General News and Comment
Interesting: The View From NATO’s Russian Front. The
Army commander in Europe on Putin’s new way of war, Russia ’s
growing arsenal, and coping with U.S.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/weekend-interview-gen-frederick-hodges-on-natos-russian-front-1423266333
Google the title if you cant get it. Excerpt: ‘I believe the
Russians are mobilizing right now for a war that they think is going to happen
in five or six years—not that they’re going to start a war in five or six
years, but I think they are anticipating that things are going to happen, and
that they will be in a war of some sort, of some scale, with somebody within
the next five or six years.” So says Lt. Gen. Frederick “Ben” Hodges, commander
of U.S. Army Europe.
Brian Williams Essentially
Lied on His Resume, or Exaggerated The Truth
Excerpt: And, I can tell you this -- that lying on resumes
is common. In fact, in 2002, I was working with the recruiter Christian &
Timbers and helped conduct a study that was an analysis of 7,000 executive
resumes that showed that 23% of executives misrepresent accomplishments. Of those
that misrepresent them, 64% exaggerated accomplishments. The bottom line is
that it is lying on a resume (although we used the word “misrepresented” at the
time perhaps to soften the severity of the act.) (When I got my last jib, the
headhunter executive recruiter carefully checked all my data (as she should
have), including verifying my degrees. I joked that if I was going to lie, I'd
have put down an MBA from Harvard, not an MEd in history from Fitchburg State
Was Brian Williams terrorized by gangs at the Ritz-Carlton
during Katrina? By Terrence McCoy
Excerpt: There’s a story Brian Williams likes to tell. He
has told it in a TV
interview. He has told it to at
least two book authors. But
even though it had all the makings of a great yarn — danger, guns,
resolve — Williams never reported it to his viewers. It’s the one
about the gangs that Williams claimed had “overrun” a posh
Ritz-Carlton where he stayed during Hurricane Katrina. (Old joke:
"There I was, the only survivor, low on ammo, surrounded by 3,000
Vietcong. I fixed my bayonet..." "So, what happened, Gunny?"
"I got killed you damn fool." ~Bob)
No tears here as NBC
finally puts 'Rock
Center Baltimore
Excerpt: You will find no tears here for the cancellation of
Brian Williams' "Rock
Center Cooperstown , never has such journalistic bankruptcy been
promoted with such self-important bluster. And that's saying something in a TV
business built as much on narcissism and hype as it is journalism. (You can
argue that Chelsea Clinton’s NBC News work -- $600,000 per year for
poor-quality part-time work -- is sort of the Rosetta Stone for a lot that’s
wrong in modern American life -- the incestuous relationship between the
governing class and the media, the power of celebrity and nepotism, the
disregard of legitimate criticism and the morale for those who actually did the
work. Brian Williams had a big hand in that mess, and so that may explain why
some are enjoying his recent troubles. -- Jim
Geraghty, Morning Jolt)
Brian Williams for President: The Nightly News anchor is as
honest as Hillary, Biden and Obama. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: Brian Williams is in trouble for lying, but he was
part of a media culture of deceit where lies were acceptable for a good
progressive cause. Williams isn’t really in trouble because he lied, but
because he got caught. Worse still, the lies were self-serving. They served
Brian Williams; they didn’t serve the left. Williams had failed to draw the
line between the “good lie” (ObamaCare is making life better) and the “bad lie”
(I swam the flooded French Quarter with puppies on my back during Katrina while
Al Qaeda shot RPGs at me). But the borders between the “good lie” and the “bad
lie” have been vague when it comes to the titans of the left.
Injured Veteran Film
I'm reaching out on behalf of a short film based on the
stories of Kyle Carpenter and Jesse Cottle. This film was written,
directed, and produced by a retired soldier. The film, Birthday, is an
incredible tale of a veteran coming home from war with traumatic injuries. It's
a beautiful depiction of a rare truth that's moving and inspiring. Right now,
the film is trying to raise money to finish the project and have showing at
military bases around the country and the globe. It’d be incredible if you’d be open to linking to the campaign on The
Old Jarhead to share such a powerful and truthful film, depicting the realities
of coming home from war. Here is a link to the campaign: http://www.gofundme.com/ldjxn8
We’re also open to any other ideas that you may have, we just want to spread
the word. Please let me know if there is any way we can work together! Thank
you and God bless. Best, Chris
Jindal Emphasizes Teacher Tenure Reform, School Choice in
Sweeping Education Plan. By Ken McIntyre
Excerpt: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, hoping that a push for
education reform can set him apart among prospective Republican candidates for
president, today begins to tout a national plan he says would create “an
ecosystem of freedom and choice” for parents, students and teachers.
