Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Lots of interesting political news and comment

General News and Comment

Conservatives Who With Reagan Fought
(With apologies to Robbie Burns and Robert the Bruce)
Robert A. Hall

Worth Reading: Pull-Ups; Preparing For Combat; Combat; and The Women's War on Men. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: Then last week came news the Marine Corps is pushing the requirement for female Marines to perform the pull-up (physical fitness testing) to the end of 2015. That's a delay. And today a retired Marine sent me an article that implied the physical standards for the necessarily demanding 12-week Infantry Officer Course (which no female volunteer has conquered - only one making it through the first day combat endurance test) will be lowered (under a guise - changed policy to fit the pressure). Why? Because females, generally speaking (of course, there is always an exception or two), cannot do pull-ups. Nor can females perform to the physical standards of a male. Life is not fair. And no amount of physical fitness training is going to conquer the evolutionary design of females (they are not males and there is many a good reason - for instance, reproduction and perpetuation of the species). (This is going to get men killed. But it won't be the sons of the politically-correct liberal politicians pushing this to please the base. They don't choose to serve. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: Lawsuits and Impeachment. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Whenever Democrats are in real trouble politically, the Republicans seem to come up with something new that distracts the public’s attention from the Democrats' problems. Who says Republicans are not compassionate? With public opinion polls showing President Obama’s sinking approval rate, in the wake of his administration’s multiple fiascoes and scandals – the disgraceful treatment of veterans who need medical care, the Internal Revenue Service coverups, the tens of thousands of children flooding across our open border – Republicans have created two new distractions that may yet draw attention away from the Democrats' troubles.

Worth Reading: Winning Streaks End & Organizations Die. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: The young Marine, with barely a year in the regiment, told me the Marine Corps is on a fourteen year winning streak (combat) and so much as said survival of the Marine Corps is secure. And continued to explain the need for effective and efficient use of personnel and there was no need for two series officers (per series) to lead and supervise. The argument, though superficially logical, lacked history, depth, and experience that comes only through maturity and seasoning.

Federal Employees engaged in partisan politics during work hours
And yet another "recycled" hard drive! ~Bob

The Outhouse of American Liberty. By Mark Steyn 
Excerpt: 'Norfolk City Councilman Dick Pfeil told the Omaha World-Herald that he was unhappy with the float, and he wanted to make clear the city had not approved it.' Because nothing better exemplifies the spirit of Independence Day than having your float approved by the government. Well, the good news is that Eric Holder's Department of Justice - that would be the same Department of Justice that supplies guns to Mexican drug gangs, and monitors the phone calls and emails of US journalists, and declines to investigate the IRS' obstruction of justice, and prosecutes states that seek to verify the immigration status of people within their borders, etc, etc - Eric Holder's Department of Justice has dispatched a crack team of agents to Nebraska to investigate said act of lèse-majesté toward King Barack:

Kay Hagan’s Carbon Tax Would Destroy Up To 67,000 N.C. Jobs
Excerpt: Kay Hagan has supported a carbon tax that would cause gas prices and utility bills to skyrocket, while destroying up to 67,000 jobs in North Carolina over the next ten years.
But with Election Day quickly approaching, Hagan is now backtracking from her fringe, anti-energy positions and denies that she ever supported the carbon tax. But Hagan’s record is clear: she has been a long-time proponent of taxing carbon emissions.

At Dinner Tables, a Restless Obama Finds an Intellectual Escape. By Julie Hirschfeld Davis
Excerpt: In a summer when the president is traveling across the country meeting with ordinary Americans under highly choreographed conditions, the Rome dinner shows another side of Mr. Obama. As one of an increasing number of late-night dinners in his second term, it offers a glimpse into a president who prefers intellectuals to politicians, and into the rarefied company Mr. Obama may keep after he leaves the White House. Sometimes stretching into the small hours of the morning, the dinners reflect a restless president weary of the obligations of the White House and less concerned about the appearance of partying with the rich and celebrated. (I'd rather have a beer with working class Marine vets. A Republican who had dinners like this would be called a snob by the media. ~Bob) 

Chicago Blacks Turn on Obama. By Tad Cronn
Excerpt: The great hope of achieving Martin Luther King’s dream has been dashed to pieces by a man who is the most racially divisive president ever. Thus, it is particularly telling that even blacks, Obama’s most solid support group, are starting to turn on him. ("Turn on him" is a bit of a stretch, but the shine is definitely off the loafer. ~Bob)

