Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Today's Political News and Conservative Comment

Update

My granddaughter, Britnye wasn't happy with the picture of Dale and her that I posted. "Grandma took it just as I sneezed," she said. This one of the three of us is better.


General News and Comment

Must See: Great Ad--This should be shared! ~Bob
In 2008, I fell in love. His online profile made him seem so perfect. Smart, handsome, charming, articulate – all the right values. I trusted him. But by 2012, our relationship was in trouble. But I stuck with him, because he promised he would be better. He's great at promises. He told me we would be safe. Have you looked at the news? He's in my e-mails, and text messages, spying on me, but ignoring real threats. He said we'd finally get on our feet financially. I'll never pay down what he spent. He thinks the only thing I care about is free birth control. But he won't even let me keep my own doctor. I know I'm stuck with Barack for two more years. I get that. But I'm not stuck with his friends. I'm looking for someone who gets that this isn't about him. It's about us.

The Wit and Wisdom of Democrats. Robert A. Hall
Excerpt: In addition to the lies and endless broken promises (every Obama promise comes with an expiration date), there are many comments by the self-proclaimed intelligentsia that are just amusing. Below are some of them.


Senator Diane Feinstein's Home--not how the 99% live!

Obama Declines Invitation to Attend Memorial Dedication for Disabled Veterans. By Debra Heine 
Excerpt: For some unexplained reason, the president has declined an invitation to attend a dedication ceremony in October for a new memorial honoring American veterans who have been disabled fighting for their country in wars. According to the Washington Free Beacon, the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial (AVDLM) is the first memorial of its kind, and is set to be dedicated during a ceremony on Oct. 5 near the National Mall in downtown Washington, D.C. The memorial’s organizers say “the memorial will serve as a constant reminder of the cost of human conflict.” The Free Beacon reports "according to a source close to the situation" Obama declined the invitation, making him the first president in recent history not to formally accept a new national memorial. (Now the White House won't confirm that the Prez will not attend, but that's basically a form of stonewalling. They won't say he said NO, they just won't say anything. But it sure doesn't look like he'll be there, does it? And gee, I'm shocked, shocked once more! --Del. Begs the question, Why would they want him? But if they do, they should get a black veterans group to invite him. He'll then "consider the optics." )

A Marxist Mistake? AFL-CIO Pushes Get Out The Vote For Mid-Terms Under Soviet-Style Symbol
Excerpt: In 1997, shortly after current AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, along with then-president John Sweeney, took over the AFL-CIO, America’s oldest labor federation lifted the ban on Communists. Nearly two decades later, as Republicans, Democrats and Independents gear up for this fall’s mid-term elections, the special interest group—indirectly funded by union members’ dues—has launched a “get out the vote” page with a symbol that is eerily reminiscent of the Soviet-era hammer and sickle. (I'd say a stretch, but when one of Obama's cabinet members says that Mao--communist murderer of 60M people--is her favorite philosopher, who knows. ~Bob)

Excerpt: One of the four Houston, Texas cops involved actually killed himself when the scandal broke that cops falsify speeding tickets. The other three are under investigation, but the police union to which they belong have reminded everyone that they are innocent until proven guilty. Which is true, but it wasn’t difficult to prove their guilt. KHOU reported: (As with the VA, when you create perverse incentives, you get perverse results. ~Bob)

Here We Go Again: Students Prohibited From Passing Out Constitutions on Constitution Day
Excerpt: Once again, university officials have shown how progressive and tolerant they are by forcing Young Americans for Freedom at Pennsylvania State University to remove its table from a so-called “free speech zone.” The YAF activists’ crime? Handing out copies of the Constitution on Constitution Day, Sept. 17. (Hey, Penn state, the Constitution makes the entire county a "free speech zone." ~Bob)

Venezuela's Maduro launches civilian disarmament plan
Excerpt: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has announced he is expanding a plan to disarm civilians. Speaking on the International Day of Peace, Mr Maduro said his government would invest $47m (£29m) and create 60 new disarmament centres. (Tyrants seeking absolute power always want the population disarmed. ~Bob)

Why Wisconsin won't become Illinois
Excerpt: But of course, this is the issue. His now-famous union bargaining reforms of 2011 have incurred the wrath of America's big labor unions, which are now eager to defeat him. But anyone who doubts the wisdom of Walker's reforms — and the self-interested short-sightedness of the public union bosses — need only look southward to neighboring Illinois.

