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 25,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET: 

IT'S A START – Some 50 Coptic Christians picketed the White House today in orange jumpsuits, similar to those warn by the Coptic Christians beheaded by ISIS a short time ago.  It is good to see Christians in the United States stand up for their brothers and sisters abused by radical Islam.  They chanted, "Obama, Obama, did you see? Christian blood in the sea."  There is no evidence that Obama gives a damn.

DISGRACEFUL – Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel, one of our closest allies, will address Congress on Tuesday, having been invited by Speaker Boehner.  Obama opposes the speech, and his henchmen were all out today making abusive remarks about Netanyahu in public.  John Kerry was particularly offensive, noting in testimony before a Senate committee that Netanyahu supported the Iraq war.  The problem with the charge is that Kerry also supported it, so it's hard to say what Kerry was trying to show.  This all stems from Barack Obama's hostility to Israel and Netanyahu, and pretty much every important US ally.  We're learning that our worries about Obama, when he ran for president, were entirely justified.

AND JORDAN, TOO – To prove the point of the post "Disgraceful," just above, consider what the Obamans have done to Jordan, one of our best allies in the Mideast, in the last few weeks.  First, Field Marshal Obama sat down with Jordan's King Abdullah the day the video of the Jordanian pilot being burned to death by ISIS was made public.  The meeting was apparently meaningless.  Abdullah went over to another meeting, with members of Congress, and didn't even mention Obama.  Then Abdullah struck back against ISIS, apparently humiliating our indifferent president.  Then came the report that Obama had turned down Jordanian requests for drones.  This was followed by Obama turning down Jordanian requests for intelligence information on ISIS.  Just today we learned that the Obama administration released secret information about a training base in Jordan, which Jordan had requested be kept secret.  And today the Obamans warned Americans about the dangers of traveling to Jordan.  Nice, huh?  Why would Jordan want to remain our ally?

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT – From People:  "In a strange turn of events, a New York City college professor who trains police and firefighters how to diffuse heated situations has been charged with misdemeanor assault.  Joann Baney, an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, is accused of assaulting her longtime boyfriend, Walter Frey, 46, while he slept inside her Upper West Side apartment about 10:45 p.m. on Saturday, the New York Daily News reports."  In the academic world this qualifies her for a promotion because now she has practical experience in her specialty. 

February 25,  2015     Permalink

RIGHT AT HOME – AT 1:18 P.M. ET:  They're here.  From The New York Times, developing: 

Three men living in Brooklyn were arrested and charged on Wednesday with providing material support to the Islamic State, a terrorist organization that controls large parts of Iraq and Syria and has been actively recruiting Westerners to its fight.

One of the men was arrested early Wednesday morning at Kennedy International Airport, where he was attempting to board a flight to Istanbul and then planned to travel to Syria, according to the authorities.

The men were identified as Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, Akhror Saidakhmetov, and Abror Habibov.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, the authorities first became suspicious about at least two of the men in August and are concerned that more individuals might have been involved.

According to the complaint, one of the men who sought to travel to Syria to fight said that if he failed to make it overseas, he would launch attacks in the United States, including planting a bomb on Coney Island and attacking President Obama.

COMMENT:  Hard to know where these gents are from.  The names don't look Arabic.  But the Islamic State is here, and is recruiting.  And its greatest recruiting tool is victory.  As long as it keeps gaining, it will get young soldiers to join.  If it's defeated on the battlefield, recruiting will be much more difficult.  No one wants to join a losing cause.

February 25, 2015      Permalink 

OH REALLY? – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  And to think, I believed we actually had a functioning Constitution.  Silly me.  From CNS: 

(CNSNews.com) – Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday declined to “get into” what negotiators are proposing to the Iranians in the nuclear talks, and defended the president’s authority to execute foreign policy, saying he did not believe a negotiated agreement should go through a “formal approval process” by Congress.

“I don’t think there ought to be a formal approval process,” he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, adding that the administration was consulting with Congress and that lawmakers would ultimately have to vote on lifting sanctions on Iran.

“You certainly have a right to have whatever hearings and whatever further examinations you want to have, if a deal is struck,” he said in response to questions by Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.). “I mean, that’s your prerogative at any point in time. And ours is to respond to you.”

Asked by Gardner whether he believed then that Congress should have “no other role or feedback” apart from hearings, Kerry said, “No, I believe this falls squarely within the executive power of the president of the United States in the execution of American foreign policy.”

COMMENT:  A nuclear weapon in Iran's hands is an existential threat to many of America's allies in the region and a dire threat to the United States itself.  You would think that a responsible president would want to involve the Congress at every stage.

