Sunday, June 29, 2014

Random Thoughts for July, 2014

Random Thoughts for July, 2014
Robert A. Hall

When you are in hospital, dignity is the first casualty. Once you have a cute 24-year-old blond CNA wipe your butt, you pretty much say, "The hell with it," and move on to other worries.

But there's nothing like being in hospital to make you appreciate nurses.

Iraq isn't the first country we abandoned when the political winds changed. If things get any worse there, Obama may have to skip a gulf date or fund raiser to show how serious he is.

Obama wonders why the Shi's and Sunnis in Iraq can't work together. Like him passing the largest government program since Medicare without a single Republican vote. He can shut out Republicans, but thinks they should cooperate.

It's maybe a good thing that Obama is incompetent. Think what his world view and policies would have done to the country if he was.

Democrats are blaming Bush for the unfolding disaster in Iraq. Republicans are blaming Obama. I think  dispassionate history--if such is every written again--will say both sides were correct. Lots of blame to go around. As usual, Americans--troops and civilians--will die in the future because of the misjudgments and short term political decisions of politicians of both parties. It's part of what Marines are paid for.

The different between Nixon's missing 18.5 minutes of tape and Obama's two years of missing IRS emails is that the media's agenda was to nail Nixon, but its agenda is to protect Obama. That will make all the difference.

People say that Obama isn't religious, that he only went to church in Chicago to win local support and discarded it as soon as he went national and it was a liability. Butbut I think that's not true. I bet every night he is on his knees praying that know one who knows what happened to the missing IRS emails breaks and talks, and that no copies of them turn up.

The Redskins trademark was cancelled as offensive. I bet "Polygamy Porter" from Utah is still fine--no one in DC is worried about offending Mormons. But I also bet they wouldn't license "Allah's Ale."

If I owned the Redskins, I'd change the name--The Officious Bureaucrats has a nice ring--and then I'd move the team to another city, give the fans the addresses of the Democrats who complained.

The Koch Brothers are on vacation for two weeks, so Harry Reid is asking you to fill in as the person he blames for global warming, the Middle East mess, racism, hangnail, etc. It's your patriotic duty.

People who read my blog know that I'm not worried about gay marriage. It is, IMHO, no threat to my marriage or to the country. The real threat to America is straight people having kids and not getting married, contributing to poverty, drugs, and crime. A recent study showed that 2% of kids raised in two-parent households spend their lives in poverty, while 20% of kids raised in single parent households do. The last I read was that 70% of black babies, 50% of Hispanic babies and 30% of white babies are non-marital births. White folks need to fix their culture as much as other groups do. But, that said, it seems to me that if Christian bakers who are morally opposed to gay marriage can be forced by the government to cater one, than a gay-owned bakery can be forced to cater an anti-gay marriage religious dinner.

People say they are, "Having issues" because it's not polite to say, "Things have turned to crap."

Lie and delay, delay and lie, then accuse those seeking the truth of "playing politics." The Obama doctrine.

WWII Rosie the Riveter: "We can do it!" Today's average American: "Government should do it for me." Thus freedom dies.

When Obama took office in 2009, Libya and Syria were quiet and no threat. There was fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we were winning and they were no threat. Egypt was a dictatorship but an ally. When he leaves office in 2017, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan will be Islamist states exporting terrorism. Syria may be, or Assad, who Obama said "must go," may well still be in power, but very hostile to the US. Egypt will likely be an anti-US dictatorship. This is what happens when you put a lead-from-behind community organizer in charge of foreign policy.

They held slaves, honored thieves, tortured prisoners for fun and entertainment, murdered those they attacked, raped women of their enemies for sport, and people could often find their villages by the stink because they piled-up garbage and rubbish in their immediate environment. War was endemic and whenever possible they conquered and destroyed their neighbors, taking their women, lands and goods and enslaving the children. Women were second class citizens at best and the average citizen had no political freedoms, but had to do as bade by the ruler. Why would you want to name a sports team after Native Americans? I know, I know--it was their culture, and all cultures are equally valid. Except, of curse, any culture based on western civilization.

When the government shuts down a 16-year-old girl's hair braiding business because she hasn't gone to cosmetology school, or a 12-year-old's lemonade stand because she doesn't have a food service license, in what sense are we still a free people?

We started to lose America when people stopped working hard so their kids would have better lives and started working only so they could have great vacations, smart phones and designer clothes.

There was a time when the elites, such as the Ivy-educated and famous athletes, joined the military and served the nation. For example, Ted Williams was shot down in Korea, and the New York Giants lost a good running back on Iwo Jima. Now they think that serving in the military is only for the little people, those who can't get real jobs. No Republic can survive such a disconnect between those who benefit the most and the general public.

When the choice is to vote for or against legislation that will make the country or economy worse in five years, but win votes in November because it sounds good, guess which way both Democrats and Republicans are likely to vote?

People tell me I'm smart, but I read enough first-class intellects like Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams and Ben Carson, and know enough of folks with first class intellects in the associations I have managed that I know my intellect is at best second class. That's been okay, because 85% of the rest are third or fourth class, so I've made a good living. Maybe if I had more intellectual rigor...

Democrats went nuts when Rand Paul suggested trading five of them for the Marine in Mexico, because they said Republicans were comparing them to the Taliban. And everyone knows that only Democrats like Harry Reid are allowed to compare opponents to terrorists. Of course, Reid was serious, while Paul was joking, but no matter.

Things that happened 50 years ago in Marine Boot Came or Vietnam seem like yesterday. But what I had for lunch yesterday I have trouble recalling.

Obama's "War on Coal," is actually part of the Democrats' #WaronthePoor. The poor will find that driving, heating their homes and everything from food to clothing costs more as Obama drives up energy costs. But they don't know economics any better than he does, and will still thing he's their savior.

We are fast reaching the point where citizens will fill out as few forms and share as little information as possible with our government, on the theory that what bureaucrats don't know about they cannot screw up with regulations and petty requirements.

