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SECOND SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE – 2015 – HELP!

(Our drive turned sluggish again.  We must do much better to meet our goals.)

This week we started our second subscription drive 2015.  Urgent Agenda publishes seven days a week, 365 days a year, and we have not missed a day since our first issue in January, 2008.

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SEPTEMBER 11,  2015

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

PERRY OUT – Former Texas Governor Rick Perry has dropped out of the presidential race.  It's a sad day.  He was a fine governor of Texas, at one time the nation's longest-serving governor, put his poor performance and personal gaffes during the 2012 race for the GOP presidential nomination created an image that he could not overcome.  I'd expect others to drop out in the coming weeks, especially Lindsey Graham, Bobby Jindal and George Pataki.  But the field has to be narrowed far more for there to be truly informative debates.

GREAT MOMENTS IN JURISPRUDENCE – From Reason:  A Pikesville, Maryland, 13-year-old will be charged with second-degree assault for kissing a 14-year-old girl on a dare. The "assault" happened at Pikesville Middle School on Friday. Police were called to the scene.  According to WBFF:  School officials took a report regarding a 13-year-old boy who kissed a 14-year-old girl during school hours. The unwanted kiss was allegedly the result of a dare made by students.  Police confirm that the boy is now facing a second-degree assault charge as a juvenile. No one was injured during the incident, police say, and disciplinary actions related to suspension or expulsion will be handled by the school system.  We must protect American womanhood from these mashers.  If you don't stop 'em here, pretty soon you get...hugs.  Maybe whistles.  Think of that.

ONE OF THE BIGGEST STORIES OF OUR TIME – From London's Daily Mail:   Millions more Syrians could come to Europe to seek asylum, a United Nations agency chief predicted yesterday.  More than 430,000 refugees and migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to reach Europe this year, official figures show.  But Peter Salama, Unicef’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, predicted there will be a further massive influx of refugees unless the bloody Syrian war ends.  He said: ‘There could be millions and millions more refugees leaving Syria and ultimately (going) to the European Union and beyond.’  We want to be compassionate and humane, but let's face facts:  this could change the face and politics of Europe.  And expect demands that the U.S. take more refugees as well.  Obama's failed policies created this disaster, but don't be shocked if his party benefits from it by bringing in refugees, some legitimate and some simply asylum seekers, who will likely vote for more benefits.  Remember Rahm Emanuel's line – "Never let a crisis go to waste."

September 11,  2015     Permalink

A GIFT FOR BALTIMORE – AT 11:08 A.M. ET:  The mayor of Baltimore, who is not one of the great leaders of our time, will decline to seek re-election.  From The Hill:

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will not seek reelection, she announced Friday, stepping aside after fallout over the case of Freddie Gray and subsequent rioting in the city.

"I've realized that every moment that I've spent planning for a campaign or reelection was time that I was taking away from my current responsibilities from my city," she said during a press conference.

"Because of that, I have made the decision to not seek reelection," she said.

"I haven't lost a campaign since middle school," she said. "It's not that I didn't think that I could win, I just had to ask myself at what cost."

The Baltimore Sun reported that she briefed her staff Friday and has no plans to seek another office.

The announcement comes ahead of the trials for six police officers involved in the arrest and death of Gray, who died in April while in police custody. Rioting erupted in the city on the day of his funeral.

Her administration agreed this week to pay $6.4 million to the family of Gray and accept civil liability in the case while not acknowledging any wrongdoing on the part of police.

COMMENT:  Middle school is where she should be.  She handled the riots horribly, saying that the city had to give the rioters some room to destroy.  And the settlement with the Gray family is outrageous, coming before any adjudication.  It looks like a bribe to keep the peace.

Trouble is, Baltimore will probably elect someone worse.

September 11, 2015       Permalink

NEXT WEEK'S DEBATE – AT 10:06 A.M. ET:  It's next Wednesday, and promises to be passionate and sharp.  This is the start of the real campaign season.  The preliminaries are over.  The Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary are both less than five months away. 

Next week's "senior" debate, featuring the top 11 Republican contenders, according to polling data, will include Carly Fiorina, whose performance in the "junior" debate last month catapulted her to new popularity.  Here is next week's lineup, from The Hill:

CNN on Thursday made it official: Carly Fiorina has arrived as a major presidential contender.

