Update
The cold, with well below zero at night, continues.
Meanwhile, I have a GOP Caucus to attend tomorrow (Yes, there is a Dane County GOP
General News and Comment
Top Putin critic shot
and killed in Moscow
Excerpt: Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister of
Russia and a top political nemesis of President Vladimir Putin, was shot and
killed in central Moscow early Saturday, one day before an opposition rally was
scheduled to take place.
Is Liberalism Exhausted? It may not be dead, but it looks
mighty worn out. By Jonah Goldberg
Excerpt: Canaries are not very
formidable birds, but they have their uses. For instance, coal miners learned
over a century ago that when canaries gag and drop dead at the bottom of the
cage, it’s a sign that maybe there’s something wrong with the air in the mine.
MSNBC is not a very formidable network, but its wheezing is similarly
instructive. MSNBC’s slogan is “Lean Forward,” which has a robust sound to it.
But it turns out the phrase is a more apt descriptor of how the Peacock
Network’s mini-me is poised to teeter off its perch and plunge beak-first into
the droppings-stained pages of the fading New Republic below.
Ben Carson Kicks off
Conservative CPAC Event
Excerpt: In a question-and-answer session following his
brief remarks, Carson
was asked what he would do to combat the Islamic State group of extremists.
"We have two choices: We can wait and see what they're
going to do and react to it. Or we can destroy them first," he told the
crowd. "The mission that I would give our military is to destroy them
first." (A typical positive approach by Dr. Carson, instead of going for
all the criticisms of the President and the Administration that most speakers
focus on. And I like his simple approach to ISIS .
--Del )
Marines and Fighting
and Aftermath. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: Knowing that to be
wrong and to preserve history I posted a corrective note that included link to
PFC Jacklyn H. Lucas, USMC - who, all of 17 years-old (14 when he enlisted),
covered two grenades (one exploded) during the fighting on Iwo Jima and was
awarded the Medal of Honor.
What
Kind of Men Join the Marines?
Excerpt: I was
terrified. It was not supposed to be like this. In a space of four seconds, I
came to the full realization that every scrap of information I had gleaned from
the books I read and the movies I saw vanished out the window. As one of the
recruits shot past me heading for the door, I noted with grim satisfaction it
was the guy who had told us, “Don’t take no shit from the sergeants and
they will leave you alone!” He was as white as a sheet. We had now
arrived at the portals of the United States Marine Corps and there would be no
going back. From that moment forward, my life changed forever. (All
Marines have been there, done that and some still have the T-shirt. Great read.
--MasterGuns)
Losing the Internet. By Richard Fernandez
The administration’s plan to
create a “free and open
Internet” means, as usual, the opposite of what it says. As Gordon Crovitz explains in the Wall Street Journal, it is
really a monumental, bare-faced power grab: The permission less Internet, which
allows anyone to introduce a website, app or device without government review,
ends this week. On Thursday the three Democrats among the five
commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission will vote to regulate
the Internet under rules written for monopoly utilities. No one, including the
bullied FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, thought the agency would go this far. The
big politicization came when President Obama in November demanded that the supposedly
independent FCC apply the agency’s most extreme regulation to the Internet. A
recent page-one Wall Street Journal story headlined “Net Neutrality: How White
House Thwarted FCC Chief” documented “an unusual, secretive effort inside the
White House . . . acting as a parallel version of the FCC itself.” (OK, call me
paranoid and negative-thinking, but I agree 100% that the government getting
into the Internet and controlling it is a disaster. And I don't care if the
government is GOP, Democrat, Libertarian, or anything else, it's a bad idea,
period. --Del )
Politihacked. By
Jonah Goldberg
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/414408/politihacked-jonah-goldberg
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/414408/politihacked-jonah-goldberg
Excerpt: I have little use for Factcheckers, though I
have plenty of use for facts and I believe in checking them. The problem with
the Factcheckers is that they seem to think they have an authority
they did not earn to tell other journalists what the facts are. That’s bad
enough, but they almost invariably end up objecting not to untruths but to
truths they don’t like. That often makes them combatants, hiding behind their
self-appointed status as referees.
