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OCTOBER 2,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET:

MONEYBAGS DROP HILLARY – From The Wall Street Journal:   WASHINGTON—Some Hillary Clinton donors are defecting to Joe Biden, resisting entreaties from the Democratic front-runner’s campaign to stand by her despite slipping poll numbers.  A few of the fundraisers have gone public with their presidential preference. Others have quietly decamped and signaled their intentions to the Draft Biden 2016 super PAC that is working to prod the vice president into the race for the White House.  “Instead of being ready for Hillary, we’re waiting for Joe,” said Bill Bartmann, the founder and chief executive of CFS2 Inc., and onetime donor to Mrs. Clinton’s friendly super PAC. Mr. Bartmann’s switch in allegiance prompted one Clinton campaign official to contact him and ask: “Why are you doing this?” he said.  I can understand abandoning a sinking ship, but I can't understand boarding one that has leaked for years.  Joe has run for president before, and was massacred each time.

NOT GOOD – From the Washington Examiner:   For a third month in a row, native-born Americans saw their job numbers tumble while immigrants experience solid gains.  According to the monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers just released, "foreign-born" jobs numbers increased by 14,000, while those for "native-born" Americans fell off a cliff, by 262,000.  There is, of course, nothing wrong with legal immigrants getting jobs.  We'd criticize them if they didn't.  But numbers like this can produce ugly friction between immigrants and native-born, and help feed the narrative that immigrants are taking jobs away from Americans. 

GILLESPIE TO RUN FOR VIRGINIA GOVERNORSHIP – From WaPo:   RICHMOND — Former White House adviser and Republican U.S. Senate nominee Ed Gillespie confirmed Friday that he plans to run for Virginia governor in 2017.  Word of Gillespie’s plans leaked earlier this week, after the state senator who was widely considered the GOP’s most likely nominee dropped out. But Gillespie himself had not commented until Friday.  “My focus right now is helping keep our Republican majority in the General Assembly, and next year it will be ensuring that our Republican presidential nominee wins Virginia, but with my friend Mark Obenshain making clear he won’t be running in 2017, I’ll start laying a foundation to run myself after our elections here are over next month,” Gillespie said in an e-mail to The Washington Post.  He proved a superb candidate against popular incumbent Senator Mark Warner last year, coming close to victory.  I think he'd be a great asset to our side in the governor's chair.

October 2, 2015        Permalink 

LECTURE TO LIZ – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  Elizabeth Warren is starting to believe her own press clippings.   She had a prominent economist fired from a liberal-leaning institution, and now there's a backlash against her.  It's about time.  From The Hill: 

Five top Democratic economists are criticizing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and the left-leaning Brookings Institution for forcing one of its nonresident economic fellows to resign.

Warren raised concerns earlier this week that Robert Litan, a nonresident and unpaid economics fellow at the think tank, was using Brookings to peddle an industry-backed study that was critical of a financial advice regulatory pitch championed by Warren and the White House.

In a letter to Brookings earlier this week, Warren questioned the independence of the study, which Litan openly notes in the text "was supported by the Capital Group, one of the largest mutual fund asset managers in the United States."

Hours later, Litan was forced to resign.

The Democratic economists say they're "concerned" about Litan's treatment.

They said Warren's approach and Brookings' "complicity with it threatens ad hominem attack on any author who may be associated with an industry or interest whose views are contrary to hers."

"Those who differ with Litan instead should offer a substantive rebuttal to the paper in question, which would do much more to clarify the issue than implicitly depicting him as being inherently corrupted by the sponsorship of his work," the economists wrote in a letter submitted to The Washington Post but first obtained by The Hill.

COMMENT:  The Democratic Party's left wing is increasingly totalitarian, which is not entirely surprising.  The left is very authoritarian.  But now Liz has gone too far, and is getting slapped around a little.  Maybe she'll learn something about how free discussion operates.

October 2, 2015       Permalink

THE OBAMA-CREATED MESS IN THE MIDEAST – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  Obama has flashed weakness since he took the oath of office.  The result is absolute madness in the Mideast, with Iran growing in power, and Russia moving in at will.  The word "crisis" is overused, but this is a true crisis, that tests the international standing of the United States.   From ace reporter Matt Lee, at AP:

NEW YORK (AP) — Now, 1,506 days since the Obama administration first declared that Syrian President Bashar Assad's "days are numbered," he's still there, and a convergence of Western trepidation and Russian resolve could strengthen his position further. But it also could set the stage for a long-sought political transition leading to the end of the Assad family's 45-year rule.

In either case, Assad's Russian and Iranian backers could arguably claim victory.

