Sunday, September 23, 2012

Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for September 24, 2012


Your one-stop-shop for political news and opinion. Please forward to friends who need to be informed. This SitRep (Military for “Situation Report”) is created by many readers who send me items for inclusion, which I would have likely missed or skipped. And I can only spend at most three hours a night pulling stuff, plus the healthcare or economic stuff that crosses my desk at work. As always, I—and you—owe them thanks and appreciation. I post articles because I think they are of interest and will stimulate thought and discussion. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article, or that I was able to verify the information presented, which is the responsibility of the author. I try not to post things that are false, or too far a stretch, regardless of the view point, but I don’t always succeed. As always on the Net, or in the legacy media, you must read critically and with skepticism.

Getting a lot of stuff that seems far-fetched and paranoid. The trouble is that stuff I dismissed initially as far fetched--like the first reports of Fast ands Furious--have turned out to be not only true, but worse than the first reports. So I'm letting some through, so you can make up your own mind. Don't take anything on the Net, including links from this blog, at face value. ~Bob.

Information on my books

State paying 6-figure pension to ex-teachers union lobbyist: Long-ago employee of House Speaker Madigan took advantage of 6-month window to rejoin retirement plan
Ah, Illinois. Another day, another expose in the Trib of a connected Democrat-Teachers Union operative ripping off the public. Ho hum. Here in Blagobamaville, we hardly notice. Outrages is burned out. ~Bob.

Excerpt: Had we unanimously tittered when "cubism" and other modern freaks in painting and sculpture were sprung, we should have avoided much waste of good paint and stone. If foolish stump speeches in politics got the laugh their absurdity warrants, many an empty balloon now soaring in high places would be collapsed in obscurity.

Excerpt: “Detainee is assessed to be a member of al-Qaida and was identified as a bodyguard for Usama Bin Laden (UBL) beginning shortly before the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. Detainee is also assessed to be an al-Qaida recruiter associated with a Salafist network in Yemen,” the document reads. “Detainee transited through multiple extremist support guesthouses, received militant training at the al-Qaida al-Faruq Training Camp in Afghanistan (AF), and is assessed to have received advanced training.”

Excerpt: The State Department contends that the assassination of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the three American officials who defended him was an unplanned, spur-of-the-moment reaction to a low-budget film called Innocence of Muslims. That is nothing more than a fairytale lullaby designed to put American outrage to sleep. The only reaction to this fantasy seems to have been among the Muslim terrorist leaders, who understand it as a go-ahead to attack our embassies all around the world with impunity. (More good output from someone with real expertise. --Del)

Media Put 18,000 In Not-Quite-Full 5,000-Seat Arena For Obama In Wisconsin, By Joel B. Pollak
Excerpt: Nevertheless, the Journal-Sentinel played it safe, putting attendance at roughly 5,000-plus, a small but respectable turnout….Darren Samuelsohn of Politico reported that the president addressed "a crowd the Obama campaign estimated at 18,000 in a city park overlooking Lake Michigan" in an attempt to "lock up" Wisconsin. Laura Meckler of the Wall Street Journal--whose news section, according to UCLA professor Tim Groseclose, is the most liberal of any major mainstream outlet--repeated the campaign's 18,000 claim without even revealing the source of the official-sounding estimate. Both outlets described the location of the rally as a "park," without revealing the name of the arena itself, which would have given the game away.

Egypt's Islamist President Dictates Terms For US-Arab Relations. By AWR Hawkins
Excerpt: Morsi says the anger in the Arab world and the geopolitical tensions between Arab nations and non-Arab nations are Washington's problem to fix. He suggests a step toward fixing those things is "respecting the Arab world's history and culture, even when it conflicts with Western values." He also added that it's unrealistic to expect Egypt to live by US rules, saying his government would not be hostile to the West, "but would not be as compliant as [President] Mubarak had been either."

California Crimmigrants! Untouchable in Golden State?
Excerpt: I found it hard to believe this story when I read it, but it’s true. The state legislature in California has passed a law BLOCKING cooperation between California police and the federal immigration enforcement agency.

