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Poll: WalkerTakes the Lead in...New Hampshire. By Guy Benson

Excerpt: For now, though, Walker's appeal seems to have expanded farther afield than his own backyard. We're eleven months away from primary season -- insert requisite clichés about "eternities in politics," etc. here -- and Scott Walker is on top in Iowa and New Hampshire:

Beat the Media, Win the White House. By Daniel Greenfield 

Excerpt: One of the reasons that Romney lost is that he failed to take on the media. The ultimate lost opportunity came when CNN’s debate moderator Candy Crowley directly inserted herself into the argument between Obama and Romney to declare her favorite right and Romney wrong.
Romney had won the Republican primaries, but had failed to absorb the lesson of his most tenacious opponent. Newt Gingrich did not treat the media as a neutral moderator, but as a debate opponent, challenging its premises and agendas. And so Romney was left unprepared for Crowley’s attack.

Bill Maher’s Astonishing Economic Illiteracy. By Daniel J. Mitchell 

Excerpt: Check out this interview. It’s about Obama’s new tax-and-spend budget, but pay particular attention at the 5:15 mark of the video and you’ll hear Maher asserting that “socialism” deserves the credit for the development of a thriving middle class in America.
Wow. Maher’s comments are astonishingly illiterate. As I remarked in the interview, the United States (like other western nations) had a tiny public sector during the period when it transitioned from agricultural poverty to middle-class prosperity.

Free trade is a bipartisan opportunity

Excerpt: In the big picture, everyone benefits from free trade. International trade broadens the population within which the division of labor — that fundamental concept upon which modern economies are based — takes place. In every moment of the last thousand years, human prosperity has advanced precisely to the extent that people have abandoned self-sufficiency and moved toward economic interdependence. A world in which every person milks his own cow and makes his own clothes will always be an impoverished world. (Adam Smith said that the three hallmarks of a prosperous people were pursuit of self interest, division of labor and free trade [both internal and external] ~Bob)

Vietnam: How the Communist Grinches Stole Christmas. By Michael Benge 
Excerpt: The Vietnamese regime is extremely paranoid over organized religion, for it competes with and is in direct opposition to the political religion of communism. The regime’s greatest fears are Christianity and Buddhism. In 2001, Christian Montagnards in the Central Highlands of Vietnamheld mass demonstrations seeking the right to worship freely. This triggered severe crackdowns by the repressive communist regime that resulted in large numbers of Montagnards killed, thousands of others arrested, tortured and imprisoned, many of whom remain so today. After the protests, thousands of Montagnards fled the brutality and sought asylum in neighboring Cambodia causing an international political embarrassment and change in Vietnam’s communist party leadership.

Now The Senate Cares About Sharyl Attkisson

Excerpt: The case of former CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson offers the latest evidence that the Senate’s freshly demoted minority party still has some mad skills in the spinning hardball department. Attkisson—whose hard-edged reports on Obama administration missteps deeply angered officials and elected Democrats loyal to the president—got a taste of payback last week when she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Democrats who work by defaming those who expose how they operate are hard at work on a CBS reporter who left for not permitting her investigation of the Obama administration to be aired. After her recent damning testimony in Congress, they released a report before evaluation that seemed to deny her computer had been hacked and then sent to the media information ridiculing her. The former CBS correspondent’s lawyer says investigators looked at the wrong computer when concluding that she hadn’t, as she claims, been hacked. Evidently the investigators had been directed to look at Attkisson's personal computer rather than the hacked computer which was her work computer that CBS said they would protect and on which a hired expert managed to find the source of the government hack. If you want to see the depravity of liberals, read the enclosed to see how far they will go against any opposition and how they treat those that do. --John)

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Long Overdue: Army decides FortHoodvictims will receive Purple Heart

Excerpt: Secretary of the Army John McHugh announced Friday that victims of the 2009 FortHood massacre will receive the Purple Heart, in an about-face for the military which initially described the attacks as "workplace violence." The decision to award the Purple Heart was first reported by Fox News. In a written statement, McHugh cited a recent change in the law that allowed the Army to proceed with the medals. 

Army Ranger prep course passed by 5 out of 26 women

Excerpt: The U.S. Army’s preparatory course for the next Ranger School cycle ended with 5 out of 26 women completing the course. All were officers. Out of 122 soldiers to start the course, 48 percent passed. There were 43 male dropouts in addition to the 21 women, Army Times reported Wednesday. (That course is to prep national guard guys, not regular army, because before that the NG's failure rate was so outrageously high. --TK. Questionable. Anyway, the only "women" that would have any sort of chance of legitimately completing this course, BUDs, or the USMC's Infantry Officers Course were the "female" East German Olympic athletes of the 60s and 70s. They were juiced, they were pumped; literally. --Andy)


PCBS:Army revokes Silver Star award for Green Beret officer, citing investigation

Excerpt: In a rare reversal, however, Golsteyn, now a major, no longer has either award. The officer, a former member of the 3rd Special Forces Group and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., was later investigated for an undisclosed violation of the military’s rules of engagement in combat for killing a known enemy fighter and bomb maker, according to officials familiar with the case. The investigation closed last year without Golsteyn’s being charged with a crime, but Army Secretary John M. McHugh decided not only to deny Golsteyn the Distinguished Service Cross, but also to revoke his Silver Star. (Shameful! Sure glad I served when I did. We now have a politicized military. Cowards is the correct assessment. --GBH MajGen, Ret.)


True: Brian Williams Lied But He Won't Win 'World Champion Liar' Title. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: And I remember first hearing of Mr. Covington's prestigious win shortly after the announcement back in the day because it made the news. I heard it on TV. It's stuck (pardon the pun) with me. 


Excerpt: The NBC news anchor, who apologized Wednesday for telling a false story about taking fire in a helicopter while covering Iraq, is being called out for possibly lying about his experience covering Hurricane Katrina, according to a report. Williams claimed to have gotten dysentery from drinking floodwater and seeing dead bodies float past his hotel in the New Orleans French Quarter while covering Hurricane Katrina. However, the The New Orleans Advocate noted that the French Quarter was not flooded and quoted a local health expert who did not recall anyone getting such a stomach ailment.

Excerpt: You know you’re in trouble when Tom Brokaw is out for your blood. NBC’s most revered journalist is furious that Brian Williams is still in the anchor chair after he sheepishly admitted he hadn’t traveled on a helicopter hit by enemy fire. “Brokaw wants Williams’ head on a platter,” an NBC source said. “He is making a lot of noise at NBC that a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report.”

Brian Williams. By Jonah Goldberg, The Goldberg File

The Williams story strikes me as something far less than the Greatest Story Ever. It’s really kind of sad and pathetic. Some people embellish stories, lots and lots of people. The fish always gets bigger. The girl at the bar gets hotter. The other guy in the fight gets tougher. At some point the embellishments cover up the original, like layers of graffiti. That’s what Williams did. Don’t get me wrong. He lied and his apology minimized the size and duration of the lie. But the nature of the lie wasn’t nearly as bad as those of countless others who yoked deceit to a partisan agenda or for political gain. He was trying to praise the military and wanted a little more of their glory to rub off on him. Compared to Richard Blumenthal using his fictitious claim of serving in Vietnam to bolster his foreign-policy bona fides; or John Kerry embellishing his own record to denigrate the U.S. military and our country; or Bill Clinton lying about so, so, so many things, Williams’s lie is just a sad case of an overpaid front man for the peacock network trying to add some brightly colored feathers to his plumage. ... On the one hand, if he was really counseled and kept doing it, then he’s got real problems. On the other hand, I don’t take NBC News seriously, and having damaged goods in the anchor chair might be a good thing. Rarely am I so torn about an issue that matters so little.

Only 44 Percent Of U.S.Adults Are Employed For 30 Or More Hours Per Week. By Michael Snyder

Excerpt: Jim Clifton, the Chairman and CEO of Gallup, says that the percentage of Americans that are employed full-time has been hovering near record lows since the end of the last recession. But most Americans don’t realize this because the official unemployment numbers are extremely misleading. In fact, Clifton says that the official 5.6 percent unemployment rate is a “big lie”.

Last year, Barack Obama broadened the "Pay As You Earn" student-debt federal giveaway. As usual, it was a wealth-transfer scheme -- giving taxpayer money away to the coveted votes of young people. Even Obama's buddies at Politico are astounded at the cost of his "generosity." Michael Grunwald reports, "In obscure data tables buried deep in its 2016 budget proposal, the Obama administration revealed this week that its student loan program had a $21.8 billion shortfall last year, apparently the largest ever recorded for any government credit program." Worse, "because of a quirk in the budget process for credit programs, the [Education] department can add the $21.8 billion to the deficit automatically, without seeking appropriations or even approval from Congress." Like every other program Obama calls for, he wants to "pay for it" by taking money from upper-bracket taxpayers. "This should be a no-brainer," he said last summer. "It would be scandalous if we allowed those kinds of tax loopholes for the very, very fortunate to survive while students are having trouble just getting started in their lives." In other words, it's his money to dispense with as he pleases. The real scandal is that Obama has dumped an $8 trillion truckload of new debt onto the backs of our children and grandchildren -- all while claiming a mantle of fiscal responsibility. Our national debt now stands at an astounding $18.1 trillion. That's more than $145,000 per American household. And he's not done yet.

UNC-Chapel Hill Admin Only Wants to Discuss Diversity with Students Who Share Its Liberal Biases. How productive could a pro-diversity event be if it was not itself diverse? By Robby Soave

Excerpt: Many college administrators love to tout their commitment to diversity. Implicitly, they almost always mean racial diversity—and said commitment usually takes the form of endless, shallow discussions about how important diversity is. Top officials at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hillare no different; they really want to have a dialogue about diversity, as long as that dialogue only includes people who already share the campus's dominant, left-of-center views on what diversity entails. Chancellor Carol Folt recently met with 40 student leaders to discuss campus diversity issues—but it never occurred to her to include a single libertarian, conservative, or otherwise non-liberal voice, according to The College Fix: In fact, right-leaning organizations including the UNC College Republicans, Carolina Students for Life, UNC Young Americans for Liberty, the Tar Heel Rifle and Pistol Club, and Christians United For Israel were not even aware of the dinner until the Daily Tar Heel wrote an article about it the next day. (This is almost funny. A dinner to celebrate diversity on campus that brings in a very limited and closely related bunch of student organizations. Almost as funny as the "diversity" among the faculty, who vote 80% or more Democrat. You see, it's important to have diversity, as long as you are careful to not let in any of those who might otherwise disturb the consensus of the people whose views are really important. --Del. Nothing new here. Back when I was majoring in government at U-Mass [70-72], the PolySci faculty had one conservative Republican, one moderate Republican and the rest were divided between Liberal Democrats and Socialists. ~Bob)

Important: Scam Alert

Even more clever than the USAA fraud is the Google fraud (I've been pinged on twice). In it you receive an email saying that Google has blocked an attempt by someone (they give an ISP address in someplace near you or abroad) to use your password to access your Google account. It looks extremely real -- except for two things: They have pictures of you culled from your website or Facebook page (nothing Google would do, but it makes you think the email must be okay) and then they include a link to a page where they ask you for your password. Google NEVER asks for your data or your password -- hell, they already have it all! The scam is well-written and the logos look legitimate. I have reported it to Google, but nothing replaces caution. When in doubt -- do not answer the guy on the other side of the wire who says, "Pssst! Are you there, Joe?" The incoming round following your reply can empty your bank account. Ever, Chet Nagle, Author of LazarusMan.(I finished Lazarus Man, by Naval Aviator, former CIA Agent and blog contributor Chet Nagle last night. Terrific novel. I'll do a review as soon as I get a breather. ~Bob)

Gun News

Gun control cartoons


Race Card News



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Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


When Liberals Ignore Science: Media are largely silent about their fear of vaccination and their belief in astrology and UFOs. By David Harsanyi

Excerpt: So how do we approach matters that have been settled among scientists but are not widely accepted by liberals? Take vaccines. There is little proof that conservatives are any less inclined to vaccinate their children than anyone else. If we’re interested in politicizing the controversy, though, there is a good case to be made for the opposite. For starters, polls show that Millennials (most of whom lean liberal) are far more skeptical about vaccines than are older Americans.

Clinton Family Doctor Is A Vaccination Skeptic. By Chuck Ross

Excerpt: A doctor who was profiled by The New York Times for his close personal and professional relationship with Bill and Hillary Clinton has expressed skepticism about vaccines and touted research that found a link between childhood vaccinations and autism. ... Though Christie and Paul did question a vaccination mandate on philosophical terms, it is Clinton who has more personal associations with vaccination skeptics and anti-vaxxers. In 2008, both Clintonand then-Sen. Obama told the anti-vaccination group Advocates for Children’s Health Affected by Mercury Poisoning that they supported the removal of thimerosal from all vaccines. ("The science is clear: The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Let's protect all our kids." Like any good two-faced leftist, Hillary was singing a different tune in 2008 when she promised to "make investments to find the causes of autism, including possible environmental causes like vaccines." From The Patriot Post www.patriotpost.us/subscribe/)

"You're Greener than Gore" News


EPA's Impact on New Mexico: Higher Prices, Fewer Jobs

Excerpt: New Mexico residents already face high electricity rates compared to others in their region, and those prices will only rise. In a report from the Rio Grande Foundation, the Beacon Hill Institute has analyzed the impact of new EPA regulations on New Mexico. The results? Lost jobs and higher electricity bills for New Mexico's residents.

Religion of Peace News


Must See: America’s First Afghan & Iraq War Vet to Become Senator Lights Up the Obama Administration on GITMO Policy By Justen Charters

Excerpt: “How many detainees in GuantanamoBayare engaging in terrorism or anti-American incitement? They’re not because they’re detained, because they only engage in that kind of recidivism overseas. Now lets look at the propaganda value, how many detainees were at GuantanamoBay on September 11th, 2001? How many were there in October 2000, when Al-Qaeda bombed the U.S.S. Cole? What about in 1998 when they bombed our embassies?…
Islamic terrorists don’t need an excuse to attack the United States. They don’t attack us for what they do, they attack us for who we are.

US Senator: 'Guantanamo Detainees Can Rot in Hell

 Excerpt: As far as Tom Cotton is concerned, Guantanamo detainees can "rot in hell."
That's how the freshman Republican senator from Arkansas responded Thursday morning to testimony by Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Brian McKeon, who said the detention facility has become a recruitment tool for terrorists, is hugely expensive to operate, and needs to be shut down. Doing so, McKeon said, is a "national security imperative" for the Obama administration.

Boehner Expects New AUMF From White House 'In a Matter of Days. By Luke Russert

Excerpt: As the battle against ISIS continues in the Middle East, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Thursday that he expects the White House to send Congress a new authorization for a use of military force agreement within a "matter of days." Since President Barack Obama announced airstrikes against ISIS in Iraqand Syriain early September, Boehner -- as well as some Senate Democrats -- have called on the administration to send forward a new AUMF that offers a specific plan to combat the terrorist group. Boehner told NBC News that passage of the first AUMF to combat terrorism since 2001 would not be an "easy lift" and that it was "going to be incumbent upon the president to go out there and make the case to the American people for why we have to fight this fight." (I suggest Congress authorize the use of force to "destroy the Islamic Terrorist group ISIS." ~Bob)



Worth Seeing: French no-go zone video


PAYBACK’S A BITCH: Jordan Releases Video of Their Air Force Strikes Against ISIS

Excerpt: This is how you fight a war with ISIS. Please forward to our Coward in Chief.
Jordanhas released a slickly-edited video that shows its war planes being prepared for bombing strikes against Islamic State jihadists in Syria

Obama rejected Jordanian King Abdullah’s pleas for Predator drones

Excerpt: The Obama administration this year turned down a request from Jordan for Predator spy drones that would help it locate targets in the war against the Islamic State. The refusal, disclosed by a House Armed Services Committee member, has gained attention since Jordan has emerged as a critical player in a U.S.-led coalition to destroy the Islamist terrorist group in the days after it released a video of its execution by fire of a captured Jordanian military pilot.

ISIS Claims an American Hostage, Kayla Mueller, Died in Airstrike in Syria

Excerpt: The Islamic State claimed Friday that the Jordanian bombings in northern Syriaintended to avenge its immolation of a captured pilot had killed an American woman held hostage by the group. An Islamic State message published by the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist activity, said the American woman, Kayla Mueller, was killed when the building where she was being held in the Raqqa area collapsed in an airstrike. (Ten to one they killed her--or have made her a sex slave--and using this to try to drive a wedge between us and Jordan. ~Bob)


Guess he's "Un-Islamic."Islamic State punishes cleric who objected to pilot's killing

Excerpt: An Islamic State cleric who objected to the group's decision to burn to death a captive Jordanian pilot has been removed from his post and will be put on trial, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.

Why Islam is Worse Than Nazism. By Serkan Engin

Excerpt: I am an atheist author and poet, who had lived as a Sunni Muslim for 23 years from birth, and I am still living in a Muslim country, Turkey. Also, my parents and all of my relatives are still Muslim. So, my critics about Islam can be easily consider this an inside view. I know that the title of this essay seems assertive, but I will explain the rightness of this title step-by-step in this essay. First of all, you have to learn about Islam that if you are an “outsider”, a non-Muslim, for example, a Christian, an atheist, a Buddhist, a Jew or whatever else, all Muslims have the “right” of killing and raping you, grabbing all your properties, your country, land, money and anything else. They take this “right” from the book of their belief, the Quran. In other words, they take this “right” from their belief’s core, the theology of Islam.


NPR

2 stories on NPR this evening, interesting in their contrast: The first centered on the rise of right wing parties in Sweden, and their overt islamophobia. Absolutely no mention of WHY they might feel this way; no discussion of the crime, welfare state, lack of assimilation, and rise in anti-Semitism. Similarly, they reported on the rise of anti-Semitism in England, but no discussion of the perpetrators of that hatred. --George

Iran: The ‘Americans Are Begging Us for a Deal.’ ‘Iranprepares itself for war with global powers.’ By Adam Kredo

Excerpt: A top Iranian military leader claims that U.S. officials have been “begging us” to sign a nuclear deal during closed door negotiations with Tehran over its contested nuclear program, according to recent comments made to the Iranian state-controlled media.
Mohammad Reza Naghdi, the commander of the Basij, a paramilitary group operating under the wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), recently claimed that the “Americans are begging us for a deal on the negotiation table,” according to comments published in Persian and independently translated for the Washington Free Beacon.

Worth Reading. Obama: Christianity No Different From the Islamic State. By Raymond Ibrahim 

Excerpt: As the world reacts with shock and horror at the increasingly savage deeds of the Islamic State (IS)—in this case, the recent immolation of a captive—U.S. President Obama’s response has been one of nonjudgmental relativism. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, Obama counseled Americans to get off their “high horse” and remember that Christians have been equally guilty of such atrocities: (The first "crusade" was the Muslim one to conquer Europeand extinguish Christianity. They over ran Catholic Spain very early on, and were advancing into Europe when Charles Martel and his Christian knights turned them back in 732. The Crusades were an attempt by Christians to reverse the Muslim conversion of the Holy Land to Islam by the sword. And at the Battle of Lepanto, October 7, 1751, Don John of Austriaand a Christian fleet destroyed a Muslim fleet intent on over-running Europe. In the process, they freed as many as 7,500 Christian galley slaves held in the worst sort of bondage by the Muslims. Note that Dr. Thomas Sowell says in the time period when 500,000 African slaves were brought to North America, 1,000,000 white Christian Europeans were kidnapped into slavery in Muslim lands in North Africa. When do we get our reparations? ~Bob)

(More)Horse Pucky from Obama: The president’s comparison of Christianity to radical Islam defies logic. By Jonah Goldberg

Excerpt: On Tuesday, the so-called Islamic State released a slickly produced video showing a Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a steel cage. On Wednesday, the United Nations issued a report detailing various “mass executions of boys, as well as reports of beheadings, crucifixions of children, and burying children alive” at the hands of the Islamic State. And on Thursday, President Obama seized the opportunity of the National Prayer Breakfast to forthrightly criticize the “terrible deeds” . . . committed “in the name of Christ.”

REV. GRAHAM TO OBAMA: Unlike Christ, Mohammed ‘Killed Many Innocent People’…His ‘Followers’ Emulate Him

Excerpt: Finally, a Christian with cojones. Graham enlightens blind Obama once again.
By Michael Chapman, CNS News In response to President Barack Obama drawing a parallel between the barbaric acts of the Islamic State today with actions by Christians during the Crusades, which ended 700 years ago, evangelist Franklin Graham said there was a difference between Jesus Christ who “taught peace “ and did “not take life” versus Mohammed, who “was a warrior and killed many innocent people.” (​"I have been made victorious through terror" (Bukhari 4.52.220) --Mohammad.)

Worth Reading: A Jew Examines Why Obama Never Names Islam. By Roger L Simon

Excerpt: Addressing the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday, President Obama admonished his audience not to get on a “high horse” about Islamic terrorists (of course he did not name them) since atrocities had been committed in the name of many religions or, as he put it more specifically, “Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.” Well, that doesn’t mean me. As a Jew, I’m exempt from anything done “in the name of Christ.” But frankly I was appalled by what Obama said. Many faiths could be cited, including communism, obviously, also a kind of religion that was responsible for exponentially more deaths — via Stalin’s Gulag, Mao’s Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward, the killing fields of Cambodia, etc. — than all other belief systems combined, although none of them are doing it now. Right now it’s Islamic radicalism that just the other day placed a human being in a cage and burned him alive, an act not, to my knowledge, even performed by Dr. Mengele. And it was done in the name of Allah. (First, he stepped in it good and proper this time, with possibly one of the most inane and offensive statements he's made in a while, inferring equivalence between Christianity and radical Islam, hey everybody did bad things, so get over it, OK? (You wonder if he really has no adviser anywhere with a working brain to warn him off such blunders.) But this explanation about his attitudes is another good possibility for understanding his mistakes. I don't know for sure it applies, but it definitely could. --Del)

The Plight of the Yazidis. By Arnold Ahlert

Excerpt: Despite the current focus on ISIS, the ongoing barbarity inflicted against the Yazidis, a group of people who have inhabited Iraq’s mountainous northwestern region for centuries, remains largely below the radar. And while this estimated population of approximately 500,000 has been the target of hatred by Muslims who see them as heretical devil-worshipers, ISIShas upped the ante. While the world largely looks away, a genocidal level of extermination proceeds apace. “Our entire religion is being wiped off the face of the earth,” warned Yazidi leader Vian Dakhil—last August.

Senior al Qaeda cleric killed in Yemen drone strike, AQAP says

Excerpt: A senior cleric for al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen was killed along with three other people in a drone strike on their vehicle January 31 in Yemen, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said Thursday. The cleric, Harith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari, was killed in Yemen's south-central Shabwa province, AQAP said.

Obama's Yemen"Success.": Yemen's Houthi rebels take over government in coup

Excerpt: Yemen's Shia Houthi rebels have announced that they have dissolved parliament and installed a five-member "presidential council" which will form a transitional government to govern for two years. In a televised statement on Friday from the RepublicanPalace in the capital, Sanaa, the rebel group said that it would set up a transitional national council of 551 members to replace the dissolved legislature.

A Resurgent Terrorist Threat in Turkey. By Jonathan Schanzer, Merve Tahiroglu
http://defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/schanzer-jonathan-a-resurgent-terrorist-threat-in-turkey/
Excerpt: Turkeyhas long fought Kurdish insurgents within its borders, and the country now faces a severe jihadist threat in part due to Ankara’s reckless policy of allowing jihadists to exploit its border with Syria. Yet it’s a little-known far-left terrorist outfit that has recently emerged as Turkey’s most active terror threat, and nobody seems to have noticed.

Russian immigrants in Israel, a history

Between 1989 and 2004, Israelabsorbed nearly 1 million immigrants from the former Soviet Union. They have profoundly affected Israel and they themselves have been transformed by achieving and enjoying freedom. Cordially, Larry Greenberg

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:



Important political news and interesting comment

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Update


I will be out of pocket visiting with friends (yes, I have some) Sunday, so posting now, but will be backed up on email for a few days. ~Bob

Book Recommendation:Lazarus Man (The Cyberhawk Series) (Volume 1) by Chet Nagle 

Chet Nagle is a Naval Aviator, former CIA Agent, occasional contributor to this blog and the author of two earlier thrillers about terrorism, The Iran Covenant and The Woolsorter's Plague. Having loved and recommended them, I ordered my copy of Lazarus Man from Amazon as soon as it was available. I wasn't disappointed; this is Nagle's best thriller so far, right out of tomorrow's headlines. I don't want to say too much about the plot and give it away, but you can read a synopsis on Amazon at the link. It starts with a cybercrime. The high-tech bank robber is the good guy, the money speculator he robs is the bad guy, and the former East German STASI Colonel sent to look for him is a worse guy. The book features non-stop action and believable characters. I mainly read non-fiction about politics, economics and history, but like the occasional adventure novel for relaxation. This one doesn't disappoint. The best two words are in the title: Volume 1.

Book Recommendations: As regular readers know, I frequently recommend books on my blog. I don't recommend every book I read, and in fact have reached an age where if I start a book and it isn't holding my interest, I don't feel guilty about putting it out in our Little Free Library. Blog readers have asked me how I can read so many, and still keep up with the blog, other writing and my health regimen. The secret is I watch almost no TV, which eats people's lives. If I am watching Pawn Stars, American Pickers, the news or a football game, I always have a book in my hand for the commercials or less interesting parts. One reader asked how I can get through books so fast that I sometimes recommend them in back to back blogs. Simple: I read in three places. If I have an electronic book, like recently read Riding the Read Horse, Tom Kratman and Vox Day's terrific collection of short stories and essays about war in the future, I read a chapter every day at the computer after finishing the blog. I also have two "real" books going at any time; one on my night table for before lights out and one on the kitchen island for reading during my six daily nebulizer treatments. ~Bob

General News and Comment



Trash Talk Diplomacy, US-Israel Relations, and Iran. By Jeffrey Herf

Excerpt: On October 28, 2014, the conduct of the foreign relations of the United States of America reached a low point when an anonymous "senior Obama administration official" went on public record in an interview with the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic magazine and called the Prime Minister of Israel a "chickenshit." In the vernacular of American sports language, perhaps familiar to sports fans in Israelas well, this was an example of "trash talk"— the kind of insult intended to undermine the self-respect and focus of an opponent.

Comment On Feb. 3rd blog post:Obama Does Have a Strategy: Once you see what he is trying to accomplish, it all makes sense. By Victor Davis Hanson 

If he hadn't been so transparent and forthcoming about his views, Obama would indeed be the 'Manchurian Candidate.' It's really hard to imagine the mass of the American people (save the guilt-driven extreme left) being satisfied with this outcome. Undoing this mess will be left to the next administration, which will start with the skepticism and incredulity of the world. Cordially, Larry Greenberg

Thus Freedom Dies: Police stop teens seeking snow shoveling work

Excerpt: In the process, Matt Molinari and Eric Schnepf, both 18, also learned a valuable lesson about one of the costs of doing business: government regulations. ... "Are you kidding me? Our generation does nothing but complain about his generation being lazy and not working for their money," he wrote on Bound Brook NJ Events' page. "Here's a couple kids who take the time to print up flyers, walk door to door in the snow, and then shovel snow for some spending money. And someone calls the cops and they're told to stop?" (it dies not with a jack-booted bang, but with a strangled whimper, as slowly, slowly, all for their own good of course, government laws and regulations hedge everyone in. ~Bob)

Needed to handle Obamacare? IRS rehired 141 former employees with issues paying their own taxes. By Sarah Westwood

Excerpt: Hundreds of former Internal Revenue Service employees who had a history of misconduct and poor performance on the job were rehired by the tax agency, including some who had committed fraud or falsified documents. The previously cited IRS staff included 141 employees who had problems paying their own taxes, the agency’s inspector general said in a report made public Thursday. Several had “willfully failed to file their federal tax returns,” the report said. (They are rehired, but told until they owe millions like al Sharpton, they can't be White house Advisors. ~Bob)

Police Probably Couldn’t Believe What FloridaMan Listed as His Occupation on Arrest Report

Excerpt: Officers eventually arrested 25-year-old Richard Phillips and found 22 grams of heroin and $2,316 in cash on him as well as 5.3 grams of cocaine in the vehicle. They also discovered the car he was driving was stolen. He would later list his occupation as “drug dealer” on his arrest report.

Obama Regime: National Security Means Climate Change, Gay Rights. By Mark Horne

Excerpt: How serious is the Obama Administration about international threats to the United States? White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice recently spoke at the Brookings Institution and let it be known that this administration likes national security issues as a way to push their agenda on alleged global warming and “gay rights.”

Sickening: 25 Quotes That Show You How Much Liberals Hate Soldiers Like Chris Kyle. By John Hawkins

Excerpt: 4) “American fighters of the Pacific War were not heroes. The desperation of island combat included exchanged barbarities of which no one would willingly speak for a generation. On the American side, there were foul racism, vengeful refusals to take prisoners, a generalized brutality that extended to a savage air war.” —James Carroll in the Boston Globe

Gun News


Police: Attempted Robbery Victim Fatally Shoots Toy Gun-Wielding Suspect In Upper Darby

Excerpt: Sources say the suspected robber has been identified as 18-year-old Tyler Williams of West Philadelphia. Investigators say a 67-year-old man was walking on a path when the suspect ran up and demanded cash. ... During the struggle, police say the victim pulled out his own weapon and fired one shot striking the attempted robber in the head, killing him.

Wilmington business owner who fatally shot would-be robber won't face charges

Excerpt: Saturday evening, the owner of a video poker business at 420 Raleigh St.was walking to his car when men with guns walked toward him, according to police. Bullets were exchanged and one of the alleged robbers, 38-year-old Frankie Stukes of Wilmington, was hit. Police found his body alongside the building about 10 p.m.


Race Card News


Green is the color that counts: Tribe fighting Redskins name plans ‘Oz’ casino despite author’s racist past

Excerpt: The Native American tribe leading the movement to change the name of the Washington Redskins plans to open a $20 million casino that pays homage to the work of L. Frank Baum, who was born in this village outside Syracuseand later wrote “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Just one problem with the Oneida Indian Nation’s Yellow Brick Road Casino: A decade before Baum wrote one of this country’s most celebrated children’s tales, he campaigned for a Native American genocide. “The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians,” he wrote in late 1890 for the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer in South Dakota.

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


Hollywood Republicans? Hollywood's Vaccine Wars: L.A.’s "Entitled"WestsidersBehindCity’s Epidemic

Excerpt: More parents in this demographic are choosing not to vaccinate their children as medical experts advise. They express their noncompliance by submitting a form known as a personal belief exemption (PBE) instead of paperwork documenting a completed shot schedule. The number of PBEs being filed is scary. The region stretching from Malibu south to Marina del Rey and inland as far as La Cienega Boulevard (and including Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills) averaged a 9.1 percent PBE level among preschoolers for the 2013-14 school year — a 26 percent jump from two years earlier. By comparison, L.A.Countyat large measured 2.2 percent in that period. ©2014 The HollywoodReporter. All rights reserved Terms of Use | Privacy Policy Many preschools in this area spiked far higher, including Kabbalah Children’s Academy in Beverly Hills (57 percent) and the Waldorf Early Childhood Center in Santa Monica (68 percent). According to World Health Organization data, such numbers are in line with immunization rates in developing countries like Chadand South Sudan. These two schools aren’t outliers; dozens more — including Seven Arrows, Turning Point and Calvary Christian — report PBE levels that are five times the county average. And THR has found that administrators at many of these facilities are hardly alarmed.

Certain Allergy, Depression Meds Tied to Higher Odds for Dementia. Class of drugs interferes with a key brain chemical, but study can't prove cause-and-effect. By Robert Preidt

Excerpt: Long-term and/or high-dose use of a class of medications used for hay fever, depression and other ills has been linked in a new study to a higher risk of dementia.
The drugs -- called anticholinergics -- include nonprescription diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and tricyclic antidepressants like doxepin (Sinequan). This class of medications also includes older antihistamines like chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton) and "antimuscarinic" drugs for bladder control, such as oxybutynin (Ditropan).

Docs to Dems: ‘How Can We Force Vaccination?’

Excerpt: Government knows best! I know the flu shot makes me sick. It’s getting old on how much the government thinks they can take our freedoms away. Check it out: Less than one day after a prominent doctor warned that a totalitarian push for universal vaccination might be developing, California Democrat Sens. Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein) began calling for exactly what the medical expert feared. (Isn't time these useless old hags retired or expired? --JB. Thy may find that most opposition to mandatory vaccination comes from rich liberals--see above. I get a flu shot every year, haven't been sick from I or had the flu or a cold in years. But I also use a Neti Pot twice daily. ~Bob)

Undocumented Democrat News


One of Obama’s Illegal “DREAMers” Just Did Something Sickening in Texas… Twice

Excerpt: Suddenly, a pickup truck pulled up next to Spencer’s vehicle. Without any provocation, the driver of that truck pulled out a gun and shot him. He died from that attack. The alleged shooter was Victor Manuel Reyes. He was a known drug dealer from Houston— and he wasn’t done causing violence. Just hours after the first murder, Reyes reportedly killed again. He approached a different intersection and shot a second man named Juan Garcia. ... There is an obvious question that comes to mind: How did an illegal alien with a criminal record manage to evade deportation?

"You're Greener than Gore" News


Worth Reading: My life as a climate lukewarmer: The polarisation of the climate debate has gone too far. By Matt Ridley

http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/my-life-as-a-climate-lukewarmer.aspx
Excerpt: I am a climate lukewarmer. That means I think recent global warming is real, mostly man-made and will continue but I no longer think it is likely to be dangerous and I think its slow and erratic progress so far is what we should expect in the future. That last year was the warmest yet, in some data sets, but only by a smidgen more than 2005, is precisely in line with such lukewarm thinking. This view annoys some sceptics who think all climate change is natural or imaginary, but it is even more infuriating to most publicly funded scientists and politicians, who insist climate change is a big risk. My middle-of-the-road position is considered not just wrong, but disgraceful, shameful, verging on scandalous. I am subjected to torrents of online abuse for holding it, very little of it from sceptics. I was even kept off the shortlist for a part-time, unpaid public-sector appointment in a field unrelated to climate because of having this view, or so the headhunter thought. (Telling the Warmist fanatics that you are "lukewarm" about it is like telling the ISISyou are lukewarm about Allah and Shari'a. Good luck. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: The Alarming Thing About Climate Alarmism. Exaggerated, worst-case claims result in bad policy and they ignore a wealth of encouraging data. By Bjorn Lomborg

Excerpt: Facts like this are important because a one-sided focus on worst-case stories is a poor foundation for sound policies. Yes, Arctic sea ice is melting faster than the models expected. But models also predicted that Antarctic sea ice would decrease, yet it is increasing. Yes, sea levels are rising, but the rise is not accelerating—if anything, two recent papers, one by Chinese scientists published in the January 2014 issue of Global and Planetary Change, and the other by U.S. scientists published in the May 2013 issue of Coastal Engineering, have shown a small decline in the rate of sea-level increase. (Ridley and Lomborg, two renowned scientists who both have a popular following, are both adherents of "climate change." However, they think that it is much smaller than alarmists contend, that doing little or nothing radical is called for, and there are more pressing world problems that should be addressed before trying to take on something whose causes may not be so clear. Cordially,
Larry Greenberg)

Religion of Peace News


Obama: We're No Better than Islamic State. By Raymond Ibrahim

Excerpt: As the world reacts with shock and horror at the increasingly savage deeds of the Islamic State (IS)—most recently the immolation of a captive—U.S. President Obama's response has been one of nonjudgmental relativism. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, Obama counseled Americans to get off their "high horse" and remember that Christians have been equally guilty of such atrocities:

Jindal Mocks Obama on Crusades: "We’ve Got ‘Medieval Christian Threat’ Under Control.” By Josh Feldman

Excerpt: “We will be happy to keep an eye out for runaway Christians, but it would be nice if he would face the reality of the situation today. The Medieval Christian threat is under control Mr. President. Please deal with the Radical Islamic threat today.”

Excerpt: The Islamic State set off an international controversy when its fighters burned a Jordanian pilot alive. Conveniently, the group now claims that Jordan's bombers killed an American hostage. It is not clear how the Islamic State knows the bombers that supposedly hit this area were Jordanian, as opposed to other coalition aircraft. Moreover, the statement says that Mueller was killed by the "fire" caused by the bombings. This is, again, convenient given the manner in which Mu'adh Yusuf al Kasasibah was executed. It is an attempt to draw moral equivalency between Jordan's attacks on the Islamic State, and the means by which the Islamic State killed a Jordanian pilot. In fact, the group's supporters have been aggressively making "an eye for an eye" justifications on social media since the grotesque execution video was first aired. (I'd bet that she is dead--or a sex slave never to be heard from again--but bet against the Jordanian bombers killing her. I'm not going to a Muslim country as an aid or humanitarian worker--the Religion of Peace has a way of doing for them. Be happy to go armed, with a Marine Division--surely there is something I could do to help at my age. ~Bob)

Why ISIS Murdered Kenji Goto. By George Packer

Excerpt: In this sense, ISIS is less like a conventional authoritarian or totalitarian state than like a mass death cult. Most such cults attract few followers and pose limited threats; the danger is mostly to themselves. But there are examples in modern history of whole societies falling under the influence and control of a mechanism whose aim is to dictate every aspect of life after an image of absolute virtue, and in doing so to produce a mountain of corpses. ISIS doesn’t behave like a regional insurgency or a global terrorist network, though it has elements of both. It joins the death cult to an army and a rudimentary state. It presents itself as the avant-garde of a mass movement, like the Khmer Rouge. The Islamic State resembles certain modern regimes driven by murderous ideologies, but it is also something new—as new as YouTube—and this makes it even harder to understand. One thing we’ve learned from the history of such regimes is that they can be stronger and more enduring than rational analysis would predict. The other thing is that they rarely end in self-destruction. They usually have to be destroyed by others.

What are the practical steps we need to take to end FGM in the UK. By Anna Leszkiewicz 

Excerpt: It was once an obscure, hidden strain of violence against women. Ignored by the state, its victims were silenced and isolated, their pain dismissed. But, in recent years, female genital mutilation has been brought into the public consciousness. We now have data on how widespread FGM is in the UK, and it tells us that 170,000 women and girls are living with the effects of this abuse in the UK, and another 65,000 girls aged 13 and under are at risk. For the first time, an accused practitioner of FGM is being prosecuted. (It's their culture and the left assures us that all cultures are equally valid. But the article doesn't dare mention that the vast majority of people who cut little girls belong to one religion. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: Are Jihad and the Crusades Morally Equivalent? By Gary DeMar

Excerpt: Thomas F. Madden writes, "It is generally thought that Christians attacked Muslims without provocation to seize their lands and forcibly convert them. . . Every word of this is wrong. Historians of the Crusades have long known that it is wrong, but they find it extraordinarily difficult to be heard across a chasm of entrenched preconceptions." Watch this informative video by Dr. Bill Warner that compares the perpetual wars of the Jihadists with the Crusades.

Worth Reading:Inventing the Crusades. By Thomas F. Madden

Excerpt: On September 11, 2001, there were only a few professional historians of the Crusades in America. I was the one who was not retired. As a result, my phone began ringing and didn’t stop for years. In the hundreds of interviews I have given since that terrible day, the most common question has been, “How did the Crusades lead to the terrorist attacks against the West today?” I always answered: “They did not. The Crusades were a medieval phenomenon with no connection to modern Islamist terrorism.” That answer has never gone over well. 

BOOM: Black Preacher to Obama, ‘Close Your Mouth, Not Guantanamo, and Defend AmericaInstead of Islam’

Excerpt: MUST WATCH! Bishop E.W. Jackson goes off on President Obama and his comparison between ISIS and Christians. Yowza! Watch Bishop E.W. Jackson’s response to Obama’s National Prayer Breakfast speech. He really lets him have it. Share if you agree with this preacher. Enjoy.


The defiance of Jordan: Queen Rania leads thousands of protesters on the streets of Amman to honor 'Martyr Moaz' who was burned alive by ISIS

Excerpt: Queen Rania of Jordanled protests on the streets of the capital Amman this morning as thousands took to the streets after Friday prayers to urge King Abdullah II to step up airstrikes against the Islamic State to avenge the brutal murder of pilot Moaz al-Kasaesbeh. Crowds massed near the city's main Husseini mosque, then marched chanting 'Death to Daesh', using a derogatory Arabic acronym for the terror group, in the latest sign of mounting public anger. The rally came three days after Islamic State released a video purporting to show Kasaesbeh being burnt alive in a cage as masked militants in camouflage uniforms looked on. 

"Moderate” Muslim Leader says all Muslims are “Radical” and “Extremists”

Excerpt: Of course. This is what we’ve been saying for quite some time and what our leaders in Washingtonseem so reticent to understand. There really is no such thing as a “moderate” Muslim. I’m not saying this to denigrate nice, law-abiding American Muslims… I’m saying this because of the overwhelming amount of evidence that orthodox Islamic teachings are in line with what we call “radical Islam.”

Jordan Tells ISISThat Revenge Airstrikes Are Just 'The Beginning.' By Alastair Jamieson and Ziad Jaber

Excerpt: It also released a statement pledging to continue with "the killing of evil where it hides," saying the airstrikes were carried out "in response to the criminal, cowardly act … that was carried out by a treacherous and tyrannical gang against the body of our pure martyr.""This is the beginning... you will know who the Jordanians are," it said. Jordanian planes were taking the lead in anti-ISIS airstrikes on Friday, according to Pentagon sources.

Canadian terrorists tied to Muslim Students Association. By Brian Daly

Excerpt: Eleven of Canada's highest-profile jihadi terrorists, terror suspects and alleged extremists have ties to the Muslim Students Association, a security conference has heard.
The data was presented on Thursday evening by the Canadian Military Intelligence Association in Ottawa, where three men were charged Tuesday with terrorism-related offences.

Al Azhar “freely” promotes slaughter of Christians and infidels. By Raymond Ibrahim, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: Egypt’s Al Azhar University — seen by many as Sunni Islam’s most authoritative voice — continues to incite enmity for and violence against non-Muslim “infidels.” (So much for President Sisi’s exhortation before Al Azhar that its sheikhs and ulema reform Islam in a way that makes the Muslim world cease to be “a source of anxiety, danger, killing and destruction for the rest of the world.”) Political writer and thinker Dr. Khalid al-Montaser revealed in a February 2 article for El-Watan News that Al Azhar continues to encourage enmity for Christians and even incites their murder.

Egypt: Coptic Christian arrested for “blaspheming” against Muhammad. By Raymond Ibrahim, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: When news, or the accusation, that Michael Munir had posted something offensive concerning Muhammad, dozens of Muslims surrounded his house in the village of Dimyana in Daqhiliya governate, Egypt.

Islamic State fatwa points to Muhammad to justify burning pilot. By Raymond Ibrahim, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: Next the fatwa quotes the eminent Hafiz ibn al-Hajar (d. 1449) who comments that “the deeds of the companions [of Muhammad] evince the permissibility of burning, and the prophet put out the eyes of the men of Urayna with heated iron [he also cut their hands and feet off], and Khalid bin al-Walid burned some of the people who apostatized.” As for Khalid—the revered “Sword of Allah”—I wrote about him here, including how he once beheaded an “apostate,” raped his beautiful wife, and then set the man’s severed head on fire before cooking his dinner on it.


*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


Flashback to 1998: America’s War on Terror will be Long, Slow and Cruel

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I wrote this about 17 years ago. Some of us haven't been asleep. ~Bob

America’s War on Terror will be Long, Slow and Cruel

Courier Post, Camden County, NJ, August 28, 1998
This was published three years before 9/11. A local Congressman called to tell me that he had shared it with the Congressional anti-Terrorism Caucus. For all the good that did.


Early in World War Two, a bitter joke went around Britain. Two Scottish soldiers, rescued from Dunkerque, are in a pub. “It’s going tae be a lang, lang war,” one Jock sighs.
           
“Aye,” says his mate, “especially if England capitulates and Scotland has to fight on alone.”
           
Our war against terrorism is going to be a “lang, lang war,” especially if our allies capitulate and America has to fight on alone.
           
The war is not new. It has escalated for years, as terrorists targeted Americans around the globe to serve their purposes. It grew out of the American defeat in Vietnamand the French defeat in Algeria. The third world learned that western powers with modern armies and advanced technology could be defeated, not on the battlefield, but by a long, slow, intensely cruel bloodletting that would break the political will of the people, without which a democracy cannot prevail.
           
That we are envied and hated in the world is no surprise. It has ever been the fate of rich republics. All terror needs is the conviction there is no atrocity that cannot be committed for the cause, no innocent blood, no act that is evil if it strikes at the enemy.

A man with a wild look in his eye, a pipeline to his god, and a weapon in his hand has ever been a danger. But the weapons now are explosives powerful enough to destroy buildings, snuffing out hundreds of lives.

Soon they will be gasses that can slaughter thousands, diseases that can kill millions. Perhaps even atomic bombs. And men like Osama bin Ladenand Saddam Hussein will use them without compunction.

They believe they can humble America by breaking our will to resist. It doesn’t matter if it’s Vietnam, or the Clinton scandal or the troubles with Iraq, Americans always want to “get it over with.” Can we prevail in a struggle that may last decades? Can we cope with the frustration, the horror, the cost? Or will we surrender when the terror has stretched out long enough, as our enemies believe?

They may be right. Saddam has apparently backed Clinton and the UN down, faster than even I predicted, by playing brinkmanship perfectly. He’s now free to develop diseases that can wipe out entire cities. Coming soon to a location near you.

How will we prevail when the alternative is to be killed and do nothing or be killed and strike back, escalating the killing? How can we defend ourselves? What must we do to survive?

First, we need a new president. Clinton reacted strongly and appropriately to the embassy bombings. I do not believe he took action to divert attention from his scandals. But that people think so points up the importance of the much-maligned “character issue.” Could the embassy bombings have been timed to take advantage of his perceived weakness under self-inflicted wounds? We cannot have a president who creates that opportunity for our enemies.

If we are to rally in this war, we need a president—probably a series of presidents—who have served in the military, who understand the nature of war, and who have the moral authority to lead us in desperate times. Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey, who earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam, and Republican Senator John McCain, a heroic POW in Hanoi, come to mind, but there are other Americans we can respect instead of snicker at.

Second, we must be willing to go after the leaders, to repeal the executive order against assassination. Somehow, the “Blame America” crowd convinced us it’s okay to drop bombs on his followers, but to put a bullet between bin Laden’s running lights would be immoral. What rubbish.

Third, we must be prepared to go after terrorists in countries we are not at war with, as Clintonhas just done. TV news called the attack “unprecedented,” but it’s not. Nixon ordered the bombing of North Vietnamese soldiers in Cambodiato protect American troops, though we were not at war with Cambodia. Many believed this was immoral, that it was better to let American soldiers die than to kill their enemies when they were hiding over a line in the jungle.

Everyone who would rather have your family murdered than kill enemies hiding in a neutral country, raise your hand. Thank you.

Fourth, we must be willing to accept what’s called “collateral damage.” That is, innocent civilians will be killed, including children, when we go after terrorists. That’s the nasty price of war, created by those who attack us. And it will be on the evening news, with moralists condemning America.
           
Fifth, we must beef up the military, especially on equipment and special training for small groups of Marines and Army Rangers who can fight sharp, dirty actions against terrorists. Bombs and cruise missiles will not do all the bloody work. And we will have casualties, both military and civilian.

Sixth, we must increase our intelligence capabilities. The CIA must have the human assets—spies and assassins—to combat this plague for us. It will be war in the shadows, nasty and brutal.

Lastly, we must let it be known that any country who launches an attack with weapons of mass destruction, chemical, biological or nuclear, or any country who harbors a group who launches such an attack, can expect us to use nuclear weapons to destroy them.
           
And we must mean it.


A post of political news and comment today after all

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Update


We had to pull the plug today on our trip to visit friends. There was ice on the roads, and we weighed our desire to go against the grief that a sliding accident would create in our lives and opted for caution. But I had time to make my healthy SOS for dinner and a low-sugar apple pound cake for desert. Then there's the two quarts of potato salad we got to take with us....

But on the plus side, I pulled enough from email, news feeds and Twitter for a blog post. ~Bob

General News and Comment



Worth Reading: Dear World, We’re Sorry. By Derek Hunter

Excerpt: We have it good here in the United States, and this breeds contentment. It also breeds ignorance. We are the Paris Hilton of world citizenry. We have amazing lives free of problems the rest of the world routinely faces, and we didn’t earn it – we had it handed to us.
In inheriting prosperity, plentiful food, clean water and all the trappings of comfort readily available and affordable in the United States, we have no concept of the price paid to get us here. Moreover, we are being led by people who resent that we are here, choosing to focus less on the road ahead of us and more on the potholes, the mistakes and injustice every society has in its rear-view mirror.

Comments on: 25 Quotes That Show You How Much Liberals Hate Soldiers Like Chris Kyle. By John Hawkins

Below is one of those 25 quotes, and below that, a comment from someone responding to the article. The commenter tells us about the professor who proclaims that our volunteer military are only in it for the pay and benefits, basically they are mercenaries who kill for money. The explanation about the professor and how in fact he is just part of the mainstream among modern UShistorians is truly depressing. But it's the reality that is out there, after 40+ years of academia turning ever further to the Left. --Del.-- “THE United Statesnow has a mercenary army. To be sure, our soldiers are hired from within the citizenry, unlike the hated Hessians whom George III recruited to fight against the American Revolutionaries. But like those Hessians, today’s volunteers sign up for some mighty dangerous work largely for wages and benefits….” —David M. Kennedy in the New York Times. -- Dr. David M. Kennedy, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History Emeritus at StanfordUniversity, is the co-author of "The American Pageant," a textbook used by thousands of high school AP U.S. History classes, including the one I teach, I am sad to say. The book is tendentious and biased in favor of the left from the first page to the last. Kennedy and his co-author Lizabeth Cohen cannot find enough good things to say about, for example, the New Deal, but they allude to political calculation in every action Lincolntook, and libel Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. But he is well within the mainstream of textbook authors. Dr. Alan Brinkley, Allan Nevins Professor of History at ColumbiaUniversity, is the author of the textbook we previously used, which is of the same ilk. Brinkley is a man of the far left, clearly demonstrated by sections of the book such as "The Dream of Socialism." The point is that they are not on the fringe of American historians today. They are the mainstream. They are honored among their peers. They are sympathetic to socialism and Marxism, hostile to constitutionalism and classical, small-government liberalism. They are also hostile to the idea that Americais anything special in the world, with opinions of the military that guards the far frontiers ranging from skepticism to outright hostility, Dr. Kennedy's appearances at the ArmyWarCollegenotwithstanding. We have been educating our children for decades with the writings of historians such as these. It is no wonder that America's young people (and even middle-aged citizens) have little to no idea of what is different, and better, about Americacompared to the average run-of-the-mill country elsewhere in the world. --Russell B.

