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MARCH 27,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

HILLARY IS NO NIXON – From the Washington Times:  "Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has refused to turn her email server over to an independent third party and claims she has wiped the server clean, dealing a setback to the special investigative committee looking into the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack, the probe said late Friday.  Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy said the whole House will have to decide what the next steps are in the push to pry information from Mrs. Clinton, but said she will likely have to appear and testify on her decision-making about her emails, setting up another dramatic showdown between the former first lady and her congressional critics.  'Not only was the secretary the sole arbiter of what was a public record, she also summarily decided to delete all emails from her server ensuring no one could check behind her analysis in the public interest,' Mr. Gowdy said in a statement excoriating Mrs. Clinton’s actions."  She probably learned her lesson from Nixon, who didn't burn the Watergate tapes.  Hillary wasn't going to make that mistake.  She's no Nixon.

O CANADA, YOU'RE NEXT – Canadian journalists are speculating that Obama's next international target, after Bibi Netanyahu, will be Canadian Prime Minister Steve Harper.  Harper, a very pro-Israel conservative, is a thorn in Obama's side, and is up for re-election this October.  Harper was also Canada's chief advocate for the Keystone Pipeline, which Obama vetoed.   The Canadian press is reporting that Obama operatives are already in Canada, working for the leftist opposition.  Obama failed in Israel, where his henchmen also were operating, trying to defeat Bibi.  But, incredibly, Obama is still reasonably popular in Canada, and may be able to sway some votes. 

MAJOR SCIENCE NEWS – The agony, the heartbreak, of climate change.  From Fox:  "A California congresswoman warns global warming will be so detrimental to poor women, it will drive them to prostitution.  Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., has re-introduced legislation that forces the government to address all “policies and programs in the United States that are globally related to climate change” through the lens of gender.  Her resolution, 'Recognizing the disparate impact of climate change on women and the efforts of women globally to address climate change,' asserts that long-term and catastrophic weather changes will result in drought and destructive weather events such as flooding, which could lead to food shortages, joblessness and disease, along with economic and political crisis on a regional scale.  Since 'women will disproportionately face harmful impacts from climate change, particularly in poor and developing nations where women regularly assume increased responsibility for growing the family's food and collecting water, fuel, and other resources,' the measure reads, they will be the most desperate and vulnerable, forced into situations,'such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage.'"  Barbara Lee is the most left-leaning member of Congress, a follower of Fidel Castro, and the only member of Congress to vote against military action following the 9-11 attacks.  Other than that, she is known to have periodic moments of sanity.

March 27,  2015      Permalink

CAVING IN TO IRAN – AT 10:55 A.M. ET:   A number of reports tell us that the U.S., as expected, is caving in to Iranian demands in the nuclear talks, which face a Tuesday deadline.  From The Wall Street Journal: 

With less than a week to go until the deadline for the Iran nuclear talks, the list of skeptical governments and experts is growing. The latest addition is the International Atomic Energy Agency, and its misgivings are a reality check on Iran’s willingness to honor its promises.

“Progress has been very limited” on Iran’s promise to come clean about its earlier efforts to develop a nuclear weapon, IAEA head Yukiya Amano said this week. Mr. Amano added that “no more new issues” had been resolved, particularly on Iran’s effort to develop explosives for a nuke.

Supporters of the talks hailed last year’s Iranian-IAEA statement, in which Tehran pledged to fess up to its weaponization work. That statement followed a 2013 agreement setting out a 12-step plan for disclosing the possible military dimensions of a nuclear program Tehran still claims is for civilian use. Tehran would clean the slate about the past, the thinking went, and trust would grow. Now Mr. Amano says Tehran has completed only one of the 12 steps.

COMMENT:  But don't despair.  Why, one phone call from Barack Obama and all will be set right.  After all, he's made the oceans recede, and brought goodness throughout the sordid world.

March 27, 2015       Permalink

HARRY, WE HARDLY KNEW YE – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  Harry Reid is retiring, opening a Senate seat in Nevada, a great GOP opportunity.  From the Washington Times: 

Sen. Harry Reid announced Friday morning he will retire at the end of this Congress, ending a tremendously influential career that has reshaped the Senate he served for five terms.

