Saturday, April 26, 2014

Some Weekend Political News

When I was about to get out of the VA Hospital on April 14, the internal medicine doc told me the IV and antibiotics would fix the short term problem of the infection, but that the long term problem of the slough and blockage of the airways was still a challenge. Both were true. My O2 needs have dropped to 2 lpm for walking around. But my breathing is getting more labored, and I'm not coughing up as much mucus. I think it's collecting on the stent, plus coughing hurts due to my back muscle pain, though that is much better. And the last few days I've felt very tired moving around, though I feel fine sitting reading or at the computer. So another surgical bronchoscopy Monday, 4/28 to debride the slough, clean out the junk and remove to stent to see how it goes. It will be Monday afternoon, but nothing to eat or drink after midnight, so a long day. I can take my meds, but I found out they don't consider Scotch a "med"--go figure! I don't know when they reach the point of diminishing returns on this process. Maybe God will cut me a Hus. I will update my readers when I know more.

Meanwhile, some interesting news and comment captured below. ~Bob

Liberal Compassion for Little Leeches
Dixon Diaz has a page called "The Libtard Show." I disapprove of using the term "libtard," as name calling makes us no better than them. In this case, it is also offensive to many people who wish to stop use of the word "retarded" (which once was the word of choice to replace the offensive "feeble minded" in use before retarded). Nevertheless, there is a report, posted on my blog at the link above, that Diaz wrote a piece on Chelsea's baby which she posted on her Facebook page. A troll named Anne de Devine posted this comment: "At least it won't be a little leech with Down's Syndrome." Doubtless a reference that Sarah Palin didn't abort Trig, as liberals, supporting planned parenthood's goal of reducing the "unfit" (minorities and the mentally challenged) think proper. Now that's offensive. I once danced with a teenage dancer in Glasgow who had Down's Syndrome. She was a lovely, happy person and a better dancer than most--she was not a leech to be destroyed before birth. ~Bob

Ala. Dem Offers $100K for Proof of White Families Adopting Black Kids; Families Show Up. Lawmaker previously lashed out against Clarence Thomas by referencing his interracial marriage. By Andrew Johnson
Excerpt: Mixed-race families from across Alabama rallied outside the state capitol recently to demand $100,000 in cash — or at least an apology — from a state representative. Earlier this month, Alvin Holmes, who has represented the Montgomery-area 78th District for 39 years, bet a substantial purse on his claim that Alabama whites were incapable of tolerating black children. “I will bring you $100,000 cash tomorrow if you show me a whole bunch of whites that adopted blacks in Alabama,” Holmes said. “I will go down there and mortgage my house and get it in cash in $20 bills and bring it to you in a little briefcase.”

Excerpt: The controversy over Cliven Bundy’s “racist” remarks has taken a new turn after longer unedited footage emerged showing the Nevada cattle rancher making pro-black and pro-Mexican comments that were excised out of media reports. ... We’ve progressed quite a bit from that day until now, and sure don’t want to go back; we sure don’t want the colored people to go back to that point; we sure don’t want the Mexican people to go back to that point; and we can make a difference right now by taking care of some of these bureaucracies, and do it in a peaceful way. ... Now, let me talk about the Spanish people. You know I understand that they come over here against our constitution and cross our borders. But they’re here and they’re people – and I’ve worked side-by-side a lot of them. Don’t tell me they don’t work, and don’t tell me they don’t pay taxes. And don’t tell me they don’t have better family structure than most of us white people. When you see those Mexican families, they’re together, they picnic together, they’re spending their time together, and I’ll tell you in my way of thinking they’re awful nice people. (Well, in my book, Bundy is still ignorant. And he doesn't get an excuse for not paying the fees he owes--he's not Obama budge Charlie Rangel, after all. But as many conservatives pointed out, while he may be legally in the wrong, there were better ways to handle it, and the stench of big lobbyist money wanting that land needs to be fully explored and made public, to clear the charge or stop the grabbers. And the media editing out stuff that doesn't fit their narrative has become standard on outlets like MSNBC, as they did with the George Zimmerman 911 call. ~Bob)

CNN Talks To Black Bundy Bodyguard: ‘He Is Not A Racist. He’s Pretty Much Treating Me Just Like His Own Family’

More Tea Party Racists?

Global Warming and Settled Science. By Andre Lofthus
Excerpt: As a professional scientist, a physicist with 40 years experience in aerospace and extensive knowledge of atmospheric physics, I can tell you that, indeed, the science is settled, but not the way the AGW extremists would have you believe. ... A basic principle of science is that correlation does not prove causation. Climate scientists are working overtime fudging temperature related data showing global warming over many decades that correlates with the industrial revolution and increasing use of carbon-based fuels. Climate scientists are boldly asserting that this correlation proves global warming is caused by increased CO2 in the atmosphere. Real scientists would demand to know the physics of how increased CO2 in the atmosphere causes global warming. 

