Political Digest April 10, 2010

I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree with every—or any—opinion in the posted article.

I don't mind allowing posts that disagree with or criticize me. Sometimes i reject language that is too bad. I always reject posts for ads. And occassionally I get someone who trys to take over the blog, posting long responses to everything. I don't allow that. (Talking to you, Yogchick.) They can start their own blog for free. ~Bob

Talk Radio Opportunity
I’ve been invited to be on Tom Conway, Jr.’s talk radio program on KFI AM 640 out of LA next Wednesday night April 14, at 8:30 pm PDT (that’s 10:30 pm my time) to discuss my Internet piece “I’m Tired,” if all goes well. I’m told it’s the largest talk radio station in Southern California. It may be available streamed on-line for those with insomnia: http://www.kfi640.com/main.html

Must Read: Once upon a Mattress
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/once_upon_a_mattress.html
The UK is well ahead of us in the bureaucratic-driven collapse that is coming. Excerpt: In an unalloyed example of bureaucratic overkill, the Metropolitan Town Council of Bolton, England decided that a mattress dumped in a roadside ditch in the village of Little Lever would prove too daunting for mere mortals to remove. Locals had noticed the mattress lying on the side of a ditch and promptly reported it to the local waste authority. Rather than a couple of denim-clad, blue-collar types showing up to turn this mattress into a memory for the good citizens of Little Lever, a man in a business suit appeared instead and stalked around the mattress, busily jotting his impressions on some arcane government form affixed to his very official-looking clipboard. This man was performing a "risk assessment" regarding the potential danger to life and limb should a team of men attempt to face this pillow-topped foe without the aid of heavy, mechanized equipment. A report about this mattress was duly filed with the man's superiors, who, in the interest of health and safety (concepts the British government only seems to care about outside of their hospitals), decided that there was not one man among them able to safely rid Little Lever of this nuisance. No, the job must be done by machine. The feat of engineering (otherwise known as picking up the mattress) was scheduled for a week later, to coincide with the availability of the necessary heavy equipment, the news of which prompted the last two remaining real men in England to spring into action. The men, one pushing fifty and the other in his sixties, managed to bring the mattress to justice in a scant four minutes, although the elder of the two admitted that it "was a bit heavy." Great Britain is about twenty-odd years ahead of our country in the race to socialist oblivion.

Must Read: Race and Politics: Part IV by Thomas Sowell
http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2010/04/09/race_and_politics_part_iv
This has been another great series from Dr. Sowell. Hope you read them all. Excerpt: One of the most ominous developments of our time has been the multicultural dogma that all cultures are equal. It is one of the many unsubstantiated assertions that have become fashionable among self-congratulatory elites, with hard evidence being neither asked for nor offered. But, however much such assertions minister to the egos of the intelligentsia and the careers of politicians and race hustlers, the multicultural dogma is a huge barrier to the advancement of groups who are lagging economically, educationally and otherwise. Once you have said that the various economic, educational and other "gaps" and "disparities" of lagging groups are not due to either genes or cultures, what is left but the sins of other people? Sins are never hard to find, among any group of human beings. But whether that actually helps those who are lagging, or just leads them into the blind alley of resentment, is another question. None of this is peculiar to the United States or to our times. In centuries past, it was common in parts of Eastern Europe for Germans or other Western Europeans to be a majority of the population in various Eastern European cities, while the Slavic majority predominated in the surrounding countrysides. …. Multiculturalism enshrines the sins and grievances approach-- and paints the poor into a corner, where they can nurse their resentments, instead of advancing their skills and their prospects. The beneficiaries are politicians and race hustlers.

Bart Stupak to retire
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/house/bart-stupak-to-retire.html?hpid=topnews
Another Dem runs for it, leaving alarm and despondency in his wake. Wonder what job BO promised him for January of 2011? Want to bet? Excerpt: Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak will not seek reelection this fall, a decision that comes hard on his front-and-center (and controversial) role in the recent passage of President Barack Obama's health-care legislation. Stupak confirmed his decision to the Associated Press and is expected to formalize it at a news conference at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time in Marquette, Mich. Stupak made the decision to retire while attending the Butler-Michigan State game at the Final Four. A series of prominent Democratic leaders made pleas for him to reconsider - including President Obama who called Stupak on Wednesday - but his mind was made up. Sources familiar with Stupak's thinking describe him as burned out from the long fight over health care in which he emerged as the leading voice of pro-life Democrats wary about the possibility that the legislation would allow federal funds to be spent on abortions.

