Showing posts with label unemployment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unemployment. Show all posts

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Unemployment Payments Create Jobs And Other Nonsense

Unemployment Payments Create Jobs And Other Nonsense
Colonel Donald J. Myers USMC(Ret)

On Monday our president announced that unemployment payments create jobs. His staff at the White House echoed that statement. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the same quite some time ago and on Tuesday she repeated it. Senate Majority Leader Reid also repeated that unemployment payments created jobs. Of course, all of this is to garner support for extending unemployment payments. Think about it. If this were true, unemployment should be at zero since we have been paying it for so long. Again, if this were true, why not double the payments and unemployment could be reduced twice as fast.

The president spoke about the tough economic times as if he had nothing to do with it. He has been in charge for five years and once again he is going to focus on the economy like a laser beam. I think that he better check the sights on that laser gun because it sure is not hitting the target. Perhaps it would help if he had staff members who actually had experience beside government or academia. Theory is great and one should be familiar with it, but theory and the real world have a tendency to differ if everything is not perfect. Our strength as a nation comes from freedom and the ability of our people to adjust to changing situations as they occur. The best leaders are able to anticipate potential changes and plan accordingly. We have seen this in business, the military and rarely government.

The thinking inside the Washington beltway is totally out of touch with the country. We are being led against our will and we do not like it. The regular American knows that we are in trouble financially and spending must be reduced, but our political leaders fail to appreciate this fact. They look at the national debt as merely a glitch that can be handled with more taxes, printing more money, and borrowing more money. In the past, we were always able to solve our difficulties because of our industrial superiority, technology, and typical American attitude of getting the job done. Much of that industrial superiority has gone and our technological advantage is also evaporating. The dramatic increase in food stamps, disability applications, and people just stopping their search for jobs has taken a toll on that get the job done attitude Americans are known for. Policies in Washington can change much of that, but I see no indication where that is being done. In fact the opposite is occurring. Our military is being cut to dangerous levels even as additional requirements are levied. More and more rules and regulations are issued by the government that cause our businesses to be less competitive.


I have lived long enough and done enough reading and studying to appreciate the fact that tough times require tough people. Our history is full of such examples such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, General U. S. Grant, President Franklin Roosevelt, Dr. Martin Luther King, and President Ronald Reagan just to name few. I remain optimistic about the country, but time is running out. The window of opportunity is slowly closing and we must take advantage of opportunities such as the Canadian pipe line, fracking, reduced spending, and reducing regulations.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Latest Political News

The Progressive Legacy
Your piece, “The Progressive Legacy” is one of the, if not the, clearest, concise synopsis of how America descended into the sewer where it now resides. I’m sending it to a number of folks across the US since, in my opinion, it’s vital reading if any thinking person hopes to understand what has happened to our Constitutional Republic, especially since Lyndon Johnson began construction of the “ transformation” of America into a Socialist state. Like you, I’m a grandfather (76) and we’ve lived in two separate and distinct Americas. Unfortunately, most of the folks younger than about 45 don’t have a clue as to what they’ve lost. My personal opinion is that the creation of the nefarious Department of Education by Jimmy Carter was one of the worst moves made by any President since Woodrow Wilson. It seems that our wonderful system of public education has become a mere tool of indoctrination used by corrupt politicians and leftist, unelected bureaucrats. There is an article written by a Yale professor that I read from back in about 2008. His premise is that the best universities in the US (read Ivy League) have lost their concept that universities “… are designed to create minds, not careers.” I don’t agree with some of his leftist inclinations but the core premise of his article is right on the money. It’s also clear that a majority of university administrators and professors today are the product of the union and left wing politician influenced Department of Education controlled (once the envy of the world) US public school system. False education therefore, with the aim of indoctrination, not education of analytical minds, is the common denominator problem. --Joe M.

Must Read: Looking after – the planet? By Ken Ring 
Excerpt: Since 1993 the US has spent $150 billion on climate change research. That’s $20 million every day. According to economist Bjorn Lomberg the European Union will pay $250 billion for its current climate policies each and every year for 87 years. And for almost $20 trillion, temperatures by the end of the century could be reduced by a negligible 0.05ÂșC. Expenditure on R&D in NZ comes to around $10 million per year, with very little to show for it. To date over 70 climate models have failed in the past to deliver correct predictions for now, and the elusive “hot spot” that global warming science a decade ago said would establish CO2 as a culprit is still not to be found. ... Nothing, it would seem from the NOAA’s announcement that the 2013 winter was overall the coldest winter in 30 years for the entire northern hemisphere. Europe had one of the coldest springs on record. In the USA it has been overall the coolest summer for more than 30 years, notably in the West, despite some widely reported intense heat in the east.

Great Column: The Bay Area’s 1 Percenters: If you’re hip and liberal, your kids don’t have to go to school with the gardener’s kids. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: In the South Bay counties, Democratic registration outnumbers Republican often 2 to 1. If liberals like Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Nancy Pelosi did not represent the Bay Area, others like them would have to be invented. Yet, most Northern California liberal politics are abstractions that apparently provide some sort of psychological compensation for otherwise living lives that are illiberal to the core. Take K–12 schools. Currently, there is a stampede to enroll students in upscale private academies — often at $30,000 a year.

Good Column: Race-Hustling Results. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: There have been many ponderous academic writings and dour editorials in the mainstream media, lamenting that most people born poor cannot rise in American society any more. Meanwhile, many poor immigrants arrive here from various parts of Asia, and rise on up the ladder anyway. ... Some people try to explain why Asians, and Asian-Americans, succeed so well in education and in the economy by some special characteristics that they have. That may be true, but their success may also be due to what they do not have -- namely "leaders" who tell them that the deck is so stacked against them that they cannot rise, or at least not without depending on "leaders."

Army Chief Of Staff Reveals His Greatest Fear. By Jason Howerton
Excerpt: If Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno were to receive an order to deploy thousands of troops into a combat situation, he would be hard-pressed to comply. That’s because the U.S. Army reportedly only has two combat-ready brigades right now. “Even the ones headed to Afghanistan are qualified for the trainer and adviser mission, not combat,” Defense News reports.

Loving and Hating America. By Walter Williams 
Excerpt: An interesting facet of foreigners liking or hating America can be seen in a poll Gallup has been conducting since 2007 asking the questions: “Ideally, if you had the opportunity, would you like to move permanently to another country, or would you prefer to continue living in this country? To which country would you like to move?” (http://tinyurl.com/6rtwczu) Guess to which country most people would like to move. If you said “the good ol’ US of A,” go to the head of the class.

Excerpt: Businesses began to slow hiring in September, even before the fiscal crisis in Washington sapped Americans’ confidence in the economy, according to data released Tuesday morning. The long-awaited monthly employment report from the Labor Department shows the economy added 148,000 jobs in September, well below analysts’ expectations and down from nearly 200,000 jobs the previous month. The unemployment rate dipped to 7.2 percent. (Sounds like more people again left the labor force. Obama will eventually get unemployment to zero as everyone will give up looking. ~Bob)

154,000 Fewer Women Held Jobs in September; Female Participation in Labor Force Matches 24-Year Low
Excerpt: American women participated in the nation’s labor force in September at a rate that matched the lowest level in 24 years, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, the number of women actually holding jobs declined by 154,000 from August to September.

90,609,000: Americans Not in Labor Force Climbs to Another Record
Excerpt: The BLS counts a person as participating in the labor force if they are 16 years or older and either have a job or have actively sought a job in the last four weeks. A person is not participating in the labor force if they are 16 or older and have not sought a job in the last four weeks.

