Political Digest for September 11, 2011

9/11

We must not forget.

Bipartisanship Works: Democrat, Republican — Cellini can play them all

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0909-20110909,0,3820561.column

The media and much of the public seem to think that we need more "bipartisanship" to solve our problems. They need only look to Illinois, where Republicans and Democrats have worked in bipartisan harmony for decades to loot the taxpayers. Be careful what you wish for. ~Bob. Excerpt: Peter Fitzgerald paid the price. The Illinois Republican Party refused to endorse him for re-election after he recommended independent Patrick Fitzgerald (no relation) as the federal hammer in Chicago. "I've fought him my entire career," Sen. Fitzgerald once told me about Cellini. "And for near 40 years, Cellini has been calling the shots from behind the scenes in Springfield. He's gotten very rich off the taxpayers. Very rich." But Cellini stayed to pull the strings. And the Illinois Republican Party ran Pete Fitzgerald out of politics. So don't tell me there's not a Combine. The Cellini trial, one of the last chapters of the federal government's Operation Board Games investigation, will lay out how the Combine works. Powerful Illinois Republicans team up with powerful Illinois Democrats, and some earthy characters are thrown in. One is convicted political fixer Tony Rezko, fundraiser and real estate fairy to President Barack Obama, and fundraiser to Blagojevich as well.

Saint Nicholas Church, Ten Years Later (After 9/11)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q90NiIyH7U&feature=youtu.be

I have known about this injustice for a long time and it looks like someone finally created a video about what is going on.  Immigrants built St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Chruch which stood at the foot of the NY Trade Center almost 100 years ago.  This video tells the tale of it being destroyed by the ashes from the fallen Trade Center towers.  The irony is that they are not allowing the Greek church to be rebuilt while they have approved the building of a near by mosque.  What adds insult to injury is that currently the mosque is seeking public funding to build it.  Of course the Greeks have taken the high road as they usually do and have only addressed their plight. See the you tube clip. --Nick

Demonstrators storm Israeli Embassy building in Cairo

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/09/2399105/demonstrators-storm-israeli-embassy.html#ixzz1XVT5QSuO

So how's that wonderful, democratic Arab Spring working out for you? Fine if you aren't a baby-eating Joo, I suppose. ~Bob. Excerpt:  Dozens of protesters stormed the building housing the Israeli Embassy here Friday, breaking down a security wall and seizing documents from a storage area in the worst anti-Israeli violence since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from office seven months ago.

Egyptians break into Israeli Embassy in Cairo

http://news.yahoo.com/egyptians-break-israeli-embassy-cairo-004737248.html

Excerpt: Protesters broke into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo Friday and dumped documents out of the windows as hundreds more demonstrated outside, prompting the ambassador and his family to leave the country. The unrest was a further worsening of already deteriorating ties between Israel and post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt. Egyptian police made no attempt to intervene during the day as crowds of hundreds tore down an embassy security wall with sledgehammers and their bare hands or after nightfall when about 30 protesters stormed into the Nile-side high-rise building where the embassy is located.

Egyptian "young democratic idealists" attack Israeli embassy

Now it seems like just yesterday that Obama, other Western "leaders" and the propaganda corps we call the mainstream media were rhapsodically praising the "democratic" movement in Egypt. Then a female reporter from one of the propaganda stations was raped by the young democratically minded idealists there. Then, the day after that mean old Mubarak was ousted, the Egyptian army attacked a monastery and shot some employees there. Now, these young democratic idealists have attacked the Israeli embassy (see link below) and the police eventually showed up to reluctantly quell the demonstration after much damage was inflicted there. Now that the Western powers have had their way in the Middle East, indigenous Christians fear for their lives and Israel is preparing for war to defend itself from our "allies." The Fabian socialists, back in the 1880s when they were just getting started, said they would infiltrate the Western power structure for 2 purposes: 1--to eliminate European (Judeo-Christian) culture by stealth.

2--to implant socialism, also by stealth. They are now in the end game and are succeeding thanks to a gullible Western public. What is happening in Egypt is just a small part of their program. And yet, the majority of "conservatives" go along with whatever military interventions the Fabian Socialist Left in the US and Europe undertake. After all, supporting our military is always patriotic, no? http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1078/362/EGYPT_-_Israeli_Embassy_In_Cairo_Attacked_By_Protesters_As_Ambassador_Flee....html

 BTW, I told you so:

http://laiglesforum.com/i-told-you-so-again/2697.htm

Don Hank

Third ‘Fast And Furious’ Gun Linked To Border Agent’s Killing

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/report-third-fast-and-furious-gun-linked-to-border-agents-killing/

Excerpt: A third gun linked to the botched Operation “Fast and Furious” federal firearms sting may have been found at the scene of murdered U.S. Customs and Border Agent Brian Terry.

