Indeed, Where's the Outrage?

Since November 2008, when then-President-elect Obama announced he was keeping President Bush's Secretary of Defense (you know, the senior advisor most responsible for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), I've been mocking the liberal extremists with each significant Obama reassertion of Bush. Every day seems to bring another reason why a liberal with any core principles should direct their hate at Obama (or, I guess, feel some remorse for the feigned outrage directed at Bush). Here's yesterday's Wall Street Journal's editorial picking up on my 27-month-old theme:

The Trials of Gitmo
Where's the outrage?
The Wall Street Journal
January 27, 2011

So maybe we aren't reading our friends in the liberal media as carefully as we should. Earlier this month several media sources reported that the Obama Administration will soon resume trying Guantanamo detainees in military tribunals, almost a year to the day after the prison was supposed to have been closed for good. Yet somehow we missed the avalanche of commentary denouncing "kangaroo courts," "legal black holes" and all the other epithets once reserved for the Bush Administration when it was doing precisely the same thing. Critics in Europe are also notably silent.

That said, we welcome evidence of liberal maturity in the war on terror, and in the last two years the Administration has been growing up faster than expected. The decision to resume the tribunals was forced by the Democratic Congress's decision in December to forbid the Pentagon from spending money to transfer Gitmo's remaining detainees to the U.S. mainland.

Barring that option, the Administration's only choices were to re-open the tribunals, hold the prisoners indefinitely without trial, or otherwise let them go. Given that the recidivism rate of released Gitmo detainees is estimated at 25%, we'd say the Administration is choosing wisely.

And justly. Among the first detainees likely to be tried in the tribunals is Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the Saudi mastermind of the 2000 USS Cole bombing in which 17 U.S. sailors were killed. The relatives of Nashiri's victims deserve a verdict.

And the American people deserve a trial that won't be turned into a legal farce, which is what nearly happened last year in New York when terrorist Ahmed Ghailani was acquitted of 284 of the 285 counts held against him. This week Ghailani received a life sentence on that charge, saving the Administration from what might have been a major embarrassment.

Still, it's worth noting that even as the Administration prepares to try some 30 detainees, it also plans to hold another 50 without trial. We won't hold our breath awaiting the outpouring of liberal outrage. But we do breathe a sigh of relief that President Obama has seen the wisdom of his predecessor's ways. (End of WSJ editorial.)

Obama's Fulfillment of Low Expectations


Does he really surround himself with so many people with no imagination, with no ability to motivate and energize? Sputnik? That's what we aspire to? And we're really going to put a Russian word on our moment?

Yes, I understand the Sputnik reference but could it not have been acknowledged more cleverly? Would it have been so difficult to send a more prideful American message? This generation's Mercury moment? Gemini moment? Apollo moment? If SOTUs are about imagery and broad themes, American exceptionalism couldn't have been leveraged?

I wonder if the President's handlers are going to make replicas of the Russian satellite available for every American household so we can put them in our kitchens and dens and be reminded of our moment on a daily basis.

Packers Win Super Bowl!

In an attempt to prove I know something about sports in light of my atrocious 2010 NCAA basketball and World Series predictions, the Green Bay Packers will defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31 - 24 in one of the greatest Super Bowls ever, marked by lead changes and big plays.

On a flyer, Packers RB John Kuhn will be the Super Bowl MVP with 3 TDs (2 rushing, 1 receiving).

Reporting for Duty

"Or I could have gone to 1600 Pennsylvania and killed the real bird with one stone." - Sen. John F. Kerry, on killing President George W. Bush, 2006.

Sen. Kerry is in the news today for making a speech yesterday on softening the national dialogue.

Below is Sen. Kerry "reporting for duty".

"Punish Our Enemies"


Not two days after a gunman killed six people in Tuscon, Arizona and gravely wounded Rep. Gabby Giffords, the Editorial Board of the Boston Globe included this in its lead editorial today, "Liberals are justified in expressing alarm over the coarsening of the political diaglogue." Usually the Boston Globe allows comments opposite its editorial. Today, the gutless cowards at the Boston Globe, led by coward and editorial page editor Peter Canellos, did not allow any comments.

"Hostage-takers." What Punisher-in-Chief Obama called Republicans for wanting to preserve tax cuts for taxpayers.

