The interesting political news and comment just keeps coming

Update

Response to Monday's Political News post

Well said, well spoken, well meant and taken. The secret to personal happiness, I believe, is to keep doing what you love as long as you can. You perform a remarkable service for those of us desperately seeking truth amongst the trash. For those of us who followed you through your lung transplant last year, you have been, and remain, in our prayers. Semper Fi. --Ed

General News and Comment

Obama poised to pick Carter as Pentagon chief

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/225700-obama-poised-to-pick-ash-carter-as-pentagon-chief

Excerpt: President Obama appears poised to nominate former Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to lead the Pentagon. Carter has been considered among the top candidates for the job since Chuck Hagel announced last week he was resigning, and other top candidates — including Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, former Pentagon official Michèle Flournoy and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) — have removed their names from consideration in recent days.

Up to 13,000 people held in slavery in UK - FOUR TIMES the number previously estimated

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/541578/Modern-slavery-Britain-Home-Office

Excerpt: The Home Office said that the number of victims last year was between 10,000 and 13,000, in the first scientific estimate of the scale of modern slavery.

This includes women forced into sex work, domestic staff and those made to work in factories, fields and on fishing boats.

Politician Whose Son Is Landrieu’s Chief-Of-Staff Urges Voters To ‘Vote Twice’ [VIDEO]

http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/01/politician-whose-father-is-landrieus-chief-of-staff-urges-voters-to-vote-twice-video/

Excerpt: “If you early voted, go vote again tomorrow,” Cravins Sr. told the crowd which was gathered at the Charcoal Lounge. “One more time’s not going to hurt,” Cravins Sr. says. “Tomorrow we’re going to elect Earl Taylor as D.A. so he won’t prosecute you if you vote twice.” (Let me get this straight. Break the law. It's ok. The guy we are electing has no respect for laws (though a DA) and he will break the law, too? Is this like getting dispensation to eat meat on Friday in Lent? (I know, ancient history for some.) --Barb)

De Blasio Sacrifices Jobs To Liberate NYC Horses From ‘Tortured’ Lives

http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/01/de-blasio-sacrifices-jobs-to-liberate-nyc-horses-from-tortured-lives/

Excerpt: At the urging of an animal-rights group who donated millions to his reelection campaign, Mayor Bill De Blasio will announce a bill this month that would ban horse-drawn carriages in New York City by 2016. The horses forced to draw carriages around Central Park live dangerous and tortured lives, according to NYClass, an animal-rights group that secured a campaign pledge from De Blasio to get rid of the industry, reported The New York Times. NYClass officially endorsed De Blasio for mayor last year, calling him an “animal hero,” and spent about $1 million on ads attacking De Blasio’s opponent in last year’s Democratic primary. (More misguided Progressive garbage. Horses have worked with man for years to be of service and the drivers bond with their animals. If the hansom cabbies are put out of business, most will unlikely be able to provide hay, feed and board for their animals, who most likely will end up being sold to nackers/processors in Canada or Mexico and/or glue factories...if they still do that. Leave some memories of romance and history alone, you unmentionable, well-intentioned idiots. But then, decimating the wild mustangs has been an agenda of the federal BLM, disregarding equine family bonds, putting stallions together in tight round pens where naturally they will fight one another, chasing them with helicopters....real caring about the state and health of a creature that was born free and tried to live free...then selling them to Mexican processors with links to BLM, saying the horses were "unwanted" and "unadoptable." Right. What goes around comes around. Blackball NYC. Don't go there for vacations, Thanksgiving, shopping. Let them rot in their soulless concrete ghetto. With their noses pointed in the air, they'll never know it. --Barb)

Important: National Debt Hits $18,000,000,000,000. By Katie Pavlich

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/12/02/national-debt-hits-18000000000000-n1926354?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=thpm1

Excerpt: Under President Obama's tenure, the national debt has increased by 70 percent. (This is the small part of the problem. The rest of the iceberg is the unfunded liability for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and now Obamacare, which is not considered "debt" because it is not guaranteed by contract, but is promised spending to large groups. But when the money runs out, and they can't print any more, the riots start. Everywhere. Estimates of the unfunded liability that I've read run from $87T to $240T. Depends on how many years you include and what you count. ~Bob)

