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Urgent Agenda extends its condolences to Silvio Canto Jr on the passing of his beloved and distinguished father.

DECEMBER 9,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

BERNIE NOT DEAD – From The Hill:   Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is holding onto a double-digit lead in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, according to a new CNN/WMUR Poll released Wednesday.  Sanders receives 50 percent support in that state, followed by Hillary Clinton, with 40 percent support, and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, with 1 percent support.  Sanders and Clinton both gained support in the poll, which for the first time did not give respondents the option to select Vice President Biden, who announced in October he would not seek the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton narrowed the gap slightly since the last iteration of the poll in September, when she trailed Sanders by 16 points.  It probably won't matter much in the end.  Clinton appears to be sewing up the nomination, in part due to substantial black support in Southern states.  The only thing that can disrupt her is the FBI investigation.

NEVER BEEN JAILED – Hillary Clinton certainly knows how to produce awkward moments.  From the Washington Free Beacon:   Hillary Clinton made an awkward joke Wednesday during a town hall in Iowa, remarking that she’d been to “Yale, not jail” when a man wearing the university’s logo on his cap stood up to ask her a question.  “Ok, we’ve got a gentleman right there in the Yale cap,” Clinton said. “Oh my goodness. I’ve spent time there. That was Yale, not jail! He and I, we have this in common.”  The audience laughed, although it was unclear why Clinton felt the need to clear that up to her supporters. Clinton received her law degree from Yale, where she also met her husband and future president Bill Clinton.  Hillary Clinton and her use of a private email while she was secretary of state are under federal investigation right now, as well as her potential mishandling of classified information at the State Department. She signed a non-disclosure agreement laying out criminal penalties for any negligent handling of classified information that could jeopardize national security, as many experts have charged happened with her use of an unsecured server that she wiped clean.  Maybe jail is on her mind as one career alternative before her.

THE SINKING SHIP – I was baffled by the decision by CBS to replace David Letterman with doctrinaire, politically driven Stephen Colbert.  Apparently, others are baffled as well.  From Mediaite:  For Stephen Colbert and CBS, this wasn’t the game plan.  Because now…just three months after so much hype and so much love went into Mr. Colbert’s debut as the new host of Late Night, the former Comedy Central star has somehow fallen into 4th place where it matters most. In the all-important demo, he’s now being doubled up (and then some) by NBC’s Jimmy Fallon (outscored by 137 percent) and hasn’t beaten ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel in over a month. But here’s where CBS brass is likely doing a double-take: During the week of November 23-27, the 11:35 PM Late Show on CBS was beaten by Seth Meyers, who happens to be on one hour later (12:35 PM) on the Peacock.  I don't think Colbert will last that long.  He doesn't have that "late-night feel."  He's so obviously liberal that he loses a large chunk of audience before he even goes on the air.  The key to late night is comedy, with a little bit of sting.  Not sting, with a little bit of comedy.

December 9, 2015       Permalink 

HILLARY EXPOSED AGAIN – AT 2:41 P.M. ET:  But will it really mean anything to the political class?  From Fox:

As the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was unfolding, a high-ranking Pentagon official urgently messaged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top deputies to offer military help, according to an email obtained by Judicial Watch.

The revelation appears to contradict testimony Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave lawmakers in 2013, when he said there was no time to get forces to the scene in Libya, where four Americans were killed, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

“I just tried you on the phone but you were all in with S [apparent reference to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton],” reads the email, from Panetta’s chief of staff Jeremy Bash. “After consulting with General Dempsey, General Ham and the Joint Staff, we have identified the forces that could move to Benghazi. They are spinning up as we speak.”

The email was sent out at 7:19 p.m. ET on Sept. 11, 2012, in the early stages of the eight-hour siege that also claimed the lives of Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith and two former Navy SEALs, Ty Woods and Glen Doherty, private CIA contractors who raced to the aid of embattled State Department workers.

COMMENT:  With the full help of the liberal press, Clinton will probably call for us to "move on" and "talk about the things that matter to Americans."  And she'll probably get her way. 

December 9,  2015     Permalink

DEMS WORRY OVER OBAMA APPEASEMENT – AT 10:06 A.M. ET:   Democrats are looking at the polls, and worrying that Obama's squishy anti-terror policies are dragging them down.  From The Hill: 

Democrats are increasingly fearful that President Obama’s handling of the threat from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is becoming a liability for their party.

Those fears have become more acute after Obama’s Sunday evening address from the Oval Office, where the president unveiled little by way of news or strategic shifts.

“Weak and unclear,” Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf told The Hill, when asked for his reaction to Obama’s remarks. “What is the plan of action?”

