Political Digest for May 28, 2011

The Coming Collapse of the American Republic

http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-new-book-is-out-coming-collapse-of.html

Info about my book. All royalties go to wounded veterans. Please forward and post where possible.

Resources

For those who want further information about the topics covered in this blog, I recommend the following sites. I will add to this as I find additional good sources.

http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2011/03/resources-for-opinion-leaders-who.html

Limited posts over weekend

Taking the granddaughter to a parade and other Memorial Day events, so may not have much computer time. Please take time to remember the reason for the long weekend.

Worth Reading: In Honor of Fallen Patriots

http://patriotpost.us/alexander/2011/05/26/in-honor-of-fallen-patriots/

Excerpt: Since our nation's founding, more than one million American Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen have paid the ultimate price in defense of our nation, and it is their final sacrifice that we honor with solemn reverence. Our Founders clearly understood that the burden of sustaining Liberty would be calculated in human sacrifice. As John Adams noted, "I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States." So, on this last Monday in May, millions of American Patriots will honor the service and sacrifice of these uniformed Patriots by participating in respectful commemorations across the nation. … To a great extent, Memorial Day has been sold out, and no more so than by politicians who use the occasion to feign Patriotism for a day (or a moment) while in reality, they are in constant violation of their sacred oaths to our Constitution.

Good Memorial Day videos

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2524632/posts

http://media.causes.com/1060527?p_id=175378540

In 2012 campaigns, spoilers from the Tea Party worry GOP

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/163625-spoilers-from-the-tea-party-worry-gop

Probably we need to run fake “progressive” candidates to take away leftist votes. But Republicans are not as good at this kind of tactic. “Straw” candidates have been a staple of big city Democrat tactics since the memory of man runneth not. ~Bob. The Democrats’ upset victory in New York’s special election Tuesday shows that Tea Party candidates could prevent Republicans from winning the White House and Senate, GOP senators say. Political analysts interpret Kathy Hochul’s (D) surprise win was a flashing red signal that Medicare reforms that passed in Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R) House budget in March could cripple the GOP in the 2012 election. Some Republican senators, however, view the spoiler role Tea Party candidate Jack Davis played in that race with more alarm. Tea Party activists say Davis was an “impostor candidate,” because he ran for office several times as a Democrat before claiming the Tea Party mantle. He still managed to win 8 percent of the vote, and Republicans claim he deprived Jane Corwin, the GOP nominee, of the win.

Quote

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. --Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Congress OKs Last-Minute Patriot Act Extension

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/26/senate-clearing-way-extend-patriot-act/

The Democrats complain about it, but they vote for it. Lucky for us, it appears the TelePrompTer has directed the Autopen to sign it. ~Bob. Excerpt: The House followed the Senate on Thursday in approving a four-year extension of the government's Patriot Act powers to search records and conduct roving wiretaps in pursuit of terrorists, casting the votes with hours to go before the measures were set to expire. Following the 72-23 Senate vote, the House voted 250-153 to quickly approve the legislation for President Obama's signature to beat a midnight deadline when three terror-fighting tools would expire. The action comes a month after intelligence and military forces hunted down Usama bin Laden. "Failure to sign this legislation poses a significant risk to U.S. national security," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said in a statement. "As long as Congress approves the extension, the president will direct the use of the autopen to sign it."

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will formally announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination June 2 in New Hampshire

http://email.foxnews.com/t?ctl=FB86:61262CA70E6F93FF360D01ADE4A6818B&

With RomneyCare and his BS about wanting to serve in Vietnam, he should run as a Democrat. ~Bob.

Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Law Penalizing Businesses For Hiring Illegal Immigrants

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/05/26/supreme-court-upholds-ari_n_867432.html

Excerpt: By a 5-3 vote, the court said that federal immigration law gives states the authority to impose sanctions on employers who hire unauthorized workers. The ruling cheered supporters of tougher immigration laws who said it would encourage states to take new steps, especially in the employment area. The decision upholding the validity of the 2007 law comes as the state is appealing a ruling that blocked key components of a second, more controversial Arizona immigration enforcement law. Thursday's decision applies only to business licenses and does not signal how the high court might rule if the other law comes before it. (...) Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, all Democratic appointees, dissented. The fourth Democratic appointee, Justice Elena Kagan, did not participate in the case because she worked on it while serving as President Barack Obama's solicitor general. (The Arizona law was signed into law by Janet Napolitano in 2007. Here are the relevant parts of the everyday federal hiring laws currently enforced by ICE. Copied from the Customs and Immigration Service form I-9 (required by law for EVERY employee hired by any business in the country): CERTIFICATION: I attest, under penalty of perjury, that I have examined the document(s) presented by the above-named employee, that the above listed document(s) appear to be genuine and to relate to the employee named, that the employee began employment on _______(date) and that to the best of my knowledge the employee is authorized to work in the United States.” Link to the PDF: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-9.pdf If you get caught cheating on an I-9, then you encounter this: Perjury, federal penalty for: “Whoever is guilty of perjury and shall, except as otherwise expressly provided by law, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.” Link to US Code: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/718/usc_sec_18_00001621----000-.html Again, Justice Kagan was honest enough to recuse herself. A cynic might wonder if that was because she knew how the vote would go. Ron P. )

Allen West Suggests Congressmen Should "Get Shot at a Few Times" to Change Opinion on Afghanistan

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/05/allen_west_suggests_congressme.php

Excerpt: Instead, Lt. Col. West would prefer that congressmen urging an exit from Afghanistan head over to the battlefield and start taking bullets. "I would take these gentlemen over and let them get shot at a few times and maybe they'd have a different opinion," West told the Miami Herald. So how many congressmen does West consider be pumped full of lead? (Jerk reporter. He never said they should be "pumped full of lead." Just that the experience of having incoming might change a viewpoint. ~Bob.)

Islamists Target Egypt's Christians

http://www.investigativeproject.org/2904/islamists-target-egypt-christians

Like the Left cares if they don't have a voting bloc in America. ~Bob. Excerpt: Egypt's Arab Spring has become a nightmare for the nation's 2,000-year-old Coptic Christian community, now the terror target of choice for Islamist radicals. Christians' "personal security has gotten much worse" since the February ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, says Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute, who monitors the situation of religious minorities in the Muslim world. Christian homes, businesses and churches have come under increasing attack from militant Islamists, with many of the assaults coming shortly after angry sermons given at Friday prayers. The sermons inciting the violence often come from Salafist imams subsidized by the Egyptian government. Since February, violent Islamists have exploited an atmosphere of "lawlessness" to assert that they are in control, said Coptic American activist Michael Meunier. Meunier, who is currently visiting Egypt, told the Investigative Project on Terrorism that the government's refusal to challenge anti-Christian violence has "provided a way out to criminals and encouraged violent attacks."

Important: Mediscare: The Surprising Truth. Republicans are being portrayed as Medicare Grinches, but ObamaCare already has seniors' health care slated for draconian cuts.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304066504576345732775990392.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Excerpt: The Obama administration has repeatedly claimed that the health-reform bill it passed last year improved Medicare's finances. Although you'd never know it from the current state of the Medicare debate—with the Republicans being portrayed as the Medicare Grinches—the claim is true only because ObamaCare explicitly commits to cutting health-care spending for the elderly and the disabled in future years. Yet almost no one familiar with the numbers thinks that the planned brute-force cuts in Medicare spending are politically feasible. Last August, the Office of the Medicare Actuary predicted that Medicare will be paying doctors less than what Medicaid pays by the end of this decade and, by then, one in seven hospitals will have to leave the Medicare system. But suppose the law is implemented just as it's written. In that case, according to the Medicare Trustees, Medicare's long-term unfunded liability fell by $53 trillion on the day ObamaCare was signed. But at what cost to the elderly? Consider people reaching the age of 65 this year. Under the new law, the average amount spent on these enrollees over the remainder of their lives will fall by about $36,000 at today's prices. That sum of money is equivalent to about three years of benefits. For 55-year-olds, the spending decrease is about $62,000—or the equivalent of six years of benefits. For 45-year-olds, the loss is more than $105,000, or nine years of benefits.

