Bob's Political Digest for July 28, 2009

A Short Course in Brain Surgery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_Rf42zNl9U
Watch this!

Obama regrets remarks
http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20090723/NEWS-US-OBAMA-RACE/
On race. And on the Special Olympics. And on….

Why Obamacare Is Sinking
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/23/AR2009072302723.html
Excerpt: What happened to Obamacare? Rhetoric met reality. As both candidate and president, the master rhetorician could conjure a world in which he bestows upon you health-care nirvana: more coverage, less cost.

Obamacare haunted by unkept promises of stimulus
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obamacare-haunted-by-big-promises-of-stimulus-8012320-51521412.html
Excerpt: If Barack Obama fails to enact national health care, it will be because he sowed the seeds of his own demise last Feb. 17 -- the day the president, surrounded by Democratic leaders, signed the $787 billion economic stimulus bill. In the legislative campaign leading up to that moment, both Obama and congressional Democrats made promises and took actions that are now coming back to haunt them as they pursue their goal of remaking the nation's health care system.

Election 2010: California Senate
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_2010/election_2010_senate_elections/california/election_2010_california_senate
Down from 9 to 4 points, with 16 months to go. This would be the upset of the century, sending shock waves through the statist establishment.

ObamaCare Dives Into End-Of-Life Debate
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/24/obamacare-medicare-death-business-healthcare-obamacare.html
Excerpt: It brings to mind Boomsday, a 2007 satirical novel by ForbesLife editor at large Christopher Buckley, in which the government solves its fiscal problems by offering tax breaks to those who kill themselves before retirement age.

Dear Congress, oppose public health care plan
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/west/090723
Excerpt: I find, through much search, no authority whatsoever for Congress to establish a federal health care plan in Article 1 of the United States Constitution.

House healthcare talks break down in anger
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-healthcare-talks-break-down-in-anger-2009-07-24.html
Excerpt: House healthcare negotiations dissolved in acrimony on Friday, with Blue Dog Democrats saying they were “lied” to by their Democratic leaders. The seven Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee stormed out of a Friday meeting with their committee chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), saying Waxman had been negotiating in bad faith over a number of provisions Blue Dogs demanded be changed in the stalled healthcare bill. “I’ve been lied to,” Blue Dog Coalition Co-Chairman Charlie Melancon (D-La.) said on Friday. “We have not had legitimate negotiations.

Liberal and Conservative Democrats Feud Over Bill
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/24/AR2009072403651.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Excerpt: Tensions in the House over the issue reached a boiling point Friday, when, during a back-and-forth day of private huddles, Democrats emerged at times to accuse one another of lying or "empowering the Republicans." (“Empowering Republicans” is the only Capital Crime statists recognize.)

Obama's health plan - too good to be true
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/07/25/IN3I18SM9O.DTL
Excerpt: So forgive me if I am skeptical when Obama - who called it "painful" to squeeze one half of 1 percent from the gargantuan federal machine - claims, as he did at Wednesday night's news conference, that two-thirds of his plan to provide universal access to health care for Americans "can be paid for by reallocating money that is simply being wasted in federal health care programs." What shocks me is how smart people actually buy into the notion that the administration can expand health coverage and that it will not - indeed, should not - cost most taxpayers a dime. As Kaiser Family Foundation President Drew Altman wrote, "Our polls show that most Americans (60 percent) think that if policymakers made the right moves they could cover the cost of health care reform without spending new money, which is not true."

The Democrats’ Dilemma on Health Reform
http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/the-democrats-dilemma-on-health-reform/#more-4426
Excerpt: I actually feel a bit sorry for them. President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress got some very, very bad advice from health policy experts they relied on during the past election. It was the same bad advice they have been getting year after year, election after election, for as far back as memory serves. But now that it is time to legislate, these politicians must face real economists who look at evidence over at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Although the CBO Director and staff are appointed by Congressional Democrats, they are professionals and they have been willing to stand up to the pressure and essentially say that last year's campaign rhetoric was hogwash.

Stumbling governors signal trouble for Dems
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Stumbling-governors-signal-trouble-for-Dems-8016272-51603962.html
Excerpt: With polls showing a drop in Barack Obama's job rating and sinking support for the Democrats' health care plans, there is evidence of collateral damage where you might not expect to find it, in the standing of Democratic governors. Pennsylvania's Ed Rendell is suddenly getting negative job ratings in both the Quinnipiac and the Franklin and Marshall polls -- his lowest marks in seven years as governor. Ohio's Ted Strickland, who has spent most of his first term working amicably with Republican legislators, scores under 50 percent in the latest Quinnipiac poll and has only tenuous leads over two Republicans, John Kasich and Mike DeWine, who may run against him next year.

