Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for December 20, 2012

Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for December 20, 2012

Robert A. Hall

With the Christmas Break coming up, I may not have much time to post SitReps over the next two weeks. Headed to Madison, WI in time for the blizzard—wish the taxpayers were sending me to Hawaii. ~Bob

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.

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

Older, worth re-reading: The assault weapons myth. By Steve Chapman

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-01/news/chi-assault-weapons-myths-20120801_1_assault-weapons-ban-red-cars-national-murder-rate

Excerpt: Assault weapons are just ordinary guns dressed up to look scary. Quinn is making a mistake to buy the ruse.

‘Fast and Furious’ Gun Found At Site Where Mexican Beauty Queen Killed. By Sharyl Attkisson

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/12/18/cbs-news-fast-and-furious-gun-found-at-site-where-mexican-beauty-queen-killed/

Excerpt: A gun found at the scene of a shootout between a Mexican drug cartel and soldiers where a beauty queen died was part of the botched “Fast and Furious” operation, CBS News reports. Authorities had said that Maria Susana Flores Gamez was likely used as a human shield and that an automatic rifle had been found near her body after the Nov. 23 shootout. (I’m not against all gun control. I’d support a law that would stop the Obama Administration from selling guns to Mexican Drug Cartels. And, yes, if FEMA was George Bush’s responsibility, the ATF and Fast & Furious on his watch is Obama’s. ~Bob.)

Worth Reading: Slouching Toward Dhimmitude. By Joseph A. Harriss
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/12/18/slouching-toward-dhimmitude

Excerpt: The authorities’ surprise at the extent of Islamist determination to take down France is itself surprising. Only a few months before, Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent, had shot three French soldiers in the south of France, then slaughtered a teacher, the man’s two young sons, and an 8-year-old girl at a Jewish school in Toulouse before gendarmes satisfied his desire for a martyr’s death.

Worth reading: A Hundred Percent of Nothing. By Walter E. Williams

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/15945

Excerpt: But there's a painful lesson to be learned from decades of political hustling and counsel by intellectuals and urban experts. In 1960, Detroit's population was 1.6 million. Blacks were 29 percent, and whites were 70 percent. Today, Detroit's population has fallen precipitously to 707,000, of which blacks are 84 percent and whites 8 percent. Much of the city's decline began with the election of Coleman Young, Detroit's first black mayor and mayor for five terms, who engaged in political favoritism to blacks and tax policies against higher income mostly white people.

Worth Reading: "Forward" to the Past? By Thomas Sowell 

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/15946

Excerpt: The seductive notion of economic equality has appealed to many people. The pilgrims started out with the idea of equal sharing. The colony of Georgia began with very similar ideas. In the midwest, Britain's Robert Owen -- who coined the term "socialism" -- set up colonies based on communal living and economic equality. What these idealistic experiments all had in common was that they failed.

How Do We Know an 'Assault Weapon' Ban Would Not Have Stopped Adam Lanza? Because It Didn't. by Jacob Sullum

http://reason.com/blog/2012/12/17/how-do-we-know-an-assault-weapon-ban-wou

Excerpt: The rifle he used, a .223-caliber Bushmaster M4 carbine, was legal under Connecticut's "assault weapon" ban, which is similar to the federal law that expired in 2004. Both laws, in addition to listing specifically prohibited models, cover semiautomatic rifles that accept detachable magazines and have at least two out of five features: 1) a folding or telescoping stock, 2) a pistol grip, 3) a bayonet mount, 4) a grenade launcher, and 5) a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor.

Rifle Used in Killings, America’s Most Popular, Highlights Regulation Debate. By Erica Goode

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/us/lanza-used-a-popular-ar-15-style-rifle-in-newtown.html?_r=0

Excerpt: But Mr. Halbrook, who compiled manufacturing estimates for a lawsuit, said that by a conservative estimate, 3.3 million to 3.5 million AR-15s were made in the United States from 1986 through the first half of this year and were not exported. (Good luck getting rid of them. If a ban on 20-round magazines and “assault gadgets” like folding stocks and bayonet lugs is enacted, I predict that manufactures will produce an AR-15 with a wood stock [I might want one!], with an 18-round magazine. I never put more than 18 in my M-16 magazines in Vietnam, because of the jamming problem. ~Bob.)

