Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Political Digest for July 18, 2012

Political Digest for July 18, 2012
Robert A. Hall
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.

Charities I support

Worth Reading: Just Wait Until It’s Free. By J. R. Clark and Dwight R. Lee
Excerpt: The quip “If you think it’s expensive now, just wait until it is free” is funny because of the unfortunate truth it contains. The truth is unfortunate less because it’s impossible to provide benefits without costs than because politicians constantly try to convince voters otherwise. To paraphrase Thomas Sowell: The first law of economics is that there’s no such thing as a free lunch; the first law of politics is to disregard the first law of economics.

Worth Reading: Are Race Riots News? By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: That phrase was spoken by a member of a mob of young blacks who attacked whites at random at a Fourth of July celebration in Milwaukee last year. What I was appalled to learn, in the course of my research, was that such race riots have occurred in other cities across the United States in recent years -- and that the national mainstream media usually ignore these riots.

Where Are You On The Global FAT Scale?
Take the BBC's Test. (Thank to my diet, I have a BMI below 67% of US males in my age group, but above 73% of males my age worldwide. Be sure to change to feet/inches, pounds and type in “United States,” not USA. ~Bob.)

Obama switches off teleprompter
Excerpt: President Obama is weaning himself off his teleprompter. At recent campaign events in Pennsylvania, Virginia and again Monday in Ohio, Obama spoke to crowds in high school gymnasiums and at crowded outdoor events without his teleprompter, instead using written notes. (ah, so the ever-faithful TPOTUS joins Tony Rezko, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers and other old Obama friends under the bus. Has the man no loyalty? ~Bob.)

Flash mob causes havoc at Walmart: YouTube video shows teens throwing food, merchandise around the store
Excerpt: However, the Wal-Mart off
Lem Turner Road
in Jacksonville fell victim to a flash robbery when more than 300 people entered the store and destroyed the security system as well as some merchandise. (You will notice that this video has been cynically photo-shopped (probably by a KKK member) to make these mobsters look black. Sadly, the boys all look exactly like Obama's son would look if he had a son. This racist photo-shopping is SICK and has to stop NOW! Stiffer penalties must be applied. Write your congressman and demand tougher anti-photo-shopping penalties for racist geeks. --Don Hank, President, Alliance for Racially Balanced Flash Mobbing)

Harmful U.N. Sea Treaty Stalls in Senate
Excerpt: A United Nations threat to U.S. sovereignty has been halted. The Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), a pet project of Senator John Kerry (D-MA), ran aground yesterday when opposition reached critical mass. A total of 34 Senators, led by Jim DeMint (R-SC) and James Inhofe (R-OK), have now expressed opposition—enough to kill the treaty if it comes up for a vote.

UN polio vaccine doctor injured in Karachi attack
Excerpt: Gunmen have attacked a UN vehicle, critically injuring a doctor who was administering polio vaccines in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. … No group has said it carried out the shooting, but the Taliban have issued threats against the polio drive and are thought to be active in Sohrab Goth. (They should call it, “the Religion of Ignorance and Suffering,” not of “Peace.” ~Bob.)

Worth Reading: Obama Energy Policies Are Working: Patriot Coal Goes Bankrupt
Excerpt: First, there will be no carbon dioxide savings because the developing world needs to burn coal to grow their economies. And, second, U.S. electricity prices will rise as natural gas price increases along with its demand and as utility companies pass along the cost of meeting EPA regulations. Thus, President Obama and his policies will make U.S. residents suffer from higher energy prices and less diversity of supply with no meaningful decrease in global carbon dioxide emissions.

Did Media Really Band Together To Protect The Chevy Malibu?
Excerpt: How bad is media bias? Well, political considerations even distort car reviews. We know they distort movie reviews, but at least movies are communicative, and as such related, in a way, to political campaigning (as Leni Reifenstahl could tell you). But even product reviews -- car reviews -- are infected with Obama boosterism.

Romney shows his fighting side, to GOP cheers: Swings at Obama as crony capitalist who favors donors over country
Excerpt: Dogged by lingering questions about his business record, Mitt Romney shifted from defense to attack mode Monday, accusing President Obama of unfairly rewarding campaign donors. It was a more aggressive posture many Republicans have been wanting to see.

