Saturday, February 11, 2012

Political Digest for February 11, 2012

Probably no digest Sunday, as I’m looking at about a 14-hour work day Saturday Will leave a Guest Post. ~Bob

White House compromise still guarantees contraceptive coverage for women
Excerpt: Women still will be guaranteed coverage for contraceptive services without any out-of-pocket cost, but will have to seek the coverage directly from their insurance companies if their employers object to birth control on religious grounds. Religiously-affiliated non-profit employers such as schools, charities, universities, and hospitals … will be able to provide their workers with plans that exclude such coverage. However, the insurance companies that provide the plans will have to offer those workers the opportunity to obtain additional contraceptive coverage directly, at no additional charge. (Hear and obey your ruler, Oh America, and tremble at his greatness. A distinction without a difference, as the policies will still have to reflect the costs in the premium. You object to beating your kids on moral grounds? No bother—the government will send someone over to beat them for you, a service for which you will pay indirectly. ~Bob.)

Rep. Spencer Bachus faces insider-trading investigation
Excerpt: The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee over possible violations of insider-trading laws, according to individuals familiar with the case. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who holds one of the most influential positions in the House, has been a frequent trader on Capitol Hill, buying stock options while overseeing the nation’s banking and financial services industries.

Worth Reading: Lessons from Solyndra
Excerpt: In September 2011, solar energy giant Solyndra filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 employees. The collapse was a major embarrassment for the Obama administration; however, fallout from the bankruptcy has revealed a number of additional factors that speak to the broader implications, says Robert P. Murphy, a senior fellow in business and economic studies at the Pacific Research Institute. Evidence of corruption and conflicts of interest has surfaced as investigators look more deeply into the company's relationships in Washington. While any company can be expected to have tentative associations with various politicians, the pervasiveness of Solyndra's presence in the decision-making process that led to its loan guarantees is scandalous. From 2008 to 2011, Solyndra spent almost $1.9 million on lobbyists. A major fundraiser for the Obama campaign, George Kaiser, owns the firm Argonaut Ventures, which participated in the infusion of new money into Solyndra (and now stands ahead of taxpayers in the liquidation process). Kaiser visited the White House repeatedly in 2009 and 2010 and (according to released e-mails) discussed Solyndra, despite earlier White House denials that the topic had ever come up. A Department of Energy (DOE) stimulus adviser, Steve Spinner, whose wife's law firm represented Solyndra on the application, repeatedly pushed for the original loan guarantee to be approved.

Senate Dems grow optimistic about Obama chances in 2012
Excerpt: Senate Democrats are optimistic about President Obama’s chances of reelection and think he could have coattails this November. Democratic lawmakers described the president as being “really upbeat” and in a “good mood” on Wednesday when he addressed the Senate Democratic Conference during a one-day retreat at Nationals Park in southeast D.C. (The Obama Campaign should send fulsome thank you letters to those Republicans and conservatives who have trashed the eventual nominee. Whoever that is. ~Bob.)

Pelosi might have skirted House ethics rules on campaign solicitations
Excerpt: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) might have briefly run afoul of congressional ethics rules at a Capitol press conference on Thursday when she made a statement that could be construed as a solicitation for campaign contributions. The Democratic leader was holding a briefing to promote a campaign finance disclosure bill when she said she was “asking people to contribute to us, if they want to elect more reformers to Congress.”

Saudi Arabia Threatens To Go Nuclear 'Within Weeks' If Iran Gets The Bomb
Excerpt: "There is no intention currently to pursue a unilateral military nuclear program but the dynamics will change immediately if the Iranians develop their own nuclear capability," a senior Saudi source said. "Politically, it would be completely unacceptable to have Iran with a nuclear capability and not the kingdom." In such an eventuality, Saudi Arabia would start work on a new ballistic missile platform, purchase nuclear warheads from overseas and aim to source uranium to develop weapons-grade material. (Saudis state they will go nuke if Iran does and cites Pakistan as the source of the weapons. Makes sense. Turkey next! –GBH)

Excerpt: According to the Russian RT news site, Iran — via the Swiss embassy, which represents U.S. interests in Tehran — is now sending President Obama a toy model of the American drone, colored bright pink. Stories about this mocking gesture have been bubbling up for a while. In January the Christian Science Monitor reported that an Iranian toy-maker had begun turning out these model U.S. stealth drones in vivid hues. They come mounted on stands engraved with one of Ayatollah Khomeini’s slogans, still a pet sentiment of the Tehran regime: “We will trample America under our feet.” (Remember how the left assured us that with the brilliant Obama and his soft power in place of the dumb cowboy Bush, America would be more respected? ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Reports of ACORN’s demise are greatly exaggerated, a fact by which nobody with even a cursory familiarity with their practices should be surprised. The evidence suggests that the group has weathered the fallout from its scandals with a remarkable fortitude — it is not just surviving, but thriving; and it is doing so with thousands of those federal dollars that it is explicitly banned from receiving. Since it was ignominiously stripped of all federal funding in 2009, ACORN has steadily maintained its extensive network of “affiliates” — more specifically, tax-exempt progressive 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 organizations, most of which have been renamed since the scandal hit. (Your tax dollars at work, making your vote meaningless. Welcome to Democracy, Chicago style. ~Bob.)

