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APRIL 10,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:56 P.M. ET: 

COLBERT IN – From Entertainment Weekly:  "It’s official: Stephen Colbert will replace David Letterman as CBS’s Late Show host.  The broadcast network has tapped the 49-year-old Comedy Central host to take over the late-night franchise.  CBS has made a five-year deal with Colbert, which was announced Thursday by CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves and CBS Entertainment chairman Nina Tassler."  Reaction has been mixed.  Many believe this is a tremendous risk for CBS, as Colbert's appeal tends to be narrow and generational.  Johnny Carson was, of course, truly the king of late night, in large measure because he could appeal across generations and speak to a nation.  Colbert?  Tough climb.

SEBELIUS OUT – From The New York Times:  "WASHINGTON — Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, is resigning, ending a stormy five-year tenure marred by the disastrous rollout of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act.  Mr. Obama accepted Ms. Sebelius’s resignation this week, and on Friday morning, he will nominate Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, to replace her, officials said."  Guess Kathy's "resignation" wasn't all that unexpected.  I mean, Obama had a replacement in his desk drawer.  Word is that Obama wanted Sebelius out before the 2014 election campaign began in earnest.

WHITE SWANS UNMASKED! – From London's Telegraph:  "Warwick University has erected a fence around a campus lake to stop a spate of swan attacks on students.  A 4ft tall bird, which boasts an 8ft wingspan, has been accused of behaving aggressively towards foreign students as they cross over a footbridge near its nesting place at the university's Gibbet Hill campus in Coventry, West Midlands.  The footbridge is used by hundreds of students everyday as a route between accommodation and university buildings. Undergraduates revealed that the swan only appeared to target students from ethnic minorities."  Racist swans.  I knew it all the time.  You can't be that white and not have feelings.

BROWN ANNOUNCES – As expected, Former Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown announced his candidacy for a New Hampshire U.S. Senate seat.  And a new poll shows Brown closing the gap against incumbent Dem Senator Jeanne Shaheen. Shaheen is up by six.  In January she was up by ten.  Brown moved from Massachusetts to his summer home in New Hampshire to be eligible for the contest.  Most observers consider it close.

April 10,  2014     Permalink 

OBAMACARE LOOMS LARGE IN ELECTION – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:   It remains the issue for many voters.  From The Hill: 

More than 80 percent of people in a new poll say the healthcare law will be an important factor in determining their vote in the midterm elections.

A USA Today-Pew Research survey released Thursday found 54 percent call the law "very important" in determining their vote.

The survey came after the administration announced more than 7 million people signed up for healthcare through the newly created exchanges. Republicans have sought to make the law a central focus ahead of the midterms, believing it will drag down Democrats.

When broken down, 64 percent of Republicans — most of whom oppose the law — call it a very important factor heading into the election, while 52 percent of Democrats say the same.

Forty-five percent of Independents call the law very important in determining their vote.

Sixty percent of those who oppose the law say it will be very important to their vote in the midterms. Only 48 percent of those who support the law say it will be very important to their vote.

Overall, support for the law has changed little in the past month. Thirty-seven percent approve of the law while 50 percent disapprove.

COMMENT:  On the surface, that is good news for Republicans.  But please remember that we elect members of the House and Senate one by one.  Each race is different, and Republicans must avoid their past blunders in selecting candidates.  Obamacare can win the election for Republicans, but only if their candidates appeal to the majority.

April 10, 2014       Permalink

GOOD NEWS? – AT 8:59 A.M. ET:  Claims for unemployment compensation have dropped to their lowest level since 2007.  Is this good news, or a smokescreen?  From AP:

The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level in almost seven years, falling 32,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 300,000.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, fell 4,750 to 316,250.

Fewer Americans sought benefits last week than at any point since the Great Recession began at the end of 2007. Applications are at their lowest level since May of that year.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. The decrease suggests that employers expect stronger economic growth in the coming months and are holding onto their workers.

Employers added 192,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department said last week. That follows gains of 197,000 in February, as the unemployment rate stayed at 6.7 percent for the second straight month.

Snowstorms and freezing temperatures in January and December shut down factories, kept shoppers away from stores, and reduced home buying. That cut into growth and hiring. Employers added 144,000 jobs in January and only 84,000 in December.

COMMENT:  The media will paint the brightest possible picture, the better to help the Democrats in this year's midterms.  But the reality is far more grim.  Many people have run out of unemployment benefits.  Many have dropped out of the work force.  We have a smaller percentage of Americans working now than in decades.  And many of the new "jobs" being created are in low-paying sectors, or are part-time jobs.  We know that a disproportionate number of new jobs are in food-service industries, where pay is low.

