Saturday, September 6, 2014

Today's Politiclan News and Comment

Update

O2 was better at rehab Friday, stayed above 93% on the treadmill, 95% to 97% on the others. Added 10 pounds on the chest press, and did 5 reps of 10 each on the lap pull. Friday was Bonnie & my 22nd anniversary--we went to dinner. Having lost her first husband just before the 20th, she was afraid I wouldn't make 20 either. In May, everyone thought we wouldn't make 22, but here I am. You could have made money when I married her betting it would last more than a year. I tell people, if you are going to bet against Bob Hall--ask for odds. ~Bob




Celebrating our 22nd Anniversary

General News and Comment



The Insiders: Voters blame Obama for country being off-track. By Ed Rogers 
Excerpt: According to the latest George Washington University Battleground poll, 70 percent of voters think that things in the United States have gotten off on the wrong track and that the country is headed in the wrong direction. It stands to reason that as a result, many Americans will vote against the Democrats. Fair or not, the way to vote against the status quo is to vote against the president’s party.

Obama has never understood our enemies. By Jennifer Rubin
Excerpt: If the current cease-fire holds in Ukraine, we will be one step closer to the dismemberment of Ukraine and a humiliation for the West. The Post reports: “The measures appeared, at least initially, to be a first step toward a peace plan envisioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin that would effectively freeze the conflict in a manner similar to other long-running territorial disputes in former Soviet republics. The Kremlin has used those other conflicts, in Moldova and Georgia, to exert pressure on their governments and to complicate their chances of joining the NATO defense alliance.”

Excerpt: Regardless, the patient experiences described in the report “revealed that access barriers adversely affected the quality of primary and specialty care” at the VA healthcare facility in Phoenix where the problems originally were detected. The inspector general was able to identify 40 patients who died while on the facility’s electronic waiting list from April 2013 through April 2014. Griffin concluded that inappropriate scheduling practices at VA medicals facilities are “a nationwide systemic problem.” (This must be a Common Core puzzle. The IG identified 40 patients who died while waiting for an appointment, but because the whistleblower could not provide a list of names of 40 patients, the IG report came to the conclusion that he could not substantiate that the VA's (lack of) care contributed to the death of 40 veterans. --Barb. All I can say is that the care I have received at the Madison, WI VA hospital through my lung transplant and subsequent complications has been superb. I wouldn't be alive without them. ~Bob)

Important: New 'loser pays' standard could curb abusive lawsuits
Excerpt: In 2009, the notorious securities litigation firm Robbins Geller brought a shareholder lawsuit against the Boeing Co., accusing its management of illegal misrepresentations based on the word of a confidential witness inside the company. It was the sort of case that routinely costs companies millions of dollars in cash and stock value. Most companies settle such cases to make them go away, but Boeing did not. Its attorneys eventually deposed the confidential witness, only to discover that he was actually just a contractor in a job unrelated to the case who hadn't even worked for Boeing until months after the period in question. The witness “repudiated each of the allegations” in the Robbins Geller complaint, according to court papers.

Belgium ordered to pay accused bomb plotter extradited to U.S.
Excerpt: The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday that European states should not extradite people to face the rest of their lives behind bars without the possibility of release, ordering Belgium to pay a settlement to a Tunisian man it had deported to the United States. (Ah, European Progressives--always on the side of murderers. ~Bob)

Pardon? A Head Talking Turkey Before Thanksgiving? By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: So how is it that the direction of our grand staunch land, of the bald eagle, momentarily rests with a blinking, nervous, confused and indecisive bird - who talks willpower in one sentence, and turkey in the next?

Dramatic 911 Call: Arizona Woman Shoots Intruder Before Cops Arrive
Excerpt: Her late husband had taught her how to shoot, so she got her gun and went to hide in the bathroom. The burglar eventually gained entry through her back door and was shot after he attacked the woman.

