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

AUGUST 4,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:22 P.M. ET: 

WHOOPS – Don't tell Al Gore.  From WaPo:  "Death Valley, Calif., which is known for being the world’s hottest location, maxed out at a relatively chilly 89 degrees on Sunday. This temperature – nearly 30 degrees below average – was its coolest high temperature on record for the date by a whopping 15 degrees. The previous record of 104 was set in 1945.  This was only the eighth time that a high in the 80s has occurred in Death Valley in July or August, and there hasn’t been a high less than 90 since 1984. Weather records in Death Valley go back to 1911."  See, global warming causes cool temperatures also, and it makes the tooth fairy sleepy.

ABSURD – From Britain's left-wing Guardian:  "Some of the world’s top PR companies have for the first time publicly ruled out working with climate change deniers, marking a fundamental shift in the multi-billion dollar industry that has grown up around the issue of global warming.  Public relations firms have played a critical role over the years in framing the debate on climate change and its solutions – as well as the extensive disinformation campaigns launched to block those initiatives.  Now a number of the top 25 global PR firms have told the Guardian they will not represent clients who deny man-made climate change, or take campaigns seeking to block regulations limiting carbon pollution. Companies include WPP, Waggener Edstrom (WE) Worldwide, Weber Shandwick, Text100, and Finn Partners."  This is disgraceful.  It is the kind of mentality George Orwell warned against.

FACING REALITY – From The Hill:  "Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) is pulling support from two controversial initiatives meant for Colorado's November ballot that sought to restrict fracking for natural gas in the state.  Polis played a leading role in bankrolling the two measures and planned to submit more than 200,000 signatures Monday, the deadline for them to make it onto the ballot this fall. The green group behind the initiatives said it would officially pull them once the natural gas industry removes ballot motions of its own.  The anti-fracking measures created a rift among Colorado Democrats in recent months and threatened to hurt Sen. Mark Udall and Gov. John Hickenlooper in their reelection bids."  Fracking is creating an energy revolution for the United States.  Of course it has to be done carefully, but it can be.  It is a major factor in making this country energy independent.

LITERARY NEWS – From the Washington Free Beacon:  "Hamas has been disseminating to its followers in the Gaza Strip a detailed terrorism training manual that teaches would-be bombers how to make explosives and conceal them in household items such as televisions, according to documents seized by the Israeli military during recent raids.  Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers discovered the handbook on the ground in the Gaza Strip as they conducted raids of homes and other facilities used by Hamas to plan its terror activities.  Hamas’ terrorism manuals instruct readers on how to build homemade explosive devices and how to set them to explode in unlikely places.  Hamas has even strapped explosives to donkeys and attempted to send them after Israeli soldiers."  A must for every home library.  Soon to be a minor motion picture.

August 4, 2014       Permalink

IMPEACHMENT? – AT 11:30 A.M. ET:  The word is on many lips, but forget it.  It ain't gonna happen, and shouldn't.  Americans, even though they are turning against Obama in droves, still don't want him impeached.  They see impeachment as far too extreme. 

They are right.  Stability is one of the marvels of the American political system, and part of that stability is the fact that it is extremely hard to remove an elected president.  But John Fund has an alternative strategy – censure.  Consider it.  From NRO: 

Impeachment is akin to detonating a nuclear weapon on the field of politics. The American people shy away from impeachment. In a new CNN poll, fully 79 percent believe it should be reserved only for “serious crimes.” “Not only is its explicit purpose to legislatively overturn the sovereign judgment of the people at the ballot box, its impact on the work of the government, and on our domestic tranquility, is deeply corrosive,” notes Charles Cooper, who was head of the Office of Legal Counsel in Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department. The OLC is tasked with acting as counsel for the president and attorney general on the constitutionality of laws and executive actions.

Cooper does believe President Obama has crossed a line that merits a serious impeachment inquiry. He notes that President Clinton’s lawyers, relying on a seminal House Judiciary Committee report on the Nixon impeachment, argued in 1998 that impeachment is to be “predicated only upon conduct seriously incompatible with . . . the proper performance of constitutional duties of the president office.” Among those are “conduct undermining the integrity of office, disregard of constitutional duties and oath of office, arrogation of power, [and] abuse of the governmental process.” In Cooper’s view, such actions have become just part of another day at the office for President Obama. In the new CNN poll, only 33 percent of Americans favor impeaching Obama, but a full 45 percent believe he has abused his powers as president.

