Tuesday, June 26, 2012

POLITICAL DIGEST 06/27/2012 CONSERVATIVE


Worth reading: A Political Glossary. By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: One of the most versatile terms in the political vocabulary is "fairness." … And recently we have heard that the rich don't pay their "fair share" of taxes. Some of us may want to see a definition of what is "fair." But a concrete definition would destroy the versatility of the word, which is what makes it so useful politically. (from my next “Random Thoughts” column: Last night, I met one of “The Hungry.” Young, fit, healthy-looking guy ahead of me at Walgreens tried to buy two sports energy drinks with his food stamps credit card, called, I think, "Link" around here. It didn't work, so he paid with a $100 bill. Really. The older female clerk, not as fit, looking tired from standing on her feet all day at a low-paid retail job, said to me after he left, "our money." Just two words. I wonder how much longer folks are going to take it. ~Bob.)

Government wants more people on food stamps
Excerpt: More than one in seven Americans are on food stamps, but the federal government wants even more people to sign up for the safety net program.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been running radio ads for the past four months encouraging those eligible to enroll. The campaign is targeted at the elderly, working poor, the unemployed and Hispanics. (creating ever-more government-dependent voters. But when the money is gone, it will get very ugly, very fast. ~Bob.)


Organ transplants could be in illegal immigrants' future
Excerpt: Two illegal immigrants initially denied potentially lifesaving organ transplants could eventually receive the procedures at two area hospitals, according to a source close to the men. (Since there are never enough donated organs to meet the need, this decision may mean death for two Americans. But tough for them--PC rules. I’m sure you’d be proud to be a tax-paying citizen and have a loved one die on the waiting list so they wouldn’t be accused of discrimination against illegal colonizers. ~Bob.)

The Evils of the Muslim Brotherhood: Evidence Keeps Mounting. By Raymond Ibrahim
Excerpt: Egypt's longtime banned Muslim Brotherhood—the parent organization of nearly every subsequent Islamist movement, including al-Qaeda—has just won the nation's presidency, in the name of its candidate, Muhammad Morsi. That apathy reigns in the international community, when once such news would have been deemed devastating, is due to the successful efforts of subversive Muslim apologists in the West who portray the Brotherhood as "moderate Islamists"—forgetting that such a formulation is oxymoronic, since to be "Islamist," to be a supporter of draconian Sharia, is by definition to be immoderate. Obama administration officials naturally took it a step further, portraying the Brotherhood as "largely secular" and "pluralistic." Back in the real world, evidence that the Brotherhood is just another hostile Islamist group bent on achieving world domination through any means possible is overwhelming.

ATF leader’s email could be Fast and Furious smoking gun and Holder admitted Obama can’t shield it. By Matthew Boyle
Excerpt: A single internal Department of Justice email could be the smoking-gun document in the Operation Fast and Furious scandal — if it turns out to contain what congressional investigators have said it does. The document would establish that wiretap application documents show senior DOJ officials knew about and approved the gun walking tactic in Fast and Furious. This is the opposite of what Attorney General Eric Holder and House oversight committee ranking Democratic member Rep. Elijah Cummings have claimed.

Report: Debbie Wasserman Schultz ‘getting booted’ as DNC chairwoman after November. By Matthew Boyle
Excerpt: Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz maybe “getting booted” from her chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. Javiar Manjarres of the Shark Tank political blog reported Sunday that “Wasserman Schultz will not be back as DNC Chairwoman after the November elections.” (Guess she shouldn’t have bailed on that fundraiser in the Virgin Islands in April with the bundler helping the convicted felons and alleged convicts get illegal tax breaks. Those principles will turn around and bite you in the butt like a shark. --Barb)

Homeland Security announces Ariz. immigration enforcement cutback
Excerpt: “This isn’t an end-run [around the Supreme Court], this is a complete disregard of the constitutional process,” said Horace Cooper, director of the National Center for Public Policy Research. The court authorized Arizona’s actions, and the administration is going out of its way to frustrate those actions, he said. “This is a direct rejection of the idea that our constitutional system set the Supreme Court up to answer these kind questions,” he said. (AZ now a sanctuary state, border wide open for the cartels, anarchists, O voters. Let’s do NV next for Harry. --Barb. Constitution? I thought Obama repealed it by Executive Order? ~Bob.)

