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JULY 16,  2014

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

IMMIGRATION TOP ISSUE – From Gallup:  "PRINCETON, NJ -- With thousands of undocumented immigrant minors crossing the nation's southern border in recent months, the percentage of Americans citing immigration as the top problem has surged to 17% this month, up from 5% in June, and the highest seen since 2006. As a result, immigration now virtually ties 'dissatisfaction with government,' at 16%, as the primary issue Americans think of when asked to name the country's top problem."  Of course, The New York Times will probably interpret this as meaning that Americans want more illegal immigrants, not fewer.  That's the way those guys think.

ALLAH ON MARS – From AP:  "DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Having scaled the heights of Earth with the world's tallest tower, the United Arab Emirates is now aiming for the stars, or just a little bit closer, with an ambitions trip to Mars. The energy-rich country on the eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula announced plans Wednesday to send the first unmanned Arab spaceship to Mars in 2021.  The ruler of the UAE's emirate of Dubai, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said the mission will prove the Arab world is still capable of delivering scientific contributions to humanity, despite the many conflicts across the Middle East."  Question:  If they find oil up there, will Al Gore announce that Mars is a major factor in global warming?

NEW THREATS – From CBS:  "The US Open Tennis Championship appears on a wish list of terror targets in an al Qaeda magazine, an NYPD official said Wednesday.  In a briefing for New York City’s private security community, Rebecca Weiner, the NYPD’s director of intelligence analysis, warned that Inspire magazine is instructing would-be terrorists on how to make bombs and where to set them off, WCBS 880′s Marla Diamond reported.  The magazine lists targets in Washington, D.C.; Virginia; and New York — including the US Open, which begins Aug. 25 in Flushing Meadows, Queens."  They aren't giving up.  In fact, Islamist terror groups are growing.  But I'm afraid it will take another large jolt to wake us up from the Obama-induced sleep we've been in.

SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES – From London's Daily Mail:  "Russia has agreed to reopen a major Cold War listening post on Cuba that was used to spy on America, it was reported today.  Moscow-based daily Kommersant claimed Russia and Cuba have struck a deal 'in principle' after President Vladimir Putin visited the island last week.  Citing several sources within Russian authorities, the respected daily wrote: 'The agreements were finalised while President Vladimir Putin visited Havana last Friday.'"  When do the missiles come?

July 16, 2014       Permalink

THIS IS NOT 2008 – AT 10:19 A.M. ET:   Although you'd never know it from the way he talks, President Obama is in serious political trouble.  Even some liberals are distancing themselves from him.   He is no longer the religious figure of 2008 – Barack, come to save us.  He is now Barack, king of blunders, emperor of the open borders.  From the Weekly Standard: 

With Barack Obama's job approval well below water these days, perhaps it's no surprise that Democratic candidates for Congress this year aren't jumping at the chance to have the president come campaign for them. Dave Weigel at Slate points out how remarkable it was last week when Democratic senator Mark Udall of Colorado declined to appear with Obama, despite the fact that the president won Colorado twice. "Members of the White House political team will grit their teeth and ask low-level campaign staffers if, you know, it would be OK for the commander-in-chief to show up," Weigel writes. "They will be told to call back in a few days. Often, they will be told, 'No thanks, but send money.'"

Now comes the news that even in Northern Virginia, the liberal region outside of Washington that's transformed the Old Dominion into a blue state, Democrats are shying away from Obama. The president appeared in McLean in Fairfax County (60 percent support for Obama in 2008 and 2012) on Tuesday to call for action on extending the federal Highway Trust Fund. But where was the Democrat running for McLean's open House seat? John Foust is a member of the Fairfax County board of supervisors and lives in McLean, but the Democrat and House hopeful was "noticeably absent" from the Obama transportation event.

COMMENT:  In the immortal words of the American philosopher, Johnny Carson, "How quickly they forget."  Obama is now seen as a lame duck, and his lameness will only increase after the November election.
His botching of the border crisis is, for many Americans, the last straw.  They're tired of giving Obama one more chance to get something right.