"Obama Most Radical President ever" states famous Harvard PhD

Excerpt: Dr. Richard L. Rubinstein, Yale fellow, "Distinguished Professor of the Year", and Harvard PhD, states that president Obama's intention is to "correct the historical mistake of the creation of the state of Israel." Moreover, Dr. Rubenstein states that president Obama is extremely pro Muslim due to his family past to the point of "wanting to see the destruction of Israel. (Well, first it needs to be said that the professor has a Jewish name, so chances are good that he is Jewish. So some will discount his comments on the basis that he must be very biased towards Israel, and this is the real basis of his criticism of Mr. Obama. Personally, I just try to follow the facts and logic, and it seems to me that he is making a number of very good points. Mr. Obama told us all he is a revolutionary and that he was going to bring fundamental change to the nation, so that certainly fits. All the rest of the interpretations of his history and various actions are reasonable, but of course subject to disagreement. Everyone can listen and make up their own mind. --Del.Dr. Rubinstein is an interesting fellow and very distinguished academic. http://www1bpt.bridgeport.edu/~rlr/CVNOT2003-June.htm~Bob)




Grim Milestone: MSNBC Ratings Tank to Near-Decade Low. By Daniel Doherty

Excerpt: This latest batch of bad news for MSNBC is a few days old but worth flagging nonetheless. Politico broke down the numbers: MSNBC registered its lowest full-day rating in nearly a decade on Tuesday, a devastatingly low benchmark that shows just how severe the network's decline has become. The liberal cable news network drew an average of 55,000 viewers in the all-important 25-to-54 year-old demo on Tuesday, its lowest full-day rating since July 2005, according to Nielsen ratings provided by an industry source. CNN had nearly three times as many viewers in the demo; Fox News nearly five times as many.

New ship honors Marine legend: The Lewis B. Puller christened Saturday in Barrio Logan

Excerpt: Top commanders from the Navy and Marine Corps were on hand for the Saturday christening of a ship that honored the memory of a revered Marine and symbolized efforts to bolster the military’s ability to put troops ashore on distant beaches. Just before 11 a.m., with an estimated 1,000 people looking on at the General Dynamics-NASSCO shipyard in Barrio Logan, Martha Puller Downs, the daughter of Marine legend Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, broke a Champagne bottle — on the fifth whack — against the Mobile Landing Platform’s hull.

Funny: Brian Williams Heroics


Satire: Brian Williams Drops Claim He Was Beheaded by Al Qaeda

Excerpt: NBC news anchor Brian Williams has publicly dropped his claim that he was personally beheaded by al Qaeda in Iraq, saying he had misremembered the event. Williams, known as ‘The Most Trusted NBC Nightly News Anchor in America’ has admitted, “I was never captured by al Qaeda in Iraq in May 2004, nor murdered by AQI leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi” in a notorious propaganda video. Though Williams had been making the claim for over a decade, it had not received any scrutiny until a recent comment he made on the execution of Jordanian pilot Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh.

Interesting: Extreme-left Dems pushing Middle America away. By Salena Zito
Excerpt: Tim Ryan — a once-strident champion of the Rust Belt city of Youngstown, filled with moderate Catholic Democrats whose issues are still firmly pocketbook-based — penned an op-ed saying he now supports abortion. The Ohio congressman, who once sat on the board of the Democrats for Life in America advocacy group, made that surprising reversal as he contemplates a run for U.S. Senate. ... Just five years ago, 110 pro-life Democrats were in the House, around a dozen in the U.S. Senate. Today, fewer than five are in the House, and two in the Senate.



Gun News

"If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun." - The Dalai Lama

22-year-old man stabbed in St. John'shome invasion

Excerpt: A resident of the home was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries. He has since been released. One of the suspects, a 22-year-old man, was stabbed and is in hospital with non-life threatening injuries. (Had to defend himself with a knife, because all of Canada is pretty much a criminal empowerment [gun free] zone. ~Bob)

Race Card News


Black Student Allegedly Shoots White Classmate, Takes Selfie With Body

Excerpt: The Westmoreland County District Attorney’s office is charging Maxwell Morton, 16, as an adult in the shooting death of Ryan Mangan, also 16, after Morton allegedly took a selfie with Mangan’s bloodied body. The case is generating national headlines because the African American suspect allegedly posted a selfie on Snapchat with the body after shooting Mangan in the face. (Doubtless Al Sharpton is already organizing the protest march and President Obama will send representatives to the funeral. ~Bob)

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News



Student Vaccination Waiver Rates in DaneCounty

DaneCounty votes heavily Democrat. But the near east side, center city (the isthmus) the west side and Middleton are where the heaviest proportion of progressive voters live. They are also the areas with the highest "personal exemption belief" vaccination waivers for their kids. The same holds true for the most liberal enclaves in deep blue California. These are the people condemning all Republicans for being anti-science, because a couple adopted about the same stance as a guy named Barack Obama. Christie: "I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well." Obama spokes person Josh Earnest "...the president believed 'that these kinds of decisions are decisions that should be made by parents...”' And Hillary's doctor is a vaccine skeptic: http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/04/clinton-family-doctor-is-a-vaccination-skeptic/~Bob)

Worth Reading: Insured, but Not Covered. By Elisabeth Rosenthal, New York Times

Excerpt: WHEN Karen Pineman of Manhattan received notice that her longtime health insurance policy didn’t comply with the Affordable Care Act’s requirements, she gamely set about shopping for a new policy through the public marketplace. After all, she’d supported President Obama and the act as a matter of principle. Ms. Pineman, who is self-employed, accepted that she’d have to pay higher premiums for a plan with a narrower provider network and no out-of-network coverage.

"You're Greener than Gore" News

The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever: New data shows that the “vanishing” of polar ice is not the result of runaway global warming. By Christopher Booker, The Telegraph

Excerpt: Following my last article, Homewood checked a swathe of other South American weather stations around the original three. In each case he found the same suspicious one-way “adjustments”. First these were made by the US government’s Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). They were then amplified by two of the main official surface records, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss) and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC), which use the warming trends to estimate temperatures across the vast regions of the Earth where no measurements are taken. Yet these are the very records on which scientists and politicians rely for their belief in “global warming”. (Just because there is BIG MONEY involved in Global warming [about $300M for just Al Gore so far] doesn't mean people would LIE to keep it flowing, does it? ~Bob)

The EPA Is Ready To Regulate Americans’ Wood Stoves

Excerpt: The EPA has finalized a 344-page rule to make wood stoves more environmentally friendly, meaning that millions of Americans will soon be forced to buy more expensive wood-fired stoves. Republican lawmakers have opposed the rule, saying it would harm millions in rural America that rely on wood stoves to heat their homes every winter. With natural gas and electricity prices on the rise, wood stoves can be an economical choice for many living in the countryside. (Poor, ignorant rednecks, clinging to God, Guns and Wood Stoves! ~Bob)

Religion of Peace News

Worth Reading: A month after kosher market attack, French Jews plan an exodus

Excerpt: In homes, in shops and in synagogues guarded night and day by soldiers wielding assault rifles, conversations are dominated by an agonizing choice: stay in Franceand risk becoming the victim of the next attack by Islamic extremists, or leave behind a country and a community that Jews say they are proud to call home. The French government has scrambled to persuade them not to go, aware that if Jews see little future for themselves in Saint-Mandé — where Muslims, Christians and Jews have long lived in harmony — then there’s no chance for the European ideal of interfaith coexistence. (For Jews, Europeis again a "go-area," not a no-go area. Most Muslims are not violent terrorists, but enough are ready to "go jihad" that it's hard to feel safe around numbers of them, especially when the Qur'an declares you a target. And Europe is a terrorist empowerment zone, what we call a gun-free zone, where only killers who ignore the law can be armed. ~Bob)

'We’re leaving Britain - Jews aren’t safe here any more.’ After watching the rise in anti-Semitism in this country, the Gould family has taken the radical decision to emigrate to America. By Angela Epstein

Excerpt: She is not the only member of Britain’s 300,000-strong Jewish community to feel things have reached crisis point. Since the people at the Jewish Museum in Brusselslast year and the murder by radical Islamists of four Jews at a kosher supermarket on the outskirts of Paris last month, the chorus of concern has been growing. The actress Maureen Lipman recently revealed that she, too, is considering leaving the UK because of the rising number of attacks on Jews. (The hopelessly dhimmi Telegraph doesn’t say it, of course, but the reason why Jews are leaving Britainis because of Islamic anti-Semitism. There is a good deal of Jew-hatred among other groups, as this article itself notes a “white Polish man” randomly slapping a Jew, but the reason why there is so much anti-Semitism is because of Britain’s rapidly growing Muslim population. And so Britain is becoming Judenrein, and British authorities are moving swiftly and efficiently to stigmatize and marginalize any criticism of jihad terror or Islamic supremacism — thereby sealing their nation’s doom. --Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org.)

Joe Biden and John Kerry Are Shunning Israel’s Prime Minister — But Guess Who They Did See This Weekend. By Sharona Schwartz

Excerpt: The left-wing politician said Netanyahu “won’t get to meet with a single American official on this visit — not from the National Security Agency, not from the White House, not from the State Department.” Herzog is Netanyahu’s chief rival for prime minister when Israelis go to the polls March 17. Officials in both Biden’s and Kerry’s offices denied any pre-planned meetings had occurred with Israeli officials in Germany. A Biden aide told the Jerusalem Post that Herzog and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz [Likud] separately greeted Biden “in passing” in Germany, but that “no meetings, formal or informal, were held with either official.”

Worth Reading: New allegations renew old questions about Saudi Arabia, 9-11

Excerpt: For years, some current and former American officials have been urging President Barack Obama to release secret files they say document links between the government of Saudi Arabia and the Sept. 11 attacks. ... He testified at his trial that key members of the Saudi royal family continued to fund al-Qaida in the late 1990s, even after the group had declared war on the House of Saud. He also described plotting with an employee of the Saudi Embassy in Washingtonto shoot down Air Force One. (We have some common interests with the Saudis, but they are not our friends. We had one friend in the Middle East--Israel--before Obama set out to alienate them. Saudi Arabiais a deeply schizophrenic society., trying to balance the needed support of the fundamentalists to avoid an Al Qaeda Spring as Iran, Egypt and thanks to Obama's war Libyahas enjoyed, and those who want to modernize and enjoy the prosperity that western capitalism brings to the people. To better understand the Saudis, I recommend Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia by Robert Lacey. http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Kingdom-Modernists-Terrorists-Struggle/dp/0143118277/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414100906&sr=1-1&keywords=Inside+Kingdom~Bob)


Excerpt: The problem with all such high-horse declarations by Obama is his continual omission of historical context and, in this case, his conflation of the frequent with the rare. The Crusades began in 1095, almost a millennium ago; the Inquisition in 1478, now over 500 years past. When the president says “people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” he should remember that all religions at the time committed terrible deeds that shock the modern sense of morality — given the savage wars between Christendom and Islam, and the religious purifications and civil discord common to all the religious factional strife that played out, violently, in accord with the ethos of the times. Slavery was outlawed in the U.S. in 1865. Jim Crow ended officially a half-century ago. Indentured servitude, however, continues, almost exclusively among some Islamic groups in the Middle East and Africa.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see. - Winston Churchill

The Foolish, Historically Illiterate, Incredible Response to Obama's Prayer Breakfast Speech. By Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

http://m.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/02/the-foolish-historically-illiterate-incredible-response-to-obamas-prayer-breakfast-speech/385246/
Excerpt: People who wonder why the president does not talk more about race would do well to examine the recent blow-up over his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. Inveighing against the barbarism of ISIS, the president pointed out that it would be foolish to blame Islam, at large, for its atrocities. To make this point he noted that using religion to brutalize other people is neither a Muslim invention nor, in America, a foreign one: (it's started...revisionist history in the form of accepting moral relativism is now main stream. In or out of context, Obama's statement is inflammatory, and by now he should understand the 'optics' of it all. --George. It is the writer who is "historically illiterate." The first "crusade" was the Muslim one to conquer Europeand extinguish Christianity. They over ran Catholic Spain very early on, and were advancing into Europe when Charles Martel and his Christian knights turned them back in 732. The Crusades were an attempt by Christians to reverse the Muslim conversion of the Holy Land to Islam by the sword. And at the Battle of Lepanto, October 7, 1751, Don John of Austriaand a Christian fleet destroyed a Muslim fleet intent on over-running Europe. In the process, they freed as many as 7,500 Christian galley slaves held in the worst sort of bondage by the Muslims. Note that Dr. Thomas Sowell says in the time period when 500,000 African slaves were brought to North America, 1,000,000 white Christian Europeans were kidnapped into slavery in Muslim lands in North Africa. When do we get our reparations? See also: "Inventing the Crusades" by distinguished historian Thomas F. Madden http://www.firstthings.com/article/2009/06/inventing-the-crusades~Bob)

Islamic?


Discussion of Islam by priest who has studied long

Interesting speech by a 40 year student of Islam and Israel. Definitely not PC.. --Del

Girl cadets threatened with BEHEADING by two men as they left an Army Reserve Centre
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2942460/Girl-cadets-threatened-BEHEADING-two-men-left-Army-Reserve-Centre.html
Excerpt: Police have mounted uniformed patrols around an Army Reserve after two girl cadets were threatened with beheading as they left the centre. Two men had shouted the violent threats as they drove past the teenage cadets, who weren't in uniform at the time. 

Bosnian Muslims in U.S.used Facebook, PayPal for jihad plotting. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: Why would Bosnian Muslims get involved in plotting jihad terror activity? We have for years now been repeatedly assured that all the Muslims in and from Bosniawere moderates who loved America, and threatened with charges of “Islamophobia” if we even questioned that dogma. Those learned analysts have yet to explain the activities of these Bosnians and others like them. Meanwhile, Facebook would do well to stop its jihad against counter-jihadists and keep better watch on activities like these.

Street Artist Combo Brutally Attacked for Pacifist Tag Post Charlie Hebdo

Excerpt: It seems like something one would be hard pressed to disagree with: the word “coexist," written on a wall using a Muslim crescent as the letter “C," a Star of David as the letter “X," and a Christian cross as a “T." But in Paris, this particular iteration of the popular inscription—here, created by the street artist Combo, who also pasted a life-size photo of himself next to it—didn't go down well with everybody. Le Monde reports that four young people asked the artist to remove it last weekend, and beat him up severely when he refused to do so. (Combo won’t describe the “young people” who attacked him, as “it would only add fuel to the fire.” In saying that, he makes clear who they were. Even though Combo dresses in the garb of a devout Muslim, his art offends Muslim hardliners who don’t like seeing the Islamic crescent next to the Star of David and the cross. “Coexist,” indeed. --Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org.)

WATCH: ISIS supporters cheer as pilot's execution shown on big screen in public square

Excerpt: A video circulated online by social media accounts believed to be linked with Islamic State militants, purports to show people in the Syrian city of Raqqa watching and cheering the execution of Jordanian pilot, Mouath al-Kasaesbeh on a large projection in a public square.

Bail denied for man accused of threatening to burn wife's genitals, rape

Excerpt: There will be no bail for a Quebec City man who is accused of threatening to burn his wife’s face and genitals with acid, forcing her to have sex and citing the Koran to justify beating their children. The 40-year-old man was arrested on Jan. 26 after his wife filed a complaint with police, alleging that he had threatened her in a Walmart. (He forced her to have sex? That’s completely in accord with Sharia. A Hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “If a husband calls his wife to his bed [i.e. to have sexual relation] and she refuses and causes him to sleep in anger, the angels will curse her till morning” (Bukhari 4.54.460). And another: “By him in Whose Hand lies my life, a woman can not carry out the right of her Lord, till she carries out the right of her husband. And if he asks her to surrender herself [to him for sexual intercourse] she should not refuse him even if she is on a camel’s saddle” (Ibn Majah 1854). And as for quoting the Qur’an as he was beating his children, maybe if they were girls he was quoting this verse: “Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that Allah has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for Allah’s guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them.” (Qur’an 4:34) --Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org. As I've said often, Jihad Watch's free -newsletter is worth reading. ~Bob)

Baghdad bombings kill 37, wound 86: officials

Muslims are by far the most frequent victims of Allah-murder by Islamists. ~Bob

Worth Seeing: ‘Sharia is Islam and Democracy is the Opposite': This Video is a Rude Awakening [VIDEO]

Not an eye-opener at all. Those of us who have been following Islamic jihadism since before 9-11 have long had our eyes wide open. Those who subscribe to the quasi-religious cult of multiculturalism have their eyes squeezed shut, and wouldn't open them if forced to kneel before an ISIS executioner. Time for a Flashback to 1998:America’s War on Terror will be Long, Slow and Cruel http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2015/02/flashback-to-1998-americas-war-on.html~Bob


Excerpt: The mother of the first American hostage beheaded by Islamic State said the Obama administration is letting down all Americans captured by the terrorist group. Unconfirmed reports of hostage Kayla Mueller’s death is proof, Diane Foley told ABC News, saying the administration is doing “too little, too late.”
Excerpt: Fierce battles between Boko Haram and a growing coalition of Nigeria's neighboring states has left hundreds dead this week. Swarms of the group's jihadists launched a series of attacks inside Niger on February 6, marking the first time that Boko Haram has penetrated into that country. The attacks, which reportedly left over 100 Boko Haram fighters dead, also injured a senior Chadian army general. (Question for Obama. If ISIS, al Qaeda, Boko Haram, et al are "not Islamic," how come they grow stronger daily as more Muslims join them to follow the more violent injunctions in the Qur'an and Hadith? ~Bob)

Prince Charles Expresses Fear for Christians in Middle East: ‘A Danger’ That There Will be ‘Very, Very Few Left’

Except: The heir to the British throne, who is on a trip to the region, told the BBC that the plight of Christians persecuted by Islamic extremists was “a most agonizing situation,” though it was important to remember they were just one persecuted minority among many around the world. “But at the same time I fear that the problems in the Middle East are not going to go away immediately,” the prince said in a pre-recorded interview with “The Sunday Hour” radio program. “And so there is a danger that there is going to be very, very few left.”

Unverified, but fun to watch. The world's stupidest terrorists: Social media users ridicule ISISwith videos of jihadists accidentally blowing themselves up
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2942495/Social-media-users-lampoon-ISIS-posting-videos-calamitous-jihadists-blowing-up.html

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


Today's interesting political news and conservative comment

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Having to post daily to keep up.  ~Bob

General News and Comment



Interesting: The View From NATO’s Russian Front. The Army commander in Europe on Putin’s new way of war, Russia’s growing arsenal, and coping with U.S. military budget cuts. By Sohrab Ahmari

Google the title if you cant get it. Excerpt: ‘I believe the Russians are mobilizing right now for a war that they think is going to happen in five or six years—not that they’re going to start a war in five or six years, but I think they are anticipating that things are going to happen, and that they will be in a war of some sort, of some scale, with somebody within the next five or six years.” So says Lt. Gen. Frederick “Ben” Hodges, commander of U.S. Army Europe. 


Brian Williams Essentially Lied on His Resume, or Exaggerated The Truth

Excerpt: And, I can tell you this -- that lying on resumes is common. In fact, in 2002, I was working with the recruiter Christian & Timbers and helped conduct a study that was an analysis of 7,000 executive resumes that showed that 23% of executives misrepresent accomplishments. Of those that misrepresent them, 64% exaggerated accomplishments. The bottom line is that it is lying on a resume (although we used the word “misrepresented” at the time perhaps to soften the severity of the act.) (When I got my last jib, the headhunter executive recruiter carefully checked all my data (as she should have), including verifying my degrees. I joked that if I was going to lie, I'd have put down an MBA from Harvard, not an MEd in history from FitchburgState! ~Bob)

Was Brian Williams terrorized by gangs at the Ritz-Carlton during Katrina? By Terrence McCoy 

Excerpt: There’s a story Brian Williams likes to tell. He has told it in a TV interview. He has told it to at least two book authors. But even though it had all the makings of a great yarn — danger, guns, resolve — Williams never reported it to his viewers. It’s the one about the gangs that Williams claimed had “overrun” a posh Ritz-Carlton where he stayed during Hurricane Katrina. (Old joke: "There I was, the only survivor, low on ammo, surrounded by 3,000 Vietcong. I fixed my bayonet...""So, what happened, Gunny?""I got killed you damn fool." ~Bob)

No tears here as NBC finally puts 'RockCenter' out of its journalistic misery. But what will we do without Chelsea Clinton's hard-hitting reports. By David Zurawik, The Baltimore Sun

Excerpt: You will find no tears here for the cancellation of Brian Williams'"RockCenter," which was first reported Friday by the New York Times. It was one of the sorriest excuses for a newsmagazine that I have seen in 30 years of reporting on network television. I wrote that as many times in as many ways as I could since its debut. From the hiring of the Chelsea Clinton as special correspondent, to the quotes from Williams comparing his team to the baseball Hall of Famers in Cooperstown, never has such journalistic bankruptcy been promoted with such self-important bluster. And that's saying something in a TV business built as much on narcissism and hype as it is journalism. (You can argue that Chelsea Clinton’s NBC News work -- $600,000 per year for poor-quality part-time work -- is sort of the Rosetta Stone for a lot that’s wrong in modern American life -- the incestuous relationship between the governing class and the media, the power of celebrity and nepotism, the disregard of legitimate criticism and the morale for those who actually did the work. Brian Williams had a big hand in that mess, and so that may explain why some are enjoying his recent troubles. -- Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

Brian Williams for President: The Nightly News anchor is as honest as Hillary, Biden and Obama. By Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: Brian Williams is in trouble for lying, but he was part of a media culture of deceit where lies were acceptable for a good progressive cause. Williams isn’t really in trouble because he lied, but because he got caught. Worse still, the lies were self-serving. They served Brian Williams; they didn’t serve the left. Williams had failed to draw the line between the “good lie” (ObamaCare is making life better) and the “bad lie” (I swam the flooded French Quarter with puppies on my back during Katrina while Al Qaeda shot RPGs at me). But the borders between the “good lie” and the “bad lie” have been vague when it comes to the titans of the left.


Injured Veteran Film

I'm reaching out on behalf of a short film based on the stories of Kyle Carpenter and Jesse Cottle. This film was written, directed, and produced by a retired soldier. The film, Birthday, is an incredible tale of a veteran coming home from war with traumatic injuries. It's a beautiful depiction of a rare truth that's moving and inspiring. Right now, the film is trying to raise money to finish the project and have showing at military bases around the country and the globe. It’d be incredible if you’d be open to linking to the campaign on The Old Jarhead to share such a powerful and truthful film, depicting the realities of coming home from war. Here is a link to the campaign: http://www.gofundme.com/ldjxn8We’re also open to any other ideas that you may have, we just want to spread the word. Please let me know if there is any way we can work together! Thank you and God bless. Best, Chris

Jindal Emphasizes Teacher Tenure Reform, School Choice in Sweeping Education Plan. By Ken McIntyre

Excerpt: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, hoping that a push for education reform can set him apart among prospective Republican candidates for president, today begins to tout a national plan he says would create “an ecosystem of freedom and choice” for parents, students and teachers.
His proposals, Jindal says in the plan to be released this morning, would push the public education system out of “a rut” it has been stuck in for 50 years because of Washington’s ever-increasing involvement, which he sees as holding back generations of children.

In Iowa, Republican field wide open as moderates stake their caucus claims

Excerpt: Less than a year before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, it appears that every Republican contender is making a serious play to win the state, setting up what is likely to be one of the most active, competitive campaigns here in recent memory. Political observers in Iowa say that the field is wide open and that numerous candidates have a legitimate shot to win or do well enough to come out with momentum. That is partly because moderates in the Iowa Republican Party, led by Gov. Terry Branstad, have reasserted themselves into the caucus process after watching social conservatives dominate in 2008 and 2012.

2015 National Security Blueprint Gives Americathe Blues

Excerpt: Recent terrorist attacks serve as a gruesome reminder that Jihadistan remains a critical threat. In fact, at no other time in history have jihadis controlled such vast swaths of land and boasted such a powerful upper hand. Sadly, rising turmoil has done nothing to sway Barack Obama, who only reaffirmed he’s content to keep the issue on the back burner.

Click on image to enlarge

AG considers Kitzhaber/Hayes investigation. By Hillary Borrud

Excerpt: Oregon's attorney general is considering investigating claims first lady Cylvia Hayes used her connections with government to boost her private business. On Friday two efforts to recall Gov. John Kitzhaber got underway.

WOW: 'I Aborted My Baby Because It Was A Boy.' By Matt Vespa 
Excerpt: A woman named Lana admitted to aborting her child because she was going to have a boy. She also said if this “curse” returned (i.e. finding out she’s pregnant with a boy) she would do it again. This comes after she proudly states she has a healthy 1-year-old girl, who will “be just as strong and driven as her mother.” 

U.S. stocks end day lower as Greek worries linger

Excerpt: Alan Greenspan believes “it’s just a matter of time” before Greeceleaves the eurozone, because he can’t see that anyone will be willing to put up more loans to bolster the country’s economy, the former Federal Reserve chairman told the BBC on Sunday.

Watchdog: Air Force 'doctored the data' to make A-10 look bad. By Kristina Wong

Excerpt: A government watchdog group on Monday accused the Air Force of manipulating data to skew the record of the A-10 "Warthog" when it comes to civilian casualties and friendly fire deaths in Afghanistan. Recently declassified Air Force data said the A-10 attack jet has killed more U.S. troops in friendly fire incidents and more Afghan civilians than any other aircraft flown by the U.S. military, USA Today reported last week. But the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) said the statistics were skewed to bolster the Air Force's campaign to retire the A-10 in favor of the costlier F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Gun News

They Tried to Steal a Truck in Houston— but the Truck’s Owners Were Armed. By Zach Noble

Excerpt: It was 1 a.m. on Sunday, and the pair of car thieves likely thought they’d picked up an easy score. They turned out to be making a fatal mistake. Two brothers tracked down the thieves who stole their truck, shooting at them and killing one early Sunday in northeast Houston, KPRC-TV reported.

Race Card News


Just politics: Reflections during Black History Month: How the Minimum Wage Hurts Black Americans

Excerpt: February is Black History Month, and while numerous lawmakers, pundits and voters have called for more to be done to expand economic opportunities for black Americans, too often that means increasing the size and scope of government programs. Unfortunately, government programs -- even the most well-intentioned -- routinely fail, create disincentives to growth and hurt the people they're supposed to help. In a new report, the NCPA has compiled a list of government policies -- from housing law to education, welfare programs, tax policy and employment-related laws -- that are hurting black Americans. Consider minimum wage policy -- advocates of higher minimum wages say they will help the working poor, yet they often price the lowest-skilled workers out of the market so they are essentially earning nothing. Black teenagers bear most of the burden, as the NCPA has noted in a previous publication: From 1948 to 1955, the unemployment rate of black and white teenage males was essentially the same -- 11.3 percent and 11.6 percent, respectively. But after the minimum wage was raised from 75 cents to $1 in 1956, unemployment rose significantly for both black and white teenage males, with blacks bearing more of the burden. By 1969, the unemployment rate was 22.7 percent for black teenage males and 14.6 percent for white teenage males. Economists Donald Deere, Kevin Murphy and Finis Welch found that minimum wage increases in 1990 and 1991 reduced employment for all teenagers by 7.3 percent and for black teenagers by 10 percent. Historically, minimum wage and prevailing wage laws were supported by almost exclusively white unions in order to remove the competitive advantage of blacks who were willing to work for less. (The political calculus is easy. Blacks will vote Democrat regardless of how the Dems screw them. White unions get raises if the MWL goes up--and need to be re-bought regularly. Why they encourage blacks to go on welfare, thus need to vote for the welfare party. ~Bob)

Guess Who Is Now Listed in the Southern PovertyLawCenter’s ‘Extremist Files’ Among Neo-Nazis, KKK Members and Many Others. By Billy Hallowell

Excerpt: Carsonhas been added to a list of “extremists” being populated and compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based group “dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society.” (The SPLC has made itself a jokes, not to be taken seriously. Sort of a NBPP in suits and ties. ~Bob)

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


One Year After Obamacare’s Implementation, Taxpayer-Funded Co-Ops Struggle to Survive. By Melissa Quinn

Excerpt: After receiving $2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars from the federal government, the vast majority of nonprofit insurance companies created under the Affordable Care Act recorded losses in revenue, an analysis by The Daily Signal found. Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans, or co-ops, are nonprofit insurance companies created by the Affordable Care Act. Though the concept is not new, 23 of these entities were created to foster competition in areas where few options are available. Now, CoOportunity, a co-op created to serve Iowa and Nebraska, will be liquidated. Some lawmakers question the viability of the remaining 22 co-ops. (When I was managing non-profit associations, sometimes board members would get dollar signs in their eyes about the association owning a for-profit subsidiary [which is perfectly legal]. I always urged caution. Unless you have a captive market, like the College Bookstore Association, they are rarely profitable. Entering an industry you know little about to compete with guy who earning their living competing in that market usually make you lunch. ~Bob)

John Oliver goes after Big Pharma


"You're Greener than Gore" News


Low Gas Prices? Obama Says, 'You're Welcome'

Excerpt: As we’ve noted on numerous occasions, U.S. oil production is up and demand is down, leading to lower prices. Increased production is taking place entirely on private lands, yet, once again, Barack Obama is happy to take the credit.

Fracking Creates Big Benefits for Workers, Landowners, and America's Poor

Excerpt: Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, is fueling the current energy boom in America. Combined with horizontal drilling, fracking has opened up previously unreachable energy reserves for exploitation, and the economic boon has been tremendous, writes Arthur Herman, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. ... Moreover, the economic benefits of fracking accrue not just to the workers in the oil and gas industry. Herman notes that many of the beneficiaries of the oil boom are the middle-class Americans who own resource-rich land, and selling or leasing those mineral rights can bring in extra income. America's poor, who can spend up to a quarter of their incomes on energy, have also benefited from the fracking boom thanks to falling gasoline and electricity prices - since 2005, America's demand for imported oil has fallen by a staggering 40 percent. In fact, the drop in natural gas prices has saved poor families about $10 billion per year.

Worth Reading: Top 10 Global Warming Lies That May Shock You. By James Taylor

Excerpt: EDF has assembled what it believes to be the 10 most powerful global warming assertions in the alarmists’ playbook, yet each assertion either backfires on alarmists or has been proven false. While reading how flawed EDF’s assertions are, remember these are the very best arguments global warming alarmists can make. Open-minded readers should have very little difficulty dismissing the mythical global warming crisis after examining the top 10 assertions in the alarmist playbook.

Religion of Peace News



LISTEN: An Islam scholar politely unloads on President Obama’s ‘terrible deeds in the name of Christ’ remarks. By Benjamin Weingarten

Excerpt: … [I]f you look at what he’s [President Obama's] referring to in terms of the Crusades…if I could just share with you something that I wrote ten years ago [from Bostom's "Jihad Begot the Crusades," parts 1 and 2]…The jihad is intrinsic to the sacred Muslim texts, including the divine Qur’anic revelation itself, whereas the Crusades were circumscribed historical events subjected to (ongoing and meaningful) criticism by Christians themselves. Unlike the espousal of jihad in the Qur’an, the constituent texts of Christianity, the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, do not contain a form fruste [incomplete] institutionalization of the Crusades. 

Excerpt: “You don’t use the word ‘crusades,’ number one, in any context right now, it’s just too fraught,” Andrea Mitchell said on “Meet the Press” Sunday. “And the week after a pilot is burned alive, in a video shown, you don’t lean over backwards to be philosophical about the sins of the fathers. You have to deal with the issue that’s in front of you or don’t deal with it at all,” she added. “Talk about faith.”

Excerpt: University of London Historian Thomas Asbridgealso told ABC News that the suggestion of any causal link between the Islamic State terrorists and the medieval Crusades is “grounded in the manipulation and misrepresentation of historical evidence.”



Turkish Leader Accuses "Jewish Lobby" of Plot to Topple Regime

Excerpt: Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that his government would not give into the "Jewish lobby" that he says is working against the ruling AKP Party. "I announce it from here: we have not and will not succumb to the Jewish lobby, the Armenian lobby or the Turkish-Greek minority's lobbies," Davutoglu said at a party gathering Sunday. Arbitrary references to the "Jewish lobby" in the Muslim world can be construed as anti-Semitic sentiment without factual evidence supporting such claims. Leaders in various countries have historically blamed Jews and Israel for internal woes to alleviate domestic pressure and propagate the concept of an external enemy in order to cultivate regime legitimacy.

Europe on Edge One Month After Charlie Hebdo. By Abigail R. Esman

Excerpt: Less than a month after the Charlie Hebdo murders and the slaughter of four Jews at a kosher supermarket in Paris, Islamic State (IS, or ISIS) has sent a warning now to Belgium: "This," they wrote in a letter to Het Laatste News (HLM), "is only the beginning." The letter, received by HLN's editors on Feb. 4, referred also to a series of attacks in France that pre-dated the Paris massacres: "What happened in France will happen, too, in Belgium," the typewritten letter stated in perfect French, "and from Belgium, IS will conquer all of Europe."

Whose Job is it to Kill ISIS? By Patrick J. Buchanan

Excerpt: Seeing clips of that 22-minute video of the immolation of the Jordanian pilot, one wonders: Who would be drawn to the cause of these barbarians who perpetrated such an atrocity? While the video might firm up the faith of fanatics, would it not evoke rage and revulsion across the Islamic world? After all, this was a Sunni Muslim, in a cage, being burned alive. As of now, this cruel killing seems to have backfired.

Ralph Peters: Burning Of Jordanian Pilot "Better Than The Best Sex They've Ever Had And Easier On The Goats!"

Excerpt: And Islamic state, those guys who burned that young man alive, they're having the time of their lives. This kind of violence is captivating, exhilarating, thrilling to these guys. It's never going to get better for them than this. They have power now. They can exert their will over others. This is better than the best sex they've ever had and easier on the goats.


Excerpt: A four star admiral, who was in charge of the largest single military command in the world, slammed Barack Obama, and warned Congress that...

Excerpt: Former Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Rauf, who reportedly swore allegiance to the Islamic State recently, was killed by a drone strike in Afghanistan.
Rauf's brother-in-law and four Pakistanis were also killed when their car filled with ammunition was destroyed. ... Rauf was captured by the U.S. military in 2001 and spent six years in Guantanamo Bay before being released to Afghan authorities.

Jihadis found the Achilles' heel leaving Europe vulnerable
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0215/europe_jihadist_vulnerability.php3
Excerpt: A lack of effective multilateral coordination between European Union member states is leaving the bloc open to infiltration by terrorists, according to experts, as the bloc’s border forces are overwhelmed by the numbers of illegal migrants and refugees attempting to reach Europe.

UK: Muslims demand non-Muslim buried next to Muslim be exhumed. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: It’s a multi-faith cemetery, but never mind: the unbelievers are “unclean” (cf. Qur’an 9:28), and that’s that. The local council is, of course, siding with the Muslims. This is modern Britain: in all-out appeasement mode, hoping their new masters will go easy with them. But they won’t.

Can French Troops Protect 'Sensitive Sites' from Next Terror Attack? By Daniel Pipes

Excerpt: Another Islamist immigrant from Mali named Coulibaly has attacked another Jewish institution in France. The first one, Amedy Coulibaly, murdered four Jews at a kosher store in Paris on Jan. 9; this second one injured three soldiers yesterday as they protected a Jewish community center in Nice.

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


More "must read" news and comment

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Update


Weird trick revealed that keeps busy individuals well informed about politics and international affairs.

They read The Old Jarhead blog. (Well "Weird Trick" features in many of the marketing emails I receive, so I guess it must work.) ~Bob

General News and Comment


Israeli Election Update: U.S. Intervention Appears to Backfire: Likud takes its largest lead yet, shortly after news broke of the Obama administration trying to sandbag Netanyahu.

Excerpt: Israeli polling published Friday seems to indicate that the Obama administration’s push to remove Binyamin Netanyahu from power and to replace him with the more pliable Yitzhak (“Buji”) Herzog is backfiring. The intervention was first reported by the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz just over a week ago.

Important: Putin could attack Baltic states warns former Nato chief. Vladimir Putin could mastermind a hybrid attack on a Baltic state to test whether Nato would mobilise, warns Anders Fogh Rasmussen. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Excerpt: Vladimir Putin has dangerous ambitions beyond Ukraine and aims to test Western resolve in the Baltic states, the former head of Nato has warned. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former secretary-general of the Atlantic alliance, said the Kremlin’s true goal is to shatter Nato solidarity and reassert Russian dominance over Eastern Europe. “This is not about Ukraine. Putin wants to restore Russiato its former position as a great power,” he told The Telegraph. “There is a high probability that he will intervene in the Baltics to test Nato’s Article 5,” he said, referring to the solidarity clause that underpins collective security.

Excerpt: As a car drove a visiting American delegation through Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine last month, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder was struck by the many national flags hanging in town squares and from private buildings and homes. Such a degree of national unity was a remarkable turnabout in a country whose divisions between a more European-oriented west and a Russian-speaking east were part of the psychic landscape. “That’s what [Russian President Vladmir] Putin has wrought with his invasion: he’s largely unified a fractious population of 40 million Ukrainians, the majority of which are mad as hell and now increasingly want to be part of the West,” Daalder said in an interview.

Stunning: Scholars votes put Kerry dead last in terms of effectiveness. By Al Kamen

Excerpt: Foreign Policy magazine this week announced the results of its 2014 Ivory Tower survey of 1,615 international relations scholars from 1,375 U.S.colleges. One question they were asked was: “Who was the most effective U.S. secretary of state of the past 50 years? The winner? Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry A. Kissinger, who was secretary for four years during the Nixon and Ford administrations. ... Then, dead last, is John Kerry. He got a total of two votes of the 660 scholars who responded. (I'm stunned. Not that he was ranked last. I've had a very low opinion of Kerry since his faked Winter Soldier project to launch his career. And since he tried to set me up on his TV program when I was a senator. But I'm stunned the Washington Post would run this. ~Bob)

Paid our respects at burial site of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Notice how simple the site is.

San Francisco Water Manager Faces Suspension After Seen Urinating In Reservoir

Excerpt: A $111,000-a-year San Francisco water manager will likely be suspended after he was seen urinating in a reservoir that supplies drinking water to nearly 2.5 million Bay Area residents. The San Francisco Chronicle reports Public Utilities Commission employee Martin Sanchez could receive a five day suspension without pay after the Jan. 6 incident took place at the Priest Reservoir in the Sierra foothills.

Gallup: Only 34% ‘Satisfied’ With Abortion Policies, Want Stricter Laws. By Dr. Susan Berry

Excerpt: A new poll from Gallup finds that only 34 percent of Americans are satisfied with current U.S. abortion policies, the lowest percentage since 2001. Among those who are dissatisfied, twice as many want stricter abortion laws.

Economic Confidence Index Highest in Minn., Lowest in W. Va.

Excerpt: Gallup's Economic Confidence Index scores in 2014 were highest in Minnesota-- the only state with a non-negative score -- followed by Maryland, California and Hawaii. Scores were lowest in West Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky and Mississippi. (MN was zero. ~Bob)

Not Just Decoration - The Serendipitous Collision of Warfighting and Painting. By Andy Weddington

Excerpt: A reader of this forum, an elected judge (whom I've not met but resides in a state we once lived) who happens to be married to a Marine (Vietnamveteran), has an interest in painting. Not quite a week ago we exchanged a few rounds of notes about a landscape abstract (new territory in the pursuit of simplifying) I painted recently while on holiday escape to a remote cay. 

Comment on "Woman aborted baby because it was a boy."

This is sick; and also murder, as far as I am concerned. I have compassion for women who have an abortion because of rape, incestuous or otherwise but not at all as a means of birth control and never beyond the 1st trimester. Having compassion does not mean I approve, but understand the reasoning behind the act. It would be better to have the child and let someone adopt who cannot have children, but not everyone is mentally suited for that course of action. -BFM

Democrats suffering from Clintonfatigue say they’re ready for Warren. By Robert Costa 

Excerpt: Thirteen Iowa Democrats wearily took their seats here this weekend and discussed among themselves the source of their angst: Hillary Rodham Clinton. “I’m utterly tired, tired of the Clintons and the whole establishment,” said Carol Brannon, 71, a retired nurse. Anne Kinzel, 57, a former health-care lawyer, nodded sympathetically. “The hacks think Hillary is entitled to be president,” Kinzel said. “I think she is one of those people who has lost the sense of why they are in politics.”

Is Hillary Really Inevitable?

Excerpt: It looks as if Hillary Clinton is going to wait until summer to formally announce her inevitable presidential campaign. Her team originally looked at April as a jumping off point, but is now waiting until July. Team Hillary will use this time to work on assembling staff (and keeping them from resigning) and developing her platform. Because she hasn’t had enough time to finish that homework.

David Brock resigns from Hillary Clinton PAC.By Kenneth P. Vogel

Excerpt: David Brock on Monday abruptly resigned from the board of the super PAC Priorities USA Action, revealing rifts that threaten the big-money juggernaut being built to support Hillary Clinton’s expected presidential campaign. In a resignation letter obtained by POLITICO, Brock, a close Clinton ally, accused Priorities officials of planting “an orchestrated political hit job” against his own pro-Clinton groups, AmericanBridge and Media Matters. Those groups — along with another pro-Clinton group, the super PAC Ready for Hillary — had their fundraising practices called into question last week by a New York Times report.

Funny: Embattled Brian Williams, Hillary Clinton should swap war stories. By John Kass

Excerpt: NBC News anchor Brian Williams found himself the story Thursday, his credibility seriously threatened because he falsely claimed he had been in a helicopter hit by a grenade during the Iraq war. Can't you just picture them, Hill and Bri, holding court in a hotel bar on the campaign trail, regaling reporters with their crazy (yet completely untrue) war stories? Clinton can retell her lie about how she braved snipers in Bosnia, perhaps throwing in a fake laugh or two, the devil-may-care laugh of beret-wearing French resistance fighters in bad movies. Her eyes crinkle just so and the high-pitched cackle is released and you just know it's sincere.

Scott Walker’s surge — in two charts. By Aaron Blake

Excerpt: Scott Walker, we declared last week, is the first "it" candidate in the 2016 presidential race. But how exactly did he get that way? ... But this is the social-media age. Check out the chart below, which uses Facebook analytics. The data show how many people on Facebook mentioned Walkerand how many total interactions he was a part of between Jan. 16 and Feb. 6.

Obama’s 332-Page Plan To Control The Internet

Excerpt: Ajit Pai, the sole Republican Commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), inferred in a Tweet that President Barack Obama’s secret, 332-page “Net Neutrality” document is a scheme for federal micro-managing of the Internet to extract billions in new taxes from consumers and again enforce progressives’ idea of honest, equitable, and balanced.

The Most Transparent Administration in History: Obama administration won’t release IRS targeting documents

Excerpt: The Obama administration is refusing to publicly release more than 500 documents on the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party groups. Twenty months after the IRS scandal broke, there are still many unanswered questions about who was spearheading the agency’s scrutiny of conservative-leaning organizations. The Hill sought access to government documents that might provide a glimpse of the decision-making through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Obama’s Cancerous Leadership and the Vortex Feeding It

Excerpt: Obama's legacy-absent a major shift in foreign policy-is clearly established. Taking editorial license with Winston Churchill's famous quote lauding Royal Air Force pilots in World War II for defeating Germany's Luftwaffe and applying it to Obama and his leadership team: "Never in the field of human conflict has so little been done for so many by so few."

Obama makes clear he is in no rush to push U.S. deeper into Ukraine conflict. By Greg Jaffe

Excerpt: The president’s ambivalence regarding arms for Ukraine has separated him from many of his traditional Democratic supporters, including some who served in his government and now are questioning his priorities. Obama has often seemed reluctant to plunge too deeply into a conflict that he doesn’t view as a major threat to the U.S.homeland or the nation’s security. Some of the president’s hesitancy could also stem from the high priority he’s placed on reaching an agreement this year with Iranto end its nuclear program. Putin and Russiahave played an important role in keeping the pressure on Tehran during the delicate negotiations. (He reminds some of Jimmy Carter, but he reminds me of Scots King John Balliol, known as "Toom Tabard." ~Bob)

The Politics of Envy. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

I’d argue that the politics of envy are a weapon too unstable, unpredictable, and dangerous to really be useful to the one who wields it. Because ultimately, just about everybody in elected office lives a life that appears luxurious to the average American. .. A presidential campaign that somehow utilized “the politics of envy” would slam into the fact that the candidate -- just about any serious candidate -- makes more money, has a bigger net worth, and lives a more lavish lifestyle than almost all of the voters they’re attempting to win over. It’s going to be comical and delicious to see Hillary railing against the same Wall Street bankers who she just charged $200,000 per speech. And she will; she won’t be able to help herself. The Democratic base will command it. And she already dabbled in bashing those other rich people, back in 2012: "There are rich people everywhere, and yet they do not contribute to the growth of their own countries."

Snarker-in-Chief: No one — least of all the American people — is exempt from our president’s snark. By Victor Davis Hanson

Excerpt: President Obama is well known both for ad hominem dismissals of his supposed enemies — everyone from Fox News to the Tea Party to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity — and for his evocations of nefarious straw men who, he claims, if left unchecked, would uninsure the poor, pollute the environment, hurt the illegal immigrant, and wage perpetual war abroad. But Obama’s snarky putdowns and condescending afterthoughts are a particularly disturbing subset of these rhetorical devices, used by him in the grand world of diplomacy as well as in often petty domestic contexts.

Former Drug Czar, Federal Prosecutor Argue Against Marijuana Legalization: ‘The Science Does Not Support It’

Since when do Democrats care about science (or economics) if their base wants something?

Important: The War on Marriage

President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program launched the infamous "War on Poverty," but in a new report from the NCPA, Senior Fellow Devon Herrick says Great Society legislation ignored and thwarted the most effective antipoverty program: marriage. Marriage rates have fallen dramatically since the Johnson era -- while 84 percent of adults aged 30 to 44 were married in 1970, the figure had dropped to 60 percent by 2007. For some demographics, the drop was even more dramatic: while 62 percent of black women in that age group were married in 1970, just one-third were married in 2007. There are a number of reasons for the drop in marriage rates, but the government's role cannot be ignored. The U.S. tax code penalizes marriage, especially for low-income earners who are better off forgoing wedding vows in exchange for living together -- at least when it comes to receiving federal subsidies: The poverty level is $11,490 for individuals and $15,510 for married couples. Two individuals living together, therefore, qualify for larger subsidies than a married couple would. Consider a couple, each of whom earns twice the federal poverty level ($23,340 annually). Were they to marry, their household income would rise to 300 percent of the poverty level, limiting their eligibility for government benefits such as food stamps, health insurance subsidies and more. Obamacare also penalizes marriage -- again, health insurance subsidies for exchange coverage are more generous for individuals than for couples. The couple mentioned above earning twice the poverty level would qualify for a subsidy of $1,151 each. If they marry, they would qualify for a subsidy of just $845. If the cohabitating couple has a child and were to marry, they would owe $2,857 in higher taxes each year. On the other hand, were the couple to remain unmarried and the mother apply for food stamps for herself and her child, she would qualify for an additional $1,800 that would be unavailable to her were she to marry. (It is worth subscribing to the Daily policy Digest at NACP.org and supporting their work. ~Bob)

Unintended Consequences of Cigarette Taxes: Black Markets and Smuggling

Excerpt: A whopping 58 percent of the New York cigarette market consists of smuggled cigarettes. It is no coincidence that its cigarette tax (at $4.35 per pack) is the highest among the 50 states. New York City also imposes a $1.50 per pack tax. Since 2006, the New Yorktax rate has risen 190 percent, and the smuggling rate has risen 62 percent.
Similarly, Illinoisraised its cigarette tax by $1.00 in 2012. From 2012 to 2013, the smuggling rate in Illinoisrose from 1.1 percent to 20.9 percent.

Obama Advisor Admits Obama Lied About Gay Marriage. By Conn Carroll 

Excerpt: Former-Senior Advisor to President Obama David Axelrod admits in a new book that Obama lied about his opposition to gay marriage in order to become president. "Opposition to gay marriage was particularly strong in the black church, and as he ran for higher office, he grudgingly accepted the counsel of more pragmatic folks like me, and modified his position to support civil unions rather than marriage, which he would term a 'sacred union,'" Axelrod writes in his new book, Believer: My Forty Years in Politics. (Not news. As they say in the GEICO ads, "Everybody knows that." Revealing that Obama told the truth would be news. the only thing this reveals is that Obama thought black anti-gay-marriage ministers and their congregations were dumb enough to believe him. ~Bob)

Worth Seeing: The Price of Freedom

Why I do this blog, and fight however I can to preserve this country, no matter how challenging the outlook. ~Bob

Interesting photo: Bobby Jindal on Anti-Common Core Moms: ‘I Wouldn’t Bet Against Them.’ By Kelsey Harkness

Excerpt: While promoting his new education platform today in Washington, D.C., Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said more moms than ever are speaking out against the national education standards known as Common Core. Of those moms, Jindal said, “I wouldn’t bet against them.” The Republican governor took on the issue of Common Core while speaking to a small group of reporters at The Heritage Foundation about his new 42-page plan, “K-12 Education Reform: a Roadmap.” Although he hasn’t yet announced any 2016 plans, Jindal hopes his education agenda will set him apart among prospective Republican candidates for president. (From the picture, lots of concerned black moms. They are also for school choice for their kids. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: The foreign policy test for potential commanders in chief By Jennifer Rubin 

Excerpt: We have argued that foreign policy will be a bigger than usual issue in 2016 for presidential candidates, both because the president has made such hash out of it and because his former secretary of state is the likely Democratic nominee. While it is easy to prepare a talking point or two, giving a paragraph or more about a complicated topic reveals the depth of a candidate’s knowledge. Even then, how do we tell if the candidate is regurgitating a canned speech?

The Irandeadline is not a deadline. By Jennifer Rubin 

Excerpt: As I noted yesterday, the March deadline for the “political framework” in the P5+1 talks is fish-or-cut-bait time for Democrats who said they would vote on the Menendez-Kirk sanctions bill if there was no such deal covering all the relevant issues. But Iran’s supreme leader complained about an interim deal and now — wouldn’t you know it? — the administration is backpedaling. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki let on that the “deadline” is more like an aspiration.

