Friday, September 28, 2012

Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for September 29, 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.

Drove to Madison from Chicago early this evening, so was late getting through the e-mail and submissions. Sorry for the late post. Life intrudes. Enjoy. ~Bob

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: Commander-in-Chief and the Military Vote. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: As to leadership, especially from the President of the United States, example is everything. Example is the only thing.

Worth Sharing: Republican Jewish Coalition present Perilous Times

Worth Reading and Sharing: Buying Re-election With Your Hard-Earned Tax Dollars. By Donald Lambro
Excerpt: But did you know a large chunk of this spending is being doled out by Obama to buy his way into a second term? Did you know the White House has been tapping into the federal spending pipeline -- as if it was his own campaign checkbook -- handing out your money in key battleground states that will decide this election? No, make that buy this election. (Yes, I knew that. But he’s not buying reelection with your tax dollars. He’s buying it with your grandkids money, borrowed from China, and by printing money, thus taxing your retirement funds through inflation. And it’s working. ~Bob.)

It'll be neat when Obama starts locking up reporters who insult Islam, right MSM? (They are not worried. It’s not like the MSM has the courage to insult Muslims the way they do Christians and Jews. ~Bob)

Senate control hinges on New England. By Alexander Bolton
Excerpt: The battle for control of the Senate may come down to New England, a region where the GOP brand was seen as defunct a few years ago. … No Republicans has been elected to the Senate from Connecticut since 1982, while Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.) — who is in a tight race to retain his seat — was the first Republican senator elected from Massachusetts since Edward Brooke in 1972. (Brooke helped me greatly in my state senate campaign. He may have been a RINO in today’s terms, but he always stood with fellow Republicans. ~Bob.)

Indiana Senate race moves to ‘tossup’
Excerpt: A bipartisan survey released Thursday — as well as a handful of Democratic internal polls — show that the Indiana Senate race between state Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) and Rep. Joe Donnelly (D) is very close and, as a result, we are moving the contest from “lean Republican” to “tossup.”

Four Republican lawmakers accuse Justice Department of inappropriate quid pro quo
Excerpt: Four Republican lawmakers have accused the Justice Department of inappropriately striking a deal with city officials in St. Paul, Minn., to drop an appeal in a Supreme Court civil rights case in exchange for the federal government abandoning its support for a separate lawsuit against the city. (Not Eric Holder’s DOJ! [Note my shocked face.] ~Bob)

Murdered Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens "Probably Had It Coming"
Typical Transnational Progressive. ~Bob. Excerpt: He might also have noted that some Americans hate other Americans so much they shrug off their murders with the sneer, "He probably had it coming."

Worth Reading: GDP collapse puts U.S. economy into recession red zone. By James Pethokoukis
Excerpt: U.S. economic growth is dangerously slow. I’ve frequently written about research from the Fed which finds that since 1947, when two-quarter annualized real GDP growth falls below 2%, recession follows within a year 48% of the time. And when year-over-year real GDP growth falls below 2%, recession follows within a year 70% of the time. (If Obama is able to buy enough votes with your grandkids’ money to win, you can brace yourself for a double dip recession—or worse. ~Bob.)

Tweet from @GOPrincess
2008: "Obama's gonna pay my mortgage." 2012: "I got me an #ObamaPhone." #PresidentDowngrade

Don’t Surrender Without a Fight. By Dr. Robert Owens
Excerpt: With the economy staggering on the edge of a cliff, our foreign policy collapsing, our empire crumbling, and our embassies under attack the big question is why isn’t Romney up by 25 points in the polls? The Republican side of the Washington-based perpetually re-elected party of power has a habit of nominating candidates whose main qualification is that “It’s my turn.” Look at Dole, McCain, and now Romney. These three may have slugged it out in the trenches and proven themselves to be reliable workhorses and adequate fund raisers, but they don’t inspire anyone.

