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DECEMBER 7,  2014

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

THE MAYOR IS AN IDIOT – We wondered when Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York would finally show himself to be the radical leftist he'd always been.  It's now happened.  From ABC:  "Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani 'fundamentally misunderstands the reality,' New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said today on 'This Week' in response to Giuliani’s recent comments focusing on violence within African-American communities, rather than questions over police interactions with minorities that have sparked nationwide protests.  'I think he fundamentally misunderstands the reality,' de Blasio told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos in his first television interview since a New York grand jury decided this week not to indict police officers in the July death of Eric Garner in Staten Island. 'We’re trying to bring police and community together. There is a problem here, there is a rift here that has to be overcome.'"  Under Giuliani's guidance, and the guidance of his successor, Mike Bloomberg, the murder rate in New York was brought down 80%.  The greatest beneficiaries were African Americans.  Apparently, this proves that Giuliani failed to understand the reality.  For de Blasio, reality is only found in far-left ideology.  Rudy's record speaks for itself.

THE OBAMA RECORD – From The Hill:  "A slim majority believes that race relations have gotten worse since President Obama took office in 2009, according to a poll released Sunday.  The poll was conducted for Bloomberg Politics in the days following a grand jury decision not to indict a white New York City police officer who killed an unarmed black man.  Thirty-six percent say relations have stayed the same, and only 9 percent say they have gotten better.  Among black people, only 45 percent say race relations have gotten worse, though that figure is still the plurality in the poll. Fifty-six percent of white people think the situation has deteriorated."  My own sense is that sensational reporting, by CNN among others, has exacerbated the problem.  But there are no polls about that.

CHECK THE PHOTO WITH THE STORY – From Daily Caller:  "At a die-in for any cause, protesters collectively get down on the ground and pretend to be dead. The tactic is a favorite of environmental activists, AIDS activists, gun control activists — the whole spectrum of leftist demonstrating, really.  But what’s a protester to do while dying in? It’s not like the world stops. You’ve still got email. There’s still Facebook and Instagram. Angry Birds and WhatsApp beckon.  And so it was that 'dead' participants at a die-in this week at George Washington University stopped being dead periodically to check their mobile phones."  The left never inconveniences itself.  I recall the "anti-war" protests in my Manhattan neighborhood in the late sixties.  The grim-faced leftists would shake their fists and demonstrate against "American imperialism," then go out and have a nice hot meal at an imperialist restaurant. 

December 7, 2014        Permalink

A SUNDAY IN DECEMBER – AT 6:38 A.M. ET:   The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on another Sunday, December 7th, in 1941.  That began the American phase of World War II.

Today the youngest veteran of Pearl Harbor would have been born about 1924 and would be 90.  There are few left.  The World War II generation will soon be gone.   That generation paid a terrible price for the mistakes that led to Pearl Harbor:  1) a failure to take foreign threats seriously and properly prepare the nation for war...which might have deterred war;  2) a failure to understand fanatical ideology, with a smug belief that "nobody really means that talk"; 3) an attitude that we could go it alone, remain in isolation, as if the oceans would protect us.

Sound familiar?

History doesn't repeat itself, but the psychology of history does repeat itself.  And we are experiencing the same delusions today as we did before we were so rudely awakened on that Sunday in December.  We are reducing our forces as our enemies strengthen theirs.  We are dismissing radical Islam as simply a manageable police problem, and their rhetoric as "misunderstood" words.  And, even within the Republican Party, there are new isolationists.

Now, as then, our universities seem to live in their own worlds.  In the 1930s it was common for leading American colleges and universities to welcome Nazi officials and soldiers as honored guests.  In 1939, students at Barnard College in New York flashed faces filled with disappointment when conditions in Europe made it impossible for them to live their dream – to spend a year studying in Nazi Germany. 

The eminent historian Victor Davis Hanson said last week that we are approaching the conditions for a major war.  He is right.  The psychology of history repeats itself once more.  The difference is that, this time, we have a president who doesn't care.

December 7, 2014       Permalink

CHILLING – AT 6:18 A.M. ET:  It's hard to know exactly how serious the threat is, but I hope the NYPD is taking it very seriously.  From the New York Daily News:   

A tattooed gang of militants declared open season on the NYPD in the wake of the Eric Garner grand jury decision, according to a threat police verified Saturday.

Ten Black Guerrilla Family members are “preparing to shoot on duty police officers,” cops said.

The gang, formed in the 1960s in the California prison system, recently surfaced on the East Coast and Maryland, where members are at the heart of a drug-trafficking and corruption probe within the Baltimore prison system.

Members swear allegiance for life and sport “BGF” tattoos, as well as ink depicting a dragon surrounding a prison tower, according to gangs.org.

An undercover NYPD cop learned of the hit put out on officers Friday evening — three days after a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Garner’s death. Homicide cops confirmed late Saturday night that the gang was gunning for officers.

