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DECEMBER 6,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET:

LOUISIANA – As expected, Republican Representative Bill Cassidy has buried incumbent Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu in the Louisiana runoff.  From the Washington Examiner:  "Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy trounced Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana’s Senate runoff Saturday, picking up one last seat for Republicans in a 2014 midterm election season that saw commanding gains for the GOP.  When the Associated Press called the race, Cassidy led Landrieu by nearly 30 points with 1 percent of precincts reporting. Cassidy's victory will give Republicans 54 seats in the Senate, with Democrats controlling 46."  No time for rest.  Prepare for 2016.  I want to see 60 friendly faces in the Senate.

POLITICAL COST OF OBAMACARE – From the Washington Examiner:  "On Dec. 24, 2009, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed President Obama’s healthcare law with a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority, triggering a massive backlash that propelled Republicans to control of the House the following year. On the Senate side, going into this year's midterm elections, 25 senators who voted for Obamacare were already out or not going be part of the new Senate being sworn in next month. After Democratic losses on Nov. 4 and Saturday's defeat of Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., the number has risen to 30. In other words, half of the Senators who voted for Obamacare will not be part of the new Senate."  True, not all went down because of Obamacare, but the unpopular health plan clearly affected the careers of most. 

JUSTICE – From the New York Post:  "WANA, Pakistan — A top al Qaeda operative wanted for plotting to bomb the New York subway system died in a predawn helicopter raid staged by Pakistani troops in remote South Waziristan.  Adnan el-Shukrijumah, 39, had a $5 million FBI bounty on his head and was believed to have once been al Qaeda’s external operations chief. He died in a house in Wana, South Waziristan’s capital.
Shukrijumah spent some of his teen years in Brooklyn. Later in his teens, in 1995, he moved with his family to Florida, where his dad took a job as an imam in a mosque."  Maybe Hillary Clinton, who this week got into hot water by saying we had to respect our enemies, can do the eulogy.

December 6, 2014         Permalink

WILL PLAY WELL AT HARVARD – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:   After a brief absence, apparently to count her money, Hillary Clinton is back on the political trail.  And she immediately demonstrated that her tendency to commit gaffes is undiminished.  From Fox: 

Hillary Clinton is taking heat for saying America should “empathize” and show “respect” for its enemies.

The former secretary of State, who is considered a likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, made the remarks during a speech Wednesday at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Touting an approach she calls “smart power,” Clinton urged America to use “every possible tool and partner” to advance peace.

This, she said, includes “leaving no one on the sidelines, showing respect even for one’s enemies, trying to understand and insofar as psychologically possible, empathize with their perspective and point of view.”

At a time when the U.S. military is launching airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, some called the comments out of place.

Former Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, a Fox News host, said the comments are “irrational.”

“I can’t think of a presidential candidate who would have said those kinds of things,” he said. “Think about December 7, 1941 and then FDR going to the Congress of the United States the next day saying, ‘We need to have more empathy for Japan.’”

North added: “If you’re going to run for president of the United States, you cannot talk that way about the people who intend to kill us. Who are dying to kill us. … This is capitulation.”

COMMENT:  Hillary has lost contact with her country, much like the rest of the Democratic leadership.  This gaffe reminds me of her question, "What difference does it make now?" in reference to a House committee's efforts to determine the cause of the Benghazi disaster.

She may self-destruct even before she announces for president. 

December 6, 2014       Permalink

TOAST – AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  The Louisiana runoff is today.  It will probably end the Senate career of Democrat Mary Landrieu, and give the GOP still one more Senate seat.  From the Washington Times: 

Louisiana voters will head to the polls Saturday to decide on the lone outstanding U.S. Senate contest of 2014 and two outstanding U.S. House races.

In the Senate race between Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy, Ms. Landrieu has been struggling to get help from national Democratic groups after the Nov. 4 “jungle primary” in which neither candidate managed to eclipse 50 percent of the vote.

That sent the race into a Dec. 6 runoff, where polling shows Mr. Cassidy up double digits in a race that will likely give Republicans a 54th seat to pad their majority in the U.S. Senate. The Republican National Committee circulated a collection of news clips Friday morning detailing how national Democratic groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) have largely left Ms. Landrieu to fight on her own in the runoff.

