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JANUARY 23,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:34 P.M. ET: 

GOOD KIDS – From the New York Post:  "A Florida mom was reported for drunk driving by her own son and three of his friends — and now she faces child neglect and drug charges, authorities said.  Angela R. Woodworth, 45, was so wasted behind the wheel that the four 11-year-old children she was riding with jumped out of the car and ran to call police because they feared for their lives, News 4 Jacksonville reports.  The Gainesville resident was arrested Tuesday and charged with four felony counts of marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, child neglect and resisting an officer without violence after cops discovered 2 grams of marijuana in the vehicle and a pipe under the driver’s seat, police said."  Well, she did something right in raising that boy.

THE BEGINNING – From Fox:  "WASHINGTON – Call it the unofficial kick-off of the 2016 Republican presidential race.  Two-dozen Republican politicians -- nearly half of them at least considering a run for the White House -- are descending on downtown Des Moines this weekend for the Iowa Freedom Summit, where they'll test their conservative chops before a sold-out crowd.   The summit, which was held in New Hampshire last time around, is only in its second year but is drawing an impressive amount of GOP star power. The heavy-hitting lineup, in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, effectively makes it the first major candidate forum of the cycle.  'Odds are, the next president of the United States will be there,' said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who is sponsoring the event along with Citizens United."  For 2016 the Republican Party has an embarrassment of riches.  The Democrats also have an embarrassment.

CUBA NO – An American delegation arrived in Cuba a few days ago to start talks on "normalization," but the talks have not gone well.  Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson made no bones about the gaps between American and Cuban positions on a number of issues, including democratic reform.  Some observers were skeptical that normalization will actually occur at all.  Of course, waiting in the wings is Barack Obama, who will probably be inclined to make any concession needed to get an American ambassador back to Havana.  Another Obama foreign-policy mess. 

January 23, 2015       Permalink

VULGAR – AT 10:26 A.M. ET:  President Obama, who has lowered the status of his office for six years running, but he brought his presidency to a new low yesterday.  It was embarrassing to watch.  From Mediaite: 

President Obama did an interview earlier today with three very popular YouTube celebrities. The press corps was somewhat flabbergasted by this, given the president’s reticence to engage with them more. Now, considering the three interviewers were all YouTube celebrities, they did actually throw some good questions the president’s way.

But to Fox’s Howard Kurtz, an interview with YouTubers felt “beneath the dignity of the office” of the presidency.

Both he and Megyn Kelly zoned in on GloZell, a YouTube comedian who they found to be funny, but couldn’t fathom why she got to interview the President of the United States.

And not just for any interview, Kurtz noted, but for the president’s first post-State of the Union interview. He likened this to a “D-list Hollywood after party,” while Kelly wondered if she should be more like GloZell if she ever hopes to get to interview President Obama.

COMMENT:  Make sure to watch the video in the story.  This president is making it clear what the next two years will be like.  He is showing us who he really is. 

Let us recall all the questions raised about Obama in 2008, and how they were ignored by the press.  Chickens are coming home to roost, but we're the ones shoved in the oven.

January 23, 2015        Permalink

HUH?  CAN THIS BE TRUE? – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:  Why, there's a reset, isn't there?  The Russians are really our friends, aren't they?   Yes, obviously.  The intellectual classes say so. 

And so we move on in friendship and comradeship.  Yuch.  From Andrew Malcolm at IBD: 

Here's a disturbing idea whose time is about to come:

Emergency first responders across the United States may soon be relying on Russian satellites to plot the location of the mobile American distress call.

This is not an Onion story.

The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to deliberate next week on a plan to use Russian satellites over other competing satellite systems for tracking the exact location of U.S. emergency 911 calls from mobile phones, the source of most emergency calls.

The plan is backed by major U.S. telecommunications giants like Verizon, Sprint, AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA, along with the Association of Public Safety Communications.

In an alarming story, the Washington Times reports the communications companies believe having the calls routed through Russian satellites would enhance the accuracy of their call locators and save emergency crews precious response time, especially when the caller is inside a building that can muffle tech locators.

Of course, such a system would also give Russians access to the American emergency response network, including the precise locations of every U.S. first responder.

And...

Some members of the new and enlarged Republican majorities in Congress are concerned about relying even in part upon Russia for domestic emergency communications, much as the administration must now rely totally on Russian rockets to get American astronauts into space.

