Friday, August 31, 2012

Political Digest for September 1, 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.

I post articles because I think they are of interest. 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 present, which is the responsibility of the author. In some cases I post things sent to me by readers I might not have posted on my own, to get ideas circulating.

I expect to be tied up over Labor Day with family, so posts will be light, I think. Unless Isaac confines me indoors. ~Bob.

Romney: What America needs is jobs, not hope and change
Excerpt: “Hope and change had a powerful appeal,” Romney said. “But tonight I'd ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama? You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.”

Why 2008 Obama is Mitt Romney’s best friend. By Chris Cillizza
Excerpt: Mitt Romney made one thing very clear during his speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night: He’s happy to run against President Obama in 2012, but he’s even happier to run against the Barack Obama of 2008. The one consistent element tying together Romney’s generally well-received address accepting the GOP nomination was the big hopes with which Obama came into office.

Worth Reading: Social Security’s Woes Are Worse Than You Think
Excerpt: While the Romney and Obama camps have made increasingly bitter accusations about each other’s plans for Medicare, a bipartisan consensus on entitlements has emerged in the past few years. Too bad that consensus is wrong. On both left and right, the politicians and the experts are saying the U.S. needs to fix Medicare -- and have made fixing Social Security an afterthought.

Poster Boy

Worth Reading and Sharing. GOP Convention: Remarks by Ted and Pat Oparowski
Excerpt: Prior to moving to Randolph, Vermont, we lived in Medford, Massachusetts. It was there where we met Mitt Romney and his family. It has been over 30 years since we lost our son, David. The memories are still vivid and painful. But we wanted to share them with you because David’s story is part of Mitt’s story. And America deserves to hear it.

Clint Eastwood grills invisible Obama, says 'We got to let him go'
Excerpt: Actor and director Clint Eastwood tried a risky and sometimes awkward 10-minute routine Thursday before the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla., that involved several minutes of him pretending to ask questions to a non-present President Obama, though he won big applause for lines saying it's time for him to leave office.

Republican National Convention night 3: Winners and losers. By Chris Cillizza
Excerpt: The Republican National Convention is in the books with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney wrapping up the festivities with his acceptance speech. Our take on who was good and who was Clint Eastwood is below.

The 30 Best Quotes From The 2012 Republican Convention. By John Hawkins

Egyptian leader stuns Iran with plea to back Syrian rebels
Excerpt: Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi has said that the "oppressive" Syrian regime had lost all legitimacy, in a blistering speech in Tehran that provoked the Syrian delegation to storm out and amounted to a stunning rebuke to his Iranian hosts. During the first visit by an Egyptian leader to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Morsi said the world had an "ethical duty" to support Syria's rebels. "Our solidarity with the struggle of the Syrian people against an oppressive regime that has lost legitimacy is ... a political and strategic necessity," he said. (Yes, well the opposition in Syria has a lot of his Islamist type folks. ~Bob.)

Transcript of Paul Ryan's convention speech
There will be a quiz. ~Bob.

The case for Romney in two words: Paul Ryan. By Daniel Hannan
Excerpt: Ryan took complex issues – the debt crisis, reform of Medicare, unemployment – and made them simple. He spoke movingly of his home town, the town where he still lives, and of the factory there which Barack Obama had said would be open for another hundred years, but which had closed a year later. He humanised the recession, managing to lay particular emphasis on 'the heartland': the key swing states of the Midwest.

Consumer spending posts biggest rise in five months
Excerpt: Consumer spending got off to a fairly firm start in the third quarter, rising by the most in five months and offering hope economic growth would pick up this quarter. Other data on Thursday showed the number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits held steady last week. (It’s nothing to brag about. It’s called back-to-school expenses parents have to pay and filling your gas tank at $4.00+/gal plus inflation. –Barb. Or, might be for ammo and canned goods, with the polls still close. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Iran more than doubled its production rate for a more highly enriched form of uranium in recent months, U.N. inspectors reported Thursday, suggesting the country’s nuclear facilities were ramping up production even as its leaders engaged in international negotiations on possible curbs to its nuclear program. The reported surge in output — most of it taking place in a new nuclear facility built into the side of a mountain — appeared to underscore a determination by Iranian officials to expand nuclear production despite unprecedented economic sanctions and a threatened military strike by Israel.

What Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan Need to do Now. By Ace of Spades

Worth Reading: The Green War on the Poor: The Democratic party used to care about poor and working people. By Robert Zubrin
Excerpt: According to Professor Frank, stopping global warming may require carbon taxes of about $300 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted, and by implementing such taxes, we can also balance the federal budget. “If such a tax were phased in,” Frank says, “the prices of goods would rise gradually in proportion to the amount of carbon dioxide their production or use entailed. The price of gasoline, for example, would slowly rise by somewhat less than $3 per gallon.

Revealed: Paul Ryan's Stunning Black Cheerleader College Girlfriend
Excerpt: The Republican vice-presidential candidate dated Deneeta Pope, now 40 and a realtor living in Chicago, after they met at Miami University, Ohio in the early 1990s. Michael Steel, campaign spokesman for Ryan, today told MailOnline: 'Mr Ryan dated Ms Pope in college.' In a 2005 interview, Mitt Romney’s future running mate said that he had been confronted with racism personally, because he had dated an African- American and also had a brother with a black wife.

