Climate Hucksters.  

Science fiction theater opens in Washington when the peculiar posse in favor of the silly and meaningless cap and trade bill gather round the Senate to find votes for passage sometime before the next global ice age.  Hilarious. There is no science to support the loony conclusion in this video.  CO2 is a small part of greenhouse gases. There is no agreed upon peer-reviewed evidence of warming. Climate change is trendy propaganda, since there is always climate change, always has been. (Venice was a swamp, once upon a time; Britain was a peninsula of France, once upon a time.)  The Senate is earnest ignorance on climate.  Phil Jones threatens suicide for his despair.  James Hansen is a paranoid.  The IPCC is junk science, bad research, sloppy hucksterism, lazy glamor.  Game on for cap and trade.   A snowstorm in Washington prevents the Senate from starting debate in committee.  Deeply strange that this is now a national mania. 

Frosty the GOP.    

The snow that struck the Chesapeake River Valley is said to be the worst storm in 90 years. A perfectly dark storm for the easy, anxious, dreary metaphors at the D.C. Hilton on Saturday 6 where POTUS addressed the DNC: "Sometimes it may be against a blizzard, but we're going to live up to our responsibility to lead."  The DNC leadership is for clearing access to the exits.  The party is correct to be frightened. This is what George Bush looked like to the GOP in the winter of 2006 -- right after Tom Delay skeedaddled because of his Abramoff issues and the Al Quds force launched another version of the Shia civil war in Iraq. With POTUS, the Iraqi defeat analogy is the healthcare defeat and all the other legislation that he made his private vendetta against the Republicans and those villains who he calls "the lobbyists."   Shelby's gleeful blanket hold on nominees matched the three feet of snow with drifts outside. Capitol Hill is (once again) not functional, and the GOP has chosen to imitate snowmen and wait for springtime. When Frosty the GOP fades, the Republican recruiting will redouble and the Democratic retirements will accelerate. The only promise to the tearful DNC from the White House is that it might try a reconciliation trick with healthcare. This is difficult to believe.  Such a creative parliamentary maneuver by the Democratic majority would turn the 335 Democratic members of Congress into 335 Jack Nicolsons sitting in a maze in the 90-year storm of the Shining. 

Powerless, lackadaisical, aimless remarks by POTUS re the jobless report Friday 5. What is the "hot air" remark? POTUS tries defensive sarcasm at half-speed. And the claims that losing 22k jobs (January estimate) compares well to the losing of 800k jobs last January 2009 is both cynical and ignorant. The long term jobless stats (below) are discouraging and ominous. The confused media reporting of a jobless rate that appears to improve to 9.7% while the month shows a loss of jobs does not help the day's summary.  The economy is glum.  POTUS has been told by Axelrod that there is a storm building in the Democratic majority.  The professional campaign ops are telling their candidates to hold on.  What is the pay-off?  Have Axelrod and POTUS decided to throw the Democratic majorities under the bus?  Have they decided that POTUS improves as a candidate if he is running for re-election against a Republican House and a comatose and Harry-Reidless Senate?  Does POTUS welcome the victim of the villainous GOP scenario?  Strange, listless performance by POTUS on the weekend of the exuberant Tea Party Convention -- the After Obamatantion -- in Memphis.  Speaking to John Avlon, author, "Wingnuts," on Sunday 7, re the energy of the Tea Party.  Eight million jobless creates the energy for creative politics.  Who is Huey Long?  Who is Wendell Willkie?  Where is Fala?

Dragon's Teeth.  

Rahm Emanuel is reportedly apologizing for his abusiveness toward the disabled. This ceremony of false contrition by a creative lout is off-center of the problem; but it is instructive as to how poorly focused the White House has become since the Scott Brown win on January 19. Spoke to Ed Luce, FT, on Thursday 4, and he told me that Jarrett, Axelrod, Briggs are the inner circle with Rahm Emanuel. Of the four, only Emanuel was not the campaign. JArrett is head of the cult; Axelrod is head of the brand; Briggs is head of the spin; Rahm Emanuel is head of vulgarity. Emanuel is also a Washington insider who boasted to the Chicago team that he could deliver. As healthcare, cap and trade, financial regs, and now the jobs bill stagger and weaken, so too Rahm Emanuel. My best information is that Rahm Emanuel is less and less useful in the White House. The expectation is a replacement. The name used consistently is Tom Daschle. Going when?  I learned this evening that 5th and 10th Massachusetts are in play.  The Democrats are bleeding confidence and cash.  Why?  Rahm Emanuel is part of the problem, and his departure is part of the solution.  As for Rahm Emanuel, the remark I like best from a trusted informant, "He sows dragon's teeth."