More Than 20,000 NC Voters Have Fake Registration Addresses
Excerpt: The Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina, today, submitted data to the NC State Board of Elections that show 20,532 NC voters were registered at street addresses that do not exist and 13,027 (or 63.4%) of them listed a post office box as their alternative mailing address.
“We are amazed that counties allow people to vote with a non-existent registration address,” said Jay DeLancy, “and wonder how election officials can correctly assign these voters to a precinct when they give a PO Box as their secondary address.”

Worth Reading: Obama’s Approach to Foreign Policy: He either doesn’t care about it, or he’s afraid of it. By Jonah Goldberg
Excerpt: It all seems very strange now in retrospect, but in his defense, you can understand how seductive this notion must have been. The whole world — at least the parts of it that Obama listens to — was telling him that replacing George W. Bush with Barack Obama was just the ticket for what ailed the planet. The fervor was all so detached from facts on the ground that the Nobel Committee even gave Obama a Peace Prize for the stuff they were sure he was going to do, eventually.

It’s Hard to See Racism When You’re a Collectivist. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: It’s not that the left believes that affirmative action isn’t racist. It’s that it believes that there is no such thing as racism against white people. Like the Knockout Game or white students who qualify on merit but can’t get into college because of racial diversity quotas; it’s an invalid category. A myth. And if it’s a myth, then there’s nothing wrong with a little racial violence or a few racial preferences.

Obama’s dirty watchdogs. By Michelle Malkin
Excerpt: The Obama administration doesn’t have watchdogs. It has whitewash puppies. The president’s Chicago bullies have defanged true advocates for integrity in government in D.C. from day one. So the latest report by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Operations Committee oncorruptocrat Charles K. Edwards, the former Department of Homeland Security inspector general, isn’t a revelation. It’s confirmation.

Mexico and Guatemala free victims of human trafficking
Excerpt: Migrants from Central America often pay smugglers to enter the US illegally, but are frequently abused by their traffickers. They can hold migrants in captivity to extort more money from the victims' relatives.

Republicans distance selves from Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy over racial remarks
Excerpt: But Bundy’s GOP defenders, including Sens. Dean Heller (Nev.) and Rand Paul (Ky.), rapidly abandoned him on Thursday following reports of incendiary remarks that the white rancher made about minorities. Bundy wondered aloud whether blacks would be better off as slaves picking cotton, and alleged that people of color are “against us.”

7 Reasons Nothing Should Stand in the Way of the Keystone XL Pipeline
http://blog.heritage.org/2014/04/25/7-reasons-nothing-stand-way-keystone-xl-pipeline/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell
Excerpt: The Washington Post slammed the administration’s continued delay of a Keystone XL decision, calling it “absurd” and “embarrassing.” And for good reason – in fact, many good reasons. We have compiled 7 of the most compelling.

Federal prosecutors plan to file charges against Rep. Grimm, attorney says
Excerpt: New York Republican Rep. Michael Grimm's attorney confirmed late Friday that federal prosecutors plan to file criminal charges against the congressman. The decision follows a two-year FBI investigation into various aspects of Grimm's business and campaign history. 

Army Chaplain’s Impassioned Speech on Gun Rights Silences Every Liberal In The Room
http://conservativevideos.com/2014/04/army-chaplains-impassioned-speech-gun-rights-silences-every-liberal-room/
Excerpt: His impassioned speech was incredible. He emphasized lawmakers’ lack of knowledge on the subject of firearms, and berated them for their willingness to let let off those who abuse guns in crimes so that the criminals can offend again.

Women's Median Income Declines. From The Patriot Post
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the last recession ended in June 2009. (You can stop laughing now.) Barack Obama has spent the last five years waging class, race and sex warfare, with the latest push being to dupe women voters with his phony "war on women." Yet the real war on women is being waged by his economic policies. Since Obama was elected, the median income of women is down more than 4% in constant dollars. Furthermore, the highest median income for women 15 and older was $23,169 in 2007. We can't remember who was president then, but it wasn't Obama.

