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

SEPTEMBER 22,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET: 

U.S. COMBAT IN SYRIA BEGINS – From The Washington Times:  "President Obama on Monday night authorized a major escalation of the war against the Islamic State, sending missiles and warplanes on bombing missions for the first time into Syria to strike the terrorist group’s strongholds in that country.  The Pentagon announced that both U.S. and allied pilots, along with missile-firing U.S. ships, launched their first airstrikes inside Syria after a sweeping diplomatic push by the Obama administration had secured dozens of verbal commitments from leaders around the world and in the Middle East to join the fight against the Islamic State."  We can't comment on this until we know more facts.  How far will this go?  Will it be effective?  Or will it suddenly end after the elections, which are in six weeks?  And what effect will this have on those elections?

PUT BATTERIES IN THE CALCULATOR – From Fox:  "President Obama’s claim last spring that 8 million people had enrolled in ObamaCare recently got a significant downgrade from the head of the agency overseeing the plan.  Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told a congressional committee that 'as of August 15, this year, we have 7.3 million Americans enrolled in Health Insurance Marketplace coverage and these are individuals who paid their premiums.'  A key part of her statement was Tavenner's reference to those who paid, because just signing up isn't enough to be counted as enrolled.  As Doug Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, explained, 'it’s not enough to sign up. You have to sign up and pay on a regular basis to really be enrolled.'"  Just a minor technicality.  A few million enrollees here, a few million there.  Pretty soon you're talking about real people.

GORED BY HYPOCRISY – From Breitbart:  "Former Vice President Al Gore made his exit from Sunday's climate change march in New York City in a Chevrolet Suburban SUV after speaking to reporters about renewable energy.  Gore asked a security officer, 'You want me here?' before stepping into the SUV, which appears to be a Suburban LT model, as seen in a logo behind the passenger door Gore entered. It is unknown if the large Chevy SUV was a flex fuel vehicle.  Breitbart News asked the environmental activist about the financial costs of renewable energy, as well as his own house—a mansion in Nashville which has previously been criticized for the amount of energy it reportedly uses. Gore simply replied, 'Hundred percent'"  Lots of money is flowing in the climate-change game.  No press coverage of that.

SAD – It's observed often that many children of prominent leaders turn out to be disappointments.  From CNS:  "Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., says he wants a law to punish politicians who dissent from man-made climate change theory - and calls them 'contemptible human beings.' Kennedy made the remarks in an interview with Climate Depot at a climate march in New York on Sunday:  Kennedy Jr. accused skeptical politicians of 'selling out the public trust.' 'Those guys are doing the Koch Brothers bidding and are against all the evidence of the rational mind, saying global warming does not exit. They are contemptible human beings. I wish there were a law you could punish them with. I don't think there is a law that you can punish those politicians under.'"  Great argument for fascism.  What a disgrace.

September 22, 2014       Permalink

THE SKY DIDN'T FALL – AT 10:16 A.M. ET:  They were out in force in New York City yesterday – every left-wing and environmental group you can think of.   It was something called the "people's march" against climate change.  Rule of thumb:  Any political event labeled the "people's" anything is to be avoided.  What people were they talking about?  Were you asked your opinion?  John Fund, at NRO, has a devastating portrait of a movement in desperate condition: 

The United Nations Climate Summit will begin in New York this Tuesday, but environmental activists didn’t wait. All day Sunday, they filled the streets of Manhattan for a march that featured Al Gore, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, and various Hollywood actors.

But they certainly didn’t act like a movement that was winning. There was a tone of fatalism in the comments of many with whom I spoke; they despair that the kind of radical change they advocate probably won’t result from the normal democratic process. It’s no surprise then that the rhetoric of climate-change activists has become increasingly hysterical. Naomi Klein, author of a new book on the “crisis,” This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, said, “I have seen the future, and it looks like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.” In her new book she demands that North America and Europe pay reparations to poorer countries to compensate for the climate change they cause. She calls her plan a “Marshall Plan for the Earth” and acknowledges that it would cost “hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars.” But she has an easy solution on how to pay for it: “Need more money? Print some!” What’s a little hyperinflation compared to “saving the planet”?

And...

One reason the rhetoric has become so overheated is that the climate-change activists increasingly lack a scientific basis for their most exaggerated claims. As physicist Gordon Fulks of the Cascade Policy Institute puts it: “CO2 is said to be responsible for global warming that is not occurring, for accelerated sea-level rise that is not occurring, for net glacial and sea-ice melt that is not occurring . . and for increasing extreme weather that is not occurring.”