Democratic Senate to Approve Obama Administration’s Embarrass-adors. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

http://www.nationalreview.com/newsletters

The U.S. Senate passed the cloture motion for two of Obama’s most embarrassing ambassadorial nominations: Noah Mamet, the nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Argentina and Colleen Bell, the nominee to be ambassador to Hungary. Mamet is the one who admitted during his confirmation hearing that he had never been to Argentina; Bell is the soap-opera producer allegedly ready to represent us to a NATO member during a time of extremely tense dealings with the Russians. The vote was 50 to 36 for both nominees. It will not surprise you that all 50 “yes” votes were Democrats (and “independent” Angus King of Maine); all 38 “no” votes were Republicans. Fourteen senators didn’t make the vote Monday afternoon. The formal confirmation vote will come tomorrow. Starting next month, Republicans enjoy a majority in the Senate, and these votes will go the other way. So if the Obama administration has any more embarrassing nominations, they have to ram them through now.

Liberalism in Ruins: Obama’s hubristic promises have been followed by a total discrediting of his ideology. By Victor Davis Hanson

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/393713/liberalism-ruins-victor-davis-hanson

Excerpt: Barack Obama will end his tenure with the ruin of Hope and Change. ... The hope-and-change therapeutic approach to foreign relations ended logically with historic cuts in defense, lectures about American culpability, pink lines and the end of Syria, farcical Iranian talks, in Libya the short trip from “leading from behind” to Benghazi, the self-induced suicide of Iraq, the empowerment of Putin, a pivot to Asia that invited ridicule, and the charade of a war against ISIS.

A Letter to Vietnam Veterans.........a confession and seeking forgiveness...thank you Julie from a Veterans heart.

http://patriotsforamerica.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2734278%3ATopic%3A766208&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_topic

Excerpt: I was in my twenties during the Vietnam era. I was a single mother and, I'm sad to say, I was probably one of the most self-centered people on the planet. To be perfectly honest…I didn't care one way or the other about the war. All I cared about was me—how I looked, what I wore, and where I was going. I worked and I played. I was never politically involved in anything, but I allowed my opinions to be formed by the media. It happened without my ever being aware. I listened to the protest songs and I watched the six o'clock news and I listened to all the people who were talking. After awhile, I began to repeat their words and, if you were to ask me, I'd have told you I was against the war. It was very popular. Everyone was doing it, and we never saw what it was doing to our men. All we were shown was what they were doing to the people of Vietnam. (Very nice letter, very decent of the woman to send it out. --Del)

Republicans vow to probe EPA paid leave linked to 'alleged serious misconduct

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/12/03/republicans-vow-to-probe-epa-paid-leave-linked-to-alleged-serious-misconduct/?intcmp=latestnews

Excerpt: “Bringing transparency to the EPA will continue to be at the top of our agenda with the new conservative majority,” says Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, ranking member of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee and one of the EPA’s leading critics in the outgoing 113th Congress. “EPA has allowed a number of employees to waste millions of taxpayer dollars in the last few years through lax internal controls and substandard management.”

Nancy Pelosi Unchained – says San Francisco is the Model for “Living the Gospel

http://eaglerising.com/12168/nancy-pelosi-unchained-says-san-francisco-model-living-gospel/

Excerpt:” I hope that when you read that headline, you didn’t throw up a little in your mouth. I did. I really, truly almost lost my lunch when I first noticed this little nugget

Math For Marines - Solving the Missing Variable. By Andy Weddington

http://acoloneloftruth.blogspot.com/2014/12/math-for-marines-solving-missing.html

Excerpt: "The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions." Leonardo da Vinci

A regular reader of this forum without fail sends a short note in response to any commentary mentioning President Obama (held in contempt - for void of character and leadership). The five-words note: "The Great Divider. Manchurian Candidate."

Which American States are the Most Free?

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=25126&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

Excerpt: What does economic freedom translate into? Higher incomes for state residents. As Stansel wrote in the Washington Examiner, Texas, South Dakota and North Dakota had average incomes 20 percent higher than Maine, Vermont and Mississippi. Similarly, the top 10 most free states saw a 3.5 percent growth in employment and 8 percent economic growth, while the 10 least free states saw hardly any employment growth and only 2 percent economic growth.

