Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for October 2, 2012
Your one-stop-shop for political news and opinion. Please forward to friends who need to be informed. This SitRep (Military for “Situation Report”) is created by many readers who send me items for inclusion, which I would have likely missed or skipped. And I can only spend at most three hours a night pulling stuff, plus the healthcare or economic stuff that crosses my desk at work. As always, I—and you—owe them thanks and appreciation. I post articles because I think they are of interest and will stimulate thought and discussion. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article, or that I was able to verify the information presented, which is the responsibility of the author. I try not to post things that are false, or too far a stretch, regardless of the view point, but I don’t always succeed. As always on the Net, or in the legacy media, you must read critically and with skepticism.
Thursday’s Headline: Romney makes several gaffes, blows debate, Obama surges.
Hackers broke into computers at MSNBC, ABC, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post and several other media outlets and discovered the same debate story had already been written, with variations on the above headline. From the story, “Romney made a remarkable gaffe in his opening remarks by saying ‘Good Evening,’ apparently clueless that many viewer will watch a tape of the debate the next morning. It got worse.” (Okay, this is satire. But who doubts that it is essentially true? ~Bob.)
New Book: The Liberal War on Transparency: Confessions of a Freedom of Information "Criminal" by Christopher C Horner
Being released October 2. I’ve added it to my far-too-long reading list. ~Bob
Book Recommendation: Generation Kill by Evan Wright
Wright is a reporter (For Rolling Stone!) who was embedded with the 1st Marine Recon Battalion on the drive from Kuwait to Baghdad
Incomes down, gas prices up—chart
After Obama guidance, Lockheed won’t issue layoff notices this year
Waiving the law to protect Obama before the election. ~Bob. Excerpt: Lockheed Martin said Monday it will not issue employee layoff notices this year, ending an election-year showdown with the Obama administration. The company said it based its decision on new guidance issued Friday by the Office of Management and Budget and the Pentagon.
Americans’ Incomes Have Fallen $3,040 During the Obama ‘Recovery.’ By Jeffrey H. Anderson
Excerpt: Americans must be wondering how much more of this “recovery” they can afford. New figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the typical American household’s real (inflation-adjusted) income has actually dropped 5.7 percent during the Obama “recovery.”
Worth Reading : Time to Get Mad.
Excerpt: At home, unemployment is stuck above 8 percent. Twenty-three million are out of work. Millions of others have given up looking for jobs. One American in six is on food stamps. Small businesses are terrified of Obamacare. The economy ran out of gas four years ago and the president still thinks the only way to get it going again is to fill up the tank with trillions of dollars of debt and make successful people pay for the tow truck.
Quote from The Patriot Post
"To combat depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection -- a procedure which can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end." --economist Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992)
Worth Reading : Obama: 'You Belong to Me.
Excerpt: Liberals have never answered the question: what of those who do not choose to join in a "common end" that government has chosen for them? What of those who refuse to "belong to government"? These unfortunate souls must be dealt with, as Obama's departments and agencies are dealing with them: by silencing them, litigating against them, jailing them, and ruining their businesses and reputations. Those tactics, and more, were exactly what European leftists from Mussolini to Stalin resorted to.
Tribe of
Excerpt: According to the American creed, no one, and no thing, is the boss of me unless I agree to it. To a certain extent, that's even true -- at least in theory -- about the government, which is a representative institution created solely by and for the people, who are sovereign. ... Because the moral superiority of liberty is irrefutable, totalitarians often feel the need to wrap barbarism in the language of freedom.
It’s Debatable. By George Will
Excerpt: The spectacles we persist in dignifying as presidential "debates" -- two-minute regurgitations of rehearsed responses -- often subtract from the nation's understanding. But beginning this Wednesday, these less-than-Lincoln-Douglas episodes might be edifying if the candidates can be inveigled into plowing fresh ground.
