Sunday, October 30, 2011

Political Digest for October 31, 2011

Political Digest for October 31, 2011
Robert A. Hall
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.

Happy Halloween.

Blog Removed.
If you log on to the Old Jarhead blog and get this notice, please check back. Every week since August, Google’s Spam Filter pulls my blog. They restore it when I appeal, but they don’t seem to have the technical ability to fix the problem. I hate to move to another platform with page views running to 7k a week and over 1,160 followers here. Sigh.

Charities I support

Report: Looted Libyan Missiles End up in Hamas Anti-Aircraft Arsenal
Excerpt: Beyond the commitment to Sharia law in post-Gadhafi Libya, now another unintended consequence is seen in NATO’s intervention on behalf of the rebels. The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reports Hamas recently smuggled “relatively advanced Russian missiles” looted from Libyan military warehouses into Gaza, upgrading the anti-aircraft capability of the Islamist Palestinian terrorist group: Israel is worried about the presence of the missiles, both because they curb the [Israeli] air force’s almost unlimited freedom of movement over Gaza today, and because of their possible use against civil aviation in [the southern resort] Eilat. Shoulder-fired anti-aicraft missiles have been smuggled into Gaza in recent years at Iran’s initiative. But the fall of Muammar Gadhafi’s regime has enabled Hamas to bring in much higher quality missiles – and in much larger quantities. (I don't agree with those who think Obama planned this outcome because he wants the destruction of Israel. I think he was just too stupid or incompetent to foresee it, as so many of us did. ~Bob.)

AFT Fast and Furious update: Congress seeks Defense Department records
Excerpt: Was a Defense Department organization aware of Operation Fast and Furious? A new letter from Congressional investigators obtained by CBS News asks the provocative question. The letter from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is addressed to the Commander of Joint Task Force North in Fort Bliss, Texas.

Detroit in ruins
Excerpt: Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre's extraordinary photographs documenting the dramatic decline of a major American city. (Unbelievable pictures. Personally, I blame global warming. Detroit's had the advantage of continuous governance by Democrats for decades. What could have gone wrong? ~Bob.)

A Potpourri of Idiocy
Excerpt: In recent weeks, I have come across some news items that prove liberalism isn’t just wrong, but to paraphrase the Munchkins of Oz, it’s morally, ethically, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably, wrong. What’s more, it’s wrong in a great many more places than Washington, D.C. But it is also wrong there, as Rep. Henry Waxman, who has spent well over 30 years representing a predominantly Jewish district here in Los Angeles, proved when he dismissed Robert Turner’s astonishing victory in New York’s 9th congressional district as due solely to the fact that “Jews wanted to protect their wealth.” Well, for one thing, in Obama’s economy, nobody, Jew or Christian, should be insulted for trying to protect whatever money he still has left. For another, Waxman, who owes his political career to wealthy leftwing Jews who have been willing to overlook his appearance and his arrogance, shows himself to be an unmitigated ingrate. How dare he, who has benefitted so greatly from the loyalty of Jewish voters, join the anti-Semites who, throughout history, have spread the libel that Jews are motivated solely by their lust for money? He deserves to be taught a long-overdue lesson by the voters in his L.A. district, but the sad truth is that they, unlike the orthodox Jews of New York’s 9th, are, like Waxman, essentially secular. Their religion is liberalism. Their god is FDR. Their pope is Barack Obama.

Shocking video of Egyptian armored-vehicle "mowing down" Christian civilians
Ah, yes, the wonderful, multicultural, democratic, freedom-loving Arab Spring. ~Bob. Excerpt: Watch this one-minute video and see an armored-vehicle literally run over a handful of Christians for protesting the constant destruction of their churches in Egypt, at the recent Maspero Massacre. Such vehicles were made possible by U.S. military aid, supposedly for the protection of Egyptian "citizens." But apparently the military -- hailed by the Western media as the "savior" of Egypt for ousting Mubarak -- does not see the nation's Christian minorities as "citizens," but dhimmis who have no right to protest -- unsurprisingly so, considering the military, even in Egypt's early black-and-white movies, was known as al-Jihadiyya -- "the wagerer of jihad."