Exclusive--Gov. Jan Brewer: Obama Admin ‘Assault On Arizona’ Continues
Excerpt: Brewer was deeply upset at the new round of federal pressure on Arizona. “At every turn,” she said, “we see the federal government putting their finger down on other places … They rescinded the 287(g) for all law enforcement in the state of Arizona immediately after this ruling came out.

Jesse Jackson Jr. Takes Leave for Exhaustion
Excerpt: Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) is taking a leave of absence from Congress, citing exhaustion. Jackson, 47, was not in Washington, D.C., last week. (Interesting. I wonder if the feds are closing in on "senate candidate five"? ~Bob.)

Buzzfeed Politics Denigrates Ann Romney In Phony Erectile Dysfunction Ad
Excerpt: As a stark contrast, BuzzFeed later placed Mitt and Ann Romney together in a phony erectile dysfunction ad. (Rush calling Sandra Fluke a slut? Unforgivable. But this? Fine. Imagine if we did this with Michelle. ~Bob.)

Heading Toward National Insolvency
Excerpt: The American Spectator - Americans don't need to go to the movies to see a horror picture show. The Congressional Budget Office's latest report on the federal budget should scare everyone. Not that Washington seems to have noticed.

Slow and infuriating: Obama looks bad in partisan feud over Holder
Editorial: If not for hypocrisy, bad faith and opportunism, politics would wither away. The latest case of suspect outrage in Washington pits the Obama White House against hostile interlocutors in Congress over documents regarding a disastrous Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program called Fast and Furious.

Fireworks: Maher, Maddow And Nick Gillespie Debate Fast & Furious
Excerpt: "First of all, let me just say, Republicans don't care about dead Mexicans, a," Bill Maher said. "And, b, they would be dead even if we hadn't sold them guns. They would have gotten the guns somewhere else. So is it really a scandal?" (Grammar ruling please: is "vile liberal" redundant? ~Bob.)

Obama Admin ‘Suspends’ Immigration Enforcement Agreements with Arizona
Excerpt: President Obama is using the Department of Homeland Security to punish his enemies. The Obama administration said Monday it is suspending existing agreements with Arizona police over enforcement of federal immigration laws, and said it has issued a directive telling federal authorities to decline many of the calls reporting illegal immigrants that the Homeland Security Department may get from Arizona police….This is a political maneuver designed to punish Arizona, which is already reeling from the lawlessness on its border with Mexico.

In Which We Learn that ABC News is Literally In Bed With the Obama Campaign. By Bryan Preston
Excerpt: Matthew Jaffe wrote the piece for ABC News. Guess what: Matthew Jaffe is engaged to be married to Katie Hogan. Katie Hogan is Deputy Press Secretary to none other than…. President Barack Obama.

AZ Immigration Decision Disaster For Americans, Win For Obama. By Ben Shapiro
Excerpt: While my colleague Joel Pollak suggests this morning that the Supreme Court “struck down the form – but not the substance” of Arizona’s immigration law, the truth seems to be the opposite: the Supreme Court defanged the Arizona law to the point where it has no meaning. The case is an outright victory for the Obama administration– it allows them to complain about racial profiling without the state of Arizona having the power to actually fight illegal immigration.

Germany rebuffs Obama's advice on euro crisis
Excerpt: Germany's finance minister is rejecting U.S. President Barack Obama's calls on Europe to move faster in fighting its debt crisis, telling him to get the American deficit under control instead. ... "Mr. Obama should first of all take care of reducing the American deficit, which is higher than in the eurozone."