49% Think America
So how is Obama ahead? ~Bob. Excerpt: Most voters don't rate the United State stronger today than it was four years ago when it comes to race relations, opportunities for women and young people and America America
The Swedish Model: Government Austerity. By Randall Hoven
Excerpt: The real story of Sweden Sweden
The 47% Solution: Yes, If You’re Poor, It Really May Be Your Fault. By Kathy Shaidle
Excerpt: All those people who cheered when Obama mocked old-fashioned notions of intelligence and hard work are the very same people now outraged by Romney’s clumsily stated remarks about the “47%.” In other words: the same people who helped create the “47%” whose existence they’re now trying to deny. (In my book, Advice for my Granddaughter: For when I’m gone [[Royalties go to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation], I told her that some people are poor through no fault of their own. But also that most people in America
Drop in Ohio
Excerpt: "Don't boo, vote," President Obama often says in his stump speech whenever crowds boo a Romney plan. The off-hand call to vote may be by design. It comes amid a precipitous decline in Democratic voter registration in key swing states -- nowhere more apparent than in Ohio
What to Make of Declining Democratic Registration?
Excerpt: And all of the polls show that Romney is doing well with independent voters; far better, obviously, than with Democrats. This is just one more example of how inconsistent the data are, on the basis of which the Democratic Party media are boosting Barack Obama’s campaign.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: Less than six weeks before the election, the Obama campaign’s theme song might as well be the old country-music favorite “Make the World Go Away.” This may be smart politics, but it’s not good governing: The way this campaign is going, the president will have a foreign affairs mandate for . . . nothing. … I’m told that the talk in the Libyan underground is about a “global intifada,” like what the new al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has been preaching for the past five years.
Excerpt: THE Philippines US embassy warned that an unspecified threat against Americans in the capital Manila
Worth Reading
Excerpt: Nothing about the constantly evolving tale the Obama administration has been weaving about the attacks in the Middle East makes sense, unless it is seen as a deliberate attempt to mislead Americans into believing al-Qaeda has been decimated, as President Obama has been known to assert. After dancing on Osama bin Laden’s grave for a week in Charlotte
Univision: The untold story of what 'Fast and Furious' wrought in Mexico
Excerpt: In the US US
The Hill: What will be this year's October surprise? By Kyle Balluck
Excerpt: From Henry Kissinger's 1972 "peace is at hand" declaration to Mark Foley's 2006 sex scandal to the Wall Street bailout of 2008, U.S. elections have a long and colorful history of late-breaking stories with the potential to influence outcomes.
Obama Moves Another Step Closer to Tyranny. By Arthur Louis
Excerpt: If you need proof that President Obama places little value on the Constitution he has sworn to protect, go visit the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles
Iranian jury finds Reuters guilty of lies in 'ninjas' report
Given how Reuters bends over backwards to be pro-Islamists, a nice bit of irony in this. Freedom of the Press, Shari’a style. ~Bob. Excerpt: The jury of Iran 's Press Court Tehran
Eurozone unemployment at fresh high
Excerpt: Unemployment in the eurozone hit a fresh high of 18.2 million in August, the EU statistics agency has said. The number out of work rose by 34,000, but after the July data was revised up, it meant the unemployment rate remained stable at a record high of 11.4%. (Obama wants to make us more like Europe . Another four years should do it. ~Bob.)
2 Supporters of a Challenger Are Killed as Venezuela
Democracy, Marxist style. ~Bob. Excerpt: At least two supporters of the opposition candidate in Venezuela
As Kenyan Forces Press Militants Across Border, a Church Is Attacked Back Home
Didn’t get the “Islam is a Religion of Peace” memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: A 9-year-old boy was killed and several other children were wounded on Sunday when a grenade was hurled into a church in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, two days after Kenyan forces invaded the last major stronghold of the Shabab militant group in Somalia.
The Administration's Messy Story on Libya
Excerpt: Washington Libya
Flaws in U.S.
Killing jobs to protect unions. ~Bob. Excerpt: While the United States Herbert A. Stiefel Center
Some illegal immigrants may get drivers licenses under new California
Excerpt: Some illegal immigrants could get California Los Angeles
Excerpt: As a freshman at Columbia University in 1970, future Attorney General Eric Holder participated in a five-day occupation of an abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters with a group of black students later described by the university’s Black Students’ Organization as “armed,” The Daily Caller has learned. (1970: Radicals attack the government. 2012: Radicals are the government. ~Bob.)
Obama USDA met 30 times with Mexican gov’t to promote food-stamp use among Mexican immigrants. By Caroline May
Excerpt: Department of Agriculture personnel in the Obama administration have met with Mexican Government officials dozens of times since the president took office to promote nutrition assistance programs — notably food stamps — among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America. (Incentivizing illegal colonists/future Democrats. ~Bob.)
