Thursday, August 2, 2012

POLITICAL DIGEST 08/03/2012 CONSERVATIVE


I post articles because I think they are of interest. 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 present, which is the responsibility of the author. In some cases I post things sent to me by readers I might not have posted on my own, to get ideas circulating.

U.S. model for a future war fans tensions with China and inside Pentagon
Excerpt: Marshall’s small office in the Pentagon has spent the past two decades planning for a war against an angry, aggressive and heavily armed China. No one had any idea how the war would start. But the American response, laid out in a concept that one of Marshall’s longtime proteges dubbed “Air-Sea Battle,” was clear


The Defense Implications of Rare Earth Shortages
Excerpt: Rare earth elements are essential in a number of products crucial to the operations of the U.S. military. Indeed, rare earth phosphors, metals, alloys and magnets are regularly used in laser designators, jet aircraft engines and missiles, to name a few applications, says Jeffery A. Green, the founder of the Strategic Material Advisory Council and an adjunct scholar with the National Center for Policy Analysis. For the supply of these resources, the Department of Defense (DOD) said in recent statements that it will rely upon international markets. However, rare earth elements are just that -- rare -- and the world's limited supply is concentrated in a country that is solidifying its reputation as a trade manipulator. The Chinese central government has offered direct support to the rare earth elements industry since the 1980s, allowing it to come to dominate global production. China produces more than 94 percent of the world's rare earth oxides, virtually 100 percent of all commercially available rare earth metals, and more than 90 percent of the rare earth alloys. China manufactures approximately 75 percent of the world's samarium-cobalt magnets and 60 percent of the neo magnets -- crucial tools for DOD production needs. While relying upon Chinese manufacturers to meet demand (the United States has almost no domestic production in this market anymore) may not be an inherently bad idea, Chinese trade practices lend little reliability to this supply line.

Worth Reading: Generational Warfare: Old-age entitlements vs. the safety net. By Nick Gillespie and Veronique de Rugy
Excerpt: Social Security and Medicare, which provide retirement and health insurance benefits for senior Americans, generally without regard to need, are funded by taxes on the relatively meager wages of younger Americans who will never enjoy anything close to the same benefits. From any serious fiscal or moral viewpoint, and particularly for the sake of helping those truly in need, Social Security and Medicare should be ended. 9Just when I get to retirement age, pitiless mathematics catches up with socialist statism. ~Bob.)

Tweet from @iowahawkblog
If Romney nominates Ryan, they should just go ahead and cancel the VP debate. #PreemptiveMercyRule

Assault on the suburbs: The Book to Defeat Obama: Stanley Kurtz’s Spreading the Wealth.
Excerpt: If someone was to say that these people want nothing less than to destroy suburbs in America, you might think that this sounds too crazy to be any kind of real possibility. Yet this is their goal and their hope, motivated by the belief that the growth of the suburbs was not a result of the desire to spread out and lead a good life by people who wanted to realize the American dream, but instead was fueled by racism, greed, and a desire to benefit from exploiting poor minorities. (Seems like the title of a bad movie, right? The link below will take you to a review and summary of Stanley Kurtz's new book blowing the whistle on Obama's plans for a second term. If you know anyone in the suburbs sitting on a political fence, let them know about this. I'm reminded by this that last year at one of our Saturday lunches, I offered that Obama did not want to turn the United States into France but into Venezuela. I was pooh-poohed at the time, but I now claim vindication by this book. –WT. It bewilders me why so very many people kept and keep giving Obama the benefit of the doubt. When it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and acts like a duck....in all likelihood, it's a DUCK! I guess it's not politically correct to SAY that a majority of the American people elected a DUCK. –M.)

Obama Administration's War on Persecuted Christians. By Raymond Ibrahim
Excerpt: The Obama administration's support for its Islamist allies means a lack of U.S. support for their enemies or, more properly, victims—the Christian and other non-Muslim minorities of the Muslim world. Consider the many recent proofs:

Can Conservatives Be Environmentalists?
Excerpt: Efforts to protect the environment in America have ignored the most powerful force for improving the environment: free people. The results of these misguided policies have been higher energy prices, lower incomes, less access to resources, and technological stagnation—often failing to produce tangible environmental benefits. It doesn't have to be this way.