Analysis: Be afraid: Some in U.S. see shades of 2008 in euro crisis
Excerpt: Grim. Serious. Terrifying. Nerve-rattling. These are the words some prominent American investors and strategists are using to describe the worsening debt crisis in the euro zone and its impact on the global economy.

Worth Reading: Time to Occupy State Pensions? By Walter Russell Mead
Excerpt: The biggest scam going in American financial life may be the collusive effort by Wall Street, the political class, and public sector unions to use union retirement money to prop up Wall Street speculation.

Decline In Obama's Chicago Clue To His Second Term
Excerpt: President Obama and Rahm Emanuel, current mayor and former White House chief of staff, brought the "Chicago Way" to Washington in more ways than one. Not only did they bring a style of bare-knuckled backroom politics of intimidation and cronyism, they brought a statist philosophy of government knows best that has left America's Second City a second-rate city with nowhere to go but down. Last weekend was all too typical in Chicago these days, with four dead and 29 wounded throughout a city that's been home to one of the nation's toughest gun laws. (Detroit and Chicago are both cities run forever by powerful Democrat machines, and the consequences of that are pitifully obvious in Detroit, and becoming obvious in Chicago. And this is the political culture we brought to the White House? --Del)

Mia Love of Utah hopes to become the first black Republican woman in Congress
Excerpt: Other than her conservatism, there is little about Mia Love that doesn’t stand out in Utah. She is a black Republican, a 36-year-old mother of three, a fitness instructor and mayor of a growing town. Now, her congressional race against a popular incumbent whom Republicans have struggled to defeat has made Love a minor celebrity among GOP stalwarts. (The only reason Democrats oppose her is because they are racists. ~Bob.)

Why ‘Fast and Furious’ is a political loser. By Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake
Excerpt: The other major reason for House Republicans to turn the steering wheel in this game of political chicken is that every minute spent talking about “Fast and Furious” is one not spent talking about Obama’s handling of the economy. And the clearest path for Romney to win this fall is to turn the election into a straight referendum on Obama’s handling of the economy. (This is true. Republicans are paying a political price for Fast and Furious. Why should anyone care about 300+ dead Mexicans, or two dead US Agents, or “the most transparent administration in history” using Nixon’s stonewall tactics of Executive Privilege to hide perjury and crimes, if it’s bad politics? I mean, we wouldn’t want them to stand on principle instead of politics. “Justice for Brian Terry?” Who cares? Do you think any of the Democrats and race-baiters really care about “Justice for Trayvon Martin,” except that it allows them to gather votes, power and money? Ever heard of “Justice for Chris Cervini,” an unarmed white 15-year-old shot dead by a black man who walked, in very similar circumstances to Trayvon Martin, but without the political potential for race baiting? Why should Republicans act better than Democrats if it hurts their electoral chances? One party can’t lift us out of the cesspool alone, especially if standing for what’s right gets them beat. Thanks for the cynical Washington advice, Chris. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: NATO on Tuesday condemned the downing of a Turkish jet by Syria as “completely unacceptable,” and Turkey put Syria on notice that it would retaliate for any future violations along its border. The act was “another example of the Syrian government’s disregard for international norms of peace, security and human life,” NATO said in Brussels after Turkey briefed NATO ambassadors on the circumstances surrounding the shooting of the jet. (Brace yourself, Syria. Incoming Strongly Worded Note! ~Bob.)

Euro Zone Leaders to Debate Joint Banking Union
Excerpt: Details of a plan for greater fiscal unity in the euro zone, including the creation of a sort of finance ministry for the currency bloc, began to emerge Tuesday ahead of a crucial meeting of European Unionleaders eager to find a lasting solution to the region’s debt crisis. (The storm is getting worse. The ship is sinking. Let’s lash ourselves to the mast! ~Bob.)

Spanish banks downgraded by Moody's
Excerpt: The ratings agency Moody's has cut the credit rating on 28 of Spain's banks, one week after the country asked for money to support them. The move follows a cut to the Spanish government's own credit rating to just above junk status earlier this month. (When I was young and single, I used to joke that I had invested all spare cash in memories. We may eat kibble in our old age, but no matter what you’ve saved, the coming financial collapse will likely make anything but ammo and canned goods worthless. So maybe those weren’t bad investments. ~Bob.)

