I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on. In some cases I post things sent to me by readers I might not have posted on my own, to get ideas circulating.
The Also-Ran
Cartoon—Mr. Uncommitted.
Great Column: The Power of Cool: From Barack Obama to Mark Zuckerberg, cool buys exemption. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: When Barack Obama two years ago joked at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that potential suitors of his two daughters might have to deal with Predator drones (“But boys, don’t get any ideas. Two words for you: Predator drones. You will never see it coming.”), the liberal crowd roared. That failed macabre joke would have earned George W. Bush a week of headline condemnation from the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Disgusting: Judicial Watch Obtains DOD and CIA Records Detailing Meetings with bin Laden Raid Filmmakers: DOD Officials Disclosed to Filmmakers Identity of SEAL Team Six Operator and Commander; Ask Film Director to Withhold Operator’s Name, ‘because he shouldn’t be talking out of school.’
Excerpt: Judicial Watch, the organization that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it has obtained records from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) regarding meetings and communications between government agencies and Kathryn Bigelow, Academy Award-winning director of The Hurt Locker, and screenwriter Mark Boal. According to the records, the Obama Defense Department granted Bigelow and Boal access to a “planner, Operator and Commander of SEAL Team Six,” which was responsible for the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, to assist Bigelow prepare her upcoming feature film. (I try to avoid being too extreme in the blog, as it’s at-best counter productive. But if this is true and gets a SEAL or a family member killed, Obama should be tried as an accessory to murder. ~Bob.)
Parrots & People
Excerpt: After all, parrots are notorious for their lousy personalities and their general lack of hygiene. When you factor in their lack of gratitude, which they displayed by attacking me, the person commissioned to provide them with food and water, you can see how closely they resemble an ordinary American teenager. Another group they very much remind me of are liberals.
Interesting: The Illusion of Obama's Bin Laden Raid Situation Room Leadership By Mara Zebest
With fakes and charges of fakes floating around, hard to know how much to credit this report. Seems doubtful to me that they could keep this big a secret with no one there blabbing. ~Bob. Excerpt: The response ranged from some eye-opening tips on other photos to a few perplexed criticisms as to the motivation for Photoshopping a Situation Room photo. The answer to that latter question can be summed up in one simple thought: To hide the truth. Obama was out golfing while the OBL mission was unfolding, and the administration needed the Situation Room photo op for public perception -- to give the illusion that he's presidential. … Mara Zebest is a graphic artist and co-author for a number of Adobe product books, including the Inside Photoshop series, which typically exceeded 1,000 pages, published in at least ten different languages around the world.
US drones kill 4 'militants' in North Waziristan
Excerpt: The US launched its first drone airstrike inside Pakistan in more than two weeks, killing four "militants" today in an area of Pakistan that has been under Taliban control for eight years. The CIA-operated, unmanned Predators or the more heavily operated Reapers fired a pair of missiles at a compound in Tabai outside of Miramshah, a stronghold of the Haqqani Network. Pakistani intelligence officials told AFP that four "militants" were killed.
Conservative Personality S. E. Cupp Sickeningly Attacked by Hustler
Excerpt: Cupp, who frequently appears on Fox News and various media outlets is a strong, fiery conservative who minces no words about her opinions, and doesn’t apologize for them either. Because of this, she’s been the subject of personal attack before, although none quite as reprehensible as Hustler magazine’s recent decision to doctor an image of Ms. Cupp. Under the heading “What Would S. E. Cupp Look Like With a D*ck in Her Mouth?”, Hustler published a ‘composite fantasy picture’ of Ms. Cupp with genitalia in her mouth as an indictment of her pro-life stance, apparently justifying this sick attack with a disclaimer saying the image is altered and ‘should not be taken seriously’.( No call of commiseration from the President, as for Sandra Fluke when Rush insulted her. One wonders about the reaction if a porn magazine had done the same with a photo of Michelle Obama?
~Bob.)
