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FEBRUARY 13,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:58 P.M. ET: 

TASTELESS – President Obama, in his usual ham-handed way, has injected himself into the tragic murder of three Muslim students in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, suggesting that they may have been murdered over their faith.  But there is no evidence so far to support any such conclusion.  It's not wrong, of course, for a president to express regret over a crime, or to remind citizens that no American should be harmed because of race or religion.   This, however, is the same president who, last week, was lecturing Christians not to get on their "high horse" about terrorism, who refuses to use the term "Islamic terror," and who told us that the specific attack on a kosher delicatessen in Paris was a "random" act, suggesting it had nothing to do with anti-Semitism.   After giving the stiff arm to Christians and Jews in the same week, Obama's injection of himself into a crime story involving the murder of Muslims, even though no evidence has presented itself suggesting that this was an anti-Muslim crime, is in poor taste and reflects Obama's clear biases.

TRUTH TELLIN' ON JON STEWART – In the wake of Jon Stewart's announcement of his leaving The Daily Show, some facts are being presented on the true nature of the program.  From Newsbusters:  "NPR’s All Things Considered was surprisingly honest on Wednesday night about Jon Stewart’s departure from The Daily Show. Stewart was credited for 'influencing the way a generation of young people, especially liberals, view the news and politics.' Correspondent Don Gonyea admitted the president of the College Democrats 'sees Jon Stewart as being on her side' and cited research that shows Stewart’s audience is overwhelmingly liberal.  As if there's any doubt that Stewart skewers Republicans much more than Democrats, Amy Mitchell of the Pew Research Center told NPR about Stewart’s audience breakdown: 'More than 70 percent have political views that align with the liberal side of the spectrum. Only 7 percent have views that align with the conservative.'"  No surprises.  Funny guy, but he never knew much, and doesn't know what he doesn't know.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK – From Fox:  "Hormone treatment for gender reassignment has been approved for Chelsea Manning, the former intelligence analyst convicted of espionage for sending classified documents to the WikiLeaks website.  Defense Department officials said Thursday that the hormone therapy was approved Feb. 5 by Col. Erica Nelson, commandant of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where Manning is serving a 35-year sentence.  The treatment would enable the Army private formerly known as Bradley Manning to make the transition to a woman. Manning changed her legal name in April 2014."  I wonder if he also gets a Bloomingdale's charge card.

February 13, 2015       Permalink

GREAT MOMENTS IN JOURNALISM – AT 11:30 A.M. ET:   To watch the deterioration of The New York Times is very sad, especially for those of us who once labored at that paper.  Just read this as an example of how bad things have gotten.  From the Washington Free Beacon:

The Yemeni rebels, the Houthis, have taken control of the capital, including the airport and the United States embassy.

The Houthis forced US Marines leaving the country to leave them their weapons. The rebels have also seized abandoned vehicles once used by US officials.

New York Times reporter Rod Nordland met with the Houthis who reassured him that they were just keeping US vehicles for safekeeping. Nordland said the Houthi government wants to have a friendly relationship with the United States and Saudi Arabia.

When Nordland asked the leader of the Houthi government about their chant, “death to America,” the leader said it was just a slogan and that the Houthis did not really mean it. The Houthis are an Iraq-sponsored group, and the leader down played the connection when asked by Nordland.

“He said it wasn’t true and they didn’t want to see the Iranians make way in Yemeni either,” Nordland said. “It’s a very reassuring message.”

COMMENT:  I'm sure it's reassuring to clowns like Nordland.  After all, people shout "Death to America" every day, don't they?  Why, I hear it in my local supermarket.  Just a slogan.  They don't mean it.  Nothing to worry about.

They call that journalism.

February 13, 2015       Permalink

UKRAINE ON THE BRINK – AT 10:05 A.M. ET:  Yes, there's an agreed-upon ceasefire involving Ukraine.  But how valid is it?  From Jennifer Rubin at WaPo: 

It is not often Europe gets to throw a country to the wolves twice. But that’s precisely what the European Union — quickly applauded by the Obama administration — has done with regard to Ukraine. To call it a “truce” is a farce.

“The cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia is yet another victory for Vladimir Putin['s] revanchist campaign against the West. The terms are almost identical to the failed cease-fire from last September that only emboldened Russia,” observed Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “Now, Putin has killed more innocent people and seized more territory and will get greater autonomy for eastern Ukraine, in exchange for nothing more than promising to keep his already-broken promises.” Indeed, the Russian president effectively silenced talk of sanctions while the fate of the border and of the Eastern provinces remain uncertain. As The Post editorial board pointed out: “Most significantly, control over the border between Russia and Ukraine would not be returned to Kiev until the end of the year — and then only after a ‘constitutional reform‘ acceptable to Moscow and its surrogates grants powers to Russian-controlled regions. Without border control, Ukraine cannot prevent Russian forces, supplies and agents from flowing across. While the deal promises a withdrawal of ‘foreign armed formations‘ from Ukraine, there is no deadline — and Mr. Putin’s contention is that NATO has ‘legions‘ in the country but Russia does not.”

