Update
Tuesday was so nice, 60 degrees and sunny, that we took the
afternoon off and a long drive to Reedsburg and the Carr
Valley , perhaps the best scenic drive
we have found in Wisconsin .
Thus I didn't get through the email, so shorter post. Sorry. But not too sorry.
~Bob
Random Thoughts for April, 2015. By Robert A. Hall
Feel free to post or forward.
General News and Comment
Hoping it will just go away: Sheriff, regulators,
Justice Bradley still silent on ethics complaint. By M.D. Kittle
Excerpt: Robert Hall, one of the few vocal conservatives standing in
the liberal bastion that is Dane
County Massachusetts state Senate. “Liberals
clearly believe that it is acceptable, in fact virtuous, to bend, ignore or
break the rules and laws as long as it is in behalf of the high good of the
progressive agenda,” Hall said. “The ‘higher good’ of course includes
getting liberals appointed or elected to public office where they can enjoy the
power, perks and pelf that those who dedicate their lives to the progressive
agenda clearly deserve.” (Most of the media are ignoring this, of course.
Clearly Bradley and Mahoney are hoping to hunker down, use the illegal ad
through the election, and then, at most, apologize, pleading ignorance of the
law. What else can they plead; "We didn't think the law applied to
us?" If a Dane
County
Worth Reading : Obama’s Chicago
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416199/obamas-chicago-presidency-victor-davis-hanson
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416199/obamas-chicago-presidency-victor-davis-hanson
Excerpt: Senator Robert Menendez
(D., N.J.) was a vocal critic both of President Obama’s executive-action
opening to Cuba and his
nuclear non-proliferation talks with Iran . In the midst of his loud
opposition, he found himself suddenly the target of renewed federal charges
that had aired much earlier without consequence. I think the message was not
that the administration was worried over appearances, but rather that it wished
to remind all of Washington
that it actually welcomed the appearance of not being worried over the idea of
federal prosecutorial power being used for tit-for-tat vendettas. Malice is a
valuable political tool for Barack Obama.
Hypocrisy Alert: That Time Sen. Clinton Said The Bush
Administration Might Have ‘Something To Hide’ By Refusing To Turn Over
Documents. By Matt Vespa
Excerpt: This is all the more interesting given that
then-Sen. Hillary Clinton
criticized the Bush administration in October of 2003 for refusing to turn over
documents to the 9/11 Commission chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas
Kean.
Excerpt: In fact, Indiana 's
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) very closely mirrors a federal law
cosponsored by Congressional liberals and signed by President Clinton in
the early 1990s. It is also extremely similar to laws enacted in 19
other states over recent decades. That list of red and blue states
includes Illinois, where then-state Senator Barack Obama cast his vote in
favor of the legislation, which may help explain why some
Democrats are
struggling to logically defend their table-pounding
over Indiana's law. In short, the Hoosier State
Who Trashes Liberal Arts? By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Liberal professors have trashed the liberal arts,
by converting so many liberal arts courses into indoctrination centers for
left-wing causes and fads, instead of courses where students learn how to weigh
conflicting views of the world for themselves. Now a professor of English, one
of the most fad-ridden of the liberal arts today, blames conservative critics
for the low esteem in which liberal arts are held.
Surely a professor of English cannot be unaware of how
English departments, especially, have become hotbeds of self-indulgent, trendy
fads such as trashing classic writings -- using Shakespeare's works as just
another ideological playground for romping through with the current mantra of
"race, class and gender."
If Liberals Are The Good Guys, Why Do They Lie So Much? By John Hawkins
Excerpt: If you listen to
liberals, you’d believe that conservatives are hateful, racist, cruel, selfish
dishonest, mean-spirited fascists while liberals are compassionate, caring,
open-minded, honest and giving saints who want the best for everyone.
If that’s true, then why is it that liberals have to
incessantly lie about what they’re doing, what’s happening in the world and
also lie about conservatives?
