Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Political Digest for March 28, 2012

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.

Response to The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
Just finished your book. Thought you would enjoy this article (comparing Detroit to Hiroshima then and now) to go with it. Your concerns hit me about 30 years ago, not that I'm a prophet or anything, but I envisioned a collapse of the US financial system and started buying silver bullion which I have stored in my safe. While gold was much cheaper then, too, I felt precious metals for bartering was the way to go and slicing off pieces of silver would be easier than slices of gold (too much value).Your book is so thought provoking that I went to Amazon and bought 4 more copies for my kids. I know that the situation will be destructive to me, being a triple dipper, but thankfully I don't have too many years left. I just hope and pray the kids will get the hint. --Thanks, Ralph

Teen conservative blog

Suicide Blast Rocks Israeli Hotel
Excerpt: A suicide bomber walked into a crowded hotel dining room in this Israeli coastal resort town Wednesday night and blew himself up as guests sat down to celebrate the start of the Jewish Passover holiday. Police said at least 19 people were killed, and more than 120 wounded in one of the worst terror attacks in 18 months of escalated hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians. The Islamic military group Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack in a phone call to the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera, identifying the bomber as Abdel Baset Odeh, from the West Bank town of Tulkarem. (Nice. Muslims creating “Islamophobia.” ~Bob.)

Obama debating the Individual Mandate…with Obama!
This is great—short and worth watching. ~Bob.

Cheating Scandal Goes National
Excerpt: The cheating scandals in Atlanta and Long Island that rocked the educational establishment last year appear to be spreading. In the past, the tendency has been to view these scandals as isolated incidents—examples of moral failures on the part of individual teachers or school districts. A new study by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, however, refutes this view—the problem of cheating is much more serious and widespread than previously thought. (Any teacher or principal involved should have his/her ticket pulled permanently. ~Bob.)

Multiple suspensions paint complicated portrait of Trayvon Martin
Excerpt: Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin was suspended from school in October in an incident in which he was found in possession of women’s jewelry and a screwdriver that a schools security staffer described as a “burglary tool,” The Miami Herald has learned.

Romney’s Magic Number: 3.12
Excerpt: Last week we introduced our election map, not as an attempt to forecast the (still wildly unpredictable and completely up for grabs) November result, but as a way to show graphically where the race is right now. Using the RCP “poll of polls” as a reference point, we compared the candidates’ poll standing now with the results of 2008, adjusted the electoral vote to reflect the results of the 2010 census, and showed the electoral map that those polls (with undecideds divided proportionately between the candidates) would produce in an election.

Stand with Walker rallies in Wisconsin

Romney's fundraisers are quietly amassing millions
Excerpt: A review by The Associated Press of campaign records and other documents reveals hints about the vast national network of business leaders bringing in millions to elect Romney.

'Exceptional' America by Victor Davis Hanson
http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson032512.html
Excerpt: Accepting inevitable national decline is the new pastime of both the media and government elite. Some of the pessimism revolves around current federal financial insolvency. In response to the Bush administration’s borrowing of $4 trillion in eight years, Barack Obama, as a presidential candidate, called such profligacy “irresponsible” and even “unpatriotic” — only as president to trump Bush’s debt in three years. (Dr. Hanson reports of decline right around him in California with some regularity. I wish I shared his optimism and hope he is right. ~Bob.)

Islamist Fellow Travelers: An IPT Series
Excerpt: Today, the Investigative Project on Terrorism begins a series of profiles on non-Muslims who help the Islamists advance their agenda, with the goal of documenting this phenomenon, understanding its origins, and tracing its implications. ... Dennis Kucinich: Lefty for Radical Islam By Daniel Pipes. Keith Ellison and Andre Carson receive considerable attention as the first two Muslims to serve in the U.S. Congress. The novelty of their presence, however, should not obscure the fact that Congress includes other representatives, invariably on the left wing of the Democratic party, who also carry water for Islamist interests and causes.

Analysts Debate Importance of the 'Individual Mandate' to Health-Reform Law
Excerpt: When the U.S. Supreme Court hears challenges to the national health-reform law starting Monday, it will then have to decide if the federal government has the authority to insist that people buy health insurance. Striking down the so-called "individual mandate," the most controversial provision of the Affordable Care Act, should the top court do so, wouldn't deliver a death blow to the health-reform package. But, it would alter projected costs and consumer participation, health policy experts said. (Because of the way the law was jammed through, Democrats forgot to include a “severability clause,” saying that if one part was struck down as unconstitutional, the rest stands. The court will have to use convoluted logic to maintain the whole if part is struck. But I suspect they will do so. Which will make Obamacare an even bigger mess than it is. ~Bob.)

