• WSJ Editorial, March 26: "International Law, and Domestic Order".  So much for America being judged and controlled by foreign courts.
• WSJ Commentary, March 26: "Islam and Free Speech".  So much for America and the Western world giving the uncivilized interpretations of Islam by some Muslims a free pass. 
• NYTimes Editorial, March 28: "Medicare's Financial Woes".  The endless drumbeat about Health Care constantly talks about "costs", never about "demand".  There will be no solution, just a disintegration of our current system, if demand is not discussed and dealt with. 
• WSJ Editorial, March 12: "The Pentagon vs Petraeus".  More proof that our military leaders at home, and their civilian bosses, have been doing a mediocre job regarding the needs of the heroes in the field and of our citizens. 
• WSJ Commentry, March 24: "The Democrats 'Super Disaster".  That's what comes from cynical Democratic leaders trying to game the system by returning to the smoke-filled room approach to politics. 
• WSJ Editorial, March 24: "Saddam's Terror Links".  Don't exkpect to read about findings like this in the NYTimes and the rest of the Bush-hating liberal press.  More's the pity. 
• WSJ Commentary, March 18: "The Obama Bargain".  Here is much less than meets the eye.  But will Americans notice?
• Finally, three articles about Senator John McCain: 1) WSJ Commentary, March 25: "The No-Name Generation";  2) NYTimes, March 28: "Tested Over Time"; 3)
• The Day (www.theday.com), March 28: "Endless Lies About McCain's 'Endless War'".

• I continue to be astounded by the ARROGANCE of the Democratic Party leadership.  First they dis-enfranchise the voters of Michigan and Florida.  Now they are trying to dis-enfranchise all those who voted for Hillary during these last interminable months...by pushing her to drop out of the race in favor of Obama.  These people are truly ARTICULATE, ARROGANT, AND ASININE. 
• The Economy...and the drum beats on.  Obama and Hillary are riding on the Wall Street bandwagon promoting further bailout of all those greedy, stupid and fraudulent people...including those on Main Street.  McCain once again is riding the "Straight Talk Express". 
• Iraq and the Middle East.  The Democrats continue their one-note song.  Meanwhile, check out my views posted in this section last week...and check out President Bush's recent analysis, which follows.  GS
  

DAYTON, Ohio - President Bush said Thursday that congressional critics have bullied Iraq's leaders and ignored political progress achieved at the cost of U.S. lives.

He also praised Iraq's prime minister for making what Bush said was a decisive move to take on Shiite militias despite violent resistance and mounting protests.

Bush's latest defense of the war took aim at a principal frustration in Democratic-run Congress that Iraq's politicians have squandered time while U.S. troops are dying.

"Some members of Congress decided the best way to encourage progress in Baghdad was to criticize and threaten Iraq's leaders while they're trying to work out their differences," Bush told a military audience at the cavernous U.S. Air Force museum.

"But hectoring was not what the Iraqi leaders needed," Bush said. "What they needed was security and that is what the `surge' has provided."

That was a reference to the 30,000-troop reinforcement Bush ordered to Iraq last year. The step was intended to halt violence so Iraq's leaders could start managing their own affairs.

Bush spoke as Iraqi security forces clashed with Shiite militias in Basra, Iraq's southern oil hub. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pledged to fight "until the end" against militias tied to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, despite fierce resistance.

"Prime Minister Maliki's bold decision — and it was a bold decision — to go after the illegal groups in Basra shows his leadership," Bush said. The United States sees al-Maliki's action as a turning point in showing that Iraq is taking on more responsibility.

"There's a strong commitment by the central government of Iraq to say that no one is above the law," Bush said, even as he warned of more violence as the operation unfolded.

The slow pace of political reconciliation among Iraq's sectarian groups and the plodding passage of basic laws have undermined public support in the U.S. for the war.

"The president asserts that real progress has been made in Iraq. But if that were truly the case, our troops would be coming home soon," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Bush said Iraq has made remarkable, albeit unglamorous, progress in recent months.