Excerpt: I loved the James Robertson story. Who couldn't love a story about a guy whose work ethic is such that he'd walk 21 miles a day to and from his work...and never be late or miss a day of work in ten years. Americaloved the Robertson story as well. A young college student set up a "go fund" for James and donations began pouring in....to the current tune of $350,000 dollars. And a Detroitauto dealer just gave James a new Ford Taurus. All of this good will is remarkable, and certainly makes James Robertson happy. But, like all of life, there is a hint of tragedy in this story. You see, James Robertson's star shines brighter these days because he's such a rare exception, among his race, as well as the general populace. The American work ethic has eroded so dramatically that, when we find someone who values hard work, we make a celebrity of him. (In Detroit, they have probably made a target of him. ~Bob)

Gun News


Oklahoma Girl Shoots Home Intruder: 12-Year-Old Uses Family's Gun To Protect Self, Home

Excerpt: Police say the Calera 12-year-old used the family's gun to shoot and injure an alleged home invader on Wednesday, KFOR reports. "And what we understand right now, he was turning the doorknob when she fired through the door," said the Bryan County Undersheriff Ken Golden, according to News9.

Race Card News


Race Baiting Liar: A Lightning Rod in Race Relations: Al Sharpton Remade Himself From Local Activist to Polished Insider

Excerpt: When the Rev. Al Sharpton couldn’t make it to Nelson Mandela ’s funeral in South Africa, President Barack Obama brought him back a little souvenir. The memento, a program from the funeral, hangs on a wall in Mr. Sharpton’s nondescript offices above Midtown Manhattan. “To Rev. Sharpton,” Mr. Obama wrote. “A fellow warrior for justice!” (It should have said, "A fellow liar for juice." Sharpton's lie don't hurt as many people as Obamas [You can keep your plan/your doctor] but they are just as loathsome. See the next old article. ~Bob)

Al Sharpton’s Long Bill of Goods, From Tawana Brawley to Primetime. As a ‘Times’ documentary revives one of the many ugly incidents from the reverend’s past, it’s time NBC accounted for its decision to rehabilitate and promote him. By Stuart Stevens.

Excerpt: The Tawana Brawley case that captivated New York in the late eighties is a shocking reminder of the toxic mix racial exploitation and personal ambition can produce. The New York Times and Retroreport.org have just released a new 15-minute documentary on the despicable hoax, which should be required viewing for the NBC News executives who are heavily invested in rehabilitating a key culprit of this loathsome episode: the Rev. Al Sharpton. (NBC--They hire a lot of liars, don't they. ~Bob)

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News



Measles, Vaccines and Autism. By Thomas Sowell

Excerpt: The key false claim was that the vaccine for measles caused an increase in autism. This claim was made in 1998 by a doctor writing in a distinguished British medical journal, so it is understandable that many parents took it seriously, and did not want to run the risk of having their child become autistic. Fortunately, others took the claim seriously in a very different sense. They did massive studies involving half a million children in Denmark and two million children in Sweden. These studies showed that there was no higher incidence of autism among children who had been vaccinated than among children who had not been vaccinated.

EDITORIAL: Taxpayers hit twice for Obamacare site

Excerpt: It is bad enough that taxpayers are forced to pay for the expensive government health care exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act – not to mention those who must pay fines for not being insured – but taxpayers in Californiaare hit doubly hard by the hefty advertising budget used to promote the convoluted system. The state’s health care exchange, Covered California, announced in September that it was dedicating $94 million to promote itself during the open enrollment period, which ends Feb. 15. ... So despite the lofty advertising budget, which included special efforts to boost enrollment among Latinos and African Americans, and even if there is a last-minute surge, it appears that Covered California will fall well short of its goal. This does not bode well for the exchange, which is already projecting a $78 million deficit for fiscal year 2015-2016, now that $1 billion in federal funding has been exhausted.

My family premium just increased to over $2,000 per month a $250 per month increase! Not affordable.


Excerpt: The sweet smell of success for the medical-device industry is wafting over Capitol Hill. News from Senator Orrin Hatch is that the Senate will take up repeal of the medical-device excise tax. This is a tax of 2.3 percent on most medical devices that was passed as part of the Affordable Care Act to fund Obamacare. AdvaMed, a trade association representing the medical-device industry has just published another survey of its members, which reports that...the tax has led to employment reductions of approximately 18,500 industry workers and will lead to forgone hiring of 20,500 additional employees over the next five years. The total impact of the tax on medical technology industry employment is approximately 39,000 jobs. Additional jobs will be lost in companies providing supplies or services to the industry. Forty-six percent of respondents said they would consider further employment reductions if the tax is not repealed. On the positive side, 71 percent of respondents said they would reinstate forgone hiring if the tax were repealed.

"You're Greener than Gore" News


Arctic sea ice was supposed to have melted by now. Polar bears extinct. Sea levels at devastating highs. Civilization on the cusp of socioeconomic disaster. Alarmists' predictions never materialize, but doom is looming, they assure us. Interestingly, the diabolical Leftmedia never question the various narratives, but when it comes to evidence of scientific fraud they act like it's simply part of the process necessary to narrow down the preconceived day of Climate Armageddon. The federal government is actively manipulating global temperature data to fit the narrative, which London Telegraph writer Christopher Booker reminds us "is the biggest science scandal ever." In fact, he notes, "When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records -- on which the entire panic ultimately rested -- were systematically 'adjusted' to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified." The science is "settled," the Left lectures. So long as you ignore massive collusion and fraud.

Debunking Fracking Myths

Excerpt: Arthur Herman of the Hudson Institute says criticisms of fracking are overblown. While opponents argue that fracking can contaminate groundwater, Herman says fracking takes place thousands of feet below the aquifer (a body of rock from which water can be extracted), posing no risk to drinking water. Additionally, he notes that there are no documented cases of groundwater contamination, yet there are thousands of fracking wells in the United States and its neighbor Canada. Similarly, opponents contend fracking exposes people to dangerous chemicals such as benzene. In fact, Herman says the fluid used to fracture rock is more than 99 percent sand and water -- the risks associated with contact with chemicals such as benzene or methane, for example, is not any higher than in other industrial jobs.

Religion of Peace News



Muslim Brotherhood Has Penetrated ALL of Obama’s National Security Agencies

Excerpt: A four star admiral, who was in charge of the largest single military command in the world, slammed Barack Obama, and warned Congress that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated every U.S. National Security Agency under Obama's administration. The stunning claim, from one of America's highest-ranking career officers, has shocked Washington, D.C., and came just days before Obama would invite more than a dozen Muslim Brotherhood leaders to a private, press-banned meeting in the White House.

Muslim and Non-Muslim Persecution of Christians, Compared. By Raymond Ibrahim

Excerpt: The one glaring fact concerning the persecution of approximately 100 million Christians around the world today is that the overwhelming majority of it is being committed by Muslims of all races, nationalities, languages, and socio-political circumstances: Muslims from among America's allies (Saudi Arabia) and from its enemies (Iran); Muslims from economically rich nations (Qatar) and from poor nations (Somalia and Yemen); Muslims from "Islamic republic" nations (Afghanistan) and from "moderate" nations (Malaysia and Indonesia); Muslims from nations rescued by America (Kuwait) and Muslims from nations claiming "grievances" against the U.S. (fill in the blank __).

ISIS Sympathizers Hack Newsweek Twitter & Issue ‘Bloody’ Threats to Michelle Obama and Family

If Muslim Jihadist, God forbid, killed the Obama family, the media would blame conservatives for creating a climate of hate. ~Bob.

From Jordan Base, UAE Resumes Airstrikes on Islamic State

Excerpt: The Emirates' decision to launch fresh airstrikes from the kingdom after a more-than-month long hiatus was a strong show of support for Western-allied Jordan, which has vowed a punishing response to the militants' killing of one of its pilots.

JordanMoves 'Thousands' of Troops to IraqBorder: Jordanian Sources

Excerpt: Jordanhas deployed "thousands" of troops at its border with Iraq as it ramps up a campaign against ISIS militants who set a pilot ablaze, two Jordanian government officials told NBC News on Tuesday. The troops were sent to prevent the infiltration of ISIS fighters into Jordan and as a show of force, according to the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Family of US aid worker, ISIScaptive Kayla Mueller confirms her death

Excerpt: "The family received a private message from Kayla’s ISIL captors containing additional information," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said Tuesday. "Once this information was authenticated by the intelligence community, they concluded that Kayla was deceased." It is not yet known how or when 26-year-old Mueller died. ISIS claimed last week she was killed by a Jordanian airstrike, but offered no immediate evidence. 

New Survey Gives Startling Look at Size of Europe’s Jewish Population. By Sharona Schwartz

Excerpt: The Jewish population of Europe has seen a massive drop in recent decades, even several generations after the Holocaust, according to a new survey from the PewResearchCenter. (Well, I'm sure the welcomed new immigrants will be able to fill the Jews' place in the productive economy. ~Bob)

Muslim And Huma Abedin Defender Who Obama Welcomed Into White House This Week Shows True Colors By MOCKING Concerns About Muslim Brotherhood Infiltration

Excerpt: The ‘smoking gun’ email that reveals who instructed Susan Rice to blame the Benghaziattack on a video also exposes a recipient named Mehdi K. Alhassani. Alhassani was the leader of the Muslim Student Association (MSA), a Muslim Brotherhood front group and attended the sister mosque of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC) mosque attended by the Boston Marathon bombers. It is a mystery how Alhassani slipped through the cracks to become a Special Assistant to the Office of the Chief of Staff, 

Worth Hearing: Nothing to do with Islam… By Pat Condell

Good as usual. ~Bob


In Karak, Jordan, residents are mourning a pilot burned to death by the Islamic State, but another family is celebrating a son who defected to join the Islamic State

Excerpt: Speaking of his brother Ahmad, who died last year after becoming a jihadist in Syria, Mr Majali said: "He knew that Isil are in the right. He knew that they are protecting us. “Isil’s enemies are afraid because they see that they are implementing the correct system.”… (How did Muslims in moderate Jordan get the Islamophobic idea that the Islamic State had anything to do with Islam? --Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org.)

Free speech in crisis in Europe, as cities ban protests against Islam due to jihad threat… By Nicolai Sennels 

Excerpt: Europe is now so hard hit by jihad, that protesting it publicly on the street is banned in several cities. The terrorists are pouring over our borders and out of our ghettos, but people cannot protest it because those wanting to silence us are too dangerous. Deep structures in Europe’s societies have been destroyed. You better stand up and speak out against this threat before it is too late.

Germany: Muslim stabs pregnant, German girlfriend in belly, then burns her alive. Police suspects “honor” killing. By Nicolai Sennels 

Excerpt: After the killing and burning of a 19-year-old pregnant woman in Berlin Köpenick, the police are investigating if one of the perpetrator’s Turkish family instigated the murder. The alleged killers were taken into custody over the weekend.

Video: Reality of UK Muslim child pimping: 4% Muslims have 200x more perpetrators than any other groups

Excerpt: These numbers, that Muslims who consist of only 4% of the UKpopulation have 200 times the number of sexual perpetrators than any other group, is only a small number of the actual reality. It only represents cases that have come to light. The more cases that are prosecuted, the higher that number goes.

Obama Vows Justice After Isis Kills American Hostage Kayla Jean Mueller

I actually laughed out loud when I read the headline. How many times do we hear of justice vowed? Benghazianyone? ~Bob

Excerpt: In his interview with Vox, Barack Obama said that terrorism is overblown by the media: “It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you’ve got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris,” Obama said. “It is right and appropriate for us to be vigilant and aggressive in trying to deal with that–the same way a big city mayor’s got to cut the crime rate down if he wants that city to thrive.” ... The more novel problem is his disgusting description of the deliberate targeting of Jews as a random shooting. It’s as infuriating as his administration’s insistence that the FortHoodshooting was just “workplace violence,” though more hypocritical. When a theologically inspired Jew-hating terrorist runs across Paris to hold a Kosher market hostage, and then executes Jews in accordance with his ideological and religious dogma, it is not random violence or street crime. Period.

Worth Reading: The Anti-Zionist Guide to Burning Synagogues. By Daniel Greenfield 

Excerpt: Wuppertal’s synagogues had been destroyed on Kristallnacht. By the time the war was over, the 3,000 Jews living in this German city had been reduced to a community of 60. 75 years after Kristallnacht, the Bergische Synagogue began to burn after three Muslim men had thrown six Molotov cocktails at it. The Jews of Wuppertal however have nothing to worry about. Judge Jörg Sturm found that the attack was not anti-Semitic, but had only been a way of bringing “attention to the Gaza conflict”.

Sex gang victims were 'sacrificed' to avoid Labour losing votes in the Asian community

Excerpt: Solicitor Dave Greenwood, who represents 38 victims, added: “There was an echelon of people who scratched each other’s backs. “But I think there’s an ‘X Factor’ at play here. It’s quite apparent there was a feeling of the need to maintain the Asian vote to preserve Labour’s majority in the town.” (If Britain were still a sane society, every politician, Labour and otherwise, who knew about these Muslim rape gangs and kept quiet for fear of losing Muslim votes should be barred from ever holding or seeking political office again, and a serious investigation would be undertaken to determine whether or not charges of treason were warranted. But Britain is no longer a sane society. --Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org.)

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


Today's important political news and conservative comment

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General News and Comment



Great Satire: Hitler Finds Out About Brian Williams


Why did Brian Williams do it? By Kathleen Parker

Excerpt: These are tough times for NBC’s Brian Williams — and tougher times for journalism. The NBC newsman was suspended Tuesday night for six months amid charges that he misremembered or conflated wartime incidents he reported on from Iraq and Israel. ... Many wager that money will determine the answer — Williams makes a bunch for the network — but the bottom line depends entirely on one crucial question: Will people ever trust Williams again? (Will I trust him again? Hell, I didn't trust him in the first place, nor anyone else in most of the media since I came back from Vietnamin 67, with NBC pretty much at the bottom. ~Bob)


President Obama lied about gay marriage, Axelrod says. This is why we’re cynical. By Aaron Blake

Excerpt: Indeed, you'd be hard-pressed to find a reporter or pundit who wasn't pretty sure that Obama supported gay marriage prior to when he publicly acknowledged it in 2012 — which is why the reaction to Axelrod's revelation has been somewhat muted. We all just assumed he was lying, basically. But at its core, this is a pretty striking bit of news: An American president's top adviser admitting that the president deliberately lied to the public about his true position on an issue of significant currency.

U.S. Citizenship Quiz

Get 15 or more correct to pass!
25 of 25. I bet 30% of the public can't get 15 of these very easy questions. ~Bob

Strauss-Kahn: Only 12 sex parties in three years

Excerpt: Ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who denies charges of pimping, has told a court in northern Francethat he took part in only a few rare sex parties. He said prosecutors had greatly exaggerated the frequency of his "licentious evenings". There had only been 12 in three years, he said. Mr Strauss-Kahn is accused of helping procure sex workers for a prostitution ring based at a hotel in Lille. ... As he arrived in court in Lilleearlier, three topless protesters from the Femen activist group jumped on his car, with "pimps, clients, guilty" painted on their chests. (Three topless women accost Dominique Strauss-Kahn on his way to pimping trial. He managed to get phone numbers of two. --Tweet from Mike McNally ‏@notoserfdom I've had to cut way back on sex parties myself. ~Bob)


Why conservatives should miss Jon Stewart. By Stephen Stromberg

Excerpt: Jon Stewart can be unfair. He can be ideological — or, to use a more favorable term from recent coverage, passionate — in his coverage of national and world events. But his impending departure from the Daily Show desk should sadden you as well as his legions of liberal fans. He is not just any other ideologue. In fact, a consistent and crucial piece of his message isn’t ideological at all: The right and the left should behave with more civility and self-reflection. And in important moments he has acted on his rhetoric.

Worth Reading: Fairness and Justice. By Walter E. Williams 

Excerpt: Others argue that because income is distributed so unevenly, justice and fairness require income redistribution. Let's look at fairness and justice. What constitutes fairness and justice has been debated for centuries. Widespread agreement has proved to be elusive at best. However, I think that an important part of an intelligent discussion about fairness and justice is the recognition that knowing results of a process cannot establish whether there is fairness or justice.


Gun News

PennsylvaniaTown Puts Up Signs Warning Criminals: THIS IS NOT A GUN FREE ZONE

Excerpt: The signs are being strategically placed along all of the roads leading into the community. They serve as a warning to anyone considering committing a crime against local residents. The signs aren’t bluffing. The township supports an active hunting community, meaning many homes keeps at least one gun. (The VA Hospital, where I go at least three times a week, worries me. Other than government officials and active members of the military, I'd think a Jihadist would most love to murder vets, especially of Iraq and Afghanistan. And the VA is a "Terrorist Empowerment [Gun Free] Zone, so it would be the safest place to do so. The VA cops are armed, of course, but a little observation will tell you where they usually are, and an ambush could be set up. They'd rush right past a guy with a gun under his coat. ~Bob)

Brothers Arrested Following Home Invasion, Shooting

Excerpt: According to Sergeant John Delaney, just after midnight, two men began ringing the bell of a home on Webber Street, calling the resident the wrong name, and threatening to “light up the house”. They eventually kicked down the door. The resident was home with their three-year-old daughter at the time. The two men, identified as 24-year-old Jordan Eady and his 22-year-old brother Jason, refused to leave, and advanced on the homeowner who, feeling threatened, shot Jordanin the chest and arm.

Outnumbered National Guardsman Wins Gunfight Against 3 Armed Robbers at
Sonic Drive
-Thru

http://controversialtimes.com/news/video-outnumbered-national-guardsman-wins-gunfight-against-3-armed-robbers-at-sonic-drive-thru/
Excerpt: According to media reports, the man, identified as 23 year old Joseph Toombs, was approached by several suspects at a Sonic Drive-Thru restaurant in DeKalb County, GA late last month. The suspects, at least one of whom was visibly armed, demanded money.
Toombs was able to draw his concealed handgun and open fire. One of the suspects was hit and the others fled. The suspect who was shot was taken to an area hospital for treatment, but ultimately died of his injuries.

Race Card News



Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


Vaccinations Are for the Good of the Nation. Dr. Ben Carson

Excerpt: I have been asked many times throughout the past week for my thoughts concerning the issue of vaccines. The important thing is to make sure the public understands that there is no substantial risk from vaccines and that the benefits are very significant. Although I strongly believe in individual rights and the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, I also recognize that public health and public safety are extremely important in our society. Certain communicable diseases have been largely eradicated by immunization policies in this country. We should not allow those diseases to return by forgoing safety immunization programs for philosophical, religious or other reasons when we have the means to eradicate them. Obviously, there are exceptional situations to virtually everything, and we must have a mechanism whereby those can be heard. 

The Sickeningly Low Vaccination Rates at Silicon Valley Day Cares

Excerpt: A WIRED investigation shows that some children attending day care facilities affiliated with prominent Silicon Valley companies have not been completely vaccinated against preventable infectious diseases. At least, that’s according to a giant database from the California Department of Public Health, which tracks the vaccination rates at day care facilities and preschools in the state. We selected more than 20 large technology and health companies in the Bay Area and researched their day care offerings. Of 12 day care facilities affiliated with tech companies, six—that’s half—have below-average vaccination rates, according to the state’s data.

Excerpt: Obama indicated he was tired of hearing about companies cutting hours and wages from part time employees as a result of Obamacare. (I bet he is, but not as tired as worker are hearing that their hours are going to be cut. Obamacare is chock full of examples of the law of unintended consequences. Obama, of course, knows nothing about economics or corporations, or he would know that corporate boards have a fiduciary duty to maximize profits to their shareholders--many of whom are retirees or retirement funds. ~Bob)

Important: Buried In The Numbers: Obamacare's Costs Are Climbing, Not Receding. By Sally Pipes

Excerpt: So the law’s overall price tag has declined only because it’s covering fewer people.
Left unsaid is the fact that Obamacare is set to spend more per person. If the law is not repealed, Obamacare will shell out $7,740 in subsidies for every person who gains coverage in 2021. That’s a 7% increase over the agency’s per-person estimate in 2011. The CBO now projects that the law will cost nearly $2 trillion over the next ten years. Obamacare’s subsidies alone will cost $1.1 trillion. In 2010, the agency put the cost of the entire law at $940 billion over its first decade. (Holy Brian Williams, Batwoman, are you saying Obama lied about the costs going down? ~Bob)

Obamacare’s Neglect of the Middle Class: The left falsely portrays Obamacare while attacking Burr-Hatch-Upton. By Jeffrey H. Anderson

Excerpt: The Huffington Post’s Jeffrey Young and Jonathan Cohn declare that “putting together a real Obamacare alternative will take more time — and more genuine interest — than Republicans have.” In truth, such Obamacare alternatives are already available to Republicans. These include the 2017 Project’s “Winning Alternative to Obamacare,” which helped Ed Gillespie almost pull off a huge upset victory in last year’s Virginia Senate race, and the newly released Burr-Hatch-Upton alternative, an updated version of last year’s Burr-Coburn-Hatch proposal. (And Rep. Tom Price, MD, has had a good bill for years, ignored by the media as the claim there are no GOP alternatives. ~Bob)

Religion of Peace News



Yeah, Well, But What About The Crusades? By Kevin DeYoung

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2015/02/09/what-about-the-crusades/
Excerpt: Yet, for all the times we’ve lamented the Crusades, how many of us know more than two sentences about them? Isn’t it wise to know at least a little something about the Crusades before we borrow them to get an advanced degree in self-recrimination? A few years ago I picked up a copy of The New Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas F. Madden, a history professor at Saint LouisUniversity. It’s a fascinating book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know more, but not too much (it’s only 225 pages), about the Crusades.

Worth Reading: Jihadis 14, Crusaders 2. By Ralph Peters

Excerpt: In his ignorant and bigoted remarks to religious leaders this week, President Obama parroted jihadi propaganda. Bored (when not annoyed) by facts, the president referred to the Crusades and the Inquisition as evidence of the horrors religion can wreak. That kind of talk emboldens the Islamist line that Christian bad behavior justifies the Middle East’s bad behavior even today. The president knows as little about history as he does about warfare, and even less about religion. But he’s not alone. With the Left’s successful destruction of history instruction in our schools and universities, even “well-educated” creatures of Washington accept the Arab fantasy that the cultural incompetence, practical indolence, and spiritual decay of the entire Middle East stems from Richard Coeur de Lion’s twelfth-century swordplay.

The Kurds need weapons, now. By David Ignatius

Excerpt: The Kurds were rocked by the extremist push toward their capital of Irbillast August, he says. But they regrouped. As the peshmerga advanced, its commanders were able to call in air support from the U.S.-led coalition. They pushed the Islamic State back from Irbil and Makhmur, from the Mosul Dam, from Rabia on the Syrian border, and most recently from the area I visited in southwestern Kurdistan. But success is bringing a dilemma. Who will finish the fight in the north by recapturing Mosul? The Kurds don’t want the job; they have regained most of the territory they lost and know their entry into the Sunni Arab city of Mosul would cause political problems. The Iraqi military and a Sunni tribal militia are getting U.S. training, but they aren’t ready for such a big fight. President Obama has ruled out U.S.ground troops.

Important: Obama’s war authorization request is way too broad. And the damage has already been done. By Greg Sargent 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/02/11/obamas-war-authorization-request-is-way-too-broad-and-the-damage-has-already-been-done/
Excerpt: A mere six months after combat operations began against the Islamic State, the White House today formally requested that Congress authorize combat operations against the Islamic State. The full text of the resolution proposed by the Obama administration is right here. Some Democrats criticized the proposal as too broad and too vague. They are right. Several critics I spoke to note that, in its current form, at least, it would not only do little to limit Obama right now, but could also leave the next president with enormous war-making latitude — whether he or she is a Democrat or a Republican. (Hard choices. we surely need to destroy ISIS. But we don't need Obama making more countries into chaotic terrorist havens as he did Libya. ~Bob)

Obama Asks Congress To Rubber Stamp Endless War. By Conn Carroll 

Excerpt: President Obama officially asked Congress to rubber-stamp his six-month-old war against the Islamic State Wednesday, dubbing the proposed Joint Resolution an "Authorization for Use of Military Force.""The so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) poses a threat to the people and stability of Iraq, Syria, and the broader Middle East, and to U.S.national security," Obama wrote in a letter addressed to Congress. "Although existing statutes provide me with the authority I need to take these actions," Obama continued, "I have repeatedly expressed my commitment to working with the Congress to pass a bipartisan authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against ISIL." (Bipartisan. n. finding someone to share the blame. The Obama Dictionary. ~Bob)


If the White House wanted to convey they don't take jihadism seriously, & have a weird soft spot for Islam, what would they do differently?

Father Protests Islamic Indoctrination in Florida Curriculum – School District Justifies It with Support of Terror Group
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/02/father-protests-islamic-indoctrination-florida-curriculum-school-district-justifies-support-terror-group/
Excerpt: SeminoleCounty’s LymanHigh School is being called out for its blatant Islamic indoctrination by a student’s father. Ron Wagner read, “There is no god, but God, Muhamad is the messenger of God.” However, he wasn’t reading from the Koran, The Five Pillars of Islam or the Hadiths. He was reading from his son’s 10th grade world history textbook. Even more concerning is that the school district not only stands by the curriculum, but have the full support of designated terror group Hamas-CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations).

Rick Perry gets it, slams Obama for ‘random’ comments. By Jennifer Rubin 

Excerpt: President Obama and the White House were content for a couple days to let it be known that the president did not consider a jihadist attack on a kosher market in France to be directed at Jews. The president’s jaw-dropping assertion had actually been made when the interview was pre-recorded some time ago. But neither he nor the White House, until a Twitter storm descended, realized he had said something remarkably stupid, and yet revealing. Both the State Department and White House spokespeople, after vigorously defending the president’s original remarks, late Tuesday eventually gave way and started to insist the president knew all along the motive of the kosher market killings was anti-Semitism. That’s about as believable as the notion the killing of four Jews in a kosher market was “random.” We now know what the president really thinks, and to many, it is horrifying. (Obama thinks Jihadists murder like low-info voters vote--randomly. ~Bob)

Excerpt: Shortly before his own death in a US airstrike on Jan. 31, Harith al Nadhari, a senior sharia official in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), recorded an audio eulogy for another slain jihadist, Mohammed al Zahawi. Ansar al Sharia Libya confirmed earlier in the month that Zahawi, the group's leader, had died of wounds he suffered while fighting in Benghazi. And Nadhari wanted to make it clear that al Qaeda considered Zahawi to be a "martyr." Nadhari's audio recording, which was released via Twitter on Feb. 6, has been translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. Like other Ansar al Sharia leaders in EgyptLibya and Tunisia, Zahawi had an al Qaeda pedigree. In YemenAnsar al Sharia is merely a front for AQAP.

Excerpt: The US military confirmed that it killed the Islamic State's deputy emir for 'Khorasan province' in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan on Feb. 9, and the head of Shabaab's external operations and intelligence branch in a separate drone strike in southern Somalia on Jan. 31. The US continues to rely on airstrikes as the core of its effort to defeat jihadist groups worldwide. The confirmation of the deaths of Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim, who was appointed the deputy governor of the Islamic State's Khorasan province in January, and Yusuf Dheeq, the chief of Shabaab's Amniyat, or intelligence service, was disclosed in a briefing yesterday by Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby.
Excerpt: Yesterday, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby cast a positive light on jihadists from the Taliban and al Qaeda who have been released from Guantanamoand have returned to wage jihad. The topic came up in the discussion of an airstrike that killed Mullah Abdul Rauf Khadim, a senior Taliban commander who was detained at Guantanamo from 2001 to 2007, released to Afghan custody and freed in 2009, and returned to the Taliban shortly afterward to assume the role of a senior military commander up until his defection to the Islamic State earlier this year. ... Kirby's statement that Khadim's death should be viewed as a positive is cold comfort to the hundreds of Afghans, Americans, and Coalition personnel who were killed while Khadim commanded forces in southern Afghanistan. The jihadist was able to operate for more than six years as a top level Taliban commander and has the blood of thousands on his hands. (When the President gives you shit for policy, you can't make lemonade. A shit sandwich is the only option. ~Bob)

Better Late than Never? QatarRetracts Fatwa Permitting Burning People. By Raymond Ibrahim, RaymondIbrahim.com

Excerpt: It appears that Islam Web, a popular website owned by Qatar's Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, may have been responsible for the rationale used by the Islamic State to burn alive a Jordanian pilot captive. On February 7, 2006, the widely accessed Arabic website issued Fatwa No. 71480, titled "The Burning of Ias bin Abdul Yalil by Abu Bakr." The fatwa, or Islamic decree, concluded that burning people as a form of punishment is permissible. Ironically, hours after the Islamic State burned the pilot alive, Fatwa No. 71480 was removed from Islam Web.

Wife: Slayings of 3 in N. Carolina motivated by parking spat

Excerpt: A woman whose husband is accused of shooting three people at a North Carolinacondominium complex says the man was motivated by a parking dispute, not the victims' faith.
A Muslim advocacy organization had asked authorities to address speculation — much of it on social media — about possible religious bias in Tuesday's shooting of the three Muslims.(He can explain his motive when we put the noose over his head. ~Bob)

Leftist: Vehement Atheist’ Charged With Executing 3 Muslim Students

Excerpt: Though no motive for the shooting has been confirmed, local media is reporting that social media sites connected to Hicks might offer a clue. Hicks is a self-described “anti-theist” who lashed out against all religions. Apparently he is associated in some way with United Atheists of America and uses social media to lash out at both “radical Christians and radical Muslims.” He also describes himself as a fan of atheist author Richard Dawkins. ... According to his Facebook “likes,” Hicks is a man of the left: His Facebook Likes included the Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Freedom from Religion Foundation, Bill Nye “The Science Guy,” Neil deGrasse Tyson, Gay Marriage groups and similar progressive pages. (The media will try to make him a conservative Republican, wait and see. ~Bob)


To IranFirst? Kerry to appoint gay diplomat for overseas LGBT advocacy. By Josh Hicks 

Excerpt: By creating the special envoy, Kerry can bolster U.S. efforts to address discrimination and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities overseas. The appointee will be an openly gay career diplomat, the State Department said in a statement. (See the 2014 story from Iran, below. ~Bob)

Iran Executes Two for ‘Perversion.’ Third dealt death sentence for ‘insulting the prophet.’ By Adam Kredo

Excerpt: Iranexecuted two gay men on Sunday for the crime of “perversion” and has sentenced a third individual to death for “insulting the prophet,” according to human rights activists tracking the situation.

Learning from Iraq? White House weighs adjusting Afghan exit plan to slow withdrawal of troops

Excerpt: The Obama administration is considering slowing its planned withdrawal from Afghanistanfor the second time, according to U.S.officials, a sign of the significant security challenges that remain despite an end to the U.S.and NATO combat mission there. Under the still-evolving plans, Army Gen. John F. Campbell, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, could be given greater latitude to determine the pace of the drawdown in 2015 as foreign forces scramble to ensure Afghan troops are capable of battling Taliban insurgents on their own, the officials said.

Egyptian TV host: Nobody dares admit that the Islamic State’s crimes are based on Islamic sources. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: Will the international media and Barack Obama now excoriate Ibrahim Issa for “blaming all Muslims for the crimes of a few,” which is their knee-jerk accusation to anyone who dares suggest that Islamic sacred texts contain incitement to hatred and violence? Will an investigation be opened into “Islamophobia” on Egyptian television?

Excerpt: Dr. Mark Christian, founder of Global Faith Institute, knows Islamic history too well, being an apostate from the Muslim faith himself. Having experienced the true nature of Islam firsthand as a devout Imam, Dr. Christian penned a fiery open letter to the American leader, which he graciously provided to Mad World News, that includes a blunt history lesson in the unchanging goal of ancient Islam:


Islamic State Disfigure 15 Women With Acid: The women were accused of not wearing the niqab. By Hazhar Mamuzini

Excerpt: Mamuzini said al-Khansa militants disfigured the women by pouring acid on their faces.

Yemen, Obama's "success" story: Rebels seize US vehicles after Yemen embassy closes

Excerpt: Armed rebels in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa seized U.S.embassy vehicles Wednesday after diplomats fled the country over growing unrest. Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren confirmed that the vehicles were taken by Houthi rebels after embassy personnel and U.S. Marines guarding the embassy evacuated.

73% of Muslims in France consider Islamic sharia law more important than the law of the land

Excerpt: The survey, published by the “Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies”, supported by the Dutch daily De Morgen revealed that half of Belgian Muslims are considered fundamentalists. In reaching this conclusion, the respondents answered “yes” or “no” to three statements: – Muslims must return to the roots of the faith. - There is only one interpretation of the quran. 

One of FBI's most wanted terrorists killed in Philippines

Excerpt: Philippinessecurity forces killed one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists during an otherwise disastrous mission in the south of the country last month, DNA tests indicate.

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


Some not-to-be-missed political news and comment today

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General News and Comment


I have not verified. ~Bob

Worth Seeing: A gold star son, 8-years-old-honors his dad.


Worth Reading: The Destroyer Goeth: Jon Stewart’s shtick is a poor substitute for discourse, but that’s the state of contemporary progressivism. By Kevin D. Williamson

Excerpt: I met Walter Cronkite once. He was a jerk. ... This was about half a decade before his public pronouncements became full-blown bonkers, suggesting to Larry King that Karl Rove was manipulating Osama bin Laden in order to influence U.S. elections. ... Cronkite, for all of his failings and his utterly conventional liberalism, was a real reporter. (And sort of a bad-ass, too, at one point manning a machine gun while covering World War II. I do hope that Brian Williams doesn’t pick up that story, too.) Stewart, who has announced his pending retirement from The Daily Show, is only an intellectual parasite, echoing the conventional liberalism of the old-line media establishment without doing any of the work.

Interesting: Liberalism after Jon Stewart. By David Weigel

Excerpt: This granted Stewart more power than any comparable host. Everyone covered the botched rollout of HealthCare.gov. No one captured the liberal horror at the rollout like Stewart did, when he interviewed then-HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "If you’re a Democrat and you’ve lost Jon Stewart, you have a problem," intoned Chuck Todd and the other authors of NBC News's First Read memo. But that was just it: The assumption was that Stewart would only nail Democrats when they were halfway down the tubes already. The rest of the time, he'd be mocking conservatives, and the worst of the mainstream media; liberals would get dopamine hits from watching the results on TPM or HuffPost.

Worth Reading: Brian Williams’s Truth Problem, and Ours: The NBC anchor’s lies are symptomatic of a culture in which truth has become relativized. By Victor Davis Hanson

Excerpt: Politicians are often the worst offenders. Vice President Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race of 1988 once it was revealed that he had been caught plagiarizing in law school. In that campaign, he gave a speech lifted from British Labor party candidate Neil Kinnock. Hillary Clinton fantasized when she melodramatically claimed she had been under sniper fire when landing in Bosnia. Her husband, former president Bill Clinton, was more overt in lying under oath in the Monica Lewinsky debacle. Former senator John Walsh (D., Mont.) was caught plagiarizing elements of his master’s thesis. President Obama has explained that some of the characters in his autobiography, Dreams from My Father, were “composites” or “compressed,” which suggests that in some instances what he described did not exactly happen.

Brian Williams: Borrowed Scars


Why Indiana’s Mike Pence deserves the trust of conservatives. By George F. Will

Excerpt: Today’s president, whose prior governmental experience was meager and entirely legislative, probably has strengthened voters’ normal preference for actual executives — governors rather than legislators — as chief executives. Governors actually govern, which means continually making choices and compromises. So, with the Republican nominating electorate increasingly persnickety about ideological purity, governors often are more disadvantaged than senators as candidates.

Sweden cuts rates below zero and starts QE

Excerpt: Sweden's central bank has cut its key interest rate from 0% to a record low of -0.1%.
It also launched a programme of quantitative easing, buying government bonds worth 10 billion kronor ($1.2bn) to inject cash into the economy. The central bank, or Riksbank, said that there was a risk that inflation would not rise fast enough. (Huh. They pay you to borrow money? Sign me up. ~Bob)

Student Utters ‘God Bless America’ at Morning Announcements…And Now He’s Getting Punished For It

Excerpt: Upon finishing the announcements, the student added, ‘God Bless America.’ Two atheist students took offense to the statement. A school spokesperson for the NassauCountySchool District said that the student had gone off script and was being reprimanded:

Too funny: Disagreement as Mental Illness: All dissent from leftist orthodoxy is based on irrational “phobias” that must be rooted out. By James Lileks

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/398414/disagreement-mental-illness-james-lileks
Excerpt: Islamist agents will infiltrate every major city in America and Europe, rent some vans, and leave them at major intersections with motor running. Lobbyists will be paid to suggest building coal-fired plants next to Jewish community centers. Polar bears wearing suicide vests will be sent into shopping districts. Taking advantage of the porous border, our e will send in thousands of jihadists who will, under cover of darkness, build the Keystone pipeline

John Kitzhaber planned to resign, changed mind Wednesday, sources say

Excerpt: Gov. John Kitzhaber decided to resign Tuesday but then changed his mind, insisting Wednesday afternoon that he's staying, The Oregonian/OregonLive has learned. Events developed as the Democratic governor, now in a historic fourth term and fighting multiple investigations, faced eroding support from other elected officials and even his own advisers.

Leaders agree to Ukraine cease-fire. By Jane Onyanga-Omara

Excerpt: The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germanyon Thursday announced a cease-fire in eastern Ukrainefollowing marathon talks in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said the agreement envisages the cease-fire starting Sunday, a special status for rebel regions, provisions on border controls and humanitarian issues. But Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the talks did not include any agreement on autonomy or federalization for eastern Ukraine, a longtime demand of Russia. (Peace in our time! Relax, everybody, Putin says we can trust him.Am I cynical for wondering if the ceasefire will last as long as the negotiations did? -- Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

A Blow to Illinois Unions Is a Win for Jobs

Excerpt: While it’s debatable whether anything politically good can come out of Chicago, something good came out of the Illinois state capital of Springfield this week. In a blow to the state’s bloated government unions, newly elected Republican Governor Bruce Rauner signed an executive order Monday allowing state workers to opt out of paying union dues.

Excerpt: A House committee is looking into why Attorney Gen. Eric Holder cut Democratic activist groups in on billion-dollar settlements with big banks. Better late than never — we wondered the same thing six months ago. They say that the wheels of justice grind slowly. But considering the size of this Obama administration power abuse, the probe's delay is disappointing.

Middle School Students Given Explicit ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ Puzzles

Excerpt: Parents in a Monessen, Pennsylvania are irate at school officials after Fifty Shades of Grey-themed word search puzzles were given to their middle school children. In the latest round of controversy regarding the sexually explicit series, several teenaged students were reportedly given word puzzles that included the terms “spanking,” ”submissive,” ”leather cuffs,” and “bondage,” among other words, which are reportedly more explicit.


MyRA or the Highway?

Excerpt: But there are more limitations on the MyRA than the Roth IRA, writes Pam Villarreal, senior fellow at the NationalCenter for Policy Analysis. Roth IRAs established through an investment firm, for instance, can be invested in individual stocks, bonds, cash or mutual funds. The MyRA is limited to Treasury bond investments. Thus, the MyRA has several significant drawbacks: Because the MyRA only invests in government debt (bonds), it is not the wisest choice for workers who have decades before retirement. The MyRA is only available to workers whose employers are set up to make automatic payroll deductions. The MyRAaccount is limited to 30 years or a $15,000 balance, at which time the account must be rolled over into a private IRA. MyRAinvestments will produce rates of return similar to the Government Securities Investment Fund (G) in the Federal Thrift Savings Plan available to federal employees. Since 1987, the average annual rate of return of the G fund has ranged from 1.89 percent to 5.54 percent, depending on the length of time the bond is held.

Obama Charity Tax Proposal: Hurting the Ones Who Love Him, By Howard Husock

Excerpt: For the seventh consecutive year, President Obama has proposed to limit the value of the charitable tax deduction for those who give a disproportionate amount of charitable gifts: high-income donors. Once again, the President, in his budget, has asked Congress to limit the value of a deduction for a charitable gift made by high-income households to 28 percent —despite the fact that the top tax rate is 39.6 percent. The White House justifies its proposal, which would likely mean a multi-billion dollar reduction in charitable giving, on a familiar basis: equity. It would, says the Administration, “make the tax code more equitable because the value of the tax expenditures as a percentage of the deduction is proportional to one’s bracket, so it is less valuable to those in the lower brackets.” Translation: the White House objects to the fact those who earn more get a bigger tax break for giving their money way that those who earn less. (If charity goes down, the government would need to step in--and hire more bureaucrats who vote Democrat. ~Bob)

60 Minutes’ Bob Simon killed in car crash

Veteran CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon, for more than four decades one of America’s most respected journalists, was killed in a crashWednesday night after his limo driver lost control of the vehicle on the West Side Highway. The Lincoln Town Car in which Simon, 73, was riding collided with a Mercedes-Benz, then veered across the roadway and plowed into a pedestrian expansion near 
West 30th Street
 at about 7 p.m., according to law-enforcement sources. The driver of the Mercedes said the black car was veering erratically before the crash.
(First thought: What story was he working on? "Cure for Ebola." Second thought: Did that town car have those new tech items that can be hacked? Third thought; Just an accident? These days..... He survived 40 days in Iraq prison with torture. Not downtown NYC. --Barb)


Wounded Warrior Project sues a veteran critic in GigHarbor. By Adam Ashton

Excerpt: A national veterans nonprofit group is suing a GigHarborveteran in federal court, alleging that the former airman has defamed the organization in articles he posted to several websites. The Wounded Warrior Project is seeking unspecified financial damages from Vietnam veteran Gordon “Alex” Graham in a lawsuit the nonprofit filed in federal court in Tacoma last week. Based in Florida, the Wounded Warrior Project raised $225 million in 2013. It collects funds through a one-time and monthly giving program that has drawn celebrity endorsements, including a recent commercial featuring actor Mark Wahlberg

WWP

If you go to Guidestar.org and register, you can search for the Wounded Warrior Project in Jacksonville, FL. When you find it, you can review their 990 Federal Tax Return. I did a few years ago, but this article made me look at the 2013 tax return. (2014 not in yet.) Here is what WWP reported to the IRS for 2013. Numbers are the line number on their form 990. You can use their reported information to make up your own mind about supporting them:

Part I:

8. Contributions                                  $225,418,220
12. Total Revenue                             $234,682,943

15. Salaries                                          $28,905,282
16. Fundraising Expenses                   $31,740,306
18. Total Expenses                              $158,073,943
19. Revenue less expenses                  $76,609.000
Part VII:

1a. Executive Director                        $375,000 plus $22,490
            (IMHO as a retire non-profit executive, this is not out of line for a budget of this size.)
1d. Highest compensated employees  $2,197,542 plus 195,738
Part IX:

1. Grants to organizations                $16,849,420

2. Grants to individuals                    $853,365

8. Pension Plan                                    $492,470
9. Other employee benefits                 $3,211,519
10. Payroll Taxes                                 $2,722,316
13 Office expenses                             $15,218,191
14. Rent                                              $4,963,052
15. Travel                                            $6,377,433

As an association executive, I filed 990s for 31 years for the associations I managed, and have reviewed a lot of others, competitors, associations we were working with or associations I was applying to. On the WWP 990, I see only Part IX, numbers 1. and 2. as expenses that went to help veterans. If I've missed something, please let me know. That amounts to $17,702,785 out of revenue of $234,682,943. Or 7.5%. On the other hand, Charity Navigator gives WWP three stars (http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12842#.VNzqDfnF_6c) says the WWP spends 57.7% of the revenue on programs for the mission. I would like to know what they count as program expenses--it must include salaries and other overhead to support programs. If you donate $100, and I deliver a $20 meal to the poor and get paid $50 to deliver it, did $20 or $70 of your donation go to feed the poor? ~Bob

WaPo Fact Checker: Obama’s claim that one in five American women has been a victim of rape or attempted rape. By Glenn Kessler

Excerpt: But in this case, the president did not cite the report; he stated it as an actual fact. Granted, he was speaking in a public service announcement, where footnotes and caveats are generally not used. If he was trying to get people’s attention, he certainly did. But by the same token, by citing as fact the results of a survey that may be overstated, the president runs the risk of undermining support for his efforts to call attention to sexual violence.
There’s no such thing as a perfect survey, with completely accurate results — especially when the conclusions are determined by the interpretations of analysts. So the president earns a Pinocchio.

Why am I here?

If anyone ever wonders why I am here in Viet Nam again, below is the answer.

This man has no legs, one arm, and is dying of liver disease. He was so happy to see me that his whole body shook and he had trouble speaking. He hung onto my hand like a drowning man, and tried to talk to me in some bits of remembered English. He wanted to know if I lived in San Jose, because he heard it was very nice there. His wife is the lady looking over my shoulder. She was blown away by having me come visit, with a translator and another old vet. And it was in a way like my first visit, nine years ago, when one of the first men I met was in the same condition, except his liver was OK. And he asked me then for what this man asked for now. A special wheelchair, so it'd be easier for his wife to move him around their little place. And like that last time, I could hardly say no, and he will have his chair right after the holidays are over. This is somehow much more difficult than my other visits. I find myself just sad all the time about what I see here. But that discussion is for another time. I have many more old, disabled vets to see. --Del. (Del is part of the Vietnam Healing Foundation, that helps destitute Arvin vets who supported us, are treated very badly in the new Vietnam. http://www.thevhf.org/www/~Bob)

Vets Group Demands VA Secretary Apologize for Asking Iraq War Veteran, ‘What Have You Done?’By Pete Kasperowicz

Excerpt: A key veterans group on Wednesday demanded that Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald apologize for insulting a member of Congress who just happens to be a 22-year Marine Corps veteran. McDonald got the attention of Concerned Veterans for America during the day when he got angry at a series of questions from Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.). Coffman was asking about the VA’s failed hospital construction project in his home state, when McDonald stunned the room by trying to shift the blame to Coffman.

Why I'm "Insecure" About Homeland Security

Excerpt: I'm not a big fan of Homeland Security. Here's why: The U.S. military are taught from basic training on, throughout their career, that we are to always be subservient to civilian leadership, that our greatest responsibility is to defend our nation, and do so as "citizen soldiers" owing our allegiance to the citizenry we swear an oath to defend. How many know that, except for selective Guard units, and the U.S. Coast guard, Homeland Security is made up of civilian bureaucracies who owe their allegiance only to the mighty U.S. government who issues them a paycheck, and for which no similar set of ethics exists which protects the private citizen from Homeland Security mandates.

Important: World debt is good? By Robert J. Samuelson

Excerpt: Almost everyone wants faster economic growth and lower unemployment. But there's deep division over whether less or more debt is the way to get there. On the facts, there is little dispute. The world has more debt now than at the height of the financial crisis. In a new report, the McKinsey Global Institute — the research arm of the well-known management consulting firm — estimates that worldwide debt rose an astonishing $57 trillion, or 40 percent, from the end of 2007 to mid-2014. As a share of the global economy, debt was 286 percent of gross domestic product, up from 269 percent of GDP in 2007.

Worth Reading: Living in Obama World. By Michael Reagan

Excerpt: Never mind that we're in the slowest economic recovery since FDR's awful policies prolonged the Great Depression. Never mind that the "official" unemployment rate of 5.7 percent is a statistical fraud because it doesn't count the millions who've dropped out of the job market. Never mind that the federal government still spends $486 billion more every year than it takes in and future deficits are projected to be a trillion bucks a year. And never mind that ObamaCare is a fiscal time bomb that's already driven up the cost of health insurance for millions of individuals and small business owners.

Ben Carson Finally Gets Apology from Southern PovertyLawCenter. By Cortney O'Brien

Excerpt: “In October 2014, we posted an ‘Extremist File’ of Dr. Ben Carson. This week, as we've come under intense criticism for doing so, we've reviewed our profile and have concluded that it did not meet our standards, so we have taken it down and apologize to Dr. Carson for having posted it.” (According to his Facebook page, the left-wing atheist who just murdered three Muslim students in NC over a parking dispute was a SPLC fan. ~Bob)

Good News: Philadelphia Selected as 2016 Democratic National Convention Site. By Christine Rousselle

Though I understand they have made some improvement, Philadelphia has long had a reputation as a very expensive convention site, due to union work rules. ~Bob

RNC Honors The Late Edward Brooke At Trailblazer Luncheon. By Matt Vespa

Excerpt: As the Republican National Committee held its 3rd Annual Black Republican Trailblazer Awards luncheon, honoring newly elected members Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX), Rep. Mia Love (R-UT), and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), there was a good portion of the program dedicated to the late. In 1966, Brooke became the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction; a race he won by almost 500,000 votes in a state where blacks were less than three percent of registered voters. (Though he was a liberal Republican, Brooke was smeared and defeated by liberal Democrats in 1978, who didn't worry about the "racism" charge they throw around today. He always helped fellow Republicans, including conservatives. I would likely not have been elected to the state senate without his support. ~Bob)

Interesting: South FloridaSex-Abuse Case Is Hillary's Headache. By Roger Stone

Excerpt: The case is not going away any time soon and Epstein has good reason to worry. Bill and Hillary Clinton are among VIPs who also have reason to be concerned. ... The case, now broken wide open by the exposure of Epstein’s special federal deal, gave the Cassell-Edwards team a green light, and they wasted no time raising the stakes for Epstein. In December 2014 they filed a bombshell pleading in which Jane Doe No. 3, Virginia Roberts, accused Epstein of forcing her to have sex with a number of Epstein’s powerful friends, naming, among others, Prince Andrew and none other than Epstein’s criminal defense mastermind himself, Alan M. Dershowitz. Roberts also named a former governor, former U.S.senator, former prime minister and a Fortune 500 billionaire among those who were supplied under-age girls for sex. ... This is where Bill ... and Hillary Clinton's vulnerability comes in. Former President Bill Clinton visited the hedonistic private island of the billionaire pedophile, according to the New York Post. 

Scott Walker Not Done Collecting Skulls for his Throne. By Leon H. Wolf

Excerpt: After winning two bruising electoral battles in the last 3 years, and making structural changes to Wisconsin’s budget with Act 10, you might be forgiven for thinking that Scott Walker would likely rest on his laurels as he prepares for an anticipated 2016 campaign. You would be wrong. Walker has released his proposed Wisconsinbudget for this year and it is loaded with cuts to liberal sacred cows across the board. Walker’s proposed cuts have once again mobilized the unions against him for planned protests over the weekend. Walkeris yet again showing that where others might prefer the easy road, he almost relishes the opportunity to test his battle mettle.

On the Islamic State: Marco Rubio leads, Ted Cruz postures. By Jennifer Rubin 

Excerpt: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is an expert rhetorician but not much of a leader. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is both. There is no better example than on the authorization for use of force. ... By contrast, Rubio took to the floor to argue: “I would say there is a pretty simple authorization he could ask for, and it would read one sentence. And that is: We authorize the president to defeat and destroy ISIL, period. And that’s, I think, what we need to do.”
           
Idiots--funny but sad: Stunned Vermonters condemn Republican for Latin state motto. Some Vermonters are confused about which language is the most widely used in Latin America.