GOP Senators Ask For Details On Nazi Benefit Payments

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/02/nazis-us-benefits_n_6254718.html?utm_hp_ref=email_share

Excerpt: The House vote came as two Republican senators demanded that the Obama administration provide Congress with records explaining how suspected Nazis received the payments and the role the Justice Department played in the program. Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Orrin Hatch of Utah cited the AP investigation in letters sent to Attorney General Eric Holder and Carolyn Colvin, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration. Grassley and Hatch back legislation introduced in the Senate to strip former Nazis of their Social Security benefits. A vote on the Senate bill is expected in the coming weeks.

The Cold War in Retrospect: How Historians Still Get It Wrong. Time and again Russia is let off the hook. By Michael Johnson 

http://spectator.org/articles/61125/cold-war-retrospect-how-historians-still-get-it-wrong

Excerpt: Are Western historians going soft on the Cold War that the Russians waged against the West for 45 years? A new look at trends in this gray area of history indicates that many writers and younger generations now contend the threat of hostilities, including nuclear exchanges, can be blamed primarily on American post-war posture, not solely on that of the Russians. But historian Albert Weeks, a former State Department official and long-time academic, has produced a concise and polemical book to confront this “lamentable historiographic distortion.” Now 91 and retired in Florida, he seeks to set the record straight. Myths of the Cold War: Amending Historiographic Distortions pulls you up short with its meticulous survey of how Russia spooked the West into reacting in unusually bellicose terms. (Yep, those stupid capitalist idiots of the 1950s overreacted to the legitimate expansion of Russian influence and spent billions upon billions in a silly "cold war" that they more or less created themselves, maybe as part of the rampant imperialism of the USA. This kind of incredibly counterfactual thinking (if you can call it thinking, perhaps fantasizing would be a better word) has been slowly growing in the left leaning circles of academia and PC intellectuals for years now. I am so glad that a professor has taken the trouble to do a detailed refutation of this latest idiocy by those who have lost any ability to actually understand and appreciate the goodness of this country. But pass this on; a lot of people need to see it. --Del)

Krauthammer: Civil War Is Happening in Democratic Party

http://insider.foxnews.com/2014/12/02/krauthammer-civil-war-happening-democratic-party

Excerpt: Krauthammer said that on one side, there's Chuck Schumer and his “savage attack” on everything President Barack Obama represents. Elizabeth Warren is on the other end of the spectrum, and then there’s Hillary Clinton in the middle, who Krauthammer said “can’t make up her mind on anything.”

Gun News

Cop Kills Active Shooter From 104 Yards – One Handed, While Holding Horses
http://controversialtimes.com/news/video-cop-kills-active-shooter-from-104-yards-one-handed-while-holding-horses/

Excerpt: The gunman who opened fire on multiple buildings in downtown Austin, Texas early Friday morning was shot and killed by a single bullet. That bullet came from the Smith & Wesson M&P .40 caliber handgun of a police officer standing 104 yards away and holding the reins to two horses with his other hand. (Both a better shot and luckier than I'll ever be. ~Bob)

Race Card News

Not verified--could be Photoshop

Must Read: Confessions of a Public Defender. By Michael Smith

http://www.amren.com/features/2014/05/confessions-of-a-public-defender/

Excerpt: I am a public defender in a large southern metropolitan area. Fewer than ten percent of the people in the area I serve are black but over 90 per cent of my clients are black. The remaining ten percent are mainly Hispanics but there are a few whites. I have no explanation for why this is, but crime has racial patterns. Hispanics usually commit two kinds of crime: sexual assault on children and driving under the influence. Blacks commit many violent crimes but very few sex crimes. The handful of whites I see commit all kinds of crimes. In my many years as a public defender I have represented only three Asians, and one was half black. As a young lawyer, I believed the official story that blacks are law abiding, intelligent, family-oriented people, but are so poor they must turn to crime to survive. Actual black behavior was a shock to me. The media invariably sugarcoat black behavior. Even the news reports of the very crimes I dealt with in court were slanted. 