Our economy has changed dramatically for the worse.  We have to look inside the overall figures to see the truth.  And those industries that do create good, high-paying jobs are being harassed by new Obama regulations all the time. 

We are not doing well.  We will not do well until we restore the kinds of jobs that once made America boom.

April 10, 2014        Permalink

SHOCK! – IRAN NUKE TALKS DIFFICULT – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  The newest round of nuclear talks between the West and Iran have ended.  Guess what.  There were no breakthroughs.  Please don't faint at that news.  From The New York Times:

Iran and the group of six major powers negotiating a permanent agreement to resolve the Iranian nuclear dispute concluded a two-day round of talks in Vienna on Wednesday, asserting that “a lot of intensive work” remained to complete a draft accord by their self-imposed deadline in three months.

The lead negotiators, the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Catherine Ashton, the top foreign policy official of the European Union, made the assertion in a joint statement that said the next round of talks would be held May 13. The statement suggested that both sides were still struggling with extensive disagreements and described the further negotiations as an attempt to “bridge the gaps in all the key areas.”

The talks took place against rising tensions surrounding Iran’s estranged relations with the West, punctuated by new flare-ups with both the United States and the European Union on nonnuclear issues. The Americans have objected to Iran’s choice for a new United Nations ambassador, contending that he participated in the seizure of American hostages in Tehran in 1979. Iran has expressed anger at European criticism of the country’s human rights record.

The tensions have been further complicated by the crisis in Ukraine, which has alienated the West from Russia, a member of the six-nation group negotiating with Iran, raising questions about Russia’s commitment to the success of the nuclear talks. The other five members of the group are Britain, China, France, Germany and the United States.

COMMENT:  The bottom line is that Iran has no intention of giving up its nuclear-weapons program.  My own sense – and this is informed speculation – is that Obama will arrange for the talks to extend beyond our November midterms, and then cave in, giving Iran a very good deal and calling it peace.  We've been there, done that.

April 10, 2014       Permalink

THE EMP THREAT – AT 8:29 A.M. ET:   We have had warnings of an EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) attack on the U.S. for about two decades, yet it's hardly on the political radar screen.  Such an attack, in which an enemy explodes a nuclear device high above America, could destroy power grids, computer networks and electrical installations, paralyzing the United States and leading, in the worst case, to mass starvation and death.  From WND: 

WASHINGTON – A long-suppressed report prepared by the Department of Homeland Security for the Defense Department concludes that North Korea could deliver on its threats to destroy the United States with a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack.

The report remains blocked from release to the American public.

However, a copy obtained by Peter Vincent Pry from sources within DHS finds North Korea could use its Unha-3 space launch vehicle to deliver a nuclear warhead as a satellite over the South Pole to attack the U.S. from the south.

Pry, executive director of the congressional advisory Task Force on National and Homeland Security, pointed out that the U.S. “has no early warning radars or interceptors” to stop a missile from the south.

Pry also was the staff director to the congressionally mandated EMP commission, which concluded that the damage from either a natural or man-made EMP event on the nation’s unprotected electrical grid would have a cascading impact on life-sustaining critical infrastructures as well as electronic components and automated control systems.

Along with the electrical grid system, the critical infrastructures include telecommunications, banking, finance, petroleum and natural gas pipelines, transportation, food and water delivery, emergency services and space systems.

COMMENT:  There are some nuclear experts who believe that Iran's real intent in developing a nuclear weapon is to launch an EMP attack on this country.  Yet, very little is being done about the threat.  It's just not something Americans think about every day, and the Obama administration is hardly a source of any sense of urgency.

April 10,  2014     Permalink

APRIL 9,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:48 P.M. ET: 

I DUNNO ABOUT THIS – From The National:  "ABU DHABI // Former US president Bill Clinton will address students at New York University Abu Dhabi’s first graduation ceremony.  The inaugural commencement ceremony takes place on May 25 and will see 140 students from 49 countries graduating.  The ceremony itself will be held at NYU’s newly built campus on Saadiyat Island, which is set to officially open this summer."  I'm uneasy.  An American president delivering a commencement address in a country not exactly known for freedom?  There have been rumors over the years about the Clintons making fortunes in Gulf states.  I wonder what the check will be for this speech?  Wife might be president.