There is another option, short of impeachment, for sanctioning the President’s unconstitutional conduct in office. The House of Representatives can and should in coming months prepare and debate a unicameral resolution identifying and condemning President Obama’s usurpations of legislative power and his repeated refusal to faithfully execute the laws.

The Congressional Research Service has identified a number of historical precedents in which the Senate or the House has adopted a resolution of censure or disapproval of a president or other executive or judicial officers. Indeed, in 1998, Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein and 37 co-sponsors introduced a joint resolution in the Senate that enumerated President Clinton’s various misdeeds, and “condemn[ed] his wrongful conduct in the strongest terms.” Likewise, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic members of the House proposed similar resolutions, declaring that President Clinton’s actions “fully deserve the censure and condemnation of the American people and the Congress.”

COMMENT:  Good idea.  I hope it's done. 

August 4,  2014     Permalink

THE ROAD TO HELL – AT 9:53 A.M. ET:  The constant refrain we're hearing these days is Obama's retreat from the world, a retreat bathed in weakness.  Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post gives a very useful review of how the president of the United States lost his clout, a loss for which Americans will pay a heavy price:

How did Obama lose his clout? His supporters portray him as the mostly innocent victim of mistakes by his predecessor and a disorderly period in global affairs. But many foreign diplomats and officials I’ve spoken to see it differently. They point to a series of steps by Obama that accelerated the collapse of U.S. influence. First among them is the imprudent military withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, tied by Obama to arbitrary (or political) timetables rather than conditions on the ground.

Next comes Obama’s decision not to go forward with air strikes against Syria after its use of chemical weapons last year. It’s true that the president managed to leverage his stand down into a mostly successful operation to eliminate Damascus’s declared chemical weapons stockpile. Yet many senior foreign officials, especially in Asia, see in the administration’s Syria decision an augur of likely unwillingness to follow through on other red lines — whether in the South China Sea or on Iran’s nuclear program.

Then there were Obama’s speeches. At the United Nations last fall, he announced that U.S. human rights concerns would be subordinated with governments “who work with us on our core interests,” which he defined as including the free flow of oil but not the promotion of democracy or prevention of genocide. That was taken to heart by the rulers of Egypt and Bahrain, who abandoned their previous efforts to satisfy U.S. concerns about political prisoners and tolerance of opposition. At West Point in May, Obama gave a speech that, I’m reliably told, dismayed Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi; it hailed the “political reforms opening a once-closed society” without mentioning the generals’ broken promises, thereby encouraging more backsliding.

Perhaps the most gratuitous administration failing has been its reluctance to respond to the slights inflicted on it even by minor powers. Bahrain’s extraordinary expulsion of State’s human rights envoy prompted only a routine statement of “concern;” so did the criminal charges against Saakashvili. The administration could easily punish and deter such governments; ambassadors could be recalled, military aid withheld, exercises and official visits canceled. Instead, the message goes out that the Obama administration can be defied with impunity — and the bank run continues.

COMMENT:  Very well said.  However, Americans must be made more aware of our perceived weakness, which is muffled by the obliging Obama press.  Our side must contrast Obama's approach with the successful "peace through strength" policy of most American presidents since World War II. 

I'm concerned about a growing isolationist wing in the Republican Party.  Not only is it wrong on the merits, but it can blur our message and neutralize our policies.  We must not go there.

August 4,  2014     Permalink

JOBS – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:  President Obama has been goin' around recently boasting about the latest jobs figures.  In fact, the jobs figures are really nothing to write home about.

Obama has been noting that this year we have created more than 200,000 jobs each month.  What he doesn't note is that we have to create 150,000 each month just to keep up with population growth.  So our net gain is much smaller than it appears.  Andrew Malcolm, at IBD, has a devastating picture of the real jobs record of this administration:

Here's the pathetic truth about jobs under these guys:

According to the latest figures from their own Department of Labor, since Jan. 20, 2009, that chilly first inauguration day, 11,472,000 Americans have left the workforce.

