Friday, March 20, 2015

Today's interesting political news and opinion

Update

Remember if you are blocked getting to a posted article, that a Google search of the title will often find it. ~Bob

General News and Comment


Clinton’s Nixonian path to office. By Michael Gerson
Excerpt: The effective kickoff of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was an act of deck-clearing so breathtaking, so brazen, that it remains difficult to process. The former secretary of state summoned reporters to the United Nations, made a statement on Iran nuclear negotiations, then admitted deleting more than 30,000 e-mails she had deemed personal from the account she exclusively used while in office. This was the culmination of a deliberate, multiyear end run around congressional oversight, the Freedom of Information Act and the archiving of federal records. Documents she found inconvenient to sort while in government were convenient to destroy after leaving office.

Hillary Clinton e-mail saga actually won the government an award. By Al Kamen
Excerpt: Hillary Clinton’s assertion that any e-mails she sent on her personal account to State Department officials were saved by the agency’s e-mail system alas was undercut by an inspector general’s recent finding that the department’s e-mail archiving system actually was not capable of doing so. So seems only fitting that the nonprofit National Security Archive announced Wednesday night that it has awarded its annual Rosemary Award to the Federal Chief Information Officers Council — the top officials in charge of the government’s $80 billion IT purchases — for the “worst open government performance” in 2014. The council got the nonprofit’s highest honor as a result of the government’s persistent failure to save its e-mails.

Excerpt: On the first Tuesday in December, 2012, Barack Obama hosted an afternoon soiree at the White House. His guests? The entire news staff of MSNBC and The Huffington Post. Like so many times in his Presidency, Obama believed he was getting a raw deal from the press and was sinking in the polls. So he called in his "unofficial Pravda", The Huffington crowd and the "tingle down my leg" crowd at MSNBC. Rachel Maddow was in attendance, as was "tingling Chris Matthews", Ed (Erectile Dysfunction) Schultz, Al Sharpton and the rest of Obama's slobbering adorers. The meeting was intended to be clandestine but Ed Schultz, so delighted to be in the presence of the anointed one, began tweeting about the meeting as soon as he exited the White House gates. Obama's Press Secretary was forced to confirm this unscheduled visit at a press conference the next day.

Forbidden 'Diversity' at The New York Times. By Brent Bozell
Excerpt: In an interview, Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal claimed, "We were looking for a broad range of viewpoints and subjects and backgrounds and geographical locations and every kind of form of diversity that you can think of." Lower the trumpets. Bring in the fact checker. It seems the viewpoint-diverse Times can't seem to locate a conservative acceptable to executives prowling the halls in the snooty Times offices in midtown Manhattan.

The Coming Chinese Crackup. The endgame of communist rule in China has begun, and Xi Jinping’s ruthless measures are only bringing the country closer to a breaking point. By David Shambaugh
Excerpt: Despite appearances, China’s political system is badly broken, and nobody knows it better than the Communist Party itself. China’s strongman leader, Xi Jinping, is hoping that a crackdown on dissent and corruption will shore up the party’s rule. He is determined to avoid becoming the Mikhail Gorbachev of China, presiding over the party’s collapse. But instead of being the antithesis of Mr. Gorbachev, Mr. Xi may well wind up having the same effect. His despotism is severely stressing China’s system and society—and bringing it closer to a breaking point. Predicting the demise of authoritarian regimes is a risky business. Few Western experts forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union before it occurred in 1991; the CIA missed it entirely. (Wow, I find this truly fascinating! But I still have huge reservations about the Party ever letting go of any real power, no matter what happens. They can always bring in a Division from outside, as they did for Tiananmen Square, and wipe out any and all that might even be thought to be in the way of continued dominance by the upper crust. --Del)

Hillary Clinton Wants to Send Citizens to Camps—Fun Camps! Politician famous for humorlessness says we have a "fun deficit." By Scott Shackford
Excerpt: So Clinton hands over to us all to consider the idea of a progressive sending adults to camps, and the idea of a politician infamous for being humorless and suspicious being an arbiter of "fun," wrapped in a great big bow.

