Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas yesterday.  It's here. 

APRIL 13,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:46 P.M. ET:

A THING FOR HILLARY – From Vocativ.com:  "Hillary Clinton’s Facebook pages have an unexpected fan base. At least 7 percent of Clinton’s Facebook fans list their hometown as Baghdad, way more than any other city in the world, including in the United States."  This could be big.  The Baghdad vote is expected to be decisive in the 2016 presidential election, along with the vote of the dearly departed in Chicago.

OVER – Marco Rubio had a great campaign launch in Miami, electrifying his followers with this line:  "Just yesterday, a leader from yesterday began a campaign for President by promising to take us back to yesterday.  But yesterday is over, and we are never going back."  I love it.  Marco was sharp.  Hillary, cancel the call to the moving company. 

WARNING – Terror groups are targeting American soldiers.  From the Washington Times:  "The military command in charge of protecting the U.S. homeland has sent a message to troops, warning them to hide family information from terrorist groups that are trying to frighten them.  The memo warns against using 'military slang' in public and decorating a home in military items — social conduct that might make troops a target for the Islamic State, the terrorist group also known as ISIL and ISIS.  U.S. Northern Command sent the 'official use only' message as a reaction to the Islamic State posting the names of 100 American service members as targets for attacks."  Of course, the White House has told us that the war on terror is over.

WORLD-CLASS MOTHER – This is great, from Fox:  "When an Alabama mother learned that her teenage kids were loud and disruptive in a movie theater, she took to Facebook to apologize for their behavior and make amends in a post that has gone viral.

"Kyesha Smith Wood, of Birmingham, Alabama, dropped off her teenage son, daughter and step-daughter at the movies Friday night to see a showing of the Disney film 'Cinderella.'  When Wood picked the kids up after, her son informed her that the girls were rude during the movie. He revealed that a woman had approached them after to let them know that, because her husband recently lost his job, this was the last movie her family would be seeing for a long time. The woman said that the girls' behavior had ruined the experience for them.

"Wood hit the roof and issued a public Facebook apology.   When the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office shared the Facebook post, it went viral, getting thousands of shares.  Eventually, it reached Rebecca Boyd of Adger, Alabama, who responded that she was the woman from the theater.  Boyd reached out to Wood, and the mom is having the girls write personal notes of apology and contribute their allowance money to pay for the Boyd family’s next movie night."  Now that is parenting.

April 13, 2015       Permalink

BULLETIN:  MARCO NOW IN – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:   Even before his big rally planned for tonight, Marco Rubio has made it official.  From The New York Times:

MIAMI — Senator Marco Rubio of Florida announced his candidacy for president Monday morning in a call to donors, becoming the third Republican to officially enter the 2016 contest.

Mr. Rubio will make a formal announcement Monday evening here in which he is expected to present himself as the embodiment of generational change who can unite the Republican Party’s factions and offer economic solutions for the 21st century.

At 43, the youngest candidate in the rapidly growing 2016 presidential field, Mr. Rubio is expected to cast himself as a forward-looking, next-generation leader — and an implicit contrast with both Jeb Bush, 62, whose family has dominated Republican politics for nearly three decades, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, 67, the wife of a former president and the likely Democratic nominee.

Mr. Rubio joins his Senate colleagues Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who both have announced their candidacies. Other Republican hopefuls, including Mr. Bush and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, are also preparing to officially enter the race.

Mr. Rubio is expected to campaign on themes that emphasize American greatness and the American dream, an optimistic, aspirational message that he outlined in his newly released book, “American Dreams.”

He is also angling to become the youthful face of a party that skews older and has struggled to attract young voters, blacks and Hispanics. Many mainstream Republicans hope that a Cuban-American who speaks fluent Spanish can help draw Hispanic voters, a growing demographic that will be critical during the general election, into the party.

COMMENT:  The Republican race is becoming very exciting.  The Democratic race?  Wake me when it's over.

April 13, 2015       Permalink

ON SCIENCE – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:   The word "science" is one of the most misused words in the language.  For too many people, including presumably "educated" people, it evokes a kind of magic.  Science is perfect.  Science is pure.  Anyone who disagrees with the latest scientific idea is "anti-science," or a flat-Earther. 

Science is none of those.  Science is a struggle, with many errors and miscalculations along the way.  Just think, if you are of a certain age, how the treatment of heart disease has changed over the years. Yet the treatments of 40 years ago were also developed by "scientists."

The New York Post has a wonderful essay, cautioning us about a blanket acceptance of "science":

First it was high cholesterol, which the nation’s top nutrition panel recently declared is no longer a “nutrient of concern” — reversing 40 years of official warnings.

