Political Digest for September 1, 2011

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.

Old Jarhead Blog Removed?

Twice in the last two weeks, both times on Saturdays, when readers logged on to my blog at http://www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com/, they got a "blog removed" message with no explanation. Both times I logged on to Blogspot and posted a query and the blog returned in a few hours. They say they have a system for auto removing Spam blogs, but mine has zero advertising, except my books, I kill Spam posts, and it has been up since 2008. I don't know if it is a blogspot glitch, like the way they sometimes change scheduled posts to drafts, or an attack. It is costing me readers--weekly page views dropped in that time from over 4k to about 3k. If you get that message, please try again later.

Dennis Miller Web Site posts on my interview

http://www.dennismillerradio.com/blog?action=blogArchive&blogTag=Robert%20Hall

Miller was very focused and packed a lot into ten minutes. Good reason he has a national following.

Feds to Trucking Company: You Cannot Fire Alcoholic Drivers

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/08/30/feds-to-trucking-company-you-cannot-fire-alcoholic-drivers/

Excerpt: The federal government has sued a major trucking company for its refusal to hire as drivers individuals with admitted alcohol abuse problems. Alcoholism is classified as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the suit maintains, and therefore employees cannot be prohibited even from driving 18 wheelers due to their histories of abuse. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the suit against the Old Dominion Freight Line trucking company on August 16, noted that while “an employer’s concern regarding safety on our highways is a legitimate issue, an employer can both ensure safety and comply with the ADA.” (Two Thoughts:--By and large, this trucking company is openly religious and Christian.--What I have said before: Where Government and Trial Lawyers want you--Damned if you do, Damned if you don't. –DH. Not to wish anyone ill, but one would feel a certain sense of irony if one of the fed bureaucrats was killed by a drunk driving one of these trucks. Unfortunately, it’s more likely to be your kid. ~Bob.)

James Delingpole: 'Climate Scepticism is the New Racisim' says Al Gore

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100102483/climate-scepticism-is-the-new-racism-says-gore/

Excerpt: Climate scepticism is the new racism, Al Gore has told an interviewer. And do you know what? He’s absolutely right. Just as “racist” has been honed over the decades by liberal-lefties for casual use as a deadly weapon against anyone who disagrees them, so “climate denier” has become the new leftist shorthand for “evil, wrong, uncaring, right-wing – and almost certainly funded by Big Oil.” In both cases, the intent is the same: to close down the argument by implying that your opponent is so morally compromised that his case isn’t even worth consideration. (I'm a denier, and I'm not funded by b Big Oil. Damn it. If they want to pay me to say what I already believe, I take checks or cash. ~Bob.)

Ken Blackwell: Obama's War On The Secret Ballot

http://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/article/obama-s-war-secret-ballot

Excerpt: The card-check legislation failed in the last Congress, but the NLRB may try to impose it through bureaucratic mandate. The threat from our nation’s capitol led the Goldwater Institute to draft a model state constitutional amendment to protect the right to secret ballot, and inspired activists mobilized to enact amendments last fall in Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah. With support from liberals and conservatives, union members and non-members alike, the measures passed overwhelmingly in all four states, averaging over 70 percent of the vote and sweeping 153 out of 154 counties. In the real world, that amounts to a popular tsunami. In politics, it’s called a serious mandate. NLRB will try to overturn the mandate through sheer force of federal law. But the agency will face a heck of a fight. The right to secret ballot is recognized under the federal constitution. (…) A key consideration for courts in deciding if federal law “pre-empts” state laws is whether the conduct is so “deeply rooted in local feeling and responsibility” that state autonomy should be respected. It is hard to imagine anything more deeply rooted in local feeling and responsibility than the right to secret ballot. (Simple, Ron, there is only one principle they have. Do whatever it takes to get votes and campaign funds. Even sell guns to Mexican drug murders if it helps the leftist cause. ~Bob.)

Terrorist Prison Blues

http://www.investigativeproject.org/3134/terrorist-prison-blues

Excerpt: Life in prison is difficult, especially for 20 Muslim inmates at a high security unit housing 30 people in total. They miss their families, sometimes squabble among themselves and struggle to maintain hope during long days. That's the message offered in an article published this month by the Muslim Link, an online and print bi-weekly newspaper which serves the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas. Take 48-year-old Adham Hassoun, who "can joke 24 hours a day. But behind this humor hides a great concern for the Muslim Ummah," the article says. He also "is ready to help whenever called upon, and will leave behind everything which is important to him to do that, unless he is watching Stargate on the SciFi Channel." Hassoun also is "a co-defendant of the well-known Jose Padilla, and is serving a 15 year sentence on terrorism charges," the article says. But Hassoun's conviction stems from support for al-Qaida, and his 2007 convictions for conspiracy to commit murder abroad and provide material support to terrorists included "actively recruiting mujahideen fighters and raising funds for violent jihad." In prison, though, he's good at dispute resolution, "for he holds in his heart immense mercy for his brothers."

