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JANUARY 16,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:19 P.M. ET: 

DOWN AGAIN – After making some tentative gains, President Obama has slipped into the thirties again in the Gallup Poll.  The latest figures show 39% approval of the president versus 53% disapproval.  The last time Obama was in this territory was in mid-2011.

GOOD RIDDANCE – One of the worst members of Congress is leaving.  From USA Today:  "Democratic Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia says he will not seek re-election to Congress after 12 terms.  'It's time to close this chapter of my life and move on to the next challenge,' Moran said in a statement released Wednesday.  Moran is the third Democrat to announce his retirement this week, following California's George Miller and New York's Bill Owens. Virginia's 8th District is in a Democratic stronghold and Moran's retirement will no doubt spark a lively primary since the congressman has been in office since 1991."  Moran is a particularly despicable individual who got into physical fights with people, made bigoted remarks based on religion, and is otherwise thoroughly obnoxious.  However, he represents a blindly Democratic northern Virginia district, so his replacement will probably be another Democratic liberal.

MUST BE SOME GRADUATION PARTY – From The Times of Israel:  "The Hamas government in Gaza celebrated the graduation on Monday of paramilitary camps geared at training high-school children 'to follow in the footsteps of the suicide martyrs.'  The camps, titled 'the pioneers of liberation,' are run by Hamas’s ministries of education and interior. Some 13,000 students in grades 10-12 participated in the one-week training camps this year, compared to 5,000 last year when the program was launched, Israeli sources with knowledge of the program said."  What do you give a graduate?  I'd love to know.  I wouldn't want to make a cultural mistake.

IT'S ABOUT TIME – Republicans are showing some pulse in the fight to replace Obamacare.  From The Hill:  "Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday predicted that House Republicans would unveil — and possibly vote on — a plan to replace the healthcare law in 2014, fulfilling a long-delayed promise to voters.  An alternative to ObamaCare will be 'one of the big issue' the House GOP will discuss at its annual policy retreat at the end of the month, Boehner said."  It's got to be a very solid plan with widespread appeal, and it's got to be a plan that can be explained quickly and simply.  It could win the election.

January 16, 2014       Permalink

OUTRAGEOUS – AT 10:39 A.M. ET:  In the immortal words of that great philosopher, Jerry Lewis – bad looks you can change, stupid is forever.  From the Daily Caller:

United Nations climate chief Christiana Figueres said that democracy is a poor political system for fighting global warming. Communist China, she says, is the best model.

China may be the world’s top emitter of carbon dioxide and struggling with major pollution problems of their own, but the country is “doing it right” when it comes to fighting global warming says Figueres.

“They actually want to breathe air that they don’t have to look at,” she said. “They’re not doing this because they want to save the planet. They’re doing it because it’s in their national interest.”

Figueres added that the deep partisan divide in the U.S. Congress is “very detrimental” to passing any sort of legislation to fight global warming. The Chinese Communist Party, on the other hand, can push key policies and reforms all on its own. The country’s national legislature largely enforces the decisions made by the party’s Central Committee and other executive offices.

Communism was responsible for the deaths of about 94 million people in China, the Soviet Union, North Korea, Afghanistan and Eastern Europe in the 20th Century. China alone was responsible for 65 million of those deaths under communist rule.

COMMENT:  Ah, the totalitarian temptation.  It's always so tempting to dream of the shortcuts available through dictatorial systems.  And I think that dream is very much present in our universities and media.  But totalitarianism always leads to the same things, misery and death.  And getting out of totalitarianism is always much harder than getting in.

Ms. Figueres is an ignorant clown and should be removed from her position.  It is disgraceful that a UN official should be endorsing dictatorship over democracy.   I wonder if our State Department will show any interest in this.  Don't hold your breath.

January 16, 2014       Permalink

NO, THE NEW YORK TIMES WAS NOT RIGHT ON BENGHAZI – AT 9:29 A.M. ET:  A Democratic-controlled committee in the Senate has issued a report on Benghazi that courageously contradicts the "narrative" put out by the Administration and the Administration's house organ, The New York Times.  From Fox: 

A comprehensive report by the Senate Intelligence Committee definitively declared that individuals tied to Al Qaeda groups were involved in the Benghazi attack, challenging recent claims that the terror network was not a factor.

The report was released Monday, nearly one year after then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, under congressional questioning over the nature of the attack, shouted at lawmakers: “What difference, at this point, does it make?”

