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MARCH 20,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:50 P.M. ET: 

AN ATTACK ON TWITTER IS AN ATTACK ON ALL OF US – From AFP:  "ANKARA — Turkey’s combative prime minister warned on Thursday that he would eradicate Twitter in the wake of damaging allegations of corruption in his inner circle that have spread across social networks in recent weeks.  'We will wipe out Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says' premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at an election rally in the western province of Bursa."  And the UN Security Council does nothing.

TAKE THAT, YANKEES – From Reuters:  "MOSCOW - Russia imposed retaliatory sanctions on nine US officials and lawmakers on Thursday as tension over Moscow's annexation of Crimea mounted, warning the West it would hit back over 'every hostile thrust.'  Deputy national security advisers Ben Rhodes and Caroline Atkinson and senators John McCain, Harry Reid and Mary Landrieu, Dan Coats and Robert Menendez were among the Americans barred from Russia, the Foreign Ministry said.  The others were House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama."  Dem senators running for re-election in swing states are desperately trying to get on that list.

DISGRACEFUL – From The New York Times:  "HONG KONG — The chairman of Bloomberg L.P. said in a speech here on Thursday that the company should have reconsidered articles that deviated from its core of coverage of business news, because they jeopardized the huge sales potential for its products in the Chinese market.  The comments by the chairman, Peter T. Grauer, represented the starkest acknowledgment yet by a senior Bloomberg executive that the ambitions of the news division should be assessed in the context of the business operation, which provides the bulk of the company’s revenue. They also signaled which of those considerations might get priority."  I think Mike Bloomberg ought to get involved personally on this, and reassure his news division that it has editorial independence – or abolish the news division. 

AIRLINER – Don't be shocked if you see the Malaysian airliner story start to fade, unless of course the plane is found.  The massive search now going on off Australia may take as many as 26 days to complete, with no guarantee of success.  The flow of relevant facts is slowing.  The mystery may never be solved.  I have no idea what cable news will do with their time. 

March 20, 2014       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:06 A.M. ET:  From the editorial page of the Washington Post, which once again demonstrates that it has the best, most responsible, liberal editorial page in the country.  Regarding Obama's, Kerry's, and the West's view of Vladimir Putin: 

Western officials seem to be betting that Mr. Putin won’t dare to extend his aggression beyond Crimea. But then, just last week they were saying they did not expect Moscow to move quickly on Crimean annexation. The Obama administration and its European allies have been too slow to grasp that Mr. Putin is bent on upending the post-Cold War order in Europe and reversing Russia’s loss of dominion over Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Worse, some in and outside of Western governments may be feeding Mr. Putin’s imperialism by rushing to concede “Russian interests” in Eurasia. President Obama and Mr. Kerry are among those who have said they recognize such “interests” in Ukraine. But the fact that there are ethnic Russians in a country should not give Mr. Putin’s regime a privileged say in its affairs. The idea that areas populated by Russians must be ruled or protected by Moscow is less the ideology of the 19th century, as Mr. Kerry would have it, than of the 1930s.

And...

The two countries that Mr. Putin has invaded since 2008, Ukraine and Georgia, were rejected for NATO membership action plans that year. Can it be argued seriously that Estonia and Latvia, with their large Russian minorities, now would be less vulnerable to Russian aggression had they had not joined NATO? The crisis in Europe has come about not because Western institutions expanded, but because they did not fulfill their post-Cold War promise of “a Europe whole and free.”

COMMENT:  So well said, and well argued.  Puts The New York Times to shame. 

March 20, 2014       Permalink

THE WARNING – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  This expands on an earlier report we ran.   An Al Qaeda online magazine is urging followers in the United States to mount individual attacks.  From WCBS, New York: 

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The latest edition of al Qaeda‘s English-language online magazine urges its readers to attack the United States with car bombs and includes a photo of Times Square.

The terrorist organization’s magazine, Inspire, specifically mentions New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago as preferred targets, WCBS 880′s Rich Lamb reported.

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said Wednesday the website calls for its readers to act as “lone wolf” terrorists.

“It certainly is an issue that we will continue to stay focused on,” Bratton said. “It is a magazine that is very widely read by that world.”

The magazine also advises potential terrorists to attack places holding lots of people, CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer reported.

“As for the field target for the car bomb,” the magazine advises, “you have places flooded with individuals e.g. Sports events in which tens of thousands attend, election campaigns, festivals and other gathering(s). The important thing is that you target people and not buildings.”

“This is typical of al Qaeda’s targeting, which is to kill as many people as possible,” said John Miller, the NYPD’s deputy police commissioner for intelligence.

