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SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE – DAY EIGHT - BIT OF A STALL

Okay, we'll forget yesterday.  Sundays are always disappointing.  But now we start the second week of our drive, which has produced reasonable results thus far.  But, again, 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.

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

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

FEBRUARY 17,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:14 P.M. ET:

DEAR LEADER'S WAYS – From Fox:  "North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un's lavish spending -- including on a private movie theater for 1,000 of his closest friends -- eclipses even the legendary ways of his father, according to a U.N. report which also details the suffering of the Hermit Kingdom's people.  The 372-page report, released on Monday after a year-long investigation into the country, says Kim Jong Un’s regime tried to import luxury Mercedes-Benz vehicles, high-end musical recording equipment and dozens of pianos."  And the people are starving.  But Dear Leader is wise, and knows what's good for them.

FALLON TO NY – Jimmy Fallon takes over the Tonight Show tonight, broadcast from New York.  The last time the show was based in New York was 1972, during Nixon's first term, and before Watergate.  That was more than a generation ago.  It then departed for California permanently because the guest supply in New York was drying up.  It is actually much, much worse today.  I'm just wondering how many investment bankers, corporate lawyers and Stalinist mayors Fallon will have on before deciding that maybe the Coast isn't such a bad idea.  On the other hand, New York is temporarily safer.  How many muggers come out in the snow?

HE SPEAKS – From The Weekly Standard:  "An interview former NBA star Charles Barkley conducted with President Obama aired last night on TNT. In the interview, President Obama defended Obamacare and called signing up for the health care program "just part of growing up."  We know the president is in trouble when he'd down to being interviewed by retired basketball players.  As far as his comment is concerned, it appears he thinks signing up for Obamacare is something done by children.  Well, in a way, it is.  Who else would do it voluntarily?

MUST BE GLOBAL WARMING – From the New York Daily News:  "Send in the clowns — please!
As the 'Greatest Show on Earth' returns to Brooklyn Thursday, circus folk fear a national clown shortage is on the horizon.  Membership at the country’s largest trade organizations for the jokesters has plunged over the past decade as declining interest, old age and higher standards among employers align against Krusty, Bozo and their crimson-nosed colleagues.  'What’s happening is attrition,' said Clowns of America International President Glen Kohlberger, who added that membership at the Florida-based organization has plummeted since 2006."  Why don't they recruit in Washington, where there's a surplus of clowns looking for work?

February 17,  2014      Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:16 A.M. ET:  From the brilliant Yale professor, David Gelernter, one of the few conservatives to survive in the Ivy League.  He's discussing the latest campaign on behalf of the "diversity" racket.  From The Weekly Standard: 

The good thing about the “diversity” problem is that you can obsess over it forever with no risk of solving it, because it is insoluble—based as it is on a wholly implausible lie. The diversity kingpins aim for group representation in all academic fields based on a group’s numbers in the student population, and in America (eventually the world) at large. But why would anyone suspect that both sexes and all races and nationalities have approximately the same skills at everything? And the same interests in everything? And the same physical qualifications for everything? Doesn’t diversity imply (for lack of a better term) diversity?

No!—and that’s the best thing about the diversity crusade. It is actually an anti-diversity crusade, waged by people who detest diversity. Its goal is to suppress diversity of every sort. Yale women must behave just like Yale men: must major in the same things at the same rates, go out for sports in the same numbers, get the same jobs, make the same money, care to the same extent in the same way about children, family, money, power, sex, and everything else. So why are there “Women’s Studies” departments? Because (dammit!) women and men are totally different! So why is there a diversity campaign? Because women and men are exactly the same!

COMMENT:  Brilliantly stated.   Diversity is a real racket.  It applies only to certain groups and certain intellectual opinions.  Conservative blacks and women are clearly not included.  Observing Christians or Jews?  Forget it.  Asian Americans are included only if they can prove they've been oppressed.  Otherwise, they're suspect because they're so successful.  If you're pro-life, please leave.  If you're a pro-life woman, you're not legitimately female.  If you're pro-American, you must be a racist.  Such is the language of "diversity."

