HALF-FULL REPORT 02/28/14

For the time being, the good guys have won in Ukraine, no thanks to the pusillanimous wimps in Washington and the European Union.

"The seismic shift in Ukraine was achieved by its people, not outside forces, and not its politicians," said Andrew Wood.

It may not last long.  Ousted President Viktor Yanukovich is Moscow.  He’s still president, Russian news agencies say.  Russia is conducting "military maneuvers" near the Crimea in southeastern Ukraine, where Russia has an important naval base. Armed men seized the regional parliament building in the Crimea, and the regional airport.

Obama administration officials are blustering again, but nobody takes them seriously.  Victor Davis Hanson explains why.

To his everlasting shame, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, said: "Some on our side are so stuck in the Cold War era that they want to tweak Russia all the time."  It’s one thing to say it wouldn’t be wise to intervene to prevent Russian aggression against Ukraine, quite another to offer excuses for it.

 "The eruption in Kiev could set off a tsunami that will engulf us all," warned British historian Mark Almond. 

We are now deep into a Kondratieff "Winter," which is often accompanied by war, I noted in a column this week. What will happen next is anybody’s guess.  Here is some informed speculation from my friend Col. Austin Bay; from Walter Russell Mead at the American Interest, Peter Hannaford at the American Spectator, and Julia Ioffe at the New Republic.

"Time is on the side of whomever has the highest pain tolerance, and that is Russia, not the West," said Spengler (David Goldman).

I’m with Spengler in believing the best hope for a solution without war is partition.The Crimea is populated mostly by Russian speakers who take their cues more from Moscow than Kiev. Let Putin have it (since he’s likely to take it anyway). 

* * * *

As gutsy and determined as the protestors in Kiev – but recipients of far less attention – are the protestors in Venezuela.  Anti-government demonstrations have grown since the arrest of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez Feb. 18.  A picture is worth 1,000 words, so here are some photos of what’s been going on.

A gun-toting ex-general has become a hero to the protest movement.

The game changed in Venezuela last week, as a desperate regime launched an "offensive to suppress and terrorize its opponents," said Francisco Toro of Caracas Chronicles.

"Venezuela’s domestic media blackout is joined by a parallel international blackout, one born not of censorship but of disinterest and inertia," he said.

* * * *

This time of rising international tensions is a good time to gut the U.S. military, the Obama administration thinks.  Here, from my friend Mack Owens, Naval War College prof and retired Marine colonel; Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations; former Undersecretary of the Navy Jed Babbin, and former Vice President (and defense secretary) Dick Cheney, are analyses of what the budget cuts SecDef Chuck Hagel announced this week portend for our security.

* * * *

It was, said Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald, the best speech of Marco Rubio’s career.  Former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan is impressed he gave it with so little preparation:

Rubio took to the floor, steamed, Monday (2/24), a few minutes after Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, had waxed rhapsodic about his trip to Cuba. He took Harkin to the woodshed, figuratively speaking.  If he’d taken him there literally, Harkin wouldn’t be able to sit for a week.

After dismembering Harkin, Rubio hammered Venezuela as "the new Cuba."

You can read the speech here. The text doesn’t do it justice, said Seth Mandel of Commentary magazine, so you should watch the whole thing.  "It’s well worth your time," Ed Morrissey said.

* * * *

The "smoking gun" in the IRS scandal has been "hiding in plain sight," Brad Smith, former chairman of the Federal Elections Commission, said Thursday.

IRS official Lois Lerner, who took the Fifth after a self serving rant when called to testify last May, has been summoned to appear before the House Oversight Committee March 5, Chairman Darrell Issa said.  She won’t come unless she’s granted immunity, her lawyer says.  Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-SC, a former federal prosecutor, outlined for Bryan Preston what’s likely to happen.

House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich, unveiled a bill Wednesday (2/25) to curb the ability of the IRS to abuse its authority to persecute conservative groups.  Rising young National Review superstar Eliana Johnson has details.

Eliana’s dad, Scott Johnson of the Power Line blog, has an excellent series of posts here about the unsung hero of the fight to rein in IRS abuse, attorney Cleta Mitchell.