Follow Canada's Lead to Reduce Federal Debt

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=20711&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

Excerpt: In 1996 Canada's debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio was approximately 67 percent -- just slightly higher than the United States' current ratio of approximately 62 percent. Canada's Liberal Party was in charge of the federal government at the time and set out on a determined course to cut Canada's federal deficit and reduce the federal debt as a percent of the economy's GDP. The plan was hugely successful, and when Finance Minister Paul Martin became prime minister in 2003, he continued the policy of spending restraint until he left office in 2006. Martin's successor, current Prime Minister Stephen Harper, continued that policy for the next two years. The result: by fiscal year (FY) 2009, the federal debt had fallen to 29 percent of GDP, say David R. Henderson, an associate professor of economics, and Jerrod Anderson, a second-year master's fellow, at the Naval Postgraduate School. The federal government achieved these reductions in debt not with large tax increases, but with substantial cuts in government spending. While Martin's 1995 budget did increase some taxes, the budget called for six to seven dollars in expenditure cuts for every dollar of increased taxes. Between FY 1995 and FY 1998, federal government program expenditure (government spending minus interest payments on the federal debt) decreased from C$123.2 billion to C$111.3 billion, a decrease of C$11.9 billion. Lessons for the United States: Starting in 2013, raise the age eligibility for Medicare in incremental steps (for example, two months every year) until it equals the Social Security age. Starting in 2014, allow doctors to "balance bill" under Medicare

Report Finds Obama Policies to Blame for High Energy Prices

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/267928/report-finds-obama-policies-blame-high-energy-prices-andrew-stiles

Huh. Who would have guessed? ~Bob. Excerpt: A new report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform details a disturbing “pattern of evidence” indicating that not only are the Obama administration’s energy policies responsible for higher oil and gas prices, but that the administration’s energy policy, in fact, is higher gas prices. The report’s findings are the result of an extensive committee review of public records, policy analysis, statements and e-mails from administration officials, and reveal “a pattern of actions [that] shows the Administration is, in fact, pursuing an agenda to raise the price Americans pay for energy,” according to a copy of the report obtained by National Review Online. “What President Obama failed to accomplish through the so-called ‘cap and trade’ program, his administration is attempting to accomplish through regulatory roadblocks, energy tax increases, and other targeted efforts to prohibit development of domestic energy resources,” the report concludes.

SUVs saved Chrysler

http://detnews.com/article/20110524/MIVIEW/105240374/Payne--SUVs-saved-Chrysler

Excerpt: Chrysler and the White House will celebrate the Detroit icon's $5.9 billion repayment of government loans Tuesday in a ceremony that will be hailed by both sides for the same reason: The government bailout had become a liability for both entities. In fact, government-free Chrysler is hardly off the debt hook, but is simply refinancing its debt with private rather than public debt-holders. For its part, the U.S. government will still have a 6.6 percent equity stake in Chrysler - but by removing itself as the company's loan shark, the White House can boast of the unpopular bailout's success in returning taxpayer loans 6 years ahead of schedule. That's an important sound-bite in an election year. But there is one inconvenient truth you won't hear at the Sterling Heights, Mich. ceremony: Chrysler wouldn't be here had it not defied its green White House masters. Chrysler's return to profitability is a direct result of the fabulous success of its SUVs. The White House hand-picked Fiat to shepherd Chrysler out of bankruptcy in June, 2009 because of Barack Obama's obsession with remaking Detroit's automakers in the image of their European peers. Convinced that Americans craved small cars to fight the warming scourge, the president demanded Fiat bring its best-selling 500 Eurobox to the States as part of the acquisition deal. Obama was convinced that Fiat could reform the immoral, gas-swigging, SUV-dependent Chrysler.

