Update
My health is still holding. Being outside a lot Thursday to Sunday seemed to drop my FEV numbers starting Sunday, though they were back up Wednesday morning, but I'm needing less O2, none at rest or walking around the condo. Feeling good and getting out to enjoy the mild summer. We are supposed to have our second 90 degree day of the summer coming up.
Kate, my high school classmate and blog contributor who is going dark for a bit, sent me a list of the websites she checks and a note for readers: "Bob publishes my offerings because I format them. He knows when he opens my emails they will be ready to roll. Please help to keep this blog going by formatting." --Kate
Worth Reading: From S, a blog reader, about her daughter, L
She has been a regular corresponded, encouraging me in my struggle with the new lung and praying for me. Only recently did I learn that her daughter, L, has had a much longer and tougher battle with illness. See her report below. At her request I used only the first initial. If you catch me whining or feeling sorry for myself, it's okay to smack me in the head. I will forward any responses from readers to her. She needs your encouragement and prayers. ~Bob
L's illness has been about 25 years now; one kidney, 2 pancreases. If only intestinal cilia could re-grow. She had 25+ surgeries in 20 yrs. Four eye surgeries before kidney transplant, no anesthesia, took the dab of sharp sight left instead of restoring more. She continues on. Thank you for adding her to your prayer list. You are on our prayer list. Her dad recently encouraged her, as have I, to write about these transplant journeys. I call them journeys since they are not a singular event. She wondered who in this busy world would care about reading about it. I had thought if I read about it, it would give me hope to go on. Hope is what keeps us going since one faces depression and even despair at times along the road. I love how she tells of one time of complete despair when after a year no kidney had come. Michael McLean was at the Celebration of Hope luncheon and sang, "Hold on" also "You are not alone." How do you infuse a person with hope? He had felt to change his vocal/piano selections and I could feel her shoulders heave with emotion, her face covered by her long hair. She is tired...trying to cook and burning herself unable to see, cleaning house by brail, helping two grown kids get through college, student loans, etc. Seeing her son, R thru his liver transplant in 2011 and her second pancreas in 2008. She is 90 lbs, her colon lacking 60%+ of the cilia needed to move food instead of intestinal water, which is why she cannot stay hydrated (weekly infusions now). And so the war goes on. The odds of more than one transplant in one family are a million to one. Of course any complications that happen are on Friday at two minutes after 5:00 pm! There have been complications, j-tubes spewing green gastric juices and the first pancreas duct rupturing with instant peritonitis, being opened stem to stern and our wonderful Dr. B holding her heart in his hand till they got her on life support, all vitals gone. Then a drug-induced coma for a week. All I could think of during the coma was that everything was going to be all right. She has created a world at home for herself listening to Glen Beck, Hannity, etc. I share news from your blog with her. We have rousing discussions. We do one day at a time and pray 'symptom specific.' I have notes from all the surgeries and setbacks I would have to make to keep current in my chats with L...we talk on phone all the time. Setbacks. I asked my military sweetheart how he made it through great illness years ago. He said, "First I be glad they can do anything for me, second try to be best patient can be, third I expect setbacks, and fourth I start over again when I have setbacks." People who survive often have several traits in common. L has made it from the depths of despair to the height of a mountain in Hawaii a year later. One would never have thought! One nurse said L willed herself to live when the first pancreas ruptured suddenly over a vein after having been rejected when the duct ruptured. I was flying to the hospital and blew a tire to the rim, patched through various tires to get there finally not knowing how would find her. Last year she made the trip via plane see her husband graduate. He will never know what it took for her to go that, but I do. She was the one who got the reservation, packed, friend put her on plane in her seat, another one got her off, encapsulated trip. Someone next to her in plane said of her listening to headphones with iPad that she was blind but knew how to run the bloomin' thing better than he did! My willful, determined child whose first electronic communication in lieu of brail the words re R's liver transplant: "R in OR 12. We are NY , NY
General News and Comment
Book recommendation: The Weed Agency: A Comic Tale of Federal Bureaucracy Without Limits by Jim Geraghty
The Weed Agency is a well written, well researched and insightful short novel by political pundit Jim Geraghty, the author of the excellent (and free) e-newsletter, Morning Jolt from NRO. This is also an enjoyable and fun read, though some parts that most readers will find hilarious I found frustrating, because as a former five-term Massachusetts state senator, I know this is exactly how most of the Federal and State Bureaucracies work--or don't work. City government bureaucracies, loaded with political hacks, can be even worse. As they say in Chicago , "We don't want nobody what nobody sent!" This also tells you why that the government grows under Republican control, though just a little less than under Democrats. (I joke that I vote Republican because the Republicans are ruining the country, but at a slower rate.) Eventually, and likely not that far in the future, we will hit the tipping point and collapse like the Soviet Union . Geraghty often footnotes the true life stories that he drew upon for inspiration. I learned, for example, that here in Wisconsin in 2004, there were 7,000 more ballots counted in Milwaukee than the number of actual voters. This was hidden until well after Kerry had been certified the winner here by 11,000 votes. I was a volunteer on the Bush campaign, but missed this report by the Milwaukee paper--hardly conservative--that came out when it no longer mattered, along with other reports of vote fraud. This book will open some eyes, if those who need it take the time to read it, because it entertains while it enlightens.
