Thursday, March 7, 2013

Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for March 8, 2013

Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for March 8, 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.

Information on my books

Worth Reading: We Owe Illegals An Apology? Exclusive: John Rocker hits amnesty Republicans for 'surrendering to colonization'
Excerpt: Illegal aliens don’t value America – they value the type of conditions Americans have created in America, which, absent of actual Americans, don’t exist. As was the case with California, those conditions “illegals value” began to crumble when the actual American people were replaced with a population of illegal aliens dependent on the state for their very existence.

Compares Chicago, IL with Houston, TX
Excerpt: Led by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the filibuster stretched nearly 13 hours, — with the Senate adjourning shortly before 12:45 a.m. Thursday. It was aimed at drawing attention to concerns about the administration’s use of unmanned aerial drones in its fight against terrorists and whether the government would ever use them in the United States.

Rand Paul filibuster against CIA nominee gains strength in Senate
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/286533-paul-launches-talking-filibuster-against-brennans-nomination#ixzz2MnVj1VNR
Excerpt: Sen. Rand Paul's old-fashioned filibuster Wednesday against CIA nominee John Brennan has gained strength, with several Republicans and one Democrat joining him on the floor. Paul began the filibuster at 11:45 a.m. to prevent Senate Democrats from ending debate on Brennan and moving to a final vote. ….Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) also spoke about the need for more oversight of the administration’s drone program, as did Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the only Democrat to join the effort so far. (Add Rubio and per article, Mike Lee. And there was the reading of Travis’ last letter from the Alamo on its anniversary….Barb.)

VIDEOS: AP Edited Out Standing Ovation at End of Rand Paul's Filibuster. The Right Pundit
Excerpt: After 12 hours and 52 minutes Rand Paul yielded the floor at 12:40 a.m., One hour later the AP posted video and for anybody watching only this one, they'd never know that Paul got a standing ovation and long round of applause and it continued even at the sound of the gavel being slammed. Here's 2 videos with the exact same starting point. 

It Shows What One Man Can Do: Three Takeaways from Rand Paul's #StandwithRand #Filibuster about Drone Strikes. By Nick Gillespie
Excerpt: Here are three takeaways from yesterday's epic event: 1. It shows what one man can do to call attention to a hugely important issue that nonetheless is largely ignored by the mainstream media and the political establishment. Elected in 2010, Rand Paul has rarely been the Republican - or the Democrat's - media favorite.

The political genius of Rand Paul's drone filibuster. By Peter Weber 
Excerpt: The groups of people cheering him on outside the Senate defied the idea of an America polarized along strict partisan lines

Excerpt: The U.S. does not have the authority to use a drone attack against a U.S. citizen not engaged in combat on U.S. soil, Attorney General Eric Holder told Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) in a Thursday letter. (Now they’ll pretend this was their position all along, instead of being drug out of them but rand Paul and Ted Cruz. ~Bob.)

Drones are coming home to skies near you: feel safer?
Excerpt: But while drones are not the only weapon used to execute the Kill List/Disposition Matrix, they are a different kind of weapon. And those differences are substantial not only to the people at the other end of the bombs and missiles, who live in terror in part because of the incessant buzzing in the skies above them, but also to those of us in the United States – and not just because drone strikes hurt our national security or moral standing. The US government's infatuation with drones is quite literally coming home to roost.

Barack Obama 'has authority to use drone strikes to kill Americans on US soil. John Swaine
Excerpt: Daphne Eviatar, a senior counsel at Human Rights First, said: “It’s hard to see how authorities could not be in a position to arrest someone yet be able to kill them.

Tweet from RB ‏@RBPundit
Change it around. Instead of a drone strike, it's a US agent popping some dude at a cafe. Inside the US. I want to know the rules for that.

I'm sure Obama will be as responsible with his drones as he is with our nation's finances.

