Saturday, June 14, 2014

Today's Political News

General Political News and Comment

Your one-stop-shop for political news and conservative opinion. Please forward to friends who need to be informed. These posts are created by many readers who send me items for inclusion, which I would have likely missed or skipped. We 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, too far a stretch, or viciously inflammatory, regardless of the view point, but I don’t always succeed. As always on the Net, as in the legacy media, you must read critically and with skepticism. ~Bob

Information on my books

Older, but worth reading: The Ten Ships. By Richard Fernandez
Excerpt: One of the reasons the Navy opposed a Southwest Pacific campaign during the Pacific War was the shrewd appreciation that once bureaucracy started on a task it would grow with it like a cancer whatever its original purpose. Admiral King wasn’t against an action in the Solomons. He was just afraid that it would take on a life of its own. The passage of time has not changed this tendency. The campaign in Afghanistan began in 2002 with a specific purpose. But by the time Barack Obama was running for President its chief attraction was the fact that it was an alternative to the campaign in Iraq. A 2009 article in the Wall Street Journal covering his speech before the VWF captured his thinking: Afghanistan was a “war of necessity”, unlike Iraq, which was a “war of choice”. Of all the “false choices” the President was fond of rhetorically raising, this was perhaps the falsest choice of all. By asserting that Afghanistan, not oil or the Middle East or radical Islam was the center of gravity of the enemy, President Obama completely misframed the strategic choices. (A really great essay from four years ago. --Del)

Newt: Cantor Should Sue His Pollster, Campaign Consultants
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/News-Cantor-primary-loss/2014/06/12/id/576571/
Excerpt: He should also "sue his pollster and his consultants for malpractice," Gingrich advises. "They outspent the challenger 25 to 1 and lost. They spent almost as much on steakhouse dinners ($170,000) as Brat's entire campaign spent (about $200,000)." (From one of my best campaign supporters during my five successful campaigns for the Massachusetts Senate, 1972-1980. She, her late husband Ron and their kids were on board early and never faltered. ~Bob. Bob... I was reminded of your campaign. Getting out to the people. Letting them know that you care and were available to talk man to man if they had a question. A little bit of America may STILL be alive and well. --Laura

West Point Class of 2014 May 30, 2014
Excerpt: The West Point graduating class of 2014 spoke volumes as their commencement speaker, Barack Obama, used the speech NOT to laud them for their accomplishments and their sacrifice to serve in the U.S. Military, no, instead he chose to use that precious time to tell them how effective his foreign policy has been, how the military role in foreign policy going forward (paraphrasing) ain't what it used to be and is no longer a leading line of defense. At times he stumbled over the words on the teleprompter to the point of embarrassment but he didn't seem to be in the least bothered by it. To top off his narcissistic ramblings in which he claimed successes in Syria and Ukraine for God's Sake and bragged about ending the war in Iraq (and as every cadet sitting there knew, his actions of pulling all troops on a date certain, handed Iraq right back to Al Qaeda linked terrorist groups as if the sacrifices our military made was of no consequence and stood for nothing. Believe me, every one of those intelligent, well informed cadets knew the sacrifice this president flushed down the toilet and for what; political gain. (Interesting observations about the West Point graduation. --Del)

Conan’s Hilarious Parody of Hillary Clinton’s ‘Brain Damage’ Will Infuriate Liberals
Excerpt: Conan O’Brien is still not sure that Hillary Clinton doesn’t have health issues after she gave an interview to ABC’s Diane Sawyer…

Obama blasts GOP at high school graduation, tells students to vote Democrat
Excerpt: After praising the school’s focus on career-centered education and encouraging graduates to give back to their communities, Mr. Obama addressed the rising cost of higher education, blasting Senate Republicans for stalling a Democrat-backed bill that would allow borrowers to refinance' class="itxtrst itxtrstimg itxthookicon" v:shapes="itxthook0icon">  their college loans. The bill failed in the Senate on Wednesday, a defeat the president blamed on Republicans. At the mention of the GOP, some graduates began to boo. (Damn republicans. It's not like we have the highest deficit in history, or the highest corporate tax rate in the world driving jobs overseas, or that the top 5% of earners pays 40% of the taxes. You can afford more to help students major in Gender Studies to prepare them for living in Mom's basement. ~Bob)

Mr. Hoyer, it’s time to step up to the plate. By Jennifer Rubin 
Excerpt: With the departure of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a critical voice on foreign policy will be lost. The House is not thought of as a central player in foreign policy, but under this president Congress has become a critical counterweight to his pattern of retrenchment, capitulation and reality avoidance. Certainly there are other responsible GOP leaders on national security, but Cantor’s departure also shifts responsibility to a key Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) who has teamed with Cantor on important initiatives, including Iran sanction.