Sheinkopf added that, at this point, “any rational person would worry about his legacy, and any rational Democrat would worry about the Democrats being injured in an electoral setting.”

This vulnerability is all the more frustrating to Democrats because at one point during Obama’s presidency — the period immediately following the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 — they believed that the party’s traditional disadvantage on issues of national security had been erased.

In a CNN/ORC poll shortly after the al Qaeda leader’s death, 65 percent of Americans approved of Obama’s handling of terrorism, against 34 percent who disapproved.

Obama enjoyed a similar rating on the issue at the beginning of his second term, which followed an election campaign during which his vice president, Joe Biden, had boiled down the case for reelection to the fact that America had become more prosperous and safe: “Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.”

But the president’s poll ratings on terrorism began sliding soon afterward, and they have now been completely reversed from their high point.

In a CNN/ORC poll released last week, only 38 percent approved of his handling of terrorism, while 60 percent disapproved — the lowest mark of his presidency. Asked specifically about Obama’s approach to ISIS, 33 percent approved and 64 percent disapproved.

“If the president’s ratings are low, that’s always a problem for his party in elections,” said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon. “There is no getting around that.”

COMMENT:  Look for Hillary to "get tough" after she secures her nomination.  Right now she's running neck-and-neck, in poll matchups, with most of the GOP field. 

ISIS and Al Qaeda will also have a say in our elections.  Will they attack during the election campaign, inciting anger in the U.S. and further criticism of the Democratic administration?  Or will they lie low, hoping to drive terror down the priority list for American voters?  The election is 11 months away.

December 9, 2015       Permalink

GERMANY ON THE BRINK – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:   Just when Angela Merkel is named TIME's person of the year, word comes that Germany is getting wobbly in the war on terror.  It is also a country that is leading the "normalization" with Iran, the better to secure industrial contracts.  From Gatestone Institute: 

The number of radical Salafists in Germany has more than doubled over the past five years, according to a new estimate by German intelligence officials.

Salafists disguised as aid workers are also canvassing German refugee shelters in search of new recruits from among the nearly one million asylum seekers who have arrived in Germany this year from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

A local preacher addresses Muslim refugees in Münster, Germany. Local authorities later cut off contact with the preacher's organization due to suspicions of radical Islamism.

The revelations by Hans-Georg Maassen, the director of the Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), come amid growing fears that jihadists linked to the Islamic State have infiltrated Germany by posing as refugees.

In a December 3 interview with the Berlin newspaper, Der Tagesspiegel, Maassen said that the number of Salafists in Germany has now risen to 7,900. This is up from 7,000 in 2014, 5,500 in 2013, 4,500 in 2012, and 3,800 in 2011.

COMMENT:  Germany, trying to live down the image of the Nazi era, has gone too far in the other direction, toward a kind of worship of multiculturalism.  But the country, already suffering from a seriously low birth rate, is in danger of becoming de-Europeanized, with radical immigrants holding the balance of political power.

December 9, 2015       Permalink

ALL TRUMP ALL THE TIME – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  It's really remarkable to see – how CNN and others have struggled to replace terrorism with Donald Trump as the lead story. 

It goes on and on, especially at CNN.  Of course, it's standard fare on the journalistic left, painting the conservative opposition as (choose one or more) racist, sexist, anti-gay, militaristic, Islamophobic, or just people who get us upset.  In Trump's extreme suggestion to temporarily ban Muslim immigration to the U.S., the establishment press has found the perfect distraction from the real issue – people who want to kill us.

In the meantime, Michael Goodwin of the New York Post, one of the best columnists around, analyzes Trump's strategy:

My first reaction to Donald Trump’s call to ban new Muslims from entering the United States was that he had simultaneously won the GOP nomination and lost the general election. My second reaction was that events will prove one of those predictions wrong.

If there are no more terror attacks in America before the end of the primary season, most Republican voters will see Trump’s plan as too radical and he will lose the nomination.

On the other hand, if there are more attacks in the homeland, many more voters will move in Trump’s direction and he would almost certainly win the nomination and maybe the presidency.

In effect, Trump is betting his campaign on there being more attacks. I hope he is wrong, but fear he will be right.

To be clear, I don’t support his plan. Singling out all Muslims is vulgar and probably unconstitutional. A religious test is unAmerican.

The idea is so toxic that it has the unfortunate effect of making President Obama look right for once. Obama warns repeatedly about Islamophobia, including in his grating Sunday-night lecture, even though there wasn’t much of it. Jews suffer disproportionately from religious hate crimes, not Muslims.