Every Single One: The Politicized Hiring of Eric Holder’s Housing Section

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/every-single-one-the-politicized-hiring-of-eric-holder%e2%80%99s-housing-section/?singlepage=true

Article #8 in the series. --RGP. Excerpt: Today we turn to the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section, a litigation shop with enormous power over American businesses. This Section, which is headed by the infamous Steve Rosenbaum — the same individual who (along with Loretta King) ordered the dismissal of the New Black Panther Party lawsuit — is responsible for enforcing the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, among others. The Section has an undercover operation designed to spy on American businesses to determine if racial discrimination is taking place. They also have a unit designed to ensure banks keep the spigot of mortgage loans open to borrowers with marginal credit. If that sounds like behavior which contributed to the economic crisis, you’re right.

Coddling Illegals

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/ArticlePrint.aspx?id=583271&p=1

Excerpt: An administration that conducts raids looking for illegal wood rather than illegal aliens signs partnerships with foreign governments to advise these aliens of their rights. What part of "illegal" don't they get? Right on the heels of enacting the federal Dream Act through administrative fiat, the administration of President Obama, specifically Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, on Monday signed "partnership" agreements with ambassadors from a group of Latin American nations aiming to protect what she described as the labor rights of both legal and illegal migrants working in the U.S. This ceremony marked the signing of partnership agreements with the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and El Salvador, joining Mexico, Nicaragua and Guatemala, which had signed the agreement previously. So while the administration works closely with foreign countries to promote illegal immigration, it takes border states like Arizona to court when they try to protect their borders and enforce our immigration laws. Partners in crime would be more like it. According to the Immigration and Nationality Act, "employers may hire only persons who may legally work in the United States (i.e., citizens and nationals of the U.S.) and aliens authorized to work in the U.S."

ACORN is back and may partner with Justice Department in 2012

http://www.examiner.com/law-enforcement-in-national/acorn-is-back-and-may-partner-with-justice-department-2010#ixzz1WZ76eUAF

Excerpt: While the cover story swallowed whole-cloth by many politicians, news organizations and Americans is that ACORN had disbanded following a number of scandals, an investigation by a Washington, D.C., watchdog reveals ACORN not only continues to exist but the group is planning to help prop-up and re-elect a failed president. A public-interest group that investigates and fights government corruption, announced yesterday, August 24, that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to obtain records related to the agency’s communications with Estelle Rogers, a former ACORN attorney currently serving as Director of Advocacy for the ACORN-connected organization Project Vote, President Obama’s former employer. The successful legal watchdog group, Judicial Watch, is in the midst of investigating the extent to which the DOJ and Project Vote are partnering on a national campaign to use the National Voting Rights Act (NVRA) to register more individuals on public assistance, widely considered a key voting demographic for the Obama 2012 campaign. "While it's perfectly alright for a non-government organization to seek voters for candidates and political parties, the Department of Justice should not be a tool for any political campaign or candidate," said political strategist Mike Baker.

Weak Dollar Can Strengthen Economy

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=21041&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

Excerpt: Gov. Rick Perry's complaint against the Federal Reserve is that loose monetary policy has weakened the value of the dollar. Bob McTeer, a distinguished fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis and former president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, understands but says a weak dollar helps U.S. exports, one of the few strengths in the economy. The value of the dollar matters most in the cost of living for Americans. Pushing too much money into the economy inflates prices. If there's too little currency in circulation, it can cause deflation, or falling prices. Between November and July, when the Federal Reserve was buying $600 billion in Treasury bonds -- in effect, printing more money -- the growth rate in the nation's money supply was "right around 5 percent," McTeer said, "which is very moderate, given a 9 percent unemployment rate." Bernanke and other Federal Reserve bankers explained last year that the economy showed signs of slipping into deflation. It's been a different story this year -- through July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found prices over the last 12 months were up 4.2 percent in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The dollar's value also matters -- greatly -- in its exchange value with other currencies. When the dollar weakens against the currencies of the nation's trading partners, imports become more expensive. At the same time, U.S. exports become less expensive for foreign buyers. Buoyed in part by a weak dollar, U.S. exports have risen 17 percent in the last year. Imports, however, have increased even more. The United States was running a trade deficit of more than $565 billion at the end of June. That's largely because of oil and Chinese goods. For many years, the Chinese have pegged the value of their currency to the dollar and invested more than $1 trillion of their trade surplus in U.S. bonds. That has distorted trade flows by keeping Chinese goods cheap, when they should be getting more expensive.

