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APRIL 4,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:21 P.M. ET: 

ISRAELI RAID?  – From an Israeli news source:  "Arab news sources reported at week's end that an unidentified jet believed to be Israeli destroyed warehouses in southern Libya that held weapons bought by Iran for Hamas.  According to the reports in Al Watan and other news outlets, the warehouses were completely destroyed. The weapons that were inside them had allegedly been purchased by Iran, by means of weapons dealers in Sudan and Chad, and were supposed to be smuggled to Hamas through Egypt, by means of the smuggling tunnels between Sinai ands Gaza.  The destruction of the weapons stores in southern Libya was carried out in coordination with the Egyptian security and intelligence apparatuses, the reports claimed."  I have no confirmation of this, but it would not surprise me.  Israel and Egypt are working together, and that cooperation will probably intensify as American influence in the region deteriorates.

UNBELIEVABLE – It may seem hard to believe, but President Obama's approval in the Gallup poll now stands at 50%, with 46% disapproving.  Obama's standing in the poll has risen consistently in recent weeks.  It may even rise as a result of the dramatically defective Iran deal, which some Americans will see as "peace in our time."  We should point out that the Rasmussen poll differs:  "The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 47% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Obama's job performance. Fifty-two percent (52%) disapprove."  Still, Obama's positives have increased since the election, which is baffling considering his dismal performance.   My own theory is that by going sharply to the left Obama has reinforced that part of his base that was losing interest.  There is also the misperception that the economy is improving. 

NOTHING TO SEE, NOTHING TO SEE – Administration mouthpieces and their echo chambers in the press continued this weekend to downplay chants of "Death to America" heard in the mosques and on the streets of Iran.  Just domestic consumption, these spinners say.  The spinners also keep telling us that the Iranian people are very pro-Western.  That may be true, but the history of the last century shows us that what really counts is who's in power and who controls the military...and the chanting.  The Japanese people probably didn't hate the United States when their navy's planes were over Pearl Harbor.  And Germany was as much a part of the West as any other country when Hitler started World War II.  We'd better start looking at who's in charge in Iran, and what they can do down the road to expand their fanatical religious ideology.

April 4, 2015       Permalink

HYPOCRITES! – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  Society is filled with hypocrisy, none so clear as the hypocrisy over gay rights.  A news report about bakeries tells the story.  From the Washington Times: 

It turns out some Muslim-owned bakeries are no more willing to create wedding cakes for same-sex ceremonies than their Christian counterparts.

Conservative podcast host Steven Crowder posted hidden-camera video Thursday showing employees at several Muslim-owned bakeries in Dearborn, Michigan, declining his business or referring him to other shops when he asked for a wedding cake with the message “Ben and Steven forever.”

Which was fine with Mr. Crowder. “I’m not even saying these Muslim bakeries shouldn’t have a right to do whatever they did — they absolutely should — and many more of them would than Christian bakeries,” he said in his podcast on the website Louder with Crowder.

His video makes a point that has long rankled the right: That Christian-owned shops have been targeted for legal action and derision for refusing to serve same-sex weddings even as gay-rights activists and media outlets ignore business owners of other faiths known for their conservative social views, notably Islam.

The fierce national debate over religious-freedom bills, particularly in Arkansas and Indiana, has increased the attention on Christian-owned businesses, which suddenly find themselves the subject of intense and potentially ruinous media focus.

“There is a witch-hunt now for Christian business owners,” said conservative radio talk-show host Dana Loesch on her Thursday program.

She pointed to Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana, whose owners came under attack this week after telling an ABC57 reporter that they would not cater a hypothetical gay wedding — not that they had ever been asked to do so.

Supporters of the O’Connor family have since rallied, raising more than $750,000 as of Friday afternoon on a GoFundMe crowdfunding website set up by Ms. Loesch and her staff. The family, which was the subject of an arson threat and at one point considered moving, now plans to stay and reopen.

COMMENT:  This is an issue of rights in conflict – yes, the right of gay people to be treated equally, but, on the other side, the right of others to their professions of faith, and also the very important right, in a truly free society, to withhold labor.  As usual, the liberal media oversimplifies the issues involved, and destroys people who resist today's intellectual trends.

Clearly, Christians are seen as easy targets; others are left alone because the trendies have declared them favored groups or "victims." 

April 4, 2015       Permalink

OBAMA-CONGRESS CLASH COMING – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:   The administration is engaging in preemtive strikes to avoid Congressional legislation that would affect the tentative deal with Iran over its nuclear program.   From The Hill: 

The Obama administration has launched an aggressive sales pitch aimed at convincing Congress to hold its fire on Iran in the wake of a framework nuclear agreement.