That's as if every living human being in the state of Ohio was working and then wasn't. Or the entire population of four Chicago's. Or 14 San Francisco's. Or almost 18 Washington, D.C.'s went jobless.

Put another way, ever since Aretha Franklin's huge hat sang-in Obama's era of "Hope & Change," 5,682 Americans were out of a job every single day of every single week -- even the weeks Obama was vacationing. As he will be again later this week for half the month. After again promising to do everything he can to boost the economy.

COMMENT:  So, when Americans say they really don't see any improvement, they're seeing the picture accurately.  And many of the jobs that actually are being created are part-time or low-level jobs, replacing full-time and quality jobs.

Welcome to the recovery.

August 4,  2014     Permalink

NOTHING TO SEE, NOTHING TO SEE – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:  The war on terror is over, isn't it?  Isn't that what Field Marshal Obama has told us?  Yeah, right.  From The Times of Israel, this morning: 

A tractor driven by a Palestinian man rammed into a bus in central Jerusalem early Monday afternoon, close to the “seam” between the western and eastern parts of the city

A male pedestrian approximately 30 years old was run over by the tractor as it headed toward the bus and was killed. The tractor driver, identified as East Jerusalem resident Muhammed Naif El-Ja’abis, turned the bus over onto its side during the attack, making several efforts to do so before he succeeded. The bus driver as well as five others were lightly hurt.

Police said the attack, which took place at the end of Shmuel Hanavi Street, near the Olive Tree Hotel, was nationalistically motivated.

A police officer and Prisons Service official who realized what was happening ran up to the tractor and fired a volley of shots at the terrorist as he sat in the cab and killed him, Jerusalem police chief Yossi Pariente said.

The tractor driver was identified by Palestinians on social media as Muhammed Naif El-Ja’abis from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber.

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said the terrorist was known to the authorities from a previous incident, and that his family was being questioned.

COMMENT:  We have had incidents like this around the world, quickly suppressed by the "let's move on" elements of the media.   In 2007 two Islamists plowed a Jeep Cherokee loaded with propane canisters into the main terminal at Glasgow International Airport.  In the United States there was an attempt to run down students at a southern university, but the incident was barely reported. 

Terrorism is growing, not diminishing.  Most attempts will fail, but some perpetrators will get through.

August 4,  2014     Permalink

AUGUST 3,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:54 P.M. ET: 

AMERICAN ICON FADING – Not a huge story, but sad.  From Boston.com:  "The technology retailer RadioShack, which has spiraled downward in recent months, is rapidly running out of money, CNN Money reports. The chain may not be around for much longer.  CNN says the retailer, which operates 4,000 stores, only has $62 million in the bank. Coffers may run dry as early as the fall of 2015.  RadioShack officials say they need to close roughly one of every five stores—a total 1,100 locations altogether—and it seems that the chain lacks the funds even to do that."  They've kind of been bypassed by true high-tech stores with a lot more style, like the Apple Store.  I only go to Radio Shack for little things, like cleaner for electronic connections and small parts, or odd-sized batteries.  It's always been nice to know you could get any kind of plug.  It'll be sad to see the stores go.

OH, LEAVE US ALONE – More mischief from Michelle Obama.  From The Wall Street Journal:  "At Chapman School in Nebraska, resourceful students hawk pizza and cookie dough to raise money for school supplies, field trips and an eighth-grade excursion to Washington. They peddle chocolate bars to help fund the yearbook.  But the sales won't be so sweet starting this fall. Campus bake sales—a mainstay of school fundraisers—are going on a diet. A federal law that aims to curb childhood obesity means that, in dozens of states, bake sales must adhere to nutrition requirements that could replace cupcakes and brownies with fruit cups and granola bars."  Yeah, those fruit cups will raise millions for the yearbook.   Maybe it'll become the once-every-five-year-book.  Michelle, leave us alone.

