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SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE – WEEK TWO

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MARCH 17,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

BIBI ROMPS – The Israeli election produced a huge upset.  Bibi Netanyahu's Likud Party, expected to come in second, won a smashing victory, with Bibi almost guaranteed to form and lead the next government. 
From the Jerusalem Post:  "The Israeli elections took a dramatic turn in the early morning hours on Wednesday as official tallies from nearly all precincts indicate that Likud has opened up a significant lead over Zionist Union, a far cry from the virtual dead heat that television exit polls had reported Tuesday evening.  With 99 percent of precincts reporting before dawn on Wednesday, the Likud has emerged as the clear, undisputed victor in the elections."  Barack Obama will lose a night's sleep.  We'll have more on the Israeli elections in the morning.

FREE SPEECH WINS – From Breitbart:  "The University of Missouri students association confirmed that a campus screening of American Sniper would continue as originally scheduled after a Muslim student had protested the showing of the film earlier this month, calling it 'blatant racist, colonialist propaganda.'  According to the Missourian, the film is scheduled to be shown on April 17 and 18 at the campus’s Wrench Auditorium as part of a regular campus film series.  However, in a March 3 letter to University of Missouri newspaper The Maneater, Farah El-Jayyousi wrote that Clint Eastwood’s film “dehumanizes Arabs and Muslims and encourages racism in society,” and referred to the film’s protagonist, Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, as a “killer with no regard for human life.”  Let the film be shown.  Students can criticize it all they want after seeing it.  Chris Kyle fought for their right to do so.

MAJOR RETAIL CRISIS – From the New York Daily News:  "You can design your dream space in Ikea — but just don’t hide in the showroom.  The Swedish furniture giant has asked thousands of Dutch shoppers to stop playing hide-and-seek inside its stores, calling the customer-organized games a safety hazard.  Things started off in July when about 500 Ikea lovers flocked to a Belgian store for the inaugural match. When players started organizing more games in stores throughout the Netherlands, Ikea swiftly shut down the childish fun.  'It’s hard to control,' Ikea Group spokeswoman Martina Smedberg told Bloomberg. 'We need to make sure people are safe in our stores, and that’s hard to do if we don’t even know where they are.'"  I feel their pain.  Unauthorized hide-and-seek is one of the unspoken tragedies of our time.

THE WAR ON CLEANLINESS – From the Washington Free Beacon:  "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants hotels to monitor how much time its guests spend in the shower.  The agency is spending $15,000 to create a wireless system that will track how much water a hotel guest uses to get them to 'modify their behavior.'  'Hotels consume a significant amount of water in the U.S. and around the world,' an EPA grant to the University of Tulsa reads. 'Most hotels do not monitor individual guest water usage and as a result, millions of gallons of potable water are wasted every year by hotel guests.'"  How would they know it's wasted? 

March 17, 2015       Permalink

LATEST GOP POLLS – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:  Andrew Malcolm, at IBD, examines recent polling on the Republican presidential field.  Yes, it's really too early, but it's fun:   

Speculating about election results 602 days before voting is sure folly -- especially when the Republican field is so large, young and largely unknown and the Democrat field is one, old and, well, well-known as susceptible to serious stumbles.

But mining the data within two recent surveys by well-respected polling outfits does provide revealing peeks at how the would-be GOP candidates are viewed right now by their base.

And those results actually create a fresh list of somewhat surprising front-runners.

No Republicans have actually announced anything beyond "exploring," except Mitt Romney to say he will not be a candidate.

However, Gallup surveyed 653 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, combining how well-known they are and their favorable ratings.

That poll found that two former state chief executives, Jeb Bush (76%) and Mike Huckabee (72%), were the best known in the field, which averages 47 years of age. (The Democrat candidate averages 67 years of age.)

Huckabee, who's been a TV show host since his second-place finish in 2008, had a slightly higher net favorable rating, although his favorable standing is concentrated among conservatives. Bush is seen favorably by a much broader cross-section of party members.

Four other potential GOP candidates had net favorable ratings, but were less-known -- Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker and Dr. Ben Carson.

Although New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is almost as well-known as Bush, he came out with the lowest net favorable ratings of any Republican tested. Not far from there at the bottom was ex-Sen. Rick Santorum.

Here's a potentially key finding: Santorum, Cruz and Rubio are almost equally familiar to survey respondents. But the difference in the bilingual Rubio's favorable-unfavorable rating is huge; 47% think of him favorably while only 8% negatively. 

