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SEPTEMBER 16,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:34 P.M. ET: 

SERIOUS STUFF – From Fox:  "Iraq’s Ambassador to the Holy See is warning that Pope Francis could be targeted by ISIS militants ahead of the pontiff’s first visit to Albania this weekend.  The Vatican is not beefing up security to protect Francis during his upcoming trip to the majority Muslim country on Sunday, despite warnings from Habeeb Al Sadr, who said there are credible threats against the pope’s life, according to an Italian newspaper cited in The Telegraph.  The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, said Monday that Francis would use the same open-topped vehicle he uses in St. Peter's Square when he greets crowds in the poor Balkan nation. Vatican security officials are 'calm' ahead of the 11-hour visit, he said."  Could be Iraqi hype, or it could be true.

WEIRD, MAN – From Weekly Standard:  "Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that to counter the ideology of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and its claim of a 'religious foundation' for its actions, part of the strategy of the international coalition he is attempting to assemble must be to 'begin to put real Islam out there.'"   Yeah, right.  We've been doing that for 13 years.  Not much excitement, is there?  The real Islam, as practiced in too many places today, is part of the problem.

MORE FROM THE RELIGION OF PEACE – From the New York Post:  "Supporters of the Islamic State terror group are being urged to attack Times Square and other popular American tourist attractions with easily assembled homemade bombs, according to a disturbing report Tuesday.  A message posted on an ISIS Web forum lists widely available ingredients needed to build a pipe bomb, and includes photos showing how to combine them into a deadly explosive device, Vocativ reported.  The Arabic-language message cites Times Square — the scene of a failed car-bomb attack in 2010 by al Qaeda sympathizer Faisal Shahzad — and the Las Vegas Strip as prime targets, but also suggests striking sites in Texas and mass-transit stations across the country."  I'm afraid it's just a matter of time.

BY POPULAR DEMAND? – From Times of Israel:  "Despite plans to leave her post, the European Union’s outgoing foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will remain in charge of the West’s negotiations with Iran even beyond the November 24 deadline, diplomatic sources in Europe said Monday.  While some Iranian and European voices express optimism that a final agreement will have been signed by then, Israeli officials are more than skeptical that the Islamic Republic is willing to make the concessions necessary for any deal.  Ashton has been leading the group of six world powers – the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany – that are currently conducting talks with Tehran since 2010. Her term as the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy ends on October 31, three weeks before talks with Iran are slated to close."  A fairly typical British diplomat, tilting to the left.  I can't see what accomplishment led others to extend her term.  The negotiations are not going well.  This may be the next building block of Obama's mythical foreign policy to dissolve.

September 16, 2014        Permalink

SOME COMMON SENSE – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:  The new Egyptian government, whose establishment Obama fought tooth and nail – preferring the anti-American Muslim Brotherhood government that preceded it – is turning out to be one of the wisest, and most stable governments in the Arab world.  It actually knows how to do things, and why they're being done.  From CNS: 

(CNSNews.com) – During Secretary of State John Kerry’s weekend visit to Cairo, his Egyptian counterpart pushed for the new international focus on countering terrorism to go beyond Syria and Iraq, arguing that the same ideology espoused by the jihadists there is driving other Islamist extremists, including those in Egypt’s neighboring territories.

During his current travels in the Middle East and Europe, Kerry is seeking support for a coalition to tackle the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL), and he said Sunday he has received offers from some countries to take part in the military element of that campaign.

But while the administration’s focus has been largely centered on ISIS, Cairo sees the problem as a far broader one.

A spokesman for President Abdul Fattah el-Sisi said that in talks with Kerry the president had “stressed that any international coalition against terrorism must be a comprehensive alliance that is not limited to confront a certain organization or to curb a single terrorist hotbed but must expand to include all the terrorist hotbeds across the Middle East and Africa.”

COMMENT:  Egypt fighting terrorism, and willing to work with the United States to do so?  Egypt is the most important Arab country, and this is a major breakthrough.  But will Obama recognize it, or does he still yearn for the Brotherhood?  When Obama said that his closest friend in the region was the Brotherhood-loving prime minister of Turkey, we should have taken him more seriously.

September 16, 2014       Permalink

DISGRACEFUL – AT 8:55 A.M. ET:  With Obamacare fully kicking in this year, we need reminding of what socialized medicine can actually be like.  There are positive things, but the horror stories keep building up, including the stories from our own federally run veterans' hospitals.   Consider this, from Britain's Independent, itself a socialist paper: 

Thousands of people have attempted suicide while on an NHS (National Health Service) waiting list for psychological treatment, according to a comprehensive new study of mental health services in England.

In the latest evidence of a hidden mental health crisis, a coalition of leading charities and medical professionals report that one in 10 patients are waiting for more than a year just to be assessed for treatment, and one in six made an attempt on their life while on a waiting list.

