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FEBRUARY 5,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:48 P.M. ET: 

HE'S STILL THERE – Brian Williams is still with NBC.  His next project will be a video memoir of his time commanding Union troops during the Civil War.  It's a breathtaking eyewitness account.

WHY DOES HE OPEN HIS MOUTH? – Pastor Obama attended the National Prayer Breakfast today and lectured the flock on the past sins of Christianity.  Oh, by the way, he actually used the name "Christianity."  He didn't say the sins were committed by bad guys "in the name of a religion."  Oh, also, before I forget, he also said that sins like segregation and slavery were justified, in the name of "Christ."  He didn't say they were a perversion of Christ's teachings.  Now, Barack, repeat after me:  "Islamic extremism, Islamic terrorism, terrorism in the name of Mohammed."  Was that so difficult?

ANOTHER BRILLIANT DECISION – From the Washington Times:  "The Obama administration this year turned down a request from Jordan for Predator spy drones that would help it locate targets in the war against the Islamic State.  The refusal, disclosed by a House Armed Services Committee member, has gained attention since Jordan has emerged as a critical player in a U.S.-led coalition to destroy the Islamist terrorist group in the days after it released a video of its execution by fire of a captured Jordanian military pilot."  But you may be sure that the nuclear agreement with Iran, already shaping up to be a farce, will not address that country's development of long-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.  Obama is more concerned about Jordan having advanced weapons than he is about Iran.

February 5, 2015       Permalink

WE WEEP FOR MSNBC – AT 10:43 A.M. ET:   I cannot contain my sorrow at reports that MSNBC is suffering its worst ratings in ages.  From The Politico:   

MSNBC registered its lowest full-day rating in nearly a decade on Tuesday, a devastatingly low benchmark that shows just how severe the network's decline has become.

The liberal cable news network drew an average of 55,000 viewers in the all-important 25-to-54 year-old demo on Tuesday, its lowest full-day rating since July 2005, according to Nielsen ratings provided by an industry source. CNN had nearly three times as many viewers in the demo; Fox News nearly five times as many.

That low reflects a more general decline in recent years. In January, MSNBC's daytime ratings for January were down 20 percent in total and 37 percent in the demo when compared to the previous year. In primetime, total viewership was down 23 percent, while the demo dropped by 39 percent.

In October, MSNBC President Phil Griffin said the network was "experimenting" with new ways to regain momentum, spawning widespread speculation that he planned to make significant changes to the lineup. Ronan Farrow's show, which debuted last year and has received dismal ratings ever since, is one program that is widely believed to be up for removal. On Tuesday, it brought in just 11,000 viewers in the demo.

COMMENT:  Now NBC has a Brian Williams problem.  The once-great news division is a mess, and requires much more than tinkering.  It requires leadership, and we don't see much.

NBC might look at the Fox model.  No one denies that Fox's opinion shows are tilted to the right.  But its news reports are straightarrow, and its 6 p.m. report with Bret Baier features a balanced discussion with both liberals and conservatives.  Amazing how quality builds ratings.

February 5, 2015       Permalink

AIR STRIKES LATEST – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  Jordan is carrying out its threat to attack ISIS.  From Fox: 

Jordanian fighter pilots carried out devastating sorties against ISIS early Thursday, making good on their king's vow of vengeance for the horrific burning death of a captured airman -- whose hometown the jets buzzed triumphantly after the mission.

Some "sophisticates" will call that theatrics.  Theatrics are important in war.  They build morale, just as our Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in early 1942 was launched to lift American morale.  It succeeded.

Reports from the Middle East said the latest strikes killed 55 members of ISIS, including a senior commander known as the “Prince of Nineveh.” Jordanian state-run media did not specify where the strikes took place. They came a day after King Abdullah stepped up his angry rhetoric at the terrorist army in neighboring Iraq and Syria following the horrific death of Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, who was burned alive in a cage in a shocking atrocity caught on a videotape released by Islamic State on Tuesday.