But will Obama's unpopularity translate into the GOP taking the Senate in November?  Current polling shows there is no guarantee of that.  Individual Dem candidates are showing surprising resilience.  Republicans need six seats to control the Senate.  And that assumes they won't lose any.  I think it's +4 for Republicans right now.  Squeezing out those other two will be brutal.

July 16, 2014       Permalink

ON THIS DAY – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:   This is related to the two posts below.  It was on this day in 1945 that the United States conducted its "Trinity" test – the test of the first nuclear bomb.  Called "the gadget," the device was detonated in the New Mexico desert, having been developed by the Manhattan Project, under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer. 

The Manhattan Project got its name because some of the earlier nuclear experimentation was done at Columbia University, in Manhattan.  The project was actually launched just prior to World War II, when President Roosevelt was warned by Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard of nuclear experiments in Nazi Germany.  To his credit, FDR understood the implications.

It's important to note that the first operational atomic bomb was used against Hiroshima, an important Japanese industrial, transportation, and military hub, on August 6th, only three weeks after the Trinity test.  We read today the term "breakout time," as applied to Iran.  How long would it take Iran to "break out" into the building of an operational bomb once it had the knowledge and materials to do so?  We learn from 1945 that the time could be very short, a matter of weeks.  And there is no guarantee that we could detect the construction.

There has always been controversy over our use of the atomic bomb, some of it serious, some of it drummed up by the political left.  Some say Japan would have surrendered even if we hadn't used the bomb, and these critics point to a peace faction within the Japanese government.  They also say we attacked a nation that was essentially defenseless, its military shattered by our campaign in the Pacific.

The critics are wrong.  Japan may have had a peace faction, but the nation was controlled by its military, which had no intention of surrendering.  Indeed, we now know that the military was planning to mobilize the civilian population to rush the invasion beaches had we invaded Japan, no matter how many millions would be killed.  As for the state of Japan's defenses, it was true that its air arm and Navy had been largely neutralized, but the Japanese army was essentially intact, and could be called upon to defend the holy soil.

It should be noted that the use of the atomic bomb was not controversial among the millions of Americans serving in the Pacific, or their parents. 

July 16, 2014       Permalink

NUCLEAR WORRIES IN THE MIDEAST – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  We only had brief information about this last week, when it was revealed that ISIS, the Islamic radical group trying to seize Iraq had captured some nuclear material.  There is now growing concern that they could use this stuff to build "dirty" nuclear bombs.  From Fox: 

Plenty of materials for a potential dirty bomb are likely scattered throughout the area of Iraq controlled by ISIS, and pulling off an attack that spreads even a minor amount of radiation could be a huge PR coup for the terror group, experts told FoxNews.com.

Last week, the Iraqi government in Baghdad warned the UN that ISIS operatives had stolen 88 pounds of uranium compounds from Mosul University. Even though many experts said the research materials were not enough to cause widespread harm, spreading fear is even more important to terrorists than a big body count, one terrorism expert said. And with ISIS in control of a huge swath of northern Iraq and parts of Syria that includes research labs, hospitals and industrial sites, ingredients for radiation-spreading bombs are within its grasp.

"Obtaining radiological material from places like universities or hospitals is relatively easy if you have the firepower, a chaotic situation and jihadists willing to sacrifice their health handling it,” said Ryan Mauro, national security analyst for The Clarion Project, a think tank that studies Islamic extremism. “We aren't talking about producing a nuclear bomb; just combining an explosive with radioactive material."

Dirty bombs – explosives that propel lower-level radioactive materials into the air - are far less dangerous than bombs that deliver weaponized nuclear radiation. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be an effective tool for terror.

COMMENT:  Imagine a dirty bomb going off within a few blocks of the White House, and another going off within a block of the Capitol Building.  There would be widespread fear in Washington, and even panic, as the radiation itself could kill, if only in a small area.

I find it remarkable that so little attention is being given to this new danger from Iraq.

July 16, 2014       Permalink

FUN – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  We had a bit of fun here yesterday.