More Lois Lerner Emails Recovered: ‘No One Will Ever Believe
That Both Your Hard Drive and Mine Crashed Within a Week.’ by Jason Howerton
Excerpt: “We send a subpoena, we send letters, we have
hearings, we hear all kinds of excuses from the IRS,” Chaffetz said. “Every
excuse you can have under the sun — you find them in two weeks, and then when
you go talk to the IT people who are there in charge of them, they told you that
they were never even asked for them. Is that correct?” “That is correct,” Camus
replied. (We are about at the point where one of the rats will try to save
himself by squealing. Then the floodgates open. ~Bob)
Lerner Email Search
Is On Hold Over Software Problems: ‘There Is Potential Criminal Activity’
Excerpt: The investigation into Lois Lerner’s missing emails
is currently on hold due to software issues. But the investigators know that
“there is potential criminal activity” in the case.
Treasury Department inspectors general testified Thursday
that they cannot provide any relevant information related to their search for
Lois Lerner’s missing emails. But at least three bits of information came out:
the investigation is on hold over software issues, there is potential criminal
wrongdoing, and nobody at the IRS even asked for Lerner’s backup email tapes
from the people in New Martinsville, West Virginia who had them.
De Blasio Retrains NYPD: ‘CLOSE YOUR EYES And Take A Deep
Breath’ In Response To Anger
Excerpt: The New York City Police Department’s new
“retraining” program has instructed cops to “take a deep breath” and close
their eyes when interacting with people who are mad. ... Part of the
extensive, $35 million seminar on policing included breathing
exercises wherein seasoned cops who keep watch over America ’s most populous city
learned that they should breathe deeply and relax when posed with angry people
in volatile situations. (well, closing your eyes gives the angry person a fair
chance to pull his gun and get the first few shots in. Why do I suspect that
the trainers were never in a tense, confrontational situation? ~Bob)
Worth Subscribing To: The state of the nation. By Jim
Geraghty, Morning Jolt
Conservatives worked hard in 2014 to elect a Republican U.S.
Senate and strengthen a GOP House . . . in hopes of putting the brakes on the
Obama agenda. The country was moving in the wrong direction. The president was
out of control. And now . . . there’s no coherent plan to stop the
executive-order amnesty. There’s not a clear sense of what the GOP Congress
should do if the Supreme Court throws a monkey-wrench into Obamacare in King v. Burwell. Obama vetoed the Keystone Pipeline with
the unhinged claim that the bill somehow interfered with his executive
authority, and not enough Democrats will vote to override his veto. The Right
pummeled the Left up and down the ballot in 2014, and somehow they’ve managed
to make the election results irrelevant by simply ignoring them. It’s as if
we’re being governed by the comments section of a liberal blog. A midterm
election result aiming to rein in President Obama’s increasingly radical agenda
has instead only driven him to reach even more -- President Bulworth has adopted the slogan of “YOPO” -- “You’re
only president once.” By winning the presidency and controlling the regulatory
bureaucracy, the radical Left is now dictating terms to the rest of America . (I
recommend you subscribe to the free e-newsletters The Goldberg File and Morning
Jolt at the link. ~Bob)
Excerpt: Wesleyan University Wesleyan University Del. Well,
if the "Jobs for Jiihadists" program does't work out, we can always
get the sadistic bastards in ISIS a degree at
Wesleyan, where sadists will have special housing. I would have thought
"polyamorous" meant "Bi," but they already have that. Maybe
people and animals? you could
doubtless light a small city with the energy generated by John Wesley spinning
in his grave. ~Bob)
Excerpt: Thanks to France
doubling its surface tax on corporate income, the United States no longer has the
world's highest corporate income tax. Today, France
imposes a 36 percent marginal effective tax rate on capital investments, while
the United States
holds at 35.3 percent. The marginal effective tax rate on capital accounts for
the corporate income tax including deductions and credits, sales taxes on
capital purchases, and other capital-related taxes including financial transaction
taxes. Looking at the Tax Foundation calculation, which combines the federal
rate with the average state levy, the United States statutory corporate
tax rate is 39.1 percent. ... According to a National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA)
economic study, a corporate income tax is ultimately falls largely on U.S. workers.
