Germany Bans Islamic State

Now there's an idea.

At WSJ, "Around 400 German Nationals and Residents Have Joined Militant Group in Syria and Iraq":

BERLIN—Germany banned all activities of the Islamic State militant group in the country on Friday after hundreds of German nationals and residents traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the radical faction there while returnees were agitating and rallying supporters at home.

The ban, which also includes the seizure of IS's financial assets, is one step away from classifying IS as a terrorist group—a decision that can only be made by a court of law at the end of what is generally a time-consuming process. The ban targets propaganda on the Internet and social media and includes the display of IS symbols and flags.

About 400 German nationals and residents had joined IS in Syria and Iraq, said Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, who announced the ban.

"More than 100 Islamists have returned. Many frustrated, but others with combat experience. They have learned to hate and kill," Mr. de Maizière told reporters.

"They are well connected. They have been well trained to fight and are possibly willing to share their knowledge with other supporters and recruit new supporters. We must prevent radical Islamists bringing their Jihad to our cities. We don't know what they are doing but it could be that they will carry out attacks."

The ban includes displaying IS symbols publicly during gatherings or in writings, photos, recordings, images or illustrations. These symbols include the IS flag which displays the beginning of the Islamic profession of faith as well as the prophet's seal in white script on black background. The ban doesn't target Islamic symbols in general but only those that the IS group has been using since 2004 in a terrorist context.

Last month, Berlin took a rare decision to deliver antitank weaponry and machine guns to help Kurdish fighters in Iraq battling Islamic State in norther Iraq. This week, however, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier overruled some conservative lawmakers who had called on the government to assist the U.S. in conducting airstrikes against IS positions in Iraq and Syria.

While Germany has dispatched troops abroad since the 1990s, most notably in the Balkans and Afghanistan, and has occasionally delivered weapons in crisis regions, it has generally sought to avoid overseas military involvement because of its history of international aggression under the Nazis.

"The [IS ban] is necessary because the biggest threat to internal security stems from returning IS fighters and because support activities, such as publicly expressing sympathy for IS and recruiting members and collecting money, are putting the internal security of our country at risk—not only that of countries and regions where IS is fighting," said Wolfgang Bosbach, head of the lower house of parliament's interior affairs committee and lawmaker with the ruling Christian Democratic Union party, ahead of the announcement.

The planned ban comes after supporters of the IS group attacked a group of Yazidis in the western German town of Herford last month. IS has been accused of ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide after systematic attacks on the religious minority in northern Iraq.

In its 2013 report, published in June this year, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the internal intelligence agency, said it had no information about IS' structure or members in Germany. But it said Islamic terrorism is the main security threat facing Germany.

Overall support for Islamic groups has been on the rise in Germany. The agency estimates that the number of potential supporters rose to 43,190 last year from 42,550 in 2012 and 38,080 in 2011.

The growing visibility of such groups also made headlines last week when a patrol of self-proclaimed Shariah Police took to the streets to urge Turkish people in the western German city of Wuppertal to stop drinking alcohol and gambling for money.

Mr. de Maizière called on the public to help the government in its efforts to fight IS influence in Germany.

"The security forces alone won't be able to win the fight against the Islamic radicalization," he said. "The radicalization often takes place unnoticed by the public, on the Q.T., on the Internet. That's why parents, siblings, neighbors and friends are called upon."

Still more.

Maria Menounos Bikini Shots for Shape Magazine October 2014

She's a sweetie.

At Egotastic!, "Maria Menounos Poses for Shape Magazine October 2014."

VIDEO: Code Pink Communist Medea Benjamin Denounces U.S. Combat Operations Against #ISIS

Communist Amy Goodman describes Code Pink's Medea Benjamin as "one of the country's leading peace activists."

They're all traitors who're allied with America's enemies. Seriously, it's too bad we can't have them lined up and shot. But hey, dissent is the highest form of patriotism, or something.

Benjamin denounces this "insane never ending war," as if it's America that's on the genocidal march around the world. It's all America's fault. It always is, if you're an America-hating radical leftist.

At Democracy Now:



And remember, Code Pink's got extremely close ties to the White House, so you know that these fifth columnists are exerting considerable influence on the "we're not at war with ISIS" Obama administration.

Republicans Have 47-44 Advantage in Generic Ballot for the November Elections

It's not huge, but polling experts say that surveys typically under-report the Republican vote on the generic ballot, so the GOP could be looking even better than this.

Oh, and the generic ballot question measures support in House races. Some experts say there's also a strong correlation to patterns of support in Senate elections.

Via Pew Research:

Republicans have 47%-44% midterm edge among likely voters; at this stage in 2010, it was 50% to 43% http://t.co/k6IOFIslzL

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) September 12, 2014

RELATED: At Astute Bloggers, "WASH POST/ABC NEWS POLL SPELLS DOOM FOR THE DEMS AND SALVATION FOR THE NATION!"

Islamic State Ties Woman to Car, Splits Her in Two

Because the Yazidis won't convert to Islam, but Islamic State is not Muslim, or anything.

At Pamela Geller's, "Report: Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) split woman in two with cars, buries non-Muslims alive," and Pat Dollard, "PURE EVIL: ISIS Ties Woman To Car, Splits Her In Two."

The Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, are spread over northern Iraq and are part of the country's Kurdish minority.

Many of their villages were destroyed when Saddam Hussein's troops tried to crush the Kurds. Some were taken away by the executed former dictator's intelligence agents.

Now they feel helpless again. Fellow Kurds abandoned them. Iraq has a new prime minister who is seen as moderate and may be less inclined to engage in disputes with the Kurds over budgets and oil than his predecessor, perhaps bringing political stability that could benefit the north.

But many Yazidis have lost faith in Iraq and its leaders. They have few options. Some complained that Kurdish forces would not let them travel to Turkey.

So for now, it seems all they can do is wait, and try to forget what caused them to flee their homes.

"They put women and children under the ground. They were alive. I still hear their screams. They were trying to keep their heads up to keep breathing," said car repairman Dawud Hassan, 26.

"Iraq is finished for me. We had houses, shops, they all burnt our things. We have nothing. We want to cross to Turkey but the peshmerga is not letting us. We will not stay there, we want to go to Europe."

It is not clear if Iraqi government forces or peshmerga will manage to claw back territory and then hold it - something that could help Yazidis believe in their country again.

Islamic State is getting more ambitious. It has already grabbed much of the north and resources such as oil fields that will help fund its self-proclaimed caliphate.

Some Yazidis, like Hassan, 22, a student, shake their heads in disbelief when recalling how only foreign Kurdish fighters from Turkey or Syria extended a lifeline in the face of Islamic State.

"They tied the hands of one woman to the back of a car and her legs to another car and they split her into two," he said beside makeshift tents as women cried.

"Have you seen anything like this? This is all because she is not Muslim and did not want to be converted. We barely made it."

VIDEO: U.S. Troops in Afghanistan Mark September 11 Anniversary

Via Reuters:

Former NSA Director Michael Hayden: Airstrikes Are Like 'Casual Sex'

At the Hill, "Ex-NSA chief: Airstrikes like ‘casual sex’":

The United States is at war with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL), the White House and Pentagon said Friday, a day after Secretary of State John Kerry repeatedly declined to use that phrase.

"The United States is at war with ISIL in the same way that we are at war with Al Qaida and its Al Qaida affiliates all around the globe," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at the White House.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby echoed that sentiment, telling reporters that while the effort was "not the Iraq war," they should "make no mistake, we know we are at war with ISIL."

VIDEO: Secretary of State John Kerry: We Are 'Not at War' with #ISIS

At Free Beacon, "VIDEO: Secretary of State John Kerry: 'We Are Not at War' with #ISIS."



Also at CNN, "Kerry: U.S. not at war with ISIS."

Foreign Fighters Flock to #ISIS — Unexpectedly!

At CNN, "How foreign fighters are swelling ISIS ranks in startling numbers."

Yes, but these fighters aren't real Muslims or anything.

Unexpecedly! #ISIS Ranks Swell to Over 31,000

At Lonely Con, "ISIS Ranks Swell to Over 31,000."

Yeah, and we're still trying to figure out if we're really "at war" with the Islamic State.

OBILLARY!

OMG this is brilliant!

At Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – What Difference Will It Make?"