Why The Mary Burke “Plagiarism” Story Matters: Be Careful What You Brag About. By Dan McLaughlin
Excerpt: But here’s the thing: Mary Burke really, really wanted voters to think her “jobs plan” was an important reason to distinguish her from her opponent, Scott Walker, and she ought to pay a price for that. Here’s the tune Burke was singing back in March: Democratic Gubernatorial challenger, Mary Burke released her 5 point plan today to create jobs….“I brought Gov. Walker’s plan from 2010. This is 4 pages. I’ve seen 8th grade term papers that had more work put into them,” Burke told an audience at Marquette University. (when I was student teaching, I gave a junior an "F" for plagiarizing on a history paper. Offered her the chance to redo it; she said no. ~Bob)

Excerpt: The First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia described the reforms which resulted in the Prague Spring as “socialism with a human face.” The New York Times calls Madam Secretary, CBS’s extremely expensive prime time contribution to the Hillary campaign, “Hillary with a human face.”

Quote From The Patriot Post
"[W]e still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute." --Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

El Reno woman says she shot would-be home intruder in backside. Cathy Kouba says intruder left blood trail for police
Excerpt: “I have a daughter that’s handicapped and she was asleep on the bottom floor,” Kouba said. “And so for the fear of her being hurt, motherly instincts kick in and, you know, I worked hard for what I’ve got. And you’re not going to come and take it away from me.” ... Kouba called her gun the best Mother’s Day present she’s ever received.

Actually, a great success: The War on Poverty: 50 Years of Failure
The WOP put billions of tax dollars in the pockets of Democrat-voting do-gooders and bureaucrats, just as intended. ~Bob. Excerpt: This year marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the War on Poverty. Since President Johnson proclaimed his unconditional war on poverty, taxpayers have spent roughly $22 trillion dollars, which, adjusted for inflation, is three times the cost of all military wars since the American Revolution! Last year, the government spent $943 billion providing cash, food, housing, and medical care to poor and low-income Americans. More than 100 million people, or one-third of the population, receive some type of welfare at an average cost of $9,000 per recipient. Yet, as of 2013, 14.5 percent of Americans were poor, the same rate of poverty as in 1967. The definition of poor, as defined by the Census Bureau, is interesting. It counts a family poor if income falls below a certain level. Yet it ignores the effect of welfare spending, making the figures of poor very misleading. For example, 80 percent of poor households have air conditioning' two-thirds have cable or satellite television; half have a personal computer; and 40 percent have high-definition televisions. In fact, less than 2 percent of poor are homeless and only 10 percent live in trailer homes.

Fence-jumper: Another victim of 'psych crisis' at Fort Hood?
http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/key-fact-about-white-house-fence-jumper-revealed/
Excerpt: Only five months after a senior neuropsychologist in charge of Fort Hood’s outpatient psychiatry clinic revealed to WND a crisis in psychological testing and treatment at the U.S. Army post, a decorated war veteran who sought therapy at the installation is now in federal custody for jumping the White House fence and bursting through the executive mansion doors. On Sept. 19, Omar J. Gonzalez, a 42-year-old Army veteran who had deployed to Iraq three times and was injured by a homemade bomb, jumped over the north fence, sprinted across the lawn and was stopped only after he entered the White House doors.