Even liberals are queasy about having the tax man regulate speech, the Wall Street Journal notes.  But when Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex, offered an amendment in the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday to prohibit the IRS from deliberately targeting individuals or groups based on political views, it was unanimously rejected by every Democrat.

Every Dem on the committee also voted against another Cruz amendment, which would have had the Federal Elections Commission, not the IRS, determine what constitutes "political activity."

* * * *

Two thirds of respondents in a Fox News poll last week say Congress should continue to investigate the attack on our consulate in Benghazi. 

The House Intelligence Committee may recall former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell (who lied in earlier testimony, said GOP members of the Senate Intelligence Committee), and former CIA Director David Petraeus.

Surviving members of the seven man security team who arrived in time for the final hour of the fight should be called to testify, says R. Emmett Tyrell.

* * * *

The latest indication Colorado’s Democrat senator Mark Udall is a lame – soon to be a dead – duck is that Rep. Cory Gardner, R, has changed his mind about running against him. Gardner is among the millions who have had their health insurance cancelled because of Obamacare.

A primary battle with another conservative favorite was averted when Weld County (Greeley) District Attorney Ken Buck said he will run instead for Gardner’s now open House seat.  An ecstatic Ross Kaminsky of the American Spectator provides details here.

* * * *

Another soon to be dead duck is Sen. Kay Hagan, D-NC, who invited the local news media to photograph her as she filed papers Monday to run for re-election.  Things went downhill for her when they asked her questions:

"I have no idea how (her) news conference could’ve been worse except had she lit a baby bunny on fire while stomping on the American flag," said Pete Kaliner of WWNC-AM radio in Asheville.  You can watch what he called "the worst planned political presser in history" here.

The Dems have 14 vulnerable senate seats, Hugh Hewitt thinks.

* * * *

In a district Barack Obama won with 54 percent of the vote in 2012, the Republican crushed the Democrat, 60 percent to 40 percent, in a special election Tuesday for a seat in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

The next special election to keep your eye on is in Florida March 6, says John Fund.  Obama carried comfortably the St. Petersburg district of Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, R, who died, in both 2008 and 2012.  Democrat Alex Sink had a sizeable lead in a poll a few weeks ago.  But a poll this week shows Republican David Jolly leading, 44 percent to 42 percent.

* * * *

Four million people have signed up for Obamacare, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Tuesday (2/24).  CMS spun this as a "milestone," but it’s clear now that by the deadline at the end of next month, the administration will fall far short of its original goal of 7 million signups.

As per usual, CMS counts as signed up anyone who has filled out a form. CMS doesn’t say how many have paid their first month’s premium – a requirement for actually being signed up – or how many of the four million had health insurance before.

About 20 percent of signups haven’t paid their premiums, industry experts estimate, so only about 3.2 million – less than half the goal – may actually be signed up so far.

Enrollments fell 29 percent in January from December, I noted in last week’s HFR.  As predicted, the pace of enrollments is slowing even more now.

The uninsured are "increasingly suspicious" of Obamacare, writes Jeffrey Young on the Huffington Post.

So HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is trying to move the goalposts.  That 7 million figure was a CBO guesstimate, she said. "I’m not quite sure where they even got their numbers," she said.

Might it have been from this memo sent to Ms. Sebelius by CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner Sept. 5, projecting a cumulative enrollment of 7.066 million?

A woman who looks remarkably like Ms. Sebelius, claiming to be her, told NBC News Sept. 30: "I think success looks like at least 7 million people having signed up by the end of March 2014."

Ms. Sebelius should try telling the truth for a change, recommended Charles Krauthammer.  "It’s easier to memorize."

* * * *

CMS quietly released a week ago today a report confirming that two thirds of Americans who work for small businesses – more than 11 million – will have their premiums rise because of Obamacare.

CMS may ban the most popular Medicare drug plans.

A terrorist bomber worked as an Obamacare navigator.

