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OCTOBER 12,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:45 P.M. ET: 

MY HEART BREAKS – From The New York Times:  "Rachel Maddow, the biggest star on the MSNBC cable network, just posted her lowest quarterly ratings results ever.  'Morning Joe,' MSNBC’s signature morning program, scored its second-lowest quarterly ratings, reaching an average of just 87,000 viewers in the key news demographic group.  And 'Ronan Farrow Daily,' the network’s heavily promoted new afternoon show, which stars a 26-year-old Rhodes Scholar with a high-profile Hollywood lineage, has been largely a dud.  Though it has mostly happened quietly, which may be a comment on the cable network’s larger status in the media landscape, MSNBC has seen its ratings hit one of the deepest skids in its history, with the recently completed third quarter of 2014 generating some record lows."  I weep and wail.  This is a nutty, left-wing "network." awash in angst and feeling the pain of the allegedly downtrodden.  A little adult reporting might help.

IS HE STILL AROUND? – From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:  "Albany – Democrat Jason Carter’s campaign for governor has unleashed a weapon that’s long been waiting in the wings: Former President Jimmy Carter.  The 90-year-old former president has helped his grandson raise millions of dollars and provided him behind-the-scenes counsel. But the Georgia native’s appearance Sunday morning at a black church in Albany marked his official debut on the campaign trail for his grandson’s bid to oust Gov. Nathan Deal.  The elder Carter urged congregants to cast their ballots – early voting starts Monday – to help his grandson 'make Martin Luther King’s dream come true.' And he accused Republicans of seeking to deny them voting rights.  'Twelve years ago in Georgia, we had a change in governmental attitude toward the Voting Rights Act, and the right of all people to vote,' said Carter, who said when he was Georgia governor in the 1970s he signed a law that designated all high school principals as voter registrars."   Some people stay too long.  Jimmy Carter was an embarrassing president, and his Carter Center is financed largely by funds from Arab dictators.  Any appeal he still has is to low-information voters.

A DELIGHTFUL CONSPIRACY THEORY – From The Hill:  "Political strategist Dick Morris accused Hillary Clinton of conspiring with former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in his stinging critique of President Obama's foreign policy. 'I think Hillary put him up to it,' Morris said during an interview on John Catsimatidis's radio show to air Sunday on New York's 970 AM. 'What Panetta is doing is a hit – a contract killing – for Hillary. Panetta at core is a Clinton person, not an Obama person. By accurately and truthfully describing the deliberations in the [Obama] cabinet, he makes Hillary look better, and he makes Obama look worse … And I think he’ll get his reward in heaven.'"  I have no idea whether this is true.  Morris, after all, has a track record that is less than stellar.  But it's such a juicy conspiracy theory that I just had to report it.  Fun is important in life.

October 12, 2014       Permalink

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES – AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  Sometimes things just don't work out the way they're supposed to.  Or is it that some people just don't care.  From William Jacobson's great College Insurrection website: 

Isn’t it strange how the “Affordable” Care Act is making college less affordable?

Valerie Richardson of the Washington Times reported.

College students overwhelmingly swung for President Obama in 2008 and 2012, but they’re now finding their on-campus work hours cut back, thanks to Obamacare.

The latest example comes from the University of Colorado Boulder, where administrators posted an online notice last week informing students that their university-provided employment would be capped at 25 hours per week as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

Under Obamacare, employers must provide health insurance coverage to employees working 30 hours or more per week or face fines.

“After the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), the campus took the opportunity to examine the number of hours student employees were working per week and has established a policy which sets the maximum number of hours a student employee can work during a bi-weekly pay period,” said the Sept. 30 notice on the university website.

Cutting student work hours is increasingly becoming the standard at universities as they move to comply with the ACA’s rules on insurance coverage, but students aren’t the only ones affected. Adjunct faculty and graduate assistants are also seeing their hours reduced in response, according to Campus Reform.

COMMENT:  This problem has been known for some time, but goes unaddressed by an administation claiming to be "sensitive" to education and the economic plight of students.  Yeah, right.  They've got the backs of students who have to work their way through college – and they're regularly plunging knives right into those backs.

But Barack understands.  And he'll take care of this right after he defeats ISIS and returns from Martha's Vineyard.

October 12, 2014       Permalink

IRAQ PLEADS FOR GROUND TROOPS – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  The situation on the ground is desperate.  From London's Telegraph: 

Iraqi officials have issued a desperate plea for America to bring US ground troops back to the embattled country, as heavily armed Islamic State militants came within striking distance of Baghdad.

Amid reports that Isil forces have advanced as far as Abu Ghraib, a town that is effectively a suburb of Baghdad, a senior governor claimed up to 10,000 fighters from the movement were now poised to assault the capital.

The warning came from Sabah al-Karhout, president of the provisional council of Anbar Province, the vast desert province to the west of Baghdad that has now largely fallen under jihadist control.

