Photo, above:  Chuck Hagel (left), then a Republican senator from Nebraska, visited troops in Iraq during the summer of 2008. (Image: By Joint Combat Camera Center Iraq, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
 
Hour One
Monday  7 Jan 2013 / Hour 1, Block A:   Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board, in re:  Bill Richardson, former New Mexico governor, US ambassador to the UN and Energy Secretary, and Eric Schmidt, Google Executive Chairman, fly to Pyongyang to legitimize Kim Jong-eun. May succeed in obtaining release of an American who's been held there since September, but the global effect is that one of the most important corporations in the world and a major US politician pay homage to the brutal tyrant of the DPRK. 
Monday  7 Jan 2013 / Hour 1, Block B:  LouAnn Hammond, Drivingthenation.com, and Mike Mansuetti, president, Robert Bosch, LLC, in re: at CES, the Las Vegas tech show, presenting a lot of new products – power tool, solar, security, thermal – connected to the vehicle (in Singapore). New storage device -5kW – solar panels can power an electric vehicle - or home, with local grid as back-up. Good also to use for purifying water, e.g.  Bosch, Loew's, GM and Habitat or Humanity, have together donated abt $340K to Sandy hurricane victims.  Hybrid: electronics to control hybrid drive, also Peugeot diesel hybrid.  Chrysler, Audi, most car mfrs, at CES today. Solar panels at Home Depot in 2014.
Monday  7  Jan 2013 / Hour 1, Block C: Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and Lara M Brown, Villanova, in re: Late last week, Vice President Joe Biden had no problem telling the press who sealed the deal on the so-called fiscal cliff.  “Me!” he said, grinning ear to ear.
Monday 7  Jan 2013 / Hour 1, Block D:  David M Drucker, Roll Call, in re: Chuck Hagel and John Brennan. Chuck Hagel, retired senator from Nebraska, on Foreign Relation Committee. Opposes abortion, favors school prayer.  Conservative senator from Nebraska? No: as SecDef, he's seen as left of center (considering where the GOP has been for twenty years), which obscures the rest of his voting record.  The Senate will report him out of the Foreign Relations Committee and he's probably get fifty votes or more. 
 
Hour Two
Monday  7  Jan 2013 / Hour 2, Block A:  John Fund, National Review Online; Taegan Goddard, Political Wire John Avlon, CNN, The Daily Beast,  and Newsweek International, in re: guns: Journal News of Westchester, New York, shows all county gun owners on a map.  
"I saw that my next-door neighbor has a gun permit."  "I found one dot showing that a road sign has a gun permit."  Stephen Dargan, Connecticut (115th Assembly District - West Haven), introduced a bill to make public the names and addresses of 170,000 people who have gun permits in the whole state.  Lots of people in law enforcement have contact with felons recently released from jail – jurors, sheriffs, law-enforcement. Burglars say cheerfully, This is a road map to where not to encounter guns. "The fault lines collide between r=urban and suburban spaces. Discussion goes back to Hamilton and Jefferson. This is public information, but it doesn't pass the smell test."  Fights popping up all over, none of them easy to resolve.  Should this Administration decided to levy more gun restrictions, they’re in for a big fight.  The Journal News has the resources to hire a dozen armed guards to protect them; most people don’t.
Monday  7  Jan 2013 / Hour 2, Block B:  . John Fund, National Review Online; Taegan Goddard, Political Wire John Avlon, CNN, The Daily Beast,  and Newsweek International, in re: Chuck Hagel.  The president using the Senate.  Does the GOP want the fight over Hagel as SecDef? Yes – he's raised the ire of the Israeli lobby (Ed Koch "feels personally betrayed") and "in the Senate Hagel was a horse's ass. Both Republicans and Democrats didn’t like him." – JF.     A political reason Pres Obama will fight for this nomination is that he can use this nomination to split the Republican Party.
Monday  7  Jan 2013 / Hour 2, Block C:  Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Wall Street Journal, in re: as Chavez lies dying in Havana, how can he take the oath of office in Caracas?.
Monday  7  Jan 2013 / Hour 2, Block D:  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com,  in re: With an Eye on China, Japan Weighs Raising Military Spending: A review ordered by the new conservative government could lead to the first increase in military spending in a decade.   PM Abe (pron: ah-beh) emphasizes Japan's relations with Australia and other nations that hold to democracy. The problem is the Chinese, and Shinzo Abe understands that.  Talk about "Japan's turn to the Right" originates in Beijing. China is on a terrible path – much domestic opposition that needs to be quelled.  Xi Jinping has been the author of many of the provocations. The betting here is that something [awful] could happen this year or next. 
American Delegation Arrives in North Korea on Controversial Private: Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico, and Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman, visited North Korea on Monday in what was billed as a humanitarian mission.                   There's no legitimate reason for the delegation to be there; even Richardson thinks he can’t get the imprisoned American released.  Many people think there'll be a new nuclear test soon after he missile test; Americans should not be undercutting US policy right now, DPRK wants businessmen to call; this regime cannot be reformed – keeps the North Koreans deeply impoverished and keeps them unable to resist.  North Korea is so much worse than China. 
India: five of the six rapist/murderers have been charged. Protests engulfed the whole country
 
