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FEBRUARY 28,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

WALKING IT BACK ON WALKER – The press has been in a frenzy, trying to pin things on the surging Scott Walker.  The media's great nightmare is that Walker might win a presidential election, and be more successful than Barack (come to save us).  But the anti-Walker frenzy has led to embarrassing mistakes.  From The Politico:  "Another major media outlet has apologized after getting a story about Scott Walker wrong. Last week, it was the New York Times; now, it’s The Daily Beast.  The Daily Beast has retracted an article from one of its college columnists that claimed that the Wisconsin governor’s budget would cut sexual assault reporting from the state’s universities.   The post, published Friday, cited a report from Jezebel that wrongly interpreted a section of the state budget to mean that all assault reporting requirements were to get cut altogether.  In fact, the University of Wisconsin system requested the deletion of the requirements to get rid of redundancy, as it already provides similar information to the federal government, UW System spokesman Alex Hummel told The Associated Press on Friday."  A great moment in journalism.

WOMAN OF VALOR – A courageous Democrat is getting a big backlash for taking on Obama over foreign policy.  From Fox:  "She was Hawaii's golden girl after winning a seat in Congress with support from top liberal groups, but now that Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been critical of President Obama, her political reputation in the bluest of blue states is taking a hit.  That isn’t stopping the twice-deployed 33-year-old Army veteran from continuing to challenge the president, her home state's favorite son, over his refusal to identify terror groups like the Islamic State as driven by 'radical Islam.'  'Every soldier knows this simple fact: If you don't know your enemy, you will not be able to defeat him,' Gabbard told FoxNews.com. 'Our leaders must clearly identify the enemy as Islamist extremists, understand the ideology that is motivating them and attracting new recruits, and focus on defeating that enemy both militarily and ideologically.'  Gabbard has been hitting this message for weeks now, putting her at odds with many in her party who toe the line that the Islamic State should not be associated with Islam."  I've seen her on TV and she's terrific.  But some Dems are now out to destroy her.  Mustn't muss with the greater glory of Barack.  Maybe she'd consider coming over to our side.

GLOBAL WARMING? – Baby, it's cold outside.  From The New York Times:  "As it limps away, February will not be missed. With the average temperature for the month lingering around 24 degrees, some 11 degrees shy of normal by the National Weather Service’s calculation, this insult of a month looks as though it will clock in as the coldest recorded February in New York City since 1934. That is 81 years of weather. That is all the way back to the Depression, when there were so many more dire things to worry about than whether 7-Eleven had salt or whose turn it was to walk the dog."  Of course, we all know it's global warming.  And if the month were 11 degrees above normal, that would be global warming too.  But note that the last cold record set in New York was in 1934.  Global warming then, too?  They call this winter, and sometimes winter takes a nasty turn.  Hello 1934.  Thanks for reminding us, including Al Gore, that we're not unique. 

February 28, 2015       Permalink

WE WEEP FOR MSNBC – NOT – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:  The signs are all there.  MSNBC – an embarrassment to NBC News even greater than Brian Williams – is in serious trouble.  Change is in the air.  Will they bring in grown-ups?  From Powerline:   

Chronically low ratings have led to a major shakeup at MSNBC. The network announced a week ago that it is canceling the shows hosted by Ronan Farrow and Joy Reid. Variety now reports that those programs will be replaced by a two-hour show called “MSNBC Live With Thomas Roberts.” Variety says:

Beset by significant ratings declines, MSNBC has been emphasizing reports on breaking news, rather than the issues-based discussion for which Farrow and Reid have been known.

Meanwhile, Al Sharpton may also be on the way out:

The Rev. Al Sharpton may soon be booted from his weeknight television host role on Politics Nation and relegated to the pile of less-watched weekend fare, one source within MSNBC’s ranks said, citing the need for the cable provider to bolster sagging audience numbers.

Company President Phil Griffin said that the outlet’s Republican-bashing days are pretty much over — and that as part of the image overhaul, it’s now being surmised that Mr. Sharpton’s show may move from its prime 6 p.m. Monday-through-Friday slot….

MSNBC’s Republican-bashing days are over? I’ll believe it when I see it.

