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

DECEMBER 15,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:47 A.M. ET: 

SUICIDE – It's said that civilizations don't die, they commit suicide.  The same apparently is true for news organizations.  CNN, which bills itself as the most trusted name in news, is struggling to survive.  To survive means attracting the largest audience possible.  And yet, the network's staff seems to work hard to prove that CNN is a biased, liberal organization – no conservatives need apply or watch.  Proof?  In a precious moment this past week, three CNN analysts did the "hands up, don't shoot" gesture in solidarity with anti-police protesters around the country, and a fourth held up a sign saying "I can't breathe," which is what a black man struggling with police said before he died.  This is grossly inappropriate, and all four should be discharged or at least severely disciplined.  Watch here.   Caution!  Suicide in progress.

AGAIN? – Yes, it's what Obama does best.  He vacations.  From the Washington Examiner:  "The first family is returning to Hawaii for their seventh straight Christmas vacation, a 17-day break President Obama is 'eagerly looking forward to.'  The White House has announced that the president and his family will depart Washington on Friday and are expected to return Jan. 4.  'On Friday, the first family will depart the White House en route to Honolulu, Hawaii — a flight that I know the president himself is eagerly looking forward to,' said spokesman Josh Earnest."  As opposed to governing, which he never looks forward to.

SHE SAYS IT, BUT DOESN'T QUITE SAY IT – From The Hill:  "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) insisted in an interview broadcast Monday that she is not running for president, even as her profile was boosted by her role in a high-profile budget fight in Congress.  'I'm not running for president. That's not what we're doing,' she said on NPR's 'Morning Edition' when asked what she would say to a constellation of outside groups that want her to launch a run.  The show’s host pressed her several more times, noting that she was speaking in the present tense — rather than saying should would 'never' run for president."  Yeah, and that's the difference.  She's running. 

JOURNALISM BUYS ANOTHER TALL TALE – From the New York Observer:  "It’s been a tough month for factchecking. After the Rolling Stone campus rape story unraveled, readers of all publications can be forgiven for questioning the process by which Americans get our news. And now it turns out that another blockbuster story is —to quote its subject in an exclusive Observer interview—'not true.'  Monday’s edition of New York magazine includes an irresistible story about a Stuyvesant High senior named Mohammed Islam who had made a fortune investing in the stock market. Reporter Jessica Pressler wrote regarding the precise number, 'Though he is shy about the $72 million number, he confirmed his net worth is in the "high eight figures."' The New York Post followed up with a story of its own, with the fat figure playing a key role in the headline: 'High school student scores $72M playing the stock market.'  And now it turns out, the real number is … zero.   In an exclusive interview with Mr. Islam and his friend Damir Tulemaganbetov, who also featured heavily in the New York story, the baby faced boys who dress in suits with tie clips came clean. Swept up in a tide of media adulation, they made the whole thing up."   I wonder how many fraudulent stories we read each week.  And I wonder how many legitimate journalistic inquiries are crushed because of political correctness.

December 15, 2014        Permalink

BULLETIN – AT 10:45 A.M. ET:  The Sydney siege is over. 

Australian security services charged into the confection shop where hostages were being held and ended the siege.  Reports are preliminary.  There are a number of injuries.  People were being carried out on stretchers. 

The gunman is either dead or detained.  There is no specific information on that.

It's reported by CNN that American authorities are working closely with Australian security people.  As we noted earlier this morning, there is clearly concern about a copycat event in the United States.

I was impressed by the quality of the Australian journalists who reported for CNN and Fox, and I'm relieved that CNN did not try to label the perp as someone understandably upset by oppression and Republicans.

December 15, 2014       Permalink 

SYDNEY PERP NAMED – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:  A name has now surfaced in connection with the Sydney hostage drama.  From Britain's Telegraph:

The man behind the shocking siege in a Sydney café was Man Haron Monis, a notorious 49-year-old self-proclaimed sheikh who claimed to practice black magic and was well known for multiple crimes including sending offensive letters to grieving families of dead Australian soldiers and allegedly murdering his ex-wife.

Monis, a self-proclaimed “spiritual healer”, had a long history of criminal convictions.

In October, he was charged with 40 indecent and sexual assault charges, including 22 counts of aggravated sexual assault and 14 counts of aggravated indecent assault relating to six women.
In 2002 he faced charges of sexually assaulting a woman and of joining with his current wife to stab his ex-wife to death in Sydney last year.

