Today's Obama Speech Sounded Good, But .....

President Obama delivered a 15 month speech today, laying out his “strategy” for fighting ISIL It was the President Obama of 7 years ago, reading a speech with cadence and emotion – not the all too often perfunctory speeches since his election. His heart may actually be into it. He proposed attacking the financing of ISIL, combating their ideology, and stopping the inflow and outflow of militants to ISIL All these steps are for the good. And yet, he can’t confront reality. He still intends to withdraw from Afghanistan, thereby repeating the mistake in puling out of Iraq. He hasn’t learnt from his mistake. The Taliban have already reoccupied much of Afghanistan, and seem poised to seize the rest. Second, there will be no American boots on the ground, although he is dispatching another 375 service members to Iraq. He’s firm, but it sounds like the beginning of a poorly panned mission creep. He is relying on “a systematic campaign of air strikes” Third, he will be relying on existing Arab and Iraqi boots on the ground. The Iraqis proved an inability to fight to date. The Syrian opposition forces were bad-mouthed by the President in early August. He now expects them to suddenly, overnight become a solid fighting force. Most of ISIL tanks, APC’s, and heavy mortars were captured or obtained from the retreating Iraqis and the opposition forces. Fourth, he still refuses to use the terms “War on Terror,” “Islamic Terrorism,” “Radical Islam” or even “Islamic extremists.” Instead he said “The Islamic State” is not Islamic because “No religion condones the killing of innocents.” He is still in denial. He also did not say he would do “whatever” it will take to defeat and destroy ISIL He is proposing a “broad Coalition,” which will be substantially less than the coalition President George W. Bush. England has already said it will not engage in a bombing campaign in Syria. He had already blown off our special relationship with Great Britain. The understory is that much is expected of Turkey, which hitherto has been sympathetic to ISIL. ISIL captured Mosul on June 11. They took prisoner the Turkish Consul General, 18 staffers and their family members, and 18 Turkish Special Forces acting as security for the Consulate. ISIS is holding them hostage against hostile acts by Turkey. President Obama’s speech did not rally Congressional bipartisan support for his actions. He claims the power to do so unilaterally. He looked to Yemen and Somalia as examples of American strategy at work. He must not, once again, not reading or heeding the morning Presidential Briefs. Yemen and Somalia are terrorist ridden, failed nation states. Finally, the President has been substantially downgrading the American military. He did not request Congress to stop the diminution, much less enlarge the military. The President may have acquired talking points, but he still lacks a strategy.

President Obama Meets Today With the Leaders on the Hill: What Da?

President Obama is meeting today with Congressional Leaders: What will that tell us? How serious is he? President Obama’s priorities can be discerned by his schedule over the past 5½ years: 1) Campaign Fundraising 2) Golfing 3) Vacationing 4) Camp David 5) Sellfies 10) No Boots on the Ground 40) Meetings with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reed 50) Meetings with House Minority Leaders Nancy Pelosi 75) Smoozing members of Congress 85) Meeting individual members of Congress 95) Meeting with Republican leaders. His widely publicized golf match with Speaker Boehner a few years ago ended with the House Speaker prevailing on the links. 100) Meeting Congressional leaders And yet, there he is meeting with Democratic and Republican leaders. It must be important Or desperate! The question is he is serious, or is the President responding to falling poll numbers, which indicate he is out of touch with America’s security? Certainly his State Department is out of touch when Marie Harf, Deputy Spokesman for the State Department, gets into a spitting match with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, who criticized her companion, Jen Psaki for lacking gravitas. She called O’Reilly’s conduct “sexist, personally offensive language.” The State Department has real problems. Starting a war with O’Reilly is a waste of time. The question for us is what will President Obama say. Will he really propose a broad action against ISIS, or will he stick to his language about targeted airstrikes, but with the Free Syrian Army providing boots on the ground. The Free Syrian Army is the ineffectual “army” that has turned over munitions to ISIS. Will he begin to stop Iran’s nuclear program? Will the President start using terms, such as “War on Terror” and “Islamic Terrorists,” or is he still in a state of denial?