He cited laws to set up provincial elections in October, put a budget in place, allow thousands of former members of Saddam Hussein's ruling Baath party to return to government jobs, and grant limited amnesty to prisoners held in Iraqi custody.

More broadly, Bush gave a portrait of a country enjoying a rebound in civic and cultural life. Democratic leaders in Congress say Bush is painting a far too rosy picture.

Even some of Bush's military leaders have expressed frustration about the pace of political stability, which is what could help more U.S. troops get home.

Some Democratic lawmakers say pulling troops home will give Iraq's leaders incentive to act and free up a strained military to take on other battles.

Bush called that senseless. He said America has no more strategic interest than Iraq, which he called the "convergence point for the twin threats of al-Qaida and Iran."

Reid said Bush is poised to keep as many troops in Iraq by year's end as there were before last year's increase. "Our troops have done their job; it is time for the Iraqi politicians and this administration to do theirs," Reid said.

The president described a rising economy in Iraq, but did not ignore lasting problems.

Iraq struggles with infrastructure, unemployment and corruption. "The Iraqis recognize these shortcomings. They understand what they have to do," Bush said.

The focus on political and economic life is widely overshadowed in the U.S. by a focus on the death toll, which reached 4,000 members of the military last week.

In early April, Bush is expected to endorse a temporary halt in the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, has warned against shrinking the American force so rapidly that the gains in security will be compromised.

Bush again signaled his intentions, claiming dire consequences of a U.S. retreat.

While in Dayton, Bush met privately for two hours with 23 families of troops killed in action. The president also made time to help out Republican candidates.

In Ohio, Bush raised money for the state GOP party, which refused to release financial details about his fundraiser. Later, in Sewickley, Pa., Bush was to raise about $500,000 for the state's Republican Party at a fundraiser of more than 200 people.

• Today, the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, is a fitting time to review my views on that war.  A summary appears in this section, March 15,16, 2008.  All the details, as they unfolded during the last five years, can be found in my almost daily postings in this section since a few days before the invasion. 
• This also seems to be a good day to review the candidacy of Barack Obama, especially following his important speech given yesterday on Race in America.  At the outset, let me say that Obama has either grown in this effort...or that he is finally willing to step down from his pulpit and face facts.  Thus, the "Elmer Gantry" comparison may be no longer apt.  But let's look at the facts.  He has made much of having voted against going to war in Iraq five years ago today.  What were his reasons? Did he not believe that this country was in danger from terrorists nationally and internationally? Did he believe...without stated proof... that our leaders at the highest level were lying to the American people?  Did he believe that America had to give the U.N. and our duplicitous "allies" like the French (who had been double-dealing with Hussein for ten years) a veto over our actions in our own self-defense?  What was it?  He has never explained it to my knowledge...and that goes directly to his judgment as applicable to our Commander-in-Chief.  And then there is his decades-long association with a person - his Pastor and friend - who has clearly been vitriolic in his opposition to America itself.  To try to separate his Faith from his Politics would be a good explanation...except for the fact that Black Faith and Politics have been tightly intertwined since the 1960's (IRS take note!).  He tried to explain all of that in what was a very good speech yesterday, except for the fact that is was an anachronism...comments that would have been very appropriate in the late 60's and even 70's - but not since then, given the great strides that both Blacks and Whites have made on the Race front.  Within the entire speech, he acknowledges that in only one sentence: "It's that he (the Pastor) spoke as if our society was static, as if no progress had been made."  And there was little attention paid to the real and persisting problems of those Blacks who have not seen the progress: three or more Welfare Generations, thanks to the misguided attention of liberals; poor public schools, thanks to the unbroken connection between teachers' unions, the Democratic Party, and the vast majority of Black voters; the break-down of Black families, as predicted by the New York Senator in the late 1960's; the illicit drug industry, embraced by too many Blacks and others as a livelihood; and Black "leaders" during the last decades who have practised their own brand of racism and victimization instead of demanding personal responsibility and demanding progress through education - and choice in education.  Racism in America has been a deep but healing wound.  It is not helped by scratching off the scab with dated complaints.  We all hope that this new wound will heal again, long before the November elections.  We all deserve that, including Barack Obama.