Jakarta – IslamoNazi Thugs Shut Down Minimart
Excerpt: The white-shirt hoodlums arrived in convoy just as the 7 Eleven was due to have its ‘grand launch’ and ‘asked’ the staff to turn off the lights. They then sealed the franchise, as it was judged to sell liquor with too high an alcohol content.

Saudi Billionaire Did Help Obama Into Harvard
Excerpt: With Hillary out of the race, no newsroom in America felt compelled to follow up on Timmerman’s research. At the time this story was gelling, in early September 2008, the media were doing all their digging in Alaskan dumpsters. …The Obama media will try to ignore this new revelation or, if not, kill it….Yet from the casual tone of the introduction, the listener senses that within black nationalist circles, the story Sutton told is believed to be true.

Miami Herald poll: Obama 48%-Romney 47%. And why either can win
Excerpt: President Obama and Mitt Romney are locked in a virtual tie in Florida, according to a Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald/Tampa Bay Times poll that indicates the Democrats’ convention buzz and the Republican’s recent troubles haven’t altered the race in this biggest of battleground states.

Syrian rebels: "We have a big fight against the Jews ahead of us"
Excerpt: "Israel may find itself 'confronting an even more determined, uncontrollable and fanatical enemy than the Assad regime has ever proved to be.'" Indeed.

Obama Donor Connected To Freed Plotter Of Benghazi Attack. by Rusty Weiss 
Excerpt: The left-wing organization that helped spring Qumu was the Center for Constitutional Rights. Last April, the group issued an indignant press release painting Qumu as a harmless victim and blasting those concerned about his unrepentant jihadi ways. After a trove of Gitmo documents found their way to Wikileaks and were published by the New York Times, CCR rose to Qumu’s defense and parroted jihadi propaganda that the aggrieved Qumu was actually a friend of the U.S.

The Passion Of Andrew Breitbart: ‘Occupy Unmasked’ Hits Theaters
Excerpt: As Occupy Unmasked shows, the top-down coordination of the Occupy Wall Street movement relied on a leftist leadership willing to mold a conglomeration of the naïve and the criminal into a potent political force. Occupy Unmasked features Andrew delving into the roots of the Occupy movement, and uncovering the coordination between the Obama administration, its allies in the media, and Occupy. …It morphed from a ridiculous camp-out movement into a dangerous political force, wielded by the Obama administration and the media as the counter-Tea Party, even as it smashed windows, burned property, and assaulted police.

Benghazi Consulate Libyan Security Tied to Muslim Brotherhood. By AWR Hawkins
Excerpt: Reports indicate the Obama administration indirectly relied on the Muslim Brotherhood for security in Benghazi….Because of these contrary interests, there are even reports that part of the February 17 Brigade stood down as the Islamist attackers stormed the U.S. consulate. This squares perfectly with Libyan Interior Minister Wanis al-Sharif's early claims that Libyan security forces essentially handed the US consulate personnel over to the attackers. 

CNN: Libya Ambassador Diary Showed Worries About Benghazi Situation
Excerpt: In essence, the Obama Administration tasked an unarmed British firm with security responsibilities that should have been handled by armed American servicemen, and it was all approved by the Secretary of State. Needless to say, the plan failed and an Ambassador was murdered, along with several others. 

Report: State Dept Left Consulate Unsecured Days After Ambassador Murder
Excerpt: CNN’s report today that they found Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens’ diary lying on the floor of the “largely unsecured consulate compound where he was fatally wounded,” four days after Stevens’ death, raises serious questions about State Department security procedures. Not just security procedures for our ambassadors, which were clearly lacking. Security procedures for the crime scene itself.

CNN Hid Knowledge of Libya Ambassador Diary For Days. By Ben Shapiro 
Excerpt: CNN, in an effort to protect the Obama administration while still getting a scoop, hid the fact that they were in control of the diary of the Ambassador to Libya from September 15 to September 21. According to CNN, they found Ambassador Chris Stevens’ diary “four days after he was killed.” They then told Stevens’ family about the diary, and spent the next few days “corroborating” what they considered “newsworthy tips” in the diary.

