Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE – DAY SIX - SORT OF OKAY

We had a good day yesterday, but almost all the good news came from current subscribers and donators, who increased their support.  We deeply appreciate their wonderful assistance, but we also need new subscribers and donators.  We know we have many new readers, because we hear from them.  Please consider subscribing or donating.

This drive is critical.  For Urgent Agenda to continue at its current level, we need your help.  Subscribers and donators are the lifeblood of our work.  Without them, we'd fade away. 

Last year was challenging.  The year after a presidential election is always hard for political sites.  People are politicked out.  Some subscribers come in only for the election season.   So, we're down a bit, although we still have an enviable retention rate.

And now we face another major election year that can determine the fate of this country.

The main purpose in subscribing or donating is supporting our work.  But subscribers and donators also become members of our Angel's Corner, receiving a special e-mailed page twice a week.  At the Angel's Corner you can write on any subject you wish, at any reasonable length.  It's our most popular feature.  The contributions are often circulated widely.  Contributors become friends. 

So please consider subscribing or donating.  To do so, just go to the right-hand column right opposite these words.  You can subscribe or donate using PayPal, the most popular method, or you can choose other methods listed.  If you prefer regular mail, just signal us at service@urgentagenda.com, and we'll supply a mailing address. 

We hope to hear from you. 

FEBRUARY 15,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:21 P.M. ET: 

FIRST LADIES RANKED – It's just a game, but interesting.  From Reuters:  "Eleanor Roosevelt was named the greatest first lady of the United States in a survey of historians released on Saturday, while Michelle Obama, in fifth place, edged out Hillary Clinton in sixth.  Roosevelt, whose husband, Franklin, served as president from 1933 to 1945, has come up No. 1 each of the five times the survey has been conducted by Siena College Research Institute since 1982.  In the top finishers after Roosevelt were Abigail Adams, Jacqueline Kennedy and Dolly Madison."  It's Dolley Madison.  Dolly Madison used to be an ice cream sold in these parts.  Only one Republican, Betty Ford, made the top ten. 

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THEIR FRIENDS – From the Washington Free Beacon:  "Iranian oil exports soared in January, hitting new highs just months after the United States consented to billions of dollars in economic sanctions relief under the interim nuclear deal.  Exports of Iranian crude oil jumped to 1.32 million barrels, up from December’s high of 1.06 million barrels, according to data from the International Energy Agency."  Reminds me of how we sold scrap iron to Japan before World War II.  It was returned to us in the form of bombs and bullets.

THIS JUST IN – We now have major advice from Vice President Joe Biden.  From CNS:  "Vice President Joe Biden told fellow Democrats they should be optimistic about the state of the nation, 'in spite of who’s president.'  Biden was addressing the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference in Cambridge, Md. on Friday when he discussed why he feels positive about America and the upcoming mid-term elections.  'It always surprises me when we don’t have the degree of optimism that we should about the state of the nation,' Biden said."  Joe, look around you.  And yes, Joe, look at who's president.

February 15, 2014       Permalink

AN ABSOLUTE SCANDAL – AT 10:16 A.M. ET:  The latest Obamacare outrage, and it could affect you directly.  From Fox:

People with serious pre-existing diseases, precisely those the president aimed to help with ObamaCare, could find themselves paying for expensive drug treatments with no help from the health care exchanges.

Those with expensive diseases such as lupus or multiple sclerosis face something called a "closed drug formulary."

Dr. Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute explains,"if the medicine that you need isn't on that list, it's not covered at all. You have to pay completely out of pocket to get that medicine, and the money you spend doesn't count against your deductible, and it doesn't count against your out of pocket limits, so you're basically on your own."

The plan had claimed it would rescue those with serious pre-existing conditions.

"So it could be that a MS patient could be expected to pay $62,000 just for one medication," says Dr. Daniel Kantor, who treats MS patients and others with neurological conditions near Jacksonville, Florida. "That’s a possiblity under the new ObamaCare going on right now."

In fact, one conservative group, Americans for Prosperity, is running an ad on exactly this subject, featuring a woman with lupus, an auto-immune disease.

She starts by saying, "I voted for Barack Obama for president. I thought ObamaCare was going to be a good thing."

But Emilie Lamb says she later got a letter saying her insurance was canceled because of ObamaCare, pushing her premiums from $52 to $373 a month.

"I'm having to work a second job, to pay for ObamaCare,” she adds. “For somebody with lupus, that's not an easy thing. If I can't afford to continue to pay for ObamaCare, I don't get my medicine. I don't get to see my doctors."

One of the problems is that drugs for some diseases such as MS do not have generic versions. So without cheaper alternatives and no help from ObamaCare, patients could face huge personal out-of-pocket bills, forcing some to skimp on their medications.