LAPD says Iranian and Hezbollah terrorists are active in California
Excerpt: Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Michael Downing reportedly told members of the LAPD’s counter-terrorism unit on Wednesday that the LAPD is currently tracking local Iranian and Hezbollah agents that may initiate attacks in Southern California if war erupts between the U.S. and Iran. (Time to activate the crack LAPD SAAB Team! {Special Appeasement And Bowing.] ~Bob.)

We Can Change America's Course
Excerpt: Entering the final stretch of the presidential contest, Americans are facing a monumental choice. The American people will decide the direction of government and its role in their lives for the coming years. The debate in Tampa this week raised a number of issues, including preserving the American dream of working hard to achieve success. The Heritage Foundation has extensive research and policy prescriptions on each of these issues:

Gathering My Thoughts Once Again. By Burt Prelutsky
Excerpt: But Obama’s defeat would also restore my faith in the American people. Not all of them, you understand. After all, even in defeat, Obama and Biden will manage to carry several states and garner tens of millions of votes in spite of overseeing an administration that has somehow managed to make a terrible economy worse, gutted the military, offended our allies and encouraged the very worst of our enemies.

Excerpt: A public university in Colorado may have violated state law by offering students course credit if they volunteered with President Obama’s re-election campaign. A blog post on the Adams State University website billed the opportunity as a “12 week long organizing internship for the Obama Campaign.” (Let me coin a new phrase -- Crony Academia. –Mark Levin.)

Socialism is as Socialism Does. By Dr. Robert Owens
Excerpt: Ronald Reagan taught us, “How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.” Barack Obama’s mentor as a young man was communist party member Frank Marshall Davis.

One Term More
Political Parody.

‘Not anyone in the world’ thinks president will strike Iran, says GOP Senator. By Adam Kredo
Excerpt: President Obama “literally doesn’t have a clue what to do with Iran because he did not show strength or gain the support of the world” early in his presidency, Johnson told the Free Beacon Thursday afternoon on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention. “No one takes him seriously.”

From Janesville to Jilin--Government Motors opened plant in China four months after closing plant in Wisconsin
Excerpt: A bailed out General Motors expanded its small truck and SUV manufacturing in China soon after closing down similar facilities in Janesville, Wisconsin—the plant Barack Obama pledged to save and keep open for “another hundred years” in 2008.
GM has increased its manufacturing capacity in China by 55 percent since emerging from bankruptcy thanks to a $50 billion bailout from taxpayers.

An Old Marine…Tired But Still Fighting
 Excerpt: As we get closer and closer to November 6th it seems a good time to remember how important it is that Americans get out there and vote. As I think back to four years ago I think about the difference in "message" we get from a President that promised hope and change, an end to dirty and divisive politics, and the promise to unite us, not divide us. We've all seen how that's turned out. (He reprinted “I’m tired. ~Bob.)

Government Unions: How They Rob the Taxpayer, Terrorize Workers, and Threaten our Democracy
Excerpt: Frontpage is pleased to present Government Unions: How They Rob the Taxpayer, Terrorize Workers, and Threaten Our Democracy, which uncovers the shocking truth of public service unions’ corruption, thuggery, and political radicalism, and their war against capitalism and the American middle class.

It’s a Girl – The Three Deadliest Words in the World. By Jamie Glazov
Excerpt: Tell us about your new film, It’s a Girl. … In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide.” 

9, including a journo, with alleged link to IM held
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: The Bangalore Central Crime Branch (CCB) have arrested 10 terror suspects linked with Indian Mujahideen terror outfit, including a journalist from a popular English Daily. Muti-ur- Rehman Siddqui (25), a crime reporter, has been arrested by the CCB team along with nine other accused. Five of them were picked by the police from Bangalore and others were arrested from Hubli.

ASIA/SYRIA - Bomb at a funeral, a family beheaded: Christians and Druzes targeted in Damascus
This is the side Obama is arming! ~Bob. Excerpt: Damascus (Agenzia Fides) - A terrorist attack hit innocent Christian faithful and innocent Druzes in the area of Jaramana, a suburb of Damascus: yesterday, August 28, at 2 pm, a bomb in a car was detonated while a crowd of faithful, families, elderly people, women and children, were heading to the cemetery to bury two young people.

Bow to Nobody
If you haven’t seen and shared. ~Bob.

The Wall
Good song. ~Bob.

GOP Trouncing Dems in Florida Voter Registration
Excerpt: In 2008, democrats registered voters over Republicans by a ratio of 2.5 to 1. For this election during the same period, Republicans registered at a rate nearly 10 times as much as Democrats. Naturally, the media is portraying this as a result of voter suppression:

Racists of the World, Unite: Rise up against the pasty white brie-eating media. By Quin Hillyer
Excerpt: The left has us pegged. They have identified all the secret racists on our side. They know how to call a spade a spade. (Racist Code Word = Any word said in criticism of Obama. ~Bob.)

