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"Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education and free discussion are the antidotes of both." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, 1816TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS
Saddam's Iraq Had Old Chemical Weapons, U.S. Troops Exposed
Saddam Hussein's Iraq did have chemical weapons, though not an active program when the U.S. invaded in 2003. The New York Times reports, "From 2004 to 2011, American and American-trained Iraqi troops repeatedly encountered, and on at least six occasions were wounded by, chemical weapons remaining from years earlier in Saddam Hussein’s rule. In all, American troops secretly reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells or aviation bombs, according to interviews with dozens of participants, Iraqi and American officials, and heavily redacted intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act." In all, the Times "found 17 American service members and seven Iraqi police officers who were exposed to nerve or mustard agents after 2003. American officials said that the actual tally of exposed troops was slightly higher, but that the government’s official count was classified." The soldiers say they were ordered to keep quiet about the findings and wounds. Saddam's non-compliance with UN requirements was a major justification for the Iraq war, but because the weapons were manufactured in the 1980s, the Times says, "The discoveries of these chemical weapons did not support the government’s invasion rationale." Now, of course, ISIL controls the facility where many of the weapons were found and remain. More...Comment | Share
U.S. Increases Airstrikes, WH Says 'We're Succeeding'
Secretary of State John Kerry may have belittled the importance of keeping ISIL from taking over Kobani, Syria, but according to ABC News, "U.S. warplanes have ramped up the number of airstrikes against ISIS fighters in the besieged city of Kobani, launching 21 airstrikes since Monday, officials said [Tuesday]. It is the highest number of strikes since the start of the air campaign in Syria and is an indicator of how important the U.S. now sees the battle for Kobani." ISIL has been advancing despite U.S. airstrikes, primarily because airstrikes aren't enough and local ground forces that are opposing ISIL are losing. But pay no attention to the facts on the ground. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, "[C]ertainly the early evidence indicates that [Barack Obama's] strategy is succeeding." Who are you going to believe -- him or your lying eyes? More...Comment | Share
Houston Cracks Down on Pastors' Dissent
It's like the First Amendment doesn't exist in Houston. The city passed an "LGBT equal rights" ordinance in June that also allowed men to use women's public restrooms, and vice versa. Naturally, the city's pastors fought back, organizing a petition drive. The city's government, led by Mayor Annise Parker, who is a lesbian, cracked down on the pastors with subpoenas. Shockingly, the subpoena ordered pastors to turn over "all speeches, presentations, or sermons related to HERO, the Petition, Mayor Annise Parker, homosexuality, or gender identity prepared by, delivered by, revised by, or approved by you or in your possession." The Alliance Defending Freedom has stepped in to fight for the pastors. ADF Senior Legal Council Erik Stanley said, "City council members are supposed to be public servants, not 'Big Brother' overlords who will tolerate no dissent or challenge. In this case, they have embarked upon a witch-hunt, and we are asking the court to put a stop to it." A church's non-profit status only forbids it from campaigning for a candidate, not from speaking on issues. The slow march of LGBT "tolerance" laws has slammed into the rights of speech and religion. More...Comment | Share
Grimes Refuses to Acknowledge Obama Vote. Again. Still.
Days after Kentucky's Democrat Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes evaded questions about whether she voted for Barack Obama in 2008 or 2012, she again refused to answer the same question in a debate with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. This time, she hid behind high-minded nonsense. "This is a matter of principle. Our constitution grants, here in Kentucky, the constitutional right for privacy of the ballot box, for a secret ballot," Grimes said. "I am not going to compromise a constitutional right provided here in Kentucky in order to curry favor on one or the other side, or for members of the media. I'll protect that right for every Kentuckian." This has nothing to do with principle. On the contrary, it shows how toxic Obama is for Democrats this November and to what lengths they'll go to avoid him. McConnell, on the other hand, had no trouble saying, "I voted for Mitt Romney. Proudly."Comment | Share
St. Louis Blacks Are Angry -- at Democrats
Black voters in Ferguson, Missouri, may be waking up to their real problem: race-baiting Democrats. The Washington Post reports on a nearly unthinkable sea change coming in November. "Many African Americans in Ferguson and across St. Louis County, angered over their leaders’ response to the fatal shooting [of Michael Brown], say they will be taking their outrage to the ballot box and voting against a Democratic Party that has long been their automatic choice." The Post quotes several black residents angry at Democrats, including a young man who said, "The world is watching us right now. It’s time to send a message of our power." Blacks have been voting Democrat for 50 years and have nothing to show for it besides destroyed families and communities stuck on Democrat poverty plantations. It's past time for a Great Awakening.Comment | Share
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RIGHT ANALYSIS
Ecofascists Hijack EPA Ozone Regulations
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The Supreme Court recently declined to hear the case of Utility Air Regulatory Group, a conglomerate of coal companies, which argued the 2008 ozone rules were too strict. Even after six years, states like Connecticut, New Jersey, Texas and especially California did not reach the ozone production levels set in 2008.
