Friday, February 3, 2012
Political Digest for February 3, 2012
The Old Jarhead Blog: Bringing you news and information the MSM is too busy covering American Idol, celebrity affairs and sensational missing person cases to cover. Please forward to friends who need to be informed.
Best older posts for new blog readers
Even at 14%, Romney Pays a Higher Rate than 97% of His Fellow Americans by Scott A. Hodge
Excerpt: The release of Mitt Romney's tax returns, which indicate that he paid an average tax rate of 14 percent after deductions, has once again prompted a great deal of confusion over marginal and average tax rates. For a moment, let's set aside the issue that most of Mr. Romney's income is in the form of capital gains and dividends, which are taxed at 15 percent rather than at the highest marginal rate of 35 percent, and look at the difference between marginal and average (or effective) tax rates.
Mark Berndt Arrest: District Responds To Teacher Who Spoon-Fed Semen To Students
Excerpt: Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent John Deasy confirmed with Fox 11 News that he has seen some of the more than 400 photos of teacher Mark Berndt allegedly spoonfeeding his semen to blindfolded and gagged students, some with cockroaches on their faces. … However, according to KTLA, although the school did take steps to fire Berndt, somehow he was allowed to resign before termination, which meant that he was able to retain all of his (retirement) benefits. (Unbelievable. If a parent shot him and I was on the jury, I’d vote not to convict. Frankly, I’d be perfectly willing to shoot him myself, and think I’d sleep soundly that night. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: Pope Benedict XVI warned a group of Catholic bishops from the United States in a speech at the Vatican last week that some cultural trends in the U.S. are “a threat not just to Christian faith, but also to humanity itself.” … The U.S. Catholic bishops have been in an escalating conflict with President Barack Obama and his administration over a number of administration efforts that curtail religious freedom in the United States
House votes to freeze federal pay
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/208097-house-approves-bill-to-freeze-federal-worker-pay
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/208097-house-approves-bill-to-freeze-federal-worker-pay
Excerpt: The House on Wednesday evening handily approved a GOP proposal to extend the pay freeze for federal workers through 2013, despite the high hurdle for passage set by Republican leaders. The House voted 309-117 in favor of the bill, easily clearing the two-thirds majority required for passage under a suspension of House rules. Republicans needed about 50 Democrats for passage, and the bill, H.R. 3835, was supported by 72 Democrats. (The Senate is still controlled by pro-public union Democrats, so going no where. ~Bob.)
Former Rep. Gabby Giffords could flip Arizona
Excerpt: President Obama is eyeing Arizona
Minimum Wage Myths
Excerpt: The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour, but some states and cities have minimum wages that are significantly higher. Furthermore, eight states raised their minimum wage, effective January 1, 2012, says Pamela Villarreal, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis. … Proponents also claim that higher pay means low-wage workers will have more to spend on goods and services, thus boosting the economy. But if employers cannot absorb an increase in the cost of labor, they will hire fewer workers, hire more productive (educated) workers, lay off workers, or pass the costs on to consumers. Thus, the stimulative effect on demand may be offset by reduced employment among potential consumers.
Excerpt: Trying to save money on a university and still get a good education? Forget the local community college -- send your kid to school overseas.
For Romney campaign, race unfolding almost precisely as predicted
Excerpt: They may not have known which of Romney’s many rivals would become his principal opponent. On that they were no smarter than anyone else. But they understood their candidate and the political geography of the early states — the perils and opportunities. They built a strategy with the goal of putting Romney in command of the race by the beginning of this month and equipped for a potentially long fight. Which is where he is today.
Panetta: U.S.
Excerpt: The United States hopes to end its combat mission in Afghanistan Iraq , where the official end of U.S. combat operations came 16 months before the final U.S. troop withdrawal in December, may provide a useful model for winding down operations in Afghanistan Germany and Japan
DOJ prosecutors took bribes from financial execs, still working at DOJ
Excerpt: A U.S. Justice Department source has told The Daily Caller that at least two DOJ prosecutors accepted cash bribes from allegedly corrupt finance executives who were indicted under court seal within the past 13 months, but never arrested or prosecuted. (I’m fast losing my ability to be surprised or shocked. ~Bob.)
Eric Holder's 'Fast and Furious' woe
Excerpt: But even if some attributes are similar -- tough problem, edgy solution, inherent complexity, great secrecy, high operational and political risk -- it was definitely not a covert action since those are clearly defined in an executive order as the province of the Central Intelligence Agency Beyond that, if it had been a true covert action, the attorney general would have had to give his opinion as to its lawfulness beforehand; the implementing agency would have been required to exhaustively articulate risk; the National Security Council would have had to judge it favorably; President Barack Obama would have had to authorize it; and the Congress would have had to have been briefed before its implementation. (Authored by Michael Hayden, former Director of National Intelligence, previously head of NSA. Hayden may have the strength of character to hide a smirk at seeing the biter bitten, but I bet plenty of CIA operatives have no such hesitation. Ron P.)
