Thursday, October 20, 2011

Political Digest for October 20, 2011

Blog is Removed Again Wednesday
It was up at 8:00am, I was out all day. In the afternoon it was “removed” again. Sent them two messages and it was put back up. Has happened every week since early August. I’m not the only one from the messages on “Something is Broken.  I think you can get on here and post a query as to why it keeps disappearing under “something is broken” if you don't see it. Thanks for the help. ~Bob

Resources
For those who want further information about the topics covered in this blog, I recommend the following sites. I will add to this as I find additional good sources.

Jeff Flake for Senator
I attended a luncheon of the Illinois Policy Institute in Chicago today, where Rep. Flake was the speaker. I was impressed enough that I made a small contribution. He pretty much led the fight in the House against earmarks, often alone. He headed up the Goldwater Institute before running for Congress. Described having Maggie Thatcher, Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley in the same room for a dinner 15 years ago—sorry I missed it.

The New Reality For U.S. Cities: No Money For Street Lights, Roving Packs Of Wild Dogs And Open-Air Drug Markets
Where have I read about this before? Oh, yes, in my book, The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. ~Bob. Excerpt: If you want to know what the early stages of an economic collapse look like, just walk around some of the downtown areas of our major cities. Today, nearly all large U.S. cities are either flat broke or they are on the way to being flat broke. Yes, New York City and Washington D.C. (and a few others) are still doing fairly well, but for most U.S. cities economic reality is catching up with them very quickly. Right now, there are a number of major cities that are so broke that they cannot keep the street lights operating. Down in St. Louis, parents in some areas are carrying golf clubs with them as they walk their kids to school in order to fend off roving packs of wild dogs. In other major U.S. cities, open-air drug markets conduct business without fear. All over the United States, cities that used to be clean and prosperous and full of hope are now being transformed into post-industrial wastelands. We are certainly not in "Mad Max" territory yet, but it doesn't take too much imagination to see where all of this is headed.

Chicago Tribune Editorial: CLASS dismissed: Killing an unaffordable new entitlement.
Excerpt: The picture keeps getting darker for the Obama administration's health care reform program. Last Friday, one big part of it got eliminated — not by Congress and not by the courts, but by the Department of Health and Human Services. Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, abandoning a new program to provide long-term care for the elderly, announced, "I do not see a viable path forward." That may sound like a sensible admission, and it is. But the administration's decision to scrap the effort is still a couple of years late. This is not a problem that emerged only recently, as a consequence of unforeseen developments. On the contrary, it was obvious all along. The initiative, known as Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS), was supposed to cover services needed to let the elderly live at home, as well as nursing home stays. But it ran up against a harsh reality: Young and healthy people are generally uninterested in buying such coverage, and the people likely to buy it are also likely to take advantage of it.

Pitting Us Against Each Other by Walter Williams
Excerpt: Attacking CEO salaries, the president - last year during his Midwest tour - said, "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money."  Let's look at CEO salaries, but before doing so, let's look at other salary disparities between those at the bottom and those at the top. According to Forbes' Celebrity 100 list for 2010, Oprah Winfrey earned $290 million. Even if her makeup person or cameraman earned $100,000, she earned thousands of times more than that. Is that fair? Among other celebrities earning hundreds or thousands of times more than the people who work with them are Tyler Perry ($130 million), Jerry Bruckheimer ($113 million), Lady Gaga ($90 million) and Howard Stern ($76 million). According to Forbes, the top 10 celebrities, excluding athletes, earned an average salary of a little more than $100 million in 2010. (…) When you recognize that celebrities earn salaries that are some multiples of CEO salaries, you have to ask: Why is it that rich CEOs are demonized and not celebrities? A clue might be found if you asked: Who's doing the demonizing? (An alternative to Williams’ explanation is that leftists can appreciate the value of celebrities and sports stars because they admire them. Further, leftists aren’t jealous of celebrities because they so obviously got where they are by either God-given luck or God-given talent; CEOs, on the other hand, are mere mortals who succeeded by dint of work and luck most leftists aren’t willing or able to match, so they are subject to jealousy. Ron P.)