Prior to Saturday, some liberals and Democrats openly desired Obama have an "Oklahoma City moment" to exploit; these shamelss liberals and Democrats I guess think they got their wish.

Jeb Declares Presidential Run!

For more than 5 years now I've been writing about Jeb Bush running for President and winning in a landslide. Well, yesterday, with a piece on education reform published in the Wall Street Journal, I think Bush announced he was running in 2012. The piece:

Accountability Is Working in Florida's Schools
In 1998, nearly half of its fourth-graders were functionally illiterate. Today, 72% of them can read.
By Jeb Bush
The Wall Street Journal
January 3, 2011

In November, voters in 37 states elected governors, most of whom are new to office. Job creation and economic growth will likely top the list of challenges these leaders will tackle first, and rightly so. But let's hope education reform is not far behind. Florida's investment in reform is already paying off.

Providing a quality education to every student will strengthen U.S. competitiveness in the world economy. The export of knowledge-driven industry is a far greater threat to our prosperity than is illegal immigration, which seems to dominate the news and political discourse. Without a pipeline of homegrown talent to fuel growth, the lure of cheaper labor, lower operating costs, and less government regulation outside the U.S. will be difficult to overcome.

An educated work force that attracts global investment also helps alleviate the problem of dwindling tax revenue and growing entitlements. Students who learn more typically earn more, spend more, invest more, save more—and pay more in taxes. According to the U.S. Census, a high-school dropout earns around $19,000 a year on average. A high-school diploma raises that average to $28,600. A college degree will nearly double your earning potential, to $51,500.

While preparing kids for college and careers starts on the first day of kindergarten, the first good indicator of their chances for success may come in fourth grade. That is when students transition from learning to read to reading to learn. A Manhattan Institute study found that students who can't read and yet are promoted fall further behind over time. Alarmingly, 33% of fourth-graders in America are functionally illiterate, according to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Yet failure does not have to be our destiny. Florida's experience in reform during the last decade gives us the road map to avoid this slow-moving economic calamity.

In 1998, nearly half of Florida's fourth-graders were functionally illiterate. Today, 72% of them can read. Florida's Hispanic fourth-graders are reading as well or better than the average student in 31 other states and the District of Columbia. That is what I call a real game-changer.

If Florida can do it, every state can. With 2.7 million students, Florida has the fourth-largest student population in the country. A majority of our public school children are minorities, and about half of the students are eligible for subsidized lunches based on low family income.

Success starts with a bedrock belief that all students can learn. All Sunshine State students are held to the same standards. As we had hoped, more and more are exceeding expectations.

Accountability must have a hard edge, which means that the responsibilities of educators must be clearly defined, easily understood and uniformly enforced. All students matter. No excuses.

Here is an example. For the last decade, Florida has graded schools on a scale of A to F, based solely on standardized test scores. When we started, many complained that "labeling" a school with an F would demoralize students and do more harm than good. Instead, it energized parents and the community to demand change from the adults running the system. School leadership responded with innovation and a sense of urgency. The number of F schools has since plummeted while the number of A and B schools has quadrupled.

Another reform: Florida ended automatic, "social" promotion for third-grade students who couldn't read. Again, the opposition to this hard-edged policy was fierce. Holding back illiterate students seemed to generate a far greater outcry than did the disturbing reality that more than 25% of students couldn't read by the time they entered fourth grade. But today? According to Florida state reading tests, illiteracy in the third grade is down to 16%.

Rewards and consequences work. Florida schools that earn an A or improve by a letter grade are rewarded with cash—up to $100 per pupil annually. If a public school doesn't measure up, families have an unprecedented array of other options: public school choice, charter schools, vouchers for pre-K students, virtual schools, tax-credit scholarships, and vouchers for students with disabilities.

Choice is the catalytic converter here, accelerating the benefits of other education reforms. Almost 300,000 students opt for one of these alternatives, and research from the Manhattan Institute, Cornell and Harvard shows that Florida's public schools have improved in the face of competition provided by the many school-choice programs.

Florida's experience busts the myth that poverty, language barriers, absent parents and broken homes explain failure in school. It is simply not true. Our experience also proves that leadership, courage and an unwavering commitment to reform—not demographics or demagoguery—will determine our destiny as a nation. (End of column by the 45th President of the United States of America.)