Drone strikes killing more civilians than U.S. admits, human rights groups say
Excerpt: Two influential human rights groups say they have freshly documented dozens of civilian deaths in U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, contradicting assertions by the Obama administration that such casualties are rare. (Too bad, but the guilt for these deaths lies with the terrorists, not the US or Obama. Just as German and Japanese civilian deaths in WWII were the fault of those who started the war. ~Bob)

Florida's Market-Based Medicaid Reform
Excerpt: Florida exemplifies the states' Medicaid spending problem: From 1990 through 2010, Florida's Medicaid expenditures grew at an annual rate of 10.1 percent. As a result, Medicaid accounted for 29 percent of state expenditures in 2010. With these growth rates, the program would have consumed the state's entire budget in less than 30 years. However, in 2005, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a Florida reform initiative designed to increase beneficiaries' access to care and the quality of care at no greater cost than traditional Medicaid. The federal waiver has allowed the state to move about 413,000 Medicaid beneficiaries in five demonstration counties into health plans run by private providers and insurers. Instead of paying for each separate service hospitals and doctors provide to patients (fee-for-service), Medicaid reimburses the health plans in the five counties for each enrolled beneficiary.

A Tax Reform Plan that Both Parties Can Like
Excerpt: America's tax system is unfair, distortionary, wasteful and a user's nightmare. Most important, it's limiting our country's economic potential. But can we have a far simpler tax system that generates at least as much revenue and is more progressive, ask John Goodman, president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis, and Laurence J. Kotlikoff, a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis and a professor of economics at Boston University. Yes, it's called the Common Sense Tax (CST). It's designed to be revenue neutral and kick start our ailing economy. It features just two taxes. One is a payroll tax that taxes all labor earnings at a flat 13 percent rate. The other is a personal income tax with a 25 percent tax on household income above $100,000, in the case of married households, and $50,000, in the case of singles. The CST has no explicit corporate income tax and no explicit estate and gift tax. But the CST income tax base includes imputed corporate profits and gifts and inheritances received.

How Will You Fare in the ObamaCare Exchanges?
Excerpt: Enrollment in ObamaCare's health insurance exchanges has proven to be a somewhat difficult process amidst technical glitches and delays. Aside from the issues associated with actually purchasing health care, once an individual gets a quote for health insurance on an exchange, is the premium higher or lower than before, asks Drew Gonshorowski, a policy analyst in the Center for Data Analysis at the Heritage Foundation. Gonshorowski research finds that for many states, the insurance on health exchanges will cost more than existing insurance. His study illustrates that the general experience for individuals shopping on the exchange is that of increasing premiums from what was available to them prior to implementation of the exchanges. Many families and individuals will face this reality as they apply for coverage, and the implications of experiencing sticker shock are important to consider if enough people choose not to sign up for coverage for various reasons.

MSNBC Wonders - Is the Obama Administration Lying?
http://eaglerising.com/2426/msnbc-wonders-obama-administration-lying/
Excerpt: Imagine the scene: President Obama sitting down for his breakfast enjoying a cup of coffee with MSNBC on the TV in the background. Just as he’s taking that first sip, he hears his loyal minions at MSNBC begin tearing apart his administration for their Obamacare failures. What a fun morning it must have been to be in the White House! The offending show was, of course, the only one with a semi-consistent token Republican – Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough.

Excerpt: Obama can lie with the best of them. Check it out: “Thousands of people are signing up and saving money as we speak.” Yes, President Obama actually said that yesterday about Obamacare. As we all know, for the vast majority of people, the opposite is true

O-Care
Not content comparing himself to God, Obama has moved to likening himself to Steve Jobs, noting that even Apple has occasionally has problems with product roll outs. Of course, Apple never spent half a billion confiscated from unwilling investors on something that didn't work. Apple has never been able to fine people for not buying its duds. After a particularly bad run in the mid 1980s, Apple fired Steve Jobs. --TH

Bankrupting America: The Municipal Bankruptcy Mess is Heading to a Local Government Near You
http://girlsjustwannahaveguns.com/2013/10/bankrupting-america-municipal-bankruptcy-mess-heading-local-government-near/#tzmF4WJuSSuyLMoS.99
Excerpt: With its abandoned libraries, boarded-up neighborhoods, and broken-down factories overrun by weeds, Detroit has long been seen as an extreme (and extremely photogenic) outlier in American urban decline. Surely no other city could match its combination of industrial over concentration and municipal ineptitude. No other once-proud metropolis could so closely resemble the site of a zombie apocalypse. But when the Motor City filed for Chapter 9 this July, it was actually behind the curve of civic bankruptcy.

President Obama Fails To Articulate Solutions For Insurance Exchange Glitches In ACA Speech
Excerpt: Unfortunately for those American’s who are really interested in signing up on the exchange sites, he glossed over the depth and breadth of the current troubles, giving a speech that sounded more like a State of the Union address with small-business examples and reading letters written to the White House. President Obama also alleged that no one wants to see the exchange sites improve more than the federal government, noting that, “the website has been to slow, and people have been getting stuck during the process.” He also said that it is the mission of the administration to make them “more better,” with visible cringing from the audience, but claimed failures were due to response rates. 

HealthCare.gov feeds doubts about rollout: Our view. The Editorial Board, USATODAY
Excerpt: But you can't help but wonder: Where was all this frantic effort in the three-and-a-half years from the time Obama signed the health law to the day the exchanges opened on Oct. 1? Because that might have helped avoid the unforced error that is raising doubts about the administration's ability to manage other pieces of the complex law. (Of course they're going to clam up. This is an administration that got the entire national-security team to go along with blaming a terror attack on September 11, 2012, on a YouTube video for a couple of days. They've more or less managed to wait out the IRS scandal, the NSA scandal, Fast and Furious, the Department of Justice targeting AP reporters and James Rosen, Attorney General Eric Holder's potential perjury, James Clapper's potential perjury, and every other scandal that's come down the pike. -- Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

Thousands Of Consumers Get Insurance Cancellation Notices Due To Health Law Changes
Excerpt: The main reason insurers offer is that the policies fall short of what the Affordable Care Act requires starting Jan. 1. Most are ending policies sold after the law passed in March 2010. At least a few are cancelling plans sold to people with pre-existing medical conditions. (The twin promises, "If you like your plan you can keep your plan; if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor" were key to passing this monstrosity. If Obama had said, "some of you will be forced to give up your current plan and your current doctor," this thing never would have gotten 200 votes in the House. -- Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

Syria’s crisis averted? Not so fast. By Editorial Board, Washington Post
Excerpt: In Congress, the foreign policy debate has moved on to Iran. Crisis over? Mr. Obama seems to think so — and so does Bashar al-Assad. ... But now the arsenal has been traded for a much more tangible benefit: “to remove the threat of aggression” by the United States. That has allowed the regime to go back to waging a merciless war against civilians. (Criticizing Obama? The racists! ~Bob)

Syria's Assad deals blow to US-Russia peace initiative
Excerpt: "Which forces are taking part? What relation do these forces have with the Syrian people? Do these forces represent the Syrian people, or do they represent the states that invented them?" Assad asked in typically defiant fashion. In the lengthy interview, Assad also said he was willing to run for re-election in 2014, in remarks that came soon after US Secretary of State John Kerry said that if he were to win, it would extend Syria's civil war. (A liberal friend said Obama was on the verge of a diplomatic coups in Syria like JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis--where russia got a strategic advantage forcing us to pull our Missiles out of Turkey. I guess so. ~Bob)

Bomber Tied to Al Qaeda Kills Dozens in Syrian City
Excerpt: A suicide bomber detonated a truck filled with propane tanks at a crowded military checkpoint in central Syria on Sunday, killing more than 30 people, most of them civilians, in the second such attack by fighters linked to Al Qaeda in two days. (This is the side Obama is cheering for, right? ~Bob)

The Obama-Rouhani Playbook for Aspiring Tyrants. By Sheryl Saperia
Excerpt: Upon completion of his term in office, President Obama will bequeath to his successor a world indelibly scarred by the current crisis in Iran. For regardless of whether Iran's nuclear treasures are successfully wrested from the hands of the mullahs, the current presidents of Iran and the U.S. will have left behind -- to the great detriment of the West -- a plausible roadmap for all aspiring autocrats. This legacy has a simple tenet: Nuclear weaponry is not a necessity in achieving autocratic success. But the credible threat of developing such weapons is an invaluable asset -- a purveyor of leverage well worth the risks, sanctions and pain that are entailed.