Movie Recommendation: The Giver
Bonnie and I saw this Tuesday. Excellent film about a rebel or three in a future statist utopia. Everything is so nice there, it's chilling.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: I wrote two weeks ago about two New Hampshire teenagers having their bagpipes seized at the northern border by US Customs & Border Protection. This would be the same "border""protection" agency that has turned the southern border into an express welfare check-in for any of the world's seven billion people minded to show up there. My fellow Granite Staters - 17-year-old Campbell Webster and Eryk Bean, of Concord and Londonderry, New Hampshire - understood that if you go to a highland fling a couple of hours north in Quebec you're now obligated to get your bagpipes approved by US Fish & Wildlife. Because that's just the way it is in the Land of the Free.
Ferguson: In my view, people insisting the police officer is guilty of murder and people insisting that he is innocent are both wrong. What people should be insisting on is that the incident should be investigated fairly, and if there is evidence, the officer should be charged, but if not, he should be released. It's hard for me not to believe that the Holder DOJ has a preferred outcome, and will push to find facts that fit it, dismiss those that don't. ~Bob
Excerpt: It may not have been the aim of Missouri Highway Patrol captain Ron Johnson to outsource security responsibilities to someone affiliated with the New Black Panthers and a legal activist group, but that is the impression that one receives from listening to his exchange with and praise of Malik Shabazz. If this is the same Malik Shabazz who has a long history of virulent racist and inflammatory anti-Semitic statements, then there has been at least a partial erosion of legal authority in Ferguson .
Excerpt: It is perfectly fine to think Mr. Brown was no saint, the rioters should be punished, and in addition to both of those, to think the police in Ferguson, MO behaved badly too. Before rioting even began the police in Ferguson decided to behave like soldiers instead of police.
How a Reporter’s Clueless Report on ‘Rubber Bullets’ Made the Internet Explode in Hilarious Ridicule
Excerpt: Tweet from Ryan Reilly: "I believe these are rubber bullets, can anyone confirm? #Ferguson . (With a picture of ear plugs! There are some very funny responses. ~Bob)
Holder headed to Ferguson
Excerpt: Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. will travel to this battle-scarred St. Louis suburb to oversee the investigation of the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager at the hands of a white police officer, the White House said Monday. Holder’s visit was announced as National Guard troops arrived to back up local and state police. On Monday night in Ferguson , an early evening calm gave way to new confrontations as some demonstrators threw bottles at heavily armed police and officers threw stun grenades and tear gas towards them.
Report: More Than a Dozen Witnesses Have Corroborated Officer Darren Wilson’s Version of Ferguson Shooting
Excerpt: More than a dozen witnesses have backed up the account of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the controversial shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, police sources reportedly told St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Christine Byers. (Not the result Holder, et al want--they must be "corrected." ~Bob)
For Mo. governor, Ferguson
Excerpt: Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) finds himself at the center of a storm of unrest in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson . He has the near-impossible task of balancing the interests of local protesters outraged over the shooting of an unarmed teenager against the effort to maintain order. Late Monday, as protesters were gathered once again on the streets of Ferguson before a midnight curfew kicked in, he tweeted hopefully: “Let’s show the world that we can protest peacefully & passionately. Let’s keep #Ferguson safe tonight.” Two minutes later violence erupted. (As always, like in the Gaza , making peace takes two sides who want peace. It only takes one side to make a war. ~Bob)-
New Black Panthers Lead Death Chant Against Officer Involved in Ferguson
Excerpt: Just prior to Saturday’s governor-ordered curfew in Ferguson, Missouri, New Black Panthers leader Malik Zulu Shabazz led a crowd in a chant, calling for the death of Darren Wilson, the officer identified in the shooting death of Michael Brown: “What do we want?” “Darren Wilson.” “How do we want him?” “Dead.” (DOJ will not be investigating the NBP involvement in Ferguson as a racist hate organization; blind eye. --Barb. NBPP AKA "Holders Irregulars." ~Bob)
DOJ: Over 40 FBI Agents Investigating In Ferguson
