Away from my computer Saturday, so will leave a Guest Post for Sunday. Enjoy. ~Bob
Blog Removed.
If you log on to the Old Jarhead blog and get this notice, please check back. From time to time, Google’s Spam Filter pulls my blog. They restore it when I appeal, but they don’t seem to have the technical ability to fix the problem. I hate to move to another platform with page views running to 10k a week and over 1,150 followers here.
The 99%
Cartoon.
The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
All royalties go to a charity to help wounded veterans. E-Book available at Smash Words: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/59105
Please forward and post where possible.
It's the Values, Stupid: Why Character Counts in 2012
Excellent column that makes many good points. --Ron P. Excerpt: The Pew Research Center recently did a survey asking for one-word impressions of the candidates. When you look at the breakdown of words used about Herman Cain, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (especially among Republican voters), the vast majority of words used had nothing to do with issues and everything to do with character impressions or traits or even biography points. For example, Republicans aren’t supporting Cain primarily because of his tax plan, they are supporting him because he is likable, smart, conservative, different, and a businessman. And Romney’s vulnerabilities (and why conservatives are reluctant to support him) don’t really have to do with issue positions; they have to do with character impressions related to trust and authenticity. So let’s look at the debate this week among the Republicans and President Obama’s standing with the public with the dynamic of character impressions in mind, rather than issues.
Lovely: Car Company Gets U.S. Loan, Builds Cars In Finland
Excerpt: With the approval of the Obama administration, an electric car company that received a $529 million federal government loan guarantee is assembling its first line of cars in Finland , saying it could not find a facility in the United States Finland U.S. US
How Drivers Helping Drivers Avoid Speedtraps Are Winning Fight Against Police
Excerpt: When it comes to speed traps set by law enforcement to snare unsuspecting drivers, it turns out that drivers are trying to help other drivers slow down and avoid the hefty tickets. One such county where there has been a kind of headlight driven on-road social network has been Volusia County , Florida Oviedo , Florida
Napolitano: Homeland Security Dept. Allows Illegals to Work
Excerpt: The Department of Homeland Security has a policy of allowing some illegal aliens to work in the United States United States
Public Radio Host Fired After Speaking for Occupy D.C.
Excerpt: Lisa Simeone, the freelance host of public radio Soundprint and World of Opera, confirmed on Thursday that she had been dismissed from Soundprint after it was discovered she had been working as a spokeswoman for Occupy D.C. Simeone has been talking to the press on behalf of the offshoot of Occupy Wall Street since early October, but the news of her involvement only reached the public radio network's headquarters this week. She remains host of World of Opera. (As an opera fan married to an opera singer, I’m offended they kept her even in that limited capacity. Ron P. But will she get the $20/hour OWS thinks people should be paid for not working? At that rate, I can not work 24/7. ~Bob.)
Simple. Tell the Muslims there is a copy of the Holy Qur’an inside the statue, and they’ll murder anyone who touches it. ~Bob. Excerpt: The U.S. Forest Service has ordered the Knights of Columbus to remove a nearly 60-year-old World War Two memorial from Montana ’s Big Mountain
Biden is ignorant or a liar, according to FBI report
Excerpt: Vice President Joe Biden asserted that crime will increase if Congress rejects President Obama's plan to spend additional billions to save or create jobs. "Murder will continue to rise; rape will continue to rise... (Biden has a great respect for the truth—which is why he uses it sparingly. Like Obama, he will say anything that pops into his head to make his case, secure in the knowledge that the media will shield him from the effects of misstatements. ~Bob.)
Barbara from Harlem - Working For Freedom** Pomona , NY
Here is a woman speaking with passion, who embodies Americanism for me. She's makes her speech in the style of a Southern small town minister, something not all of us are used to, but her content is spot on. I found her to be reassuring and inspiring. Worth a listen...Del.
Judicial Watch Uncovers Intelligence Document on Beslan Terrorist Attack
Excerpt: Judicial Watch, the public interest organization that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has uncovered an intelligence document detailing the September 2004 attack by Chechen Islamic militants on a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia, in which 380 of the 1,100 hostages (children, parents, teachers, and visitors) held captive for three days were murdered. The document was obtained from the State Department by Judicial Watch in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on August 26, 2005. The document, jointly released by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is dated October 12, 2004, and analyzes the Beslan terrorist attack with a view toward gleaning lessons for potential attacks on schools in the United States U.S.
