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JANUARY 7,  2011

A LOT MORE ELEGANT THAN BOXERS VS. BRIEFS – AT 8:58 P.M. ET:  I recall how the nation collectively winced when someone asked Bill Clinton whether he wore boxers or briefs.  Nothing like a little good taste.

Now the question before the House, literally, is Macs vs. PC's.  In one important office, Macs are winning:

Just a few days ago we told you how the U.S. Senate rules had been opened up to allow Macs into Senate offices with official permission. Well, it turns out that Macs are quite popular in the House as well. Our example: the newly named House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). In the picture above, he is at his iMac-equipped desk calling President Obama about the confirmation of Rep. John Boehner as House Speaker.

A close look will also reveal Cantor's iPad in the black Apple case. According to his staff, the Congressman has had an iPad since the day it was released, and uses it quite a lot to read his hometown newspaper, the Richmond Times Dispatch (via the paper's app). Congressman Cantor has been a Mac user for many years, while his office is split between Macs and PCs based on the preference of the staff member.

With a loosening of the restrictions on Macs on the Senate side, and the increasing popularity of the iPad as a quick way to catch up on the news and deal with email, I'd look for more and more Apple products showing up on Capitol Hill -- even in such previously off-limits areas as the House floor.

COMMENT:  Urgent Agenda is a Mac-based site, and I'm delighted that our new GOP majority leader has joined in our spiritual community.  Yes, it's true, Mac users are nuts.  But we're also warm and delightful.

January 7, 2010      Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 6:36 P.M. ET:

From Fox:  The words “mother” and “father” will be removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender neutral terminology, the State Department says.  “The words in the old form were ‘mother’ and ‘father,’” said Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services. "They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’"

I called one of my daughters and said, "This is parent two."  She hung up and called the police.

January 7, 2010       Permalink

WAS HE PUSHED? – AT 4:21 P.M. ET:  According to ace reporter Toby Harnden of London's Telegraph, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs walked the plank on the order of incoming chief of staff, Bill Daley, in a typical, Chicago-style execution:

It’s being reported by John King on CNN right now that Gibbs wanted to be a presidential counsellor – something he’s been putting about for quite a while – but William Daley, the new chief of staff, nixed this because he believed that too many cooks would spoil the presidential broth. So that’s why Gibbs is out.

Additionally, King reports that Valerie Jarrett, whose sole qualification to being a senior counsellor seems to be that she’s a long-time Chicago buddy of Barack and Michelle Obama, will have her wings clipped. Daley, not Jarrett, will be the person speaking to the business community.

It’s no secret that Rahm Emanuel, a Daley protege, clashed with Jarrett. Or that David Plouffe, about to join the White House, was often at odds with her when he was the 2008 Obama campaign manager. Obama is nothing if not ruthless. He dropped Jane Dystel, the agent who approached him to write “Dreams from my Father”, and has previously cut loose long-time advisers. One aide described him as “the most unsentimental man I’ve ever met”.

So the next question is: with Gibbs and David Axelrod gone, how much longer will Valerie Jarrett last?

COMMENT:  I recall walking the streets of Chicago with friends at 5 a.m. the day after election day, 1960.  We still weren't sure who'd been elected president.  The Chicago Sun-Times came out with a headline:  IT'S KENNEDY.  Then, an hour later, it came out with another:  IS IT KENNEDY? 

But we knew one thing for sure – that Mayor Richard Daley, the father of now incoming presidential Chief of Staff William Daley, was holed up in the Morrissey Hotel, local headquarters of the Democratic Party, trying to find the votes to put Kennedy over the top.  Strangely, he found them.  Those citizens may never have known they voted, having been departed for many years, but they made history.

The Daley machine was, and is, well oiled.  It work superbly, in terms of its purposes.  I never thought I'd see the day when one of its sons would wield power directly in the White House.

Look, if Bill Daley is good, and straightens out this administration, I'm all for him.  One thing about the Daley machine – they knew how to get things done, what buttons to press, who to muscle and who to stroke.  Those are skills in need right now.

Mayor Daley the elder must be smiling in his grave, and figuring out how many judgeships he can get out of this.  Nominations please?

