Friday, August 29, 2014

Today's Political News and Comment

Update

Skipped Rehab Friday, as my back sill painful with muscle spasms and I didn't want to aggravate the problem. Thursday I had the highest FEV average in four months, but Friday I was coughing when I tried, which caused a lot of back pain, and the numbers were way down. So it goes. O2 sats still good on room air; 96% to 00% around the house. ~Bob

General News and Comment

Click on graphic to enlarge.

DOJ To Give Money From Bank Of America Settlement To Liberal Activist Groups
Excerpt: Judicial Watch reports that the Department of Justice is giving liberal activist groups money from a $16.6 billion settlement with Bank of America. The groups benefitting from the lawsuit, according to Investor’s Business Daily, are the National Council of La Raza, Operation Hope, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. The money also went to “delinquent borrowers” in Chicago, Oakland, Detroit, Philadelphia, and other major “Democrat strongholds.”

Obama could bite the head off a live kitten, and his approval rating would stay at 40%. And MSNBC would find something wrong w/ the kitten.

Landrieu claims parents’ home as her own, raising questions of Louisiana residency
Excerpt: In Washington, Sen. Mary Landrieu lives in a stately, $2.5 million brick manse she and her husband built on Capitol Hill. Here in Louisiana, however, the Democrat does not have a home of her own. She is registered to vote at a large bungalow in New Orleans that her parents have lived in for many decades, according to a Washington Post review of Landrieu’s federal financial disclosures and local property and voting records. (You can find her home in DC--look for the "we are the 99%" sign. ~Bob)

Excerpt: We learn this from Jim Downey, the longtime "Saturday Night Live" specialist in political japery. "If I had to describe Obama as a comedy project, I would say, 'Degree of difficulty, 10 point 10,'" the writer says in the expanded new edition of the "SNL" oral history book, "Live from New York." ... Got that? The charter Choom Ganger, confessed eater of dog and snorter of coke. The doofus who thinks the language spoken by Austrians is "Austrian," that you pronounce the p in "corpsman" and that ATMs are the reason why job growth is sluggish. The egomaniac who gave the queen of England an iPod loaded with his own speeches and said he was better at everything than the people who work for him. The empty suit with so little real-world knowledge that he referred to his brief stint working for an ordinary profit-seeking company as time "behind enemy lines..."

Americans Pessimistic about U.S. Economy
Excerpt: Americans are not optimistic about economic recovery in the United States. The recession officially ended in June 2009, yet the majority of Americans do not see the economy as having improved. A study from researchers at Rutgers University chronicles the nation's attitude towards the labor market. Ten million private-sector jobs have been added to the U.S. economy during the last four years, and the official unemployment rate has reached 80 percent of pre-recession levels. Yet, the researchers note that the job growth the United States has not created enough full-time jobs, and a deeper look at the economy reveals some not-so-positive statistics:

Using Life Expectancy to Measure Inequality
Excerpt: American political discourse is rife with talk of inequality, but Nicholas Eberstadt, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, writes that focusing on economic inequality obscures real gains that have taken place across the globe. Economic inequality is a misleading figure, because the degree of alleged inequality changes depending upon whether the measure is one of income or consumption, and whether it looks at a person's economic position over a single year or inequality over a lifetime. There are better ways to assess equality across the world, writes Eberstadt, and he offers two means of measuring it: life expectancy and the distribution of education. (Yes, but using intelligent measures doesn't interest them--it doesn't stir up low-info voters through class warfare. ~Bob)

Grade Inflation Rampant on College Campuses
Excerpt: Grade inflation is a serious problem in colleges and universities, contends Thomas Lindsay in a new report for the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The numbers are stark: In the first half of the 1960s, 15 percent of college grades were As. Today, 43 percent of all college grades are As. An A is the most common grade given in colleges across the country. Seventy-three percent of all college grades given today are As or Bs.