Worth Reading: The Condensed Liberal Handbook of Racial Code Words. By Michelle Malkin
Excerpt: It's a treacherous business exercising your freedom of speech in the age of Obama. As a public service, I present to you: "The 2012 Condensed Liberal Handbook of Racial Code Words." Decoder rings, activate!

Oxford Unabridged English Dictionary now doubles as the MSNBC Guide to Racist Code Words.
"Chicago" is a code word for what liberal government does for minority children.

Obamanation by Jon McNaughton
New painting

Worth Reading: Why Bother: The New Isolationism: As Americans’ support for Middle East engagement wanes, so does our influence there. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: The United States is backing off from the Middle East — and the Middle East from the United States. America is in the midst of the greatest domestic-gas-and-oil revolution since the early 20th century. If even guarded predictions about new North American reserves are accurate, over the next decade the entire continent may become energy-independent, without much need of petroleum imports from the Middle East.

Cannabis smoking 'permanently lowers IQ'
Excerpt: Teenagers who regularly smoke cannabis are putting themselves at risk of permanently damaging their intelligence, according to a landmark study. (Maybe they were just dumb to start with. ~Bob.)

Form Letters For Navy SEALs, Personal Note For A Rapper
Excerpt: The lack of respect our commander in chief has for our fallen heroes was shown by the sending of a form letter signed by auto-pen to the families of 17 Navy SEALs killed in a crash in Afghanistan. (Ouch! This really hits home. –Del)

The stimulus was essentially a massive redistribution of wealth from taxpayers to public sector unions and Obama's green energy donors.

Chuck Todd: Why Do Republicans Have More Women and Hispanic Governors?
Excerpt: "Let me ask you though, this one question, why is it that the Republicans have elected more women governors and have two Hispanic governors and the Democrats don’t?," asked Todd. "Don’t have as many women governors and don’t have Hispanic governors, why do you think that is?" (Not to mention two Asian governors. Simple. Republicans support competence, regardless of gender or ethnicity. Democrats only interested in minorities to make a show of “diversity.” ~Bob.)

(Creepy Obama supporter) Morgan Freeman to Marry Step-Granddaughter
Excerpt: According to the National Enquirer, Morgan, 72, who divorced his wife last year, has been having a decade-long affair with Hines. (Figures. See “Morgan Freeman Gives $1 Million To Obama-Allied Super PAC.http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/07/morgan-freeman-gives-million-to-obama-super-pac-129427.html)

Campaign Web Ad – The Obama Fading Poster Reality

Poster Boy

Click on photo if too small to read.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Political Digest for August 31, 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.

I post articles because I think they are of interest. 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 present, which is the responsibility of the author. In some cases I post things sent to me by readers I might not have posted on my own, to get ideas circulating.

Information on my books

Book Recommendation: Countdown: M Day By Tom Kratman
I know, I usually give you recommendations on great non-fiction in history, politics and economics. I’ll get back to it, have just needed a little escapism lately. I was happily about a quarter into Victor Davis Hanson’s excellent history of the Peloponnesian war, A War Like No Other, when this book, the second in the series, came in the mail, along with the third one. No problem, I thought, I’ll put them in the pile and think about what’s next after Hanson. But I was going away for the weekend, and a paperback was easier to carry. So I finished Countdown: M-Day about 3:30 AM this morning, without touching Hanson again. Kratman never disappoints, in fact he gets better with each book, but he is not what I should read when I can’t sleep. Makes work difficult later. His great characterization leaves you grieving for the good guys who don’t make it, and his detailed plotting and knowledge of all aspects of military operations lock you into the story. It’s not all sex and violence—there’s some pretty good humor too. I especially liked Buzz the Croc, who might have escaped from Captain Hook, and the fictional fate of Julian Assange, the Wikilunitic. I guess what really keeps drawing me back to Kratman’s fiction, though, is his clear-eyed grasp of the deterioration of civilization that is going on around us, unnoticed by 98% of our fellow citizens, who only see the broken windows on their own streets. All his novels deal with how brave, decent men and woman will be faced with desperate situations in the future because of this. Kratman’s books are first class escapist entertainment. But there are also frightening prophecy. Now can I read Hanson with book three of the series calling to me? Stay tuned.

Clint Eastwood is 'mystery guest' on Romney's big night. By Peter Schroeder
Excerpt: The actor Clint Eastwood will be the mystery speaker on the final night of the Republican national convention, multiple media outlets are reporting.

Ryan wows crowd, GOP leaders. By Molly K. Hooper and Erik Wasson
Excerpt: House GOP leaders say Rep. Paul Ryan “hit it out of the state” in his maiden speech as the official vice presidential nominee. … Ryan is getting raves Thursday morning for a speech that lacerated President Obama while touting Mitt Romney’s candidacy.