• The Idiot Spitzer story puts a spotlight again on history's oldest profession.  But the Swedes may be writing a new and effective chapter.  Swedish law makes buying sex illegal, and not selling sex. This approach prosecutes the client, but considers the prostitute a victim.  What a great concept!
• President Bush is right on the economy, and the Democrats are crying "Fire!" in a crowded theater.  Many economists are concerned that too much "cure" could make the patient much worse.  See the article by Gretchen Morgenson in the NYTimes Sunday March 16, entitled "Rescue Me: A Fed Bailout Crosses A Line" (pBu1). 
• Health Care Costs...and Ethics should have been the focus of a story in the same edition of the NYTimes (pA1), but were not.  The article, regarding an extremely expensive medicine used for Gaucher's Disease, concerns itself with dosage.  But it never gets to the question of prioritization of available treatments...rationing...based upon the best judgment of society at large regarding what it wishes to afford, and for what.  And therein lies the rub in the whole debate: all about health care costs, and noting about health care demand, legitimate demand based upon a national decision about priorities.  Only when that takes place will we avoid the slow disintegration of a very good health care system.
• "Super-Delegates" are all the rage now.  We are being told (especially by supporters of Barack Obama), that they should vote to reflect "the will of the people".  But which people?  The very small percentage of the entire electorate who went to caucus or to vote in primaries, or the vast majority who didn't.  And what about the "will of the people" who elected or appointed these "Super-Delegates"?  Isn't that the main reason why they are "Super"?  And after hopefully being elected for a variety of laudable attributes, are they expected to guide their actions merely by the Clintonesque moistened-finger-in-the-wind approach, rather than by using their best judgment?  Let's see how this turns out.  In any case, it is making for great theater...for the Republicans at least.

• today is the 20th anniversary of the destruction by poison gas of the entire population of one Kurdish town by Saddam Hussein, on his way to killing 180,000 Kurds in yet another genocide;
• Iraqi "Courts" had been systematically convicting and executing Shia...just because they were Shia;
• with the help of the U.N. criminals, Hussein was starving his people while stealing billions from the "Oil For Food" program;
• in the late 1990's, then President Clinton and the American Congress went on record with the overthrow of Hussein's regime in Iraq as American policy;
• several times during the 1990's, American interests were hit by terrorists, including the first attack on the World Trade Towers;
• we knew that Hussein had WMD's in the 1990's...and we had no credible evidence that he had destroyed, could or would destroy all of them, including the suspect report by his son-in-law to Jordanian authorities;
• al Qaida had been active for over a decade throughout the Middle and Far East, with the well-known support of several Arab nations...and it had many times expressed its plans for the U.S.;
• and then came 9/11/01. 
• the intelligence we and our allies obtained during the next two years may or may not have been accurate...but it was credible at the time to us and to our allies, and a mistake on our part could have been disastrous to this country;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Financial regulators pledged on Thursday to toughen rules for mortgage brokers, lenders and credit agencies in a bid to ease a credit crunch and to try to restore investor confidence in markets.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, unveiling a 20-page set of recommendations from the top-level President's Working Group, blamed a "dramatic weakening" of underwriting standards for lower-quality home loans for helping trigger turmoil in credit markets that raged on unabated as he spoke.

Stock prices tumbled on rising fears of U.S. recession, gold prices soared and the dollar's value plumbed fresh record lows as investors shunned it in favor of the euro and other stronger currencies.

Paulson, a Wall Street veteran before taking over the Treasury in mid-2006, said "financial innovation" -- like the practice of slicing up so-called subprime mortgages and using them as collateral for securities sold around the world -- had made the situation worse by introducing a baffling level of complexity.

In a speech at the National Press Club, Paulson appealed to banks and other lenders not to stop issuing loans and implied they should cut back on dividends paid to shareholders if necessary to raise capital.