The Gospel According to Obama By Charles Krauthammer
Excerpt: At the National Prayer Breakfast last week, seeking theological underpinning for his drive to raise taxes on the rich, President Obama invoked the highest possible authority. His policy, he testified "as a Christian," "coincides with Jesus' teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.'" Now, I'm no theologian, but I'm fairly certain that neither Jesus nor his rabbinic forebears, when speaking of giving, meant some obligation to the state. You tithe the priest, not the tax man. (For the left, the state is God and Obama is high priest. ~Bob.)

Navy 'Rail Gun' On Track; Industry Tests Set For This Month
Excerpt: The Navy successfully completed live-fire tests of an early version of the weapon last December. During that test shot, the weapon was able to generate 33 megajoules of energy, service officials said at the time. That is enough energy to fire a projectile just over 110 nautical miles. (Long a staple of science fiction, the rail gun is finally becoming a reality. This IS a potential game changer. The speeds that can be achieved are great enough that merely the impact would cause a substantial explosion. The force at impact is the mass times the velocity squared, so even reducing the size of the projectile by 50% while doubling the speed produces a MUCH greater impact (this is BEFORE including any explosive charge in the projectile). Current design naval guns of 16” bore—all of which have been decommissioned, thank you, there are none in or available for service—had a maximum range of about 40 miles, just beyond the horizon from a ship’s highest point. Another great blessing of rail guns is that they ought to be more accurate than gun-powder fired weapons. Being all-electrical, they should integrate better with command and control systems, too, so reaction, reload, and re-fire times should be shorter. TOJ’s first coverage of rail guns was “Futuristic weapon undergoes Navy tests” on 13 Dec 2010. Ron P.)

Hultgren blasts Quinn for Caterpillar’s decision
Excerpt: Congressman Randy Hultgren is blaming Gov. Pat Quinn for Caterpillar’s decision not to relocate a factory and 1,400 jobs to the state. (People vote for pro-union, big government Democrats. Jobs and taxpayers flee. This is known as “bad luck.” ~Bob.)

CBS’s Sharyl Attkisson, honored by Accuracy in Media (Gives $1000 money part to Terry Family)
Excerpt: CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson has received enough awards to decorate a vanity shelf at her abode. Emmy Awards and noms, mainly. This week, she’s slated to receive a slightly more controversial distinction: Accuracy in Media (AIM) is scheduled to honor Attkisson at this week’s Conservative Political Action Conference. (They will have to destroy her. The media can’t allow accuracy, fairness and balance to catch on—it could destroy their efforts to make us Greece. ~Bob.)

Violence erupts as Greece ponders tough terms for new bailout
Excerpt: Hooded youths tossed stones and police fired stun grenades Friday in front of the Greek Parliament as lawmakers faced tough new conditions they must meet before euro zone finance ministers will give them billions of desperately needed euros to bail out the debt-ridden country. (Coming here, once the Occupy-poopers find out that peaceful protests and camping with rats won’t get them a $200k salary for a 20-hour-a-week job based on a sociologies degree. ~Bob.)

Somalia's al-Shabab join al-Qaeda
Excerpt: Islamist militant group al-Shabab, which controls much of Somalia, has released a joint video with al-Qaeda, announcing the two groups have merged. Al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, known as Mukhtar Abu Zubair, said he "pledged obedience" to al-Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri. (Consolidation and globalization hit another growth industry. ~Bob.)

U.S. updates travel warning for Mexico
Excerpt: The State Department advised Americans this week to defer “non-essential travel” to vast stretches of Mexico, warning that 14 of the country’s 31 states are so dangerous that visitors should avoid them if at all possible. For four other states, it counseled caution or extreme caution. (They are behind. I already declared Mexico a no-travel zone for my family two years ago. Concerned about violence in Mexico? Thank a druggie. ~Bob.)