COMMENT:  Great, huh?  But if you want an abortion or birth control, Obamacare will be there for you.  It is such a farce, just a disgrace.  Who designed this program?  Who's supposed to benefit from it? 

Republicans should be up in arms.  Are they capable?  Are they interested?  Obamacare must be stopped, and completely rewritten.  We need a little spine on our side, and a sense of anger.  At least some private political groups, like Americans for Prosperity, have a pulse.

February 15, 2014       Permalink

OVERKILL, I THINK – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  Germany's Angela Merkel is a good friend of the U.S., but was, at least publicly, angered by recent revelations of our National Security Agency spying in her country.  Yeah, as if the Germans don't do it here.  But now she's taking actions that are a bit over-the-top, and a slap at us.  From Reuters:

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday she would talk to French President Francois Hollande about building up a European communication network to avoid emails and other data passing through the United States.

Merkel, speaking on Saturday ahead of a visit to France, has been pushing for greater data protection in Europe following reports last year about mass surveillance in Germany and elsewhere by the U.S. National Security Agency. Even Merkel's cell phone was reportedly monitored by American spies.

Merkel said in her weekly podcast she disapproved of companies like Google and Facebook basing their operations in countries with low safeguards on data protection while being active in countries like Germany with high data protection.

"We'll talk with France about how we can maintain a high level of data protection," Merkel said before her visit to Paris on Wednesday.

"Above all, we'll talk about European providers that offer security for our citizens, so that one shouldn't have to send emails and other information across the Atlantic. Rather one could build up a communication network inside Europe."

COMMENT:  I doubt if Hollande, who was just feted in Washington, will go along with something that is so clearly aimed at the U.S.  Obama could have soothed this situation, but he's much more concerned about the feelings of Moscow and Tehran than he is about the feelings of Berlin, Paris, London, or Tokyo.

February 15, 2014       Permalink

IRAN – CHILLING – AT 9:41 A.M. ET:  I cannot verify this story, and it is based partly on expert speculation, but it's one of the most chilling stories I've read recently.  It follows warnings we've had since the early 90s from experts on nuclear warfare, warnings that have been largely ignored.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Iran's surprising decision to move warships off the Atlantic coast poses a potential catastrophic threat to America from a nuclear or electromagnetic pulse attack, according to an expert who foresaw Iran's move.

An EMP attack could destroy our power grids and computerized communications systems.  It could paralyze America for months or longer.  It could even wreck computers in vehicles, leading to chaos and starvation.  That is not an exaggeration.

Peter Pry, an expert on EMP attacks, said the ships are likely a dry run for a future attack, a maneuver meant to lull Washington into complacency while also embarrassing President Obama and his effort to convince Tehran to give up production of a nuclear bomb in return for a lifting of some economic sanctions.

“Yes, patrols by the Iranian Navy off our coasts could pose threat of a surprise EMP attack,” said Pry, who with others such as former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, has convinced several state legislatures to take moves to harden their electric and energy grids from EMP attack because Washington won't.

Pry said the ships are probably conducting a test for a future visit from an Iranian freighter that would launch the attack.

“I think the Iranian Navy patrols off our coasts may be intended to lull us into complacency, to get the U.S. Navy accustomed to an Iranian naval presence in our hemisphere, so eventually they could contribute to 'Zero Hour' and the great day when the Mullahs decide to drop the nuclear hammer on America,” said Pry, who staffed a former congressional EMP commission.

“I think the Iranian Navy patrols are also intended to humiliate Obama and the United States for the Geneva [nuclear] interim agreement that Tehran interprets, correctly I think, as U.S. surrendering to the inevitability of a nuclear-armed Iran,” he added.

Pry, president of EMPACT America, one of the nation's leading authorities on EMP, revealed that Iran recently purchased Russia's Club-K missile launcher, which can be hidden in tractor-trailer-sized cargo boxes.

“I and my colleagues, including Reza Kahlili, who warned six months ago that these Iranian patrols were coming, think it more likely Iran would make an EMP attack by launching a missile off a freighter, so they could do the deed anonymously, and escape retaliation,” Pry explained.

COMMENT:  Please read the story...twice.  Thoughtful members of Congress have warned about the threat of an EMP attack for years, but Washington has been indifferent.  The political left, of course, would consider any preparation for an attack a waste of money, and "provocative."

The Iranians are extraordinarily shrewd.  They have already outnegotiated us.  They can outmaneuver us as well, and show that a small nation can paralyze a large nation. 