“In view of the threat posed to the world by Russia’s Vladimir Putin," Rep. Mike Rogers recently wrote Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and James Clapper, director of national Intelligence, "it cannot be seriously considered that the U.S. would rely on a system in that dictator’s control for its wireless 911 location capability.” The Alabama Republican chairs a House subcommittee on strategic forces.

COMMENT:  Indeed.  No technological gain can possibly balance the loss of control.  I don't want Moscow controlling anything of importance to us.  And Obama clearly doesn't care.

January 23, 2015        Permalink

KEYSTONE CONFRONTATION COMING – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  Mitch McConnell is starting to show some real backbone as Senate Majority Leader.  And he is not backing down before Obama.  From Fox: 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell followed through on a threat to keep members of the upper house of Congress working late Thursday, as he teed up a final vote on a bill approving construction of the Keystone XL pipeline for next week.

Facing a slate of 12 amendments to the legislation, McConnell took the unusual step of pushing the Senate into two so-called live quorum calls requiring Senators to come to the floor. The Senate also voted to have Sergeant at Arms Frank Larkin request absent lawmakers to go to the floor.

The unorthodox maneuver by McConnell stemmed from unsuccessful attempts to come to an agreement with Democrats to allow up-or-down votes on the various amendments. That was followed by a series of votes to "table", or kill the amendments.

Among the Democratic amendments killed by the Senate was a proposal to put an 8 cent fee on every barrel of oil which would move through the pipeline and also require financial disclosure of those who benefit from the tar sands project in Canada.

Democrats objected to the maneuvers, claiming that McConnell was attempting to stifle further debate on the bill.

"Forcing the Senate to vote on amendments they haven't had a chance to read and denying senators the chance to speak on their own amendments for a single minute is a severe breach of Senate norms and protocol, and is certainly not in keeping with the Senate's traditions of open debate," Adam Jentleson, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, said in a statement.

COMMENT:  Now the Dems are starting to feel real heat.  Keystone is really a no-brainer for this country.  But the environmental radicals, and anti-business radicals, who increasingly control the Democratic Party, are opposed to it.  They'd ban cars if they could.  And airplanes, except private jets for their donors. 

Keystone will probably be vetoed by Obama.  But at least the American people, through Congress, will finally get their say.

January 23, 2015       Permalink

REMARKABLE – AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  Vice President Biden will apparently represent the U.S. at the funeral of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.  Glowing words will be spoken about the importance of the U.S.-Saudi alliance. 

Forgotten will be the true nature of Saudi Arabia and its sordid history, including the fact that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 were Saudi.  King Abdullah did make some modest efforts at reform, but there is still mostly darkness in Saudi Arabia.  Now, as funeral services begin for the king, a remarkable offer is being made by an American professor and great conservative, and others.  From Fox: 

A Princeton University professor and a prominent Muslim American figure, as well as five other religious freedom advocates, are offering to take 100 lashes each for imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi who was sentenced by Saudi Arabia to 1,000 lashes for insulting his country's clerics.

In a letter to the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., Robert P. George, a Princeton professor and vice chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, urged the immediate release of Badawi.

The Saudi blogger was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes after criticizing the country's powerful clerics on his blog. Badawi received the first of 20 weekly floggings almost two weeks ago. The second flogging, which was scheduled for last Friday, was postponed on medical grounds.

George and Jasser wrote in the letter that if Badawi is not released, they will volunteer to receive 100 lashes each. The letter included five other signatories: Mary Ann Glendon, of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Daniel Mark, assistant professor of Department of Political Science at Villanova University, Hannah Rosenthal, CEO of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Eric Schwartz dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and, Katrina Lantos Swett, president of Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice.

The group of seven religious freedom advocates described Badawi's sentence as a "grave injustice" in their letter and called on the government to show mercy.

"Compassion, a virtue honored in Islam as well as in Christianity, Judaism, and other faiths, is defined as 'suffering with another.'  We are persons of different faiths, yet we are united in a sense of obligation to condemn and resist injustice and to suffer with its victims, if need be," the letter reads. "We therefore make the following request. If your government will not remit the punishment of Raif Badawi, we respectfully ask that you permit each of us to take 100 of the lashes that would be given to him."

