Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for February 19, 2013
Reminder: Obama: “I Will NOT Take Your Guns Away.”
Excerpt: "When you all go home and you're talking to your buddies and you say, ah 'He wants to take my gun away.' You've heard it here, I'm on television so everybody knows it. I believe in the Second Amendment. I believe in people's lawful right to bear arms. I will not take your shotgun away. I will not take your rifle away. I won't take your handgun away." (Of course, he also promised to cut the deficit in half, said raising the debt ceiling was unpatriotic, promised to get us out of Iraq in a year, to win the “good war” in Afghanistan, to close Gitmo, to post bills on the Internet for three days before he signed them, to have all the health care meetings open and transparent and to not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250k a year. He’s a Chicago Politician, lies to get elected, and the media covers for him. ~Bob.)
Former Rep. Jackson Jr. to plead guilty
The Chicago Way Jackson 's wife, Sandy
Green groups rally on climate, urge Obama to reject Keystone project
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/283643-rally-of-35000-demands-obama-to-scrap-keystone-xl#ixzz2LGDBOXc0
Excerpt: Environmental groups gathered on the National Mall inWashington , D.C.
Excerpt: Environmental groups gathered on the National Mall in
Hagel disavowed remark on Israel
Excerpt: Hagel was said to have told a Rutgers University audience in 2007 that the State Department was controlled by Israel
Supporter of Iranian dictatorship brought Chuck Hagel to Rutgers University
Excerpt: A pro-Hezbollah, pro-Hamas candidate for the Iranian presidency, a man linked to Iranian-controlled front groups, brought former Republican Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel to speak at Rutgers University
Hagel 2005: Ok To Hold Up Confirmation If 'Serious Allegations' Not Answered
Excerpt: Why have the Republicans been unable to propose an alternative to ObamaCare? Anyone can criticize. Where is the Republican alternative? Okay, I’ll grant some exceptions. Newt Gingrich had a comprehensive health plan in last year’s Republican primary. It was my plan. Four years ago John McCain had a comprehensive health reform. That was also basically my plan. Mitt Romney oversaw health reform in Massachusetts
Experts debate the benefits of a proposed minimum wage hike
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/economy/283577-experts-debate-the-benefits-of-a-minimum-wage-hike
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/economy/283577-experts-debate-the-benefits-of-a-minimum-wage-hike
Excerpt: An Obama administration proposal to raise the minimum wage may not help as many low-wage earners as estimated, although some economists argue that the policy will reverberate positively through the economy. Keith Hall, a Mercatus Center scholar at George Mason University
CBO Overly Optimistic about Economic Growth and the Federal Debt
Excerpt: CBO is right to point out that these would be the highest U.S. debt levels since the years immediately following World War II and that the various dangers of such indebtedness include an interest rate spike that would precipitate a fiscal crisis and even default. However, it could be worse and likely will be. Under the CBO’s alternative scenario, which assumes current policy will continue and that automatic spending cuts will not go into effect on March 1, the debt to GDP ratio reaches 87 percent by 2023. Further, as will be demonstrated, CBO likely overestimates long-run economic growth and new tax revenue resulting from recent increases in tax rates. This means deficits will likely be larger and debt will likely exceed the 77 to 87 percent range foreseen by CBO.
Fixing The Public Sector Pension Problem: The (True) Path to Long-Term Reform. By Richard C. Dreyfuss
Excerpt: Even as the federal government struggles to stabilize its finances, many states are facing their own daunting sets of fiscal deficits. These take the form of unfunded liabilities totaling almost $1.4 trillion and stemming from obligations to pay for public employees’ pensions, retiree medical insurance, and other retirement benefits. Reform efforts ostensibly being made to solve this crisis have fallen short.
Excerpt: Pope Benedict, Joseph Ratzinger, has scheduled a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano for Saturday, February 23 to discuss securing protection and immunity from prosecution from the Italian government, according to Italian media sources. (I’m not sure this is a reliable source. I was sent the link, know nothing about them. ~Bob.)
