Thursday, July 31, 2014

More important political news and comment

Update

My health continues its slow improvement, with the amount I've been doing on PT Rehab and my FEV numbers both ticking up, O2 usage ticking down. Of course, I've gone up before. So I'm not out of the woods and will likely never be. But I continue to fight the battles as they present themselves. I've always been inspired by this great speech by Winston Churchill: "We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!" Yes, indeed.

Lately so much interesting news and comment that I've been posting daily and will do so as I have time. Trust me, no one reads even 20% of the items--I scan most myself. Just scroll through, get the gist and read those you want to know more about. ~Bob

General News and Comment

Excerpt: More than three years after its passage sparked massive protests that jammed the Capitol Square, the state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a divisive state law that sharply curtailed the collective bargaining rights of most public workers. In upholding Gov. Scott Walker's signature piece of legislation, the court handed the governor a major victory three months before he seeks re-election.

Worth Reading: The Benefits and Hypocrisy of Playing the Slavery Card. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Blacks were not enslaved because they were black, but because they were available at the time. Whites enslaved other whites in Europe for centuries before the first black slave was brought to the Western Hemisphere. Only late in history were human beings even capable of crossing an ocean to get millions of other human beings of a different race. In the thousands of years before that, not only did Europeans enslave other Europeans, Asians enslaved other Asians, Africans enslaved other Africans, and the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere enslaved other native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. (From Barbarians Inside the Gates, an excellent 2001 collection of Dr. Sowell's columns from the 1990s, all still very relevant and worth reading. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: Obama and the Road Not Taken. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: The Obama administration often denies any responsibility for the current global chaos or claims that it erupted spontaneously. Yet most of the mess was caused by, or made worse by, growing U.S. indifference and paralysis. Over the last five and a half years, America has had lots of clear choices, but the administration usually took the path of least short-term trouble, which has ensured long-term hardship.

CIA director apologizes to Senate leaders
Excerpt: CIA Director John Brennan apologized to Senate intelligence committee leaders after his inspector general found that CIA employees acted improperly when the CIA searched Senate computers earlier this year. (Boy, will Obama be angry when he learns of this from the newspapers. But if Bush was responsible for the failure of FEMA in New Orleans during his administration, why isn't Obama responsible for the CIA, IRS, NSA, JOD's fast and Furious guns to drug cartels program, the chaos in Libya following his war, or the border crisis during his? Because he's black? Oh, those racist liberals. ~Bob)

Congress approves VA reform bill
Excerpt: The Senate gave final approval Thursday to sweeping legislation aimed at fixing the troubled Department of Veterans Affairs, marking a rare moment of bipartisan accord triggered by the widespread treatment delays veterans faced at agency facilities. The legislation passed 91-3 a day after the House overwhelmingly approved the package. It now goes to President Obama’s desk.

Press release on upcoming event regarding Viet Nam War history
This is the short form press conference release for the meeting to be held next Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. You can look it over and then send it out to wherever you think it might need to go. Attached is the much longer document about the conference and the organization that has set it up. Again, look it over and send it along as you see fit. This is just the beginning of a concerted effort by veterans and historians to bring the true history of the US involvement in Viet Nam into clear focus. Time is rolling along, and every year, it seems every month, we are losing some of the witnesses and participants in that history, whose testimonies must be recorded for the sake of real understanding of those events. I hope some of the recipients of this will think of appropriate places to forward this information. It would be very nice to see more veterans represented in the room when this important discussion/debate begins. --Del

Lois Lerner's Vendetta: Toxic partisanship revealed in new emails. By Arnold Ahlert
Excerpt: House Republicans have released a Lois Lerner email exchange from November 2012 that “clearly demonstrates why Ms. Lerner not only targeted conservatives, but denied such groups their rights to due process and equal protection under the law,” wrote House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp (R-MI) in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The emails were part of additional evidence the Committee turned over to the Justice Department (DOJ) to support a thorough investigation of the IRS’s criminal behavior. (If you think that Eric (With)Holder's DOJ will seriously investigate Lerner for doing Obama's bidding, and risk her singing, I have some future beachfront property in Nevada you might be interested in. Meantime, how about a game of five card stud for small stakes? ~Bob)

WWI, the Not So Great War. By Cal Thomas 
Excerpt: It is a truism that wars are started by old men who send young men (and now women) to die. What was then called The Great War turned out to be “great,” but only in its carnage. The figures, though still in dispute, are staggering even to this day. According to figures compiled by the U.S. Justice Department, there were more than 37 million casualties, including dead, wounded and missing. Russia and Germany lost the most (1.7 million and 1.73 million respectively), followed by Austria-Hungary (1.2 million), France (1.35 million) and Britain (908,371). The U.S., because of its late entry into the conflict, suffered 116,516 dead, 204,002 wounded.

Satire: Plotting Women. By Andy Weddington
Not political except to some far-left, perpetually-offended feminists), but has a very funny video. ~Bob

Right Direction or Wrong Track
Excerpt: Twenty-four percent (24%) of Likely U.S. Voters think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey for the week ending July 27. This finding, down two points from last week, is the lowest since the beginning of November when the country was fresh off the temporary government shutdown and in the midst of the disastrous rollout of the national health care law.