The Big Ten, Little 14, Looked Bad Saturday

Yesterday was not a good day for the Big Ten, also known as the Big. The Big Ten once had ten teams, then added Penn State to become 11. It was still the Big Ten. Nebraska joined for 12, but still the Big Ten. Maryland and Rutgers just entered the Big Ten, and under the new math 14=10, although the Big Ten sometimes calls itself The “Big.” Less is not more. You have to play big in football to be Big. Thank God for Maryland and Rutgers, The new members, thought to be patsies, at least know how to win in the creampuff pre-season. Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State strayed from the script; they played established teams, and lost. Northwestern and Purdue also lost, to MAC teams, Northern Illinois and Central Michigan respectively. Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Penn State were unimpressive in barely winning. Nebraska, Penn State, and Wisconsin traditionally play creampuffs, so little can be discerned from their victories, unless they’re ugly. The Big was 8-5 yesterday, but none of its teams look like they want to compete in the Big Championship game, much less in Dallas for the national title. Michigan State held on for a half in Eugene against Oregon, but the Neon Day Glo Ducks then, as so often in the past, suddenly turned it up a notch, 46-27. The Spartans were as valiant as they were at Thermopylae 2,493 years ago. Michigan left its defensive line, injured defensive backs, kicking game, and offense at home. Notre Dame shut them out for the first time in 42 games, 31-0. The Wolverines were better than the score for a quarter. No chicken dance after this game. The Ohio State University Buckeyes lost at home to Virginia Tech 35-21. The Buckeye’s great QB, Braxton Miller, is out for the season, but Ohio State, as in 8 years ago against Florida for the national title, was unable to contain the Hokies’ quick defensive ends. Urban Meyer was the winning coach 8 years ago and the losing coach yesterday. What goes around comes around. How does it feel? Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State can still run the string. It won’t be Michigan, and probably not Ohio States. Mark D’Antonio’s job is secure at MSU, as it Urban Meyer’s at OSU. Not so Brady Hoke at Michigan. Fortunately, the Wolverines, Spartans and Buckeyes are basketball powers. The Big is fast becoming a basketball conference. We can’t wait for December to come. The Nebraska Cornhuskers claim to fame this weekend is that they are treating an Ebola patient.

We Already Have a Rapid Deployment Force

President Obama’s answer to the Russian threat to the three Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania is the creation of a 4,000 member rapid deployment force by NATO ready to deploy in 48 hours. The new proposal is a rapid deployment force of 10,000 with soldiers from Great Britain, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands and Norway. Many of these would be fighting for their homeland, and thus not new deployments. Note carefully that President Obama has kept American troops out of the proposed force. He is adverse to putting American boots on the ground in any military action. 10,000 NATO soldiers would enter the threatened country within 48 hours. That is intended to deter Putin and the Red Army? Vladimir Putin, as he is swallowing up more of Ukraine, is hardy quaking in his boots. Obama’s proposal is but a PR stunt that has no meaning, a Potemkin Village, so to speak. The rapid deployment force would respond to a threat – in theory. By the time all the political leaders agreed to deploy the force, the Russian Army would have entered, and probably conquered, the country. NATO’s leaders lack the will to mount a fight with Russia. They also lack the military might, with the limited exception of the United States and France, to fight a land war in Europe. They have shrunk their militaries to sustain their welfare states. President Obama is congenitally opposed to boots on the ground, so we can assume that President Obama will be just as leery as European leaders to commit soldiers into a ground war in Europe. An American President whose only real response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is to send MRE’s to the Ukrainians is not about to dispatch American boots to Estonia. Yet, we already have a military unit ready to deploy a brigade within 18 hours and a battalion in 96 hours. 22 trucks are fully loaded and ready to go, with another 58 backing them up. It’s the fabled 82nd Airborne in Fort Bragg. The 82nd’s equipment was depleted during the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, but it’s now up to full strength. The 82nd has been the rapid deployment force for decades. President Obama does not though propose using it for the Baltic republics. That’s all President Putin needs to know. President Obama is no more serious about defending the Baltic republics than he is about aiding Ukraine.