Obama plays round of golf with Tiger Woods, media air frustration over accesshttp://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/17/obama-plays-golf-in-florida-with-tiger-woods/#ixzz2LGegboni
No problem with stonewalling Benghazi
Why President Obama keeps the press away – playing golf with Tiger Woods doesn’t look good with 12 million Americans out of work and a $16 trillion debt
Ya think? ~Bob
The Week That Was: 2013-02-16 (February 16, 2013)
Excerpt: Quote of the Week: “As long ago as 1994, cosmologist Carl Sagan expressed concern about the trend toward an American society in which, ‘clutching our crystals and religiously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in steep decline, unable to distinguish between what’s true and what feels good, we slide, almost without noticing, into superstition and darkness.’” (Many, many good articles this week. Especially see the articles numbered #1 and #4. A second thought: Sagan no doubt thought of himself as an enlightened person, but he had no problem with politicizing science when it was for a cause he agreed with. --Ron P.)
There's a Feeling of Instability Bubbling Up
Excerpt: ...it doesn't take much of a leap of imagination to see shadows of a very different decade: as in the early Noughties, the dominant dynamic in the markets today is a desperate search for yield that is fueling potential asset bubbles across global markets. Just as the U.S. Federal Reserve loosened monetary policy in the aftermath of the dotcom crash, central banks have been again flooding the world with easy money to try to pull the global economy out of its current malaise. And as in the past decade, there is evidence that all this liquidity is leading to asset-price inflation even as consumer-price inflation remains low, with concerns about bubbles in assets as varied as Swiss, Canadian and London
Courage: Raped, Impregnated 13-Year-Old Girl Keeps Baby. By Jill Stanek
Excerpt: I received an amazing email from Anna, who gave me permission to post her story and her name. It is Anna when she was 13-yrs-old in the photo above, with her newborn daughter Josey. Here is their powerful story:
Worth Reading
Excerpt: I was in surgery when the first Columbine victims arrived in our emergency room. As I was working to improve one child's life, my friends were downstairs trying to save others -- one cracking a chest and another tending a girl whose breast had been partially blown off by a shotgun. Trust me; I get it. Set aside that our media have made us numb to violence and our children more aggressive. Set aside that the data overwhelmingly show gun control laws are unhelpful and often counterproductive. Set aside that we have systemically destroyed inpatient psychiatric care in the name of civil rights and saving money. Trashing our individual constitutional rights is not the answer to mass shootings.
Unions Slump on Bad Obama Bet. By John Ransom
Excerpt: In 2008 and 2012 labor unions used everything, including a little body English, ballot stuffing and voter intimidation to elect a president who would bring the prestige of presidential backing to recruitment efforts for labor unions. Since then not only have labor unions taken historic defeats in former union strongholds, like Wisconsin and Michigan, labor union membership is declining at a rate that will make them a footnote in the annals of history if the steady decline in membership keeps up at the current pace.
Democratic senator pushing higher taxes faces outstanding $1,200 tax penalty
Excerpt: But in a twist of hypocrisy, the Louisiana senator and her husband appear to have not yet paid $1,206.95 in tax penalties to the District of Columbia government on their Capitol Hill home, The Daily Caller has learned.
Russian Deployment of Missile Defenses-- Hidden in Plain Sight. By Mark B. Schneider and Peter Huessy
Excerpt: The U.S. system is not being designed against a sophisticated missile threat, such as that posed by Russia , while the Russian system is clearly designed to defend against the United States U.S. ballistic missile defense efforts, Russia is building a unified "aerospace defense" system aimed at intercepting U.S.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: Since when is criticizing Islam a crime? Since when was defending the rights of writers, journalists and artists to say, write and draw what they like a crime? You really do have to rub your eyes. These are not Saudi papers or the Tehran Daily News running these smears — they are allegedly "liberal" papers in an allegedly "liberal" country in an allegedly "liberal" democracy.