Solyndra Redux?
Excerpt: All the makings of another Solyndra are there. A financially suspect green energy firm with political connections is rewarded by an administration whose faith is just that, faith, with sound business judgment set aside in favor of a green energy "religion." (Especially see the second page for “new developments” on Solyndra’s direct connection to the White House and what Investor’s Business Daily thinks of it. Ron P.)

Mexican Drug Cartels In The U.S.
Excerpt: The presence of Mexican drug cartels in U.S. cities is expanding. Mexican cartels have long had links to marijuana-growing farms in California, and are widening their reach into the Pacific Northwest and the Eastern United States. They also are involved in producing methamphetamines in the United States. The FBI has reported that the Mexican cartels deal only in wholesale distribution in the U.S. -- and farm out street sales to various U.S. gangs. This map shows locations of cartel activity in the United States. Click on the state names in the list below to see which cities and towns have cartel presence.

Sunday Reflection: Judge orders EPA to pay up for malicious prosecution
Excerpt: Last Friday, after five years of litigation, a federal judge in Louisiana ordered the U.S. government to pay $1.7 million in damages for maliciously prosecuting Hubert Vidrine, a used-oil processing plant manager. The facts of the case, in which the Washington Legal Foundation participated as one of Vidrine's counsels, evoke daytime TV drama. But Vidrine is an actual victim of federal over criminalization, and government agencies' enduring lack of respect for business civil liberties, which this case illuminates, is a real and growing, national problem. This tale of prosecutorial indiscretion, malice, personal vendettas, hypnotism, a clandestine affair, and perjury began in 1996. As a part of a broader hazardous waste investigation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered its SWAT-like special operations team (equipped with M-16 rifles and police dogs) to raid Canal Refinery, Vidrine's workplace. The EPA agents initially concluded that there was insufficient evidence to indict Vidrine. Despite that determination, EPA brought in a rookie criminal investigator, Keith Phillips, to run the investigation. (I try to stay abreast of EPA over-reach cases and AGW happenings, but though this case was decided over a week ago, this is the first I’ve heard of it. Thanks for the prompt, complete coverage MSM. Ron P.)

The Many Farces of the Occupiers (no, it’s not a typo)
Excerpt: The “Occupiers” think they’re the new revolutionaries, but they’re not. Indeed, they are farcical actors performing a failed drama on a stage resting on ignorance of history and a classic philosophical error best illuminated early in the last century by someone they’ve never heard of, Ludwig Wittgenstein. (…) How do you know when you see a revolution? How do you know if a revolution has succeeded or failed? Once you start looking at such questions, the image you’ve got of a “revolution” (which is probably something like an angry mob marching on the Bastille) dissolves. “Scientific revolutions” don’t have mobs or violence in the streets; they take place in laboratories and are conducted by men in white coats, for example. Mobs and violence, even rhetorical violence of the sort the American Occupiers deploy, do not a revolution make. Nor is that sort of activity necessarily “progressive.”

Kiruna: a case study in public acceptance
Excerpt from the editor’s comment on the article: Imagine you wanted to build a new power station or a wind park or a high-voltage transmission line and you had to move an entire town to do it - how would you go about it? Would you even contemplate such a project?  Most of us probably would not. Yet this is exactly what is happening in Swedish Lapland, where the mining company LKAB has managed to persuade the 23,000 residents of Kiruna to pack up and move their entire town, to make way for an expansion of its iron ore mine.  How did they pull this off? (Whoever pulled this off deserves the title “Second Best Salesman of the 21st Century” (First place will be held in perpetuity by the team that convinced a majority of Americans that Obama was a post-racial uniter who could make things better). Ron P.)

Occupy Arrest Scam Unmasked
Excerpt: Leftists love to get arrested at protests. It must make them feel like adults and compensates for their otherwise very childish behavior. But new video released exclusively by EAGtv shows the protestors pre-arrange who is to be arrested. That’s right – the arrests are as scripted as a professional wrestling match, at least on the occupiers’ end. Cameras were rolling in Chicago recently and captured Chicago Teachers Union organizers finalizing plans for who in the crowd would be arrested. That’s right – it was staged. (Maybe it really IS all entertainment. Ron P. I see by your sign that you are a victim, you can see by my sign that I'm a victim too, you can see by our signs that we are both victims--if you get a protest sign, you can be a victim too! ~Bob.)

