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OCTOBER 10,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:53 P.M. ET: 

GRIMES DOWN? – Has Democratic Senate candidate Alison Undergone Grimes finished herself off in her race against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky?  From The Hill:  "'Meet the Press' host Chuck Todd said Friday that Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Alison Undergone Grimes 'disqualified herself' by refusing to say whether she voted to elect President Obama.  A full panel of pundits on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' including host Joe Scarborough, panned Grimes's dodge, which came during a Thursday sit-down with The Courier-Journal editorial board.  Asked directly three times about whether she voted for Obama, Grimes repeatedly refused to answer, declaring that Obama's not on the ballot this fall and defending the 'sanctity of the ballot box.'  'And Kentuckians expect her to cast a tough vote on anything? Is she ever gonad answer a tough question on anything?' Todd asked, incredulously, after viewing the clip.  'You wanna be a U.S. senator? If you can't find a way to stand behind your party's president ... you can disagree with him but you can't answer a basic question and you come across looking that ridiculous?'"  Let's hope the voters in Kentucky feel the same way.

MAJOR ENDORSEMENT – The Colorado Senate race is one of the hottest, with a good chance for a GOP pickup.  The state's leading newspaper just reversed the endorsement it gave Democrat Mark Udall six years ago, and endorsed the Republican.   In a race this close, an endorsement like this can have some clout.  From The Hill:  "The Denver Post is endorsing Republican Cory Gardner in his bid to unseat Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall, in one of 2014’s key midterm races.  The Post, which had endorsed Udall in 2008, praised the senator personally but did not mince words on his political impact, saying that he 'is not perceived as a leader in Washington' and had attempted to 'frighten voters rather than inspire them with a hopeful vision.' 'It's time for a change,' the newspaper editorial board wrote."  The election is three weeks from Tuesday.  Control of the Senate is still in doubt.  Colorado is a must for our side.

SAY IT AIN'T SO – From the Washington Examiner:  "Labor Secretary Thomas Perez is emerging as the new leading candidate for attorney general.  The White House is poised to announce President Obama’s choice to replace the outgoing Eric Holder, who announced his resignation last month, according to the New York Times.  Perez, who has been the secretary of Labor since July 2013, is a former Justice Department civil rights official and son of Dominican immigrants.  People familiar with the administration’s planning say the announcement could come in the next few weeks. If true, his nomination will happen before this year’s 2014 midterm elections – something many on Capitol Hill didn’t think would happen."  Perez is one of the most extreme members of the administration, a hardened left winger.  We hope that Obama sobers up and rejects this crazy idea.

October 10, 2014       Permalink

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE – AT 8:45 A.M. ET:  From AP: 

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for risking their lives to fight for children's rights. The decision made Malala, a 17-year-old student and education activist, the youngest-ever Nobel winner.

The news set off celebrations on the streets of Mingora, the main town in Pakistan's volatile Swat valley, with residents greeting each other and distributing sweets. At the town's Khushal Public School, which is owned by Malala's father, students danced in celebration Friday, jumping up and down.

When she was a student there, Malala was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman two years ago for insisting that girls as well as boys have the right to an education. Surviving several operations with the help of British medical care, she continued both her activism and her studies.

Appropriately, Malala was at school in the central English city of Birmingham at the time of the Nobel announcement and was expected to make a statement later Friday.

Satyarthi, 60, has been at the forefront of a global movement to end child slavery and exploitative child labor since 1980, when he gave up his career as an electrical engineer. The grassroots activist has led the rescue of tens of thousands of child slaves and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation. He has also survived several attempts on his life.

COMMENT:  I don't know much about Satyarthi, but Malala is a true heroine, although many "feminists" ignore her, as they ignore oppressed and threatened Muslim women generally.  Mustn't engage in "Islamophobia."  Mustn't suggest there's anything wrong with "other cultures."  Malala, who's bigger than all of them, is having her day.

