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DECEMBER 23,  2015

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

ANOTHER GREAT EDUCATIONAL DECISION – From Fox:  A cafeteria worker at an Idaho middle school gave a free lunch to a 12-year-old student who said she was hungry, but the school district fired her Monday for her actions, the Idaho State Journal reported.  Dalene Bowden said the Irving Middle School student didn’t have any money to pay for the hot lunch. The cost: $1.70.  The Pocatello/Chubbuck School District reportedly placed Bowden on leave Dec. 15 before deciding to fire her. She said she offered to pay for the lunch herself, but her supervisor said no.  “This just breaks my heart, and I was in the wrong, but what do you do when the kid tells you that they’re hungry, and they don’t have any money? I handed her the tray,” Bowden told the Journal...Tens of thousands of people rushed to her defense. A petition supporting Bowden racked up more than 38,000 online signatures as of Wednesday.  We'll follow this and see how it turns out.  I'm sure the kindhearted Ms. Bowden will be offered many jobs.  As far as the "educators" at district headquarters, they need a common-sense transplant.

FAITH IN POLICE REBOUNDS – From Powerline:   2015 was a bad public relations year for the police. It was hammered by the Black Lives Matter movement and other leftists. President Obama did his bit stating, “You know as well as I do, that the tensions in some communities, the feeling that law enforcement isn’t always applied fairly, those sentiments don’t just come out of nowhere.”  But even with all the bad PR, trust in the police increased this year according to a Gallup poll. 56 percent of those polled rated the honesty and ethical standards of police officers “high” or “very high” (and only 14 percent said “low” or “very low”). ...Herein lies the most interesting aspect of the survey: the rebound was driven mostly by African-Americans. In 2014, less than one-fourth of them believed in the honesty and ethics of police officers. This year, 40 percent do.  Ray Kelly, New York City's former police commissioner, got a standing ovation every time he appeared at a black church.  The parishioners understood how the police were protecting their community every day.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD MESSES UP AGAIN – When will even liberals realize that there's something wrong over there.  From the Federalist:   International Planned Parenthood Federation, of which Planned Parenthood Federation of America is an official affiliate, maintains it is a person’s “human right” not to tell their sexual partners they are HIV positive if they don’t want to.  It’s all laid out in International Planned Parenthood Federation’s booklet for HIV-positive youth entitled “Healthy, Happy and Hot.” It says, “Young people living with HIV have the right to decide if, when, and how to disclose their HIV status.” It continues: “Sharing your HIV status is called disclosure. Your decision about whether to disclose may change with different people and situations. You have the right to decide if, when, and how to disclose your HIV status.”  Planned Parenthood thinks it’s your human right to risk exposing other people to a potentially deadly disease without telling them.  

December 23, 2015       Permalink

THEY ARE HERE – AT 10:22 A.M. ET:  And let's not forget it.  From the New York Post: 

A Pennsylvania teenager was indicted on Tuesday after investigators said he tried to help individuals travel to the Middle East to join Islamic State, the Justice Department said.

Jalil Ibn Ameer Aziz, 19, of Harrisburg, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Scranton on charges of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the militant group, the Justice Department said in a statement.

When Aziz was arrested on Thursday, prosecutors said he had used at least 57 Twitter accounts to advocate violence against Americans, disseminate Islamic State propaganda and post the names of US military members that he said should be targeted.

Aziz is scheduled to appear in a Harrisburg court on Wednesday for a detention hearing and arraignment, the statement said.

COMMENT:  He is innocent until proved guilty, of course, but you wonder how much of this is going on, and how much we don't know about. 

ISIS has proved to be a well-financed, smart, and quick terror organization, far more advanced than Al Qaeda.  I have to believe they're planning major operations in the United States, as we are the "great Satan."  Meanwhile, the president refuses to identify them correctly as a radical Islamist group.  That's like refusing to say that the German armies of World War II had anything to do with Nazism.

December 23, 2015       Permalink

NOW WE'RE TALKIN' – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:  Looks like the herd will be thinned in time for the next GOP debate.  We're getting some realism.  From The Hill:

As few as six candidates could make the next GOP presidential debate stage in January, as Fox Business Network's new criteria could drastically shrink the field less than a month before the Iowa caucuses.

Fox Business Network announced three separate avenues to make the main stage, but those pathways are more restricted than in previous debates. Participants in the main stage debate on Jan. 14 must hit the top six in an average of five recent national polls, or top five in an average of recent polls from Iowa or New Hampshire.

The rest will qualify for another undercard debate, provided that they earn at least 1 percent in one of the qualifying polls.

Last month's CNN debate also relied on early state polling, but set a 4 percent threshold instead. Nine candidates made the network's main event.