Unexpectedly! Arab States Give Tepid Support in Fight Against #ISIS

It's just like Ralph Peters said: Arab regimes don't trust Obama. He's f-ked 'em over too many times by now.

At the New York Times, "Arabs Give Tepid Support to U.S. Fight Against ISIS" (via Memeorandum):

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Many Arab governments grumbled quietly in 2011 as the United States left Iraq, fearful it might fall deeper into chaos or Iranian influence. Now, the United States is back and getting a less than enthusiastic welcome, with leading allies like Egypt, Jordan and Turkey all finding ways on Thursday to avoid specific commitments to President Obama’s expanded military campaign against Sunni extremists.

As the prospect of the first American strikes inside Syria crackled through the region, the mixed reactions underscored the challenges of a new military intervention in the Middle East, where 13 years of chaos, from Sept. 11 through the Arab Spring revolts, have deepened political and sectarian divisions and increased mistrust of the United States on all sides.

“As a student of terrorism for the last 30 years, I am afraid of that formula of ‘supporting the American effort,’ ” said Diaa Rashwan, a scholar at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a government-funded policy organization in Cairo. “It is very dangerous.”

The tepid support could further complicate the already complex task Mr. Obama has laid out for himself in fighting the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: He must try to confront the group without aiding Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, or appearing to side with Mr. Assad’s Shiite allies, Iran and the militant group Hezbollah, against discontented Sunnis across the Arab world.

While Arab nations allied with the United States vowed on Thursday to “do their share” to fight ISIS and issued a joint communiqué supporting a broad strategy, the underlying tone was one of reluctance. The government perhaps most eager to join a coalition against ISIS was that of Syria, which Mr. Obama had already ruled out as a partner for what he described as terrorizing its citizens...

More.

'I feel morally compelled at a serious personal level to call for and defend the development of weapons of overwhelming power and sophistication and then to call for their employment against all nation states and ideologies currently waging wars against any liberal democracy...'

Heh, my friend David Swindle gets personal in the name of national self-defense.

At PJ Media, "When the Grandchildren of the Atom Bomb Wake Up, There Will Be No More 9/11s":

Whether Jew, Christian, secularist, or a tech-minded, neo-pagan confabulation of all three like myself, the broad reading of the history of war against nature-worshipping slavemasters from the Canaanites to the Nazis reveals that the way to achieve peace is to impose it on the enemies trying to destroy you with weapons which make surrender the only viable option.

And at the post --- indeed, what inspired the post --- is this clip from Prager University:

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters Hammers Obama's Cowardice, Incompetence, and Indecision

The irrepressible Ralph Peters.

Via RCP, "Ralph Peters: Obama 'A Terrified Little Man In A Great Big Job He Can't Do'."

He's not going to get neutral states and others in the Middle East to step up. Why? Because they cannot trust Obama. He's screwed over the Eastern Europeans on missile defense to get a crappy arms deal with Putin. He's bailed on our allies in Iraq. He's run NATO all over the map in Afghanistan. He's drawn red line after red line and never lived up to any of it. He won’t call an invasion of Ukraine an invasion. He won’t call a war a war. He won’t call Islamist terrorists Islamist terrorists. This president is a terrified little man in a great big job he can’t do.

First Lady Michelle Obama Commemorates 9/11 with KaBOOM!

Sounds like she wants to blow some shit up on September 11.

And man, we still have two more years of this bull.

@AceofSpadesHQ If this tweet and pic does not prove that the Obamas hate American children, what does https://t.co/KjNmMo1f2V
— KBDaBear (@kbdabear) September 12, 2014

The Democrat Radical Left is Destroying and Wussifying the American Military

An astonishing segment.

John Stossel interviews former Marine Aaron MacLean:



You'll be fuming by the time you get to the $150.00 a gallon for green fuels for American military aircraft. Obama did that. Something he actually did, the f-king treasonous scumball.

'Scottish independence would seriously weaken Britain as America's most important ally and as one of the key pillars of the Western world's security posture in the Middle East and Eastern Europe...'

An awesome piece, from Brendan Simms and Jason Pack, at the Los Angeles Times, "The Scots have little to gain and a whole lot to lose with independence":

The gravest immediate threat to the West's long-term security does not emanate from Vladimir Putin or from the militants of the Islamic State. Rather, surprisingly, it comes from peace-loving Scots.

With polls now showing a majority of Scots supporting independence in the referendum set for Sept. 18, it's suddenly clear that Scotland might actually break away from Britain. In the words of Lord West of Spithead, former First Sea Lord, "A 'yes' vote for Scottish independence would make it more difficult to defend Britain. It would diminish NATO and the West's ability to do things."

Bluntly put, there is no rational upside for a 'yes' vote. In Scotland, the independence campaign runs on emotions alone. Abroad, its supporters are the postcolonial left who will revel in Britain's resultant weakness. Independence may increase Scotland's national pride, but its economy will suffer as companies and jobs flee south amid uncertainties about currency and taxation.

There will be no political dividend either. Unlike the "Irish problem" of the 20th century, the Scottish question is not a running sore in European or transatlantic politics. It does not involve a serious terrorist threat, nor would independence eliminate a destabilizing political movement — as would Corsican independence from France or Basque independence from Spain.

Simply put, Scottish independence is a solution in search of a problem. It would unwittingly destroy history's most successful political merger, the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707, which enabled Britain to punch above its weight in the world, served as a model for the United States Constitution, and provided a dynamic core for a fiscal-military state that defeated its illiberal and undemocratic opponents in World War I, World War II and the Cold War.

Scottish independence would seriously weaken Britain as America's most important ally and as one of the key pillars of the Western world's security posture in the Middle East and Eastern Europe...

Keep reading.

Obama Honors 9/11 Victims a Day After Announcing New Mission Against Terror

At the New York Times, "On a Day Devoted to Past Events, Focus on New Terror Link":

WASHINGTON — The morning after committing the nation to an expanded military campaign against Islamist terrorism, President Obama honored the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as the White House argued that he had the right to wage his new fight under the same legal authority he used to hunt down Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

On a day suffused with memories of four hijacked planes and the war they ignited, the president’s new mission seemed less a break from the past than the continuation of a long national struggle.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the administration said, was formerly the Iraqi affiliate of Al Qaeda, and has maintained ties with Al Qaeda even after its very public falling-out with Qaeda leaders. It uses brutal tactics that are out of the Qaeda playbook, and is viewed, even by some members of Al Qaeda, as the legitimate heir to Bin Laden’s legacy.

The argument, laid out Thursday by Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, could spare the president’s lawyers from having to negotiate a new legal authorization from Congress, should Mr. Obama decide to ask lawmakers to approve a prolonged military campaign.

But it ties his efforts against ISIS more firmly to the war on terrorism waged by him and his predecessor George W. Bush in the decade after the 2001 attacks, even though Mr. Obama insists they are different. In his prime-time speech to the nation on Wednesday, Mr. Obama drew a distinction between the ISIS campaign and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying it was a new kind of counterterrorism operation that would rely on bolstering local troops rather than deploying American ones.

On Thursday, Mr. Obama paid tribute to the service members and civilians killed at the Pentagon. Speaking before a giant American flag draped over the part of the Pentagon wall where one of the hijacked planes crashed, Mr. Obama said, “Thirteen years after small and hateful minds conspired to break us, America stands tall and America stands proud.”

The president hailed the “9/11 generation” of soldiers who have served in the years since the 2001 attacks, noting that “three months from now, our combat mission in Afghanistan will come to an end.”

Mr. Obama made no mention of ISIS, speaking only of challenges facing the country. But his description of a nation coping with the threat of terrorism seemed entirely relevant today. “We carry on because as Americans, we don’t give in to fear — ever,” he said.

Keep reading.

Mel Brooks Wore Fake Finger for Six-Finger Hand Print at Chinese Theater

Well, I thought he had six-digits on the left hand.

But it turns out he faked six fingers to do something different for history.

At LAT, "Mel Brooks' Chinese Theatre cement handprint has six fingers."

'Orgasmic' Slingshot Ride Gets Women Really Excited

At Instapundit, "VIDEO: Women Get Really Excited, Orgasm On Amusement Park Ride."

Megyn Kelly Destroys Obama in 82 Seconds

At Western Journalism, "Epic Rant: It Took Just 82 Seconds for Megyn Kelly to Utterly Destroy Obama."

The Sad Return of the 9/11 Truth Movement

A great post, at American Glob.

