SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:33 P.M. ET: 

MYSTERY – A Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 with 239 people on board has disappeared on a flight from Malaysia to Beijing, China.  No wreckage has been sighted.  It is not known whether the plane went down at sea or over land.   All contact was abruptly lost.  Obviously, thoughts range from an engine explosion to a terrorism act to a collision with some object, but that is all speculation.  We will follow this.

DON'T ASK BARACK FOR HELP – From the Chicago Tribune:  "SPRINGFIELD—The daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, President Barack Obama’s former minister, was convicted by a federal jury Friday of laundering thousands of dollars from a $1.25 million state grant for a Chicago-based job-training program.  Jeri Wright said she would 'definitely' appeal the verdict in U.S. District Court, which found her guilty of 11 counts that included money laundering, lying to federal agents and lying to a grand jury."  Don't call Barack.  He never heard of Rev. Wright.  He never heard of little Jeri.  He never heard of Chicago.  He never heard of  the United States.

ALL OUT FOR BILL – From the Washington Times:  "Bill Clinton accepted a $225,000 speaking fee from the nonprofit Washington Hospital Center smack in the middle of two big rounds of layoffs in 2012 — one of a number of tax-exempt organizations that have paid big money to hear the former president talk.  The $225,000 payment wasn’t made public by the hospital on its annual Internal Revenue Service forms, but rather appeared among dozens of lucrative speeches by Mr. Clinton reported on his wife’s final ethics filing as secretary of state.  'No disrespect to Bill Clinton, but that money could’ve gone a long way and been put to better use,' said Dan Fields Jr., president of the Service Employees International Union Local 722 representing hospital workers."   The Clintons are a corporation.  They have profited mightily from their "public service."  Bill should return the money to unemployed hospital workers, but he won't.

WE ARE SAVED, WE ARE SAVED – From the Washington Examiner:  "Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders is readying a potential 2016 presidential primary challenge to Hillary Clinton, claiming that the 'same old same old ... Clinton type of politics' won't solve the problems of the nation.  'I am prepared to run for president of the United States. I don't believe that I am the only person out there who can fight this fight, but I am certainly prepared to look seriously at that race,' he told The Nation's John Nichols.  Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has toyed with a presidential bid before, but this is the furthest he’s gone in announcing his bid. While he hasn’t begun fundraising, Sanders said he is discussing a run with key advisors."  I sense a huge wanting of Bernie out there, don't you?  I think that, once he announces, it's all over.   

March 7, 2014