Saturday, November 1, 2014

Today's HOT political and election news

Update

50 Years as a Marine
Monday, November 3, 2014 will be exactly 50 years since I graduated with platoon 273 from MCRD Parris Island and earned the title Marine. It is the thing in my life I'm most proud of. The self-discipline, pride and determination I acquired there have given me a very successful and happy life--and kept me alive through the challenges of pulmonary fibrosis and a lung transplant when the medical people were writing me off. My three DIs are on my daily prayer list--I owe them a debt I can never repay, but I have tried through living a life of service. November 10 is the 239th birthday of the Corps. Happy Birthday and Semper Fidelis, Marines. It was the privilege of a lifetime to wear the same uniform as you. ~Bob

A lovely, but cold Halloween in Wisconsin. There was white stuff on the grass when I rose at 0600 to do my medical routine and go to PT rehab. Britnye, our granddaughter, took this nice tree picture. She's getting into photography. ~Bob

Old Jarhead Blog Page Views in the last week
From the top ten countries

United States              5,032
United Kingdom         380
Canada                                    379
Ukraine                       342
France                         277
Australia                      233
Turkey                         174
Germany                     173
Russia                          80
China                           72

Total:                          7,142

84 Blog Sources for my last three posts
I'm often accused by progressives of getting all my information from Fox News. Actually, I watch almost no TV news. I do watch a little TV, Pawn Stars, American Pickers, the Military History channel and some football (almost never a whole game). I always watch with a book in my hands. I'm currently reading American Slavery, American Freedom, an excellent history of early Virginia. My blog sources are on the Internet and varied, though as this is a conservative blog, more on that side. This includes today's post, which was not yet completed when I posted this. ~Bob

General News and Comment

Worth Reading: The stakes on Tuesday. By George Will
Excerpt: In midterm elections, turnout usually is “frail and pale,” meaning older and whiter than in presidential elections, when three Democratic-leaning constituencies — minorities, young people and unmarried women — are more apt to vote. If Democratic candidates run ahead of their end-of-campaign polls, this will indicate that their party retains its mobilization advantage. If Republicans narrowly win Senate control, their joy should be tempered by this fact: In 2016, they will be defending 24 of the 34 seats at issue

Obama fatigue is setting in. By Jonah Goldberg, The Goldberg File
Indeed, I’ve gone from Obama fatigue through full-on Obama Epstein-Barr to end-stage Obama narcolepsy. I hear him talking, or hear some MSNBC-type rhapsodizing about how misunderstood he is, and I start dozing off like a truck driver who took the drowsy-formula Nyquil by mistake. “Gotta stay awake! This is my job!” But then 20 seconds later, Jonathan Alter starts telling me how misunderstood the president is, and suddenly orange traffic cones are bouncing off my truck’s grill as I somnolently drift into a highway work zone. You could fill a cereal bowl with broken glass and barbed-wire shards drenched in hot sauce right below my face. All it would take for me to use it as a pillow is a 30-second loop of Obama saying “Let me be clear.” His speeches are like whale sounds, but with less substance. I’d say they’re all white noise, but I don’t want to get called a racist. ... my Obama-narcolepsy is interfering with my Obama-schadenfreude. I for one find it nothing less than hilarious to watch liberal eggheads (both real and imagined), never mind Obama himself, spin elaborate theories for why Obama is not just unpopular but pretty much a failed president. (The Goldberg File is free. Worth reading. ~Bob)

Think Halloween is scary? You haven’t heard of ‘civil asset forfeiture’
Excerpt:  Imagine opening up your door one morning to two agents of the IRS. They tell you that they have seized your checking account and the $33,000 in it, just because you made a “suspicious” cash deposit under $10,000. Not a good start to a day. That’s just what happened last year to Carole Hinders, who runs a cash-only Mexican restaurant in Iowa. She wasn’t charged with any crime or even accused of anything. Hinders lost her money because of the size of her deposits.