The great diversity of Harvard’s Elizabeth Warren
Excerpt: Lofty thinkers and exasperated liberals consider the focus on Warren’s fanciful ancestry a distraction from serious stuff. (Such as The Washington Post’s nearly 5,500-word wallow in teenage Mitt Romney’s prep school comportment?) But Warren’s adult dabbling in identity politics is pertinent because it is, in all its silliness, applied liberalism.
Mass. voters shrugging off Warren’s claims of Cherokee heritage
Excerpt: The controversy swirling around Elizabeth Warren over her claim to Native American heritage might be terrible optics for the Democrat, but it doesn’t appear to be hurting her among Massachusetts voters. (The question isn’t, “Does she lie for her own benefit.” Of course that’s expected. The question is, “Will she use tax dollars to give us free goodies?” The answer is yes. But the end is coming, because the money is gone. There will be entitlement riots and blood in the streets. People like Warren will make them worse, but I think it’s unavoidable now. ~Bob.)
Poll: Warren Surviving Heritage Controversy
Excerpt: A poll released Wednesday night showed Brown with a one point lead, 41 percent to 40 percent, down from nine in the same poll in February. (...) But Warren is more thoroughly rebuffed on a central principle of her campaign, that a vote for Brown represents, in the pollster's wording, "a vote for Wall Street." Just 33 percent of respondents bought that line of attack, while 55 percent rejected it.
The New, Nasty Obama Campaign
Excerpt: But the point Booker was trying to make wasn't only about the legitimacy of attacking private equity -- it was that the tenor of the presidential campaign on both sides has become "nauseating to the American public." In saying so, he touched on something potentially even more unspeakable among Democrats: the idea that the slash-and-burn tactics of Obama's reelection campaign mark a definitive departure from the promise to change politics for the better. (Interesting. The author seems to claim both that Obama has been forced to these tactics to respond in kind to the evil Republicans and simultaneously that the Obama campaign—that never ended since the last election—has never done anything like it before. She also appears to approve heartily of any and all attacks on arch-fiend Romney and his evil spawn of Republicans. I can’t help wondering where she’s been hiding for the past 39+ months to be so ill-informed. Ron P.)
What Life Will Be Like for Women Under Sharia Law
Video. Can’t be too bad—the new York Times is all for Shari’a. ~Bob.
NATO in Chicago
Here’s an interview of the Chicago Police Superintendent on Chicago’s local NPR station. I like the fact that McCarthy doesn’t take any crap from the interviewer. _Geoff.
Four Black Men in St. Louis Murder Bosnian Pizza Driver In Thrill Killing
Excerpt: Daniil Maksimenko was working for Imo’s delivering pizza in north St. Louis, a predominantly black area of the city. Maksimenko just wanted to work and make money. He was shot dead before he could get out of his car for a pizza delivery on Saturday. Maksimenko was robbed only of the pizza. (Barack Obama [might have] said of the slain man: "Nope, none of my sons would have looked like him, so who cares? Just one less white pizza man. Mmm, makes me hungry" --Don Hank. Expect a statement condemning this inter-racial violence from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton any minute. Try holding your breath. ~Bob.)
Whispering the Truth in Obama's America. By Stella Paul
Excerpt: The next day in the supermarket, I bumped into another friend, looking downcast. She told me her only son was planning his move to Hong Kong, after a fruitless year-long search for a job in the financial sector. "Obama's destroying the economy," she told me; then she looked nervously around at our hyper-Blue State neighbors. "I feel like I have to whisper, or they're going to come and arrest me."
Who is Valerie Jarrett? By Edward Klein
Excerpt: Trying to figure out Valerie Jarrett’s mysterious hold on Barack and Michelle Obama is a favorite guessing game in the parlors and dining rooms of Washington. No other White House official in history has enjoyed such a unique relationship with both a president and a first lady, and yet the mainstream media have ignored Jarrett’s enormous influence over the shape and direction of the Obama administration.
U.S. hacks Web sites of al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen
Excerpt: State Department cyber experts recently hacked into Web sites being used by al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen and substituted the group’s anti-American rhetoric with information about civilians killed in terrorist strikes, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday.
Who Suffers During Recessions?