Convenient blame checklist for liberals.

Something bad happened, blame:

___ George W. Bush

___ Global Warming

___ Racism

___ The Republican House

___ Wall Street

___ Guns

___ Islamophobia

___ Sexism

___ The Rich who will never pay their “fair share.”

___ America

How Obama’s win keeps on giving. By Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/12/19/how-obamas-win-keeps-on-giving/?wpisrc=nl_politics

Excerpt: In the Post-ABC poll, 90 percent of Democrats approve of the job Obama is doing while just 45 percent of Republicans feel the same way about GOPers in Congress. (Somewhat amazingly, a majority — 51 percent — of self-identified Republicans disapprove of the job their congressional leaders are doing.) 9personally, I try not to participate in circular firing squads. I guess that makes me a RINO. Every true Republican is more interested in throwing apostates out of the Party than liberals out of government. ~Bob.)

Benghazi probe faults 'systemic failures' at State Department

http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/terrorism/273661-benghazi-probe-faults-systemic-failures-at-state-department#disqus_thread

Excerpt: An independent review of the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi made public Tuesday night faults “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels” of the State Department. (Again, if George W. Bush was responsible for FEMA’s response to Katrina on his watch, Obama and Clinton are fully responsible for this. ~Bob.)

Benghazi report could tarnish Clinton’s legacy

http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/middle-east-north-africa/273665-benghazi-report-could-damage-clintons-legacy-at-state-dept

Excerpt: The Benghazi report released Tuesday night bemoans “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” in Hillary Clinton's State Department that could come back to haunt her should she run for president in 2016.

Recovering Marine 'disgraced, humiliated' on Delta Airlines flight

http://www.wmctv.com/story/20376913/local-marine?c=n

Excerpt: "The word disgusting comes up, disgraceful. those don't even have enough meaning," said Corporal Brown's friend and veteran, Randal McKee. McKee has known Corp. Christian Brown all of his life. "He's being pushed through the plane after it's loaded with passengers. We all know how tight the aisles are, people's elbows hanging off," McKee continued. (This is an update on a story you posted in your daily sitrep a few days ago. Sometimes the local news is slow to pick up on these stories. Randy McKee is a personal friend who has served several tours in Afghanistan and has two Purple Hearts to show for it. Cpl. Brown was flown back to West Tennessee courtesy of the Veteran's Airlift Command. I checked them out online, seems like a worthy charity to donate funds too. –MasterGuns. My brother-in-law is a captain for Delta (and once an USAF F-15 guy). He was absolutely appalled and said the captain could have solved this mess in less than two sentences. I sent him everything I was receiving and he replied damage control was underway to include big public apology but was still sick that a few idiots blackened the Delta --Blog Reader.)

Robert Bork, conservative icon and judge, dies at 85

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/judge-robert-h-bork-conservative-icon/2012/12/19/49453de4-c5da-11df-94e1-c5afa35a9e59_story.html

Excerpt: Robert H. Bork, the conservative jurist who fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the “Saturday Night Massacre” in 1973 and whose failed nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 sparked an enduring political schism over judicial nominations, died early Wednesday at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington of complications from heart disease. He was 85. (Since his nomination was “borked,” there has hardly been a smooth one. ~Bob.)

Obama administration, Congress quietly let school security funds lapse

http://www.washingtonguardian.com/washingtons-school-security-failure

Excerpt: Beneath the expressions of grief, sorrow and disbelief over the Connecticut school massacre lies an uneasy truth in Washington: over the last few years the Obama administration and Congress quietly let federal funding for several key school security programs lapse in the name of budget savings.