CWC Press HD.
Conservatives will relish every second of the ad hitting the New York Times, MSNBC, George Stephanopolous, the critics of Sharyl Attkisson, and so on. But will it change a mind, or influence the decision of a North Carolina voter who wasn’t already going to vote for Tillis? Or is this the kind of argument against the media that the Right needs to make outside the realm of blogs, articles, and so on? --Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

Why Middle-Class Americans Can't Afford to Live in Liberal Cities. Blue America has a problem: Even after adjusting for income, left-leaning metros tend to have worse income inequality and less affordable housing. By Derek Thompson
Excerpt: Among the 100 largest U.S. metros, 63 percent of homes are "within reach" for a middle-class family, according to Trulia. But among the 20 richest U.S. metros, just 47 percent of homes are affordable, including a national low of 14 percent in San Francisco. The firm defined "within reach" as a for-sale home with a total monthly payment (including mortgage and taxes) less than 31 percent of the metro's median household income. 

WMUR's James Pindell Apologizes To Scott Brown

WI: Union Leaders Sue Gov. Scott Walker to Raise Minimum Wage
Excerpt: This week, Wisconsin labor leaders announced their intention to sue the governor of Wisconsin, insisting that he raise the minimum wage to that of a "living wage." Under Wisconsin law, a living wage is one that provides a person with the ability to live in "reasonable comfort." But Carrie Sheffield, fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, writes that Wisconsin minimum wage workers will only be hurt by a minimum wage hike, which actually most benefits those workers already living above poverty: Raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour would cost 500,000 jobs across the country. The poor are most likely to lose their jobs as a result of the law. Only 19 percent of wealth from a minimum wage hike would go to workers who are poor. Twenty-nine percent of that raise would go to households with earnings more than three times that of the poverty line.

At fast-growing Brookings, donors may have an impact on research agenda. By Tom Hamburger and Alexander Becker 
Excerpt: Of all the topics the venerable Brookings Institution has examined in recent years, legalizing marijuana was rarely high on anyone’s scholarly agenda. That changed after a November 2012 visit from a lawyer working with Peter B. Lewis, the billionaire insurance magnate who during the last years of his life made the legalization of marijuana his personal mission. Lewis had made inroads in several states, including legalization wins in Colorado and Washington. But he was having no luck getting the Obama administration — or congressional leaders — to support his campaign. He realized, he told his top advisers, that he needed to “change the groundwater in Washington” — and to do that he reached out to Brookings and a few other Washington-based organizations.

FL: This Democrat Congressman, Worth Almost $20 Million, Receives Food Stamps for His Children
http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/democrat-congressman-worth-almost-20-million-receives-food-stamps-children/
Excerpt: Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), a sleazy trial attorney and left-wing loon, was just named the 17th wealthiest member of Congress. Considering all the inherited money, lobbyists, and shady deals which happen in Washington, D.C., that is an impressive ranking. But Grayson has another dubious distinction: a dead beat dad. After being married for 29 years to Lolita Grayson, he is refusing to support her or his children. Why? Because he is shamefully arguing his wife’s first marriage was supposedly never fully ended, so Alan’s marriage to her was never legitimate.

Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi freed from Mexican jail, immediately returns to US
Bet Obama takes the credit. ~Bob. Now we have to hope the great state of California doesn't go after him for having driven through there with guns in his pickup. I'd like to think even Moonbeam Jerry Brown would decide it's a smart thing to leave the guy alone, but it's CA, so all bets are off. --Del

Billionaire political donor Steyer addresses conference, media not allowed in. By Josh Kaib
Excerpt: Tom Steyer, billionaire environmental and political activist, told members of the Green Alliance here Friday he plans to remain involved in politics for years to come. In what ways he intended to remain involved were unclear, at least to the public. The media was not allowed in.