Dunedin boy with lemonade stand reaps windfall; neighbor under city review
Excerpt: T.J. Guerrero has gained international attention this week because of his lemonade stand. • Since a story about a neighbor's efforts to shut down the 12-year-old boy's venture ran in Sunday's Tampa Bay Times, T.J. has been given donations, treated to a limo ride and featured in news reports from New York to Europe. He also has given back by donating some of the money to a local animal shelter. The neighbor, Doug Wilkey, hasn't fared as well. He is now under investigation by the city for — of all things — potentially running a business out of his home without a license.

Grammar Infographic Shows Why Writing Skills Matter
Better writers get paid more. Share with yur kids. ~Bob

Excerpt: “Judges of our 4th District Court of Appeals, which covers fourteen counties in southeastern OH, are, by their own one-sided ‘proclamation,’ are licensing themselves to carry concealed handguns, both while sitting on the bench and at all other times. They are not extending that special privilege to anyone else! This ‘proclamation‘ altogether bypasses the legal requirements, including training and proficiency, that we peons are required to obey in order to acquire state-issued concealed carry permits.

Man Saves Friends by Fighting Off 5 Attackers With His Firearm
Excerpt: Upon leaving work the CCW permit holder and his friends were approached by the gang and were held at gunpoint in an attempt to rob them. The CCW holder didn’t care to much for that notion and in response produced his sidearm and fired upon the thugs. Shooting and killing one before the rest could flee like the cowards they are. Thanks to the identification of the dead robber, a 15 year old with a long arrest record despite his age, his 5 cohorts were arrested shortly after. (Too bad this "child" wasn't parented well. A 15-year-old with a gun can kill you as dead as a 30-year-old. ~Bob)

Near a Turkish school, 10,000 dead Armenians are still ignored. By Chris Bohjalian
Excerpt: I was furious because that ravine is the final resting place for an estimated 10,000 of my ancestors, the Armenians of Chunkush, which is the village beside Yenikoy. In the summer of 1915, Turkish gendarmes and a Kurdish killing party marched virtually all of the Armenians who lived in the area to the ravine. There they shot or bayoneted them and tossed the corpses into the crevasse. (Genocide is apparently okay, because slaughtering infidels is part of their equally-valid culture. ~Bob)

Movie- Last Days in Viet Nam
Remarkable interview of the filmmaker who has done an apparently outstanding job on a documentary of the last days in Saigon, the rushed and panicked evacuations, and the people left behind. I have always felt Jon Stewart is basically an honest guy, yes, a Liberal bent, but no Leftist anti-US fanatic. It was great of him to have this woman on his show to push the film. --Del 

Is Obama presidentially-incapacitated by narcissistic rage?
Excerpt: For those perplexed by Barack Obama's often inexplicable behavior, wonder no more. An individual with narcissistic personality disorder exhibits extreme self-importance, has a constant need for attention and admiration, is secretive and controlling, cannot empathize with others, and has a heightened sensitivity to criticism. To get the attention he craves, a narcissist may try to create crises or diversions that return the focus to him. The narcissist feels entitled, that the world owes him, regardless of whether he makes a contribution. (NPD has long been my guess, but I am NOT qualified to diagnose, and diagnosing long distance is problematical even for psychologists. ~Bob)

Fox News, Enemy of State: The Obama administration’s curious cable jihad. By Kevin D. Williamson
Excerpt: Marie Harf, whose career has alternated between government jobs and campaign jobs, is the deputy spokesman for the State Department, and if her recent communications are any indication, the face of the most acute foreign-policy crisis facing these United States is Bill O’Reilly’s — an admittedly self-satisfied visage, to be sure, out of which pours a stream of apparently inexhaustible glibness. But he’s never beheaded anybody, so far as I know.
Mr. O’Reilly became an enemy of State when he conducted an interview with Fox News reporter James Rosen, who had some mildly unflattering things to say about Ms. Harf’s superior, Jen Psaki, the witless off-brand Pippi Longstocking who is the current media face of the American diplomatic project. (It makes sense, they have to have "bad guys" to hate and to attack endlessly, viciously, to show how they are the good, the righteous, and everyone needs to go along with them. Makes perfect sense. --Del)

Race Card News

Holder Expands Ferguson Witch-Hunt. By Matthew Vadum
Excerpt: Despite the continuing absence of any evidence whatsoever that race was a factor in the police shooting of Michael Brown, the Department of Justice will be conducting a race-baiting witch-hunt aimed at the entire police force in Ferguson, Mo., Attorney General Eric Holder announced yesterday. The new investigation is nothing more than a taxpayer-funded Democratic Party voter registration drive disguised as a civil rights investigation.

