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NOVEMBER 30,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:09 P.M. ET: 

I'M CRUSHED – From the Washington Examiner:  "Narrowing the field of potential Democratic presidential contenders even further, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick took himself out of the running for the 2016 race Sunday.  'I've thought about it, but no, I can't get ready for 2016,' he told NBC on Sunday. He said he didn't view governorship as a stepping-stone to a higher office. 'I didn't run for the job just to get another job.'  Patrick, 58, is stepping down after two terms and was considered an outside possibility to run. However, the buzz surrounding him diminished after the Democratic Party's nominee to succeed him, Martha Coakley, was defeated by Republican Charlie Baker in this fall's election."  Well, there goes our chance at greatness.  I could feel the wanting of Deval all over the country.

SOMEONE WANTS THE JOB? – From The Hill:  "Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) on Saturday said he is 'open' to replacing outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.  'I'm open to it, but I don't anticipate being asked,' Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told KIRO-TV in Washington.
'I like the job I have,' he added. 'I love representing the 9th District. If it came to that, it would be a difficult decision.'  Smith said he had not been contacted by the Obama administration about the position.  Smith’s name was one of several to emerge following last Monday’s announcement that Hagel would step down after less than two years as the Pentagon chief."   Also emerging are a cab driver in Davenport and a movie usher in Dallas.  Neither has indicated interest in the job unless lines of authority are worked out.

THANKSGIVING BUST – From The New York Times:  "Have Americans finally had enough of Black Friday madness?  Sales, both in stores and online, from Thanksgiving through the weekend were estimated to have dropped 11 percent, to $50.9 billion, from $57.4 billion last year, according to preliminary survey results released Sunday by the National Retail Federation. Sales fell despite many stores’ opening earlier than ever on Thanksgiving Day."  The decline will be reversed when Barack Obama gets his goodbye gift for Chuck Hagel.

November 30, 2014       Permalink

IF TRUE, TROUBLE – AT 11:35 A.M. ET:   London's Daily Mail is reporting on claims that ISIS has enough nuclear material for a dirty bomb.  A dirty bomb isn't an "atomic bomb," but a conventional explosive wrapped in radioactive material that contaminates a wide area if exploded:

Islamic State fanatics claim to have constructed a dirty bomb after stealing 40kg of uranium from an Iraqi university.

Militants boasted of the device on social media, with one even commenting on the destruction such a bomb would wreak in London, four months after the chemical was reported missing from Mosul University.

Among extremists making online threats to the West is British explosives expert Hamayun Tariq, who fled his home in Dudley, West Midlands, for the Middle East in 2012.

Using the Muslim name, Muslim-al-Britani, he posted on Twitter: 'O by the way Islamic State does have a Dirty bomb. We found some Radio active material from Mosul university,' the Mirror reports.
He continued: 'We’ll find out what dirty bombs are and what they do. We’ll also discuss what might happen if one actually went off in a public area.

'This sort of a bomb would be terribly destructive if went off In LONDON becuz (sic) it would be more of a disruptive than a destructive weapon,' before having his Twitter account suspended.
Other jihadis echoed the claims a destructive 'dirty bomb' had been made, with one writing: '
'IS has confirmed that we have acquired a dirty bomb from radioactive material from Mosul Uni! Mashallah #IS'.

COMMENT:  Can't confirm it, but it's entirely logical that extremist groups can acquire extremely dangerous materials in an unstable region.  A dirty bomb can contaminate many blocks in a big city.  It could paralyze financial districts or sports venues.  It's only a matter of time.

November 30, 2014       Permalink

FASCINATING CASE – AT 10:11 A.M. ET:   The Supreme Court is about to take up a case that will test the limits of speech on the internet.  These are hard cases, often close calls, but they are critical to building our democracy.  From AP: 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Anthony Elonis claimed he was just kidding when he posted a series of graphically violent rap lyrics on Facebook about killing his estranged wife, shooting up a kindergarten class and attacking an FBI agent.

But his wife didn't see it that way. Neither did a federal jury.

Elonis, who's from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was convicted of violating a federal law that makes it a crime to threaten another person.

In a far-reaching case that probes the limits of free speech over the Internet, the Supreme Court on Monday was to consider whether Elonis' Facebook posts, and others like it, deserve protection under the First Amendment.

