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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas yesterday.  It's here.

MAY 18,  2015

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

SILLY – From The Hill:  "PHILADELPHIA — Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul says he will bash Hillary Clinton over her husband’s record of putting 'a generation of black men in prison' if he is the nominee.  Paul, a freshman senator from Kentucky, says he will compete with Clinton in Philadelphia, where Democrats have a 7-to-1 registration advantage, and other impoverished cities by highlighting his support for criminal justice reform."  Rand is getting a little unhinged.  As a general rule, people go to prison when they're convicted of crimes.  Bill Clinton, despite his substantial defects, did not himself put a generation of black men in prison.

JINDAL READY TO JUMP – From the Washington Times:  "Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Monday he is launching an exploratory committee to help him decide whether to run for president in 2016 — the clearest signal yet Mr. Jindal is moving toward a White House run on the Republican side.  'If I run, my candidacy will be based on the idea that the American people are ready to try a dramatically different direction,' Mr. Jindal said. 'Not a course correction, but a dramatically different path.'  Mr. Jindal said President Obama has started to redefine the American dream and 'turn it into the European nightmare.'"
Jindal would probably be the most exciting candidate, and he's been a superb governor of the ungovernable state of Louisiana.  I'm not sure he can make it as a presidential prospect, but V.P. might be in his future.

WORKING GIRL – From the Washington Post:  "In one of her last gigs on the paid lecture circuit, Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed an eBay summit aimed at promoting women in the workplace, delivering a 20-minute talk that garnered her a $315,000 payday from the company. Less than two months later, Clinton was feted at the San Francisco Bay-area home of eBay chief executive John Donahoe and his wife, Eileen, for one of the first fundraisers supporting Clinton’s newly announced presidential campaign."  The only "woman in the workplace" Hillary Clinton cares about is Hillary Clinton.

MAJOR ANIMAL NEWS – From the New York Post:  "MARKSVILLE, La. — A young black bear has been a backyard spectacle in a central Louisiana neighborhood where he has spent the past week up one tree or another as he searches for a new home.  The bear is among three to five that have wandered into populated parts of Louisiana in the past 10 days, said wildlife biologist Maria Davidson, head of the large carnivore program for the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries."  President Obama has already offered the bear a free college education, medical benefits and a driver's license.  He declared that bears like this should have a path to citizenship.

May 18,  2015     Permalink

THE MAD MEN ARE GONE – AT 10:55 A.M. ET:   The most common request I get at Urgent Agenda is to write more about popular culture.  I say I will, and then I don't.  Just call me Hillary.

But there was an important moment in popular culture last night, the final episode of "Mad Men," the series about a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the 1960s.  It became a phenomenon, and showed that cable systems can turn out fine work.  "Mad Men,"put on by the American Movie Classics (AMC) channel, has been the traditional wakeup call to the big-four TV networks – CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox – that there are other games in town.

I don't know how many of you have actually watched "Mad Men," so I won't discuss the show in detail.  It was superbly written and acted, and the setting in the 1960s was beautifully handled, complete with sixties music and news events as background.  Many advertising people will tell you, probably correctly, that it wasn't all that accurate.  It was a drama, and, I'm sure, plenty of license was taken.  But the show used an ad agency as a platform to portray the lives of the agency people in the suburbs, in Manhattan, and in their adventures outside their work.  The writers were able to bring in the social changes of the time, particularly the greater acceptance of minorities and women.  It was a time of upheaval, and assassinations.

It was never hokey.  Matthew Weiner, the creator of "Mad Men," rarely tried to sell a political line.

"Mad Men" symbolized something important in our popular culture, and that is the coming of a second golden age of American television.  The feature-film industry is fading away, a victim of its own greed, arrogance, excess, lack of talent, and contempt for the audience.  Television is now dominant in Hollywood, and is no longer the junior partner to the feature people.  With the expansion of the number of channels available, through cable or satellite, television has had the outlets to experiment, to create new forms, and to rebel.  It is the most creative time in the industry since the 1950s, when fine dramas like "Playhouse 90" could easily be found on the dial.  Today we have "The Americans," "Homeland," and, on the major networks, the occasional gem like "Friday Night Lights."  It is a good era in which to watch.

Goodbye to the mad men.  I welcome the next entry in the quality sweeps.

