Due to my jammed schedule, there will likely be no Political Digest Saturday or Sunday. Sorry. ~Bob
Wall Street Journal links
Sometimes a link that works for me, won’t work in the blog, saying “subscribers only.” You can usually get a through link by a Google Search.
The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
All royalties go to a charity to help wounded veterans. E-Book available at Smash Words: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/59105
Please forward and post where possible.
My Job Application for Independent Counsel
Excerpt: Now that White House emails suggest that the Obama administration wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to prop up a failing firm just to make a political point about green energy, isn't it time for an independent counsel? The independent counsel statute (which I thought was unconstitutional based on the dissent of Justice Scalia in Morrison v. Olson and Judge Laurence Silberman's majority opinion in that case in the lower courts) has long expired, but the Attorney General can appoint one on his own under Justice Department regulations. There are many capable candidates, but I volunteer. As a law professor, I wouldn't charge the administration much -- and we know how much help they need in watching their pennies. I used to live in Fremont, California, home to Solyndra -- I know many of the good Chinese and Indian places to eat nearby. I would be more sympathetic than most to the Obama administration's claims, if any, of executive privilege. I have a good working relationship with people at the Obama Justice Department. I know lots of people who would love to work hard on the investigation. Any other volunteers? And any ideas of where we should take the investigation? Any questions to ask of potential witnesses? (Yoo served in G W Bush's White House. He was the attorney that found no crime in "Waterboarding". The Obama Administration tried to prosecute him for that opinion.. –Dave.)
No Junk in the Trunk: UN Palestinian State Vote Bites Jewish Liberals in the Ass
Excerpt: To those who are paying attention, a scheduled United Nations vote on Palestinian statehood is just days away (though it’s possible that Obamaniks–rather than suffer embarrassment and American defeat–may do a deal sacrificing more of Israel and getting huge concessions in order to table it). But I don’t blame the anti-American, anti-Israel U.N. I don’t even blame the world’s nations, composed mostly of Third World banana republics, 22 artificially drawn nations carved out of Greater Barbaria a/k/a the Arab Muslim world, and assorted other Jew-haters and America-despisers. I expect these things from these people. Boys will be boys. And barbaric savages will be barbaric savages. I blame Jewish liberals–the ones who dominate the American Jewish establishment, a Politburo that I and most other American Jews never chose. They are the ones who pimped America on the idea of accepting a “two state solution,” including a Palestinian State and Israel (and that idea with its pre-1967 borders was around well before Obama, as George W. Bush was the first U.S. President to publicly call for the Palestinian State). That includes the over-hyped plagiarist hack Alan M. Dershowitz.
Attack Watch Commercial
Out there humor, going viral. ~Bob.
Vietnamese political prisoner Truong Van Suong dies in detention
Gee, you'd think those friends of Jane Fonda, John Kerry, et al would behave better. ~Bob. Excerpt: Human rights campaigners have condemned the Vietnamese authorities over the death of a political prisoner who spent more than three decades in detention. US-based Human Rights Watch said Truong Van Suong died on Monday in Ha Nam province outside Hanoi. Fellow political prisoner Nguyen Van Trai died in custody in July. Vietnam's foreign ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi confirmed the death, claiming Suong died from a serious illness despite receiving treatment from doctors at a hospital.
Watchdog group: Too many generals, admirals
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2011/09/military-jim-webb-generals-admirals-star-creep-091411w/
Excerpt: “Star creep” — an increase in flag and general officers at a time when the military as a whole is shrinking in size — is receiving attention from a key Senate panel, but there is no immediate indication that any specific actions will be taken. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel, said he is studying historical trends to determine why senior ranks are growing but is not ready to do anything about it. “This is not intended to be an adversarial hearing,” he said Wednesday as defense and service officials appeared before him to discuss how needs are determined. “This is an area we are just beginning to get a look at.” But while Webb may not be ready to act, one witness said something is definitely amiss. “The average general and admiral has nearly 500 fewer uniformed personnel under command today than in 1991,” said Ben Freeman of the Project on Government Oversight, a federal watchdog group. “This progression towards a more top-heavy force is not without consequences,” he said. “The cost of officers increases markedly with their rank, so taxpayers are overpaying whenever a general or flag officer is in a position that could be filled by a lower-ranking officer.”
Northwest Side man found beaten to death in his home
Excerpt: A man who appeared to have been beaten to death was discovered inside in the basement of his Northwest Side home, authorities said Wednesday. Michael Justo, 56, was found with massive head trauma just before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday in his home in the 5300 block of Northwest Highway, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. Detectives were looking into the possibility Justo may have been attacked in a break-in. (Northwest Highway runs three blocks from our home, but this address is about nine miles away. Better than last year when they found a body—well, actually half a body—a stone’s throw from our condo. ~Bob.)
F-16 pilot was ready to down her father’s plane
Excerpt: Oh, and one other thing about that F-16 pilot we wrote about in this space last week . That commercial airliner she was supposed to bring down on Sept. 11, 2001? It turns out her father could well have been one of the pilots. When we chronicled the little-told Sept. 11 history of Maj. Heather “Lucky” Penney, one of the first fighter pilots in the air over Washington that morning, we knew that she and Col. Marc Sasseville had been ordered airborne out of fear that a hijacked plane was heading to the capital. We knew that in the scramble, they had to launch without live ammunition or missiles. We knew they were prepared to ram that 757, at the likely cost of their own lives as well as those of everyone on board. What we didn’t know until Penney’s mother e-mailed us, with a request to mail a copy of the story to her in Colorado, was this additional Penney-family fact about that day: “We were thankful that Heather was able to put her emotions aside and not even consider that her father might have been flying on United 93,” Stephanie Penney said as an aside in her e-mail. (And if those Jihadist bastards had their way, she’d have to wear a burka, and couldn’t hold a job, go to school, or go out without a male relative with her. ~Bob.)
Some frustrated Democrats want to see Obama primary challenge
Opposing Obama? Must be a bunch of racists. If Hillary won't run, John Edwards may be available. ~Bob. Excerpt: Some frustrated Democrats in Congress are saying that a primary challenge to President Obama would be a good thing, but others maintain it would only help the GOP.
Seeing Ripple in Jewish Vote
Excerpt: Not since Jimmy Carter in 1980 has a Democrat running for president failed to win a lopsided majority of the Jewish vote. This has been true during times of peace or war, and even when there has been deep acrimony between the White House and the Israeli government. Republicans see a chance to change that in 2012, with President Obama locked in a tense relationship with Israel’s leaders and criticized by many American Jews as being too tough on a close and favored ally. Tuesday’s Republican upset in New York’s Congressional election, they say, is a sign of bad things to come for Mr. Obama.