Inside Canada, China Asserts Itself
Excerpt: Chinese companies are looking at and investing in Canadian energy projects, many of them on land owned by Native American tribes. And their efforts, reports the WSJ's Lingling Wei, have not gone unnoticed by Canadian security agents.

The company they keep: Team Obama has welcomed Islamists in their midst. By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
Excerpt: The truism that you know someone by the company they keep has rarely been more true than in respect to the Obama administration and its burgeoning ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. Just last weekend, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton became the latest member of Team Obama to consort with sworn enemies of the United States when she sat down with the newly installed president of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Beijing’s Raptor Knockoff ---China Shows Off Second New Stealth Jet Development In Two Years
Excerpt: American intelligence agencies recently obtained new information on China’s second new stealth fighter-bomber revealed on the Internet in the past two years, according to U.S. officials. The new jet, dubbed the F-60, is a fifth-generation warplane; a prototype was disclosed in photographs posted on two Chinese military affairs websites beginning June 21. (Not to worry. We are training new SPAD pilots as you read this. ~Bob.)

Catholic Protests in Vinh: Government deploys tanks as over 10 thousand Vinh diocese faithful march for religious freedom.
Excerpt: More than 10 thousand Catholics marched yesterday in different areas of the diocese of Vinh to demand respect for religious freedom against threats and violence of the government. On the eve of the marches, to intimidate the Catholics, the authorities deployed tanks outside the bishop's residence, with patrols by gangs of thugs and soldiers. (The communists make a mockery of religious freedom. How far will they go to suppress Catholics and others who just want to lead peaceful lives and worship as their consciences lead them? It's time for the US to recognize this suppression and protest officially, and put Viet Nam back on the CPC list. –Del)

Major Obama donor to head No. 1 online news site. By Josh Peterson
Excerpt: Major Obama donor and former Google executive Marissa Mayer will take the helm at Yahoo! as the company’s new CEO Tuesday, Yahoo! announced late Monday afternoon. …She is credited as the genius behind several of Google’s most successful products, including Gmail, Google’s homepage and Google News. More recently, she was responsible for Google Maps, Street View and Google Earth. B.

Obama’s manifesto. By Robert J. Guenther
Excerpt: It is Obama and people like Obama who assume credit for all that is good in the government-centered society. With this denigration of successful business owners, Obama extends his personal narrative to all humanity. The president has skated through life in the subjective worlds of community organizing, academia and politics, thanks to the American system as he sees it.

SEC commissioner: Dodd-Frank ‘goes too far.’ By Betsi Fores
In a speech given Friday to the Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals, Securities and Exchange Commissioner Troy Paredes warned that the Dodd-Frank financial reform law “represents a historic expansion of the federal government’s power over the economy.” Paredes said quite directly, “I have been and remain troubled that the Dodd-Frank regulatory regime goes too far.”

In Response to Massive, Multi-Trillion-Dollar Fraud, Geithner Sent a Memo. By David Dayen
Excerpt: The flames of the Libor scandal have been creeping up under the feet of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Evidence showed that the New York Fed found out about the rate-rigging from Barclays and other banks in 2007, when Geithner was still the bank President. This appeared to display regulatory impotence in the face of massive fraud.

Mitt Romney Demands More Transparency on Fast and Furious
Excerpt: People on all sides are demanding more transparency from presumptive GOP presidential candidate Governor Mitt Romney concerning his tax records. Today on Fox & Friends he took that criticism and aimed it towards President Barack Obama’s lack of transparency on Operation Fast & Furious. “If we want to talk about transparency, the real issue is, why has this president used his presidential power and executive privilege to keep the information about the Fast and Furious program from being explained to the American people?” asked Governor Romney.

