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SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE – DAY FOUR - SOME LIGHT

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FEBRUARY 13,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:39 P.M. ET:

GUESS THE RESET DIDN'T WORK – From The Politico:  "With all eyes on Sochi for the Winter Olympics, Americans hold the lowest view of Russia and its president that they’ve had in two decades, according to a new poll.  Sixty percent of Americans view Russia unfavorably, the most since 1994, according to Gallup’s poll out Thursday. Their favorable view of Russia nearly ties the low set in 1999 during the bombing in Chechnya and conflict in Kosovo: Today, just 34 percent of Americans view Russia favorably, near the 33 percent set in 1999."  Maybe the people are telling Obama something he should know.  But he's probably playing golf.

THE MAYOR HAS NO PARTY? – From the Washington Free Beacon:  "CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and ABC World News broadcasts gave brief mention to the conviction of former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin Wednesday on 20 federal counts, including bribery and conspiracy, but all three omitted the fact that he was a Democrat.  CBS anchor Scott Pelley and ABC fill-in anchor George Stephanopoulos referred to him as the 'former mayor' while NBC’s Brian Williams called him 'controversial.'  Nagin, who left office in 2010 after eight years, was indicted in January 2013 on charges he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from businessmen who wanted work from the city or Nagin’s support for various projects, according to the Associated Press.  He became a household name after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, during his first term."  I'd love to have someone interview the anchors and ask why the "Democrat" label was left off, as if we don't know.

AN EVEN MORE INCONVENIENT TRUTH – From the Daily Caller:  "Environmentalists and Democrats often cite a '97 percent' consensus among climate scientists about global warming. But they never cite estimates that 95 percent of climate models predicting global temperature rises have been wrong.  Former NASA scientist Dr. Roy Spencer says that climate models used by government agencies to create policies 'have failed miserably.'  Spencer analyzed 90 climate models against surface temperature and satellite temperature data, and found that more than 95 percent of the models 'have over-forecast the warming trend since 1979, whether we use their own surface temperature dataset (HadCRUT4), or our satellite dataset of lower tropospheric temperatures (UAH).'"  As we've written here before, you'd think someone would suggest appointment of a major commission of eminent scientists of impeccable credentials who would investigate the facts and non-facts of global warming.  But I'm afraid too much money is being made, and too many grants given, to make such a commission a popular idea.

I'M SHOCKED – From the Washington Free Beacon:  "Democrats who oppose the Keystone XL pipeline have thousands of dollars invested in direct competitors to the company looking to build the pipeline, public records show.  A recent environmental assessment by the State Department was seen as a step toward the pipeline’s approval, but Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) remains opposed to its construction.  'In my view, there is now enough evidence to conclude that construction of this pipeline is not in America’s long-term interest,' Kaine said in a statement on the review.  The freshman Democrat has between $15,000 and $50,000 invested in Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, according to his most recent financial disclosure. Kinder Morgan is looking to build a pipeline that would directly compete with Keystone."  As they say in journalism, follow the money.

February 13, 2014        Permalink

SID CAESAR – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  We've lost two show-business greats this week.  First, Shirley Temple, Hollywood's greatest child star, and now Sid Caesar.  The sad fact is that most people under, say, 50, have probably never heard of Sid Caesar.  But he was one of the creative founders of American television and modern American comedy.

Think of a world where Harry Truman is president, where television is not yet a mass medium, where most people who own sets watch black-and-white images on 12-inch screens, where all TV's are American-made, where RCA dominates the market, where all programs are received over the air, where most cities have three or four channels (at best), and where no American car has seat belts.  Think of a world where a performer on television cannot not say the word "pregnant" and where the biggest television scandal is the slightly plunging neckline of a personality, Faye Emerson, who's been married to one of FDR's sons.  Think of a world where virtually all network television originated in New York.

That was the world of Sid Caesar, one of the earliest TV comedian, the world of the early 50s.  Caesar and Imogene Coca starred in a new variety show called "Your Show of Shows."  It was on every week on NBC, 90 minutes, and done live.  No tape.  No editing.  If you made a mistake, it was there for the audience to see.  It was done in a theater, before a live audience.  You only got the laughs you earned. 

Caesar surrounded himself with the best writers, most of whom went on to fame – Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Carl Reiner, and later, on a successor show called "Caesar's Hour," Larry Gelbart and Michael Stewart (who in following years wrote "Bye Bye Birdie" and "Hello Dolly").

"Your Show of Shows" specialized in sketch comedy, and provided the creative foundation for the TV comedy to follow – especially the sitcoms.  Much of the sitcom comedy you see today has its basis in Sid Caesar's work more than 60 years ago.