Worth Reading: Can Racial Discrimination Explain Much? By Walter E. Williams

http://patriotpost.us/opinion/31345

Excerpt: The question that’s relevant to policy, as well as resource allocation, is: How much of what we see is caused by discrimination? Let’s apply this question to the tragic state of black education. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes called the nation’s report card, the average black 12th-grader has the academic achievement level of the average white seventh- or eighth-grader. In some cities, there’s even a larger achievement gap. ... In some school districts, 700 teachers are annually assaulted and threatened. At one time, Philadelphia employed 500 school police officers. Similar stories of school violence can be told in other cities with large black populations, such as Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, Cleveland, Oakland, California, and Newark, New Jersey. How useful is it to spend resources on discrimination while allowing unsafe and chaotic educational environments to exist? (Dr. Williams is a black economist at George Mason University. ~Bob)

What If the Media’s ‘Narrative Journalism’ Harms Their Own Causes? By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

http://www.nationalreview.com/newsletters

Excerpt: What if the mainstream media’s increasing devotion to “narrative journalism” — preconceived storylines that fit a particular agenda or political or ideological view, almost always progressive — as opposed to say, “factual journalism” — is actually harmful to the causes they seek to advance? We’ve seen the media’s “narrative journalism” insisting that Officer Darren Wilson’s fatal shooting of Michael Brown represented a vivid, awful example of racist police forces recklessly using deadly force against defenseless black men. The grand jury remained unconvinced. They saw too many pieces of evidence and witness testimonies that contracted that simple morality play. The media’s “narrative journalism” contended that George Zimmerman’s shooting of Trayvon Martin represented a brutal crime, revealing a reckless, gun-toting vigilantism loose on the streets of America, preying upon innocent young black men. The jury looked at the available evidence and acquitted Zimmerman. All that one-sided “narrative journalism” left a portion of their audience completely unprepared for the jury’s decision, because it seemed so contrary to everything they had been told. ... As in the Trayvon Martin case, all of the agitation and drum-beating and fury-feeding over Ferguson has created an expectation that the Obama administration is unlikely to meet. (Morning jolt is free and worth subscribing to. ~Bob)

True, this: The media circus around Ferguson. By Kathleen Parker

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kathleen-parker-the-media-circus-around-ferguson/2014/12/02/94b42482-7a64-11e4-9a27-6fdbc612bff8_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opin&wpmm=1

Excerpt: In practical terms, the differences are obvious: People in print media observe and relay what they have witnessed, leaving readers to visualize with their own intellectual resources. It’s little wonder so few still read anything longer than a tweet. Why exert oneself when tasty news niblets are just a tap and a scroll away? And which do you suppose captures the attention of rioters, looters and grandstanders? Certainly not the guy scribbling on a skinny notebook. Thus, when we talk about media, we’re really talking about television. To the extent that people clown, plunder or pillage for attention, media presence does make a difference. (This was true even back in the Middle Ages when I was a senator. This is from my first book, The Good Bits: "In 1981 I filed a controversial little bill to require High Schools to give lists of graduates to military recruiters. It became a flash point for anti-draft protesters. Since it would have reduced the need for a draft by helping voluntary enlistment, one suspects they were really just anti-military. Opponents raised privacy issues, though the same information was available in the city and town street listings, which they had never protested. The bill just made it easier for recruiters, saving them research time. By calling in favors, I got it through the Senate, but it was so controversial by then, it was DOA in the House. One day, a Boston TV station called to say there was going to be a demonstration against me and my bill at noon. A small anti-military group had set up a media event. They’d show up ten minutes before the cameras, march in a circle chanting, and fold as soon as the cameras left. On TV it looked like a big deal. I was invited out for an interview. As I approached, the protesters started calling me a “F***ing Fascist,” and so on. My blood was already up, and that did it. Plus, I’d already decided I wasn’t running for re-election, so I no longer cared what I said. I calmly explained that they were stupid, as my bill was anti-draft. The reporter was more interested in the draft issue than the bill. “Do you think we’ll need a draft, Senator?” “I hope not,” I said, jerking a thumb towards to protesters, “A draft means you get scum like that in the Army!” My “scum” quote made all of the major Boston news shows that night. The phone didn’t stop ringing for a week—about 50-50 between supporters and opponents." ~Bob)

Lt. Gov: Obama Pressured Missouri Governor to Make National Guard Troops STAND DOWN While Ferguson Burned

http://toprightnews.com/?p=7370

Excerpt: But despite mobilizing the National Guard for more than a week in preparation for this expect chaos, Gov. Jay Nixon (D) told them to stand down. Ferguson Mayor James Knowles told FOX 2 reporters late on Monday night that he had repeatedly pleaded with the Governor’s office to deploy the National Guard Monday night… But his requests were “completely ignored”:

