Monday, July 16, 2012

POLITICAL DIGEST 07/17/2012 CONSERVATIVE


Information on my books

Worth Reading: Indirectly Mistaken Decision Cycles. By Tom Kratman
Excerpt: I am operating against Master Kim’s line of least expectations, in the best traditions of B.H. Liddell Hart. I am parrying and thrusting, in the best traditions of Gordon R. Dickson’s Dorsai, to bring Kim’s “blade” out from covering his vitals. And, even though I didn’t know it—for that matter, in 1979, possibly neither did Air Force Colonel John Boyd— I am operating inside Kim’s Boyd cycle. That is, I am doing all of these things, right up until the point that Kim said, “Bullshit,” and hit me on the head, knocking me to the floor. (Kratman is a retied Army LtCol and the best selling author of CaliphateA Desert Called Peace and other terrific military science fiction novels. I highly recommend his writing, as he takes the “War on Islamist Terror” into the future. See: http://www.amazon.com/Desert-Called-Peace-Science-Fiction/dp/1416555927/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342458956&sr=1-7&keywords=kratman ~Bob.)

US Official: American vessel fires on boat off Dubai in possible mistaken threat, 1 dead
Excerpt: An American vessel fired on a boat Monday off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, killing one person and injuring three, according to a U.S. consular official in Dubai. The official gave no other details, but it appeared the boat could have been mistaken as a threat in Gulf waters not far from Iran's maritime boundaries. (One? Bad shooting, Navy. ~Bob.)


Excerpt: Treasury Department officials have been cited for soliciting prostitutes, breaking conflict-of-interest rules and accepting gifts from corporate executives, according to the findings of official government investigations. (Or, as they call it in Washington, “stimulating the economy.” If this happened in 2006, the media would have blamed Bush for bad management. ~Bob.)

Democrats threaten to go over ‘fiscal cliff’ if GOP fails to raise taxes
Excerpt: Democrats are making increasingly explicit threats about their willingness to let nearly $600 billion worth of tax hikes and spending cuts take effect in January unless Republicans drop their opposition to higher taxes for the nation’s wealthiest households. (Democrat bipartisanship. You give in on taxing small businesses more, or the economy gets it and the media will help us blame you! ~Bob.)

Romney tries to regain momentum with new focus on Obama’s ‘political payoffs’
Excerpt: Trying to shift the presidential campaign narrative away from his personal finances andtenure at Bain Capital, Republican Mitt Romney will launch a fresh assault this week accusingPresident Obama of political cronyism at the expense of middle-class workers.

Obama: Not enough change in first term. By Rick Moran
Excerpt: The guy was in the US senate and he didn't know that "politics trumps problem solving" in DC? He is either lying, or incredibly stupid and naive. There's a reason politics is so important -- not everyone agrees with Obama and his idea of "change." The opposition uses politics to oppose the president and his idea of "problem solving." There is a breathtaking arrogance inherent in his whining.

Unfortunately, Most Campaigns Are Vague. By Jay Cost
Excerpt: The desire for victory is what keeps presidential campaigns so vague. This is the path of least resistance, which is why every victorious challenger has run basically the same campaign for generations: decry the state of the nation, indict the incumbent party, praise American greatness, and connect their biography to that greatness. Full stop. Bold policy promises tend to be the exception, not the rule.

Steven Spielberg Behind Obama’s Failed Bain Capital Attackhttp://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2012/06/14/Spielberg-Bain-Obama
Michael Barone is correct, Obama really needs to stop taking advice from wealthy, limousine liberals. If you were looking for advice on how tell a story that would impact millions upon millions of people, would you go to a director whose last four films were "War Horse," "The Adventures of Tintin," Indiana Jones 4," and "Munich?" Nope. But Team Obama did, and what they got in return was a continuation of the ongoing Spielberg flop-streak. –Barb.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Allen West 'unhinged, McCarthy-esque'
Excerpt: West, however, stood by his comments, and told talk show host Mark Levin that progressives have gone so far as to introduce a constitutional amendment to redistribute wealth. "The Progressive Caucus advocates for state control over industries, redistribution of wealth, reduced individual economic freedom and the destruction of free markets," he told supporters in an email. …"You can call them whatever you want, but the point is, they oppose free markets and individual economic freedom, they want to redistribute wealth, and they want to see the nation fundamentally transformed.

Excerpt: Why is the economy going to collapse? Have you ever been asked that question? If so, what did you say? Sometimes it is difficult to communicate dozens of complicated economic and financial concepts in a package that the average person on the street can easily digest.

Iowa congressman expects immigration lawsuit against Obama in ‘weeks’
Excerpt: Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King says he expects that the immigration lawsuit he is spearheading against President Obama will be filed in a court within weeks. “I think we’re talking weeks rather than months,” King told The Daily Caller in an interview Friday about the planned legal action against Obama. B.