Obama authorizes secret support for Syrian rebels
Excerpt: President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing U.S. support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government, sources familiar with the matter said. Obama's order, approved earlier this year and known as an intelligence "finding," broadly permits the CIA and other U.S. agencies to provide support that could help the rebels oust Assad. (Wonder who leaked this “secret”? Obama, when choosing sides among murders who hate us, naturally picks the side that is most likely to persecute and murder Christians. And, eventually, Americans. ~Bob.)

Sudan: Woman Is Sentenced to Death by Stoning for Adultery
Excerpt: A woman convicted of adultery has been sentenced to death by stoning and is being held with her 6-month-old baby in jail, activists said Wednesday, in the second such sentence in the past few months in the country. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said last month that Sudan would adopt a “100 percent” Islamic constitution, prompting concerns that the country would apply Islamic law more strictly after the secession a year ago of South Sudan, which is mostly non-Muslim. (This will be celebrated by progressives who believe that all cultures are equally valid. They will probably play tapes of her death at Obama fund-raisers. ~Bob.)

Chick-Fil-A Breaks World Sales Record. By Katie Pavlich
Excerpt: The left's attempt to damage Chick-Fil-A completely backfired yesterday. Not only did customers wait for hours in line to "eat more chikin" but many Chick-Fil-A locations ran out of food. (Chick-fil-A has set a record in sales on Support Chick-fil-A day, thanks to the efforts of Christian activists who support traditional marriage and oppose the attack against the company for their courageous stand. The implications of this success can't be stressed enough. It comes in the wake of a sea change in black churches, which have turned on Obama for supporting gay marriage. Bad news for him and the loony left. Prominent Lefties who railed against Chick-fil-A's courageous stand to support traditional marriage included Boston mayor Thomas Menino and Chicago 1st Ward Alderman Poco "Joe" Moreno, who both said they would try to block any attempt of the chicken seller to open a store on "their" turf. Chicago's Marxist mayor Rahm Emanuel also got into the fray saying "Chick-fil-A's values are not Chicago's values." This Chick-fil-A sales record is perhaps the most successful nationwide smackdown of the radical left that America has ever seen. Praise God (but keep your powder dry. The worst is yet to come). --Don Hank)

Tweet from @ExJon 19h
I dream of the day when our sandwiches will not be judged by the color of their politics, but by the contents of their sesame-seed buns.

Again: Media Skew Swing State Polls To Boost Obama
Excerpt: This poll, and many others like it, are simply propaganda. They are meant to reinforce the idea that Obama's and the media's attacks on Mitt Romney are working. They are meant to reverse the growing belief that Obama's reelection is in serious jeopardy.

Mexico Dissolves Its FBI, Moves To Legalize Drugs. By Chris W. Street
Excerpt: In a stunning development, President-elect Enrique Peña and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), who won control of Mexico’s government on July 1st, moved to dissolve the Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI). Modeled after the United States FBI, the AFI was founded in 2001 to crack down on Mexico’s pervasive government corruption and drug trafficking. …. Coupled with the Obama Administration’s “Dreamer” Executive Order curtailing deportations of illegal aliens, a hands-off policy on both sides of the border foreshadows a huge increase in “narco-trafficking” violence and corruption flooding into the United States.

Lessons from the Red Terror About Islamist Organizations: an Interview with Prof. Anna Geifman. By David P. Goldman
Excerpt: Geifman: Terrorism is a variant of a phenomenon which psychiatrist and historian Robert Lifton called “totalism.” Its devotees — anarchists, Marxists, or Islamists — want to impose a new order based on an “all-or-nothing claim to truth.” They operate within distinctive parameters of a “theology of Armageddon — a final battle between good and evil” – in which the stakes are nothing less than universal salvation.