Islam -vs- Everybody Else: A war between the religion of Islam and every other religion on earth -- and even against those who subscribe to no religion at all. By J.D. Longstreet
Excerpt: As I watched US consulates and embassies being overrun by what appeared to be mindless mobs of Muslims recently, it occurred to me ... this is never going to end until one side or the other is wiped out. There is a war going on, if you have not noticed. It is, in fact, a world war currently fought on every continent on the globe. This war is a blood feud spread across generations. To say this war has been in progress for thousands of years would not be inaccurate.

Shades of 1996
Excerpt: Romney’s negatives, particularly in swing states, have grown to the point that if allowed to solidify, his opportunity to recover will vanish. The GOP nominee still has a chance to change the trajectory of the campaign, but the longer he takes, the smaller the payoff. Very few undecided voters are left in swing states; campaign pollsters say that maybe 4 or 5 percent of likely voters fit in this category. (The bad news is that Cook is a relatively honest poll reader; the worse news is that there is little here to encourage us. We need to work harder. That’s the only thing we have left. --Ron P.)

Excerpt: By now most have noticed the paradox of President Obama’s U.N. speech: Obama condemned the video, while admonishing those who were offended by it to self-reflect and extend similar anguish to smears against Christianity and Judaism. So far, so good. But has Obama himself ever done that? To my knowledge during the last four years Obama has never deplored the Arab state media’s serial anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity, nor has he remonstrated with crude Americans, in the way he has with those who made the anti-Muslim video.

Obama Versus Obama: Part IV. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: During the same week when the American ambassador to Libya was murdered and his dead body dragged through the streets by celebrating mobs, the President of the United States found time to go on the David Letterman show to demonstrate his sense of humor and how cool he is. But Barack Obama did not have time to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of a nation repeatedly threatened with annihilation by Iranian leaders, who are working feverishly toward the creation of nuclear bombs.

Hollywood Steps Up in "Won't Back Down"
Excerpt: A new movie opens in theaters today that couldn't be more timely. The school year is hitting its stride, and the teachers union in Chicago just captured the national spotlight by strong-arming that city to meet its demands—at the expense of students and taxpayers. The time is ripe for a story like Won't Back Down, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis as mothers who can't stand to watch their school fail any longer.

Kenya Says It Has Captured Last Islamist Bastion in Somalia
Excerpt: Kenyan forces claimed on Friday to have captured Kismayu, the last major stronghold of the Shabab militant group in Somalia, which, if confirmed, could spell an end to the Shabab’s ability to control large tracts of territory and mark the beginning of an underground, and possibly just as dangerous, guerrilla phase.

Spain Recoils as Its Hungry Forage Trash Bins for a Next Meal
In Girona, Mr. Berloso said his aim in locking down the bins was to keep people healthy and push them to get food at licensed pantries and soup kitchens. As the locks are installed on the bins, the town is posting civilian agents nearby with vouchers instructing people to register for social services and food aid. Excerpt: (This is the fruits of corporatism coupled with Keynesian policies of 'stimulus' packages, bailouts, printing money, etc., instead of promoting sound financial policies. It is also a result of Zapatero's 'green jobs' program, which cost Spain 800,000 euros per job and destroyed 2.5 traditional jobs per 'green' job. In today's environment, the banks eventually get all the money. And all the EU can think of is 'consolidating' the European integration which is a major cause of this disaster. Spain's unemployment rate is now around 25%. Is this the future of the West? --Don Hank)

Americans are not stupid (That's the sarcastic headline).
Scary and depressing. And you wonder why Obama is still strong in the polls. ~Bob.