LightSquared refuses to release communications with White House
Excerpt: Wireless company LightSquared has refused a request from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to release its communications with the White House and the Federal Communications Commission. Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, requested the documents earlier this month to probe whether the company benefited from improper influence in its effort to secure regulatory approval. LightSquared told Grassley it would "respectfully decline" his request in a letter Wednesday night. LightSquared plans to launch a wholesale wireless broadband service, but tests earlier this year revealed its network interferes with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. The company is currently undergoing a new round of testing to determine if technical modifications have addressed the interference problem.
Paul Ryan: Obama ‘preying on emotions of fear, resentment and anger’
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/188895-paul-ryan-obama-preying-on-emotions-of-fear-resentment-and-anger?utm_campaign=briefingroom&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitterfeedThat’s all he’s got—get used to it. ~Bob. Excerpt: Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) ramped up his criticism of President Obama on Thursday, saying he is “going all in” on class warfare while “preying on emotions of fear, resentment and anger.” In a wide-ranging interview that aired on Milwaukee-based radio station 620 WTMJ, the chairman of the House Budget Committee declined to criticize the Occupy Wall Street protesters, so long as “no property gets damaged.” But Ryan lambasted Democrats for backing a movement of people that he says is looking for someone “to pay off their loans and debts.”
Excerpt: President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is asking artists to design promotional posters that convey a message: “support American jobs.” The brutal irony for artists, however, is that they will receive no payment for their work. The campaign, which has $61 million on hand, will reward only the three artists whose work is selected for use. The compensation? A copy of their artwork, signed by the president. The Graphic Artists Guild isn’t pleased with the ask. On Saturday, the guild issued an open letter to the campaign voicing outrage over what it called a “shameful” competition. “American artists should be outraged that our President does not recognize that we are entitled to be paid for our work, as are all Americans,” the guild wrote. (Why would they work for free when OWS is going to get everybody $20/hour for not working? ~Bob.)
Quote
Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. –Flannery O'Connor
Sen. Levin: US should threaten to cut ties with Pakistan
Excerpt: Pakistan should be warned that the U.S. will cut ties with Islamabad if it continues to support an extremist group linked to attacks on U.S. Pakistan Pakistan and has, U.S. officials say, launched many attacks on American and Afghan forces in Afghanistan
Unemployment Insurance Taxes
Excerpt: Record high levels of unemployment and record low reserve funds have placed great pressure on the federal-state unemployment insurance (UI) tax and benefit system, says Joseph Henchman, vice president of legal & state projects at the Tax Foundation. Between 2008 and 2011, $174 billion was paid in unemployment taxes while $450 billion was paid out in benefits, a gap of $276 billion. In 2011 alone, employers and employees are projected to pay $51.8 billion in taxes, while $131.4 billion is projected to be paid out in benefits for workers recently unemployed. Benefits are drawn for an average of 18 weeks, with many claimants receiving the maximum 99 weeks of benefits. Over the past two years, 34 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands exhausted their unemployment insurance trust funds and have had to borrow from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits; 27 states have outstanding balances. While some states have repaid their balances and others are no longer borrowing additional amounts, the current outstanding balance of loans is $37.3 billion. Beginning on September 30, 2011, states must pay approximately $1.3 billion in interest on those outstanding balances; in many cases, businesses and employees in those states will also face increases in federal unemployment insurance tax rates as a result of those federal loan balances. These unemployment insurance fiscal policies may exacerbate negative job growth and tax trends, instead of operating countercyclically as the program was intended. Consequently, this may be an appropriate time for the federal government and the states to contemplate significant changes to the structure of unemployment insurance taxation and benefits. Program design alternatives could offer more innovative and more sustainable methods to find jobs for the short-term and long-term unemployed while preserving benefits to support them in the meantime. These options include eliminating the firewall between administrative costs and benefits, reducing cross-subsidies through greater use of experience ratings, relying more on face-to-face training and advising, adopting elements of state workers' compensation programs, and experimenting with individual accounts to encourage saving, says Henchman.
