Showing posts with label jihad Islam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jihad Islam. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Today's Political News

Sorry for no post on Monday--life got in the way--so long post today. Nothing bad, family birthday, company, etc. ~Bob

Thanks to Liberals
I started a #ThanksToLiberals hashtag on Twitter, and sent the tweets on this link. ~Bob

Wounded Warrior Project
A friend who contributes wanted to know how they spent their money. so I went to www.guidestar.org, which publishes the 990 tax returns of non-profits, which are public record. (Yes, you can go there and find out what I made last year managing a non-profit.) It's free, but you must register. This is from the WWP 2012 tax return. I support the Semper Fi Injured Marine Fund. Thought this might be of interest. ~Bob

Income:                                  $154,958,901

Expenses (scroll down for functional expenses):

(These appear to be the only expenses helping wounded warriors)
Grants to organizations:       $4,657,084
Grants to individuals:           $871,194

(These appear to be the overhead expenses.)
Compensation, Officers,
 Directors & Trustees               $1,057,997
Other wages:                           $15,415,666
Pension Plan:                           $340,650
Employee Benefits:                  $2,266,457
Payroll Taxes:                          $1,594,740
Legal:                                      $499,509
Accounting:                             $131,746
Professional Fund Raising:        $1,901,169
Advertising & Promotions:       $146,299
Office Expenses:                     12,451,303
IT:                                           $254,319
Occupancy (rent):                   $2,490,195
Travel:                                     $4,085,509
Depreciation:                           $1,572,823
Insurance                                $215,654
Outside Services:                    $20,915,404
Meetings and events:               $9,637,863
Direct Response Service:         $6,930,429
Promotional Items:                  $4,055,567
All other expenses:                  $3,659,493

Joint Costs:                             $25,576,675
(Joint costs from a combined educational campaign and fund raising solicitation.)

Important: Beware the monetary cliff. By John H. Makin
Excerpt: Key points in this Outlook: The monetary cliff—the US potential to slip into a period of negative inflation (deflation) at the end of quantitative easing—is a more threatening precipice than the fiscal cliff the United States faced earlier this year. Major economies should be wary of deflation because of its potential to drive down investment, spending, lending, and employment growth. Current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and soon-to-be chairman Janet Yellen should make deflation avoidance a more clearly stated Fed objective by setting a hard lower bound for inflation.

Good Column: Obama’s Fallout for the Left: He will not be harmed by his “misspeaking,” but his fellow liberals will. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Obama has proved disingenuous, without suffering many consequences, for much of his tenure — raising taxes when he said he would not; vastly increasing the national debt when he said he would cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term; promising lower unemployment when in fact he has presided over a jobless rate of 7 percent or more for every month of his administration; bragging about new gas and oil production, which actually came on private land despite, not because of, his efforts; claiming credit for reducing a deficit that fell only because of the sequestration that he fought, and only because his previous deficits were so staggering that they were not sustainable.

Good Column: Tea Party at the Crossroads. By Thomas Sowell 
Excerpt: Third parties have had an unbroken record of failure in American presidential politics. So it was refreshing to see in the Tea Party an insurgent movement, mainly of people who were not professional politicians, but who nevertheless had the good sense to see that their only chance of getting their ideals enacted into public policies was within one of the two major parties. More important, the Tea Party was an insurgent movement that was not trying to impose some untried Utopia, but to restore the lost heritage of America that had been eroded, undermined or just plain sold out by professional politicians.

Excerpt: Here is something that is odd. For the past six years President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have waged a relentless attack on the health insurance industry. In the most recent iteration, the president assures us he is not responsible for the wave of health insurance policy cancellations. The insurance companies are. Okay, so where is the other side? When is the last time you saw an insurance industry executive interviewed on a TV talk show, presenting the industry’s answer to all these attacks? You can’t remember seeing that? I can’t either.

The Kids Aren't All Right. Younger Americans are being suffocated by spending, subsidies, and debt. By Veronique de Rugy
Excerpt: A word of caution for kids heading off to college this year: Your degree may be worth less and cost more than you think. Your job prospects will likely be grim, whether or not you get that sheepskin. Oh, and you're on the hook for trillions in federal debt racked up by your parents and grandparents. (Well, they voted for him. ~Bob)

Outrageous: The Drift toward Despotism: Too many of our rulers and their enforcers reflexively see the citizenry as a threat. By Mark Steyn
Excerpt: At a time when over 4 million people have had their health insurance canceled, it’s good to know that some Americans can still access prompt medical treatment, even if they don’t want it. David Eckert was pulled over by police in Deming, N.M., for failing to come to a complete halt at a stop sign in the Walmart parking lot. He was asked to step out of the vehicle, and waited on the sidewalk. Officers decided that they didn’t like the tight clench of his buttocks, a subject on which New Mexico’s constabulary is apparently expert, and determined that it was because he had illegal drugs secreted therein.