Mr. Reid faced a tricky re-election in Nevada, where he barely survived five years ago, and said he feared another battle would suck up so much money and attention from Democratic candidates in other states that it could harm his party’s chances of retaking control of the Senate.

He was seen as one of two incumbent Democrats most in danger of losing re-election next year, in a cycle where Senate Republicans face far more trouble, and his decision will help his party campaign committees dole out money more easily without having to worry about defending their chief.

“We have to make sure that the Democrats take control of the Senate again. And I feel it is inappropriate for me to soak up all those resources on me when I could be devoting those resources to the caucus, and that’s what I intend to do,” he said in a statement that he posted online.

Mr. Reid is currently minority leader, after having served eight years as majority leader, from 2007 through early this year. In his previous two years, he oversaw tremendous changes in the Senate, putting the venerable tool of the filibuster on a path to extinction and limiting fellow senators’ ability to offer and vote on amendments.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who has served as Mr. Reid’s GOP foil for all of those years, attributed the GOP’s surge to retake control of Congress in last year’s elections as partly a rejection of Mr. Reid.

COMMENT:  I'd imagine, but cannot prove, that the real reason for Reid's withdrawal is private polling that might show that he could not win another election.  Now the Republicans must choose a first-class candidate.

Within the Senate, the battle now begins for Reid's successor.  The leading contenders are Dick Durbin of Illinois and Chuck Schumer of New York.  I wouldn't want my daughter marrying either of them, but Schumer is the more talented, and the one more likely to take on Democratic extremism, which is why Durbin will probably win.

March 27, 2015       Permalink

THE PLANE CRASH – AT 9:25 A.M. ET:   What is coming out about the co-pilot of the Germanwings airliner, who allegedly crashed the plane intentionally earlier this week, is pretty bad.  It also calls into question some of the procedures of Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings.  From Fox:

The co-pilot who authorities say deliberately crashed a Germanwings plane into the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard, was reportedly receiving medical treatment that he hid from his employer and may have just gone through a breakup with his girlfriend, according to new developments that emerged on Friday.

Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz appears to have kept evidence of an illness from his employers, including a doctor’s note excusing him from work the day he crashed a passenger plane into a mountain, prosecutors said Friday.

The evidence came from the search of Lubitz's homes in two German cities for an explanation of why he crashed the Airbus A320 into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.

Prosecutor's spokesman Ralf Herrenbrueck said in a written statement that torn-up sick notes for the day of the crash "support the current preliminary assessment that the deceased hid his illness from his employer and colleagues."

Such sick notes from doctors excusing employees from work are common in Germany and issued even for minor illnesses. Herrenbrueck didn't reveal details of what illness Lubitz was suffering from.

Herrenbrueck said other medical documents found indicated "an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment," but that no suicide note was found. He added there was no indication of any political or religious motivation for Lubitz's actions.

COMMENT:  There is an unconfirmed report from Germany that Lubitz was a convert to Islam, but we stress that the report is unconfirmed, and no evidence has been presented.  However, given the proclivity of governments to cover up the true causes of events, we'll follow that possibility.  ISIS is already devoting an internet page to a celebration of Lubitz, but that is not proof of Lubitz's religious affiliation.

March 27, 2015       Permalink

THE MESS – AT 9:05 A.M. ET:  The Mideast, already descending into chaos, is descending further, with Saudi Arabia and, apparently, Egypt, engaged in military action in Yemen.  The deterioration is hour by hour.   Hussein Obama, meanwhile, appears obsessed with making as many concessions as possible to get a very bad nuclear deal with Iran, and disparaging our greatest ally in the region, Israel.

One wonders whether Hussein Obama is getting encouraging notes from Reverend Wright. 

Our position is terrible, thanks to the international strategist and fast-food consumer in the White House.  From The New York Times, of all places:

WASHINGTON — Already struggling to navigate the chaos engulfing much of the Middle East, the United States is now dipping its toe into another conflict.

In Yemen, the Obama administration is supporting a Saudi-led military campaign to dislodge Iranian-backed Houthi rebels despite the risks of an escalating regional fight with Iran.

But in Iraq and Syria, the United States is on the same side as Iran in the fight against the Islamic State, contributing airstrikes to an Iranian-supported offensive on Tikrit on Thursday even while jostling with Iran for position in leading the operation.