Sadly, Caesar's career faded badly after the fifties.  Styles changed and he did not.  I recall him saying on "The Tonight Show" in the early 70s that he was ready for a new series.  The call never came.  He had jobs here and there, but Sid Caesar became a man of the past, and yet a man remembered as one of the greatest comedians of the post-World War II era.  It is impossible to think of television without him.

And he never uttered a four-letter word.

February 13, 2014       Permalink

HOW PATHETIC – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:   We're not the only ones who think our press is in terrible shape.  From Andrew Malcolm at IBD:   

Reporters Without Borders released its annual World Press Freedom Index the other day. Much of it was predictable. Few would be surprised that China, Syria and North Korea inhabit the bottom rungs of press freedom.

What was shocking to those of us who favor a strong, independent -- and, yes, imperfect -- media as a constitutional check on government's power was the ranking of the United States, the world's largest economy and most enduring democracy.

The U.S. during the fifth year of Obama's reign plummeted 13 spots to 46th in the world, right between -- are you ready? -- Rumania and Haiti. The group based that embarrassing ranking largely on the Obama administration's unusually determined efforts to curb dissent and plug and track down leaks.

COMMENT:  I think another factor here is the willingness of the American media to back the administration.  After all, the press presented Obama as a redeemer, a gift come to save us.  Many members of the media still seem to feel that way.  He is their 1960s dream, a man who represents their world view of race, gender and ethnicity. 

Fox News has succeeded in large measure because it does the stories no one else is willing to do.  It fills a need.  Most in the media refuse to recognize that.

The internet has also filled a need, leading me to believe that the mainstreamers may well get weaker and weaker, unless they correct their ways.

February 13, 2014       Permalink

ANOTHER DEFENSE WARNING – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:   Obama doesn't even have the support of his own intelligence officials on the rise of Al Qaeda.  It's pathetic.  From Defense News: 

WASHINGTON — Senior US intelligence officials on Tuesday offered a more alarming assessment of al-Qaida than President Barack Obama’s declaration that the organization is on the run and headed toward defeat.

For several years, Obama and his top national security aides have talked publicly of an al-Qaida greatly diminished by US armed drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the emergence of affiliate groups mostly focused on attacks in Southwest Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

In a landmark speech on his targeted-killing program last May, Obama described al-Qaida’s core cell and leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan as “on the path to defeat.” The commander in chief said al-Qaida’s “remaining operatives spend more time thinking about their own safety than plotting against us.”

But...

But during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn offered a different assessment.

Under questioning on that topic from panel Ranking Member Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., Clapper described al-Qaida as “morphing,” with new groups popping up in North Africa.

Flynn replied, “they are not,” when asked by Inhofe if al-Qaida is, as Obama has said, on a path to defeat and on the run.

I'm surprised these guys still have their jobs.

Where Obama describes a mostly defeated core al-Qaida, Clapper warns it is poised for a comeback.

“It probably hopes for a resurgence following the drawdown of US troops in Afghanistan in 2014,” the DNI told the Senate panel.

COMMENT:  Problem is, most members of the media, and, sadly, the public, don't seem terribly alarmed.  It will take another catastrophe to wake us up. 

February 13, 2014       Permalink

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? – AT 8:53 A.M. ET:  We have an interim nuclear agreement with Iran, which is run by violent extremists intent on getting nuclear weapons.  And yet, the American people are not permitted to see the actual text of the agreement, which can affect their own lives and the lives of their families.  From the Washington Free Beacon:

A leading House lawmaker is calling on President Obama to publicly release the full text of the recently signed Iran nuclear deal, which is currently being held under lock and key in a secure compound on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Ileana Ros Lehtinen (R., Fla.), a leading member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to Obama on Wednesday in a bid to force the Iran deal into the public.

The precise details of the deal have remained “shrouded in secrecy” despite the critical nature of the agreement, Ros-Lehtinen said.

The White House has come under increasing fire from lawmakers and others for refusing to publicly release the text of the deal. Lawmakers and qualified Hill staffers must submit to an extensive security procedure just to view the text, which is being kept hidden from the American public.

The deal was even kept from members of Congress until the last moment, according to Ros-Lehtinen.

“While the administration released an outline to the public of what the deal entailed, it was not until just days before implementation that the full text of the agreement was made available for members of Congress to review,” she wrote.

“While you and members of your administration have touted the significance of this agreement, the fact is that you have provided only some of the details to the American public while keeping the rest shrouded in secrecy,” the letter states.

COMMENT:  Obama treats Congress as the enemy and Iran as a friend.  You'd think, now that the Obamans are admitting that their Syria policy is a failure, that they'd be more careful about the way they handle the Iranian nuclear question.  But I sense that Obama just doesn't care that much.  He just wants to get out of the Mideast, despite its importance, and he appears to have little problem with extremist regimes of the Muslim Brotherhood variety.

And who will pay the price?  Our children's generation.