Obama on Moms Who Stay Home to Raise Kids: 'That's Not a Choice We Want Americans to Make.' By John Mccormack
Excerpt: During a speech in Rhode Island today, President Obama called for more taxpayer-spending on pre-school in order to "make sure that women are full and equal participants in our economy" and said the following: Sometimes, someone, usually mom, leaves the workplace to stay home with the kids, which then leaves her earning a lower wage for the rest of her life as a result. And that’s not a choice we want Americans to make."

Despite gains, much work remains on entitlement programs. By J. Robert Kerrey and John C. Danforth 
J. Robert Kerrey was a Democratic U.S. senator from Nebraska from 1989 to 2001. John C. Danforth was a Republican U.S. senator from Missouri from 1976 to 1995.
A lot can happen in 20 years. And yet sometimes you look back and find that for all the apparent change, you are not very far from where you started. We have had that feeling lately as we look back on the work we did as co-chairs of the 1994 Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform. In August of that year, our commission issued an interim report. Thirty of the 32 members agreed that “current trends are not sustainable.”


Worth Reading: Obama Could Replace Aides Bruised by a Cascade of Crises. By Mark Landler, New York Times
Excerpt: At a time when the Obama administration is lurching from crisis to crisis — a looming Cold War in Europe, a brutal Islamic caliphate in the Middle East and a deadly epidemic in West Africa — it is not surprising that long-term strategy would take a back seat. But it raises inevitable questions about the ability of the president and his hard-pressed national security team to manage and somehow get ahead of the daily onslaught of events. ... But (Kerry) often seems out of sync with the White House in his public statements. White House officials joke that he is like the astronaut played by Sandra Bullock in the movie “Gravity,” somersaulting through space, untethered from the White House.

Guns

Support For New Gun Control Laws Plummets, Especially Among Women. By Katie Pavlich 
Excerpt: One of the biggest drops in support for more gun control comes from women, who coincidentally are the fastest growing demographic of gun owners in America. In 2012 69 percent of women supported measures like universal background checks. In 2014, it's just 55 percent. Since 2005, personal gun ownership among women has increased by nearly 80 percent.

Neighbor Posts Sign “Outing” Man for Carrying a Concealed Firearm. By Onan Coca
Excerpt: A guy in suburban Rochester, Minnesota walks his two little girls to school everyday. He loves his girls and wants to make sure they’re safe, so each morning he walks them all the way down and stops just short of the school property – watching them enter school grounds on their own. Why? Because he carries a concealed firearm, just in case he ever needs it. Minnesota law doesn’t allow firearms on school grounds, so Matthew Halleck complies with the law, as he should. (Ya know what I would do if my neighbor did this? I would post a sign on my lawn in plain view of passersby with the following inscription: The Lady Living At (Address) Does Not Carry a Gun to Protect Herself. Hopefully No Would-Be Attackers or Burglars Will Take Unfair Advantage of This Fact. Come and Attack Me if You Want. Would Enjoy The Target Practice. Thank You. --Don Hank)

TSA Confiscates Sci-Fi Ray Gun Belt Buckle
Excerpt: In their latest display of insanity, TSA agents at LAX airport confiscated a belt buckle from prominent videographer Sean Malone, telling him that the reason was it is “kind of shaped like a gun.” Malone writes that TSA had attempted to confiscate the sci-fi style ‘ray gun’ buckle just days before at DCA airport in Washington, but he had managed to persuade supervisors to halt the lunacy before it went too far.

Ebola and Enterovirus News

Ebola
Maybe I'm too concerned about Ebola. Sure, it isn't widespread in the US just now, but I can't help but notice that it has been contracted by people with the best possible training and protection. Additionally, people are lying about their travels and contacts when they arrive here, and I don't see a clear story about how it is spread. I'm told one thing, and then another. The best I can figure is that if you have been near it, you owe us a quarantine. Yes... I appreciate your sacrifice in the name of humanity, but am not willing to sacrifice in the name of your carelessness; call it the cost of doing business. Because WHEN you are wrong, and someone WILL be wrong, I will need more than just 'I'm sorry.' --George