Excerpt: The Justice Department under Eric Holder has issued a press release detailing its "civil rights investigation" in Ferguson . Among the revelations is that over 40 FBI agents are conducting an independent investigation of the scene of Michael Brown's death: (Jumped right on "civil rights investigation" but still ignoring investigation into illegal activities by branches of government and no mention of involvement of "outside forces," namely the New Black Panthers from Oakland, CA, who claim to be in control of the situation.....No mention by POTUS of NBP, either. --Barb. How many agents assigned to investigate young black men murdered in Chicago ? ~Bob)
Worth Reading : 36 Shot in Chicago , Obama sends 40 FBI agents to Ferguson
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/36-shot-in-chicago-obama-sends-40-fbi-agents-to-ferguson/
Excerpt:Chicago could probably use some extra manpower. Detroit certainly could. But instead Obama dispatched 40 Feds to try and nail a cop who shot a violent 300 lb criminal. "Seven people were been killed and at least 29 others wounded in weekend shootings across Chicago ." Sorry you guys don’t count. Black on black violence doesn’t matter. Only the race card does. (One small observation about Obama and Ferguson . What a political gift for the sneaky race baiter and his Holderish and Axelrodian minions. The press' obsession with this as yet unsolved incident has deflected almost all attention from the Oministration's failures in Iraq , Syria , Iran , Afghanistan , the IRS, Benghazi , Obamacare, and a lost list of etc. --LG)
http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/36-shot-in-chicago-obama-sends-40-fbi-agents-to-ferguson/
Excerpt:
What About Chicago and New York
As race hustlers obsess over the situation in Ferguson, someone should demand they address the real epidemic plaguing America 's urban cities -- gang violence. CBS Chicago reports, "Seven people have been killed and at least 29 others wounded in shootings across the city since Friday evening, police said." And according to Fox 5, "Fifteen people were shot in a rash of violence in New York City . The violence left two people dead and 13 others injured within a span of just 8 hours." However, because most of these shootings consist of blacks shooting fellow blacks as a result of poverty plantations fostered by statism, civil rights "leaders" like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson remain deafeningly silent on the issue. It's simply astounding that Gov. Jay Nixon deployed the National Guard to quell the violence in Ferguson as the result of a shooting involving a white cop and a black teenager -- a case that's still under investigation -- yet the violence bloodying the streets of Chicago and New York City continues unabated and ignored.
Ferguson Protesters- not all are from Ferguson
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fergusontprotesters-the-peaceful-the-elders-the-looters-and-the-militants/2014/08/18/d6be1262-26f3-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html
Excerpt: “This is not the time for no peace,” said one man, a 27-year-old who made the trip here from Chicago. He spoke after a small group of fellow militants held a meeting behind a looted store, sketching out ambitions for the days ahead. “We are jobless men, and this is our job now — getting justice,” he said. “If that means violence, that’s okay by me. They’ve been doing this to us for years.”Police on the streets Monday night said some of those wearing red bandannas are members of the Bloods gang.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fergusontprotesters-the-peaceful-the-elders-the-looters-and-the-militants/2014/08/18/d6be1262-26f3-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html
Excerpt: “This is not the time for no peace,” said one man, a 27-year-old who made the trip here from Chicago. He spoke after a small group of fellow militants held a meeting behind a looted store, sketching out ambitions for the days ahead. “We are jobless men, and this is our job now — getting justice,” he said. “If that means violence, that’s okay by me. They’ve been doing this to us for years.”Police on the streets Monday night said some of those wearing red bandannas are members of the Bloods gang.
Photographer Deletes Damaging Obama Dancing Photo
Excerpt: Two photographs of President Obama partying at a resort party while the town of Ferguson burns were deleted by the photographer who took them. Martha’s Vineyard-based photographer Elizabeth Cecil posted a shot of Obama dancing at a Vineyard party taking place during the race riots engulfing Ferguson , Mo. , leading to social media outrage and at least one comparison to the infamous photograph of George W. Bush flying over a drowning New Orleans in Air Force One.
The Ferguson
Excerpt: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who has single-mindedly focused on converting the Department of Justice into a racial grievance incubator, is scheduled to visit Ferguson, Mo., today in an appearance billed as an attempt to restore calm to a community that has erupted in almost daily violence since Brown, a young black man, was shot Aug. 9 by a police officer. Left-wingers who believe as an article of faith that America is racist insist, despite the growing body of exculpatory evidence, that Brown was murdered by a white policeman.