Report: Obama’s Muslim Advisers Block Middle Eastern Christians’ Access to the White House
Excerpt: Beirut Arab news agency al Nashra reported on Saturday November 22, that [White House Muslim envoy] Dalia Mogahed has succeeded in canceling a meeting between the Maronite Patriarch of Lebanon and President Barack Obama. Writing in al Nashra, the reporter said “an unnamed US source told the news agency, that those who sought canceling a visit of (the spiritual head of the Maronite Church) Patriarch Beshara Rahi to the White House are Dalia Mujahid (Mogahed), the highest adviser on Arab and Islamic Affairs in the State Department, who is from Egyptian origins. And that,” according to al Nashra, “heeding a request by the higher leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, who consider that US Administration must support the Islamist Sunni current facing the Iranian current in the region.”

Afghan Army trainee opens fire on his Australian trainers, murdering three
Excerpt: As I have said many times in the context of many similar incidents in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no reliable way to distinguish a peaceful Muslim from a jihadist. This is yet more fruit of the unwillingness to make even a cursory attempt to take that fact into account.

The Mexican government​'s war on U.S. Border Patrol
Excerpt: Down in Gov. Perry's backyard in west Texas, where they supposedly have the Mexican border under control, another Border Patrol agent has been prosecuted and sentenced to prison for doing his job in arresting drug smugglers. His name is Jesus Diaz, and if you rely on the mainstream media for news of the border region, you have never heard of him. In October of 2008, Diaz, a seven-year veteran of the Border Patrol, was part of a team of border agents who apprehended a small group of young drug smugglers. They had crossed the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, carrying backpacks filled with marijuana. In questioning one of the apprehended smugglers, officer Diaz allegedly tugged or lifted the young man's handcuffed wrists and caused the smuggler some discomfort. Later that day, while being processed back at the Border Patrol station, the smuggler lodged a complaint with the Mexican consul, which resulted in prosecution of Diaz over a year later by the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas. According to the Mexican government's written complaint, the man had been "beaten," yet photos taken at the time showed no bruises, cuts or other signs of abuse. Now, it is important to interject here a bit of information not routinely shared with the public by our enterprising news reporters. Smugglers caught with less than 75 pounds of marijuana are seldom prosecuted by the local U.S. attorneys in border regions because that "small amount," which has a street value in Denver of over $300,000, does not meet their "threshold test." They are simply put back across the border. (It doesn't bother me to learn that one of the most corrupt governments in the world is playing with our heads. It's what they do. But this isn't so much about Mexico as it is about our own traitors in government. Holder is definitely one of the most heinous criminals ever to be appointed by a corrupt president. --Don Hank)

GOP rips Obama’s executive actions to boost economy
Republicans are criticizing a series of steps the White House is taking to energize the economy through executive actions. President Obama launched efforts this week to help those with student loan debt, homeowners with underwater mortgages, veterans struggling to find work and small businesses -- all designed to boost the economy's recovery. His intentions are to show that even if Congress doesn't move his $447 billion jobs package, he's working to help the labor market and promote growth. 
Republicans aren't happy that the president is sidestepping them and invoking his executive powers. The House GOP says they have passed more than 15 economic bills that aren't being considered by the Senate and they question the efforts by the White House to move forward without their input.

The debt fallout: How Social Security went ‘cash negative’ earlier than expected
Excerpt: Last year, as a debate over the runaway national debt gathered steam in Washington, Social Security passed a treacherous milestone. It went “cash negative.” For most of its 75-year history, the program had paid its own way through a dedicated stream of payroll taxes, even generating huge surpluses for the past two decades. But in 2010, under the strain of a recession that caused tax revenue to plummet, the cost of benefits outstripped tax collections for the first time since the early 1980s. Now, Social Security is sucking money out of the Treasury. This year, it will add a projected $46 billion to the nation’s budget problems, according to projections by system trustees. Replacing cash lost to a one-year payroll tax holiday will require an additional $105 billion. If the payroll tax break is expanded next year, as President Obama has proposed, Social Security will need an extra $267 billion to pay promised benefits.