Bratton noted the city has a large number of officers dedicated to counterterrorism and that every plot against New York City since 9/11 has been foiled.

Miller told CBS News the magazine edition is “one-stop shopping for an amateur terrorist.”

“What it talks about is targeting … specific places, specific targets, specific events, but it goes beyond that call, and it says, ‘and by the way, here is a simple set of instructions for a car bomb that you can make with essentially, you know, a trip to a big-box hardware store and a couple of chemicals,’” said Miller, a former CBS News senior correspondent.

And...

The Inspire website includes a letter from editor Yahya Ibrahim, which reads, in part: “Many Feisal Shahzads are residing inside America, and all they need is the knowledge of how to make car bombs. They are all yearning to fulfill their duty of Jihad. … The American government was unable to protect its citizens from pressure cooker bombs in backpacks, I wonder if they are ready to stop car bombs!”

COMMENT:  Nice, huh?  Let us repeat the assurances of Dear Leader:  The war on terror is over. 

Only in his head.

March 20, 2014        Permalink

HILLARY GETS TOUGH AGAIN – AT 9:04 A.M. ET:   We noted earlier this week how Hillary Clinton had made a speech on Ukraine tougher than any her old boss, Barack Obama, had given.  Now she's done it again, this time on Iran.  It's clear she's charting her own course, separating herself from the mess that is Obama.  From WaPo: 

NEW YORK – Hillary Rodham Clinton cast doubt on the interim nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, saying in a speech here Wednesday night that she is “personally skeptical” that Iran’s leaders would follow through on a comprehensive agreement to end Iran’s march toward nuclear weapons.

Still, the former secretary of state told a pro-Israel audience that she stands behind the Obama administration’s negotiations with Iran and commended the work of her successor, John F. Kerry.

Clinton said the United States should “give space for diplomacy to work” and avoid imposing new unilateral sanctions or any other actions that might lead any allies to back out of existing international sanctions against Iran.

“The odds of reaching that comprehensive agreement are not good,” Clinton said. “I am also personally skeptical that the Iranians would follow through and deliver. I have seen their behavior over years. But this is a development that is worth testing.”

If the negotiations with Iran fail, Clinton said, the United States should explore “every other option.”
“Let’s be clear,” she said, “every other option does remain on the table.”

COMMENT:  I'm not troubled by her praise of Kerry.  That's required and routine.  It's her other language, her own skepticism about the success of the Iran talks, and her emphasizing that "every other option does remain on the table" that interests me.  That last phrase is a code term for military action.  Obama will use it if it is dragged out of him.  Everyone knows he doesn't mean it.  Hillary is trying to convince the American center that she does mean it.

True, she was speaking to a pro-Israel audience, but that's insignificant.  She's Hillary, and her words are flashed around the world whenever she opens her mouth.

Is she real, or deceptive?  I don't know, but she did have a reputation for being tougher as secretary of state than Obama.  And, as we've also noted, she seems to be taking a page from Jack Kennedy's 1960 playbook – run to the right of the Republicans on foreign policy, reassure independents, and neutralize the "soft on defense" charge.

She's running.

March 20, 2014        Permalink

AIRLINER LATEST – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  Given journalism's record on this story, every report must be greeted very skeptically.  We're now told that satellites picked up some large objects in the ocean, some 1,400 miles southwest of Perth, Australia.  The objects could not be identified, but search aircraft are being sent.  From CNN:

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) -- Two objects spotted by satellite in the southern Indian Ocean may be debris from the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australian authorities said Thursday, fueling cautious hopes of a breakthrough in an international search of unprecedented scale.

A Royal Australian Air Force search plane dispatched to the remote spot was unable to find either object amid rain, clouds and limited visibility Thursday afternoon, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said on Twitter. A U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft also searched the area and found nothing, a Navy official said.

A Norwegian merchant ship had also reached the site, its owner confirmed Thursday. But as darkness fell over the region, it seemed unlikely further information would come until Friday.

Authorities cautioned the objects could be something else -- shipping containers that fell off a vessel, for instance. But they said they represent the best lead so far in the search for the missing airliner, which vanished 13 days ago with 239 passengers and crew aboard.

COMMENT:  We'll follow it, but the news coverage of the missing plane is coming under increasing criticism and ridicule – hours of "discussions" and "inside" reports that seem to fade away. 

The last big deal was a report that the pilot, who had a "flight simulator" at home, had erased some data from the device's computer.  But people erase data from computers all the time, just to clear space.  The simulator turned out to be a rudimentary device, more akin to a video game, but the FBI is trying to recover the erased data.  So far, no real story.