77% Oppose More U.S. Help to Bail Out Europe
Excerpt: Americans agree Europe’s economic problems are worsening but feel more strongly than ever that the United States should do nothing more to help its longtime allies recover. Just six percent (6%) of American Adults believe the economic situation in Europe is getting better. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% think the continent’s economic woes are getting worse, while 16% say they are staying about the same. (Want to bet the other 23% are among the 47% who don’t pay income taxes? ~Bob.)

Taliban Kill 13 Soldiers in Pakistan Raid
excerpt: A relatively rare cross-border raid into Pakistan by Afghan-based Taliban militants killed at least 13 Pakistani soldiers, the military said Monday. Pakistani officials have long faced criticism from the Americans and Afghans for failing to stop similar militant assaults in the opposite direction, and they lashed out against their neighbors over this attack, which was in the northwestern border district of Dir. (It’s never clear to me if Muslims would rather be killing us kuffer, or other Muslims who don’t agree with them on the finer points of theology. ~Bob.)

China has forced refugees back to Myanmar conflict zone: group
Excerpt: Chinese authorities have forced back into Myanmar some ethnic Kachin refugees who have fled across the border to escape civil war, and China is denying basic care to many who remain, a human rights group said on Tuesday. Myanmar's government is in talks with autonomy-seeking Kachin rebels, and more than a dozen other ethnic minority rebel groups, to try to end all its decades-old conflicts. (The Kachins and Karens are Burma’s Christian tribes, who fought gallantly on our side against the Japanese in WWII [See the movie, Never So Few.] They have been fighting gallantly for their freedom almost continuously since, mostly unsupported. But we won’t mention this to China, any more than we want to talk about the brutal Chinese occupation of Tibet. Might raise the interest rate. When Communism has a “human face,” it’s usually twisted into a murderous scowl. ~Bob.)

Pro-govt forces push militants out of Somali town
Excerpt: Hundreds of pro-government troops swept into a Somali town north of the capital on Tuesday, forcing al-Shabab fighters to flee in the latest success against the al-Qaida-linked militants, witnesses and a military official said.

ICE agents rebel over Obama's no-deportation program. By Jim Kouri
Excerpt: As part of President Barack Obama's "new immigration and deportation strategy," all U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers must complete a training program that stresses removing high-risk offenders while at the same time forgoing the deportation of illegal aliens with clean records and strong ties to their communities, said the ICE officers' union officials this week. … But the National ICE Council, which represents the agency’s more than 6,000 immigration officers, has not allowed its members to enroll in the new training program. (Quote: "The tough and outspoken president of the National ICE Council, Chris Crane, has opposed many of the president’s strategies, arguing that Obama’s policies force ICE officials to disregard the law." No kidding? You mean this guy construes forcing ICE officials to disregard the law as forcing ICE officials to disregard the law? REALLY? How can he be so unreasonable? Say, I wonder if anyone who is NOT an illegal alien will vote this November. That could mess up Obama's plans. --Don Hank)

American Muslims Stone Christians
Excerpt: If any normal America can watch this video and NOT be infuriated with the brazen attack by Muslims in the middle of the day, while police stand by and watch, then you no longer deserve to be considered a normal American. (Do you recognize America here? –Don Hank.)

Egypt president-elect wants to re-open links with Iran to bring ‘balance’ back to the region
Excerpt: Egypt's Islamist President-elect Mohammed Morsy has said he wants to restore long-severed ties with Tehran to create a strategic 'balance' in the region, in an interview published on Monday with Iran's Fars news agency. Morsy's comments may unsettle Western powers as they seek to isolate Iran over its disputed nuclear programme, which they suspect it is using to build atomic bombs, which Tehran denies. (One point of theological agreement between Sunni Islamists and Shi’a Islamists is the need to slaughter Jews, Christians and other kuffer. I suppose this will elicit billions more in Jizra from American taxpayers. ~Bob.)