Dominate.  

The Carly Fiorina team in California puts up the scene stealing video of the young campaign season, which the Fiorina team called FCINO, for Fiscally Conservative In Name Only, but which Joe Garofoli, SF Chronicle, dubs "Demon Sheep." It is humblingly funny, and it goes on for more than three minutes.  The sheep dominate.  Tom Campbell will not ever have a better three minutes, and, by the close, the resemblance is demonic.

1815 Again.  

Spoke February 2 to Pakistani Progressive and London pundit Dilip Hiro, author, "After Empire," re what he regards as a multi-polar world of the 21st century in which there are no superpowers who can stand alone, no contest between East and West or North and South. Instead Dilip Hiro argues we now enter into the strategic alliances of the 19th century, called balance of power.  The most memorable and useful quote is Lord Palmerston, re his British foreign policy: "Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests."  The Quadrennial Report coming from the DoD soon will present the case that the US must prepare for guerilla war fighting, not continental set-pieces.  In keeping, the US will fight these conflicts in alliance with other states that share immediate interests and do not share our values or our ambitions.  Balance of power will persuade adversaries to negotiate or climb down from confrontations, or so goes the theory.  Soon, there will be Triple Ententes and proxy wars and eventually adventurism.  Start the rewind to Metternich's Congress of Vienna, 1815.  Who is Napoleon III?  Who is Bismarck?  And what side will Europe and its pal the Whispering Demon take in the coming civil war in Asia? 

Spoke Charlie Pellegrino, author, "Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivor's Look BAck," February 1 re the Amazon blacklisting of Macmillan books Including his book) from Friday January 28 in a dispute between Amazon and its Kindle and Apple and its IPad.  LEarned that Amazon claims it has climbed down as of noon Sunday 31.  However Charlie Pellegrino's book is not available from Amazon as of this writing.  Jeff Bezos and Amazon execs  have disgraced themselves and wrecked the business model of a transparent and honest marketplace.  Punishing random arbitrary authors in order to threaten and intimidate New York and all publishing is folly.  Worse, it won't work.  The blacklisting continues.  Is Charlie Pellegrino being punished specially because he as come on to speak to me on this blacklisting on Saturday 30 January, Sunday 31 January and Monday 1 February?  Unknown.  Also, Charlie Pellegrino tells me that the Kindle has major piracy vulnerabilities that are unsolved and unmentioned.  And that the IPad looks secure so far.  What is striking is that Amazon fears the IPad and Apple despite the fact that Apple will let publishers set the price for ebooks (likely $12.99 to $14.99) rather than have Amazon dictate the price at $9.99.  Amazon claims it will now raise its prices and permit Macmillan ebooks back for sale.  Not Charlie's yet.  Many more twists in this story.  Amazon is wrecking itself.   Charlie Pellegrino asks me late after the show if Steve Jobs has spoke out yet re the dispute.  Unknown.  

Late Friday night my colleague Charles Pellegrino, author, "Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back," learned that his Macmillan published book (Scott MacRae Books) had been unilaterally removed from Amazon.com sales (that is, you cannot buy it in any format from Amazon at any price, but you can buy it from private dealers who use the Amazon site) as part of a bullying tactic by Amazon against all publishers over the IPad.  The story changed again on Saturday, and I spoke to Charlie late Saturday on air, that Amazon is now threatening all publishers with the same preemptive action it has launched against Macmillan if they go through with the deal with Jobs and Apple over IPad pricing.  It is a strange fight.  Amazon sells digital downloads for the Kindle at $9.99.  Apple has negotiated an agreement with publishers to sell the same download for the IPad at $12.99 or $13.99.  Apple keeps 30%.  Amazon is fighting this because it is more expensive competition?  No, because the IPad is a better device than the Kindle, bigger with color and more tricks called apps.  In sum, Amazon is in a dogfight with Apple and is shooting some of the authors in order to scare all of the authors and their publishers into obedience and surrender.  Trade war, Jeff Bezos billionaire vs.Steve Jobs billionaire.  Class action suits to follow.  There will be virtual blood.  Charlie did Coast to Coast two hours later on Saturday30/Sunday31 night, and the Coast team, led by Ian Punnett, eventually figured out what Charlie was telling them (what he had just told me and my audience on WABC) and they happily joined in the fight against Bezos.  I see opportunity to engage the Apple House co-ops, too.  Adam Smith says that the invisible hand (virtual hand) will out: to the cheaper goes the spoils. Soon there will be an Apple/Amazon detenete -- waiting on the Kindle upgrade to color.  Also waiting on an Amazon/Jobs link up to be fought by Sony/Borders and so forth.  And where is News Corp?  Why off-load the 30% profit to Jobs?  Digital is not owned.  Digital publishing is the same as digital audio and video and news.  In 1915, everyone with a big machine shop in Michigan and Wisconsin and Illinois and New York figured it was time to build cars and trucks.  Can you buy the Packard Twin Six?  But there are plenty of Ford Sixes.