Passenger train bombed in Pakistan, at least seven dead
Excerpt: A bomb struck a passenger train in southwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing at least seven people and wounding 10, according to police, in the latest attack to hit the violence-besieged nation.

Oil kingdom Brunei to introduce sharia criminal law
Excerpt: Oil-rich Brunei will enforce sharia criminal law next year, the Islamic kingdom's sultan announced on Tuesday, with possible punishments including stoning to death for adultery and flogging for drinking alcohol. (Bringing all the multi-cultural benefits of Shari'a: hanging gays, stoning rape victims for adultery if they don't have four witnesses, executing those who leave Islam, child marriage...~Bob)

Russia bus bomb: Volgograd blast kills six
Excerpt: A suspected female suicide bomber has set off explosives on a bus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, killing at least six people. Officials believe the woman was from Dagestan in the North Caucasus and was the partner of an Islamist militant.

Whose Islam? By Mark Steyn
Excerpt: To be charitable to [British Prime Minister David] Cameron, he is trying to point out that very few Muslims want to stare a five-year-old in the eye and pull the trigger. But, likewise, very few of them want to do anything serious—in their mosques and madrassahs—about the culture that incubates such men. The prime minister is betting that all the clever chaps like him can keep the lid on and hold things to what, at the height of the Northern Irish "Troubles," cynical British officials privately called "an acceptable level of violence."

Healthcare.debacle harbinger of doom. By William A. Jacobson
Excerpt: That makes it difficult to operate with the kind of agility that startup people are used to, this idea of putting out a simple product and then iterating rapidly, learning from your customers and scaling up gradually. That’s the usual model that startups follow. That’s difficult to do in government, and it’s not what happened with HealthCare.gov, which was meant to start operating immediately at full scale and with full features.

Rubio: I'm introducing a bill to delay the individual mandate until the Obamacare website is fixed: “It’s not fair to punish people for [not?] buying something that’s not available." 
Excerpt: Smart politics. It won’t pass, but then it’s not really designed to. "He said all he is calling for is a delay on the requirement until the U.S. General Accounting Office certifies the Web site is working and has been functioning for six consecutive months.

Muslim Soldiers Attempt to Lure 12-Year-Old Girl for Sexual Purposes in Missouri. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: One of these nice lovers of children is named Mohammed twice so we can only be thankful it was a 12-year-old and not a 6-year-old. "Two men training at Fort Leonard Wood are in custody after deputies say they tried to abduct a 12-year-old girl in Pulaski County Friday afternoon. Mohammed Mahmoud Omar Mefleh, 34, and Antoine Clela, 31, were charged with enticement of a child and harassment."

Human Sex Trafficking of US Minors (Part 1).By Chuck Norris
Excerpt: Reuters reported last week, "Some 30 million people are enslaved worldwide, trafficked into brothels, forced into manual labour, victims of debt bondage or even born into servitude." ... ABC News reported in July on a National Geographic undercover investigation of sexual slavery in the U.S.: "When some people hear about sex trafficking in America they usually think of Asian and Eastern European women being brought into the States, but it's actually 10 times more likely for an American girl to be trafficked inside the U.S. Further, almost 300,000 American children are at risk for trafficking into the sex industry, according to U.S. Department of State statistics."

Heretic: NBC Reporter Asks Jay Carney Why Obama was So Wrong on Obamacare. By Michael Schaus
Excerpt: : Five days before the launch, the president said it’s a website where you can compare and purchase affordable health care plans, the same way you shop for a plane ticket on Kayak. Who misled him? Who misled the president on this? Are you telling me five days before that somebody let the president go out to the American public to give this speech and say this and make this promise? In fact, the next line is: I promise you, this is a lot easier, it’s like booking a hotel or plane ticket. Who let him down?"

The French Death Spiral. By Daniel J. Mitchell 
Excerpt: Now that I’ve warned about the risks of overstatement, I’m going out on a limb to say that we may be at the point where France is taxing itself to the point of economic ruin. One French budget expert warned that, “the spiraling welfare debt was particularly abnormal and particularly dangerous” and that “The strategy of fixing the system by collecting new revenue is reaching its limits.” (The French--like Americans--are not having babies to support the welfare state. importing Muslims for your workers has it's own problems and cost. ~Bob)

Math, the Real Kink in Obamacare. Debra J. Saunders
Excerpt: At an event Monday to boost the Affordable Care Act after its glitch-rich rollout, President Barack Obama asserted that his signature health care plan is a hit because "prices have come down." That's the administration's big lie: that Washington can mandate universal health care with beefed-up benefits and somehow the plan will save everyone money. (They are going to provide better benefits, to many more people, at a lower cost and no addition to the debt. Only a liberal could believe that. ~Bob)

Dar al-Hijrah Imam Affirms MB Sympathies on Facebook. By John Rossomando
Excerpt: For a guy who claims to have nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood, ImamShaker Elsayed dedicates a surprising volume of hisFacebook page to the Egyptian Islamist group. Elsayed, head of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., features a picture of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi – the Brotherhood's candidate in 2011 – across the top of the page. 

Glenn Beck Takes on Grover Norquist. By Daniel Greenfield
Excerpt: Beck made headlines when he took on George Soros. Now he’s taking on a puppetmaster closer to home. I joined Beck and Frank Gaffney yesterday in the first of a number of shows that Glenn Beck plans to do on Grover Norquist and his agenda.

Excerpt: Okay, a couple of years ago you sat on your collective asses, didn't voice your disapproval for Obamacare, and had the massive government intervention into your health care decisions taken over by government bureaucrats. You now have one last chance to snatch back control of your lives from a corrupted government that issues green checks to buy political power and caters to the most extreme morally corrupt special interest groups. Just as we did in 2007 you can overwhelm your Congress with letters, emails and phone calls voicing your strong opposition to rewarding illegal invaders with citizenship. Don't think for a minute Congress will not listen to you. Shout loud enough, write often enough, let them feel the depth of your anger and you can be damn sure they'll listen.

The News in Zingers. By Argus Hamilton
Excerpt: ObamaCare website glitches prevented anyone from enrolling Friday. ObamaCare is underwritten by a Treasury seventeen trillion in debt, overseen by a Surgeon General that's obese and signed into law by a president who smokes. How could anything go wrong. (Shouldn't it be "who's obese"? ~Bob)

From the Left: If Obamacare fails, so will his party. By Dana Milbank
Excerpt: Not since the Ginsu knife cut through an aluminum can and still sliced a tomato has America seen a pitch quite like the one President Obama delivered in the Rose Garden on Monday. ... Talking too long, yes. And protesting too much. Obama’s pitch sounded a bit desperate and perhaps it should. The product he rolled out three weeks ago was seriously defective.