Another swing and a miss for Obama’s foreign policy. By Dana Milbank 
Milbank is a liberal! ~Bob. Excerpt: President Obama has described his foreign-policy doctrine as an attempt to hit singles, doubles and the occasional home run. But at this stage of the game, it looks as though he has popped out, grounded into a double play and been hit by a pitch. His attorney general, Eric Holder, said Sunday that the threat of undetectable explosives from Syria is “more frightening than anything” he has experienced in office. And the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page article Monday reporting that “the breadth of global instability now unfolding hasn’t been seen since the late 1970s” and that “U.S. global power seems increasingly tenuous.”

Progressives turn from Obama to embrace Warren
Excerpt: Populist Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) got a rock-star reception during a standing-room-only campaign rally here Monday, as hundreds of liberal activists cheered her broadsides against corporate interests and voiced hopes that her presence might shift the political winds in an increasingly Republican state. (and she's a minority too. Harvard touted her as a Native American faculty member on the basis of her family legend that she was 1/32nd Cherokee. Huh. According to my grandmother. granddad was 1/4th Cree, making me 1/16th. But like Warren, i have no evidence. Still, I'm applying for a casino license...~Bob)

Excerpt: The Federal Election Commission recycled the computer hard drive of April Sands — a former co-worker of Lois Lerner’s — hindering an investigation into Sands’ partisan political activities, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. (There seems to be a rash of crashed computers and lost emails among federal employees--the folks who will be in charge of keeping your electronic health records. ~Bob)

Professors For Pedophilia. By Stephen Brown 
Excerpt: The results of Plummer’s “research,” however, was to produce such disturbing statements as: “The isolation, secrecy, guilt and anguish of many pedophiles are not intrinsic to the phenomenon but are derived from the extreme social pressure placed on minorities.” And another gem: “Many adult pedophiles say that boys actively seek out sex partners …’childhood’ itself is not a biological given but an historically produced social object.”

Burger King employee goes into uncontrollable rage, attacks pro-lifer
Excerpt: A pro-life organization ran into trouble in Columbus, Ohio Wednesday when a disturbed young woman with anger management issues went on a rampage. 9remember when "liberal" meant tolerant? ~Bob)

Battle of Hue video
A great deal of film right from the fight, some of it had to be from our cameramen. 43 minutes long. Anybody who was in Hue can tell me what they think of this. (I see someone I know in here... Hi Dale) S/F --Del

See Why Rolling Stone’s List of ‘Most Dangerous Guns’ Is Being Called ‘Maybe the Worst Piece of Journalism of All-Time.’ By Jason Howerton
Excerpt: The Internet is relentlessly mocking Rolling Stone’s new photo slideshow outlining the “5 most dangerous guns in America,” with one reader calling it “maybe the worst piece of journalism of all-time.” Making the publication’s list are pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, and even Derringers.

Bad Ass Nurse Shoots Carjacker, Breaks Up Criminal Ring [VIDEO]
http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/15/armed-milwaukee-nurse-staves-off-car-jacking-breaks-up-criminal-ring-video/#ixzz37g7IpJrc
Excerpt: A Milwaukee nurse who shot an attempted carjacker likely helped break up a criminal ring that police believe has been involved in a string of robberies and carjackings as well as a recent shooting. Two teenagers — a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old — tried to steal Victoria Davison’s car last month while she was in it, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
A Communications Problem, Again? By Jennifer Rubin 
Excerpt: For this administration, failure is always the result of a “communications” problem. Otherwise, failure might be taken as evidence of misguided ideology and incompetent execution, right? It’s a weird excuse for the president who fancies himself to be the most eloquent man on the planet. And it is equally weird when someone whose job it is to communicate U.S. policy makes that excuse.

