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NOVEMBER 23,  2014

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

OVER?  – The deadline in the Iran nuclear talks has now been reached.  There is no deal.  Reports say that there will now be attempts to extend the deadline once more so that "negotiations" can continue.  Negotiations over what?  If Iran had nothing to hide, the "negotiations" could have been completed in two weeks.  Once again we see diplomats playing out their delusions.  What is called for now are tougher sanctions on Iran, with the message that talks can't go on forever.  Congress, especially with its new Republican members, will be ready and willing to adopt new sanctions.  Sadly, Obama is not on board. 

THAT STRANGE REPORT – Readers are aware of a so-called "bipartisan" report issued in the last few days by the House, which went easy on the Obama administration over Benghazi. Ignore it. Like most "bipartisan" jobs, it was mush.   Lindsey Graham, Republican defense stalwart in the Senate, used more vivid language. You can almost see the House staff members, surrounded by pizza boxes on a late Friday night, hammering out their compromises before going home to watch reruns of "House of Cards."  The real probe of Benghazi, the grown-up version, is being led by Trey Gowdy, one of the sharpest Republicans in the House. He's at work now. His report I'll trust.  The just-released report is the final congressional effort of Republican Mike Rogers, who leaves the House in weeks to go into radio.  Disappointing finish.

PHONY UPROAR – Oh, the anguish, oh the pain.  Rudy Giuliani, one of the great mayors in American history, whose administration dramatically reduced crime in New York, created an uproar on "Meet the Press" today by telling the truth.  Telling the truth always creates an uproar.  Rudy, who knows about these things, bluntly stated that black-on-black crime is the real reason there are so many white policemen who have to be brought in to patrol black neighborhoods.  More than 90% of blacks who are murdered are murdered by other blacks.  What Giuliani said is obvious.  Police are sent to where the crime is.  He wondered why there isn't more of an uproar over black-on-black murders.  Of course, Rudy was immediately subjected to an internet assault accusing him of racism.  Fact:  Most black kids do not commit murders.  Fact:  More black lives were saved by Rudy Giuliani's anti-crime push than were saved by all other mayors of New York combined.  Rudy has never followed the party line.  That's how he got so much done.  He never got a thank-you from black leaders.

November 23,  2014     Permalink

IRAN DEADLINE – AT 11:04 A.M. ET:  This is the last day of negotiations with Iran under the current program.  The deadline for a deal is tomorrow.   There is apparently no deal to be had.  From Reuters: 

VIENNA - Iran, the United States and other world powers are all but certain to miss Monday's deadline for negotiations to resolve a 12-year stand-off over Tehran's atomic ambitions, forcing them to seek an extension, sources say.

The talks in Vienna could lead to a transformation of the Middle East, open the door to ending economic sanctions on Iran and start to bring a nation of 76 million people in from the cold after decades of hostility with the West.

But sources confirmed on Sunday what officials close to the talks have been predicting privately for weeks: that a final deal is still too far off to hammer out by the deadline.

"Considering the short time left until the deadline and number of issues that needed to be discussed and resolved, it is impossible to reach a final and comprehensive deal by Nov. 24," Iran's ISNA news agency quoted an unidentified member of the country's negotiating team in Vienna as saying.

"The issue of extension of the talks is an option on the table and we will start discussing it if no deal is reached by Sunday night," the official said.

A European official who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity said: "To reach a comprehensive deal seems physically impossible. Even if we were to get a political agreement the technical annexes are not ready."

A European source said on Saturday there was no decision yet on extending the talks: "It's the ministers' decision, but talks on an extension could begin Sunday or Monday," he said, adding that a rollover could run for several months.

COMMENT:  This simply gives Iran more time to work on its nuclear program.  The Iranians are milking us.  They're clearly going for a two-fer – a long negotiation followed by a favorable deal.  They may get it.  Obama wants a deal to seal his "legacy." 

November 23, 2014       Permalink

RECKLESS – AT 10:42 A.M. ET:   Ferguson, Missouri, has become the center of the leftist world.  They're gettin' ready for a real 1960s-style mass demonstration should the grand jury decision in the Michael Brown shooting case not be the one they're lookin' for.  A good time will be had by all.  From Reuters: 

FERGUSON Mo (Reuters) - Hundreds of civil rights lawyers from across America are descending on Ferguson, Missouri as police and protesters prepare for a grand jury decision on whether to charge the officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in August.

The attorneys are arriving in Ferguson as talks between protest groups and police have stalled over a refusal by officials to rule out the use of riot gear, tear gas and militarized equipment if demonstrations turn violent should a grand jury decide not to indict police officer Darren Wilson, protest leaders say.

Wilson, who is white, shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown in a Ferguson street on August 9. The death sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests, and hundreds of arrests. The grand jury decision on whether to indict Wilson is imminent and police fear another wave of violence if he is not charged. Tensions in Ferguson and the St. Louis area are running high.

