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APRIL 26,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:24 P.M. ET: 

WILL WILLIAMS WALK THE PLANK? – From The Politico:  "Longtime broadcast executives say a triple crown of leaks about Brian Williams late last week appear to be an effort by NBC News to shame him into resigning, to avoid the messiness and possible additional expense of the firing. The brutal leaks were designed to send the message to Brian Williams and his superlawyer, Robert Barnett: 'You’re dead. Now negotiate.'"  I can't see how Williams can return to an anchor position if the leaks are true, that NBC has found many instances of him distorting his own record.  But strange things happen in television, especially when ratings are considered.

HILLARY MONEY MAN CLOSES COOKIE JAR – From the Washington Times:  "A top Democratic moneyman recruited by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign has put fundraising activities on hold, saying he can’t do it with a clear conscience because the former secretary of state has too many unanswered questions swirling around her.  New York businessman Jon Cooper, who Team Clinton enlisted for its elite corps of early fundraisers known as 'HillStarters,' said that he decided not to tap his donor network for Mrs. Clinton because she hasn’t provided enough answers about foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation while she ran the State Department, her exclusive use of private email for official business as America’s top diplomat and her commitment to liberal priorities."  I'm afraid that last point might be the real reason.  The liberal elites really want a nominee to the left of Clinton. 

CRUZ WARNS – From The Hill:  "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Saturday said Democrats had gone to extremes in their persecution of Christians.  'Today’s Democratic Party has decided there is no room for Christians in today’s Democratic Party,' he said at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition summit in Waukee, Iowa.  'There is a liberal fascism that is going after Christian believers,' the 2016 GOP presidential candidate continued.  'It is heartbreaking,' Cruz argued. 'But it is so extreme, it is waking people up.'"  He is correct in his diagnosis.  The Democratic Party of today has essentially expelled people of faith, who at one time were a major part of the party's base.   Evangelical Christians of the South coexisted with traditional Catholics in the North.  And it was a national defense party.  The good old days.

April 26,  2015     Permalink

FROM THE NORTH – AT 11:28 A.M. ET:   Canada is such a friendly country that the Canadian-American border is the longest undefended border in the world.  But now there are new concerns that the border is too tempting for terrorists.  From The Politico: 

The photograph didn’t look like much: two parallel rural roads, separated only by a small ditch.
But according to lawmakers in a hearing this week, it’s a portrait of one of America’s least-appreciated security risks. The ditch separates western Washington state and British Columbia, just one weak spot among many in the 4,000 mile stretch between the United States and Canada. Drug smugglers can chuck duffel bags stuffed with marijuana and meth, undetected. Human traffickers and potential terrorists could use it to avoid the security equipment at official crossings.

Sen. Cory Booker displayed the picture in a U.S.-Canadian border security hearing earlier this week to demonstrate just how undefended America’s largest flank can be. The hearing was the fifth in a series looking at the challenges associated with so many entry points into the U.S. — other recent sessions have focused on Central American migrant children and transnational criminal organizations.

The U.S-Canadian border, as Politico Magazine reported last fall, is often overlooked in the homeland security debate, even though it’s the international crossing where custom and border agents have nabbed suspected terrorists over the last two decades with plans to set off bombs from Los Angeles to New York.

“It’s kind of the forgotten border,” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp said in an interview as she rushed from the committee hearing to the Senate floor to vote on an amendment to a human trafficking bill.

COMMENT:  It should worry us.  If I were a terror group trying to smuggle parts of a nuclear weapon into America, for assembly later, I'd choose a desolate part of the northern border. 

There have been terror incidents in Canada.  It's a free and open society.  Americans have been conditioned to expect problems from the south.  The north may turn out to be the greater threat, especially as Western terrorists can melt more easily into Canadian society than into Mexican.

April 26, 2015       Permalink

THE THREAT – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  It's only a matter of time before ISIS, and groups like it, target the American homeland.  From CNN:

(CNN) The FBI is investigating a possible ISIS-inspired terrorist threat in the United States, law enforcement officials said Saturday.

The investigation originated from intercepted chatter and other intelligence information that led officials to believe a possible plot could be in the works, the officials said.

No arrests have been made. It's not clear whether the threat is real or aspirational.

The exact nature of the threat couldn't be learned. One official said it focused on parts of California where officials stepped up security, a U.S. official said.

The Transportation Security Administration alerted local law enforcement agencies that are responsible for external security around airports, but officials said the possible threat is not necessarily aviation-related.

Some cities around the United States have increased their security as a precaution.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson declined Saturday to talk about specifics, but spoke about security measures in general.