The administration initially claimed the attack sprung out of a protest, but has since given a more complicated assessment. Still, administration officials all along have downplayed Al Qaeda involvement, recently seizing on a New York Times report that supported those claims.

While the report does not implicate Al Qaeda “core” -- the leadership believed to be in the Pakistan region -- it does blame some of the most influential Al Qaeda branches, including Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

“Individuals affiliated with terrorist groups, including AQIM, Ansar al-Sharia, AQAP, and the Mohammad Jamal Network, participated in the September 11, 2012, attacks,” the report said. The militant Ansar al-Sharia was, separately, labeled by the State Department as a terror group last week, in part over its alleged involvement in the Benghazi strike.

The Senate committee report stressed that the intelligence still suggests the attack was not “highly coordinated,” but rather “opportunistic” – possibly put in place in “short order” after protests over an anti-Islam film elsewhere in the region.

“It remains unclear if any group or person exercised overall command and control of the attacks,” the report said. The report, though, reiterated that there was no protest in Benghazi before the attack.

The Senate panel report also dove extensively into what went wrong at the U.S. mission in Benghazi before the attack. The committee determined the attack was “preventable” and the administration failed to respond to “ample” warnings that security was deteriorating before Sept. 11, 2012.

COMMENT:  The White House can hardly claim that a report by a Democratic-controlled committee is partisan.  How this will impact Hillary Clinton, if she runs, cannot be calculated right now.  The presidential campaign is two years away.  We don't even know if Hillary will actually run. 

But this report is devastating in that it points out the incompetence and deception of the Obama Administration, even if it does so in cautious language.  This relates to the post just below.  Obama now has to explain himself to his own party.

January 16, 2014       Permalink

CONFRONTING A REVOLT – AT 9:03 A.M. ET:  President Obama appeared before a group of Democratic senators to counter a revolt in his own party over his wobbly Iran policy.  When a president has to do that, he's in trouble.  From The Politico:

President Barack Obama hosted Senate Democrats at White House on Wednesday in an effort to synchronize legislative and political strategies — and talk about the divisive issue of Iran sanctions.

The White House has notably split with more than a dozen Democratic senators including Chuck Schumer of New York and Robert Menendez of New Jersey on whether a new round of economic penalties are needed as the U.S. attempts to negotiate a long-term deal to wind down Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

On Wednesday evening, Obama delivered a “strong message” that the Senate must continue to hold off on new sanctions while negotiations continue and a six-month interim agreement is implemented, a source briefed on the meeting said. The source added that the back and forth on Iran was “not contentious.”

COMMENT:  No, it wasn't contentious.  Meetings with a president rarely are.  People show respect for the office, if not for the occupant. 

But the real story here is why the meeting had to be held at all:  Even Democrats are becoming disillusioned with Obama's foreign policy, which has been a colossal failure everywhere.  The recent gains by Al Qaeda in Iraq have added to the disillusionment.

Added to the problem are pathetic statements coming out of the White House, like the statement by one aide who said that Democrats who want to impose new sanctions on Iran are warmongers.  No apology has been given. 

Naturally, some are attributing the Congressional suspicion of our Iran policy to the "Israel lobby."  But that just isn't washing.  There is legitimate and serious worry, across the political spectrum, about an administration that seems to punish our friends and reward our enemies. 

I'm guessing that Congress, in the end, will grant Obama's wish and hold off on new sanctions during this six-month period.  But I have no confidence that Obama will come out with any agreement with Iran that protects us.

January 16, 2014       Permalink

CREEPY – AT 8:36 A.M. ET:  The winter Olympics start in Sochi, Russia, within three weeks.  There is substantial concern about a terrorist attack.  Some Islamist groups have already pledged to disrupt these "Putin Olympics."  The latest, via NBC: 

MOSCOW, Russia -- Three Russian servicemen and four gunmen were killed in a shootout in southern Russia on Wednesday during a sweep for militants ahead of next month's Sochi Winter Olympics.

Russia's National Anti-terrorism Committee (NAC) said the dead gunmen included a man accused of carrying out a car bomb attack in the city of Pyatigorsk late last year which killed three people.

Russia is on high alert following two suicide bombings in southern Russia last month that fueled security concerns before the Olympics, which Islamist militants waging an insurgency in the North Caucasus have threatened to attack.

President Vladimir Putin has staked a lot of personal and political prestige on the success of the Games, which open on February 7, and has put security forces on combat alert in Sochi.

COMMENT:  We have to be constructively worried.  That means superlative security arrangements for American athletes and visitors. 