This contrasts with Santorum, for example, who has a favorable rating of 35% but an unfavorable of 21%.

Remember that Rubio likability. Because the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll finds -- tah dah! -- the Florida senator tops a list of 14 Republican possibles with 56% of respondents saying they could support him. Will a fractured party unite around the least-disliked candidate?

That poll's results found Huckabee and Walker virtually tied about four points behind Rubio. They're followed by Bush, Rand Paul and Gov. Rick Perry.

COMMENT:  Bottom line, it's more good news for Rubio, at least for the present.  Now that he's rising, watch the mainstream media, led by The New York Times, go after him. 

We still have more than a year before the national conventions.  Polls taken now won't even be remembered.

March 17,  2015     Permalink

DEMS SCARED BY HILLARY'S STUMBLES – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:   She really is the only candidate the Democrats have got.  And she's kind of starting her presidential campaign under a cloud, where you usually find the Clintons.  From Breitbart: 

National Journal Senior Political Columnist and Editorial Director Ron Fournier said that Democrats are “scared to death” over the scandals regarding donations to the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s emails on Monday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel.

“Don’t buy the spin, they [Democrats] are scared to death. And there’s a lot of them who are already starting to think ‘is she really the best candidate for us?’…Their bench, compared to the Republican bench is awfully, awfully thin. And there’s a lot of Democrats, by the way, who are saying ‘follow the money.’ A lot of Democrats are really worried about the Foundation, that’s what they’re really worried about” he stated.

Earlier, Fournier said that the Clinton Foundation’s acceptance of Chinese donations is “a big issue. There’s a lot of other ways the Chinese government, and the Saudis, and the [Qataris] — there are other ways that they can help the world if that’s what they want to do. They’re giving their money to the Clinton Foundation for a reason. They want something out of it. So I know, what I really want to see in these e-mails is any e-mail that mentions the Foundation and mentions one of the donors.”

Fournier also commented on James Carville’s defense of Clinton, arguing that “what Carville did is give up the goods. What he admitted there was that this was not a matter of convenience, which is what the Secretary said. He admitted that the reason she did this was so she didn’t have to comply with the oversight of the House, and –and with the natural laws of transparency. He gave up the goods. He sold her out.”

COMMENT:  As Cindy Adams used to say, so many scandals, so little time.  Hillary is still the overwhelming favorite to win the Democratic Party's nomination, and she still leads all other Republicans in most polls.  But her numbers are in decline.  And since those numbers are powerfully helped by name recognition, they may well fade much more as Republican candidates become better known.

The fact is that the Democratic Party is in terrible shape.  It has lost control of both House and Senate, and most state governments.  If it loses the presidency, it may also lose control of the Washington dinner-party circuit.  And that is the worst cut of all.

March 17, 2015        Permalink

HOW NICE TO KNOW IT – AT 9:44 A.M. ET  Even as we deepen our negotiations with Iran, and make one concession after another, Iran's human-rights record gets worse and worse.  From Fox: 

Iran has violated the rights of women, Christians and members of other religious groups and ethnic minorities on a massive scale, even as it seeks to negotiate with the West, according to a new UN report that details an explosion of executions, including state-sanctioned killing of juveniles.

Imprisonment and executions of Christians has continued -- even at an accelerated pace -- since the election of self-proclaimed moderate President Hassan Rouhani, according to Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations special rapporteur on Iran. Nearly 100 Christians are currently imprisoned "due to their Christian faith and activities," Shaheed wrote. Christians who converted from Islam and are active in the underground house-church movement often come in for the most severe prosecution, he said.

“Authorities reportedly continued to target the leaders of house churches, generally from Muslim backgrounds," Shaheed wrote. "Christian converts also allegedly continue to face restrictions in observing their religious holidays.”

In 2014, 753 people were executed in the country, the most state-sanctioned killings since 2002. The grim tally includes the execution of 25 women and 13 juveniles.

Notice the silence of so-called "women's groups" in the United States.  I guess there's nothing in it for them.

Roughly half of the executions were for drug-related crimes and, according to Shaheed, fail to meet the international standard of “most serious crimes” required for use of the death penalty.

"The report is a sober reminder that Iran's government, which exports terrorism and seeks nuclear weapons, is also an egregious human rights violator," U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., told FoxNews.com. "Far from being moderate, the Iranian regime persecutes women, Christians, Baha'is, and other ethnic and religious minorities, and systematically denies its citizen many freedoms that we take for granted."

Notice also the silence by Barack Obama about the murder of Christians, even though he claims to be one.