Ebola outbreak may already be uncontrollable; Monsanto invests in Ebola treatment drug company as pandemic spreads. By Mike Adams
Excerpt: A global outbreak of deadly Ebola is underway and has crossed national borders. One infected victim of the horrifying disease flew on international flights, vomiting on board and exposing hundreds of people to the deadly virus which can be transmitted through airborne particles. Ebola has an 8-10 day incubation period, meaning thousands of people could be carrying it right now and spreading it across the cities of the world without even knowing it. Passengers in Hong Kong and the UK have already shown symptoms of the disease and are being tested, reports USA Today. (I haven't read any of this guy's writings before this. I hope he's just a doomsday alarmist...~Bob. News this am, Sanjay Gupta on CNN said Ebola is NOT airborne. M.O'C, MD)

Heroic American doctor stricken with Ebola forgoes treatment for gravely ill colleague
Excerpt: Two gravely ill American medical workers in Nigeria who were infected with the Ebola virus are said to be in stable condition as the humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse works to bring them back to the U.S. for treatment. Dr. Kent Brantly, the second American stricken by the disease, yesterday was offered an experimental serum but only one dose was provided. “Dr. Brantly asked that it be given to Nancy Writebol,” a nurse working with him who also infected, ... (All societies are based on rules to protect pregnant women and young children. All else is surplus age, excrescence, adornment, luxury or folly which can--and must--be dumped in emergency to preserve this prime function. As racial survival is the only universal morality, no other basic is possible. Attempts to formulate a "perfect society," on any foundation other than "women and children first!" is not only witless, it is automatically genocidal. Nevertheless, starry-eyed idealists (all of them male) have tried endlessly--and no doubt will keep on trying. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Note Books of Lazarus Long" in Time Enough for Love. ~Bob)

U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers Exposed To Ebola
...Security forces across Liberia have been ordered to enforce the new measures, part of a new action plan that included placing all nonessential government workers on 30-day compulsory leave, according to Reuters. Ebola has a fatality rate of at least 60 percent and as high as 90 percent, although a patient's chances of survival increase when the disease is spotted and treated early. The World Health Organization said the current outbreak is the largest ever recorded.

Excerpt: African leaders are converging upon the White House next week for a summit. “We’re working closely with regional governments to stem the spread of the virus. We have no plans to change any elements of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, as we believe all air travel continues to be safe here,” Schultz said.

Call for 'radical action' on drug-resistant malaria
Excerpt: Drug-resistant malaria is spreading in South East Asia, and has now reached the Cambodia-Thailand border, according to a study. "Radical action" is needed to prevent further spread of malaria parasites resistant to key drugs, say scientists.

Congresswoman who co-sponsored Bush impeachment bill said Democrats never tried to impeach Bush
Excerpt: 'She misspoke,' said a spokesman for Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. (This woman is the original recipient of the "Dumber Than A Box Of Rocks" award, I have lost track of the times she has embarrassed herself, her staff, and her whole Party. I have to wonder about the staff that let her go on the floor of The House and baldly state that no one had ever tried to impeach George Bush when she is on record as a sponsor of the move to impeach President Bush not all that many years ago. Maybe she hires incompetents, which would make sense given her lack of intelligence and common sense. She really lives up to Mark Twain's characterization of congress people as idiots. (The link will take you to the article and even a video of her going on her rant about impeachment.) It's amusing as long as you don't think about the fact that she gets a vote in Congress as valid as anyone else's. --Del)

Excerpt: Wow. “The Iron Dome has been a big reason why Israel has been able to withstand the terrorists that have tried to tunnel their way in.” — Alison Lundergan Grimes, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Kentucky. The “Iron Dome” is an anti-missile air-defense system that shoots down incoming rockets, similar to the Patriot-missile batteries that the U.S. used in the Persian Gulf War. It does not work underground. (By the way . . . we do live in a world where Russian separatists shoot down airliners, Russia's firing rockets into Ukraine, ISIS is on the march and enacting "religious cleansing" in its territory, Hamas hides its rockets in schools, Boko Haram still has the school girls, and Europe's exploding with anti-Semitism. So if that caption outrages you . . . I hope it's not the preeminent outrage in your life right now. It's a snarky caption, not the secret ingredient of Soylent Green. --Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt
http://www.nationalreview.com/newsletters. Morning Jolt is a free e-newsletter, well worth subscribing too. ~Bob)

Nato 'unprepared' for Russia threat, say MPs
Excerpt: Nato is poorly prepared for an attack on a member state from Russia, an influential group of MPs has warned. The Commons Defence Committee said the recent Ukraine conflict showed "serious deficiencies" in Nato's preparedness to counter threats - and "radical reform" was needed. (Napoleon with the best Army in the world couldn't take Russia. Hitler with 100 divisions couldn't. The west has steadily reduced its military to pay for the endless appetite of the growing welfare state. We cannot project enough power into Easter Europe to stop Russia, short of using nukes, which we are, shall we say, reluctant to do. Probably couldn't at the height of the Reagan build up. Economic power is the only hope--and it has not had good results against smaller states like Iraq and Iran. ~Bob)

Senior Fellow Larry Kotlikoff Testifies on Social Security's Insolvency, Complexity
Excerpt: In testimony before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, Larry Kotlikoff, NCPA Senior Fellow and Director of the Tax Analysis Center, explained why the Social Security program is insolvent and in need of reform. In order to pay full Social Security benefits on time, as promised, Kotlikoff explains that the payroll tax would need to rise by 32 percent immediately. If raising the payroll tax is not an option, Social Security would have to cut all benefit payments by 22 percent in order to keep the program afloat. But putting aside these financial realities, Kotlikoff identifies another set of problems with the program: complexity. Even the formulas used to calculate benefits are confusing! (It's worth subscribing to the NCPA's free Daly policy Digest as well as Dr. Goodman's health policy blog at www.ncpa.org. ~Bob