THOSE CLASSY DEMOCRATS – From WHAS.COM:  "As partisans prepared for the much anticipated Fancy Farm speeches Saturday afternoon, the Kentucky Democratic Party has delivered a sharp rebuke to a series of comments on Twitter from a Democratic operative who referenced the ethnicity of Elaine Chao, the wife of Republican U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell.  'Google Elaine Chao, #MitchMcConnell's wife,' Groob tweeted Saturday morning. 'No mention of Kentucky, she is Asian.'"  Okay, at least the party of multiculturalism cracked down on the fool, but it's amazing any party operative can think in those terms these days.

August 3, 2014       Permalink

REMARKABLE – AT 11:55 A.M. ET:   The signs keep coming – a gradual realignment in the Mideast, responding to the vacuum created by the weakening of the United States created by the administration of Chicago Field Marshal Barack Obama.  Israel and the moderate Arabs on one side, the nuts on the other.  From Breitbart: 

In a stunning five minute statement read on state television late Friday, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, leader of Israel’s oldest and most implacable foe, called the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza a “collective massacre” caused by Hamas.

It is just the latest signal in a tectonic shift in Middle East geopolitics that has been largely overlooked by Western media seemingly still committed to building upon its decades-old narrative that Israel remains the united enemy of the Arab world.

In the 75 year history of conflict between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East, no state has been more consistently intransigent against the very notion of a sovereign Jewish presence in the region than the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, founded by Abdullah’s grandfather, Ibn Saud, in 1923.

Just weeks ago, before Hamas’s current war against Israel, it would have unthinkable to suggest that a Saudi King would even hint that any entity other than Israel bore any responsibilities for actions perceived as harmful to Palestinians.

Abdullah’s statement, read by a news anchor on behalf of the ailing 90-year old Monarch, that the violence in Gaza has led to “various forms” of terrorism, whether from groups, organizations, or states, is seen in the Middle East and Arab states as a flat-out repudiation of Hamas.

Perhaps even more remarkable, while King Abdullah condemned the consequences of a war he termed “devastating” to Palestinians, he issued no demands upon Israel.

As has been pointed out numerous times by Breitbart contributors, Saudi Arabia’s now open disavowal of any common cause with Hamas reinforces an emerging and wholly improbable new alliance uniting every Arab state save Qatar together with Israel and against the United States.

As remarkable as was King Abdullah’s statement by itself, it pales in comparison with the transformation of the relationship between Egypt and Israel. From cold no-belligerents under President Mubarak, to near antagonists under the Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohammed Morsi, today Israel and Egypt are tightly cleaved military allies.

In the harshest words ever used by a Saudi King to condemn any Palestinian “resistance” to what is routinely called “Zionist aggression,” King Abdullah’s statement said, “It is shameful and disgraceful that these terrorists are doing this in the name of religion, killing the people whose killing Allah has forbidden, and mutilating their bodies and feeling proud in publishing this.”

COMMENT:  This is clearly happening.  Egypt likes the idea of a quiet alliance with Israel.  The two countries help each other, and Israel has no interest in overthrowing the Egyptian government.

And the United States?  I just don't know.  Under Obama it has undercut Israel, tried to undercut the pro-American factions in Egypt, abandoned Iraq, ignored the plight of Christians, and embraced the nutty top man in Turkey.  Maybe the shrewd operators in the region are getting the message.

August 3, 2014        Permalink

TOUGH SLEDDING FOR DEMS – AT 11:06 A.M. ET:  Remember – the only poll that counts is the one on election day.  But the ones taken now show trends.  And I'm happy to report that our side seems to have a good chance in November, according to current trends.  From Newsmax: 

Slightly more Americans identify politically as being Democrats than Republicans, but that isn't enough to overcome voters' major dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama, the economy, and other factors — and could spell a tough time for Democrats at the polls this year, a new Gallup Poll concludes.

According to the poll, released Thursday, 42 percent of Americans say they are Democrats or they are Democratic-leaning independents, and 40 percent say they are Republicans or lean right.

But that advantage doesn't bode well when compared to historical patterns. The numbers parallel what Gallup found at the same point during similar midterm years of 1994, 2002, and 2010 that went strongly Republican at the polls, not what was measured when Democrats went strong in 1998 and 2006.