Ferguson Poll: Grand Jury Decision More Popular Than Obama

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2014/12/02/ferguson-grand-juy-decision-more-popular-than-obama?utm_source=e_breitbart_com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Breitbart+News+Roundup%2C+December+2%2C+2014&utm_campaign=20141202_m123379453_Breitbart+News+Roundup%2C+December+2%2C+2014&utm_term=More

Excerpt: A Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that the decision by the Ferguson grand jury to not indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown is more popular than President Obama. By a 48-45% margin, those polled agreed with the grand jury decision. Obama's handling of Ferguson is upside down 13 points, 39-52%. (Only the Grand Jury and those who have reviewed the hundreds of pages of evidence and witness testimony have an informed opinion. ~Bob)

DOJ to Offer 'Guidance' on Racial Profiling. From The Patriot Post

www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/

Get ready for a "conversation on race" courtesy of the Obama administration. Attorney General Eric Holder, who once said Americans are "cowards" on racial issues, said Monday at Martin Luther King Jr.'s church in Atlanta: "In the coming days, I will announce updated Justice Department guidance regarding profiling by federal law enforcement. This will institute rigorous new standards -- and robust safeguards -- to help end racial profiling, once and for all. This new guidance will codify our commitment to the very highest standards of fair and effective policing." Holder is absolutely not the authority on what's "fair and effective," much less what constitutes proper Rule of Law. Holder and his boss have inflamed the racial tension that boiled over in Ferguson, Missouri, focusing as always on the color of skin instead of content of character. Yet now they want to be seen as the voice of reason. No sale.

Rams Players Strike 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' Pose Before Sunday's Game. From The Patriot Post

www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/

The politics of Ferguson have bled over to the football field, with several NFL players showing "solidarity" with protesters/rioters before a game Sunday. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, "Several Rams receivers created a stir during pregame introductions at the Edward Jones Dome by striking the 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' pose when they came out of the tunnel for Sunday's game with the Oakland Raiders. The group consisted of Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, Kenny Britt, Jared Cook and Chris Givens. They hatched the idea before the game." Somewhat ironically, Britt had his own run-ins with the law, most recently in June when he was still with the Tennessee Titans. Britt said, "We just wanted to let the [Ferguson] community know that we support them." By using the gesture popularized by those destroying the community? The St. Louis Police Officers Association condemned the display, calling it "tasteless, offensive and inflammatory." The football field is the place for one thing: football. Beyond that, these guys might want to note that it isn't the hooligans burning down Ferguson who are paying their salaries.

How a New York Police Officer Lost His Life Demonstrates Why Darren Wilson Shot at Michael Brown

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/12/209722-new-york-cop-lost-life-shows-eerie-resemblance-way-darren-wilson-nearly-lost/?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%7BCAMPAIGN_ID%7D&listID=%7BlistID%7D

Excerpt: Johnson City Officer David Smith, 43, was shot multiple times outside an MRI office near Binghamton after a disturbed employee managed to grab his gun just after 7 a.m., said Police Chief Joseph Zikuski.

Is 'professor' who helped with Michael Brown autopsy who he says he is?

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/26/health/ferguson-michael-brown-pathologist-credentials/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter

Excerpt: Parcells became an overnight media star in August when he assisted in an autopsy commissioned by Brown's family. He appeared time and again on major media outlets as a forensic pathology expert. He said over the years he's testified in court dozens of times in several states. But an investigation by CNN that included interviews with attorneys, law enforcement and physicians suggests Parcells isn't the expert he seems to be.

That’ll help: Sheila Jackson Lee and other Dems make ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ gesture on House floor. By Doug Powers

http://michellemalkin.com/2014/12/02/thatll-help-sheila-jackson-lee-and-other-dems-make-hands-up-dont-shoot-gesture-on-house-floor/

Excerpt: A group of House Dems has joined the ranks of those unwilling to even consider the evidence in order to keep feverishly fanning the flames to drive a political agenda:

The “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” Illusion. By D.W. Wilber

http://townhall.com/columnists/dwwilber/2014/12/03/the-hands-up-dont-shoot-illusion-n1926559?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Excerpt: However, there is one lie that is head and shoulders above all of the other fairy tales told by ‘the Brown Faction’, and it has to be considered among the worst of the long list of fabrications surrounding this incident. The “Hands up, don’t shoot” myth. This lie and others have been repeated by the race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Eric Holder. A lie that the news media has broadcast around the world. It has become the new symbolic rallying cry of the racially aggrieved. I’m talking specifically about “Hands up, don’t shoot”! A myth that is being perpetuated at protests that have been occurring across the country.