Ryan carves up President Obama. By Russell Berman and Erik Wasson
Excerpt: Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday night electrified the Republican Party with a speech that combined lacerating attacks on President Obama with home-spun values and a tribute to the GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. In a 35-minute address that drew thunderous applause from Republican delegates, Ryan condemned the Obama presidency and presented an optimistic vision of the future under Romney’s leadership. The core theme of the speech amounted to four words: "We can do this."

Quotes from Ryan
"The president is just throwing away money . . . and he's pretty experienced at that."

"Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?"

"These past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the White House. What's missing is leadership in the White House"

"The man assumed office nearly four years ago. Isn't it about time he assumed responsibility?"

"President Obama is the kind of president who puts a promise on the record . . . and then calls that the record."

Biden will go into witness protection before the VP debate

Huge roars for Rice from GOP crowd moved by convention address. By Niall Stanage
Excerpt: Condoleezza Rice laid out the foreign policy case for a Mitt Romney presidency at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night, stating baldly that the nominee and his running mate Paul Ryan “know what to do” on the world stage. The former Secretary of State asserted that the Obama administration was guilty of a dangerous unsteadiness in global affairs. (Her line about growing up under discrimination and parents who told her she might not be able to get a hamburger at Woolworth’s, but could be president if she wanted, was terrific. I don’t always agree with her, but have always admired her. Unfortunately, some “conservatives” hate any “RINO” who doesn’t agree with them 100%. They’d rather trash a 80% republican than a 100% Progressive, and prefer to lose elections and let the progressives destroy the country to having any impure allies. ~Bob.)

Condoleezza Rice stamps her ticket for 2016/2020. By Aaron Blake
Excerpt: The next time Republicans are searching for a presidential candidate, rest assured: Condoleezza Rice will be a part of that conversation. Rice’s speech Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention was easily the best-reviewed of the week so far and, at times, even seemed to out-hype vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s keynote remarks. (Unless we make some huge and painful problems, elections in 2020 will be for tribal warlord. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: She took on class warfare and entitlement, noting that Americans are not people of jealousy and distress, but a people of opportunity. “Ours has never been a narrative of grievance and entitlement. We have not believed that I am doing poorly because you are doing well. We have not been jealous of one another and never been envious of each other’s success,” she said to more cheers. “Ours has been a belief in opportunity.

Tweet from Jonah Goldberg‏ @JonahNRP
Classic GOP racism: stereotyping the black woman as an expert on foreign policy.

One of the things I've learned this week is that Republicans are the most incompetent racists ever. They're just bloody awful at it.

Republican National Convention Day 2: Winners and Losers
Excerpt: Below is our take on the best and the worst of the night that was. Agree with our picks? Or — more likely — disagree? The comments section awaits.

Excerpt: The former Marine who was forcibly placed in a psychiatric ward by government officials who didn’t like his Facebook postings will sue for unlawful arrest, according to his attorneys. (And well he should. I’m no lawsuit fan, and don’t agree with his views, but hope he burns them big time to deter others trying to suppress free speech. ~Bob.)

Obama's China syndrome: EPA gives Chinese millions for green projects
Excerpt: Possibly the most important Romney energy proposal is removing Obama's "EPA fangs" and his internationalist green programs, said several Romney supporters. For example, in a transaction by the Obama White House that's sure to anger most Americans -- if the news media ever bother to tell them -- the People's Republic of China and other nations get millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to help with their so-called green projects. The outrageous part of the story is that the U.S. is indebted to China for almost a trillion dollars, according to a vocal critic of outsourcing on Friday.

“Curiouser And Curiouser”, Cried Alice
Excerpt: “Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English). The most Left-wing, government supported media outlet in Britain, The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has refused to have a statue of George Orwell erected at its new facility in London. Their reason: Orwell is “too Left-Wing”.

U.S. Army Solution to Afghan Attacks: ‘Avoid Arrogance,’ ‘Respect Islam.’ The new plan for halting “green on blue” attacks blames the U.S. victims. By Robert Spencer
Excerpt: By focusing on what the Americans must do in order to forestall such attacks, the guide leaves the unmistakable impression that such attacks are triggered by American behavior. The message: if the Americans were just a bit less arrogant, a bit more respectful, then all would be well. The pocket guide thus engages in the same patronizing of Muslims that characterizes so much of today’s discourse: Muslims are never responsible for their actions but are only passive reactors to the actions of the big bad West, which carries all the responsibility.

Survey Offers Dire Picture for California Two-Year Colleges.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0829-college-survey-20120829,0,1087682.story
Excerpt: As demand increases but funding is cut, 470,000 students find themselves on waiting lists for needed classes. Things will get worse if further cuts become necessary. (Yeh, wow, like, I was really lucky I went to Los Angeles City College first in 2007, cuz like, those were the days of all that free pizza--all you could eat--and they were giving it away all the time and the free donuts and coffee and Pepsi--all you wanted and all that stuff from EOPS -- a brand new back pak n it was full of school supplies -- must have been at least a hundred bucks worth of stuff in there--and then came the credit crunch and wow....I dunno how it happened but we don't get no free pizza and coke no more or nuthin...but they did put up all those big buildings when the teachers dint have no chalk and the classes were being cut....and I blame somebody else....Kate the Grate, Veteran, Los Angeles City College, 2007 - 2011. Kate, a high school classmate, is being satirical, for those who may not get satire. ~Bob.)