Since most university professors are progressives and believe in fighting inequality by spreading the wealth around, I propose an experiment. We apply this principle to professors' salaries and benefits. it is clearly unfair that a full professor makes more money than an associate or adjunct professor, just because the full professor has more experience, more education and probably works more hours. That's the excuse for why men get paid more than women in the private sector, which they reject as progressives. And why should a PhD in neurobiology get paid more than a teacher with a masters in music appreciation? It's clearly not fair. From now on, everyone who teaches at a university should be paid the same regardless of experience, field, education and training or hours worked. End income inequality at the universities! If it works well there, maybe we can try it in other places.

Heard a guy on TV say, "Money is not an issue." If I won, say, $100M in the Powerball, and was treating someone to breakfast at a diner, I might say that. But probably not.

I like the rich, but not because I'm one or because I'm a Republican. I like them because they benefit me. Say a guy is worth $50M. He has to do something with the money. He can invest it in companies, trying to make more. This lets the company expand, providing more jobs directly and indirectly and improving the economy. Or he can put it in the bank--and the bank can lend it to people who want to buy house or cars, or start businesses. This leads to the same jobs boost for the economy. He might even spend it on lavish homes, cars, jets and vacations. But again, these things create jobs and thus help me by making the general economy better. Only if we drive him to stash the money overseas do we all lose these potential benefits.

With help from a sycophantic media, the Democrats have convinced the public that the Republicans are the "party of the rich." In fact, both parties are the party of the rich. People who pay $35,000 for a dinner to hear president Obama talk about "income inequality" are not making minimum wage. Both parties get money from wealthy donors, though it is often different donors depending on the party. Trial lawyers like John Edwards are wealthy and support Democrats because Democrats protect them. Wealthy doctors tend to support Republicans. Of course, some wealthy principle-free donors (like, say Wall Street) play both sides, hoping for influence regardless. I can still tell you the names of two donors who gave ($50 and $100) to both me and my opponent in 1974, though not the names of my other donors. It pretty much killed them with me.

Okay, in the 2008 election, Hillary Clinton listed a number of $1,000 contributions from Chinese immigrants making about $10,000 a year. Everyone knew that was just a bundler getting around the campaign finance laws to funnel her big money, using people who couldn't speak English to hide it. But the media didn't care, because she was a "progressive."

Statists saying that hyper-inflation in Zimbabwe or economic collapse due to debt and government spending in Greece is bad, but these things can't happen here, is like a teen saying that he knows drugs have destroyed a lot of lives and killed many people but it can't happen to him, because he's special.

Want to be sure your kids have ugly lives? Fill them with unearned self-esteem. Few things in life give more satisfaction than the things you do or earn for yourself.

When I got out of the VA Hospital after 14 days, I was about 6 weeks overdue for a haircut. But whenever I went to the VA for rehab and looked around, I felt fine. Some of those old guys haven't seen a barber since the week before they got their DD-214 discharge papers.

As everyone knows, the legacy or main-stream media have been in a decline. Most blame the Internet, but I think the start of the decline coincided with the decision of most media outlets to stop reporting balanced news and to advocate for a political agenda, by spiking some stories, pushing others and shading the wording. ("Senator hall reported..." comes across differently than, "Senator Hall claimed..." or "Senator Hall admitted...") The reasons I like The Week news magazine, and that their circulation is growing, is that they present mostly very balanced reports so that it's hard to detect a bias or agenda in it.

Great quote on the Internet: "Progressive is a code word for clueless." --Karol Traven

We are lucky that in our society, there are still jobs for the semi-literate: street sweeper, newspaper headline writer, ditch digger, bill drafter for Congress...

In the hospital, I felt like Gulliver. At one point, I had at least 11 or 12 wires, hoses and tubes tying me down. Needed help just to scratch.

I think some people decide that the way to avoid working and live on the dole is to get covered with tattoos and piercings so almost no one will hire them.

If I only did what I felt like doing at any given time, about 80% of the things I've accomplished in life would never have gotten done.

I was chiding a staff member once for reading a colleague's pay stub she had found, as an invasion of the colleague's privacy. The staffer's defense was that reading it was, "Only human nature."  No sale. Human nature through the centuries has included murder, rape, pillage, war, theft, slavery and destruction. Our long climb towards becoming civilized is the result of our halting and uncertain efforts to overcome human nature.

One of the other lung transplant patients is under weight and the doctor told him to eat everything in sight. How come I never get medical instructions like that?

Years ago, I read LtGen Chesty Puller's advice to a group of young corporals on leadership. I added the comments in brackets. 1. Know you own job thoroughly. (Or they won't respect you.) 2. Set the example. (The followers won't work any harder than you do.) 3. look out for the welfare of your subordinates. (You can't build a successful team if it's all about you.) Still the best short take on leadership I have ever seen.

My wife says Islamic Supremacists who abuse and murder woman should be given sex change operations and sent home to live in their 7th century societies.

In the VA hospital, several nurses and other professionals let me know they were conservatives, but didn't talk about it, because in Madison the "tolerant" liberals would ostracize them or retaliate against them.

In the hospital, they are always announcing things like, "Code Red: fire, on the fifth floor." Or "Code Blue: disruptive behavior in Ward XX," or "Code Yellow: Obama's Foreign policy at the main entrance." (Needs the life support team.)

Still no #BringBackOurBoys hashtag from the Obamas like the one Michelle tweeted, #BringBackOurGirls, when Muslims kidnapped 200+ black school girls into sex slavery in Nigeria. Oh, wait, they were Jews--what was I thinking? Besides, for all the good it did for the girls, they might as well have tweeted Obama's latest golf scores. But the idea wasn't to win freedom for the girls--it was to win support from the mushy-headed who think things like hashtags and social media matter to armed murderers.

Obama has no problem with scandals. He just announces that the administration will investigate itself, confident that it will take a year or two and the media will divert attention. Once his investigation of himself clears his administration of any wrong doing, anyone who raises questions is accused by the media of playing politics with old news.

Liberals love veterans--just not enough that they would want their kids or themselves to ever be one. But there is an upside, even in Madison. In a store last week, a lovely girl, about 16, came over, shook my hand and said, "I just want to thank you for you service." I replied that, 'Wearing the Marine uniform was the privilege of a lifetime." Gave me a glow.

"Affirmative Action" is a racist code word.

Madison is the home of the happily-offended, intolerant, politically-correct.

