TIA Daily • April 26, 2006
Top News Stories
Commentary by Robert Tracinski
1. The Domestic Policy Mess If domestic policy were the main issue of the day, I don't expect that I could bring myself to say much that is positive about President Bush.
On foreign policy and the war, Bush frequently projects the air of a man who knows that there are life-and-death issues at stake and accepts the responsibility of choosing correctly; on domestic policy, he tends to project the style of a poll-watching, almost Clinton-esque middle of the roader. Case in point: his response to rising gasoline prices.
As a former oil man, Bush knows that talk about "price gouging" and "windfall profits" is pure demagoguery. He also knows the price of oil is pushed up by a fully justified "petronoia" over war with Iran. Yet rather than name the real truth, he calls for a "price-gouging" inquiry (though he clearly knows that this is an empty gesture and will produce no prosecutions) and raises taxes on oil companies—while simultaneously, schizophrenically, suspending environmental regulations on gasoline refiners.
It is a pragmatist hash that is, unfortunately, typical of Bush's domestic agenda—which is one reason why we probably shouldn't be too upset that his agenda has largely stalled since September 11.
" Joseph Curl, Washington Times, April 26 President Bush yesterday ordered a temporary suspension of environmental rules for gasoline, which are creating bottlenecks in US gasoline markets, and announced a federal investigation into potential manipulation of gas prices that have topped $3 per gallon.
Mr. Bush, responding to high fuel costs that are expected all summer, said oil companies have a responsibility to American motorists and called on Congress to strip away tax breaks the corporations are enjoying amid record profits.
"Listen, at record prices, these energy companies have got large cash flows, and they need to reinvest those cash flows into expanding refining capacity, or researching alternative energy sources," the president said in a speech to the Renewable Fuels Association, which advocates alternate energy sources, yesterday in Washington….
Mr. Bush also suspended new purchases of crude oil for the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a small move to boost market supplies.
Analysts and Democrats predicted that the actions will do little to dampen high prices this summer….
Past investigations of price gouging have concluded that "the industry is reasonably competitive and the explanation for price increases lies in other causes," said Bert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute. The chance that investigators will find anything new "strikes me as fairly low," he said.
2. Will Snow Put Spring into the Second Term? A large part of the president's job is ideological: he has to be an effective public advocate for his policies. The president's right-hand man in this task is, or ought to be, his press secretary, who holds daily press conferences to promote the views of the administration.
Bush can be good at advocating his ideas in infrequent speeches, and on issues where he has a coherent idea to advocate (e.g., the Forward Strategy of Freedom). But he has never had a really good press secretary. Up to now, he has picked self-effacing little men whose job was to serve as a human Dictaphone reading off the day's "talking points."
Now, for the first time, Bush has picked an advocate, and a relatively effective one: Fox News commentator Tony Snow. News reports are making a big story out of some minor (and generally valid) criticisms of the administration in Snow's columns. But he is generally a good fit for the administration, especially on the war and on immigration, and he should invigorate the administration's advocacy.
" Jim Rutenberg, New York Times, April 26 Mr. Bush, while praising Mr. Snow's long experience in print, radio and television, noted that "he's not afraid of expressing his own opinions" and that "he sometimes disagreed with me." He said when he asked Mr. Snow about those critical remarks, he replied, "You should have heard what I said about the other guy."
But he made it clear that Mr. Snow is no longer an independent agent. "My job is to make decisions," the president said. "And his job is to help explain those decisions to the press corps and the American people."…
Unlike the soft-spoken current press secretary, Scott McClellan, who announced his resignation last week, Mr. Snow is something of a showman, having earned his living in a world in which success hinges upon being provocative.
Mr. Snow has written recent columns critical of Mr. Bush, arguing that his White House had lost its verve and direction in his second term….
In the past week, Mr. Snow has also made it clear that he was negotiating for as much access as possible before taking the job. He said in an interview on the Fox News Channel that he was interested in the position because he would be part of "an inner White House circle."