Golf Courses of the Obama Administration
Excerpt: Congratulations to President Obama on his 100th round of golf in less than four years in office! Below are just a few of the stunning and exclusive golf courses Obama has played at during his presidency.

Excerpt: But in the middle of the speech he also does the typical Democrat do-si-do: first praise socialism in theory, then say it doesn’t work in practice, and then act like the very notion of socialism is only a Republican conspiracy theory. Hopping to and fro like this, he avoids being pinned down on any particular position. What he apparently wants is some mysterious unnamed utopian magic solution that somehow manages to preserve private ownership but at the same time forcibly levels the playing field for the “working class” (This is pretty much the same rhetoric that Obama uses: Poo-pooing socialism by name, but then not-so-subtly proposing socialist-tinged solutions. –Barb)

Suicide of the Western Media
Excerpt: That the mainstream media leans overwhelmingly to the Left has long been known; that it shares the hard Left’s taste for authoritarian controls on the freedom of speech has not been so widely noted, but is becoming increasingly clear. Last week both the British Guardian and the New York Daily News published pieces equating truthful and accurate reporting about jihad violence and Islamic supremacism with “hate speech,” and calling for such reporting to be placed beyond the bounds of acceptable public discourse. That restrictions on free speech might come to harm their own profession is apparently something they haven’t considered.

Barracking Your Way to the Top
excerpt: It is one of the curiosities of language that the transitive verb “barrack” (chiefly British, origin unknown) means to “shout or jeer at.” For that is precisely what our Barack, the one now occupying the White House, has descended to in his campaign against Mitt Romney. Shouting, jeering, name calling, and above all lying: “whatever it takes” to smear his political opponent and maintain his hold on the reins of power.

Beware the Ides of October
Excerpt: What should we expect as the campaign heats up in the final four months? Almost instinctively Michelle Obama reverts to the Chicago style when she goes into a partisan campaign mode. …At a political rally last week, she roared, “Multiply yourselves. … He needs you to keep making those calls, doing that hard work.

Report: FDA snooped on emails of its own scientists. By Stacey Pounsberry
Excerpt: According to an article in the New York Times, the Food and Drug Administration (or FDA) may have crossed the line by orchestrating mass surveillance efforts against its own scientists. Although the article cites senior FDA officials as aware of the project, it says the surveillance documents do not implicate specific project directors.

Obama Advisor Visited Israel 'to Stop Iran Attack'
Excerpt: President Barack Obama's National Security Advisor Tom Donilon visited Israel secretly over the weekend in what one Israeli newspaper says was an attempt to convince Israel not to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. (Or maybe the message was, “Wait until October to attack, when I can take credit for it, get more Jewish support, look strong, and win reelection.” ~Bob.)
           
Excerpt: Employees of news outlets including the New York Times and the Huffington Post have donated money to President Obama’s re-election campaign, according to records reviewed by The Daily Caller. (Talk about “putting your money where your mouth is.” ~Bob.)

Sordid trade in the 'summer brides': Arab tourists are 'buying underage Egyptian sex slaves' to serve them for just a few months'
Excerpt: Wealthy tourists from the Persian Gulf are paying to marry under-age Egyptian girls just for the summer, according to a report. These temporary marriages are not legally binding and end when the men return to their homes in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. The tourists pay a 'dowry' to poor families through intermediaries with prices ranging from £320 to £3,200.

There They Go Again. By Burt Prelutsky
Excerpt: When it comes to inevitabilities, people always refer to death and taxes. But there’s a third item that’s even more of a sure thing. I’m referring to the goofiness of the Left. Death is inevitable, but not always predictable. After all, people die at all ages and under diverse circumstances.

New American Food-Stamp Plantation is a SNAP. By Star Parker

http://townhall.com/columnists/starparker/2012/07/16/the_new_american_food_stamp_plantation

Excerpt: The cuts in the House bill exceed those in the Senate bill by $12 billion. Sixteen-and-a-half billion dollars over a decade amount to a whopping 2 percent cut in SNAP program expenditures, which last year alone came to $78 billion.

Worth Reading: The Entitlement State—and Zombies. By Bret Stephens
Excerpt: When is an economic crisis more than just an economic crisis? When is it also a political crisis? And when is it something else altogether: social, demographic, institutional, moral, intellectual—in short, civilizational? (If you hit a paywall, a Google search for the title should give you the article. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: But Obama listened, he liked Spielberg’s idea of attacking Bain Capitol and that attack fell like a water balloon out a college dorm window, leaving Obama looking like the boy whose trousers fell down while giving a speech. .. Epilogue: Never approach a horse from behind, a bull from the front, or a fool from any direction. Cowboy advice

Michele Bachmann fires off a 16-Page Bombshell to Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison
Excerpt: Yes, there is a Huma Abedin angle to this story but a certain Muslim Congressman seems to be in the middle of digging himself a bit of a hole.