Elonis argues that his lyrics were simply a crude and spontaneous form of expression that should not be considered threatening if he did not really mean it. The government says it does not matter what Elonis intended, and that the true test of a threat is whether his words make a reasonable person feel threatened.

One post about his wife said, "There's one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you. I'm not going to rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts."

The case has drawn widespread attention from free-speech advocates who say comments on Facebook, Twitter and other social media can be hasty, impulsive and easily misinterpreted. They point out that a message on Facebook intended for a small group could be taken out of context when viewed by a wider audience.

"A statute that proscribes speech without regard to the speaker's intended meaning runs the risk of punishing protected First Amendment expression simply because it is crudely or zealously expressed," said a brief from the American Liberties Union and other groups.

But so far, most lower courts have rejected that view, ruling that a "true threat" depends on how an objective person perceives the message.

COMMENT:  And the lower courts are right.  When a man threatens his estranged wife that way, I really don't think it can be called free speech. 

And I'm amused by "free speech" advocates who scream their devotion to the First Amendment, yet who have no problem with "speech codes" on college campuses that restrict speech that offends any politically popular constituency. 

November 30,  2014     Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – THE MYTHS SURROUNDING FERGUSON – AT 10:05 A.M. ET:  There is a whole narrative being built by the left about Ferguson, about how police departments "oppress" African Americans.  According to this narrative, even the black crime rate is fiction, a creation of the "oppressor" forces.

But many, including many in the black community, are having none of it.  African-American columnist Larry Elder exposes the hypocrisy by quoting the police chief of Milwaukee, Edward Flynn.  From the Washington Examiner:

Ironically, in Wisconsin just three weeks ago, Milwaukee police Chief Edward Flynn was being criticized for inappropriate and disrespectful behavior. Flynn, during a police commission meeting related to an officer-involved shooting, was on his cell phone. Didn't he appreciate the gravity of this hearing? Later, at a press conference, he was asked why he was rude.

The chief said: "Well, I was on my phone, yes. That is true. I was following developments with a 5-year-old girl sitting on her dad's lap who just got shot in the head by a drive-by shooting. If some of the people gave a good goddamn about the victimization of people in this community by crime, I'd take some of their invective more seriously.

"The greatest racial disparity in the city of Milwaukee is getting shot and killed -- hello! Eighty percent of my homicide victims -- every year -- are African-American; 80 percent of our aggravated assault victims are African-American; 80 percent of our shooting victims who survive their shooting are African-American.

"Now, they know all about the last three people who have been killed by the Milwaukee Police Department over the course of the last several years. There's not one of them that can name one of the last three homicide victims we've had in this city. ... But this community is at risk all right, and it's not because men and women in blue risk their lives protecting it. It's at risk because we have large numbers of high-capacity, quality firearms in the hands of remorseless criminals who don't care who they shoot.

"Now I'm leaving here to go to that scene. I take it personally, OK? We're going up there, and there's a bunch of cops processing a scene of a dead kid. And they're the ones that are going to be out there patrolling and stopping suspects that may have guns under the front seat. They're the ones that are gonna take risks to their lives to try to clean this thing up, all right?

"We are responsible for the things we get wrong, and we take action. We've arrested cops, we've fired cops and so on. But the fact is, the people out here, some of them -- who had the most to say -- are absolutely MIA when it comes to the true threats facing this community. It gets a little tiresome, and when you start getting yelled at for reading the updates of the kid who got shot, yeah, you take it personally, OK?"

COMMENT:  Nothing like telling it like it is.  One of the tragedies of black America is incompetent, dishonest, ambitious leadership, that feeds myths to the people to stay in power.  These "leaders" really don't care about black progress.  In fact, they despise it.  They prefer that their people be kept down, poor and misinformed, the better to have a consistent constituency. 

Even worse, are the white "allies," the loudest of whom are old reds and red allies.  They egg on the most irresponsible elements in the black community.  Why, it's a revolution.  Didn't you know?  Isn't it romantic?

And the man in the White House makes it worse with his provocative comments condemning America.

