Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for October 18, 2012
My initial take on the presidential debate
I'm writing this immediately afterwards, without reading what the pundits thought, or listening to the talking heads on TV. I'd rate it a draw. Not that Romney was bad, but that Obama was much better than the first debate, which will encourage his supporters, even though he channeled “Rude Joe” Biden a bit. Of course, I tend to discount much of what he says, just repeating already-refuted talking points, but doubtless liberals do that for Romney. I thought the moderator did a better job than I expected despite her obvious bias, but I felt the questions she picked were about two to one pro-Obama, at least. The one that infuriated me was the old canard that women make 72% of what men make. If you control the studies for hours worked, years of experience and education, that difference disappears. But if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the conventional wisdom. What she was saying was that women should get paid as much as more experienced, better educated men who work longer hours. Romney missed the chance to point out the disparity in the White House pay scale. Also I noticed that Obama got the second opening statement and the second closing statement. Not fair--in my debates, one candidate got to go last on the opening, one on the closing. It will be interesting to see what the polls say, rather than the spin from partisans. Of course, fact checkers on both sides will tear some of their statements apart, but I suspect the public ignores them.
Debate take—the morning after
Both sides spinning that their guy won, as expected. Watching the news, I had missed the moment when the moderator defended Obama—wrongly—on his Rose Garden comment about the Libya Nevada
Moderator Crowley helps Obama rebut Romney on Libya
Why is the moderator helping one side in a debate? ~Bob. Excerpt: President Obama had the help of moderator Candy Crowley during Tuesday's second presidential debate when rebutting an argument from Mitt Romney about his administration's response to last month's attack in Libya Crowley said Romney's broader point that the Obama administration didn’t initially call the Benghazi National Counterterrorism Center director Matthew Olsen was the first member of the Obama administration to call the Libya
Excerpt: But Candy Crowley’s bias was more insidious. She chose the questions and the questioners. She let Obama’s towering ignorance on gas prices slip by unremarked. She corrected Mitt Romney with incorrect facts, allowing Obama to escape the most dangerous moment of the entire debate. She did what she could to tilt this debate in Obama’s favor without ever acknowledging that she was doing so. She knew what she was doing.
Excerpt: In the first presidential debate, Jim Lehrer, no slouch at shilling for the Democratic Party, interrupted Mitt Romney 15 times and Barack Obama only five. Crowley US Douglas won. The debates were not amplified before large crowds, but were transcribed and selectively edited by partisan newspapers for nationwide readers. interestingly, the debate viewers could not vote in the election. In those days, US Senators were chosen by their state legislatures.] As I recall, the first speaker spoke for an hour, the second responded for 90 minutes and the first had the last say for 30 minutes. No moderator. Clearly in the pre-electronic age, people must have been excellent listeners and the speakers did not need to be prompted by a presumably brilliant member of the press [which in those days was arguably more partisan than today's Fox vs. MSNBC]. But I must concede that for the crowds of people who stood and listened for hours in the era of Morse Code, this was indeed entertainment. Cordially, Larry Greenberg.)
Aggressive Obama and Romney exchange blows in second debate
Excerpt: President Obama and Mitt Romney traded heavy verbal blows Tuesday night in their second face-to-face confrontation, repeatedly approaching each other like prize fighters and trying to talk over each other's answers. The 90-minute presidential debate at Hofstra University in New York
Fact checking the second presidential debate
Excerpt: We heard some oldies but goodies in Tuesday night’s feisty debate between President Obama and former governor Mitt Romney. Here are some factual highlights — or lowlights: (Considering this is the WaPo, fairly balanced review. ~Bob.)
Poll: Obama edges Romney in second debate
Excerpt: Moments following the debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., 37 percent of voters polled said the president won, 30 percent awarded the victory to Romney, and 33 percent called it a tie.
Tweet from John O'Sullivan @JohnOSullivanNR
Romney won 1st half easy. 2nd half he fumbled immigration, missed open goal on Libya
Excerpt: Well, the debate just ended. I have no idea how the rest of America
Excerpt: They tend to be people who start from a liberal foundation but may be a little too populist to be comfortably Democratic voters these days, and so in some respects a kind of mirror image of what we normally think of as swing voters. The questions in Tuesday night’s town-hall debate certainly reflected that character. These were, on the whole, questions from disappointed Democrats.