March 20,  2014      Permalink

MARCH 19,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:08 P.M. ET:

GOOD FOR HER!  – Dame Vera Lynn, whose very name will bring back memories among our older readers, is coming out with a new album...at the age of 97.  Dame Vera was the "sweetheart" of the British forces in World War II.  Her renditions of "We'll Meet Again," "The White Cliffs of Dover," "There'll Always be an England," and other songs inspired the British war effort.  She was the most famous singer of the Second World War.

RAND AT BERKELEY – Rand Paul got a rousing reception at the king of left-wing campuses today.  He spoke at Berkeley, where his father also spoke from time to time.  His reception shouldn't shock anyone.  The Pauls are favorites at college campuses where libertarianism and its offshoots tend to have a following.  I get the feeling there's more noise than numbers here.  Obama was able to make something of the "youth vote" in his runs for the presidency, but they're difficult voters to motivate.  We don't make predictions here, but once Rand Paul announces for the presidency, his views on social issues, and his left-of-Hillary foreign policy may turn off many of these same young voters who cheered him today.

CRISIS – From the New York Post:  "Michelle Obama’s crusade against sugar and fatty foods has inspired the White House pastry chef to pursue healthy cooking outside the first family’s kitchen.  Longtime executive pastry chef Bill Yosses has announced the 'bittersweet' decision to leave the White House and move to New York, where he will teach people how to eat more healthfully, according to The New York Times.  Still, the 60-year-old chef — who, while cooking for the Obamas, had to replace 'the usual blitzkrieg' of butter and cream with healthier ingredients like fruit purees, honey and agave — is not ready to give up the good stuff.  'I don’t want to demonize cream, butter, sugar and eggs,' he told the paper."  The war on whipped cream produces a major casualty.

RELATED TO THE ITEM JUST ABOVE – From The New York Times:  "Many of us have long been told that saturated fat, the type found in meat, butter and cheese, causes heart disease. But a large and exhaustive new analysis by a team of international scientists found no evidence that eating saturated fat increased heart attacks and other cardiac events.  The new findings are part of a growing body of research that has challenged the accepted wisdom that saturated fat is inherently bad for you and will continue the debate about what foods are best to eat.  For decades, health officials have urged the public to avoid saturated fat as much as possible, saying it should be replaced with the unsaturated fats in foods like nuts, fish, seeds and vegetable oils.  But the new research, published on Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, did not find that people who ate higher levels of saturated fat had more heart disease than those who ate less. Nor did it find less disease in those eating higher amounts of unsaturated fat, including monounsaturated fat like olive oil or polyunsaturated fat like corn oil."  I feel vindicated.  Edy's Rocky Road.  That's for me.

March 19, 2014        Permalink

UKRAINE LATEST – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  The blatancy of the Russian actions is startling.  Putin is clearly in the saddle, and he intends to get what he wants.  From Reuters:

SEVASTOPOL/SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Russian troops and unarmed men stormed Ukraine's naval headquarters in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Wednesday and raised the Russian flag in a tense but peaceful takeover that signals Moscow's intent to neutralize any armed opposition.

Russian soldiers, and so-called "self-defense" units of mainly unarmed volunteers who are supporting them across the Black Sea peninsula, moved in early in the morning and quickly took control.

Shortly after the incident, Ukraine's acting Defence Minister Ihor Tenyukh said in Kiev that the country's forces would not withdraw from Crimea even though Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a treaty to make it part of Russia.

But an hour later, Ukrainian servicemen, unarmed and in civilian clothing, began walking out of the headquarters.

Interfax Ukraine news agency said the commander of the Ukrainian navy, Admiral Serhiy Haiduk, was among those who left and was driven away by officers of Russia's FSB intelligence service. The report could not be independently confirmed.

The first group of servicemen was followed within a few minutes by a handful of troops in Ukrainian uniform, looking shell-shocked at the dramatic turn of events.

COMMENT:  This is happening as the West's nuclear talks with Iran are just resuming.  Russia is Iran's most important ally.  How enthusiastic will Putin be about getting Iran to make concessions, knowing that his power grabs have worked, and that America is retrenching? 

March 19, 2014       Permalink 

THE MESS AT HOME – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:   While our foreign policy collapses, the Obamans are working hard to duplicate that mess here at home.  From The Hill:

Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.

The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid an intense election year, when control of the Senate is up for grabs. The sticker shock would likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper ObamaCare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015.

The industry complaints come less than a week after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to downplay concerns about rising premiums in the healthcare sector. She told lawmakers rates would increase in 2015 but grow more slowly than in the past.

“The increases are far less significant than what they were prior to the Affordable Care Act,” the secretary said in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.

Her comment baffled insurance officials, who said it runs counter to the industry’s consensus about next year.

