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

JANUARY 5,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:18 P.M. ET: 

OH, THE BOTHER – From Hollywood Reporter:  "Beverly Hills High School was evacuated at 11 am on Monday after the school received a bomb threat that was called by telephone.  'The Beverly Hills High School campus has been cleared by officers and determined to be safe,' a police alert from the Beverly Hills Police Department read. 'The Beverly Hills High School Administration, as a precaution, has chosen to close the school for today and is in the process of reuniting students with their parents.'  Earlier in the day, police were on the location and investigating the incident, Beverly Hills Police Department Sgt. Max Subin told THR.  The police department also had stated in an earlier alert that 'No suspicious package or device has been located.'"  The evacuation was carried out in a string of white Rolls Royces driven by out-of-work actors.  Students signed autographs as they left the campus.  Movie rights are being negotiated.

TORTURE NEWS – From Britain's Telegraph:  "A small bowl of porridge each day could be the key to a long and healthy life, after a major study by Harvard University found that whole grains reduce the risk of dying from heart disease.  Although whole grains are widely believed to be beneficial for health it is the first research to look at whether they have a long-term impact on lifespan.  Researchers followed more than 100,000 people for more than 14 years monitoring their diets and health outcomes.  Everyone involved in the study was healthy in 1984 when they enrolled, but when they were followed up in 2010 more than 26,000 had died.  However those who ate the most whole grains, such as porridge, brown rice, corn and quinoa seemed protected from many illnesses and particularly heart disease."  YUCH!  DOUBLE YUCH!  I only regret that I have but one life to give for Edy's chocolate chip.

SUFFER! – From Newsmax:  "Harvard professors are up in arms after learning they will have to pay more towards their healthcare costs under Obamacare, which many of them have championed, The New York Times reports.  The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the center of the venerable institution, has voted overwhelmingly to fight changes that would force them, along with thousands of other Harvard employees, to pay more for their health benefits.  'Harvard is a microcosm of what’s happening in healthcare in the country,' said David Cutler, a health economist at the university who was an adviser during President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign."  Maybe now they'll understand what "real world" means.

LONG OVERDUE – From Fox:  "A lawyer for victims of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting and their families says the combat-related benefits that come with the Purple Heart -- now being considered thanks to new legislation -- will be a lifeline for many of his clients, who are still so damaged physically and mentally they are unable to work five years after the massacre.  'No one will be the same,' Neal Sher told Fox News. 'The people who have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) -- both those who were hit by bullets and others who were in that area -- that is a very, very debilitating condition. And they're suffering on a daily basis. And as I said, families have been broken apart.'  The legislation that funds the Defense Department in 2015, known as the NDAA or National Defense Authorization Act, includes new language that requires the Pentagon to reconsider whether the victims of the Fort Hood massacre qualify for the Purple Heart -- one of the department's highest honors."  Disgracefully, the Obama appeasers still classify Fort Hood as "workplace violence," a lie.  It was a terrorist act committed by a perpetrator with deep ties to radical Islam. 

January 5, 2015       Permalink

A STAR IS BORN – AT 11:53 A.M. ET:  The new Congress starts business tomorrow, and with it come some new Republican stars.  They are starting to define a new conservatism that is more inclusive and more creative.

One such star is Mia Love, the new African-American Republican congresswoman from Utah.  She is here.  She is vocal, and she's taking on Obamacare.  She will not be silenced by the old Republican "get along" establishment.  From the Washington Times: 

Rep.-elect Mia Love vowed to walk the talk she promised voters of Utah and that as part of that pledge, she would stand strong on Obamacare and push for its repeal and replacement.

Specifically, she vowed to “do everything humanly possible to stop Obamacare,” she said during an interview on “This Week” on ABC News.

“Look, I was elected by my district to make sure we get the decision-making back in their hands,” she said, National Review Online reported. “And I’ve said I was going to do everything I can to repeal and replace it with broad health-care reforms, free-market health-care reforms. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

Ms. Love was elected in a tight race against Democrat Doug Owens. She made the strong statement in response to ABC host Martha Raddatz’s question about whether she would support Sen. Ted Cruz’s plan to defund, repeal or dismantle Obamacare.

COMMENT:  At least she has spirit.  The latest on Obamacare, and we'll report on it in detail, is that it's starting to have a devastating impact on the middle class.  Obamacare, at base, is a wealth transfer program.  The Americans who were "uninsured" before it was passed – in fact everyone who wanted health care actually got it – are now comfortable with their plan.  But middle class people are seeing soaring rates, cutbacks in coverage, and the inability to choose doctors.  Change we can believe in.  Right.

