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AUGUST 28,  2014

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

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE – From the Local (Norway):  "Statistics Norway (Statistisk Sentralbyrå - SSB) has counted the population of Oslo and found that Mohammed is the most common male name in Oslo for the first time ever.  Altogether 4,801 boys and men are named Mohammed or variations of Mohammed as their first name, and Mohammed has thereby passed both Jan (4,667) and Per (4,155).  The name has spent four years in a row at the top of the list of baby names in Oslo, but this is the first time that Mohammed tops the men's name list for Oslo."  I'm sure the multiculturalists in Norway are thrilled to death.  As we all know, all Mohammeds are blond.

WEIRD – Obama's press conference today, during which he wore a tan summer suit that made him look like a local hustler, was weird.  Obama informed us that the Russian invasion of Ukraine doesn't much change things, and also admitted that he doesn't yet have a strategy for dealing with the Islamic State.  It's just so thrilling to see leadership at work.  A real Caesar, this one.  That's Freddie Caesar, a community organizer in Camden, New Jersey.

THAT DATE – From the Washington Times:  "The U.S. intelligence community has observed a 'significant increase' in chatter among terrorist organizations as the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks nears.  'We’ve noticed a significant increase in chatter among Islamic terrorist organizations overseas both on the Internet and phone lines,' a U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Blaze.   While the intelligence community can not pinpoint whether or not an attack is planned, the official said that agencies 'did see this kind of increase in chatter before the September 11 attacks.'"  Eternal vigilance, my friends.

OBAMA RAPPED IN POLLS – From Gallup:  "WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans are more than twice as likely to say they 'strongly disapprove' (39%) of President Barack Obama's job performance as they are to say they 'strongly approve' (17%). The percentage of Americans who strongly disapprove of Obama has increased over time, while the percentage who strongly approve has dropped by almost half."  And we still have more than two years with this guy.

August 28, 2014       Permalink

SEPTEMBER 11th IS TWO WEEKS AWAY – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:   And there is growing concern that one of the terror groups might try something, as they did in Benghazi two years ago.  There is special concern because the Islamic State (or ISIS, or ISIL) is getting so much publicity, and competition among these terror organizations can be intense, and personal.  Will Al Qaeda use September 11th to prove it's back in the game?  We hope not, but eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.  From Fox: 

A new English-language Al Qaeda magazine features a how-to article on making car bombs and suggests terror targets in the United States, including casinos in Las Vegas, oil tankers and military colleges, and implies that an attack is imminent.

The online publication, called “Palestine-Betrayal of the Guilty Conscience Al-Malahem” and put out by the media arm of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, calls for Muslims around the world to follow “the recipe” provided to set off car bombs in crowded venues. It includes a timeline of "selected jihadi operations" that the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which first flagged the slickly-produced latest edition of the terror publication, finds chilling.

“The timeline concludes with the date 201?’ and blank spaces and question marks for the photo and information of the next attack -- implying that it is coming soon.” said MEMRI Executive Director Steve Stalinsky.

There is a suggested list of targets for lone-wolf, or individually executed, terror attacks, including New York's Times Square, casinos and night clubs in Las Vegas, oil tankers and trains, the Georgia Military College, the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and General Atomics defense contractor in San Diego.

“This recipe gives you the ability to make a car bomb even in countries with tight security and surveillance,” one article reads, before providing a “shopping list” of supplies needed to make such a bomb, including cooking gas, oxygen gas, a barometer, decoration lamps and matches.

There is also a list of targets in Britain including a military academy and the Marks and Spencers chain of department stores. The magazine calls for the stores to be hit on Friday during prayers so that Muslims won’t be affected.

Globally, AQAP calls for the targeting of tourist resorts frequented by Israelis, Britons and Americans.

COMMENT:  The last successful attack was the Boston Marathon bombing, on April 15th of last year.  Nothing would surprise me right now.  If anything, terror groups have become more active and more militant in the last year, while our government has become confused and weak.

August 28, 2014       Permalink 

UKRAINE BULLETIN – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  It appears something very big is happening in Ukraine.  Facts are sketchy, but this could truly be an international explosion.  From CNN:

Kiev, Ukraine (CNN) -- Pro-Moscow rebel forces in eastern Ukraine, backed by Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers, battled government forces on two fronts Thursday, a Ukrainian military official said.