Therefore, abolishing the corporate income tax could benefit everyone. The NCPA
analysis shows that eliminating the U.S. corporate tax — holding
constant the corporate tax rates of other countries — would produce a rapid and
dramatic increase in domestic investment, GDP, real wages and national saving.
Court Rules In Favor
Of Whistleblower Cop Who Spoke Out Against NYPD Quotas. By Nicolás Medina Mora
Excerpt: A court of appeals ruled Thursday that a New York
Police Department officer who told his supervisors about an illegal quota
system was protected by the First Amendment and may continue to sue the city
for what he says was retaliation from his bosses.
Excerpt: The latest tales of State Department ethics
violations, foreign money, and special access would be surprising if they were
about anyone but Hillary Clinton. Throughout her political career Clinton has always
blended cash and policy. She’s not merely corporatist by disposition, like, say
Tim Geithner or Lindsey Graham. She’s not simply sloppy on ethics, like Bob
McDonnell or John Kitzhaber. Hillary is blatantly transactional in her
fundraising and policymaking. And she wants to be president.
Presidential Candidate Guide to "Gotcha"
Questions. By Mark Davis
Excerpt: Dear 2016 GOP hopefuls: First of all, best of luck.
If you are successful, it will be your job to dig the United States
out of the eight-year abyss of the Obama presidency. This will take courage,
vision, hard work and resiliency. If you have these things, great, but before we
get to evaluating your worthiness to fight terror or shrink the government,
we’d best see if you have the skills to navigate a couple of annoying questions
from reporters.
Questions the Press Doesn't Ask Democrats. By Mona Charen
Excerpt: Gov. Scott Walker has leapt to the top of polls in Iowa . As day follows
night, he has moved to the center of the liberal press's crosshairs. This is
the world we inhabit: When a Democrat is perceived as popular, the press
discovers layers of humor and elan we never suspected. When a Republican is
gaining strength, the press sharpens its bayonets.
The terrifying rate at which smokers die from smoking.
By Danielle Paquette
Excerpt: Two-thirds of smokers will die early from
cigarette-triggered illness -- unless they choose to kick the habit, according
to new research from Australia .
The study of more than 200,000 people, published this week in BMC medicine, found
about 67 percent of smokers perished from smoking-related illness.
That rate is higher than doctors previously estimated. Tobacco
smoke can boost the risk for least 13
types of cancer.
Why I’m Signing Wisconsin
Excerpt: Yesterday, the Wisconsin state Senate passed
Freedom to Work legislation, which will mean no Wisconsin
worker can be forced to join a union as a condition of employment. I will sign
the bill into law. I’ve supported Freedom to Work for years, dating back to my
time in the state legislature when I co-sponsored it. And now the people of Wisconsin have voiced
their support through their state Senators and representatives. According
to polling, 69 percent of Wisconsinites support the policy, and a majority of
union households—51 percent—also support the law. Here’s why I’m signing
Freedom to Work in Wisconsin :
it is good for economic growth. In the last decade, forced unionization states
have had about half the rate of wage growth, job growth and manufacturing
growth as Right to Work states.
Excerpt: A couple of tourists from Canada made a surprising discovery while scuba
diving in Wassaw Sound, a small bay located on the shores of Georgia .
Jason Sutter and Christina Murray were admiring the marine life of
the area when they stumbled upon a Mark 15 thermonuclear bomb that had been
lost by the United States Air Force more than 50 years ago. (I guess
there were enough safety features on the bomb that it didn't explode on the way
down or on impact. I'd say that the USAF, the State of Georgia , and the entire U. S. A. dodged
a very large bullet on that "planned accident." --Paul)
Carly Fiorina Riles
Up GOP Hawks, Bashes Hillary in CPAC Speech. By Andrew Desiderio
Excerpt: In a fervent speech before the crowd at the 2015
Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly
Fiorina touted her business record and went after former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton. She also played to the more hawkish factions of the
Republican Party by slamming President Barack Obama on his policies
toward fighting ISIS . (I think she's running
for VP.--Steve)
EXCLUSIVE: Ed Schultz
Goes To Trial
Excerpt: Ed Schultz‘s lawyers royally screwed up, a D.C.
