Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Some good items came in today

Scary: Detroit’s Fallout: How Safe Are Other Municipal and City Pensions?
Excerpt: What’s stunning is how well funded Detroit’s pensions were even at the height of the recession, claims Andrew Biggs, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
In 2009, Detroit’s pensions were 93% funded, according to the Pew Institute, compared to other cities like Providence, R.I, which was only 42% funded. (Detroit is not an outlier. It is the leading edge of a fiscal collapse that will stretch from other cities, then states into Medicare, Social Security and Obamacare, creating riots, bloodshed and wide spread hardship in the next two decades, as the money for the socialist utopia runs out. ~Bob.)

Is New York City the Next Detroit? By Daniel Greenfield 
Excerpt: While Bloomberg was playing hooky, using city resources to push gun laws in other states, the specter of Motown was creeping over the Big Apple.
New York City comes in second on the list of cities with the largest unfunded pensions. After Detroit.

On Point: Zimmerman Trial: Trayvon Martin was not Emmett Till. By Glenn Garvin
Excerpt: Hard cases make bad law and even worse fodder for the chattering classes. Most of the so-called lessons of George Zimmerman’s acquittal on charges of murdering Trayvon Martin amount to educational malpractice. There is no war on black men, at least not by white men. Last year, the Scripps-Howard News Service studied half a million homicide reports and found that killings of black victims by white attackers have actually dropped over the past 30 years, from 4,745 during the 1980s to 4,380 during the first decade of the 2000s. There were nearly twice as many white victims killed by black assailants: 8,503 in the 1980s, and 8,530 in the 2000s.

Why Letters to The Commandant and The President. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: What perplexes me is how a silly YouTube video can realize millions, sometimes hundreds of millions, of views overnight and yet something vitally important to personal well-being and, in turn, country struggles to get a yawn. Perhaps explanation is no more complicated than it's easier to ignore the difficult and distasteful and hope or pray it goes away. Or, it's more fulfilling to laugh, sometimes to tears, than to weep. Though a hard, long cry has proven cleansing - rejuvenating.

The IRS Does It Again–Refunds To The Same Addresses
The people who will run Obamacare—into the ground! ~Bob

Geez, you offer someone a sincere complement on their mustache and suddenly, she's not your friend anymore. (Her profile: Gun totin' Panty Store Owner. American Conservative. Hates freeloaders & whiners. Salty isn't a seasoning, it's a state of mind.)

Detroit Cops Arrested For Robbing Drivers At Gunpoint

Blistering Newspaper EditorialTake your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough
Excerpt: Forgive us if you are not greeted with the same level of Southern hospitality that our area usually bestows on its distinguished guests. You see, we understand you are in town to share your umpteenth different job creation plan during your time in office. If it works as well as your other job creation programs, then thanks, but no thanks. We’d prefer you keep it to yourself.

Bend The Healthcare Cost Curve Downward By Letting Healthcare Costs Rise. By Sally Pipes
Excerpt: Some wonks complain that expensive new medical technologies and therapies — some of which deliver only marginal improvements to patient health — are key drivers of health spending. European researchers surveyed 86 studies on the subject, they found that while some innovations raised health costs, others reduced them.

Excerpt: The editors of The New York Times are outraged by the idea of government agents reading their email and listening to their phone calls. They also object to the government requiring librarians to disclose what books they happen to be reading. But they have no apparent problem with the government having access to their medical records. Theirs and everyone else’s.
One of the goals of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) ― fully supported in editorial after editorial ― is to accumulate medical records in a national data base, so that researchers can better study what works and what doesn’t. In fact this has already happened in the state of Hawaii. Of course, the accumulators of your health records are supposed to respect your privacy. But so is the National Security Agency.


The Three Candidates Beating Weiner
And in NYC there isn't ONE good Republican who can beat these clowns? Holy cow, are they in tough shape. –Laura

Weiner - Quick, Hide The Children. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: Though asked, some pleading, numerous times the past couple of weeks to comment about New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, I have resisted. There are more important matters of National concern to address and discuss - none related to Hebrews nor Ball Parks nor Nathans but important nonetheless.

