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JANUARY 16,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

GONE GUY –  From Mediaite:  "Just one week after he engaged in a heated Twitter debate over the terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo, CNN international correspondent Jim Clancy announced he is leaving the network after more than 30 years at the network. In a short note to his CNN colleagues, Clancy did not give a reason for his departure."  The reason was the vulgarity of his comments, which had an anti-Semitic odor, and which contained a tasteless reference to disabled people.  Clancy was part of CNN's early wrecking crew, and always struck me as a reckless and bigoted reporter.  CNN, still struggling with bias and a liberal reputation, will be stronger without him.  His departure was officially reported as a resignation.  I have the feeling – but can't prove it – that he was offered the "opportunity" to resign after his career-ending tweets. 

GOOD NEWS FOR THE CHATTERING CLASSES – From CNS:  "(CNSNews.com) - Even as gasoline prices plummeted and the overall energy price index calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics declined, electricity prices bucked the trend in the United States in 2014.  Data released today by the BLS indicates that the electricity price indexes hit all-time highs for the month of December and for the year. 2014 was the most-expensive year ever for electricity in the United States.  The annual price index for electricity, published by BLS today, was 208.020. That was up from 200.750 in 2013."  But, don't you see, high energy prices are good for the environment?  People use less energy, except, probably, for the environmentalists, who are getting ready to fly into Aspen in their private jets for another conference.  The average American gets stuck, or freezes.

BAD TASTE – From the Hollywood Reporter:  "Selma producer Oprah Winfrey will march Sunday in Selma, Alabama — alongside the film's director Ava DuVernay and star David Oyelowo — to commemorate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., Paramount announced Friday.  According to the studio, the event will pay homage to King's civil rights leadership and his involvement in the Selma voting rights protests of 1965, the subject of the Oscar-nominated film."  Producers always want to promote Oscar-nominated movies, but it seems to me that using King's birthday itself is tacky.  Oprah will steal the thunder of commemoration in Selma to advance a personal interest.  Not classy.

PERRY? – From AP:  "CORONADO, Calif. (AP) — Conceding there was more 'excitement than preparation' for his first presidential bid, Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday declared himself ready for a second White House run should he decide to enter the crowded 2016 Republican field.  'I don't shy away from the fact that I have been preparing. Preparation's done. I'm ready,' he said in a Friday interview with The Associated Press. 'But I will announce at the appropriate time my intentions.'  Perry, who leaves office next week after more than 14 years as Texas' leader, said he was wrong to think he could give 100 percent in his failed 2012 presidential campaign while still serving as a sitting governor."  He did a great job in the governor's chair.  Welcome.

January 16,  2015     Permalink

EUROPE ACTS ON TERROR – AT 8:32 A.M. ET:   There have been raids on suspected terror cells in several European countries.  We wonder, though, how long this will go on before the European left, and the European businessmen eager for deals with Iran, reassert themselves.  From Fox: 

Dozens of terror suspects were arrested in Belgium, France, and Germany early Friday, a day after Belgian authorities said that they halted a plot to attack police officers by mere hours.

Eric Van der Sypt, a Belgian federal magistrate, told a news conference Friday in Brussels that 13 people had been detained in Belgium in connection with the plot, with another two arrested in neighboring France. He added that a dozen searches had led to the discovery of four military-style weapons including Kalashnikov assault rifles.

On Thursday, Belgian police had moved against a suspected terrorist hideout in the eastern town of Verviers. In the ensuing firefight, two terror suspects were killed, while a third was wounded and arrested.

At the time, officials said the militant group targeted in the raid included some who had returned from Syria. Authorities have previously said 300 Belgian residents have gone to fight with extremist Islamic formations in Syria; it is unclear how many have returned.

Authorities in Belgium signaled they were ready for more trouble by raising the national terror alert level from 2 to 3, the second-highest level. Prime Minister Charles Michel said the increase in the threat level was "a choice for prudence."

"There is no concrete or specific knowledge of new elements of threat," he said.