October 10,  2014     Permalink 

VULGAR – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  Anyone watching CNN's coverage of the death of the Ebola patient in Dallas knows that the network has gone all in with charges that the passing of Thomas Duncan was due to racism – that he didn't get the same care that white victims of the disease have gotten.  It is absolutely disgraceful.  No evidence of racial bias has been presented at all.  Indeed, the hospital involved in Mr. Duncan's treatment has a multicultural history and treats patients of all backgrounds.  From Breitbart: 

Minutes after news broke of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan, CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield suggested racism might have contributed to the Ebola patient's death.

While talking with her guest about the possibility of a wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital, Banfield said, "You cannot rule out the notion that he had no Social Security number when he went to the hospital, and had a strong, thick West African accent. And his partner even said he's from Liberia."

Banfield is referring to reports that Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital sent Duncan home on September 20 with antibiotics.

Later in the segment, Banfield said that she didn’t believe "malice" had anything to with the hospital's actions, which completely contradicted what she suggested just a few minutes earlier.

Without a hint of evidence, CNN seems to have decided that the tragic death of Mr. Duncan and this unspeakably awful West African Ebola outbreak is gist for racial-hatred mill. While Texans and Americans worry about the possibility of an outbreak on our own shores, CNN doesn't seem to think that's a sexy enough story; so let's throw some unfounded racial speculation on the fire.
Banfield mentioned nothing about any reporting to back up her race baiting.

During CNN's Jeff Zucker-era, which is about 18 months old, this kind of irresponsible racial taunting has become the new standard at the failing leftwing cable news outlet. With no evidence, or even a completed investigation, CNN spent more than a week ginning up racial division in Ferguson, Missouri, over this past summer.

COMMENT:  That is correct.  CNN's ratings are below abysmal, despite the fact that the network employs some fine journalists.  But it has a history of reporting from the left, a history started by CNN's founder, Ted Turner, a major flake who burnished his left-wing credentials by marrying Jane Fonda.  CNN has never shaken that history.  Although it claims to be "the first name in news," and does a decent job with spot news, the overall premise of CNN is a liberal view of the world. 

If CNN would correct its bias, its ratings would be much higher.  As it is, it loses half its potential audience the minute it goes on the air.

October 10, 2014       Permalink

OH, THE PAIN, THE DUCKING – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:   Remember when Obama was respectable?  Remember when his holy name was spoken in hushed tones?  One Democratic Senate candidate remembers, and knows that things have changed.  From WaPo:

Alison Lundergan Grimes (D), who is trying to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) this fall, appeared before the Louisville Courier-Journal editorial board on Thursday to make her pitch for their endorsement. The life-long Democrat, whose father represented Kentucky for the party in the state House and who herself has been on the ballot in the state on the Democratic ticket, was asked a simple question. Did she vote for President Obama in 2008 and 2012?

And she didn't answer. Repeatedly.

In an interesting nod to the times, the interview was streamed live, meaning that it took no time at all for Republicans to clip the non-answer and put it online.

Obama is far more unpopular in Kentucky than he is in the rest of the country. Polling last month had his approval rating in the state at about 30 percent, the sort of numbers that wouldn't earn him a victory in the state if he were to run again, not that he won it in 2008 or 2012.

Grimes tries to pivot off of the board's question (for some reason!) by linking herself to Hillary Clinton. There's not a lot of good data on Clinton's approval in Kentucky, but at least the state voted for her husband twice. If you have to be a type of Democrat in Kentucky, be a "Clinton Democrat" as Grimes puts it.  Fine.

COMMENT:  This will hurt her.  Ducking the question as to whether you voted for your own party's presidential candidate does not look good. 

Polls show McConnell with a small lead.  I hope this makes it a comfortable lead.