Give Free Trade a Chance

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=21043&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

Excerpt: As both the United States and the European Union struggle to conjure the right combination of fiscal and monetary tools to rein in deficits while boosting economic growth, they risk overlooking the role that trade policy can play. If the two powers want a non-inflationary way to inject more dynamism into their economies, there is a one quick step they could take: agree to eliminate all tariffs in transatlantic trade, says Peter S. Rashish, vice president for the European and Eurasian departments at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. While tariffs are already low between the United States and the European Union, the enormous size of their economic relationship -- $600 billion (416 billion euro) in trade and $2 trillion invested by companies in each other's markets every year -- means that even small steps could yield significant gains in prosperity. According to a report by the Brussels-based European Center for International Political Economy, a transatlantic zero-tariffs initiative would increase combined U.S.-EU gross domestic product by $180 billion within five years. That's more added growth than either would receive from the completion of the Doha Round of multilateral trade talks. Since one-third of transatlantic trade occurs between branches of the same firm, eliminating tariffs on that trade would cut costs for both American and European companies and make them more competitive in global markets. That could help transatlantic firms respond to the rise of Chinese, Indian, Brazilian and other emerging-market firms without resorting to protectionist measures.

The Fast and Furious Scandal Continues

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/08/31/morning-bell-the-fast-and-furious-scandal-continues/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Excerpt: A U.S. government gun-trafficking investigation gone horribly wrong has resulted in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol officer, some 2,000 firearms in the hands of criminals, and the dismissal of a 24-year veteran law enforcement official. This is the story of Fast and Furious, and yesterday the latest chapter unfolded when two top officials associated with the operation were removed from their positions, while a third individual resigned. The story begins in the fall of 2009, when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) office in Phoenix, Arizona, began selling weapons to small-time gun buyers in the hopes of tracing them to major weapons traffickers along the southwestern border and into Mexico. Their efforts failed, the number of arms unaccounted for numbers around 1,500 as of late July, and about two-thirds of those guns ended up in Mexico, according to congressional testimony.

Rick Perry Is A Lot Closer To The 2012 GOP Presidential Nomination Than You Think

http://www.businessinsider.com/rick-perry-is-a-lot-closer-to-the-2012-gop-presidential-nomination-than-you-think-2011-8?op=1#ixzz1WZCquStD

Excerpt: The Republican "establishment," such as it is, is quickly coming to the realization that the 2012 GOP presidential nomination is Texas Governor Rick Perry's to lose. He leads in Iowa and he hasn't even really campaigned there yet. He's running second in New Hampshire, which is all he needs to do. And he's running comfortably ahead in South Carolina (again, without much campaigning), which is the gateway to the South. The South is the base of the modern Republican Party. Perry has become, in less than a month, the Southern states' de facto favorite son. Two obstacles stand between Perry and the GOP nomination: Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Bachmann's campaign peaked at (or just before) the Iowa Straw Poll. Republican primary voters and caucus attenders love her energy and zest, but they worry she will be unable to defeat President Obama in the general election. "Electability" will be her undoing. Perry stands to pick up her supporters as her campaign deflates. (I like a writer who knows that it’s “attenders” who go to something. “Attendees” would have the event brought to them. An attender attends. An attendee gets attended. But I gave up that fight 20 years ago. ~Bob.)

‘Furious’ coverup? ----Gun scandal taints Justice

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/furious_coverup_WkYocS6w6PStD71TNxZRRM#ixzz1WbiNhCmX

Excerpt: There are now enough Operation Fast and Furious officials playing hide-and-seek in the Obama administration to fill a New York City-style “rubber room.” Yesterday, the Justice Department announced it was shuffling Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, out of his job. The disclosure comes amid continued investigations into the administration’s fatally botched “gun sting” racket at the border and spreading outrage over legal obstructionism and whistleblower retaliation by Justice brass. The department’s inspector general is also conducting a probe. Internal documents earlier showed that Melson was intimately involved in overseeing the program and screened undercover videos of thousands of straw purchases of AK-47s and other high-powered rifles -- many of which ended up in the hands of Mexican drug cartel thugs, including those who murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December. Fast and Furious weapons have been tied to at least a dozen violent crimes in America and untold bloody havoc in Mexico. In secret July 4 testimony, Melson revealed he was “sick to his stomach” when he discovered the extent of the operation’s deadly lapses. Join the club, pal.

Hurricane Irene, National guard almost drown Manville, NJ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6b54bZepoA&feature=player_embedded#!

