Hard Hearted Republicans?
Says who? Why, just Monday night, my wife and I took a homeless
couple out to dinner. Unfortunately, they are our friends, John and Donna
Payne, whose home in Louisiana
burned to the ground Saturday. They lost everything except the luggage they
still had here, including stuff they had already shipped home. We took them to
the airport at zero-dark Tuesday morning. Regular readers will recall John is
the brother Marine who received a lung five days before I did. Now they have
this to cope with as well. They were supposed to go home weeks ago, but he had lung
issues too, though thankfully not as severe as mine. Maybe it's a blessing--if
they were in a fire, the smoke wouldn't help a fragile lung. I suggested the
family set up a fund. If they do, I'll post it for anyone interested. Kyrie Eleison.
~Bob
Supreme Court upholds
Michigan
affirmative action ban
Excerpt: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Michigan 's ban on using
race as a factor in college admissions. The justices said in a 6-2 ruling
that Michigan
voters had the right to change their state constitution to prohibit public
colleges and universities from taking account of race in admissions decisions.
The justices said that a lower federal court was wrong to set aside the change
as discriminatory.
Worth Reading :
Elites’
Sacrificial Victims: When your goal is to save the planet, you
can’t worry about who may get hurt. By Victor Davis
Hanson
Excerpt: In a word, liberal ideology so often proves more
important than people. Noble theories about saving humanity offer exemption
from worry about the immediate consequences for individual humans. In a
personal sense, those who embrace progressive ideas expect to be excused from
the ramifications of their schemes. For the elite who send their kids to prep
schools and private academies, public charter schools for the poor are bad,
given that they undermine the dream of progressive, union-run education that has
turned into a nightmare for those forced to enroll in it.
Don't Mention 'Recovery.' From The
Patriot Post
Democrats running for office
this fall received some helpful advice from key strategists: "Yeah, that
economic recovery... don't mention it." Stan Greenberg, James Carville and
others warn that talking about "recovery" ignores "how much
trouble people are in, and doesn't convince them that policymakers really
understand or are even focusing on the problems they continue to face." In
fact, "Democrats should bury any mention of the recovery. That message was
tested ... and it lost to the Republican message." That's because the
president has had six long years to get the
economy off the ground and he's done nothing but add to the burden. Even
Obama's low-info voters get that.
Photos Link Masked
Men in East Ukraine to Russia
Excerpt: Strenuous denials from the Kremlin have closely
followed each accusation by Ukrainian officials that the world was witnessing a
stealthy invasion by Russian forces. Now, photographs and descriptions from eastern Ukraine endorsed by the Obama administration on
Sunday suggest that many of the green men are indeed Russian military and
intelligence forces — equipped in the same fashion as Russian special
operations troops involved in annexing the Crimea
region in February.
The Increasing
Desperation of Democrats: Slanders and lies may be part of a
deliberate strategy to drive up turnout in November. By John Fund
Excerpt: Harry Reid isn’t
backing down from his claim that rancher Cliven Bundy’s
supporters are “domestic terrorists.” It’s astonishing rhetoric given the White
House’s characterization of the mass shooting by a genuine terrorist, Major
Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 Americans at the Fort Hood Army base after yelling
“Allahu Akbar!” (God is great.) Rather than labeling Hasan’s actions
“domestic terrorism,” the Obama administration is prosecuting him for having
committed “workplace violence.”
Guy Who Spent His
Early Career Insisting He's Pro-Life Now Insists He's Always Been Pro-Choice.
By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt
Seriously, Florida . Come on. There are a
lot of Florida Democrats who will probably tell you they care about
abortion — er, "abortion rights" or "reproductive
rights." The vast majority of them will, this fall, vote for a man who, during his 2006 race for
governor, told a priest in Pensacola that he would sign a bill outlawing
abortions except when the mother's life was at stake. But then he
told an AP reporter that he would only sign such a bill if it included
exceptions for rape and incest. During that race, Charlie Crist attacked his
GOP rival for being pro-choice. And as recently as January 2010, "Crist's
Republican U.S. Senate campaign released a statement saying he would 'fight for
pro-life legislative efforts.'" And now he can come along and say,
"even though I am pro-life, which I mean, for life, doesn't mean I want to
tell a woman what to do with her body, and I never have," and almost
every self-proclaimed pro-choice Florida Democrat will nod approvingly. Because
they don't give a [insert your colorful metaphor here] what the heck Charlie
Crist did in the past. They only care that he has a "D" after his
name. (Morning Jolt is free and worth
subscribing to. ~Bob)
Worth Reading : Obama
Handles Russia
Like Republicans: Overpromise, Under-Deliver, and Write Off. Democratic ally
says of Obama: "He's just not a natural leader."