May 18, 2015        Permalink

THE NIGHTMARE IS COMING TRUE – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  Many observers predicted that our appeasement of Iran would lead directly to a nuclear arms race in the Mideast.   The first steps have apparently been taken.  From the Times of Israel: 

Saudi Arabia has reached out to its ally Pakistan to acquire “off-the-shelf” atomic weapons as a nuclear arms race begins to shape up with Shiite rival Iran, US sources said.

“For the Saudis the moment has come,” a former US defense official told the UK’s Sunday Times. “There has been a longstanding agreement in place with the Pakistanis and the House of Saud has now made the strategic decision to move forward.”

The anonymous former official said the US did not believe that “any actual weaponry has been transferred yet,” but declared that “the Saudis mean what they say and they will do what they say.”

Tensions between Tehran and the kingdom have grown in the past few months as Saudi Arabia stepped up its air campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. King Salman of Saudi Arabia refused an invitation to attend a landmark summit hosted by US President Barack Obama last week, amid ongoing angst over US-led nuclear talks with Iran.

Former Saudi intelligence head Prince Turki bin Faisal expressed the kingdom’s desire for a nuclear weapon last month at the Asan Plenum, a conference held by the South Korean-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies. “Whatever the Iranians have, we will have, too,” he said, according to The New York Times.

Faisal also warned that the Iranian nuclear deal “opens the door to nuclear proliferation, not closes it, as was the initial intention.”

COMMENT:  And so the nuclear arms race begins.  And a Saudi bomb, in turn, will lead to nuclear ambitions by Egypt and the Gulf states.

Iran, seeing what is happening, will only increase its clandestine nuclear activities.  And Barack Obama will leave office in the meantime, with serious suggestions that he be placed on Mount Rushmore.

May 18, 2015       Permalink

INCREDIBLE – AT 9:05 A.M. ET:   It takes incredible courage for a college professor to tell the truth these days, if the truth contradicts the leftist party line.  At Duke University, where political correctness is the order of the day, one professor is trying, and the result is predictable.  From the College Fix: 

An 80-year-old Duke University professor is under fire for arguing Asian-Americans have integrated into America better than African-Americans.

Political science professor Jerry Hough posted the controversial statements on a New York Times editorial headlined “How Racism Doomed Baltimore.”

Hough argued:

This editorial is what is wrong. The Democrats are an alliance of Westchester and Harlem, of Montgomery County and intercity Baltimore. Westchester and Montgomery get a Citigroup asset stimulus policy that triples the market. The blacks get a decline in wages after inflation.

But the blacks get symbolic recognition in an utterly incompetent mayor who handled this so badly from beginning to end that her resignation would be demanded if she were white.The blacks get awful editorials like this that tell them to feel sorry for themselves.

In 1965 the Asians were discriminated against as least as badly as blacks. That was reflected in the word “colored.” The racism against what even Eleanor Roosevelt called the yellow races was at least as bad.

So where are the editorials that say racism doomed the Asian-Americans. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves, but worked doubly hard.

I am a professor at Duke University. Every Asian student has a very simple old American first name that symbolizes their desire for integration. Virtually every black has a strange new name that symbolizes their lack of desire for integration. The amount of Asian-white dating is enormous and so surely will be the intermarriage. Black-white dating is almost non-existemt because of the ostracism by blacks of anyone who dates a white.

It was appropriate that a Chinese design won the competition for the Martin Luther King state. King helped them overcome. The blacks followed Malcolm X.

As news of the comments spread via social media, the professor was called “racist” and “ignorant.” The university also denounced the professor’s views to several news outlets, saying “the comments were noxious, offensive and have no place in civil discourse.”

Compare please to the vile comments made every day by racial agitators, leftists, Palestinian causists, and similar personalities.

But Hough, who is on administrative leave as part of a retirement plan, largely stands by them, The News & Observer reports.

“I don’t know if you will find anyone to agree with me,” he said in an email to The News & Observer. “Anyone who says anything is a racist and ignorant as I was called by a colleague. The question is whether you want to get involved in the harassment and few do. I am 80 and figure I can speak the truth as I see it. Ignorant I am not.”

COMMENT:  Cheers to Professor Hough.  If African American students will only listen, they can gain by what he is saying.

Asian Americans come to this country, many speaking not one word of English.  Five years later their children are at the top of their classes...in English. 