In Rediscovered Letter From 1865, Former Slave Tells Old Master To Shove It
Great letter. ~Bob.
Excerpt: Mitt Romney, coming off his big win in the Florida Primary on Tuesday, is the clear front-runner in the first Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the Republican presidential race in his home state of Michigan
Family of slain border agent Brian Terry sues US
Excerpt: Today, the parents of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Justice and its Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). The lawsuit seeks $25 million dollars in compensation for Terry's death. Terry was gunned down Dec. 14, 2010 in Arizona near the Mexico
Excerpt: If convicted, Mr. Gilani would face up to six months in jail and possible disqualification from public office. The court order was a significant escalation of long-simmering tensions between the judiciary and the government and threatened to plunge the country into fresh political turmoil as its leaders debate the contours of a new strategic relationship with the United States Asia , the only question is: how bad is this, really? Bear in mind Pakistan has more nuclear weapons than Great Britain
New York Times Laments the loss of income for Afghan businesses!
Excerpt: After ten years of nearly constant derisiveness and complacency toward force protection and convenient ignorance of policies that have caused the severe wounding and killing of thousands of American Servicemen, The New York Times took the time to write about the loss of income for Afghan businesses in Afghanistan
Excerpt: Israel is reporting on an Iranian long-range missile program that would be capable of reaching the United States Iran Iran
Fast & Furious Info-graphic-Key Players by Darryl Issa
Bet you won’t see it in the NYT. ~Bob.
A failed ‘Fast and Furious’ whitewash
Excerpt: Today’s Capitol Hill hearing on the “Fast and Furious” mess promises drama that may well rival the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings or gangland chieftain Frank Costello’s memorable 1951 testimony in front of Sen. Estes Kefauver’s hearings on organized crime. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee insist there’s nothing left to learn about the murderous federal “gunwalking” operation: We already know who’s to blame, they report: low-level agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix, and staffers at the US Attorney’s Office there, headed by Dennis Burke, who has since resigned.
Sugar Should Be Regulated As Toxin, Researchers Say
Excerpt: A spoonful of sugar might make the medicine go down. But it also makes blood pressure and cholesterol go up, along with your risk for liver failure, obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Sugar and other sweeteners are, in fact, so toxic to the human body that they should be regulated as strictly as alcohol by governments worldwide, according to a commentary in the current issue of the journal Nature by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). (Pssttt. Wanna buy a $5 baggie of Domino Sugar? Good luck with this. The US Government has been supporting sugar producers at consumers’ expense for a long time. ~Bob.)
New Argument for Regulating Sugar: What Could be Bad? - by Howard Portnoy, Hotair.com
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/02/02/new-argument-for-regulating-sugar-what-could-be-bad/
Excerpt: The article, by researchers at the University of California University of CALIFORNIA
Banking giant accused of laundering billions
Excerpt: A former employee of HSBC in New York
Philippine military 'kills three wanted militants'
The Philippine military says it has killed three senior militants from al-Qaeda-linked groups in a raid in the south of the country. The air raid took place on Thursday in an area known as a militant stronghold. Officials said two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders and one Abu Sayyaf leader were among a total of 15 people killed.
Zulkifli Bin Hir, Southeast Asia 's Most Wanted Terrorist, Reportedly Killed
Excerpt: The dawn strike targeting a militant camp on a southern Philippine island killed Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan, a top leader of the regional, al Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror network, said military spokesman Col. Marcelo Burgos. Also killed were the leader of the Philippine-based Abu Sayyaf militants, Umbra Jumdail, and a Singaporean leader in Jemaah Islamiyah, Abdullah Ali, who used the guerrilla name Muawiyah, Burgos
Doesn’t he know about Global Warming? ~Bob.
Nancy Pelosi & R. Allen Stanford: Socialist Banking Cabalist Indicted On $7 Billion Fraud Scheme!
Excerpt: Brash Texas
Why Obama should be worried
Excerpt: To hear Democrats (and much of the media) tell it, President Barack Obama is a man on the rebound. The president turned in a strong State of the Union speech, picked a smart political fight over taxing the rich and authorized another heroic Navy SEAL mission in terrorist territory. Sounds like a recipe for reelection, they say. There is a big problem with this Pollyanna punditry: There are a bunch of real-time numbers coming in that tell a much a different tale.
Intervention in Syria
Excerpt: You want him out of his palace? Then shoot him out of it. (…) Barack Obama’s default position is one of confrontation avoidance. That doesn’t mean he’ll refuse to use force in all circumstances—see Libya—but he is less likely to pull the trigger than his predecessor, and he’s probably less likely to pull the trigger than whoever will turn out to be his replacement.