Excerpt: That last paragraph reminds me of Democrats who
privately gripe about Obama's lack of engagement with Congress, his
unwillingness to build meaningful relationships, his allegiance to polls and
focus groups, and his cautious nature that, in their minds, holds him back from
greatness. "He can't handle Putin. He can't handle Republicans," said
a veteran Democratic consultant and part-time adviser to both of Obama's
presidential campaigns. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Democrat told
me, "He just is not a natural leader."
A Black Conservative
Takes on the 'Poverty Pentagon'
Excerpt: Woodson says the flap over Ryan's comments may end
up being beneficial if it sparks the “right conversation” about helping the
poor. “Low-income people haven't been on President Obama's agenda for five
years,” he says. We'd only add that while low-income people have indeed been
left behind in Obama's “recovery,” they have occasionally shown up on
his teleprompter.
Excerpt: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
workers ages 16 to 24 earn only 54 cents on every dollar earned by workers 25
or older (http://tinyurl.com/n6puf6j). This wage gap is 43 percent greater than
the male/female gap. Our president, progressives, do-gooders, academics and
union leaders show little interest in big, greedy corporations ripping off the nation’s
youth. You might say, “Whoa, Williams! There’s a reason younger people earn
less than older people. They don’t have the skills or experience.” My response
would be — if I shared the vision of the president, media elite and do-gooders:
Just as there can be no justification for big, greedy corporations paying women
less than they pay men, there’s no justification for them to exploit the
nation’s youth.
Walgreens May Move to
Europe for Tax Break
Progressives killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
what else is new? ~Bob. Excerpt: Walgreens' shareholders are pushing the
company to move overseas, says the Fiscal Times. Goldman Sachs Investment
Partners and several hedge funds together own 5 percent of Walgreens' stock,
and they're trying to convince the company to become domiciled overseas in
order to reduce its U.S.
tax burden. To do this, the company would need for one-fifth of its stock to be
held by foreign investors. In 2012, Walgreens purchased half of the Swiss
company Alliance
Boots; Boots intends to purchase the rest of the company in 2015. Boots' tax
rate, according to financial services firm UBS, would be just 20 percent,
thanks to its Swiss residence. But Walgreens' U.S. tax rate? 37.5 percent. By
redomiciling abroad, Walgreens could increase its earnings per share by a
whopping 75 percent.
Blue on Blue: Labor Unions Slam 'Gutless' WH on Keystone
Delay. By Guy Benson
Excerpt: The Koch brothers may get the media attention, but
the billionaire getting the most political bang for his buck is Tom Steyer. The
hedge-fund politico has pledged to raise $100 million to help Democrats keep
the Senate, and on Friday he received a major return on his investment when the
State Department again delayed its decision on the Keystone XL pipeline ... The
real reason for the delay is Democratic politics. Mr. Steyer and the party's
liberal financiers are climate-change absolutists who have made killing
Keystone a non-negotiable demand. But the White House doesn't want to reject
the pipeline before November because several Senate Democrats running for
re-election claim to favor it.
Tom Cotton's New Ad
Introduces His Drill Sergeant
Gotta love this political ad. ~Bob
Excerpt: Liberals advocate many wonderful things. In fact, I
suspect that most conservatives would prefer to live in the kind of world
envisioned by liberals, rather than in the kind of world envisioned by
conservatives. Unfortunately, the only kind of world that any of us can live in
is the world that actually exists. Trying to live in the kind of world that
liberals envision has costs that will not go away just because these costs are
often ignored by liberals.