The Real Racist Conspiracy in Ferguson. By Ben Shapiro 

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ben-shapiro/the-real-racist-conspiracy-in-ferguson/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=be585c20d8-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag&utm_term=0_57e32c1dad-be585c20d8-156414477

Excerpt: Obama did not specify what problems he wanted to discuss. Nor did he explain why Ferguson’s issues were America’s. But the largest lie was the notion that “communities of color” don’t make problems up. Because in Ferguson, that’s precisely what a community of color did.

Tweet from Politics and Humor ‏@PoliticalLaughs 

Keyboard warriors who have never been in a real life or death fight talk about how they would have subdued a 292 pound assailant. #Ferguson

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News

Worth Reading: Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Economic Productivity. By Casey Mulligan, professor of economics, University of Chicago

http://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/current

Excerpt: The topic of my talk today is the economic side effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), sometimes referred to as Obamacare. Since most of the economy has to do with labor and work, that’s where I’ll start. But, first a caveat. I’m an economist, and I’m going to talk about some parts of this complex law that have an impact on the labor market. Other parts of it relate to health and medicine, and because I’m not a doctor or a biologist, I’m not going to speak to those parts. From an economic or labor-market perspective, I’m going to explain how the costs of the ACA outweigh its benefits. But I can’t measure or estimate its effects on health care. I leave that to others. The key economic concept required to understand the labor market effects of the ACA is what economists call “tax distortions.”

How penis pumps quietly helped deflate Medicare. By Dr. Manny Alvarez

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/12/03/dr-manny-how-penis-pumps-quietly-helped-deflate-medicare/?intcmp=latestnews

Excerpt: Who is responsible for Medicare payment priorities? Oh, I know, the Wizard of Oz. You see, the federal bureaucrats are the Wizard of Oz. They hide behind a curtain and no one knows how they operate, or whether priorities get updated as times change. The only thing we know about this Oz and the product it puts forth, is that our deficit continues to grow, and one day Medicare will suffer the same fate as the Wicked Witch of the West because of frivolous spending on coverage for things like penis pumps.

Americans Are Spending 42 Percent More on Health Insurance Than They Did in 2007. By Salim Furth

http://dailysignal.com/2014/12/02/americans-spending-42-percent-health-insurance-2007/?utm_source=heritagefoundation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morningbell&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoks6%2FIZKXonjHpfsX56e0vWK%2BzlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4FTcRkI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFQrLBMa1ozrgOWxU%3D

Excerpt: Data on consumer spending show that spending on health insurance surged 42 percent from 2007 to 2013, according to analysis by the Wall Street Journal. The rise reflects the increasing cost of health insurance and the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that everyone buy extensive health insurance.

Undocumented Democrat News

Texas leads coalition of states in lawsuit against Obama immigration actions

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/12/03/texas-leads-lawsuit-by-17-states-against-obama-immigration-actions/

Excerpt: Texas Gov.-elect Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that Texas is leading a 17-state coalition suing the Obama administration over the president's executive actions on immigration. 

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Texas on Wednesday, and names the heads of the top immigration enforcement agencies as defendants. Abbott, in a news conference in Austin, said the "broken" immigration system should be fixed by Congress, not by "presidential fiat." 

Important--save and share: President Obama's "Deferred Action" Program for Illegal Aliens Is Plainly Unconstitutional. By Jan Ting 