Amnesty Lite Is Still Amnesty. By Thomas Sowell 
Excerpt: Not since a 42-to-1 underdog named Buster Douglas knocked out undefeated heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in 1990 has there been an upset like economics professor Dave Brat defeating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary in Virginia.
You couldn’t write a script like this for a movie and have it be believable. Congressman Eric Cantor, with all kinds of name recognition, and outspending his opponent by 5 million dollars to $100,000, lost 55 percent to 45 percent against somebody that virtually nobody ever heard of before. Polls, incidentally, had predicted that Cantor would defeat Brat 62 percent to 28 percent.

Excerpt: How many of you know that Apple is an Irish corporation? Yep, the largest capitalization company in America (it volleys back and forth with Exxon) takes residence in Ireland. While Apple boasts of their headquarters in Cupertino, California that's not where they keep their money. Why?, you ask. Well Ireland taxes Apple's earnings at 10%, just as they do for any company that agrees to manufacture in that country. The U.S. corporate tax rate is 35%, and while they do grab their share of Apple's $60 billion in U.S. based revenue, Apple keeps their tens of billions in cash in Irish banks and shelters their bigger world wide income from U.S. taxes.

Students React When Asked To Donate to Hillary Clinton Fund For ‘Dead Broke’ Politicians
Excerpt: Former first lady, Senator, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told ABC’s Diane Sawyer on Monday that the Clintons were “dead broke and in debt” after leaving the White House in 2001. “We came out of the White House not only dead broke but in debt. Uh, we had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, y’know, piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for Chelsea’s education. You know, it was not easy,” Clinton said. Campus Reform decided to ask students at Georgetown University what they thought of the former Secretary of State’s claim. (Watch video. --JB)

Surprise! IRS ‘Lost’ 2 Years of Lois Lerner’s Emails
Show me your shocked face. ~Bob. Excerpt: Funny how the NSA can keep track of our phones, yet the government seems to have conveniently ‘lost’ two years of Lois Lerner’s e-mails. Do they really expect us to believe this? (Clash Daily) According to the House Ways and Means Committee, the IRS has "lost" two years of emails belonging to former head of tax exempt organizations Lois Lerner. The IRS doesn't have a record of her emails to outside groups or government agencies from January 2009 through April 2011, conveniently encompassing some of the same time when tea party groups were being targeted for extra scrutiny and possible criminal prosecution. The IRS says the loss of emails is due to a "computer crash" and claims emails from or to Lerner from the White House, Democratic members of Congress, the Treasury Department, FEC and Department of Justice cannot be located. They do however have emails belonging to Lerner that she sent to other IRS employees.

Chelsea Clinton reportedly made $600,000 for a year’s work at NBC. And Twitter went wild.
Excerpt: A spokesperson for Clinton reached by the Post didn't confirm the figure, referring questions to NBC. But it didn't take long for the report to ripple online (largely among journalists who probably earn somewhat less), often linked to Hillary Clinton's remarks earlier this week about the family being "dead broke" in 2001.

5 Times Obama Abandoned US Allies
Excerpt: In October 2011, President Obama stated that the last American troops would leave Iraq by the end of the year. “Today,” he chortled, “I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year.” He celebrated “another season of homecomings,” stating, “Our troops will definitely be home for the holidays.”

More Evidence the Obama Administration Lied About Benghazi
Excerpt: In a recent bombshell interview with a military insider, Fox News’ James Rosen and Brett Baier uncovered some startling new information about the attack on Benghazi. Rosen did the investigative work, while Baier interviewed Reitred Major Eric Stahl, who was the commander of a C-7 Aircraft that was stationed at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. Stahl makes some shocking assertions about what happened that night, and about the lies that the Obama administration made in the aftermath of the attack. His testimony seems to be damning evidence that both the State Department and the Department of Defense had a hand in lying to the nation about what really happened at Benghazi on 9/11/2012.