A New Spending Record: Washington
Excerpt: The Congressional Budget Office recently finished tallying the revenue and spending figures for fiscal 2011, which ended September 30, and no wonder no one in Washington America
Excerpt: Japan
Great news for Team Obama: They might win Illinois
Excerpt: When an incumbent can’t get to 50% against challengers in the other party’s primary, that’s a big red flag in any state. Undecideds usually break hard against the incumbent, and being below 50% means that the possibility of a loss becomes much greater, especially if turnout shifts in favor of the opponents. When that occurs in an incumbent President’s home state — especially one so solidly Democratic as Illinois Illinois Illinois Virginia , Ohio , Florida , and North Carolina
Excerpt: The California Air Resources Board on Thursday unanimously adopted the nation's first state-administered cap-and-trade regulations, a landmark set of air pollution controls to address climate change and help the state achieve its ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (The unelected and wholly appointed California Air Resources Board has succeeded in setting in motion the final stages of bringing the economy of the State of California Cal
Will “Fast and Furious” Topple Obama and Holder?
Excerpt: As much as the media have tried shielding the Obama administration from responsibility for corruption and malfeasance, the combined weight of the fallout from the Solyndra fiasco and the Operation Fast and Furious scandal have begun taking a serious toll on the administration. I will address Solyndra, the so called green energy company that received federal loans of more than a half a billion dollars, and then went bankrupt, in an upcoming report.
Excerpt: Dennis Cardoza didn’t simply announce his retirement.
The California
Senate blocks $35B hiring bill
Excerpt: A united GOP Conference, along with three members of the Senate Democratic Caucus — Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) — voted 50-50 to block a debate on the package, which would have been funded by a 0.5 percent surtax on those earning more than $1 million. … The Senate on Thursday night also rejected by a 57-43 vote a separate portion of the president’s jobs bill, pushed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), eliminating a much-criticized rule allowing federal and local agencies to withhold 3 percent of payments to contractors. Ten Democrats, which included a mix of moderates and those up for reelection, voted for the McConnell plan, but 60 votes were needed to break a Democratic-led filibuster. (One side had bi-partisan votes, the other was all one party. ~Bob.)
Qaddafi’s End
Excerpt: After months of evading rebel forces that had toppled his regime in August, Moammar Qaddafi died as viciously and vengefully as he ruled. Rough video footage released yesterday showed a badly beaten and bloodied man resembling Qaddafi set upon by a violent mob. Qaddafi’s death, later confirmed by Libya ’s transition government, officially ends the dictator’s 42-year grip on power in Libya Libya America
Excerpt: By now you’ve probably heard about Barack Obama’s interview with Jake Tapper where he says, “I believe all the choices we’ve made have been the right ones.” I want to focus on something else that I think gets to the heart of the matter. It’s Barack Obama’s fun use of the pronoun “it,” as in the economy. He tells Tapper, “The economy is not where it wants to be.” Since when did the economy have an opinion on where it wants to be? When did we anthropormophize the economic? Does Walt Disney know about this? Maybe we should put this economy in the Hall of Presidents or something and let it speak for itself. “I want to be bigger,” said Mr. Economy. Nooooooo. This is the President giving away the game. Barry O thinks, like with the physician, the economy should heal itself. The economy does not want anything. People want jobs. Investors want growth. The economy Does. Not. Want. (Maybe the Economy will vote Republican in 2012 to get to where it wants to be. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: So the left would have you believe that the voter fraud debate is really about racist Republicans trying to prevent African-Americans and other minorities from voting. The New York Times ran this argument earlier this month, conveniently ignoring that the right-wing bastion Rhode Island passed a voter ID sponsored by leading African-Americans and Latinos, all Democrats. Well, today we are greeted by an op-ed by former Congressman Artur Davis, who was one of the shining lights of African-American Southern Democrats. Davis says that he made a mistake in opposing voter ID and that the real thing that needs immediate action is “manufactured” ballots in Alabama
The End of the Affair
Excerpt: The death of former Libyan ruler Muammar el-Qaddafi allows the Obama administration to claim credit for ending a war it never wanted to fight. The White House wavered for weeks before it reluctantly joined the NATO campaign. It deployed far fewer aides to Libya Libya Iraq to Israel , Egypt to Bahrain , Washington Iraq —but regional governments at least took Washington Libya
The 'Fair Share' Farce by Edwin J. Feulner
Excerpt: It's about time the rich started paying their fair share, according to the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters. Those fat cats aren't chipping in as much as the less fortunate. When are they going to start spreading their wealth around? Unfortunately for the occupiers, facts have a way of ruining a good storyline. Because when we check the dollars and cents behind who pays what, we find the rich are already sharing quite a bit of their earnings. Start by putting one of the left's favorite talking points in context: that the rich are earning a bigger share of the nation's income today. It's true: one out of every $5 in income goes to the wealthiest 1 percent of American households. That's more than double the share they earned in 1980. But they also shoulder a disproportionate share of the tax burden. They pay more than 38 percent of all federal income taxes. In 1980, they were paying 19 percent. How about the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans, those making at least $114,000 in 2008? They're earning 45 percent of the nation's income, and paying 70 percent of all taxes. The top 25 percent (those earning at least $67,280), meanwhile, take in 67 percent of the income -- and foot 86 percent of the income tax bill. That doesn't leave much of a tax burden for everyone else. In fact, the average tax rate paid by those in the bottom half of the income scale is only 2.6 percent.