I assume the man in the White House is also concerned, although why should I assume it, after Benghazi?  But our best security people should be heavily involved, with the safety of our people not left in Russian hands.  I'd like to see some investigative reporting on this.

January 16,  2014     Permalink

JANUARY 15,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:37 P.M. ET:

AMERICANS' FINANCES DECLINE – From Gallup:  "WASHINGTON, D.C. - More Americans, 42%, say they are financially worse off now than they were a year ago, reversing the lower levels found over the past two years. Just more than a third of Americans say their financial situation has improved from a year ago."  I love living in Obooma times.

HE'D UNDERSTAND IT – From AFP:  "London (AFP) - Thieves tried to steal the ashes of the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud and his wife from a crematorium in London, severely damaging a 2,400-year-old urn that housed their remains, police said Wednesday."  The ashes have forgiven the thieves and recommended ten sessions of group therapy and acting out.

WE'RE SLIPPING – A new report from The Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation asserts that the U.S. has slipped out of the top ten nations in terms of economic freedom.  We're now twelfth:  "The Obama administration continues to shackle entire sectors of the economy with regulation, including health care, finance and energy. The intervention impedes both personal freedom and national prosperity.  But as the U.S. economy languishes, many countries are leaping ahead, thanks to policies that enhance economic freedom—the same ones that made the U.S. economy the most powerful in the world. Governments in 114 countries have taken steps in the past year to increase the economic freedom of their citizens."

DEM BIGWIG BLASTS WHITE HOUSE ON IRAN – From The Hill:  "House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) hammered the White House on Tuesday for suggesting that lawmakers urging tougher Iran sanctions are advocating for war.  Hoyer emphasized that he's 'sensitive to the administration's concern' that the Iran sanctions proposals floating in both the House and Senate could undermine fragile bilateral talks designed to freeze Iran's nuclear program and prevent the development of weapons. But recent comments from administration officials implying that sanction supporters want a march to war, he said, are 'irresponsible' and demand a retraction."  There has been no retraction.  The White House is tougher on Congress than on Iran.

January 15,  2013     Permalink

WEIRDSVILLE – AT 11:15 A.M. ET:   Is this our future?  From London's Daily Mail:

A Chinese firm claims it is getting closer to allowing parents to pick the embryo most likely to succeed.

Researcher believe that 50-80% of what determines IQ could be inherited.

Now a Chinese firm is mapping the genes of people who are gifted in maths in a bid to isolate the genes that make them smarter that the average person.

Shenzhen-based BGI is mapping the genes of math geniuses, and appealing via its web site for more to take part in the controversial study.

B.G.I., formerly called Beijing Genomics Institute, is the world’s largest genetic-research center, and already has an initial batch of 2,000 DNA samples from high-IQ subjects.

Researchers then plan to compare these against a sample from the general population - and hopefully isolate what makes them special.

In theory, this knowledge could then be used to allow parents to pick 'smart embryos'.

COMMENT:  How cool.  What about an honest-government gene?  Or a strong national defense gene?  How about a gene that immunizes voters against Obama-style campaigns?  Or a gene that forces mainstream media reporters to play it straight?

Math is good.  Other things are important as well.

January 15, 2014       Permalink

OUR DYNAMIC RECOVERY – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:   The Administration constantly tells us that we're in an economic recovery, practically roaring, tofu in every pot and two battery-powered cars in every garage.  Not so, not so.  From The Wall Street Journal: 

About half of the nation’s 3,069 county economies are still short of their prerecession economic output, reflecting the uneven economic recovery, according to a new report from the National Association of Counties.

The overall U.S. economy had reached its prerecession level of gross domestic product three years ago, Commerce Department figures show.

National statistics “mask the reality on the ground,” where some county economies were in recession long before December 2007 and others never experienced one at all, said Emilia Istrate, the association’s director of research and one of the authors of the report. “That’s where Americans feel the economy. They feel it locally.”

The report, released Monday, examined four economic indicators: GDP, total number of jobs, unemployment rates and home prices. It found wide variations.

Almost 400 counties saw no decline in GDP from their prerecession levels. Large counties were hit hard by the recession, but have recovered relatively strongly.

The roughly 800 counties boasting prerecession employment levels by 2013 are mostly in the Midwest and South. And just 54 had achieved their prerecession level of unemployment last year, the report said.