The Professor, the Ballerina, and the Public Enemy. By Michael Walsh http://pjmedia.com/michaelwalsh/2012/07/16/the-professor-the-ballerina-and-the-public-enemy/
Excerpt: Here it is only mid-July and already the true thuggish face of the Obama Permanent Campaign is emerging for all to see. When the president of the United States feels utterly free to bash private enterprise and the now-deceased Protestant work ethic, and even tries to criminalize it, you know we have entered uncharted waters in American political history. Not since the Copperhead Democrats tried to appease the South and derail the Lincoln presidency have the Democrats been such an explicitly anti-American party.

Would Obama’s Second Term Complete the Californication of America? By Ed Driscoll
Excerpt: “I believe that if we’re successful in this election,” President Obama told campaign donors in Minnesota last month, “that the fever may break, because there’s a tradition in the Republican Party of more common sense than that.” Apparently Obama believes that if he wins this November, Republicans on Capitol Hill will all begin to act like Chief Justice John Roberts by betraying their conservative beliefs and signing on to Obama’s unprecedented expansion of the federal welfare state. But what would America look like if the Republican “fever” did break

Secretary Clinton and ‘Real Democracy’ in the Middle East. By Andrew C. McCarthy
Excerpt: At long last, in Secretary Clinton’s telling, it has dawned on the State Department that the culture of democracy — the Western liberty culture — is by leaps and bounds more essential than democracy’s procedural elements, such as popular elections and constitution-writing. “Democracy,” Secretary Clinton proclaimed in Egypt yesterday, “is not just about reflecting the will of the majority. It is also about protecting the rights of the minority.” Even better, she added: “Real democracy means that no group or faction or leader can impose their will, their ideology, their religion, their desires on anyone else.” (Latter does not sound like the last few months in the US to me. –Barb.)

The Fine Line Between Incompetence and Criminality. By David P. Goldman
Excerpt: In an election year, the liberal media will incite witch hunts against the financial industry in order to bias voters against financiers who made their money honestly — Mitt Romney, for example. I am deeply suspicious of the Justice Department’s motives in criminalizing the LIBOR problem. But where there are instances of real criminality they need to be prosecuted.

DNC Chair Doubles Down On ‘Felony’ Charge Against Romney. By John Nolte
Excerpt: “What Stephanie [Cutter] said, rightfully so, is that either Mitt Romney was lying on SEC forms and misrepresenting to his investors -- which could be a felony -- that he was the sole owner, president, CEO of Bain Capital from 1999 until almost the end of 2001, or he wasn't and represented that he was." This coming from the very same Debbie Wasserman Schultz who invests her own money overseas and refuses to release her own tax returns.

Obama Runs from Obamacare, Claims ‘Stabilized Economy’ As Greatest Achievement. By Dana Loesch
Excerpt: During an interview with Charlie Rose the President backed away from claiming his own health care law as his signature achievement. Instead, he claims that the non-existent stability of the American economy is his real achievement.

Is Mitt Romney More of a Dude Than We Thought? By Andrew Klavan http://pjmedia.com/andrewklavan/2012/07/16/is-mitt-romney-more-of-a-dude-than-we-thought/
Excerpt: For instance, I watched, listened to, and then read the transcript of Romney’s address to the left-wing NAACP last week. I thought it was an excellent speech, clear in its free market approach, as rich in specifics as it needed to be, and courageous in speaking truth to a hostile crowd. Most importantly, the Romster defied the NAACP’s requirement that blacks be treated like dependent children unable to fend for themselves in a free nation. “As you may have heard from my opponent, I am also a believer in the free-enterprise system,” he told the crowd. “I believe it can bring change where so many well-meaning government programs have failed. …”

‘ObamaCare Catch-22′: Crushing Fines for Religious Entities in Mandate. By Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.)
Excerpt: Before the House repealed ObamaCare once more last week, another bill was introduced to stop the Department of Health and Human Services from charging religious institutions steep fines for noncompliance with the mandate to provide birth control without an insurance co-payment. Under President Obama’s healthcare law, the HHS can levy $100 per employee, per day against institutions that won’t comply with the mandate.

