Talk about an in-kind contribution.

In a short item about a Democratic Governors Association election complaint about Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kasich, the Associated Press’s Julie Carr Smyth showed that she is willfully ignoring Buckeye State reality, or has been living a hermit’s existence for the past few months.

In describing Kasich’s standing against Democratic incumbent governor Ted Strickland, Smyth claimed that Kasich “is keeping pace with Strickland in polls and fundraising” (a picture of the relevant paragraph is here).

As you can see, that’s sort of like a baseball writer claiming that “The Cincinnati Reds are keeping pace with the Chicago Cubs this year”:

For those who aren’t following baseball closely, the Reds have a 21-1/2 game lead on the Cubs with less than 30 games remaining.

Who do you think you’re foolin’, babe?

(Answer: Relatively disengaged voters who need to given the impression that the sinking Strickland campaign is really on track to victory, instead of heading towards the first defeat of an incumbent governor in the Buckeye State in 36 years.)

Democrats are upset that Kasich appeared on Fox News and was able to give out the name of his web site and encourage viewers to donate to his campaign during Bill O’Reilly’s show on August 18. Awwww.

The election complaint is carried at a Huffington Post item courtesy of Sam Stein, a former NewsWeak (spelled that way on purpose) reporter. Two years ago, Stein claimed that Republican presidential nominee John McCain couldn’t possibly have vetted VP pick Sarah Palin because no one had visited her town’s local newspaper and looked through its archives. Well Sam, that just might be because the paper’s archives going back a decade were available online, and contained hundreds of entries. This Internet thing is pretty cool when you have a clue about how to use it.

Ben Smith at Politico, who is not being linked because of his outfit’s outrageous attempt to shut down the College Politico, seems to think that this complaint has as much validity as Stein’s unproven claim against Team McCain two years ago:

It seems to hinge on a chyron and, to my eye, is more in the great tradition of thin, high-profile election-year litigation than about winning in court.

Speaking of “in-kind contributions,” maybe Julie Carr Smyth can estimate how much value favoring Strickland we should place on her demonstrably false claim in a national news story that Kasich is only “keeping” pace with him, when the fact is that Kasich has an averaged-out double-digit lead?

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

I say we’re “halfway” because the two big ones coming in tomorrow (Uncle Sam’s Employment Situation Report and the Institute for Supply Management’s Non Manufacturing Survey) will have about that much relative impact.

Here are quick looks and quick takes on what’s come in thus far.

ISM Manufacturing

As announced yesterday, it went up to 56.3 in August from 55.5 in July, indicating very strong expansion (any reading above 50% indicates expansion). The stock market really liked it.

This is at least the third month in a row where purchasing manager optimism as expressed in the ISM report is out of sync with hard manufacturing data originating elsewhere, which has been mostly flat and sometimes declining. I don’t think that any of the data from any source is necessarily “wrong”; it’s just that ISM appears to have a large-company and surviving-company bias that has never really been important until the full weight of the POR Economy was felt. I think what’s happening is that those who are still around are pretty fired up and have picked up market share from others who were either not surveyed or who, having given up, have dropped out of the survey.

Update: Giving equal time to the doubters, David Rosenberg calls the ISM’s report “likely a huge headfake,” and predicts that it will drop into contraction within three months. If it turns out this way, it’s going to make the questions raised here (especially Question 4) seem more legitimate, whether or not there really is any conflict of interest.

ADP Employment

The payroll and employee benefits giant’s Wednesday report went negative for the first time in six months:

Private sector employment decreased by 10,000 from July to August on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report® released today. The estimated change of employment from June to July was revised down slightly, from the previously reported increase of 42,000 to an increase of 37,000. The decline in private employment in August confirms a pause in the recovery already evident in other economic data. The deceleration in employment was evident in the major sectors and by size of business. This month’s decline in employment followed six monthly increases from February through July. Over those six months the average monthly gain in employment was 37,000 with no evidence of acceleration.

This would appear not to bode well for Friday’s Employment Situtation Report.

Vehicle Sales

Ouch: Overall sales were less than a million, the worst performance since 1983, down 21% from a year ago and 5% from July. The fact that last year had Cash For Clunkers doesn’t come close to excusing away the extent of the drop.

Specifically:

• Government/General Motors was down 24.5% from a year ago (11% in surviving brands), and down 7.2% from July. FT.com legitimately writes that this weak performance is “potentially complicating its bid to drum up investor support for its forthcoming public share issue.” Well, at least an IPO that doesn’t involve coercing Wall Street into swallowing stuff it doesn’t want.
• Ford was down 11%, Chrysler was up 6%, and the dips at the three major Japanese makers averaged over 30%.

Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims

They came down 6,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, a few thousand more than expected.

*  *  *  *

The Wall Street Journal is carrying a prediction that the unemployment rate is “expected to creep up to 9.6% as U.S. employers drop another 110,000 people off the payrolls.” Just in time for the disengaged to start paying attention.

Do you remember during the final months of the 2008 presidential campaign when candidate Barack Obama petulantly a crowd that he wouldn’t take their guns away, because “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress”?

The implication that Obama and his administration would be have no ability to curb gun rights once in power has been proven false in the past few weeks.

First, there was the proposed ban on lead ammunition that floated out of the EPA. Yes, it was hooted down by public comment (a proposed ban on fishing sinkers is still possible), but it’s evidence that “creative” types in federal agencies and gun-grabbing groups are lying awake at night thinking about what they and cooperative bureaucrats can do to make gun ownership more expensive and impractical.

