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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas yesterday.  It's here.

APRIL 14,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:58 P.M. ET:

OBAMA'S AMERICA – From CNS:  "(CNSNews.com) - People participating in the food stamp program outnumbered the women who worked full-time, year-round in the United States in 2012, according to data from the Department of Agriculture and the Census Bureau."  Welcome to the recovery.  No hope, no change.

SANITY PREVAILS – The left has been dogging Condi Rice, trying first to get her dropped as the commencement speaker at Rutgers.  That flopped.  Then they tried to get her dropped from a tech company's board.  The response is in, from NRO:  "Condoleezza Rice? will remain on Dropbox’s board of directors, according to a blogpost from founder and CEO Drew Houston. Rice’s recent appointment to the board drew some controversy among political opponents of the former secretary of state, who urged the file-sharing company to reverse its decision.  The backlash to Rice’s addition came just days after Mozilla pushed out its newly hired CEO Brandon Eich for his support of traditional marriage in 2008, prompting some to think Dropbox would follow suit and let Rice go to avoid political fallout.  But Houston writes that Dropbox is 'honored to have Dr. Rice join our board” as it continues to ensure customers’ privacy.'"  Cheers for Dropbox.

LESS THAN STELLAR – "Mad Men" returned to TV last night.  The cable phenomenon is in its last season, although that "season" will be divided in two – half this year, half next.  It's been a great series, but, after six years, it's gotten a bit worn out, as last night's indifferent episode showed.  Ratings weren't that hot.  Aside from age, "Mad Men" has suffered from a weird policy in cable programming:   A season of a series ends, and the next "season" may begin nine months or more later.  By that time you've forgotten most of what's happened.   When series TV started, a series would end in June and pick up in September.  Much more logical and audience-friendly.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK – From NBC:   "'It’s kinda strange.'  That was New Jersey resident Barrett Griner's first thought when he checked his mail last week and found that one of the mail items from his local county clerk's office was not for him. It was for his 5-year-old German Shepherd dog, IV.  'I got the mail and I look at it, and I’m like IV Griner, this is my dog’s name,' he said. 'I’m wondering like, What is this? Something from the county office about her vaccinations or something? Like, why is my dog getting mail?'  The notice, addressed from the Cumberland County Clerk of Courts, was a juror summons for someone with the first name IV and the last name Griner -- the exact name Barrett Griner IV says he legally gave to his dog."  Considering some of the verdicts I've read about recently, maybe the dogs can do better. 

April 14, 2014       Permalink

FADING ICON – AT 10:21 A.M. ET:   Barack Obama was the "great inspiration" in 2008.   We were told he would move a generation, the way a few former presidents had done.  Turns out, that really isn't the case.  From a very incisive piece in yesterday's New York Times: 

Unlike John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, who inspired virtual legislatures of politicians and became generational touchstones, Mr. Obama has so far had little such influence. That is all the more remarkable considering he came to office tapping into spirit of volunteerism and community service that pollsters say is widespread and intense among young people. Mr. Obama has come to represent that spirit, but he has failed, pollsters say, to transform it into meaningful engagement in the political process.

“If you were to call it an Obama generation, there was a window,” said John Della Volpe, the director of polling at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. “That opportunity has been lost.” He said the youth who came of voting age around the time of the 2008 election have since lost interest in electoral politics, and pointed to a survey he conducted last year among 18- to 29-year-olds. Although 70 percent said they considered community service an honorable endeavor, only 35 percent said the same about running for office.

COMMENT:  Obama was an inspirational candidate, but has never been an inspirational president.   Kennedy ("He started us on the path to the moon") and Reagan ("He ended the Cold War on our terms") knew that a president had to have size.  True, Kennedy was cut down before he truly established a legacy, but he thought in large terms.  Reagan was always a "big" man.  Obama, by contrast, often has the image of a local politician.  He lacks not only size, but strength and conviction.  And his speeches, although always well delivered, lack elegant writing and soaring themes.   You wanted to follow Kennedy and Reagan.  With Obama, you want more information.

April 14, 2014       Permalink

IRAN GETS TOUGHER – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:   Iran, too, is marching forward, indifferent to "warnings" by an increasingly ridiculed Obama administration.  (Even Democrats in the Senate are starting publicly to question Obama's and Kerry's schoolyard foreign policy.) 