Et tu, Politio? President Obama’s passive voice. By Edward-Isaac Dovere 
Excerpt: Once again, Barack Obama risks looking like a bystander to his own presidency. Here’s what he did to kick off the week: assemble a crowd in the Rose Garden to hear him repeat how “frustrated” he was about the many problems that plagued the launch of the Affordable Care Act’s website, promise that a “tech surge” was already on its way to set those problems right and implore people to bear with him until they see what the program can do. Here’s what he didn’t do: explain why those problems weren’t addressed before the Oct. 1 launch, why he didn’t seem to be aware of them before they went very public, or who would be suffering the consequences for any of it.

Obama: Your call is important to us. by Carrie Budoff Brown 
Excerpt: President Barack Obama delivered an Obamacare speech Monday that sounded a lot like hold music.

Murdered Christian Pastor in Kenya Found with Bible on Lap, Preparing Sunday Service
Excerpt: Two Christian pastors were murdered in separate attacks in Kenya on Sunday, officials shared, with one found with a Bible on his lap sitting in a chair, preparing for Sunday morning service.

Excerpt: A nine year old girl, W*, was married to 35-year old Zahid Zardari on Thursday, after the groom reportedly paid Rs1.5 million to her family.

PA-associated youth magazine published list of sayings it claims are Hitler's
Excerpt: The PA-associated educational youth magazine Zayzafuna, whose Advisory Board include PA Deputy Minister of Education Jihad Zakarneh and the Head of the Media Department of the PA Ministry of Education, Abd Al-Hakim Abu Jamous, published a list of ten short wisdom sayings that it claimed were said by Hitler. ... Palestinian Media Watch has not found the quotes attributed to Hitler. Several of them appear with slight variations on "words of wisdom" websites, and are either anonymous sayings or attributed to other people. 

Excerpt: From 2007 till now the courts have released 1,964 alleged terrorists, says an official government document. More serious still is the fact that of those released, 722 have rejoined terrorist groups while 1,197 are still actively involved in anti-state activities, according to the official document available with Dawn.

How Jon Stewart became President Obama’s biggest problem. By Chris Cillizza
Excerpt: President Obama’s biggest problem when it comes to selling the American public on the so-far rocky rollout of his health-care law isn’t John Boehner or Mitch McConnell or even Ted Cruz. It’s Jon Stewart.

Excerpt: The judge will not issue an injunction to stop the IRS from issuing subsidies, meaning Obamacare can move forward as planned. However, the lawsuit will also move forward and depending on the outcome, could limit IRS power to issue Obamacare subsidies.

Girl Who Threw Puppies in River Found by Bosnian Police, Say Reports
Excerpt: Police in Bosnia say they have located the girl that sparked global outrage after a disturbing online video surfaced showing her throwing live puppies into a raging river.(Let the punishment fit the crime. ~Bob)

Obamacare Tech Firm Tried, Failed To Build Gun Registry In Canada
Excerpt: CGI, the Canadian company whose U.S. subsidiary built the failed Obamacare website, was once contracted to build a federal gun registry for the Canadian government, Breitbart News has learned. CGI's contract was canceled in 2007 after a report by the Auditor General found that the Canadian Firearms Information System (CFIS) being built by CGI was "significantly over budget" and that it had been plagued by delays.

IRS paid more than $110 billion in improper tax credits
But they'll do a great job running your health care. ~Bob. Excerpt: The Internal Revenue Service paid out more than $110 billion in tax credits over the past decade to people who didn't qualify for them, according to a Treasury report released Tuesday. The Earned Income Tax Credits were intended for poor working families. In his report, IRS inspector general J. Russell George said more than one-fifth of all credits paid under the program went to people who didn't qualify.

Oh, by the way: The “tech surge” isn’t going to rescue the ObamaCare website
Excerpt: My layman’s sense after reading several articles about it and chatting with a friend who works in IT is that it’s like bringing in a bunch of professional writers to rework a 2,000-page first draft of a novel written by a sixth-grader. If you don’t like that analogy, a health-industry consultant told Politico, “It’s like you’ve built a single-story house with no basement, and then the family comes in and says, ‘Oh, we made a mistake, we wanted a multi-story house with a basement.’ Then you have to strip everything down and start over.” It can be done, but it ain’t going to be soon. And it ain’t going to be cheap.

Our patient handbook is available in 7 languages!


Excerpt: According to The Washington Post, the site crashed after a government simulation that had just a few hundred people trying to log on simultaneously. That experience was a precursor to what happened in the first few hours of the Oct. 1 launch: The site locked up after some 2,000 users attempted to register. ….In addition, people familiar with the roll-out of the project said, a month before the health insurance exchanges opened, the government was warned by a testing group made up of insurers that the system was riddled with problems, including the way the exchange handled enrollment, federal subsidies, and the security of consumers' personal information.

Obama creates jobs! ~Bob

The Horrible Tactic The Taliban Is Once Again Using With Children To Fulfill Death Missions
Excerpt: Taliban extremists have kidnapped more than 100 children from Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last year to use for suicide missions against government officials and U.S. troops still fighting in the region, U.S. and Pakistani sources told TheBlaze.

The US Department of Justice found that, in 1989, there were 168,881 crimes of violence for which police had not responded within 1 hour.

More missteps: Air Force officials in charge of nukes left open blast door, sources say
Excerpt: Twice this year alone, Air Force officers entrusted with the launch keys to nuclear-tipped missiles have been caught leaving open a blast door that is intended to help prevent a terrorist or other intruder from entering their underground command post, Air Force officials have told The Associated Press….But officials with direct knowledge of Air Force intercontinental ballistic missile operations told the AP that such violations have happened, undetected, many more times than in the cases of the two launch crew commanders and two deputy commanders who were given administrative punishments this year. (From AP, Regime mouthpiece, so much be an agenda behind revelations. --Barb)

New poll finds that a majority of Americans see Obamacare website problems as a sign of problems to come with law
Excerpt: The American people aren’t buying into the president’s message that the problems with the healthcare exchange websites aren’t indicative of larger issues with the law, according to an ABC News - Washington Post study released Monday. The study found that 56 percent of Americans believe the website problems are related to bigger ones with the law, while 40 percent view the website problems as an isolated incident.

1-800-ObamaCare-Denial: Website problems don't matter when your intentions are good.
Progressives take no responsibility for the millions who have suffered and died from their policies, because their intentions were good. ~Bob

People In Healthcare.gov Stock Photos Now Visibly Panicking
Satire from the Onion.

Sen. David Vitter calls on DOJ to investigate armed EPA raid in Alaska
Excerpt: Sen. David Vitter (R., La.) called on the Justice Department (DOJ) Tuesday to investigate an armed raid by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agents on an Alaskan gold mine that occurred earlier this year. Vitter, in a letter sent Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder, requested the Justice Department investigate the EPA raid, which occurred at a gold mine in Chicken, Alaska earlier this year as part of an investigation into violations of the Clean Water Act.

Feds Paid Prisoners $1 Million in Disability Payments: Average received $2,322 each
Excerpt: The Social Security Administration (SSA) gave more than $1 million in improper disability benefits to 440 prisoners, according to the inspector general. The Inspector General for the SSA (IG) based its report on a sample of 100 beneficiaries, and found that one-fourth had improperly received disability while they were incarcerated. “SSA issued improper DI benefit payments to beneficiaries for periods they were in correctional institutions,” the report said. 