But there's also a painful third possibility. Russia's decision to intervene with airstrikes this week could just prolong and exacerbate an already brutal conflict that has spawned the largest refugee crisis since World War II and helped the rise of the radical Islamic State group that, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says, aims to establish a caliphate from "Portugal to Pakistan."

The Obama administration has been criticized, first for a hesitating response to the civil war over the past four years and now for its hesitance to take a firm position on Russia's moves.

Administration officials have alternately welcomed a Russian role, provided it is limited to fighting the Islamic State and al-Qaida affiliates, and denounced it as a tool to rescue Assad or a cynical attempt to boost Moscow's own military presence in the Mediterranean. U.S. officials acknowledge they really don't know what Russia's intentions are. But what is clear is that the Russians have inserted themselves into a conflict the U.S. would have preferred they stay out of.

After accusing Russia of direct military intervention in the Ukraine crisis, something Moscow adamantly denies, the administration is confronted with an overt show of Russian force in the Middle East, a region where Washington has traditionally seen itself as the main outside power.

COMMENT:  In other words, we have lost control and certainly lost influence.  Countries all over the world are assessing our role, and see it diminished and even laughed at.  They will act accordingly when dealing with the United States.  It will take a new president to make things better, but that new president cannot simply play the establishment game.  I would hate to see a Republican president take over and change very little in our foreign policy, because the lobbyists have gotten used to doing business in Iran.

October 2, 2015       Permalink

SHE'S BACK, AND THAT'S GOOD – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:   Sharyl Attkisson is one of the best investigative reporters around.  She left, or was forced out of, CBS, and made it clear she didn't think the network was playing it straight.  She has been very fair to our side, and so we've always wished her well.  Now she's landed a good situation.  She can, as they say, "make a difference."  From Variety: 

Some viewers who tune into their local CBS affiliate this Sunday may think they are seeing a familiar person return to the network’s air: Investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who left CBS News in 2014 after working there more than two decades, will show up this Sunday morning in proximity to John Dickerson on “Face The Nation.”

Upon closer examination, something else will be taking place. Attkisson won’t appear alongside Dickerson, nor will she banter with Charles Osgood on “CBS Sunday Morning.” She will instead be seen on 162 TV stations operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the nation’s largest TV station operator, as host of a new half-hour Sunday-news program, “Full Measure.” The show will be available on Sinclair-owned affiliates of ABC, NBC, Fox and the CW as well – in 38% of the country in total – in the morning block inhabited by those popular public-affairs programs.

Her debut will sport two in-depth features looking at the effects streams of refugees have in the U.S. and abroad, as well as an interview segment with Donald Trump, who will hold forth on immigration, refugees and whether or not he would redecorate the White House. Network-TV news “is not in its heyday,” Attkisson said in an interview. “This is an unexpected model, something I never would have conceived of, but it’s going to be a great platform with a huge distribution.”

COMMENT:  First, we'll have to see what kind of an audience she gets.  I hope it will be large.  Then we'll see if her presence can nudge some of the others to change their perspective and stop being mouthpieces for the greater glory of Barack (come to save us). 

Could be an important moment in a profession that needs some important moments.

October 2, 2015        Permalink

BAD JOBS REPORT – AT 8:41 A.M. ET:  In fact, stunningly bad.  From Bloomberg:

Payrolls rose less than projected in September, wages stagnated and the jobless rate was unchanged as people left the workforce, signaling the global slowdown and financial-market turmoil are rippling through the world’s largest economy.

The addition of 142,000 jobs followed a revised 136,000 gain the prior month that was lower than previously estimated, a Labor Department report showed Friday in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 96 economists called for a 201,000 advance. The jobless rate held at 5.1 percent, and wage growth was unchanged.

The weak report vindicates the Federal Reserve’s decision to delay an interest-rate increase last month. Cooling overseas markets, a stronger dollar and lower oil prices that are hampering exports and manufacturing raise the risk that employers will hesitate before taking on more staff.

A weaker-than-expected report “would chip away at confidence about the strength of the expansion,” Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. “It may be a signal that there was a knee-jerk reaction by businesses to the market volatility.”

Employers added workers in industries including retailing, education, and leisure and hospitality.

COMMENT:  This is nothing to brag about.  And the gains were made in generally low-paying industries.    Even when this economy is creating jobs, they're often the wrong kind of jobs.