Jindal Says Obama’s Storm Relief Falls Short of State Needs
Excerpt: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who has criticized Barack Obama for excessive federal spending, said the president isn’t providing enough funding to cover the costs of Hurricane Isaac. Jindal, a 41-year-old Republican, said in a Baton Rouge news briefing today that he sent a letter of complaint to the Democratic president. “You can’t wait, you have to push the federal bureaucracy,” he said.

"I never thought I'd say this, but we're going to be the New Jersey of the West.' By Ann Althouse
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-never-thought-id-say-this-but-were.html
Excerpt: Oregon is going to be the next red state on the left coast.

Excerpt: Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley told The Daily Caller that if a federal judge doesn’t overturn President Barack Obama’s assertion of executive privilege over Operation Fast and Furious documents, it’d be the worst abuse of the presidential secrecy power in its history….Since the contempt votes, Holder’s Department of Justice ordered the District of Columbia’s U.S. Attorney, Ron Machen, to not enforce the criminal contempt resolution. So, House Republicans are pursuing the civil contempt resolution through a lawsuit against the Obama administration.

Worth Reading: The U.S. Tax System: Who Really Pays?
Excerpt: It is a common misconception in the United States that the tax code needs to be changed so that the rich pay more in taxes. Several factors fuel this myth, and policymakers are quick to act on them. Several popular arguments about tax rates are broken down and responded to by Stephen Moore, a senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. The main argument is that the rich need to be taxed more to make things more fair. However, the top 10 percent of tax filers make up 45 percent of the total federal taxes paid. Many argue that the rich pay less in income taxes than they did 50 years ago. But in 2007, the top 10 percent contributed 71 percent of all personal income-tax revenue whereas the bottom 50 percent, earning 12 percent, only contributed to 3 percent of the tax revenue. (This summary is good, the full, but long article even better. ~Bob.)

Same Doctor Visit, Double The Cost. Insurers Say Rates Can Surge After Hospitals Buy Private Physician Practices; Medicare Spending Rises, Too. By Anna Wilde Mathews
Excerpt: Hospitals say the acquisitions will make health care more efficient. But the phenomenon, in some cases, also is having another effect: higher prices.
As physicians are subsumed into hospital systems, they can get paid for services at the systems' rates, which are typically more generous than what insurers pay independent doctors. What's more, some services that physicians previously performed at independent facilities, such as imaging scans, may start to be billed as hospital outpatient procedures, sometimes more than doubling the cost. (If you hit a pay wall, Google the title. ~Bob.)

Socialized Medicine Is Enough To Chase Away British Doctors
Excerpt: Britain is suffering from an exodus of doctors. If America doesn't want physician flight in its future, voters will have to turn President Obama out of office this fall so that repeal of ObamaCare can be possible. Last week, the Financial Times reported that its own research revealed that the British "National Health Service is suffering a 'brain drain' of doctors as more medics trained at taxpayers' expense choose to pursue their careers overseas."

Obama: Overturn Supreme Court campaign cash ruling
Excerpt: President Obama is suggesting a constitutional amendment to counter the Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for corporate-funded Super PACs. (Funny the guy who out-spent everyone in 2008 is worried about money in politics. ~Bob.)

Former SEAL Writes a Book; Cue Indignation--'No Easy Day,' about the bin Laden raid, joins a multimedia tradition. By Owen West and Bing West
Excerpt: Tuesday brought the news that "No Easy Day," a firsthand account of the 2011 raid on the Osama bin Laden compound written by a former Navy SEAL and due to be published on Sept. 11, had been discovered already on sale in a bookshop. Its contents are being widely discussed, the publisher has moved up publication to Sept. 4—and the brouhaha over the appropriateness of Matt Bissonnette's writing the book is only going to increase. Please, spare us the outrage, or at least most of it.

Yahoo! Fires Bureau Chief After Caught Saying GOP Having ‘Party With Black People Drowning’
Excerpt: Yahoo! News Washington bureau chief David Chalian has been terminated for remarks he made during a Monday webcast of ABCNews.com’s coverage of the Republican National convention in Tampa, Florida. (It should be amazing, but sadly it's not. Here is a media professional at a high level who has no trouble instantly falling into a conversation of newspeople disparaging the GOP, and comes up with a line of monumental nastiness. Which he and the rest of them think is funny. How can any of us be surprised when we read that surveys of media people show a heavy slant towards the progressive side of politics, which is acted out in the way news is reported? Yes, one can claim that on Fox there is more of a slant to the Right. Fox is one channel, but the rest of the networks outnumber them at least 5 to one, so a lot more people watch CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, etc, to get their news than watch Fox. Which is not a good thing for the nation as a whole. The bright star in all this is the Yahoo management instantly taking the right steps. Good for them. --Del)

Defending America Takes More Than "Hope"
Excerpt: Speaking to veterans at the American Legion conference this week, President Obama said, "Today, every American can be proud that the United States is safer, stronger and more respected in the world." That's quite a statement from a President who has granted legitimacy to extremist organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood and promised the Russians he would be "flexible" toward their demands on missile defense, while slighting American allies like Poland and the Czech Republic.