National Democrats growing increasingly worried about Hawaii special election
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/house/national-democrats-growing-inc.html?wprss=thefix
Excerpt: National Democrats are growing increasingly concerned that the presence of two well-known candidates in an all-party special election in Hawaii next month will badly jeopardize their chances of holding the seat and are weighing the options available to them to thin the field. White House political Director Patrick Gaspard has been active in expressing concerns that in a low-turnout special election, which is set for May 22, former Rep. Ed Case and state Senate president Colleen Hanabusa could split the Democratic vote enough to allow Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou (R) to win. Under Hawaii special election rules, all candidates -- regardless of party affiliation -- run on a single ballot.

Justice John Paul Stevens to retire from court in June
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/09/AR2010040902312.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert
Wanted: Leftwing lawyer. Socialist philosophy more important than judicial experience. Must believe the constitution is a living document that says whatever you want it to say. Must believe empathy for favored Democrat voting blocs is more important than the law. Excerpt: Justice John Paul Stevens, the longest-serving member of the current Supreme Court and the leader of its liberal wing, announced his retirement today, giving President Obama his second chance to make a mark on the nation's highest court.

The Massachusetts Insurance Blackout
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304198004575171782805022028.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
Just because you don’t grasp basic economic laws doesn’t mean they stop working. Excerpt: This week it became impossible in Massachusetts for small businesses and individuals to buy health-care coverage after Governor Deval Patrick imposed price controls on premiums. Read on, because under ObamaCare this kind of political showdown will soon be coming to an insurance market near you. The Massachusetts small-group market that serves about 800,000 residents shut down after Mr. Patrick kicked off his re-election campaign by presumptively rejecting about 90% of the premium increases the state's insurers had asked regulators to approve. Health costs have run off the rails since former GOP Governor Mitt Romney and Beacon Hill passed universal coverage in 2006, and Mr. Patrick now claims price controls are the sensible response to this ostensibly industry greed. Yet all of the major Massachusetts insurers are nonprofits. Three of largest four—Blue Cross Blue Shield, Tufts Health Plan and Fallon Community Health—posted operating losses in 2009. In an emergency suit heard in Boston superior court yesterday, they argued that the arbitrary rate cap will result in another $100 million in collective losses this year and make it impossible to pay the anticipated cost of claims. It may even threaten the near-term solvency of some companies. So until the matter is resolved, the insurers have simply stopped selling new policies. A court decision is expected by Monday, but state officials have demanded that the insurers—under the threat of fines and other regulatory punishments—resume offering quotes by today and to revert to year-old base premiums. Let that one sink in: Mr. Patrick has made the health insurance business so painful the government actually has to order private companies to sell their products (albeit at sub-market costs). One irony is that Mr. Patrick's own Attorney General and his insurance regulators have concluded—to their apparent surprise—that the reason Massachusetts premiums are the highest in the nation is the underlying cost of health care, not the supposed industry abuses that Mr. Patrick and his political mentor President Obama like to cite. On top of that, like ObamaCare, integral to the Massachusetts overhaul are mandates that require insurers to cover anyone who applies regardless of health status or pre-existing conditions and to charge everyone about the same rates. This allows people to wait until they're about to incur major medical expenses before buying insurance and transfer the costs to everyone else. This week Blue Cross Blue Shield reported a big uptick in short-term customers who ran up costs more than four times the average, only to drop the coverage within three months.

Analysis of California Pensions Finds Half-Trillion-Dollar Gap
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/business/07pension.html
The collapse is coming. Excerpt: An independent analysis of California’s three big pension funds has found a hidden shortfall of more than half a trillion dollars, several times the amount reported by the funds and more than six times the value of the state’s outstanding bonds.

It’s time to end birthright citizenship
http://www.aconservativelesbian.com/2010/04/07/its-time-to-end-birthright-citizenship/
Excerpt: When Margaret and I lived in Silver Spring, near the border of Maryland and Washington, D.C., our community was overwhelmed by illegal immigration. We lived near the area with the highest concentration of illegal immigrants in Montgomery county — in all of Maryland and Washington, D.C., really. As a liberal, I was aghast to learn how much these people hated me, hated women, hated gays and lesbians, hated black people, hated Americans, hated people from other countries that spoke their language — basically, they were a boiling cauldron of hatred, ingratitude, entitlement and determination to impose their culture and language and we could kiss their asses because it was our duty, in order to prove what nice people we were, to hand over everything we had to them. It had a lot in common with being mugged. This bothered me. It still does.

