Political Digest for
August 15, 2012
Robert A. Hall
Still out of town for my LT evaluation, but grabbed some
time on a borrowed computer to pull a few items and clear e-mail. Finished day
one of the 4-day process and I feel like the fellow who fell off the ten-story
building. As he passed a guy on a balcony on the seventh floor, he shouted, “So
far, so good!” ~Bob.
Sign Up! Obama Campaign Sues To Restrict Military
Voting In Ohio
http://www.mittromney.com/blogs/mitts-view/2012/08/obama-campaign-sues-restrict-military-voting-ohio
Excerpt: The implications of this lawsuit cannot be
overstated. The safeguards and accommodations provided to military voters
across the country are at stake. If the Obama campaign succeeds in this
lawsuit, the court could call into question numerous other state and federal voting
laws that aim to make it easier for members of the military to vote. We need
your help right away. To join Governor Romney in opposing this lawsuit by the
Obama campaign, sign up here.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: If this year’s election is going to be decided on
the basis of hard facts, the Obama administration is doomed. But the Obama campaign is
well aware of that, which is why we are hearing so many distracting innuendoes
and outright lies about such peripheral issues as what Mitt Romney is supposed
to have done while running Bain Capital — or even what is supposed to have
happened at Bain Capital years after Mitt Romney was gone.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: The election of the biracial Barack Obama was
supposed to usher in a new era of racial harmony. Instead, that dream is
becoming a tribally polarized nightmare — by design, and intended to assist in
the reelection of Barack Obama. Consider the increasing obsession with the term
“white” (as in versus “black”), along with the old standby charge of “racism” —
nearly all of it emanating from the president’s surrogates and celebrity
supporters.
Excerpt: President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt forced the
retirement on Sunday of his powerful defense minister, the army chief of staff
and other senior generals, moving more aggressively than ever before to reclaim
political power that the military had seized since the fall of Hosni Mubarak
last year.
US Navy ship collides
with oil tanker in Gulf
Excerpt: A U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer was left with
a gaping hole on one side after it collided with an oil tanker early Sunday
just outside the strategic Strait of Hormuz . The
collision left a breach about 10 feet by 10 feet (three by three meters) in the
starboard side of USS Porter. (everyday brings something to be thankful for.
Today I’m thankful I’m not the captain nor the officer who had the conn of the
Porter at the time. ~Bob.)
Tweet from @IowaHawk David Burge:
The USA
is $16T in debt. What does a PAC accusing Romney of murder call itself?
“Priorities USA .”
Obama Policies Hurt Less-Skilled Workers Most. By W. Michael Cox And
Richard Alm
Excerpt: To understand his reticence, all we have to do is
look at education levels, average weekly wages and unemployment rates. In the
Obama years, high school dropouts have faced unemployment rates of 14% or more,
well above the 8% of previous administrations. Wages for these workers had been
rising, but they've stagnated under Obama.
The college-cost
calamity: Many American universities are in financial trouble.
Excerpt: Long-term debt at not-for-profit universities in America has
been growing at 12% a year, estimate Bain & Company, a consultancy, and
Sterling Partners, a private-equity firm (see chart 1). A new report looked at
the balance-sheets and cashflow statements of 1,692 universities and colleges
between 2006 and 2010, and found that one-third were significantly weaker than
they had been several years previously. (No sweat—they’re too big to fail.
Obama will throw the grandkids money into the breach. ~Bob.)
Obama hosting Ramadan
dinner at White House
Excerpt: President Barack Obama will celebrate the Islamic
holy month of Ramadan by hosting an iftar (ifta) dinner Friday night at the
White House.
Senate Primary in Connecticut
Excerpt: It may take a lot more than concierge-quality,
one-on-one politics for him to prevail in the
Republican Senate primary on Tuesday against the former wrestling
executive Linda E. McMahon, who
since 2010 has spent roughly $65 million on two races for the Senate and has
blanketed the state with advertisements while he has barely been on the air.