Second, there’s this (HT Volokh):

Obama Administration Reverses Course, Forbids Sale of 850,000 Antique Rifles

The South Korean government, in an effort to raise money for its military, wants to sell nearly a million antique M1 rifles that were used by U.S. soldiers in the Korean War to gun collectors in America.

The Obama administration approved the sale of the American-made rifles last year. But it reversed course and banned the sale in March – a decision that went largely unnoticed at the time but that is now sparking opposition from gun rights advocates.

A State Department spokesman said the administration’s decision was based on concerns that the guns could fall into the wrong hands.

… But gun rights advocates point out that possessing M1 rifles is legal in the United States — M1s are semi-automatics, not machine guns, meaning the trigger has to be pulled every time a shot is fired — and anyone who would buy a gun from South Korea would have to go through the standard background check.

… According to the ATF Guidebook on Firearms Importation, it would normally be legal to import the M1s because they are more than 50 years old, meaning they qualify as “curios or relics.” But because the guns were given to South Korea by the U.S. government, they fall under a special category that requires permission from the State Department before any sale.

… The White House referred questions on the issue to the Pentagon, which referred questions to the U.S. Embassy in South Korea, which deferred back to the State Department.

Episodes such as these show why the NRA and Buckeye Firearms Association endorsements of Ohio Governor Ted Strickland are complete betrayals of their memberships, and of the Constitution itself.

Strickland at first vigorously supported State Department head Hillary Clinton for President in 2007 and early 2008. He then switched to vocal support of Barack Obama for President when it became clear that he would win the nomination. He lodged no objections that I am aware of or could find to Obama’s Supreme Court nominations of Sonia Sotomayor or Elena Kagan, even though each has a history of hostility to Second Amendment rights.

How could the NRA or the BFA not realize the obvious fact that Strickland, who also as I understand it has an at-home track record of appointing gun-grabbing judges, cannot possibly be a strong or even legitimate supporter of Second Amendment rights while vigorously backing two of the most rabid gun control advocates ever to hold political office — people who are now working hard to curb those rights by any means necessary?

Update: According to Wiki, Strickland-appointed Ohio Chief Justice Eric Brown “served 11 years as an Assistant Attorney General for Ohio Attorneys General Lee Fisher and Betty Montgomery, where he worked as both a lawyer and as a manager.” Both Fisher and Montgomery are not big fans of the Constitution’s self-evident Second Amendment rights. Any info on Brown’s Second Amendment positions would be welcome.

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I meant to note Major Garrett’s departure from Fox News for a print journalism gig when it was announced a week ago:

Fox News Channel chief White House correspondent Major Garrett said Wednesday he’s leaving the network after eight years to join the National Journal as a congressional correspondent.

Garrett, who worked at the Washington Times, U.S. News & World Report and CNN before joining Fox in 2002, said it was a return to his roots in print journalism.

… “All I ever tried to do, whether I was at CNN or U.S. News or Fox, was to do the best reporting I can and let that speak for itself.”

What one can say about Garrett is really what one can say about Fox’s hard-news team: He and they only appear to lean right because their contemporaries at the other networks are soooo far to the left.

My best memory of Garrett is how he pushed candidate Barack Obama on Jeremiah Wright in March 2008. Read the transcript. He allowed Obama to hang himself with open-ended questions, and then zoomed in with “yes or nos” to highlight obvious inconsistencies. Fair, balanced, and persistent. Well done, sir.

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From Rasmussen (HT Ace):

The number of Republicans in the United States grew in August while the number of Democrats slipped a bit and the gap between the parties fell to the smallest advantage for Democrats in five years.

In August, 35.0% of American Adults identified themselves as Democrats. That’s down nearly half a percentage point from a month ago and is the smallest percentage of Democrats ever recorded in nearly eight years of monthly tracking.

Imagine how much better the situation would be if the GOP, especially in Ohio, were running more sensible, Constitution-based conservatives.

Which reminds me … I suspect that the folks at ORPINO (the Ohio Republican Party In Name Only) are really impressed with themselves right now, given that their coasting candidates are in the lead in most if not all statewide races.

Just imagine where they’d be if they had actually tried to do something about this (from Gallup on July 26):

Ohio’s 7-point Dem advantage in July was the same as Pennsylvania, one point greater than Wisconsin’s 6-point advantage, and three points more than Minnesota’s 4 points (!). Bashing Ted and screaming about jobs lost will probably work this time — but that will be in spite of ORPINO, not because of it.

For decades, Ohio voters who are relatively disengaged, the large majority of whom are instinctively sensible conservatives, haven’t been offered any kind of meaningful philosophical alternative. What you see above is the result of a moribund, hidebound, go-along get-along party that has consciously chosen to stand for nothing.

From Mexico City:

Aug 31, 2010 / 11:57 am

The Knights of Columbus in Mexico have expressed their solidarity with the country’s bishops for their courageous, firm and respectful opposition to the Mexican Supreme Court’s recent rulings on abortion, same-sex “marriage” and adoption by gay couples.

“Mexico is a free, plural and democratic country where persons and institutions have the right and duty to express their opinions on issues that have to do with national public life,” the Knights said in a statement.

They noted that the Catholic laity make up the vast majority of the Mexican people and that they enjoy civil rights such as freedom of expression.

They also reaffirmed their defense of religious freedom, the unborn, the family based on traditional marriage and the right of adopted children to have a father and a mother. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

How the once-mighty have fallen. In the midst of covering the performance of the broadcast networks last week, David Bauder at the Associated Press noted the following (HT Kevin Alloca at Media Bistro):

Meanwhile, the NBC, ABC and CBS evening newscasts combined for a dubious record last week: the average of 18.7 million people who watched one of the three shows last week was the smallest audience those three telecasts have reached collectively on record, since the infancy of television, Nielsen said.