Intruder who was shot, killed by Tulsa County homeowner identified
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20100402_11_0_TURLEY322310
Mistook Lish for an unarmed liberal who would reason with him. Excerpt: A homeowner shot and killed a burglar Thursday night when the man threatened him with a sword, sheriff’s officials said. The burglar who was shot at 6017 N. Owasso Ave. was identified as Billy Jean Tiffey III, 19, Tulsa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Shannon Clark said. The homeowner, Michael Lish, and his wife arrived home about 10 p.m. to find the back door ajar and a window open, spokesman Clark said. As Lish, who had a concealed-weapon permit, searched the house, an intruder wearing all-black clothing confronted him while wielding a sword. The intruder made a threatening statement and walked toward Lish, so Lish ordered him to stop, Clark said. As the intruder continued to walk toward him, Lish fired one shot, striking Tiffey in the abdomen. Tiffey dropped to his knees and reached behind his back, appearing to the homeowner as if he was reaching for another weapon, the investigation showed. Lish then fired a second and third shot, striking Tiffey in the chest area, killing him, Clark said. Investigators found that Tiffey was also carrying a .38-caliber pistol, the homeowner’s 9 mm pistol, a knife and a stun gun

About That 'Christian' Militia
Just whom did the FBI arrest in the Michigan militia case? Were they really a "Christian" militia -- as reported by the Leftmedia? And just why was the FBI so suddenly and keenly interested in their activities? The headlines could have read, "Democrat lunatic twists Christian principles while playing soldier." According to the Toledo Blade, Jacob J. Ward, a 33-year-old member of the so-called "Hutaree" (the group's word for "Christian warrior") was a registered Democrat in Ohio. The others were registered to vote in Michigan, which has open primaries, so their party preferences have not been reported. Our point is not to broad-brush all Democrats as potential domestic terrorists -- we'll leave such illogic to the DHS when speaking of Gulf War vets. But it's too early to be jumping to any conclusions and wise to keep a healthy skepticism of any press depictions of "right-wing" or "Christian extremist" groups. Anyone can claim to be a "Christian," and we doubt that many Democrats are right-wingers. So even if the Hutaree proclaimed themselves "Christians," the appellation is easily hijacked and twisted. This brings us to a second point: The interesting timing of this arrest. The group was reportedly under investigation for years. Would a big arrest of a "right-wing Christian" extremist group be useful to the Democrats at this particular time? While Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were desperately trying to shove ObamaCare down our throats, members of the Tea Party Movement were making it a tough sell. The arrests couldn't possibly have been timed to lend support to unsubstantiated reports of the Tea Party protesters yelling racial epithets or threatening members of Congress, could they? It couldn't be that the far-leftist Southern Poverty Law Center is now unduly influencing the activities of the FBI, could it? The sealed indictments make further investigation difficult, but stay tuned. From The Patriot Post www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/

Israeli PM calls off trip to nuclear conference
http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/08/israeli-pm-calls-off-trip-to-nuclear-conference/#ixzz0kcCEHtR1
Well, President Wobbly vowed to ‘reset” our foreign policy, post Bush. Apparently that means bowing to tyrants and slapping democracies. And it gets a reaction. Excerpt: Israel’s prime minister abruptly called off a trip to Washington just days before he was slated to attend a conference there on the spread of nuclear weapons, officials in his office said Friday, fearing Israel would be singled out over its own nuclear program. Benjamin Netanyahu had said he would attend the conference to underline the dangers of terrorists acquiring nuclear weapons, but suddenly called off the trip less than two days after he announced he would take part.

The Right Ramps Up
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052702304198004575172340397415172.html?mod=djemITP_h
Excerpt: A dozen years after Hillary Clinton complained about a vast, right-wing conspiracy, some Republicans are beginning to wonder if she didn't have some good ideas after all. Meet American Crossroads, a new 527 political organization promising to spend $50 million this year electing Republicans. The press immediately assumed the new group was a quickie response to the disarray at the Republican National Committee (RNC). But American Crossroads has been in the works since last year. And it is just one—if a central—part of a broader conservative push to finally match the Democrats' third-party political muscle.

