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Scene above: Constitution Island, where Revolutionary War forts still exist, as photographed from Trophy Point, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York 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.
SECOND SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE – 2014 – WEEK TWO The first week of our new subscription drive went quite well. In fact, it was one of the best first weeks of a subscription drive that we've had at Urgent Agenda. Thank you to new subscribers and to our old reliables. But this is just the start. More is needed. Please help keep Urgent Agenda running by subscribing or donating. Last week we began our second subscription drive of 2014. This is a critical year for Urgent Agenda – perhaps the most important midterm election year in America's recent history. But maintaining our daily, day and night, coverage of this year is costly. It is subscribers and donators who keep us going. Like all political sites, we face increasing competition each week as more bloggers join the internet. As a site in our sixth year, we face the reality that some subscribers will drop out, and some will pass. We've had several sad moments in the last few months. Our retention rate is still spectacularly high, but there will still be a certain amount of slippage. Please consider subscribing or donating by going to the right-hand column of this page, under SUBSCRIPTIONS. You can subscribe through PayPal, or use several other methods that are listed. If you wish to use regular mail, just let me know at service@urgentagenda.com, and I'll give you a traditional brick-and-mortar address. Subscribers and donators receive our Angel's Corner twice a week by e-mail. Any subscriber can tell you how spirited it is. Where else do you get to write at any length, on any subject, and see your work published? But the main purpose of subscribing or donating is supporting our work. If you like what you're reading, please consider joining us.
Note to readers: I recently dropped posting times to see if the cleaner look might appeal to readers. It didn't. Posting times are back. (Actually, they're the times I write the final draft of the post.)
JULY 1, 2014 SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: (Thank you, readers, for your kind messages regarding my medical "event.") BUT STILL STRUGGLING – From Business Insider: "...but just how much has Clinton earned in the years since her husband, former President Bill Clinton, left the White House? Financial disclosures filed by Clinton when she served as New York's junior senator and as secretary of state in the Obama administration show her family earned more than $163 million from 2001 until 2012. The disclosures also detailed the taxes paid by the Clintons and how much they gave to charity during those years. During Clinton's years in the Senate the disclosures, which were published by OpenSecrets.org, included full tax returns filed by her and her husband. These returns detailed the Clintons' total income, charitable gifts they made, and their total taxes paid from 2001 through 2007. For those seven years, the Clintons earned total income of $108,817,646, the vast majority of which came from Bill Clinton's speaking fees. They paid over $33 million in federal income taxes for an effective tax rate of about 31%. The Clintons also gave more than $10 million to charity from 2001 through 2007, which is about 9% of their total income from this period." This exploitation of public office for profit will not go down well with the American people. SOCCER IS FOR LIBS! – Well, at least that's what a poll shows. From the Washington Examiner: "Partisan politics seems to be everywhere, even when watching soccer and this year's World Cup. And according to YouGov.com poll published hours before the U.S. played Belgium on Tuesday, liberals and moderates are tuning in far more than conservatives. YouGov reports that 35 percent of liberals, 34 percent of moderates and just 27 percent of self-described conservatives are watching the World Cup. As for soccer viewing when the World Cup is not being played, 24 percent of liberals, 21 percent of moderates and a tiny 14 percent of conservatives watch the sport. Overall, 28 percent of the nation considers the sport the 'most boring to watch.' Strip politics out of the equation, and just 30 percent of the nation is paying attention to the World Cup, with 70 percent watching it 'not closely' or 'not at at all.'" I did watch a few matches. It can be exciting at time, but soccer just doesn't seem to appeal to most Americans, the way football or baseball do. Why? I think our favorite sports involve much more strategy. Just my theory. WEIRD – There is little that is easy or logical about the Mideast. From AFP: "French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday that jihadists spearheading a militant offensive in Iraq have sold oil from captured areas to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Fabius said the sale was evidence of the 'confusing' nature of the escalating conflict in the Middle East in which Assad and the jihadists are in theory on opposing sides. The rebels, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), declared a 'caliphate," or Islamist state, straddling Iraq and Syria at the weekend. 