LFTC - Letter From The Capitol

LFTC - ObamaCare: Filibuster Flim-Flam

As for Democrats threatening to use the "nuclear option"--bypassing the 60-vote cloture number that cuts off filibusters, using special rules designed for budget reconciliation votes, which require only 51 votes to pass and cannot be filibustered--Human Events collected quotes from top Democrats, including then-Senators Obama & Biden, warning against ending hallowed Senate tradition.  Enjoy the quotes & watch the video (4:48) at the end.  There is much more to the flim-flam involved here....

LFTC - Israel's Hamas Mole

The Times Online UK reports on how the son of the founder of Hamas spied for Israel for a decade.  He now lives in America, a convert to Christianity.  All hail the agent Israel called "the Green Prince!"

LFTC: Let Europe Go Home?

National security expert A. C. Bacevich looks art NATO's sorry performance in Afghanistan and suggests that the US give up attempts to use NATO outside Europe.  Europeans, Bacevich writes, are unwilling to fight wars save in defense of their home ground and otherwise cleave to social welfare statism above all else.  SecDef Robert Gates bluntly told the Europeans that they need to do more (full Gates text).There are dark spots, but bright spots also....

LFTC - Bio-Terror Prep: Three Options

AEi health care maven Tevi Troy explains the three bio-terror prep options Team Obama can choose: (1) Post Office delivery of vaccines; (2) central distribution, with everyone in line; (3) home "medikits" stored at home.  Look for option 2, because the union hates #1 & 3 percent of homes in a 2006 test did not use the medikits properly.  It is always those who choose badly who make the government's argument for denying everyone rights to choose.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, WMD, Foreign Policy, Economy, Conservative Politics

LFTC - School Schocker: Totalitarianism Explained!

A Florida school is giving students an eye-opening look at how totalitarian societies act in real life.  Students act out the roles of citizens in West & East Germany, before the Berlin Wall came down.  REad a SUPER 3-page article on a great classroom exercise that should be copied nationwide.

LFTC - Health Care: A Canadian Chooses Pre-ObamaCare America

A Canadian political leader came to America for open-heart surgery.  His explanation will cause heartburn for Team Obama, as it prepares to possibly ram through a multi-trillion-plus dollar ObamaCare monstrosity (do not believe the Team Obama numbers, which map 6 years of costs to 10 years of revenues) and dare American voters to vote GOP come November....

LFTC - IRAN: Europe's Patience Wears Thin At Last

Der Speigel reports that the European Union is losing patience with Iran, and is readying "massive economic sanctions."  DS also offers us a current map showing the 1,180-mile coverage of Iran's medium-range missiles.  Details are heartening, but action is belated....

LFTC - Pakistan: Bush + Obama Patience Pays Off

Rowan Scarborough reports in Human Events how years of courting Pakistani officials is now paying off in precise intelligence enabling targeting of senior Taliban leaders.  The WSJ reports in a similar vein, but its article expresses less confidence that the game has changed....

LFTC - Russia: Deep Cuts Arms Control Trap

Arms expert Peter Huessy posted a superb 5-pager on the perils of Team Obama's efforts to further deeply cut American's nuclear arsenal in bilateral negotiations with Russia.  Among the grave danger that can arise is that smaller powers have greater incentive to increase their arsenals as we shrink ours....

LFTC - Supremes: One or Two 2010 Obama Seats?

A lengthy article in SCOTUS Blog, a top website with Supreme Court stuff, predicts that Justice Stevens will retire after the Court's oral argument calendar ends at the end of April, when Stevens will turn 90.  The same author says that Justice Ginsburg's health has improved, and that she, 77 in March, will not retire. Who, then, gets the nod to step up?......

LFTC - Eric Holder Hires Al Qaeda Bar

NRO sleuth Byron York informs us on how the Justice Department is slow-rolling Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IW) on "at least" nine lawyers hired by Eric Holder who represented terror defendants and now are working on detainee issues at Justice.  Savor the stupefying details....

LFTC - Interrogation: Pelosi's Latest Fib

Jed Babbin at Human Events explains the latest revelations from newly-released CIA interrogation memos.  In a nutshell, Pelosi was briefed on interrogation of top al-Qaeda big Abu Zubaydah in 2002; none of the detainees who died at Gitmo were subjected to the enhanced interrogation techniques that CIA Director Hayden told Congress in 2007 extracted nearly all the intel we got from senior al-Qaeda detainees.

