Perry drops out of Republican presidential race, endorses Gingrich
Excerpt: Rick Perry dropped out of the presidential race Thursday and endorsed Newt Gingrich, a move that comes just two days before the South Carolina Republican primary.
Republicans fume as Obama rejects Keystone pipeline
Excerpt: In an election-year decision that divided the Democrats’ twin pillars of big labor and environmentalists, the Obama administration Wednesday rejected the proposed route for the Keystone XL oil pipeline that would provide up to 20,000 jobs on a project stretching from Canada to the Texas coast. The pipeline, which would have been the largest infrastructure project in the country, has been a political nightmare for President Obama, with top business groups, Republican presidential candidates, the Canadian government, unions and even some of Mr. Obama’s fellow Democrats all slamming Wednesday’s rejection.
Obama’s Keystone pipeline rejection is hard to accept
Editorial in the left-of-center Washington Post! ~Bob. Excerpt: ON TUESDAY, President Obama’s Jobs Council reminded the nation that it is still hooked on fossil fuels, and will be for a long time. “Continuing to deliver inexpensive and reliable energy,” the council reported, “is going to require the United States to optimize all of its natural resources and construct pathways (pipelines, transmission and distribution) to deliver electricity and fuel.” … Mr. Obama’s Jobs Council could start by calling out . . . the Obama administration.
Editorials pan Obama's Keystone decision
Excerpt: Editorial board sentiment is running overwhelmingly against President Obama's decision to kill the Keystone XL pipeline. Of the nation's top 15 newspapers by circulation, only one — the New York Times — editorialized in favor of killing the pipeline. (Ah, the reliably left Old Gray Whore. ~Bob.)
BHO kills Keystone pipeline
Video to share.
Killing Keystone
Excerpt: The president tried to duck responsibility for the decision, pointing the finger at Republicans in Congress who attached a pipeline provision to the short-term payroll tax cut extension approved last year that required Obama to approve Keystone XL by February 21 or explain why he was killing the project. This is yet another example of the President’s “the buck stops there” approach to leadership.
Excerpt: After months of playing political ping-pong with 20,000 potential (mostly union) jobs, the Obama administration decided on Wednesday to kill the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried crude oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries. (They need to understand that Obama wants union votes, but will throw working people and poor people under the bus for his green-hard left pals. ~Bob.)
Obama Spends More Time Studying XL Pipeline than He Did Solyndra and Still Comes up with Wrong Answer
Excerpt: Jay Carney said that the Whitehouse says they hasn’t had enough time to adequately review the issue. Really? How long did it take the administration to review Solyndra? (If Keystone had a big Obama donor like Solyndra had, work would have started months ago, and Obama would be touting jobs there as he did at Solyndra. ~Bob.)
Circulate! Democrats receive more Bain Capital dollars than Republicans
Excerpt: Democrats have accepted more political donations than Republicans from executives at Bain Capital, complicating the left’s plan to attack Mitt Romney for his record at the private equity firm. During the last three election cycles, Bain employees have given Democratic candidates and party committees more than $1.2 million. The vast majority of that sum came from senior executives. Republican candidates and party committees raised over $480,000 from senior Bain executives during that time period.
Worth Reading: An Ignored 'Disparity': Part III by Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: A very fundamental question was seldom asked, in either the earlier or the later period: Was there ever any realistic reason to expect the same achievements among races, classes or other subdivisions of the human species? Could we really have expected Eskimos to have the same ability to grow pineapples as the people of Hawaii had? Could the Bedouins of the Sahara really know as much about fishing as the Polynesians of the Pacific? Could the people of the Himalayas have the same seafaring skills as people living in ports around the Mediterranean? (We need a federal program and lots of well-paid bureaucrats to make them all equal! ~Bob.)
Must Read: Civilization in Reverse by Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Instead, history offers plenty of examples of life becoming far worse than it had been centuries earlier. The biographer Plutarch, writing 500 years after the glories of classical Greece, lamented that in his time weeds grew amid the empty colonnades of the once-impressive Greek city-states. In America, most would prefer to live in the Detroit of 1941 than the Detroit of 2011. The quality of today's air travel has regressed to the climate of yesterday's bus service. (A frightening column, given that Dr. Hanson is usually much more optimistic about the future than I am. ~Bob.)
