What’s interesting in the news today?
1. So a guy with ZERO military experience thinks he’s qualified to make these decisions? They tried this in Vietnam. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.
From NationalReview “President Obama will take a hands-on approach to the United States airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State and will personally sign off on bombing targets in the country, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reports that the president has put in place much stricter requirements for strikes in Syria – where the country’s ongoing civil war and President Bashar Assad’s government complicate the situation – than in Iraq, where the U.S. continues to carry out airstrikes. Officials told the Journal that President Obama views taking action in Syria as being similar to U.S. counterterrorism operations in countries such as Somalia or Yemen.”
He’s the most unqualified choice (as in most cases) to be making this type of decisions.
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2. That probably explains some of this.
From TheWashingtonPost “Flashes of disagreement over how to fight the Islamic State are mounting between President Obama and U.S. military leaders, the latest sign of strain in what often has been an awkward and uneasy relationship.
Even as the administration has received congressional backing for its strategy, with the Senate voting Thursday to approve a plan to arm and train Syrian rebels, a series of military leaders have criticized the president’s approach against the Islamic State militant group.”
“The White House and Pentagon have scurried this week to insist there is no hint of dissent in the ranks, though in some cases their efforts have focused only more attention on the issue.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel tried to reassure the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday that civilian and military leaders at the Pentagon were in “full alignment” and in “complete agreement with every component of the president’s strategy.””
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3. The CIA thinks his strategy, if you can call it that, is doomed to fail.
From HotAir “I’m torn between thinking this is big news and thinking it’s so obvious that it doesn’t qualify as news at all. Show of hands: Who believes a war that’s been raging for three and a half years, with hundreds of thousands of people dead, between every degenerate Sunni and Shiite jihadi outfit in the Middle East is going to be won by a few thousand amateurs who’ve had a couple months of training from Uncle Sam?
We’ve got the 16 seed in this bracket, guys. Let’s bet what’s left of our foreign policy credibility on it, what do you say?
The opposition derives from a number of factors. First, the CIA has already been covertly equipping Syrian rebels at the instruction of the White House, but has come to find the fighters increasingly disorganized and radicalized as the conflict goes on, with U.S.-supplied arms winding up in the hands of more radical fighters…
“I have heard it expressed, outside of classified contexts, that what you heard from your intelligence sources is correct, because the CIA regards the effort as doomed to failure,” the congressman said in an email. “Specifically (again without referring to classified information), the CIA thinks that it is impossible to train and equip a force of pro-Western Syrian nationals that can fight and defeat Assad, al-Nusra and ISIS, regardless of whatever air support that force may receive.”
He added that, as the CIA sees it, the ramped-up backing of rebels is an expansion of a strategy that is already not working. “The CIA also believes that its previous assignment to accomplish this was basically a fool’s errand, and they are well aware of the fact that many of the arms that they provided ended up in the wrong hands,” the congressman said, echoing intelligence sources.”
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4. Gee I wonder why this isn’t getting more press? OK, not really….
From GatewayPundit “Congressman Jason Chaffetz broke this shocking news Wednesday that four known terrorists were apprehended at the US border in Texas on September 10 – the day before the 13th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks.
Chaffetz questioned Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on whether he is “aware of any apprehensions of suspected or known terrorists.”
Johnson dodged the question.
Tonight, Rep. Chaffetz told Megyn Kelly there were four terrorists arrested crossing the US border in Texas on September 10.
“There were actually four individuals trying to cross through the Texas border, who were apprehended at two different stations, that do have ties to known terrorist organizations in the Middle East.””
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5. This is disturbing for a lot of reasons.
From TheWashingtonTimes “Mysterious “interceptor” cellphone towers that can listen in someone’s phone call despite not being part of any phone networks have turned up near the White House and Senate.
A company that specializes in selling secure mobile phones discovered the existence of several of the towers in and around the nation’s capitol.
“It’s highly unlikely that federal law enforcement would be using mobile interceptors near the Senate,” ESD America CEO Les Goldsmith told the technology website Venture Beat on Thursday.
The towers are also capable of loading spyware onto a mobile device before passing off a victim’s call to a legitimate network. “My suspicion is that it is a foreign entity,” he told Venture Beat.”
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6. Not shocking. It seems the White House is exaggerating ObamaCare coverage gains.
From Forbes “Glance at recent Obamacare headlines and you might think the healthcare law has turned out to be a smashing success, its initial glitches and legal foibles forgotten in the face of incontrovertible achievements.
The proof is supposedly in the data, and we’re told the latest data is a clear victory for the Affordable Care Act. “Another day, another survey showing that Obamacare is beginning to cure American’s uninsured problem,” led HuffPo’s coverage this week of two surveys showing a drop in the uninsured rate. “CDC: Uninsured rate now the lowest on record,” ran the headline at Vox, followed by the observation that, “This is, in part, a reflection of Obamacare.”
The surveys, one from the Centers for Disease Control and the other from the U.S. Census Bureau, do indeed show a declining uninsured rate nationwide. But as with so much of the data on Obamacare, they don’t really tell us much more than that. Considered in the light of other evidence, however, they do help illuminate the shell game surrounding Obamacare, whereby the administration and the media inflate the law’s achievements and hide its growing costs from American taxpayers.”
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Wandering Views 
My wife: I don’t like creeping socialism. It makes people poorer and lazier. I really don’t like obscenity and perversion, but we can avoid much of that by avoiding modern movies, songs and TV. However, if the US bans spanking, I will be ready to leave.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/americans-opinions-on-spanking-vary-by-party-race-region-and-religion/
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#4. The ones who worry me are the ones they didn’t catch.
I don’t know how many there are.
In two of his books, Clancy used the southern border as the entry point for the terrorists.
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Scotland voted NO. I was shocked by the high turnout–averaged over 80%.
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Interesting piece by Barone on the generally weakened states of the two political parties:
http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2014/09/19/which-is-the-weaker-party-your-call-n1893614
“… The Republican Party, through its 160-year history, has had a core support group which is thought of as typically American but which by itself is not a national majority: Northern Protestants in the 19th century, married white people in America today.
“The Democratic party, over its 182-year history, has been a collection of out groups, often with little in common, but with majority potential when they stick together: Catholic immigrants and white Southerners in the 19th century, blacks and gentry/university liberals today. …
” … Republicans face an uphill task in getting their ideas out because of the hostility or incomprehension of old-line media. They have a lot of hard work ahead of them, with no guarantee of a successful outcome. As for Democrats, they face issues with potential fractures in their disparate top-and-bottom coalition.
“So which party is weaker? Your call.”
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We may not be dead yet. If 34% of people in the Southwest back secession, we have to have over 40% of Texans. Hillary could be the spark just as Lincoln was in 1860.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/19/us-usa-secession-exclusive-idUSKBN0HE19U20140919
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