Mark Steyn blames 'historical', 'peculiar psychological' reason for Obama's contempt for U.K., Israel

http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/27/steyn-blames-historical-peculiar-psychological-reasons-for-obamas-contempt-for-u-k-israel/

Excerpt: “I think that is interesting,” Steyn said. “I mean, I think that if you look at Obama, he was wafted upwards basically through Columbia, Harvard Law, the Harvard Law Journal, community organizing, the Illinois legislature, the United States Senate – without ever lingering in those jobs long enough to have to do anything. He basically was someone who was kind of just wafted upwards through the system until he became the beneficiary of the ultimate waft into the Oval Office. (Yes, exactly. Only there is nothing unusual about Obama. LA is full of people like Obama. They don't understand that you should try to be good at your job. A job is place you take your body to, and then you get paid.—Kate.)

A Castro Blogger Suddenly Discovers She is a Slave

http://babalublog.com/2011/05/a-castro-blogger-suddenly-discovers-she-is-a-slave/

Excerpt: Although they exist in relative anonymity, the Castro regime has an army of bloggers and trolls that spend 24 hours a day posting and spreading Castro propaganda on the net. Few people pay any attention to these soldiers of misfortune since all they do is repeat the same garbage they are ordered to repeat by the dictatorship. They offer no intellectual arguments, intelligent discourse, or any interesting viewpoints; they only lather, rinse, and repeat.

An Honest Obama Campaign: Anyone who took the 2008 campaign speeches seriously must have had a rude awakening.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/267998/honest-obama-campaign-victor-davis-hanson

Excerpt: Given what we know now, I think Obama’s summer-2008 campaign speeches should have sounded something like this: The Economy: “Make no mistake about it — we must have critical new investment and government priming to free us from the Bush recession. Therefore, if America is willing to embrace such Keynesian spending, I will promise to keep our unemployment rate below 10 percent, while my team borrows no more than an additional $5 trillion for new shovel-ready stimulus. I envision our national debt rising to no more than $16 trillion over my tenure. I also promise to take over any corporation that explores bankruptcy as a way to default on what it owes its union members and pensioners, who will always have a higher claim than any creditors or Wall Street speculators. I have already talked of spreading the wealth; but as president I promise to extend food stamps to more Americans than at any time in history.”

FBI Official: Illinois Imam Wouldn't Pass Background Check

http://www.investigativeproject.org/2914/fbi-official-illinois-imam-wouldnt-pass

But background checks are so non-PC. ~Bob. Excerpt: The FBI's top agent in Chicago told Illinois State Police (ISP) officials that an imam under consideration to be the agency's first Muslim chaplain wouldn't pass a background test if it were up to his agency. That comment came before the State Police initially approved Imam Kifah Mustapha's appointment in 2009, a move they later rescinded after the Investigative Project on Terrorism published an article documenting Mustapha's connections to a Hamas-support network. Mustapha is suing the ISP claiming it violated his 1st and 4th Amendment rights in withdrawing its offer for the chaplain's position. The suit claims the IPT report was flawed and the state had no legitimate grounds to reject him. As part of the lawsuit, Mustapha wants to see ISP and FBI records related to its background check of him.

From The Patriot Post www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/

On that front, (the left) won a different battle Thursday when Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi struck down the legislation because, she said, GOP lawmakers had violated the state's open meetings law when passing it. In other words, she overturned it based on a technicality -- a technicality that Republicans claim didn't even apply in that situation. The legislature was in special session, which has different rules governing open meetings. That would mean Sumi is not only wrong, but also intruding on the prerogative of the legislative branch, substituting her own rules for the legislature's. Also, Sumi's son was a former field manager for both the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). We're sure this has nothing to do with the case, but we thought we'd mention it anyway.

Robots That Fold Laundry and Shrimp on Treadmills; Sen. Coburn Reveals How Your Tax Money is Being Spent

http://www.breitbart.tv/robots-that-fold-laundry-and-shrimp-on-treadmills-sen-coburn-reveals-how-your-tax-money-is-being-spent/

One is no longer shocked or surprised. Just sickened. ~Bob.

