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SEPTEMBER 30,  2014

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

CHILLING – From Fox:  "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed on Tuesday that a patient being treated at a Dallas hospital has tested positive for Ebola, the first case diagnosed in the United States.  The patient left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in the United States on September 20, CDC director, Dr. Tom Frieden told reporters at a press conference Tuesday. It’s the first patient to be diagnosed with this particular strain of Ebola outside of Africa. '[The patient] had no symptoms when departing Liberia or entering this country. But four or five days later on the 24th of September, he began to develop symptoms,' said Frieden.  The patient, who was in the U.S. visiting family in Texas, initially sought care on September 26, but was sent home and was not admitted until two days later. He was placed in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, where he remains critically ill, according to Frieden."  Obama will probably say that 1) it was caused by global warming and 2) that he hadn't been told anything about Ebola.

SERVING THE PEOPLE, ONE BANKRUPTCY AT A TIME – From the Boston Herald:  "BOSTON — Many Massachusetts households are going to see their electric bills shoot up 37 percent this winter, a rate increase that some advocates fear will put additional strain on low-income families.  State regulators approved the increase for National Grid household customers that would mean an average of $33 per month more for the typical residential customer and would push a typical monthly bill higher than $150.  Large-business customers will see even higher increases.  National Grid has almost 1.3 million residential and business electric customers in Massachusetts. The new rates take effect in November.  'This is pretty bad, and it's going to really have a bearing on a lot of Massachusetts households' abilities to just make ends meet this winter,' John Howat, senior energy analyst at the National Consumer Law Center in Boston, told The Boston Globe.  The utility blame the rate hikes on the cost of buying electricity from power plants, which has soared because of an increased demand for natural gas used to generate electricity."  Amazing how the average guy always winds up paying more in these "progressive" states. 

NORTHEAST EXODUS – This relates to the post just above.  From the Washington Examiner:  "The Northeast, once the nation’s political engine that produced presidents, House speakers and Senate giants including the late Edward M. Kennedy, is losing clout in Washington as citizens flee the high-tax region, according to experts worried about the trend.  The Census Bureau reports that population growth has shifted to the South and the result is that the 11 states that make up the Northeast are being bled dry of representation in Washington.  Critics blame rising taxes in states such as Massachusetts and Connecticut for limiting population growth in the Northeast to just 15 percent from 1983 to 2013, while the rest of the nation grew more than 41 percent.  The biggest impact comes in the loss of congressional representation.  Deep in a recent report, for example, the American Legislative Exchange Council tabulated how the drop in population relative to the rest of the nation cut the region’s power in Washington. While the states from Pennsylvania to Maine had 141 House members in 1950, they are down to 85 today, a drop of some 40 percent.  California and Texas combined have more House representatives."  I see this in New York all the time.  High taxes, high living costs, low growth, fleeing companies.  A prescription for disaster. 

ANNALS OF GOVERNMENT – From Fox:  "President Obama shared an elevator earlier this month with an armed security contractor who has three felony convictions relating to assault and battery, in the latest report of a serious violation of Secret Service security protocols.  Multiple sources confirmed to Fox News the incident, which took place in an elevator during Obama's Sept. 16 visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The incident was first reported by The Washington Post and the Washington Examiner.  The latest embarrassment for the Secret Service comes after agency Director Julia Pierson told lawmakers at a Tuesday hearing 'she took full responsibility' for a Sept. 19 breach of the White House. Pierson admitted that presidential security fell apart when a knife-wielding intruder jumped a White House fence earlier this month and sprinted untouched across the lawn, entering the first family's residence through an unlocked door and making his way into the East Room reception area."  Remember that the bad guy only has to get lucky once. 

September 30, 2014       Permalink

ONE ASSESSMENT – AT 10:17 A.M. ET:  The assessments of where the midterm races stand will be coming thick and fast now.  With tomorrow's change of month we're entering the start of the home stretch.  Liberal writer Chris Cillizza, in WaPo, has a particularly interesting take:   

All three major election forecasting models saw an uptick in the likelihood of Republicans winning the six seats they need to retake the Senate majority over the past week, movement largely due to the party's strengthened chances in Alaska, Colorado and Iowa.