The un-Obama by Victor Davis Hanson http://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2012/02/02/the_unobama
Excerpt: Barack Obama's favorability in the polls falls when he is himself -- overexposed, hard left in his press conferences, and boastful about legislative achievements like Obamacare and a stimulus of more than $1 trillion. Then a strange thing happened. Obama largely went quiet. Often he was out of sight, vacationing in Hawaii
Democrats Love Taxes -- They Just Don't Want to Pay Them by Larry Elder
Excerpt: 2001, Massachusetts Bay State
Allen West to seek reelection in new district
Excerpt: First-term, Tea Party Republican Allen West will seek re-election in a new district, he announced Tuesday. The move improves West's chances for re-election, since his current, competitive Florida
Nine Years Of Space Policy Disaster
Excerpt: So, to summarize, we retired the Shuttle with no good plan to replace it, and made ourselves dependent on an unreliable foreign supplier for the support of a space station in which we have invested decades and many tens of billions of dollars. And Congress continues to fiddle while NASA burns….
Prediction: Someone Else will Swoop in, Nab GOP Nomination
Excerpt: Mitt Romney will not be the Republican nominee for president in 2012. Neither will Newt Gingrich. And certainly not Ron Paul or Rick Santorum. No, the Republican candidate for president will be someone who isn’t even a candidate for president right now. It will be someone who will swoop in and snatch the nomination away, much to the delight of Republican voters who won’t much like the person who emerges with the most delegates from the primaries. (And I may win the lotto, but equally doubtful. Though I’m holding out hope for Mitch Daniels. ~Bob.)
Holder should require Cook County
Excerpt: Whatever else one thinks about the many immigration issues facing this country, reasonable Americans of good can agree that illegal immigrants who commit crimes within the United States should be deported as soon as possible after they complete serving their jail sentences. There are more than enough Americans who make war on our society by committing crimes -- the last thing we need is to make more room here for criminals from other nations as well.
Jonathan Chait seems to be ‘Coming Apart’ over income inequality By James Pethokoukis
Excerpt: New York Murray links the increasing social polarization of America
Fistgate VI: Obama’s Safe Schools Czar’s Teen Conference Literature Pushed Anal S*x in Parks With Strangers by Jim Hoft
Content warning. If Obama wouldn’t bring these people into power, we wouldn’t need such warnings. ~Bob. Excerpt: Despite the controversy, Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings and his GLSEN organization did nothing to clean up their act. In fact in 2001 activists handed out “fisting kits” to the children and teachers who attended the GLSEN conference.
Komen for the Cure Web Site Hacked by Pro-Abortion Activists
Turns out that supporting abortion is more PC than fighting breast cancer. Who knew? ~Bob. Excerpt: Following its decision by Komen for the Cure to withdraw funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business, the breast cancer organization has been deluged by pro-abortion criticism led by the abortion business itself. Pro-abortion activists have flooded its email account and Facebook and Twitter accounts with hate mail, but one pro-abortion zealot unhappy the organization is renewing its focus on protecting and helping women hacked its web site and changed a message on its front page.
President Obama hits Romney with subliminal messaging attack
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/208329-obama-hits-romney-with-subliminal-messaging-attack
Excerpt: President Obama is taking subliminal shots at Mitt Romney, over and over again. The White House insists the president isn’t in campaign mode. And in the tradition of most incumbents, Obama never mentions Romney by name. But he hasn’t missed an opportunity, from his State of the Union address to the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, to jab at his probable opponent.
Slain border agent's family alleges lies over ATF gun program
Excerpt: The family of slain U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry charged Wednesday that the top federal prosecutor in Phoenix
Actually, I AM concerned about the very poor
Excerpt: [Romney] is not committed to political principles, but to management. The two things are different, and one of the worst mistakes Republicans make is to imagine that management trumps political principle. In fact, the management focus knuckles under repeatedly to political pressure (see Romney in Massachusetts , Schwarzenegger in California
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Political Digest for February 2, 2012
The Old Jarhead Blog: Bringing you news and information the MSM is too busy covering American Idol, celebrity affairs and sensational missing person cases to cover. Please forward to friends who need to be informed.
Free PDF Copy of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
GOP Racial Code Words
Cartoon.