Muscle: Beijing
rebuffs Taiwan
Excerpt: China
signalled on Tuesday that Taiwan
would not be allowed to join the Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment
Bank (AIIB), which is seen as a counterweight to the Washington-based World
Bank. "As for Taiwan
joining [the AIIB], we maintain that we should avoid the 'two Chinas' and 'one China , one Taiwan ' situation," foreign
ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular briefing. Taiwan will present a letter of intent to the
AIIB preparatory committee, the presidential office in Taipei said Monday following a national
security meeting chaired by Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou.
Obama's Transparency: Access denied: Reporters say
federal officials, data increasingly off limits
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/access-denied-reporters-say-federal-officials-data-increasingly-off-limits/2015/03/30/935b4962-c04b-11e4-ad5c-3b8ce89f1b89_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
Excerpt: Tensions between reporters and public information
officers — “hacks and flacks” in the vernacular — aren’t new, of course.
Reporters have always wanted more information than government officials have
been willing or able to give. But journalists say the lid has grown tighter
under the Obama administration, whose chief executive promised in 2009 to
bring “an
unprecedented level of openness” to the federal government.
Hotel for Michelle
O’s Cambodia
Excerpt: Hotel accommodations for First Lady Michelle
Obama’s two-day trip to Cambodia required 85 rooms and cost taxpayers $242,500,
according to a government contract released Friday....The trip required 85
single rooms, five office suites, five sleeping suites, and one conference room
for 14 nights. Mrs. Obama herself only stayed in Cambodia for
two days, leaving on March 22. The Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra is listed as a luxury five-star hotel. (Think of the
airfare and CO2 emissions for this entourage for one person .... FLOTUS should
decrease her CO2 footprint; according to the Shoe Lady, Michelle is--get
this--a size 12! --Barb)
Report Accuses
Hillary Adviser Who Ran Intel Service Of Illegally Lobbying For Vladimir Putin
Ally
Excerpt: According to a Gawker report, Sidney Blumenthal, the top Clinton confidant, and
“another former official from Bill Clinton’s administration were secretly
lobbying the secretary of state on behalf of a billionaire in the former Soviet
state of Georgia who was seeking closer ties with Putin’s Russia—seemingly in
violation of a federal law designed to prevent foreign powers from covertly
wielding influence within the United States.”... As Gawker notes, Kornblum “was a lobbyist for a pro-Putin politician
who was exploiting a connection to the secretary of state,” and “the memo
clearly constitutes evidence that Kornblum sought to influence U.S. policy on
behalf of a foreign political leader, and that he enlisted Blumenthal for help
in that project.” ... Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon, who
will become Hillary Clinton’s press secretary in April, reportedly did not
respond about whether the Department would investigate the matter–“the maximum
penalty for willfully violating FARA is up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000
fine.”
Good
Column: But Why? The End. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: In
1989 two of my childhood friends and schoolmates (I don't believe they knew
each other) committed suicide.
REMINDER: The Ted
Kennedy Shrine Cost Taxpayers $38 Million
Excerpt: On top of an $18.9 million Defense Department grant
doled out in Sept. 2010, the Institute received $13.6 million from the Department
of Education, according. In the 2009 federal budget, another $5.8 million was
appropriated through the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and
Human Services..... As a senator in 2010, current Sec. of State John Kerry
waged an unsuccessful attempt to earmark another $28.9 million for the
museum, columnist John Fund wrote on Monday.
Obama’s 2010 Economic
Estimate For 2014 Off By $1 Trillion
The U.S. economy produced $1 trillion less in 2014 than
President Barack Obama promised in his February 2010 financial plan....It
highlights the huge gap between Obama’s promise that his progressive,
big-government economic policies would jump-start the economy, and the hard
reality of America’s complex society and economy....Since 2009, the U.S. population has
grown from 305 million to 321 million, including 11 million illegals.
O’Malley: Presidency
Isn’t ‘Some Crown To Be Passed Between Two Families’ [VIDEO]
Excerpt: O’MALLEY: Well, I think our country always benefits
from new leadership and new perspectives. Let’s be honest here, the presidency
of the United States is
not some crown to be passed between two families. It is an awesome and sacred
trust that is to be earned and exercised on behalf of the American people.