Muslim Fanatics Abuse MP At Mosque
It's not PC to threaten Gays, unless done by Muslims, who outrank Gays on the PC scale. Threatening and abusing Jews, who are at the bottom of the scale, is still okay. Especially "Jews" like this one who are not Jewish. ~Bob. Excerpt: Conservative MP Mike Freer was holding an advice surgery in the mosque in Margaret Thatcher’s former constituency of Finchely, north London, when the radicals hurled abuse on Friday afternoon. They screamed at him that as someone who is gay he was “not welcome in a house of Allah”. Mr Freer, who is not Jewish but who is a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Islamophobia, said the protesters were “aggressive” and that he had been forced to call Finchley’s Met Police borough commander to complain. It is now understood that Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorist unit is investigating the Muslims Against Crusades group, which has also issued a chilling warning to any MP representing Muslims in Britain. ... In a statement on its website, they have told every MP to remember what happened to Stephen Timms, the former Labour minister who was stabbed while holding an advice surgery in east London last year. His Al Qaeda-inspired attacker, Roshonara Choudhry, 22, was sentenced to life imprisonment and a number of other MPs who were on her target list were offered extra police protection. The Muslims Against Crusades statement reads: “We warn Mike Freer and every other MP in Britain that their presence is no longer welcomed in any Muslim area and that examples such as Stephen Timms should serve as a piercing reminder of this.

Message for OWS
Your alternative lifestyle comes out of somebody else's pocket

Occupy Anthem - I Don't Want To Work!

Why the latest eurozone bail-out is destined to fail within weeks
Excerpt: I want last week's European bail-out to work. My sincere hope is that collective and decisive action by the eurozone's large member states will stabilize global markets, at least for a while, so allowing the global economy to catch its breath. ... " Some say Western governments shouldn't "accept" what the market says. "Who do these trading people think they are," I hear from the lips of the educated but financially-illiterate political elite. Let's be clear – if global bond markets stop lending to a number of large Western economies, we are in the realms of unpaid state wages and pensions, transport chaos and closures of schools and hospitals – sparking the prospect of serious civil unrest. Forgive my intemperate tone, but these are the dangers we face. And I'm afraid the only rational response to Thursday's announcement is that the probability of such undesirable outcomes has just been increased. " (This is what I've predicted in The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. Nothing since I published in May has, alas, changed my mind. ~Bob.)

US is planning buildup in Gulf after Iraq exit
Excerpt: The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.

Fiend attacks 'Occupy' protester in her tent
Excerpt: Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park battened down the hatches yesterday as the early October snow turned their tents into igloos, but the close quarters also made easy pickings for one predator. A sex fiend barged into a woman’s tent and sexually assaulted her at around 6 a.m., said protesters, who chased him from the park. “Pervert! Pervert! Get the f--k out!” said vigilante Occupiers, who never bothered to call the cops. “They were shining flashlights in his face and yelling at him to leave,” said a woman who called herself Leslie, but refused to give her real name. She said that weeks earlier another woman was raped. “We don’t tell anyone,” she said. “We handle it internally. I said too much already." With temperatures in the low 30s and their gas-powered generators confiscated by the FDNY, protesters defiantly braved the cold as the occupation hit the 30-day mark. (You recall all the rapes at Tea Party protests? Me neither. Maybe Whoopi told them is "wasn't rape, rape." ~Bob.)

The
National Debt Road
Trip

Census Data show income inequality in the U.S. has been flat since 1994
Excerpt: Income inequality has been getting lots of attention lately, and one of the main topics of debate is whether income inequality in the U.S. has been increasing over time. And if income inequality is increasing, has it been accelerating in recent years, or even “exploding” as Jonathan Chait claimed? The Census Bureau has an extensive historical database of statistics on household income and income inequality, and the graphs below were prepared using Census data (Tables E-1 and F-4) to chart the trends in income dispersion over time to help answer those questions.

Managing America’s decline from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Excerpt: President Obama is empowering radical Islam across the Arab world. He is presiding over both the American decline and the rapid advance of our mortal jihadist enemies. From the Middle East to North Africa, the Arab Spring has turned into an Islamist winter. Contrary to the administration’s claims, the popular uprisings have not led to a “rebirth of freedom” – the emergence of liberal democracies in distant Arab lands. Rather, Muslim fundamentalists have used street protests against corrupt, autocratic regimes as a Trojan horse to expand Islamic militancy. In Tunisia, an Islamist party with ideological ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is poised to win national elections. Its goal is to repeal the nation’s secular traditions (inherited from the French empire) and erect a Muslim theocracy. Its platform calls for banning alcohol, forcing women to wear the veil and implementing Shariah law. Non-Muslims and women are to be treated as second-class citizens. (Not sure "managing" is the word. ~Bob.)

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