Worth Reading: Why Is Class Hatred Morally Superior to Race Hatred?
Excellent article! Ron P. Excerpt: The reason for this embrace is that class hatred is as fundamental to the left as the Trinity is to Christians, and the left dominates the media and education. This is dangerous because there is an ideological continuum from the democratic left to the Communist left. Making the rich into scapegoats for society's ills unites the left. The democratic left believes in democracy, and, before the 1970s, some of its adherents were fierce anti-Communists. But while the decent and the indecent left differ on democracy versus tyranny and on non-violence versus violence, the nicest leftists in the world agree with the indecent left about who the enemy is. Being on the left means that you divide the world between rich and poor much more than you divide it between good and evil. For the leftist, the existence of rich and poor -- inequality -- is what constitutes evil. More than tyranny, inequality disturbs the left, including the non-Communist left. That is why so many on the left fell in love with Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and, at other times, with every left-wing dictator. Non-leftists see these men as thugs; much of the left sees them as fighters for equality. Yes, leftist dictators extinguish freedom and steal land and businesses from the rich -- but none of this disturbs most of the left.

Senators: VA has denied gun rights to more than 100,000 veterans
Excerpt: They pledged to support and defend the Constitution, but the office of North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr says more than 100,000 U.S. military veterans may be being improperly denied one of the most fundamental rights they swore to protect. Military veterans whose Veterans Affairs benefits are managed on their behalf by appointed fiduciary trustees are deemed “mentally defective” and reported to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), a computerized database which prohibits them from purchasing firearms. Sen. Burr is the ranking Republican member of the Senate Committee on Veteran’s Affairs. His office told The Daily Caller that around 114,000 veterans have been reported to the NICS and are unable to purchase firearms. Under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, any person determined by a government authority to lack the mental capacity to manage his or her own affairs is subject to being prohibited from buying a gun.

Herman Cain: Runaway Slave
Excerpt: I keep having images of Herman Cain barefoot, covered in sweat and mud, wearing an old patchwork shirt and hand made burlap pants held up by a rope rather than a belt, out of breath and frantically running for his life; to freedom. Menacing sounds of barking dogs in the distance focused on Cain's scent. Not far behind, hot on Cain's trail, are black overseers determined to keep their fellow black slaves in check for their white liberal democrat massas. Cain's crime? He achieved success via traditional routes; education, hard work and character. Cain did not use or need Affirmative Action or lowered standards; a clear violation of the left's law for acceptable minority success. White massas' Lawrence O'Donnell, Janeane Garofalo and the Democratic Party leadership have instructed their black “slave control” enforcers/overseers to “Stop Cain! NOBODY, escapes the Liberal Democrat Slave Plantation! NOBODY!!!” So a posse of black overseers consisting of Harry Belafonte, Tavis Smiley, Morgan Freeman, Al Sharpton and other blacks who are loyal to their white liberal democrat massas are on a mission to destroy runaway slave, Herman Cain. Why has the left launched a stop-at-all-cost political hit on Herman Cain? The answer is quite simple. Herman Cain represents truth. Truth can be devastating such as the great Oz is only a man behind a curtain pulling levers, Soylent Green is people and the greatest enemy of black Americans is the Democratic Party.

Rep. Allen West Assails Occupy Wall Street for 'Laughable Hypocrisy'
Rep. Allen West denounces the Occupy Wall Street movement for “laughable hypocrisy” and contends that it is dangerous that some in Washington, including President Barack Obama, are embracing the nationwide wave of protests.

Most illegal immigrants deported last year were criminals
They'll be back across the border that OWS wants even more open. ~Bob. Excerpt: The U.S. deported nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants last year, and an increasing number of them were convicted criminals, according to figures set for release Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security. Deportations have been on the rise for the past decade, and the 396,906 illegal immigrants deported in fiscal year 2011 is the highest number yet, according to the figures. Under the Obama administration, Homeland Security issued new priorities to focus deportations on convicted criminals, people who pose threats to national security and repeated border-crossers. Last year, 55% of those deported were convicted criminals, the highest percentage in nearly a decade.

