SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:41 P.M. ET: 

FLORIDA – A new poll shows Republican Governor Rick Scott edging ahead of the terminally obnoxious former Governor Charlie Crist in this year's gubernatorial race.  Crist, as you'll recall, was a Republican who is now a Democrat, largely because he's no longer welcome in his own party.  Scott is only slightly ahead, but the trend is in his favor.  Most of his new support is coming from Republicans who are catching on that Crist is no longer one of them.

WHAT'D HE DO? – From The Hill:  "President Obama will speak next month at a gala celebrating the 20th anniversary of a Holocaust history foundation established by director Steven Spielberg.  The USC Shoah Foundation, created by Spielberg after he completed the film 'Schindler's List,' will honor Obama with its Ambassador to Humanity Award at an event in Los Angeles on May 7."  Yup, you read it right.  The guy who got the Nobel Peace Prize after two days in office now gets an "ambassador to humanity" award.  I guess no examples of his humanity had to be given.  The corpses in Syria are cheering. 

BAFFLING – From Fox:  "Al Sharpton on Monday dismissed a report portraying him as a one-time mob informant for the FBI, calling the claims old news and a 'crazy' attempt to discredit him.  'I don’t see this as news,' Sharpton told FoxNews.com.  'This has been brought up three or four times now. I don’t understand. It’s crazy.'  TheSmokingGun.com story describes in detail how Sharpton in the mid-1980s secretly recorded Mafia bosses and other underworld figures for an FBI-NYPD crime task force.  The 12,196-word story -- in which he is referred to as CI-7, short for confidential informant #7 -- says investigators got Sharpton to 'flip' after getting him close enough to agreeing to broker a drug deal connected to boxing promoter Don King that they could threaten him with charges."   It is an old story, but very probably a true one.  I can understand Sharpton denying it.  The Hudson River is very deep and very cold.

SHAZAM! – Reader and military historian Will Stroock first alerted us to this weeks ago.  From the San Diego Union-Tribune:  "This summer, San Diego will host the public unveiling of a military weapon that the Navy’s chief scientist calls a Star Wars-like technology that is nevertheless now viable.  In July, the Navy will hold a static display of its $500 million electromagnetic railgun prototype program at San Diego Naval Base, aboard the Joint High Speed Vessel Millinocket. It’s the same ship on which the Navy will perform the first maritime firing test of the weapon in 2016.  'The American public has never seen it,' said Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, chief of naval research, in a recent telephone press conference."  The gun can fire a projectile 100 miles.  I hope Obama's defense cuts don't destroy it.

April 7, 2014