Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

OCTOBER 3,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

HILLARY WARNED? – This, from the New York Post, is unconfirmed.  The writer, Ed Klein, has a mixed record.  But it's worth noting:  One of the Clintons’ oldest and most trusted legal advisers has urged Hillary to hire a criminal defense attorney to represent her in case she’s indicted for mishandling classified documents on her private e-mail server and for lying under oath.  The adviser, who has been a Clinton confidant for more than 30 years, laid out his concerns about Hillary’s legal exposure in a wide-ranging interview.  “This e-mail thing is spiraling out of control,” he said. “To paraphrase John Dean of Watergate fame, it’s a cancer on her candidacy.  “Frankly,” he continued, “I am used to my advice on legal matters being taken very seriously and acted upon by the Clintons. I’ve told them repeatedly that this FBI e-mail investigation could go in a very dangerous direction very quickly.  Hillary is in serious trouble anyway.  Her numbers are tanking.  Stories about her offensive personal behavior are spreading.  She might be afraid to hire a criminal lawyer because of the message it might send, but the legal advice seems sound.  I don't think the feds would want to ship her to prison, but there could be a substantial fine and the end of her political ambitions. 

MAJOR HOME ECONOMICS NEWS – This may change the world:   TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBS Tampa) – Doing the dishes may lead to stress relief if performed in a certain state of mind, according to a new study.  Florida State University researchers found that individuals who wash the dishes mindfully by taking in the soap’s scent and sensing the water temperatures experienced increased feelings of inspiration and decreased nervousness, as reported by Newser.  But researchers say it’s all about the way you approach the process of cleaning your dishes. If you aren’t mindful enough, it’s possible you won’t experience any added benefits.  “It appears that an everyday activity approached with intentionality and awareness may enhance the state of mindfulness,” study authors said.  I demand to know whether this applies to traditional dishwashing, or putting dishes into a dishwasher.  I refuse to give up my machine.

AUSSIES TAKING TERROR SERIOUSLY – From AFP:  An Australian mosque reportedly visited by a 15-year-old boy before he shot dead a civilian police employee in an “act of terrorism” has been raided, police said Sunday, as authorities boosted efforts to tackle youth radicalization.  New South Wales state police said the mosque in Parramatta in western Sydney — close to the scene of the double shooting on Friday afternoon — was raided with the consent of religious leaders.  “NSW Police yesterday executed a warrant at a mosque in Parramatta,” police said in a statement Sunday.  “The warrant was undertaken by arrangement with leadership at the mosque who provided full assistance to police at all times.”  If a mosque were raided here, Obama would demand an investigation and warn us of our militarism.

October 3, 2015      Permalink

HILLARY!  HER LOVELINESS – AT 11:32 A.M. ET:  It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Hillary is Nixon.  Very bright, very knowledgeable, but with a character that even a mother would reject.  The question is whether the American people would put someone like this in the White House.   From the New York Post:   

“‘Good morning, ma’am,” a member of the uniformed Secret Service once greeted Hillary Clinton.
“F— off,” she replied.

That exchange is one among many that active and retired Secret Service agents shared with Ronald Kessler, author of “First Family Detail,” a compelling look at the intrepid personnel who shield America’s presidents and their families — and those whom they guard.

Kessler writes flatteringly and critically about people in both parties. Regarding the Clintons, Kessler presents Chelsea as a model protectee who respected and appreciated her agents. He describes Bill as a difficult chief executive, but an easygoing ex-president. And Kessler exposes Hillary as an epically abusive Arctic monster.

“When in public, Hillary smiles and acts graciously,” Kessler explains. “As soon as the cameras are gone, her angry personality, nastiness, and imperiousness become evident.”

He adds: “Hillary Clinton can make Richard Nixon look like Mahatma Gandhi.”

COMMENT:  Read the whole piece.  It's choice.  I wouldn't want her hand on the nuclear trigger.  We might as well know now.  Ron Kessler is quoted:  "“No one would hire such a person to work at a McDonald’s, and yet she is being considered for president of the United States.”