"Over the last few months, we have made a number of security adjustments, including enhanced screening at select overseas airports and increasing random searches of passengers and carry-on luggage on flights inbound to the U.S., reflecting an evolving threat picture," the spokesman said.

COMMENT:  It's the old story:   We have to be lucky all the time.  The terrorists have to be lucky only once.

April 26, 2015       Permalink

GET YOUR TICKETS NOW – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  See Hillary Clinton!  In person!  Hear her sing, "They Wouldn't Do This If My Name Were Bill"!  Tickets available through HillaryCharge.  From Breitbart: 

The chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Trey Gowdy (R-SC), has asked former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to appear before his committee twice during the weeks of May 18 and June 18, according to a report at NBC News.

One of the major topics of discussion will be Clinton’s off-the-books email server, which NBC naturally describes as “a centerpiece of Republican attacks on the 2016 presidential candidate.” When a Democrat breaks the law, the story is always about the Republicans daring to talk about it, transforming even the most obvious malfeasance into a political food fight.

Also unsurprisingly, Democrats complained that Gowdy was dragging out the Benghazi investigation to influence the 2016 presidential election, conveniently forgetting about Hillary violating transparency laws and administration policies to hide her official correspondence from Congressional oversight and Freedom of Information Act requests.

Gowdy mentions this at the very beginning of his letter to Clinton’s legal representation: “I have consistently, and without exception, said the Committee would schedule the Secretary’s appearance within 30 days of receiving assurance all documents needed to have a constructive conversation with the Secretary are in the Committee’s possession,” Gowdy writes. “To date, no one has been willing to make that assurance, and the reasons for that are manifest below.”

Gowdy goes on to note that when Clinton’s time was first offered to the committee in November 2014, it was “in possession of merely eight (8) of Secretary Clinton’s emails, out of a now known universe of at least 300 emails.”

COMMENT:  Let's see if Queen Hillary actually shows up, or if her Scooby van breaks down on the way to Washington.  At some point she's got to pull something akin to a Nixonian "Checkers" speech to try to get herself out of trouble.

April 26,  2015     Permalink

APRIL 25,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:30 P.M. ET: 

OUR FUTURE LEADERS – From MRCTV.org:   "President Ronald Reagan is one of the most famous Americans of the 20th century. Between his acting career and his eight years as president, you would think that his face would be instantly recognizable to anyone with even a basic knowledge of recent American history.  You would think.  As it turns out, a lot of college students at the University of Maryland had absolutely no clue who Reagan was when they were shown a picture of America's 40th president.  A few historically-literate students recognized Reagan right away. But, the majority of those I showed the picture to were completely flummoxed or provided me with wild guesses. Some of those guesses included: John Wayne, Kenny Rogers, George Bush and some guy named Fred Moore."  The University of Maryland this week banned the showing of "American Sniper" to satisfy Muslim students.  Do you think there's a values problem on that campus?

PASSING – We felt as if we knew her.  From NBC News:  "Mary Doyle Keefe, the telephone operator whom Norman Rockwell beefed up for his iconic 'Rosie the Riveter' cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1943, has died at 92 in Simsbury, Connecticut, a funeral home confirmed.  Keefe, who lived in a retirement home for the last eight years of her life, died peacefully Tuesday, Cameron Funeral Home of Granbury said. A graveside service is scheduled for Saturday in Bennington.  The Post cover became one of the enduring symbols of homeland unity during World War II, when women stepped in to the jobs of millions of men who'd gone off to battle. It depicts Keefe holding a rivet gun and a lunchbox with the name Rosie on it, with her feet resting on a copy of Adolf Hitler's 'Mein Kampf.'"  Plenty of Rosies in World War II.  All heroines.

MORE GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – From London's Telegraph:  "He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, a poet and playwright whose works still shape minds and lives more than four centuries later.  But when it comes to the question of to study or not to study the canon of William Shakespeare, only a small fraction of English literature students in America’s top colleges are required to specialise in the words of the bard.  Just four of the country’s 52 highest-ranked academic institutions require students of English literature to take a compulsory Shakespeare course, according to a new report.  The study, 'The Unkindest Cut: Shakespeare in Exile 2015.' was published by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a Washington group that lobbies for traditional academic standards in universities.  The council noted that Shakespeare’s demise as a subject of specialist study mirrored an increase in courses with emphasis on race, class, gender, and sexuality such as 'Literature, Food, and the American Racial Diet' at Princeton University."  Any kid who doesn't understand literature, food, and the American racial diet should not be allowed to graduate from Princeton.  I mean, what else is there?