This is bad: ISAF limits details of troops killed by Afghans
Excerpt: Military commanders in Afghanistan have stopped making public the number of allied troops killed by Afghan soldiers and police, a measure of the trustworthiness of a force that is to take over security from U.S.-led forces. The change in policy comes after at least three allied troops have been killed by the Afghan troops they trained in the past month and follows what appears to be the deadliest year of the war for NATO trainers at the hands of their Afghan counterparts. (Marines pee on dead Taliban: worldwide outrage! Afghan “allies” kill out troops? Not PC to mention. ~Bob.)
Nearly Half of U.S. Households Receive Government Benefits
Excerpt: The pool of Americans relying on government benefits rose to record highs last year as an increasing share of families tapped aid in a weak economy, says the Wall Street Journal. Expanding government programs combined with the worst downturn since the Great Depression have led to an explosion in the share of Americans relying on outside help. Some 48.6 percent of the population lived in a household receiving some type of government benefit in the second quarter of 2010, up a notch from 48.5 percent in the first quarter, according to Census data.
Allen West - Newt is Absolutely Right!
Obama Reportedly Calls For Iran Talks In Secret Letter
Excerpt: An Iranian lawmaker claimed Wednesday that President Barack Obama called for direct talks with Iran in a secret letter to the Islamic Republic's supreme leader that also warned Tehran against closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Obama administration officials denied there was such a letter. (...) Conservative lawmaker Ali Motahari revealed the content of the letter days after the Obama administration said it was warning Iran through public and private channels against any action that threatens the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. (The biggest problem with this is that we can’t trust them to actually stop the centrifuges. If they agree to talks, it will be because they are just buying more time, something Persians/Iranians have done for millennia. A Persian parable dating back to just before the time of Alexander the Great goes like this: A condemned prisoner bargained with King Darius to let him live one year and he would teach the King’s favorite horse to sing. The King was so amused he agreed. Other prisoners ask why the condemned man bothered. He replied: “In a year, the king may die, the horse may die, or I may die. Anything could happen in a year. Perhaps the horse will even learn to sing.” I hope we like the tune when we hear it. Ron P.)
Houston police seek help in murder of student as relatives dispute reports she was Iranian activist
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/18/iranian-student-activist-fatally-shot-in-houston/#ixzz1jqzMwrZd
Excerpt: Authorities in Houston are seeking the public's help in solving the murder of 30-year-old woman as her relatives question reports that she was an activist for women's rights in Iran.
Ali Bagherzadeh, 27, held a press conference outside of the Houston Police Department on Wednesday to seek information in the shooting death of his sister, 30-year-old Gelareh Bagherzadeh.
Excerpt: A person who dares to point at the pathology of inbreeding in the Muslim community is accused of whipping up hatred against Muslim people. But all of this could not be further from the truth. To fight against inbreeding anywhere is to defend humanity and to defend innocent babies from birth defects. Fighting against this Islamic practice stems from a pro-Muslim calling, since identifying destructive ideologies and practices in Islam enables the protection of the Muslim people from harm. Massive inbreeding among Muslims has been going on since their prophet allowed first-cousin marriages more than 50 generations (1,400 years) ago. For many Muslims, therefore, intermarriage is regarded as being part of their religion.
New Bid to Stifle Iran Aid to Syria
Excerpt: U.S. officials have uncovered an effort by Iran to help Syria mask its oil exports and evade an American and European embargo, in a potent new sign of Tehran's campaign to bolster Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as his regime cracks down on public opposition. American officials investigating the Iranian operation said it is designed to quietly ship Syrian crude oil to Iran, where it can be sold on the international market, with revenue going back to Damascus. (...) Washington and its allies are also intensifying the scrutiny of maritime and air traffic moving into Syria from Russia, as Moscow has publicly committed to continue arming Mr. Assad's security forces. (When have sanctions alone ever worked? There must have been at least one example. Ron P.)
Oil Production Keeps Recession at Bay in North Dakota
Excerpt: Oil production in the Bakken shale formation is making unemployment virtually nonexistent in North Dakota. With 200 rigs pumping 440,000 barrels of oil per day, the state’s unemployment rate is holding at 3.5 percent. Many of the jobs pay exceptionally well, with high school graduates making more than $100,000 per year. (Obama will crack down on this. Can’t have Americans having jobs in non-green energy. ~Bob.)
Important: Congress' Pension Math Doesn't Add Up By Steven Malanga
Excerpt: In few areas where public and private interests meet is the accounting as obscure, rigged and unrealistic as in the world of traditional defined benefit pensions, both public and private. We got another glimpse of this last week when the Wall Street Journal reported that the pension liabilities of bankrupt American Airlines have become a point of contention between the company and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the government entity that ensures private pensions, which is on the hook for as much as $8 billion if the airline shuts down its current pension plan. (Unfunded pension liabilities, especially at all levels of government, is a huge part of the coming Fiscal Collapse, which grows more certain every day. ~Bob.)