Brotherhood Victory Opens Door for Islamists
excerpt: Islamists across the globe are hailing the victory of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammad Morsi in Egypt's presidential election, particularly Hamas and even traditional Egyptian rivals like Iran. In the meantime, as Israeli and American officials have responded optimistically but cautiously to Morsi's wishy-washy statements on Middle East peace, some American Islamist officials have already started a propaganda campaign celebrating the Islamist victory. (People who cheered the “Arab Spring” are going to look like idiots, if anyone remembers that far back. But they looked like idiots to me at the time. Maybe because they are idiots. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: She told a BBC Trust report that in Libya, where reporters were ‘embedded’ with rebels, they may have failed to explore both sides of the story properly. Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen was among those criticised in the study into coverage of the uprisings, which found that ‘excitement’ did sometimes ‘infect’ the reporting, which some viewers described as ‘too emotive’ and ‘veering into opinion’.

Excerpt: Thirty-one Republican senators have signed a letter calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately appoint a special counsel to investigation national security leaks from the executive branch. “The numerous national security leaks reportedly originating out of the Executive Branch in recent months have been stunning,” they wrote to Holder. (They will probably bring O.J. in to find the “real leaker.” ~Bob.)

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up … By Bernard Goldberg
Excerpt: When I first heard about the Obama Event Registry I thought it was a joke – a conservative dirty trick designed to make the president look bad. The president’s re-election campaign team couldn’t possibly have sunk so low to do what they were accused of doing. But they did.

Baseball: Kennedy's junior varsity coach is arrested
Excerpt: Pedro Cruz Trujillo, 24, who was the junior varsity baseball coach at Granada Hills Kennedy, was arrested Monday on suspicion of child endangerment, according to a news release from the LAPD. According to police, Trujillo took a group of six students, ranging in age from 14 to 16, to a Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium on May 18. It is alleged that Trujillo and some of the students in his car smoked marijuana to and from the event.

Obama donor got $3.5M FDIC discount in failed-bank settlement
Excerpt: A billionaire Chicago family that donated and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for President Obama got a $3.5 million discount last year for paying off early a $460 million settlement deal it agreed to in the 2001 failure of a Chicago-area bank it owned. And while the wealthy Pritzker family got a multimillion-dollar break, 1,400 former depositors were not so lucky — they are still owed more than $10 million in savings they lost when the bank’s doors were shuttered, and there is little chance they will ever get those funds back. (It’s the Chicago way. ~Bob.)

Green company creates three jobs in three years, gets another $80 million from DOE
Excerpt: Department of Energy officials gave a New Hampshire-based biofuel company access to $80 million for a Michigan project that has already fallen short of job creation expectations, despite receiving another $40 million in state and DOE subsidies. “In September 2008, Mascoma [Corp.] pledged 70 jobs at the plant by the end of 2012. On Feb. 29 of this year, Mascoma reported to the MEDC that only three jobs had been created by the grant,” the Capitol Confidential (Mich.) reports today. “The company has been given the full $20 million from the state.”

The Supreme Court's Long-Awaited Ruling On Four Parts Of 1070: Split Decision Still A Win For Arizona And The Nation. By Dave Levine
Here is Dave Levine's take on the AZ illegal alien ruling. He rates it a win-win, even though some items were struck down. I pay special attention to Dave's take because he is a specialist in this area. --Don Hank. Excerpt: The anti-lawbreaking business part of the law (mandatory E-verify for ALL Arizona businesses) as well as the law enforcement portion (police pulling over a driver they have reasonable suspicion may be in the country illegally, etc.) have thus been ruled "constitutional and reasonable" by the Court.

Supreme Court Upholds Immigration Checks, but Administration Counters
Excerpt: The Supreme Court handed down its decision on the Arizona immigration law yesterday, striking some portions of the law in a 5-3 ruling but unanimously upholding immigration status checks by law enforcement. The Obama Administration countered by announcing it would tell Arizona to release most of the people whose status was in question.