Georgia says 3 soldiers, 11 militants killed near Russia border
Excerpt: Georgian forces shot dead 11 gunmen, and three soldiers were killed in an operation to free hostages near the border with Russia, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday. (This will confuse most recent college grads, who are pretty sure Georgia borders one of the Carolinas, or maybe Virginia, not Russia. ~Bob.)

Heavier Punishment for Bank Account Reporting Miscue than for Child Porn. By Daniel J. Mitchell
Excerpt: If you can read the following and not get upset, you are not a good person. Please move to France (where higher taxes are “patriotic”) and don’t come back.
I’m engaging in a bit of hyperbole, but you’ll hopefully understand after reading this excerpt from a very disturbing report posted on Zero Hedge.

When You Dispense with God, It’s Easier to Kill the Unborn
Excerpt: Liberals love being painted as the defender of the underdog. Yeah, if you feel like you are being abused, oppressed, preyed upon, neglected, entitled to something or endangered in any way . . . do not fear! The Dems are here! Their protection extends not only to the human small fry, but also to the translucent hair lice, the gargling nut warbler, a warming globe, a rare venereal crab, a whooping crane’s egg, Rudolph’s roughage and the need for a rain forest in Iowa.

Excerpt: John M. Robinson, the Chief Diversity Officer at the U.S. Department of State, wants America’s diplomats to know that common phrases and idioms like “holding down the fort” are, in fact, deeply racist. Robinson, who also serves as director of the Department’s Office of Civil Rights, used his “Diversity Notes” feature in the July/August issue of the official “State Magazine” to examine the hateful roots of everyday sayings.

New Orleans owes W---And GOP should tout the news. By Nicole Gelinas
Excerpt: With Hurricane Isaac menacing New Orleans as Republicans meet in Tampa, the national media are reminding everyone how badly President George W. Bush screwed up the response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But Bush’s real New Orleans legacy isn’t those images of storm survivors desperate for food and water. It’s New Orleans’ spanking-new flood-protection system — which helps protects the city from a catastrophic repeat.

Secret Service agent leaves gun on Romney's plane
Excerpt: A Secret Service agent left a gun in the bathroom of a plane carrying Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. A reporter discovered the gun while the plane was flying from Florida to Indiana on Wednesday. It was quickly retrieved by a Secret Service agent. (Duh. Too dumb to carry a gun. ~Bob.)

Parks and Obfuscation: A cash-strapped California agency “misplaces” tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Excerpt: For years, the threat of budget cuts to California’s state parks has served as an effective cudgel to raise taxes and fees or to increase the state’s ever-burgeoning debt obligations. Every time the state’s budget shows signs of strain (a chronic condition of late), the possibility of reduced hours or closures among the 278 state park sites generates media stories on the horrors of the budget axe. It’s a canny political strategy known as “Washington Monument Syndrome” (after the National Park Service’s habit of claiming that budget cuts will lead to immediate closure of America’s favorite obelisk).

China Demands Foreign Companies Install Internet Spyware
Excerpt: In a heavy-handed move, China is now trying to force foreign companies operating in the country to install Internet monitoring software on their computer networks. The software would allow Chinese spies to waltz right through the corporate front door, providing the government with executive-level access to each firm’s intellectual property, trade secrets, and proprietary information.

Texas voter ID law struck down
Excerpt: A federal court on Thursday blocked a controversial new voter ID law in Texas, ruling that the state failed to show that the law would not harm the voting rights of minorities. (Nothing about protecting the rights of honest citizens not to have elections stolen by thousands of undocumented illegal or repeat voters. How about this. If you show up without a photo ID, you must have some document—a utility bill, a rent bill—showing you are the person and live at the address. A state photo ID machine is there, and you are issued a photo voter ID at no cost. But you must sign a statement that you are that person, that you reside at that address and that you are a legal voter. Signing a false voter statement becomes a first class felony, with mandatory year in prison. Stealing an election is much more serious than, say, stealing a car. ~Bob.)

Kennedy clan on wrong side of Moroccan human-rights battle. By Richard Miniter
Excerpt: Two scions of the Kennedy clan went to Morocco recently and came away with a breathless tale of police brutality against separatists. The problem? The separatists represent the Polisario Front, a brutal rebel group linked to al-Qaida and drug smugglers. Their first-hand account, which was published by The Huffington Post, doesn’t mention that their radical chic tour continued to the Polisario Front’s remote Saharan camps in Southern Algeria, where the rebels used the naïve Kennedy women for all the propaganda value they could wring out of them. (Tell the Kennedys that the “rebels” want to put a mosque up blocking the view from the Kennedy compound on Cape Cod. They’ll switch sides. ~Bob.)

