Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for April 10, 2013

Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for April 10, 2013
Robert A. Hall
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.

C.Y.A. Protecting Yourself in the Modern Jungle
If you order directly from CreateSpace, the PFF receives a larger royalty:
First published in 2010, this book has been reissued through CreateSpace/Amazon at a lower price, with all royalties going to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. A humor/self-help book, this is advice with an attitude.

Worth Reading: The Country Is Over. By Monty Pelerin
Excerpt: There will not be an economic recovery given the economic policies of this country. A recovery is not unlikely, I would argue it is closer to impossible if not impossible. The reasons for this position are not complicated. In short, the nation has become an out-of-control welfare state that is rapidly destroying the incentives to work or create jobs.

Worth Reading: Language as an Assault Weapon. By Jim Goad
Excerpt: Although facts—which are what news organizations are supposed to peddle—seem immutable , words are forever in flux. Both “liberal” and “progressive” now mean almost the opposite of what they did a century ago. Such semantic squabbling also leads to absurdities such as how the phrase “colored person” was deemed hateful and replaced with the far more sensitive “person of color.”

Worth Reading: 'Proportional' Response.' By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Since when has it been considered smart to tell your enemies what your plans are? Yet there on the front page of the April 8th New York Times was a story about how unnamed "American officials" were planning a "proportional" response to any North Korean attack. This was spelled in an example: If the North Koreans "shell a South Korean island that had military installations" then the South Koreans would retaliate with "a barrage of artillery of similar intensity."

White House dodges questions on Beyoncé, Jay-Z trip to Cuba
The White House on Monday distanced itself from the Cuban vacation taken by two of President Obama's most high-profile supporters — entertainment superstars BeyoncĂ© and Jay-Z. (The Hollywood left—never met an oppressor they didn’t love. ~Bob.)

A Primer for Understanding Obama's Budget: Congress and the White House routinely hide the impact on the deficit of their proposals and laws. By William Poole
Excerpt: President Obama will release his overdue budget on Wednesday. It will doubtless project a reduction in the federal budget deficit—a projection that journalists, commentators and policy makers should ignore. To do otherwise is to be complicit in fraud. Strong statement? Not really.

A member of ‘Mayors Against Illegal Guns’ arrested for firing handgun at underage male during sexual encounter (VIDEO)
Excerpt: In a very strange and sad story developing out of Pennsylvania, one of Michael Bloomberg’s “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” members has found himself in jail. James Schiliro, mayor of Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, was arrested this past Thursday for official oppression, reckless endangerment, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, and furnishing a minor with alcohol.

Hyeonseo Lee: My escape from North Korea

Why the left resents good parents. By Rich Lowry
Excerpt: The TV cable-news network MSNBC runs sermonettes from its anchors during ad breaks. They’re like public-service announcements illuminating the progressive mind — and perhaps none has ever been as revealing and remarkable as the one cut by weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry. Harris-Perry set out to explain what is, by her lights, the failure to invest adequately in public education. She located the source of the problem in the insidious idea of parental responsibility for children.

Lady T. By Michael Ledeen
Excerpt: She saved British capitalism, and she gave Britain another generation as an important country. She spoke magnificently, and she had great courage. When she told Bush The Elder “Don’t go wobbly,” they both understood that she would certainly not.

Margaret Thatcher, 1925-2013. By Richard Fernandez
Excerpt: To understand the challenge — to hear the question — is perhaps the greatest obstacle to greatness on history’s stage. The great achievement of Reagan, Thatcher, and the Pope lay in remembering that Communism was an evil thing. By that time it was conventional wisdom that the Soviet Union was permanent. And therefore their revolutionary act consisted, in the first place, of understanding the question.

From the UK: Margaret Thatcher: obituary. Baroness Thatcher, who has died aged 87 from a stroke, was not only Britain’s first woman Prime Minister, she was also the outstanding peacetime leader of the 20th century.

Excerpt: For more than a decade Margaret Thatcher enjoyed almost unchallenged political mastery, winning three successive general elections. The policies she pursued with ferocious energy and unyielding will resulted in a transformation of Britain’s economic performance. The resulting change was also political. But by discrediting socialism so thoroughly, she prompted in due course the adoption by the Labour Party of free market economics, and so, as she wryly confessed in later years, “helped to make it electable”.