All that while the Obama administration is racing to close a deal with Iran to remove economic sanctions in exchange for restraints on its nuclear program, alarming Saudi Arabia and Israel.

The administration finds itself trying to sustain an ever-growing patchwork of strained alliances and multiple battlefields in the aftermath of the Arab Spring four years ago. The momentary moral clarity of the demands for democracy across the region has been replaced by difficult choices among enemies and unappealing allies who have rushed to fill power vacuums.

COMMENT:  This is what happens when amateurs and vindictive little men run our foreign policy.  Obama cannot point to a single foreign-policy success.  His own Tonto, John Kerry, betrayed his own comrades in Vietnam and has been richly rewarded by the political left.   I don't recall him ever being proved right on anything.  His record continues.

March 27,  2015     Permalink

MARCH 26,  2015

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

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK – Some members of Congress should give back their salaries, in embarrassment.  From Mediaite:  "The controversial letter that 47 Republican senators sent to the government of Iran earlier this month has landed them in hot water with critics who say they were trying to undermine President Barack Obama‘s foreign policy goals. Besides openly chiding Republicans for sending the letter, Democrats have yet to respond with any real action, legislative or otherwise — that is, until now.  Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) proposed an amendment that would essentially defund electronic communications between the legislative branch and a foreign government that could undermine 'the role of the President as Head of State in international nuclear negotiations on behalf of the United States.'"  I'm sure the Republicans are trembling. 

SENATE SPEAKS ON IRAN – From The Hill:  "Senators unanimously approved an amendment Thursday that backs bolstering sanctions against Iran if President Obama can't verify that the country is following a nuclear deal.  The wave of support came after the amendment, offered by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), was amended. The Illinois Republican's amendment originally supported restoring rolled-back sanctions, as well as applying new sanctions, if Iran violated the interim deal currently in place or a long-term agreement on its nuclear program.   The final amendment supports reimposed and new sanctions against Iran if Obama 'cannot make a determination and certify that Iran is complying' with an agreement.'"  Just a first step, and not a strong one.  Obama would never admit that he could not make a determination.  But at least the Senate has spoken.

OUR NEXT PRESIDENT? – The corruption and greed of the Clintons know no end.  From the Washington Free Beacon:  "The Clinton Foundation refused to return more than $50,000 of contributions from a group described by federal government investigators as a 'front' for the 'Mullahs who dominate Iran.'  The Alavi Foundation contributed $30,000 to the Clinton Foundation in 2006, and again contributed between $25,000 and $50,000 in 2008.  The Washington Post reported in 2003 that federal law enforcement officials said that Alavi was 'closely tied to the mullahs who dominate Iran' and 'funds a variety of anti-American causes.'  U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed a lawsuit in 2009 to seize a New York City building partially owned by The Alavi Foundation alleging that it had been acting as a 'front for the government of Iran' for two decades.  'For two decades, the Alavi Foundation’s affairs have been directed by various Iranian officials, including Iranian ambassadors at the United Nations, in violation of a series of U.S. laws,' said Bharara."  This alone should disqualify Hillary Clinton from becoming president, but won't.  The media will dutifully line up behind her as "the first," as it did with Obama.

EVEN LONGER THAN ROUTE 66 – From Fox:  "One of Russia's most powerful tycoons and a close pal of President Vladimir Putin has proposed a long and winding road that theoretically could connect Great Britain to Alaska, via Mother Russia. And while a nearly 13,000-mile highway sounds like a stretch – a really long stretch – the major roadblock is likely money, not feasibility.  'This is an inter-state, inter-civilization, project,' Russian Railways boss Vladimir Yakunin told the Russian Academy of Science, where he presented his plan for the Trans-Eurasian belt Development, which he acknowledged would cost 'trillions' of dollars."  First, who would drive 13,000 miles.  Second, how good could the restaurants be?

March 26,  2015     Permalink

HILLARY, WHERE ART THOU? – 11:09 A.M. ET:  There seems to be a bit of bother in the Clinton camp, and it may delay her announcement that she's a candidate for something.  From the Washington Times: 

Many of the key figures cited in a scathing inspector general’s report this week are allies of Hillary Rodham Clinton, marking the latest in a series of stumbles for the former first lady and secretary of state that likely forced her to delay her planned presidential campaign announcement.

