Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for May 1, 2013

Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for May 1, 2013

Click on the link to see the full SitRep

Robert A. Hall

I will be traveling on business through Sunday. I will have a computer, but not sure how much time to post a SitRep. ~Bob.

Information on my books

http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-book-published.html

Comment on “I’m Tired” from Poland

Sir, Brave and wise words. I'm not American, but I'm tired too. I'm younger than you, healthy, hard working girl from Poland and I'm tired of listening people crying because they're unemployed (I found job in Germany, 1150 km away from my family and home), they don't have a second car (I don't have a first one) or that they must rent a house. Well, I live with my mom (when I'm at home) and I'm saving every cent I earn, working 13 hours a day/7 days a week. You should also mention that Polish Troops were and are fighting for freedom. In Iraq, Afghanistan and few other countries all over the world. God bless you and your family! 

Worth reading: The Coming ObamaCare Shock: Millions of Americans will pay more for health insurance, lose their coverage, or have their hours of work cut back. By Daniel Kessler

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324874204578441032081716170.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Excerpt: In recent weeks, there have been increasing expressions of concern from surprising quarters about the implementation of ObamaCare. … These individuals are worried for good reason. The unpopular health-care law's rollout is going to be rough. It will also administer several price (and other) shocks to tens of millions of Americans.

Worth Reading: The Obama Borg: How “man-caused disasters” replaced Islamist terrorism in the Obama lexicon. By Victor Davis Hanson

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/346930/obama-borg

Excerpt: In Star Trek lore, the Borg was a collective of servile drone operatives that sought to assimilate other species into its “hive mind.”

Something akin to that creepy groupthink arose when the Obama administration took power and sought to reformulate the so-called war on terror. Almost immediately, Obama operatives suggested that radical Islamists were no more likely than any other group to commit acts of terrorism. In fact, the very idea of terrorism — not to mention a war against it — was supposedly a Bush-administration construct unfairly aimed at Muslims. (I just read in the May issue of Leatherneck that Dr. Hanson’s father was a B-29 pilot in WWII. He had a cousin with whom he was raised like a brother, Vic Hanson, who was a Marine KIA on Sugarloaf on Okinawa. Dr. Hanson is named for the Marine. ~Bob.)

Energy: they really are serious

http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=83851

Excerpt: Publicised by Euractiv and many others yesterday was the news that the University of Delaware had sold power from electric vehicles to the power grid for the first time – in what appears to be the first working application of the Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) concept. There has to be a reason why a website specialising in EU news should be carrying this item, and that is undoubtedly because V2G is slated as an essential of the EU's response to increased use of intermittent and highly variable renewable energy, and in particular the use of windmills. 

Bomb in Central Damascus Kills 13

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/world/middleeast/bomb-in-central-damascus.html?hp&_r=0

Excerpt: A powerful explosion ripped through Marjeh Square in the center of the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Tuesday, killing 13 people and wounding over 70, according to state television, which showed video of what it said was the aftermath. The bombing came a day after an explosion targeted the convoy of the Syrian prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, in the affluent Mezze district of Damascus.

Israeli Airstrike Kills Palestinian in Gaza

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/world/middleeast/israeli-airstrike-kills-palestinian-in-gaza.html?ref=world

Excerpt: A Palestinian man was killed in an Israeli missile strike in Gaza on Tuesday hours after an Israeli civilian was stabbed to death by a Palestinian in the West Bank. The two attacks, coming against a backdrop of growing tensions, were the first such killings in months and raised the specter of further confrontation.

Marines Have Six Four-Stars--But Not for Long

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/04/29/marines-have-six-four-stars-but-not-for-long/

Excerpt: Earlier this month [April 19], the officers gathered at the Home of the Commandants at the Marine Barracks Washington, the only time six active-duty four star generals have gathered together, according to the service. Except for a handful of five-star admirals and generals in American history, four-stars is the highest attainable rank in the military. And for the Marines it is unusual to have four or five, much less six. (Probably won't ever see this many Four-Stars in the Corps again. What a feat it would be to have a copy of this picture autographed by all six Generals. --MasterGuns)

The incredible stagnant U.S. economy. By Neil Irwin 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/26/the-incredible-stagnant-u-s-economy/

Excerpt: We’re still stuck in the muck. That’s the conclusion to draw from the new report on gross domestic product. The U.S. economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, which was an improvement from the weak 0.4 percent of the final months of 2012. But Friday’s report was nearly a percentage point below analysts’ expectations, and for the last six months, number averages to only a 1.45 percent annual rate of growth. (The country voted on November 6 for anti-growth, anti-business, anti-job policies, and must live with the results. Elections have consequences. ~Bob.)