Hour Three
Monday  7 Jan 2013 / Hour 3, Block A:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to build 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) of fortified fence along the Golan Heights in response to concerns over the Syrian regime's instability and chemical weapons capabilities, AP reported Jan. 6. Netanyahu added that as Syrian forces withdraw from the Israel-Syria border, jihadist forces have moved into the area. Syria's conflict has spilled over its borders with neighboring countries as the fighting between regime troops and rebel forces steadily intensifies.
JPost: Iran's oil exports have declined 40% according to the oil minister, Rostam Qasemi. If he says 40%, the real number is probably 60%. New sanctions coming in to play – shipping, port mgt, news media, a bunch of new areas. People not being paid for six months; unemployment heading toward 50%. Big fight between Ahmadinejjad and the IRGC, who blame him for the disastrous economy. Meanwhile, he runs another cartoon competition on the Holocaust that "never occurred."  Have cut  back on munitions supplies to Hizbollah and Syria. Sanctions may not be sufficient, but they're important.
Egypt: Bassem Yussef. Mursi has removed fifty editors on the same day.  Yussef called "the Jon Stewart of Egypt" who called for Mursi to face war crimes charges. Mursi puts in many Moslem Brotherhood ministers and bureaucrats in all the key posts.  MB governance Bureau headed by genuine extremists. Egyptian may come to regret their votes. The real ambition is a n MG regime, shariah law, and reduction of freedom and opportunities in Egypt.
Syria mixing sarin gas: in trucks as they drive along the highway. Use of paralyzing chem agts used in the last few days against some of the rebel forces. Reported from hospitals. Assad's speech yesterday indicated no movement, rejection of peace efforts.  He cd take these weapons to an Alawite enclave to preserve his sovereignty.
Monday  7 Jan 2013 / Hour 3, Block B:  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re:  PM Bibi Netanyahu says he'll build a 43-mile-long fence in the Golan to protect the country from incursions from the Syrian war. Because previous fences have functioned well, this is a popular move. More important, it acknowledges the gravity of the situation. Israel decides to put up a security fence: in December, 112 terrorist attacks; in November, 600-plus.  The fence was an important deterrent.   On the Syrian border, no one anywhere can see the outcome; the increasing involvement of al Qaeda in Syria is disturbing to all. 
Israel; Bayit Yehudi new party formed by a young guy, Naftali Bennett, who sold his high-tech firm, attracts many young people of all stripes. Will it be in the upcoming national coalition?  Palestinians increasingly support mil/terrorist activities. Israel's ec growth is abt 3.3% (better than that of most Western countries).
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Tag.aspx/4157
Iran: Oil exports declined by 40% due to sanctions Iranian oil minister Qasemi for the first time concedes that Western sanctions have impacted crude exports.  
 
Monday  7  Jan 2013 / Hour 3, Block C:  Bud Weinstein, Bush Institute & 4% Growth blog, in re: fracking in America, re the natural gas boom, why are the environmentalists declaring natural gas to be an enemy like coal, what is the explanation for the anti-nat gas crusade? Bill McKibben demonizes all fossil fuels; tours the US to persuade students to oblige universities to divest all ownership in the evil companies that produce fossil fuels. The Marcellus Shale and Barnett Shale are producing an  miraculous amount of nat gas using new technologies – released untold quantities all around the country.  Talk of encouraging exports as LNG.  Greenhouse gas emissions in US today are better than they were twenty years ago – we've done better than the Kyoto Protocol even though we never signed.  The Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline: supported by the state O&G company of Azerbaijan (has huge quantities of nat gas) across Georgia and Turkey to European homes. First pipeline to skirt Russia, which has a history of playing geopolitical games with nat gas by shutting it off.  Shale plays in Poland, Australia, South Africa, Argentina. Exploratory drilling in China. Coal plants in the US: phasing out because of availability of cheap, abundant nat gas. We'll probably be off coal within thirty years.
Monday  7 Jan 2013 / Hour 3, Block D: Peter Berkowtiz, Hoover, in re:  two years since the Arab Spring - what are the improvements? what are the limits? what are the risks: what do Kerry and Hagel mean for the region?  
 
Hour Four
Monday  7  Jan 2013 / Hour 4, Block A:  Scott Shane, NYT, in re: Former C.I.A. Officer Is the First to Face Prison for a Classified Leak— Looking back, John C. Kiriakou admits he should have known better. But when the FBI called him a year ago and invited him to stop by and “help us with a case,” he did not hesitate. In his years as a CIA operative, after all, Mr. Kiriakou had worked closely with FBI agents overseas. Just months earlier, he had reported to the bureau a recruiting attempt by someone he believed to be an Asian spy. 1 of 2
Monday  7  Jan 2013 / Hour 4, Block B:  Scott Shane, NYT, in re: Former C.I.A. Officer Is the First to Face Prison for a Classified Leak— Looking back, John C. Kiriakou admits he should have known better. But when the FBI called him a year ago and invited him to stop by and “help us with a case,” he did not hesitate. In his years as a CIA operative, after all, Mr. Kiriakou had worked closely with FBI agents overseas. Just months earlier, he had reported to the bureau a recruiting attempt by someone he believed to be an Asian spy. 2 of 2
Monday  7  Jan 2013 / Hour 4, Block C:  Nicole Perlroth, NYT,  in re: viruses in computers - can they be stopped? Is there such a thing as an antivirus? What are the new protocols of internet security?  Outmaneuvered at Their Own Game, Antivirus Makers Struggle to Adapt
Monday  7  Jan 2013 / Hour 4, Block D:   Bob Morris, NYT, in re:  the Ruff Club of the East Village (in Manhattan, New York): how to pass the test to get your dog into a kennel in Manhattan. 
Bringing Exclusivity to Dogs, and Owners. Getting your dog into the Ruff Club in the East Village begins with an interview process.
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Music
Hour 1: Mad Max; Infamous; Wag the Dog
Hour 2:  Appaloosa; Skyfall; Tomorrow Never Dies
Hour 3:  Infamous
Hour 4:  (engineer won't reveal)