Part of Utah's Anti-Polygamy Law Struck Down. By Christine Rousselle
Excerpt: In Utah, it is no longer illegal for someone to cohabitate with someone with whom they are not married, following a decision in the lawsuit Brown v. Buhman. The case was filed by Kody Brown, who is the patriarch of the polygamous Brown family featured on the TLC show "Sister Wives." While this technically means living a polygamous lifestyle is now effectively decriminalized in Utah, a person is still prohibited from having multiple marriage licenses. (When I was single, I used to say that you didn't have to be a polygamist to have one wife too many...~Bob)

Race Card News

Breaking: Michael Brown Allegedly Involved in Second Degree Murder Case
Excerpt: As relayed by the website YoungCons.com, Johnson claims that he has “confirmed” Michael Brown was arrested in a case involving second-degree murder:

Excerpt: A day after Trojans star cornerback Josh Shaw was suspended indefinitely for making up a heroic pool rescue story to explain an injury, senior running back Anthony Brown quit the team while accusing head coach Steve Sarkisian of being a racist.

Race Hustlers Care About Only One Color: Green

Why won't the media hold Obama accountable? They desperately want to prevent our first African American president from being a failure.

Worth Seeing: VIDEO: Marine to Black Community: Want to Really Make a Difference? Accept this Challenge
Excerpt: The challenge started with Charles Johnson, and was expounded upon by Marine Malik King. When King made his challenge video, he did more than demonstrate what it would look like to take the “Pull Up Your Pants Challenge.” He shared why he believes it is critical for the black community to take this challenge to heart and accept it.

Obamacare/ Government Healthcare News

CBO Report Shows Impact of Obamacare
Excerpt: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is out with a new economic outlook report for the next decade. One of its projections, reports Kevin Glass at Townhall.com, concerns the number of Americans in the labor force. The CBO expects that the labor force participation rate (the ratio of Americans who are employed or are seeking a job, compared to the total number of working-age people in the country) will continue to fall over the next few years. The agency expects an 0.5 percentage point drop in the participation rate due largely to baby-boomer retirements but also due to "federal tax and spending policies." More specifically, the CBO points to Obamacare as one of the reasons behind the falling labor force participation rate: "[C]ertain aspects of the Affordable Care Act will tend to reduce labor force participation, with the largest effect stemming from the subsidies that reduce the cost of purchasing health insurance through the exchanges." The report explains that subsidies rise as incomes fall, and fall as incomes rise, meaning that some people will be incentivized to work less, in order to obtain or retain the health care subsidies. The report continued, "[T]he structure of the tax code -- in which rising income pushes some people into higher tax brackets -- will reduce labor force participation slightly."

Cost of Healthcare.gov Nearing $2 Billion
Excerpt: Ow. Ow. My head hurts. How is it possible for one website’s costs to come anywhere near $2 billion? But a recent report by the Department of Health and Human Resources (HHS) indicates that Healthcare.gov, the troubled online market for Obamacare, is going to end up costing the federal government about 1.7 billion dollars: (Not too worry. The can print more. ~Bob)

Government Healthcare: Kids As Young As 12 Receiving Govt-Funded Contraceptive Implants
Excerpt: Children as young as 12 are being given contraceptive implants by government health boards in Scotland, many without their parents’ knowledge, raising concerns over their vulnerability to sexual exploitation. The drugs have not been tested on minors, and the long term health effects of using these drugs on children are not known. But still almost 3,500 minors have received the long term contraceptive implant since 2010, the Daily Mail today reported.

Coburn: Did feds illegally skirt Obamacare employer mandate?
Excerpt: Sen. Tom Coburn wants to know whether the Obama administration violated the law by making it easier for seasonal and temporary workers in the federal government to get health coverage — perhaps so the feds would not be penalized under Obamacare’s “employer mandate.”

Tax refunds may get hit due to health law credits
Excerpt: If your income for 2014 is going to be higher than you estimated when you applied for health insurance, then complex connections between the health law and taxes can reduce or even eliminate your tax refund next year.

"You're Greener Than Gore" News

Democrats More Afraid of Global Warming Than ISIS
Excerpt: Democrats are more afraid of global warming than the threat posed by the Islamic State terrorists, according to a new Pew Research Center poll.

The Government Is Controlling Private Property to Save Frog Species Not Seen in 50 Years. By Scott Blakeman  
Excerpt: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is seeking to protect the dusky gopher frog on the Endangered Species List by designating over 1,500 acres of private property in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana as a “critical habitat” for the embattled amphibian. But here’s the kicker: The frog hasn’t been seen on the land in question for over 50 years. The federal government has the ability through the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to designate land as “critical habitat” subjecting it to additional regulations. 