Government officials told the Washington Guardian on Friday night that two Justice Department programs that had provided more than $200 million to schools for training, security equipment and police resources over the last decade weren't renewed in 2011 and 2012, and that a separate program that provided $800 million to put police officers inside the schools was ended a few years earlier. (Needed the money for first family vacations and to buy fighter jets for the Muslim Brotherhood. ~Bob.)

Father, Former Marine Stands Guard At Elementary School

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/20376969/father-former-marine-stands-guard-at-elementary-school

Excerpt: He's a volunteer. He's not getting paid. He's not even armed, but parent said they feel a whole lot better about leaving their children at school while he's been at the front door. Sarah Knies has 2nd and 3rd graders who attend Gower Elementary School. She said she was comforted knowing Pritchard was there. (When I saw this story it immediately reminded me of your comments the other day about how Marine veterans would have liked to have been at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday. SSgt Pritchard brings your thoughts into reality. --MasterGuns)

Where are the fathers? By Ruthie Blum

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=3071

Excerpt: How, then, could he have simply left and never looked back? Divorce is not an excuse for not being in touch with one’s son for two years. Nor is the fact that he remarried. His new home is located in another part of Connecticut, not in a different country, or even out of state. And a father has paternal responsibilities, however hard they may be.

Re: The Hagel Insult. By Alana Goodman

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/12/18/re-the-hagel-insult/

Excerpt: Obama wouldn’t just be burning his pro-Israel voters by nominating Hagel. The reputations of pro-Israel Democratic leaders–who took to the op-ed pages to reassure Jewish voters that, despite evidence to the contrary, Obama would get serious on Iran in a second term–are also riding on this.

Tweet from @NoahPollak

So, in Hagel's corner, we have: Stephen Walt, Peter Beinart, Justin Raimondo, Andrew Sullivan, and Iranian state TV.

Chicago ranks #1 as the deadliest Alpha world city. By Ethel C. Fenig
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/07/chicago_ranks_1_as_the_deadliest_alpha_world_city.html#ixzz2FWO3l31Z

Older, but timely. ~Bob. Excerpt: Chicago likes to compare itself to other world cities, so Ward Room thought it would find out how we rank in violence. It turns out no one can top us. Among what are considered Alpha world cities, Chicago has the highest murder rate -- higher even than the Third World metropolises of Mexico City and Sao Paolo. Chicago's murder spree of 19.4 per 100,000 is more than three times that of New York's (6 per 100,000) and more than two and a half times of Los Angeles' (7.5 per 100,000), its closest American competitors.

NAACP Shows True Colors Against Only Black US Senator Because He’s Conservativehttp://freedomoutpost.com/2012/12/naacp-shows-true-colors-against-only-black-us-senator-because-hes-conservative/
Excerpt: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has made the decision to appoint a replacement for retiring U.S. Senator Jim DeMint. She has chosen Congressman Tim Scott (R-SC), a very conservative Republican. He’s also happens to have dark skin, which would make him the only United States Senator who is black. So why would the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People oppose such a man? Precisely because he doesn’t go along with “their agenda.” (Gotta get that Tim Boy back on the Democrat plantation—he done a runner! ~Bob.)

Quote from The Patriot Post

www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/ 

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants." --Cesare Beccaria, quoted by Thomas Jefferson in Commonplace Book

Why Does The Teamsters Union Appear To Be Flying Its Union Flag Above The U.S. One Outside The Group’s D.C. Hq?

www.theblaze.com/stories/why-does-the-teamsters-union-appear-to-be-flying-its-union-flag-above-the-u-s-one-outside-the-groups-d-c-hq/

Excerpt: A photo depicting what appears to be the Teamsters Union flag improperly flying above the American flag outside the union’s D.C. headquarters on Tuesday was sent to TheBlaze, and the story of how a Marine veteran who tried to bring it to the group’s attention was treated is sure to raise eyebrows.