February 17, 2014       Permalink

EMBARRASSING – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:  Related to the post just below, many Republicans are making the charge, accurately, that Obama is violating the Constitution.  But their reply to this outrage is pathetic and embarrassing.  Again, from Fox: 

Washington Republicans on Sunday restated their argument that President Obama has violated the Constitution by using executive orders to alter the Affordable Care Act but acknowledged they likely have no recourse or ability to stop another incident.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told “Fox News Sunday” that congressional Republicans think the president abused the government’s separation of powers by using the executive orders to sidestep Congress and delay the law’s employer mandate.

However, he said critics would be challenged to win in court because Congress lacks the so-called “legal standing” to present the case and they would have a “tough time” finding somebody hurt enough by the delays to be a good plaintiff.

“The president knows this is wrong,” said Lee, among the most outspoken ObamaCare critics. “What gives him the ability to rewrite the law?”

Last week the president, for the second time in about seven months, delayed the employer mandate, which requires medium- and large-sized businesses to offer insurance to employers.

COMMENT:  If you say something is wrong, you'd better have a strategy to fix it.  Simply saying "our hands are tied" doesn't cut it.  If Republicans really believe that the president is in violation of the Constitution, there surely must be a dramatic way to bring the issue to the American people, and to the courts.  After all, people bring Constitutional cases all the time.  I am not a lawyer.  I am speculating.  But you'd think the GOP would have access to the best legal advice on this. 

There is always the threat of impeachment, but it's an empty threat, as it could never be carried out with the Senate in Democratic hands.

I just think the party looks weak and unimaginative, as usual.

February 17, 2014       Permalink

REPUBLICANS TALK STRATEGY – AT 9:04 A.M. ET:  Karl Rove, who assumes Hillary will be the Dem nominee in 2016, gives the party some advice on how to handle her.  Mitt Romney chimes in.  I'd love for readers to write us and tell us what you think of their strategy.  From Fox:   

Former Bush administration adviser Karl Rove on Sunday cautioned Republicans against a 2016 presidential election strategy that focuses too much on the political history of potential Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Rove told “Fox News Sunday” he was uncertain whether revisiting Clinton and husband Bill Clinton’s years in the White House would help Republicans win the presidency.

“It may,” said Rove, now a “Fox News” contributor. “But the trouble for Republicans is it’s easier to say what you’re against than what you are for.”

Republicans have tried to knock down a Clinton candidacy essentially since she resigned from her post in February 2013 as secretary of state.

And the campaign appears to have increased in recent weeks with the publication of historical, academic documents portraying her as “ruthless” and Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul questioning whether former President Clinton should be allowed to return to the White House, considering his behavior with intern Monica Lewinsky.

Also on Sunday, 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney warned against attacking the Clinton political legacy.

"I don't think Bill Clinton is as relevant as Hillary Clinton," he told NBC's "Meet the Press."

This is not the first time Republicans have been targeted for criticizing something or somebody instead of proposing their own ideas, most recently with ObamaCare.

“It’s more important to say what you're for,” Rove continued. “Anyone taking on Hillary Clinton -- Democrat or Republican -- had better focus on what they're for to contrast implicitly against Hillary.”

Still, he argued that Clinton’s roughly four-year tenure as secretary of state is relevant and fair game, particularly her role in the fatal 2012 terror attacks on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya.

“There are lots of unanswered questions, and they will continue to be an issue,” Rove said. “Families [of the victims] want answers. The questions won’t go away until the questions are answered.”

COMMENT:  We've argued here many times that Republicans must have a positive message, focusing on what they would actually do once in office.  Remember – the Clintons are vicious and terminally dishonest.  They will do anything to win if Hillary runs.  Lying is their way of life.  But enough American voters are vulnerable, and enough are receiving federal checks, to make the difference in an election.  If Hillary runs, she's the instant favorite.  The press will put its finger on the scale.  Our side has to have a brilliant strategy and a great candidate.

February 17, 2014       Permalink

DEVASTATING – AT 8:55 A.M. ET:  Poland's Lech Walesa is one of the great freedom fighters of our time, a man who, with others, led Poland into freedom.  Walesa has an opinion of Barack Obama, and it isn't kind.  From Newsmax: 

Anti-communist crusader and former president of Poland Lech Walesa tells Newsmax that of all the national leaders currently on the world stage, the one who has "disillusioned" him the most is President Barack Obama.

Walesa also asserts that Obama "wasn't ready" to take on the task of leading the world's most dominant superpower.