The network revealed that 11 Republican presidential candidates will be on the prime-time debate next Wednesday, with Fiorina as the new edition to the field.

The ten candidates that made the prime-time stage for Fox News’ August debate also make the cut this time.

The network ranked the candidates by performance in national polls. Their ranking of the candidates to make the cut, in order, was:

1. Businessman Donald Trump

2. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush

3. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

4. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson

5. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)

6. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)

7. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee

8. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)

9. Ohio Gov. John Kasich

10. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie

11. Fiorina

The candidates will be organized on the stage with the highest-ranked near the center and the lower-ranked on the flanks.

CNN also announced the lineup for the earlier debate.

It will feature former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), former Sen. Rick Santorum and former New York Gov. George Pataki. 

COMMENT:  It is important that this debate start the process of thinning the herd.  There are too many candidates for the public to properly focus. 

Don't be shocked if someone, possibly Carly, takes on Donald Trump.  They will all be gunning for him, but she has the fluid delivery and quick mind to confront him.

September 11, 2015       Permalink

THE PEOPLE SPEAK – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  But in Washington, not too many care.  Who are those peasants out there to have opinions?  Rasmussen reports that, just as the Iran agreement becomes a done deal in Washington, the American people have turned dead set against it:

Despite the opposition of most members of Congress, the Obama administration appears to have maneuvered its nuclear weapons deal with Iran into reality. But most voters still don’t trust Iran to play ball.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 62% of Likely U.S. Voters think Iran is unlikely to uphold its end of the deal that ends some economic sanctions on that country in exchange for cutbacks in the Iranian nuclear weapons program. This includes 39% who say it’s Not At All Likely. Thirty-five percent (35%) believe Iran is likely to honor the deal, but only eight percent (8%) consider it Very Likely.

This is even more skepticism than voters expressed in April as details of the plan began to emerge.

Just 23% believe the treaty the administration has negotiated with Iran will make the Middle East safer. Forty percent (40%) say the agreement will put the region more at risk, while 27% think it will have no impact on the safety and security of the Middle East. These attitudes are basically unchanged from two months ago.

Most voters still think Congress needs to approve any deal with Iran before it goes into effect, but only 32% want their congressional representatives to approve the plan the administration has negotiated.

COMMENT:  Only 32% approve.  But the plan is a done deal because of pressure by the Obama administration and its amen corner in the U.S. Senate.

September 11, 2015       Permalink

TODAY – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  Today we once again commemorate the 9-11 attacks 14 years ago.  Sadly, some Americans have, in the pathetic terminology of the left, "moved on."  But most Americans will show respect for those who died on 9-11, a death toll that was actually larger than that of Pearl Harbor. 

I find it ironic that, on the anniversary of the attacks, Washington is busy wrapping up a pact with Iran, the largest sponsor of Islamist terror in the world, that will guarantee Iran tens of billions of dollars to continue its dark work.  I find it ironic that, on this anniversary, the United States of America is led by a man who refuses to use the term "Islamic terrorism," and who has shown open sympathy for the Islamic extremist group, the Muslim Brotherhood.   I find it ironic, and wretched, that on this day of remembrance, the Democratic Party, once my party, once the party that placed such a high priority on national defense, is going along almost in lockstep with a president who has done almost everything in his power to weaken this nation, a nation for which he shows contempt.

We must return to the spirit that guided us after the 9-11 attacks.   We begin that by making a major change at the presidential level next year.  There is no alternative to that course of action.  If we continue with Obama's policies, we will have only ourselves to blame, and our children will pay the price.

September 11,  2015     Permalink 

SEPTEMBER 10,  2015

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

DISGRACEFUL – From The Politico:   Senate Democrats on Thursday successfully blocked a measure meant to kill President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran, dealing a decisive defeat to Republicans’ attempts to derail the controversial agreement and ensuring its survival.  With a 58-42 vote, Democrats filibustered the disapproval resolution that Republicans and other deal opponents had tried to send to Obama's desk, where it would have been vetoed. But with more than enough support from Democrats to sustain that veto, the fight largely turned to the minutiae of Senate procedure and the suspense of whether Democrats would halt the bill from reaching the White House altogether.  This is democracy?  This is what America is all about?  The American people, whose support for the Iran deal has sunk to 21%, can't even get an up-or-down vote on the issue in the Senate, even though opponents of the deal are in the majority.  It is astounding, and a disgrace to this country.  It is also a disgrace to the once-great Democratic Party, which now acts as the private plaything of a dictatorial president.