Oh, wait, this is the Army, not the Navy….~Bob.

Quote

"Every time history repeats itself the price goes up." --Unknown

Booting Melson Won’t Contain Gunwalker Scandal

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/31/booting-melson-wont-contain-gunwalker-scandal/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dfd9e90d12-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN

Excerpt: In what is being characterized by The Hill as the ”first major investigative victory” for Congressman Darrell Issa (D-CA) in the Mexican gunrunning scandal known as Fast and Furious, Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is being replaced. Todd Jones, U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota, will take over as acting director, according to an announcement released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Mr. Melson is being reassigned to a lesser position at the Office of Legal Policy, where he will be retained in the role of senior advisor for forensic science. Despite The Hill’s assertion, Congressman Issa hardly sounded placated. “While the reckless disregard for safety that took place in Operation Fast and Furious certainly merits changes within the Department of Justice, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will continue its investigation to ensure that blame isn’t offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department,” said Issa in a statement. “There are still many questions to be answered about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and who else bears responsibility, but these changes are warranted and offer an opportunity for the Justice Department to explain the role other officials and offices played in the infamous efforts to allow weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels.” Issa is undoubtedly referring to the fact that, over the July 4th weekend, Melson gave secret testimony to the congressional committee investigating Fast and Furious. He contended his superiors at DOJ attempted to undermine the investigation into the program which put more than 2,000 weapons into the hands of Mexican drug cartel members.

The Rise of Islamic No-Go Zones

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/08/31/the-rise-of-islamic-no-go-zones/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dfd9e90d12-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN

Coming soon to a location near you. ~Bob. Excerpt: Three and a half years ago, one of the Church of England’s most senior bishops, Pakistani-born Michael Nazir-Ali​, warned that Islamic extremists had created “no-go”areas across Britain too dangerous for non-Muslims to enter. His politically incorrect concern sparked a firestorm of denial and criticism. The Muslim Council of Britain, for example, dismissed it as the Bishop’s “frantic scaremongering” and “intolerance,” and scoffed, We wouldn’t allow “no-go” areas to happen. I smell extreme intolerance when people criticise multiculturalism without proper evidence of what has gone wrong. Well, the evidence of how multiculturalism “has gone wrong” is in. This week Soeren Kern at the Hudson Institute documented the proliferation of such no-go zones throughout Europe – autonomous Islamic “microstates” under Sharia rule (having rejected their host countries’ legal systems), where non-Muslims must either conform to the cultural, legal, and religious norms of fundamentalist Islam or expect to be greeted with violence. As Daniel Pipes puts it, “a more precise name for these zones would be Dar al-Islam” – the House of Islam, or the place where Islam rules.

The Left: still quite unhinged about Dick Cheney.

http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2011/08/30/the-left-still-quite-unhinged-about-dick-cheney/

Excerpt: Darth Cheney has a book out today (“In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir“): and the Left is acting – about as you’d expect, honestly (note that I’m including in that list a bunch of people who are still trying to pretend that they’re not on the Left, these days). The shrieking is highly amusing, not least for the reason that most of the poor schmucks doing it are fairly transparently trying to avoid thinking about the fact that the current administration is more or less doing a Cargo Cult imitation of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice’s foreign policy. Which is to say, if you look at it from a distance and squint then it kind of looks like the previous administration’s foreign policy… but get up close and you realize that it’s all bamboo and palm fronds where steel should be. Not to mention all the people standing around and scratching their heads over why the magic spells weren’t working.

The real science trashers

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0830-byrne-20110830,0,7115731.column

Excerpt: Today I am writing about religion. Specifically, about those who worship in the Church of the Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming. More specifically, about those who, as a matter of faith, believe that the science of climate change is settled. These believers preach that mankind is steering the planet onto an irreversible and cataclysmic course unless we do something. They have engaged in a clever ploy of labeling those who disagree with their dogma as "deniers" and "anti-science." When actually they're the ones trashing science. Let's take the latest scientific research that demonstrates, again, that the science of climate change is too complex to lend itself to simplifications and claims of "consensus." (Science doesn’t work by “consensus,” that’s a term from politics. Science is never “settled,” that’s a term from law. After receiving the Nobel Prize for Physics, when asked how many scientists it would take to disprove his Theory of General Relativity, Einstein firmly replied “One.” If it’s good enough for Albert Einstein, it should be good enough for Albert Gore and his merry band. Ron P.)