Outrage in India over gang rape on bus

http://news.yahoo.com/outrage-india-over-gang-rape-bus-115259512.html

Excerpt: The hours-long gang-rape and near-fatal beating of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi triggered outrage and anger across the country Wednesday as Indians demanded action from authorities who have long ignored persistent violence and harassment against women.

China Demands US Citizens Be Disarmed

http://conservativebyte.com/2012/12/china-demands-us-citizens-be-disarmed/

Excerpt: The official Chinese government news agency, Xinhua, has demanded the US immediately adopt stricter gun control measures to reduce the number of firearms the US populace is permitted to possess. (Yes. They work very hard to keep guns out of the hands of Tibetans. ~Bob.

Obamacare could drive Little Sisters of the Poor out of the US. By David Martosko
http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/19/obamacare-could-drive-little-sisters-of-the-poor-out-of-the-us/#ixzz2FWcGrrSS

Excerpt: The Little Sisters of the Poor told The Daily Caller that it may not qualify for a long-term exemption from Obamacare’s healthcare mandate. The law requires the order to provide government-approved health insurance to its 300 sisters who tend to the elderly in 30 U.S. cities.

Black Unemployment: Just Don't Mention the Immigration! By Mark Krikorian

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/335971/black-unemployment-just-dont-mention-immigration-mark-krikorian#

Excerpt: The Washington Post has run three stories in the last few days on the high unemployment rate among black workers, and only one makes even passing reference to immigrant competition. As context, my colleague Steve Camarota has just published a detailed look at unemployment, breaking out subgroups in a way that BLS doesn't, and he found that unemployment among native-born black Americans is roughly double that for immigrants.

Six polio workers shot dead in Pakistan

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1212/dead_in_pakistan_for_immunizing.php3#.UNINoeTWI0E

Didn’t get the “Islam is a Religion of Peace” memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Gunmen in Pakistan have killed six health workers at the start of a nationwide polio vaccination drive, officials said Tuesday, highlighting resistance to a campaign opposed by the Taliban.

COOL: NYT discovers that woman can take individual action to improve their own pay. Mary Katharine Ham
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/12/18/cool-nyt-discovers-women-can-take-individual-action-to-improve-their-own-pay/
Excerpt: About 10 years ago, a group of graduate students lodged a complaint with Linda C. Babcock, a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University: All their male counterparts in the university’s PhD program were teaching courses on their own, whereas the women were working only as teaching assistants. That mattered, because doctoral students who teach their own classes get more experience and look better prepared when it comes time to go on the job market. When Babcock took the complaint to her boss, she learned there was a very simple explanation: “The dean said each of the guys had come to him and said, ‘I want to teach a course,’ and none of the women had done that,” she said.

Analysis of social media in Libya finds no reference to anti-Islam film on day of attack
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/12/18/no-reference-to-anti-islam-film-on-social-media-in-libya-day-attack-analysis/#ixzz2FWfLwkbc
Excerpt: As the State Department began Tuesday to circulate a highly anticipated report into what happened in the Sept. 11 Libya consulate attack, a separate analysis found that the first reference to the anti-Islam film that was initially blamed for sparking the attack was not detected on social media until a day later.

Saudi official jailed 25 years, to get 2000 lashes

http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/saudi-official-jailed-25-years-to-get-2000-lashes-2012-12-18-1.487775

Excerpt: A Saudi official appears to have paid a heavy price for staging “unethical parties” at his department, with a court in the Gulf Kingdom sentencing him to 25 years in jail and ordering him lashed 2,000 times in public.

Guns, Mental Illness and Newtown. By David Kopel

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323723104578185271857424036.html

Excerpt: Why the increase? It cannot be because gun-control laws have become more lax. Before the 1968 Gun Control Act, there were almost no federal gun-control laws. The exception was the National Firearms Act of 1934, which set up an extremely severe registration and tax system for automatic weapons and has remained in force for 78 years.