GREAT MOMENTS IN JOURNALISM – From CBS: NEW YORK -- Former NBC News anchor Brian Williams will return to the air on Sept. 22 as part of MSNBC's coverage of Pope Francis's visit to the United States.  The network pinpointed the date on Thursday. It had been looking toward coverage of the pope's visit as the place to start him in his new job of covering breaking news stories during MSNBC's daylight hours.  Williams lost his job as anchor of NBC's "Nightly News" and was suspended for six months after a pattern emerged that he had lied about his role covering certain news stories.  I hope Williams doesn't say that he personally selected Francis for the job.

COME ON, DONALD, GROW UP – From CNN:  Washington (CNN) Donald Trump said Thursday that when he suggested Carly Fiorina's face would make her unelectable, he wasn't talking about her looks.  "I'm not talking about looks. I'm talking about persona," Trump told CNN's Chris Cuomo on "New Day."  That's how Trump defended the remarks he made about his fellow GOP presidential contender in a Rolling Stone profile published Wednesday.  "Look at that face!" Trump told the magazine while sitting with a Rolling Stone reporter as Fiorina appeared on TV. "Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?"  "I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not s'posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?" Trump said, according to the magazine.  Trump may be leading in the GOP polls right now, but I have a hunch he'll wear out his welcome with his rudeness and abrasive personality.  To a degree, that's what's happened to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  He also attracted initial attention for his bluntness and take-no-prisoners rhetoric.  But, eventually, that kind of style starts driving people away.  Trump's crazy attack on Carly Fiorina reflects his sledgehammer approach.  I don't too many voters who could take that personality in the Oval Office.

September 10, 2015       Permalink

THE CULTURE – AT 11:43 A.M. ET:   Stephen Colbert took over for David Letterman this week as host of CBS's Late Show.  Colbert immediately made it clear that his show would have a political bent, and that means it will go left.  How well is Colbert doing in his first week?  From Hollywood Reporter:   

After a strong debut Tuesday, Stephen Colbert earned a less overwhelming win on Wednesday. Shedding 35 percent in the overnight metered market ratings, CBS' Late Show was virtually tied with NBC's Tonight.

Jimmy Fallon's The Tonight Show, bolstered by a visit from the comedian's pal and frequent viral video partner Justin Timberlake, also jumped in key demo of adults 18-49 — easily topping Colbert in Local People Meters. Final ratings later Thursday will likely find Colbert and Fallon evenly matched with audiences, with a slight advantage to Colbert, and the key demo in clear favor of Fallon.

Looking at the raw numbers, Colbert's overnight rating dropped from a 4.9 to a 3.2 in households. Fallon's jumped from a 2.4 to a 3.1 rating. In Local People Meters' demo measurement, Colbert lost half of his 18-49 showing. The episode was off by nearly half, from a 1.5 to a 0.8 rating.

COMMENT:  That is the usual pattern.  People tune in to a new host just out of curiosity.  Some will stay.  Some will go back to old favorites.  The fact that Colbert lost half his 18-49 demographic so quickly will be troubling to CBS.  If there's a turning away from the decidedly liberal Colbert by the young audience, that could have some political implications.  Or, it could simply mean that Colbert isn't funny enough.  We'll watch it.

September 10, 2015       Permalink

ANOTHER HILLARY SETBACK – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  It's one hit after another for the once inevitable Democratic candidate for president.  From The Politico: 

Hillary Clinton's Iowa edge is gone.

Bernie Sanders leads the former secretary of state for the first time among Iowa Democrats likely to caucus in February, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll unveiled Thursday morning — the latest in a string of surveys that show a tightening race in the Hawkeye State.

The Vermont senator's advantage is within the margin of error — he took 41 percent compared with Clinton's 40 percent — and another 12 percent said they would support Vice President Joe Biden, who has yet to declare his 2016 intentions. (Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley picked up 3 percent, while no other candidate registered above that mark, and 3 percent were undecided.)