Obama green-tech program that backed Solyndra struggles to create jobs
Excerpt: A $38.6 billion loan guarantee program that the Obama administration promised would create or save 65,000 jobs has created just a few thousand jobs two years after it began, government records show. The program — designed to jump-start the nation’s clean technology industry by giving energy companies access to low-cost, government-backed loans — has directly created 3,545 new, permanent jobs after giving out almost half the allocated amount, according to Energy Department tallies. President Obama has made “green jobs” a showcase of his recovery plan, vowing to foster new jobs, new technologies and more competitive American industries. But the loan guarantee program came under scrutiny Wednesday from Republicans and Democrats at a House oversight committee hearing about the collapse of Solyndra, a solar-panel maker whose closure could leave taxpayers on the hook for as much as $527 million. (If Bush was responsible for FEMA’s reaction to Katarina, then Obama is responsible for both the AFT “Fast and Furious guns-for-murderers” program and even more so for this disaster. Obama’s problem is he thinks he and his bright guys can make better economic decisions than the market, which relies on tens of billions of daily decisions by people with skin in the game. But he’s a statist, who believes every problem requires more government. This is driving us towards a fiscal collapse, followed by political and social collapse. ~Bob.)
California Democrats trying to recover from loss of embezzled campaign money
Excerpt: Several California Democrats are trying to recover from the loss of embezzled campaign money, and they could be on the hook for federal fines. The case centers around California bookkeeper Kinde Durkee, who prosecutors allege committed fraud while serving as a treasurer for political campaigns. Prosecutors say that Durkee, who was arrested Sept. 2, took $677,000 out of the account of a state assemblyman and transferred money into accounts held by Reps. Loretta Sanchez and Susan A. Davis. Some of the money was used to make payroll for Durkee’s firm and to cover personal expenses, including a nursing home bill for her mother, according to prosecutors.
Can We Determine the Optimal Size of Government?
Excerpt: The massive spending programs and new regulations adopted by many countries around the world in response to the economic crisis of 2008 have drawn renewed attention to the role of government in the economy. Studies of the relationship between government size and economic growth have come up with a wide range of estimates of the "optimal" or growth-maximizing size of government, ranging anywhere between 15 and 30 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). This paper argues that such an exercise is ill conceived. Modern growth economics suggests, first, that government policies leave their long-term impact primarily on the level of economic activity, not the growth rate; and, second, that the sources of this impact are multi-dimensional and not necessarily well measured by conventional measures of "size," such as the share of government spending in GDP. In fact, measures of economic freedom more closely relate to per capita GDP than do simple measures of government spending. The evidence shows that governments are generally larger than optimal, but because the available data include primarily countries whose governments are too large, it cannot plausibly say what the ideal size of government is. The data can realistically only say that smaller governments are better, and suggest that the optimal size of government is smaller than what we observe today.
A Lethal Subsidy
Excerpt: The subsidy is already causing chaos in procurement of malaria medicines. Orders for the new subsidized malaria drugs from just four countries—Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania—account for over 70 percent of the total global production capacity. Although these are highly malarial countries, this is a dramatic increase from their previous malaria drug consumption. Almost all of the new drug orders are going to profit seekers in those four countries, and they are driving out sclerotic government ordering. There are more than 40 malarial countries in Africa that need the new effective malaria treatments, to say little of those in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Even the U.S. government’s lead malaria program, the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), told us that it is “very concerned” about being able to procure sufficient supplies of the leading malaria medicine. The inability of the PMI to buy sufficient quantities of the best malaria drugs should set off alarm bells. (Or, we could remove the DDT ban, which has killed millions in the third world. But who cares about black kids dying if liberals get to feel good about the environment? ~Bob.)
Border Patrol finds weapons, rocket launcher near Rio Grande
Just, as the Obots are wont to say, “Hard-working people seeking a better life doing jobs Americans won’t do.” Like mass murder as they have done in Mexico. If you think that violence won’t come here, across our open-borders, aided by political correctness, you are going to get slapped, hard, by reality. ~Bob. Excerpt: U.S. Border Patrol agents have discovered a cache of several high-powered weapons along the Rio Grande river including a rocket launcher, assault rifles and plastic explosives, authorities said. Agents found the weapons on Tuesday in a black bag along a quiet stretch of the Rio Grande near Fronton, a small community about 210 miles south of San Antonio. No arrests have been made. “These deadly weapons could have had a devastating impact on communities on both sides of the border and to our agents and other law enforcement officers,” Rosendo Hinojosa, head of Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector, said in a statement. Inside the bag were six assault rifles, a grenade launcher, a rocket launcher, 20 ammunition magazines for various-sized weapons and three packages of what appeared to be C-4 plastic explosives, a Border Patrol news release states.
Three good essays from this blog, below. ~Bob
The Wages of Terror
Excerpt: When Obama set off to visit the victims of Hurricane Irene, instead of visiting the American victims who had lost their homes and possessions-- he headed off to Paterson, New Jersey. Paterson is known as 'Paterstine' for a reason, it's home to the second largest Arab community after Dearborn, and while most of its residents are not yet Muslims, concentrating his visit there sends a message. And it's the same message that has been sent over and over again. Muslims come first. Obama's decision to shut down the space program by terminating the shuttle and its replacement vehicle, combined with the loss of the Russian space freighter, means that the International Space Station may have to be abandoned. But as Obama's new NASA administrator Charles Bolden said, the new priority is Muslim outreach. We may not have a space program anymore, but NASA has partnered with Saudi Arabia on "lunar and asteroid science research". The good news is that the Saudis can afford to buy us a new shuttle, so long as we don't let any women drive it. And did you know that the National Park Service has an Office of International Affairs? Why does it need an office of international affairs? So it can fund mosques globally through UNESCO. The Obama Administration has eliminated the Park Service's 'Save America's Treasures" program, but there's always money for Islam. While the old outdated jingoistic NPS was concerned with the United States, the new NPS gives money to the Medina of Tunis, an adjacent Islamic school and a Muslim pilgrimage site in Turkmenistan.
Excerpt: Just as no murder trial would be complete without the murderer's family showing up in court to explain why they are the real victims, no commemoration of September 11th would be complete without a lot of articles explaining why Muslims are the real victims of their own killing spree. "Are you a Muslim? Have you been discriminated against by ignorant rednecks, christers and zionists? Do American flag bumper stickers offend you and do bigoted security officers harass you when you walk into an airport wearing a t-shirt with Arabic letters and a bomb belt? Then call the law offices of NBC, CBS and CPUSA to get the justice you deserve!" Islam is as American as Couscous and suicide bombings, and this September 11 there has been a flood of articles from Muslims explaining how they're not remotely terrorists and that we're horrible bigots for thinking that-- and how if we just understood that it's our fault that their terrorists are trying to kill us everything would be sweller than a June moon in July. In the interests of reaching out to Muslims and letting media outlets outsource the work of composing these things from Muslim Brotherhood affiliated university grads to cheaper labor in China; I've broken down the typical Muslim post 9/11 victimization article into a basic template that anyone in Shanghai can reproduce.