Excerpt: However, these broad statistics fail to show that the ill effects of recessions do not fall upon all members of the population equally. Specifically, classifications of race, gender, age and educational attainment saw large differentials in how they their employment prospects were worsened by the Great Recession. … Black men saw the largest increase in unemployment (9.50 percent), while white women were least affected, witnessing a mere 3.59 percent increase in unemployment. Though Hispanic women were slightly more affected than Hispanic men (6.46 percent versus 6.09 percent), large losses among white and black men mean that the recession hurt men much worse than women
Taliban Strikes Secret Deal to Loot NATO Convoys In Afghanistan. By AWR Hawkins
Excerpt: … a secret ceasefire was recently agreed upon between a Taliban commander and an Afghan army officer whom NATO forces had trained to fight the Taliban. Their deal was simple: instead of fighting one another, they agreed to “share intelligence on NATO’s military operations.” This not only gives them both some measure of assurance that they won’t kill each other but also allows them to work together, to track and “loot NATO supply convoys,” then divvy up "the proceeds.” (Maybe leave them in Pakistan? Pity those assigned as drivers….Barb.)
Public-Sector Pensions: The Transition Costs Myth. By Andrew G. Biggs
Excerpt: DB pensions for state and local government employees are underfunded by between $700 billion and $4 trillion, depending on whose accounting you use. Most economists believe the latter figure is more accurate. In response, elected officials around the country are considering shifting public employees to DC plans.
As Recall Election Approaches, Obama Avoids Wisconsin
Excerpt: While organized labor faces off against the GOP over the recall of Wisconsin, Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who emerged as national lightning rod last year when he signed a law that eliminated collective bargaining for most public employees in the state, the Obama campaign and the national Democratic Party have shied away from the race. The DNC is sending chairperson Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to hold one fundraiser for Barrett, but has yet to cut a check to his campaign and issued its first fundraising appeal Wednesday—less than two weeks before the election. President Obama, who won the state by 14 points in 2008, has yet to visit the Badger State or otherwise spend much political capital on Barrett’s behalf. (It’s interesting that the tone of this article is as carefully neutral as anything I’ve ever read at Daily Beast, little slant, just the facts. Ron P.)
Morning Bell: Obama’s Blockbuster Secrets
Excerpt: The story is the stuff that blockbuster movies are made of, but many of the details are largely a closely guarded secret. That was until the Obama White House granted extraordinary access and information to Hollywood filmmakers for their film about the raid, originally slated to be released just before the November presidential elections. As disturbing as that may be, it is not the first time this White House has disclosed confidential information under questionable circumstances.
Rep. King slams White House for sharing bin Laden secrets with Hollywood. By Neil Munro
Excerpt: The White House has apparently undermined the secrecy that protects U.S. anti-jihadi operations because it wants to aid Hollywood’s quick production of a movie about the killing of Osama bin Laden, according to a statement from Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
What UCLA students know about Israel
Scary. ~Bob. Another elite institution. Except for a truly budding scholar, why would any parent pay $40,000/year for a university that gives a degree for such subjects a "Women's Geography" or at Northwestern, how to be screwed by a machine (not the government). A quick Google for the worst: http://www.sodahead.com/fun/the-dirty-dozen-12-absurd-college-courses/question-2238795/. No one studies the Constitution any more, or Philosophy 101, the Great Books, statistics, calculus, etc. Cordially, --Larry Greenberg
The peace process battered Israel's reputation
Excerpt: "What happened," asks Michael Oren, "to Israel's reputation?" The Israeli ambassador to the United States, a noted historian, combat veteran, and bestselling author, raised that question in a Wall Street Journal essay last week. Writing on the 64th anniversary of Israeli independence, Oren began by quoting from Life magazine's salute to the Jewish state on its 25thbirthday in 1973-- a 92-page special issue that honored the "astonishing achievement" of modern Israel, an island of enlightened democratic courage flourishing against all odds amid a sea of Arab hostility and violence.