9Shays is considered a RINO, but in CT, only a RINO has a hope of defeating a
liberal Harry Reid supporting Democrat. ~Bob.)
Six United States Marines Murdered; Two Acts of
Treachery; One Day in the True Afghanistan
Excerpt: The tenth of August has given us two more examples
of just how miserable the United States Government's vision for the
"war" in Afghanistan
is! In what can only be described as an "in-your-face" declaration by
the very focused, ideologically motivated forces at work within the borders of Afghanistan ,
these two incidents, the latest in an ever increasing number
of like attacks, once again demonstrate just how wrong our
understanding of Afghan culture is.
Gunmen attack central
Nigerian village, kill at least one
Excerpt: Gunmen attacked a
mainly Christian village
outside the flashpoint central Nigerian city of Jos, killing at least one
person and injuring two others, a military
spokesman said Sunday. (Nigeria
has few Jews, so the poor Muslims there have to make do with slaughtering
Christians. And each other, of course. ~Bob.)
Pro-Islamist elected
to head Libya
Your tax dollars at work, supporting the Arab Spring. ~Bob.
Excerpt: Libya 's ruling
national assembly picked Mohamed al-Megaryef, leader of the National Front
party, as its president on August 9, 2012 in Tripoli , in a vote carried out a day after it
took power from the outgoing National Transitional Council.
I’m your huckleberry:
Romney/Ryan ticket starts a showdown
Excerpt: The political press and President Obama alike claim
they want a campaign about big ideas, an adult debate about policy differences.
Now they’ve got it in spite of, not because of, Barack Obama. With Ryan on the
ticket, the debate should no longer be about contraception and the deferred
cancer-causing capabilities of Bain investments. It will be about the budget
and the $16-trillion debt, the unsustainable trajectory of the federal
government and the promises it’s already breaking to generations to come. It
will be about Simpson-Bowles and a federal government that hasn’t even bothered
to pass a budget since before the iPad existed.
Quotes from NRO
Newsletters Morning Jolt with Jim Garaghty
Now, you know me. Show me somebody who believes they can win
by losing, and I'll show you a loser. I'm not a fan of protest votes, staying
home, third-party votes, write-ins, or other forms of "sending a
message" that result in the other side -- you know, the one that stands
for everything we oppose and that enacts policies you and I believe are harmful
to the country -- in charge of the reins of government. You put the guy who is
closest to your perspective in and keep the worst guy out. You push in your
direction a little bit each day, and don't expect to enact your dream policies
overnight. But . . . like many others, I've concluded that this coming election
is make-or-break for the country's future. All in. Go big or go home.
If indeed, this
election turns on whether the American people are willing to hear hard truths
they don't want to hear, it may be worth asking how our society reached the
point where so many people are so resistant to hearing these sorts of hard
truths: You can't spend more
than you have. There aren't many substitutes for working hard. You can't rely
on someone else to improve the quality of your life -- particularly not the
government. Government cannot be Santa Claus. There is no free lunch. (Worth Subscribing to Morning Jolt. ~Bob. http://www.nationalreview.com/)
The CBO Just Rendered
Its Verdict On The Cost Of Obamacare, And It Isn't Pretty. By sally Pipes.
Excerpt: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just rendered
its latest opinion on the cost of Obamacare following the Supreme Court’s
decision to uphold most of the law back in June. The numbers aren’t pretty.
Despite breathless media reports of additional “savings,” the government’s bean
counters actually exposed several flaws in the law that will, in the long term,
lead to higher costs and reduced access to insurance coverage.
Excerpt: President Barack Obama signed a bill Friday evening that would
exempt some senior-level presidential appointees from Senate confirmation. The
law now sidesteps that process, with Congress willingly giving up oversight of
these appointees. “The United States Constitution does not bestow kingly powers
on the President to appoint the senior officers of the government with no
process,” wrote Thomas McClusky, senior vice president for the
Family Research Council’s legislative arm, in a memo to lawmakers last week.