Worth Reading: In Tribute To The Iron Lady: The 25 Greatest Quotes From Margaret Thatcher. By John Hawkins 
Excerpt: "My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police." (Not a quote here I disagree with. ~Bob.)

Innovation in Oil and Natural Gas Production Assures Future Supplies, By Robert Bryce
Excerpt: In 2012, U.S. oil production rose by 790,000 barrels per day, the biggest annual increase since U.S. oil production began in 1859. In 2013, the Energy Information Administration expects production to rise yet again, by 815,000 barrels per day, which would set another record. Domestic natural gas production is also at record levels. What has allowed such dramatic production increases? Innovation in the drilling sector. (Few things are as frustrating as hearing President Obama, who, with his green crony allies has fought every innovation in production, take credit for the increase in American energy that happened in spite of him. ~Bob.)

Too thin a cushion
Excerpt: AMERICANS probably aren’t saving enough. Savings come in handy in many circumstances: when buying a home, paying for a child’s education, retiring, or in cases of unexpected need. Yet despite aging populations and rising educational costs, America's savings rate has been falling. The figure below shows the saving rate (for January) the last 44 years: (If people save too little, economists lament the lack of capital formation and saving for the future. If they save too much, economists lament that they are not stimulating the economy through consumer spending. This goes hand in hand with personal debt. ~Bob.)

States show folly of energy mandates. By Grover G. Norquist and Patrick Gleason
Excerpt: The increased energy costs produced by renewable mandates are passed along to consumers in the form of higher utility bills. According to the Institute for Energy Research, utility bills in states with a renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS) are 40 percent higher on average than in states without one. (Progressives: Always willing to stick it to the poor and working class so they can feel all green and fuzzy. Like rancid meat. ~Bob.)

Interesting: Immigration and the American Worker: A Review of the Academic Literature. By George Borjas
Excerpt: At current levels of around one million immigrants per year, immigration makes the U.S. economy (GDP) significantly larger, with almost all of this increase in GDP accruing to the immigrants themselves as a payment for their labor services.
For American workers, immigration is primarily a redistributive policy. Economic theory predicts that immigration will redistribute income by lowering the wages of competing American workers and increasing the wages of complementary American workers as well as profits for business owners and other “users” of immigrant labor. Although the overall net impact on the native-born is small, the loss or gain for particular groups of the population can be substantial. … George J. Borjas … is the Robert W. Scrivner Professor of Economics and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

The Media and Their Lies. By Charles Payne
UB40 sang of red wine helping to ease the pain of lost love whereas these days I see the mass media as serving up red wine to ease the reality of our economy condition. The media is so enthralled with President Obama and the anti-capitalism agenda it acts as an army of deflectors, finding silver linings in the rubble of disaster or villains in pools of honest people. (Payne must be a racist. Oh, wait, he’s black. Must be an Uncle Tom. ~Bob.)

EndTheCoverUp.com: 700 Special Ops vets call on Congress to establish special select committee on Benghazi. By Michelle Malkin 
Excerpt: Months after the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador, the American people are still waiting to hear the truth about why this happened. After all this time, critical questions still remain unanswered about: the policies that may have contributed to this debacle; the motives of the attackers; President Obama’s whereabouts after he learned our facilities in Benghazi were taking fire; the failure to mount any rescue attempt; and even the status of survivors; to name just a few. (Zen question: If a politician conducts a cover up, and the media ignore it, does it make an impact? ~Bob.)

Sign the Petition on the Benghazi Cover Up

Blame Hillary For Nightmare Of Nuclear North Korea
Excerpt: "The Hyped-up Globetrotter" would be an apt title for Hillary Clinton's upcoming State Department memoir. Sorry, but on North Korea and other disasters, the Teflon diplomat deserves plenty of blame.

Five Indian UN troops are killed in South Sudan
Excerpt: Five Indian peacekeepers escorting a UN convoy in South Sudan have been killed in an ambush by rebels, the Indian foreign ministry has said.