OUR FRIEND, VLADIMIR – From Fox:  "The Russian government declined to provide American authorities with information about one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects two years before the attack, which likely would have led to more extensive scrutiny of the suspect, according to a published report.  The New York Times, citing an inspector general's review of how American intelligence and law enforcement agencies could have prevented the deadly bombing last April that claimed three lives and wounded hundreds, reported that Russian authorities told the FBI in 2011 that Tamerlan Tsarnaev 'was a follower of radical Islam.'  But after an initial investigation by FBI agents in Boston, the Russians declined several bureau requests for additional information they had about Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shootout with police days after the attack."  Guess that reset button continues to malfunction.

PRESIDENTIAL WISDOM – From the Washington Examiner:  "President Obama isn't worried about the Rev. Al Sharpton's history as an FBI informant with ties to the mafia, his spokesman said, and doesn't think that the news makes his impending visit to Sharpton's National Action Network awkward.  'Rev. Sharpton and the National Action Network have made significant contributions to civil rights efforts, and the President looks forward to appearing at the conference,' White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters during the Wednesday press gaggle."  I've always been impressed by Obama's high standards and taste in people.

VICTORY – From the Washington Times:  "A federal court Wednesday ordered the University of North Carolina-Wilmington to promote and give $50,000 in back pay to a conservative professor in what is described as a landmark anti-discrimination case.  The restitution was ordered three weeks after a jury found the university guilty of retaliating against criminology professor Mike Adams, a popular conservative columnist on Townhall.com, after denying him a promotion to full professor in 200.  'This ruling sends a message to public universities: Academic freedom isn’t just for the Left, it’s a constitutional right for all professors — even Christian conservatives,' said David French, senior counsel at the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, which represented Mr. Adams."  Mike Adams is terrific.  Sometimes things go right, but only if you fight for them.

April 9, 2014       Permalink

THUMBS DOWN ON OBAMACARE – AT 10:21 A.M. ET:  A new poll shows that Obamacare isn't about to win any popularity contests.  From CBS: 

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — A majority of Americans believe that President Barack Obama’s signature health care law will be repealed.

A new Rasmussen Reports poll found that 62 percent of likely voters believe that Republicans will repeal Obamacare, which recently marked its fourth anniversary.

Only 23 percent of those polled believe that the health care law has been a success, compared to 46 percent who describe the law as a failure.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, offered a Republican alternative to Obama’s health care overhaul last week, saying states should play a greater role in containing health care costs while giving consumers more flexibility in choosing insurance plans.

Jindal said Obama’s health care law should be “repealed in its entirety” but said Republicans need to offer a better way to reform the health care system, wading into one of the most contentious policy issues in the upcoming midterm elections.

Jindal, a former congressman and Bush administration health care adviser, has sought to establish himself as an outside-the-Beltway policy leader in the early jockeying for the next presidential campaign. His plan aims to separate himself from congressional Republicans who have repeatedly sought to repeal the law but struggled to find consensus on a viable replacement.

“Repealing all of Obamacare is a good and necessary step — but not one sufficient by itself to achieve the real health reform America needs,” Jindal said in the plan released by America Next, a nonprofit he formed to promote conservative policy ideas.

COMMENT:  Jindal is right.  Republicans must come up with clear, popular alternatives to Obamacare.  Otherwise, the Dems will engage in their usual scare campaign:  "If you elect Republicans, they'll take away your health care."  We see it all the time.  They used to say that Republicans will take away Social Security.  Or your children.

I have the sense that the Republican National Committee has begun to learn its lessons.  But the party is divided, and can either triumph or destroy itself.  This year's midterms are a test run for 2016.   We are balanced on a knife edge.  Early polling favors the Republicans, and even gives them a good shot at taking the Senate.  But the verdict is seven months away, twenty lifetimes in politics.

April 9, 2014       Permalink

BACKLASH – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:  By this time all of you know the story of how Brendan Eich, the new CEO of Mozilla, which runs the popular Firefox browser, was forced out of office after only one week because someone discovered he'd made a 2008 contribution to a drive to ban gay marriage in California. 

The ouster, at first praised by the politically correct, has now created a huge backlash.  And I'm happy to say that some liberals and gay-rights advocates have joined the backlash.  They realize that this is nothing more or less than modern-day McCarthyism.  And what is ironic is that Eich was taking, in 2008, the same position on gay marriage as Obama and Hillary Clinton.  I don't see anyone asking that either of these two be banned from public life.

Sane liberal Kirsten Powers examines what has happened in this case, and a related one, in a fine piece at USA Today: 

Last week brought a chilling reminder of how mercilessly some liberals will work to silence and marginalize people who hold views with which they disagree.

Even for those of us who support same-sex marriage, the virtual manhunt of Mozilla chief Brendan Eich was scary to watch. His heresy was a private donation in support of an anti-gay marriage initiative six years ago. Mob rule enforcing groupthink is as illiberal as it gets, and yet it was liberals demanding uniformity of thought — or else.