It's Not About Cliven
Bundy - It's About Harry Reid and a Chinese Energy Giant
http://clashdaily.com/2014/04/cow-killers-bundy-family-claim-feds-killed-cows-calves/
http://clashdaily.com/2014/04/cow-killers-bundy-family-claim-feds-killed-cows-calves/
Excerpt: 19:01:37 CAROL: We went to the compound where they
were holding the cattle that they gathered. We saw a shallow grave that had
been dug and covered up and there were, as we uncovered that, there were some
of our cattle that they had shot and had been thrown in the grave. 19:01:52… 19:02:17
STETSY: It’s disturbing. It’s disturbing to watch. I was there as we dug them
up. It was disturbing to see cattle that we have raised dead for no reason.
19:02:26 (Go to Read More: Fox Nation, then See additional videos at end of
video Could this be another Waco
in the making? An excuse to exploit a "serious crisis"? --JB)
Obamacare News
Excerpt: Who’s killing whom? Writing in The
New York Times the other day, Paul Krugman had this to say: "And
while supposed ObamaCare horror stories keep on turning out to be false, it’s
already quite easy to find examples of people who died because their
states refused to expand Medicaid. According
to one recent study, the death toll from Medicaid rejection is likely to
run between 7,000 and 17,000 Americans each year." Really? 17,000 deaths
per year? This outrageous claim flies in the face of years of careful study by
real economists — who have concluded that there is almost no relationship
between health insurance and mortality in the general population. As we previously
reported: "In independent empirical papers, Richard Kronick and David Card and
his colleagues find little evidence that health insurance coverage
significantly reduces mortality. Former Director of the Congressional Budget
Office June O’Neill and her
husband Dave also conclude that lack of insurance has little or no
impact on mortality. See the discussion at this blog here, here and here."
Signing Up for ObamaCare Was the Easy Part. By Bernard Goldberg
Excerpt: “I think Democrats should forcefully defend and be
proud of the fact … we’re helping because of something we did,” Mr. Obama said.
It’s a safe bet that Democrats up for re-election in Red States won’t be taking
his advice. But you can’t fault the president for defending his signature piece
of legislation. You can fault him, of course, for the way he misled the
American people to get ObamaCare passed. But since we’ve been through this
before let’s just say his many promises to the American people that ended with
the word “period” turned out not to be true. Period!
Excerpt: Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens, though, said
premiums have been received for only 107,581 of those policies, which cover
149,465 people. “Many Georgians completed the application process by the
deadline, but have yet to pay for the coverage,” Hudgens said in a statement
Wednesday.
Obamacare's "Unfolding Fiscal Disaster." By Kevin Glass
Excerpt: Charles Blahous of economic policy think tank
Economics 21 writes about just how large of an impact that its provisions will
have on the economy in the future. Spending on Obamacare's coverage expansion
is immediately a massive entitlement expansion, and will only get worse. Blahaus contrasts Obamacare with our other major entitlement
programs and finds that ACA spends more than all but Medicare, and does so much
faster:
The Shocking Secret Behind Obamacare Enrollment Numbers. By
Michael F. Cannon
Excerpt: Federal courts may soon rule that President Obama
induced the majority of those enrollees to enroll by offering them taxpayer
dollars he has no legal authority to spend.
If the courts put a stop to that unauthorized spending, a
majority of Exchange enrollees would suddenly face the full cost of Obamacare
coverage, and enrollments would plummet. (People keep speculating that the
courts are going to stop Obamacare somehow. So far, wishful thinking. ~Bob)
Surprise! Doctors Forced to Rush Patients Through
Appointments Thanks to Obamacare. By Katie Pavlich
Excerpt: Because liberals don't seem to understand the
concept of supply vs. demand, they failed to recognize early on that an influx
of new patients without new doctors would cause a shortage and lessen the
quality of care. Well, here we are.
The Democrats' Entitlement Generation: Must we carry
our 24-year-old daughter on our health insurance policy?
Excerpt: Do we have to carry our 24-year-old daughter on our
health insurance policy? She is employed and has two degrees. We informed her
that we would be dropping her at the end of the year because it’s costing us a
fortune, and she told us today that we
are required by law to cover her. We do not claim her on our taxes. ... It’s
your decision whether to keep your daughter on your plan.
APNewsBreak: Medicaid
Paid $12M for Illinois
Dead
Fair's fair--all voters deserve free health care, right,
even the dead ones in Chicago .
~Bob. Excerpt: The Illinois Medicaid program paid an estimated $12 million for
medical services for people listed as deceased in other state records,
according to an internal state government memo. The memo dated Friday, which
The Associated Press obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request,
says the state auditor compared clients enrolled in the Medicaid database last
June with state death records dating back to 1970. Auditors identified
overpayments for services to roughly 2,900 people after the date of their deaths.
