Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for May 30, 2013
Robert A. Hall
Your one-stop-shop for political news and opinion--who needs newspapers or TV? 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.
Writing Well. By Robert A. Hall
Must Read: Western Cultural Suicide: We are blind to the contradictions in welcoming an immigrant but not making him one of us. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Multiculturalists talk grandly of Africa, Latin America, and Asia, usually in contrast to the core values of the United States and Europe . Certainly, in terms of food, fashion, music, art, and architecture, the Western paradigm is enriched from other cultures. But the reason that millions cross the Mediterranean to Europe or the Rio Grande to the United States is for something more that transcends the periphery and involves fundamental values — consensual government, free-market capitalism, the freedom of the individual, religious tolerance, equality between the sexes, rights of dissent, and a society governed by rationalism divorced from religious stricture.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: The increase in global temperatures since the late 19th century just reflects the end of the Little Ice Age. The global temperature trends since then have followed not rising CO2 trends but the ocean temperature cycles of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). Every 20 to 30 years, the much colder water near the bottom of the oceans cycles up to the top, where it has a slight cooling effect on global temperatures until the sun warms that water. That warmed water then contributes to slightly warmer global temperatures, until the next churning cycle. (Warming has winners due to increased crops. Cooling has starvation. ~Bob.)
560 years ago, May 29, 1453: Fall of Constantinople
Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos and his outnumbered Army died fighting bravely as the city fell to the Muslims. Notice that today, any area that was once Muslim, such as Spain
Our Enemies Get a Vote: Finding more palatable names for the War on Terror won’t change — or end — it. By Jonah Goldberg
Excerpt: A more apt comparison might be the long struggle between Islam and the Byzantine Empire , which began in the seventh century, in Mohammed’s lifetime. I have no doubt that Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos would have loved for that war to have ended a few centuries before he died in battle in 1453 defending Christian Constantinople. When he died, the Roman Empire died with him. (Comment posted on the column” “Constantinople was conquered due to Jewish traitors. The Ottomans sneaked inside Constantinople through the Jewish quarters.” Next it will be the Jews caused global warming. ~Bob.)
Rep. Michele Bachmann will not seek reelection in 2014
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/minn-rep-michele-bachmann-says-she-wont-run-for-re-election-in-2014/2013/05/29/da55ae62-c83a-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4000a_story.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/minn-rep-michele-bachmann-says-she-wont-run-for-re-election-in-2014/2013/05/29/da55ae62-c83a-11e2-9cd9-3b9a22a4000a_story.html
Excerpt: Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann says she will not run for a 2014 term in the U.S. House. The tea party favorite, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination last year, announced her decision on her Web site Wednesday morning.
Bachmann's Departure Relieves GOP Headache
Excerpt: Bachmann may have been the loudest member of the class of 2006, the one who inspired the most heated arguments. But she will hardly be the most consequential; her enduring legacy may be the lessons she taught in how to lose friends and become completely uninfluential. With her exit, Democrats lose a potent fundraising tool. Republicans lose a headache they would just as soon do without.
'The enemy is everywhere': Former MI5 head calls for people to spy on their neighbours following murder of soldier Lee Rigby
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2331909/Former-head-MI5-calls-people-spy-neighbours-following-murder-soldier-Lee-Rigby.html?ITO=socialnet-twitter-mailonline
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2331909/Former-head-MI5-calls-people-spy-neighbours-following-murder-soldier-Lee-Rigby.html?ITO=socialnet-twitter-mailonline
Excerpt: The former head of MI5 Dame Stella Rimington has called for British people to inform security services if they suspect their neighbours maybe extremists. (See something, say something, get charged with Islamophobia or hate speech. Sure. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: Welcome to the 21st century, in which a majority of Americans seem dissatisfied with the role of government. Gallup
House Judiciary Committee is investigating Attorney General Eric Holder: 'PERJURY is on the table'
Excerpt: The House Committee on the Judiciary is investigating whether Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress during a May 15 hearing, with one Republican aide close to the investigation telling MailOnline that 'perjury is on the table' as one possible outcome of the congressional probe. (The DOJ will be all over this. ~Bob)
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked Bill O'Reilly to help him land a job at Fox. John Sexton
Excerpt: Mayor Villaraigosa leaves office on July 1. As of now he has no job lined up and, according to a report by LA Weekly, has no savings, no car and no place to live once he vacates the mayoral mansion. To maintain his current lifestyle, he'll need a job making about $750,000 a year. (And I have no comment. --Kate. Times are tough, Kate. But I think that while it would be a stretch, you, my wife sand I and my two brothers and their families might all squeak by on $750k a year. If we watched our pennies. ~Bob.)