A Democratic strategist familiar with her team’s thinking said they are scrambling to limit the damage and readjust the campaign rollout schedule after the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general revealed an apparent cronyism scandal that ensnared Mrs. Clinton’s brother, Anthony Rodham, and two of her political confidants, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell.

The accusation that a top Obama administration official did favors for the three politically connected Democrats follows other damaging revelations swirling around Mrs. Clinton, including that the Clinton Foundation pocketed foreign donations while she was secretary of state and that she exclusively used a private email account that concealed official business while she was in office.

“She is being tarnished before the race starts. It’s kind of like if you’re a race horse having a leg broken on a regular basis and the wound never heals,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic campaign adviser who worked for President Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign.

“Every time there is a piece of news like this, it delays the announcement,” he said. “You can’t announce when you’re facing that kind of controversy and you have to respond to those kinds of questions rather than deal with what you intend to do with the campaign and talk about the issues you want to discuss.”

COMMENT:  There's also a lot of scrambling going on in the Democratic Party to find an alternative to Clinton should she be scandaled out.  The bench isn't very deep.  I mean, when you're down to Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, who couldn't even get his anointed successor elected in a heavily Democratic state, you're in trouble. 

Al Gore anyone? 

March 26, 2015       Permalink

THE TALKS – AT 10:16 A.M. ET:   John Kerry, who holds a U.S. Government position, is now engaged in intensive talks to reach an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program by March 31st.  That is the presumed deadline for this stage of negotiations. 

Kerry and his boss are aware that, if the talks collapse, Congress may step in and demand a role, through legislation, in any future nuclear negotiations with Iran.  It may also impose new sanctions. Obama has threatened to veto any Congressional action, which would set up a historic confrontation with the House and Senate.

Iran is also proving its usual difficult self.  From The Wall Street Journal: 

LAUSANNE, Switzerland—Talks over Iran’s nuclear program have hit a stumbling block a week before a key deadline because Tehran has failed to cooperate with a United Nations probe into whether it tried to build atomic weapons in the past, say people close to the negotiations.

In response, these people say, the U.S. and its diplomatic partners are revising their demands on Iran to address these concerns before they agree to finalize a nuclear deal, which would repeal U.N. sanctions against the country.

“Progress has been very limited,” Yukiya Amano, who heads the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, told The Wall Street Journal this week. “No more new issues” have been addressed.

Secretary of State John Kerry is resuming talks on Thursday in Lausanne with his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, in pursuit of a nuclear agreement.

The two diplomats—who are expected to be joined later in the week by the foreign ministers of France, Germany, U.K., China, Russia and the European Union—are seeking to forge a political understanding by a March 31 deadline that would constrain Iran’s nuclear program in return for a lifting of Western sanctions. Key U.S. allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, have publicly spoken out against the Iran diplomacy. And Congress could move to implement new sanctions on Iran if no political deal is reached this month.

U.S. and European diplomats have voiced guarded optimism that the deal could be reached by the late March deadline.

But Iran’s refusal to implement the IAEA work plan threatens to undermine the prospects for this comprehensive agreement, say diplomats involved in the talks. The ability of the IAEA and global powers to verify whether Iran is abiding by any future deal to prevent it from racing to develop a nuclear weapon depends, in part, on an understanding of its past work, according to these officials.

COMMENT:  There is some informed speculation that our pathetic diplomats will modify our demands to make it easier to reach an agreement with Iran.  I don't doubt it.  The only important thing to the man in the White House is his legacy, especially his legacy on the political left.

What is remarkable is that we have almost all our Mideast allies against us on this negotiation, and Obama doesn't care. 

March 26, 2015       Permalink

EXCELLENT – AT 9:35 A.M. ET:   We reported last night that Saudi aircraft are in action over Yemen, trying to reverse the takeover of that country by pro-Iranian militias.  Saudi Arabia sees Iran as a dire threat.