$1.4 Trillion Medicare Cash Deficit Under Obama
Excerpt: On July 28, the Medicare Trustees issued their annual report on entitlement programs. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Gordon Gray and Conor Ryan of the American Action Forum delve into the details, explaining why Medicare is in serious trouble. According to the Trustees, Medicare will go bankrupt in 2030 and Social Security will follow just three years later, in 2033. Many were pleased that Medicare's bankruptcy date had been pushed to 2030, as previous projections had expected the program to run out by 2026. But as the American Action Forum (AAF) report shows, there is no reason to be anything other than concerned about Medicare's solvency:
Medicare took in only $283 billion in 2013 but spent $583 billion. That shortfall was 40 percent of the federal deficit in 2013. Since 1965, the Medicare program has had a cash shortfall every year, with the exception of two years (1966 and 1974), totaling $3.4 trillion. The program borrows tax revenue from other programs in order to cover the shortfalls. More than one-fourth (29.3 percent) of the national debt is due to the Medicare shortfall. The program is not sustainable: (Let's see, in 2030 I'll be 84, unlike to have to worry about it. My wife will be 79, could be a problem for her. And of course, my granddaughter will have to face the chaos created by the collapse of the entitlement state. Unfortunately, I don't think we've got until 2030, too many other factors will likely put us over the tipping point long before. I'd guess 2020 give or take a couple of years. See: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic: And what you can do to prevent it . http://tiny.cc/g02s4. Reviews on Amazon: http://tiny.cc/omqt3 . All royalties go to a charity to help wounded veterans. But for a free 80-page PDF of the book, you can read on your computer, write me at tartanmarine(at)gnail.com. ~Bob

Doctors Spend More Time in the Courtroom Than the Classroom
Excerpt: Medical malpractice suits are time consuming and emotionally draining. The average physician spends more time—about 11 percent of his or her career—embroiled in malpractice litigation than it takes to complete medical school. Most claims consume two years prior to resolution, and nearly twice that much time elapses since the event in question. (Gee, I wonder why health care costs are soaring? ~Bob)

Obamacare News

BREAKING NEWS: Obama Union Endorser Slams Obamacare. By Wayne Allyn Root
Excerpt: UNITE HERE—the first union to endorse Obama for president—has released a scathing report on Obamacare. Entitled, “The Irony of Obamacare: Making Inequality Worse,” UNITE HERE charges that the administration is putting union health care into a “death spiral,” leading to the destruction of healthcare plans we were promised we could keep.
“The ACA [Affordable Care Act] threatens the middle class with higher premiums, loss of hours, and a shift to part-time work and less comprehensive coverage,” the report points out. It also argues that the ACA will transfer a billion dollars in wealth to insurance companies, create an uneven playing field in the market, and force employers to slash hours and cut back on pay. ("You'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at the unraveling of Obamacare." --Jonah Goldberg)

Undocumented Democrat News

54% Believe Obama Wants Most New Illegal Immigrants to Stay
Excerpt: Voters think President Obama is doing a poor job handling the latest immigration crisis and believe he wants to let most of the new illegal immigrants stay here despite majority support for their quick deportation.

You're-Greener-Than-Gore News

The Ethanol Boondoggle: But Won't Ethanol Help Stop Global Warming? By Mark Alexander
Excerpt: Here in the mountains of east Tennessee, we distill corn mash to produce a product provincially known as Moonshine – because it is often produced and transported under cover of darkness. Arguably, it is a more useful and beneficial product than that toxic form of distilled alcohol from corn mandated for fuel blends by the Environmental Protection Agency’s so-called “Renewable Fuel” Standard.

Religion of Peace News

Left Hopes for Cease-Fire as Israel Battles Extinction
The sound bites this week about the Israeli conflict show exactly what's at stake. In a video clip released by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a unnamed Islamic cleric in Gaza giving a sermon on the Hamas television channel Al-Aqsa TV shared the ultimate goal of Hamas: total extermination of the Jews. "Our doctrine in fighting you [the Jews] is that we will totally exterminate you," the cleric said. "We will not leave a single one of you alive, because you are alien usurpers of the land and eternal mercenaries." Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will destroy the tunnels of Hamas, regardless of anything else. "I won't agree to any proposal that will not enable the Israeli military to complete this important task for the sake of Israel's security," he said. And back in the states, the Democrat challenger to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Alison Lundergan Grimes, told a Kentucky newspaper, "The Iron Dome has been a big reason why Israel has been able to withstand the terrorists that have tried to tunnel their way in." Um, we don't think that's how the Iron Dome works, or that Netanyahu can declare "mission accomplished" just yet.

Woman Used As Human Shield in ‘70s: ‘Palestinians Have Perfected Propaganda War’ (Video)
Excerpt: Brigitte Gabriel, who was used as a human shield when she was a child, was on “The Kelly File” tonight to discuss the Israel-Hamas conflict.

MB Cleric Qaradawi Still Loving Hamas and Hating Jews
Excerpt: A good contrast between pragmatism and raw religious hatred came in recent statements from prominent Sunni voices. Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide and popular Al-Jazeera program host, appeared on the network earlier this month to defend Hamas as "nothing but a group that is defending itself, defending its country, defending its brethren, defending its honor, defending its (Muslim) Ummah." It is not, he added, a terrorist group.

