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APRIL 11,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:50 P.M. ET: 

SPINE?  REALLY? – From WaPo:  "The Obama administration said Friday that it would block Iran’s nominee as ambassador to the United Nations from entering the United States, setting up a new confrontation with Tehran just as relations with the Islamic republic appeared to be improving.  The decision to bar entry to the diplomat, who was allegedly involved in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, followed intense political pressure on the administration from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill. But it also marked a rare instance in which Washington has effectively vetoed another country’s preferred choice as envoy to the United Nations."  Typical WaPo story, isn't it?  I hadn't noticed the improvement of relations with Iran.  And the chap wasn't "allegedly" involved in the embassy seizure.  He's admitted he had a role, but claims it was peripheral.  Glad to see a little spine at the White House, although the usual Obama crowd must fear that the president has gone American.

MORE EMPLOYEES THAN VIEWERS – Al Jazeera ain't makin' it in America.  From Hollywood Reporter:  "Al Jazeera America, which launched last August with nearly 850 employees and 12 news bureaus in the United States, has laid off dozens of employees as part of restructuring. The channel is disbanding its sports unit and scaling back its social-media-driven show The Stream from a daily show to a once-a-week program."  Their audience numbers are abysmal – maybe 15,000 viewers a day.  Maybe Americans aren't keen on watching a news organization owned by foreign potentates, in this case the royal family of Qatar.

A BIT OF EMBARRASSMENT – From The Week:  "White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and his family are featured in a worshipful profile in this month's Washingtonian magazine.  It's the sort of adoring journalistic exercise reserved for only the most handsome of the power elite. In it you can find out details about the Carney dog (a cousin to presidential pooch Sonny!), and how much the press secretary's tie costs ($135).  But keen observers may notice the kitchen decor in the photo: Soviet propaganda posters. They really are the perfect pop of color whether you are the dour and sincere Nikita Khrushchev or the cheeky press-wrangler for a president who is constantly accused of being a socialist himself."  Yikes.  Didn't Carney think of taking down the posters, or did he think they would get him extra Brownie points in the Obama White House?

April 11,  2014     Permalink

UNBELIEVABLE – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  More political correctness.  Charles Krauthammer warned this week of an increase in intolerance by the political left.  He is right.  Is anyone surprised? 

Last week we saw the new CEO of Mozilla, designers of the Firefox browser, forced out of his job because of a history of politely opposing gay marriage.  Now it is Condi Rice's turn.  Some weeks ago the leftist shock forces tried to pressure Rutgers University into canceling its invitation to Rice to deliver this year's commencement address.  Unlike Brandeis University (see post below), Rutgers stood its ground and Rice will speak.

Now the thought police are targeting Rice again.  From Fox: 

Internet activists are calling for the boycott of popular cloud storage service Dropbox after it named former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to its board of directors earlier this week.

The outcry stems, in large part, from Rice’s support for the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program during the Bush administration. But the company believes having the former national security adviser will help raise its global profile.

“This is deeply disturbing, and anyone – or any business – who values ethics should be concerned,” says a blog post on Drop-Dropbox.com, a site that’s leading the call for the boycott. “Given everything we now know about the U.S.’s warrantless surveillance program, and Rice’s role in it, why on earth would we want someone like her involved with Dropbox, an organization we are trusting with our most important business and personal data?”

The site lists several other cloud storage services users could use as alternatives to Dropbox, which is used by 275 million people worldwide. Support for the boycott has stretched across social media, and was "upvoted" to the highly-trafficked Reddit front page, as well as the site's technology section front page, PCWorld.com reported.

COMMENT:  Expect this trend to worsen.  These are bullies, and bullies will continue their bullying until someone stands in their way. 

I hope Dropbox doesn't give in, but we'll follow the story.

April 11, 2014       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY, FROM A GREAT LADY – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  Unlike Hillary Clinton, there are some women who have a great deal to say that is valuable, and they have put their lives on the line for their beliefs.  One such woman is Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  If the name sounds familiar it's because she was embroiled this week in an ugly controversy.

The Somali-born Ms. Ali, currently a scholar at Harvard, and once a member of the Dutch Parliament, has spoken out against the abuse of women in Islamic countries.  Her life has been threatened many times.  Recently this true heroine was offered an honorary degree by Brandeis University, in Waltham, Massachusetts.  Brandeis was founded in the late 1940s, partly as a counter to the ethnic quotas then in place in many "elite" colleges and universities.  It's a pretty good school, but its dark side has always been a reliably left-wing fringe.  It's the school where Anita Hill now teaches.  It is trendy.

Its dark side was on display this week when it withdrew its offer of an honorary degree from Ayaan Hirsi Ali, under pressure from Muslim groups, moronic campus children called undergraduates, and leftists on the faculty.  Hearing truths about the Islamic world and its treatment of women was apparently too much to bear.  It violated the party line.  By the way, attacks on Judaism, Israel, or Christianity never seem to bother Brandeis half as much.  Yes, trendy it is.

As usual, Brandeis's outrageous behavior has been greeted with silence by the "liberal" press and by so-called "feminist" groups, who have no problem throwing women under the bus if they're the wrong kind of women.

But Ms. Ali has written a brilliant rejoinder in The Wall Street Journal called "Here's What I Would Have Said at Brandeis."  It's inspiring.  I urge you to read the whole thing.  Here is an excerpt:   

Just as the city of Boston was once the cradle of a new ideal of liberty, we need to return to our roots by becoming once again a beacon of free thought and civility for the 21st century. When there is injustice, we need to speak out, not simply with condemnation, but with concrete actions.

