I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on.
Talk Radio
A couple of blog readers have contacted their local talk radio stations about The Coming Collapse of the American Republic, resulting in one interview so far. If you listen to talk radio with a political bent, please write and suggest they interview me about the book. Feel free to send them my e-mail address and a link to the book on Amazon. Tell them I’ll be happy to provide a PDF copy to review. Thanks. ~Bob.
FREAKY FRIDAY Meets Statesman & Marine Robert A. Hall
I’m to be interviewed about my book on Friday, July 15, at 2:00 PM EDT/1:00 PM CDT by Ann Ubelis on her “Southern Sense” talk radio show broadcast in Beaufort, SC. (Doubtless DIs at Parris Island will play it to abuse the recruits!) The call in number to speak with the host is (917) 889-3675.
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.
Excerpt: We are living at a time when we need a man or woman in the presidency of true courage and what we have is a smug coward — the worst possible combination. Nothing of significance is likely to happen. We are already in full presidential campaign mode and America
If you don’t find this article frightening, check to be sure you’re still alive. Ron P.
Excerpt: The commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Aerospace Force, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, told reporters on Saturday, July 9 that the Guards tested their long-range ballistic missiles with much success earlier this year. He revealed that during the Iranian month of Bahman (January 21- February 20), two ballistic missiles with a range of about 1200 miles, both capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, were fired from a region in Semnan province at specified targets near the entrance of the Indian Ocean. The commander explained that the tests were conducted at a time when American forces were also present in the region. This revelation by the commander verifies the concern of UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, who recently told the House of Commons that Iran Iran Iran U.S. bases in the region and sensitive sites in Israel
Excerpt: The fight over Gov. Pat Quinn's decision to cancel raises for thousands of public employees hit the streets Tuesday, with state workers across Illinois Springfield
Excerpt: In our editorial today, we recommend the House taking up a package of spending cuts and pairing it with an increase to the debt limit. This seems like a no-brainer. It would give Republicans the initiative and effectively say to the White House and the Senate Democrats — “We’ve dealt responsibly with the debt limit and with the underlying debt, now over to you.” Despite the panic of the last 24 hours, it’s not true that Obama has all the leverage in the debt-limit debate. It looks to me that he would like a deal with some spending cuts to try to repair his fiscal credentials. Certainly, he and Harry Reid would be put in a very awkward spot after the talk of a catastrophe coming August 2 if they have no counter at all to action in the House to raise the debt limit. Now, it’s unlikely the House package would ultimately be adopted in its entirety. Normally in such circumstances, House members fear getting “BTU’ed” — putting themselves on record for politically difficult measures that won’t ultimately happen. But this shouldn’t be a problem since the House Republicans already voted for the Ryan plan. The Ryan budget cuts about $6 trillion total over 10 years, and about $2 trillion from non-security discretionary — and that leaves the longer-term Medicare reforms aside. It should be easy just to work from the discretionary part of what they already voted for and pair it with a comparable increase in the debt limit for a 1:1 ratio of spending cuts to debt increase. Or, they could be more ambitious and make it a 2:1 or 3:1 package. Whatever, but there should be lots of options.
Hundreds stranded below in another T breakdown
Excerpt: When a six-car train broke down about 9 a.m. in a tunnel just south of Porter and the train sent to rescue it also faltered, 447 marooned passengers waited at least two hours to be rescued. The cramped quarters and lack of cellphone service fostered an initial sense of helplessness, which then gave way to resigned camaraderie among the commuters, who shared bottled water and swapped stories about the haircuts, meetings, and job interviews they had missed. (Something like this may have happened before. Ron P. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjrAMUe5RUQ)
The Death of Military Strategy
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/271678/death-military-strategy-jim-lacey
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/271678/death-military-strategy-jim-lacey
Excerpt:
Rolling Back the Obamacare Banana Republic: The good news about IPAB: Both parties hate it.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/271744/rolling-back-obamacare-banana-republic-michelle-malkin
Excerpt: Washington
Excerpt: With the Democratic primaries over, it’s time for the Wisconsin recall elections to really begin. Eight Republican state senators were targeted for recall elections for voting to end collective bargaining. Eight Democratic state senators face recalls for fleeing the state to avoid that vote. Democrats gathered enough signatures to trigger recall elections against six Republicans; the GOP gathered enough signatures to set elections against three Democrats. Republicans currently have a 19 to 14 majority in the state Senate. (They also control the House.) If Democrats net three wins in these elections, they will retake the upper chamber. That would be a huge symbolic blow to Gov. Scott Walker (R) and Republicans nationwide, as well as an opportunity for Democrats to block future GOP-friendly legislation. Republicans have already moved to pass redistricting legislation before the recalls. Unions have poured resources into the fight, hoping to send a message to other state governments around the country. (This creates a personal dilemma. My wife and I have jobs in the Chicago area, but given that Illinois Chicago Wisconsin
And from an alternate universe, a comment posted on the above story
“Ulltimately (sic) we want to see the Fascist Thug Walker recalled. Wisconsin Unions should be showing solidarity for Greeks Unions against the IMF puppet Papandreou. There may even be a chance they can pool their resources together and try to make this a much broader political fight against Finance Oligarchy on international playing field.” (Assuming this wasn’t written by a conservative doing a parody of leftist idiocy, I’d like to be there when realty finally gobsmacks this mushhead. ~Bob.)