Fox Business Network, as in the past, hasn't announced which polls it would use. But using current RealClearPolitics averages, Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Ben Carson, former Gov. Jeb Bush (Fla.), and Gov. Chris Christie (N.J.) currently sit in the national top six.

COMMENT:  We're making progress.  And the debate after that should feature the top four.  Voters would get a dramatically clearer picture of each candidate if there were fewer contenders onstage.

December 23, 2015       Permalink

TRUMP ACES NEW CNN POLL – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  It's baffling.  The Republican Party is reputed to be the party that puts a higher premium on good behavior.  But Trump overcomes every flap and keeps gaining ground.  From The Hill:

Donald Trump added 3 points in a new CNN/ORC International poll released early Wednesday to expand his commanding lead over the GOP field.

Trump now has the support of 39 percent of Republicans independents who lean Republicans.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) strengthened his second-place standing, adding 2 points since a similar poll in early December. He currently has 18 percent.

Ben Carson and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who both saw their support fall in the new national poll, are tied for third with 10 percent apiece.

No other GOP contender had more than 5 percent support.

And...

The poll also found that Trump's support is largely comprised of non-college-educated voters. Among those without a degree, 46 percent back Trump, while only 27 percent of graduates said they support his candidacy.

COMMENT:  That last point tends to confirm that Trump has become the protest candidate of largely white working-class people who feel they've been bypassed and demeaned by the current rulers in Washington.  It's fascinating that the Democratic Party, once the home of the working class, is now seen as the party of the elites.

December 23,  2015     Permalink

DECEMBER 22,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:41 A.M. ET: 

GREAT MOMENTS IN BAD TASTE – From the Washington Times: The Washington Post pulled a political cartoon Tuesday night that portrayed the daughters of Ted Cruz — ages 7 and 4 — as monkeys.  The cartoon by Ann Telnaes showed the two girls as dancing like small simians before Mr. Cruz, who is Hispanic, dressed as an organ-grinder.  Ms. Telnaes captioned the cartoon as “Ted Cruz uses his kids as political props” and defended her portrayal of the girls on Twitter, saying that because the Texas senator showed them in a humorous political ad “they are fair game.”  Praise to the Washington Post for pulling the cartoon.  Children are off limits. 

GREAT MOMENTS IN FIGHTING RACISM – From the College Fix:  MRCTV’s Dan Joseph recently presented college students with a “petition” calling on radio stations to ban the song “White Christmas” because, according to the petition, it’s “insulting to people of color and perpetuates the idea that being white is automatically a positive attribute in our society.”  Here’s some of the comments Joseph made to students as he talked to them about the song.  “It perpetuates the idea that white is naturally good, and that other colors are bad, and we feel that that’s a micro-aggression,” he told one student.  “And we think that the song ‘White Christmas’ is insulting to people of color because it says snow is white and therefore it is good – but we know there are other kinds of snow,” Joseph told another student. “It’s dirty on the ground, sometimes it turns brown, sometimes it turns black.”...He got 18 signatures from students in about an hour.  See the video of these geniuses here. 

TRUMP GETTING BACKLASH – From ABC:   Fifty percent of American voters say they would be “embarrassed” if Donald Trump were president, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released this morning.  The current Republican frontrunner, whose 28 percent support in this poll tops his competition for the GOP nomination, would make 23 percent of voters “proud,” the poll found. Other recent national polls have found Trump’s lead for the GOP nomination at more than 20 percentage points.  I'm afraid Trump's vulgarity is catching up with him.  He makes some excellent observations, but Americans want a certain stature in a president, and Trump isn't supplying it.  He needs a finishing school.

December 22, 2015       Permalink

NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:   Our economy is not doing well, despite the smiling faces of the Obama government and its press allies.  From marketwatch.com:

The economy expanded a touch slower in the third quarter than previously reported, revised government figures show, but the path of growth is still the same: The U.S. running well below the historical norm more than six years into a recovery.

Gross domestic product — the sum of all the activity in an economy — increased at a 2% annual pace from July to September, according to the government’s latest update. Previously the Commerce Department had said the U.S. grew at a 2.1% rate after a 3.9% increase in the second quarter.

The slight downgrade was triggered by a larger trade deficit and a smaller buildup in inventories than earlier estimates showed.

The U.S. expanded at a 2.2% rate through the first nine months of the year, and the economy is projected to grow at a similar pace in the fourth quarter that ends on Dec. 31. If so, the economy will have failed to reach 3% growth for the 10th straight year, marking the slowest stretch since the end of World War II.

Historically the economy has expanded at a 3.3% rate.

COMMENT:  Hillary won't be able to sell this economy to the American people.  And her foreign-policy record is bumpy.  The question is whether the Republican Party can exploit Clinton's weakness, or once again fail to perform.