Excerpt: A third New Mexico resident is claiming that she was physically abused by police and medical staff who exceeded their authority to search for drugs she never had. The woman’s attorney came forward with her story just a few days after a local news channel reported similar stories involving New Mexicopolice forcing two suspects to undergo invasive surgery to prove they weren’t carrying drugs. Police used expired and nonexistent warrants to justify the improper and unethical searches, according to KOB-TV 4. The unnamed woman is being represented by Laura Schaur Ives of the New Mexico chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Quote
Obama's apology like saying, 'I'm sorry your dog died,' without admitting you ran him over. --Sen. Ron Johnson

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. --Dwight D. Eisenhower

It Took Three 20-Something Programmers A Couple Of Nights To Come Up With An Obamacare Website Alternative
Excerpt: As the Obamacare website continues to confound both users and government officials, three 20-something San Francisco-area programmers say they’ve created a much simpler and cost-effective version of the site.Ning Liang, George Kalogeropoulos and Michael Wasser put their heads together and created thehealthsherpa.com, a website that addresses the biggest problems with the glitch-ridden healthcare.gov. (We spent a half $1 billion over three years. And these three guys did it in a couple of weekends for pennies. And it works. What is wrong with this picture. --Steve M.)

Excerpt: Wilson got ignorant black people to “vote their color,” using the same tactic as America’s half-white president, and like Obama, Wilson won, and without having black people vote “early and often.”

Why Elizabeth Warren should scare Hillary Clinton. By Chris Cillizza
Excerpt: Quick, name someone who would have a realistic chance of beating out Hillary Clinton for the 2016 presidential nomination. Martin O’Malley? Nope. Joe Biden? Maybe but probably not. Howard Dean. No way. There’s only answer to that question that makes even a little sense. And that answer is Elizabeth Warren. (Dear God. Is Trotsky not available? ~Bob)

Wishful thinking: Obamacare Will Be Repealed Well In Advance Of The 2014 Elections
Excerpt: Prediction: even if HealthCare.gov is fixed by the end of the month (unlikely), Obamacare is going to be repealed well in advance of next year’s election. And if the website continues to fail, the push for repeal—from endangered Democrats—will occur very rapidly. The website is a sideshow: the real action is the number of people and businesses who are losing their health plans or having to pay a lot more. Fixing the website will only delay the inevitable. (Wait, I thought only terrorist, extremist, hostage-taking Tea Party Republicans were for repeal? ~Bob)

Getting More Glitchy: Obamacare Portal Faces New Woes
Excerpt: Software engineers and tech analysts scrambling to fix HealthCare.gov are discovering new problems by the day, as early fixes take hold and users are able to navigate more deeply into the troubled online application process, administration officials said Thursday.

IDF: Palestinian's Own Words Show Intent in Checkpoint Attack
Excerpt: Israel's military is pointing to a series of Facebook postings by a Palestinian man to show that he wanted to die attacking Israelis. Anas Alatrash was shot and killed last Thursday at a checkpoint near Bethlehem. Soldiers say Alatrash, 23, got out of his car and charged at soldiers with a knife. He was shot after ignoring warnings to stop.

55% Favor Repeal of Obamacare
Excerpt: Most voters view the new national health care law as bad for the country and want to repeal it. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 35% of Likely U.S. Voters now believe the trouble-plagued health care law is good for America. Fifty-five percent (55%) consider it bad for the country. Only two percent (2%) think it will have no impact. (If only we lived in a democracy. ~Bob)

James O’Keefe reveals corruption at the heart of the president’s signature program
Excerpt: James O’Keefe, the guerrilla videographer who helped bring down ACORN (the “community organizing” group that Barack Obama worked for as a lawyer and trainer) and got NPR’s president fired, is back. This time, his undercover investigators focused on Obamacare’s “navigators,” ...

Record high 91.5 million people not included in labor force
Excerpt: With the US population of just over 300 million this is almost 1 in 3. WOW.

The Republicans’ New Obamacare Squabble: The GOP is divided on bills to let Americans keep their health plans. By Eliana Johnson
Excerpt: ‘I’m going to oppose any effort to bring this to the floor just as a messaging vote,” Ron Johnson says of his “If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep It” Act. The Wisconsin senator isn’t interested in giving Democrats a “cover vote” and wants the legislation to move forward only “if it has a chance of passage.” It’s a not-so-subtle jab at the tea-party senators who last month led an unsuccessful charge to defund the Affordable Care Act. Johnson’s bill — and similar legislation introduced in the House by Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R., Mich.) — is threatening to reopen the wounds of the government shutdown that had GOP lawmakers openly feuding a few weeks ago.

