Political Digest July 26, 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. Nor that I disagree with them, of course.

Couple of Blog Posts you may have missed:

Pollak for Congress
http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/pollak-for-congress.html
Bonnie and I participated in a “Walk for Work” campaign event Sunday in support of the Pollak for Congress campaign. Unfortunately, I was able to walk only about three of the nine mile route dragging my oxygen tank, due to my IPF and my O2 saturation levels dropping. Not bad for an old guy, I thought. Joel Pollak is a brilliant young Harvard Law grad running against Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Pelosi) who is unfortunately our representative to the Comintern Congress. Schakowsky is a loyal sycophant of Speaker Pelosi, (and calls Pelosi the “best speaker in history”!) who recently promised to file a bill to create a “Public Option” in ObamaCare, apparently on the theory that it will take too long for ObamaCare as currently written to turn America into Greece.

Schakowsky recently attended a liberal Democrat fund raiser headlined by Helen Thomas (D-Hamas). Thomas, you’ll recall, is a Journalist/Propagandist and Lebanese immigrant to the US who recently said the Jews in Israel, including those born there, should “go back where they came from.” Thomas resigned her job, but has so far not followed her own advice to “go back to where she came from.” Schakowsky declined to condemn Thomas’s anti-Semitism.

http://bigjournalism.com/jpollak/2010/06/05/pollak-post/

Anyone who thinks they and America are better off now than in 2006 when Pelosi, Schakowsky and their crowd took control of Congress should, of course, support the incumbent. But after four years of ever-higher deficits and a worsening economy, we don’t think the Pelosi Congress deserves re-election.

Disclaimer: To prevent some JournaList agitprop artist from misusing my statements, please note I am not connected with the Pollak campaign in any official capacity; we merely joined the walk. The views expressed here are mine, not those of Joel Pollak or any official of his campaign, and I am solely responsible for them. To learn more about Pollak’s views, go to his website: www.pollakforcongress.com.

Message from an immigrant
http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/message-from-immigrant.html
Excerpt: If you haven't heard lately that this is the greatest country on earth. I am telling you that right now. It is the freedom and the opportunities presented it to me that put me here with all of you tonight. I also remember the barriers that I had to overcome every step of the way. My high school counselor told me that I cannot make it to college due to my poor communication skills. I proved him wrong. I finished college. You see… All you have to do is to give this little boy an opportunity and encourage him to take and run with it. Well, I took the opportunity and here I am. This person standing tonight in front of you could not exist under a socialist/communist environment. By the way, if you think socialism is the way to go, I am sure many people here will chip in to get you a one way ticket out of here. And if you didn't know, the only difference between socialism and communism is an AK-47 aiming at your head. That was my experience.

The End Of Rangel's Arrogant Rule
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/541453/201007231926/The-End-Of-Rangels-Arrogant-Rule.aspx
Excerpt: The former Ways And Means chairman faces possible expulsion for playing fast and loose with his finances and taxes. Since that's what the Congress has done with ours, maybe they should all face expulsion. It is said absolute power corrupts absolutely, and for much of his 40 years in Congress, many spent riding herd on the nation's tax code, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., had absolute power over our tax laws and finances. He was, in political terms, 10 feet tall and bullet-proof. Not anymore. We don't know if his shenanigans got too much for even House Democrats to handle or if they just felt they had enough problems this November, particularly on the issue of taxes, to have as one more albatross around their neck — someone who made avoiding them an art form. The House Ethics Committee, an unintentional oxymoron, has voted to form an adjudication panel that will now conduct something similar to a trial of an investigative panel's findings that Rangel has committed serious ethics violations that warrant some kind of action. This may or may not be significant, but this is the first time in eight years such a panel has been formed, the last time being one that resulted in the expulsion of Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, who later went to prison.

New list of 107 Journalist names
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/07/new_list_of_107_journalist_nam.html
“Journalist” now being a synonym for “Propagandist.” Excerpt: Poster Buckeye Texan of Free Republic has posted an updated list of 107 names confirmed on Journalist, with organization identities provided:

Income confusion by Thomas Sowell
http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell112007.php3
An older Sowell column that should be read every time you hear politicians talk about income and “The Rich.”

Capturing the Cape
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/07/capturing-cape.html
If seats in Massachusetts are in play….

