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APRIL 5,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:14 P.M. ET: 

ACLU WOBBLY – The American Civil Liberties Union is in financial trouble.  From American Thinker:  "As the punch line to an old joke about lawyers goes, it’s a good start. The American Civil Liberties Union, theoretically a non-ideological defender of the Constitution but in practice increasingly hard left, is running into financial difficulties and just announced layoffs for 7 percent of its lawyers.  Why the difficulties? It’s a little unclear, but Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit writes, 'What I hear is that they’ve moved too far left, too fast, and it’s hurt their donations.'"  A long time ago the ACLU was a respectable civil liberties organization, sometimes even courageous, but began to drift left in the turbulent sixties.  Twelve years ago an ACLU lawyer told me there were members of the group's national board who didn't even believe in free speech any longer.  Maybe they'll learn, or maybe they'll fade away.

ALREADY IRAN BENEFITS – From AP:  "TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The Tehran Stock Exchange has rallied after world powers clinched a nuclear framework agreement with Tehran, reflecting hopes that some crippling international sanctions could soon be lifted.  The official IRNA news agency says the Tehran Stock Exchange index rose 6.9 percent over two days. The agency says the index improved by 4,535 points to 70,261 on Sunday — the second working day of Iran's new year. It was the highest level in at least 18 months.  The framework deal announced Thursday envisions a final agreement that would pare back Iran's nuclear program for at least a decade in return for sanctions relief. Iran and six world powers, including the United States, hope to reach a final agreement by June 30."  Once money starts to be made because of this deal, it will be virtually impossible to punish Tehran, even if it engages in outright cheating.  The money will talk, protection against Iranian nukes will walk.

ARE THEY SERIOUS? – From the Washington Times:  "There will be no repercussions for the investigative reporter or editors responsible for a now-retracted Rolling Stone cover story in November that falsely accused Phi Kappa Psi fraternity members at the University of Virginia of gang-raping a freshman coed.  In a stinging report released Sunday evening, an independent review by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism said the magazine was reckless in vetting its sources, including the purported victim, identified only as 'Jackie,' and neglected 'basic, even routine journalistic practice.'  'If Jackie was attacked and, if so, by whom, cannot be established definitively from the evidence available,' the review stated, adding that there needed to be a better balance between 'sensitivity to victims and the demands of verification.'  The 12,866-word report, released Sunday night after more than three months of comprehensive research, said the story’s author, Rolling Stone contributing editor Sabrina Rubin Erdely, could have avoided catastrophe had she contacted other sources for fair comment."  But no punishment for the "journalists" who caused all this.  Okay, the report might be punishment enough, but the public looks for suspensions, loss of pay, or something similar to drive home the seriousness of the offense.

April 5,  2015     Permalink

THE GOP FIGHTS THE DEAL – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:   Legislation to give Congress a role in the Iran nuclear deal is moving forward, although it faces a presidential veto.  The fight to override that veto may be the political story of the year.  From Fox: 

Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker said Sunday that he’s moving ahead with his bill to give Congress a mandatory review of the recent Iran nuclear agreement but that the legislation is still several votes short of veto-proof passage.

Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told “Fox News Sunday” that the GOP-controlled chamber is two or three votes shy of the 67 needed to override a vowed White House veto. Corker said he talked over the weekend to Democratic holdouts to get their votes and reach the veto-proof majority.

He also made clear that he is open to a deal that would curtail Iran’s ability to create a nuclear weapon but said that “Congress needs to be playing a role.”

The United States and five other world powers reached the tentative agreement Thursday with Iran to limit that country’s nuclear enrichment program toward a final, June 30 deal.

The Republican-led Congress has insisted that members have a final say on the deal to ensure Americans that the Obama administration is not accepting a bad deal.

“The American people want to know somebody is teasing out the information” about the deal, Corker said Sunday. “Congress has to be involved in this way.”

To be sure, within hours of the framework deal being announced, Iran and the United States released significantly different details -- including those on inspections, when roughly $130 billion in economic sanctions on Tehran would be lifted, the number of centrifuges that will remain and what will happen to the country’s nuclear stockpile.

The Senate committee is set to vote April 14 on the bipartisan bill, which has 13 Democratic cosponsors.

COMMENT:  Good for Bob Corker.  However, I'm not at all sure he'll get the votes to override the president's veto.  This president plays Chicago politics.  Those Democrats who, out of conscience, want to override will be threatened, even accused of racism.  That's the way the game is played.  Their careers might well be destroyed if they go against Obama. 

The Congressional Black Caucus is already out there insisting that Congress show respect for "the first black president."  This will get very ugly.  The fact that the Iran issue involves the lives of millions of people will fade into the background.  Political self-preservation may, in the end, give Obama a victory in the veto fight.