Excerpt: Residents of Vermontwere outspoken in their response to the suggestion of a Republican state senator to introduce a staid Latin phrase as the second motto of the GreenMountainState. State Senator Joe Benning explained in a newspaper column that he had been asked by a Lyndonville VT middle-school student why Vermont does not have a Latin motto as do the rest of the states of the Union. He wrote that the girl, Angela, had proposed re-adopting the Latin phrase “Stella Quarta Decima,” which was the phrase inscribed on Vermont’s first coin before its admission to the Union. The phrase when translated means, “The Fourteenth Star,” which expressed Vermonters' desire to become the fourteenth of these United States. ... For example, Ronald Prouty Jr. wrote, “No way this is Americanot Mexico or Latin America. And they nee (sic) to learn our language, just like if we go there they want us to speak theirs.” Richard Mason wrote, “We are AMERICANS, not latins, why not come up with a Vermont motto that is actually from us.” Dorothy Lyn Lepisto added, “I thought Vermont was American not Latin? Does any Latin places have American mottos?” (I suppose they USA [E. Pluribus Unum] and the US Marines [Semper Fidelis] are un-American because they have "Latin" mottos? ~Bob)

Gun News

U.S. court rules residency requirements for pistol buys is unconstitutional

Excerpt: A federal district court in Texasoverturned a 1968 gun law prohibiting the sale of handguns to out-of-state residents, granting those who live in Washington, D.C., the ability to travel to an out-of-state gun store, buy a handgun and bring it home without a middleman.
The ruling takes aim at the federal Gun Control Act of 1968, which prohibited handgun sales to out-of-state residents and was defended by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who argued that the law doesn’t violate the Second Amendment.

Race Card News



Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


Administration should fully disclose risks to enrollees in Obamacare exchanges. By John R. Graham

Excerpt: More and more businesses are figuring out that continuing to offer health benefits puts them at a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis firms who socialize the cost of health care by shifting their employees onto Obamacare exchanges. These crafty firms, however, probably don’t realize they are putting their employees at enormous risk. If they are operating in one of 36 states where Obamacare might come to a screeching halt in the second half of 2015, their workers could lose their subsidized Obamacare plans as early as July. This is what will happen if the Supreme Court decides in favor of the petitioner in the Obamacare case of King v. Burwell. This case addresses the question of whether or not the federal government can pay subsidies to insurers in states that did not establish their own health-insurance exchanges.

"You're Greener than Gore" News


Important: Reporters told to stop interviewing 'irrelevant' climate change critics. By Paul Bedard 

Excerpt: A new study of how environmental reporters cover global warming and climate change reveals that they see the issue as one America has endorsed and, as a result, no longer include critics in their reports because they are “generally irrelevant.”
And the orders are coming from editors. What’s more, the study from GeorgeMasonUniversityfound that climate change reporters are weaving their coverage into stories on broader issues to get around editors who don’t want a lot of reports on global warming. The study in the authoritative trade magazine Journalism dubbed getting both sides on the climate change issue “false balance.” The study is available by subscription. (Yep, let's not publish anything from those damn "deniers", because even the President has said the debate is over and 97% of scientists support the whole Climate Change (actually AGW) idea. (Of course, the Prez was as wrong about that statistic as he has been about so many others, but let's not get hung up on details.) This is what is really, really scary about the West today and perhaps the USAin particular. We are woefully short of true investigative reporters and editors who support them. We have bias on bias in the newsrooms and editorial offices, but the result is that the average American gets a lot of stuff represented to him/her as solid fact, that "everybody knows". When way too much of the time the actual subject is much more complex than that, and what people are being given is more misinformation rather than real reporting. If these people continue to get their way and the West gets into the "war on CO2 generation", we will all see a substantial cost to us, in a variety of ways, and of course none of it will have the slightest effect on planetary climate. We can only hope a change in the White House in 2016 may bring a different point of view to bear where it counts. --Del)

Religion of Peace News


Yemen--Obama's success story: Al Qaeda fighters seize Yemenarmy base, U.N. warns of civil war. By Mohammad Mukhashaf

Excerpt: Al Qaeda-linked fighters seized a large army base in a dawn attack in southern Yemen on Thursday, militants and residents said, hours after the United Nations warned that the country was on the brink of civil war. The base in the southern province of Shabwa, housing a brigade of up to 2,000 government soldiers, fell after several hours of heavy clashes, residents and local news sites said. The al Qaeda-affiliated Ansar al-Sharia said on Twitter it had set off a suicide bomb at the gate and imprisoned some of the troops.

Yemen's Houthis confiscate U.S.Marines' weapons. The State Dept. closed and evacuated the Embassy. By Ed Adamczyk

Excerpt: U.S.Embassy vehicles, and the weapons of departing U.S. Marines, were confiscated by Yemen's Houthi rebels, an official at Sana, Yemen, airport said Wednesday. The United States closed its Embassy and recalled its personnel after the government, long a crucial anti-terrorism partner of the United States, was taken over by the rebels, Shiite Muslims in a predominately Sunni nation, who seized control of government offices, including the presidential palace, and dissolved Parliament last week. (Reminds one of the Marines at the Embassy in Iranbeing ordered to stand down under Jimmy Carter. Sickening. ~Bob)

Neighbor killed 3 members of Muslim family near UNC-Chapel Hill campus over parking dispute, police say; murders spark '#MuslimLivesMatter' hashtag

Excerpt: Police say the triple murder of Deah Barakat, 23, his 21-year-old wife Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, Tuesday afternoon was the climax of a long-simmering parking dispute with 46-year-old neighbor Craig Stephen Hicks.
Hicks, an avowed and vehement atheist according to his Facebook posts, appeared shackled and dressed in an orange jumpsuit during arraignment Wednesday when a judge ordered him held without bond until a court appearance March 4. (I have no problem standing this leftist--his Facebook likes include Rachel Maddow and the Southern Poverty Law center--against a wall and will bring my own rifle to shoot him. These appear to be complete innocent kids. But Muslims would have more credibility if they also spoke out about Islamist murders to the same extent. #AllLivesMatter. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: Terrorism Supporters Exploit Chapel Hill Killings. By Daniel Greenfield 

Excerpt: Yesterday an angry leftist supporter of the Ground Zero Mosque shot three Muslims in Chapel Hill, North Carolina over a parking dispute. Jibril Hough, the spokesman for the Islamic Center of Charlotte, called the parking space shooting “domestic terrorism.” Which “domestic terrorist” group did Craig Stephen Hicks, the shooter, belong to? His Facebook likes give us a partial clue. Maybe it was “Liberals Against Conservative Propaganda,” “LGBT Activism” or “The Rachel Maddow Fan Page.” There’s no doubt that the Islamic Center of Charlotte has a great deal of expertise when it comes to terrorism. 

Can you draw? $10,000 Muhammad Art and Cartoon Contest to be Held at Site of ‘Stand With the Prophet’ Conference in Texas. By Bob Price

Excerpt: Pamela Geller is planning a “Draw the Prophet” event in Garland, Texas in the same location as a Muslim group held a “Stand with the Prophet” conference in January. The First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest will be hosted by the CurtisCaldwellCenter, which is owned and operated by the GarlandIndependentSchool District.


The Left and Islam Apologetics. By Stephen Schwartz

Excerpt: For some time, an argument has been made that the liberal left, in refusing to examine the problems of Islam, has betrayed its Enlightenment roots. That is, while secular, feminist, and protective of free speech in dealing with its Western peers, the liberal left has been accused of abandoning its heritage in its quest for political correctness regarding Muslims. In truth, however, the left has a distinguished background of courting Islam as a weapon against Western capitalism. Its most representative figures from the past did so frankly, as the following rehearsal of their statements demonstrates.

Radical Islam Exists: Islamism IS the New Totalitarianism. By Qanta Ahmed

Excerpt: In contrast to others, I confirm Radical Islam exists. Political scientists, including Muslim political scientists, know it as Islamism. Only part of Islamism expresses violence – violence frequently identified as terrorism. Much of Islamism pursues non-violent ambitions devoted to a new but entirely 20thCentury totalitarianism, which is now the preeminent threat of our age. Islamism is the new totalitarianism.

‘We have a problem.’ By Zaid Nabulsi , The JordanTimes

Excerpt: Enough is enough. It is time to speak out. “Islam is innocent” is an incomplete sentence. Introspection is needed, for, if we shy away from reality, the alternative will be more images like those we witnessed last Tuesday night, when brave Lt. Muath Al Kasasbeh was burnt to death in a cage. The inconvenient truth that is overlooked or willfully ignored by apologists for the indefensible is the fact that Wahabism, the cult of mediaeval austerity founded by Ibn Abdul Wahab (1703-1792), has over the last half century been exported to every mosque and school throughout the Muslim world until it completely enveloped mainstream Sunni Islamic teachings.
Wahabism has entirely replaced, and become, Sunni Islam; the two cannot be told apart anymore.

Pope Francis: Plot to bomb Catholic leader by FBI 'most wanted' terrorist during Philippinestrip foiled

Guess they missed the Pope's lecture about Islam being a Religion of Peace. ~Bob

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:



More worth-reading political news and comment

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Update


Review of book I recommend: Spies, operatives and cyberspace

Excerpt: Lazarus Man, By Chet Nagle. Robin Hood used bows and arrows to right what he saw as wrongs. Peregrine Montresor, the protagonist in “Lazarus Man,” uses cyberspace. The story begins with Montresor plotting payback to Stavros Sachs, a billionaire currency speculator who had bet against the Turkish lira, causing it to collapse and nearly bringing down the country’s economy. Riots ensued, during which Montresor’s significant other, a daring young woman news photographer, was killed. ... Chet Nagle is a master storyteller. He creates believable characters and gives their settings verisimilitude. He knows, in detail, the towns, cities, terrain and customs of which he is writing. “Lazarus Man” will leave you pleasantly exhausted.(The Washington Times finally caught up to the Old Jarhead Blog, as I had read and recommended Lazarus Man a few posts back. ~Bob)

True, this.


I managed to get our taxes done and filed Thursday, always a relief. Being retired, with one home, we no longer have enough deductions to itemize. TurboTax says we are due money back. I hope they are right--I didn't expect it. ~Bob

General News and Comment


The American Presidency in 2015: Speak Loudly and Carry a Selfie Stick. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

I suppose we should be thankful the president wasn’t wearing green lipstick during his wacky video forBuzzFeed.
It’s not a silly time. But we have a silly president.
(Some images of the US Commander in Chief in time of war. Just a regular guy -- except when he's wearing his Secret Service sunglasses. Then he is a tough guy. [What does narcissist mean?] --Chet Nagle, Naval Aviator and former CIA agent, author of LazarusMan.)



CNN Notices that President Obama is Practicing Bumper Sticker Politics. By Onan Coca

Excerpt: CNN’s Jim Acosta was on the air with Wolf Blitzer Wednesday afternoon when he couldn’t seem to ignore the fact that the President’s asking for a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force in Iraq sounded a lot like Democrat bumper stickers from 6 years ago. Democrats enjoy pretending that they are “anti-war” but the truth is that they are just as active in the so called “warmongering” as any Republican is. For example, while Obama points to pulling troops out of Iraqand Afghanistan(not really – because we still have soldiers in both country’s) he has also used military force in many more countries than his predecessor did! (This may surprise you but it’s true.) (The problem isn't his using force. It's that he is so ambivalent about it he takes half measures. Gradual escalation--as we learned in Vietnam--and "proportional response" only give the enemy time to grow stronger. ~Bob)

In Iowa, Joe Biden Gives A Shout Out To “An Old Butt Buddy”

The man the impeachment folks want to be the next president. ~Bob

Little League strips Chicago's Jackie Robinson West championship team of title

Excerpt: Little League International has stripped Jackie Robinson West of the national title that the Chicago team won last summer after an investigation revealed it had falsified boundaries to field ineligible players. In a stunning Wednesday announcement that came months after the all-black team, whose ages ranged from 11 to 13 years, captured the attention of the country and the hearts of its hometown, the baseball organization said it also found that after the league had changed the boundaries, some team officials went to surrounding leagues to convince them to go along with what they'd done. (Picture of the Obamas congratulating the team. Cries of racism in three, two, one... I went out for pitcher in LL. I pitched to one batter, the count was 3 and 2, and they pulled me. He swung at two wild pitches. Rest of the time with the oak Valley Phillies, I was a reserve right fielder that they put in when the game was lost. ~Bob)

Gov. Scott Walker's college records are under scrutiny by the media. BHO's records would have been had the media not been told to look away.

Everlasting love: Couple, 98 and 101, celebrate 75 years of marriage

Not political, just a nice story and photo. ~Bob

An Era of Bad Faith Ends. By Daniel Greenfield 

Excerpt: George W. Bush made Jon Stewart. Even Stewart has admitted that his show came into its own when Bush did. A world in which a President Gore spent eight years sonorously lecturing Americans about his love for the trees is also a world in which Jon Stewart would be out there doing pizza commercials. It was Bush’s victory that took a flailing cable show hosted by an irritating little standup comedian with more neurotic tics than a flea-bitten Woody Allen and turned him into the voice of liberalism. 

Democrat takes the hint: Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber announces resignation

Excerpt: When the end finally came, the most ubiquitous politician in the history of Oregonhad all but disappeared from public view. Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) retreated from the State Capitol on Friday afternoon and announced his resignation in a letter, completing the sudden unraveling of his political career. Just one month after becoming the first Oregon governor to start a fourth term in office, Kitzhaber became the first to resign because of alleged misconduct, as he and his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, continue to be investigated for misusing their influence for personal financial gain.

How Hillary Scares Off Elizabeth Warren: Her team is famous for playing mean, and potential competitors are afraid to enter the ring. By John Fund

Excerpt: The Huffington Post average of all polls shows Hillary leading Warrenby a crushing 60 percent to 12 percent. But it’s not only these polls that might be keeping her out of the race. Recall that Barack Obama overcame a similar deficit and went on to win the nomination in 2008.
Warren’s reluctance probably has more to do with the reach and ruthlessness of Team Hillary. “Her command of the Democratic machinery, from fundraising to grass-roots organizing, is so extensive that almost everyone else is understandably intimidated about even testing their talents against her,” the Washington Post observed of Mrs. Clinton.

Your tax dollars at work: Manning goes to the chop shop. By Jonn Lilyea 

Excerpt: I’m sure this wasn’t included in the Military Retirement and Compensation Modernization Commission report, but apparently, according to links sent to us by Andy11M, Ex-PH2 and Hondo, the Army has approved Manning’s trip to the alteration shop; Defense Department officials said Thursday that the hormone therapy was approved Feb. 5 by Col. Erica Nelson, commandant of the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where Manning is serving a 35-year sentence. The treatment would enable the Army private formerly known as Bradley Manning to make the transition to a woman. Manning changed her legal name in April 2014. (In my view, this traitor should be shot, not operated on. ~Bob)

Another blow to NBC News: Burger King refuses to sell rights to use slogan, "Home of the Whopper."

Interesting: The Assassination of Scott Walker By The Coward Liberal Media. By Matt Vespa 

Excerpt: We all knew this was coming: liberal attacks on Gov. Scott Walker for not having a college degree. In 1990, Walkerdecided to drop out of MarquetteUniversity during the spring semester of his senior year - a decision that’s mystified the political left. But then there’s former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who–as Dan wrote–basically questioned Walker’s intelligence: (I believe the last President without a degree was a guy named Truman--who had more courage, and brains in his little figure. Neither Washington nor Lincoln had college degrees. Only Barack compares himself to them. Saw a tweet that said Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee, famous for asking if the Mars Rover could see the flag the astronauts plant on Mars, has a degree. ~Bob)

Media’s Interrogation of Scott Walker on Evolution Is in Bad Faith: It’s not about science. It’s about the culture war. By Jonah Goldberg

Excerpt: “I’m going to punt on that one as well,” the Wisconsin governor replied. “That’s a question a politician shouldn’t be involved in one way or another.” It wasn’t a great answer, though there have been worse ones. But it was also a bad question, even though it’s a favorite among liberal journalists in the U.S., and apparently across the pond, too. That’s not to say Walker is wrong. It’s a pretty stupid issue to get worked up about when considering a presidential candidate. The number of public policies that hinge on whether you believe in evolution — or which theory of evolution you subscribe to — are few to none. (Why does the Left get to pick which issues are the benchmarks for “science”? Why can’t the measure of being pro-science be the question of heritability of intelligence? Or the existence of fetal pain? Or the distribution of cognitive abilities among the sexes at the extreme right tail of the bell curve? Or if that’s too upsetting, how about dividing the line between those who are pro- and anti-science along the lines of support for geoengineering? Or -- coming soon -- the role cosmic rays play in cloud formation? Why not make it about support for nuclear power? Or YuccaMountain? Why not deride the idiots who oppose genetically modified crops, even when they might prevent blindness in children?--Jonah Goldberg, The Goldberg Filehttp://www.nationalreview.com/newsletters)


Both science & my faith dictate my belief that we are created by God. I believe faith & science are compatible, & go hand in hand.

Michael Moore blames Brian Williams scandal on (envelope, please) George W. Bush

EXCERPT: Barack Obama hasn’t blamed George W. Bush in a while for the ills of the world, but that’s probably because the economy has finally begun to rebound — if despite, rather than because of, Obama’s meddling. But that doesn’t mean the “blame Bush” mantra has fallen totally out of favor. Liberal “filmmaker” Michael Moore evoked it again several days ago, opining on his Facebook page that Bush, along with Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, should be held accountable for (wait for it) beleaguered NBC news anchor Brian Williams having lied! (damn--I guessed Global warming. ~Bob)


The Dangers of Obama’s Cognitive Dissonance

Excerpt: There are many moments from the past 6 years that demonstrate the criminal incompetence of this president and his administration. But for me, Obama’s interview with GloZell––whose claim to YouTube fame comes from eating Cheerios in a bathtub filled with milk––represents best the essential emptiness, triviality, and sheer dumbness of this president. Imagine Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938 being interviewed by a carnival geek, and you can gauge just how low the most consequential political office in the world has sunk.

Fighting rages in run-up to Ukraineceasefire

Excerpt: Ukraine and Russian-backed rebels fought fiercely across the east of the country on Friday despite a new peace deal brokered by Germany and France.

Forced Union Dues Have Crushed IllinoisTaxpayers

Excerpt: The power of the unions is reflected in public employee wages: Illinoisgovernment employees earn 26 percent more than their private sector peers, in addition to generous pension benefits. Of course, Sherk notes that such generous benefits has put Illinois' finances in chaos, and, according to Bloomberg, Illinois has less than 40 percent of the money it needs to pay its pension obligations.

Excerpt: Elizabeth Warren’s standing as a liberal warrior immune to the influence of Big Business hasn’t stopped her from pushing the interests of major defense contractors back home. (From left-wing Politico. Wonder if this is a Hillary-protecting hit job. ~Bob)

LIP Funding and the Tallahassee Spin Factory. By Nancy Smith
Excerpt: I know it's all Rick Scott's fault. Tallahassee media tell us that all the time. The broken, the underserved, the polluted springs, the dead kids, the rotten prisons. You name it. If it's bad in Florida -- blame the blaggard Rick Scott. But wait! That's not all this son-of-a-seabiscuit governor has done to us. Now we find out something that happened in Washington is Rick Scott's fault.

Gun News

Excerpt: Vermont folks love their guns, and there are very few restrictions on gun ownership – like Arizona, if you can legally own a firearm, you can carry it concealed without permission from the State. Of course, the handwringers need to change that, despite the fact that the feds have said that Vermontis the safest state in the union in regards to crime. They have introduced Senate Bill 31 to change all of that, according to the Associated – mainly by expanding background checks to include private sales that aren’t between family members. You know, the same thing that Democrats in the US Senate tried last year in an attempt to open a back door to gun registration.

Woman shoots sex offender during home invasion

Excerpt: Upon arrival, deputies found Christopher Ray Foster, 37, of Edgewood, was dead. Investigators determined that Foster was in the process of forcing entry into a side door of the home when the homeowner fatally shot him. (Guess she couldn't find her anti-rape whistle. ~Bob)

Man killed in Owens Cross Roads home invasion identified

Excerpt: According to AL.com's news partner, WHNT News 19, the homeowner told deputies Monday night that at least two men broke into his home, at which time he opened fire in self-defense. 

Jonesboro police release more information about deadly shooting

Excerpt: When officers arrived they found 24-year-old Isaac Bailey had suffered a gunshot wound and other injuries. Bailey was taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to police. Before the shooting, police said Bailey entered the apartment with the "intent to rob the resident of his money."

Race Card News



Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


Government Health Spending Growth Outstrips Private Sector Growth

Excerpt: When the government gets involve in health care, what happens to spending? At the NCPA Health Policy Blog, Senior Fellow Linda Gorman has analyzed public and private health care spending in the United Kingdom and in the United States. The results?
From 2000 to 2012, inflation-adjusted public spending on health care in the United Kingdom increased by 68 percent, while private spending increased by 26 percent during that period. At the same time, the United Kingdomhad a 7 percent increase in population growth. In the United States, public health care spending rose 67 percent from 2000 to 2012. Over that same time period, spending in the private sector rose 44.5 percent. At the same time, the United Stateshad a 9.7 percent increase in population. Gorman says public health spending in the United States includes spending on Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense health program, school health programs, the Children\'s Health Insurance Program, workers\' compensation and more.

Undocumented Democrat News


Illegals-new dem special interest. If they were repub voters border would be tighter than your backside at IRS audit

"You're Greener than Gore" News


Click on image to enlarge--Have Not Verified. ~Bob


Global Warming: Rhetoric versus Reality

Excerpt: Are carbon emissions rising? Bjorn Lomborg, director of the CopenhagenConsensusCenter, says yes. But -- does that mean we're facing a serious global warming problem? Lomborg takes a look at the data and says the reality of climate change is not what global warming alarmists would have you believe. For example: The climate models predicted an 0.8 degree Fahrenheit rise in temperature over the last 15 years. The reality? The temperature rose just 0.09 degrees, 90 percent less than what was predicted by the models. Antarctic sea ice is actually increasing, not decreasing as the models predicted. Sea levels are rising, as they have for years, but not at faster rates. In fact, Lomborg cites two studies indicating that there has been a drop in the rate of sea level rise.

Religion of Peace News


Must Hear: Poem and video of Islam

Made by a girl living somewhere in a Muslim country. Very clear, very disturbing, and of course, if you watch it, you will qualify as an Islamophobe. Just so you know. --Del


Good: Mr. President, Change Your Medium and Palette. By Andy Weddington

Excerpt: Mock red (drawing lines in disappearing ink) and coward yellow (not enforcing red lines) are not effective colors for making the enemy blue and painting them dead. 

Correction to posted article: Marines in Yemendidn't hand over weapons

HEADQUARTERS MARINE CORPS, WASHINGTON — The Marine Security Force left the American embassy in Yemenfor the movement to the airfield as part of the "ordered departure" with only personal weapons. All crew served weapons were destroyed at the embassy prior to movement. None of them were 'handed over' in any way to anyone. The destruction of weapons at the embassy and the airport was carried out in accordance with an approved destruction plan. Upon arrival at the airfield, all personal weapons were rendered inoperable in accordance with advance planning. Specifically, each bolt was removed from its weapons body and rendered inoperable by smashing with sledgehammers. The weapons bodies, minus the bolts, were then separately smashed with sledgehammers. All of these destroyed components were left at the airport -- and components were scattered; no usable weapon was taken from any Marine at Sana'a airport. To be clear: No Marine handed a weapon to a Houthi, or had one taken from him. (Nice to know, but why weren't they evacuated by military airlift so they could take their weapons? Bad planning/no planning on someone's part. --Del)


USpullout from Yemeneases pressure on Al Qaeda, lawmakers warn

Excerpt: The evacuation of American diplomats, soldiers and even CIA operatives from Yemenis stirring deep concerns that the U.S. is losing a vital foothold in territory that the most notorious Al Qaeda affiliate calls home. The White House says Defense Department officials remain on the ground and are coordinating with Yemeni counterparts, but the retreat of most U.S. personnel is seen as a significant setback for what had been a cornerstone of American counterterrorism operations. "Bottom line is increased danger to the United Stateshomeland," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, told Fox News. 

US Official: Us Was Surprised By Collapse Of YemenGovt

Excerpt: The Obama administration's senior counterterrorism official acknowledged Thursday that U.S.intelligence was surprised by the collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Yemen.
Nick Rasmussen, who directs the NationalCounterterrorismCenter, told the Senate intelligence committee that Yemen's American-funded army failed to oppose advancing Houthi rebels in the same way the U.S.-supported Iraqi military refused to fight Islamic State militants last year.

Excerpt: The town of al Baghdadiin Iraq's Anbar province sits close to the Al Asad airbase where over 300 US Marines are stationed.The Islamic State has taken control of large portions of the town of al Baghdadi in Iraq's Anbar province. The town, which is 50 miles northwest of Ramadi, has been under siege for months after the Islamic State launched an offensive in Anbar last summer and took control of the nearby town of Hit. According to Reuters, a district manager said that "Ninety percent of al-Baghdadi district has fallen under the control of the insurgents."

Obama’s Appeasement Crusade: The president’s passive foreign policy is driven by a belief that Americalacks the moral authority to lead. By Charles Krauthammer

Excerpt: His secretary of defense says “the world is exploding all over.” His attorney general says that the threat of terror “keeps me up at night.” The world bears them out. On Tuesday, American hostage Kayla Mueller is confirmed dead. On Wednesday, the U.S.evacuates its embassy in Yemen, cited by President Obama last September as an American success in fighting terrorism. Yet Obama’s reaction to, shall we say, turmoil abroad has been one of alarming lassitude and passivity.

White House Stalled ISIS Rescue. Foley, Sotloff, and Mueller Died.
Excerpt: The U.S.government obtained intelligence on the possible location of American captives held by ISIS in Syria last year, but Obama administration officials waited nearly a month to launch a rescue mission because of concerns that the intelligence wasn’t conclusive and some of it had come from a foreign service, U.S. and British officials told The Daily Beast. British officials, as well as private security contractors, said they were frustrated by Washington’s hesitance to give the go-ahead for a rescue attempt, which eventually was carried out on July 4, 2014, by which time the hostages had been moved. The following month, ISIS began beheading its American and British prisoners in a series of grisly Internet videos. (Obama's song follows. ~Bob)

The Obama Song

No Balls at All - Pirate Invasion of Brig Pub

Excerpt: The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan claimed responsibility for today's suicide assault that targeted a Shiite mosque in the northwestern provincial capital of Peshawar. At least 20 people were reported killed in the deadly attack. Four Taliban fighters armed with assault rifles and suicide vests entered the mosque during morning prayer, according to Dawn. Reports of what happened next are unclear. Pakistani officials claimed that one suicide bomber detonated his vest, one was killed by security forces, and another was wounded and subsequently captured. Witnesses told Dawn that one suicide bomber detonated, while three others opened fire on the crowd. (Muslims killing Muslims for Allah--a centuries old story. ~Bob)

ISIS Fight: Samantha Power Can't Foresee U.S.Ground Forces

Excerpt: Samantha Power, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday that the fight against ISISwill require ground troops, "but they aren't going to be American ground troops.""You have to get the Iraqis and ultimately the Syrian moderate opposition groups up so they can fight the fight on the ground," Power said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe.""There has to be a fight on the ground. You can't do this by air. Everybody acknowledges that." (And if the locals we "put up" lose? ~Bob)

LiberalUniversity used near-Slave Labor? Report Details the Worker Complaints That Blurred N.Y.U.’s Emirates Vision

Excerpt: Among them is New York University, which has settled into a campus built for it — free, thanks to capital from the Emirates and the cheap labor of migrant workers — on an island called Saadiyat, which is being developed by the Emirates as a cultural center and a temple to lavish, luxe, yacht-borne life. Nearly 16 months ago, about 3,000 construction workers on the island went on strike, many complaining that they had not received a wage increase in as long as eight years. They were making around $200 a month.

Excerpt: Eloïse Lagrenée [fr] has posted on her Facebook page a picture by Yemeni photographer Bushra Almutawakel, illustrating how women could vanish into darkness and invisibility, step by step, under fundamentalist pressure and the full niqab. It has been shared over 1,500 times.

Op-Ed: Who Was Kayla Mueller?

Excerpt: Kayla Mueller was a member of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who spent at least two years working with that terrorist support group. She was involved in demonstrations against the Jews in Sheikh Jarrah (part of East Jerusalem) after a 20 year long court decision recognized the Jews' legal rights to homes they were chased from in earlier wars launched by the Arabs. She also participated in demonstrations to interfere with the IDF demolishing the homes of terrorists and suicide bombers after the courts okayed the demolitions. Just as with Rachel Corrie, the press tries to paint Kayla as a selfless volunteer helping poor Arab refugees. She may have helped injured Arabs in "refugee" camps, but she was working to support the goals of Palestinian irredentists and to interfere with the IDF on behalf of terrorist groups. As an ISM activist she was a tool for the worldwide jihad.

Officials: Kayla Mueller May Have Been Given to ISIS Commander

Excerpt: With the confirmed death of Kayla Mueller, new details have emerged about the American hostage’s experience in ISIS captivity, including the belief by some officials that she had been given over to a commander in the jihadi group. "ISISdidn't see her as a hostage or a bargaining chip," a counter-terrorism official told ABC News.

Perilous journey through the reed-beds of Lake Chad to escape Boko Haram

Excerpt: The western shore, now under Boko Haram’s control, is only 30 miles from the eastern coast in Chad. But the journey through a maze of channels, threading their way between islands and reed-beds, takes about 12 hours. Only skilled boatmen can make the passage.

Michael Moore's Favorite War Movie



Where are the atheists? Public School Forces Students to Make Islamic Prayer Rug, Recite Islamic Prayers

Excerpt: Ron Wagner, who said he admittedly doesn’t normally pay as much attention to his son’s school assignments as he should, just happened to read from his son’s world history book a statement which read, “There is no god, but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God.” (Well, no one would complain if they taught the Rosary, right? Ha. I crack me up. ~Bob)

JewHatredOnCampus.Org

Excerpt: We are witnessing a resurgence of global Jew-hatred on a scale not seen since the 1930s when Hitler was making plans for the systematic extermination of European Jews. Today, neo-Nazi groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas are making plans to “finish the job Hitler started.” And at colleges across Americacampus organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Students Association support these homicidal Middle Eastern groups, employing classic anti-Semitic libels in their activism and intimidating Jewish students while calling for the destruction of the Jewish State. Because the anti-Jewish, pro-jihad activities of groups such as the SJP and MSA violate the most basic codes of student behavior promulgated by university administrators, the DavidHorowitzFreedomCenter has launched a campaign to raise public awareness about Jew-hatred on campus.

 

Christians burned alive: The story of Sidhom Bishay. By Raymond Ibrahim
Excerpt: As the world reacts with shock and horror at the recent immolation of a Jordanian pilot at the hands of the Islamic State, it is well to remember that this particular form of savagery has a long history in Islam and under the state. The image to right is of Sidhom Bishay, a Coptic Christian who was immolated in 1844 by local authorities for reportedly “insulting Muhammad,” the prophet of Islam. Today deemed a saint for his martyrdom — he was tortured and eventually immolated with burning tar for refusing to renounce Christ and convert to Islam — his face and body appear frozen in the same position he died in (he turned his head away from the pouring tar and his raised shoulders are indicative of the initial shock of feeling molten tar on his head).

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


A lot of news and comment you'll want to see today

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The Old Jarhead Blog--thanks for following!

I try to make this blog your one-stop-shop for political news and conservative opinion. Founded in October, 2008, it gets 5k to 7k page views a week, most from the US, but hundreds from many countries worldwide. Feel free to post or forward to friends who need to be better informed. The news posts are created from several news feeds, from US and international websites, from twitter when I have spare time to follow it, and by many readers who send me items for inclusion, which I would have often have missed or skipped. We owe them thanks and appreciation. I try to include foreign sources and info you won’t get in the MSM, but I often use links to pieces in the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, Reuters and other left-of-center sources. No one is required to read the blog, or any of the links. Trust me, no one reads everything posted, but scanning the headlines will keep you informed, and you can click on stories you want to know more about. I post articles because I think they are of interest and will stimulate thought and discussion. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article, or that I was able to verify the information presented, which is the responsibility of the author. I try not to post things that are false, too far a stretch, or viciously inflammatory, regardless of the view point. I also try to avoid items that will turn off thoughtful centrists and leftists or low-information independents, including “red meat” pieces with intemperate language or wild speculation, conspiracy theories with no supporting facts and silly distractions like the so-called “birther” issue (which I correctly predicted years ago was going nowhere, and wasted time and energy), but I don’t always succeed. I use maybe 50% of the conservative pieces sent me, probably less than 5% of the liberal opinion sent, usually to illustrate their views. Readers who don’t like that are welcome to start their own blogs. Readers who send formatted pieces (title, link, and a fair-use excerpt of no more than three sentences unless the piece is very short, than fewer) to tartanmarine(at)gmail.com have a higher chance of my using them than people who just send a link. A piece without a link has a much lower chance of being used—it depends on how interesting it is and how much time I have right then to search for it, and my time is limited right now due to managing the lung transplant I received on December 23, 2013, which has developed complications. I understand if you don’t have the time to format or even to find a link—please understand I don't either. I often include thoughtful comments from contributors. (Tell me if you want your full name used.) There are no ads on my blog, no fees and I receive no income from it. Now that I've retired, that might need to change, though I hate the ads on most blogs. For now, that’s how it is. I do promote my books, with the royalties going to charity. As always on the Net, as in the legacy media, you must read these posts critically and with skepticism.

General News and Comment



Worth Reading: Curb your pessimism. By George F. Will

Excerpt: The world might currently seem unusually disorderly, but it can be so without being unusually dangerous. If we measure danger by the risk of violence, the world is unusually safe. For this and other reasons, Americans should curb their pessimism. The Post’s Anne Applebaum recently reminded readers that in three decades of terror the Irish Republican Army murdered more than 2,000. And Italy’s Red Brigades committed many attacks, killings and kidnappings. Both groups had foreign support. The Islamic State is dangerous, but the West has faced, and surmounted, worse. ... An Egyptian diplomat, expressing his nation’s disdain for other Arab nations, once dismissed them as “tribes with flags.” (Maybe so, but it seems to me American's position in the world has been declining over the last six years. We lost the gains in Iraqpaid for in American blood. Iranis ever-closer to being able to nuke New York Cityor Washington, DC. [Jokes aside, that would wreck the country, probably precipitating the collapse I fear.] Libya had been made quiet, is now a terrorist hell hole, thanks to Obama. Yemen, his success story, has fallen to Iran-allied Shi'a, but al Qaeda is on the march there as well. Nigeriamay soon be lost to Boko Haram. The White House has managed to alienate both Egypt and our one true friend in the area, Israel. Saudi Arabia continues to play its double game, and increasingly sees the US as the weak horse. [Obama sees them as an ally in his war on American energy production.] The situation in Syriagrows worse every weak, as we vacillate on bad guys to support; there are no good guys there. China is on the march in the Far East, intent on recreating Japan's "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, and increasingly our allies there are realizing that America burdened by unbelievable debt, including the unfunded liabilities for SS, Medicare, Medicaid, Government Pension promises, Food Stamps and Obamacare--much of that debt held by China--and an increasingly feeble military as defense is cut to pay for free butter, cannot protect them. I think we will start to see them making the best deals they can with the Chinese dragon. And the invasion of illegal aliens intent on colonizing us with the failed culture they fled threatens to destroy the very things they came here for, a fine example of the Tragedy of the Commons. Meanwhile, Americans grow more ignorant of government, politics and current events, and are distracted by political sidelines like Ebola, vaccines and gay marriage, that do not have near the impact on our future that he above issues do. I only fight on because I'm a Marine, and quit wasn't on the curriculum at Parris Island. ~Bob)

FLASHBACK? All Those Times Hillary Clinton Had ‘Brian Williams Moments’ & Nobody Asked Her to Resign. By Kyle Becker

Excerpt: Way back in March 2008, prior to becoming Secretary of State under President Obama, the former Senator of New York conceded that she “did misspeak” about an unbelievably dramatic incident that was supposed to have happened in Bosnia during a visit she had made there in 1996. You see, Mrs. Clinton had once “embellished” her record (for those of us in flyover country, that’s fancy talk for “made up”). In 1996, Hillary Clinton claimed of her Bosniavisit, “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”

I'm shocked! Shocked, I say! Lois Lerner Emails Show Obama’s Justice Department Assisted IRS To Target Conservative Groups

Excerpt: Despite the government’s refusal to release over 800 pages of Lerner communications, some documents that have been released show that she was discussing the targeting of conservative groups with members of the DOJ two years before the IRS even admitted that its actions were improper.

All the Democrats who endorsed and voted for the governor of Oregon knew essentially as much in November as they do now

Oregon's Kate Brown to become first openly bisexual governor. By David McCabe

Excerpt: After Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) officially resigns on Wednesday, the state will become the first with an openly bisexual governor in American history. Secretary of State Kate Brown, the incoming governor, has been involved in state politics for decades. She was first appointed to the state House of Representatives in 1991 and elected a year later. She later rose to the state Senate where she served as majority leader. Brown was elected as secretary of state in 2008. (If I lived in Oregon, this wouldn't bother me at all, though I suspect she would support progressive anti-growth policies that hurt the poor and middle class which would bother me a great deal. ~Bob)

She will also be the first openly bisexual governor that MSM cannot shut up about.



Actually genocide is the easiest way to earn the Nobel peace prize.

Struggling Mother Of Child With Cerebral Palsy Wins $188 Million In Powerball Grand Prize

Excerpt: A struggling North Carolina mother of four who had quit her jobs at McDonald’s and Walmart to focus on taking care of her children, one of whom has cerebral palsy, just found out she has won $188 million dollars in the recent Powerball lottery, WECT.com reports. Twenty-six-year-old Marie Holmes claims that she was not a frequent lottery player, although she did buy tickets from time-to-time when she had some extra money lying around. (I hope she gets some good advice before the sharks attack. ~Bob)


Bush blows away GOP rivals with 2016 war chest

Excerpt: Jeb Bush’s money juggernaut is far eclipsing the efforts of his would-be rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, putting his two political committees on pace to amass an unprecedented sum of tens of millions of dollars by early spring. The former Florida governor’s overwhelming dominance in the race to line up financial backers has come at a speed that has impressed longtime Republican money players, who say wealthy party backers have rapidly migrated to Bush since 2012 nominee Mitt Romney decided against another White House run two weeks ago. (The people who wanted Romney out may have locked in Bush as the nominee. We will see if the Law of Unintended Consequences bites them. ~Bob)

The Hate Crime President. By John Ransom

Excerpt: Over a parking spot, right? Murder? Yes. Hate crime? No. And lawyer Obama should know it. Except for this: One gets the feeling that Obama and the Department of Justice have long planned for a scenario where innocent Muslims would face a backlash over continuing Islamic violence aimed at Western societies.

Good Article Written by the AFL-CIO President... Seriously. By Nick Sorrentino 

Excerpt: However, a new and outrageous wrinkle has gained increasing prominence on Wall Street: the acceleration of equity awards for executives who voluntarily resign to enter government service. ... Government-service golden parachutes raise troubling questions. How do Wall Street banks benefit from giving their executives a financial incentive to enter government service? Do they expect to receive favorable government treatment from their former executives? And if not, why should bank shareholders be asked to bear the cost of such golden parachutes?

Trucker Catches a Girl’s Face Peeking Out of RV Window. What He Saves Her from is Beyond Horrific.

Excerpt: “I saw a guy come up and knock on the door then go inside the Pilot–then quickly came back and knocked again, all of the sudden the thing was rocking and rolling.” Kimmel, a veteran trucker, said it was a no brainer what was going on, so he dialed deputies. When the authorities arrived, they arrested a couple who had been forcing a 2o-year-old girl into sex slavery. The girl was malnourished and tortured by her captors.

Journalism today: Write something historically sub-literate and myopic, oblivious to other points of view, then be confused at criticism.


Sweden: Rape Capital of the West. By Ingrid Carlqvist and Lars Hedegaard

Excerpt: Forty years after the Swedish parliament unanimously decided to change the formerly homogenous Sweden into a multicultural country, violent crime has increased by 300% and rapes by 700%. Sweden is now number two on the list of rape countries, surpassed only by Lesothoin Southern Africa. Significantly, the report does not touch on the background of the rapists. One should, however, keep in mind that in statistics, second-generation immigrants are counted as Swedes. In an astounding number of cases, the Swedish courts have demonstrated sympathy for the rapists, and have acquitted suspects who have claimed that the girl wanted to have sex with six, seven or eight men. (Multi-Culturalism Mega Fail. --Lauren.)

Has the minimum wage kept up with inflation? By Paul Guppy, WPC Vice President for Research

Washingtonstate’s inflation-adjusted minimum wage is 125 percent higher today than when it started. Based on when it started, the inflation-adjusted minimum wage in 2014 would be $4.20 an hour. Washington’s minimum wage is tied to inflation and rises automatically every January 1st. Washington’s automatic minimum wage increases are tied to the highest measure of inflation in the state; the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners in Seattle. The real minimum wage for many people is zero, because they can’t get the skills or work experience to compete for jobs at the state-mandated level.


A rare photo of Lincoln taken with war correspondent Brian Williams after his horse was hit by a Confederate bullet. 


Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written Constitution. Let us not make it a blank paper by construction. - Thomas Jefferson

Gun News


Kris Held, MD in Texas. Two shots. 410 followed up by .45


Concealed Carry Can Help Reduce Sexual Assault at Universities. By Gabriella Hoffman

Excerpt: In a time where sexual assault is on the rise at American universities, it's important to curb this trend by effective means. How can universities best address and eradicate the threat of sexual assault on campus? Allow concealed carry on campus. (Gun-free zones are really criminal empowerment zones, where criminals know their law abiding victims will be unarmed. ~Bob)

Ruidoso man shoots would-be burglar; another suspect has not been arrested yet

Excerpt: The department reports that Saiben R. Gabaldon, who was born in 1992, and another man kicked in the door to a home in the 100 block of Sunny Slope Drivein Ruidoso while the homeowner was there with his young child. The homeowner, who had armed himself with a .45 caliber pistol, confronted the two men inside the home. The homeowner, fearing for the safety of himself and his child, fired one round at Gabaldon, striking Gabaldon in the back of the left leg. The other unknown male fled the scene and was not located. (Homeowners needs more time at the range. ~Bob)

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


Rep. Mia Love on the floor discussing healthcare


Last-minute glitch ahead of Sunday ACA deadline

Excerpt: As the clock ticked toward the Sunday night deadline for Obamacare's 2015 enrollment, federal officials on Saturday grappled with a glitch that prevented people from getting their income verified so they could sign up for insurance. Federal and state officials had said they were prepared for a last-minute surge in Affordable Care Act sign-ups. But some consumers were unable to submit their applications because of "intermittent issues" with the external income verification sources used by HealthCare.gov, . Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Katie Hill said Saturday afternoon.

Undocumented Democrat News


IRS: Illegal Immigrants Who Didn't Pay Taxes Could Get Refunds

Excerpt: Illegal immigrants who have never paid taxes can now claim tax refunds due to President Barack Obama’s executive action, the IRS commissioner admitted. Commissioner John Koskinen said that no one bothered to ask what the tax implications of Obama’s sweeping action on illegal immigration could be. About 7,000 undocumented workers pay taxes using a current taxpayer ID. Now, 7 million illegal immigrants can apply for work permits and Social Security numbers, making them automatically eligible for earned income tax credit. (This kind of thing will bring a rise in tax evasion. ~Bob)

"You're Greener than Gore" News


Global Warming was NEVER Scientific. By Paul Benedict 

Excerpt: A Philosophy of Science: Part I. All anyone has to do to get an American to believe any absurd lie is to hire some “scientist” with alphabet soup behind his name, put him in a white lab coat, and have him utter: “Science conclusively shows that…” Then name the absurdity: “the sky is green,” “toothpaste causes tooth decay,” or “fungi have an I.Q. equal to baboons.” The idiot American will wander off marveling and willing to vote for more limited economic conditions or to have fungi teach in the public schools. Americans, and the West in general, can be excused to an extent for this naiveté about the claims of “science” because they are surrounded on every side with evidence of the power of science.

Religion of Peace News



Must Watch: Bill Warner, PhD: Jihad vs. Crusades


And seriously, reporters, what's up with this "the Prophet Mohammed" business? Would you ever use "the Savior Jesus Christ" in a story?

ISIS Fighters Attack Iraqi Base Wearing Iraqi Army Uniforms

Excerpt: Between 20 and 25 ISIS fighters wearing Iraqi Army uniforms infiltrated al-Asad airbase Friday -- the sprawling western Iraqi base where 400 American forces are training Iraqi troops -- and tried to enter the base, military officials said. The ISIS fighters were killed as Iraqi forces repelled the attack, officials said, and no U.S. military service members were affected by the attack.

All murder is a hate crime. No need to investigate it. They got the guy. I say try and execute him if found guilty. Will the left support the death penalty for this left-wing atheist? And, you can check with the FBI--hate crimes against both Jews and gays far exceed those against Muslims. Lot's of hate crimes against whites as well, though often not labels as such. ~Bob


Chapel Hill Shooting Suspect a Fan of Left Wing Hate Group SPLC. By Kristine Marsh

Excerpt: A quick trip to the Craig Hicks's Facebook page reveals that not only was Hicks a fan of the SPLC, he was a self-described “militant atheist”- with numerous photos, memes and posts mocking Christianity. Some posts call God a sociopath and call Christianity a “pyramid scheme.” His other Facebook likes include the Neil DeGrasse Tyson television show “Cosmos,” famous British atheist Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Sarah Silverman, Friedrich Nietzsche, The Huffington Post, LGBT Ally groups and various other progressive fan pages. ... Hicks isn’t the first SPLC fan to turn violent. In 2012, the group’s “Hate Map,” which lists the addresses of various groups SPLC claims are right-wing extremists, inspired a gunman to enter the Family Research Council in 2012 and attempt to kill everyone in the building.

CNN reports Islamic center fire intentional; ‘Tea party members are out here killing innocent people’

Excerpt: CNN’s Erin Burnett is reporting Friday night that the fire that broke out at Quba Islamic Institute in southeast Houston early Friday morning was set intentionally, at least according to a preliminary investigation.


US Apache Helicopters Attack ISIS Base: Report

Excerpt: American helicopters engaged Islamic State group fighters in Iraqon Friday, according to CNN’s Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto. The deployment of helicopter gunships comes days after U.S. President Barack Obama submitted a request to Congress for authorization to wage war against the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.

Muslims exercising the multicultural veto on speech:1 dead as Copenhagencops hunt for gunmen in apparent-terror attack on free-speech event

Excerpt: Copenhagen police launched a frantic search Saturday for two gunmen with automatic weapons who opened fire on a cafe hosting a free speech event organized by a controversial Swedish artist who has faced threats for his caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Police said the two suspects drove away in a dark Volkswagen Polo after they sprayed the Krudttoenden cafe with some 30 bullets, killing a 40-year-old man. The shooting also slightly injured three police officers. The artist, Lars Vilks was not hurt, the Danish news network, thelocal.dk, said, citing media reports. (You are allowed to offend Jews, Christians, Buddhists or any religion except Islam. They will kill you, thus the progressives will stop you from speaking on safety grounds. ~Bob)


No Surrender: ISISCaptures 17 Soldiers and Plans Brutal Murders in Same Way as Last Execution They Carried Out on Video

Excerpt: ISIS has released a new video of a parade with seventeen humans in cages, which shares way too many similarities with how Jordanian pilot Moaz Al-Kasasbeh was burned alive.
The video reportedly takes place in Kirkuk, Iraq. The people in the cages are members of the Kurdish Peshmerga, a well-trained group whom ISIS has been fighting since they invaded Iraq in June of 2014. (People fighting American Indians knew that the routinely tortured captives to death for entertainment, so saved the last bullet for themselves, as the leaders of the Fetterman disaster reportedly did in1866. This will have to be the rule for those fighting ISIS. ~Bob)

Israeli Political Commercial



Click on image to enlarge.

Turkish police use water cannon on protesters decrying religion in schools

Excerpt: Turkish police used water cannon in the western coastal city of Izmiron Friday to disperse scores of protesters boycotting schools over the growing influence of religion in the classroom, local media reported. Education is the latest flashpoint between the administration of President Tayyip Erdogan, and secularist Turks who accuse him of overseeing creeping 'Islamisation' in the NATO member state.

Everything We Know So Far About The Alleged Chapel Hill Shooter

Excerpt: Craig Hicks was charged with first-degree murder Wednesday. He has shared many atheist and anti-religious posts on Facebook. He appears to have defended Muslims and freedom of religion in past online comments. .. " Beyond that though after being in D.C. for a decade and knowing several dozen Muslims for most of that time I can say that they aren’t what most think of them. In fact, I’d prefer them to most Christians as I was never coerced in any way by the Muslims to follow their religion, which I cannot say about many Christians."

Pakistan: Sunni Muslims attack Shi’ite mosque, murder at least 20 people #Muslimlivesmatter. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: Three Muslims were murdered by a psychopath enraged over a parking space in North Carolina, and Muslims all over are tweeting #Muslimlivesmatter. Will they get similarly outraged over this, and start to address the theological foundations of the Sunni-Shi’ite dispute, so as to try to prevent further bloodshed? Will they begin to work toward reform and rejection of the understandings of Islam that incite Muslims to violence?

Libya: Islamic State of Tripolimurders 21 “humiliated followers of the Coptic church” #Christianlivesmatter. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: In North Carolina, a psychopath murdered three Muslims over a parking space, and we are admonished that #Muslimlivesmatter, and there are new calls for restricting speech that examines how Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism. About this incident, in contrast, there will be no such outrage, and no calls to restrict anti-Christian hate speech. Do #Christianlivesmatter? “Isis horror, 21 Christians slaughtered in Libya,” ANSAmed, February 13, 2015:

'Half of names of Gaza journalist casualties are terror operatives, or members of Hamas media'

Excerpt: Almost half the names that appear on a Palestinian list of journalists killed during last summer’s conflict with Israel actually belong to Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives and members of Hamas media outlets who were involved in Gazan terrorist organizations, a new report has found.

U.N. Report: ISIS Enticing Young Recruits with Christian Sex Slaves. But they are just "JV" right? By Trey Sanchez 

Excerpt: According to a newly released U.N. report, ISIS is auctioning off nearly 500 women and girls trafficked from Christian and Yezidi communities to entice young recruits from Iraqand Syria. The 29-page report states: Women and girls are brought with price tags for the buyers to choose and negotiate the sale. The buyers were said to be mostly youth from the local communities. Some of the women are also being offered to current ISIS fighters as rewards. The report also states that ISIS is executing professional and political women.
           