'We have proofs that when ISIL has taken over oil it has sold oil to the (Assad) regime,' Fabius told a news conference in New Delhi, without elaborating." Trading with the enemy is a felony here. I guess in the Mideast it's a pastime. NEW RELIGIOUS DISCOVERY – From The Politico: "Rep. Luis Gutiérrez said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has the power to 'heal' undocumented immigrants. 'If [Republicans] want to come back and discuss [reform], fine,' the Illinois Democrat said on MSNBC. 'But in the interim period, I believe the president of the United States has already in statute, in the law, the ability to heal and put in a safe harbor millions of undocumented immigrants while the Congress of the United States finally decides it’s going to take action.'" Next, Obama walks on water. After that, maybe Thursday, he converts water to wine. Check it out. July 1, 2014 Permalink
ADVANTAGE TO THE CRAZIES – AT 11:21 A.M. ET: The jihadists in Iraq and Syria have a new supply of weapons. From the Los Angeles Times:
COMMENT: More and more, President Obama's decision to get completely out of Iraq, without leaving an American stabilization force of the kind we have In Korea, has come back to haunt us. Yes, yes, the Obamans say that they wanted that arrangement, but couldn't negotiate a Status of Forces agreement with the Iraqis, which would have provided legal protections for American troops. We have those agreements with many nations. It's no secret that many of them are bought and paid for. It wouldn't have been that difficult had the administration actually cared. A small number of American troops is entering Iraq to train government soldiers. I wouldn't be shocked to learn that many of the weapons now possessed by the government's enemies are American-made. July 1, 2014 Permalink MS. HILLARY AND THE END OF INEVITABILITY – AT 9:58 A.M. ET: Wes Pruden defines "crusty" in journalism. He is blunt, he says what's on his mind, he is rare. Now, in the Washington Times, he takes on Ms. Hillary and her predicaments (many).
COMMENT: It's been my experience the most consistent defect that candidates and cause groups have is the inability to understand the passage of time, and what it does to political issues. I suspect Hillary has that defective gene. She sounds like someone right out of the 1960s, someone from another era. Pruden is right. Everyone already knows Hillary. There's very little upside left. And people who don't know all that much about her won't be convinced by her campaign thus far. She needs to modernize, talk about problems confronting young boys as well as girls, and show that she's learned something over the years. She's got to show independence from Obama, and has got to stop depending on mink-coat feminists for her core of support. Can she do it? Depends on who runs against her. July 1, 2014 Permalink KERRY ON IRAN – AT 9:38 A.M. ET: July 20th is the target date to complete a nuclear-arms agreement with Iran. That's three weeks away. Now Secretary of State John Kerry is warning Iran that it must make the necessary agreements. But how much clout does a John Kerry warning have? From Kerry's own piece in WaPo:
Oh, come on, John. The issue here involves how much we actually know about Iran's nuclear program. What is being hidden from us? From international inspectors? Nothing? Are you sure? Would you bet the lives of millions on our intelligence information?
COMMENT: All good words, but don't forget that Kerry's boss is Field Marshal Barack (where do I go to surrender?) Obama. Obama is no man of action, and he has the spine of a jellyfish. Maybe Iran will be the exception. We can hope, but don't expect. July 1, 2014 Permalink CONTRITION – AT 9:14 A.M. ET: I think it's admirable when journalists admit a major mistake. Journalism is a rather arrogant profession, filled with self-love. But the editors of the Billings (Montana) Gazette have engaged in a notable act of contrition regarding Barack Obama:
COMMENT: Read the whole thing. There's a bill of particulars, and any of us could add to it. More and more, we see people coming to the same conclusion – that they'd backed the wrong horse in 2008. But don't expect any apologies from The New York Times, or organizations in that league. They rarely apologize for the big mistakes. Little mistakes are easy. July 1, 2014 Permalink
JUNE 30, 2014 SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE Excuses, excuses: Just returned from a wonderful trip to central Virginia, where my older daughter lives. When we drove down Thursday I published SHORT TAKES rather late, and explained that we had just completed a long road trip. Same excuse tonight, with an asterisk. We were returning from Virginia, and I encountered a non-life-threatening but extremely uncomfortable medical "issue," requiring a visit to an emergency room. I'm all repaired now, thanks to the fine folks at Union Hospital in Elkton, Maryland. But obviously we were substantially delayed. I also wish to thank my wife, who finally convinced me to go to a hospital rather than to my computer. It's 1:36 a.m. here. I'll try to get a few posts up in a little bit, but excuse me if I have to be brief.