April 5, 2015       Permalink

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 11:31 A.M. ET:   Bill Kristol, in Weekly Standard, bluntly states a position against the so-called "deal" with Iran, and what must be done to defeat it.  No mincing:

The whole of the deal is a set of concessions to an aggressive regime with a history of cheating that will now be enabled to stand one unverifiable cheat away from nuclear weapons. In making these concessions, the U.S, and its partners are ignoring that regime's past and present actions, strengthening that regime, and sending the message that there is no price to be paid for a regime's lying and cheating and terror and aggression.

We opponents of the deal disdain to conceal our views and aims. We urge Congress to stop this bad deal. We urge Congress to kill it. We believe sanctions, sabotage, and the threat of military force can better constrain the Iranian regime's nuclear weapons program than this bad deal. But we will also say openly that, if it comes to it, airstrikes to set back the Iranian nuclear weapons program are preferable to this deal that lets it go forward.

Britain has a parliamentary system of government, and so Neville Chamberlain's parliamentary majority ensured the Munich agreement would go forward. The U.S. Constitution, on the other hand, provides for a separation of powers. As Hamilton explains in Federalist #75:

"However proper or safe it may be in governments where the executive magistrate is an hereditary monarch, to commit to him the entire power of making treaties, it would be utterly unsafe and improper to intrust that power to an elective magistrate of four years' duration. ... The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue which would make it wise in a nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind, as those which contain its intercourse with the rest of the world, to the sole disposal of a magistrate created and circumstanced as would be a President of the United States."

It is now up to the members of Congress to do their duty, on this delicate and momentous occasion. It is up to members of Congress to refuse to accede to this set of concessions made by our current executive magistrate, concessions that would put one of the world's most dangerous regimes further along the road to acquiring the world's most dangerous weapons.

COMMENT:  That says it so well.  We are talking about nuclear weapons, not 100-pound bombs.  Nuclear weapons can wipe out a civilization in one hour. 

The deal is already being celebrated by the ditzy left as moving us toward peace.  It does nothing of the kind.  It will probably make eventual war with Iran more likely, or make more likely Iran's control of much of the Mideast. 

The president doesn't care.  His syncophants will tell him that he's ready for Mount Rushmore.

April 5, 2015       Permalink

THE TROUBLE GROWS – AT 11:06 A.M. ET:  It's being noticed more and more that Iran's interpretation of "the deal" on its nuclear weapons varies quite a bit from that presented by the Obama administration.  This is real trouble.  From the respected Amir Taheri at the New York Post.  This is what results when journalists actually do the job: 

“Iran Agrees to Detailed Nuclear Outline,” The New York Times headline claimed on Friday. That found an echo in the Washington Post headline of the same day: “Iran agrees to nuclear restrictions in framework deal with world powers.”

But the first thing to know about the highly hyped “historic achievement” that President Obama is trying to sell is that there has been no agreement on any of the fundamental issues that led to international concern about Iran’s secret nuclear activities and led to six mandatory resolutions by the United Nations Security Council and 13 years of diplomatic seesaw.

All we have is a number of contradictory statements by various participants in the latest round of talks in Switzerland, which together amount to a diplomatic dog’s dinner.

First, we have a joint statement in English in 291 words by Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif and the European Union foreign policy point-woman Federica Mogherini, who led the so-called P5+1 group of nations including the US in the negotiations.

Next we have the official Iranian text, in Persian, which runs into 512 words. The text put out by the French comes with 231 words. The prize for “spinner-in-chief” goes to US Secretary of State John Kerry who has put out a text in 1,318 words and acts as if we have a done deal.
It is not only in their length that the texts differ.

They amount to different, at times starkly contradictory, narratives.

The Mogherini and French texts are vague enough to be ultimately meaningless, even as spin.
The Persian text carefully avoids words that might give the impression that anything has been agreed by the Iranian side or that the Islamic Republic has offered any concessions.

The Iranian text is labelled as a press statement only. The American text, however, pretends to enumerate “Parameters for a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” and claims key points have been “decided.” What remains to be done is work out “implementation details.”

When referring to what Iran is supposed to do, the Iranian text uses a device of Persian grammar known as “nakarah,” a form of verbs in which the authorship of a deed remains open to speculation.
For example: “ It then happened that . . .” or “that is to be done.”

But when it comes to things the US and allies are supposed to do, the grammatical form used is “maerfah” which means the precise identification of the author.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It's absolutely fascinating.  Taheri knows the language and knows his stuff.  It turns out that Obama's "interpretation" of the "agreement" and Iran's are far apart.  And on this the lives of millions will depend.

There really is no true agreement.  It's a mirage, set up for the greater glory of Barack, and his "legacy."  No wonder they're dancing in the streets of Tehran. 

April 5,  2015     Permalink

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