Life is too precious to waste time. By Neil Cavuto
Excerpt: Look, I don't mind talking about my multiple sclerosis. But again, what ails me "isn't" me. Still, upon reading the article, Marty e-mails: "You'd think with a disease, you'd be less strident than you are." (Apparently, some people think that Cavuto's illness should make him sit back and not be concerned with current events. In this speech he takes serious exception to that, and goes on about what he thinks is important for a citizen to speak out about. And it's not all directed at one side of the aisle. I think he does a great job in saying what he says. Good for him. –Del)

Pearson airport rules can take the bark out of your trip home
Excerpt: McIntosh Limousine manager Anne Ruddy claimed the driver who turned me down, a gentleman from India, did so because he “doesn’t have to” take dogs. But the driver would have to take Kishka if he was a service dog — that’s the “law,” she said. She denied Muslim drivers in their fleet would ever turn down dogs for religious reasons contending it has more to do with “them being scared” of dogs. (Dog lovers might boycott Muslim cabbies. But that would be Islamophobic. ~Bob.)

Muslim street
cleric wants to protect Canadian women from sex assault by forcing them to cover up
Excerpt: Canadian laws should be changed to require women to "cover themselves" to prevent sexual assaults, says an Islamic street preacher in Toronto. Al-Haashim Kamena Atangana, a 33-year-old Islamic convert, called for legal change in response to recent sex attacks at York University. (You see, if a woman gets raped by a Muslim, it’s not his fault for not controlling himself, it’s hers for not wearing a burka. ~Bob.)

Pension tension and the crime spike
Excerpt: Crime is up — and cops are down. City taxpayers are paying so much for yesterday’s crime-fighting that they can barely afford today’s. A bloody start to July reminded New Yorkers about the bad old days: 21 people killed over the holiday week, including three gunned down after leaving a Queens club. Though murders are down, shootings are up 11 percent for the year, helping push crime up 4 percent. ((20 yrs and out, with 50% of your average pay for the last three years, when of course you suck up every minute of overtime you can. Why would you NOT take advantage of this, to bail out and go on to the other jobs you can pick up readily as a retired cop. (The only citizens of the city who are guaranteed to right to a carry license for the rest of their lives.) The giveaway started decades ago, and now the pigeons have come home to roost.... with a vengeance. There is no good answer to this, other than a confrontation with the police union to renegotiate the pension benefits radically. Can you see that happening? –Del. When I read the first line, I assumed it was about Chicago. ~Bob.)

The Western Front (Part 1 of a Multipart Series) By Archer Garrett
A novel on Kindle, which I don’t have, but this first part is free. ~Bob. Book description: Darkness has descended upon the world; the fabric of society has been torn asunder, sovereign nations collapse under their own burdens and allies of old are dragged into war. Part 1 of this multipart series follows the paths of several characters who try to make their stand in these difficult times.

http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/NQU5FR/72UN78/0GXLLZ/Y3ZROI/9ZQGEG/QR/h?a=http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/gsa-chief-reins-in-bonuses-and-freezes-new-hiring/2012/07/17/gJQAbwIVrW_blog.html
Excerpt: Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini says he is gutting bonuses for members of the Senior Executive Service by 85 percent and suspending all performance awards for the rest of the fiscal year. Move is latest effort to reform the agency following a spending scandal that prompted a major shake-up in the department.
President Obama -- Public Employee #1. By William Tucker
Excerpt: He has no idea what makes our economy prosperous. President Obama gave a speech last weekend that was so utterly out of touch with American values, so clueless as to how things work in this country, that I have to add a few footnotes to his performance.

Worth Reading: Exposing Obama's Criminal Friends. By Katie Pavlich
Excerpt: President Obama's campaign team is still refusing to apologize to Mitt Romney after Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter charged Romney committed a felony last week when discussing the time when he left Bain Capital (to save the Olympics.) Cutter and Team Obama have desperately tried to paint Romney as misleading the country about when he officially left the company. Cutter's claims have been debunked by the Washington Post as "blowing smoke" and the New York Times says there is no evidence to back up Cutter's claims. So, given Team Obama's false accusation of Romney being a felon, why don't we take a look at some real criminal activity associated directly with President Obama.

