Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for February 11, 2013

Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for February 11, 2013

Robert A. Hall

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.

C.Y.A. Protecting Yourself in the Modern Jungle

If you order directly from CreateSpace, the PFF receives a larger royalty:

https://www.createspace.com/4133396
http://www.amazon.com/C-Y-Protecting-Yourself-Modern-Jungle/dp/1481989103/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358787454&sr=1-8&keywords=C.Y.A+.+Robert+A+Hall

First published in 2010, this book has been reissued through CreateSpace/Amazon at a lower price, with all royalties going to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. A humor/self-help book, this is advice with an attitude.

Worth Reading: High Crimes and Not Misdemeanors. By Andy Weddington

http://acoloneloftruth.blogspot.com/2013/02/high-crimes-and-not-misdemeanors.html

Excerpt: Consequently there is not only no accountability but a brazen posture of rule by whim not by law. A swagger of 'we'll do whatever we want' prevails. And "they" - the president, administration, and media - are getting away with it.

The secret war behind Benghazi

http://www.nypost.com/Page/Uuid/9602ef08-7331-11e2-94d0-6b885303cf26

Excerpt: A stealth campaign of assassinations, run by CIA nominee John Brennan, resulted in the death of the US ambassador, a new book claims.

Parents Gain Access To Secret School Curriculum: Lawmaker confirms immediate changes in controversial operations

http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/parents-gain-access-to-secret-school-curriculum/#d3V9zmIg4mLXBPfm.99 

Excerpt: The CSCOPE program, an online offering that until now has prohibited, under penalty of law, teachers from sharing the lessons with parents, stirred up controversy because of its various lessons – some that were taken offline after the questions arose. Among those issues were that the curriculum at one point taught the Boston Tea Party was an act of terrorism and Christians were cannibals, and forced students to draw a socialist flag while imagining a new socialist country… ..Among the controversies was the curriculum’s treatment of Islam. Some highlights: …“Allah is the Almighty God…Allah alone is the Creator, He alone deserves our devout love and worship.” (Lessons were “mandatory, could not be changed and not shown to parents under penalty of prison.” No wonder the 2nd grade teacher resigned in tears! Sounds like Bill Ayers and CAIR helped write the lesson plan for TX. CO has students learning the pledge of allegiance in Arabic with “Allah” replacing God. Christians ARE being persecuted in the US already. It is not just Copts being run out of Egypt and ancient libraries destroyed or Christian Africans burned in a church “over there.” It is here. In the U.S. Brainwash the youth to ensure the stability of the regime and “transform the country forward.” Who or what agency is forcing this pro-Islamic propaganda down children’s throats? --Barb.)

'Record close' asteroid may miss the Earth but it could take out your phone: Scientists have dismissed fears an asteroid due to whizz past the Earth on Friday will 'destroy London' - but it could take out vital telecommunications satellites.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9860421/Record-close-asteroid-may-miss-the-Earth-but-it-could-take-out-your-phone.html

Excerpt: Scientists say they are sure there is no chance of the 150ft (45.7m) wide space rock hitting the planet. But there is a remote possibility that it could collide with one of more than 100 telecommunication and weather satellites in fixed orbits above the Earth. Experts have calculated it will stay at least 17,200 miles (27,681km) away - easily far enough to be safe, but a very close shave in astronomical terms.

Billions of rounds of hollow points, black helicopters- what does it all mean?

http://floppingaces.net/2013/02/09/billions-of-rounds-of-hollow-points-black-helicopters-what-does-it-all-mean/

Excerpt: In a puzzling, unexplained development, the Obama administration has been buying and storing vast amounts of ammunition in recent months, with the Department of Homeland Security just placing another order for an additional 21.6 million rounds….The Social Security Administration, for instance, not normally considered on the frontlines of anything but dealing with seniors, explained that its purchase of millions of rounds was for special agents’ required quarterly weapons qualifications. They must be pretty poor shots.