President Obama, Vice President Biden, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, “and a whole host of other White House and senior administration officials” have been making calls to lawmakers, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Friday.

The administration wants lawmakers to suspend legislation related to Iran until after June 30, the deadline for negotiators to finalize a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken made the media rounds Friday, telling CNN that the president wants “to move out aggressively” to work Congress and ensure lawmakers have “all the details” of the framework.

“The president has instructed us to move out aggressively to work with Congress in the weeks ahead," he said during an interview CNN. "To show them all of the details, to give them a chance to digest the details, and then to move forward with Congress.”

Though Obama has repeatedly threatened to veto any legislation that reaches his desk before the mid-year deadline, administration officials have also indicated they want to work with lawmakers to ensure they have input in the process.

But...

But, the president still has plenty of lawmakers to convince. Highlighting the tough sell facing the administration, a number of senior House Democrats are voicing strong reservations that the framework simply doesn't go far enough to ensure that Iran's nuclear-weapons capabilities are eradicated.

Reps. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), a member of leadership, Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the party's top appropriator, and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), the ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee's subpanel on the Middle East, are all expressing doubts that deal will meet its goals.

"Until the full details are provided to Congress on June 30th, you can keep me in the 'highly skeptical' column," Israel said Thursday in a brief statement.

Rep. Alan Grayson, a liberal member of the House Foreign Affairs panel, is also dubious. Emphasizing that many details remain to be hammered out, the Florida Democrat said the framework falls short of the administration's ultimate objective: to ensure the end of Iran's nuclear-weapons ambitions in return for relinquished sanctions.

"From what I see, that deal is not this deal," Grayson said Friday in a phone interview. "[It's] a classic example of, let's kick the can down the road."

Resistance from Democrats would be a setback to the president, who has pushed hard against tough opposition for an Iranian deal he sees as, potentially, the crowning foreign-policy achievement of his second term.

COMMENT:  I am just speculating that any important action by Congress will be put off until the June 30th deadline for completing an actual agreement with Iran, but that Congress will begin to move, through hearings and the drafting of legislation, before that. 

Obama blundered badly by his arrogant attitude toward Congress earlier, and now he's trying to make it up through sweet talk and giving Congress "input," whatever that means.  It may not work this time.  Congress will have a say...even if a final deal is worked out.

April 4, 2015       Permalink

KENYA – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  The horrible massacre of Kenyan students, most of them Christians singled out for their religion, may be only the beginning of a new Kenyan nightmare.  From Reuters: 

Somali militants vowed on Saturday to wage a long war against Kenya and run its cities "red with blood" after the group's fighters killed nearly 150 people during an assault on a Kenyan university.

In the worst bloodshed in Kenya in nearly two decades, four al Shabaab gunmen went on a killing spree on Thursday, hunting down and executing students in a campus in Garissa, a northeastern town 200 km (120 miles) from the Somali border.

The raid has put Kenya on heightened alert and spooked Christian congregations, horrified by survivor testimonies recalling how the Islamist militants had sought out Christians to kill, while sparing some Muslims.

In the message directed at the Kenyan public, the al-Qaida aligned group said the raid was retribution for Kenya's military presence in Somalia and mistreatment of Muslims within Kenya.

"No amount of precaution or safety measures will be able to guarantee your safety, thwart another attack or prevent another bloodbath from occurring in your cities," the group said in an emailed statement received by Reuters in the Somali capital.

It said it would run cities "red with blood", adding: "This will be a long, gruesome war of which you, the Kenyan public, are its first casualties."

The death toll in the Garissa blitz has risen to 148, Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery said late on Friday, adding that police were interviewing five suspects after making three additional arrests on Friday.

COMMENT:  Yes sir, the war on terror is over.  Just ask Field Marshal Obama.  And we are making a nuclear pact with Iran, one of the world's greatest sponsors of terror. 

Terror is spreading, not receding.  An expert on the subject, Michael Weiss, was on CNN this morning noting that terror events are now occurring with great frequency, as are the breaking up of terror plots within the United States.  There is a law of averages here.  It's been properly noted that anti-terror forces have to be lucky every time.  Terrorists have to be lucky only once.  Brace yourselves.

April 4,  2015     Permalink

APRIL 3,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

INTERACTION NEWS – From AFP:  "Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro will have an 'interaction' when they attend next week's Summit of the Americas in Panama, a US official said Friday.  Clearly President Obama knew when he made the decision to go to the summit, and he knew that Cuba had been invited to the summit...that there would be an interaction,' US State Department official Roberta Jacobson said at the Brookings Institution. 'The leaders are together a lot of the time. And so there will be an interaction with Raul Castro,' she added, declining to speculate about the nature of any possible meeting between the two leaders."   I just can't wait.  I cannot wait!  This will save America – interaction with Raul Castro.  I do hope that Obama will bring with him something to surrender.  He's so good at that.