Important: Clinton Charity Tapped Foreign Friends. Foundation agreed not to seek donations from other governments, but cash kept flowing from individuals with connections to them. By James V. Grimaldi and Rebecca Ballhaus
Excerpt: Some donors have direct ties to foreign governments. One is a member of the Saudi royal family. Another is a Ukrainian oligarch and former parliamentarian. Others are individuals with close connections to foreign governments that stem from their business activities. Their professed policy interests range from human rights to U.S.-Cuba relations.
All told, more than a dozen foreign individuals and their foundations and companies were large donors to the Clinton Foundation in the years after Mrs. Clinton became secretary of state in 2009, collectively giving between $34 million and $68 million, foundation records show. Some donors also provided funding directly to charitable projects sponsored by the foundation, valued by the organization at $60 million. (The Clinton Foundation is Bill and Hillary's "Fun Camp," paying for perks like first class travel for them. ~Bob)

Black Protesters: [VIDEO] Protest Outside Hillary’s Office Over ‘Billions Stolen’ by Clinton Foundation
http://americanactionnews.com/articles/video-protest-outside-hillary-s-office-over-billions-stolen-by-clinton-foundation

Quote From The Patriot Post
"The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution." --Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, Query XIX, 1782 (revered as the founder of the Democrat party--not that they follow any of his principles. ~Bob)

Gun News

Access, Denied: More Gun Sellers Blocked From Financial Sector. By Kelsey Harkness 
Excerpt: After serving multiple deployments overseas with the U.S. Army Special Forces, Josh Burns began building his own rifles at home. In Sept. 2013, he and his wife Felicia, who also served in the military, decided they would make a business out of selling guns. “This is his hobby that [Josh] masks as a business so he can play with guns,” Felicia told The Daily Signal recently while setting up their stand at the New Orleans Area Gun and Knife Show.
But starting their small business, Apocalypse Sports in Ponchatoula, La., wasn’t so easy.
What they found, is that because they sell guns, payment processors did not want to do business with them. (This is not complicated. By including those who sell firearms in the list that includes get-rich-quick schemes, payday loans, and on-line gambling, the DOJ bureaucrats exercised PC bias to make it more difficult for honest people to start and run businesses. The regulations that every gun seller must meet in any state guarantee it cannot be anything like payday loans and other fly by night businesses, in fact, they are more secure than the average hardware store. Putting them on that list was indefensible, and just one more example of how the authority of the DOJ has been misused consistently under Erick Holder and his team of ultraliberals. If a Right Wing AG had pulled anything like this, the media would have been on it like white on rice, but of course, the bias of the media is not worth discussing either. --Del. If the list can be used to support political agendas, a GOP president could put abortion clinics on it. ~Bob)

Race Card News

How we made SAE the most diverse frat in our Texas school’s history. No, SAE is not a racist, white institution driven by its Confederate history. By Dustin Webb and Joseph Eilertson 
Excerpt: Of all the fraternities that have been embroiled in controversy in recent days, it seems none have developed a worse reputation than ours: Sigma Alpha Epsilon. In the wake of a video released earlier this month showing members of the University of Oklahoma chapter chanting a racially insensitive and deeply offensive song, SAE has been widely characterized as a racist, white institution grounded in a Confederate history. But a two-hour drive away from where that video was shot, there’s a chapter of SAE that turns that image on its head. At a college just over the Texas border, Sigma Alpha Epsilon is known as the most diverse frat on campus. It’s the frat that welcomes both foreign students and Texas natives, that recruits both athletes and music majors. We know this version of SAE exists because we founded it.

Worth Reading: ESPN's Stephen A. Smith Damaged Democrat Myths
http://lastresistance.com/10666/espns-stephen-a-smith-damaged-democrat-myths/
Excerpt: According to Politifact, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed the House 290-130, with 61% Democratic support and 80% Republican support. When it was passed in the Senate, following a two-month filibuster led by Democrats Russell, Thurmond, Ervin, Byrd, and Fulbright, it passed with 69% Democratic support and 82% Republican support. President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill into law, and so the myth was made that Democrats were primary supporters of civil rights legislation, while Republicans were opponents. When the Voting Rights Act passed the next year, the results were similar, with more Republican support in both Chambers.