Religion of Peace News

Funny: Breaking... President Obama's 'Strategy 18.' By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: Earlier today United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron held a press conference delivering, with conviction, remarks and answering media questions about the urgent and growing terrorism, ISIS, threat.

I can help: Obama: White House still working on ISIL plan
Excerpt: President Barack Obama is working on strategies to fight Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and to continue to dissuade Russia from military involvement in Ukraine, he said Thursday from the White House. Obama said he has directed Defense Secretary Chuck Hegel to prepare a range of options to counter ISIL and has instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to travel to the region to build a coalition in opposition to the group. Though there have been reports suggesting that broader military action in the region is imminent, the president said he will take his time. (You can bet ISIS has a strategy for us. -- Tweet from GLENN ‏@GCGATOR24 It should surprise no one that an Administration who calls the Fort Hood shooting “workplace violence” is clueless about dealing with ISIS. Tweet from Ken Gardner ‏@kesgardner. Putin has a plan, ISIS has a plan, Hamas has a plan, Obama has a fund raiser scheduled. -- Tweet from RockPrincess ‏@Rockprincess818. Dear Mr. President: Here's a plan. You call a meeting with Kerry, Hegel and the joint Chiefs and tell them, "I do not want 'proportional response.' I want only options that leave ISIS annihilated. I want them killed, their vehicles destroyed. I want an outline of that tomorrow, for action to start Monday and build from there, until nothing moves on the ground in their areas and there are no targets left. Dismissed." ~Bob)

Interesting: Why Obama’s ‘we don’t have a strategy’ gaffe stings. By Aaron Blake
Excerpt: But while the White House went into damage-control mode, emphasizing that it was a reference to the lack of decisions about increasing military action in Iraq and/or Syria and not a lack of a broader strategy there, the damage was already done. As with all gaffes, the worst ones are the ones that confirm people's preexisting suspicions or fit into an easy narrative. ... Polls have increasingly shown that Americans view Obama as a weak commander in chief without much direction or heft to his foreign policy. 
Excerpt: British Prime Minister David Cameron raised Friday the nation’s terrorism threat level to “severe,” saying bluntly that “poisonous” Islamic extremism is causing widespread problems that are spreading from the Middle East to other parts of the world.

Marched to their deaths: Sickening ISIS slaughter continues as 250 soldiers captured at Syrian airbase are stripped then led to the desert for mass execution
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2736764/Marched-deaths-Sickening-ISIS-slaughter-continues-250-soldiers-captured-Syrian-airbase-stripped-led-desert-mass-execution.html
Excerpt: Sickening footage appears to show Islamic State militants parading around 250 captured soldiers through the desert in their underwear before they are killed and their bodies piled on the bare earth. An Islamic State fighter claimed the men were from the Syrian government's Tabqa air base which extremists seized on Sunday, potentially handing them warplanes, tanks, artillery and ammunition. (The message from the ISIS is clear: If you are opposing them, die fighting, never surrender. ~Bob)

Found: The Islamic State's Terror Laptop of Doom: Buried in a Dell computer captured in Syria are lessons for making bubonic plague bombs and missives on using weapons of mass destruction. BY Harald Doornbos, Jenan Moussa
Excerpt: Abu Ali, a commander of a moderate Syrian rebel group in northern Syria, proudly shows a black laptop partly covered in dust. "We took it this year from an ISIS hideout," he says.Abu Ali says the fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which have since rebranded themselves as the Islamic State, all fled before he and his men attacked the building. The attack occurred in January in a village in the Syrian province of Idlib, close to the border with Turkey, as part of a larger anti-ISIS offensive occurring at the time. "We found the laptop and the power cord in a room," he continued, "I took it with me. But I have no clue if it still works or if it contains anything interesting." Now this is the kind of thing that tends to increase people's nervousness about ISIS. No, they don't have the super nasty stuff right now, but they sure would like to get some and are eager to use it. And given enough time and money, they will get some smart, trained people to help them and get some really nasty stuff. Why would anyone doubt it, and certainly no one would doubt their eagerness to inflict as much horror on others as they possibly can. I believe in smashing them to nothingness, no survivors. Yeah, that makes me an extremist. But destroying Pol Pot's group when they were still small and vulnerable would have saved literally millions of lives. Not being ready to destroy the rabid dog or the aggressive poisonous snake is just foolish, at a level that is too costly in the long run. --Del)

New ISIS Video, Photo Show Beheading of Kurd & Lebanese
Excerpt: The Islamic State (IS), more commonly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), has just released a video showing a Kurdish fighter being beheaded and other Kurdish prisoners and photos of a Lebanese soldier it beheaded. It has also announced that Ansar al-Islam, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, has pledged allegiance to the IS leader.