Outrage as IRS Admits Huge Trove of Lerner's Emails Is Missing. By Todd Beamon
Excerpt: Conservatives are outraged at the IRS' disclosure late Friday that it had lost a trove of former administrator Lois Lerner's emails on the targeting of tea party groups, with one critic likening it to the infamous gap in a tape of President Richard Nixon's conversations during the Watergate scandal. "Liars. They're such liars. Unbelievable," charged Washington attorney Cleta Mitchell, who is representing several groups in a federal lawsuit over the targeting in their applications for tax-exempt status. "This is outrageous. They're lying. (Let's see, they fought bitterly for months about access to these e-mails, and then, when at long last they were told to cough them up, they are all missing. What a shock, what a mystery, what a convenient thing to have happen. --Del. How bad is the original crime they are hiding if they are willing to destroy evidence and break the law in the cover up? -- Grover Norquist)

What Would You Do If Obama Freed The Terrorist Who Killed Your Dad?
Excerpt: Could Obama say that Alison Spann is politicizing the Bowe Bergdahl controversy if he knew one of the terrorists he freed had killed her dad? Not just that, but the first American killed in the war? ... Alison Spann was just 9 when she learned her father, a U.S. Marine turned CIA operative, had become the first American killed in the war in Afghanistan. Thirteen years later, she found out her country had freed the Taliban leader behind his death.

Bowe Bergdahl Was Discharged From Coast Guard Before Joining Army. By Ben Mathis-Lilley
Excerpt: Rescued POW Bowe Bergdahl was discharged from the Coast Guard for psychological reasons before he joined the Army, the Washington Post reports. According to Coast Guard records, Bergdahl left the service in early 2006 with an “uncharacterized discharge” after 26 days of basic training. The term applies to people discharged before completing 180 days of service. The official records don't describe the circumstances of Bergdahl's departure, but the Post spoke to two friends of his who say he claimed to have faked a psychological problem to escape his commitment. Both told the newspaper that they believed he had real psychological issues underneath whatever he might have affected as a ruse: (This kid has been a lot less than mentally well balanced for a very long time. The Army should never have let him in, but they did, and he still has to bear responsibility for his own actions. I want a low level disciplinary hearing, a verdict of guilty for UA, a BCD, and send him home. (Which, given his father's obvious weird attitudes, won't do him a lot of good, but that can't be a problem for the Army or the nation.) --Del. You softie! If proven guilty of aiding the Taliban, as some soldiers alleged, I want him shot. ~Bob)

Obama does as Obama is. By Lawrence Sellin, PhD
Excerpt: First and foremost, Barack Obama is a congenital liar, whose lies, the number and magnitude of which are produced to match the scale of his sweeping narcissism. (basic economic theory. People do what they are rewarded for. Obama has always been rewarded for lying. he lied that "you can keep your plan" and Obamacare squeaked through. He lied about the deficit, Gitmo, Executive Orders, taxes and any number of things in 2008, and was elected president. He lied about Benghazi in 2012 and was re-electerd. He knows the racist media won't call him on it because he is black. Lying works well for him. ~Bob)

5 Disastrous Obama Policy Decisions That Have Already Blown Up In His Face. By John Hawkins
Excerpt: The only reason liberalism survives is because there's usually a good bit of lag between when a policy is being implemented and the time when the American people get to see the results. If Americans could somehow magically see what would happen in a decade or two after a liberal policy has passed, there would be no liberals left. Instead, back in the real world, liberals create or exacerbate disasters with their policies, blame everyone other than themselves, and then demand more government action to fix the problem they screwed up in the first place.

49 dead after Pro-Russian rebels down Ukrainian plane; Moscow equipment eyed
Excerpt: Pro-Russia separatists shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane Saturday, killing all 49 crew and troops aboard in a bloody escalation of the conflict in the country's restive east.
It was a bitter setback for the Ukrainian forces, which have struggled to suppress an armed insurgency by foes of the new government.

Religion of Peace News

U.S. won’t intervene in Iraq in absence of political reform by Iraqis, Obama says
Excerpt: The Obama administration has decided to hold any military intervention in Iraq in abeyance until it sees clear evidence that the country’s politics and governance are reforming, according to U.S. officials. After near-nonstop crisis meetings since early this week, President Obama has ordered options prepared for possible airstrikes in Iraq as well as a wide range of direct military assistance short of American boots on the ground.

Worth Reading: Welcome to the Jihadi Spring: The Arab Spring is over, and tweeting slogans won’t change the chaos that has followed it. By Jonah Goldberg
Excerpt: The Arab Spring is over. Welcome to the Jihadi Spring. Across a huge swath of what, up until recently, had been known as Iraq and Syria, a transnational movement of Sunni Islamic extremists has taken control. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has conquered — without much effort – Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, along with most of the province of Nineveh. It also took Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown.