Excerpt: Kalb, or dog, is one of the worst possible insults in the Muslim world. Call a man Kalb or Kalb ibn Kalb, if you want the knives to come out. In Afghanistan, those who fled the Taliban and returned to help the Coalition rebuild the country are called "Sag shouey" or "Dog washers" since Americans are infidel dogs and the Afghans who cooperate with Americans are menial servants of the dogs. Mohammed, in addition to his affinity for pre-teen girls also had a compulsive hatred of dogs. Some Hadiths quote him ordering the killing of all dogs, others show him to be moderate ordering that only "'black dogs" be killed. Which gives a special edge to the not uncommon description in the Muslim world of Obama as a "black dog". After Osama bin Laden's execution, an imam of the Al-Aqsa mosque castigated the "Western dogs" who had done it. And as it turned out a dog actually did accompany the SEAL team that took down Osama. Unlike the billions spent on trying to win over Pakistanis and Afghans, who went on aiding terrorists anyway-- the dogs remained true and loyal friends.
The Tale of Two Jobs Plans
Excerpt: It's been one week since President Barack Obama announced his latest "stimulus" plan, and despite a cross-country road show aimed at selling his proposals to the American people, the commander in chief is finding that his message of more taxes and spending isn't hitting home. Meanwhile, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) has outlined a markedly different way to help the U.S. economy get back on track. According to a new National Journal/United Technologies poll, only one in six Americans think that the President's plan will decrease unemployment "a lot," while one-quarter doubted that the plan would affect unemployment at all. Then there are the 39 percent who think that the President's policies have made unemployment even worse (twice as many as those who say he's made unemployment better). Now The New York Times is raining on the President's parade, too, reporting that Democrats are "balking at Obama's jobs bill" and "say there is little chance they will be able to support the bill as a single entity, citing an array of elements they cannot abide." Though it might be surprising that the President is struggling even among his own party to garner support for the plan that he has demanded they pass, it's no wonder that the country doubts his plan for job growth.
Hearing: U.S. Must Respond if UN Declares Palestinian State
Excerpt: A bipartisan group of lawmakers sent Palestinian Authority officials a powerful message Tuesday: There will be severe consequences for any attempt to have the United Nations recognize an independent Palestinian state based on Israel's June 4, 1967 borders.
That could range from the closing of Palestine Liberation Organization offices in Washington and other diplomatic actions, to a full cutoff of American foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Such a unilateral action violates the 18-year-old Oslo Accords, brokered by the United States, which call for direct negotiations to resolve any conflict. In testimony delivered at House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, witnesses noted that three-quarters of the PA budget comes from value-added tax collections remitted by Israel along with foreign aid, much of which comes from the United States. Washington has provided more than $4 billion in bilateral aid to the Palestinians since the 1993 Oslo Accords. In this fiscal year, U.S. aid is set at $550 million - $400 million in economic assistance and $150 million for equipping and training Palestinian security forces. Others suggested cutting off American funding for any United Nations program that recognizes the Palestinian state. (Cutting off all funding for the UN would be good. But the Obots will wring their hands, mouth platitudes and do nothing. ~Bob.)
Disagreement = Hate Speech
Excerpt: Last month, a teacher in Florida was temporarily reassigned to a non-student contact position because of something he wrote on Facebook. “I’m watching the news, eating dinner when the story about New York okaying same-sex unions came on and I almost threw up. And now they showed two guys kissing after their announcement. If they want to call it a union, go ahead. But don’t insult a man and woman’s marriage by throwing it in the same cesspool of whatever. God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable?” Well, according to the Lake County school district, 2010 Teach of the Year, Jerry Buell, because of that posting on FB, violated the code of special ethics which calls for all educators to value the “worth and dignity of every person.” Fortunately, he was reinstated, after the situation drew national attention, with both the ACLU and the Liberty Council backing Buell’s right to speak his mind. But why was Mr. Buell put in this position in the first place? There was absolutely no evidence that Mr. Buell treated his homosexual students any differently. He said he posted his comment on his time, on his computer, in his house. Okay, I haven’t read the entire “ethics code” mentioned by the school district, but how can his posting about two guys kissing violate any teacher’s ethics? Having sexual contact with a student, yes. Altering students’ tests as some Atlanta teachers did, yes. Bullying a student because he’s a homosexual, yes. But Mr. Buell did none of these things. (I have long opposed discrimination against Gays, and don’t think if they marry it will hurt my marriage at all. But attempts to criminalize any speech as “hate Speech,” no matter who directed at, are repugnant to freedom. ~Bob.)
Outsourcing Defense Contracts to Unfriendly Governments
“Golden Share.” Interesting concept. Clearly, Obama thinks the government should have a “golden share” in most, maybe all, sectors of the economy. ~Bob. Excerpt: The debt deal that President Obama signed on August 2 has sparked an important conversation about aggressive spending cuts in order to avoid a financial crisis. As part of that debt deal, Congress has formed the super committee to make recommendations to cut spending. The Department of Defense will surely have many decisions ahead of them as they are faced with the likely reality that defense programs may be subject to significant cuts from the committee. Recognizing the need for light air support, the Department is expected to soon announce its decision on an aircraft to meet its light air support needs. This procurement decision is a case study in what the Department of Defense should do to protect taxpayer dollars. Two competitors have bid on the plane: Embraer, based in Brazil; and Hawker Beechcraft, based in Kansas. (…) The Brazilian government has a “golden share” in Embraer, which gives the government a majority share of the company. This allows the Brazilian government to make decisions for the company that cannot be stopped by other shareholders. The golden share also allows the Brazilian government to stop, slow, or alter production of the company’s products. While Embraer claims that the government cannot interfere in business decisions, history shows that as far back as World War II, other foreign governments that have not agreed with U.S. policy have interfered with products being built for American defense machinery. (I’m not convinced it’s fair to characterize Brazil as “unfriendly;” I’d rather think of them as competitors. But my invariable rule of thumb for defense procurement is if we CAN make it ourselves, we SHOULD. We lose no secrets by keeping production here. We don’t endanger our supply lines by keeping them within our own borders. We retain control of every step along the production path. It also keeps the revenue and jobs within our borders. There would have to be a really compelling reason before I’d support farming out defense procurement to a foreign country. Ron P.)
My Congress Critter. Husband is a political consultant and convicted felon who pleaded guilty to bank fraud and tax violations. She says he lied in that, was innocent, not guilty. So no use asking me to write my representative, might as well write Trotsky. ~Bob. Excerpt: I’ll put it this way. You don’t deserve to keep all of it and it’s not a question of deserving because what government is, is those things that we decide to do together. And there are many things that we decide to do together like have our national security. Like have police and fire. What about the people that work at the National Institute of Health who are looking for a cure for cancer.