New documents have emerged that contradict the previous government claim that only two weapons tied to the Fast and Furious investigation were found at the crime scene, according to Fox News. If true, these revelations could lead to serious criminal charges, including obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, and making false official statements. Fox’s sources have claimed  the FBI covered up evidence from the Brian Terry murder crime scene to protect a confidential informant. According to those same sources, the reason the FBI would go to such lengths to protect an informant if because he/she:

Prager University: How the Vietnam War Was Won and Lost

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F67C8yzww_Y&feature=digest

Obama’s Worst Enemy

http://www.capoliticalreview.com/top-stories/obamas-worst-enemy/

Excerpt: Despite President Obama’s obvious allure in California and other bluish states, his political foes are popping out of the woodwork nationwide as the political season gears up after Labor Day, begging the question:  Who is Obama’s worst enemy? Oddly, it really isn’t the raging ire of the Tea Party. It isn’t the sequential, cool logic of Mitt Romney’s 59-point economic plan, or even Rick Perry’s rampant boasting about job creation. And it certainly isn’t the prospect that Ron Paul will somehow gain speed and run Obama out of the White House on a platform of abolishing the Transportation Security Administration. Obama’s worst enemy is himself. It is Obama’s role in which he appears to be most comfortable:  that of a community organizer.

Worth reading: Obama's Crony Capitalism: What the Solyndra debacle reveals about Obama's economic strategy

http://reason.com/archives/2011/09/09/obamas-crony-capitalism

Excerpt: The president's address on jobs last night included some soaring phrases, but it left out one crucial word that epitomizes his approach to economics: Solyndra. Fourteen months ago, the president was using his sonorous baritone to deliver soaring rhetoric about how his policies helped launch that now-broke company, which made cylindrical solar panels. The administration fast-tracked Solyndra's loan guarantee through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act—i.e. the stimulus—perhaps because Solyndra's principal backers just happened to have donated huge sums to the Obama election campaign. Washington guaranteed more than a half-billion in loans to Solyndra on the promise of 4,000 jobs. "This new factory is the result of those loans," the president said at the Fremont, Calif., facility—a facility The Washington Post termed a "signature project of President Obama's initiative to help create clean-energy jobs." The result of those loans now? Solyndra has shut its doors, its 1,100 former employees are jobless, and the taxpayers are on the hook for perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars. … Except it isn't. The Solyndra story encapsulates a much bigger issue than mere crony capitalism, bad as that is. Because Solyndra is not alone. The Obama administration has sunk billions into loan guarantees for dozens of other renewable-energy companies as well. This is known as the political allocation of economic resources, and it entails all kinds of problems. The first and most basic: It's wrong. Government should not be picking winners and losers in the marketplace.

Poll: Republicans On Verge Of Shocking NYC Upset

http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2011/09/poll-republican-2.php

Excerpt:  Discontent with Washington and the president is at the heart of Turner's shocking upset bid. In a district he won by 11 points just three years ago, Obama's favorability rating is now upside down in the Siena poll, with 54 percent having an unfavorable opinion of Obama and only 43 percent viewing him favorably. A remarkable 38 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of independents hold an unfavorable view of the president.  The Republican also has all the momentum: A Siena poll conducted four weeks ago showed Weprin with a six-point advantage. Turner's lead does fall barely within the margin of error, but the poll shows that the GOP is on the verge of a most unlikely victory in the Outer Boroughs-based district, where Democrats hold a three-to-one advantage on the voter rolls. (CAUTION!  The only “poll” that matters is the one on election day.  Unless Turner’s voters actually go to the polls, their votes won’t count because they weren’t cast.  The opposition has literally decades of experience and practice at getting their voters out.  This could easily go the other way by a few hundred votes, though even that would be a stinging rebuke to the administration.  Emphasis added by me.  Ron P. They are pouring money in. Even if the GOP loses, that's money they won't have to spend elsewhere next year. ~Bob.)

