Political Digest for January 16, 2012

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. In some cases I post things sent to me by readers I might not have posted on my own, to get ideas circulating.

Old Jarhead Poems

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Jarhead-Poems-Heart-Marine/dp/1463766211/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313527775&sr=8-1

Bob...I ordered 40 copies this morning for friends and family... LtCol, USMC (Ret.). (Well that really helps sales and benefits the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. Much appreciated. Semper Fidelis, Sir. ~Bob)

On line review from another Marine

http://www.usmc81.com/2012/01/old-jarhead-poems/

Breaking: Huntsman to withdraw from race for Republican presidential nomination

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/15/huntsman-to-withdraw-from-race-for-republican-presidential-nomination/#ixzz1jaL6uc5O

Tea Party vs. Occupy

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/tea-party-vs-occupy/question-2372175/

Good chart, though I can't vouch for the numbers. ~Bob.

This just in: Barack Obama wins in '12 by John Kass

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0115-20120115,0,2252277.column

Excerpt: And still, I can't ditch this feeling that I might be boiled in oil for the heresy I'm about to spout: President Barack Obama will win re-election in 2012.The reason he'll win? He knows who he is. And the Republican politicians don't know who they are. They've forgotten what they're about, or perhaps like some isolated tribe, they've lost the language necessary to explain it to themselves.

School free-lunch program dogged by abuses at CPS: With little oversight and many incentives to cheat, system is 'ripe for fraud,' report concludes

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-cps-lunch-fraud-20120113,0,3271101.story

Everything else is corrupt in Democrat-run Chicago. Why not school lunches? ~Bob. Excerpt: When a teachers assistant at Chicago's North-Grand High School handed in her child's lunch form last school year, it showed that her household made too much money for the child to receive free lunches. So the school's assistant clerk told the woman to fill out a new one, explaining, "She shouldn't have to pay for lunch," and besides, "Nobody checks the applications anyway," according to an inspector general's report released last week.

Winegate: Red wine health researcher falsified data

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/12/winegate-red-wine-health-researcher-falsified-data/#more-54691

Excerpt: An extensive misconduct investigation that took three years to complete and produced a 60,000-page report, concludes that a researcher who has come to prominence in recent years for his investigations into the beneficial properties of resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, “is guilty of 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data”. In a statement published on the university’s news website on Wednesday, the University of Connecticut (UConn) Health Center said the investigation has led them to inform 11 scientific journals that had published studies conducted by Dr Dipak K. Das, a professor in the university's Department of Surgery and director of its Cardiovascular Research Center. The internal investigation, which covered seven years of work in Das’s lab, was triggered by an anonymous allegation of “research irregularities” in 2008. (The tendency to “help” the data isn’t confined solely to climate science, it seems. Ron P. Yes, there have been several cases in medicine in recent years. People with no values. ~Bob.)

Afghan boy suicide bombers tell how they are brainwashed into believing they will survive: Child suicide bombers say they were told by their handlers that the "bombs would not kill us, only the Americans would die".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/9014282/Afghan-boy-suicide-bombers-tell-how-they-are-brainwashed-into-believing-they-will-survive.html

Excerpt: The mission was as simple as touching two wires together, the little boy was promised. The resulting blast would obliterate the American infidels – but God would spare him from the flame and shrapnel. Abdul Samat would be unharmed and free to run back to the men who had fitted his bomb vest. Blindfolded and rigged with his explosive payload, the boy, who was about 13, was driven to his target in the Afghan city of Kandahar, after being plucked from the streets of Quetta in neighbouring Pakistan. Minutes before he was due to execute the attack, however, Abdul realised the lies of his recruiters seeking to turn him into a human bomb. (Funny how many Muslims haven't gotten the "Islam is a Religion of Peace" memo the American left keeps touting. These are the scum we are fighting. Those who would use children as bombs deserve death. And their corpuses should be pissed upon. But this will get little notice in the MSM, compared to pee-gate. ~Bob.)

Bomb Kills at Least 53 Pilgrims in South Iraq

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/iraq-death-toll-attack-pilgrims-now-53-15360435#.TxGZtvQr27s

Excerpt: A bomb tore through a procession of Shiite pilgrims heading toward a largely Sunni town in southern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 53 people in the latest sign of a power struggle between rival Muslim sects that has escalated since the American military withdrawal. (As usual, the most frequent victims of Allahmurder are fellow Muslims who just think a bit different, or are in the wrong place, and only want to be left alone. ~Bob.)