COMMENT:  Read the whole piece.  It's well worth it.  I'm neither a proponent nor a skeptic.  My view is that we just don't know enough to justify spending trillions of dollars on a theory that really isn't proving out.  That view, that we don't know enough, is gaining traction. 

But behind the "science" of global warming are social theories that involve transfer of wealth from achieving countries to non-achieving countries.  In the end, that's what it really may be about.

September 22, 2014       Permalink

GOP MORE INTENSE THIS ELECTION YEAR – AT 9:24 A.M. ET:  A new survey shows the GOP winning the intensity race.  We hope that translates into more GOP voters at the polls, a counter to the Democratic ground game on election day.  From NBC: 

Even the most casual sports watcher knows that winning sometimes comes down to which team wants it more. And by that measure, six weeks away from the elections in November, Republicans are dominating the midterm game.

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Annenberg poll shows that 54 percent of Republicans say they’re highly interested in the upcoming elections, compared to 44 percent of Democrats who say the same.

Another way to look at the GOP intensity advantage: Democrats hold a four-point lead on the generic ballot, 46 percent to 42 percent. But among high-interest voters, Republicans have the edge, 51 percent to 43 percent.

“Off-year elections are about intensity, which becomes a question of which set of voters cares most,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart. “In the opening lap of the general election, the GOP is winning.”

And...

Key Democratic constituencies also don’t seem that enthralled with the upcoming races.

Among registered voters, just 42 percent of women, 31 percent of African-Americans, 23 percent of Hispanics and 20 percent of voters aged 18-34 said they’re highly interested in the election.

COMMENT:  Look for the Democrats to counter these poll results with a scare campaign.  "If you don't vote for us, they'll take away your (check one or more than one) Social Security, Medicare, welfare check, tax refund, payment for just being you..."

September 22, 2014       Permalink

LEON JUMPS SHIP – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  Former Secretary of Defense and CIA director Leon Panetta always struck me as one of the grown-ups in the Obama administration, and frustrated by the chief's indecision and shallowness.  Now Panetta is pretty much jumping ship.  From Fox: 

Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Sunday that he believes the Islamic State terror group was able to flourish in part because the U.S. entered the conflict in Syria too late, saying the Obama administration should have armed the country’s moderate rebels earlier.

Panetta, who served in the Obama administration from July 2011 to February 2013, said in an interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” that he was in support of arming the moderate Syrian rebels in 2012, along with several other members of the administration.

“I think that would've helped,” Panetta said. “And I think in part, we pay the price for not doing that in what we see happening with ISIS.”

According to CBS News, Panetta writes in his new book “Worthy Fights” that he, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the director of the CIA and the joint chiefs chairman all urged Obama to arm the rebels at a 2012 meeting.

“The real key was how can we develop a leadership group among the opposition that would be able to take control,” Panetta said. “And my view was to have leverage to do that; we would have to provide the weapons and the training in order for them to really be willing to work with us in that effort.”

However, Obama decided against it.

“I think the president's concern, and I understand it, was that he had a fear that if we started providing weapons, we wouldn't know where those weapons would wind up,” Panetta said. “My view was, ‘You have to begin somewhere.’”

Panetta also discussed the war in Iraq; saying that when the U.S. withdrew from the country in 2011 he was not confident pulling out was the right decision.

“I really thought that it was important for us to maintain a presence in Iraq,” he said. “The decision was that we ought to at least try to maintain 8,000 to 10,000 U.S. troops there, plus keeping some of our intelligence personnel in place, to be able to continue the momentum in the right direction. And frankly, having those troops there I think would've given us greater leverage on (former Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki) to try to force him to do the right thing as well.”

Panetta said he believes the Islamic State is a real threat to America, and will take a “long time” to destroy.

COMMENT:  Some will accuse Panetta of disloyalty, but that is false.  It's always been assumed that this is where he stood.  But his willingness to speak out publicly, and Hillary Clinton's public distancing of herself from Obama's Mideast policy, represents, I think, more than personal political calculation.  There is a certain contempt for Obama and the way he runs things.

Panetta is one of the good Democrats, the dwindling number who know that the post-World War II Democratic Party grew out of the lessons of that war.  The Leon Panettas are no longer welcome in much of the Democratic Party.  Indeed, there is a growing resistance even to Hillary Clinton by those who consider her too "moderate."  And I doubt if Jack Kennedy would even be a Democrat today.

