Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

MAY 11,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:01 P.M. ET: 

HEY, COOL, MAN – From the New York Post:  "Cocaine use in Britain is now so high it has contaminated the drinking water, scientific tests have revealed.   Experts from the Drinking Water Inspectorate found traces of the party drug, in a form that has been passed through the body, in treated tap water — despite intensive water purification treatments."  Maybe this explains the foreign policy.

WHACKJOB – Eleanor Clift of Daily Beast, formerly of Newsweek, is one of the great screwballs of liberal media.  She's at it again.  From Mediaite:  "'I’d like to point out that Ambassador Stevens was not ‘murdered,’ Clift said, using air quotes,'but died of smoke inhalation in a CIA safe room.'  This did not land well. 'It was a terrorist attack, Eleanor,' panelist-for-life Pat Buchanan said.  'He was murdered in a terrorist attack.'  Clift responded that it was an opportunistic terrorist attack inflamed by the anti-Muslim video, the blaming of which has caused so much trouble.  'It was still a CIA [outpost],' Clift said. 'If you’re going to put somebody on trial, put David Petraeus on trial, not Hillary Clinton.'"  And she's on national television.

IMITATION IS A GRIM FORM OF FLATTERY – From Fox:  "Iran says it has 'succeeded' in copying an American drone it captured in 2011 and will soon take the replicated aircraft on a test flight.  State television in Iran broadcasted images Sunday apparently showing a replicated US RQ-170 Sentinel drone alongside the original one, according to the AFP.  'Our engineers succeeded in breaking the drone's secrets and copying them,' an officer in the footage reportedly said. 'It will soon take a test flight.'  Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was inspecting the aircraft during an exhibition organized by the country’s Revolutionary Guards air wing, said the unmanned drone is 'very important for reconnaissance missions,' the AFP reports."  Yeah, but it doesn't come with the original warranty, which is two years parts and labor and one year phone tech support from a guy in Bangladesh.

May 11,  2014     Permalink

I GUESS THE WAR ON TERROR ISN'T OVER – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  It is now coming out that the group that kidnaped the Nigerian girls isn't only Islamic, but may well have a deep connection to Al Qaeda.  Please note that Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state, refused to put this group on our terrorist list.  From the great defense reporter, Eli Lake, at the Daily Beast: 

In 2002, Osama bin Laden dispatched an aide to Nigeria to hand out $3 million in local currency to a wide array of Salafist political organizations there that shared al Qaeda’s goal of imposing Islamic rule.

According to an overlooked report from a well-respected international watchdog, one of those organizations was Boko Haram, the terrorist outfit that’s become globally infamous for its threat to sell girls into slavery. In other words, bin Laden helped provide Boko Haram’s seed money, this report maintains.

Officially, the U.S. intelligence community assesses that the group has only tangential links to al Qaeda’s north African affiliate, and that reports of bin Laden backing the Nigerian outfit are off-base. But inside the secret state, many analysts believe that the ties between Boko Haram and al Qaeda global leadership go much deeper—and are about more than a little seed money.

COMMENT:  The full truth is not yet known.  But we've seen movements before that work on a combination of activists under direct control, and fellow travelers who work somewhat independently, yet adhere to the goals of the movement.  The Nazi movement of the 1930s had such a combination.  There were pro-Nazi groups in the United States, including groups within universities, that were not under direct order, but did what they could to advance the movement.  And there were plenty of sympathizers.

May 11, 2014       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 11:03 A.M. ET:   Related to the Ukraine, reported just below, and the fact that two forces in the world have risen in the age of Obama – Russian communism and militant Islam – is the weakness of the president of the United States.  Michael Goodwin of the New York Post summarizes the problem in our quote of the day: 

As Barack Obama enters the twilight of his tenure, the debate over his legacy is beginning, but one conclusion already seems certain. It can best be described as “Honey, I shrunk the presidency.”

Not since Jimmy Carter was held hostage by Iran has the Oval Office seemed so inconsequential against the forces of international darkness. The mismatch is particularly striking because smallness has been Obama’s choice.

Although he is guilty of executive overreach at home, that bully behavior only sharpens the contrast with a foreign policy that is feeble when it is not comatose. The president’s estrangement from the demands of global leadership is giving a green light to tyrants and malevolent opportunists everywhere.

His preference for navel gazing over action was on full display last week. As Russia and China menaced their neighbors and Islamist terrorists set off bombs in a half-dozen countries, Obama accepted an award from Hollywood pal Steven Spielberg for fighting genocide. Passing up a chance to give a full-throated defense of freedom and Western civilization, the president lapsed into what The New York Times called a “meditation” on the limits of his power.

That’s far too kind. It was a white flag of surrender and more proof that Obama lacks the capacity to shoulder the responsibilities that have belonged to the Oval Office for 100 years.

