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MARCH 24,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – at 11:52 P.M. ET: 

LAPDOGS – From Breitbart:  "On Monday evening, mainstream media reporters reportedly gave Hillary Clinton a standing ovation after she joked about her private email scandal and took no questions from the press–at an event honoring excellence in journalism.  According to a National Journal report, Clinton took no questions after her 20-minute speech in Washington, D.C., which prompted the Washington Post‘s Dan Balz, who won this year’s Robin Toner award for excellence in political reporting, to reportedly make Clinton an offer: 'I am happy to yield my time back to you if you want to take some questions.'  Time reported that 'Clinton received a standing ovation' anyway 'from the journalist-heavy crowd.'"  I fear that we may see a repeat of the press performance we saw in 2008. 

CORRUPTION WATCH – From WaPo:  "Not long before he became governor of Virginia, Democrat Terry McAuliffe received special treatment on behalf of his electric-car company from a top official at the Department of Homeland Security, according to a new report from the department’s inspector general.  McAuliffe was among several politically powerful individuals from both parties, including Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), seeking special visas for foreign investors through a program administered by the department. But intervention on behalf of McAuliffe’s GreenTech Automotive company by Alejandro Mayorkas, now the department’s No. 2 official, 'was unprecedented,' according to the report."  McAuliffe is a Clinton retainer.  As Virginia governor, he can help Hillary move to the White House.  But if there's a cloud hanging over him, maybe not.

WHAT RECOVERY? – From Business Insider:  "Nearly half of American households don't save any of their money.  If it it isn't obvious, this has a broad range of implications. People who don't save won't have any buffer should the economy turn and they lose their jobs. Longer term, people who don't save won't have the capacity to retire.  It's not good."  No it's not, and it's a sign of a weak economy, where wages haven't grown.  But that's okay.  Our kids'll pay for it.

HE'LL BE BACK – From AP:  "PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. will be released from a federal prison on Thursday and will serve out the remainder of his term in a Washington, D.C., halfway house, former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy told The Associated Press after visiting Jackson.
Kennedy said he spoke with Jackson at the minimum security federal prison camp in Montgomery, Alabama, where the son of the civil rights leader has been serving a 2 ½-year sentence after pleading guilty to illegally spending $750,000 in campaign funds on personal items.  Jackson, an Illinois Democrat, began the sentence on Nov. 1, 2013."  I have no doubt that Jackson, a symbol of racial and Chicago politics, will be back in Congress as soon as the backroom boys can bump someone else out of the job.

March 24,  2015     Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  Thomas Sowell is a brave African-American writer who gets plenty of grief for telling the truth.  This is one of the best things he's written recently.  From Townhall.com: 

Hillary Clinton became an iconic figure by feeding the media and the left the kind of rhetoric they love. Barack Obama did the same and became president. Neither had any concrete accomplishments besides rhetoric beforehand, and both have had the opposite of accomplishments after taking office.

They have something else in common. They attract the votes of those people who vote for demographic symbolism -- "the first black president" to be followed by "the first woman president" -- and neither to be criticized, lest you be denounced for racism or sexism.

It is staggering that there are sane adults who can vote for someone to be President of the United States as if they are in school, just voting for "most popular boy" or "most popular girl" -- or, worse yet, voting for someone who will give them free stuff.

Whoever holds that office makes decisions involving the life and death of Americans and -- especially if Iran gets a nuclear arsenal -- the life and death of this nation. It took just two nuclear bombs -- neither of them as powerful as those available today -- to get a very tough nation like Japan to surrender.

Anyone familiar with World War II battles in the Pacific knows that it was not unusual for 90 percent of the Japanese troops defending Iwo Jima or other islands to fight to the death, even after it was clear that American troops had them beaten.

When people like that surrender after two nuclear bombs, do not imagine that today's soft Americans -- led by the likes of Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton -- will fight on after New York and Chicago have been reduced to radioactive ashes.

Meanwhile, ISIS and other terrorists are giving us a free demonstration of what surrender would mean. But perhaps we can kick the can down the road, and leave that as a legacy to our children and grandchildren, along with the national debt.