The Michigan-Notre Dame Football Rivalry Ends Tomorrow: Go Blue

A great rivalry between two comparable teams ends tomorrow. The University of Michigan and Notre Dame combine academic excellence, athletic success, and tradition as well as any American university. They have a nationwide following, illustrated by Notre Dame’s subway alumni. Michigan and Notre Dame have been playing football since 1887. Michigan leads the series 24-16-1, having won 3 of the past 4. The teams are 9-9-1 in South Bend. Ann Arbor is 130 miles from South Bend, but the two most successful college football teams often don’t know how to get from one to the other. Michigan-Ohio State is often considered the greatest college rivalry. It’s bitter, no-holds-bar ferocity, but the schools and teams have great respect for each other. Michigan-Michigan State is a great rivalry with Little Brother achieving preeminence in recent years. Michigan-Notre Dame is different. Too much hatred exists between the programs, going back a century when Michigan’s great coach Fielding Yost thought Notre Dame was cheating (7 year seniors). He vowed to never play Notre Dame again, and barred the Fighting Irish from membership in the predecessor to the Big Ten Conference. The two football programs went their own way, racking up victories and national titles, oblivious to each other – 130 miles apart. Each school claims 11 national titles, but Notre Dame has more in the post World War II era. Neither would have won as many titles or games if they had to play each other every year. Notre Dame has 7 Heisman winners and Michigan 3. Coaches with the names of Fiedling Yost, Fritz Crisler, Bo Schembecher, Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, and Lou Holtz graced the schools. The Victors and the Notre Dame Fight Song are two of the three greatest college fight songs. They met a few times during World War II, but then, but that was it for 3½ decades. Don Canham, Michigan’s Athletic Director, and Moose Krause, Notre Dame’s AD, were good friends and agreed in 1968 to resume the series. A contract was signed in 1969. Scheduling conflicts precluded playing every year and delayed resumption of the games until 1978. The Michigan-Notre Dame game became an instant rivalry. It was a natural. The game often served as a bellwether for the season. It was the most watched regular season college football game last year. The record since the resumption is 15-14-1, with Michigan in the lead. Regardless of the record, the games have usually been close, often decided in the last two minutes, and exciting. Both teams have struggled in the past decade, but even Rick Rodriguez’s Wolverines won 2 out of 3 over Notre Dame, as have Brady Hoke’s. The Michigan-Notre Dame contract had a three game cancellation clause in it. Notre Dame’s AD, Jack Swahbrick, delivered a letter to Michigan’s AD, David Brandon, before the September 25, 2012 kickoff at Notre Dame Stadium. AD Brandon opened it after the game, and saw that Notre dame was giving its three game notice to cancel the series. The last game therefore will be played tomorrow in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus. The notice was legal, but tacky. One assumes that neither Father Hesburgh nor Father Joyce would have sanctioned such a notice. Notre Dame further poisoned the well on Thursday. It announced a two game home and home with Ohio State in 2022 and 2023. One unknown is that five Notre Dame players, including starters, are currently on suspension. Academic improprieties are in issue. I am cynical enough to not be surprised to see reinstatements before Saturday’s kickoff. Notre Dame also reduced the 116 year rivalry with Michigan State, but retained the annual game with Purdue. The Spartans have won 10 of the past 17 games. One has the impression, as Michigan’s Coach Brady Hoke said, Notre Dame is chickening out. The Big House loudspeakers at the end of Michigan’s 41-30 win last year blared out The Chicken Dance. The regular season rivalry is over. Perhaps in a playoff game, but it won’t be the same. The Michigan Wolverines and Notre Dame Fighting Irish will go back to much of the 20th Century. They will ignore each other. Go blue, and I usually would not out this phrase in writing: POTFI!

Drone Wars Over Disneyland?