I asked readers if they could identify the two personalities chosen by civil-defense officials in the 1950s to keep Americans informed in case of a nuclear attack, in part because their voices were so familiar.  We got far more responses than I'd expected, but no one got both names right.  A small number got one right, or the other, but not both.   Answers ran from Ronald Reagan (incorrect) to Arthur Godfrey (correct).  Most respondents said they were just speculating.

The correct answers are Arthur Godfrey and Edward R. Murrow. 

Godfrey, known as "the old redhead," was the most successful broadcaster of the time, logging more hours per week, both radio and TV, than anyone else – a morning show five days a week, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts on Monday nights, and Arthur Godfrey and His Friends for an hour each Wednesday night.  His network was CBS, known in those days as the Columbia Broadcasting System.  Americans knew his voice, and his ukulele playing.   Godfrey's star started to fade when he fired an enormously popular singer, Julius LaRosa, on the air, and he was revealed in articles, not as folksy Arthur, but as a cold, jealous, and arbitrary boss.  He died in near-obscurity in 1983.

Edward R. Murrow was often called the father of broadcast news.  His reports from England during the blitz of 1940, starting with the words, "This is London," showed what the medium of radio could do in bringing events directly to the audience.  On television his "See it Now" series, on CBS, became famous for Murrow's devastating portrait of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin, for whom "McCarthyism" is named.  Murrow was instrumental in the series of events that brought McCarthy down.  He, and his associate, Fred Friendly, were among the originators of the TV documentary.  Murrow also hosted "Person to Person," which took TV viewers into the homes of the famous, something unique in television.  Among his guests were John and Jackie Kennedy.  Murrow went on to head the United States Information Agency during the Kennedy Administration.  A three-pack-a-day smoker, he died in 1965 of lung cancer.

We'll do another "question to readers" pretty soon.  It was fun.

July 16, 2014     Permalink 

JULY 15,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:22 P.M. ET: 

OUR PUBLIC SERVANTS IN ACTION – From Breitbart:  "HOUSTON, Texas--Despite the border crisis that involves more than 1,000 illegal immigrants entering the country each day, Texas Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee apparently believes the U.S.-Mexico border is 'under control.'
On MSNBC she recently said, 'I disagree it is in devastating condition. I think with now 21,000 border patrol agents it is under control.'  She added that Border Patrol agents told her that 'they are able to do their job, even though they had been called into service to change diapers and make formula.'"  Ms. Lee is reportedly considered, within Congress, to be intellectually challenged.

OBAMACARE REPORT CARD STILL AN "F" – From the Weekly Standard:  "In February of this year, the Congressional Budget Office projected that Obamacare would reduce the number of uninsured by 13 million as of 2014. In April, the CBO had seen enough of the Obama administration’s skillful rollout of Obamacare to reduce that estimate to 12 million.  Now the Urban Institute finds that Obamacare has actually reduced the number of uninsured adults by 8 million since the rollout began last fall. (Gallup shows a similar number.) That’s far short of the number of newly insured that the CBO projected in April of this year, in February of this year, or in 2012 — and it’s less than half the tally the American people were told Obamacare would hit when they opposed it in 2010. "  Many Americans have actually lost their insurance under Dear Leader's health plan.  I've not met many happy campers.

QUOTE OF THE DAY – From Ron Fournier at National Journal:  "Over lunch in Georgetown last month, a top Democratic spokesman, somebody who works intimately with both the White House and Hillary Rodham Clinton's team, wanted me to understand his frustration with President Obama. He said every plot has a hero. And every hero leaps overwhelming obstacles to accomplish a goal.  'Who's the hero in the White House narrative?' the Democrat asked.  I shrugged; 'Barack Obama.' Aren't all elections about the candidate, and all White Houses about the president?  The Democrat shook his head. 'That's the problem with this White House. Barack Obama is the hero of their narrative, but he's not supposed to be,' he said. 'The hero of every political narrative should be the voters.'"  But Obama has always thought it was about him.  Like most ideologues of the left, he doesn't care much about actual people.  He cares only about the victory of ideology, and his place in that victory.  He's the kind who'd consent to be on Mount Rushmore...if only they took away those other guys.