District Court judge declared Friday at an “emergency” hearing made at the
request of the MSNBC media personality. The judge denied a motion to seal
public records they claimed were confidential. Despite publicly filing the
documents, they argued they were confidential and that not filing a motion to
seal them years ago was an “inadvertent” error.
Gun News
Excerpt: The homeowner found a man crouched down in his
kitchen, holding what appeared to be a knife. Police say the man came at the
homeowner, saying he was going to kill him.
The homeowner fired his gun at the intruder who later died
at a hospital.
Race Card News
Al Sharpton to get
the bullet: Politics Nation host on way out as crisis hit MSNBC bins left-wing
programming to curb ratings slide
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2970133/Al-Sharpton-bullet-MSNBC-bins-left-wing-programming.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2970133/Al-Sharpton-bullet-MSNBC-bins-left-wing-programming.html
Excerpt: MSNBC is set to pull the plug on contentious
Reverend Al Sharpton in a last ditch attempt to revive dwindling audience
numbers. The liberal anchor's nightly Politics Nation show is to be shelved by
broadcasting bosses as they make drastic changes in the hope of clawing back
viewers. (I'm skeptical. He'll blackmail them with racism charges. They'll
cave. ~Bob)
Obamacare/Government Healthcare News
House defeats stopgap
Homeland Security spending bill
Excerpt: The House defeats a bill, 224 to 203, to keep money
flowing to the Homeland Security Department past a midnight deadline
in a surprise turn of events that again raises the possibility of a partial
agency shutdown.
Undocumented Democrat News
Native American
Council Offers Amnesty to 240 Million Undocumented Whites
"You're Greener than Gore" News
White House: Don’t
Mention Temperature When Analyzing Global Warming
Excerpt: When conducting environmental impact analyses on
rules and projects, federal agencies should only talk about carbon dioxide
emissions increases — not things like potential increases in temperature,
precipitation, storm intensity and other environmental impacts that scientists
warn about. “In light of the difficulties in attributing specific climate
impacts to individual projects, [Council on Environmental Quality] recommends
agencies use the projected [greenhouse gas] emissions and also, when
appropriate, potential changes in carbon sequestration and storage, as the
proxy for assessing a proposed action’s potential climate change impacts,” the
White House wrote in its guidance federal regulatory agencies conducting
environmental reviews.
Religion of Peace News
The Concert for
Valor: STEVEN SPIELBERG / Cmdr. BILL KRISSOFF
It's not a very long video, but really, really worth the
time. And notice in the details the part that President Bush played. Not
something we'd be likely to see today. --Del
Excerpt: All is not quiet on the northern front between Israel and
Syria/Lebanon.
The recent Hezbollah attack on an Israel Defense Forces
convoy in the Har Dov area close to Israel 's
border with Lebanon , in
which two Israeli soldiers were killed, was the latest move in a dangerous and
high stakes game that is now underway on Israel 's northern frontier. Israel and
Hezbollah are not the only players. The Islamic Republic of Iran, which the U.S. defines as
the leading state-sponsor of terrorism, is also a key presence as Hezbollah's
strategic partner.
Excerpt: The Obama administration values a future
relationship with Iran more
than it values the historic relationship it has with Israel . Unless there’s a reversal
in the reported deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran, all the superficial
talk about this extraordinary friendship between Israel
and the United States
isn’t going to mean much. And the histrionics surrounding Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech in front of a joint session of
Congress only confirm that there are plenty of people who are happy about it.
Excerpt: A sunset clause? The news from the nuclear talks
with Iran
was already troubling. Iran
was being granted the “right to enrich.” It would be allowed to retain and spin
thousands of centrifuges. It could continue construction of the Arak plutonium reactor.