"The blood of martyr Muath al-Kaseasbeh will not be in vain and the response of Jordan and its army after what happened to our dear son will be severe," said King Abdullah in a statement released by the royal court on Wednesday. A day earlier, he told U.S. lawmakers in Washington, where he had been on a diplomatic mission when the video was released, that Jordan would fight Islamic State until it ran "out of fuel and bullets."

COMMENT:  Abdullah makes Obama look like a child.  Well, actually, he is a child, and darned proud of it. 

February 5, 2015       Permalink

DRAMATIC SPECULATION – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  That's all we can call it right now, but reports have been circulating since yesterday that King Abdullah of Jordan may fly into combat himself if Jordan escalates its military action against ISIS.  From London's Daily Mail: 

Jordan's King Abdullah, a trained pilot, could lead revenge airstrikes on Islamic State himself, it has been revealed.

The monarch may personally take part in bombing raids on extremist strongholds on Thursday, according to reports in Arabic-language newspapers.

It comes after the former general told members of Congress that he was ready to exact a blistering revenge against the ISIS terror army for the brutal execution of military pilot Moaz al-Kassasbeh - and he quoted a Clint Eastwood movie character to make his point.

According to the Daily Caller, reports have emerged suggesting he could take part in airstrikes on ISIS targets today.

California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter told the Washington Examiner that the king quoted the scene where Eastwood's character announces his plan for retribution.

'Any man I see out there, I'm gonna kill him,' Eastwood's William Munny says in 'Unforgiven.'

'He said there is going to be retribution like ISIS hasn't seen,' Hunter said. 'He's angry. 'They're starting more sorties tomorrow than they've ever had. They're starting tomorrow. And he said, "The only problem we're going to have is running out of fuel and bullets".'

And get this, because it's important:

Hunter told the Examiner that no one in the king's meeting on Tuesday with members of the House Armed Services Committee made any mention of President Obama, who is seen by some anti-ISIS coalition partners as a weak and indecisive actor.

COMMENT:  Incredible.  Unbelievable.  A monarch meets with an American president and doesn't even mention him?  I have never seen this happen.  Normally a leader would meet with members of Congress and say something like, "I have just come from a meeting with the president.  I want to thank him for the friendship and support he has given us in this time of crisis." 

In all probability, Abdullah didn't get much friendship or support.  Maybe he realizes that Obama just doesn't care. 

February 5, 2015       Permalink

STUNNING – AT 8:42 A.M. ET:  Occasionally the UN does something valuable.  From AP:

BERLIN — The United Nations says the Islamic State group is systematically killing, torturing and raping children and families of minority groups in Iraq, and it is calling on government forces there to do more to protect them.

In a report issued Wednesday in Geneva, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said it has received reports of “several cases of mass executions of boys, as well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children and burying children alive.”

Iraq’s military has been struggling in its fight against Islamic State, and the government has pleaded repeatedly for more weapons and training.

COMMENT:  It is just awful, and the president of the United States has so little to say.  It is, in certain moral respects, the equivalent of Roosevelt's disgraceful indifference when the revered Polish diplomat, Jan Karski, told him of what came to be known as the Holocaust. 

One sense from press reports a certain revulsion toward Obama.  The question is, how far will it reach?  Will enough Americans become outraged, or be content if given a small tax cut?  The Democrats are counting on the latter.

Oh, another thing:  Where's Hillary?  Isn't she the one who's constantly talking about children's rights and women's rights?  I guess certain children and women just don't count.

February 5,  2015     Permalink

FEBRUARY 4,  2015

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

GREAT MOMENTS IN JOURNALISM – From Fox:  "NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday that he was not aboard a helicopter hit and forced down during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, recanting a claim that he and the network had repeated for years -- most recently on Friday night."  It wasn't a one-time error, exaggeration or misstatement.  It's gone on for years.  Pretty serious offense, it seems to me, and it will dog Williams forever.  The jokes are already starting.  Because a journalist's greatest weapon is his credibility, it might be wise for Williams to withdraw as anchor and become a "roving correspondent."  That's where they send you to the Himalayas and you roam and roam, and never come back.