Excerpt: Yesterday President Obama stopped by an Amazon Distribution center in Kentucky to take credit for the additional 7,000 hiring positions Amazon is establishing, though he had nothing whatever to do with that decision. That's okay...we're used to that now. What we're not used to was Obama's speech yesterday. He used the occasion to propose a "Grand Bargain" with Republicans with corporate tax reform. This after five years of Republican cajoling Obama to take action to bring America's corporate tax code in line with rates our foreign competitors are paying. Anxious not to sink further, from lame duck status, to irrelevance, Obama proposed lowering corporate taxes, from 35% to 28%, and a more favorable rate for manufacturers to 25%. (Before you announce a “grand Bargain,” shouldn’t you talk to the people you want to make the bargain with to see if they are interested? Otherwise, it’s just PR. ~Bob.) 

Obama Must Have Watched PBS. By Peter Rollins
Excerpt: President Obama’s recent extemporaneous remarks about Ho Chi Minh being a Jeffersonian Democrat may be the result of his viewing the PBS series entitled Vietnam: A Television History (1983). (Many people still consider Karnow's book the one to be put at the top of the Viet Nam bibliography. It reads well, hangs together very nicely, and makes no statements that immediately strike the reader as slanted or extreme. But it is in fact definitely slanted, and puts together a good deal of real history with slants and inaccuracies, so the final picture one gets of the war is quite flawed. The best antidote to it is the book "Losers Are Pirates", which dissects the TV series carefully and thus presents an alternate view to what is in the book. --Del)

Black Self-Sabotage. By Walter E. Williams
Excerpt: The truth is that black female-headed households were just 18 percent of households in 1950, as opposed to about 68 percent today. In fact, from 1890 to 1940, the black marriage rate was slightly higher than that of whites. Even during slavery, when marriage was forbidden for blacks, most black children lived in biological two-parent families. In New York City, in 1925, 85 percent of black households were two-parent households. (Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of 'Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination?' and 'Up from the Projects: An Autobiography.')

Iran and Syria sign $3.6bn oil deal
Excerpt: Tehran agrees to supply Damascus with oil in exchange for the right to invest in country devastated by conflict.

Pentagon Sees Support for Afghans After 2014
Excerpt: Following reports in recent weeks that the White House is considering a full withdrawal from Afghanistan when the NATO-led mission ends in December 2014, a Pentagon assessment released Tuesday says significant foreign military assistance and financial support for Afghan security forces will be required long after United States troops are expected to depart. (It won’t be that long. A year after we pull out, the Taliban will be in control, throwing acid in the faces of little school girls, stoning rape victims for adultery, and training terrorists to kill us. ~Bob.)

Lash and jail for Saudi web activist Raef Badawi
Excerpt: A Saudi online activist has been jailed for seven years and sentenced to 600 lashes for urging religious liberalisation, his lawyer has said.

The Age of Hyperbole: How Normal Weather Became ‘Extreme.’ A media without shame drives us towards energy poverty. By Dr. Tim Ball and Tom Harris
Excerpt: Distortion and deception are accentuated by hyperbole. Television news and documentaries frequently report normal weather as “extreme weather,” implying it is abnormal and caused by human activity. But while a hurricane, for example, may inflict serious damage to our structures and cause major loss of life, it is a normal event in hurricane-prone regions, where it is foolish to live without preparing for the weather patterns of the area. The problem is accentuated when supposedly prestigious newspapers like the New York Times present provably false information. 


Phony Scandals? One picture refutes.

Delay in Employer Health Mandate Estimated to Cost $12 Billion
Excerpt: The Obama administration's move to delay a mandate on businesses to provide health coverage will mean $12 billion in lost tax revenue and additional costs, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The nonpartisan CBO said one million fewer people will get employer coverage in 2014 as a result of the postponement, and half of those will turn to new government health-insurance exchanges or Medicaid for coverage.

Terrifying! Obama Regime Unveils Behavior Modification Program to ‘Nudge’ Americans
http://minutemennews.com/2013/07/terrifying-obama-regime-unveils-behavior-modification-program-to-nudge-americans/
Excerpt: FOX News reported on Tuesday that the government has created a “Behavioral Insights Team,” which is intended to influence the behavior of Americans. It is being referred to as a “nudge” because the team’s approach has been dubbed “subtle.” One can only assume that such “nudges” are intended to be the second part of a governmental, one-two punch, the first being ham-fisted executive orders.

