Monday, July 23, 2012

Political Digest for July 23, 2012


The Old Jarhead Blog: Bringing you news and information the MSM is too busy covering American Idol, celebrity affairs and sensational missing person cases to cover. Please forward to friends who need to be informed.

The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
All royalties go to a charity to help wounded veterans. E-Book available at Smash Words: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/59105
Please forward and post where possible. For a free PDF of Collapse, write to me at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com.

Worth Reading: ABC makes a wrong — and biased — snap judgment
Colorado massacre quickly becomes political. By John Kass
Excerpt: ABC's George Stephanopoulos, once a top aide to former President Bill Clinton, and ABC reporter Brian Ross teamed up to quickly place the horror at the feet of American conservatives.

Guest Post: Bite me, Mr. President

‘He Provided Me The Opportunity To Survive’: Woman Describes How Military Boyfriend Took A Bullet For Her During Shooting
Excerpt: A woman who survived the deadly Aurora, Co. movie theater shooting said her military member boyfriend laid on top of her during the gunfire, taking a bullet and sacrificing his own life to save hers.

'Dark Knight Rises' shooting: Three heroes died in Aurora taking bullets for their girlfriends
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/aurora-shooting-died-bullets-sweeties-article-1.1119395#ixzz21NqOifLI
Excerpt: Three survivors of the Colorado movie-theater massacre escaped with minor wounds, but were left with broken hearts because their heroic boyfriends died saving them. In final acts of valor, Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn and Alex Teves used their bodies to shield their girlfriends as accused madman James Holmes turned the Aurora cineplex into a shooting gallery. (In a civilized society that wants to survive, the rule is not "equality" the rule is "women and children first" and men die to protect them. Never mind how NOW may complain about this. ~Bob.)

Marine gets moment in spotlight
Excerpt: U.S. Marine Sgt. Zachary Stinson is making the most of his opportunities.
The 23-year-old wounded warrior volunteered to attend the Olympic men's exhibition basketball game against Brazil on Monday in Washington, D.C. He raised his body from a wheelchair with his hands for the playing of the national anthem.

Bob Costas Says He Will Observe Moment of Silence For Victims of 1972 Munich Massacre During Live Broadcast of London Olympics Opening Ceremony Despite IOC’s Refusal To Allow It.

Evil Undone: The moral clarity of Christopher Nolan's Batman series. John Poderhertz
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/evil-undone_648824.html
Excerpt: The movie considers instead what [Batman] has lost by being a hero—not only his reputation, surrendered so that the city could falsely worship a more acceptable dead hero, but any semblance of a normal life. That is a conflict worthy of the kinds of sacrifices the story calls upon Batman to make. The Dark Knight Rises finally finds an epic story that fits the super-hero’s simple moral code—good people do right and bad people do wrong and good people must stop bad people.

Interesting if all true: 100 Mind-Blowing Facts About the Economy
Excerpt: The unemployment rate for men is 8.4%. For married men, it's 4.9%.

Terry McAuliffe and the Other Green Party. By Mark Leibovich
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/22/magazine/terry-mcauliffe-and-the-other-green-party.html?_r=1&hp
Excerpt: [Bill Clinton] has lost considerable weight, evident to anyone who has seen him in photographs (once known as the “Big Dog,” he’s now more “Vegan Dog”). But it is jarring nonetheless to see the svelte version of the former president up close, especially since his head is as big as it ever was — a fact accentuated by the ruddy brightness of his face and pronounced cheekbones. Encountering Clinton these days is like meeting a skinny older guy who is wearing a Bill Clinton mask.

Unemployment up in 6 battleground states. By Rick Moran
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/07/unemployment_up_in_6_battleground_states.html
Excerpt: The jobless rate climbed a 10th of a percentage point last month in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire and Virginia, the Labor Department said in a report released Friday.

VIDEO: Allen West Discusses Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged.
http://townhall.com/video/allen-west-discusses-ayn-rand-and-atlas-shrugged

India, Growing Religious Intolerance Against Christians. By Nirmala Carvalho
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/India,-growing-religious-intolerance-against-Christians-25327.html
Excerpt: In Karnataka, a Pentecostal pastor was beaten by Hindu ultra-nationalists and detained for forced conversions. In Maharashtra, Hindu activists attacked the tribal Christians. A church under construction in Haryana destroyed. All on the same day.