1.5B More Hours of Paperwork. From The Patriot Post
One-and-a-half billion hours of burdensome paperwork has been added by the regulatory state since 2010, according to an analysis by American Action Forum, which pegs the additional economic cost at $43.8 billion. The report finds, "In 2010, the nation's total paperwork burden was 8.8 billion hours; today, it's more than 10.3 billion hours, an increase of 1.5 billion hours, despite the attempt at regulatory reform. For perspective, it would take 786,000 individuals working full-time to complete the new paperwork added since 2010." Recall that Obama tasked agencies with reducing this workload via executive order, though the results have evidently gone backward like the rest of his agenda. Two EPA proposals alone are estimated to cost $12.3 billion, wiping out the $10 billion purportedly "saved" in other areas.

From Greatness to Whiteness. By Dennis Prager
Excerpt: When Americans over the age of, let us say, 45, look at any of the iconic paintings of America's Founders – the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the signing of the Constitution, George Washington crossing the Delaware, any of the individual portraits the Founders – what do they see? They see great men founding a great country. If you ask recent graduates of almost any American university what they see when they look at these paintings, chances are that they see something entirely different. They are apt to see rich, white males who are not great and who did not found a great country. And it then allows that those who are nonWhite and not from some obvious upper middle class background are therefore more empowered, and are permitted the kinds of actions that would be instantly rejected if some White person did them. It says the values of the minority culture are somehow automatically superior and can be imposed on everyone else whenever desired. Of course, none of this really helps anyone progress or solves social problems, but hey, PC on a roll never has to say its sorry. --Del)

Driver Suing Boy She Killed for Emotional Distress. She's also suing other teen bicyclists she hit. By Evann Gastaldo
Excerpt: On a rainy October night in 2012, 17-year-old Brandon Majewski and two of his friends were riding their bikes to get hot dogs when they were hit from behind by an SUV. Majewski was killed; the other teen boys were injured. Now the 42-year-old woman driving the SUV, Sharlene Simon, is suing all three—plus Majewski's parents and brother, who has since died, the Toronto Star reports. Simon says she suffered emotional trauma in the accident, which happened about 55 miles north of Toronto, and is claiming $1.35 million in damages. "They did not apply their brakes properly," her lawsuit states. "They were incompetent bicyclists. (Here's a new record. The driver who couldn't see the boys on bikes on the road ahead of her and could not hit her brakes at all before plowing into them, wants to sue them and their families for her emotional distress. It doesn't get any stupider or more self-obsessed than this. Hopefully the court will bounce her case right out the door. Still, the emotional distress she has put the families in is reprehensible. What an arrogant, self-important witch. [use a w, use a b, take your pick.] --Del)

It is time for the West to move ahead without Russia. By John McCain, John Barrasso, John Hoeven and Ron Johnson
Excerpt: John McCain, John Barrasso, John Hoeven and Ron Johnson, all Republicans, represent Arizona, Wyoming, North Dakota and Wisconsin, respectively, in the Senate. We recently visited Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova. In each country, our allies want a stronger immediate response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its ongoing subversion of Ukraine. They also believe, as we do, that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest acts of aggression require an enduring strategic response from the United States, Europe and NATO. It should be clear to all that Putin’s Russia has taken a dark turn. There is no resetting this relationship. We cannot return to business as usual.

In a tangle over euphemisms for affirmative action. By George F. Will
Excerpt: Anodyne euphemisms often indicate an uneasy conscience or a political anxiety. Or both, as when the 1976 Democratic platform chose “compensatory opportunity” as a way of blurring the fact that the party favored racial discrimination in the form of preferences and quotas for certain government-favored minorities in such matters as government hiring, contracting and college admissions. Since then, “affirmative action” has become the ubiquitous semantic evasion. (I loath euphemisms. If I don't survive this lung thing, please tell people I died, not that I "passed away." Croaked, bought the farm, got a mole for a mailman, etc. are all okay too, because they are not attempts, like "passed away," to make it sound not so bad. ~Bob)

Sixth grader suspended for taking razor blade away from suicidal student, throwing it away
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/20/sixth-grader-suspended-for-taking-razor-blade-away-from-suicidal-student-throwing-it-away/#ixzz300FVaszg
And they wonder why people think educators are idiots. ~Bob. Excerpt: A Virginia beach middle school suspended sixth grader Adrionna Harris for ten days — and recommended expulsion — because she was briefly in possession of a razor blade after she confiscated it from a friend who was trying to kill himself. (After the local media got involved, they cleared her record. ~Bob)