More Somali-Americans from Minnesota and Ohio Leave to Wage Jihad with Al-Shabaab Terror Group: One Homeland Security official describes government outreach to the Somali community as “a total failure."
Didn't get the "Islam is a Religion of Peace" memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: A Minneapolis man, Omer Abdi Mohamed, is scheduled to go on trial next week in federal court on charges that he aided a group of young American Somali men in their travels to Somalia U.S. are known to have left for the fields of jihad in Somalia Minnesota and Ohio Nairobi and then Northern Kenya as they were on their way to cross the border into Somalia
Excerpt: With the debt-ceiling negotiations apparently at something like a practical impasse, Congress should act now to pass a very narrowly tailored bill that would permit the issuance of new debt — but only for the purpose of financing current debt service. Such a measure was suggested by David Rivkin and Lee Casey back in May, and this would be an excellent time to advance it. Why pass such a bill? First, because we have something on the order of $500 billion of debt to roll over in August. That doesn’t mean adding $500 billion to the national debt, but it does mean paying off old bonds and issuing new ones. If borrowing costs rise, which they very well may, that will mean adding modestly to the national debt. But it will take the possibility of a default entirely off the table. Talk of a pending U.S.
Thousands back Tulsa
Excerpt: “If this had been a Muslim officer told to go to a Christian prayer service and the Muslim officer refused because it would violate his Islamic faith, there would have been no reaction at all,” Thompson told WND. “But this happened because this was a Christian officer who said the orders would violate his Christian principles.” (Why isn't the ACLU all over this issue? MasterGuns)
Moody's Considers Downgrading U.S.
Excerpt: Leading credit rating agency Moody's said Wednesday that the U.S. government's impeccable credit rating was under review for a potential downgrade as a political stalemate over raising the nation's borrowing limit increased the risk of a first-ever default. "The review of the U.S.
'This May Bring Down My Presidency, But I Will Not Yield on This'
http://nation.foxnews.com/budget-battle/2011/07/13/potus-may-bring-down-my-presidency-i-will-not-yield
http://nation.foxnews.com/budget-battle/2011/07/13/potus-may-bring-down-my-presidency-i-will-not-yield
So much for being "the adult in the room." Works for me. Better that than bring down the country. ~Bob. Excerpt: The President then got heated. He said he was willing to explain and defend his position. Said he could get well above the numbers the GOP is talking about with revenue increases. Said he wouldn’t be afraid to veto and he will take that message and defend it to the American people. Said if we default it will be a tax increase on every American. Said it is his responsibility is to the American people. Said, I have reached the point where I say enough. Would Ronald Reagan be sitting here? I’ve reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this. Then stormed out of the room and said we’ll see you tomorrow.
Ayn Rand was right: wealthy are on strike against Obama
Excerpt: Ayn Rand was warning the looters that there are consequences to their overzealous actions. She was warning that if the productive classes felt used, demonized, ripped off, and taken for granted, they would go on strike — stop working, retire early, go underground, or move to places where achievement is celebrated and they feel appreciated. The latest U.S. Census proves Ayn Rand right. Under Obama the wealthy are striking, voting with their feet. They are moving to low-tax red states in droves, escaping from high-tax blue states where they are being demonized and punished by the millions. The Census proves that Obama’s tax and spend philosophy is a dismal failure, an economic disaster killing jobs. It is no coincidence that 1.9 million FEWER Americans are working than before Obama’s stimulus. It is no coincidence that jobs are not returning to the private sector. It is no coincidence that tax revenues have dropped dramatically and cannot support Obama’s bloated Big Brother government. The innovators, risk-takers, and wealthy he demonized and punished are on strike.