During the slow news period of late August, the broadcasts broke their previous record — set just last week.

Little did I know that my post last week (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog) also covered a negative record-breaker.

The news actually got worse from there, Media Bistro’s Chris Ariens separately reported:

And not a good sign from the younger viewer department — none of the shows broke the 2 million viewer average in the A25-54 demo. That’s the first time that’s ever happened.

I don’t find the contention by the AP’s Bauder about the “slow news period of late August” very convincing. Political campaigns are already heating up, and family vacation season was mostly over, as the large majority of children were back in school last week. The networks’ collective performance was down almost 8% from a year ago for all viewers, and over 14% in the 25-54 demo.

I think it’s more likely that more and more viewers and news consumers are tuning out because they agree with this sentiment.

It will be interesting to see what if any kind of fall recovery there will be at the Big 3 networks’ evening newscasts.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

Both financial papers’ editorial boards made astute observations about the President’s posture and the war’s meaning, one before and one after he spoke last night.

The Wall Street Journal had this to say after the speech (bold is mine):

Oval Office Ambivalence
Obama’s address focused too much on the costs of the Iraq war and not enough on what U.S. troops achieved.

President Obama has often struck us as an ambivalent Commander in Chief, and last night’s 19-minute Oval Office address will do little to change that perception—especially abroad, where an American President’s determination is most carefully parsed.

In announcing the end of “our combat mission” in Iraq, the President sounded the right notes of gratitude to our troops, a continuing “commitment to Iraq’s future,” and even a salute to President George W. Bush, albeit to his predecessor’s patriotism rather than to his most significant achievement, which was persevering as a war leader until our goals were reached.

But to our mind—and we suspect to the foreign ear—he also focused too much on the “huge price” and burdens of the last seven years, rather than on what our troops accomplished, or on the strategic opportunities that their sacrifice now allows. He gave short shrift to Iraq as a potential democratic example in the autocratic Middle East, or as an ally against Iran’s regional ambitions. Nor did he say whether, or even how, our ultimate success in Iraq had informed his own decision to surge troops to Afghanistan.

The problem, of course, is that saluting Bush’s perseverance would require acknowledgment that his courageous 2007 decision to pursue the “surge” strategy when almost everyone in Washington was screaming for withdrawal was correct, worked as David Petraeus predicted, and led to victory. Obama strongly opposed that strategy, even saying, as AP accurately paraphrased (HT Gateway Pundit), “that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.”

Virtually every other Democrat in congressional leadership at the time bitterly opposed the surge strategy, no matter how much Robert Gibbs, the President’s other peeps, and the DNC try to otherwise spin it. It’s on tape, and it’s irrefutable. You guys don’t get to play the “we were all really Cold Warriors” (no you weren’t) game this time.

Investors Business Daily weighed in shortly before the speech with commentary on the cost, financial and otherwise. Then it made what seemed to be a strange turn into discussion of the war’s cost vs. the stimulus:

It might have seemed odd to hit on domestic economic policy before what one would have expected to be an entirely foreign policy-oriented speech, but the folks at IBD were prescient enough to know that this president can’t stay outside of his far-left “progressive” comfort zone for more than about 15 minutes. Sure enough, he didn’t last night, moving into the economy by roughly the 20th paragraph of 28. In doing so, he comes across as less than serious about achieving legitimate success in foreign policy that advances the interest of America and the cause of freedom. In that sense, he’s coming across as he really is.

This post has been carried forward from last night.

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Rasmussen is the latest to move the Ohio U.S. Senate race to a toss-up

This is happening because Rob Portman won’t address the issues in the June post to which I linked back last week — not because I raised them, but because they are legitimate issues, period.

It’s a toss-up because Rob Portman won’t get out of the comfort zone from which he is currently campaigning. Has anyone asked him how he would have voted on Elena Kagan? If so, I haven’t found it; I’d like to hear otherwise.

It may also be a toss-up because he’s letting others carry out “his” ad strategy. With millions in the bank, why is he letting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce carry the load?

Portman may limp across the finish line, but if it really is close, his chances for higher office, which would appear to be the reason he’s not spending his own money, will be hurt. Aha, maybe I’ve happened onto something that might actually motivate him or his inner circle. Since May, when I brought it up, it seems that nobody has been pushing Portman. Anyone who has played or watched sports knows that you don’t let an outclassed opponent hang around within striking distance of taking a lead. The longer it stays close, the hungrier and more dangerous they become.

It’s here.

It will go up here at BizzyBlog on Friday morning (link won’t work until then) after the blackout expires.

The column’s key point is that, despite appearances to the contrary, fiscal 2010’s spending and deficit will come in higher than that of fiscal 2009.

Specifically, on spending, building on info I put together a couple of years ago, here’s the real record (all dollar amounts are in millions):

Last year’s final Monthly Treasury Statement said that “outlays” were $3.520 trillion, while the Congressional Budget Office projects that “outlays” will come in at $3.485 trillion this year. Well, it all depends on what you mean by “outlays.” Go to the column to find out. why spending was really $115 billion lower than reported last year, and will really come in $115 billion higher than reported this year.

“Minor” matter: CBO’s projections say that spending was $3,518 trillion last year vs. the $3.520 trillion noted in the previous paragraph. Hey, what’s $2 billion between friends?

From London:

Aug 31, 2010 / 03:22 pm

The post office of the Isle of Man, a small independently-governed island near the U.K., issued a set of commemorative stamps this month honoring Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman, along with Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope will officially beatify the English cardinal at the end of his visit to England and Scotland from September 16 to 19.