Gender-based violence
leading cause of death for women aged 15-44
Excerpt: The number of women who die due to gender-based
violence surpasses the number of women who lose their lives due to cancer,
traffic accidents, wars and malaria, revealed a study by the Turkish Ministry
of Family and Social Policy. (In “moderate” Turkey , that wants to join the EU.
~Bob.)
Excerpt: A man violently struck his wife last Thursday
because she removed her veil. (In Socialist, multicultural France. ~Bob.)
Pak terrorist attacks
killed at least 3,898 in 2012
http://zeenews.india.com/news/south-asia/pak-terrorist-attacks-killed-at-least-3-898-in-2012_792644.html
Excerpt: The deaths include 1,705 civilians, 485 security forces personnel and 1,708 terrorists.
Excerpt: The deaths include 1,705 civilians, 485 security forces personnel and 1,708 terrorists.
Health Reform
without Self-insurance: How the Right Would Control Health Care Costs.
By John Goodman
Excerpt: In contrast to the
proposals put forward by left-of-center
policy analysts, a group of right-of-center
economists, also writing in the New England Journal of
Medicine (NEJM), are proposing two ideas with merit: Give Medicare
enrollees the opportunity to enroll in private health plans, with the
government paying a fixed sum of money toward the premium. Replace the current
system of tax subsidies for private health insurance for the working age
population with a lump sum, refundable tax credit and make it available
regardless of where the insurance is purchased — at work, in the marketplace or
in a health insurance exchange.
Ambiguity in Health
Law Could Make Family Coverage Too Costly for Many
Excerpt: The new health care law is
known as the Affordable. But Democrats in Congress and advocates for low-income
people say coverage may be unaffordable for millions of Americans because of a
cramped reading of the law by the administration and by the Internal Revenue
Service in particular.
Ducks and Demos: Lowell
http://www.lowellsun.com/editorials/ci_21300811/ducks-and-demos
http://www.lowellsun.com/editorials/ci_21300811/ducks-and-demos
Excerpt: Does a group named "Demos" sound like
it's a nonpartisan public-policy organization? Why don't you ask George Soros,
the ultra-liberal billionaire and one of its major backers? Should a group with
the daughter of the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts as its board chair be lodging
lawsuits in that state during that person's campaign? And why would Massachusetts , which has
a state Legislature and congressional delegation dominated by Democrats, be the
only one that agreed to send out mass mailings to encourage welfare recipients
to register to vote, in order to satisfy the suit's demands?
Brock oppo file on Ryan:
the cure for insomnia. By Joel Pollak
Excerpt: I literally fell asleep while reading David Brock’s opposition research file on Paul Ryan, the
Republican candidate for Vice President. The 290-page media cheat sheet, prepared by Brock’s super PAC, American
Bridge 21st Century, and released on the Internet so that the Obama campaign
could borrow from it without coordinating with the super PAC (wink, wink), is
not just boring, but a giant failure, except as a cure for insomnia.
True, that: The Most Divisive Campaign in American
History. By Daniel Greenfield
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-most-divisive-campaign-in-american.html
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-most-divisive-campaign-in-american.html
Excerpt: In 1980, when President Reagan asked Americans,
"Are you better off now than you were four years ago", it was still
possible to campaign on a theme as simple as the job performance of the other
guy. But now, 32 years later, the campaign hinges on a much more fundamental
split among the voting population. Romney appeals to voters who are
dissatisfied with the last four years. Obama appeals to voters who are
dissatisfied with America .
(Very sad but pretty accurate.... and how dangerous it all is. We can only pray
the GOP and Romney get their campaigning act together and really rebut Obama's
approaches, and really get people to understand what this is all about. --Del )
Whistle-blower,
documents: Ill. state workers forced to attend Pelosi, Jesse Jackson Jr. event
on taxpayer dime, By Matthew Boyle
Excerpt: Documents and a whistle-blower affidavit obtained by The Daily Caller
charge that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Illinois Democratic Rep.