The Ferguson
Excerpt: First they told us Michael Brown was a gentle giant. That wasn’t true. He was a thug, high on pot, fresh from a robbery a few minutes before a police officer killed him on the troubled streets of Ferguson , Missouri
Race-based hate crimes spike in D.C.; whites most common victims, but underreporting feared
Excerpt: D.C. police say that of the 18 race-based hate crimes in 2013, the majority of victims were white and the majority of suspects black. The number of incidents was up from the 13 race-based bias crimes reported in 2012.
No riots over this? Beaten to Death at McDonald’s. By David Paulin
Excerpt: Other local residents — the more cynical and world-weary, both whites and most blacks — would have taken one look at the crowd and driven off, dismissing many of the young and posturing black males as thugs. But not them: innocent white kids from the suburbs. They presumed this was post-racial America — and that they were in an easy-going college town.
Twenty minutes later, two of them were dead.
Worth Viewing: O'Reilly on America
O'Reilly's Talking Points on the Race Problem
Excerpt: I don’t know why we are spending our hard-earned money paying taxes to support a criminal justice system, when issues of guilt and innocence are being determined on television – and even punishment is being meted out by CNN’s showing the home and address of the policeman accused in the Ferguson , Missouri
Lawsuit: White House Accused Of Hiding Politically Embarrassing Information
http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/18/lawsuit-white-house-accused-of-hiding-politically-embarrassing-information/#ixzz3Aq8myrfM
http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/18/lawsuit-white-house-accused-of-hiding-politically-embarrassing-information/#ixzz3Aq8myrfM
Excerpt: Cause of Action, a conservative legal group, is suing the White House over allegations of interference with executive agencies complying with FOIA requests, The Washington Post reports. The central complaint is that federal agencies have taken over 14 months to complete Cause of Acton’s FOIAs, and still has not provided the information, owing to the fact that the requests are currently under White House review.
Drunk French judge tries to bite policemen after mistaking them for taxi drivers
Excerpt: A drunk judge, who flagged down a police car because he mistook it for a taxi, punched and tried to bite two officers who refused to drive him to his holiday home. The judge was accompanied by his three young children, whom he had just collected from the home of his ex-wife in the southern city of Montpellier on Saturday evening. (Gee, wonder why he's divorced. ~Bob)
The Promise of the NFL Would Have to Wait; For Trey Prather III, the Marines Came First
Excerpt: He was a great passing quarterback; LSU focused on a run style offense in those days. For reasons known only to God, Trey left LSU at the end of 1967 to serve in the United States Marine Corps. This was not a passing fancy. The war in Vietnam was starting to rage, and Marines were bearing the brunt of heavy ground combat. Like many Marines, perhaps he was answering an inner calling. We will never know. The promise of the NFL would have to wait. For Trey, the Marines came first.
How Do You Convince Gun Owners to Vote? Get Chuck Norris to Make a Video Like This One.
Check your state: The Real Value of $100 in Each State
Excerpt: This week’s tax map shows the real value of $100 in each state. Because average prices for similar goods are much higher in California or New York than in Mississippi or South Dakota , the same amount of dollars will buy you comparatively less in the high-price states, or comparatively more in low-price states. Using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis that we’ve written about previously, we adjust the value of $100 to reflect how prices are different in each state. For example, Tennessee is a low-price state, where $100 will buy what would cost $110.25 in another state that is closer to the national average. You can think of this as meaning that Tennesseans are about ten percent richer than their nominal incomes suggest.
Federal disability fund needs reform, not a bailout. By Rachel Greszler
Excerpt: Money’s tight for the federal disability insurance program. Unless Congress acts, the Disability Insurance Trust Fund will run out of money in 2016. At that point, nearly 11 million Americans would see their disability benefits cut by nearly 20 percent, leaving the average beneficiary below the poverty level.
Inspector General’s Report Highlights The IRS’s Ongoing Circus
http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/18/inspector-generals-report-highlights-the-irss-ongoing-circus/#ixzz3ApcO61vS
http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/18/inspector-generals-report-highlights-the-irss-ongoing-circus/#ixzz3ApcO61vS
Exerpt: If one needs further evidence that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has veered out of control, look no further than last week’s Treasury Inspector General’s report that found serial failures on the part of the agency to conduct basic background checks on contractors used to handle sensitive taxpayer information. In just one instance, a computer disk with 1.4 million American names, addresses and even Social Security numbers was handled by contractors without background checks, putting taxpayers at unnecessary risk for fraud and identity theft. What makes this even more outlandish is that this is not just a breach of common sense; it is a violation of IRS policy.