Khamenei Must Go (and Take Ahmadinejad too, Please)
Excerpt: According to several recent reports, the Obama administration is now considering more forceful action against Iran in Iraq. This is as understandable as it was inevitable; as I wrote many months before the invasion of Iraq, it is folly to expect to maintain decent security there so long as the current regime remains in power in Tehran. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his henchmen cannot tolerate the existence of a free, stable democratic society in its Shi’ite neighbor to the West, nor in Afghanistan to the East. The Iranian tyrant is threatened by an ongoing mass uprising by his own people, and he desperately wants to demonstrate that the Islamic Republic can destroy and eventually dominate any would-be free state in the region. No surprise, then, that just as Iran arms, funds, indoctrinates and trains its proxies in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is providing all manner of assistance to Bashar al Assad in Syria to crush the insurrection there, and is supporting Islamist forces in other Arab countries, notably Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, to wrest control of the evolving governments from the hands of the freedom-seeking people who were in the front lines of the successful revolutions. (Give me a clear shot with my M1 and they’d go. ~Bob.)
Jobless Claims Rise Again -- 428K Weekly First-Time Benefits Requests
Excerpt: The number of people applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week to the highest level in three months. It's a sign that the job market remains depressed. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications rose by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 428,000. The week included the Labor Day holiday. Applications typically drop during short work weeks. In this case, applications didn't drop as much as the department expected, so the seasonally adjusted value rose. A Labor spokesman said the total wasn't affected by Hurricane Irene. (Being billed as “unexpected,” the lead for all bad economic news. ~Bob.)
64% Say Boeing Should Be Allowed to Operate Plant in South Carolina
Excerpt: The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) may be upset with Boeing’s plan to operate a non-union plant in South Carolina, but most Americans think it should be allowed to. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone poll finds that 64% think Boeing has the right to open the plant in South Carolina while just 21% disagree. When respondents are told that the NLRB believes that opening the plant is an act of retaliation against the union, the numbers barely move. Only 17% think the agency has the right to prevent Boeing from opening the new facility while 64% disagree. (Who cares what the subjects of Barack I want? The unions say no and they give him money. ~Bob.)
50% Say Obama’s Policies Have Hurt the Economy
Excerpt: One-out-of-two Likely U.S. Voters (50%) now believe that President Obama’s economic policies have hurt the economy, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Thirty-two percent (32%) think the president’s policies have helped the economy, while eight percent (8%) say they’ve had no impact. … Predictably, there’s a wide partisan difference of opinion. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Democrats say the president’s economic policies have been good for the economy. Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Republicans - and 56% of voters not affiliated with either party – take the opposite view and believe Obama’s policies have hurt the country economically. Fifty percent (50%) of union members think the president’s policies have been bad for the economy. Tea Party members believe that even more emphatically, with 86% who share that view compared to 39% of non-members.
Obama to crowd: “If you love me, you’ve got to help me pass this bill”
Excerpt: If the GOP passed the bill as is and the economy either didn’t improve or improved only marginally, O would get the lion’s share of the blame. If they don’t pass the bill as is then the White House gets to keep playing the same sort of what-if game that they’ve played with the stimulus for two years. Coming to a campaign ad near you in October 2012: “What if the Republicans had passed the president’s jobs bill in its entirety when they had the chance? Our economy might be on the rebound right now.” That’s the ad they want to run for buck-passing purposes, and that’s why they’ve proposed paying for the bill exclusively with new taxes. It’s a poison pill for the GOP. If you really love Obama, you should help him not to pass the bill so that he can try to pawn the crapola “recovery” off on Republicans next year.
Okay, lets do as Obama asked and pass the “American Jobs Act of 2011” right now! But why does he have to be either incompetent or cynical? Can’t he be both? ~Bob. Excerpt: Texas Representative Louie Gohmert is a genius. He’s absconded with the name of Obama’s jobs bill — the American Jobs Act of 2011 –and used it for his own tax-cutting bill. Is it a Republican dirty trick? How can Gohmert do this? Because Obama is either incompetent or cynical. Here is the thing, either Obama was never serious about this so-called jobs bill in the first place and never intended to submit it, or he is one of the most inept politicians in presidential history. If Obama were an effective president Rep. Gohmert would never have been able to appropriate Obama’s bill name for his own. If Obama was effective he’d have crafted his jobs bill, delivered his speech that night, and lined up at least one Democrat, if not the whole Democrat Party, to introduce his bill the very next morning after the speech. But Obama did no such thing. Not only was there no bill when he delivered the speech, even this many days after the speech the bill has never been introduced in the House of Representatives where such bills might begin the legislative process.
The Afghan Rescue Mission Behind Today's Medal of Honor
Excerpt: President Obama will today award the Medal of Honor to Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer. In attendance will be a handful of soldiers and Marines who, one day in September 2009, were abandoned by their chain of command and relied on their own initiative to dislodge a fierce enemy. Their battle has entered military folklore and resulted not only in today's Medal of Honor but in two Navy Crosses, two investigations for dereliction of duty, three letters of severe reprimand, and a recommendation for a second Medal of Honor.
Memorials set as ex-Marine gets Medal of Honor
As long as he/she holds to the core values of Honor-Courage-Commitment, there is no such thing as an ex-Marine. ~Bob. Excerpt: Dakota Meyer saved 36 lives from an ambush in Afghanistan and the ex-Marine will collect the nation's highest military honor at the White House on Thursday. While he is receiving the Medal of Honor, Meyer's slain comrades will be memorialized in hometown ceremonies at his request. His hero's moment was his darkest day. Meyer lost some of his best friends the morning of Sept. 8, 2009, in far-off Kunar Province. "It's hard, it's ... you know ... getting recognized for the worst day of your life, so it's... it's a really tough thing," Meyer said, struggling for words.
Marines
Excerpt: I mentioned yesterday a Marine Corps advertisement campaign effort that included some photos of my father in it. A link follows….. It is not the highest resolution, but you can discern the various parts reasonably well. There is a Corsair model shown that was my dad’s, plus various photo of him during WWII, plus a post-WWII photo of my parent’s wedding day. That is some of what the featured young boy gazing at wall is looking at. The gentleman sitting on a bench by himself in a Marine Corps tee shirt is MGen Larry Taylor (ret), who I’ve known since I was a captain— Larry once loaned me (a complete stranger) his car while on a cross country stopover at NAS Atlanta long ago. That is how I first came to know him. It was great running into him when I arrived to view the final shooting of the commemoration (in Atlanta). The gentleman at the very end of the video is Marine Andrew Fortunato’s father, another real Marine veteran they used in the video effort… This was a special event for me. I am fortunate to have a memorable Marine Corps keepsake that includes a visual reference to my dad and his Marine Corps service. --Greg
Don't Be Afraid
Excerpt: Don't be cowed into submission by the stealth jihadists, leftwing shills and Islamic apologists to be afraid to say who and what we are fighting. This US hero, Marine amputee Sgt. Ricardo Ramirez, isn't afraid to go on fighting for you and me, our families, our country. Multiple-tour combat veteran back in action. So, don't be afraid to speak. Our finest Americans are fighting and dying for our way of life, for freedom. Do not fail them by remaining silent on the homefront. We are fighting jihad. Say it. And teach your children well.