RAHN: Tale of two small countries
Excerpt: Perhaps most important is that Cayman had and maintained a competent and honest judicial system, which gave foreign investors confidence that their property would be protected. (The continued erosion of property rights under leftist assault in the US will eventually make our people poor. ~Bob.)
Worth Reading: Why “Invent” the Palestinians? By Robert R. Reilly
Excerpt: This month, in Amman, Jordan, Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators met for their first time in 15 months to try to restart the “peace process.” Meanwhile, the Palestinian group that rules in Gaza, Hamas, has repeated its declaration: “The battle for the liberation of Jerusalem is closer than ever and, God willing, we will win.” Which is it to be, peace or war? Perhaps this question should be considered against the background of the recent ruckus Newt Gingrich caused in December by saying, “Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. We have invented the Palestinian people, who are, in fact, Arabs and are historically part of the Arab people…” The entire political spectrum took umbrage.
Who’s Really Killing Those ‘Nuclear Scientists’ in Tehran?
Excerpt: They run the banks, the press, all Western governments, the universities, the spooks (most everywhere). And if you can’t find any evidence for it, well, that shows how diabolical the Jews are, right? (…) None of those writing about this event has any evidence for their theories, but many of them are quite confident that the Israelis did it. The Times of London, which presents a mixture of circumstantial evidence and some “information” from “a source,” at least has the honesty to say what all these self-proclaimed experts should say: “…said a source who released details, impossible to verify, to the Sunday Times.” (A few weeks ago, Ledeen wrote a column with a similar title; this is clearly written within the past few days. Ron P.)
Worth Reading: Enviros to babies: We hope you’re born dumb: Eco-falsehoods about mercury in fish expose activists who put politics before health
Excerpt: Thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), everyone will breathe a little easier in the new year, apparently, as the agency begins enforcing tougher emission standards on coal-fired power plants. It was a cause celebre for the Sierra Club and its inside-the-Beltway campaign "Beyond Coal," which exposed Washingtonians to endless ads of coughing babies and tuna-fish sandwiches. What's the connection between power plants and tuna-fish sandwiches? There is none. So what gives? (Do environmental activists want to go back to living in yurts, wrapping themselves in animal skins (sorry, PETA) to stay warm by the manure-fed hearth, reading at night by the light of whale oil (sorry, PETA), entertaining themselves with zithers made of ash wood, plowing behind mules with wooden implements, surfing the web on laptops powered by gerbils? Will they give up iPods and charter flights for eco-trips to Costa Rica? Will they take the wagon train from Santa Rosa to DC for their confabs? They are elitist Luddites who have made a lucrative industry out of gaia hysteria. And the naive, poorly educated press jumps on this bandwagon. These are the people who report one week that apples are bad for you, the nest week that they are good. Same for coffee. Every interest group has its obvious priorities, as surely the writer below from the fisheries industry does. But I for one am quite content to trust the industry, the regulators and Trader Joe's of the world to act in behalf of my welfare because it is in their interest to do so. I prefer not to seek my fish oil and omega 3s out of the Sanitary Canal. Let's be sensible. Cordially, Larry Greenberg. (No, Larry, they want us to live in yurts. They want to live in mansions like Al Gore, Barack Obama, John Kerry, George Soros, Michael Moore and the flock of Hollywood mush brains who support them. ~Bob.)
Only 35% Support U.S. Military Action If Sanctions Won’t Stop Iran
Not to worry. Obama only bombs countries like Libya that don’t threaten us. ~Bob. Excerpt: Most voters don’t expect economic sanctions to discourage Iran from continuing its development of nuclear weapons, but most also don’t support U.S. military action if those sanctions fail. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 27% of Likely U.S. Voters believe it is even somewhat likely that stiff economic sanctions will force Iran to disband its nuclear program. That includes only six percent (6%) think it’s Very Likely. Sixty-three percent (63%) feel the sanctions are unlikely to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons development, with 17% who say they’re Not At All Likely to do so.
Norway spy chief Kristiansen quits in secrecy gaffe
Excerpt: Norway's head of intelligence Janne Kristiansen has handed in her resignation because she said too much during a parliamentary hearing. Justice Minister Grete Faremo told reporters that a "potential breach of confidentiality is a very serious matter". According to a transcript, Ms Kristiansen told the hearing that Norway had agents working in Pakistan. Reports say Pakistan has asked Norway to explain her remarks. (Who needs Wikileaks if you can’t keep you mouth shut. ~Bob.)