Quest for Demilitarization of Gaza Is Seen Getting Netanyahu Only So Far. By Jodi Rudoren
Excerpt: After years in which Israel’s prevailing approach to the Gaza Strip was a simple “quiet for quiet” demand, there is growing momentum around a new formula, “reconstruction for demilitarization.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is only the latest in a string of Israeli leaders who saw Gaza mainly as an irritant to be controlled with periodic crackdowns and as a roadblock to resolving the nation’s broader conflict with the Palestinians. (Hamas does not want reconstruction and a better life for the people of Gaza. They want Israel and the Jews dead or gone. That of course, is only the start. Like other Islamists, they want all non-Muslims in the world dead, subjugated or converted. Israel is the front line, but we are the eventual targets. So, of course, are other Muslims, who have even a slightly different interpretation of Islam--by far the most victims of Allahmurder are Muslims. ~Bob

Arab Leaders, Viewing Hamas as Worse Than Israel, Stay Silent. By David D. Kirkpatrick
Excerpt: Battling Palestinian militants in Gaza two years ago, Israel found itself pressed from all sides by unfriendly Arab neighbors to end the fighting. Not this time. After the military ouster of the Islamist government in Cairo last year, Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states — including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that has effectively lined up with Israel in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. That, in turn, may have contributed to the failure of the antagonists to reach a negotiated cease-fire even after more than three weeks of bloodshed.

Million Ceasefires. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: If you like cease-fires, then this is a great time to be alive. Those Israelis who weren’t shot in the head by Hamas terrorists (whom Andrew Sullivan insists weren’t real Hamas terrorist, trading in his obsession with Sarah Palin’s rogue pregnancy for a new conspiracy theory) or killed by a Hamas rocket, encounter almost as many cease-fires in a given day as terrorist attacks. A cease-fire comes along every few minutes and it can last anywhere from a minute to an hour to a few hours until Hamas once again begins firing rockets or swarming through tunnels to attack Israelis.

US Embassy in Tel Aviv Severely Restricts Visas for Israelis
The US embassy in Tel Aviv has cancelled tourist visa applications for Israelis, according to a statement on its official website, in a move it claims is a matter of staffing and security. ...The statement surfaces in the midst of both souring US-Israel relations and an already-pressured visa crisis, which has seen the visa process for Israelis grow more and more difficult over the past year. In April, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced an internal review into claims that hundreds of young Israelis were being barred from entering the US for political reasons. (Should come through Southern border with the Other Than Mexicans; would get jetted/bussed to any of the continental US states, furnished food, clothing, medical care, schooling...all anonymously, no ID required; that would be discriminating. --Barb)

IDF Soldiers Killed in Booby-Trapped UN Building
The three IDF soldiers who were killed on Wednesday in Gaza, were killed when explosives detonated within a booby-trapped UN building inKhan Younis, Breitbart reports. An elite IDF tunnel unit was in the process of uncovering an opening to a Hamas tunnel located at an UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) health clinic when all of a sudden the explosives detonated, causing the entirety of the building to fall on top of the soldiers. Neither the UN nor UNRWA have commented on the incident that resulted in the deaths of three Israeli soldiers, according to Breitbart.

Watch: IDF Finds Terror Tunnel in Gaza Mosque
Excerpt: Gaza’s Hamas terrorist rulers do not only use schools to store weapons and launch rockets towards Israel. On Wednesday, a joint IDF task force uncovered a tunnel entrance on the ground floor of a mosque that had been used by Hamas terrorists to attack Israeli soldiers.

Great Pictures: Here's How US Marines Evacuate An Embassy In A Hostile Country. By David M Brooks
Excerpt: The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, was evacuated on Saturday in response to intense insurgent fighting, according to the State Department. A Marine quick reaction force led the evacuation with assistance from two USMC MV-22 Ospreys, three Air Force F-16 fighter jets, and an undisclosed number of surveillance drones, according to the Military Times. In situations like these, the Marine Corps is trusted to quickly respond to hostile situations, and countless hours of training have made it more than capable. (Marines in action. see the pictures/descriptions and video at the bottom...GBH. ("GBH is a retired Marine MajGen who reads my blog and often sends items. Thank you, Sir! --SSGT Robert A. Hall.)

'Dozens of bodies' at captured base in Benghazi, Libya
Excerpt: At least 35 bodies have been recovered from a Libyan military base that was overrun by Islamist-led militias, the Libyan Red Crescent says. The special forces base in Benghazi was captured on Tuesday, after two days of intense fighting. Libya has been gripped by a wave of violence involving the militias that spearheaded the 2011 uprising against Muammar Gaddafi. (Heck of a job getting rid of Gaddafi, Bammy! ~Bob)

Important: Bill Clinton Told Businessmen On 9/10/2001 That He Passed On Killing Osama Bin Laden. By Christine Rousselle 
Excerpt: Newly-discovered audio from a September 10, 2001 meeting in Melbourne confirms that former President Bill Clinton could have killed Osama Bin Laden in the 1990s, but chose not to do so as hundreds of civilians would have also been killed. The audio was forgotten about until recently and was released on Australian television on Wednesday. (And how many thousands of American civilians and troops died because our "respected elder statesman" choked? Not to mention tens of thousands of Muslims. ~Bob)

Bill Whittle: Losing the Peace in Iraq
From the email forward: This is a chilling but extremely informative 6 minute video that actually will tell you the truth about who the real American enemies are. Some of you already know this, but this guy explains it so very well that you need to send this to everyone you know. (Compares Iraq to Vietnam. ~Bob)

Australia: 12-Yr. Old Girl 'Married' Off by Father to 26-Yr. Old
Excerpt: A 12 year old girl in Australia was married off by her father to a 26 yr old Lebanese student and told that she had to comply due to sharia.

