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JANUARY 1,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET:

NEW YORK, NY – Bill DeBlasio was sworn in as mayor of New York City today.  He made clear that he is going all-in for "progressivism," whatever that means this week.  The ceremony was reasonable, but marred by several bad-taste eruptions.  American-hater Harry Belafonte informed us that New York has more people in jail than any other city because of "misuse of race."  Oh.  And a black minister, getting his 10 minutes of fame, referred to New York as "a plantation."   What civic pride.  Look, we'll see how the new mayor does.  We call 'em as we see 'em here.  If he gets a base hit, that's how we'll call it.

THE END OF CIVILIZATION – From London's Daily Mail:  "Chicken has officially overtaken beef as the most popular meat product being consumed in the U.S. and the trend looks likely to continue in 2014.
While the per capita consumption of beef has dropped from a peak of 90lbs per capita in the 1970s to 50 lbs in 2012, chicken consumption has gone the other way rising from under 20 lbs in 1960 to about 55 lbs in 2012.   Americans now eat less beef then we did in 1955, but is the change a result of a healthier diet or because people are choosing the cheaper option?"  I will stand for the hamburger, no matter what the cost.

WOULD YOU TRUST A COUNTRY TO THESE BOYS? – From AP:  "PRAGUE (AP) — The Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic died Wednesday in a blast that occurred when he opened an old safe that had been left untouched for more than 20 years, officials said...Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said no foul play was suspected..."  Uh, wait a sec.  No foul play?  What made the safe explode?  What was put in it 20 years ago?  Courteous people leave notes about things like that.  Our condolences to the ambassador's family.  I'd sue.

January 1, 2014       Permalink

OUR ELEVATED POLITICS – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  How do we define a 2014 Democrat?  Well,we wish to be lofty and fair, so this is only a partial definition.  From the Washington Examiner: 

A new study of how criminals vote found that most convicts register Democratic, a key reason in why liberal lawmakers and governors are eager for them to get back into the voting booth after their release.

“Democrats would benefit from additional ex-felon participation,” said the authoritative study in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

The authors, professors from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University, found that in some states, felons register Democratic by more than six-to-one. In New York, for example, 61.5 percent of convicts are Democrats, just 9 percent Republican. They also cited a study that found 73 percent of convicts who turn out for presidential elections would vote Democrat.

But despite recent moves in states to notify convicts that they can vote again, the study finds little evidence that they do, undercutting Democratic efforts to get them to the polls.

COMMENT:  The Democrats will figure out a way.  If they can get the dearly departed to the polls in Chicago, they can get ex-cons into the voting booths everywhere else.  They're very imaginative that way.  I wouldn't be shocked if the old practice of giving potential voters "walking around money" found its way back into our elections.  Even convicted muggers like to dine out.

January 1, 2014       Permalink

OBAMACARE NEWS – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  The Obamans can't catch a break with their ill-conceived ill-health plan.  From American Thinker: 

Is this some kind of record? On the last day of 2013 four different federal appeals courts issued temporary injunctions against enforcement of the Obamacare contraceptive mandate. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals acted on two different cases, Michigan Catholic Conference v. Sebelius and The Catholic Diocese of Nashville et al v. Sebelius, while the DC Circuit Court of Appeals acted in The Catholic Archbishop of Washington et al v Sebelius. Meanwhile, no less than Obama-appointee Sonia Sotomayor issued an injunction in the case of The Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged, Denver, v Sebelius.

All in all, quite a way to kick off Obamacare.

And from the Daily Caller: 

Obamacare may have promised health insurance for the masses. But on its first day, it’s left more Americans without coverage than before the law was passed.

More than 4.7 million Americans had their health insurance cancelled as a result of any of the thousand-plus-page law’s new rules, the Associated Press reports, but the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed Tuesday that between federal and state exchanges, just 2 million Americans have signed up for Obamacare coverage. (RELATED: Obama administration announces net loss of at least 3 million insurance plans)

The Obama administration has yet to announce the final tally of full enrollments, which are only confirmed once customers have made their first payment, but Cato Institute health policy expert Michael Cannon warns that not all those who signed up will complete their purchases, potentially leaving the White House with an even lower bottom line.