NYTimes Reporter: Obama ‘Greatest Enemy To Press Freedom In A Generation’ [VIDEO]
http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/17/nytimes-reporter-obama-greatest-enemy-to-press-freedom-in-a-generation/#ixzz3AiA4uImz
http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/17/nytimes-reporter-obama-greatest-enemy-to-press-freedom-in-a-generation/#ixzz3AiA4uImz
Excerpt: “A lot of people still think this is some kind of game or signal or spin,” reporter James Risen told his own paper in a profile about his plight publishedSaturday. “They don’t want to believe that Obama wants to crack down on the press and whistle-blowers.... He’s the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation.” (RELATED: NYT reporter: Obama administration ‘the greatest enemy of press freedom’ in a generation)
Liberals Line Up to Defend Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) from Unethical Democrats
Excerpt: Things in Texas have risen to the level of ridiculous. Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) has been indicted for abusing his power after refusing to fund an office within the Austin District Attorney’s Office. Why did he refuse to fund them? Because they were being led by an unethical and corrupt attorney who had been arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI). She was more than three times over the legal limit, and when she was arrested she harassed, threatened and assaulted the officers who were forced to deal with her.
Excerpt: I don’t think we need to be worried for Governor Perry, even liberals think that Democrats in Texas have gone too far.
NYT Editorial Board: The Indictment Against Rick Perry "Appears" to be "Overzealous." By Daniel Doherty
Excerpt: Add the New York Times editorial board to the growing list of constitutional scholars, journalists, and political operatives who find the curious indictment against Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) to be a farce. The board doesn’t go as far as defending his tenure or his policies (in fact, they do the opposite) but they do nevertheless feel as if he is the victim of an “overzealous prosecution”:
Army quits tests after competing rifle outperforms M4A1 carbine
Excerpt: A competing rifle outperformed the Army’s favored M4A1 carbine in key firings during a competition last year before the service abruptly called off the tests and stuck with its gun, according to a new confidential report.
Despite Justice Department Challenges, Most Still Favor Voter ID Laws
Despite Justice Department Challenges, Most Still Favor Voter ID Laws
Excerpt: A federal judge in North Carolina recently struck down the latest challenge by the U.S. Justice Department to a state law that requires voters to bring photo identification to the polls. Voters continue to strongly support voter ID laws and don't consider them discriminatory. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 74% of Likely U.S. Voters believe all voters should be required to prove their identity before being allowed to vote. Nineteen percent (19%) disagree.
Interesting: Obama heads back to vacation after unexplained DC trip
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/215525-obama-heads-back-to-vacation-leaving-a-puzzle-behind-him
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/215525-obama-heads-back-to-vacation-leaving-a-puzzle-behind-him
Excerpt: President Obama went back to his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard Tuesday evening after spending less than 48 hours in Washington , leaving people puzzled over why he came back in the first place. Obama’s two days in Washington were mostly quiet, and concluded with the president receiving his daily national security briefing in the morning and joining Vice President Biden to huddle with members of his economic team in the afternoon. (Meanwhile: "U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his summer vacation to return to London and chair urgent meetings on the threat posed by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, calling the video “shocking and depraved.” ~Bob)
Social Security Needs Real Reform
Excerpt: Social Security's deficit has quadrupled since 2008, says Andrew Biggs, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. In 2008, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that the United States would need to increase the payroll tax by 1.06 percentage points in order to meet the program's funding shortfall. Now, the CBO has revised that figure to 4 percent. The program's trust fund will be depleted in 2030. According to Biggs, many policymakers took the 2008 CBO projections to mean that the program was in no need of urgent reform. Clearly, that is not the case: Social Security needs an injection of $15 trillion today in order to earn enough interest to pay recipients full benefits over the next 75 years. But rather than cut back on spending, Congressional lawmakers are looking at ways to expand the program without offering structural reforms:
All students at 7 Madison
http://host.madison.com/news/local/education/local_schools/all-students-at-madison-schools-will-receive-free-meals/article_71928d52-7ff5-54e0-9d22-d69575f9cd65.html
http://host.madison.com/news/local/education/local_schools/all-students-at-madison-schools-will-receive-free-meals/article_71928d52-7ff5-54e0-9d22-d69575f9cd65.html
Excerpt: The program eliminates the requirement for eligible families to fill out paperwork to get free or subsidized meals based on their family income, and instead provides free meals to all students in schools with a high percentage of students living in low-income households.
Obama has a great round of golf; General Green not so much: The difference between the ruler and the ruled
Excerpt: On Thursday, Major General Harold Green was laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery Martha’s Vineyard .
The Hell That is the Obama White House
Excerpt: Let me begin by acknowledging that this inspirational title is lifted from a tweet by screen actor James Woods. And now I will explicate his tweet.