COMMENT:  The word "crisis" is substantially overused in the press.  We seem to have a crisis every minute.  But if there's one crisis we definitely face today it's the breathtaking immaturity that has come over this land.  We treat college students like babies, and they demand to be treated that way.  As Tom Sowell notes, we elect major officeholders as if they're running in a school election. 

And our president behaves like a petulant child.

We have growing up to do.  Electing Hillary Clinton will not help matters.

March 24, 2015       Permalink

BRILLIANT – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  The distinguished commentator, Myron Magnet, has written one of the best pieces I've read on what we can learn from history about dealing with Iran.  This is really required reading, and provides some real gems.  From City Journal: 

For all their differences, President Barack Obama uncannily resembles his Democratic predecessor, President Jimmy Carter, in his stiff-necked, self-righteous inability to listen to others or to learn from experience or history. Against ferocious opposition at home and abroad, he is about to repeat the grievous mistake of appeasing Iran that Carter made over three decades ago and do even more geopolitical damage than the hapless peanut farmer wreaked in 1979.

Recall the history. On February 1, 1979, two weeks after the cancer-ridden Shah of Iran left his country in the hands of a caretaker as he wandered the world in search of treatment, his fanatical opponent, Islamist cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, returned from his 14-year Parisian exile and within a week had engineered the overthrow of the shah’s feeble substitute and installed his own puppet regime. Not only did Iran’s Islamists hail the ayatollah’s return; Carter’s United Nations ambassador, the painfully naïve Andrew Young, lauding Islam as “a vibrant cultural force in today’s world,” prophesied that the ayatollah himself—with ferocious indignation flashing from his eyes and bristling from his beard under his sharia-chic turban—would prove “somewhat of a saint.” On February 15, the saintly imam began murdering Iran’s officer corps, and on April Fool’s Day, which he called “the first day of a government of God,” he declared his nation an Islamic republic. In mid-May, the U.S. Senate condemned Iran’s systematic slaughter of its officers, a rebuke Iran met by recalling its ambassador from Washington. By July, mullahs began publicly taking control of the government.

Read the whole thing.  It's worth it, and contains examples from Churchill.  Magnet concludes this way:

So now President Obama wants to make an agreement that will ensure that Iran can produce an atom bomb essentially overnight. He has not seen fit to explain his reasoning to the American people, and it is hard to imagine what it might be. But all I can think of is Churchill’s rebuke to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain when he returned from his infamous appeasement of Hitler in Munch in 1938. “You were given the choice between war and dishonor,” Churchill thundered in Parliament. “You chose dishonor, and you will have war.” Certainly President Obama is choosing dishonor. What kind of war he might unleash, the world watches with dread.

COMMENT:  Many Americans do understand what's happening.  They just don't know what to do.

March 24, 2015       Permalink

US COUNTERINTELIGENCE STRATEGY COLLAPSING – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  Julie Pace, an AP reporter I trust, tells it bluntly as Yemen descends into anarchy.  From AP: 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Once hailed by President Barack Obama as a model for fighting extremism, the U.S. counterterrorism strategy in Yemen has all but collapsed as the country descends into chaos, according to U.S. and Yemeni officials.

Operations against militants have been scaled back dramatically amid the fall of the American-backed government and the evacuation of U.S. personnel. What had been consistent pressure on Yemen's dangerous al-Qaida affiliate has been relieved, the officials say, and a safe haven exists for the development of an offshoot of the Islamic State group.

It's a swift and striking transformation for an anti-terror campaign Obama heralded just six months ago as the template for efforts to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The shift has left Obama open to criticism that he failed to anticipate the risks of a light footprint strategy that aims to put fragile governments and beleaguered local security forces, not the U.S. military, at the forefront.

Barbara Bodine, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen, said even the most optimistic regional experts did not share Obama's view that the Yemen campaign was a model of success.

"It was being defined in terms of what we were doing to develop local forces and use drones and counter the immediate and real security threat," said Bodine, now director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. "But what we hadn't done, certainly had not done visibly enough, was get at the economic and governance issues that were driving the problem."