Obama's War on the Poor: U.S. electricity prices may be going up for good: Experts warn of a growing fragility as coal-fired plants are shut down, nuclear power is reduced and consumers switch to renewable energy.
Excerpt: As temperatures plunged to 16 below zero in Chicago in early January and set record lows across the eastern U.S., electrical system managers implored the public to turn off stoves, dryers and even lights or risk blackouts. A fifth of all power-generating capacity in a grid serving 60 million people went suddenly offline, as coal piles froze, sensitive electrical equipment went haywire and utility operators had trouble finding enough natural gas to keep power plants running. The wholesale price of electricity skyrocketed to nearly $2 per kilowatt hour, more than 40 times the normal rate. The price hikes cascaded quickly down to consumers. Robert Thompson, who lives in the suburbs of Allentown, Pa., got a $1,250 bill for January. (Gee, who could have predicted this? Actually, a whole bunch of people could, and did, but no one was listening. All the green idealism is great, but it comes with a high cost, and that little rascal is just now starting to show his ugly head. A little forward thinking might have been nice, and maybe some real attention to replacing the aging nuclear power plants, in fact, build at least two new ones to hedge your bets. But it's late now, it'll take years just to get plans drawn up, if you can get anyone to pay to have that done, since no smart businessman is going to invest maybe $5 million and 3-4 years minimum to just get the door open a crack in the process for permitting a new plant. As it is, yep, the price of power is going up now and will continue to do so. Good luck with that, all you environmental enthusiasts. But you have dragged everyone into this brave new world of higher energy costs. And remember, no matter how many laws the idiots pass in the legislatures about having 30% of energy come from wind and sun and tide, etc, the system must still have the back-up capacity in regular generation methods. Those clean sources can't be trusted to generate the power consistently, every hour of every day, so you must be prepared to run as if they aren't there at all. Or you have to be ready to live with regular power outages, take your pick. --Del)

Obamacare News

Competence: WH Has Missed More Than Half of Own Obamacare Deadlines. By Guy Benson
Excerpt: The administration has failed to meet 44 statutory deadlines required under Obamacare, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). The report, released on Monday, documents every provision with a specific deadline within the health care law and the administration’s actions taken as of April 15, 2014. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has missed more than half of the 83 deadlines mandated since March 2011. 

Excerpt: The decision follows months of severe technical issues that have made Oregon's marketplace one of the worst in the country.
About $130 million has been spent on Cover Oregon, but it is the only ObamaCare enrollment system that won't let registrants buy coverage and qualify for tax credits in one sitting. 

If you like your health plan, you might lose it. Again.
Excerpt: The Obama administration is quietly trying to stamp out some of the skimpiest health plans, a decision that industry officials say could trigger yet another wave of cancellation notices.
The administration is targeting a type of coverage called fixed benefit or indemnity insurance, which give patients a fixed sum of money whenever they visit the doctor or land in a hospital.

ObamaCare is Hurting Business, General Electric Says
Excerpt: General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt today doubled-down on acknowledgements by his company that ObamaCare is hurting the business sector, saying in response to a question posed by the National Center for Public Policy Research, "there is still a lot of uncertainty in health care." Immelt's statement followed a report by GE Senior Vice President and CFO Jeffrey S. Bornstein that a decline in the profitability of GE's previously-solid health care division over the last two quarters came about because "Hospitals and clinics appear to be delaying purchases and responses to the Affordable Care Act." (Thought Immelt was an Obama guy... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/21/obama-picks-jeffrey-immel-ge-jobs-overseas_n_812502.html. ~Bob)

5 Lives Wrecked By Obamacare. By John Hawkins
Excerpt: Liberals support cruel policies that decimate people's lives; yet they like to think of themselves as compassionate and kind. So, they judge programs based on the good intentions they claim to have had, not the actual results. Liberals started out by telling everyone that, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan." They said, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." They said it would "save the average family $2,500 on its premiums."

Chinese Invasion Mexican Border - YouTube
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vtAAUegOz28

Religion of Peace News

Suspect in custody after bomb scare at Kemah Walmart
Excerpt: A man with a knife and several suspicious devices was arrested Saturday in a Walmart parking lot, after a four-hour stand-off that kept customers and employees trapped inside the Kemah store. Mehrzad Malekzadeh, 35, of Sugar Land has been arrested and charged with making terroristic threats and displaying a hoax bomb, which are both class A misdemeanor charges.

Jihadists Now Control Secretive U.S. Base in Libya
Excerpt: A key jihadist leader and longtime member of al Qaeda has taken control of a secretive training facility set up by U.S. special operations forces on the Libyan coastline to help hunt down Islamic militants, according to local media reports, Jihadist web forums, and U.S. officials. (More fruit from Obama's non-congressionally-authorized, lead-from-behind war. Do you feel safe? ~Bob)

Experts Warn More European Muslim Youth Are Radicalizing. By Abigail R. Esman
Excerpt: So violent, so bloodthirsty, is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Syria-based jihadist group, that even al-Qaida will have nothing to do with them. But young European Muslims will – and do.