Another incident of muzzling those without the proper worldview received less attention. Kickstarter, the nation's biggest crowd-funding site, refused to accept a film about convicted abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell unless descriptions of his crimes were removed.

COMMENT: Read the whole piece.  The detail is well worth it.  It doesn't matter how you feel about gay marriage or late-term abortion, or anything else.  The destruction of reputation, the ruining of careers, over a difference of opinion, is simply unacceptable in American society.  And another thing that is unacceptable is pinning the label "bigot" or "racist" on anyone who disagrees.

Demonizing an opponent is one of the recommendations in Saul Alinsky's infamous manual, "Rules for Radicals."  It's McCarthyism at its worst.  Brendan Eich is a brilliant software engineer, who should not have been fired because he ran afoul of the liberal thought police.  I don't know if he is employable now, since companies shy away from controversy.  But I'll bet he can write a whale of a book.

April 9, 2014       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – SPEAKING THE TRUTH – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:   John McCain has been eminently fair to Kerry – too fair, in my view.  But yesterday McCain spoke for all of us when he came down hard on our secretary of state for the Obama administration's disastrous foreign policy.  From The Hill:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday accused Secretary of State John Kerry of presiding over a “trifecta” of foreign policy disasters.

McCain lambasted his former Senate colleague at a hearing in which Kerry faced wide-ranging criticism about the administration’s handling of crises in the Middle East and Ukraine.

“I think you’re about to hit the trifecta,” McCain declared.

“Geneva II [a Syrian peace meeting] was a total collapse, as I predicted to you that it would be. ... The Israeli-Palestinian talks, even though you may drag them out for a while, are finished,” McCain said. “And I predict to you that, even though we gave the Iranians the right to enrich, which is unbelievable, that those talks will collapse too.”

Kerry hit back: “It’s interesting that you declare it dead, but the Israelis and the Palestinians don’t declare it dead,” Kerry said of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

“We’ll see,” McCain interrupted.

“Well, yeah, we will see,” Kerry shot back.

“It has stopped. It has stopped. Recognize reality,” McCain retorted.

COMMENT:  The root problem, it seems to me, is that people like John McCain, who sees the world of foreign policy realistically, believe that neither Obama nor Kerry do.  The critics believe, correctly, that Obama and Kerry live in a kind of fantasy world, where everyone is basically decent (except the United States), and negotiations will get us everywhere. 

We can graciously praise Kerry's efforts – he has certainly worked harder than Hillary Clinton and gotten into the thick of things – but if the premise is wrong, the result is going to be wrong. 

You know, you can learn a great deal from comedians.  If they're good, they're sharp observers of the human condition, which is what makes them funny.  When I worked for Johnny Carson he used to teach us, "You buy the premise, you buy the bit."  It's a good lesson for politics.  The Obama administration is based on wrong premises, and so we can't buy what comes out in the end. 

And those premises, which are premises of the left, will not change.

April 9, 2014        Permalink

CHILLING – AT 8:50 A.M. ET:  Even John Kerry admits the Iranians are within shooting distance of a nuclear weapon.  Not a comfortable situation for us.  From Reuters:

(Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday Iran has the ability to produce fissile material for a nuclear bomb in two months, if it so decided, as Tehran and six world powers swung into a new round of talks in Vienna on resolving their atomic dispute.

Secretary of State John Kerry's comments in Washington highlighted Western concerns about Iran's nuclear intentions and the wide divisions between the two sides that could still foil a deal. Iran says its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.

The overarching goal of the powers - Britain, France, China, Russia, Germany and the United States - in the talks is to persuade Iran to scale back its programme to the point that it would take it much longer, perhaps as long as a year, to produce fuel for a bomb if it chose to do so.

"I think it's public knowledge today that we're operating with a time period for a so-called 'breakout' of about two months. That's been in the public domain," Kerry testified at a Senate hearing.

Iran's "breakout" time is defined as how long it would take it to produce fissile material for one nuclear weapon, if it decided to build such weapons of mass destruction.

COMMENT:  So our goal is to extend the breakout period.  Presumably, we would have precise intelligence that would allow us to measure that period precisely.  I'm somewhat skeptical about that, considering the number of times the United States has been surprised.  Note that the "intelligence community" recently judged that Russia would make no significant move in Crimea.  Little mistake there.

My great fear is that we will cave in under pressure from commercially oriented allies, and agree to an inadequate deal with Iran, just to get something on paper.  Then Obama can have his Neville Chamberlain moment, telling us he's brought peace in our time.

April 9,  2014     Permalink