The Old Soldier Who Didn’t Fade Away
Excerpt: A 59-year-old sergeant in Afghanistan is determined to serve any way he can. His real fear? Retirement 'I don't mind people calling me old,' says Sgt. Nicholas, left, with a colleague in Afghanistan earlier this year. He joined the Marines in 1971.Staff Sgt. Don Nicholas disproves the old refrain: Old soldiers do not, in fact, fade away. They re-enlist. At 59, Sgt. Nicholas is the oldest of the 6,000 soldiers in the 25th Infantry Division in eastern Afghanistan, the Army says. And he is probably one of the very few Vietnam vets now back for more in Afghanistan. He's certainly the only one who saw first-hand the ugly end of that war from the roof of the U.S. embassy in Saigon. "It's really not a fascination with war itself," Sgt. Nicholas explains. "It's more trying to keep people from getting killed. I'm taking the spot of some 19-year-old."Raised in Magnolia, Ohio, Sgt. Nicholas dropped out of high school and joined the Marines in 1971, expecting—almost hoping—to go to Vietnam. At the time he was a believer in the domino theory. He remembers telling a local TV reporter at the recruiting station that he didn't want his children "living under communism. "The Marines sent him to the Vietnam War, but not to Vietnam. He was stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Tonkin Gulf, watching planes take off to bomb a shore he couldn't quite see. "It was kind of disappointing that the war was winding down," he says. "I was a Marine rifleman, and I didn't get to do what I was trained to do."

Visits to small towns expose Obama’s big problem
Excerpt: The whole problem with false prophets in politics is that eventually they are almost always exposed. And so President Obama returns to small towns in Virginia and North Carolina, the apex of his improbable and stunning 2008 campaign victory. It was in those traditionally Republican states that he convinced voters that he was some kind of new politician, a different sort of Democrat. Post-partisan, we were told. He believed in personal responsibility, free markets and yearned to move America beyond racial divisiveness and distrust. And he managed to quell accusations that he was some kind of foreigner with contempt for average Americans who just want to work hard, earn their money and be left alone. He even managed to beat back the firestorm that erupted after he told his crowd in San Francisco that small-town people are “bitter” and “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” Boy, were we duped. Turns out, the only slip-up in San Francisco was that he accidentally said precisely what he meant. As Americans have clung to their guns and religion in these hard times, he has clung to his beloved socialism and big government. ("We"? I wasn't duped. ~Bob.)

Responsibility to protect us: Obama sends troops to Africa just as Iran threatens mayhem here by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
Obama Re-election Slogan: He Kept Us Safe From Uganda! ~Bob. Excerpt: For the second time this year, President Obama has committed U.S. military personnel to distant battlefields, putting them in harm's way pursuant - more or less explicitly - to what is known in United Nations circles as a "responsibility to protect." The theory goes that the international community has a duty to intervene to prevent harm to innocent civilians. As a practical matter, this new supranational dictate - known in U.N.-speak as "R2P" - translates into a purported obligation on the part of the United States to use force, or at least make it available, whenever called upon by others to do so. The only exception seems to be circumstances in which we might actually have vital interests, in which case, naturally, the "international community" would generally deem such a U.S. intervention impermissible. R2P was essentially the animating principle behind the ongoing, U.S.-enabled NATO operation in Libya. We went in, as Mr. Obama famously put it, because we had been "volunteered" by the Arab League and the U.N. for the mission of protecting civilians there. Never mind that untold numbers of civilians have been killed, wounded or dispossessed in the course of the civil war that was abetted by that campaign - to say nothing of the fact that more there and elsewhere will likely perish at the hands of a government we have helped bring to power, one that is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and/or al Qaeda.

Amos: KIA bracelets a symbol of fidelity
The Marine Corps has ended its controversial ban on bracelets honoring U.S. troops killed in combat. Commandant Gen. Jim Amos announced Tuesday afternoon that Marines in uniform are now authorized to wear so-called KIA bracelets recognizing friends who’ve fallen in combat or died from wounds sustained on the battlefield. The policy is effective immediately. Additional guidance detailing “standardization and uniformity” will be sent to Marines by the end of the week, Marine Corps officials said in a statement. “We are acknowledging the close, personal nature of our 10 years at war and the strong bonds of fidelity that Marines have for one another, especially for those fellow Marines who we have lost,” Amos said in a statement.