Police apparently identified Monis as the gunman within hours of the siege: his appearance closely resembled the figure seen lurking behind the windows of the Lindt café in Sydney, where he took hostages and brought the city to a standstill. He also spoke to police, some of whom would have spoken to him during numerous investigations into his long history of crime and troublemaking.
Some of the media reporting on the siege, including the Telegraph, were aware of his identity but were asked by police not to reveal it.

Dubbed the “hate sheikh”, Monis, who was reportedly born in Iran, first made national headlines after he caused widespread outrage by sending insulting letters and a DVD to families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan and the mother of an Australian official killed in a bombing in Indonesia.

COMMENT:  You wonder why someone like this was out on the street.  I'm sure there'll be some serious questions raised about the Australian justice system.

In the meantime, the hostage situation continues.

December 15, 2014       Permalink

THE HEAT IS ON – AT 9:27 A.M. ET:  It's all Lizzie all the time. The shrinking of Hillary Clinton is well underway.  She has got to make some quick decisions to maintain her lead for the Dem nomination, if she wants it at all.  Attention is shifting to Elizabeth Warren.  She's the new kid on the block, the flavor of the month.  Hillary's objective must be to limit Warren to that one month.  From the Washington Post: 

Hillary Rodham Clinton, after much debate within her inner circle, appears to have put off formally entering the 2016 presidential race until spring 2015.

Although there are plenty of reasons that favor waiting — legal ones in terms of how she incorporates (or doesn’t) the various outside groups that have blossomed in support of her in the past few years, and political ones about looking less, well, political, for as long as possible — there’s also a big reason she should at least consider announcing sooner rather than later.

And that reason is Elizabeth Warren. Or, at least, the energy and passion among liberals that is, at the moment, channeled through the Massachusetts senator. An attempt to draft her was launched formally last week, and her stern opposition to the $1.1 trillion spending bill because of a provision that would ease derivative trading by corporations drew scads of national coverage.

That’s not to say that Warren is running or even thinking about it at the moment. But let’s say the next three months play out like the past three months. The dominant narrative remains that Clinton is the heavy favorite to be the Democratic nominee. But that storyline is accompanied by another one — which is that the heart of the Democratic Party really wants Warren. And, as that storyline continues, more and more people hear about it and a movement develops, fueled by the anti-Wall Street populism that Warren embodies.

If Clinton waits until April, let’s say, to announce, it’s uniquely possible that the populist/“draft Warren” movement in the party grows strong enough that it forces the senator to reconsider her past denials of interest in the race. And if Warren runs, it’s a totally different race for Clinton. (To be clear, Clinton would be a favorite over Warren. But not a huge one.)

COMMENT:  I think that's a good assessment.  The fact is that Hillary has been a national figure for as long as Franklin D. Roosevelt was a national figure.  There is very little "wanting" of Hillary.  She doesn't bring excitement.  She does bring a sense of entitlement, a sense that it's "her" turn, as if we choose presidents that way. 

Hillary was shocked once when Barack Obama entered the presidential sweepstakes with hardly any qualifications.  (He still lacks them.)  It can happen again,

December 15, 2014       Permalink

SYDNEY – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  The hostage drama in Sydney, Australia, continues.  There is no certainty as to how many hostages are being held in a confection store, but some say it is about 15.  Estimates have run as high as 40.  There appears to be only one gunman, which raises the question as to why one gunman cannot be overpowered.  In addition, one gunman will eventually fall asleep.  From CNN:

Sydney (CNN) -- Australia, and the world, looked on with dread as a gunman holding hostages inside a darkened Sydney cafe demanded an ISIS flag and a phone call with Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Hundreds of police officers, including snipers, surrounded the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Sydney's central business district shortly after the gunman took over the building at 10 a.m. Monday (6 p.m. ET on Sunday).

Chilling images from Australian media on Monday showed people, believed to be hostages, with their hands pressed against the cafe's windows. They were holding up a black flag with Arabic writing on it reading, "There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God."

In other words, it's workplace violence.

Five hostages sprinted out of the cafe toward heavily armed police officers several hours into the standoff, sending the gunman into an agitated tirade, according to an Australian reporter.

Chris Reason, a correspondent for CNN affiliate Seven Network, said the gunman became "extremely agitated" when he realized what had happened and "started screaming orders" at the remaining hostages.

