Start Tuesday with a Big Story You Probably Won't Enjoy Reading

Today on NRO

ELIANA JOHNSON: Santorum's message for Romney: Bring on the re-match. Santorum, the Blue-Collar Brawler.

KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON: Jihadists kill from motives far more complex than biological necessity. Being Human.

JOHN FUND: The woman insiders describe as the president's 'real chief of staff' keeps out bad news and new ideas. Valerie Jarrett, Obama's 'Berlin Wall'.

RYAN LOVELACE: A Senate Judiciary Committee member says Loretta Lynch may be even worse than Holder. Eric Holder's Replacement.

SLIDESHOW: Golden Globes Red Carpet.

Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty

January 12, 2015

Start Tuesday with a Big Story You Probably Won't Enjoy Reading

Do me a favor. Go read my article on Dr. Ben Carson and his work for the supplement company Mannatech.

Up until last year, Dr. Ben Carson appeared in videos for a supplement company who the state of Texas charged with "orchestrating an unlawful marketing scheme" in 2007. The company's marketing featured testimonials that the products had worked wonders on ailments ranging from autism, Non-Hodgkins B-Cell Lymphoma, toxic-shock syndrome, heart failure, asthma, arthritis, Lou Gehrig's Disease, Attention Deficit Disorder, and lung inflammation; a state official called it a "particularly egregious case of false advertising."

In 2009, the company paid $4 million in restitution to Texas customers. Under the terms of the settlement, Mannatech "admits no wrongdoing," "nor does it acknowledge that [Mannatech] has engaged in any unlawful activity" nor shall it be construed as evidence that the company "engaged in any methods, acts, practices, uses, or solicitations declared to be unlawful."

You can see one of the videos here -- at least until someone pulls them down.

There are going to be fans of Ben Carson who will not be happy about me writing this story or NRO running it. I expect a lot of shooting at the messenger in the coming days.

There are probably a lot of fans of Carson who will ask whether it really matters. It was only four speeches and a couple of videos, including a special for PBS that is still airing. (Not long ago, Carson's page at the Washington Speaker's Bureau listed him at fee level 6, which is more than $40,000 per speech. That page has now been updated to say "Fees vary based on event location.")

Love him or hate him, the one fact that is indisputable about Carson is that he is an immensely gifted and supremely accomplished neurosurgeon. Because of his accomplishments and impressive career, people trust him when he tells them about what can keep them healthy. Appearing in these videos and praising the company and its products lends some of his credibility and authority to the company. The question is, does Mannatech really deserve that credibility?

Also note that Carson's business manager, Armstrong Williams, said he did not know about the company's past legal troubles with the state of Texas, until contacted by me. If you're going to go and appear in a video for a company, telling people how great they and their products are… Shouldn't you know who they are?

Why did an indisputably brilliant guy make a decision to get involved with a company like this?

Why Didn't Obama Join the World Leaders' March for Free Expression and to Oppose Islamism? Because He Thought It Was 'Leaders Only'

The New York Daily News this morning:

More than 40 heads of state came together in Paris to denounce a wave of terrorism that defiled the City of Light last week — yet there was one glaring exception: The U.S. sent only a low-level official.

French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and dozens of other world leaders all took part in the powerful denunciation of last week's terror attacks that left 17 innocents dead.

Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas set aside their differences to march together on Boulevard Voltaire.

But the nation that stands as the symbolic face of the war on terror was nowhere in sight.

No high-level official from the administration came to the rally sponsored by the French embassy in Washington, D.C., either. And remember Obama's slow, soporific comments earlier in the week, where he sounded like he was groggy from cold medicine.

Look at this lineup below…

French President Francois Hollande, center, is surrounded by heads of state including (left to right) Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Council President Donald Tusk and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as they attend the solidarity march in Paris.

And imagine how much more powerful it would be if the leader of the free world -- remember when we called a U.S. president that? -- were there, walking arm in arm with the rest of them.

This is not some right-wing assessment. Ask Jake Tapper:

A man and his son came over to me holding a sign saying "I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it," beseeching me to share their message with the American people. And world leaders were standing together amidst a procession that included Francois Hollande of France, Angela Merkel of Germany, David Cameron of Great Britain, Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, along with the leaders of Mali, Jordan and Turkey.

