Political Digest for April 13, 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.

Resources

For those who want further information about the topics covered in this blog, I recommend the following sites. I will add to this as I find additional good sources.

http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2011/03/resources-for-opinion-leaders-who.html

No Attention for

Daylight Highway

Stabbing in Alabama by J. Christian Adams

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2012/04/10/no-attention-for-daylight-highway-stabbing-in-alabama/?singlepage=true

Excerpt: A frightening event happened March 28 on an Alabama highway. The event has received no national attention apart from a lone story in the Macon Beacon in Macon, Mississippi. Not only was the event frightening, but the response — or lack thereof — by Alabama law enforcement authorities was almost as frightening. The local media, including the Birmingham News, failed to cover the shocking attack. With the flurry of national media attention the Trayvon Martin killing has received, why hasn’t the daylight stabbing of Nick Stokes received any attention? Your first guess might be right.

Foreign fighters among those killed in clashes in Yemeni south

http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2012/04/foreign_fighters_among_those_k.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LongWarJournalSiteWide+%28The+Long+War+Journal+%28Site-Wide%29%29

Excerpt: Fighting around the city of Lawdar in Abyan province continued for the third day straight, and Yemeni military officials claimed to have dealt al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula heavy losses. Saba Net, a Yemeni state-run news service claimed, based on a report from 26September.net, a Defense Ministry website, that dozens of al Qaeda fighters, including two commanders and foreigners, were among those killed:

Florida “Community Activist” Tries To Justify Saying “The Things About To Happen To These Honkeys, Crackers, Pigs, Pink People Is Long Over Due”…

http://weaselzippers.us/2012/04/11/florida-community-activist-tries-to-justify-saying-the-things-about-to-happen-to-these-honkeys-crackers-pigs-pink-people-is-long-over-due/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Excerpt: Williams can be heard saying, “Let me tell you something, the things that is about to happen to these honkeys, these crackers, these pigs, these pink people, these (beep) people, it has been long over due.” Michelle Williams is the Chief of Staff with the local chapter of the New Black Panther Party. As a community activist, she has also worked very closely with both the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office as well as the Tampa Police Department.

Sabato's Crystal Ball: Romney's Perfect VP?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JmoJagaRhk

Tweet from Jon Gabriel @‏ExJon

Gonna sit out 2012 because Romney's the nominee? This should change your mind: Supreme Court Justice Eric Holder.

Social Security by Choice

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=21806&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

The NCPA.org is worth following and supporting financially if you can. ~Bob. Excerpt: The experience of three Texas counties can offer a realistic demonstration of how Social Security can be successfully reformed. Galveston, Matagorda and Brazoria counties opted out of Social Security in the early 1980s, and have since developed and implemented what they call the Alternate Plan, says Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation. Like Social Security, employees contribute 6.2 percent of their incomes, which the counties match with the option of providing more (as Galveston does). Unlike a traditional IRA or 401(k) plan, which account holders can actively manage, the contributions are pooled, like deposits to a bank savings account. Top-rated financial institutions then bid on the right to manage the funds, offering minimum interest rates that yield significant protection from market downturns. The plan avoids the pitfalls of pay-as-you-go systems by giving workers only what they pay in. The experience of the three counties' employees over the past 30 years speaks to the effectiveness and efficiency of the plans. While paying out substantially higher payments to retired workers, the plans do not face burdensome unfunded liabilities that haunt many states' legislatures. A lower-middle income worker making about $26,000 at retirement would get about $1,007 a month under Social Security, but $1,826 under the Alternate Plan. A middle-income worker making $51,200 would get about $1,540 monthly from Social Security, but $3,600 from the Alternate Plan. And a high-income worker who maxed out on his Social Security contribution every year would receive about $2,500 a month from Social Security compared to $5,000 to $6,000 a month from the Alternate Plan. (Yeah, but the government has to invest it, not “borrow” it at crappy interest rates as they have done. Wish I was in this plan instead of SS. ~Bob.)