Police tell Detroiters to buy guns in city riven by race issues and crime
Excerpt: Besides having the worst homicide rate among large American cities, Detroit experienced 12,935 burglaries last year. With around 250,000 households, that means Detroiters have roughly a 1 in 20 chance of being burgled. To residents who have been victims of crime, being allowed to carry a weapon, whether openly or concealed, is not just reassuring, it’s part of the pragmatic reality of living in the Motor City
"Soros Put" Rises To Record: Is The Billionaire Investor Betting On Market Crash?
Excerpt: Back in February we observed, with some surprise, when Soros Fund Management, the investment vehicle of the famous Hungarian billionaire investor revealed in its Q4 13F that the firm had taken its bearish S&P 500 ETF - aka SPY - put exposure to a then record $1.3 billion notional, prompting us and many others to ask if Soros was preparing for a market crash. Fast forward to today when following the latest 13F disclosure from the same fund, we note, with double the surprise that a quarter after the same ETF put was lowered to "only" $299 million notional, Soros has once again increased his total SPY Put to a new record high of $2.2 billion, or nearly double the previous all time high, and a whopping 17% of his total AUM.....
Really- how can there still be anyone stupid enough to believe anything Obama says?
Excerpt: There is a story underneath all of these reports and that story is the persistent pattern of deceit and dishonesty on the part of Barack Obama. He apparently lied to Congressional leaders as well as the entire country right from the beginning of this operation. And the lies keep coming.
For Hillary Clinton, Nothing Less Than A Gulfstream G450 Will Do
http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/16/for-hillary-clinton-nothing-less-than-a-gulfstream-g450-will-do/#ixzz3AiAtqcpa
http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/16/for-hillary-clinton-nothing-less-than-a-gulfstream-g450-will-do/#ixzz3AiAtqcpa
Excerpt: Wherever Hillary Clinton is going, she needs at least a Gulfstream G450 to get there. The once nearly “dead broke” former First Lady now makes steep demands when she gives speeches to corporations, groups and universities, according to emails between Clinton’s agent and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where Clinton will earn $225,000 for a 90-minute speech in October. The school received a bit of a break from the $300,000 Clinton requested during initial negotiations, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which obtained the emails that were sent last year.
Obamacare News
Risky Business: Will Taxpayers Bail Out Health Insurers?
Excerpt: The Affordable Care Act imposes a number of requirements and restrictions on insurance companies, who stand to lose money if they enroll too many expensive people in their health plans. As such, the ACA established three mechanisms to handle insurers' risks: risk adjustment, reinsurance and risk corridors. As NCPA Senior Fellow John Graham explains, two of those provisions -- reinsurance and risk corridors -- threaten to put taxpayers on the hook for insurers' losses through the end of 2016.
Undocumented Democrat News
Human Smuggler And Illegal Immigrants Busted Deep Inside Texas
Excerpt: A pursuit by U.S. Border Patrol and deputies from the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office resulted in the capture of a human smuggler and his cargo of illegal immigrants -- approximately 90 miles into Texas. The vehicle had already dropped off a group of illegal immigrants in the ranch fields near the town of Encino , Texas , just south of the Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint, before being captured. (Falfurrias , TX US version of The Killing Fields. NOT stopping the illegal smugglers will kill more women, children and desperate folk. Perry took on the regime over border security, calling in the National Guard at state expense. Anyone bet that recent indictment of the governor only based on "local" politics? While press making hay over a "racial incident" in MO, business as usual for the regime and its agendas, pulling down the country that was the US , Cloward-Piven style. --Barb)
Sen Slams White House Plotting With Companies On Immigration Action
Excerpt:....Sessions noted in the Politico report that one lobbyist said that “nothing was off the table” and that if Obama meets all of their demands “we will support him 100 percent.” These are the same CEOs who help craft the Senate Gang of Eight immigration bill, Sessions wrote, adding that those negotiations were conducted “in secret.” “Even while they demand more foreign workers, these companies are laying off current employees in droves,” wrote Sessions.
Excerpt: The Virginia Department of Education issued a memo to its 132 divisions this week outlining how schools should handle the expected influx of more than 2,850 illegal immigrant children. In addition to giving them “homeless” status, which comes with benefits under the Homeless Assistance Act, the state is also ordering schools to “immediately enroll” the students and waive the health and immunization requirements of other students.