U.S., South Korea began military exercises
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/25/south.korea.drills/?om_rid=Mqh-D0&om_mid=_BMTEA4B8PxUGzp&
Excerpt: Amid heightened tensions with North Korea, the United States and South Korea on Sunday began joint military exercises. The military exercise, dubbed Invincible Spirit, is scheduled to run through Wednesday and demonstrate the alliance's resolve. In addition to the 8,000 personnel involved, military officials say, it will include 20 ships and submarines and about 200 aircraft. The U.S. Defense Department said the drills are in response to the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan and are intended to send a strong message to Pyongyang to stop "provocative and warlike acts." The drills will include anti-sub infiltration exercises, said Cmdr. Jeff Davis of the U.S. 7th Fleet. "The anti-sub-infiltration exercise works like this: if a sub is coming in to attack a ship, the military finds it and prosecutes it," he said. Davis said there was a "renewed desire" and urgency to focus on the exercise after the Cheonan sinking. North Korea criticized the exercises, which began at 6:30 a.m. (5:30 p.m. ET).

Ariz. law comes after years of mounting anger
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ANGRY_ARIZONA?SITE=TXDAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Excerpt: As the days tick down until the Arizona immigration law takes effect, the state stands as a monument to the anger over illegal immigration that is present in so many places. The anger has been simmering for years, and erupted into a full-blown fury with the murder of a prominent rancher on the border earlier this year. The killing became a powerful rallying cry for immigration reform and the sweeping new law set to take effect Thursday, barring any last-minute legal action. But it does not tell the whole story about how Arizona got to this point. Turn on the evening news in Arizona and some report reflecting the state's battle with illegal immigration will likely flash across the screen. A drop house crammed with illegal border-crossers smack in the middle of a suburban neighborhood. Traffic patrols and workplace raids that net the arrest of dozens of illegal immigrants, often in heavily Hispanic communities. Politicians speaking venomously about border violence and the leech of immigration costs on the state treasury. Along the streets, Arizonans see day laborers near Wal-Mart and Home Depot parking lots, waiting for work. In some Phoenix-area neighborhoods, Spanish is so predominant both in spoken word and signage that residents complain they feel like they're in a foreign country. Then rancher Robert Krentz was gunned down in March while checking water lines on his property near the border. Authorities believe - but have never produced substantive proof - that an illegal immigrant, likely a scout for drug smugglers, was to blame.

Britain Plans to Decentralize National Health Care
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/world/europe/25britain.html?_r=2&hp
Excerpt: Perhaps the only consistent thing about Britain’s socialized health care system is that it is in a perpetual state of flux, its structure constantly changing as governments search for the elusive formula that will deliver the best care for the cheapest price while costs and demand escalate. Even as the new coalition government said it would make enormous cuts in the public sector, it initially promised to leave health care alone. But in one of its most surprising moves so far, it has done the opposite, proposing what would be the most radical reorganization of the National Health Service, as the system is called, since its inception in 1948. Practical details of the plan are still sketchy. But its aim is clear: to shift control of England’s $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level. Under the plan, $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers. The plan would also shrink the bureaucratic apparatus, in keeping with the government’s goal to effect $30 billion in “efficiency savings” in the health budget by 2014 and to reduce administrative costs by 45 percent. Tens of thousands of jobs would be lost because layers of bureaucracy would be abolished. (The worst possible situation for a leader is to have responsibility without authority; the worst possibility for those being led is for the leader to have authority without responsibility. The British may be trying for a two-fer. Still, it may be less expensive than paying for all those "tens of thousands" of bean-counters. Politicians always act for political reasons. Ron P.)

Muslim congressional staffers weigh 'action oriented' initiatives
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/110721-muslim-congressional-staffers-weigh-action-oriented-initiatives
Been more fun if they said “opened with a bang!” Excerpt: The second annual American Leadership Initiative for Muslims conference opened in Washington D.C. this weekend as some in the Muslim American community are questioning whether President Obama is doing enough to bolster their efforts. With about 200 participants involved this year, the conference books itself as “action oriented” where “nothing at this convention is ‘hypothetical’” and says it is designed to bring together members of the Muslim community to develop plans to serve on both domestic and international fronts.