Come for the Coffee, Stay for the Race Conversation. By Jonah Goldberg
Excerpt: It’s ironic. The Obama years were supposed to usher in an era of racial harmony. That didn’t happen — which presumably is why Schultz feels the need to help mend our racial wounds. What has happened, however, is that hordes of college graduates, unable to find jobs suitable to their degrees, have ended up toiling away at places like Starbucks. It’s kind of ingenious. Since sociology majors can’t find relevant jobs, Schultz is making the jobs they have relevant to their majors. If this becomes a trend, maybe my dog walkers will start reciting Proust in French on their perambulations. (Dennis Miller just commented that instead of ordering black coffee, you now have to order un-creamed coffee. --DG)

Why Aren't There Starbucks in These Majority Black Cities? By Gary DeMar
http://godfatherpolitics.com/21163/why-no-starbucks-in-these-majority-black-cities/
Excerpt: Places like Highland Park, Michigan, which is at the center of Detroit, is inhabited by a population that is 94 percent African-American. Or in Benton Harbor, Michigan, which is almost 90 percent African-American. There is not a Starbucks in either town. There is not a Starbucks in East St. Louis, Illinois, in which 98 percent of the population is African-American. Nor is there one in Gary, Indiana, whose population is 85 percent African-American.

Twenty Blacks Victimized in Shootings
Excerpt: You’ve probably heard about the 20 black victims in numerous shootings between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. The violence helped propagate the “hands up, don’t shoot” narrative and further riled Barack Obama, Eric Holder and their co-conspirators in the Leftmedia, all of whom raised alarm over the recent deaths of blacks involving white police officers. Well, the first part is true anyway – though you’d be forgiven for having no idea what we’re talking about. The shootings, all of which took place during a 24-hour period, bloodied the streets of Chicago but were largely absent from the headlines. Obama hasn’t said a word about these deaths, probably because it was black-on-black crime, which doesn’t translate into political constituency race-bait like a good cop killing a street thug does. Here’s what we know about Chicago murder rates from the latest year of data: The black murder rate was approximately 34 per 100,000, the Hispanic rate was 11 per 100,000, and the white rate 3 per 100,000. Translation: This isn’t a “gun problem”; it’s a young black male problem. 

Police Brutality
Of all the news accounts of police brutality, protests, and riots taking place, I have yet to hear anyone mention the following advice. If you haven't done anything wrong and the police contact you for some reason, comply with their requests. It doesn't matter who you are. If you run, disobey commands, or fight with them you are asking for trouble. Read your blogs on a regular basis and think they are enlightening. --Another old Marine. (A black Marine buddy, who saw a lot of combat in Vietnam, sys, "If a cop says stop, you stop. if you don't stop, what happens next is on you." ~Bob)

Undocumented Democrat News

Federal Judge Admonished DOJ Over Apparent Deception: 'I Was Made to Look like an Idiot.' By Ildefonzo Ortiz
Excerpt: The U.S. Government lied to a federal judge, misrepresented facts and illegally gave 100,081 illegal aliens immigration status despite a pending lawsuit and an injunction. That is the argument that attorneys representing Texas and more than two dozen other states made.
During the heated court hearing Andrew Hanen, a U.S. District Court Judge, said that the apparent violation had made him look like an idiot since he initially believed the U.S. Government.

Religion of Peace News


Iran remains principal U.S threat. Former Chief of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen said that he fears Iran more than the Islamic State. By Martin Barillas
Excerpt: Former Chief of the Joint Chiefs, retired Admiral Michael Mullen told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that he fears Iran much more than the Islamic State. "It's an incredibly complex country that we don't know very well. We've had no relations with them for more than 35 years. There's a complexity inside that country that is represented by enormous tension" between President Hassan Rouhani and Supreme Leader Ali HosseiniKhameini. Mullen identified Khameini as the leader of the “ideological” faction that controls Iran’s military and judiciary.

Why I believe Iran cannot be trusted. By Rep. Mike Coffman
Excerpt: My belief is that the Iranian government cannot be trusted and is based upon my personal experiences in the Middle East. Simply put, as long as Iran legitimizes state-sponsored terrorism, publicly states that Israel has no right to exist, and continues to develop delivery systems that can target Israel (as well as its regional neighbors) that it cannot be trusted to negotiate, in good faith, an agreement to give up its quest for a nuclear arsenal. The conduct of this authoritarian theocracy has not changed since November of 1979 when the newly established Islamic Republic of Iran allowed the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 52 American hostages for 444 days. Only months later, in the fall of 1980, I was deployed off the coast of Iran as a rifle platoon commander in a battalion landing team, prepared to deal with Iranian threats to shut down shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz. 