If We Europeanize, Europe is in Trouble
http://townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2010/04/09/if_we_europeanize,_europe_is_in_trouble
Excerpt: By now you may have heard: America is on its way to becoming another European country. Now, by that I do not mean that we're moving our tectonic plate off the coast of France or anything. But rather, that a century-long dream of American progressives is finally looking like it might become a reality. The recently passed health-care legislation is the cornerstone of the Europeanization of America. And to pay for it, the White House is now floating the idea of imposing a value-added tax (VAT) like they have throughout most of Europe. In the egghead-o-sphere there's been an ongoing debate about whether America should become more like Europe. The battle lines are split along almost perfect left-right lines ideologically. Liberals like the European welfare states, unionized workforces (in and out of government), generous benefits, long vacations, etc. Conservatives like America's economic growth, its dynamism and innovation. From what I can tell, everyone agrees that you can't have Europeanization without European-size governments. Hence, America's government outlays (pre-Obama) have tended to hover around 20 percent of GDP (the average of the last 50 years), while Europe's are often more than twice that. In France, government outlays are nearly 55 percent of GDP. In 2009, the bailout and Obama budget sent America's government outlay to 28 percent of GDP, but that should decline a bit over the next decade, unless Democrats have something else in mind…. But that's not the only way in which Europeans are free-riders. America invents a lot of stuff. When was the last time you used a Portuguese electronic device? How often does Europe come out with a breakthrough drug? Not often, and when they do, it's usually because companies like Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline increasingly conduct their research here. Indeed, the top five U.S. hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other single country combined. We nearly monopolize the Nobel Prize in medicine, and we create stuff at a rate Europe hasn't seen since da Vinci was in his workshop.

Nuclear Posturing, Obama-Style
http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2010/04/09/nuclear_posturing,_obama-style
Excerpt: Under the old doctrine, supported by every president of both parties for decades, any aggressor ran the risk of a cataclysmic U.S. nuclear response that would leave the attacking nation a cinder and a memory. Again: Credible? Doable? No one knows. But the threat was very effective. Under President Obama's new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is "in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," explained Gates, then "the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it." Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker is up-to-date with its latest IAEA inspections, well, it gets immunity from nuclear retaliation. (Our response is then restricted to bullets, bombs and other conventional munitions.) However, if the lawyers tell the president that the attacking state is NPT noncompliant, we are free to blow the bastards to nuclear kingdom come. This is quite insane. It's like saying that if a terrorist deliberately uses his car to mow down a hundred people waiting at a bus stop, the decision as to whether he gets (a) hanged or (b) 100 hours of community service hinges entirely on whether his car had passed emissions inspections.

Must Read: Once upon a Mattress
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/once_upon_a_mattress.html
The UK is well ahead of us in the bureaucratic-driven collapse that is coming. Excerpt: In an unalloyed example of bureaucratic overkill, the Metropolitan Town Council of Bolton, England decided that a mattress dumped in a roadside ditch in the village of Little Lever would prove too daunting for mere mortals to remove. Locals had noticed the mattress lying on the side of a ditch and promptly reported it to the local waste authority. Rather than a couple of denim-clad, blue-collar types showing up to turn this mattress into a memory for the good citizens of Little Lever, a man in a business suit appeared instead and stalked around the mattress, busily jotting his impressions on some arcane government form affixed to his very official-looking clipboard. This man was performing a "risk assessment" regarding the potential danger to life and limb should a team of men attempt to face this pillow-topped foe without the aid of heavy, mechanized equipment. A report about this mattress was duly filed with the man's superiors, who, in the interest of health and safety (concepts the British government only seems to care about outside of their hospitals), decided that there was not one man among them able to safely rid Little Lever of this nuisance. No, the job must be done by machine. The feat of engineering (otherwise known as picking up the mattress) was scheduled for a week later, to coincide with the availability of the necessary heavy equipment, the news of which prompted the last two remaining real men in England to spring into action. The men, one pushing fifty and the other in his sixties, managed to bring the mattress to justice in a scant four minutes, although the elder of the two admitted that it "was a bit heavy.". Great Britain is about twenty-odd years ahead of our country in the race to socialist oblivion.

US Refuses Visas to all Israeli Nuclear Scientists
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/04/us_refuses_visas_to_all_israel.html
We can let in people from a country that has freedom of speech and the press and equal rights for women, and whose citizens aren’t trying to murder us! That would be nuts! Excerpt: In a new and ridiculous policy, the US is denying Israeli scientists who work at the Dimona reactor site an opportunity to refresh their knowledge, Joshua Pundit reports: Ma'ariv reported today that the Israeli government was stunned when every nuclear technician at Israel's Dimona reactor who had submitted visa requests to visit the United States for ongoing university education in Physics, Chemistry and Nuclear Engineering had their visa applications summarily rejected, specifically because of their association with the Dimona reactor.