When paired with a June Gallup Poll that revealed that just 1 in 4 Americans are satisfied with the direction in which the country is heading, and showing that Obama's popularity is at the same low point as in 2010, the pollster said that the indicators are pointing to many difficulties for Democrats once again.

In 2010, when the president's job approval rating hovered around the 40 percent mark, Democrats ended up losing more than 60 House seats.

"Only two presidents have had lower job approval ratings in recent midterm elections — George W. Bush in 2006 and Ronald Reagan in 1982," Gallup pointed out in June.

"In those years, the president's party lost more than 20 seats, suggesting seat loss is not always proportional to presidential job approval, but underscoring the peril the president's party faces when his approval rating is below 50 percent."

In the more recent poll, Gallup noted that the indicators will not likely change by November, so the Democratic Party will have to "match or exceed Republican turnout this fall if they hope to keep control of the Senate and minimize the size of the Republican majority in the House."

Another issue is that more Republicans tend to vote than Democrats in midterm elections, and the advantage "leaves the Democratic Party politically vulnerable in midterm election years when they do not have a significant cushion in partisanship," said Gallup.

In fact, in years like this one, when Democrats have a slightly higher percentage, Republican turnout advantages have led to GOP victories for House seats in 1994, 2002, and 2010, the report said.

COMMENT:  Well, we certainly hope so.  But I still say that our side must fight as if it's 20 points behind.  And I still argue that the unmeasurable but potent factor of media bias will come into play.

But I like good polls.  I sleep better at night.

August 3, 2014      Permalink

THE RETURN OF MITT – AT 10:34 A.M. ET:  He's back.  Mitt Romney, that is.  From being the loser who disappeared after the 2012 election – some said Federal Express couldn't even find him – Romney has now become the most requested speaker on the Republican circuit.  Is there another run in his future?  WaPo reports: 

President Obama thumped Mitt Romney in the 2012 election, but now their political standings seem reversed. During a summer in which Democratic candidates are keeping their distance from an unpopular president, Romney is emerging as one of the Republican Party’s most in-demand campaign surrogates.

Over three days in mid-August, Romney will campaign for GOP Senate and gubernatorial candidates in West Virginia, North Carolina and Arkansas, aides said. In September, he is planning visits to the presidential swing states of Colorado and Virginia.

Romney is filling up his October schedule, as well. Senate hopefuls in Iowa and New Hampshire are eager for him to return before November’s midterms, while Romney is weighing trips to other Senate battlegrounds. At least one high-profile Senate campaign said it has produced a television advertisement featuring Romney ready to air in the fall.

“Democrats don’t want to be associated with Barack Obama right now, but Republicans are dying to be associated with Mitt Romney,” said Spencer Zwick, a longtime Romney confidant who chaired his national finance council. He added: “Candidates, campaigns and donors in competitive races are calling saying, ‘Can we get Mitt here?’ They say, ‘We’ve looked at the polling, and Mitt Romney moves the needle for us.’ That’s somewhat unexpected for someone who lost the election.”

For a party without a consensus leader — nor a popular elder statesman like Democratic former president Bill Clinton — Romney is stepping forward in both red and blue states to fill that role for the GOP.

And...

Romney continues to deny interest in a third presidential run in 2016, but his moves have his supporters yearning for him to give it a go and arguing that he would be a stronger candidate than last time.

COMMENT:  We have to be careful here.  I like Romney.  I think he'd make a fine center-right president.  He's a practical guy who knows that problems have to be solved, not just discussed.  Current polls say that Americans would elect him over Obama if the election were held today.

But it isn't being held today.  And if Romney runs in 2016, he won't be running against Barack, but, in all probability, against Hillary.  And the same polls that tell us that voters would today pick Romney over Obama also tell us they'd pick Clinton over Romney.

Remember also that a candidate is most popular just before he announces.  Once he announces the negatives start coming out. 

I'd love to see Romney make another try.  The party could look him over and make its choice.  But just don't assume that this fine man is a miracle worker.

August 3,  2014     Permalink