Background Noise

http://www.nationaljournal.com//columns/cook-report/the-cook-report-on-jobs-a-little-less-conversation-a-little-more-action-20110908

Excerpt:  By the time you read this, President Obama will have addressed a joint session of Congress outlining his latest proposal to improve the country’s economic situation, which is currently teetering on the edge of a double-dip recession. The employment picture is as challenging as any a president has faced since Franklin Roosevelt.  Republicans will also have reacted to that address. It is highly doubtful, however, that anything will have changed from the moments I typed these words until the moment you are reading them. White House advisers have to worry about whether the American people have reached for the remote and hit the “mute” button, whether they have simply stopped listening—as they did to President Bush in 2006 and to his father during a previous economic slowdown in 1992.  It wasn’t surprising when take-no-prisoners, conservative Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said in a speech of his own, “I’m, frankly, very tired of speeches. I don’t want to be disrespectful to the president, but what I want to see is something in writing.”  (…)  Based on considerable polling by his firm, Public Opinion Strategies, and jointly with Democrat Peter Hart in their work on the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, as well as on other public polls, McInturff argues in a cover memo, “The debt-ceiling negotiation is an extremely significant event that is profoundly and sharply reshaping views of the economy and the federal government. It has led to a scary erosion in confidence in both, at a time when this steep drop in confidence can be least afforded.” (Another pollster chimes in with very bad news for BOTH parties.  This should unsettle every incumbent.  Much of the public has no idea who controls each house at any given moment (my next door neighbor pays little attention and thinks Republicans have “controlled Congress” continuously since 1994, including today), and the MSM has dutifully reported what it was told: those damned Republicans are screwing up the government.  Unless we correct it, this lack of attention can hurt us badly.  Ron P.)

Ford anti-bailout commercial

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

Great stuff. ~Bob.

An old soldier who won’t fade away: Obama is outclassed and outsmarted by retiring Gen. Petraeus

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/1/an-old-soldier-who-wont-fade-away/

Excerpt: Gen. David H. Petraeus closed his phenomenal 37-year Army career this week with a joint review at Fort Myer in Arlington. Service members from every branch were present, and flags of all 50 states fluttered in the breeze. A substantial crowd had come to hear the general’s farewell address. Many were classmates from the West Point Class of 1974, smartly attired but enthusiastic and occasionally whooping like they were cadets. Others were people with whom he had served over his storied career, whom he recognized from the dais during his speech. The morning was sunny and clear, and the general was his usual affable, ebullient self.

Mr. Stabbed Last (AKA Good Dagger) stabbed

http://www.lethbridgeherald.com/front-page-news/manslaughter-charge-laidin-stabbing-8411.html

Excerpt: Roughly 30 minutes later, Brent Blaise Stabbed Last lay dead in the hallway when Lethbridge regional police arrived in response to a reported stabbing....A knife police believe was used in the stabbing was recovered at the scene. Police found no evidence, he said, that the victim was armed. James Karl Bach, 54, of Lethbridge was charged with manslaughter Wednesday in connection with the death of Stabbed Last, who also went by the surname Good Dagger. ("This is True" reported the victim was found by Robert Hall, but I couldn't verify. I wasn't there. ~Bob.)

Surface To Air Missiles In Libya Disappear

http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=2281782&spid=

Excerpt: It seems everyone in Libya has a gun these days. Defeated in battle, Moammar Gadhafi's army left behind armories brimming with weapons, and the rebels have helped themselves. It's not just guns that have been plundered. Almost every outpost captured by opposition forces has yielded weapons -- everything from AK-47 assault rifles to grenades to surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). And the rebels tell ABC News that they don't have enough resources to safeguard them all -- which means they may wind up in the hands of people who have other agendas than defeating Gadhafi. According to Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, the weapons the looters want most, and take first, are the SAMs. HRW estimates there are 20,000 surface-to-air missiles in Libya, and many of those are now missing. Some are recent Russian-made SAMs, capable of shooting down aircraft flying as high as 11,000 feet. "They have no military use in this war," said Bouckaert. "Gadhafi is not flying any airplanes, he's not flying any helicopters. So why are people looting these very powerful and dangerous missiles? (Who in the White House, NSA, CIA,  NATO, or Hillary Clinton’s office could have ever guessed that there were those in Libya only interested in surface to air missiles?   Who knew? --Tom C. The people looting them may not intend to use them against us, just to sell them to those who will for a fast buck. Barack's allies Americans ricked their lives to help. ~Bob.)

Smart Meters

http://goldsilver.com/video/smart-meters/

Big Brother goes to work for ComEd. ~Bob.