How to Replace Obamacare by James C. Capretta and Robert E. Moffit
Excerpt: When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly known as "Obamacare") was signed into law in the spring of 2010, congressional opponents vowed that the fight was not over. The most disastrous features of the new law would not take effect until 2014, leaving time for a concerted campaign to avert catastrophe. The way to spend that time, these opponents argued, was working to "repeal and replace" the law that Congress had just enacted. The "repeal and replace" formulation quickly caught on, but it was not without its critics. That Obamacare should be "repealed" was obvious, given how strenuously conservatives and many independents objected to the new law. But "replace"? Hammering out the details of a new health-care law might easily stir controversy and sow discord, thereby undermining the push for "repeal."

Falling flat: Why the higher rate of income tax yielded so little
Excerpt: It shows that the combined incomes of the taxpayers liable to pay the 50% rate (ie, those with earnings above £150,000, or $238,000) fell by a quarter, from £116 billion to £87 billion, in 2010-11, the first year in which the tax applied. This sharp drop means either that the well-paid did a lot less work in Britain or that they shielded their income from the higher tax rate. A closer look suggests the latter. (Stunning news. People don’t like paying taxes and if rates are high, find ways to avoid paying them. Or in the case of Democrats like Charlie Rangel, Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle, evade paying them. Who would have guessed? ~Bob.)

Seoul nuclear summit: North Korea snubs Barack Obama over missile
Excerpt: The North's plan to launch a long-range rocket next month has overshadowed the 53-nation summit, which is meant to focus on the threat of uranium and other nuclear material from falling into the hands of terrorists. Obama has devoted much of his three-day South Korean visit to its wayward neighbour, repeatedly denouncing the rocket launch while emphasising the United States is not hostile to the North's people. North Korea responded on Tuesday by saying it would go ahead with what it calls a peaceful satellite launch, saying every nation has this right, and called on Obama to drop his "confrontational mindset". (What NK really means: How dare you complain while we try to find better, faster ways to kill you? Come on now; by a show of hands, how many of you expected this reaction from them? Everybody! Well done. But, if WE could figure it out, why couldn't Obama and the State Department? Ron P.)

A Supreme Election?
Excerpt: Count me among the few who don’t believe that this week’s oral arguments before the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare,” and whatever ruling the justices announce, will be pivotal in determining President Obama’s fate in November. Notwithstanding the natural tendency for journalists to breathlessly cite everything (and every primary night!) as hugely consequential, some issues have already run their course with the public. President Obama’s two-year-old health care law has already been fully litigated in the court of public opinion, with a split and very close decision: A plurality think it and the individual mandate were bad, a handful of points ahead of those who approved of both.

Obama Whispers Away America’s Security
Excerpt: It is hard to overstate the dangerous implications of what happened this week when President Obama was caught by an open mic sending a message to Russia’s dictator-in-waiting to wait quietly till after the November elections, after which Mr. Obama could make concessions on America’s national defense. The White House is trying to explain this incident away as par for the course in an electoral year. It is not.

‘Smart’ Diplomacy: Obama’s Hot Mic Comment Rattles Poland
“This president has sold out Poland once before, to the Russians, on the subject of missile defense. Today’s hot mic comment therefore comes in that context, and is having ripple effects: Obama’s Republican rivals aren’t the only ones alarmed by his hot mic suggestion that missile defense — implicitly, defending Eastern Europe from Russia — could be softened after his re-election. (Obama’s not the sort of fellow you want at your back in a rough house. ~Bob.)

Hot mic reveals more than one thinks By Bruce McQuain
Excerpt: What you’ve seen during his first term is nothing compared to what you’ll see if he gets a second term. There will be no constraints on him by the need for re-election. Although it may be hard to believe, that has held him back somewhat this term. … The hot mic reveals a man biding his time and planning an unrestrained second term in which he'll pursue his agenda by whatever means are available to him.

The “Bi-Polar" Presidency
Excerpt: He also uses other overwrought words and phrases like when he describes Obama’s economic record as “bi-polar”- meaning “good”- and he asserts that “energy and multinational companies have led a stock boom that rivals the Dot-Com bubble.” Boy, and here I didn’t know the Dot Com bubble was such a great thing. After reading Thompson’s exclamation points to Obama (!!!), I wonder, first of all, how Thompson didn’t hyperventilate while writing it. You can almost feel Chris Matthews’ Obama-induced chill run up Thompson’s leg as he penned this love letter.