New clothing line will make you invisible to drones: New threads called Stealth Wear
Excerpt: New York artist and designer named Adam Harvey came up with the new gear.
The Items are made from special metal fibers that reflect heat. That makes it harder for drones to spot anyone through thermal surveillance. (You can accessorize with a tin foil hat. ~Bob.)

The California 'Mordida.' By Victor Davis Hanson 
Excerpt: California now works on the principle of the mordida, or "bite." Its government assumes that it can take something extra from residents for the privilege of living in their special state.

Republicans emerge from Obama dinner optimistic about deficit deal
Excerpt: Senate Republicans are more optimistic about the prospect of a grand bargain on the deficit after an intimate dinner with President Obama Wednesday evening in downtown Washington. (I assume the menu was warmed-over mush washed down with Cool-Aid. ~Bob.)

DC snowstorm buries climate change hearing
Excerpt: The House Science, Space and Technology subcommittee on Environment was scheduled to hear from a panel that included a pair of witnesses more skeptical of some of the scientific consensus regarding climate change. The snowstorm that struck Washington early Wednesday put those plans on hold. The Washington area is under a winter storm warning until 3 a.m. Thursday. The National Weather Service forecast a potential 6 to 12 inches of snowfall inside the Beltway.

Congressman: Hospitalized Survivors Using Aliases
Excerpt: It appears Benghazi survivors who are still recovering at medical facilities may be listed under different aliases.

Guardian open journalism: Three Little Pigs advert - video
This advert for the Guardian's open journalism, screened for the first time on 29 February 2012, imagines how we might cover the story of the Three Little Pigs in print and online. Follow the story from the paper's front page headline, through a social media discussion and finally to an unexpected conclusion.

Pesach Jews Vs. Purim Jews: The Agony of our Dilemma. By Yossi Klein Halevi
As I travel through North American Jewish communities, on a lecture tour about Israeli society in the aftermath of the elections, I sometimes feel as though I am in a time warp. Visiting an Orthodox community, I may find myself back in the 1970s and 1980s, before the first Intifada convinced a majority of Israelis that the occupation is a mortal threat to the Jewish state; instead, right-wing American Jews will insist, Israel must continue building settlements and creating facts on the ground. And when I visit a liberal community, I may find myself back in the 1990s, before the second Intifada convinced that same majority of Israelis that a one-way peace process is likewise a mortal threat to the Jewish state; instead, left-wing American Jews will insist, a peace agreement is always within reach and just a matter of Israeli will. (This is a thoughtful analysis of the wide gap in viewpoints among American Jews about peace prospects and consequences for Israel. Cordially, Larry Greenberg)

Excerpt: Yesterday we showed all those key economic criteria (that get so little airtime for obvious reasons), which were prevalent the last time the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all time high, back in 2007, all of which reflected a far more vibrant economy, and more importantly, an economy, and market, not propped up by a $14 trillion global central bank liquidity tsunami. Today, our chart of the day comes from BloombergBrief, which shows yet another aspect of the “low wage” recovery, namely that while the bulk of the jobs lost heading into the “recovery” were of middle and higher paying jobs, the offset have been part-time and other low-paying jobs, which explains also why the purchasing power of the average American, in real terms, declines with every passing day. (How long can the present regime keep hiding things like this in the open? On the other hand, they sent a patently phony BC out to the whole country and there have been no political repercussions. Guess the Wizard of Oz has some powerful magic behind that curtain. It's called a brain dead public. --Don Hank)

Excerpt: The Left has already started the whitewashing of Hugo Chávez’s record, and I have no doubt that within days his image will adorn T-shirts the way the thuggish Che Guevara does. Within minutes of the announcement of the strongman’s death, Ken Livingstone, London’s former mayor, tweeted the following:
Excerpt: Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) introduced legislation on Wednesday that would require police to obtain a warrant before accessing private online communications or mobile location data. Reps. Ted Poe (R-Texas) and Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) have signed on as cosponsors of the legislation, the Online Communications and Geolocation Protection Act. "Fourth Amendment protections don’t stop at the Internet," Lofgren said in a statement. (Too little, too late for this regime. ~Bob)

Glenn Beck: 'I've lost faith,' time to 'surrender'
Excerpt: As part of his clarion call, Beck urged parents to remove their children from government-run schools.…They’re indoctrination camps. …. They’re turning our kids against all of the values that we ever held, they’re wounding them even further. (Beck is pretty far out there, but so was Churchill in the 1930s. Doesn’t mean he’s wrong…~Bob.)