January 7, 2010       Permalink

NEW TERROR ALERT IN BRITAIN – AT 9:26 A.M. ET:  They're coming one after another, and sooner or later...  From The New York Times:

LONDON — British authorities raised the level of terrorism alerts at transport hubs including railroad stations and airports on Friday but left the national assessment unchanged at “severe,” its second highest level, news reports said.

Without confirming the reports, Scotland Yard said the current national level meant that “an attack is highly likely,” promising to “police accordingly and use a range of covert and overt tactics which remain under constant review.”

But the police declined to offer specific details of those tactics or to discuss whether the threat levels had been raised or not. Television footage showed police wearing flak jackets and armed with automatic weapons patrolling airport check-in halls, accompanied by dogs trained to sniff out explosives.

British security authorities use a twin-track security alert system, setting a national level, which is usually made public, while making assessments, usually kept secret, of threats to specific areas.

COMMENT:  There were many terror attempts by Islamist groups all over the world last year, and some succeeded, in the Middle East and South Asia.  There were close calls in the U.S., especially in Times Square, New York.

Terrorist training continues, and will probably improve.  So will the technical skills of the trainees.  After all, we know they can be training to crash airliners into buildings.

On guard, always.

January 7, 2011      Permalink

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DROPS, BUT DOES IT? – AT 8:42 A.M. ET:  New employment figures just came out, but the well-known devil is in the equally well-known details.  From WaPo:

U.S. employers added 113,000 private-sector jobs in December, the Labor Department reported Friday, fewer than analysts expected. But the unemployment rate dropped from 9.8 to 9.4 percent--the lowest level since May, 2009.

Economists had predicted that employers had created 150,000 net new jobs in December, and that the unemployment rate would drop to 9.7 percent. Instead, the overall number of jobs created was 103,000, the government said. But more people apparently also stopped looking for work, which accounts for part of the decline in the joblessness rate.

COMMENT:  Bit of sleight of hand there.  So, let's examine:  The economy picked up 113,000 jobs (some other sources have it at 103,000), about a third less than expected.  But, magic, the unemployment rate dropped like a rock to 9.4 percent.

But, the detail:  The reason the unemployment rate dropped is that more people stopped looking for work, and apparently joined the ranks of the long-term unemployed.

Why do I think I'd like to see statistics in the next four months or so to conclude whether the economy is really improving?

But Obama will take the credit for this, no doubt about it.  And his disciples in the media will go hype-crazy.

UPDATE:  We're noticing, at 9:21 a.m. ET, that previously euphoric news organizations, who'd rushed out with this "good news," are now pulling back, recognizing that it isn't very good at all.

January 7, 2011      Permalink

GOVERNMENT GRANTEE PERSONNEL NEWS – AT 8:21 A.M. ET:  NPR, the (partly) government-financed radio service sometimes known as Radio Havana North, has made some personnel decisions in the light of its firing of Juan Williams for daring to say prohibited things, and to say them on prohibited Fox News.  From WaPo:

NPR's top news editor resigned Thursday after an internal review found that the Washington news organization mishandled the firing of news analyst Juan Williams over controversial remarks he made on a TV program in October.

Translated into common-man English:  The Republicans won the election.  They're threatening to cut off our federal funding, so let's show them we can behave like adults.

In an additional piece of fallout from the firing, NPR's board voted to cancel the annual bonus of NPR's chief executive, Vivian Schiller, who supported the decision to fire Williams and made some ill-timed comments about it, for which she later apologized.

Ill-timed?  She pretty much implied that Williams needed a psychiatrist.  When is the timing for that good?

Both moves come as a new Republican majority takes over in the House. Partly spurred by the Williams firing, GOP lawmakers have vowed to cut federal funding for public broadcasting. Several NPR staffers said they hoped the latest moves would mollify critics in Congress, but the chief sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), said, "From my perspective, it doesn't change anything."

Ellen Weiss, the 28-year NPR veteran who resigned Thursday, was the editor who decided to terminate Williams after he told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly that he became "nervous" flying with people dressed in "Muslim garb."

He said what millions are thinking, but it wasn't politically correct.  If he'd said he felt nervous around people carrying Christian Bibles, nothing would have happened. 

NPR justified the firing by saying that Williams had ignored years of warnings that he limit his comments to news analysis, and not offer personal opinions, while appearing on other networks. But the firing created a storm of criticism, particularly from Fox News, whose hosts said NPR was trying to stifle free expression.