Who Owns Big Oil'? Not Who You Think

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/who-owns-big-oil-millions-american-inves

Excerpt: According to a report published in 2007 by Sonecon, an economic advisory firm that analyses U.S. markets and public policy, corporate management owns only 1.5 percent of the U.S. oil and natural gas industry. The rest is owned by tens of millions of Americans through retirement accounts (14 percent) and pension funds (26 percent). Mutual funds or other firms account for 29.5 percent ownership and individual investors own 23 percent of oil stock holdings. Institutional investors hold the remaining 5 percent. (So when you punish “Big Oil,” you are punishing almost every American with an IRA, 401k or pension fund. But voters are to economically-ignorant to understand, so they vote for people who punish them. ~Bob.)

Obama as a SEAL—The Reason

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/05/11/introducing-the-barack-obama-seal-team-six-action-figure/

I figured out why they came out with this Action Figure. They thought SEAL stood for Socialist, Egotistical Anti-freedom Leftist.

What Obama Did to Israel

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/charles-krauthammer/2011/05/27/what-obama-did-to-israel/

Excerpt: Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs make promises, which are ephemeral. The long-standing American solution has been to nonetheless urge Israel to take risks for peace while America balances things by giving assurances of U.S. support for Israel's security and diplomatic needs. It's on the basis of such solemn assurances that Israel undertook, for example, the Gaza withdrawal. In order to mitigate this risk, President George W. Bush gave a written commitment that America supported Israel absorbing major settlement blocs in any peace agreement, opposed any return to the 1967 lines and stood firm against the so-called Palestinian right of return to Israel. For two and a half years, the Obama administration has refused to recognize and reaffirm these assurances. Then last week in his State Department speech, President Obama definitively trashed them. He declared that the Arab-Israeli conflict should indeed be resolved along "the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps."

The Die Is Cast

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/jonah-goldberg/2011/05/27/the-die-is-cast/

Democrats are willing to sacrifice the future of the country, which is headed for fiscal collapse, to win in 2012. Given the economic ignorance of voters, it may work. ~Bob. Excerpt: Alea iacta est. That's what Julius Caesar proclaimed as he crossed the Rubicon river in 49 B.C. It means "the die is cast." By crossing the Rubicon with his army, against Roman law, Caesar guaranteed a head-on conflict with the overconfident Roman ruler Pompey. Outnumbered, Caesar was presented with the choice: win or die. The recent special election in the 26th congressional district of New York was a political Rubicon. The Democrat, Kathy Hochul, ran against the Republican budget, specifically Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to save Medicare by turning it into a voucher program starting 10 years from now (excluding all current beneficiaries). The Republican, Jane Corwin, said she supported the plan and then spent much of the campaign defending it with all of the verbal dexterity of a contestant in a cracker-eating competition. It's difficult to exaggerate the gloating and glee from Democrats about their triumph. Their takeaway: Democrats can win if they demonize the Ryan plan and run ads (or allow third-party groups to run them) showing old ladies being flung from cliffs like Spartan infants. There is certainly good reason to believe that Hochul's so-called "Medi-scare" tactics made the difference. It was the top issue for nearly a quarter of voters. And while most of them may well have voted Democrat anyway, the simple fact is that Hochul won a single-issue campaign in a district that shouldn't have elected a Democrat at all.

Christie to pull N.J. out of cap-and-trade energy program

http://www.northjersey.com/news/politics/052611_Christie_to_pull_NJ_out_of_cap-and-trade_energy_program.html

Excerpt: Christie called the 10-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative a “failure” and said it has been ineffective in battling global warming. “RGGI has not changed behavior and it does not reduce emissions,” Christie said at a news conference in Trenton. “RGGI does nothing more than tax electricity, tax our citizens, tax our businesses, with no discernable or measurable impact upon our environment,” he said. Christie’s decision to withdraw by year’s end comes after similar efforts in New Hampshire, Maine and Delaware were met with resistance in recent weeks. New Jersey is the first state to opt out of the program, and some environmentalists fear Christie’s decision could provide momentum for other states to withdraw.