Obama’s speech at the United Nations. By Jennifer Rubin
Excerpt: President Obama is so soaked in the State Department/Western European/ leftist intellectual goo of moral relativism and disdain for core American values that I doubt he understood how offensive were his remarks at the United Nations today. After fessing up that our embassy people were killed by terrorists (he doesn’t say what kind, however) and reciting that violence is never justified he then once again denounced the anti-Islam video. And he delivers this: (Certainly His O-ness could have pointed out the persecution of Christians in every Muslim country this very day. He could certainly have held up vicious, Nazi-like cartoons that are spewed forth daily from GOVERNMENT newspapers in every Muslim country that depict Jews as apes, pigs, demons, etc. and Obama, Condi Rice, Bush, etc. as subhuman. I am sick of our supine culture and leaders who won't say to the Muslim world, "if you want respect and love, you have to give it. In our society no religion is deemed superior and none inferior. If you don't give up your supercessionist views and your terrorist actions, we will have to limit our associations with you and view acts of violence against us as acts of war. If you don't stop beating and mutilating your women, even when you live among us, how can you expect us to respect you? When we see thousand of you chanting 'death to America' seemingly on a daily basis, you alienate us. Do you not remember we spilled American blood and invested American treasure in helping liberate Afghan Muslims from the Soviets, Bosnians and Kosovars from the Serbs, Kuwaitis from Iraq, Iraqis from Saddam, Libya from Qadaffi? You did not care for the freedom of your own co-religionists. And as for Iran, by calling for the extermination of Israel, a member of the UN, you are violating Article 7 of the UN Charter which you signed as a charter member. As such, this puts you outside the circle of members in good standing. Any acts of violence by you or your proxies against Israel, Israelis, the US or Americans will be punished with such severity that will make you remember Alexander the Great as a Persian hero." I have lately curtailed my parsing and critique of Obama's statements. He is droningly predictable and banal. I have also come to the conclusion that I am unlikely to persuade anyone to change his attitude and voting intention. I find that even those Obamanites who have agreed with my critiques hold fast to their cognitive dissonant behaviors. Otherwise I am preaching to the choir. Having been a student of the Middle East since the 1960s, I have come to despise their culture as irredeemably misogynist, dysfunctional, narrow-minded and willfully ignorant, economically inept, envious, nihilist, that is plagued by a sense of inferiority that flies in the face of their religious fantasies. Cordially, Larry Greenberg)

Ohio State University president's expenses top $7.5 million
Excerpt: In addition to $8.6 million in salary and compensation that Gee has received since October 2007, the paper also uncovered $7.77 million in expenses by Gee, including: ... $64,000 for bow ties and bow tie-related accessories. (Being a University President, doubtless a Progressive who feels entitled to live well at taxpayers’ expense. Very well. His Wikipedia entry is interesting. "Gee's tumultuous tenure at Brown is commemorated annually with the "E. Gordon Gee Lavatory Complex," a collection of portable toilets that appears during Spring Weekend" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Gee ~Bob.)

Some Administration Officials Were Concerned About Initial White House Push Blaming Benghazi Attack on Mob, Video. By Jake Tapper
Excerpt: Even before Defense Secretary Leon Panetta contradicted the initial story about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, today, Obama administration officials told ABC News they were concerned after the White House began pushing the line that the attack was spontaneous and not the work of terrorists. (Why, it's as if it had nothing to do with a video at all. 15 days later, slowly dawning on WH that "Shoot First" Romney was right --David Burge ‏@iowahawkblog)

Betrayed by the PC brigade: From the Mail writer who first revealed the scandal of Muslim sex gangs, a damning exposé of how politically correct police and social workers betrayed underage white victims. By Sue Reid
Excerpt: For 20 years or more, there has been a shameful silence about the sexual exploitation of young girls in this country. Hundreds of children — some of them still at primary school — have been groomed by street gangs and turned into sex slaves. And it is still going on today. (If you oppose slavery, your are slandering Islam Prophet, who kept slaves and approved of sex with slave girls, as he is considered the perfect example of conduct. Obama was talking to you. ~ ~Bob.)

Warren Defender Admits She May Have Needed Ma Law License
Excerpt: "Professor Jacobson has uncovered this morning a case in which Elizabeth Warren entered an appearance in a federal appellate court as a representative of a Massachusetts client in a case that appears to have clearly implicated Massachusetts law. Although this is still a federal appellate court, because we’re dealing with a Massachusetts client and issues of Massachusetts law, this looks really, really bad for Professor Warren. With this bombshell, I would no longer view the case against her as weak."