October 2,  2015     Permalink

OCTOBER 1,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET: 

OBAMA SHOULD TAKE CARE OF THIS FIRST – Rather than trying to tackle big-league things like the Mideast.  From EAGnews.org:   MILWAUKEE, Wis. – A pregnant girl was rushed to the hospital after she was involved in a melee involving 30 to 40 students at a high school named in honor of President Obama.  Milwaukee police descended on Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education at about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday after getting calls that students were brawling, the Journal Sentinel reports.  The large number of people fighting included “outsiders,” according to police.  The pregnant girl was transported to the hospital and while en route, she allegedly kicked a paramedic, who is also pregnant, Fox 6 reports.   After the melee, Milwaukee Public Schools spokesman Tony Tagliavia issued a statement saying, “We are cooperating with the Milwaukee Police Department as it investigates an incident that happened at the school at about 2:30 p.m. We will take appropriate disciplinary action against any student involved.”  No one has been arrested and police say the investigation is “on-going.”  The idea is to have all the perpetrators invited to the White House where they can be commended for school spirit.

MR. SMALL TIME – Mr. Obama has mastered the art of pettiness.  From Breitbart:   Breitbart News has learned that President Obama called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power into a video conference before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.  “Ambassador Power and Secretary Kerry were unable to attend Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech before the General Assembly because they were called into a meeting with President Obama, which they participated in via video teleconference,” a State Department Official told Breitbart News.  Obviously intentional, as a snub to Netanyahu.  Nothing like class in the White House.

SIGN OF OUR TIMES – From WaPo:   The news that Hillary Clinton is expected to appear on "Saturday Night Live" represents a clear recognition by her campaign that she has an image problem with the American public that needs fixing — and fast.  How important is fixing Clinton's image problem to her campaign? Writes the New York Times's Amy Chozick:  "In order to appear, Mrs. Clinton turned down the chance to give the keynote address to the influential Human Rights Campaign, the country’s most powerful lesbian and gay rights group, which will allow her to make the debut SNL appearance of her 2016 campaign, said several people with knowledge of her schedule who could not discuss private planning for attribution." The world is blowing up, and a potential president tries to polish her image by going on "Saturday Night Live."  What a message to the world about the state of our nation.

October 1, 2015       Permalink

IRAN IN SYRIA – AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  I guess this is the thanks we get for approving the Iran nuclear pact.  From Fox: 

More Iranian troops have arrived in Syria for an upcoming ground operation to accompany Russian airstrikes, defense officials confirm to Fox News.

“It has always been understood in this building that the Russians would provide the air force, and the Iranians would provide the ground force in Syria,” one official said.

Another official tells Fox News, “The Iranians have always been on the ground [in Syria].” The officials could not disclose the size of this new Iranian force due to the sensitivity of the information.

These Iranian forces are under the command of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the Quds Force commander in charge of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s international operations, which runs a network of proxy forces throughout the Middle East, including Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon.

Fox News first reported a secret meeting between Soleimani and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which took place in late July. Part of the discussions between Soleimani and Putin was the future Russian build up in Syria, coordinated closely with Iran.

In addition, sources tell Reuters that Lebanese Hezbollah forces will soon arrive to aid in the ground operation. Hezbollah, a Russian and Iranian ally, has fought alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces since early in the Syrian civil war.

COMMENT:  Not only are we being overwhelmed by Putin's superior strategy and Iran's demonic gutsiness, but there's a huge possibility here of an accident – an unintended clash that could spark a huge regional war. 

Also, Israel is not going to sit by and watch all this happen.  I would not be shocked if Bibi is ready to call up reserves and strongly imply, while not saying it, that Israel's nuclear forces are on alert.

October 1, 2015       Permalink

OBAMA'S LOVE FOR MOTHER RUSSIA – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 9:59 A.M. ET:   Putin rides again, while Obama leads from behind.   From Andrew Malcolm at IBD: 

Almost exactly three years ago, on Oct. 22, 2012, a haughty President Obama mocked his Republican presidential rival, Mitt Romney, in their third campaign debate:

"Governor Romney, I'm glad that you recognize that Al Qaida is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia, not Al Qaida. You said Russia. In the 1980s, they're now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War's been over for 20 years."

In these 36 intervening months we've witnessed countless examples of the insight of Romney and the naive guilelessness of Obama . Obama seemed to misread Vladimir Putin's intentions. Obama described ISIS as a JV team. He overlooked Iran's deceits to do a desperate deal.

The evidence against trusting Putin is overwhelming. His demeaning PR rescue of a bumbling Obama from the American's own silly "red line" threat over Syrian chemical weapons. Russia's annexation of Crimea. Its underwriting of armed rebellion in eastern Ukraine. Its successful defiance of economic sanctions. Its arms sales to Iran, the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. And in recent weeks Russia's armed occupation of parts of Syria, construction of a major airbase and upgrading of a port all allegedly to help fight ISIS.