The fighting was taking place southeast of Donetsk, and along the nation's southern coast in the town of Novoazovsk, about 12 miles (20 km) from the Russian border, according to Mykhailo Lysenko, the deputy commander of the Ukrainian Donbas battalion.

"This is a full-scale invasion," Lysenko said, referring to the fighting in the south.
U.S. officials also said Russian troops were directly involved in the latest fighting, despite Moscow's denials.

Intelligence now indicates that up to 1,000 Russian troops have moved into southern Ukraine with heavy weapons and are fighting there, a U.S. official told CNN on Thursday.

Ukraine's National Defense and Security Council said that Russian forces were in full control of Novoazovsk as of Wednesday afternoon.

COMMENT:  We understand that Ukraine has asked for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.  We haven't yet heard from Field Marshal Obama, who is undoubtedly assessing the situation from his command bunker at the 16th hole. 

One thing we must watch for, if Ukraine explodes and the Islamic State continues its run in Iraq, is a crisis erupting somewhere else, as in Asia, if some adversary believes we're now distracted and stretched thin.  It isn't hard to believe that, considering who's in charge in Washington.

August 28, 2014       Permalink

ROMNEY? – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  Look, there's a lot of buzz about this on the internet.  The argument is that respect for Romney has grown and that he already has presidential stature.  From The Politico: 

The day after Mitt Romney opened the door to another possible presidential run, a new poll shows he has a huge lead among likely 2016 Iowa Republican caucus voters.

According to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll released Wednesday, 35 percent of likely GOP caucus voters would vote for the 2012 GOP nominee in 2016. When Romney’s name was added to the pool, no other candidate received double-digit vote

The survey comes as rumors have begun to swirl about a potential Romney bid for president in 2016. After months of insisting that he will not run again, the former Massachusetts governor on Tuesday acknowledged that “circumstances can change.”

“Circumstances can change, but I’m just not going to let my head go there,” he said during an interview on the “The Hugh Hewitt Show” radio program.

COMMENT:  Part of his lead in Iowa can no doubt be attributed to name recognition.  But I think the story is larger.  The Republican presidential field is wide, but not very deep.  No one stands out as an obvious choice, and Republicans know how difficult it will be to build a new candidate, especially in the face of hostile media. 

The problem here is an obvious one:  Romney will not be facing Obama in 2016, a man he could probably defeat today.  He'll probably be facing Hillary Clinton, and polls show she would win by about ten points.  That doesn't mean the situation is static.  Polls change.  But Romney did not prove himself an adept candidate in 2012.  There were gaffes and the chronic presence of a tin ear, as when he said he wife drove "a couple of Cadillacs."  There was the building of a new mansion right in the middle of a presidential campaign.

For Romney to run again he will have to show he's a better, quicker, more sensitive candidate.  I have no idea whether he can do it.  I think he'd make a solid president, but you've got to be elected first, or, in the case of Obama, anointed.

August 28, 2014        Permalink

GETTING HOTTER ALL THE TIME – AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  The issue is recruitment of jihadis in the West, people who can be trained in murder and sent back to their native countries.  Sometimes they don't make the whole trip.  From Fox: 

A second American reportedly killed fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria has been identified as Abdirahmaan Muhumed, of Minneapolis, two sources told Fox News late Wednesday.

KMSP-TV in Minneapolis reported that Muhumed was killed in the same battle as Douglas McAuthur McCain, who grew up outside Minneapolis in the town of New Hope and most recently lived in San Diego. The State Department confirmed McCain's death earlier this week, but spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the U.S. has no independent confirmation of the second American's death. "We're looking into it," she said.

A source told Fox News that Muhumed's family had been sent a photo of his body from Syria, but had not been formally notified by the State Department. Fox News was unable to contact the family.

A profile of Muhumed by Minnesota Public Radio this past June described him as a 29-year-old Somali-American who had been married more than once and was a father of nine children. MPR reported, citing the FBI, that at least 15 young men from the Twin Citites' Somali-American community had traveled to Syria to join Islamic State, the militant group formerly known as ISIS that has captured wide swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq.

In a Facebook messages to an MPR reporter, Muhumed wrote "I give up this worldly life for Allah" and "Allah loves those who fight for his cause." A picture posted on the social network showed Muhumed carrying a Koran in one hand and a rifle in the other.