THE WANTING OF WARREN – From The Hill:  "Susan Sarandon, Olivia Wilde and Edward Norton are among the more than 90 entertainers urging Sen. Elizabeth Warren to throw her hat in the 2016 presidential race.  The group — which also includes Mark Ruffalo, Natasha Lyonne, Julia Stiles, and “The Avengers” director Joss Whedon — penned an open letter this week to the Massachusetts Democrat, pushing her to make a White House bid."  Would someone please tell me who some of these people are? 

SCIENCE BULLETIN – From The Guardian, Britain's leading leftist paper: "Cockroaches may be ugly, they may be among the most loathed creatures on the planet but at least, scientists say, they have personality.  Researchers studying the behaviour of the insects have discovered that far from simply being a homogenous mass they have individual character traits.  The discovery is unlikely to change perceptions of them from skittering vermin to desirable beasts but it could go some way to explaining their evolutionary success."  I can't wait to talk to one.  I want to meet the cheerleader captain.

SETBACK – From Fox:  "A key Arab partner in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State stopped flying airstrike missions over Syria after a Jordanian pilot -- who was later killed -- was shot down in December, senior U.S. officials and diplomats from the region told Fox News.  The decision is a setback for the coalition, even as another member, Jordan, vows to ramp up airstrikes in the wake of its pilot being brutally executed by the Islamist terror group."  The ally who stopped is the UAE, which complained that American search-and-rescue units were not based close enough to the action to rescue any downed UAE pilots.

February 4, 2015       Permalink

CRAZY – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  We have plenty of coal.  If it can be made clean, why not use it?  Because it doesn't fit the Obama party line, that's why.  This is crazy stuff.  From The Hill: 

The Obama administration has shut down a Bush administration federal project aimed at demonstrating “clean coal” technology.

The $1.7 billion FutureGen 2.0 project was meant to build a coal-fired power plant in Illinois that captures carbon and pumps it underground.

Congress authorized $1.1 billion toward the project in 2009 as a continuation of a 2003 project Bush proposed.

“The U.S. Department of Energy has directed the suspension of FutureGen 2.0 project development activities,” Ken Humphreys, head of the public-private FutureGen Alliance developing the plant, said in a Tuesday statement.

“The DOE has concluded that there is insufficient time to complete the project before federal funding expires in September 2015. Despite the Alliance’s commitment to advancing carbon capture and storage technology and cleaner energy from coal, as well as our belief that there are solutions to address the impending deadline, the Alliance must comply with DOE’s directive.”

COMMENT:  Compare please to the billions the Obama administration invested in failed "green energy" projects.  Our supply of coal should make clean coal a priority.  But it doesn't fit the agenda of the people behind Obama.

February 4, 2015       Permalink

BRITISH CONSERVATIVE VIEW OF OBAMA – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  Okay, it's a conservative site, hardly unbiased, but this, From Breitbart London, is a gem, under the headline, "US President Barack Obama is leader of the free world."

Tough gig, but somebody has to do it. Trouble is, he seems utterly adrift when it comes to dealing with the day-to-day demands of such an onerous job description. Take Tuesday when he was asked for a reaction to ISIS releasing a video showing a captured Jordanian pilot being burned alive.

Obama said: “You know, I just got word of the video that had been released. I don’t know the details on the confirmation. Should in fact this video be authentic, it’s just one more indication of the viciousness and barbarity of this organization. And I think we will redouble the vigilance and determination on the part of global coalition to make sure that they are degraded and ultimately defeated. It also indicates the degree to which whatever ideology they are operating off of, it’s bankrupt. We’re here to talk about how to make people healthier and make their lives better. And this organization appears only interested in death and destruction. Thank you very much, everybody.”

It could have been worse. Obama could have finished by saying: “Anyone for golf?” If he had, plenty of people would have believed him given his track record of profound disengagement from the problems that beset the world.