CNN: We interviewed a lead Benghazi suspect, whom the feds apparently can’t find, for two hours
Excerpt: A nice catch from the Standard. Actually, John King never says that the FBI can’t find the Benghazi suspects, only that they’ve never contacted the guy whom CNN interviewed. Why? According to an AP story published in May, the feds are keeping their distance because they’re surveilling them electronically. 

The IRS scandal is so phony Lois Lerner had to plead the 5th to keep from incriminating herself with the truth.

Tampa bay Times Fact Checker: Obama says Keystone XL would mean "maybe 2,000 jobs"
Excerpt: Obama said the Keystone XL pipeline might produce about 2,000 jobs during construction, based on the most reliable estimates. The White House provided no supporting evidence and the administration’s own State Department predicted that while the pipeline would produce few permanent jobs, the construction process itself would create nearly twice as many jobs as the president said. We rate the statement False.

Activists aghast at Oakland law criminalizing possession of some household items at protests
Excerpt: The Oakland City Council moved closer on Tuesday to both expand authorities’ surveillance capabilities and authorize a ban on common household tools and paints it deemed “tools of violence and vandalism” at public demonstrations, raising concerns from local activists and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). (First they came for the guns, and the ACLU cheered. Then they came for the hammers and spray cans…~Bob.)

Hawaii sets aside $100,000 to offer its 17,000 homeless people one-way airfare back to their home states
Excerpt: Hawaii is hoping to take the burden off its welfare system by saying aloha to its 17,000 homeless residents. The state will offer one-way tickets home to any eligible homeless person to anywhere in the continental United States. (I don’t want to be on that flight. Thank God Hawaii is a Democrat-run state. This would be racist if a GOP-run state did it and Holder would step in. ~Bob.)

The happiest people don't have wonderful "things," they have wonderful experiences. Get outside and make a memory.

The Debt Is a Middle Class Issue
Excerpt: While deficits are coming down in the short term, the debt remains at levels not seen since the end of World War II. Our partner organization, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, projects the debt will rise from 73% of the economy today to nearly 75% in 2023 and continue to rise thereafter. (I think this is very optimistic, and doesn’t take into account the off-the-books unfunded liability for Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare, estimated north of $100T. ~Bob.)

Secret Sex Tape: Monica Lewinsky Caught On Explicit Recording Telling Bill Clinton, ‘I Could Take My Clothes Off…’
Remind me again why Clinton is annoyed at being compared to Weiner’s on-line affairs. ~Bob.

Tweet from RB ‏@RBPundit
The Lewinsky tape = "Let's get this out there so it's old news for 2016"

Charles Krauthammer on Obamacare Shutdown: If I thought it would work, I would support it. By Jeff Poor
Excerpt: "The real issue here is whether you’re playing the short game or the long game. The short game where you control one house of Congress, you have no chance of repealing Obamacare, zero, because the other side sees it as the signature issue of the President and the Senate. You play the long game, you don’t risk your popularity which I think is increasing for the GOP."

"Rock Star" Republican to Join Arkansas Senate Race. By Alex Pappas
Excerpt: [Tom] Cotton is particularly popular with the more hawkish wing of the Republican Party. Instead of choosing a more lucrative path after graduating from Harvard Law School, Cotton enlisted as an Army Ranger. He was elected to Arkansas’s Fourth Congressional District just last year.

Playing for Islam Against Ourselves. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: WWI was caused less by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, and more by Germany and Austria Hungary's eagerness in courting the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Before and during WW2, England and Germany both assiduously courted Muslim support in the Middle East. The Holocaust was one of the byproducts of this rivalry, as Germany courted Muslims by appealing to the genocidal impulses of the Mufti of Jerusalem, while England reneged on its agreements, and shut the door to Jewish refugees trying to reach Israel.

Sarah Palin Right All Along? Howard Dean's Surprising ObamaCare Claim
http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/07/30/howard-dean-op-ed-supports-sarah-palins-obamacare-death-panels-claim
Excerpt: There is more proof that the ObamaCare ‘death panels’ are alive and well. The former head of the Democratic Party, who also happens to be a medical doctor, is sounding the alarm. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Howard Dean calls out a “major problem” with the health care law, known as the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Sarah Palin, who warned against death panels in 2010, reacted on Tuesday night’s Hannity.