How the iPod President Crashed: Obama's Broken Technology Promise. By Ezra Klein
Excerpt: After Obama got to the White House he tried to deliver on the promise. He created positions for a chief information officer and a chief technology officer. He embarked on a massive effort to open up government data. He created an online dashboard to bring transparency to the government’s spending on IT. “If a project is over budget or behind schedule, this site tells you that, and by how much—and it provides the name, the e-mail, and the phone number of the person responsible,” Obama said in January 2010. “To date, the site has gotten 78 million hits.” To Obama, this was part of the core work of rescuing the idea that government could actually solve big problems.

How Much Hatred of Israel Is Too Much? By Daniel Greenfield 
Excerpt: The Israelophobic left is a spectrum of hatred that stretches from the commonplace mainstream media basher who pounds out innumerable columns blaming Israel for everything wrong with the Middle East to the Gilad Atzmons and Israel Shamirs who claim that Israel is evil because the Jews are the devil.

Excerpt: The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America’s push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply. Even the cemetery that disappeared like an apparition into a cornfield. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. 

Report: Obama's ethanol policy has ravaged the environment: Boost in corn grown for ethanol has wiped out 5m acres of conservation land, polluted water, finds AP investigation.
Excerpt: When President Barack Obama gave a major policy speech on reducing greenhouse gases last June, he didn't once mention ethanol, an alcohol-based fuel that’s a byproduct of distilled corn. Biofuels in general, which are extracted from sugar, grasses or rapeseed oil, received a brief, passing reference. But when the Iowa political caucuses were on the horizon in 2007, Obama, a presidential candidate, made homegrown corn a centerpiece of his plan to slow global warming. 

America’s Wilderness Years. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Most two-term presidents leave some sort of legacy. Ronald Reagan won the Cold War. George W. Bush prevented another 9/11, and constructed an anti-terrorism protocol that even his critical successor embraced and often expanded. But Barack Obama? The economy is anemic. We have never seen unemployment dip below 7% in the last five years. Real jobless rates that include those who have given up on working are perhaps double the official figures.

Hunger for drugs brings torture and death to Mexico City
Excerpt: “Confidential,” the investigator growled when asked why his presence was required at the spot, which now serves as a landmark for the sadism and kidnappings that have long been associated with other areas. Drug-related violence that has claimed perhaps 70,000 lives nationwide over seven years has now arrived 15 minutes from the seat of the federal government. (Geeze. Obama and Holder need to send the cartels more guns. ~Bob)

Poll: Egypt worst Arab state for women
Excerpt: Despite hopes that women would be among the prime beneficiaries of the Arab Spring, poll results released Tuesday said that sexual harassment, high rates of female genital mutilation and a surge in violence have made Egypt the Arab world’s worst country in which to be a woman. (It's there equally-valid culture. Who are we to judge? ~Bob)

Analysis: Arab Spring nations backtrack on women's rights, poll says
Why Obama, the left and the media loved the "Arab Spring." ~Bob

Socialism in Action: Report: North Korea publicly executes 80 people
Excerpt: The executions were said to be carried out simultaneously on Nov. 3 in seven cities for crimes ranging from watching South Korean movies to distributing pornography to possession of a Bible, JoongAng Ilbo, one of South Korea’s largest newspapers, reported Monday.

Socialism in Action: Venezuelans throng stores amid price curb
Excerpt: People stand in lines outside stores for fourth day after President deployed army to force retailers to slash prices.

Venezuelan President Maduro 'to expand price controls'
Excerpt: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he plans to extend price controls to all consumer goods, if he is given powers to govern by decree. In a televised address, Mr Maduro said that he wanted to set legal limits on businesses' profit margins. (Rule by decree we call "Executive Orders." ~Bob)

Doctors Will Be Left Paying Tab For Obamacare ‘Grace Periods’: Report
Excerpt: The Affordable Care Act entitles consumers eligible for the federal subsidy to three “free” months of health care if they choose to default on their premiums, meaning doctors and hospitals will be left paying the tab.

Australia to UN: No More ‘Socialist Masquerading As Environmentalism’
Excerpt: According to The Australian, the document that was agreed upon declares that Australia "will not sign up to any new agreement that involves spending money or levying taxes" on climate change matters. It "rules out Australia playing any role in a wealth transfer from rich countries to developing nations to pay them to decrease their carbon emissions." Australia also plans to repeal its carbon tax as it toughens its stance against the climate change agenda.

Devastating US-EU trade pact would make genocide a legitimate business model
Excerpt: The United States and the European Union are negotiating a free-trade agreement they hail as mutually beneficial but in actuality would allow corporations to supersede countries' sovereignty and legal framework, says Max Keiser of RT's The Keiser Report. The US and EU's Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) aims to hand foreign corporations ways to evade domestic laws and courts while giving "them the ability to sue the countries for compensatory damages from the economies that they've just devastated," Keiser told RT.

