Political Digest for September 26, 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.

Book Recommendation: Leadership Defined by Col. Don Myers, USMC (Ret)

http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Defined-U-S-M-C-Col-Myers/dp/1412009189/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1316969676&sr=1-2

Some people who never served in the military will doubtless be put off by the fact that the author is a Marine. Col. Myers draws on his experience in the Corps for examples, but also on a successful career as general manager of a large company and of a school for troubled boys after he retired from the Marines. Anyone in a position of leadership--or who aspires to one--in any organization can benefit from the wisdom in this short, well-written book. It would certainly be of value to executives in my field of association management, as Myers has clearly laid out methods for getting the most out of a team. And that's the real secret of success in any field. The book made me regret that I never had the opportunity to serve under Col. Myers during my time in the Corps. And that several of my bosses in both the Marines and in the civilian world had clearly never read it.

Yes, this is corrupt. Pension rigging this egregious demands three investigations — and an Illinois Truth Commission.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-pension-0925-20110925,0,4585188.story

Excerpt: As Chicago's 1991 municipal elections approached, Mayor Richard M. Daley was consolidating power for his first re-election campaign. In Springfield, two state senators — Daley's brother John and his political ally Jeremiah Joyce — introduced a "shell bill," an empty vessel into which lawmakers later would stuff an astonishing public pension giveaway to Chicago union officials. That pension giveaway was among more than 100 provisions eventually added to the shell bill, but never debated by either chamber of the General Assembly. Instead, 10 members of a bicameral "conference committee" that evidently never held a meeting shaped the legislation to achieve their political goals. By the time the heavily larded bill was ready for passage by the two chambers, another Chicago Democrat, state Sen. Emil Jones, assured his colleagues that the bill wasn't controversial. "These provisions incorporated within this bill have been agreed to by the (city) administration and the pension system and the laborers," Jones told his Senate colleagues the day the bill passed in January 1991. "The people in the city of Chicago came together and agreed." That wasn't true. As with most Illinois sweetheart deals, only the insiders who would benefit from this looting of city pension funds "came together and agreed."

Muslims do not react well to the ban on street prayers in France…

http://vladtepesblog.com/?p=38263

Excerpt: And demand that Muslims take up arms against the French state while chanting ‘death to Jews’. Translators note: We found most of what this person was screaming, incomprehensible. We translated only what we could actually understand. By now however, I feel readers can translate the Arabic bits for themselves.

U.S. gov't used ATF employees to buy weapons with taxpayer money & walk them -- without help from straw buyers!

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/09/vanderboegh-codrea-exclusive-us-govt.html

Excerpt: Official ATF documents and sources in both Arizona and Washington D.C. confirm that in at least two instances in 2010, agents of the United States government purchased Kalashnikov-pattern semi-automatic pistols directly from licensed federal firearms dealers with taxpayer money and delivered those weapons directly into the hands of cartel smugglers.

HufPo: What Is the Real Solyndra Scandal?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-gasparino/solyndra-scandal_b_980050.html

Excerpt: The left wing media loves a good scandal, particularly one that somehow points out how allegedly greedy capitalists rip off taxpayers. If these capitalists are in any way connected to the Republican Party, like defense contractor Halliburton, it's feeding-frenzy time. But if the scandal involves one of the liberal media's pet causes like "affordable housing" to the poor, scandals such as the widespread accounting fraud at the government mortgage lender Fannie Mae and the massive pay packages handed out to the agency's top executives are just not such a big deal. That is until Fannie imploded and taxpayers were stuck paying the bailout bills. All of which brings us to the sad story of Solyndra, and how wasting more than $500 million of taxpayer money on a dubious technology isn't really much of a scandal, at least according to some of my colleagues in the financial press.

Why Illegal Immigration Matters

http://www.rightsidenews.com/2011092514574/editorial/rsn-pick-of-the-day/why-illegal-immigration-matters.html?utm_source=Right+Side+News&utm_campaign=4dfc9d4518-daily-rss-newsletter&utm_medium=email

Excerpt: The last round of Republican debates has brought the issue back to the fore, even though some hosts and pundits have warned the party not to get sidelined by discussing illegal immigration. But the question is does it matter? Republicans in the last few years have begun surrendering values issues to focus on economic issues, but illegal immigration is not a values issue. It's not even simple a law issue-- it is an issue of basic economics. The social safety net is undermined by demographics and uncontrolled spending, but the arrival of large numbers of people with large families who work off the books is a major load. It's a major load in the UK and through Europe. It's a major load here. There are two diametrical responses to this problem. Some form of legalization, whether it's full amnesty or a path to citizenship or a special status for migrant workers. Or enforcement.