GPs report a “huge rise” in the number of mental health conditions, which has coincided with cuts to mental health services and psychotherapy posts in many parts of the country.

The consequent delays in accessing treatment can be disastrous for patients, the report from the We Need to Talk coalition warns. In a survey of 2,000 patients, one in six said they had attempted suicide while waiting for treatment, four in 10 said they had self-harmed, and two thirds said their condition had deteriorated before they had a chance to see a mental health professional.

COMMENT:  One of the greatest accomplishments of the American health system, at least up to now, has been speed.  There are certainly exceptions, but most critical medical services can be delivered quickly.  I don't know what will exist in ten years.  I'm not sure how many potential physicians will turn away from medicine because it is a changed and more frustrating profession.  The news organizations seem little interested.  Too much trouble, I guess.  And why question the man they helped put in office?  Make your appointment now...for 2021.  They give out wonderful lollipops.

September 16, 2014         Permalink

THE DOCTOR IS IN – AT 8:44 A.M. ET:  Charles Krauthammer, one of the best conservative columnists around, is also a Harvard-trained board-certified psychiatrist.  I'd imagine his training helps him in Washington.  Now he analyzes one Barack Hussein Obama Jr., although he assures us it's from the position of a layman.  From Daily Caller: 

“But let me just say as a layman, without invoking any expertise, Obama is clearly a narcissist in the non-scientific use of the word,” said Krauthammer. “He is so self-involved, you see it from his rise. Here’s a man who says I don’t do theater, you know, I don’t do that. Well, his whole run in 2008 was theater, including the Roman, the Greek columns that he had around him at his speech at the convention in Denver.”

“So I think he’s extremely self-involved. He sees himself in very world historical terms, which means A) because he’s an amateur, he doesn’t know very much, and B) because he’s a narcissist, he doesn’t listen,” said the frequent Fox News panelist. “This is all because, I mean, count the number of times he uses the word I in any speech, and compare that to any other president …. For God’s sake, he talks like the emperor, Napoleon.”

“The man lives in a cocoon surrounded by sycophants. There’s not anyone of independent stature around him,” Krauthammer concluded.

COMMENT:  Other than that, I'm sure Dr. Krauthammer adores the president.  Trouble is, there isn't much "other than that."  I think he nails Obama, who is essentially a shallow man who conned a lot of people with Ph.D. after their names. 

In a way, Obama is part of a tradition that includes Adlai Stevenson, another Illinoisan who spoke well and said nothing; Jimmy Carter, who spoke poorly and also said nothing; and John Kerry, who speaks well and says a great deal, almost all of it gibberish.  Look, tradition can be beautiful.

September 16,  2014     Permalink

CHILL – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  The U.S. Government yesterday denied that we have any known terrorist threat on the southern border.  Strange.  That's not what the guys who work there say.  Whom do you want to believe?  From CBS: 

Midland County, Texas (CBS HOUSTON) – Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter said that law enforcement agencies along the “wide open” border have received alerts to be on the lookout for terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria crossing into the United States.

Painter, who said he has worked along the border for “about eight years,” stated that alerts have been issued to border law enforcement to be on the lookout for suspicious terrorist activity, specifically involving ISIS cells being smuggled into the United States.

“I received an intelligence report that said that there was ISIS cells that were active in the Juarez area, which is the northern part of the Chihuahua state, and that they were moving around over there, that there was some activity…” Painter told Fox News. The report asked “for the sheriffs along the border to be on the alert, for all law enforcement to be on the alert, and to be on the lookout for these people maybe trying to come across.”

Painter sidestepped any direct knowledge that ISIS, specifically, is along the border, but he reiterated that the border “is wide open.”

“Well I’m saying the border is wide open, there is no control on the border, it’s not shut off,” said Painter. “There’s places along the Rio Grande you can walk across, there’s no water in it. I worked the border for eight years I walked back and forth across the Rio Grande; I was in Mexico, I was on this side. I never got challenged.

COMMENT:  I have no independent knowledge of this, but the sheriff's story sounds entirely logical, despite federal denials.  In fact, for years we've had solid reports of close interaction between Venezuela and Iran.  True, the Islamic State is in conflict with Iran, but there's no reason why it, too, cannot have allies in Latin America.  It would not take much to smuggle terrorists or terrorist devices over our southern border.

The Islamic State is also reported to be very wealthy.  Bribery is a tool.  It's also an old tradition in some Latin American countries.