Newspapers used to write at the 8th grade level. Now it's closer to The Little Engine That Could level. Thank the teachers' unions. We cannot fix the schools, or the VA or any level of government unless we break the public employees' unions. Before they break the government. It may be too late, of course.

Regardless of the issue or which side you are on, if you haven't studied the data, and not just the cherry-picked data of your side, you may have an opinion, but it's not an informed opinion.

After what happened to Gadhafi following Obama's unauthorized, lead-from-behind war turned Libya into a terrorist haven, and got both Gadhafi and our Ambassador murdered, why would anyone think Assad would not fight to the death to hang on in Syria? And why would a rational person want him to go, giving al Qaeda another stronghold?

At five terrorists for one soldier, the Taliban should be incentivized to help Obama meet his goal of closing Gitmo.

A lot of folks say, "I'm doing the best I can," when they aren't.

Maybe it's time for amnesty and a path to citizenship...for unborn babies.

Those who think the end justifies the means often come to bad ends. But so do other folks unfortunate enough to be involved with them or in their way.

When you have several chores that must be done, do the most disagreeable one first. You'll have to do it anyway, no use having it hanging over your head.

Since the IRS "lost" the emails from Lois Lerner, I'm sure they will understand if you lose the documentation for your deductions this year.

Discrimination is everywhere. In Madison, WI Christians and Conservatives are in the closet.

If you want me to "forgive and forget," there better be some indication that you really regret your actions. And not the pious mouthing of politicians and other crooks who's real regret is that they were caught. People who feel justified in their evil--Hitler, Stalin and Mao being the archetypes in the 20th century--are pretty hard to forgive.

Some days, I think I have enough space cadets in my family to staff Star Fleet.

Maybe if we tell the rich liberals that a border fence is needed because everyone wants to live in a gated community like they do, they would understand.

Comment from the Internet: "Political Correctness is fascism pretending to be manners."

Obama is a prisoner of his base. He can't do what is needed in Iraq or Afghanistan, because his base won't let him. He can't do what is needed in energy, jobs or the economy because his base won't let him.

I'm an optimist by temperament, but a pessimist by policy. I believe in planning for the worst case. That way, if it happens, you are ready, and if not, you are pleasantly surprised.

Now that we know Hillary Clinton defended a child rapist she knew was guilty, and got him off on a technicality, we can understand why defending Bill when he had sex with a young employee in the Oval Office was easy. She's been part of the Democrats' #WaronWomen for a long time.

Like the Crusades and Slavery, Colonialism is considered one of the Great Sins of white Europeans. The first, "crusade," of course, was the Muslim attempt to conquer Europe by the sword, as they had North Africa and the Middle East. After having conquered Spain, the Muslim crusade was turned back in France at the Battle of Tours in 732, by Charles Martel and his brave warriors. But Muslim attempts to conquer Europe went on for centuries, notable at Vienna and Lepanto. Likewise, slavery was not just whites enslaving blacks who were sold to the whites by other blacks. People of every culture enslaved others, and people of every race were enslaved, often by folks of their own ethnic group. In the same time period that half a million black slaves were imported into what became the United States, a million white Europeans were kidnapped into slavery in Muslim lands. God alone knows how many black slaves were taken there when fellow blacks sold them to Arabs. But the desert was littered with the bones of those who died on the long trek. It does not excuse slavery in the US to point out that these Muslim slaves were treated much worse, but it is worth knowing. Only when western civilization, led by people like William Wilberforce and William Lloyd Garrison, turned against slavery was it slowly driven back, though it still exists in Muslim lands today. Colonialism, too, was carried out by every people and every culture, as stronger neighbors took over the weaker ones, driving them out, enslaving them or exterminating them. When the Hottentots pushed into southern Africa, they destroyed the Bushmen who were there already, killing or enslaving those that didn't escape into the wilderness. Then the Bantu moved south, and gave the same treatment to the Hottentots. Once they were supreme, Bantu clans did the same to each other with unsurpassed viciousness. They coalesced into tribes, then into "nations," the strongest of which was the Zulu--and perhaps the most ruthless in "colonizing" neighboring clans. No white colonists were involved. And the Bantu's inter- and intra-tribal violence surpassed anything done to them by white colonizers. See the excellent history, The Washing of the Spears: the Rise and Fall of the Zulu Nation. http://www.amazon.com/The-Washing-Of-Spears-Nation/dp/0306808668/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403119008&sr=8-1&keywords=Washing+of+Spears

The way things are going, I expect Obama to announce "I am not a crook" anytime now.

Saw on the net: "Rosie isn't a Riveter anymore. She now cleans federal buildings and needs a union to speak for her."

Global Warming is a useful concept. I mean, you can't blame everything on Racism, Bush or the Koch Brothers.

Yes, politicians lie to their constituents. but speaking as a recovering politician myself, I can assure you that constituents lie to their politicians when they want a favor or a vote on legislation.

Of all the places I've lived, I liked Chicago the least. That includes Vietnam. There I was allowed to carry a gun to protect myself.

I have always contended that people are "who," while things are "that." So it should be, "The player WHO hit the homerun," but "The ball THAT he hit..." But from the usage in the newspapers, I appear to have lost that battle. Like others. For years I insisted on the traditional pronunciation of "Forte," meaning "strength," as "Fort." For-tay is a musical term. But so many people used for-tay for strength, thinking it sounded elegant, that dictionaries now give it as an alternative. And for years, I insisted on "Attender," not "Attendee." A mentor mentors, a mentee gets mentored, and so on in general usage. So an "attender" goes to the meeting, while, logically, an "attendee" would have the meeting brought to him. But I got tired of fighting alone. Thus the language dies with the culture.

From the Internet: "I hope to someday be as wealthy as the Clintons were when they were dead broke."

From the Internet: "The government that just lost two years of IRS emails would like to handle your medical records from now on."

Our friend Donna sent us a lovely thank you note. I told her I was envious of her beautiful hand writing--mine was terrible even before the drugs from my lung transplant make me so shaky. I said it was from having to write, "I will not talk in class" thousands of times in grade school. "And you still haven't learned that lesson," she replied.

If you root against the Cleveland Browns, does that make you a racist?

If you think talk is cheap, you never invite Bill or Hillary to give one.
Obama's now getting credit for arresting one of the terrorists arrested in the Benghazi attack. He got reelected saying there was no terrorist attack in Benghazi.