Excerpt: As the coffins are flown in the dead of night into Dover Air Force base, the honored dead are escorted personally by a member of their unit. This is as it should be. Taps are not played, no martial music can be heard as each coffin is removed from the cargo bay and transferred to a van that will take them to the 436th Air Transport Wing's Charles Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs. It is there where the real heartbreak will continue.

Two pictures and the anti-gun lobby

Islamic converts threatened to 'kill non-believers' in vigilante patrol
Excerpt: Two Islamic converts threatened to stab members of the public and "kill non-believers" as they roamed the streets of east London in the early hours of the morning.

Excerpt: Unknown to many, 95 miles north of San Diego in the city of Westminster stands a memorial to the Vietnam War erected by the Vietnamese-American community. The centerpiece is a statue of two soldiers standing close to each other, South Vietnamese and American.
As we honor Veterans Day, we should remember that it was not just an American war but a non-communist Vietnamese one as well. They suffered many more casualties than we did and also lost their country. (This is a very appropriate reminder about all those Vietnamese who fought, suffered, died, not only during the war, but after it, as the communists went through the country, murdering all they felt were important enemies during the war. --Del)

Excerpt: Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has introduced three pieces of legislation that he argues would increase transparency in government — including one that would restrict lawmakers from addressing more than one subject in bills they draft.

Band of Brothers
After the ad--great stuff. The Wounded Warrior Band. ~Bob

When we think of remembering the fallen, this says it all

Military Families Get A $2,400 Bill From ObamaCare
Excerpt: Thus the president’s much-touted benefit means the cost of children’s coverage will go up—dramatically. And now we know by how much: for military families between $175 and $200 a month in the first year. The law that extended this requirement to the military—which is separate from ObamaCare—didn’t provide any funds for the coverage, according to the Journal article. So the government must charge our men and women in uniform that additional premium.

An Iranian Deputy Minister Is Assassinated in Tehran
Excerpt: An unidentified attacker shot and killed an Iranian deputy minister of industry in Tehran on Sunday, the state news agency IRNA reported. The killing was the first reported assassination of a senior national official in Iran in years, though there has been a recent wave of attacks on local officials and others.

Artist nails his scrotum to the ground in Red Square
Excerpt: Performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky stages protest at 'apathy, political indifference and fatalism of Russian society' (Insert your own joke--I can't do everything for you. ~Bob)

The Lonely Guy: He’s a community organizer who works alone. What was once his greatest strength—he kept his cool and didn’t need feedback—is now a liability. By Todd S. Purdum
Excerpt: Like so much conventional wisdom, that impression has proved dead wrong. In fact, Obama’s resolute solitude—his isolation and alienation from the other players and power centers of Washington, be they rivals or friends—has emerged as the defining trait of his time in office. He may be the biggest presidential paradox since Thomas Jefferson, the slaveholder who wrote the Declaration of Independence: a community organizer who works alone.

Colonel Larry Mrozinski on the "Affordable Health Care Act"

Black Mob Violence in Chicago: Ridiculous to Dangerous. 
Excerpt: The latest case of black mob violence in Chicago is far from the worst. We’ll get to that one in a minute. But when a mob of black people rushed into three Chicago area Sports Authority stores this week and rushed out dragging entire racks of winter clothing, the localCBS affiliate dubbed that “unbelievable.

It's Not a Matter of Right or Left. It's a Matter of Right and Wrong. By Joe Bastardi 
Excerpt: To me, Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is not an issue between Right and Left – it's an issue between right and wrong. Several years ago, in 2007, I discussed the “triple crown of cooling” theory on The O'Reilly Factor. More appropriately, it's the Triple Crown of Climate, and it's not new. It's been the foundation of climate cycle theory until the recent hysteria over CO2 came to the forefront. It was taught for years that the sun, the oceans and stochastic events (such as volcanoes) are far and away the major climate drivers. (OK, and here's actual Science again. Not that it makes any difference to the AGW fanatics. This is one of the best articles I've seen in a while. --Del)

Burka suspect Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed flees - so police nick reporter
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/charlie-catchpole-burka-suspect-mohammed-2715778#ixzz2kFWBTCj9
Excerpt: Police hunting a runaway terror suspect swooped on a mosque in West London and nabbed… a tabloid newspaper reporter. The journalist had been distributing posters in the area around the mosque where Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed dodged the long arm of the law by donning a burka, offering a reward for the 27-year-old Somali-born Briton’s arrest. ... Uniformed officers arrived and took the reporter and his photographer to Acton police station on suspicion of “racially ­aggravated public disorder”.