White House blows off Issa subpoena to testify on possible political violations. By Pete Kasperowicz
Excerpt: The Obama administration on Wednesday refused to send a senior White House official to testify before the House, even though House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) had issued a subpoena requiring him to appear.
The White House warned Issa late Tuesday that David Simas, director of the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, would not be appearing. (It's not that the administration is in contempt of Congress--it's that they have contempt for Congress. ~Bob)

Worth reading: Our Unwillingness to Defend Ourselves. By Walter E. Williams
Excerpt: Today’s Americans tolerate what would have been unthinkable years ago. According to theNational Center for Education Statistics and the BJS, 209,800 primary- and secondary-school teachers reported being physically attacked by a student during the 2011-12 academic year. Hundreds of thousands more are threatened with injury. On average, 1,175 teachers are physically attacked each day of the school year. These facts demonstrate an unwillingness to defend ourselves against these young barbarians, who often will grow into big barbarians.

Leaked Border Crisis Intel Shreds Narrative From Media And Obama Admin
Excerpt: An elite, law-enforcement sensitive El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) intel report from July 7, 2014 was leaked to Breitbart Texas and reveals that homicide rates in Central America suggest violence is likely not the primary cause of the surge of thousands of unaccompanied minors and incomplete family units illegally entering the United States.
The EPIC report indicates that the belief among the illegal immigrants that they would receive permisos and be allowed to stay was the driving factor in their choices to come to the United States and that the crisis will continue until ‘misperceptions’ about U.S. immigration benefits were no longer prevalent .

Con Thien
You sent a video of Hue. How about this from 1967. SF, Jack 9Sgt. Jack was my boss at Khe Sanh. ~Bob)

Millennials' Political Views Don't Make Any Sense
Excerpt: Millennial politics is simple, really. Young people support big government, unless it costs any more money. They're for smaller government, unless budget cuts scratch a program they've heard of. They'd like Washington to fix everything, just so long as it doesn't run anything. That's all from a new Reason Foundation poll surveying 2,000 young adults between the ages of 18 and 29. Millennials' political views are, at best, in a stage of constant metamorphosis and, at worst, "totally incoherent," as Dylan Matthews puts it.

How Stupid Happens: No, PolitiFact did not show that half of Fox News statements are false. By Kevin D. Williamson
Excerpt: The most obvious problem — though certainly not the only problem, not even close — is selection bias: PolitiFact is a readership-driven online publication, and thus it exercises a great deal of discretion about which statements it chooses to evaluate and why. The most obvious factor is that it evaluates only statements that are disputed. Specifically, it evaluates only statements that are disputed and that its editors believe will be of some interest or benefit to its readers.

Obamacare News

Must Read: The First Single-Payer Domino: If the health-care experiment fails in Vermont, it would send shock waves nationwide. By John McClaughry
Excerpt: When the statutory January 2013 report date arrived, the governor refused to produce the mandated report. It’s now the summer of 2014, and Shumlin, having forsworn deadlines, now says the citizens will get the news in 2015, after another election. The news, incidentally, will be frightening. Two independent analyses of the likely cost of Green Mountain Care, above and beyond federal subventions, found that it will likely require a $2 billion tax hike. This, in a state whose general-fund budget is $1.44 billion. (My Great, Great Grandfather, Vermont State Representative George Mortimer Hall, MD, must be spinning in his grave in Swanton, Vermont. ~Bob)

In North Carolina, an Obamacare disconnect. By Jennifer Haberkorn
Excerpt: The Tar Heel State signed up more than 357,000 people — one-third of those eligible for the new health insurance exchange. Yet President Barack Obama’s health law remains a major liability for Sen. Kay Hagan, who faces one of the toughest reelection races for any Senate Democrat this year, a true toss-up fight against North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis. He misses no chance to tie her to Obama and the Affordable Care Act, forcing her to calibrate both how to defend a law she voted for and how to distance herself from it.

Healthcare's Free Market Alternative. By William F. Jasper

Excerpt: “I called local surgeons and facilities to ask for hernia surgery costs, and never received a firm price, or complete information about what was actually done,” said Bob Singleton of Dallas, Texas. “The verbal estimates (they wouldn’t put them in writing) were in the $5k to $8k range, and that was after their ‘discount’ for cash payment, which was 5 percent.”
Then he checked out the Surgery Center of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City and was pleasantly surprised. The Surgery Center of Oklahoma (SCO) website “gave a fixed price of $3,190 for my surgery,” Singleton recounts. “I called and received all the information I needed. I was able to check the credentials of the surgeon, which were good, and arrange the surgery to happen in less than 2 weeks.”

