Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

JANUARY 8,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:45 P.M. ET: 

THE AGONY, THE PAIN – From the New York Post:  "Hillary Clinton is 'furious' at husband Bill Clinton, according to Washington insiders, after his name came up in the latest sex scandal involving his disgraced former pal, Jeffrey Epstein.  Sources at the funeral of Mario Cuomo also said they saw a peevish-looking Hillary angrily 'storm' past the former president after he dutifully waited for her by the door of St. Ignatius Loyola Church.  'Talk in Washington is that Hillary is furious with Bill about all this new information on Jeffrey Epstein,' said a DC insider familiar with both Epstein and the Clintons.  Bill’s name has popped up in 2011 court documents relating to Epstein after a woman said to be Virginia Roberts filed a bombshell suit alleging she was Epstein’s teen 'sex slave' and paid $15,000 to bed Epstein’s pal, Britain’s Prince Andrew."  Well, Hillary, to advance your career you decided to stay with the jerk after Monica and all the other stuff.  This is the thanks you get.  Surprised?

HOW CAN WE SURVIVE? – From the Washington Post:  "Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) announced on Thursday that she will not seek reelection in 2016, the first retirement announcement from a Democratic senator ahead of the 2016 political cycle, which will spark a major political contest in California.  Boxer made the announcement in a video co-starring her grandson, who played the role of reporter."  It's an acting family.  She played the role of a serious person for years.  No Oscar.  No Tony.  Lots of laughs.  I started thinking of her accomplishments, to list here.  Still thinking.  Check me tomorrow.

MAJOR ART NEWS – From Entertainment Weekly:  "Under Discovery Channel’s new regime, fake shark movies and man-eating anaconda stunts are out.  In an apparent response to viewer dismay over ratings-grabbing stunts that went against Discovery’s science-and-nature brand, the cable channel’s new president, Rich Ross, said he will avoid such content under his leadership.  Appearing at the Television Critics Association’s semi-annual press tour in Pasadena on Thursday, Ross was first asked about bogus nature documentaries, like last year’s Shark Week movie 'Megalodon: The Monster Shark Live's – a fictional film about a 'serial killer of the seas' disguised as a legitimate documentary. The project was slammed by fans of the annual programming stunt and is part of a line of programs that includes Discovery sister channel Animal Planet’s notorious mermaid films."  I feel uplifted by this change. 

WE'RE THIS VULNERABLE? – From USA Today:  "The year 2015 will have an extra second — which could wreak havoc on the infrastructure powering the Internet.  At 11:59 p.m. on June 30, clocks will count up all the way to 60 seconds. That will allow the Earth's spin to catch up with atomic time.  The Earth's spin is gradually slowing down, by about two thousandths of a second per day, but atomic clocks are constant. That means that occasionally years have to be lengthened slightly, to allow the slowing Earth to catch up with the constant clock.  But last time it happened, in 2012, it took down much of the Internet."  The spin doctors in Washington could fix this in...a second.

January 8, 2015       Permalink

JEB ON THE OFFENSIVE – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  There are more and more indications that Jeb Bush is running for president, leaving talk of Mitt Romney behind.   From The Politico: 

Jeb Bush is wasting no time taking on Hillary Clinton, even though neither party’s potential 2016 standard-bearer has officially committed to a presidential bid.

Speaking at a closed-press fundraiser in Connecticut on Wednesday night, Bush suggested to potential donors that the former secretary of state would have to explain President Barack Obama’s foreign policy mistakes, Hearst Connecticut Media reported Thursday.

The outlet, anonymously citing attendees who heard Bush’s remarks, reported that the former Florida governor took another not-so-subtle jab at Clinton.

“He said, ‘If someone wants to run a campaign about ’90s nostalgia, it’s not going to be very successful,’” Hearst Connecticut Media reported, citing another person present at the event.

Bush spoke to the crowd of 175 people for about 30 minutes, and spent another 30 minutes taking questions. The event, a fundraiser for his new Right to Rise PAC, was held at the home of former Goldman Sachs executive Charles Davis.

Bush also dismissed broad comparisons to his famous family, according to an attendee.

“He said, ‘Do you have a father? Do you have a brother? Are you the same person?’” the unnamed source told Hearst.

