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.

FEBRUARY 14,  2015

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

SCARIEST THOUGHT IN YEARS – From The Hill:  "President Obama says he is ready to 'run through the tape' to promote his agenda during his final two years in office.  'I've only got two years left, but two years is a long time,' the president told Democratic supporters at a fundraiser in San Francisco on Friday. 'Two years is also the time in which we are going to be setting the stage for the next presidential election and the next 10 years of American policy.'"  There is good land available in Australia. 

DEFINITION OF NERVE – From Reuters:  "The Palestinian Authority on Saturday condemned as 'terrorism' the killings of three young Palestinian-Americans in North Carolina and called on US authorities to include its investigators in the probe."  The nerve of the Palestinian Authority, a master of terror itself.  There is no evidence, as of now, of any terrorist motive in the disgraceful North Carolina murders.  If the PA joined the probe, they'd probably find that Bibi did it.  Or Moses.

STRANGE PUBLICITY – From London's Daily Mail:  "The winery which produced the sleep-inducing bottle of wine that made Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fall asleep during President Barack Obama's State of the Union address is cashing in on its new fame.  Ginsburg, who said she wasn't '100 per cent sober' when she nodded off during President Obama's speech last month, blamed her nap on a bottle of 'very fine California' wine that her colleague Anthony Kennedy brought to dinner.   The judge, 81, told attendees of a Smithsonian Associates event in Washington, D.C. the wine Kennedy brought to dinner was 'an Opus something or other'.  The bottle was from Opus One Winery in Oakville, California, according to ABC.   Christopher Barefoot, vice president of public relations at Opus, said the winery was 'overjoyed' to find out Ginsburg enjoyed their wine."  I say, give that wine to all liberal justices.

February 14, 2015       Permalink

CEASEFIRE?  THERE'S A CEASEFIRE? – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:   Even the Obama administration is condemning Moscow on the eve of a so-called "ceasefire" in Ukraine.  From WaPo: 

MOSCOW – The Obama administration on Saturday released satellite images that it said showed that the Russian army had joined rebels to mount a full-scale assault on surrounded government troops in eastern Ukraine, hours before a ceasefire set to take effect at midnight.

A ceasefire deal reached Thursday gave a two-and-a-half day window before the shooting was actually supposed to stop, sparking fears of an uptick in fighting as both sides tried to capture ground. What has actually happened, according to Ukrainian troops, leaders and the United States, is a major offensive on the Ukrainian-held railway hub of Debaltseve. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are said to be bunkered there on a spit of land deep in rebel-held territory.

Russia has denied that it is a party to the conflict, and it was impossible to verify the three grainy black-and-white images posted on Twitter by U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. According to the United States, the images, commissioned from the private Digital Globe satellite company, showed artillery systems and multiple-rocket launchers on Thursday in the area near Debaltseve.

COMMENT:  Does anyone trust Putin?  He may allow a lull for a time, showing himself the peacemaker, but he's unlikely to give up his dream of taking Ukraine. 

Or, he may hold off in Ukraine, and probe somewhere else, possibly a NATO country.  He is intent on restoring the old Soviet empire.  But he'd better do it quickly.  Obama leaves office in less than two years.

February 14,  2015     Permalink

COMMON SENSE ON A COLLEGE CAMPUS? – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:   Campus safety has become a priority, but but achieving it means running into the obstacle course of political correctness and ideology-based "solutions."  What good is safety if one "offends"?

But it turns out that a number of colleges are, very quietly, arming their police forces, and now a leading educator has spoken the unspeakable words.  From the Houston Chronicle: 

AUSTIN – In keeping with their status as in-state rivals, Texas A&M and the University of Texas have taken opposite sides in the debate over campus carry.

State senators on Thursday opened debate for the first time this session on two gun bills, one sponsored by Granbury Republican Brian Birdwell that would allow concealed handgun license holders to tote pistols on campus.

While most higher education leaders oppose campus carry, Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp broke from precedent Thursday by throwing his support behind Birdwell's proposal. In a letter to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Sharp said "having licensed gun owners in possession of legal weapons on our campuses does not raise safety concerns for me personally."

The real question is this: "Do I trust my students, faculty and staff to work and live responsibly under the same laws at the university as they do at home?" Of course I do!" Sharp added.

"However, properly funding the higher education of these students is the only issue that counts! This is my personal opinion. The Texas A&M University System will not have a position on this issue, and will not oppose campus carry."

Most higher education leaders, including new University of Texas System Chancellor William McRaven, vehemently oppose campus carry. McRaven has issued his own letter to legislative leaders, saying as a Navy SEAL and former head of Special Operations Command he believes allowing concealed carry at universities would make campuses "less safe."

COMMENT:  I'll go with Texas A&M on this.   McRaven is a great guy, but colleges are not military units.  They're small cities.  Someone intent on doing harm isn't going to be deterred by a sign saying "gun-free zone."  Indeed, that might encourage him. 

I'd imagine that many college students already have guns on campus, even if they're hidden.  Why not have a college run, as Chancellor Sharp advocates, by the same rules as the towns around it?  The knowledge that there are armed, trained, licensed gun holders around might just deter the kind of violence we've tragically seen.

February 14, 2015        Permalink

MAJOR POSTAL NEWS – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:  Barry got a letter, a letter, a letter.  Barry got a letter, a letter from Al.  From Fox: 

Iran’s supreme leader reportedly sent a secret letter to President Obama responding to his calls to improve relations between the two countries.

The Wall Street Journal reports Iran’s top political figure Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wrote to Obama in recent weeks responding to the president raising the possibility of cooperation in fighting the Islamic State terror group if a nuclear deal is secured.

However, the Iranian cleric’s response was “respectful,” but noncommittal, an Iranian diplomat told the journal. A senior White House official declined to confirm the existence of the letter.

U.S. officials told the paper that a letter sent in Obama’s first term outlined 60 years of abuses the supreme leader says the U.S. committed against the people of Iran.

One White House official confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that Obama received the letter in 2009.

The letter signified the thawing of frozen ties between the U.S. and Iran. However, the effort to knock the wall down between the two counties comes at a crossroads as the U.S. set a deadline to yield an agreement in its nuclear negotiations or Washington will take steps to deny the country any possibility of making a nuclear bomb.

Obama has said the breakdown in negotiations could fuel even more instability in the Middle East and undercut U.S. efforts to combat ISIS militants in Iraq and Syria, whom Iran is also waging war against.

Iran and the U.S. have previously failed to reach an agreement in the nuclear discussions. When talks broke down last, Khamenei said he would not approve a “bad deal.”

COMMENT:  I get the sense that the Iranians, considered among the world's best negotiators, are reading Obama well.  They know he is weak, that he can be rolled, and that he has little passion for international conflict.  There is no hint in anything the Iranians do that they are afraid of him.

That's too bad.  When dealing with a foreign enemy, an American president must be feared.  Problem is, Obama doesn't see Iran as an enemy, simply another nation abused by his predecessors.  You learn a great deal in the radical precincts of Chicago.

February 14,  2015     Permalink

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