Meanwhile, French police arrested at least 12 people in anti-terrorism raids in three towns around Paris, the city prosecutor's office said early Friday.

The prosecutor's office said that the raids were targeting people with links to Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who attacked a kosher supermarket Jan. 9 and claimed ties to the Islamic State terror group. Police officials earlier told The Associated Press that they were seeking up to eight to 10 potential accomplices

Coulibaly was one of three gunmen who carried out a series of terror attacks that resulted in the deaths of 17 people. Authorities in France and several other countries are looking for possible accomplices. One suspect, Coulibaly's common-law wife Hayat Boumeddiane, is believed to have fled to Syria earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported Friday morning that the Gare l'Est train station in Paris had been closed and evacuated due to a bomb threat. A police official, who was not authorized to be publicly named, told the AP that the station was closed "as a precaution," but would not give further details. The Gare l'Est is one of the major stations in Paris, serving cities in Eastern France and countries to the east.

Also Friday, Berlin police said that they had taken two men into custody on suspicion that they were recruiting fighters and procuring equipment and funding for the Islamic State group, better known as ISIS, in Syria.

COMMENT:  Much of this is occurring, of course, in reaction to the Paris terror attacks.  But Europe has a way of forgetting very quickly.  Also, how can Europe truly act against terror without the leadership of the United States?  It's perfectly clear that President Obama has little interest in anti-terror operations, and Secretary Kerry has a long record of calling terror a law-enforcement problem. 

Kerry is now in Paris.  He says he came to give "a big hug" to the city.  I'm sure the families of the victims of last week's terror can't wait to be hugged.  That's just what they need.

January 16, 2015       Permalink

ABOUT TIME – AT 8:19 A.M. ET:  Arizona is making history by insisting that its students actually know what it means to be an American.  What a shocking, subversive concept.  From AP: 

PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona became the first state in the nation on Thursday to enact a law requiring high school students to pass the U.S. citizenship test on civics before graduation, giving a boost to a growing nationwide effort to boost civics education.

Both the Arizona House and Senate quickly passed the legislation on just the fourth day of the legislative session, and newly elected Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed it into law Thursday evening.

The swift action in Arizona comes as states around the country take up similar measures. Arizona's law requires high school students to correctly answer 60 of 100 questions on the civics portion of the test new citizens must pass.

The standard should be higher.  I'd raise it to 75 questions.

The test is being pushed nationally by the Arizona-based Joe Foss Institute, which has set a goal of having all 50 states adopt it by 2017, the 230th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution. The institute says legislatures in 15 states are expected to consider it this year.

The Foss Institute, whose motto is "Patriotism Matters," has created a civics institute to promote the test to state legislatures as a way to increase the understanding of basic government by students, with the hope they will be better prepared to be engaged citizens.

Institute president Frank Riggs, a former California congressman who ran for Arizona governor as a Republican last year, said the testing initiative seeks "to ensure the delivery the very basics civics education that every high school graduate should have."

Joe Foss is a former South Dakota governor and received the Medal of Honor during World War II. He died in 2003.

COMMENT:  It's a great idea, but we must monitor the program carefully to be sure that it isn't hijacked by the political left.  I'd like to see the questions five years from now. 

Our kids are taught very little about civics.  It's one of the reasons they feel unconnected to their country and its history.  Arizona is leading the way back.

January 16, 2015       Permalink

OBAMA'S RELEASES FROM GITMO CAUSE OUTRAGE – AT 8:05 A.M. ET:  From Fox: 

"The Obama administration drew fire Thursday from a growing list of frustrated lawmakers over the release of more Guantanamo detainees -- this time Yemeni terrorists to the volatile Arabian Peninsula -- as concerns mount over the spreading threat of Islamic terrorism, and the administration's refusal to publicly call out Islam's radical elements. 

The Department of Defense announced Wednesday that five Yemeni terror suspects held at Guantanamo Bay were released -- with four of the five heading for Oman, Yemen's neighbor. 