COMMENT:  Coverage of this is international, meaning there will be fear of copycat operations somewhere else. 

But the immediate fear is for the hostages.  What if the gunman becomes groggy? 

First indications are that this is a co-called "lone wolf" incident, but I've always been skeptical of the term.  Lone wolves are influenced by a movement to do these things.  How lone are they?

December 15,  2014     Permalink

DECEMBER 14,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:47 P.M. ET:

HOSTAGES – From Fox:  "An armed gunman is holding up to 13 people hostage inside a chocolate shop in Sydney with their hands pressed up against the windows, Sky News Australia reports.  Australian special forces have been called in to the city’s financial district and New South Wales police are advising people to stay out of the area.  Television footage shot through the store's windows showed several people with their arms in the air and hands pressed against the glass. The footage showed two people inside the Lindt chocolate shop holding up what appeared to be a black flag with white Arabic writing on it. It was not immediately clear what the flag said.  New South Wales state police would not say what was happening inside the shop or whether hostages were being held, The Associated Press reports.  But Lindt Australia CEO Steve Loane told News.com.au he believes there are 40 to 50 people inside the cafe, including customers and staff."  We'll of course be following this. 

ON EDGE – From Breitbart:  "New York police report that two officers were assaulted by marchers that took to the streets to protest police violence on Saturday. Police also reported finding a bag of newly-purchased hammers that were apparently intended for use as weapons.  Screaming 'No Justice, No Peace' and carrying signs that proclaimed 'Black Lives Matter' and 'Bring The System Down,' thousands of protesters hit the streets of the Big Apple, joining similar protests in other cities this weekend...While many protesters were peaceful, not all were, and some violence, threats of violence, and arrests occurred.  In once incident, a trash can was thrown at officers by a protester near the Brooklyn Bridge. After the can was thrown, officers attempted to make an arrest but a group of protesters swarmed them, assaulting two officers in the process."  I'm deeply concerned about an escalation of violence and intentional harm to police officers.  One spark can set off something awful. 

ARE WE SERIOUS HERE? – From Fox:  "WASHINGTON – A controversial Obama administration rating system for colleges and universities already is being scrutinized ahead of its late-December rollout by educators who claim the government's goal of more transparency could come at the expense of schools that don't happen to fit the ivory tower model.  The federal government, with its long-awaited rating system, is trying to hold the country's 7,000 colleges and universities accountable not only to taxpayers, but also to prospective students trying to weigh the pros and cons of different institutions.   But it has many in the education community on edge. Several colleges and education associations have launched a preemptive PR strike against the plan, though the details haven't yet been released."  I would love to see colleges and universities held accountable for how they spend federal dollars, but this should be a function of Congress, which represents both parties, not the Obama administration.  I can just see the leftists in the Department of Education handing down regulations on how colleges should be run.  Talk about a nightmare, brought to you by the wonderful guys who gave you school lunch menus.

December 14, 2014       Permalink

YOU, NANCY? – AT 10:57 A.M. ET:  The professionals are fighting mad, and are fighting back against this week's assault on the CIA by a group of Democrats in the Senate.  This will not blow over quickly.  From Fox: 

WASHINGTON – The man who oversaw the controversial CIA interrogation program defended the use of the techniques used on militants -- including waterboarding -- and said members of Congress, including Sen. Nancy Pelosi, were “fully aware” of the methods used.

“She never objected to the techniques at all,” Jose Rodriguez, former director of the CIA’s National Clandestine Service, said on "Fox News Sunday." “All of these techniques were approved by the lawyers.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a former member of the Senate Select Committee on intelligence, and Karl Rove, a former White House adviser to President George W. Bush and a Fox News contributor, were also on the program.

The two were often at odds over whether the techniques described in the report constituted torture, whether the methods were effective and if the CIA misled the White House and Congress.

The CIA report dominated most of the Sunday talk shows.

Last week, former Vice President Dick Cheney called the controversial CIA interrogation report “full of crap,” during an interview with Fox News.

“I think it is a terrible report, deeply flawed,” Cheney said, in his first televised interview since the report’s release early last week. “It’s a classic example of where politicians get together and throw professionals under the bus.”

COMMENT:  One of the main criticisms of the report is that it does not place events in context, does not deal with the fact that in the days after 9-11 our highest national priority was to prevent another attack and save American lives. 