Don't Believe the Spin, Obamacare Is Still a Loser.
By Scott Rasmussen
Excerpt: The president's triumphal tone suggests that this
is self-evidently good news and reason to celebrate the success of his health
care law. He says that candidates from his party should be proud of the law and
defend it. But that's not likely to happen, and the reasons are deeper than
disputes about how many people actually signed up through a health care exchange.
The first is that many people are finding out that the
insurance they bought through an exchange doesn't really ensure they'll get
medical care.
ObamaCare Will 'Hit the Fan.' From The Patriot Post
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA)
actually voted against ObamaCare in 2010, and now he's warning that the law's
delayed provisions mean the health care system's troubles are "going to
hit the fan." In fact, he says, "There are parts of ObamaCare, or the
Affordable Care Act, that were postponed because they are unpalatable."
For example, he points to the tax on so-called "Cadillac" plans that
goes into effect in a few years, noting that it will be "the first time in
this country's history that we have actually taxed health care." All of it
spells disaster for Democrats this fall, he predicts: "We will lose seats
in the House. I am fairly certain of that based on the poll numbers that are
coming out from the more experienced pollsters down there, and I think we may
lose the Senate." Here's hoping he's right.
Excerpt: As badly as President Obama wants everyone to start
running with his preferred ObamaCare narrative — i.e., that “this thing is working,” “the repeal debate is and should be
over,” and that “Democrats should forcefully defend” the law — but not all
Democrats actually need to defend the top-down monstrosity that is
now governing our healthcare system. There were a number of Democrats that
didn’t join the otherwise overwhelming coalition that voted for the passage of
ObamaCare, like Rep. Stephen Lynch in Massachusetts .
He sounds pretty skeptical that, had the Obama administration actually allowed
the law to go into effect as planned instead of making unilateral delays for
the sake of political convenience, Obama would be quite so confident that “this
thing is working. (Interesting, a Democrat politician from a state that has the
healthcare system that ObamaCare was modeled on comes out with a very direct
criticism of the plan. And he notes, as I have often tried to tell people, that
the assorted delays that Mr. Obama has made to the "settled law" are
there because they are "unpalatable". That means they would have a
severe impact that people would notice right away, so they are being delayed
until more of the system is in place and it'll be less possible to repeal it
and start over. But then dealing with the happens when it "hits the
fan" is going to be one enormous mess. Maybe people will figure out then
that they were sold a pig in a poke, that we had to pass so we could put it
into effect so then we could finally really understand it? Like understanding
that the colonoscopy without anesthesia is actually not something we would have
signed up for if we knew what it meant? --Del )
Will Obamacare's Losers Outvote its Winners This November?
By Byron York
Excerpt: So who has, in fact, been harmed by Obamacare? The
first question, of course, is what "harmed" means. But let's define
it as anyone who faces higher premiums, or higher deductibles -- adding up to a
total higher cost -- and/or a narrower choice of hospitals, doctors and
prescription drugs than they had before. For them, health care is a more
expensive and troublesome proposition than it was before Obamacare. Everything
we know about the system suggests there are millions of Americans in that
position, but how many? "There is no hard number," says health care
analyst Bob Laszewski. The reasons are as complicated as Obamacare itself.
Krauthammer: Obama's
Plan is to Semi-Nationalize Healthcare
Excerpt: "What the real objective of Obamacare is is to
sever the relationship that people have now with employer-provided insurance
and with their private insurance and also with the small group insurance so
everybody ends up in the market, which is essentially controlled by the federal
government," Krauthammer opined. "It is a semi-nationalization using the
insurers as the middle man. But that’s what it’s about, and that was the
objective in the first place, and that’s why all the numbers are obscure, all
the numbers are hidden, and why you’ll only get them after we kick and scream
and demand them." (Another simple analysis of the situation. But I hope
Krauthammer is right, and it will simply expire. The plan is to make it such a
huge system that it cannot be allowed to fail, and we have to live with it
forever. --Del )
Religion of Peace News
Obama Has No Plan in Afghanistan
and the War Against Al Qaeda
Excerpt: The US
commander of the ISAF coalition in Afghanistan , General Jospeh Dunford
USMC, recently stated: “We are not leaving. We are transitioning – there’s a
big difference.” While it is doubtful that the Taliban could parse said
difference, the statement has led to comments of Operation Enduring Freedom
having led to a defeat. Since the reason we are in Afghanistan is the 9/11 attacks,
this is more than a throw away comment. (Obama is going to have us basically
"bug out" and leave the Afghans to fend for themselves, and the very
sad and disappointing truth is that they are not really ready to do that. The
Taliban will come in again, resupplied from Pakistan , and it will get very
messy, and in the end, all our blood and treasure may have gone for nothing.