Barack Obama, You’re No Ronald Reagan

From Dimitri Simes, at the National Interest:

Obama’s new sweeping pronouncements are dangerous. If they don’t prove hollow, further discrediting the United States in the process, they compel him put the United States in very dangerous territory. Obama appears to think that he can threaten to do anything, anywhere, against American enemies without any consequences for what he says, does, or doesn’t do. It is precisely because Obama is weak that he has a propensity for offering sweeping inflammatory pronouncements that deter no one but can be exploited by anyone looking for an excuse to disregard sovereignty of others whether in Ukraine or elsewhere.

Man, this is a stupendous takedown! Utterly brutal.

Continue reading.

Reflections on 9/11 from USS Nimitz

Via Theo Spark, "Nimitz Remembers 9/11..."

Supermodel Exhibition from Victoria’s Secret Photographer Russell James

At the New York Daily News, "Lensman Russell James achieves a naked ambition with book featuring Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum & more":

Supermodels are famous for looking great when they’re almost naked. Turns out they look pretty good when completely naked, too.

Photographer Russell James makes that point — repeatedly! — in his latest book, “Angels,” the fourth in his series of coffee table tomes about the Earth’s most beautiful places, things and, most profitably, women.

James has shot plenty of sexy images over the years, but he’d never done a full volume inspired by nudity — not that the public hadn’t been calling out for it.

More.

Also at Gotham, "PHOTOS: VICTORIA'S SECRET HOSTS PHOTOGRAPHER RUSSELL JAMES' ANGELS BOOK LAUNCH."

And Egotastic!, "Candice Swanepoel, Alessandra Ambrosio, Kendall Jenner, and More Naked Models in Russell James’ Angels Photo Book."

Colleges Reject Charge That Freshman Reading Lists Have Left-Wing Political Bias

Actually, I don't have a problem with most of the readings cited at this piece, at the Los Angeles Times.

Some of the greatest in classical literature is inherently progressive and humanistic.

The problem is when leftist professors indoctrinate students with an endless stream of race, class, gender and homosexual advocacy, at the expense of a broad pedagogical approach. And there's really no debate on whether that's happening.

In any case, here's this from the article:

Freshmen at colleges around the country for years have been assigned to read the same books as a way to bond at orientation and to encourage intellectual interactions rather than just social ones.

But this year, some of the reading selections are coming under attack.

In South Carolina, for example, the state Legislature tried to cut funding for two state universities that selected books with gay themes.

The conservative Young Americans for Freedom compiled a list of those books that they contend offer only left-leaning perspectives, including "Americanah," a novel by a celebrated Nigerian writer that was picked this year at Pomona College, Penn State, Duke University and Macalester College.

The National Assn. of Scholars had another beef. It advocates the classics and argued in a recent report that by frequently selecting contemporary literature, "colleges are implying that students have little to learn from the past. Or perhaps they simply think students' attention spans are too limited for them to want to pick up such a book and read it on their own."

The group suggested schools should instead assign such alternatives as James Fennimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans," Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man," Shakespeare's plays, and selections from the Bible.

Colleges deny any political intent. They say they seek high-quality books that provoke debate and that they are encouraging it as an academic experience amid all the other events and parties during those first few days on campus. Because many schools invite authors to campus, classics by long-dead writers don't fit the bill and there are other opportunities to study them, colleges say.

A common book "is a tangible bond but it has intellectual heft as opposed to just wearing the school colors," said Cheryl Spector, director of academic first-year experiences at Cal State Northridge, where this year's common reading is "The Postmortal," a futuristic novel by Drew Magary about possible immortality and a cure for aging.

Critics misunderstand the programs' goals, she said: "The fact is we are not trying to pick literary masterpieces primarily, although we don't mind it if we hit them. But we do want engagement with students. We want to invite them to a love of reading."

Nearly 40% of colleges ask students to participate in such readings, according to a recent survey by the Assn. for Orientation, Transition and Retention in Higher Education.

UCLA this year chose baseball hero and former Bruin Jackie Robinson's autobiography, "I Never Had It Made;" the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is tackling Louise Erdich's novel "Round House," about violence on a Native American reservation; Williams and Trinity colleges selected Rebecca Skloot's "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," the history of how cancer tissue from a poor black woman influenced science.

At Pomona College, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Americanah," a novel about Nigerians who emigrate to the U.S. and Britain and return home, was selected from 40 nominated books by a panel of faculty, students and others. Copies were mailed to incoming freshmen's homes.

Pomona's dean of students, Miriam Feldblum, said Young Americans for Freedom badly mischaracterized the book. The novel, she said, offers multiple perspectives of racial topics and American and Nigerian societies and emphasizes that people should not make assumptions about culture and history. Beyond its cross-cultural themes, it's a good book for young people because it examines long friendships and life's unexpected turns, she said.

The college aims for political balance, Feldblum said, pointing to the 2008 selections of autobiographies from both presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain...

More.

FLASHBACK: "How California's Colleges Indoctrinate Students."

Thursday Teaching

I'll be working all day.

More blogging tonight.

Shop Amazon in the meanwhile!

9/11 and the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy

Former Vice President Richard Cheney, yesterday, at the American Enterprise Institute.

Also at LAT, "Cheney urges Obama to launch 'immediate' assault on Islamic State."

The 'Food Insecurity' Hoax

Another one of those leftist buzz-phrases designed to promote dependency and expand government.

And it's a hoax, via iOWNTHEWORLD.

VIDEO: College Students Don't Remember 9/11 Anniversary, Don't Know Much About ISIS

Via Red Alert Politics, "Young America’s Foundation video shows college students don’t remember 9/11 anniversary, don’t know a lot about ISIS."

Does an Untapped Market Exist for Smart-Watches?

We're about to find out, argues Stephen Green, at PJ Media, "Dear Apple: Why a Watch?"

And ICYMI, "Apple Shows Off Smartwatch, Larger-Screen iPhones."

VIDEO: Marxist Mayor Bill de Blasio Lacks Security Clearance to View Classified Terror Documents

Radical butt-freak Marxist. Serves the f-ker right.

At CBS News New York:

#ISIS 'Is Not Islamic' — President Obama Speech on Defeating Islamic State Jihadists

I was cringing before even a minute into the speech.

Watch it here, "President Obama Addresses the Nation on the ISIL Threat."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Obama vows to hunt Islamic State militants 'wherever they exist'."

Obama: #ISIS “is not ‘Islamic.'” Full transcript: http://t.co/wPGvt6fmkA #ObamaSpeech pic.twitter.com/5S5Cin40Ny

— CNN International (@cnni) September 11, 2014

WATCH: Roger Goodell Denies NFL Saw Ray Rice Tape, but Law Enforcement Sent Video to League in April

At the Associated Press, "AP NEWSBREAK: SOURCE SAYS RICE VIDEO SENT TO NFL."

And Norah O'Donnell has the interview with Commissioner Goodell, from this morning.

"Did the NFL drop the ball?"



PREVIOUSLY: "NFL's Roger Goodell May Be In Trouble Too."

Shelby Chesnes Photoshoot

At Egotastic!, "Shelby Chesnes Topless Playboy by Popular Demand."

It's Going to Take More Than Airstrikes to Destroy #ISIS

From Chris Woods, at Foreign Policy, "Can Airstrikes Stop the Islamic State?":

It will likely take more than just an air campaign to decimate the Islamic State. Beyond a few hundred military advisers in Iraq, however, American boots on the ground aren't an option the White House is seriously considering. Recent U.S. military actions in Libya and Yemen have focused exclusively on air power. That's Obama's preferred model for fighting the Islamic State, as well. "American combat troops are not going to be fighting in Iraq again," the president has made clear.

Yet there's scant proof that airpower-only campaigns actually work. Much of Libya is now overrun by militant Islamists, while Yemen is actually less stable today after five years of secret U.S. drone strikes.

Ground troops will eventually be needed to hold territory once IS is forced out of the areas of Syria and Iraq it now controls. Washington and its Western allies not only have little appetite for another ground war, they don't have enough credibility to conduct one following the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq. Presumably that's why Obama has promoted the idea of a regional solution to the problem. Yet with the Syrian and Iraqi armies barely capable of stepping up, it's not clear who would fill that void.