Vacationer Obama's Favorite Vineyard "Vulture." By Michelle Malkin
Excerpt: [David] Schulte [in whose home the Obamas are vacationing on Martha's Vineyard], you see, earned his money in much the same way the demonized Mitt Romney did: through corporate restructuring and rescuing debt-burdened companies. He and his former partner, Sam Zell, have happily embraced the nickname "grave dancers" since the early 1990s. By 1993, their billion-dollar "vulture fund" based in Chicago had purchased all or part of Jacor Communications, the embattled media conglomerate; Sealy Corporation, the mattress empire; and the distressed Schwinn Bicycle Company.

The Shrinking of the National-Security Right. Mark Steyn
Excerpt: In this struggle, our enemies hide in plain sight, but western governments will not confront them in plain sight. As I wrote here last month: "Because the formal, visible state has been neutered by political correctness, the dark, furtive shadow state has to expand massively to make, in secret, the judgment calls that can no longer be made in public."

Egyptian Muslim cleric instructs European Muslims on how best to beat their wives
Excerpt: When it comes to beating, he should never beat her harshly. He should never raise his hand. He should never beat her on her face. But he can use something very simple – like a siwak [dental stick] or something like this pen. The beating should not lead to breaking her arm or a tooth. He should avoid this, because the Prophet urged us and told us that when you beat someone, you should never beat him or her on his or her face. This is because the face is owned by Allah.

Russian billionaire seeks U.S. government financing for luxury jets
Excerpt: Billionaire Russian businessman Gennady Timchenko, a long-time associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, plans to seek U.S. government-backed funding to buy luxury aircraft, Reuters has learned.

Churches Bombed in Kano, Nigeria, Killing 45 People, Christian Leaders Say
Excerpt: Suspected terrorists from the Islamic extremist Boko Haram group set off four bombs that hit two churches in Kano city on Monday night (July 29), killing at least 45 people, sources said.

Who Will Rid Me of This Troublesome Weiner? Hillary, Fearing a Storyline Mentioning Her Own Tammy Wynette Act, Sets the Democratic Dogs to Weiner & Huma
Excerpt: Until this second wave of Weinermania broke, it had been said -- for years -- that Bill and Hillary Clinton consider Huma Abedin to be like a second daughter. Remember that as you read the following. She was a Second Daughter. Now she's a threat that must be destroyed. And also remember the Democratic Party is not a party, it is The Collective, and The Collective has a rigid hierarchy, as do colonies of insects and other meaner, lesser creatures and vermin.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Some interesting items today


Manning guilty of espionage
Excerpt: Former Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning was found guilty Tuesday of five espionage accounts. The decision means Manning could spend the rest of his life behind bars. The maximum sentence for the charges would be 150 years. (I’m still in favor of shooting him. I volunteer, will bring my own rifle and ammo to save money. ~Bob)

A Collapse is Coming: That Which is Unsustainable Will Go Away: Medicare. By Charles H. Smith
Excerpt: Medicare is an example of an unsustainable system that will go away in the decade ahead. Here are the sobering facts about the number of workers and those drawing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid entitlements in the U.S. While the government claims to have a "trust fund" to pay for Social Security and Medicare, this is illusory propaganda. There are no funds set aside to pay these entitlements--they are "pay as you go" programs funded by current tax revenues. If the tax revenues don't cover the programs' expenses, the Treasury sells bonds, i.e. issues debt to pay the entitlements.

The Tragedy of Isolation. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: In the 20th century, Western intellectuals' two most dominant explanations of disparities in economic, educational and other achievements were innate racial differences in ability (in the early decades) and racial discrimination (in the later decades).
In neither era were the intelligentsia receptive to other explanations. In each era, they were convinced that they had the answer -- and dismissed and disparaged those who offered other answers.

5 Ways Liberalism Destroyed Detroit. By John Hawkins
Excerpt: How did Democrats kill one of the most prosperous cities in America? With the same sort of unfettered liberalism that Democrats like Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi want to foist on the rest of the nation.