The Times of Israel has done an excellent analysis of the new relationship between the United States and the Mideast, and it is chilling.  It is a story of betrayal of old allies, and stark appeasement of Iran, one of the most dangerous countries on Earth.  Here is the heart of the piece:

Decision makers in Israel have come to an understanding that the Americans have no intention of imposing demands on Iran with regards to halting military operations and even terrorist attacks in other countries as part of the agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program.

But Israel’s concerns regarding the Houthi takeover of Yemen are nothing compared to the profound discontent of Riyadh and other Arab countries, in light of Iran’s rampage throughout the Middle East and the blatant inaction on the part of the US.

The outcome of the Saudi military operation may not be decisive, but reflects much Saudi, Jordanian and Egyptian frustration. The anger of these regimes is not directed at Iran, which is more or less engaged in the kind of hostile activity expected of it, but mainly at Washington.

It is slightly hard to believe, but at a time when the White House is intensively negotiating with Iran in an attempt to reach an agreement on the nation’s nuclear program withing the next five days, the Shiites in Tehran have helped topple a majority Sunni regime and made significant territorial advances.

Yemen is a state with a long and unmanned border with Saudi Arabia, Iran’s number one regional rival. Yet Washington remains silent.

Yes, Saudi Arabia and the US claimed the overnight operation in Yemen was carried out with intelligence assistance by the Americans, but Arab leaders and decision makers in Israel are still struggling with the White House’s insistence on demonstrating exceptional weakness in its ongoing talks with Tehran.

The expectation by Sunni Arabs and Israel is that the world’s major powers will at least try to pressure Tehran to halt its military operations in a variety of destinations in the Middle East, as part of any future agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.

Such pressure against Tehran over its involvement in Yemen or Iraq, such as leaving economic sanctions in place, could inspire the ayatollahs to reconsider their advances in the region.

But for now, under the White House’s zero action policy, Iran can continue doing whatever it wants without having to miss a beat.

COMMENT:  That says it.  Perhaps, someday, probably when it's too late, we can get elements of the mainstream media to do their jobs and tell us who Barack Obama really is, where his real loyalties lie, and why so much of his life has been blocked from public view.

There were grave questions about Obama raised in 2008.  They were either ignored or ridiculed.  We are starting to pay the price.  That price will only increase over the years.

March 26, 2015        Permalink

IT WAS DELIBERATE – AT 9:13 A.M. ET:  A French prosecutor announced this morning that the downing of the German airliner two days ago in the French Alps was a deliberate act on the part of the co-pilot.  From Reuters: 

The co-pilot of a Germanwings jet that went down in the French Alps on Tuesday, killing 150 people, appears to have crashed the plane deliberately, Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said on Thursday.

The German citizen, left in sole control of the Airbus A320 after the captain left the cockpit, refused to re-open the door and pressed a button that sent the jet into its fatal descent, the prosecutor told a news conference carried on live television.

The prosecutor said that the co-pilot, who he identified as Andreas Lubitz, 28, was not known as a wanted terrorist. Despite the fact that the crashing of the plane appears intentional, the prosecutor said that there was no grounds to consider it a terrorist event.

Asked whether he believed the crash that killed 150 people was the result of suicide, he said: "People who commit suicide usually do so alone....I don't call it a suicide."

Robin said the black-box cockpit recording recovered from the wreckage of the disaster suggested passengers did not realize what was happening until the last moment.

A German state prosecutor said earlier on Thursday that just one of the two pilots of the airliner was in the cockpit at the time it went down.

The statement came after the New York Times reported that "black box" recordings showed one of the pilots had left the cockpit and could not get back in before the plane crashed, killing all 150 onboard.

COMMENT:  That first news report is a bit rudimentary.  We've learned that the steps required to put the plane into a descent could not have occurred accidentally, not could it have occurred as a result of a man collapsing onto the controls.  The steps had to be taken precisely and intentionally.

We do not yet know anything about the co-pilot except his name and age.  We do not know his religion.  We do not know if he was facing any personal challenges.  All the rest is speculation at this point. 

But it was a wilful act. 

The cockpit voice recorder, we learned, picked up the voices of passengers screaming as the plane went into its final descent.

Obviously, we'll be following this story.  When the prosecutor said that there were no grounds for calling the crash a terrorist event, he of course meant that there was no evidence yet of that possibility.

March 26,  2015     Permalink