Shaheed has aggressively chronicled Iran's abysmal human rights record, even as the U.S. and Western nations negotiate with Tehran over its nuclear weapons program.

“With every report that Dr. Shaheed releases, it becomes more and more evident how systematic human rights violations are structured under the Iranian dictatorship,” said Saba Farzan, executive director of Foreign Policy Circle, a strategy think tank in Berlin. “The world community with leadership by the Obama administration has thrown human rights under the Persian rug -- literally. Democracy promotion has been sacrificed for the sake of talking endlessly to those who oppress Iranians terribly."

COMMENT:  Well said.  One of the most disgraceful aspects of the Obama administration, and the list is long, is its indifference to human rights.  In fact, the left generally has become increasingly cold to democracy itself. 

This is not really surprising.  There was always a gap between "the left" and "liberals."  For years we had great, true liberals who championed democracy, while the left championed the Soviet Union.  Now true, traditional national-defense liberalism has faded away within the Democratic Party, and the left has risen.  We see it in the Iran negotiations and in the so-called "reset" with an increasingly despotic regime in Moscow. 

Obama just doesn't seem to care.  And the media will not hold him accountable.  Not good for careers.

March 17, 2015       Permalink 

ISRAEL VOTING – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  We've been monitoring today's Israeli election.  Polls are open now, and will close at 10 p.m. Israel time, which is 4 p.m. Eastern time in the United States.  (Ordinarily the time difference is seven hours, but Israel's switch to daylight savings time occurs later this month.)

The election is critically important for the future of the region and for the faltering American presence in the area.

Early indications are that voting is heavier than in the recent past.  Fox News estimates that between 60% and 80% of eligible voters will cast ballots.  Eleven parties are competing.  As we explained here last night, the president of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, will examine the results, determine who is more likely to succeed in putting together a coalition government, and ask that person to do so.  The choice will almost certainly come down to the sitting prime minister, Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, and his main challenger, the representative of the center-left, Isaac Herzog.

As is the case in most elections in democratic countries, it is economic issues that dominate.  The main complaint against Netanyahu is not related to Israel's critical security situation, but rather that he has failed to improve the average Israeli's standard of living.  At the same time, every Israeli knows that the country is in constant danger, and will weigh the capacity of the parties to defend the nation and deal with a hostile Obama administration.

Obama is in fact playing a role.  As the old Soviet Russkies liked to put it, it is no secret that Obama operatives are in Israel working for Netanyahu's opponents.  Obama despises Netanyahu, and vile, anti-Bibi comments are regularly leaked from the White House.  Bibi's crime is that he won't go along with Obama's appeasement policies.  Is is also alleged – and this will be investigated by Congress – that the State Department has financed a group that is working to defeat the prime minister.  If true, it is a gross, possibly illegal use of public funds, and certainly would constitute inappropriate interference in a foreign election. 

We should note that, even when President Rivlin anoints someone to form a government, that someone might not succeed and Rivlin might find it necessary to name a replacement.  Polls show that Herzog's party is ahead of Bibi's.  But observers point out that Bibi might be better able to form a coalition government.  That is exactly what happened after the last national election.  Bibi's party came in second, but he succeeded in forming a government. 

So stand by.  We'll only have the basic voting results tonight.  Then the horse trading begins.

March 17,  2015     Permalink 

MARCH 16,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

AL GORE IS CHILLING – No, it isn't a pun.  Al Gore's rhetoric on climate change is getting ugly.  It's part of a trend, a new McCarthyism, that's getting worse.  Al gave a speech last week.  From ecowatch.com:  "The former vice president focused on the need to 'punish climate-change deniers, saying politicians should pay a price for rejecting ‘accepted science,' said the Chicago Tribune.  Gore said forward-thinking investors are moving away from companies that invest in fossil fuels and towards companies investing in renewable energy. 'We need to put a price on carbon to accelerate these market trends,' Gore told the Chicago Tribune, referring to a proposed federal cap-and-trade system that would penalize companies that exceeded their carbon-emission limits. 'And in order to do that, we need to put a price on denial in politics.'"  That truly is chilling.  Gore repeated the statistic that 99% of scientists accept global warming, even though a recent survey of climatologists by Purdue University found that only 52% bought into the "science" of global warming.  And now a leftist Dem congressman is demanding universities provide the funding sources of scientist who question climate change.  Joe McCarthy would be proud.