Buffalo Increases Spending on Free Teacher Cosmetic Surgery, Despite $51 Million Deficit. By Kyle Olson
Can we be Detroit? Yes, we can! ~Bob

Obama Vineyard Vacation at $7.6m Private Resort, Over 75 Rooms Booked for Staff
http://minutemennews.com/2013/07/obama-vineyard-vacation-at-7-6m-private-resort-over-75-rooms-booked-for-staff/
Gonna work on a new speech excoriating millionaires and billionaires. ~Bob.

The Greatest Food in Human History: In terms of cost-per-calore, no locavore, organic veggie can compete with the McDouble. By Kyle Smith
Excerpt: But we all know fast food makes us fat, right? Not necessarily. People who eat out tend to eat less at home that day in partial compensation; the net gain, according to a 2008 study out of Berkeley and Northwestern, is only about 24 calories a day.

The Spooks of Hazzard. By Jim Goad
http://takimag.com/article/the_spooks_of_hazzard_jim_goad/print#ixzz2aU6hjkDX
Excerpt: Do you know that the overwhelming majority of white Southerners—well over 90% of them—never owned slaves even at the peak of slavery? Do you know that the term “redneck” dates all the way back to Scotland in the 1640s, when it was used to describe peasants who rebelled against the ruling class? Do you know that its most plausible American derivation is from the 1800s when it was used to describe those impoverished whites who didn’t own slaves nor hire black sharecroppers and instead toiled in the fields and burned their pale necks red under the hot sun?

Excerpt: Rep. Ros-Lehtinen said for Obama, “who has sworn to preserve, protect and defend their ideals that founded this nation, to equate Ho Chi Minh to Thomas Jefferson is an insult to the service and sacrifice of all of those who served in Vietnam.” “Saying that a butcher who slaughtered his opponents and butchered those who resisted his tyranny was inspired by the ideals that make this nation the freest and most democratic country in the world belittles our Founding Fathers and those shed blood to protect their vision,” she added. (Per article, Ho Chi Minh “…then proceeded to commit atrocities against the people of Vietnam in his quest for a Marxist state.” Perhaps where this is heading with the ammunition buys, the FEMA camps, the spraying overhead multiple times daily, and the training of Soviet troops “against civil unrest” on US soil…. You know, “payback time.” –Barb)

Member of the San Diego Media Admits They Long Knew About Filner, But Chose Not to Investigate Nor Report; How About the DC Media?
It would have spoiled their Republican War on Women narrative to report on it. ~Bob

Brotherhood Torture Chambers (Finally) Exposed. By Raymond Ibrahim 
Excerpt: Islamic hard-liners stormed a mosque in suburban Cairo, turning it into [a] torture chamber for Christians who had been demonstrating against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood in the latest case of violent persecution that experts fear will only get worse. Such stories have become increasingly common as tensions between Egypt’s Muslims and Copts mount, but in the latest case, mosque officials corroborated much of the account and even filed a police report. (ah, the fruits of the Arab Spring and the Muslim Brotherhood “moderates,” much beloved by the Obama administration and the leftist media. ~Bob.)

Christian Man Tortured In Front of Wife. By Theodore Shoebat 
Excerpt: However, Shagufta told the police that they had lost the cell phone a month earlier. She denied the charges but police started 3rd degree torture on Shafaqat Masih, who is crippled and physically challenged. They tortured him in front of his wife and four children. 

The News in Zingers. By Argus Hamilton
Excerpt: President Obama spoke at Central Missouri College Wednesday. His staffers refused to allow College Republicans or anyone wearing patriotic clothing into the building. Everyone not allowed inside was forced into a boxcar and transported to IRS headquarters. (the way to sneak into an Obama rally is to wear a tee shirt with a picture of a communist murderer—Che comes to mind—and a “Death to America/Death to the Jews” button. ~Bob.)

Moroccans defecate on an altar in Italy
Muslim interfaith outreach. ~Bob

That Which is Unsustainable Will Go Away: Medicare. By Charles H. Smith
Excerpt: Medicare is an example of an unsustainable system that will go away in the decade ahead. Here are the sobering facts about the number of workers and those drawing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid entitlements in the U.S. While the government claims to have a "trust fund" to pay for Social Security and Medicare, this is illusory propaganda. There are no funds set aside to pay these entitlements--they are "pay as you go" programs funded by current tax revenues. If the tax revenues don't cover the programs' expenses, the Treasury sells bonds, i.e. issues debt to pay the entitlements.