VIDEO: Teenager shouts 'Allahu Akbar' and tries to grab Olympic flame from hands of terrified torch bearer.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176424/London-2012-Olympics-Youth-tries-grab-flame-torch-bearer.html
Excerpt: A 17-year-old shouted 'Allahu Akbar' - Arabic for 'God is Great' - as he unsuccessfully tried to grab the Olympic torch during a stretch of the flame's route through Maidstone towards Redhill. Broadcast live on the BBC, the youth lunged from the crowd to try to take the torch from the hands of its bearer Anna Skora, but was swiftly bundled away by officers. In one video posted to YouTube he can be seen waiting behind a car and as Ms Skora gets closer he lunges towards the torch.

VIDEO: Brussels 2012: Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff's Speech.
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/07/brussels-2012-elisabeth-sabaditsch.html
Excerpt: 
Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff is an Austrian activist for Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa (BPE), a lecturer on Islamic politics, and a victim of sharia-compliant "hate speech" laws.

The New Geography of Success in the U.S. and the Trap of the "New Normal." By Joel Kotkin
http://www.newgeography.com/content/002967-the-new-geography-of-success-in-the-us-and-the-trap-of-the-new-normal
Excerpt: Let’s look at those states that have found their own way out of the “new normal,” in some cases
reversing all the losses of the Great Recession and then some. The states that have added the most jobs since 2007 — Texas, North Dakota, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Alaska – are located in a vast energy and commodities corridor extending from the western Gulf to the northern tip of the Continent. New York and Washington, D.C., prime beneficiaries of monetary easing and a growing federal government, have also clawed back.

The Magical Mystery of Monarchy.
http://takimag.com/article/the_magical_mystery_of_monarchy_taki/print#ixzz21I7PxoRd
Excerpt: The British public periodically goes ape over silly things such as cricket, Twiggy, the occasional sunny day, the Chelsea Flower Show, Guy Fawkes Night, and the not-so-direct descendants of King James I, whom Guy (AKA Guido) tried to blow up on November 5, 1605. Although James I was a Stuart and Elizabeth II is a Hanoverian, she wins the popularity stakes hands down because old Jimmy believed he was appointed by God. This brought him into conflict with the English Parliament, who distrusted his judgment on most issues.

The Colorado Shooting and the Media Narrative. B. Daniel Blatt
http://www.gaypatriot.net/2012/07/21/the-colorado-shooting-the-media-narrative/
Excerpt:
Glenn Reynolds offers the BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: Fascinating that a man shouting ‘Allahu akbar’ as he mows down 35 people on an army base isn’t motivated by Islam… but a guy who has the same name as hundreds of others—and says nothing as he fires—is obviously a Tea Party zealot.

Excerpt: American Second Amendment rights and U.S. foreign policy interests could be directly threatened by the latest wording of a United Nations draft treaty seeking control over international trade in conventional weapons, FoxNews.com has learned.

Colorado Theater Called 'Gun-Free' Zone
Wonder why no one shot back? ~Bob. Excerpt: Gun advocates say the movie theater where a Colorado gunman opened fire Friday, killing 12 and wounded 58, has a strict policy against firearms on its premises – even for patrons with concealed handgun permits.

VIDEO: FLASHBACK: Armed Woman in Colorado Saves Lives, Prevents Massacre. Katie Pavlich
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/07/20/flashback_armed_woman_in_colorado_saves_lives_prevents_mass_shooting
Excerpt: Meet Jeanne Assam, a woman who saved a church full of people in 2007. She was on the security team and shot a man who walked in heavily armed, planning to kill as many people that day as he could.

Details About Colorado Shooter Emerge as ABC Apologizes for False Tea Party Reporting. By Mary Katharine Ham
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/07/20/details-about-colorado-shooter-emerge-as-abc-apologizes-for-false-tea-party-reporting/
Excerpt:
Matt Welch of Reason is doing the work that, sadly, must be done— tracking “half-assed media speculation.” (Including, unfortunately, Republican Rep. Louis Gohmert’s dumb speculation about “attacks on Judeo-Christian values” as a possible root.) There’s not much verified information on many of the victims, yet, and won’t be for a little while, as relatives are notified.

Will American Males be Limited by STEM Quotas? By Allan Wall 
excerpt: We're told that we don't have enough students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programs. In fact that's one of the justifications for importing more foreigners into these fields. Yet, if Obama wins reelection, the federal government may be limiting the main source of STEM students - American males.