"We would rather share in his victimization than stand by and watch him being cruelly tortured. If your government does not see fit to stop this from happening, we are prepared to present ourselves to receive our share of Mr. Badawi’s unjust punishment," the group said.

COMMENT:  This is an extraordinary offer.  Robert George is a distinguished conservative scholar, and probably one of the last conservatives left at Princeton.  Mary Ann Glendon is a conservative, Catholic scholar at the Harvard Law School. 

We hope this offer isn't lost in the coverage of the Abdullah funeral.  It should be turned into a major story. 

January 23,  2015     Permalink

JANUARY 22,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:31 P.M. ET: 

THE KING IS DEAD – King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has died.  He was a key ally of the United States, even though the values of Saudi Arabia and those of this country are entirely different.   He was considered a reformer, although the word should probably be put in quotes.  In Saudi Arabia a reformer is someone who still won't let a woman drive a car, but will let her ride in the trunk.

GOLDEN OLDIE – The death of Abdullah leaves Queen Elizabeth the oldest reigning monarch in the world, although Obama thinks it's Queen Latifah.  Elizabeth is 88.  I doubt if she'll get a card from the White House.  Maybe some CD's.

YEMEN COLLAPSING – Field Marshal of the United States Barack Obama proclaimed Yemen a great success story last September.  I guess they don't put Yemen news on ESPN.   From The Hill:  "The United States will remove additional personnel from Yemen amid heightened security concerns after Shiite rebels forced the resignation of the country's president.  'In response to the changing security situation in Yemen, the United States Embassy in Sana’a has further reduced its American personnel working in Yemen,' a senior State Department official said Thursday."  Forces loyal to Iran are starting to dominate the country.  What a victory. 

HE'S OUT – From The Hill:  "Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer said Thursday he would not be running for a California Senate seat in 2016.  Steyer, a former hedge fund manager, had said he would consider throwing his hat in the ring after Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said she would retire in 2016."  I had looked forward to calling him Senator Windmill.  He could easily have financed his own campaign, but I doubt if the very leftish California Democratic Party wanted a white male. 

January 22, 2015        Permalink

CONGRESS ASSERTING ITSELF – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  Watch Congress on foreign policy carefully.  If it were only the Republicans we could chalk up Congressional agitation to partisanship.  But it's becoming clear that a core of Democrats is also frustrated by Barack Hussein Obama's appeasement policy, especially as regards Russia and most especially as it regards the Mideast.  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

Members of Congress petitioned Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday to oppose the recently announced sale by Russia of an advanced missile defense system to Iran, citing concerns that such a move would embolden Tehran’s “pursuit of nuclear weapons,” according to a copy of the letter exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was in Tehran this week for high-level talks with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei about a new arms pact that would provide Iran with the Russian-made S-300 missile defense system and potentially new cruise missiles, submarines, and torpedoes, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Tehran and Moscow announced on Wednesday that they had inked an agreement to finalize delivery of the S-300 system, according to Iranian state-controlled media reports.

The arms deal had been in the works for some time, but hit several roadblocks after Russia reneged on its promise to make good on an $80 million deal enabling Iran to purchase five S-300 systems, which are long-range surface-to-air defense artillery.

Now that the deal appears to be sealed, members of Congress are petitioning the State Department to vigorously oppose it, according to a copy of the letter sent to Secretary of State John Kerry.

“The potential sale of the S-300 defense system will jeopardize prospects for resolving the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomacy,” Reps. Peter Roskam (R., Ill.) and Ted Deutch (D., Fla.) wrote to Kerry.

COMMENT:  What is most serious is that neither Iran nor Russia show any inclination to respect Western sensitivities.  They just go right ahead, knowing that Hussein Obama will do nothing much.  We really are finding out what he actually believes, as if we had any doubt.

January 22, 2015       Permalink

FLOP – AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  The White House is hyping high poll numbers for Obama's State of the Union speech.  Well, I guess if you're polling the 17 people who watched, the numbers were good.  From The Hill:   

The TV ratings for Tuesday night's State of the Union were the lowest of President Obama's presidency, at 31.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

Obama's high-water mark for an audience came in his first address in 2009, when 52 million people watched the speech. The numbers have been declining since then; last year, just over 33 million people watched.