The province’s two main cities, Fallujah and Ramadi, were once known as “the graveyard of the Americans”, and the idea of returning there will not be welcomed by the Pentagon.

But were the province to be controlled by Isil, it would give their forces a springboard from which to mount an all-out assault on Baghdad, where a team of around 1,500 US troops is already acting as mentors to the beleaguered Iraqi army.

Iraqi government officials claim that while international attention has been focused in recent weeks on the Syrian border town of Kobane - where Kurdish fighters are still battling to keep advancing Isil gunmen at bay – Anbar province has been on the verge of collapse.

Government forces in the provincial capital Ramadi were holding out against the Isil offensive on Saturday, but US officials have warned that the city was in a “tenuous” position.

“I think it’s fragile there now,” said one senior US defence official, speaking to the AFP news agency. “They are being resupplied and they’re holding their own, but it’s tough and challenging.”

COMMENT:  Obama's entire strategy for Iraq has been politically driven.  He wanted to prove that he could "wind down" a war.  He certainly wound it down, didn't he? 

A moment of truth is approaching.  That doesn't mean we'll get truth from our commander-in-chief.  And while most of the mainstream media will still cover for him, an increasing number of reporters are starting to ask the tough questions that should have been asked during Obama's 2008 campaign.

One thing to watch for – some dramatic steps by the administration in domestic and immigration policy, following the midterms.  Obama may well try to draw attention away from the Mideast, even if it means controversy at home.  Iraq may collapse.  He'll tell us it was inevitable, considering the mistakes of...
George W. Bush.

October 12, 2014      Permalink

POSSIBLE? – AT 8:20 A.M. ET:  Could there be a senatorial upset in Virginia?  Well...maybe.  From the Weekly Standard: 

There are signs that the U.S. Senate race in Virginia, previously considered a long-shot for Republicans and a safe seat for Democrats, could get interesting in the final weeks of the campaign. The incumbent, Democrat Mark Warner, has had a large lead in the polls over his Republican opponent Ed Gilespie since the beginning of the race. But the lead has shrunk in recent weeks from about 20 points to about 10, and the Gillespie campaign is now up with TV ads in the swing Northern Virginia market outside Washington, which Warner had previously had to himself.

A popular former governor, Warner has cultivated a reputation of moderate bipartisanship—despite the fact that he's voted with President Obama 97 percent of the time.

But a scandal touching Virginia's current Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, may also implicate Warner. Several Democratic figures in the Old Dominion are involved a federal investigation looking into the circumstances of the resignation of a former Democratic state senator. The Washington Post has the scoop that federal investigators have been told of Warner's supposed involvement in offering that senator and his family political favors in exchange for his staying in the legislature.

COMMENT:  It's still a long shot, unless something truly scandalous comes out in the final weeks of the campaign.  That Northern Virginia area is a Democratic stronghold, and filled with government workers.  I'm not so sure how much penetration Gillespie can achieve there.

But miracles happen.  I'd love to see Virginia come through for us.  It's my second home.

October 12,  2014     Permalink

OCTOBER 11,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:51 P.M. ET: 

SETBACK – The Senate race in Iowa, which showed GOP candidate Joni Ernst building up a lead, has apparently settled back into a dead heat.  From The Hill:  "Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst (R) is in a virtual tie with Rep. Bruce Braley (D), inching ahead by 1 percentage point with less than three weeks remaining until Election Day.  Des Moines Register released the Iowa poll Saturday, showing Ernst at 47 percent and Braley on her heels at 46 percent among likely voters.  In a poll conducted by the newspaper last month, Ernst led Braley 44 percent to 38 percent."  Of course, this could just be the normal fluctuation within polling, but it must be a matter of concern to us.  Apparently, undecideds are breaking mostly for Braley, who's a weak candidate.  This is one the GOP would dearly love to win, as the winner will replace liberal senator Tom Harkin, who is retiring.

DEM BASE APATHETIC – From The Hill:  "The Democratic Party's worst fears about the midterm election look to be coming true.  Polling in recent weeks suggests turnout on Election Day could be very low, even by the standards of recent midterms. That’s bad news for Democrats because core groups in the liberal base are more likely to stay home than are people in the demographic segments that lean Republican.  A Gallup poll last week found that voters are less engaged in this year's midterms than they were in 2010 and 2006. Only 33 percent of respondents said they were giving at least 'some' thought to the upcoming midterms, compared to 46 percent in 2010 and 42 percent in 2006. Even more troubling for Democrats, Republicans held a 12-point advantage when those paying 'some' attention were broken down by party.  Historically, the core Democratic constituencies of young people, minorities and single women are more likely to skip voting in midterm elections. The current projections suggest that months of effort by the Democratic Party to engage those groups on issues such as the minimum wage and women's pay may have been in vain."  Yes, it's now being reported from a number of states that the "Republican war on women" theme, a favorite of liberals, is falling flat.  Too many women are in economic trouble to believe that Democrats truly care for them.