A New Look at Afghanistan
Excerpt: Although for some time Israeli focus has not extended beyond the borders of Iran, a fresh approach to Iran’s eastern neighbor, Afghanistan, could unveil strategic advantages for Israel. While Iran has enormous influence on Afghanistan, events in Afghanistan are mistakenly viewed almost exclusively through Western-American lenses.

Why Our Elites Stink. By David Brooks
Excerpt: The corruption that has now crept into the world of finance and the other professions is not endemic to meritocracy but to the specific culture of our meritocracy. The problem is that today’s meritocratic elites cannot admit to themselves that they are elites. Everybody thinks they are countercultural rebels, insurgents against the true establishment, which is always somewhere else.

A New Look at Afghanistan
Excerpt: At a recent INSS conference, MicheleFlournoy, former US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, called on Israel and the United States to reexamine their priorities in order to strengthen their interests in the changing Middle East and help stabilize it; to be much more involved in discussions with civilian leaders and those who are shaping public opinion on social networking sites; to discuss agendas with

It's Not Fair! By Ed Lasky
Excerpt: There is a lot of unfairness in America. And he is the source of much of it. Last time I heard so much talk about fairness -- as in the plaintive "that's not fair" -- was when my children were toddlers. But Obama seems to think that the word will have some spellbinding effect when wielded against the wealthy Mitt Romney.

Reposted, had a bad link I believe: Look forward, not down
Excerpt: In spite of our imperfections, we are still the ideal to which people around the globe aspire to. People in the US are free to reach their full potential – unlike many other free countries where old traditions, culture, government and inertia prevent that realization. This, to me, is a key to what does, in fact, make us the best. It’s not about numbers – it’s our attitude about the individual.

After year-long fight, federal government agrees to give Florida access to citizenship database
Excerpt: A year-long stalemate between Florida and Washington ended Saturday when the federal government gave the state access to a comprehensive federal citizenship database, which the state will use to resume an election-year purge of noncitizen voters. After repeatedly refusing, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security agreed to open its database to the Department of State, which oversees Florida’s voter registration system. The state will now cross-check the names of Florida voters against a federal citizenship database known as SAVE, or Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements. (Oh, gee, the last day to register for primary is, duh, today. –Barb. Agrees when forced. ~Bob.)

Arguments against voter ID laws are ridiculous
Excerpt: There is an endless range of activities for which a photo ID is required (e.g., driving, getting on airplanes, purchasing alcohol or cigarettes, getting food stamps). And yet, Democrats are trying to convince the public to oppose voter ID laws by arguing that there are scads of folks who would be disenfranchised if they were required to present some sort of government-issued identification in order to vote.

Budget Crisis Closes Oregon Prison for First Time in 159 Years
Excerpt: Oregon prison officials recently proved that desperate times truly do call for desperate measures, as the state closed a prison for the first time since opening its first correctional facility in 1851 – nine years before Oregon became a state. Since the 1985-87 biennium, the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) “has increased expenditures by 209 percent,” according to state officials. ODOC “now accounts for 53 percent of all public safety spending.”

Whistleblower Binney says the NSA has dossiers on nearly every US citizen: At the Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference, NSA whistleblower William Binney revealed more about how censorship and monitoring are alive and well in the USA.
excerpt: In the short video interview, Binney explained a bit more about the NSA spying on Americans: "Domestically, they're pulling together all the data about virtually every U.S. citizen in the country and assembling that information, building communities that you have relationships with, and knowledge about you; what your activities are; what you're doing. So the government is accumulating that kind of information about every individual person and it's a very dangerous process." He estimated that one telecom alone was sending the government an "average of 320 million logs every day since 2001."

Terrorised Chicago residents plead for police crackdown as gang war murders soar: Residents of the mainly black South Side want stop-and-search tactics brought back as gang murders plague President Barack Obama's home city.
Excerpt: "All the black brothers just want to get rich, but we got no jobs and no hope. We want the violence to stop but you ain't safe if you ain't got your pistol with you. Too many friends, too many men are being killed. We don't even cry at funerals no -more. Nobody expects to live past 21 here." (Huh. You can’t use these racist police tactics just to save a few thousand black folks from being slaughtered by black gang-bangers. Wouldn’t be PC. ~Bob.)