FDR, tax avoider By Stephen Hayward
Excerpt: Well, how about Franklin Delano Roosevelt? Turns out that in 1914, the second year of the income tax, he paid only a 1 percent rate on just 7 percent of his total income. (Now, now. Liberals are allowed to evade taxes or call women “sluts” and worse, or have sex with female employees and get a pass on rape allegations because, you see, their hearts are in the right place. ~Bob.)

Fraud convictions after CBS News investigation of "Storm Chasers" By Sharyl Attkisson
Excerpt: A Pennsylvania man and a construction company today pleaded guilty in an insurance fraud scheme exposed in a CBS News investigation last December. New Jersey's Attorney General says Dominik Sadowski and Precision Builders pleaded guilty and have been ordered to pay more than $68,000 in restitution. Precision Builders will also pay a $250,000 criminal fine.

Al Jazeera Will Not Air French Rampage Video
Good for al Jazeera. ~Bob. Excerpt: The Al Jazeera broadcaster said on Tuesday that it would not broadcast gruesome footage received by its Paris bureau that appears to show the killings of three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three French soldiers in southwestern France earlier this month. … He said the footage of the murders is combined with music, religious chants and the reading of Koranic verses. “You hear the gunshots and the cries of the victims,” he said.

Sudan and South Sudan in fierce oil border clashes
Excerpt: South Sudan President Salva Kiir said his forces had seized a key oil field - a claim denied by Sudan. Sudan state radio says President Omar al-Bashir has put off next week's visit to South Sudan for a summit. The countries fought a long civil war before the South seceded from Sudan. (I’m taking up a collection to airdrop a large supply of “Coexist” bumper stickers into the region to calm things down. ~Bob.)

Al-Shabab forces lose Somali base of El Bur
Excerpt: Ethiopian forces and Somali pro-government troops have captured a major base from al-Shabab militants, residents say. The central town of El Bur was one of the main bases still controlled by the al-Qaeda-linked group, analysts say.

Geraldo Rivera Has A Point About Blacks, Hispanics And Hoodies By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: It is not often that I agree with Geraldo Rivera, but recently he said something very practical and potentially life-saving, when he urged black and Hispanic parents not to let their children go around wearing hoodies. There is no point in dressing like a hoodlum when you are not a hoodlum, even though that has become a fashion for some minority youths, including the teenager who was shot and killed in a confrontation in Florida. I don't know the whole story of that tragedy, any more than those who are making loud noises in the media do, but that is something that we have trials for.

Roderick Scott Acquitted
Excerpt: He was a big man with a gun facing teenagers. He shot and killed an unarmed 15-year-old. How that can be justified is beyond me. (Remember the national outcry over this one? The rallies, the statements from the president and other “leaders.”? Me neither. Maybe because the shooter was black and the victim white. And NY doesn’t have a vilified “stand your ground” law. ~Bob.)

S.F. slayings suspect avoided deportation in 2006
Excerpt: The suspect in last week's slayings of five people in San Francisco was ordered deported in 2006 after he served a prison term for robbery and assault, but immigration authorities had to let him go free because his native Vietnam would not take him back, officials said Monday. Binh Thai Luc, 35, of San Francisco was released under the terms of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said undocumented immigrants must be released after six months if their country of origin won't allow them to return, according to officials with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Bernard Goldberg: Trayvon Martin and Media Hypocrisy
Excerpt: Let’s not be naïve: If Trayvon Martin had been shot that night by another black teenager there would be have been nothing from president Obama, no nationally televised demonstrations, no demands for justice by prominent civil rights leaders, and nobody outside his immediate circle of family and friends would even know his name. We know about Trayvon Martin only because the man who shot him looks white.

Obama's Biggest Lies: What a president will say and do to stay in power. By Arnold Ahlert
Excerpt: Americans have endured many politicians with a capacity for "embellishing" the truth. Yet as the last three years have revealed, with a special emphasis on the current election campaign, president Barack Obama is in a class by himself. He has lied so often and with such ease, it is impossible to catalogue them all. But some of the more egregious and dangerous lies deserve exposure, because the same man who was virtually a black box when he was elected in 2008 — with ample help from a collaborative, compromised media -- is once again trying to pull the proverbial wool over the electorate's eyes.