But we don't have a responsible president.  He have a hardened left winger with a silver tongue, with a soft spot in his heart for Islamic regimes. 

Congress can, though, raise an uproar and alert the American people.  Public opinion polls matter in Washington, and if the people of this country turn decisively against Obama's foreign policy excursions, even Democrats will have to listen.  We hope it won't be too late.

February 25,  2015     Permalink

BETRAYAL – AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  Why is it that this administration so often winds up betraying America's allies?  From the Washington Times: 

The Pentagon let slip that one of its training camps to help fight Islamic State terrorists is in Jordan — information the pro-U.S. kingdom had specifically requested be kept private, and the latest gaffe in a series of sensitive leaks coming out of the Department of Defense.

In order to hide its flub, which was first announced to reporters during a briefing last week, the Pentagon has scrubbed its public transcripts of any mention of the training camp.

Pentagon officials acknowledged Monday that one of its officers, who was briefing reporters on condition of anonymity last week, likely made the mistake. The Pentagon’s policy is to discuss only the contributions its partner nations are making to its operations against extremists in Iraq and Syria only after those partner nations have publicly spoken about those contributions.

In Jordan’s case, that did not happen, a senior Pentagon official said.

Security analysts are befuddled by the high-level operational “screw-up.”

“Either the official made a mistake or is deliberately leaking information to put the administration’s plans for Syria in a better light in an attempt to defuse criticism that the administration has bungled efforts to aid Syrian rebels,” said James Phillips, a national security analyst at The Heritage Foundation.

The latest information leak comes as the Obama administration is under fire from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for revealing too much information at the Pentagon’s briefing last week of an upcoming military plan to retake Mosul from the Islamic State, also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL.

It was at that briefing where the U.S. military revealed the information about Jordan, which fears retaliation, analysts say, if it’s seen as being too close to the U.S. or getting too involved in neighboring Syria.

COMMENT:  There have also been leaks about Israeli operations.  I can't believe this is all coincidental.  We simply have got to do better, much better, in preserving critical classified information.  Lives depend on it.

But, again, it's strange how much help the Obama crowd has given to our enemies.  I wonder why.

February 25,  2015      Permalink

GREAT SCOTT – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  Don't you just love the way the media went after Scott Walker as soon as he gained some traction in the presidential race?  The mainstreamers will do the same to any Republican who's got a shot.  But the press assault looks as if it's backfired.  From Hot Air: 

While the members of the press are busily congratulating themselves for having “gotcha-ed” Scott Walker on a variety of matters utterly unrelated to his ability to serve as commander-in-chief, the governor of Wisconsin is quietly consolidating the support of Republican voters ahead of 2016.

According to a new Quinnipiac University survey of the Hawkeye State, Walker leads a pack of 12 prospective Republican candidates ahead of the 2016 caucuses with a full 25 percent. This is the second poll to show nearly a quarter of Iowa’s Republican caucus-goers backing Walker. Last week, the GOP firm Gravis Marketing found Walker netting 24 percent support in Iowa with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Jeb Bush both coming in second with 10 percent.

This Quinnipiac survey also found Paul performing well with the support 13 percent of Iowa’s likely Republican caucus-goers, but he is competing with a much broader field for second place in this survey. Following Paul, Dr. Ben Carson and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee both secure the support of 11 percent of caucus-goers. With 10 percent, Bush narrowly escapes joining the rest of the prospective Republican presidential candidates in single-digit territory.

The Quinnipiac survey found Walker with an impressive favorability rating at 57 percent. Just 7 percent of those surveyed do not have a favorable opinion of the governor. Only Carson and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal have favorability ratings that compare to Walker’s. 74 percent of self-described tea partiers and 58 percent of evangelicals in Iowa have a favorable opinion of Walker. When it comes to the governor’s likability, there is virtually no difference between those who identify as conservative or somewhat conservative; 66 and 61 percent respectively have a high opinion of Walker.

“Walker gets 26 percent of men and 22 percent of women,” Quinnipiac’s release read. “Only 8 percent of caucus participants are less likely to vote for Walker because he does not have a college degree, while 82 percent say that makes no difference in their vote.”

COMMENT:  Scott has two terrific things going for him – a spectacular record of success in saving Wisconsin from fiscal ruin, and a relentlessness as a candidate.  I'm reminded of Lincoln's comment about Grant:  "This man fights."

