Photo, above: One vista of St Patrick's Day in New York City.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, Wall Street Journal editorial board; Edward Hayes, criminal defense attorney; Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents

 

Hour One

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 1, Block A: David M Drucker, Roll Call, at CPAC in Washington, in re: Obama Invited Boehner to Join Biden for Pope Installment President Barack Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, held a brief one-on-one meeting Wednesday following the president’s get-together with the full House Republicans Conference, and now the speaker’s office has revealed what they discussed. Obama invited Boehner to join Vice-President Joseph R. Biden at the Vatican to celebrate the installment of the new pope. Biden is leading the U.S. delegation. Boehner has respectfully declined, according to a statement released this morning.    House GOP Doesn’t Expect Obama Charm Offensive to Last: Memo to President Barack Obama: Next time you decide to charm House Republicans, don’t meet with them on the same day you’re scheduled to headline a fundraiser for your campaign organization turned issue advocacy pressure group. 

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 1, Block B:   Ron Meyer, Herndon, northern Virginia, in re: We pay $250bil PA. Our Ron Meyer for Congress Exploratory Committee launch was a big success yesterday, generating broad coverage from the media and lots of grassroots excitement. However, things did slow down a bit after the new Pope was announced . . . Six in ten of Americans under thirty have jobs; most have huge student loans – and need to default. "It's easy to yell at Washington politicians about how they're stealing from the next generation,” said Meyer in an interview with Breitbart News. “I'm done yelling--it's time to act. President Obama and my congressman, Gerry Connolly, think we should never balance the budget. They believe in eternal deficits."

Conservative spokesman Ron Meyer, 23, announced on Wednesday that he is forming an exploratory committee for a possible 2014 run for Congress against Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA). If elected, Meyer, who will turn 25 just prior to the election, would be among the youngest persons ever elected to the U.S. Congress. "It's easy to yell at Washington politicians about how they're stealing from the next generation,” said Meyer in an interview with Breitbart News. “I'm done yelling--it's time to act. President Obama and my congressman, Gerry Connolly, think we should never balance the budget. They believe in eternal deficits."  A former spokesman and public relations officer for Young America’s Foundation and American Majority Action, Meyer has appeared on numerous national television programs, including: Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, and Fox Business. Meyer says he plans to use his communications skills to help stop runaway spending in Washington.  "During this election, I plan to do everything in my power to save young Americans from trillion-dollar-a-year interest payments on the national debt, because that's what an Obama-Connolly future looks like in the next decade," said Meyer.

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 1, Block C: . Edward Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re:   St Patrick's Day. Jorge Mario Bergoglio told the multitudes after the announcement of his elevation on Wednesday that he would lead them on "the path of love"—a reference, surely, to Francis of Assisi, the great 13th-century saint from whom he has borrowed his pontifical name. The daring novelty and profound symbolism of the new pope's name cannot be overstated. Just as Benedict XVI named himself after the great founder of Western monasticism and preserver of Western civilization during the Dark Ages, so Francis has named himself after the founder of the Franciscans in order to signal the church's humility, poverty and charity.

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 1, Block D:  Andrew Conte, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review , in re: Lou Kilzer , Andrew Conte and Jim Wilhelm of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review receive the William Brewster Styles Award for "$hadow Economy." Their series demonstrates how almost anyone can set-up an offshore account and create a shell company

The United States needs to show a little love to its cyber-fighters. That was the message the nation’s Cyber Commander gave to lawmakers this week. I spent a busy day on Capitol Hill with Gen. Keith Alexander and other top officials talking about cybersecurity (which has turned out to be kind of a hot topic at the moment). Stealing, spying; shutting down the country?  Iran, Russia, Chinese, other adversaries have got in to our code. Recommendation to take a significant portion of our defense systems offline against the possibility of a crushing attack. At least Congress now acknowledges that we have a major problem.

Hour Two

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 2, Block A:  .Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Pres Obama's trip to Israel; will stay in King David Hotel. Visits ar9und Jerusalem, incl the astounding City of David archaeological site.   Massive security arrangements - twelve Blackhawk helicopters.  Museums, historical places.  Al Nusra; Hezbollah training 50,000-man army. Iran stepping up its weapons supply to Assad; Russia says that supplying arms to Assad's opponents, the "rebels," is illegal under intl law.

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 2, Block B:  . Captain Roi Amir, Paratroopers officer, IDF, in re: ·         How Israel/IDF tries to avoid human casualties in Gaza, West Bank, Hebron, et al. The human face od the army.  Combat experience in Hebron.  "Roof-knocking" – in avoiding killing civilians, we call homes and families of terrorists, say, In about an hour we'll have to attack your building, and you must leave immediately, especially with women and children.  We also sometimes drop a nonlethal bomb near a bldg to get people to move. Before the war in Gaza, Israel called several hundred thousand Gazans to warn them to leave specific areas. Not their fault that terrorists fire from a school, from a hospital.  Hamas uses women and children as shields, and fire rockets from hospitals so Israel cannot fire back.  When I was in the field, my family was in Rehoboth in the shelters.