Half-Truths, Delusions, and Immigration. By Bruce Thornton
Excerpt: More important, the public discourse about illegal immigration is filled with incoherence, duplicity, and wishful thinking. One problem is the constant confusion of legal and illegal immigration. People justifiably worried about the latter are constantly chided for being “anti-immigrant” and forgetting that America
British housewife accused by the US of spying for Iran 'to save her brother-in-law's life'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2279898/British-housewife-accused-US-spying-Iran-save-brother-laws-life.html#ixzz2LGw02bm4
Excerpt: Anne Singleton, 53, is alleged to have been blackmailed into training with the Iranian secret service during a visit to Tehran in 2002. The Pentagon-commissioned report claims that Mrs Singleton and her Iranian husband, Massoud Khodabandeh, 56, agreed to work for the regime in return for saving the life of his jailed brother. (I would hope that my brothers would never betray theUnited states
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2279898/British-housewife-accused-US-spying-Iran-save-brother-laws-life.html#ixzz2LGw02bm4
Excerpt: Anne Singleton, 53, is alleged to have been blackmailed into training with the Iranian secret service during a visit to Tehran in 2002. The Pentagon-commissioned report claims that Mrs Singleton and her Iranian husband, Massoud Khodabandeh, 56, agreed to work for the regime in return for saving the life of his jailed brother. (I would hope that my brothers would never betray the
Nigerian reporters, cleric held after polio clinic killings
Gee, wouldn’t you think that a cleric would know that “Islam is a Religion of Peace”? ~Bob. Excerpt: Police in northern Nigeria
Officials: Series of bombs in Baghdad
Muslims who didn’t get the “Islam is a Religion of Peace” memo killing other Muslims for Allah. ~Bob
Muslim Villagers in Egypt Attack Church
Excerpt: Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Muslim villagers in Egypt ’s Fayoum Province
Excerpt: The Christian prisoners are Mojtaba Seyyed-Alaedin Hossein, Mohammad-Reza Partoei (also known as Koroush), Vahid Hakkani, and Homayoun Shokouhi. Since their arrest, they have been taken to the Revolutionary Court of Shiraz several times in a pitiful condition with their hands and feet chained, where their charges were officially announced as participating in house-church services, evangelizing and promoting Christianity, having contact with foreign Christian ministries, distributing propaganda against the regime and disturbing national security.
'Claim jobseeker's allowance and plan holy war': Hate preacher pocketing £25,000 a year in benefits calls on fanatics to live off the state
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2279972/Anjem-Choudary-Hate-preacher-pocketing-25-000-year-benefits-calls-fanatics-live-state.html#ixzz2LGyA4wEG
Excerpt: A controversial Muslim cleric who lives off benefits is urging his followers to also sponge off UK taxpayers by claiming their 'Jihadseeker's allowance'. Anjem Choudary, who in the past has planned to disrupt the minute's silence on Remembrance Sunday, also openly mocked hard-working Britons, calling them 'slaves'.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2279972/Anjem-Choudary-Hate-preacher-pocketing-25-000-year-benefits-calls-fanatics-live-state.html#ixzz2LGyA4wEG
Excerpt: A controversial Muslim cleric who lives off benefits is urging his followers to also sponge off UK taxpayers by claiming their 'Jihadseeker's allowance'. Anjem Choudary, who in the past has planned to disrupt the minute's silence on Remembrance Sunday, also openly mocked hard-working Britons, calling them 'slaves'.
Report: Iran
Excerpt: An Iranian newspaper is reporting that government authorities are confiscating Buddha statues from shops in Tehran
One gun victim Obama will not trot out. By Gregory Kane
Excerpt: So it was that my first cousin, Nate Gulliver, met his end on a freezing cold January night in 2005. It was only later that I learned that one of the men in the home invasion party, the one that probably shot my cousin, had a criminal past so violent that he shouldn't have been anywhere near that recovery house. He should have been behind bars. One thing absent from the recent debate about gun control is how much gun violence is committed by career criminals with a history of violence that are out on the streets, as opposed to being in prison where they belong. (Taking guns away from law abiding citizens: Good. Actually putting black thugs, who mainly kill black folks, in prison: Racist, thus bad. Got it? ~Bob.)