Pakistani Mob Lynches Grandmother & Two Girls Due to Faith

Excerpt: A Pakistani Muslim mob raging against Ahmadi Muslims, who they view as heretical, set upon an Ahmadi community, killing a grandmother and her two small granddaughters and injuring others.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Today's political news and conservative comment

General News and Comment

My Random Thoughts for August, 2014

President Obama’s impeachment is a fantasy — for both parties
Excerpt: President Obama is not being impeached. But for several years, Republicans have been indulging and even encouraging that fantasy on the part of the far-right edges of their party’s base. ... And now Democrats are raising millions off the idea that the GOP is serious about doing it. “I would not discount that possibility,” presidential adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Friday. (As a Republican who voted against Obama twice, I think the talk of impeaching him is just dumb. Have we forgotten how the impeachment of Bill Clinton allowed the media and Democrats too picture him as a victim, saving his presidency? And today he is the revered elder statesman, having joined the rich one-percent through paid speeches. But no, on it goes. First, to convict him, even if the GOP wins the senate in November, you'd need at least 12 Democrat votes. No Democrat would vote to impeach, if Obama was caught raping a nun. They are dependent on the minority votes in their base; they would not care what the evidence was. Then if you convicted and removed him, there would be riots in the cities, with millions, maybe billions of dollars in destruction, and hundreds of deaths. That might give even Republicans pause. And after that settles down--and you foot the reconstruction bill through our taxes--say these two words: "President Biden." Not only would he continue Obama's policies, and provide even more inept and dithering leadership in the world, he would instantly be the Democrat nominee and likely front runner to be elected president in 2016. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: The survival of the left. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: The academic world is the natural habitat of half-baked ideas, except for those fields in which there are decisive tests, such as science, mathematics, engineering, medicine;and athletics. In all these fields, in their differing ways, there comes a time when you must either put up or shut up. It should not be surprising that all of these fields are notable exceptions to the complete domination by the left on campuses across the country. (From Barbarians Inside the Gates, an excellent 2001 collection of Dr. Sowell's columns from the 1990s, all still relevant. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: Jim Crow and the Donkey: A True History the Left Loves to Ignore. By Ken Blackwell 
Excerpt: That’s the Left’s narrative on Jim Crow, and it’s dead wrong in both fact and analysis. Here is the heart of the issue, where the left has hijacked the true history of Jim Crow. The dividing line over Jim Crow was never liberals vs. conservatives; it’s far more accurate to describe it as Democrats versus Republicans. Not only in the 1800s, when the KKK served as the paramilitary arm of the Democratic Party, but right into the 1950s and 1960s. Bookman’s assertion that “conservatives in the Republican Party … fought against civil rights” is utterly false. As historian Dr. John Fonte noted on NRO in 2003, staunchly conservative Republicans led the fight for civil rights in the Senate, including Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen, Ohio Senator Robert Taft, and California Senator Bill Knowland. (The writer is black. ~Bob)

The Truth About Jim Crow

Worth Reading: Statesmanship and The Little Rock 9
Excerpt: The Supreme Court ruling had been clear. "Separate But Equal" was anything but equal, and the right to an education, regardless of skin color, would never be realized until our nation's schools were integrated. So down in Little Rock, Arkansas nine African American children would dare to walk into the front doors of Little Rock's Central High School on a fateful day in 1957. And there were plenty of vicious racists who were determined that they wouldn't, including Governor Orval Faubus, Arkansas's most unlikely governor, even for that state, at that time. ... Airborne to Little Rock... So Dwight Eisenhower, Republican, faced down Orval Faubus, a Democrat, even in the face of the Democratically controlled "solid south" who were adamantly opposed to racial equality. 

No Joke: California Parents and Religious Leaders Fight to Make Skin Color Criteria for Teaching
Excerpt: Rev. Karen Crozier, local pastor and activist, is leading an effort to protest the district’s decision. She explained: ... We didn’t fight for a white male or female teacher to educate our babies. ... In other words, Rev. Crozier supports discrimination of skin color for the position of teaching about the evils of discrimination of skin color.

The View: 'Get A Gun' To Protect Yourself And Your Children. By Awr Hawkins
Excerpt: On the July 29 airing of The View, three of the four people on a panel agreed women need a gun in the house to protect themselves and their children.

49% Believe Government Programs Increase Poverty in America
Excerpt: Congress is debating a plan by Republican Congressman Paul Ryan to reform government welfare programs. Most Americans still believe current government anti-poverty programs have no impact on poverty in this country or actually increase it.

And The IRS Scandal Expands As New Revelations Suggest It Also Targeted Pro-Israel Groups. By Caroline Schaeffer 
Excerpt: But recently discovered emails pull another group into the mix and shows that the IRS was engaged in a pattern of silencing groups whose views did not fit with the Administration’s agenda. In 2009, the pro-Israel group Z Street applied for tax-exempt status, according to the WSJ. The organization’s purpose is to educate the public on “Israel-related issues.” In 2010 an IRS agent told Z Street that its application was delayed because the tax agency’s Washington, D.C. office was giving special scrutiny to groups whose missions might conflict with Administration policies.