Excerpt: Looking for a little extra cash? If you’re interested in defrauding taxpayers, it might be as easy as writing down a number on a form. The number is your income. The form is the Obamacare application. If you do not have “affordable” employer-sponsored health insurance and your income is between about $31,800 and $94,200 for a family of four (that is, between 138 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level), you qualify for an insurance subsidy through Obamacare.

Obama rebuked for Keystone claims
Excerpt: President Obama’s dismissal of the job benefits from the Keystone XL pipeline drew a furious rebuke on Monday from supporters of the project who accused him of ignoring his own State Department.

Sheila Jackson Lee for Homeland Security secretary?
Older Piece: Congressional bosses from Hell: Sheila Jackson Lee
Conservatives are screaming, but I kind of like the Congressional Black Caucus suggestion that Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas to be the next Secretary of Homeland Security. She would bring a whole new level of stupidity to the position and the Obama administration, and might collapse the Homeland Security/TSA house of cards. ~Bob.

Excerpt: Though Brevard County has used the book for the last three years with no complaints, Workman is complaining now. His argument, in a nutshell, is that the book’s authors prop up Islam yet denigrate the other two major Abrahamic faiths. For instance, the state lawmaker says, the textbook informs high schoolers that “people happily accepted Islam as their way of life” in Medina. “It leaves out that tens of thousands of Jews and non-believers were massacred by Mohammed’s armies,” Workman said.

Red Eye Guest On Weiner’s Wife: ‘One Of The Greatest National Security Threats’ Because Of Muslim Brotherhood Ties
Excerpt: I completely agree with Andy McCarthy that she poses one of the greatest national security threats of this administration. She has access to the most classified information because of her position with (Hillary) Clinton about the Muslim Brotherhood, which its creed is to destroy America from within.

WND reports on swat raids on the innocent: Violence reflects growing militarization of local police
Excerpt: “The recent incidents in Oklahoma, where police shot an unarmed mother holding her child in her home, in Virginia, where a SWAT team killed a watchman guarding a dice game at an after-hours club and in California, where a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raid on a gun shop resulted in the death of the shopkeeper, provide some hard evidence that police in America may be getting out of control,” Farah said.

Chicken on menu — 2016 on their minds at Obama/Clinton powwow
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/314225-chicken-on-the-menu-2016-on-their-minds#ixzz2aUHnb1l8
Excerpt: President Obama’s private lunch with Hillary Clinton on Monday afternoon suggested that she is taking another step toward launching a 2016 run for the White House….A photo of the lunch released by the White House shows the former rivals smiling with nary a hint of the animosity that marked the 2008 Democratic primary. White House aides pointed out that Obama extended the lunch invitation to Clinton. (Another Alinsky disciple. Benghazi? “What’s it matter?” No one in Dept of Injustice will pry. –Barb)

She thinks it’s funny to insult us. Jane Fonda wears a "Hanoi Jane" T-shirt as part of promoting her movie where she plays Nancy Reagan. She smiles and laughs about it, but she knows damn well she is giving the finger back to all of us who despise what she did in going to Hanoi. Not just sitting at the gun like she wanted to shoot down US planes, but the long series of broadcasts she made to our troops, telling them the war they were in was unjust and they shoot disobey officers, maybe shoot them. She has a truly monumentally rotten attitude to wear that shirt as a symbol of her disdain for all of us who hate her treasonous behavior. --Del
Excerpt: An investigator is unlikely to find what he refuses to look for. Since May 10, the scandal has evolved from “a couple of rogue employees in Cincinnati,” to high IRS involvement, to going inside the IRS chief counsel’s office, at least. In that same time, President Obama has gone from saying that the abuse was “outrageous” and that no one wants to get to the bottom of it more than he does, to being satisfied with a non-investigation of a “phony scandal.” (When interviewed by Issa’s committee, so evident he had appointed no one to investigate and had no intention to do so. He could not name the person in charge, say when an investigation began or what they had found. Smoke and stonewalling and contempt for law. –Barb)

Idiot Idea of the Day. By Jeff Carter
Excerpt: Instead of blaming big government, the author takes the view that it was the fault of the way Illinois tax policy was designed. That’s the real problem here. Not that there are a bunch of union workers on the public dole, double and triple dipping along the way. Can you guess his solution? More taxes.

