Thursday, October 23, 2014

Today's Important Political News and Conservative Comment

Update

Slammed for time, but there was some good stuff today I wanted to post, despite 20 unread emails. Have to quit for the night. Rehab, labs and pulmonary appointment tomorrow, so reveille at 0500. FEV numbers good today, 1.657, highest since April 27. ~Bob

New Comment on "I'm Tired" (Which I wrote and posted in 2009!)
Scary that people that say "gay is a choice" write in as anonymous. I'm with Mr. Hall...it is not a choice! I am so sorry you have this disease. We need more like you to speak out. My father was a WW II POW at the famous Stalag Luft III (where the Great Escape took place). He would turn in his grave if he knew what this country had become and discard everything he fought for. BTW, he died at age 35 as a result of his imprisonment and left 4 children under age 9. --Patricia

General News and Comment

Book Recommendation: Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia by Robert Lacey 
My wife and I read The Year 1,000 by this (British I think) author, and loved it, so we looked for more of his works. Lacey writes with a straightforward, clear and entertaining style. This is a right-down-the-middle history of Saudi Arabia, with great details about the rise of Sunni jihad terrorism, Wahhabism, Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. It explores the struggle between Islamic fundamentalists and modernists in Saudi Arabia. This is neither a conservative nor a liberal book; Lacey says both positive and negative things about George Bush when he feels it is called for. He has lived in the Kingdom for many years, and obviously has an affection for the Saudis--but not all of them, and his views are not blinded by that. This is an essential book for understanding both the Middle East and the terrorist threat we are dealing with. I highly recommend it. Inshallah you will read it.


Trial lawyer industry tries to buy a Democratic majority. By Timothy P. Carney 
Excerpt: Lawyers and law firms have given more money to House and Senate candidates and party committees than any other industry, with an overwhelming majority going to Democrats.
Lawyers are top donors in all of the most competitive Senate races.

Wendy Davis tweeted a picture of her supporters earlier...except they were college Republicans, not her supporters

GOP: Treasury impeding IRS investigation
Excerpt: House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said the Treasury counsel, Hannah Stott-Bumsted, appears to have been the first department aide to learn that the IRS couldn’t find a number of emails from Lois Lerner.....But Camp now says that Treasury officials won’t make Stott-Bumsted available until at least after the election, even though he first requested an interview with her more than five weeks ago. “This is completely unacceptable, especially for an administration that once pledged to be the most open and transparent ever,” Camp wrote to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Wednesday.

Opinion: Why Have Laws That Are Not Enforced? By Don Myers, Col, USMC (Ret)
Excerpt: President Obama has announced that he fully intends to ignore the current immigration laws and issue work permits for millions of illegal aliens currently residing in this country. He is already setting this up by preparing to print millions of work permits for these illegal aliens. He is waiting until after the mid-term elections so that it will not impact on many senate races where this issue is critical for the survival of democratic senators.

Labor Secretary: Adding Foreign Workers Would Increase Wages
Excerpt: This week at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., President Barack Obama's Labor Secretary Tom Perez claimed immigration reform which would flood millions of foreign workers into the United States workforce to compete for employment with citizens would in fact put an, "upward pressure on wages." Perez said, “Adding jobs, putting upward pressure on wages, helping to stabilize the Social Security trust fund." (I don't know what college/university at which Perez took Economics, but something sorely missing in the curriculum. Maybe UNC? --Barb)