February 13,  2014     Permalink

FEBRUARY 12,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:23 P.M. ET:  

MOST THUMBS DOWN – From Fox:  "According to a just-released Fox News national poll, most voters don’t think the country’s system of government was designed for the president to act unilaterally, and a majority disapproves of Obama bypassing Congress.  The new poll finds that 74 percent think the president using executive orders to get around Congress is not how things are supposed to work in our country. That includes 54 percent of Democrats.  Large majorities of independents (80 percent) and Republicans (93 percent) believe it goes against our system for the president to act independently to advance his policies.  Even when asked to set aside their views on how the government is supposed to work, by a wide 60-37 percent margin voters still disapprove of Obama going around Congress.  Almost all Republicans disapprove of Obama acting without lawmakers (90 percent), as do two-thirds of independents (66 percent).  Democrats approve by a 66-31 percent margin."  The people have spoken.

KATRINA MAYOR CONVICTED – From the New Orleans Times-Pecayune:  "Ray Nagin, the former two-term mayor of New Orleans indicted after he left office, was convicted Wednesday of 20 federal corruption charges for illegal dealings with city vendors, dating back to 2004. A jury delivered its verdict just before 1 p.m., after six hours of deliberations that followed a nine-day trial.  Nagin, 57, joins a list of Louisiana elected officials convicted of misdeeds while in office, but he is New Orleans' first mayor to be convicted of public corruption. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he could face a 20-year prison term, possibly more, lawyers have said."  Nagin is best known for being the mayor of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.  He was found, during the storm, on the high floor of a luxury hotel.  His performance was dismal, but generally ignored by a press determined to pin the blame for disaster response on President Bush.

OBAMACARE REALITY – From Newsmax:  "The White House has been dealt a stunning new blow on Obamacare sign-up numbers with reports showing that only about half of the people 'enrolled' at healthcare exchanges in various states have actually paid their premiums.  With the March 31 deadline for enrollment just seven weeks away, the number of sign-ups in federal and state marketplaces has slowed down to an alarming figure since the sudden surge in the latter part of December and early January.  But the bigger problem for the Obama administration is that roughly 50 percent of consumers who had supposedly enrolled for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform have missed their payment deadline for Jan. 1, according to Investor's Business Daily's website Investors.com."  We've gotten a lot of hype from the Obama press in the last day, boasting of an increase in signups.  The small print, though, tells a different story – premiums not paid, and therefore no insurance issued.

TEENAGE STRESS – From Fox:  "Teenagers in the United States are experiencing higher levels of stress than many adults, USA Today reported.   As a part of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Stress in America survey, more than 1,000 teenagers and 2,000 adults answered questions about their overall stress levels and coping habits. Though the APA has conducted similar surveys in the past, this was the first to focus specifically on stress among teenagers.  Overall, the survey revealed that 27 percent of teenagers reported feeling “extreme stress” during the school year, compared to 20 percent of adults."  Gee, do you think young people will suddenly realize that electing Barack Obama hasn't led to paradise on Earth?  Even young people can wise up, despite the best efforts of educators and college professors.

February 12,  2014     Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:04 A.M. ET:  From Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, a man reviled on the left because he won't automatically think what a black man is supposed to think.  From Yahoo News: 

Americans today are too sensitive about race, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told a gathering of college students in Florida on Tuesday.

Speaking at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla., Thomas, the second black justice to serve on the court, lamented what he considers a society that is more “conscious” of racial differences than it was when he grew up in segregated Georgia in the days before — and during — the civil rights era.

“My sadness is that we are probably today more race and difference-conscious than I was in the 1960s when I went to school. To my knowledge, I was the first black kid in Savannah, Georgia, to go to a white school. Rarely did the issue of race come up,” Thomas said during a chapel service hosted by the nondenominational Christian university. “Now, name a day it doesn’t come up. Differences in race, differences in sex, somebody doesn’t look at you right, somebody says something. Everybody is sensitive. If I had been as sensitive as that in the 1960s, I’d still be in Savannah. Every person in this room has endured a slight. Every person. Somebody has said something that has hurt their feelings or did something to them — left them out.

“That’s a part of the deal,” he added.

COMMENT:  Words of wisdom.  In the 1950s we had in America a man named Eric Hoffer.  He was called the longshoreman philosopher – a laboring man who became a superb writer and commentator on public affairs.  Hoffer said that all causes become businesses, and then they become rackets.  I think we see that today.  The nobility of many just movements has been lost to careerism and posturing.  We have a race industry rather than a civil-rights movement.

Clarence Thomas is a man to be admired – a black man who is truly a free man.