GOVERNMENT MOTORS...AGAIN – You see all those cars on the road, and you wonder how many of them have serious flaws. In fact, it's quite a few. From Fox: "General Motors (GM) on Monday announced six new recalls covering 7.55 million vehicles in the U.S., as the automaker continues to address safety issues. After calling back 2.6 million compact cars for a defective ignition switch, GM has unveiled a slew of additional recalls in recent months. The company now expects to take a second-quarter charge of $1.2 billion, up from a previous estimate of $700 million. GM’s latest batch of recalls ranges from model-years 1997 to 2014. The company said it is aware of seven crashes, eight injuries and three fatalities. The fatal crashes are connected to the largest recall, which covers 6.8 million older model full-size sedans for inadvertent ignition key rotation." We wonder how defects can exist year after year without manufacturers taking action. If we believe in free enterprise, we must hold the captains of free enterprise responsible for poor oversight of their corporations. ACCURATE? – We get the sense that Hillary is stumbling. One poll now shows her below 50%. From the Washington Examiner: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's fumbles and bumbles in the rollout of her latest memoir, Hard Choices, has knocked the wind out if her easy sail to the White House and put her support in key 2016 presidential election matchups below 50 percent for the first time. At a time when she should be padding her lead over the top Republican contenders, her underwhelming effort has cut her numbers, said pollster John Zogby. In his latest Zogby Analytics survey taken June 27-29, for example, her commanding leads over former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have shrunk greatly, and she doesn't even receive 50 percent of the vote. Worse, her support among married and wealthy voters has plummeted." The question is whether Zogby's poll is accurate. It doesn't have the greatest reputation. But let's see what other polls say in the coming weeks. If Hillary starts slipping across the board, we'll know she's in trouble. We'll also know that if her new book starts selling for a dollar, less at Stop-and-Shop. NEW MIDEAST TENSIONS – Three Israeli teenagers kidnapped several weeks ago have been found dead, and buried in shallow graves. The kidnappings attracted international attention. Now there are calls in Israel for military retaliation against those found responsible for the despicable act. Tensions have rarely been higher. From WaPo: "JERUSALEM — The Israeli army confirmed Monday evening that search teams found the bodies of three kidnapped Israeli teenagers, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that the Islamist militant group Hamas, which it accuses of the abductions, will pay a heavy price. Speaking at the start of a meeting of his security cabinet following the grisly discovery, Netanyahu said, 'Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay.' He said the three 'were kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by wild beasts.' The teenagers were abducted June 12 as they made their way home from their religious school in the Israeli-occupied West Bank." There is war and upheaval all around Israel. All it will take is a spark like these murders to start another Arab-Israeli war. June 30, 2014 Permalink
THE SUPREMES WILL SING – The Supreme Court is about to hand down a decision that could have serious implications in the battle between religious liberty and the implied right to health-care coverage. From National Journal:
COMMENT: Read the whole piece. It's a very good analysis. This is a very complicated issue, with merit on both sides, and plenty of demagogues on both sides as well. I'd imagine the Court will look for a way to permit free exercise of religious conscience by those who do not wish to cover certain procedures, but at the same time insist that women receive this coverage, if they wish it, in some manner. Not easy stuff. June 30, 2014 Permalink CHANGING TIMES – The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which is becoming less liberal under new ownership, has become the latest voice to call for a special prosecutor to probe the IRS scandals. This is a major story, not only because Americans are demanding the truth, but because an investigation could hobble a Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. From The Hill:
COMMENT: Of course, that is clearly a problem. Holder might well appoint a "special prosecutor" who is in the vest pocket of the Obama administration. Or, he might "study" the matter for two years. However, it is also possible that a special prosecutor, once appointed, might well go rogue, worried about his own reputation, and actually do a competent job. The Dems dread this. I suspect they realize what would be uncovered. June 30, 2014 Permalink NEW TERROR WARNING – No, the war on terror is not over, as Field Marshal Obama declared. If anything, it's more critical today than ever before. From ABC News:
And...
COMMENT: Sooner or later, our opponents will get lucky again, as they were on September 11, 2001. The story assumes that they will be content to down one plane. I'd imagine their dreams are greater than that. June 30, 2014 Permalink SHALL WE SEND A CAKE? – It didn't take them long, did it? ISIS has now declared an Islamic caliphate, and the declaration is being taken very seriously. From Reuters:
COMMENT: And opposing this group internationally is precisely who? Barack Obama? John Kerry? Hillary Clinton? Chelsea Clinton? Developments like this new declaration are often laughed at. I wouldn't laugh. These people are serious. June 30, 2014 Permalink
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