"If you want the Iraqi Army to go capture everything in the next few weeks then yes, it's going to struggle," says Afzal Ashraf, a former Royal Air Force group captain who served in Iraq. Sorting out the Iraqi Army's disastrous leadership could take months, maybe years, and time is in short supply. Yet Ashraf thinks it's still possible to turn things around: "Once you start using [airstrikes] to gain small tactical victories, it starts to build up its expertise fairly rapidly, and they become more confident."

thers too are confident that bombing can sufficiently degrade the Islamic State enough to turn the tide of the conflict. Lt. Gen. David Deptula was an architect of the successful U.S. air campaign that destroyed the Taliban in 2001. As he notes, the Northern Alliance was actually losing the war in Afghanistan in 2001 before U.S. airpower and small teams of elite U.S. forces on the ground turned the tide -- and in just weeks.

Yet if Obama means to do the same to the Islamic State, airstrikes will have to increase by an order of magnitude, Deptula believes. "We need to institute an aggressive air campaign in which airpower is applied like a thunderstorm, and not like a drizzle." He believes many hundreds of armed sorties a day will be needed if Washington is serious about wanting to "halt, paralyze, and then render ineffective [IS]."

We'll soon find out whether Obama has the appetite for that kind of fight.

Yeah, we'll see.

And frankly, we'll at least need some special operations forces going after ISIS on the ground. Remember Michael O'Hanlon's piece from last month, "Why Iraq Air Strikes Might Not Be Enough."

Global Jihad's Plan for Islamic Domination — And Obama's Ceaseless Program of Leftist Treason

From Michelle Malkin, "Never forget: Unlike Obama, the jihadists never rest":

Here’s the first and last rule of Islamic jihad: If at first you don’t succeed, plot, plot again.

9/11 wasn’t the first. 9/11 won’t be the last. It’s not “fear-mongering” to face reality. These head-chopping, throat-slitting, bloodthirsty hijackers — of planes, freedom and civilization — have conspired for decades to inflict modern mass murder on the West. Their homicidal mission is spectacular destruction in the name of the Koran.

Never forget: Eternal Muslim hatred of infidels didn’t start with George W. Bush. Or George Herbert Walker Bush. Or Ronald Reagan. Or the creation of Gitmo. Or the birth of Israel. Or the Twin Towers. Or the Khobar Towers. Or Lockerbie. Or the U.S.S. Cole. Or Fort Hood. Or the Beirut Marine barracks bombings. Or the bombings of the U.S. embassy in Africa, the bombing of U.S. military headquarters in Riyadh and the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi.

Allah’s animals can’t stop. They won’t stop. Sura 9:5, the verse of the sword, commands them to “slay the idolators wherever you find them, and take them, and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush.” No “pagan” throat is safe: American soldiers, worldly journalists, innocent schoolgirls, Jewish teenage boys and Christian missionaries alike are all targets of Sura 47′s call to “smite the necks” of the unbelievers.

Now our impuissant president sees fit, after two laggard terms in office, to unveil a “plan” for “degrading and ultimately destroying” the Muslim terrorists of ISIS.

Pffft.

To call the Obama administration’s trifling gestures a “bump in the road” to Islamic domination would be an overstatement of astronomic proportions. The bloodless words of the White House are rhetorical pebbles.

While Barack Obama singles out ISIS jihad gangsters for a $5 billion kabuki counterterrorism campaign, he continues to subsidize Hamas terrorists.

He has freed countless al-Qaida recidivists from the very Gitmo detention facility he vowed to shut down to appease international jihad enablers of the Kumbaya/Coexist coalition.

Obama’s jihad enablers have rolled out the red carpet at the White House for Islamist funders and frontmen, including:

-Esam Omeish, former head of the Muslim Brotherhood-sponsored Muslim American Society and patron of jihad cleric Anwar Awlaki, whom he helped install at Virginia’s notorious Dar al-Hijrah mosque. (That’s the same mosque where two 9/11 hijackers, terrorist financier Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi and Fort Hood Muslim mass murderer Nidal Hasan all worshiped.)

– Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, a top lieutenant of Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yusuf Qaradawi, who urges followers to kill every last Jew, sanctioned suicide bombings and the killing of our soldiers, and declared that the “U.S. is an enemy of Islam that has already declared war on Islam under the disguise of war on terrorism and provides Israel with unlimited support.”

–Hisham al-Talib, another Qaradawi cheerleader welcomed at the White House by Obama’s Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Al-Talib is an Iraqi-born Muslim identified by the FBI as a Muslim Brotherhood operative and a major contributor to the left-wing Center for Constitutional Rights, the group of jihadi-sympathizing lawyers who helped spring suspected Benghazi terror plotter Abu Sufian bin Qumu from Gitmo.

While Obama has been hitting the golf courses and Hollywood fundraisers over the past two terms, the relentless jihadists have been training, recruiting, practicing, testing and refining.

They’ve infiltrated our prisons, our military and our universities.

They’ve penetrated our borders, abused our toothless visa programs and exploited our indiscriminate refugee system to import and export the next generation of soldiers of Allah around the world.

They’re experimenting with shoe bombs, underwear bombs, ink bombs, dry ice bombs and cargo bombs.

Their dry runs on airliners continue unabated as our Federal Air Marshal Service shrinks from insufficient funds and abandonment.
They command their own rogue freighter and aviation fleets.

While Obama finally gets around to reading his teleprompter vow to destroy ISIS this week, Osama bin Laden’s heirs are diligently fulfilling their 20-year plan...

Still more at the link.

Dick Cheney Is Still Right

From the editors at the Wall Street Journal, via Memeorandum:

President Obama will lay out his plan to counter the Islamic State on Wednesday night, and we’ll judge the strategy on its merits. But the mere fact that Mr. Obama feels obliged to send Americans to fight again in Iraq acknowledges the failure of his foreign policy. He is tacitly admitting that the liberal critique of the Bush Administration’s approach to Islamic terrorism was wrong.

Recall that Mr. Obama won the Presidency by arguing that the U.S. had alienated the world and Muslims by recklessly using force abroad. We had betrayed our values by interrogating terrorists too harshly and wiretapping too much. Our enemies hated us not because they hated our values or our influence but because we had provoked them with our interventions.

If we withdrew from the Middle East, especially from Iraq; if we avoided new entanglements, such as in Syria; and if we engaged with our adversaries, such as Iran and Russia, the anti-American furies would subside and the world would be safer. We should nation-build at home, not overseas, and slash the defense budget accordingly.

***

Mr. Obama pursued this vision starting with his Inaugural Address and throughout his first term. He tried to “reset” relations with Russia by dismantling a missile-defense deal with Poland and the Czech Republic. He muted support for the democratic uprising in Iran in 2009 lest it upset the mullahs he needed for a nuclear weapons deal.

When the Syrian revolt erupted in 2011, Mr. Obama called for Bashar Assad to go but did nothing to aid the moderate opposition. In the process he overruled Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CIA director David Petraeus, and his ambassador to Damascus Robert Ford.

The U.S. absence left Syria’s battleground to the Russians and Iranians, who helped Assad hang on, and to the Qataris, who have funded Islamic State and the al Qaeda affiliated al-Nusrah. But Mr. Obama was unrepentant, saying as recently as August that it had “always been a fantasy” to think that arming the moderate Syrians would make a difference.

Above all Mr. Obama sought to end the U.S. presence in Iraq. He made a token effort to strike a status of forces agreement past 2011, offering so few troops that the Iraqis thought it wasn’t worth the domestic political trouble. Mr. Obama then sold his total withdrawal as a political success, claiming Iraq was “stable” and “self-reliant” and making a centerpiece of his 2012 campaign that “the tide of war is receding.” He ridiculed Mitt Romney for warning about Mr. Putin’s designs.

Mr. Obama doubled down on his peace-through-withdrawal strategy in the second term, speeding up the U.S. departure from Afghanistan. On May 23, 2013, he summed up his vision and strategy in a sort of victory speech at National Defense University:

“Today, Osama bin Laden is dead, and so are most of his top lieutenants. There have been no large-scale attacks on the United States, and our homeland is more secure. Fewer of our troops are in harm’s way, and over the next 19 months they will continue to come home. Our alliances are strong, and so is our standing in the world. In sum, we are safer because of our efforts.”

Then in January his friends at the New Yorker quoted him as comparing Islamic State to the “jayvee team,” and this summer he said Mr. Putin is doomed to fail because countries don’t invade others in “the 21st century.”

***

So where are we less than a year later?

Continue reading.