Border Patrol Agents Catch Middle Eastern Man Sneaking Into Texas

Excerpt: The arrest took place earlier this week just south of the border city of Pharr, where an agent took into custody a man from a Middle Eastern country, a border patrol spokesman confirmed to Breitbart Texas. 


WARNING--VERY GRAPHIC: Islam

“I know it is not Islam, but Muslims do not protest and our leaders still are in extremely good contact with those countries that supply weaponry and support those beasts !” -- Sent by a Belgian friend to a blog reader. (This is as bloody ad graphic as it gets. ~Bob)

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


Lots of important political news and conservative comment today

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Update


My granddaughter, Britnye and her boyfriend, Shane, both 14. I suggested we invite them over for dinner and he could help me clean my guns....


We picked up a nice framed print of "The Tempest" by John William Waterhouse (1916) Sunday for $10.50 at a thrift shop. Checked on line. Plain print run around $48, while framed ones were going for $465. Cheap art. ~Bob


General News and Comment



Worth Reading: Scott Walker's national education effect: Column. The college dropout governor may bring reality back to an Ivy League-suffocated government. By Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Excerpt: A lot of people don't know much about him yet, and he may not even be running, but if Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is elected president in 2016, he'll immediately accomplish something that no other candidate being talked about can: He'll lay to rest the absurd belief that you're a nobody if you don't have a college degree. And he might even cut into the surprisingly recent takeover of our institutions by an educated mandarin class, something that just might save the country. Though Walker attended Marquette University, he left before graduating, which has caused some finger-wagging from the usual journalistic suspects. After all, they seem to believe, everyone they know has a college degree, so it must be essential to getting ahead. As the successful governor of an important state, you'd think that Walker's subsequent career would make his college degree irrelevant, but you'd be wrong.


NYT columnist blames Scott Walker for teacher layoffs … that occurred before he was governor

Excerpt: But the big error in Collins’s piece is her claim that “those layoffs happened because Walkercut state aid to education.” As you can see in the excerpt above, Collins is talking about teacher layoffs that occurred in 2010. Walker did not become governor until 2011. 


Jeb Bush hands out cash to win allies ahead of 2016 election. By Andy Sullivan

Excerpt: Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said on Friday he is giving out more than $100,000 to fellow Republicans, in a sign that he is banking on his fundraising prowess to build allies across the country ahead of a potential White House bid. The brother of former President George W. Bush and son of former President George H.W. Bush has emerged as an early frontrunner in what could be a crowded Republican field in the 2016 presidential election.

Hackers Steal $1 Billion in Massive, Worldwide Breach

Excerpt: Hackers have stolen as much as $1 billion from banks around the world, according to a prominent cybersecurity firm. In a report scheduled to be delivered Monday, Russian security company Kaspersky Lab claims that a hacking ring has infiltrated more than 100 banks in 30 countries over the past two years. (Right out of the novel I just read, Lazarus Man by Chet Nagle. http://amzn.to/1G6S0iQ~Bob)


Isolated? Russia to Close on Huge, Multi-$Billion Deal to Build 20+! Nuclear Plants in India

Excerpt: Russiamay set up a total of 20-24 nuclear energy units in Indiaagainst previously agreed 14-16 plants as both countries are likely to come out with a roadmap for cooperation in the crucial energy sector during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Delhifor annual summit talks on Thursday. (Oops! The Russia-isolating oligarchs forgot about India (and Egypt, where Russia is building 4 nuke plants, and Iran, which just signed a huge arms deal with Russia, and China, which will finance Russia as needed and has signed a huge gas pipeline deal,-- oh and Turkey, which has signed a huge gas pipeline deal, -- oh, and Europe and most of Asia, which are helping de-dollarize world trade, etc, etc). Gulp! NOW what? Could it be that Washingtonis isolating itself? --Don Hank)


Obama Routinely Breaches Bipartisan Deals. By Stephen Moore 

Excerpt: Among so many of President Obama’s flaws, near the top of the list is that he has never understood the art of the deal. Every successful president has cut deals with the other party to strategically advance his own agenda. Give a little, get a little. Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Reagan and Clinton were masters at this aspect of politics. Obama rejected the convention of reaching across the aisle from the very start. In his first two years in office this White House never moved an inch in the GOP’s direction and passed his major bills on stimulus and Obamacare without a single Republican vote. Those bills were written with zero input from Republicans and when asked why, he haughtily lectured “we won the election.” Then he pouts the Republicans were no help.

Worth Reading: 6 Reasons Why 'Starship Troopers' Is the New 'The Art of War.' By Joe Pappalardo

Excerpt: Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, published in 1959, is aging remarkably well. The tome chronicles the early military career of Johnnie Rico, who fights alien arachnids while clad in a heavily armed exoskeleton. The troopers drop from orbit one by one to wreak havoc on whatever target the Sky Marshal deems worthy of the attention. It's a cool adventure novel with a soldier's eye view that doubles a treatise on modern warrior culture, the limits of military technology, and the awful glories of fighting infantry. There's a reason military academies like West Point recommend cadets read the book. Like Sun Tzu's masterpiece, Heinlein's abounds with quotable axioms. You may not hear overly intense car salesman quoting from Starship Troopers anytime soon, but here are six reasons why the book is a practical guide to 21st century warfare. (Nice article. I read all of Heinlein's books as a kid and young man, and they weren't just entertainment, they were very educational. The article gives great examples of this. --Del. I also read every Heinlein book starting about 8th grade. Starship Troopers is one of my favorites, though I have always thought Time Enough for Love was his best. I recommend Riding the Red Horse[Kindle only] to Heinlein/Pournelle fans. ~Bob)


Obama Betrayal: Effort to Snatch $10 Billion From Veterans. By Betsy McCaughey

Excerpt: President Obama and the Veterans Administration bureaucracy are already sabotaging the VA reform law passed in August. The ink is barely dry on the 8.6 million "Choice Cards" that supposedly allow vets to see a doctor outside the delay-plagued system. Obama’s budget tries to snatch the $10 billion allocated for the Choice program and allow it to be spent however VA top administrators want. It’s a sickening betrayal. Even worse, VA secretary Robert McDonald is telling federal lawmakers that this underhanded move will better serve "VA system priorities." That’s the problem. He’s more interested in protecting "the system" than vets. It’s all about bureaucratic turf and union jobs. (Don't you just love how fast the politicians can turn around to wipe out the special benefit they were pressured to come up with for vets, after the debacle of vets dying while waiting for appointments? They have no shame at all. --Del)

Fox 5 San Diego mistakenly displays image of President Obama instead of rape suspect

Excerpt: KSWB-TV, also known as Fox 5 San Diego, displayed a picture of Obama speaking at a microphone rather than art of a suspect in a rape case in a report during its newscast on Friday night. The image, which included a caption that read “no charges,” appeared on a screen behind anchor Kathleen Bade for about five seconds. Bade's report discussed how the office of San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ has declined to prosecute a person of interest in a rape case, the Raw Story blog reported. The sexual assault case involved students at San DiegoStateUniversity. (Someone will be fired for not knowing the difference between Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. --TH)

Very Important: Demographic Trends Forecast Next Phases for ChinaIndia, and the United States

Excerpt: The U.S. fertility rate is just at the level that presages natural replacement in the long run, before immigration is factored in (see Figure 3). Israel is the only country among the world’s affluent nations whose fertility rate is more than high enough to reproduce its population. All other rich countries will experience inevitable declines in their native cohorts if current fertility rates continue. Moreover, because these rich states have had below-replacement fertility rates for well over a generation, the size of their child-bearing cohort has been correspondingly reduced, which means that even a return to relatively high fertility rates is unlikely to restore native population levels anytime soon. (Europe and Americawill still be here in 50 years, but they will no longer resemble at all western civilization as we have known it, and as hundreds of millions of folks have benefited from in freedom from want, freedom from oppression and longevity. ~Bob)

Worth Reading: : The Age of Uncertainty: A 22-year-old can go from raising children to being a child by crossing the street onto a college campus. By Kevin D. Williamson

Excerpt: ‘If students want to learn biology and art history in an environment where they needn’t worry about being offended or raped, why shouldn’t they?” It takes a certain sort of academic mind to write that sentence — as though being offended and being raped were in the same continuum of experiences — and Eric Posner of the University of Chicago Law School has just such a mind. Professor Posner, taking a very broad view of universities’ obligation to act in loco parentis on behalf of college students who are, in his view, still children, argues in Slate that campus speech codes and micromanagerial rules of student conduct are desirable inasmuch as college-age people cannot be trusted to behave like adults: (I was 21 when I came home from Vietnam, 22 when I started college, 26 when first elected to the state senate and 34 when I earned my master's degree going nights. and, BTW, it's only prohibited to offend certain people on campus. offending Christians, Jews, conservatives, hunters, rural people or mountain folk is perfectly acceptable. ~Bob)

Obama's day: Return from California

Excerpt: President Obama is spending most of Monday's Presidents Day in sunny Californiabefore returning to the White House. Obama, who spent a golfing weekend in the Palm Springs area, isn't scheduled to leave California until around 1:25 p.m., West Coast time. (If the Islamic State has any members who are caddies, our president will find them. -- Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

Interesting: Mounting debt in the West makes the world a colder and darker place. By Dan Hannan

Excerpt: Three news items which you may have missed last week, what with everything going on in Ukraineand Syria. First, Greece ostentatiously disavowed an EU communiqué that criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s support for the Donetskrebels. Second, Cyprusoffered military and naval facilities to Russia. Third, Egypt applied to join the Eurasian Economic Union. These three snippets are worth pondering, not least because they help explain what’s going on in Ukraine and Syria— or help explain, at any rate, why bands of militiamen from Donetskto Damascus feel they can breezily take on the United States. Let’s consider them in turn.

Wait, Williams Said He Flew Into Baghdad With Seal Team Six. By Matt Vespa

Excerpt: I thought we were done with Brian Williams; he’s been suspended and “real news” has ended…for those in liberal fantasyland. Yet, there’s one more incident that’s even more absurd than the “RPG-hitting-my-Chinook” story, which never actually happened. The embattled anchor claims that in 2003, he flew into Baghdad with Seal Team Six–the guys who killed Osama bin Laden (via CNN): ... CNN analyst Peter Bergen said on "Anderson Cooper 360" that he was told by sources in the Seal community that it would be impossible for Williams to have ever traveled with Seal Team 6. "We do not embed journalists with any elements of that unit ... bottom line -- no," one Special Operations Command official said.

Gun News

ATF Aims to Ban Popular AR-15 Ammo

Excerpt: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives issued a white paper to determine whether certain ammunition is “primarily intended for sporting purposes.” At issue is 5.56mm M855 ammo, which is considered “armor piercing,” and therefore the ATF says it’s of questionable merit for the average citizen. The ATF will accept comments until March 16, but, if the bureau carries through as it intends, the net effect would be a ban on one of the most common and affordable types of military surplus AR-15 ammo. ("Step by step, row by row, going to make your Second Amendment go..." ~Bob)

Homeowner who used a gun to stop a burglar breaks his silence

Excerpt: Rodriguez had reason to feel threatened. We tracked eight previous home burglaries near his west mistletoe avenue home. He says he grabbed his 9mm Smith and Wesson to stop the intruder in his tracks. "I practice at the range doing five shot bursts and lucky for him I only shot twice." He then used his cell phone to dial 911. When officers arrived 35-year old Rudy Perez was taken to the hospital and eventually charged with burglary. 

Bloomberg to Aspen Institute: Don’t Distribute The Footage Where I Said Let’s Take Guns Away From Minorities. By Matt Vespa

Excerpt: Three-term New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is asking the Aspen Institute not to distribute footage from his appearance last week, which included remarks about minorities and gun control. Both Aspen and Grassroots TV, who recorded the event, are going to honor the former Mayor of New York’s wishes... (Since he's a liberal, there will be no blowback from Obama, Sharpton or Jackson. ~Bob)

Race Card News


As Predicted: Big League Kids, Little League Adults

Excerpt: Enter those with no integrity at all: “Is this about boundaries or race?” wondered professional agitator Jessie Jackson. “This decision’s untimely and inappropriate at this time,” Jackson added. “It should not take six months after a team has played a championship game to determine eligibility to play the game in the first place.” (okay, it doesn't make me a genius to have predicted Jackson's remarks. the race baiters ALWAYS cry racism where they can find a black victim and a white perpetrator. Since the vast majority of black victims are victimized by other blacks, where there is no money to be made protesting, they have to look extra hard to find racism. probably looking for a little league payoff, as he does with corporations. Just as he blackmailed bud into making his [now convicted felon] son rich with a beer distributorship. ~Bob)

Reflections during Black History Month: How Government Policy Affects Quality, Affordable Housing

Excerpt: In honor of black history month, the NCPA has compiled a list of well-intentioned government policies that have actually hurt black Americans. Consider what government has done to limit the supply and available of affordable, quality housing:

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


Excerpt: Others are touting that Obamacare must cover pre-existing conditions, but they fail to mention the high premium costs that come with that coverage. Due to my diabetes and high blood pressure along with my wife’s irregular heartbeat, a cheap bronze plan which would only pay 60% of our medical costs after we paid our $4,000 deductible would cost us $816 a month. That’s a house payment and far more than we can afford, hence we will pay the mandated fines for being uninsured.

Excerpt: The Dartmouth Institute maintains that large variation in the use of various medical procedures demonstrates the inefficiency inherent in the way that the U.S. health care system is organized. The mere fact that variation exists also means that the U.S. system is inequitable. If procedure rates vary, some people have too little access to medicine while others have too much. ... If one believes these claims, then the solution to U.S.health care spending is to remove decision making power from individual patients and physicians. Instead, government should have the power to forcibly equalize treatment and resource use everywhere in the country. Fortunately, a large amount of evidence suggests that the Dartmouth Institute interpretation leaves much to be desired and that it is possible that government control is more likely to be the problem than the solution.

Undocumented Democrat News



Boehner: House ‘Has Done Its Job,’ Homeland Security Funding Up to Senate Democrats

Excerpt: During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said he is “certainly” prepared to allow the agency to shut down because Senate Democrats “would be to blame.” The Homeland Security funding bill passed by the House on Jan. 14 also includes language undoing the president’s executive actions on immigration. Senate Democrats say they want a “clean” funding bill that doesn’t defund Obama’s orders. (Hard for Congress to stand firm when the media is shilling for the President with the low-information voters. ~Bob)

"You're Greener than Gore" News


Schadenfreude: It’s Too Cold To Protest Global Warming At Yale

Excerpt: Yale anti-fossil fuel campaigners have indefinitely postponed a protest that was set for this weekend due to “unfavorable weather conditions and other logistical issues.” Fossil Free Yale, a group pushing the university to divest itself from fossil fuels, told the Yale Daily News that frigid, snowy weather set for this weekend will mean their global warming protest will have to be postponed.

Interesting: Kitzhaber and the Greedy Greens: Energy isn’t the only thing that’s green when you’re pushing the clean-energy agenda. By John Fund

Excerpt: If oil companies and pharmaceutical concerns shouldn’t exercise undue influence in government, the same is true for green energy — which can’t yet survive in the marketplace without giant subsidies or special tax favors. While Hayes was living in the governor’s mansion with the self-bestowed title of “Oregon’s First Lady,” she collected a series of consulting contracts and “fellowship” money from people with an interest in shaping state energy and environmental policy. She then ordered state employees to help run her private business and take actions in accord with the wishes of the green-energy groups that were paying her.

EPA’s mercury rules: Dumb and dumber. By Pat Michaels

Excerpt: This year, the Supreme Court is going to review the Environmental Protection Agency’s outrageous rules for mercury emissions from power plants, and hopefully SCOTUS will see through the Agency’s patently absurd reasoning. The EPA’s mercury rule is yet another example of the Obama administration’s extreme bending of the law in service of its perseveration on global warming. In this case, the point of regulating mercury emissions—which are miniscule—is to further the administration’s goal of shutting down every coal-fired power plant in the country, even though they currently supply about 40 percent of our electricity. 

Delaying Keystone Means More Carbon Emissions

Excerpt: The Keystone XL pipeline bill is heading to the president's desk for his signature -- or his veto. Doug Hochberg and Sang Kim of the American Action Forum have broken down the numbers on the Keystone delay. The result? Higher carbon dioxide emissions and fewer jobs. ... Much opposition to the pipeline has centered on environmental objections, despite that the president's own State Department has indicated the pipeline would have no impact on carbon pollution. As long as the project is delayed (thus requiring oil transport via rail car), 7.4 million additional tons of carbon dioxide will be released into the atmosphere.

Religion of Peace News


Libya: ISIS Beheads 21 Christians, Promises To ‘Conquer Rome, By Allah’s Permission

Excerpt: The Islamic State terror group released a video on Sunday showing the Islamic jihadis beheading 21 Egyptian Christians who were previously kidnapped in Libya. The Egyptian Copts, who were dressed in prisoner-like orange jump suits, were lined up along a beach and abruptly beheaded in the graphic five-minute video.

Excerpt: One of the Islamic State's so-called "provinces" in Libyaclaims to have captured the town of Nawfaliyah. The group has released a photo set showing a large convoy entering the town. The military-style parade likely took place earlier this month. One of the photos can be seen above and the rest are at the end of this article. In addition to the jihadists' purported gains in Nawfaliyah, the organization's fighters seized several key buildings, including radio and television stations, in the city of Sirte. Separate photos posted on social media show the Islamic State's province broadcasting propaganda from one of the captured media facilities. The WAL News Agency in Libyareports that the radio station has been broadcasting a speech by Abu Muhammad al Adnani, the Islamic State's spokesman.

Egyptian, Libyan airstrikes on ISIS targets in Libya after terrorists behead 21 Copts

Excerpt: Egypt’s Air Force has hit Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) positions in Derna, Libya, after the execution of 21 Christian Egyptians by the terrorist group. Libyan forces loyal to the authorities have also targeted the IS in the country, a commander said. Up to 50 militants have been killed in the airstrikes on Libya, Egyptian state TV reported. Egypt’s military has issued a televised statement, confirming the dawn strikes and stating that the attacks targeted IS camps, training sites and weapons storage locations in Libya, Reuters reported. (Obama issue his usual statement that terror is bad, but al-Sisi bombed the crap out of the bad guys in Libya who killed the Copts. BTW, Putin got a warm reception in Cairo, where Russiais building 4 new nuke power plants. The more the Western oligarchs sanction Russia, the more they push Russia into the arms of Eastern countries and lucrative trade deals in currencies other than the dollar. Meanwhile, Europe goes it alone in negotiations with Russia while Obama stays home and China, the world's no. 1 economy, shows whole hearted financial support for Putin. Who is really being isolated? --Don)

Shots fired at Copenhagen synagogue: Danish police

Excerpt: One person was shot in the head and two police were wounded in an attack on a synagogue in central Copenhagen, Danish police said, ...

Good News: Danish police kill gunman believed behind 2 shootings

Excerpt: Police in Copenhagen killed a gunman early Sunday they believe was responsible for a pair of deadly attacks just hours earlier, the first at a cafe hosting a forum on free speech and the second outside a synagogue where a bar mitzvah was underway. The killings, with their eerie echo of last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris, had sent Denmark’s capital into lockdown and had prompted a massive manhunt that extended across the border into Sweden. In all, the attacks left two people dead and five police officers injured. (More "random" killings, Mr. President? ~Bob)

Hundreds of tombs defaced in French Jewish cemetery: minister

Excerpt: France's interior minister said Sunday several hundred tombs had been defaced at a Jewish cemetery in the northeast of the country, in what he called "a despicable act". "The country will not tolerate this new injury which goes against the values that all French people share," said Bernard Cazeneuve of the incident in the town of Sarre-Unionin the Alsaceregion.

More Women fly F-16’s in Israelthan drive cars in Saudi Arabia.

Livni and Herzog’s delusions about 'peace.' While the Middle East is burning around us, the center-left political camp is still trying to convince Israeli voters that Israel can live in peace with its Arab neighbors and be embraced lovingly by the world. By Shoula Romano Horing

Excerpt: If these terrorists could do this to a fellow Arab-Muslim, imagine what Islamic Jihadists like Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah would do to the Jewish state. But despite this harsh, horrific reality in the Middle East.

Backlash After Students at SouthAfricanUniversityDemand Jews De-register
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0215/demands_jews_de-register.php3

Michelle Takes Swipe At American Sniper: Criticizes Chris Kyle’s Sex In Military Movie, ‘It’s Always a HE’

Excerpt: First Lady Michelle Obama joined critics of American Sniper, taking issue with the gender of the main character -- even though the story revolves around the real-life exploits of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle. "Of course, it’s always a 'he.' We sort of forget about the 1.5 million women veterans who have served in uniform," she said. (I look forward to the Obama girls serving and graduating from sniper school. ~Bob)

FLASHBACK: Check Out Reagan’s Response to Terrorism Compared to Obama’s

Excerpt:
Times sure have changed, haven’t they? Both President Reagan and President Obama had to deal with terrorist actions during their time in office, but their responses couldn’t be more different

Westerners join Iraqi Christian militia to fight Islamic State

Excerpt: Thousands of foreigners have flocked to Iraq and Syria in the past two years, mostly to join Islamic State, but a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting as well, citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents. The militia they joined is called Dwekh Nawsha – meaning self-sacrifice in the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Christ and still used by Assyrian Christians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Iraq.

Video: ISIS Suicide Bomber Was Set to Go Out with a Bang. But He Wasn’t Expecting It to Happen Like This.

Excerpt: This week, eight suicide bombers were killed by U.S. Marine trained-Iraqi Security Forces when they tried to infiltrate Ayn-Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. In a new video, shared by the Kurdistan Regional Government another potential attack doesn’t go as planned for Daesh.

Interesting: The anatomy of a failed hostage rescue deep in Islamic State territory

Excerpt: Yet the commandos who rushed through gunfire into the makeshift prison found only half-eaten meals and a wisp of hair. The hostages had been there. But they were gone. ... But some of those who worked on the rescue mission say they believe the White House itself is at least partly to blame for the failure. They charge that there were delays in bringing the plan to Obama’s desk, and that, as a result, the rescuers missed the hostages by a matter of days, or even hours. (A decision delayed is a decision made. ~Bob)

Why the (Toothless) Iran Sanctions Bill Matters. By Daniel Pipes

Excerpts: Nearly all the 54 Republican U.S. senators will vote in favor of the Kirk-Menendez bill requiring sanctions on Iranif the P5+1 negotiations fail. President Obama has promised to veto it. Now, the senate is gearing up for a high-drama vote; will Democrats provide the 13 to 15 votes needed for a veto-proof majority? Lost in the shuffle is a little-noticed section of the bill that, if passed, guts it.

Muslim school graduation ceremony cancelled over radical speakers

Excerpt: A graduation ceremony for a private Muslim school was cancelled Saturday due to the radical views of two guest speakers, the mayor said. The Academy of North American Sharia had planned to have Salah Alsawy and Omar Shahin speak at the ceremony, which was to be held in the Montreal suburb of Outremont.

The Real War on Women: Isis chops off women's hands 'for using mobile phones' in northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Five men were also flogged for using mobile phones. By Vasudevan Sridharan

Excerpt: "Today evening, the IS militants cut three women's hands off for unknown charges," an anonymous source in the Nineveh province told the Iraqi News, while later reports suggested they were punished for using mobile phones. The source added: "They also whipped five people for using cell-phones to contact their relatives while standing on the celebration stage in the Cultural Compound in central Mosul."

Life under Isis in Raqqa: The city where smoking a cigarette could see you publicly flogged, imprisoned and even decapitated

Excerpt: The group enforces a strict interpretation of Islam in areas in Syria and Iraq under its self-declared 'caliphate'. Some ultraconservative versions of Sharia denounce the habit as harmful and therefore haram (forbidden).

UT-Arlington student admits making up claim that gunman followed her to campus, threatened her

Excerpt: The student also posted on social media that the man might have targeted her because she is Muslim. In a Facebook post, she referred to the killings of three Muslim students this week in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Excerpt: Suspected Boko Haram militants attacked a village on the shore of Lake Chad early Friday, marking the first such violence against the neighbor contributing the most military might to the regional fight against the Nigeria-based terror group.

The Iran Axis Strikes Back in Golan Region. By Jonathan Spyer

Excerpt: A force consisting of Hezbollah fighters, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Syrian regime soldiers launched an offensive this week southwest of Damascus, in the direction of Quneitra province and the Golan Heights. Their aim is to regain territory lost to Syrian rebels and jihadis over the past year, and to establish a strong defensive line before the capital.

Wow. We dropped 8 whole bombs on ISISin the last 24 hours. How will they be able to withstand that kind of shock and awe?

US embassy issues alert after report of Lunar New Year terror plot in Kunming

Excerpt: The USembassy in Beijing says it is aware of unspecified media reports that terrorists are planning an attack in Kunming, Yunnan, over the Lunar New Year period. A source close to China's domestic security apparatus told the Post terrorists were planning to retaliate against Beijing's recent attempts to hunt down Uygurs from Xinjiang who fled to Indonesia and Malaysia.

Pope Francis Denounces ISIS Slaughter: ‘Their Blood Confesses Christ’

Excerpt: This morning, Pope Francis condemned the brutal slaying of 21 Coptic Christians perpetrated by ISIS in Libyaover the weekend, proclaiming them martyrs killed out of hatred of their Christian faith. (Will the people protesting the murder of three innocent Muslim students in NC by a left-wing atheist over a parking dispute protest this? Or don't #ChristianLivesMatter? ~Bob)


The Political Left’s Marriage to the Islamic Jihad

Excerpt: This is the first of a four (4) part series on the long historical relationship between the political left/Progressives and the global Jihadi Movement over the last century and its current culmination in the attempt to bring down Western civilization in general, and the United Statesspecifically. In this first edition, we will review the general history of the relationship between the Left and the Islamic Jihad movement, and the disconnect from reality that must take place for the Left to believe the leaders of any totalitarian movement will allow them to survive despite a hundred years of history to the contrary.

US Air Strike Filmed By ISIS Fighter in Iraq - ISIS Artillery Cannon Struck

Just gone! ~Bob

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


Don't be a low-info voter; read today's important political news

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I post things I think may be of interest, labeling the best ones "Worth Reading" to call attention to them. Today I labeled four writers "Consistently Worth Reading," as I always find their musings spot on.

High here Wednesday is predicted to hit 4 degrees F. Low Wednesday night at -11. We maybe only have 12 inches of snow on the ground. but lots of cold. ~Bob

General News and Comment


Confessed murderer on bail, immediately kills again. By Martin Barillas

Excerpt: In Texas, Judge Ryan Patrick of the 177th District Court of Texas decided to allow a confessed murderer out on bail for a bond of only $50,000. Dante Thomas (20) confessed to killing a girlfriend, Linda Vu (24), following a charge for the murder. He has since been charged again for another murder in a double shooting in which he allegedly killed his aunt and wounded a cousin, according to police reports. Judge Patrick is the son of Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick -- a Republican who had gained celebrity in Texas as a conservative radio talk-show host.

Excerpt: “Soylent Green is people!”

Schoolgirl, 12, fights off attacker with Israeli army self defence moves

Excerpt: The youngster was walking home at around 6pm on her way back from a Krav Maga combat class in Frognal when she was attacked by a man who grabbed hold of her. Her mother said: “With her year plus of Krav Maga training, she reacted quickly elbowing the perpetrator and then kneeing them in the groin before taking off at a clip to safety before calling me,”

Damaging Admissions. By Thomas Sowell 

Excerpt: A dean of admissions at Harvard, years ago, said, “the question we ask is: how well has this person used the opportunities available to him or her?” In other words, the issue is seen as which of the competing applicants are more deserving. Since some people have had far better educational opportunities than others, that is supposed to be taken into account in deciding whom to admit. This myopic view of admissions decisions, as a question of choosing between applicant A versus applicant B, totally ignores the reason for the existence of educational institutions in the first place. These institutions were not created in order to dispense favors to particular individuals, but to confer benefits on society at large, by supplying graduates with skills valuable to the other members of society.

Doomed by the South: Why the emerging Democratic majority may never happen. For years we've heard that Democrats will rise on a coalition of white liberals and non-whites. Here's the reality. By Michael Lind

Excerpt: “The Emerging Republican Advantage,” an essay by the journalist and historian John Judis in National Journal, has ignited a national controversy.  In part this has to do with the fact that in 2002 Judis co-authored, with Ruy Teixeira, “The Emerging Democratic Majority,” an empirically rich and well-reasoned study that convinced many progressives that it was only a matter of time until the numerical growth of a coalition of white professionals, African-Americans and Latinos produced a permanent or at least long-term Democratic majority.  In reconsidering this thesis, Judis puts a lot of emphasis on the aversion to taxes and big government of middle-income Americans, a discontent that benefits the Republican Party.

Ukraine says some soldiers taken prisoner in Debaltseve

Excerpt: Russian news agencies quoted Valery Chaly, chief of the Ukrainian presidential administration, as saying that Kiev wants the EU and NATO to "resolutely condemn" the separatists for violating the deals. The war in eastern Ukrainehas already killed more than 5,600 people and displaced more than a million, the United Nations said on Monday. It has also left the country's industrial heartland in ruins. The government troops and rebels faced a deadline Tuesday to start pulling back heavy weapons from the front line.

Brinksmanship: Greece defies creditors, seeking credit but no bailout

Excerpt: Talks between Greece and euro zone finance ministers over the country's debt crisis broke down on Monday when Athensrejected a proposal to request a six-month extension of its international bailout package as "unacceptable". The unexpectedly rapid collapse raised doubts about Greece's future in the single currency area after a new leftist-led government vowed to scrap the 240 billion euro ($272.4 billion) bailout, reverse austerity policies and end cooperation with EU/IMF inspectors. (They are betting the EU has no choice but to keep pouring money in. They may be right. ~Bob)

Polanski to attend Polish extradition hearing, lawyer says

Excerpt: Filmmaker Roman Polanski will attend a court hearing in Poland next week that will consider a U.S.extradition request over a 1977 child sex crime conviction, his lawyer said on Tuesday. (Alert Whoopi and the Hollywood Brigade of Apologists for Child Rape, which is excusable if you are a talented member of their club. ~Bob)

‘Protest Mob’ Descends Upon Gov. Scott Walker’s Personal Home — but Guess Who’s Apparently Living There

Excerpt: Protesters descended upon a home in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, where they apparently thought Gov. Scott Walker (R) resided. Instead, Walker’s sons, Alex and Matt Walker, both tweeted on Monday night that the home is where his grandparents are living.

Melissa Harris-Perry says, “Abortion Is Like Removing a Cancer
http://alfonzorachel.com/2237/zonation-melissa-harris-perry-says-abortion-like-removing-cancer
Excerpt: Is a human embryo comparable to cancer? A child is no different than a tumor if you are MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry. (She's inviting some fanatic nut with a gun to remove her "like a cancer." ~Bob)

U.S. to allow wider export of armed drones

Excerpt: The Obama administration will permit the widespread export of armed drones for the first time, a step toward providing allied nations with weapons that have become a cornerstone of U.S. counterterrorism strategy but whose remotely controlled power to kill is intensely controversial. The new policy, announced Tuesday after a long internal review, is a significant step for U.S.arms policy as allied nations from Italyto Turkey to the Persian Gulf region clamor for the aircraft. It also is a nod to U.S.defense firms scrambling to secure a greater share of a growing global drone market.

Remember the story of the boy who found $20 and gave it to a soldier? This is the follow-up.  Be sure to watch to the end.

Student loan debts are over $1.6 trillion. This is about 10% of our entire GDP and will be a drag on the economy for decades to come. (But think how all those Social work and gender studies degrees are helping the economy. ~Bob)

Gun News

Suspect shot during break-in

Excerpt: The homeowner told deputies that around 11:00 pm he heard loud knocking at the front door and two people trying to get in. He then heard glass break and saw a male suspect inside the home. The sheriff’s office says the homeowner grabbed a gun and shot the suspect. The homeowner then called for help. A second suspect was found running from the scene and was arrested.

Armed Resident Shoots Intruder

Excerpt:   When a would be home invader smashed his way into a house on Limestone Mill, which is off Woodlake Parkway in northeast Bexar County, he found himself facing an armed man inside the house. The two men exchanged gunfire. The homeowner was a better shot, and the wanna-be home invader stumbled outside with a bullet to the belly.
Excerpt: Relatives of Adric White, 18, believe the Good Samaritan who opened fire should have "just left the store." The Good Samaritan told FOX10 News he was shopping at the Family Dollar on Stanton road when he noticed a masked gunman leading one of the employees to the front of the store. Relatives of Adric White, 18, believe the Good Samaritan who opened fire should have "just left the store." The Good Samaritan told FOX10 News he was shopping at the Family Dollar on Stantonroad when he noticed a masked gunman leading one of the employees to the front of the store.

In NJ, Second Amendment Doesn’t Even Cover a Musket!
http://politicaloutcast.com/2015/02/nj-second-amendment-doesnt-even-cover-musket/
Excerpt: According to New Jersey’s law (or the prosecutor’s and cops’ interpretation of the law), not even flintlocks in use back when the Second Amendment was actually written are covered by the Second Amendment. A seventy-two-year-old retired teacher is being threatened with a decade in prison because he had an unloaded, antique flintlock.

Gun Violence


‘Anti-gun’ attorney arrested for gun at airport

Excerpt: A leading local civil rights attorney was arrested over the weekend at Cleveland  HopkinsAirportfor having a concealed handgun in his carry-on bag, The Plain Dealer reported Sunday. David Malik, the original attorney for the family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice who was slain by police in November, spent the night in jail after a .22 caliber handgun and a box of ammunition were discovered by airport security. "What's interesting about David is he is such an anti-gun person," Steve Loomis, president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, told the press. "He's such an anti-violence person, and of all the things for him to get arrested for, that really surprises me."

Left My Gun Alone Today; It Didn't Kill Anyone. (I took mine with me to keep an eye on it. ~Bob)

Race Card News


Reflections during Black History Month: Welfare Policy and Marriage

Excerpt: February is Black History Month, so the NCPA has compiled a new report detailing the many government policies that are actually hurting black Americans. For example, marriage and stable families are key to keeping people out of poverty, yet government welfare policies lack incentives to encourage two-parent families. Consider:  Out-of-wedlock births are the second key cause of poverty (next to lack of employment), but the structure of welfare benefits encourages single parenthood and family breakups. The poverty rate for female-headed households with children is 44.5 percent, compared to 7.8 percent for married couples with children. The poverty rate for married black Americans is only 11.4 percent, while the rate for black female-headed households is 53.9 percent. African-American children comprise about 25 percent of children who end up in foster care. As the report notes, most welfare benefits are restricted to families with children -- thus, having a baby offers a gateway to a generous package of government benefits. On the other hand, if that mother marries a man who earns a significant income, those benefits are lost. (The NCPA.org has a free policy digest newsletter. It is worth getting and they are worth supporting. ~Bob)

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


Live by the lie, die by the lie: Democrats are bracing for another Obamacare backlash. By Jason Millman, Washington Post

Excerpt: The Obamacare window technically just closed this weekend, but a new round of political headaches could just be beginning for the administration.
That's because it's tax season, and many Americans could soon be getting an unwelcome surprise that they owe the government a penalty for skipping health insurance coverage.
Up to 6 million Americans are expected to pay a penalty for not having coverage in 2014, according to recent Obama administration projections. 

Look Who Wants to Avoid ObamaCare Penalties

Excerpt: About four million Americans are going to get hit with IRS fines for not having health insurance this tax season, and congressional Democrats have taken it upon themselves to stop such a travesty. Democrat representatives Sander Levin, Jim McDermott and Lloyd Doggett told the Associated Press they are concerned about the law they passed in 2009 because their constituents may have their tax returns gouged hundreds of dollars by the IRS. Furthermore, nine senators sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services advocating the department to open a special enrollment period. 

'Success:' Obamacare Website Falters Again, Dems Demand Enrollment Extension. By Guy Benson 

Excerpt: A technical problem that had been interfering with sign-ups for President Barack Obama's health care law has been fixed, officials say. Any consumer whose enrollment was hampered by the glitch will be provided with a special enrollment period. The problem popped up the day before a Sunday deadline to sign up for subsidized private health insurance. 

Undocumented Democrat News


Important: Federal judge in Texas blocks Obama immigration orders

Excerpt: A federal judge in Texas last night temporarily blocked the Obama administration’s executive actions on immigration. The judge, responding to a suit filed by 26 Republican-run states, did not rule on the legality of immigration orders but said there was sufficient merit to the challenge to warrant a suspension while the case goes forward. No law gave the administration the power “to give 4.3 million removable aliens what the Department of Homeland Security itself labels as ‘legal presence,’” the judge said in a memorandum opinion. “In fact the law mandates that these illegally-present individuals be removed.” The Department of Homeland Security “has adopted a new rule that substantially changes both the status and employability of millions.” (Why the judiciary is so important. Had we elected five or six more RINO senators in 2010, we would have blocked Obamacare and a LOTof bad judges who will trouble us for years. I fear this will be over-turned. ~Bob)

Interesting: What You Need To Know About The Injunction Stopping Obama's Amnesty. By Conn Carroll

Excerpt: What happens next? The White House issued a statement early Tuesday morning indicating that the Department of Justice "will appeal" Judge Hanen's order. That appeal will be heard a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit who could issue a decision around July or August of this year. If the Obama administration lost that ruling, it could then appeal for an en banc ruling from the 5th Circuit before then appealing to the Supreme Court. 
But the earliest the Supreme Court might here the case is March of 2016 and the earliest they could issue a decision would be June 2016, which is a huge problem for Obama since USCIS was expected to begin accepting DAPA application fees to pay for their new Crystal City office in May 2015.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott: ‘Federal Judge Just Granted My Request to Halt Obama’s Executive Amnesty Order Nationwide’

Excerpt: The order of temporary injunction states: “The reasons for this injunction are set out in detail in the accompanying Memorandum Opinion and Order, but, to summarize, it is due to the failure of the Defendants to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act.”

Voters Weigh Costs of Obama’s Amnesty Plan

Excerpt: Voters still view President Obama’s order exempting up to five million illegal immigrants from deportation as illegal and tend to think Congress should try to stop it. But they’re evenly divided over whether a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security is the way to do it.

"You're Greener than Gore" News


Pipelines are safer: West Virginia oil train derailment: Fires for hours, smoke

Excerpt: Fires burned for hours Tuesday after a train carrying 109 tankers of crude oil derailed in a snowstorm alongside a West Virginia creek, sending fireballs into the sky and threatening the nearby water supply. ... The train was carrying volatile Bakken crude from North Dakota's shale fields to an oil shipping depot in Yorktown, Virginia, using model 1232 tank cars, which include safety upgrades voluntarily adopted by the industry four years ago, the Federal Railroad Administration confirmed. However, a series of ruptures and fires in recent derailments involving model 1232s has the National Transportation Safety Board questioning their safety as well, and the Department of Transportation has drafted new standards being reviewed by the White House budget office.

New paper demonstrates East Antarctica was ~3.5-4°C warmer than the present during the last interglacial

Excerpt: A new paper in Climate of the Past Discussions finds from high-resolution ice core data from East Antarctica that temperatures were 3.5-4°C warmer during the last interglacial (~130,000 years ago) than during the present interglacial (the past ~18,000 years).

My personal path to Catastrophic AGW skepticism. By Jonathan Abbott

Excerpt: My own story begins at school in England in the early 80s. Between playing with Bunsen burners and iron filings, I remember being told that some scientists predicted that we would soon enter a new ice age. This sounded quite exciting but I never really thought it would happen; I was too young then to have seen any significant change in the world around me and it all seemed rather far-fetched. A nuclear war seemed far more likely. Soon enough the whole scare melted away.

Excerpt The main driver of all weather and climate, the entity which occupies 99.86% of all of the mass in our solar system, the great ball of fire in the sky – has gone quiet again during what is likely to be the weakest sunspot cycle in more than a century. For the past 5 days, solar activity has been very low and one measure of solar activity – its X-ray output – has basically flatlined in recent days (plot below courtesy NOAA/Space Weather Prediction Center). Not since cycle 14 peaked in February 1906 has there been a solar cycle with fewer sunspots. We are currently more than six years into Solar Cycle 24 and today the sun is virtually spotless despite the fact that we are still in what is considered to be its solar maximum phase. Solar cycle 24 began after an unusually deep solar minimum that lasted from 2007 to 2009 which included more spotless days on the sun compared to any minimum in almost a century.

Religion of Peace News



Consistently Worth Reading: While Heads Roll, President Obama Rolls - Golf Balls. By Andy Weddington

Excerpt: Today the conclusion of those informing the rest of us (and why, in light of Brian Williams, and surely others of like conduct, should they enjoy public trust?) is that President Obama either will not or cannot see the threat of radical Islam. 

Consistently Worth Reading: Five Middle East Blunders: The underlying causes of chaos in the Middle East are indigenous. But Obama hasn’t helped. By Victor Davis Hanson

Excerpt: President Obama claims he inherited a mess in the Middle East. Not so.
Fracking and horizontal drilling on private lands in the U.S. had taken off in the last years of the Bush administration and by 2009 were set to revolutionize America’s energy future. By 2011, the U.S.had cut way back its dependence on Middle Eastern gas and oil imports, which in turn gave American diplomats a measure of immunity from petro-blackmail, and therefore far more clout in the region. Iraqwas mostly stable; in AnbarProvince tens of thousands of jihadists had been killed by U.S.troops and their tribal allies. 

Worth Reading: What ISIS Really Wants: The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.. By Graeme Wood

Excerpt:  Where did it come from, and what are its intentions? The simplicity of these questions can be deceiving, and few Western leaders seem to know the answers. In December, The New York Times published confidential comments by Major General Michael K. Nagata, the Special Operations commander for the United States in the Middle East, admitting that he had hardly begun figuring out the Islamic State’s appeal. “We have not defeated the idea,” he said. “We do not even understand the idea.” In the past year, President Obama has referred to the Islamic State, variously, as “not Islamic” and as al-Qaeda’s “jayvee team,” statements that reflected confusion about the group, and may have contributed to significant strategic errors. ... The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.

Religion's week from hell. By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor

Excerpt: Whether you believe that religious violence is fueled by faith or is a symptom of larger factors -- political instability, poverty, cultural chaos -- one thing seems clear: Last week was hellish for religion. Across several continents, including North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, scores of religious believers suffered and died in brutal attacks over the past seven days. The causes of violence are complex, and reducing them to talking points only adds to the problem, scholars say. But if you want to rally troops to your side, few tools are more powerful than religion, said Michael Jerryson, co-editor of "The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Violence." (From that painfully generic description, you could easily conclude the violence is perpetrated by Buddhists and Mennonites. Deeper in the story, we see the perpetrators identified: Boko Haram (twice), the Islamic State, al-Qaeda, that North Carolina atheist, and the Denmarkshooters. --Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt)

ISIS reportedly burns alive 45 people in western Iraqi town

Muslims slaughtering Muslims for Allah--a centuries old story. ~Bob

Consistently Worth Reading: Glib 'Happy Talk.' By Thomas Sowell 

Excerpt: In a musical comedy, it would be hilarious to have the president send out his "happy talk" message by someone whose credibility was already thoroughly discredited by her serial lies on television about the Benghaziterrorist attack in 2012. Unfortunately -- indeed, tragically -- the world today is about as far from a musical comedy as you can get, with terrorists rampaging across the Middle East, leaving a trail of unspeakable atrocities in their wake, and with Iranmoving closer to producing a nuclear bomb, with an intercontinental missile on the horizon. We will be lucky to get through the remainder of President Obama's term in office without a major catastrophe, from which we may or may not recover.


Israeli captures 10 hours of harassment in Paris

Reporter dons kippa, documents insults as he walks through the streets of the French capital
Many anti-Semitic incidents occurred while Klein was walking in the suburb of Sarcelles, which sports a large Muslim population, whereas his wandering through Paris’ center was considerably calmer by comparison, he told JTA last week. (The impunity with which Europeans terrorized, demonize, beat and kill Jews must not go unpunished. We can learn a lesson from Meyer Lansky in the 1930s. --LG)

Excerpt: Concerned about "what the gentiles thought" and fearful of stirring up even more anti-Jewish sentiment, the American Jewish establishment's response was often tentative and disorganized. One group of American Jews which did not trouble themselves about what the gentiles thought and had no compunctions about meeting the anti-Semites head-on were Jewish gangsters.   Nazi Bund rallies in New York during the 1930's created a terrible dilemma for the city's Jewish leaders. They wanted the meetings stopped, but could not do so legally. Nathan Perlman, a New York judge and former Republican congressman, was one Jewish leader who believed that Jews "have to demonstrate a little more militancy." Perlman surreptitiously contacted Meyer Lanksy and asked him to help. He assured Lansky that money and legal assistance would be put at his disposal. The only stipulation was that no Nazi Bundists were to be killed. Beaten up, yes. Terminated, no. Lansky reluctantly agreed. No killing.

Blind Hate Drives Islamists to Absurdity

Excerpt: One is a jihadist movement that seeks global dominance, beheading, throwing off of rooftops and massacring any perceived which crosses its path on the way to restoring a grand Islamic state. The other is a sovereign state, a refuge for a people repeatedly targeted for annihilation throughout history. It also provides medical treatment for Syrians who have been victims of attacks from Islamic State terrorists and the Assad regime. Fighting for each apparently poses an equal threat. So says Hussam Ayloush, the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) Los Angeles director.

African allies claim gains against Boko Haram

Excerpt: Nigerian troops, backed by air strikes, have reclaimed the towns of Monguno and Marte from Boko Haram, according to a military statement. Meanwhile, Cameroonsays its army has killed more than 80 Boko Haram soldiers and arrested 1,000 of their supporters. Nigeralso claimed on Monday to have arrested 160 people with links to Boko Haram since 6 February. (Where is Mad Mike Hoare when they need him? ~Bob)

Yemen--Obama's Success Story: Houthi rebels in Yemeneye oil-rich province, sparking fears of all-out civil war

Excerpt: The Shiite insurgents who have toppled Yemen’s government are threatening to take over a key oil-producing province to the east of the capital, triggering fears that the country could explode in all-out civil war.

Yemen’s last Jews may leave: Houthis’ motto “curse Jews, victory to Islam.” By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: This Reuters article is deeply anti-Israel: “Yemen’s Jewish community numbered over 40,000 until 1949, when Israelorganised their mass transfer to the newly-established state. Those who stayed say they had lived in peace with their neighbours in the Muslim Arab country.” This is not the whole story by any means. Professor Shmuel Trigano fills in some of the gaps: “In Yemen, sharia law was instated in 1913, worsening the situation of the dhimmi. Decrees specifying forced conversion for orphans were issued between 1922 and 1928, while Jews were excluded from public service positions and the army….In Yemen, a series of riots and lootings took place in 1931 and 1947 (with eighty people killed). An accusation of ritual crime was leveled against the Jews in Sana’a in 1948….Yemen prohibited Jews from leaving the country in 1949.”

Bob Corker’s War. By Molly O'Toole

Excerpt: The soft-spoken businessman who was once seen as too moderate and independent is now one of the most important figures in Washingtonfor the war against the Islamic State as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From this perch, Corker will preside over the first full debate on war powers and U.S. military intervention in more than a decade. It’s a policy fight that could shape U.S. national security strategy beyond Obama’s last two years in office, for years to come.

I suggest sending her as the envoy to ISIS to explain her jobs idea.


Make the ISIS Caliphate a Jihadist Kill Zone. By Bruce Thornton

Excerpt: President Obama’s proposed Authorization for the Use of Military Force against ISIS comes at a time when Iran and ISIS are fomenting disorder and destruction throughout the Middle East. Despite the enmity between these two species of jihadism, both pose serious threats to our interests and security and those of our allies in the region. The president’s stubborn refusal to strengthen his dubious negotiations with Iran by approving Congress’s more punishing sanctions, along with his pledge not to use force against the mullahs, is guaranteed to make Iran a nuclear power that will dominate the region. And nothing in the AUMF will achieve his alleged “core objective” to destroy ISIS. Quite the contrary–– it will squander an opportunity to concentrate and eliminate tens of thousands of jihadists.

Consistently Worth Reading: Is Criticism of Islam a Hate Crime? By Daniel Greenfield 

Excerpt: After every terrorist attack, the news goes through the usual checklist of excuses. Muslims aren’t responsible. It had nothing to do with Islam. Asking Muslims to condemn or disassociate themselves from the attack is racist and you should be ashamed of yourself for even asking them to do it. The Chapel Hill shootings reversed the spin. The media switched from warning us that we shouldn’t blame Muslims for Muslim terrorism, to blaming atheists for a parking dispute turned violent. Their evidence was Craig Hicks’ Facebook page quoting prominent atheists attacking, mainly, Christianity.

True, this: None Dare Call it Islam. By Leon H. Wolf 

Excerpt: By now the refrain is familiar. A violent man, usually in his 20s, is motivated by his belief system to commit murder in such a way as to deliberately inspire fear and terror in a certain segment of the population – frequently institutions that symbolize Western liberalism and/or Jewish culture. The media, reporting on the violence, curiously refuses to mention his religious affiliation – or buries it in the 12th paragraph. If the terrorist in question converted to Islam after his birth, refuse to use his adopted Muslim name, even if this is now his legal name. Spend most of the story explaining the terrorist’s behavior in terms of his own personal problems, dissatisfaction with society – anything but his religion. It almost is not worth commenting on the phenomenon at this point, which is set forth in this Washington Post story on the Danish attacks on a free speech meeting and a synagogue. The suspect’s name, “Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein” is not given until paragraph 13.

Worth Reading: The True History of Christendom and Islam. By Raymond Ibrahim

Excerpt: U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama’s recent condemnation of medieval Christian history to exonerate modern Islam is a reminder of how woefully ignorant (or intentionally deceptive) a good many people in the West are concerning the true history of Christian Europe and Islam. The problem is that those who condemn things like the Crusades—including “mainstream” academics, journalists, movie-makers, and politicians—do so without mention of historical context.  Worse, they imply “we” already know the context: evil popes and greedy knights exploiting Christianity to seize Muslim lands and wealth.  Or as Karen Armstrong put it, “the idea that Islam imposed itself by the sword is a Western fiction, fabricated during the time of the Crusades when, in fact, it was Western Christians who were fighting brutal holy wars against Islam.” The true story of Christendom and Islam is the antithesis of such claims.  Consider some facts for a moment:

Islamic State: “Great reward” for killing Coptic Christians. By Raymond Ibrahim

Excerpt: The following excerpt from the Islamic State captures well the perverse logic that its many members and even more sympathizers operate under.  It recently appeared in an Islamic State report explaining why the jihadis executed 21 Coptic Christian workers abducted in (post- “Arab Spring”) Libya.   The justification begins by positioning the 2010 Islamic raid on the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Iraq — where nearly 60 Christian worshippers were slaughtered (graphic pictures here) — as a response to the absurd allegations (based on Muslim projection) that the Coptic Church of Egypt was forcing — and killing — Muslim women to convert to Christianity.   In short, the Islamic State justifies the killing, not only of Coptic Christians, but all Christians anywhere, in the context of, yet again, “collective punishment.”  The excerpt follows, interspersed with my observations (emphases mine):

UK: “A man from Liverpool” charged with attempting to obtain a chemical weapon. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: The BBC deigns to tell us his name, Mohammed Ammer Ali, but other than that tells us only that he is “a man from Liverpool.” As is typical of the mainstream media, it makes no mention whatsoever of the fact that there is a jihad against the West, and that Mohammed Ammer Ali likely considers himself to be a soldier of that jihad. This kind of coverage would be like reporting that on December 7, 1941, a group of men from Japan destroyed some ships at Pearl Harbor, with no hint that it was an act of war or that the Japanese Empire was behind it.