Egyptian Muslim cleric: "After a while, Europe will become a single Islamic state, which will know nothing but 'There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His Messenger.'"

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/01/egyptian-muslim-cleric-after-a-while-europe-will-become-a-single-islamic-state-which-will-know-nothi.html

Excerpt: "This will happen whether they like it or not."

Yet we constantly hear from Muslim spokesmen in the West that only greasy Islamophobes misunderstand to such a degree that they would think that any Muslim has any plans to conquer and Islamize any Western states. How the Egyptian Muslim cleric Ali Abu Al-Hasan became a greasy Islamophobe they have not yet deigned to explain.

Thailand arrests Hezbollah suspect after terror tipoff

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/13/thailand-arrests-hezbollah-suspect-terror-tipoff?newsfeed=true

Excerpt: Police in Thailand are questioning a suspected Hezbollah member, with the development coming as the US embassy warned American nationals of the threat of a terrorist attack in the country. The suspected Hezbollah member, a Lebanese man, was arrested on Thursday after a tipoff from Israel about a potential attack in Bangkok, the Thai deputy prime minister, Chalerm Yoobamrung, said, adding that police had stepped up security.

A man’s home is the government​’s castle

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/man_home_is_the_government_castle_lAFJ8CnFxUel212XI32t5M#ixzz1jX7NONmt

Excerpt: New York City and state regulate the rents of 982,000 apartments — half the city’s rental homes. The rules are complicated, but for the most part, apartments are regulated until they’re vacant and lease for more than $2,500 a month. Until then, the government determines annual rent increases. With few exceptions, tenants can renew their leases forever and can hand down their apartments to their kids. (As Thomas Sowell points out, cities with rent control always have high housing costs and housing shortages. But the politicians can buy votes with someone else's money this way, thus it's popular. ~Bob.)

Warmer loses BBC sponsored bet: “…the standstill, not the increase, is now this warm period’s defining characteristic.”

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/13/the-standstill-not-the-increase-is-now-this-warm-periods-defining-characteristic/#more-54705

Excerpt: London, 13 January: A climate bet proposed by the BBC’s radio programme “More or Less” four years ago has been won by Dr David Whitehouse, a former BBC Science Editor and a scientific adviser to the Global Warming Policy Foundation. In 2008, the BBC programme-makers came up with the idea of a bet. It was for £100 that, using the Met Office’s data set (HadCrut3), there would be no new warming record set by 2011. It was made between Dr Whitehouse and climatologist Dr James Annan. Later today, the BBC’s “More or Less” (16:30 on BBC Radio 4) will report about the outcome of the bet and announce the winner. (Why is this important? Almost everyone is willing to agree some warming has taken place since the end of WWII; the argument is over what—if anything—is causing it. Every theory of Anthropomorphic Global Warming (AGW)—which means “humans caused or are causing it”—requires that as greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere increase (which everyone agrees they have and are continuing to do), temperatures MUST likewise increase. There can be no pauses, no reversals, no retreats without invalidating the existing theories and computer models. Although it will get no publicity outside the skeptic world, this bet forces a public admission that no warming has occurred since 1995 from one of the leading media supporting AGW, the BBC. Ron P.)

Solving the Deficit by Burt Prelutsky

http://www.bernardgoldberg.com/solving-the-deficit/?utm_source=BernardGoldberg.com+Newsletter&utm_campaign=10bfc4de8f-NEWSLETTER&utm_medium=email

Excerpt: These 400-odd people are worth over 10 trillion dollars. The way I figure it, all we need to do is confiscate all their money and we are nearly 70% of the way to eliminating the national deficit. Frankly, I’m a wee bit surprised that with all the advisors and czars who make up this administration, it took an outsider to come up with this brainstorm. Of course it’s just possible that Valerie Jarrett or Van Jones suggested it, but once Obama saw so many of his friends and supporters on the list, he had no option but to nip it in the bud.