THE ANNALS OF REAL ESTATE – It is reported that Hillary Clinton has rented office space in Brooklyn, New York.  As they say, there goes the neighborhood.  Apparently, the premises will serve as her campaign headquarters.  From The Hill:  "Hillary Clinton has reportedly signed a lease for a likely campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, a sign her White House campaign launch is imminent.  NBC News and Politico report that Clinton will lease space in two floors of a Brooklyn Heights building that once housed offices for Loretta Lynch, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York nominated to serve as attorney general.  The move comes as Clinton World gears up for a widely expected presidential run. She has hired staff in early primary states, staffed up her communications team and made other top hires."  I grew up in Brooklyn, a fanatical fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers.  They left Brooklyn, and Hillary is coming.  It's a very bad deal.

DOWN IN THE DUMPS NEWS – From London's Daily Mail.  "The majority of people taking antidepressants may not actually have depression, a new study claims.  Researchers discovered more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of people taking antidepressants did not meet the criteria for major depressive disorder, which is also known as clinical depression.  Antidepressants are also prescribed for other psychiatric disorders.  But the researchers found 38 per cent of those taking the drugs did not meet the criteria for obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, social phobia or generalised anxiety disorder either."  No, but they voted for Obama, and that's the cause of the problem.  The only medications that would help are Walkermicin or Rubiocillin.

April 3,  2015     Permalink

WHOOPS – AT 10:51 A.M. ET:  Instinctively, a lot of observers expected this.  New numbers out show the economy has taken a tumble.  The issue becomes, how bad might this get?  From The New York Times: 

The labor market’s yearlong streak of robust monthly job creation was broken on Friday with the Labor Department’s report that employers added just 126,000 workers in March, a marked slowdown in hiring that echoed earlier signs of a winter pall on the economy.

Analysts blamed the plunge in oil prices as well as the punishing weather in the Northeast, a combination that put a crimp on investment in the energy patch and construction and retail sales more broadly. But many still expect the economy to regain at least some of its momentum later this year.

“The American energy industry is adjusting very quickly to low oil prices, and so we’ve seen this in the counts of the number of rigs that are active,” said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust. “The bad news is we’re losing some jobs. The good news is, we hope, that the average consumer is saving a tremendous amount of money in lower gasoline prices.”

The slowdown is likely to reinforce the view among the more dovish policy makers at the Federal Reserve that interest rates should stay near zero at least through the summer because the economy may not be strong enough to stand on its own.

Speaking at a conference in San Francisco last week, Janet L. Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, was relatively cautious in her assessment of the economy compared with some of her more hawkish colleagues at the Fed. She said that the Fed would move slowly to raise rates even after it began the process of lifting short-term borrowing costs from the near-zero level they have been at since 2008.

“For Yellen, this is an affirmation of what she did,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. “She said she wants to see more improvement in the labor market.”

The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent, and wages rose 0.3 percent for private-sector workers in March, following a meager 0.1 percent rise in February.

In the Bureau of Labor Statistics report Friday, government statisticians revised their previous estimates for February and January, subtracting 69,000 jobs from the first quarter’s total.

COMMENT:  This may partiallly explain why so many Americans, in surveys, say they don't see an improving economy around them.  The economy is not robust, and the right kinds of jobs are not being created.  Other than that, things are fine.

April 3, 2015       Permalink

STUNNING – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:  Evidence is now emerging that supports the charge that the Obama administration caved in to Iran at the negotiating table to get any kind of deal.  From Fox: 

U.S. negotiators reportedly lowered the bar for their own goals during talks over Iran's nuclear program in response to resistance from the Tehran team. And, on the heels of a framework deal being announced in Switzerland, France's top diplomat on Friday admitted his country had initially held out for firmer terms.

The emerging reports indicate the U.S. team, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, gradually backed down over the course of the talks as Iran's delegation dug in. The Wall Street Journal, citing current and former U.S. representatives at the discussions, claimed the White House had initially hoped to persuade Iran to dismantle much of the country's nuclear infrastructure when talks started in late 2013, only to be told categorically that Iran would not do so.

The Journal reported that one Iranian diplomat called the nuclear program "our moon shot," comparing it to the U.S. space program in the 1960s as a symbol of national pride and advancement. From that point, the Journal reports, the U.S. accepted that any possible deal would likely enable Iran to continue to enrich some uranium to produce nuclear fuel and turned their focus to extending Iran's so-called "breakout time" or the minimum period that Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon.

The framework of an agreement was announced Thursday after marathon talks in Switzerland that stretched two days past their original deadline.