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 2, Block C:  . Olli Heinonen, JFK School, Hvd, in re:  How Iran went nuclear. Parchin, where IAEA wants to go (and is blocked); Arak, a heavy-water reactor, produces radio isotopes, plutonium.  Is Iran past point of no return? In some ways, yes: can produce high-end Pn; how long to turn current stocks (20% weapons-grade) to the needed 90%?

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 2, Block D:  Malcolm Hoenlein, in re: a scan of the Middle East, incl Venezuela's connections and circumstances.

Hour Three

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 3, Block A:  Dr. Vanessa Neumann, senior Fellow of the Center for the Study of Terrorism, Foreign Policy Research Institute, in re: The implications of Chavez’s death to Latin America, and Iran's relationship with Venezuela, Argentina, the region. Effect it will have on regional stability, implications for Israel.  Chavez is gone, but his appointed replacement, who's minded his manners till now, stands a fair chance of turning into a despot. Venezuela performs major money-laundering functions for Iran (usual cut is abut 14%).  More than rumors that US State Dept is in back-channel talks w Caracas, which won’t accommodate n any way unless its economic condition grows much worse.

Pres Obama wil go to Yad Vashem, Dead Sea Scrolls museum, et al.; meet Miss Israel, an Ethiopian;  probably not Ramallah.

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 3, Block B:  . Malcolm Hoenlein, in re: more global san, esp Golan, and Syria. Weaponry.  Prospect of Assad's chem weapons. Egypt in collapse; Mursi fragile?  Possibility of military takeover? Army will not stage  a coup now, but army owns 30% of the economy and can't afford to lose Port Said.  Leadership stripped, many members are Islamists.

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 3, Block C:  . Richard Epstein, Hoover, Chicago Law; in re: The Supreme Court should strike down the Voting Rights Act and rein in Attorney General Eric Holder. The recently argued Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder has been in the news thanks, in large part, to Justice Antonin Scalia’s provocative, if ill-considered, remark in oral argument characterizing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) as the “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” That remark has provided the opening wedge for columnists like Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times to denounce the conservative majority of the court for once again flouting judicial restraint by threatening to strike down, by a five-to-four vote, the contested Section 5 of the Act, last renewed in 2006 for twenty-five years. The 2006 version of the VRA toughened what is known as the preclearance standards in Section 5. 

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 3, Block D:   Richard Epstein, Hoover, Chicago Law; continued.

Hour Four

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 4, Block A:  LouAnn Hammond, Drivingthenation.com, in re: TESLA Lays off 100 Workers Due to NYT Article Cancellations ...

TESLA Lays off 100 Workers Due to NYT Article Cancellations? ... no idea of the scope of the cancellations, judging by the 100 person layoffs, ... Share

Henrik Fisker, founder and executive chairman of struggling plug-in hybrid vehicle maker Fisker Automotive, has resigned. In an email today to Automotive News, Henrik Fisker, referring to himself in the third person, said: "The main reasons for his resignation are several major disagreements that Henrik Fisker has with the Fisker Automotive executive management on the business strategy." Fisker confirmed his resignation in a phone interview and declined to comment further. Tony Posawatz, who became president and CEO of the company in August, said this morning that he had just been made aware of the resignation. Posawatz previously was vehicle line director for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. Asked how the company was faring, Posawatz said, "We're in the midst of some serious negotiating."

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 4, Block B:  Lindsay Brooke, in re: Packing 123 Horsepower Into 3 Cylinders  With the help of turbos, automakers are producing powerful but fuel efficient 3-cylinder engines. A Ford triple, as the engines are called, is small enough to fit into a suitcase.

 

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 4, Block C:  Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Astronomers today celebrate the official turning-on of ALMA, the world’s largest telescope. ALMA is an array of 66 dishes tuned to wavelengths in the millimeter to submillimeter range of the electromagnetic spectrum, between the infrared and radio frequencies.  Computer simulations suggest that Pluto might have as many as ten undiscovered additional moons.  The planet already has five, so if this is true space is really crowded there, which might pose a problem for the New Horizons spacecraft that plans to fly past in 2015.

Thursday  14 March 2013 / Hour 4, Block D:   Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: Europe today inked a partnership deal with Russia for its two spacecraft ExoMars mission, planned to launch in 2016 and 2018. Russia essentially replaces the United States, which backed out of the deal last year when the Obama administration eliminated the funding for most of NASA’s planetary program. The competition heats up: Boeing is considering building a civilian version of the X-37B mini-shuttle

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Music

Hour 1: Gears of War 2, House of Cards, Ides of March, Danny Boy, Dropkick Murphys, Dexter