A Bush spokesperson declined to comment, citing the closed-press nature of the event.

COMMENT:  Bush would probably prefer Clinton as an opponent because it negates the "dynasty" issue.

I think his getting started early is the right thing to do.  After a time, people get tired of the number of Hamlets out there who can never decide whether to run for president.  That's what doomed the late Mario Cuomo. 

It's getting fascinating already.  And the question of course is, "What will Hillary do?"  She wants it, but the lack of enthusiasm for her on the left wing of the Democratic Party is apparent.  And Elizabeth Warren is sounding more and more like a candidate. 

January 8, 2015       Permalink

HAS HE LEARNED NOTHING? – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:   We report on Mayor de Blasio of New York because New York City policies have an effect on policies in other cities, because New York is a huge media center with outsized influence, and because de Blasio is an unabashed leftist, not a traditional liberal.

And, like most leftists, he never learns anything.  A few days ago he reappointed a judge who had been especially lenient toward defendants accused of threatening the lives of police officers.  And now this, from the New York Post: 

A Manhattan judge known for being tough on criminals has been booted from the bench by Mayor Bill de Blasio — even against the advice of his own vetting team, law enforcement sources told The Post on Tuesday.

The move comes on the heels of de Blasio’s reappointment of Brooklyn Judge Laura Johnson, who set free without bail two men who threatened to kill cops just days after a double police assassination.

The booted judge, Diana Boyar, “was fair, knowledgeable and ran the courtroom professionally,” a stunned source said.

Another source added of Boyar, “She is a fair, very smart and respected judge who’s known for being tough, and Legal Aid doesn’t like her for it.”

Boyar is being seriously considered for a job as a special court “referee,” courthouse sources said.
Boyar could not be reached for comment.

COMMENT:  The American left at work.  I get the feeling that judgeships have to be approved by Al Sharpton, or at least Sharpton's allies.  It's a pathetic situation.

It's gotten so bad in New York that there are now serious suggestions that only former President Clinton can mediate the tensions between the mayor and the city's police force.  He might be asked.

And the Republicans in New York City?  I have no doubt they're getting ready to concede the next mayoral election.  It's the stylish thing to do, you know.

January 8, 2015       Permalink

PARIS LATEST – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  The action in France is far from over.  From Sky News: 

A major police operation is under way in France as tensions remain high across the country after yesterday's terror attack in Paris.

Several armed officers were at the scene of another fatal gun attack this morning in the south of the capital.

A female police officer was killed after she was called to reports of a traffic accident involving a grey Clio at around 7.15am.

A street sweeper was wounded in the shooting, which is also being treated as a terrorist act by the French authorities.

Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said police with heavy armour were seen in Porte de Chatillon shortly afterwards and TV news crews were being pushed back from the area, which was sealed off with tape.

Meanwhile, officers are still hunting for suspects in the deadly gun attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Two men matching their description are said to have robbed a petrol station about an hour's drive northeast of Paris.

COMMENT:  I note that the left-wing mayor of New York has largely dismantled the intelligence system set up by former Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, leaving New York more vulnerable to a Paris-type attack.  After all, we must not offend other cultures.

I also note that the Obama administration still will not call the Paris attack Islamic terrorism.  Why tell the truth when a lie works just as well?

January 8, 2015        Permalink

TERROR – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  We might disagree with him on some other issues, but Lindsey Graham has been a stalwart on national defense in the U.S. Senate.  He lays it on the line about Obama's terror policies and how they endanger us.  From the Washington Times: 

Sen. Lindsey Graham warned that the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks are likely a drop in the bucket of what’s to come — and especially so under the policies of President Obama.

“I fear we can expect and must prepare for more attacks like this in the future,” Mr. Graham said in a statement reported by The Hill. “Through a combination of poor policy choices made by the Obama administration regarding detention and interrogation policies, and budget cuts approved by the Congress with President Obama’s support, I believe our national security infrastructure designed to prevent these types of attacks from occurring is under siege.”