Revenues that shrink gov’t
Excerpt: As Republicans scrounge for revenue sources that will satiate Democratic desires to extract more money for the public sector but will not run afoul of their pledges not to raise taxes, they should look carefully at some of the ideas pushed by Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl and by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform. There are several sources of revenue that will not grow government, but will shrink it, warming the most conservative of hearts. Conservatives should not reject all efforts to increase revenues. Some are not taxes. Some are good common-sense policies that can help reduce the footprint of the federal bureaucracy, stop unnecessary subsidy of frivolous litigation, and increase our energy self-sufficiency, all while generating increased revenue to use in cutting the deficit.
Top Republicans clash over debt-limit plan
Excerpt: Two top Republican leaders clashed Wednesday over a plan that could allow the government to avoid a potentially catastrophic default but would not ensure the deep cuts in federal spending that party members seek. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky. Va.
2010 GOP coalition breaks down over debt limit
Excerpt: The Republican coalition of business and tea party supporters that spurred the party to nearly unprecedented gains in 2010 is breaking down over the debt limit debate.
At the center of the breakdown is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose plan to hand responsibility for raising the debt limit to President Obama has proved a complete non-starter among both tea party backers and the conservative base, groups that want the GOP to reject any increase. Meanwhile, business interests are pushing hard for Congress to raise the limit, for fear of economic consequences. The Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and other like-minded groups say the debt limit needs to be raised to avoid economic calamity, and the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board embraced McConnell’s controversial plan.
The Spirits of Cascade Hollow
This article on Whisky by blog contributor Tom Hall (no relation that we know of) isn’t political (unless the news drives you to drink), but is a good read. ~Bob. Excerpt: I often make interesting discoveries while lost, but this one was special. I had wandered into Cascade Hollow, home of George Dickel’s Tennessee whisky. The history of whisky in America is long and colorful. In the first years of the nation, corn whisky was easier to transport, and more profitable, than corn itself, which made it a central part of the frontier economy. In 1791, when the “East Coast Establishment” imposed an excise tax on whisky, the Whisky Rebellion erupted. President Washington was eventually compelled to raise a militia of over 12,000 troops (larger than the army that fought the Revolution), placing it under the command of Revolutionary War hero “Lighthorse” Henry Lee. (You have probably heard of General Lee’s son, one Robert E. Lee.) The episode is somewhat ironic; at one time, George Washington was the largest distiller in the Colonies.
Smart Growth Policies Led to Greater Losses
Huh. Government interference in the market hurts everyone. Who would have guessed? ~Bob. Excerpt: Housing affordability suffers under smart growth policies. Principal smart growth policies include urban containment (such as growth boundaries and restrictions on physically developable land), large-lot zoning in urban fringe and rural areas, state aid contingent on local growth zones, house building moratoria or limits, high development fees and exactions, and mandatory regional or county planning. Indeed, the largest house price drops after the housing bubble burst occurred in the markets that experienced the greatest cost escalation, both because prices were artificially higher but also because prices in smart growth markets are more volatile, says Wendell Cox, an adjunct scholar with the National Center for Policy Analysis. The "ground zero" markets (11 metropolitan areas in which the greatest cost increases occurred), with only 28 percent of the owner occupied housing stock, accounted for 73 percent of the pre-crash losses ($1.8 trillion). Thus, much of the cause of the housing crash, which most analysts date from the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, can be attributed to these 11 metropolitan areas. By contrast, the 22 less restrictively regulated markets accounted for only 6 percent ($0.16 trillion) of the pre-crash losses. These 22 markets represented 35 percent of the owned housing stock. If the losses in the ground zero markets had been limited to the rate in the less restrictively regulated markets (the estimated impact of cheap credit), lenders would have lost $1.6 trillion less, says Cox.