Now, reports The Washington Post, the scientific consensus on whether Americans eat too much salt is shifting.

“There is no longer any valid basis for the current salt guidelines” that recommend no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, warns one researcher on a landmark study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“So why,” she asks, “are we still scaring people about salt?”

OK, the debate’s far from settled. Both sides agree that too much salt in the diet is dangerous. But they have very different ideas about just how much is too much.

Salt guidelines have been in effect for more than three decades, but the advisable target number has shifted over the years.

And even the author of the landmark 1973 study that served as the basis for the dietary guidelines says her paper was meant to spur more research, not serve as final word on the subject.

All of which should remind us that even the most overwhelming scientific consensus — whether on healthy diets or, yes, even climate change — is still a work in progress.

Sometimes the findings hold up. But often they won’t. That’s science.

Federal officials, in particular, need to stop pushing the idea that tentative findings are hard fact. For decades, the feds pushed the Food Pyramid diet — only to eventually realize they’d gotten it almost exactly wrong.

All too often, you just have to take what the scientists say with a large, er, grain of salt.

COMMENT:  When I was a student at the University of Chicago I had to take a course called Natural Science I.  It was a basic science course designed for non-scientists, and we all hated it.  We were taught a number of scientific theories that won wide acceptance, but were eventually proved wrong.  I once asked the instructor, "Professor, why are we learning all these wrong theories?"  He replied, "We want you to understand how science proceeds." 

The most important word in that reply is "proceeds."  Science isn't static.  There's no such thing as "settled science."  It is always moving, and there are many surprises.  Thank of that the next time you're told that global warming is "settled science."  It's as settled as the heart remedies were of 40 years ago.

April 13, 2015       Permalink

CAN SHE MAKE IT? – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  Although some in the media, especially at CNN, greeted Hillary Clinton's announcement with unabashed joy, the nation seemed able to restrain itself.  I do not see fireworks going off.  And Andrew Malcolm, one of the best commentators around, wonders why Hillary really wants to be president.  From IBD: 

Sunday was not the best day for Hillary Clinton to launch her bid. It was the 16th anniversary of a Federal judge holding hubby Bill in contempt for misleading her about his sexual relationship with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. A reminder of the tawdry scandals, stonewallings and ethical controversies that seem attracted to the Clintons like swarming barnyard insects.

And it's not the best position for Hillary Clinton to credibly argue that her lackluster State Department tenure, including the deadly, avoidable Benghazi incident, qualifies her to be commander-in-chief. "Does America want a third Obama term?” Ted Cruz asked needlessly.

Then as always there's history: Since FDR in 1944, U.S. voters have given the same party three consecutive White House terms only once, 1988 when Vice President George H.W. Bush won, in effect, a third Reagan term.

But Reagan was popular, 57% approval. Obama not so much (46%).

“It’s hard for any party to hang on to the White House for 12 years,” recently noted Hillary's husband, whose two-term legacy was inadequate to boost his own vice president to victory in 2000.

In her day-before-the-announcement announcement video Clinton explained: "Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion.” Again with the "want."

In not the best choice of talking points, reminding Americans of the worst economic recovery since World War II, the ex-Obama cabinet member said: "Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times" under Obama.

Then, the woman who claimed to be "dead broke" with two mansions who's been demanding $300,000 plus a crudite assortment for every speech, added: "But the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top.” Do ya think? And which millionaires would that be?

COMMENT:  Wonderfully stated, from Andrew.  Hillary has not yet been tested in combat against real Republicans.  There is nothing to suggest she'll do well.  But, as we know, that depends largely on which Hillary shows up.  I'm taking wagers.

April 13, 2015       Permalink

MARCO'S DAY – AT 8:55 A.M. ET:  Marco Rubio will announce his candidacy for president this evening in Miami, his home town.

When it was realized that he was going to announce one day after Hillary, some wondered whether his timing was self-defeating, whether he'd be lost in the Clinton avalanche.  That's still possible, of course, but I think it's also possible that his timing is brilliant.  The contrast between the contrived Clinton, fresh from the repair shop, and the young, dynamic Rubio will be stunning...if the mainstream media doesn't try to snuff Rubio out by ignoring him.   From the Washington Post: 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the son of Cuban immigrants whose rapid political ascent was nearly blocked five years ago by national Republican leaders, will formally launch his campaign for president Monday evening in his hometown of Miami.

Rubio, the junior senator from Florida, will make the announcement in front of the city’s Freedom Tower, an iconic, Ellis Island-like downtown landmark where the federal government once processed Cuban immigrants fleeing the Castro regime. The site holds great personal importance for Rubio, his family and the city's influential Cuban-American community.