Now Iran is making increasingly rigid demands regarding its nuclear program.  And why not?  Who's pushing back?  From AP:

Iran’s nuclear chief asserted Sunday that under the terms of the recently agreed upon treaty with the West, the Islamic Republic has the right to enrich uranium to 90% grade.

“Firstly, we believe that we are entitled to any right that any Non-Proliferation Treaty and [International Atomic Energy] Agency member has, which means that enrichment from 1% to 90% is our right,” Ali Akbar Salehi said in an interview Sunday, according to a translation provided by the Iranian Fars News network.

Salehi, who serves as the Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, added that his country was also considering building four more nuclear power plants in the coming years, with the help of Russian experts.

In a different interview, Salehi raised concerns for the fate of the country’s only running atomic power plant amid talks with the West about a final deal to curb Tehran’s controversial nuclear program, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The government-run daily “Iran” quoted Salehi, the Iranian negotiator in talks with six world powers, as saying that Iran needs 30,000 more centrifuges to enrich uranium and produce enough nuclear fuel to run its Bushehr power plant for a year.

World powers negotiating a final nuclear deal with Iran want a reduction — not an increase — in the number of centrifuges Tehran is operating to remove concerns that the Islamic Republic may use its enrichment capabilities to build a nuclear weapon.

COMMENT:  Recently our less-than-swift secretary of state said that we were considering permitting Iran to have a nuclear program that would keep it within six months to a year of having a nuclear weapon.  Many observers were shocked by that concession since we previously had spoken of the need for Iran to be kept several years away from a "breakout." 

We aren't too good at this game, are we?  Not under this administration.

April 14, 2014       Permalink

UKRAINE UPDATE – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  This is getting very dangerous, just as we are reducing our deterrent forces.  As Col. Dowd says in his comments, posted just below, "Inevitably, just at the moment we feel it prudent to significantly reduce our military forces, the need for them has rushed in upon us."  Russia is becoming increasingly militant, with Vladimir Putin apparently trying to rebuild the Soviet empire.  From the Washington Post:   

MOSCOW — Pro-Russian militants ignored a deadline set by the Ukrainian government and remained ensconced Monday morning in buildings they have occupied in strategic towns throughout the eastern part of the country.

Oleksandr Turchynov, Ukraine’s acting president, said Monday that a major “anti-terrorist” operation announced the night before would get underway. But he also declared that he would be open to a referendum next month on a decentralization of authority to Ukraine’s regions.

The occupiers have claimed that a referendum is what they are seeking. But they are unlikely to credit Turchynov’s intentions. Since the appearance over the weekend of heavily armed pro-Russian squads in a handful of towns, accompanied by sporadic gunfights that have left at least nine injured and one dead, the prospects for a negotiated settlement have dimmed considerably.

In Luhansk, close by the Russian border, workers were evacuated from the local administration building Monday morning, the Interfax news agency reported, without being told why. In Horlivka, about 150 separatists stormed the local police headquarters, according to the unian.net news service.

Authorities in Kiev accuse Russia of stirring up trouble in an attempt to disrupt Ukraine and destabilize the government.

“The blood of Ukrainian heroes has been shed in a war which the Russian Federation is waging against Ukraine,” Turchynov said in an address to the nation Sunday evening.

COMMENT:  There is genuine fear in Western capitals that Russia might move militarily into Ukraine.  Our government keeps warning Moscow against such a move, but why would Putin take these warnings seriously?  He sees Obama reducing American forces and ridiculing the wisdom of past generations as "20th-century thinking."  Guess what, Barack?  Putin is living in the 20th century, and he's mastered it.

April 14, 2014       Permalink

DRAWDOWN – AT 8:30 A.M. ET:  We are very lucky at Urgent Agenda to have extraordinarily intelligent and accomplished readers.  We may be a small site, but I'll put our readership up against that of any other, including the online Harvard Crimson. 

One of our readers and subscribers, John Dowd, a West Point graduate, recently retired from a distinguished military career.  I asked him for his thoughts on the reduction of American military forces under the Obama administration.  I know you'll be interested in his response: 

My thoughts on the drawdown are in some senses quite conventional. History has punished us every time we have assured ourselves that it was safe to disarm. Inevitably, just at the moment we feel it prudent to significantly reduce our military forces, the need for them has rushed in upon us.