September 16, 2014       Permalink

SEPTEMBER 15,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 7:26 P.M. ET: 

NEW HAMPSHIRE DRAMA – This wasn't in the script.  Early polls showed Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen coasting to victory over former Republican Senator Scott Brown.  But Brown is charging.  From Hot Air:  "With approval ratings for Congress falling somewhere below used-car salesmen and three-card monty dealers, it’s not often one will see an incumbent underperforming their individual approval rating. Yet that’s just what Jeanne Shaheen is doing in her Senate re-election bid in New Hampshire. According to a new CNN poll of likely voters, Scott Brown has pulled into a 48-all tie with Shaheen, even though she has a majority favorable rating from the same pool of voters. The difference seems to be 'presidential drag.'"  Whatever the reason, I just want the votes.

STUNNING – It has been revealed that New York's new, "progressive" (ahem) mayor, Bill DeBlasio, doesn't have security clearance and never applied for it.  That means that in a terror emergency he would not have access to classified information that could save lives in the city, unless granted a waiver.  What this demonstrates is the contempt so-called "progressives" have for the security needs of their own country.  Or... it could mean that Mayor Bill doesn't want the FBI probing his extensively leftist background.

PROFESSIONAL FAKERY – From NRO:  "How perfectly Clintonian:  'While a crowd of several thousand Democrats waited on a sloping, grassy field below, Mrs Clinton, her husband and Senator Harkin staged a mini-grilling of steaks for the press at a single barbecue grill in a fenced-off enclosure, framed by a handsome tree and a picnic table filled with some patient Iowans. Mrs Clinton gamely posed, pretending to grill a steak that had been pre-cooked for her.'"  If a reporter had asked, she probably would have replied, "What difference does it make?  It tastes the same."

OUR ALLIES – We may need the Saudis, but let's understand exactly who they are.  From London's Daily Mail:  "Islamist police in Saudi Arabia have stormed a Christian prayer meeting and arrested its entire congregation, including women and children, and confiscated their bibles, it has been reported.  The raid was the latest incident of a swinging crackdown on religious minorities in Saudi Arabia by the country's hard-line Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.   The 28 Christians were said to be worshipping at the home of an Indian national in the eastern city of Khafji, when the police entered the building and took them into custody. They have not been seen or heard from since, raising concerns among human rights groups as to their whereabouts."  Note please the silence of "human rights" groups.

September 15, 2014       Permalink

OH, THAT ONE AGAIN – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the doctor... The wreckage known as Obamacare is coming to the surface once more.  From Fox: 

Potential complications await consumers as President Barack Obama's health care law approaches its second open enrollment season, just two months away.

Don't expect a repeat of last year's website meltdown, but the new sign-up period could expose underlying problems with the law itself that are less easily fixed than a computer system.

Getting those who signed up this year enrolled again for 2015 won't be as easy as it might seem. And the law's interaction between insurance and taxes looks like a sure-fire formula for confusion.

For example:

-- For the roughly 8 million people who signed up this year, the administration has set up automatic renewal. But consumers who go that route may regret it. They risk sticker shock by missing out on lower-premium options. And they could get stuck with an outdated and possibly incorrect government subsidy. Automatic renewal should be a last resort, consumer advocates say.

--An additional 5 million people or so will be signing up for the first time on HealthCare.gov and state exchange websites. But the Nov. 15-Feb. 15 open enrollment season will be half as long the 2013-2014 sign-up period, and it overlaps with the holiday season.

-- Of those enrolled this year, the overwhelming majority received tax credits to help pay their premiums. Because those subsidies are tied to income, those 6.7 million consumers will have to file new forms with their 2014 tax returns to prove they got the right amount. Too much subsidy and their tax refunds will be reduced. Too little, and the government owes them.

--Tens of millions of people who remained uninsured this year face tax penalties for the first time, unless they can secure an exemption.

"It's the second open enrollment, but the first renewal and the first tax season where the requirements of the Affordable Care Act are in place," said Judy Solomon, vice president for health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, which advocates for low-income people, and supports the law.

COMMENT:  Expect chaos.  Expect more government control.  The left is getting its dream, and we are getting our nightmare.

September 15, 2014       Permalink

A PROBLEM IN THE HEARTLAND – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  From Newsmax:   

U.S. law enforcement is investigating a new phenomenon of women from the American heartland joining Islamic State as President Barack Obama vows to cut off the militants' recruiting at home.

At least three Somali families in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area have female relatives who have gone missing in the past six weeks and may have tried to join Islamic State, said community leader Abdirizak Bihi. He said that while the reasons for their disappearance were unclear, he had told the families to contact police.

In a separate case, a 19-year-old American Somali woman from St. Paul snuck away from her parents on Aug. 25 saying she was going to a bridal shower. Instead, she flew to Turkey and joined IS in Syria.

Home to the biggest Somali community in the United States, the Twin Cities area of Minnesota has been plagued by terrorist recruiting since the Somali group al-Shabaab began enlisting in America around 2007.

This year, law enforcement officials say they learned of 15-20 men with connections to the Minnesota Somali community fighting for extremist groups in Syria. They included Douglas McAuthur McCain, a convert to Islam, who was killed in battle this summer.