History Professor: Convicted Cop Killer Mumia Should Be Celebrated Like Martin Luther King Jr. in Schools. By Katie Pavlich
Excerpt: Last night on the Kelly File Baruch College History Professor Joanna Fernandez argued that unrepentant convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, who murdered Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981 by shooting him five times in the face, should be celebrated in schools just like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She also argued using words like "militant" and "convicted cop killer" to describe Mumia, is racist. Another nice nugget? A California teacher's union feels the same way. (Well, the left loves Mao, Stalin and Ché--what's one more ruthless murderer in their pantheon of heroes? ~Bob)

The Insiders: Democratic phonies are on the run. By Ed Rogers
Excerpt: What’s with all the Democratic Senate candidates being caught displaying a condescending, insulting contempt for voters? The latest embarrassing incident involves Georgia Senate candidate Michelle Nunn, who suffered the indignity of having her 144-page campaign plan leaked. ... The plan involves trying to create a fake, gun-toting, rural-friendly image for the wannabe Georgian senator supplied by a Democratic PR firm based in San Francisco, and exposes her positions on issues as basic as her commitment to Israel as contrived to drive her fundraising efforts. But Michelle Nunn is only the latest Senate Democratic candidate to be exposed as a phony.

Congressman Paul Ryan has introduced a proposal, Expanding Opportunity in America, to bring together different federal anti-poverty programs into one. Ryan focuses on the Earned Income Tax Credit, housing and home-energy assistance, education assistance, food stamps (SNAP), and criminal sentencing reform. Ryan’s proposal hinges on the Opportunity Grant (OG). States would apply for OGs that would roll some or all of this federal money into one lump sum. However, it would not just be turned over to states as a block grant. States, civil-society organizations, and recipients themselves would all be responsible for measuring and achieving outcomes. The OG would have one overriding goal: To facilitate recipients moving out of dependency and into self-reliance. (Doesn't matter, it's not going anywhere anyway. The Democrat poverty pimps and program bureaucrats would never let Harry Reid bring it to the floor or Obama sign it. Poverty is their rice bowl, and they will fight tooth and nail to keep the dollars flowing into the current system. The rest o us will hardly notice the fight. ~Bob)

WaPo Editorial: Hollywood myth-making on Valerie Plame controversy
From 2010, but worth knowing about. ~Bob. Excerpt: In fact, "Fair Game," based on books by Mr. Wilson and his wife, is full of distortions - not to mention outright inventions. To start with the most sensational: The movie portrays Ms. Plame as having cultivated a group of Iraqi scientists and arranged for them to leave the country, and it suggests that once her cover was blown, the operation was aborted and the scientists were abandoned. This is simply false. ... Hollywood has a habit of making movies about historical events without regard for the truth; "Fair Game" is just one more example. But the film's reception illustrates a more troubling trend of political debates in Washington in which established facts are willfully ignored

Worth Reading: Obama's Misleading Minimum Wage Statistics: Don't buy the argument that a higher minimum wage enhances job creation.
Excerpt: Basic economics teaches that forcing up the price of something makes people less willing to buy that something. This reasoning, for example, is behind the administration’s recent hike in tariffs on Korean steel. The president correctly understands that forcing up the price of Korean steel will cause Americans to buy less of it. Contrary to Obama’s suggestion, the same logic holds for labor. Forcing up labor’s price will cause employers to hire less of it (by, for example, supermarkets using self-checkout computers instead of cashiers).

The Man Who Never Calls. By Mark Steyn
Excerpt: There was an odd moment during a White House press briefing recently when Ed Henry of Fox News noted that the President was sometimes spending three out of five days a week fundraising for his party, and wondered, in effect, whether he still did any work. Press Secretary Josh Earnest responded: Well, I will hazard a guess that a significant portion of the President's time each of those days will be dedicated to participating in the presidential daily briefing, getting updates from his national security team about the situation on the ground, making phone calls to world leaders, consulting with his national security officials who are traveling across the world... Well, I will "hazard a guess" that he's actually making very few "phone calls to world leaders". 

Study: Hundreds of rules passed by Obama administration are technically illegal. By Juliet Eilperin 
Excerpt: Over the past two years, the Obama administration has published hundreds and hundreds of rules — on how wheelchairs should be stowed aboard U.S. aircraft, how foreign trade zones should be regulated, how voting assistance should be provided for U.S. citizens overseas, and so on. There’s a problem, however: Technically speaking, these and some 1,800 other regulations shouldn’t be in effect because they weren’t reported to Congress as required. Yet there is little that lawmakers or the courts can do about it.

Sickening: Another Travesty of Justice: Carr Brothers Given Leniency. By Jack Kerwick
Excerpt: But it wasn’t until three days after thismurder that the Carrs’ campaign of evil reached its horrifying climax.... Armed with guns, the Carrs made their victims perform sexual acts on one another. The women were forced to penetrate each other’s vaginas orally and digitally, and the men were forced to have sex with the women. Yet when the Carrs discovered that Befort and “H.G.” were romantically involved, they prevented them from having sexual intercourse with one another, choosing instead to force Befort watch as they coerced his friends to essentially rape his fiancée to be. .. Yet on Friday, July 25, by a 6-1 decision, the Kansas Supreme Court, citing procedural problems, maintained the convictions whileoverturning the Carrs’ death sentences. (If the victims had been black and the killers white, everyone would know their names. ~Bob)

Another Hoax? Obama Takes Bold Step to Geoengineer Climate Change
The person who sent me this item in the last post reports that it is phony. ~Bob

Emails show ex-IRS official Lerner using derogatory terms for Republicans
Excerpt: House Republicans have dug up emails from Lois Lerner in which the former IRS official refers to some in the Republican Party as “---holes” and "crazies" – an exchange they say shows her “animus” toward conservatives.