Feds' 3 Tentacles In The Common Core
Excerpt: Let me give you what I consider my core problems with CCSS and why I believe it is not the solution for America’s broken educational system. …The first core problem I need to address is one that is hot on the blogosphere and in the news: the fact that the feds have already abandoned their commitment and restrictions to stay out of local academic affairs by using the CCSS to overreach into public schools and influence young American minds. (Regime extending tentacles. ”They have to be carefully taught.” --Barb)

Obama 'Weakening Military In Unprecedented Ways'
Excerpt: The U.S. military, which has seen generals and other high-level officers relieved of duty at an unprecedented rate during the Obama administration, is in trouble largely because of the radical social experimentation being forced upon it, according to the Center for Military Readiness. CMR’s president, Elaine Donnelly, said in an interview with WND that officers have gotten the Obama administration’s message of political correctness – “and most have been virtually silent ever since.”

National Grid to participate in power grid drill on Nov. 13-14
Excerpt: NERC is a not-for-profit organization with a mission to “ensure the reliability” of large interconnected electrical systems, such as National Grid, in the United StatesCanada and parts of Mexico. Many of the specifics of the drill have not been made known to utilities and agencies involved, according to a National Grid spokesman.

Excerpt: Democrats spent much of the recession pushing us to “Buy American” — a sentiment based much less in solid economics than in union politics. But be that as it may, apparently the Department of Health and Human Services didn’t get the message, judging from the foreign origins of five of the companies awarded contracts to work on the Obamacare health exchanges — including the two most lucrative ones…. Meanwhile, American taxpayers are sending huge checks overseas to inept companies. (Oh, yeah, implement that “superior” healthcare system in the UK and Canada and declare the US one “broken.” It will be. --Barb)

This Week, SCOTUS To Re-examine The Constitution’s Supremacy Clause (Reader Post)
Excerpt: Tomorrow the SCOTUS is going to start to review if international treaty can overrule the Constitution of the United States. This will affect all current and future considerations of what is the “law of the Land.” If Roberts rolls over again, then the UN’s Small Arms Treaty can be allowed violate our Second Amendment rights, as well as what will happen with the effect of all UN and World Court decisions on every other current national law and regulations. What this is all about you might ask?:

You have no idea how big the Obama lie is
Excerpt: So as of 2010, the Obama administration planned that most Americans with employer-sponsored health care plans would lose them, whether they liked those plans or not. The administration never intended to allow any American to keep a non-Obamacare insurance policy for any length of time. And for small business, it’s more like 80%.

Netanyahu: Iran Deal is Bad and Dangerous
Excerpt: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would do all it could to keep world powers from striking a "bad and dangerous" deal with Iran over its nuclear program. Netanyahu said: “At the week's end I spoke with President Obama, President Putin, President Hollande, Chancellor Merkel and British Prime Minister Cameron. I told them that based on all of the information reachingIsrael, the deal being crafted is a bad and dangerous one. …Dangerous to world peace because it suddenly removes the pressure of the sanctions that took years to build, and on the other hand, Iran remains, effectively, with its ability to enrich uranium, as well as an ability to advance on the plutonium track.” (Guess he does not know POTUS been doing it for months? --Barb)

US Removing Navy From Mid-East As Russia Enters
Excerpt: The American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz was recalled from the Persian Gulf on Friday, along with the destroyer USS Graveley from the Mediterranean Sea. The move comes less than a week after Russia sent its most powerful warships to the Mediterranean. Al Jazeera reports the Nimitz moved through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, and is anticipated to reach the US in late December. 

Exclusive: Obama’s Secret Iran Détente. By Eli LakeJosh Rogin 
Excerrpt: The Obama administration began softening sanctions on Iran after the election of Iran’s new president in June, months before the current round of nuclear talks in Geneva or the historic phone call between the two leaders in September. While those negotiations now appear on the verge of a breakthrough the key condition for Iran—relief from crippling sanctions—began quietly and modestly five months ago. A review of Treasury Department notices reveals that the U.S. government has all but stopped the financial blacklisting of entities and people that help Iran evade international sanctions since the election of its president, Hassan Rouhani, in June.

For Vietnam Vets, It’s Good to Hear ‘Welcome Home’
Quotes my buddy Bill, but got his time in Nam wrong. ~Bob. Excerpt: Bill Rajewski Sr. who served in Vietnam in 1964 as part of Marine Corps said that people expressing gratitude for his service and welcoming him home means a lot. Rajewski still remembers the people who offered him a better seat on an airplane.

