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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas yesterday.  It's here.

SEPTEMBER 1,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

A CHANCE?  – From the Chicago Sun-Times:  "The race to defeat one of the most powerful Democrats in the nation is narrowing — with incumbent U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin just seven percentage points ahead of Republican challenger Jim Oberweis, according to a new Early & Often Poll.  In a year that’s expected to tilt toward Republicans across the nation, Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the U.S. Senate, is leading Oberweis, who is making his third run for the Senate, 47.8 percent to 40.5 percent, the survey commissioned by the Sun-Times’ political portal shows.  And in the first major survey since an Illinois State Board of Elections ruling allowed the Libertarian Party onto the ballot, candidate Sharon Hansen had a showing of about 4 percent.  Another 7.6 percent of those queried said they were undecided..."  I'd want to see more polling before believing that our side has a shot in heavily Democratic Illinois, especially since the Chicago machine knows where to find votes, when needed.  But if the poll is accurate it may be a sign of good things to come.

LIKE PRESIDENT, LIKE SECRETARY OF STATE – From the Daily Caller:  "Secretary of State John Kerry was spotted kiteboarding Monday morning in Nantucket in a photograph obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller.   Kerry spent Labor Day enjoying himself while the Obama administration still admittedly has no strategy for dealing with the threat of ISIS in Iraq. Kerry was last seen kiteboarding in mid-August in Nantucket.  Kerry’s last documented work-related activity was seen in the pages of Saturday’s New York Times, in the form of an op-ed entitled 'To Defeat Terror, We Need the World’s Help: The Threat of ISIS Demands A Global Coalition.'"  What's wrong with these Obamans?  Have they never heard the term, "bad image"?  Or don't they care?

MAJOR HOME-ECONOMICS NEWS – From BBC:  "From 1 September, companies in the EU will be banned from making or importing vacuum cleaners above 1600 watts and it has led to a sharp rise in sales.  In one recent study, five of the top seven cleaners had motors of more than 1600 watts."  Maybe the public is sending a message:  clean beats green.  We've read that the European Union will be waging a war on hair dryers, cell phones and other appliances on the ground that they're evil and an assault on Mother Earth.  If anyone comes for my powerful vacuum cleaner, they'll have to yank the upholstery nozzle out of my cold, dead hands.

September 1, 2014        Permalink

REMARKABLE – AT 10:56 A.M. ET:  Michael Barone is one of our best political commentators.  I don't think he's always been at the top of his game recently, but he roars back with a superb commentary on the character of Barack Obama.  He basically argues, correctly, that Obama has little interest in other people, doesn't really like people, and that these characteristics are dooming his presidency.  He compares Obama to Bill Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, both of whom are intensely interested in what others think.  Here's the key quote, from the Washington Examiner:

The ability to read other people comes more easily if you’re interested in others, curious to learn what makes them tick. It comes harder or not at all if you’re transfixed with your image of yourself.

Which seems to be the case with Barack Obama. Not only is he not much interested in the details of public policy, as Jay Cost argues persuasively in a recent article for the Weekly Standard. He is also, as even his admirers concede, not much inclined to schmooze with other politicians, even his fellow Democrats.

That goes double for Republicans. House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, is one of the most transparent and least guileful politicians I’ve encountered. The late Sen. Edward Kennedy and liberal Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., had no difficulty reaching agreement with him on the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.

But Obama has gotten nowhere with him. The president blew up the 2011 grand bargain negotiations by raising the ante late in the game; later budget agreements were left to Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Obama has taken to explaining Republican opposition as the result of “fever” or mental delusion.

Obama is also known to have frosty relations with most foreign leaders. He used to claim to be close to Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That hasn’t prevented Erdogan from sidling up to the Muslim Brotherhood and exhibiting blatant anti-semitism.

Obama critics have pointed out his fondness for the first person singular. He said “I,” “me,” or “my” 63 times in his 1,631-word eulogy for Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye. He spoke twice as long about his own family experiences as the heroism for which Inouye was awarded the Medal of Honor.

Bill Clinton and Rudy Giuliani succeeded in large part because they were curious about other people different from themselves. Barack Obama prefers to look in the mirror.

COMMENT:   Very well said.  The president is a supreme egotist.  He is also an ideologist who cares little about the practical effects of his ideology on people.  He dislikes people, and it appears he dislikes Americans a little more than others. 