TALES FROM THE BUNKER – From CNS:  "(CNSNews.com) – White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday the Obama administration’s foreign policies in a number of areas have enhanced the world’s 'tranquility' – a word that raised eyebrows as reporters pointed to situations in Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Ukraine and the South China Sea.  More than one reporter during Monday’s press briefing referred to a front-page Wall Street Journal article highlighting some of those crises, and citing security strategists as saying 'the breadth of global instability now unfolding hasn’t been seen since the late 1970s.'"  Obama looks over the horizon and sees only peace.  He also sees the oceans receding as he holds up his arms.  And he's writing a whole new set of commandments, to be handed down to the flock on Capitol Hill.

July 15, 2014       Permalink

BIG BRO – AT 8:28 A.M. ET:  Changes are coming in the way Glorious Leader, and various others, can warn the nation of impending doom.  From The Hill: 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is looking to overhaul the Emergency Alert System so the president can speak to the country at the flip of a switch in the event of a nationwide emergency.

The national Emergency Alert System broadcasts television alert messages to warn people about immediate dangers. The system is often used at the local level to warn people about weather conditions such as tornadoes or flash floods.

The system is not capable of reaching the entire country all at once should the president need to warn the public of something like a terrorist attack or an act of war against the country. Instead, to reach the entire country, each local jurisdiction would have to broadcast the same message — a tedious process that could leave room for gaps if one station misses the broadcast.

So the FCC is proposing a national location code that would give the president the ability to broadcast to the entire country with a single message in the event of a nationwide emergency. The proposal will be published in Tuesday's edition of the Federal Register.

The FCC says the update will help with "saving human lives, reducing injuries, mitigating property damage, and minimizing the disruption of the national economy."

The changes would not only allow the warning system to reach a larger audience but also make it more accessible to people with disabilities, such as those who are deaf.

In addition to the audio warnings, these alerts also issue "visual crawlers," or text that runs across the top of the TV screen, so deaf people can read the warnings.

COMMENT:  While a system like this can be abused, and even hacked, it is fundamentally a good idea, especially as a national emergency can knock out other communications systems.  I have a Midland emergency radio, and it works.  I'm warned of weather events in my specific area.  Al Gore would be jealous. 

In the 1950s, a rudimentary national emergency alert system was set up, linked to what was then called civil defense – essentially preparations for a nuclear attack.  And here is a trivia question:  Two famous Americans were chosen to broadcast on that system in case of catastrophe.  They were picked because their voices were so familiar.  Who were those two?  I'd love to get e-mails on this.

July 15, 2014       Permalink

TOUGH IN WISCONSIN – AT 7:46 A.M. ET:  Governor Scott Walker is running for re-election.  One of the nation's most successful governors, he is often mentioned as a possible Republican presidential candidate for 2016. 

Democrats hate him, in part because he took on the public-service unions and won.  Scott Walker saved Wisconsin from economic decline.   The haters tried to recall him, and he became the first governor in American history to win a recall election.  In fact, he did better than when first elected.

But the big guns are trained on him.  And remember that Wisconsin has a large, powerful "progressive" voter pool.  One of its U.S. senators, Tammy Baldwin, is probably the most left-leaning member of the Senate. 

We expected that, because of Walker's record, he would easily win re-election.  But the polls are tight, and worry is starting to set in.  From the Washington Post: 

“On just about every measure that matters, Wisconsin is much better off than we were four years ago,” Walker says. “So in any other state, or at any other time in this state’s history, a record like that should warrant reelection, right?”

But Wisconsin is not any other state. It is one of the most closely divided purple states in the country. The most recent Marquette Law School poll showed that “the Wisconsin governor’s race has tightened to a dead heat” with Walker tied with former Doyle commerce secretary Mary Burke, 46-46 among registered voters. (He holds a 3-point lead among likely voters.) And while Walker has outraised his opponent, he knows he is still public enemy No. 1 to the union bosses and points out that the AFL-CIO recently announced that it is planning to spend at least $300 million this year to unseat GOP governors in five states — Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and here in Wisconsin.