Worth Reading: "Not Dead Yet: Mortality Rates Among Vietnam Veterans. By Patrick S. Brady
http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/69719858/m/1790018103001
Excerpt: Recently, the Internet has been a wash with dire predictions of the imminent demise of all Vietnam veterans. Both alarmed and suspicious, Vietnam veteran Pat Brady did some investigating. Here’s what he found. (This is a very interesting paper dealing with a lot of false information about the mortality rate of Vietnam vets who served in-country. See especially the last section on the second page dealing with “Origin of the Myths.” For what it's worth, that little quote there that goes, "The false number of 850,000 originates from the phony website of the American War Museum, which disseminates much false information, for reasons which only its manager (it is a one-man operation) might know." is from me, dating back maybe 2 or 3 years ago. I started writing about that screaming AH at least four years ago, when I first came across the stupid quote. Which has unfortunately been picked up by all kinds of people who should know better and still appears to this day on many veterans' websites and blogs. Of course, the very youngest Viet Nam vet, who was 18 in 1972, when almost every one of us was gone, is today 60 years old, and starting to age. But the median age for Vietnam vets is more like 66, so most of us are now well into our "senior years". Which means.... what? Well, it means arthritis, rheumatism, overgrown prostate, maybe worn out hips, maybe fewer natural teeth, worse eyesight, lower testosterone blood levels, less hair, more delicate digestion, poorer memory, and less physical vigor in general. And that's if we're lucky! If we're not so lucky it means prostate cancer, congestive heart failure, lung disease, and other really serious ailments. And it means our overall death rate is starting to climb, as more and more of us get past 70, when every year is a bonus. Our time here is getting shorter every year, but we are still the lucky ones. We came back. --Del)

Jeanne Shaheen Campaign Kicks Breitbart News Reporter out of New Hampshire Event
Excerpt: The campaign of Democratic incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) kicked this reporter out of an event at ReVision Energy on Wednesday afternoon. Shaheen’s campaign asked the owner of the business—who refused to identify himself—to say to this reporter that “this was a private event and you’re not welcome here." (Transparent like her master, Barack. ~Bob)

KA-BOOOOOOOOM! By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: In the summer of 1982 Lebanon requested United States military presence in their country. The purpose was to serve as a peacekeeping force between warring factions of Muslims and Christians. The 24th Marine Amphibious Unit, home-based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, received orders on March 24th, 1983 to deploy to Beirut.

Excerpt: Courtesy of Freedom Partners Action Fund, this is part of a $6.5 million ad buy hitting Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire (online only), and North Carolina. Which is good news, but I have to ask something: how, in God’s name, can anybody look at this and not see it as speech? Just how ignorant do the professional scaremongers of the Democratic party think that we are that we might not recognize that the ability to say This politician is a fool; do not vote for fools is the bedrock of the First Amendment? What are they scared of?

A Vote for Bruce Braley is a Vote for Obama

9 percent of likely 2014 voters are ‘enthusiastic’ about President Obama. By Aaron Blake
Excerpt: But while it's well understood that Obama's unpopularity is driving GOP enthusiasm, we haven't really studied the inverse -- i.e. just how little Obama's presidency is motivating Democrats to vote. ... Most polls ask Americans whether they approve or disapprove of Obama, and some ask whether people feel "strongly" that way. Generally, there will be significantly more who disapprove than approve, but even more than that, the "strongly disapprove" crowd will be about twice as big -- or more -- as the "strongly approve" crowd.

Worth Reading: As the World Turns: Will the West Prevail? By Michel Gurfinkiel
http://www.meforum.org/4869/as-the-world-turns-will-the-west-prevail
Excerpt: It has been assumed, since the end of the Cold War, that globalization is irreversible and that technologies, cultures, and markets are spreading, merging, and interacting at an ever quicker pace. This is certainly true. But what if, in addition to globalizing, the world is also splitting into separate and antagonistic sub-worlds? Two of them in particular, which ironically came into existence and have been growing as free riders in the Western-shaped universe, now pose a threat to the West.

BREAKING: Judicial Watch Obtains List of Fast and Furious Documents Held Under Obama's Executive Privilege. By Katie Pavlich 
Excerpt: Late last night the Department of Justice complied with a court order and turned over a list to government watchdog Judicial Watch , known as a Vaughn Index, of Fast and Furious documents being held from Congress and the American people under President Obama's assertion of executive privilege. Not surprisingly, DOJ failed to fully comply with the requirements of providing a Vaughn Index.