THE HILLARY WAY – Reporters at the State Department have now waited a week for an answer to a simple question:  Did former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sign the standard State Department form upon leaving office, affirming that she'd returned to the department all property and and documents, which presumably includes e-mails?  A week?  Why would take a week?  Either the form is in Clinton's personnel file or it isn't.  And reporters still haven't gotten the answer.  It's pretty clear that a stall is underway, a stall probably ordered by the Clinton interests.  If Clinton didn't sign the form required of all personnel, why not?  If she did sign the sworn form, she probably committed perjury, since her departmental e-mails, kept on a private server, have just been discovered.

NANNY OREGON HOLDS VOTERS' HANDS – From Fox:  "Seventeen years after Oregon became the first state to hold all elections with mail-in ballots, it took another pioneering step on Monday to broaden participation by automatically registering people to vote.  Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill that puts the burden of registration on the state instead of voters.  Under the legislation, every adult citizen in Oregon who has interacted with the Department of Motor Vehicles since 2013 but hasn't registered to vote will receive a ballot in the mail at least 20 days before the next statewide election. The measure is expected to add about 300,000 new voters to the rolls."  The potential for fraud or error seems particularly great.  What is so wrong about asking a citizen to go and register himself or herself, providing the proper proof of age and citizenship.  It's an honor to vote.  People should be proud to register.  This Oregon plan looks more like an attempt to get certain low-information voters to the polls, where they will vote for the party that sends out the biggest checks.

ISRAEL VOTES – Israel votes tomorrow (Tuesday) in a major national election.  Pre-election polls show that it's possible Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will lose his job.  But the Israeli system is complex, with 11 parties competing for seats in the Knesset (parliament).  When the votes are counted the president of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, will choose an individual to form a new government.  The nod usually, but not always, goes to the leader of the party that received the most votes.  It may take weeks actually to put together a governing coalition.  It has been reliably reported that several Obama political operatives have been in Israel helping Netanyahu's opponents.  I'm not surprised. 

March 16, 2015       Permalink

HOW LOVED THEY ARE – AT 11:05 A.M. ET:   The popularity of both political parties has now fallen below 40%.  That may not be entirely bad news.  From The Hill:

Both major political parties are viewed favorably by less than 40 percent of the American public for the first time in nearly 25 years, according to a new poll.

In a survey from Gallup, 37 percent say they view the Republican Party favorably while 39 percent say they view the Democratic Party favorably.

Fifty-three percent now have an unfavorable perception of the GOP, and 51 percent view the Democrats unfavorably.

It is also the first time since the survey house began polling on the parties' favorability in 1992 that neither has gotten over 40 percent. When Gallup began asking the question, both parties were viewed favorably by over 50 percent of the public.

The findings come amid continuing dysfunction in Washington — as the White House and Congress battle over everything from nuclear negotiations with Iran to the president’s executive action on immigration.

The poll also found that the percentage of Americans who view the Republican Party favorably has fallen by 5 points since the midterm elections, when they won a majority in the Senate and made gains in the House.

After the midterms, 42 percent said that they viewed the GOP favorably. That number, however, was up from 34 percent earlier in 2014.

COMMENT:  On balance, the news is better for Republicans than for Democrats.  We've been bombarded with theories that the Democrats can only rise in American politics because of demographic changes.  The fact that the GOP is within two points of the Dems in favorability, and within two points on unfavorability, damages that theory.  Remember that a greater percentage of Republicans vote than Democrats. 

The key, of course, is how these numbers will read in 2016, and who will actually vote in the 2016 presidential election.  But I'm not discouraged by the current standing.  We're not ten points behind.

March 16, 2015       Permalink

WONDERFULLY STATED – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:  Hillary is in trouble.   And she's not getting herself out of it.  As usual, Andrew Malcolm of IBD nails Hillary's plight exactly.  Oh, it's so juicy:

For someone who by all accounts except her own so far wants desperately to become president of the United States, Hillary Clinton is doing an excellent job of screwing up her chances.

Not just the shady acceptance of Clinton Foundation donations from foreign countries she dealt with as secretary of State. Not just her defiance of federal regulations obviously intended for people less important. Not just the way she's clumsily helping Americans remember many of the more tawdry aspects of her husband's presidency and her reign as first lady.

But the way she's handling herself through it all. Americans always want to see their potential leaders hungry for the job. Driven. Out there trying to convince them, one-by-one, to award their vote.

So far, Clinton has been the exact opposite. The astute columnist Peggy Noonan captured it perfectly after Clinton's awkward news conference last week:  "She didn’t look hungry for the battle, she looked tired of the battle."

Already?

