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JANUARY 2,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:54 P.M. ET: 

CLAIMS DOWN – The number of Americans filing unemployment claims dropped for the second straight week, but the actual number of claims – some 339,000 – is nothing to brag about.  The employment picture remains painful.  George Will commented on Fox that the decline in the unemployment rate to 7 percent, which the administration brags about, has come largely because of a decline in the number of people seeking employment.  In other words, people have given up.   Despite population growth, the American work force is actually smaller than it was in 2008.  We are experiencing European levels of chronic unemployment.

CAROLINA COMBAT – One of the most critical Senate races this year is in North Carolina, where Republicans are in position to defeat a sitting Democrat.  From The Hill:  "North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R) is attacking Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) as an Obama lackey in his first television ad — while playing up his own business credentials instead of his legislative experience.  'Kay Hagan enabled President Obama's worst ideas. She refuses to clean up his mess, so you and I have to clean up hers,' Tillis says in the spot.  Polling shows Obama's weakened position could hurt Hagan in the state. An early December automated poll by the North Carolina-based Democratic firm Public Policy Polling found his approval rating had dropped to 44 percent, with 55 percent disapproving. In that poll, Hagan had a narrow 2-point lead on Tillis, who was unknown by most voters."  Let's pick this one up.

ANOTHER FAMOUS VICTORY – From The New York Times – "BAGHDAD — Radical Sunni militants aligned with Al Qaeda threatened Thursday to seize control of Falluja and Ramadi, two of the most important cities in Iraq, setting fire to police stations, freeing prisoners from jail and occupying mosques, as the government rushed troop reinforcements to the areas."  Thank you, President Obama, for "ending" the Iraq war, as you claim, with such skill.  If America had negotiated for a continued presence in Iraq, there's a good chance it wouldn't be going all to hell.  We're losing, but "losing" is not a word in Obama's vocabulary.

NOT A GOOD START – It does not appear that tidiness will be a hallmark of the new, left-wing Bill DeBlasio mayoral regime in New York City.  DeBlasio took his oath on a Bible that was signed by FDR on the occasion of his first inaugural in 1933.  But, after the DeBlasio oath, the valuable Bible, on loan from the FDR Library in Hyde Park, went missing for hours.  A detail of a reported 50 New York City police officers searched for it, and finally found it, averting a historical disaster.  Maybe, the next time some local "leaders" bash the NYPD, DeBlasio will recall that it was the cops who saved his butt on inauguration day.

January 2, 2014       Permalink

BYE, BYE CHRYSLER – AT 10:21 A.M. ET:  It was once such a great American name, and New York City still has a building named for the company.  It was one of the big-three American automakers.  But Chrysler's American pedigree is fading fast.  From CNN: 

U.S. automaker Chrysler will become fully owned by Italy's Fiat under terms of an agreement announced Wednesday that also involves the United Auto Workers union.

The agreement comes more than 4-1/2 years after the Obama administration brought Fiat in to keep Chrysler in business as part of a packaged bankruptcy proceeding.

In a statement, Fiat said it has agreed to pay $3.65 billion for the 41.46% of Chrysler it doesn't already own from the UAW's medical benefits trust for retirees.

Fiat shares gained nearly 13% in Milan early Thursday to trade at €6.70, their highest level since July 2011.

In addition to the deal, Chrysler will contribute $700 million to the benefits trust over a 4-year period. For its part, the UAW has agreed to support the automaker's plans to roll out vehicles and will drop a Delaware court proceeding over options exercised by Fiat in the acquisition of Chrysler.

COMMENT:  When your major companies start falling under foreign control, it's a sign of decline.  Look at Britain.  Its leading automakers are foreign-owned.  Volvo, formerly Swedish, is owned by a Chinese company. 

Meanwhile, foreign auto companies establish factories in America, and make them profitable.  Our auto industry dropped the ball too many times.

January 2, 2014       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE NEW YEAR – AT 9:48 A.M. ET:  I haven't seen a better indictment of Obama's role in the world than this, from Poland's Lech Walesa: 

In an interview with CNN that aired Wednesday, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning former president of Poland, Lech Walesa, says Barack Obama has failed to reclaim America’s role as a world leader.

Walesa — who supported Mitt Romney in the 2012 election — said the Obama administration has been a dangerous disappointment:

“When he was elected…there was great hope…we were hoping Obama would reclaim moral leadership for America. That failed.