White House backed release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/white-house-backed-release-of-lockerbie-bomber-abdel-baset-al-megrahi/story-e6frg6so-1225896741041
If true, this will be a bombshell. Excerpt: THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be "far preferable" to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya.
Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration considered compassionate release more palatable than locking up Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in a Libyan prison. The intervention, which has angered US relatives of those who died in the attack, was made by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, a week before Megrahi was freed in August last year on grounds that he had terminal cancer. The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens to undermine US President Barack Obama's claim last week that all Americans were "surprised, disappointed and angry" to learn of Megrahi's release. Scottish ministers viewed the level of US resistance to compassionate release as "half-hearted" and a sign it would be accepted. The US has tried to keep the letter secret, refusing to give permission to the Scottish authorities to publish it on the grounds it would prevent future "frank and open communications" with other governments. In the letter, sent on August 12 last year to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and justice officials, Mr LeBaron wrote that the US wanted Megrahi to remain imprisoned in view of the nature of the crime.

Mexican Drug Cartel Seize Texas Ranches; Laredo Police: We Can’t Say Anything!
http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2010/07/mexican-drug-cartel-seize-texas-ranches-laredo-police-we-cant-say-anything/
Second story I’ve seen on this. I can’t see how they could be keeping it quiet if really true. Excerpt: “We have been advised to say nothing. The Webb County Sheriff is taking the lead on this and they’re advising that they can’t confirm anything either.” Laredo Police Department Spokesperson There’s a story unfolding in South Texas, of a possible hostile takeover of two Texas ranches located near Laredo by a Mexican drug cartel. The source of the story, the site Diggers Realm which posted they’d received a tip-off two Texas ranches located south of Laredo had been seized by a Mexican drug cartel with the ranchers escaping without incident.

The fix was in: JournoList e-mails reveal how the liberal media shaped the 2008 election
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_fix_was_in_gImIPWyKJdEWhZasJmFIUO#ixzz0uh3Zem8c
Excerpt: In 2007, when Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein founded JournoList, an online gathering place for several hundred liberal journalists, academics and political activists, he imagined a discussion group that would connect young writers to top sources. But in the heat of a bitter presidential campaign in 2008, the list’s discussions veered into collusion and coordination at key political moments, documents revealed this week by The Daily Caller show. In a key episode, JournoList members openly plotted to bury attention on then-candidate Barack Obama’s controversial pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The Washington Independent’s Spencer Ackerman, for instance, suggested an effective tactic to distract from the issue would be to pick one of Obama’s critics, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.” Conservative critics of Washington’s journalistic establishment have long charged the media with a striking liberal bias. But those critics have also said the problem was mostly unintentional, the result of a press corps made up mostly of Democratic-leaning scribes. Yet JournoList’s discussions show an influential left-wing faction of the media participating in a far more intentional sort of liberal bias. JournoList’s members included dozens of straight-news reporters from major news organizations, including Time, Newsweek, The Associated Press, Reuters, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, PBS and a large NPR affiliate in California.

Sharia in New Jersey: Muslim husband rapes wife, judge sees no sexual assault because Islam forbids wives to refuse sex
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/07/sharia-in-new-jersey-muslim-husband-rapes-wife-judge-sees-no-sexual-assault-because-husbands-religio.html
Excerpt: Muhammad said: "If a husband calls his wife to his bed [i.e. to have sexual relation] and she refuses and causes him to sleep in anger, the angels will curse her till morning" (Bukhari 4.54.460). He also said: "By him in Whose Hand lies my life, a woman can not carry out the right of her Lord, till she carries out the right of her husband. And if he asks her to surrender herself [to him for sexual intercourse] she should not refuse him even if she is on a camel's saddle" (Ibn Majah 1854). And now a New Jersey judge sees no evidence that a Muslim committed sexual assault of his wife -- not because he didn't do it, but because he was acting on his Islamic beliefs: "This court does not feel that, under the circumstances, that this defendant had a criminal desire to or intent to sexually assault or to sexually contact the plaintiff when he did. The court believes that he was operating under his belief that it is, as the husband, his desire to have sex when and whether he wanted to, was something that was consistent with his practices and it was something that was not prohibited." Luckily, the appellate court overturned this decision, and a Sharia ruling by an American court has not been allowed to stand. This time.

Quote
What's more enchanting than the voices of young people, when you can't hear what they say?
- Logan Pearsall Smith