February 25,  2015     Permalink

FEBRUARY 24,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:47 P.M. ET: 

RAHM COMES UP SHORT – From The Hill:  "Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) is headed to a runoff despite outspending his opponents and muscling out his strongest opposition, the Associated Press projected Tuesday.  With roughly 84 percent of precincts reporting, the President Obama’s former chief of staff was hovering at 45.5 percent of the vote. His closest challenger, Cook County Commissioner Jesus 'Chuy' Garcia, had 33.9 percent.  Emanuel and Garcia will now campaign for another six weeks as they head toward the runoff vote in April. It is the first time since the 1990s that Chicago has had a mayoral runoff, WBEZ reported."   They don't fix 'em as well as they used to.  As we pointed out earlier, Hillary needs Rahm in the mayor's chair to help guarantee that Illinois goes Democratic in 2016. 

"AMERICAN SNIPER" KILLER GUILTY – From CNN:  "Eddie Ray Routh has been found guilty of murder in the killings of two men, including 'American Sniper' author Chris Kyle.  Kyle and Chad Littlefield, also a veteran, were killed at a gun range in Texas on Feb. 2, 2013. The two men had reached out to the troubled former Marine to try to help him.  No one disputed that Routh shot and killed the two men. Routh's attorneys argued Routh suffers from psychosis, paranoia and schizophrenia. Prosecutors argued Routh is a 'troubled man' who struggles with a 'personality disorder,' not insanity."  The fact is that the insanity defense is rarely successful.  Sentencing comes next.

TRUTH TELLIN' – From CNS:  "CNSNews.com) - Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Tuesday at a Senate Banking Committee hearing that the U-6 unemployment rate--which includes people who are working part-time for economic reasons and those who are marginally attached to the labor force--'definitely shows a less rosy picture' of employment in the country.  People 'marginally attached' to the labor force 'are those who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for one work sometime in the past 12 months.'"  About time someone at a high level noted that little complication.  You'd think, listening to Obama, that we were booming.

BRIAN, WE HARDLY MISS YE – From deadline.com:  "Sighs of relief from the direction of 30 Rock: NBC Nightly News Minus Brian Williams posted week-to-week gains in total viewers (up 7%, translating to 673,000 viewers), the news demo (11%, or 262,000 viewers), and among 18-49 year olds (up 9%, or 147,000 viewers) the week of February 16."  My guess is that Brian Williams is headed for some made-up job at NBC News like "roving correspondent in Siberia."  If ratings are higher without him, we'll see just how money talks.

February 24, 2015        Permalink

THE GREAT SOWELL – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  With all the hoopla about Rudy's comments on Barack Obama, you'd think the former mayor of New York had said something unusual or shocking.  Not so says the distinguished African-American economist and writer Thomas Sowell, who clearly indicates what side he's on.  From Townhall: 

Anyone who simply looks at the factual evidence as to whether Obama loves America, or does not, will find remarkably little to suggest love and a large amount of evidence, over a long period of years, showing his constant close association with people fiercely hostile to this country. Jeremiah Wright was just one in a long series of such people.

Barack Obama's campaign promise to "fundamentally change the United States of America" hardly suggests love. Nor did his international speaking tour in 2009, telling foreign audiences that America was to blame for problems on the world stage.

President Obama's record in the White House has been more of the same. Among his earliest acts were offending our oldest and closest allies, Britain and Israel, and betraying the country's previous commitments to provide anti-missile defenses to Poland and the Czech Republic.

Obama's refusal to let Ukraine have weapons with which to defend itself from Russian invasion was consistent with this pattern, and consistent with his whispered statement -- picked up by a microphone that was still on -- to tell "Vladimir" that, after the 2012 election was over, he would be able to "have more 'flexibility.'"

Conceivably, these might all have been simply blunders. But such a string of blunders would require someone very stupid, and Barack Obama is by no means stupid. The net effect is that in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, America's allies and America's interests face far more setbacks and dangers today than when Obama took office.

And...

Whoever is president has the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans, and the fate of a nation, in his hands. It is those millions of people and that nation who deserve the benefit of the doubt. We need to err on the side of safety for the people and the country. Squeamish politeness to an individual cannot outweigh that.

We need to keep that in mind for the next president, and for all future presidents. We might have been better off if the question of Obama's patriotism had been raised before he was first elected. Never should we ignore so many red flag warnings again.

COMMENT:  What a wonderful writer.  And such clear thinking.  Yes, we have to go back and look at the red flags that were ignored.  And we have to take a good look at who ignored them.  Hint:  They have names like The New York Times and CNN.