Jesse Jackson Jr., and Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., participated in an unethical —
and possibly illegal — effort to force 76 employees of an Illinois state agency to engage in political
activity on the taxpayers’ dime. (Everyone here in Chicago is stunned…that anyone notices this
stuff any more. ~Bob.)
Terrifying Corn Supply/Demand Situation Unfolding, By Sara Schafer
Excerpt: ….Gulke says on a recent CNBC segment, it was
reported it takes 3 lbs. of corn to put a 1 lb. of gain on a hog, 5 lbs. of
corn to put 1 lb. on a cow and about five times as much to make a gallon of
ethanol. "There’s going to be a real push out there to do something about
ethanol." The general public, Gulke believes, is not going to want to see
meat and food prices increase, at the expense of ethanol. (Sorry, still looks
like regime decided to keep the ethanol and kill the animals for “military and
federal programs.” --Barb)
Excerpt: Holder’s Department of Justice directed Ronald
Machen, the U.S. Attorney for the District
of Columbia , to not enforce the criminal contempt
resolution. Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and others have argued that the
move showed Machen is incapable of making decisions independent of political
influence. Those contempt votes came shortly after President Barack Obama
asserted executive privilege over the documents. “Waiting nearly eight months
after the subpoena had been issued to assert a meritless claim of privilege, the
President’s decision was a calculated political maneuver designed to stop the
release of documents until after November’s elections,” Issa added.
Atheist group unveils DNC billboards bashing ‘space alien’ Mormonism,
‘useless savior’ Christianity. By Steven Nelson
Excerpt: Billboards sure to offend and enrage the faithful
will appear at the Democratic National Convention in September, according to
advocacy group American Atheists. The billboards, which attack Mormonism and
Christianity, will appear in Charlotte , N.C. Tampa , Fla.
USDA to purchase $170
million worth of meat to help farmers struggling with drought
Excerpt: The government will buy up to $170 million worth of
pork, lamb, chicken and catfish to help drought-stricken farmers, the White
House said Monday as President Barack Obama brought his re-election campaign to
rural voters in Iowa .
The purchase for food banks and other federal food nutrition programs is
expected to help producers struggling with the high cost of feed during the
worst drought in a quarter-century. Federal law allows the Agriculture
Department to buy meat and poultry products to help farmers and ranchers
affected. (The magnanimous O helps the farmer—makes a great byline. Heard on
the farm report that they were going to sell off all the protein crops to
“relieve the pressure on corn” prices; the regime refuses to drop the ethanol
quotas for “green” despite need of families next year for food. Expect
famine…unless you bear the mark of O and get a handout. –Barb.)
J&K women told to
keep veil, not to use mobile
Excerpt: Taking a cue from Taliban extremists, militants in Kashmir have threatened to throw acid on the faces of
women who use mobile phones and don’t keep veil.
Paul Ryan on Medicare
Excerpt: This 2010 six minute discussion of the budget by
Paul Ryan shows you how he operates. Whatever you've heard about his proposed
budget, good or bad, may be another subject, but no matter what, he sure can
examine the details of finance and parse out what they really mean. That
capacity is as rare as hen's teeth among politicians. Is he more on the Right
than people really know and would like? I don't know, but I have deep respect
for his analytical skills and tend to believe those skills would be
tremendously useful in a new Administration. And I sure want to rely more on
what I see and hear from him directly than what assorted media figures say. --Del
No Future in France: Dire Times for French Jews: TheToulouse
No Future in France: Dire Times for French Jews: The
Excerpt: “Any time young people approach me in order to get
married, I ask them various questions about their future. Eighty percent of
them say they do not envision any future in France .” This is what one rabbi in Paris told me last week.
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