Senate Poised to Vote on Democrat-Sponsored Bill Banning Chemical That the FDA Says Is Safe
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/63967
Didn’t BO say his administration was going to be based on science, not politics? Another lie to get the rubes votes. Excerpt: In fact, Entine said, there is no scientific evidence to justify a ban. He explained that when scientists of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) found “some concern” over the effects of BPA on babies, that simply meant NTP wanted to study it further, but did not consider the chemical harmful or worthy of health warnings. “At what point does this stop?” he said. “Regulators from around the world have evaluated BPA -- in the United States, in Europe. Europe embraces the precautionary principle and they decided that it’s not responsible to ban this. It is really irresponsible. It send the wrong message to people and it’s destructive -- it’s economically destructive. “Again, there are no substitutes for (BPA). “It’s not an easy change to say, ‘We’re going to ban it and let’s move on. Isn’t this a good thing?’ We’ve responded to public hysteria. That’s not a responsible way the government is supposed to react.”

Obama Administration Whitewashes Islamic Jihad
http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/04/08/obama-administration-whitewashes-islamic-jihad/
How about calling them, “Muslims who defame Islam through violence”? Excerpt: Apparently, the new buzz phrase in the Obama administration to describe our fight against radical Islamic terrorism is “countering violent extremism.” Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair used the catch-phrase twice in a speech he delivered yesterday. Notice that there is no reference to the source of most of the terrorist “violent extremism” around the world today - radical Islam. This “soft power approach” is deliberately designed to avoid offending the Muslim world - an extension of Obama’s apologia last June in Cairo during which he told Muslims how sorry the United States was for all of the supposed wrongs we committed against them.

Hamas-linked CAIR applauds Obama's abandonment of terms "Islam" and "jihad" to describe Islamic jihad
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/04/hamas-linked-cair-applauds-obamas-abandonment-of-terms-islam-and-jihad-to-describe-islamic-jihad.html
Hmmm. Could it be that this unsavory Hamas-linked group, which has opposed every anti-terror effort that has ever come down the pike, and has had several of its officials convicted of terror-related activity, wants to obscure the truth about the nature of the enemy we face? Nah -- couldn't be!

SIOA Action Alert: Stand in Solidarity With Israel, NYC, April 25th
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/04/sioa-action-alert-stand-in-solidarity-with-israel-nyc-april-25th.html
Excerpt: My SIOA colleague Pamela Geller, one of the most dynamic and well-informed speakers on the scene today, will be a featured speaker at this rally in solidarity with Israel on April 25 -- so it promises to be an electrifying event. Be there! And if you haven't joined SIOA yet, join now.

13-year-old Yemeni bride dies of injuries to genitals, heavy bleeding
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/04/13-year-old-yemeni-bride-dies-of-injuries-to-genitals-heavy-bleeding.html
Excerpt: "The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)." -- Bukhari 7.62.88 "Ye have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for any one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day, and who engages much in the Praise of Allah." -- Qur'an 33:21…. A human rights group says a 13-year-old Yemeni girl has died of injuries to her genitals four days after a family-arranged marriage. The practice of marrying young girls is widespread in Yemen and has drawn the attention of international rights groups seeking to pressure the government to outlaw child marriages. Legislation that would make it illegal has drawn opposition from some of Yemen's most influential Islamic leaders, leaving it deeply imperiled….

Islamic Armed Fortress Emerges from Pocono Mountains, Feds Turn Blind Eye
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/04/islamic-armed-fortress-emerges-from-pocono-mountains-feds-turn-blind-eye.html
Excerpt: His name is Fethullan Gulen and he resides not in the wilds of southern Turkey - - but the mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania. From his fortress headquarters, located on 28 acres at 1857 Mt. Eaton Road in Saylorsburg, PA, Gulen plots the overthrow of secular governments and oversees the spread of education jihad throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States. Gulen is surrounded by an army of over 100 Turkish Islamists, who guard him and tend to his needs. The army is comprised of armed militants who wear suits and ties and do not look like traditional Islamists in cloaks and turbans. They follow their hocaefendi's (master lord's) orders and even refrain from marrying until age fifty per his instructions. When they do marry, their spouses are expected to dress in the Islamic manner, as dictated by Gülen himself.

Newt Quotes
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/04/08/quotes-of-the-day-316/