Race Card News

Gangsters who fatally shot Chicago boy, 9, thought he was trying to warn rivals: cops
Excerpt: Gang members in Chicago's South Side shot a 9-year-old boy out walking in his neighborhood last month because they thought he was trying to warn rival gangbangers about their whereabouts, police said. The four men — Jabari Williams, 22, Michael D. Baker, Paris Denard and Derrick Allmon, all 19 — were out looking to shoot rival gangsters on Aug. 20 when they encountered 9-year-old Antonio Smith Jr. in a yard near his Grand Crossing home, police said, according to the Chicago Tribune. (Didn't hear much about this one. When blacks murder whites, or as is far more likely, fellow blacks, hardly news, because the race baiters can't use it to get power and money and it doesn't fit the media narrative. But the far less frequent cases of whites killing blacks get endless coverage, and the race money machine goes into over drive. They will be talking about Trayvon long after Antonio is forgotten by all but his grieving family. ~Bob)

Excerpt: Photos from one of the events, however, showed Ferguson police checking IDs at the door. ... Put another way, nearly 70 percent of the residents of Ferguson, Missouri are black and yet Holder’s DOJ isn’t concerned that requiring photo ID will prevent any of them from attending an “important” town hall meeting? However, make that a requirement to cast a ballot and it’s suddenly a massive “depress the vote” effort.

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News

Excerpt: According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, spending on Medicaid, the jointly funded state-federal welfare program that provides health benefits to low-income people, increased 6.7 percent in 2013 to $449.5 billion. And it will keep growing at a fast rate: "Total Medicaid spending is projected to grow 12.8 percent in 2014 due to increased enrollment of nearly 8 million beneficiaries. Primarily driving the increase in enrollment are states that chose to expand coverage to adults up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. As some states are expected to expand their Medicaid programs after 2014, an additional 8.5 million people are expected to enroll in the program by 2016. Medicaid spending is expected to grow by 6.7 percent in 2015, and 8.6 percent in 2016. For 2016 to 2023, Medicaid spending growth is projected to be 6.8 percent per year on average." This comprises a massive increase in welfare dependency. I think it’s a low-ball estimate.

Government Watchdog: HealthCare.gov Full of Security Risks
Excerpt: The Government Accountability Office is set to address Congress this week to discuss the federal health insurance website and cybersecurity. The site -- into which millions of Americans have plugged in their personal information in order to enroll in health insurance plans -- contains a number of security risks that must be addressed, according to the GAO's director of information security issues Gregory Wilshusen. Residents in more than 30 states have shopped for insurance on HealthCare.gov. In order to enroll in plans, as well as apply for federal tax credits to subsidize the cost of their insurance, people must enter several pieces of personal information, including income data and their family members' Social Security numbers. Even states that run their own exchanges use the federal site for certain purposes.

Panel Urges Overhauling Health Care at End of Life
Excerpt: The country's system for handling end-of-life care is largely broken and should be overhauled at almost every level, a national panel concluded in a report released on Wednesday, according to the New York Times. According to some, the system is geared toward towards simply doing more toward the end of life which can be costly and not consistent with what the patients actually want. A report by a nonpartisan committee that was appointed by the Institute of Medicine has some recommendations for dealing with end of life care: First, Reimburse health care providers for conversations on advanced care planning. Restructuring Medicare, Medicaid, and other health care delivery programs. Eliminate perverse financial incentives that encourage expensive hospital procedures when low-tech services like pain management and home health care are available. Finally, accredited medical schools and groups as well as health providers should greatly increase training in palliative care.

Undocumented Democrat News

Vitter: Obama Admin ‘Bending Over Backwards To Give Obamacare To Illegal Immigrants’
Excerpt: “The Obama Administration is bending over backwards to give Obamacare to illegal immigrants — but won’t protect hard working American citizens who are losing their health care coverage,” Vitter said. “The Obama administration has been granting deadline extensions, making excuses, and turning a blind eye to falsified documents by illegal immigrants.” 

"You're Greener than Gore" News

The Crumbling Climate-Change Consensus: Extremists’ rhetoric heats up as their case falls apart. By John Fund
Excerpt: Naomi Klein, author of a new book on the “crisis,” This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, said, “I have seen the future, and it looks like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.” In her new book she demands that North America and Europe pay reparations to poorer countries to compensate for the climate change they cause. She calls her plan a “Marshall Plan for the Earth” and acknowledges that it would cost “hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars.” But she has an easy solution on how to pay for it: “Need more money? Print some!” What’s a little hyperinflation compared to “saving the planet”? (They are of course economically ignorant. ~Bob)

Coal must be part of America's energy future. By Peter Roff 
Excerpt: Along with oil and natural gas, coal is an essential part of the energy tripod that keeps the American economy the largest in the world. In fact, coal is still America’s most abundant energy resource. As recently as 2009, it accounted for almost 25 percent of total U.S. energy consumption and was the origin of more than half the electricity produced in this country.