Judicial Watch Obtains New Border Patrol Apprehension Statistics for Illegal Alien Smugglers and “Special Interest Aliens”

http://www.judicialwatch.org/news/2011/mar/judicial-watch-obtains-new-border-patrol-apprehension-statistics-illegal-alien-smuggle

Excerpt: 59,017 “Other Than Mexican” Illegal Aliens Apprehended in 2010, including 663 “Aliens from Special Interest Countries” Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained new documents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection detailing FY 2010 apprehension statistics for illegal alien smugglers and illegal aliens from countries considered to be a high threat to the United States because of their suspected ties to terrorism.

Truth and lies at the theatre of the absurd

http://melaniephillips.com/truth-and-lies-at-the-theatre-of-the-absurd

Excerpt: Some 1941 years ago, the Romans conquered the ancient Jewish kingdom of Judea by force and attempted to expunge all memory of the Jews’ claim to the land by renaming the area Palestine. Two days ago, Mahmoud Abbas attempted to do the same thing by diplomatic force at the UN. The whole thing was of course a grotesque charade, outdone in its surrealism only by the reaction of the western world. For the UK and US governments and others said that such a unilateral declaration of independence was a setback for peace and a Palestinian state, which could only be achieved through negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel. Not so. Negotiations do not have to be re-started in order to achieve this. If Abbas really wanted a state of Palestine to live in peace alongside Israel, he could have said a handful of words in New York which would have ended the conflict there and then and brought such a state into actual being. For all that is needed is for Abbas to say, in Arabic as well as English, that he accepts the right of Israel to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people, and that his own people will no longer wage war against it. If he were to say that, and to match those words by deeds to show he meant them – for example, by ending the incitement in the educational materials and media under his command to hatred and murder of Jews and Israelis – there would be peace and a state of Palestine. (They want a Jew-free world, dominated by Islam. That, of course, won't bring peace, as they will happily go on killing each other over doctrine as they have since about ten minutes after Mohammad's death. ~Bob.)

Woman Decapitate​d in Mexico for Web Posting http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/09/25/women-decapitated-in-mexico-for-web-posting/#ixzz1YzLK5ymi

Excerpt: Police found the body of a woman who had been decapitated in a Mexican border city on Saturday, alongside a handwritten sign saying she was killed in retaliation for her postings on a social networking site. The gruesome killing may be the third so far this month in which people in Nuevo Laredo were killed by a drug cartel for what they said on the Internet. Morelos Canseco, the interior secretary of northern Tamaulipas state, where Nuevo Laredo is located, identified the victim as Marisol Macias Castaneda, a newsroom manager for the Nuevo Laredo newspaper Primera Hora. The newspaper has not confirmed that title, and an employee of the paper said Macias Castaneda held an administrative post, not a reporting job. The employee was not authorized to be quoted by name. But it was apparently what the woman posted on the local social networking site, Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, or "Nuevo Laredo Live," rather than her role at the newspaper, that resulted in her killing. The site prominently features tip hotlines for the Mexican Army, navy and police, and includes a section for reporting the location of drug gang lookouts and drug sales points -- possibly the information that angered the cartel. The message found next to her body on the side of a main thoroughfare referred to the nickname the victim purportedly used on the site, "La Nena de Laredo," or "Laredo Girl." Her head was found placed on a large stone piling nearby. (In five years, when this type of thing is common in the US, and saying anything against it is condemned as "Hispanophobia," don't wring your hands and ask, "Why didn't someone do something?" The someone is you. The time is now. ~Bob.)

NYT: Small Donors Are Slow to Return to the Obama Fold

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/us/politics/small-donors-slow-to-return-to-obama-fold.html?_r=1

Excerpt: They were once among President Obama’s most loyal supporters and a potent symbol of his political brand: voters of moderate means who dug deep for the candidate and his message of hope and change, sending him $10 or $25 or $50 every few weeks or months. But in recent months, the frustration and disillusionment that have dragged down Mr. Obama’s approval ratings have crept into the ranks of his vaunted small-donor army, underscoring the challenges he faces as he seeks to rekindle grass-roots enthusiasm for his re-election bid. In interviews with dozens of low-dollar contributors in the past two weeks, some said they were unhappy with what they viewed as Mr. Obama’s overly conciliatory approach to Congressional Republicans. Others cited what they saw as a lack of passion in the president, or said the sour economy had drained both their enthusiasm and their pocketbooks. For still others, high hopes that Mr. Obama would deliver a new kind of politics in his first term have been dashed by the emergence of something that, to them, more resembles politics as usual.