“Going left was a brilliant strategy while it lasted and made hundreds of millions of dollars for Comcast,” one MSNBC source told the Daily Beast. “But it doesn’t work anymore. The goal is to move away from left-wing TV.”

So, why doesn’t the far-left strategy work anymore? Are liberals disillusioned with the Obama administration? Are the old lefties dying off? Are younger liberals realizing that the Republicans were right after all? Or did viewers just get tired of the endless stream of bile and vituperation emanating from MSNBC?

COMMENT:  I'll believe it when I see it, also.  I expect a moderate shift away from the far left, but probably toward the near left.  I think full neutrality will only come in the next generation, if we still have a free press then.

Where MSNBC went wrong, and where Fox went right, is that MSNBC never had the fact-based programs that Fox features, where different points of view are presented.  MSNBC is too much a long rant, a grab bag of ideology.  And Fox succeeds because it covers stories people don't find in the mainstream media.  MSNBC is straight out of the left-wing playbook.  Oh, sorry for saying straight.

February 28, 2015       Permalink

WE KNEW IT WAS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE – AT 11:38 A.M.  ET:  A short time ago the story was floated by the Pentagon that there would be a major push by spring to dislodge ISIS from Iraq's second largest city, Mosul.  It seemed a bit too optimistic to many military observers, given the chaos in the Iraqi army.  The skeptics were right.  From the Daily Beast: 

Just days ago, the generals were trumpeting plans to knock ISIS out of its most important stronghold in Iraq. Now, those plans are on indefinite hold.

The U.S. military’s goal to retake Iraq’s second largest city from the self-proclaimed Islamic State has been pushed back several months at least, defense officials told The Daily Beast. That’s a major shift for the Pentagon, which recently announced that the first major ground offensive in the war against ISIS could come in the next few weeks.

Bad idea to trumpet your plans to the enemy.  I guess PR comes before strategy in the command of Field Marshal Obama.

Defense officials once hoped that Iraqi troops could move into Mosul by the Spring and reclaim the city from ISIS. Now, those officials say, Fall is more realistic. And even that date was tenuous.

“It is an Iraqi decision but we don’t want to do anything until they are ready and can win decisively,” a military official explained to the Daily Beast. “They cannot now.”

It’s another sign that the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS isn’t going nearly as smoothly as the American government had hoped. At the Pentagon Friday, Defense Department spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby shied away from any kind of timeline, saying: “I can’t put a date certain…nor say April is out.”

Rather, he suggested that the Iraqi forces were not imminently ready for such an offensive.

“I don’t think we are there yet,” Kirby said. “There are gaps and seams that need to be closed.”

COMMENT:  ISIS will not sit still during this time.  Military experts point out that ISIS fighters are masters at booby-trapping buildings and setting explosives.  Attempting to retake Mosul could turn out to be a long, painful and bloody task, and the outcome is far from certain.  I would not be shocked if some American troops had to be committed.  Bush would be blamed.

February 28, 2015       Permalink

VOTERS TO REPUBLICANS:  FIGHT! – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  The American people want Republicans in Congress to stand up for their beliefs.  From the Washington Examiner: 

A strong majority of U.S. voters want Congress to continue to pass legislation the president opposes, like for construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, a clear sign that they now see Washington's power shifting to the GOP-controlled Capitol Hill.

A new Rasmussen Reports poll issued Friday found that 59 percent of voters "think Congress should continue to pass legislation that most members of Congress support even if the president is opposed."

Just 25 percent want Congress to cave into the White House and 16 percent are unsure.

Despite bipartisan support, Obama vetoed the Keystone bill this week, and is promising to use the veto pen much more in his last two years in office.

The poll of 800 likely voters taken this week could also strengthen the backbone of Republicans eager to use the Department of Homeland Security spending bill to punish Obama's decision last year to grant worker amnesty to some 5 million illegal immigrants.

COMMENT:  What Americans are saying is, "We elected you, now do what the voters instructed you to do."  But Republicans work hard to be ineffective, and even harder to lose elections.  So far their record in the new Congress has been mush.  We can't afford mush in the upcoming presidential battle.  We elect a new president in about 20 months. 

