Free Frank Warner

Cancer of esophagus cancels Christopher Hitchens' book tour

Christopher Hitchens has suspended his book promotion tour because he needs time to begin chemotherapy for cancer of the esophagus. It's a sad thing that this would happen to one of freedom's most powerful voices.

His new book: "Hitch-22: A Memoir."

And get well soon, Christopher Hitchens.

Frank Warner

Petraeus tries to steer toward Afghanistan success

Gen. David Petraeus already is making his mark on Afghanistan. At his confirmation hearing for his new post, he showed he knows he has to avoid ruffling feathers here if we are to defeat the tyrants and terrorists over there.

The Daily Beast:

In his opening statement, Petraeus did not shirk the one question—in fact, perhaps, the only question—that the assembled senators, the American public, and America's enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan were truly interested in hearing about: Would the United States stick hard and fast to the date for withdrawal from Afghanistan announced by President Obama, to wit, July 2011? To this question, Gen. Petraeus said the following, and said so in a manner that, while not completely transparent, was translucent enough to anyone in the strategy business, and as clear in its message as his subordinate position can allow him to be: “As the president has stated, July 2011 is the point at which we will begin a transition phase in which the Afghan government will take more and more responsibility for its own security. As the president has also indicated, July 2011 is not a date when we will be rapidly withdrawing our forces and switching off the lights and closing the door behind us.” In other words: July 2011 is the embryonic beginning of the end, but we will not state categorically when the end will come, and in what form.

Victory question. There remains a problem of clarifying what victory in Afghanistan would look like. Right now, Afghanistan is building up its democratic institutions, and that's promising. But even if Afghanistan is turned into an oasis of freedom over the next five of 10 years, it could be overwhelmed overnight by Pakistan's political volcano next door.

Maybe enough Pakistanis will tire of the glory-hungry radicals in their midst, and bring the deadly nonsense down to a tolerable level. I'm sure Petraeus wants that, but it won't be easy to incorporate it into his planning. Except indirectly, the Afghanistan "surge" does not include Pakistan.

Frank Warner

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may drain $1,000,000,000,000

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were pressured by Rep. Barney Frank, Sen. Chris Dodd and other Congress members to make $1 trillion in recklessly risky home loans, may cost taxpayers that full $1 trillion.

That’s 1 million million dollars. It's not a new estimate, but it's the first time CNBC is talking seriously about it. Apparently, more struggling low-income homebuyers are discovering they really weren't ready to take on those loans.

CNBC reports:

For American taxpayers, now on the hook for some $145 billion in housing losses connected to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, that amount could be just the tip of the iceberg.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the losses could balloon to $400 billion. And if housing prices fall further, some experts caution, the cost to the taxpayer could hit as much as $1 trillion.

Ridiculously irresponsible. From about 1993 to 2008, Fannie and Freddie established the lowest common denominator for the rules that were supposed to guarantee the safety and soundness of mortgage loans.

With Barney Frank and Chris Dodd demandind increasingly weaker standards for granting home loans, Fannie and Freddie bought and backed half of America’s mortgages, including $1 trillion in ridiculously irresponsible loans that accountants warned were far too unlikely to be paid back.

Those bad home loans then were repackaged, like time bombs, as part of millions of other investments, setting the stage for the financial collapse of 2008.

No real reform. Fannie and Freddie and Barney and Chris destroyed the economy two years ago. So it’s significant the financial “reform” bill currently before Congress would do nothing to prevent those four characters from doing it all over again.

Frank Warner

Obama: Success is more important than pull-out deadline in Afghanistan

President Obama yesterday reassured those who have been worried that his goal of July 2011 U.S. troop withdrawal might endanger the mission in Afghanistan.

He said:

“Now, there has been a lot of obsession around this whole issue of when do we leave. My focus right now is how do we make sure that what we’re doing there is successful, given the incredible sacrifices that our young men and women are putting in.”

