CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker Poll: Hillary Clinton Leads in Iowa, Gains in New Hampshire

Following-up, "CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker Poll: Donald Trump and Ben Carson Tied in Iowa (VIDEO)."

Here's the results for the Democrat field, "Clinton on top in Iowa, gains in New Hampshire":

Bolstered by Iowa Democratic caucus-goers who say she won the recent debate, Hillary Clinton now has an edge over Bernie Sanders in Iowa. She's up three points there, after re-allocating the supporters of Vice President Joe Biden. Those caucus-goers were then asked who'd they support if Biden decided not to run.

In Iowa, Sanders' backers remain very enthusiastic about his candidacy, while enthusiasm for Clinton is on the rise among hers: Fifty-eight percent of Clinton's first-choice Iowa voters are enthusiastically supporting her, up from 49 percent a month ago...

It's actually withing the margin of error in Iowa, so the Clinton camp shouldn't get too complacent. Clinton leads sanders 46-43 in the Hawkeye State.

But keep reading.

CBS News 2016 Battleground Tracker Poll: Donald Trump and Ben Carson Tied in Iowa (VIDEO)

This is great.

The Republicans are actually having a race.

At CBS, "Trump, Carson lead GOP in Iowa; Trump keeps big lead in NH, SC":

The Republican nomination fight continues to be dominated by political newcomers Donald Trump and Ben Carson. In Iowa, Carson has moved up to tie Trump.

In South Carolina and New Hampshire, there is Donald Trump with a large lead, and then there is everyone else.

Trump's at 38 percent in New Hampshire. It's a runaway situation, which would give him enormous momentum.

More.

FLASHBACK: "The Political Establishment's Terrified by Donald Trump's 'Tangible American Nationalism'."

Think Kissinger Was the Heartless Grandmaster of Realpolitik? What About Obama?

Remember Ferguson's got the new Kissinger biography out, Kissinger: 1923-1968: The Idealist.

And he's got a great commentary at the Los Angeles Times:

Most Americans still think of Barack Obama as a foreign policy idealist. That is certainly how he presents himself: Just replay the tape of his recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

Some argue, he said, "for a return to the rules that applied for most of human history … the belief that power is a zero-sum game; that might makes right; that strong states must impose their will on weaker ones; that the rights of individuals don't matter; and that in a time of rapid change, order must be imposed by force."

The president said he would much rather "work with other nations under the mantle of international norms and principles and law." He prefers "resolving disputes through international law, not the law of force."

Yet that speech ended oddly. Having berated both Russia and Iran for their misdeeds, Obama invited them to work with him to resolve the Syrian civil war. "Realism," he concluded, "dictates that compromise will be required to end the fighting and ultimately stamp out ISIL."

Wait — realism? Isn't that the hard-nosed — not to say amoral — approach to foreign policy commonly associated with Henry Kissinger?

Having spent much of the last decade writing a life of Kissinger, I no longer think of the former secretary of State as the heartless grandmaster of realpolitik. (That's a caricature.) But after reading countless critiques of his record, not least the late Christopher Hitchens' influential "Trial of Henry Kissinger," I also find myself asking another question: Where are the equivalent critiques of Obama?

Hitchens' case against Kissinger, which is as grandiloquent as it is thinly documented, can be summed up as follows: He was implicated in the killing of civilians through the bombing of Cambodia and North Vietnam. He failed to prevent massacres in Bangladesh and East Timor. He fomented a military coup in Chile. Also on Hitchens' charge sheet: the wiretapping of colleagues.

In history, no two cases are alike. The Cold War is over. The technology of the 2010s is a lot more sophisticated than the technology of the 1970s. Still, this president's record makes one itch to read "The Trial of Barack Obama."

Take the administration's enthusiastic use of drones, a key feature of Obama's shift from counterinsurgency to counter-terrorism. According to figures from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, drone strikes authorized by the Obama administration have killed 3,570 to 5,763 people in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan, of whom 400 to 912 were civilians and at least 82 were children.