COMMENT:  Proof once again, as if we needed it, that Obama is running a student government, not a real government. 

March 24, 2015       Permalink

HUGE SCANDAL – ISRAEL GAVE IRAN INFORMATION TO CONGRESS!! – POSSIBLE END OF THE WORLD – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  I am shocked, shocked, to find out that espionage is going on.  Not only that.  Israel stands accused of giving information to the rotten, miserable, right-wing, pro-American fascists in the Capitol Building!  From Hot Air: 

As it turns out, the speech by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t the communication to Congress that got the Obama administration most upset. Today’s Wall Street Journal reveals in a report from Adam Entous that Israel’s intelligence service had penetrated the talks with Iran, both through human intelligence and signals intelligence. That allowed Israel to make an international case against the emerging deal in an attempt to derail Barack Obama’s desperate desire to reach a rapprochement with Tehran.

And even that didn’t generate the most ire in the White House. No, that came when Israel had the temerity and the nerve to inform a group considered by the Obama administration as a dangerous gathering of subversives … right down Pennsylvania Avenue from the West Wing (via T. Becket Adams and Sonny Bunch):

The spying operation was part of a broader campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to penetrate the negotiations and then help build a case against the emerging terms of the deal, current and former U.S. officials said. In addition to eavesdropping, Israel acquired information from confidential U.S. briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe, the officials said.

The espionage didn’t upset the White House as much as Israel’s sharing of inside information with U.S. lawmakers and others to drain support from a high-stakes deal intended to limit Iran’s nuclear program, current and former officials said.

“It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S. legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on the matter.

It is? As Entous notes, it’s hardly a secret that countries spy on each other, even allies, despite all the pearl-clutching that took place regarding Angela Merkel’s cell phone a while back. Countries use intelligence services for their own national security, and sometimes that means checking up on allies — especially when those allies seem intent on cutting deals with one’s own mortal enemy. The White House only found out about the penetration through the US’ own intel-gathering efforts on Israel, as it turns out.

COMMENT:  I think Congress ought to give Israel the Congressional Gold Medal for keeping the members so well informed, with information withheld by the White House. 

I'm not completely convinced, by the way, that Israel penetrated American communications.   Other reports this morning say that European nations have kept Israel far better briefed about the Iran talks than has Washington.  Also, Israel is known to have substantial intelligence assets inside Iran. 

But the hilarity here is that the White House is so upset that Congress is getting information on a matter that may well involve the lives of millions of Americans.

March 24,  2015     Permalink

MARCH 23,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

AND HE DOESN'T EVEN PLAY ONE ON TV – From Reuters:  "(Reuters) - Whether it's the earnest Josiah Bartlet from 'The West Wing' or the manipulative Frank Underwood in 'House of Cards,' Americans prefer television presidents to their real-life POTUS, President Barack 'No Drama' Obama.  A Reuters-Ipsos poll taken this month found 54 percent of Americans held an unfavorable opinion of Obama, known for his cool and cautious presidential style, while 46 percent were favorable.  In contrast, asked to imagine that David Palmer of "24" was president, 89 percent of those who had seen the real-time Fox counterterrorism drama said they held a favorable rating of the decisive president played by Dennis Haysbert.  Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet of "The West Wing" - beloved by Democrats, including many who work in Obama's White House - was rated favorably by 82 percent of its NBC viewers."  Obama should go into TV acting.  It's the only thing that can save him.

OBAMA AND CLINTON MEET – The commander-in-chief and the emailer-in-chief met today.  From the White House spokesman:  "'As I noted in today’s briefing, President Obama and Secretary Clinton enjoy catching-up in person when their schedules permit,' he said. 'This afternoon they met privately for about an hour at the White House and discussed a range of topics.'"  Yeah, I'll bet they did.  Clinton is surely aware of the stories going around Washington that it's the Obama crowd itself that is trying to derail her presidential nomination.  Wonder if it came up.  Or did Hillary simply ask what the price would be for Barack's support, such as backing an Iran deal?  Just speculatin'.  But there will be a price.