Undocumented Democrat News

Poll: Americans Cool to Border-Crossing Children
Excerpt: Americans are wary of granting refugee status to children crossing the U.S. border to flee strife-torn countries in Central America, and most in an Associated Press-GfK poll say the U.S. does not have a moral obligation to accept asylum seekers generally.
The new poll found 53 percent of Americans believe the United States has no moral obligation to offer asylum to people who escape violence or political persecution, while 44 percent believe it has that responsibility.

Religion of Peace News

US is no safer after 13 years of war, a top Pentagon official says. The outgoing head of the Defense Intelligence Agency says that new players on the scene are more radical than Al Qaeda, and the core Al Qaeda ideology has lost none of its potency. By Anna Mulrine
Excerpt: “We have a whole gang of new actors out there that are far more extreme than Al Qaeda,” says Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, which employs some 17,000 American intelligence collectors in 140 countries around the world.

Belief U.S. Is Winning War on Terror Falls to 10-Year Low
Excerpt: Belief that the United States is winning the War on Terror has plummeted to its lowest level in over 10 years of regular tracking. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 27% of Likely U.S. Voters now believe the United States and its allies are winning the War on Terror. 

Polling shows Democrats need to self-reflect on Israel. By Jennifer Rubin
Excerpt: A Pew poll tells us: “As violence between Israel and Hamas shows no signs of abating, the sympathies of the American public continue to lie with Israel rather than the Palestinians. And dating back to the late 1970s, the partisan gap in Mideast sympathies has never been wider. Currently, 51% of Americans say that in the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, they sympathize more with Israel. Just 14% sympathize more with the Palestinians, while 15% volunteer that they sympathize with neither side and 3% sympathize with both.” (You can support Israel or you can support Democrats and Hamas. ~Bob)

Excerpt: More than 100,000 Arabs have been killed in the war raging in Syria. How many more Arabs have been killed in Iraq by other Arabs since the U.S. pulled out all its troops? How many Arabs have been killed by other Arabs before and since the Arab Spring? Let’s just say, lots. And what is the reaction here in America and around the world? A great big yawn. If anyone really cares about Arabs killing Arabs, they’re not doing a good job showing it. (Like the high number of blacks being murdered that no one cares about because the killers are black. But in the rare case when the killer is white, then it's marches and riots to get votes and concessions and money. ~Bob)

Obama Rated Poorly on Mideast Conflict
Excerpt: Just 39 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of the situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip, while more than half, 52 percent, disapprove. (On issue after issue Obama and the Democrats stand against the majority opinion. Not very democratic of them. But, hey, Obama's black, so folks still support him. ~Bob)

France evacuates French and British expats from Libya
Excerpt: The French government says it has evacuated French and British nationals from Libya, as battles rage between government forces and militias. A French diplomatic source said 40 French nationals, including the ambassador, had been evacuated by ship along with seven British nationals. (I wonder if France and Britain are having second thoughts about participating in Obama's lead-from-behind, non-congressionally-authorized war that destabilized Libya. ~Bob)

Paying Ransoms, Europe Bankrolls Qaeda Terror. By Rukmini Callimachi
Excerpt: The cash filled three suitcases: 5 million euros. ... Officially, Germany had budgeted the money as humanitarian aid for the poor, landlocked nation of Mali. In truth, all sides understood that the cash was bound for an obscure group of Islamic extremists who were holding 32 European hostages, according to six senior diplomats directly involved in the exchange. ... While European governments deny paying ransoms, an investigation by The New York Times found that Al Qaeda and its direct affiliates have taken in at least $125 million in revenue from kidnappings since 2008, of which $66 million was paid just last year. (And the more they pay, the stronger the Jihadists get, so the more people they can kidnap and murder. Like paying Danegeld--as Kipling said, once you do, you never get rid of the Dane. ~Bob)

Three Israeli Troops Killed in Booby-Trapped UN Clinic
Excerpt: Three Israeli soldiers were killed Wednesday when a tunnel opening they were investigating turned out to be booby-trapped. The tunnel opening was located under a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) clinic, the Times of Israel reports.

Hamas Kills Own Citizens, Blames Israel. By Onan Coca
Excerpt: Fortunately for the world, Italian journalist Gabriele Barbati was in Gaza and was able to get confirmation from witnesses that the Al Shati “massacre” was actually caused by a Hamas rocket that was misfired.

Excerpt: Three weeks into deadly fighting in Gaza and along its border, Israeli forces have been surprised to encounter an extensive, sophisticated tunnel system that has been used by Hamas to infiltrate Israeli territory and carry out raids. The destruction of that tunnel system has become a focal point of Israeli military operations, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has emphasized that any cease-fire must allow his forces to continue identifying and sealing those tunnels. To understand why these tunnels have become such a hot-button issue, one need look no further than a video released by Hamas by Tuesday, July 29. That video shows a group of fighters exiting such a tunnel and attacking an Israeli military installation. (It seems even the usually on-top-of-it Israelis were taken back to find out just how many and how sophisticated the tunnels from Gaza into Israel are. One that was inspected by a retired US general was three miles long, and very well engineered, not some crawl space through the dirt like the WW2 escape tunnels from the German POW camps. The Hamas guys were dumb enough to even put out a video from a successful raid from a tunnel that killed at least one Israeli and got them a sophisticated heavy MG for a souvenir as well. (Letting your enemy learn about your secret weapons against them just doesn't seem like a really smart idea.) The count of major tunnels is now up in the thirties, and they Israelis are looking closer than before for more of them, and their entrances in Gaza, often to be found under homes, schools, etc. It has become clear why the Gazans were always complaining about the restrictions on concrete and building materials to be brought in to the area, because so much of it was not going for homes or other buildings, but for the tunnels. This has really gotten the full attention of the Israelis, which is why they will not agree to any kind of truce that would not allow them to continue to search for and destroy invading tunnels. I can hardly blame them for that. --Del