Fresh off Florida
Excerpt: Mitt Romney hopped a one-way flight to Minnesota on Wednesday, the wind at his back as he emerged from a forceful victory in Florida Florida triumph, the former Massachusetts
Gingrich vows to press on after defeat
Excerpt: The Sunshine State Florida
Mitt Romney’s Florida
Excerpt: Mitt Romney’s across-the-board victory in the Florida Republican presidential primary on Tuesday night serves as a direct rebuttal to the criticism that he simply isn’t conservative enough to be the party’s nominee and leaves his remaining rivals with few obvious next steps as the nomination fight moves to Nevada
Recent missteps preempt White House counter-programming effort
Excerpt: The White House’s weeks-long effort to counterprogram against the GOP presidential primary fight has veered off course over the past two days. To date, President Obama has been successful in seizing the spotlight from Republican contenders after contests in several primary states.
After Obama’s remarks on drones, White House rebuffs security questions
Excerpt: White House spokesman Jay Carney rebuffed questions Tuesday about whether President Obama had violated intelligence restrictions on the secret U.S. drone program in Pakistan
Excerpt: The U.S. military launched an airstrike against Yemen
Science decodes 'internal voices'
Excerpt: Based on signals from listening patients, a computer model was used to reconstruct the sounds of words that patients were thinking of. The method may in future help comatose and locked-in patients communicate. Several approaches have in recent years suggested that scientists are closing in on methods to tap into our very thoughts; the current study achieved its result by implanting electrodes directly into a part of participants' brains. In a 2011 study, participants with electrodes in direct brain contact were able to move a cursor on a screen by simply thinking of vowel sounds. (If this is ever perfected, Big Brother will take the “Ultimate Stalker” title away from Santa Claus. Santa Claus? Yes. He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness’ sake.” Ron P.)
Excerpt: Have you ever read an article in which the writer compares the incomes of the top 1% to the bottom 99% over the last decade, say? Or the comparison might contrast the top 10% to the bottom 90%? The problem: the author is encouraging you to think that the people in the top 1% at the beginning of the decade are the same people who are in the top 1% at the end of the decade. But they aren’t. People move in and out of this category with surprising frequency. Yet if they aren’t the same people, what’s the point of the comparison? A similar thing happens in health care. I frequently see writers say that a small number of people spend most of the health care dollars. True. But the small number this year are not the same people as the small number last year, or the year before.
Contraceptive mandate could face tough sledding in Supreme Court
Excerpt: The healthcare law's mandate to require religious-affiliated employers to pay for contraception for their workers has prompted two lawsuits. If the matter gets to the Supreme Court, it will go before justices who recently affirmed — in a 9-0 ruling — that the 1st Amendment gives special leeway to religious employers.
Jan Brewer Vs. Shoe-Tossing Journalist
Excerpt: The photograph of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer pointing a finger at President Obama on the tarmac at the Phoenix Baghdad
Gaining Power in Parliament, Islamists Block a Cairo
When the Obama Administration and the Media swooned over the Arab Spring, you knew it was going to end badly for Women, Christians, Jews, Americans and Freedom. ~Bob. Excerpt: The Muslim Brotherhood flexed its muscles here on Tuesday as hundreds of its young members linked arms to block a protest march from reaching Parliament while its lawmakers inside dominated the selection of leaders for legislative committees. More than 70 people were injured as thousands of protesters jammed against the Brotherhood’s human wall, the Health Ministry said. Thirty people were hospitalized, the ministry said, 10 of them members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Who Is A “Natural Born Citizen”?
Excerpt: So I’m on the O’Reilly Factor and I say if the Republicans don’t put Marco Rubio on their national ticket they need to get their heads examined. Such is my regard for the freshman senator from Florida
First, They Came for the Catholics By Michelle Malkin
Excerpt: President Obama and his radical feminist enforcers have had it in for Catholic medical providers from the get-go. It's about time all people of faith fought back against this unprecedented encroachment on religious liberty. First, they came for the Catholics. Who's next?
53% Favor Fingerprinting Requirement For Food Stamp Applicants
Excerpt: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is aiming to end New York City’s policy of requiring food stamp applicants to be fingerprinted, a policy the city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, wants to keep in place. A new survey shows that a majority of Americans nationwide favor requiring food stamp applicants to be fingerprinted in order to be eligible. (This is a racist policy, because, like with IDs for voting, it’s harder for minorities to get fingers. ~Bob.)
Self-steering bullet researched by US weapons experts
Excerpt: A self-guiding bullet that can steer itself towards its target is being developed for use by the US
Obama’s deadly new PR firm --Whatever happened to SEAL Team 6 being a ‘secret’ weapon?
Excerpt: The dramatic rescue of an American aid worker and her Danish colleague in Somalia by Navy commandos was a terrific encore to the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan
Excerpt: Barack Obama has gone from the “one we've been waiting for" to the one we can’t wait to kick out. No one ever thought one man could bring the nation to its knees, but here he is living in the White House. And on our knees we have been praying for the day that he leaves.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: When Elizabeth Warren went on MSNBC to deny that she was a member of the 1 percent despite her nearly 15 million dollar net worth, the denial had a cultural element to it. Despite being a millionaire, Warren New England strata that relentlessly fought against Southern Baptists and working class Catholic immigrants. Those roots define modern day liberals much more so than the Jacksonian populism that they occasionally try to imitate.