The most bullish model for Republicans is Washington Post's Election Lab, which, as of Monday morning, gives the GOP a 76 percent chance of winning the majority. Leo, the New York Times model, pegs it at 67 percent while FiveThirtyEight shows Republicans with a 60 percent probability. A week ago, Election Lab gave Republicans a 65 percent chance of winning the majority, Leo put it a 55 percent and FiveThirtyEight had it just under 55 percent.

All three models give Republicans very strong odds of winning the open seats in Montana, South Dakota and West Virginia as well as beating Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.). That would net Republicans five seats, one short of the number they need for the majority.

Of the rest of the competitive seats, Alaska is the biggest mover in all three models from a week ago. At that time, the models disagreed -- Election Lab (81 percent chance) and Leo (62 percent) gave Democrats the edge while FiveThirtyEight had Republicans at a 56 percent probability of winning. Today all three models align; Leo gives former state attorney general Dan Sullivan (R) a 72 percent chance of winning while Election Lab puts it at 71 percent and FiveThirty Eight at 68 percent. A series of polls released over the last week have shown Sullivan moving ahead of Sen. Mark Begich (D).

COMMENT:  Read the rest.  Colorado and Iowa seem to be falling into place for our side.  However, things can still change, and the brass ring can elude us.  Election day is five weeks from today.  It will be an exciting and nerve-wracking five weeks.

September 30, 2014       Permalink

COMMANDER-IN-CHEAT – AT 9:34 A.M. ET:   Andrew Malcolm nails the Barack Obama approach to the truth.  If we had a better press, Obama would never get away with it.  But we don't have a better press.  From IBD: 

Remember back in the 2012 presidential campaign when Barack Obama said things like:

"Al Qaeda is on the run. We have decimated its core leadership. And Osama bin Laden is dead. But I don't want Americans to think the struggle against terror is over. It's not, by any means. We have a long struggle ahead. By 2014, new terrorist groups may spring up and we'll be back fighting in the Middle East."

Neither do we.

That's because, while the Democrat incumbent said the first part over and over to imply he'd lead the nation to victory over Islamic extremists, the second warning part he left out. Not by accident, of course.

Now, as is his habit, Obama is muddying the waters with superfluous words and thoughts to cover his lies, gaffes and distortions. He warns of making generalizations, then makes them. He smoothly dodges and deflects questions, appearing to listeners' ears to answer while changing the subject from his responsibility to someone else's fault.

It's easier for Obama to do because of a less than shark-like D.C. media and because words heard come and go so fast it's difficult for listeners to parse and analyze before the Talker-in-Chief is off gabbing about something else. All of which, of course, he knows full well.

Take this exchange with "60 Minutes'" Steve Kroft: "Is this the most difficult period of your presidency, the biggest challenge of your presidency, this period we're in right now?"

Pause the tape. Now, Obama knows if he agrees, that's the night's top headline: "Worst time of my presidency: Obama." So, he gives Kroft nothing on that subject and pivots to recalling the ancient, reviled Bush era to change the topic away from himself. Resume tape.

"It's a significant period. But if you think about what I walked into when I came into office...."
Can you imagine a headline like this: "Obama says U.S. in a 'significant period'" Of course not.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  All presidents, of course, twist things to some degree.  But Obama is world class.  He is a perpetual candidate, speaking the bromides that will make him more popular, or less unpopular.  The public, to a large degree, seems to have caught on.  Too many journalists have not.

Obama, like Jimmy Carter, is too small for the office. 

September 30, 2014       Permalink

BAN OR COVER-UP? – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:   We have to look at the fine print here.  From Fox: 

The Justice Department is set to announce broad restrictions on racial and religious profiling in federal investigations, including those involving matters of national security.

The expected ban comes amid heightened concerns of Islamic militant groups executing a terror attack on U.S. soil and was reportedly opposed by national security officials.

A Justice Department official told Fox News on Monday that outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder will announce the policy change in the coming weeks and that it will also put an end to profiling based on ethnicity and sexual orientation.