Distractions — Defeating Obama with Aikido
Excerpt: When the public starts looking closely at what he is doing, making him vulnerable on matters of genuine significance, Obama changes the subject, distracting the public with a relatively minor issue. That this new issue usually has “hot button” overtones only helps him because it plays into the anger management issues endemic to the human race. (…) As I write this, the big issues on the national agenda appear to be not the economy and foreign policy, but gun control and immigration. (Simon makes some really good points in this article. If we lose focus on the real objective, how can we attain it? --Ron P.)
Does China Plan To Establish Chinese Cities And Special Economic Zones All Over America
http://investmentwatchblog.com/does-china-plan-to-establish-chinese-cities-and-special-economic-zones-all-over-america/#JgUjsd897m7oivog.99
http://investmentwatchblog.com/does-china-plan-to-establish-chinese-cities-and-special-economic-zones-all-over-america/#JgUjsd897m7oivog.99
Excerpt: What in the world is China America
Dick Bove: US Dollar Will Be ‘Overthrown’ as World’s Reserve Currency. By Glenn J. Kalinoski
Excerpt: There’s plenty of evidence supporting the belief that the dollar’s days as the preeminent currency are coming to an end, a development that would be catastrophic for the world’s largest economy. (This article presents important 'news' much too late. Americans had long been warned that printing money à la Bernanke was eventually going to dilute the dollar to a critical point where at least 2 things would happen: 1--precipitous loss of confidence in the dollar around the world, 2--hyperinflation. (The definition of 'hyperinflation' is imprecise, but in my opinion, the doubling of the gas prices since the beginning of the Barack regime is already hyperinflation because it, and other allied indices, have reduced millions of people to poverty). Further, no mention is given by the author of who is to blame for this dollar destruction, and yet, it is plain as the nose on your face that the spending of ONE TRILLION dollars a year on welfare and, on top of that, on bank bailouts and assorted 'stimulus' measures that didn't pan out (because they were targeted only at political strategies such as green energy and the like losing propositions, and the issuing of un-backed dollars to pay for these fiascos) are absolute POISON to our economy and the world economy. The current regime only needed to take a cursory look at Spain US China and the USSR
Bad news: The asteroid that just missed Earth is coming back. And... (it’s pissed off…)
http://news.investors.com/politics-andrew-malcolm/021813-644829-asteroid-2012-da-14-missed-earth-narrowly-but-will-return.htm
http://news.investors.com/politics-andrew-malcolm/021813-644829-asteroid-2012-da-14-missed-earth-narrowly-but-will-return.htm
Excerpt: These dead rocks can pack quite a wallop. Ask the dinosaurs. When 2012 AD 14 flew by Earth at 2:24 P.M. Eastern time Friday, it was only 17,200 miles above Indonesia
Peer-Reviewed Survey Finds Majority Of Scientists Skeptical Of Global Warming Crisis
Excerpt: Don’t look now, but maybe a scientific consensus exists concerning global warming after all. Only 36 percent of geoscientists and engineers believe that humans are creating a global warming crisis, according to a survey reported in the peer-reviewed Organization Studies. By contrast, a strong majority of the 1,077 respondents believe that nature is the primary cause of recent global warming and/or that future global warming will not be a very serious problem.
Excerpt: “According to our calculations, in the coming years, it should get warmer by leaps. But we do not trust that prognosis. Because the simulations should also have been able to predict the current standstill of the temperature increase – which did not happen.” That according to the climate researcher Jochen Marotzke of MPI-M in Hamburg
Tweet from Fred Salber @Stryker1b
It has never been explained how the last ice age went away without mans intervention. Just changed all on its own. AMAZING!
Excerpt: So far, the winter of 2012-13 has featured temperatures both well above and the normal high of about –4º C. There have been few days when they were actually normal. While some experts are pointing to climate change as a pivotal factor in weather fluctuations, Environment Canada’s senior climatologist says temperature changes are par for the course. “There’s a difference between climate and temperature,” explained David Phillips in an interview. “The wild swings in temperature have had nothing to do with climate. It’s about where the winds come from.”
Dad claims he killed intruders while defending his home
Excerpt: The 25-year-old father who said he shot and killed two men who broke into his Prospect-area home Sunday morning told CBS 6 senior reporter Wayne Covil he did not know the men he killed.