Obama to Release One Third of Gitmo Inmates. By AWR Hawkins 
Excerpt: President Barack Obama is about to release or transfer 55 Gitmo prisoners, despite reports that the Libyan believed to be behind the killing of US Ambassador Christopher Stevens was a former Guantanamo inmate transferred to Libyan custody. The large percentage of those scheduled to be released are Yemeni, according to a list made public by the Obama administration. Obama stopped the release or transfer of Yemeni inmates in 2010, because the conditions in the country were viewed as too "unsettled" at the time.

Excerpt: The American people don’t expect much, but they do expect their elected representatives to do their jobs. Until the people’s work is complete, the members of the so-called “People’s House” should stay in Washington and do what they were all sent there to do: govern….Public servants in Washington were supposed to be statesmen, driven by a common commitment to steering our country on a course toward prosperity.

Excerpt: During a Thursday interview with Spanish-language television network Univision, President Barack Obama made at least one false statement about the Operation Fast and Furious scandal plaguing his administration. As ABC News’ Jake Tapper noted, Obama incorrectly stated that the program began under the George W. Bush administration...But Fast and Furious began in October 2009, which Tapper pointed out is “nine months into the Obama presidency.”

Excerpt: Within the next three to five years, more than 200 coal-fired electric generating units will be shut down across 25 states due to EPA regulations and factors including cheap natural gas, according to a new report by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE)….However, ACCCE notes that EPA policies may have played a role more than 4,800 megawatts of announced closures not included on in their report which would bring total shutdowns to 241 coal generator in 30 states — more than 36,000 MW of electric generation or 11 percent of the U.S. coal fleet. The most affected states include Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina, which will see a combined 103 coal-fired generators shut down.

Muslim Brotherhood 'Infiltrated' U.S. Gov't. By Lt. Gen. Boykin
The Muslim Brotherhood is a radical Islamist organization that has successfully penetrated both political parties and the delicate areas of defense and national security. Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, executive vice president of the Family Research Council, told WND’s Greg Corombos that people with connections to the Muslim Brotherhood are in vital positions within every significant area of the U.S. government. He specifically cited high security clearances for such people in the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security.

'Fast And Furious' Whitewash By Justice Dep't: Exclusive: Chuck Norris declares, 'American people deserve answers'
Excerpt: “The bottom line is that the American people deserve answers that go well beyond the OIG report. Congress needs to proceed with a comprehensive investigation, and it must have the unfettered cooperation and access that the Department of Justice has thus far withheld. And the Department of Justice is clearly in need of new leadership. Let’s give it to them.”

'Muslim Rage' Turns Against Libya's Jihadist Militia. Shoshank Joshi
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/shashankjoshi/100182273/muslim-rage-turns-against-libyas-jihadist-militia-so-much-for-lazy-stereotypes-of-fanatical-arabs/
Excerpt: Galvanised by anger over the killing of the popular American ambassador here last week, thousands of Libyans marched through this city on Friday, demanding the disarming of the militias that helped topple the dictatorship but have troubled the country with their refusal to disband. In a show of mass frustration at the armed groups, protesters seized control of several militia headquarters on Friday night and handed them over to Libya’s national army in what appeared to be a coordinated sweep. They also stormed the headquarters of Ansar al-Sharia, a hard-line Islamist militia that has been linked to the attack on the United States Mission in Benghazi that killed the ambassador and three other Americans.