Last time Clinton announced her candidacy 22 months before the 2008 election, even before what's-his-name from Illinois. It's now 20 months and she reportedly still hasn't decided when to pull the trigger. Gotta squeeze in a few more big-buck speeches. Gotta minimize chances of fumbling the ball, run out the clock.

Because, you see, the nomination is hers. Realistically, there's no one else on the Democrat side. Used to be a good thing for Dems.

Turns out, this is great news for Republicans, who'll spend the next 16 months scrapping for the GOP nod. The winner will leave Cleveland battle-tested and hungry. Clinton will leave Philadelphia crowned.

COMMENT:  Well said, with one caveat:  No matter how badly Hillary screws up, she will still have the mainstream media behind her.  Maybe not with the same enthusiasm that greeted Barack, come to save us, but she will have their support.  The Republicans will have to overcome that.  I believe they can.

After all, Reagan also had the media against him.  He was portrayed as a warmed-over movie actor who'd start World War III.  He went directly to the American people and made his case, even defying the Republican establishment.  And he won decisively.  It can be done, if we nominate a fighter.

March 16, 2015       Permalink

DEMS PREPARING TO BUCK OBAMA ON IRAN – AT 9:29 A.M. ET:  Despite all the artificial hoopla over the letter sent by 47 Republican senators to Iran, some Democrats in the Senate are prepared to defy the White House and, with their GOP colleagues, demand a role in nuclear policy toward Iran.  From the generally liberal Politico:   

Even as the White House ramps up pressure on Congress to stay out of its negotiations with Iran on a nuclear agreement, Republicans are on the brink of veto-proof majorities for legislation that could undercut any deal.

And that support has held up even after the uproar last week over the GOP’s letter to Iranian leaders warning against an agreement.

Though several Democratic senators told POLITICO they were offended by the missive authored by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), none of them said it would cause them to drop their support for bills to impose new sanctions on Iran or give Congress review power over a nuclear deal.

That presents another complication for the administration ahead of a rough deadline of March 24 to reach a nuclear agreement with the country.

The letter’s incredibly unfortunate and inappropriate,” said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, a centrist Democrat who voted for the sanctions bill in committee and is a sponsor of the congressional approval legislation. “That doesn’t diminish my support for the legislation that we introduced.”

The president’s challenge in Congress on the issue isn’t limited to the 47 Republican senators who signed last week’s missive arguing that a nuclear agreement could be revoked by the next U.S. president. In a letter released Saturday, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough implored Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) not to push for a vote on his bill that would give Congress 60 days to reject or approve of any deal.

McDonough argued that Corker’s measure, which has nearly a dozen Democratic supporters, “goes well beyond ensuring that Congress has a role to play in any deal with Iran.” And he asked Corker, who’s sought to maintain a cordial relationship with the White House, to let the administration finish its negotiations with Iran, indicating it may take until the end of June. A framework is expected by the end of this month.

Corker shrugged off the request in response. And in an interview late last week, he said he hasn’t lost the support of any Democrats despite the turbulent atmosphere surrounding Iran politics.

COMMENT:  We hope that is correct.  We are either heading for no deal with Iran, or a bad deal.  No one expects a good one.  Indeed, reports over the weekend indicated that Iran has actually stiffened its demands, not surprising in light of America's weakness and the fact that the hardliners in Tehran are gaining strength again.

A critical two weeks coming up.  Now is crunch time.

March 16, 2015       Permalink

REMARKABLE – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:   A stunning statement by Vladimir Putin indicates just how weak America has become under Obama.  From the Washington Post: 

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed his nation’s capture of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, he said in a documentary aired Sunday, in which he offered details of his deep involvement in last year’s quick and effective takeover.

Putin said that Russia had flooded the Black Sea peninsula with special forces officers in the days after President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev in February 2014, and Putin said that the success of the precision operation surprised even him. With Kiev in chaos, Putin said, he was ready at the time to put Russia’s nuclear forces on alert.

The more than two-hour-long documentary, called “Crimea: Path to the Homeland,” offered new details about Putin’s actions between Yanukovych’s late-night escape from Ukraine’s capital on Feb. 21, 2014, and Russia’s annexation of Crimea less than four weeks later. Russia is planning celebrations this week to mark the March 18 anniversary of the annexation, and the lavishly financed film was a kickoff.

COMMENT:  None of that would have been possible without the wilful weakness of the president of the United States, a man who, each week, demonstrates his contempt for his own country and his own country's noble history in preventing World War III while winning the Cold War.

March 16,  2015     Permalink