“It’s pretty shortsighted because I think everybody knows that the way the exchange has rolled out … is going to lead to higher costs,” said one senior insurance executive who requested anonymity.

The insurance official, who hails from a populous swing state, said his company expects to triple its rates next year on the ObamaCare exchange.

COMMENT:  It's a disaster, and ready-made for the Republicans.  Trouble is, Republicans do not yet have a coherent, easily explainable, attractive alternative, which they must have to avoid the label, sometimes accurate of "the party of no."

March 19, 2014       Permalink

PATHETIC – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  Joe Biden is in Eastern Europe, trying to convince our allies there that Obama really cares about them.  Apparently, he's running into mass skepticism.  Gee, I wonder why.  From WaPo: 

VILNIUS, Lithuania—Vice President Biden’s we’re-all-in-this together tour of Eastern Europe, a two-country stop that concludes here Wednesday, has highlighted not only the growing regional anxieties over Russia’s designs on Ukraine but also how much work the Obama administration has to do to convince allies of its support.

At its core, Biden’s message here and in Poland was a simple reaffirmation of what one senior administration official called a “bedrock commitment”: The United States would honor NATO’s basic premise that if one member nation is attacked, all would come to its defense.

What?  We have to reassure allies that we will honor our treaty commitments?  This is what American foreign policy has come to?

“President Obama and I view Article 5 of the NATO Treaty as an absolutely solemn commitment which we will honor,” Biden said in an appearance with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, referring to the collective self-defense clause in the agreement. “We will honor.”

A timely message, perhaps, as Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated Crimea’s return to Russia through an annexation the Obama administration and its European allies have called illegal. But having to deliver the message at all is a measure of how uncertain Eastern Europe remains as it confronts an expansionist Russia - and how uncertain many leaders here are of the Obama administration’s intentions to help.

In some ways, the anxieties are the inevitable result of America’s military retrenchment after more than a decade of war.

COMMENT:  Biden is having a tough time for good reason.  One of the first things Obama did when he came to office was to cancel the anti-missile systems promised to Poland and the Czech Republic.  And he conspicuously sent a bust of Winston Churchill, which had rested in the Oval Office under Bush, back to Britain.  And he started badgering Israel, but went to Cairo to apologize for America's "sins."  And he ignored the North Korean nuclear breakthroughs.  And he was almost silent when Iranians rose up against their government in 2009 and looked to America for support.  And he has cut the defense budget in the face of Russian and Chinese military expansion. 

Good luck, Joe.  But I'm afraid America's allies are counting the days until your boss rides off into the sunset.

March 19, 2014       Permalink

HILLARY SPEAKS – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  Hillary Clinton has issued her first detailed comments on Ukraine, and it's clear that she's starting to separate herself from Obama.  It's tricky, because she served as his secretary of state.  But she seems to understand the need.  From Fox:

Other countries near Russia could also face aggression if President Vladimir Putin is allowed to get away with his actions in Ukraine, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday.

Clinton, a potential 2016 presidential contender, called Russia's move to annex Crimea illegal and a violation of international law.

"If he's allowed to get away with that, I think you'll see a lot of other countries either directly facing Russian aggression or suborned with their political systems so that they are so intimidated that in effect they are transformed into vassals, not sovereign democracies," Clinton said at an event hosted by the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal at the Palais des Congres.

In response to a question about Ukraine, Clinton advocated a "two-track" approach toward resolving the crisis that included economic incentives and "standing up for our values."

Along with sanctions against Russia, Clinton argued for increased financial and technical support for a democratic government in Kiev.

She also said Europe needs to be encouraged to find other energy sources so they aren't dependent on Russian oil and gas.

"We don't have to be rattling sabers and all that. That's not useful," she said.

"But people need to get moving in protecting themselves against future intimidation. It might take a year, it might take two years, but it needs to be slow and steady. And then once again people will see the difference, they will see the choices."

COMMENT:  Not perfect, but, for a liberal Democrat, not bad.  I suspect the Clinton camp realizes that liberals will have nowhere to go in 2016 except to vote for her, if she runs.  So a little tough foreign-policy talk won't hurt. 

The Clintonistas may also be sizing up the possibility of running against Rand Paul, whose foreign-policy positions are problematical, to put it mildly.  He sometimes sounds to the left of Obama, and his father, Ron Paul, sometimes sounds like the ambassador from the Taliban.  In 1960 Kennedy ran to the right of Nixon on defense policy, and you might see the same phenomenon in 2016, if Paul is the GOP candidate, with Hillary running to his right.  It would be shrewd, pick up the independent vote, and go a long way to securing a victory.

But I don't think Paul will be the nominee.

March 19,  2014     Permalink