Charles Krauthammer: Obama 'Has Been Dragged Kicking and Screaming' to Accept #ISIS Threat

Video, at RealClearPolitics.

Majority of Americans Says Obama's an Epic Fail

It's a 52 percent majority, and Aaron Blake is sure to point out the question offers a "binary" choice between success and failure (and not other options, like perhaps he's only partially fail).

At the Washington Post, "A majority of Americans say Obama’s presidency is a ‘failure’."

The Obama Depression: Long-Term Job Losses Still at Record Levels

Well, things won't really being to turn around until the Depressor-in-Chief is retired for good.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Despite 'recovery,' long-term jobless still at record levels":

It has come down to this for Brian Perry: an apple or banana for lunch, Red Sox ballgames on an old Zenith TV and long walks to shake off the blues.

At 57, Perry has been unemployed and looking for work for nearly seven years, ever since that winter when the Great Recession hit and he was laid off from his job as a law firm clerk.

By his count, Perry has applied for more than 1,300 openings and has had some 30 interviews, the last one a good two years ago. With his savings running dry, this summer he put up for sale his one asset — a three-bedroom house his parents used to own in this suburb of Providence.

"I'm not looking for pity, just one last opportunity," said Perry, a boyish-looking man with bright blue eyes and a nasal New England brogue.

The national economy, now in its sixth year of recovery, is gaining momentum and the unemployment rate has fallen sharply over the last year to 6.1%. But the number and share of people out of work for more than six months, the so-called long-term unemployed, remain at historically high levels.

Of the 3 million long-term jobless today, about one-third have been unemployed for more than two years, Labor Department data show. A small minority — roughly 100,000 Americans like Perry — have been actively looking for at least five years.

They might be called the super long-term unemployed. While others have quit looking, taken early retirement or entered disability rolls, these workers have pressed on year after year despite the increasingly long odds of finding a new job.

Extreme as their cases are, they reflect the devastating effects of the worst economic downturn in 75 years and how much the risks of being unemployed for extended periods have increased compared with the past.

The longer people remain jobless, the more likely they are to suffer the scarring effects of unemployment that can hurt their earnings permanently and create a cycle of instability.

More.

Frankly, I'd be angry. And that "cycle of instability" could easily devolved into extremist political violence.

Gee, thanks Obama and the "equality"-obsessed Democrat Party.

PREVIOUSLY: "The Obama Depression: In Poll, 7-in-10 Say Economy Has Permanently Changed for the Worse Since '09."

Apple Shows Off Smartwatch, Larger-Screen iPhones

At WSJ, "Devices to Include Apple's New Payment Service Aimed at Making In-Store Purchases Easier":

In an ambitious blitz of new products, Apple Inc. unveiled a pair of larger-screen iPhones, an Internet-connected watch and a new payment system that allows users to make in-store purchases with a smart device.

The watch, called Apple Watch, represents the company's first new product in more than four years. Apple said the watch will start at $349 and be available in early 2015. It works through a connection to Apple's new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, unveiled Tuesday, as well as the older iPhone 5, 5c and 5s.

The wearable device comes in two sizes and three versions: Watch, Sport and Edition. Apple is offering several different straps and faces, allowing multiple designs.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook called the watch the most-personal device Apple has created. The device allows new ways for users to communicate from their wrists, the company said, and includes sensors that can detect a pulse, count steps and suggest fitness goals.

The new iPhones, meanwhile, will have 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays, larger than its current four-inch screen. Apple said it expects the new phones—to be called iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus—to go on sale on Sept. 19.

"Today, we are launching the biggest advancement in the history of iPhone," Mr. Cook said.

Apple said it plans to sell the larger 5.5-inch model starting at $299 with a two-year carrier contract, higher than the $199 price for its current high-end iPhone 5S. The company said the 4.7-inch iPhone will start at $199 with a contract. The company said the new phones come with many hardware improvements, including a sharper display, better battery life and improved camera performance.

The company also unveiled a new digital-payments service that will allow consumers to make purchases using just their phones or watches, marking the company's first big push into brick-and-mortar payments.

More.

Cindy Crawford Offers to Pay for Toxic Chemical Cleanup at Malibu Schools (VIDEO)

Seems to me that Cindy Crawford would be sending her kids to private schools, but then again, this is Malibu. It's not like you're dealing with a bunch of inner-city poverty and the attendant cultural rabble.

At CBS Los Angeles, "Malibu Parents Demand Tests After Toxic Chemicals Found on 2 School Campuses":

KCAL9's Serene Branson reports parents have been pushing the district to fully test and clean up contaminated schools for four years - and concerned mom Cindy Crawford is among them.

Thank the Left's Minimum Wage Protests: McDonald’s to Offer Burger Orders by Machine

Leftists are so stupid. Demands for a $15.00 minimum wage, which have been targeted particularly at McDonald's, will backfire, resulting in more automation at the restaurant chain, and the increasing loss of entry-level jobs.

But then, leftists destroy everything they get their hands on.

At WaPo, "McDonald’s fresh hope to turn around slumping sales: Ordering burgers from a machine":

If you’ve ever felt guilty ordering at McDonald’s, the fast-food mega-chain has just the fix: You can now order your own quarter-pound bacon cheeseburger from a welcoming, non-judging machine.

Battling the worst sales slump in a decade and competition from build-your-own upstarts like Chipotle and Smashburger, McDonald’s is expanding a test concept built around ordering via tablet. Just tap on a screen and watch as your burger’s toppings (and calories) pile on, then wait for an employee to bring it over. No human interaction necessary.

McDonald’s move towards dehumanization, launched as a pilot last winter and expanded across San Diego last week, is part of a larger trend of chain eateries turning tablets into your full-time restaurant buddy: equal parts menu, server and paycheck. Applebee’s, Panera Bread and even airport bars have installed tablets to allow diners to order food or booze without a wait....

With tablet ordering, “you can serve more lunches per hour, and the customers, since so many use their smartphone for just about everything, see it as more convenient,” Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Chuck Pinson-Rose said. “We’re moving toward a point where you have to have these sorts of things. … But it hasn’t gained universal acceptance yet. I don’t know if it’s really going to move the [sales] needle in a big way.”

The tablets could give McDonald’s a few added bonuses outside sales, including helping whisk data more directly back to headquarters on what customers really want. A workforce of tablets could even potentially allow the firm to cut back in staffing. Pay at McDonald’s and other fast-food giants have recently been slammed in nationwide protests...

More.

Yes, so less people will be able to find jobs.

NFL's Roger Goodell May Be In Trouble Too

At LAT, "NFL faces troubling questions after a second video surfaces that leads to Ray Rice's indefinite suspension":

The grainy images, captured without sound, show a man and a woman in an elevator.

He turns toward her, then walks away. She comes at him, and he punches her on the side of the head, knocking her off her feet and into a railing. When the doors open he drags her limp body behind him.

Ray Rice, who threw the punch, was a star running back with the Baltimore Ravens. The woman was Janay Palmer, at the time Rice's fiancee, now his wife.

Within hours of the video's release by TMZ Sports, Rice's career as a professional football player was in jeopardy. His contract was terminated by the Ravens and the NFL announced he was suspended indefinitely.

But the league and its commissioner, Roger Goodell, may be in trouble too.

The surveillance video released Monday is the second look at that altercation. The first, which surfaced six months ago, shows Rice pulling Palmer out of a casino elevator. It led to Rice's being charged with third-degree assault, a felony; Palmer with simple assault, a misdemeanor. Rice agreed to enter a diversionary program, allowing him to avoid trial.

In July, the NFL suspended Rice for two games, which drew widespread criticism as too lenient.

Now, with the release of the latest video, the league is facing more troubling questions: Either its initial investigation failed to turn up the second, more graphic video; or its leaders were not being truthful Monday when they said they were seeing that footage for the first time...

More.

PREVIOUSLY: "Ray Rice Booted by Ravens After Brutal Elevator Knock-Out Video Goes Public."

BONUS: At CNN, "Sklar: NFL is an organization that needs immediate change."

Kelly Brook in London

Alright!

I miss this lady.

At Egotastic!, "Kelly Brook Looking Big in a Bright Orange Dress in London."

WSJ/NBC Poll: Fear of Terrorist Attack Soars Under Obama and the #Democrats!

Americans are more scared today than at any time since the September 11 attacks in 2001.