Mr. Graham also pointed to the nation’s “eroding” intelligence capabilities as problematic — and his criticisms were shared by others in the Republican Party.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte said Mr. Obama’s pledge to close Guantanamo Bay is a “real risk,” Fox News reported. And Rep. Peter King from New York said on CNN: “We have to make it clear that Homeland Security — at a time we saw this massive attack in Paris — that we can’t be cutting funding or programs which would protect Americans from a terrorist attack.”

COMMENT:  Leftists hope that memory of attacks like the one in Paris fades quickly, and that they can go back to their other failed policies.  Sadly, they're often right.

Republicans now control Congress.  They have a chance to reverse Obama's reckless defense policies by forcing the White House into compromise positions.  Will they really try?  That question may determine the future of the Republican Party.

January 8,  2015     Permalink 

JANUARY 7,  2015

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

FRANCE – The attack today was the worst terror attack in France since the Algerian war of the 1960s.  The question being asked by Americans is whether such an attack is imminent here.  It's inevitable that our enemies are planning one or more.  A second question is whether this attack, no matter how ugly it was, will actually move the elites of the European Union to change their "sophisticated" views and admit that Europe has a serious problem with radical Islam.  Don't hold your breath. 

THE OBAMANS SPEAK – Both President Obama and Secretary Kerry condemned the Paris attack, but in language that was strangely distant.  It took hours for the administration to inject the word "terror" into its language.  Obama's attitudes have made it harder to fight terror around the world since allies look for American leadership, which has been unenthusiastic.

OPEN IT UP – From Fox:  "Congressional lawmakers on Wednesday ramped up efforts to get President Obama to release 28 top-secret pages from a 9/11 report that allegedly detail Saudi Arabia's involvement in the terror attacks.  Lawmakers and advocacy groups have pushed for the declassification for years. The effort already had bipartisan House support but now has the backing of retired Florida Democratic Sen. Bob Graham, a former Senate Intelligence Committee chairman whom supporters hope will help garner enough congressional backing to pressure Obama into releasing the confidential information."  It's about time.  But the Saudi lobby, which has much power in Washington and in the oil industry, may still be able to prevent a release.

A SIGNAL – From The Hill:  "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) is staffing up for a potential 2016 White House bid, hiring a potential campaign manager and reportedly planning to launch a new political organization.  Walker has hired former Republican National Committee political director Rick Wiley to pull together a political operation, CNN reported Wednesday afternoon.  Wiley, a national political strategist, has left his position at the consulting firm Mercury LLC, a source confirmed with The Hill. He worked there since March 2013, along with Michael DuHaime, chief political strategist for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), a likely presidential rival to Walker should both enter the race."  Game on.

January 7, 2015       Permalink

IT'S ALREADY STARTING – AT 10:30 A.M. ET:  It doesn't take long for the political left to organize in response to a terrorist attack.   Start rolling your eyes now.  From NewsBusters:   

Howard Dean—that celebrated scholar of Islam—has weighed in on today's murderous rampage in Paris, declaring that he refuses to call the shooters in this and similar cases "Muslim terrorists." According to Dean, the disregard for the lives of others that these terrorists display "is not what the Koran says." Dean's denial of the obvious puts him in the company of many liberals, most notably including President Obama, who after the beheading of James Foley declared that ISIS "speaks for no religion."

Their illogic is dangerous. How do you defeat an enemy if you refuse to acknowledge what it is? Note: Dean goes on to decry the fact that the shooters had Kalashnikovs despite France's "tremendous" gun control laws. Does "when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns" ring a bell, Howard?

COMMENT:  We await comments from the crew at MSNBC and from "Mideast experts" who will probably blame American dislike of ISIS or Israeli apartments in Jerusalem for the terror attack in Paris.  Oh, and include Fox News and the Tea Party.

January 7, 2015       Permalink

FIRST U.S. RESPONSE – AT 9:06 A.M. ET:  The White House has now responded to the Paris terror, although I wish the press secretary hadn't chosen the left-wing network, MSNBC, on which to do it.  From Fox: 

The White House is condemning the attack on a satirical Paris publication that left at least 12 people dead.

Press Secretary Josh Earnest, in an interview Wednesday morning, called it a "terrible act of violence" that the U.S. government condemns in the strongest possible terms.