http://cis.org/Obama-Deferred-Action-Amnest-Executive-Action-Unconstitutional

Excerpt: In 2013 Congress again declined to enact an immigration bill supported by the president, a so-called "comprehensive immigration reform" that would have given legal status to more than 11 million illegal aliens, including the Dreamers. In November of that year, in response to an illegal alien's insistence that the president had the power to issue an executive order stopping deportations, President Obama responded: "Actually, I don't. ... if in fact I could solve all these problems without passing laws through Congress, then I would do so. But we're also a nation of laws."5 On November 19, 2014, the president did what a year before he insisted he hadn't the power to do, allowing approximately 4 million illegal aliens who are the parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to request a three-year deferral of removal, along with employment authorization documents.6 He also extended the stay of DACA beneficiaries by three years and expanded the number of illegal aliens eligible for DACA by about 200,000. As explained in this report, (1) the president's deferred-action program involves three separate legal steps, (2) each of the three steps is plainly illegal, and (3) the three steps, taken together, amount to an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress's exclusive constitutional authority to formulate immigration policy. ... Jan C. Ting teaches courses in citizenship and immigration law and tax law at Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia, where he joined the faculty in 1977. He served as Assistant Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1990 to 1993. He is a graduate of Oberlin College and Harvard Law School, and received a graduate degree in Asian Studies at the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii. He is a member of the Center for Immigration Studies board of directors.

How Obama blatantly disregards the law

http://nypost.com/2014/11/30/how-obama-blatantly-disregards-the-law/

Excerpt: According to a new report by the Congressional Research Service, the Hill’s nonpartisan think tank, the president’s authority to grant amnesty is limited to illegal aliens facing emergency situations — such as wars or earthquakes, floods and droughts — that prevent their safe deportation. The almost 5 million illegals getting a pass from Obama face no such hazards. By giving them work permits, Obama’s also violating the Immigration and Nationality Act’s intent of protecting domestic labor.

Religion of Peace News

Worth Reading: Egypt Commission Concludes: Political Islam Must Be Banned http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/egypt-commission-concludes-ban-political-islam

Excerpt: It says, “The ‎lesson we must learn from this experience is that ‎political Islam forces must not be allowed to exercise ‎politics in this country” and the “Muslim Brotherhood ‎and other political Islam factions usually favors armed ‎confrontation at the expense of peaceful dialogue.”

Ansar al Islam coordinating with the Al Nusrah Front, Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar in Aleppo. By Caleb Weiss

http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2014/12/ansar_al_islam_coordinating_wi.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LongWarJournalSiteWide+%28The+Long+War+Journal+%28Site-Wide%29%29

Excerpt: Ansar al Islam, which goes by the moniker Jamaat Ansar al Islam in Syria, has been coordinating its efforts with the Al Nusrah Front and Jaish al Muhajireen wal Ansar in a major battle for two Shiite villages north of Aleppo. The villages of Zahra and Nubl have been besieged by anti-regime elements since late November.

US airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan target Pakistani Taliban
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/12/us_airstrikes_target_2.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LongWarJournalSiteWide+%28The+Long+War+Journal+%28Site-Wide%29%29#ixzz3KsKMA3Oo

Excerpt: The US has targeted senior leaders of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, including the group's emir, in three airstrikes in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar over the past nine days. Mullah Fazlullah, the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, survived one of the airstrikes. Two of the airstrikes took place in areas where senior al Qaeda leaders have been targeted and killed over the past year.

Bird Bomb? Afghan Police Kill Bird Bearing Antenna, Explosives

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/bird-bomb-afghan-police-kill-bird-bearing-antenna-explosives-n258216

Excerpt: Afghan police said they are investigating how a wild bird came to bear an antenna, electronic devices and explosives. Police came across the strange sight around 8 a.m. in the northern Faryab province, a volatile region ravaged by Taliban violence. When police spotted the white bird — which isn't native to the area and appeared larger than an eagle — walking along a highway, they noticed it had an antenna and decided to shoot it, provincial police chief Maj. Gen. Abdul Nabi Ilham told NBC News on Saturday. The bird then exploded, he said, and "suspicious metal stuff" scattered around. (The practitioners of the Religion of Peace are being inventive. Maybe. Here is a bird reportedly carrying a bomb and GPS that the Afghan police shot (while it was walking down a road). Shouldn't be too much of a mystery. The GPS unit had an address (Uzbekistan) and a telephone number on it, plus a notation about the PTT (Post Telephone Telegraph Ministry) Was the bird delivering mail? --Chet Nagle. For new readers, Chet is a former Naval Aviator and CIA Agent, and author of the excellent thrillers The Iran Covenant and The Woolsorter's Plague. ~Bob)

Source: 'Powerful' wife of ISIS leader held

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/02/world/meast/lebanon-isis-leader-family/

Excerpt: Lebanese authorities have arrested the wife of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi -- the man spearheading the Islamist terror group's sweeping rampage across Syria and Iraq -- said a source with knowledge of the arrest, describing her as a "powerful figure (who is) heavily involved in ISIS." (Good news for a change. If his son, behead him and sell wife into slavery; if daughter, sell her and behead mom. --George.)