How Wall St. 'fixes' kill jobs
Excerpt: Bank of America’s announcement of up to 30,000 layoffs over the new few years is finally bringing some attention to the jobs-killing cost of rotten laws like last year’s Dodd-Frank financial “reform.” The problem’s only grown since I last wrote about it (“Wall Street Jobs Exodus,” June 30), and it’s likely to get worse. Consider what Dodd-Frank fans will point to as the “real” reason that BofA’s shares are falling scarily close to penny-stock territory and its CEO Brian Moynihan is cutting all those jobs: the bank’s ill-advised 2008 purchase of Countrywide Financial. The home lender had sold tens of billions of dollars in subprime mortgages held by investors who BofA might soon have to make whole. But a good part of what turned buying Countrywide into such a misstep is coming from politics. A group of state attorneys general are trying to extort some $20 billion from the big banks because of what amounts to paperwork errors in the mortgage foreclosure process. The vast majority of the people thrown out of their homes “illegally” (according to the government ambulance chasers) were far and away delinquent on their loans. But the state AGs see a pot of gold sitting in the vaults of JP Morgan, Citigroup and BofA -- and they’re intent on grabbing every dime they can.
Field Poll: Californians sour on Obama
Excerpt: Even in heavily Democratic California, President Barack Obama's job approval rating has plummeted among voters, largely on his handling of the economy, according to a new Field Poll. Though Obama is strongly favored to win California in his re-election bid next year, the poll suggests many Democrats may vote for him only begrudgingly, and it is yet another indication of weakening support nationwide. "When you're seeing vulnerability in a state like California, I think that really is ominous for his national standing," Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said. For the first time since Obama took office in 2009, less than half of California voters – 46 percent – approve of the job he is doing, just two percentage points more than disapprove, according to the poll.
Young Americans flock to Israel to join army
Excerpt: Hundreds of new immigrants from the U.S. landed at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel on Tuesday. An unprecedented 104 of the 360 new arrivals, came to enlist in the Israeli army. Brig. Gen. Eli Shermeister, the Chief Education Officer, was among a delegation of officials on hand to greet the 18 to 22 year olds. "It's an honor to have you join the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) and the Israeli nation," the Brig. Gen. said. "There are no words to describe my appreciation for you, your courage and the Zionistic values you hold. The State of Israel is coping with security threats every day and defending its security is the main goal of the IDF."
Worth Reading: Why Obama Is Losing the Jewish Vote
Excerpt: February 2008: When running for president, then-Sen. Obama told an audience in Cleveland: "There is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you're anti-Israel." Likud had been out of power for two years when Mr. Obama made this statement. At the time the country was being led by the centrist Kadima government of Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Shimon Peres, and Prime Minister Olmert had been pursuing an unprecedented territorial compromise. As for Likud governments, it was under Likud that Israel made its largest territorial compromises—withdrawals from Sinai and Gaza. • July 2009: Mr. Obama hosted American Jewish leaders at the White House, reportedly telling them that he sought to put "daylight" between America and Israel. "For eight years"—during the Bush administration—"there was no light between the United States and Israel, and nothing got accomplished," he declared. Nothing? Prime Minister Ariel Sharon uprooted thousands of settlers from their homes in Gaza and the northern West Bank and deployed the Israeli army to forcibly relocate their fellow citizens. Mr. Sharon then resigned from the Likud Party to build a majority party based on a two-state consensus. In the same meeting with Jewish leaders, Mr. Obama told the group that Israel would need "to engage in serious self-reflection." This statement stunned the Americans in attendance: Israeli society is many things, but lacking in self-reflection isn't one of them. It's impossible to envision the president delivering a similar lecture to Muslim leaders.
Violent Crime Surges in Three Bay Area Cities
Excerpt: Oakland is among several Bay Area cities experiencing increases in violent crime this year. Some of the Bay Area's largest cities are experiencing a jump in violent crimes such as homicide and robbery, according to city records and the state attorney general. The causes of this year's surge appear to be linked to factors such as gang activity as well as budget cutbacks in police, say local law-enforcement officials. In Oakland and San Jose, violent crime has swelled amid police layoffs. Other cities such as Richmond, which is grappling with gangs, have experienced an increase in violent crime even as they have invested in their police departments. "A jump in a single year's crime statistics doesn't equate to a trend," cautions Greg Ridgeway, director of the Center on Quality Policing at Rand Corp., a research nonprofit in Santa Monica, Calif. "But sharp increases in crime cannot be ignored and have to be addressed, which seems to be under way in some of the [Bay Area] cities. " Among the violent crime increases: In Oakland, firearm assaults increased 31% to 361 incidents in the nine-month period ended Sept. 1, up from 276 incidents in the same period a year earlier, according to city records. The number of homicides jumped 25% to 74 incidents in the same period versus a year earlier. In San Jose, the number of homicides rose 73% to 26 this year through July compared with the same period a year earlier, the highest year-to-year increase the city has experienced in at least the last 10 years, according to city and state records. Robberies rose 9% to 598 incidents so far this year from a year earlier.
Far-Left Dem Rep. Henry Waxman: Jews Might Vote Against Obama To “Protect Their Wealth”
Excerpt: Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), a prominent Jewish congressman, said the Jewish vote is a concern for his party. “I think Jewish voters will be Democratic and be for Obama in 2012, especially if you get a Republican candidate like [Texas] Gov. [Rick] Perry,” he said. “But there’s no question the Jewish community is much more bipartisan than it has been in previous years. There are Jews who are trending toward the Republican Party, some of it because of their misunderstanding of Obama’s policies in the Middle East, and some of it, quite frankly, for economic reasons. They feel they want to protect their wealth, which is why a lot of well-off voters vote for Republicans.”
Obama Becomes the Fall Guy
Excerpt: Suddenly, liberal op-ed writers are trashing -- even lampooning -- Barack Obama as a one-term president ("one and done"). Centrist Democrats up for re-election in 2012 openly worry about inviting a kindred president into their districts, lest the supposed new pariah lose them votes. Left-wing think tanks, environmentalists and academics vent their anger against Obama for supposedly being too soft on Republicans, and too ready to compromise with right-wingers. But what really caused the left-wing falling-out, less than three years after the hope-and-change crush on Barack Obama? For now, polls. Obama's popularity has plummeted to little more than 40 percent approval. Suddenly, Democrats worry that the public anger could be contagious. It might infect them as well -- in the way a sinking George W. Bush hurt congressional Republicans up for re-election in 2006. Yet the left cannot fairly blame Obama. After all, he rammed through on a strictly partisan vote the century-old liberal dream of a federal takeover of health care -- something that Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton never could do. Keynesians never dreamed that a president could actually borrow $5 trillion for domestic spending in less than three years. The Obama administration even tried to shut down a brand-new Boeing aircraft plant on the shaky argument that the company might thereby be hiring fewer union workers somewhere else. For environmentalists, Obama kept oil producers out of new fields in Alaska, the American West, the Gulf and other offshore sites. Hundreds of billions in borrowed federal money went to failed "wind and solar" plants in an effort to jump-start "millions of green jobs."