The announcement is expected to launch Rubio near the top of a crowded field of GOP presidential candidates even as recent polls have suggested that he will have to compete for support among other frontrunners, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Tex.).

In recent weeks, Rubio has done little overt campaigning and has avoided joining the early fray, focusing instead on holding a handful of discreet fundraisers in New York, California, Texas, Illinois and Washington while consulting his family and close circle of advisers ahead of a formal launch.

But soon, he is expected to launch a tour of early primary states. After his announcement on Monday, he'll return to Capitol Hill on Tuesday. On Thursday he'll travel to Boston for a fundraiser, before traveling to New Hampshire on Friday to join other GOP presidential candidates at a Republican summit, in Nashua, N.H.

COMMENT:  Marco will probably be hit especially hard by the press because he's dynamic, attractive, and a symbol of resistance to Fidel Castro.  There are still some on the left who cling to a romantic view of the Cuban "revolution" that brought Fidel to power.  Fidel has now handed that power to his brother, Raul.  I guess that's how "revolutionary" regimes do things.

Rubio has emerged as a fine spokesman on foreign policy, far more sophisticated than the amateurish Barack Obama.  He is quick on his feet, and tends to immerse himself in issues.  He is not perfect, and has had some wobbles and inconsistencies, but, on balance, I see him as a very powerful candidate who could defeat Hillary in the general election.  He's hard to resist.  She is eminently resistible.

April 13,  2015     Permalink

APRIL 12,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET:

SHE HAS COME TO SAVE US – Following Emperor Obama we now have Queen Hillary, who has interrupted her busy schedule of $200,000 a pop speeches to condescend to run for office.  She launched her campaign today.  Notice the difference?  Why, peace has come to the Earth, the oceans have receded, humankind is soaring, and...and...  Wait, that was Obama.  Hillary?  Well, she brought a slickly produced first campaign ad showing the ordinary peasantry at work, and assuring us that she is there for them.  Never mind that Bill has made an estimated $100-million since leaving the White House.  At heart, Hillary is just a super-competent grandma who understands how to plant a flower garden at call a baby sitter.  It reminded me of the song from Camelot, "What Do the Simple Folk Do?"  I wasn't very impressed.  It was high-gloss pandering, with no sense of us being part of a great nation.

I LOVE IT!  THEY'RE ATTACKING EACH OTHER ALREADY – It didn't take long after Hillary's announcement for the knives to come out.  The first blade was directed at her former campaign manager, now the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio.  The charge:  Insufficient loyalty.  From Weekly Standard:  "Earlier today, Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager, Bill de Blasio, passed up an opportunity to endorse his former boss. De Blasio, the mayor of New York City, told NBC's Chuck Todd he'd wait to see 'an actual vision' from Clinton before offering his support.  But that appears to have upset a leader of the pro-Clinton super PAC Ready for Hillary.  Hilary Rosen, who is on the super PAC's finance council, took to Twitter to voice her displeasure.  '@BilldeBlasio's self aggrandizing on #MeetthePress at @hillaryclintons expense won't go un noticed. #Ridiculous,' tweeted Rosen, a Democratic strategist."  Yeah, a real hot strategist.  Attacking the mayor of the country's largest city because he's delaying his endorsement may well reflect the real personality of Clinton's campaign.  I'm not surprised.

ADVICE FROM THE CUBAN REGIME – From ABC News:  "Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez told ABC news in an exclusive interview hours after the famous handshake between Raul Castro and Barack Obama that the U.S. president should use executive action to remove parts of the embargo immediately.  'The U.S. president keeps very broad basis, very wide executive powers, for use in with a real determination and the president could make the difference in the practical implementation of the blockade,' he said. 'And there is a practical indication to engage to the congress in a debate on these matters.'"  Thanks for the advice.  But I do think we can make these decisions by ourselves.  When Bibi spoke before Congress, the Obamans accused him of interfering in the internal affairs of the United States.  I wonder if the same charge will now be made against the Cuban foreign minister.  Don't hold your breath.  We know where Obama's sympathies lie.

April 12,  2015     Permalink

PATHETIC – AT 12:31 P.M. ET:  President Obama regularly reminds us of why he's often called "the amateur."  It's because he is.  From Reuters: 

(Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama expressed optimism on Saturday that major world powers and Iran could finalize a deal to curb Iran's nuclear program despite strong words this week from the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Obama downplayed Khamenei's demands that a final deal result in an end to all sanctions on Iran, telling reporters at the Americas summit in Panama that Khamenei and others in Iran were addressing their own internal politics.