Why Medicare Patients See the Doctor Too Much
Excerpt: Almost all discussions about Medicare reform ignore one key factor: Medicare utilization is roughly 50 percent higher than private health insurance utilization, even after adjusting for age and medical conditions, say Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar at the Institute for Policy Innovation, and Mark Litow, a retired health care actuary. Several factors help cause this substantial disparity. First and foremost is the lack of effective cost sharing. When people are insulated from the cost of a desirable product or service, they use more. In addition, Medicare's convoluted benefit structure encourages the purchase of various forms of supplemental insurance. Medicare covers roughly three-fourths of total costs, but about 85 percent of the Medicare population has expanded coverage with small to limited cost sharing. This additional cost insulation pushes seniors' out-of-pocket costs toward zero, thereby increasing overall utilization. Another reason for such high utilization is Medicare's so-called delivery system. In 2007, MIT economist Amy Finkelstein explained the effects of Medicare's introduction in 1965: "By 1970, the program caused a 37 percent increase in hospital spending." That spending explosion led Congress to impose price controls on in-patient hospital expenses in 1983, on physicians' services in 1992 and on outpatient hospital expenses in 2000. Those price controls have led to countless economic distortions, forcing physicians and hospitals to look for ways to maximize the reduced reimbursements. Of course, price controls haven't controlled spending. A third factor behind increased Medicare spending is fraud. Medicare needs to be totally revamped. The benefits package needs to be rationalized so seniors can tell what their financial exposure is and choose from private-sector, high-deductible options, including a Health Savings Account plan. Giving them more options and control is the best way to reduce that 50 percent additional utilization while preserving the program for the future, say Matthews and Litow.
Time to Ax Public Programs That Don't Yield Results
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2081778,00.html?artId=2081778?contType=article?chn=us
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2081778,00.html?artId=2081778?contType=article?chn=us
Excerpt: Actually, there is an additional explanation. Conservatives, like liberals, routinely take advantage of a structural flaw in the modern welfare state: there is no creative destruction when it comes to government programs. Both "liberal" and "conservative" subsidies linger in perpetuity, sometimes metastasizing into embarrassing giveaways. Even the best-intentioned programs are allowed to languish in waste and incompetence. Take, for example, the famed early-education program called Head Start. … It is now 45 years later. We spend more than $7 billion providing Head Start to nearly 1 million children each year. And finally there is indisputable evidence about the program's effectiveness, provided by the Department of Health and Human Services: Head Start simply does not work.
Key Democrat testifies against healthcare reform bill's Medicare cost-control panel
Excerpt: A key Democrat testified Wednesday against a major provision of the healthcare reform law that is intended to help control Medicare costs, but that Republicans have alleged will encourage “rationing” of care. Rep. Allyson Schwartz (Pa.), the No. 2 Democrat on the House Budget Committee and a respected voice on healthcare policy issues, was invited by Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans to speak at a hearing on the law’s cost-control panel. She told The Hill that President Obama’s stated desire to beef up the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) in order to pare down Medicare costs “was one of the reasons I spoke out.” “There are Democrats who also have concerns about the IPAB,” she said, “and that’s been true from the beginning. I would say on behalf of myself and Democrats who care about this as well, it would be better to repeal this part of the law.”
Navy could face $10 billion in budget cuts
Excerpt: The Navy could be forced to slash its annual budget by $10 billion as the Pentagon pares its spending, defense insiders tell The Hill. White House officials have ordered the Pentagon to begin slashing its budget starting in 2013 to meet President Obama’s goal of $400 billion in national security cuts. Pentagon and sea service officials have yet to make final decisions about how much the Navy will trim from its annual budget or about what to truncate or eliminate. But multiple industry sources with ties to the Navy said the service has been told to expect a $10 billion funding cut for 2013. And service officials are seriously mulling options that would alter shipbuilding plans and naval operations for years, according to those sources and lawmakers.