Our New Missiles of October. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: In October of 1962, America worried whether an untried young president, John F. Kennedy, could keep us safe from nuclear-tipped missiles from nearby communist Cuba.
Today’s October worries are more insidious: the Ebola virus, the macabre Islamic State, a tottering stock market, a bellicose Russia, and a crisis of confidence in our government.
Much of what the Obama administration and the Centers for Disease Control initially swore about the Ebola virus proved false. 

Voters Strongly Support Limits on Food Stamp Recipients
Excerpt: Beginning next year, Indiana will limit how long some can get food stamps, and voters nationwide strongly support similar limits in their state. Just over half favor fixing a deadline for how long people can receive federal public assistance benefits of any kind. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 65% of Likely U.S. Voters favor a program like Indiana’s in their state that would limit access to food stamps to three months for adults without children who do not find work or do not participate in a 20-hour-a-week job training program. (But the Un-democrat Party will fight it--against the majority of Americans, as so often. ~Bob)


Your Tax Dollars Paid for Swedish Massages for Rabbits
Excerpt: Unbelievably, the federal government spent $387,000 to give Swedish massages to rabbits, $856,000 to teach mountain lions to use treadmills and $307,524 to study whether sea monkeys can be trained to swim. And those are just three projects of $25 billion in wasteful Washington spending identified by Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) in his annual Wastebook report.

Ebola and Enterovirus News

Key witnesses to miss House Ebola hearing
Excerpt: Lawmakers at this week's highly anticipated Ebola hearing will not hear from several top officials who are working the closest on the effort. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Friday will question officials from the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). But witnesses will not include Lisa Monaco, the president’s counterterrorism adviser who coordinates Ebola efforts across the government, from Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases. (Has a pen and a phone; does not need Congress. their approval, or the Constitution. --Barb)

Official WHO Ebola Toll Near 5,000 With True Number Nearer 15,000
Excerpt: At least 4,877 people have died in the world's worst recorded outbreak of Ebola, and at least 9,936 cases of the disease had been recorded as of Oct. 19, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, but the true toll may be three times as much. The WHO has said real numbers of cases are believed to be much higher than reported: by a factor of 1.5 in Guinea, 2 in Sierra Leone and 2.5 in Liberia, while the death rate is thought to be about 70 percent of all cases. That would suggest a toll of almost 15,000.

Nurse's dog tests negative for Ebola
Excerpt: The dog belonging to a Dallas nurse battling Ebola has tested negative for the virus, city officials said Wednesday. Bentley, a 1-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel, has been the subject of media interest since owner Nina Pham was diagnosed with Ebola earlier this month. The dog began diagnostic tests on Monday to ensure he did not contract the virus.

Race Card News

Worth Sharing: Evidence supports officer’s account of shooting in Ferguson. By Kimberly Kindy and Sari Horwitz 
Excerpt: Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson and Michael Brown fought for control of the officer’s gun, and Wilson fatally shot the unarmed teenager after he moved toward the officer as they faced off in the street, according to interviews, news accounts and the full report of the St. Louis County autopsy of Brown’s body. Because Wilson is white and Brown was black, the case has ignited intense debate over how police interact with African American men. But more than a half-dozen unnamed black witnesses have provided testimony to a St. Louis County grand jury that largely supports Wilson’s account of events of Aug. 9, according to several people familiar with the investigation who spoke with The Washington Post.

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


After the Election, of course: Premiums for the cheapest of ObamaCare's pricey health plans are going to jump by 14 percent
Excerpt: Though consumers won't see insurance premiums for health plans on ObamaCare exchanges until open enrollment period begins on November 15, an recent analysis conducted by Investor's Business Daily has shed some light on what they can expect for low-tier Bronze plans, the lowest tier plans, generally cheapest available for purchase:

Undocumented Democrat News

He lies. Always: U.S. misinformed Congress, public on immigrant release
Excerpt: New records contradict the Obama administration's assurances to Congress and the public that the 2,200 people it freed from immigration jails last year to save money had only minor criminal records. The records, obtained by USA TODAY, show immigration officials released some undocumented immigrants who had faced far more serious criminal charges, including people charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, drug trafficking and homicide.