The Democratic Party is increasingly retreating to the late 1960s, when it was taken over by the McGovern crowd.  Not good for the country.  Not good at all.

December 14, 2014       Permalink

ABANDONMENT OF TRUTH – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  We look with dismay at the state of our colleges and universities.  They were once devoted, more or less, to the pursuit of truth.  Now the truth has become an annoyance, to be used only when helpful. 

We watched as Rolling Stone Magazine, not one of the great ornaments to journalism, had to retract a story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia, when it became clear that at least part of the story was fabricated.  Individuals, the university itself, and members of a fraternity had been smeared.  But when the truth came out, many in the movement claiming there is a "rape culture" in American colleges made it clear they didn't care.  Only the movement mattered, the cause.  Who cares if some people got hurt?  The Washington Post even ran a column by one of the activists ridiculing the damage that could be done to a man, or a group, falsely accused of rape.  In fact, their lives are often destroyed.

One brave professor at UVA has written a brilliant article for Weekly Standard, decrying the indifference to truth.  I recommend it.  James W. Ceaser writes: 

But the truth does matter. Even on the level of future policy changes, this problem can only be properly addressed if it is presented in an unbiased way, not in terms of a preconceived framework. The moral dimension of disregarding the truth also cannot be forgotten. Members of the university community have been vilified as gang rapists. Does anyone mind? The University of Virginia has been charged with bearing the full burden of national obloquy. Does anyone care? If the faculty and administration prefer to abdicate to a crowd rather than offer a defense, even in comparative terms, of the university’s reputation, then who will stand up for the place?

The answer is: no one at the university. The task has been taken up by the local newspaper, Charlottesville’s Daily Progress, which has spoken with a clarity and directness unheard on the campus: “The University of Virginia and its reputation were also vandalized by this story.” The president of the university, having initially invoked the pillar of truth in her first reaction to the Rolling Stone article, struck a very different note in her pronouncement on its retraction: “While all of us who care about the University are upset by the Rolling Stone story, I write now with a different message.” Surely the truth merits something more than a dependent clause.

Far from being an end in itself, the truth on our college campuses is now treated as a mere instrument of combat. It is wielded with feigned righteous-ness when it promotes a preferred cause and then abandoned when it produces the opposite result. In the end, this is the sad message that universities now convey.

COMMENT:  Read the whole piece.  It's rare in today's trendy universities that a professor makes sense.

December 14, 2014       Permalink

REAL DAMAGE – AT 8:45 A.M. ET:  There is a cost when nations turn their national security over to the attorneys of the left.  In Britain, the damage is being openly exposed.  From the Telegraph: 

British soldiers have “lost their capability” to interrogate terrorist insurgents because of strict new rules on questioning that even ban shouting in captives’ ears, military chiefs have warned.

The rules — detailed in court papers obtained by The Telegraph — also prevent military intelligence officers from banging their fists on tables or walls, or using “insulting words” when interrogating a suspect.

The regulations replaced a previous policy that had to be withdrawn after a series of legal challenges and the death in custody of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi detainee in Basra.

But there is growing disquiet within the ranks that the latest guidelines, officially called Challenge Direct, are so stringent that it makes interrogation pointless.

There is also concern that the rules can be so easily breached — especially given the pressure under which soldiers are operating — that military personnel will be left exposed to legal claims and possible disciplinary action.

There was global condemnation last week when a Senate report in the United States disclosed how the CIA had systematically tortured detainees in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Despite this, British military chiefs fear the current restrictions on Army interrogators are hindering the gathering of information. They insist interrogations can be vital in thwarting future terrorist attacks and in combating insurgents in hostile environments.

Col Tim Collins, who made a celebrated eve-of-battle speech during the Iraq war and now runs a private security company with expertise in intelligence gathering, said: “Since I was serving, the rules on interrogations have been tightened up because of the lawyers. We [the military] are no longer able to carry out tactical questioning.

“The effect of the ambulance-chasing lawyers and the play-it-safe judges is that we have got to the point where we have lost our operational capability to do tactical questioning. That in itself brings risks to the lives of the people we deploy.

COMMENT:  Well, there you have it.  I've written here before that some of the best comments about American politics come from British writers.  And, clearly, this story is directed as much at the United States, and our sudden rush to purity, as it is at Britain.  We are tying the hands of our security people to the point where we will never recruit good operations officers in the future, and we are putting our nation at unacceptable risk.

December 14,  2014      Permalink