February 28,  2015     Permalink

FEBRUARY 27,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

FINE ACTOR – From The New York Times:  "Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie juggernaut “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. He was 83.  His wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, confirmed his death, saying the cause was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."  He has been beamed up.

THREAT FROM IRAN – From the Jerusalem Post:  "A senior Iranian cleric with close ties to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed on Friday that 'we will raise the flag of Islam over the White House' in response to the killing of Hezbollah and Revolutionary Guards operatives on the Golan Heights last month."  Fella, you don't have to.  It's already up.

MOSCOW'S WAY – From AP:  "MOSCOW (AP) — Boris Nemtsov, a charismatic Russian opposition leader and sharp critic of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down Saturday near the Kremlin, just a day before a planned protest against the government.  The death of Nemtsov, a 55-year-old former deputy prime minister, ignited a fury among opposition figures who assailed the Kremlin for creating an atmosphere of intolerance of any dissent and called the killing an assassination. Putin quickly offered his condolences and called the murder a provocation."  Putin must know if it's a provocation, as he's the guy who probably caused it.  His "condolences" remind me of the old Mafiosos who sent huge wreaths to the funerals of the guys they whacked.

NO MORE TODDLIN' TOWN – From Reuters:  "CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago drew closer to a fiscal free fall on Friday with a rating downgrade from Moody's Investors Service that could trigger the immediate termination of four interest-rate swap agreements, costing the city about $58 million and raising the prospect of more broken swaps contracts.  The downgrade to Baa2, just two steps above junk, and a warning the rating could fall further still, means the third-biggest U.S. city could face even higher costs in the future if banks choose to terminate other interest-rate hedges against fluctuations in interest rates. All told, Chicago holds swaps contracts covering $2.67 billion in debt, according to a disclosure late last year."  I'm sure the president will fix things when his term ends and he returns to Chicago.  Stop laughing.

February 27,  2015     Permalink

NEWT GETS IT RIGHT – AT 11:40 A.M. ET:  I am always amazed at what a remarkable resource Newt Gingrich is.  He's consistently right, incredibly articulate, and a national asset.  Consider his analysis of Hillary's latest headache, foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation, and the growing threat of radical Islam.  From The Hill: 

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich warned on Friday that the threat of radical Islam has crept into U.S. society through soft money funding the nation’s universities, think tanks and political commentators.

In the first speech of the day at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Gingrich urged Congress to hold hearings on the threat of radical Islam, and to expand its focus beyond violent Jihadis.

“Some of our greatest universities now accept millions from dictators whose values are fundamentally alien to us…people who show up on talk shows, do they tell you who's paying them?” Gingrich asked.

The former Speaker strongly implied that the Clintons have been improperly influenced by large donors from the Middle East contributing to their foundation.

“I’m very uncomfortable…they sit in a room with a dictator to get $10- or $15-million and we have no idea what they discussed,” Gingrich said. “It shouldn’t shock anybody, Bill for one of his first acts, raised money from Saudis for an Arkansas school.”

“The Clinton foundation is going to have to say in actual dollars every foreign money they’ve gotten, period,” he continued. “That includes travel, yachts, mansions…all of it ought to be public and we ought to know about it.”

Gingrich blasted President Obama and and Secretary of State John Kerry for being unprepared to deal with the threat of terrorism.

“The president and secretary of state have no concept what planet they're on and no idea what universe they’re in,” Gingrich said. “When Joe Biden is confused you just know it’s Joe Biden; when Obama and Kerry are confused it’s because you know they live in a different world with a different value system.”

“This is a matter of national security,” Gingrich said. “This is not an issue just of politics, it raises a very core question about the ability of foreigners to put cash into the U.S. for the purpose of reshaping public policy.”

COMMENT:  Right on the button.  I especially like Newt's outing of universities, which accept vast amounts from tainted sources.  I've seen estimates – I cannot precisely confirm them – that 80% of the Mideast studies departments in American universities are financed by Saudi Arabia.  I doubt if the Saudis write the checks to advance neutral views of themselves.