[I]n terms of politics and morality, America no longer leads the world. America did not regain its leadership status. We were just lucky there were no big conflicts in the world.”

Walesa said the world has relied on a strong America to maintain the balance of power around the globe.

“It’s a dangerous situation so we are awaiting a president who will understand that.”

As reported by NewsMax, Walesa went from a shipyard electrician to a union leader who helped overthrow the communist government in Poland, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and seven years later, becoming the first democratically elected president in Poland.

So, Walesa and Obama have two things in common: winning the Nobel Peace Prize and being elected president of their respective countries. While Lech Walesa’s Peace Prize was awarded based on courageous and heroic accomplishments, the newly-elected Obama received his Nobel Peace Prize based upon the belief (by some) that he would, in his words, “heal the planet” and “stop the oceans’ rise.”

As President Walesa correctly pointed out, none of those things has happened.

COMMENT:  It may very well get worse, as Obama is increasingly pursuing a leftist agenda during his second term.  It may get very bad after this year's midterms, when he no longer has to worry about hurting his party's standing.

January 2, 2014       Permalink

THE NUCLEAR DEAL – AT 9:10 A.M. ET:   The Iranians say their interim nuclear deal with the West will go into effect January 20th.  I'd love to see the fine print.  From AP:

Implementation of the November 24 interim deal to limit the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for eased sanctions on the Islamic Republic will commence on January 20, Hamid Baeedinejad, the head of the Iranian negotiating team, said Wednesday.

“The two sides managed to reach an understanding on the implementation of the agreement, and now their views and interpretations are the same,” Baeedinejad was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying.

The announcement came a day after Western and Iranian officials said they were nearing an understanding on the technical details of implementing the landmark interim nuclear accord.

The deal puts curbs on Iran’s uranium enrichment program in return for an easing of some international sanctions on Tehran for six months while a permanent deal is negotiated.

COMMENT:  The key word is "curbs."  The agreement does not stop the nuclear program, nor does Iran give up one piece of nuclear equipment.  It is a weak agreement.  And what if we can't come to terms with Iran in the next six months?  Does the agreement, with all its holes, just continue?

The administration assures us that we can reimpose sanctions of the negotiations fall through.  I think that's nonsense.  Money talks, and our European partners in these negotiations can't wait to do business with Iran again.

The interim agreement will end in July, right before our midterm elections.  I'm apprehensive that Obama will do something to increase his party's electoral position, whether it's in our ultimate interest or not.

January 2, 2014        Permalink

ANTARCTICA LATEST – AT 8:54 A.M. ET:  We are following the adventures of the global-warming religionists whose Russian (naturally) ship got stuck in the ice of the Antarctic, although the religionists thought it would be melting.  The children are free!  The children are free!  From AP:

CANBERRA, Australia — A helicopter rescued all 52 passengers from a research ship that has been trapped in Antarctic ice since Christmas Eve after weather conditions finally cleared enough for the operation Thursday.

A helicopter carried the scientists and tourists from the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalski in groups of 12 to an Australian icebreaker, said the Australian Maritime Safety Authority’s Rescue Coordination Centre, which oversaw the rescue. The Aurora Australis will now take the passengers to the Australian island state of Tasmania, a journey expected to last two weeks.

“I think everyone is relieved and excited to be going on to the Australian icebreaker and then home,” expedition leader Chris Turney told The Associated Press by satellite phone from the Antarctic.

Turney is a "professor of climate change" at an Australian university. 

All 22 crew members stayed with their icebound vessel, which is not in danger of sinking and has weeks’ worth of supplies on board. They will wait until the ice that has paralyzed the ship breaks up.

The eagerly anticipated rescue came after days of failed attempts to reach the vessel. Blinding snow, strong winds, fog and thick sea ice forced rescuers to turn back time and again.

COMMENT:  Meanwhile, another "team" of scientists, also based in Australia, is cautioning that global warming has bee underestimated, and that hell will be upon us sooner than thought.

Isn't it time for a Challenger-type commission to look into all the claims and counter-claims?  We are being asked to change our lives and allocate trillions of dollars to "climate change," which John Kerry says is the biggest issue facing humankind.  (I'd thought it was nuclear proliferation.)  The only problem with an investigatory commission is that Obama could stack it with his people, which is his style.

But we have simply got to get to the bottom of this, and also determine who is benefiting financially from the climate-change industry.

January 2,  2014     Permalink

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