Quote
“In an interview with Univision, President Obama said if there’s one thing he’s learned, it’s that you can’t change Washington from within. So what is he saying — that if we want real change, we should throw him out?” –Jay Leno (yes. ~Bob.)
9/11 Tweets from the Candidates
Barack Obama: The election is in 8 weeks. Sign up to volunteer.
Mitt Romney: On this most somber day, America is united under God in its quest for peace and freedom at home and across the world.
Dichotomies of The Liberal Class
Excerpt: I guess the problem I have with liberalism is that I find those who advocate liberalism seem incapable of pursuing a line of rational thought. They seem to embrace ideas that conflict with each other. The dichotomies generated in following liberal political ideas leave me dizzy. For example, while liberal Americans support Obama's embracing of the Muslim culture, where little girls' genitals are mutilated so that they can never enjoy sexual intercourse, liberal American women insist that their bodies are their own and if you won't fund universal abortion and birth control, you're a "heathen".
Dispatches From The War That Nobody Wants. By Walter Russell Mead
Excerpt: As everybody knows, there is no such thing as a global war on terror anymore. Instead we live in a harmonious world of interfaith comity with only the occasional criminal act that is quickly and competently handled by law enforcement officials. As a result we can cut our defense budgets and get on with the real business of life, which is to say watching TV, going to the mall and voting to re-elect the strategic geniuses whose wise decisions and firm but thoughtful leadership gave us this tranquil world order.
Did Saudis Fund Obama Through Harvard?
Excerpt: Percy Sutton, the New York politician who made this startling claim, was part of a clique of Harlem activist/ politicians including Rep. Charlie Rangel, David Dinkins, Basil Paterson, and Denny Farrell, who were closely connected to Democratic Socialists of America and the Communist Party USA. Mr. Sutton was also a mentor to current US Attorney General Eric Holder.
The modern left and Islamic fascism
Excerpt: The new threat to the West is a vile and ignorant Islamic religious fascism coming out of the Middle East. It is based on ancient Islam, but in its modern globalised form, and its attacks on western cities, it is more like a modern, 20th century, utopian totalitarian movement, similar to violent utopian communism or to mid-20th century European fascism. It is opposed to democracy, human rights, free speech, freedom of religion and freedom of sexuality.
OPINION: Free speech at risk as U.S. synchronizes with Islam http://www.yourwestvalley.com/opinion/article_5841ef7e-08d9-11e2-84ec-001a4bcf887a.html
Excerpt: This is war. Islam is attempting to dominate the West by attacking the basis of the West — freedom of speech. …. They have already decided to discard liberty for Shariah. The U.S. government and the Islamic bloc known as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation couldn’t be more in sync on this vital issue.
Outrageous!: Obama Administration Blames “Friendly Fire” Attacks in Afghanistan on US Troops. By Jim Hoft
Excerpt: If the US troops were just more respectful the Afghans would not be killing them. The New York Post reported, via Pat Dollard: ...Top officials believe culturally offensive behavior is the motivation behind the killings, so it’s stepped up Islamic sensitivity training for our troops.
White House Hack Attack: Chinese hackers break in to White House military office network in charge of the president’s nuclear football
Excerpt: Hackers linked to China’s government broke into one of the U.S. government’s most sensitive computer networks, breaching a system used by the White House Military Office for nuclear commands, according to defense and intelligence officials familiar with the incident.
Obama Administration Confused on Transparency
Excerpt: The Obama administration, in fact, routinely violates the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). … A recent report from the House and Energy Commerce Committee found that White House staff members have routinely conducted official business via personal email accounts in order to skirt transparency requirements.
Special Report details an up-to-date extensive time line of events from the Benghazi attack to now
Excerpt: This is an excellent time line of events since the attack on Benghazi from Special Report that includes everything we now know about what actually happened vs. the administration’s response along the way. It is quite revealing to watch it this way: (Video)
Beyond Obamacare. By Steven Rattner
Excerpt: We need death panels. … Take Britain, which provides universal coverage with spending at proportionately almost half of American levels. Its National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence uses a complex quality-adjusted life year system to put an explicit value (up to about $48,000 per year) on a treatment’s ability to extend life.