POTUS organized the community of the GOP House trio of John Boehner, Mike Spence, Eric Cantor on a Baltimore stageset this news cycle, and the result was a jolly good time for those who fancy political melodrama. In this case, it was POTUS vs POTUS.  Here is the puzzle.  Why does POTUS complain to the GOP House that Capitol Hill will not obey his desires re healthcare, energy, education and now the deficit?  The GOP House numbers 176 sad sack and unwanted votes.  Mrs. Pelosi command 255 dominating votes, and this means she can pass whatever she aims for, including this past year everything she wanted: stimulus, cap and trade, healthcare.  There was little sign of any effort by Mrs. Pelosi to deal. Why would she?  The path to the speakership for her was to fight a shut-it-down guerilla campaign against the Bush White House and the Delay/Boehner majority; and eventually the gridlock gave her the power.  POTUS knows this.  Here is another puzzle.  The argument for POTUS is with the Senate -- both the Democratic and the Republican caucus.  When POTUS was in the Senate,  he was a very good partisan when in the minority (2005-07) as well as in the majority (2007-09).  Senator Obama practiced four years of team gridlock against the Bush administration in obedience to his leader, Harry Reid.  I recall specifically how POTUS spoke dismissively of POTUS Bush nominee, John Bolton, when Senator Obama was a very junior senator in the minority on the Foreign Relations Committee; and then Senator Obama voted negative on Bolton as many times as possible to prevent the Bolton nomination to the United Nations from going to the floor of the Senate, where John Bolton would have been confirmed by the Republican majority in 2005.  POTUS Obama, as a senator, was a rejectionist, a negativist, a solid team player in the grinding down of the Bush foreign policy.  It was expedient gamesmanship in 2005, and it was successful in harassing the Bush policy in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and the Koreas.  Now POTUS Obama is in the POTUS Bush chair, facing team gridlock in the House minority -- and in the suddenly not absolutely meaningless Senate minority (40 seats plus Scott Brown).  Where was today's performance last summer and fall while the Democratic leadership constructed the cap and trade bill and the healthcare bills?  Last puzzle.  Is today's Baltimore melodramatic presentation from POTUS about working together or is it about January 19th?

Dan Pfeiffer, 34, is the White House Communications Director, and he is married to the chief of staff to POTUS CoS Rahm Emanuel.  Pfeiffer's job is to deny.  In sum, the oafish, puffy and slow-witted Pfeiffer is way too inside the Obama denials to have thoughts about anyone or anything. Water-carrier and deny-speaker. Pfeiffer's use in the West Wing is to deny the obvious and then to deny that he denied. Dull work but about right for his sense of proportion. Pfeiffer's response to the silly Politico question about the TV celebrity Matthews silly remark about POTUS ("forget he's black") is unconvincing. More, the White House CommDir is no longer getting good information about his own team. The SOTU seemed unresearched. The cap and trade remark was trite. Much of the speech was aspirational in a fairy tale sort of way, some of it was simply impractical. David Drucker, Roll Call, tells me that Democrat senators Landrieu and Pryor have both commented that POTUS did not help the debate with his SOTU wish list. Landrieu is especially dismissive of the House Democrats who stampy-footy want their work rubber stamped by the obedient Senate. The running for the hills is well advanced. POTUS is being mocked by his own party. Phone calls going to the Clintons?  Is POTUS listening in on the whispering?  Yep.  POTUS scans the web at his desk.  POTUS is certain that if he keeps explaining -- for example, how he is going to put Americans to work on green jobs building a green railroad for the green people -- then eventually the green American public will obey.  Ask Pfeiffer, and he will deny POTUS is frustrated with the American people refusing to be green.  Pfeiffer will also deny that POTUS surfs the net, has changed his mind, thinks green healthcare, green energy and green education are off the table.  Deny, deny.  A denial administration.  It is green.