Iran endorses nuclear EMP attack on United States. By Paul Bedard
Excerpt: Suspected for years of plotting to dismantle the U.S. electric grid, American officials have confirmed that Iranian military brass have endorsed a nuclear electromagnetic pulse explosion that would attack the country's power system.
American defense experts made the discovery while translating a secret Iranian military handbook, raising new concerns about Tehran's recent nuclear talks with the administration.

Worth Reading: No peace in our time. By Charles Krauthammer
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/krauthammer032015.php3
Excerpt: The fundamental reality remains: This generation of Palestinian leadership — from Yasser Arafat to Mahmoud Abbas — has never and will never sign its name to a final peace settlement dividing the land with a Jewish state. And without that, no Israeli government of any kind will agree to a Palestinian state. Today, however, there is a second reason a peace agreement is impossible: the supreme instability of the entire Middle East. For half a century, it was run by dictators no one liked but with whom you could do business. For example, the 1974 Israel-Syria disengagement agreement yielded more than four decades of near-total quiet on the border because the Assad dictatorships so decreed. That authoritarian order is gone, overthrown by the Arab Spring.

Worth Reading: Obama’s Unraveling Foreign Policy. By Ari Lieberman
Excerpt: Secretary of State John Kerry has long been an admirer of Bashar Assad. He absurdly characterized Assad as “a man who wants change” and advocated the return of Israel’s strategic Golan Heights to the Syrian dictator. Of course, had Israel heeded Kerry’s advice, ISIS, Hezbollah or Iran or perhaps all three would today be swimming in Israel’s Sea of Galilee. In February 2009, in a sickening display of corrupt morals or lack of scruples, or perhaps both, Kerry was photographed having an intimate dinner with Assad and his wife. In 2011, the year that Assad commenced genocide against his people, he described the autocrat as a “very generous” man. Kerry hasn’t lost a step since that time. 

"Pro-Reform Islamism" in Turkey. By Burak Bekdil
Excerpt: When formerly militant Islamists reflagged themselves as pro-European Union reformists and came to power in Turkey in 2002, they launched a propaganda campaign to send one single message to liberal Turks and a suspicious West: "Don't be afraid. We are here to broaden civil liberties." They were right, at least partially: They were there to broaden civil liberties -- but for devout Muslims only.

Un-Islamic? Apostasy under Kelantan’s hudud carries the death penalty
Excerpt: The hudud bill to be tabled by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) before the Kelantan State Assembly prescribes the death penalty for the offence of apostasy, the Malay Mail Online reports today. (If this passes, will Obama and Kerry declare Malaysia, the largest Muslim country, un-Islamic? ~Bob)

Muslim cleric in fresh July 2010 terror charges
Excerpt: Muslim cleric Sheikh Ismael Kalule, in and out of prison on charges of purported terrorism, has again been charged afresh over the July 11, 2010 twin terror bombings of Lugogo and Ethiopian Village in Kampala. ... A total of 76 people perished in the two incidents that occurred at Kyadondo Rugby Club and the Ethiopian Village Restaurant.

Afghan woman set ablaze by mob for burning Koran
Excerpt: A woman who reportedly burned a copy of the Koran inside a riverside shrine in the Afghan capital was surrounded by an angry crowd, set ablaze and dumped into the chilly waters Thursday evening in a startling act of mob violence. The parents of the 32-year-old woman, who died in the attack, told authorities her name was Farkhunda and that she suffered from mental illness, said Farid Afzal, head of investigations for Kabul police.

Worth Reading: Marco Rubio Recounts The History of Obama’s Treatment of Israel. No Worse Friend, No Better Enemy. By Dan McLaughlin 
Excerpt: There are three central and related themes to the Obama Administration’s foreign policy. First is a persistent refusal to draw distinctions between U.S. allies and U.S. enemies. Second, which follows logically from the first, is something akin to an allergy to pursuing American victories that result in the defeat of our enemies. And third is the striking contrast this approach presents to President Obama’s Manichean rhetoric and hardball negotiating tactics directed at his domestic political opposition. Those unappealing features were all on display in the Administration’s petulant response to the re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who – unlike the Iranian mullahs – is a man Obama approaches with the enmity he approaches Republicans, and whose re-election Obama seems to take as a personal rebuke (and which many Israelis seemed to regard as one) after staging a nasty public, partisan fight over Netanyahu’s speech to Congress and after Obama’s own campaign staffers decamped to Israel to help Netanyahu’s opponents.


Why Bibi won? Israelis think Obama interfering in election, poll finds
Excerpt: Sixty-two percent of respondents said the Obama administration is interfering, 31% said it is not interfering, and 8% did not know.