Federal investigators believe that approximately 100 Americans have traveled to Syria to join Islamist groups. Most of them are disaffected young men targeted by recruitment videos like those one put out by the Somali-based, Al Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab that praised Minnesota's "martyrs." One such "martyr" was Troy Kastigar, a high school classmate of Douglas McCain and a Muslim convert who was killed in Somalia in 2009.

Abdi Bihi, a leader in the Twin Cities' Somalian community, told KMSP that ISIS has recently begun trying to recruit young women from the Twin Cities to their cause.

"They are brainwashing them to marry them off to jihadists," he said. "They call them to help out as nurses, help out the wounded -- but the real catch is they will be sexually exploited."

COMMENT:  Hmm.  I wonder how many "women's" organizations on the political left will intervene to help these Somali women before they become victims.  Don't hold your breath.  On the left there is a pecking order, and the lives of women are far down the list.  What is disgraceful is that "feminist" groups go along with this.

As to the rest of the piece, it is only a matter of time before some of the jihadis return to the U.S. on their valid American passports and pull off something ghastly.

August 28,  2014     Permalink

AUGUST 27,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:50 P.M. ET: 

MEXICANS LIKE USA – From Breitbart:  "As Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto travels across California and declares America to be 'the other Mexico,' a Pew Research survey has found that 60% of Mexicans disapprove of Peña Nieto on the economy. Perhaps as a result, a plurality of Mexicans think that life is better across the border, and a third want to move to America."   Only a third?  What did we do wrong?

FAMILY VALUES – From the New York Post:  "A sister of the Boston Marathon bombers was busted in New York City Wednesday for allegedly threatening to blow up her live-in lover’s baby mama, The Post has learned.  Ailina Tsarnaeva, who lives in North Bergen, NJ, allegedly phoned the woman at her Harlem home on Monday and warned her to keep her distance or face explosive consequences.  'Leave us alone. I know people who can put a bomb on you,' Tsarnaeva, 23, allegedly said.  Law-enforcement sources said Tsarnaeva’s boyfriend, George Briones, is currently embroiled in a bitter custody dispute with his ex over their three kids."  Aw, come on.  Maybe she just wants to practice the family profession

BRUISED FEELINGS AT NBC – And how concerned we are.  From the New York Post:  "NBC News president Deborah Turness had to apologize after infuriating top execs and talent by announcing the network news organization had been asleep for 15 years.  Turness, who came to the job from Britain’s ITV News one year ago, dropped the tactless clanger in a New York Times interview on Sunday, saying, 'NBC News hadn’t kept up with the times in all sorts of ways, for maybe 15 years . . . I think the organization had gone to sleep.'  Sources tell us Tom Brokaw, managing editor and anchor of NBC’s 'Nightly News' from 1982 until 2004, Turness’ predecessor Steve Capus (NBC News president from 2005 to 2013 and now executive producer of “CBS Evening News”) and CNN chief Jeff Zucker 'are apoplectic' over Turness’ remark."  Actually, I prefer them asleep to awake.  Less damage.

I'M AFRAID IT'S TRUE – From Newsmax:  "CNN has been transformed from a sober and respected news network into a shrill and biased mouthpiece for liberals, according to actor, author and economist Ben Stein.  Stein, a speechwriter for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, said the dramatic change is particularly noticeable in CNN's coverage of the racial strife in Ferguson, Mo., following the fatal shooting of a black teen by a white police officer.  'They've flipped out. I don't know what happened to CNN because CNN used to really be great and I can remember when it was great,' Stein said Tuesday on 'The Steve Malzberg Show' on Newsmax TV."  Well, I'm not sure it was ever great.  They've had, and still have, some fine people, but the tilt to the left, especially over Ferguson and Gaza, is unmistakable  They're doomed.

August 27, 2014       Permalink

GREAT STORY – AT 9:03 A.M. ET:  It is wonderful to feel a connection with history, and especially with honor.  From Fox:   

The White House has announced that a Union Army officer killed at the Battle of Gettysburg will receive the Medal of Honor next month in a White House ceremony.

The decision to honor 1st. Lt. Alonzo Cushing, originally of Wisconsin, brings a successful end to a campaign by Cushing's descendants and Civil War buffs that began in the late 1980s with a series of letters to then-Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire.

Congress granted a special exemption last December for Cushing to receive the award posthumously since recommendations normally have to be made within two years of the act of heroism and the medal awarded within three years.