But I worry less about the mere loss of numbers and weaponry. We are good at regenerating formations and masses of modern, lethal equipment when called for. But these things do not make our military exceptional. I am concerned that, with a drawdown, we inevitably lose leadership, professionalism, experience, initiative...all the less tangible aspects of a well-trained, well-organized army that can cope with and succeed in vague and uncertain circumstances. Armies are great in spirit, not in numbers. But only with adequate numbers and funding are we likely to maintain all the training, leadership, and professional education opportunities that over time produce a strong cadre of commanders, staff officers and non-commissioned officers. Think about the talent that will be reluctant to join or stay with the armed forces when they see the limits to opportunities that the reductions will likely produce.

I leave aside any drivel that argues we can succeed by relying entirely upon stand-off weaponry, UAVs, satellites, naval and air forces. Clausewitz was correct: strategic victories are not secured through winning military battles, through body counts, by targeting enemy leaders, or by destroying military equipment. They are won by bending the enemy's will to our own. This is always dirty, always difficult, always time-consuming, and always requires the human element. The enemy is beaten only when he believes he is beaten. He is never beaten simply because he has lost this or that battle, this or that many troops, this or that amount of equipment. Once the military option is chosen, the enemy is beaten when he is, by force, made to believe he is beaten. This cannot be done from afar.

So, I think we will regret reducing our forces. Those who wish ill around the world will not honor our assumptions. But while we can probably recover numbers quickly, we risk losing those "softer," less obvious attributes that we have earned for our military only by maintaining relatively large, relatively well-funded forces.

Interesting that, in our flabby, inefficient federal government, we can only find room for cuts in the one organization that seems to do what it is chartered to do pretty well.

John Dowd
Colonel (Ret), US Army

COMMENT:  Well said, don't you think?  Comments please.

April 14,  2014     Permalink

APRIL 13,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:54 P.M. ET: 

BAD WEEK – After being eased out of office as secretary of HHS, Kathleen Sebelius made a parting statement at the White House, in the presence of the president, and had to admit that a page was missing, reinforcing her image as less than competent.  Then came the topper, reported by Breitbart:  "Newly-retired Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius misspelled the name of her successor, Sylvia Burwell, in her final goodbye email to her HHS coworkers, reports Politico."  Details, details.  But we still wish her well.   She was handed the absurd assignment of launching and promoting Obamacare, which is like building and promoting the Titanic.

AIRLINER UPDATE – From Fox:  "PERTH, Australia – Following four strong underwater signals in the past week, all has gone quiet in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, meaning the batteries in the plane's all-important black boxes may finally have died.  Despite having no new transmissions from the black boxes' locator beacons to go on, air and sea crews were continuing their search in the southern Indian Ocean on Sunday for debris and any sounds that may still be emanating. They are desperately trying to pinpoint where the Boeing 777 could be amid an enormous patch of deep ocean." 

YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS UP – From the College Fix:  "Sorority sisters at The University of Connecticut are being investigated for harassing men, and 'forcing them' to do various humiliating things, Fox News reports:  [Officials will] investigate allegations that its members forced men to drink booze, eat dog treats, paint their bodies, wear women’s underwear and take alcohol shots off each other’s bodies."  As College Fix writes, "If there really are college-age men out there who feel powerless to refuse to do what some sorority sisters tell them to do, then maybe they actually belong in women’s underwear."

April 13, 2014       Permalink

GOOD GOING – AT 11:31 A.M. ET:  Asian Americans are our fastest-growing minority, and there's no reason why they shouldn't be supporting our side.  The Republican Party's monumental political incompetence has let them slip to the Dems, but now some Asian Americans are trying to reverse that trend.  From Fox: 

A group of Asian Americans is starting a grassroots effort to garner support for the Republican Party and its candidates, saying the GOP most closely aligns with their core values including family, education and entrepreneurship.

The group, the Asian Republican Coalition, is co-founded by international investment banker John Ying, who during the 2012 presidential election cycle served on the Republican National Finance Committee.

“We need a forum, and this first step will go a long way,” Ying told FoxNews.com earlier this week.

He hopes the effort, which will include a May 6 kickoff event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., will provide a “friendly front door” for both potential voters and Republican lawmakers and officials.

While much of the Republican Party’s focus has recently been to trying to connect with Hispanic voters, considering Democratic President Obama won 71 percent of their vote in his re-election victory, Asians are the country’s fastest-growing ethnic group, according to a 2012 U.S. Census report.