"Insider attacks" kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan
Excerpt: It's a critical problem for Gen. Allen, whose job is to make sure Afghan security forces take over the fight so U.S. soldiers can come home. Allen: …. You know, we're willing to sacrifice a lot for this campaign. But we're not willing to be murdered for it.
Well, of course: Venezuela's Chavez says he would vote for Obama if American
Excerpt: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has weighed in on the U.S. presidential race, saying he prefers President Barack Obama. Chavez also said in a televised interview that aired Sunday that he'd like to have "normal" relations with the U.S. government. The Venezuelan leader says, in his words, "If I were American, I'd vote for Obama."
October Colors - Sporting Pink. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: If after reading our story you have laughed, thought, cried, and thought some more then I have done my job. As to the job of readers, get that lump checked by a doctor; immediately. And pass this Commentary along. Please. A loved one's life may depend on it, and you, and they, not even know it. So goes life and, trust me, it's changed forever when a doctor says, "You have cancer." (Yes. But Breast Cancer gets probably 50 times as many research dollars as Pulmonary Fibrosis, which kills more people. It gets about eight times more research funding per death than lung cancer does. Some lives are more valuable than others. ~Bob.)
How Democrats Turned China Red and Egypt Green. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: The People’s Republic of China, emerging superpower and fierce red dragon of the Pacific, may well be the rival empire that we will one day have to face down across the ocean. But how did a former ally of the United States turn into a Communist superpower? The answer, as it so often is, is democracy. Not genuine democracy, but our commitment to the principle of political representation as the way to iron out all our foreign policy problems.
‘Sharia Medicine’: Egyptian Clinic Treats People with Camel Urine. By Raymond Ibrahim
Excerpt: A recent Egyptian TV program showed how Islamic Sharia law’s many prescriptions do not merely clash with modern-day concepts like free speech and religious freedom, but even with medicine and science. … Not only did Dr. Naggar promote this practice, but he made the staggering announcement that right now in Egypt a medical center in Marsa Matrouh actually specializes in treating people with camel urine, all in accord with the prophet’s advice.
Among the EUtopians. By Bruce Bawer
Excerpt: It’s an article of faith among EU fans that nation-states are a bad thing, and that if Europeans want lasting peace they’ve got to transfer their loyalties to the superstate.
WaPo Fact Checker: Obama’s claim that the Bush tax cuts led to the economic crisis
Excerpt: It is time for the Obama campaign to retire this talking point, no matter how much it seems to resonate with voters. The financial crisis of 2008 stemmed from a variety of complex factors, in particular the bubble in housing prices and the rise of exotic financial instruments. Deregulation was certainly an important factor, but as the government commission concluded, the blame for that lies across administrations, not just in the last Republican one. In any case, the Bush tax cuts belong at the bottom of the list — if at all. (The Obama test is “does it get votes,” not “is it true.” ~Bob.)
Obama’s Fourth Recovery Summer Ends
Excerpt: So, are you better off today than you were in 2009? One of the stunning things about the utterly supine press in the United States is that we have lived through the worst four years of economic mismanagement in this nation’s history. Not even Gerald Ford wearing his WIN (Whip Inflation Now) button and Jimmy Carter declared energy independence as the Moral Equivalence Of War (a contender for the unfortunate acronym award: MEOW) can compete with the utter fecklessness of this administration. By any conceivable measure, we are much worse off today than we were four years ago.
Joe Biden Plays Doctor. Hilarity Ensues.
Excerpt: America’s Rain Man, Joe Biden, made a campaign appearance in Florida last week. During the appearance Biden promised that Obamacare would provide free colonoscopies to all comers. … In a way, this extraordinary promise, that you can get a colonoscopy for free based on a “feeling you had” is a metaphor for the travesty that the Obama regime has inflicted upon the nation in the name of making better medical care available to anyone.
Montana: President of ice cream company faces resignation for mistakenly offending Muslim
Excerpt: This shows that Leftists and Islamic supremacists will destroy anyone and everyone based on perceived slights to Muslims. Matt Schaeffer is guilty of nothing but mistakenly thinking someone who was writing to him was in Pakistan, since a Pakistani map showed up with the message. But for this, he must resign and his company is in danger: it's "racism," doncha know. Muslims clearly experience no actual racism (what race is Islam again?), and so have to trump up and magnify efforts like this.
If you're near Livingston, Montana, buy Wilcoxson's Ice Cream and be sure that you express your support for Matt Schaeffer and the freedom of speech in the face of this politically correct intimidation.
