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MARCH 2,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:17 P.M. ET: 

A VISITOR FROM THE WEST – It is announced that Secretary of State Kerry will visit Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, on Tuesday.  I guess he found out they have a good restaurant.  This is essentially a solidarity visit.  Like chicken soup, it can't hurt.  But we need diplomatic and economic action to put some heat on Putin.  There have been some hints.  American planning for the G8 conference scheduled for Sochi in June has been put on hold.   We should expect other steps this week.

GREAT MOMENTS IN BROADCASTING – From Variety:  "Russia’s state-controlled network Channel One has cancelled its live coverage of the Oscars in order to cover the crisis in Ukraine.  The channel was due to show the awards between 4 a.m. and 9 a.m. Moscow time on Monday, AFP reported Sunday.  In a statement, Channel One said: 'Due to the large amount of news concerning the situation in Crimea and the Ukraine, and the audience’s rising interest in news programs, Channel One considers it impossible to air the Oscars ceremony for five hours, particularly in the morning.'  It added that the awards would be aired at midnight on Monday instead."  I suspect they simply discovered how boring it is.

GRAHAM ROASTS OBAMA – Lindsey Graham got it exactly right in a comment about Obama's foreign policy.  From the Daily Caller:  "South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham advised President Barack Obama to stop threatening 'thugs and dictators' like Russia’s Vladimir Putin on television, claiming that 'everybody’s eyes roll' every time he does."  That says it, doesn't it?  No one takes Field Marshal Obama seriously.  And his "get tough" moments are laughable.

March 2,  2014     Permalink

UKRAINE LATEST – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:   More escalation in this growing crisis.  From Fox: 

Hundreds of unidentified gunmen surrounded a Ukrainian infantry base in its Crimea region Sunday, blocking soldiers from entering or leaving it as tensions are rising between the country’s new leaders and Russia.

The convoy surrounding the base in Privolnoye included at least 13 troop vehicles each containing 30 soldiers and four armored vehicles with mounted machine guns. The vehicles have Russian license plates.

The Ukrainian soldiers -- with clips in their weapons -- responded by positioning a tank at the base’s gate leaving the two sides in a tense standoff. Neither side would speak to Associated Press journalists.

In Kiev, Ukraine's new prime minister urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to pull back his military, warning that "we are on the brink of disaster."

Arseniy Yatsenyuk spoke a day after Russian forces took over the strategic Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine without firing a shot.

COMMENT:  Pretty serious.  The question is whether Putin will stop just before he is guilty of a mass ground invasion.  So far he has shown utter contempt for Obama's pleas, and only a strong United States can lead the international opposition to Russian aggression.

This will be a Ukraine week.  It's reasonable to be apprehensive.  Crises can spin out of control.

March 2, 2014        Permalink

SOME DECENCY MAYBE? – ATY 10:56 A.M. ET:  There is finally some pushback against the Obama administration's obscene nomination of a man named Debo Adegbile to head the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.

Adegbile is the lawyer who defended the infamous Mumia Abu-Jamal, who murdered a Philadelphia police officer.  Abu-Jamal became a celebrity on the international left, proclaiming himself a victim of racism.  In fact, he received hearing after hearing, review after review.  The evidence always came up the same way.  The man is guilty.  Originally sentenced to death, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

No one objects to the fact that Abu-Jamal had a legal defense.  That's the right of the accused.  But Adegbile's behavior while defending the murderer was disgraceful – attending political rallies, making anti-police speeches, and being thoroughly insensitive to the family of the slain officer.  Yet, this is the man nominated for one of the most sensitive positions in government.  From Fox: 

The Senate has postponed a key vote Monday on the controversial nominee to head the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department, Fox News has learned.

Supporters of nominee Debo Adegbile would have needed a simple majority of 51 votes Monday to clear the way for a final vote. But the procedural vote was canceled because of a snowstorm forecast for Monday, the same day most Capitol Hill lawmakers return from their home states.

The vote has been rescheduled for midday Tuesday. If Adegbile clears the procedural vote then, after another short debate, a final vote in which he would again only need a simple majority of 51 votes to be confirmed will take place.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., joined others in his concern about Adegbile’s support for convicted Philadelphia cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Adegbile is facing criticism for his role in 2009 in getting Abu-Jamal's 1981 death sentence overturned during his time as acting director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

“The vicious murder of Officer [Daniel] Faulkner in the line of duty and the events that followed in the 30 years since his death has left open wounds,” Casey said Friday. “After carefully considering this nomination and having met with both Mr. Adegbile as well as the Fraternal Order of Police, I will not vote to confirm the nominee.”

Abu-Jamal's death sentence has been commuted but he remains in prison.

Widow Maureen Faulkner told Fox News she is gratified at the decision by Casey to vote against the nomination of Adegbile and that she plans to continue to lobby members of the Senate to take a similar stand.

Among the others who have expressed their objection to the nomination is GOP Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey.