Hybrid owners unlikely to buy another one, study shows

http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/10/11101762-hybrid-owners-unlikely-to-buy-another-one-study-shows?lite

Excerpt: Hybrid sales have been surging as fuel prices take their latest run towards record levels. But the news might not be nearly as good as it would seem if a new study by R.L. Polk is any indication. Despite previous sales surges tied to past petroleum price hikes the U.S. hybrid vehicle market hasn’t been able to maintain its momentum and the Polk study apparently explains why. After living with the high-mileage technology, nearly two of three hybrid owners wind up returning to a more conventional vehicle when it’s time to trade in.

Victor Davis Hanson ---Enemies of the People

http://townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2012/04/12/enemies_of_the_people/page/full/

Excerpt: In 2008, a mostly unknown Barack Obama ran for president on an inclusive agenda of "hope and change." That upbeat message was supposed to translate into millions of green jobs, fiscal sobriety, universal health care, a resetting of Bush foreign policy, and racial unity. Four years later, none of those promises will be themes of his 2012 re-election campaign.

Rosen gives Romney a chance to close the presidential gender gap
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/221187-rosen-gives-romney-a-chance-to-close-the-presidential-gender-gap

Excerpt: Hillary Rosen's comments that Ann Romney had “never” worked outside the home triggered a new round in the culture wars and provided an opening for Republicans to close a gender gap between Mitt Romney and President Obama. Both parties seemed to sense that the veteran Democratic strategist’s criticism of the stay-at-home mom could be a game changer in the fight for women voters. (If raising 5 sons through breast cancer and MS isn't a real job, I'm not sure what is. –Erick Erickson, Red States.)

Obama campaign moves to distance itself from Rosen remarks
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/221205-obama-campaign-moves-to-distance-itself-from-rosen-remarks

Excerpt: The Obama campaign on Thursday moved to quickly distance themselves from comments made by a Democratic strategist who said Ann Romney, the wife of GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney, “never worked a day in her life.” An Obama campaign aide told The Hill that the strategist, Hilary Rosen, is not an adviser of any kind to the campaign and likewise doesn’t serve as an adviser to the Democratic National Committee.

The Left’s war on conservative women: We’re damned if we do stay home, and damned if we don’t By Michelle Malkin

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/04/12/the-lefts-war-on-conservative-women-were-damned-if-we-do-stay-home-and-damned-if-we-dont/

Excerpt: I am also reminded of the liberal elite female journalists who scolded Sarah Palin for being a working mom in 2008:

Flashback: Obama Warns GOP "Lay Off My Wife"

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Vote2008/story?id=4881883&page=1#.T4cbfC_Cz8B

What Got George Zimmerman Charged With Second-Degree Murder

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/12/what-got-george-zimmerman-charged-with-second-degree-murder.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning

Excerpt: In social media forums we’ve seen debates rage between evidence-proof minds, caulked against the entry of new information or contrary ideas. Between neo-Nazi patrols and black nationalist bounties, between Geraldo Rivera’s ridiculous fashion speculation and the hacking of Martin’s Twitter account we saw Sanford, Fla., become a racial ground zero, the place where our post-racial myths go to die. (This interesting and well written view from the left never quite answers its own headline question. So, I’ll answer it for the author in one word: politics. The only reason Zimmerman has been charged is the modern-day lynch mobs roaming the streets of Sanford. If there was sufficient reason—and evidence—to charge him with anything more than “discharging a firearm within the city,” the police would’ve already done so on their own. The police have no particular liking for Zimmerman. Not long ago, he filed grievances against several Sanford officers, alleging racism; some of those same officers were involved in investigating the Martin shooting. One can only imagine the glee with which they’d have greeted any evidence that would remove Zimmerman from their lives in a legal way. Yesterday, while driving, I heard a discussion of this case on NPR, not known for its support of conservative ideas. The interviewee—whose name I never heard, but was a lawyer—said he’d love to take the case because a, there is NO evidence that a crime has been committed, and b, that there IS evidence Zimmerman was assaulted, and c, that what “evidence” has been given to the public by the media has—in almost every case—been edited or altered to change its meaning, and finally d, that the refusal by the police to charge Zimmerman was, in itself, prima fasciae proof of “reasonable doubt.” The interviewer, Robin Young, was flabbergasted, but thanked the lawyer and moved on to another subject. What we’re seeing is NOT the “rule of law” in action, but the rule of the mob. Even the decision not to take this to a grand jury was political; grand juries are large, cumbersome things that can be hard to control by stacking with “the right jurors.” And, if there is little—or no—evidence to present showing a crime was committed, they could return “no bill.” And Sanford would burn. When the facts are known—which may never happen, real life isn’t neat like it is on TV—we still won’t know what thoughts were in Zimmerman’s mind when he pulled that trigger. But, the sight of that would-be lynch mob should give us all pause. Ron P.)