It is rumored that Harry Reid sent a moving van to Mary's office.

And the Center for Public Integrity reported this week that groups backing Ms. Landrieu have aired less than 100 television ads since Nov. 5, while a handful of conservative groups have aired nearly 6,000, most of which are devoted to attacking Ms. Landrieu.

Ms. Landrieu has survived runoffs before, both in 1996 when she was first elected and in 2002 when she won a second term. But it appears as if the national political environment of 2014 could be too much to overcome.

Louisiana voters will also get to decide on the final two House races of the cycle, apart from a congressional race in Arizona between Democratic Rep. Ron Barber and Republican Martha McSally that’s headed to a recount with Ms. McSally clinging to a narrow lead.

COMMENT:  The Arizona race is actually more interesting than the Senate contest in Louisiana.  If McSally wins, she becomes an instant Republican star.  She was the first woman in American history to fly a combat aircraft into enemy territory. 

December 6, 2014       Permalink

BARBARIANS – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  Another American hostage has been murdered.  From Fox: 

The American freelance photographer kidnapped by Al Qaeda militants in Yemen in 2013 was "murdered" Friday during a U.S. special operations rescue mission inside the country after it was learned that his life was in imminent danger, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said in a statement.

Luke Somers was still alive, but badly injured when the team reached him, a Yemeni national security official told Fox News. The official said Somers was shot by militants. None of the special forces members were injured.

Hagel said in the statement that the rescue bid was conducted in partnership with the Yemen's government and its security forces.Ten militants were killed between the rescue attempt and the drone strike prior to the mission, the Yemeni official confirmed.

South African hostage Pierre Korkie was the other hostage killed in the operation, the Gift of the Givers, a South African aid group confirmed.

President Obama, who ordered the mission, released a statement early Saturday morning condemning the "barbaric murder" of Somers.

Lucy Somers, the photojournalist's sister, told The Associated Press that she and her father learned of her 33-year-old brother's death from FBI agents at 12 a.m. ET Saturday.

"We ask that all of Luke's family members be allowed to mourn in peace," Lucy Somers said from London.

Yemen's national security chief, Maj. Gen. Ali al-Ahmadi, said the militants planned to kill Luke Somers on Saturday.

"Al Qaeda promised to conduct the execution (of Somers) today so there was an attempt to save them but unfortunately they shot the hostage before or during the attack," al-Ahmadi said at a conference in Manama, Bahrain. "He was freed but unfortunately he was dead."

COMMENT:   At least a rescue attempt was made.  But Congress should investigate the failure and determine whether it was related to our overall policies.  The investigation can be conducted in secret session.

December 6,  2014     Permalink

DECEMBER 5,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET:

MAJOR CULTURAL NEWS – From Deadline Hollywood: "EXCLUSIVE: The White House legend that is Barack and Michelle Obama’s romance is heading to the screen. 'Southside With You,' a drama in the vein of 'Before Sunrise' chronicles the summer 1989 afternoon when the future president of the United States of America wooed his future first lady on an epic first date across Chicago’s South Side. 'Get On Up’s' Tika Sumpter will play Michelle Obama (née Robinson), while the search is on to cast the young Barack."  I've already bought my tickets.

SECURITY BREACH – From Business Insider:  "The Defense Department has indicted a civilian Navy engineer for attempting to send schematics for the US's newest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to an undercover FBI agent who he believed was working for Egyptian intelligence.  Mostafa Ahmed Awwad was a civilian engineer in the Nuclear Engineering and Planning Department at the Navy's shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia. The 34-year-old Awwad worked at the department since February in 2014. One night in September, an Arabic-speaker called Awwad and set up a meeting the next day, where the caller explained that he was an Egyptian intelligence agent.  According to a Justice Department press release, at that meeting, Awwad seemed eager to cooperate and claimed 'it was his intention to utilize his position of trust with the US Navy to obtain military technology for use by the Egyptian government, including but not limited to, the designs of the USS Gerald R. Ford nuclear aircraft carrier."  Chilling story, despite the sloppy journalism.  The first line is wrong.  The Defense Department doesn't hand down indictments.  The justice system does that.  But the facts of the story are sobering.   Our security has been severely compromised by leaks and defections.  We seem to give security clearance to many unreliable people with dubious backgrounds. 