Yet so thoroughly was Iran
stonewalling International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors that just last
Thursday the IAEA reported its concern “about the possible existence in Iran
of undisclosed … development of a nuclear payload for a missile.” Bad enough.
Then it got worse: News leaked Monday of the “sunset clause.” President Obama
had accepted the Iranian demand that any restrictions on its program be
time-limited. After which, the mullahs can crank up their nuclear program at
will and produce as much enriched uranium as they want. (According to the US
Government, Iran
is the leading state sponsor of terrorism. If we lose NY or DC to a nuke, I
hope the architects of giving terrorists the bomb are present to witness it. But
I don't think any agreement matters, as they will not keep any agreement with
infidels when they think their interests are to violate it. ~Bob)
Worth Subscribing To: Jobs for Jihadists. By Jonah
Goldberg, The Goldberg File
Excerpt: This is just a small example of a pervasive
problem: the inability to believe that other people sincerely believe
fundamentally different things. This is a human problem before it is an
ideological problem. It afflicts people on the left and the right, perhaps not
equally but close enough. Some of the sources for this confusion are actually
huge advances in human civilization. The idea that we are all equal in the eyes
of God is a moral triumph of the Judeo-Christian heritage. That belief often
causes people to assume that we’re all fundamentally alike. And we may in fact
be born that way, but we do not necessarily stay that way. It’s an
understandable mistake given that the secular West is based on the deep-seated
dogma of equality before the law (a dogma that rests on that Judeo-Christian
heritage, FWIW). It’s a glorious way of seeing the world in many respects, but
it depends on other people seeing the world the same way for it to work. You
can walk outside our world in an instant and discover that what you thought was
reality was in fact a social construction. One needn’t get on a plane to the Middle East . Just put a hippie with a “Vegetable Rights
& Peace” T-shirt in a maximum-security prison’s exercise yard. The last
thing he’ll remember is a very large man named Tiny standing over him saying
“Here endeth the lesson” as Tiny’s fist heads towards his face. By the way,
this experiment works equally well with anarcho-capitalist stockbrokers,
Unitarian guidance counselors, and anyone else who operates on overly rosy
assumptions about the nature of man in general or Tiny’s sense of humor in
particular. This is why the “Jobs for Jihadists” thing has been so dismaying. It works
on the assumption that the Islamic State doesn’t really believe what
it believes -- it’s just venting its frustrations with a bad job market,
political corruption, and the cancellation of Firefly. (I recommend
you subscribe to the free e-newsletters The
Goldberg File and Morning Jolt at
the link. ~Bob)
If only they had jobs: Attackers Kill American Writer
at Bangladesh Book Fair
Excerpt: A Bangladeshi-American writer who endured threats
from Islamists over his secular views was hacked to death in Dhaka late Thursday, reports say. Avijit Roy, 42, was a naturalized
American living in Georgia .
He was a frequent critic of radical Islamic doctrine. At least two attackers
descended on Roy and his wife, blogger Rafida Ahmed Bonna, near Dhaka University
Empowering Jihad: The
Deadly Myth of a 'Root Cause.' By Phyllis Chesler
Excerpt: Reports that "Jihadi John," the
British-accented narrator of ISIS snuff videos, is Mohammed Emwazi — an educated young man from a middle-class background — ought to put the final
stake in the pretense that poverty and a lack of education and opportunity fuel
Islamist hate. This mistaken idea seems to be Obama administration policy.