Tragedy in Denver: Don't Blame America. By Tim Stanley
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100171958/tragedy-in-denver-dont-blame-america/
Excerpt: Today’s tragedy is about the universal capacity for evil and the how vulnerable we all really are. The true horror is the senselessness of it all.

Obamacare prevents quality care: Government meddling driving doctors from medicine. By Dr. Constance Uribe
Excerpt: Americans are so focused on the availability of health care provided by the Affordable Care Act that they completely overlook the quality of care they might receive. Government interference, intrusive mandates and cumbersome regulations are making it impossible to continue providing high-quality care. Physicians across the nation have been planning for the worst, and an exodus of more than 100,000 doctors is expected by 2020. I will be closing the doors of my office in December after 32 years in surgical practice. (This backs up exactly what I've been hearing from the doctors I know well enough to have them speak frankly to me about what's coming at us. The Health Care Bill needs to be struck down in its entirety, and a new bipartisan team of legislators AND some well respected doctors and health care professional put together to figure out what we really need to do to improve health care overall in this country. --Del)

Don’t Die in 2013: Confiscatory 55% Death Tax Set to Take Effect
Excerpt: The 2001 tax relief bill (EGTRRA), drastically reduced the impact of the death tax over the course of a decade, so that it was eliminated entirely for one year in 2010 — a good year to die, joked a number of pundits. The bill lowered marginal rates and increased the applicable exclusion amount, but it also included a provision allowing individuals to carry over exclusion dollars that were unused by their spouse at the time of his or her death. This “portability” measure effectively increased the applicable exclusion for many households, in some instances putting millions of dollars beyond the reach of the federal government.

The Reading of the Brussels Declaration. By Baron Bodissey
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-reading-of-brussels-declaration.html
Excerpt: The signing
of this document marks the beginning of the Brussels Process, an ongoing initiative which aims to protect free speech and individual liberty from being undermined by proponents of Shariah Law. Many thanks to Europe News for recording this video, and toVlad Tepes for uploading it:

Dutch Freedom Fighter Geert Wilders: An Open Letter to [EU's European Commissioner for Home Affairs] Cecilia Malmstrom. By Baron Bodissey 
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/07/geert-wilders-open-letter-to-cecilia.html
Excerpt: Geert Wilders: 'I urge you not to confuse your naïve multicultural dream with reality. Maybe you should become acquainted with what mass immigration means to millions of Dutchmen: more criminality, welfare dependency, alienation, problems in education, etc. Maybe it would be a good idea for you to move to an Islamized area. Not for a brief visit of a few hours, after which you get picked up by a chauffeured car, but permanently.'

New Study: Online Classes Just as Good. Walter Russell Mead
http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/07/19/new-study-online-classes-just-as-good/
Excerpt: On Tuesday Via Meadia 
reported that the Coursera program for online education has just expanded its offerings. Along with programs like MIT’s EdX and Stanford’s Udacity, Coursera offers lectures from professors presented in video format, supplemented by online coursework and reading materials. Other institutions are looking to offer hybrid coursework, in which online classes are supplemented by semi-regular meetings with professors or tutors of some sort, to minimize the time required of professional staff while retaining the advantage of face time with an instructor. (There was almost always NO advantage in having an instructor at Los Angeles City College, quite the reverse: Race! Hate! White Men!...so glad to be in Oregon now where the loonies are mostly white, so I can say what I like to them and not get called a racist hater moron idiot loser. --K.)

In New Zealand, Farmers Don't Want Subsidies. By Mark Ross and Chris Edwards
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/new-zealand-farmers-dont-want-subsidies
Excerpt: The message to American farmers is that subsidy cuts should be embraced, not feared. After subsidy cuts, U.S. farmers would no doubt prove their entrepreneurial skills by innovating in a myriad of ways, as New Zealand farmers did. And we suspect that — like New Zealand farmers — American farmers would become proud of their new independence, and have little interest in going back on the taxpayer gravy train.

The Remarkable Story of Chile's Economic Success. By Daniel J. Mitchell and Julia Morriss
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/remarkable-story-chiles-economic-renaissance
Excerpt: Let's look at how Chile became the Latin Tiger. Pension reform is the best-known economic reform in Chile. Ever since the early 1980s, workers have been allowed to put 10 percent of their income into a personal retirement account.

Pro-Obama Online Merchandise Sales Plummet Compared to 2008 Election. Caroline May
http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/20/pro-obama-online-merchandise-sales-plummet-compared-to-08-election/
Excerpt: Over the first six months of 2012, 45 percent of Obama merchandise sales have been pro-Obama, 55 percent have been anti-Obama, according to CafePress totals.