OH COME ON – A discussion of police treatment of minorities is entirely appropriate.  Ridiculous street antics are not.  From USA Today:  "NEW YORK -- Protesters staged a 'die in' Friday night in an Apple store on Fifth Avenue and in Macy's at Herald Square.  Hundreds of people angry over police treatment of African-American men crowded the street outside the Apple store, and some made their way through the store's large glass doors.   Once inside, the protesters stood in circles and chanted while store employees and customers silently snapped photos.  Zandir Santos, 30, of Brooklyn, relished in the idea that protesters had disrupted life at an Apple store and a Macy's in New York. The filmmaker said this is a pivotal time in American history and that police must change how they treat people.  'The CEO of Apple knows we shut his store down--that means capitalist America is going to take us seriously,' he said. 'We are going to shake up your business and we want to hit you where it hurts.'"  I suspect shakedown might be the appropriate word.  Next will come demands to "meet" with corporate executives.  Then the protection checks will be written by those same executives.  When you start reading terms like "capitalist America" you know this has very little to do with police/community relations.  It's the left reinventing itself one more time.  Welcome back to the sixties.

December 5, 2014       Permalink

MAKING IT OFFICIAL – AT 10:55 A.M. ET:  Obama has nominated Ashton Carter as secretary of defense.  He is held in high regard, but I do wonder about the kind of man who'd take this job in the Obama administation, and become the White House's yes man.  From the Washington Examiner: 

President Obama has named Ashton Carter, a former deputy defense secretary and top weapons buyer, as his nominee to run the Pentagon.

Obama, who made the announcement Friday during remarks in the White House Roosevelt Room, called Carter "one of the foremost foreign policy scholars" who has a distinguished record of service that has spanned more than 30 years.

He said he has relied on his expertise and his judgment when he was serving as deputy defense secretary and believes no one is more qualified for the job.

"On day one he is going to hit the ground running," Obama said. "Ash is known by our friends around the world and is respected and trusted on both sides of the aisle."

Chuck Hagel, the outgoing defense secretary who Obama pushed out after harsh criticism about his military policies and deep Democratic midterm election losses, was notably absent from the ceremony.

Carter, a nuclear physicist who served as deputy defense secretary from October 2011 to December 2013, has the support of some of Obama's harshest foreign policy critics, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Over the course of his career, he has pushed back on a number of administration policies, but he is expected to faithfully implement Obama’s policies for the president's last two remaining years in office.

COMMENT:  In a way, I hate to see this.  Carter is a good man, but is likely to be chewed up, as were Obama's three previous secretaries.  Maybe he just sees this post as a cap to his career. 

December 5, 2014       Permalink

OH, SUCH AN EMBARRASSMENT – AT 10:07 A.M. ET:  There is a lot of talk about income inequality these days, and some of it is justified.  But just where is the problem?  Don't tell this to Ms. Hillary.  It may upset her.  From IBD: 

Inequality: The most liberal states in the country are the worst run and have the widest gaps between rich and poor. Could it be that spread-the-wealth policies make things worse?

The list of worst-run states — compiled by the news site 24/7 Wall St. using things like pension funding, credit ratings, unemployment, poverty, crime and high school graduation rates — shows that three of the bottom five are liberal. Illinois ranks dead last, followed by New Mexico, with Rhode Island coming in at No. 5.

At the other end of the spectrum, only one of the top 5 best-run states — Minnesota — is liberal. North Dakota comes in first, followed by Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa.

Liberal states also show up, amazingly enough, as having the greatest levels of income inequality. That's according to another 24/7 Wall St. list, which based its ranking on state-level income inequality data from the Census Bureau.

The state with the widest gap between rich and poor is New York. Also among the top 10 are Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, Illinois and New Jersey.

These six states also just happen to be ones that have pushed hardest on redistributionist policies — imposing among the highest taxes rates in the nation and spending the most on transfer programs.

COMMENT:  The statistics don't surprise me.  The greatest antidote to income inequality is a strong economy, especially one with a good deal of manufacturing.  But liberals look down on manufacturing, or oil exploration, and even on the working class itself.  Policies in liberal states tend to be business-unfriendly. 

All this might change when average Americans realize that liberalism, as it is currently defined, is holding them back.  The Democratic Party is now based on race, gender, and ethnicity.  It has little to do with enhancing the economic position of working Americans.  Indeed, it has lost touch with the very people who used to be its base. 