COMMENT:  As more and more is known, the deal looks worse and worse.  Obama, who blundered badly by taking the military option off the table early – basically giving Iran a road map of what we wouldn't do – is trying to sell the deal as an alternative to war.  It may in fact lead to war in the future, when, under the deal, Iran will be permitted to return to a full nuclear program. 

April 3, 2015       Permalink

EVEN THE DEMS – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  We know that most Democrats will fall in line behind the Iran deal because Barack will command it.  But other Dems are showing courage in joining the resistance and asking the correct, troubling questions.  From The Hill:

Several top Democrats are voicing grave reservations over the Obama administration's emerging deal governing the future of Iran's nuclear program.

Reps. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) said they welcome a discussion on the framework agreement unveiled Thursday, but harbor deep doubts that the Iranians can be trusted to make good on their commitments.

"I greet any deal with Iran with great skepticism given its deceptive history and ongoing destabilizing and dangerous activities," Deutch, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs subpanel on the Middle East, said in a statement. "I remain deeply concerned as to how a number of issues have been addressed in the framework and may be addressed in a final agreement."

Deutch singled out provisions of the agreement that would allow a nuclear facility at Arak to continue processing and another in Fordo to remain open so long as it's no longer used for uranium enrichment purposes.

Lowey, senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee and the Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations, delivered a similar message. While praising the efforts of Secretary of State John Kerry, who led the negotiations on behalf of Obama, she also warned that administration officials will have a tough time convincing Congress to endorse the deal.

“While the framework laid out by President Obama and Secretary Kerry has positive aspects, far too many details remain undetermined to ensure Congress and the American people that we are on track to permanently and verifiably prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," she said in a statement.

“The administration will have a high bar to convince Congress and the American people that this deal is good for our long-term national security and that of our allies, and that it will verifiably prevent Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon.”

COMMENT:  Obama has been whining that, if Congress blocks the deal, other countries won't trust us.  No, Mr. President, they would trust us more, and respect us a great deal more.  They would see that the United States, through its elected representates, takes these things seriously and does not endorse agreements simply to provide a president with his legacy.

April 3, 2015        Permalink

BAD DEAL – AT 9:06 A.M. ET:  The debate this morning is all about the Iran deal.  Obama bought the 1991 Buick from Mullah's Used Cars, and didn't even ask for a test drive.  And his mechanics didn't get much of a chance to look under the hood.

Some reactions to the deal were predictable.  The New York Times believes it was written in Heaven itself.  Another triumph for the greater glory of Barack, come to save us.  Copies were apparently delivered to The Times on parchment.

But, as another show of its independence, the superb Washington Post editorial board is having none of it.  It makes the point that the deal falls far short of even Obama's publicly stated standards.  From the Post: 

THE “KEY parameters” for an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program released Thursday fall well short of the goals originally set by the Obama administration. None of Iran’s nuclear facilities — including the Fordow center buried under a mountain — will be closed. Not one of the country’s 19,000 centrifuges will be dismantled. Tehran’s existing stockpile of enriched uranium will be “reduced” but not necessarily shipped out of the country. In effect, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will remain intact, though some of it will be mothballed for 10 years. When the accord lapses, the Islamic republic will instantly become a threshold nuclear state.

That’s a long way from the standard set by President Obama in 2012 when he declared that “the deal we’ll accept” with Iran “is that they end their nuclear program” and “abide by the U.N. resolutions that have been in place.” Those resolutions call for Iran to suspend the enrichment of uranium. Instead, under the agreement announced Thursday, enrichment will continue with 5,000 centrifuges for a decade, and all restraints on it will end in 15 years.

Mr. Obama argued forcefully — and sometimes combatively — Thursday that the United States and its partners had obtained “a good deal” and that it was preferable to the alternatives, which he described as a nearly inevitable slide toward war. He also said he welcomed a “robust debate.” We hope that, as that debate goes forward, the president and his aides will respond substantively to legitimate questions, rather than claim, as Mr. Obama did, that the “inevitable critics” who “sound off” prefer “the risk of another war in the Middle East.”

The proposed accord will provide Iran a huge economic boost that will allow it to wage more aggressively the wars it is already fighting or sponsoring across the region. Whether that concession is worthwhile will depend in part on details that have yet to be agreed upon, or at least publicly explained.

COMMENT:  Obama is already cheapening the debate by demeaning his critics.  If he had thoughtfully engaged Congress earlier, he might have come out of this negotiation in better shape because he might have had the power of Congress behind him.  But I guess a god doesn't have to go to Congress.

It's not a good deal.  It may not even happen because there are many critical details to be worked out in the next months.  It is presidents down the road who will have to deal with Barack's blunder.

April 3,  2015     Permalink