The Old Jarhead Blog: Bringing you news and information the MSM is too busy covering American Idol, celebrity affairs and sensational missing person cases to cover. Please forward to friends who need to be informed.
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.
Contrasts
Lest we forget. ~Bob
Guest Post: Combat Pay
Feds arrest man allegedly heading to U.S.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/17/feds-arrest-man-heading-to-us-capitol-for-suicide-mission/#ixzz1mfKLJyGX
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/17/feds-arrest-man-heading-to-us-capitol-for-suicide-mission/#ixzz1mfKLJyGX
Excerpt: The man, in his 30s and of Moroccan descent, was nabbed following a lengthy investigation by the FBI, initiated after he expressed interest in conducting an attack. It's unclear how the FBI learned of his aspirations. The man thought undercover FBI agents assisting him in his plot were associates of Al Qaeda. (More workplace violence. Nothing to do with Islam. Just a coincidence he was a Muslim. Move along. ~Bob.)
F-16s intercept unauthorized small plane, later found to be carrying marijuana stash near Los Angeles
Excerpt: The privately owned Cessna airplane entered the same airspace as Marine One, the helicopter that was ferrying President Obama, around noon. A law enforcement official says police discovered about 40 pounds of marijuana inside after it landed at Long Beach Airport
Learning from Others’ Mistakes: What Europe ’s Experience with Renewable
Mandates and Subsidies can Teach Texas
Excerpt: Italy
Protectionism in your pocket. Bitter Sweet: How Big Sugar Robs You
Excerpt: For decades, sugar beet and sugar cane farmers and processors have been the beneficiaries of a sugar program that stealthily drives up sugar costs—and, consequently, the cost of that heart-shaped box of chocolates. Over the past 30 years, the annual burden on U.S.
High-risk insurance pools short on enrollees
Excerpt: When the health care law passed nearly two years ago, the conventional wisdom was that the temporary insurance pools meant to carry the high-risk uninsured until the coverage expansion kicked in would tear through their $5 billion budget in no time. That didn’t happen. The next conventional wisdom was that the pools were ridiculously undersubscribed — although the theories as to why that was the case varied based on whom you asked. Now the conventional wisdom is — there is no conventional wisdom. (Progressives always prefer “equality” to freedom—with Obamacare, they are getting an equality of failure on all fronts. ~Bob.)
Vladimir Putin Deepens
Excerpt: The Russian embassy school broke up in mid-term Tuesday, February 14 and the children were sent home - an unusual occurrence which Maria Zakharova, deputy spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, explained as having been prompted by concern for the diplomatic children's safety amid Syria's persistent tensions. That day too, the families of Russian diplomats and other officials in Syria
GM Pays ZERO Corporate Tax
Excerpt: The UAW benefited as well, as they are set to receive $7,000 per worker in profit sharing bonuses. (That’s your wealth they are spreading around to buy votes for BO. ~Bob.)
Gingrich: I Could Lose Georgia
Excerpt: Wrapping up a four-day fundraising swing through California , Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich shifted his focus to the state he once represented in Congress but said he’s unsure he can win the Georgia Beverly Hills Michigan Pennsylvania
John Louis Esposito for the Defense (of an Alleged, Would-be Terrorist) by Stephen Schwartz
Excerpt: Professor John Louis Esposito of Georgetown University in Washington , D.C.
Risky Business
Excerpt: There’s no question that the economic numbers over the past five months have been significantly better than they were in the first nine months of 2011. They’ve risen from a level at which any president would have a difficult time getting reelected to one that suggests this might be a competitive race that could go either way. But those numbers are in the abstract. The 30-cent surge in gasoline prices in recent months is largely attributable to political instability in Iran and elsewhere in the Middle East , and it is something that average voters can see, feel, touch, and hate. Don’t be surprised to see anger start bubbling up anytime now.
U.N. votes overwhelmingly to condemn Syrian crackdown
Excerpt: The U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding that Syria
Top U.S. intelligence officials confirm al Qaida role in Syria
Excerpt: Al Qaida's Iraqi affiliate appears to have infiltrated Syrian opposition groups and was likely responsible for recent suicide bombings in Damascus and the industrial capital of Aleppo , senior U.S.
Obamanomics Has Failed
Excerpt: Three years ago today, President Barack Obama signed into law his trillion-dollar stimulus plan, a measure that he promised would save or create 3 million jobs by the end of 2010 and would prevent unemployment from ever going above 8 percent. And though the President today will likely claim that thanks to his efforts, the U.S.
Pat Buchanan out at MSNBC
Excerpt: MSNBC dropped conservative commentator Pat Buchanan on Thursday, four months after suspending him following the publication of his latest book.