5 Busybodies Who Want to Parent Your Kids: And why you don't have to listen to them.
Excerpt: Parenting isn’t easy under any circumstances, and parents seem to be under excessive pressure today to do everything “right.” Books, classes, and websites abound to teach parents how to do what used to be a rather simple proposition. Experts are everywhere; unfortunately, some will undermine your confidence in your ability to parent your own children.

Op-Ed: Obama's Timetable
Excerpt: Just before his visit to Israel, apparently the Obama administration has leaked that Obama is coming here not for a photo opportunity, but to seriously move the defunct peace talks forward. He wants, among other things, a timetable of when Israel plans to withdraw from Yehuda and Shomron, Judea and Samaria...the "West Bank"…. We'll be here, Mr. Obama, until the end of time. 

Expert: U.S. Doing No Favors in Giving Israel Special Ally Status
Excerpt: "Without IsraelCyprus and Saudi Arabia are toast," Langfan told Arutz Sheva, "and they know it." "Without Israel, oil would be $1,000 a barrel. Without Israel, the US would have to fund an extra $200 billion yearly defense budget to defend southern NATO countries from a Muslim caliphate's northward tsunami." 

The New Holocaust Discoveries: With more than 42,000 ghettos and concentration camps scattered throughout Europe, almost everyone had to know what was happening. By Rabbi Benjamin Blech
Excerpt: The latest revelation about the Holocaust stuns even the scholars who thought they already knew everything about the horrific details of Germany’s program of genocide against the Jewish people. It’s taken more than 70 years to finally know the full facts. And what is almost beyond belief is that what really happened goes far beyond what anyone could ever have imagined. (The parallels of two men who wanted to fundamentally change a nation to ensure that all receive equal justice, wealth is redistributed, and the perpetrators of injustice be punished led to the greatest mass murder in the history of mankind. Are we again heading in that direction---possibly---unless the next madman is stopped? –TC)

Excerpt: The U.S. Air Force has decided to scrap a major ERP (enterprise resource planning) software project after spending US$1 billion, concluding that finishing it would cost far too much more money for too little gain. Dubbed the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS), the project has racked up $1.03 billion in costs since 2005, "and has not yielded any significant military capability," an Air Force spokesman said in an emailed statement Wednesday.

Obama administration hit for giving Egypt $250M as domestic spending cuts take hold
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/05/obama-hit-for-giving-egypt-250m-as-domestic-spending-cuts-hit-home/#ixzz2Mp4zNo1S
Excerpt: The Obama administration is facing criticism for giving $250 million in aid to Egypt while saying the recent sequester has forced drastic cutbacks elsewhere in the budget -- including forcing the release of "low-priority" illegal immigrants from jail.

Excerpt: The Transportation Security Administration agreed on a deal last month worth as much as $50 million to buy new uniforms for rank-and-file agents, despite concerns that imminent budget cuts would result in furloughs and 90-minute flight delays.

Excerpt: Judicial Watch today released records detailing the government funds expended on First Daughter Malia Obama’s March 2012 Spring Break vacation to Mexico. According to the records, obtained from the U.S. Secret Service as a result of a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed on September 20, 2012, the total cost of the trip amounted to $115,500.87. (Come on. Don’t you send your 12-year-old and ten friends to Mexico on Spring Break? What are you, some low-class chumbolone? ~Bob.)

Bill Cosby Suggests GOP Wants To Bring Back Slavery
Excerpt: Bill Cosby joined a growing chorus of President Obama defenders this week who can only see any and all GOP opposition to the Commander in Chief in terms of race.