November 30,  2014     Permalink

NOVEMBER 29,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:25 P.M. ET: 

SOME RESPECT – Finally, there is some recognition of the unfairness in the system whereby professional military officers are being forced out for supposedly budgetary reasons.  Even some Dems understand.  From The Hill:  "A bipartisan group of senators is urging the Army to immediately reverse a policy that would force some officers to lose as much as $1,000 per month in retirement benefits.  Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), along with 13 other senators, urged Army Secretary John McHugh in a letter this week to reverse a policy where officers being asked to retire would do so at their highest enlisted rank if they spent fewer than eight years as an officer.  Murray and Isakson say the policy is unfair to those who have been selected for retirement under budget cuts, but are just short of the eight years.   The senators say this would affect a 'significant number of captains and majors who are former non-commissioned officers.'  This year, the Army required 19,000 captains and majors to go through early separation boards. Of those, the Army is scheduled to involuntarily cut 1,188 captains and 550 majors, according to the News Tribune."  This at a time when our enemies are building their military forces.

INEVITABLE – From AP:  "FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) -- The Ferguson police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown has resigned, his attorney said Saturday, nearly four months after the confrontation between the white officer and unarmed black 18-year-old that ignited protests in the St. Louis suburb and across the nation.  Darren Wilson, who has been on administrative leave since the Aug. 9 shooting, resigned effective immediately, said his attorney, Neil Bruntrager. He declined further immediate comment.  The Brown family attorney, Benjamin Crump, didn't immediately return phone and email messages from The Associated Press.  Wilson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he was stepping down out of his 'own free will' after the police department told him it had received threats of violence if he remained an employee."  It was inevitable.  Officer Wilson was a walking dead man in Ferguson.  There should be a protection program, like the witness protection program, for law-enforcement officers who become major targets.  It's overdue.

REWARDING A DISAPPOINTMENT – From The Hill:  "Senate Democratic leaders are promoting business friendly moderate Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia to their leadership team, where he will counterbalance rising liberal star Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).  Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the third-ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership, announced Friday that Warner will serve as a policy development adviser to the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee."  Warner was considered a shoo-in for re-election earlier this month, but barely squeezed through, thanks to the New York transplants in northern Virginia.  Now his near-collapse is being rewarded.  You know a party is in trouble when it performs open-heart surgery in public.

November 29,  2014     Permalink

GOOD KIDS? – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  In every generation we start to believe that the country is doomed because of the young.  Look at them!  Look at the way they dress.  Listen to their music.  Look at the movies they like.  We are doomed!

Well, even the sixties generation hasn't yet succeeded in destroying America, and we must remember that the other part of that generation fought in Vietnam. 

But there is now a serious body of thought suggesting that the new young generation actually is getting many things right, that maybe they'll be a fine generation after all.  From WaPo: 

The news media likes to characterize today’s young people as risk averse, narcissistic, app-dependent, over-scheduled, entitled and “pornified.” Among the culprits are too much praise, not enough challenge, helicopter parents, cellphones and of course, the Internet.

But by many measures, young people are actually showing virtues their elders lacked. They have brought delinquency, truancy, promiscuity, alcohol abuse and suicide down to levels unseen in many cases since the 1950s. Rather than coming up with ever more old-fogey complaints, we should be celebrating young people’s good judgment and self-control — and extolling their parents and teachers.

Here are some of the most impressive developments.

You’ve probably heard that crime is down. But most of the remarkable facts about crime and delinquency among young people have not been trumpeted enough in a country just 20 years removed from fears that it was facing a generation of young “super-predators.” In fact, arrests for serious violent offenses by juveniles have dropped about 60 percent from 1994 to 2011. Juvenile arrests have receded faster in the past 10 years than adult arrests. Property crime by youth also has sunk to its lowest point in 30 years.

COMMENT:  I went to a speech by Scott Rasmussen recently.  He said that many young people are fiercely devoted to personal freedom.  Remember, they are part of the 9-11 generation.  They are tech savvy and have been burned by the Obama hoax.

I've met a number of young people who listen to classical music and the great American songbook.

There is hope.