Does Obama Think He Can Order Hits on Americans Inside the U.S.?

http://floppingaces.net/most_wanted/does-obama-think-he-can-order-hits-on-americans-inside-the-u-s/

Excerpt: Yesterday I noted that President Obama has not acknowledged any geographic limit on his purported power to kill people he believes to be members or allies of Al Qaeda, although in practice his administration has treated suspected terrorists within the United States as criminal defendants rather than enemy combatants…. But the white paper itself makes it clear that there may be other circumstances where killing an American citizen is OK…. Brennan’s idea of open and transparent government boils down to this: Trust us.

Report: Hagel Receiving Donations From 'Friends of Hamas'

.http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/165058#.URfxHB37L0c

Excerpt: Republican opponents of former Senator Chuck Hagel welcomed the decision by the Senate Armed Services Committee last Thursday to postpone the expected panel vote on President Barack Obama’s highly controversial defense secretary nomination after he refused to release additional requested financial requested, including details regarding compensation for speeches he delivered since leaving Capitol Hill. While Hagel has provided some information on his personal finances, he said he could not provide all of what has been requested because it was the property of private organizations that he was not authorized to disclose. Astonishingly, however, senate sources told Breitbart News exclusively on Thursday that they have been informed that one of the reasons Hagel has refused to release the documents on his sources of foreign funding is that one of the names listed is a group purportedly called “Friends of Hamas.”

Report: Iraq PM 'Invites' Iran to Seize US Embassy in Baghdad

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/165057#.URfwkB37L0c

Excerpt: Iraq allegedly has agreed to allow 50,000 Iranian Basij militia troops into the country to help suppress riots against the government and seize Arab and other foreign embassies, including that of the United States. The two leaders allegedly agreed to allow the Basij forces to attack and occupy the foreign embassies considered hostile to Iran in Baghdad, and to detain their staffs. Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Iranian military commander Qassaem Soleimani, head of Iran's Al Qods Force, allegedly shook hands on the plan over the weekend at a meeting in Baghdad. 

Nobody wake Barack. By Michael Goodwin

http://www.nypost.com/Page/Uuid/8c9cb6bc-7339-11e2-94d0-6b885303cf26

Excerpt: The Benghazi terrorist attack was a debacle in three distinct stages. The fatal mistakes occurred in the first two — the failure to provide adequate security before the attack and the failure to provide help once it started. Those mistakes were tragic, but the Obama administration’s explanations are coherent, though hardly defensible. The mystery always has been the third stage — the aftermath, or more accurately, the coverup. 

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory Speaks Truth To 'Gender Studies' Power. College Insurrection
http://collegeinsurrection.com/2013/02/nc-gov-speaks-truth-to-gender-studies-power/
Excerpt: [North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory] made his remarks on Bill Bennett’s radio show, and they infuriated faculty members at [the University of North Carolina in] Chapel Hill and elsewhere. Responding to Bennett’s question about what he plans to do with education, the Governor declared himself a “big vocational training advocate” and regretted that “the educational elite” have produced an undergraduate program filled with “courses that have no chance of getting people jobs.” Bennett cited “gender studies” with a laugh, and McCrory termed it a “subsidized course” and told listeners, “If you want to take a gender studies that’s fine, go to a private school and take it. 

So God Made a Democrat. By Daniel Greenfield

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/so-god-made-a-democrat/

Excerpt: God looked down on Washington D.C. and said “I need someone who will steal morning, noon and night. Who will steal from the rich to give to the poor and steal from the poor to give to the rich and fool them all and keep all the loot.” So God made a Democrat.

The Super Bowl Commercial You MISSED! "So God Made a Liberal" SooperMexican.com
http://www.soopermexican.com/2013/02/07/the-superbowl-commercial-you-missed-so-god-made-a-liberal/
Excerpt: We at the soopermexy blog tried to raise the millions of dollars it would take to run our 3 minute commercial during the superbowl, and we did manage to raise quite a sum. But we just ordered a buncha tacos with it. Sorry.