Out of The Closet Conservative in A Democrat City

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/jeffcarter/2011/09/25/out_of_the_closet_conservative_in_a_democrat_city/page/full/

Excerpt: I live in Chicago. It’s home of machine politics. Politicians of course will tell you there is no machine but they are full of Obama stimulus. Normal Chicagoans that try to do business in the city will quote you chapter and verse stories of graft and payola. Chicagoans know how the machine works.  I actually find that there are very few true blue Democrats in Chicago. It’s just that the machine is established in the Democratic Party and inertia pushes them that way. So many people make so much money off the machine...

Obama Tells Blacks to 'Stop Complainin' and Fight

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-readies-words-congressional-black-caucus-14597453?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet

Excerpt: In a fiery summons to an important voting bloc, President Barack Obama told blacks on Saturday to quit crying and complaining and "put on your marching shoes" to follow him into battle for jobs and opportunity. And though he didn't say it directly, for a second term, too. Obama's speech to the annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus was his answer to increasingly vocal griping from black leaders that he's been giving away too much in talks with Republicans -- and not doing enough to fight black unemployment, which is nearly double the national average at 16.7 percent. (This look from ABC News is instructive about the tactics the Dems hope to use: fire up the mobs, march in solidarity, etc. Although I don’t believe it was ever really true, the myth of the political black monolith is crumbling under the weight of people like Allen West, Herman Cain, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Michelle Malkin, Star Parker, Colin Powell, and millions of others who have quietly—or, not so quietly, in some cases—gone their own way toward individual responsibility. I think the past 33 months of Obama may have convinced some of this voting bloc they might be better served by voting AS individuals FOR individuals. “Fool me once….” Ron P. BO got $50k in contributions from the $535M wasted in Solyndra. How many jobs did blacks get? ~Bob.)

Boxborough police arrest illegal immigrant on his sixth DUI charge

http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/09/boxborough-police-arrest-illegal-immigrant-dui-charge/G220S2KW3h3uy4wpTAwqAJ/index.html

Excerpt: A Marlborough man, who was in the country illegally and had been previously deported, was arrested Saturday morning in Boxborough on his sixth drunken driving charge, police said. Boxborough police said that Eduardo Alementa Torres, 48, originally from Mexico, was driving a vehicle with an expired inspection sticker when an officer stopped him at about 10:45 a.m. The officer saw an open beer bottle on the passenger seat and detected a strong odor of alcohol, police said. Torres failed a field sobriety test and submitted to a breath test, which showed that his blood alcohol level was .09 percent, according to police. The legal limit in Massachusetts is .08 percent. Police said Torres had no identification on him and gave the officer a fake name. He was identified when police ran his fingerprints through an automated identification system, and further investigation revealed that he had three prior drunken driving convictions in California and two in Massachusetts, police said. Police also learned that Torres is a previously deported fugitive wanted by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Has a Speeding Neutrino Really Overturned Einstein?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903703604576588662498620624.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

Excerpt: Einstein wrong? Impossible! That was the reaction of physicists around the world last week when they heard that experiments in Switzerland indicate that Einstein's theory of relativity might be wrong. Since 1905, when Einstein declared that nothing in the universe could travel faster than light, the theory has been the bedrock of modern physics. Indeed, most of our high-tech wizardry depends on it. Of course, crackpots have been denouncing Einstein's theory of relativity for years. Like many physicists, I have boxes full of self-published monographs that were mailed to me from people who claim that Einstein was wrong. In the 1930s the Nazi Party criticized Einstein's theory, publishing a book called "100 Authorities Denounce Relativity." Einstein later quipped that you don't need 100 famous intellectuals to disprove his theory. All you need is one simple fact. Well, that simple fact may be in the form of the latest experiments at the largest particle accelerators in the world, based at CERN, outside Geneva. Physicists fired a beam of neutrinos (exotic, ghost-like particles that can penetrate even the densest of materials) from Switzerland to Italy, over a distance of 454 miles. Much to their amazement, after analyzing 15,000 neutrinos, they found that they traveled faster than the speed of light—one 60-billionth of a second faster, to be precise. In a billionth of a second, a beam of light travels about one foot. So a difference of 60 feet was quite astonishing. Cracking the light barrier violated the core of Einstein's theory. According to relativity, as you approach the speed of light, time slows down, you get heavier, and you also get flatter (all of which have been measured in the lab). But if you go faster than light, then the impossible happens. Time goes backward. You are lighter than nothing, and you have negative width. Since this is ridiculous, you cannot go faster than light, said Einstein. ... My gut reaction, however, is that this is a false alarm. Over the decades, there have been numerous challenges to relativity, all of them proven wrong. In the 1960s, for example, physicists were measuring the tiny effect of gravity upon a light beam. In one study, physicists found that the speed of light seemed to oscillate with the time of day. Amazingly, the speed of light rose during the day, and fell at night. Later, it was found that, since the apparatus was outdoors, the sensors were affected by the temperature of daylight. Reputations may rise and fall. But in the end, this is a victory for science. No theory is carved in stone. (Well, no theory except Man Made Global Warming. ~Bob.)