ISIS claims credit for twin suicide attacks in Yemen that reportedly killed more than 100
Excerpt: Friday’s suicide bombings during midday prayers at two mosques in Yemen that killed more than 100 and injured hundreds more were likely the work of the Islamic State terror group and not al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Yemeni diplomats told Fox News Friday. (As always, most of the victims of Allah-murder are fellow Muslims. Nothing more "Islamic." ~Bob)

The Army’s Fort Hood Disgrace: No one who supervised the shooter has been held to account, but the victims are denied pay and benefits. By Kathy Platoni
http://www.wsj.com/articles/kathy-platoni-the-armys-fort-hood-disgrace-1426806479
Excerpt: Excerpt: It was more than five years ago that the gunshots rang out, but those of us who survived can still hear their echoes. On Nov. 5, 2009, an Army psychiatrist named Nidal Hasan—an American radicalized by extremist Islamic beliefs—opened fire on his fellow soldiers in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 14 people, including an unborn child, and wounding 32. This lady has been far, far too kind in her discussion, in repeatedly speaking of what the Army owes to the victims at Ft Hood, and how the Army should be going after those who sent that ticking time bomb there. She is letting off easy the person on whose desk this buck really stops- President Obama. When a White cop arrested a Black professor who would not identify himself properly, the Prez was quick to jump in and insert himself in a minor bit of racial friction, when a neighborhood watch zealot killed teenage Black in self-defense, he was quick to join in, when a Black NFL player "came out" about his sexuality, he was right on it, and there are numerous other events in which he inserted himself that are all minor. But when soldiers were murdered, injured, and disabled in a physical atrocity, and then a political atrocity calling it "workplace violence" came along, he was utterly absent. When survivors of the massacre sought to meet with him on one of his visits to the area, he was unavailable. He, more than anyone else in this nation, could and should have never let the "workplace violence" insanity stand, and with Hasan now convicted and awaiting the needle, he has no remote excuse for not using the Executive Authority he wields so readily and so often to remedy this completely. But still there is only that absence. I guess he just has all that other super important stuff to take care of, like making a big deal of an NFL player coming out. Del. Yes. But when an unarmed white kid was shot dead by a black guy guarding his neighborhood, the president and media had little to say. Likewise when black cops kill unarmed white guys. See: "What if Trayvon Had Been White, and the Shooter Black? By Michael Filozoff. http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/03/what_if_trayvon_had_been_white_and_the_shooter_black.html#ixzz1qBLNnX9L
and "White teen killed by black cop in Alabama mirrors Ferguson"

What Netanyahu’s Victory in Israel Means for the World. By Ian Bremmer
Excerpt: Benjamin Netanyahu has survived a serious political challenge, despite a chorus of complaints about his leadership style as well as gripes over living costs, housing prices, and wages. That would be a bigger surprise in countries where peacetime elections tend to focus on economics. But in Israel, “peacetime” is a relative concept, and this is a country with so many active political parties that winning 30 of 120 seats in parliament allows you to form a government. How did he do it? First, he recognized that his party needed to win back the votes of hardliners on the peace process who threatened to stray toward the far-right parties.

Lawrence Solomon: Western press hasn’t noticed Israel’s rapidly growing clout around the world
Excerpt: Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s triumph in Israel’s election this week, so shocking and appalling to the Western press, is many other things, too. It is a recognition by Israelis of Netanyahu as the Churchill of our times, a statesman who stands apart from virtually all other Western leaders who, whether out of cravenness or willful blindedness, downplay the gathering storm from Iran. It is a repudiation by Israelis of those same Western leaders, who funded the “anyone-but-Netanyahu” campaign that tried to install in his place a compliant Jew to endorse their policies of appeasement.

Palestinians Glorify Terrorist Responsible for 37 Israeli Deaths
Excerpt: A $655 million judgment levied by an American jury last month for facilitating terrorist attacks a decade ago apparently did little to persuade the Palestinian Authority (PA) to stop glorifying terrorists. The PA recently dedicated a monument in Ramallah to terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, who led a 1978 bus hijacking attack that killed 37 Israeli civilians, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reports.

*****
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://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5 For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:

1 comment:

  1. I have a "Camp" for Hillary. It involves an 8' X 8' enclosure all done up nicely in steel and Concrete.

    ReplyDelete