As for the Clintons, they've had "for sale" signs on their backs for years.

February 27, 2015       Permalink

THIS MODERN TECHNOLOGY, IT'S SO CONFUSING – AT 10:40 A.M. ET:   Remember Lois Lerner, the IRS lady?  She's back in the news.  From the Washington Times: 

The IRS’s inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner’s emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency’s chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

“There is potential criminal activity,” Mr. Camus said.

He said they have also discovered the hard drives from the IRS’s email servers, but said because the drives are out of synch it’s not clear whether they will be able to recover anything from them.

“To date we have found 32,744 unique emails that were backed up from Lois Lerner’s email box. We are in the process of comparing these emails to what the IRS has already produced to Congress to determine if we did in fact recover any new emails,” Mr. Camus said.

Democrats questioned the independence of Inspector General J. Russell George, who is overseeing the investigation, saying he’s injected politics into his work.

COMMENT:  Of course.  Politics, as in "the truth."   This new phase of the investigation into the IRS is building just as the 2016 race is getting started.  It can turn out to be an important issue, especially if more evidence emerges that Lois Lerner and her band of brothers and sisters targeted conservative groups for special attention. 

Hillary Clinton could not be reached for comment.  She'll probably blame it on a YouTube video.

February 27, 2015       Permalink

IF ONLY WE'D GIVEN THEM JOBS, WITH VACATION DAYS – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:   A portrait of our opponents.  From The New York Times: 

ISTANBUL — The reports are like something out of a distant era of ancient conquests: entire villages emptied, with hundreds taken prisoner, others kept as slaves; the destruction of irreplaceable works of art; a tax on religious minorities, payable in gold.

A rampage reminiscent of Tamerlane or Genghis Khan, perhaps, but in reality, according to reports by residents, activist groups and the assailants themselves, a description of the modus operandi of the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate this week. The militants have prosecuted a relentless campaign in Iraq and Syria against what have historically been religiously and ethnically diverse areas with traces of civilizations dating to ancient Mesopotamia.

The latest to face the militants’ onslaught are the Assyrian Christians of northeastern Syria, one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, some speaking a modern version of Aramaic, the language of Jesus.

Assyrian leaders have counted 287 people taken captive, including 30 children and several dozen women, along with civilian men and fighters from Christian militias, said Dawoud Dawoud, an Assyrian political activist who had just toured the area, in the vicinity of the Syrian city of Qamishli. Thirty villages had been emptied, he said.

COMMENT:  Of course, we must remember, learning our lessons from Field Marshal Obama, that these were merely random attacks, the flailing out by those whose unemployment benefits have expired.  If only a few had been made CEO's of corporations, all this could have been avoided.

February 27, 2015       Permalink

SHE KNEW – AT 8:45 A.M. ET:  Andy McCarthy, in National Review, examines new documents pried from the federal government by a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, and concludes that Hillary Clinton knew from the first moments that Benghazi was a terrorist assault.  Clinton, however, told the American people that it was a result of a YouTube video.  She lied.  She continues to lie.  Lying is her way of life, and the way of life of the Obama administration, which she served.  From NRO: 

From the very first moments of the terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her top aides were advised that the compound was under a terrorist attack. In fact, less than two hours into the attack, they were told that the al-Qaeda affiliate in Libya, Ansar al-Sharia, had claimed responsibility

These revelations and others are disclosed by a trove of e-mails and other documents pried from the State Department by Judicial Watch in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The FOIA litigation focuses on Mrs. Clinton’s involvement in the government actions before, during, and after the Benghazi attack, in which Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was murdered by terrorists. Also killed in the attack were State Department information management officer Sean Smith, and two former Navy SEALs, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, who were contract security employees and who had fought heroically, saving numerous American lives. At least ten other Americans were wounded, some quite seriously.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It's a superb piece, and it's definitive.  Andy McCarthy has done his usual great job.

Benghazi should be a significant issue in the 2016, if Hillary is the nominee.   She got her famous 3 a.m. call, and blew it.  She then lied about it.  She is not qualified to be commander-in-chief.

February 27,  2015     Permalink