Suspected Muslim insurgents shoot grenades at fair in southern Thailand, 30 hurt
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Thai police believe Islamist insurgents fired grenades at a fair in southern Thailand, injuring 30 people, in anger over government efforts to win over local Muslim religious leaders.
Bangladesh: Muslims torch Buddhist temples & homes in rage over photo of burned Qur'an
Excerpt: But remember: if you stand up against this madness and call it what it is, you're a "racist" and an "Islamophobe."
U.S. ‘Drowning In Unemployment,’ Says Federal Reserve Member. By Wynton Hall
Excerpt: On Friday, Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher said the U.S. is "drowning in unemployment" and that the Fed's monetary easing was not the solution; certainty on taxes and regulation are what's needed to jump start hiring. Mr. Fisher's comments, delivered during a speech at the University of Texas at Dallas, highlighted the intractable nature of unemployment over the last few years and the folly of so-called "quantitative easing" by the Federal Reserve.
Romney, Republicans Unleash ‘Joe Wilson’ Strategy: ‘You Lie!’
Excerpt: The charge of lying is a weighty one--and one that Republicans have felt nervous about ever since the controversy that greeted Rep. Joe Wilson’s famous “You lie!” outburst during President Obama’s address to a join session of Congress to push health reform in 2009 (though Wilson was correct). What has emboldened them--in addition to the need to make a strong case in the closing weeks of the election--is the brazen nature of Obama’s deception about the Libya attacks, which he claimed were motivated by an anti-Islamic video but which were in fact a premeditated terrorist attack, as the administration now admits.
Obama Ships GITMO Terrorist To Canada. By Brian Lilley
Excerpt: Anyone who thinks the Obama administration won't release the Blind Sheik needs to look at what happened early Saturday morning and then think again. Under cover of darkness and without prior announcement convicted terrorist and murderer Omar Khadr was quietly shipped from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to an air force base in Canada. Khadr was serving an 8 year sentence for the killing of Specialist First Class Christopher Speer, a special forces medic who met up with Khadr after a firefight was already over in July 2002.
Link to 2016 movie
Mystery illness solved when family discovers new home was a meth lab
Another reason drug dealers should be shot on sight. –Larry. It’s coming. ~Bob.
$100M scam suspect in Ohio is Harvard Law grad
Excerpt: A former fugitive suspected of running a $100 million cross-country scam collecting donations for Navy veterans has been identified as a Harvard-trained attorney wanted on unrelated fraud charges since 1987, authorities said Monday. (Not the only Harvard Law grad screwing the country. ~Bob.)
Keeping Hunters Out of the Hospital: Mayo Expert Offers Tips for a Safe Hunting Season
Excerpt: Errant gunshots are an obvious health risk during fall hunting season, but a range of other dangers also can send hunters to the hospital or worse: heart attacks, injured backs and broken bones are among the most common medical emergencies.
The Thin Red Line: The time to use force against Iran is not next year. It’s now. By Mario Loyola
Excerpt: Before we get to the nitty-gritty of Israel’s new Iranian red line, let’s be clear about one thing: The U.S. and its allies have already completely botched this whole situation. Ever since the North Korean nuclear crisis of 1994, we have been giving Iran a green light to make nuclear weapons. The green light has been constant, brilliant, mesmerizing, and irresistible.
Valium’s Contribution to Our New Normal
Excerpt: IT wasn’t funny, really, but everybody laughed at the scene in the 1979 film “Starting Over” when Burt Reynolds’s character had a panic attack in the furniture department of Bloomingdale’s (something to do with terror at the prospect of buying a couch). “Does anyone have a Valium?” his brother called out as Burt hyperventilated. The punch line: Every woman in the store reached into her purse and pulled out a little vial of pills.
Lakota Sioux Nation secedes from the US
Alfred Terry, call your office. And keep George on a tight rein. ~Bob
Bigger than the debates? Friday’s jobs report: Much is made about which candidate is running a tighter campaign, but this election will come down to the economy. By Robert Reich
Excerpt: The biggest election news this week won’t be who wins the presidential debate Wednesday night. It will be how many new jobs were created in September, announced Friday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (The same leftist hacks who screamed when unemployment was 5% under GWB now tell us that 8%+ is "not too bad." –Ken Gardner.)
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