Suicide bomber kills 15 Somalis in Mogadishu
Didn’t get the “Islam is a Religion of Peace” memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: A Shabaab suicide bomber killed 15 Somalis in an attack in Mogadishu today as Kenyan forces advance against the terror group in the south. The suicide attack occurred near the old foreign ministry building in the Somali capital. A suicide bomber detonated his car packed with explosives outside the building, killing 15 Somalis and wounding 20 more, according to Mareeg Online. Most of those killed and wounded were civilians, Mareeg reported. The suicide attack is the second in the capital this month. On Oct. 4, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside a building where scholarships were being awarded by the Turkish government to Somali students. More than 100 Somalis, mostly students and their families, were killed in the massive blast.

House looks to repeal controversial 3 percent withhold law next week
Excerpt: House Republicans may take up bipartisan legislation next week to repeal a widely scorned law requiring all levels of government to withhold 3 percent of most payments to contractors, Medicare recipients, farmers and vendors. The House Ways & Means Committee marked up the bill, H.R. 674, last week, and it's high up on the list of GOP priorities for legislation to help create the conditions for job growth. As of the middle of this week, House aides said GOP leaders seemed to be shooting for floor action next week. The withholding rule became law in 2005, and was meant to help close the gap between taxes owned and taxes collected. But it was never implemented, and was delayed further under the 2009 stimulus bill until the end of 2011. Republicans are not the only ones who oppose current law — even President Obama has called the possible withholding rules "burdensome withholding requirements that keep capital out of the hands of job creators." The IRS earlier this year delayed implementing it again until the end of 2012.

Excerpt: House Republicans are pushing forward with their request for all internal White House communications related to the now-bankrupt solar firm Solyndra, including President Obama’s emails. The White House late last week denied the request by Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, noting that the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Treasury Department and the Energy Department have provided over 70,000 pages of documents in recent months. The White House, in a letter from White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, also said that more than 900 pages of communications between the White House and Solyndra have also been released. The documents that have been provided by the administration “should satisfy the Committee’s stated objective,” Ruemmler said in the letter. “Your most recent request for internal White House communications from the first day of the current Administration to the present implicates longstanding and institutional Executive Branch confidentiality interests,” the letter says. But, in a letter to Ruemmler Wednesday, top Republicans on the committee argue that the White House should turn over the additional documents.

Bio-terror attack an imaginable threat in U.S., official testifies
Excerpt: During a U.S. Senate hearing, a Homeland Security Department official said that a bio-terror attack within the United States is imaginable and frightening.
On the 10th anniversary of the anthrax attacks using the U.S. postal system the U.S. official reported that a large amount of money has been spent on bio-terror countermeasures over the last decade. "A wide-area attack using aerosolized Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax, is one of the most serious mass casualty threats facing the U.S.," said Alexander G. Garza, Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. Garza was testifying before the U.S. Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Cain's Stimulating '9-9-9' Tax Reform: A new sales tax could be raised in the future—but so can any other tax. And the low marginal rates would jump-start the economy. By Arthur B. Laffer
Excerpt: It used to be that the sole purpose of the tax code was to raise the necessary funds to run government. But in today's world the tax mandate has many more facets. These include income redistribution, encouraging favored industries, and discouraging unfavorable behavior. To make matters worse there are millions and millions of taxpayers who are highly motivated to reduce their tax liabilities. And, as those taxpayers finagle and connive to find ways around the tax code, government responds by propagating new rules, new interpretations of the code, and new taxes in a never-ending chase. In the process, we create ever-more arcane tax codes that do a poor job of achieving any of their mandates. Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's now famous "9-9-9" plan is his explicit proposal to right the wrongs of our federal tax code. He proposes a 9% flat-rate personal income tax with no deductions except for donations to charity; a 9% flat-rate tax on net business profits; and a new 9% national tax on retail sales.

Anti-Semitism tainting
Occupy Wall Street
protests
Excerpt: Several anti-Semitic incidents have been reported during "Occupy Wall Street" demonstrations in New York as Jews were blamed for the turmoil in America's financial markets. In addition, anti-Israel signs were raised against "Israel's occupation of Gaza". The "Emergency Committee for Israel" has published a hard-to-watch clip in which Jews are attacked and blamed for the financial crisis and assistance to Israel. The committee is a neo-conservative body headed by William Kristol, the Jewish editor of the Weekly Standard, which aims to convince Jews to vote for a Republican presidential candidate.