It should be noted that NPR recently took a huge grant from George Soros, a profoundly left-wing financier and political operator.  People wondered at the time why an organization that has access to that kind of funding needs federal dollars, a very good question.  Many also wondered about the wisdom of taking funds from so controversial a source.

NPR is left-wing.  It's run from the left.  It got caught at it this time, and its government funding should be slashed substantially.

January 7, 2011       Permalink

HEY, IT'S NOT TOO EARLY – AT 7:57 A.M. ET:  I quote from Bill Kristol at the Weekly Standard:

Having just returned from the e21 and Manhattan Institute-sponsored Conversation with Paul Ryan (very ably conducted by Paul Gigot)--and having seen Marco Rubio speak recently as well, I'll just say this: Wouldn't it be easier just to agree now on a Ryan-Rubio ticket, and save everyone an awful lot of time, effort, and money over the next year and a half?

UPDATE: For what it’s worth, these were the first four of many e-mails to arrive, responding to the Ryan-Rubio blog post:

“Excellent, excellent choices! Unbeatable pair! I'm so excited - a reason for hope!”

“All I can say is: YES!!!!!”

“I don't want to take away from some of the other potentially great candidates, but you are so right. Rubio is inspirational and Ryan is simply the best out there. His knowledge of the issues, particularly issues related to the budget, is second to none and he is able to communicate his position in a concise and understandable way.”

“Love it.”

COMMENT:  Now that's inspired.  It's the kind of thinking that can wake up the deadly dull Republican presidential selection process.  Two young moderns.  Outside the box. 

Compare please to a ticket of (snore) Mitt Romney and whoever. 

Do I sense an awakening?

Comments, readers?

January 7, 2011     Permalink

JANUARY 6,  2011

THE ASTERISK IS MISSING – AT 10:19 P.M. ET:  The first New Hampshire presidential poll, for the 2012 election, is out, but there's something missing in the reporting:

Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney holds a commanding lead in New Hampshire in the early stages of the race for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination, according to a new survey commissioned by NH Journal and conducted by Magellan Strategies. The survey is the first statewide survey of Granite State Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in 2011.

Romney leads former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin by 23 points, with Romney earning 39% and Palin earning 16%. Mike Huckabee (10%), Newt Gingrich (8%), Texas Congressman Ron Paul (7%), former MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty (4%), Rick Santorum (3%) and MS Gov. Haley Barbour (1%) all trail significantly behind. Romney finished second to Sen. john McCain in the 2008 New Hampshire Republican Presidential primary.

COMMENT:  What's missing is that Romney, as governor of neighboring Massachusetts, was governor of a state whose TV and radio stations beam into New Hampshire.  Thus, he is, by far, the best-known of the current crop of candidates, and that often translates into tentative support.

Romney is the traditional "next man in line" in the Republican Party, which rarely demonstrates imagination in the choice of national candidates.  I have real doubts that he could defeat Obama.  These first results should be taken with a dose of Michelle Obama-approved seasoning.

January 6, 2011      Permalink

THERE IS HYSTERIA, THERE IS AGONY, THERE IS SUFFERING – AT 7:35 P.M. ET:  I urge you all to look up your local Red Cross chapter, so that you may make a contribution to the pained and frightened liberal bloggers, whose medical condition is precarious.  Why?  Because President Obama named a new chief of staff who symbolizes everything in the old Democratic Party that the libs despise.  From The Politico:

President Barack Obama on Thursday introduced William Daley as his new chief of staff, tapping a political heavyweight with an unusual combination of high-level experience both in the business world and in Washington to oversee the White House as it grapples with a more Republican Congress and prepares for the president’s expected re-election campaign in 2012.

At a brief East Room ceremony Thursday afternoon, Obama described Daley, a former Commerce secretary who currently works as a senior executive at America’s largest bank, as “an experienced public servant, a devoted patriot, my friend and fellow Chicagoan.”

He is also the brother of the mayor of Chicago, and a symbol, by name and family, of one of the most powerful, and old-fashioned, political machines in the country.