COMMENT:  So both Pennsylvania senators are opposed to the nomination based on Adegbile's work in their state.  You'd think that would be enough to kill the nomination.  But this is a radical administration, and chances are the nomination will be approved, unless some common sense prevails.  I hope every Republican votes against it.  As for "moderate" Democrats – will they have the courage to say no?  I doubt it.  They go to Washington as moderates, then fall right in with the demands of the liberals who run their party. 

This is a disgraceful nomination for a position that cries out for bipartisan support.  It can be stopped, but only by courageous Democrats in the Senate.  Don't hold your breath.

March 2, 2014       Permalink

UKRAINE CRISIS DEEPENS – AT 8:44 A.M. ET:  Ukraine is mobilizing.  Russia's Vladimir Putin, even after a 90-minute talk with Field Marshal Obama, seems to be ignoring all warnings from the West.  Many analysts are calling this the greatest foreign crisis of the Obama presidency, as it involves a world power.  From Reuters:

(Reuters) - Ukraine mobilized for war on Sunday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared he had the right to invade, creating the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.

"This is not a threat: this is actually the declaration of war to my country," said Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, head of a pro-Western government that took power when Russian ally Viktor Yanukovich fled last week.

Putin obtained permission from his parliament on Saturday to use military force to protect Russian citizens in Ukraine, spurning Western pleas not intervene.

Russian forces have already bloodlessly seized Crimea - an isolated Black Sea peninsula where Moscow has a naval base. On Sunday they surrounded several small Ukrainian military outposts there and demanded the Ukrainian troops disarm. Some refused, although no shots were fired.

And...

"If President Putin wants to be the president who started the war between two neighboring and friendly countries, between Ukraine and Russia, so: he has reached this target within a few inches. We are on the brink of disaster," Yatseniuk said in televised remarks in English, appealing for Western support.

COMMENT:  This is the culmination of Obama showing a weak hand to the world.  True, there is little or nothing that we can do militarily, and no one wants to start a major war over Ukraine.  However, there are diplomatic and economic steps that can be taken.  Canada, under the great Steve Harper – a more American leader than Obama will ever be – has already withdrawn its ambassador from Moscow and withdrawn from the G8 economic conference scheduled for June in Russia.

Obama and Kerry have simply talked.  And Obama's record of weakness is discouraging to anyone fighting for freedom and independence. 

Early in the Reagan administration, when the Polish solidarity movement erupted, Reagan could do little militarily to help it.  But there was a spiritual bond, and Reagan, unlike Obama, was strengthening the American military, not weakening it.  Reagan, unlike Obama, called things the way they were.  His description of the Soviet Union as "the evil empire" is known to have inspired Soviet dissidents.  These spiritual steps, for want of a better term, do help.  Note please their absence today.  Why should Putin have anything to fear from Obama, whose own secretary of defense earlier this week announced a major reduction in American military strength?

March 2,  2014     Permalink

MARCH 1,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:38 P.M. ET: 

UKRAINE ESCALATION – From CNN:  "Simferopol, Ukraine (CNN) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared Saturday to dismiss warnings from world leaders to avoid military intervention in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, even amid growing evidence that pro-Russian forces were already in control of the region.  The rhetoric escalated Saturday night, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry condemning what he called 'the Russian Federation's invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory' despite a statement by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that no decision had been made on whether Moscow would dispatch forces."  Who's afraid of the Obamans?  Nobody.

RUSSIAN THREAT – Russia is making plans to administer another slap to Obama's face, although no move has been announced.  From Fox:  "The Russian government is making plans to recall its ambassador from the United States.  The request is being made by Russia's upper house of parliament to President Vladimir Putin, the chamber's speaker said on Saturday.  The request comes a day after President Obama warned Moscow that 'there will be consequences' if the county intervenes militarily in Ukraine.  The country is amid a major civil unrest, which has resulted in the ouster of its president and a new, interim leader.  The request also comes the same day the Russian parliament gave Putin permission to mobilize the country's military in Ukraine."

SARAH RIGHT AGAIN – Sarah Palin is giving herself a well-deserved pat on the back for having predicted Russian action in Ukraine.  From CNN:  "Sarah Palin may be having a bragging rights moment.  In 2008, when she was the GOP vice presidential nominee, Palin questioned in a speech whether then-Sen. Barack Obama would have the foreign policy credentials to handle a scenario in which Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.  'After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence – the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next,' she said in Reno, Nevada on October 21, 2008.  The former Alaska governor was happy to highlight her prediction on Friday and scold those who criticized her 2008 comments."   Sarah has been right on many things, but she doesn't fit the media's image of a serious person.  Obama, who's perpetually wrong and incompetent, does."

March 1, 2014       Permalink

BAD CALL – AT 11:04 A.M. ET:   Should we put our faith in America's intelligence community?  Consider this, from first-class defense reporter Eli Lake, at the Daily Beast: 

A day after U.S. intelligence said there would be no Russian invasion of Ukraine, Putin’s troops started coming over the border.