Obama's energy policy is not science -- it's an ideological crusade, By Sen. Mitch Mcconnell
Excerpt: There's a right way and a wrong way to go about protecting the environment, and anyone familiar with the Obama administration’s record has had a front-row seat on how not to go about this vital but delicate task. Not unlike its approach to Obamacare, the administration has used a regulatory sledgehammer when a mere scalpel would have done the job. Here’s why: For those in the Obama administration, it is less about balancing environmental concerns with economic growth than it is about crushing forms of energy they don’t like — like coal.

Memo to Leonardo DiCaprio: Climate Change ‘Reforms’ Would Hurt People. By Scott Blakeman
Excerpt: The truth is the dire predictions that were once made by climate change alarmists haven’t come to fruition. Data simply does not show that the climate has been getting warmer, wetter or wilder at the accelerating pace some predicted it would. All the climate summits in the world and all the marches and rallies may ironically increase the collective carbon footprint, but they won’t change reality. However, drastic measures taken to combat climate change could harm economic growth. Increased environmental regulations, carbon taxes and cap-and-trade schemes all harm the economy. (What does DiCaprio care? He's so rich that while doubling energy costs may mean the poor go without heat and food, it won't bother him in the least. ~Bob)

No surprise: Climate Marchers Leave Trail of Trash EVERYWHERE. Check Out the Top Tweets…
Excerpt: Hundreds-of-thousands marched in New York on Sunday as they got together to “raise awareness” over the need for global government intervention on the issue of “climate change.” A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo joined the crowd and marched. When the self-congratulations died down, however, what was left was a gigantic pile of trash that, inarguably, is far from “green.” (the only recent demonstrations I've seen where they picked up after themselves were the Tea Party rallies. The left expects the government to come clean up the mess they make. ~Bob)

Religion of Peace News

Must Read: The Once & Future Christendom: From death of the West—to knights of the West. By James P. Pinkerton
Excerpt: With apologies to the frankenfood-fearers and polar bear-sentimentalizers, the biggest danger we face is the Clash of Civilizations, especially as we rub against the “bloody borders” of Islam. What if, in the coming century, we lose that clash—and the source of our civilization? What if Muslims take over Europe? What if “Eurabia” indeed comes to pass? Would Islamic invaders demolish the Vatican, as the Taliban dynamited Afghanistan’s Buddhas of Bamyan in 2001? Or would they settle merely for stripping the great cathedrals of Europe of all their Christian adornment, rendering them into mosques? And what if the surviving non-Muslim population of Europe is reduced to subservient “dhimmitude”?

Worth Reading: Who Wants War? By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: In all my 84 years, I cannot recall a time when most Americans wanted war. That is something we should be proud of. But wars are not always optional. ... But all this make-believe has come back to haunt him, as make-believe often does. Make no mistake about it, make-believe wins elections – and winning elections is Obama’s thing. The big problem is that the things that win elections are not the things that win wars.

Worth Reading: Confederacy of Dunces? From the president on down, they are in resolute denial about radical Islam. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: The overriding belief of the Obama administration is that there is not really a radical Islamic movement that seeks to destroy the present nation-state order in the Middle East, form some sort of caliphate out of the mess, and then marshal the region’s population and resources to attack the West.

Obama’s war advisers not instilling confidence on Islamic State strategy
Excerpt: President Obama’s war Cabinet is not instilling confidence in the public about his “no boots on the ground” strategy to defeat the Islamic State now anchored in two countries and in more than a dozen towns. In congressional testimony last week, officials’ predictions for how the mission would succeed one day repeatedly were couched in big “ifs.”

Islamic State attack on Iraqi base leaves hundreds missing, shows army weaknesses
Excerpt: The army base in Iraq’s western Anbar province had been under siege by Islamic State militants for a week, so when a convoy of armored Humvees rolled up at the gate, the Iraqi soldiers at Camp Saqlawiyah believed saviors had arrived.
But this was no rescue attempt. The vehicles were driven by militants on suicide missions, and within seconds on Sunday the base had become a bloody scene of multiple bombings.