The release comes despite knowledge that one of the two assassins who carried out the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris traveled to Yemen in 2011, and met with the radical American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. 

"The administration continues to transfer Guantanamo detainees while providing virtually no details to the American people regarding the risk the detainees present to our country and our allies, as well as the detainees' affiliations with terrorist groups and the conditions of their transfer," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a statement on the releases.

They also cited reports that Oman may have been the entry point for the Paris attacker who traveled to Yemen. "We just sent four Guantanamo detainees, with potential ties to al Qaeda, to Oman -- the same country that reportedly served as the jumping off point" for that travel, they said.

Amid the drive to release Guantanamo prisoners, more evidence is mounting that Islamic terrorism is spreading around the world -- including a claim of responsibility by Al Qaeda in Yemen for the Paris terror attacks, and the unchecked slaughter of thousands in Nigeria by Boko Haram. Police in Belgium also claimed Thursday to have stopped a "Belgian Charlie Hebdo," with government agents killing at least two in raids aimed at jihadists returning from Syria who were planning to launch terrorist attacks.

The administration is taking heat not only for the Gitmo transfers, but for its refusal to publicly call out radical Islam as the common thread in these attacks.

"The president of the United States has concluded that the War on Terror has reached a point that we can safely release people from Gitmo," Graham told Fox News on Wednesday. "The best I can say about him is he's unfocused. That's delusional thinking. The War on Terror has reached a lethal phase, and it is insane to be letting these people out of Gitmo to go back to the fight."

COMMENT:  Every poll shows that the American people side with Graham.  Obama is, I think, seen as an increasing burden in the war on terror, even a dangerous, misguided president.

You know, I've been thinking.  We have a gap in our Constitution, as I noted recently.  The only ways we can remove a president are through impeachment or his own incapacitation.  We need an amendment that will allow the removal of a president for simple incompetence. 

January 16, 2015        Permalink

AMERICANS TAKING TERRORISM SERIOUSLY – AT 7:56 A.M. ET:  Unlike their president, Americans regard fighting terrorism as a priority issue.  From The Hill: 

For the first time in five years, Americans consider fighting terrorism as much a policy priority as improving the economy, according a poll released Thursday.

The Pew Research Center reports that 75 percent of adults called strengthening the economy a top priority, part of a downward slide since 86 percent named it in January 2013.

Seventy-six percent said fighting terrorism was the top priority.

The percentage of adults who see terrorism as a top concern has not risen considerably since 2013, according to Pew. But as the economy has improved, it has once again moved to the top of the list of Americans’ policy priorities.

COMMENT:  This has occurred despite the absence of a major attack on American soil.  But I think Americans have enough common sense to realize that we are high on the target list.

January 16,  2015     Permalink

JANUARY 15,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 6:15 P.M. ET: 

JOB MARKET COOLS – From Bloomberg:  "More Americans unexpectedly filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, indicating companies let go of seasonal workers following the holidays.  Jobless claims climbed by 19,000 to 316,000 in the week ended Jan. 10, the most since early September, from a revised 297,000 in the prior period, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 48 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for 290,000."  Other economic indicators are also starting to slow.  What recovery?

WHAT A JERK – From Business Insider:  "The movie industry is like the Rocky Mountains, the higher you get, the whiter it gets," Sharpton quipped in a statement released later in the afternoon.  Sharpton, a critic of the lack of diversity in Hollywood, also announced he was holding an 'emergency meeting' next week to address the issue.  'I have called an emergency meeting early next week in Hollywood with the task force to discuss possible action around the Academy Awards,' he said.  The prestigious awards ceremony was widely criticized after its nominees for best actor, best actress, and best director were all white. In the past two decades this has happened only one other time, according to The Hollywood Reporter."  The fact that it's happened only one other time destroys Sharpton's hustle.  There are plenty of minorities nominated for Oscars.  This year several lists came out as all white.  It will happen occasionally.  But what does Sharpton want?  Quotas?  The whole thing is ridiculous.