What is Seen and What is Not Seen. By Tom Smith
http://rightcoast.typepad.com/rightcoast/2012/07/what-is-seen-and-what-is-not-seentom-smith.html
Excerpt: I live in California, where the public schools mostly suck, are incredibly expensive in dollars spent per pupil, and are going broke anyway. Mostly because the teachers' union runs the state legislature. But where there are crown jewel institutions like the UC system, bloated, vast, but still impressive -- it's being gutted partly to pay for a multi-billion dollar high speed train boondoggle that nobody thinks will ever actually get built and if it does will go from somewhere nobody wants to be to somewhere no one wants to go.

Energy Department Can’t Locate $500,000 in Stimulus Money
Excerpt: The Energy Department can’t figure out how hundreds of thousands of dollars in “green energy” stimulus money earmarked for manufacturing equipment was spent, according to a new report from the agency’s Inspector General.

The Roanoke Shuffle: Obama and the Racial Gratitude Racket. By Robert Oscar Lopez
Excerpt: President Obama's Roanoke speech was not really an insult to businessmen. No, in fact, it was far worse: it was a threat. Worse still, it was a threat rooted in a long and ugly racial history in the United States.

Vietnam's Two-Front War on Religion. By Michael Benge
Excerpt: The Vietnamese regime's religion is communism, and the Party views all other organized religions as a direct threat to national security and its authoritarian control of the Vietnamese people. Religious tolerance exists only in theory; Article 70 of Vietnam's Constitution of 1992 states that citizens "shall enjoy freedom of belief and of religion; they can follow any religion or follow none; all religions are equal before the law; and places of worship of all faiths and religions are protected by the law." However, the fly in the ointment is this statement: "No one can violate freedom of belief and of religion; nor can anyone misuse beliefs and religions to contravene the law and State policies." This opens the door for officials of the communist government to arbitrarily define what constitutes a violation and which violations misuse and contravene law and policies. (Great article by my friend Mike Benge. Except for being totally depressing in revealing how our State Department has betrayed the Montagnards, and not just in Viet Nam, but even in a major community of them here in the US. This is shocking, disappointing, and truly a horrible failure by our government. And it needs to be redressed, but that won't happen while this election year is ongoing. Nor probably after the election, unless different people are in charge then. --Del. I'm sure John Kerry and Jane Fonda will be speaking out about this any day now. ~Bob.)

Why should anyone worry about agents of the Muslim Brotherhood creeping in the back windows of the State Department, when President Obama has invited them to the front door of the White House? Two weeks ago, in an unofficial inauguration ceremony at Tahrir Square in CairoEgypt’s new Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Mursi took off his mask of moderation. Before a crowd of scores of thousands, Mursi pledged to work for the release from US federal prison of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. 

Soros Promotes UN Control Over Gun Ownership. Joe Wolverton, II
Excerpt: Sadly, officials of our own federal government, including President Obama, are pushing Congress to sign off on this treaty. Clinton has pushed the treaty as an "opportunity to promote the same high standards for the entire international community that the United States and other responsible arms exporters already have in place to ensure that weaponry is transferred for legitimate purposes." There is little doubt that the scope of those “legitimate purposes” will be determined by Soros, Clinton, Obama, and the rest of the globalist gang who have much to fear from an armed and educated citizenry. (There were those opposing this UN mandate over US. Now every local news show has an antigun spot with ties to Batman shooting. What a coincidence. --Barb.)

Excerpt: It appears the FBI attempted to remove from the Internet a warning from 2 months ago that theaters would be attacked. (Warning issued May 2012; attempted to remove from internet. -Barb.)

Excerpt: The people abroad who can help America’s economy and security the most want change in the White House this November. This includes the governments that are some of America’s most important friends and the dissidents resisting those that are not America’s friends. On Monday, deep concerns about President Obama that allied leaders usually express only in private spilled into public. Given the typically genteel tones that mark diplomacy among allies in general, and relations with Canada in particular, this was stunning. (Eye opener. --Barb.)

Rep. Keith Ellison Rewrites History on his Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR Ties
Excerpt: The most recent salvo in the kerfuffle between Minnesota congressmen Michele Bachmann and Keith Ellison finds Ellison attacking Bachmann for her statements made on Glenn Beck’s radio program on Thursday….The group identified by the Chicago Tribune as the main organization operating today on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood was MAS: In recent years, the U.S. Brotherhood operated under the name Muslim American Society, according to documents and interviews.