Trump obliterated those facts in a heartbeat, a development that could, temporarily at least, contaminate all get-tough approaches on terror and boost Obama and Hillary Clinton.

COMMENT:  It's worth reading the whole thing.  Goodwin has his ear to the ground.

December 9,  2015    Permalink

DECEMBER 8,  2015

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

YIPPEE – From the Miami Herald:   Venezuela said the coalition of opposition forces known as the MUD has won a two-thirds super majority in the country’s legislature, a major victory in Sunday’s elections.  The National Electoral Council published on its website Monday the final tally of election results showing that two previously undecided races had broken in favor of the opposition, giving them 112 out of 167 seats in the incoming National Assembly, the Associated Press reported. The ruling socialist party and its allies got 55 seats...With a super majority, President Nicolás Maduro could be facing a powerful legislature with the ability to fire ministers and the vice president, name Supreme Court justices and launch recall referendums. It’s a significant blow to Maduro after 17 years of socialist rule. The new parliament, which takes office Jan. 5, can even initiate a referendum that could lead to Maduro’s ouster.  There are some speculative stories that the new powers in Caracas may move to cut off Cuba's oil.  I don't see it happening.  In the past it might have had some effect, but you may be sure that Barack Obama would make up any oil shortage in Cuba.  The left sticks together.

IDIOT – It's hard to make this up.  From Britain's Guardian:   The climate change talks going on in Paris are too dominated by men, to the detriment of effective action on saving people from the ravages of global warming, the UN’s special envoy on climate change has said.  Mary Robinson, the former UN human rights chief and Ireland’s first female president, told the Guardian in an interview: “This is a very male world [at the conference]. When it is a male world, you have male priorities.”  She pointed to the line-up of ministers now leading the talks, few of whom are women. “If you don’t have women here, how can you say this is about people?”  Tuesday was officially designated as “gender day” at the fortnight-long talks, which began nine days ago.  Maybe we're finding out what the "climate change" issue is really about.  It's a left-wing feast, whose main purpose will be to transfer wealth from the accomplished world to the less accomplished.  Along the way, all the favorite causes of the left will be incorporated.  Mary Robinson, the clownish mouthpiece who presided over the disgusting anti-American and anti-Semitic Durban Conference in 2001, a few days before we were attacked, is the perfect messenger for this dribble.  She is, by the way, a favorite of Barack Obama.  Shocked?

LET THE JOKES BEGIN – From Reuters:   SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc on Tuesday released a version of its virtual personal assistant Siri for Arabic speakers in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, potentially making its iPhones more attractive in a largely affluent market of more than 30 million people.  The move, part of Apple's latest software updates, means people in those countries will be able to use Siri in their native tongue on iPhones, iPads and the Apple Watch. It follows Google, whose Android phones' voice search function already offer some support in Arabic.  "This is part of the consumerization and personalization of IT-based services that we're seeing at all levels of the industry," said Paul Black, director of telecoms and media at IDC Middle East, Turkey and Africa.  Apple and its primary smartphone competitor, Google, have saturated the United States and Western Europe with their devices, leaving markets such as the Middle East, China and India as some of the prime places to grow.  What does a Saudi ask Siri?  "Oh Siri, direct me to the nearest school for martyrs.  No more than five kilometers."  Siri better have the answers.  I'd hate to see her imprisoned for impure thoughts.

December 8, 2015       Permalink

THE HYPOCRISY FLOWS – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:   Some governments run around the world lecturing others on morality.  What they do at home is another story.  From Britain's Independent: 

Norway is paying asylum seekers to return home as the refugee crisis continues.

Tens of thousands of kroner are being offered to each person who voluntarily leaves the country. They also have their flights paid for.

Katinka Hartmann, head of the immigration department’s return unit (UDI), said that many of the people arriving from Syria, Iraq, the Middle East and Africa expect to receive protection quickly and cannot wait the months or even years the process can take.

“They thought they would have the opportunity to work or take an education – and maybe even to get their family to Norway,” she told NRK television.

“Many cannot wait (for the asylum process to run its course). They have family at home who expect them to be able to help.

“For a long time, Norway has not been able to forcibly return people to Somalia, but now that we can, I think that more Somalis with an obligation to leave will opt for assisted return.

“It’s important to have more initiatives of this kind in the future.”

The UDI’s figures show that more than 900 people have applied to take financial support to leave Norway so far.

A couple with two children can receive upwards of 80,000 kroner (£6,200) in addition to having their flights paid for.

COMMENT:  Such liberalism, such multiculturalism, such commitment to the downtrodden.  And they are very quick to criticize the United States.