The Bad/Good Idea of Removing Assad. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: The Syrian strongman has killed some 10,000 protestors over the last year; thousands of Syrians are now refugees. The autocracy arms and aids the terrorist organization Hezbollah. It targets democratic Israel with thousands of missiles, and still does its best to ruin neighboring Lebanon.
Obama's Razor: We Can't Stop Them. We Can Only Hope They Can't Contain Themselves
Excerpt: Well, if the Democrats insist on racism as the cause of Obama's woes in these primaries, then they have to admit they are a party of racists, since these are Democratic primaries. They can make that case if they like. It should bode well for them in the general election -- and not just in the Presidential race -- to be telling members of their own party that they consider them racists. Go for it!
Figures Don't Lie: Democrats Do. By Ann Coulter
Excerpt: It's been breaking news all over MSNBC, liberal blogs, newspapers and even The Wall Street Journal: "Federal spending under Obama at historic lows ... It's clear that Obama has been the most fiscally moderate president we've had in 60 years." There's even a chart! I'll pause here to give you a moment to mop up the coffee on your keyboard. Good? OK, moving on ... (So, the deficit must have decreased under tight-fisted Obama, right? ~Bob.)
Why crime’s rising: Drug-law ‘reform’ plaguing NY
Excerpt: Conspicuously absent from the photo-op were prominent law-enforcement officials — who knew that these “reforms” would mean a rise in crime. And it has.
Safeway Employee’s Suspension For Defending Pregnant Woman Draws Nationwide Protests
Excerpt: A logic-defying corporate decision in sleepy Monterey, California last week has turned into a headache for one of America’s biggest supermarket chains. Ryan Young, a meat clerk at the Del Rey Oaks Safeway, was minding his own business and doing his job, right up until Quyen van Tran, a customer, decided to beat his pregnant girlfriend in the store, in full view of other customers, and Young himself.
Going After the Stupid Vote. By Bernard Goldberg
Excerpt: According to a recent poll by the Gallup organization, more than six in 10 Americans (63 percent) think the United States benefits from having a class of rich people. There may be something in this for President Obama to consider since his campaign for re-election is be based on dividing Americans based on how much money they make.
Has recall election made Scott Walker a GOP hero?
Excerpt: Democrats leapt at the chance to use Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to send a message to all the budget-cutting, union-busting conservatives across the land: If you mess with Big Labor, there’s a heavy price to pay. But if you shoot at the king, you’d better not miss. And with Walker suddenly looking as if he might survive the recall, it appears he’s only been grazed.
Why Rubio for Vice President Makes Sense. By Matt Towery
Excerpt: Rubio was tea party before the philosophy was cool. His conservative beliefs are unimpeachable. Yet his youth and energy make it more likely that he will connect with the key voting demographic of those ages 40 to 55. This one segment of the voters more than any other will make up swing voters essential to a Republican win.
The News From Occupied France. By Bob Beauprez
Excerpt: Below is a photo of the Hollande victory celebration in La Bastille Plaza in Paris, historic site of the French Revolution. The text that follows the photo is not mine, but is from a trusted source, and includes a message from his French friend Maxime Lépante. I spoke at an international conference in Paris in 2003 and was told then that 30% of the population under the age of 15 in France at that time was Arab Muslims – and, they didn't come with any plans to assimilate into French culture.
Inconvenient Truths About The Trayvon Martin Shooting. By Ben Cohen
Excerpt: This new information constitutes only a small portion of the massive collection of information turned over by the prosecution as part of discovery. Upon reading through the 183 pages of documents, it becomes apparent that George Zimmerman should have never been charged with second degree murder, as I have maintained since the beginning of the controversy at the Daily Kos.
PA TV teaches kids: Christians and Jews are inferior, cowardly and despised
Excerpt: A young Palestinian girl was asked to recite a poem during a PA TV children's program. This poem, according to the host of the show, teaches children "responsibility and belonging."