The USA won't really be a soccer country until fans start beating the hell out of people for wearing the wrong team's colors.

From my friend Bill T: Definition of clerisy: the self hating segment of the middle class.

Saw on the Internet: "If guns were used in abortions to kill babies, liberals would love them."

"Social Justice" is a code word for, "Hand over the loot and no one gets hurt."

"Redistribution" is a code word for "Robbery."

Had a boss once who thought Who Moved My Cheese was a great book everyone should read. My summary: "Things change. You have to change to adopt to them, or die. The end." But I envy someone getting rich writing a simple, obvious fable. Need t think of one...

If the students kidnapped in Israel by Hamas were environmental activists, Obama would move heaven and Earth to get them back.

Is not a white US citizen born in Zimbabwe or South Africa who emigrated to the US an African-American?

Though i always wear a coat and tie, our church is casual. But some folks don't know the difference between casual and sloppy. Though I assume God doesn't mind, it seems disrespectful to me. If I went to church in Jeans, my Grandmother Mildred Hall would rise from her grave, grab me by the earlobe an march me home to change.

Get the collection! My “Random Thoughts” from 2008 through July, 2013 are now collected in this book: The Old Jarhead's Journal: Random Thoughts on Life, Liberty, and Leadership by Robert A. Hall
The Old Jarhead’s Journal is a collection of Random Thoughts on politics and life and Conservative Political Essays, mostly published on the author’s blog, including the essay “I’m Tired” which went viral on the Internet in 2009, “The Hall Platform,” “This I Believe,” and “Why I’m a Republican.” While they will be of interest to conservative thinkers, they are collected here in book form as a service to readers who wish to give a copy to favorite liberals and watch their heads explode. All royalties are donated to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

*****

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://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-book-published.html

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Important news and conservative comment

The Philosophy of the Old Jarhead Blog
The Old Jarhead is a blog of political news and conservative opinion, that has had over 1,200,000 page views since founded in 2008, is read in many counties (Iran? Indonesia? Russia? Ukraine? Go figure.) and gets up to 30,000 page views a week. Plus I throw in some humor and human interest pieces that catch my attention for seasoning. I try to include foreign sources and info you won’t get in the MSM, but I often use links to pieces in the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, Reuters and other liberal leaning sources. No one is required to read it, or any of the links. A majority of the pieces are sent to me by readers, for which I’m grateful, others come from newsfeeds I subscribe to. I get some from Twitter, but often don’t have time to look at my feeds there. I stop sending the link to people who become nasty or too angry. I used to forward political items, but was sending too many e-mails to my list, so a few years ago, I started collecting them on the blog to access in one place. I use maybe 50% of the conservative pieces sent me, probably less than 5% of the liberal opinion sent, usually to illustrate their views. Readers who don’t like that are welcome to start their own blogs. Blogs are free and so is speech in America right now, despite leftist efforts to outlaw “hate speech” they disagree with and Islamist efforts to outlaw criticism of Islam, while retaining the right to describe other religions in vile terms. I try to avoid items that will turn off thoughtful centrists and leftists or low-information independents, including “red meat” pieces with intemperate language or wild speculation, conspiracy theories with no supporting facts and silly distractions like the so-called “birther” issue (but I don’t always succeed). I predicted correctly five years ago the “birther” thing was going nowhere, was a huge waste of time and resources, and played into the hands of the left, much as the impeachment of Bill Clinton did in the 1990s. (I said so at the time.) I do sometimes include things I don’t agree with that I think readers might find of interest. Readers are requested to read all items critically and with skepticism—just like a newspaper! Readers who send formatted pieces (title, link, and a fair use excerpt of no more than three sentences unless the piece is very short, than fewer) to tartanmarine(at)gmail.com have a higher chance of my using them than people who just send a link. I often include thoughtful comments from contributors. (Tell me if you want you full name used.) A piece without a link has a much lower chance of being used—it depends on how interesting it is and how much time I have right then to search for it, and my time is limited right now due to managing the lung transplant I received on December 23, 2013. I understand if you don’t have the time to format or even to find a link—please understand I don't either. There are no ads on my blog, no fees and I receive no income from it. Now that I've retired, that might need to change, but for now, that’s how it is. I do promote my books, with the royalties going to charity. Thanks for reading and contributing. ~Bob.

Health. Pulled a back muscle--third time--coughing Wednesday. Painful, but not as bad as last time. Should be mostly better by tomorrow. 20th Bronchoscopy Monday, this one in surgery. Not sure if they will put the stent in. Feeling okay. O2 use still holding. ~Bob

General News and Comment

Former Marine Commandant General Carl Mundy's Funeral
If you missed this, there are still men of honor and courage in America. This is how they say goodbye. ~Bob
]
Pride and Discipline: The Hallmarks of a United States Marine by Donald J. Myers 
Excerpt: Marine Boot Camp has been described in many books and movies over the years and in many cases not favorably. The author is especially qualified to write about this subject because he went through a Boot Camp at Parris Island in 1953 and returned as the commanding officer of the Recruit Training Regiment in 1982 after spending a significant amount of time leading Marines as an officer and noncommissioned officer. (On my wish list. ~Bob. The Pre-Introduction was written by me and LtCol Rob Barrow, USMC (Ret). I am happy to say our effort passed through the editors - published as written. It's an important message to open Colonel Myers's fine book. --Col. Andy Weddington, USMC (Ret.)

How Marines Are Made!
I just read an article where a man ranked the branches of service and said the Marines were the worst because when people serve in the Army, Navy and Air Force they transition out of the service and return to being civilians, but Marines never do that. They remain Marines for their whole life. This might give him some insight as to why the Marines are best branch of service. Been there, done that. --Anon.

Tribute to Troops by President Reagan
Worth hearing. ~Bob

Worth Reading: Of Course the President is at the Heart of the IRS Crime. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: It matters not what polling outfit poses the question, right at 75% of Americans believe the IRS purposely did something amiss with the Lois Lerner emails.