Obama Administration Caught Deleting State Dept. Memo After Benghazi Attack
Excerpt: Yesterday there were reports that the Obama Administration found out that Al-Qaeda was behind the Benghazi consulate attacks within 24 hours of the assault that killed four Americans. Here’s what they did – They scrubbed a damning State Department memo from the internet. (Not "scrubbed." Reconfigured by the "Ministry of Truth." ~Bob.)

‘The Most Dangerous Time In Our Political History’: Pat Caddell Says Media Is Now ‘Enemy Of The American People’
Excerpt: In recent remarks to an AIM conference, “ObamaNation: A Day of Truth,” former Democratic pollster and analyst Pat Caddell said, “I think we’re at the most dangerous time in our political history in terms of the balance of power in the role that the media plays in whether or not we maintain a free democracy.” Caddell noted that while First Amendment protections were originally provided to the press so they would protect the liberty and freedom of the public from “organized governmental power,” they had clearly relinquished the role of impartial news providers.

Big Firms Overhaul Health Coverage
Excerpt: Sears Holdings Corp. and Darden Restaurants Inc. are planning a radical change in the way they provide health benefits to their workers, giving employees a fixed sum of money and allowing them to choose their medical coverage and insurer from an online marketplace, says the Wall Street Journal.

Worth Reading: Medicare Bills Rise as Records Turn Electronic
Excerpt: When the federal government began providing billions of dollars in incentives to push hospitals and physicians to use electronic medical and billing records, the goal was not only to improve efficiency and patient safety, but also to reduce health care costs. In reality, the move to electronic health records may be contributing to billions of dollars in higher costs for Medicare, private insurers and patients by making it easier for hospitals and physicians to bill more for their services, whether or not they provide additional care, says the New York Times. Hospitals received $1 billion more in Medicare reimbursements in 2010 than they did five years earlier, at least in part by changing the billing codes they assign to patients in emergency rooms, according to a New York Times analysis of Medicare data from the American Hospital Directory.

The Cost of Wind-Energy Jobs: The “our industry creates jobs” argument is the last refuge of a subsidy seeker. By Robert Bryce
Excerpt: The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has repeatedly claimed that if the PTC isn’t extended, 37,000 wind-related jobs will be lost. Now consider the figures from the Joint Committee on Taxation, the non-partisan congressional entity established in 1926 that assists legislators on tax-related matters. Their number crunchers put the cost of extending the PTC at $12.18 billion from 2013 to 2022. Divide that figure by the 37,000 jobs claimed by AWEA, and you get $329,000 per job.

Barton Calls Obama ‘America’s Most Biblically-Hostile U.S. President.’ By Billy Hallowell
Excerpt: Is President Barack Obama America’s most “Biblically-hostile U.S. president?” This is the label that conservative historian David Barton has given Obama, as the nation continues its debate over the president’s controversial contraceptive mandate.

Post Mortem; America At War With Herself
Excerpt: In parts 1 through 4 of my essays on the Entitlement Class I identified the segments of American society that are poised to destroy us. All of them have two things in common; they are arrogant and they possess an intense sense of entitlement. Those two traits have led America down the road to destruction. Did anyone notice that I did not include politicians? That was intentional. Politicians, while arrogant, and often feel entitled, are simply the mirror image of us; it is the electorate, us, that keeps them in office and it is the electorate who must shoulder the blame for their political failings.

Egyptian Evangelical Church Attacked with Stones and Gas Bombs
Excerpt: According to Al Masry Al Youm, Kasr El-Dobara, the largest evangelical church in the Middle East, located in Egypt, was recently besieged by “unknown people” hurling “stones and gas bombs.” The first gas bomb thrown at the church Thursday afternoon, September 13, was signaled as an error by police, but it was soon followed by other bomb attacks, which went into midnight and early Friday. Worshippers locked themselves inside the church and put on masks to avoid gas poisoning.