His proposals, Jindal says in the plan to be released this
morning, would push the public education system out of “a rut” it has been
stuck in for 50 years because of Washington’s ever-increasing involvement,
which he sees as holding back generations of children.
In Iowa
Excerpt: Less than a year before Iowa ’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, it
appears that every Republican contender is making a serious play to win the
state, setting up what is likely to be one of the most active, competitive
campaigns here in recent memory. Political observers in Iowa say that the field is wide open and
that numerous candidates have a legitimate shot to win or do well enough to
come out with momentum. That is partly because moderates in the Iowa Republican
Party, led by Gov. Terry Branstad, have reasserted themselves into the caucus
process after watching social conservatives dominate in 2008 and 2012.
2015 National
Security Blueprint Gives America
Excerpt: Recent terrorist attacks serve as a gruesome
reminder that Jihadistan remains a critical threat. In fact, at no other time
in history have jihadis controlled such vast swaths of land and boasted such a
powerful upper hand. Sadly, rising turmoil has done nothing to sway Barack
Obama, who only reaffirmed he’s content to keep the issue on the back burner.
Click on image to enlarge
AG considers
Kitzhaber/Hayes investigation. By Hillary Borrud
Excerpt: Oregon 's
attorney general is considering investigating claims first lady Cylvia Hayes
used her connections with government to boost her private business. On Friday
two efforts to recall Gov. John Kitzhaber got underway.
WOW: 'I Aborted My Baby Because It Was A Boy.' By Matt Vespa
Excerpt: A woman named Lana admitted to aborting her child
because she was going to have a boy. She also said if this “curse” returned
(i.e. finding out she’s pregnant with a boy) she would do it again. This comes
after she proudly states she has a healthy 1-year-old girl, who will “be just
as strong and driven as her mother.”
Excerpt: Alan Greenspan believes “it’s just a matter of
time” before Greece
leaves the eurozone, because he can’t see that anyone will be willing to put up
more loans to bolster the country’s economy, the former Federal Reserve
chairman told the BBC on Sunday.
Watchdog: Air Force 'doctored the data' to make A-10 look
bad. By Kristina Wong
Excerpt: A government watchdog group on Monday accused the
Air Force of manipulating data to skew the record of the A-10
"Warthog" when it comes to civilian casualties and friendly fire
deaths in Afghanistan .
Recently declassified Air Force data said the A-10 attack jet has killed more U.S. troops in friendly fire incidents and more
Afghan civilians than any other aircraft flown by the U.S. military, USA Today reported last
week. But the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) said the statistics were
skewed to bolster the Air Force's campaign to retire the A-10 in favor of the
costlier F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Gun News
Excerpt: It was 1 a.m. on Sunday, and the pair of car
thieves likely thought they’d picked up an easy score. They turned out to be
making a fatal mistake. Two brothers tracked down the thieves who stole their
truck, shooting at them and killing one early Sunday in northeast Houston , KPRC-TV reported.
Race Card News
Just politics: Reflections during Black History
Month: How the Minimum Wage Hurts Black Americans
Excerpt: February is Black History Month, and while numerous
lawmakers, pundits and voters have called for more to be done to expand
economic opportunities for black Americans, too often that means increasing the
size and scope of government programs. Unfortunately, government programs --
even the most well-intentioned -- routinely fail, create disincentives to growth
and hurt the people they're supposed to help. In a new report, the NCPA has
compiled a list of government policies -- from housing law to education,
welfare programs, tax policy and employment-related laws -- that are hurting
black Americans. Consider minimum wage policy -- advocates of higher minimum
wages say they will help the working poor, yet they often price the
lowest-skilled workers out of the market so they are essentially earning
nothing. Black teenagers bear most of the burden, as the NCPA has noted in
a previous publication: From
1948 to 1955, the unemployment rate of black and white teenage males was
essentially the same -- 11.3 percent and 11.6 percent, respectively. But after
the minimum wage was raised from 75 cents to $1 in 1956, unemployment rose
significantly for both black and white teenage males, with blacks bearing more
of the burden. By 1969, the unemployment rate was 22.7 percent for black
teenage males and 14.6 percent for white teenage males. Economists Donald
Deere, Kevin Murphy and Finis Welch found that minimum wage increases in 1990
and 1991 reduced employment for all teenagers by 7.3 percent and for black
teenagers by 10 percent. Historically, minimum wage and prevailing wage laws
were supported by almost exclusively white unions in order to remove the
competitive advantage of blacks who were willing to work for less. (The