Excerpt: For anyone who entertains the hope that the majority’s ruling on section 2(B) makes the case some sort of significant victory for Arizona, I invite you to have your illusion dispelled by reading Justice Scalia’s dissent. As Scalia puts it in his final two paragraphs: “Arizona bears the brunt of the country’s illegal immigration problem. Its citizens feel themselves under siege by large numbers of illegal immigrants who invade their property, strain their social services, and even place their lives in jeopardy. Federal officials have been unable to remedy the problem, and indeed have recently shown that they are unwilling to do so. Thousands of Arizona’s estimated 400,000 illegal immigrants—including not just children but men and women under 30—are now assured immunity from enforcement, and will be able to compete openly with Arizona citizens for employment.”

SB1070; Emperor Obama Throws Snit Fit, Plots Arizona Revenge.
Excerpt: Emperor Barack Obama was angry yesterday. He didn't get all that he wanted from the Supreme Court on its ruling on SB 1070, the Arizona Immigration Law. Obama was said to be so furious that he didn't get the Supreme Court to bow to his wishes on Open Borders and Blanket Amnesty that he immediately picked up the phone and called the Director of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

The little state that could when prez said it couldn’t. By Rich Lowry
Excerpt: Upon its passage, Arizona’s immigration law was considered so outlandish that Attorney General Eric Holder famously rushed to condemn it without reading it. Now the Supreme Court has read the law and rejected Holder’s case against its central element, the so-called “show me your papers” provision stipulating police officers check the immigration status of people suspected of being in the country illegally.

Quote from NRO’s Morning Jolt with Jim Geraghty
The lefties who cheer the individual mandate might have a worldview that is deeply disturbing to us, in its view of unlimited government authority and power, but at least they have a worldview. There are millions of Americans whose view on the individual mandate will change depending on how you phrase the question. Many Americans' views on health care are basically, "I should be given as much as I want, whenever I want, and someone else should pay for it," and they never think about it beyond that.

Excerpt: Obama had shown this breathtaking tendency to con people as they knew they were being conned before, the most public time during the campaign being his cynical answer when he was asked about his promise to renegotiate NAFTA. He had said, when fighting for union votes with Clinton, “I will make sure we renegotiate (NAFTA).” Even as he said this, it turns out that campaign advisor Austan Goolsbee had gone to Canada to assure them this was a lie … (Even the Left sometimes notices his lies. ~Bob.)

Worth Reading: First Principles. By Michael Walsh
Excerpt: With less than six months before the critical 2012 election, it’s vital that those on the right not fall into the trap of accepting the premises of leftist argumentation. To do that — to cede even a single inch of turf, or to acknowledge that they are arguing or advocating in good faith — is already to have lost. Therefore, repeat after me:
Principles, not programs. Principles, not programs. Principles, not programs.

Excerpt: But of all the weird, creepy and false left-wing religious tenets the Obama administration has forced down this nation’s throat, none is as impossible to swallow as the myth of the president’s superior character.

The twin faces of Islam. By M. Zuhdi Jasser
Excerpt: The complexities of the "Muslim issue" in America are often exploited and bandied about between two extremes -- one that wants to be believe that Islam is universally peaceful and no "real" Muslim could be a radical, and the other that has become suspicious of every American Muslim. … The greatest security threat we face as Americans has one common ideological thread across the globe -- not spiritual Islam but political Islam (Islamism). That threat is a byproduct of a soulful Muslim battle between liberalism and Islamism.

FBI investigating over 100 suspected Islamic jihadists in U.S. military
Excerpt: But doing anything other than assuming the loyalty of Muslims in the military would be "Islamophobic." It would be better for hundreds or thousands die in a jihad attack by one of these Muslims in the military than for military officials to commit an act of "Islamophobia." Death (other peoples') before political incorrectness!