Obama's Enemies List: David and Charles Koch have been the targets of a campaign of vituperation and assault, choreographed from the very top.
Excerpt: How would you feel if aides to the president of the United States
US, UN Helped Colo.
Hard to tell the “moderates” from the “extremists” until the shooting starts. ~Bob. Excerpt: Jamshid Muhtorov opposed his home country's dictator following a 2005 massacre, endured a brutal detention, and saw his sister arrested on a false murder charge. The 35-year-old fled his country by night dressed as a woman, and the U.S. and the U.N. helped bring him to Aurora
Time Is Up
Excerpt: On February 1, 2009, President Obama said when speaking on the economy, “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.” Three years later, the results couldn’t be clearer.
What is Senator Feinstein Up To?
Excerpt: Yet another example of Senator Feinstein’s seeming anti-Obama administration “mistake” has taken place – this time revealing potential plans for future attacks against Iran Israel ’s highly secretive intelligence organization – Mossad, was held recently in Washington D.C. in which potential plans for military strikes against Iran
The Coming of the New Ice Age: End of the Global Warming Era?
Excerpt: Back then, the media and activists trumpeted the arrival of a new ice age, with the specter of ice sheets and glaciers covering half the northern hemisphere, and brutal winters in the remaining ice-free zones. The fact that the media and popular culture and academia have veered from one panic-inducing disaster scenario to another one which completely contradicts the first one is funny enough in its own right. But reading The Weather Conspiracy: The Coming of the New Ice Age opened my eyes to an even more significant aspect of this serial crisis-mongering: The “solutions” prescribed to solve both Global Warming and the looming Ice Age are exactly the same. (TOJ has been pointing this out regularly for years. There are some great page scans of the book written about in this article. Some of the comments and experts’ advice cited in those pages is remarkably revealing. Ron P.)
At least 73 dead after mass pitch invasion at Egyptian match
Don’t go all Islamophobic. Has probably happened at the Super Bowl and we just didn’t notice. ~Bob. Excerpt: A massive pitch invasion in Port Said, Egypt following a match between defending champions Al Ahly and fourth-place Al Masry has, according to state television, led to at least 73 deaths and more than 1,000 injured in one of the most horrific and large-scale instances of football stadium violence in recent memory.
Obama Fundraising Advantage Disappearing By Josh Kraushaar
Excerpt: Every presidential election, there's a new development that changes the nature of campaigns that one party, often the one out of power, takes advantage of. … This year, it's the Republicans' adept and aggressive use of super PACs to even the financial playing field, blunting the often-massive money advantages that an incumbent president has at his disposal.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Political Digest for February 1, 2012
The Old Jarhead Blog: Bringing you news and information the MSM is too busy covering American Idol, celebrity affairs and sensational missing person cases to cover. Please forward to friends who need to be informed.
I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on. In some cases I post things sent to me by readers I might not have posted on my own, to get ideas circulating.
Fox projects Romney wins Florida with 47%, Gingrich 31%, Santorum with 13% Paul with 7%.
TV commenter said that exit polls suggest a lot of Gingrich voters were not for him, wanted to slow Romney in hopes someone else will get in. ~Bob
Important: CBO projects $1.08T deficit, higher unemployment
Excerpt: The Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday predicted the budget deficit will rise to $1.08 trillion in 2012. CBO also projected the jobless rate would rise to 8.9 percent by the end of 2012, and to 9.2 percent in 2013. (Bad news. Can’t be just George bush—I blame global warming as well. ~Bob.)
Worth Reading
Excerpt: California has a huge state debt and Washington
High-Speed Rail Authority Follow-Up
Excerpt: Our review of the High-Speed Rail Authority's (Authority) progress in addressing issues we raised in our April 2010 report, revealed the following: Although it has implemented some of our recommendations, the Authority has not completely addressed others. The high-speed rail network's (program) overall financial situation has become increasingly risky. The cost estimates for phase one increased to between $98.1 billion and $117.6 billion—of which approximately $12.5 billion has been secured.
The Republican establishment is smearing Gingrich by Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: The Republican establishment is pulling out all the stops to try to keep Newt Gingrich from becoming the party's nominee for President of the United States
Allen West's Wife Sees No Conspiracy in Redistricting
Excerpt: We missed U.S. Rep. Allen West voting this morning in Plantation
Adopted boy, 15, 'admits to murdering his prison psychologist father and physician mother before hiding the bodies in their car'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093437/Boy-15-admits-murdering-parents-hiding-bodies-car.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093437/Boy-15-admits-murdering-parents-hiding-bodies-car.html
Excerpt: Colleagues of the couple also told the San Francisco Chronicle that the couple had been having problems with their son, who they believed was spending too much time in the Occupy Oakland camp. (That’ll show the 1%! ~Bob.)