LFTC - Afghan War: Crummy Karzai

A WSJ editorial notes that Afghan leader Hamid Karzai assailed the US because of civilian casualties in a recent air strike.  LET'S SEE: WE TAKE WORLD-CLASS PAINS TO LIMIT COLLATERAL CASUALTIES, OUR SOLDIERS RISK THEIR LIVES TO SPARE CIVILIANS, AND WE PROP UP KARZAI DESPITE THE ELECTION HE STOLE LAST FALL.  We should, quietly, should tell him to shut up.

LFTC - Afghan Tech War: High-Tech 'Bots v. Low-Tech IEDs

The Times Online UK details how NATO forces are deploying robots & "bees" to detect Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDS) in Afghanistan.  It is an amazing story....

LFTC - Israel's Newest Drone: Iran Bound?

The Jerusalem Post noted the debut of a new Israeli military drone.  The size of a small passenger plane, it can carry surveillance equipment and "payloads."  The latter term is not defined, and could refer to electronic counter-measures, electronic warfare or other capabilities.  This Heron TP web-page offers more detail on the plane and its possible missions.  the JP says it can fly for 20 hours, but the latter article says 36 is the number.  This would leave lots of time for the Heron TP to loiter at high-altitude over Iran.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Nuclear Proliferation, Arms Control, WMD, Foreign Policy

LFTC - Climate Change: Warmists Walloped Anew!

Britain's climate office called for a full IPCC do-over.  Thomas Karl, the man nominated to be Team Obama's chief climate official at the Commerce Department has been accused of suppressing contrary data in the warming debate.  His alleged data suppression came during his 1998 - 2010 tenure as head of the National Climatic Data Center, the nation's top climate data archive. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) called for a Senate investigation of climate change fraud.

LFTC - IRAN: Closer to the Cusp of Nuclear Status

Two national security mavens urge imposition of gasoline & import-insurance sanctions on Iran, and note that financial sanctions aren't effective enough to bring Iran to is knees.  Hudson Institute UN maven Anne Bayevsky fingers the UN as an enabler of Iran's nuclear march.  Both pieces are worth reading.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Nuclear Proliferation, Arms Control, WMD, Foreign Policy, UN

LFTC - George Will's Barnburner CPAC Speech

At The Weekly Standard website scroll down to George Will super CPAC speech (28:25).  It is laced with deft analysis & GW's trademark astringent wit.  The crowd loved it, and rightly (in more ways than one) so.  As generic website links are perishable, fi TWS fails you can catch GW's talk at NRO's website.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Foreign Policy, Economy, Climate Change, Supreme Court, Conservative Politics

LFTC - Bush Lawyers: Honor Restored

A WSJ editorial details how two top Bush layers, John Yoo & Jay Bybee, were cleared of ethical wrongdoing after a Justice Department special counsel probed their work on detention/interrogation matters during the Bush years.  It brings to a near end an ugly spectacle of vindictiveness by the Left, unless House super-Lefty John Conyers gets his way via kangaroo-court hearings.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Supreme Court, Conservative Politics

LFTC - US Navy's "Fighter Gap"

Awaiting the fighter pilot nirvana of the F-35's delayed arrival, the Navy faces a "fighter gap" as its aging existing fleet of planes deteriorates, before they can be replaced.  Cutting deployed planes because insufficient funds were allocated in prior administrations--and in this one, too--is one way future national security crises are created.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Foreign Policy

LFTC - Scott Brown's Crossover Coup

Yesterday Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) crossed the aisle to vote for President Obama's latest "jobs bill"--a $15B nothing-burger.  Piddling in amount, equal to what government bureaucrats can lose in 5 nanoseconds any day of the week, the bill means zip, zilch.  Brown's vote was a stroke of genius.  Yes, genius.  Now, if, as is likely, Brown votes against ObamaCare the $1TR Health-Zilla Sequel, he can tell his constituents his vote was not raw partisanship, because he crossed the aisle on the jobs bill.  Brown is on the senatorial ballot again this November.  Give on the small stuff....

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, Economy, Conservative Politics

LFTC - Dubai: Who Hit Hamas Heavy?