Assuming The Best About Muslims. By Paul Sperry
Excerpt: Newsweek's latest cover story, titled "Muslim Rage," is meant to shock the average American — as if Muslim fury is a new phenomenon. "Muslim rage" is in fact a tedious redundancy. When are the followers of Islam not enraged? (This writer has decided to just lay it all out there, very plainly spoken, very direct, not the remotest hint of trying to be kind or diplomatic or subtle at all. I have to say that while I think he's 95% on target, I still believe there are moderate/secular Muslims in significant, if still not large, numbers. A few have been seen to speak up, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, but they don't begin to get the play from the MSM that they should. And they are instantly attacked, as Ali has been for her article in Newsweek, by a host of Muslims and some non-Muslims, as misstating and grossly exaggerating the situation, and for supposedly bitter bias against the religion. But the point that a very large fraction of Muslims are very sympathetic to the propaganda and hate mongering of the jihadists is hard to ignore once you really examine what goes on in the Islamic world. Those who really hate us most do not hate us for what we do, they hate use for who we are. That base of boiling emotion is always there for them, and it only takes any kind of stimulus to bring it to surface, like lava erupting from a simmering volcano. They don't have to see the movie trailer, just hearing about it is ample stimulus to get them moving, and once the moving starts, it feeds on itself and very soon the berserk crowd spills out onto the streets and starts looking for things to break or burn. Or people to really make pay. And the moderates are not about to stand in front of that crowd, in fact they're best advised to at least pretend anger and cheer the crowd at least nominally. Those who do not can end up in trouble very quickly, as we've seen just recently. (Let's be fair- when the Nazi storm troopers were holding their torchlight marches, the many Germans who did not like Hitler were not about to hold up a sign criticizing them as they marched past.) The rise in fundamentalism and extremism in the Islamic world started over 30 years ago, and has been funded heavily by the Saudis and others spending oil millions upon millions building mosques and staffing them with firebrand mullahs. When you take over the media and especially the training of the young for decades, you get results! The underlying anger and frustration of many Muslims stemming from how poor they've been, how bereft their societies have been of various kinds of progress while the infidel West has been building riches and generating technology continuously, and various historical factors (plus myths aplenty) all feed into that reservoir of burning emotion that says the infidels are exploiters, degenerates, and godless bastards who really have a big fall coming to them. It's a bad situation, for everyone. Those poor Muslims still living in conditions a century or three in the past need social progress, not conflict with the West or each other. Fractured societies with a pack of opposing groups based on tribe or religion or just history of conflict need a hell of a lot of change, education, and learning that compromise is preferable to unending blood lust. You might say that in the West we learned a while ago that compromise is critical to finding peaceful solutions and progress.... which is how the 13 colonies became a nation. I don't know how we in the West, especially in America, can best contribute to peace and progress in the Islamic world. All I am sure of is that we need to recognize the way things are there, and figure out better approaches than we've used in the past. --Del)

Report: Al Qaeda, Ansar al-Shari'a Coordinated Benghazi Attack. By Chana Ya'ar 
Excerpt: According to the sources, Ansar al-Shari'a is an umbrella group that coordinates a number of splinter organizations, including Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The group, which is sympathetic to the goals of Al Qaeda, has attempted to establish a Shari'a state, or caliphate, in eastern Libya but failed. The security situation in Libya remains somewhat chaotic, especially in the eastern section of the country, following the "Arab Spring" revolution in which the 40-year regime of former dictator Col. Muammar Qaddafi was toppled.

Dixon Smith, Stage 4 Cancer Patient, Thwarts Robbery With Shotgun
Excerpt: A 63-year-old man with stage 4 lymphoma, steady nerves and a double-barreled shotgun thwarted a break-in at his western Michigan home and convinced two suspects to surrender, police said.

WH Silent Over Demands to Denounce ‘Piss Christ’ Artwork
Excerpt: Religious groups are blasting President Obama for not condemning an anti-Christian art display set to appear in New York City and one Republican lawmaker said he is “fed up with the administration’s double standard and religious hypocrisy. “Piss Christ,” once branded as a “deplorable, despicable display of vulgarity,” will be displayed at the Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery in Manhattan on Thursday. The artwork features a “photograph of the crucifix submerged in the artist’s urine.” (So, just do "Piss Mohammad" and he'll have to speak out. ~Bob.)

MEK decision: multimillion-dollar campaign led to removal from terror list; Revealed: the steady flow of funds to members of Congress, lobbying firms and former officials in support of Iranian group. By Chris McGreal
Excerpt: Supporters of a designated Iranian terrorist organisation have won a long struggle to see it unbanned in the US after pouring millions of dollars into an unprecedented campaign of political donations, hiring Washington lobby groups and payments to former top administration officials. A Guardian investigation, drawing partly on data researched by the Centre for Responsive Politics, a group tracking the impact of money in US politics, has identified a steady flow of funds from key Iranian American organisations and their leaders into the campaign to have the People's Mojahedin Organisation of Iran removed from the list of terrorist organisations. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, is expected to notify Congress that the MEK will be removed from the terrorism list in the coming days.