December 8, 2015       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – FROM A RISING REPUBLICAN STAR – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:  From NRO:   

Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican elected just last year, traveled to the site of the shootings in San Bernardino, California, and offered these thoughts late last night:

We are not at war with terrorism, which is just a tactic. We are not at war with some empty sociological label called extremism. We are not even just at war with ISIS; though were obviously at war with ISIS, but there will be other enemies that will lift the black flag of death in the future even after ISIS has been routed in Syria and Iraq. This is not about workplace violence. This is not about global warming or gun shows. This is not about income inequality. This is not about kids from broken homes as tragic as that is. This is not about anything that we have done wrong. This is about who we are. This is about the nature of freedom so who are we were people who unite around the Constitution were people who come together around a First Amendment and we together, 320 million of us, believe in the freedom of religion, in the freedom of speech, and the freedom of assembly and the freedom of the press . . . . . .

We are most certainly though at war with militant Islam; we are at war with violent Islam; we are at war with jihadi Islam. We are not at war with all Muslims; we are not at war with Muslim families in Dearborn, Michigan who want the American dream for their kids. But we are at war with those who believe that they will kill in the name of religion. President Obama said tonight he’s worried about a backlash against American Muslims. I am too, and you know what the best way to combat that is? With the truth. By being clear about who we are and what we stand for and by being clear about those who would try to kill us because we believe in freedom.

COMMENT:   Very well said.  Watch this guy.  If he does it right, he's headed for stardom.  It's nice to observe a clear mind at work. 

December 8, 2015       Permalink

A TRUE DISGRACE – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:   The madness on our college campuses is claiming victims.  The stench of fascism is in the air.  From Fox: 

Anti-free speech demonstrators at one of America’s most vaunted universities have claimed a pair of scalps – a husband-wife duo who say teaching is too much trouble in a campus climate “not conducive to civil dialogue.”

Yale University professors Nicholas and Erika Christakis, who both have always gotten overwhelmingly positive reviews from students, said they have had enough, after an email she sent sparked a campus-wide controversy that soon pulled him in.

“I have great respect and affection for my students, but I worry that the current climate at Yale is not, in my view, conducive to the civil dialogue and open inquiry required to solve our urgent societal problems,” she said in an email to The Washington Post.

The affair began in October, when Erika Christakis, a psychology professor and associate master at the school’s Silliman College, one of a dozen residential communities, sent out an email defending the right of students to wear costumes which may be “culturally appropriating.” That spurred outrage and led to one student confronting Nicholas Christakis on the campus quad and berating him in a shocking episode that was caught on video that soon went viral.

The video showed Nicholas Christakis, a physician and professor of social and natural science, calmly trying to reason with a student who was screaming at him for not keeping students “safe,” as others snapped their fingers in a trendy sign of approval.

Erika Christakis said she will quit teaching indefinitely and cited a campus atmosphere not “conducive to the civil dialogue and open inquiry required to solve our urgent societal problems.” Her husband said he would not teach scheduled classes in the spring, and would take a sabbatical.

Neither Yale officials nor the Christakises responded to requests for comment.

COMMENT:  A major loss to Yale students and to the spirit of inquiry that used to be at the heart of a college education.  Watching these stories unfold on television are plenty of superb students who were turned down at Yale and other "prestigious" institutions to make way for the whiners and babies currently demonstrating because their feelings have been hurt. 

There will be backlash and payback.  I wouldn't be shocked if, several years from now, there are serious suggestions that the federal government cut off all federal aid to higher education, outside the sciences, until colleges and universities clean up their collective act.

December 8, 2015       Permalink

DISGRACE!  DISGRACE!  Well...a bit of a disgrace – AT 8:55 A.M. ET:    When it happens at Fox News, it's important.  The other "news" organizations must be amused.  From CNN: 

Two Fox News commentators were suspended on Monday for using profanities while criticizing President Obama on Monday.

Ralph Peters, a Fox News "strategic analyst," called the president a "total pu---" who "doesn't want to hurt our enemies."

A couple of hours later Stacey Dash, a Fox contributor, said the president "didn't give a sh--" about Sunday night's terrorism speech.

"Earlier today, Fox contributors Lt. Col. Ralph Peters and Stacey Dash made comments on different programs that were completely inappropriate and unacceptable for our air," Fox senior executive vice president Bill Shine said.

"Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel do not condone the use of such language, and have suspended both Peters and Dash for two weeks," he said.

COMMENT:  We don't use foul language here, but, being compassionate and kind, we do understand.  The sentences are appropriate and will be served under humane conditions.

I hope the condemned are welcomed back with huge parties.  They said what a lot of us were thinking.

December 8,  2015     Permalink