“My real opponent is complacency,” Walker says, “people being lulled into thinking, just because I won before that somehow that means we are just going to walk into reelection. The left has not forgotten. The haters out there — the unions and others — certainly aren’t spending their money elsewhere. They are going after me and a handful of governors, because they know that’s where the action is, not in the House, not in the Senate.”

COMMENT:  Losing Walker would be a disaster.  He is the best of the best.  But this will not be an easy race.  Indeed, if you look around the country, Republicans are not doing as well as we had a right to expect.  Obama may be intensely unpopular, but that unpopularity may not affect some races at the state level, where local concerns and images count the most.

The November election is three and a half months away.  Nothing is in the bag.

July 15, 2014       Permalink

WHEN YOU LOSE YOUR BASE... – AT 7:28 A.M. ET:  President Obama, declining in polls for months, is now starting to get grief from his most loyal supporters, African Americans.  From The Washington Times:   

Black residents of Chicago’s South Side, who recently rallied to decry a spate of violence in the city, ripped President Obama for ignoring their plight while pushing for funding for illegal immigrants at their expense.

The protest against the rash of shootings was staged Friday at the Chicago Police Department headquarters building. Over the Fourth of July weekend, nine people were killed and more than 60 injured, authorities said.

Demonstrators blasted the Obama administration’s inaction in Chicago while federal funds are earmarked to help the roughly 50,000 illegal immigrants who have crossed into America since October.

“Mr. President, we’re asking for you,” one woman said. “You’re spending billions of dollars in Texas, but we’ve a problem here in Chicago. We will not stand by this here, and keep letting this senseless killing and shooting happen in our community.”

Another resident said, “Today, if you look at the time that we were brought here as slaves 400 years ago, we got the same results today.”

One man called for Mr. Obama to step down if he continued to shun the city’s problems.

“For the president to set aside all of these funds for immigrants and [have] forsaken the African-American community, I think that’s a disgrace,” the man told the blog Rebel Pundit. “He will go down as the worst president ever elected."

COMMENT:  We're seeing many reports like this.  Problem is, the Democratic Party knows how to scare these people into voting for the same candidates over and over, no matter how poor the performance.  This year the party is simply telling African Americans that Republicans are racists, period.  It will have its effect on election day.  It always does.

You can't cast virtually all your votes for one party automatically and expect to have any clout.  That party takes you for granted, and the opposition gives up on you.

July 15,  2014     Permalink

ISRAEL-HAMAS – AT 7:01 A.M. ET:  Israel has agreed to an Egyptian ceasefire proposal and has ordered a halt to attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza.  Unfortunately, the military wing of Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by everyone not under severe psychiatric therapy, has not agreed to the ceasefire, and rocket fire continues.  The situation is therefore very tense.  Hamas can have quiet, but only if they stop lighting those fuses.  From Reuters:

(Reuters) - Palestinian militants fired rockets at Israel on Tuesday after it agreed to an Egyptian proposal to end the week-old Gaza conflict, and a Hamas leader said the Islamist group was still undecided on whether to accept the ceasefire.

Under the terms of the blueprint announced by Egypt - whose military-backed government has been at odds with Hamas - a mutual "de-escalation" of fighting was to begin at 9 a.m. (2 a.m. EDT), with hostilities ceasing within 12 hours.

Rocket salvoes were fired at Israel after 9 a.m. and live television showed the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepting several projectiles over the port city of Ashdod, where a factory was hit. Emergency services said no one was hurt.

Sirens sounded in other parts of southern Israel after what Channel Two television reported had been volleys of at least 10 rockets.

Israel said it had halted its attacks in the Gaza Strip but would respond strongly if Palestinian strikes persisted.

COMMENT:  What's interesting is that Egypt proposed terms that were unacceptable to Hamas, and the Arab League is reportedly backing Egypt.  We're told a great deal about the "Arab-Israel conflict," but it's pretty apparent that conflicts within the Arab world are often greater, and more bitter.

We should know within hours whether Hamas will stop firing.  If it doesn't, Israel is pledged to resume air attacks. 

July 15, 2014       Permalink