Maliki’s Iraq disaster. By David Ignatius
Excerpt: Maliki’s failure has been increasingly obvious since the elections of 2010, when the Iraqi people in their wisdom elected a broader, less-sectarian coalition. But the Obama administration, bizarrely working in tandem with Iran, brokered a deal that allowed Maliki to continue and has worked with him as an ally against al-Qaeda. Maliki’s coalition triumphed in April’s elections, but the balloting was boycotted by Sunnis.

Excerpt: This week's stunning advance by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (ISIS) presents some serious questions about the legitimacy of Iraqi security forces (ISF) and Washington's policy of giving billions in military aid to troubled Middle Eastern governments. Since the fall of Fallujah in early January, the Iraqi military has failed to put down the rising insurgency in the west. Now with the fall of Mosul, Tikrit, and Bayji, it has collapsed completely in the north and much of central Iraq.

Excerpt: A statement from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham posted on social media sites today detailed ISIS' gains in the city of Mosul on Tuesday. The statement, issued by ISIS' media office for Wilayat Ninewa, is a summary of the operation to take Mosul that the terror organization is calling the "Invasion of Asadullah [Lion of Allah] al-Bilawi Abu Abdul Rahman," after a now deceased ISIS commander 'Adnan Ismail Najm (AKA Abu Abdul Rahman al-Bilawi). The statement begins by praising Allah who "brings honor to the Muslims with his victory and humiliates the polytheists with him subjugation" for the conquest of Mosul on Tuesday. The statement goes on to detail some of the planning and achievements of the ISIS invasion: (To Muslims, Christians who believe in the Trinity are "polytheists." ~Bob)

Day of Reckoning. By Richard Fernandez
Excerpt: Ernest Hemingway observed that people went broke gradually at first then all of a sudden. Barack Obama’s career, for so long without visible means of support, has now moved onto the “all of sudden stage” of bankruptcy. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaeda affiliated front of Muslims, have followed up their lightning seizure of Mosul by taking Tikrit, the former stronghold of Saddam Hussein.

For Obama, Iraq looms large again
Excerpt: President Obama inherited two wars on taking office, one he called “dumb”to his political benefit and the other he described more urgently as “the war we need to win.” It is the dumb one today that poses the most immediate challenge to his national security priorities and to his foreign policy legacy. Iraq is splintering, and with it both the original neo-conservative belief that a sectarian dictatorship could be made quickly into a stable democracy and Obama’s hands-off approach to the wider region.

ISIS butchers leave 'roads lined with decapitated police and soldiers': Battle for Baghdad looms as thousands answer Iraqi government's call to arms and jihadists bear down on capital
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2655977/ISIS-militants-march-Baghdad-trademark-bullet-head-gets-way-control-north.html
Excerpt: The full horror of the jihadists’ savage victories in Iraq emerged yesterday as witnesses told of streets lined with decapitated soldiers and policemen.
Blood-soaked bodies and blazing vehicles were left in the wake of the Al Qaeda-inspired ISIS fanatics as they pushed the frontline towards Baghdad. They boasted about their triumphs in a propaganda video depicting appalling scenes including a businessman being dragged from his car and executed at the roadside with a pistol to the back of his head.

U.S. Said to Rebuff Iraqi Request to Strike Militants
Excerpt: As the threat from Sunni militants in western Iraq escalated last month, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki secretly asked the Obama administration to consider carrying out airstrikes against extremist staging areas, according to Iraqi and American officials.
But Iraq’s appeals for a military response have so far been rebuffed by the White House, which has been reluctant to open a new chapter in a conflict that President Obama has insisted was over when the United States withdrew the last of its forces from Iraq in 2011. (Obama bombing Libya was different--Libya at that time posed no threat to us, like it does now as a terrorist haven. ~Bob)