(They wouldn't give up the myth if Muslim terrorists screaming Allah Akbar
murdered President Obama. It's a tenet of the Great Progressive
Church
Fines, sell-offs and
subsidy cuts: life under cash-squeezed Isis
Excerpt: Once smokers were flogged in Syrian territory ruled
by the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant, now they are fined about $65. Local rulers
dismantle old state facilities to sell for parts. And shopkeepers complain Isis fighters no longer spend so freely. The
world’s richest jihadi group is not as flush as it once was, say
Syrians who live under its rule. It has cut spending on fuel and bread
subsidies, while increasingly shaking down locals for cash. Fighters themselves
may be feeling the squeeze, too. “Isis took some kind of financial
hit . . . Some fighters’ salaries were cut, including my nephew,” said a man in
the eastern city of Mayadeen, who says an apparent drop in the group’s revenues
is making it difficult to cover the cost of its expansion in territory and
membership since its lightning offensive last year. (Interesting to learn that
the guys at ISIS are getting strapped for
funds. Nice to know, but I still prefer to hear of them as in the "late ISIS guys". Call me old-fashioned, trapped in an
ancient paradigm, but I just want them dead, all of them, dead. --Del. Too
harsh, Del.
I'd leave 5% of them alive but so badly crippled they have to be fed by spoon
or tube, as a warning to others. ~Bob)
Video: You Can’t Judge ISIS, Because You’re
Personally Responsible For The Crusades
Excerpt: Keep in mind that these statues are being destroyed
randomly, for no particular reason. These men are completely motiveless, and
that’s how it’ll stay if you know what’s good for you.
Victoria Cross for
soldier's gallantry in Afghanistan
Excerpt: A British soldier serving in Afghanistan has
been awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest honour for gallantry in the face
of the enemy. L/Cpl Joshua Leakey of 1 Para helped a wounded US officer while under intense enemy fire in Helmand , then led a fight-back in which 11 members of the
Taliban were killed and four wounded.
Important: ISIS preparing to declare Islamic emirate
in Lebanon Lebanon
Excerpt: ISIS is preparing military plans to declare an
Islamic emirate in Lebanon very soon
to serve as a geographical extension of the so-called “Islamic State” announced
by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Iraq
last year, security sources said. ISIS fighters have demanded support from the
militant group in northern Syria to
achieve this goal, the sources said. They added that the ISIS command has begun preparations to
set up a military organizational committee tasked with running Lebanese affairs
and considering Lebanon
as part of its state. (If they take over Lebanon , a lot of Shi'a and Druze
will get the chop. And war with Israel
will follow. Who will Obama support? ~Bob)
Islamic State jihadis
destroy 3,000-year-old artworks in Mosul
Excerpt: Besides removing supposed temptations to idolatry,
Islamic jihadists want to ruin the artifacts of non-Muslim civilizations because
doing so testifies to the truth of Islam, as the Qur’an suggests that ruins are
a sign of Allah’s punishment of those who rejected his truth: Many were the
Ways of Life that have passed away before you: travel through the earth, and
see what was the end of those who rejected Truth. (Qur’an 3:137)
Excerpt: He was just carrying out “wee tests,” you greasy
Islamophobe. And “he said a quantity of fertiliser was used for plants on the
balcony, although there were none there when police searched the premises.”
Those Islamophobic police officers! Al-Khori, “who trained in Iraq as a
doctor,” was doubtless driven to this by poverty, discrimination, and a lack of
economic opportunity.
TSA Worried About 'Greatest Potential Incendiary Threat to
Aviation.' By Leah Barkoukis
Excerpt: According to an FBI report, the use of Thermite on
an aircraft is the “greatest potential incendiary threat to aviation.” Worse
yet, the Transportation Security Administration said it would be extremely hard
to detect during security screenings and once ignited, there’s no way to
extinguish it using conventional methods without making the reaction worse.
The
Intercept, which obtained the classified documents, has the details:
Excerpt: Population shifts resulting from Syria 's four-year long civil war have profoundly
changed Syria and its three
Arabic-speaking neighbors: Iraq ,
Lebanon , and Jordan . (Turkey and Israel have changed too, but less
so.) Ironically, amid tragedy and horror, as populations adapt to the brutal
imperatives of modern nationalism, all four countries are becoming a bit more
stable. That's because the fighting has pushed peoples to move from ethnic minority
status to ethnic majority status, encouraging like to live with like.
*****
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://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5
For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s
eleven books are listed here:
http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-book-published.html.
His blog of political news and conservative comment is www.tartanmarine.blogspot.com.
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