Let the Bombing in Syria Commence. From The Patriot Post
The U.S. began bombing ISIL targets in Syria yesterday. The New York Times reports, "The latest campaign opened with multiple strikes before dawn that focused on the Islamic State’s de facto capital, the city of Raqqa, and on its bases in the surrounding countryside. Other strikes hit in the provinces of Deir al-Zour and Hasaka, whose oil wells [ISIL has] exploited to finance its operations." And ABC News notes, "American airstrikes in Syria have taken out members of a shadowy al Qaeda unit known as the Khorasan Group who were planning 'imminent' attacks against targets including the U.S." After bombing a seventh Islamic nation (mostly without congressional approval), our Nobel Peace Prize-winning commander in chief will address the nation today, and he'll take his case to the UN later this week. Joe Biden warned us if we voted for Mitt Romney, we'd end up at war in SyriaHe was right. (This just handed to me: The Islamic State morning staff meeting at the municipal building in Raqaa, Syria, is postponed indefinitely. -- Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

Excerpt: This message, full of threats and murder, boasting and Qur’an quotations (all the citations in this piece are from the Qur’an), has just been released. Even just a cursory reading shows the absurdity of blandly asserting that the Islamic State’s ideology has nothing to do with Islam. Tony Blair is right: the free world does need to confront this ideology. 

This could be the next target of the Islamic State. By Claude Salhani
Excerpt: For the terrorist group known as the Islamic State, Syria and Iraq were a good place to start their campaign, but in order to survive and prosper it knew from the outset that it had no choice but to set its sights on the ultimate prize: the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. It is in that direction that the battle for control of the world’s largest oil fields is currently heading.

The Guns of August. By Jonathan Spyer
Erbil has changed a lot since I was there last. In early 2013, on my way into Syrian Kurdistan, I had stopped off in the city for a few days to make preparations. Then, the city had the feel of a boom town – shopping malls springing up across the skyline, brand new SUVs on the road, Exxon Mobil and Total were coming to town. It was the safest part of Iraq, an official of the Kurdish Regional Government had told me proudly over dinner in a garden restaurant. A new kind of Middle East city.

The elusive figure U.S. officials fear as much as the Islamic State. By Terrence McCoy, Washington Post
Excerpt: Only Osama bin Laden and several top commanders knew the truth. Now, more than 13 years later, one of those commanders is back and perhaps more dangerous than ever. On Sept. 11, 2001, Muhsin al-Fadhli had been barely more than a boy, aged 19. But today the steely-eyed 33-year-old operative is in Syria, leading a group of clandestine al-Qaeda operatives called “Khorasan,” which some American officials said may be more dangerous in some respects than the Islamic State.


Casualties in bomb blast near Egypt's foreign ministry
Excerpt: Initial reports said at least four people - two policemen and two civilians - were killed. ... The Islamist violence at first targeted mostly police and the army in the Sinai peninsula, but has recently spread to other regions including the capital. The militants say they are taking revenge for the hundreds of Islamists killed and thousands detained in a crackdown on the Brotherhood.

Yea! Israel kills Palestinians suspected of teenagers' murders
Excerpt: Two Palestinians suspected of the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June have been killed by Israeli forces, Israel's military says. A spokesman said troops searching for Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisha surrounded a building in the West Bank city of Hebron where they were hiding. (One of the teens was an American citizen. But Obama doesn't care. ~Bob)

At least 36 killed in shootout with Islamists in northeast Nigerian town
Excerpt: Fighters from Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram stormed the northeastern town of Mainok on Friday, sparking a gun battle that killed at least 36 people and continued into Saturday, two security sources said.

N.Y. Jury Finds Arab Bank Liable for Terror Financing

Excerpt: A New York federal jury on Monday found Arab Bank liable for enabling terrorist attacks by Hamas by routing money to the players involved. It's a landmark decision – in the first trial of its kind against a financial institution under the Anti-Terrorism Act– which advocates already are hoping will have a deterrent effect.

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