February 12, 2014       Permalink

"REFORM" AT WORK – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  Whenever I hear the word "reform" in politics, I run in the opposite direction.  I've seen plenty of "reform" here in New York.  I've seen many "reform" politicians who stay in Congress 30 years.  I guess there's a lot of "reform" to do.  And leave us not forget "reform" in education.  Hide your children.

So now we have the new socialist mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, who came in last month as a "reform" mayor.  He's for the little people.  They all are.  Apparently, though, the more things change...  From the New York Post:

A politically connected Brooklyn pastor was arrested for a pair of open warrants — but was spared a night in jail after Mayor de Blasio called an NYPD boss to inquire about his close pal .

Hours later, Bishop Orlando Findlayter was yukking it up with Hizzoner at the head table at a Bed-Stuy breakfast Tuesday with guest speaker Rev. Al Sharpton and 200 other pastors.

Findlayter — the head of Brooklyn’s New Hope Christian Church who was instrumental in delivering the black vote to de Blasio — was pulled over at 11:21 p.m. Monday in East Flatbush for making a left turn without signaling, police said.

Cops ran his license plate and discovered two outstanding warrants, issued Jan. 16, for failure to appear in court for prior arrests at protests. He was hit with the traffic violation and charged with driving without a license.

Findlayter was looking at a night behind bars because the arrests came too late for him to be arraigned.

So his clergy pals reached out to the mayor and the NYPD.

De Blasio admittedly called a top police spokeswoman, Kim Royster.

I'm sure we could all get that service.

Monday’s arrest wasn’t the bishop’s his first run-in with the court system.

Public records show he has a string of court judgments against him, was foreclosed on by a mortgage lender and also declared bankruptcy.

COMMENT:  Just your average religious leader.  This is really seedy stuff.  The guy has a record.  Mayors with a sense of propriety don't make calls for chaps like that. 

Business as usual.  Oh, the reform.

February 12, 2014       Permalink

AND MORE FROM IRAN – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  The degree of belligerent rhetoric from Iran is truly disturbing.  It increases every day.   We are told that we must make nice with Iran, and there's now a powerful left-wing coalition in the United States that is allied with the administration in trying to prevent new congressional action that would threaten higher sanctions if no permanent nuclear deal is reached with Tehran.  But the Iranians get away with threats that are worse than anything I saw from the Soviets during the cold war.  From AFP:

In the latest in a series of warnings against the US, Iran’s chief of staff Hassan Firouzabadi warned the Islamic republic’s foes that Iran is prepared for a “decisive battle” if attacked

We are ready for the decisive battle with America and the Zionist regime (Israel),” Fars news agency quoted Firouzabadi as saying Wednesday.

He also warned neighboring nations not to allow any attack to be launched on Iran from their soil.

“We do not have any hostility toward regional states, but if we are ever attacked from the American bases in the region we will strike that area back,” he said.

Washington has many military bases in the region, including in Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said late last month that if diplomacy with Iran fails, “the military option of the United States is ready and prepared to do what it would have to do.”

But Firouzabadi accused the US of bluffing.

COMMENT:  And that is the problem.  He probably believes we are bluffing.  They have Obama's number.  He's the man who's weakened this country, pulled entirely out of Iraq without leaving a stabilization force, created a failed "reset" with Russia, pulled back from military strikes in Syria last year, refused to take action against North Korea's nuclear program, and made a horrible initial nuclear deal with Iran.  He also was brought up by Marxists and is clearly sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood.

If I were an Iranian general, I'd think Obama is bluffing as well.

February 12, 2014       Permalink

I'M SHOCKED, SHOCKED, AT THIS REVELATION – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  From WaPo: 

The Obama administration acknowledged Tuesday that diplomacy, the main pillar of its Syria policy, is failing even as civil war is destroying the country, leaving open the question of what the United States will or can do to stop the slaughter.

Negotiations between the Syrian government and parts of the opposition are “far from achieving” a peaceful end to the conflict, President Obama said, and in Geneva, the United Nations envoy leading the talks said they aren’t getting anywhere.

“With each passing day, more people inside of Syria are suffering,” Obama said. “The state of Syria itself is crumbling. That is bad for Syria. It is bad for the region. It is bad for global national security, because what we know is, is that there are extremists who have moved into the vacuum in certain portions of Syria in a way that could threaten us over the long term.”

The president’s dire assessment, and an acknowledged dearth of policy options, created one of the most dismal pictures to date of Syria’s violent disintegration and the administration’s inability to affect events.

Obama ruled out direct U.S. military intervention, at least for now, but offered no new substitute to address a crisis he called heartbreaking and risky for the entire Middle East.

COMMENT:  An utterly failed foreign-policy president.  A real president would have the power, influence and clout to organize allies and pursue an effective policy.  This president really has no policy.  And he is, increasingly, seen as a lightweight.  Does anyone in foreign capitals take him seriously?

February 12,  2014     Permalink