At NBC News, "ISIS Threat: Fear of Terror Attack Soars to 9/11 High, NBC News/WSJ Poll Finds":

BREAKING: Fear of terror attack high, NBC News/WSJ poll finds http://t.co/LCBuE1WPz7 Watch @NBCNightlyNews for more. pic.twitter.com/TrQzanKYCp

— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 9, 2014

The nation is on edge in the wake of brutal beheadings of journalists by Islamic extremists — with more Americans saying the United States is less safe now than at any point since 9/11, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll shows.

The exclusive poll reveals that 47% of Americans believe the country is less safe now than before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That’s a significant increase from even a year after the twin towers fell when in September 2002 just 20% of the country said the nation was less safe. The level of fear across America also is up substantially from last year when 28% felt the same way.

In fact, just 26% of Americans now feel the nation is safer than before 9/11.

The numbers are a backdrop for the primetime speech President Obama will deliver on Wednesday night outlining his plan to combat the terrorist group ISIS, which has taken over parts of Iraq and Syria, beheaded two American journalists, distributed images of the killings in via gruesome videos, and has launched a social media campaign to extend its reach.

“A very war-weary country … seems to have woken up to the real threat that ISIS may present,” says Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter Hart and his colleagues at Hart Research.

“The beheadings are so chilling to the American public,” added Hart. “The only things I think of equal impact are the self-immolations back in Vietnam.”

The new poll also found that more than six in 10 respondents believe that taking military action against the Islamic militant group ISIS is in the nation’s interest.

And a whopping 94 percent of Americans say they have heard about the news of the beheaded journalists – higher than any other news event the NBC/WSJ poll has measured over the past five years.

That includes the 2011 debt-ceiling debate (77 percent), the 2012 health-care decision by the U.S. Supreme Court (78 percent), Syria’s reported use of chemical weapons in 2013 (79 percent) and this year’s botched execution in Oklahoma (68 percent).

According to the poll, 61 percent of American voters believe that the United States taking military action against ISIS is in United States’ interest, versus 13 percent who don’t. (Another 24 percent said they don’t know enough to have an opinion.)

That’s a significant change when a similar question was asked last year about the U.S. taking possible action against Syria’s government after its reported use of chemical weapons.

Back then, only 21 percent said action was in the nation’s interest, while 33 percent said it wasn’t.

“The results couldn’t be more different,” McInturff, the GOP pollster, says.

In addition, 40 percent of respondents say U.S. military action against ISIS should be limited only to air strikes; another 34 percent say it should include both air strikes and combat troops; and 15 percent say military action shouldn’t be taken.

And while a plurality of Americans (40 percent) think that the United States should be less active in world affairs, that’s a seven-point drop on this question from April (when it was 47 percent).

By comparison, 27 percent say the U.S. should be more active – an eight-point increase from April.

Devastating. Just 32 percent approve of the job Obama's doing in foreign policy, an all-time low.

VIDEO: Anne Bayefsky Blasts United Nation as the Leading Global Purveyor of Anti-Semitism

Watch, at Israel Matzav, "Into the belly of the beast: Anne Bayefsky blasts the UN as the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism."

So, Mel Brooks Has Six Digits on His Left Hand

I saw Brooks' hand imprint yesterday on Twitter:

I desperately need to wash my hands. pic.twitter.com/fKVl4FyMFt

— Mel Brooks (@MelBrooks) September 8, 2014

I thought he must have double-dipped, or something, to get that sixth finger imprint on the left hand.

But no. Here's the photo from Grauman's Chinese Theatre (now TCL Chinese Theatre) in Hollywood, at the Los Angeles Times, "Photo Mel Brooks in concrete."

RELATED: "'Young Frankenstein' has new life on 40th anniversary."

Tuesday Teaching

More blogging tonight.

Until then, shop Amazon!

'I can feel it coming in the air tonight, Oh Lord...'

Phil Collins, from yesterday afternoon's drive-time, at the Sound L.A.

Changes
David Bowie
4:56

In the Air Tonight
Phil Collins
4:51 PM

Same Old Song and Dance
Aerosmith
4:47 PM

The Letter
The Box Tops
4:45 PM

Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)
The Rolling Stones
4:41 PM

Once In a Lifetime
Talking Heads
4:37 PM

A Horse With No Name
America
4:33 PM

Paranoid
Black Sabbath
4:30 PM

Mama Told Me (Not to Come)
Three Dog Night
4:27 PM

Any Way You Want It
Journey
4:24 PM

BURNIN' FOR YOU
B.O.C.
4:20 PM

Couldn't Get It Right
Climax Blues Band
4:10 PM

More Than a Feeling
Boston
4:06 PM

The Communist Playbook

Not at all different from the Obama-Democrat playbook, at iOWNTHEWORLD.

Megyn Kelly Interviews Ward Churchill

Man, the dude is so full of hatred.

And he won't apologize for calling those killed in the 9/11 Twin Towers attacks "little Eichmanns."

James O'Keefe Video: Ebola-Infected #ISIS Jihadi Could Sneak Into U.S. from Canada

At London's Daily Mail, "Filmmaker shows 'Ebola-infected ISIS terrorist' sneaking across Lake Erie from Canada to Cleveland – and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – without being challenged once" (via Instapundit).

Analysts Warn of 'Unprecedented' Threat from #ISIS Foreign Fighters

Chilling warning.

At Free Beacon, "CNN Analysts Warn of ‘Unprecedented’ Threat from ISIL Foreign Fighters."

Fracking, New Energy Production, Spurs Rust Belt Economic and Industrial Rebound

Reality continues to intrude on the left's mindless, mendacious, and malignant ideological program.

At the New York Times, "Boom in Energy Spurs Industry in the Rust Belt":

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Waist-high weeds and a crumbling old Chevy mark the entrance to a rust-colored factory complex on the edge of town here, seemingly another monument to the passing of the golden age of American industry.

But deep inside the 14-acre site, the thwack-thwack-thwack sound of metal on metal tells a different story.

“We’re holding our own,” said Greg Hess, who is looking to hire draftsmen and machine operators at the company he runs, Youngstown Bending and Rolling. “I feel good that we saved this place from the wrecking ball.”

The turnaround is part of a transformation spreading across the heartland of the nation, driven by a surge in domestic oil and gas production that is changing the economic calculus for old industries and downtrodden cities alike.

Here in Ohio, in an arc stretching south from Youngstown past Canton and into the rural parts of the state where much of the natural gas is being drawn from shale deep underground, entire sectors like manufacturing, hotels, real estate and even law are being reshaped. A series of recent economic indicators, including factory hiring, shows momentum building nationally in the manufacturing sector.

New energy production is “a real game-changer in terms of the U.S. economy,” said Katy George, who leads the global manufacturing practice at McKinsey & Company, the consulting firm. “It also creates an opportunity for regions of the country to renew themselves.”

The environmental consequences of the American energy boom and the unconventional drilling techniques that have made it possible are being fiercely debated nationwide. New York officials have imposed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, because of concerns that the fluids injected into the shale to free oil and natural gas deposits might contaminate the local drinking water.

Although that danger worries environmentalists here as well, there has been much less opposition because residents are so desperate for the kind of economic growth that fracking can bring, whatever the risks.

Vallourec, a French industrial giant, recently completed a million-square-foot plant in Youngstown to make steel pipes for the energy industry, the first mill of its kind to open here in 50 years. The facility, which cost $1.1 billion to build, will be joined next year by a smaller $80 million Vallourec plant making pipe connectors.

The change is evident in the once-moribund downtowns of northeastern Ohio cities as well as in the economic data for the state as a whole.

Ohio’s unemployment rate in July was 5.7 percent, well below the national average of 6.1 percent. That’s a sharp reversal of the situation four years ago, when unemployment in Ohio hit 10.6 percent, significantly above the country’s overall jobless rate at the time, as manufacturers here and elsewhere hemorrhaged jobs. In the Youngstown area, the jobless rate in July was 6.7 percent, compared with 13.3 percent in early 2010.

“Both Youngstown and Canton are places which experienced nothing but disinvestment for 40 years,” said Ned Hill, a professor of economic development at Cleveland State University. Now, “they’re not ghost towns anymore. You actually have to go into reverse to find a parking spot downtown.”