Daley’s selection was immediately hailed by business groups. But reaction among liberal Democrats was more mixed, with some predicting Daley would bring a breath of fresh air to Obama’s insular White House operation and others fretting that the new chief of staff’s centrist politics herald a shift to the right in Obama policies.

And...

“With Wall Street reporting record profits while middle class Americans continue to struggle in a deep recession, the announcement that William Daley, who has close ties to the Big Banks and Big Business, will now lead the White House staff is troubling and sends the wrong message to the American people,” Justin Ruben of MoveOn.Org said. “Americans are looking to the White House for economic plans that will create jobs and reign in Wall Street’s excesses, and it’s up to Daley to prove that he’s not carrying water in the White House for the big banks that took our economy over the cliff.”

COMMENT:  Did we ever think we'd see the day when Barack Hussein Obama Jr. would drive the left nuts?  Is this a conversion, worthy of ecclesiastical note, by our president?

I don't think so.  I think it's a maneuver, a fake to the center to position himself to win back independents for 2012.  The thinking probably is, "The left has nowhere else to go.  But without the center, we lose."  That's reasonable thinking, but, considering the adolescent nature of the left, it's also risky thinking.  They are professional whiners, who might well stay home in 2012 rather than cast their vote for the impure, Daley-whipped Obama.  They did that in 1968 and cost Hubert Humphrey, a liberal's liberal, the presidency.

The leftist Dems in Congress probably feel very much alone right now.  Their health plan covers psychiatry.

January 6, 2011      Permalink

MOMENT OF DEMOCRATIC INTELLIGENCE – TELL YOUR CHILDREN – AT 3:56 P.M. ET:  Maybe the Democrats in the House finally got the word.  Or maybe they just got the latest poll results.

For days many leading House Dems, and their interns in the pundit class, have been ridiculing the Republican plan to read the Constitution aloud in the House chamber on the first day of business.  But ridiculing the Constitution is not generally a good idea, and maybe some adult came by and hinted that the Dems might change course.

Boy, did they ever change course.

The Constitution was read this morning, with an unexpected cast of characters.  From The Politico:

The new Congress kicked off with a reading of the Constitution on the floor of the House today, a first in the chamber’s history.

Republicans proposed the reading, but it turned into a rare moment of true bipartisanship on the floor.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) went first, followed by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

House Republicans made the reading a requirement as part of the new Congress’ rules. Initially, there were questions about who would read the “three-fifths” compromise section, which counted three-fifths of the slave population for apportionment of members of Congress in the original document. The House skirted the issue by reading the amended version of the constition.

Republicans and Democrats alternated reading passages from the document.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil-rights era activist, read the 13th amendment, which abolished slavery. Members from both sides of the aisle applauded, while Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who ran the reading, shook Lewis's hand after he finished.

In the immortal words of Staples, that was easy.

We hope this is the start of a great tradition.  We also hope that schools will pick up that tradition, and make certain that their students know what is in the Constitution.  It is somewhat more important than knowing the lyrics to a Lady Gaga song.

January 6, 2011      Permalink

MR. PRESIDENT, WE BRING GOOD NEWS.  MR. PRESIDENT, WE BRING ROTTEN NEWS – AT 3:36 P.M. ET:   From Andrew Malcolm at the L.A. Times's Top of the Ticket blog: 

Finally, some good news to please President Obama in a new Gallup Poll.

The survey finds that more Americans still identify themselves as Democrats (31%) than call themselves Republicans.

Now, the bad news:

That 31% ties the lowest annual average of Democrats since 1988, when fellow Harvard Law alum Michael Dukakis got thumped by the first Bush to become president.

In fact, in the 717 days since Beyonce sang "Moon River" or something to this dancing Democrat, the percentage of Americans identifying as members of his party has declined five points, or almost 14 percent, from where it was. No wonder he smokes cigarettes.

Worse, Gallup finds that the percentage of Democratic-identifiers has fallen to where it's now only two points above (whisper) Republicans.

Additionally, things have gone so well changing the harsh partisan tone of Washington, as Obama promised, that more folks are fleeing into calling themselves "independents" (38%). That's what Americans do when they're too embarrassed to say what party they secretly favor.

COMMENT:  The really grim news for the Nancy and Barack Party is that independents have been tilting heavily Republican in their actual votes cast. 