President Putin shrugs off German and Dutch protests
Excerpt: Hundreds of gay rights activists picketed outside his meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Amsterdam. Earlier, three topless members of Ukrainian women's group Femen briefly interrupted his visit to a German trade fair with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Excerpt: America is in critical condition these days. My best guess is that she has a decade or two left. Certainly no more. And no, it's not Barack Obama's fault. He's just sucking the last of life from America's corpse. And really, we shouldn't be surprised! The fresh breeze of democracy blew ever so briefly in ancient Greece. Even mighty Rome, who claimed dominance over the known world, from the White Cliffs of Dover to the slums of Delhi, lasted five hundred years or so. What makes America so special? (For a free PDF of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic, write me at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. ~Bob)

None Dare Call It Islamism. By Daniel Greenfield 
Excerpt: “Don’t tell me words don’t matter,” Obama once said, while insisting that they meant the opposite of what we thought they meant. The left believes that words matter because they allow people to communicate the wrong sort of ideas. Change the words and you change the ideas. Islamism is one of those ideas.

Elderly wife 'left to die' after hospital put her on end-of-life programme
Excerpt: Stuart Dunn overheard staff at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham saying that they had placed his wife Josephine, 73, on the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway, which limits care options for terminally ill patients including reducing food and water. The grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, was taken to the hospital on March 30 with a urinary tract infection, but her husband was told by doctors that she had “no chance” of surviving. She came around later that day. (Ovens and gas showers no longer needed. What used to be a protected population, now those with dementia denied care as no longer useful to society or themselves… “No chance of surviving” a urinary tract infection? How much does a prescription for antibiotics cost? Not worth a life? –Barb.)

North Korea warns foreigners to flee South
Excerpt: North Korea is urging all foreign companies and tourists in South Korea to evacuate or find out where they can take shelter because it says the rival Koreas are on the eve of a nuclear war. Analysts see a direct attack on Seoul as extremely unlikely. The warning Tuesday from the North's Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee is similar to past threats that analysts call an attempt to raise anxiety in foreign capitals.

The fundamental unconstitutionalism of Obama’s presidency
Excerpt: The second wrong thing, which is more subtle, is that Obama is implying in thoughts two and three that, if a sufficient number of Americans elect anti-gun politicians, that majority overrides the constitution. What he says in those last five sentences (“the government is us,” “you elect yourselves,” “the election is for you”) is that, if a majority of people elect politicians who support an unconstitutional idea, those politicians get to move forward enacting that idea irrespective of the Constitution. That is a staggering misreading of the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address.

Jana Winter: Facing jail time for doing her job
Excerpt: Jana Winter, an investigative reporter for Fox News, faces the prospect of serious jail time for being a good journalist. Seriously. Most of the accounts you may read won't describe her predicament quite that way. But make no mistake: A state judge could demand that Winter either divulge the names of confidential sources who gave her information she reported about last July's shooting rampage in a Colorado movie theater, or spend time in jail for refusing to do so.

Comment on Obama’s 1 Percent Lifestyle Hits a Nerve
Of those 88,000 jobs, Oklahoma got around 1700 of them. About 1500 were at McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King. Pizza Hut hired around 215 delivery drivers. My neighbor (the same one who beat the Obama '08 sticker off his Dodge Neon with a sledge hammer) was lucky enough to nail down a part-time job as a Walmart Greeter. –LLW

Rick Warren Subjected to Extreme Hate Following Sons Suicide
Excerpt: George Washington Carver said: “Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.” To me, hate has always been somewhat of a foreign thing. Rather than hate, I simply become frustrated, then tired.

A Terrifying Look Inside the Nightmarish World Of North Korea’s Prison Camps
Authors’ note: The following images are disturbing. Please proceed with caution.

Idiocies in the Gun Control Debate. By Shawn Mitchell
Excerpt: Our government says it absolutely cannot keep track of its own borders or the 12 million people who live here illegally, but, it absolutely can keep track of the purchases, transfers, and components of hundreds of millions of guns and gun owners. It’s hell bound determined to try. It would be prudent to distrust the priorities and intentions of such a government and astute to pay attention to its inevitable idiocies.

Excerpt: Sure enough, the black bear showed up and started to chase the old man. The man aimed his shotgun at the bear and shot it, killing the bear before it dropped to the ground. Now, he’s facing charges for illegally killing the bear, illegally baiting the bear, illegal possession of a firearm and failure to secure a weapon. Because he “murdered” the bear, police confiscated his shotgun as well as 2 others he had in his possession.

Suspect Robs Family at Miami Burger King, Then Man Shoots Him: Police
Excerpt: A father who was robbed while eating with his family took out his own gun and shot the suspect, Miami Police said.