Will Americans wake up and vote out the Obama crowd in 2016?  I think it's close.  Many Americans get checks from the government, and they're subject to intimidation and scares.

January 5, 2015       Permalink

DEPARTMENT OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES – AT 10:49 A.M. ET:  Minimum wage laws just changed in a number of states.  The intent is good, to give people a better life.  But does it work?  A cautionary tale from The Wall Street Journal: 

More than two dozen states and cities raised their minimum wages on Jan. 1. It’s well-established in the economic literature, if not in the minds of proponents of these laws, that the result will be job losses. Yet this empirical reality fails to capture the emotional reality of the employees who are let go, or of the business owners who had no choice but to let them go. I learned this on a snowy November day in Hillsdale, a college town in rural south-central Michigan.

Michigan’s minimum wage rose in September to $8.15 an hour from $7.40 (the minimum wage for tipped employees rose 17%, to $3.10 an hour). The wage will rise to $9.25 by January 2018. The law was enacted by a Republican legislature, and signed by a Republican governor to head off a more draconian proposal that left-wing activists were attempting to place on the November ballot.

But the good intentions behind these political machinations didn’t make a difference to Jack Mosley, a pastor who until this fall operated a restaurant in Hillsdale called Tastes of Life. The increased minimum wage, he told me, was “the straw that broke that camel’s back,” forcing him to close his doors and lay off his 12-person staff.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole story.  The road to Hell is, indeed, paved with good intentions.

January 5, 2015       Permalink

SMART MOVE BY JAPAN – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:  One of the problems in Asia is the bitter memory that countries have about Japan's actions in World War II.  That was not the Japan of the SONY Playstation or the Honda Accord.  It was imperial Japan, and it was brutal.

There is now a nationalist government in Japan, and, at a time when we need to keep our alliances together in the Pacific, the fear has grown that this government might paper over the lingering resentment toward Japan's history.  Japan itself has never faced that history as directly as Germany has.  Our fears may be exaggerated.  From Weekly Standard: 

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe will "express remorse" for World War II, the Associated Press reports:

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that his government would express remorse for World War II on the 70th anniversary of its end in August.

Abe is known for his nationalist views, and many analysts have speculated that he may downplay Japan's responsibility for the war. At a year-opening news conference Monday, he sought to reassure the world that he wouldn't veer from past official statements on Japan's wartime responsibility.

"The Abe Cabinet will uphold the general stance on history of successive prime ministers, including the Murayama statement," he said, referring to the 1995 apology made by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on the 50th anniversary of the war's end.

He said the government would draft a new statement "that includes Japan's remorse for the war," though he stopped short of saying it would apologize.

The Japan Times has more on the move:

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday he will express remorse for Japan’s actions in World War II while highlighting the country’s bid to contribute more actively to world peace in his statement marking the 70th anniversary of the war’s end in August.

“I would like to write of Japan’s remorse over the war, its postwar history as a pacifist nation and how it will contribute to the Asia-Pacific region and the world,” Abe said in Ise, Mie Prefecture, during his first news conference of the year.

To mark the anniversary, the government is preparing to craft a new statement, a document that will be closely watched due to the implications it could to have on relations with China and South Korea.

COMMENT:  That's a relief.  The rise of China, and its military strength, makes it imperative that the American-Japanese alliance be strong, and that Japan and South Korea have decent relations. 

We probably will be seeing a dramatic rise in Japanese military power.  We want other Pacific nations to welcome it, not be fearful of it.

January 5, 2015       Permalink

A NEW YEAR'S WARNING FOR US – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  Yes, we want a happy new year.  But we want to be around for a new year next year as well.  And we face serious threats that are rising to meet us.  From WTOP, in Washington:

WASHINGTON – Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is warning Americans that they’ve been working long and hard on a new tool to attack the U.S.

In the latest issue of the terror group’s Inspire electronic magazine, an individual called the AQ Chef was quoted as saying they developed a bomb in 2009, but “the brothers in the external operation committee did not give us the green light until recently.”

Hinting at al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula’s dedication to building undetectable bombs, he said in the winter 2014 edition of Inspire, released in late December, “they have developed other bombs that are more effective.”

AQ Chef indicates that lessons learned from failures in past assassination attempts and plots to attack U.S. airplanes and buildings have fed the development of a new generation of what it calls “undetectable” bombs.