Mark Steyn: Obama knows 'stupidly' when he doesn't see it
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/gates-professor-black-2506786-racism-sgt
Excerpt: As to the differences between the professor's and the cops' version of events, I confess I've been wary of taking Henry Louis Gates at his word ever since, almost two decades back, the literary scholar compared the lyrics of the rap group 2 Live Crew to those of the Bard of Avon. "It's like Shakespeare's 'My love is like a red, red rose,'" he declared, authoritatively, to a court in Fort Lauderdale. As it happens, "My luv's like a red, red rose" was written by Robbie Burns, a couple of centuries after Shakespeare. Oh, well. 16th century English playwright, 18th century Scottish poet: What's the diff? Evidently being within the same quarter-millennium and right general patch of the North-East Atlantic is close enough for a professor of English and Afro-American Studies appearing as an expert witness in a court case. Certainly no journalist reporting Gates' testimony was boorish enough to point out the misattribution.

Germany: Muslim stabs wife "in the name of the Koran"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027012.php
This "27-year-old Afghan man" must be some kind of Islamophobe.

"We don't ask other factions to recognize Israel because we in Fatah have never recognized Israel"
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027005.php
Note to BO: "Fatah does not recognize Israel's right to exist," Natsheh said, "nor have we ever asked others to do so." His comments, which appeared in an interview with Al-Quds Al-Arabi, came in response to reports according to which Fatah had asked Hamas to recognize Israel as a precondition for the establishment of a Palestinian unity government. "All these reports about recognizing Israel are false," Natsheh, who is closely associated with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said. "It's all media nonsense. We don't ask other factions to recognize Israel because we in Fatah have never recognized Israel."

Honor attack in UK: acid poured down lover's throat
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026997.php
Excerpt: Muslim woman fears death in an honor killing after her lover was attacked with sulphuric acid. These killings, as we have documented here, happen again and again in an Islamic context….

Possible honor killing in Canada: Three Muslim sisters murdered; parents and brother arrested
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026996.php
Excerpt: Rona Amir Mohammed's sister, Diba Masoomi, said: "We are convinced that this is a crime of honour." We learn here that "the teenage girls dressed in modern fashion," which may have been part of the problem.

Conyers Sees No Point in Members Reading 1,000-Page Health Care Bill--Unless They Have 2 Lawyers to Interpret It for Them
http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=51610&print=on
What we’ve suspected

Joys of the single-payer system—funny but scary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jijuj1ysw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ebreakdownofamerica%2Ecom%2F%3Fp%3D347&feature=player_embedded
From my friend, Del: This is a nice mini-documentary about what it's like to actually try to get help in the Canadian system. Several years ago I got sick with chest pains while in Canada, and can personally testify to the overcrowding and super delays in the hospital there. Not to mention the inexperienced nurse's aide who thought that for me to have a EKG she needed to scrub my chest with extra rough sandpaper until blood flowed. (Honest, I kid you not, I had scabs for several days.) The bottom line for me is that while we sure need an improvement in the Health Care system in this country to make it more efficient and less costly, setting up a massive federal bureaucracy to do it as proposed is not going to solve very many problems at all, and will absolutely make a lot of new problems and not save any of us a dime, in fact it's pretty much assured that it will cost us all more one way or another. Keep telling your congress people you don't want the Pelosi monster plan to go anywhere but out the door. –Del

Soviet Officer Who Shot Down John McCain in Vietnam Dies
http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9446&Itemid=65
This is a tad old, but I just saw it and thought it interesting—a long-ago example of the gullible left. Excerpt: During that now long-ago war, Moscow repeatedly insisted that no Soviet officers were serving in any capacity on the side of the North Vietnamese, a denial many anti-war groups in the United States and other Western countries accepted as true. And as a result, Trushechkin had to wait many years to receive public recognition of his exploits.

Poll on Obama & the Economy
http://js.polls.yahoo.com/quiz/quiziframe.php?poll_id=46067
Vote early & often.

Petition to require Congress to use the Health Plan they pass
http://fleming.house.gov/index.html
Sign up for fairness

Border agent killed in unusual violence within U.S.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-07-25-border-agent-death_N.htm?csp=24&RM_Exclude=Juno
No comment from BO?

Obama ripped off Seinfeld for health care proposal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh3ln3swL7Q&feature=player_embedded
Too funny

Obama vs…..Obama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2MjQ17kDng&feature=player_embedded
All things to all people.

The Center Cannot Hold
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18249
According to Boskin, Obama's budget will: Almost triple the deficit. Add $6.5 trillion to the national debt. Leave future U.S. taxpayers (many of whom will make far less than $250,000) with the tab.