Bahrain deploys fighter jets to Jordan to strike ISIL

Excerpt: The Bahraini regime has deployed an unspecified number of fighter jets to Jordanto aid Amman in the fight against the ISIL Takfiri group days after the immolation of a Jordanian pilot held hostage by the terrorist group. 'This move highlights the brotherly ties between Jordanand Bahrain," AFP quoted Jordan's Information Minister Mohammad al-Momani as saying on Monday.

"Delta Flight 15 - A 9.11 Story"

Great story. Snopes says true. ~Bob

Worth Seeing: The Truth About the West Bank


Not Leading from Behind: ItalyMobilizes 5,000-Strong Military Force To Fight Isis In Libya

Excerpt: The government of Italy appears to be taking seriously the threats posed by the Islamic State (ISIS) to its nation. Italian officials said on Monday that they are considering sending 5,000 troops into Libya to combat the country’s burgeoning jihadist presence.

Kurdish Teenager Explains Why U.S. & Coalition Air Strikes Against ISISAre Doing Next To Nothing!

Excerpt: This is my picture and shows our weapon power. As you can see, ISIS terrorist organization they got tanks and we only got Kalashnikoff, so please send us anti-tank weapons so we can remove ISIS. Please act now, tomorrow will be too late.

Police: Muslim man stabs two after discussion about religious beliefs

Excerpt: A Detroitman stabbed two people at a suburban bus stop after asking his victims whether or not they were Muslim, according to police. Federal authorities are now looking at the case as a potential hate crime, police said on Tuesday.

The WH policy is to specifically use "CHRISTIAN" in the context of the Crusades, but never when they are 'victims' of Islamic attacks.

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:



Don't miss today's political news and commentary

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Weather: High Wednesday and Thursday is 4F. The report says, " Another round of very cold wind chill temperatures... .northwest winds continue to bring arctic air to southern Wisconsin tonight into Thursday. The winds and very cold temperatures will make for wind chill temperatures of 20 below to 30 below zero."

Fun Movie:We saw Kingsman: The Secret Service this week. Very entertaining movie. No redeeming social value, but lots of fun. A lot of violence, but it was so fantastic that it was unreal and didn't upset my wife. Surprisingly, the villain is a rich, brilliant black guy who is a global warming fanatic. Not the kind of PC we expect from Hollywood.

General News and Comment


Funny, but I suspect Photoshop.


WaPo Editorial: Russiamarches on uninhibited in eastern Ukraine

Excerpt: VLADIMIR PUTIN’S latest victory in Ukraine is turning into a rout. Having already induced Western leaders to endorse a peace plan that virtually guarantees continued Russian control over parts of two provinces, the Russian ruler ordered a large Ukrainian force holding Debaltseve, a key crossroads in the region, to surrender. His forces, including regular Russian army troops, then assaulted the city in brazen violation of a cease-fire. On Wednesday morning, Ukrainian forces withdrew from Debaltseve under fire, suffering a devastating defeat that will further destabilize the shaky Kievgovernment of Petro Poroshenko. Mr. Putin was so pleased that he indulged in some taunting of the Ukrainians. (Guess Hillary's "Reset" button didn't work. Who could have guessed? ~Bob)


Ukraine troops retreat from key town of Debaltseve

Excerpt: The Ukrainian president says his forces are making an "organised" withdrawal from the embattled town of Debaltseve. Petro Poroshenko said 80% of Ukraine's troops left on Wednesday morning after several days of fierce fighting. Russia said Ukrainian forces had tried to fight their way out of the town after being encircled but Mr Poroshenko insisted they were never surrounded.

Foreign donations to foundation raise major ethical questions for Hillary Clinton. By Jennifer Rubin 

Excerpt: In an extraordinary report that has not yet been fully digested, the Wall Street Journal tells us that the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation has received millions from foreign governments including Qatar, a prominent backer of Hamas: The Clinton Foundation has dropped its self-imposed ban on collecting funds from foreign governments and is winning contributions at an accelerating rate, raising ethical questions as Hillary Clinton ramps up her expected bid for the presidency. (We were bought and sold for foreign gold--such a parcel of rogues in a nation. Apologies to Rabbie Burns. ~Bob)

President Obama and the First Lady Rack Up $2.5 Million Bill in Separate Valentine’s Day Getaways

Excerpt: It seems like the Obamas are not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day – at least with each other. For the second consecutive Valentine’s Day in a row, President Obama headed to Palm Springs for some golfing and diplomacy (and some golfing). Meanwhile, Michelle flew down to Aspenfor a ski trip with Sasha and Malia. (Roses are red, Violets are blue, If you're broke from taxes, Blame you-know-who." ~Bob)

Very Interesting Review: A Herd of Elephants: Handicapping the 2016 GOP field. By Stephen F. Hayes

Excerpt: With that, it’s time for my highly anticipated ranking of the Republican primary field. Okay, okay—that might be a stretch. These are probably unanticipated rankings. But with the Iowa caucuses less than a year away Republicans across the country are already abuzz about the possibilities. The assessments below are based on dozens of conversations with grassroots conservatives in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina; with Republican officeholders at virtually every level of government; with national Republican strategists, fund-raisers, and operatives; with advisers and consultants to the emerging campaigns; and in several cases with the candidates themselves. So in reverse order—from least likely to most likely—here’s a look at the prospective GOP nominees.

Scott Walker is a conservative hero, and liberals have themselves to blame for it. By Nia-Malika Henderson

Excerpt: Whether it's unions or universities, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has waged a number of huge fights -- symbolic and otherwise -- with liberals. So far, the fights have only served to bolster his credentials among national conservatives who like nothing more than a Republican willing to poke liberals in the eye. And now New York Times columnist Gail Collins has thrown Walkeranother hanging curveball by which to bash liberals and shine in the eyes of conservatives.

The VA Can't Win: New rules on narcotic painkillers cause grief for veterans and VA

Excerpt: New federal rules that make it harder to get narcotic painkillers are taking an unexpected toll on thousands of veterans who depend on these prescription drugs to treat everything from missing limbs to post-traumatic stress. The restrictions, adopted last summer by the Drug Enforcement Administration to curb a national epidemic of opioid abuse, are for the first time, in effect, forcing veterans to return to the doctor every month to renew their medication, although many were already struggling to get appointments at overburdened VA health facilities. (The Tomah, WI VA has been slammed in the media lately for handing out so many opiates that vets called it "Candy Land. See: "Opiates handed out like candy to 'doped-up' veterans at Wisconsin VA."http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/opiates-handed-out-like-candy-to-doped-up-veterans-at-wisconsin-va-b99423091z1-288223591.html  Excerpt: Doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Tomah hand out so many narcotic painkillers that some veterans have taken to calling the place "Candy Land." They call the hospital's chief of staff, psychiatrist David Houlihan, the "Candy Man." ~Bob)


No, the VA has not fired 60 people for manipulating wait-time data. By Michelle Ye Hee Lee

Excerpt: It was notoriously difficult to fire senior executives at the VA — at a one-fourth rate than the firing rate for all federal agencies, according to CNN – and the goal was to allow the VA chief to replace bad actors quickly, especially ones connected to the scandal. In his “Meet the Press” interview, McDonald also said 100 senior leaders are under investigation by the inspector general and the Department of Justice. Yet McDonald is incorrect saying 60 employees who manipulated wait times were fired.


American Sniper and the Michael Moore Critique. By Dr. Carol Swain


Our Marines Would Slaughter Isis If Unleashed: Lone Survivor’s Marcus Lutrell Weighs In On Pathetic ISIS

Excerpt: Release, the Marines! Marcus Lutrell appears on Fox & Friends and talks about how it would only take 300 Marines to take on ISIS. Please forward to our Muslim Appeaser-in-Chief, Obama. (Well, he's a combat vet, but much as I love my brother Marines, ISIS has tens of thousands of armed fanatics and heavy weapons. Might take a tad more than 300. ~Bob)

The big-city boss behind Philly's winning bid. The low-profile, rank-and-file congressman is regarded as a kingmaker back home. By Katie Glueck
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/the-big-city-boss-behind-phillys-winning-bid-115267.html
Excerpt: If you want something done in this town — something like, say, landing a national political convention — you ask Bob Brady.That’s the word among union workers, ward leaders and Democratic Party power brokers who regard Brady — a low-profile, rank-and-file congressman in the minority in Washington — as a kingmaker back home, one of the last of the big-city bosses.Brady, the chairman of Philadelphia’s Democratic Party since 1986, played an instrumental — if less nationally prominent — role in Philadelphia’s winning campaign to host the 2016 Democratic convention.


Interesting: Grand Strategy in the Age of Mass Destruction: The Dark Side of the Moon

Excerpt: During the Munich Security Conference on Friday, British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon told Reuters of a three-fold concern. First, he said, the Russians “may have lowered the threshold” for using nuclear weapons. Second, he said, the Russians are “integrating nuclear with conventional forces in a rather threatening way….” Third, he said, “at a time of fiscal pressure they are keeping up their expenditure on modernizing their nuclear forces.” (See the Reuters story: UK concerned over ‘threatening’ Russian nuclear strategy.) The Guardian headline on Friday showed a picture of Russian President Vladimir Putin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Francois Hollande of France. The headline was, Fear of Vladimir Putin grows in EU capitals amid spectre of ‘total war’ – which included a disturbing comment from an EU diplomat in Brussels that arming Ukraine would trigger a war with Russia, and Russia was bound to win the war.

Study: Obama’s Carbon Rules Could Cost Thousands of Manufacturing Jobs in Your State. By Kelsey Harkness

Excerpt: A new study predicts that more than a half million manufacturing jobs will be eliminated from the U.S. economy as a result of the Obama administration’s proposed regulations to curb carbon dioxide emissions. “Every state would experience overwhelming negative impacts as a result of these regulations, but especially those with higher-than-average employment in manufacturing and mining,” said Nick Loris, a co-author of the study, which was completed by energy experts at The Heritage Foundation—the parent organization of The Daily Signal. (This isn't a bug, it's a feature. If you lose your job, you have too go on welfare. Then you have to vote Democrat to keep the benefits flowing. ~Bob)

Census Bureau: 30.3% Millennials Still Living With Their Parents

Where they are drinking coco, wearing PJs and talking about Obamacare. ~Bob

Tanzanian albino boy found mutilated

Excerpt: An albino toddler missing since Sunday has been found dead in northern Tanzaniawith all his limbs hacked off. Yohana Bahati, aged one, was snatched from the house of his mother, who was cut with a machete. ... At least 74 albino children have been killed this century in Tanzania, where some witchdoctors use albino body parts to make their charms.

Learning from Obama: French PM skips parliament vote to push through reforms

Excerpt: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls defied critics from left and right on Tuesday by declaring he would ram a flagship economic reform bill through parliament by decree, bypassing backbench rebels but exposing his government to a no-confidence vote.

Outspoken Sheila Jackson Lee refuses to speak about Grammys. By Martin Barillas

Excerpt: Questions still swirl around congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and her attendance at the 2015 Grammy Awards on February 8. Democrat Jackson Lee represents the 18thCongressional District of Texas in the House of Representatives and is a frequent advocate of income equality and social justice. A reporter from KPRC-TV asked the legislator “Did you pay for the trip to L.A?” In response, Jackson Lee deferred to her staffers, saying “I let my staff have all my information and I let my staff handle it. And I will address the question…” as she stepped away.

The Campus Cult of Victimhood: At the University of Michigan, (certain kinds of) intolerance will not be tolerated. By Jonah Goldberg

Excerpt: I visited my father’s alma mater for the first time last week. The University of Michigan’s chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom invited me to give a speech. A banner warning the “thought police” of my imminent arrival was torn down, presumably by the irony-impaired thought police. The university has been in the news recently for such shenanigans and worse. For instance, student Omar Mahmood, a columnist for both the Michigan Daily and the conservative Michigan Review, was fired from the Daily for writing a parody piece for the Review about the oppression of the “left-handyd.” In the piece, Mahmood’s narrator takes a comment from a “white cis-gendered hetero upper-class man” as microaggression. “Behind his words I sensed a patronizing sneer, as if he expected me to be a spokespersyn for my whole race. He offered his hand to help me up, and I thought to myself how this might be a manifestation of the patriarchy patronizing me.”

Just Biden Being Biden? VP's Odd Moves Give Pause

Excerpt: Hosting a White House summit on violent extremism, Biden sought to draw a parallel between Minneapolis, where local leaders are working to prevent radicalization of Somali youth, and his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, which Biden said also has a "large, very identifiable Somali community.""I might add, if you ever come to the train station you may notice that I have great relations with them, because an awful lot of them are driving cabs, and are friends of mine," Biden said.

Excerpt: He was extremely attentive. Particularly to underage girls. And, well, it’s not that big of a deal, I guess, but it got kind of creepy. To wit (and I might actually mean this Trigger Warning for once: lecherous elderly man creeping on underage girl): ... None of us can fully imagine what holy hell would be brought down on a conservative elected official who engaged in behavior like this by more or less everyone in the feminist-media-industrial complex. We wouldn’t be seeing jokey headlines. We wouldn’t see praise for the White House putting out a video on Biden being Biden. As if.

Important: How much debt does your state have? By Jason Russell

Excerpt: Massachusettshas more outstanding debt per capita than any other state government. The state is $76 billion in the red, or $11,379 per person, or $2,000 more than the next highest state, Rhode Island. Tennessee has only $953 of debt per person, or 8 percent of Massachusetts’ debt per person. Next at the low-end is Nebraska, with only $988 in debt per person. States that had Republican governors in 2013 averaged $2,902 of debt per person, while states led by Democratic governors averaged $5,131. State government debts have been amassed over time, so it would be an oversimplification to blame a state’s current administration for its debt levels. (When Michael Dukakis offered a $500 million bonding plan to pay for operating expenses [rather than capitol improvements] for the first time ever, we managed to block the vote with eight Democrats joining the seven Republicans voting no. The Senate President was unhappy, kept the senate in recess around the clock, vowing he would pass the bond issue at 2:00 am on a voice vote with only one Democrat on the floor. I slept in front of the Senate door for two nights to prevent him from doing so {as if I was there, I could doubt the presence of a quorum, thus shutting it down until 20 senators turned up]. Eventually they convinced one of the Democrats to change his vote from "No" to "Present," which gave them the 2/3rds majority they needed to pass the bond issue. Dukakis promised to only sell as many bonds as needed, but found immediately that the whole $500M was needed. And the taxpayers paid. State debt is one of the factors in my book, The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. I took a photo of one of the clips in my scrapbooks, below. ~Bob)


Gun News

Excerpt: According to the Marine Times, the Corps is considering a number of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) upgrades to enhance the combat accuracy of Marine riflemen. The Marines will also be investigating a continued shift away from full metal jacket (FMJ) rounds to open-tip (rifle) and hollowpoint (pistol) ammunition for combat. The rifle upgrades to the existing Marine Corps M16A4 assault rifle will use many upgrades that civilian AR-15 users have preferred for years for hunting and competition on their semi-automatic-only rifles. Perhaps the most important single upgrade is the adoption of a free-floating barrel, so that Marines shooting the rifle using a sling or bipod doesn’t experience a significant point-of-aim/point-of-impact (POA/POI) shift. (In my view, we should do away with the whole M-16/M-4 system. Lots of better rifles in the world. The left will go ballistic over hollow points. But a hollow point not only has better stopping power--the point of shooting someone--but is much more likely to stay in the body of the shootee, while FMJ rounds are more likely to pass through him, increasing collateral damage in places where there are innocent kids and women in the fighting zone. ~Bob)


Gun rights groups await judge's ruling on California's 'microstamping' law. By Malia Zimmerman

Excerpt: The problem with the “microstamping” law, which was signed into law by then-Gov. ArnoldSchwarzenegger in 2007 but only took effect in 2013, is that it relies on an unworkable technology, according to gun manufacturers and attorneys for the Second Amendment Foundation and Calguns Foundation. If guns without the technology can't be sold in California, and gun manufacturers can't implement the technology, the law is, for practical purposes, a handgun ban that violates the Second Amendment, goes the argument.

Race Card News


Consistently Worth Reading: Shame. By Walter E. Williams 

Excerpt: Today's liberals are not racists, but they often behave that way. They would benefit immensely from considering some of the arguments in award-winning scholar Dr. Shelby Steele's forthcoming book, "Shame: How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country."
Steele, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, explains that in matters of race, there is an ideological vision that completely ignores truth -- a vision he calls "poetic truth." (Dr. Williams, a leading economist and former department head at GeorgeMasonUniversitygrew up poor and black in Philadelphia's projects. His short book, Race and Economics is a must read. ~Bob)

How We Can Honor Edward Brooke, a Great Trailblazer. By Gerren McHam

Excerpt: When people think of history makers, they may first think of those whose accomplishments rest upon specific moments in their life. However, there are individuals whose actions over a lifetime create ripple effects for many years to come. A man of this exact nature, the late Sen. Edward Brooke, R-Mass., served as the inspiration for the Republican National Committee’s third annual Black Republican Trailblazer Awards Luncheon held last week.
Serving as the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate in 1966, Brooke paved the way for future men and women of color and deserves to be remembered during Black History Month. (First since Reconstruction, when former Rebels couldn't vote. Tim Scott is the first from the Old South since then. ~Bob)

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


Another Cluster-You-Know-What from the World of Government-Run Healthcare. By Daniel J. Mitchell 

Excerpt: In the grand scheme of things, the most important development in health policy is the pending Supreme Court case revolving around whether subsidies can be provided to people obtaining health insurance from the federal exchange, even though the law explicitly says handouts are only available to people getting policies via state exchanges. If the Court rules correctly (unlike, ahem, the last time the Justices dealt with Obamacare), it will then be very important that congressional reformers use the resulting mess to unwind as much of the law as possible. (Thinking of signing up for Obamacare? You might want to use some "Strategic Patience." ~Bob)

How One Nebraska Woman Lost Her Health Insurance Three Times Under Obamacare. By Melissa Quinn

Excerpt: Dec. 26, 2014, was strike three for Pamela Weldin. The day after Christmas, Weldin, of Minatare, Neb., had logged on to Facebook to find a message from a friend of hers. Included in the note was a link to an article from the Omaha World-Herald announcing that CoOportunity Health, a nonprofit health insurance company offering plans in Nebraskaand Iowa, had been taken over by state regulators. The insurer, one of 23 Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans, or co-ops, started with the backing of the federal government and received $145 million in loans from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. But, CoOportunity’s expenses and medical claims would far exceed its revenue for 2014.

"You're Greener than Gore" News


Worth Reading: How Billionaires Run Solar Plant Scams. By Mitchell Tu  and David Kreutzer

Excerpt: At the recent inauguration of the Desert Sunlight solar farm, Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell stated, “This is the beginnings of a renewable energy future.”
Let’s hope she is wrong, because the Desert Sunlight project is cronyism at its worst. This project involves $1.5 billion of subsidized loans. It also mandated purchases of overpriced power, all to benefit the project’s owners. And don’t think those owners are struggling mom-and-pop operations. Instead, they’re three of the world’s largest corporations—GE (market capitalization of $247 billion), NextEra Energy (market capitalization of $47 billion) and Sumitomo Corporation (market capitalization of $13 billion). Here’s how the scam works. It begins with proposing to build a solar plant. But solar plants take up a lot of land. Gosh, that can be expensive. So, the government rents them the land at bargain prices.

Religion of Peace News



Consistently Worth Hearing: Islam, The One Way Street

Check out Pat Condell’s rant on Islam. It’s nothing but awesome.

Worth Reading: Obama: Extremists Have "Legitimate Grievances." By Katie Pavlich

Excerpt: But the President touting a victory about core Al Qaeda isn't the most bizarre part of the piece. Further down, Obama claims those engaging in violent extremism have "legitimate grievances" that must be addressed. (There grievances include the existence of gays, apostates, Jews and other infidels who refuse to submit to Islam and Shari'a law and must be killed, democracy, freedom of speech, women not dressing modestly, women driving, working or going to school, people who oppose child marriage as practiced by the "perfect example" of conduct for Muslims (Mohammad), people who oppose sex slavery, and people who oppose many other Seventh Century traditions enshrined in the Qur'an, Hadith and Shari'a Law. ~Bob)

Next they'll suggest Midnight basketball. You laugh, but look how it eliminated crime and violence in our cities! ~Bob


Excerpt: In the history of all the world, there has never been a war that could not be won by killing more bad guys than they kill of the good guys. But Marie Harf, the State Department spokeswoman making international headlines for being a damn naive fool, claims we cannot win this war by killing the bad guys. According to Harf, we need to root out “underlying causes” and create jobs. So a Presidency that rejects nation building thinks we must, essentially, nation build to win the war. I realize the Obama Administration is composed of a bunch of secular, atheist God haters, but this is just naive dumbassery. As has now been well established, the Islamic State is, in fact Islamic, and intends to expand a Caliphate and bring about the Apocalypse. (I think she's a fool too, but must point out that in Vietnam, we killed maybe ten times as many Communists as they killed of us. but the American people led by media and leftists, turned against the war, and the sacrifice of our troops was made vain. They were then free to impose their tyranny on SE Asia, which continues to this day. ~Bob)

Denmark Terror Attack Survivor Said She Won’t Submit to Shariah Law. That’s When the News Anchor Interrupted Her. By Sharona Schwartz

Excerpt: When a survivor of Saturday’s terrorist attacks in Copenhagen told a television interviewer she would not be silenced by Shariah law, the news anchor interrupted her, saying, “We don’t know details about the gunman yet.” Agnieszka Kolek, a Polish artist and free-speech activist who was a panelist at the freedom of speech discussion attacked by a terrorist gunman, told Britain’s Channel 4 Sunday that she personally heard the attacker shouting “Allahu Akbar.”

Texas Islamic Center Fire Appears Not to be a Hate Crime.” By Lana Shadwick

Excerpt: An arrest was announced at 6 p.m. Monday night at the Houston Fire Department Arson Headquarters in connection with the February 13th Quba Islamic Institute fire. Darryl Ferguson, age 55 of Houston, has been charged with arson. It appears the fire is not a hate crime. Ferguson told reporters at the police station that he was just trying to keep warm and the fire was an accident. Fergusonapproached detectives who were investigating in the area around the Islamic Institute and asked to talk to them, according to ABC13 News in Houston. He is reported to have voluntarily admitted to setting the fire.

The Muslim Brotherhood-ISIS Connection. By Arnold Ahlert 

Excerpt: President Obama’s ongoing antipathy towards Egypt is no accident. Our feckless president has long had a soft spot in his heart for the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), and Egypt’s removal of the terror group from the corridors of power has rankled the administration. So what is it the Egyptians understand and our president denies? The Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowments insists that ISISwas birthed by the MB.


There Is No Modern Islam. By Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: Like math and the Midwest, ISIS confuses progressives. It’s not hard to confuse a group of people who never figured out that if you borrow 18 trillion dollars, you’re going to have to pay it back. But ISISis especially confusing to a demographic whose entire ideology is being on the right side of history. Raised to believe that history inevitably trended toward diversity in catalog models, fusion restaurants and gay marriage, the Arab Spring led them on by promising that the Middle East would be just like Europe and then ISIS tore up their Lonely Planet guidebook to Syria and chopped off their heads. But ISIS also believes that it’s on the right side of history.

Obama’s Anti-Netanyahu Boycott Is Collapsing. By Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn 

Excerpt: The final numbers are not yet in, but it seems clearthat the White House-orchestrated campaign to boycott Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress is collapsing.
Despite two weeks of intense anti-Netanyahu leaks, insults, and pressure, the White House has so far succeeded in persuading only a handful of Democratic members of Congress to stay away from the speech. (Obama still has a trick up his sleeve. He's going to promise them that if they boycott the speech, they can keep their health plan and doctor. ~Bob)

Expert: ISIS is Very Much Islamic, West Stunningly Ignorant. By Guy Benson 

Excerpt: Graeme Wood's lengthy piece on the roots, goals and motivations of ISISin The Atlantic has gone viral this week, and deservedly so. It offers an insightful, frightening and illuminating analysis of the hardcore Islamist army whose merciless and bloody rise has horrified and confounded the civilized world. Wood's story truly earns the overused "must read" moniker. An important snippet:

WaPo Falsely Implies Detroit Stabbing Was Hate Crime Against Muslims

Excerpt: But while the Post’s story does contain the alleged non-Muslim targeting which is key to the story, it has not been reflected in the article’s headline or lead paragraph—even after the paper updated the headline to address outrage on social media. It now reads, “Police: Man stabs two after asking about religious beliefs.”

Boko Haram poses disaster for all of Africa. By Martin Barillas

Excerpt: If Maiduguri, a city in northeastern Nigeria, falls to the Boko Haram Islamist sect, all of Africais threatened, say observers. The terrorists would then have access to an airport in an area they have now surrounded.

Broad disagreement with Obama on Islamic terror. By Martin Barillas

Excerpt: Comment has come from various sectors about Islam that is at odds with President Barack Obama’s continued insistence whether the deadly attacks in France, beheadings of Christians in Libya, or the abduction and rape of girls in Nigeria amount to Islamic extremism. For example, Fox TV host Bill O'Reilly expressed outrage over the Obama’s failure to identify the religious identity of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libyaby Islamic State terrorists. Declaring “The Holy War is here,” O’Reilly asked the public to contact the White House to express their anger over the killings. The host called on religious leaders in the U.S.to address their congregations this weekend to “tell our leaders to get in gear. I'd like to see every cleric in this country to do that! I want every pastor, every priest, every imam, and every rabbi to email me personally and tell me you're going to do that.”

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


Today's Political news and Conservative Comment

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It was -4 at 10:00 am this morning. Our little dog, Caramel, got off his pillow, snuggled down to be on the bed heating pad and let my bride cover him up during the night, something he never does. Cold again tonight. ~Bob

General News and Comment



70 YEARS AGO: The Battle of Iwo Jimalaunched on Feb. 19, 1945 


Reliving the 1930s. By Victor Davis Hanson

Excerpt: Yet World War II could have been prevented had Western Europe united to deter Germany. Instead, France, Britain and the smaller European democracies appeased Hitler.
The United States turned isolationist. The Soviet Union collaborated with the Third Reich. And Italy and Japan eventually joined it. The 1930s saw rampant anti-Semitism. Jews were blamed in fascist countries for the economic downturn. They were scapegoated in democracies for stirring up the fascists. The only safe havens for Jews from Europe were Jewish-settled Palestine and the United States. Does all this sound depressingly familiar?

Important: Trust, but Verify -- Even Conservative PACs

Excerpt: According to the report, some PACs, such as Club for Growth, direct the bulk of their spending to electing conservatives – in Club for Growth’s case, 88%. Others, however, such as the National Draft Ben Carson for President Super PAC – which, incidentally, isn’t actually associated with Dr. Carson – spent nearly $13 million in 2014, but less than $600,000 went to candidates and none of it went to Carson. Therein lies the problem.
Hawkins writes that some PACs pay large amounts to vendors that, curiously, are owned by individuals working for the PAC. 

Important: 50 Million Down The Tubes: How 17 Conservative PACs Are Spending Their Money. By John Hawkins

Excerpt: Some people have started to wonder whether that’s happened to groups in the conservative movement – and that’s understandable. Reports about sleazy activities by conservative groups have not exactly been in short supply over the last couple of years. Damaging stories have popped up on the Daily BeastMother JonesWashington Postthe Politico and at the Daily among other outlets. Additionally, for those of us who have a lot of friends in the Tea Party and among grassroots conservatives, stories of abuse have become rampant. That may be why you’ve heard people like Ann Coulter and Dana Loesch publicly suggesting that there are groups out there ripping people off. However, the problem with the articles that have come out so far is that most of them have come from liberal outlets and have only discussed limited aspects of a few organizations. That naturally led people to wonder if they were reading hit pieces. As to the rumors, there are always two sides to every story and it’s difficult to know how much weight to place on anecdotal stories. (Please send me your checks made out t the "Bob Hall Should Drink Better Scotch PAC." ~Bob)

Courting the Gangland Vote

Excerpt: Attorney General Eric Holder has long pushed for restoring voting rights to convicted felons. A year ago, we explained his real motive: Votes for Democrats. Just recently, however, this issue – otherwise dead-on-arrival in the Republican-held Senate – gained renewed life with the revival by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) of the Civil Rights Voting Restoration Act. This is an unfortunate move by Paul, but we suspect the measure may simply be a play for votes, particularly minority votes, in anticipation of his potential presidential run.

WaPo Fact Checker: Biden’s strange claim of knowing ‘an awful lot’ of Somali cab drivers in Delaware

Excerpt: As we noted, the vice president’s office did not even acknowledge our queries. The burden of proof rests with the speaker, and here the preponderance of evidence suggests there are not “an awful lot” of Somalis driving taxi cabs in Wilmington, Del. The vice president earns Four Pinocchios. 

Encouraging tax evasion: HUD paid $37 million a month in subsidies to ineligible households. By Josh Hicks 

Excerpt: The Department of Housing and Urban Development granted subsidies for tens of thousands of public-housing tenants who were not eligible for the assistance, according to federal auditors. A recent review by the HUD inspector general’s office found that the department paid an estimated $37 million per month to residents who failed to comply with federal guidelines requiring them to take part in community-service or self-sufficiency programs, such as job training or education.

"The Eagle Cried" ~ an original song and music by U.S. Army Major J. Billington

Tribute to VietnamVets.

Carrier John C. Stennis

You have to have nerve to fly off a carrier. ~Bob

What If the Oscars Honored Movies that Audiences Actually Watched? By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

Imagine if the Academy of Motion Picture Artsand Scientists decided to nominate the six highest-grossing films of 2014 for Best Picture. That field would consist of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part One; Guardians of the Galaxy; American Sniper; Captain America: The Winter Soldier; The LEGO Movie, and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. I haven’t seen all of those, but I think most moviegoers and critics would agree that those are actually a pretty good bunch of movies, particularly when you account for what each one aimed to be, particularly Guardians of the Galaxy (epic space fantasy) and The Lego Movie (funny, fast-paced kids movie with a lot of heart). (I never watch the Oscars, the Academy Awards or any of the other Hollywoodgroup-stroke self gratification shows. I couldn't care less. ~Bob)

Ukraine crisis: Shelling spreads despite ceasefire

Excerpt: Shelling is reported from several places in eastern Ukrainedespite the official ceasefire between government forces and pro-Russia rebels. Artillery fire could be heard in the region's biggest city, Donetsk, where the truce had been observed so far. Ukrainian military sources also accused rebels of shelling positions near the port city of Mariupol.

Getting Rid of Ineffective, Unnecessary Federal Spending

Excerpt: Reining in spending will require cuts in every sector -- from science to energy to agriculture to national defense to transportation and welfare. Here are a few of the report's suggestions on cutting spending on education, training, employment and social services: Privatizing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which funds services such as PBS or NPR, would save Americans $445 million every year. In 2012, 82 percent of spending on public broadcasting came from non-federal sources, and the report contends PBS and NPR could survive on their own without government funding. Getting rid of the Job Corps would save Americans $19 billion over a decade. The program is intended to teach trade skills to youth, but a National Job Corps Study concluded that for every $25,000 that taxpayers invest in a single Job Corps participant, Corp participants were less likely to graduate from high school than their peers, were no more likely to attend or complete college and earned just 22 cents more in hourly wages compared to their peers, wasting taxpayer dollars. Eliminating funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA and the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) would save Americans $3.2 billion over a decade. The report notes that private giving to the arts far outweigh federal funding (Americans gave $13.1 billion 2011 to the arts and humanities, compared to just $292 million from the NEA and NEH), and private philanthropy would be more than sufficient to support the arts.

The Insiders: Obama’s governing legacy hangs by a legal thread. By Ed Rogers

Excerpt: It is remarkable that despite all of the political talent, goodwill and positive momentum Barack Obama had when he came into office, his policies – both domestic and international – are in tatters. And it is ironic that the former law professor’s two biggest “accomplishments” — Obamacare and executive orders on immigration — are hanging precariously by a legal thread.

It Was Unconstitutional Before It Wasn’t: Democrats in Their Own Words. By Genevieve Wood

Excerpt: And then late last week, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) made the suggestion that the Senate do something he said just a few years ago was unconstitutional. He recommended the Senate create its own Homeland Security funding bill, pass it, and send it to the House. But back in 2007, Durbin was emphatic that the Constitution required all spending measures to begin in the House. During a debate with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) over appropriations, he said the following: (So what? The Constitution requires tax bills to originate in the House. Obamacare, which was declared constitutional because it was a tax, originated in the Senate. Not many Democrats are worried about that. ~Bob)


Gun News


Pharmacist who shot robber: “Why did you make me do this?”

Excerpt: Kanawha County Sheriff Johnny Rutherford said a man attempted to rob the Good Family Pharmacy, in Pinch, at about 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, but was shot by a pharmacist. The pharmacist, Don Radcliff, rendered medical assistance until the would-be robber was taken to a local hospital, where he later died

Race Card News



Excerpt: ...(A) big part of the problem is a black subculture that rejects attitudes and behaviors that are conducive to academic success. Black kids read half as many books and watch twice as much television as their white counterparts, for example. In other words, a big part of the problem is a culture that produces little black girls and boys who are already worried about acting and sounding white by the time they are in second grade. (Over the decades, many fine, hard-hitting articles have been written on the subject of race relations. Many of those articles have, like this one, been written by black authors. This may be one of the very best. Jason Riley is a regular contributor on Fox News, an editorial board member at the Wall Street Journal, and author of Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed. In this article, he implies he is being "candid;" I suspect he really meant to say "honest." --Ron P.)


Religion of Peace News



Worst JV Team We've Faced: Islamic State militants 'burn to death 45 in Iraq'

Excerpt: Jihadist militants from Islamic State (IS) have burned to death 45 people in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, the local police chief says. Exactly who these people were and why they were killed is not clear, but Col Qasim al-Obeidi said he believed some were members of the security forces. (Remember that ISIS didn't exist when Obama took office. ~Bob)

War Authorization's Difficult Debate. By George Will 

Excerpt: Well. The debate’s difficulty defines its urgency: It is hard to say precisely against what (does the Islamic State’s name make it a state?), and therefore where, force should be authorized. This debate will demonstrate the limits of legalistic precision in war. Which is why, once war begins, limiting presidential war-making power is like lassoing a locomotive with a cobweb. So, this overdue debate – six months and approximately 2,000 U.S. airstrikes into the war on the Islamic State – properly should preoccupy Congress for weeks.

Worth Reading: Norm Pattis: Have we lost the instinct to defend ourselves and our ideals?

Excerpt: No sooner had news broken that Craig Hicks was accused of killing three young Muslim college students in North Carolina than calls erupted for a federal hate crime investigation. The Justice Department promptly obliged. Where was the hue and cry for such an investigation when Ali Muhammed Brown was arrested in 2014 for killing four randomly selected Americans in retaliation for civilians killed by the United Statesforces in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan? “The defendant was on a bloody crusade, executing four innocent men — with the same murder weapon, over the course of approximately two months, and all under the common and single scheme of exacting ‘vengeance’ against the United States government for its foreign policies,” Seattle prosecutors accuse. Hate crime prosecutions are theater. (For once, Norm approaches the side of reason…and it hurts me to be able to say that. --George)

Interesting: Just Who Has to Adjust in the Name of Tolerance? By Phyllis Chesler

Excerpt: Although President Obama insists that the "fight against terrorism is not a religious war," Hamid seems to disagree with him. According to a variety of polls, Hamid is right. For example, while a 2009 Gallup poll shows European Muslims overwhelmingly reject violence, they are far more religious than those who live in secular Europe (France, England, and Germany), and are more strongly opposed to homosexuality than are secular Europeans. In addition, young, second or third generation European Muslim men favor veiling for women, polygamy, the execution of apostates, and favor prohibiting Muslim women from marrying non-Muslim men. ... The liberal West believes in criticizing everything, especially religion, beginning with Judaism and Christianity. Extending this right-to-criticize, satirize, or examine Islam has led to major Muslim meltdowns.

Yemen: Another Obama Administration Foreign Policy Failure

Excerpt: Many Americans were surprised to see the Obama administration get caught flat-footed again in the volatile Arab World when a Shiite Muslim Houthi rebel group, with ties to Iran's terrorist state, overthrew Yemen's government.

President Obama's No-Good, Terrible Handling of the War on Terrorism

Excerpt:  Are things with ISIS proceeding as poorly as they seem to be? Sure, ISIS didn’t exist just a few short years ago. Sure, when President Bush left office both Iraq and Syriawere stable regimes, and in Iraqthe US Military combined with the Iraqi military to trample out the last vestiges of terrorism. Sure, al Qaeda was on the run and Islamic extremism seemed to be losing their fight against the West. But an Obama Presidency can really change everything, can’t it?

Obama at a DNC event. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

“I promise you, things are much less dangerous now than they were 20 years ago, 25 years ago or 30 years ago.” He said this the day U.K.prime minister David Cameron declared that his country faced “the greatest and deepest terror threat in its history.”

Qatarrecalls envoy to Egypt in row over Libyastrikes

Excerpt: Qatarhas recalled its ambassador from Egyptfollowing a row about air strikes on Islamic State targets in Libya. Foreign ministry officials said it was prompted by comments made by Egypt's delegate to the Arab League, who accused Qatarof supporting terrorism. Qatarhad expressed reservations over Egypt's unilateral military action in another Arab League member state and the risk of civilian casualties.

Video: VirginiaDemocrats Flee Chamber to Avoid Pro-Israel Vote. By Guy Benson 

Excerpt: Two Democrats had the courage of their morally-perverse convictions; others fled the chamber for the vote, returned to their seats, then raced for the exits again when a re-vote was proposed. The House Speaker rightly mocked this "profile in courage" from the podium as his craven colleagues bolted:

Poverty Doesn’t Cause Terrorism. By Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn

Excerpt: So it turns out the Obama Administration does have a strategy for combating terrorists: give them jobs.

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


A lot of important political news today

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Update


Weather permitting, we expect to be out-of-pocket Saturday, so posts will be delayed.

I made baked potatoes and Tilapia roll in Oatmeal for dinner. Came out good, but even though I dip the fish in egg, the oatmeal sticks more to the frying pan than the filet. I fried it in butter per an online recipe. Any hints, readers? ~Bob

Old Rag Sonnet--By Robert A. Hall


Book Recommendation:Fives and Twenty-Fives by Michael Pitre 

This terrific novel about Marines in Iraq and later at home was recommended to me by Col. Andy Weddington and a couple of other Marines. I believe this is the author's first novel. A Marine Captain, he has a brilliant future as a writer. Everything here has the ring of truth. I expect a Marine to "get" Marines, but his great characterization extends to the Iraqis in the story, especially their "terp." It is one of those novels where you have trouble believing these are not real people and you want to know more about their lives. His description of troops suffering from PTSD after the war is deft and subtle, not heavy handed. This will take its place in war novels with Battle Cry (WWII), Body Count and Fields of Fire (Vietnam). I can't recommend this tale highly enough. Anything Pitre writes I will read. ~Bob

General News and Comment


Contest- how many can you add to this list? --Del


Good News for Wisconsin: Scott Walker will sign right-to-work bill fast-tracking through Legislature. By Matthew DeFour

Excerpt: Gov. Scott Walker said Friday he would sign right-to-work legislation that Republicans plan to fast-track through the state Legislature beginning next week. (Of course, the danger is that Union votes, money and bully boys might support the Democrat candidate this time. Ha. I crack me up. ~Bob)

Giuliani on Obama. By Jonah Goldberg, The Goldberg File

Worth Subscribing to:So the question of the moment is whether Rudy Giuliani should be flayed or simply drawn-and-quartered for saying that Obama doesn’t love America. Naturally, this has led to Giuliani being called a racist, because the best working definition of racism in Americatoday is any criticism of Obama that stings. Kevin Williamson runs through the highlights of what is, by now, a pretty old argument. My own view isn’t so much that Giuliani is right, but that he’s not exactly wrong either. Look, it was like a week ago that we were talking about Obama’s inability to criticize the Islamic State without first going out of his way to flagellate the West and Americaover the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery, and Jim Crow. Is it really so crazy to think a guy who feels compelled to warn his own countrymen not to get on their “high horse” about child rapists and slavers (who are also beheading and/or immolating and/or burying alive Americans, Christians, Yazidis, and fellow Muslims) might subscribe to an, um, unconventional form of patriotism? (Personally, I think looking down your nose at men who do such things doesn’t require a high horse, or even a pygmy horse, or even any horse at all. A syphilitic kleptomaniacal dwarf with a penchant for peeing the lyrics of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” on your grandmother’s antique bedspread, living at the bottom of a deep well in Death Valley, could still judgmentally look down on such savages without apology and from a great height.)

Worth Reading: In new biography, Obama asks: Am I an American? By Byron York

Excerpt: Ever since the 2008 campaign, many voters, and some journalists too, have felt they know Barack Obama's life story. In fact, the story they know is the one Obama told them. ... Obama had a lot of Pakistani friends; Maraniss writes that if Obama and his girlfriend socialized as a couple, "it was almost always with the Pakistanis." Obama appeared to identify with his friends as fellow non-Americans. "For years when Barack was around them, he seemed to share their attitudes as sophisticated outsiders who looked at politics from an international perspective," Maraniss writes. "He was one of them, in that sense." But Obama was ambitious. Appalled by the "dirty deeds" of "Reagan and his minions" (as he wrote in "Dreams from My Father"), Obama became increasingly interested in, as Maraniss writes, "gaining power in order to change things." He couldn't do that as an international guy hanging around with his Pakistani friends; he needed to become an American.

Chris Christie losing home-state donors as Jeb Bush makes inroads

Excerpt: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is rapidly losing support among some of his most prominent home-state donors and power brokers, who are either hesitant to back him or shifting allegiance to former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Bush’s aggressive moves to lock up the Republican Party’s premier fundraisers threaten to undercut the GardenStategovernor before his expected campaign can get off the ground, while raising questions about how robust of a network of support Christie will be able to muster.

NYT Editorial: Separate Philanthropy From Political Clout. Hillary Clinton Should Ban Foreign Donors to the Clinton Global Initiative

Excerpt: Since its inception in 2001, it has raised nearly $2 billion in cash and pledges with millions more flowing in from an impressive array of donors, including foreign governments, financial chieftains and domestic donors, many of the latter political heavyweights. All of which underlines the need for Hillary Rodham Clinton, in her all but certified role as a Democratic presidential candidate, to reinstate the foundation’s ban against foreign contributors, who might have matters of concern to bring before a future Clinton administration. This was a restriction Mrs. Clinton worked out with the Obama administration to allay concerns of potential conflict of interest when she became secretary of state in 2009.

Must Read: A Stupid and Sleazy ClintonDecision: If Hillary Clinton wants to be president, the Clinton Foundation should stop accepting money from foreign countries. By Ron Fournier

Excerpt: This is sleazy and stupid. Just as Hillary Clinton is getting ready to run for president again, her family's charitable foundation secretly lifted a ban on accepting money from foreign governments. The Wall Street Journal discovered the ethical breach during a search of donations of more than $50,000 posted on the foundation's online database. "Recent donors include the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Australia, Germany, and a Canadian government agency promoting the Keystone XL Pipeline," reported James V. Grimaldi and Rebecca Ballhaus. ... This is sleazy because her foundation takes money from countries that fund terrorism. A Wikileaks cable quoted then-Secretary of State Clinton saying, "Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide." The United Arab Emiratesalso was implicated in the memo. 

True: In Defense of Fahrenheit


Che Guevara’s Daughter Delighted with Obama’s Cuba Policy. By Humberto Fontova 

Excerpt: Che Guevara’s daughter Aleida is in Canada this week whooping up president Obama’s opening to the Stalinist regime her father co-founded, and saying he’d certainly approve.
She’s absolutely correct. Aside from her father, few people knew from first-hand experience how easily U.S. officials can be snookered. (Ah, Che, tee-shirt hero to generations of left wing college students who know nothing about him. See: "The Real Che Guevara."http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2009/02/the_real_che_gu.html~Bob)

Walker's 24% Leads Post-Romney GOP Field. By Neil McCabe

Excerpt: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker dominates a crowded field of GOP White House contenders with 24 percent of Republicans, but former first lady Hillary shows general election strength head-to-head against Walker and others, according to a Feb. 12-`13 Townhall/Gravis poll of 969 registered Iowa voters.
Gun News

Response on "Marines Considering Hollow Points."

Interesting note, as usual good stuff! The issue on hollow point ammunition is based on the International Law of Land Warfare Prohibition on small arms projectiles designed to intentionally increase wound damage. The interpretation restricts use of spire point, hollow point, e.g. 9mm, 45cal or flat point like 30-30 hunting ammo. However, there are different hollow point designs. There is the hollow point for hunting where there are 6 cut folds that expand to double caliber on impact. There are banned for combat. The second hollow point is a ballistic hollow point where there is a small, cut in the bullet tip, visible, with a depth of only a few millimeters and does not penetrate the core of the bullet. This ballistic hollow point provides, a supersonic stability wave that helps long axis stability. This also aids in overall xyz axis relative to differences in center of form to center of mass differences. The addition of a boat tail designs add to the stability. The classic design is the Sierra 168 gr. BTHP, used in 30-06, .308 Win., this is the world standard for the design. Most commercial Match ammo uses this bullet. There is a 200 gr, BTHP that is perfect for the .300 Win. Mag., a 5.56 mm BTHP match bullet. The match BTHP bullets do not expand, I deer hunt with them, hole in is hole out. Because the HP is ballistic design for accuracy and does not increase wound damage, they are legal for combat. There is a DOD legal opinion, back in 1990's that states the bullet is legal for US snipers. Part of the opinion was that being more accurate, there was less risk of hitting a non-combatant. I have to dig in the files and find the opinion, but sure we could research the point. I'll get it to you, definitely agree with you to let our Marines use the best match ammo for combat. Also best weapons of choice for the situation. We should be using an ammunition round similar to the soviet 7.62x39mm, but improved near the germen 8mm Kurtz. This will change the weapon selection and designs. Semper Fi, --John. Thanks, John, clearly you know far more than I on the subject, not that that's a high bar. But OI get educated daily doing this blog. ~Bob

Second Amendment protects carrying guns outside the home, but state may require concealed carry rather than open carry. By Eugene Volokh 

Excerpt: So the Florida Court of Appeal held Wednesday in Norman v. State. It concluded that the Second Amendment applies to carrying for self-defense outside the home. After Heller I, McDonald, and [recent lower court decisions], it is clear that a total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home cannot survive a constitutional challenge under any level of scrutiny…. “A blanket prohibition on carrying [a] gun in public prevents a person from defending himself anywhere except inside his home,” and as such constitutes a “substantial … curtailment of the right of armed self-defense.”

No surprise: Getting a gun legally in Europe may be hard, but terrorists have little trouble

Excerpt: Europe, a continent long known for the rarity of gun violence, is confronting twin challenges that give the issue sudden urgency: a growing population of radicalized young men determined to strike targets close to home, and a black market awash in high-powered weapons. The problem has been rendered vividly in recent weeks by a pair of deadly assaults that each paralyzed a European capital. In Paris and Copenhagen, the attacks were carried out by former small-time criminals turned violent extremists who obtained military-grade illicit weapons with apparent ease. (Banning guns stops law-abiding folks from protecting themselves, but does not stop criminals. Duh. ~Bob)

Video: Masked Gunman’s Plan Foiled by the Second Amendment — and the Surveillance Camera Caught It All (GRAPHIC). By Dave Urbanski

Excerpt: But Radcliff had a gun under his white pharmacy coat that he’d already been reaching for — and he used it, firing three times at the man, the Gazette reported.

Resident shoots suspect in the head during NW Houstonbreak-in

Excerpt: Investigators with the Houston Police Department later said they are still looking for not just one, but two suspects who ran from the scene. The resident called 911 around 3:30 a.m. Thursday to report that he had shot a burglar. Officers arrived to the Cherry Creek Apartments on Hollister at Tidwell and found the suspect with a gunshot wound to the head.

Burglary Suspect Shot, Dies At Mt.Carmel West

Excerpt: The man who was shot was pronounced dead around 7:00 a.m. at Mount CarmelWestHospital. ... "The homeowner was awakened and defended herself," said Sicilian. "We need to determine if she needed to defend herself and if she took the proper action."The woman's son said he bought her a handgun last week for self defense. 


Who Needs Concealed Carry: Prototype Quadrotor with Machine Gun!

This is how impressive drones can be anywhere in the world. Drones are not toys! They can - and already are - killing the bad guys as we've seen almost every evening on most national TV news programs. Americans, and the world, needs to start taking a whole lot more things, attitudes, threats, and "bluster" much, much more seriously than we have to date. It's time now for Americans and the world to wake up and start to take up some serious action, all over the world, and even domestically now, too, to ensure that things don't get any worse than they already are. --Paul

Race Card News



Excerpt: ...(A) big part of the problem is a black subculture that rejects attitudes and behaviors that are conducive to academic success. Black kids read half as many books and watch twice as much television as their white counterparts, for example. In other words, a big part of the problem is a culture that produces little black girls and boys who are already worried about acting and sounding white by the time they are in second grade. (I used this article sent by Ron. P. in my last post. After re-reading it, I wanted to highlight it. ~Bob)


Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


WaPo trying to influence SCOTUS: A Supreme Court decision against Obamacare could cost states billions and billions of dollars. By Greg Sargent 

Excerpt: If you want a sense of just how far-reaching the impact of a Supreme Court decision gutting Obamacare subsidies could prove, new data on health care signups released this week provide a fresh way to game out such a ruling’s consequences. ... This provides a way of approximating just how much money in tax credits each state could lose if the Court rules that way. We’re talking about enormous amounts of money: Floridacould lose nearly half a billion dollars per month in subsidies to its constituents. Texascould lose a quarter of a billion dollars per month. North Carolina and Georgiacould each lose over one hundred million per month. (And who would save those billions of dollars? Taxpayers. Especially the children who must pay back the money they are borrowing to do this. It's not just printed paper from the government. ~Bob)

Government Sends Wrong Tax Information to Nearly One Million Obamacare Users. By Katie Pavlich

Excerpt: We all knew Obamacare would make tax season a nightmare for all of us, and it has, but the government just made it a lot worse by sending the wrong tax information to nearly one million customers. The Obama administration revealed Friday that it sent about 800,000 HealthCare.gov customers a tax form containing the wrong information, and asked them to hold off on filing their 2014 taxes. (Will the peasants ever tire of cheering Emperor Toom Tabard? ~Bob)

Undocumented Democrat News


Democrat Leader Threatens “Militancy” of Immigrants Now that Amnesty has been Blocked!