Youngstown and surrounding Mahoning County is hardly Silicon Valley or even Pittsburgh, which long ago bade farewell to its industrial past and sought out growth in new sectors like health care and education. Broad swaths of Youngstown look almost rural, the result of a decade-long campaign to tear down abandoned homes and factories, letting sites that were once eyesores return to nature.

And the new factories that have gone up — like Vallourec’s new complex, or a $13.2 million plant that Exterran opened in May 2013 to make oil and gas production equipment for local customers — employ only a fraction of the workers who once labored at Youngstown’s mills. Vallourec’s state-of-the-art pipe mill has about 350 workers; the old Youngstown Sheet & Tube plant that once stood on the site had a work force of 1,400 when it shut down in 1979.

But the improvement is undeniable, especially to those who grew up here. “It’s a night-and-day difference,” said Robert E. Roland, a Youngstown native who moved away when he was 18, and is now managing partner at one of Canton’s biggest law firms, Day Ketterer. “It was extremely depressed, and nobody was downtown except for people who were down and out.”

More.

Just think if we'd been pursuing a national economic program based on American energy independence and competitiveness. The success stories of Ohio would be spread across the entire nation. Instead, the Dems have brought us homosexual marriage, "equal pay," ObamaCare, and retreat from global leadership.

2016 can't come soon enough.

At Least Two Dead in Arizona Flooding

At the Arizona Republic, "Pima, Pinal county motorists die as vehicles swamped."

But also at Tucson's Arizona Daily Star, "A 76-year-old woman was killed when she was swept away in a flooded wash today near Oracle Junction."

Also at KABC-15 Phoenix:

Rothenberg Predicts Substantial Republican Wave in November

Stuart Rothenberg's quite bullish on GOP prospects in November.

See, "Rothenberg: Senate GOP Gains At Least 7 Seats":

After looking at recent national, state and congressional survey data and comparing this election cycle to previous ones, I am currently expecting a sizable Republican Senate wave.

The combination of an unpopular president and a midterm election (indeed, a second midterm) can produce disastrous results for the president’s party. President Barack Obama’s numbers could rally, of course, and that would change my expectations in the blink of an eye. But as long as his approval sits in the 40-percent range (the August NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll), the signs are ominous for Democrats.

The generic congressional ballot currently is about even among registered voters. If that doesn’t change, it is likely to translate into a Republican advantage of a few points among “likely” voters. And recent elections when Republicans have even a small advantage have resulted in significant GOP years.

The map, which has always been the single biggest reason why Republicans will gain Senate seats, continues to give Republicans plenty of opportunities and Democrats relatively few (though the Kansas developments change that slightly). In an anti-Obama election, most of those Democratic opportunities will evaporate.

Given the president’s standing, the public’s disappointment with the direction of the country, the makeup of the midterm electorate and the ’14 Senate map, I expect a strong breeze at the back of the GOP this year.

And if there is a strong breeze, most of the races now regarded as competitive will fall one way — toward Republicans. That doesn’t happen all of the time, of course, but it’s far from unusual...

I can't wait!

The Dems are going to get hammered!

Oh, and even Larry Sabato's getting more bullish on the GOP's chances, at Politico, "Surf's Up: Will there be a GOP wave in the Senate—or a wipeout?"

Ashley Judd Attends 'Dolphin Tale 2' Los Angeles Premiere

At Egotastic!, "Why can't Ashley Judd wear a revealing dress top just because she's pimping a cute animal flick for the kids?"

Ray Rice Booted by Ravens After Brutal Elevator Knock-Out Video Goes Public

Following-up from this morning, "Ray Rice Fiancée Elevator Knock-Out Video."

At the Los Angeles Times, "Ray Rice is released by Ravens and suspended indefinitely by NFL."

Looks like the dude sucker-punched himself out of an NFL career.

More at Memeorandum.

Bob Schieffer: 9/11 'Forgive Me, But I've Been Through This Before...'

I like Bob Schieffer.

A great commentary yesterday morning:

Ray Rice Fiancée Elevator Knock-Out Video

At TMZ, "Ray Rice -- ELEVATOR KNOCKOUT ... Fiancee Takes Crushing Punch (Video)."

And at WaPo, "Graphic new video shows Ravens’ Ray Rice domestic violence incident."

More, at Hot Air, "Newly released video calls NFL action on Ray Rice into question … again; Update: NFL says they never saw it."

Amanda Marcotte on the Unbearable Unfairness of Ideals

From Darleen Click, at Protein Wisdom.

Islamic Rape Gangs: #Rotherham is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

From James Delingpole, at Breitbart London.

PREVIOUS Rotherham blogging here.

Ted Cruz #ISIS Strategy: 'Take Them Out'

Via Truth Revolt.

Government Now the Villain in Pop Culture

Via Nice Deb, "Culture Trend? Government Now the Villain in Pop Teen Movies & Books."

Is Canada Now More American Than America?

From John Fund, at National Review:

The merger of U.S. hamburger giant Burger King with Tim Hortons, Canada’s favorite coffee shop, will create the world’s third largest fast-food company, with a total of 18,000 restaurants in over 100 countries. It is also a piercing wake-up call for the U.S., because the new company will make its global headquarters in Canada’s province of Ontario. That underscores what savvy businesses everywhere have learned — the U.S. is an increasingly less attractive place to do business. “Canada has quietly and politely become, well, more American than America,” says columnist Stephen Green.

Since 2003, more than 35 major U.S. companies have moved their headquarters and reincorporated overseas. Rather than rail against such “inversions,” as President Obama does, or call for an economic boycott, as Ohio’s Democratic senator Sherrod Brown does, we should figure out what is driving U.S. companies offshore. Here’s a clue: The U.S. now has the highest corporate tax rate of any industrialized country, and the Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration is “even now looking for ways it can unilaterally raise corporate taxes without going to Congress.”

Without going to Congress?

Same as it ever was...

More.

PRESIDENT COWARD

From Bill Whittle:

#Angels Sweep Twins in Spectacular Style

Outstanding baseball from the Angels, especially yesterday's comeback win.

But today's game was a blowout. The Twins looked hapless.

At LAT, "Angels have strong all-around performance in 14-4 win over Twins."

Final from Target Field: #Angels 14, #Twins 4. Halos' fifth sweep of a four-game series this season.

— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) September 7, 2014

Nice series for #Angels 2B Howie Kendrick, who goes 10 for 18 with two 2B, two 3Bs, a HR, 3 R and 8 RBIs in 4 games vs. #Twins.

— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) September 7, 2014

With #Athletics loss, #Angels have 7-game AL West lead with 20 games to play. Halos' magic number is 14.

— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) September 7, 2014

#Angels are 19-6 in last 25 games, going from four games behind #Athletics in the AL West to seven games ahead. Stunning reversal.

— Mike DiGiovanna (@MikeDiGiovanna) September 7, 2014

Is the Boycott Movement Anti-Semitic?

Indeed it is, argues Professor Cary Nelson, at Inside Higher Ed.

Why Pamela Geller's Hate Speech Should Be Barred — But BDS Allowed http://t.co/ZZ3r0UDheE via @jdforward
— W. James Casper (@repsac3) April 14, 2013

BONUS: From Jonathan Marks, at Commentary, "“Scholarship and Politics Don’t Mix!” Say Those Who Mix Scholarship and Politics."

Hottest Instagrams of the Week

At Co-Ed, "THE TOP 40 SEXIEST INSTAGRAM PICS OF THE WEEK [SEPTEMBER 1ST - 6TH]."

Callie Bundy is particularly hot, heh.

Remembering the Munich Massacre

At Atlas Shrugs, "In Memoriam: Victims of Munich Jihad Massacre at the 1972 Olympics."

Tampa Bay's David DeJesus Inside-the-Park Home Run

Amazing.

How a liner to the gap becomes an inside-the-park home run: http://t.co/BokChCgXi8 pic.twitter.com/gIUoSj2OTr

— MLB (@MLB) September 7, 2014

'Anti-Fascist' Demonstrators Face-Off Against Police in Calais

"Anti-fascist" is correct-speak for leftists and communists.

At Telegraph UK:

Police and anti-fascist demonstrators were involved in a standoff on Sunday in the French port town of Calais.

The stand off came during a march by left-wing activists who were protesting at a separate march by far right anti-immigration activists.

Calais is facing rising tensions over immigration with about 1,300 migrants from the Horn of Africa, Sudan and Afghanistan currently there.