Holder intended to announce the policy change several months ago, but the White House ordered a last-minute hold so the Department of Homeland Security could review the national security implications, a congressional aide told The Los Angeles Times, which on Saturday first reported the story.

The new policy will add to long-standing bans on racial profiling and extend them for the first time to national-security probes.

The finishing touches are still being put on the policy change, but the final version is expected to scale back the authority federal agencies received in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, including the monitoring of some religious groups and surveillance on mosques without evidence of suspected criminal activity.

COMMENT:  Profiling is generally wrong, but there might be legitimate exceptions, especially in national-security cases.  Saying that you can only conduct surveillance of, say, a mosque, if you have evidence of criminal activity, begs the question.  There may be legitimate suspicion, which can only be confirmed by careful, legal, supervised surveillance, probably under court warrant. 

We often say that the Constitution isn't a suicide pact.  If this new Justice Department order isn't implemented with common sense, that's exactly what it can become.

September 30, 2014        Permalink

A GREAT MOMENT – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  No, Al Gore and his crowd won't think so.  But we think so, and we congratulate the put-upon, unpopular, unfashionable folks who made it possible.  From Financial Times: 

The US is overtaking Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest producer of liquid petroleum, in a sign of how its booming oil production has reshaped the energy sector.

US production of oil and related liquids such as ethane and propane was neck-and-neck with Saudi Arabia in June and again in August at about 11.5m barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency, the watchdog backed by rich countries.

With US production continuing to boom, its output is set to exceed Saudi Arabia’s this month or next for the first time since 1991.

COMMENT:  We are becoming an energy-independent country, something that will dramatically affect the independence of our foreign policy, and the strength of our economy.

Of course, so-called "environmentalists" are appalled, but the fact is that petroleum production has become much cleaner over the years, and developments like fracking have allowed parts of the United States to boom, with high-paying jobs.  Yes, eventually "green" energy will grow, but the technology is just not there yet.  We're an oil-based economy and will be so for decades.  We should applaud our new independence.

The big, bad oil companies have been largely responsible for making this day possible.  I have no connection, financial or otherwise, with these firms, and no doubt they sometimes do some abrasive things.  But for a century they've provided America with relatively inexpensive energy, and they deserve a pat on the back for that alone.

September 30,  2014     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 29,  2014

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

IDIOTS – From NBC:  "Prisoner, former death row inmate, author and journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal will give the commencement speech at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont.  The college announced Monday that Abu-Jamal, who received his Bachelor of Arts from Goddard in 1996, was selected by the Fall 2014 graduating class.  Abu-Jamal, 60, was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of Officer Daniel Faulkner. Prosecutors later agreed to a life term after a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing, citing flawed jury instructions.  Since his arrest, Abu-Jamal has gained supporters worldwide who claim he is innocent of the crime and the victim of a racist legal system. Many opponents however, including Faulkner's widow and Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, maintain that Abu-Jamal was Faulkner's killer."  What a disgrace.  The fact is that this moral degenerate has never actually denied his guilt.  His case went through appeal after appeal.  He lost all of them.  The evidence of his guilt is overwhelming.  This third rate little children's school isn't the first "college" to have Abu-Jamal as a speaker.  It shows us what we're teaching our kids, and the immaturity that has overtaken American education.

CLOSE IN NORTH CAROLINA – It's one of the most closely watched Senate races.  From CNN:  "(CNN) -- In one of the most closely-watched Senate races of the year, incumbent Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina holds a narrow three-point advantage over her Republican challenger, according to a new CNN/ORC International survey.  But the poll indicates that Thom Tillis, the GOP nominee, may be falling behind Hagan because a Libertarian candidate could be siphoning off Republican votes.  Hagan edges Tillis, 46%-43%, while Libertarian Sean Haugh has support from 7% likely voters, according to the poll."  These third partiers often drive me crazy.  I can see entering the race and trying to influence it.  But if it comes down to destroying the chance for someone of similar views to win, the proper response of the third guy is graciously to withdraw, and then endorse, and then fight another day.  If Haugh's presence gives the race to Hagan, he should be frozen out of conservative politics.