A terror attack every two days shows Israel's military restraint to be bankrupt

http://www.debka.com/article/21253/

Excerpt: In the 10 days after Palestinian raiders killed eight Israelis on the Eilat highway on Aug. 18, Israel has suffered five terrorist attacks, the latest in Tel Aviv Sunday night which targeted a big teenagers' back-to- school party. Five of the eight people injured were police officers and the club's security guard. Israeli failure to respond commensurately to the

Eilat Highway

attack, the first in the series, blew another big hole in Israel's military deterrence. The policy of military restraint pursued by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak was shown by the Tel Aviv attack by a Palestinian jihadi yelling Allah Akhbar to have crossed a dangerous red line: Civilians are being left in harm's way to serve diplomatic interests such as not further straining relations with the new rulers in Cairo. Israel received due warning ahead of the Eilat highway attack, for which15-20 gunmen from Gaza crossed into Israel from Egyptian Sinai. But no preventive action was taken. Eight Israelis paid with their lives for this restraint and another 33 were inured.

Daughter Gadhafi said was dead apparently lives

http://news.yahoo.com/daughter-gadhafi-said-dead-apparently-lives-151326287.html

Assume the media will apologize to President Reagan…~Bob. Excerpt: Since the rebel takeover of Tripoli, evidence has been mounting that Moammar Gadhafi may have lied about the death of his adopted baby daughter Hana in a 1986 U.S. airstrike. The strike hit Gadhafi's home in his Tripoli compound, Bab al-Aziziya, in retaliation for the Libyan-sponsored bombing of a Berlin nightclub earlier that year that killed two U.S. servicemen. At the time, Gadhafi showed American journalists a picture of a dead baby and said it was his adopted daughter Hana — the first public mention that she even existed. … in 2006 Gadhafi organized an event called the "Hana Festival for Freedom and Peace" to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her death. Performers reportedly included Lionel Richie and Spanish tenor Jose Carreras.

Police arrest 15 at Playland in dispute over Muslim headwear

http://www.lohud.com/article/20110830/NEWS02/110830004/Dispute-sends-scores-police-Playland-park-reportedly-closed

Excerpt: A melee broke out Tuesday afternoon at Playland Amusement Park when Muslim visitors became angry that the park was enforcing its ban on headgear by prohibiting the women from wearing their traditional head coverings on some rides. Police from at least nine agencies converged on the park beginning at 3 p.m. after county police sought assistance in responding to the disturbance, which involved 30 to 40 people. Two rangers were injured while breaking up a fight between visitors, and two visitors were charged with felony assault, police said. Another 13 people were arrested, most charged with disorderly conduct. Names were not disclosed, and all those charged were released by Tuesday night. One of the rangers suffered an injured knee and the other an injured shoulder, said Deputy Parks Commissioner Peter Tartaglia. The park was crowded with Muslims celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr, one of Islam’s two major holidays. (And if a Hijab caught in machinery and strangled one, who would get sued? ~Bob.)

Jihadist garage sale of the century underway: Gaza groups reportedly buying Libyan weapons

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/08/jihadist-garage-sale-of-the-century-underway-gaza-groups-reportedly-buying-libyan-weapons.html

Excerpt: While there continue to be concerns about Libya's unconventional weapons and potential "dirty bomb" material, lighter conventional weapons are already reported to be on the market. And there also remains the possibility of a second "storefront" opening up upon the fall of the Assad regime.

Palestinian Authority's prison affairs minister accuses Israel of harvesting organs

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/08/palestinian-authoritys-prison-affairs-minister-accuses-israel-of-harvesting-organs.html

Excerpt: More sterling behavior from the entity that wants to be handed a state in September without acting like one. This new form of blood libel has become popular in the past few years, bolstered by a bogus story in a major Swedish paper in 2009, and surfaces every now and then in one form or another. Never mind the substantive accusations against jihadists in Kosovo of doing exactly what Issa Qaraqi is accusing Israel of doing. These allegations will be given far more credence. They will also be used as a pretext for additional violence and threats against Israel, as Qaraqi surely knows.

Race and Economics

http://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2011/08/31/race_and_economics

I highly recommend Williams’ book of the same title. ~Bob. Excerpt: Overall U.S. unemployment is 9.1 percent. For white adults, it's 8 percent, and for white teens, 23 percent. Black adult unemployment stands at 17 percent, and for black teens, it's 40 percent, more than 50 percent in some cities, for example, Washington. Chapter 3 of "Race and Economics," my most recent book, starts out, "Some might find it puzzling that during times of gross racial discrimination, black unemployment was lower and blacks were more active in the labor force than they are today." Up until the late 1950s, the labor force participation rate of black teens and adults was equal to or greater than their white counterparts. In fact, in 1910, 71 percent of black males older than 9 were employed, compared with 51 percent for whites. As early as 1890, the duration of unemployment among blacks was shorter than it was among whites, whereas today unemployment is both higher and longer-lasting among blacks than among whites. How might one explain yesteryear's lower black unemployment and greater labor force participation? The usual academic, civil rights or media racial discrimination explanation for black/white socio-economic differences just wouldn't hold up. I can't imagine even the most harebrained professor, civil rights leader or media "expert" arguing that there was less discrimination a century ago and that explains why there was greater black labor market participation. Racial discrimination or low skills can explain low wages but not unemployment.