October 10, 2014       Permalink

IRANIAN NUKES – AT 8:08 A.M. ET:  There was a huge blast this past week at an Iranian nuclear plant.  The smart money says it was espionage.  Other smart money says the episode proves the Iranian nuclear-weapons program is still live.  From Fox: 

The massive blast at an Iranian nuclear plant earlier this week remains shrouded in mystery, but it cleared up one thing, according to those who track the Islamic Republic: The nuclear weapons program Tehran has long denied is real.

The massive blast Sunday night rocked buildings more than 10 miles away, and before-and-after satellite images published by the Israel Defense Force showed startling destruction at a facility Iran has repeatedly barred international inspectors from entering.

“[The] images indicate that a complete section of structures was simply eliminated by an unexplained explosion,” IDF analyst Ronen Solomon said. “The explosion wiped several testing units off the face of the earth while inflicting collateral damage on adjacent buildings.”

Iran, which initially denied an explosion took place, was forced a day later to own up to a blast, via the IRNA official Iranian news agency. The report said two people had been killed as a result of a fire at the site. The true casualty figure may never be known.

Israel has long insisted that Iran’s charm offensive, successful in easing western sanctions, is a ruse to buy time while it pursues nuclear weapons.

“Don’t be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm offensive,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 29. “It’s designed for one purpose and for one purpose only: to lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran’s path to the bomb.

COMMENT:  I'm guessing that this was an Israeli operation.  There will be pro forma denial, of course, but why else would the Israel Defense Forces be providing before-and-after images? 

It may have been a warning sent by the Israelis that any agreement with Iran reached by international negotiators is not binding on Israel.  

Western negotiators are working toward a nuclear deal with Iran right now.  Many grown-ups in the West are afraid that the deal may be another Obama cave-in.  The Israelis are the most worried of all.

October 10, 2014       Permalink

OCTOBER 9,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:09 P.M. ET: 

SAD NUMBERS – From Breitbart:  "Nearly six in ten black Americans (59 percent) believe that there would already be a cure for the deadly Ebola virus had it originated in Europe or America.   A YouGov/Economist poll also found that 62 percent of Americans think 'more would have been done' to combat Ebola had it not originated in West Africa. Forty-two percent of Americans also believe there would be a cure had the virus originated in Europe or the U.S. while 23 percent do not think that would be the case.  The poll, which was conducted October 4-6 and has a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percentage points, was taken before Thomas Eric Duncan -- the Liberian alien who became the first person diagnosed with Ebola on American soil -- died on Wednesday."  There is probably truth to some of these beliefs.   We are more aware of tragedy in Europe or America.  It's cultural.  But I doubt if a quick cure could be cooked up simply because a disease originates close to home.  That's not science. 

SERIOUS STUFF IN LONDON – From AFP:  "LONDON — Police in London on Thursday said they had arrested a fifth British man on suspicion of Islamist-linked 'terrorism' after saying earlier they had managed to avert a 'significant plot.'  The 20-year-old was arrested 'on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism,' the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.  The police said he was arrested on Tuesday along with the other four, but this was not revealed 'for operational reasons.'"  At least they're not saying he was arrested on suspicion of planning "workplace violence."  There has been reporting that suggests that the alleged perpetrators plotted to behead ordinary people on the streets of London.

AMERICA IN 2014 – From AP:  "PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A Philadelphia supermarket stabbing that left a man with wounds in his face and neck didn't deter some customers, who continued to shop.  Police Chief Inspector Scott Small says the attacker stabbed the man on Tuesday evening.  Small says the victim's wounds left a 'heavy blood trail' but about 20 customers continued to shop near it even after they were told it was a crime scene and the store was closed. He says some customers even wheeled shopping carts through the blood trail and there was 'no way they could have missed the blood.'  Police say the stabbing suspect was apprehended. Small says the victim was taken to a hospital in critical condition with deep cuts."  We now await the arrival of the excuse industry, which will "explain" the "socio-economic" reasons for this cultural breakdown.  And, believe me, it's your fault.