49% Trust Romney Over Obama on Economy; 39% Trust President More

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections/election_2012/election_2012_presidential_election/april_2012/49_trust_romney_over_obama_on_economy_39_trust_president_more

Excerpt: Voters now have more confidence in presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney than in President Obama when it comes to the economy, but on other major issues facing the nation, the two men continue to run nearly even.

Bernard Goldberg: Kissing up to the Rev. Al

http://www.bernardgoldberg.com/kissing-up-to-the-rev-al/?utm_source=BernardGoldberg.com+Newsletter&utm_campaign=00a5a1d510-NEWSLETTER&utm_medium=email

Excerpt: Pandering is part of the job description, we correctly figure. But when the panderer is also the attorney general of the United States, we should pay attention. Especially when he’s kissing up to Al Sharpton.

The Dismantling Of Obama By: Howard Galganov

http://www.galganov.com/editorials.asp?id=1450

Excerpt: When the Republican nominating process began, Mitt Romney was just about last on my list of candidates I would have preferred to be running against Obama. But, a funny thing is happening on the way to the Convention. The candidates that I favored at the outset fizzled out one after another; some of them because they simply didn’t have the gravitas necessary, some of them because they didn’t measure up to the challenge, and some of them because under fire, they just didn’t have what it took.

Obama Administration Leaks ANOTHER Israeli Defense Secret by Ben Shapiro

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/04/11/Obama-Leak-Israel-Iran

Excerpt: The leaks continue from the Obama administration with regard to Israeli defense secrets. On Sunday, the New Yorker printed a report stating that US had worked with the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK). The US was apparently receiving intelligence from the group, including intercepted cell phone calls and text messages.

Obama's Campaign Will Take the Low Road: The 2008 pledge not 'to pit Red America against Blue America' is no longer operative.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304444604577337712572691738.html?mod=djemITP_h

Excerpt: Rick Santorum's decision Tuesday to suspend his campaign effectively ends the GOP nomination fight. But it doesn't mark the start of the general election between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. That contest has long been under way. Mr. Obama's speech to the Associated Press last week and two appearances in Florida on Tuesday provide a glimpse of the low road the president and his campaign likely will take.

Obama Gives $5 Million To Arab-Based Green Energy Firm

http://theobamafile.com/_Islam/ObamasMuslims.htm

Excerpt: Judicial Watch's Corruption Chronicles says if wasting exorbitant amounts of money to support the corrupt United Nations wasn’t bad enough, Obama has joined a new Arab-based "international organization" dedicated to promoting renewable energy worldwide. That means U.S. taxpayers will supply a big chunk of the group’s funding in addition to the billions of dollars that already go to the U.N. each year for programs that, incidentally, already address renewable energy.

I Have No Sympathy for Gary Stein by Erick Erickson (Diary)

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/04/11/i-have-no-sympathy-for-gary-stein/

Excerpt: Gary Stein is an active duty Marine who has taken to Facebook to complain about President Obama. … I’m a bit appalled by the conservatives who have decided to rally around this guy. Were he doing this to George W. Bush, a great many people on the right now supporting him would be calling for a court-martial. The irony, of course, is that many on the left now calling for him to be disciplined would have been perfectly okay with him going after Bush. They would have treated him as a celebrity.