Multiple honor killings in Canada
Didn’t get the “Islam is a Religion of Peace” memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Qur'an 4:34 allows for physical violence (yes, it says to hit) against "disobedient women." Islamic law is inconsistent at best on whether parents who kill their children face any consequences at all. It is no surprise, then, that Muslims commit 91 percent of "honor killings" worldwide. Even in Canada
Is America
Excerpt: In "Suicide of a Superpower," out this week, I argue that the America America California Mexico
The European Banking Crisis, Part 1: Assessing the Damage
Excerpt: Europe faces a banking crisis it has not wanted to admit even exists. The formal authority on financial stability, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde, made her institution’s opinion on European banking known back in August when she prompted the European Union to engage in an immediate 200 billion-euro bank recapitalization effort. The response was broad-based derision from Europeans at the local, national and EU bureaucratic levels. The vehemence directed at Lagarde was particularly notable as Lagarde is certainly in a position to know what she was talking about: Until July 5, her title was not IMF chief, but French finance minister. She has seen the books, and the books are bad. Due to European inaction, the IMF on Oct. 18 raised its estimate for recapitalization needs from 200 billion euros to 300 billion euros ($274 billion to $410 billion).
Green energy, high prices, and political manipulation
I’ve said it before, but business people make economic decisions, politicians make political decisions. ~Bob. Excerpt: Then the regional electric utility company, National Grid, got a nasty shock when the state General Assembly passed a law forcing them to buy an unexpectedly high 150 megawatts of electricity from the Deepwater Wind project in a 20-year power purchase agreement. Being forced by law to buy "RES" (renewable energy sources) had become a way of life in the utility world, but it wasn't just the quantity. National Grid mutinied when Deepwater Wind told them the new price: 25.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with the 9.2 cents they were paying for conventional electricity ?-- so they rejected the proposal outright. The two wrangled for nearly a year, and finally finagled a contract that passed the higher costs on to consumers, but the state's Public Utilities Commission rejected it, saying the price of electricity was too high. Then things got weird. Carcieri hastily moved to protect his legacy and convinced the Rhode Island General Assembly to pass a law mandating that the PUC reconsider its rejection. Hangdog, the PUC approved the pricey National Grid/Deepwater Wind deal.
Mohammad Hassan Khalid, Maryland High School
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: A high school honors student from Maryland Pakistan Baltimore Europe . He had met Colleen LaRose, who had dubbed herself "Jihad Jane" in YouTube videos, in an online chat room when he was about 15, according to the indictment.
Fun Read: The Organizers vs. the Organized in Zuccotti Park
The anarchists are having their usual trouble getting organized. What fun. ~Bob. Excerpt: All occupiers are equal — but some occupiers are more equal than others. In wind-whipped Zuccotti Park Zuccotti Park Nebraska
Excerpt: A married mother of four from Florida ditched her family to become part of the raggedy mob in Zuccotti Park -- keeping the park clean by day and keeping herself warm at night with the help of a young waiter from Brooklyn . “I’m not planning on going home,” an unapologetic Stacey Hessler, 38, told The Post yesterday. “I have no idea what the future holds, but I’m here indefinitely. Forever,” said Hessler, whose home in DeLand sits 911 miles from the tarp she’s been sleeping under. Hessler -- who ironically is married to a banker -- arrived 12 days ago and planned to stay for a week, but changed her plans after cozying up to some like-minded radicals, including Rami Shamir, 30, a waiter at a French bistro in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. (Tee shirt idea: “I occupied Wall Street and all I got was this lousy case of the crabs.” ~Bob.)