THE TRUTH ABOUT IRAN – From Fox:  "An Iranian woman sentenced to death for killing a man who tried to rape her told her mother goodbye and prepared to die, even as the Islamic republic’s president was meeting with world leaders at the United Nations.  Rayhaneh Jabbari, 26, is set to be executed Tuesday, according to reports from Iran. On Monday, her mother, Shole Paravan, recounted on her Facebook page an emotional farewell call her daughter made when a sympathetic guard loaned her a cellphone before she was taken to Rajaiy Shahr Prison to be hanged.  'I am currently handcuffed and there is a car waiting outside to take me for the execution of the sentence,' Jabbari told her mother, whose recounting in Farsi was translated by FoxNews.com. 'Goodbye, dear Mum. All of my pains will finish early tomorrow morning. I’m sorry I cannot lessen your pain. Be patient. We believe in life after death. I’ll see you in the next world and I will never leave you again because being separated from you is the most difficult thing to do in the world.'"  At the UN, and among "sophisticates," she will never be mentioned.  And notice the silence of "feminist" groups.  What precisely do these groups stand for, except free abortion on demand?

THE THREAT – From Truth Revolt:  "The L.A. Times is warning that the 'worst is yet to come' if a grand jury fails to indict white officer Darren Wilson for shooting and killing black 18-year-old Michael Brown.  If the grand jury fails to indict the officer who killed Michael Brown, almost everyone here thinks things will get worse.  'They’re not going to be looting next time,' said Kevin Seltzer, 30, who lives at an apartment complex near where Brown, 18, was shot. 'They’re going to burn the city down.'"  Great strategy.  Real brilliant.  But you may be sure the torch carriers will be seen sympathetically by the media, and certainly by the Obamans.

September 29, 2014       Permalink

THE HOLDER LEGACY – AT 10:21 A.M. ET:   Eric Holder is resigning as attorney general.  His legacy is being assessed.  Our side, of course, is harshly critical.  Holder politicized the Justice Department, not that it hasn't been done before.  He, though, has been particularly outrageous, starting with his decision not to prosecute the Black Panthers for voter obstruction in Philadelphia on election day, 2008.  Justice Department lawyers felt it was an open-and-shut case, but was dropped.  Holder has also gone after voter I.D. laws, which not only are popular, but necessary to prevent voter fraud.

Former Reagan Attorney-General Ed Meese, and former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, lay out the case against Holder in a superb piece for The Wall Street Journal.  Required reading: 

Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced his resignation on Thursday, leaves a dismal legacy at the Justice Department, but one of his legal innovations was especially pernicious: the demonizing of state attempts to ensure honest elections.

As a former U.S. attorney general under President Reagan, and a former Ohio secretary of state, we would like to say something that might strike some as obvious: Those who oppose photo voter-ID laws and other election-integrity reforms are intent on making it easier to commit vote fraud.

That conclusion is inescapable, given the well-established evidence that voter-ID laws don't disenfranchise minorities or reduce minority voting, and in many instances enhance it, despite claims to the contrary by Mr. Holder and his allies. As more states adopt such laws, the left has railed against them with increasing fury, even invoking the specter of the Jim Crow era to describe electoral safeguards common to most nations, including in the Third World.

Ascribing racial animus to people who are trying to safeguard democratic integrity is a crude yet effective political tactic that obscures the truth.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It's a stunning indictment of a political attorney general.  I'd imagine Obama's choice for successor will be of the same stripe.  We hope that a Republican Senate will have the chance to vote on his or her confirmation.

September 29,  2014     Permalink

WELL, HOW ABOUT THIS? – AT 9:54 A.M. ET:   It isn't something you'd expect from a European country.  Remarkable.  From AFP: 

Geneva (AFP) - Swiss voters on Sunday rejected a plan for a seismic shift from the country's all-private health insurance system to a state-run scheme.

Referendum results showed that almost 62 percent of voters had shot down a reform pushed by left-leaning parties which say the current private system is busting the budgets of ordinary residents.

The results also underlined the national divisions over the hotly-contested issue as the country's German-speaking regions voted against the plan, while their French-speaking counterparts were in favour.

Switzerland's private insurance lobby hailed the vote.

"The Swiss population does not want a single national scheme," said the Swiss Insurance Association.