Obama By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

http://www.nationalreview.com/newsletters

This president can't get squat done about North Korea or Syria, and so he doesn't want us to focus on those far-off lands. His policies have done diddlysquat for most of the long-term unemployed. He's not interested in throwing people off public assistance, even when they don't deserve it, and he wants to insist that every terror attack is a one-time occurrence, instead of connected bits of an international ideological movement dedicated to killing Americans. Obamacare's a mess, and he's hoping you don't notice. The national debt continues to increase, even with the alleged horrors of sequestration. "God, gays, and guns." That's what he's got left. And that's what he hopes stays on your mind, for as many days between now and November 2014 as possible.

Worth Reading: The Art of the Impossible: It’s more important for a policy to sound good than to be feasible. By Thomas Sowell

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/346925/art-impossible

Excerpt: Someone once called politics “the art of the possible.” But, in the era of the modern welfare state, politics is largely the art of the impossible. Those people morbid enough to keep track of politicians’ promises may remember how Barack Obama said that Obamacare would lower medical costs – and lots of people bought it. But if you stop and think, however old-fashioned that may seem these days, do you seriously believe that millions more people can be given medical care and that vast new bureaucracies can be created to administer payment for it, with no additional costs?

Muted Response to Hamas Jihad Program for School Kids http://www.investigativeproject.org/4001/muted-response-to-hamas-jihad-program-for-school

Excerpt: An article in London's Telegraph is refocusing attention on a school program run by Hamas in Gaza that trains children how to use weapons and explosives.

'Beach Week' Draws Black Crowd - And Violence: 1 weekend: 3 shootings, 3 stabbings, 3 robberies: By Colin Flaherty

http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/beach-week-draws-black-crowd-and-violence/#J5tBHT9AovGTZRVT.99 

Excerpt: Reporters with all the local media had trouble describing what happened over the weekend when 40,000 black people descended on Virginia Beach for a party. Their audiences, however, did not. … “Because it was a group of young black college people everyone is scared to say anything for fear of being called a racist,” he said in a post to a Virginian-Pilot news story. (Three shootings, stabbings and robberies? Slow day in Chicago. ~Bob.)

AP Scrubs ‘Muslim’ from Obama’s Self-Referential Joke. By Robert Spencer 

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/robert-spencer/ap-scrubs-muslim-from-obamas-self-referential-joke/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=0fbaa39151-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag

Excerpt: Obama said: “These days I look in the mirror and have to admit, I’m not the strapping young Muslim Socialist that I used to be.” But, noted Huston, “in one version of the night’s story (as seen at Huffington Post, Time Magazine, Breitbart Wires, the Ottawa Citizen, and The Columbian to name a few), the AP’s Bradley Klapper forgot one part of the President’s joke,” reporting his words as “I’m not the strapping young Socialist that I used to be,”

Are You Ready For 25% Unemployment?

http://justcommonsense-lostinamerica.blogspot.com/2013/04/are-you-ready-for-25-unemployment.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FMoXTa+%28Lost+in+America%29

Excerpt: Keep your resume updated boys and girls! Looks like employment in America is going to be a hard road to hoe in the coming years. We just saw the GDP numbers come out on Friday and economists were bemoaning the sluggish 2.5% Economic Growth Rate. Last quarter it was worse; less than half a percent in growth. Now I'm not an expert here so I have to go with formulas that all economists accept. One of those truisms is that, just to accommodate new workers entering the work force, America must have a minimum of 4% sustained growth quarter after quarter.

My boyfriend the bomber

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4906994/my-boyfriend-the-bomber.html

Excerpt: AN ex-girlfriend of dead Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev has told how he tried to brainwash her into becoming a Muslim fanatic who hated America. Nadine Ascencao, 24, said Tamerlan made her wear an Islamic hijab and pray to Allah and slapped her when she wore Western clothes.

Saudi Wahhabi Sheikh Calls On Iraq's Jihadists to Kill Shiites
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/wahhabi-sheikh-fatwa-iraq-kill-shiites-children-women.html#ixzz2RxVt39LZ

Excerpt: On April 23, Saad al-Durihim, a Saudi Wahhabi sheikh, posted a tweet on Twitter in which he said that jihadist fighters in Iraq should adopt a "heavy-handed" approach and kill any Shiites they can get their hands own, including children and women. This is so that the "rawafid" — a term used by Wahhabi Salafists to refer to Shiites — will fear them. (Catholic priest calls on Catholics to kill Evangelicals -- no, wait... If a Catholic really had done that, there would have been an international uproar. But no one will take much notice of this. –Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.Org.)