MONEY MACHINE – From the Dallas Morning News:  "Texas GOP donors have lined up for a Jeb Bush political committee fundraiser in Dallas on Wednesday that will include a rare political appearance by his brother.  The invitation asks for donations or for attendees to raise up to $100,000 per couple.  The reception on behalf of the Right to Rise Super PAC will be held at the home of bank executive Gerald Ford and his wife Kelli."  Jeb is winning the money race, but his campaign is just not catching fire.  Many conservatives have doubts about him, and the Bush name is not particularly helpful in a country that seems to want new faces.

SMALL TIMERS – The White House and State Department took more verbal swings at Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu today, continuing a campaign that looks increasingly childish and petty.  We're the only country doing it.  Meanwhile, in the world outside the sandbox, Yemen is falling apart, there is terror in Tunisia, and the war against ISIS is going poorly.  But that Bibi, he's got to be stopped!

March 23, 2015       Permalink

THE HOUSE WARNS OBAMA – AT 11:30 A.M. ET:   An overwhelming majority of House members has issued a warning to President Obama over Iran.  From The Hill: 

A letter to President Obama signed by 367 members of Congress warns that lawmakers must be satisfied that any Iranian nuclear agreement must "foreclose any pathway to a bomb" before they lift sanctions against Tehran.

The letter, which was drafted in early March but released on Monday, warns Obama that "permanent sanctions relief from congressionally-mandated sanctions would require new legislation" from Congress.

"Congress must be convinced that its terms foreclose any pathway to a bomb, and only then will Congress be able to consider permanent sanctions relief," reads the letter, led by Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and ranking member Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.).

The letter comes just before U.S. and international negotiators are due to reach a March 31 deadline for a framework agreement with Iran to roll back its nuclear program.

The letter also comes after Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and 46 other senators sent a letter to Iran on March 9 warning it that Congress needed to have a role in approving any deal. White House officials blasted that letter, and have threatened to veto any legislation that comes before the talks are set to conclude on June 30.

Senators, however, appear poised to pounce on legislation after they return from recess, which runs between March 30 and April 10.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) announced on Friday he would schedule a committee vote April 14 on a bill that would allow Congress 60 days to review any deal before its implementation.

Although the House letter does not mention specific legislation, it said, "we are prepared to evaluate any agreement to determine its long-term impact on the United States and our allies."

COMMENT:  It's apparent that Congress, including many Democrats, is deadly serious about Iran.  We hope it stays that way.  It's also apparent that we have a breathtakingly incompetent and arrogant president who doesn't even understand the basics of working with Congress.  Shades of Jimmy Carter, who also considered himself lofty and above us all.  Didn't work out too well for Jimmy, once he encountered Ronald Reagan.

There are reports that the Obamans may try to get around Congress by taking any agreement directly to the UN Security Council for approval, and insisting that such approval would bind the United States.  Then watch the uproar from a good part of the public, as people realize that the national-defense policies of the United States have been turned over to Russia and China. 

Of course, much of this assumes that we'll have an agreement with Iran.  We're not there yet.

March 23, 2015       Permalink

PROGRESS? – AT 10:21 A.M. ET:   There have been a few signs of maturity in the mainstream media recently.  I don't know if it's a trend.  I'll be watching.  But we're always grateful for small blessings.  From Mediaite: 

New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan retracted her criticisms over the Times’s early Ferguson reporting Monday morning, calling her initial critique “substantially flawed.”

Sullivan’s retraction follows the Department of Justice’s report earlier this month essentially vindicating officer Darren Wilson’s side of the story in the shooting of Michael Brown. The report concluded that Brown did not have his hands raised when Wilson shot him, undercutting the subsequent “hands up, don’t shoot” slogan adopted by Ferguson protesters.

Sullivan’s is the second retraction, after Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart retracted his earlier columns on Ferguson last week.

In her initial piece last August, Sullivan had criticized the attempt at “false balance” — the attempt to present both sides when they are unequal — and the “dubious equivalency” of using anonymous quotes from the Ferguson Police Department alleging that Wilson had been scared of Brown just before the shooting. Sullivan, who has an axe to grind over the Times’ use of anonymous quotes, called the sourcing weak, with the anonymous quotes lifted from “ghosts.”