Chicagoland: Four-Year-Old Girl Shot, Three Others Killed in Obama’s Neighborhood

Pakistan jailbreak: Taliban free 248 in Dera Ismail Khan
Excerpt: Militants armed with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and bombs blasted down the walls of the jail in the town of Dera Ismail Khan and streamed inside, reports said. (Just in time for the US pull out in Afghanistan. ~Bob.)

WaPo Fact Checker: President Obama’s low-ball estimate for Keystone XL jobs
Excerpt: But the president shouldn’t pick and choose how he cites job-creation numbers. Perhaps he is tipping his hand on what he secretly thinks of the Keystone XL by citing a low-ball figure, generated by the pipeline’s opponents, but he should stick to using the official government estimate. (His 2,000-job figure is actually slightly lower than the Cornell estimate.) Otherwise, the president ironically seems to be signaling that even his own government does not produce the “most realistic” estimate that should be used by reporters. Two Pinocchios

Alaska hiker fired 13 rounds from AK-74 into charging brown bear to survive attack
Notice it was a “brown” bear the racist shot! ~Bob.

Tweet from Vicki Mckenna ‏@VickiMcKenna: MEMO TO CHICAGO COPS: "less than lethal" is RELATIVE when you're shooting at a 95 year old man! (Sounds to me like they had no choice. ~Bob.)

Unlike Bloomberg, Weiner will never oppose large cup sizes. #AdvantageWeiner

Tweet from Michelle Malkin ‏@michellemalkin
As Obama heads to Martha's Vineyard, OFA hypes "Action August" cuz recess is "not an excuse to sit back & do nothing"

Many disability recipients admit they could work
Excerpt: Recipients of federal disability checks often admit that they are capable of working but cannot or will not find a job, that those closest to them tell them they should be working, and that working to get off the disability rolls is not among their goals. More baffling, most have never received significant medical treatment and not seen a doctor about their condition in the last year, even though medical problems are the official reason they don't work. (What’s baffling about that? The huge spike in disability, despite modern medical interventions like joint replacement that return people to productivity, is another big factor in the coming fiscal collapse. ~Bob.)

McCain Honors Cellmate George ‘Bud’ Day
Excerpt: “To have known him in prison, confronting our enemies day in and day out, never, ever yielding, defying men who had the power of life and death over us, to witness him sing the national anthem in response to having a rifle pointed at his face, well that was something to behold. Unforgettable. … Bud was the bravest man I ever knew.”

An Arm and a Leg: Hospitals are to blame for obscene health-care costs. By Avik Roy
Costs 25 cents to read the full article. ~Bob. Excerpt: In 1994, two eminent Boston hospitals, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, merged. Officials hailed it as a new era for integrated, high-quality care. The state’s secretary of health and human services signed off on the merger without a public hearing, with the blessing of Republican governor William Weld. The merged hospital entity, called Partners HealthCare, immediately went about raising rates for insurers.

5 Handguns that are Nice and Cheap
My public service announcement of the day. ~Bob.

Watchdog report finds millions in government payments to dead farmers
Excerpt: The Agriculture Department has paid millions of dollars to dead farmers over the last several years, according to an audit released Monday.

Guns in the world’s largest toy museum

Well, he’s a Democrat—he’s entitled to have the taxpayers pay for his War on Women. ~Bob.

Surprise: Chicago's Debt Triples, City Slapped With Credit Downgrades
Excerpt: Moody's reference to "unrelenting public safety demands" is in part a euphemism for Chicago's appalling murder and violent crime crisis, which manages to remain alarmingly acute despite the city's strict anti-gun laws. Strange, that. Oh, did I say triple downgrade? I meant quadruple, and this one genuinely hurts The Children: Chicago's public schools on Wednesday forecast a record $1 billion fiscal 2014 budget deficit despite layoffs of 1,000 teachers and the expected closing of 50 schools, prompting one credit agency to downgrade its debt rating.