Colorado Anti-Second Amendment Legislator’s Criminal Record Exposed. By Kyle Forti 
Excerpt: According to a Colorado Bureau of Investigations report obtained by Media Trackers, State Representative Rhonda Fields (D-Aurora) was arrested in 1976 on a charge of larceny and again in 1991 on a charge of shoplifting. Despite her own criminal record, Rep. Fields has sought to limit the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. (Would be a big deal if she was a pro-gun white Republican. But now, not so much. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Project Veritas is out with a damning video showing police officers from multiple departments saying “you’re on your own” when it comes to home invasions. The video focuses on New Jersey and New York, where it is nearly impossible to obtain a firearm. In New Jersey you must obtain a permit to purchase a Biden approved shotgun.

Muslim anger explodes against Bangladesh's Hindu community. By Sumon Francis Gomes
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Muslim-anger-explodes-against-Bangladesh%27s-Hindu-community-27316.html
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Scores of homes have been set on fire, women and girls have been assaulted, temples have been desecrated and statues of the goddess Kali have been destroyed. For days, Hindu communities in some areas of Bangladesh have been targeted by supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic party, after its leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee was sentenced to death for war crimes.

Muslim Turkish teens on Jews: ‘Hitler should have killed all.’ By Cheryl K. Chumley
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/6/muslim-turkish-teens-jews-hitler-should-have-kille/#ixzz2MrlVYT3n
Excerpt: A Dutch researcher who interviewed a group of Muslim immigrant teenage boys from Turkey was shocked at their repeated response to questions about the Holocaust: Hitler should have finished the job, they suggested. “As far as I’m concerned, Hitler should have killed all Jews,” one said on the video, which aired on Nederland 2 TV last month and is now available with English subtitles, The Blaze reported.

Smith & Wesson Earnings More Than Tripled In Last Quarter
Excerpt: The nation's second biggest publicly traded gun company said it earned $17.5 million, or 26 cents per share, from continuing operations in the quarter that ended in January. That's up from $5.4 million, or 8 cents per share, in the same period last year.

French mother Bouchra Bagour on trial for 9/11 T-shirt
Excerpt: A mother has gone on trial in southern France for sending her son to nursery school wearing a T-shirt reading "I am a bomb" and "Born on 11 September".

Florida Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Anti-Sharia Bill. By Pamela Geller
Excerpt: The legislation prohibits the violation of an individual's right under the Constitution of the State of Florida or the United States Constitution. This very simple and clear cut legislation should be the proverbial no brainer. And yet the fact that it being met by so much resistance, both overt and covert, indicates how very needed it is.

Mark Steyn on Pamela Geller's Exclusion from CPAC
Excerpt: For the last four years, Pamela Geller of AtlasShrugs.com and the American Freedom Defense Initiative have held events at CPAC featuring guests she invites to discuss the influence of Islamism on America. But this year, the American Conservative Union (ACU) has no room for Geller or her message…In years past, the events were standing room only thanks to their popularity, but that apparently was not enough to counter pressure brought to bear from somewhere to exclude Geller’s message.

Caroline Glick: Ladies and Gentlemen, Presenting the next Director of the CIA! 
Excerpt: And since it is [Brennan's and Obama's] policies, not their beliefs that matter to the world, they should be judged for that. Aside from his hippy past, and his horrible, obsequious Arabic, the thing that made me most uncomfortable about Brennan's whole paean to Islam is the fact that he said "Palestine" twice and never said Israel, and when he finally felt compelled to say Jerusalem, after saying "Al Quds" twice he sounded like he was either going to spit or apologize for mentioning the word Jerusalem in the presence of his audience. So does it matter if this man is a Muslim or not? 