political calculus is easy. Blacks will vote Democrat regardless of how the
Dems screw them. White unions get raises if the MWL goes up--and need to be
re-bought regularly. Why they encourage blacks to go on welfare, thus need to
vote for the welfare party. ~Bob)
Guess Who Is Now Listed in the Southern Poverty Law
Center
Excerpt: Carson
has been added to a list of “extremists” being populated and compiled by
the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based
group “dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice
for the most vulnerable members of our society.” (The SPLC has made itself a
jokes, not to be taken seriously. Sort of a NBPP in suits and ties. ~Bob)
Obamacare/Government Healthcare News
One Year After Obamacare’s Implementation, Taxpayer-Funded
Co-Ops Struggle to Survive. By Melissa Quinn
Excerpt: After receiving $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars
from the federal government, the vast majority of nonprofit insurance companies
created under the Affordable Care Act recorded losses in revenue, an analysis
by The Daily Signal found. Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans, or co-ops, are
nonprofit insurance companies created by the Affordable Care Act. Though the
concept is not new, 23 of these entities were created to foster competition in
areas where few options are available. Now, CoOportunity, a co-op created to
serve Iowa and Nebraska , will be liquidated. Some lawmakers
question the viability of the remaining 22 co-ops. (When I was managing
non-profit associations, sometimes board members would get dollar signs in
their eyes about the association owning a for-profit subsidiary [which is
perfectly legal]. I always urged caution. Unless you have a captive market,
like the College Bookstore Association, they are rarely profitable. Entering an
industry you know little about to compete with guy who earning their living
competing in that market usually make you lunch. ~Bob)
John Oliver goes
after Big Pharma
"You're Greener than Gore" News
Low Gas Prices? Obama
Says, 'You're Welcome'
Excerpt: As we’ve noted on numerous occasions, U.S. oil
production is up and demand is down, leading to lower prices. Increased
production is taking place entirely on private lands, yet, once again, Barack
Obama is happy to take the credit.
Fracking Creates Big
Benefits for Workers, Landowners, and America
Excerpt: Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, is
fueling the current energy boom in America . Combined with horizontal
drilling, fracking has opened up previously unreachable energy reserves for
exploitation, and the economic boon has been tremendous, writes Arthur Herman,
senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. ... Moreover, the economic benefits of
fracking accrue not just to the workers in the oil and gas industry. Herman
notes that many of the beneficiaries of the oil boom are the middle-class
Americans who own resource-rich land, and selling or leasing those mineral
rights can bring in extra income. America's poor, who can spend up to a quarter
of their incomes on energy, have also benefited from the fracking boom thanks
to falling gasoline and electricity prices - since 2005, America's demand for
imported oil has fallen by a staggering 40 percent. In fact, the drop in
natural gas prices has saved poor families about $10 billion per year.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: EDF has assembled what it believes to be the 10
most powerful global warming assertions in the alarmists’ playbook, yet each
assertion either backfires on alarmists or has been proven false. While reading
how flawed EDF’s assertions are, remember these are the very best arguments
global warming alarmists can make. Open-minded readers should have very little
difficulty dismissing the mythical global warming crisis after examining the
top 10 assertions in the alarmist playbook.
Religion of Peace News
LISTEN: An Islam scholar politely unloads on President Obama’s
‘terrible deeds in the name of Christ’ remarks. By Benjamin
Weingarten
Excerpt: … [I]f you look at what he’s [President Obama's]
referring to in terms of the Crusades…if I could just share with you something
that I wrote ten years ago [from Bostom's "Jihad Begot the Crusades,"
parts 1 and 2]…The jihad is intrinsic to the sacred Muslim texts,
including the divine Qur’anic revelation itself, whereas the Crusades were
circumscribed historical events subjected to (ongoing and meaningful) criticism
by Christians themselves. Unlike the espousal of jihad in the Qur’an, the
constituent texts of Christianity, the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, do
not contain a form fruste [incomplete] institutionalization of the
Crusades.
Excerpt: “You don’t use the word ‘crusades,’ number one, in
any context right now, it’s just too fraught,” Andrea Mitchell said on “Meet
the Press” Sunday. “And the week after a pilot is burned alive, in a video
shown, you don’t lean over backwards to be philosophical about the sins of the
fathers. You have to deal with the issue that’s in front of you or don’t deal
with it at all,” she added. “Talk about faith.”