She retracted that Monday morning. “In retrospect, it’s clear to me that including that information wasn’t false balance. It was an effort to get both sides,” Sullivan wrote. She added:

I still believe, as I did then, that the description of the sourcing was confusing. But that’s a relatively minor issue, and understandable in the rush of breaking news. The main thing is that The Times did its job in describing what were indeed “conflicting reports,” and getting them on the record in whatever way was possible at the time. That served readers well.

COMMENT:  The false reports about "hands up, don't shoot" have burned the more thoughtful people in journalism, all three of them.    Maybe, just maybe, there will be more care in the future.

Last week an African-American student from the University of Virginia wound up bloody after a confrontation in Charlottesville with state alcohol-control agents.  The media have reported the story, showing the young man on the ground, and bloodied.  But there has been some care by most news outlets to stress that the facts have not yet been determined.  The governor of Virginia has asked for an investigation to see if the young man was abused.  The media should follow the investigation, and determine the facts, before presuming anything.

March 23, 2015       Permalink

CRAZIES AT WORK – AT 9:37 A.M. ET:  As the U.S. continues to negotiate a nuclear deal with the mullahs of Iran, Iran does its dirty work in the Mideast.   King of Diplomats John Kerry, and Field Marshal Barack Obama, pretend not to notice.  From Al Arabiya News:

An Iranian ship unloaded more than 180 tons of weapons and military equipment at a Houthi-controlled port in western Yemen, Al Arabiya News Channel reported on Friday, quoting security sources.

The ship had docked at al-Saleef port northwest of the al-Hodeida province on Thursday, the sources said.

The Houthi militias reportedly closed the port and denied entrance to employees there. Al-Saleef port is considered the second most vital in Yemen.

The news follows last week’s economic partnership agreements between Iran and the Houthis, including a deal that promises a year’s worth of oil supply from Iran.

Iran has also agreed to provide Yemen with a 200 megawatt power plant, according to Yemeni news agency Saba.

Yemen is torn by a power struggle between the Iranian-backed Houthi militias in the north, and the internationally-recognized President Abedrabbu Mansorur Hadi, who has set up a rival seat in the south with the backing of Sunni-led Gulf Arab states.

The Shiite Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in September last year before tightening their grip and prompting President Hadi to submit his resignation. Their rise to power has deepened division in Yemen’s web of political and religious allegiances, and left the country increasingly cut of from the outside world.

COMMENT:  This morning Yemen is in flames.  The U.S. has pulled out its remaining troops.  Now Great Britain, which has a long history in the region, is doing the same.  Obama, last September, bragged that Yemen was a great success story.  Apparently, as Rick says in "Casablanca," he was misinformed. 

And we still continue to negotiate with Tehran, which is fanning the flames.  We used to have adults running the country.  Ah yes, I remember it well.

March 23, 2015       Permalink

CRUZIN' – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  Ted Cruz has become the first Republican to announce formally for president.  From NBC: 

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is the first in for 2016.

"I'm running for President and I hope to earn your support!" Cruz announced on Twitter early Monday. The conservative Republican famed for his staunch opposition to the president's signature health care law and his executive actions on immigration will announce the start of his campaign at an address at Liberty University in Virginia later in the day, making him the first presidential candidate to formally announce a White House run.

Can Cruz win the nomination?  Well, it would take a miracle.  He is young, brash, and brilliant.  He's in his first year in the Senate and has already burned many bridges.  To say he's an outsider is an understatement.  When the GOP establishment sees him coming, they lock the doors and load their rifles. 

But he is brilliant.  Alan Dershowitz, late of the Harvard Law School, has said that Cruz was one of the best students he ever had.  But brilliance alone is not enough.  I really don't think Cruz is exactly ready to take on the presidency.  But he will help shape the debate, and introduce himself to the nation.  He is more of a man of the future than the present.  I'm glad he's in it.  He will raise the level of the debate, as well as the heat. 

March 23,  2015     Permalink