COMMENT:  Imagine if the Normandy landings in World War II had been planned by the same people who constructed Obamacare.  What a bunch.

January 1, 2014       Permalink

RIGHT ON SCRIPT – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:  We begin 2014 with Iran acting like Iran.  The utter self- confidence is remarkable, as Tehran laughs in our face.  From AP, via WaPo:

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has boosted its team in charge of nuclear talks with world powers, adding what are believed to be hard-liners and conservatives in an apparent effort to silence critics of the landmark interim accord reached in Geneva in November.

The semi-official news agencies Fars and Mehr reported on Wednesday that new members have joined the high council, which directs strategies in the talks and which is led by the country’s moderate President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

The agencies did not identify the new members, saying only that representatives of “all branches of power and other senior figures” are now on the council.

The development comes a day after Iran and Western negotiators reported they were nearing an understanding on the details of implementing the Geneva accord.

COMMENT:  It seems to me that the only logical explanation for this move is that Iran is getting pretty much what it wants from the current talks, and that adding hard-liners to their negotiating team therefore won't disrupt anything.  It's a pretty grim thought.  New Year's Eve is over.

January 1,  2014     Permalink

DECEMBER 31,  2013

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 4:06 P.M. ET: 

STUNNING – The New York Times writer who wrote its new, and very controversial, report on the Benghazi raid now tweets that The Times had a reporter on the scene, talking with the attackers.  He claims The Times reported this earlier.  I recall no such revelation, but could have missed it, or misinterpreted it.  It raises the most profound issues of journalistic ethics.  Did the reporter know that Americans were going to be attacked?  Did he warn them?  Was he an American, or an Arab stringer?  Where are his loyalties?  There are some journalists – the late Mike Wallace was among them – who believe they're journalists first and Americans second.  Yet, they claim rights under the American Constitution.  This revelation should get a full airing, but the story may be suppressed within journalism.

OH, THAT OBAMA OUTREACH – From CNS:  "The past year witnessed bloodshed in Syria and Iraq, turmoil in Egypt, anarchy in Central Africa, threats by a nuclear-armed North Korea and Chinese military posturing, but as 2013 ends a global poll finds that the country seen as representing the greatest threat to peace today is ... the United States.  Not only did the U.S. top the list with an aggregate of 24 percent, but the runner-up threat country, Pakistan, was way behind at eight percent. China was third at six percent, followed by North Korea, Iran and Israel at five percent each."  Guess an Obama speech in Cairo just doesn't do the whole job.

OH, ABOUT THAT SHIP STUCK IN THE ANTARCTIC – We've reported the story of a ship chartered by global-warming religionists that went to the Antarctic to measure melting ice and got stuck in the ice instead.  From CNN:  "(CNN) -- As the 74 people on a climate change research ship stuck in the ice in Antarctica readied for New Year's Eve festivities, authorities revealed plans to send in a rescue helicopter.
The Russian-flagged MV Akademik Shokalskiy has not moved in a week since getting stuck in unusually thick ice on Christmas. The people on board say they are holding up fairly well.  'The group on this ship is incredibly collegiate,' said Alok Jha, a science correspondent for The Guardian newspaper, told Anderson Cooper 360. 'There are a lot of skills and things people are sharing with each other.'  Chris Turney, an Australian professor of climate change at the University of New South Wales, said there are regular briefings on the status of rescue attempts, and in the meantime, people are doing what they can to keep busy. That includes yoga and Spanish classes, Jha and Turney said."  What a bunch of jerks.  The rescue will probably cost millions.  Who pays?  I do hope Mr. Alok Jha and the professor of climate change have a joyous new year, and perhaps contemplate their immaturity and selfishness.  Those rescuers are risking their lives.  But at least the idiots on the ship will be able to thank them in Spanish.