 

Rejoice! [British Prime Minister] David Cameron has released his inner Machiavelli. By Ruth Dudley Edwards 
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/ruthdudleyedwards/100202189/rejoice-rejoice-rejoice-david-cameron-has-released-his-inner-machiavelli/
Excerpt: Should our diplomacy be consensual or confrontational? Martin Wight, that brilliant student of international relations, once explained that there are essentially three types of diplomacy: Grotian (after Hugo Grotius, a seventeenth-century Dutch theologian and diplomat), Machiavellian (after the sixteenth-century pragmatist who in The Prince explained how to get on top and stay there) and Kantian (after the eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant, who in Perpetual Peace suggested that since the human condition was horrid, leaps of good faith were necessary).

Armed Churchgoer Prevents Slaughter: 'History and common sense prove that gun-free zones are dangerous.' By bob Unruh

http://www.wnd.com/2013/02/church-member-shoots-back-when-terrorists-attack/#OX0OHeUpwUghHoeo.99

Excerpt: Charl Van Wyk, who carried a gun to a church service, shot back at terrorists bent on mass slaughter and ultimately was credited with saving hundreds of lives, says politicians should rise above the “politically correct” and do what’s right to save the lives of children and teachers.

Christian hamlet (f)alls prey to Syrian looters

http://www.france24.com/en/20130209-christian-hamlet-alls-prey-syrian-looters

Excerpt: Those who swept through here seized anything of value, plundering even the chancel and the sacristy. Under a portrait of a benevolent Virgin Mary, a thief stole the chalice from the tabernacle. Al-Yakubiye, nestled in a lush mountain overlooking the Orontes valley, fell to the rebels two weeks ago after fighting that lasted for several days.

Protests erupt as Afzal Guru executed for 2001 parliament attack

http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/02/09/india-execution-afzal-guru-parliament-at-idINDEE91801C20130209

Excerpt: India hanged Mohammad Afzal Guru on Saturday for the attack on parliament in 2001, sparking clashes in Kashmir between protesters and police who wielded batons and fired teargas. Dozens of people were injured. ... India blamed the attack on the parliament of the world's largest democracy on militants backed by Pakistan, targeting the prime minister, interior minister and legislators in one of the country's worst ever militant attacks.

4 car bombs at outdoor markets in Iraq kill at least 36, wound 100
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/08/four-car-bombs-target-outdoor-markets-in-iraq-killing-20-people-and-wounding/#ixzz2KXRUeJf7

The daily toll of Muslims killing Muslims for Allah. ~Bob. Excerpt: Car bombs struck two outdoor markets and a group of taxi vans in Shiite areas across Iraq on Friday, killing at least 36 people and wounding nearly 100 in the bloodiest day in more than two months, as minority Sunnis staged large anti-government protests.

Bazaar Bomb Claimed by Taliban Kills at Least 11 in Northwest Pakistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/world/asia/bazaar-bomb-claimed-by-taliban-kills-at-least-11-in-northwest-pakistan.html?_r=2&

Excerpt: A car bomb ripped through a town bazaar in northwestern Pakistan’s tribal belt on Friday, killing 11 people and wounding at least 31, local officials said. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

Dem Ohio Pole Watcher: I Voted For Obama Twice

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/02/09/Democratic-Ohio-Poll-Watcher-Yeah-I-Voted-For-Obama-Twice

Excerpt: John Fund: The Hamilton County Board of Elections is investigating 19 possible cases of alleged voter fraud that occurred when Ohio was a focal point of the 2012 presidential election. …Democrat Melowese Richardson has been an official poll worker for the last quarter century and registered thousands of people to vote last year. She candidly admitted to Cincinnati’s Channel 9 this week that she voted twice in the last election. (Could investigate all 50 states. --Barb)

The Voter Fraud That ‘Never Happens’ Keeps Coming Back. By John Fund

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/340174/voter-fraud-never-happens-keeps-coming-back-john-fund

Critics of voter ID and other laws cracking down on voter fraud claim they’re unnecessary because fraud is nonexistent. For instance, Brennan Center attorneys Michael Waldman and Justin Levitt claimed last year: “A person casting two votes risks jail time and a fine for minimal gain. Proven voter fraud, statistically, happens about as often as death by lightning strike.” Well, lightning is suddenly all over Cincinnati, Ohio. The Hamilton County Board of Elections is investigating 19 possible cases of alleged voter fraud that occurred when Ohio was a focal point of the 2012 presidential election.