$60,000 A YEAR – Reader Jacqueline Reckseit alerts us to this, from Fox:  "They got most of their SAT questions right, but students at Harvard blew this lay-up posed by the college blog Campus Reform: Who is the bigger threat to world peace, ISIS or the U.S.?  Various students at the hallowed Ivy League school said they believe that America, not the Muslim fanatics who behead innocent people, is the biggest threat to world peace.  The students were interviewed on the quad by Campus Reform on Saturday, and the shocking video was posted on Tuesday...Caleb Bonham, editor of Campus Reform, conducted the interviews and said that the students’ response is nothing new.  'This video demonstrates the absurdity behind the bash America fad,' Bonham told FoxNews.com. 'Unfortunately, too many students think it is intellectual to try and piece together a reason why America is a greater threat than this terrorist organization trying to establish a caliphate through public executions, bombings and beheadings.'"   These kids will be our leaders in 25 years.  We hope they mature and grow, unlike many of their teachers, who are still stuck in the 1960s.  Ronald Reagan was right in saying that we're always one generation away from losing our freedoms.  I wonder what generation that will be.

October 9,  2014     Permalink 

DEVASTATING TO MANY – AT 10:53 A.M. ET:  Obamacare, as we noted last night, is a drag on Democrats.  Now the drag may get draggier.  From Fox: 

More than a dozen states plan to cancel health care policies not in compliance with ObamaCare in the coming weeks, affecting thousands of people just before the midterm elections.

"It looks like several hundred thousand people across the country will receive notices in the coming days and weeks," said Jim Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

The policies are being canceled because states that initially granted a reprieve at the request of President Obama are no longer willing to do so.

In coming weeks, 13 states and the District of Columbia plan to cancel such policies, which generally fall out of compliance with the Affordable Care Act because they don’t offer the level of coverage the law requires.

Virginia will be hardest hit, with 250,000 policies expected to be canceled.

And because federal law requires a 60-day notice of any plan changes, voters will be notified no later than November 1, right before the Nov. 4 midterms.

Many of those forced out of their current plans and into ObamaCare may not be able to keep their doctors. They also could face higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses, making ObamaCare an election issue on the eve of voting.

Obama had originally unequivocally promised that underhis health care plan, everyone could keep their doctors and plans.

COMMENT:  Ah, the Obaman competence.  The vision.  The caring souls.  I hope this mess will produce change on election day. 

October 9, 2014       Permalink

GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – AT 10:27 A.M. ET:  You really can't make this up.  And it's from Nebraska, which shows that nuttiness in education has invaded the heartland.  From NRO: 

A Nebraska school district has instructed its teachers to stop referring to students by “gendered expressions” such as “boys and girls,” and use “gender inclusive” ones such as “purple penguins” instead.

“Don’t use phrases such as ‘boys and girls,’ ‘you guys,’ ‘ladies and gentlemen,’ and similarly gendered expressions to get kids’ attention,” instructs a training document given to middle-school teachers at the Lincoln Public Schools.

“Create classroom names and then ask all of the ‘purple penguins’ to meet on the rug,” it advises.

The document also warns against asking students to “line up as boys or girls,” and suggests asking them to line up by whether they prefer “skateboards or bikes/milk or juice/dogs or cats/summer or winter/talking or listening.”

“Always ask yourself . . . ‘Will this configuration create a gendered space?’” the document says.

The instructions were part of a list called “12 steps on the way to gender inclusiveness” developed by Gender Spectrum, an organization that “provides education, training and support to help create a gender sensitive and inclusive environment for children of all ages.”

Other items on the list include asking all students about their preferred pronouns and decorating the classroom with “all genders welcome” door hangers.

If teachers still find it “necessary” to mention that genders exist at all, the document states, they must list them as “boy, girl, both or neither.”