February 24, 2015       Permalink

RAHM GOES FOR TWO – AT 9:41 A.M. ET:  No one ever called Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel "America's mayor," or even Chicago's mayor.  He's more like the machine's mayor or Obama's mayor.  Today he goes for a second mayoral term in a city that remains in deep trouble.  From Andrew Malcom at IBD: 

Legend holds that Chicago's mayoral elections are held at this time of the winter every four years because no one in their right mind would venture outside to the polls unless they were loyal Democrat machine voters whose precinct captains were taking attendance.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel may be the beneficiary of that likely apocryphal story today as for some reason he seeks a second term atop the nation's third-largest city with its crumbling infrastructure, high taxes, corruption, poorly performing schools, unbearable pension costs and gun violence.

The former machine go-fer, Clinton money collector, House member, pal of imprisoned ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Obama chief of staff faces a couple of no-names and Cook County Commissioner Jesus Chuy Garcia.

In Chicago's rigged political system that produced Barack Obama and his sidekick Valerie Jarrett, none of them should have a snowball's-chance-in-Hawaii of winning. And they don't. However, it is possible if Hispanics turn out big-time today that Garcia could hold Emanuel's vote total below the 50%-plus one he needs to avoid a two-man runoff on April 7.

Then, a stream of Emanuel's notorious profanity would likely be heard as far away as Springfield. In 2011, Emanuel avoided a runoff, earning 55% of the vote.

A coronation delay this time would be embarrassing for the pugnacious 55-year-old Emanuel, the 55th mayor, and the first Jewish one, in the long, sordid political history of Chicago, which appropriately enough is an Indian word for a smelly wild onion once found in the area.

Taking a page from Obama's smearing playbook in 2012, Emanuel has been going after the under-funded Garcia for months with much of the incumbent's $15 million cash from a relatively small circle of wealthy donors. Emanuel knows money, having been Bill Clinton's first finance chair.

COMMENT:  As even the BBC points out today, the election has national and international repercussions.  Hillary needs Rahm Emanuel in the mayor's chair to help her win Illinois in 2016.  And winning Illinois, as we've learned from history, often involves creative interpretation of voting laws and artistic use of numbers.  We revere those who do it well.

February 24, 2015       Permalink

HILLARY UNDER ASSAULT – AT 9:12 A.M. ET:   The issue is foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation, some of which have come from countries hostile to the United States.  The subtext, of course, is the history of Clinton sleaze.  From CBS News:

American Crossroads, a conservative political action committee founded by Karl Rove, targeted Hillary Clinton in an ad released Monday, raising questions about whether it's appropriate for Clinton's family foundation to accept money from foreign governments.

And in a curious piece of strategic jiu-jitsu, the group used the words of a staunch progressive - Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts - to make its case.

"Powerful interests have tried to capture Washington and rig the system in their favor," intones Warren's voice in the 30-second ad. "The power of well-funded special interests tilts our democracy away from the people and toward the powerful...Action is required to defend our great democracy against those who would see it perverted into one more rigged game where the rich and the powerful always win."

As the ad concludes, the text onscreen reads, "Powerful Foreign Governments are Ready for Hillary. Are We?"

COMMENT:   That is a great ad.  Hillary, thy name is mud.

February 24, 2015        Permalink

AGAIN – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  There has been another abduction of Christians by ISIS.  Anyone in the White House interested, or will Field Marshal Obama lecture us on the Crusades?  From Reuters: 

(Reuters) - Islamic State militants have abducted at least 90 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria, a monitoring group that tracks violence in Syria said on Tuesday.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the militants carried out dawn raids on rural villages inhabited by the ancient Christian minority west of Hasaka, a city mainly held by the Kurds.

Syrian Kurdish militia launched two offensives against the militants in northeast Syria on Sunday, helped by U.S.-led air strikes and Iraqi peshmerga.

This part of Syria is strategically important in the fight against Islamic State because it borders territory controlled by the group in Iraq, where it last year committed atrocities against the minority religious Yazidi community.

Many Assyrian Christians have emigrated in the nearly four-year-long conflict in which more than 200,000 have people have been killed. Before the arrival of Kurds and Arab nomadic tribes at the end of the 19th century, Christians formed the majority in Syria's Jazeera area, which includes Hasaka.

COMMENT:  My fear is that we will become immune to the atrocities and, as the left loves to put it, "move on" to other things.  The Mideast is aflame.  We will pour gasoline on the fire by making it possible for Iran to continue its nuclear program.

And yet, when Rudy Giuliani speaks truths about Barack Obama, it's Rudy who gets slammed by the press.

February 24,  2015     Permalink