London's Excluded 'Black Cab' Drivers Create Gridlock in Olympic Games Protest.
Excerpt: Blaring their horns, the cabbies took their case to
Parliament Square
, creating gridlock in the heart of the capital. with the jam swiftly spreading to Millbank and Whitehall. London’s iconic black cabs are being excluded from the 30 miles of games lanes, which have been reserved for Olympic competitors, officials and sponsors.

Worth Reading: Red Alert
Excerpt: This presidential election is starting to confound me. (…) Taken together, this ought to be a steep uphill fight for Obama. Voters seem perfectly open to the option of firing the president, but the Obama camp has given voters—specifically in swing states where wall-to-wall advertising is running—reason to hesitate about hiring Romney. Puzzlingly, the Romney campaign has offered very little to build up its candidate as a real human being, someone of character who’s worthy of being entrusted with the Oval Office. (The excellent analysis in this article is fully justified. This is the second time in a few weeks that the famously Democrat Cook has offered the same pointed advice to the Romney camp, too. As Cook points out, ALL the fundamentals are favorable for us, but no significant change in the polls is occurring. We have to change that. Or lose. Ron P. If we lose in November, I no longer can see a hope of saving the Republic. Really. It’s a faint hope for me even if we win. ~Bob.)

California, Look to Wisconsin. Steven Malanga, Los Angeles Times
Excerpt: Now that three California cities have declared bankruptcy, perhaps it's time to consider the lessons of Wisconsin. One of the reasons Wisconsin Democrats couldn't unseat Republican Gov. Scott Walker in the state's recall election was that his challenger exemplified how Walker's narrowing of collective bargaining privileges for government workers benefited the state.
The Biggest Mistake of Campaign 2012....John Poderhertz,
Excerpt: If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that,” Obama said. “Somebody else made that happen.” Aside from the fact that this isn’t even remotely true—if you’re a taxpayer and government funds were used to “make something happen,” then by definition you paid for it—it was profoundly stupid politically

Obama has investments in companies that ship jobs overseas. By Philip Klein
Excerpt: President Obama has accused Mitt Romney of raking in profits from investing in companies that ship American jobs overseas, but according to his most recent financial disclosure, he and First Lady Michelle Obama have hundreds of thousands of dollars in a mutual fund that has large holdings in corporations that outsource jobs. (How many times must it be publicized that corporations are in business to make money, and that managers of investment funds will naturally buy stock in those that are doing well, no matter where some of their divisions are located? It would be challenging to find ways to invest well and yet not own stock for which some of the profits come from overseas operation of US companies. Throwing out accusations of being a job-destroyer for anyone who has investments overseas is dangerous unless you can look in a mirror and see none of your income relates in any way to overseas operations of US companies. And good luck with that! --Del)

Worth Reading: Barack the Healer: In an increasingly multiracial society, black elites still play the race card. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Yet quite the opposite development tragically has followed from Obama’s election. From the beginning of the 2008 campaign — evident in the exasperation of Bill Clinton (“they played the race card on me”) during the Democratic primaries — racial tensions have heightened, rather than lessened.

Medicine today: A battle on two fronts. By Timothy Craig Allen, M.D.
Excerpt: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and its progeny are likely to reduce funding just where it is needed the most: for research on molecular pathways associated with cancer, inflammation, and chronic diseases. These research areas are often not the exciting, romantic fields that attract the most funding, yet their funding is critical. Worse, the ACA will entomb "the centuries-old diagnostic practice of empirical medicine" (and, unfortunately, an extremely poor version of that) so that personalized medicine is never allowed to fully blossom.

Star of Pro-Obama Super PAC Ad Unleashed: 'Obama Is a Jerk, a Pantywaist, a Lightweight, a Blowhard'
Excerpt: The star of a pro-Obama super PAC ad is speaking out against ... President Barack Obama.

Should-Have-Known-File: Big-Time Obama Fundraiser in Mortgage Seizure Scheme. By John Ransom
Excerpt: And like all schemes weird and wacky in this Occupy Anything country we have become, it’s the brainchild of someone with deep ties to the Obama administration. Steven Gluckstern raised $120,900 for the Obama campaign in 2008 as a bundler, according to opensecrets.org, the web site that tracks political donations.