Response to a post attacking me over Islam

I allow most comments to post, even those attacking me, so I posted the one, below. I thought it worth publishing here, and commenting on it, afterwards. Note the gentlemen, who knows everything about America except how to spell it, doesn’t sign his name, and has to resort to profanity to make his points. ~Bob

*******************

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "I'm Tired": I'm not sure what the name is of the person who wrote this article, because I simply found it sitting in my inbox and clicked on the link to the blog so I could leave a comment. So whoever you are, this is for you. You are a shit.Your article has somehow managed to encapsulate everything that is wrong with your odious, hate-infested, failed state of Amerika. The only success you have achieved is to have proven to people like me that the Ugly Amerikan isn't just a harsh stereotype, but all too disturbingly true. It just shocks me that people like you have the nerve to feign pride in a country that, since its birth, has risen on the subjugation of weaker people and left a curse wherever it has cast its greedy, bloodthirsty attention. Let's skip past your first paragraph, which was basically just you congratulating yourself. Let's also dismiss your childish comparisons with other countries; there is no nation in the world, throughout history, that has relied so much on a combination of ethnic cleansing and treachery to build its foundations as the United States of Amerika. Your country was 'founded' when a small group of slave-holding aristocrats decided that they wanted to reap all the economic advantages of their plantations for themselves, without paying any fees to their British overlords. The only statesman who opposed this was Thomas Paine, which was why he was shut out from the corridors of power and consigned to oblivion. With him died the only true spirit of 'free' Amerika that ever existed. Hmm, now there's a history to be proud of. When a US President goes on national TV and apologises for the very way in which the country was born, then you can start to cast your ignorant judgement upon other, more honest nations. Of course, no Amerikan rant can be complete without some ugly hate speech aimed at Muslims, and true to the cliche, here you are to display your sheltered stupidity. Tell me, where in the Qur'an does it actually speak of honour killings? Presumably, having made such claims in your little speech, you must have researched the matter first, right? Of course you did. So where does the Qur'an instruct Muslims to kill their girls for going to school, and all the other Hollywood-sponsored drivel that you have conjured up? Can you provide the chapter and the verse? No...you can't can you, you moron. Those cases that you cite are cases of sheer ignorance, which have no basis in Islamic doctrine. Unlike, of course, the US policy of torturing civilians, which is very much a part of Amerikan military doctrine. But surprisingly, you didn't touch on that. Who knows, maybe your military career came off the back of applying the same noble techniques upon the 'gooks' in Vietnam, hence your reluctance to criticise it.All your vitriol about Democrats and other internal political issues means nothing to me; you Amerikans are so cute, pretending that the outside world gives a shit about Palin, or Obama, or any of the other scumbags that walk around in Washington, pretending that their country has something good to offer to the world. It doesn't.Perhaps the most galling aspect of your repulsive, hypocritical tirade is what you had to say in an attempt to defend the bestial behaviour of your soldiers across the world. Let me explain something to you, dickhead. If there is a big bag in a room, bursting at the seams with something, and a couple of cockroaches eventually crawl out of it, then it is a pretty safe bet that the bag is full of cockroaches. The few, sporadic reports that came out of Iraq and Afghanistan, documenting the human rights violations carried out by US 'soldiers', were not isolated incidents; they were simply the only ones that somehow made it to press. For all we know, as I'm typing, there is another 15 year old girl out there being gang raped and set on fire by the same US 'soldiers' who murdered her family minutes earlier; or maybe at this exact moment there is another convoy of US 'soldiers' who, in reaction to hearing the firing of bullets, are currently shooting at everything in sight and murdering any unarmed civilians they see. Both of these have happened in reality, and I do not doubt that they will happen again. In fact, why even look at the horror that you monsters inflict on others? There have been cases of female Amerikan soldiers dying of dehydration out in Iraq...want to know why? Because they avoid drinking water in fear that if they have to go to the toilet at night, they will be caught and raped by their comrades. I read that report over a year ago, and it made me physically sick. So when I read accounts of Amerikan soldiers handing out sweets from their tanks to Iraqi kids so that those starving children will act as human shields in the event of an insurgent attack, I don't feel too much surprise nowadays. The only thing that surprises me are idiots like you, who pretend that there is an iota of dignity or honour in the armed forces of your filthy, depraved country. In the immediate wake of the World Trade Centre attacks, I watched with many across the world and felt a genuine pang of upset for the US...now, as I read daily reports about the kind of atrocities that your subhuman comrades inflict on innocent, God-fearing people, I feel only joy when I hear about random high-school shootings that remove just a few more Amerikan lives from this planet. That is what people like you have done to me, and most probably done to many others in the world. I know that one day I will be cured of this bloodlust that exists within me, but for you and your kind, I can only hope that you will find the pain you have inflicted on others visited back upon you, if not in this life then at least the next.And 'hoo-rah' to that.