Excerpt: Obama did not forfeit the debate as last time, and took his cue from Joe Biden in interrupting and muttering while Romney spoke, so his energy made it an entertaining night. Nevertheless, the same theme as in Denver
At Best a Fleeting Tie for Obama. The Reality is a Cancer on His Campaign. By Erick Erickson
Excerpt: I think Mitt Romney won the debate, but not by much. He flubbed a few good opportunities to really score decisive blows on the President, but definitely drew more blood. The CNN polling and CBS News polling confirm it. While more thought Barack Obama won the debate, largely because his last performance was so bad, clear majorities outside the margin of error thought Mitt Romney would be best on the economy, jobs, the deficit, etc. In fact, while other areas of the debate may overshadow this point, Romney deftly dispatched Obama on his economic record. That is the one issue that matters. It got so bad, Obama had to trot out Planned Parenthood and Big Bird.
How Last Night's Debate Played on Today's Front Pages
Debate Audience Selected by Firm Squeezed by Obama Justice Department
Excerpt: Think the deck for Tuesday's town hall debate might have been stacked? The firm hired to select the audience asking questions is under pressure from the Obama Justice Department, and some observers suggest may have already succumbed to that bullying.
Excerpt: Mitt Romney picked up two points overnight among likely voters and now holds a 6-percentage point lead nationally over President Obama, according to Gallup Gallup
Interesting Chart on the Obama Economy
Obama 2008: Dealing with higher energy costs is a sacrifice I expect Americans to make
Sheriff: Teen raped, shot, left in river
Excerpt: "They had abducted her from her house where she was babysitting her 3-year-old sister. From there we understand now she was taken to the river where she was sexually assaulted. After the sexual assault had taken place, she was shot three times," Rollins said. ... Jose Trinidad Soto Sanchez, 21, and Jose Juan Alverez, 28, both of Spring Lake
Why We Lost Afghanistan
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-we-lost-afghanistan.html
Excerpt: The war inAfghanistan Afghanistan New York Detroit or Chicago
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-we-lost-afghanistan.html
Excerpt: The war in
Worth Reading
Excerpt: Barack Obama entered office with an approval rating of over 70 percent. John McCain’s campaign had been anemic and almost at times seemed as if it was designed to lose nobly to the nation’s first African-American presidential nominee. One-percenter magnates welcomed Obama.
Excerpt: There must be an EU “currency commissioner” with sweeping powers to strike down national budgets; a “large step towards fiscal union”; and yet another EU treaty.
Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble dropped his bombshell in talks with German journalists on a flight from Asia , and apparently had the blessing of Angela Merkel, the chancellor. “When I put forward such proposals, you can take it as a given that the chancellor agrees,” he said. (This is further confirmation of earlier speculation. First a prestigious trade journal in Germany Germany Europe are almost certainly getting their heads together and have decide to make a move. Schaeuble didn't come up with this on his own. Germany has wanted either to get out of the euro or for Greece
The Misuse of Top 1 Percent Income Shares as a Measure of Inequality
Excerpt: Over the past couple of years, the concept of how disproportionate the top 1 percent's share of income is relative to every other individual has been overhyped. It marks an attempt to justify a tax hike on the highest income earners and larger transfers of payments those lower-income earners, says Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Recent studies find little or no sustained increase in the inequality of disposable income for the U.S.
CBO Updates TARP Tally: $24B Cost To Taxpayers ($14B From AIG). By Steve Schaefer
Excerpt: In the fall of 2008 when the federal government pumped tens of billions of dollars into America
The Better Solution for 'Pre-Existing Conditions.' There's no need to turn the entire system upside down to help the people who can't buy private insurance. By John C. Goodman
Excerpt: The Affordable Care Act established a federally funded risk pool—the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan—that allows individuals with such disqualifying conditions to buy a policy for the same premium a healthy person would pay. About 82,000 people have signed up as of July 31, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's statehealthfacts.org. That is not a misprint. Out of a population of more than 300 million, some 82,000 have the problem that was cited as the principal reason for spending $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years and in the process turning the entire health-care system upside down.
The Rape and Murder of Pakistan's Christian Children. By Raymond Ibrahim
Excerpt: The West sighed in relief when Rimsha Masih, the 14-year-old Christian girl arrested in Pakistan on August 16 for allegedly burning pages of the Quran, was finally released. Yet the West remains clueless concerning the graphic abuses—including rape and murder—Christian children in Pakistan routinely suffer, simply for being Christian. Consider two stories alone, both of which occurred at the same time Rimsha's blasphemy ordeal was making headlines around the world.