The Real Reason For
Partisan Gridlock: Democracy Is Falling Apart
Excerpt: One is the lockstep connection between statism and
sexual freedom; the second is that political systems that go from emphasizing
liberty to emphasizing equality end up attacking their own civil societies. A
third is that democracies have been sleep-walking into a political trap of
their own making. Given that democracy was embraced by “the people” to
safeguard freedom from oppressive government, how do we explain that everywhere
we look we see more democracy, but less freedom?
Gun News
POLICE: Liquor store
clerk shoots attempted robber in Jeffersontown
Excerpt: According to police, when the attempted robber
pointed his gun at the clerk, the clerk shot him in the chest.
Homeowner, burglars
exchange gunfire in attempted Garland
Excerpt: “When officers arrived, they were told several men
had come inside the home to rob them,” stated Garland Police Department Public
Information Officer Joe Harn. “During the attempted robbery, shots were
exchanged between the robbers and the homeowner.” No injuries were reported for
the individuals who live in the home but police say one of the burglars had
been shot.
Suspected Robber Run
Over in Possible Robbery Gone Wrong
Excerpt: Three men who allegedly attempted to rob another
man during a business transaction Saturday in Southern California ended up with
more than they bargained for when two of the men were shot and one of them was
ran over by his alleged accomplice, police said.
One dead in west Macon
Excerpt: According to a Bibb County Sheriff's Office news
release, 20-year-old Drevon McLaurin called 911 at about 6:20 a.m. stating that
an intruder was in his home attacking him with a hammer, the sheriff said. During
the struggle, McLaurin, who called 911, shot Brown, the attacker, killing him, Davis said.
Obamacare/Government Healthcare News
Excerpt: The headline of the Congressional Budget Office’s
(CBO) damning
assessment of the fiscal damage done by H.R. 2 — the so-called
Medicare doc fix negotiated secretly by House Speaker John Boehner and Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi — is that the deal will add $141 billion to the deficit
over the next ten years. Even this appalling outcome is sugarcoated. After
unpacking the gimmicks underlying the estimate, the actual result is much
worse. First, the worst gimmick: The bill increases spending on the Children’s
Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by almost $40 billion. Yet, the CBO only
includes less than $6 billion in its estimate of the bill’s costs. How did over
$34 billion of CHIP spending simply vanish into thin air? Easily! Much of it
was already in the baseline.
"You're Greener than Gore" News
US offer for climate
treaty: Up to 28 percent emissions cut
Excerpt: The U.S. plans to announce its
commitment Tuesday, the informal deadline for nations to submit their
contributions to the United Nations. Although the goal of 26 percent to 28
percent by 2025 isn't new — President Barack Obama first unveiled it last year
during a trip to Beijing — the U.S. proposal has drawn intense interest from
the vast majority of countries that have yet to announce how deeply they'll
pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of the treaty.... In contrast,
the U.S. is
expected to point broadly to the steps it is taking under the climate action
plan Obama announced in 2013, such as new rules requiring sweeping cuts from
new and existing power plants, stricter emissions limits for cars and trucks,
and initiatives targeting specific greenhouse gases like methane and
hydrofluorocarbons. (And if they massively decrease the population exhaling all
that CO2, and wipe out the animals as well, they can have a nice, barren planet
with deserts like the Middle East and Africa; plants live on CO2 and convert it
to O2; something often forgotten, it seems. The Regime could probably reach
goal rapidly if POTUS and FLOTUS would stay in the White House (Yes, it is
White House and not People's House, which sounds Communist.) Just think of all
the CO2 emissions from those two between Air Force One and separate jets. Nobody
asked the US population
about "contribution." This sets up command economic system to the
detriment of supply and demand/capitalism. Article notes EU already committed
to UN with a cap-and-trade system US rejected. Socialism dictates so much more
readily than Capitalism with all that "interference" when others want
to be heard and not dictated to.....Barb)
Religion of Peace News
Worth Reading :
Saudi-Arabia Goes to Battle
Excerpt: The issue at stake is
Sunnis vs. Shi'ites, the Iranian nuclear program and the impending agreement
with the US and its allies
is the great shadow hovering over it all, and the pawns on the ground are the
various Shi'ite militias operated by Iran
in Yemen , Iraq , Syria
and Lebanon .
