SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 3:10 P.M. ET: 

HOPE AND CHANGE IN THE NATION'S CAPITAL –  From WaPo:  As D.C. police stepped up deployment aimed at curbing violent crime, gunfire erupted on the city’s streets Friday night, killing two and wounding at least five others within a few hours.  The fatal shootings brought the number of homicides in the nation’s capital to 105, equaling last year’s total with four months still left in the year.  No comment yet from President Hope and Change.

TELL IT, JOE – From Newsbusters:   On Friday’s Morning Joe, Bloomberg Politics managing editor Mark Halperin strongly condemned Hillary Clinton’s decision to compare Republican politicians to terrorists over the issue of abortion.  Halperin did not mince words when he repudiated the Democratic frontrunner's language and argued that “[i]f a Republican did this the world would come to a halt.”  Co-host Joe Scarborough was just as harsh on Mrs. Clinton and called her comments “disgusting." The Morning Joe host suggested Clinton "wanted us to talk about this. She wanted to throw a bright shiny object out there. So they don't -- so they don't talk about the e-mail scandal.”  After Scarborough listed off the numerous atrocities terrorists like ISIS commit against women on a daily basis he maintained that Hillary’s comments expose the “sick radicalism” of the Democratic Party.  Sick indeed.  It is a leftist party based largely on group identity and political correctness.  Its foreign policy has weakened this nation to an extraordinarily dangerous level.

REALLY? – From London's left-wing Independent:   Climate scientists are predicting that 2015 will be the hottest year on record “by a mile”, with the increase in worldwide average temperatures dramatically undermining the idea that global warming has stopped – as some climate-change sceptics claim.  Even though there are still several months left in the year to gather temperature readings from around the world, climate researchers believe nothing short of a Krakatoa-sized volcanic eruption that cuts out sunlight for months on end can now stop last year’s record being beaten.  It is rare for climate experts to make such a bold prediction so soon in the year, but they believe that a surge in ocean temperatures in particular now makes it almost inevitable that 2015 will turn out to be the hottest year globally since instruments were first used to gather readings more than 130 years ago.  Ho hum.  Another prediction.  Other predictions for this very year have fallen flat.  Catastrophe is not upon us.  I still say we need a Challenger-type commission to investigate the claims and counter-claims.  I'd also like to know where the money is going for all this "research."  There are plenty of top-quality scientists who are not impressed.

August 29, 2015