The lawyers, some from as far afield as New York and California, have responded to calls from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and protest groups in Ferguson to monitor police behavior in the wake of the grand jury decision. They will also take an aggressive legal posture, the attorneys said, filing quick fire lawsuits to fight potentially shoddy jail conditions, onerous bail bonds and civil rights abuses.

And...

Prominent civil rights lawyer Vince Warren, executive director of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has been in Ferguson since Monday. Nicole Lee, an international human rights lawyer from Washington, arrived on Wednesday.

Warren said 280 lawyers and law students had answered emails and have volunteered to travel to Ferguson. The lawyers are taking instructions from the CCR, the National Lawyers Guild, the Missouri Chapter of the ACLU and the NAACP Legal defense Fund.

COMMENT:  Pretty much the expected crowd.  The CCR and the National Lawyers Guild are hardline leftist groups, and the ACLU is not far behind.  I suspect we'll see quite a show.  Good fundraising potential.  Probably starring Al Sharpton and the Sharpettes.

November 23, 2014         Permalink 

THE START OF SOMETHING BIG? – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  Many have wondered when some groups would wake up and realize that affirmative-action policies at universities are hurting them.  The moment may have arrived.  Hard to predict the judicial future, but we know there's now some rumbling going on.  From ABC News: 

Lawsuits filed Monday against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill argue that affirmative action policies should be banned at colleges across the nation.

The federal suits allege Harvard and UNC rely on race-based affirmative action policies that impact admissions of high-achieving white and Asian American students. The Harvard lawsuit also contends that the Ivy League university specifically limits the number of Asian Americans it admits each year.

The Project on Fair Representation, an Alexandria, Virginia-based legal defense fund, said Monday's filings will be the first in a series of legal challenges against colleges across the country in an effort to ban race-based admission policies outright.

"Allowing this issue to be litigated in case after case will only perpetuate the hostilities that proper consideration of race is designed to avoid," state the lawsuits, both of which cite "Students for Fair Admissions" as plaintiff, a nonprofit group based in Austin, Texas made up of recently rejected applicants, prospective students and parents. "Racial preferences are a dangerous tool and may only be used as a last resort."

Both universities defended their admission policies Monday, noting that they are fully compliant with federal law.

COMMENT:  Asian Americans, in particular, may well be waking up.  They are among the most discriminated against students in America.  There's no question but that there are informal quotas on Asian Americans in some universities.  Strangely, they are not even considered a minority.

The lawsuit symbolizes something that may well become a reality in American politics – that minorities don't always get along, and sometimes are in competition with each other.  There's an assumption on the left that minorities will march off as one, supporting Democratic tickets.  Not necessarily.

The suit is fascinating.  We'll follow it.

November 23,  2014     Permalink

NOVEMBER 22,  2014

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

NUTS – Reader Thomas B. Nast, of Seattle, refers us to the latest offering from his politically ultra-correct city, which is vying with San Francisco for nut capital of the United States.  From the Washington Post:  "So, perhaps in keeping with the city’s strange reputation, Mayor Ed Murray took a decidedly vegan spin on the Thanksgiving tradition of pardoning a turkey: He pardoned a Tofurky...Actual line from the press release: ‘I, Mayor Murray, pardon Braeburn the Tofurky,’ the mayor proclaimed in the atrium of Seattle City Hall. Provocative and moving.  For the uninitiated, Tofurkey is a brand of vegetarian food made of wheat protein and tofu that’s supposed to taste like turkey. It looks like a meatloaf, but, well, it’s not."  We thank Seattle for its latest contribution to American theology  Every Tofurkey is sleeping more soundly tonight.

WE ARE NOT SHOCKED – From the Daily Caller:  "Members of the militant New Black Panther Party have been arrested and charged with making straw purchases of two handguns and are believed to have conspired to detonate pipe bombs during protests in Ferguson, Missouri, according to several reports.  Brandon Baldwin, who goes by the name Brandon Muhammad, and Olajuwon Davis, who goes by Olajuwon Ali, were indicted on Wednesday for making false statements in order to purchase two .45 ACP pistols at a Cabela’s in Hazelwood, just outside of Ferguson, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports."  One of the first acts of the Holder Justice Department was to drop voter intimidation charges against the New Black Panthers, despite overwhelming evidence that they were guilty.  They are a bad bunch, and I wouldn't be surprised if these new charges are true.  But they are innocent until proved guilty.  That is a standard we will maintain, even if our opponents don't. 

