While I occasionally quote Fox’s Bill O’Reilly when he and I are on the same page on an issue, but it isn’t often I can say I scooped him, but I did and I owe it to my daily observation of the news as it’s breaking. O’Reilly has been the top-rated show in his time slot for 14 years. … read more
Author: Eldon Kramer
Brief news items you may have missed
A prophetic statement by a president who was a leader
In 2007, a prescient President Bush told the world what would happen if we left Iraq before commanders agreed. (topnews.in)
“I know some in Washington would like us to start leaving Iraq now. To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region, and for the United States. It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda. It would mean that we’d be risking mass killings on a horrific scale. It would mean we would allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they lost in Afghanistan. It would mean increasing the probability that American troops would have to return at some later date to confront an enemy that is even more dangerous.” – President George W. Bush, July 12, 2007
For the liberal media to provide coverage of this statement would reflect poorly on President Obama, who was only interested in fulfilling his campaign promise of getting out of Iraq. Now he doesn’t know what to do. Feckless.
NBC continues to carry water for President Obama
Most of us are outraged by the lack of leadership being exhibited by President Obama in the face of the ISIS threat in Syria and Iraq with his “I don’t have a strategy” admission. But then he sends a mixed message saying, on one hand, that the U.S. would “degrade and destroy” ISIS, but follows with the unbelievable claim that it was “a manageable problem.”
Brian Williams and the NBC Nightly News, Sept. 2, 2014, saw it quite differently as you might expect. “For all those who may be wondering if the U.S. is going to rise up, take the bait and get into the fight to root them out,” he said, “the answer today from both the president and vice president appeared to be clear and unambiguous.” Continue reading
Our leaderless, rudderless nation
“The day I am inaugurated, not only the country looks at itself differently, but the world looks at America differently … If I’m reaching out to the Muslim world they understand that I’ve lived in a Muslim country and I may be Christian, but I also understand their point of view. And so, I’m intimately concerned with what happens in these countries and the cultures and perspective these folks have … I think the world will have confidence that I am listening to them and that our future and our security is tied up with ability to work with other countries in the world that will ultimately make us safer.” – Barack Obama, Nov. 21, 2007
Fast forward through five and a half years of the Barack Obama presidency and we see the Muslim world on fire. The newest threat, the barbarous Muslim terrorist organization of ISIS, freely moved across Syria and into much of Iraq. The president dithered for months before deciding to send F-18’s and drones to hit a few targets, including vehicles we left behind after our abandonment of Iraq .
(Editorial cartoons courtesy Steve Benson)
Most recently ISIS beheaded two Americans while chiding our commander-in-chief. After the first, James Foley, Obama was on the golf course within minutes of his condemnation statement. And, while most of us learned of ISIS’s latest victim, Steven Sotloff, during the morning hours Sept. 2, we are led to believe the president didn’t learn about it until he was boarding the plane for Estonia late in the afternoon.
According to reports, the president hesitated for some 30 days before giving the go-ahead to rescue the American hostages on July 4, probably contributing to the mission’s failure. He is said to have called off the Bin Laden raid several times. Continue reading
Dodd-Frank, shades of ObamaCare
Most likely you’ve heard of Dodd-Frank, formally known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, but haven’t paid much attention to it because you don’t see it affecting you directly.
Without getting into the weeds, I think you should know that the Obama administration – Big Government – has done it again. … read more
Voter apathy backfires on blacks in Ferguson
Robert P. McCulloch has been asked to recuse himself should the killing of Michael Brown go to trial. He has won four terms as prosecuting attorney. (stlouscopa.com)
Perhaps you’ve heard that supporters in Michael Brown’s defense in Ferguson want County Prosecutor Robert P. McCulloch to recuse himself should the grand jury order a trial.
What’s the problem? Ferguson is 67 per cent black and McCulloch easily won election four times, including a primary victory with 71 percent of the vote over his black opponent on Aug. 5, 2014. There apparently wasn’t an effort to replace him. The problem is blacks do not register and vote.
While turnout by race is not collected in municipal elections there, just 12.3 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot. And, as a rule a low turnout favors white conservatives.
Leslie Broadnax, who was defeated by McCulloch, believes there is a “huge distrust in the system,” adding that “(voting) is not going to matter anyway, so my one vote doesn’t count.”
Leslie Broadnax was defeated by Robert McCulloch by a 30-point margin in the Aug. 5, 2014 Democrat primary. (stlamerican.com)
“Well, if you get an entire community to individually feel that way,” she said, “collectively we’ve already lost.”
A caring black community in Ferguson could have easily defeated McCulloch, if they didn’t approve of the job he was doing, and put Broadnax in office.
“Voter apathy is very typical of the communities,” said David Kimball, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, who has studied the pattern of non-voting blacks in the inner-ring suburbs around St. Louis. I’m surprised Attorney General Eric Holder hasn’t charged Republicans with voter suppression. Continue reading
Big government’s auto industry failures
For years I have criticized the government for its interference in the auto manufacturing business, from the ill-conceived café standards, the expediting of electric cars, the cash for clunkers program, and of course the auto bailout. And, I have not forgotten CEO’s who became weak-kneed under big government pressure, put aside the free enterprise system and bowed to corporate welfare.