"The Worst Environmental Disaster in U.S. History!" (One Year Later)

http://townhall.com/columnists/humbertofontova/2011/05/26/the_worst_environmental_disaster_in_us_history!_one_year_later/page/full/

Excerpt: "There's just no data to suggest this is an environmental disaster, “said Marine Scientist and former LSU professor Ivor Van Heerden who also works as a BP spill-response contractor. “I have no interest in making BP look good — I think they lied about the size of the spill — but we're not seeing catastrophic impacts. There's a lot of hype, but no evidence to justify it."  In fact these observations came-- not a year after the Deepwater Horizon blew-up -- but a mere three months afterwards, making them all the more blasphemous at the time. By now they’ve been amply vindicated, making the Obama team’s “moratorium” and more recent stonewalling on Gulf of Mexico drilling permits all the more preposterous. (…) “People don’t comprehend how so much oil could break down in such a short time period,” explains Dr. LuAnn White, a toxicologist with the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, who also serves as Director of the Center for Applied Environmental Health. “But we have natural oil seeps in the Gulf, and over 200 genera of microbes that break down oil already exist there.”  “It cannot be repeated often enough,” says Louisiana Marine Biologist Jerald Horst , Crude oil is a natural substance, its biodegradable. It’s a feast for microbes. And these consumed most of it from the BP spill.” (If the Greens catch this author, they’ll burn him at the stake, quarter the ashes and scatter them from all four corners of a crossroad. How dare this heretic tell the truth? Ron P.)

Obama, in Europe, signs Patriot Act extension

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110527/ap_on_go_co/us_patriot_act;_ylt=Asv.EiJlLivOu_oq2ROFNY2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNldmVpNW1jBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwNTI3L3VzX3BhdHJpb3RfYWN0BGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMgRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDb2Jhb?om_rid=Mqh-D0&om_mid=_BN35g2B8bbTl-2

Excerpt: With Obama in France, the White House said the president used an autopen machine that holds a pen and signs his actual signature. It is only used with proper authorization of the president. Congress sent the bill to the president with only hours to go on Thursday before the provisions expired at midnight. Votes taken in rapid succession in the Senate and House came after lawmakers rejected attempts to temper the law enforcement powers to ensure that individual liberties are not abused. (…) A short-term expiration would not have interrupted ongoing operations but would have barred the government from seeking warrants for new investigations.

What (SEC-DEF) Bob Gates couldn't defend

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/what_bob_gates_couldn_defend_BGE6MPw78eTAfSZTfbA7LN#ixzz1NYOiz5rT

Excerpt: Robert Gates is stepping down as defense secretary after 4½ years of honorable service -- notching up remarkable successes even as he's presided over a perilous decline in America's military capabilities. With the Middle East coming apart, we also face a surging China, a truculent and soon-to-be nuclear-armed Iran and a swaggering Russia out to regain its old empire. Yet, as Gates himself admitted in a pivotal farewell address at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, we're looking today at "a smaller military" that will be "able to go fewer places and able to do fewer things." Even as federal spending has exploded to 24 percent of GNP, the Pentagon's baseline budget -- that is, spending on the things that make us safe -- has steadily slid to a share of GNP even lower than the Carter years, barely 3.5 percent. The Obama budgets have already slashed Pentagon spending to the tune of $300 billion -- with another $400 billion in cuts coming over the next 10 years to meet deficit-reduction goals. We could be looking at a Carter-era force size -- and a Navy smaller than before World War II. We'll have to depend on the sloth of our competitors to keep us at No. 1 -- not a healthy prospect.

House Votes to Ban Troops for Libya War

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303654804576347800981671470.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_news

Excerpt: The House on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to prohibit ground troops from being sent to Libya and only narrowly defeated a measure to force President Barack Obama to lay out plans to end the Afghanistan war, in moves that show the limits of congressional support for military involvement in overseas conflicts. The U.S. military's actions on three fronts—Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq—are wearing on the public, polls show, and lawmakers are leery of additional open-ended military commitments amid a severe budget crunch. The killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last month is also adding to the reassessment of the country's military priorities.