Code talkers being honored by Congress
Excerpt: American Indians who sent coded messages to shield U.S. military communications from the enemy during World Wars I and II are being honored later this month at the nation’s capital. Several South Dakota and North Dakota tribes are among 33 tribes to be recognized as part of the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in WashingtonD.C., on Nov. 20, for the Native American code talkers, South Dakota’s congressional delegation said in a statement. Code talkers used their native language to send communications that enemies could not decode. (Say, how about reaming them "The Washington Codetalkers"?! ~Bob)

Seniors lose insurance and doctors under Obamacare
Excerpt: “They took all the senior citizens and threw us out of the plan. They now want to give us the same plan for $153 [per month],” he told the Daily Caller. “The President said you can’t be kicked out of your plan. He lies.” (What did you expect? “Rules For Radicals (Revolution)” by Alinksy practiced by POTUS, FLOTUS and Hillary. What 10 Commandments? Who cares? Going to church is a photo op. --Barb)

Don’t get crushed by the falling van-sized satellite on Sunday night
Excerpt: It turns out that the sky really is sort of falling. A defunct 2,000 pound satellite the size of a van called the GOCE — Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer — is expected to crash into Earth between Sunday evening and Monday afternoon, but experts are uncertain where it will land. The GOCE, launched into orbit into 2009 by the European Space Agency, ran out of fuel in October and “has been steadily sinking towards the Earth,” reports Fox News.

Excerpt: President Obama has been accused of crimes against humanity in a new complaint submitted to the International Criminal Court, based in the Hague…. “Obama cooperated, incited, and assisted the armed elements of the Muslim Brotherhood in the commission of crimes against humanity in the period from 3/7/2013-8/18/2013, in the Arab Republic of Egypt,” according to the complaint, which was reported on by Egypt’s El Watan newspaper.


excerpt: Even before the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the 5+1 world powers ended in Geneva early Sunday with no deal, an Iranian general lashed out atAmerica Saturday and warned both the U.S. and Israel that they will be attacked. According to Fars News Agency, the regime’s outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said “America’s interests and all of Israel are within the range of the Islamic Republic and there is not the slightest doubt among Iran’s armed forces to confront the American government and the Zionists (Israel).”

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for April 15, 2013


Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for April 15, 2013
Robert A. Hall

Your one-stop-shop for political news and opinion. Please forward to friends who need to be informed. This SitRep (Military for “Situation Report”) is created by many readers who send me items for inclusion, which I would have likely missed or skipped. And I can only spend at most three hours a night pulling stuff, plus the healthcare or economic stuff that crosses my desk at work. As always, I—and you—owe them thanks and appreciation. I post articles because I think they are of interest and will stimulate thought and discussion. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article, or that I was able to verify the information presented, which is the responsibility of the author. I try not to post things that are false, or too far a stretch, regardless of the view point, but I don’t always succeed. As always on the Net, or in the legacy media, you must read critically and with skepticism.

Been slammed this weekend. Wife's birthday and granddaughter's dance competition. Caught up as best I can. The mailing list is getting over whelming. ~Bob.

30 things you may not know about Bob Hall
Happy Birthday to old guy....

Guest Post: Observations on Paul Krugman’s Column: “Medicaid and Freedom.” By Samuel L. Skogstad

Guest Post: Protecting the Vulnerable

Guards, prisoners clash at Guantanamo
Excerpt: Prison guards at Guantanamo Bay clashed with detained terrorist suspects on Saturday, U.S. military officials said, leading to shots being fired.

Dems fear Obama’s Social Security cut will haunt them in 2014 races
Excerpt: A growing number of House Democrats are concerned that President Obama's proposal to cut Social Security benefits will haunt the party at the polls in 2014. Although Democrats have long-championed the retirement program, they say Obama's plan to reduce payments for future beneficiaries through a chained consumer price index (CPI) has weakened their stance and opened the door for Republicans to vilify the president.

Students Asked to ‘Argue That Jews Are Evil’ and Prove Nazi Loyalty in Assignment Linked to Common Core
Excerpt: Students in some Albany High School English classes were asked to participate in the unthinkable this week as part of a persuasive writing assignment. The objective? Prove why Jews are evil and convince the teacher of their loyalty to the Third Reich in five paragraphs or less. 

A Scientist Reproves the Alarmist Flock
Excerpt: This letter to the editor of a newspaper in Washington State was written by Dr. David Deming in response to an attack on Don Easterbrook by a group of professors at Western Washington University. I thought it was too good not to share; in part, because it isn’t just about global warming alarmism, it is about science. Via Watts Up With That? Note that there are numerous links in the original post: (A contrast that is really important for people to understand, and which basically explains a lot about what goes on today in the Climate Change debate. We all tend to think that everyone with advanced degrees in Science will always apply the principles and practices of Science when examining something going on in the world. However, it turns out that the PhD in Science does not guarantee the recipient is immune to personal biases and strong emotions affecting how some matters are researched and adopted according to a particular view. In a word, scientists can be and often are biased in how they perceive some kind of event in the world. And global climate is one of those very important topics of the world the understanding of which has been very much affected by biases and perceptions rather than facts and logic. --Del)