"Our health system is among the top performers in the world. Competition between health insurers and freedom of choice for clients play a major role in this," it added.

Going public would have been a major shift for a country whose health system is often hailed abroad as a paragon of efficiency, but is a growing source of frustration at home because of soaring costs.

COMMENT:  Obviously, it's important to deal with rising costs, but that can be done without nationalizing the whole system, which is what the socialist-minded would like to do all over the world.  Some educators are now experimenting with ways to bring down college costs dramatically.  We should be far more innovative in bringing down health costs. 

September 29, 2014       Permalink

BOOTS ON THE GROUND? – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:   Poll numbers suggest Americans are enthusiastic about air strikes against the Islamic State, but generally oppose boots on the ground.  Note, though, that in foreign policy we usually see early poll results reflecting presidential opinion.  From CNN:

(CNN) -- Americans are steadfastly opposed to sending U.S. ground troops to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but an overwhelming number of people continue to support the U.S.-led airstrikes against the terrorist group, a new CNN/ORC International poll shows.

While less than four in 10 Americans favor sending U.S. ground troops into a combat situation against ISIS, there is a widespread belief that such an action is inevitable, according to the poll.

Only 24% of Americans do not think the United States will send combat troops to battle ISIS, while 36% say it is likely and another 39% say it is somewhat likely. Count House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, as one of those people.

Boehner said Sunday it may take U.S. boots on the ground to defeat ISIS, as he questioned President Barack Obama's plan -- which includes airstrikes, training and equipping the Iraqi Army and moderate Syrian rebels -- to defeat the terrorist network.

"Listen, the President doesn't want to do that," Boehner said in an interview on ABC's "This Week."
"If I were the President, I probably wouldn't have talked about what I wouldn't do. And maybe, maybe we can get enough of these forces trained and get them on the battlefield, but somebody's boots have to be there."

COMMENT:  That is what most military experts are saying.   Air power is critical, of course.  But wars are generally not won from the air.  Ground has to be taken and held. 

I don't see a winning strategy at work.

September 29, 2014       Permalink

THE FIRST FIBBER – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  "Sixty Minutes" did its usual softball interview with President Obama last night, further eroding its own brand.  And, as usual, Obama blamed other people for his mistakes in the Mideast.  This time he nailed the intelligence community for underestimating the Islamic State.  Except...it isn't true.  Ace national-security reporter Eli Lake has the story at The Daily Beast: 

On “60 Minutes,” the president faulted his spies for failing to predict the rise of ISIS. There’s one problem with that statement: The intelligence analysts did warn about the group.

Nearly eight months ago, some of President Obama’s senior intelligence officials were already warning that ISIS was on the move. In the beginning of 2014, ISIS fighters had defeated Iraqi forces in Fallujah, leading much of the U.S. intelligence community to assess they would try to take more of Iraq.

But in an interview that aired Sunday evening, the president told 60 Minutes that the rise of the group now proclaiming itself a caliphate in territory between Syria and Iraq caught the U.S. intelligence community off guard. Obama specifically blamed James Clapper, the current director of national intelligence: “Our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that, I think, they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria,” he said.

It's typical of Obama to find someone to blame.  A real leader takes responsibility on himself.  When President Kennedy was asked who was at fault for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, his reply was, "I am the responsible officer of the government."  No such words would pass Barack Obama's lips, for a god never blames himself.

Reached by The Daily Beast after Obama’s interview aired, one former senior Pentagon official who worked closely on the threat posed by Sunni jihadists in Syria and Iraq was flabbergasted. “Either the president doesn’t read the intelligence he’s getting or he’s B.S.ing,” the former official said.

Clapper did tell The Washington Post’s David Ignatius this month that he underestimated the will of the ISIS fighters in Iraq and overestimated the ability of Iraq’s security forces in northern Iraq to counter ISIS. (He also said his analysts warned about the “prowess and capability” of the group.)

Still, other senior intelligence officials have been warning about ISIS for months.

COMMENT:  In the end, Obama winds up fitting the description we've given him here – a glorified town councilman.  Too small for his office. 

September 29,  2014     Permalink