December 5, 2014       Permalink

SHOCKING – AT 9:41 A.M. ET:   There are reports that Barack Obama will impose sanctions on Israel, our only true ally in the Mideast, while resisting new sanctions on Iran.  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

The Obama administration is refusing to discuss reports that emerged early Thursday claiming that the White House is considering imposing sanctions on Israel for continuing construction on Jewish homes in Jerusalem.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf dodged several questions on Thursday when confronted with reports that the administration had held secret internal meetings to discuss taking action against Israel for its ongoing building in East Jerusalem.

The classified meetings were reportedly held several weeks ago and included officials from both the State Department and White House, according to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, which first reported on the meetings.

The possibility of sanctioning Israel for its ongoing construction sends a signal that the Obama administration is willing to go further in its denunciations of Israel then any previous White House.

At the same time, the White House is vigorously pushing Congress against passing new sanctions on Iran.

When asked to address the reports Thursday afternoon, Harf declined to take a stance.

“I’m obviously not going to comment one way or another on reported internal deliberations,” she said. “We’ve made clear our position on settlement activity publicly and that hasn’t changed.”

COMMENT:  Once again, we see the leftward march of this administration, revealing who Barack Obama actually is – a profoundly left-wing activist, brought into power largely by a media that refused to ask him any serious questions. 

If this country imposes sanctions on Israel, it will open the floodgates for European nations to do the same.  Our enemies must be laughing their heads off.

Yesterday, Obama called the mayor of New York City, who has a pro-Marxist background, to praise him for anti-police comments.

The American people have responded to the failures of this administration by voting heavily Republican in the last election.  But Obama still has two years left in office, and seems intent on doing as much harm as possible.

December 5, 2014       Permalink

THE REAL ISSUE – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  There is a very impressive jobs report out this morning, but the key point here is to read the fine print, if that fine print can indeed be found.  From the Washington Examiner: 

The U.S. has added more jobs in 2014 than in any year since the dotcom bubble year of 1999.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday morning that payroll employment grew by 321,000 in November, crushing economists' expectations for roughly 230,000.

Including strong revisions to recent months, the economy has added 2.65 million jobs on the year with a month left to go, eclipsing the growth of 2005 and setting the highest mark since the late 1990s.

The unemployment rate held steady at 5.8 percent, as 119,000 people entered the labor force, according to the BLS' household survey.

November's report adds to the evidence that job creation has accelerated throughout 2014, following a prolonged weak and fragile recovery from the financial crisis in 2008.

Job growth has averaged a blistering 278,000 over the past three months, and over 240,000 for 2014 so far, well above the roughly 195,000 average for 2013, which had been the best rate of the recovery up to that point.

Those gains have been enough to lower the unemployment rate by 1.2 percentage points over the past 12 months. That improvement includes a decline of nearly a third in the number of long-term unemployed. The 2.8 million people who have been looking for work for 27 weeks or longer make up nearly a third of the total unemployed, a very high share by historical measures.

November’s gains were evenly distributed across industries, according to the BLS’s survey of businesses, which is subject to revisions in future months as more responses come in. Some of the hiring was in low wage industries: Business services added 86,000 jobs, and retail employment grew by 50,000. But job creation also took place in sectors that traditionally have higher pay, including health care (29,000), and manufacturing (28,000).

There was also good news on wages, which have barely kept pace with inflation throughout the recovery, in the establishment report. Average hourly earnings were up 0.4 percent in November. It remains to be seen whether wage growth will increase as the unemployment rate declines. At $24.66, average hourly earnings have risen 2.1 percent in the past year, right in line with the trend and just above the rate at which consumer prices have risen.

COMMENT:  Hard to argue with that optimistic report, but we will.  The fact is that, over the long term, incomes have not kept pace with the cost of living.  The fact is that many two-income families cannot buy what one-income families bought a generation ago.  The fact is that too many of the jobs being created are hardly jobs to which most Americans aspire.

We have learned that economic statistics can be spun effectively.  The positive numbers in recent months do not offset the long-term negative trends.   There is a reason why the white working class has turned so decisively against Obama, and it isn't because it's optimistic about its prospects. 

December 5,  2014     Permalink