'I Wish This President Would Learn to be an American' - John Sununu on Obama after he told bosses they don't deserve credit for their success.
Excerpt: ‘These are the people who are the backbone of our economy and the president clearly demonstrated that he has absolutely no idea how the American economy functions. ‘The men and women all over America who have worked hard to build these businesses, their businesses from the ground up is how our economy became the envy of the world. It is the American way and I wish this president would learn how to be an American.’

British HSBC bank chief quits in front of U.S. Senate Committee as bank is accused of 'letting Mexican gangs launder $7 billion and working with Saudi bank linked to terrorism'
Excerpt: The head of compliance at British banking giant HSBC resigned in front of a US Senate subcommittee today after it emerged the bank had exposed the US to billions of dollars worth of money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist financing. David Bagley, who has been HSBC head of group compliance since 2002, stepped down before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee after its findings were published. Mr Bagley, who had a 20 year career with the bank and is based in London, said: 'Despite the best efforts and intentions of many dedicated professionals, HSBC has fallen short of our own expectations and the expectations of our regulators.'

The Peace Business. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: The Israel Policy Forum, a left-wing group, which mated a few years ago with the Center for American Progress, has split away again to corner that booming market in Jewish organizations that hate Israel; but try to pretend not to when people are watching. With J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, Open Zion, Uri L'Tzedek and Americans for Peace Now, just to name a few, all boasting more column inches in the media than members, the revival of IPF is about as timely as opening up a bank dedicated to subprime loans. The market for Israel-bashing, like the market for underwater homes, is falling as fast as Obama's approval ratings.

Allen West Goes on National Fundraising Tour: Eight Out-of-State Fundraisers
Excerpt: Many blogs have already been written of Congressman Allen West's Friday announcement that he'd raised well over $2 million between April and the end of June. What we didn't know until Sunday afternoon, however, was how he spent it. Documents filed with the Federal Election Commission reveal West took in more than $2.2 million this quarter but spent $1.9 million of it: hundreds of thousands in direct-mail costs, $420,000 on a June TV ad buy, $1,600 on a photo shoot last month. (Go, go, go, Dark Horse! Oops! Is that racist? Kate.)

Now They Are Slaughtering Palestinians. By Khaled Abu Toameh
Excerpt: The world has become used to hearing and watching stories about massacres against civilians in Syria. But until recently, almost all the victims were Syrian citizens.
Last week, however, it turned out that in Syria, they are also massacring Palestinians. ((Why don't the Palestinians have their state? Their leaders are too busy stealing their foreign aid, even when their people are being slaughtered by their Arab brethren. What's the old saying. . . you get the government you deserve. Cordially, Larry Greenberg)

The rise of sky-high jury awards. By Alicia Gallegos
Excerpt: Liability insurers are noticing an uptick in large verdicts. Such high awards encourage more people to sue physicians and increase defensive medicine, they say.

GOP Heavy Hitters Help Mia Love Match Matheson in Quarterly Fundraising.
Excerpt: Republican Mia Love nearly matched Rep. Jim Matheson in raising money the past three months, thanks largely to GOP heavy hitters in Congress. The Saratoga Springs mayor took in $355,000 during the April-to-June Federal Election Commission reporting period.

The Last Little Abortion Clinic in Mississippi. By Jim Goad
Excerpt: The hoarsely ululating throats of the “pro-life” and “pro-choice” movements screamed at each other outside a small abortion clinic in Jackson, Mississippi last week as a federal judge cock-blocked a state law and allowed the clinic to stay open for now. The law would have effectively shut down the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which is Mississippi’s last remaining abortion clinic.

Egypt's Islamists Throw Shoes and Tomatoes at Secretary Clinton's Motorcade.
Excerpt: In Dec. 2008, the MSM was rejoicing over the fact that someone threw a shoe at George W. Bush as he gave a speech in Iraq. Liberals all over the world over seized on that moment to prove two points. First, that the Iraqis wanted the U.S. to leave the country and secondly, that Bush had allegedly ruined America's image abroad.

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