Once again President Obama eschews tough measures in favor of “diplomacy,” but diplomacy severed from economic or military leverage becomes a giveaway. We’ve seen it in the talks on Syria: Tyrants don’t willingly give up gains on the battlefield at the negotiating table. And we suspect the same dynamic is at work in the “P5+1″ talks with Iran. Without a credible use of force or threat of new sanctions, all the West can do is give in to Iranian demands or see talks “fail.” Cotton remarks, Obama’s “failure to support our allies has repeatedly empowered Russia and undermined American interests, from Ukraine to Syria to Egypt and points in between. The United States should move immediately to provide lethal weaponry to Ukraine and President Obama must stop accommodating Vladimir Putin before he threatens our NATO allies and further destabilizes Europe.”

COMMENT:  Tom Cotton is emerging as exactly the kind of major intellectual force for conservatives that we thought he'd be.  And, of course, his sharpness on foreign policy vastly exceeds that of Field Marshal of the United States Barack Obama.  Cotton is a potential president.

Putin must be pleased by the latest cave-in, presented to the people of the world as a truce.  It is a truce in the same sense that the Munich agreement of 1938 was a truce.

The key question in Europe is whether, once he gobbles up Ukraine, Putin starts threatening East European nations that are members of NATO.  That probably won't occur until we have a new president, so Barack can safely go on another Hawaiian vacation.

February 13, 2015       Permalink

OUR GUYS INVOLVED? – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:   ISIS is approaching an air base in Iraq where a number of American soldiers are based.  This could get very serious if the base comes under siege.  From CNN:

(CNN) ISIS militants took full control of the Iraqi town of Al-Baghdadi, west of Ramadi, early Friday, security officials told CNN, bringing them within a few miles of an air base housing U.S. military personnel.

Now they're closing in on the strategic Ayn al-Assad Air Base, only about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Al-Baghdadi, the security officials said, and Iraqi forces there are calling for reinforcements.

A U.S. defense official told CNN that no evacuations have been planned from the base.

That western front is just one of many where ISIS forces are on the move.

CNN's Phil Black, in northern Iraq, said Friday that Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were starting to move from the north toward the city of Sinjar, held by ISIS since the summer.

The militants' seizure of the city provoked a major humanitarian crisis as its ethnic minority Yazidi population fled onto the rocky slopes of Mount Sinjar, where many became trapped without food and water.

The Kurdish fighters are on the offensive but face a long, difficult battle to win back the city from ISIS, whose fighters are firmly in control there.

COMMENT:  I have a gut feeling that ISIS knows what it's doing, and wants to bring a base with Americans under siege, trapping our soldiers and forcing us to decide whether to evacuate by helicopter or reinforce by air.  Neither choice would be popular with the American people. 

Shades here of similar situations faced, first by the French, then by the Americans, in Vietnam.

February 13, 2015       Permalink

SO THAT'S THE REASON – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  The Democratic Party's announcement that its 2016 presidential nominating convention will be held in Philadelphia excited almost no one outside that city.  The betting was on New York.  But there was, er, a problem.  From the New York Post: 

Continuing corruption scandals in New York sank Mayor Bill de Blasio’s hopes of landing the 2016 Democratic presidential convention, according to party sources.

The Democratic National Committee announced Thursday that it had selected Philadelphia over the Big Apple for the party’s quadrennial convention in July 2016.

Flaunting the Barclays Center as a hip spot for the DNC wasn’t enough to convince committee heads to let NYC host the convention.

The decision was a blow to de Blasio, who pulled out all the stops to try to land the nominating convention — from dangling the Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn as a hip venue to naming a high-powered host committee that pledged to raise millions to cover the bill.

One national Democratic Party source said the mayor’s efforts were overshadowed by US Attorney Preet Bharara’s intensive crackdown on corrupt elected officials, including Democrats such as former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

“You have all these corruption cases,” said the source. “Do we want trials breaking next year during the convention? How many more political indictments are going to be coming up in New York?

COMMENT:  What an exciting question.  I can't wait for the answer. 