The stamps were part of a miniature sheet issued on August 11, the 120th anniversary of Cardinal Newman’s death. Since then, the Isle of Man’s department for stamps and coins has been working with the Vatican Post Office to produce additional commemorative materials for the September 19 beatification.

Since Newman’s beatification was originally scheduled to take place at Coventry Airport, the stamps give the original location for the announced ceremony rather than the new site at Cofton Park in Birmingham. Stamp collectors, however, often increase the level of an artifacts’ value to apparent discrepancies of this kind.

Newman is depicted in two photographs, one taken in his residence at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in 1883, when the cardinal was 82. The other was taken around 1866, just over two decades after his conversion from Anglicanism and reception into the Catholic Church. The photograph of Pope Benedict XVI was taken during a General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on June 10, 2009.

Among the materials to be produced jointly by the Isle of Man Post Office and the Vatican, will be a special welcome message to the Pope from Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Scotland and Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster.

Announcing the stamps in a press conference earlier this summer, Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham said that they “highlight the importance” of the “first time a Pope has been welcomed to the United Kingdom on a State Visit.” …

Go here for the rest of the story.

It’s not official yet, so we haven’t gone to the crying towel yet. But it doesn’t look good:

U.S. auto sales in August probably were the slowest for the month in 28 years as model-year closeout deals failed to entice consumers concerned the economy is worsening and they may lose their jobs.

Industrywide deliveries, to be released tomorrow, may have reached an annualized rate of 11.6 million vehicles this month, the average of eight analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That would be the slowest August since 1982, according to researcher Ward’s AutoInfoBank. The rate would be 18 percent below last year’s 14.2 million pace, when the U.S. government’s “cash for clunkers” incentive program boosted sales.

That would seem to be a turnaround from July, when, at least according to this AP item, “A busy month for car dealerships and higher gas prices lifted overall retail sales 0.4 percent last month.” Without cars and gas, the retail sales change was -0.1%.

Specifically, the consensus year-over-year sales change predictions, based on my review of the link noted at the beginning of this post, are:

• Government/General Motors, -19% (that’s not how you set the stage for a successful, coercion-free IPO)
• Ford, -5%
• Chrysler, +3%
• Toyota, -29%
• Honda, -27%
• Nissan, -24%

The fallback by the Japanese companies is largely a reversal of the big pickups they experienced last year during Cash For Clunkers. Chrysler’s increase may be fueled by lots of relatively low-margin fleet sales.

We’ll see tomorrow, when a pretty intense three days of econ-related info, most of which does not promise to be cheerful, starts pouring in.

From the AP, the Fed is going where no central bank has gone before:

In the end, the Federal Open Market Committee, the panel of Fed board members and regional bank presidents who set interest rates, voted 9-1 to support the modest easing move. The only dissent came from Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig.

The minutes said that the committee believed that the most likely outcome for the economy was that it would continue to grow and would avoid a destabilizing bout of deflation – when prices and wages decline.

But the panel said it was prepared to go further to guard against either a return to recession or deflation.

The minutes said the Fed panel agreed it would “need to consider steps it could take to provide additional policy stimulus tools if the outlook were to weaken appreciably further.”

Big Ben & Co. can only do so much when fiscal policy is a wreck. Right now, they’re buying time and hoping the Team Obama doesn’t do any more serious damage.

Longtime BizzyBlog readers may be wondering what’s going on upon seeing the ad containing the three graphics near the top right.

Never fear, yours truly hasn’t gone all union thug or anything. There is a method to the seeming madness.

When I was reviewing the ad for approval, three things struck me (other than the fact that the party of Wall Street has been the Democrats for years — or at least was until Wall Street experienced 1-1/2 years of Democrat control in Washington; now that worm is turning, according to this Reuters item).

First, the “click here” on the right graphic doesn’t work, nor does clicking anywhere else in any of the three graphics. That’s pretty weak.

Clicking on “Read more” does work, and takes you to a link with the following header and a graphic further down the page:

Notice how the Wall Street and Main Street signs now have the symbols of the Republican and Democratic Parties, respectively — unlike the Blogad tease. Subtle, eh?

Second, the link shows two events a day taking place this week on Monday through Thursday. But there is no further information about those events, nor any link to another page describing them.

Events allegedly occurred in Lansing, Michigan and Manchester, New Hampshire yesterday and in Cleveland, Ohio and Erie, Pennsylvania today. If anyone attended, comment below or e-mail me and tell me what (if anything) you saw.

Columbus is on tap for tomorrow, along with Fort Collins, Colorado. Cincinnati and Orlando are supposedly happening on Thursday.

As to Cincinnati, they’re either playing this really low key, or it’s not really happening. A Google News search on “AFSCME Cincinnati” (not in quotes) returned only one item: “AFSCME President in Cincinnati Pleads Guilty to Theft, Sentenced” (imagine that). I also found nothing relevant in a search on AFSCME at Cincinnati.com.

The third thing that struck me about the ad isn’t visible to readers.

AFSCME is well-off, and intends to flex its political muscle this year:

Unions to spend $100M in 2010 campaign to save Dem majorities

At least two influential unions will spend close to $100 million on the 2010 election, with most of those funds going to protect incumbents.

Union officials told The Hill they plan to help endangered members — particularly freshmen — who made politically difficult votes in a year during which an anti-incumbent mood has filled the country.

… The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) plans to spend in excess of $50 million during the 2010 campaign, part of which will fund “a massive incumbent protection program,” according to Gerry McEntee, president of the union.

AFSCME spent roughly $67 million on its political activities in 2008. But the $50 million slated for the 2010 elections is the largest expenditure the union will make in a midterm election, according to union officials. The money will go to help defend the union’s top tier of eight Senate seats and 34 House members.

