Gallup has not published a tracker for today.  Rasmussen has Obama up three points over McCain, and a new Fox poll has him up four.  I'm impressed by how close all the major polls are.  Obama is up three to five points, and is holding steady. 

I suspect that the real changes in numbers, if they come at all, will come in the fall when people are more focused.  If the race remains this close, a single mistake by either candidate can decide it.  I continue to believe, based on daily reading, that the press is so in the tank for Obama that he's got a built-in shock absorber that any candidate would envy.  Remember that what appears on the editorial page isn't very important.  Most people read editorials to reinforce the opinions they already have.  It's the way the news is presented that changes views.  You see the way the news is presented.

June 19, 2008.      Permalink          

AFTERNOON POST:  JUNE 19,  2008

Posted at 4:37 p.m. ET

THE PROFESSOR

Barack Obama is a law professor.  He apparently is an adjunct because he has other work.  But he is affiliated with The University of Chicago Law School.  Yet, he seems to have remarkable lapses in his knowledge, even his legal knowledge.  This is the man who wants to appoint the next attorney general.  Scott Johnson at Power Line reminds us of why this may not be a great idea:

Speaking in unscripted environments on important issues, Barack Obama betrays a troubling lack of knowledge. He does not appear to know what he's talking about. In his interview with ABC's Jake Tapper earlier this week, for example, Obama advocated an approach to combating terrorism that is supposedly more attuned to legal issues than the Bush administration's:

It is my firm belief that we can track terrorists, we can crack down on threats against the United States. But we can do so within the constraints of our Constitution. Let's take the example of Guantanamo. What we know is that in previous terrorist attacks, for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.

Andrew McCarthy (the lead prosecutor of the perpetrators of the 1993 WTC attack) comments:

This is a remarkably ignorant account of the American experience with jihadism. In point of fact, while the government managed to prosecute many people responsible for the 1993 WTC bombing, many also escaped prosecution because of the limits on civilian criminal prosecution. Some who contributed to the attack, like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, continued to operate freely because they were beyond the system’s capacity to apprehend. Abdul Rahman Yasin was released prematurely because there was not sufficient evidence to hold him — he fled to Iraq, where he was harbored for a decade (and has never been apprehended).

Read the whole thing.  It's a fascinating account of our history in fighting terror, and examines the precedents developed during the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals.  In the end, it's hard to come to any conclusion other than that cited by Scott, that "either that he (Obama) does not know what he's talking about, or that he feels free to take great liberties with the truth."

How about both?  After all, this is a man who sat in the same church pew for 20 years, then told us he never knew the real views of his pastor. 

June 19, 2008.       Permalink              

Look, there's not much happening this morning, so I thought we'd inaugurate our new feature on the main page, and pick up the usual items later in the day.

So, with the idea that the best way to get people to move is to scare them, we begin here our own shameless exploitation of the politics of fear:

BARACK OBAMA'S FIRST HUNDRED DAYS

That's President Barack Obama's first hundred days.

Scared already?  I hope so.

Each day for the next hundred days, we'll cover the new president as he goes about remaking the universe.  Let us begin.

JANUARY 20,  2009

A moderately cold day.  The president-elect and Mrs. Obama descend the steps to the podium at the rear of the Capitol building.  The U.S. Marine Corps band plays "Getting to Know You."  Michelle Obama is seated.  The president-elect takes his place at the podium, as does Chief Justice John Roberts.  The scene is American perfection.  In the first two rows behind the president-elect, everyone has blond hair and blue eyes.  All those with funny religious dress have been locked inside the building. 

Now Michelle Obama rises and brings a Bible to the podium.  On the Bible is a large red tag saying NOT A KORAN. 

CHIEF JUSTICE:  Please place your left hand on the Not a Koran, raise your right hand and repeat after me.  I, Barack Hussein Obama...

OBAMA:  I, Barack No Middle Name Obama...

CHIEF JUSTICE:  Do solemnly swear...

OBAMA:  Do sorta promise...

CHIEF JUSTICE:  That I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States...

OBAMA:  That I'll be the change I've been waiting for...

CHIEF JUSTICE:   And will, to the best of my ability...

OBAMA:  And will, with perfection...

CHIEF JUSTICE:  Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States...

OBAMA:  Except for the part about having only two terms...

CHIEF JUSTICE:  So help me God.

OBAMA:  So help me me. 

CHIEF JUSTICE:  Congratulations.

OBAMA:  Please resign, and tell Scalia. 

The Marine Band strikes up "Hail to the Chief," with new lyrics by 50 Cent. 

The president rejects the 21-gun salute as sending the wrong message.  Instead, he and Michelle give each other 21 fist bumps. 

The cheering dies down.  Behind the president we see the smiling faces of new Secretary of State Jimmy Carter, and Al Gore, secretary of the newly created Department of Melting Stuff.

The president approaches the podium for his inaugural address.  The crowd hushes:

The Address 

Former President Bush, former Vice President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice, President Ahmadinejad, President Chavez, distinguished veterans of the Weather Underground, Mr. bin Laden...

First, in the spirit of my new Administration, let me apologize to you, President Ahmadinejad, for your having been strip-searched at Reagan International Airport just because your carry-on set off a geiger counter.  This culturally insensitive overreacting will stop right now.  I've ordered your underwear washed and returned. 

Also, I want to thank the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. for his moving invocation.  Regarding those parts about America roasting in hell and white people being descended from hamsters, I don't happen to agree.  I wasn't aware that he held these views...

MEANWHILE, ABOUT A MILE AWAY...

A judge from Court TV appears in her black robes in the living room of a Washington mansion.  A small group of people, their faces red with rage, wait on her every word.

JUDGE:  Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.  I, Hillary Rodham Clinton...

HILLARY:  I Hillary Rodham...

JUDGE:  Clinton...

HILLARY:  After the way he screwed up?  Drop it.

JUDGE:  Do solemnly swear...

HILLARY:  For the little people I care about...

JUDGE:  That I will faithfully execute the office of real president of the United States...

HILLARY:  That I will faithfully execute the office I should have had if there were any damned justice in this country, and the woman-hating hack reporters and misogynist political frauds could be locked away...

JUDGE:  And will, to the best of my ability...

HILLARY:  And will, with a lot more smarts than that guy at the Capitol with his affirmative-action degrees, and the wife with the mouth...

JUDGE:  Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States...

HILLARY:  I'll read it over and see...

JUDGE:  So help me God.

HILLARY:  She's in my pocket.

JUDGE:  Congratulations. 

HILLARY:  You know, that felt good.  Let's do it every Thursday until the overthrow.

TO BE CONTINUED... 

June 19, 2008.      Permalink