While the EPA has not released the details of the new regulations -- they're waiting until after the election for that -- the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee recommended to the agency in June to push the ozone standard from 75 parts per billion (ppb) down to 70ppb, or even as low as 60ppb. That level "would certainly offer more public health protection than levels of 70ppb or 65ppb and would provide an adequate margin of safety," committee chair Dr. H. Christopher Frey wrote. Well heck, if we're talking health protection here, 0ppb would be ideal, but also against the laws of nature.
Ozone, a.k.a. smog, can form naturally, but manufacturing and burning coal can also create ozone. So ecofascist groups like the Environmental Defense Fund label it a "harmful air pollutant" because it allegedly exacerbates respiratory conditions like asthma.
In July, the DC Circuit Court ruled the EPA violated the Clean Air Act when it did not pass tougher ozone standards in 2008 (under the Bush administration, the greenies like to point out).
The EPA stalled on passing stricter ozone regulations until 2011. But then, Barack Obama told then-EPA Director Lisa Jackson to withdraw the proposed rules, saying, "I have continued to underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover."
Surely stricter ozone regulations weren't too tough even for Obama to stomach. Perhaps he wasn't yet emboldened, as it was only his first term. However, the July regulation made environmentalists happy that they finally forced the Obama administration to act.
“Smog sickens and even kills some plants and trees, even in America’s national parks, which are supposed to have the cleanest air in the country,” said Mark Wenzler, vice president of conservation programs at the National Parks Conservation Association. “The Obama administration now has an opportunity to follow the Science™ and not play politics with protecting our national parks and forests from air pollution damage.”
The administration would never play politics.
Wenzler meant a court-ordered opportunity. These new ozone rules go beyond executive fiat. These regulations were pushed forward by ecofascists with deep pockets and sharp lawyers. It's rule by legal suit, baby.
And while the new regulations may make Sequoias and Redwoods happy, the rules would cut down American industry faster than a bald eagle going through a wind turbine. NAM released a study in July concluding new ozone rules "could cost $270 billion per year and place millions of jobs at risk." That breaks down to costing households $1,570 per year, according to NAM. Furthermore, a 60ppb standard would make every state noncompliant with ozone regulations, with few exceptions -- mostly swaths of Montana and North Dakota.
"Based on the way the EPA interprets the Clean Air Act," the NAM report concludes, "it is virtually ensured that the agency will recommend a stricter standard every five years. Yet, ozone levels are getting so low that a rapidly growing share of even urban areas' ozone concentration now comes from either naturally occurring ozone or from ozone that has been transported from other states or countries. We have reached the point at which significant further reductions simply cannot be accomplished in any cost-effective manner. Absent recognition of this fact from the EPA, it is time for Congress to modernize the Clean Air Act."
Right now, an act of Congress may be the only thing that will reform the EPA because the courts have weighed in. The bottom line is the environmentalists have won their court battles; America's manufacturers and coal industry have lost theirs.
Meanwhile, every American has the right to petition the government, but environmentalist groups seem to have an extra-special right to petition the EPA. According to Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), newly revealed emails between Gina McCarthy, the current EPA administrator, and David Doniger, a policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, suggest collusion. Vitter said, "These emails clearly demonstrate their beyond-cozy relationship and force the question: Who is working for whom?"
The emails show McCarthy working with Doniger to craft the recently passed greenhouse gas regulations. In the emails, McCarthy tells Doniger in 2011, "I will never say no to a meeting with you." How many coal companies have such a relationship? And in 2010, McCarthy tells him, "I appreciate your support and patience. ... This success is yours as much as mine."
This was the same woman in July who welcomed public comment on the greenhouse gas regulations and with the same breath described economic arguments against EPA regulation as "tired, false and worn out criticism."
But that was greenhouse gas regulation. When the EPA deviated from the ecofascist line on ozone, the environmentalists' lawsuit reminded the EPA just who is in charge.
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Ebola -- Just the Facts
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Under intense political pressure to put "boots on the ground" to combat ISIL, Barack Obama, who assured the nation, "The chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low," put boots on the ground in Africa to help contain the Ebola outbreak there. Yet he refused to halt those from the infected regions from traveling to the U.S.
On Sept. 20, Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan flew into the U.S. after lying about his symptoms and contact with Ebola patients in Africa. On Oct. 8, he died in a Dallas hospital.
Subsequently, two health care workers involved in Duncan's care have been diagnosed with Ebola. Additionally, another American, Ashoka Mukpo, who was covering the Ebola outbreak in Africa for NBC, is being treated for the virus in a Nebraska hospital.
From Ebola's first diagnosis in 1976 until 2013, the UN's World Health Organization reported 1,716 cases worldwide. In March 2014, the WHO reported an outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, which began with the death of a child who contracted the disease in December 2013. Ebola spread to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, and as of today there are approximately 8,500 cases diagnosed and 4,200 deaths reported.
The viral epidemic will continue to spread in Africa and may eventually reach pandemic status, primarily because third world countries have only rudimentary skill in proper diagnosis and the practices of dealing with those who are infected or have died.