Throwing those kinds of numbers around, you would think that cash flow isn’t a problem, but … well, I don’t know.

You see, the vast majority of Blogads are paid in advance, as they should be. Blogads was paid in advance for the other three ads currently appearing here. Any ad that promises later payment raises eyebrows. This one is cause for real suspicion, because Blogads hasn’t been promised payment until … wait for it … October 26:

Yes, I realize that Blogads tells us that this happens from time to time, and that “Agencies place ads on 30, 60, or 90 day payment terms and have to secure payment from their clients before they pay us.” Blah blah. But I don’t ever recall getting a Blogad promising payment 60 days later. In the past, I have turned down several (but not all) promising payment 30 days later.

So, I guess there are four possibilities, the first three of which are not mutually exclusive:

1. AFSCME’s political fund either didn’t have the money to pay in advance, or it didn’t want to.
2. They’re a bunch of habitually slow-paying weasels.
3. If they don’t have the money to pay on October 26, they’ll welch on the deal.
4. All of the above.

If forced to choose, I would select Door Number 4. I’m not counting on getting the pittance they’ve promised, but it’s been worth every penny I haven’t received to get the raw material for this post.

When’s the last time these guys negotiated a union contract calling for workers to get paid for what they’ve done 60 days later?

“Your” Department of Education, not at work:

“ED staff are invited to join Secretary Arne Duncan, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and other leaders on Saturday, Aug. 28, for the ‘Reclaim the Dream’ rally and march,” began an internal e-mail sent to more than 4,000 employees of the Department of Education on Wednesday.

…. Education Department spokeswoman Sandra Abrevaya defended Duncan’s decision. “This was a back-to-school event,” she said.

Sharpton’s pathetic public gathering only came about as a counter to Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally. Sharpton’s achievement of perceived legitimacy as a “civil rights leader” after the Tawana Brawley case (more here) is something I’ll never understand.

“ED” apparently stands for Educational Dysfunction.

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Historical revisionism in progress:

At Monday’s White House briefing, spokesman Robert Gibbs gave reporters a preview of President Obama’s speech on Iraq. Obama will apparently take credit for withdrawing U.S. troops — “We are completing a drawdown of almost 100,000 troops that…many did not think was possible,” Gibbs said — but is unlikely to acknowledge any special role played by George W. Bush’s troop surge. Gibbs said Obama plans to call Bush before the speech, but through repeated questioning would not admit that the surge played any especially important role in the war’s progress.

I don’t expect that Obama will recognize that our troops achieved victory in Iraq even before he took office thanks to the surge strategy that apparently won’t be cited, or that the majority of Iraqis don’t like the fact that our combat troops are gone. With violence escalating, the possibility that ultimate defeat might be snatched from the jaws of victory now exists. If so, it won’t be George W. Bush’s fault.

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Related grim milestone: Did you know that more U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan so far this year than in any other full year of the war there?

I’m surprised the media isn’t all over this (/sarc).

Related, from Mark Steyn in early July:

And so here we are, nine years, billions of dollars and many dead soldiers later, watching the guy we’ve propped up with Western blood and treasure make peace overtures to the Taliban’s most virulently anti-American and pro-al-Qaeda faction in hopes of bringing them back within the government. Being perceived as the weak horse is contagious: today, were Washington to call Moscow for use of those Central Asian bases, Putin would tell Obama to get lost, and then make sneering jokes about it afterwards. Were Washington to call Islamabad as it did on Sept. 12, the Pakistanis would thank them politely and say they’d think it over and get back in 30 days. The leaders of Turkey and Brazil, two supposed American allies assiduously courted and flattered by Obama this past year, flew in to high-five Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The new President wished to reposition his nation by forswearing American power: he thought that made him the nice horse; everyone else looked on it as a self-gelding operation—or, as last week’s U.S. News & World Report headlined it, “World sees Obama as incompetent and amateur.”

If the Taliban return to even partial power in Afghanistan, the unctuous State Department spokesmen will make the best of it. But the symbolism will be profound, and devastating in what it says about American will.

It’s amazing what can be undone in 19 months.

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Kathleen Sebelius thinks we need “reeducation” on the wonders of ObamaCare.

With a number of polls showing a sustained level of opposition to the Democrats’ health care reform efforts more than five months after passage, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the Obama administration has “a lot of reeducation to do” heading into the midterms.

By all means, Ms. Sebelius should introduce us to ObamaCare’s de facto 100%-plus marginal tax rates.

From Wichita:

Aug 29, 2010 / 01:25 pm

Over 3,600 people from 17 states and Mexico attended this year’s Midwest Catholic Family Conference Aug. 6-8 in Wichita, Kansas. Kevin Regan, co-director of the conference, said 800 youth and teens also participated in the programs.

“We had rave reviews about all our speakers,” Regan said a few days after recovering from the event. “I get calls from people across the U.S. and they ask what we are doing because they hear great things about us.”

One couple from Sharon, Kan., said the weekend was one of the greatest experiences of their lives.

“We didn’t want to leave, especially after the beautiful Mass on Sunday,” they wrote in an evaluation. “It was awesome and we cannot wait to register for all three days next year.”

Regan is currently planning next year’s event which is scheduled for Aug. 5-7. The speakers should be contracted in about 60 days, he said.

Eduardo Verástegui, star of the pro-life movie Bella, talked about his rise to stardom and his realization that despite his success, something was wrong.

I was very confused, he said, “because I thought I had everything in my life. But at the same time I had nothing. I was very empty. Something was missing.”

That something, of course, was God.