Arianna Huffington Plans to Vote for Obama, Might Switch to Romney if he Advocates Afghanistan Pullout. By Vince Coglianese
Excerpt: Arianna Huffington currently plans to vote for President Barack Obama in November. Huffington told The Daily Caller, however, that she has been disappointed by Obama’s first term and would consider voting for Mitt Romney if the Republican candidate advocates an end to U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan. (Why anyone would take her seriously I cannot figure. But she has apparently done well by being mercurial. ~Bob.)

Romney's Image Problem: Mitt Romney should be right for our times. So what's the problem?
Excerpt: Given the stakes, it seems absurd that the outcome should depend on this man's ability to output empathy in public. It's the one skill the average school-board member can manufacture on cue but U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney cannot. Despite all the pleas here in Tampa to "reintroduce" himself to America for the umpteenth time, presumably his acceptance speech will reflect his belief that "what you see is what you get."

Allen West: "We Will Restore the Space Coast." By Jim Turner
Excerpt: U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, opened a full slate of speakers at the “Fresh From Florida” breakfast on Thursday by vowing that a victory for Mitt Romney in the Fall will make Florida a world class technology leader through a rebirth in the aerospace industry. Instead of focusing on his own re-election campaign in a new South Florida district, West championed the Republican party’s national ticket. West, who also gave the morning’s invocation, revved up the Florida delegation at the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club with a tempered address that focused on ingenuity and innovations that will come with a new White House occupant.

You Can't Print That: More Vaginas Than You Know What To Do With

Ted Cruz Makes a Personal Pitch. By Colleen McCain Nelson
Excerpt: Ted Cruz, the Republican Senate candidate from Texas, made a personal pitch in his Tuesday night speech, speaking about his Cuban father and the value of allowing Americans to chart their own course. Speaking at the Republican National Convention, he decried government dependency and called for individual responsibility. “Fifty-five years ago, when my dad was a penniless teenager, thank God some well-meaning bureaucrat didn’t put his arm around him and say let me take care of you,” Mr. Cruz said.

Voters, Are You Bluffing? By George F. Will
Excerpt: Now begins the final phase of this cognitive dissonance campaign. America’s 57th presidential election is the first devoted to calling the nation’s bluff. When Mitt Romney selected Paul Ryan, Republicans undertook the perilous but commendable project of forcing voters to face the fact that they fervently hold flatly incompatible beliefs. Twice as many Americans identify themselves as conservative as opposed to liberal. On November 6, we will know if they mean it.

Hall’s Laws of Politics
1.      The voters always want less taxes and more spending.
2.      Citizens want honest politicians until they want something fixed.
3.      Constituency drives out consistency (i.e., liberals defend military spending and conservatives social spending in their own districts). --Robert A. Hall, Former Minority Whip, Mass. Senate. (This was published in the 1980s in one of those fun “Official Rules” books.)

ABC News Airs Less Than 2 Minutes Of Condi’s Speech. By Tony Lee
Excerpt: ABC News aired less than two minutes of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's Wednesday address to the Republican National Convention. ABC cut into Rice's speech as she was speaking about how the United States cannot lead from behind on foreign policy. ABC showed the audience's reaction, then pulled the plug on their coverage. (Showing minority Republicans doesn’t fit their narrative or help Obama. ~Bob.)

Mia Love Takes National Popularity in Stride, Says People are Concerned about Debt, Issues that "Aren't Prejudice." By Elisabeth Meinecke
Excerpt: "I wanted to get a message out. That message comes from Utah, comes from the 4th district, talks about the America we know, in the past, where we are, where we're going in the future, and if we don't change anything, we're going to end up with an America that we don't recognize." (Oh, we’ll recognize it. It will be a cross between Greece and East Germany. Until the collapse. Then it will be a cross between the Balkans and Rwanda. ~Bob.)

Dateline Tampa: Racists of the Mainstream Media. By Roger L. Simon
Excerpt: The left/liberal need to think Republicans and conservatives racists is more than just projection. At this point, it is nothing short of a mental illness.

‘Breitbart’ as a Verb: A new film chronicles one man’s war against media bias. By Robert Stacy McCain
Excerpt: About a half hour after Chalian was fired, in a theater near the Tampa Bay Times Forum where the Republican National Convention is meeting this week, a new documentary film made its world premiere. Hating Breitbart chronicles the career of a man who dedicated his life to fighting the dishonesty and prejudices of what he called the Democrat-Media Complex. Among the "stars" of the movie, appearing as an expert commentator on liberal bias and Andrew Breitbart's war against it, is a young man named Matthew Sheffield -- the founding editor of the Media Research Center's Newsbusters site, and the same Matthew Sheffield who exposed Chalian's career-destroying gaffe.

VIDEO: Allen West: I Don't Know if Chris Matthews Has Gone Off the Rails
Excerpt: MSNBC Host Chris Matthews and a guest essentially said last night on Hardball that using the word "Chicago" when referring to President Obama is racist, despite the fact that Obama is from Chicago and refers to Chicago often in his own speeches. We caught up with Rep. Allen West at the Republican National Convention in Tampa for his reaction. (Let me clear I up. He hasn’t been within shouting distance of the rails in years. ~Bob.)