Bill & Hillary Forever
Excerpt: “People say the reason Obama wouldn’t call Clinton is because he doesn’t like him,” observes Tanden. “The truth is, Obama doesn’t call anyone, and he’s not close to almost anyone. It’s stunning that he’s in politics, because he really doesn’t like people. My analogy is that it’s like becoming Bill Gates without liking computers.” (Tanden is a leftist, walked it back. Tweet from Neera Tanden @neeratanden. “I was trying to say how President Obama, who I admire greatly, is a private person, but I deeply regret how I said it. I apologize.” ~Bob)
State Department Paints Obama and Biden as Liars, Uninformed – or BOTH
Excerpt: An interestingly timed information release by the Hillary Clinton State Department tips the media off to ongoing negotiations between the United States and Afghanistan to extend the stay of American military well beyond the often repeated 2014 deadline. Just last week Vice President Joe Biden repeated the 2014 promise during a debate against opponent Congressman Paul Ryan that U.S. troops were to be out of Afghanistan by 2014. Now just a week later, the State Department directly contradicts Biden’s comments.
Yikes! 26 things to get done before the global debt collapse. By Mike Adams.
Excerpt: The time between today and the day the global debt collapse reaches our shores is finite. The U.S. national debt clock shows a nation spiraling into financial oblivion. When Ron Paul says "Americans should be panicking" over the Fed's new QE unlimited policy of infinite money creation, he was actually holding back. In reality, Americans should have been protesting in the streets... everywhere! But instead, they're going to deny reality, vote in the upcoming election, and pretend that whoever occupies the Oval Office has both the intention and the power to make any real difference.
Poverty Nonsense. By Walter E. Williams
Excerpt: To say that "our society creates poverty" is breathtakingly ignorant. In 1776, the U.S. was among the world's poorest nations. In less than two centuries, we became the world's richest nation by a long shot. Americans who today are deemed poor by Census Bureau definitions have more material goods than middle-class people as recently as 60 years ago.
71% Favor Requiring Voter ID at the Polls
Excerpt: Support remains high for requiring voters to prove their identity at the polls, but more voters than ever believe requiring photo identification is discriminatory. However, there are wide partisan differences of opinion on this issue. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 66% of Likely U.S. Voters believe voter fraud is a serious problem in America today, with 33% who say it is a Very Serious one. Twenty-eight percent (28%) disagree, but that includes just 12% who say it’s Not At All Serious.
E.U., U.S. sanctions against Iran are clamping down on oil exports, agency says
Excerpt: Stringent new sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union against Iran have curbed the country’s oil exports by more than 1 million barrels a day, according to new data released by the International Energy Agency.
The UNSKEWED Projection of the 2012 Presidential Race
http://unskewedpolls.com/unskewed_projection_2012%20president_01.cfm
http://unskewedpolls.com/unskewed_projection_2012%20president_01.cfm
Excerpt: The QStarNews projection of the 2012 presidential race sees Mitt Romney being elected the next president of the United States with 52.22 percent of the popular vote and 342 electoral votes to President Obama's 47.31 percent and 196 electoral votes QStarNews predicts the turnout nationally will includes 34.8 percent Republicans, 35.2 percent Democrats, and 30.0 percent independents. QStarNews predicts turnout will rise by about four percent, or a total of about 129,170,000 voters including about 600,000 for third party candidates and the rest going to Romney and Obama. (Wish I had more faith in this. ~Bob.)
The Powerlessness Excuse: Debunking the Claim that Obama Could Not Have Affected the “Arab Spring” and Islamist Takeovers
Excerpt: If local forces fear the United States or think it involved in conspiracies against them (rightly or wrongly), that influences their behavior. They act more cautiously. Moderates and anti-Islamist military officers may be encouraged or demoralized to become more active and tough. In Obama’s case, he persuaded the anti-Islamist forces that he was on the other side and that they had no chance of winning. (Rubin specifies four ways we could have influenced events more favorably and mentions in passing several more. I think the real lost opportunity was the Greens in Iran in 2009-2010. Had we supported them, perhaps some, or even all, of the Arab Spring revolutions would have had better outcomes for us and the world. --Ron P.)
Threats To Kill Romney Explode After Debate
Excerpt: Despite numerous media outlets attempting to downplay the issue, Twitter exploded last night following the debate with new threats from Obama supporters to assassinate Mitt Romney if he defeats Obama in the presidential race.
Worth Reading: The Unraveling of Affirmative Action. By Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor, Jr.