The book "Suicide of a Superpower" contained chapters titled "The End of White America" and "The Death of Christian America." Critics called the book racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic, charges Buchanan denied. (I bought the book, gave up in first chapter when he gets into leftwing economically-ignorant yahooism against trade. So I didn’t get to the other objectionable parts. ~Bob.)
Santorum quote from NRO Morning Jolt with Jim Geraghty
“From where I sit, the worrisome part of Santorum's view is not that he opposes Internet gambling. Off the top of my head, I can think of age restrictions and ID theft as two big reasons to be wary about legalizing gambling on the Internet. The problem is that he seems to think the primary problem is that because of gambling, people "lose a lot and end up in not so great economic straits." But the same thing happens with credit cards, the stock market, shopping sprees, and so on. If you think the role of the government is to save us from making bad decisions, well, that's pretty much the precise way all of the nanny-state liberals justify their preferred policies.”
Shootout Among ICE Agents Leaves 1 Dead, 1 Wounded
Excerpt: A confrontation between Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents ended in gunfire Thursday evening in Long Beach
Bill Clinton PBS Documentary
Excerpt: Among those interviewed are the former president's re-election campaign manager, Dick Morris, who recalls the moment Clinton Clinton
Top San Francisco
Excerpt: A top member of the notorious Salvadorian-based organized crime gang known as MS-13 yesterday received his "reward" for years of racketeering and cold-blooded murder, according to a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police's Organized Crime Committee. Danilo Velasquez, a/k/a “Triste,” the San Francisco , California El Salvador
Unemployment Claims: Running Out Of People We Can Fire
Excerpt: The truth is likely found in the labor participation rate, which has an entirely different story to tell. Specifically, we’re running out of people to fire, and those who have been fired and can’t find work are giving up, so they don’t count. This is “good” from a statistical and optics point of view, but it’s horrifyingly bad in reality, because the labor participation rate is what determines the fiscal sustainability of government spending.
Obama's Catholic Church Gambit: Lessons from American Communists
Excerpt: Morris speculates that the Obama HHS mandate on contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients is a fight with the Catholic Church that Team Obama wants -- and with the focus based narrowly on contraception, not abortifacients. Dick Morris may be right. It seems no accident that Obama publicly noted that the vast majority of Catholic women use contraception. Yes, the vast majority does, but the vast majority does not support abortifacients -- that is, "contraceptive" drugs that cause or induce an abortion.
After surviving sectarian mob, Egyptian Christians expelled from village
Excerpt: As the mob set fire to the home of a Christian family across the street, Muslim neighbors saved Romany's family, hustling them out of their house by a back entrance, into a car, and out of the village, until it was safe enough to return. The violence in Sharbat began as many sectarian conflicts in Egypt
Obama’s Peculiar Idea of Fairness by Joseph Klein
Excerpt: For example, President Obama is taking $500 billion from the elderly via planned cuts to Medicare in order to help fund his massive new Obamacare entitlement program. A wealthy female employee will have the government-mandated right to free birth control under her employer’s health insurance program. Meanwhile, an elderly woman of modest means who has kidney disease could possibly face the prospect of being cut off from access to affordable life-saving dialysis treatment if the government decides it is no longer cost-effective to reimburse her. This is not what most Americans with common sense would consider “fair.”
Taxing Medical Progress to Death by Michelle Malkin
Excerpt: Stents don’t grow on trees. They were not created, developed, marketed or sold by government bureaucrats and lawmakers. One of the nation’s top stent manufacturers, Boston Scientific, warned at the time that Obamacare’s punitive medical device tax would lead to worker losses and research cuts. The 2.3 percent excise tax, the company said, “would be very damaging to Boston Scientific, and the medical device industry as a whole. In a nutshell, it would raise costs and lead to significant job losses. It does not address the quality of care but the political scorecard of savings.”
Excerpt: The Iran Iran ," followed by chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross describing a "violent series of attacks by Iran Iran is "defying the world," while NBC's Brian Williams asked if "the U.S. Israel
Man Charged For Allegedly Cooking And Eating Cats
Excerpt: In a case that has shocked even investigators, a California
Geithner: Why, no, our new budget does nothing to address America
Excerpt: Via Philip Klein, stick with this until at least 2:45, when Ryan drops the national-suicide debt chart on him and TurboTax Tim notes that, hey, the numbers between Obama’s budget and Ryan’s are actually comparable — for the next five years or so.
Worth Reading
Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders
Excerpt: Islamic apologists in the West continue to try to convince gullible Westerners (of which there are so very many) that honor killing really has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, and that all evidence to the contrary is just "Islamophobia." 91% of all honor killings occur among Muslims? Coincidence! Bad study! (Not that any good studies are offered in its place, mind you.) Jordan and Syria
Excerpt: The family keeps insisting that this is their culture, and doesn't mention that the cultural issues involved here are rooted in Islam. "Good women are obedient....As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them" (4:34).