AND ONCE AGAIN – Speaking of the immature and selfish, the deadheads at MSNBC once again are apologizing for sickening on-the-air remarks.  This time the vulgar comments ridiculed Mitt Romney's black grandchild.  Host Melissa Harris-Perry, who is a Tulane professor, and proves that almost anyone can earn a Ph.D., led the apologies.  MSNBC recently had to apologize for comments about Sarah Palin.  Mature journalists have some concept of what to say on the air, and don't usually have to make apologies.  I said mature journalists.  New Year's wish:  that NBC finally takes MSNBC off the air, and end the perpetual embarrassment.

December 31, 2013     Permalink

MADNESS – AT 11:43 A.M. ET:  Let us understand, as the new year begins, the major challenges ahead.  From the New York Post:

Russian investigators scoured the gutted remains of a trolley bus destroyed by a suicide bomber on Monday and said a former paramedic who converted to Islam and joined a terrorist underground was responsible for another horrific attack at a train station just hours before.

Fourteen people were killed in the bus blast in Volgograd, while 17 died in the explosion at the city’s train hub.

Officials said little about the bus bomber but identified the earlier attacker as Pavel Pechyonkin, who left a note to his mother and vanished from his home more than a year ago to join militants in the Dagestan region.

I have come here only to make Allah happy, to earn heaven,” he said in a video posted on YouTube earlier this year after his parents pleaded with him in their own video to renounce terror.

“Why should we follow those Christian commandments, when Allah, may he be glorified, urges us to fight those kafirs [infidels]?” he added. “Why shouldn’t we leave their children orphans?”

COMMENT:  We must finally realize that there are people who actually think like this, just as there were Iranian government fanatics who, in their war with Iraq in the 1980s, sent children into minefields to be blown up, thus clearing the fields for Iranian soldiers.

We must realize what extremist Islam is, just as we had to finally face what imperial Japan was when it sent suicide pilots against American ships in the closing months of World War II. 

The president, who lives in his own adolescent world, tells us that the war on terror is winding down.  No, it's winding up.  He's just not very interested.

December 31, 2013     Permalink

COMING DOWN TO EARTH – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:  Certainly one of the major international events of the year was the so-called interim nuclear agreement with Iran.  This, theoretically, is supposed to lead to a permanent agreement that would make it impossible for Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

However, it's becoming clear that Iran has no such intention, and the interim agreement is filled with holes.  An analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Mark Hibbs, brings us back to Earth on this matter in a year-end post: 

If all goes according to plan, sometime during 2014 Iran will sign a comprehensive final agreement to end a nuclear crisis that, over the course of a decade, has threatened to escalate into a war in the Middle East. But in light of the unresolved issues that must be addressed, it would be unwise to bet that events will unfold as planned. Unrealistic expectations about the Iran deal need to be revised downward.

In Geneva on November 24, Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—plus Germany agreed to a Joint Plan of Action. For good reason, the world welcomed this initial agreement because it squarely put Iran and the powers on a road to end the crisis through diplomacy.

The deal calls for Tehran and the powers to negotiate the “final step” of a two-stage agreement inside six months. In the best case, the two sides will with determination quickly negotiate that final step. Iran will demonstrate to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that its nuclear program is wholly dedicated to peaceful uses and agree to verified limits on its sensitive nuclear activities for a considerable period of time. In exchange, sanctions against Iran will be lifted.

The final deal could emerge. But Iran and the West will continue to have major differences whether or not there is a final nuclear pact. Residual mutual suspicion is significant, and the United States and Iran have competing hardwired security commitments in the region. The United States will not pivot away from Israel and the Arab states in the Persian Gulf, and Iran will not abandon the Alawites in Syria and push Hezbollah to renounce force. The November deal will not lead to a transformation of the West’s relations with Iran, and the act of signing a deal will not mean Washington and Tehran have somehow overcome their multiple fundamental differences and become partners, as some observers either hope or fear.

COMMENT:  Well worth reading.  The Iran deal is a phantom.  The Iranians had big smiles on their faces when the deal was completed.  That told the story.  They got the better end of the bargain.