Lynden Dorval Fired: Edmonton Teacher Let Go For Assigning Zeros
Excerpt: Dorval made headlines over the past months after after he was suspended in May for having assigned zeros to students for incomplete work. (A friend of mine, lifelong Democrat, is a chemist. He got a certificate to teach chemistry late in his career, and a job doing that in an inner-city high school. But unfortunately, he remember what teaching was like when we were in high school together. When a majority of the kids in his class did zero work, he failed them. The parents complained and he was fired for racism. Expecting black kids to do work or learn in school is, apparently racist. They are to be passed regardless of effort. And meanwhile, the fact that so many black adults are not employable is a mystery. probably racism as well. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Moments ago we saw the following amusing headline crossing the BBG: ILLINOIS TEACHERS' PENSION FUND CUTS RATE OF RETURN TO 8% FROM 8.5% It's amusing because these are the same teachers who were demanding, and received, higher pay - 17% higher over four years in fact - following a several day strike. (Ok, we have seen that the elitists all imitate each other. If there is a next step (and I guarantee there will be), then this is it--bailouts for the states, paid for by money-printing by the Fed. Look for it. What does this mean? It means that, unless the fiscally responsible states (almost all Republican or libertarian) start printing their own sound money (which they will probably have to do at some point) and declare themselves independent (as Catalan might, from Spain), they will be slaves to the Federal Reserve and Washington. For example, a state like AZ would not receive a bailout unless they fell in line behind the Fed and started encouraging illegal aliens to come into the state and opening their border to them. The bailout is a whip. In Europe, it is being taken to the Greeks, the Spanish, the Irish and anyone else who asks for or gets a bailout. The central government, like the Soviet Politburo, keeps everyone in line this way. States must pull back, must at least threaten to print their own sound money to defend against the phony play money from the Fed, which is getting weaker and weaker by the day, and will inevitably cause galloping inflation of the Weimar type. It may be the only way, no matter who becomes the next president. --Don Hank)

Propaganda Update: TV Networks Will Be Asked to Boost ObamaCare In Plots of Their Top Shows. By Tim Graham
Excerpt: Abby Goodnough of The New York Times is reporting as the California state government is setting up its ObamaCare exchange, the exchange has hired a PR firm (with federal government money). "Realizing that much of the battle will be in the public relations realm, the exchange has poured significant resources into a detailed marketing plan — developed not by state health bureaucrats but by the global marketing powerhouse Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, which has an initial $900,000 contract with the exchange," she wrote. Ogilvy's plan is to tap major network TV shows like "Grey's Anatomy" and "Modern Family" to sell Americans on the health care law: (Once again we see the Obama machine running along merrily way outside the guideropes. This is NOT what the gov't is supposed to do with our tax money, and if Bush had ever done anything this brazen, the media would have gone into a total meltdown. But see, this is now and it's Him, so it's really OK. -Del)

Military leader ties 'last messiah' to regime's preparations for conflict
Excerpt: For the first time, Iran’s highest-ranking military official has tied the reappearance of the last Islamic messiah to the regime being prepared to go to a war based on ideology. “With having the treasure of the Holy Defense, Valayat (Guardianship of the Jurist) and martyrs, we are ready for a big war,” Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said, according to Mashregh news, which is run by the Revolutionary Guards. (This is definitely a Right Wing website, but they don't publish lies. And the idea of the "final battle" when the Mahdi returns to bring the world to Islam is what is scary. Religious zealots who don't fear death and believe they cannot lose are not the kind of people you want to have access to nuclear weapons. If I were an Israeli I'd be totally for a protective strike to take out as much of their nuclear refining sites as possible, and the hell with the consequences. Israel is too small a country, one nuke would do horrendous damage, three would obliterate is as a functioning state. After that the conventional forces of their neighbors would be ample to wipe out all survivors. --Del)

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