February 13,  2015     Permalink

FEBRUARY 12,  2015

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

HOW ROMANTIC – From CNS:  "During her weekly briefing, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reminded everyone Valentine's Day was coming up and to 'take your loved one and sign up for the Affordable Care Act.'"  And while you're at it, how about saying "I love you" with a gift pack of Centrum Silver and Geritol.  Always hits the spot.

DOESN'T GET IT – From CNS:  "During a heated discussion over gay marriage, CNN morning Anchor Chris Cuomo opined that the unalienable rights endowed to all Americans do not come from God.  Cuomo was debating Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. Near the end of the back-and-forth and after Moore argued that rights cannot be handed down by men, Cuomo blurted out:  'Our rights do not come from God, your honor, and you know that. They come from man... That’s your faith, that’s my faith, but that’s not our country. Our laws come from collective agreement and compromise.'"  I guess Chris was absent from school the day they talked about the Declaration of Independence.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  It is one of the fundamental statements of American exceptionalism, that we have certain natural rights, and that no government can take them away.

THE TRUTH COMES OUT – From The Hill:  "Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg admits to sharing some wine with her colleagues and not being '100 percent sober' for President Obama's State of the Union address in January.  During Obama's speech, which lasted just under an hour, many viewers on social media pointed out that the 81-year-old liberal justice appeared to be snoozing.  'The audience for the most part is awake, because they’re bobbing up and down, and we sit there, stone-faced, sober judges. But we’re not, at least I wasn’t, 100 percent sober,' Ginsburg said during a talk at George Washington University on Thursday night, according to a report by The Blaze."  I couldn't have lived another day without knowing that.

NUTS – President Obama has made a nutty video advertising Obamacare.  It's here. This comes shortly after the president allowed himself to be interviewed by a media personality whose claim to fame is that she takes baths in Fruit Loops.  You'll recall the number of "historians" who welcomed the election of Mr. Obama in 2008, citing his intellect.  We may still discover that intellect, but I doubt it.

February 12, 2015        Permalink

I'M SHOCKED, SHOCKED – AT 11:17 A.M. ET:   The Democratic Party is one big vote-buying scheme.  Need proof?  From the Washington Times: 

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told Congress on Wednesday that even illegal immigrants who didn’t pay taxes will be able to claim back-refunds once they get Social Security numbers under President Obama’s temporary deportation amnesty.

The revelation — which contradicts what he told Congress last week — comes as lawmakers also raised concerns Mr. Obama’s amnesty could open a window to illegal immigrants finding ways to vote, despite it being against the law.

“While we may disagree about whether your deferred action programs were lawfully created and implemented, we are confident that we can all agree that these programs cannot be permitted to impair the integrity of our elections,” Republican members of Congress from Ohio wrote in a letter to Mr. Obama Wednesday, ahead of a hearing on the issue in the House on Thursday.

Mr. Obama’s new deportation policies, which carve most illegal immigrants out of danger of being removed, and could proactively grant as many as 4 million illegal immigrants work permits and Social Security numbers, are increasingly under fire for ancillary consequences such as tax credits and competition for jobs.

COMMENT:  They will eventually vote.  That's the whole idea.  In fact, I don't recall any other idea in about half a century from the left wing of the Democratic Party.

February 12, 2015       Permalink

ARE VOTERS TURNING ON OBAMA? – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:   We hope so, but ultimately it's the economy that will decide.  However, I cannot imagine that the American people will accept the catastrophe that is Obama's foreign policy.  From Andrew Malcolm at IBD: 

On Wednesday, President Obama sent a draft authorization for use of military power against ISIS. But already Americans say such a half-hearted assault on terrorists is not good enough.

As a political symbol (and to spread the blame when something goes wrong), Obama has asked Congress for authority to do what he's already been doing since September -- bomb ISIS as part of an international coalition and train and arm Kurds, Iraqis and Syrians.

This is authority the Nobel Peace Prize winner did not seek before attacking Libya in 2011, a successful war that also succeeded in turning that country into a lawless land of terrorist groups and marauding militias who killed four Americans in Benghazi.

But in a brief Wednesday afternoon statement on his authorization request, Obama ended up saying as much about what he does not want to do.

"The resolution we’ve submitted today does not call for the deployment of U.S. ground combat forces to Iraq or Syria," Obama maintained. "It is not the authorization of another ground war, like Afghanistan or Iraq."

However, a new Rasmussen Reports poll also out Wednesday reveals for the first time that a majority of Americans are now sufficiently concerned about ISIS's barbarism and terrorist threat that it supports the use of ground combat troops again in Iraq as part of an international effort.

The poll of 800 likely voters found that 52% want to do more than Obama, 28% do not and 20% don't know.