And those are just the strikes by unmanned aircraft. The Oct. 3 attack on an Afghan hospital run by Doctors Without Borders is a reminder that U.S. pilots also stand accused of killing civilians, not only in Afghanistan but also (since August 2014) in Iraq and Syria. One estimate puts the civilian victims of the U.S.-led air war against Islamic State at 450.

This is a lawyerly administration, so it insists on the legality of its actions, even when drones kill U.S. citizens. But not everyone is convinced. In the words of Amnesty International, "U.S. drone strike policy appears to allow extrajudicial executions in violation of the right to life, virtually anywhere in the world."

Keep reading.

Russian Subs and Spy Ships Operating Near Vital Undersea Internet Cables, Raising U.S. Concerns

How do you say "Unexpectedly!" in Russian?

At the New York Times, "Russian Presence Near Undersea Cables Concerns U.S.":

WASHINGTON — Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global Internet communications, raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of conflict.

The issue goes beyond old Cold War worries that the Russians would tap into the cables — a task American intelligence agencies also mastered decades ago. The alarm today is deeper: In times of tension or conflict, the ultimate Russian hack on the United States could involve severing the fiber-optic cables at some of their hardest-to-access locations to halt the instant communications on which the West’s governments, economies and citizens have grown dependent.

Inside the Pentagon and the nation’s intelligence agencies, the assessments of Russia’s increasing activities are highly classified and not publicly discussed in detail. American officials are secretive about what they are doing to both monitor the activity and find ways to recover quickly if cables are cut. But more than half a dozen officials confirmed in broad terms that it had become the source of significant attention in the Pentagon.

“I’m worried every day about what the Russians may be doing,” said Rear Adm. Frederick J. Roegge, commander of the Navy’s submarine fleet in the Pacific, who would not answer questions about potential Russian plans for cutting the undersea cables.

Cmdr. William Marks, a Navy spokesman in Washington, said: “It would be a concern to hear any country was tampering with communication cables; however, due to the classified nature of submarine operations, we do not discuss specifics.”

In private, however, commanders and intelligence officials are far more direct. They report that from the North Sea to Northeast Asia and even in waters closer to American shores, they are monitoring significantly increased Russian activity along the known routes of the cables, which carry the lifeblood of global electronic communications and commerce.

Just last month, the Russian spy ship Yantar, equipped with two self-propelled deep-sea submersible craft, cruised slowly off the East Coast of the United States on its way to Cuba — where one major cable lands near the American naval station at Guantánamo Bay. It was monitored constantly by American spy satellites, ships and planes. Navy officials said the Yantar and the submersible vehicles it can drop off its decks have the capability to cut cables miles down in the sea...

Still more at that top link.

Hey Mr. President, This is How You Create Jobs

A great piece, from Andy Puzder, CEO of Carl Karcher Enterprises, at WSJ, "No Wonder Growth Has Been So Anemic":

Since the problem is too few jobs, it is important to understand who creates jobs. At my company, CKE Restaurants, for example, our franchisees are small business owners who furnish entry-level jobs and management careers every time they open a Carl’s Jr. or Hardee’s. Franchisees generally invest more than $1 million to permit, build and equip restaurants, creating jobs for architects, attorneys and construction workers.

After opening, each store creates about 25 permanent jobs within the restaurant as well as ancillary jobs maintaining, advertising and supplying food and paper products to it.

Our approximately 3,000 domestic restaurants (90% franchised) spend more than $1 billion on food and paper products a year. That creates jobs for everyone from the farmers who plant the seeds to the truck drivers who deliver the ingredients to our restaurants.

CKE also spends about $175 million a year on advertising, great for actors and workers at ad agencies, as well as radio and TV stations. We spend $150 million annually on capital improvements, remodeling restaurants, and purchasing new equipment. This spurs opportunities for construction workers, equipment manufacturers and more. Then there’s the roughly $100 million put toward annual maintenance. That means jobs for window washers, air conditioner repairmen and landscapers.