On Thursday night, the best assessment from the U.S. intelligence community—and for that matter most experts observing events in Ukraine—was that Vladimir Putin’s military would not invade Ukraine. Less than 24 hours later, however, there are reports from the ground of Russian troops pushing into the Ukrainian province of Crimea; the newly-installed Crimean prime minister has appealed to Putin to help him secure the country; Putin, in turn, is officially asking for parliament's permission to send Russian forces into Ukraine. It’s not a full-blown invasion—at least, not yet. But it’s not the picture U.S. analysts were painting just a day before, either.

There was good reason to think Putin wouldn’t do it. Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov told Secretary of State John Kerry that Russia respected the territorial integrity of the Ukraine. U.S. intelligence assessments concluded that the 150,000-man Russian military exercises announced by Putin on Wednesday were not preparations for an invasion of Ukraine because no medical units accompanied the troops. And Russian and U.S. diplomats were still working on Iran and Syrian diplomacy. All of this followed a successful Winter Olympic games for Putin’s Russia.

Yet private security contractors, working for the Russian military, seized control of two airports in Crimea on Friday. And Ukrainian border officials said that Russian cargo planes had landed inside the province, and that 10 military helicopters flew into Ukrainian airspace.

COMMENT:  You don't think them Japs could attack Pearl Harbor, do you?  I mean, they make plastic toys and can barely see. 

March 1, 2014       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:41 A.M. ET:  Who is Barack Obama?  What president does he resemble?  From defense analyst K.T. McFarland at Fox:   

Russia, flush with new-found wealth from oil exports, expands its military reach and political influence abroad. A war-weary America slashes defense spending and retreats from the world. The president embarks on a massive government-subsidized program to develop alternative energy to replace fossil fuels.

Pundits cluck about America in retreat, and point to the rise of an Asian economic superpower. That’s the world circa 1976, but it sounds like quotes ripped from today’s headlines.

History has a way of repeating itself, or to quote the great Yogi Bera, it’s déjà vu all over again. The Obama administration is looking a lot like the Carter administration. Only worse.

President Obama may think the Cold War is over, as dated as yesteryear’s fashions. But President Putin thinks it’s game on, and Russia is winning. And there is ample evidence to support his claim.

I can’t wait for the pictures from the next Obama-Putin meet-up. It will be in June in Sochi, where President Obama would NOT go for the Olympics, but has to go for the G-8 summit.

In the past, Putin has looked bored, picking lint off his sleeve while Obama droned on.

This time he’ll no doubt have a smirk on his face: he’s got Snowden safely ensconced in Moscow, he’s calling the shots in Syria, he’s taken America’s place with Egypt, and Europe is addicted to his natural gas.

His budget is in surplus and his coffers flush with oil revenues.

COMMENT:   The Obama administration is the second term of Jimmy Carter.  But, as McFarland says, it's worse. 

The only two forces that have become more powerful in the world since Obama became president of a country he holds in contempt are Communism and radical Islam. 

We had Reagan in 1980.  I don't see anything similar today, but you never know.  Reagan had been laughed at by the Republican establishment in the late 70s.  Some new leader, also outside the establishment, can rise in 2016.

March 1, 2014       Permalink

BULLETIN:  A SLAP IN THE FACE – AT 10:20 A.M. ET:  Less than a day after President Obama warned Russia about military intervention in Ukraine, Moscow just gave its answer...a slap in the president's face.  From CNN, just published:

Russia's upper house of parliament voted Saturday to approve the use of military force in Ukraine. The vote was unanimous.

Here is the original story, published just a short time ago:

(CNN) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked the upper house of parliament for approval to send Russian troops into Ukraine's Crimea region to normalize the political situation there, the Kremlin said Saturday.

Due to the "extraordinary situation in Ukraine," Putin said, there are threats to the lives of Russian citizens and Russian military personnel based in the southern Crimean region.

It comes on the same day that the new pro-Russian leader of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, asked Putin for help in maintaining peace in the Black Sea peninsula -- where Russia has a major naval base at Sevastopol.

International concerns are mounting that Moscow may intervene militarily in the crisis, despite warnings from the United States and other Western powers that it should respect Ukrainian sovereignty.

In response to Putin's move, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt tweeted: "Russian military intervention in Ukraine is clearly against international law and principles of European security."

I'm sure Putin really cares what the Swedish foreign minister says.

The newly appointed interim government in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, is seeking to prevent tensions in Crimea, which has a majority-Russian population, escalating into a full-blown bid for separation.

Ukraine suspects Russia of fomenting separatist tensions in the autonomous region.

Amid the uncertainty, about 300 gunmen wearing Russian Special Forces uniforms attempted to take over the Sevastopol unit of the Ukrainian Coast Guard, a senior official with the Ukrainian Border Service said Saturday.

COMMENT:  No one expects the U.S. or NATO to intervene militarily in the Ukraine.  We didn't intervene militarily during the Hungarian uprising against the Soviet Union in 1956, nor did we intervene during the Czech uprising in 1968. 

However, there are economic and diplomatic alternatives.  But Obama is a pathetically weak and intellectually corrupt president, and I doubt if we'll do anything serious.  Putin understands who Obama is.  He is laughing.

March 1,  2014     Permalink