VIDEOS: Obama's attention to border crisis outrages Black Americans.
http://www.newsmax.com/Draft-Stories/Obama-blacks-illegals-jobs/2014/08/17/id/589249/
Excerpt: Black people are being played," Herman Cain, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, told Newsmax. "They have been taken for granted by Democrats for decades. Now they've reached a boiling point with this whole crisis on the border, and some of them are speaking out." By all accounts and as reported by Brietbart.com, the number of Border Patrol arrests of illegal immigrants since Oct. 1 stands at 174,000 and is still rising. Cain and other African-American conservatives charge that Obama "manufactured this crisis" through a 2012 executive order that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
http://www.newsmax.com/Draft-Stories/Obama-blacks-illegals-jobs/2014/08/17/id/589249/
Excerpt: Black people are being played," Herman Cain, the 2012 Republican presidential candidate, told Newsmax. "They have been taken for granted by Democrats for decades. Now they've reached a boiling point with this whole crisis on the border, and some of them are speaking out." By all accounts and as reported by Brietbart.com, the number of Border Patrol arrests of illegal immigrants since Oct. 1 stands at 174,000 and is still rising. Cain and other African-American conservatives charge that Obama "manufactured this crisis" through a 2012 executive order that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Voters, Feds Have Competing Immigration Agendas
Excerpt: Where are the feds when you need them? An increasing majority of voters believes gaining control of the border is the most important immigration reform needed, but they still think the federal government encourages illegal immigration instead.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of Likely U.S. Voters think gaining control of the border is more important than legalizing the status of undocumented workers already living in the United States .
Excerpt: The Hill reports that the Obama administration is telling local schools that they have to take in illegal alien kids, and cannot verify their eligibility to attend school in the U.S. It says all children in the United States “are entitled to equal access to a public elementary and secondary education, regardless of their or their parents’ actual or perceived national origin, citizenship, or immigration status.” The prospect of tens of thousands of children mostly from Central American countries attending school as they wait for their immigration status to be decided has the potential to be explosive after this summer’s emotional public debate about the border. (Coming to a school in your community tomorrow if not already. Send you kids to school and they may bring home lice, scabies, TB, swine flu...and don't think about STDs. --Barb)
"You're Greener Than Gore" News
Important: Video: Is the post-EPA regs power grid ready for a truly hard winter?
Excerpt: One of these folks is Joe Bastardi of WeatherBELL Analytics, and he’s looking ahead with some trepidation. Joe is reading the meteorological tea leaves and sees the potential for another round of heavy snowfall and crippling cold temperatures coming our way. And he also notes that our net energy production, in the wake of new EPA carbon regulations, is actually declining from the previous curve at a time when bad weather puts full load demand on the system. (Which means sharply higher costs for the poor and working people the Democrat elites claim to love--from their gated communities where they never have to worry about the concerns of those folks. ~Bob)
Religion of Peace News
Islamic State Beheads American, Threatens Second American. By John Rossomando
Excerpt: Islamic State terrorists made good Tuesday on threats to kill Americans if President Obama launched airstrikes against terrorist strongholds in Iraq . Jihadists released a video of an American identified as James Wright Foley, 40, being beheaded while wearing an orange prison-style jumpsuit similar to those worn by detainees as Guantanamo Bay Rochester , N.H. while working for Agence France Presse – from an Internet café in Binesh , Syria
Missing American Journalist James Foley Reportedly Beheaded By ISIS
Excerpt: More than a year ago, James Foley, an American photojournalist was reported missing in Syria . Numerous reports claimed he had been kidnapped by unidentified gunmen. A new video has surfaced that appears to show Foley being beheaded alive by ISIS .
Excerpt: One day after suffering a defeat at the Mosul dam by the Peshmerga and US and Iraqi forces, the Islamic State and its allies beat back an Iraqi Army assault that was designed to retake control of the central city of Tikrit. The Islamic State and its allies have now repelled three Iraqi military attempts to regain Tikrit, the capital of Salahaddin province, which has been out of government control for more than two months.
ISIS Threatens America
Excerpt: ISIS issued its latest threat on the same day President Barack Obama said in a press conference from the White House that American military assistance helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces retake a strategic dam recently conquered by ISIS . ...According to Reuters, ISIS has warned it will strike Americans “anywhere” in response to U.S. attacks against its forces.... “I say to America that the Islamic Caliphate has been established,” Abu Mosa, a spokesman for ISIS, told VICE Media in one interview from the ISIS-controlled Syrian city of Raqqa .
Troops in Iraq
Excerpt: Iraqi and Kurdish ground troops overran Sunni militants and reclaimed Iraq ’s largest dam on Monday, President Obama said, as American warplanes unleashed a barrage of bombs in an expansion of the limited goals laid out by the president in authorizing the military campaign in Iraq . Mr. Obama, who interrupted a family vacation on Martha’s Vineyard to meet Monday with his national security team in Washington, maintained that the airstrikes around the Mosul Dam were within the constraints of what he initially characterized as a limited campaign meant to break the siege of stranded Yazidis on Mount Sinjar and protect American personnel, citizens and facilities in Iraq.