Swarms of Locusts Cross into Israel. By Isabel Kershner
Excerpt: On the up side, some considered the curse almost a blessing. The popular Channel 2 television news showed delighted Thai agricultural workers frying up locusts for a crunchy snack. The Israeli television crew munched on a few too, noting that locusts are considered kosher.

The Robber Barons: Neither robbers nor barons. By David R. Henderson
Excerpt: But Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and many of the others referred to as robber barons started their businesses from scratch and were granted no special privileges. Moreover, not only did they earn their money and not only were they not granted privileges, but they also helped consumers and, in one famous case, destroyed a monopoly. Consider the case of Cornelius ("Commodore") Vanderbilt.

Question from a blog reader
"N. Korea vows nuclear strike on US.” When did that cease to be an act of war? –TH

Hugo Chavez: Latin America has chosen rage over progress. By Daniel Hannan
Excerpt: It would be going too far to call these leaders dictators: they are anti-parliamentary rather than anti-democratic. Having got themselves more or less legitimately elected, they dismantle the checks on their power: the judiciary, opposition parties, electoral commissions, private television stations. In order to remain popular, they have to keep picking fights: with Washington, with the IMF, with “the rich” and, when all else fails, with each other.

Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to year in prison over publication of leaked police wiretap transcripts in his newspaper Il Giornale.
Excerpt: Mr Berlusconi's brother Paolo, editor of Il Giornale, was sentenced to two years and three months. The verdict carries no impact on Mr Berlusconi's eligibility to participate in a new government. Italian sentencing guidelines indicate that people aged over 75 and with sentences of less than two years do not have to actually go to prison. Mr Berlusconi is 76.

Syrian rebels seize U.N. peacekeepers near Golan Heights
Obama’s allies. ~Bob. Excerpt: Syrian rebels have seized a convoy of U.N. peacekeepers near the Golan Heights and say they will hold them captive until President Bashar al-Assad's forces pull back from a rebel-held village which has seen heavy recent fighting.

Malaysians Kill 13 Filipino Fighters Amid Fears of Wider Conflict
Excerpt: An air and ground assault by Malaysian forces killed at least 13 of the nearly 200 militants seeking to reclaim part of Borneo Island for a Filipino sultan, Malaysian police officials said Wednesday.

Taliban Kill 17 Afghan Soldiers in Once-Quiet Area
Excerpt: Taliban insurgents killed as many as 17 Afghan National Army soldiers in a single episode in northern Badakhshan Province, an area that has been generally quiet and far from insurgent strongholds until recent months, according to accounts from Afghan officials on Wednesday.

Moderate Muslim: Not an Oxymoron. By Steve Chapman 
Excerpt: It's just what you would expect of those crazy Muslims, isn't it? Except that in the aftermath, Hedegaard found Muslims across Denmark were conspicuously un-crazy. They did not applaud the assailant or excuse his motives. Instead, they condemned the attack and upheld Hedegaard's freedom to preach unhinged bigotry. (Of course there are millions of moderate Muslims, who want only to live their lives, do well for their families and let us do the same. Just as there were millions of moderate Germans and Japanese in 1939. And they are just as irrelevant, because the ruthless fanatics have the guns and will use them on the moderates as well as us. Hans and Sophie Scholl in their early 20s were moderate German college students who spoke out against Hitler. They we caught, tried, convicted and immediately guillotined. So much for moderates. ~Bob.)

Worth Reading: Michelle Obama and John Kerry to Honor Anti-Semite and 9/11 Fan. By Samuel Tadros 
Excerpt: The only problem is that one of the women to be recognized is an anti-Semite and supports the 9/11 attacks on the United States. … On Twitter, Ibrahim is quite blunt regarding her views. On July 18 of last year, after five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed a suicide bombing attack, Ibrahim jubilantly tweeted: “An explosion on a bus carrying Israelis in Burgas airport in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. Today is a very sweet day with a lot of very sweet news.”

I'm old enough to remember when the media was hysterical over the "lack of transparency" of the Bush Administration.

I do not have to depend on what someone else did or what someone else gave me in order to be successful.