Union leaders ordered all officers, on duty and off, to take extra precautions.

“Please WEAR your VESTS and carry your firearm off-duty along with additional magazines,” Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins said in an alert. “Your priority is to go home at the end of your tour!”

COMMENT:  We can only contemplate the horror of a terror threat like this being carried out.  I believe that threat is increased by the manner in which the president, his attorney general, and the decidedly leftist mayor of New York City have fanned the flames of division during this difficult period.

December 7, 2014       Permalink

GOP ALSO TRIUMPHS IN THE HOUSE – AT 6:11 A.M. ET:  With so much attention focused on the Senate, we should not forget the Republican electoral record in the House.  It is spectacular.  From AP: 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans will hold at least 246 House seats come January, according to election results Saturday, giving the GOP a commanding majority that matches the party's post-World War II high during Democratic President Harry S. Truman's administration.

The GOP retained control of two seats in runoffs in Louisiana, expanding the advantage for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who can afford defections from his increasingly conservative caucus and still get legislation passed. Combined with the Republican takeover of the Senate, Congress will be all-GOP for the final two years of President Barack Obama's second term.

The latest count gives the GOP a 246-188 majority. One race, in Arizona, is still outstanding.

In Louisiana's 5th Congressional District, which extends from the state's northeast into parishes bordering Mississippi, physician Ralph Abraham defeated Jamie Mayo, the Democratic mayor of Monroe. The incumbent, Vance McAllister, had failed to advance to the runoff. Elected less than a year ago, the married McAllister saw his career undermined after a video surfaced earlier this year showing him kissing another woman.

In the 6th Congressional District, in the Baton Rouge area, former state coastal restoration chief Garret Graves turned back Democrat Edwin Edwards, a four-term governor and ex-congressman who had to overcome his 2000 corruption conviction and subsequent prison term.

One race still must be decided.

In a Democratic-held district in the Tucson, Arizona-area, an automatic recount will determine whether Rep. Ron Barber keeps his seat or Republican challenger Martha McSally prevails. McSally led by fewer than 200 votes.

If McSally wins, Republicans would have 247 seats, the largest majority since 1929-31 when the GOP controlled 270 seats in President Herbert Hoover's administration.

COMMENT:  And if Republicans put up a strong, winning presidential candidate in 2016, that House majority can even be expanded.

Most Americans are not fully aware of the disasters that have befallen the Democratic Party since Barack Obama became president.  He has now lost both houses of Congress.  Most state legislatures and governorships are in Republican hands.  And virtually the entire young leadership of the Democratic Party has been wiped out.  The party is geriatric, and is preparing to nominate a presidential candidate in 2016 who lives in the 1960s. 

When Obama was elected in 2008, some in the liberal press predicted that it would be the start of a Democratic era.  Not quite.

December 7,  2014     Permalink

DECEMBER 6,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET:

LOUISIANA – As expected, Republican Representative Bill Cassidy has buried incumbent Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu in the Louisiana runoff.  From the Washington Examiner:  "Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy trounced Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana’s Senate runoff Saturday, picking up one last seat for Republicans in a 2014 midterm election season that saw commanding gains for the GOP.  When the Associated Press called the race, Cassidy led Landrieu by nearly 30 points with 1 percent of precincts reporting. Cassidy's victory will give Republicans 54 seats in the Senate, with Democrats controlling 46."  No time for rest.  Prepare for 2016.  I want to see 60 friendly faces in the Senate.

POLITICAL COST OF OBAMACARE – From the Washington Examiner:  "On Dec. 24, 2009, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed President Obama’s healthcare law with a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority, triggering a massive backlash that propelled Republicans to control of the House the following year. On the Senate side, going into this year's midterm elections, 25 senators who voted for Obamacare were already out or not going be part of the new Senate being sworn in next month. After Democratic losses on Nov. 4 and Saturday's defeat of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., the number has risen to 30. In other words, half of the Senators who voted for Obamacare will not be part of the new Senate."  True, not all went down because of Obamacare, but the unpopular health plan clearly affected the careers of most. 

JUSTICE – From the New York Post:  "WANA, Pakistan — A top al Qaeda operative wanted for plotting to bomb the New York subway system died in a predawn helicopter raid staged by Pakistani troops in remote South Waziristan.  Adnan el-Shukrijumah, 39, had a $5 million FBI bounty on his head and was believed to have once been al Qaeda’s external operations chief. He died in a house in Wana, South Waziristan’s capital.
Shukrijumah spent some of his teen years in Brooklyn. Later in his teens, in 1995, he moved with his family to Florida, where his dad took a job as an imam in a mosque."  Maybe Hillary Clinton, who this week got into hot water by saying we had to respect our enemies, can do the eulogy.