The Mideast History Lesson Obama So Desperately Needs

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/05/27/the-next-mideast-history-lesson-obama-so-desperately-needs/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=59451838c5-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN

Excerpt: After President Obama surprised Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu last week with a now-infamous statement of principle about the 1967 lines, Netanyahu responded with what news outlets characterized as a “history lecture.” Though the outlets—ranging from the French Press Agency to the Chicago Sun-Times—meant the phrase derisively, a history lesson on the 1967 lines was exactly what the moment called for. And a lesson on the Israel-Egypt peace treaty and the early negotiations that led to the Oslo process would, for instance, enlighten the president on just why his strategy for Mideast peace is backwards, and doomed to fail. Anwar Sadat’s trip to Jerusalem to address the Israeli Knesset in 1977 immediately entered the history books as a moment of triumph for political courage and for the power of diplomacy. It held the promise of a Middle East where Israel’s existence is a recognized reality, and it offered a glimpse of what Arab statesmanship could accomplish. Grand gestures weren’t meaningless after all. But there was one prominent American who disagreed. After the Egyptian president’s dramatic visit to Jerusalem U.S. President Jimmy Carter said, “a separate peace agreement between Egypt and Israel is not desirable.” In retrospect, of course, it has been very “desirable” for Carter’s otherwise dismal foreign policy record.

Jell-O wrestling, nude parties and a shrimp treadmill... what the National Science Foundation spent $3bn of YOUR money on
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1391375/Jell-O-wrestling-nude-parties-shrimp-treadmill--National-Science-Foundation-spent-3bn-YOUR-money-on.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Excerpt: A damning Senate report has revealed that mismanagement of taxpayer's money has seen National Science Foundation (NSF) blow more than $3 billion – on such things as a Jell-O wrestling party in the Antarctic and a list of seemingly pointless studies. Senator Tom Coburn, one of the leading watchdogs on Government waste, published a 73-page report identifying the extraordinary amount of money spent on frivolous enterprises – $3billion represents almost half of the NSF's $6.9 billion annual budget. One of the most embarrassing revelations for the NSF was a nude swimming party and wrestling event held at the McMurdo research station in Antarctica.

VIDEO: Oslo, Norway: ALL Sexual Assaults Involving Rape Committed by Non-Westerners

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_rHFKRwv5Y&feature=player_embedded

Men who beat up RE teacher were terrorist suspects

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8538804/Men-who-beat-up-RE-teacher-were-terrorist-suspects.html

They should form a new group: Cowards for Allah. ~Bob. Excerpt: When transcribers went back over a conversation the men had held in the car, they were picked up discussing killing Gary Smith and praising Allah as they drove from the scene after attacking him. Akmol Hussein, 27, Sheikh Rashid, 27, Azad Hussain, 26, and Simon Alam, 19, all admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent after ambushing Mr Smith outside his school. Akmol Hussein was heard setting out the plan to attack Mr Smith, head of religious education at Central Foundation Girls' School in Bow, east London, saying in a Bangladeshi dialect: 'This is the dog we want to hit, to strike, to kill.’ 'He's mocking Islam and he’s putting doubts in people's minds...How can somebody take a job to teach Islam when they’re not even a Muslim themselves?' he added. … Akmol Hussain said: 'Praise to Allah. At that time nobody was there...Bruv, I don’t care about prison as long as I’m doing it for the deen [religion] of Allah...you know what, he's not going to get up" Arabic chanting in the background included the lyrics: 'If we are killed, then our Lord’s heavens are for us. If we are victorious, it is the inevitable promise'.

Anti-Christian violence in Faisalabad: tombs desecrated, young woman gang-raped

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Anti-Christian-violence-in-Faisalabad:-tombs-desecrated,-young-woman-gang-raped-21673.html

Excerpt: Christian tombs were recently desecrated and a young Christian woman was gang-raped for an entire night. In both cases, police refused to file a First Information Report, allowing the culprits to escape justice. These are examples of the ordinary violence visited upon Pakistan’s Christian minority. Whether it involves Christian-owned land and property or individuals who are targeted because they are defenceless, victims will not find justice with the country’s legal system. Gradually, Pakistan’s ‘Islamisation’ slowly progresses, especially in the densely populated province of Punjab. 