COMMENT:  Very well said.  And yet, the Obama crowd may well feel that Obama is a great success.  He has weakened America, reduced our influence, and compromised our defense.  Isn't that what the Obama left always wanted?

We can understand Obama only when we accept that he was put in office by marketing a myth – that he is some kind of practical centrist, a non-ideological guy, when in fact he's a leftist, schooled in Marxism, and a multiculturalist, schooled in the glories of non-judgmentalism. 

The fact that Obama refuses to use the term "Islamic terrorism" is all the proof we really need of who is in the Oval Office.

May 11, 2014       Permalink 

UKRAINE VOTES, SORT OF – AT 10:41 A.M. ET:  There's a kind of election being held in parts of Ukraine today, against the will of the country's own government.  This can only elevate tensions and increase the risk of Russian intervention.  From Fox: 

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are going ahead with scheduled "self-rule" referendums in two regions, inviting further condemnation from the Kiev government and its Western allies.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. local time (1 a.m. EDT) in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and were scheduled to close at 10 p.m. (3 p.m. EDT). A pro-Russian election official in Donetsk described the turnout to Fox News as "colossal."

"What do you expect," he asked, "when people are shooting at us?"

Separatist electoral commission officials in Donetsk told Fox News they will likely release details of today's vote on Monday afternoon.

Roman Lyagin and Boris Litvinov said the final results would be announced only after sealed documents arrived from each of the voting station at the separatist headquarters in Donetsk.

Separatist fighters in both regions have occupied government buildings in a number of towns since Russia's annexation of Crimea in March. In the process, rebels have clashed with police and regular Ukraine troops.

COMMENT:  The self-rule side will win overwhelmingly.  And what next?  What if several regions declare independence and ask for Russian protection?

Vladimir Putin announced just a few days ago that Russian troops had been withdrawn from the Ukrainian border, but our own intelligence people say they've seen no change.

This is a continuing, serious international story.  Putin is determined to control Ukraine.  And what after that?

May 11,  2014     Permalink

MAY 10,  2014

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

MARCH OF MEDICINE – From London's Daily Mail:  "Night clubbers, beware. An Obamacare evangelist may be coming to a bar near you.  On a call outlining its strategy to get people to sign up for Obamacare over the summer, leading Obamacare advocacy group Enroll America said it will get more creative with its outreach tactics – including hitting up night clubs – now that only certain groups of people remain eligible to sign up for health coverage.  'If it's a health fair, we wanna have a table set up. If it's a long line at a night club, we want somebody walking up and down it, talking to folks while they're stuck there,' John Gilbert, National Field Director of Enroll America, told fellow Obamacare recruiters on the call.  The group will begin its new outreach operation in May."  If you're drunk when you sign up, do you still have to pay?

CHELSEA RISES – There seems to be more news about Chelsea these days than about Bill or Hillary.  From AP:  "Former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton are in Oxford, England, this weekend to attend the graduation ceremonies of their daughter, Chelsea.  Chelsea Clinton will receive her doctorate degree in international relations on Saturday from the prestigious British university. Her father was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford from 1968 to 1970."  International relations?  From a British university?  What did Chelsea take, Appeasement 201 or Anti-Americanism 304?  They're both popular, I hear.  Also, don't you have to spend some time at a university to get a doctorate?  I don't recall Chelsea spending any time overseas?  I'd love to have some details here.  Maybe she claimed she was home schooled by mama. 

THINK BIG – From Climate Depot:  "A solar panel array now adorns the roof of the White House and will produce an elephantine amount of solar power when the sun is actually shining: about 44 kilowatt hours of electricity a day.   If 44 kilowatts hours sounds like a lot of energy, it isn’t. The average home consumes about 30 kilowatt hours (kWh) of power each day. The average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,837 kWh according to the EIA for 2012 or 30 kWh per day average.
Slightly less than the 44 kilowatt hours per day that will be produced by the new solar panels adorning the White House. According to data from TradeWind Energy, one 100-watt light bulb running for 20 hours will use two kilowatt-hours of electricity (100 watts x 20 hours = 2,000 watt-hours = 2 kWh).  In other words, the White House installed enough solar panels to power twenty-two 100-watt light bulbs for 20 hours each day. And if you’ve ever been inside the White House, or seen it from a distance, you’ll notice it’s lit up like a klieg light."  I only trust solar power on my little Casio calculator.  Eight bucks.

May 10,  2014     Permalink

PROGRESS – AT 12:18 P.M. ET:  From what I can see, the Republican National Committee is making steady progress in improving the party's prospects on election day.  The party's procedures are being restructured to reduce friction, suppress chaos and allow good candidates to come forward and secure nominations without going through a 20-debate meat grinder.  From The New York Times: 

MEMPHIS — The Republican National Committee moved Friday to seize control of the presidential primary debates in 2016, another step in a coordinated effort by the party establishment to reshape the nominating process.