Massachusetts SWAT teams claim they’re private corporations, immune from open records laws. By Radley Balko 
Excerpt: As it turns out, a number of SWAT teams in the Bay State are operated by what are called law enforcement councils, or LECs. These LECs are funded by several police agencies in a given geographic area and overseen by an executive board, which is usually made up of police chiefs from member police departments. Some of these LECs have also apparently incorporated as 501(c)(3) organizations. And it’s here that we run into problems. According to the ACLU, the LECs are claiming that the 501(c)(3) status means that they’re private corporations, not government agencies.

Reader response to: "U.S. Economy Shrinks By Most Since Great Recession in 1Q"
Love how this “unexpected economic downturn” is being “nudged” by the media wearing appropriate red and black for regime, stating that “This was caused by the unexpected severe winter.” BS. Every time I have stepped outside ad infinitum and listened, I hear birds still alive and singing and high-altitude flights overhead spraying. Cannot see sun at all today. They are manipulating weather/trying to prevent us from seeing sky; go figure. Definitely imparting metal particles into everyone’s lungs to the detriment of pulmonary and mental health. They are now noting “increases in Alzheimer’s and dementia” and noting increasing numbers of seniors (but I expect onsets at earlier ages showing up). Convinced global project to control weather/ionosphere and “beyond HAARP” and will not work. This economic downturn was caused by Obamacare. OWN IT. --Barb

Liberal Justices to Obama – No, No Young Man
Excerpt: The Supreme Court just invalidated President Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board in January 2012. The decision is big for several reasons, but the one to highlight for the moment is that the Supremes went 9-0 against Obama. The main opinion, which struck down the appointments, was written by Justice Breyer and joined by the Supreme Court’s liberal block (Sotomayor, Kagan, Kennedy, and Ginsburg).

Tennessee ‘Pork Report’ Finds Government Waste at All-Time High. By Chris Butler
Excerpt: Tennessee officials wasted $609 million in taxpayer money last year, according to the 2014 “Pork Report,” which a free-market think tank released Wednesday. (If it buys votes with tax dollars, politicians of both parties don't see it was wasted. And when the fiscal collapse comes, they won't feel guilty. No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible. --Stanislaw Lem. i once got the Chair of Ways and Means to accept a floor amendment for a new $200k roof for a leaking building at Fitchburg state College in my district. Not sure that was pork, though. No one knew about it except the college president, and he was a supporter in any case. Can't recall any other "pork" in my five terms. ~Bob)

1 in 4 Americans have no idea which party controls the Senate or the House. By Jaime Fuller
Excerpt: Here's your humbling political stat of the day: Only four in 10 Americans can correctly identify which party controls the majority in the House and Senate, according to a new Pew Research Center study on Americans' political beliefs. Thirty-three percent of Americans can identify the majority party in only one chamber, and 28 percent -- more than one in four people (!) -- have completely no idea. (Democracy doesn't promise good government, only the government you deserve. No wonder we are headed for collapse. ~Bob

What is "Social Justice"?
A great question, and a very important one in this day and age. The short video does a super job on this, and it's another thing I wish the majority of Americans would see. --Del. When a Progressive says "Social Justice," I hear "Stand and Deliver!" ~Bob

'Dangerously Militarized' Cops Misusing SWAT Teams. Army tactics, equipment used for drug raids. By Rob Quinn
Excerpt: Police forces across America have become "dangerously militarized" and are using equipment and tactics taken straight from the Army to do things like serve search warrants and search homes for drugs, a new American Civil Liberties Union report finds. Among the findings of the report on police militarization, as per NPR, the Guardian, and the Washington Post: (I have been seeing articles about overuse of overaggressive SWAT teams for the last several years, and now it's getting national attention. I hope it leads to some rethinking in police departments about such problems. Many of these incidents amount to serious mistreatment of people, often innocent people. --Del)

Mississippi’s bizarre political scandal takes a tragic turn. By Philip Bump 
Excerpt: Mark Mayfield, an attorney and tea party activist in Mississippi who was arrested in connection with a scheme to take illicit photographs of Sen. Thad Cochran's infirm wife, has died of an apparent suicide, according to The Associated Press.

Government by fiat. By Charles Krauthammer
Excerpt: The Supreme Court this week admonished the Environmental Protection Agency for overreaching in regulating greenhouse gases. The Clean Air Act covers polluters that emit 250 tons per year (or in some cases, 100 tons). This standard makes no sense if applied to greenhouse gases. Thousands of establishments from elementary schools to grocery stores would be, absurdly, covered. So the EPA arbitrarily chose 100,000 tons as the carbon dioxide threshold. That’s not “tailoring,” ruled the Supreme Court. That’s rewriting. Under our Constitution, “an agency has no power to ‘tailor’ legislation to bureaucratic policy goals by rewriting unambiguous statutory terms.”

The U.S. military’s ongoing slur of Native Americans
Excerpt: In the United States today, the names Apache, Comanche, Chinook, Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa apply not only to Indian tribes but also to military helicopters. Add in the Black Hawk, named for a leader of the Sauk tribe. Then there is the Tomahawk, a low-altitude missile, and a drone named for an Indian chief, Gray Eagle. Operation Geronimo was the end of Osama bin Laden. (Progressives and Muslims will always find something new to be offended by--it's in their DNA. Giving in to them doesn't placate them, it only energizes them to find something else to make you apologize for and change. ~Bob)

It's Jew-Hatred, Stupid
Excerpt: For Hamas, peace talks and negotiating for borders or land swaps are completely inconceivable concessions. Jihad to eliminate the Zionist presence is the only acceptable tactic. ... Yet, no sooner had the talks collapsed than blame was being assigned by both Secretary of State John Kerry and chief U.S. negotiator Martin Indyk—and naturally it was Israel that bore the brunt of their criticism.

What Bill’s speaking fees say about a Hillary presidency. By Paul Waldman
Excerpt: Today the Post published a fascinating analysis, complete with a cool interactive graphic, of how Bill and Hillary Clinton managed to make over $100 million since leaving the White House in 2001, in particular Bill Clinton’s speaking fees. ... First, there’s the sheer volume: Bill Clinton gave an astounding 542 paid speeches over this 12-year period, which works out to a speech every eight days. And then, of course, there are the fees, ranging from a measly $28,100 for a speech to the London School of Economics in December 2001 (an act of charity, really; for no other speech was he paid less than $75,000) all the way up to the $750,000 he got for a November 2011 speech in Hong Kong to the Swedish telecom company Ericsson. 