Are they sure this isn't satire? Not even liberals are so dumb. ~Bob

Saudi Arabia set for diplomatic shift away from US: Intelligence chief tells diplomats he plans to limit interaction with US in protest at its policies on Syria, Israel and Iran

one word: Frackin! ~Bob. Excerpt: Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief has said the kingdom will make a "major shift" in dealings with the US in protest at perceived American inaction over the Syria war and its overtures to Iran, a source close to Saudi policy said on Tuesday. The source said that Prince Bandar bin Sultan had told European diplomats that Washington had failed to act effectively on the Syria crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was growing closer to Tehranand had failed to back Saudi support for Bahrain when it crushed a 2011 anti-government revolt.

Iran 'Gifts' Russia with Copy of US Drone: Iran says it has now mass produced the highly advanced US ScanEagle drone it says it downed last year.
Excerpt: Iran has presented Russia with agift of an exact copy of an advanced US spy drone. The UK's Guardian newspaper has reported the copy of the US ScanEagle drone was given to Russia at a meeting between the two countries' air forcecommanders earlier this week in Tehran. Last month, Iran's Revolutionary Guard unveiled the "Yasseer" - an advanced reconnaissance drone - which AFP reported at the time strongly resembled the US ScanEagle that Iran claimed to have captured in late 2012.

Steny Hoyer wants more money to fix Obamacare exchanges
Someone get China on the line, Stat! ~Bob

Obamacare’s Vermont Fail. By Stuart Stevens 
Excerpt: The reality is that Vermont’s health-care exchange website may be even a bigger mess than the federal-run HealthCare.Gov. And health care in Vermont may be headed for a unique train wreck due to its efforts to become the first state in the country to implement a single payer plan. ... In other words, in Vermont, a good percentage of its population will have no choice but to buy health insurance through the state exchange. But despite the urgency of getting the exchange launch right and the givens that should make it easier rather than difficult—small state, high rate of literacy, 98 percent English speaking—Vermont’s website seems as bad or worse than the federal system.

Answers demanded of Kerry, Holder in murder of Agent Camarena
Excerpt: Secretary of State John Kerry and Attorney General Eric Holder are being questioned about the Mexican government’s recent decision to prematurely release Rafael Caro Quintero, who was convicted in the 1985 kidnapping, torture and murder of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Camarena.

Dear Obama, My mother lost her job yesterday due to your Obama care. Thank you so much. I really don't understand how people support you.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Big catch for your weekend reading


Lots of interesting items for your weekend reading, while I’ll be off line. Syria grouped at the end, as I have been doing, so you can pick and chose easily. A reminder that just because I post something doesn’t mean I agree with part or all of it. (I plan to bake two grape pies Saturday for the Church brunch Sunday.) Thanks to all who sent. I’m sorry I can’t use everything, though readers are doubtless grateful. ~Bob

Global Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Day
September 7, 2013

Bubble Watch
Excerpt: The global financial crisis destroyed over one-fifth of accumulated American wealth in just one year: 2008. That huge loss was on top of a far more modest but still significant 1.62 percent wealth loss in 2007. Both the U.S. stock market bubble burst in 2000 and the housing bubble implosion of 2008 contributed to the current situation, reinforcing the need for a Federal Reserve "bubble watch" program. If we could recognize patterns that lead to these bubbles, we could see them coming and adjust policy to protect wealth accumulation and the economy as a whole, says John H. Makin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Why Organized Labor Is Organizing Against Obamacare
Excerpt: But Obama is getting blasted these days from an unexpected quarter: Major labor groups instrumental in helping the president win a critical second term are charging that Obamacare is undercutting existing union-sponsored health insurance programs and even encouraging employers to cut workers’ hours. This is the latest bizarre wrinkle in the unfolding political drama over Obama’s signature program for extending health insurance coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.

"McWages" and the Middle Class
Excerpt: Phil Hickey, chairman of the National Restaurant Association, says his first job was at age 14 washing dishes at a Big Boy restaurant in his hometown of Detroit. He says it was a job that gave him a strong work ethic and taught valuable skills that helped him move from the kitchen to eventually owning nine of his own restaurants. This experience is not uncommon. The first job held by nearly one in three Americans is in the restaurant industry. In addition to teaching personal responsibility, teamwork, discipline and accountability, these positions provide workers with opportunities for successful careers. Many of them advance from their entry-level, minimum-wage positions. Nine out of 10 salaried restaurant employees start off in hourly positions.

The Obama Recovery: Unemployment rate falls to 7.3 percent as people stop searching
http://www.wjla.com/articles/2013/09/unemployment-rate-falls-to-7-3-percent-as-people-stop-searching-93677.html
Excerpt: But it fell because more Americans stopped looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed. The proportion of Americans working or looking for work fell to its lowest level in 35 years.

Job report: the Taco Bell that had 28 40-hour workers now has 30 28-hour workers.

We have 3 million more long-term unemployed after 5 years of Obama "recovery" than we had during the 2008 recession. Obama's America. -- If our labor participation rate was at the same rate as January 2009, our unemployment rate would be 10.8%. That's how bad things are.

Still getting comments on “I’m Tired” over four years later
One old jarhead (1956-1962) to another old jarhead, Semper Fi. Well done and well said. Thank you for your insight. This old jarhead at 75 has been trying tell people exactly what you have said, just not as eloquently. My only goal (on this subject) is to live long enough to tell them "I told you so". I also am not enjoying seeing the crooked politicians, illegal aliens and the 'refused to be educated' destroy what my father (WWI) and I as well as the millions before us have worked so hard to maintain since the signing of our declaration independence. Semper Fi, Bob From BC.

Hate-filled anti-Republican prof still earning full salary, also insulted Christians and athleteshttp://dailycaller.com/2013/09/05/update-hate-filled-anti-republican-prof-still-earning-full-salary-also-insulted-christians-and-athletes/
Excerpt: The professor who called Republicans racists and rapists may have been relieved of his teaching duties for the rest of the semester, but he will still be paid in full by Michigan State University. … “He had said before, ‘You have every right to disagree with me, but it may be reflected in your grade,’” she recalled.

What If I Told You that “Flat Earth” Was A Myth of Secularism? By Wes Walker
http://clashdaily.com/2013/09/told-flat-earth-myth-secularism/
Excerpt: It’s taught in school textbooks, it’s a favorite citation of New Atheism, and it’s been referenced by no less than the President himself — Medieval Europe believed the Earth was Flat. And so it’s fact! – Except that they believed no such thing. The popular view taught in schools is that scientists came along and rescued us all from the Medieval Church’s anti-scientific views that the World was Flat. The only flaw in that story is that nobody ACTUALLY believed it was flat, and hadn’t believed it was flat in a very, very long time — as far back as Greek Antiquity.
True, this: Was Mitt Romney Right About Everything? By McKay Coppins
Excerpt: From his widely mocked warnings about a hostile Russia to his adamant opposition to the increasingly unpopular implementation of Obamacare, the ex-candidate’s canon of campaign rhetoric now offers cause for vindication — and remorse — to Romney’s friends, supporters, and former advisers. … In the most actively cited example of the Republican nominee’s foresight, Romneyites point to the candidate’s hardline rhetoric last year against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his administration. 

Indian diarist Sushmita Banerjee shot dead in Afghanistan
Excerpt: An Indian woman, who wrote a popular memoir about her escape from the Taliban, has been shot dead in Afghanistan by suspected militants, police say. (Good liberals will ignore this, because they know it is burka-wearing women being persecuted, not those who refuse. ~Bob.)