Obama Admin To Brief Goodlatte On Immigrant ID 'Surge'
Excerpt: With questions swirling about the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ solicitation for material to create millions of new immigrant IDs and work permits, the agency has agreed to brief House Judiciary Committee staff, Breitbart News has learned. 
Earnest denied — to skeptical reporters — that the order provided hints about Obama’s executive action plans. Nevertheless, many questions remain about the solicitation which explained the agency is looking for a contractor that can handle a “surge” of 9 million ID cards in a single year and up to 34 million cards for the entire contract. (Born in the USA? Get to the back of the bus, "folks." --Barb)

"You're Greener than Gore" News

Report: Wind Power Raising Texas Electricity Prices
Excerpt: Of the 10 states most reliant on wind power, nine of them have seen their electricity prices rise at least five times faster than the national average, writes James Taylor, senior fellow at the Heartland Institute. While wind advocates claim that wind power reduces costs, on-the-ground evidence suggests the opposite is true. Taylor cites a recent report from the Texas Comptroller, which found that Texas were paying higher prices due to wind power, despite an overall drop in electricity prices. According to the report: Not only is wind power more costly than traditional power, but it is unpredictable, as it only generates power when the wind blows. As a result, conventional power plants must stand ready to fill in when wind power fails, requiring additional output on short notice and making wind power far less efficient.

Federal Report Says Yucca Mountain Repository Is Safe
Excerpt: A new report from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) concludes that storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain would be safe, contradicting the claims of many opponents who have argued that such a storage facility would be dangerous.
Yucca Mountain is located in the Nevada desert. Several years ago, the Department of Energy applied to the NRC, seeking approval for a project that would store nuclear waste in a repository at Yucca Mountain over the long term. The scientific community, report Jack Spencer and Katie Tubb for the Daily Signal, has long been in support of storing nuclear waste deep underground. They cite an earlier study which detailed the importance of Yucca Mountain to the long-term success of a nuclear energy sector in the United States, as nuclear energy generates waste that must be stored in a safe repository. However, President Obama withdrew the Yucca application in the middle of the review process, calling the project "not a workable option," despite $15 billion in tax dollars having been spent on the project. (Meaning Harry Reid opposed it. Defeat Reid! ~Bob)

Religion of Peace News

Islamic State militants allegedly used chlorine gas against Iraqi security forces
Excerpt: Dizzy, vomiting and struggling to breathe, 11 Iraqi police officers were rushed to a government hospital 50 miles north of the capital last month. The diagnosis: poisoning by chlorine gas. The perpetrators, according to the officers: Islamic State extremists.
The chlorine attack appears to be the first confirmed use of chemical weapons by the Islamic State on the battlefield. 

Support for U.S. Campaign against ISIS; Doubts about Its Effectiveness, Objectives
Excerpt: But most Americans say the U.S. military effort against ISIS is not going well, and just 30% think the U.S. and its allies have a “clear goal” in taking military action....Yet negative evaluations of how well the U.S. military campaign against ISIS is going also cross party lines: 64% of Republicans, 61% of independents and 52% of Democrats say the military campaign is going not too well or not at all well. Moreover, majorities across the board – 70% of Republicans, 65% of independents and 54% of Democrats – think the United States and its allies lack a clear goal in taking military action against Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria.

US to train Syrians only in defensive role

Excerpt: According to senior U.S. and allied officials, they do not believe the moderate Syrian fighters will be able to seize towns from the Islamic State without the help of U.S. combat troops, which President Obama has ruled out. “We have a big disconnect within our strategy. We need a credible, moderate Syrian force, but we have not been willing to commit what it takes to build that force,” said a senior U.S. official involved in Syria and Iraq operations, the Post reported. 