But the shift is a significant one, coming on the heels of polls showing Sanders edging Clinton in New Hampshire, too. Together, the results suggest a candidate reeling from the controversy over her emails and struggling to put down a rebellion on her left flank.

COMMENT:  If Hillary were smart, and there are doubts, she'd forget about the left wing, and go for the rest of the party.  The left never changes.  It never moves.  It is a religion, not a political group.  It will never feel comfortable with Hillary because Hillary is seen as too hawkish on foreign policy.

Yesterday, she took two swipes at Obama – one suggesting he wasn't tough enough on Iran, the other suggesting he hadn't done enough for struggling working people.  Look, it could have been a coincidence.  On the other hand, she may be realizing that pandering to the left makes no sense, and that Obama is probably against her anyway.  She may, understanding the risks involved, struggle her way to the nomination and then set herself up as a moderate Democrat, and alternative both to the left and to the not-very-popular Republican Party.

Fascinating political year.  No guarantees anywhere.

September 10, 2015        Permalink

RUSSIA EXPANDS – AT 9:53 A.M. ET:  Reports coming out of Syria point to a dramatically increased Russian combat role.  Grand Admiral Kerry has been protesting to Moscow, and is being ignored.  Why are we not surprised?  When you flash weakness in international politics, you're ignored.  From Reuters: 

MOSCOW/BEIRUT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russian forces have begun participating in military operations in Syria in support of government troops, three Lebanese sources familiar with the political and military situation there said on Wednesday.

The sources, speaking to Reuters on condition they not be identified, gave the most forthright account yet from the region of what the United States fears is a deepening Russian military role in Syria's civil war, though one of the Lebanese sources said the number of Russians involved so far was small.

U.S. officials said Russia sent two tank landing ships and additional cargo aircraft to Syria in the past day or so and deployed a small number of naval infantry forces.

The U.S. officials, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the intent of Russia's military moves in Syria was unclear. One suggested the focus may be on preparing an airfield near the port city of Latakia, a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

U.S. officials have not ruled out the possibility that Russia may want to use the airfield for air combat missions.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Russian counterpart for the second time in four days to express concern over reports of Russian military activities in Syria, warning that it could fan more violence.

COMMENT:  Yeah, Johnny, it sure can fan more violence.  And I'm sure the Russkies are very concerned about that. 

If you look at Russia's policies, they're militantly expansionist.  We're back to the bad old days.  The Cold War that Reagan ended, in large measure because he had military strength behind him, is back, and the cold part of it is becoming dangerously warm.

And Field Marshal Obama?  He's busy sucking up to Iran.  I'm sure the Russians are impressed.

September 10, 2015       Permalink

THIS IS A BIG STORY – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  With the potential to be another Watergate.  Could it possibly be true?  It has the ring of truth.  Please read, from Fox: 

Dozens of intelligence analysts working at the U.S. military's Central Command (CENTCOM) have complained that their reports on ISIS and the Nusra Front in Syria were inappropriately altered by senior officials, according to a published report.

The Daily Beast reported late Wednesday that more than 50 analysts had supported a complaint to the Pentagon that the reports had been changed to make the terror groups seem weaker than the analysts believe they really are. Fox News confirmed last month that the Defense Department's inspector general was investigating the initial complaint, which the New York Times reported was made by a civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

The assessments in question are prepared for several U.S. policymakers, including President Obama.

The Daily Beast report, which cited 11 individuals, claimed that the complaint being investigated by the Defense Department was made in July. However, several analysts reportedly complained as early as this past October that their reports were being altered to suit a political narrative that ISIS was being weakened by U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria.

"The cancer was within the senior level of the intelligence command," the report quotes one defense official as saying.

According to the report, some analysts allege that reports deemed overly negative in their assessment of the Syria campaign were either blocked from reaching policymakers or sent back down the chain of command. Others claim that key elements of intelligence reports were removed, fundamentally altering their conclusions. Another claim is that senior leaders at CENTCOM created a work environment where giving a candid opinion on the progress of the anti-ISIS campaign was discouraged, with one analyst describing the tenor as "Stalinist."

COMMENT:  Outrageous if true, and the story fits the mentality of the Obama secretariat.  Republicans should get on this, and make it a major campaign issue.  We are not being told the truth about our international military situation.  That will only lead to tragedy, but it will be some other president's tragedy.

September 10,  2015     Permalink