Jewish Civil Rights Group Warns Columbia University President Over Illegality of Planned Banquet for Iranian Leader
Excerpt: Jewish civil rights group Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center has sent a warning letter to Columbia University President Lee Bollinger advising him that Columbia’s plan to host a banquet for visiting Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad runs afoul of U.S. anti-terror laws and will subject the university and its officials to both criminal prosecution and civil liability to victims of Iranian-sponsored terrorism in Israel or elsewhere. The letter explains that Iran has been designated as a state sponsor of terrorism by the United States (22 U.S.C 2656f) and that the provision of any support by U.S. persons, including the planned banquet for Ahmadinejad, is considered unlawful provision of aid to the outlawed regime. The Law Center stated that victims of Iranian terrorism will file civil actions and hold Columbia liable for their injuries.
Widow of cop murdered by illegal alien wins court decision
Excerpt: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled yesterday in favor of a Judicial Watch client --Houston, Texas, Police Sergeant Joslyn M. Johnson, the widow of a fellow police officer, Officer Rodney Johnson, who was viciously murdered by an illegal alien named Juan Leonardo Quintero-Perez. Quintero, having an extensive criminal record including sex crimes, was deported back to Mexico in 1999, but he illegally re-entered the United States. Quintero managed to get an insanity plea for the murder of Officer Johnson and was sentenced to life in prison. The three-judge panel reversed a decision by the district court. Sgt. Johnson’s lawsuit against the City of Houston’s illegal sanctuary policy will now continue (Johnson v. City of Houston (No. 10-207343)).
Supreme Court Urged to Uphold Arizona Immigration Law
Excerpt: It's a case that deserves the consideration of the U.S. Supreme Court. The issue: Arizona's immigration law S.B. 1070 - Arizona's effort to protect its borders and citizens by enacting a state law that targets illegal immigration. The Obama Administration is challenging several key provisions of the law and a federal appeals court has sided with the Obama Administration. The state of Arizona is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case and overturn the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. This is such a critical case that we have now filed an amicus brief supporting Arizona’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari – urging the high court to reverse the appeals court. It's our position that Arizona's S.B. 1070 is constitutional because it mirrors federal immigration law and incorporates federal standards.
Obama: 'I'd like to work my way around Congress'
Obama: 'I'd like to work my way around Congress'
Excerpt: As I mentioned when I was at La Raza a few weeks back, I wish I had a magic wand and could make this all happen on my own," Obama told a meeting of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. "There are times where -- until Nancy Pelosi is speaker again -- I'd like to work my way around Congress." (A common conceit of elites born to rule lesser men. So, I’m sure, thought John at Runnymede. ~Bob.)
Climate change: Dead polar bears and political storms
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/climate-change-dead-polar-bears-and-political-storms?page=full
Excerpt: Longtime polar bear researcher Dr. Charles Monnett may be back at work after being sidelined earlier this year, but his life at a federal offshore oil agency isn't the same. The man who in 2006 gained overnight notoriety for co-authoring a brief article about drowned polar bears in the Arctic Ocean is now focusing his attention on how many ships are passing through the Bering Strait and the traffic's potential impact on marine life and traditional hunting. Monnett, who works for the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Regulatory Enforcement, has lost oversight of his prior projects as a result of an investigation by the federal Office of the Inspector General into allegations that he committed scientific misconduct. The inquiry has simultaneously raised questions about the quality of Monnett's work and the motives behind it -- as well as the appropriateness of the inquiry itself, which made national news this summer.
The European Caliphate
Excerpt: By For more than 30 years, Bat Ye'or, a refugee from Egypt, has been writing about dhimmis — Christians and Jews living under oppression in Muslim lands. Now, she has a new book, "Europe, Globalization and the Coming Universal Caliphate," that looks at Muslims living in lands that once were Christian but today call themselves multicultural. … She predicts Europe will not remain multicultural for long. She is convinced that Europe, sooner rather than later, will be dominated by Islamic extremists and transformed into "Eurabia" — a term first used in the mid-1970s by a French publication pressing for common European-Arab policies. Immigrants can enrich a nation. But there is a difference between immigrants and colonists. The former are eager to learn the ways of their adopted home, to integrate and perhaps assimilate — which does not require relinquishing their heritage or forgetting their roots. Colonists, by contrast, bring their culture with them and live under their own laws. Their loyalties lie elsewhere. Ye'or contends that a concerted effort is being made not only to ensure that Muslim immigrants in Europe remain squarely in the second category but also that they become the means to transform Europe politically, culturally and religiously. Leading this effort is the Organization of the Islamic Conference, established in 1969 and which, a few months ago, no doubt upon the advice of a highly compensated public relations professional, renamed itself the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
The Little Bin Ladens
Excerpt: When Iran put out a hit list for everyone involved with the Satanic Verses, the Mullahs had to do the hard work themselves. But now drawing up the hit lists has gotten a lot easier thanks to left-wing collaborators who do it for them. Take the Jewel of Medina, a novel romanticizing Mohammed’s sexual abuse of a nine year old girl, canceled after Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Middle-Eastern studies sent an email to Random House calling the book a “declaration of war” and warning them that publishing it would expose its employees to terrorist attacks. Random House complied out of concern for “the safety and security of the Random House building and employees.” Denise Spellberg’s book Jihad was an example of the outsourcing of terrorist threats and hit lists to the Western enablers of Islamic terrorism. Who needs Osama bin Laden or one of his successors to film a video six months too late, when a University of Texas professor can fire off an email easing the workload of busy terrorists.
More Bad News for Global Warming True Believers
Excerpt: A stunning report by a panel of international scientists casts doubt that man is the cause of global warming or climate change. The study concluded that “natural causes,” not anthropogenic (man-made) causes, “are very likely to be dominant.” This finding flies in the face of crucial climate policies and actions by President Obama and congressional Democrats. They have needlessly wasted a fortune with legislation and other expensive actions to fight greenhouse gases and limit CO2 arising from burning fossil fuels. An untold number of jobs have been lost by the administration’s deluded policies. Many Americans have been baffled, and school children have been frightened by dire global warming lies over the past decade. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), formed in 1993, warned that the build-up of greenhouse gases could, in the century ahead, become catastrophic. Rising sea levels, extreme temperatures, violent storms, devastating droughts, and the spread of disease, would destroy food production and habitability in many regions and could eventually destabilize the entire biosphere. The panel released four assessment reports warning of dire consequences if the world didn’t address the matter. They expressed the belief that “humankind’s actions contribute to the predicament.”
Son of Stimulus - The Sequel
Too funny. ~Bob
Excerpt: Allegations of racial slurs and racist symbols directed at replacement workers and security personnel contracted by American Crystal have been leveled against union supporters picketing outside the company’s plants. A union representative disavowed reports of racist activity. Traill County Sheriff Mike Crocker confirmed that “there have been racial statements made to security people” outside the company’s Hillsboro, N.D., plant. Crocker also said he recently saw a monkey-like figure hanging from a noose attached to a large inflatable rat outside the plant. He said that by the next day the monkey and the noose had been removed.