Obama’s Border Policy Fueled Epidemic, Evidence Shows
The deadly EV-D68 Enterovirus epidemic, which struck thousands of kids this fall, was likely propelled through America by President Barack Obama’s decision to allow tens of thousands of Central Americans across the Texas border, according to a growing body of genetic and statistical evidence. The evidence includes admissions from top health officials that the epidemic included multiple strains of the virus, and that it appeared simultaneously in multiple independent locations. The question can be settled if federal researchers study the genetic fingerprint of the EV-D68 viruses that first hit kids in ColoradoMissouri and Illinois to see if they are close relatives to the EV-D68 viruses found in Central America. (Article points out: 1. Inconvenient to say POTUS and his open-door shuttling of diseased "children" throughout US and into schools at beginning of school year to spread this virus for which no cure. 2. Scientists loathe to do research to make the links to finger the regime because Dems can control funding of their research grants. 3. The king rules. Forward. Onward to oblivion. Detailed examination of the hundreds of US children sickened, some paralyzed and dead. Get the picture? They want those who live here depopulated, one way or another....and the global good is more important than the health and security of US citizens. Sounds like UN project 21.....Barb)

Race Card News


Desperate Democrats resort to race-baiting to spur black vote
Excerpt: The racially-charged fliers coincide with rising fears among Democrats that low turnout this year from black voters, who overwhelmingly back the party, will result in Democratic loses in the governor’s race in Maryland and in key U.S. Senate races in Georgia and North Carolina.
President Obama, whose low poll number have kept him for the most part off the campaign trail this year, has joined the scramble to excite black voters. He has quietly done a series of interviews on black radio stations to get the message out to the bloc that turned out in droves for him in 2008 and 2012.

Southern Shockwave: Mary Landrieu Blames Obama's Unpopularity on Racism. By Wynton Hall
Excerpt: In comments sure to cascade into regional races across the South, embattled Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) told NBC's Chuck Todd on Thursday that Southern racism is to blame for President Barack Obama's unpopularity. (Bet those "racists" would vote for Dr. Ben Carson or Condi Rice. ~Bob)

Not to mention Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Ben Carson, Clarence Thomas, Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley.

Federal civil rights charges unlikely against police officer in Ferguson shooting
Excerpt: “The evidence at this point does not support civil rights charges against Officer Wilson,” said one person briefed on the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. Justice Department officials are loath to acknowledge publicly that their case cannot now meet the high legal threshold for a successful civil rights prosecution. The timing is sensitive: Tensions are high in greater St. Louis as people await the results of a grand jury’s review of the case.

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


Obamacare brings Democrats backlash, not benefits. By Sarah Wheaton, Politico
Excerpt: And not only did the political benefits that Democrats thought the 2010 law would eventually bring them not materialize, opposition has only grown, according to an analysis of multiple polls taken between 2010 and last month. “There have been backlashes, but never like this,” said Robert Blendon, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of the analysis released Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.

The True Cost of Obama Care
Good slide show. ~Bob

Doubled premium to$2800 for fam of 4. No deductible to 8k. Smaller network & higher co-pays. Eats up my whole pay

My premiums tripled and I now have a 5000 ded. I lost my doctor. Affordable health ins!! Yay !?

My family's annual deductible through my employer's insurance went from $3000 to $7050 this year.

We were happy with our family insurance. ACA said it didn't fit federal guidelines, so it was cancelled.

Undocumented Democrat News

LA: Sen. Landrieu Wants You to Forget When She Called The Border Fence ‘Dumb.’ By Cortney O'Brien 
Excerpt: At Wednesday’s debate at Louisiana State University, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) seemed like she was 100 percent behind a border fence: ... Now, the Republican National Committee is calling her bluff. In June of last year, Landrieu was singing a very different tune:
“I voted for the dumb fence once,” she said at the time. “I’m not going to do it again because I learned my mistake when I went down there to look at it and realized that we could build two dumb fences or three dumb fences, and it’s not working.