Hispanic win: ‘California can be Republican again’
Excerpt: According to the logic of politics, Leticia Perez should have handily won the heavily Democratic and Hispanic district in California’s central valley, and her failure to do so has Republicans eager to develop a victory template for struggling GOP candidates elsewhere in the deep-blue state and across the country.

Congressman: Fifty Shades of Grey More Requested than Koran at Gitmo

At this point I've accepted the inevitable fall of civilization. I'm just hoping it will be entertaining.


Wrinkle in Health Law Vexes Lawmakers’ Aides
Excerpt: As President Obama barnstorms the country promoting his health care law, one audience very close to home is growing increasingly anxious about the financial implications of the new coverage: members of Congress and their personal staffs. Under a wrinkle that dates back to enactment of the law, members of Congress and thousands of their aides are required to get their coverage through new state-based markets known as insurance exchanges. (That faint sound you hear? I’m holding the world’s smallest violin, playing “My Heart Bleeds For You.” ~Bob.
Chicago Gun Confiscation Underway
Excerpt: A new Cook County Sheriff’s team is crisscrossing the suburbs to seize guns from thousands of people whose Firearm Owner’s Identification Cards have been revoked. More than 3,000 people in Cook County have failed to surrender their revoked FOID cards to the state. Sheriff Tom Dart said he thinks many of them continue to possess firearms… Every week, the [Illinois] State Police alert the sheriff’s gun team of about 10 to 20 new revocations in Cook County. The investigators conduct a basic inquiry into the gun purchasing histories of the people they intend to contact. Then they knock on their doors. (Sure, and I have a really nice bridge for sale up in Brooklyn. It's one hell of a bargain, honest. --Del)

Army Giving Up Traditional Ammo & Stopping Power For "Green" Bullets
Excerpt: To quote liberals from the pranksters at SPNHeadlines.com "We don't give a shit if you shoot people, but please do it without harming Mother Earth." -- The Army is switching from lead bullets in many small caliber arms to "environmentally friendly" rounds in 2014, even through the lead bullets are tried and true while the stopping power of the "green" bullets is already being questioned. (The 5.56mm are poor enough in stopping power, now without the lead core they'll be even worse. Great, the environment will be cleaner, except for the blood of our guys who pay the price for getting less effective ammo issued to them. This is really, really INSANE! --Del)

Muslim Thugs Throw Acid On Mom With Twins, News Doesn’t Mention They’re Muslim
http://clashdaily.com/2013/07/muslim-thugs-throw-acid-on-mom-with-twins-news-doesnt-mention-theyre-muslim/
Excerpt: A gang who laughed as they doused a woman in acid while she walked her six-year-old twins home from school have been jailed for a total of 44 years. The attackers were heard laughing as the noxious liquid was sprayed at the screaming mother in front of her two boys outside Upton Cross Primary School in Upton Park, east London.

A real-life diamond heist on the Riviera: "Pink Panther" jailbreaks and a $136 million jewellery theft in Cannes are a case of life imitating art. Colin Randall
Excerpt: The latest estimate suggests that Sunday’s theft yielded a haul of $136 million (£89 million). It took no more than a solitary thief, armed with a handgun, to slip through a half-open window into the plush Carlton Intercontinental Hotel, on the Croisette promenade of Cannes, and help himself to diamonds and other gems. 

Saudi Prince: US Shale Threatening Our Economy. By Walter Russell Mead
Excerpt: There’s no denying that the Kingdom’s economy will suffer under decreased demand for petrochemical exports from its biggest customer—the US. American domestic production means a steep drop-off in demand for the $100 billion Gulf petrochemical industry, and if China masters the exploitation of its own shale reserves, the cracks in the Saudi economic model will grow wider still. Unless the Saudis do some economic rebalancing to cope with this sea change, they’re in for a rude awakening.

FACT: Black teenage unemployment fell by 16 percent under Reagan, but has risen by 56 percent under Mr. Obama. FACT: Under Reagan, adult black unemployment fell by 20 percent, but under Mr. Obama, it has increased by 42 percent.

Excerpt: The US launched its second drone strike in four days in Yemen, killing three al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula operatives today as they traveled in the south of the country.