Worth Reading: One President Left Behind: McConnell Schools Obama on Debt
Excerpt: Democrats don't want to cut any government spending programs, not now, not ever. The country is on a high-speed bullet train to bankruptcy (the only kind of bullets liberals approve of), and the Democrats' motto is: Spend! Spend! Spend! Democrats are at an advantage in the "should the U.S. go bankrupt or not?" debate because, based on their economic policies so far, they obviously favor bankruptcy. This allows them to sit back and demand that Republicans propose all the spending cuts and then turn around and scream that Republicans have declared war on the poor and disadvantaged. It's a nice trick, especially considering Republicans control only the House. … But now, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has checkmated the Democrats. He has proposed a bill that will allow Obama to raise the debt ceiling three times, up to $2.4 trillion, over the next 18 months, but only provided Obama proposes equivalent cuts in spending each time. Finally, the Democrats will be forced to pony up spending cuts -- or default on the debt and crash the economy. Contrary to some hysterical Republicans, McConnell's bill does not forfeit any of Congress' authority: The House and Senate will still have to decide whether to accept Obama's proposed cuts when they write their appropriations bills.
Plan B and limited government's future
Excerpt: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is the man in the hot seat today as outraged critics on the Right condemn his Plan B proposal to end the stalemated national debt ceiling negotiations with President Obama, and critics on the Left hail it as a dagger aimed at the heart of limited government. Erick Erickson, RedState.com's fiery leader, wasted no time in branding Plan B a "sellout" that undercuts and isolates House Republicans, and McConnell as a "Pontius Pilate" leading the way to Republican caving on the national debt ceiling. Though not always expressed in such uncompromising terms, Erickson's assessment was echoed widely across the Right side of the blogosphere. Others on the Right, most notably The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes, were more measured, noting that "the plan isolates House Republicans, it undercuts their [tentative] plan to offer an aggressive debt limit proposal of their own, it turns their principled intransigence from a possible strength to a certain liability, and it virtually ensures that, in the event of default, Republicans -- not the White House -- will be blamed." And some on the Right, most notably the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, praised Plan B because it would "force Mr. Obama to take ownership of any debt-limit increase. If the president still insists on a tax increase, then Republicans will walk away from the talks."
Time to End Fannie and Freddie
Excerpt: Four years after home values in America plummeted, fears over America's housing market remain. In testimony before Congress yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke cited "the continuing depressed condition of the housing sector" as one of the factors behind America's sagging economy. In response to the poor market, the White House is reportedly considering a repeat of the historically bad decisions that contributed to the mortgage meltdown rather than pursuing a much saner course: eliminating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a town hall last week, President Obama remarked that "the continuing decline in the housing market is something that hasn't bottomed out as quickly as we expected." So what's he planning to do about it? The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the White House may have "taxpayer-owned mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac relax their rules for loans to investors" as one way to tackle the housing slump. For those with short memories, Fannie, Freddie, and government policies aimed at making it easier for people to purchase homes is how the housing market wound up in its current state.
Holder's War on Louisiana Has Officially Begun
Excerpt: We’ve known this was coming for months, but now it’s here – Eric Holder and the Justice Department have sued the state of Louisiana for its purported lack of diligence in signing up new voters at public assistance offices. The lawsuit was filed in the Baton Rouge-based U.S. Middle District Court and names as defendants Schedler; Secretary of the Hospitals Bruce Greenstein and his agency; and Ruth Johnson, secretary of the Department of Children and Family Services and her agency. The lawsuit alleges that agency offices that grant public assistance have failed to regularly ask clients if they want to register to vote and give them forms to register. “The voting process begins with registration, therefore it is essential that all citizens have unfettered access to voter registration opportunities,” said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Specifically, the suit says Louisiana offices handling food stamps, Medicaid and disability payments aren’t proselytizing voter registration every time they handle a client. That would be a violation of the 1993 Motor Voter Act. (And get them to vote for more public assistance! The political imposition of perpetual poverty since president Lyndon Johnson. Josh Cutler is a southeastern Massachusetts (Duxbury) newspaper publisher chafing for an elected position in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He has been defeated by the Republican incumbent, Representative Daniel Webster. Cutler’s new ploy in this period of hard times has been to encourage people to sign up for every form of public assistance available. The more folks on the public dole, the more control Massachusetts democrat politicians have on the poor and those who have fallen on hard times. When your daily ration of subsistence comes from the government, then you are beholden to the government. In Massachusetts that translates into DEMOCRAT HACKS! Keeping the poor, poor forever has been the primary Democrat game plan since 1963. –TC)
NATO’s Surrender?