Health insurance companies bet consumers would accept sharply narrowed provider networks in exchange for lower premiums.  It looks like they’ll lose that bet, the National Journal reports.

Some restaurants in Florida are posting an Obamacare surcharge on their menus.

Those stories just scratch the surface of the bad news for Obamacare this week. Jim Geraghty of National Review summarizes here "another round of Obamacare train wrecks."

* * * *

As the train wrecks and horror stories mount, the kindest thing that can be said about the Democrats who passed Obamacare in 2009 is they meant well, but screwed up big time.

All of us make mistakes.  At some point in our lives, most of us make a big one.  When it becomes clear we’ve screwed the pooch, decent people acknowledge their mistake, apologize for it, try to make amends to the people inadvertently hurt by our mistake.

But we’re talking about Democrats here.  Their response to the horror stories has been to attack the victims.

All the horror stories are untrue, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday (2/25).

In this column Monday (2/23) entitled: "Health Care Horror Hooey," New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said "the true losers from Obamacare generally aren’t very sympathetic."

"Denied medication, their long-term doctors, and having premiums and deductibles soar, every day Americans are now told they’re faking it," Ed Morrissey said.

It’s hard to be more despicable than Dingy Harry, but Rep Gary Peters, D-Mich, who’s running for the Senate, succeeded.  If tv stations run this ad in which Julie Boonstra, who has leukemia, says the loss of her doctor has endangered her life, they could lose their broadcast licenses, he threatened.

Ms. Boonstra is fighting back.  She went to Peters’ house Wednesday to ask why he’s sliming her and trying to shut her up.  Peters was inside, but wouldn’t come to the door, so Julie Boonstra slipped this letter under it.

"I am a single mother of two children," she said. "I don’t have a group of high paid lawyers to speak for me. But I can continue to speak out and tell my story. I refuse to be silenced through Washington’s intimidation tactics."

Republicans hammered Dingy Harry for his false and vile charge.  Krugman ought to read his own newspaper from time to time, which has reported on three other people with Obamacare horror stories, said Alec Torres of National Review.

John Hinderaker of Power Line summarizes here stories in their local media about 116 people who have Obamacare horror stories.

 "I wonder if Reid calling millions of Americans liars will show up in any ads," said Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin. 

I’d bet on it.

* * * *

It’s "un-American" for the Koch brothers to criticize Democrat policies, Dingy Harry said Wednesday. They aren’t taking his smear of them – and his attack on free speech — lying down.

Dingy Harry is like Vladimir Putin, said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.  He’s put the Senate "on the verge of a death spiral."

* * * *

The Democrat narrative on the minimum wage suffered a setback when Dingy Harry delayed a vote on raising it, apparently because Red State Dems who have to run this year were spooked by the CBO report predicting it would cost half a million jobs.

* * * *

This was another grim week for the US of A, but it was a really, really terrible week for the Dems, who are showing signs of panic. If Alex Sink sinks in Florida next week, there’ll be no mistaking the terror in their eyes. So once again, I can pronounce the glass more than half full.

The heroes of the week are the ordinary people in Ukraine, Venezuela, and here at home who stand up to the fascists.  They are "they are taking grave risks — dozens died in Kiev’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti and many have died in Venezuela cities — to oppose governments with roots in the political Left," notes Michael Barone.

Honorable mention to Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, Bob Corker, R-Tenn, and Ted Cruz, R-Tex  — who delivered on the Senate floor Thursday a stemwinder on Venezuela, Cuba and Iran approaching Rubio’s in quality – for calling the bastards out. No more pretending, for politeness’ sake, that Democrats are decent human beings who mean well.

The assumption of moral superiority by Democrats has been an important factor in their electoral success, is critical to their self-image. Portraying them as they really are – moral cretins who suck up to murderous dictators, who bully and smear the victims of their blunders – will shatter both.

I’m off to drink a toast or three to Angel Vivas, the gun toting ex general in Venezuela who stood off security forces sent to arrest him; to Julie Boonstra, and to all the other ordinary people, here and abroad, who have the guts to stand up for liberty. Jack Wheeler should be back at his post next week. 

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