Director Oliver Stone says Obama is a 'snake'
It takes liberals a very long time to figure things out, if ever. –JJ. Makes Stone a Racist! That’s what they call us if we oppose Obama. ~Bob.

Coconut detained in Maldives over vote-rigging claims: Police take 'suspicious fruit' into their possession after claims it could have been used in black magic during elections
A coconut has been detained by Maldivian police on suspicion of vote-rigging in a key presidential election. The coconut, described as "young", was found near a school that will be used as a polling station on Saturday on the remote Kaafu atoll, one of the hundreds of islands that comprise the Indian Ocean archipelago state. Though the population of the Maldives is Sunni Muslim, continuing belief in magic is widespread in rural areas. (Saw something similar on a “Haunted Collector” episode on another island. Folks were having strange things happen in woods and in their newly purchased home on an island. They unearthed coconuts—or dislodged—but then brought in the equivalent of a voodoo priest, who unearthed the coconut shell entirely, explaining (through a translator) that they are used because they resemble skulls and then he pulled out hair and a decaying chicken tongue. He had them wrap the coconuts in cotton to bind the spell and wade out in the ocean to release it…..The disturbances have ceased, per the program, since the priest’s intervention. Gee, here in the US, we just worry about electronic vote rigging and DOI wanting anyone to vote, any number of times, with no accountability for fairness of elections lest we be racist. –Barb. Watch for the DNC to buy coconut futures, just in case it works. ~Bob.)

Reports: NSA subverted privacy tools
The National Security Agency (NSA) has successfully cracked many of the tools that people use to protect the privacy of their online communications, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden. For years, the agency has waged a secret campaign to undermine security measures and privacy tools to ensure that it has expansive access to communications for its intelligence operations, The New York Times, The Guardian and ProPublica reported on Thursday. 

Police: Man Commits Robbery While Wearing Electronic Monitor For Armed Robbery
Police say a Charlotte man robbed another man at gunpoint while wearing a court-ordered electronic monitoring device stemming from a previous armed robbery charge. 

Excerpt: A congressional committee is currently reviewing the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) response to lawmakers’ concerns following new revelations that the scandal-plagued agency is targeting the veterans organization the American Legion. The House Committee on Veterans Affairs last week requested that the IRS respond to complaints about its “unduly burdensome and completely unwarranted” requirements for American Legion posts. The Committee gave the IRS a September 3 deadline to respond to complaints.

Excerpt: President Barack Obama is rhetorically waving the gay-rights flag on his visit to Russia , even as he is working to soften or bypass opposition from Russia’s president to a strike on Syria…. Obama may be too vain to acknowledge the failure of his [Russia diplomatic] reset policy, but he’s vain enough to poke a finger in Putin’s eye,” said Michael Rubin, an expert on the Middle East at the American Enterprise Institute. “If Obama can score domestic political points with his core Democratic constituency, why not?” said Rubin.

Excerpt: According to reports in the Long War Journal , sources have told several Egyptian media outlets that Ramzi Mowafi has been leading a group responsible for numerous attacks in the lawless Sinai Peninsula over the past two years. Reports say that Mowafi – who is believed to also be an explosives expert – was spotted in the Sinai in August 2011 providing military training to a number of people.

Immigration: The Most Important Public Educaton Issue No One Talks About. By Mike Antonucci
Excerpt: Children from other countries can fill the gaps left by the low U.S. birth rate, but immigration numbers are a product not just of economic and family decisions, but political ones as well. 

Probably a good time to start a pool predicting Obama's next pivot to the economy.

Germany's Energy Poverty: How Electricity Became a Luxury Good
Excerpt: German consumers already pay the highest electricity prices in Europe. But because the government is failing to get the costs of its new energy policy under control, rising prices are already on the horizon. Electricity is becoming a luxury good in Germany, and one of the country's most important future-oriented projects is acutely at risk.

Not holding a sitting president responsible for any of his failures because he’s black is a different kind of racism. (Hudson is black. ~Bob.)

Creative Destruction: Obamacare versus artists, writers, musicians, actors, et al.
Excerpt: Nancy Pelosi waxed rhapsodic in 2010 as she imagined the benefits of Obamacare: “Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance.” Well, that was the economy we used to have. 

The Scariest Jobs Chart Ever

ObamaEd is Coming to a School Near You 
Excerpt: Do you know what the Common Core Curriculum is? Whether you have children or not, unless you live in Alaska, Texas, Nebraska or Virginia, it behooves you to become familiar with it before it kicks in, full-bore, in 2014. Forty five states have adopted the entire Common Core Curriculum.

Feds Spending $2.2 Million to Study Lesbian Obesity
Excerpt: The study, being led by S. Bryn Austin, an associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, sets out to find the biological and social factors for why “three-quarters” of lesbians are obese and why gay males are not. (Lesbian friend told me that gay males have big body-image issues, lesbians not so much. I’m guessing they don’t have to care what men think and thus eat what they want. ~Bob)

Disabled Woman Stops Home Invader with Concealed-Carry Handgun
Excerpt: A 64-year old disabled Middletown, Ohio woman named Mabel Fletcher used a concealed-carry handgun to stop a home invader who entered her house just after midnight Wednesday. 

America's Greatest Days Lie Ahead. By Daniel Hannan
Excerpt: When I talk of the peculiar inheritance of the English-speaking peoples, some critics hear nothing but English chauvinism. Bennett and Lotus, by contrast, have only one Anglo grandparent between them. What they are writing about is plainly a cultural rather than an ethnic patrimony. (Wish I thought so. ~Bob.)

11 surprisingly apt lessons from Machiavelli's The Prince
A professor at U-Mass had us read it as the start of modern political thought. ~Bob

Nigerian Islamists gun down 5 Christians after they declare their faith
Excerpt: Islamists gunned down five people in a roadside ambush near Nigeria’s central city of Jos, only killing them after they declared their Christian faith, church representatives said Monday.

This County had 124% More Registered Voters than Eligible Voters – Counting Dead People and Felonshttp://joemiller.us/2013/09/this-county-had-124-more-registered-voters-than-eligible-voters-counting-dead-people-and-felons/

Genocide in North Korea: Prison Camp Larger than London.
Excerpt: Meanwhile, in the statist utopia of North Korea, "Thousands of North Korean prisoners may have died after a notorious prison camp larger than the size of London was closed at the end of last year, a new report from a human rights group says. The Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HNRK) says Kim Jong Un consolidated the country’s prison camps after the death of his father in 2011, according to The Telegraph."

Wanting to avoid getting mugged, raped or killed is racist.
Excerpt: Don’t you dare steer your family away from the parts of town where they would be likely to be subjected to violence. That would be racist: 'A new app originally named “ghetto tracker” is causing all kinds of controversy. In less than 24 hours, this brand new app created enough backlash to prompt an immediate name change.'

Syria

Remember when Obama said that Afghanistan was a war of necessity, not of choice, a war we had to win? Good times. ~Bob

U.S. intercepts Iranian order for attack on U.S. interests in Iraq: report
Excerpt: The United States has intercepted an order from an Iranian official instructing militants in Iraq to attack U.S. interests in Baghdad in the event the Obama administration launches a military strike in Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. (Attack our embassy? That darn video! ~Bob.)