CAIR's Odd Stand on Iranian Assassination Plot
Excerpt: A criminal complaint issued last week alleging members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force plotted to kill the Saudi ambassador to the United States triggered bi-partisan outrage in Washington and international condemnation. The plot, had it not been interdicted by federal law enforcement, was seen as a potential act of war on American soil by a hostile regime. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton labeled it an international act of terrorism. But there has been an odd silence from America's national Islamist organizations. None has issued a release on the case. And when officials from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) have commented, they have criticized the government's case and spoken in defense of the Iranian regime. Executive directors Zahra Billoo of CAIR-San Francisco and Dawud Walid of CAIR-Michigan challenged the case's legitimacy, calling out Attorney General Eric Holder and accusing the FBI of fabrication and entrapment. The plot unraveled when Mannsor Arbabsiar, a naturalized American citizen of Iranian descent, reached out to what he thought was a representative of the Zeta drug cartel to carry out the attack.

Jerry Brown's Union Salute... California’s Governor does labor's bidding on voter initiatives.
Excerpt: This month marks the centennial of California's voter initiative process, and Governor Jerry Brown has commemorated the occasion by signing a law that makes it easier for unions to defeat ballot measures they don't like. Consider it more evidence of Mr. Brown's disappointing return to Sacramento. The California constitution stipulates that ballot measures be placed on a general election ballot unless lawmakers call a special election. What constitutes a "general election" was hotly debated during the 1960s and early 1970s. However, when the legislature wanted to put several bond measures on a primary ballot in 1971, Mr. Brown, then the secretary of state, obliged. Initiatives have since appeared on either primary (typically in June) or November ballots. This has benefitted voters since initiatives receive more scrutiny and debate when there are fewer measures on the ballot. The November ballot is chock full of local and statewide races and measures. Adding more initiatives would make the ballot even more crowded, but that seems to be the union point. This month Mr. Brown signed a law restricting voter-sponsored initiatives to the November ballot only in even years. The same rules, by the way, don't apply to ballot measures that the legislature sponsors. Democrats say this is more democratic because voter turnout is higher than in primary and special elections. But then why does the legislature retain for itself the power to place bond and revenue-raising measures on primary and special-election ballots?

Reid says government jobs must take priority over private-sector jobs
Excerpt: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first responders. "It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about," Reid said on the Senate floor. Reid was responding to comments from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who accused Democrats of purposefully pursuing higher taxes as part of the teacher/first responder bill, S. 1723, so Republicans would oppose it. McConnell said the bill was meant to fail in order to give Democrats an issue to run on in the 2012 election, but Reid said the Republicans are simply trying to defeat President Obama any way they can. The legislation Reid is defending is part of Obama's jobs package. Vice President Biden was in Pennsylvania, an important election state, on Tuesday to push for the administration's plan on increasing the number of teachers.

If Cain is able to get the nomination, Obama's war chest of money won't spare him a crushing defeat.
My late grandmother used to say: “They’re smart, but they’re still stupid.” I find that adage apropos pursuant to the political zeitgeist of today. The problem with the program hosts and media and the beltway illuminati whose lead everyone else follows is that they associate and reason with mirror images of themselves. They have no idea who we “the American people” really are. They will deny what I’m saying, but they’ve long forgotten what life was like outside the cloistered Martha’s Vineyard bubble they now live in. And that’s for the ones who had a clue to begin with. Their neighborhood’s idea of occupational diversity is driving a different color BMW X5 and/or S Class than their neighbor. It’s also the reason why we hear them and their guests ostensibly saying the same things, even if phrased differently. Which is why, I argue, we should listen circumspectly.

5 Foreign Nationals Arrested After Attempted Break-In at Texas Courthouse, Authorities Say
My guess is they were looking for jobs Americans won’t do. ~Bob. Excerpt: The FBI and local police say they are trying to figure out why five French-Moroccan nationals tried to break into a Texas courthouse in the middle of the night. At least five foreign nationals are in custody after the attempted break-in at the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio, which triggered a bomb scare and FBI terror investigation, a source close to the case tells FoxNews.com.