Iranian pair face death penalty after third alcohol offence: Two people previously lashed 160 times for consuming alcohol, which is forbidden under Islamic Sharia law
Excerpt: Two Iranians have been sentenced to death for persistent consumption of alcohol under the country's Islamic Sharia law, which forbids the use, manufacturing and trading of all types of alcoholic drinks. (Can’t be true. After all, the Federal Courts and the NYT think Shari’a is benevolent and should be allowed to be considered in American cases. This could drive you to drink. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: The verdict in the case of Jabeur Mejri – a young Tunisian man who was sentenced in April to seven and a half years imprisonment on charges of attacking public order and morality - was unchanged following today’s appeal. (remember, you must give equal respect and honor to all cultures, even those that destroy freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The Left says so. ~Bob.)

Dems Forced to Downsize Once Again as Convention Fundraising Falls Short
Excerpt: In January the DNC announced it would be downsizing its national convention from four days to three. The first day, September 3rd, would instead be used to celebrate the region with a big NASCAR-themed kickoff event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It makes perfect sense given what a huge NASCAR fan the President is. Late Monday, the DNC announced another convention downsizing. (Asked about NASCAR, Obama said he prefers Starbucks, doesn’t like instant coffee. [joke]. If they need Greek Columns as in 2008, maybe they could borrow the Tara backdrop from Gone With the Wind. Extra points if you know the poem the movie name comes from. Double points if you can recite it. Yes, I can. ~Bob.)

Quayle: Obama ‘behaving as an emperor,’ Napolitano as his ‘court jester’ By Matthew Boyle
Excerpt: Arizona Republican Rep. Ben Quayle asked Homeland Security committee chairman Rep. Peter King to bring Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano before his committee to answer questions about her decision to suspend immigration law enforcement programs in his state on Monday… “We now confront the spectacle of the president of the United States behaving as an emperor, and the cabinet officer entrusted with the security of the nation as his court jester,” Quayle continued, before asking King to summon Napolitano to testify before his committee about her abrupt decision to scale back immigration enforcement in Arizona.

Issa to Obama: Either you’re involved in Fast and Furious or your executive privilege claim is unjustified. By Matthew Boyle
Excerpt: In a letter obtained by The Daily Caller, House oversight committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa pressed President Barack Obama directly on his assertion of executive privilege over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. “[Y]our privilege assertion means one of two things,” Issa wrote to the president in a letter dated June 25. “Either you or your most senior advisors were involved in managing Operation Fast & Furious and the fallout from it, including the false February 4, 2011 letter provided by the attorney general to the committee, or, you are asserting a presidential power that you know to be unjustified solely for the purpose of further obstructing a congressional investigation…”

Worth Reading: 32 Grieving Parents with Absolute Moral Authority over Obama. By Stella Paul
Excerpt: I know you're busy writing to your friends to ask them to skip your birthday present this year and send the cash to Obama, but I just want to interrupt you for a minute to introduce you to 32 parents who probably won't be fundraising for Obama anytime soon. Kent and Josephine Terry are the parents of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who sacrificed his life protecting ours.

Fast and Furious weapons tied to high profile killing in Mexico
Excerpt: While American officials offered their condolences to the sister of cartel's victim, they never dreamed at the time that the weapons used by those cartel enforcers were firearms that U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed to be smuggled into Mexico and into the hands of vicious cartel members, said the Law Enforcement Examiner source who requested anonymity.

Holder DOJ Uses Newspaper for Statistical Data Against Rick Scott. By J. Christian Adams
Excerpt: Florida Governor Rick Scott’s voting case against the Holder Justice Department has taken a strange but predictable turn. Recall that radical lawyers in the DOJ Voting Section filed a lawsuit against Florida seeking to prevent the removal of foreigners from the voter rolls. Justice has now turned to the print media for “expert” statistical analysis on the racial impacts of Florida’s policies.