Thou Shall Not Covet by Michael Prell
Excerpt: What if it’s an “Occupy Wall Street” gang? Coveting is the foundation of their movement. A movement that – in a short few months of public coveting – has already racked up multiple counts of assault, rape, murder – and stealing wallets.
The Afghan mother-in-law from hell who helped son 'tie up and choke wife to death for burdening family by having third daughter instead of a son'
Excerpt: An Afghan woman has been arrested for 'helping strangle her daughter-in-law to death because she gave birth to an 'undesired' third daughter'. Mother-in-law Wali Hazrata is said to have tied the feet of 22-year-old Stori, which allowed the victim's local militia member husband Sher Mohammad to strangle her. (Gee, she just wanted gender balance in the family. Sort of a Muslim version of Affirmative Action. ~Bob.)
Press Freedom Index 2011/2012
Excerpt: Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them. (the US
When 'being green' means subsidies for rich, harm for the poor
Excerpt: Yet when it comes to the environment, the president showers favors on the rich while punishing the poor. During last year's
Occupy Wall Street
protests, Obama expressed sympathy with calls for more "green" policies from the self-styled advocates for the 99 percent. So far, however, the environmental agenda has overwhelmingly favored the 1 percent.
Iran, perceiving threat from West, willing to attack on U.S. soil, U.S.
Excerpt: U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Iran is prepared to launch terrorist attacks inside the United States in response to perceived threats from America and its allies, the U.S. Washington that was uncovered last year reflects an aggressive new willingness within the upper ranks of the Islamist republic to authorize attacks against the United States
Important, worth reading: Germany 's Role in Europe and the European Debt Crisis
Excerpt: The German government proposed last week that a European commissioner be appointed to supplant the Greek government. While phrasing the German proposal this way might seem extreme, it is not unreasonable. Under the German proposal, this commissioner would hold power over the Greek national budget and taxation. Since the European Central Bank already controls the Greek currency, the euro, this would effectively transfer control of the Greek government to the European Union, since whoever controls a country's government expenditures, tax rates and monetary policy effectively controls that country. The German proposal therefore would suspend Greek sovereignty and the democratic process as the price of financial aid to Greece
Tipping Point?
Excerpt: Every post-World War II president with a Gallup Gallup
Obama's Racial Politics
Excerpt: There's been a heap of criticism placed upon President Barack Obama's domestic policies that have promoted government intrusion and prolonged our fiscal crisis and his foreign policies that have emboldened our enemies. Any criticism of Obama pales in comparison with what might be said about the American people who voted him in to the nation's highest office. Obama's presidency represents the first time in our history that a person could have been elected to that office who had long-standing close associations with people who hate our nation.
Poll: Nearly One-in-Five Adults Would Miss the Birth of their Own Baby to Go to the Super Bowl
Excerpt: What would you miss or give up in order to go to the Super Bowl? Fifteen (15) percent of U.S.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: Well. The armed services' ethos, although noble, is not a template for civilian society, unless the aspiration is to extinguish politics. People marching in serried ranks, fused into a solid mass by the heat of martial ardor, proceeding in lockstep, shoulder to shoulder, obedient to orders from a commanding officer -- this is a recurring dream of progressives eager to dispense with tiresome persuasion and untidy dissension in a free, tumultuous society.
Quote
Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of power … it is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters. -- Daniel Webster
10 States With The Highest Debt Per Person: Report
Excerpt: The total of U.S. state debt, including pension liabilities, could surpass $4 trillion, with California owing the most and Vermont
FDA staffers sue agency over monitoring of personal e-mail
Excerpt: The Food and Drug Administration secretly monitored the personal e-mail of a group of its own scientists and doctors after they warned Congress that the agency was approving medical devices that they believed posed unacceptable risks to patients, government documents show.