MAJOR LEGAL NEWS – From the Daily Beast:  "It may be the storied house of Eloise, but New York City’s legendary Plaza is being hawked like a pinky ring by its Indian owner to help pay for his $3 billion bail in New Delhi.  To make the situation all the more remarkable, he hawked the house of Eloise along with two other hotels to an investment group that includes a Grammy-winning hip-hop artist and a noted New York sports agent.   Who would have guessed that Pras Michel of the Fugees would go on to become a record-breaking bail bondsman and help spring an Indian billionaire from a New Delhi hoosegow?"  Ah, there is good taste all around us, isn't there?  Yuch.

GOOD FOR CANADA! – Canada, one of our most reliable allies, has been regularly ignored and minimized by the Obamans.  Canada has apparently had enough, and is symbolically expressing its displeasure.  From the Washington Times:  "The White House confirmed Thursday that Canada has postponed the North American Leaders Summit scheduled for next month but would not say whether tension over the Keystone XL oil pipeline is the reason.  Canada, this year’s summit host, announced Thursday that the summit will be held later in 2015, though no exact date has been set. Some Canadian media outlets, such as the Toronto Sun, reported that the meeting was rescheduled because of President Obama’s continued indecision on Keystone, which the Canadian government strongly supports."  Maybe the Prince of Change in the White House will get the message.  But, even if he does, he won't care.

January 15, 2015        Permalink

WARNING ABOUT THE CDC – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  There is no greater gold-plated name in Washington than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  But it has been faltering, and that should have us worried.  From health-care authority Betsy McCaughey at the New York Post: 

With flu raging through 46 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is taking center stage, advising the public and physicians. But the agency increasingly isn’t up to its task.
Until last year, polls showed the CDC to be the most respected federal agency. But then it bungled its response to Ebola.

That was a wake-up call, because the CDC has been fumbling its most important jobs for several years. The agency has a severe case of mission confusion.

Domestic preparedness: After the 9/11 attacks, Congress instructed the CDC to launch a State and Local Preparedness program and build a Strategic National Stockpile to prepare for bioterrorism or a disease outbreak.

But the CDC has failed on both fronts, leaving us woefully unprepared, according to the Associated Press. “A mediocre outbreak” could overwhelm the system, said Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University.

When Ebola struck, the stockpile was already out of essential gear like waterproof gowns: The CDC had used up the supplies during the 2009 swine-flu threat, yet didn’t even order more until October 2014, with Ebola in full swing.

Since 2007, the CDC has cut domestic preparedness every year, reallocating the money to “urgent” causes like improving access to farmer’s markets.

Lab safety: The CDC had so many potentially lethal mishaps last year that outside scientists are now urging Congress to bar most of the 1,500 CDC labs from handling deadly bugs.

The agency mislabeled live anthrax and sent it to other labs, mixed up inactivated bird-flu specimens and lethal ones and exposed a scientist to incorrectly labeled Ebola specimens.
Sounds like the Centers for Disease Mix-Ups and Confusion. 

COMMENT:  This is pretty chilling stuff.  You'd think the Obama administration would do something about it.  But, oh, it's the Obama administration.

January 15, 2015       Permalink

OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:  Leslie Gelb, an old foreign-policy hand, argues dramatically at the Daily Beast that Obama has his last chance to improve his foreign policy.  This is a rather dramatic statement from a careful writer:   

The failure of Obama or Biden to show up in Paris made clear that most of the president’s team can’t be trusted to conduct U.S national security policy and must be replaced—at once.
Here’s why America’s failure to be represented at the Paris unity march was so profoundly disturbing. It wasn’t just because President Obama’s or Vice President Biden’s absence was a horrendous gaffe. More than this, it demonstrated beyond argument that the Obama team lacks the basic instincts and judgment necessary to conduct U.S. national security policy in the next two years. It’s simply too dangerous to let Mr. Obama continue as is—with his current team and his way of making decisions. America, its allies, and friends could be heading into one of the most dangerous periods since the height of the Cold War.