My family and I used to go to a Vietnamese restaurant in Charlottesville, Virginia.  At a table, just inside the front door, we usually spotted a textbook and a violin.  One of the daughters of the owners would wait on tables, then, on breaks, study or practice.  That's how you make progress.

Yet no fashionable professor or journalist points out the barriers Asian Americans might still face.  They are not one of the groups acceptable on the left...because they succeed!

May 18, 2015       Permalink

TRAGEDY – AT 8:47 A.M. ET:  Ramadi, one of the major cities of Iraq, has fallen to ISIS.  From Fox: 

ISIS overran the beleaguered Iraqi army to take control of the key city of Ramadi Sunday, killing an estimated 500 soldiers and civilians, sending thousands of residents fleeing for their lives and grabbing up U.S.-issued arms left behind as the embattled nation's fighters fled, witnesses reported.

The takeover followed a three-day siege that began with a wave of ISIS car bombs and which dealt a devastating blow to the Baghdad government and the U.S. forces providing logistical support. On Monday, Shia militias converged on the city, some 70 miles west of the capital, a bid retake it.

The retreat by Iraqi forces was reminiscent of the nation's earliest battles against ISIS, including the fall of Mosul, when poorly trained Iraqi soldiers shrank from the black-clad Islamist army, leaving guns and other gear behind for the terrorists to capture. In Ramaid Sunday, bodies littered the streets as local officials reported the militants carried out mass killings of Iraqi security forces and civilians. Online video showed Humvees, trucks and other equipment speeding out of Ramadi, with soldiers gripping onto their sides.

"Ramadi has fallen," Muhannad Haimour, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Anbar, told AP Sunday. "The city was completely taken. ... The military is fleeing."

COMMENT:  We now await attempts by the Obama administration to minimize the extent of the tragedy, or its importance.  We also await claims that this was caused by BUSH (!!) or CHENEY (!!!!).

This is a tremendous setback.  It requires a statement of intent by the president, or at least the secretary of state, as to how this will be reversed.

May 18,  2015     Permalink

MAY 17,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET:

HILLARY BASHED IN IOWA – From the Washington Times:  "Hillary Rodham Clinton’s ties to agribusiness giant Monsanto, and her advocacy for the industry’s genetically modified crops, have environmentalists in Iowa calling her 'Bride of Frankenfood' — putting yet another wrinkle in her presidential campaign’s courtship of liberal activists who are crucial to winning the state’s Democratic caucuses.  The backlash against Mrs. Clinton for her support of genetically modified organisms (GMO), which dominate the corn and soybean crops at the heart of Iowa’s economy, manifested itself at a recent meeting of the Tri-County Democrats, where members gauged support for the former secretary of state.   A large faction of women voiced strong support for Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy until the GMO issue came up, prompting them to switch allegiances to Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, a liberal stalwart challenging her for the Democratic nomination."  I didn't know there were so many nuts in Iowa.

HUH? – From The New York Times:  "Dozens of black ministers, justice reform advocates and civil rights activists and four black members of Congress gathered last Monday at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem to discuss a delicate matter: What to do about Mayor Bill de Blasio.  Over the course of the morning meeting, attendees voiced a series of concerns: Mr. de Blasio, some complained, seems to have lost his appetite for criminal justice reform. The mayor, they said, has been too slow to take action against the police officer whose use of a chokehold on Eric Garner, an unarmed black man on Staten Island, led to Mr. Garner’s death. Other participants grumbled that Mr. de Blasio and his staff have simply not done enough to communicate with black community leaders on issues like affordable housing."  De Blasio is the most left-wing mayor ever elected to lead a large city.  His wife is African American.  And the black leaders are having trouble with him?  It shows just how far left the black leadership has shifted.  Not good, not good.

BASIC WARFARE – From the Washington Times:  "U.S. Special Operations Forces had to fight 'hand to hand' in Friday night’s raid that killed the Islamic State terrorist group senior commander Abu Sayyaf, several defense officials told The Daily Beast Saturday.  Troops from the U.S. Army Delta Force landed near a multi-story building with Ospreys and Blackhawks and were met with resistance when they entered, including 'hand to hand' combat, one official told The Daily Beast.  There was some resistance from armed guards and from the terrorist commander himself, but the troops were well prepared to handle that, another official said."  Remember when Obama ridiculed Mitt Romney during the 2012 campaign because Romney complained that our defenses were growing weaker.  Obama sneered that we have all this high-tech stuff.  High-tech is fine, but the basic skills of the ground soldier are still critical to defending the nation.  High-tech never took a city.