[Los Angeles Mayor] Antonio Villaraigosa's quest for Wall Street, Washington and wealth. By Patrick Range
http://www.laweekly.com/2013-05-23/news/villaraigosa-job-search/
Excerpt: He has risen to the 1 percent, in practice if not in fact, by relying heavily on other people's money. Taxpayers, private groups and foundations have footed huge travel bills, as Villaraigosa spent fully 42 percent of his official city working hours, according to his own calendar, out of town between Sept. 1 and Dec. 16 last year. His personal schedule also reflects, on the eve of his departure, a onetime man of the people who regularly sits down with billionaires such as Eli Broad and Forever 21 founder Do Won Chang — but rarely with activists or ordinary people who know firsthand what's happening in L.A.'s communities.
http://www.laweekly.com/2013-05-23/news/villaraigosa-job-search/
Excerpt: He has risen to the 1 percent, in practice if not in fact, by relying heavily on other people's money. Taxpayers, private groups and foundations have footed huge travel bills, as Villaraigosa spent fully 42 percent of his official city working hours, according to his own calendar, out of town between Sept. 1 and Dec. 16 last year. His personal schedule also reflects, on the eve of his departure, a onetime man of the people who regularly sits down with billionaires such as Eli Broad and Forever 21 founder Do Won Chang — but rarely with activists or ordinary people who know firsthand what's happening in L.A.'s communities.
Investigative Report – Eric Holder And The George Soros Weather Underground Terrorists…
Excerpt: So what is the connection between Eric Holder and domestic terrorist Susan Rosenberg? Rosenberg
In Iran
Excerpt: After disqualifying a number of presidential candidates from the June 14 elections, Iran Buenos Aires
Drone Strike Kills at Least 4 in Pakistan
Excerpt: Wednesday’s strike came just six days after President Obama unveiled his new drone policy, curtailing their use to limit civilian casualties and moving oversight of the program from the C.I.A. to the Pentagon — although the C.I.A. is expected to maintain control of strikes in Pakistan U.S. officials do not comment on specific attacks, but the C.I.A. has carried out hundreds of drone strikes in Pakistan
OECD: Europe remains threat to world economy
Excerpt: The recession in Europe risks threatening the world's economic recovery, a leading international body warned Wednesday. In its half-yearly update, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that protracted economic weakness in Europe "could evolve into stagnation with negative implications for the global economy." (Socialist Utopia falling down, falling down, falling….~Bob)
US embassy staff hurt in Caracas
Excerpt: Two US embassy officials have been injured in a shooting after a brawl at a nightclub in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas
Joe Miller files papers for Senate
Excerpt: It looks like it’s time to stop calling Joe Miller a former Senate candidate.