Consumer Confidence Plunges; 12 States in Contraction

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2011/08/31/consumer_confidence_pluges;_12_states_in_contraction

Collection of articles. ~Bob.

Go Get the Lockerbie Bomber From Libya

http://townhall.com/columnists/rachelmarsden/2011/08/30/go_get_the_lockerbie_bomber_from_libya

Excerpt: Does Barack Obama care that the terrorist convicted only a decade ago of killing 189 Americans is reportedly running around Libya? The Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, was tried in the U.K. and then released two years ago -- but only on "compassionate grounds" because he was supposed to die within three months. Disappointingly, he failed to achieve his full potential in that regard and is instead reportedly fit enough nowadays to keep Gadhafi company while the tyrant plays hide-and-seek. Why doesn't Obama show a little leadership and call for Megrahi to be tried in America for the bombing? There's no statute of limitations for murder, and Obama has made a big deal about trying terror suspects in civilian federal court rather than via military commission. Well, here's an easy one. Still, I suppose there are a million reasons why Obama might not want to bother:

Worth Reading: The Tide and Marco Rubio

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/cal-thomas/2011/08/30/the-tide-and-marco-rubio/

Excerpt: In my high school days before sex and environmental education and the general dumbing down of the population, memorization of some Shakespeare was expected in Miss Kauffman's 12th-grade English class. A favorite I still recall is this line spoken by Brutus in "Julius Caesar": "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries..." Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) repeatedly says in various ways it is too soon, or he isn't ready, for higher office, such as vice president. He's been in the Senate for a little more than seven months and has delivered only two major speeches -- his maiden speech on the Senate floor and one last week at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. In the Reagan Library speech, Rubio laid out his philosophical foundation, something that must be at the heart of any policy. … Rubio went further than what might be expected of a Republican, acknowledging his party is partly responsible for the growth of government: "I know that it is popular in my party to blame the president, the current president. But the truth is the only thing this president has done is accelerate policies that were already in place and were doomed to fail. All he is doing through his policies is making the day of reckoning come faster, but it was coming nonetheless." (If the Republic is to be saved, we need more leaders like Rubio. He may not feel he is ready, but we need him on the ticket. In fact, I’d be happy with him on the top of the ticket, though I know that is as unlikely as my winning the lottery. Still, we can hope. ~Bob.)

History of the fiscal meltdown

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&NR=1

Lest we forget. ~Bob.

"ACORN Will Shape My Agenda" -- Barack Obama

http://www.theobamafile.com/obamaacorn.htm

Lest we forget who helped them raid the mortgage industry. ~Bob.

No Egyptian crackdown on Sinai terrorists. Jihad keeps Israel in suspense

http://www.debka.com/article/21257/

Excerpt: Cairo media's highly colored accounts Monday, Aug. 30 of 1,500 Egyptian commando and tank supposedly raiding Jihad Islami and al Qaeda cells in Sinai are pure fiction, debkafile's military sources confirm. Israeli forces along the Gazan and Egyptian borders down to Eilat have been forced to stand for a week at the highest level of preparedness since receiving word that a large group of terrorists had left the Gaza Strip for Sinai on Aug. 24 bent on another attack on southern Israel. The Egyptian army, for its part, is sitting on is hands as the jihadists take up assault positions on its side of the Sinai border. The group set out from Gaza the day after the head of the Jihad Islami missile and logistics chief Ismail al-Asmar died in a targeted Israeli air strike on the car he was travelling in Rafah. Israel went on high terror alert on Aug. 25. Its leaders have repeatedly warned since then that Israel is fully prepared to respond swiftly if attacked. Tuesday night, the IDF's Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said: "Hamas and the other terrorist organizations in Gaza had better realize that if they harm Israeli citizens we shall hit them hard. Testing our strength would be a mistake." (If you thought US and European involvement in Egypt to depose Mubarak was a noble cause, well, how can I put this delicately....? SHAME ON YOU!!!! No one who has paid attention can be surprised by the fact that Egyptian Islamist militants are now poised to pour into Israel in an effort to drive Israelis out of their own territory. But how many were paying attention? I know for a fact that there are some who think it is our job to sit on our butts, await the Second Coming and do absolutely nothing to warn the people of the coming Armageddon. That's not in MY Bible! Jesus said to be watchful! --Don Hank)