Excerpt: President Obama’s “prosecutorial discretion” policy in immigration enforcement claimed two more lives Friday. Mexican illegal alien Luis Enrique Monroy-Bracamonte murdered two police officers, and seriously wounded a motorist in the Sacramento area. The cop-killer had been deported twice, the first time for dealing drugs, but was living unmolested in a Salt Lake City suburb with his wife, also charged with the murders.
Prosecutorial discretion is supposed to mean the kind of case-by-case prioritization that every cop has to engage in (“I’m not going to give you a ticket this time, ma’am, but slow down in the future”). Under this administration, however, it has been used as a pretext for exempting the vast majority of illegal aliens from the immigration laws. 

Religion of Peace News

Canada seems to be getting tired of Multiculturalism.

Excerpt: At least 23 people were killed this morning when explosions ripped through a bus station in Gombe in northeastern Nigeria. Many more were injured in the blast. Gombe's police chief, Abdullahi Kudu, announced that three suspects were arrested shortly after the incident. Multiple witnesses saw them drive into the station and drop three bags filled with explosives before exiting. The bags were placed between buses as they were filling up with travelers around 9:00 a.m. today.

Excerpt: Jihadist groups operating in northern Mali have stepped up attacks over the past several months against French troops and UN peacekeepers operating in the region. On Oct. 29, one French commando was killed after a fierce firefight in the Adrar Tigharghar mountain range in the northern Mali province of Kidal. The soldier, Thomas Dupuy, an Afghanistan war veteran, was killed when his unit came into contact with "30 Islamists," about 20 of whom were killed in the firefight, according to the French government. Dupuy is the 10th French soldier to die since January 2013.

Pakistan condemns drone strike that targeted 'good Taliban'
Excerpt: Yesterday, after the US launched a drone strike in South Waziristan that reportedly killed a Haqqani Network commander known as Abdullah Haqqani and an al Qaeda leader, the spokeswoman for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry condemned the attack. (Oh, sure now that he's dead he's a "Good Taliban." Let Allah sort them out. ~Bob)

Airstrikes against Islamic State do not seen to have affected flow of fighters to Syria
Excerpt: More than 1,000 foreign fighters are streaming into Syria each month, a rate that has so far been unchanged by airstrikes against the Islamic State and efforts by other countries to stem the flow of departures, according to U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials. The magnitude of the ongoing migration suggests that the U.S.-led air campaign has neither deterred significant numbers of militants from traveling to the region nor triggered such outrage that even more are flocking to the fight because of American intervention. 9when the enemy is walking into your kill zone, you don't try to warn him off. ~Bob)

Being safe while isolated. By Caroline B. Glick
http://jewishworldreview.com/1014/glick103114.php3
Excerpt: Yehudah Glick has spent the better part of the last 20 years championing the right of Jews to pray on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – Judaism’s holiest site. On Wednesday night, the Palestinians sent a hit man to Jerusalem to kill him. And today Glick lays in a coma at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Two people bear direct responsibility for this terrorist attack: the gunman, and Palestinian Authority President and PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas. The gunman shot Glick, and Abbas told him to shoot Glick. (Great cartoon heads the story. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: Obama Finally Identifies the Middle East's Biggest Problem -- Israel. By David Harsanyi 
Excerpt: Most people have focused on the name-calling, and Goldberg keeps a list of pejoratives used by U.S. officials to describe Netanyahu, including "aspergery." On that front, it's worth noting that the person repeatedly being called "chickens--t" by anonymous officials volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces, saw combat and was the leader of an elite special forces unit deployed on numerous missions -- including the freeing of a hijacked Sabena flight in 1972, where he was shot. Granted, this may not be so courageous as hopping the Amtrak from Delaware to D.C. each day or rallying the troops at a fundraiser in Greenwich, Connecticut, but God knows we can't all be heroes.