However, over the past three presidential election cycles, Asians have increasingly voted Democrat: 73 percent for Obama compared to 26 percent for GOP nominee Mitt Romney in 2012; 62 percent for Obama compared to 35 percent for GOP nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain in 2008; and 56 percent for Democratic nominee John Kerry compared to 44 percent for GOP winner George W. Bush in 2004.

“How did the Republican Party lose us?” Ying asks.

Part of the problem, he concedes, is that Asian Americans have been “shy” about engaging in this country’s political process and as a race is a “complex,” non-homogenous group speaking lots of different languages.

COMMENT:  This is a very good idea.  Asians are a natural Republican constituency, as are traditional Hispanics.  It is to the party's discredit that it has been so slow in coming to the battle.

April 13, 2014       Permalink

KERRY FEELS THE HEAT – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  Even his friends in Congress are expressing dismay at the manner in which John Kerry is handling his job as secretary of state.   He seems to go from one blunder to another, although, in fairness, he is representing a cynical left-wing president.

Members of Congress are particularly agitated at Kerry's handling of the Mideast peace process.  They charge that Kerry puts too much pressure on Israel and too little on the Palestinians.  From The Hill:

As the Middle East peace talks falter, Secretary of State John Kerry is under fire from members of Congress and Israeli officials who say he is being too demanding of the Israelis and too sympathetic to the Palestinians.

The criticism is a potential headache for Kerry as he tries to save negotiations on which he has staked a significant portion of his reputation, while at the same time juggling crises from Ukraine to Syria.

It also echoes longstanding criticisms directed at President Obama, who has also been accused of siding with the Palestinians over Israel.

At the center of the controversy are comments Kerry made at a Senate hearing Tuesday, where he appeared to place greater blame on the Israelis for the breakdown in the talks. He pointed to their construction of new settlements after delaying a release of Palestinian prisoners.

"Unfortunately, the prisoners weren't released on the Saturday they were supposed to be released, and so day one went by, day two went by, day three went by, and then in the afternoon, when they were about to maybe get there, 700 settlement units were announced in Jerusalem, and poof, that was sort of the moment," Kerry said.

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that remark was "an unfortunate statement."

He said an earlier announcement from the Palestinian leadership that it was applying for membership in 15 international organizations was the more damaging blow to the talks.

"I think their intent was malevolent," Engel said of the Palestinians bid to join international recognition. "They had to have known that that was going to seriously cause a breakdown in further discussions."

COMMENT:  As my friend Silvio Canto Jr. said on the radio this morning, even Democrats are becoming uneasy about Obama's foreign policy.  It's a policy that seems to punish our friends and reward our enemies. 

Both sides bear responsibility for problems in the Israel-Palestine peace talks, however there's no question but that Kerry has come down hardest on the Israelis.  They're easier to criticize because they're an ally, and won't abandon us.  The Pals might do something crazy.  But allies around the world notice this administration's treatment of America's friends, and they no longer take us seriously.

April 13, 2014      Permalink

ACTION IN THE UKRAINE – AT 10:36 A.M. ET:  The crisis that won't go away.  From Fox:

Ukrainian forces exchanged gunfire with a pro-Russia militia in an eastern city Sunday, according to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.

The minister said one Ukrainian security officer was killed and five others were wounded. It was the first reported gunbattle in east Ukraine, where armed pro-Russia men have seized a number of law enforcement buildings in recent days.

Sky News reported that a group of up to 100 civilians gathered outside the police headquarters to express their support for the separatists. Sky also reported that gunmen also took control of a police station in the nearby city of Kramatorsk following a shoot-out.

Avakov said in a Facebook post that a Security Service officer was killed in Slovyansk, where the police station and local Security Service office were seized a day earlier by camouflaged armed men. He also reported an unclear number of casualties among the militia.

Avakhov wrote that "all security units" were involved in an "anti-terror operation" in an attempt to take back the building that had been seized Saturday and advised the city's residents to stay indoors and away from windows.

"There were dead and wounded on both sides," Avakov said in the post, according to Reuters.

COMMENT:  There are an estimated 40,000 Russian troops on the Ukrainian border.  The question is whether they will invade the Eastern Ukraine, which has pro-Russian elements.  The United States has warned Russia that there will be serious consequences if it does invade, but this administration doesn't exactly have high credibility when making threats.

April 13,  2014     Permalink