Protesting leftists said they were defending the migrants and were trying to disrupt the demonstration by anti-immigration activists protesting the influx of migrants camping out in Calais while they wait to try and sneak across the English Channel into Britain.

Police barricaded streets and sought to keep the groups apart.

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Calais migrant tensions simmer as Britain offers to send fences from Nato summit."

And previously, "Calais is 'besieged by gangs of migrants': Fury of port chief as riot police are called in and France accuses Britain of being a soft touch."

Joan Rivers Talks to Her Daughter Melissa Before Surgery

Video, from 2011, "Joan Rivers Moments Before Surgery - No Makeup."

Via Ann Althouse, "'I don’t want some rabbi rambling on; I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents'."

'As the Left becomes more and more tied to Islamic fanatics, anti-Semitism is going to become more and more of a staple of leftist dogma...'

From Caroline Glick, "The dilemma of the Jewish leftist."

Tilly Bagshawe

Louise Mensch's sister, who is also a novelist:

My awesome sister Tilly. I love that vintage dress it's my favourite of hers http://t.co/rdO73McYWF

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) September 7, 2014

Obama to Outline Plan to Take on #ISIS in National Speech Wednesday

At NYDN, "'The next phase is now to start going on some offense,' Obama said Sunday in a preview of the highly anticipated speech, which will occur a day before the 13th anniversary of 9/11. Obama has repeatedly vowed to take the fight to ISIS in the weeks since the bloodthirsty jihadist group posted gruesome videos of its members beheading U.S. journalists."


Here's the full transcript of Obama's remarks, via Memeorandum:

Below is the full transcript of Chuck Todd's exclusive interview with President Barack... http://t.co/G60APXSNC4 http://t.co/gd5DLuX82c

— memeorandum (@memeorandum) September 7, 2014

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."




Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

More at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Not A Hard Choice."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

Elizabeth Drew Tries to Put Lipstick on a Pig

Here's Elizabeth Drew trying her damnedest to blame Republicans for the current disaster that is the Obama administration at year six.

At the New York Review of Books, "Obama & the Coming Election":

Obama did much to pull the country out of the deep recession he inherited, including a rescue of the automobile industry, but a lot of people still don’t benefit from the improved economy, or have dropped out of the labor market, or have been forced into part-time jobs and lower wages.

No doubt it would have been beneficial if more money had been approved for rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, but the votes in Congress weren’t there, just as they weren’t for a single-payer health system, and no amount of presidential rhetoric or arm-twisting—about which there is a fair amount of mythology—would have made a difference.

Obama’s one great disappointment was the failure to win comprehensive immigration reform. After the 2012 election the Republicans were panicking that if they didn’t back immigration reform, Hispanics would punish them mightily in 2016. But then they panicked that if they did back it, Tea Party candidates would upset them in their primaries in 2014.

It’s been evident for quite a while that a certain chilliness on Obama’s part has affected his relations with Congress, but it’s also questionable how much substantive difference this has made. A Cabinet officer said to me, “He’s a loner, and one result is that few Democrats are willing to take the hill for him.” Obama rose swiftly in politics and essentially on his own—he’d been on his own for most of his life—and political camaraderie is of little interest to him. His golfing foursomes are most often made up of junior White House staff and close nonpolitical friends from Chicago. This might not make much difference in the number of bills passed but it has had one very serious effect on his presidency: the Democrats’ unwillingness to praise, defend, much less celebrate the president has left the field clear to his multitude of attackers.

Obama tended to proceed on the theory that if he made some concessions to the Republicans—say, by speeding up deportations of undocumented immigrants—they might be more cooperative; but this hasn’t worked out. It’s true that he is innately cautious, and it’s also true that it is a lot easier to declare what he should have done than to show how he could actually have gotten the votes for that. Little is as simple in the Oval Office as it is to outside critics...

Hmm. Ms. Drew's still in the early stages of grief at the utter collapse of the Great Promise of American Politics, Barack Hussein Obama, who was supposed to be accompanied by unicorns and rainbows.

More at the link.

'Radicals didn’t “hijack” feminism. Radicals own the feminist plane. Anyone woman who buys a ticket on Feminist Airlines should not be surprised when she arrives at her lesbian destination...'

Another #RadFem opus, at the Other McCain, "Is Rachel @Maddow’s Haircut Waging War Against Heteronormative Patriarchy?"

Is Rachel @Maddow's Haircut Waging War Against Heteronormative Patriarchy? http://t.co/Fpqq6uaA5G cc @LADowd #tcot pic.twitter.com/4BPi3r5G6s

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) September 6, 2014

Controlling Home-Grown Western Islamic Terrorists

From Professor Michael Curtis, at American Thinker:

Theresa May, the home secretary in the British Conservative government, in a speech in the House of Commons on September 3, 2014, spoke of ISIS as a “group of murderous psychopaths.”  The videos of the two American journalist hostages about to be brutally beheaded show a level of evil that should draw the attention of the World Council of Churches, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Alice Walker, and the “scholars” of the American Studies Association, hitherto almost exclusively preoccupied with criticism of alleged violations of humanitarian rights by Israel.

The beheading of the second journalist, Steven Sotloff, is even more poignant than that of James Foley based on the knowledge that he was the grandson of Holocaust survivors, and the son of a mother who taught at a Jewish school in Miami.  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is not alone in regarding this cruelty of ISIS as “an act of medieval savagery by a coward hiding behind a mask.”  We are now aware that ISIS has committed other such acts, especially the execution by firing squads in desert areas of Iraq of more than 500, and possibly as many as 770, people.

Almost everyone, except perhaps for those named above, now appreciates that ISIS is not simply a “manageable problem,” as President Barack Obama described it, but is a group that must be crushed.  It is not sufficient to condemn the violent Islamist preaching with which the West has become familiar.  It is essential to end the brutality and the menace of ISIS by every means in the Western armory.  The wheels of judgment should not grind exceeding slow....

At the NATO meeting on September 4, 2014 at Celtic Manor near Cardiff, Wales, President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron urged their fellow members of NATO to confront the “brutal and poisonous” Islamic state.  A possible NATO coalition may be created to implement this response through a variety of measures: military power, diplomatic activity, and economic constraints.  However, it is disappointing that no specific pledges of action have been agreed upon.

It was more encouraging that NATO members understood that the more urgent and important issue facing the alliance is not the threat of Russia, however objectionable the policy of Putin towards Ukraine, but the Islamic threat from ISIS and other terrorist groups not only in Iraq and Syria, but also in their own countries.

It should be an international priority to end the caliphate announced by ISIS as soon as possible before it spreads its control over areas in the Middle East.  But equally urgent is the need for policies to deal with the threat of Europeans and Americans – namely, home-grown terrorists, who have fought for ISIS and may return to their countries of origin and undertake terrorist activities.

This issue is not easy to resolve, because what animates Western jihadists remains a mystery.  What makes Muslim citizens of Europe and the United States leave to join the ISIS group and be prepared to commit murderous attacks in their countries of origin when they return?  Are they psychopaths, or are they motivated to act through conviction on political and social issues?

Psychologists tend to suggest that there is no conclusive evidence to determine if terrorists or others who take pleasure in violence are insane, disturbed, or abnormal.  Regarding non-Islamic issues, one can identify the lunacy of the multi-murderer Ted Bundy, an apparently charming man, who confessed, “I just like to kill.  I wanted to kill.”  Likewise with the murderous Baader-Meinhof group (Red Army Faction), the far-left militant group in West Germany from 1970 1998 responsible for bank robberies and the deaths of at least 34 people.  They may have genuinely believed they were engaged in an anti-imperialist struggle and were acting on behalf of the counter-culture.

More.

No. 14 USC Rallies to Beat No. 10 Stanford 13-10 On the Road

At LAT, "USC rallies to defeat Stanford, 13-10":

USC faced an uphill battle Saturday, opening Pac-12 Conference play at Stanford, which was owner of a 17-game home-field winning streak.

The streak was the longest in the nation. Past tense.

Andre Heidari kicked a career-long 53-yard field goal with less than three minutes to play and USC’s defense fell on a last-minute Stanford fumble as the Trojans came away with a 13-10 victory.

It was Heidari's second game-winning kick against the Cardinal in the last two seasons.

USC’s last five games against Stanford have been decided by seven points or less.

"It just always seems to come down to the last series of the game and our guys did just a great job of executing," USC Coach Steve Sarkisian said during a televised postgame interview.

More.