Though White House officials have consistently said that Mr. McClellan has had all the access he wanted, the perception remained among members of both parties that he did not. Either way, the senior administration official who spoke for this article said Mr. Snow would have "walk-in privileges" and an important role in "strategic thinking."
3. A New Immigration Compromise? The best part of President Bush's domestic agenda is his advocacy of a liberalized immigration policy. He has now met with some key Senate leaders in an attempt to push through a relatively decent compromise that would allow long-time illegal immigrants to become citizens—after spending years jumping through INS hoops. There is little likelihood, however, that this can be reconciled with the "berserk" anti-immigration bill passed by the House.
" Stephen Dinan, Washington Times, April 26 President Bush and a group of senators yesterday reached general agreement on an immigration bill that includes a pathway to citizenship for many illegal aliens….
Mr. Bush in brief remarks to the press said there was agreement to get "a bill that does not grant automatic amnesty to people, but a bill that says, somebody who is working here on a legal basis has the right to get in line to become a citizen."…
"There was a pretty good consensus that what we have put into the Hagel-Martinez proposal here is the right way to go," said Sen. Mel Martinez, Florida Republican. "I think he was very clear [on] pathway to citizenship, so long as it goes to the back of the line, and he even opened the door here for something we've haggled back and forth on, that you can shrink the time for people to become citizens by simply enlarging the number of green cards."
And Sen. Sam Brownback, Kansas Republican, said Mr. Bush "endorsed the concept of an earned citizenship."…
Even as Mr. Bush is moving in that direction, the House majority leader yesterday rejected it.
4. The Imprisoned Lightning One of the things that makes me really angry about the immigration debate is the way in which immigrants, especially Mexican immigrants, are routinely slandered as criminals and welfare parasites, and as only being capable of brute physical labor.
There is no shame, of course, in menial labor; productive work is a virtue, whatever the level of one's abilities. But immigrants always bring more than just brawn. They bring minds whose imprisoned potential is waiting to be liberated in a free society.
At about this time last year, I linked to one example, a remarkable story about four teenaged Mexican immigrants from Arizona who won a nationwide robotics contest, beating teams from top American universities.
Below is a very similar story about a Senagalese immigrant who is also part of a winning team in a robotics competition. But the INS is now seeking to deport him. This young man seems to be not only bright, but motivated and resourceful. Why on earth would we want to reject this kind of mind from our country?
" Nina Bernstein, New York Times, April 26 A small, troubled high school in East Harlem seemed an unlikely place to find students for a nationwide robot-building contest, but when a neighborhood after-school program started a team last winter, 19 students signed up. One was Amadou Ly, a senior who had been fending for himself since he was 14.
The project had only one computer and no real work space. Engineering advice came from an elevator mechanic and a machinist's son without a college degree. But in an upset that astonished its sponsors, the rookie team from East Harlem won the regional competition last month, beating rivals from elite schools like Stuyvesant in Manhattan and the Bronx High School of Science for a chance to compete in the national robotics finals in Atlanta that begins tomorrow.
Yet for Amadou, who helps operate the robot the team built, success has come at a price. As the group prepared for the flight to Atlanta today, he was forced to reveal his secret: he is an illegal immigrant from Senegal, with no ID to allow him to board a plane. Left here long ago by his mother, he has no way to attend the college that has accepted him, and only a slim chance to win his two-year court battle against deportation.
In the end, his fate could hinge on immigration legislation now being debated in Congress. Several Senate bills include a pathway for successful high school graduates to earn legal status. But a measure passed by the House of Representatives would make his presence in the United States a felony, and both House and Senate bills would curtail the judicial review that allows exceptions to deportation….
"He's been a hard-working and diligent student with mathematical ability and a scientific mind," said Rhonda Creed-Harry, a math teacher at Central Park East.
5. America's Fifth Column The primary reason we face continued setbacks and slowdowns in the War on Terrorism is not the errors of those who want to fight the war, but rather the active opposition to American interests from a significant portion of America's intellectuals. This includes virtually every humanities professor in academia, and also, to a lesser degree, a large portion of the press corps.