The outrage is that this man has been shielded and protected by a media obsessed with its leftist ideology and its worship of the holy trinity of race, gender, and ethnicity, a trinity jammed down the throats of college students throughout the country. 

Some presidents grow in office.  Obama has not.  He doesn't see any need for growth.  How can you improve on perfection?

September 1, 2014       Permalink

WHOOPS – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  As usual, Al Gore has some 'splainin' to do.  But don't tell him.  Let him enjoy his Labor Day weekend, knowing he's at one with Barack Obama.  From London's Daily Mail: 

The speech by former US Vice-President Al Gore was apocalyptic. ‘The North Polar ice cap is falling off a cliff,’ he said. ‘It could be completely gone in summer in as little as seven years. Seven years from now.’

Those comments came in 2007 as Mr Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaigning on climate change.

But seven years after his warning, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that, far from vanishing, the Arctic ice cap has expanded for the second year in succession – with a surge, depending on how you measure it, of between 43 and 63 per cent since 2012.

To put it another way, an area the size of Alaska, America’s biggest state, was open water two years ago, but is again now covered by ice.

The most widely used measurements of Arctic ice extent are the daily satellite readings issued by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, which is co-funded by Nasa. These reveal that – while the long-term trend still shows a decline – last Monday, August 25, the area of the Arctic Ocean with at least 15 per cent ice cover was 5.62 million square kilometres.

This was the highest level recorded on that date since 2006 (see graph, right), and represents an increase of 1.71 million square kilometres over the past two years – an impressive 43 per cent.
Other figures from the Danish Meteorological Institute suggest that the growth has been even more dramatic.

And...

Judith Curry, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, said last night: ‘The Arctic sea ice spiral of death seems to have reversed.’

COMMENT:  This doesn't mean that there's no global warming or that human influence isn't present.  It does mean that we need vastly better information before we write checks in the trillions of dollars, and wreck our economy, based on the work of theoreticians whose predictions too often have proved wrong, or well off the mark. 

You may be sure that there's a great deal of money being made in the global-warming industry, much of it from scientific grants given by those who worship trendiness.  And they're egged on by the other trend-catchers in society, from Hollywood stars to pseudo-intellectuals.

I have often called for a Challenger-type commission, composed of people with impeccable reputations, who can determine, regarding global warming, 1) what we know; 2) what we don't know; 3) what we must know to make intelligent decisions.  I don't see such a commission coming.

September 1, 2014       Permalink

WARNING FROM LONDON – AT 10:03 A.M. ET:  Britain is taking the Islamic State threat much more seriously than we are.  From Breitbart: 

London could be the scene of a Mumbai-style terrorist "spectacular" if Islamist jihadists get their way, British security chiefs have warned. There is growing concern that a list of "soft" targets is being drawn up, and that weapons and explosives have already been smuggled into the country.

The Sun is reporting that the SAS has moved part of its anti-terror team to a forward base near London, amid concerns that a prolonged attack may be staged in that city. MI5 also referred to the Mumbai atrocity of 2008 as a comparison, in which coordinated bombings and shootings took place over four consecutive days, killing 174 and wounding a further 300.

Speaking to The Sun, a source said: "The nightmare scenario is they mount a spectacular attack at a high profile location. They may try to storm a building, take hostages, rig it with explosives or kill at will."

And...

Up to 500 British-born men are understood to have gone abroad in order to fight for the Islamic State (IS). Scotland Yard believes that up to 200 may have already returned, and are concerned that they will have been taught to carry out similar violent attacks on the streets of Britain.

Prime Minister David Cameron has indicated that he is considering granting the border patrol new powers to seize passports from suspected jihadists, and introducing of a ban on travelling abroad to fight with IS. A government source has told the media: "We are considering measures to keep the country safe in the face of an increased threat level from Islamist extremism.

COMMENT:  Obviously, speculation and fact are different.  It's possible nothing at all will happen.  But British concern is sound, based on past experience and the logic of the Islamic State.  We're being told here that there is no immediate threat, which is the typical line of the Obama administration.