Azerbaijanis jailed for Jewish school murder plot
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Three people have been convicted of plotting to kill teachers at a Jewish school in Azerbaijan.

17% Fewer Believe US Winning War on Terror Since Obama Inauguration
Excerpt: A recent survey of likely voters finds that pessimism about our success in the War on Terror "continues to grow" with only 45 percent saying they think the U.S. is winning that war, a 17-point drop from its one-time high of 62 percent in February 2009. (But still voting for Obama because he “gives us free stuff.” ~Bob

Muslim cleric tears up and burns New Testament at U.S. Embassy in Cairo: Watch for international Christian riots -- no, wait...
Excerpt: Christians will not, of course, riot over this. Christians realize that the Muslim cleric who destroyed this copy of the New Testament has harmed neither them nor the New Testament, and that to harm or kill innocent people because of this would be criminal madness. And as for his being charged with blasphemy, while it is good to see that Muslim Brotherhood Egypt is willing to enforce its blasphemy laws even against Muslims, blasphemy should not be a matter of criminal law anywhere: it is too much a matter of judgment rather than an objective reality, and it risks establishing an ideology as protected from criticism, which is the road to tyranny.

A Budget Cutting Deal That Boosts Federal Spending. By Peter Ferrara
Excerpt: It is called baseline budgeting. Here is how the hocus pocus works. The CBO assumes a “baseline” for federal spending over the next 10 years.

The Point Where This Conflict Will Be Won Or Lost
Excerpt: Orthodox Muslims continually put the free world in one double bind after another. In psychology, a double bind is "a situation in which a person is given conflicting cues...such that to obey one cue is to disobey the other." It is a "no win" situation, "an emotionally distressing dilemma in communication in which an individual (or group) receives two or more conflicting messages, in which one message negates the other. This creates a situation in which a successful response to one message results in a failed response to the other (and vice versa), so that the person will be automatically wrong regardless of response."

WSJ on the Libya debacle: 'The more we learn, the more Benghazi looks like a gross security failure'
Excerpt: As more and more facts come out, the more we learn that four Americans lost their lives in Benghazi in a terrorist attack that evidence suggests should have been anticipated and might have been stopped. And rather than accept responsibility, the Obama administration has tried to stonewall and blame others - including blaming it all on a film. As the WSJ aptly notes today, Congress should call hearings to hold someone accountable for this debacle. Truth now being known, Susan Rice lied, Hillary Clinton lied, and Barack Obama lied.

Slain Marine Had Been Forced to Apologize to Enemy Within
Excerpt: Apparently it is not politically convenient for Obama to get our people out of that hellhole immediately. Yet there is no plan for anything that could be construed as victory. Under Obama, Afghanistan has degenerated into an unwinnable exercise in humiliation. ….It isn’t only overseas that we are falling prey to an enemy within.

Clinton To ‘Expand’ Egypt Aid After Embassy Attack. By AWR Hawkins
Danegeld. ~Bob. Excerpt: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi the U.S. would "expand economic assistance" to Egypt on Monday… Clinton had to secure a "waiver of Congressional restrictions" on financial aid to get money to Morsi's government earlier in 2012.

Obama’s Federal School Curriculum. By Mary Grabar
Excerpt: Three years after the Department of Education announced a contest called Race-to-the-Top for $4.35 billion in stimulus funds, some parents, teachers, governors, and citizen and public policy groups are coming to an awful realization about the likely outcomes: (OK, here is another "big government" idea that scares the hell out of me. I did a little more looking, and found that several governors have since withdrawn support for this program, although that put them into conflict with the Administration. This thing may be heating up in the next year or so. When people find out they won't be able to send their kids to a private school as they used to, or do home schooling as they have been, there will be a wave of protest. –Del)

Mayor declares war!
A long time in coming---a black mayor declaring war. Who would have known. If it was Boston’s mayor he would have body bags stacked like cord wood before he made a move---Technically it’s not illegal to be a criminal in Massachusetts. --Martha Coakely, the state’s Attorney General. (paraphrase). –Tom C.

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