Two columnists differ on who killed a Hamas commander in a Dubai hotel room recently.  Con Coughlin of the Daily Telegraph accuses Israel treating Britain cavalierly, by stealing British passport identities.  But Tom Cross of the National Post sees a possible frame job.  A WSJ op-ed sees Israel the near certain culprit and adds how new surveillance technologies make this type of operation increasingly anachronistic.

LFTC - Karachi Raid: The Mysterious East

A Gray Lady front-pager revels more about the shadowy operation in Karachi that netted Mullah Omar's top commander.  It now seems that Mullah Bandar was picked up by luck rather than design, that he is talking little and that his capture undermines chances for Pakistan to negotiate with Taliban chiefs. Yet another tale in the complex mosaic of a counter-insurgency with double-game allies in Rudyard Kipling's East & West.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Foreign Policy

LFTC - F-22: Expensive = Cheap

Soldier-author Mark Helprin uses the F-22 fiasco to illustrate how three administrations have underfunded defense, relative to our realistic needs.  The consequences could be drastic....

LFTC - Another Warmist "Study" Bites the Dust!

Another warmist study has been withdrawn: this one on allegedly rising sea levels.  The claim was 82 centimeters--32 inches--by the end of the 21st century.  Now it is: we do not know.  Thanks guys.  WSJ pundit L. Gordon Crovitz says that transparency must rule scientist claims in the Internet age....

LFTC - IRAN: The UN's IAEA Steps Up; Will Team Obama Follow Suit?

Two crucial new Iran nuclear program reports from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) raise the stakes by finding Iran's actions suspicious.  Posted by Arms Control Wonk, an intriguing website, the tale they tell is harrowing....

LFTC - Voter Revolt Against Spending?

WSJ pundit Dan Henninger sees an epic voter groundswell against public spending excess driving an historic political revolution.  DH notes that from 1970 to 2008 median household income rose 32 percent while federal spending jumped 221 percent, adjusted for inflation.  That's the GOOD News--IT GETS WORSE....

LFTC - Climate Change Meltdown: Wilting Warmists

Begin with Rich Lowry's crisp NRO piece quoting Voltaire: "Doubt is not a pleasant mental state, but certainty is a ridiculous one."  Next: the UN climate chief quit.  Below, reproduced from the Wall Street Journal, is a smashing post from James Taranto's Best of the Web, summarizing the growing magnitude of the global warmist collapse....

LFTC - Perilous Portents for Palin

WSJ Pulitzer laureate Dorothy Rabinowitz presents a portrait of Sarah Palin that should give her fans pause.  I have liked Palin from the get-go, but Rabinowitz, whom I greatly admire, shows that Palin has gotten herself into some stuff that snapped my head....

LFTC - Interrogation: Obama, Pakistan v. Lawfare

The electrifying capture of Mullah Omar's top military commander in the recent Karachi raid tees up inconvenient questions for Team Obama: Can a seriously productive interrogation be conducted under Team Obama's publicly proclaimed rules?....

LFTC - Privacy: Europe's Lawfare v. US Warfare

Incredibly, the European Union has invoked privacy concerns to end cooperation with an American effort to track terrorists via the SWIFT financial network.   Incredible details....

LFTC - Russia's India Technology Leap; America's Space Technology Surrender

As India announces that within one year it will test a 3,000-mile range nuclear-capable missile, which will bringing Shanghai within range (China & India fought an inconclusive war in 1962), an ex-Bush 43 defense official details the new Russian super-fighter's technical development: how it compares with the F-22 and India's role as technology co-developer.....

LFTC - Obama's Agenda: We Are His Children

George Will frames perfectly the government paternalism and liberal condescension towards the governed that guides much of President Obama's agenda.  An excellent op-ed that captures the attitudes of those who think themselves our betters and thus our overseers.  Michael Barone nails Obama's "crony capitalism" with megabuck bankers & the UAW.  Next, a TV series: "'The One' Knows Best"....

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Economy, Conservative Politics

LFTC - NOT Obama's Children: Sen. Bayh's Indiana Voters

The New Republic's Peter Beinart explains why Sen. Bayh's decision to drop out of the Indiana Senate race is a huge blow to Democrats.  Put simply, since Bobby Kennedy's 1968 Presidential primary win in 1968 the Hoosier state, traditionally red, has been in play for both parties.  As Beinart explains, no longer.  Add in politics guru Jay Cost's assessment that Bayh could easily have lost in November.  At the WSJ, editors see another liberal crack-up, while John Fund explains Bayh's decision & sees a domino effect this November.  But Bayh's exit was calculated to help his party, as Fred Barnes details, by bypassing a primary battle.