In “The Hidden Bomb,” a 20-page section of the magazine, the writer goes into painstaking detail about how to build and test such a bomb: “For several months, we conducted a number of experiments. As a result we came up with these simple materials that are readily available around the globe, even inside America. We spared no effort in simplifying the idea in such we made it ‘another meal prepared in the kitchen’ so that every determined Muslim can prepare.”

COMMENT:  It might be bluster, but, given the record, I'd take this claim very seriously.  Remember, the terrorist has to be lucky only once.  Sooner or later, one of these guys is going to get through, and wreak havoc, and we have Barack Obama in the White House.

January 5,  2015     Permalink

JANUARY 4,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:21 P.M. ET: 

NEW GAME IN TOWN – From AP:  "WASHINGTON — Congress' approval rating hovers around 15 percent, but there's one group of people excited about the institution: the newly elected lawmakers who are about to join its ranks.  The House will welcome 58 freshmen this coming week, including 43 Republicans and 15 Democrats, pushing the GOP majority to 246 members, the most since the Great Depression.  In the Senate, 13 new lawmakers, all but one of them Republican, will be sworn in, flipping control of the chamber to the GOP with a 54-vote majority."  Republicans must chart their own program and present it to the American people.  The 2016 campaign is already starting.  On election night 2016 I want to see GOP control of everything, including North Korea and Yemen.

ANOTHER NY FUNERAL – From WaPo:  "The frustration and defiance of the nation’s police officers were on display again Sunday in New York City, where tens of thousands of them gathered for the funeral of the second of two officers who were slain at the height of the ongoing protests and scrutiny after several high-profile deaths of unarmed black males.  A large number of the officers who stood under gray skies in their formal blue uniforms to honor Officer Wenjian Liu staged their own protest, turning their backs when Mayor Bill de Blasio rose to speak at the funeral.  Even some out-of-town officers joined NYPD members in the show of disrespect toward de Blasio (D), an outspoken critic of some policing tactics who has come to represent what many in law enforcement see as a lack of support, if not outright hostility, for the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to keep the streets safe."  This isn't going away.  Another incident could set off a new spark.  New York is tense.

AFGHAN MESS – From The Hill:  "Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani said in a interview broadcast late Sunday that President Obama may need to 'reexamine' his deadline for the U.S. troop withdrawal from the country.  'If both parties, or, in this case, multiple partners, have done their best to achieve the objectives and progress is very real, then there should be willingness to reexamine a deadline,' Ghani told CBS's '60 Minutes.'  'Did you tell President Obama that?' Lara Logan asked.  'President Obama knows me. We don't need … to tell each other,' Ghani said during his first U.S. televised interview since becoming the country's president.  Obama had announced plan to withdraw troops from the country by the end of 2016. There are currently about 10,000 troops remaining."  Looks like we'll have pressure on us to stay.  John McCain has also asked Obama to give up the president's "calendar" deadline.  Hasn't Obama learned the lessons of premature removal of troops from our experience in Iraq?  Probably not.

January 4,  2015     Permalink

ARE DEMOCRATS CHANGING FOR THE WORSE? – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  If the 2014 elections proved anything, it's that the Democratic Party has lost touch with its traditional base of working men and women.  It's now a party of race, gender, and ethnicity.  From Breitbart: 

In 2016, especially after President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty, Democrats may be on even thinner ice with white voters, especially white working-class males.

Though the mainstream media wants to gin up the narrative that Republicans have trouble winning minorities, the 2014 midterm elections again showed, as Politico noted, “that Democrats have their own significant demographic vulnerability: working-class white voters. Republicans won white voters without a college degree by 30 points, 64 percent to 34 percent, according to exit polls, equal to their margin in the wave election of 2010.” In addition, “support for President Barack Obama among working-class whites has dropped 8 points since 2010.”

Political analyst Charlie Cook told the outlet that “Democrats have chosen to focus on issues that the liberal base of the party really likes, but the working-class person in West Virginia or Arkansas or Louisiana or Alaska doesn’t necessarily identify with.”

“The challenge that the Democratic Party has in parts of the country appears to be even more formidable than it was two years ago,” he added.

But Obama is likely to swerve even more to the left after Democrats in red states like Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan, Mark Begich and Mary Landrieu lost their reelection bids in Arkansas, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Louisiana, respectively.