Double-dip fears across the West as confidence crumbles

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8731894/Double-dip-fears-across-the-West-as-confidence-crumbles.html

Excerpt: The Western world is at mounting risk of a double-dip recession after key measures of confidence collapsed in both the United States and Europe, with Germany suffering the steepest one-month fall since records began in the 1970s. The US Conference Board's index of consumer sentiment in August plunged to the lowest level since the depths of the slump in 2009, falling to 44.5 from 59.2 in July. Future expectations fell even harder. The drop was far steeper than expected and follows grim warnings over the weekend from Christine Lagarde, new chief of the International Monetary Fund, that the global crisis is entering "a dangerous new phase". The fund has slashed its growth forecast for America and Europe, according to a leaked draft of its World Economic Outlook. It has called on both the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank to stand ready for "further easing of monetary policy" - implying a fresh blast of quantitative easing (QE) by the Fed. The minutes of the Fed's meeting in early August show that a number of committee members called for more "substantial" stimulus, suggesting that they pushed for further bond purchases or 'QE3'.

Allen West Considering Leaving Congressional Black Caucus

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/178983-west-considering-leaving-black-caucus

Excerpt: Rep. Allen West (Fla.), the lone Republican in the Congressional Black Caucus, said Tuesday morning that he is considering leaving the group in light of comments by Rep. Andrè Carson (D-Ind.), the caucus whip, who said at a town hall that Tea Party affiliated members of Congress see African Americans as “second-class citizens” and would be happy to see blacks “hanging from a tree.”

Woman Buys Fake, Wooden iPod for $180

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44334747/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/#.Tl2sdKh6KuJ

Excerpt; [The woman, Ashley] McDowell said the men were in a white Chevy Impala with no rims and untinted windows. She said one of the men had a gold tooth. (Can’t cheat the honest, non-greedy person. At that price, they would have had to be stolen. ~Bob.)

AOL Looking to Sell Say Insiders: HuffPost Buy Doomed Company

http://technorati.com/business/article/aol-looking-to-sell-says-insiders/#ixzz1Wd3Nrf9w

Excerpt: While AOL is generating significant revenue of at least $1 Billion for the first 6 months of 2011, they are still losing a great deal of money and the purchase of HuffPost hasn’t helped their woes.

Freedom Works Will Protest Mitt Romney Appearance

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62380.html#ixzz1Wd4M37TQ

Excerpt: Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is among the leading candidates for the GOP presidential nomination but is viewed warily by tea party activists, who believe him to be insufficiently conservative and particularly blame him for the Massachusetts state health care overhaul he signed into law.

Roll Back the Muslim Brotherhood

http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18806.xml

Excerpt: In recent weeks, we have been put on notice repeatedly: Absent a fundamental course correction, America will go the way of Europe and others before it, succumbing to an insidious totalitarian doctrine known as shariah whose purpose, in the words of its prime practitioners - the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) - is to "destroy Western civilization from within."

German Business Chief Calls Country to Quit Euro and Join New Currency With Austria, Holland and Finland

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2031808/German-business-chief-calls-country-quit-euro-join-new-currency-Austria-Holland-Finland.html#ixzz1Wd82Abn3

Excerpt: A top German business leader today called for his country to quit the euro and join richer northern neighbours in a currency block instead. Hans-Olaf Henkel, the well-respected former head of the country’s main business federation, said his earlier support for the euro was ‘the biggest professional mistake I ever made’. He called on Germany, Austria, Finland and the Netherlands to quit the euro – ditching struggling economies such as Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy - and set up a new currency of their own. (Well, duh, who couldn’t see a collapse coming. Suppose you, I and several other people agree to pool our income and pay bills from the pool. But we each get to decide how much we will spend on ourselves. You and I work hard, earn a lot and spend frugally. The others…not so much. Good luck with that. ~Bob.)

From Paradise on Earth to Hell on High

http://takimag.com/article/from_paradise_on_earth_to_hell_on_high/print#ixzz1WdJHK0nt

Excerpt: But back to Gstaad and the coming fight to the death. Europe has 2.9 million millionaires, while North America has 3.1 million of the same species. Asian mimes have reached 3 million, and at times it feels as if all of the above descend upon this village during the third week of August. Among the nine million is one German woman married to a billionaire who has decided to buy the whole of Gstaad—and I mean the whole kit and kaboodle, as they say in Kansas. Her husband has a couple of ex-wives and children with his exes, so the little lady has decided to ensure her future by having the old boy buy her Gstaad. (The old man is not feeling his best.) Some of us old Gstaad hands have tried to poison the bitch, but to no avail. She has Libyan food-tasters and such. Her latest get-rich scheme is to build an “art center” which will house conferences, concerts, caviar exhibitions, and down at-the-heel countesses looking for rich old buffers. In other words, everything a small alpine village bursting at the seams doesn’t need. Two hundred million Swiss francs are needed, and the usual social-climbing suspects are out knocking on doors.