The St. Paul woman is the first case of an area female joining IS that has been made public although her family have asked for her name to be kept private because it fears retaliation from Islamists.

Greg Boosalis, FBI division counsel in Minneapolis, said law enforcement was investigating the possible recruitment in the area by Islamist extremists of other females, as well as males, but refused to comment on specific cases.

"We are looking into the possibility of additional men and women travelers," he said.

COMMENT:  To be fair, some news outlets gave given attention to this development, but the attention is scattered.  In Britain the issue is taken much more seriously.  It will take a major event, a large attack, to wake us up.  And even then, as we saw with 9-11, there will be those voices on the left who'll scream "racism" or "Islamophobia" at anyone wishing to take effective action.

September 15, 2014       Permalink

A WARNING – AT 8:21 A.M. ET:  This is typical of the warnings we're getting from military experts over Obama's half-policies in the Mideast.  From The Hill:

A former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Sunday that an air campaign alone probably will not destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS.)

“The only way we can think about destroying ISIS in this particular strategy is that the forces on the ground will have to do the destroying,” Gen. James Cartwright said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“And we'll provide the air cover and the ability to allow them to maneuver, give them protection, but an air campaign alone probably will not destroy it,” he added.

Cartwright said strikes in Syria would probably target the terror group’s logistic capabilities, including training areas, ammunition dumps and “any place where there’s a large aggregation of these forces.”

“When you move south, then the targets will change. In the south, what we'll be looking for is supporting the Iraqi forces, in particular, and giving them air cover so they can maneuver,” he added.

Cartwright also said the risk of flying through Syrian airspace has been lessened due to “poor maintenance and poor operations."

“But you also always have to treat it as if it's capable,” he added.

Cartwright said ISIS now is laying the groundwork for a “stranglehold” on Baghdad.

“What they're doing is they're basically taking control of the water -- the dams, the ability to flow south, creating the opportunity for a stranglehold on Baghdad,” he said.

“When we think about ISIS they're not small groups like you'd see in Yemen or Somalia or places like that -- shoe bombers, underwear bombers, things like that. They are not quite military either. So they're somewhere in between,” he said.

COMMEND:  As we reported, Lindsey Graham said yesterday that it's ludicrous to think we can win without a ground presence.  And if we refuse a ground presence, and lose?  The impact on our foreign policy, and our status in the world, will be catastrophic.  Even now we're having trouble maintaining alliances because so many doubt Obama's will and ability.  Imagine what a military loss would bring.

September 15, 2014        Permalink

THE POLITICS OF OBAMAN POLICY – AT 8:04 A.M. ET:  Michael Barone, in a fine piece, notes that Obama is being forced to frustrate his core constituency, and that this will have an impact at the polls, when many of them stay home.  From the Washington Examiner: 

In the late 1960s Democrats switched from being the more hawkish of our two parties, more likely to support military interventions and commitments, to being the more dovish. Visceral opposition to military action, and suspicion that even the most limited such action will lead to massive war, is deeply implanted in many Democratic voters.

You can expect, therefore, a skittish reaction to Obama’s announcement of a military escalation from senatorial and congressional candidates in states with dovish Democratic electorates like Colorado and Iowa. We also may also see depressed turnout of Democratic doves all over the country in November.

And...

On immigration Obama has found himself again forced to disappoint a core constituency. On June 30 he met with immigration advocates — that is to say, heads of groups that favor legalization of large numbers of illegal immigrants.

He let them know, and authorized his aides to let the world know, that he intended to issue by summer’s end an executive order legalizing perhaps as many as 10 million. He did so even though there’s videotape of him telling Univision in March 2011 that such an order would “ignore” laws passed by Congress and to “ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.”

Obama’s breathtaking willingness to signal an intention to violate his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the law drew some unfavorable but muted attention. But it gained more attention as tens of thousands of underage (and adult) illegal migrants from Central America started streaming across the Rio Grande.

That vast movement undercut the argument that legalizing one group of illegals would not create incentives for more to cross the border. Now Obama says he won’t act till after November’s election, if then, leaving legalization advocates “bitterly disappointed in the president and Democrats.”

COMMENT:  Read the whole piece.  Lincoln once said that he didn't move history, history moved him.  Obama is no Lincoln, but history is moving him, and it's moving him away from the powerful McGovern branch of his party.  In 1968 enough of that wing stayed home to allow Richard Nixon to become president. Now it is being asked whether, in 2016, some McGovernites might stay home rather than vote for a "hawkish" (comparatively) Hillary Clinton. 

That doesn't mean our side can relax.  The Dems can win by default if the Republicans run still one more yawning campaign or put up zeroes as candidates.

September 15,  2014     Permalink