Occupy D.C.? Most Back Protests, Surtax
Excerpt: A new survey shows that Americans overwhelmingly support the self-styled Occupy Wall Street protests that not only have disrupted life in Lower Manhattan but also in Washington and cities and towns across the U.S. and in other nations. Some 59 percent of adults either completely agree or mostly agree with the protesters, while 31 percent mostly disagree or completely disagree; 10 percent of those surveyed didn’t know or refused to answer. What’s more, many people are paying attention to the rallies. Almost two-thirds of respondents—65 percent—said they’ve heard “a lot” or “some” about the rallies, while 35 percent have said they’ve heard or seen “not too much” or “nothing at all” about the demonstrations. The results appear in the latest edition of the United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll. (From center-left National Journal. Almost 3 of 5 people approve of the OWS protests? No way. It would be instructive to know what the exact questions were and how they picked the “random sample” of people to be asked. If I had to guess, my estimate of those who truly approve of the OWS protests would be more in the range of 15% to 25% tops. Even here in liberal Massachusetts, many Democrats have no sympathy for the protestors. Ron P. Wait until OWS wins, all debts are cancelled, the banks go under and everyone loses life savings and see who supports them. ~Bob.)

Mexican Drug Cartels Taking Over Rick Perry’s Texas—But He Still Says “No Fence”
Excerpt: Early in the morning of September 27th, around 2 a.m., a gunfight erupted between moving vehicles on an expressway. Jorge Zavala, the 32-year driver of a Ford Expedition, was driving down the expressway, accompanied by a 22-year old man. A Chevrolet Tahoe pulled up alongside them, from which a gunman unloaded a volley of gunfire. Zavala lost control of his Ford Expedition, crashed and died. The cause of death, though, was not the crash but the multiple gunshot wounds. Police believe that Zavala was associated with Mexico’s Gulf Cartel, which has been undergoing its own internal struggle for power, pitting the Rojos against the Metros.

How Iran Kills Abroad--- The staggering parallels between the 1992 Berlin murders and the plot against the Saudi ambassador.
Excerpt: On the night of Sept. 17, 1992, at 10:45, two darkly clad men burst in on a private dinner at a Berlin restaurant and stood over a table around which eight of Iran's leading opposition figures were seated. The taller of the two intruders shouted: "You sons of whores!" Then he thrust his gloved hand into the sports bag that hung on his shoulder. In the dimly lit air, sparks of fire flashed at the intruder's hip. Bullets, piercing the side of the bag, riddled the guests. After two rounds—26 bullets in all—the machine-gun barrage finally stopped. The eldest of the eight guests at the table, Sadegh Sharafkandi, Iran's most prominent Kurdish leader, was still in his chair, head slumped, blood tinting his white shirt. Another guest sat doubled over, breathing noisily, gasping for air, his face smashed into a mug of beer. The rest were strewn on the floor. Of the eight guests, four died that night at Berlin's Mykonos restaurant.

Rep. Paul Ryan on Reforming the Tax Code

Energy Department Altered Loan-Related Releases
Excerpt: Someone affiliated with the Department of Energy has been going back to make changes to press releases posted on the Internet weeks and months ago, CNBC has The changes occurred in two press releases from the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program — the same program that has been the center of controversy surrounding the failed solar company Solyndra. Both were changed to remove the name of a company that has received negative press attention in recent days, SunPower, and replace it with the name of another company, NRG Energy. Generally, it is not considered correct procedure to revise old press releases retroactively on the Web. More commonly, government agencies will issue a new press release with a current date explaining any changes that have occurred. (Generally, it is considered corrupt. ~Bob.)

Guess what the Obama regime is doing to help unemployment?
Excerpt: While the unemployed at Occupy Wall Street are railing against those who make the economy possible, they are conveniently ignoring what the Obama regime is doing. With 14 million Americans unemployed, you would think they might be more interested in helping Americans get jobs. Nope. The Obama regime is working hard to make sure illegal aliens in this country are able to work.

Are You Smarter Than a Wall Street Occupier? http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/10/occupy_wall_street_quiz.html
Excerpt: Over the past month, the crusaders at Zuccotti Park have braved the elements, tussled with police, and stood their ground against Mayor Bloomberg. But how much do the protesters actually know about the economic system that they're fighting to change? To find out, we asked 50 occupiers a series of questions about Wall Street, taxes, and government. The results were mixed. See if you can do better.

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