One of the best places to do that is in our institutions of higher learning. We need to make our universities temples not of dogmatic orthodoxy, but of truly critical thinking, where all ideas are welcome and where civil debate is encouraged. I'm used to being shouted down on campuses, so I am grateful for the opportunity to address you today. I do not expect all of you to agree with me, but I very much appreciate your willingness to listen.

I stand before you as someone who is fighting for women's and girls' basic rights globally. And I stand before you as someone who is not afraid to ask difficult questions about the role of religion in that fight.

The connection between violence, particularly violence against women, and Islam is too clear to be ignored. We do no favors to students, faculty, nonbelievers and people of faith when we shut our eyes to this link, when we excuse rather than reflect.

So I ask: Is the concept of holy war compatible with our ideal of religious toleration? Is it blasphemy—punishable by death—to question the applicability of certain seventh-century doctrines to our own era? Both Christianity and Judaism have had their eras of reform. I would argue that the time has come for a Muslim Reformation.

COMMENT:  That apparently was too upsetting for the delicate ears at Brandeis.  Yes, it is true that Ms. Ali has had some harsh things to say about Islam, which is the ostensible reason her honorary degree was withdrawn.  Like all of us, she might regret some of those comments.  But so much of what she says is important, correct, and an inspiration to a new generation.

I'm glad she wrote her article, and the Journal is to be praised for publishing it.  Maybe someone will have the courage to read her words out loud at Brandeis's graduation.  Don't bet on it.  Conformity is the deity of the American college campus.

April 11, 2014       Permalink 

HILLARY'S PROBLEM – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:  If Hillary runs in 2016, she will probably be handed the Democratic nomination as a gift long delayed.  But what happens after that?  Polls show she can be elected with some ease, but I really wonder.  Hillary has a number of liabilities, but one stands out:  She's never actually accomplished anything.  From Byron York at the Washington Examiner:   

Last week Hillary Clinton gave what appeared at first to be a rambling and unfocused answer when asked to name the proudest achievement of her four years as Secretary of State. The short version is, she doesn't have one. But Clinton's words make a lot more sense when seen not as a non-answer to a specific question but as an effort to lay the foundation and establish a theme for a presidential campaign.

And...

"Look, I really see my role as secretary, and in fact, leadership in general in a democracy, as a relay race," Clinton said. "I mean, you run the best race you can run, you hand off the baton. Some of what hasn't been finished may go on to be finished ..."

The answer seemed to concede that there is no single, momentous thing Clinton can point to as having achieved during her years as the nation's top diplomat. As she went on, Clinton instead linked herself to President Obama's achievements -- at least the Democratic version of them -- not in the field of foreign affairs, but at home.

And...

On the basis of that "stimulate and grow" policy, Clinton continued, the United States returned to strength and can now deal with foreign crises like the Ukraine without having to worry about a world economic collapse. "I think we really restored American leadership in the best sense," she said. "That, you know, once again, people began to rely on us, to look at us as, you know, setting the values, setting the standards."

Clinton promised to provide "a lot of particulars" in her upcoming memoir, due in June. But those last few words are likely to be the book's message: She restored American leadership. Without any landmark achievement, she will claim credit — along with the president, of course — for restoring America's place in the world.

It's a vague and highly debatable argument. And in the end, at the "Women in the World" gathering, Clinton seemed to rely mostly on the Obama administration's domestic accomplishments — or at least her version of them — to shore up the case for her performance as Secretary of State. That is pretty much a non sequitur.

COMMENT:  Our foreign policy is a mess, and getting messier, and she owns it.  But foreign policy rarely determines the outcome of elections, so Hillary might survive scrutiny. 

As for Clinton's claim that the Obama administration restored American leadership, do we laugh now, or laugh later?

Will any of this matter?  Clinton will benefit from a biased press even more than Obama did.  The notion of "the first" will be brought up again.  We will be told that, if we don't vote for "the first woman president," we are bigots.  Sadly, that might work, especially with young voters.

April 11, 2014       Permalink

GOP SMELLS BLOOD – AT 9:02 A.M. ET:  The resignation (or political execution) of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is only the beginning for Republicans who want the total abolition of Sebelius's main "accomplishment" – Obamacare.  From Fox:

Republicans responded to news of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' resignation from the Obama administration on Thursday with fresh calls to repeal the president's health care law.

Sebelius leaves the administration after the tumultuous launch of the Affordable Care Act exchanges last fall. Despite calls for her ouster from Republicans at the time, she stayed on until the enrollment period ended at the end of March.

A White House official said President Obama will formally make the announcement on Friday, and nominate White House budget office director Sylvia Matthews Burwell to replace the outgoing secretary. The Senate would have to confirm Burwell to the position.

Republicans quickly made clear that Sebelius' departure will not temper their criticisms of ObamaCare.

"Virtually everyone who has come into contact with this law has had new reason to worry about what it means for the government to control their health care," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement. "Secretary Sebelius may be leaving, but the problems with this law and the impact it’s having on our constituents aren’t. ObamaCare has to go, too."

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch said Sebelius "had one of the toughest jobs in Washington" because she had to implement the law, which he said is "flawed" and continues to fall short.

"While we haven’t always agreed, Secretary Sebelius did the best she could during the tumultuous and volatile rollout of the law," Hatch, R-Utah, said in a statement.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Sebelius' resignation will not fix problems with ObamaCare.

COMMENT:  The Republicans are correct.  However, it's unlikely they can get Obamacare repealed because any repeal legislation will face a quick presidential veto.  But they can amend it with popular and effective provisions that the president might be forced by public pressure to accept. 

And they should start now.  We noted recently that polls show Obamacare to be the leading issue, as of now, in the 2014 midterm campaign.

April 11,  2014     Permalink

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 every day 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