Drone strike on al-Qaeda 'kills 13' in southern Yemen
Excerpt: At least 13 people have been killed in air strikes on militants from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in southern Yemen
For Sailors: "CPO Standards" by Mike McCaffrey, Admiral (retired USN)
Excerpt: One thing we weren't aware of at the time, but became evident as life wore on, was that we learned true leadership from the finest examples any lad was ever given, Chief Petty Officers. They were crusty old bastards who had done it all and had been forged into men who had been time tested over more years than a lot of us had time on the planet. The ones I remember wore hydraulic oil stained hats with scratched and dinged-up insignia, faded shirts, some with a Bull Durham tag dangling out of their right-hand pocket or a pipe and tobacco reloads in a worn leather pouch in their hip pockets, and a Zippo that had been everywhere. Some of them came with tattoos on their forearms that would force them to keep their cuffs buttoned at a Methodist picnic.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: Almost everything you read about the “increasing tension” between Iran and the United States United States Iran
Newt's flat tax would do a lot more to attract capital, spur growth and reduce compliance costs. By Arthur B. Laffer
Excerpt: If we judge both leading contenders in the Republican primary, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, by what they've done in life and by what they propose to do if elected, either one could be an excellent president. But when it comes to the election's core issue—restoring a healthy economy—the key is a good tax plan and the ability to implement it. Mr. Gingrich has a significantly better plan than does Mr. Romney, and he has twice before been instrumental in implementing a successful tax plan on a national level—once when he served in Congress as a Reagan supporter in the 1980s and again when he was President Clinton's partner as speaker of the House of Representatives in the 1990s.
Hamas and the Washington
Excerpt: To date, the Republican presidential primary race has been the only place to have generated any useful contributions to America 's collective understanding of current events in the Middle East . Last month, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich became the first major political figure in more than a generation to pour cold water over the Palestinian myth of indigenous peoplehood by stating the truth, that the Palestinians are an "invented people."
Free speech --- for some: Uncle Sam is joining in efforts to crack down on Islamists' critics By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
Excerpt: According to the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), there is a grave threat to America
The Third Jihad website
Masked Occupiers Attack NYC Cops With Bottles During Nighttime March
Black masks—so much cooler than brown shirts. ~Bob. Excerpt: If you thought the Occupy movement was dead and buried, you may be disappointed. … On Monday evening, the drama spread to New York City , among other localities, where
12 Occupy Wall Street
demonstrators were arrested after they held a march in solidarity with their Oakland
Obama green jobs program faces further investigation
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-01-30/obama-green-jobs-program-failure/52895630/1
Excerpt: House Republicans are expanding their probe into the Obama administration's energy programs, investigating $500 million in green job training grants that placed just 10% of trainees in jobs, according to a government report. The program's goal was to train 124,893 people and put 79,854 in jobs. But 17 months later, 52,762 were trained and 8,035, or roughly 1 in 10, had jobs.
The True Face of Occupy Wall Street
Excerpt: The Oakland riot is proof positive that whatever claim to innocence and idealism the movement purported in the early days of occupations around the country has been lost to the gimlet-eyed revolutionary left, now openly seeking violent confrontation with authorities using the bodies of the naive and foolish who still believe that OWS is a protest against income inequality and corporatism. (Where is the Freikorps when you need them? Yes, it’s a joke, but violence produces counter violence. ~Bob.)
Press Freedom in Peril?
Excerpt: One thing you likely would not think is that the extensive coverage of OWS indicated a dramatic decline in American press freedom. That is, unless you were the France-based journalism watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RWB). In the latest version of its annual report on global press freedom, RBW downgraded the U.S. 27 spots, to number 47 in the world. To put this in perspective: By RWB’s measure, the United States, home of the First Amendment, sits just a few notches above Haiti.
Excerpt: I recently posted a couple of articles about the Muslim area Vollsmose in Odense, Denmark ("Denmark: More Muslim violence against non-Muslims" and "Danish police: Immigrant criminals target Danes to make them move out of the (Muslim) area"). The latest development is that the major Danish insurance company GF-Insurance no longer offers comprehensive insurance on cars in the area.
Excerpt: What happens in Iran over the next few months may be one of the biggest wild cards in the 2012 election, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was characteristically blunt about the stakes. “If they decided to do it, it would probably take them about a year to be able to produce a bomb and then possibly another one to two years in order to put it on a deliverable vehicle of some sort in order to deliver that weapon," Panetta told CBS' "60 Minutes" on Sunday. (“If they decided…”? Is there a question? But there’s nothing like a splendid little war to help the incumbent’s poll numbers. George H. W. Bush timed his wrong. This one should start in, oh, August, 2012. ~Bob.)
Liberal super-PAC picks its first six House targets
Excerpt: A new liberal super-PAC called Credo has announced its first six targets of the 2012 campaign: GOP Reps. Joe Walsh (Ill. ), Steve King (Iowa ), Allen West (Fla. ), Sean Duffy (Wis. ), Chip Cravaack (Minn.