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News

Analyst Estimates Obamacare Will Increase Number of Uninsured
Excerpt: By the end of the decade, the United States' health system will be in worse shape than it was before the Affordable Care Act, contends Michael Ramlet of the research firm Paragon Insights. While the law was touted as providing affordable health coverage for the uninsured, Ramlet projects the number of uninsured will actually increase, as will health care premium costs. When President Obama marketed his health care law, he said it would lower premiums for families by $2,500. But according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, insurance premiums will likely increase by an average of 7.5 percent in 2015. In fact, in research conducted with Stephen Parente, a health finance professor at the University of Minnesota, Ramlet estimates the president's signature health care law will do the opposite of what was promised:

Healthcare.gov Hacked in July. By Christine Rousselle 
Excerpt: Comforting: Yesterday, reports came out detailing how HealthCare.gov was apparently hacked in July, and government officials were unaware of the security breach until last week.

Trainwreck, Continued: Eight New Pieces of Bad Obamacare News. By Guy Benson
Excerpt: Who's up for the latest batch of bad Obamacare-related news? (1) Consumers brace for the second full year of Obamacare implementation, as the average individual market premium hike clocks in at eight percent -- with some rates spiking by as much as 30 percent.

Undocumented Democrat News

More Senate Democrats urge Obama to delay immigration order
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/obama-immigration-order-110624.html
Excerpt: More top Democrats are pressuring President Barack Obama to slow down on immigration reform, further diminishing the chances that he’ll take sweeping administrative action before Election Day. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) wants Obama to wait until after November. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said he has “concerns about executive action.” Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats, said it would be a “mistake” for the president to do anything significant.

As I predicted: Obama to reportedly delay any executive action on immigration until after elections
Excerpt: President Obama has abandoned his pledge to reform U.S. immigration policy by the end of summer and will instead wait until after the November congressional elections, The Associated Press reports Saturday. (It wasn't a hard prediction. On this issue, as so many (late term abortion, Keystone pipeline, Obamacare, etc.), the voters are strongly against him, and he doesn't want to hurt Democrats in November. He will be back. ~Bob)

Well, of course he did: After immigration delay, Obama hits links
Excerpt: President Obama spent Saturday afternoon golfing with White House staffers, hours after he delayed executive action on immigration until after the midterm election.

Border Crisis Poll: 64% of Hispanics Back Deportations
Excerpt: The numbers are not all that different among Hispanics. Only 22% want to give the children amnesty. A full 64% want the children deported. Of that 64%, 28% want them deported immediately; 36% want them deported unless their home country is deemed unsafe.
That puts Hispanics almost perfectly in line with the rest of country. (Amnesty and unfettered illegal immigration mean fewer jobs and lower wages for Americans of Hispanic and African ancestry. But they will vote Democrat anyway, because the media has convinced them Democrats are for "the little people." Democrats ARE for the little people: leprechauns, fairies, brownies and other mythical creatures. ~Bob)

"You're Greener than Gore" News

'Global warming has been on pause for 19 years': Study reveals Earth's temperature has remained almost CONSTANT since 1995
Excerpt: Since the turn of the century, there has been little increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s surface, new research claims. Previous studies claimed this hiatus has lasted for 15 years, but new research believes the temperature has remained almost constant since 1995.

Link for polar ice meltdown myth
Check this link for a really neat video on Global Warming and the latest facts on what's happening. --Del

Religion of Peace News

Worth Reading: Benghazi - What Was The President's Aim? By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: For the rest of the evening and while drifting off to sleep the nonsensical American non-response - the unprecedented act of abandoning combatants under fire - nagged (as it has for two years).