LFTC - Another TSA Triumph: Torturing a Four-Year-Old

Dan Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer offers another TSA triumph: forcing a developmentally disabled 4-year old to take off his leg braces.  Read on for another Transportation Stupidity Administration special...

LFTC - MIssile Defense Takes a Giant Step

Last week the Pentagon announced its first successful tests of the AirBorne Laser against a ballistic missile.  Here is more detail from DoD's Missile Defense Agency.  ABL is a 747 equipped with lasers that track a missile from launch, "paint" the target and then zap a hole in the missile's skin, causing it to blow up within seconds of launch.  Here is Boeing's AirBorne Laser homepage.  Read on to learn why this is so important a step in missile defense....

LFTC - Targeting Terrorists: Obama's Calculus

In a shrewd NRO Blog post worth reading, Victor Davis Hanson assesses the Obama Terror Calculus and finds cynical calculation that neutralizes his Left base and isolates the Right.  My parallel take: There are two Ones: Barack NOT Bush & Barack WE Bush.  The two talk to each other & to us, as needed.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security, Foreign Policy, Conservative Politics

LFTC - Targeting Terrorists: Israel Marches On

The Times Online (UK) reports that Israel has stepped up targeting top terrorists in three major terror groups: Hamas, Hezbollah & the Iran Revolutionary Guards.  Arab countries are complaining, but Israel is getting results.  Good for them.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, National Security, Terrorism, Foreign Policy

LFTC - China's Aussie Play; Aussies Embrace Uncle Sam

The Washington Post reports that China's investment & influence in Australia is rising.  It is now Australia's premier trading partner, and that an influx of Chinese is changing Down Under in ways that Aussies resent.  The WP also reports that in the past decade that Australia deepened its ties to the US, partly in response to China's growing influence.

Read more about how Uncle Sam & Down Under have drawn closer....

LFTC - Another (Hopefully Un)Happy "Dear Leader" Birthday

North Korea's peerless Dear Leader celebrated his 68th birthday.  Among the regime classics performed: "Let's Meet Each Other on the Front," "Let the Soldiers Be Heroes" & "Thunder over Jong Il Peak."  Dear Leader is in poor health.  Listening to such songs, no wonder.
 

LFTC - Israel: Uncertain Iran Intel

Former Israeli Defense Forces chief Dan Halutz said that Israel does not know where all Iranian nuke sites are located.  Halutz, architect of Israel's disastrous failure (along with ex-PM Ehud Olmert) to finish of Hezbollah in the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war, likely is right this time.  Halutz, unsurprisingly, does not want Israel to take the lead in confronting Iran.

The plain reality is that gleaning accurate timely intel about what goes on inside dictatorships requires a mole placed high inside the country's governing, military or intelligence structures.  Western powers rarely can do this.  If Israel has managed it, so much the better.  We likely have not.  Which is why our intel services almost certainly have no good idea as to where Iran is in its march towards The Bomb.

Bottom Line.  Put simply, we must decide what to do with far less info than we wish to possess.  Placing faith in our intel, after the debacle in Iraq & given a long history of unpleasant intel surprises on nuclear powers--e.g., North Korea in 2002 (announcement) & 2006 (actual test) there is no reason to think we know enough to cut it close as to when to take decisive action.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, National Security, Nuclear Proliferation, Arms Control, WMD, Foreign Policy

LFTC - Homeland Security: Brennan Bungles Again!

WH terror chief John Brennan is the gift that keeps on giving.  Over the weekend Brennan said that the 20 percent detainee recidivism rate "isn't too bad" because America's domestic back-to-crime rate is 50 percent.  Brennan's exact words:

"People sometimes use that figure, 20 percent, say 'Oh my goodness, one out of five detainees returned to some type of extremist activity.  You know, the American penal system, the recidivism rate is up to something about 50 percent or so, as far as return to crime. Twenty percent isn't that bad.  Many of these detainees have returned, have engaged not just extremism, but terrorist attacks. It is something that we have to look at very carefully."

Well, let's see.  Shoplifters, robbers go back to criminal careers, terror detainees return to terrorism.  Same stuff, right?  Can't make this stuff up, can you?