GOP Candidate: Global Warming ‘The Greatest Deception In The History Of Mankind’
http://clashdaily.com/2014/06/gop-candidate-global-warming-greatest-deception-history-mankind/#k8ZVVetoOvtjLSc7.99
Excerpt: This is bound to enrage some liberals for a few reasons. One, that she is a woman in the Republican party, and two, that she rails against global warming as one of the biggest lies out there. Her name is Lenar Whitney, and she is running as a Republican in the Sixth Congressional District race in the state of Louisiana. See some of the transcript below via The Daily Caller:

Conservatives Blast IRS Over Ruling to Pay $50K to Marriage Group. By Todd Beamon
Excerpt: House Ways and Means Chairman David Camp has blasted Eric Holder's Department of Justice for declining to pursue a case against the IRS after a judge ruled the agency illegally exposed a non-profit's donor list and ordered $50,000 in damages The Michigan Republican, who has been calling for a special prosecutor to be assigned to investigate the IRS, said it was clear that Attorney General Holder could not be trusted to adequately investigate the IRS targeting scandal. (OK, we have here simple facts. The IRS broke the law (and their sworn duty to confidentiality of the data they receive) by giving to one group, a gay-rights organization, the confidential donor information of another group, a traditional marriage defender, its direct political rival. This is a total betrayal of everything the IRS is supposed to stand for, something like a priest telling the wife about the husband's confession. And a court found the evidence compelling, ruled against the IRS for this crime, and ordered them to pay $50K in damages to the victimized group. A crime like this calls for criminal prosecution, which is the responsibility of the Justice Department. Mr. Holder refuses to follow up on this duty. He is again using what he calls his "vast discretion" in deciding what crimes to investigate. This is just one more instance of malfeasance in office on his part. Meanwhile, we find out that the head of the IRS, the one who announced the mysterious loss of two years of e-mails from Lois Lerner and refused to apologize to the American people for this royal foul-up, has been a heavy contributor to the Democrat Party for years. Which is certainly his right as an individual, but it reinforces all the suspicion of serious partisanship in the IRS. (Not a "smidgeon" of any problems there? Really? How much of this kind of thing do we all have to see to recognize that political partisanship has been made much more of the governing of this country than we've seen since the New Deal? If any of this happened while George Bush was in office, the convening of the apparatus for his impeachment would have been well on its way by now. Don't misunderstand me, I don't think we'll be moving to impeach Mr. Obama, but I do think it's time for anyone with some kind of clear vision to understand that all his promises of a transparent Administration, no more lobbyists in the upper ranks of government, no partisanship in governing, and especially his 2008 comments about the necessary restriction of presidential powers have all been well and thoroughly broken.) --Del. Holder can't go after them. They might reveal who they were taking direction from. ~Bob.)

New House Bill Would Pay $1 Million Cash Reward For Lois Lerner's "Missing" Emails. By Daniel Doherty
Excerpt: Looking to make some extra cash this summer? A new bill introduced by Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Bill Flores (R-TX) would set aside funds for a $1 million cash prize to anyone or any entity that can furnish Congress with Lois Lerner’s "missing" emails. What’s more, the bill also stipulates that the government would pay $500,000 to any person or party that provides information to prosecutors that would be admissible in a court of law. The best part? The reward itself would be paid for with funds from the IRS’ own budget.

Kim Strassel and the WSJ on the Lost IRS Emails. By Walter Olson
Excerpt: According to Strassel’s column today, the contents of Lois Lerner’s hard drive were wiped out by forces unknown “about 10 days after the Camp letter arrived,” that is to say, a letter from House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp inquiring into targeting of conservative groups. (Lerner then replied to Camp denying targeting and subsequently pleaded the Fifth before Congress.) 

Scandalclipse. The Goldberg File by Jonah Goldberg
Have you noticed that basically the only way this White House can get out from under one scandal or controversy is by getting crushed by another? The White House was reeling from the VA scandal, which is why they rolled out the Bergdahl news. They didn't expect that the Bergdahl story would become so controversial; fortunately they were rescued by the June 6 news of thousands of immigrant children showing up at the border. Hey, quick question: I can't get my kid out of an airport without her getting messy. Isn't it strange that all of these kids seem to show up, after a 1,000-mile journey looking so spiffy? Anyway, the immigrant-kid story was pretty brutal for the White House; fortunately they were rescued three days later by the news that ISIS had taken Mosul. The "Who Lost Iraq?" narrative isn't great for the White House either, which is why it might have been a relief when the IRS announced on June 13 that they lost Lois Lerner's e-mails. (Subscription to The Goldberg File is free. ~Bob)

Harry Reid’s new challenge: His fellow Democrats. By Manu Raju and Burgess Everett
Excerpt: Harry Reid has a new dilemma on his hands: restless Senate Democrats who are frustrated they aren’t casting enough votes. For the past year, Reid and Republicans have bitterly sparred over the stunning inactivity in the Senate. But the majority leader is now facing growing pressure from fellow Democrats agitating over the lack of votes on amendments, a central aspect of legislating in the Senate.

SAVAGES: Woman Savagely Beaten In Front Of Her 2yr. Old While Bystanders Film It
If this video doesn’t prompt you to get weapons training and a concealed carry, then nothing will. Unbelievable and brutal beating, viewer warning. Oh, by the way, is this a ‘hate crime’? Because the victim is white, and the attacker (who also appears to be a Muslim from the pic) and onlookers are black and they offered no assistance. 

Medicaid Money Wasted in 2013: $14.4 Billion
Excerpt: A new report by the Government Accountability Office said the government “did not closely examine the payments” going to managed care organizations (MOC’s), which include nursing homes, that work with state Medicaid agencies to provide services to beneficiaries.

Obamacare Decimates Economy
Excerpt: How many of you are following the financial news? Did you see that the feds had to revise the 1st quarter GDP numbers from up 3% to -2.9%? Yep....no Barack Obama trotting down the steps of the White House back portico, arms swinging, to mount his little backyard podium and boast of a vibrant economy? Nope, seeing how the news was bad, seeing how the news was pretty damn catastrophic, all we heard from the White House was Obama's mouthpiece press secretary blaming the poor economic performance on the weather. Well, not more than an hour later a score of economists popped up on CNBC and pronounced that as nonsense. 