Punjab: clan gang rapes seven year old Christian and kidnaps father to stop him reporting them. By Jibran Khan
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Punjab:-clan-gang-rapes-seven-year-old-Christian-and-kidnaps-father-to-stop-him-reporting-them-30906.html
Excerpt: Sara was raped by four men in a Muslim village in Sialkot . The little girl is hospitalized in a "critical condition". The rapists kidnapped her father, Iqbal Masih, forcing the family to not press charges. Activists and human rights organizations demand justice.

Declaration Signals Growing Split in Al-Qaida. By John Rossomando
Excerpt: A pledge signed by nine al-Qaida commanders from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Iran is the latest example of how the terrorist movement's once monolithic structure has begun to crumble under stress from Syria's civil war. The "Khorasan pledge," which was signed April 9, announces a shift in loyalty from al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

‘A Direct Affront’ to Kerry: With ‘Little Fear’ of Washington, Fatah-Hamas Pact Crushes Peace Process. State Department insists Israel shares the blame as Netanyahu's cabinet vows to not negotiate with terrorists. By Bridget Johnson
Exerpt: President Obama’s relentless push for some sort of first-stage Mideast peace deal by the end of this month was dealt a strong blow by Fatah and Hamas deciding to put aside their differences and unite. Hamas’ information office said the pact between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas political bureau leader Khaled Mashal was simply implementing the previous unity agreements signed years ago in Doha and Cairo — pacts followed by years of vicious fighting between the parties. (Here's a major kick in the head for any "peace process". --Del. John Kerry's chase of the Peace Process is like the 70-year-old guy in the back row at a topless bar winking at the stripper. Only he thinks he's got a chance. ~Bob)

The double threat for gay men in Syria
Excerpt: In Syria’s savage war, it seems incongruous to single out the experiences of one group. Yet many gay men there face a double threat: They’re being persecuted by the Syrian army and by militant groups while their families often reject them, or worse. (Liberals: Opposing gay marriage in the US? Disgusting homophobia. Murdering gays in Islamic lands? It's their culture, who are we to condemn. ~Bob)

Why Iranian Women Can’t Have Any of It
Excerpt: Regardless of whether Yazdi’s remarks that women cannot run for president of the Islamic Republic can be attributed as an official pronouncement of the Guardian Council—the 12-member body that Yazdi is a member of and which is charged with vetting election candidates according to their Islamic credentials—it matters precious little for the women that make up more than half of Iran’s total population of around 77 million people.
The real issue is that hijab—or proper Islamic dress—is still compulsory for women in Iran’s streets and public places and failure to cover accordingly can result in imprisonment or a hefty fine.
The real issue is that in today’s Iran divorce is a husband’s unilateral right but if a woman seeks to divorce her husband she must prove he has either abandoned her or is mentally ill, abusive, or a drug addict. The real issue is that...

U.S. Doesn't Object, So Iran Gets a Seat on U.N. Women's Rights Body
Excerpt: The Obama administration on Wednesday criticized Iran’s election to the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) – but neither the U.S. nor any other delegation objected when given the opportunity to do so, thus allowing Iran to get the seat “by acclamation.” Iran will now serve on the CSW, a body dealing with gender equality and the advancement of women, for another four-year term, having already been a member since 2011. (Their idea of women's rights is to control the size of the stones used to kill women, including rape victims, accused of adultery, all to the silence of the "war on women" crowd. ~Bob)

Egypt: Stop Mutilating Little Girls! After the death of a little girl, the doctor who mutilated her genitals is being taken to court. In Egypt, that’s a first. By Bel Trew
Excerpt: It was supposed to be a routine “operation.” The parents of 13-year-old Soheir al-Batea, from a village in Egypt’s Nile Delta, took her to be circumcised at the local clinic that had been recommended by friends. They had done the same with her older sister a year before. A doctor typically cuts off the whole clitoris or a part of it, sometimes in extreme cases removing the labia as well, in a procedure that is now illegal but still deemed necessary by many Egyptians to preserve the purity of the child and control sexual desire. (But it's their culture and liberals say all cultures are equally valid...~Bob)

Vow of Freedom of Religion Goes Unkept in Egypt

Excerpt: Nine months later, though, Egypt’s freethinkers and religious minorities are still waiting for the new leadership to deliver on that promise. Having suppressed Mr. Morsi’s Islamist supporters, the new military-backed government has fallen back into patterns of sectarianism that have prevailed here for decades. (I know, you're shocked. ~Bob)

No comments:

Post a Comment