December 6, 2014         Permalink

WILL PLAY WELL AT HARVARD – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:   After a brief absence, apparently to count her money, Hillary Clinton is back on the political trail.  And she immediately demonstrated that her tendency to commit gaffes is undiminished.  From Fox: 

Hillary Clinton is taking heat for saying America should “empathize” and show “respect” for its enemies.

The former secretary of State, who is considered a likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, made the remarks during a speech Wednesday at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Touting an approach she calls “smart power,” Clinton urged America to use “every possible tool and partner” to advance peace.

This, she said, includes “leaving no one on the sidelines, showing respect even for one’s enemies, trying to understand and insofar as psychologically possible, empathize with their perspective and point of view.”

At a time when the U.S. military is launching airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, some called the comments out of place.

Former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, a Fox News host, said the comments are “irrational.”

“I can’t think of a presidential candidate who would have said those kinds of things,” he said. “Think about December 7, 1941 and then FDR going to the Congress of the United States the next day saying, ‘We need to have more empathy for Japan.’”

North added: “If you’re going to run for president of the United States, you cannot talk that way about the people who intend to kill us. Who are dying to kill us. … This is capitulation.”

COMMENT:  Hillary has lost contact with her country, much like the rest of the Democratic leadership.  This gaffe reminds me of her question, "What difference does it make now?" in reference to a House committee's efforts to determine the cause of the Benghazi disaster.

She may self-destruct even before she announces for president. 

December 6, 2014       Permalink

TOAST – AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  The Louisiana runoff is today.  It will probably end the Senate career of Democrat Mary Landrieu, and give the GOP still one more Senate seat.  From the Washington Times: 

Louisiana voters will head to the polls Saturday to decide on the lone outstanding U.S. Senate contest of 2014 and two outstanding U.S. House races.

In the Senate race between Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy, Ms. Landrieu has been struggling to get help from national Democratic groups after the Nov. 4 “jungle primary” in which neither candidate managed to eclipse 50 percent of the vote.

That sent the race into a Dec. 6 runoff, where polling shows Mr. Cassidy up double digits in a race that will likely give Republicans a 54th seat to pad their majority in the U.S. Senate. The Republican National Committee circulated a collection of news clips Friday morning detailing how national Democratic groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) have largely left Ms. Landrieu to fight on her own in the runoff.

It is rumored that Harry Reid sent a moving van to Mary's office.

And the Center for Public Integrity reported this week that groups backing Ms. Landrieu have aired less than 100 television ads since Nov. 5, while a handful of conservative groups have aired nearly 6,000, most of which are devoted to attacking Ms. Landrieu.

Ms. Landrieu has survived runoffs before, both in 1996 when she was first elected and in 2002 when she won a second term. But it appears as if the national political environment of 2014 could be too much to overcome.

Louisiana voters will also get to decide on the final two House races of the cycle, apart from a congressional race in Arizona between Democratic Rep. Ron Barber and Republican Martha McSally that’s headed to a recount with Ms. McSally clinging to a narrow lead.

COMMENT:  The Arizona race is actually more interesting than the Senate contest in Louisiana.  If McSally wins, she becomes an instant Republican star.  She was the first woman in American history to fly a combat aircraft into enemy territory. 

December 6, 2014       Permalink

BARBARIANS – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  Another American hostage has been murdered.  From Fox: 

The American freelance photographer kidnapped by Al Qaeda militants in Yemen in 2013 was "murdered" Friday during a U.S. special operations rescue mission inside the country after it was learned that his life was in imminent danger, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said in a statement.

Luke Somers was still alive, but badly injured when the team reached him, a Yemeni national security official told Fox News. The official said Somers was shot by militants. None of the special forces members were injured.

Hagel said in the statement that the rescue bid was conducted in partnership with the Yemen's government and its security forces.Ten militants were killed between the rescue attempt and the drone strike prior to the mission, the Yemeni official confirmed.

South African hostage Pierre Korkie was the other hostage killed in the operation, the Gift of the Givers, a South African aid group confirmed.

President Obama, who ordered the mission, released a statement early Saturday morning condemning the "barbaric murder" of Somers.

Lucy Somers, the photojournalist's sister, told The Associated Press that she and her father learned of her 33-year-old brother's death from FBI agents at 12 a.m. ET Saturday.

"We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," Lucy Somers said from London.

Yemen's national security chief, Maj. Gen. Ali al-Ahmadi, said the militants planned to kill Luke Somers on Saturday.

"Al Qaeda promised to conduct the execution (of Somers) today so there was an attempt to save them but unfortunately they shot the hostage before or during the attack," al-Ahmadi said at a conference in Manama, Bahrain. "He was freed but unfortunately he was dead."

COMMENT:   At least a rescue attempt was made.  But Congress should investigate the failure and determine whether it was related to our overall policies.  The investigation can be conducted in secret session.

December 6,  2014     Permalink