One key issue is timing.  The interim agreement hasn't yet gone into effect and will last six months.  Chances are, it will end sometime before our 2014 midterms.  But I wouldn't be surprised if Obama and Kerry figure out a way to extend it, so, if it comes crashing down, or results in further American concessions, the damage will be done after the elections. 

December 31, 2013     Permalink

DEM GIMMICK – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  On the ropes for 2014, inheritor of Obamacare, the Democratic Party is looking for an issue that will reverse its fortunes at the polls, and believes it has found one.  From The New York Times:   

WASHINGTON — Democratic Party leaders, bruised by months of attacks on the new health care program, have found an issue they believe can lift their fortunes both locally and nationally in 2014: an increase in the minimum wage.

The effort to take advantage of growing populism among voters in both parties is being coordinated by officials from the White House, labor unions and liberal advocacy groups.

In a series of strategy meetings and conference calls among them in recent weeks, they have focused on two levels: an effort to raise the federal minimum wage, which will be pushed by President Obama and congressional leaders, and a campaign to place state-level minimum wage proposals on the ballot in states with hotly contested congressional races.

With polls showing widespread support for an increase in the $7.25-per-hour federal minimum wage among both Republican and Democratic voters, top Democrats see not only a wedge issue that they hope will place Republican candidates in a difficult position, but also a tool with which to enlarge the electorate in a nonpresidential election, when turnout among minorities and youths typically drops off.

“It puts Republicans on the wrong side of an important value issue when it comes to fairness,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the president’s senior adviser. “You can make a very strong case that this will be a helpful issue for Democrats in 2014. But the goal here is to actually get it done. That’s why the president put it on the agenda.”

Top Republicans assert that a wage increase would dampen the economic recovery and indicated after Mr. Obama mentioned the issue in his State of the Union speech this year that they had no intention of bringing a minimum-wage increase to a vote in the House, which they control.

“Why would we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people?” Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio said.

COMMENT:  This is a very tough one for Republicans.  Do not underestimate the ability of the Democrats to run an election campaign.  The Democratic Party is one huge vote-buying machine.  Here they want to buy votes with a deceptive plan to raise the minimum wage, without any other economic proposals that would enlarge the economy and allow employers actually to hire more workers.

But the Dems' plan might work.  It's based on the time-tested notion of promising a check to people, especially people who'll be drawn to the voting booth by the prospect of that check.  Remember what happened in 2012 – the Dems won because they got out their vote.  They were draggin' people out of the woodwork with the usual scare tactics:  Elect Romney and he'll take away your (check one) social security, Medicare, job, children, government check. 

Republicans cannot simply say "no" to a higher minimum wage.  It is a very popular policy right now.  They might wish to accept it, but incorporate it into a broader economic plan that enlarges employment.  Now is the time for creativity, not simply rejection.

December 31, 2013     Permalink

HAPPY NEW YEAR? – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  This is, allegedly, the last day of 2013.  But wait.  What if you don't want it to be?  What if you like 2013?  As a service to our readers, I personally called the White House this morning, and received the following statement directly from the Oval Office:

1) If you like the current year, you can keep it.  President Obama has said that, and, like all pledges he makes, he intends to honor it.

2) If you don't wish to keep the current year, you can sign up for a new one; you don't have to accept 2014.  You can choose 2015 or go right to 2020.  All you have to do is visit the new website ChooseYourYear.gov, and make a choice.  Now, unfortunately, that website is down, but White House technicians should have it restored within a month. 

3) ChooseYourYear.gov does have minimum requirements.  In the year you choose you must have at least one abortion, and take a birth-control pill at least every other day.  That applies to all genders, as the plan is gender-neutral. 

4) You may choose a new calendar design, if you wish, for an extra charge; or, at no charge, you may select the calendar design with President Obama in 12 different vacation outfits.

COMMENT:  We're happy to provide you with that information, a demonstration of how Our Leader is fundamentally transforming America.  You may thank us profusely.

December 31,  2013     Permalink