For comparison the AFC Championship football game on Sunday got around 10 million more viewers, at 42 million. The investigative drama "NCIS," the highest rated network show, got around 20 million viewers last week.

As technology advances and TV loses some of its central role, the White House has been adapting. It released the entire text of the speech online before Obama began the address, a break with tradition. The White House website had a livestream with added details about the president's proposals. And the rollout for the proposals began in the week before the speech occurred.

COMMENT:  Pundits have pointed out that most people watch a State of the Union address on TV are already partial to the president delivering it.  So the poll numbers were probably skewed heavily in Obama's favor by that reality. 

Polling in the next month should settle down, and we'll see who's boss.

January 22, 2015       Permalink

NEW U.S. ALERT – AT 8:59 A.M. ET:  Forces in Europe are ordered to bolster security.  From CNN: 

(CNN) All U.S. military bases in Europe were ordered Tuesday to institute additional security measures in the wake of the attacks in Paris and arrests in Belgium and continuing intelligence that foreign fighters are returning to Europe.

"U.S. European Command directed its component commands to implement additional force protection measures and random security enhancements at facilities across the EUCOM area of responsibility," Captain Gregory Hicks, EUCOM spokesman told CNN on Thursday.

Hicks said the measures were "prudent" given the threat, but he would not specify the exact steps being taken. The additional measures will cover 90,000 people working for the command including 67,000 active duty troops. Generally these types of security measures include conducting more physical checks of people and vehicles coming into bases, and potentially restricting off base activities. Troops have already been cautioned not to wear their uniforms off base and ensure the privacy of their social media accounts.

Security awareness has been heightened in recent months since ISIS has threatened to attack U.S. troops. But in the wake of Paris "There is evidence of other of other events in our theatre that shows the severity of the terrorist threat out there," a U.S. military official with direct knowledge of the intelligence told CNN. Officials insists there is no specific imminent threat but rather growing concern.

"EUCOM has taken this step based on our firm commitment to make every possible effort to ensure the safety and security of our service members, civilians, their families, and our facilities," Hicks said. The order to increase security came from General Philip Breedlove.

COMMENT:  I'd imagine that late intelligence contributed to this order.  It's been reported many times that American troops are targets for terrorist attacks, and are often very vulnerable when off-base.  Recall that President Reagan ordered an air strike against Libya in retaliation for an attack on American troops in a bistro in Germany. 

I fear, though, that if American troops are attacked in Europe by terrorists, Obama would respond by lecturing us on the need for restraint, and even blaming BUSH!!

January 22, 2015        Permalink

AT THE GOP SUMMIT – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:  I'd love to be a fly on the wall, or a microphone in the light fixture.  From Fox: 

Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney plan to meet in Utah this week, as both men consider launching a Republican presidential run.

Fox News has confirmed the private meeting, first reported by The New York Times. The sit-down apparently had been planned before Romney took the surprise step two weeks ago of telling donors he was considering a 2016 bid.

Whether the meeting will be a symbolic gesture -- or a chance for the heavyweight Republican figures to try and avoid a bitter clash on the campaign trail -- remains to be seen.

Both former governors appear to be seriously considering a presidential run. If they both enter, their campaigns could divide the GOP establishment and donor base -- particularly if New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie enters, too.

According to the Times, former Florida Gov. Bush asked for the meeting, with the intention of showing respect for the party's 2012 nominee. They kept the appointment even after Romney began openly flirting with a third presidential run. The former Massachusetts governor also spoke before a Republican National Committee summit last week.

Bush may already be en route. ABC News producer Richard Coolidge tweeted a photo Thursday morning of Jeb Bush at Washington's Reagan National Airport, apparently about to take off for Utah, where Romney has a home.

COMMENT:  Fascinating.  Both men understand that a clash of titans would hurt the eventual nominee in the general election and would waste valuable financial resources.  Can it be avoided?  Can one man be persuaded to drop out?  Can a joint ticket be in prospect?  Romney-Bush?  (It could never be the reverse because a former presidential nominee would never be demoted.)  Would Jeb, son of a president, brother of another, take second place?  Recall that his father was Reagan's vice president.  Or, a deal?  Romney-Bush, with Romney agreeing to exit after one term?

Love it.  Reads like a novel. 

January 22,  2015     Permalink