Committee members overwhelmingly passed a measure that would penalize any presidential candidate who participated in a debate not sanctioned by the national party, by limiting their participation in subsequent committee-sanctioned forums.

The move represents the party’s effort to reduce the number of debates and assert control over how they are staged.

In making the case for adopting the new rule, party officials repeatedly criticized the moderators and format of the 2012 primary debates, appealing to the suspicions that many Republican activists have about the mainstream news media. “The liberal media doesn’t deserve to be in the driver’s seat,” said the committee’s chairman, Reince Priebus, addressing committee members here at their spring meeting.

Such rhetoric makes taking over the debates easier to sell to the committee’s more conservative members. But what party leaders are principally concerned about is reducing the number of debates to avoid a repeat of the 2012 campaign when a series of insurgent candidates used the forums — 20 in all — to draw attention to their candidacies. Some party leaders say they believe that the number of debates pushed Mitt Romney to the right in a way that contributed to his loss to President Obama.

COMMENT:  The 2012 Republican primary race wore out the candidates before the general-election campaign even got started.  The new changes are good.  Priebus has been an excellent chairman, and understands that the name of the game is win, not just participate.

May 10, 2014        Permalink

SOCIAL TREND REPORT – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  I have no idea whether this means anything, but I thought it interesting enough to pass on.  From AP:   

WASHINGTON (AP) — Noah sailed past Jacob to become the most popular baby name for boys in 2013, ending Jacob's 14-year run at the top. Sophia was the most popular baby name for girls for the third straight year.

The Social Security Administration announced the most popular baby names Friday. Noah was followed by Liam, Jacob, Mason and William. Sophia was followed by Emma, Olivia, Isabella and Ava.

The rise of Noah and Liam highlights a trend toward more smooth-sounding baby names, said Laura Wattenberg, creator of Babynamewizard.com.

"You compare Jacob with all its hard, punchy consonants, versus Noah and Liam, you can really see where style is heading," Wattenberg said.

She also noted that the most popular baby names aren't nearly as popular as they used to be. For example, a little more than 18,000 babies born last year were named Noah. In 1950, when James was No. 1, there were more than 86,000 newborns with that name.

About 21,000 newborns were named Sophia last year. In 1950, more than 80,000 were named Linda, the top name for girls that year.

"In the past, most parents were picking from a pretty well-defined set of names," Wattenberg said. "Literally for hundreds of years, the English royal names dominated. You had John and Mary and James and Elizabeth."

"Today," she said, "we get names everywhere."

Jacob first rose to No. 1 in 1999. In the 45 years before that, Michael was king for all but one.

There has been a lot more variety among the girls. Mary dominated the first half of the 20th century. But in the past two decades, Emily, Emma, Isabella and Jessica have all spent time at the top.

COMMENT:   Hard to figure out where some of this popularity is coming from.  I mean, Sophia is a beautiful name.  Is there a famous Sophia out there?  And what about Ava?  There was, of course, the movie star Ava Gardner, but she passed on decades ago. 

I can understand why Linda was so popular in 1950, as there was a hit song, "Linda," in the late 40s.

Noah?  Al Gore must be pleased.  "You see," he's probably thinking, "they know the country will be flooded by global warming."  Let Al imagine.

May 10, 2014        Permalink

THE CONTINUING LIE – AT 10:03 A.M. ET:  As announced, Michelle Obama delivered the radio address from the White House this morning, the weekly address normally given by the president.  She devoted it to the missing Nigerian girls.  Good enough so far.

We wondered in this space last night whether Ms. Obama would use the term "Islamic terrorism."  We weren't surprised when our question was answered.  She didn't use it once.  No way.  No truthful identification of the perpetrators.  Yes, she described them as terrorists, but, incredibly, posed the issue as one of men against women:

Like millions of people across the globe, my husband and I are outraged and heartbroken over the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian girls from their school dormitory in the middle of the night.
This unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to keep these girls from getting an education — grown men attempting to snuff out the aspirations of young girls.

On December 8, 1941, FDR began his war message to Congress with these words:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

In Obamaworld it would have read:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by a militaristic group.

It would have been like fighting World War II in Europe without mentioning the ideology of Nazism.

It would have been like fighting the Cold War without mentioning Communism.

Yes, later in her address Ms. Obama did mention the Taliban in Afghanistan, but, again, never linking it to radical Islam.  Radical Islam has been erased from the official vocabulary.  The people committing these horrors are just misguided folks.  Remember when the Obama administration, when it took office, tried to recast terrorist attacks as "man-caused disasters"?

And...oh yes...our secretary of state announced this week that the root cause of all this is poverty.  Naturally. That is fundamentalist left-wing theology.  Never mind that many Islamist leaders, and it is true in Nigeria, are highly educated, sometimes in the West. 

We are lied to.  And the American press shows no concern.

May 10,  2014     Permalink