The Alaska
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/28/massachusetts-paid-out-2-39-million-in-welfare-benefits-to-dead-people/
Excerpt: An audit of the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) issued Tuesday revealed millions of dollars in “questionable benefits,” including millions paid out to dead people. According to Massachusetts State Auditor Suzanne M. Bump, the audit identified 1,164 cases in which welfare recipients continued to receive benefits from six to 27 months after they had died. These dead individuals received $2.39 million in total. (I'm 72 and can remember my father talking about Boston
New details emerge in teen lesbian’s arrest for underage sex
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/29/new-details-emerge-in-teen-lesbians-arrest-for-underage-sex/
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/29/new-details-emerge-in-teen-lesbians-arrest-for-underage-sex/
Excerpt: A gay rights hero to some and a child molester to others, 18-year-old Kaitlyn Hunt will likely face the judgment of a court after rejecting a deal which would have required her to plead guilty to engaging in sex with her underage girlfriend. And as new details about the case emerge some of Hunt’s former supporters are starting to back away. (I suspect that half the non-marital births in Chicago
Important: IRS officials visited White House more than 100 times during targeting. By Rick Moran
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/05/irs_officials_visited_white_house_more_than_100_times_during_targeting.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/05/irs_officials_visited_white_house_more_than_100_times_during_targeting.html
Excerpt: Top IRS officials, whose agency was under investigation for targeting conservative groups, visited the Obama White House more than 100 times over two years while the probe was going on, far more often than in previous administrations and frequently enough that Republicans suspect White House officials knew about the targeting. … The frequent trips to the White House under Obama far outnumbered the times other administrations felt the need to meet with the IRS, according to Mark Everson, who led the IRS under former President George W. Bush. Everson said he remembers making only one trip to the White House between 2003 and 2007 and said he felt like he'd "moved to Siberia" because of the isolation. (Hey, remember how the conventional wisdom was that as awful as the Internal Revenue Service scandal was, there was no reason to think that the White House knew anything about the effort to target conservatives for special, unfair scrutiny? Yeah, maybe that line of defense doesn't look so solid, either: – Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)
In The Mountains Above Camp Pendleton
Excerpt: The most important memorial to fallen Marines is one that you probably will never see. High above the mountains of northern Camp Pendleton
Issa subpoenas State Department for Benghazi
Excerpt: Republican Rep. Darrell Issa issued subpoenas Tuesday for a host of State Department emails and other communications on the Benghazi
Today Will Be the Last Day of My Husband’s Life …
Excerpt: On April 2, 2009 she and Ben were operating their karaoke business in Jonny’s Sports Bar in Nashville , TN.
Syrian rebels threaten Hezbollah as sectarian conflict intensifies
Excerpt: The rebel Free Syrian Army threatened Tuesday to “chase Hezbollah to hell” if its fighters are not withdrawn from Syria, as a fresh salvo of rockets rained down on the Lebanese Shiite movement’s heartland of support, further drawing Lebanon into Syria’s bloody civil war. (Now that Hezbollah is on the side of the “bad” Syrian government against the “good” rebels, does that make Israel
'World's oldest Torah' scroll found in Italy
Excerpt: The University of Bologna in Italy
The Arab collapse. By Ralph Peters
Excerpt: The Arab Spring has unleashed the Arab Collapse. Everybody still standing in the region is picking the flesh of the helpless. The Islamist cancer proved more virulent than Arabs themselves expected, while dying regimes behave with unrestrained ruthlessness. And our diplomats still think everyone can be cajoled into harmony. … We can’t stop it, we can’t fix it, and we don’t understand it. But we can stay out of it.
The Problem of Muslim Leadership. Another Islamist terror attack, another round of assurances that it had nothing to do with the religion of peace. By Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Excerpt: This happens every time. Muslim men wearing suits and ties, or women wearing stylish headscarves, are sent out to reassure the world that these attacks have no place in real Islam, that they are aberrations and corruptions of the true faith. (Hirsi Ali risked her life for women’s rights. Thus making her despised by all right thinking progressives, as “Muslim” trumps “Female” in the PC world. ~Bob.)
Anwar al-Awlaki's Nazi Roots. By Philip Jenkins
Excerpt: When I hear of such assaults, I feel a strange sense of déja vu. Although the present terror wave undoubtedly grows out of the extreme Islamist world, it precisely reproduces theories that originated in very different circumstances, and in fact, in the United States itself. Amazingly, these ideas surfaced not in a Muslim context, but rather grew out of the neo-Nazi White Supremacist Right.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: But haven't you ever wondered what they would say if they could return to this modern America , this 2013 America
Americans Deserve the IRS. By Walter E. Williams
Excerpt: Individually, Americans do not deserve to be subservient to such a fear-mongering, intimidating and powerful agency as the Internal Revenue Service; but collectively, we do. Let's look at it. Since the 1791 ratification of our Constitution, until well into the 1920s, federal spending as a percentage of gross domestic product never exceeded 5 percent, except during war. Today federal spending is 25 percent of our GDP.