"Even a guy with the title 'Supreme Leader' has to be concerned about his own constituencies," Obama said.

The Supreme Leader executes his opponents.  He doesn't worry about them.

"There may be ways of structuring a final deal that satisfy their pride, their optics, their politics, but meet our core practical objectives," Obama said at the news conference.

That is impossible by definition.  Doesn't this student-government president understand that?

Iran and world powers reached a framework nuclear agreement on April 2 that would require Iran to shut down parts of its nuclear program that could be used to build a bomb, and accept intrusive inspections, in exchange for the West lifting economic sanctions.

Negotiators need to finalize technical details by June 30.

"What I've always said, though, is that there's the possibility of backsliding," Obama said, noting the final deal would require tough talks and may not result in a deal that he would sign.

COMMENT:  The problem is that we've already made so many concessions that the deal, even whitewashed, is less than the very minimum that Obama set for it only a few years ago.

We also now learn that Iran's ballistic-missile program is off the table.  They won't discuss it.  It will be taken up by the UN, which means it won't be taken up seriously at all.  But why?  The only purpose for ballistic missiles is carrying nuclear warheads.  If Iran weren't intent on developing nuclear weapons, why would they need ICBM's?  Why won't they even discuss them?

Obama's amateurism, combined with his chronic deceit, is a very dangerous brew for this country and for civilization.  This is what happens when you put a kid in the White House.

April 12,  2015     Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  I don't usually quote Maureen Dowd, of The New York Times, but occasionally she nails it.  She does so today, with her column on Hillary Clinton's entry into the 2016 presidential sweeps.  You can just feel the knife going into Clinton's back. 

As the old maxim goes, if you can fake humility, you’ve got it made. But seeing Rahm and Hillary do it in the same season might be too much to take.

President Obama has said: “If she’s her wonderful self, I’m sure she’s going to do great.” But which self is that?

Instead of a chilly, scripted, entitled policy wonk, as in 2008, Hillary plans to be a warm, spontaneous, scrappy fighter for average Americans. Instead of a woman campaigning like a man, as in 2008, she will try to stir crowds with the idea of being the first woman president. Instead of haughtily blowing off the press, as in 2008, she will make an effort to play nice.

It’s a do-or-die remodeling, like when you put a new stainless steel kitchen in a house that doesn’t sell.

In 1992, Clinton strategists wrote a memo aiming to recast Hillary in a skeptical public’s mind as a warm, loving mother. They even suggested an event where Bill and Chelsea would surprise Hillary on Mother’s Day.

Now, after 25 years on the national stage, Hillary is still hitting the reset button on her image, this time projecting herself as a warm, loving grandmother.

COMMENT:  And that is the point.  After eight years of a president we really can't claim we know, a president who abruptly changed his policies after the 2014 elections, do we really want another fraud in the White House?

Do we really want another "first," regardless of quality or integrity?

Are we really ready for Hillary?

I hope we aren't.  The country is in trouble, and we need character in the White House, someone we can trust.  Many people who voted for Ronald Reagan didn't agree with him on some issues, but they trusted him.  He'd shown he was a man of principle, not someone who changed with the tides.  He never "reinvented" himself.  There was never a need for a "new Reagan."  The fact that there's a need for a "new Hillary" should disqualify her from an office that has been abused since 2009, and must now be restored.

April 12, 2015       Permalink

SHE DIDN'T NEED THIS – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  As we breathlessly anticipate Hillary's announcement today that she will run for Queen, it is clear that there are forces out to hurt her.  From Fox: 

PANAMA CITY – President Barack Obama says he thinks Hillary Rodham Clinton would be "an excellent president."

Clinton is expected to launch her long-anticipated second run for president on Sunday with an online video.

Obama says Clinton was a formidable candidate against him when they competed for the Democratic nomination in 2008.

He says she became a great supporter of his in the general election that year, and that she was an outstanding secretary of state during his first term.

Says Obama: "I think she would be an excellent president."

He adds that Clinton will have strong messages to deliver if she does decide to run.

COMMENT:  It's like the embrace of the Mafia.  What Obama was really saying to Hillary with that "endorsement" was, "You'll support all my policies and give me public love...or else." 

Obama's comments came after a rash of stories yesterday reporting that the Clinton team is deciding how close to Obama Clinton needs to be.  Now he's telling her bluntly.  He's an unpopular president, but she needs his support to avoid trouble from the left wing of the Democratic Party, which is loud, rude, and obnoxious.

April 12,  2015     Permalink