How else do you explain the mainstream media's glee at revealing America's war secrets, its eagerness to feed and amplify enemy propaganda campaigns (such as the Abu Ghraib hysteria), and its bizarre detachment from "George Bush's war"—as if they have no stake in America's success or failure. As it is, they do have a stake: when America succeeds, it will expose their failure to objectively cover the news.
Max Boot, Los Angeles Times, April 26 On June 7, 1942, shortly after the Battle of Midway, the Chicago Tribune carried a scoop: "Navy Had Word of Jap Plan to Strike at Sea." The story, written by a correspondent who had seen intelligence reports left in an officer's cabin, reported that the US knew in advance the composition of the Japanese fleet. It didn't say where this information came from, but senior officers privy to the US success in breaking Japanese codes were apoplectic at this security breach. The Justice Department convened a grand jury to consider whether to charge the Tribune and its flamboyant owner, editor and publisher, Col. Robert McCormick, with a violation of the Espionage Act of 1917.
No charges were brought, in part because military officials were unwilling to share classified information about intelligence gathering. But the Chicago Tribune was reviled by other journalists for betraying national security, and no other publication followed up its revelation.
1st Amendment hero, and his newspaper would have been showered with accolades. That, at least, is the only conclusion one can draw from this year's Pulitzer Prizes….
The Washington Post's Dana Priest won a prize for revealing the existence of secret CIA-operated prisons in Eastern Europe, and the New York Times' James Risen and Eric Lichtblau won for revealing the existence of a secret program to intercept communications between terrorists abroad and their domestic contacts….
Having written for major newspapers for years, I have never found any Al Qaeda moles in the newsroom. What I have found is that journalists feel more bound by their duty to their profession than to their country and that their highest professional calling, as they see it, is to preserve a halo of "objectivity" by not choosing sides in any controversy.
No one working for the mainstream media today would refer, as Ernie Pyle did during World War II, to "our soldiers," "our offensive," "our predicament." Today it's "American soldiers," "the military offensive" and (most damning of all) "the president's predicament"—as if this were Bush's war, not ours.
6. The Egyptian Chasm With all of the pabulum being spread about "moderate Muslims" and Islam as a "religion of peace," many people still don't grasp just how deep a chasm separates the Western mindset from the mindset of Islam. The recent bombings in Egypt are a reminder, and the article below spells out their meaning.
Particularly striking is its description of the difference between Western and Muslim attitudes toward the monuments of ancient Egypt. The scientific, humanist mindset of the West views them as archaeological treasures to be studied. The blindly fanatical mindset of the Muslim world views them as worthless remnants left by pre-Muslim infidels.
"Bloody Monday," Robert Spencer, Frontpage Magazine, April 25 Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and his ilk target tourist spots for the same reason they targeted the World Trade Center: to harm their enemy economically. Tourism accounts, directly and indirectly, for over ten percent of Egypt's Gross Domestic Product; destabilizing the tourist industry could cripple the Egyptian economy as a whole and possibly even topple the government….
But the enemy of these groups is not just Hosni Mubarak. These attacks allow the mujahedin abundant opportunity to express their hatred for infidels…. In choosing tourist sites as particular foci of their attacks, the jihadists are striking a blow for the pure Egypt they envision: one that is not trodden down by infidel tourists or dependent upon infidel money. To the dour ideologues who perpetrated the attacks in Dahab Monday, resorts such as Dahab represent the worst of infidel decadence: immodest clothing, sport, revelry…. By making tourists too afraid to come to Egypt, the mujahedin hope to cleanse the land of these evils.
The attacks at the sites of ancient ruins—such as the Luxor attacks of 1997 and the shooting at the Pyramids in 1996—most likely also have another motivation. Just this month the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Ali Gomaa, issued a fatwa declaring statues un-Islamic…. To the pious killers who commit terror attacks near the artifacts of Egypt’s pre-Islamic past—pyramids, sarcophagi, temples—these treasures are thus all just so much trash: monuments of jahiliyyah, the pre-Islamic period of ignorance.
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