Cushing was born in 1841 in Delafield, Wisconsin, raised in Fredonia, New York, and buried at his alma mater, West Point. At Gettysburg, he commanded about 110 men and six cannons as part of Battery A of the 4th U.S. Artillery company.

During the battle, Cushing's small force stood their ground under a severe artillery bombardment as nearly 13,000 Confederate infantrymen waited to advance as part of Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863. Cushing was wounded, and his battery was left with two guns and no long-range ammunition. Historians say his stricken battery should have been withdrawn and replaced with reserve forces, but Cushing insisted on ordering his guns to the front lines on the last day of fighting. He was shot in the head and killed instantly.

"Refusing to evacuate to the rear despite his severe wounds, he directed the operation of his lone field piece continuing to fire in the face of the enemy," the White House said in its announcement. "With the rebels within 100 yards of his position, Cushing was shot and killed during this heroic stand. His actions made it possible for the Union Army to successfully repulse the Confederate assault."

More than 1,500 soldiers from the Civil War have received the Medal of Honor, most recently Cpl. Andrew Jackson Smith of Clinton, Ill., who was awarded the medal in 2001 by President Bill Clinton.

The White House also announced that Obama will award the medal in a ceremony on Sept. 15 to two Vietnam War soldiers who also received the congressional exemption — Army Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie G. Adkins and Army Spc. Donald P. Sloat.

The award also will be given posthumously to Sloat, who was killed in action in Vietnam on Jan. 17, 1970, at age 20. Sloat, of Coweta, Oklahoma, picked up a live grenade triggered by a fellow soldier and used his own body to shield the blast and save his fellow soldiers.

COMMENT:   We have always had great men and women.  I just hope we continue to honor them, and not yield to the degeneracy of the political left.

August 27, 2014       Permalink

BRITS TAKING IT SERIOUSLY – AT 8:27 A.M. ET:  There does seem to be an awakening in Britain toward the jihadist threat.  It took some time, but it took some time for Britain to recognize the Nazi threat before World War II.  Sadly, there's no Churchill this time, and part of the British press, the leftist part, has some sympathetic "understanding" of Muslim extremism.  But an awakening there is.  From Reuters: 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top counter-terrorism police officer said on Tuesday arrests linked to fighting in Syria had risen dramatically this year and that significant progress was being made to trace a British man suspected of murdering American journalist James Foley.

Launching an appeal to Muslim communities to help identify "aspiring terrorist," Mark Rowley, the National Policing Lead for Counter Terrorism, said Britain had been escalating its efforts to address rising terrorism problems relating to Syria.

"There is a lot at stake," Rowley said in a statement. "High priority operations, especially against those involved in attack planning or on the cusp have increased greatly."

A video released by Islamic State (IS) last week showing the beheading of Foley, apparently by a masked knifeman speaking English with a London accent stirred proposals for tough new laws to deal with British Islamist militants traveling to Iraq and Syria to join the jihadists.

"Every reasonable person in the country has been touched by the pitiless murder of James Foley at the hands of Islamic State terrorists, and the murderer's apparent British nationality has focused attention on extremism in the UK as well as the Middle East," he said in a statement.

"Investigators are making significant progress but we will not be giving a running commentary."

On Sunday, the British ambassador to the United States said Britain was close to identifying Foley's killer.

A number of possible identities have been suggested by British media although sources on both sides of the Atlantic have told Reuters that there was little likelihood of the British government naming the suspect imminently.

COMMENT:  Compare please to our government's pathetic attempts to minimize the threat posed by the Islamic State and other terror groups.  Indeed, the massacre at Fort Hood is still classified by the Pentagon as "workplace violence," even though the perpetrator was clearly an Islamic extremist. 

We have been relatively lucky in American history to have, in most cases, good leadership in times of crisis, or at least committed leadership.  Think Lincoln, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Reagan.  We are not lucky today.  I don't know if we can take two more years of this.

August 27, 2014       Permalink

TERROR WARNING – AT 8:08 A.M. ET:  Wait.  I thought the war on terror was over.  Maybe I was misinformed.  From Fox: 

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have sent out a bulletin to law enforcement officials warning that U.S. airstrikes in Iraq could provoke retaliation by Islamic State sympathizers in the U.S., Fox News has learned.

The warning on Friday comes shortly after U.S. intelligence officials said there is evidence foreign fighters have returned to their home countries and started Islamic State cells. While there is no evidence of a credible plot against the U.S. now, the latest bulletin warns that the lone wolf nature of the threat would make it difficult to thwart.