Obama punted to Panetta for U.S. response to Benghazi attack: Panetta says the president ‘left it up to us’

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/7/panetta-no-time-military-response-benghazi-attack/?page=all#pagebreak

Excerpt: Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta on Thursday revealed he personally broke the news to President Obama that the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, was under attack last year — but he and the president didn’t speak the rest of the night as the assault on the compound unfolded. Mr. Panetta said he and Mr. Obama, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, discussed the attack for 15 minutes in the Oval Office the afternoon of Sept. 11, and also covered an anti-American protest that had broken out that day at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. (OK, so the answer is really that the Prez told the guys to do whatever was needed to protect our people, then went away. And Panetta plus General Dempsey were then fully in charge and watching things unfold. And since they couldn't do much about the first attack, they didn't bother to scramble anyone else to get in there posthaste, so when the second attack came six hours later, it was oops, too bad about that. First off, even in the first attack someone told the CIA guys who were ready to head to the safe house to "stand down". Are we ever going to know who that was? Secondly, not scrambling any of the several possible reaction forces to get them to Benghazi ASAP because they felt the first attack was over is just incredibly stupid. Nobody knew the first attack was coming, they had zero intel about any concrete plans of anyone, so they had not way of knowing a second attack would not come. Which means you go for the safe thing and send in all the help you can get there fast. If they get there and nothing happens, so what, you burned some jet fuel? If they get there and something happens, then, duh, you did the right thing. Panetta and Dempsey have the blood of the two SEALs on their hands, and they should be publicly held responsible for that. Whoever ignored the ambassador's requests for more security in the weeks before the attack should be identified and held responsible for the first two deaths. We know people somewhere made horribly poor decisions for which there is no excuse. The least that is owed the four families of the murdered men is to identify those people and have some consequences come to them. This is not a partisan matter, it's a matter of blood spilled and no responsibility accepted for it. That is intolerable. -Del)

How The Gun Control Movement Got Smart. By Molly Ball

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/02/how-the-gun-control-movement-got-smart/272934/

Excerpt: Here is how advocates of gun control used to talk about their cause: They openly disputed that the Second Amendment conferred the right to own a gun. Their major policy goals were to make handguns illegal and enroll all U.S. gun owners in a federal database. The group now known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was once known as Handgun Control Inc.; a 2001 book by the executive director of the Violence Policy Center was entitled Every Handgun Is Aimed at You: The Case for Banning Handguns.

Democrats Slam Dr. Carson For Prayer Breakfast Speech: ‘Not Appropriate,’ Says Schakowsky

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/02/10/Democrats-Slam-Carson-for-Prayer-Breakfast-Speech-Not-Appropriate-Says-Schakowsky

Excerpt: Dr. Ben Carson thrilled the nation with his plain talk about political correctness, tax reform, and health insurance at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 7. President Barack Obama, seated a few feet away, did not seem impressed--and neither were Democrats such as Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), who slammed Dr. Carson’s remarks as “not appropriate” on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley Sunday morning. (She said it was “inappropriate” for Dr. Carson to invoke God at a prayer breakfast. --Barb)

Obama ready to cut US nuclear weapons arsenal by a third

http://www.therightscoop.com/obama-ready-to-cut-us-nuclear-weapons-arsenal-by-a-third/

Excerpt: As the world becomes a more volatile place, Obama seems only interested in making us weaker. I know the article says that the reduction by a third won’t hurt our national security, but pardon me for being a bit cynical. Perhaps it won’t today, but much is changing about the world including Iran getting nukes of their own. I’d think we’d be the last place that would want to draw down our nuclear arsenal.