INCREDIBLE – From AP:  "BAGHDAD (AP) — On the western edge of Iraq's capital, Islamic State group militants battle government forces and exchange mortar fire, only adding to the sense of siege in Baghdad despite airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition.  Yet military experts say the Sunni militants of the Islamic State group, who now control a large territory along the border that Iraq and Syria share, won't be able to fight through both government forces and Shiite militias now massed around the capital.  It does, however, put them in a position to wreak havoc in Iraq's biggest city, with its suicide attacks and other assaults further eroding confidence in Iraq's nascent federal government and its troops, whose soldiers already fled the Islamic State group's initial lightning advance in June."  If Islamic State forces lay siege to Baghdad, even if they don't immediately take the city, the psychological damage to our side will be devastating.  What will Obama do then?  There apparently is no real strategy.  Of course, he could always solve the problem by going on another vacation.  Thanksgiving is coming up.  Christmas.  Wonderful times to get away.

October 11,  2014     Permalink 

TAKING IT SERIOUSLY – AT 8:25 A.M. ET:  Britain has a more serious internal security problem than we do, in part due to reckless immigration policies that are coming home to roost.  From The Times of Israel:

The British government is monitoring thousands of terror suspects in London, Mayor Boris Johnson told the Telegraph newspaper on Friday night, as the official terror threat in the UK remained at “severe” level.

“In London we’re very, very vigilant and very, very concerned,” Johnson said. “Every day — as you saw recently, we had to raise the threat level — every day the security services are involved in thousands of operations…there are probably in the low thousands of people that we are monitoring in London.”

In late August the UK’s terror threat risk level was raised to “severe,” meaning an attack was “highly likely”. It was the second highest level out of five possible categories and the highest since July 2011.

The increase has been tied to developments in Syria and Iraq, and Britain’s involvement in the fight against the Islamic State group there, which could encourage retaliatory attacks by British extremists.

It has been estimated that approximately 500 UK nationals have traveled to fight in the region, with the Telegraph reporting that about half have returned home for various reasons.

“London has a particular concern,” Johnson said, “because probably of the five or six hundred that are out there, we think a third, maybe more — maybe half — come from the London area."

COMMENT:  I've always said that there's a "great" Britain and a "not-so-great" Britain.  Boris Johnson, who has just done a book on Churchill, is part of "great" Britain.  The other part will, on Monday morning, dance the appeasement act by introducing into the House of Commons a bill calling for the recognition of "Palestine" as a nation, even though there are no agreed-upon borders.  It is the standard left-wing stuff.  The "Palestinians" are not called upon to do anything to gain this ridiculous recognition.  The bill will probably pass, given British politics, despite government opposition.  It will not be binding.  Britain once depended on Churchill and his allies.  Now it must depend on Boris Johnson and his allies. 

October 11, 2014       Permalink

BAD START – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  Military experts are warning about this – the air campaign against ISIS just isn't working, and is unlikely to work without ground troops under our direct control.  From WaPo: 

REYHANLI, Turkey — The U.S.-led air war in Syria has gotten off to a rocky start, with even the Syrian rebel groups closest to the United States turning against it, U.S. ally Turkey refusing to contribute and the plight of a beleaguered Kurdish town exposing the limitations of the strategy.

U.S. officials caution that the strikes are just the beginning of a broader strategy that could take years to carry out. But the anger that the attacks have stirred risks undermining the effort, analysts and rebels say.

The main beneficiary of the strikes so far appears to be President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have taken advantage of the shift in the military balance to step up attacks against the moderate rebels designated by President Obama as partners of the United States in the war against extremists.

The U.S. targets have included oil facilities, a granary and an electricity plant under Islamic State control. The damage to those facilities has caused shortages and price hikes across the rebel-held north that are harming ordinary Syrians more than the well-funded militants, residents and activists say.

COMMENT:  You just have the feeling that Obama isn't really interested.  He does the minimum to hold off public opinion, but there is no actual strategy here.  If we do not provide a clear result soon, allies will continue backing away.

October 11,  2014     Permalink

OBAMA CAN'T GET POLL TRACTION – AT 8:05 A.M. ET:  President Obama is at or near the lowest point of his presidency, in terms of major polls.  From Breitbart: 

Gallup's 3-day rolling poll found President Obama's job approval back at 39% Friday. His disapproval rating climbed to 56%, which puts the president 17 points underwater. This nearly matches Obama's lowest showing on this particular poll, which is 38% from early September of this year.

According to the Real Clear Politics poll of polls, the president currently sits at 42% approve, 53% disapprove.

The last poll from any polling firm to show the president's job approval above water was CBS News back in July of 2013.

COMMENT:  I think it highly unlikely that the president will show much improvement in approval numbers in the last two years of his term.  People have already formed their opinion about him, and that opinion is decidely negative.  What great triumph could he produce, when he hasn't produced any in his first six years?

October 11, 2014     Permalink