Mr. Obama will have to excuse most of his inner core, especially in the White House. He will have to replace them with strong and strategic people of proven foreign policy experience. He’ll also need to seed the Defense and State Departments with new top people serving directly as senior advisers to the secretaries. And he also will need to set up regular consultations—not the usual phony ones—with the two key Senate leaders in this field, Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker and Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, two people who can really improve his decisions and bolster his credibility. Many will be tempted to dismiss these crash solutions as several bridges too far, as simply unrealistic. But hear me out. It can be made much more plausible than it seems at first blush. What’s more, if Mr. Obama doesn’t do something along the lines of what’s proposed here, he and we are in for unmanageable trouble.

Before I continue, I have to tell you that I’ve never made such extreme and far-reaching proposals in all my years in this business. I’ve never proposed such a drastic overhaul. But if you think hard about how Mr. Obama and his team handled this weekend in Paris, I think you’ll see I’m not enjoying a foreign policy neurological breakdown.

It was an absolute no-brainer for either Mr. Obama or Mr. Biden personally to show the American flag on the streets of Paris. Of course every senior staff person should have recommended it three seconds after the news of the Parisian horrors. So far as we know, none did. Sure, this was an inexplicable and utter staff failure, but the president and the vice president shouldn’t have required anyone to tell them what to do in this situation. It was, after all, about terrorism, the main issue of the era. If all these top officials blew this obvious decision, shudder at how they’ll handle the hard ones.

COMMENT:  Read the entire piece.  It's worth it.  Finally someone with a heavyweight reputation, who is not a Republican partisan, says what needs to be said.  We are in serious trouble.  Gelb ends this way:  "Mr. "Obama will not be a lesser man but a greater man if he recognizes what’s at stake and accepts the help he must have to ensure our survival. End of story."

January 15, 2015       Permalink

AND ON THE ECONOMY – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  Another poll result.  Despite apparent improvements in the economy, most Americans really aren't buying the deal.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Americans are in general agreement that the nation’s economy is improving, but not their own personal situation, a depressing reality that the administration can’t shake the country out of no matter what it does.

A big reason: They just don't believe the president and his team's boasting about the economy, with 52 percent in a new poll believing that there are more people unemployed than the president says.

The latest Economist/YouGov poll found that the “positive assessment has yet to become part of most Americans daily conversations about the economy. And Americans are far more likely to credit themselves and American business — and not the president or Congress — for whatever economic improvement there has been.”

For example, while majorities believe that unemployment is improving and the economy is getting better, they don’t credit Washington. Business first, and consumers second, get the credit. President Obama and Congress follow in the poll.

COMMENT:  And the majorities are right.  Indeed, Obama has fought against a number of the things that are actually helping the economy.  He fought tooth and nail against fracking and the ambitions of the oil companies, yet those companies are making us energy independent.  And who is taking public credit?  Why, it's that self same Barack Obama.

We have a way to go before Americans believe their own situation is better. 

January 15, 2015       Permalink

WAKE-UP CALL – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  Before the president wields his veto pen, he might look at the latest poll from Fox: 

Most Americans of all political stripes support construction of the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline, and want President Obama to sign legislation approving it, according to a new Fox News poll.

The pipeline would transport oil from Canada to refineries in the United States.

A 65-percent majority says Obama should sign the Keystone legislation, according to the poll. That includes 82 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of independents and 52 percent of Democrats.

Overall, only 22 percent of voters think the president should veto it -- which he has threatened to do.

The U.S. House passed a bill approving the pipeline Friday. The Senate is now considering Keystone legislation, but there won’t be a final vote this week.

Support for Keystone has held steady for years: 68 percent of voters backed it at the end of 2014, 70 percent in 2013 and 67 percent in 2012.

COMMENT:  Walter Russell Mead recently argued that liberal institutions, which campaign against projects like Keystone, are losing their influence with the public.  We see the truth of that in poll after poll.

January 15,  2015     Permalink