LFTC - TSA Access to Secret Terror Watch Intel

USA Today reported last Friday that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) senior personnel will be given access to secret terror watch intel, in an effort to tighten security at airports.  Over a two-year period 10,000 TSA people will get this training, including managers, supervisors and so-called "behavior detection officers."  Already, 740 TSA personnel have received secret clearance.  Under federal security clearance levels "secret" ranks above "confidential" & below "top secret."  (There are higher clearances, such as "Q" clearance, beyond the three basic levels.)

Bottom Line. If TSA can keep its access details out of the press, it is a good move, enabling more focus on targeting specific individuals rather than targeting things--which brings TSA closer to what Israeli security does.  It is unlikely TSA can implement this as well as Israel does, but almost anything will be an improvement.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Homeland Security

LFTC - Team Obama's "Bush Did It Too!" Defense: Capitulation!

The Washington Post reports that Team Obama is developing revised procedures to govern interrogation of terror suspects, with intelligence agencies actively consulted before a decision is made whether to give the Miranda warnings to suspects in custody.  GOP Senator Jefferson Sessions (R-AL), a former prosecutor & federal judge, called the idea a "finesse" & urged all terror suspects be placed instantly in military custody and interrogated thoroughly outside Miranda. 

The Washington Times reports that the XMAS bomber recently told interrogators about a Yemeni al-Qaeda program to recruit English-speaking terrorists to target America.  So much for Team Obama's position that the initial psychiatrist's hour interrogation got everything from Abdulwhat'shisname.  Still, nice work, guys & thanks also to Mom & Pop for getting their idiot son to resume talking.

It gets better, because PRACTICALLY NOTHING Team Obama says about Bush terror policy is fully true.....

LFTC - Drones v. Intel: Strategic Dilemma

A Sunday Washington Post front-pager details the drones v. intel dilemma of Team Obama.  Killing insurgents does have one downside: with or without Miranda warnings, interrogating smoldering remains is a challenge.  The US is paying a price for the assault on Team Bush....

LFTC - New Photos From September 11, 2001

The Daily Mail published new photos of the 9/11 attacks, after ABC News won a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to get the photos released.  They are a grim reminder, this Presidents' Day, of the war we fight, a war Islamists started.

LFTC - IRAN: Nuclear Showdown Coming

Foreign policy elder Richard Haass now says that only Iran's people can stop Iran's march towards nuclear club membership.  Haass calls for stepped-up Western support for democratic regime change and warns:

In Iran the clock is ticking. In fact, three clocks are ticking simultaneously — in the country’s nuclear laboratories, at the negotiating table and on the streets. Its future depends on which clock ticks fastest.

Haass is not the only top foreign policy expert who sees clocks ticking....

LFTC - Muslims: Down on in Laden, Fundamentalist Islam & Jews

This article on the latest Pes Global Attitudes Project gives highlights from Pew's latest global survey of Muslims.  Bascially, most Muslims dislike bin Laden, dislike throwback Islamic fundamentalism and dislike Jews.

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, 9/11, National Security, Terrorism, Foreign Policy, Conservative Politics

LFTC - Dallas: Snow Belts Sunbelt

Friday's record foot-plus snowfall in Dallas is the latest wintry gift to climate skeptics.  An Oklahoma U. student is photographing snow in each state; this week all 48 continental states sported snow cover (add Alaska, a given; Hawaii, not until an asteroid creates nuclear winter).  A generation ago writer Kirkpatrick Sale coined the terms Snowbelt & Sunbelt to describe migration of voters from the industrial northeast to the industrializing southwest.  Now Dallas, it seems, has joined the Snowbelt.

It gets better, with the case of the non-existent desert squirrels....

LFTC - An American Original's Final Fly-Away

A Presidents' Day salute to Walter Morrison, who passed on Saturday, age 90.  Morrison turned serendipity--tossing a popcorn lid back and forth at a Thanksgiving party in 1937--into a cake pan tossed in 1938 at Santa Monica Beach and then, in 1946, the Whirl-O-Way plastic disc, in 1948 the Flyin' Saucer, in 1955 redesigned & re-christened the Pluto Platter, then sold in 1957 to Wham-O, which renamed it Frisbee, finally aerodynamically redesigned in 1964.  2010 Tally: 200 million Frisbees sold and counting....

Letter from the Capitol, LFTC, Economy