Female Genital Mutilation in Iraq / Study shows: FGM common in Kirkuk

http://www.mesop.de/2012/04/10/press-release-female-genital-mutilation-in-iraq-study-shows-fgm-common-in-kirkuk/

The real “War on Women” is in Muslim majority countries under Shari’a Law. ~Bob. Excerpt: For the first time, an empirical study proved that female genital mutilation is also prevalent in parts of Iraq beyond the borders of the Kurdish Region. WADI and the local women’s rights organization PANA have conducted an in-depth research about the existence and background of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Kirkuk. They interviewed 1212 women above the age of 14 and asked each of them 61 questions.

Why It's Criminal to Lie About Military Honors

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/04/why-its-criminal-to-lie-about-military-honors/255729/

Excerpt: As the Supreme Court decides whether to uphold the Stolen Valor Act, the public should note the damage that fraudulent veterans have already done.

Pro-marriage group thinks IRS employee leaked Mitt Romney’s donor info to Human Rights Campaign by Matt k. Lewis.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/12/pro-marriage-group-thinks-irs-employee-leaked-mitt-romneys-donor-info-to-human-rights-campaign/#ixzz1rqpfYKIP

Excerpt: It is likely that someone at the Internal Revenue Service illegally leaked confidential donor information showing a contribution from Mitt Romney’s political action committee to the National Organization for Marriage, says the group. In a letter exclusively obtained by The Daily Caller, the organization has asked the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to “investigate and learn the source of the breach and prosecute those responsible to the fullest extent of the law.” It also provided evidence suggesting the leak might have been the result of “IRS employee misconduct.”

Obama slammed over gas prices

http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/9868-obama-slammed-over-gas-prices?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Excerpt: As polls show President Barack Obama to be vulnerable on gas prices, someone is finally getting the message and hitting him on the issues. American Crossroads released an ad this week hitting Obama for blaming others and doing nothing to easy the pain Americans are feeling at the pump: (Obama’s energy policy: Pound the Poor at the Pumps. ~Bob.)

Worth Reading: Obama’s inequality argument just utterly collapsed By James Pethokoukis

http://blog.american.com/2012/04/obamas-inequality-argument-just-utterly-collapsed/

Excerpt: For the past 30 years, the living standards of middle-class Americans have gone nowhere even as the overall U.S. economy has grown markedly. The Obama explanation: Wealthier Americans grabbed all the money. Time to raise their taxes for the sake of “fairness.” … According to the Cornell study, median household income – properly measured – rose 36.7%, not 3.2% like Piketty and Saez argue. (Unfortunately, the media will ignore this and economically-ignorant voters will continue to buy into the politics of envy. ~Bob.)

Mike Tyson on George Zimmerman: ‘It’s a disgrace he hasn’t been shot yet’

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/mike-tyson-trayvon-martin-case-disgrace-george-zimmerman-221115400.html

Can’t wait for the “fair trial.” ~Bob. Excerpt: Mike Tyson thinks that George Zimmerman deserves violent retribution for the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

GSA employees spent 5 days in Hawaii for 1-hour groundbreaking event By Chad Pergram

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/11/gsa-employees-travel-to-hawaii-five-days-for-one-hour-ribbon-cutting/#ixzz1robvaSI7B

Excerpt: The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Wednesday that five employees associated with the recently scandal-plagued Government Services Administration went to Hawaii for up to a week in 2011 to attend an hour-long groundbreaking on space leased by the federal government for the FBI. Details of the incident surfaced in a transcript of an interview between the GSA Inspector General’s Office and a GSA employee. The employee indicated to the IG investigator that trip was not isolated and that there was another, longer junket scheduled for Hawaii this fall. (I think we can safely add GSA to a branch of regime to dismantle and terminate. Think of the savings. They might actually fulfill their proposed purpose by being dismantled. –Barb.)