Excerpt: Jareau Hall breezed through high school in Syracuse, N.Y. Graduating in the top 20% of his class, he had been class president and a successful athlete, and he sang in gospel choir. He was actively recruited by Colgate University in rural New York, one of the nation's top liberal-arts colleges. None of Colgate's recruiters mentioned to Mr. Hall that his combined math and verbal SAT scores were some 250 points below the class median let alone that this would put him at great risk of academic difficulty. (My SAT scores—in 1968, before they lowered them—were 735 verbal, 689 math. Of course, I’d been out of high school in the Marines for four years when I took them. ~Bob.)
Another of Obama’s Cargo Cult Companies Fails
Excerpt: Yesterday the Danish wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas, announced it had laid off 800 US workers and as many as 1600 might be laid off by the end of the year.
Obama Administration leaks classified information to makers of propaganda film. By John Hayward
Kathryn Bigelow, director of The Hurt Locker, has been working on a film about the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. It was carefully timed to hit screens right before the election, in October 2012, but consternation that the film amounted to a massive “super PAC” commercial for the Obama campaign prompted the studio to move it back to December 2013. (Could no longer locate links to Panetta on 60 minutes saying POTUS did this and it was OK because he did it. Premiere date 12/19/12—2 days before galactic alignment….. Now, if a piece of junk fake film caused all these zealots to rant and burn in mobs, what will a motion picture that was produced with the assistance of the current regime and POTUS and DOD showing killing of OBL with world-wide-breaking dates cause? Anyone think this was a brilliant idea to spike the football by POTUS? –Barb)
Obama’s handling of Benghazi crisis suggests he’s unfit to be president. By Fred J. Eckert, Former U.S. Ambassador and Member of Congress
Excerpt: Instead, the administration spouts platitudes about bringing the killers to justice and getting to the bottom of things sometime after Election Day while blaming the intelligence community and the State Department for messing up, without recognizing that in doing so it is admitting to a massive failure of intelligence on its watch and suggesting that the secretary of state deserves to be fired. The narrative of an honest news media would be that what happened in Benghazi and the manner in which President Obama has acted in response to it is scandalous; that Benghazi has been a test of leadership and that Barack Obama has failed that test.
Taliban says its attack on Pakistani schoolgirl justified
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: "She used to propagate against mujahideen (holy warriors) to defame (the) Taliban. The Quran says that people propagating against Islam and Islamic forces would be killed.”
Taliban Demands Unbiased Coverage of Its Attempted Murder of a 14-Year-Old Girl. By John Hudson
Excerpt: Pakistan's Taliban insurgency faces a spate of bad press in mainstream Pakistani outlets related to the jihadists' failed assassination attempt of Malala Yousafzai, a young blogger who dared protest the Taliban's ban on educating girls. Now the Taliban are plotting terror strikes on TV stations and other media organizations, but local newspapers refuse to stay silent.
Swiss makes Muslims cross over billboard ads
Excerpt: “Many Muslims feel this Christian slogan (of Swiss) is a provocation and an assault against Islam,” Baysal told Der Sonntag. (There will come a point when we must convert or tell them to piss off. ~Bob.)
France as a Palestinian Camp - Old Fuhrer, New Furors
Excerpt: In the French mosques, the Jews are often described as sub-humans by expressions like “pig”, “cancer,” “filth”, “microbes” or “vermin”; hate material such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion or school maps without Israel are being disseminated by the Islamic centers; the Jewish right to self-determination is denied by the French politicians who claim that Israel’s existence is “apartheid”; comparisons are drawn between Israeli policy and the Nazis in the French press; world Jewry is being held responsible collectively for the actions of Israel - always villified - by ordinary citizens.
Romney campaign files federal suit to ensure all military ballots count in Wisconsin
Excerpt: Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign has filed a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin to extend the amount of time military and overseas absentee ballots can be returned. The federal suit came on the heels a campaign request to the state’s Government Accountability Board to extend the deadline after at least 30 Wisconsin municipalities failed to send overseas ballots 45 days before the election, which is required under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act (UOCAVA). The campaign proceeded with the suit against GAB after their initial request was denied.