Food Stamp Nation --Gingrich highlights a national disgrace.-- White House shrugs.
Excerpt: Newt Gingrich threw a rhetorical tomato at the White House in Monday's South Carolina primary debate when he noted that "more people have been put on food stamps under Barack Obama than any other President in history." White House spokesman Jay Carney dubbed the claim "crazy" Tuesday, by which we assume he meant the President himself didn't literally enroll people in the program. Because any other way you cut the numbers, Mr. Gingrich is right.
Good article: Isn’t Obama, ummm rich?
Excerpt: Why pretend to bash the rich when you are the rich, when your party is top-heavy with the so-called “filthy rich” like Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, Jon Corzine, and the denizens of Hollywood and High-Finance and oh, yes, Publishing, and New Media and the Endowed-unto-Illness Ivies? Why pretend there is an inherent evil in some people having more than others, or suggest that only government can be counted on to “help” people, when um, the people who “helped” you pull together nearly a billion dollars for your presidential campaign were, you know…rich?
Who are the 1 percent?
Excerpt: Folks falling into that category are less likely to be “fat cats” than they are to be doctors (one in five) — or people who’ve built thriving family businesses from the bottom up. Indeed, some 60 percent have succeeded on their own, without inherited wealth. They’ve done so through a combination of education and intense hard work — three times more likely than the “99 percent” to work 50 hours a week or more. They account for nearly one in three dollars of all philanthropic giving.
Iran building missile base in Venezuela by Lee DeCovnick
Excerpt: Iran and Venezuela are feverishly building ICBM bases on the Paraguana Peninsula, a thumbnail shaped spit of arid land around a thousand square miles in size, 250 miles northwest of Caracas. These bases are designed to house missiles with nuclear tipped warheads capable of reaching large portions of the United States. From the Jerusalem Post, in May of 2011, and noted at the time by American Thinker, we read about these stunning developments that the Obama Administration and their socialist enablers in the media want to bury before the 2012 election.
Judicial Watch Files Amicus Curiae Brief with Supreme Court Challenging U.S. Census Policy of Counting Illegal Aliens When Apportioning Seats in Congress
Excerpt: Judicial Watch, the organization that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the State of Louisiana challenging a current federal policy in which “unlawfully present aliens” were counted in the 2010 Census.
Mitt Romney hawks new hard line on foreign policy
Excerpt: The last week has crystallized a subtle but important shift in Mitt Romney’s foreign policy positioning, completing a move toward a tough, clear, hard line on everything from China to the Taliban that suggests a Romney administration would most likely turn Barack Obama’s outstretched — and often slapped down — hand into a clenched fist.
Voter Disgust: What Might It Mean for the House Race? By Kyle Kondik
Excerpt: If Americans are truly fed up with politics, then are they really going to be paying a ton of attention next year not just to the presidential race, but to down-ticket races as well? Granted, a presidential campaign sucks up so much media oxygen that it is difficult to ignore for even low-information voters, but it’s easier for voters to tune out races down the ballot if they’re so inclined. If that’s true, then consider that the presidential race is, perhaps more than usual, going to define what goes on down the ticket in this election. That of course would have major and as yet unforeseeable implications for the race for the House.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad debate joining forces
Excerpt: Main Palestinian Islamist factions take unprecedented steps towards unification despite longstanding political differences. (Apparently being bigger gives you economies of scale, even in mass murder of innocents. ~Bob.)
Wealthy Texas Muslim becomes jihadi, AP scratches head and wonders why
Excerpt: The question asked in this headline is never answered in the article. The AP can't bring itself to consider the possibility that Moeed Abdul Salam read the Qur'an and Sunnah and was "radicalized" in that way. "Why did boarding school graduate join al-Qaida?," by Chris Brummitt and Gene Johnson for AP, January 18.
Denmark: 3.5 million dollars collected yearly to sponsor Islamic terror
Excerpt: One version of homegrown terrorism: when Muslim immigrants and their children and grandchildren send their salaries, social benefits, black market money and money earned from robberies, thefts and handling stolen goods to Muhammad's copycats. This is a case in which being an economic refugee and supporting terrorism are the same.