Worth Reading: Canada: Muslim Book Sanctions Wife-Beating by Robert Spencer
Excerpt: A book discovered in a Toronto Islamic bookstore is causing an Internet uproar: A Gift for the Muslim Couple by the Islamic scholar Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi advises Muslim men that “it might be necessary to restrain” their wives “with strength or even to threaten” them. It says that a Muslim wife is forbidden to leave her husband’s house “without his permission,” and that she has a responsibility to “fulfil his desires.” If she disobeys, he may “beat [her] by hand or stick” or “pull (her) by the ears,” but should “refrain from beating her excessively.” The only surprising thing about all this is that this book surprises anyone.

Worth Reading: Profiling vs. Racism by Walter Williams
Excerpt: According to the Uniform Crime Report for 2009, among people 18 or younger, blacks were charged with 58 percent of murder and non-negligent manslaughter, 67 percent of robberies, 42 percent of aggravated assaults and 43 percent of auto thefts. As for murder, more than 90 percent of the time, their victims were black. These statistics, showing a strong interconnection among race, youth and crime, are a far better explanation for racial profiling and suspicion than simple racism. (How would our lives change if we DIDN’T pay attention to our surroundings and the people in them? Would we be safer or less safe? Would we live longer or shorter? Would we feel more or less secure shopping, during our commutes, or at work, school, or play? The facts emerging now aren’t flattering to the deceased Mr. Martin, but they are even less flattering to those who have jumped on his “cause” without waiting for them to come out. We have courts, rather than mobs, because most of humanity—though clearly, not all—has learned courts are fairer and less apt to make mistakes. Courts aren’t perfect, but they’re one of the tools that keep us civilized. The alternative is for everyone to go armed and armored at all times—and life would then be uncomfortable, short and brutal. That’s not the choice I’d want for my family. Ron P.)

How Many Crimes Did the New Black Panthers Commit in Florida? by J. Christian Adams
Excerpt: “When New Black Panther Mikhail Muhammad called for the mobilization of a 10,000-strong black male mob to capture George Zimmerman, we glimpsed into the depths of racial depravity of the organization. “An eye for an eye,” Muhammad threatened. A cash bounty for Zimmerman, “dead or alive,” provided a nasty incentive for thugs across the land.”

Tax-Aided Nonprofit Reportedly Trains Homeless as Squatters
Excerpt: The New York Post says that Andres Perez, a board member of the nonprofit, Picture the Homeless, recently instructed about 20 people in the ways of "homesteading," or permanently occupying a vacant property. "You make sure you have your proper tools," he reportedly said during the unlikely workshop. "You remove the chains and padlock, and then you go in." (…) A Texas man, Kenneth Robinson recently paid $16 to file a claim to a house worth more than $340,000, asserting that a loophole in state law enabled him to take up residence in the home because no owner was present. Others reportedly used the same tactic to fraudulently lay claim to a $2.7 million mansion and other properties in Texas under "adverse possession." (The article says this calls the non-profit’s funding into question. Why doesn’t it raise the question of accessory-to-grand-theft? Even the cheapest hovel is worth enough to qualify as grand theft if it is stolen. Don’t waste time threatening their funding, just arrest him. Where are the police? Ron P.)

Turkish TV ad features Hitler to sell shampoo
Excerpt: The popularity of Hitler in Turkey and Egypt indicates the pervasiveness of Islamic antisemitism and its affinity for mass-murder and genocide. This is yet another indication of the rapid de-secularization and re-Islamization of Turkey.

Military Service Makes Men Grumpier
Excerpt: A new study appears to support what recruiters have known for years: Military service transforms people. But for friends, family and future co-workers of recruits, the transformation may not be for the better. The study from Washington University in St. Louis found that military service — combat excluded — seems to make men less “agreeable.” (Have no scientific evidence upon which to “hang my hat” but I tend to agree with the thesis that military service tends to make people grumpier. Based on my experiences, military service tends to make people grumpier—it sure did me—because of all the morally, ethically and intellectually bankrupt thugs who willingly endanger the lives of the cream of American youth for the sake of the almighty dollar—in their pockets. When you see friends, as well as those who rely on you for leadership, die or get horribly maimed—physically and/or emotionally—without accomplishing the mission and realize the failure was because someone was more concerned with the impact of decisions and events on their career than on the people ‘on the pointed end of the spear’ than the natural result is an adverse impact on your disposition. ~~ Semper Fidelis!!! . . . Lawrence E. McCartney; Master Gunnery Sergeant of Marines (Retired): 1967 – 1997 Boy, think what a sweet guy I’d have been but for the Marines. ~Bob.)