20 Questions to Ask Anyone Foolish Enough to Believe the Economic Crisis is Over

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/20-questions-to-ask-anyone-foolish-enough-to-believe-the-economic-crisis-is-over

Excerpt: If you listen to Ben Bernanke, Barack Obama and the mainstream media long enough, and if you didn't know any better, you might be tempted to think that the economic crisis is long gone and that we are in the midst of a burgeoning economic recovery. Unfortunately, the truth is that the economic crisis is far from over. In 2010, more homes were repossessed than ever before, more Americans were on food stamps than ever before and a smaller percentage of American men had jobs than ever before. The reality is that the United States is an economic basket case and all of these natural disasters certainly are not helping things. The Federal Reserve has been printing gigantic piles of money and the U.S. government has been borrowing and spending cash at a dizzying pace in an all-out effort to stabilize things. They have succeeded for the moment, but our long-term economic problems are worse then ever. We are still in the middle of a full-blown economic crisis and things are about to get even worse. If you know someone that is foolish enough to believe that the economic crisis is over and that our economic problems are behind us, just ask that person the following questions....

Pending Economic Train Wreck Made by Congress

http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty665.htm

Excerpt: “I was recently asked by a friend why I have predicted the time frame of 18 to 22 months for a failure of America’s current economic system,” said Folkerth. “I thought I would share my response. Those who disagree should respond accordingly with their reasoning and rebuttal. If you agree; today is a good day to begin adjusting. “Before I continue, I should interpret my meaning of failure. In this instance, failure should be considered that point and time when the vast majority of American’s realize that our mathematically flawed underpinnings of debt-based-growth-capitalism has failed. And, the point in which radical change is evident and being openly aired, even by our dimwitted leadership. It will suffice to say that the trip back down our mountain of debt won’t be pretty. (Need to send this guy a copy of my book. ~Bob.)

Forget the spin. Taxpayers still on the hook for auto bailouts

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/05/forget-spin-taxpayers-still-hook-auto-bailouts

Excerpt: President Obama and two of his biggest union allies -- the United Auto Workers and the United Steelworkers -- plan to make the automotive bailout "a central issue" in the 2012 election, Politico reports. Republicans should view this as an opportunity. No issue better illustrates the deception, cronyism, disregard for the rule of law, and bad economic decisions of this White House than the auto bailouts. On Tuesday, Obama announced that Chrysler had paid back all "outstanding loans to the U.S. Treasury and American taxpayers." This is highly misleading. American taxpayers still own a 6.6 percent stake in Chrysler, which cost them nearly $2 billion. Chrysler would have to be worth six times its current value ($5 billion) for the government to break even.

DOJ's lies about immigration cases

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2011/05/dojs-lies-about-immigration-cases

Excerpt: The Justice Department has been deceiving us for years. A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies details the fundamental dishonesty of DOJ's annual reports on immigration courts. Immigration cases are handled by an administrative immigration court system, not life-tenured judges in the judicial branch. As Justice Department employees, the administrative judges have very limited authority. For example, they have no power to enforce their own deportation orders. Enforcement is left to the Department of Homeland Security. And, as documented in the CIS report by former immigration Judge Mark Metcalf, DHS almost always opts not to enforce. Combing through reams of data, Metcalf found there are more than 1.1 million unenforced deportation orders, an 84 percent increase since 2002. Even if an immigration judge rules that an alien has no right to be here, the chances that alien will actually be deported are almost nil.

What Texas can teach us

http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/05/what-texas-can-teach-us

Excerpt: If you want to see a place where the private sector in America has been booming and generating jobs, you should look at Texas. That’s my take from these absolutely fascinating numbers compiled from Bureau of Labor Statistics figures by The Business Journals, tracking the increase or decrease in private sector jobs in the ten years between April 2001 and April 2011. Any precise ten-year period is somewhat arbitrary, of course, since the two endpoints can fall at different points in the business cycle, and so picking different starting and end points will produce different pictures. But the numbers here look pretty unambiguous. In those 10 years, Texas gained 732,800 private sector jobs, far ahead of the number two and three states, Arizona (90,200) and Nevada (90,000). The nation overall lost more than 2 million private sector jobs, with the biggest losses coming in California (623,700), Michigan (619,200) and Ohio (460,900).