HALF-FULL REPORT 09/23/11

Question of the week:  How do we reconcile Perry’s incredible President Zero ad – the most powerful political ad of modern times –

with his botched debate performances, which keep getting worse, as we saw last night?  Isn’t he supposed to be a kick-em-in-the-groin take-no-prisoners Texas Aggie?  And what’s up with the you-have-no-heart schmaltz if you deny in-state tuition to illegals? 

The Forum is the place to discuss this.  The HFR just cuts to the chase.  No matter who says what in these increasingly tiresome debates, this race is between Perry and Romney.  No one else on that stage last night really matters.  In the end, one of these two guys is going to come out on top in the Pub primaries.  Our choice is between them, and we have to choose.  (But see below.)

The GOP elite are doing everything they can to trash Perry and remove him as a threat to Mittens.  So are the Dems – which negates the GOP elite’s argument for Romney:  that he, being more moderate and thus more attractive to independents, stands a better chance of defeating Zero than Perry.

Here’s how afraid the Dems are of Perry:  they have started being nice to Sarah Palin.  This is to encourage her to run, divide up conservative votes between her and Perry, so Mittens walks away with the nomination.

So maybe the question of the week is:  Why do both the Republican and Democrat establishments want Romney to run against Zero;  why are both terrified of Perry?

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Perhaps, however, you think the question should be:  What about Sarah?  When Perry announced and she refrained, it was clear she was waiting to see how Rick would do.  She was never worried about Bachmann, knowing that MB would flame out and she has.  Now that Perry might also, will she jump in?

The HFR has learned there is another reason for her hesitation beyond the patience of a huntress.  Someone quite close to her explained to me that she was really traumatized by her experience with the McCain campaign.  She was thoroughly disgusted with the whole coterie of professional campaign consultants that attach themselves to and dominate a candidate’s presidential run.  She operates within a very closed circle and doesn’t really trust anyone outside of it. 

Yet she knows she can’t operate this way and viably go for the White House.  It’s a true conundrum for her, so she’s been unable bite the bullet.  The drop dead date is the last day a candidate can get on the ballot for the Florida primary:  October 31^st.  Will she wait to see how Perry does in the next debate, which isn’t until October 11 in New Hampshire-or decide he’s wounded enough to jump in now?

Only God and Sarah know – and neither of them are talking. One thing for sure:  if she announces before October 11, the audience for the debate that night will be humongous.  And if she does to Romney and to Perry what she did to Joe Biden in 2008, it’s a new ballgame – and a new choice.

Then the question is:  can she knock Perry out so the choice is between her and Mittens?  For if Perry recovers and it’s a three way race, then Romney’s got it.  It’s an agonizing drama….

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Meanwhile, the laughable drama of the Zero Presidency’s collapse continues.  Increasingly, panicky Dems are talking up Hillary for 2012.  Dick Morris began predicting this week that Zero might "pull a Lyndon Johnson" and not run for a second term.  Of course, the HFR has been predicting this since December, 2009.

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There is no HFR Hero of the Week Award.  In its place is the Yellowbellies of the Week Award, which obviously goes to John Boehner, Eric Cantor, the entire House Republican leadership, and all but 24 GOP Congresscritters.

Precisely like the Pelosi Dems of the 111^th Congress, the Boehner Pubs of the 112^th couldn’t/wouldn’t pass any appropriations bills, so they’ve stuffed the whole FY2012 budget with a $1.5 trillion deficit into one giant "omnibus" bill that continues to fund everything they were elected in 2010 to defund.

That’s right, it defunds nothing – not Obamacare, not Planned Parenthood, not the EPA, not the gazillion new fascist regulations issued in a constant stream by Zero’s bureaucrats, not anything.

FY2011 ends next Friday, September 30.  If FY2012 isn’t funded, much of the government will be shut down starting October 1^st.  So Boehner plays the Pelosi gambit of a Continuing Resolution (CR), providing stopgap funding until November 18, time enough he says to pass the omnibus.  Of course, the CR defunds nothing.