VIDEO: Ann Romney: "This is a guy that will not fail"
Excerpt: I thought Ann Romney’s speech Tuesday night was truly exceptional. Her best line -- "Mitt doesn't like to talk about how he has helped others because he sees it as a privilege, not a political talking point" -- perfectly encapsulates the kind of man I believe he is. The left has worked tireless to portray him as a greedy, “vulture capitalist" -- a cold, calculating businessman who doesn’t care about Americans less fortunate than himself. Nonsense.

Worth Reading: The Disappearing Gender Wage Gap. By June E. O’Neill
Refuting the Democrats’ meme. ~Bob. Excerpt: A single, oft-cited statistic is that women make 79 cents for every dollar that men make doing the same work. However, that average number fails to account for factors aside from discrimination that can affect an individual’s pay. When experience and other factors are considered, the wage gap narrows. Comparing single childless women to single childless men, ages 35-43, the wage gap not only disappears, but instead becomes a wage premium. Nevertheless, Americans are likely to hear much about the much-exaggerated wage gap during the election campaign.

Poll: Nightly News Skewing Voters' Views of GOP Convention. By Mike Flynn
Excerpt: Since the start of the GOP convention on Tuesday, the legacy media have used every trick in their playbook to distort coverage of the Republican gathering. Sensing correctly that the GOP ticket is gathering momentum ahead of the final sprint to November, the media are explicitly trying to distort the Republican message going out to voters. A new poll by Wilson Research shows that the media's political campaign against the GOP is having an impact. (To be expected. The media is a Progressive Propaganda vehicle. ~Bob.)

Senior Citizens Ruined By Obama Economy, Media Silent
Excerpt: Reynolds notes that the Federal Reserve's low interest rates are designed to bail out overextended banks and the borrowers who owe them money, including the U.S. Treasury. But the low interest rates hurt seniors; they steal from seniors in order to pay off the banks and the borrowers. Seniors’ incomes are down, and to make matters even worse, costs are increasing markedly.

Yes, Paul Ryan Spoke the Truth about Obama's Fiscal Record at the Republican Convention. By Avik Roy
Excerpt: I asked my liberal friends on Twitter to send me an itemized list of Ryan’s alleged lies, and they kindly obliged. So far, Ryan appears to have the better of the argument.

Is Holder’s DOJ ‘Community Organizing’ Occupy Activists At The RNC? By Rebel Pundit
What are uniformed field representatives of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Community Relations Service (CRS) doing assisting Occupy/anarchist activists outside the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Tampa? Exclusive video captured by Breitbart News during Occupy/anarchist demonstrations outside the RNC Tuesday shows CRS field representatives, wearing DOJ logo polo shirts and hats, conversing with Occupy protesters. In one case, a CRS representative and protester are seen to high-five each other. (OWS and NBPP--Holder’s Irregulars. ~Bob.)

UK: Do three months of unpaid work or lose your dole: Warning to young jobless in benefits crackdown. By Jason Grove
Excerpt: They will be expected to spend 30 hours a week on 'community benefit' work experience in places such as charity shops and care homes or delivering meals on wheels. They will have to spend a further ten hours looking for a job. Those who refuse could have their benefits stopped. If the scheme in London is successful it will be rolled out across the country. (If this really happens, this will make a major mind-shift for the entire British Isles. No words can describe the reverberations of this. - Kate. Won’t happen, there or here. Expecting people to work for handouts is racist. Or Islamophobic. But the math doesn’t work, so it will all go away. Amid much suffering and violence, I fear. ~Bob.)

How "The Shy Republican" Could Be Masking a Landslide. By Adam Shaw
Excerpt: Called "The Shy Tory Effect," it could be the little-known variable that could be hiding a landslide for Mitt Romney. The concept was coined after the British general election of 1992, the result of which stunned the pollsters, the politicians, and the media. (I was in Britain in 1992. What a shock when the Conservatives won after all the polls said Labour had it in the bag. Of course people don't tell pollsters the truth. Who wants to be screamed at AGAIN by a loony lefty? - Kate. I always wonder if things like this aren’t wishful thinking. I hope not. ~Bob.)

Martinez's Pitch. By Michael Warren
Excerpt: New Mexico governor Susana Martinez once worked a guard for her parents’ security business and, as she told the Republican National Convention Wednesday night, her father wanted to make sure she could protect herself. "I carried a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum,” Martinez said. “That gun weighed more than I did!”

New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez Admits Differences But Backs Romney. By Andrew O'Reilly
Excerpt: “We grew up on the border and truly lived paycheck to paycheck. My dad was a golden gloves boxer in the Marine Corps, then a deputy sheriff. My mom worked as an office assistant,” Martinez said, adding that her family opened up a security business that had her guarding a church parking lot with a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum.

How to Replace Eric Holder, President Romney Style. By J. Christian Adams http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2012/08/29/how-to-replace-eric-holder-president-romney-style/?singlepage=true
Excerpt: When I give speeches or interviews, I am often asked how the Department of Justice can be fixed. Of course Mitt Romney has to win in November to undo the damage Eric Holder has done. … It is just as important that President Romney appoint the right person as attorney general.