"It is difficult to predict triggers that will contribute to [homegrown violent extremists] attempting acts of violence," the bulletin said. "[Lone wolf terrorists] present law enforcement with limited opportunities to detect and disrupt plots, which frequently involve simple plotting against targets of opportunity."

Islamic State militants claimed last week that the execution of American journalist James Foley was in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes in Iraq.

The group's presence outside Iraq and Syria remains a mixed picture, according to intelligence officials -- with some operatives taking the initiative to start up operations and others tasked by senior leadership.

Still, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Monday downplayed the threat to the homeland at this point by the group, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

"We are concerned about the threat that is posed by ISIL, but it is the assessment, as stated by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, by the intelligence community, that there currently is not an active plot underway to attack the U.S. homeland by ISIL," Earnest said, in a carefully worded response.

The recent law enforcement bulletin also discussed the organization's social media strategy, warning that ISIS will continue to use Twitter hashtags to spread its propaganda -- essentially hijacking other news events to do so. (There are reports that this strategy was used to piggyback on the social media traffic following the California earthquake over the weekend.)

COMMENT:  You know, if the president would just level with the American people and assert the obvious – that the threat has increased and that he needs the help of all of us – his stature would grow, not diminish.  But he's a man obsessed with proving he was right all along, that he's incapable of error, and that his left-wing ideology will carry history.  He's wrong on all counts, but don't tell him.

August 27, 2014       Permalink

MORE THAN A LOCAL STORY – AT 7:46 A.M. ET:  How embarrassing.  A police union in the Democratic stronghold of New York City is warning the Democratic Party not to hold its 2016 convention in New York because...it's too dangerous.  I love it.  From The New York Times: 

A union of New York City police sergeants warned the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday against holding its 2016 convention in Brooklyn, issuing an open letter that doubled as a broadside against a mayoral administration with which some officers have grown increasingly frustrated.

In the letter, addressed to the group Mayor Bill de Blasio wooed during its visit to New York two weeks ago, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, Edward D. Mullins, said the city was going “backward to the bad old days of high crime, danger-infested public spaces and families that walk our streets worried for their safety.”

He presented a city overrun with “squeegee people” and other panhandlers, with shootings on the rise and morale among police officers flagging.

The city said it had enough hotel space to accommodate any guests, noting Midtown Manhattan’s proximity to the Barclays Center by train or car.

“The D.N.C. should choose another venue,” said the letter, which appeared as an advertisement in The New York Times and The New York Post. “Mayor de Blasio,” it continued, “has not earned the right to play host to such an important event.”

While shootings are up slightly, according to the de Blasio administration, the homicide rate has fallen 12.3 percent this year after a 20 percent decline in 2013, when there were 335 murders, punctuating a steep drop under the former mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg. The administration also noted that overall crime had fallen 3.6 percent this year.

Mr. de Blasio, speaking at an unrelated news conference in Brooklyn on Tuesday, called the union’s actions “opportunistic” and “irresponsible.”

“It’s fear-mongering to try and benefit their own position in contract talks,” he said. “Don’t stoke fear in the city we love.”

COMMENT:  Well, both sides have good points, and there is probably some union opportunism here.  But the fact is that the rate of decline in serious crime in New York appears to be dropping alarmingly.  As the story notes, the homicide rate dropped 20 percent in 2013, the last year of Bloomberg, and is down only 12.3 percent this year, the first year of the "progressive" DeBlasio administration.

Just as important, there is a changed "feel" to the city, a sense that it is, indeed, going back to the good old days, when crime-ridden communities were run by radicals who kind of liked the high crime rates because they ratified the radical view of society. 

Under DeBlasio, "stop, question and frisk" policing has been cut way back, despite evidence that it worked to reduce serious crime by reducing the number of illegal weapons on the street.

But, of course, New York is Hillary's state, and DeBlasio is her ally, and that will be a factor in any party decision.  If Hillary looks like she'll be the nominee, and wants New York, it'll be New York.  But would she actually want it?  Go back to 1968, when the riot-plagued Democratic National Convention was held in the Dem city of Chicago.  It hardly helped the presidential campaign of Hubert Humphrey.

Maybe Hillary would prefer a quieter place for a convention.

August 27,  2014     Permalink