Wednesday afternoon (9/21), Boehner put the CR up to a vote and 48 Pubs had the stones to vote it down.  Good news?  No.  Late last night (or early this morning as it was after midnight), Boehner forced a vote again, and 24 of the 48 caved.  It passed, 219-203.

Then, believe it or not, Harry Reid came to the rescue.  He is insisting on additional billions for disaster relief from the recent storms like Irene – and no deductions of any kind elsewhere to offset them.  So the Senate voted the CR down this morning (9/23), 59-36.

So as things stand right now, Zero’s government will be shut down at midnight one week from now, with the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah from sunset Sept. 28-30 closing Congress down.  The House adjourned this afternoon and will not be back in session until noon Monday (9/26).  Thus the House and the Senate have from noon Monday to sunset Wednesday next week to agree on and pass continued stopgap government funding.

We can fantasize that somehow enough pretend-Tea Party Pubs will find the courage to torpedo Boehner and Reid’s determination not to defund any federal fascism, and we’ll get a shutdown.  Don’t hold your breath.  You can have every confidence that a fully-funded CR will be cobbled together in that 55 hour window.  Remind me – what was the "victory" we won back in November 2010?  I forget.

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Actually, if there were a Hero of the Week it would be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen.

Yesterday (9/22), in public testimony to the Senate, he denounced by name the Pakistan ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) spy agency as a sponsor of Taliban terrorism in Afghanistan, specifically of Taliban military commander Jalaluddin Haqqani:

"With ISI support, Haqqani operatives planned and conducted that truck bomb attack [at NATO headquarters], as well as the assault on our embassy [in Kabul on Sept 10]. We also have credible evidence that they were behind the June 28th attack against the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul and a host of other smaller but effective operations… The Haqqani network acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency."

Finally at last, someone – the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs no less, with the CIA Director (Leon Panetta) sitting by his side – spills the beans about the ISI.  You’ve known about those beans for a long time.  The history of Pakistan and the ISI was told in The Lunacy of a British Legacy back in July 2006.  You want to especially read about how the ISI created the Taliban under its director Hamid Gul.

This could be a big deal.  The only possible way to defeat the Taliban is to eliminate its state sponsor, the government-within-a-government that is the ISI.  Mullen’s announcement of the relationship could be a step towards that goal.

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The saddest news of the week for me also comes from Afghanistan.  My friend Burhanuddin Rabbani, the leader of the principal fighting force of Afghan Mujahaddin against the Soviets, President of post-Soviet Afghanistan (1992-1996), and a primary opponent of the Taliban/ISI, was assassinated in Kabul on Tuesday (9/20).

The assassin was a Taliban suicide bomber who hid a bomb in his turban.  He came posing as a peace emissary, and when Rabbani rose to greet him with the traditional embrace, the killer blew his own head off and Rabbani’s.

I got to know him well in the 1980s.  He was a decent man who radiated an aura of peaceful calm – yet he directed the insurgency effort that brought down the Red Army of the Soviet Union.  In Charlie Wilson and Ronald Reagan’s War (December 2007), I told the story of my giving a letter from Charlie to Rabbani in 1987.  Rabbani tried to do what Charlie requested but wasn’t able to.  As a result, the Taliban ended his presidency, and now his life.  It’s tragically sad.

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After that, we’ve got to close with some good news – and here it is.  In addition to the exceptional array of speakers we have for Rendezvous XI next month, such as billionaire investor Robert Agostinelli of the private equity firm RhoneGroup and financial guru Hank Brock, we’re honored to have with us someone who can provide us with a deep insight on the real political and economic conditions in China.

He’s Dong Xiang, the managing director and primary news anchor of New Tang Dynasty Television in Washington.  For tens of millions of Chinese, NTDTV’s satellite broadcasts to China are their only source of legitimate news rather than Chicom propaganda.  NTDTV is the source for what’s really going on in Chicom-land.  And we have the guy who can tell us more than just about anybody.

We’ll have other announcements Re RXI next week, but we wanted to let you know now as a reminder – you really need to be with us.  If you haven’t signed up for RXI, better call Miko at 703-992-4529 quickly.  See you in DC.