Worth Reading: 20 Reasons America Is Becoming An Increasingly Nonfunctional Society. By John Hawkins

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2013/02/09/20-reasons-america-is-becoming-an-increasingly-nonfunctional-society-n1508680/page/full/

Excerpt: Starting in the sixties there was an explosion of children born out-of-wedlock and kids who don't grow up in two parent families fare more poorly percentage wise on just about any and every scale imaginable including substance abuse, teenage pregnancies, suicide rates, criminality and homelessness.

Graham Vows To Hold Up Confirmations Until He Gets Benghazi Answers (Video)

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/02/10/Sen-Graham-Vows-To-hold-up-confirmation-of%20Obama-nominees-until-he-gets-Benghazi-Answers

Excerpt: : Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says he'll hold up the confirmation process for the President's nominees to Defense and CIA until he gets answers about the Benghazi consulate attack.

Iran Rejects Biden's Offer for Direct Talks

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/nightwatch/2013/02/09/iran-rejects-bidens-offer-for-direct-talks-n1508492?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

Excerpt: The North's threats are the same old tired bravado. The new information is that South Korea might have a pre-emptive or first strike plan. (…) This generation of South Korean senior generals is not intimidated by the North's threats and has matched them, especially since the sinking of the patrol ship Cheonan in 2010. (While we already knew—and had covered within the past few days—that Iran had rejected Biden’s offer, this report clearly shows examples of the current reigning political confusion throughout the Middle East. While many there say they “want a more Islamic government,” I think they’re seeing the disasters befalling countries literally next door to them who institute such governments and trying to find a solution that would be less authoritarian. Their problem is that they can’t find it unless they separate religion from the state, a solution forbidden by their religion. And, as long as blasphemy is a crime…. Ron P.)

Skeeter President: Mock on, Americans: Petty rulers do not appreciate ridicule

http://pjmedia.com/blog/skeeter-president-mock-on-americans/

Excerpt: …Rather, experienced skeet-shooters questioned Obama’s claim in the New Republic about doing this “all the time.” They critiqued the positioning of the shotgun, the level aim, and compared his amateurish stance to that when he threw out the first pitch at the World Series dressed in “mom jeans.” Obama did not take up Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn’s challenge to a skeet shoot.

5 Moral Boundaries You Do Not Want To Cross

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/12/09/5-moral-boundaries-you-do-not-want-to-cross/

Excerpt: Many people consider monsters like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin somehow uniquely evil. …The truth is much more terrifying: human beings as evil and ruthless as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao are so common that we pass them on the street daily, see them on TV, and may even have the misfortune of knowing them personally. The real difference between these notorious butchers and the guy in a federal prison is not so much the degree of depravity, but the unchecked power needed to make his darkest desires reality.

The Coming Crisis in Patient Access to Physicians

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/02/10/the-coming-crisis-in-patient-access-to-physcians/

The reason is Obamacare, of course, and the problem will be faced by almost every state in the union. … They are working on proposals that would allow physician assistants to treat more patients and nurse practitioners to set up independent practices. Pharmacists and optometrists could act as primary care providers, diagnosing and managing some chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and high-blood pressure.

The EPA is destroying America

http://tucsoncitizen.com/wryheat/2013/02/06/the-epa-is-destroying-america/

Excerpt: Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), defying a court order, mandated that petroleum companies must add 14 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol to gasoline, in spite of the fact that commercial quantities of cellulosic do not exist. 

Life and Death: Aktion T4 and Gianna Molla

http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2013/02/09/life-and-death-aktion-t4-and-gianna-molla/

Excerpt: Let’s start in Germany with the Aktion T4 program. Aktion T4 was a program to eradicate the imperfect and undesirable. Children and adults with defects were euthanized by doctors in hospitals dedicated to the medical eradication of those with birth defects or other imperfections.