Sickening Video: Libya: Cemetery of British war victims destroyed by Muslim Mob
From the unsigned, forwarded email that came with the link: In Tobrouk, at the east end of Libya, close to the Egyptian border, is a very large military cemetery. There rest British and Canadian soldiers killed in 1941/42 fighting against Africa Corps of Nazi General Erwin Rommel – as well as French soldiers in the Bir Hakeim in 1942. The cemetery today is in the control of Islamist radicals, Allah’s madmen. Don't be silent about this. After seeing the video, who would dare say that these are normal human beings? This is a testament to Obama's belief in the “peace-loving” Islamists and the teachings of Koran. See this video while you still can!!!

Abducted schoolgirls married off after conversion to Islam, says Shekau in new video
Excerpt: It is now certain that President Goodluck Jonathan will never be able to #bringbackourgirls. What a pity! The whole campaign, with international flavour, has been a waste of time as Abubakar Shekau, the Boko Haram leader said in a new video today that the 219 girls captured in April have been married after their conversion to Islam.

Mob stone to death suspected ISIS member then burn his corpse and EAT him as revenge for series of attacks in Congo that have left 100 people dead
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2816159/Mob-stone-death-suspected-ISIS-member-burn-corpse-EAT-revenge-series-attacks-Congo-left-100-people-dead.html
Excerpt: Witnesses said the young man, who has not been identified, aroused suspicion on a bus in the north east of the country when passengers discovered he could not speak the local Swahili language and that he was carrying a machete.

Sharia law or gay marriage critics would be branded ‘extremists’ under Tory plans, atheists and Christians warn
Excerpt: Anyone who criticises Sharia law or gay marriage could be branded an “extremist” under sweeping new powers planned by the Conservatives to combat terrorism, an alliance of leading atheists and Christians fear. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, unveiled plans last month for so-called Extremism Disruption Orders, which would allow judges to ban people deemed extremists from broadcasting, protesting in certain places or even posting messages on Facebook or Twitter without permission.

Islamic State 'terror schools': Children as young as FIVE trained to fight and kill
Excerpt: Sickening images show youngsters brandishing semi-automatic assault rifles, tackling assault courses and posing next to IS's black flag as they learn how to fight and kill. 
More than 300 children have reportedly been kidnapped or brainwashed in to joining terror training camps at the al-Sharea school in Raqqa, Syria, where they are repeatedly asked whether they want to be a young jihadist or suicide bomber.

Peru Foils Hezbollah Terror Attack on Israelis
Excerpt: Over the past several days a Hezbollah terrorist attempted to murder Israelis in Peru only to have his plots foiled by local authorities, revealed Channel 2 on Thursday.
The terrorist, a member of Hezbollah's international arm, was apparently planning to carry out a terror attack on Israeli or Jewish targets in the South American nation, particularly locations where Israeli tourists gather.

Jordan bans 'gay, Satanic' Halloween. Darren Wee, Gay Star News
Excerpt: Jordan has banned Halloween fearing of a backlash from Muslim fundamentalists who condemn the festival as 'homosexual and Satanic.' Ministry of Interior spokesperson Ziad Al Zoubi confirmed the decision to Al Ghad daily. He said all sorts of activities surrounding Halloween had been banned to prevent a repeat of the previous two years' riots in the capital Amman.

One in seven young Britons has sympathy with Isis cause
Excerpt: Isis is riding a surge of “anti-politics” sentiment among disaffected under-35s who admire the jihadists’ courage, academics warn.

Maher dings Berkeley protest petitioners
Excerpt: Liberal comedian Bill Maher responded to petitioners trying to remove him as a commencement speaker at the University of California, Berkeley, asking “what leg does the protest have to stand on?” “Whoever told you you only had to hear what didn’t upset you?” Maher said during his HBO program “Real Time” broadcast Friday, adding that he was still planning to attend the December event.

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://tiny.cc/g02s4 For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here: http://tinyurl.com/o4nu65u. His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.

No comments:

Post a Comment