The war on terror is over

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2011/09/10/the_war_on_terror_is_over/

Excerpts: Now, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, there has been much talk of how the war on terror, at home and abroad, has kept us safe. But there has been far less said about the constantly changing sources of that protection, and how far it has evolved from its militaristic roots. Ten years is a long time to fight any “war,’’ but particularly one in which the enemy has changed so dramatically.  ….. So, it’s time to set the record straight: The war on terror is over. To still call the effort to dismantle, kill, and disrupt Al Qaeda and its affiliates the war on terror is to treat the United States and its government as frozen in time. It assumes that there has been no learning, no growth, no recognition of mistakes, no priority shifts, no advancement in capabilities. It assumes time has stood still. (Should have been called the war against the Jihadists, or some such, but everyone is too PC. ~Bob.)

Real steps to boost jobs

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/real_steps_to_boost_jobs_Wtptu7tKJwWxsfFUvh20JI#ixzz1XY1oOGGv

Excerpt: President Obama’s “jobs” speech failed to deliver truly new ideas, just a rehash of old ones -- temporary, targeted tax cuts plus nearly half a trillion dollars in new stimulus spending on infrastructure and public works -- that have failed for him before. Happily, it’s not too late to change. If he’s willing to get serious, he can act on a number of initiatives that could immediately create jobs and have a ripple effect throughout the economy.

When

Wall St.

played on America’s team

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/when_wall_st_played_on_america_team_UE1RIpnnwnsdpWgoQ1z3kJ#ixzz1XY0jkOGI

Excerpt: My father, a construction worker, spent a lot of time laying iron rods in the World Trade Center’s concrete foundation back in the late 1960s. Dad was never big on the architecture of the day: He said skyscrapers like the Trade Center -- built with far less steel and concrete than earlier towers -- were ripe for disaster. “You can light that place with a match,” he once told me. It was, of course, something much larger than a match that took the Towers down. I was lucky that day: Though I worked downtown at The Wall Journal Journal, covering the big Wall Street firms and banks, I had a doctor’s appointment in the Village. We could all see the smoldering towers, but the closest I came to the chaos was seeing people fleeing uptown near the

Astor Place

subway station. It was only when I got home and heard the roar of what were probably F-16 fighters circling above StuyTown that I realized the country was at war -- and that my first assignment as a war correspondent was to cover the Wall Street rebuilding effort. Because the terrorists didn’t just aim to shed blood and sow fear -- they wanted to kill our economy, too.

Obama, the spammer-in​-chief, strikes again after jobs speech

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/44/post/obama-the-spammer-in-chief-strikes-again-after-jobs-speech/2011/09/08/gIQA0ZbxDK_blog.html

Excerpt: President Obama, whose official campaign Twitter account blasted out 100 messages in a single afternoon in late July, did it again Thursday night. Only this time it was the official White House press office e-mail account that lit-up inboxes. After the president’s jobs speech before Congress Thursday night, his staff sent out 39 e-mails to reporters, each declaring that yet another Obama ally “backs the American Jobs Act,” as the subject lines boasted. The e-mails came within a 1-hour, 5-minute period between 8:32 p.m. and 9:37 p.m. That’s an average of one every minute and 40 seconds. (Tone deaf as usual. I have to fight this in the organization I manage, where folks would like to send a daily e-mail message. Because you think someone should read something doesn't mean they will or will welcome the message. ~Bob.)

Sharia court sentences two to amputation for theft

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/09/sharia-court-sentences-two-to-amputation-for-theft/

Excerpt: An Islamic sharia court in  Zamfara State has sentenced two men to amputation of their right wrists for stealing a bull, with the amputation to be carried out in public if it is given final approval. The sharia court in the village of Nassarawan Mailayi in the northern state of Zamfara on Thursday ordered that Auwalu Abubaka, 23, and Lawalli Musa, 22, have their right hands chopped off for stealing a bull worth 130,000 naira ($867, 628 euros). However, the two men have 30 days to appeal their sentence and the state governor must approve any amputation. Such sentences have only rarely been carried out in Nigeria. (Hey, according to the NYT, we need this here so Muslims can enjoy freedom of religion. ~Bob.)