Undocumented Democrat News

Must Read: Illiberal Immigration ‘Reform.’ People who call for “comprehensive immigration reform” seldom mean it. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Each day a worried politician or pundit, with creased brow and pained expression, lectures us about the need for “comprehensive immigration reform” to avoid the sort of chaos we are witnessing on the border. Then a funny thing happens. The speaker never defines the term. If on rare occasions advocates are asked, they fumble around, annoyed that anyone would press them to explain what they mean. In truth, no one in the open-borders coalition wants anything approaching comprehensive immigration reform.

Memo to Central America. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt
Look, citizens of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. We thought our president would send this message to you, but apparently he’s too busy with his fundraisers,issuing statements on LeBron James signing with the Cavaliersgolfing with sportswriter Michael Wilbon Saturday and looking forward to his Martha’s Vineyard vacation. So somebody has to say this: You have to take care of your own kids. You may have heard us complaining that our federal government is becoming a nanny state, but we didn’t mean that our government is actually running a nanny service. We understand gang violence, drug cartels, and other criminals are making your countries terrible places to live. We’re really sorry to hear that. We’ve also given your government quite a bit of money to make life better down there. Honduraswe gave you $83 million in foreign aid in 2013El Salvador: $46.8 million. Guatemala$106 million. If the money wasn’t spent well, take it up with your government. Some of you might say that’s not enough, but we’re not obligated to give you anything. There are a hell of a lot of Americans who think that money could be better spent back here. You have to fight to make your country a better place to live so that your fellow countrymen will want to stay there. We can’t fight your battles for you. In fact, this is a particularly bad time to ask. You may have heard, twice in the past 13 years we went into far-off countries with unstable governments and warlords and drugs, determined to give the oppressed locals a better future. We spent way too much in blood and treasure, the populace turned out to be a bunch of ingrates, and the local leadership ran the place into the ground.

Illegal immigrants in D.C. fail written driver’s test at 80% rate. DMV website shows backlog until March
Luckily, they won't need one to vote. ~Bob

13 Quotes You Need To Read About Illegal Immigration. By John Hawkins
Excerpt: Robert Rector, who works on such problems at the Heritage Foundation stated, "Granting amnesty or legal status to illegals will generate costs in Medicare and Social Security alone of $2.5 trillion above any taxes paid in” 

Religion of Pace News

Israeli official expects ‘very high possibility’ of invasion of Gaza; airstrikes escalate
Excerpt: On a day rattled by a fury of air attacks, Israel and Hamas found themselves Wednesday searching for a way forward, with a senior Israeli military official declaring that a ground invasion of Gaza was a “very high possibility.” (If Hamas wanted a "way forward" they would have accepted the Egyptian ceasefire proposal, as Israel did. They want war, secure in the knowledge that if they lose, the west will restrain Israel from destroying them. Of course, if they win, they will slaughter as many Israelis as possible. While our media pictures these murders as the victims. ~Bob)

ISIS mass POW executions--very graphic video
We have come to you with slaughter.” ISIS has declared it intentions to conquer Jordan, Lebanon, Gaza, Sinai as well as Jerusalem, Rome, and Spain. (They don't have aGitmo problem. They just shoot POWs in the head. ~Bob)

Cease-Fire Fails. From The Patriot Post
Egypt stepped in this week to broker a cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel. Initially, Israel accepted, but Hamas responded by firing more rockets into Israel from Gaza. Or as news reports said, Hamas' "military wing" rejected the cease fire. National Review's Jim Geraghty quipped, "Militant wings are the evil twins of geopolitics. If your organization has a military wing -- as opposed to an actual, declared, uniforms-and-everything-military -- you're probably a troublemaker." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, "[W]e are prepared to continue and intensify our operation and protect our people." And Israel has done just that in the last few hours. (Israel accepted the proposed Egyptian ceasefire, Hamas rejected it. So of course, all left-thinking persons will condemn--Israel! ~Bob)

Israel resumes attacks after Hamas rejects cease-fire plan
Excerpt: Speaking on condition of anonymity, a senior Israeli official said Netanyahu and Benny Gantz, the IDF chief of general staff, “have instructed the army to operate with full force against the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza.” It was not immediately clear what was meant by the instruction to use “full force” against Gaza. The official said the action was precipitated by the refusal of Hamas and another militant group, Islamic Jihad, to accept an Egyptian cease-fire proposal and by the persistent rocket fire.