September 22, 2014       Permalink

WHY WE FIGHT – AT 8:34 A.M. ET:  London's Daily Mail reminds us of just who we're fighting in the Mideast.

ISIS is once again urging Muslims to 'kill disbelievers' and attacking Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama for recent statements they have made about the terrorist group in a new audio recording.

Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani refers to Sec. of State Kerry as 'the old uncircumcised geezer' and calls Pres. Obama 'the mule of the Jews' on the recording, which is roughly 42-minutes long.

He then asks Muslims to do whatever they can to kill those who do not share their faith.

'If you can kill a disbelieving American or European - especially the spiteful and filthy French - or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State … kill him in any manner or way however it may be,' says al-Adnani.

France angered the group when four of their airstrikes killed dozens of the group's fighters after they targeted a logistics depot in northern Iraq this week.

The group then takes aim at Pres. Obama just days after his announcement that 40 countries would aid the U.S. in the fight against ISIS.

'Obama, the mule of the Jews, suddenly became a sheikh, mufti, and an Islamic preacher, warning the people and preaching in defense of Islam, claiming that the Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam,' says al-Adnani.

COMMENT:  You may be sure that there will be "scholars" at colleges and universities who will tell us that these views must be "understood" and not condemned.  And there were scholars at colleges and universities in the 1930s who lectured us on the good that Hitler was doing.

September 22,  2014     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 21,  2014

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

DEM GRIMNESS – From Breitbart:  "Democratic strategist Joe Trippi said on Sunday that it would be a 'miracle' if Democrats manage to fend off a Republican takeover of the U.S. Senate come Nov. 4.  'I would gauge that Republicans are likely to pick up between five and eight seats,' Trippi said on Fox News Sunday.  Trippi added, 'I don't think there are anybody within any of those races who believes they are not going to be in the GOP hands in November.'  Trippi said a favorable outcome for Democrats would be a scenario wherein they lose just five Senate seats. The Democratic strategist noted that the use of President Barack Obama's 2012 get out the vote efforts may be the party's only hope.  'If they can actually generate that there's a chance they--they do have a miracle and stop the Republicans from taking the Senate,' said Trippi.  He's right.  The Democratic ground game on election day is proved and effective.  They're now trying to organize it, but I believe Republican enthusiasm is greater.

YIKES – From NBC:  "Three soldiers from the Afghanistan National Army visiting Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for a military exercise have gone missing, according to the U.S. National Guard. The National Guard in Massachusetts says they believe at this time there is no threat to the public.  Maj. Jan Mohammad Arash, Capt. Mohammad Nasir Askarzada, and Capt. Noorullah Aminyar were last seen at the Hyannis Mall Saturday evening, a National Guard source tells Cheryl Fiandaca of NBC affiliate WHDH.  A senior law enforcement source tells NBC News the FBI Field Office in Boston is aware of the disappearance and takes these matters seriously."  This gives me the creeps.  Did these guys defect to be at one with the Kennedys?  To play a few rounds when Barack visits Cape Cod?  Are they lost at the Apple Store?  Or is something really serious going on here?

I'M SO EXCITED – From The New York Times:  "John D. Rockefeller built a vast fortune on oil. Now his heirs are abandoning fossil fuels.  The family whose legendary wealth flowed from Standard Oil is planning to announce on Monday that its $860 million philanthropic organization, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, is joining the divestment movement that began a couple years ago on college campuses.  The announcement, timed to precede Tuesday’s opening of the United Nations climate change summit meeting in New York City, is part of a broader and accelerating initiative."  Oh, I just love these little shows.  When the Rockefellers move to the mountains and live in tents, I'll be impressed.  Right now I want to know how they heat their mansions.

September 21, 2014       Permalink

HE'S BAACK – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  A funny thing happened to Chris Christie on the way to the White House:  He ran into a local scandal in New Jersey.  But it appears that he's survived that, and is again actively looking at a presidential run.  From WaPo:   

Influential Republicans in early presidential primary states believe New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is poised to once again become a frontrunner for the party’s 2016 nomination, following a news report that federal scrutiny of a bridge-closing scandal has not implicated him.

“If he had been found in the wrong, he would have been irreparably damaged,” said Matt Moore, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. “This is hugely helpful.”

Not having the episode “hanging over his head puts him back where he started from,” said Chuck Laudner, an Iowa-based strategist for former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential campaign. “He’s still a rock star and a compelling guy, even if he is too moderate for some conservatives. We’re glad he’s on our team.”