November 29, 2014       Permalink

TOWARD ENERGY INDEPENDENCE – AT 11:31 A.M. ET:  This is a victory for the United States, even though the forces behind Obama have fought tooth and nail against the very steps that are making it possible.  From Larry Kudlow at RealClearPolitics:   

Seldom has so much good news been portrayed so negatively. Oil prices continue to fall in the U.S. and around the world, but near everyone in the media is grumpy about it. The headlines today are among the silliest I’ve seen: Energy-company stocks are declining, oil deflation is an economic threat, the Fed might raise rates much later than expected, OPEC is dissolving, shale companies are going bankrupt, Russia is going bankrupt(!), and on and on.

Well, most of this is just humbug. Lower oil prices are unambiguously positive.

First, U.S. oil production has nearly doubled in recent years to 9 million barrels a day, and the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) expects U.S. supply to rise by more than 1 million barrels a day next year. And it is this supply increase that is driving down prices. Saudi Arabia and OPEC have essentially thrown in the towel, surrendering to the inevitability of lower prices from exploding U.S. energy production.

This is not only a triumph of U.S. energy independence, it is a victory for the workings of the free market. Greater supply, not government cartels, is driving down prices.

And the latest oil-price drop of nearly $8 a barrel makes the economic outlook even rosier. Apart from the declining share prices of some oil producers, virtually every other aspect of the world economy benefits, including most world stock markets. (By the way, the IEA reports that most production in the Bakken formation, one of the main drivers of shale-oil output, remains profitable at or below $42 a barrel.) And here in the U.S., the oil-price drop is a huge tax cut that will primarily help the middle class.

Senator Chuck Schumer -- who is still licking his wounds from the huge Democratic midterm losses in the Senate -- is out there attacking Obamacare as the wrong policy to halt the decline of middle-class incomes. What he’d like to see is new big-government policies (wait, wasn’t Obamacare a big-government policy?), including tax favors for targeted segments of the economy, presumably to bolster the middle class.

But guess what? We just had a free-market tax cut that will boost middle-class incomes and just about everything else.

The American energy revolution, combined with the market forces of supply and demand, is delivering something on the order of a $125 billion tax cut. Not only have wholesale oil prices dropped from about $100 a barrel to $66, but gasoline prices have fallen from near $4 a gallon to $2.78 at the week’s close.

That’s a tax cut. With no big-government spending hikes.

COMMENT:  All true.  Now watch Hillary Clinton take credit for it.  And watch the mainstream media back her up.

November 29, 2014       Permalink

ANOTHER FAMOUS VICTORY – AT 11:16 A.M. ET:  Ah, how the god Obama has improved our health care.  How shall we honor him?  From the Daily Caller:

One in three Americans has put off seeking medical treatment in 2014 due to high costs, according to Gallup — the highest percentage since Gallup began asking the question in 2001.

Thirty-three percent of Americans have delayed medical treatment for themselves or their families because of the costs they’d have to pay, according to the survey. Obamacare, of course, had promised that it would help make health care more affordable for everyone, but the number of people who can’t afford a trip to the doctor has actually risen three points since 2013, before most Obamacare provisions took effect.

The hardest-hit: the middle-class. Americans with an annual household income of between $30,000 and $75,000 began delaying medical care over costs more in 2014, up to 38 percent in 2014 from 33 percent last year; among households that earn above $75,000, 28 percent delayed care this year, compared to just 17 percent last year.

The lowest-income section, some of whom can take part in Medicaid and who are more likely to qualify for significant premium and cost-sharing subsidies on an Obamacare exchange, are less likely to delay care this year. Now, 35 percent of those who earn under $30,000 a year are putting off seeking medical care, down from 43 percent last year.

It’s a remarkable shift: after Obamacare’s redistribution of wealth, the middle class is actually delaying medical care due to high costs at a higher rate than the poorest section of the country, which is highly subsidized by taxpayers.

The growing problem could have serious consequences for the middle-class. Twice as many people (22 percent) have delayed treatment for serious illnesses than than for smaller problems (11 percent).

COMMENT:   The left has always despised the middle class.  They love the poor because the poor are dependent on government.  Despite their denials, they love many in the upper classes because they blindly contribute to leftist causes to show they're "giving back," while all the time continuing to take.

I hope the middle class knows how to retaliate at the polls.  Did someone say 2016?

November 29,  2014     Permalink