Ahmadinejad: Zionists started both world wars
Excerpt: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Israel of perpetuating terror, and blamed the "Zionist regime" for starting both the first and second world wars. "The Zionist regime is always doing the same thing. They destroy people’s homes and raze them to the ground," Ahmadinejad told the Washington Post on Tuesday. "They have created a few major wars. They continue to assassinate and terrorize people; they continue their policy of coercion against other nations, including Iran." (Boy, I’m really looking forward to this mutt having nukes at his disposal. ~Bob.)
Obama’s Freedom-loving Libyan allies will be murdering Americans long after Obama has become a billionaire on the speaking circuit. ~Bob. Excerpt: Terrorist groups are trying to set up for a long-term presence in Libya, a senior defense official said Wednesday, but American intelligence is not showing a mass movement into the country. The official, who gave a briefing to reporters at the Pentagon on the condition that the official not be identified, said the fall of Moammar Gadhafi has unleashed some groups that were constrained during the Libyan leader's regime. The official said terrorist groups "are playing it safe in the short term, but are trying to set up a footprint and network internally for the long haul." The official said terrorist groups now have more freedom to operate within Libya, and "we're concerned about it." Because some of the terrorist groups were clearly anti-Ghadafi, the Gadhafi regime put its military and intelligence resources into clamping down on the groups, the official said. Now the regime has collapsed, and the NTC is more concerned with dealing with the remnants of that regime than keeping an eye on militant groups.
Seattle-area man tied to terror plot
You’d think that when they converted a guy, they’d give him the “Islam is a Religion of Peace” memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: A Lynnwood man being held for allegedly trying to force a vehicle driven by two Marines off Interstate 5 could have connections to one of two men arrested in June for plotting to bomb a military recruiting station, prosecutors say. Michael D. McCright, aka Michael Jihad, is being held for a July 12 incident involving a government-owned car driven by USMC Staff Sgt. Ryan Picklesimer and USMC Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Lopez. McCright allegedly tried to drive his own car into the vehicle occupied by the two Marines. In a court filing, prosecutors said McCright's cell phone was used on at least three occasions to contact one of two men accused of plotting a suicide bombing attack on the Military Entrance Processing Station on East Marginal Way, the same facility Picklesimer and Lopez were departing just before the July 12 incident occurred. A federal criminal justice source said the FBI had McCright on their radar even before the July 12 road rage incident. Now he's part of an even broader terror investigation.
Illinois governor's Hamas councilhttp://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=344713
Excerpt: Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn last week invited Muslims with links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood to join a Muslim American Advisory Council, which, according to a press release from the governor's office, "will help ensure Muslim American participation in state government." Ten years after 9/11, the threat of jihad is … worse. Ten years after the bloodiest, most brutal attack ever on American soil, the threat is the same, the ideology is the same; only now we are told that we must be tolerant of this racist, genocidal ideology, lest we be accused of "Islamophobia." And that tolerance extends even to opening the doors of the Illinois state government to a jihad terrorist group (Hamas) and a group that is dedicated in its own words to "eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house." … Among the Muslims Quinn appointed as members of his Muslim American Advisory Council is Safaa Zarzour, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA). ISNA is Muslim Brotherhood front, having admitted ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. ISNA was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror-funding case. The Holy Land Foundation was once the largest Islamic charity in the United States and was shut down for funding the jihad terror group Hamas. (Hey, Muslims deserve the same right to buy an Illinois politician as anyone. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: During a breakfast briefing hosted by the Christian Science Monitor on Tuesday, Palestinian Ambassador to the United States Maen Rashid Areikat reiterated his call to create a Jew-free Palestinian state. “Well, I personally still believe that as a first step we need to be totally separated, and we can contemplate these issues in the future,” he said when asked by The Daily Caller if he could imagine a Jew being elected mayor of the Palestinian city of Ramallah in a future independent Palestinian state. “But after the experience of 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction, I think it will be in the best interests of the two peoples to be separated first.” Last year, Areikat made a similar statement during an interview with Tablet magazine. Asked whether it would be necessary to transfer and remove “every Jew” from a future Palestinian state, Areikat responded “absolutely.” (How about as a bipartisan compromise so loved by the media, they only “remove” half the Jews. At first. ~Bob.)
The Qur’an Dilemma
Excerpt: A book of terror or a book of peace? An inspired text or a political agenda? How is one to know the truth about the Qur’an? Where does one even begin? How can an English speaker ever hope to wade through the history, the translations, the sects, and the commentaries to begin making sense of the issues? During the last decade, interest in Islam and the teachings of the Qur’an has grown globally. In order to allow Westerners to investigate the truth about Islam, this research text was translated from Arabic to give English speaking readers the opportunity to see the Qur’an with clear lenses that are not fogged by propaganda or missionary zeal. This book provides the background of the Qur’an in an objective manner . It also presents the text of the Qur’an with parallel commentary, addressing important issues that Muslim scholars have wrestled with throughout the centuries, shedding light on their attempts to solve them and giving a rounded view of the various schools of thought. … Al Fadi is a former Wahabbi Muslim from Saudi Arabia.
Worth reading: Back to the Future: Part III by Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: Ninety years ago -- in 1921 -- federal income tax policies reached an absurdity that many people today seem to want to repeat. Those who believe in high taxes on "the rich" got their way. The tax rate on people in the top income bracket was 73 percent in 1921. On the other hand, the rich also got their way: They didn't actually pay those taxes. The number of people with taxable incomes of $300,000 a year and up -- equivalent to far more than a million dollars in today's money -- declined from more than a thousand people in 1916 to less than three hundred in 1921. Were the rich all going broke?
It might look that way. More than four-fifths of the total taxable income earned by people making $300,000 a year and up vanished into thin air. So did the tax revenues that the government hoped to collect with high tax rates on the top incomes. What happened was no mystery to Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon. He pointed out that vast amounts of money that might have been invested in the economy were instead being invested in tax-exempt securities, such as municipal bonds.
Boehner slams Obama jobs plan as 'poor substitute' for growth
Excerpt: House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) criticized President Obama’s jobs plan in an economic address in Washington on Thursday, calling it “a poor substitute for the pro-growth policies that are needed to remove barriers to job creation in America.” In a speech to the Economic Club of Washington, Boehner outlined the Republican plan for job creation and urged the deficit-reduction “supercommittee” to lay the groundwork for an overhaul of the tax code. He indirectly criticized the tax proposals in Obama’s jobs plan, saying they would only make the tax code “more complex” at a time when both parties want to simplify the system.
Excerpt: Democrats, determined to pass President Obama's national health care law in 2009 and 2010, ignored repeated warnings from within the administration that one of the law's new programs was financially unsustainable, according to emails obtained by the Associated Press ahead of a House GOP report due out Thursday. The insolvency of the Community Living and Support Services Act (CLASS) has never been a big secret. During the health care debate, many people publicly expressed skepticism about the long-term care program that was originally the brainchild of former Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-MA. The idea of the program was to collect premiums and then pay out benefits to cover home-based health care later, but every independent analysis, including from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said it would run up deficits over time.