COMMENT:  You may be sure that this will spread.  Teachers themselves are being indoctrinated in left-wing politics in schools of education.  This Nebraska program is part of the diversity industry, part of the "inclusiveness" game.  But, of course, diversity and inclusiveness never include people with a contrary point of view. 

Oh, do you know where your purple penguin is? 

October 9, 2014       Permalink

HAS CANADA GIVEN UP ON KEYSTONE? – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  I was wondering when this was going to happen.  Good for the Canadians.  From Bloomberg: 

So you’re the Canadian oil industry and you do what you think is a great thing by developing a mother lode of heavy crude beneath the forests and muskeg of northern Alberta. The plan is to send it clear to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast via a pipeline called Keystone XL. Just a few years back, America desperately wanted that oil.

Then one day the politics get sticky. In Nebraska, farmers don’t want the pipeline running through their fields or over their water source. U.S. environmentalists invoke global warming in protesting the project. President Barack Obama keeps siding with them, delaying and delaying approval. From the Canadian perspective, Keystone has become a tractor mired in an interminably muddy field.

In this period of national gloom comes an idea -- a crazy-sounding notion, or maybe, actually, an epiphany. How about an all-Canadian route to liberate that oil sands crude from Alberta’s isolation and America’s fickleness?  Canada’s own environmental and aboriginal politics are holding up a shorter and cheaper pipeline to the Pacific that would supply a shipping portal to oil-thirsty Asia.

Instead, go east, all the way to the Atlantic.

Thus was born Energy East, an improbable pipeline that its backers say has a high probability of being built. It will cost C$12 billion ($10.7 billion) and could be up and running by 2018. Its 4,600-kilometer (2,858-mile) path, taking advantage of a vast length of existing and underused natural gas pipeline, would wend through six provinces and four time zones. It would be Keystone on steroids, more than twice as long and carrying a third more crude.

Its end point, a refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, operated by a reclusive Canadian billionaire family, would give Canada’s oil-sands crude supertanker access to the same Louisiana and Texas refineries Keystone was meant to supply.

COMMENT:  That's free enterprise.  Find a need and fill it.  I wish we'd build Keystone, but we won't unless a Republican is in the White House.  So let the Canadians profit.  They've earned it with their oil exploration. 

We're constantly told to go to green energy.  Of course, we eventually will, when the technology is ready, at a reasonable cost.  In the interim, we'll have a petroleum-based economy.  Clearly, we should make our energy as clean as possible.  We can do it, and still use the oil and natural gas that are plentiful.

October 9, 2014       Permalink

FIGHT AGAINST ISIS, LATEST – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  It isn't going well, that's for sure.  From Reuters: 

(Reuters) - Islamic State fighters seized more than a third of the Syrian border town of Kobani, a monitoring group said on Thursday, as U.S.-led air strikes failed to halt their advance and Turkish forces nearby looked on without intervening.

With Washington ruling out a ground operation in Syria, Turkey described as unrealistic any expectation that it would conduct a cross-border operation unilaterally to relieve the mainly Kurdish town.

The commander of Kobani's heavily outgunned Kurdish defenders said Islamic State controlled slightly less than a third of the town that lies within sight of Turkish territory.

However, he acknowledged that the militants had made major gains in a three-week battle that has also led to the worst streets clashes in years between police and Kurdish protesters across the frontier in southeast Turkey.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamic State, which is still widely known by its former acronym of ISIS, had pushed forward on Thursday.

"ISIS control more than a third of Kobani. All eastern areas, a small part of the northeast and an area in the southeast," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Observatory which monitors the Syrian civil war.

COMMENT:   The Kurds are intensely pro-American, but we have always knifed them in the back, beginning with Bush 41's ice-cold secretary of state, James Baker, who wouldn't lift a finger to help them after the first Gulf War.  The Kurds have no state, but want one, and have no oil. 

Things aren't going well.  I wonder what Obama will say when the town falls.  He'll make a statement, then go play golf.

October 9, 2014     Permalink