Air Force to begin testing drone-fired lasers over North Dakota
Excerpt: On July 26, the U.S. Air National Guard will get the green light to begin firing lasers from unmanned attack drones in a vast swath of skies over North Dakota, despite the concerns of local commercial pilots.

Massacre suspect James Holmes' gun-range application drew red flag, By Jana Winter 
Excerpt: Less than a month before carrying out the midnight movie massacre that left 12 dead, suspected shooter James Holmes applied for membership at a private gun range, unnerving the club’s owner whose calls to Holmes’ apartment reached a “creepy, weird” Batman-inspired voicemail message. Holmes is accused of opening fire inside a movie theater, killing a dozen and injuring scores during the midnight premiere of the latest Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises” early Friday morning in Aurora, Colo. Police believe Holmes had planned and prepared for months for the attack, which may have cost the unemployed student as much as $8,000, officials said. (Different cost estimate…Barb)

Questions To Ask Democrats As They Abandon Barack
Excerpt: Still, your Democrat candidate will likely remind you that President Obama inherited a bad economy and is now working to “creating jobs.” To this you may wish to simply ask “how is a job created?” Then listen carefully to the response. It will likely be highly amusing.

Among Military Veterans: Romney 59% Obama 35%
Excerpt: Most military veterans don’t like the job President Obama is doing and prefer Mitt Romney in November’s election. New Rasmussen Reports polling finds that 59% of Likely U.S. Voters who have served in the military favor the Republican challenger, while 35% support the president.

'Asylum-seeker' guilty of terror payments
Excerpt: A man who lived for more than a year in Scotland as an asylum-seeker was convicted Friday of using illegally obtained benefits to finance terrorism.

Moroccan authorities seize 10 kilos of heroin hidden inside 30 Qur'ans
Excerpt: Watch for the outcry, the riots, the deaths of innocents, over the desecration of these Qur'ans...what's that? This "desecration" was done by Muslims, and so no protests will ensue? You mean Qur'an Rage is manipulative and selective? Say it ain't so!

I Built This (The Video)

Gun-control, gun-rights groups to square off
Excerpt: The extreme carnage at the Colorado movie theater, now one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, reopens the nation's passionate debate about gun control -- or gun rights -- and both sides were readying for renewed legislative efforts in the aftermath of Friday's shooting.

Excerpt: With studies showing home foreclosures hitting blacks and Latinos hardest, the Obama administration’s answer is baffling as well as destructive — to lend them more money, repeating the cycle of easy credit that led to the housing boom and bust. A new AARP report finds that even elderly minorities are facing serious mortgage delinquencies. Fifty-and-over African-Americans, for example, are almost twice as likely to lose their home as older whites. (The worst thing about Progressives is they are incapable of learning the stove is hot, no matter how many times they get burned. Or burn the rest of us. ~Bob.)

The Obama Tax Cheats. By Kevin Glass 
Excerpt: While President Obama exhorts Americans to support tax hikes on high income individuals, families and businesses, he could stand to look inside the halls of the White House for some extra revenue. Andrew Malcolm over at Investor's Business Daily points us to the hard numbers: three dozen Obama executive advisers and aides owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes - and federal workers as a whole owe the IRS $3.4 billion in unpaid taxes.

Kentucky teen faces charge for naming attackers
Excerpt: A 17-year-old Kentucky girl who was upset by the plea deal reached by a pair of teenagers who sexually assaulted her is now facing a contempt charge for tweeting their names in violation of a court order.

Breaking: Climate Scientist Michael Mann Lawyers Up after Penn State Child Sex Link
Excerpt: American climatologist with link to university pedophile, lawyers up yet again to sue a prominent critic of his discredited data. Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University today (July 21, 2012) announced his intention to pursue legal action against The National Review Online (NRO) and popular right-wing writer, Mark Steyn over their article ‘Football and Hockey.’ ... My legal analysis on the damning report identifies stark similarities in the way PSU appeared to cover up for both Sandusky and for Mann in their respective internal investigations.

US poverty on track to rise to highest since 1960s

Excerpt: The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net. (Of course, the average poor person in America has more living space that the average person in Europe, and lives better than all but the rich in the Third World--and better than the rich here 200 years ago. The majority of American "poor" have cars, AC, cell phones, TVs, DVDs, microwaves and a washer and dryer, according to surveys I've read. ~Bob.)

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