A Rotting Carcass Called Europe

http://takimag.com/article/a_rotting_carcass_called_europe#ixzz1WdOYQko2

Excerpt: Blah, blah, blah! I’ve heard it all before. We are all swivel-eyed fanatics, racists, and right-wing extremists. And we’re also bigots because we believe in Jesus Christ. Today is my name day, the Day of Assumption, but please don’t ask me how my parents got Taki out of it—Panagia, Panagiotaki, Taki—that is all I can tell you in my limited English. So I stepped out on my garden overlooking Gstaad’s wooded hills early this morning and began yelling, “ALLAHU AKBAR!” at the top of my voice, like those nice guys do down south and also in London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and other major Western cities which pay for their keep. “Allah! Allah!” I kept screaming until some Swiss walkers heard me and motioned me to quiet down. “Mais enfin, monsieur, nous ne sommes pas dans une mosquée,” said the rudest one.

Debunking the Rick Perry “Pro Sharia” school curriculum myth.

http://www.countercontempt.com/archives/1945

Excerpt: Also, as my regular readers know, there is no single subject to which I have devoted more time than Muslim terror. I take pride in having had my stories carried on pretty much every anti-Islamist website around, from FrontPageMag and Atlas Shrugs, to Steven Emerson’s Investigative Project on Terrorism, Jerusalem Pulse Radio, Moonbattery, WorldNetDaily, NewsReal Blog, Islamist Watch, Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum, The Blaze, HotAir.com, Right Pundits, Creeping Sharia, Bare Naked Islam, Michelle Malkin’s site, etc., etc., etc. Nevertheless, I still fully expect to be called a “dhimmi” by one or two of you after you read this post. Salon.com recently pulled a neat little trick, one that is currently paying great dividends The liberal mega-site recently ran a piece that essentially accuses Governor Rick Perry of being a “pro-Sharia candidate” (complete with a ridiculously crude photoshopped image of Perry standing next to a Muslim crescent). Of course, the title of the piece, “Rick Perry: The Pro-Sharia Candidate?” ends with a question mark. Ha ha! It’s not an accusation – it’s just a question! Aren’t we clever, Salon.com. And, of course, the author presents nothing to suggest that the answer to that question is yes.

How Saif Gaddafi and Friends Fooled the Euro-Left

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/how-saif-gaddafi-and-friends-fooled-the-euro-left/

Excerpt: Less than a year ago [Moammer Gaddafi's son] Saif freely mingled with Western high society, popping up in London and Monte Carlo or on a yacht off Monaco. He was considered a playboy as well as a reformer. For Saif it wasn’t about sex or money, however: as is now clear, he was mining Europe’s naive social and political leadership to advance his family’s 40-year-old dynasty. Saif is not unique, yet he is the poster child for a kind of “softer” face of the Arab political aristocracy. He is identified as the next generation of young, super-rich Middle Eastern family members who have tried to re-brand themselves as caring, compassionate Westernized Muslims. It has been lost in the American press, but until he issued his televised “river of blood” speech from Tripoli in February, Saif was the darling of Europe’s political establishment.

Subprime Mortgage Bonds Get AAA Rating S&P Denied to U.S.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-08-31/subprime-mortgage-bonds-get-aaa-rating-s-p-denied-to-u-s-.html

Really? ~Bob. Excerpt: Standard & Poor’s is giving a higher rating to securities backed by subprime home loans, the same type of investments that led to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, than it assigns the U.S. government. S&P is poised to provide AAA grades to 59 percent of Springleaf Mortgage Loan Trust 2011-1, a set of bonds tied to $497 million lent to homeowners with below-average credit scores and almost no equity in their properties. New York-based S&P stripped the U.S. of its top rank on Aug. 5, saying Washington politics were making the country less creditworthy. Treasuries gained about 1.95 percent and U.S. borrowing costs have fallen to record lows as investors repudiated the downgrade, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes. S&P has awarded AAAs to more than $36 billion of securities in the U.S. this year that were created by bankers who continue to gather thousands of loans, bundle them into bonds of varying risk and pay ratings firms a fee to assign credit rankings.