MSNBC: Don't expose Muslim atrocities: Harvard professor doesn't want 'fuel' against Islam revealed. By Colin Flaherty
Excerpt: But they posed a challenge for the host of the new “Melissa Harris-Perry” show when guest Mona Eltahawy talked about her Foreign Policy magazine cover story about abuse of women by men in the Muslim world. Eltahawy speaks from experience: She had her arms broken in a demonstration in Egypt and was tortured and raped in an Egyptian jail cell. So she seemed surprised to find Harris-Perry questioning her right to draw attention to “traditions” such as involuntary female circumcision, wife-beating and childhood sexual abuse.
Trans-Pacific Partnership: Key Senate Democrat Joins Bipartisan Trade Revolt Against Obama
Excerpt: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced legislation late Wednesday to protest the Obama administration's refusal to share information about controversial trade negotiations with the senator. The administration's blockade against Wyden, who chairs a subcommittee on international trade, conflicts with its prior statements to the press, and raises concerns that President Barack Obama's administration is selectively icing out critics of the administration's trade strategy. (Denying access to the draft documents to Senators is almost unbelievably bad. Do you want Senators voting on a 2700 page treaty—like the healthcare bill—none have read in its entirety? Not only does it set the administration up to look stupid (see the Kyoto climate treaty, rejected by a vote of 0 – 95, for example), and risk making promises to other countries that cannot legally be kept, treaties approved by the Senate and signed by the President rank ABOVE the Constitution in terms of US law. Therefore, treaties can be exceptionally dangerous to each and every individual in the country. Indeed, that was one of the reasons the “Law of the Sea Treaty” was also rejected by a vote of 0 – 99—hmmm, same general time frame, I wonder whose administration that was under? Proposed treaties have failed for many reasons over the years, but often because they conflicted with one or more of the provisions of, or amendments to, our Constitution. So, in Joe Biden’s words, this IS a BFD. --Ron P.)
U.S. Unemployment Claims Barely Budge, New Data Shows
Excerpt: The jobless rate dropped to 8.1 percent in April from 8.2 percent the prior month, but mostly as people gave up the hunt for work. While more states are losing eligibility for extended benefits for the long-term unemployed, that is not yet being fully captured in the claims data, as the figures are reported with a time lag. Economists expect that as more people fall off the unemployment benefit rolls, that will artificially push down the jobless rate. Out-of-work people not receiving benefits aren't obliged to be actively looking for work, a key criteria to be counted as unemployed. (Even AOL/HuffPo reports the news sometimes. You just have to dig for it. This excerpt begins in the seventh paragraph of the article. --Ron P.)
Obama wants the Electric Reliability Corporation to stop assessing electric reliability
Excerpt: NERC (the North American Electric Reliability Corporation) must have thought it was taking a step up when a 2005 law made the non-profit group an official advisor to Congress, but that law also brought them under the oversight of FERC (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) which just spent months of rummaging through every desk looking for rule violations they could use to embroil NERC in legal difficulties. It seems that the President’s drive to shut down the coal-fired half of the grid could pose some risk to grid reliability—who’d a thunk it?—so Obama is trying to shoot the messenger. When no violations were found, FERC decided to “audit” NERC’s mission itself, resulting in a finding that this business of “periodic reliability assessments” is all a bit much and “should be revisited.” (What First Amendment? This is just a little its-good-for-you regulation. Can’t let those untamed facts run free, you know. They might hurt something. Ron P.)
Half of Detroit’s Streetlights May Go Out as City Shrinks
Excerpt: Detroit, whose 139 square miles contain 60 percent fewer residents than in 1950, will try to nudge them into a smaller living space by eliminating almost half its streetlights. As it is, 40 percent of the 88,000 streetlights are broken and the city, whose finances are to be overseen by an appointed board, can’t afford to fix them. Mayor Dave Bing’s plan would create an authority to borrow $160 million to upgrade and reduce the number of streetlights to 46,000. (not the only place the lights are going to go out. ~Bob.)
Under Obama: 30 Worst Months of Employment in the Past 25 Years. By Jeffrey H. Anderson
Excerpt: That stat shows something rather straightforward: Among those who are living in America and are free to pursue employment, what percentage is employed?