And he calls for reforms at the United Nations so the world body can help fill the vacuum left by the United States' failure of leadership under Obama.

And...

Walesa played a key role in freeing Eastern Europe from the clutches of Soviet communism and ultimately in the breakup of the U.S.S.R.

In 1980, he co-founded Solidarity, the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union. Later in that decade he helped form the first non-communist government in the Soviet bloc, beginning the downfall of communism in Europe.

Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as Poland's president from 1990 to 1995. Today he heads the Lech Walesa Institute, which is dedicated to democratization and his personal legacy.

On Obama: 

"When he was elected, everyone hoped and expected that he would reform not only the United States but also the rest of the world. But he failed to implement any constructive reforms. Moreover, it seems like perhaps he doesn't even care if America is still perceived as the superpower it once was."

He added, with tongue slightly in cheek: "If that's the case and if the U.S. doesn't really want to be a superpower anymore, I'd say let Poland take over that leadership and we'd take care of the rest. I promise you, we'd know what to do."

COMMENT:  I suspect that Walesa is speaking for many world leaders.  There seems to be a kind of revulsion toward the president that is growing by the day.  And the warmth Obama shows toward Russia is not helping the American cause in Eastern Europe.  Of course, we're no longer exactly sure what that cause is.

February 17,  2014     Permalink

FEBRUARY 16,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:05 P.M. ET:

VENEZUELA ON THE BRINK? – From AFP:  "Supporters and opponents of Venezuela's leftist government staged rival rallies in Caracas amid spiraling discontent at the country's stubborn inflation and shortage of basic goods.  Saturday marked the 12th straight day of street protests, with no end in sight.  Two anti-government protesters and a pro-Maduro demonstrator died in a rally Wednesday in violence that has raised alarm throughout Latin America."  There have been reports of military leaders possibly planning a coup.  Maduro took over after the timely death of Hugo Chavez.

ANOTHER BUSINESS LOSS FOR NY – From Gateway Pundit:  "Remington Arms Company, Inc., founded in 1816 in upstate New York, announced today they will build their new factory in Alabama and not the Empire state. Since New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D.) signed the SAFE Gun Control Act, multiple gun companies have left the state.  And, now Remington will not build its new plant there." What is so scary is that New York has become so heavily dependent on Wall Street.  There isn't much else left.  The great aircraft plants of Republic and Grumman are long gone.  So are most of New York City's newspapers, with their large payrolls.  So is shipbuilding at the New York Naval Shipyard.  The state is becoming an economic basket case.  And the governor, kissing the rings of his enviro/religionist supporters, refuses to authorize fracking, which could revolutionize the economy of upstate.  Another liberal success story.

SHUT UP, JOHN – From Fox:  "JAKARTA, Indonesia – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday called climate change perhaps the world's 'most fearsome' destructive weapon and mocked those who deny its existence or question its causes, comparing them to people who insist the Earth is flat.  In a speech to Indonesian students, civic leaders and government officials, Kerry tore into climate change skeptics. He accused them of using shoddy science and scientists to delay steps needed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases at the risk of imperiling the planet.  A day earlier, the U.S. and China announced an agreement to cooperate more closely on combating climate change. American officials hope that will help encourage others, including developing countries like Indonesia and India, to follow suit."  That is disgraceful.  Some of the "shoddy" scientists Kerry denounces are Nobel laureates and professors at first-class institutions, like MIT.  The real flat Earthers are people like Kerry, who refuse to examine the reasoned observations of qualified skeptics.

February 16, 2014        Permalink

THE COST OF OBAMACARE – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:   The costs keep rising, the benefits keep diminishing.  From IBD: 

How much does it cost taxpayers to sign up one ObamaCare enrollee? In President Obama's home state of Hawaii, it's $56,819.

The Obama administration gave Hawaii $205 million in grants over the past three years to set up its state-run exchange. But so far, only 3,614 Hawaiians have filled out applications — just 40% of the state's enrollment goal.

Even if Hawaii were to reach its 9,000 target, it would still cost nearly $23,000 for each enrollee.

Hawaii's low sign-up numbers have state officials scrambling to figure out what to do next year, when its exchange is supposed to rely on excise taxes charged to insurers selling through the Hawaii Health Connector.