Interesting: World War III is Here and Now! Robert D. Jones, LTC, USAF (Ret)
http://veteransvent.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/world-war-iii-is-here-and-now/
Excerpt: For the record – I am thoroughly angry. Because of the actions of this administration (among others) all Americans are at risk, regardless of where we are in the world. The difference is that the amount of risk which increases exponentially as we approach Muslim held lands. ... This paper addresses the lessons we should have learned about recognizing and properly prosecuting a war to a logical conclusion. It also speaks to why failing to apply these lessons (as we are now doing) will get more Americans killed, some right here in the homeland.

The Collapse of Obama’s Foreign Policy: When even Al Franken is goading you for having no strategy, your approach has failed. By Rich Lowry
Excerpt: President Barack Obama’s stated goal in the fight against the Islamic State, aka ISIS, is to reduce it to a “manageable problem.” What this means, he hasn’t spelled out in great specificity. Presumably fewer beheadings. A slower pace of Western recruiting. Fewer genocidal threats against embattled minorities. A downgrading of the caliphate to a mini state, or merely a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq.

In Iraq, fight against Islamic State has produced some unlikely facts on the ground. By Karen DeYoung 
Excerpt: The urgent fight to keep Islamic State forces­ from taking over more of Iraq has led the Obama administration to tolerate, and in some cases even approve, things it once would have loudly protested. When Iraqi Shiite militias, backed by Iran and long branded illegal by the administration, retook the town of Amerli from the Sunni Muslim militants last week, U.S. officials breathed a sigh of relief.

Islamic State Wins Support from Jordanian Pol, Shocks Saudis
Excerpt: Ruthless violence from the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS, or ISIS) is dividing people in the Muslim world, two recent clips from Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) show. In Jordan, politician Muhammad Bayoudh Al-Tamimi, a Palestinian, vigorously defended the group during a television appearance posted online Aug. 31. Islamic State ideology "stems from the Quran and the Sunna," he said, according to MEMRI's translation.

Excerpt: There is growing concern in America not only about ISIS carrying out an attack on our soil, but about Americans aidingthe enemy in their hometowns or by fighting overseas. Multiple reports have popped up over the past few weeks about the far reach ISIS has into American communities and the success they've had with recruitment. (“Eid also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy. --Barack Obama)

A Foreign Legion for Losers: Many of the Westerners flocking to the Islamic State are middle-class misfits for whom jihad is a radical pose. By Jonah Goldberg
Excerpt: Rather, my point is that to a considerable extent, the Islamic State — and groups like it — is a modern Foreign Legion for losers. When discussing people who openly boast of rape, murder, and torture, “loser” is hardly too harsh. But invective is not my intent when I call them losers. These men — and a few women, too — are losers in a more significant sense. They are losers at Western civilization.

New York Times: A survivor's retelling of an ISIS massacre
Two things about the article. First, as soon as the word came that the ISIS guys were about to hit them, all the officers disappeared in the fastest vehicles available. These are guys who have been through all the years of training and retraining our instructors did for the Iraqi Army, and while equipped with tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, possible air support, and troops outnumbering the oncoming ISIS fighters, they dropped everything and ran like chickens from a big fox. No balls at all, no commitment to their nation, only concerned with their own precious skins. Under Saddam such guys would be shot by the MP forces, but this Iraqi government doesn't have the people or perhaps the will to do such things. So naturally the enlisted guys looked around and figured "what are we waiting for?" and bugged out or surrendered without firing a shot. Thinking that after all, the other guys are Muslims too, how bad can it be? Then all the Shia found out how bad it could be, as they were all tied up, forced to lie down, and shot from close range. What happened to the Sunni soldiers is not clear, but I wonder if they were pressed into service for ISIS. So this one guy gets lucky, the shot that was supposed to kill him misses but he is splattered with blood from the guys next to him, so they think he's dead and leave him. He waits until it's dark, gets up, and flees. And days later, manages to get home. Here's the payoff. A military officer comes to his house and gives him half a month's pay, and apparently he's somehow excused from the army. And when asked, he says the last thing he wants to do is ever get involved with the army again. How would most of us feel if we had seen all our comrades murdered, we only escaped by accident, and the murderers are still in the country and trying to take over? Personally I would be screaming mad and eager to get my hands on a weapon and go after them, burning eager to blow away every one I could get in my sights. I would be anxious to save my country and its people from these murderers. But that's now how things are in that culture, very few of them think of their country as something to really love and defend, and their priorities a usually focused on me, myself, and I. The religious nuts were willing to plant bombs and ambush American "invading infidels", but that was apparently different than reacting to actual bloodthirsty other. Muslims coming in to take over. Some people have theorized that for some cultures democracy really can't go anywhere, what works are strong man governments. I am no expert, but I have to admit that maybe there's something to that. Meantime, the Kurds, who actually do love and want to protect their people and lands, are doing a good job fighting, and with our air support, are pushing ISIS back. If we really tear up ISIS enough, then I predict the remaining Iraqi Army will slowly grow a pair and go after them, and when ISIS really breaks down and starts to run, then the real killing will start. Hopefully no survivors. --Del. Note: Del is a Marine combat vet of Vietnam. ~Bob)