State Department refuses to explain how a member of a terrorist group got into the White House. By Jennifer Rubin
Excerpt: The State Department can blow off the media, but let’s see how it responds to congressional inquiries. I strongly suspect one or more State Department officials soon will be in the hot seat before an oversight committee. Or will the president claim executive privilege on this screwup, too? (Yes, from the WaPo. –Barb.)

Obama Admin demands Egyptian military to hand over power to new Muslim Brotherhood president
Excerpt: Andrew McCarthy wrote yesterday that the Obama admin is now demanding that the military in Egypt fulfill its promise and hand over power to their newly elected Islamist president: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is doing her part to help the Muslim Brotherhood implement the Turkey Strategy in Egypt. As I’ve pointed out before, if you want to see what’s going to happen in Egypt, look at Turkey, where the military was Atatürk’s bulwark against what would otherwise be the certainty that Islamists would overwhelm the pro-Western civil society the Kemalists labored against Islamic norms to build.

Mysterious Money and Motive Behind Monster Mosque in Murfreesboro. By Eric Allen Bell
Excerpt: One subject of concern was why they needed such a huge compound for so few families. What is particularly disconcerting is that, according to their own documents (attached 2009 annual report) the ICM only has 45 active paying member families. Naturally this begs another question – who is paying for this massive compound?

Worth Reading: Federal Student Aid and the Law of Unintended Consequences. By Richard Vedder, Professor of Economics, Ohio University
Excerpt: FEDERAL STUDENT financial assistance programs are costly, inefficient, byzantine, and fail to serve their desired objectives. In a word, they are dysfunctional, among the worst of many bad federal programs. (Boy, I bet this guy is popular in the faculty lounge. ~Bob.)

BBC Rogue Traders' Presenter Dan Penteado Faces Jail Today After Pleading Guilty to 24,000 Pounds in Council Tax and Housing Fraud.
Excerpt: The 40-year-old, who chases down bogus workmen with Matt Allwright on the television show, admitted eight offences of dishonestly or knowingly claiming the benefits while not declaring he earned thousands from the BBC. Penteado, from Bournemouth, was warned at Bournemouth Magistrates' Court that he could face jail before he was granted bail while a pre-sentence report is prepared.

Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom is the apotheosis of old fogey Hollywood liberalism. By Tim Stanley
Excerpt: There’s nothing wrong with that, except when it is used to promote a brand of politics that is actually not half as smart as its mise-en-scene. Sorkin insists that he is non-partisan and powerless. But he shares a belief – common in Hollywood – that reasoned dialogue and open minds lead inevitably to liberal conclusions. (The definition of mise en scene--from Kate who wanted to know:

England's Football Fans Have Proven That They Are Far More Racially Enlightened Than The BBC. By Brenden O'Neill
Excerpt: All they did was stage a protest against BBC Panorama’s hysterical depiction of Ukraine as a hotbed of racism and anti-Semitism, which they have discovered during their stay in that country to be untrue. And for this, for having the temerity to challenge claims made by the mighty, righteous Beeb, they have been described as “sick” and “shocking”.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams May or May Not be the Antichrist. By James Delingpole
Excerpt: Isn't this the kind of crazy stuff the Book of Revelations warns us about? Isn't it another of those absolutely cast-iron signs that the End Times are approaching, when men of God form unholy alliance with the forces of tyranny and oppression and injustice and grinding poverty? Problem is, I'm really only half joking here.

Afghan villagers take up arms against Taliban
Excerpt: Al Jazeera covers the formation of the 'National Uprising Movement,' a group of fighters from four villages who have banded together to fight the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan.

US drones kill AQAP commander, 2 fighters in southern Yemen
Excerpt: US drones killed an al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula commander and two fighters in an airstrike near the southern port city of Aden today. The remotely piloted Predators or the more heavily armed Reapers fired a pair of missiles at a pickup truck traveling in the desert in the Beer Hameed area outside of Aden, Yemeni military officials told Xinhua. The officials said that a senior AQAP commander and two fighters were killed, but did not disclose the name of the slain commander.


-- 
Robert A. Hall

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