Cut off US funding for the illegal war in Libya! Does anyone remember Obama advertised this as a “No Fly” zone? ~Bob. Excerpt: In a major shift in its position on the war in Libya, France has announced it wants the rebels to begin direct negotiations with representatives of Muammar Gaddafi. NATO has been trying for more than three months to depose the Libyan leader in an air campaign, led by France, which has cost tens of millions of dollars and caused fractures in the alliance. In a strong indication of mounting frustration over NATO’s lack of success from the air and the rebels’ slow progress on the ground, France’s defence minister, Gerard Longuet, said last Sunday on French television that NATO had “stopped the hand that was striking” against the insurgents and “now was the time to sit down at the negotiating table.
How Four Influential Socialist Anti-Semites Shaped the Left
Excerpt: “What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly God? Money. Money is the jealous god of Israel, in the face of which no other god may exist… The god of the Jews has become secularized and has become the god of the world.” Marx’s influence on the socialist movement and its various streams cannot be underestimated, and neither can the extent to which his view of Jews as the embodiment of capitalism became embedded on the left. In a handful of sentences, Marx depicted Jews as the anti-thesis of Socialism, a theme that he was to repeatedly revisit, and more poisonously in such essays as “The Russian Loan”, where he implicitly suggested that war would continue for as long as the Jews existed. “Thus we find every tyrant backed by a Jew… In truth, the cravings of oppressors would be hopeless, and the practicability of war out of the question, if there were not an army of Jesuits to smother thought and a handful of Jews to ransack pockets.”
Breast-feeding mother 'told to leave council headquarters because she would offend Muslim visitors'
Muslim trumps Feminism in today’s PC world. ~Bob. Excerpt: A mother was ordered not to breastfeed her baby in public because she was in a ‘multicultural building’.
Iran prepares for nuclear work in bunker: sources
Excerpt: Iran is preparing to install centrifuges for higher-grade uranium enrichment in an underground bunker, diplomatic sources say, a development that is likely to add to Western worries about Tehran's atomic aims. Preparatory work is under way at the Fordow facility, tucked deep inside a mountain to protect it against any attacks, and machines used to refine uranium could soon be moved to the site near the clerical city of Qom, the sources said. The Islamic Republic said in June it would shift production of uranium enriched to 20 percent purity to Fordow from its main Natanz plant this year and triple output capacity, in a defiant response to charges that it is trying to make atomic bombs. (There will be a blinding flash, then, before you can say “I love Obama’s reset foreign policy,” a shock wave and loud noise and you will not need to worry about the debt limit. ~Bob.)
Three blasts rock Mumbai; 21 dead, 141 wounded
So expected is this type things from the members of The Religion of Peace, this has hardly made a ripple in the news media here in the states. ~Bob. Excerpt: Three near-simultaneous explosions rocked Mumbai at rush-hour on Wednesday, killing at least 21 people and injuring 141 in what the government said appeared to be another terrorist strike in the city hit by a major attack nearly three years ago. Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said the latest attack killed 20 people, and home minister P Chidambaram said the toll was likely to rise. Television footage showed dozens of police officials, several of them armed, at the sites of the explosion and at least one car with its windows shattered. A photograph showed victims of a blast at the Zaveri Bazaar crowding into the back of a cargo truck to be taken to a hospital.
Meanwhile, at Valley Park Middle School...
Women better learn their place in the coming brave new world of Shari’a. ~Bob. Excerpt: Once Allah's Apostle went out to the Musalla (to offer the prayer) o 'Id-al-Adha or Al-Fitr prayer. Then he passed by the women and said, "O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women)." They asked, "Why is it so, O Allah's Apostle ?" He replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you." The women asked, "O Allah's Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?" He said, "Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?" They replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?" The women replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her religion." - Sahih Bukhari 1.6.301
Excerpt: “I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes,” President Obama, September 12, 2008.Beginning January 1, 2013, ObamaCare imposes a 3.8% Medicare tax on unearned income, including the sale of single family homes, townhouses, co-ops, condominiums, and even rental income. In February 2010, 5.02 million homes were sold, according to the National Association of Realtors. On any given day, the sale of a house, townhome, condominium, co-op, or income from a rental property can push middle-income families over the $250,000 threshold and slam them with a new tax they can’t afford. This new ObamaCare tax is the first time the government will apply a 3.8 percent tax on unearned income. This new tax on home sales and unearned income and other Medicare taxes raise taxes more than $210 billion to pay for ObamaCare. The National Association of Realtors called this new Medicare tax on unearned income “destructive” and “ill-advised” and warned it would hurt job creation.