The last African epidemic, HIV/AIDS, killed approximately 36 million people on the continent and worldwide before methods of prevention and treatment contained the disease. There are now approximately 30 million people living with HIV globally.
However, Ebola, though transmitted through bodily fluids and waste, is much more virulent and lethal than AIDS. Because the incubation period for Ebola is up to three weeks, the pool of people exposed to the virus can be much larger.
Between 50% and 70% of those infected with Ebola will die, so you should be concerned. But the question is, how concerned? Certainly not as concerned as all those media outlets that depend on hyperbole for market share and advertising dollars.
Given the non-stop media attention devoted to Ebola, millions of Americans worry that they or their loved ones may become victims. Some careless scientists and “experts-on-everything” claim the virus will soon mutate and become an airborne disease -- a possibility but highly improbable.
There have been two previous human cases of Ebola in the U.S. One was in 1989 at a private facility where test monkeys were held until they were moved to the Army labs at Fort Detrick, Virginia -- where Biohazard Level 4 viruses are stored and studied. An infected monkey spread the virus to one of the handlers, but he recovered. In 1990 at that same base, a veterinary medical examiner entered a Level 4 room to autopsy a monkey. During the autopsy, she discovered her glove had a tear. She contracted the disease but also survived.
To put things in perspective regarding the current Ebola cases in the U.S., according to the CDC, almost 54,000 Americans died last year from influenza and pneumonia. Currently, Enterovirus D68 is in 43 states and is killing otherwise healthy elementary age school children.
Despite the 66 years of financial and other assistance the WHO has provided Africa, health and medical conditions there are prone to produce disease rather than cure it. Africa has very few doctors and nurses, and few hospitals and clinics, while equipment and supplies are spread extremely thin. Conditions outside cities are very unsanitary. Because of scarcity, doctors often reuse the same syringe on several people, possibly transmitting any of a dozen diseases in the process.
And now, the WHO warns that there will be 10,000 cases of Ebola before year's end. They say we must stop it before Christmas.
So what to do?
First, the U.S. should severely restrict all visas into the U.S. from African nations where the disease is spreading. Regarding the 13,000 visas currently issued to people in those countries, step up the assessment of those entering the U.S. and quarantine any of those who may have been exposed to the virus. This should be done now, and the Obama administration's argument against these measures -- asserting that such restrictions would limit aid into Africa -- is patently false.
Second, while an Ebola epidemic in the U.S. is in fact highly unlikely, you should hope for the best but prepare for the worst by familiarizing yourself with this two-step action plan concerning the minimum requirements to shelter in place -- the ultimate defense against a pandemic threat.
And finally, turn off the 24-hour news recycler "alerts." You are at far greater risk of being murdered by one of Obama's urban poverty plantation constituents than of dying from Ebola.
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TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS
- Michelle Malkin: The Centers for Everything but Disease Control
- Jonah Goldberg: Ebola Is Much Less Scary Than Hollywood's 'Contagion.' Or Is It?
- Walter E. Williams: Officially Killing Americans
- Terence Jeffrey: Federal Debt Now $200,000 Per Full-Time Private-Sector Worker
- John Stossel: Crumbling Constitution
OPINION IN BRIEF
The Gipper: "It is not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work -- work with us, not over us; stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it."Columnist Michelle Malkin: "At $7 billion, the Centers for Disease Control 2014 budget is nearly 200 percent bigger now than it was in 2000. Those evil, stingy Republicans actually approved CDC funding increases in January larger than what President Obama requested. What are we getting for this ever-increasing amount of money? Answer: A power-hungry busybody brigade of politicized blame-mongers. ... [W]hile Ebola and enterovirus D68 wreak havoc on our health system, the CDC has been busying itself with an ever-widening array of non-disease control campaigns, like these recent crusades: Mandatory motorcycle helmet laws. ... Video games and TV violence. ... Playground equipment. ... 'Social norming' in the schools. ... After every public health disaster, CDC bureaucrats play the money card while expanding their regulatory and research reach into anti-gun screeds, anti-smoking propaganda, anti-bullying lessons, gender inequity studies and unlimited behavior modification programs that treat individual vices -- personal lifestyle choices -- as germs to be eradicated."
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Columnist Terence Jeffrey: "Which will be greater: the burden of student debt on Americans who went off this fall to their first year of college, or the amount of federal debt per full-time private-sector worker when these students earn their degrees and start looking for jobs? There is no doubt: It will be the amount of federal debt per full-time private-sector worker. As of last Friday, the total debt of the federal government was $17,858,480,029,490.28, according to the U.S. Treasury. That equaled $200,258.81 for each of the 89,177,000 full-time private-sector workers that, according to the Census Bureau, were in the United States in 2013. ... Americans who get up every morning and go to work, and do it week after week after week, and are forced to pay progressively higher taxes to maintain a federal welfare state that is driving our national debt to an unsustainable level are being forced to subsidize a system that is killing the American dream."
Humorist Frank J. Fleming: "Really baffled by how the amount of melanin in your skin cells is supposed to affect your ability to get a photo ID."
Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform -- Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen -- standing in harm's way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.
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