Iran threatens brutal attacks on Americans, Obama family if US hits Syria
Excerpt: As Congress debates whether to support President Obama’s call for a limited strike against Syria for the alleged use of chemical weapons, Iran is vowing to back Bashar al-Assad’s regime to the hilt and threatening to unleash terrorism should the U.S. strike. … And in an unprecedented statement, a former Iranian official has warned of mass abductions and brutal killings of American citizens around the world and the rape and killing of one of Obama’s daughters should the United States attack Syria.

FYI, Mr. President, America Helps Good Guys! By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: It's not about Syria's president.

Biden During 2012 Campaign: Romney ‘Ready To Go To War In Syria
Excerpt: Two months before the 2012 presidential election, Vice President Biden warned on the campaign trail that Mitt Romney wanted to go to war with Syria. (He warned me if I voted for Romney we’d attack Syria. But did I listen? Nooo. All my fault. ~Bob.)

Woman informing Kerry, McCain’s opinions on Syria also an advocate for Syrian rebels
http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/05/woman-informing-kerry-mccains-opinions-on-syria-also-an-advocate-for-syrian-rebels/
Excerpt: The woman whose opinion lawmakers are relying on to go to war in Syria is also a paid advocate for the war-torn country’s rebels. … “Contrary to many media accounts, the war in Syria is not being waged entirely, or even predominantly, by dangerous Islamists and al-Qaida die-hards,” O’Bagy wrote for the Journal on Aug. 30.

Excerpt: Secretary of State John Kerry's public assertions that moderate Syrian opposition groups are growing in influence appear to be at odds with estimates by U.S. and European intelligence sources and nongovernmental experts, who say Islamic extremists remain by far the fiercest and best-organized rebel elements.

Excerpt: McCaul says he's learned in various briefings that the number of jihadists migrating to Syria to take on the government there is closer to 50 percent. The chairman said he was "quite frankly stunned" when that number was disputed at a House Foreign Affairs committee hearing Wednesday afternoon. 

Excerpt: In short, the man behind the source for the notion that Syria’s rebellion is moderate is, himself, an Islamist among Islamists, according to FrontPage. One member of the SETF’s Board of Trustees/Board of Directors, Dr. Jihad Qaddour, was also a trustee of the Muslim American Society, which is a front for the Muslim Brotherhood. Another, Bassam Estwani, appears to have been the Imam of the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center, also known as Al-Qaeda leader Anwar Al-Awlaki’s former mosque. 

Did Vladimir Putin Bait a Trap for the United States in Damascus? By David Samuels
Excerpt: The prize Putin is seeking for obliterating the American "red line" is not victory in Syria—since his client Assad is clearly winning anyway. The point of the attack is to publically expose Obama's deep ambivalence about the use of force to stop Iran. If Obama's red line against the use of chemical weapons in Syria can fall so easily, after the public deaths of more than 1,000 innocent people, including hundreds of children who died foaming at the mouth, how many cruise missiles might Iran's putative acquisition of nuclear weapons capacity cost? (I don't know how much stock to put in this assessment by David Samuels in Tablet magazine, but it sure is thought-provoking. -- Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

World leaders at G20 summit uncertain about who launched Syria chemical weapons attack
Excerpt: World leaders are venting over Syria’s civil war but look no closer to agreeing on international military intervention to stop it.

Pentagon Is Ordered to Expand Potential Targets in Syria With a Focus on Forces
Excerpt: President Obama has directed the Pentagon to develop an expanded list of potential targets in Syria in response to intelligence suggesting that the government of President Bashar al-Assad has been moving troops and equipment used to employ chemical weapons while Congress debates whether to authorize military action.

Closing Europe trip, Obama renews call for global support on Syria, but few signs of progress
Excerpt: China’s a firm no. The European Union is skeptical about whether any military action can be effective. Even Pope Francis weighed in, urging leaders gathered here to abandon what he called a “futile mission.”

Pope Francis appeals to world leaders to avoid 'futile' Syria strike
As world leaders gathered Thursday for a G-20 summit in Russia, Pope Francis urged them to pursue a negotiated end to Syria’s civil war and abandon the “futile pursuit of a military solution.” (The Pope opposed Obama? Racist! ~Bob.)

Syrian government sends reinforcements to Christian village attacked by rebel fighters
Excerpt: Opposition fighters led by an al-Qaida-linked rebel faction attacked the mountainside sanctuary of Maaloula on Wednesday, and briefly entered the village a day later before pulling out in the evening. The assault has spotlighted fears among Syria’s religious minorities about the prominent role of Islamic extremists in the rebel ranks fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Excerpt: More information on yesterday’s al-Qaeda led attack on the Christian Village of Maaloula near Damascus,Syria. Not only did they firebomb the village, and threaten to slaughter all Christians once the U.S. helps “liberate” Syria, but they also fired missiles and mortars at two ancient churches, St. Alias Church and St. Grace Church, while spraying the entrances of the churches with bullets. (Mr. McCain, this does not mean “God bless.” –Barb)

Voters Explode On John McCain At Phoenix Town Hall: ‘We Didn’t Send You To Make War For Us’
Excerpt: A number of Sen. John McCain’s constituents are not happy with the Arizona Republican’s support of President Barack Obama’s plan to take military action against Syria. Voters made that much perfectly clear when they confronted him at a town hall in Phoenix on Thursday. “We didn’t send you to make war for us. We sent you to stop the war,” one man said to applause, CNN reports.

McCain wants to expand Obama's battlefield authority
Excerpt: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), an influential Senate voice on national security matters, will offer an amendment to the Syria use-of-force resolution that would significantly expand President Obama’s authority to strike at Syrian President Bashar Assad. McCain wants to give Obama authority to launch a military intervention aggressive enough to degrade Assad’s ability to trigger chemical weapons and “change battlefield momentum” drastically enough to ensure Assad’s departure from power.

Obama on Verge of Historic Rebuke Over Syria
Excerpt: President Barack Obama appears to be dangerously close to what would be an historic rebuke at the hands of Congress, if the current whip-count projections on the authorization to attack Syria continue to hold. Pundits on both sides of the aisle say losing the high-stakes bid for congressional authorization would make Obama an instant lame-duck, and might well endanger his entire second-term agenda.

Excerpt: WaPo’s blog The Fix has been updating their whip count on the Syria resolution all day and at this point, it looks like the president is heading for a disastrous fall. In fact, it’s no contest. As of Thursday evening, 204 House members — including 54 Democrats — have come out publicly against taking military action against Syria or are leaning that way. Two hundred seventeen votes are needed for passage.

Interfax: 4 Russian naval ships headed toward Syria in eastern Mediterranean
Excerpt: Interfax reported that another landing ship had left the Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Friday morning and was to pick up a “special cargo” in Novorossiysk before sailing toward the eastern Mediterranean

Interesting History: Syria’s Christians Risk Eradication. By Philip Jenkins
Excerpt: Most puzzling of all, though, is why the United States seems so determined to eradicate Christianity in one of its oldest heartlands, at such an agonizingly sensitive historical moment. Syria has always been a complex place religiously. Although the country has a substantial Sunni Muslim majority, it also has large minority communities—Christians, Alawites, and others—who together make up over a quarter of the population. Those communities have survived very successfully in Syria for centuries, but the present revolution is a threat to their continued existence. … Philip Jenkins is Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University and serves as Co-Director for the Program on Historical Studies of Religion in the Institute for Studies of Religion.

Excerpt: “We are not presenting to the American people the same shoddy intelligence that was presented to the American people back in Iraq,” he said. “We will not put American boots on the ground. We will not take over a civil war in which the United States clearly has no interest being directly involved.”