Toobin: Obama healthcare reform law 'in grave, grave trouble'
Excerpt: A top legal analyst predicted Tuesday that the Obama administration's healthcare reform legislation seemed likely to be struck down by the Supreme Court. Jeffrey Toobin, a lawyer and legal analyst, who writes about legal topics for The New Yorker said the law looked to be in "trouble." He called it a "trainwreck for the Obama administration."

The Sooper Guide to “White Hispanic” Skin Color for the Gringo Media!
Excerpt: It’s amazing the lengths of racebaiting that the Leftist Liberal News Media Industrial Complex will go to in order to re-elect their savior, Obama. They’re going so far as to call a Hispanic man “White Hispanic” in order to incite a race war! How tolerant and inclusive of them. Well, I thought I’d help them out and give them this easy to understand guide to classifying Hispanic skin colors! Enjoy gringos!

China and India Both Struggling: Growth Isn’t Guaranteed
Excerpt: Two simmering conflicts in Asia’s biggest countries have jumped back to the headlines recently. In India today, Naxalite forces ambushed a police convoy, killing fifteen policemen. And among China’s restive Tibetans, self immolations are on the rise. It’s a reminder that both these countries are dealing with serious internal unrest.

Interesting: The next 5 things that will happen in the presidential race
Excerpt: The Republican presidential primary race has reached — or, at the very least is well on its way to reaching — its conclusion. But, with every political death comes political birth — circle of life! — and the end of the primary signals the official start of the general election.

Excerpt: Filmmaker Spike Lee tweeted the wrong home address for George Zimmerman, the Sanford, Fla., man who many are claiming should be arrested for shooting and killing Trayvon Martin. The tweet could have potentially put the woman who actually lives at that address in danger.

Tweet from @BLACK REPUBLICAN
 “Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.” ― Ayn Rand

Tweet from @Ken Gardner
Four years ago today, our national debt was 69.5% of GDP. Today, it's 103.3% of GDP and rising fast. This will not end well

Tweet from @keder
Fun Fact: Mitt Romney's wealth amounts to about 0.63% of leftist hero Warren Buffett's wealth. That's 3/5 of ONE PERCENT

Excerpt: With just one week until the April 3 Wisconsin presidential primary, the Marquette Law School Poll shows Governor Mitt Romney with a 39 percent to 31 percent lead over Senator Rick Santorum, reversing Santorum’s lead in February polls. Looking ahead to the November election, Romney trails President Barack Obama by 43 percent to 48 percent.

Police: Trayvon protesters ransack store
No justice? Free loot! Making Trayvon proud. ~Bob. Excerpt: North Miami Beach police said surveillance video shows dozens of high school students demonstrating in the Trayvon Martin case Friday ransacking a Walgreens store.

JetBlue pilot flips out, is subdued by passengers
Excerpt: The pilot went into a toilet, then emerged "shouting, 'Iraq, al-Qaeda, terrorism, we're all going down.' It seemed like he went crazy," said Gabriel Schonzeit, of New York City, who was seated in the third row. Passengers said six to 10 travelers jumped the pilot and pinned him to the floor.

Excerpt: On Monday, Mitt Romney called President Obama’s exchange with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev an “alarming and troubling development.” This morning, in an open letter to the president, Romney’s foreign-policy advisers echo that theme. They blast Obama’s “weakness and inconstancy” and ask the president a series of specific questions, demanding “at least the same level of candor you have offered to Russia’s leaders.” (Whether you are a Romney supporter or not, all conservatives need to unite on this issue. Russia is not our ally. –Brad Thor.)

Obama’s Demagoguery: The president has a bad habit of wading uninformed into local controversies. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: President Obama himself, who had been silent about the slaughter in his adopted hometown, weighed in on the Martin case and, unfortunately, highlighted the racial undertones — lamenting that the murdered Martin looked just the way his own boy might, had he a son. The latter statement was true but also, of course, true of some of those murdered in Chicago. And given that the black minority currently commits violent crimes against the white majority more frequently than do the nation’s 70 percent whites against its 12 percent blacks, the president’s evocation of race in the Martin case seemed inappropriate to many.

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