****************
I have indeed read quite a bit about Islam, the Qur’an and the Hadiths (the traditions of the Prophet—Peace be upon Him) which are considered holy works without which one cannot understand the Qur’an. And I have not found anything about honor killing or genital mutilation of young girls in those works. (Though there is support for child marriage in Islam under Shari’a law, as the hadiths say Muhammad married his youngest wife at 6, consummated the marriage when she was 9.) But there is mush of hate, conquest, and the subjugation of women that leads to these outrages. Google “honor killing” and see how many Presbyterians are murdering their female family members over the family’s “honor.”

That there are hundreds of millions of peaceful Muslims who want to live in peace is certainly true, just as there were millions of peaceful Germans and Japanese in 1938 who wanted to live in peace. Given that they do not have to power or authority of the haters, that is irrelevant, just as it was in 1938. I feel bad for them, living under the governments and Shari’a law they do. If any place needs separation of church (mosque) and state, it is the Islamic countries. Unfortunately, Islam is both a religion and a political system—they are inseparable—and it’s every Muslim’s duty to impose Islam & Shari’a on the rest of us, by force if necessary.

And, yes there are violent parts of the old testament--but Christians and Jews are not acting on them every day.

Among the books on Islam I’ve read and recommend:

No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam by Reza Aslan. A pro-Islam book. Aslan is a scholar from Iran, so bends a little to the Shi’a side of Islam’s internal Jihad.

Sowing the Wind: The Seeds of Conflict in the Middle East by John Keay

The Sword of the Prophet by Serge Trifkovic

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam and the Crusades by Robert Spencer

A Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas F. Madden

The below quotes are from the Qur’an. Note that the number of the Surah will vary with the translation. And the translation itself may vary. There are modern, politically-correct translations that moderate the comments, for example changing beat your wives to chastise them.

Qur’an Quotes

"Slay them wherever you find them...Idolatry is worse than carnage...Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God's religion reigns supreme." (Surah 2:190-)

"Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it." (Surah 2:216)

"Men are tempted [in this life] by the lure of women...far better is the return of God. Say: 'Shall I tell you of better things than these, with which the righteous shall be rewarded by their Lord? Theirs shall be gardens watered by running streams, where they shall dwell for ever: wives of perfect chastity..." (Surah 3:14, 15)

"The only true faith in God's sight is Islam." (Surah 3:19)

"Believers, do not make friends with any but your own people...They desire nothing but your ruin....You believe in the entire Book...When they meet you they say: 'We, too, are believers.' But when alone, they bite their finger-tips with rage." (Surah 3:118, 119)

"If you should die or be slain in the cause of God, His forgiveness and His mercy would surely be better than all the riches..." (Surah 3:156-)

"To those that declare: 'God has commanded us to believe no apostle unless he brings down fire to consume an offering,' say: 'Other apostles before me [Muhammad] have come to you with veritable signs and worked the miracle you asked for...If they reject you [Muhammad], other apostles have been rejected before you..." (Surah 3:183-)

"If you wish to replace a wife with another, do not take from her the dowry you have given her..." (Surah 4:20)

"The Jews and Christians say: 'We are the children of God and His loved ones.' Say: 'Why then does He punish you for your sins?" (Surah 5:18)

"Believers, take neither Jews nor Christians for your friends." (Surah 5:51)

"The God will say: 'Jesus, son of Mary, did you ever say to mankind 'Worship me and my mother as gods besides God?' 'Glory to You, 'he will answer, 'how could I ever say that to which I have no right?" (Surah 5:114-)

"Believers, when you encounter the infidels on the march, do not turn your backs to them in flight. If anyone on that day turns his back to them, except it be for tactical reasons...he shall incur the wrath of God and Hell shall be his home..." (Surah 8:12-)

"Make war on them until idolatry shall cease and God's religion shall reign supreme." (Surah 8:36-)

"If you fear treachery from any of your allies, you may fairly retaliate by breaking off your treaty with them." (Surah 8:51-)

"...make war on the leaders of unbelief...Make war on them: God will chastise them at your hands and humble them. He will grant you victory over them..." (Surah 9:12-)

"It ill becomes the idolaters [non-Muslims] to visit the mosques of God..." (Surah 9:17)

"Fight against such as those to whom the Scriptures were given [Jews and Christians]...until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued." (Surah 9:27-)

"It is He who has sent forth His apostle with guidance and the true Faith [Islam] to make it triumphant over all religions, however much the idolaters [non-Muslims] may dislike it." (Surah 9:31-)

"If you do not fight, He will punish you sternly, and replace you by other men." (Surah 9:37-)

"Prophet make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home." (Surah 9:73)

"Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them." (Surah 9:121-)

"Say: 'Praise be to God who has never begotten a son; who has no partner in His Kingdom..." (Surah 17:111)

"Fight for the cause of God with the devotion due to Him...He has given you the name of Muslims..." (Surah 22:78-)

“Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know. Whatever ye shall spend in the cause of Allah, shall be repaid unto you, and ye shall not be treated unjustly." -- Qur'an Surah 8:60