Wednesday came the worst Obama humiliation yet. A Russian general delivered to a surprised U.S. military attache in Baghdad an abrupt diplomatic notice that within the hour Russian war planes would begin bombing in Syria and a demand that U.S. forces stay out of the way. They did. And we did.

And the world in general, and now-dubious U.S. allies in the Mideast in particular, saw once again who's taking charge in that volatile region to occupy Obama's willful power vacuum. And who in the person of John Kerry is left pleading with Russia's foreign minister for a meeting to avoid any accidental conflicts.

All this just 48 hours after Obama and Putin met at the United Nations. By all accounts, the Obama team was caught flat-footed by Russia's attacks Wednesday.

COMMENT:  And yet, Obama gets a virtual pass from most of the press, and the potted plants in his own party, who also went along with the Iran surrender.

Russia is now back in the Mideast.  There is even speculation that they may conduct bombing runs in Iraq.  The intent is to prove power, and to humiliate a weak, indifferent American president.  Putin is succeeding.  Obama is planning his next vacation to Martha's Vineyard.

October 1, 2015       Permalink  

OH, NO!  OH, NO! – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  He's baack!  Can it be?  Are we doomed?  And all this, as a hurricane is headed for the East Coast!  Is it the Al Gore luck?  From Mediaite: 

Former Vice President Al Gore left the door wide open for a possible entry into the 2016 Democratic primary on Wednesday during an interview with Fusion’s Jorge Ramos. After repeated questions from the anchor about his plans, Gore would not definitely say that he has ruled out the possibility of getting in the race.

In quick succession Ramos asked the following questions:

“Are you considering running for president?”

“Are you ruling out any possibility of running for president in this campaign?”

And finally, “I just wanted to know if you want to run for president again.”

Each time, Gore evaded giving a concrete answer.

“I’m a recovering politician,” Gore said at first. “I’ve said that before but it’s still true. And the longer I go without a relapse, the less likely there will be one.”

“No matter how you ask the question, I will give you the same answer,” he added later, praising Ramos’ persistence. Gore would only say, “I am not giving serious thought to that. I am grateful in some ways that people will ask the question, but I am enjoying what I am doing in my life right now.”

Asked by Ramos if he believes Hillary Clinton is “in trouble,” Gore declined to comment on the state of the race and instead reminded viewers that the general election is still more than a year away.

COMMENT: Gore's answers are typical of a politician who wants to leave the door open.  And why not?  The Dems are currently choosing among 1) a frontrunner with declining numbers and serious legal problems; 2) a vice president who may not know there's an election coming; 3) an ancient socialist from Vermont; and 4) a former mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland, who couldn't even get his anointed successor elected. 

I'm sure Gore can feel the love, the wanting, the heat that exceeds anything global warming can produce.  Trouble is, he's the only one feeling it.

I think Kerry would like to give it another shot.  But, with the administration's foreign policy in shreds, he might have to wait until he's 95.

October 1, 2015       Permalink

TODAY'S HILLARY FIX – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  And the beat goes on.  From Fox:

FBI Director James Comey has started briefing select lawmakers on the status of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private server, and confirmed investigators are actively looking for evidence the server was compromised by a foreign entity or hacker, a congressional source told Fox News.

According to the source, Comey also reassured lawmakers his "top people" are handling the investigation. Comey said no resource is being spared and his team is working "24/7" to determine whether classified information was compromised, the source said.

No evidence of a breach has been confirmed so far, Fox News is told. The discussion was part of an intelligence briefing.

Speaking to an annual intelligence conference in September, Comey was asked by Fox News whether he could assure the public that the high-stakes investigation would not be influenced by politics.

"I'm not going to comment, as we never do, on any particular investigation of ours," Comey explained. "But I can assure the American people about this, I hope they already know it about the FBI, we are three things -- we're competent, we're independent, and we're honest. We do all of our work that way. We don't give a rip about politics. We follow the facts where they lead us. We do our work professionally, and we also do it in secret so that we don't jeopardize our ability to do it well."

COMMENT:  And that's what Hillary fears.  The FBI probe is a drip, drip, drip.  I think it's unlikely they'll find any major breach of Hillary's e-mails by the Russians or anyone else.  If they don't, Hillary will scream, "I'm exonerated."  Not so fast, Slick Hilly.  The probe is also investigating whether Hillary broke the law, and broke it multiple times.  It's already clear she made many mistakes, if they were actually mistakes.

You'll notice that Barack Obama is doing nothing to restrain the investigation.  He must be having the time of his life.

October 1,  2015     Permalink