"The Good Guys" by Due South

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sscwI6pBCJ0&feature=youtu.be

The private lives of terrorists

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_private_lives_of_terrorists_clWjl50Wc8CiOV8mXPFmPN#ixzz1YxpXcgGp

Excerpt: Stymied in his attempts to conduct a love affair with another man, a frustrated young gay Saudi finds an outlet: His thoughts turn to a life as a terrorist. “That’s why half the guys turn jihadi,” he says. “They’re gay?” asks an American author interviewing him. “Or frustrated in love,” replies the terrorist. “And the other half?” “Fools like me. I guess I have both halves in one,” says the Islamist. Trying to defeat terrorism from the top down -- via intelligence, security, war -- has worked better than anyone could have expected for the last 10 years, but it’s also culturally exhausting and immensely expensive. To examine Islamist fanaticism from the bottom up is also a critical skill. And in a surprise-filled new book, a former federal prosecutor who convicted terrorists tries to figure out what creates radicals by passing along the results of extensive, intimate interviews with six of Allah’s warriors. So what makes these people sign up for jihad? The answers, author Ken Ballen reveals in “Terrorists in Love: The Real Lives of Islamic Radicals” (Free Press), can be startlingly banal. A suicide bombing might begin as a thwarted romance of young lovers -- a John Hughes tale that lurches into Jack Bauer territory. There is a hopeful thread running through the book: Again and again, Ballen’s subjects keep getting disillusioned about Islamofascism.

The Solyndra Senators-- Democrats won't cut the solar-subsidy program.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903791504576589032032015102.html?mod=opinion_newsreel

Excerpt: How hard is it for Washington to cut government spending? Consider that yesterday Senate Democrats voted down a House continuing resolution to fund the government because it offset higher spending for disaster relief with spending cuts on other programs, including the one that funded Solyndra, the failed solar-panel maker. The House bill provided about $3.6 billion of immediate emergency funding for states and property owners cleaning up from Hurricane Irene and other natural disasters this summer. Yet all but one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted against the bill that would have funded the government for six weeks past September 30, thus leaving open the possibility of another government shutdown. The spending levels in the bill complied almost precisely with the debt-ceiling deal agreed by both parties and the White House last month. Senate Democrats objected in part because they want about $7 billion in disaster relief, but their larger complaint is that the House bill contains $1.1 billion of offset savings from "clean-energy" programs. Given the scandal at Solyndra, which may cost taxpayers more than $500 million in loan guarantees gone bad, this would seem to be an ideal place to cut. About $100 million of the savings would come from the solar energy loan program that financed Solyndra, whose executives invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination at a House hearing yesterday. Another $1 billion or so would come from de-funding a vehicle fuel efficiency program that the auto industry and technology companies ought to be able to finance themselves. Apparently these green subsidy programs have become sacrosanct for Democrats, even if they don't create any "green jobs" and even when they lose money for taxpayers.

Georgia: Public school lesson included a "letter" from a fictional Muslim woman praising Sharia and polygamy

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/09/georgia-public-school-lesson-included-a-letter-from-a-fictional-muslim-woman-praising-sharia-and-pol.html

Excerpt: It is not just that the lesson "positively slants toward Islam" to the exclusion of other religions, which would be bad enough. The letter excerpted below, along with other components of the lesson, amount to dawah, or Islamic proselytizing, and children in a public school were made a captive audience to a sales pitch for Islam.

Egypt's Youths Vow to Raid US Embassy if Palestine Bid at UN Vetoed

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9006300388

Excerpt: A group of Egyptian youths in a call via an internet social network called for demonstrations in front of the US Embassy in Cairo to take over the US compound if Washington vetoes the Palestinian bid for UN membership. According to a report by Palestine al-Yawm (Palestine Today) news network, the young Egyptians have posted a request on their Facebook webpage and blasted Barack Obama's speech after his presidency in Cairo in which the US President pledged a new approach towards Muslims. They said that the threat by the Obama administration to veto the Palestinian bid for UN membership revealed the realities about Obama and the fact they "he is a liar and is no different with his predecessors in supporting Israel and blatant violation of the Arab nations' rights".