Germany Charges 4 With Sending Iran Reactor Parts

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/04/29/world/europe/ap-eu-germany-iran-nuclear.html?ref=aponline&_r=0

Excerpt: Federal prosecutors say they have charged three German-Iranian dual nationals and a German man with breaking export laws for allegedly supplying Iran with parts needed to build a nuclear reactor in violation of the country's trade embargo.

The Snake in the Bloody Garden

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/54817

Excerpt: The left has a clearly defined set of responses to a terrorist attack. After all the hopes for a properly right wing terrorist have come to naught, it begins the long slow process of rolling back the laws and emotional attitudes stemming from the attack. For it, terrorism, like anything else, either fits into its narrative or conflict with it. The narrative defines the world, past, present and future, in terms of the political agenda of the left. An event that clashes with the agenda must have its meaning changed so that the power of the narrative is restored.

National Editorial: President Obama steals credit for energy success he opposed

http://washingtonexaminer.com/national-editorial-president-obama-steals-credit-for-energy-success-he-opposed/article/2528463?utm_source=Washington%20Examiner:%20Opinion%20Digest%20-%2004/30/2013&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Washington%20Examiner:%20Opinion%20Digest

Excerpt: All presidents take credit for the good things that happen on their watch no matter if they actually deserve it, and they blame their predecessors' follies for the bad things, as well. But President Obama may be the first chief executive to take credit for the results of things he has opposed throughout his time in the Oval Office. The latest example came last week, when the Department of the Interior announced it had approved 21 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico for energy resource exploration and development.

US forces could have intervened in Benghazi, ‘special operator’ tells Fox News
http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/30/u-s-forces-could-have-intervened-in-benghazi-special-operator-tells-fox-news/#ixzz2Ry3E42v3

Excerpt: Those with knowledge of what went down in Benghazi “feel threatened and are afraid to talk,” the source told Fox News. Active duty service members within the special operations community “would be decapitated” if they spoke out, the source insisted, though that same community feels betrayed by the Obama administration. “There were at least two elite military units that could have made it in time” to preempt or turn back the second attack, Housley reports. (Housley a reporter from Fox News. –Barb.)

Obama promises to close Gitmo as jihadis strike
http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/30/obama-promises-to-close-gitmo-as-jihadis-strike/#ixzz2Ry4Aqvb6

Excerpt: “I’m going to ask some folks over there [on Capitol Hill] who care about fighting terrorism — but also care about who we are as a people — to step up and help me on this,” he said during an April 30 press conference that was announced just hours before it was held…. The jihadis should be transferred from the military’s tropical prison in Cuba into conventional civilian-run prisons in the United States, he added.

Dem resolution warns climate change could push women to ‘transactional sex’
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/296679-dems-warn-climate-change-could-drive-women-to-transactional-sex#ixzz2RyAK3dmY 

Excerpt: Several House Democrats are calling on Congress to recognize that climate change is hurting women more than men, and could even drive poor women to "transactional sex" for survival. The resolution, from Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and a dozen other Democrats, says the results of climate change include drought and reduced agricultural output….."[F]ood insecure women with limited socioeconomic resources may be vulnerable to situations such as sex work, transactional sex, and early marriage that put them at risk for HIV, STIs, unplanned pregnancy, and poor reproductive health," it says. (Feeble minded folks. Global cooling would be far worse for food supplies. And if they are going to be whores, they can run for Congress. ~Bob.)

State: Our Benghazi probe 'should be enough' for Congress
http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/terrorism/296773-obama-administration-our-benghazi-investigation-should-be-enough-for-congress#ixzz2Ry9lXmmt 

Excerpt: The State Department on Monday defended its decision not to have lower-level employees testify before Congress about last year's attack in Benghazi, Libya.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is pushing ahead with his investigation of the terrorist assault, and has asked for legal protections for lower-level employees who might be called to testify. The State Department pushed back on Monday and said the independent probe into the attack "should be enough" for lawmakers.

Past 4 Years: VA Budget Up 40 Percent, Yearlong Pending Claims Up 2,000 Percent

http://pjmedia.com/blog/past-4-years-va-budget-up-40-percent-yearlong-pending-claims-up-2000-percent/

Excerpt: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are getting frustrated about President Obama’s apparent lack of urgency in speeding up the claims process for veterans waiting nearly a year on average to get processed by the VA. Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) today sent Obama a letter asking the president to take “direct action and involvement” in ending the backlog in which more than 600,000 veterans are stuck. Sixty-five other senators joined on to the plea for the president to get things moving.

Richard Falk, Al Gore, and Al Jazeera

http://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/richard-falk-al-gore-and-al-jazeera/

Excerpt: Will Al Jazeera America, like its mothership network, soon be bringing us the ravings of Richard Falk? Would Al Gore perhaps like to comment on this brand of commentary, and whether giving it a platform is a service to the American public?