Scary: Here's The Presentation Where Jeff Gundlach Dares To Compare The US To The Roman Empire
Excerpt: Jeff Gundlach just hosted a webcast with clients. The title of his presentation: "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." Not surprisingly, Gundlach drew parallels between the U.S. U.S. , he noted that Rome Rome , the U.S.
After High-End D.C. Dinner – President Obama Flies Off To L.A.
Excerpt: As the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt threatens violence against Israel
Excerpt: When President Obama unveiled his budget on Monday, it became clear that he would break his pledge to cut the deficit in half in his first term in office. But the White House website is still prominently touting the promise. (A case of the left hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. ~Bob.)
Record $6 Trillion of Fake U.S.
Italian anti-mafia prosecutors said they seized a record $6 trillion of allegedly fake U.S. Treasury bonds, an amount that’s almost half of the U.S.’s public debt. (Not worth the paper they are printed on. Which in a few years may be the case with real US Bonds. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: The Chicago Teachers Union is asking for raises amounting to 30 percent over the next two years, the opening salvo in heated contract negotiations with school officials who are implementing a longer school day across Chicago Public Schools next school year. (Probably led by the math teachers. Duh. It’s gone, folks, the money is gone. ~Bob.)
http://pjmedia.com/blog/why-multiculturalism-is-racism/
Excerpt: “The worm inside the doctrine of multiculturalism is the lie that all cultures are worthy of equal respect and equally embracing of individual freedom and democracy.” - Dr. Salim Mansur
Six lawmakers recuse themselves from Rep. Waters ethics case
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/211425-six-lawmakers-recuse-themselves-from-rep-waters-ethics-case
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/211425-six-lawmakers-recuse-themselves-from-rep-waters-ethics-case
Excerpt: Six lawmakers on the House Ethics Committee have recused themselves from the ethics case against Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.). The voluntary recusals come as an outside counsel probes whether the secretive ethics committee acted inappropriately in the Waters case.
Must See: The Political Quote of the Year
Excerpt: In the clip you're about to see, Geithner makes two claims. First, that the president's 2013 budget meets the "critical test" of "restoring our deficits to a more sustainable position." As I wrote earlier this week, the closest this budget ever comes to balancing is in 2017, when our national balance sheet will witness an annual deficit of over $600 Billion -- more than double President Bush's average deficit. Geithner's idea of responsible sustainability also entails spending $47 Trillion over ten years and adding $11 Trillion to the national debt, which is already approaching $16 Trillion. Good to know. (Maybe if Gaithner paid his own taxes it would help a bit. ~Bob.)
Is the bloom off Elizabeth Warren (D-Occupy)? By James Pethokoukis
Excerpt: The senatorial incarnation of President Obama’s Spread the Wealth reelection effort is Elizabeth Warren, running against Scott Brown in Massachusetts
The Life of Ants
Excerpt: A centrally managed, but inherently unnatural, system requires a lot of inputs and control mechanisms to keep up the appearance of stability. Because everything is imposed from the top, not from the operation of rational choice from below, the level of costs rises in proportion to the level of desired control. By contrast, a society that relies on individual rational choice need only watch out for the outliers, such as criminal behavior. They can leave everything else alone, and manage things by exception, not by detailed specification.
Democratic National Cronyism: Dem convention co-chair’s company received $230.4M in loans for green projects, hired Podesta Group to lobby
Excerpt: Jim Rogers, the co-chairman and lead fundraiser for the Democratic National Convention host-committee, is well versed in the art of political cronyism. Rogers, the CEO of Duke Energy Corp., one of the largest utility corporations in the country, has given generously to Democratic politicians over the years. Along with his wife, Mary Anne, he has contributed more than $210,000 to Democratic candidates and committees since 2008, more than double what the couple has given to Republicans. Of that figure, more than $150,000 went to the Democratic National Committee (DNC); $19,200 went to President Obama. (When you say “green,” you’re thinking of the environment. When big Democrats say “green,” they’re thinking of your tax dollars in their pockets. ~Bob.)
Barbara Boxer: Right to Insurance Trumps Religious Freedom
Excerpt: Barbara Boxer, the leading pro-abortion member of the U.S. Senate, made some comments in a recent MSNBC interview that are sparking outrage across the Internet today. Boxer essentially says the right to insurance trumps religious rights and freedoms.
Dick Durbin's Dumb Debit Deal = higher fees
The Obamacare Trifecta: Where is the opposition’s argument against government health-care control? By Charles Krauthammer
Excerpt: Give him points for cleverness. President Obama’s birth-control “accommodation” was as politically successful as it was morally meaningless. It was nothing but an accounting trick that still forces Catholic (and other religious) institutions to provide medical insurance that guarantees free birth control, tubal ligation, and morning-after abortifacients — all of which violate church doctrine on the sanctity of life.
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