Excerpt: Without informing readers in the story or elsewhere, on Monday night The Washington Post deleted its explicit claim that the Dominican prostitute who recanted her allegation against Sen. Robert Menendez had appeared in a video posted to The Daily Caller.

ABC News CEO: We've Presented The News 'In A Slightly Inaccurate Way'
Excerpt: Iger acknowledged mistakes but was not specific. "We have, at times, either presented the news in a slightly inaccurate way or in ways we weren't necessarily proud of," he said, "but I firmly stand behind our news organizations because I believe that overall the job that they do is one that is worthy of respect."

Bad News for Wind Energy!
Excerpt: It’s generally been recognized that using wind to generate electricity is inefficient, costly, and unreliable. Now the news is getting out that it’s even worse than previously thought.

I love a happy ending: Violent Armed Robber Shoots Would-Be ‘Victim’ During Hold Up — But It Was The Criminal Who Left In A Body Bag
Excerpt: The victim, whose injury was said to be non-life threatening, then pulled out his own handgun in self-defense and shot his attacker several times.

6 Obama administration sequester claims shot down by fact checkers
 Excerpt: Fact-checkers have had their hands full in recent weeks as the Obama administration has tried to detail the expected impacts of automatic sequester cuts.

CDC confirms White House caught in sequester lie on child vaccinations
Excerpt: After a lot of back-and-forth, the CDC director admitted that even with the sequester cuts, he believed that “we could have maintained the present level of vaccinations.”

On this day in 1965, Democrats attacked the Selma civil rights marchers
Excerpt: On this day in 1965, state police under the command of the Democrat Governor, George Wallace, attacked African-Americans who were demonstrating for voting rights in Selma, Alabama. The assailants used billy clubs and tear gas in their "Bloody Sunday" assault. A Republican-appointed federal judge, Frank Johnson, soon ruled in favor of the demonstrators, enabling them to complete their march two weeks later.

Did Black People Own Slaves?
Excerpt: One of the most vexing questions in African-American history is whether free African Americans themselves owned slaves. The short answer to this question, as you might suspect, is yes, of course; some free black people in this country bought and sold other black people, and did so at least since 1654, continuing to do so right through the Civil War. (Slavery was in all cultures. All people enslaved, all people were enslaved. Only western civilization turned against slavery. Still exists in many places. Sometimes even in America, in prostitute sex slaves or in slaves brought in by Muslims, since the Qur’an endorses it. ~Bob.)

Voter Fraud Case Awaits Decision by John Chisholm's Office
Excerpt: According to Milwaukee Police Department records obtained by RightWisconsin, a Milwaukee resident was arrested on February 14, 2013 on suspicion of voting more than once in the November 2012 election and for giving false statements to election officials.

Prius charging station may have started Corte Madera fire
Excerpt: An explosion and fire, which may have been sparked by a Toyota Prius charging in a garage, damaged a two-story condominium in Corte Madera and killed a cat Tuesday evening, a fire official and a resident said.

Cermak's death offers lesson in Chicago Way. By John Kass
Excerpt: The assassinated Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who died 80 years ago this week, is often portrayed by official histories as just an innocent victim of bad luck and bad aim. But Chicagoans don't believe in coincidences, not even us chumbolones, especially when coincidences involve Chicago politics and the Chicago Outfit.

Obama's approval ratings are so low - the Kenyans are accusing him of being born in the United States!

Guerilla knitting in Leicester 'to reduce crime fear'
Excerpt: Hundreds of pom-poms and knitted items have been strung from trees and lampposts to help reduce the fear of crime in an area of Leicester. (Brits bitterly clinging to their knitting needles to fight crime. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: The thought does occur that Kim is acting as a stalking horse for Iran. He waves around his sort-of-real nuclear arsenal while Iran watches for the American response — and revs up a few more cyclotrons. ….Besides, it’s pretty clear that we won’t be going to war against Iran no matter what.

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