Excerpt: President Obama’s account of the rise of the Islamic State, says CharlesKrauthammer, is “a Paulism” — referring to Kentucky’s senator Rand Paul, a likely 2016 presidential contender for the Republicans. “[Obama] always likes — this is a Paulism — he likes to say that if there’s terrorism, ultimately the cause is the United States’ meddling, as if our meddling in Syria is the cause of the rise of ISIS. That is simply ridiculously wrong, and it’s hard to take seriously somebody who can say something like that.”

Excerpt: The US military is certain that Shabaab emir Ahmed Abdi Godane was killed in a targeted airstrike in southern Somalia that took place earlier this week. "We have confirmed that Ahmed Godane, the co-founder of al-Shabaab, has been killed," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement that was released today.

'Nigerian Muslim Convert' Held by Police After North London Beheading
Excerpt: The man believed to have 'decapitated' 82-year-old Palmira Silva in a suburban garden in North London has been informally identified by locals as a 25-year old recent 'Muslim convert', with one neighbour saying: "He was a black man young about 25 to 30 wearing all black, black t-shirt and jeans, about 5'10" and looked like he went to the gym". (Police do not believe it was terror related, which must be a comfort to Palmira. ~Bob)

Israel says it gagged reports captive Sotloff was its citizen
Excerpt: Israel said on Thursday it had prevented local media from reporting that slain U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff was also an Israeli citizen, in a bid to reduce the risk to him after he was seized by Islamist insurgents in Syria last year. Islamic State, a militant group which has overrun large areas of Syria and Iraq, released a video this week of Sotloff being beheaded, calling the execution retaliation for U.S. air strikes.

State Dept.: Rejecting Islam Is Capital Offense in Many Muslim Countries. By Brittany M. Hughes
Excerpt: According to the State Department’s most recent country reports on religious freedom, at least six predominantly Muslim countries consider “apostasy” from Islam a crime punishable by death. (Let's not be Islamophobic here. Killing people who leave Islam is part of their culture, like stoning teen rape victims, hanging gays or marrying 9-year-olds. Remember the progressive mantra: "all cultures are equally valid." Who are we to judge? ~Bob)

Excerpt: Fr. Longenecker here misses my point. His earlier piece was entitled, “Does the Quran Command Beheading?.” In it, he examined Qur’an 8:12, determined (correctly) that it doesn’t command beheading, and thus concludes that the Qur’an doesn’t command beheading. But in that piece, he doesn’t even mention 47:4, which does command beheading, not according to me, but to classic and mainstream Qur’anic commentators, two of whom I quoted in my earlier piece. That was why I said his piece was extraordinarily misleading: it claimed that the Qur’an didn’t command beheading while not even mentioning the verse that jihadists actually use to justify beheading. That’s misleading.