Obama is still the slight favorite, by virtue of incumbency and rhetorical skill, to be reelected in 2012.  But he will have to face far worse numbers than he did in 2008.  And he'll have to face his record. 

There are retirement villages available.

January 6, 2011     Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 9:02 A.M. ET:  From Victor Davis Hanson, at RealClearPolitics, about the growth of a new generation of sophists who ply their trade between New York and Washington.  (I'd include Boston in that.)  As usual, Hanson nails it:

There is also a new generation of young, sophistic bloggers who offer their wisdom from the New York-Washington corridor. They are usually graduates of America's elite colleges and navigate in an upscale urban landscape. One, the Washington Post's 26-year-old Ezra Klein, recently scoffed to his readers that a bothersome U.S. Constitution was "100 years old" and had "no binding power on anything."

Perhaps Mr. Klein might examinine whether the First Amendment has any binding power on protecting his right to publish.  Hmm.  I hear Mr. Klein reconsidering.

One constant here is equating wisdom with a certificate of graduation from a prestigious school. If, in the fashion of the sophist Protagoras, one writes that record cold proves record heat, or that record borrowing and printing money will create jobs and sustained economic growth, or that a 223-year-old Constitution is 100 years old and largely irrelevant, then credibility can be claimed only in the title or the credentials -- but not the logic -- of the writer.

America is huge and diverse, but the world of our credentialed experts is quite small, warped and monotonous -- circumscribed largely by the prestigious university and an office in the incestuous Washington-New York corridor. There are plenty of prizes, honors and degrees among our policy setters and experts, but very little experience in running a business in Oklahoma, raising a large family in Kansas, or working on an assembly line in Michigan, a military base in Texas, a boat in Alaska or a ranch in Idaho.

In classical sophistic fashion, rhetoric is never far from personal profit. Multimillionaire Al Gore convinced the governments of the Western world that they were facing a global-warming Armageddon, then hired out his services to address the hysteria that he helped create.

COMMENT:  One serious threat to this country is that the painstream media is now loaded with members of this "credentialed" class.  At one time you didn't even need a college degree to work for a newspaper.  Now the "leading" news organizations require it, and they prefer the "names," the Ivies and their equivalent.  Notice the improvement.

So how much enthusiasm do you think there is, in journalism or government, to really challenge the credentialed society and its implications?  Not much.  I recall some years ago the head of one of Hollywood's leading talent agencies boasting that half his interns were from Ivy League schools.  I wondered at the time how this related to anything of importance.

Abraham Lincoln had one year of schooling.  Ronald Reagan went to a tiny college in Illinois.  I certainly don't wish to demean any university, and I respect fine education (to the extent that it exists in many places).  In my own immediate household we have five so-called "prestige" degrees.  We've seen the good and the not so good.  But we as a society must get past this idea that going to a particular school makes you a better, wiser or more talented person.  It does not.  Believe me, some of the dreariest, most untalented people I met in Hollywood had "Ivy League" next to their names.

There's an old saying in show business that there isn't a single Juilliard graduate who wouldn't give everything to be able to write one Irving Berlin song.   Irving Berlin had virtually no education, and couldn't even read music.

And we recall the famous story of a meeting between Lyndon Johnson, who'd just become vice president, and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn.  Johnson had just attended his first Kennedy administration cabinet meeting, and he told Rayburn – this is an approximate quote – "Sam, you should've seen it.  There were three people from Harvard, two from MIT, and a couple from Yale..."  Rayburn stopped LBJ, thought for a moment, and replied, "Lyndon, I wish just one of them had run for sheriff."

Indeed. 

January 6, 2011      Permalink 

INCREDIBLE UNDERREPORTING – AT 8:25 A.M. ET:  What was the most underreported story of 2010?  Each of you will have a selection.  You could choose, say, the collusion between the far left and Islamic extremism.  Or, you might select Barack Obama's international contempt for democracy.  Good choices, both of them.

But here's my choice:  Stuxnet.  Stuxnet is computer malware so powerful that it has, according to authoritative reports, severely damaged Iran's nuclear program and set it back a few years.  The educated guessing is that Stuxnet was sent into cyber-battle by Israel, or a combination of Israel, the CIA and possibly another intelligence organization.  If the stories are correct, this is huge news, virtually ignored by the painstream media.  From InfoSecurity.com:

The Stuxnet worm likely took out around 1000 centrifuges at the Iranian nuclear fuel enrichment plant at Natanz, according to a recent report by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS).