October 3, 2015       Permalink

KNIFE IN THE BACK – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  Obama can barely hide his contempt for the Clintons.  It's been widely reported that Valerie Jarrett, his chief henchwoman, has been leaking disparaging information for months.  And, yes, a few days ago Jarrett publicly said that Hillary, like all Cabinet officials, was told to conduct her public business on government-approved e-mail systems.

Now Mr. Hope and Change weighs in.  He trash talked, at yesterday's press conference, anyone who dared disagree with his brilliant strategic vision concerning Syria.  And then he knifed Hillary.  From Breitbart: 

President Obama found himself in a bit of a conundrum after he denounced critics of his Syria policy as being full of “mumbo jumbo” and “half-baked ideas.”

In response, CBS reporter Major Garrett questioned Obama whether Hillary Clinton’s proposal to enforce a no-fly zone in Syria was a half-baked idea.

“Hillary Clinton is not half-baked in terms of her approach to these problems,” Obama said carefully, reminding reporters she served in his administration as Secretary of State.

But Obama pointed out that Clinton’s rhetoric on Syria is merely campaign rhetoric.

“I also think that there’s a difference between running for president and being president,” he said carefully, pointing out that he was having specific discussions with his military advisors about the right way forward in Syria.

“If and when she’s president, then she’ll make those judgments and she’s been there enough that she knows that, you know, these are tough calls,” he said.

Clinton broke with the White House on Syria, calling for a “no-fly zone” in Syria to protect Syrian citizens in an interview with a Boston TV station on Thursday.

“I personally would be advocating now for a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors to try to stop the carnage on the ground and from the air,” she said.

COMMENT:  No matter what superficial compliment Obama was giving Hillary, he was knifing her in the back.  He could have said that he would take her suggestion seriously, even speak with her about it.  Instead, he dismissed her simply as a candidate, and suggested she was just trying to win an election.  He diminished her. 

Now of course, if Biden runs, Obama won't do that.  He'll talk about Joe being "at my side."  A vice president, not merely a former officeholder now running for a new job.  Obama is great at the insult.  It's one of his few real talents.

October 3, 2015       Permalink

NEVER HAPPENS THERE, ONLY HAPPENS HERE ACCORDING TO FIELD MARSHAL OBAMA – AT 10:43 A.M. ET:  The field marshal has been ranting about the evils of the United States, which are infinite in his mind.  We are alone among the civilized nations to have this gun problem.

Uh, just a sec.  There was an incident in Australia, which confiscates guns, just a few days ago.  The Australian prime minister, unlike our field marshal, gets it right.  From AFP:

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Saturday that a Sydney attack in which a 15-year-old gunman shot dead a civilian police employee appeared to have been an act of terrorism.

Police said the teen, who they did not name, was shot dead in an exchange of fire with officers after he killed finance worker Curtis Cheng at close range outside the New South Wales force’s headquarters in western Sydney on Friday.

Reports said that the youth, who police said was of Iraqi-Kurdish background and had been born in Iran, had been shouting religious slogans before shooting Cheng in the back of the head.

“I saw him pacing up and down at police headquarters with a gun above his head, he was yelling something and dressed in a black robe,” one witness told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

Turnbull called on Australians to go about their lives as usual as they begin a long weekend in which two major sporting finals will be held in Sydney and Melbourne.

“This appears to have been an act of politically motivated violence so at this stage it appears to have been an act of terrorism. It is a shocking crime,” the prime minister said in Melbourne.

“It was a cold-blooded murder, targeting the New South Wales Police Service. It was doubly shocking because it was perpetrated by a 15-year-old boy.

“And it underlines the importance of families, communities, leaders being very aware of whether young people are becoming radicalized,” he said.

COMMENT:  When it happens here, under Obama, it's "workplace violence," the official designation of the Fort Hood massacre.  And we are sternly lectured not to indict an entire religion, as if we have to be told.

October 3,  2015     Permalink

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