When Health Insurance is Free

http://townhall.com/columnists/johncgoodman/2011/09/10/when_health_insurance_is_free

Excerpt: Did you know that an estimated one of every three uninsured people in this country is eligible for a government program (mainly Medicaid or a state children’s health insurance plan), but has not signed up? Either they haven’t bothered to sign up or they did bother and found the task too daunting. It’s probably some combination of the two, and if that doesn’t knock your socks off, you must not have been paying attention to the health policy debate over the past year or so. Put aside everything you’ve heard about Obama Care and focus on this bottom line point: going all the way back to the Democratic presidential primary, Obama Care was always first and foremost about insuring the uninsured. Yet at the end of the day, the new health law is only going to insure about 32 million more people out of more than 50 million uninsured. Half that goal will be achieved by new enrollment in Medicaid. But if you believe the Census Bureau surveys, we could enroll just as many people in Medicaid by merely signing up those who are already eligible! What brought this to mind was a series of editorials by Paul Krugman and Health Affairs blog and at my blog) asserting that government is so much more efficient than private insurers. Can you imagine Aetna or UnitedHealth Care leaving one-third of its customers without a sale, just because they couldn’t fill out the paperwork properly? Well that’s what Medicaid does, day in and day out.

Economic Outlook Deteriorates on Debt

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/davidmalpass/2011/09/10/economic_outlook_deteriorates_on_debt

Excerpt: Developments in Europe continue to worsen, with Greece not complying with its IMF program, growing German resistance to supporting Greece’s fiscal deficit, dissension apparent at the ECB over bond-buying and interbank risk widening to a new high today. 

The weekend’s G7 meeting would normally produce something positive amid the gloom.  The ministers are experienced and the problems clear enough.  We keep looking for calming statements on bank capital requirements (to counteract the view that regulators want banks to lend less and issue more equity). 

Obama Shocked to Learn Public Schools Use Modular Classrooms

http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-shocked-to-learn-public-schools-use-modular-classrooms/

Incoming message from Planet Obama. ~Bob. Excerpt: The practice of using portable, modular classrooms has been around for decades, but today President Obama acted as though he had never heard of such a thing. Referring to the facilities as "trailers" the president denigrated the practice as an example why his jobs plan needs to be passed right now. Of course, President Obama did not address how his remarks would affect the workers who manufacture the portable, modular classroom facilities or what would happen to that industry in light of his trashing the practice today.

Savings.co​m sends Dear John letter to

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/09/10/savings-com-sends-dear-john-letter-to-california/

Excerpt: Two months ago, Governor Jerry Brown signed the Affiliate-Nexus Tax bill, which requires Internet retailers with a relationship to California-based businesses to pay sales tax on all related transactions.  The state government figured that Amazon and other retailers needed the California market too much to bail out of it.  Instead, those retailers have cut off their affiliate relationships, which puts thousands of small businesses in California at risk of failure.  One of those small businesses, Savings.com, sent a letter to its California customers saying that they will pack up and leave — and take their 100 or so jobs with them:Ever since you and your new BFF–the Affiliate Nexus Tax–started hanging out, people just don’t want to do as much business with us anymore. Sure, we know it seems only fair that online retailers without a physical presence in California should have to collect sales taxes from their customers just like everyone else. The problem is, until every other state–or the federal government–feels the same way, companies like Amazon.com, Overstock and others have decided that it’s not worth working with us (or 25,000 other California-based businesses) anymore. Apparently, in your eyes, our affiliate relationship makes them liable for collecting taxes. They’ve decided it makes better sense to just work with affiliates beyond your, admittedly still picturesque, borders.

Gunwalker Explodes: FBI Hid Weapon, Tax Dollars Subsidized Murder. The depth of the scandal dramatically widened yesterday.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/gunwalker-explodes-fbi-hid-weapon-tax-dollars-subsidized-murder/?singlepage=true

Excerpt: Fox News investigative reporter William Lajeunesse dropped a pair of bombshells in one article Friday afternoon, revealing: the presence of a third “walked” gun at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder, an FBI cover-up of the gun, and the news that your tax dollars funded cartel weapons purchases: Unlike the two AK-style assault weapons found at the scene, the third weapon could more easily be linked to the informant. To prevent that from happening, sources say, the third gun “disappeared.” In addition to the emails obtained by Fox News, an audio recording from a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent investigating the Terry case seems to confirm the existence of a third weapon. In that conversation, the agent refers to an “SKS assault rifle out of Texas” found at the Terry murder scene south of Tucson. … The two AK-type assault rifles were purchased by Jaime Avila from the Lone Wolf Trading Co. outside of Phoenix on Jan. 16, 2010. Avila was recruited by his roommate Uriel Patino. Patino, according to sources, received $70,000 in “seed money” from the FBI informant late in 2009 to buy guns for the cartel.