Excerpt: Democrat Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) is one of the left’s leading immigration bomb-throwers, and he didn’t disappoint when appearing on MSNBC to complain about a federal judge’s decision to block Obama’s Executive Amnesty earlier this week.

Brass Tacks On Illegal Immigration

Excerpt: From a guaranteed right to hormone therapy for transgendered illegal aliens, to a prospective Attorney General saying that illegals have the same right to a job as US citizens or legal immigrants, the ongoing sham of the Obama administration’s under-the-radar policies get seen in the light of day in Bill Whittle’s latest FIREWALL.

"You're Greener than Gore" News


Excerpt: Prior to the year 2000, NASA showed US temperatures cooling since the 1930’s, and 1934 much warmer than 1998. NASA’s top climatologist said that the UShad been cooling. ... Right after the year 2000, NASA and NOAA dramatically altered USclimate history, making the past much colder and the present much warmer. The animation below shows how NASA cooled 1934 and warmed 1998, to make 1998 the hottest year in UShistory instead of 1934. This alteration turned a long term cooling trend since 1930 into a warming trend.

Excerpt: Almost three years ago, Al Gore shared this dire warning: http://blog.algore.com/2012/04/71_decrease.html  For a second year since, a playful Mother Nature has pantsed the Goracle and duct taped him to a wall in the global warming alarmists locker room:

Religion of Peace News




Why Netanyahu broke publicly with Obama over Iran. By David Ignatius

Excerpt: The public rift between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Iranian nuclear issue is often described as a personality dispute. But a senior Israeli official argued this week that the break has been building for more than two years and reflects a deep disagreement about how best to limit the threat of a rising Iran. Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of intelligence, outlined his government’s view in an interview Wednesday. He said that the nuclear agreement contemplated by Obama would ratify Iranas a threshold nuclear-weapons state, and that the one-year breakout time sought by Washingtonwasn’t adequate. And he stressed that these views aren’t new.


WATCH: Why These Shocked Military Experts Just Accused Obama’s Military Of ‘Aiding’ ISIS

Excerpt: Using words such as “absurd,” “preposterous” and “bewildering,” military experts, lawmakers and legal analysts reacted with dismay to the Pentagon’s detailed announcement of a planned assault to retake the key Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State terror fighters.

This is nuts: Reporter: Storming Mosulin the Spring Raises "Enormous Questions." By Daniel Doherty

Excerpt: To reemphasize a point Katie made earlier: I suppose Uncle Sam could have sent a telegram, but if your goal is to tell your enemies when and where you’re coming, this:
An Iraqi and Kurdish military force of some 20,000 to 25,000 troops is being prepared to recapture the city of Mosul from Islamic State fighters, probably in the April-May time frame, an official at the U.S. Central Command said on Thursday. (Dear Uncle Adolf, As you know, we are going to invade Europe. Wanted to let you know we have decided on Normandy for June 5, 1944. But the weather could delay us a bit. Ike will see you there. Your friend, FDR." ~Bob)

Excerpt: Indeed, the just-concluded White House summit on “Countering Violent Extremism” is a perfect example of the rhetorical and logical cul-de-sac President Obama has crashed into. It was a community-organizing confab dedicated to a problem the community-organizer-in-chief refuses to acknowledge exists. He found himself arguing that Islamic terrorism is an oxymoron, like “jumbo shrimp” or “good flan.” “No religion is responsible for terrorism,” the president proclaimed, “people are responsible for violence and terrorism.” (Call me a RINO, Jonah, but I love Flan. Can't eat it due to steroid induced diabetes from my lung transplant, but its good. ~Bob)

Obama's First War:Car bomb blasts hit eastern Libya, killing more than 30
Excerpt: Militants loyal to the Islamic State said three suicide car bombers staged attacks in eastern Libya on Friday, killing at least 35 people in apparent retaliation for Egyptian airstrikes following the mass beheadings of Christian migrant workers. (remember when Libya was stable, gave up nukes and stopped attacking us? Before Obama? ~Bob)

Boko Haram crisis: Nigerian abductees reunited with families

Excerpt: A group of 158 women and children abducted by Boko Haram militants in north-eastern Nigeria in December have been reunited with their families. They were kidnapped during a raid on Katarko village in Yobe state and spent about a month in captivity. The circumstances of their release are unclear but they were eventually handed over to the state authorities for counselling and rehabilitation. (No doubt Obama will claim it was because of Michelle's #BringBackOurGirlshashtag sign. ~Bob)

Wish I was on the jury: New York Jury Could Hit PA in Pocketbook and Beyond

Excerpt: Deliberations are expected to be underway today in a civil lawsuit brought by American victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks during the second Intifada. The Palestinian Authority (PA) could face $1 billion in damages to the victims' families and survivors of the attacks if jurors find that it, along with the Palestine Liberation Organization and its branches, encouraged its people to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians. The attacks took place between 2001-04 and include shooting attacks on public streets and bombings targeting buses and a HebrewUniversity cafeteria.

Turkey's Crackdown on Turkish 'Enemies of Turkey.' By Burak Bekdil

Excerpt: In a recent speech, the deputy chairman of the party that rules Turkeyclaimed that the opponents of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) were "enemies of Turkey." This statistic means there are over 40 million Turkish enemies of Turkey living in Turkey. (Extreme. In the US, they just call opponents of the administration racists and potential terrorists. ~Bob)

Sweden— The Rape Capital of the West. By Darren Holdstock

Excerpt: Left wing open door policies aided by a vocal Far-Left Fascists, the country has welcomed countless Muslims to its land without any consideration of the ethnic make up of its people, traditions and rule of law. Now Swedenis at a crossroads and some predict it will become the first nation in the North to fall to a vocal Islamic majority. Sweden witnessed riots last year in Muslim enclaves where African and Middle Eastern Muslims mixed with ones born in the country. Police and fire crews were attacked. And as you guessed the Swedish authorities response was to throw large sums of money into these areas.


Un-Islamic? ISISname giving terror license to loose, growing network of offshoots. By Barnini Chakraborty

Excerpt: Islamic State "affiliates" seem to be emerging at an alarming rate, giving the sense of an expanding terror network with satellites all over the world. But a closer look, according to analysts, shows these ISIS offshoots are likely operating without much coordination with the Islamic State core. It doesn't make them any less dangerous, but helps explain how a group President Obama described just one year ago as "JV" has established a presence in nearly a dozen countries. (Funny how a group that Obama and Kerry have determined is "Un-Islamic" is using slaughter and Qur'an quotes to attract tens of thousands of Muslims worldwide to their Jihad. ~Bob)

Excerpt: A majority of Muslims in Asia, Africa and the Middle East favored sharia law being adopted as the law of their countries, with the highest support recorded in Afghanistan at 99 percent. ... Finally, to Pew’s credit, it didn’t ignore the elephant in the room: The survey found the global median for Muslims opposed to violence in the name of Islam was 72 percent. Marvelous. (350 million is a lot of jobs for Obama to get for them. ~Bob Check out the percentages of Muslims who support Sharia Law, and extremist actions. It doesn't matter that over 350 million out of 1.3 billion fall in this category. They are in charge and growing fast. Numbers far exceeds enemies during both WWI & II. Safe to say we are entering WWIII, but not yet obvious to this Administration. --Geoffrey Higginbotham , Major General, USMC, Ret. 


Is Obama being played by ISIS? A discussion with Clare Lopez from the Center for Security Policy

Ms. Lopez manages the Center’s counterjihad and shariah programs, bringing with her also an expertise on Iran, Hezbollah, and southern border issues. From 2010-2014, she was a Sr. Fellow with the Center. Lopez began her professional career as a CIA operations officer and later applied her national security expertise as a consultant, intelligence analyst, and researcher in various contract positions within the defense sector. She has been an instructor for military intelligence and Special Forces students and lectures widely on Iran, Islam, and the Muslim Brotherhood around the country. Earlier an advisor to EMP Act America, in February 2012 Ms. Lopez was named a member of the Congressional Task Force on National and Homeland Security, which focuses on the Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) threat to the nation and is a member of the Center’s Secure the Grid Coalition. --Quang Nguyen


Satire: "Jobs for Jihadists" Applications Flood State Department
http://freedomoutpost.com/2015/02/jobs-for-jihadists-applications-flood-state-department/
Excerpt: After U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Marie Harf announced that the long-term strategy in the fight against ISISwas to create jobs for potential jihadists, countless terrorists began filling out applications. Here are a few examples (along with a blank application for potential jihadists on the job hunt).

Obama's Success story--Important: Emails reveal sensitive info left exposed after USpullout from Yemen

According to the State Department, all was "planned" when the BO administration decided to flee the Yemeni village. ~Bob. WOW!!! I am totally shocked that this happened. --Don

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:



Much interesting political news and opinion today

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The Collapse gathers steam

About four years ago, I wrote The Coming Collapse of the AmericanRepublic: And what you can do to prevent it. The royalties go to the Semper Fi Injured Marine Fund, not to me. Of my 11 books, it has sold the most copies--not that it is close to a best seller. Or a fair seller.... But we must all do what we can.

In the book, I postulate that, if not curbed, four trends will lead to fiscal, political and social collapse, chaos, riots and violence in the United States. They are: 1. The enormous growing debt and much worse unfunded liabilities of government at all levels, federal, state and local, 2. The continued unchecked growth of illegal immigration which threatens to bankrupt the system and change the culture in ways that neither citizens nor immigrants will like, 3. The growth of China as a military and economic power determined to dominate Asia and bring the countries around her under her control as vassal states, and 4. The growing threat of Political Islam challenging Western values, freedom and culture. Since it was published, each of these threats has grown exponentially worse. And if I were to write a new version today (I'm cannot due to health and time) I would add two more threatening trends. 5. The rise of Putin and a militant Russia determined to recreate the old Soviet Empire, and aware that the US and Europecannot project enough power to stop her if it comes to war. We do not have the fit, patriotic population today, nor the industry, to fight WWII. 6. The accelerating collapse of our culture among native-born Americans with the pathologies of increasing non-marital births, crime in the cities, drugs, domestics violence, lack of education and declining civic participation, membership in religious and civic organizations and the declining marriage rate. And lest you attribute the pathologies in our cities to race, you should read Life at the Bottom by British Psychiatrist Anthony Daniels, writing as Theodore Dalrymple. The same culture-destroying pathologies are growing in British cities--and they are growing among the white, native British, much more than among black or brown immigrants. It's not race, it's culture and a system that rewards bureaucrats for making people helpless dependents of the government. If you would like me to email you a free 80-page PDF of The Coming Collapse to read on your computer, write to me at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com.

Pray for Global Warming

It was 8 degrees when we went to church this morning, wind chill -2. Tonight supposed to get to -11 with the wind chill down to -30--not that I'm going out to check! ~Bob

General News and Comment


Excerpt: Never in the history of public relations have an institution and its representatives been so mismatched as at the current U.S. Department of State, where, tasked with articulating America’s position toward Middle East terror outfits, Russian aggression, and the world’s other vicissitudes, are Jen Psaki and Marie Harf, currently in the midst of an interminable Lucy-and-Ethel routine as Foggy Bottom’s spokesperson and deputy spokesperson, respectively. In an administration that has always given the distinct impression of being directed by second-year poli-sci majors from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Psaki and Harf are the only two under the impression that Legally Blonde was a documentary — one that they are apparently trying to re-create, with little success, at Foggy Bottom.

Video:Silver & Gold Dealers To Be Shut Down? Update On Operation Chokepoint. By Mike Maloney

Giuliani says Obama had 'communist' influences at an early age. By Tristan Lejeune

Excerpt: “He doesn’t talk about Americathe way John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan did, about America’s greatness and exceptionalism,” Giuliani said in an interview with The New York Post published Saturday. “He was educated by people who were critics of the U.S. And he has not been able to overcome those influences.” The former GOP presidential candidate walked through Obama's life, "from the time he was 9 years old," when Giuliani says "he was influenced by Frank Marshall Davis, who was a communist," to his "17 years in the church of Jeremiah Wright … the guy who said 'God damn America, not God bless America," a critique Obama faced during his first presidential campaign.

Excerpt: As useless and distasteful I find these gotcha questions, I would concede that it wouldn’t hurt for GOP candidates to have some succinct answers that reconcile their faith and science. Me? I’d be happy to vote for a proselytizing creationist, if that candidate believed in basic economics and individual liberty. The real problem is that these episodes feed the bogus notion that Democrats are less prone to ignore settled science than Republicans. And the same journalists who fixate on “science” that makes the faithful look like slack-jawed yokels almost inevitably ignore science that has genuine moral and policy implications. So in other words, any science that isn’t “climate change.” And since we’re on the topic, I’d love for informed science-loving liberals to be asked questions such as:

The Fake Warrior Project


Remember that time the media held all Democrats accountable over something one Democrat said? Me either. #RudyGiuliani

FLASHBACK: Bill Maher Says Obama Is A ‘Drop Dead Atheist.’ By Jamie Weinstein

Excerpt: During an appearance last June on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” liberal comedian and mega-Obama campaign donor Bill Maher said he was confident that the president was really an atheist. “He’s a drop dead atheist,” Maher, who himself is an atheist, said of Obama. Maher went on to argue that Obama joined Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s church in Chicago only “because it was politically necessary.”

U.S. weighs more sanctions against Russia over violations in Ukraine

Because sanctions worked so well against Iraq, Iranand Russiaso far. ~Bob

The making of Hillary 5.0: Marketing wizards help re-imagine Clintonbrand

Excerpt: Is Hillary Rodham Clinton a McDonald’s Big Mac or a Chipotle burrito bowl? A can of Bud or a bottle of Blue Moon? JCPenney or J. Crew? As she readies her second presidential campaign, Clinton has recruited consumer marketing specialists onto her team of trusted political advisers. Their job is to help imagine Hillary 5.0 — the rebranding of a first lady turned senator turned failed presidential candidate turned secretary of state turned likely 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.

Marine sniper is saluted as more than the video scandal that defined him. By Greg Jaffe and Matt McClain

Excerpt: His three combat tours in Afghanistan had been boiled down to a 38-second video clip, played and replayed on YouTube more than a million times. In it, Rob Richards and three other Marine Corps snipers are seen urinating on the bodies of Taliban fighters they had just killed. “Total dismay” were the words then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton used to describe the video when it surfaced on the Internet in January 2012. “Utterly deplorable,” agreed then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Richards’s career in the military was finished. More than two years later — long after the rest of the country had moved on to other scandals — Richards, 28, died at home and alone from an accidental painkiller overdose. (And there you have it. Men compelled to serve in the midst of a demonically controlled populace; to parse "good from bad" when all evidence and gut level sense tell you none can be trusted. Witnessing friends and fellow Warriors, decimated by the crude and most inhumane means who then, having properly defined the cretins for who they are, urinate on their corpses to punctuate their disdain for the horror they perpetrate and for the perpetrator...are then judged by lesser men, with the most vile of intention, to seek political "High Ground" and at the cost of these men they simply dumped, in Hell. I hold out hope that if not in this life, they will be forced to pay, eternally, in the next. --Bernard)

Gov. Scott Walker’s newfound visibility has exaggerated impact. By Dan Balz

Excerpt: The rapid rise of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker as a top-tier contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 is one of the more surprising stories of the opening months of this year. Whether he was prepared for this sudden emergence is an open question.

The second-term governor is in an unusual position today. Only a few months ago, his prospects of winning the Republican nomination were judged somewhat equivocally. Today he is touted in the media and Republican circles as a serious long-distance runner in the presidential marathon.


If Obama Loves America, Why Did He Transform It?

Excerpt: Leadership: "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America," candidate Barack Hussein Obama said on Oct. 30, 2008, just before his election as our 44th president. Was it just rhetoric? Many no doubt thought it was, chalking it up to boilerplate election-eve hot air. But now are we seeing — some would say tragically — what he meant.

Studies have shown repeatedly that conservatives are more prone to philanthropy than progressives. Also true on a policy level.

WPRI Poll: Wisconsinites Support Right-To-Work Legislation

Excerpt: A majority of Wisconsinites approve of labor unions and believe they have a positive effect. But nearly twice as many state residents would vote for a right-to-work law as would vote against it, according to a survey of 600 adults conducted for the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute by University of Chicago Professor and Pollster William Howell. “Though there are important partisan disagreements, Wisconsinites on the whole are pro-labor and see value in unions,” said Howell. “What’s interesting here is that, at the same time, most state residents — Republicans and Democrats alike — support right-to-work legislation. The argument that workers should not be obligated to join a union in order to hold a job resonates broadly.”

Gun News

Man who shot escaped convict Roy Bieluch: "You don't mess with Marines"

Excerpt: Then, Thursday night, 38-year-old Wallace homeowner Brian Becker heard something that would change everything: his dog started barking. Becker lives in the Placer Creek area, just south of Wallace. He's a marine and former member of law enforcement. Becker says when he heard his dog Jasmine barking, he grabbed a gun and flashlight, then went to check it out. Becker says when he went outside, he saw escaped convict Roy Bieluch standing in his yard. "You don't get to pick where violence happens," says Becker. "It happens all over the place. The only thing you can do is be ready if it does. ... He says he told Bieluch to stay put and put his arms up. "He finally says, I'm not going to do it and I says oh yes you are," Becker says. "He stepped toward me and that's when I shot. He went down immediately. 

Race Card News


Blacks’ Loyalty to First Black President Got Blacks Nothing. By Chrystal Wright

Excerpt: Obama is proof that when blacks elected a black Democrat to the White House based only on his “blackness,” blacks get ZERO! In the past six years Obama has been president blacks have lost economic ground. The unemployment rate remains in the double digits and since the black president came to town, black wealth came down. Way down! (Wright is black-I follow her on Twitter. ~Bob)

FYI #Muhammadcaptured slaves, sold slaves, bought slaves as gifts of pleasure, received slaves as gifts, and used slaves for work. (During the period when 500K blacks were brought to North America as slaves, 1M white European slaves were kidnapped to Muslim N. Africa. ~Bob)

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


How Obamacare Is Destroying Health Insurance. By John C. Goodman 

Excerpt: The health insurance market is changing. And the changes are not good. Even before there was Obamacare, most insurers most of the time had perverse incentives to attract the healthy and avoid the sick. But now that the Affordable Care Act has completely changed the nature of market, the perverse incentives are worse than ever.

Undocumented Democrat News



"You're Greener than Gore" News


The Climate Con Goes On. By Paul Driessen 

Excerpt: Nearly 200 countries may sign a modest Kyoto II climate treaty, say December 2014 media reports from Lima, Peru. But will they agree to stop using coal to generate electricity? No. Curtail their economic growth? No. Cease emitting carbon dioxide? Maybe, but only a little, sometime in the future, when it is more convenient to do so, without any binding commitments. Then why would they sign a treaty? Primarily because they expect to get free energy technology transfers, and billions of dollars a year in climate “mitigation, adaptation and reparation” money from Western nations that they blame (and which blame themselves) for the “dangerous climate change,” rising seas and “extreme weather” that they claim are “unprecedented” and due to carbon dioxide emissions during the 150 years since the Industrial Revolution began.

Too funny: InvernessTo Insanity. By Tim Blair

Excerpt: Roger Lewis reviews the life and times of Dylan Evans, a global warming fanatic whose demented beliefs led him to abandon civilisation: Evans couldn’t wait to create his retrograde society, where waif-like girls ‘with long, tawny dreadlocks’ would be doling out ‘bowls of bean stew from a steaming cauldron’. He sold his house, gave up his academic career and moved to a field near Inverness. He looked at an adjacent waterfall and thought it could ‘generate electricity’. He gazed at an acre of scrubland and believed he could ‘keep a few pigs and chickens’. He spotted a deer and, though he had no butchery or tanning training, imagined turning its hide into shoes and gloves. 

So, Veto Keystone to Protect the Environment? Feds predict 10 fuel trains could derail per year

Excerpt: The federal government predicts that trains hauling crude oil or ethanol will derail an average of 10 times a year over the next two decades, causing more than $4 billion in damage and possibly killing hundreds of people if an accident happens in a densely populated part of the U.S.

Religion of Peace News


Worth Reading: We Can Kill Our Way to Victory. By Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: “We can not win this war by killing them,” Marie Harf said on MSNBC. Reversing thousands of years of battlefield experience in which wars were won by “killing them”, the State Department spokeswoman argued that you can’t defeat ISIS by killing its fighters. "We can not kill our way out of this war,” she said. “We need in the medium and longer term to go after the root causes that lead people to join these groups, whether it is lack of opportunity for jobs." War is one of the few things in life we can reliably kill our way out of. The United Stateshas had a great track record of killing our way out of wars. (I agree, but note that there are many other aspects to war as well as killing. In Vietnam, we killed a million Communist fighters, they killed 58,000 of us [counting accidental deaths], and our people, led by left wing politicians, Communist support groups and the progressive media, gave up. ~Bob)

ISIS? No they are watching us: DHS warns of “right wing terrorism” again

Excerpt: CNN reports that the Department of Homeland Security is back to warning law enforcement about the threat of “sovereign citizens” as terrorists.
A new intelligence assessment, circulated by the Department of Homeland Security this month and reviewed by CNN, focuses on the domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists and comes as the Obama administration holds a White House conference to focus efforts to fight violent extremism. Some federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to — and in some cases greater than — the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS, that garner more public attention.? The Homeland Security report, produced in coordination with the FBI, counts 24 violent sovereign citizen-related attacks across the U.S. since 2010. (If someone shouts "Allah Akbar" and begins shooting, count on Obama or Kerry to pop up and say, "Look over there! A gun and bible clinging rightwing red-necked sovereign citizen!" I'd like to review those 24 cases. ~Bob)

DHS intel report warns of domestic right-wing terror threat. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: In the middle of this story on the CNN page was a link to another CNN story that shows just how ridiculous this is: “ISIS burned up to 40 people alive in Iraq, official says.” Have “right-wing sovereign citizen extremists” burned anyone alive? Have these “right-wingers” kidnapped large numbers of left-wing women and pressed them into sex slavery? Boasted that they would conquer the United States and ultimately the world, and that they had sleeper cells in place in the U.K. ready to start killing? Have they actually killed anyone beyond the two officers mentioned in this report? Do “sovereign citizens” give children weapons training and severed heads to play with? Do they burn musical instrumentsmurder left-wingers for the sole crime of being left-wingers, crucify people as children watch, chop off women’s hands for using cell phones, and behead people for smoking cigarettes? Yet “some federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to — and in some cases greater than — the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS, that garner more public attention.” Yeah, sure. This is just more of the Obama Administration’s unstinting efforts to deflect attention away from Islamic jihad terror.​

500 Muslims attend funeral of Copenhagenjihad murderer. By Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.org

Excerpt: Can we get 500 Muslims anywhere to gather together and protest against Omar El-Hussein’s murders, and all killing for blasphemy? Can we get 500 Muslims anywhere to gather together and protest against Omar El-Hussein’s murder at the synagogue and denounce Islamic anti-Semitism?

Aussie jihadists were on the dole

Excerpt: ALMOST all of the wannabe terrorists who have snuck out of Australia to join jihadist armies in Iraq and Syria were on the dole or some form of welfare payment, The Saturday Telegraph can reveal. A federal investigation into the welfare status of Australian foreign fighters, prompted last year by revelations in The Telegraph, shows 96 per cent had been on welfare benefits when they fled to the Middle East. Most had continued to collect payments from Australian taxpayers while training with Islamic State to become terrorists intent on wanting to kill Australians.

Detroit Muslim accused of stabbing victims over religion not charged with hate crime

Excerpt: Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper didn't charge a Detroit man with a hate crime after it's suspected he stabbed two people at a Southfield bus stop, possibly motivated by religious hate. Nick Loussia, Deputy Chief of Police for the Southfield Police Department, said the suspect, 39-year-old Terrence Lavaron Thomas, "is Muslim, and asked the victims what religion they were" before allegedly attacking them. (But a left-wing atheist who said he preferred Muslims to Christians, before killing three of them over a parking dispute, is being investigated for a hate crime. ~Bob)

AtlantaJournal-Constitution Falsely Claims DetroitMuslim ‘Targeted Muslims,’” by Warner Todd Huston

Excerpt: On Tuesday news went national of a Muslim man who was arrested in Detroitfor stabbing two non-Muslims at a bus stop after asking their religion. But the next day the Atlanta Journal-Constitution falsely claimed that the “attacker targeted Muslims” when in fact it was a Muslim who targeted two non-Muslims.

Obama: 'Islam Woven Into the Fabric Of Our Country Since Founding'

Excerpt: In his bloviating speech on Thursday at his summit on countering violent extremism, President Obama bent over backwards to make nice with Islam. Not only were terrorists not Muslim, President Obama stated, but Islam played a crucial role in America’s founding. “Here in America,” Obama stated, “Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding.” (Well, we owe a lot to George al-Washington and Thomas bin Jefferson. But name two more. ~Bob)

Twitter can’t tame terrorism. By George F. Will

Excerpt: The Obama administration’s semantic somersaults to avoid attaching the adjective “Islamic” to the noun “extremism” are as indicative as they are entertaining. Progressives who believe that dialogues, conversations, engagements, conferences and summits are keys to pacifying the world have a peculiar solemnity about using certain words that are potentially insensitive. This mentality is perhaps especially acute in digitally drenched people who believe that Twitter and other social media have the power to tame turbulent reality. The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is preparing to go toe-to-toe with the Islamic State using, among other munitions, “more than 350 State Department Twitter accounts.” 


Indian millionaire accused of murdering guard over delay in opening gate

Excerpt: Muhammad Nisham allegedly pinned victim to wall with his Hummer and beat him with iron rod

Sorry Obama, Harvard study says poor Muslims are LESS likely to be terrorists!!
http://therightscoop.com/sorry-obama-harvard-study-says-poor-muslims-are-less-likely-to-be-terrorists/
Excerpt: While the State Department keeps saying that all we need to do is get ISIS terrorists jobs at McDonalds flipping burgers, the rest of us who reside in the real world know otherwise, and a Harvard study lends support to the counter opinion. Watch below:

Dutch-Somali Nationals Carried Out Mogadishu Hotel Suicide Bombings

Excerpt: Twin suicide bombings at a Mogadishu hotel popular with government ministers and officials that killed 25 people were carried out by Dutch-Somali nationals, Somali intelligence sources said on Saturday. Somali intelligence believe both bombers - a man and a woman - were Dutch-Somali citizens who infiltrated the Central Hotel close to the presidential palace to carry out the attack on Friday.

Worth Hearing: Rubio To Colleagues: Don't Boycott Netanyahu Speech, Israel Deserves Our Support

Excerpt: All of you, I mean ALL OF YOU, must listen to this extraordinary speech by Senator Marco Rubio. The speech is remarkable and so is the man. For the Israelis among you, it is doubly important to listen to these sentiments in the Congress. Rubio represents the sentiments of the overwhelming majority of the US Congress, both parties, but how many times have you seen or heard him on Israeli media? --Sheila R.

True: It Doesn’t Matter One Bit What Obama Thinks ‘True Islam’ Is. There may well be a civil war going on within Islam, but it will be Muslims, not American politicians, who settle it. By Andrew McCarthy
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/414185/it-doesnt-matter-one-bit-what-obama-thinks-true-islam-andrew-c-mccarthy

Excerpt: In Egypt, the president is Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a pious Muslim. Having grown up in the world’s center of sharia scholarship and closely studied the subject, he has courageously proclaimed that Islam desperately needs a “religious revolution.” In the United States, the president is Barack Obama, a non-Muslim. His childhood experience of Islam, which ended when he was just ten, occurred in Indonesia— the world’s most populous Muslim country, but a non-Arabic one where the teaching and practice of Islam is very different from what it is in the Middle East. While Sisi sees a dangerous flaw in Islam, Obama believes Americaneeds to be “fundamentally transformed” but Islam is fine as is. You see the problem, no?

Pakistan braces for a long and deadly war in tribal areas on Afghan border. By Tim Craig
Excerpt: When 10 Pakistani soldiers tried to dislodge Taliban militants from a madrassa near the Afghan border this summer, their advance was crippled by relentless gunfire. Within minutes, two soldiers were dead, and Imran Ali had so many bullets in his legs he couldn’t tell whether they were still attached. For 22 agonizing hours, Ali said, he curled up on the floor waiting for other soldiers to fight their way in to rescue him. After he was finally flown to safety, his left leg was amputated at the knee, and he became another victim of the Pakistani army’s latest offensive against Islamist militants in the restive tribal area of North Waziristan.

DEAR OBAMA: Christianity Is To Terrorism What Rosie O’Donnell Is To Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition

Excerpt: Man, don’t you love how Obama and his soft-brain disciples have made Christians out to be fish-stickered, bug-eyed equals to incensed Islam? If you were to accept what the White House says about Christians you’d think the Church is chomping at the bit to chop off some heads of unbelievers.

[VIDEO] This Peshmerga Warrior Needs A Dump Truck For His Balls Of Steel

Guy holding the camera must be nervy too! From the UXB teams in Britain in WWII to our road-clearing teams in Iraqand Afghanistan, the guys who deal with booby trapped ordinance have courage in spades. ~Bob

Al Shabaab calls for attack on Mall of America in new video

Excerpt: A new video from Al Shabaab purportedly shows the terror group calling for an attack on Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minn.According to Fox 9, the mall is one of three similar targets the terror group specifically names, including West Edmonton Mall in Canadaand the Oxford Streetshopping area in London. (This wouldn't stop me from going. By naming the malls, they terrorize people and impose costs on us in increased security and lower economic activity at almost no cost to us. In Vietnam, the month I was with the CAC unit in Khe Sanh Ville, intelligence would pick up a rumor the NVA was going to hit our compound that night. We'd sit up all night, while they slept soundly, those imposing a cost on us that was cost-free to them. We cannot stop this, nor block every attack if they have the assets here, as we have millions of very soft targets. But they are more likely to hit a target they haven't threatened in advance. ~Bob)

Excerpt: The ISD study, which examined the social-media postings of Western women who joined ISIS, found the women “celebrate the violence of ISIS, unequivocally.”

One woman called the beheading video of US Army vet and aid worker Peter Kassig“gut-wrenchingly awesome,” while others called the beheadings “beautiful.”


See What Happened When Hundreds of Muslims Surrounded a Synagogue to Show the ‘True Face’ of Islam. By Sharona Schwartz

Excerpt: A large group of Muslims made a powerful and symbolic gesture showing they want to protect Norway’s Jewish community, gathering hand-in-hand Saturday to form a “ring of peace” around a synagogue. Muslim youths organized the peace vigil in solidarity with the Jewish community following deadly shootings at a free speech event and at a synagogue last weekend in neighboring Denmark. The English-language website the Local reported that more than 1,000 Muslims and Jews formed a symbolic, defensive ring around Oslo’s main synagogue.

Media Hoax: 20 Muslims Holding Hands Become 1,000-Strong ‘Ring Of Peace’ At OsloSynagogue

Excerpt: The weekend’s feel-good story about a Muslim “ring of peace” formed to “protect” Jews at an Oslosynagogue turned out to be a complete fabrication by the mainstream media, according to an eyewitness report, local officials, and attendees’ photos. According to a local eyewitness, only about 20 or so Muslims formed the “ring of peace” around the Oslo synagogue. 

Fake Islamophobia: Man arrested following business, mosque bomb threats

Excerpt: A man in his 50s is accused of making bomb threats at a Muslim business and the community center where he was staying Tuesday, according to a TravisCounty arrest affidavit.
According to the Austin Police Department, 54-year-old Azzam Ahmed Baytie made two bomb threats at a North Austin Muslim Community Center and a Middle Eastern-style food truck near the Arab Cowboy Cafe and Hookah Lounge. The community center is in North Austin, and the cafe is located in West Campus. (So, Mr. President, is this a "Hate Crime"? ~Bob)

The Real Islam: Kuwait court hands down two years jail sentence for insulting emir

Excerpt: A Kuwaiti appeals court on Sunday sentenced an opposition politician to two years in jail for insulting the country's ruler, local media reported.

Obama did not seek congressional approval for his 2011 assault on Libya. Vacuum he created was his own personal bizarre pet project.

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:



Today's worth-reading political news and opinion

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Minus 10 degrees when I got up this morning to do my med routine before rehab. Zero when I got home at noon. Made Lasagna and Corn Bread for dinner, hunkering down, hoping for global warming. ~Bob

General News and Comment



Worth Seeing: This 12yr.Old Georgia Young Man Goes Off On Obama In This Viral Video


Wanna know what an articulate, clean, young Black man thinks about our articulate, clean, Black President? (See above link. ~Bob)

FLASHBACK: Liberals Cheered Obama When He Questioned George Bush’s Patriotism (Video). By Jim Hoft

Excerpt: In 2008 then Senator Obama called President Bush “unpatriotic” for adding trillions to the national debt. ... You certainly didn’t hear any reporters lecturing Obama for his uncivil rhetoric after that outrageous attack.

Dad Furious About Son's Immigration Assignment That Bashes GOP

Excerpt: An 8th grade social studies class at ShattuckMiddle School had to complete an assignment that suggested Republicans were destroying the "pathway to citizenship" for immigrants. The teacher, Grace Davis, used a political cartoon that featured a Democrat laying bricks to build a "pathway to citizenship," while a Republican character removed the bricks to dismantle the immigration process. (Education is teaching kids how to think. Indoctrination is teaching kids what to think. ~Bob)

What Scott Walker Actually Said. By Lawrence Kudlow 

Excerpt: Yes, believe it or not, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker actually spoke at some length at the dinner this past week where Rudy Giuliani charged that President Obama doesn’t love America. All the hullabaloo went to Giuliani, but in terms of the Republican presidential race, a number of Scott Walker’s pointed comments about policy and politicians are not to be missed. ... Walker was also highly critical of President Obama’s conduct in the war against radical Islamism, and said the U.S. must wage a stronger battle in the air and on the ground against ISIS. He stressed the need for a positive Republican message in 2016, and bluntly criticized Mitt Romney for spending too much time on the pessimistic economic negatives emanating from Obama’s policy failures. And in an unmistakable rip at both Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, he called for a new generation and fresh faces to turn Americaback in the right direction.

Walker’s anti-union law has labor reeling in Wisconsin. By Robert Samuels 

Excerpt: Walkerhad vowed that union power would shrink, workers would be judged on their merits, and local governments would save money. Unions had warned that workers would lose benefits and be forced to take on second jobs or find new careers. Many of those changes came to pass, but the once-thriving ­public-sector unions were not just shrunken — they were crippled. Unions representing teachers, professors, trash collectors and other government employees are struggling to stem plummeting membership rolls and retain relevance in the state where they got their start. (If the workers saw value in the unions, the unions wouldn't be shrinking. I managed professional associations for 31 years. Every association I was with had more paying members when I left than when I took over and no one was required to join by government or anyone else. [Bar Associations are an exception, as lawyers have to join to practice law.] People don't like being forced to do things like join unions or give up large sodas "for their own good." That's called freedom, now a quaint notion. ~Bob)

On, Wisconsin!

Excerpt: The movement of Midwestern states toward right-to-work comes just as they find a need to shield themselves and their employers from the aggressively pro-union policies of the Obama administration, which are aimed less at respecting workers' rights and more at propping up a dying source of Democratic political strength. It also comes just as unions have been exposed adopting new, desperate and heavy-handed tactics to stem membership losses and reassert their relevance in a market where labor standards and wages have passed them by. In at least three midwestern states, unions developed a scheme to skim off the top of government benefits intended for the ill and indigent, by forcing their unwilling caretakers to become dues-paying members. 

Sen. Tammy Baldwin Lawyers Up After Three Deaths Are Linked To A VA Report She Sat On For Months. by Matt Vespa 

Excerpt: Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the first openly gay member of the U.S. Senate, may have landed herself in some trouble after it was reported her office did little to address the rather high rate of opiate prescriptions coming out of the Veterans Affairs center in Tomah, Wisconsin. As a result, Baldwin's office fired a top aide, offered her a severance package, and a confidentiality agreement. The aide, Marquette Baylor, rejected the deal and is considering a sexual discrimination lawsuit against Baldwin. At the same time, Baldwin's office had the Tomah VA report since last summer. To make matters worse, three deaths are linked to the overmedication problem highlighted in the report on the facility.

The Media's Breathtaking Double Standards on Patriotism and 'Civility.' By Guy Benson

Excerpt: When a conservative figure says something that seems to impugn or question a prominent liberal's character or love of country, "civility" SWAT teams are dispatched to knock down some proverbial doors. Such transgressions mustn't stand. But when the dynamic is reversed, the civility police are curiously off duty. Which brings us to Rudygate.

Welcome to the 2016 Piranha Tank, Republican Presidential Candidates. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

Excerpt: Remember that Atlantic piece on the Islamic State that everyone raved about, and that is really changing the way people think about that Islamist terrorist group? Graeme Wood put tons of work into it. He completed lots of interviews with some particularly unsavory characters, which must have taken a lot of negotiation. Enormous amounts of research. The lengthy article walks through some complicated concepts and a lot of history and geography.
Journalism work like that is hard. It requires a really good reporter/writer/researcher/thinker, good editors, and a publication willing to be patient. Not everybody is that good. Not every editor is that good, and not every publication can afford to be that patient. No, the simplest and easiest news story that can create a stir, get web traffic and attention, is the “can you believe this guy said this?” story. (Lord knows, I’ve written my share of them.) And just about any Republican at any level, in office or out of office, is fair game for a national “can you believe this guy said this?” story. (Dave Weigel identifies the “Republican lawmaker” story trend here, where controversial comments from little-known, usually-powerless GOP state legislators become national news.) (Morning Jolt is free and worth subscribing to. ~Bob)


Movie deals death blow to vicious lies about Vietnam. 'Believe it or not, we were the good guys'

Excerpt: Executive Producer Richard Botkin and Producer Fred Koster take a provocative look at the Vietnam War and the troops who fought it in the new documentary film, “Ride the Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Honor and Triumph.” The movie portrays the inspirational story the media neglected – one of friendship, bravery, patriotism and sacrifice. (Wherever this movie shows up, we need to go see it, and preferably bring as many friends as possible. Please send this far and wide. --Del)

Quote From The Patriot Post

"The fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follow that, and in its turn wretchedness and oppression." --Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Samuel Kerchival, 1816

Kiev says cannot withdraw heavy weapons as attacks persist

Excerpt: Kiev accused pro-Russian rebels of opening fire with rockets and artillery at villages in southeastern Ukraine on Monday, all but burying a week-old European-brokered ceasefire deal.
The Ukrainian military said it could not pull weapons from the front as required under the tenuous truce, as long as its troops were still under attack.

WaPo Fact Checker: Rep. Coffman really is a ‘combat veteran.’ By Michelle Ye Hee Lee 

Excerpt: When grilled by Coffman on whether progress has been made since McDonald took office and whether he has changed the culture of mismanagement and unethical behaviors at the VA, the new chief responded in defense of his record: “I ran a large company, sir, what have you done?” This “Oh, snap!” moment went viral, and Coffman issued a statement about his own credentials in response, including that he is a Marine Corps combat veteran. Coffman’s spokesman Tyler Sandberg noted again to our colleagues at In the Loop that Coffman is a combat veteran who served in both Iraqwars, and took another jab at McDonald’s performance in his first six months on the job.


What the Chinese professor learned about democracy here

The link is 90 seconds from which you will learn, or perhaps just hear what you know already, about what makes a society really successful. Basically, if there is no underpinning of morality for a society, it will become what used to be referred to sometimes as pagan society, which means everybody is out for himself/herself first and foremost, and only refrains from whatever they want to do when they are sure there are penalties too consistent and too high to make it worthwhile. In the countries where avoiding paying taxes is a major national drive, things don't work well, since there is always a cost to running a government, whether it's good or not so good. If the government cannot collect taxes with some level of efficiency because everyone is cheating every way they can, then all kinds of problems arise. Especially when the people still expect the government to supply lots of benefits and services. Greecewith its near bankruptcy is a fine example of this. If people don't really believe in morality, then petty theft becomes a normal thing to do, as we saw in East Germanyunder the communists. At least some of the problems in former soviet dominated countries are due to people having lost religion in large part, and over generations, the morality that went with it. Once a person no longer believes in God and commandments, they readily fall into gross materialism, self-centeredness, greed, and lack of compassion for others. The video I sent around recently about the millionaire Chinese students in CA with their car club for super expensive cars is a perfect example of this. It goes right to the "He who dies with the most set of toys, wins" kind of thinking. You show how important you are, how much better than everyone else, by your display of tawdry wealth, and you revel in being able to do so. The USA was founded by primarily religious people, mostly Christian of various types, but some others as well, including the Jews whose money kept the Continental Army going when Congress ran short. And the values of those who accept either directly or indirectly the idea of the Ten Commandments and the ideal of loving your neighbor as yourself are what Jefferson thought made the right kind of citizens for a democracy. I think he was right, and even though we don't need to force religion on anyone, the current push of secularists to remove religion, most especially Christianity, from being a major force in our society will, in the long run, really be bad for the nation. Separation of Church and State only means no official state religion, it does not at all mean necessary antipathy between the State and those who practice religion. What is ironic is that here in Viet Nam, where the constitution supposedly guarantees freedom of worship for all, there IS a state religion. It is communism as taught by the Party, starting in kindergarten and through high school, with Ho Chi Minh truly regarded as a demigod, and the Party as the source of all power and all goodness on earth. You may in your heart not accept all this, as many Vietnamese who are religious do not, but you do not fight the system in any way, or life becomes difficult in a variety of ways. If you are truly brave and in any remotely public way try to push the idea of more than one party in the nation, eventually you will go to jail. Sentences have ranged from 2 to 7 years in jail, but usually this is followed by more years of "house arrest", which means you cannot go anywhere, see anyone, work any job, and are constantly watched. It's something like being paroled, and if you don't follow the rules, you will end up back in the jail. It is time for religious Americans to actively protest the push of secularism, to uphold the freedom we all should enjoy, but also for the long term good of the nation. Just my two cents worth...Del

Excerpt: Human rights groups have received dozens of complaints in the past month alone from Russian conscripts like Alexander who say they have been strong-armed or duped into signing contracts with the military to become professional soldiers, after which they were sent to participate in drills in the southern Rostovregion.

Young is a blogger who is also on Twitter. ~Bob

Gun News

Half Of Tulsa’s Homicides This Year Have Been Justified

Excerpt: Tulsa, Okla., residents are on a shooting spree this year, and apparently they’re doing something right. Tulsa has had 11 homicides in 2015, nearly half of them by regular people acting legally in self defense, Tulsa World reports.“It’s been an odd year,” Tulsa police homicide Sgt. Dave Walker told Tulsa World. “I’m sure it will even out over the next 12 months, but, yeah… it’s been odd.”

Man Found Dead After Area Homeowner Fires At Burglar Identified

Excerpt: Authorities Sunday identified a man whose body was found near a rural home where residents fired several times at a burglar early Saturday as Gus Peter Grammas, 48 of Gatesville.

Undocumented Democrat News


Illegal Alien In National Guard Busted For Aiding Mexican Drug Gangs. By Jim Kouri

Excerpt: In a joint Department of Justice (DOJ) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) far-reaching investigation, members of the Arizona National Guard, including military recruiters were discovered working as “muscle” and “traffickers” for Mexican drug gangs, according to a report on Friday from the DOJ. About 12 National Guard were identified as suspects in one of the FBI’s biggest government corruption cases ever, which was almost totally ignored by government officials in Washington and major national news outlets.

Obama-Nominated Judge: New Illegal Immigrants Must Be Released

Excerpt: A federal judge has ordered the federal government to grant U.S.civil rights to illegals who are caught at the border, and to release all migrants except for those who may endanger Americans. The migrants “may have legitimate claims to asylum … [and] their presence here may become permanent … [so] that they are entitled to the protection of the Due Process Clause, especially when it comes to deprivations of liberty,” said the judge, who was nominated by President Barack Obama.

My Son Is Dead Because The Concept Of Borders Is Dead

Excerpt: A grieving Texasfather told Breitbart Texas, “my son is dead because the concept of borders is dead.” Spencer Golvach was senselessly murdered by an illegal alien who had been deported a number of times after being convicted of committing crimes, including as law enforcement officers now tell us, crimes of violence. Golvach was shot in the head on January 31st while sitting in his car waiting for a stoplight to change. Golvach’s father said he wants the “boomerang” of deportation and illegal reentry into the country to be stopped.

"You're Greener than Gore" News



Green Cronyism:Companies Benefiting From Energy Department’s Newest Solar Farm Also Recipients of Export-Import Bank Financing. By Melissa Quinn

Excerpt: This week, the Obama administration praised the opening of a solar farm in California, which was constructed with the backing of a $1.5 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. But the project’s critics argue it “reeks of cronyism,” and they’re finding themselves in lockstep with opponents of the controversial Export-Import Bank, as the solar farm’s owners are also some of the bank’s biggest beneficiaries.

Religion of Peace News



Worth Reading: The Ideological Islamist Threat: The radicals are waging a war of ideas the West refuses to fight.

Google the title if the link doesn't get you to the article: Excerpt: Above all, we need to recognize that the strength of radical Islamists is directly correlated to their battlefield success, and the growing perception that they are the strong horse against moderate Muslim leaders. Communist ideology lost its appeal when it was seen to fail against the prosperity and freedom of the West. Islamic State will lose its allure when it is defeated and humiliated in the arena it cares about most, which is the battlefield. Mr. Obama and other Western leaders must summon the will to win the war on the ground, or they will find themselves in permanent retreat in the war of ideas.

Saudi sentenced to death for abusing Islam.

Excerpt: The unidentified man, in his 20s, was also charged with ripping a copy of the Holy Koran, filming the act and publishing it on social networks, ‘Sharq’ said.

Egyptian children carry out Isis-style mock beheading in chilling video

Excerpt: A chilling video showing a group of Egyptian children staging an Islamic State (Isis)-like beheading with wooden sticks has sent shockwaves through the country after it emerged in the aftermath of the brutal execution of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian workers who were abducted by IS in Libya. The 24-second video follows the style of clips produced and shared by IS, with two small children kneeling before two bigger children who represent jihadi militants holding wooden sticks to their throats. The group is edged by two other children who hold their wooden sticks like swords. (How long before some multicultural progressive teacher decides to do this with American kids? ~Bob)

Terror trainees: New ISIS video shows indoctrination of kids as young as 5

Excerpt: The latest disturbing video from ISISshows what the Islamist group touts as the next generation of jihadist killers, pint-sized terror trainees who appear to be as young as 5 participating in drills and reciting verses from the Koran. The 9-minute video released Monday shows about 70 camouflage-clad kids, who are reportedly the children of foreign fighters who have flocked to Iraqand Syriato join the Islamist army. An instructor states in Arabic that most of the children are in the second phase of training and that they represent the "next generation" of ISIS


The Obama Administration says that we can't defeat ISIS by killing them, we must get them jobs. Can Midnight Basketball for Jihadists be far behind? ~Bob. "Jobs for Jihadis?"
He hasn't even delivered jobs for Americans. --TH

Admiral (Ret) James Lyons on Islam as a threat doctrine
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bc0_1423721020
Excerpt: James Aloysius "Ace" Lyons, Jr. (born September 28, 1927) is a retired Admiral in the United States Navy whose 36-year career was capped by serving as Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet from 16 September 1985 to 1987 Only 3 minutes long and well worth listening to. (Really shocking and disappointing to learn how so many opportunities were thrown away by idiot politicians. --Del)


More Voters Than Ever Say Terrorists Are Winning

Excerpt: Just 19% of Likely U.S. Voters now believe the United Statesand its allies are winning the War on Terror, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. 

Family of American Hostage Kayla Mueller: Bergdahl Swap Greatly Diminished Chances of Her Release. By Katie Pavlich 

Excerpt: In an interview with NBC News, Carl, Marsha and Eric Mueller told Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie that President Obama's decision to swap alleged deserter and Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five top Taliban commanders had an extremely negative impact on the chances of getting Kayla released. They explained that until Bergdahl was exchanged, they were in regular communication with their daughter. Things went south after Bergdahl's release. 
"That's when the demands got greater. They got larger. They realized that they had something. They realized that, ‘Well, if they're gonna let five people go for one person, why won't they do this? Or why won't they do that?’”

GOP’s support for Israel soars. By Jennifer Rubin 

Excerpt: Gallup reports: “Seventy percent of Americans now view [Israel] favorably, and 62% say they sympathize more with the Israelis than the Palestinians in the Mideastconflict. By contrast, 17% currently view the Palestinian Authority favorably, and 16% sympathize more with the Palestinians.” But as has been the case over a long period of time, there is an increasing partisan divide. “A key reason Americans’ sympathy for Israel has solidified at a sizable majority level is that Republicans’ support for the Jewish state has increased considerably, rising from 53% in 2000 to more than 80% since 2014 — with just 7% choosing the Palestinian Authority. A particularly large jump in GOP sympathy for Israel occurred in the first few years after 9/11 and at the start of the 2003 Iraq War.” Democrats’ support is now at 48 percent.

Jerusalem Mayor Takes Down Palestinian Terrorist. By Leah Barkoukis

Excerpt: The footage shows the suspect, a 19-year-old Palestinian, stab a 30-year-old ultra-Orthodox man before swinging at bystanders. Then, Mayor Nir Barkat, 55, and his bodyguards approach the suspect, quickly taking him down and neutralizing the threat. (One country in the Middle East is a democracy that has multiple political parties, protects freedom of speech, the press and religion, offers equal rights to women and is a true friend and ally to the United States: Israel. Naturally, progressives hate Israeland make apologies for the barbarians who do none of these things, stone rape victims for adultery, hang gays, encourage child marriage and FGM, execute people for apostasy and blasphemy and wish to destroy the Israel state and exterminate the Israeli people. ~Bob)


Hear out Israel’s leader. By Joseph I. Lieberman 

Excerpt: Last week, 23 House Democrats asked Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to postpone Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress scheduled for March 3. But it is absolutely clear that the speaker will neither postpone nor rescind his invitation. The prime minister will be there to speak. Therefore, I appeal to those 23 individuals and any other undecided members of Congress to go to the joint meeting and hear what the prime minister has to say. Let me suggest some good reasons why:

Good News: Jury Finds Palestinian Authority Liable for Intifada Terror

Excerpt: Palestinian Authority (PA) policies, including direct financial support to employees convicted by on terrorism charges, and payments to families of those killed waging terrorist attacks, make it liable for damages in attacks which killed wounded Americans, a New York jury decided Monday. Jurors awarded $218.5 million in damages to the victims and their families. Provisions in the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act triple that to $655.5 million. The jury's award "will not bring back these families' loved ones, nor heal the physical and psychological wounds inflicted upon them, but it truly is an important measure of justice and closure for them after their long years of tragic suffering and pain," said Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Israel's Shurat HaDin law center, said after the jury award was announced. 