Historian: ‘I Don’t
Think The President Knows Very Much About The Crusades’
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/08/historian-i-dont-think-the-president-knows-very-much-about-the-crusades/
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/08/historian-i-dont-think-the-president-knows-very-much-about-the-crusades/
Excerpt: University
of London Historian Thomas Asbridge
Turkish Leader
Accuses "Jewish Lobby" of Plot to Topple Regime
Excerpt: Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that
his government would not give into the "Jewish lobby" that he says is
working against the ruling AKP Party. "I announce it from here: we have
not and will not succumb to the Jewish lobby, the Armenian lobby or the
Turkish-Greek minority's lobbies," Davutoglu said at a party gathering Sunday. Arbitrary
references to the "Jewish lobby" in the Muslim world can be construed
as anti-Semitic sentiment without factual evidence supporting such claims.
Leaders in various countries have historically blamed Jews and Israel for internal woes to alleviate domestic pressure and
propagate the concept of an external enemy in order to cultivate regime
legitimacy.
Excerpt: Less than a month after the Charlie
Hebdo murders and the slaughter of four Jews at a kosher supermarket in
Paris, Islamic State (IS, or ISIS) has sent a warning now to Belgium:
"This," they wrote in a letter to Het Laatste News (HLM), "is
only the beginning." The letter, received by HLN's editors on Feb. 4,
referred also to a series of attacks in France that pre-dated the Paris
massacres: "What happened in France will happen, too, in Belgium,"
the typewritten letter stated in perfect French, "and from Belgium, IS
will conquer all of Europe."
Whose Job is it to
Kill ISIS ? By Patrick J. Buchanan
Excerpt: Seeing clips of that 22-minute video of the
immolation of the Jordanian pilot, one wonders: Who would be drawn to the cause
of these barbarians who perpetrated such an atrocity? While the video might
firm up the faith of fanatics, would it not evoke rage and revulsion across the
Islamic world? After all, this was a Sunni Muslim, in a cage, being burned
alive. As of now, this cruel killing seems to have backfired.
Ralph Peters: Burning
Of Jordanian Pilot "Better Than The Best Sex They've Ever Had And Easier
On The Goats!"
Excerpt: And Islamic state, those guys who burned that young
man alive, they're having the time of their lives. This kind of violence is
captivating, exhilarating, thrilling to these guys. It's never going to get
better for them than this. They have power now. They can exert their will over
others. This is better than the best sex they've ever had and easier on the
goats.
Muslim Brotherhood
Has Penetrated ALL of Obama’s National Security Agencies
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/muslim-brotherhood-has-penetrated-all-of-obamas-national-security-agencies?f=must_reads
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/muslim-brotherhood-has-penetrated-all-of-obamas-national-security-agencies?f=must_reads
Excerpt: A four star admiral, who was in charge of the
largest single military command in the world, slammed Barack Obama,
and warned Congress that...
Gitmo Alum: Islamic State commander killed by drone
strike in Afghanistan
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/02/09/Islamic-State-commander-killed-by-drone-strike-in-Afghanistan/5131423480387/?spt=su
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2015/02/09/Islamic-State-commander-killed-by-drone-strike-in-Afghanistan/5131423480387/?spt=su
Excerpt: Former Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Rauf, who
reportedly swore allegiance to the Islamic State recently, was killed by a
drone strike in Afghanistan .
Rauf's brother-in-law and four Pakistanis were also killed
when their car filled with ammunition was destroyed. ... Rauf was captured by the U.S. military in 2001 and spent six years in
Guantanamo Bay before being released to Afghan authorities.
Jihadis found the Achilles'
heel leaving Europe vulnerable
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0215/europe_jihadist_vulnerability.php3
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0215/europe_jihadist_vulnerability.php3
Excerpt: A lack of effective multilateral coordination
between European Union member states is leaving the bloc open to infiltration
by terrorists, according to experts, as the bloc’s border forces are
overwhelmed by the numbers of illegal migrants and refugees attempting to reach
Europe .
Excerpt: It’s a multi-faith cemetery, but never mind: the
unbelievers are “unclean” (cf. Qur’an 9:28), and that’s that. The local council
is, of course, siding with the Muslims. This is modern Britain : in
all-out appeasement mode, hoping their new masters will go easy with them. But
they won’t.
Can French Troops
Protect 'Sensitive Sites' from Next Terror Attack? By Daniel Pipes
Excerpt: Another Islamist immigrant from Mali named Coulibaly has attacked another Jewish institution in France . The
first one, Amedy Coulibaly, murdered four Jews at a kosher store in Paris on Jan. 9; this
second one injured three soldiers yesterday as they protected a Jewish
community center in Nice.
*****
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.
Posts
Under "general news and comment", it has a picture of what conservatives "really look like", but it's statistically inaccurate. The amount of young people in the picture is massively unrepresentative of conservatives.
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