Sounds sensible.

Frank Warner

10 charged as Russian spies

The FBI arrested five men and five women two days ago and charged them with spying for Russia. A sixth suspect remains at large.

The Washington Post:

The operation, referred to by U.S. investigators as "the Illegals program," was aimed at placing spies in nongovernmental jobs, such as at think tanks, where they could glean information from policymakers and Washington-connected insiders without attracting attention. ..

Two people arrested in New Jersey, known as "Richard Murphy" and "Cynthia Murphy," were instructed to obtain information about the U.S. position on a new strategic arms reduction treaty and Iran's nuclear program in advance of President Obama's visit to Russia last year.

My guess is, the program made Vladimir Putin feel clever and powerful, but the silliness of it reveals the opposite.

Frank Warner

Sen. Robert Byrd is dead

Sen. Harry Byrd of West Virginia was 92.

The Associated Press:

Byrd was the Senate's majority leader for six of the 51 years he served there and he was third in the line of succession to the presidency, behind House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. With his death, the mostly honorary position of president pro tempore of the Senate goes to 85-year-old Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, now in his eighth term. ...

As a young man, he [Byrd] was a member of the Ku Klux Klan for a brief period, and he joined Southern Democrats in an unsuccessful filibuster against the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Some call his legacy complicated.

Frank Warner

'Toy Story 3': Barbie's words on 'the consent of the governed'

One of many things I liked about "Toy Story 3" was Barbie's line:

"Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force!"

For the first time in the 21st century, it took an animated character, a fictional animated doll, to make Hollywood's case for freedom and democracy (in this case, for toys).

The line is reminiscent of Thomas Jefferson's words in The Declaration of Independence, about humans:

"Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Abraham Lincoln also said something similar in 1854:

"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent."

As you may recall, four years ago, the U.S. mission in Havana lit up its fifth-floor electronic billboard with Lincoln's words when Cuban dictator Fidel Castro spoke in front of the building. Castro was so angry he ordered a wall of flags built around the mission.

Lots-o, Castro and other tyrants still hold "the governed" as enslaved dolls. Barbie knows a better way.

Frank Warner

* * *

Aftermention: Who speaks in the radio broadcast in the film short, "Day & Night," shown before "Toy Story 3"? It is Dr. Wayne Dyer, the fearless self-help success guru often seen on PBS.

* * *

See also: Bipartisan wars: Dem Congress now has outspent Repubs on Iraq and Afghanistan.

See also: Decades after Tiananmen Square, China’s Goddess of Democracy speaks.

See also: The genius of ‘Problems of Democracy.’

See also: Dictatorships’ death toll: 262 million murdered in the 20th century -- and not by war.

'Toy Story 3': A tale of freedom

Just saw "Toy Story 3." Excellent on so many levels. Funny how Hollywood can't bring itself to talk about freedom vs. tyranny except in its animated children's stories.

Frank Warner

Paul Krugman, as usual, wrong in a big way

Look, I’ve wanted Paul Krugman to be right on the Obama “stimulus” program. But Krugman never could point to one example of borrowing and spending that much of an economy pulling a nation out of a deep recession.

Worse, President Obama’s own Council of Economic Advisors then proved how useless, and probably counterproductive, that “stimulus” was when, after it predicted on Jan. 9, 2009, that the unemployment rate would peak at 9 percent this year without the stimulus, it soared to 10.1 percent last year with the “stimulus.”

The jobless rate still is 9.7 percent. That’s stubborn, Depression-strength unemployment.

And worst, Krugman has never been unwilling to misrepresent facts to make a purely partisan point. He was wrong from the beginning on the stimulus. Now even the Europeans are laughing at his zeal to borrow and spend money that simply isn't there.

Frank Warner

World Cup: Adults shouldn’t play soccer

Soccer clearly is a child’s game. When adults play it, it just gets ugly.

Ask the family of Andres Escobar.

Frank Warner