He made that realization while studying English with a devoutly Catholic teacher. Verástegui also told those attending that he understood he was setting a bad example for young men and realized that he had hurt many women as his career ascended. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

Geez, Shikha Dalmia, how do you really feel?

Also note that Ms. Dalmia, in the midst of describing the IPO’s possible valuation at Forbes, pretty much gives away the fact that Ed “We Don’t Want to Be ‘Government Motors” Whitacre more than likely was shown the door for griping (bolds are mine):

(The IPO’s) timing is driven not by the financial needs of the company– or the interests of taxpayers who are poised to get royally screwed–but the election-year needs of the Obama administration.

… in its application to the Securities and Exchange Commission–which, guess what, will come through just in time to make an IPO possible before the November elections!–GM admits that its “disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting are currently not effective.” And this “could materially affect our financial condition and ability to carry out our business plan.” Companies include all kinds of outlandish mea-culpas in their IPO applications to cover their derrières in the event of investor lawsuits. However, this one goes to the heart of the information that investors need to determine whether GM is a good investment, especially since it is going public after only two good quarters as opposed to the usual four. If GM can’t guarantee its own numbers, how exactly are investors supposed to evaluate its worth?

… potential investors are likely to take a dim view of the company’s prospects right now, making it nearly impossible for taxpayers who still have somewhere between $40 billion to $60 billion “invested” in it to come out whole. For that to happen, the Treasury’s 304 million of the company’s 500 million common shares would need to average $131 to $197 per share, notes Brad Coulter director at O’Keefe & Associates, a Michigan-based corporate finance firm. That would put GM’s implied valuation at somewhere between $65 billion to $98 billion.

To understand just how absurdly high this is consider that Ford Motor Company, whose earnings are expected to be six times those of GM, has a market value of only $40 billion. “There is no rational reason for investors to choose GM relative to Ford right now,” notes Francis Gaskin of IPODesk.com. But even if investors valued both companies the same that would still represent a 50% loss for taxpayers. It was always unlikely that taxpayers would ever recover their entire investment, but a more auspiciously timed IPO might at least have limited their losses.

Nor is the IPO’s timing good for GM. The company is–rightly–eager to shed the sobriquet of Government Motors. So eager in fact that its outgoing CEO Ed Whitacre launched a campaign this spring misleadingly claiming that GM had paid back its government “loan” in full after returning only $6.7 billion. But even he thinks that the IPO is a dumb idea. He apparently wanted to wait until GM could command a better share price and then have the company go fully public at once instead of in several installments as per the current plan.

Whitacre expressed his misgivings at a recent Management Briefing Seminar in Michigan’s Traverse City, according to Sean McAlinden of the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research. “And then 48 hours later he was gone,” McAlinden says.

But Whitacre’s departure won’t change the risk–”a big risk in my mind,” says O’ Keefe’s Coulter–that the IPO could turn into a PR nightmare for GM if its opening price is too low.

Read the whole thing.

To be fair, one could argue that Ford might be seriously undervalued; its P/E is currently only 6.2. But even if Ford’s P/E were double that, you still can’t justify your way to a taxpayer-relieving valuation for GM without some form of yet to be defined coercion. It should be interesting.

We told you, but you voted for him anyway, Part 1: Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal –

We Just Don’t Understand
Americans look at the president and see a stranger.

Instapundit’s reax: “Of course, if Obama is such a mystery, maybe people in the press — like Peggy Noonan — should have given him closer scrutiny before the election.”

They didn’t. A lot of us on the center-right did. We know him better than so-called “progressives” do. So do most Tea Partiers. That’s why, so far, the elections are shaping up to be what they are.

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We told you, but you voted for him anyway, Part 2: Mort Zuckerman, at US News –

The Most Fiscally Irresponsible Government in U.S. History
Current federal budget trends are capable of destroying this country

It’s a nice screed in a sense, but Zuck’s attempted solutions are pretty weak: “We will have to think of ways to reduce the cost-of-living increases on Social Security benefits for wealthy seniors by slowly increasing their Medicare premiums and leaving everybody else’s untouched. We may have to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, certainly for households earning more than $250,000.” That money needs to be invested in commercial enterprises that will grow and create jobs. Measures such as Zuck proposes might work in a less volatile time, but given the very lack of confidence that Washington will ever reform and keep us from being the next Greece, they’re more likely to lead to capital flight to more hospitable climes, like (it’s hard to believe I’m typing this) Germany and India.

Zuck also voted for Obama. He should have known better. So much of the ruling class was completely, utterly duped.

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The “Obama as Muslim” poll result is not as outrageous as it seems, at least to anyone who aw the following in May’s issue of Israel Today (I have the full PDF, but bandwidth limitations prevent posting it) a couple of months ago:

The person quoted as having said that on Egyptian TV, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, really is a very high-up Egyptian government official.

Did Mr. Gheit possibly misinterpret what the president told him through an interpreter, or did the interpreter(s) fail to properly communicate when Mr. Gheit and the President “spoke” to each other? Of course it’s possible.

If Obama indeed said what is alleged, was he just saying that he is “Muslim” by birth or ancestry but not by current religious belief? Of course that’s possible.

Is Gheit possibly making it up? Yeah, but that seems much less possible. Not that it could easily be found, but I haven’t located any evidence that Gheit has walked back any of what he said.

Is the Israeli source who watched the broadcast and published the potentially explosive quote making it up? I wouldn’t think so.

I don’t believe Barack Obama currently practices the Muslim faith (which is what the poll question was asking), but people who are aware of the facts above and conclude that he is, or who “incorrectly” answered the poll question based on their knowledge of his ancestry (which, don’t forget, is NOT as is commonly represented) aren’t pulling it out of thin air.