White House Official Compares Illegal Immigration to Jaywalking
Excerpt: Cecilia Munoz, the White House director of intergovernmental affairs, compared the federal crime of being in the country illegally to jaywalking.
Egypt
Here is a pretty fair assessment of the s-called Arab spring in Egypt, rather more like a coup d'etat by the army to tweak the army's coup of 1952: The writer is an independent journalist. Conventional wisdom is that the army will control the Islamic radicals who are likely to dominate the new parliament, that they will maintain an icy peace agreement with Israel to ensure the flow of US money for the military and to keep control of crony capitalist companies run by retired officers. Ultimately that has not worked in Turkey and it may not in Egypt. The electorate has been so perverted by the Mubarak regime's propaganda machine that they are buying Islamist prescriptions that are contrary to their own self-interest, driving the actions (or inaction in the case of the assault on the Israeli embassy) of the army. It may also be the case that the majors and colonels whom we don't yet recognize are also Muslim Brothers and will be elevated to command or take over by forcibly retiring their superiors. They may feel they have enough toys in their arsenal to risk American military aid. In either case, the army may feel it politically unwise internally and low risk internationally to look the other way (or enable) low level attacks on Israel form Sinai and Gaza. Either way, I see nothing good for the US or Israel in Egypt in the near term. Cordially, Larry Greenberg.
White House Initially Denied Republican's Request to Attend Medal of Honor Event
You can see Obama’s point. Having a Marine like Hunter there makes Obama look like some wuss of a community organizer. ~Bob. Excerpt: The White House initially denied a request by Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) to attend a Medal of Honor ceremony for a fellow Marine Corps and Afghanistan war veteran, a congressional source said. Hunter first learned last week about plans for President Obama to award former Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer the Medal of Honor during a Thursday ceremony at the White House. Hunter formally requested to attend the ceremony earlier this week, but the White House said no, the congressional source said.
Fooled me. I guessed it was average people who paid the taxes they owed. ~Bob.
Emails show wireless firm's communications with White House as campaign donations were made
Excerpt: Congressional Republicans are demanding an investigation into LightSquared’s contacts with White House officials—and thousands of dollars in campaign contributions the company made to Democrats and President Obama—as it sought government approval to operate its broadband Wireless firm LightSquared pressed its case for government approval of a new national broadband network in numerous contacts with presidential aides, at times citing its fundraising for Democratic causes and President Obama, White House emails show. On the day that LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja made a $30,400 contribution to the Democratic Party, two of his deputies appealed to the White House for meetings with top technology advisers to Obama, according to emails obtained by iWatch News .
Al-Qaida in Iraq: Jihadists in Decline
Excerpt: Today, al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI) finds itself in a very difficult position. U.S. and Iraqi government forces have killed many of the group's top leaders. The American troop surge and the change in counterinsurgency strategy that began in early 2007 have made it more difficult for AQI to carry out attacks. The terror group "took a big hit after the surge. Violence fell 90 percent," said Long War Journal Editor Bill Roggio. AQI controlled substantial amounts of Iraqi territory before the surge, but is no longer able to do so, he said. Today, the group is forced to operate through covert cells in Iraqi cities. Though weakened, the group retains substantial capability to target Iraqi civilians. On August 15, insurgents launched a devastating series of attacks covering nearly every region of the country, killing 86 people and wounding more than 300.
Bodies hanging from bridge in Mexico are warning to social media users
Coming here due to a wide-open border. ~Bob. Excerpt: Social media users who denounce drug cartel activities along the Mexican border received a brutal warning this week: Two mangled bodies hanging like cuts of meat from a pedestrian bridge. A woman was hogtied and disemboweled, her intestines protruding from three deep cuts on her abdomen. Attackers left her topless, dangling by her feet and hands from a bridge in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. A bloodied man next to her was hanging by his hands, his right shoulder severed so deeply the bone was visible. Signs left near the bodies declared the pair, both apparently in their early 20s, were killed for posting denouncements of drug cartel activities on a social network. "This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet," one sign said. "You better (expletive) pay attention. I'm about to get you." The gruesome scene sent a chilling message at a time when online posts have become some of the loudest voices reporting violence in Mexico. In some parts of the country, threats from cartels have silenced traditional media. Sometimes even local authorities fear speaking out.
More Lies: WH Emails Reveal Major Obamacare Accounting Fraud
Excerpt: Does the American public have the bandwidth to follow two Solyndra-style White House scandals at once? As maddening as the Solyndra row has been -- and we'll have an update on that story later this morning -- this revelation is probably worse. I reach that conclusion based on the relative scale and consequences of the dueling disgraces' politically-motivated dishonesty. First, a little bit of background to prime the pump: When Democrats entered their full-court press for Obamacare last winter, they made it clear that nothing would stand in their way. Not hostile public opinion, not sound policy interests, not even a desire to know what was in their own bill. Nothing. One of their boldest plays was to manufacture a CBO score explicitly designed to reach the ludicrous conclusion that their new multi-trillion-dollar entitlement program would actually reduce the deficit. In order to accomplish this feat, they used smoke and mirrors accounting gimmicks that went far beyond even many Beltway cynics' wildest imaginations.
Billions in Unemployment Benefits Paid in Error
Excerpt: Nearly $19 billion in state unemployment benefits were paid in error during the three years that ended in June, new Labor Department data show. The amount represents more than 10% of the $180 billion in jobless benefits paid nationwide during the period. (The endless news of fraud and waste make you numb. ~Bob.)
Wheelchair-Bound Vietnam Vet Uncovers Multimillion Dollar Medicaid Fraud
Excerpt: A wheelchair-bound Vietnam veteran with muscular dystrophy, from New Jersey, was enjoying his $15 million whistleblower reward Wednesday, after he uncovered a multimillion dollar medical aid fraud. Richard West, 63, of Tuckerton, first found his Medicaid benefits were wrongly maxed out in 2004 during a visit to the dentist and spent the past seven years investigating the scam, the New York Post reported. Following the dentist visit, West returned home and examined his own records, when he found Maxim Healthcare -- the agency that provides his health aides -- had billed the government for care he never got, including visits from nurses he never met. After spending months trying to get government officials to investigate the scam, he hired a lawyer and filed a federal lawsuit. His efforts resulted in the largest financial settlement in home healthcare fraud history. (These bastards are defrauding Medicaid, the VA, the US Taxpayers and they are just fined? You wonder why this country is F’d up to the tenth degree. Let’s see---who do you suppose is supposed to go after these thieving SOB’s? Gee---do you think it may be Eric Holder and his stalwart band of 1960’s political activists now justice Department politically appointed lawyers. Why weren’t these thieves imprisoned? Do you think that some high placed officers of this company may be democrat party political donors or donors to the president himself? November 2012 can’t come fast enough! Tom C. They should never be allowed to do business with the government again, for a first step. ~Bob.)
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Robert A. Hall
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