Tehran's Long History of Murder in the West
Some analysts have expressed doubt that the Iranian government was involved in a recently uncovered plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States. Skeptics have questioned whether the Iranian regime would participate in such a scheme carried out by non-intelligence professionals and have even suggested that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was "set up" and knew nothing about the conspiracy. But Roya Hakakian, author of a book about Tehran's transnational terror campaign against dissidents, wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the alleged plot bears striking parallels to an earlier crime committed by the Islamist regime: the September 1992 massacre of four Kurdish dissidents at Mykonos restaurant in Berlin. One of the Mykonos shooters was Abdulrahman Bani-Hashemi, an Iranian hit man. Hashemi (who flew to Turkey later that night before boarding a bus and escaping into Iran) had assassinated an Iranian exile in Switzerland in 1989. The following year, he was arrested and briefly held by Swedish authorities after attempting to kill the Saudi ambassador there. Several weeks after the Mykonos slayings, German authorities arrested one Iranian and "a ring of small time Lebanese crooks" in connection with the attack, Hakakian wrote. Iranian Minister of Intelligence Ali Fallahian tried unsuccessfully to persuade German authorities to derail the legal proceedings in the Mykonos case. During the trial, which lasted nearly four years, an Iranian intelligence official defected. He testified that Tehran had a list containing 500 "enemies of Islam" who were targeted for death. In 1997, five men - four Lebanese and an Iranian - were convicted of the Mykonos murders. The trial judge found that Khamenei and Fallahian were among those who ordered the killings. Interpol has issued a warrant for Fallahian's arrest in connection with the Mykonos case and several other assassinations ordered by the Iranian government.
Obama to declare Iraq war over with troops home at year's end
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/189075-obama-to-declare-iraq-war-over-with-troops-home-at-years-end
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/189075-obama-to-declare-iraq-war-over-with-troops-home-at-years-end
Excerpt: President Obama will announce Friday that all U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year. The decision reflects an agreement between the U.S. and Iraq after months of speculation that some number of U.S. troops could remain in the country beyond Dec. 31, when they had been scheduled to leave, according to a White House official. The end-of-year schedule was set up by the Bush administration in negotiations with Iraq's government. (Let the slaughter begin, as peace-loving Muslims murder each other over the burning question, “Was Ali the rightful successor to Mohammad in the 7th century.” Our only troops will be Marines guarding the embassy. Will they be allowed to fight if attacked or ordered to surrender, as Carter did in Iran? ~Bob.)
House panel votes to amend Medicaid eligibility requirements
An attempt to slow the coming fiscal collapse that is, alas, going nowhere. ~Bob. Excerpt: A House panel voted along party lines Thursday to make it harder for Americans to become eligible for Medicaid and insurance subsidies under the federal healthcare reform law. The law counts only the taxable portion of Social Security benefits when calculating Medicaid eligibility, allowing up to a million middle-income early retirees to potentially be eligible for a program meant to help low-income people.
They are not “immigrants.” They are “colonizers.” ~Bob. Excerpt: A fundamentalist Islamic group wants to set up zones in Copenhagen where Islamic Sharia Law should be upheld. The group, ‘The Call to Islam’, belongs to a branch of Islam called Salafism, whose followers in the UK attempted to introduce similar Sharia zones in London earlier this summer.
My family's flight from Castro
Excerpt: But the Post story misses the point completely. The real essence of my family’s story is not about the date my parents first entered the United States. Or whether they travelled back and forth between the two nations. Or even the date they left Fidel Castro’s Cuba forever and permanently settled here. The essence of my family story is why they came to America in the first place; and why they had to stay. I now know that they entered the U.S. legally on an immigration visa in May of 1956. Not, as some have said before, as part of some special privilege reserved only for Cubans. They came because they wanted to achieve things they could not achieve in their native land. And they stayed because, after January 1959, the Cuba they knew disappeared. They wanted to go back — and in fact they did. Like many Cubans, they initially held out hope that Castro’s revolution would bring about positive change. So after 1959, they traveled back several times — to assess the prospect of returning home. (Funny how the media can find every detail of the life of conservative politicians, from Palin to Rubio, but nothing much about Obama. ~Bob.)
Wall Street protests force Cantor to cancel economic speech
Excerpt: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) abruptly canceled an economic address Friday at the University of Pennsylvania after learning that the event could be flooded with protesters aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Cantor was to deliver a speech titled, “A Fair Shot at the American Dream and Economic Growth” at the university’s elite Wharton School of Business, but the school announced that the event was off about three-and-a-half hours before Cantor’s scheduled 4:30 p.m. start time. (This is what democracy looks like? Yes, leftist democracy—silence anyone they disagree with. ~Bob.)
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