Strassel: Terry McAuliffe's Solyndra: Running for governor of Virginia, the Democrat's main business credential is fast turning into a crony-capitalist embarrassment. 
Excerpt: Turn over any green-energy rock, and wiggling underneath will be the usual creepy mix of political favoritism and taxpayer-funded handouts. Add to this the Clintons, Mississippi and a murky visa program, and you've got a particularly ripe political embarrassment for Terry McAuliffe. ( Taxpayer money going out in big chunks, for a super marketed idea that pays off.... NOT. Well, actually, to be picky, it does pay off. Just not for the taxpayers. But some others sure get to suck a serious chunk of change out of the project before it goes belly up. It's a shame and a scandal that somehow certain sharp operators jump on what sound like really good ideas but turn out to be giant losers. You would hope that somewhere in the system there would be people who'd be taking a careful, critical look at ventures before ponying up many millions to them. --Del)

Wounded Marine Vet Sued By City for Flying Military Flags at His Restaurant (Video at LINK)
Excerpt: Orlando restaurant owner Eddie Colosimo, a wounded Marine Corps veteran, was told this week he could no longer fly military flags in front of his business establishment. The flags are offensive.

Yoani Sánchez Uncaged--The Cuban dissident dismantles Castrocare.
Excerpt: But it wasn’t the packed schedule and nonstop traveling — or even the heckling she received from pro-Castro demonstrators at several events — that she found most taxing. Rather, she said, it was the need to constantly dispel myths about Cuba, including about its supposedly first-rate healthcare system. “It tires me to explain to people who celebrate the great Cuban healthcare system how, if we want to visit one of our relatives in the hospital, we have to bring a bag of food under one arm and clean sheets under the other arm to care for the patient because these things are not available in the hospital,” Sánchez said via a translator.

Convicted rapist organizes gun control demonstration at Dayton gun show;
Media fails to note his sex offender status

 http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/8763
Excerpt: After reading the article, a Buckeye Firearms Association supporter decided to contact McCorry, the apparent protest organizer, to inform him about the inaccuracies in his statements about firearms (it isn't illegal for private individuals to sell a gun at the show without a background check, people aren't selling M16s or fully-automatic AK-47s at Hara Arena, modern sporting rifles are used for hunting, gun shows are rarely used by criminals as a source for guns, rifles [of any type] are used in murders far less than fists or baseball bats, etc.). The supporter quickly found more than he bargained for. A simple Google search for Jerome McCorry reveals that the man trying to tell the public what weapons they should be allowed to own is a convicted felon.

Excerpt: Barack Obama, often championed by liberals as a new modern day savior, has now been anointed with another moniker. To illegal Mexican invaders he is the new Moses. If there were any doubts that "Moses Obama's Amnesty/Open Borders policy is encouraging further invasion, that was cleared up this week. When captured here by the Border Patrol border crossers imply pronounce that Obama shall free them! Don't take my word for it. Here's a quote from a Brooks County, Texas illegal immigrant captured yesterday: "It seems even illegal immigrants seeking to cross over the U.S.-Mexico border are following the current immigration debate. Linda Vickers, who owns a ranch in Brooks County, Texas, told WOAI that she witnessed one man being arrested on her ranch and that he told the border agent Obama would let him go. "The Border Patrol agent was loading one man up, and he told the officer in Spanish, 'Obama's gonna let me go'," Vickers said. Meanwhile, Border Patrol agents report that some immigrants will even ask, "Where do I go for my amnesty?" while they are surrendering."

Kermit Gosnell Trial: Philadelphia Abortion Clinic 'Beheaded Live Babies'
Excerpt: Massof, who awaits his own sentencing hearing after he pled guilty to the murder of two babies, claimed the clinic also cut out the spinal cord of nearly 100 living infants. …… Masoff further alleged the ultrasound machine in the hospital was manipulated to make the fetuses look smaller and younger. … However, Massof also declaimed his innocence, on the grounds he believed his employer's intention was only to help women who were often extremely poor. (Per article, “Prosecutors say Gosnell earned more than a million dollars (£1.5m) every year and he charged $3,000 (£1950) for an abortion.” --Barb)

Durbin, Obama linked to defunct Chicago nonprofit under investigation
http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/12/durbin-obama-linked-to-chicago-nonprofit-under-investigation/#ixzz2QMhp5Wcl
Excerpt: The controversial non-profit is reportedly under investigation for misappropriating potential millions of dollars in taxpayer money by the Illinois Attorney General’s Charitable Trusts Bureau. A Bureau representative declined to comment to The Daily Caller, citing a policy of not commenting on ongoing investigations. The Save-A-Life Foundation, which received nearly $9 million in federal and Illinois state funding to teach schoolchildren CPR and the Heimlich maneuver, dissolved in 2009 but is still under investigation amid claims that it misrepresented the number of children it provided services to and of “money unaccounted for.” (Read carefully when someone says "linked." May be only one person who spread a rumor. May be true. ~bob.)