In his end-of-year press conference, Obama indicated that he was liberated because he no longer had to worry about the reelection prospects of Democrats from conservative states. Obama and Democrats are gambling that minorities who powered Obama into the White House will continue to be galvanized in presidential elections.

COMMENT:  And that remains to be seen.  Obama was an electoral phenomenon (and a governmental disaster).  I can't see blacks animated by Hillary Clinton, who's been around for 25 years.  As Hispanics are absorbed into the American mainstream, they may divide politically, much as other Americans.  The loyalty of women to the Democratic Party is clearly wobbly.  Married women are trending Republican.  Can Hillary reverse that trend?  Maybe.  But she's currently kowtowing to the left to avoid a primary challenge from the Obama wing. 

Very interesting political situation developing.

January 4, 2015       Permalink

A MAN TO WATCH – AT 10:56 A.M. ET:  When the new Congress is sworn in this week, Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee will become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Thus, a man to watch.  He's 's the one we look to to take on Obama's reckless foreign policy.  From The Hill:   

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) signaled Sunday that lawmakers could increase sanctions against Iran if nuclear negotiations do not yield an agreement.

Yeah, but what if they yield a bad agreement?

Corker, who will become the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman in the next Congress, said on "Fox News Sunday" that there was "no question" tha lawmakers would increase sanctions against Iran.

"There's no question," Corker said. "If the nuke deal falls apart, then there will be more sanctions."

Republicans have signaled that they will take up a new Iran sanctions bill in January. Many Democrats, including the Obama administration, are opposed to new sanctions as the negotiations with Iran have continued.

Corker said that the bill would move "regular order" and not immediately.

COMMENT:  I'm not so sure I know what to make of this.  The objective is to prevent the appeasers in the Obama administration from making a bad deal with Iran. 

Corker is a good guy.  I just hope he doesn't get "internationalized," as do so many chairmen of the Foreign Relations Committee.  Democrat Bob Menendez, the former chairman, who'll now be ranking member, was actually tough on Obama's foreign policy, especially in the Mideast and in Cuba.  We'll be sizing up Corker in the weeks ahead.

January 4, 2015       Permalink

PRESIDENT HUCKABEE? – AT 10:41 A.M. ET:  It's undeniable that Mike Huckabee, a Fox TV host, is interested in the presidency.  As a former Republican governor of Arkansas, he's run for it before.  Now he's taken a step toward running in 2016.  From Newsmax: 

TV host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says he is leaving his Fox News talk show as he considers whether to seek the Republican nomination for president, a decision he expects to reach in the spring.

Huckabee said Saturday night's edition of "Huckabee" would be his last as he ponders his political future. The weekly show, which is taped with a live audience and features political commentary as well as interviews with guests and musical entertainment, has been on the air for more than six years.

"There's been a great deal of speculation as to whether I would run for president. And if I were willing to absolutely rule that out, I could keep doing this show. But I can't make such a declaration," he said at the end of Saturday's program.

"Now, I'm not going to make a decision about running until late in the spring of 2015, but the continued chatter has put Fox News into a position that just isn't fair to them — nor is it possible for me to openly determine political and financial support to justify a race. The honorable thing to do at this point is to end my tenure here at Fox. Now, as much as I have loved doing the show, I cannot bring myself to rule out another presidential run."

The former Baptist preacher and Arkansas chief executive — he led the state from 1996 to 2007 — is a favorite among social conservatives. While hosting the TV show he has published books, appeared at conservative conferences around the country and offered harsh criticism of President Barack Obama's policies.

Huckabee has been particularly critical of the nation's swing toward accepting gay marriage. In October, after the Supreme Court rejected appeals from five states that sought to prohibit marriage by same-sex couples, he said: "It is shocking that many elected officials, attorneys and judges think that a court ruling is the 'final word.' It most certainly is not."

He campaigned last fall for several Republican office-seekers — among them Senate candidates Joni Ernst in Iowa, David Perdue in Georgia, Tom Cotton in Arkansas and Mike Rounds in South Dakota. Rounds was national chairman of Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign.

Huckabee, 59, won the Iowa caucuses in 2008, finishing ahead of Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Ron Paul.

COMMENT:  I think it will be tough for Huckabee.  The Republican field is very wide.   The party, in its recent triumph in 2014, moved somewhat away from social-issue campaigning.  But, one never knows in politics.  Huckabee has an appealing personality and solid, pro-American views on foreign policy.  Let him run.  The voters will decide.

January 4,  2015     Permalink