More substantively, there is little doubt that this administration is devoting a lot more than 1% of its attention and clear favoritism towards a group that is less than 1% of the nation’s population, and in sometimes troubling ways. A brief litany is here. The NASA thing was one such annoying example, but what follows is much more disturbing (HT Powerline via an e-mailer)

Coming August 31: ‘Direct Access’ Stimulus Grants for the Muslim Brotherhood

On August 31, this coming Tuesday, the Muslim Brotherhood-associated “Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations” (CCMO) will bring 25-30 Muslim leaders of 20 national Muslim groups to attend a special workshop presented by the White House and U.S. Government agencies (Agriculture, Education, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services etc.) to provide the groups “funding, government assistance and resources.” The workshop will apparently provide special access for these Muslim Brotherhood organizations: the organizers pledge to provide “direct access” and “cut through red tape.”

Read the whole thing. The associations with terror groups and terror sympathizers will become obvious.

I bet there are a lot of non-”Muslim Brotherhood-associated groups” — like small businesspeople who could actually take on new employees and help bring the economy out of its malaise — who would love to have “direct access” and “cut through red tape” in dealing with the government, or even take on one more of the many functions the government isn’t carrying out too well. But nooooo.

Note: This post originally went up shortly after midnight, but has been carried forward because of the content of the updates.

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This past weekend, intrepid journalists at the New York Post and NorthJersey.com released information they unearthed about proposed Ground Zero Mosque “organizer” Sharif El-Gamal and frontman Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, respectively, that the wire services, the New York Times and the national TV networks would likely have run with by now had the items related to a major church or synagogue.

But since the news has to do with what has turned into the PC crowd’s cause celebre and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s personal pet project, you may not see these stories covered anywhere else (see Update below).

The arguably more important story of the two concerns the tax problems of Mr. El-Gamal (pictured above via the Post) and his company, because they directly related to the GZM’s property. The story by Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein went up early Sunday morning:

Mosque big owes 224G tax

The mosque developers are tax deadbeats.

Sharif El-Gamal, the leading organizer behind the mosque and community center near Ground Zero, owes $224,270.77 in back property tax on the site, city records show.

El-Gamal’s company, 45 Park Place Partners, failed to pay its half-yearly bills in January and July, according to the city Finance Department.

The delinquency is a possible violation of El-Gamal’s lease with Con Edison, which owns half of the proposed building site on Park Place. El-Gamal owns the other half but must pay taxes on the entire parcel.

… Before any building can go forward, the developers also must get approval from the MTA because the 2 and 3 subway lines run under a portion of the Park Place property, The Post has learned.

… El-Gamal’s spokesperson insisted to The Post that the taxes had been paid and that the “subway lines do not pose a problem.”

The Post revealed this month that El-Gamal owned only half the site.

The news about Imam Rauf (picture above is an AP file photo) comes from Peter J. Sampson and Jean Rimbach at NewsJersey.com (”Ground Zero Imam has history of tenant troubles; N.J. apartments in need of repair”). In addition to the problems noted in the headline, it seems that Rauf has experience squeezing money out of the political system:

The Muslim cleric at the center of the proposed mosque and community center near Ground Zero is also a New Jersey landlord who got more than $2 million in public financing to renovate low-income apartments and has been beset for years by tenant complaints and financial problems.

Imam Feisal A. Rauf won support for his Hudson County projects from powerful politicians, among them Robert C. Janiszewski, the disgraced former county executive. He also was awarded grants from Union City when U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez was mayor.

… Rauf forged ties with Fred Daibes, the prominent waterfront developer and bank chairman. Additionally, Rauf is a onetime business ally of a Daibes associate who sued the imam for alleged mortgage fraud. The 2008 suit was quietly settled in June.

The revelations about Rauf, who lives in North Bergen, add another dimension to the public profile of a man both lauded as a builder of bridges between diverse religions and cultures and vilified as being insensitive to the survivors of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack by proposing a mosque near the World Trade Center site.

… Page after page of municipal health records examined by The Record show repeated complaints ranging from failure to pick up garbage, to rat and bedbug infestations and no heat and hot water.

Cynthia Balko, 48, of Union City — a longtime tenant of Rauf’s — said she’s had to live with rats, leaks and no heat: “I don’t have anything nice to say about the man.”

She finds it hard to believe Rauf’s going to build a world-class Islamic community center, with fitness facilities, auditorium, restaurant, library, culinary school and art studios, as well as a Sept. 11 memorial and space for Muslim prayer services.

“He can’t even repair the bells in the hallway. He doesn’t take care of his properties. But he’s going to take care of a mosque?”

The biggest tax involved in all of this may be on the establishment press’s cover-up mechanisms.

So far, they’re holding. As of shortly after midnight Eastern Time, three stories at the Associated Press time-stamped with Monday’s or Sunday’s date that mentioned the Ground Zero Mosque, which the AP refers to as the “Park51 project” (here, here, and here) had no reference to either gentleman’s difficulties. The New York Times also had nothing beyond the AP items just noted.

So far, they’re holding. As of shortly after midnight Eastern Time, three stories at the Associated Press time-stamped with Monday’s or Sunday’s date that mentioned the Ground Zero Mosque, which the AP refers to as the "Park51 project" (here, here, and here) had no reference to either gentleman’s difficulties. A search on "Park51" at the New York Times returned nothing beyond the AP items just noted.

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UPDATE: A BizzyBlog commenter informed me that the Times has a story on Rauf and the GZM that it published online last night, and which appears in today’s print edition on Page A17 (”Imam Says Politics Has Stoked Controversy Over Center”). I missed it because the project name of “Park51″ is not in Michael Grynbaum’s article (nor is the word “mosque”).