The same with the Sunni forces fighting them. On the ground, the immediate
loser is the US , which lost
its intelligence infrastructure in Yemen , as well as the large arms
shipments to the Yemeni army. But the American loss is more than just that. It
is developing into a strategic debacle, as not one of America 's allies in the Middle East has any clue
where the US
is heading to. (Note that this is from Huffington Post, not exactly what I’d
call a right-wing media source. Also note that the excerpt is from the third
paragraph of the article, not the eye-catching lead. If I was in the
administration or DOD and read this, I’d be shaken; if HuffPo is questioning
you, how many liberals can there be left to support you? Ron P.)
Important: Pakistani defense chief due in Riyadh , airlifts troops for Saudi Yemen Aden
Excerpt: DEBKAfile’s Intelligence
sources report that the Pakistani army is preparing to airlift a large force of
several brigades up to a complete division to Saudi Arabia . Our military sources
note that Pakistan ’s
decision to intervene in the war against “Shiite Muslim Houthi rebels” presages
the Yemen
conflict’s expansion to ground and sea operations after four days of heavy
Saudi air raids. The Pakistani brigades would relieve the substantial Saudi
ground forces strung out along the kingdom’s 1,000-kilometer-long southern
border with Yemen ,
and free them up for action against the Houthis. (Well,
if the US
is no longer the power that defends the Saudi oil fields, then the
petrodollar agreement is DEAD! But without that agreement, the dollar is no
longer propped up by anything:
Analysts
insist that the reason for the dollar's decline is the Fed's announced rate
hike. But if the props have just been kicked out from under the dollar, isn't
that the more likely reason? Could it be that the Fed is raising rates only to
hide the real reason? If my guess is correct, the dollar will not recover after
the rate hike goes into effect -- barring unforeseen circumstances. Let us hope
and pray for unforeseen circumstances. --Don Hank)
Excerpt: Recent statements from United Nations officials,
that Iran is already blocking their existing efforts to keep track of what is
going on in their nuclear program, should tell anyone who does not already know
it that any agreement with Iran will be utterly worthless in practice. It
doesn’t matter what the terms of the agreement are, if Iran can cheat.
It is amazing – indeed, staggering – that so few Americans are talking about
what it would mean for the world’s biggest sponsor of international terrorism,
Iran, to have nuclear bombs, and to be developing intercontinental missiles
that can deliver them far beyond the Middle East.
Defense
Official: Iran
Excerpt: Col. Aviram Hasson of the
Israeli Defense Ministry's missile defenseprogram says
that Iran is
placing guided warheads on its rockets and smuggling them to Hezbollah. He gave
the warning while speaking at the Israel Air and
Missile Defense Conference in Herzliya, and added that Hezbollah
"is in a very different place compared to the Second Lebanon War
in 2006."
Excerpt: As talks over Iran 's
nuclear weapons program neared their deadline Tuesday,
the Commander of Iran’s Basij (volunteer) Force, Brigadier General
Mohammad Reza Naqdi, was quoted as saying that “wiping Israel off
the map is not up for negotiation.” In a basij conference in Iran , Naqdi also threatened Saudi Arabia and said that the
counterattack it is waging in Yemen , against Iran-backed Houthis,
“will end up like Saddam Hussein.” The report was carried on Kol
Yisrael radio.
Excerpt: “And they believe, and some US members of Congress
believe, that the reason Saudi Arabia and other states didn’t tell the US that
it was going to launch this war against Shi’ite backed, or Iranian-backed
rebels in Yemen, is because Saudi Arabia and other countries simply don’t trust
the United States anymore, don’t trust this administration — think the
administration is working to befriend Iran to try and make a deal in
Switzerland, and therefore didn’t feel that the intelligence frankly would be
secure. “I think that is a situation that is quite troubling for US foreign policy, where traditional allies
— like Saudi Arabia ,
like Egypt , like
the United Arab Emirates —
don’t know if the US is
reliable at this stage to hold onto sensitive information when it comes
to Iran .”