Unemployment Update: Who Gets the Credit? By Geoffrey Skelley
Excerpt: At the end of January, the Crystal Ball examined the latest state-by-state unemployment numbers and what they could mean for the presidential election. The fact that the nation’s economic difficulties have hit certain places harder than others could have a real impact on what we anticipate will be a close election in November. Our analysis suggested that the Obama campaign could tailor its economic message to each state based on the specific jobless conditions there.
Worth Seeing: InfoGraphic on Obama’s Spending
Excerpt: And I'm damn tired of picking it apart 140 characters at a time, so I put together this sarcastic infographic showing exactly how sloppy this piece really is.
USA Today: Real FY2012 deficit is … $5 trillion
Excerpt: What would happen if Congress had to apply the regulations in Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodd-Frank, and other corporate accounting law to its own balance sheets? Instead of talking about trillion-dollar deficits, USA Today reports from its analysis, we’d be talking about five times that amount: (People who go broke in a big way never miss any meals. It is the poor jerk who is shy half a slug who must tighten his belt. --Robert SA. Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus long.)
Excerpt: Every single jobless claims report this year has been revised upwards the following week. And in just about every case, Reuters headline was either negated by the revision, or proven optimistic the very next week.
Leaked Emails Show ‘Grossly Overestimated’ Environmental Report to Back Up Mining Ban
Excerpt: The Interior Department announced the 20-year ban on Jan. 9, negating a compromise that had been previously worked out between mining companies and environmental groups. The administration cited the protection of drinking water sources as the reason. “This is obviously a touchy case where the hard science doesn’t strongly support a policy position,” another email says. “Probably the best way to ‘finesse’ this would be fall back on the ‘precautionary principle’ and take the position that in absence of even more complete certainty that there is no connection between uranium mines and regional ground water, we need to be cautions [sic]?” (If this administration tells us what time it is, we’d better check our watches as well as checking the sun’s position in the sky. When did concealing the truth become so prevalent in our government? And, why aren’t the legacy media screaming for blood over it? Oh, right. It’s being done by a Democrat administration. Never mind, nothing to see, here. Ron P.)
The coming vindication of Gov. Scott Walker. By Peter Ferrara
Excerpt: Walker came into office facing another state budget deficit of $3.6 billion. Historically, Wisconsin like many other states would raise state taxes to counter these recurring deficits, on top of annual stiff property tax increases to fund skyrocketing school and other local government costs. But those continual tax increases were imposing greater and greater costs on state economies in terms of lost economic growth, jobs and wages.
The Complete Failure of Socialism and Communism
Excerpt: There’s a great new book out that you can give to your Liberal friends. It’s got a catchy title: The Benefits of Socialism: A Portrait of Progress. It’s described as “the most complete list of the benefits of Leftist policy ever assembled, an exhaustive index of leftist contributions to civilization filling 666 completely blank pages.”
California to Choose — Prosperity or Collapse by Steve Frank
Excerpt: Push has come to shove. California has already reached the tipping point of fiscal collapse. Since January the official deficit has gone up 70%. Thanks to 93,000 people being declared non existent by President Obama, our unemployment rate went down .1%
Obamacare: Secret Deals and Broken Promises
Good video.
Study: Sex-Selection Abortions Kill 12 Million Girls in India
Excerpt: A new study analyzing the prevalence of sex-selection abortions in India finds as many as 12 million girls have been killed specifically because of their gender in a society that values boys over girls. (Think this is what feminists campaigning for “reproductive choice” had in mind? ~Bob.)
Obama to Tout Green Energy at Politically Connected Wind Company. By Lachlan Markay
Excerpt: President Obama will make a push for wind energy subsidies on Thursday at the Iowa production facilities of a politically connected wind turbine manufacturer with ties to his administration. The appearance could serve to reinforce perceptions of cronyism in the administration’s “green jobs” push. 9all Americans must pay their “fair share” to support Obama’s Big Green donors. ~Bob.)
Health care cuts gain steam in Illinois House
Excerpt: House lawmakers today pushed forward with deep cuts in the state's health-care system for the poor, a plan that the fate of the state's overall budget rests upon.
