A heartbeat away

Hot Air: "Joe Biden: Jewish outreach edition" calls bankers a bunch of Shylocks.

Jesse Jackson empathizes.

This will not end well

Zero Hedge: "The U.S. National Debt Has Grown By More Than A Trillion Dollars In The Last 12 Months".  "We continue to wildly run up debt as if there is no tomorrow, and by doing so we are destroying the future of this nation."

I remember in the mid-eighties when kids at college were taking Japanese lessons because Japan was going to surpass the United States as the next global powerhouse.  Now Japan has a national debt over 200% of its GDP over two decades of stagnation with no plan to reverse the downward spiral.

Quotes for today

Joe Louis: "Everyone has a plan until they've been hit."

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder: "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy."

Then there's this guy:

Asked by one of the columnists what he would do if his strategy did not work and he had to escalate further, Mr. Obama rejected the premise. “I’m not going to anticipate failure at this point,” he said.

Finally, here's Gabriel Malor: "Contest: Which quote best sums up Obama's ridiculous presidency?"

We're not at war

Fox News: "Obama repeats US mission on defeating Islamic State but avoids the word 'war’"



Extra - From Vodkapundit.

From TRS-80 to chapter 11

Quartz: "The slow, sad decline of RadioShack, one of the great brands of the ’80s."

You know what's part of the problem?  Nobody knows what a "radio" or a "shack" is.

That's not what Scarlett Johansson told me on our date last night

Time: "Less than 5 hours of sleep leads to false memories."

The court jester

Powerline on that tireless ass-kisser E.J. Dionne: "Being a courtier must be tough: you have to be really dumb, or else pretend to be."

So many feels

Here's a story about cadaver dogs searching, in vain, for survivors after 9/11.  The dogs kept returning to cadavers they were supposed to ignore because it was so depressing not finding anybody alive:

Finding those live victims is really important to a dog like Moxie. To keep her spirits up, to keep her focused, Aliberti took the time to find ways to reward her.
He would often ask other firefighters to hide among the rubble, so Moxie could find somebody.
“That’ll bolster them, get them up and running again,” Aliberti explained. “You have to do that after a while because it’s long days.”

....

The speech in a nutshell

States Islamic State is neither Islamic nor a state.
Broad coalition of 9 NATO countries.
I'm not going to make the mistake of asking Congress for authority like a year ago.
Ain't this economy great?

Expiration date achieved

Every Obama statement has an expiration date.

Then:

In what circumstances, if any, would the president have constitutional authority to bomb Iran without seeking a use-of-force authorization from Congress? (Specifically, what about the strategic bombing of suspected nuclear sites -- a situation that does not involve stopping an IMMINENT threat?) 

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."

Now: "Obama says he does not need Congress to wage war on ISIS."

Extra - Hit & Run: "Obama's grotesque flip-flops on Congressional authorization for war."

The objective media remembers something

Now that the One has gotten through re-election by lying about and delaying Obamacare, well lookie here: "NYT Baghdad bureau chief: The White House lied to Americans for years about what bad shape Iraq was in."  If only there was somebody from the media stationed in Baghdad who could report these things.

Related - Bad polls?  What bad polls?

Semi-retired President set to say some stuff

White House Dossier: "Why watch Obama at all?"

Everyone knows President Obama’s speech Wednesday night will include few if any details about how we are going to go about defeating ISIS. Because President Obama has few if any details himself.
CBS reporter Major Garrett asked White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest today why, then, anyone should tune in:
GARRETT: If I’ve listened to you correctly today, you said the president will tell the country that there’ll be no ground troops involved, there’ll be no tactical operational details, no timeline for victory, no cost associated with the pursuit of victory. Why should anyone watch?

Well, certainly the Commander-in-Chief should explain to a nation why he's sending troops into battle.  The problem is that I've seen this show before and, as usual, it will be all about the One answering his critics.

There will be the standard "some people say boots on the ground" while others say "no war!" but he's in the pragmatic middle.  And something like [the opposite of Obama's policy] is "not what America is about."  Also, something about a responsibility to act with help from the "international community."