A Dumb and Dumber War in Libya
Excerpt: Almost daily over the last four months we were told that Muammar Gadhafi was about ready to throw in the towel and give up. Libya, after all, is not a distant Afghanistan or Iraq with a population of some 30 million. Yet this tiny police state of less than 7 million people, conveniently located on the Mediterranean Sea opposite nearby Europe, continues to thwart the three great powers of the NATO alliance and thousands of "Arab Spring" rebels. In March, President Obama ordered the use of American bombers and cruise missiles to join in with the French and British to finish off the tottering Gadhafi regime. Obama was apparently stung by liberal criticism that the U.S. had done little to help rebels in their weeks-long effort to remove Gadhafi -- after only belatedly supporting the successful revolutionaries in Tunisia and Egypt. Months ago, intervention to the Obama administration seemed a short, painless way of ridding the world of a decades-long international menace while gaining praise for helping "democratic" reformers. Oil, of course, is always a subtext in any Middle Eastern war.
Ten Reasons Why Even American Liberals Should Root for the GOP
Excerpt: 1) Incredibly weak recovery: President Barack Obama's tax/spend/regulation policy -- "stimulus"; continuation of TARP; bank, insurance company and auto industry bailouts; "quantitative easing" (aka the printing of money); cash for clunkers; minimum wage hikes; new regulatory rules on businesses; tripling of the deficit; addition of $4 trillion to the debt -- failed miserably to produce jobs and grow the economy at the historical rate expected after a deep recession. 2) ObamaCare: President Barack Obama promised it would "bend the cost curve" and that "if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan." The chief Medicare actuary said neither of those claims is true. Two-thirds of doctors believe that ObamaCare will lower the quality of health care.
Romney Flips as Liberals Flop
Excerpt: Even as Mitt Romney inexplicably flip-flops on his past very accurate observation that President Obama has made the economy worse, liberals in the mainstream media are now underscoring the former Massachusetts governor's initial charge. The left-leaning and Democratic Party-friendly Associated Press is now waving the largest red flag it can find to trumpet that our nation's fragile and plummeting economy is actually worse than generally thought. Ironically and quite telling, the liberal AP has decided it needs to point out the danger of "... expensive but long-untouchable public employee benefits." Ironic because it has been mostly the Democratic Party and the liberal mainstream media who have made such outlandish benefits "long-untouchable." Telling, because it seems even the liberal mainstream media have finally woken up to the financial disaster about to befall us all.
Obama campaign taps wealthy for big bucks
Excerpt: "We did this from the bottom up," Barack Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina, said in a new video touting the President's fundraising success. Messina and other Democrats are peddling the line that Obama's massive $86 million haul last quarter resulted from mobs of regular Americans cutting small checks. In truth, Obama's campaign is like every other presidential campaign -- mostly funded by wealthy individuals and special interests, many of whom profit from the president's policies.
Srebrenica: Bosnian Muslim Jihad killings of 3,500 Christians
Excerpt: The image of Srebrenica tells us more about the reality of the majority of the media and of course the "Muslim victim card” is being used in order to cleanse the Bosniak Muslims. After all, from enslaving Orthodox Christians during their brotherly love with the Turkish slave masters of the Ottoman Empire to having Muslim SS units who supported Adolf Hitler; then "victimhood” is needed in order to justify their history and culture. Of course the wishy-washy brigade will tell us that the Ottoman period was enlightened and that the system of taking the eldest Christian boy (devshirme system) in the Balkans and converting them to Islam was noble. Yes, slavery in the modern era being justified and not mere slavery because the system meant that they would kill their own people in the name of Islam after being indoctrinated by Islamists in the Ottoman Empire.
Chrysler Workers in Michigan Reportedly Caught Smoking, Drinking During Lunch Breaks
Unions using your bailout tax dollars well. ~Bob. Excerpt: The latest video shows workers roughly a mile from the plant, but just steps away from a United Auto Workers hall. In a statement to MyFoxDetroit.com, Chrysler said the conduct captured on tape was "unacceptable" and the workers would be suspended indefinitely without pay once they are identified. "I just want to say I am both hurt and angered over what your cameras captured," said Scott Garberding, senior vice president of manufacturing.
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