The numbers show steady growth in support of ground troop deployment since September when 48% liked that idea and 36% were opposed. A key element in that support is involvement of other countries, especially Muslim ones.

COMMENT:  Of course we should be very careful about committing ground troops, especially under the command of a president who has no concept of victory, who won't even use the term.  Still, our position in the Mideast is deteriorating rapidly, and the forces that are rising represent a direct threat to the security of the United States.

February 12, 2015       Permalink

STILL ONE MORE FAMOUS VICTORY – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:  Only now are we starting to understand the implications of the fall of Yemen, once touted as a great Obama success.  This week has been awful.  From the Washington Post: 

The closure of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen has forced the CIA to significantly scale back its counterterrorism presence in the country, according to current and former U.S. officials, who said the evacuation represents a major setback in operations against al-Qaeda’s most dangerous affiliate.

The spy agency has pulled dozens of operatives, analysts and other staffers from Yemen as part of a broader extraction of roughly 200 Americans who had been based at the embassy in Sanaa, officials said. Among those removed were senior officers who worked closely with Yemen’s intelligence and security services to target al-Qaeda operatives and disrupt terrorism plots often aimed at the United States.

The departures were triggered by mounting concerns over security in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, where Houthi rebels have effectively toppled the government. Britain and France said Wednesday that they also would close their embassies, as news footage showed Houthi fighters driving off in vehicles that U.S. diplomats had abandoned at an airport during their exodus.

The collapse of Yemen’s government had already disrupted some U.S. counterterrorism operations in Yemen. The closure of the U.S. mission compounds the challenges and “is extremely damaging” to the CIA’s mission in Yemen, said a former senior U.S. official involved in the effort. That person said that the embassy had served as the primary base in Yemen for U.S. intelligence operations and that “the political turmoil in Sanaa and the closure of the embassy all play into the hands” of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, as the Yemeni franchise is known.

U.S. officials emphasized that not all CIA personnel were withdrawn from Yemen, saying that the agency would try to salvage an intelligence network that it had assembled in cooperation with Yemen, Saudi Arabia and other allies over the past five years.

COMMENT:  I have no doubt that Obama is readying a speech saying that the closure of our embassy was a result of the Crusades, the Vatican, and the Israel lobby.   And Bush.

February 12, 2015       Permalink

SOBERING – AT 9:07 A.M. ET:   Despite the glorified town councilman in the White House, we're beginning to get a very sobering picture of ISIS, and its gains.  But most Democrats are much more upset over the fact that Speaker Boehner invited the prime minister of Israel to address Congress without getting the pastoral blessing of Hussein Obama.  From the Washington Times:

The Obama administration’s top counterterrorism official said Wednesday that the number of foreign fighters traveling from the U.S. and other nations to join the Islamic State extremist movement in Syria and Iraq continues to grow — with some 20,000 fighters having flooded in from more than 90 countries in recent years.

Despite months of U.S. airstrikes against the group also known as ISIS and ISIL, National Counterterrorism Director Nicholas Rasmussen told a House hearing that it is “clear that the number of those seeking to go to Iraq and Syria is going up.”

“We assess that at least 3,400 of these fighters are from Western countries, and that number includes also over 150 U.S. persons who’ve either traveled to the conflict zone or attempted to do so,” Mr. Rasmussen said. “They come from various backgrounds, which highlights the need for comprehensive messaging strategies and early engagement with a variety of communities in order to dissuade vulnerable individuals from trying to travel to conflict zones.”

He made the remarks during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing.

Committee Chairman Michael T. McCaul, Texas Republican, said the Islamic State “now controls territory the size of Belgium, governs millions of people, draws on billions of dollars in revenue and commands tens of thousands of foot soldiers.”

“This evolving Islamic terrorist landscape has given rise to the dual threats of foreign fighters returning to the United States and homegrown terrorism,” Mr. McCaul said.

“Extremists do not need to travel overseas in order to become a threat to our homeland,” he said. “Through Hollywood-like propaganda videos and social media and through that means, Islamist terror groups are inciting their followers and potential recruits to wage war at home. Both ISIS, and Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have called for Westerners, including Americans, to wage individual jihad in their home countries, and it’s working.”

“ISIS social media also gives step-by-step instructions on how to get to the fight and how to return,” Mr. McCaul said.

COMMENT:  It was only months ago that Field Marshal Obama, for whom I have growing and utter contempt, was calling ISIS the junior varsity.  Kind of like the "experts" from pre-World War II days who laughed at the idea that those little people in Japan, with poor eyesight, were threats to the United States.  Why, we have a mighty base at Pearl Harbor!

Pathetic.

February 12,  2015     Permalink