German Minister Accuses Qatar
Excerpt: A German government minister has accused Qatar of funding the Islamic State terrorist group currently tearing through Iraq and Syria.....He did not elaborate on what evidence there was to support the claim, but Qatar is already under considerable scrutiny due to its support of Islamist terrorists in the Middle East. Most notably, the gulf state is the primary sponsor of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and has also provided funding to Islamist rebels in Syria , who are currently fighting both the Assad regime and the Islamic State. (For those who can't remember past the smoke of Ferguson , remember Obama and Kerry pulled out of the Egyptian peace negotiation plan to ally the US with Qatar ....and was it SA as well? The tiger has not changed its stripes. --Barb)
Islamic State vows to 'break the American cross'
Excerpt: The video with the theme "breaking of the American cross" boasts Islamic State will emerge victorious over "crusader"America . It follows a video posted on Monday warning of attacks on American targets if Washington struck against its fighters in Iraq and Syria .
Islamic State jihadis kidnap more than 3,000 women and girls in 2 week rampage. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org
Excerpt: “They face the terrifying prospect of being forced into marriage or sold as sex slaves…” As I noted here and elsewhere, there are many Qur’anic passages and present-day Muslim clerics who justify this practice on Islamic grounds. Here for your reference is another passage that assumes that a man will have both wives and sex slaves, and that makes it clear that that is exactly what the “captives of the right hand” are:
Excerpt: The Islamic State militant group has executed 700 members of a tribe it has been battling in eastern Syria during the past two weeks, the majority of them civilians, a human rights monitoring group and activists said on Saturday.
Why Is the Islamic State Behaving This Way? By Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch
Excerpt: But then comes along a group calling itself The Islamic State, committing unimaginable atrocities and presenting each one as an authentic embodiment of Islamic texts and teachings, and the deception campaign at which CAIR officials have labored so assiduously for so many years, and with such great success, is in danger of crashing around their uneasy necks.
Excerpt: Militants in Gaza broke a temporary cease-fire by launching rockets at Israel on Tuesday, and Israel responded with airstrikes. The resumption of hostilities shut down talks in Cairo that seek a permanent truce between Israel and Hamas after more than a month of war. The two sides, though exhausted by the conflict, vowed to continue fighting.
Excerpt: An extensive Hamas plot to topple the Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank was uncovered by Israel , according to a Jerusalem Post report. The Shin Bet, Israel 's internal intelligence agency, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) revealed that Hamas personnel based in Turkey were behind the plot, headed by Hamas leader Salah al-Aruri.
Senior Fatah Source: Qatar
Excerpt: A senior member of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction said Wednesday Hamas's choice to forego the Egyptian truce proposal and return to its rocket war on Israel was due to Qatari pressure....Egypt reportedly refused the proposal, stipulating that Qatar apologize for its policies towards the Nile State since Muslim Brotherhood member and former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was deposed last July 3, indicating the tension between Egypt and Qatar. Qatar is the leading sponsor of the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is the Palestinian branch.
Worth Reading : Sherman in Gaza: His march through Georgia has been gravely misunderstood ― as has Israel ’s strategy in Gaza
Excerpt: William Tecumseh Sherman 150 years ago took Atlanta before heading out on his infamous March to the Sea to make Georgia “howl.” He remains one of the most controversial and misunderstood figures in American military history. Sherman was an attritionist, not an annihilationist — a strategist who believed in attacking the sources that fuel and field an army rather than butting heads against the army itself. To review his career is to shed light on why the Israeli Defense Forces were both effective in Gaza and hated even more for being so effective.
Hamas Official Admits His Group Murdered Three Israeli Boys
Excerpt: A senior Hamas official acknowledged that the terrorist organization was behind the June kidnapping and murder of three Israeli students, the Jerusalem Post reports. Salah al-Aruri, a senior Hamas official, praised the "heroic action of the Kassam Brigades who kidnapped three settlers in Hebron ," at a conference of Islamic clerics in Turkey on Wednesday.
Worth Hearing: Bedbugs at the UN:Islam by the Brit commentator
Great video. ~Bob
Obama heaps praise on Muslim world before chowing down on pork barbecue
Excerpt: According to a pool report, “President Obama ordered a half-slab of ribs, bottle of water and Bud Light when he opted for Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City where he hosted four individuals who recently wrote him letters”. (KMBC, July 29, 2014)... But wait a minute, Obama, who has been fawning over all things Islamic ever since his 2008 election, only on Sunday heaped over-the-top praise on the Muslim world when he said Muslims built “the very fabric of our nation”.