Syria poses new economic risks. By Ben White
Excerpt: Should votes in the Senate or House to support strikes fail, an already difficult fall legislative calendar could crumble into total partisan chaos, dramatically increasing threats of a government shutdown or a far more damaging debt default. And an intervention in Syria, especially if it goes badly, could have unpredictable consequences for an economy still struggling to gain significant traction.

Russia gave UN 100-page report in July blaming Syrian rebels for Aleppo sarin attack.
Excerpt: Russia says a deadly March sarin attack in an Aleppo suburb was carried out by Syrian rebels, not forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, and it has delivered a 100-page report laying out its evidence to the United Nations. (Do you really think, if the Syrian rebels win and get control of the nerve gas, they won’t use it? Against us? ~Bob)

Pelosi’s Dance With Assad. By Majid Rafizadeh 
Excerpt: Pelosi seemed to enjoy a good relationship with Assad, when she rejected President George W. Bush’s recommendation to not meet with Syria’s dictator. In 2007, Pelosi ignored the Bush administration’s foreign policies and met with one of the most authoritarian leaders of the world— one who has ruled Syria by killings, torture and oppression. Later, though, Pelosi praised Assad by stating, “We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace.”

Obama Arrives Alone For Putin G20 Syria Dinner
Excerpt: World leaders arrived Thursday for a dinner hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin where they would discuss the crisis in Syria, with US President Barack Obama showing up alone and well after the main group. (Couldn’t seem to get out of the sand trap on 13. ~Bob.)

Special Ops Vet Group Wants Truth About Benghazi Before Syria Strike
A group of special operations veterans is demanding House Speaker John Boehner form a Select Committee to uncover the truth behind the Benghazi attacks. The group said that Americans and the world will not be able to trust the Obama administration on Syria until it tells the truth about what happened in Benghazi

Excerpt: The Obama administration is considering sending American military trainers to Syria to work with the rebel fighters in an expansion of the CIA's training program already underway in Jordan. U.S. official tells Fox News the prospect of sending trainers to Syria is being “kicked around” at the White House, but is part of the administration’s broader Syria policy and would not be tied to a potential military operation. The official stressed that one of the major obstacles in launching this type of operation is that they are having serious problems vetting which are the trustworthy groups in Syria. (”What’s it matter?” –Barb)

Excerpt: Dempsey's letter, released Monday, went far beyond arming the opposition in outlining potential options. He sent the letter after taking heat at last week's confirmation hearing from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who pressed Dempsey for his advice on Syria while suggesting the administration had not done enough -- McCain threatened to place a hold on Dempsey's nomination until he got answers. (Can we just send McCain back to AZ to retire and play iPhone poker? –Barb)

Kerry: Bombing Syria Would Not be an "Act of War"...Per Se
http://lastresistance.com/3149/kerry-bombing-syria-act-warper-se/
Excerpt: Kerry says that he and the President are not asking Congress for permission to go to war. They’re just wanting to execute a “limited action.” A surgical strike. With cruise missiles. But that is not war in the “classic sense” of the word. I guess it depends on what the definition of “is” is. (So Pearl Harbor was what? ~Bob.)

'Barbarians are Barbaric' By Willaim Kristol
Excerpt: Huns will be Huns. Those who act mercifully toward Huns bear direct responsibility for the fact that nuclear weapons are being built in Iran, chemical weapons are being used in Syria and doomsday weapons threaten the future of the Middle East. Those who underestimate the inherent danger of the Huns bear direct responsibility for the deaths of today’s victims, the Syrians, and tomorrow’s victims, the Israelis, Europeans and Americans.

On the record: Hillary backs Obama on Syria.
Excerpt: As someone (can’t remember who) said on Twitter, imagine if Hillary were still SoS and had to sell this shinolapile on TV today instead of Kerry. Good lord. She quit just in time.

Clear-Cut Stupidity on Syria. Everyone’s on the hook for Obama’s “red line” comments. Except Obama. By Jonah Goldberg
Excerpt: ‘The genius of you Americans,” the Arab-nationalist and one-time president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, once explained, “is that you never make clear-cut stupid moves, only complicated stupid moves which make us wonder at the possibility that there may be something to them which we are missing.” … But now, faced with the prospect of going it alone, he’s in effect telling Congress, “Hey, it’s not like I need your company, but you’d be crazy not to go to war with me.”

A "moderate" forces Christians into converting to Islam. An "extremist" kills them without offering the choice. Welcome to Syria.

Senators backing war in Syria are flush with defense industry cash. By Eric Boehm
Excerpt: According to an analysis by MapLight, which tracks lobbying and campaign contributions in Congress, senators who voted in favor of the resolution received, on average, 83 percent more money from defense contractors and other defense interests than senators who voted against the resolution. 

My military. Your credibility. The world’s red line.

If American troops, & their fams, didn’t have to back up Obama's false courage, I'd find it a lot funnier watching him lie & try 2 act tough. (From a black guy. ~Bob.)

CNN's @brikeilarcnn notes the more House/Senate Dems hear in intel briefings the less likely they seem to support action v Syria

Terrorist links led U.S. military to cut ties with Syrian opposition leader
Excerpt: When the main Syrian opposition group speaks, it is often through a longtime U.S. resident whose ties to Islamist extremists were detailed in a 2010 Dallas Morning News report.

U.S.-Backed Syrian Rebel Commander: ‘Israel Is An Enemy Country;’ Assad and Hizballah 'Israeli Collaborators’
Excerpt: Brigadier General Salim Idris, who Sen. John McCain has called a "fine leader" and who leads the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which is supported by the Obama administration, told Al Jazeera in a May 8 video interview that “Israel is an enemy country” and that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese terrorist group Hizballah are "Israeli collaborators." - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/us-backed-syrian-rebel-commander-israel-enemy-country-assad-and#sthash.qCM24Pnn.dpuf

If there was a video game for being president, convincing Republicans to blow people up in the Middle East would be the tutorial mission.

GALLUP: by 51-36, Americans oppose a military strike against Syria. Going to war without broad public support is always a bad idea.

Not one of 'bad guys,' but Syrian rebel group proclaims 'anti-American' bent
Excerpt: As debate grows over the extremism of some armed factions battling to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, an incendiary illustration on the Facebook page of one such group leaves little doubt where its leaders envision the uprising ending – with masked Islamic fighters marching through Washington, D.C., as the U.S. Capitol burns in the background.

Barack Obama is heading for a humiliating defeat over Syria. This will be a massive blow to his presidency. By Nile Gardiner
Excerpt: Politico has an eye-opening piece today revealing the extent to which the White House is staring defeat in the face over Syria. According to the influential Washington-based publication, President Obama doesn’t have the votes in the House of Representatives to secure a win, with large-scale opposition among Republicans, and lukewarm backing among Democrats: "If the House voted today on a resolution to attack Syria, President Barack Obama would lose — and lose big."

PHOTOS: Viral Facebook Page: 'I didn't join the Navy to fight for Al Qaeda in a Syrian civil war. By Soopermexican.com
Excerpt: Between now and the vote for authorization, there are going to be a lot of voices for and against, but none would move our wills as much as those who will be asked to perform the strike, the U.S. Military.

My Labour Day Rant Against Obama's Syrian Strike: "Go to Hell, Muslim World!" By Soopermexican.com
Excerpt: You know what world, we're sick & tired of spending our American lives & our money to have you hate and despise us. Attack Syria YOURSELVES!

VIDEO: Syrian Rebels Shell Ancient Christian Village.
Excerpt: Some of the shells appear to hit the Mar Sarkis monastery.