WNBC, the NBC affiliate in New York City, reported Thursday that a federal investigation into politically-motivated lane closures last year on the George Washington Bridge has yielded no link to Christie.

The nine-month inquiry has “thus far uncovered no evidence indicating that he either knew in advance or directed the closure of traffic lanes on the span,” according to the report.

Federal officials have declined to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Christie’s wealthy friends in Republican finance circles also expressed confidence that the governor has escaped what has been seen as the leading obstacle to his potential candidacy.

COMMENT:  While it will be good to have Christie back in the mix, my concerns about him as a presidential candidate have not been eased.  The very thing that brought him to public attention – his belligerent, take-no-prisoners style – tends to wear thin, and may seen as "unpresidential" in a campaign. 

I see no real frontrunner on the Republican side.  On the Democratic side, it's all about Hillary.  Her decision on whether to run is still the biggest political story around. 

September 21, 2014       Permalink

ANOTHER WARNING – AT 10:51 A.M. ET:  The worry is that Americans are going to the Mideast to fight for extremist Muslim groups, and coming back to the U.S. fully trained for terrorism.  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

Rep. Tim Bishop (D., N.Y.) warned during a recent speech that up to 40 radicalized U.S. citizens who have fought alongside the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL or ISIS) have already returned to the United States, where they could pose a terrorist threat.

Bishop claims that of the 100 or so Americans who have traveled to the Middle East to join ISIL’s ranks, some 40 have returned and are currently being surveilled by the FBI, according to his remarks, which were filmed and uploaded to YouTube last week.

“One of the concerns is the number of U.S. citizens who have left our country to go join up with ISIS,” Bishop said during the speech. “It is believed there have been some number up to 100 that have done that.”

“It is also believed that some 40 of those who left this country to join up with ISIS have now returned to our country,” Bishop said, eliciting shocked responses from some in the crowd.

These 40 individuals, Bishop said, “are under FBI attention and surveillance. So they are known and being tracked by the FBI.”

Yeah, but they know they're being tracked.  It won't be difficult for some of them to slip the surveillance and disappear.  Then we really worry.

Lawmakers have warned that radicalized ISIL fighters could clandestinely enter the United States through the porous southern border.

COMMENT:  Military leaders are now issuing the kind of warnings that Obama used to ridicule – that this battle can go on for decades.  Obama said just last year that all wars have to end.  Yeah, right.  Someone should send him an e-mail pointing out that wars end when both sides agree that they end.  I don't see any agreement from terror groups.

September 21, 2014       Permalink

WARNING TO KERRY – AT 10:39 A.M. ET:  The internet is alive with stories, some not fully confirmed as yet, that the administration is ready to make major concessions to Iran on its nuclear program in order to get Tehran to help in the battle against ISIS.  Republicans are livid.  From The Hill: 

A group of 31 senators warned Secretary of State John Kerry against making any nuclear concessions to Iran that would pose a threat to the U.S.

In a letter spearheaded by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), the senators expressed grave concern over "troubling" reports that the administration is considering a deal that would allow Iranian nuclear centrifuges to be "disconnected" instead of "dismantled.

“We have learned that the United States and its P5+1 negotiating partners may now be offering troubling nuclear concessions to Iran in the hopes of rapidly concluding negotiations for a ‘deal’,” the lawmakers wrote to Kerry. “Given that a nuclear Iran poses the greatest long-term threat to the security of the United States, Israel, and other allies, we are gravely concerned about the possibility of any new agreement that, in return for further relief of U.S.-led international sanctions, would allow Iran to produce explosive nuclear material.”

In a statement Saturday, Kirk said Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and her team "are getting desperate, floating these so-called ‘creative solutions’ to hide the fact that they haven’t gotten Iran to agree to a single irreversible step to eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapons capability.”

As world leaders begin a new round of talks aimed at limiting Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, the deadline to reach a deal by Nov. 24 is just months away.

The letter was also signed by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Daniel Coats (R-Ind.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Michael B. Enzi (R-Wyo.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), David Vitter (R-La.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Roger F. Wicker (R-Miss.), James E. Risch (R-Idaho) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.).

COMMENT:  Kerry also said a few days ago that Iran had a role to play in the fight against the Islamic State, another remark that alarmed the grown-ups in Washington.  Wendy Sherman, who is heading the nuclear negotiations, is one of those members of the foreign-policy establishment who fails upward.  She conducted the nuclear talks with North Korea, and you know how they turned out.

We have an appeasement administration at a time when spinal toughness is required.

September 21,  2014     Permalink