Sweden: Violent Muslims halt mail delivery in Malmø
Excerpt: Malmø in Sweden is famous for its many Muslims, killings and bombs (at least 22 bombs in the last three years). Malmø has become a Scandinavian Baghdad, and an expanding, uncontrollable and violent Sharia zone. In the "youth neighbourhood" (Muslim ghetto) Sevedkvarteret, Seved Quarter, being a postman is now too dangerous. Being a non-Islamic authority and wearing symbols (signs, uniform) representing other non-Islamic authorities is dangerous in such places. Being a postman in Sevedkvarteret is now a "Muslim-only" job:
Russia says strike on Iran would be 'catastrophe'
Excerpt: Russia on Wednesday warned that a military strike on Iran would be a "catastrophe" with the severest consequences which risked inflaming existing tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. "As for the chances of this catastrophe happening, you would have to ask those constantly mentioning it as an option that remains on the table," foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said when asked on the chances of military action.
Egyptian Muslim cleric wants genocide: "These Jews are a cancer in the body of planet Earth...Getting rid of these Jews is a must"
You’d think a cleric would have gotten the “Islam is a religion of peace” memo. ~Bob.
Excerpt: The mainstream media will spend ten days losing their ever-loving minds blaming a Sarah Palin campaign map a killer never saw for that killer’s actions, but this news about a confessed terrorist admitting that a clip from Brian De Palma’s “Redacted” “prompted” him to murder two American airmen gets buried at the bottom of a Salt Lake City newspaper article:
Dems propose 'Reasonable Profits Board' to regulate oil company profits
Excerpt: Six House Democrats, led by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), want to set up a "Reasonable Profits Board" to control gas profits. The Democrats, worried about higher gas prices, want to set up a board that would apply a "windfall profit tax" as high as 100 percent on the sale of oil and gas, according to their legislation. The bill provides no specific guidance for how the board would determine what constitutes a reasonable profit. (But first we need a “Reasonable Entertainment Salaries Board” to cut the huge incomes of Hollywood stars and pro athletes, to keep ticket prices down for the 99%. I’d prefer that to screwing oil company stocks that fund so many IRAs and retirement plans. Richard Nixon proved that price controls make things worse, but the all-powerful-government folks never learn. ~Bob.)
Map of states requiring Photo ID for voting
My floor leader, the late Sen. John F. Parker, told a story in one of his great books of political humor, about Governor James Michael Curley (the Purple Shamrock, D-Mass) talking to a guy in the buffet line at one of his election night parties. Curley: “So you’re one of my supporters, huh?” Response: “One? Governor, today I was four of them!” They are great political story books, you can often find through Amazon in the used market, though long out of print. If Elected, I Promise and The Fun and Laughter of Politics. ~Bob.
Worth Reading: The Last Laugh - Mark Steyn, National Review Online
Excerpt: John J. Miller started the day here in The Corner with the story of Professor Robert Klein Engler, who was fired from Roosevelt University and only discovered why two months later. It was for telling a joke: A group of sociologists did a poll in Arizona regarding the state’s new immigration law. Sixty percent said they were in favor, and 40 percent said, ‘No hablo Ingles.’
Old Jack Swing - Mark Steyn on Newt Gingrich, National Review Online
Excerpt: [Newt Gingrich:] 'South Carolina in the Revolutionary War had a young 13-year-old named Andrew Jackson. He was sabred by a British officer and wore a scar his whole life. Andrew Jackson had a pretty clear-cut idea about America’s enemies: Kill them.' By the dismal standards of campaign debates, that’s a thing of beauty: lightly-worn knowledge, big-picture perspective, locally targeted, vivid and specific, crisply delivered. You can’t be “prepped” for lines like that...
Bloggers in China Sound Off on SOPA Blackout
Excerpt: If anything, Chinese bloggers say, the debate underscores how privileged U.S. web-users and Internet companies are, even in times of duress. “Only an American company could protest the way Wikipedia or Google has to the government,” said Zhao Jing, a closely-followed blogger in Beijing who uses the pen name Michael Anti. “A Chinese company would never get away with that.” Indeed, China’s Internet sector has no choice but to submit to government pressure...
Too funny: Obama Disney speech basically a metaphor for Obama presidency
Excerpt: So, in essence, the President will be delivering a speech about enacting his will by fiat, in front of a castle after shutting down Main Street USA and delaying the Dreams Come True parade. Let me run that down for you again, in case you’re still missing the problem here. After shutting down Main Street USA, President will deliver a speech about bypassing Congress and enacting his will by fiat. In front of a f**king castle. All that’s missing is the goddam unicorn and Joe Biden dressed as Tinkerbell.
Raped teen killer needs $1.8m to escape sword: Saudi boy faces death after killing man who raped him
This is confusing. I thought Muslims were in favor of killing gays? ~Bob.
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Robert A. Hall
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