American school teacher stabbed to death in Abu Dhabi

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/12/03/us-school-teacher-stabbed-to-death-in-abu-dhabi/?intcmp=latestnews

Excerpt: Authorities in Abu Dhabi released video footage Wednesday in the hunt for a suspect who stabbed an American school teacher to death in a public restroom at a mall. ... The stabbing comes on the heels of a security warning posted by the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi in late October, advising Americans of a “recent anonymous posting on a Jihadist website that encouraged attacks against teachers at American and other international schools in the Middle East.

Turkey no Friend of the West. By Tarek Fatah

http://www.meforum.org/4903/turkey-no-friend-of-the-west

Excerpt: If the pontiff thought Turkey's leader was the moderate Muslim who would reciprocate in kind, he was setting himself up for disappointment. On the same day the pontiff met president Erdogan, the Turkish leader delivered a blistering attack on the West, claiming, "They (the West) look like friends, but they want us dead — they like seeing our children die. How long will we stand that fact?"

The Real War on Women. By Mark Tapson

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/mark-tapson/the-real-war-on-women-2/?utm_source=FrontPage+Magazine&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=be585c20d8-Mailchimp_FrontPageMag&utm_term=0_57e32c1dad-be585c20d8-156414477

Excerpt: It’s been a busy week for the oppression of women under Islam. A day or two before Americans sat down to turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan – President Obama’s best friend in the Middle East, a man who has made it abundantly clear how he feels about moderate Islam and who has warned that women shouldn’t laugh in public – further endeared himself to feminists everywhere at a summit hosted by an Istanbul-based women’s group when he declared that a woman cannot do every job that a man can do because “it is against her delicate nature.” He dug the hole deeper for himself by claiming that Islam dictated motherhood to be the primary role of women. However, he insisted that his government has always supported equal rights for women and always would.

Denmark: Muslim fails to strangle wife to death, burns her alive

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/12/denmark-muslim-fails-to-strangle-wife-to-death-burns-her-alive?utm_source=Jihad+Watch+Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=311c270b2e-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ffcbf57bbb-311c270b2e-97564174

Excerpt: Close relatives of the 29-year-old Eritrean-woman yesterday afternoon heard their relative’s terrifying screams through the phone before she was burned beyond recognition. 
The woman had not died after an attempted strangling, but was thereafter burnt while alive and breathing, in a bathroom. The perpetrator set fire to flammable liquid he had poured over her.

Dakota Meyer Responds to ISIS Warning

http://www.scout.com/story/1487706

Excerpt: "I can't travel over there anymore now that I'm out of the Marine Corps, so having them come to me would help out a lot. ISIS targeting the U.S. military is like a sheep targeting a lion. Hopefully one of these assholes actually shows up. They'll definitely get more than they want at my place!" (Sgt. Meyer has some experience dealing with these people. So do a lot of other former military. But it doesn't hurt to remain vigilant. --MasterGuns)

Hamas, Jordanian Brotherhood Smuggle Weapons into Palestinian Territories

http://www.investigativeproject.org/4685/hamas-jordanian-brotherhood-smuggle-weapons-into

Excerpt: Recent arrests in Jordan and Israel show that Hamas and the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood are trying to smuggle weapons into Gaza and the West Bank. After Egypt's army destroyed tunnels joining Gaza and Sinai that had been lucrative smuggling paths, Hamas has been cultivating replacements. The terrorist organization recruited 20 fishermen to smuggle weapons and explosives into Gaza, Jerusalem Online reports.

A Long-Sought Fugitive Died Four Years Ago in Syria, Nazi Hunter Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/world/middleeast/alois-brunner-nazi-syria.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

Excerpt: A leading Nazi hunter said on Monday that Adolf Eichmann’s top lieutenant, long one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, died at least four years ago in Syria, where he had escaped justice and may have advised the government. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, said the lieutenant, Alois Brunner, was responsible for the deportation of 128,500 Jews to death camps, and described him as Eichmann’s “right-hand man.” (Further proof that there are no good guys in the Syrian civil war. --PM)

*****

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.