The Leaf-Blower Paradox and the Fundamental Fallacy of Obamanomics

http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2012/01/13/the-leaf-blower-paradox-and-the-fundamental-fallacy-of-obamanomics/

Excerpt: Earlier this week President Obama articulated how he understands the concept of employment, explaining that, in his view of the universe, bureaucratic regulations are a good way to create jobs:

'Israel and U.S. postpone massive defense drill in fear of escalation with Iran'

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-and-u-s-postpone-massive-defense-drill-in-fear-of-escalation-with-iran-1.407466

Excerpt: Israel and the United States have postponed a massive joint defense exercise, which was expected to be carried out in the coming weeks, in order to avoid an escalation with Iran, Channel 2 reported on Sunday.

SWITZERLAND: Muslim who hacked teenage daughter to death with an axe to stand trial

http://www.endtimestoday.com/2012/01/15/switzerland-muslim-who-hacked-teenage-daughter-to-death-with-an-axe-to-stand-trial/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Didn't get the memo. ~Bob

Guilty: North Carolina Jihadists who targeted Marine Corps wives and children

http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-fayetteville/guilty-north-carolina-jihadists-who-targeted-marine-corps-wives-and-children

Excerpt: In Federal Court in New Bern, NC today, three would-be Islamist terrorists were found guilty of a slew of terrorism-related charges in a planned attack on unsuspecting wives and children of Marine Corps personnel residing on the sprawling Marine base in Quantico, Virginia. (If you'll let me shoot them, I promise not to pee on them afterwards. ~Bob.)

Romney opens 21-point lead in South Carolina: Reuters/Ipsos poll

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/14/us-usa-campaign-poll-idUSTRE80D0U420120114

Excerpt: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has opened a wide lead over his rivals in the South Carolina primary election race, trouncing Newt Gingrich and gaining momentum in his march toward the party's nomination, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, could all but quash his rivals' presidential aspirations with a victory in South Carolina on January 21 after winning the first state-by-state nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The Week That Was: 2012-1-14 (January 14, 2012)

http://www.sepp.org/twtwfiles/2012/TWTW%201-14-12.pdf

Excerpt: …[T]hose accusing the skeptics as being anti-science are actually finding fault with skeptics because the skeptics are applying the principles of science far more rigorously than the IPCC applies them. Given the divergence between model projections and actual temperatures, any studies based on IPCC model projections are pure speculation. (…) The EPA posted a master list of the facilities that are the major emitters of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG). The list is 616 pages long and includes 6157 facilities (SEPP calculated 6224 by category but this may include double listing). This list will be useful for some research, but, no doubt, it will serve as a "black list" of facilities to protest for EPA allies in the environmental industry. (As usual, the excerpt is from Ken Haapala’s summary. Be sure to read the first to articles under the heading “Questioning the Orthodoxy.” Both are worth reading, as are several articles under the “EPA…on the March” heading. Ron P.)

Iran warns Gulf Arabs on oil

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120115/D9S9EUU00.html

Excerpt: Iran warned Gulf Arab oil producers against boosting production to offset any potential drop in Tehran's crude exports in the event of an embargo affecting its oil sales, the latest salvo in the dispute between the West and the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. (Would someone like to explain to this simple person why the Pentagon is completely wound up about some Taliban being pissed on while the world is about to blow up? There must be a reasonable explanation why a cadre of four star flag officers seemingly cannot find their way out of an unlocked closet. Far be it for me---but I deem it prudent that USA begin making strategic preparations sooner rather than later because I have an inkling that BB Netanyahu is about to put a rocket in someone’s pocket. A cooling corpse getting a golden shower in Afghanistan is not an earthshaking event. At least not to me, but I was never a four star. --Tom Constantine, US Marine Corps (Ret)

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Has Called for a Boycott of Supporters of Convicted Killer Mumia Abu-Jamal

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/m/mumiaabujamal.htm

Unfortunately, I'm not giving any business to most of these cop-killer-supporters anyway, so nothing to stop. ~Bob.

Aspiring first black GOP congresswoman: Don’t put me in a box

http://patriotupdate.com/17242/aspiring-first-black-gop-congresswoman-dont-put-me-in-a-box#.TxN8Q2nEXNU.twitter

Excerpt: If Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love wins her bid for Congress, she will be the first black Republican congresswoman in history. But don’t try to put her in that box. Love is running in Utah’s newly created 4th Congressional District. She will face a primary field including state Reps. Stephen Sandstrom and Carl Wimmer on June 26. If she wins, she’ll face Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson, who remains incredibly popular, in November.