Don’t Write Off the White Vote. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: New Hampshire
Nancy-Ann DeParle fundraising for Obamacare
Excerpt: Nancy-Ann DeParle helped get Obamacare enacted during President Barack Obama’s first term. In his second term, she’s trying to get insurers to pony up millions to get the law successfully launched. Now in the private sector, DeParle is asking top executives at several health insurance companies to donate $1 million or more to Enroll America
The 'Muslims-Killed-by-the-West' Lie. By Dennis Prager
Excerpt: But in this case it is important to do so because much of the Muslim world resonates to this argument and because much of the world's left offers this argument. This is true even though a large majority of Muslims do not support terror and even though leftists do not support it. Nevertheless, throughout the Muslim and leftist worlds it is believed — and our children are taught this at college — that America , the UK
Quips from The Patriot Post
"The ratings are out, and MSNBC has hit a 7-year low with their coverage of the scandals swirling around the White House. Well, when the emperor has no clothes, it's hard to take his tailor seriously." --Fred Thompson
"President Obama called in the Marines to hold an umbrella over his head during his Rose Garden press conference. Let's face it. We just don't have the military capability to protect our Middle East diplomats and the president's suits at the same time." --comedian Argus Hamilton
"Jesus was merciful to tax collectors -- but the ones who repented, not those who invoked the 5th." --columnist David Limbaugh
"Time magazine found a picture of President Obama at his high school prom back in 1979. Let me tell you how long ago that was. Back then, Obama had to ask a girl for her phone number. He couldn't illegally obtain it through the Justice Department." --comedian Jay Leno
(Still Oppose): New poll finds majority of Americans oppose Obamacare
Excerpt: Three years after it was signed into law, most Americans still oppose President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. A recent CNN poll revealed that 54 percent of Americans still do not support President Obama’s signature domestic policy, compared to the 43 percent of Americans who support it. (Only going to get worse as the “train wreck” goes into effect. ~Bob.)
Anti-Polio Campaign Worker Is Shot Dead in Pakistan
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: A volunteer in a polio vaccination campaign was killed and her colleague wounded in an attack by militants near Peshawar
3 killed in attack, gun battle at Red Cross in Afghanistan
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Two attackers and a security guard were killed on Wednesday during an assault on a Red Cross building in Afghanistan
Christian Pastor Murdered as Nigeria Declares a State of Emergency
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Nigeria
High-End Health Plans Scale Back to Avoid ‘Cadillac Tax’
Excerpt: Say goodbye to that $500 deductible insurance plan and the $20 co-payment for a doctor’s office visit. They are likely to become luxuries of the past.
Excerpt: Fifty-four people were shot in Chicago
Tweet from Greg M @Pqlyur118m
Obama to Moore OK: "Thank you Monroe, we love you! Good night!" (As usual, the media, which would have killed Bush for something like this, will ignore. Doesn’t fit the meme. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: Melowese Richardson, 58, of Madisonville pleaded no contest to four counts of illegal voting – including voting three times for a relative who has been in a coma since 2003 – in exchange for prosecutors dropping four other illegal voting charges. Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman immediately convicted her, making her a felon. A poll worker from 1998 until being fired this year, Richardson admitted she voted illegally in the 2008, 2011 and 2012 elections.
Video: Liberals Sign 'Thank You' Note to IRS for Targeting Conservatives
Record 10,978,040 Now on Disability; ‘Disability’ Would Be 8th Most Populous State
Despite things like knee transplants putting the disabled back to work. Go figure. ~Bob.
The Black Conservative Intellectual Civil War. By Chidike Okeem
Excerpt: Black conservatives are not intellectually monolithic, and we certainly do not read from the same script of talking points.
Washington Post: Americans on the IRS
Excerpt: Data from last week’s Washington Post poll showed nearly three-fours (74%) of Americans believing the actions took by the IRS in intentionally targeting conservative groups was inappropriate. Of that 74 percent, 51% said not only was it inappropriate, but it was illegal. Respondents were then asked whether this “extra focus” on conservative groups was a “deliberate effort to harass these groups” or an “administrative mistake.” Fifty-six percent said it was deliberate, including 59% of Independents. Lastly, while they are relatively split, by a 45%-42% margin Americans believe the Obama Administration is trying to cover up the facts.
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