Excerpt: Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000. Prime Minister Ehud Barack’s government thought that the withdrawal would show that Israel was serious about making peace, and would bring to an end the relentless attacks against Israel at the United Nations and in the international media. Israel withdrew from Gaza in September 2005. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government thought that the withdrawal would show that Israel was serious about making peace, and would bring to an end the relentless attacks against Israel at the United Nations and in the international media. Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula by 1982 as part of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty resulting from the Camp David Accords. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s government thought that the withdrawal would show that Israel was serious about making peace, and would bring to an end the relentless attacks against Israel at the United Nations and in the international media. "Patrick Henry: "gentleman may cry, 'Peace, Peace,' but there is no peace. ... Is peace so sweet or life so dear as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" I memorized this speech in high school, but think this quote is close. ~Bob)

Legendary Marine Maj. Zembiec, the ‘Lion of Fallujah,’ died in the service of the CIA
Excerpt: On the pages of the CIA’s Book of Honor are 111 hand-drawn stars organized by the years those officers died. For 2007, there is a single, anonymous star. It belongs to Marine Maj. Douglas Alexander Zembiec. Long thought to be an active-duty Marine when he was killed in Baghdad, Zembiec was actually serving with the CIA’s paramilitary arm. (Semper Fidelis, Sir. ~Bob)

German police megaphone used in anti-Israel rant
Excerpt: German police allowed an anti-Israel protester to climb inside a police car and shout slogans including "child murderer Israel" and "Allahu akbar!" — Arabic for "God is Great!" — through a police megaphone, a spokeswoman for Frankfurt's police said Sunday. Why no, "Juden, Raus!" as they seek a Judenfrei Middle East.? ~Bob)

Palestinians in Hebron cheer as Gaza rockets fly toward Israeli population centers
Excerpt: West Bank Palestinians cheered on Saturday as Hamas militants fired the largest salvo of rockets yet on the Tel Aviv area since the start of the recent escalations.

Excerpt: A sessions court on Monday handed down the death sentence and imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on a blasphemy accused after charges were proved against him. Additional sessions court Judge Naveed Iqbal issued the ruling in the case. The accused, Zulfikar, was 'caught red-handed' while writing blasphemous remarks on the walls of Afghan Park in Lahore's Islampura area in 2008.

Excerpt: A venerated rabbi in Casablanca, Morocco, sustained serious injuries, including broken bones, in a beating by an Arab assailant on Friday night, according to a local report.
The suspect, who was in his 20s, and who local officials said was known to the police, attacked Rabbi Moshe Ohayon near a synagogue after evening services, breaking several of his ribs in the process.

6 Farmers Killed in Attack in Xinjiang
Excerpt: In the latest outbreak of violence in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, assailants have stabbed to death six ethnic Han farmers in a late-night spate of home invasions that appear to be part of a slow-burn effort to sow terror among migrants to the region, Radio Free Asia reported on Monday. Like most recent incidents of ethnic bloodletting, news of the attack was quickly removed from the Internet in China.

Excerpt: “You have been running around saying, ‘Bring back our girls,’” says Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Congregation of the People of the Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad, aka Boko Haram. “Bring back our Army! Jonathan! Bring back our Army!”

Pro-Palestinian and Pro-Hamas Have Become Oxymorons
Excerpt: Over the years, we at the Investigative Project on Terrorism and many others havecalled on American Islamists to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization. They have steadfastly refused. Fine. But if Palestinian advocates really want a better life for the people of Gazatoday's events make it clear they must condemn Hamas for making the plight of the people there demonstrably worse.

Excerpt: The Islamic State and its Baathist allies have forced Iraqi forces that were attempting to retake Tikrit to withdraw from the city just one day after launching a much touted offensive. Iraqi forces, which include regular Army units, paramilitary SWAT teams, and hastily raised Shia militias from the south, launched their offensive to regain control of the capital of Salahaddin province with much fanfare yesterday morning.

Attacking Israel With the Big Lie: Genocide. By Jonah Goldberg

Excerpt: “Here’s the difference between us,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they’re using their civilians to protect their missiles.” It’s a classic talking point. It’s also objectively true, and that truth is very frustrating for Israel’s critics.

1 comment:

  1. Very informative post & will help the writings to the concern people who are determined to do something on their respective field. Thanks very much.

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