Not Yet Time to Declare Victory over Climate Anti-Capitalists. By Peter Wilson
Excerpt: Some climate change skeptics have begun to express optimism recently, based in part on a mildly skeptical article in the normally true-believer Economist magazine. On AT, for example, Jonathon Moseley argued in "The Coming Global Warming Voter Backlash" that the planet hasn't been warming since 1998, and global warming zealots can prevaricate for only so long before voters rise up and throw the bums out. (The warmists are still going strong, and the courts are supporting them. This is not good. --Del)

Teacher 'told fourth-graders to write notes saying they were prepared to give up their constitutional rights to be safer'
Excerpt: A Florida father was disturbed to find a note in his ten-year-old son's backpack that read: 'I am willing to give up some of my constitutional rights in order to be safer or more secure.' Aaron Harvey, of Duval County, says his child was told to write the sentence by the teacher during a civics lesson at Cedar Hills Elementary School. (OK, this is another one of those things where you really, really wonder what the teacher thinks he/she is doing with an assignment like this. Fourth-graders are old enough to be given some instruction on our history and what constitutional rights mean, but to be told to write a sentence like this seems like not exactly what the kids should be hearing. --Del.(More proof of need to privatize education and or/home school. MM))

Taking the “Pulse” of Missile Defense
Excerpt: And what’s the most effective way to get a nuclear weapon to a position where it can be detonated to create an EMP? Where it can cause maximum damage to the U.S. electrical grid and other elements of our infrastructure? A ballistic missile. What are rogue nations such as North Korea trying to acquire? Ballistic missiles. (Since the EMP effect was first discovered in the 50s and verified as real in the 60s, virtually every possible attack scenario envisioned has included it as one of the opening moves by any aggressor who was capable of lofting a bomb high enough to impact a significant area. From the aggressor’s point of view, it has many strategic advantages. It kills no one directly, so every anti-war faction would feel justified in demanding no retaliation. It renders no territory unfit for human use (especially by invading forces).While destroying electrics and electronics would hurt or cripple an advanced society’s military technology, it might have little impact on a less-developed military force. Since the explosion would take place so far above the earth’s surface, it might be difficult to determine who set it off, and could not only be deniable but even passed off as an unfortunate accident, if the true source is discovered. The devastation might well require “foreign aid, succor and assistance” justifying large numbers of foreign military to come “help us." Sounds like fun, doesn’t it? And, this doesn’t even figure in any sort of direct bomb damage or attack on the ground. Currently, our only real defense against this happening is our naval forces being scattered across the oceans', right, we’re reducing those naval forces, and keeping them closer to home these days, aren’t we? Sleep well, friend. Try not to have bad dreams about North Korea or Iran—or both (they’re just little pipsqueak countries who feel a need to protect themselves, right? They couldn’t possibly hurt us).Ron P.)

The result of ‘walking while gay’ in certain Muslim neighborhoods of Paris
Excerpt: Ooops! Guess he didn’t realize he had wandered into a Muslim ‘NO-GO’ zone. There are areas in France which no longer belong to the French State and are euphemistically named ‘Zones Urbaines Sensibles’ (Sensitive Urban Zones) by the French government.

Excerpt: "Those who have studied in our religious schools believe that ...punishment verdicts cannot be carried out in the modern era. This kind of belief is blasphemy and the beliefs of these people is evil."

Amazon tax an Illinois disaster
Excerpt: As it turned out, the tax did spur economic growth — in other states. After the law was enacted, businesses fled. Overstock.com and Amazon.com ended their relationships with Illinois-based marketing affiliates. Chicago-based CouponCabin moved to Indiana. And FatWallet.com, which had been headquartered near Rockford for three years, skipped the border to Wisconsin. ... Each of these companies took with them people, jobs and money.

Closer to the Brink
Excerpt: Which brings us back to a component that has been largely missing in this crisis--American leadership...Yesterday, the Japanese announced plans to shoot down any North Korean missile that poses a threat to their territory. We can assume the statement was coordinated with the U.S., but there was clear frustration in Tokyo. So far, Washington has made little more than the standard promises about defending its partners, raising new fears that the United States is an unreliable ally. (As always, well reasoned and to the point. I notice some in the media covering this issue are seeming relieved that Kerry is now backing away from the Pentagon’s assessment that it is possible the NKs can mount a nuclear warhead on a missile. I wonder if those relieved reporters have ever given any serious thought to what sort of “delivery vehicle” was actually needed. I wouldn’t be too surprised if a small one could be delivered by horseback or bicycle. But, guarding our borders just isn’t important....Ron P.)

Jihad is Cool: Jihadist Magazines Recruit Young Terrorists
Excerpt: Jihad recruitment has evolved into using a mainstream format, it is now cool. Print and online magazines provide practical detailed instruction on how to commit terrorist acts. The latest offering, Lone Mujahid Pocketbook, Spring 2013, is published courtesy of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula's Inspire magazine, and is available on multiple websites.