Speaking on MSNBC, he said U.S. security officials are in close contact with their counterparts in France. Asked if the U.S. Embassy in Paris might be evacuated, Earnest indicated he's not aware of any such plans.

The attack was carried out against the Charlie Hebdo weekly, the publication known for challenging Muslim terrorists with a 2011 caricature of Prophet Mohammed on its cover and which recently tweeted a cartoon of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Earnest also told CNN the French have been "stalwart allies" in the U.S. fight against Islamic State extremists.

"We know they are not going to be cowed by this terrible act," he said.

Earnest also said Washington will work hard to protect Americans at home and abroad.

COMMENT:  That's a pretty standard response.  Not much more they can say right now.  However, I would hope that the president himself would make a formal, in-person statement later in the day.  This is a particularly vicious terror attack, an attack on a free press itself.

January 7, 2015        Permalink

SCATHING – AT 8:47 A.M. ET:  In an early, scathing response to the Paris carnage has been written by British conservative columnist James Delingpole, who has been heroic in questioning the "settled science" of global warming.  A must read, from Breitbart: 

The story so far: 12 people, including two policemen, have been murdered at the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo by two hooded men wielding AK47s. In 2011 the magazine was firebombed after running a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad. Charlie Hebdo’s most recent tweet, before the latest attack, was a cartoon featuring the leader of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Here’s what will happen next.

1. French authorities will urge the public not to jump to any unhelpful conclusions about the identity and motivation of the killers.

2. Politicians, police chiefs and mainstream media reports will urge restraint over what is clearly an inexplicable rogue incident which may have nothing whatsoever to do with the Religion of Peace.

3. Extensive – and largely fruitless – efforts will be made to find Muslim community leaders prepared to speak out against the incident, in the unlikely event that it proves that the killers may have had Islamist sympathies.

4. Liberal commentators will take pains to draw a distinction between Islamism and Islam, noting that the former is a malign perversion of the latter which (apparently) explicitly forbids the murder of innocents.

5. Warming to this theme – and once the bodies are sufficiently cold, so as not to offend anyone’s good taste – one or two braver liberal commentators will suggest that while, of course, they wholly condemn all such acts of violence, it’s nevertheless the case that one or two of Charlie Hebdo’s editorials and cartoons could be quite needlessly provocative and that their contribution to the current climate of Islamophobia may have been responsible for heightening religious tensions in the broader culture. There have to be limits to free speech, after all. You can’t shout fire in a crowded theatre.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It's well worth it.  Then see how many of the predictions come true.  I'm hoping at least part of what Delingpole is saying will turn out to be wrong.  Maybe the hand of national-defense Republicans in our new Congress will be strengthened by this latest outrage.  Maybe even some people in our universities will come to their senses.

January 7,  2015     Permalink

HORROR! – AT 8:18 A.M. ET:  There has been a terrible terrorist attack in Paris.  From Fox:

BREAKING: Black-clad gunmen stormed the Paris offices of a satirical publication known for lampooning Islam early Wednesday, killing 12 and injuring as many as 15 before escaping, French officials said.

As many as three Kalashnikov-toting shooters were being sought after the attack at Charlie Hebdo, the publication known for challenging Muslim terrorists with a 2011 caricature of Prophet Muhammed on its cover and which recently tweeted a cartoon of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Two policemen and several journalists - including the cartoonist behind the weekly publication's provocative images, were among the dead.

“We’ve avenged the honor of the prophet!” the killers shouted, according to witnesses who spoke to Sky News. The gunmen spoke French without any accent, according to Le Monde.

COMMENT:  I would have quoted the story on this run in The New York Times, but you had to go down many paragraphs before finding any reference to Islam.  Political correctness wins out even on a day of horror.

We'll watch for reactions to this ghastly attack.  Realistically, it probably will result in more self-censorship, especially in Europe, but here as well.  The excuses and rationalizations will begin soon. 

In recent days France disgraced itself by voting in favor of an absurd pro-Palestinian resolution at the UN, a resolution that ultimately failed anyway.  I guess this is the thanks that France gets. 

CNN and Fox are both covering the story live.  I haven't heard any special or unusual insights, although CNN's in-studio "experts," thus far, seemed to be all liberals.

January 7,  2015     Permalink