Mississippi Goes for the Money: How Did Brett Favre Help Thad Cochran in His Senate Race? By Gail Collins
Excerpt: Cochran is plenty conservative on most issues, except the one the Tea Party cares most about. He’s a true believer in the power of the federal government to use tax dollars to improve the lives of its citizens. He spreads a wide net, from cotton subsidies to food stamps to military contracts to special education in public schools. Instead of racing to the right, Cochran ran on his talents as a collector of federal money. (There is no hope of avoiding a fiscal collapse with both parties using tax dollars to buy votes. ~Bob)

Abuses Too Far. By Erick Erickson 
Excerpt: Yesterday, Barack Obama lost his twelfth unanimous decision before the United States Supreme Court. His own Justices on the Court ruled against him. What is most striking is that Barack Obama is a former law professor. What is more striking is that his Attorney General, who is more invested in protecting the precious than upholding the law, did not try to protect his precious from these new precedents.

Video: France's Reckoning: Rich, Young Flee Welfare State
America is going the way of Europe. Obama Care and a massive Welfare State are crippling the US economy like never before. Marxist heritage and history in the French establishment has turned France into a dying economy !!! France won’t be able to recover from this social insanity and its deadly welfare trap mindset deeply ingrained in the French collective. --AJ

Report: Many Obamacare Customers Will Have To Switch Plans Or Face Skyrocketing Costs
Excerpt: Most Obamacare customers will face serious premium hikes next year unless they change their health insurance again, according to a Thursday study from Avalere Health.
Most Obamacare customers are receiving some level of taxpayer subsidies to take the edge off high premium rates., but the plans that determine the amount of subsidies available will be changing significantly, according to Avalere.

UNLV Students Slam Hillary’s ‘Outrageous’ Speaking Fee
Excerpt: Clinton will be paid$225,000 to address attendees at the fundraiser. Her sky-high speaking fee has raised eyebrows and caused a stir on the UNLV campus.
UNLV student government leaders expressed their outrage at the university’s decision to pay the former Secretary of State such a hefty fee. “We really appreciate anybody who would come to raise money for the university, but anybody who is being paid $225,000 to come speak- we think that’s a little bit outrageous. And we would like Secretary Clinton, respectfully, to gracefully return the money back to the university or to the foundation,” Daniel Waqar, Public Relations Director for the UNLV Student Government, told Jon Ralston on Ralston Reports.

Government watchdog group takes legal action against IRS over lost emails
Excerpt: The government accountability group Judicial Watch filed a legal motion Friday that threatens to drag the Obama administration into federal court to answer questions about the lost emails of ex-IRS official Lois Learner and others implicated in the tea party targeting scandal.
Judicial Watch, which was at the forefront of exposing the targeting scandal, had filed a Freedom of Information Act request in May 2013 for emails of Ms. Lerner and other officials. But the IRS did not inform the group of the lost emails, even as it told the court that it was cooperating with the FOIA request.

Your tax dollars--and government--at work: Report: Detroit spent big to renovate homes
Excerpt: Detroit spent as much as $537,000 per home renovating 30 houses starting in 2011 under a federal program to fight blight before selling most for less than $100,000 each, according to a newspaper's investigation published on Thursday. ... The bank is working to sell the last three homes in the program. It spent nearly $8.7 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on 30 homes. So far, sales have brought in about $2 million.

Amy Adams gives first-class airline seat to soldier, sits in coach, passenger says
Excerpt: According to ESPN host Jemele Hill, Adams gave up her first-class seat on a flight so an American soldier could sit in the classy cabin. Hill, who co-hosts “Numbers Never Lie,” tweeted about the event from her verified account.

United States Homicide Rate 1885-2012
Check out the chart. ~Bob

Tipsy Hillary dubs Obama ‘incompetent and feckless,’ a national ‘joke,’ book claims
Excerpt: Mr. Klein writes that Mrs. Clinton referred to Mr. Obama as “incompetent and feckless,” and said he had “no hand on the tiller half the time,” during a May 2013 dinner-and-drinks affair at a French cafe, Le Jardin Du Roi, located in the Westchester area of New York, the New York Post reported. (Hearsay, but hard to disagree with Hillary if she said this. ~bob)

Worth Reading: Presidential snow job on global warming. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, 48th District, California
Excerpt: Sir, my congressional colleagues and I cannot ignore costs when making decisions. Simply put, no matter how apocalyptic the theory behind it, we cannot make this crony-capitalist concoction of yours into a policy priority. We’re also obliged to hold in check the coercive ambitions of a science-government complex, that with research grants, regulatory overreach and legislative conceit that corrals scientists into acquiescence and conformity. That complex corrupts scientific method itself. When one of your top EPA administrators came before the Science, Space and Technology Committee, I asked her about the much-heralded claim that “97 percent” of scientists form a global-warming “consensus” — consensus being historically antithetical to scientific inquiry itself. Her stammered answer would have made any U.C. Irvine student blush, as would any such feeble research. Did anyone ever ask 97 percent of the world’s scientists? Seriously?

The government decided that ‘Redskins’ bothers you. By George F. Will
Excerpt: Amanda Blackhorse, a Navajo who successfully moved a federal agency to withdraw trademark protections from the Washington Redskins because it considers the team’s name derogatory, lives on a reservation where Navajos root for the Red Mesa High School Redskins. She opposes this name; the Native Americans who picked and retain it evidently do not.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acted on a 1946 law banning trademarks that “may disparage” persons. “May” gives the agency latitude to disregard evidence regarding how many people actually feel disparaged or feel that others should feel disparaged. (No matter what you do, Progressives and Muslims will always find something else to be offended by, so there is no use trying. It's part of their effort to control thought and speech. ~Bob)

