Cheney's Speech

The text here.

Obama and Cheney

The duel is on.

Nancy Pelosi, Liar

And she has provoked the CIA to boot. Charles Krauthammer on Fox's Special Report today on the Speaker's unbelievable claims on what she knew and when she knew it:

"Her news conference today was an utter disaster. She was nervous, she was shifty, her syntax was incomprehensible, and there were times that she had to refer to her original statement because she couldn't remember what her current truth was. It reminds me of a line in a Graham Greene novel, in which a spy says I prefer to tell the truth, it's easier to memorize. Well she didn't have it memorized. You have a sense that if you had attached a lie detector to her in that newser it would have short circuited. Her problem was this: She was internally contradictory, with one point within thirty seconds, she contradicted her own statement on what she had heard and done from her staffer in February '03. She was contradicted by the evidence of others like Porter Goss. Her charge of the CIA lying to her is utterly implausible. Why would it lie to her and tell all the others the truth? It makes no sense at all. And it was refuted by the black and white Obama CIA memo...not a memo out of the prince of darkness Bush and Cheney, but Obama's CIA...she is now at war with the CIA, which through selective leaking can destroy her, and I suspect they will."

Obama and The Rule of Law

WSJ:

The Obama administration's behavior in the Chrysler bankruptcy is a profound challenge to the rule of law. Secured creditors -- entitled to first priority payment under the "absolute priority rule" -- have been browbeaten by an American president into accepting only 30 cents on the dollar of their claims. Meanwhile, the United Auto Workers union, holding junior creditor claims, will get about 50 cents on the dollar....

By stepping over the bright line between the rule of law and the arbitrary behavior of men, President Obama may have created a thousand new failing businesses. That is, businesses that might have received financing before but that now will not, since lenders face the potential of future government confiscation. In other words, Mr. Obama may have helped save the jobs of thousands of union workers whose dues, in part, engineered his election. But what about the untold number of job losses in the future caused by trampling the sanctity of contracts today?

ObamaCare and Your Physician

Scott Gottlieb:

The 60% of doctors who are self-employed will be hardest hit. That includes specialists, such as dermatologists and surgeons, who see a lot of private patients. But it also includes tens of thousands of primary-care doctors, the very physicians the Obama administration says need the most help.

Doctors will consolidate into larger practices to spread overhead costs, and they'll cram more patients into tight schedules to make up in volume what's lost in margin. Visits will be shortened and new appointments harder to secure. It already takes on average 18 days to get an initial appointment with an internist, according to the American Medical Association, and as many as 30 days for specialists like obstetricians and neurologists.

Right or wrong, more doctors will close their practices to new patients, especially patients carrying lower paying insurance such as Medicaid. Some doctors will opt out of the system entirely, going "cash only." If too many doctors take this route the government could step in -- as in Canada, for example -- to effectively outlaw private-only medical practice.

The New Lie Detector

It's the amount of detail, or lack of it, that may help police officers in some instances tell if a person is lying to them.

Olbermann Critical of Sykes

Now Wanda, when even Keith Olbermann says that you've gone over the line, you really ought to step back, take a deep breath, and take measure of yourself.

Specter Not Feeling The Love

All is not as Arlen Specter had hoped for in terms of his relationship with Pennsylvania Democrats.

Savage

Excluded from the UK as a distraction? Maybe so:

To exclude someone from entering this country is a serious act of state. We have not been told how the decision was taken. We do not know which criteria were applied.

All we can say for certain is that there was no attempt to consult our elected representatives in the House of Commons, engrossed as they now are in defending their expenses, and it looks very much as though the list of banned persons was rushed out to cover up the hoo-ha over the Home Secretary's taxpayer-funded bath plug.

Michael Savage has said ignorant and unpleasant things about gay people, autism and Muslims. But it is far from clear that he would be in breach of any law, even in this country. The world is full of loudmouth media berks with views that we would all like to keep to themselves, but we can't ban them all from entering Britain.

Good For The Pope

Benedict walked out on a hostile, and not so well behaved, Islamic judge in Jerusalem.

Obama Laughs At Limbaugh "Kidneys Fail" Joke

That's just fine. A new era? Moving beyond the politics of the past? Why did Mr. Obama laugh at a disgusting joke about Rush Limbaugh's kidney's failing, and what was he thinking in doing so?

John over at Powerline notes: "I don't want to be too hard on Obama, but, knowing how mean-spirited many of his fellow liberals are, he should have been prepared for this sort of incident and avoided joining in the "fun" of wishing a political opponent dead."

Health Care Rationing

Doctors against the Obama health care rationing plan email into Hugh Hewitt.

Savage

Michael Savage is threatening to sue the British Home Secreatary, Jacqui Smith, unless she apologizes for placing him on a list of individuals who are barred from entering the UK because of fomenting "extremism or hate." Savage will also call for a boycott of the UK by his listeners if the "lunatic" fails to apologize.

Michael Steele

The RNC chair now has a leash around him, but it will not likely be enough to assuage some deep concerns about his performance and doubts about his future in the position.

Arlen Specter

Already causing headaches for Democrats by supporting Norm Coleman against Al Franken. Heh.

Savage Banned From The UK

Talk radio host Michael Savage has been banned from entering the United Kingdom due to his "extreme" views. Whether you like Savage or not, this seems like an unwise move on the part of the Brits, to say the least.

Standing Tall Again

David Gergen:

Early on in our economic crisis, there was a palpable sense that people just wanted to get back to "normal"; now the realization is sinking in that we are not returning there. That is desirable in some ways: Who wants to restore a world of excess leverage, reckless risk taking, and indulgent lifestyles? But for most Americans it will be hard to accept that old jobs aren't coming back, that it could be years before they have rebuilt their savings, and that their country and their currency will probably play a diminished role in the global arena.

A bit characteristically pessimistic, and the "we are not returning there" is a typical Gergen overstatement, but he goes on to correctly prescribe what corporate leaders must do to rebuild public confidence:

Frankly acknowledge their role in this mess. Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic and a bestselling author, wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "The current crisis was not caused by subprime mortgages, credit default swaps, or failed economic policies. The root cause is failed leadership." Until AIG CEOs Hank Greenberg and Martin Sullivan as well as others accept their responsibility, George argues, the country will be in no mood to forgive and forget.

Get back to fundamentals. For those who had tickets, the past few years have been a grand party, but as business scholar Warren Bennis believes, they have left behind wreckage reminiscent of The Great Gatsby. Americans are now longing for leaders who are reliable - in word, product, and balance sheet. They are tired of companies playing short-term, quarterly games at the expense of long-term achievement. They want pay tied to performance. They see little difference between highfalutin derivatives and highfliers like Bernie Madoff. And most of all, they want employers who truly care about them and their families.

Work for, not against, social reforms. Corporate leaders can and should fight for legitimate core interests, but they have resisted too long almost every effort to overhaul broken systems. Fortunately we are now seeing encouraging signs of change, with companies like Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) working constructively for health-care reform and Duke Energy (DUK, Fortune 500), along with GE (GE, Fortune 500), working to address global warming. More CEOs need to sign up as reformers.

Embrace the concept of corporate management becoming a true profession. Two professors at the Harvard Business School, Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria, are advancing an idea envisioned in the early days of industrial growth - that management should become a true profession like law or medicine, with a code of conduct, commitment to social responsibility, and professional boards of enforcement. Their efforts represent the beginnings of what must become a longer, deeper conversation about a new social compact between corporations and society. Our worst business leaders did indeed play a role in creating this mess. Now it is apparent that our best business leaders - and there are many out there - must step up and forge a path forward.