December 22, 2015       Permalink

OH DEAR, OH DEAR, WE MUST SUPPRESS THIS! – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  Who do these people think they are?  Scientists?  How dare they upset us.  We need a safe space.  From London's Express: 

Major theories about what causes temperatures to rise have been thrown into doubt after NASA found the Earth has cooled in areas of heavy industrialisation where more trees have been lost and more fossil fuel burning takes place.

Environmentalists have long argued the burning of fossil fuels in power stations and for other uses is responsible for global warming and predicted temperature increases because of the high levels of carbon dioxide produced - which causes the global greenhouse effect.

While the findings did not dispute the effects of carbon dioxide on global warming, they found aerosols - also given off by burning fossil fuels - actually cool the local environment, at least temporarily.

The research was carried out to see if current climate change models for calculating future temperatures were taking into account all factors and were accurate.

A NASA spokesman said: "To quantify climate change, researchers need to know the Transient Climate Response (TCR) and Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS) of Earth.

COMMENT:  Maybe we don't know as much about "climate change" as the scientific establishment claims we do.  This is a fascinating report.  Charles Krauthammer says that he is neither a proponent nor a denier of climate-change claims.  He wants more information.  So do I.  So do the American people, who rank "climate change" low on their priority list.

We are being asked to spend trillions of dollars to defeat said "climate change."  Maybe we'd better hide our checkbooks and ask some questions first.

December 22, 2015       Permalink

WHAT SIDE IS HE ON? – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  John Kerry is, once again, going out of his way to help the Iranian mullahs.  From Fox: 

Republicans on Monday blasted Secretary of State John Kerry for suggesting in a letter to his Iranian counterpart that the administration could help the country get around new visa restrictions passed by Congress.

“Instead of bending over backwards to try to placate the Iranian regime, the White House needs to be holding it accountable for its recent missile tests, its continued support for terrorism, and its wrongful imprisonment of Americans,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said in a statement to FoxNews.com.

At issue are tightened security requirements for America’s visa waiver program, which allows citizens of 38 countries to travel to the U.S. without visas. Under changes in the newly signed spending bill, people from those countries who have traveled to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan in the past five years must now obtain visas to enter the U.S.

Top Tehran officials, however, complained the changes violate the terms of the nuclear deal, which says the U.S. and other world powers will refrain from any policy intended to adversely affect normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran.

Kerry responded to these concerns in a to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif -- and suggested the administration could simply bypass the rules for Iran.

“I am also confident that the recent changes in visa requirements passed in Congress, which the Administration has the authority to waive, will not in any way prevent us from meeting our [nuclear deal] commitments, and that we will implement them so as not to interfere with legitimate business interests of Iran,” he said.

Kerry’s letter to Zarif assured that the U.S. would “adhere to the full measure of our commitments.” As for changes to the visa program, Kerry floated several alternative options for easing any impact on Iran – including waiving the new requirements.

COMMENT:  Absolutely unbelievable.  We're effectively working for an enemy nation.  This is appeasement at its worst.  In addition, there are these little detailed provisions of the nuclear agreement that got very little publicity when the agreement was announced.  A press failure, in my view, and one that can come back to haunt us.

December 22, 2015       Permalink

NO DOUBT ABOUT IT – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  Associated Press has named ISIS as the top story of 2015.  This will no doubt upset Field Marshal Obama and Grand Admiral Kerry:

NEW YORK (AP) — The far-flung attacks claimed by Islamic State militants and the intensifying global effort to crush them added up to a grim, gripping yearlong saga that was voted the top news story of 2015, according to The Associated Press' annual poll of U.S. editors and news directors.

The No. 2 story was the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that led to legalization of same-sex marriage in all 50 states. But several of the other stories among the Top 10 reflected the impact of the Islamic State, while another group of major stories related to the series of mass shootings in the United States.

Among the 100 voters casting ballots, first-place votes were spread among 17 different stories. The Islamic State entry received 37 first-place votes and same-sex marriage 13. The No. 3 story — the deadly attacks in Paris in January and November — received 14 first-place votes.

A year ago, the top story in AP's poll was the police killings of unarmed blacks in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere — and the investigations and protests that ensued. In this year's poll, a similar entry, with more instances of blacks dying in encounters with police, placed fifth.

The first AP top-stories poll was conducted in 1936, when editors chose the abdication of Britain's King Edward VIII.

COMMENT:  The key is that ISIS is a continuing story.  Also, the American people are far ahead of the administration, which is not uncommon.  They understand that there can be many strikes on the United States in one day.  After all, 9-11, a complex operation, hit three separate targets – New York, Washington, and an airliner over Pennsylvania.  The recent Paris attacks hit six targets, almost simultaneously.  Americans also understand that, eventually, ISIS and other groups will get much more sophisticated weapons, including weapons of mass destruction.

The president whined yesterday that the media exaggerates the threat of terrorism.  He is wrong, as he usually is.

December 22,  2015     Permalink