Iran has been
conspicuous as the most aggressive enemy of the United States and our allies
for decades. (Look what recently happened to Israel , with leaking of their
nuclear program by Regime after election and their political rigging failed. Now
they're telling Bashad in Syria he
"has to go" a la Libya .
So who is cutting whose proverbial throat? --Barb)
Liberal says
Americans Joining ISIS is No Big Deal
Excerpt: I have officially heard it all. I really have. Now
that former Clinton Secretary of Labor, Robert
Reich, has given his opinion on the influx of Westerners (particularly
Americans) into the ranks of ISIS … I have
truly heard it all. From liberals, that is.
Dozens killed in
airstrike at refugee camp in Yemen
Excerpt: An airstrike killed dozens of people Monday at a
camp for displaced people in northern Yemen , in what appeared to be the
single deadliest attack since a Saudi Arabia-led coalition sent warplanes to
target Shiite insurgents advancing across the country. As many as 40 people
died and about 200 were wounded in the attack on the Mazraq camp in Hajjah
province, said Joel Millman, a spokesman for the International Organization for
Migration, which runs aid programs at the facility.
'Anonymous' Threatens
'Electronic Holocaust'
Excerpt: Cyber-terror group Anonymous has issued new threats
against Israel and
Jews on Tuesday - this time, calling for an "Electronic
Holocaust" in a video statement, according to the Daily
Mail. The clip features a masked individual behind a news desk, reading a
prepared script declaring a massive cyber attack on April 7 - one
week before Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel . The clip then presents the
threats like a news report, calling Palestinian Arab terrorists "a symbol
of freedom."
New Daily Show Host's
Tweets on Israel
Trevor Noah, the newly-named replacement for Jon Stewart on
Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, is still an unknown quantity to many
Americans. Curious fans and critics, eager to learn more about the South
African comedian, have been combing the Internet for clues, and have turned up
troubling comments about Israel and Jews that have some wondering if the new
host will, like Stewart (Leibowitz), take to hiding his Jewish-sounding name to
avoid controversy. ... Third: Noah’s repertoire largely consists of
racial humor. (The "joke" I heard, he used race against police,
reinforcing comments/agenda by DeBlasio, Holder, Obama. More black militantism
crammed down throat by media just as LGBT agenda currently is. Read a book, a
real book. --Barb)
Op-Ed: The
Saudis Should Break Iran
Excerpt: The Sunni Arab world has finally
congealed against the waxing Persian/Iranian menace. Iran has exploited its false Shiite
Muslim veneer to enslave the entire Sunni and Shiite Arab world. In
response to a blatant Iran
coup, Saudi Arabia has
commenced bombing Shiite Houthi strongholds throughout Yemen . Egypt has tasked 4 warships to
regain control of the Yemeni side Mandab Straits. But, what next? A southward
Saudi ground war against the Houthis where northwest Yemen is just one huge mountain
range is, at best, a long war. The Saudis will have to fight up mountains 3,666
meters high. Five and half years ago, the Houthis started a border war against
the Saudis, and the fighting was brutal. Even with Yemeni Army help, and
Jordanian commandos, after several hard months of fighting over only a
500-meter high mountain, the Saudis lost 133 soldiers. (Here is a writer
who has spent a lot of time and effort in the Middle East ,
and has a really different viewpoint. I have no idea if these ideas of his
would work, but he sure makes an interesting case. Still, in the Middle East , I don't think anyone can predict exactly who
will do what, when, and how it will turn out. It is one enormously complicated,
convoluted region with so many plots, subplots, and sub-subplots that I don't
think any mere human can figure it out. But it is a possibly dangerous region,
things that go badly there can in the long run have effects in far distant
lands. --Del )
*****
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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