May 17, 2015       Permalink

HILLARY'S PLAN? – AT 11:31 A.M. ET:  Clearly, the Hispanic vote is being eyed by both parties, to the extent that Hillary Clinton may have already chosen her running mate.  From The Hill: 

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is likely to choose Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Julián Castro or another Hispanic politician to be her running mate, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros said in an interview that will air Sunday.

“What I am hearing in Washington, including from people in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, is that the first person on their lists is Julián Castro, the ... Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who use[d] to be the Mayor of San Antonio,” he said in an interview with Univision’s “Al Punto.”

“They don’t have a second option, because he is the superior candidate considering his record, personality, demeanor and Latin heritage.”

“I think there is a very high possibility that Hillary Clinton may choose Julián Castro,” he said.”

COMMENT:  This story is getting wide circulation and is probably true.  On the GOP side, Jeb Bush speaks fluent Spanish and his wife is Hispanic.  Marco Rubio is Hispanic, and so is Ted Cruz.  The Democrats depend heavily on the Hispanic vote, and know they may have to fight for it in 2016.  Their apparent game plan makes sense...except that few people vote for the vice president.  It's the top of the ticket that decides the election.

May 17, 2015       Permalink

MARCO – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:   Marco Rubio continues to rise.  He is now widely seen as the most articulate Republican candidate for president, and someone who can actually win.  What I particularly admire about him is his commitment to a strong national defense and a strong foreign policy.  He will not back down in the face of the trendies.  From Fox: 

WASHINGTON – Sen. Marco Rubio, the freshman senator from Florida and White House hopeful, defended his tougher rhetoric on foreign policy and said Americans “have to recognize the balance of power in the world is shifting.”

Rubio said on “Fox News Sunday” that the “rise of rogue states like North Korea and Iran,” as well as non-state groups like the Islamic State, have shifted the priorities for the U.S.

“They are all very different threats,” Rubio said.

And...

Rubio’s appearance on “Fox News Sunday” comes during the same week he delivered a key foreign policy speech in New York, where he defended the use of military power and called on the U.S. to aggressively confront China, Russia and other nations he said threaten American economic interests.

“We simply cannot afford to elect as our next president one of the leading agents of this administration’s foreign policy – a leader from yesterday whose tenure as secretary of state was ineffective at best and dangerously negligent at worst,” he said during his speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

COMMENT:  He says it so well.  Nominating conventions don't nominate presidents, they nominate candidates.  And the first question we have to answer is whether a candidate can accomplish his first objective...winning.

From what I've seen, and barring any surprises, I think Rubio can go the distance.  But he'll be tested regularly throughout the nominating process.

May 17, 2015       Permalink

CLINTON ETHICS, A SHORT STORY – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  The record gets worse and worse.  From Vox: 

Almost a decade ago, as Hillary Clinton ran for re-election to the Senate on her way to seeking the presidency for the first time, the New York Times reported on her unusually close relationship with Corning, Inc., an upstate glass titan. Clinton advanced the company's interests, racking up a big assist by getting China to ease a trade barrier. And the firm's mostly Republican executives opened up their wallets for her campaign.

During Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, Corning lobbied the department on a variety of trade issues, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The company has donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to her family's foundation. And, last July, when it was clear that Clinton would again seek the presidency in 2016, Corning coughed up a $225,500 honorarium for Clinton to speak.

In the laundry-whirl of stories about Clinton buck-raking, it might be easy for that last part to get lost in the wash. But it's the part that matters most. The $225,500 speaking fee didn't go to help disease-stricken kids in an impoverished village on some long-forgotten patch of the planet. Nor did it go to a campaign account. It went to Hillary Clinton. Personally.

The latest episode in the Clinton money saga is different than the others because it involves the clear, direct personal enrichment of Hillary Clinton, presidential candidate, by people who have a lot of money at stake in the outcome of government decisions. Her federally required financial disclosure was released to media late Friday, a time government officials and political candidates have long reserved for dumping news they hope will have a short shelf life.

COMMENT:  The question here is whether the American voters will actually care about corruption, or the appearance of corruption.  Or whether they will simply cast their votes based on the size of the check they'd like to receive from Washington. 

May 17,  2015     Permalink