Tweets from L.J. @LJLoughner
2 life facts I've yet to see proven wrong. 1. Don't trust anyone that don't like dogs 2. How people treat the waitress/waiter says a lot. If you do something over & over that you like it's called an addiction, and if you do something over & over you hate it's called a job.
Police Found Thousands of Dollars of Graphically Violent Video Games at Newtown
Can’t do anything about violent games and movies. The entertainment industry supports Democrats. ~Bob.
Quote
"Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected." - George Washington
Meet the fastest-growing demographic among gun owners
Excerpt: This weekend, NBC News took an extended look at the fastest-growing demographic in gun ownership: women. (My section chief from Vietnam
Excerpt: Slice by slice, one Virginia Beach Chicago
Development Grant Sales Are Brisk in Los Angeles
Your tax dollars at work. ~Bob. Excerpt: Last year, Malibu , Calif.
Why do unions seek exemption from anti-stalking laws?
Excerpt: Pennsylvania unions now enjoy a loophole that the state’s anti-stalking law “shall not apply to conduct by a party to a labor dispute.” In Illinois, anti-stalking laws exempt “any controversy concerning wages, salaries, hours, working conditions or benefits … the making of collective bargaining agreements.”
Heads roll as the religion of “turn the other cheek,” meets the religion of “peace”
http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/from-the-right/heads-roll-as-the-religion-of-turn-the-other-cheek-meets-the-religion-of-peace-191557241.html#ixzz2LHfJMug2
Excerpt: The latest casualty in the war against Christianity, is a Tanzanian pastor who lost his head to an outraged Muslim mob. The incensed mob was demanding all non-halal butcher shops and especially pork butchery, be forbidden
http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/from-the-right/heads-roll-as-the-religion-of-turn-the-other-cheek-meets-the-religion-of-peace-191557241.html#ixzz2LHfJMug2
Excerpt: The latest casualty in the war against Christianity, is a Tanzanian pastor who lost his head to an outraged Muslim mob. The incensed mob was demanding all non-halal butcher shops and especially pork butchery, be forbidden
The bank, the school and the 38-year loan
Excerpt: The fliers touted new ballfields, science labs and modern classrooms. They didn't mention the crushing debt or the investment bank that stood to make millions. In early 2008, residents of Placentia and Yorba Linda approved a $200 million school construction bond after reading those fliers and being assured repeatedly that "their money will be spent wisely." What happened instead was that Measure A led to a debt so large and long lasting that it mortgaged the future of their children's children.
Video Flashback: Obama and Democrats Blast Bush for High Gas Prices in 2008
Excerpt: Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton and Debbie Wasserman Schultz attacked George W. Bush for high gas prices back in 2008. Now Obama and democrats are complaining that Republicans are politicizing gas prices.
Worth Reading: Obama’s America: Youth, middle class living lives of quiet desperation
Excerpt: More and more Americans are working part-time and in low-wage jobs. Our unemployment rate is 15 percent, which includes involuntary part-time workers. Unemployment for those under age 25 is higher, 16 percent, and that number is set to soar as Obamacare kicks in and the cost of insuring full-time workers skyrockets. America gradually is descending into a low-wage, part-time economy with stagnant growth accompanied by decreasing social mobility. Obama’s policies will mean those trends won’t improve for at least the next five years – four more years of Obama and at least one year to change course.
Islamist group claims kidnap of foreigners in Nigeria
Excerpt: An Islamist group linked to al Qaeda claimed responsibility on Monday for kidnapping seven foreigners in an attack in a remote Nigerian town at the weekend, when raiders used explosives to blast their way into a housing compound in a hail of gunfire.
Muslims In Sweden Practice Beheading Skills On Cats
Excerpt: So, Sweden, how's that multiculturalism working out for you?
By Any Measure, the Jobs Disaster Continues. By Mortimer Zuckerman
Excerpt: The jobless today are much less visible than they were in the 1930s because relief is organized differently. Today in the "recovery," the millions are being assisted, out of sight, by government checks, unemployment checks, Social Security disability checks and food stamps. More than 48 million Americans are in the food-stamp program—an almost incredible record.
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