Worth Reading: The War against the Young: Is Obama building a conservative youth movement? By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: But aside from the common-sense recognition that people become more conservative as they age and mature — and start paying taxes, and become financially responsible for their own children’s future — there is just as much likelihood that Barack Obama may inadvertently be building a conservative youth movement. Indeed, the new liberalism in all its economic manifestations is reactionary and anti-youth to the core. 

Iraqi PM to US: You won the Iraq War
Excerpt: Today, on the 10th anniversary of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the debate about whether it was worth it to topple the regime and the direction of the U.S.-Iraqi relationship is influenced by a pessimistic view that the United States has lost Iraq. Not true. Despite all the problems of the past decade, the overwhelming majority of Iraqis agree that we’re better off today than under Hussein’s brutal dictatorship. Iraqis will remain grateful for the U.S. role and for the losses sustained by military and civilian personnel that contributed in ending Hussein’s rule. 

Satire: The Diana DeGette Guide to Gun Safety. By Rep. Diana DeGette
Excerpt: At right, you can see a diagram of a magazine. Magazines are ammunition, they’re bullets. If you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won’t be any more available. 

WH is closed for public tours today but will be open tonight for yet another concert for POTUS & his guests. A complete hypocrite.

More Signs The Economy Is Rolling Over All Around The World. By Cullen Roche
http://pragcap.com/economic-surprise-indices-turning-lower#ixzz2PzEiQ0hX
Excerpt: The general trend show a sharp weakening in European economic surprises which is the only index that has correlated well with equity market so far this year.

Baby didn’t like the choice: Abortion clinic worker testifies in doctor's trial
Excerpt: A Delaware woman who worked for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell recalled hearing one child “screaming” after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure at Gosnell’s West Philadelphia clinic.

Hospitals and Clinics in the UK offering Specialist FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) Services
Excerpt: Below is a list and contact details of Hospitals and Clinics in the UK offering specialist Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) health services.

Excerpt: The law-enforcement support site PoliceOne.com has released the results of a massive survey in which "more than 15,000 verified law enforcement professionals" were asked 30 questions about current gun control proposals. The results may surprise you.

Green Fail: Anti-Keystone Pipeline Idiocy Poses Environmental Threat. By Walter Russell Mead
Excerpt: There’s one small problem with this argument, notes Charles Ebinger of the Brookings Institution: if pipelines aren’t built, oil companies will instead rely on trains to transport their product. Indeed, with the Keystone project still on hold, they’ve already begun doing so. But trains are even more likely than pipelines to cause spills, increasing the net hazard to the environment. (They don’t care about results, only about feeling good for being for the “right” things. ~Bob.)

Funny. @TheDemocrats didn't claim the #filibuster was unconstitutional when they used it to block the Civil Rights Act.


Web of government registration requirements leads to arrest, firing
Excerpt: Six years ago, high school senior Michael Byars briefly dated a freshman girl. They had sex, and so Byers became not only a criminal — guilty of “lascivious acts with a child,” — but also permanently branded as a “sex offender.”

VIDEO: U.S. Navy ship shoots drone out of the sky with laser
Buck Rodgers, call your office. ~Bob.

Gun-rights testimony from a communism survivor: “You don’t know what freedom is, because you’ve never lost it”
Excerpt: During a committee hearing of the Oregon state senate in considering their own state package of gun-control legislation last week, one testifier reminded the assembled lawmakers of one of the Second Amendment’s most crucial purposes, and of the real-world consequences of neglecting that purpose.

Excerpt: A Native American group in Wisconsin has been listed as non-compliant by the federal government for failing to report on activities involving federal stimulus funds. The federal Office of Management and Budget submits reports to the Recovery Board noting which recipients of federal stimulus funds are not submitting quarterly reports, as is required by the Recovery Act.

Multiple Stabbings Reported on Campus of Houston’s Lone Star College
Excerpt: A witness told police that he believes a student began attacking classmates with an X-Acto knife. (We must ban assault knives. ~Bob.)

Apparently they forgot to make it a knife-free zone

More deaths from stabbings every year than the rifles Dems want to ban. 1,694 vs 323 via FBI UCR 2011

Breaking: TX college student stabs 14 others on campus. In related news, libs call for ban of pencils holding more than 5 pieces of lead.

Despite salary rate freeze, average federal salary rises
Show me your shocked face. ~Bob. Excerpt: The figure commonly cited as the “average” federal employee salary now stands at nearly $78,500, an amount that has risen by about $1,800 in the last two years despite a general freeze on salary rates during that time, according to data released Monday.

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