Important: Mexican militiaman and his family killed after speaking out
Excerpt: After so many years and tens of thousands of deaths, the drug war still casts a long shadow over Mexico. Whole swaths of the country — the states of Michoacan and Tamaulipas, the cities along the U.S. border — live by the rules of cartels that now do far more than transport drugs. There is the anxiety of random violence, the frustration of forced cartel taxes, the fear of kidnapping or worse. ... Valencia and his wife, Blanca, the two boys and his 11-year-old daughter, Bianca — who had all fed us tacos and hosted us generously at their home — were stopped while they were driving in their red truck in the neighboring state of Jalisco. The YouTube videos taken later show the vehicle littered with bullet holes. The attorney general’s office reported that there were signs of torture on the corpses. Nobody survived. (Brace yourself and be armed. The cartels are expanding rapidly in the US. Nothing to stop them at the open border. Every user of illegal drugs has blood on his or her hands. And the administration is much more concerned about the name of a football team. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: Here comes the death spiral: Obamacare’s Prognosis Grows Dimmer/ Nick Sorrentino
Excerpt: It was already pretty dim for anyone who understands how insurance works. I used to be an insurance underwriter (property and casualty, not health) and I’ve been wondering since the beginning how anyone thought Obamacare was going to work. The risk size versus the pool of insureds doesn’t make sense. If insurance companies can’t adjust for risk (which for the most part they can’t under Obamacare) what bizarro mathematics is going to save this ill-conceived juggernaut of bureaucratic bull? The answer is there is no math which will make it work. Either it gets tons more money from taxpayers or it dies.


Religion of Peace News

Excerpt: Yesterday the Iraqi military launched an air assault into the insurgent-held town of Tikrit. At least three helicopters landed at a stadium in Tikrit University, which is about six miles north of the city. According to Reuters, "the helicopters were shot at as they flew low over the city and landed in a stadium at the city's university." One of the helicopters was said to have been shot down. "One helicopter crash-landed in the stadium. Another left after dropping off troops and a third remained on the ground. Army snipers were positioning themselves on tall buildings in the university complex," the news agency reported.

The big lie about Iraq. By Jennifer Rubin 
Excerpt: As I have written, the Obama/Hillary Clinton cover story that Iraq wouldn’t let troops stay behind (or even more outlandishly that the George W. Bush administration put Bush’s successor in a position where the United States “had” to get out) is at odds with reality. A reader points out the Obama/Clinton cover story was recently blown up by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Graham, along with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), had gone to Iraq on behalf of the administration trying to secure a stay-behind force. 

Hillary Clinton’s latest falsehood on Iraq. By Jennifer Rubin 
Excerpt: Hillary Clinton has told some whoppers. But Wednesday night on “PBS NewsHour,” she outdid herself with a preposterous and brand-new excuse for failing to negotiate a status-of-forces agreement (SOFA). ... So for “PBS NewsHour” Clinton tried out a new tale: “Certainly when President Obama had to make the decision about what to do, he was deciding based on what the Bush administration had already determined, because they were the ones who said troops have to be out by the end of 2011.” This is patently untrue. 

Slow Learner: Syria Crisis: Obama Requests $500M to Train, Equip Rebels
President Obama is asking Congress to approve $500 million to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels struggling to oust President Bashar Assad after more than three years of civil war.
The opposition rebels would be vetted before being given assistance, according to a statement from National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden. (We don't want to give candy to the big kids who are bullies. So we give the candy to the little kids, but the big kids take it from them. This is indirectly arming ISIS. There are NO GOOD GUYS in Syria. Obama is a very slow learner. ~Bob)

The Middle East ‘peace process’ fallacy. By Jennifer Rubin
Excerpt: The Washington Institute is out with a new poll of 1,200 adult Palestinians (interviewed face-to-face) showing that “a clear majority (60% overall, including 55% in the West Bank and 68% in Gaza) say that the five-year goal ‘should be to work toward reclaiming all of historic Palestine, from the river to the sea.’ ” In other words, they aim to wipe Israel off the map:

Poll: Majority Still Want GITMO to Stay Open. By Katie Pavlich
Excerpt: That promise hasn't necessarily been kept, but earlier this month we saw the administration make what could be the first of many moves to empty GITMO by default through prisoner swaps and by sending enemy combatants through the U.S. court system instead of through military tribunals. But despite President Obama's militant ideology surrounding the closing of the prison, new polling shows a majority still want the facility to remain open. (So what? Obama said, "And ultimately, if you got a majority of folks who believe in something, then it should be able to pass." But he bulked the will of the majority of Americans on Keystone, Late Term Abortion, Obamacare and many other things to keep his base happy. ~Bob)

The Names of the Victims. By Caroline Glick 
Excerpt: Over the past 30 years, Israel has released thousands of terrorists from its prisons in exchange for hostages. Thousands more have been freed as so-called “confidence building measures,” to appease our supposedly moderate Palestinian negotiating partners into sharing a table with their Israeli counterparts. In every instance, these terrorist releases have led to the murder and abduction of other Israelis.

Excerpt: “How do you pray?” Not that this has anything to do with Islam. Remember: this is all really about a “radical interpretation of Islam” that has “nothing to do with the religion.” ...Whether a person is a Shiite or a Sunni Muslim in Iraq can now be, quite literally, a matter of life and death. As the militant group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has seized vast territories in western and northern Iraq, there have been frequent accounts of fighters’ capturing groups of people and releasing the Sunnis while the Shiites are singled out for execution.

Iran just got caught violating an arms embargo agreement. But we can totally trust them with a nuclear arms agreement. Totally.

Excerpt: The Pakistani military said it killed the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan's commander for the town of Miramshah in North Waziristan and captured an al Qaeda explosives expert during its ongoing offensive in the tribal agency.

FM: Zero tolerance to demonisation of Scots Muslims
Excerpt: SCOTLAND’S authorities will take a “zero tolerance” approach to attempts to demonise Muslims after an Aberdeen man appeared in a terrorist recruitment video, Alex Salmond said today. The First Minister told MSPs that police are “actively monitoring” the threat of radicalisation in Scotland after the video, There Is No Life Without Jihad, emerged on Friday.

Sudanese woman Meriam Ibrahim 'safe and well' in US embassy

Excerpt: The husband of a Sudanese Christian woman facing threats after her apostasy death sentence was overturned has expressed relief that the family has been given refuge at the US embassy in Khartoum. "Really, it's good," Daniel Wani, the American husband of Meriam Ibrahim, told Agence France-Presse by telephone on Friday, adding that embassy staff had been "very helpful and very nice".