Grynbaum included the following about the property tax issue:

Even as the project’s developers collected $10,000 at a fund-raiser this weekend, they were working to settle an outstanding property tax bill of more than $200,000 on the site where the center is expected to be built.

Representatives of the real estate concern run by Sharif el-Gamal, the developer on the project, said they had delayed the payments while negotiating with the city for a lower tax.

Mr. Gamal plans to buy the land from Con Edison, the current owner, which has said the transaction would proceed as long as Mr. Gamal agrees to a price set by an appraiser.

But a local property tax dispute may pale next to the bigger challenges faced by Mr. Gamal, 37, a relative novice in the New York real estate world, as he embarks on what is likely to be a difficult and protracted round of fund-raising.

That’s nice. Only 21 more such fund-raisers, and they’ll be out from under that problem. Then Mr. Gamal can start working on the 10,000 additional fund-raisers needed to finance the project’s $100 million cost.

There’s also this about Mr. Gamal, who is 37:

His late-blooming real estate career came after a difficult youth: Mr. Gamal pleaded guilty to at least six misdemeanors in his late teens and early 20s, including charges related to disorderly conduct, drunk driving and attempted shoplifting. He was once arrested for soliciting a prostitute in Manhattan, according to a law enforcement official.

In 2005, Mr. Gamal was arrested after he punched a man who owed rent to his brother, who is also a property owner. Mr. Gamal later settled the matter for about $15,000.

“I regret many things that I did in my youth; I have not always led a perfect life,” Mr. Gamal said in a statement issued Sunday by his spokesman.

In 2005, Mr. Gamal would have been roughly 32 years old.

UPDATE 2: It turns out that the Times is also playing catch-up on Mr. Gamal’s criminal history. On Saturday, James Fanelli at the New York Daily News covered that topic (”Park51 developer Sharif El-Gamal has a history of run-ins with the law”). Holy moly (so to speak). Read the whole thing (”Sharif El-Gamal has a history of at least seven run-ins with the law, including a 1994 bust for patronizing a prostitute.”).

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

Via Deacon Keith Fournier at Catholic Online (HT Instapundit):

8/29/10

The crowd easily exceeded 500,000 people

On Saturday, August 28, 2010, a massive crowd of people gathered in Washington, D.C. for a “Restoring Honor” Rally. The Rally was called by Glenn Beck, who has captured the heart of many Americans and raised the ire of some in the main stream media. The sheer numbers demonstrated that the rally had support well beyond the persistent efforts by some in the media to marginalize it.

On Saturday, August 28, 2010, a crystal clear, sunny day in Washington D.C. a massive crowd of people gathered for a “Restoring Honor” Rally. The Rally was called by Glenn Beck, the popular radio and television personality who has captured the heart of many Americans and raised the ire of some in the main stream media.

The sheer numbers demonstrated that the rally had support well beyond the persistent efforts by some in the media to marginalize it as a “tea party” event. Of course, in their condescension these same people used that term in a disparaging manner. The crowd easily exceeded 500,000 people. The event stage was set up at the base of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. However, the massive crowd stretched along the Lincoln Memorial, on both sides of the reflective pond stretching all the way to the Washington Monument.

An opening song, reflecting on the aftermath of the tragedy of 9/11, was written for the event and beautifully performed by a woman named Angelica Tucker. It set the theme: “We must rebuild our lives, our strength, and our hearts. not just the buildings we lost.” It was followed by an eloquent prayer by Evangelical Bishop Harry Jackson of Washington’s Hope Christian Church who is emerging as one of many men of courage, honor and character unafraid to speak and live the truth in our day.

The address given by Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, secured this heroic and inspiring woman’s place in American history. This is the 47th anniversary of her uncle, the late, great Christian minister and human rights hero, Dr Martin Luther Kings’ famous “I Have a Dream” Speech. He would have been proud of his niece. She is an heir of his legacy and certainly has his extraordinary gift for prophetic rhetoric which can rouse the heart of a Nation.

This was a masterful and inspired speech, given on the day when the Nation honors one of our greatest Americans. Dr Alveda King candidly and honestly declared that “our material gains seem to be going the way of our moral losses” but then insisted “We are Not without Hope!”. She referenced the iconic words of her uncle, adding “I Still Have a Dream”. She roused the crowd and called the Nation to unity through the restoration of the guiding principles which inspired her uncle’s heroic life and death and informed the American experiment.

The pundits who condescendingly sought to marginalize the event for weeks before it happened – going so far as to attempt to paint it with allegations of racism – should have been ashamed. The stage was filled with men and women of color, who, with the raucous support of the hundreds of thousands gathered, affirmed our solidarity as Americans. Dr. Alveda King reminded the crowd that we are ” united by blood as one race, the human race.”

The address given by Glenn Beck followed, calling the Nation to ‘Wake Up’. He told the hundreds of thousands gathered in the Nation’s Capitol that it was time to “Start the Heart of America again.” Framing his address with copious references to the founders and founding documents he used the backdrop of the Lincoln memorial and the Washington Memorial to accentuate his message. He honored the heroism of the founders and the genius of the American experiment. However, he also acknowledged the limitations and the scars of those who helped found the American experiment. This was the most significant part of Beck’s address. He repeatedly explained to the crowd that scars and mistakes are invitations to learn, change, grow and improve – insisting that this is true for people and for Nations. He is correct.

He invited the crowd to continue the “unfinished work” which Abraham Lincoln referred to in his Gettysburg Address, telling those gathered to make a choice for the future. He proclaimed it is “…what we do from here that matters. This is the point of choice!” …

Go here for the rest of Mr. Fournier’s column.