The clue to Obama’s dreamy bemusement lies in the words: “whatever ideology they are operating off of, it’s bankrupt.”

Go on Barack, take a quick stab at that ideology thing. Are they – Islamic State – really an ideological terrorist cover for Presbyterianism? Radical Quakers? Mormons, Jews, Hindus or pastafarians? Is that their political/religious orientation?

COMMENT:  Wonderfully stated.  We often get the best political quotes from the other side of the pond. 

February 4, 2015       Permalink

HOW WE ARE SEEN – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  Osama bin Laden used to say that, in the Mideast, it's the strong horse that wins.  In fact, it's that way all over the world.  The world loves a winner, and hates a loser. 

Of course, the left-wing "sophisticates" express hatred for the United States when we use our power, but now that the world has seen six years of American weakness, the sophisticates don't seem quite so sophisticated.

How are we seen today in the Mideast, where most of the current action is?  Not well.  From Gatestone Institute: 

While the Egyptian government has been waging war on the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic radical groups, the U.S. Administration and some Europeans are continuing to hamper efforts to combat terrorism.

Many Egyptians and moderate Arabs and Muslims were shocked to hear that the U.S. State Department recently hosted a Muslim Brotherhood delegation. They were equally shocked when an EU court decided to remove Hamas from the bloc's list of terror groups.

The State Department's hosting of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders has outraged Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Sisi, who has been waging a relentless war against the organization over the past year.

One member of the delegation, Muslim Brotherhood judge Waleed Sharaby, posed for a picture while at Foggy Bottom, as he held up the organization's four-finger "Rabia" sign. (The gesture is named for Cairo's Rabia Square, where counter-demonstrations backing ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi -- who is from the Muslim Brotherhood -- took place in August 2013.)

"If the White House is out to offend some of its closest Arab allies and is intent on heightening their suspicions, it's succeeded," wrote Middle East expert Linda S. Heard. "If there's a plot, then it's unfolding," she added. "Just two days after the controversial visit, the Brotherhood called for a war against their fellow Egyptians."

A statement issued by the Muslim Brotherhood said, "It is incumbent upon everyone to be aware that we are in a process of a new phase, where we summon what is latent our strength, where we recall the meanings of jihad and prepare ourselves, our wives, our sons, our daughters, and whoever marched on our path to a long, uncompromising fight, and during this stage we ask for martyrdom."

COMMENT:   Read the rest of the piece.  It is frightening to think that Obama will be in office for two more years.  He is betraying our friends, appeasing our enemies.  And yet, questions about him, about who he really is, go unanswered.

February 4, 2015       Permalink 

THE NOTHING MAN – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  King Abdullah was in Washington when news came of the unspeakably cruel execution of the Jordanian pilot in ISIS custody.  He met with President Obama, then went to a meeting of Congressional leaders. 

And something remarkable happened.  It is reported from that Congressional meeting that President Obama was never mentioned.  Not by the members of Congress.  Not by Abdullah.

Normally, a world leader coming from a presidential conference would bring some kind of "greeting" from the president.  Normally, he would express thanks for the "great support" given by the president in a time of crisis.  We heard nothing.  And for good reason.  The king got nothing but Obama's limp hand.

Obama reacted to the brutal execution with the same passion of a man reacting to news that a letter was lost in the mail.   Yes, he said we'd "redouble" our efforts against ISIS, and eventually defeat them, but he made his comments as if he were reading a grocery list.  No passion.  No feeling.  No nothing. 

President Roosevelt, after Pearl Harbor, spoke of our "righteous might."  President Kennedy assured the world that we would "pay any price" in defense of freedom.  President Reagan demanded, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall."  President Obama will "redouble our efforts," going from five percent of what is necessary to ten percent.

It is embarrassing.  And it is dangerous.  But there is silence among our "elite" journalists.  They have too much invested in the glorified town councilman who sits in the Oval Office.

February 4, 2015       Permalink