These workers in turn spend their incomes on food, clothing, housing, health care, education and entertainment—supporting even more jobs. The more restaurants the company builds, the more jobs and the more growth in local economies. Collectively with our franchisees, CKE provides employment for more than 70,000 Americans and supports jobs for tens of thousands of others outside the restaurants.

This engine of economic growth applies to every part of the economy. Whether Ford, Apple, Caterpillar, Wal-Mart or Coca-Cola, the web of job creation is the same. And so if a politician wants to help workers win a raise, he should help businesses add jobs by simplifying the tax code, enacting regulatory reform and replacing ObamaCare with something that works. Republican presidential candidates such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have offered specific plans on these subjects...

The New Very Sexy Push-Up

From Victoria's Secret, via Theo Spark.

U.S. Sees Beefed Up Mission in Iraq and Syria

So much for winding down those wars, Democrats.

At WSJ, "U.S. to Increase Raids Against Islamic State":

WASHINGTON—Defense Secretary Ash Carter signaled a new and more muscular policy in Iraq and Syria, saying the U.S. military would mount more raids and provide more active support to groups, including Kurdish fighters, who can counter Islamic State.

A day after a dramatic, joint rescue with Kurdish forces near Kirkuk resulted in the first American combat death in Iraq since 2011, Mr. Carter on Friday said there would be more such operations. He also said Americans should gird for a dangerous, complicated fight, but expressed confidence the U.S. would ultimately win.

President Barack Obama has been publicly cautious in his policy against Islamic State, repeatedly saying that American troops wouldn’t participate in combat missions as they battle the extremists across Iraq and Syria.

But while Mr. Carter expressed sorrow for the loss of Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler in Thursday’s raid, he indicated the beginning of a deeper, more assertive role for American forces there.

“There will be more raids,” Mr. Carter said at the Pentagon. American forces, he said, “will be in harm’s way, there’s no question about it, and I don’t want anybody to be under any illusions about that.”

The U.S. move is designed in part to blunt criticism of White House policy from Capitol Hill, where Mr. Carter and Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will appear next week.

The U.S.-led coalition’s campaign against Islamic State also has faced criticism from some allies, while Russia has expanded its engagement across the Middle East. On Friday Moscow announced an agreement with Jordan, a key U.S. ally, to coordinate military operations in Syria.

Some Iraqi Shiite politicians have invited Moscow to start airstrikes in Iraq as well, although U.S. officials insist they have been assured that Iraq’s leaders don't plan to pursue such plans.

The pledge to step up U.S. participation in military raids against Islamic State also comes as U.S. confidence in its Iraqi partners grows, particularly in Kurdish military units. Gen. Dunford, after visiting Iraq this past week, said it was time to begin to “open the aperture” in military operations there.

“To me, it’s all about capabilities,” he said Tuesday. “It may be as simple as methods and timing, and then it might be different ways of doing what we’re doing.”

Military officials didn’t spell out precisely how the U.S. role in Iraq would change. But Mr. Carter said there would be more operations like the one he authorized this week, in which U.S. special-operations forces teamed with Kurdish units known as Peshmerga to rescue Islamic State prisoners.

The plan, U.S. officials said, was to have the Kurdish forces lead the operation, with American forces providing airlift, airstrike support, intelligence and battlefield advice.

The operation took an unexpected turn, however, when Islamic State militants guarding the prison near Hawija, Iraq, fought back and the Kurdish force became pinned down.

Members of the American unit jumped off their helicopters and entered the fray, resulting in the death of Sgt. Wheeler.

In the end, the joint force didn’t find the Peshmerga captives they went in to get, but rescued 70 other prisoners who were to be executed, U.S. officials said, and killed 15 Islamic State fighters.,,

More.

Obama's Tragic Let 'em Out Fantasy

A most excellent analysis, from Heather Mac Donald, at the Wall Street Journal, "The president leads the charge to cut the prison population, but mass incarceration isn’t the problem. Rising crime is."

What Feminism Means in 2015

You can't make this stuff up.