Police throw book at Shariah vigilantes
Excerpt: Charges of unlawful assembly and use of uniform in public were brought against 11 members of a group trying to enforce aspects of strict Islamic Sharia law in the North Rhine-Westphalia city, a spokeswoman for the Wuppertal police told The Local. Officers stopped the 11-man group on the street on Wednesday. Some were wearing orange vests bearing the words 'Shariah Police', in violation of federal German law, the spokeswoman said.

John Kerry Explains the Bible is Pro-Muslim and Against Global Warming
Excerpt: I know what you're thinking... "Um, what is with that title!" But listen, our Secretary of State said something incredibly stupid (I know, I know – what else is new?). On Wednesday, John Kerry basically said that Scripture commands us to protect Muslims from Climate Change. I kid you not. (Thank God he did not become president. --JB. John Kerry, famous theologian and expert climatologist, turns out to also be deeply concerned with our special responsibility to protect Muslim countries. Who knew? I don't know what he was smoking just before that meeting (or shooting up), but he really, really needs to dial back on his hallucinogen intake. That kind of statement leaves me utterly torn between hysterical laughter and hysterical weeping. This guy is our Secretary of State, for heaven's sake! [On the positive side for someone, Hillary is looking better all the time.] Heaven help us. We have 2 1/2 more years of him along with Obama. That's a pair no Full House can beat. Add in Eric Holder, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, and you start wondering if we are in the Final Days. --Del. Start wondering? See: http://tiny.cc/g02s4 ~Bob)

Proof! FBI Says Americans More Dangerous Than Isis Invasion. By Mikael Thalen 
Excerpt: Exclusive photographs provided to Infowars from a local business owner show an FBI power point presentation placing “homegrown” groups at the top of the agency’s terror watch list. (Of course, "Homegrown" doesn't include American jihadist like the Fort Hood shooter, the Baltimore shooters or the Boston marathon bombers. Can't mention Muslims. ~Bob)

Watch: This Former Muslim Just Sent Obama A Wake Up Call On ISIS That Is An Absolute Must-See
Excerpt: Brother Rachid, a former Muslim and the son of a Moroccan imam, has posted a video called “A Message to President Obama From a Former Muslim” in which he attempts to give the President a crash course in Islamic studies. He begins by telling the president that he is wrong when he said that ISIL speaks for no religion.

Silencing The Other. By Erick Erickson
Excerpt: In Rotherham, England, 1400 young girls were routinely raped over more than a decade while authorities turned a blind eye. Why did they turn a blind eye? The authorities were so concerned with multiculturalism they could not bring themselves to do anything about a systemic and widespread culture of rape gangs in the area. The gangs were, if you read most press accounts, Pakistani men. In fact, there were Bangladeshi men, Afghani men, and others involved. But you will not find many references of the word “muslim” except in pieces warning about a possible backlash against the muslim community. (Let's not be Islamophobic here. Raping young infidel girls is part of their culture, like stoning teen rape victims, executing apostates, hanging gays or marrying 9-year-olds. Remember the progressive mantra: "all cultures are equally valid." Who are we to judge? ~Bob)

Excerpt: “Fox News Reporting: 13 Hours in Benghazi” is based off the new book to be released next week, “13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi” by Mitchell Zuckoff with the Annex Security Team.

Important: A Critical Continent Under Siege. By Walter Russell Mead
http://www.the-american-interest.com/blog/2014/09/06/a-critical-continent-under-siege/
Excerpt: Reports are emerging that Boko Haram has taken a town on the outskirts of Maidiguri, Nigeria’s largest city in its north, and is girding for an attack on the city. The Financial Times:

Counter terrorism and Nigeria experts tracking the insurgency said this week that urgent action is needed to defend the city, and warned that its fall would “be a symbolic and strategic victory unparalleled so far in the conflict”. [...] Confusion surrounds the status of Bama, a town with a population of about 250,000 situated 75km east of Maiduguri. Nigerian defence officials have denied that it has fallen under Boko Haram control, but local politicians and officials described scenes of carnage in the town after an assault that precipitated the flight of thousands of residents and also, after reportedly heavy fighting, the soldiers garrisoned there.

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