April 25, 2015       Permalink

WILL HILLARY BE #486725? – AT 11:44 A.M. ET:   The Hillary mess gets messier.  Each day the aura of scandal grows around Hillary Clinton, and we've started to see significant drops in her poll numbers, centered around her "trustworthiness."  Now there is talk that she may face serious legal problems, not just bad poll numbers.   From Fox:   

With a sitting Democratic senator recently indicted on federal bribery and corruption charges, top criminal defense lawyers in the nation’s capital say Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton could conceivably face similar scrutiny, amid mounting disclosures about the tangled finances of her family’s philanthropic foundation.

The new book “Clinton Cash” by Peter Schweizer, an investigative reporter affiliated with the right-leaning Hoover Institution, has unleashed a torrent of conflict-of-interest allegations relating to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s own conduct during her tenure, from 2009 to 2013, as secretary of state.

Particular scrutiny – by Fox News, the Washington Post, and the New York Times – has focused on why the State Department, under Clinton’s leadership, green-lighted a foreign transaction that enriched major donors to the foundation while placing an estimated 20 percent of America’s stockpile of uranium - the fissile material that can be used to make nuclear weapons -under the control of a Kremlin-backed Russian firm.

It was, moreover, shortly after the uranium deal went through that former President Bill Clinton nailed down a $500,000 fee for a speaking event in Moscow.

“There’s certainly smoke there,” said Caleb Burns, a partner at the Washington law firm Wiley Rein LLC, who has long experience handling financial and public integrity cases. “The question’s going to be whether or not she took any official action in exchange for those donations. If she did, I think there is going to be a high, high likelihood of additional scrutiny, either from Capitol Hill or from the Department of Justice itself.”

COMMENT:  The story of the Clintons is the story of the survival of the fibbest.  It is one scandal after another, always accompanied by the image of a couple who have profited mightily from their government "service."  And yet, the Democratic Party is not deterred.  Hey, when your point man on race is Al Sharpton, you're not exactly signalling high standards.

April 25, 2015      Permalink

FAMILY INCOMES TELL A GRIM STORY – AT 11:16 A.M. ET:   In a way, this is the real bottom line:   Where are family incomes today compared to the past?  The picture is not encouraging.  From IBD: 

Back in January, President Obama was boasting that the economy had finally turned a corner. He called 2014 a "breakthrough year for America," and said "our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999." He went on to credit his "middle class economics" for producing these gains.

The latest income data, however, don't show anything like what Obama was describing. Real median family income fell in March, to $54,203, back to where it was in September 2009.

Sentier Research — which uses Census data to compile monthly income statistics — found that family incomes plummeted more after the recession than during the recession itself, bottoming out in mid-2011.

After that, family incomes started to make a painfully slow climb. But even now, nearly six years after the recession ended, they are still 5% below where they stood at the previous peak in early 2008, just as the recession was starting. At the current pace, it will take several more years for family incomes to reach that peak again.

Another way to look at it. Under President George W. Bush, this income measure averaged $56,081 — despite his presiding over two recessions. That's 6% higher than the average under Obama and 3.5% above the latest March figure.

If this constitutes a "breakthrough year" for this administration, that isn't saying much for how it measures success.

COMMENT:  It strikes me that most economic recoveries are "felt," not just measured.  People can feel recovery and success around them.  The country still seems very hesitant about the economy.  We just haven't come back, and job creation appears to center on jobs that few people really aspire to. 

I'm not so sure the people of this country will ever feel optimistic about the economy unless we start making things again.   Services, however important, just don't provide the kind of economic muscle we once had.  When FDR spoke about the United States being the "arsenal of democracy," he was referring to our vast manufacturing and shipbuilding industries. 

April 25,  2015     Permalink

BULLETIN:  WORLD NOT ENDING TOMORROW – AT 10:55 A.M. ET:  A new study from Duke University provides escape from the gloom.  From London's Daily Mail: 

Global warming hasn't happened as fast as expected, according to a new study based on 1,000 years of temperature records.

The research claims that natural variability in surface temperatures over the course of a decade can account for increases and dips in warming rates.

But it adds that these so-called 'climate wiggles' could also, in the future, cause our planet to warm up much faster than anticipated.

The study compared its results to the most severe emissions scenarios outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

'Based on our analysis, a middle-of-the-road warming scenario is more likely, at least for now,' said Patrick Brown, a doctoral student in climatology at Duke University. 'But this could change.'

The Duke-led study says that variability is caused by interactions between the ocean and atmosphere, and other natural factors.

COMMENT:  Still one more study reflecting disagreement among real scientists, who are not the same as political scientists.  And yet the White House tells us that the science is settled.  If it's settled, why are these studies being done?

April 25,  2015     Permalink