Punjab: armed Muslims rape a Christian, a "common practice"
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Punjab:-armed-Muslims-rape-a-Christian,-a-common-practice-22725.html

Excerpt: The rape of Christian women in Punjab has become a "common practice" an "outrageous" phenomenon compounded by the fact that "the police protect the guilty" and not the victims. This is the bitter synopsis of Fr Jill John, of the Diocese of Lahore on the last recorded case of sexual violence against a Christian mother. The family calls for justice, but is struggling against a society in which the defenders of the law support the rapists. Even human rights groups like Masihi Life for All Foundation have intervened on the matter, asking government authorities to target the perpetrators of crimes and punish the corrupt and conniving police officers.

U.K.: Up to 20,000 Muslim polygamous unions robbing welfare system blind

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/09/uk-up-to-20000-muslim-polygamous-unions-robbing-welfare-system-blind.html

Excerpt: Even Baroness Warsi has acknowledged that fear expressed as "cultural sensitivity" has prevented authorities from going after offenders and stopping the various ruses by which men bring in additional wives from overseas. Islamic law allows a man up to four wives. But British law does not. It would be bad enough if Muslims in Britain were undertaking this illegal practice and showing such disrespect for the rule of British law on their own dime, but polygamy is in fact dependent on the welfare system, as this report demonstrates. How else would the "pizza delivery driver" below fund multiple wives and families? Meanwhile, many British families who play by the rules struggle to afford to support one or two children with what is left after taxes. Britain is funding its own collapse by subsidizing a supremacist demographic conquest by people with no intention of putting back into the system what they take out. This state of affairs is all the more outrageous in the midst of a spiraling, debt-driven global economic crisis.

Only 3 “Good” Black Men For Every 100 Black Women

http://newsone.com/nation/thegrio3/where-are-all-the-good-single-black-men/

Excerpt: The chances of a Black woman finding a “Good” Black man are extremely slim, according to a study by Best Black Dating Sites. The study claims that only about 3% of Black men fulfill the criteria of being a good, qualified partner. (It is NEVER racist to tell the truth (see the article).These are stats and I suspect they are accurate. We make our mistake when we interpret these to mean, without further question, that blacks are inferior racially when in fact they are inferior only culturally, thanks to the Left. The Dems behave as if they believe they are racially inferior and I think they do -- giving blacks a handicap in careers and education that they do not need. They can make it on their own without the double standard, but have been brainwashed into thinking they need whitey's money. Here in Panama, about 80% of the population is black by American standards. Panamanian demographic stats are misleading because they don’t call everyone black who is black according to the US government and most Americans. Many are very dark and others are varying shades (the lighter ones are called mestizos or mulatos). But the point I want to make is that every man who ever worked in our house -- probably over a dozen, carpenters, roofers, plumbers, gardeners, masons, painters, electricians, AC specialists, etc, was some shade of black, and the guy who did the most was a very dark dark guy who owns a contracting biz. They weren't all the best by American standards, but we have a pretty nice town house and it was built mostly by black laborers, including contractors who owned their own business. They all work hard, tirelessly. I get tired watching them. My daughter shot a music video at a local college and the students and teachers were mostly black. We go to an exclusive super market owned by some rich Jews and the customers and workers even there are mostly black -- with a few more whites thrown in, partly because most foreigners go to this store because it has all the foreign food products. My doctor is very black. So is the cook at my favorite restaurant. My lawyer is swarthy. So is my insurance agent. So is my barber. So is my computer guy. Most security guards and police are black. Many people in government here are also black. My daughter has mostly very dark black teachers, some trained in the US. Most of her classmates are black, some very dark. I wish more Americans could come down here long enough to see this model of free market capitalism at work, with many businesses owned and operated by blacks (and many of the rest by Chinese). Why do they work so hard and maintain the proud tradition of American capitalism that we have practically lost? One main reason: the government gives people almost nothing here and the pay is not high. You have to work like crazy to make a living. So a lot of people of all colors start their own businesses to survive. Some get rich at it. It is ALL conditioning, all training, upbringing, church, etc, and you stop noticing race after a while. I am tremendously proud of the people in my adopted country because they are like this thanks in large part to the wholesome influence of American military men with whom they came in contact at a time when Americans were still Americans. The only problem is that more and more of the young people are imitating modern American teens thanks to TV, esp. MTV, and movies. THAT is a problem. If we can just find a way to keep Panamanian blacks away from modern American influence, we will be just fine. --Don Hank)