Coburn's 'Waste Book' details $19 billion in eye-opening government expenses
Excerpt: What do robotic squirrels, menus for Martian meals and a musical about climate change have in common? They've all been made possible with taxpayer assistance, according to the latest survey of government waste put out by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
Liberal Commentator Sally Kohn: No One Gives a S*** about Fast & Furious. By Matthew Boyle
http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/17/sally-kohn-no-one-gives-a-sht-about-fast-furious/#ixzz29aSiz5y3
Excerpt: Liberal commentator and unpaid Fox News Channel contributor Sally Kohn tweeted a profanity-laced comment about Operation Fast and Furious on Tuesday evening after the presidential debate, writing, “Dear conservatives — NO ONE GIVES A SH*T ABOUT FAST & FURIOUS. Manufactured issue, was a mistake and was resolved.” (No one? Ah, maybe the families of 200+ plus murdered Mexicans or the two dead US Agents care? Possibly? ~Bob.)
http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/17/sally-kohn-no-one-gives-a-sht-about-fast-furious/#ixzz29aSiz5y3
Excerpt: Liberal commentator and unpaid Fox News Channel contributor Sally Kohn tweeted a profanity-laced comment about Operation Fast and Furious on Tuesday evening after the presidential debate, writing, “Dear conservatives — NO ONE GIVES A SH*T ABOUT FAST & FURIOUS. Manufactured issue, was a mistake and was resolved.” (No one? Ah, maybe the families of 200+ plus murdered Mexicans or the two dead US Agents care? Possibly? ~Bob.)
The Romney-Ryan Plan for Medicare: What It Means for Seniors. By Kate Pickert
Excerpt: Here’s the bottom line: Medicare, which covers about 50 million people, has huge leverage to negotiate prices. It also has lower administrative costs than private insurance companies. The downside of Medicare is that its costs are unlimited. Three-quarters of seniors currently have traditional Medicare, which pays providers fees for each service it provides. This spending can be somewhat unpredictable and is tied to health care costs that are increasing at unsustainable rates. Unless overall U.S. health care costs grow at a much slower rate, there’s no way for the government to spend substantially less on the existing Medicare program without asking seniors to shoulder more of the burden. President Obama knows this, which is why the Affordable Care Act includes a trigger for a board to suggest cuts to providers if Medicare spending exceeds certain targets.
Bangladeshi man arrested after allegedly trying to blow up Fed building in NYC
Bangladeshi man arrested after allegedly trying to blow up Fed building in NYC
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: The 21-year-old suspect, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, attempted to detonate what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb in front of the Fed building on Liberty Street, but the device was a fake supplied to him by undercover FBI agents who had been tracking his activity, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force said Wednesday afternoon.
Are you an “Idiot”?
Excerpt: An idiot in Athenian democracy was someone who was characterized by self-centeredness and concerned almost exclusively with private—as opposed to public—affairs.
Luntz Focus Group Member on Obama: He's Been Bullsh*tting the Public for 4 Years
Winning versus losing energy policy. By Paul Driessen
Excerpt: Governor Mitt Romney strongly supports North American energy independence as the foundation of renewed U.S. employment and prosperity. There is much needed to fill-in the blanks, but the challenger’s guiding philosophy promises real reform. Free-marketeers, playing defense for the last four years, and during a lot of the Bush Administration too, actually have a chance to play offense should Romney prevail.
Against hatred, except of Jews: The hypocrisy of Egypt's leadership. By Abraham Cooper And Yitzchok Adlerstein
Excerpt: In it, Badie charged that “Jews have increased the corruption in the world, and … shed the blood of Muslims,” declaring that “Muslims must realize that restoring the sanctuaries and protecting honor and blood from the hands of Jews will not happen through the parlors of the United Nations, or through negotiations. The Zionists only know the way of force.”
Will President Obama's Re-election Doom Fracking?
Excerpt: The top White House energy aide says new regulations gripping the technology responsible for unlocking America's vast oil and gas reserves will be ready by year's end. Team Obama's war on fossil fuels continues. (Even as he takes credit for more natural gas. ~Bob.)
This "Housewife" isn't just "Desperate." She's vulgar.
Excerpt: Eva Longoria, one of Hollywood's most ardent supporters of President Barack Obama and a co-chair of the president's reelection campaign, took a dip in the gutter today on Twitter. She retweeted a gross comment aimed at GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the hours after last night's second presidential debate.
James Carville quotes
Excerpt: The Democratic constituency is just like a herd of cows. All you have to do is lay out enough silage and they come running. That's why I became an operative working with Democrats. With Democrats all you have to do is make a lot of noise, lay out the hay, and be ready to use the ole cattle prod in case a few want to bolt the herd. Eighty percent of the people who call themselves Democrats don't have a clue as to political reality.
Excerpt: A Swiss jihadist known for links to top al Qaeda leaders and the recruitment and training of al Qaeda fighters has been killed in a "treacherous raid" in Miramshah in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The jihadist, Moezeddine Garsallaoui, was the leader of Jund al Khilafah, a group that conducts attacks in Kazakhstan and Afghanistan and has also claimed credit for an attack in Toulouse, France, that killed seven people.
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