Child Is Family’s Sole Survivor as ISIS Terrorists Target Iraqi Town
Excerpt: After escaping a terrorist-besieged Iraqi town with his family, 2-year-old Hassan was wounded when a suicide bomb went off near a mosque. The blast in the Kurdistan-controlled Kirkuk province, set off by terrorists from the group Islamic State, killed the boy’s entire immediate family. 

Mahmoud Abbas: Blame Hamas for Gaza Casualties
Excerpt: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas may not be fond of Israel and its political leadership, but he's clear-eyed about one thing: Hamas initiated and prolonged an unnecessary fight with Israel that directly led to Palestinian deaths.

Fort Hood shooter says he want to become 'citizen' of Islamic State caliphate
Excerpt: The convicted shooter in the Fort Hood massacre has written a letter to the leader of the Islamic State saying he wants to become a "citizen" of the caliphate, in the latest example of the terror group's reach inside the U.S. The letter from Nidal Hasan, obtained by Fox News, comes after two Americans reportedly died fighting for ISIS in Syria. (Workplace violence always ends up with the shooter wanting to become a citizen of a caliphate. -- Tweet from Andy Lancaster ‏@andylancaster )

Exclusive: U.S. may use secrets act to stop suit against Iran sanctions group
Excerpt: The U.S. government is considering using a powerful national security law to halt a private lawsuit against a non-profit group, United Against A Nuclear Iran, according to a source familiar with the case. Greek businessman and ship owner Victor Restis last year sued UANI for defamation after the New York-based group, whose advisors include former intelligence officials from the United States, Europe and Israel, accused him of violating sanctions on Iran by exporting oil from the country.

U.N. says 43 Golan peacekeepers seized by Syria militants, 81 trapped
Excerpt: "During a period of increased fighting beginning yesterday between armed elements and Syrian Arab Armed Forces within the area of separation in the Golan Heights, 43 peacekeepers from the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) were detained early this morning by an armed group in the vicinity of Al Qunaytirah," the U.N. press office said in a statement.

Small Vermont Town Latest Sad Example of Oversensitivity Epidemic. By Mark Davis 
Excerpt: Here is a snapshot of a series of truly ridiculous things that happened in a small New England town this week, followed by an extended examination of how it represents a deep societal pathology. In Winooski, Vermont, a small town northeast of Burlington, a restaurant was awarded a sign placement for its participation in a beautification project. Proud of its bacon (among other things, I’m sure), Sneakers Bistro chose a sign that said “Yield for Sneakers Bacon.” A Muslim woman, fond of neither pork nor free speech, complained online, garnering a sufficient contingent of busybodies to pressure the restaurant to take down the sign. (Appeasement doesn't work. They will always find something else to be offended by--walking dogs in public, crosses in cemeteries, women without hijabs--to force their beliefs on society. ~Bob)

Excerpt: Ansar Jerusalem, (also known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis), has released a video displaying the graphic beheadings of four Egyptian civilians the group accused of being "spies" for Israel. According to Ansar Jerusalem, Israel has supposedly killed the group's members in cross-border drone strikes launched in the Sinai, including an alleged bombing on July 23. Egyptian government officials have denied Israeli involvement. 9the vast majority of the victims of Allah-Murder are other Muslims. ~Bob)

Man with ISIS flag on vehicle threatens cops with bomb

Excerpt: A man who had an ISIS flag waving from his vehicle is facing several charges after he threatened police with a bomb Wednesday morning when he was pulled over on the Southwest Side. Emad Karakrah, 49, was charged with felony counts of disorderly conduct and aggravated fleeing; and a misdemeanor count of driving on a never-issued license, according to Chicago Police.

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