COMMENT:  Other than that, everything is okay.  Ignore, please, the fact that large numbers of any new jobs being created are part-time, and that the unemployment picture for recent college graduates is catastrophic.  Nothing to see, nothing to see.

January 15, 2014      Permalink

IRAN MADNESS – AT 9:03 A.M. ET:  No, this is not made up.  From the Washington Free Beacon:

A longtime aide for Secretary of State John Kerry is urging senators to oppose a new Iran sanctions measure because it would level tough penalties on Tehran should it carry out a terror attack against Americans anywhere in the world.

One of the requirements of a new bipartisan Iran sanctions bill in the Senate is that President Barack Obama certify “Iran has not directly, or through a proxy, supported, financed, planned, or otherwise carried out an act of terrorism against the United States or United States persons or property anywhere in the world” during nuclear negotiations with the West.

If Iran—one of the top global sponsors of terrorism—is caught committing an extremist act, the bill would require new sanctions to immediately take effect.

The anti-terror requirement is now causing outrage among pro-Iran advocacy groups who oppose new sanctions.

Edward Levine, a Kerry confidant who formerly worked on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, lambasted the anti-terror mandate in a recent analysis for the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

That is a left-wing group.  Many left-wing groups oppose sanctions on Iran because they ally themselves with America's enemies.  But the mainstream media will never tell that to you directly. 

Requiring Iran to cease its terror activities against the United States could harm the negotiations over its contested nuclear program, according to Levine.

“This language would mean that if, say, Hezbollah were to explode a bomb outside a U.S. firm’s office in Beirut, the sanctions would go into effect (because Iran gives financial and other support to Hezbollah) even if Iran’s nuclear activities and negotiations were completely in good faith,” Levine wrote in his analysis. “So, once again, the goalposts are being moved.”

Levine goes on to say that because the bill does not set a specific time period on Iran’s terror activities, “Iran’s past support of terrorism might make it impossible for the president ever to make this certification.”

COMMENT:  This is the kind of thinking that led directly to World War II.  You just look the other way, ignore reality, and engage in "talks."   And you call anyone who disagrees a warmonger.

January 15,  2014     Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:41 A.M. ET:  On Iran, from the increasingly important Walter Russell Mead, of The American Interest, who is becoming one of the most thoughtful commentators of the day: 

While officials from the P5+1 countries congratulate each other on an “interim agreement” and a “temporary freeze” on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, the Iranian negotiating team claims that there is a secret side deal with details on Iran’s right to continue nuclear development over the next few months. While President Obama fights to prevent new Iran sanctions, saying they would be a “march toward war,” Iran is stepping up its military and economic support for Hezbollah, the Assad regime in Damascus, and Shiite militia groups in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain. While Washington tries to spin the interim agreement with Iran as a step forward for “peace and diplomacy,” Iran’s Foreign Minister pays his respects to a notorious mass murderer (of Americans!), and Iran’s “moderate” new President Hassan Rouhani went on Twitter to boast that “world powers surrendered to the Iranian nation’s will.”

Some have claimed that these actions by Iranian officials signal “insincerity,” but we don’t see anything insincere here. Iran sincerely wants to establish an Iran-dominated Shia Crescent from Basra and Baghdad in Iraq across Syria and into Lebanon, and it sincerely believes that the Obama Administration is weak, vacillating, and desperate enough for the facade of a nuclear agreement to let that happen. Iran sincerely believes that the Sunni world has never been in such disarray or so weak; given all this, a sketchy nuclear deal with the United States that would cement Iran in place as the region’s dominant power looks genuinely attractive to the mullahs in Tehran. Why wouldn’t it?

As long as Iran thinks it can have it all, we won’t be testing whether it is really prepared to settle for a fair compromise in the Middle East. As long as this administration keeps the nuclear talks rolling and enforces a rigid separation between Iran’s activities beyond the talks and progress on sanctions, we won’t know Iran’s real bottom line.

Franklin Roosevelt once said that you can’t turn a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. President Obama appears to disagree. Time will tell who was right.

COMMENT:  The problem, as we see it, is that Obama just doesn't care.  He doesn't see Iran as a threat.  He sees traditional America as a threat.  Our catastrophic withdrawal from the Mideast means victory after victory for radical Islam, presided over by an American president with obviously strong Islamic sympathies.  It's been noted that Obama is rougher on Congressional critics of his Iran policy than he is on Iran.

There were cynical jokes in 2008 that we had elected the Manchurian Candidate.  You know, I'm not laughing any longer.

January 15,  2014     Permalink