Two recent announcements appear to support my position. On the heels of a study that labelled the Cash for Clunkers program a failure, comes a report that Cadillac can’t keep up with demand for its gas-guzzling Escalades, news that is sure to shake up environmentalists.
(Logo courtesy autodealerpeople.com)
A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper has revealed facts that the $3 billion, yes billion, two-month government Cash for Clunkers program subtracted between $2.6 and $4 billion from the auto industry. The program offered $4,500 if people turned in their old cars for destruction and bought a new car.
You will recall that goals were to lift manufacturers during the recession by subsidizing sales, while mollifying “greenies” by putting more fuel-efficient cars on the road. The report from a group of Texas A&M economists, shows that the subsidy didn‘t really create any extra auto business since those who participated were likely to purchase a car during that period anyway, and any environmental benefits couldn’t be justified. Continue reading
Once a liberal, always a liberal
Young people often make the transition from Democrat to Republican as they mature. Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat. But in my mind, once a liberal, always a liberal.
Liberals will defend their ideology to the hilt, but they don’t like to be called “liberal,” preferring “progressive.” In a January 2014 Gallup poll, just 23 percent admitted to be liberal.
During her 2008 presidential run Hillary Clinton said, “I prefer the word ‘progressive’ … I consider myself a proud modern American progressive.” She claimed that over the years the definition of a liberal “has been turned up on its head and it’s been made to seem as a though it is a word that describes big government.” Bingo!
I’d like to tell you about two “Davids” – David Brooks and David Brock, both use the word “conservative” loosely. Very loosely.
New York Times columnist David Brooks is billed as a conservative columnist. (Josh Haner photo/New York Times)
David Brooks is billed as a conservative columnist at the liberal New York Times. He has admitted being a liberal Democrat when he was young. The New Republic, a liberal publication, published a piece on Brooks’ meeting with then Senator Barack Obama. It was called, “The Courtship,” because it led to Brooks’ column, “Run, Barack, Run.”
“I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, “ Brooks told New Republic writer Gabriel Sherman, “but usually when I talk to senators, while they may know a policy area better than me, they generally don’t know political philosophy better than me. I got the sense he (Obama) knew both better than me.”
Brooks recalled a vivid memory of that encounter during the interview. “I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I’m thinking, a.) he’s going to be president and b.) he’ll be a very good president.” Now that’s what I call deep thinking.
Obama certainly considered Brooks a liberal. When conservative columnist George Will hosted a dinner for Obama at his home during the 2008 campaign, he invited several conservative friends, including Charles Krauthammer, Larry Kudlow, Paul Gigot and David Brooks. When the president shook hands with Brooks he said, “What are you doing here?”
Is the media turning on Obama?
“No American president can survive if he lets Americans be beheaded on international television with impunity. Impunity! He has to strike back, as an American, it’s in our soul.” – Chris Mathews, MSNBC’s Hardball.
Chris Mathews of MSNBC’s Hardball criticized the president over his statement on the Foley beheading. (realclear politics photo)
Yes, the same Chris Mathews, who said after heading President Obama speak in 2008,”I felt a thrill going up my leg.” I doubt if the thrill has gone from the liberal Mathews, but his remarks on the James Foley beheading was said quite forcefully on air.
Columnist Maureen Dowd has had some unkind things to say about the president. (dentonrc.com)
“The extraordinary candidate turns out to be the most ordinary of men, frittering away precious time on the links,” wrote columnist Maureen Dowd, adding “… this is an ugly, confusing and frightening time at home and abroad, and the country needs its president to illuminate and lead, not sink into some petulant expression of his aloofness, where he regards himself as a party of his own and a victim of petty, needy, bickering egomaniacs.”
“Obama making fools of the media,” read a headline in The Washington Times that caught my eye, but it turned out to be old stuff. Columnist Joseph Curl summarized all of the White House scandals that have disappeared from the news, thanks to a disinterested media. “Say what you will about the president and his soulless team of sycophants, but they’re good. They know to play the media, which apparently doesn’t mind in the least being played,” Curl wrote. Continue reading
Missouri Gov. Nixon’s rush to judgment
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has called for the “vigorous prosecution” of the white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year old black man. This comes just days after he made shameful comments about the Ferguson police on NBC’s Meet the Press, Aug. 17, 2014, reported in my post, “He didn’t bother nobody.”
The governor’s press representative claimed that the governor was not prejudging the police officer, who may have acted in self-defense. Yet, in the governor’s scripted message, he called for the need to achieve justice for the family of the slain man, while referring to the shooting as having taken place in broad daylight; the last description newsmen say is normally used for criminal investigations. So much for the presumption of innocence.
Nixon’s aggressive posture leads one to believe he is currying favor with those seeking the arrest of the police officer. It comes as a grand jury is about to meet to consider the incident. Democrats running for office in the Republican-leaning Missouri need the support of black voters to get elected.
Pressure is also on another Democrat, Bob McCulloch, St. Louis County prosecutor. Those seeking justice for Brown are concerned that McCulloch comes from a police family. His father was killed 50 years ago in the line of duty by a black suspect. State and local Democrat Party members want him to step aside. Continue reading