This morning I heard on NPR that after seizing Mosul, the Islamic State is making $1 to $3 million a day smuggling oil.  They are selling the stolen crude for $25/barrel, about a quarter of the going rate.  It's useless to talk about financial pressures when warlords from Syria to Iran are getting fabulously rich and ISIL is accumulating bullet money.  I'd really like to hear a plan to choke off this money flow which would do more to weaken ISIL than a hundred drone strikes.

The Left hates free speech

This is an ongoing theme here on this blog that the political Left hates any kind of dissent whether it's climate change or reproductive rights or any range of topics.

I think Ann Althouse has it right: "Because they don't know how to talk about the substantive merits when they are challenged."  So now we're going to go through this kabuki theater of a Constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United to fire up the base, nothing more.

Freedom of Press is a sacred right for the NY Times, LA Times, and Mother Jones.  Fox News, however, must be destroyed.

Extra - Legal Insurrection: "Senate Democrats renew push to gut free speech."

More - Hit & Run: "If it did pass, this amendment would mark the second time in U.S. history that Americans decided the Constitution should be changed to restrict people's freedom."

Off the 30-inch stick and into the camp fire

Kinda funny: "GOP Leader McCarthy to Forest Service: Don’t tell me how to make a s’more."  I like the Forest Service suggestion to use a roasting stick at least 30 inches in length.

Friday night news dump

Hot Air: "IRS: Lerner adviser, two in Cincinnati office among five more employees who lost e-mails."

Of course, the email servers may have the missing emails but, you know, Steve has the key to the room and he gets kind of testy before his morning coffee.  So we'll check back later.

Fast food protesters in Boston almost hit double digits

I heard the story on NPR this afternoon that a sum total of eight actual fast-food workers demonstrated for a $15 minimum wage in Boston today, surrounded by a hundred professional protesters from the SEIU.  The Springfield Republican paints the scene:

The protesters initially sat in in the middle of Washington Street in Downtown Crossing looking for police to arrest them.
When it became apparent that they would not be arrested by police the protesters moved to the intersection of Congress and State streets in the Financial District where they were arrested in an orderly manner within 15 minutes of their arrival.
Before his arrest, Wendelly Innocent, 18, a Dunkin Donuts employee, said that fast workers were willing to do whatever it takes to improve their situation.
"We just want to get $15 an hour and a union," said Innocent.

"Willing to do whatever it takes."  Uh-huh.

Extra - Enjoy your $8 Big Mac.

Scratch that tat

Marginal Revolution: "What does a tattoo signal?"  For ex-cons, it's "see you soon."

Another "Fact Check" bites the dust

Remember when both Politifact and the Fact Checker were both doing their worst to make sure Americans need not believe their lying eyes when it comes to Obamacare?  Let's flashback to Glenn Kessler's Fact Checker of Sept. 2012: "The bogus claim that Obama skips his intelligence briefings."  Why?  Because instead of sitting down with a CIA briefer, Obama swears to heaven he's reading the PDB.

This led to a rebuttal by Kessler's WashPost colleague Marc Thiessen: "A bogus defense of Obama's intelligence briefing record."

Now the news is out that Obama received extensive briefings on the threat of ISIS, long before he waved them away as "JV".  Did Obama have a long conversation with his National Security Team before overruling them with regard to pro-active measures?  Or, as Ace suspects, did he just not read the briefings:

Incidentally, read further in the article and you'll see that the President never asked for additional information about IS. He read the daily briefings (or the White House claims he did, at least), but apparently had no further questions he wanted to ask anyone about.
You know, the way curious, intellectually-lively people never ask questions about important and interesting things.

It makes the "no strategy" gaffe easier to believe when there's no strategy.

Venezuela needs oil

VodkaPundit notes that Venezuela needs to import light crude to mix with their heavier stuff in "Socialism's timeless endgame."  That is, running out of other people's money.

Use yah blinkah because you're a bad drivah

Popular Mechanics: "Massachusetts Has the Worst Drivers. Duh."

I grew up and got my driver's license in New Jersey but had to re-take the test when I moved to Massachusetts.  I always tell people that the written test in MA is laughable: ten multiple-choice questions and you need to get 70% to pass.  I always remember on my test there was the question: "Smoking marijuana will 1) impair, 2) enhance, 3) make no difference to your ability to drive."  I picked "impair."