February 15,  2014     Permalink

FEBRUARY 14,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:31 P.M. ET: 

QUESTIONS ASKED – Presidents often appoint political cronies to ambassadorships, but this president has selected a particularly mediocre bunch.  From WaPo:  "A century-old debate over whether presidents should reward political donors and allies by making them ambassadors has flared again after a string of embarrassing gaffes by President Obama’s picks.  The nominee for ambassador to Norway, for example, prompted outrage in Oslo by characterizing one of the nation’s ruling parties as extremist. A soap-opera producer slated for Hungary appeared to have little knowledge of the country she would be living in. A prominent Obama bundler nominated to be ambassador to Argentina acknowledged that he had never set foot in the country and isn’t fluent in Spanish."  And yet, they'll all probably be confirmed.  It's disgraceful.  Norwegians have reacted with particular anger to Obama's nothing appointment.  And they should.

PANDORA'S BOX – Man, it's like you can't even listen to a beat anymore without being psyched, man.  From The Wall Street Journal:  "Next time you listen to a Bob Marley channel on Pandora Media Inc., the internet radio service may peg you as likely to vote for a Democrat. The Oakland, Calif., company plans to roll out a new advertising service next week that would enable candidates and political organizations to target the majority of its 73 million active monthly Pandora listeners based on its sense of their political leanings.  How can it do this? The company matches election results with subscribers' musical preferences by ZIP Code. Then, it labels individual users based on their musical tastes and whether those artists are more frequently listened to in Democratic or Republican areas. Users don't divulge their political affiliations when they sign up for Pandora."  Whatever happened to the secret ballot?

MODEL ELECTION – It's a pleasure to report an election that actually was conducted with class and quality.  The workers at Kentucky's Volkswagen plant voted on whether they wished to unionize and join the United Auto Workers.  From the Detroit Free Press:  "CHATTANOOGA, TENN. — The UAW suffered a devastating defeat at Volkswagen’s plant here as workers rejected union representation by a 712-626 margin.  The defeat, which came despite Volkswagen’s neutrality, tarnishes UAW President Bob King’s legacy and could make it next to impossible for the union to extend its reach beyond domestic automakers.  'While we certainly would have liked a victory for workers here, we deeply respect the Volkswagen Global Group Works Council, Volkswagen management and (German union) IG Metall for doing their best to create a free and open atmosphere for workers to exercise their basic human right to form a union,' King said in a statement.  Frank Fischer, CEO of Volkswagen Chattanooga, thanked the workers for participating.  'They have spoken, and Volkswagen will respect the decision of the majority,' said Fischer in a statement.  Of about 1,500 Volkswagen workers eligible to vote, 89% cast ballots between Wednesday and Friday night."  An apparently fair and clean election.  As readers know, I'm pro-union, and, of course, Ronald Reagan was a union president.  I believe unions, when honestly run, can be of enormous value to both workers and the smooth operation of a company.  But workers should have their choice about unionization, and workers at Volkswagen made theirs.  Others will decide the other way. 

February 14, 2014       Permalink

FUNNY MAN – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:  Reader Joseph J. Gallick refers us to a wonderful quote from legendary comedian Sid Caesar, who died Wednesday, remembered in this space yesterday.  It's from Caesar's 2003 memoir, "Caesar's Hours":

Comedy reflects the culture it comes from. There once was, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the show." It's now hi, how's everybody doing? That's a subtle but very significant change. There's a style, a level of refinement that is gone. The language used today would not in anyone's wildest dreams have been used on television when we were starting out. . . .

We couldn't go for a cheap joke or a shock joke. We had to be funny on our own. These limitations made us think. Instead of going for the easy laugh with profanity or an off-color remark, we always had to be creative and come up with something that was both funny and clean. We drew from real life. Things aren't funny, people are funny. We would never have a guy walk into a room with a piece of toilet paper stuck to his heel. We had to be subtle.

I believed then, and still do, that if you're an entertainer, especially a comedian, you can be satirical, but you can't engage the government head-on. There is a very thin line between being a politician and an entertainer. You can't knock the entire system because you never really know what's going on inside and why certain decisions were made. My job is to make you laugh and make you happy. My personal opinion is my own. I don't want to know how you vote, and you don't need to know how I vote.

COMMENT:  It's too bad Caesar's view was ignored.  Look what you see around you.

February 14, 2014       Permalink

MORE APPEASEMENT? – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  Why would any hostile nation be afraid of Barack Obama?  He should be showing firmness toward Iran as we try to negotiate a permanent nuclear agreement, just as Reagan showed firmness toward Moscow when he was negotiating.  But Obama's negotiating strategy comes from the faculty lounge, not the bargaining table.  From the Washington Times:

The U.S.’s lone naval carrier in the Persian Gulf has spent more time outside the region than in — primarily due to the Obama administration’s willingness to bend to Iran’s will in order to ensure a successful nuclear deal, a military analyst suggested.