Obama’s Muslim Founding Fathers. By Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch 
Excerpt: Barack Obama asserted that “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.” ... You remember a few of them, don’t you? Remember the Muslim signers of the Declaration of Independence? With Yahya al-Hanqoq’s large signature front and center, so that the infidel King George III could read it without his spectacles? And then there was Ibrahim Clark of New Jersey and El-Bridge Gerry of Massachusetts.

Worth Reading: What Obama Really Wants in Gaza. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: While Israelis are fighting and dying, families huddling in bomb shelters and soldiers going off to face death, the men and women in suits and power suits moving through the great halls of diplomacy are using them as pawns in a larger game. During the Cold War, Israel was a pawn in a larger struggle between the US and the USSR. Now it is back to being a counter in a larger game.

Hamas Intimidates Western Journalists, Kills 30 "Collaborators"
Excerpt: Western journalists operating in Gaza have been threatened and harassed by Hamas for reporting instances of the terrorist groups' use of human shields, according to a Times of Israel report. Israeli officials have noted that some reporters are intimidated by Hamas' threats and have ceased documenting Hamas' exploitation of civilians throughout the conflict.

Anti-Jewish slogans return to the streets in Germany as protests sweep Europe
Excerpt: No burning the Israeli flag. No shouts of “Death to Israel.” And absolutely no repeating the slogan “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come out and fight alone” — a rhyming chant in German that had become increasingly common at pro-Palestinian rallies here before being nipped in the bud by German authorities.

Anti-Israel Protesters Block London Traffic, Wave Al Qaeda Flag
Excerpt: A shocking video from a major traffic artery in London shows Islamist protesters blocking the route in a loud protest which included the waving of an Al Qaeda flag.

China Xinjiang: Violence 'kills or injures dozens'
Excerpt: Dozens of people have been killed or injured in violence in China's Xinjiang region on Monday, state media say. A knife-wielding gang attacked a police station and government offices in Shache county, Xinhua news agency said. Police shot dead many attackers, it said, and "dozens" of Uighur and Han Chinese civilians were killed or hurt.

Firebombs fail to ignite at Toulouse Jewish center. Incident occurs hours after pro-Palestinian demonstration
Excerpt: Police in Toulouse arrested a man who hurled three firebombs at a Jewish community center and the officers guarding it. The incident happened Saturday, one hour after the conclusion of a demonstration against Israel’s actions against Hamas in Gaza, the AFP news agency reported.

The decision to leave their colleague alone in the hands of these barbarians was probably taken by leaders inside the police department. What I heard from a usually well-informed source is that the quickest way to make a career inside the police force is to be pro-multicultural and pro-appeasement, and to avoid riots at all cost. After this, how can the Swedes trust that the police will protect them? And with 31 firearms per 100 people, how can the Swedish authorities trust that their voters and taxpayers will not think of ways to take the law in their own hands one day? 

Greater Men Have Tried. By Paula Stern
Excerpt: Dear Secretary of State John Kerry: Because of my respect for the United States, I will attempt to afford you the honor you think you so richly deserve. It’s hard to speak to you with anything but anger, hard to feel the need, again, to start from the beginning because you clearly choose to ignore history in your quest for glory. It is a quest destined to fail but its outcome, even, or more accurately especially, in failure, will hurt Israel.

IDF Finds Hamas Training Manual; Hospitals Used as Terrorist Bases
Excerpt: Israel's Operation Protective Edge uncovered a comprehensive Hamas training manua lthat features step-by-step instructions on building homemade bombs. The terrorist manual includes detailed techniques concerning the concealing and detonation of various types explosives.

Israel Gaza Crisis: Israeli 'Wonder Woman' Gal Gadot Stirs Up Controversy With Facebook Post Supporting Israeli Soldiers
Excerpt: Then she posted a picture on her own Facebook page of herself, praying with her daughter Alma. While many Israeli stars have come forward to plead for an end to the bloodshed, it was Gal's caption that caught attention... “I am sending my love and prayers to my fellow Israeli citizens. Especially to all the boys and girls who are risking their lives protecting my country against the horrific acts conducted by Hamas, who are hiding like cowards behind women and children...We shall overcome!!! Shabbat Shalom! (She served two years in the IDF. I may have to see the movie! ~Bob)

Muslim Issues Death Threat on Obama’s FACEBOOK page: “Death to you Barack Obama” on Obama’s FB Page by Muslim
Excerpt: Did Obama neglect to invite him to the Eid dinner or was this what Obama meant by “contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation.” If this guy was a tea partier he’d be jailed for life but this guy may have just got himself an invite to a White House dinner. (Trying to appease Jihadists is like trying to appease Nazis--there is always a new demand. ~Bob)

‘Big Bang’ star Mayim Bialik helps send bulletproof vests to IDF
Excerpt: The Jewish actress and outspoken supporter of Israel wrote a brief blog post Wednesday afternoon, titled “Why I Donated Money to Send Bulletproof Vests to the IDF.”