"Mystery of the Jews" video

One may have quibbles with the theology, but this is a useful short history of the "miracle" of Jewish survival through history. A good intro to the uninitiated. Cordially, Larry Greenberg

CIA attempted to contact Hamas despite official US ban, spy cables reveal. Leaked files show US ‘desperate to make inroads’ into Gazaas well as Barack Obama’s alleged threat to Palestinians over statehood 

Excerpt: The CIA tried to gain access to Hamas through backchannels despite a USgovernment ban on contact with the Palestinian Islamist movement, the spy cables show. They suggest USintelligence has been anxious to make inroads with Hamas, or recruit agents, inside the Gaza Strip. The USdesignated Hamas, which won the last Palestinian election in 2006 and now runs Gaza, as a terrorist group in 1997. 

Worth Reading: They don’t hate Israel. They hate Jews.

Excerpt: Imagine for a moment that Israel became majority Muslim, elected a government composed of Muslims, and changed its name to “Palestine”. Imagine also that Israel, while making these changes, maintained the exact same policies towards Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. How would the rest of the world react? Would the UN keep writing anti-Israel resolutions by the dozens, while largely ignoring the rest of the world? Would arrogant university “students” continue to demonize Israel? Would the BDS movement continue its anti-Israel campaign unabated? Would the Western left, in a sudden bout of integrity, criticize the newly renamed Palestine as strongly as it criticizes Israel today? To answer these questions, we need only look at Israel’s neighbours. Palestinians are treated far worse in Lebanonand in Syria than they are in the West Bank.

When Saudi-backed Terrorists Come Home to Roost. By Raymond Ibrahim

Excerpt: In a move reminiscent of ancient history, Saudi Arabia is building a 600-mile-long "Great Wall"—a combined fence and ditch—to separate from the Islamic State to the north in Iraq. The irony here is that those Muslims that Saudi Arabia is trying to keep out are the very same Muslims most nurtured and influenced by a Saudi — or "Wahhabi," or "Salafi"— worldview. Put differently, Saudi Arabia is again appreciating how jihad is a volatile instrument of war that can easily backfire on those who support it. 

Excerpt: The quote above was taken from Barack Obama's book "Dreams of My Father". If we were to stretch as far as we could be might be able to give Barry the benefit of the doubt and write it off as someone who is just naive about the dangers of radical Islam. However, this past week I came across something that should strike fear in everyone of us. It seems someone had posted something about Hillary and Barack's support for an Islamic group called the Organization for Islamic Cooperation. Sounds pretty benign, huh? Well, when I read in the posting that Hillary and Barack want to make it a crime to criticize Muslims I thought it was just some right wing radical making more of something than is there. So I did a little research on this Organization for Islamic Cooperation. Seems the group is real, is funded largely by oil rich Saudi Arabia and has membership representing some of the more radical elements of Islam. AND...Hillary and Barack are four square behind this group. As a matter of fact, Hillary was dispatched to Istanbul, Turkeyto attend an OIC conference and pledged the Obama Administration's support for enacting universal laws making it a crime to criticize a Muslim.


Charlie Hebdo memorial vandalised in Paris four times in two weeks: A shrine in memory of 17 people killed in terrorist attacks in Paris last month is vandalised

Gee, I wonder who done it? Presbyterians? Buddhists? ~Bob

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:



More interesting political news and conservative opinion

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General News and Comment



Do Voters Believe Obama Loves America?

Excerpt: U.S.voters overwhelmingly say they love this country, but one-out-of-three doesn’t believe President Obama feels that way. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 35% of Likely U.S. Voters agree with this statement made last week by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani – “I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.” Just over half (51%) disagree with this comment, but another 14% are not sure. (How would anyone know? He says he does. But he also said he was opposed to gay marriage, that you could keep your plan and doctor and that Obamacare would save you $3500 per year. He's said lots of things we now know are not true. ~Bob)

VA Secretary Robert McDonald admits lying about Special Forces service

Excerpt: Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald has admitted that he lied about serving in the special operations forces in a conversation with a homeless veteran that was caught on camera earlier this year. McDonald made the claim in January while he was in Los Angeles as part of the VA's effort to locate and house homeless veterans. During the tour, a homeless man told McDonald that he had served in the special operations forces. "Special forces? What years?" McDonald responded. "I was in special forces." The exchange was broadcast on "The CBS Evening News" Jan. 30. McDonald's misstatement was first reported by The Huffington Post. (Now I suppose we'll find out he wasn't dodging sniper fire with Hillary in Bosnia? He should hire Brian Williams as his PA officer. ~Bob)

Former (Clinton) Ambassador to USSR Matlock Lambastes U.S. Policy on Russia

Excerpt: what is going on. I see all these debates, and saying, “Oh, Russia’s only a regional power.”1 What does that mean? What does that mean, particularly in their own region? And I think the elephant in the room, which nobody is referring to, is the nuclear issue. No country which has ICBMs, ICBMs—10 independently targeted warheads, very accurate, mobile (so they can’t be taken out)—no country with that is a regional power, by any means. It can mean other things.

Worth Reading: How to Empower Violent Extremism. By Victor Davis Hanson
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/414270/how-empower-violent-extremism-victor-davis-hanson

Every time Obama “contextualizes,” Putin and ISIS grow bolder. Not too long ago, most Russians were reportedly unhappy with Vladimir Putin. His crackdown on freedom and his kleptocratic economy were hardly popular. Most likely, given their druthers, Russians were not all that interested in Putin’s risky and costly dream of gobbling up former SovietRepublicsto create some grander version of Russia’s mess. But now? As the ruble crashes, as Russia’s oil income dives, and as sanctions start biting the man in the street, Putin, in counterintuitive fashion, is apparently more popular than ever. Why? Because he has become an easy mechanism for ordinary Russians to vent frustration and anger over what they perceive as a too-powerful and bullying West. In a fairer world, Western decadence and self-indulgence would not have earned Americans and Western Europeans singular wealth, leisure, influence, and an overall good life — at least not more so than an Orthodox, politically proud, and historically illustrious Mother Russia. Add in the fact that Russians prove covetous of Western things, especially an elite that, like a moth to a flame, seeks to replicate exactly the sort of good life that it condemns as Western decadence.


Satire: Why Not Pick An Apple? By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: Is Apple going to make a car?

Giuliani Versus Obama. By Thomas Sowell 

Excerpt: The firestorm of denunciation of former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, for having said that he did not think Barack Obama loved America, is in one sense out of all proportion to that remark – especially at a time when there are much bigger issues, including wars raging, terrorist atrocities and a nuclear Iranon the horizon. Against that background of strife and dangers on the world stage, it may seem as if Barack Obama’s feelings, or Rudolph Giuliani’s opinion about those feelings, should not matter so much, especially when it is hard to know with certainty how anyone feels. Yet when someone is the leader of a great nation at a historic juncture, it is more than idle curiosity to know what drives him.

The Media's Slimy Assault on Gov. Walker. By David Limbaugh

Excerpt: There is so much evidence that Obama has a different feeling about Americathan all of our past presidents that it borders on disingenuous to pretend otherwise. What other president has ever denigrated the Founding Fathers as “men of property and wealth”? What POTUS has repeatedly apologized for the United Statesand its record? Obama has done so, often on foreign soil, complaining to Europe about America’s arrogance, admitting to the Americas that we have sometimes dictated our terms, telling the Turkish Parliament that we have “our own darker periods in our history,” sending a letter to the Afghan president apologizing for coalition forces inadvertently burning copies of the Quran but failing to object to the killing of U.S. troops in return, apologizing to Japan for our nuclear bombing of its cities, criticizing Americans for distrusting Islam, and even going so far as to blame America for the rampant gun violence in Mexico. What other president has belonged to a church whose pastor was openly racist and anti-American? What other president has scoffed at the idea of American exceptionalism?

Scott Walker consolidating the right. By Jennifer Rubin 

Excerpt: The Texas Tribune reports, “Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has erased U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s strong lead among Texas Republicans in the volatile and still-developing race for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Cruz’s 25 percentage-point lead over Walker in October has vanished: The Texan won the support of 20 percent of the state’s registered voters to Walker’s 19 percent — a statistical tie.” Cruz’s unfavorability rating in his home state is higher (36 percent) than that of either former governor Rick Perry (30 percent) or current Gov. Greg Abbott (28 percent).

Gov. Scott Walker: ‘I don’t know’ whether Obama is a Christian

Excerpt: “I’ve actually never talked about it or I haven’t read about that,” Walkersaid, his voice calm and firm. “I’ve never asked him that,” he added. “You’ve asked me to make statements about people that I haven’t had a conversation with about that. How [could] I say if I know either of you are a Christian?” Walker said such questions from reporters are reflective of a broader problem in the nation’s political-media culture, which he described as fixated on issues that are not relevant to most Americans. “To me, this is a classic example of why people hate Washingtonand, increasingly, they dislike the press,” he said. “The things they care about don’t even remotely come close to what you’re asking about.”(Of all the problems the next president will face, Obama's religion is pretty far down the list. We should take President Obama at his word when he says he is a patriot and a Christian. After all, he said he was opposed to gay marriage, and that under his health plan your premiums would go down, health costs would go down and if you liked your health plan and your doctor, you could keep them. So we know we can take him at his word...Right? ~Bob


Will Elizabeth Warren seize her opportunity? By Jennifer Rubin 

Excerpt: Hillary Clinton is theoretically a highly vulnerable candidate. She has been “caught” — in plain sight — being a Clinton, meaning her abnormal attachment to money has driven her into the pockets of big donors who seem like a Who’s Who of Evil Forces in a MoveOn.org ad. Dick Cheney played small ball, merely working for Halliburton before running for VP (by which time he had ended his relationship). Clintongoes right into the heart of oil kingdoms, Goldman Sachs and chemical and drug companies to support her foundation, which has as a key function the luxury travel of the Clintons and their retinue. She has no discernible policy proposal on much of anything. Her political skills cannot be called “rusty,” for they were never lustrous. She served as the president’s top foreign policy official, making her the co-author of a foreign policy distinguished by its ineffectiveness and lack of principle, unless one considers allowing evil forces to run amok to be a principle. In sum, she is viewed with disdain by the base and extremely vulnerable in a general election.

Worth Reading: 25 Quotes That Prove Liberals Don't Love America. By John Hawkins 

Excerpt: 6) You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a (flag) pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest… — Barack Obama 7) For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. — Michelle Obama

The government loan program with a 116 percent default rate. By Michael Grunwald 

Excerpt: If you’re curious just what kind of risks the US government is taking with its $3.3 trillion in loan programs — a portfolio considerably larger and significantly stranger than any private bank’s — the best place to start is the Federal Credit Supplement, an obscure batch of tables stashed in the back of the annual White House budget proposal. ... For instance, it projects that taxpayers will recover 46 cents on every dollar loaned to renovate rural apartment complexes, but will earn a 24-cent profit on every dollar loaned for Indian tribe land acquisition. Its suggests that risky U.S.loan guarantees for biorefineries and Ukraine are actually getting somewhat safer. It’s where I recently discovered a surprise $21.8 billion shortfall in the federal student loan program.

Did Patricia Arquette accept her $165,000 swag bag before or after her impassioned speech on income inequality?

Gun News

They want guns to protect them, but are against guns to protect you. ~Bob

Excerpt: According to the Arizona Daily Star, the poll was conducted by the Behavior Research Center (BRC), which found that a large portion of the 48 percent of Arizonans who supported more gun control in the wake of Sandy Hook have now changed their position, with only 33 percent favoring more gun control. Forty-eight percent of Arizonans “think the current level of gun control is just fine.” That figure represents a 10-percent increase from the poll taken after Sandy Hook. BRC found that support for gun control “dropped among all political and age groups.”

Race Card News


Internet Quote

"White privilege" = being held responsible for the acts of your ancestors by folks who accept no responsibility for the acts of their children." --Anon.

Comcast, Al Sharpton Hit With $20 Billion Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

Excerpt: The complaint, filed in California on Friday, comes from the National Association of African-American Owned Media, which also filed a similar suit against AT&T and DirecTV in December. This time, the plaintiff is not only targeting both Comcast and TWC — on the eve of the two companies merging to become what would be the largest pay television distributor in the United States — but also various African-American advocacy groups and MSNBC host Al Sharpton for allegedly facilitating discrimination. (if they win, we'll never get the millions in tax dollars Sharpton owes. Of course, no chance until 2017, when he might not be a White House advisor ant longer--unless it's President Hillary. ~Bob)

George Zimmerman won’t face civil rights charges in Trayvon Martin’s death. By Mark Berman and Sari Horwitz

Excerpt: The Justice Department announced Tuesday that George Zimmerman will not face federal criminal civil rights charges for shooting and killing teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012. (After all the political theater, if they thought they had a case...~Bob)

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News



HIPAA Violation? Analyst: Private Firms’ Access to Obamacare User Info ‘Incomprehensible’

Excerpt: Allowing dozens of companies access to Obamacare users’ personal health care information was “digital overkill,” and compromised millions of Americans’ online security, an analyst told a congressional panel looking into the issue this month. An Associated Press story revealed last month that the federal government had authorized as many as 50 private companies, including Google, Twitter and Facebook, to track and record healthcare.gov users’ information. The Obama administration said the use of third party “data mining” is necessary to help understand who uses the site, as well as how and when they use it. That, in turn, they say, can help officials improve the site’s content, features, layout and security, as well as the overall “user experience.” (Hmm, another "oops" from Obamacare that we didn't expect or get told about. --Del)

An Obamacare tell

Excerpt: President Obama has touted the success of the second year of open enrollment for his signature healthcare law. “The Affordable Care Act is working,” Obama said in a Facebook video. “It’s working a little better than we anticipated.” But courtesy of the Department of Health and Human Services, we have a signal that all may not be going a smoothly as the administration would have us believe. .. To start, it's yet another indication that any deadline that the administration sets is merely written on water, subject to arbitrary changes. (We now have the Rube Goldberg version of a healthcare system. ~Bob)

Undocumented Democrat News


New Book:BROWN PEOPLE, Hispanic Politics and the Disunited State of Amigos. By Javier Manjarres
JAVIER MANJARRES is a Florida-based blogger, pundit and award-winning journalist who was born to Colombian immigrants in Flushing, NY. He launched the influential conservative political website the Shark Tank in late 2009 which quickly became the preeminent political blog in the state of Florida. His fearless, uncompromising style has won him many dedicated fans and detractors, and he was credited as being the "tip of the spear" of Senator Marco Rubio's historic campaign for U.S. Senate in 2010 which helped lead to Rubio’s victory over sitting Governor Charlie Crist. For his efforts throughout the 2010 midterm elections, he was named the top national conservative blogger by the Conservative Political Action Committee in 2011. (Have not read. ~Bob)

Texas Governor: Since Jan. 1, 'We Have Had More Than 20,000 People Come Across the Border'

Excerpt: "We all saw what happened on the Texas border last summer, but we need to understand that the problem is not going away," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told CBS's "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer on Sunday. "Already this calendar year, since January 1, we have had more than 20,000 people come across the border, apprehended, unauthorized. And so we have an ongoing problem on the border that Congress must step up and solve." (All told in fiscal year 2014, U.S immigration officials removed 213,719 individuals apprehended while attempting to unlawfully enter the United States.) (It seems the problem with people walking into the USA across the southern border is not going away, not even close. So the state of Texas is going to start trying to work on it on their own, since the feds aren't doing the job that is supposed to be one of the primary functions of a government. Interesting. I wonder what it will take to get this nation to be really serious about tightening up the border, and turning people around very quickly to be transported back across it. So far I just don't see that as a priority for the Executive Branch, and not, so far, for the Legislative Branch either. --Del. It will take this: The Next Terrorist attack on Americahttp://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2009/09/essay-next-terrorist-attack-on-america.html~Bob)


"You're Greener than Gore" News



Obama vetoes Keystone pipeline bill

Excerpt: The White House has notified the Senate that President Obama has vetoed legislation authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline. (Unions wanting jobs can go pound sand. ~Bob)

UN climate head Rajendra Pachauri resigns

Excerpt: The head of the UN climate change panel (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri, has resigned amid sexual harassment allegations. ("It's getting warmer, warmer. You need to take off your clothes..." ~Bob)

Religion of Peace News



Betting National Security on a Theory

Excerpt: So accurately describing their ideology, or calling the terrorists "jihadists" grants them undo legitimacy as true representatives of the faith, the argument goes. The current policy aims to deny them that mantle. That's a theory. But there's a key question no one seems to be asking: Does it work? This is a continuation of a policy instituted during President George W. Bush's second term, meaning it has been in place for more than seven years. If it is indeed the right, best policy, advocates should be able to point to tangible evidence to show its value. Arguably, the Islamist ideology has never been more popular, given the flood of foreign fighters making their way to Iraq and Syriato join the Islamic State, or Boko Haram's endless reign of terror in Nigeria. Hamas still enjoys strong support despite following policies which bring devastation to the people of Gaza. And there is no mistaking the religious motivation driving these groups. 


Worth Reading: For Clinton, money trumps women and girls. By Jennifer Rubin

Excerpt: With regard to women’s rights in Gulf States including Oman, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, according to Freedom House, “Regardless of constitutional guarantees, women throughout the region face legal forms of discrimination that are systematic and pervade every aspect of life. For example, in none of the Gulf countries do women enjoy the same citizenship and nationality rights as men, which can carry serious consequences for the choice of a marriage partner. . . [Gender] inequality is most evident in personal-status codes, which relegate women to an inferior position within marriage and the family, declare the husband to be the head of household, and in many cases require the wife to obey her husband. Under the family codes of all six Gulf countries, a husband is allowed to divorce his wife at any time without a stated reason, but a wife seeking divorce must either meet very specific and onerous conditions or return her dowry through a practice known as khula. Furthermore, women need a guardian’s signature or presence in order to complete marriage proceedings, limiting their free choice of a marriage partner. In Bahrainand Saudi Arabia, there is no codified personal status law, allowing judges to make decisions regarding family matters based on their own interpretations of Islamic law.” So why, if she is the defender of women and children, would Hillary Clinton accept millions from these countries for her foundation? 


I rate very doubtful: Iraqi Army Downs Two British Planes Carrying Weapons for ISIL Terrorists

Excerpt: “The Iraqi Parliament’s National Security and Defense Committee has access to the photos of both planes that are British and have crashed while they were carrying weapons for the ISIL,” Head of the committee Hakem al-Zameli said, according to a Monday report of the Arabic-language information center of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. He said the Iraqi parliament has asked Londonfor explanations in this regard. The senior Iraqi legislator further unveiled that the government in Baghdadis receiving daily reports from people and security forces in al-Anbar province on numerous flights by the US-led coalition planes that airdrop weapons and supplies for ISIL in terrorist-held areas.


Jobs for Jihadists? Sweden’s national job agency fires its entire network of ‘immigrant resettlement assistants’ over fears they were finding them jobs – as ISIS militants
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2964991/Swedish-migrant-aides-Isis-recruiters.html
Excerpt: The Swedish government has been forced shut down an assimilation guide service after discovering that several aides may have been trying to recruit newly arrived immigrants to ISIS.
The assimilation guides, a service provided by the Swedish state job agency, have been accused of taking bribes from migrant job-seekers and making 'recruitment attempts to militant fighting groups'.

Two men sentenced to 25 years in plot to attack Americans in Afghanistan

Excerpt: Two men convicted of seeking to join al Qaeda and training to carry out attacks on Americans in Afghanistan were sentenced on Monday to 25 years in federal prison, the U.S. Justice Department said. U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips sentenced Sohiel Omar Kabir, 37, and Ralph Deleon, 26, who prosecutors said trained at firearms and paintball facilities in Southern California to prepare for their mission.

Hawaii Dem 'mind-boggled' Pentagon would brief on Iraq War plan. By Kristina Wong 

Excerpt: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) said Monday she was "mind-boggled" by the Pentagon's briefing last week of an upcoming military plan to retake Mosul from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Pentagon officials at a Thursday briefing gave defense reporters details about the planned operation, angering Republican Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who said it risked the success of the mission. "I was similarly mind-boggled and didn't understand at all how this could be part of a strategic plan in what they're talking about," Gabbard, a captain in the Hawaii Army National Guard and Iraq War veteran, said on CNN. 

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


Stay Informed! Read today's political news and opinion.

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Update


Another slick night with some snow at rush hour. Had a dinner engagement on the west side, but this time left early enough I wasn't late. Guy I met at the VA six months ago was in town. He follows the blog and we got together. He had a lung transplant 13 years ago. I won't lay out his details, but my lung transplant and the last 14 months have been a garden party compared to what he's been through. ~Bob

General News and Comment


Older Piece But a Must Read: Six Seconds to Live. "Sir, in the name of God, no sane man would have stood there and done what they did. They saved us all." By Lt. Gen. John Kelly

Excerpt: "The truck’s windshield explodes into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tear into the body of the son of a bitch trying to get past them to kill their brothers – American and Iraqi – bedded down in the barracks, totally unaware that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground. Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder-width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could. They had only one second left to live, and I think they knew." ... Kelly delivered this speech to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis on Nov. 13, 2010, four days after his son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Kelly, was killed in action in Afghanistan.


Senate committee passes right-to-work bill amid chaos

Excerpt: Amid chaos, a Senate committee voted to send a controversial right-to-work bill to the full house, setting up another contentious debate for Wednesday. (Every voluntary association I managed over 31 years--there were seven--had more paying members when I left than when I took the con. If you show value, they will join. If you are spending dues on perks and pet projects the members don't value, they will not. ~Bob)

Excerpt: But on Tuesday, the large-scale public-union-style protests didn’t materialize. Early on a snowy morning outside the capitol, the sidewalks were empty. Several hundred union members, decked out in hard hats and iridescent safety jackets, milled about inside as the legislature conducted its public hearing on the bill. Perhaps expecting some of the chicanery of four years ago, police posted signs explaining that bringing live snakes into the capitol was prohibited.

No, Really, Scott Walker Is the Frontrunner. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

Excerpt: Quinnipiac polls likely Iowa Republican Caucus participants and finds Wisconsin governor Scott Walker leads the pack with 25 percent; 13 percent for U.S.senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, 11 percent each for physician Ben Carson and former Arkansasgovernor Mike Huckabee, and 10 percent for former Florida governor Jeb Bush. No other candidate is above 5 percent and 9 percent are undecided. PPP shows Walkerleading nationally at 25 percent; Ben Carson is at 18 percent. The UT-Austin/Texas Tribune poll puts Ted Cruz at 20 percent; Walkeris at 19 percent. The Field poll puts Walkerahead in California at 18 percent; Jeb Bush is second with 16 percent. PPP shows Walker second in South Carolina with 18 percent; Jeb Bush leads with 19 percent.

Walker Turns Media Gotchas into Cash

Excerpt: In the last two weeks or so, Scott Walker’s star has continued to rise from among the crowded field of Republican candidates, which has placed a media target on his back.

Hillary’s Identity Crisis. By Jonah Goldberg

Excerpt: It apparently takes a village of corporate marketing specialists to tell voters who she is.


Russia Pushes Reset Button: Parades Missile Threatening to BLOW UP Obama
Excerpt: This week Russia pushed its own reset button… Russians paraded a missile on Army Day marked “to be personally delivered to Obama.”

How Crazy Am I to Think I Actually Know Where That Malaysia Airlines Plane Is?

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/02/jeff-wise-mh370-theory.html
Excerpt: I soon realized the germ of every TV-news segment is: “Officials say X.” The validity of the story derives from the authority of the source. The expert, such as myself, is on hand to add dimension or clarity. Truth flowed one way: from the official source, through the anchor, past the expert, and onward into the great sea of viewerdom. (Less interested in the subject, though I am, than in the story-development flow, and how news is packaged. --George)

Democrats "I Trust Scientists" Tweet Backfires Hilariously. By Christine Rousselle 

Excerpt: The official Twitter of the Democrat Party attempted to be snarky today and tweeted an image that implied that Republicans are anti-science: ... This being said, there's apparently at least one set of scientists the Democrats don't trust: the ones who said that the Keystone XL Pipeline will "not significantly worsen" the environment.

The Virtues of Marco Rubio

Excerpt: Rubio, the son of naturalized Cuban immigrants, would be the first Latino Republican candidate. That in itself should warm the cockles of establishment-type GOP hearts. And make no mistake – Republicans must improve with minorities. Bright, articulate and energetic, Rubio served eight years in the Florida House of Representatives, eventually being elected speaker in 2006. In 2009, he ran against Charlie Crist in the Floridasenatorial primary. Beginning as an underdog, Rubio climbed the polls quickly and won the primary. Crist then ran as an independent, but Rubio beat him again in a three-way race.

In Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is headed to a runoff. By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

If you roll your eyes and conclude that only Jesus could beat Barack Obama’s former chief of staff in a Chicago Democratic primary . . . then you’re in luck: His runoff opponent is former Illinois State Senator Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, who was outspent 12 to 1 in Tuesday’s race. Miraculous!


Trip to VietnamRevives Hatred of Communism. By Dennis Prager

Excerpt: It was difficult to control my emotions -- specifically, my anger -- during my visit to Vietnam last week. The more I came to admire the Vietnamese people -- their intelligence, love of life, dignity and hard work -- the more rage I felt for the communists who brought them (and, of course, us Americans) so much suffering in the second half of the 20th century. Unfortunately, communists still rule the country. Yet, Vietnam today has embraced the only way that exists to escape poverty, let alone to produce prosperity: capitalism and the free market. So what exactly did the 2 million Vietnamese who died in the Vietnam War die for? I would like to ask one of the communist bosses who run Vietnamthat question. "Comrade, you have disowned everything your Communist party stood for: communal property, collectivized agriculture, central planning and militarism, among other things. Looking back, then, for what precisely did your beloved Ho Chi Minh and your party sacrifice millions of your fellow Vietnamese?" There is no good answer. There are only a lie and a truth, and the truth is not good. (Having just returned from Viet Nammyself, where I came face to face with the despotism and oppression of communist rulers, I am right with Mr. Prager. --Del. me too, Del--and I didn't have to go back to know that! ~Bob)

MSNBC Host Feels Sorry For Chris Kyle’s Killer: ‘His Life Is Ruined’ [VIDEO]

Excerpt: Appearing on “Andrea Mitchell Reporting,” former Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy said that he felt for the murderer of “American Sniper” Chris Kyle and fellow veteran Chris Littlefield because “his life is ruined.” “It’s a tragedy,” said Murphy, who also hosts MSNBC’s “Taking the Hill” program. “I’m happy that justice was served. But that verdict yesterday doesn’t bring back Chris and Chad. It doesn’t. They’re gone. And, you know, now another Marine, his life is ruined.” (We like to say there are no ex-Marines. but this killer qualifies. ~Bob. Murphy has to be the biggest moron who ever lived. --Steve)

The Joy of Welfare-Funded Holiday Trips to Bali and Dubai. by Daniel J. Mitchell

Excerpt: Since I’m in the United Kingdom, it’s appropriate to announce that another Briton has been elected to the Moocher Hall of Fame. Ms. Kay Bird deserves this “honor” because it takes a very reprehensible entitlement mentality to brag about taking a global holiday with welfare cash. And we’re talking about a global holiday that appears to be far more extravagant than the foreign trips enjoyed by Natalija, another member of the Moocher Hall of Fame.

Gun News

Police ID Man Killed In North Austin Shooting

Excerpt: Austin Police have identified a man who was shot and killed in north Austinearly Saturday morning. Police say they were called to an apartment home in the 7200 block of Twin Crest Drivearound 1 a.m. on Saturday. When they arrived, they found 26-year-old Ray Anthony Arredondo dead of an apparent gunshot wound. Police say the tenant of the apartment was sleeping when Arredondo forced his way into the apartment. Police say Arredondo pointed a gun at the tenant and demanded he get on the ground. The tenant then grabbed his handgun and fired a shot at Arredondo striking and killing him, police said.

Homeowner shoots, kills intruder in Catawba County
Excerpt: CatawbaCounty deputies said two burglars broke into the home on the 7400 block of Riverbend Road in Claremontaround 9 a.m. The suspects broke a window around the back of the house and came in through the basement. Meantime Bruce Fox heard the men entering his home and got a 12 gauge shot gun. Fox called police but the men came after him. "Subject kicks in the door leading into the hallway, he comes down the hallway toward the homeowner and the homeowner fires one shot with the shotgun striking the subject in the chest," said Sheriff Coy Reid, Catawba Co.

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


Excerpt: The experience of the ONC in its first few years of existence warns against allowing it to exert too much control over HIT. In 2004, the ONC was originally envisioned as the “coordinator” of HIT. However, in 2009, the ONC became the financier, certifier, and regulator of much of HIT. The federal government allocated a 5-year budget of $30 billion to disburse as incentives to hospitals, physicians’ offices, and other health facilities, as encouragement to install electronic health records (EHRs). ONC was given the power to certify EHRs that would qualify providers for the incentive payments. A new NCPA study concludes that this has proven expensive, unproductive, and potentially harmful, which leads to the conclusion that the federal government should play a minimal role in guiding HIT over the next decade.

Undocumented Democrat News


From the left: Another Federal Judge Strikes Down An Obama Executive Action On Immigration. By Conn Carroll

Excerpt: A federal judge appointed by President Obama issued a preliminary injunction last week ending a key 2014 immigration executive action that helped end a wave of illegal immigration from Central Americans countries last summer.

Study: Hispanics Will Occupy 75% of New Jobs Starting in 2020. By Warner Todd Huston

Excerpt: A new study finds that Hispanic foreigners, both legal and illegal, will account for a large portion of future job growth, taking perhaps as many as 75 percent of the jobs created by 2020.

"You're Greener than Gore" News


Reporters Laugh at White House Spokesman when He says that 6 Years Isn't Long Enough to Review the Keystone XL Pipeline. By Onan Coca

Excerpt: When the White House press corps is laughing at your answer – you know the answer probably wasn’t very good. In an interesting Q and A with White House reporters, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest isn’t even trying to hide the fact that his answer is ridiculous. He knows it is, and the reporters covering the White House know it is. The State Department (and other government agencies have had 6+ years to analyze the effects of the Keystone Pipeline and they still haven’t accomplished their task. In that time, several other studies of the Pipeline have been done, none showing any negative environmental impact. In fact, the net effect on the environment will be positive because the Pipeline will reduce the possibility of accidents with oil being transported by truck, train or boat.

Waiting for a Climate Apology

Excerpt: The Sierra Club gleefully reports that our saints at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to date have forced the closure of 186 coal-fired power plants. They claim there are still 337 to go. According to their data each coal-fired plant produces an average of 500 MW of energy, capable of powering roughly 260,000 households. That’s over 48 million households deprived of inexpensive energy, and all in the name of combating global warming. Their reasoning is to combat the emission of carbon dioxide, that evil greenhouse gas that has caused our Earth to warm unnecessarily. Yet recent discoveries have found what we’ve known all along. That man-made climate change is a scam and a scandal of proportions that we have never seen. (This writer is a bit emotional as well on the subject. I can understand that, what is hard for me to understand are the people who will cheerfully manipulate data to demonstrate there's warming, and we have plenty of examples of that, starting with the famous "hockey stick" professor. (Who is involved in a lawsuit about people pointing out his bad science, which will get interesting when trial starts. He also claimed to be a Nobel Prize recipient, and the Nobel people got ticked enough to make a public announcement that he is no such thing.) For me, reading the Climategate e-mails in which climatologists talked about destroying data so no one could use it to argue with them was the start of realizing, with shock and dismay, that PhD geniuses can be as subject to passionate beliefs as anyone else. I don't go for the deliberate scam conspiracy theory, but enough people getting emotionally committed to the whole idea in the end has the same effect as a conspiracy. Why the idea of manmade damage to the planet's atmosphere is so compellingly attractive to so many people is a complete mystery to me, but that's how it is. Meanwhile, the actions they want us all to take because of this belief would be and are already becoming damaging to our society. The EPA declaring CO2 to be a poison gas is not science, that is politics in action in a place that should be exempt from politics. A very, very bad idea. --Del. if you circulated a petition on college campuses to ban carbon-based life forms, you get thousands of signatures. ~Bob)

Religion of Peace News



Worth Reading: The Cancer of Multiculturalism. By Walter E. Williams 

Excerpt: President Obama’s vision is that of a man brainwashed through an academic vision of multiculturalism, in which American exceptionalism has no place. It’s a vision that has been shaped by a longtime association with people who hate our country, people such as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Weather Underground leader and Pentagon bomber William Ayers and Ayers' onetime fugitive wife, Bernardine Dohrn. A vision that sees a moral equivalency between what Christians did centuries ago and today’s Islamic savagery is quite prevalent in academia. It’s part of what’s worshipped on most college campuses as diversity and multiculturalism. College campus idiots – and that includes faculty members and administrators – call for the celebration of and respect for all cultures. In their eyes, it’s racist Eurocentrism to think that Western values and culture are superior to others. But that’s the height of stupidity. 

Must Read: Obama’s Hasty Mosul Offensive. by Bing West
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/414334/obamas-hasty-mosul-offensive-bing-west

Excerpt: Last week, the press panned Mr. Obama’s anodyne remarks about “violent extremism.” The next day, the Central Command briefed the press on plans to seize the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, which is currently held by ISIS. For a White House fixated upon imagery, news of an impending offensive projected a resolute commander-in-chief. ... The two battles for Fallujah show what would be likely to happen in Mosul. In April of 2004, President George W. Bush ordered the Marines, against their advice, to seize Fallujah. Within days, the ferocity of the battle sparked a public outcry. Mr. Bush lost his nerve and ordered the Marines to pull out. Similarly, if Mosulis attacked, Mr. Obama will be pressured by a dozen nations with competing interests. Given the present circumstances, he must, unlike in past crises, be fully resolved to stay the course. . Bing West, a former combat Marine and assistant secretary of defense, has written three books about the war in Iraq...

Secretary of Homeland Security says My Job is to "Give Voice to the Plight of Muslims

Excerpt: My goodness! When are Americans going to have enough of the federal government advancing the religion of pieces? "Homeland Security" Secretary Jeh Johnson sides with Barack Obama about not getting at the root of the terrorism taking place in the world today, Islam. In fact, recently, Johnson said that it was part of the administration's job to "give voice to the plight of Muslims." (Another "useful idiot". --JB)

Kurdish, Christian forces battle ISIS as fate of 150 reported hostages unclear

Excerpt: Kurdish and Christian militiamen battled Islamic State militants Wednesday in northeastern Syria, where the extremist group abducted at least 150 people from Assyrian Christian villages, according to activists. Hassakeh province, which borders Turkeyand Iraq, has become the latest battleground for the fight against the terror group Islamic State, also known as ISIS. It is predominantly Kurdish, but also has populations of Arabs and predominantly Assyrian Christians and Armenians.

3 NYC residents arrested, charged with trying to join Islamic State militants

Excerpt: Three New York City residents -- two with Uzbekistan citizenship, and one a citizen of Kazakhstan -- plotted to travel to Syria to join ISIS militants and 'wage jihad,' the Justice Department announced. One of the defendants also offered to kill the president of the United Statesif ordered do so, the criminal complaint alleged. 

Iranattacks mock U.S.carrier in drills near strait

Excerpt: "American aircraft carriers are very big ammunition depots housing a lot of missiles, rockets, torpedoes and everything else," the Guard's navy chief, Adm. Ali Fadavi, said on state TV, adding that a direct hit by a missile could set off a large secondary explosion. Last month Fadavi said his force is capable of sinking American aircraft carriers in the event of war. (FYI Adm. Ali Fadavi - mock carriers don't fight back. And your mock carrier didn't have the escorts that our Carrier Strike Group take with them. The typical CSG consists of the carrier, a guided missile cruiser, one or two Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System (LAMPS) warships, and one or two anti-submarine destroyers or frigates, all of which would be engaged in defending the carrier from any attack. --MasterGuns)

Bill Maher finally Notices the “Orwellian” Nature of Not Calling ISIS Muslim. By Onan Coca

Excerpt: This idea that we cannot even call it Islamic terrorism seems Orwellian to me. It seems like we’re paying a very high price for this which is we can’t discuss it even rationally. Can’t we at least say that there are a number of factors that are involved? And the religion is certainly one of that.

New Book: Catch The Jew! [Kindle Edition] By Tuvia Tenenbom

Have not read. ~Bob

Let's Unfriend ISIS. By A.J. Caschetta

Excerpt: As absurd as "unfriending" a terrorist organization sounds, the Obama administration's use of social media to counter what it euphemistically calls "violent extremism" has been equally feckless. On Jan. 7, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged"the need to counter some of the extremist ideology that ISIL is propagating, using some pretty sophisticated social media strategy." Five days later ISIS hacked Centcom's social media accounts.

After capturing large stores of American weapons in Mosul last summer, ISIS tweeted this doctored version of Michelle Obama's #bringbackourgirls appeal for the release of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. The White House was not amused.


A Quarter of British Muslims Sympathize with ParisAttack Terrorists

Excerpt: More than a quarter of British Muslims sympathize with the terrorists who committed the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris last month, according to a new ComRes poll conducted for the BBC. These findings indicate that a substantial minority of Muslims in Britain approve of murder against individuals deemed to have insulted the Prophet Mohammed. Roughly 27 percent of the respondents said that they have "some sympathy for the motives behind the attacks" while 32 percent said that they were not surprised by the terrorist attacks.

You can't make this stuff up: Expert on Islamophobia Joins ISIS. By Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: In 2009 he was invited to SVT, where he told Swedish viewers how Muslim phobia (Islamophobia) and hatred was spread around Europe. Previously, the Swede have been heavily involved to counter what he described as a misleading picture of Muslims as violent fanatics. In an episode of SVT debate, which can be seen on Youtube, he attacked the malicious picture of Muslims spread in Europe. This fear is based on ignorance of Islam,” Michael Skråmo said. ... Michael Skråmo, 29, took the whole family – his little four children and wife – to the IS-controlled area inside Syria. Now Skråmo filmed a propaganda video outside the Syrian city Kobane where he preaches jihad and calls Swedish jihadists to leave Sweden and join the “holy war”.

Which side are we on? Pentagon leak on secret anti-terror training camp

Excerpt: The Pentagon let slip that one of its training camps to help fight Islamic State terrorists is in Jordan — information the pro-U.S. kingdom had specifically requested be kept private, and the latest gaffe in a series of sensitive leaks coming out of the Department of Defense.

*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


Political News and Conservatives Opinion: Your One-Stop Shop

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General News and Comment



Most Voters Want Congress to Ignore Obama Veto Threats

Excerpt: President Obama on Tuesday used one of the very rare vetoes of his presidency to reject a bipartisan bill from Congress calling for construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Voters aren’t happy with that veto and want Congress to keep doing what it wants even if the president doesn’t like it.

Important: Donation to Clinton Foundation while Hillary was secretary of state violated ethics agreement, report says

Excerpt: The Clinton Foundation was on the defensive Wednesday after disclosing that it had accepted millions of dollars from several foreign governments while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, including one donation that violated the foundation's ethics agreement with the Obama administration. (Should be called "The Clinton Travel and Perks Foundation." ~Bob. Sorry. This is disqualifying. The Secretary of State cannot take money from foreign governments while allegedly representing our interests in negotiations with that government. It’s bribery: ... The claim is that all of the money went to good charitable causes. But Algeriacould donate to Haitian relief funds, or any other charity, directly. There’s an obvious incentive to give money -- even with the allegedly best intentions -- to the Clinton Foundation: access and goodwill to the Clintons. --Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt.)

W.H. Unable To Explain Why ClintonFoundation Violated Ethics Agreement 

Hillary keeps up Dems' middle-class deception

Excerpt: But when elite Democratic politicians discuss the “middle class,” they're not usually talking about a group of people they intend to help with new policies. Rather, they're affixing a proven and popular label on the same old policies, which mostly do nothing for the tens of millions of Americans who are too rich to take government benefits but not so wealthy that money isn't a constant concern. Take as an example Obama's new enthusiasm for what he calls “middle class economics.” As proposed in his State of the Union, it would have actually raised the average middle-class earner's taxes by seven dollars a year, according to an analysis by the Tax Foundation. As the Washington Post's Max Ehrenfreund put it bluntly, “There's no point in calling this tax plan 'middle-class economics,' since its main effect is to help the poor.”

Interesting: Hillary Clinton is no feminist champion. By Ashe Schow

Excerpt: If we take a ride back 20 years to the 1990s, Hillary was involved in the most orchestrated and vicious victim-blaming campaigns against women in recent history. She spent years defending husband Bill from accusations that he raped, sexually assaulted or groped women. And even after he admitted publicly that he cheated on her, she stood by him. ... The most that can be said about her “accomplishments” was that she “achieved” them by being married to Bill. That’s not exactly the feminist way of being your own, empowered woman.

Joe Biden Wants to ‘Emancipate Wealth' by Stealing More of It and Making More Poor People
http://godfatherpolitics.com/20658/joe-biden-wants-emancipate-wealth-stealing-making-poor-people/
Excerpt: Joe Biden is creepy and dangerous. He was picked by Obama to be the vice-president for two reasons: First, because he knew that Biden could not compete with him in the realm of public popularity. He needed a vice-president who would not upstage him. Biden was the perfect pick. The stooge that made the other guy look better.

Interesting: Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner is out to emancipate the Land of Lincoln. By George F. Will

Excerpt: The most portentous election of 2014, which gave the worst-governed state its first Republican governor in 12 years, has initiated this century’s most intriguing political experiment. Illinois has favored Democratic presidential candidates by an average of 16 points in the past six elections. But by electing businessman Bruce Rauner it initiated a process that might dismantle a form of governance that afflicts many states and municipalities.

FCC approves sweeping Internet regulation plan

Excerpt: The Federal Communications Commission, in a party-line vote, approves sweeping 'net neutrality' plan allowing broad regulation of how Americans use the Internet. Makes it easier for the government to find racist, Islamophobic right-wing terrorists--and silence them. ~Bob)


Excerpt: As the Federal Communications Commission is set to approve new Internet rules, a new report shows that George Soros and the Ford Foundation have donated $196 million to groups that support the cause.

Worth Reading: GrievanceSchool. By Steven F. Hayward

Excerpt: Of all the college towns fixed in the American mind as bastions of elite leftism, a Big Four stand out: Cambridge, Madison, Berkeley, and Boulder. It was no wonder, then, that the University of Colorado at Boulder received national attention, and raised many eyebrows, when it announced a couple of years back that it wanted to hire an identified conservative as a visiting faculty member — the beginning of a privately funded pilot program to bring conservative perspectives to its storied campus. I ended up being the guinea pig for this unorthodox experiment.

CNN, DHS & SPLC’s Blame Righty hit job. By Michelle Malkin
http://michellemalkin.com/2015/02/25/cnn-dhs-splcs-blame-righty-hit-job/
Your tax dollars are once again hard at work — defaming conservatives, deflecting from worldwide murderous jihad and denying the public access to information they funded.
CNN splashed the big scoop on its website: “DHS intelligence report warns of domestic right-wing terror threat.” The fear-mongering piece featured a huge map of 24 alleged acts of “violence by sovereign citizen extremists since 2010.” CNN’s Evan Perez and Wes Bruer prominently quoted Mark Potok of the widely disgraced propaganda outfit the Southern Poverty Law Center. Potok claimed that “there are as many as 300,000 people involved in some way with sovereign citizen extremism.” (Well, the SPLC called Dr. Ben Carson, who grew up poor and black in the Detroit ghetto to become probably the world's most eminent pediatric neurosurgeon, an extremist. case closed. ~Bob)

The Vietnam War Through Red Lenses. By Phillip Jennings 

Excerpt: The Last Days in Vietnam is an Oscar-nominated documentary covering the very end of South Vietnam, in April, 1975. Rory Kennedy’s dramatically sad and horrific documentary is both difficult (for a Vietnam Veteran at least) to watch and a chronicle of American compassion and angst. The fall of a democratic society to Communist tyranny should be lamented by Americans, who sacrificed greatly in their defense. It is a film of pathos, frustrating and yet strongly uplifting at times as American soldiers, diplomats and newsmen risk their careers and their lives to save Vietnamese friends from the invading North Vietnamese Army. Uplifting, unless you’re Associate Professor Christoph Giebel of the University of Washington, Seattle. In a review of the film posted to the website of Vietnam Scholars Group (sic) by Professor Giebel, the film is “dangerously simplistic,” and “much more of a commentary on current US culture—steeped in nationalistic discourses of exceptionalism, thoroughly militarized, and narcissistic—than a reflection of its actual quality.” (An article to read and pass around. --Del)

Public Pensions' Scary First Cousin -- Retiree Health Benefits. By Nancy Smith

Excerpt: The subject of public employee retirement systems is one of the toughest nuts for legislatures especially to crack. But for many local governments in Florida, there's another, seldom-mentioned "ticking time bomb" -- something separate but oh-so-related to public pensions: commitments to subsidize retiree health care premiums. A report released earlier this week by the LeRoy Collins Institute, "Beyond Pensions: Florida Local Governments and Retiree Health Benefits," reveals public employees' health care premiums in the SunshineState are responsible for some $8.4 billion in unfunded liabilities.

Race Card News



Unbelievable: Citing Stigma, The University Of MinnesotaRemoves Race Descriptions In Crime Alerts

Excerpt: Facing backlash for allegedly stigmatizing minorities — particularly black men — the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities announced on Tuesday that it will no longer include racial descriptors in crime alerts issued to students and faculty. “This change supports our public safety goals while recognizing the harm that the use of race in crime alerts causes for some members of our community,” the university, which has nearly 50,000 students and is located in Minneapolis and St. Paulsaid in a statement. (Are they saying that blacks commit a disproportionate share of the crimes? Not a stigma other wish. But they should leave out gender and age--those are protected classes we don't want to stigmatize either. An alert would read, "Be on the lookout for someone on campus who is an armed, homicidal maniac, but we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by describing the person. Good luck. Stay safe." ~Bob)

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News


Doctors Not Cashing In on Meaningful Use Incentives

Excerpt: Despite ONC's authority and intentions, their efforts are not seeing results. "Meaningful use" of ONC-certified EHRs triggers incentive payments for medical professionals but they are not cashing in. In 2014, only 3,154 eligible medical professionals had attested to the second stage of meaningful use to receive their payments for installing EHRs. A 2015 SERMO survey found 55 percent of the nearly 2000 physicians surveyed would not attest to the next stage of meaningful use this year. In response to this, federal penalties have been levied against 257,000 physicians, 280 providers and 200 hospitals for not using EHRs "meaningfully." Why are doctors not using EHRs meaningfully? Doctors are learning the actual cost of installing EHRs includes loss of productivity, a cost the incentive payments do not compensate for.

State's ObamaCare overcharges 13K

Excerpt: The Washingtonstate ObamaCare exchange says that it withdrew the incorrect amount of money from the bank accounts of 13,000 people.

Treasury won't explain decision to make $3 billion in Obamacare payments. By Philip Kline

Excerpt: The U.S. Treasury Department has rebuffed a request by House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R- Wis., to explain $3 billion in payments that were made to health insurers even though Congress never authorized the spending through annual appropriations.
At issue are payments to insurers known as cost-sharing subsidies. These payments come about because President Obama’s healthcare law forces insurers to limit out-of-pocket costs for certain low income individuals by capping consumer expenses, such as deductibles and co-payments, in insurance policies. In exchange for capping these charges, insurers are supposed to receive compensation.

Undocumented Democrat News


Worth Hearing: Testimony of Mr. Jamiel Shaw at Oversight Hearing

Grieving black father: "Do black lives really matter? Or only if they are killed by a white person?" Mother was in Iraq at the time. ~Bob

Worth Reading: Our Illiberal Immigration Policy Leads to Chaos. By Victor Davis Hanson
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/414428/our-illiberal-immigration-policy-leads-chaos-victor-davis-hanson

Excerpt: There also exist liberal and illiberal approaches to immigration. Take liberal immigration. It is governed by laws passed by Congress and signed and executed by the president. Nearly all Americans accept that no individual can pick and choose which federal statute he chooses to obey, depending on his own perceived self-interest. Liberal immigration would be entirely legal, meritocratic, and ethnically blind. Skills and education would matter more than proximity to the border or political clout.

Well, the "Ex-President-in-Waiting" could describe any of us as "Corpses-in-Waiting." ~Bob

"You're Greener than Gore" News



Religion of Peace News



‘Jihadi John’: Islamic State killer is identified as Londoner Mohammed Emwazi. By Souad Mekhennet and Adam Goldman

Excerpt: But his real name, according to friends and others familiar with his case, is Mohammed Emwazi, a Briton from a well-to-do family who grew up in West London and graduated from college with a degree in computer programming. He is believed to have traveled to Syriaaround 2012 and to have later joined the Islamic State, the group whose barbarity he has come to symbolize. (Just an immigrant wanting a better life. ~Bob)


Austria passes controversial reforms to 1912 Islam law

Excerpt: The bill, which is partly aimed at tackling Islamist radicalism, gives Muslims more legal security but bans foreign funding for mosques and imams.

Jews Who Embrace Their Enemies. By Daniel Greenfield 

Excerpt: Last February, a divestment resolution went before the UCLA student government. Despite intense pressure, harassment and hate, Jewish against it. And the resolution failed 7-5. In November, a divestment vote came up again and UCLA Jewish student groups chose to sit it out. Instead of opposing the resolution, they would work on an approach “markedly from that of last year’s pro-Israel community, which passionately and publicly opposed divestment actions in a climate of toxic relations between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students.”

America's first "war on terror" Thomas Jefferson and the BarbaryPirates


Statement on the Murder of Dr. Avijit Roy, Bangladeshi Ally and Friend

Excerpt: We at the Center for Inquiry are shocked and heartbroken by the brutal murder of our friend Dr. Avijit Roy in Bangladesh, it is speculated at the hands of Islamic militants. Dr. Roy was a true ally, a courageous and eloquent defender of reason, science, and free expression, in a country where those values have been under heavy attack.


*****

Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:


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