Gov. Pat Quinn has pressed for a combination of cuts in care and a $1-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax to fill a $2.7 billion shortfall in the Medicaid program.
Romney's Roads to the White House: A 3-2-1 strategy can get him to the magic 270 electoral votes. By Karl Rove
Excerpt: On Tuesday, Gallup's seven-day tracking poll had Barack Obama and Mitt Romney tied at 46%. With the incumbent stuck below 50% on the ballot and Mr. Romney's favorability rising, the Republican challenger has a good shot at winning.
To take the White House, Mr. Romney needs 270 votes in the Electoral College. A "3-2-1" strategy will get him there.
It’s official: Al-Qaida hates puppies. By Michael Bastasch
Excerpt: After hiding bombs in underwear, printer cartridges and even people, al-Qaida master bomb maker Ibrahim al-Asiri has found a new Trojan horse: bombs inside pets. U.S. officials say that al-Asiri’s latest schemes involve bombs surgically implanted in terrorists and bombs hidden in pets that are carried onto aircraft, ABC News reports. Al-Asiri’s designs also include bombs in cameras and external hard drives that explode when put into a laptop computer….
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: The Advocates of Silence
Excerpt: In particular, I want to talk about the freedom of speech – and the loss of freedom that comes with that silence. [...] “People ask me if I have some kind of death wish, to keep saying the things I do. The answer is no, I would like to keep living. However, some things must be said and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice.”
In Wisconsin, Walker Is Likely to Survive Recall. By Nate Silver
Excerpt: Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican, is likely to survive a recall election on June 5, according to recent nonpartisan polls of the state. Mr. Walker leads his Democratic opponent, Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee, by an average of six percentage points in those polls and has not trailed in any poll since February. (Nate Silver is a lefty, but tries to be honest in his expert polling calls. Could be close if these polls make Republicans complacent. ~Bob.)
Bill Clinton shares spotlight in Monaco with porn starlets Brooklyn Lee and Tasha Reign
Excerpt: Former President Bill Clinton apparently had stars in his eyes when he posed for a cozy photo-op with two porn starlets at Wednesday’s “Nights in Monaco” gala.
Brooklyn Lee, who was named “Best New Starlet” this year by trade magazine AVN, tweeted a picture of herself with a smiling Clinton as well as adult star Tasha Reign and a third woman.
Who has a "War on Women"?
A truly interesting situation has been ongoing, where the Democrats accuse the GOP of having a war on women. Primarily based on the opposition of many conservatives (but not all) to abortion as an easy option for any pregnant girl or woman to take. This is not because nasty old people want to deny women the rights to control their bodies, it's because of a basic disagreement on when human life is believed to begin. Which some sincerely believe can be assumed to be very late in a pregnancy, while others sincerely believe that it must be assumed to begin very early in a pregnancy. This is not an argument anyone can win, since it's about beliefs in a matter than cannot be proven one way or the other in any compelling way. Unfortunately, it does bring out strong emotions at times from both sides, both of whom feel they must actively promote their view. People can't really be blamed for this, and there's no point in either side demonizing the other. However, we see things from the leftist/liberal side like: Bill Maher on HBO calls Sarah Palin one of the vilest names misogynists use for women. No outcry. Playboy Magazine has on its website an essay naming several conservative women commentators as women who are idiots, but since they are hot physically, should rate hate-sex (they used a more graphic term) from men. Recommending rape for women because of their politics is OK? Hustler Magazine doctored a photograph of another woman conservative to show her engaged in oral sex, as a form of ridicule. Had any Far Right idiot like Rush referred to Nancy Pelosi or Michelle Obama using Maher's terms, the screams for yanking his broadcast license would have drowned out any earthquake or tsunami. If any conservative magazine or other publication called for raping Rachel Maddow, etc, same screaming. If some magazine doctored a photo of any liberal woman to show her in oral sex, there'd be an explosion from NOW and a lot of other people. But no such thing has occurred. So... who really seems to hold women in contempt? --Del
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Robert A. Hall
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