‘Last Days of Vietnam’ Screens to Unsettling Echoes From Iraq
Excerpt: “Last Days in Vietnam” may be a film about events that happened nearly 40 years ago, but it was also one of the timeliest movies to show on Thursday's first full day of screenings at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Director Rory Kennedy's documentary is an eye-opening and unexpectedly moving chronicle of the chaotic evacuation of Americans and friendly Vietnamese from the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon as North Vietnamese troops prepared to take the city in April 1975. And it screened at LAFF on a day when three planeloads of Americans were being airlifted out of a Baghdad suburb as Sunni insurgents continued to take territory in northern Iraq, where U.S. troops once fought. (If a very well equipped army just melts away when 800 fighters come at them, then the country wasn't really a country, not a nation with a real identity and people willing to fight for it. We left a kind of mess behind, there and Maliki has been a terrible leader, corruption and violent partisanship running rampant, so it has never jelled as a real nation. The 13 colonies managed to get together, with great difficulty, after throwing the Brits out, because they had great leaders who convinced everyone that it was more important to concentrate on what they shared than where they differed. And that they were much stronger united than they were when divided. All the special groups in Iraq seem to never have figured out either of those things. Meanwhile, really dedicated religious fanatics become comparatively formidable, because they are united, focused, not to mention brutal and merciless. And if they win out, the whole population of Iraq will get to live the hell that the people in Kabul had under the Taliban. Already they are being told that Sharia will be enforced, and no woman should even leave the house without a compelling reason and a man to accompany her. This is exactly what they promised, they have never been shy about announcing their intentions and the guiding principles to which they are devoted. There should be no surprises here. Maybe if we offer real help, like serious air strikes (small chance), the rest of the Iraqis will figure out it's time to fight or sign up for slavery. The smart ones are the Kurds, who are tough fighters and willing to go at it when necessary. They will carve out their own area and if we have any smarts left at all, we'll back them. --Del. Alas, there are a growing number of Americans who would not fight for America--or anything else. ~Bob)

Excerpt: The Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham's rapid advance southward to Baghdad after taking control of Mosul just three days ago appears to have been halted outside of the gates of Samarra, home to one of the holiest shrines in Shia Islam. Iraqi security forces in Samarra blunted the ISIS' assault from the north late yesterday, stopping an armed convoy from entering the city. The military is said to have deployed aircraft while battling the ISIS vanguard.

Excerpt: The lightning advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham and its allies from Mosul to the outskirts of Samarra, as well as its capture of several towns in eastern Diyala, all over the course of several days, appears to be part of a greater strategy to surround the capital of Baghdad before laying siege to it. This plan, to take over the "belt" region outside of Baghdad and cut off the capital, appears to be the same strategy used by the ISIS' predecessor back in 2006.

ISIS Leader: ‘See You in New York
Excerpt: The Islamist extremist some are now calling the most dangerous man in the world had a few parting words to his captors as he was released from the biggest U.S. detention camp in Iraq in 2009. “He said, ‘I’ll see you guys in New York,’” recalls Army Col. Kenneth King, then the commanding officer of Camp Bucca.

Horror in Iraqi Roads - Isis Death Squads Killing without mercy. Video not for all (18+) 
Excerpt: The psychopaths of Isis are killing without mercy in Iraqi roads. A Horrific video shows their latest murders in Iraq. In the end of the video, a poor fellow guy runned to save his life, unfortunately without success.

Heading for disaster in Iran. By Jennifer Rubin 
Excerpt: As Iraq descends into chaos, the looming threat of a nuclear-armed Iran hangs over the Middle East. Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and an expert on the inner workings of the Iranian regime, tells Right Turn that sanctions have put pressure on the mullahs: “The Iranian regime wants to achieve some kind of agreement since it is desperate for cash.” Meanwhile, “President Obama needs a foreign policy achievement he can market as a victory.” That, however, doesn’t bode well for disarming Iran. “I’m not sure it will be a good deal,” he says. “Even worse . . . I’m not sure Iran can deliver.”

Excerpt: One of the five senior Taliban leaders transferred to Qatar in exchange for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl played a key role in al Qaeda's plans leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Mohammad Fazl, who served as the Taliban's army chief of staff and deputy defense minister prior to his detention at Guantánamo, did not have a hand in planning the actual 9/11 hijackings. Along with a notorious al Qaeda leader, however, Fazl did help coordinate a military offensive against the enemies of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan the day before. And Osama bin Laden viewed that Sept. 10 offensive as an essential part of al Qaeda's 9/11 plot.


Excerpt: Earlier this week, we brought you news about the producer of the film that was at the heart of the Obama administration talking points on Benghazi admitting to being a Muslim, not a Coptic Christian as he had been portrayed to America. Now Walid Shoebat, Ben Barrack and Keith Davies confirm he is an agent of Eric Holder's Justice Department. (I'd rate this very doubtful. But I rated Fast and Furious very doubtful. I don't mind slamming Obama or Holder based on the facts. But if we slam them on lies, we are both unethical, and counter-productive. It remains to be seen which this is. ~Bob)

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