At the Other McCain, "West Hollywood House of Horrors: Radical Lesbian Feminists From Hell."

We Live in a Society That Glamorizes Violence Against Women

So says hardline communist Emma Quangel, on Twitter.

Her evidence in point is Interview Magazine's provocative photo slideshow of Nicole Kidman, "Nicole KIDMAN by Steven Klein."

I must admit, the photos do allude to rape fantasies.

In any case, more Nicole Kidman photos here, "Even when laid totally bare, stripped of any apparatus, clothing, or even much of a character to hide behind—as she was, acting across from her then-husband Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999)—Nicole Kidman is utterly commanding, regal, even."

PREVIOUSLY: Flashback to June, "Emma Quangel, Feminist Who Outed Dylann Roof Manifesto, is Militant Communist Who Wants U.S. 'Eradicated'."

Close Account of Special Operations Rescue Mission in Iraq

This is good.

At McClatchy, "Kurds give account of raid that killed American special operator."

These Women Tried Boudoir Photography for the First Time (VIDEO)

At BuzzFeed, "Women Tried Boudoir Photography for the First Time and Loved Every Second of It."

Hurricane Patricia is Strongest Storm Ever Recorded (VIDEO)

Following-up from earlier, "Kristen Keogh Explains Hurricane Patricia (VIDEO)."

And here's more, from ABC News 10 San Diego, "Local geologist: Patricia is strongest storm ever recorded."

Charleston Law School Files Counterclaims Against Two Fired Tenured Professors

I didn't quite catch the full gist of this report, at the TaxProf Blog.

But then I found this, and it all made sense, at the Charleston Post and Courier, "Charleston School of Law faculty wants to return to founding principle."

'Super Like' with Erin Heatherton and Nina Agdal (VIDEO)

Two of my favorite babes.

Watch, "Tinder Presents Super Like - featuring Erin Heatherton and Nina Agdal."

Smokin' Charlotte McKinney in New Carl’s Jr./Call of Duty Commercial (VIDEO)

She's hot.

Watch, "Carl's Jr. & Call of Duty Black Ops 3 Commercial with Charlotte McKinney."

Delta Force Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler Identified as First American Killed in Iraq Since 2011 (VIDEO)

Following-up on my previous entry, "In the Mail: Sean Naylor's Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command."

Here's the report on Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, at CBS This Morning:

In the Mail: Sean Naylor's Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command

My copy came yesterday, and I'm already enjoying it --- particularly in light of the U.S. commando killed in yesterday's special operations rescue mission in Iraq.

At Amazon, Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command.

National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and Criminalization of a Generation

Boy, this "National Day of Protest" was a dud.

Just "dozens" were protesting in L.A. yesterday, according to ABC News 7 Los Angeles, "LA DEMONSTRATORS TAKE PART IN NATIONAL DAY OF PROTESTS AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY":

#NationalDayofProtest #PoliceBrutality #AllAroundTheWorldSameSong pic.twitter.com/FSWm7ajo8l

— Dee Barnes (@sistadbarnes) October 23, 2015

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Dozens took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles Thursday as part of what organizers have dubbed a National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation.

It was a small group making plenty of noise, holding signs and shouting "enough is enough" at times.

"Someone has to speak out. Someone has to speak up for us," L.A. resident Channell Temple said...

Yeah, a small group of drug-addled losers.

Also at Twitchy, "Incredible shrinking #NationalDayOfProtest flies under radar; LA crowd fills several parking spaces."

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Dead Heat in New Hampshire

A couple of new polls out show that Hillary Clinton has closed the polling gap with Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire. She was 11 points behind the socialist senator over the Labor Day weekend, but after a strong debate performance she's coming back in the Granite State, with polls showing her slightly ahead but within the margin of error: a statistical tie.

At the Boston Globe, "In N.H., a tight race between Clinton and Sanders."

Also at the Wall Street Journal, "Hillary Clinton Overtakes Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, Poll Shows." Despite the headline, the poll also shows a statistical tie.

As always, we'll see. We'll see.