Occupy Wall Street protesters throw condoms, drown out speakers at Rhode Island
Excerpt: Demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street movement threw condoms on Catholic schoolgirls, refused to allow a Catholic priest to give a closing prayer, and shouted down a pro-life speaker at a Rhode Island
Black Tea Party Member Attacks Obama’s Hypocrisy
Excerpt: Jackson
Hunkered Between Santorum and Paul Lies Peace Through Total War
Excerpt: There is a legitimate argument for refocusing our military, but not as Ron Paul and many of his supporters articulate it. Paul imagines a world where there are no credible threats, and thus nothing worth responding to. He imagines that the Constitution of the United States Iraq or Somalia Israel
CBO says federal employees rake in much more pay: Comparison with private sector likely to heat up debate over ending freeze
Excerpt: Buoyed by generous benefit packages, federal workers earn significantly better compensation than similarly educated workers in the private sector, according to a report released Monday from Congress‘ chief scorekeeper that threatens to reignite at the national level last year’s state battles over public-employee rights.
Catholic Church Rejects Surrender Terms from Obama By Cliff Kincaid
Excerpt: My Catholic priest, Father Larry Swink, delivered a homily on Sunday that I told him would make headlines. In the toughest sermon I have ever heard from a pulpit, he attacked the Obama Administration as evil, even demonic, and warned of religious persecution ahead. What was also newsworthy about the sermon was that he cited The Washington Post in agreement—not on the subject of the Obama Administration being evil, but on the matter of its abridgment of the constitutional right to freedom of religion.
The Republican Establishment's Strategic Blunder By Steve McCann
Excerpt: The Republican Party has a tenuous hold on the conservative movement in America
Connecticut Avenue
in Washington
A great development but how will the Government tax the air?!
Excerpt: Will it be the next big thing? Tata Motors of India thinks so. What will the Oil Companies do to stop it? It is an auto engine that runs on air. That’s right; air not gas or diesel or electric but just the air around us. (,,,) The Air Car, called the “Mini CAT” could cost around 365,757 rupees in India
What do the press have to say about the English Defence League?
Excerpt: The fact is that we have a diverse group of supporters who most certainly do not deserve to be written off as ‘undesirables’, any more than all Muslims deserve to be branded as would-be-extremists. Of course, some journalists don’t do their readers a disservice, and do actually provide an informed and fair-minded analysis. Patrick Hayes of Spiked.com argues that, “The greatest threat to… [our] liberties comes not from radical Islam, but the odious triad of smug observers, censorious left-wing groups and interfering politicians”. His view is clearly that we’re wrong to focus on Islamic extremism – and that is, at least, a legitimate argument.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: The so-called Buffett Rule to make millionaires and billionaires pay at least 30 percent in taxes is such an obvious exercise in poll-driven populism, it should come with cross-tabs attached. It shows that as an economist, David Axelrod is a hell of a political consultant. It is a non-solution to a non-problem, the intellectual basis of which is a badly distorted anecdote repeated over and over.
Santorum’s ‘Game of Survivor’: He looks west. By Robert Costa
Excerpt: Santorum sees hope to the west, from the Upper Midwest to the Rocky Mountain Florida Nevada Minnesota and Colorado
Ex-Syracuse Coach's Wife "had sex with players and compared their attributes while discussing sex acts she performed" - Daily Mail UK
Excerpt: The suit is also seeking damages saying that the team's head coach Jim Boeheim defamed Fine's accusers when he called their allegations of sexual abuse lies. Bernie Fine, 66, was fired in November after ESPN released a taped conversation it had obtained between [one of the accusers] Mr Davis and Laurie Fine in which Laurie said that she knew that her husband [Bernie Fine] molested his players but she did not do anything about it.
Investors face more than 70 pct loss in Greek deal
Excerpt: Investors participating in a deal to slash Greece's massive debt would face an overall loss on their bond holdings of more than 70 percent, a person involved in with the negotiations said early Tuesday. European leaders at a summit in Brussels
Red Alert: Credit Default Swaps Explained by Ann Barnhardt
May have to scroll down. Scary and frustrating if she’s right. ~Bob.
After Rescinding Mistaken Acceptances, Vassar Delivers an Apology - by Daniel E. Slotnik, New York Times
Excerpt: Vassar College
Obama's Gerrymander By Lois Beckett/ProPublica
Excerpt: We've been following the ways that politicians and special interests try to influence the redistricting process for their own gain, often at the expense of voters. An article this week in The New Yorker suggests that President Barack Obama's own political rise in Chicago Chicago
Rick Santorum: The Tim Tebow of Politics?
Excerpt: For awhile you couldn’t even watch sports on the local news without seeing denunciations of Tebow interspersed with clips from a humorless Saturday Night Live segment ridiculing him for his faith. That’s the sort of wall-to-wall derision Santorum would be exposed to as the nominee. But the media campaign against Tebow didn’t turn out so well: The Denver Broncos quarterback finished first in an ESPN Sports Poll asking Americans about their favorite active athlete. The more degenerates assail Tebow for being good, the more people love him.
Ron Pelosi’s Connection to Tonopah Solar Energy
Excerpt: Q: Did the Energy Department give a loan to an energy company connected to Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law? A: Yes.
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