It is no small thing for the king of Jordan, a direct descendent of the Prophet Mohammed, to march in a rally prompted by the murders of people who mocked Islam as well as of innocent Jews -- all of whom were killed by Islamic extremists.

The United States, which considers itself to be the most important nation in the world, was not represented in this march -- arguably one of the most important public demonstrations in Europe in the last generation -- except by U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley, who may have been a few rows back. I didn't see her. Even Russia sent Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

I say this as an American -- not as a journalist, not as a representative of CNN -- but as an American: I was ashamed.

I certainly understand the security concerns when it comes to sending President Barack Obama, though I can't imagine they're necessarily any greater than sending the lineup of other world leaders, especially in aggregate.

But I find it hard to believe that collectively President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Attorney General Eric Holder -- who was actually in France that day for a conference on counterterrorism -- just had no time in their schedules on Sunday. Holder had time to do the Sunday shows via satellite but not to show the world that he stood with the people of France?

There was higher-level Obama administration representation on this season's episodes of "The Good Wife" on CBS.

Wait, wait, we're doing something:

In the wake of terrorist attacks in France and elsewhere, the Obama administration announced Sunday it will host a Summit on Countering Violent Extremism next month.

The Feb. 18 event will "highlight domestic and international efforts to prevent violent extremists and their supporters from radicalizing, recruiting, or inspiring individuals or groups in the United States and abroad to commit acts of violence," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

Afghanistan, Land of 157,000 National Police & 300,000 National Police ID Cards

This morning, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction unveiled its audit of salary payments for the Afghan National Police, which the U.S. funds at $300 million annually.

It's increasingly easy for Americans to shrug at yet another tale of mismanagement and corruption and incompetence in the Afghan government, but the scale of this one is pretty epic. For starters, the inspector general found "there are almost twice as many ANP identification cards in circulation as there are active police personnel."

Pretty easy pickings for infiltrating Taliban agents and jihadists, huh?

SIGAR found that "as of February 2014, the Afghanistan Ministry of Interior had distributed around 300,000 ANP identification cards. At that time, the ANP had fewer than 157,000 assigned personnel, so that nearly half of these cards were not held by active personnel."

Wait, there's more:

After 9 years of effort, an electronic human resources system has still not been successfully implemented.

Reports have disclosed inflated police rosters, payments being made to more police personnel than are authorized in particular locations, and police personnel receiving inflated salaries.

20 percent of ANP personnel are at risk of not receiving their full salaries because they are paid in cash by an MOI-appointed trusted agent, where as much as half of these payments are possibly diverted.

U.S. officials confirmed that over the past year they accepted, without question, all personnel totals provided by the Afghan Ministry of Interior.

The United Nations Development Program's independent monitoring agent may have artificially inflated the percentage of successfully verified ANP personnel from 59 percent to as much as 84 percent.

As U.S. forces draw down, the U.S. government will have increasingly limited visibility over ANP data collection processes.

Unless the MOI develops the capability to ensure and verify the accuracy of ANP personnel and payroll data, there is a significant risk that a large portion of the over $300 million in annual U.S. funding for ANP salaries will be wasted or abused.

Yeah, there's significant risk all right.

Saudi Prince: We Won't See $100-Per-Barrel Oil Again

Maria Bartoromo, writing in USA Today:

Saudi billionaire businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal told me we will not see $100-a-barrel oil again. The plunge in oil prices has been one of the biggest stories of the year. And while cheap gasoline is good for consumers, the negative impact of a 50% decline in oil has been wide and deep, especially for major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia. Even oil-producing Texas has felt a hit.

The astute investor and prince of the Saudi royal family spoke to me exclusively last week as prices spiraled below $50 a barrel. He also predicted the move would dampen what has been one of the big U.S. growth stories: the shale revolution. In fact, in the last two weeks, several major rig operators said they had received early cancellation notices for rig contracts. Companies apparently would rather pay to cancel rig agreements than keep drilling at these prices. His royal highness, who has been critical of Saudi Arabia's policies that have allowed prices to fall, called the theory of a plan to hurt Russian President Putin with cheap oil "baloney" and said the sharp sell-off has put the Saudis "in bed" with the Russians.

ADDENDA: This week's pop-culture podcast: school closings, returning television shows, the television characters you would want to sit down and have dinner with, and recreational substances in Nepal. Exactly the topics you expected, right?

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