Obama Tells Fainting Supporters to Get Help from ‘Paralegals’http://pjmedia.com/tatler/headline/obama-tells-fainting-supporters-to-get-help-from-paralegals/
Excerpt: On Friday evening, over 20 people collapsed at a campaign event for President Obama in Roanoke, Virginia, Joel Gehrke reported at the Washington Examiner. According to CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller, Obama told supporters there were “paralegals” available to help those who felt weak from the heat. (Misspoke without the teleprompter. Later said that he meant “paramedics.” Oops. –Barb. Well, the Dems do support the Trail Lawyers. Maybe he thought they should sue him. ~Bob.)

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
Excerpt: The Rasmussen Reports Daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Mitt Romney attracting 46% of the vote, while President Obama earns 44%. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) more are undecided.

Two-Year-Old Bible Study for Homeless at McDonald's No Longer Welcomed
Excerpt: Christian ministry leader Dawn Martinez was told she could no longer hold the twice-a-week Bible studies she has taught for homeless people for the last two years inside a McDonald's in Camden, N.J. A night manager at the fast food restaurant told her last week that a customer had filed a complaint. Martinez wonders if it could have been because of the topic briefly discussed at one point last Monday – the Muslim faith…

66% Believe U.S. Has Too Much Government Power, Too Little Freedom
Excerpt: Today, however, 66% of Likely U.S. Voters believe that there is too much government power and too little individual freedom. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just eight percent (8%) believe the opposite to be true. Twenty-two percent (22%) think the balance is about right.

Family upset over release of suspect in killing after jail allows 100 inmates out because of budget cuts
A woman is upset after her brother's killer walked free last week with about 100 other inmates from a jail because of budget cuts. Aaron Earl Curry, 33, was one of the inmates released from Lane County Jail in Oregon after the sheriff's budget was slashed by about $10million. Alison Cavarra said Curry, charged with manslaughter in the death of her 46-year-old brother, Alan Pratt, should not have been released from jail pending his trial.
(Additional report on Fox News indicated budget shortfall because US Dept of Forestry has “cut back” logging in area which provided $50 million in income in past; currently only $3 million. Also noted no sheriff to respond to calls for 8 hours. Noted voters declined to raise local taxes to fund. –Barb.)

Excerpt: The 0.5 percent drop followed a 0.2 percent decrease in May, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The decline exceeded the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey that called for a median 0.2 percent gain in sales. ..The retail figures prompted economists at Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Credit Suisse to lower their forecasts for economic growth in the second quarter. (Once again, any bad economic news is billed as “unexpected” in the Media. ~Bob.)

Suburban Illinois Jews Embracing GOP. By Abraham H. Miller
Excerpt: Mitt Romney is receiving support from Jewish voters not seen for a Republican candidate in 24 years. Although a sizable majority of Jewish Americans will still cast their ballots for Barack Obama, the erosion of Obama’s solid foundation in the Jewish community is a political phenomenon worthy of commentary. It is also one that can make a striking difference in an electoral race polling within sampling error. Nowhere is this phenomenon as visible as in Chicago’s heavily Jewish and Democratic northern suburbs.

Excerpt: Opponents have locked in enough votes to block Senate ratification of the controversial Law of the Sea treaty championed by White House and the Pentagon. The pact, which would have created de facto rules for the world's oceans, was heralded by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and others as the key to maintaining peace and order in global hot spots such as the Asia-Pacific region.

The Crony War on Coal: Natural-gas companies and environmental groups team up to kill affordable energy. By Phil Kerpen
Excerpt: In June, the U.S. Senate voted, in effect, to shut down at least 35 gigawatts of electricity-generating capacity, 10 percent of America’s coal-fired power, by failing to overturn new mercury-emission rules for power plants. But even that’s nothing compared to what could well be President Obama’s most enduring, and senseless, legacy: the power-plant greenhouse-gas regulations, bought and paid for by the natural-gas industry, set to become permanent after the election, likely ending coal-fired electricity in America. (Obama: Focused like a laser on destroying jobs. ~Bob.)

Despite Death Threats Against English Defence League Members, and Despite Opponents' Best Efforts, EDL Bristol Demonstration Passes Peacefully
Excerpt: The news that two EDL members had received death threats ahead of our demonstration in Bristol on Saturday certainly wasn’t the best start to the weekend, especially so soon after our Dewsbury demonstration was targeted by terrorists. But this kind of intimidation just goes to prove that our criticisms are beginning to have an impact. Slowly, our voices are beginning to be heard, and extremists – Islamic or otherwise – are beginning to worry that the tide might just be about to turn.

Sir Norman Bettison & the Politically Correct British Police. English Defence League
Excerpt: Depending on who believe, the police may have known about the Rochdale sex grooming crimes as early as 2002. But even Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood was forced to admit that they had known at least 2 years before the criminals finally faced judgment. With the criminals safely behind bars at last, you’d think that now would be the time for an honest inquiry, a little introspection maybe about what went wrong, why no action was taken, and why it was allowed to continue for so long?


-- 
Robert A. Hall

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