According to data compiled by the Hill, the U.S. Navy maintained a two-carrier presence in the region in 2010, due in part to Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz. But the Pentagon’s budget cuts forced one of the carriers to exit last year.

The Hill conducted an analysis of America’s naval strength in the area and found that the USS Harry Truman — the sole carrier for the last year in the area — has actually spent more hours sailing waters outside the Persian Gulf than inside it during the past six months.

The reported reduction in strength comes at the same time the United States is trying to forge a deal with Iran to limit or halt its nuclear program, in exchange for eased economic sanctions. The deal currently in place is an interim plan that the United States wants to make permanent.

Navy officials deny any reduction in military strength in the region, and say they’ve actually upped the craft count with smaller, swifter ships with better navigational and patrol abilities.

But a key naval analyst thinks the reduced carrier presence is no coincidence, but rather a purposeful act designed to communicate cooperation to the Iranian government.

“A carrier is an effective symbol and instrument of national power,” retired Vice Adm. Peter Daly, CEO of the U.S. Naval Institute, told The Hill. “Its mere presence is a deterrence to bad actors and bad behavior, and if necessary, it is an instrument of force. That’s true in the Gulf and that’s true anywhere in the world.”

COMMENT:  I suspect the Iranians see an American president whose actions flash the message that he will never use force, despite occasional fist-shaking to keep American traditionalists happy.  That message is not the road to peace.  It is almost always the road to war.  Weakness causes wars.  No war ever got started because America was too strong.

February 14, 2014       Permalink

AND ON OBAMACARE – AT 9:04 A.M. ET:  From the way the White House is talking, you'd think Americans are flocking to Obamacare, as in those old Soviet posters showing workers, their pitchforks over their shoulders, rushing smilingly into the fields to service the people's crops.  Not so.  From Fox:

Over half of American voters regret that the Affordable Care Act passed, and nearly two-thirds say it never would have -- if we knew then what we know now.

In addition, more than half think the health care law will ultimately be bad for the country, and that it’s more about the government controlling our lives than getting Americans health care.

These are just some of the findings from a Fox News poll released Thursday.

Fifty-five percent of voters wish the health care law had never passed. That includes majorities of young people under age 30 (55 percent) and those with annual household incomes under $50,000 (52 percent), as well as more than a quarter of Democrats (28 percent).

Some 37 percent are glad the law passed.

The poll also finds that by a 51-42 percent margin, people think in the long run the law will be bad for the country.

Democrats are alone in thinking the health care law will be a good thing in the end: 70 percent feel that way, which is twice the number of independents who say the same (35 percent) and more than five times the number of Republicans (13 percent).

Overall, 64 percent of voters don’t think the law would have passed if we knew back in 2009 what we know today. Majorities of Republicans (74 percent), independents (68 percent) and even Democrats (54 percent) say it wouldn’t have passed.

COMMENT:  Obamacare is failing because it is horribly designed.  It can lead to a Democratic debacle in November if the Republicans agree on an alternative, and if that alternative is popular with the public.  Again, Republicans must have a positive, winning message, not just depend on Dem failure.

February 14, 2014       Permalink

LATEST SENATE POLL – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  We're following Senate polls state by state and seeing a pattern.  Yes, Republicans are ahead in many states they need to flip control of the U.S. Senate, but it's rarely by much.  What should be an easy GOP year is turning into one that could be successful, but only after a major effort.  Control of the Senate is by no means guaranteed.  From The Hill:

Sen. Kay Hagan's (D-N.C.) approval ratings are underwater, and she narrowly trails her Republican challengers, according to a new automated survey by North Carolina-based Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.

Hagan's approval rating is at 41 percent with 50 percent disapproving, numbers that have remained unchanged since the conservative group Americans for Prosperity began bombarding the freshman senator with negative ads late in the fall.

She trails North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R), 42 percent to 40 percent, and trails two other Republican opponents by two points as well. Tea Party favorite Greg Brannon (R) leads Hagan, 43 percent to 40 percent.

Hagan's best chance at reelection might be a drawn-out and ugly GOP primary, and the poll indicates that's where things might be headed.

Tillis leads the way with 20 percent of the GOP electorate, with Brannon and former nurse Heather Grant (R) at 13 percent apiece, former Shelby Mayor Ted Alexander (R) at 10 percent and Rev. Mark Harris (R) at 10 percent. Tillis has a big cash lead on his primary opponents, but they've begun to take shots at him in forums and Web ads.

COMMENT:  Yes, it is the splits in the Republican Party that are causing problems.  The party does not go into this campaign united.  And some of the primary battles are vicious.  It is too early to tell what actually will happen.  The Democratic administration in Washington, and its congressional supporters, are unpopular, but the Republicans are unloved.  Americans must be convinced to look to the Republicans for improvement, not simply reject the Dems.

February 14,  2014     Permalink