My state's ANWR region could produce one million barrels of oil per day if only Washington let us.
Excerpt: This legislation opens 400,000 acres of the ANWR coastal plain's 1.5 million acres—land specifically set aside (by a 1980 federal law) for oil and natural-gas development. The 400,000 acres represents less than 3% of ANWR's 19 million total acres.

Judge Suggests U.S. Misled Court on Immigration Policy
Excerpt: The government may have misled the Supreme Court about its policies on helping improperly deported immigrants return to the U.S., possibly influencing a decision to make it easier to deport thousands of aliens, according to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in New York. The judge's opinion requires the government to disclose by Monday internal emails in which Justice Department lawyers developed the claim they made to the Supreme Court.

A ‘deadbeat’ bailout: Team Bam’s blow to housing by Charles Gasparino
Excerpts: It’s hard to imagine a less-deserving group of victims: people who gambled during the housing bubble by purchasing homes with borrowed money that they knew or should have known they couldn’t afford, but who are now able to stay in the homes they should have never bought because of what amounts to paperwork errors on the part of the nation’s big banks. But that’s essentially what went down yesterday, thanks to the Obama administration’s latest re-election gimmick — the nationwide mortgage-foreclosure settlement.

To The Left, It’s OK To Be Rich Only If You Didn’t Earn It
Excerpt: Having given up on pillorying Mitt Romney for plundering his way to vast wealth — because, unfortunately, it isn't true — the Non-Fox Media seem to have settled on denouncing him as a rich jerk. Liberals are disgusted by people who made their own money, as Romney did at Bain Capital. But they admire ill-gotten gains, which is how John Kerry, John Edwards, Jon Corzine, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt and innumerable other spokesmen for the downtrodden amassed their fortunes.

The Red Race Card
Excerpt: Class warfare was not really about the poor. It was about using a permanent social problem as a means of recreating the social order and gaining permanent political power. Race is just class dressed up in the same old class warfare clothes so that there is nearly no distinction between the two.

The 'Take Care of Me' Society is Wrecking the USA
Excerpt: You’ve played by the rules. Worked hard to put yourself through school. You’ve gotten a decent job and you pay your taxes. You’re faithfully paying down your mortgage and saving money in a 401(k) – all to secure your finances and your future. But now there are a lot more “takers” than “makers” in this country – and the impact is systemic and long-lasting.

Saudi faces calls for his death after criticizing Muhammad
Excerpt: The blasphemy laws are alive and well in Saudi Arabia. Those who say that they have no part of Sharia as it comes to the West are not being honest; there is no school of Islamic jurisprudence that does not call for death for blasphemy. … A YOUNG Saudi journalist is facing calls for his execution after tweeting about the Prophet Mohammed, and the kingdom's top clerics are demanding his trial after denouncing him as an "apostate". On the occasion of the Muslim prophet's birthday last week, 23-year-old Hamza Kashgari tweeted: "I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you."

Excerpt: The radical Muslims are trying to empty a village near Alexandria of its Coptic population - 62 families, on the basis of unfounded allegations against a Copt. The Copts of Kobry-el-Sharbat (el-Amerya) were attacked on Jan. 27 by a crowd of some three thousand Muslims led by Salafi leaders who set fire to the Copts houses and shops. (Pay no attention. Ethnic cleansing is fine when Muslims do it. Just another benefit of the Obama and media supported Arab Spring. ~Bob.)

Iran: Strategist for supreme leader says country could wipe out Israel in 9 minutes
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's strategist provided the legal and religious justification for the annihilation of Israel and the Jewish people, in a document published on conservative Farsi website Alef. Reports of the document began to circulate the internet this week. The document, written by strategy specialist Alireza Forghani, outlined the reasons why, "In the name of Allah, Iran must attack Israel by 2014."

UK: Muslims push for abolishing of age restrictions on marriage
Excerpt: "The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." -- Bukhari 7.62.88. In Islam, Muhammad is the supreme example of conduct (cf. Qur'an 33:21). Thus he is exemplary even in his marriage to a child: Muslims take this seriously and imitate Muhammad in this. Article 1041 of the Civil Code of the Islamic Republic of Iran states that girls can be engaged before the age of nine, and married at nine:

'To Stop the Multiplication of the Unfit' by Michelle Malkin
Excerpt: As she wrote in her autobiography, Sanger founded Planned Parenthood in 1916 "to stop the multiplication of the unfit." This, she boasted, would be "the most important and greatest step towards race betterment." While she oversaw the mass murder of black babies, Sanger cynically recruited minority activists to front her death racket. She conspired with eugenics financier and businessman Clarence Gamble to "hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities" to sell their genocidal policies as community health and welfare services.

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