Last Chance

Assumption
The State Department on Monday reassigned Daniel Fried, the special envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and will not replace him, according to an internal personnel announcement. Mr. Fried’s office is being closed, and his former responsibilities will be “assumed” by the office of the department’s legal adviser, the notice said. (NYT, 1/28/2013)

The vindication of George Bush and Dick Cheney is now complete, but because journalism is dead, you will not hear that sentiment expressed. President Obama could not be reached for comment on the collapse of his signature issue of the 2008 campaign.


Comprendo
As Breitbart News noted yesterday, Democrats have long pushed for “comprehensive” immigration reform, but have also blocked reform when passage was possible, as in 2005-7, since retaining the issue as a grievance motivates Hispanic voters and immigrant-oriented interest groups.

By rejecting the citizenship-for-security compromise, the president may hope to focus media criticism on Republicans in Congress, who largely oppose a new amnesty for illegal immigrants. If the past is any indication, Obama will use that opposition to label Republicans as racist. (Breitbart.com, 1/29/2013)

Yet neither Mr. Obama nor his White House have reached out to Mr. Rubio, and many Democrats want to use the immigration issue to drive turnout in election after election. Their goal is to have a legislative dance and then blame Republicans for killing reform sometime in 2014. (WSJ, 1/28/2013)

Interesting take on immigration from two sources. Certainly it works to Obama's advantage to batter Republicans over immigration. However, we surmise that secret promises were made to Hispanic leaders last year after they went public and criticized Obama for failing to act. No doubt the President used the same line he used with the Russians: "After the election I will have more flexibility." So even though Obama would probably like to use immigration as a wedge issue until the 2014 mid-term elections, given a bi-partisan Senate proposal it will be difficult for him not to act.


Need To No
After highly classified details of a U.S. cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear program were made public, President Obama went to the White House press room to denounce those who suggested the leaks were coming from his top national security aides. “The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive [and] it is wrong,” the president declared.

Well, the Federal Bureau of Investigation may disagree. The Post broke the news Sunday that the FBI has launched an “aggressive” investigation into “current and former senior officials suspected of involvement” in the leak that Obama personally ordered cyberattacks on the Iranian nuclear program using a computer virus called Stuxnet. The New York Times story which first revealed the details of the cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear program cited as sources “members of the President’s national security team who were in the [Situation Room]” and even quoted the president asking during a top secret meeting: “Should we shut this thing down?” Only Obama’s most trusted national security advisers would have been present when he uttered those words. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 1/28/2013)

Buried by the Liberal media (like all Obama scandals) before the election, it is great to see this one getting some air.  Maybe Piers Morgan will do a segment on it. Just kidding! 


Hellenic Haze
Like most in Europe, the Greek state is the primary deliverer of medical care through a national health service, and—on paper, at least—it does a great job. The World Health Organization puts Greece in 14th place in its global rankings, though per capita health spending is relatively low. By contrast, the U.S., which spends the most per capita, comes in 38th place in terms of overall quality, behind such health-care paragons as Morocco and Dominica.

From such statistics was the case for ObamaCare made. But Mr. Tsipras takes a dimmer view of health delivery in his native land. "Why in a public hospital, in order to have an operation, do [patients] have to slip [doctors] an envelope with a certain amount of money?" he asks. Why indeed? I ask back. "Because the state gives low wages to doctors thinking it's completely natural for them to add to their salary" by accepting those cash-stuffed envelopes. (Bret Stephens, WSJ, 1/28/2013)

Liberal public policy is driven by nonsense "polls" that purport to show the U.S. is behind Botswana in education, behind Somalia in health care, behind North Korea in wages, etc. And so the cry goes out: "We must spend more on .....whatever." "Whatever" defined as any issue that drives more public spending to Democrat constituencies and returns more union dues to Democrats.

And now we also find out direct from a reliable source that at least some of the great health care available outside of the U.S. is greased by kickbacks.