"We are encouraging financial institutions to continue to strengthen balance sheets by raising capital and revisiting dividend policies; we need those institutions to continue to lend and facilitate economic growth," he said.

Among recommendations from a top-level Presidential Working Group that he heads, Paulson said he wanted "strong nationwide licensing standards" for mortgage brokers as part of an effort to ward off future housing crises and reassure investors.

Paulson said the focus of the Presidential Working Group's work since the current bout of market turmoil began last summer was to reduce the chance of repeating past mistakes.

"Regulation needs to catch up with innovation and help restore investor confidence but not go so far as to create new problems, make our markets less efficient or cut off credit to those who need it," Paulson said.

The working group includes the heads of the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as well as the Treasury. It issued recommendations that touch nearly every corner of the credit market, from Wall Street firms to credit rating agencies and regulators.

In a sign of the severity of the credit crunch stemming from U.S. subprime market woes, a European affiliate of a high-profile U.S. buyout firm revealed on Thursday that it has defaulted on $16.6 billion of debt and faced having its remaining collateral seized.

Carlyle Capital Corp (CARC.AS), a fund listed in Amsterdam, said in New York late on Wednesday that talks with lenders had soured after a drop in the value of its mortgage investments, which it said would result in new margin calls on top of existing ones, implying its survival was at stake.

Paulson said state and local regulators need to toughen oversight of all mortgage originators. Sloppy lending practices including loans made to homeowners with no requirement of proof of income, are widely blamed for a soaring tide of foreclosures, especially among subprime mortgages held by people with the shakiest personal credit.

Paulson said credit rating agencies need to make sure that securitized credit issuers -- like those who issue mortgage-backed securities -- "perform robust due diligence of originators of assets that are securitized or used as collateral for structured credit products."

Paulson said the working group was now ready to push for its recommendations to be put in place and vowed that it will "stay on top of this" while trying not to add to existing stress in markets.

"We are going to be mindful when we implement it to not create a burden," Paulson told the Wall Street Journal in an interview earlier. "But we think it's very appropriate to lay out some of the causes and some of the steps that need to be taken ... to minimize the likelihood of this happening again."

The report said various government bodies had worked on the recommendations for more seven months and that Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke had "huddled" for half a day early this month to review the details.

(Additional reporting by David Lawder and Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

• Following the most recent posting relating to former Governor Spitzer, we were treated - on the NBC Today show and on at least one other prime news outlet - to a special report on "high-priced call girls", complete with virtual bedroom scenes.  Was this necessary?  "Have you no shame?"  Shortly thereafter, we learned in another story that "one quarter of girls and young women have STD"...the percentage nearing 50% among Black girls.  All of this was "reported" in the same value-neutral tone that has disoriented the last two generations in America. 
• And at the same time we have more "new sins" announced by the Vatican.  Do we need any more sins to be ignored than the original Cardinal Sins: Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth? 
• The drunkards on Wall Street and on Main Street have been served another bottle of "Sneaky Pete"; and they have responded predictably.  Meanwhile, we the tax-payers have just bought up a lot of worthless paper, increased the national debt and diminished this country's "full faith and credit".  One honest reflection of this: the head of the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority has warned Governor Rell and the Democratic Legislature that a similar action being pushed in this State is likely to reduce the bond rating of the State.  (See The Day, March 12, pA1).  Can't our "leaders" address any problems honestly and realistically?
• A recurring and unsolved problem is that of the treatment of "whistleblowers" at all levels.  Persons at all levels of our society who have the courage and the facts to expose corruption and illegality should be accorded the thanks and protection of the rest of us...rather than the enmity and coercion that is standard fare.  A recent example of this comes out of the Ct. State Police organization.  Another corrosive message. 
• Israel cannot stand having Right on its side for very long.  For decades, this nation divided upon itself has systematically worsened its chances for a lasting peace through its expanding  settlements in disputed territories.  It did the same thing in the last week.  Perhaps the Olmert government, allowed to govern only through the participation of the largest right-wing minority party, had no choice.  But the Israeli people continue to have a choice.  With these continuing actions, at the polling station and in the field...no victimhood here.
  