ON THIS DATE – For those of my generation, today, November 22nd, is a defining date.  We mark the 51st anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy.  He was the last president to die in office.  As we think back, it is apparent how low his party has sunk in the years since.  Jack Kennedy, whether one agreed with him or not, represented the national-defense liberals of his time.  In the 1960 presidential election he actually ran to the right of Richard Nixon on military preparedness.  Kennedy couldn't get near a presidential nomination of his party today.  Indeed, there is some chance he'd even be a Republican.   The Democrats would regard him, as they later regarded his allies like Henry Jackson, as a warmonger and militarist.  The bad guys won in the Democratic Party, and gave us Barack Obama.  I'm afraid they're getting even more powerful, putting the burden of responsible leadership on our side. 

November 22, 2014       Permalink

SIGN OF THE TIMES – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  It is remarkable to me that there are so few stories about the reality of life in Mexico.  What is wrong with the governance of that country?  It is an oil-exporting nation, it provides factory labor for major corporations, it has a large tourist trade.  Yet streams of Mexican people swarm across our borders looking for a decent life.  Will someone ask some tough questions?  Consider this mess.  From AP: 

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a security message Friday warning U.S. citizens to avoid the Pacific resort of Acapulco because of violence and protests.

In yet another blow to a coastal city once favored by U.S. movie stars and jet-setters in the 1950s and `60s, the embassy said its personnel "have been instructed to defer non-essential travel to Acapulco, by air or land," and added that it "cautions U.S. citizens to follow the same guidelines."

The alert noted that "protests and violent incidents continue in Guerrero state in response to the disappearance of 43 students there."

Demonstrators have blocked highways to Acapulco, hijacked buses and blockaded the city's airport to demand the government find the students who disappeared Sept. 26 in the nearby city of Iguala. Prosecutors say local police working for a drug gang probably turned the students over to gang members, who may have killed them and burned their bodies.

COMMENT:  That is awful, just awful.  It's occurring on our border.  Yet, have you seen any American news organization follow the story of those 43 students?  Is this political correctness gone crazy?  And how does it relate to our border security?  Journalists, get your pens out.

November 22, 2014       Permalink

OH NO.  DON'T TELL AL.  PLEASE – AT 11:29 A.M. ET:  The sky is indeed falling.  It turns out that, scandal of scandals, some scientists do really think for themselves, and are expressing their actual thoughts.  From College Fix, but caution:  In liberal circles this is considered a violation of the obscenity laws: 

A recent Purdue University survey shows a much more even split among scientists on the global warming climate change issue.

Many of those in favor of swift (government) action to deal with climate change cite a “97% of scientists believe in human-caused climate change;” however, that statistic has been questioned. The Purdue poll may back up the skeptics.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

A Purdue University survey shows that the scientific community is split on the question of whether human activities are at the root of climate change, with just over 50 percent of scientists saying that climate change is happening and that it is “caused mostly by human activities.”

Rather than claiming 97 percent of scientists believe in man-made global warming, hopefully now some media outlets will revise that number closer to 50 percent.

The Purdue study was done to compare opinions on climate change from scientists, climatologists, and the agricultural industry. Only 53 percent of climatologists said that climate change is caused “mostly by human activities.”

Agricultural advisers and farmers were much more likely to say humans are not the primary driver of climate change.

COMMENT:  Trust the farmers.  They actually walk outside.  The 97% figure apparently came from some dude in Australia, and I've read that it's under investigation by Australian researchers.  The number itself is highly suspicious.  It sounds like the results of a third-world election.  I've never known of 97% believing in anything. 

Slowly, the truth is coming out.

November 22, 2014       Permalink

DOUBTS ON OBAMA IMMIGRATION PLAN – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:  There was a time when the Obama press was wilfully blind, and would parrot the Obama line on almost anything.  But some progress is being made.  Turns out some liberal papers, on their editorial pages, aren't buying the president's immigration proposals.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Of America’s four national newspapers, only the New York Times’s editorial board is satisfied with President Obama’s plan to act on immigration reform without Congress.

Obama on Thursday announced that he would issue an executive order to delay deportation for some five million immigrants now living in the United States illegally.

“The president always has had authority to calibrate and prioritize the enforcement of immigration (and other) laws, but this wholesale reinterpretation amounts to overreaching,” the Washington Post editorial board said in response. “Mr. Obama was right to argue Thursday that otherwise law-abiding undocumented immigrants deserve a route out of the shadows. But unilateral action is not the right way to achieve that.”

Obama’s announcement did no better with USA Today. “His plan — which will allow certain immigrants to avoid deportation for three years — amounts to executive overreach,” said the newspaper’s editorial board.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board sounded a similar note: "Obama’s policy by executive order is tearing at the fabric of national consent.”

COMMENT:  We've said many times that the Washington Post has the best editorial page of any liberal paper in the country.  It's thoughtful and restrained. 

And The Wall Street Journal has the best conservative editorial page in the country.  Also thoughtful, well written, and restrained.

Both oppose the president on this issue.

The president is now considered a lame duck.  He is making himself more lame by not building coalitions.  Ronald Reagan worked across the aisles.  So did Bill Clinton.  Obama might do us the courtesy of trying.

November 22,  2014     Permalink