Dutch Mayor Compares Muslims Joining ISIS to Post WWII Jews. By Abigail R. Esman
Excerpt: Lured by local mosques and the Internet, by visions of warriors and victory dancing in their heads, thousands of European Muslims have left the safety of their homes in England, France, Germany, the Netherlands and elsewhere to join the Syrian jihad. Concern about the security threat they may pose on their return has gripped European leaders for some time; now, they are starting to focus on ways of stopping Muslim would-be jihadists from traveling to Syria at all. But not everyone seems to think it's such a good idea: Pieter Broertjes, mayor of the Dutch city of Hilversum, for instance, thinks they should be allowed to go. "They're adults," he said in a radio interview Thursday. "Dutch went to Israel after World War II to fight the British, and we didn't try to stop them." (The reference is to the Palestinian territories, which was under British rule until 1948.)

Canadian Parliament shooter reportedly a recent convert to Islam
Excerpt: A gunman who reportedly was a recent convert to Islam launched an attack Wednesday in Ottawa, killing one soldier guarding a war memorial before barging into the capital city’s Parliament amid a hail of gunfire and spawning increased vigilance in Washington and Ottawa, where officials wondered how he managed to get into the government building armed. The Canadian soldier, identified as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, was the second killed in three days in an attack by a young Muslim convert.


And this is Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, the brave #Canadian soldier killed in the #OttawaShooting today.

Nathan Cirillo's Dogs Wait For Master To Return
Nathan Cirillo, a reservist with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, was killed Wednesday while standing guard in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa. Below is just one of several pictures taken of his two dogs seemingly waiting for their master to return. --MasterGuns, USMC (Ret)


Geert Wilders interview on Canadian TV re. terror attack on Parliament
Geert is possibly the no. 1 anti-terror agent in the world. He's the only world leader with the guts to tell the truth. God bless Geert Wilders! --Don Hank

How Canadian Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers killed shooter in parliament
Excerpt: As Canada comes to terms with finding itself in the firing line of militant Islamists it turned for reassurance to a 58-year-old former Mountie formerly best known for carrying a golden mace. As parliament's sergeant-at-arms, Kevin Vickers' role is largely ceremonial, symbolising the authority of the body and keeping order in the chamber wearing a bicorne hat and tail coat. But on Wednesday, when a lone Islamist gunman stormed the building, he put pomp and circumstance to one side, found a gun and fired the shots that brought the rampage to an end. He was back in the chamber on Thursday, a humble hero at the centre of attention, applauded to the rafters by members of parliament. (A Sergeant-at-Arms is responsible for maintaining order. Kevin Vickers restored order to a chaotic situation. Job well done! --MasterGuns)

Atlantic Commander Warns Canadian Soldiers: ‘To Restrict Movement In Uniform In Public As Much As Possible’
http://patdollard.com/2014/10/atlantic-commander-to-canadian-soldiers-to-restrict-movement-in-uniform-in-public-as-much-as-possible/
Excerpt: After two attacks on uniformed soldiers this week in other provinces, Atlantic military personnel were ordered to avoid appearing in public in uniform. Emailed instructions were sent on behalf of Rear Admiral John Newton about an hour after a soldier was shot at the War Memorial in downtown Ottawa at about 11 a.m. Atlantic time. (So, a jihadist victory, no? Or just "workplace violence." ~Bob)

Father eulogizes infant killed in Jerusalem attack: 'You made us happy from the moment you arrived'
Excerpt: At midnight, in a small crowded funeral parlor in Jerusalem, Shmuel Elimelech Braun stood in front of the small white shroud covered body of his three-month-old daughter Chaya Zissel, killed earlier that day in a terror attack.

Hamas, Fatah Officials Praise Terrorist Who Killed Israeli Baby
Excerpt: Palestinians across the political spectrum are praising Wednesday's terrorist attack in Jerusalem, which resulted in the death of a three-month-old Israeli baby. A car driven by a suspected Hamas member crashed into a crowd at a light-rail station in, killing the baby girl and injuring eight others.

Nigeria's Boko Haram 'abducts more women and girls'
Allah Akbar! More sex slaves for good Muslims. ~Bob

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://tiny.cc/g02s4 For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here: http://tinyurl.com/o4nu65u. His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.

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