Lt. Gov. David Paterson will replace him on Monday, Spitzer said.

"I am resigning from the office of governor. At Lt. Gov. Paterson's request, the resignation will be effective Monday, March 17," Spitzer announced.

Spitzer, a Democrat, had faced intense pressure to resign and impeachment threats from Republicans since the New York Times reported on Monday that he was caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a prostitute.

Spitzer, 48 and married with three children, is a former New York state chief prosecutor who rose to prominence by investigating financial crime with a vigor that earned him the nickname Sheriff of Wall Street.

He also broke up prostitution rings as attorney general.

Spitzer had apologized to his family and the public on Monday for what he called a "private matter," but gave no details of what he was apologizing for and then shuttered himself in his New York City apartment for two days.

Some 70 percent of New York voters wanted Spitzer to quit, according to a WNBC/Marist poll conducted on Tuesday.

Spitzer, who attracted wide publicity but also resentment on Wall Street with his pursuit of financial crimes while he was the state's attorney general, became governor with nearly 70 percent of the vote in November 2006 on pledges to clean up state politics.

The Times, citing unnamed law enforcement officials, reported on Monday that Spitzer was the man identified as "Client 9" in a federal affidavit revealing details from an investigation into a prostitution ring.

Client 9 arranged to meet with "Kristen," a prostitute who charged $1,000 an hour, on February 13 in a Washington hotel and paid her $4,300, the court document said.

The complaint unveiled last week charged four people with running a prostitution ring dubbed The Emperors Club.

It was not known if Spitzer would face any charges stemming from the case.

• In today's NYTimes we read about President Bush's "legacy": his successful efforts to strengthen the powers of the Presidency and of the Executive Branch of government in general.  This has been all to the good, given these insecure times...and given the over-reaching that we saw by the Legislative Branch in the later 1970's in the wake of Watergate/Nixon.  Add to that the likes of legislative leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  I'm comfortable with that. 
• Meanwhile, Douglas Feith is about to publish another "inside story" regarding events at the highest levels over the last 6 tumultuous years.  All I had to read was that he "has nothing but admiration for Donald Rumsfeld".  FUGGEDABOUDET.
  

• "Cops and Doctors", Feb. 27, pA17.
• "Is McCain Too Old?, Feb 27, pA16.
• "Let Houses Find A Bottom", Feb. 17, pA16.
• "Trade Tirade", Feb. 29, pA16.

• Hillary wins Texas and Ohio.  Good.  Are people starting to walk out of the fiery sermons of Elmer Gantry?
• Popular vote delegates and "super-delegates" in the Democratic Party.  The party created its own bed of nails with its nomination rules, including pro-rata designation of delegates instead of "winner takes all".  And they worsened the situation through their arrogant decisions regarding Michegan and Florida.  No sympathy there. 
• Prediction: it's Hillary as the Democratic candidate, when the smoke clears...in June or July. 
• Prediction: if Hillary chooses Obama as her running mate,  McCain wins handily.  If Hillary chooses anyone else, McCain wins in a nail-biter. 
• McCain, the nominee of the Republicans.  Will the ultra-conservatives and their spokesmen like Rush Limbaugh get the message?  They are an important part of the Republican Party, especially with their rock-solid opposition to abortion.  But they are a part of the whole Republican Party.  They might serve their penance for their vitriol against John McCain by becoming real about the entire issue of Immigration.  Do they want to win in November...or do they want to pout and lose? 
• A vital issue for this election, and for any election in a true democracy, is fairness, accuracy and the avoidance of fraud.  Procedurally, we must be able to have total reliance on the mechanics of the voting process...the machines, etc.  Substantively, we must have reliable mechanisms for identifying eligible voters...something that we do not have now.  Who is addressing this, NOW?