In late 2009 or early 2010, Iran decommissioned and replaced 1000 IR-I centrifuges at Natanz. “Although mechanical failures or operational problems have often been discussed as causing problems in the IR-1 centrifuges, the crashing of such a large number of centrifuges over a relatively short period of time could have resulted from an infection of the Stuxnet malware," the report judged...

...While the Iranian government has not said that Stuxnet attacked the Natanz plant, it has acknowledged that its nuclear facilities came under cyber attack. “They succeeded in creating problems for a limited number of our centrifuges with the software they had installed in electronic parts," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a recent press conference.

That's the good news.  Here's the bad:

The Stuxnet malware is able to be used against industrial facilities in Western countries, including the US. “Countries hostile to the United States may feel justified in launching their own attacks against U.S. facilities, perhaps even using a modified Stuxnet code. Such an attack could shut down large portions of national power grids or other critical infrastructure using malware designed to target critical components inside a major system, causing a national emergency," the report warned.

COMMENT:  It's incredible that Stuxnet, a major technological development, hasn't gotten more press coverage.  You'll be hearing the name in the future.  Guaranteed.  I just hope it's when our side scores a victory. 

January 6, 2011       Permalink

IT'S SO HARD BEING A PROGRESSIVE THESE DAYS – AT 8:09 A.M. ET:  Just when liberals thought it was safe to go back into the political waters, now shielded from the L-word by calling themselves progressives, the American people are making it so hard for them.  It's unfair, I tell you.  From the Washington Examiner:

Uh oh, this is bad news for folks formerly known as "liberals," then as "progressives." Seems Rasmussen Reports finds that "conservative" is the most positively viewed political label, while "liberal" and "progressive" are in the negative.

"Forty-two percent (42%) of Likely U.S. Voters say they view it as a positive if a candidate is described as politically conservative. Twenty-one percent (21%) say it’s a negative description, and 36% rate it somewhere in between the two," Rasmussen said.

Wasn't that long ago that being seen as a progressive was equally as positive as being called a conservative, according to Rasmussen.

"Being described as a progressive, on the other hand, is a positive for 22% of voters and a negative for 34%, with 41% seeing it in between," Rasmussen said.

"But in the previous survey, voters were evenly divided, with 29% saying progressive was a positive description and 28% describing it as a negative.

COMMENT:  Liberals never understood that the American people can figure out a label change.  How long did liberals think it would take before voters realized that progressives were just old liberals with a new name tag?  Liberals will blame Fox News.

January 6, 2011       Permalink

THANK-YOU NOTE REMINDER – AT 7:57 A.M. ET:  Urgent Agenda readers tend to be civilized and well-mannered people, so you'll certainly want to take out the traditional stationery today and write a thank-you note to Hugo Chavez, proprietor of Venezuela, for making our selection of an ambassador to his country so easy.  Rarely do we get this kind of help at no charge.  From The Politico:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, drawing more attention to his standoff with the White House over President Obama’s pick to be an ambassador to Caracas, is suggesting alternate candidates, including Sean Penn and Bill Clinton.

"I hope they name Oliver Stone. I'll suggest a candidate ... Sean Penn, or [Noam] Chomsky. We have a lot of friends there. Bill Clinton!" Chavez said in a televised speech on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

He also mentioned that when he met Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s inauguration ceremony over the weekend, he asked about her husband.

Chavez rejected Obama’s nomination of Larry Palmer to be the American envoy in Caracas after the nominee raised concerns about the low morale of the Venezuelan government.

COMMENT:  I don't know how Bill Clinton made the list, but I'm curious.  As for the others, it's a very solid list of qualified applicants.  Sean Penn, Oliver Stone and Noam Chomsky are crazed American leftists who would make America a better place just by leaving, or being sent abroad.

I'm surprised Chomsky didn't mention Danny Glover, one of his most enthusiastic Hollywood supporters.  And then there's Harry Belafonte, who sang those Caribbean songs and doesn't think much of the country that made him successful.  At least he'd know a bit of the culture.

We thank Chairman Hugo for his assistance. 

January 6, 2011     Permalink