September 1,  2014     Permalink

AUGUST 31,  2014

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

AMERICAN INGENUITY? – "Sheriff’s deputies in Georgia say they foiled a bizarre smuggling scheme in which two jailed inmates used their dead grandmother’s casket to help them smuggle drugs and other contraband back into the jail.  Jailers escorted Henry Ison Rouse, 27, and Nekoase Antwan Vinson, 30, in handcuffs and leg restraints to the Bentley Brothers funeral home Thursday evening to bid farewell to their grandmother.  Emma Mae Faulk of Macon died last Sunday at age 74 and the prisoners were allowed a private viewing.  'One of them stayed in there (with the casket) a good amount of time,' the Rev. Roland Stroud told the Macon Telegraph.  Back at the jail, when guards searched Vinson they found a baggie of marijuana, a packet of tobacco, a lighter and cellphone crammed in a rag tucked in his groin.  Sheriff David Davis believes Vinson and Rouse had acquaintances leave the weed and other items in their grandmother’s casket for them to find."  That's the trouble with open-casket funerals. 

HUMAN RIGHTS NEWS – From Breitbart:  "On August 29, a UN panel on racism urged the United States to 'review' its stand your ground-styled self-defense laws and demanded it put a halt to the excessive use of force by police.  The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) claimed that racial minorities are victims of oppression by authorities and apparently targeted by whites with the self-defense laws.  'Racial and ethnic discrimination remains a serious and persistent problem in all areas of life from de facto school segregation, access to health care and housing,' Algerian Noureddine Amir, CERD committee vice chairman, said in a press conference after the meeting."  Among the worthies on the panel are those shining symbols of human rights, China and Pakistan.  Oh, by the way, the U.S. has a black president and black attorney general.

CAUTION – It seems like good news, but tread cautiously.  From Fox:  "Iraqi security forces, along with Shiite militiamen, broke a nearly two-month siege by Islamic State militants on the northern Shiite Turkmen town of Amirli, Iraqi officials said on Sunday.  Army spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said the operation started at dawn Sunday and the forces entered the town shortly after midday, The Associated Press reported.  Speaking live on state TV, al-Moussawi said the forces suffered 'some casualties,' but did not give a specific number. He said fighting was 'still ongoing to clear the surrounding villages.'  Breaking the siege was a 'big achievement and an important victory' he said, for all involved: the Iraqi army, elite troops, Kurdish fighters and Shiite militias." We applaud any victory over the Islamic State, but be careful.  The IS has proved exceptionally resourceful.  Was it defeated here, or did it just pull its troops back to meld in with the population until a new military opportunity arises? 

August 31, 2014       Permalink

THE DEMIGOD SPEAKS – AT 7:49 A.M. ET:  President Obama, who imagines he's had one success after another, assures us that all will be fine, that he has the Earth, and the Heavens as well, under control.  From The New York Times: 

NEWPORT, R.I. — If the world seems troubled by all manner of calamities these days, President Obama does not want Americans to worry too much. After all, he said Friday, “The world has always been messy”; it is just more apparent because of social media. And, he added, today’s geopolitical threats are far less perilous than those of the Cold War.

No, they might actually be more perilous.  The Soviet Union, with all its horrors, was a relatively stable nation-state that had no interest in sacrificing its people in another huge war.  We face today far more reckless forces and ideologies, which have already inflicted the 9-11 attacks on us, attacks in which we lost more people than at Pearl Harbor.

Governing at a time of war, terrorism and disease, and frustrated on multiple fronts at once, Mr. Obama finds himself trying to buck up supporters heading into a crucial midterm election season. The succession of international crises has taken a toll on the public mood, not to mention his own poll ratings, and he seems intent on reassuring Americans that the challenges are manageable.

As he spent Friday sweeping through New York and Rhode Island to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for vulnerable Democrats, Mr. Obama addressed that public apprehension directly, acknowledging that many Americans “are feeling anxious” about their country and its place in the world. The showdown with Russia over Ukraine, the emergence of a radical new Islamic caliphate in Syria and Iraq, and the rise of China have stirred unease about the future of the United States, he said.

Does that remind you of something?  Remember Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech, in which he condescendingly suggested that Americans were suffering from a great "malaise"?  Obama is Son of Carter.

“If you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart,” he said at a Democratic fund-raiser in Purchase, N.Y., just north of New York City. Expanding on a theme he has touched on at recent fund-raisers, Mr. Obama agreed that “we are living through some extraordinarily challenging times” and “I can see why a lot of folks are troubled.”

Yeah, folks are troubled, fella.  Just folks.

But Mr. Obama said Americans should remain calm and confident. “We will get through these challenging times just like we have in the past,” he said. “This is not something that is comparable to the challenges we faced during the Cold War.”