And the Afghan women will be in hell again, and all those men who were involved
with us in any way will be at terrible risk. Blood will flow in the streets,
and it'll be on our heads. Or at least the heads of our "leaders",
none of whom will give it a second's thought. --Del )
Police and Boko Haram
Massacre Over 150 Dead
Excerpt: The attack began at about 1:30am on Sunday Easter
morning and continued till 3pm Sunday Easter afternoon. ... According to the
police, the attacks initially was thought to be Fulani herdsmen but as the
attacks progressed, it became obvious that the attackers were most likely Boko
Haram jihadists. It was confirmed that a church was burnt down during the
attack – Christian Church of Nigeria
– along with many homes belonging to non-Muslims. Eyewitness account indicates
that fifteen corpse were seen littered on the streets – within the line of
fire.
Taliban leader among
5 rebels killed in Ghazni mosque explosion
Excerpt: A local Taliban commander was among five militants
killed following an explosion inside a mosque in eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan . Local government officials
said the militants were killed while they were making an improvised explosive
device (IED) to carry out a roadside bomb explosion.
Excerpt: The people giving the demonstration were trained by
the British-based imam Abu Hamza al-Masri. How did Abu Hamza, who as an imam
had dedicated his life to understand and teaching Islam properly, come to
misunderstand Islam so spectacularly as to think it had to do with slitting the
throats of Infidels? Why do the learned analysts never ponder such questions?
Islam’s Religious War with Everyone. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: Muslim hostility to Christians and Jews is not a
phenomenon that began with the modern State of Israel or American foreign
policy. Muslims have warred with Christians and Jews as minorities and
persecuted them as majorities. Academic apologists claim that Muslim hostility
toward Christians derived from an ongoing conflict, but at no time during the
history of Islam until the twentieth century did the Jews have a functioning
state. Israel has conveniently become the focus and explanation for Muslim
hostility toward Jews, but that fails to explain over a thousand years of
Muslim hatred and persecution … long before Herzl or the IDF.
Syrian Jihadis ‘Take Aim’ at Christian Toddler. By Raymond Ibrahim
Excerpt: When it comes to Muslim persecution of Christians,
increasingly the past is a blueprint to the present. According to Sham Times and
other Arabic websites, jihadi social media networks
posted the above picture of a child sitting on the ground while
surrounded by armed men pointing their rifles at him. The caption appearing
with the picture, purportedly posted by a supporter of the Free Syrian Army, is
“Our youngest hostage from among the hostile sects of Kessab.”
Thai police say
suspected insurgents kill 3 in shooting in south, including 2-year-old girl
Excerpt: Police Col. Chartchai Chanasit says two gunmen
riding on a motorcycle carried out the attack on Sunday in the Bannang Sata
district of Yala province.
Islamic school
militants ‘confiscated Easter eggs’
Excerpt: A mother of a pupil alleges “morality squads” of
older boys confiscated chocolate and toys from younger children. The woman,
who asked not be named for fear of reprisals, told the Daily Express: “Older
boys are going round in these morality squads telling off girls if they do not
wear veils. “They bully the girls and stop them mingling with boys in the
playground.”
Excerpt: Muhammad commanded: “Whoever changed his Islamic
religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). This is still the position of all
the schools of Islamic jurisprudence, both Sunni and Shi’ite. Sheikh Yusuf
al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated:
“The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they
differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The
majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi,
Maliki, Shafi`i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of
jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-`ashriyyah,
Al-Ja`fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.”
There is only disagreement over whether the law applies only to men, or to
women also – some authorities hold that apostate women should not be killed,
but only imprisoned in their houses until death. This father clearly believes
that a female apostate should be killed.
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