Washington, D.C., meanwhile, received $133.6 million in federal grants to build its exchange, but so far has signed up just 5,090 — for a per-enrollee cost of $26,242.

Ironically, the city where Obama signed ObamaCare into law is just 12% toward its enrollment goal, the second worst rate in the country.

Next in line is Massachusetts, which actually had a functioning exchange website, built as part of its 2006 reform law that served as the model for ObamaCare. But the site had to be rebuilt to suit the health reform law.

After $180 million in grants, however, Massachusetts has enrolled only 8,139 in its new exchange — or $22,124 per enrollee. It had expected 250,000 people to buy an ObamaCare plan in the first year.

COMMENT:  Welcome to the world of good planning.  And these people want to run our medical system. 

February 16, 2014       Permalink

THE SAUDI BOMB? – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:   Nuclear proliferation is one of the greatest challenges of our time, perhaps the greatest.  Nuclear weapons in increasingly unstable hands magnify the chances for those weapons to be used.  Now one of our traditional allies in the Mideast, Saudi Arabia, is looking at the need for a Saudi bomb.  From the great defense reporter, Eli Lake, at the Daily Beast:

President Obama wants an agreement with Iran to prevent a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race, but it’s pushing Saudi Arabia toward its own nuke program.

Last month, America’s top Iran negotiator Wendy Sherman had some bad news for ambassadors from America’s Arab allies. In a meeting with envoys from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other Gulf states, Sherman said that any bargain with Iran would likely leave Tehran, the Gulf states long-time enemy, with the capacity to enrich uranium, according to U.S. officials briefed on the encounter.

Sherman regularly briefs these allies after diplomatic talks with Iran, but in recent weeks those conversations have been different. While most of America’s Middle East allies—with the exception of Israel—have publicly supported the current Iran negotiations, behind the scenes, envoys from the region have expressed grave concerns that Iran could be left with a break out capacity to make the fuel for a nuclear weapon at a time of their choosing.

And now, one of the countries in the region without a full-blown nuclear programs—Saudi Arabia—may be changing its mind. Riyadh has a long-standing interest in nuclear power. But Western and Israeli intelligence services are starting to see signs that this interest is growing more serious, and extends into nuclear enrichment. Until recently, the pursuit of nuclear enrichment—or the fuel cycle—was considered by arms control experts as a tell-tale sign of a clandestine weapons program. Nuclear fuel is sold to all members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but it’s far more costly to build the infrastructure and produce it indigenously. Saudi Arabia appears to be getting more serious about going down that path.

If Saudi Arabia pursue nuclear enrichment even if there is an Iran deal, then the victory to curb atomic weapons that Obama has tried to achieve will be at least partially undone by his own diplomacy.

COMMENT:  Why are we surprised?  Obama's "diplomacy" is on a high-school level.  It defies history, facts and logic, but is consistent with the silliness of the political left. 

A Saudi bomb means there will be an Egyptian bomb and a Turkish bomb.  It certainly means an active Iranian bomb program.

Hey, what's wrong with a few more in the club, right?  After all, no one is really going to use those things, right?  That is right, isn't it?  Well, if it happens, UN Secretary-General Barack Obama could call a conference, to be held right after his next vacation.

February 16, 2014       Permalink

SYRIA TALKS COLLAPSE – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  Syria has been off the front page, but the bloodbath in that country continues.  Talks to end the civil war have essentially collapsed, and American policy appears bankrupt.  From BBC:

The UK and France have blamed the Syrian government for the collapse of peace talks with the opposition in Geneva.

"The responsibility for it lies squarely with the Assad regime," UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

His French counterpart, Laurent Fabius, said the government had "blocked any progress".

UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi apologised to the Syrian people for the failure of the negotiations.

The final session of talks lasted a mere 27 minutes on Saturday morning. It was the sixth day of the second round.

Mr Brahimi said an agenda had been agreed for a third round, but no date was set.

COMMENT:  Two years ago Barack Obama, a government employee, said Assad had to go.  He's still there.  Another example of why other nations no longer take seriously anything Obama says. 

We know that jihadists are entering Syria, fighting for some faction, and then returning to their native countries, including, possibly, the United States.  Syria is a new breeding ground for terrorism.  The civil war in that country is therefore dangerous to us, and deadly for the Mideast.

February 16,  2014     Permalink