COMMENT:  We "got through" the Cold War with character and courage, and, for the most part, with presidents who understood the stakes.  We now have a president who probably believes it was all our fault. 

And we got through by maintaining a strong national defense.  Even Carter finally understood, late in his term, that he had let defense slip too much.  Obama keeps on cutting.  He fails to understanding the significance of Reagan's defense build-up, or Kennedy's pledge to pay "any price" in the defense of freedom. 

No one is suggesting that we go to war everywhere.  But, when you flash weakness, that eventually is what will happen.

August 31, 2014      Permalink

WILL EUROPE MOBILIZE? – AT 7:26 A.M. ET:  The idea of Europe mobilizing for anything seems rather ludicrous, given the continent's social-welfare and "let America do it" mentality.  But what if Europe realizes that America won't do it, that America is run by a leftist who has utter contempt for Western values?  From Britain's Daily Mail: 

Britain is to spearhead a new Nato rapid-reaction force amid warnings that Vladimir Putin is virtually ‘at war against Europe’ and planning ‘Tsarist expansionism’.

EU leaders were scrambling last night to bolster sanctions which have so far failed abysmally to halt the Russian president’s determination – in Western eyes – to bully Ukraine into remaining in his orbit.

Leaders of countries sharing borders with Russia led the way in demanding tougher action against what they see as blatant aggression on their doorstep.

Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite bluntly called for the West to wake up, and appeared to urge Nato to give significant military aid to Kiev.

‘Russia is at war against Ukraine and that is a country which wants to be part of Europe. Russia is practically at war against Europe,’ she said.

She lambasted previous sanctions as ‘a big mistake’ because they were ‘too general’.

Lithuania is one of at least six states believed to have signed up to a new British-led Nato rapid-reaction force, the formation of which is expected to be announced this week by David Cameron as Wales hosts the most important Alliance gathering since the end of the Cold War.

Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Norway and the Netherlands will also join the 10,000-troop bid to deter Putin from what the West sees as an attempt to redraw the frontiers of Europe.

A key concern is that he intends to use his military might to impose a new ‘statelet’ within Ukraine called Novorossiya – or New Russia. What remains of Ukraine could be left with no coastline if the plan goes through.

A diplomat said: ‘Putin is obsessed with Novorossiya, territory won for the Romanovs by Catherine the Great. He wants it back.

COMMENT:   Even Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning columnist of The Washington Post, is warning that a full-scale war in Europe is no longer a fantasy.  Russia is on the move.  Putin sees Obama's weakness.  He knows that Stalin seized Eastern Europe during and after World War II because the West had no more stomach for a fight.

One of Obama's first acts as president of our Student Government was to cancel the anti-missile-defense plans that President Bush had made with Poland and the Czech Republic.  The message was sent, and Vladimir Putin heard it loud and clear.  Another message Obama sent, actually spoke, was in saying to the Russian foreign minister – not realizing that a nearby microphone was on – that he could be more "flexible" after the 2012 election.  Message received. 

August 31, 2014       Permalink

MAJOR SOCIAL NEWS – AT 7:16 A.M. ET:  Let's forget all that other stuff for a moment.  This is big.  And to think, it occurred right here in Westchester County, New York.  From The Hill: 

President Obama was among the guests at the wedding of White House chef Sam Kass late Saturday, according to a White House pool report.

Kass, the president’s senior policy adviser for nutrition policy and the executive director of first lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign, was getting hitched to MSNBC host Alex Wagner.

Obama, the first lady and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, attended the ceremony at a farm-to-table restaurant in Westchester County, New York.

The first family departed Blue Hill at Stone Barns at 1:05 a.m. Sunday morning after spending six-and-a-half hours at the wedding festivities, according to a reporter traveling with the president.

The Obamas returned to the White House shortly before 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning, approximately two-and-a-half hours behind schedule.

Whether or not Obama would appear at the nuptials had become a Beltway guessing game in recent weeks, especially after the president interrupted his annual summer vacation on Martha's Vineyard earlier this month to return to the nation's capital for Kass’s pre-wedding celebration.

The president spent nearly five hours at Kass's Logan Circle home during that trip, according to a White House press pool report.

COMMENT:  I wonder how much that presidential trip cost the American taxpayers.  Do you think the president could make better use of his time?

We have one crisis after another coming down the pike, or already here, and Barack Obama, come to save us, has turned into the nation's number one vacationer and party guy.

August 31,  2014     Permalink