Drone Wars, Dueling Drones Over Disneyland? Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Disney have announced forays into drones. Where is Apple? Apple already has Cloud problems. Amazon unveiled Prime Air, a proposed drone delivery system that could deliver a package within 30 minutes. The last company to guarantee 30 minute delivery was Dominos. That resulted in speeding drivers, accidents, and liability. Amazon is seeking a permit to test its system. BP has received a permit to fly drones over Alaska.It will air out its underwater technology. Google showed the world Project Wing and Project Loon. A drone delivering articles to a Queensland, Australia down a 200’ fishing line appears on a Project Wing video. The drones would also be able to provide a real time, continuous report on a disaster as well as providing relief. Facebook wants to use drones, satellites, and infrared lasers to beam internet connections to earth. Its scientists are studying the possibility though the “Facebook Interconnectivity Lab.” You will have friends in high places. Google wants to accomplish the same goal through Project Loon - an interconnected network of balloons flying 20 kilometers over the earth surface. The purpose is to deliver internet services to rural areas. In a battle over airspace a laser can beat a balloon any time. Disney has applied for three patents for drones. One is for an aerial display system with floating pixels (flixels). Walt Disney gave us animatronics. Bob Iger will bestow dronatronics on the world. The other patents would be for aerial projectors for nighttime displays and aerial marionettes and puppets. Let’s bring the patent wars, and the patent trollers, to the clouds. “Look Up in the sky It’s a bird It’s a plane It’s a flying flixel.” Disneyland’s Dueling Drones will feature flixel battles between good and evil, perhaps dodging Amazon, Facebook, and Google drones in the crowded skies, unless Disneyland becomes a no drone zone for non-Disney drones. Wouldn’t it be great to watch a High Noon shootout between the drones? No more “Cars” and its sequels. Larry the Cable Guy will be out of a stitch because cable will be grounded. Now we will watch “Drones” with drone sequels, which will drone on and on and on and on. The skies would be crowded with drones. Accidents, headons, rear ends, near misses, crashes, DWI’s (droning while intoxicated), drone jams, and droning without a license, are inevitable. Drone codes and drone police will patrol the sky with drone patrols. Then comes drone hackers and terrorists skyjacking drones. Also drug loads flying drone drugs into the country. We will have mini drones and maxi drones, all competing for parking spaces at the aerodrone. The skies will be flooded with drones, perhaps blocking the sun’s solar energy. Then come the toymakers with toy drones, baby drones, Barbie and Ken drones. Yet, none of this may come to pass. The federal bureaucracy is studying the issue. The FAA controls the airspace while NASA at Moffett Field in Silicon Valley is devising a drone traffic control system, complete with “no drone” zones. Imagine a century ago if federal bureaucrats controlled the emerging automobile and airline industries. We would still be riding bicycles and horses. Where is Apple?

Labor Day 2014: Solidarity Ain't What It Used To Be

Happy Labor Day: Democratic Solidarity Forever (?) Labor Day 6 of the Obama Administration: How is the solidarity? Labor Day, September 1, 2014 appears normal. Democratic politicians have breakfast, lunch, dinner, BBQ’s and rallies at union events, reaffirming Big Labor as one of the foundations of the modern Democratic Party coalition, going back to FDR and the New Deal. The unions traditionally provided large sums of money, phone banks, and the foot soldiers in the get out the vote efforts. President Obama was in Milwaukee today and Vice President Biden in Detroit. The UAW owes the President big time. The President’s speech today was like so many of his other speeches; it was for show. The marriage is fraying. The unionized percent of the private sector is down to 6.5%. The percent will continue to shrink with Indiana and Michigan becoming right to work states. A few other Frost Belt states may join the ranks, depending on h November elections Not only is the traditional industrial base of the union movement shrinking due to globalization and right to work statutes, but also because of actions by the Obama Administration. The President has sacrificed construction jobs to the environmentalists on the Keystone Pipeline. He is also trying to totally eliminate the American coal industry, unionized and non-unionized. The once-powerful United Mine Workers is toast to the Obama Administration. The union power now rests with the public sector employees, who have a 35% penetration rate in the public sector. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) straddles the public sector and the private sector, often in low paying service jobs. SEIU has about 1.9 million members. Mary Kay Harris, its president, flew on Air Force One today with the President. President Obama showboats for the union movement by seeking a raise in the minimum wage, calling it a living wage. Many heavily unionized cities and blue states have raised the minimum wage. Unions support an increase in the minimum wage because it allows them to seek wage increases above the minimum. The rhetoric ignores the reality that raising he minimum wage decreases employment, especially African American teenage employment in the cities. The unions seem oblivious to the fact that the Administration’s tolerance of open borders and the granting of amnesty substantially increases the unskilled work force, resulting in a downward pressure on wages. One ray of light exists for the unions in the Obama Administration. The National Labor Relations Board, stacked with Obama appointees, is attempting to fundamentally change labor law for fast food employees at the urging of the SEIU. The NLRB General Counsel announced on July 29 that he would allow the filing of grievances against McDonald’s for alleged unfair labor practices by the company’s franchises. He held McDonald’s was a joint employer with its franchises, and hence could be jointly liable for their employment misdeeds. The ruling defies decades of labor law and the fundamental principles of corporation law. A franchise is an independent corporation not owned or controlled by the franchisor. This NLRB will probably approve the holding on a 3-2 vote, at which point it goes into the judicial system. This too is for show.