Like Birds on a Telephone Wire. By Bernard Goldberg
Excerpt: It’s hard to say what bothers me most about what we call the mainstream media. Their bias, of course, is an evergreen, always high on the list. So is their arrogance. Their refusal to admit mistakes is galling (see CNN playing “Stupid Girls” song to lead into Sarah Palin segment, then with a straight face saying it was unintentional). But their mindless lack of originality – their zombie-like repetition of what some other journalist just said or wrote – at this moment, tops my list.

The Save America” Bill
It will never happen in one bill, IMHO, and not sure I’d support everything in this, but some interesting concepts. ~Bob.

Excerpt: In a possible congressional ethics violation, California Democratic Rep. Lois Capps rented a room in her personal home to one of her congressional staffers for years and did not report the income to the IRS — during that time, or for more than a decade — until 2012. Capps also withheld that information from the proper congressional authorities for five years — from 2001 until early 2006.

New Obama bundler Terry McAuliffe has a history of cronyism
Excerpt: One of President Obama’s newest campaign bundlers is a career Democratic fundraiser with a history of shady business dealings and failed political ambitions. Terry “The Macker” McAuliffe, who has raised millions of dollars for clients such as former President Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC), is one of the most well connected players in American politics.

Obama Bundler, Fannie Mae Executive, “Obot” Jim Johnson Met With Syrian Officials In 2010
Excerpt: Indyk is Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Indyk emailed an official in the Syrian regime about a trip that former Fannie Mae executive Jim Johnson was planning on making to Syria in June of 2010. Indyk goes on to describe Johnson’s continuing relationship with Obama, including huge sums donated to his campaign, stating that “he is very influential in the Obama White House and in the Democratic Party.” (That would be the Jim Johnson who made 1% millions destroying the value of your home while at Fanny Mae. ~Bob.)

Oops!… Obama’s Top Bundler Jonathan Lavine Was In Charge of Bain During GST Steel Layoffs. By Jim Hoft
Excerpt: One of Obama’s top campaign financiers – Jonathan Lavine – is also managing director at Bain, bundling between $100,000 and $200,000 in contributions for the 2012 Obama Victory Fund, according to estimates released by the Obama campaign. The president has also relied on other leading figures in the private equity sector as hosts for high-dollar fundraisers and as members of his Jobs Council.

Government Motors Spends $600M on UK Soccer Promo
Excerpt: General Motors plans to shell out as much as $600 million to sponsor a European soccer team despite owing $27 billion to American taxpayers. GM’s Chevrolet logo will appear front and center on the jerseys of soccer powerhouse Manchester United, as part of one of the largest sponsorship deals in U.S. history. GM will pay $60 million per year for the logo—nearly double the $31 million European insurance company Aon paid—despite plummeting sales and massive liabilities.

Worth Reading: Obama's Signature Move: Unsealing Private Records. By Ann Coulter
Excerpt: One month before the 2004 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, Obama was down in the polls, about to lose to Blair Hull, a multimillionaire securities trader. But then the Chicago Tribune leaked the claim that Hull's second ex-wife, Brenda Sexton, had sought an order of protection against him during their 1998 divorce proceedings. Those records were under seal, but as The New York Times noted: "The Tribune reporter who wrote the original piece later acknowledged in print that the Obama camp had 'worked aggressively behind the scenes' to push the story." (“You didn’t win that, Barack. Someone broke the law to help you.” ~Bob.)

100 Days is a Long Time. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: A lot can happen in 100 days or thereabouts. Napoleon, for example, went from ignominious exile at Elba to triumph in Paris to utter defeat at Waterloo. South Korea was lost and then saved by Gen. Matthew Ridgway in about 100 days of winter in 1950 and early 1951. In 1948, supposedly doomed incumbent President Harry Truman went from 17 points down in the polls to a victory margin of 4.5 percentage points on Election Day.

America Dined Out Yesterday
Excerpt: I left at 4pm yesterday to have dinner at Chick Fil A. The nearest one to my home is at the corner of Bell Road and 83rd Avenue in Peoria, Arizona. Heading east on Bell Road, I turned south onto 83rd Avenue and immediately noticed four Peoria police cars, lights flashing, directing traffic around the Chick Fil A franchise. Hundreds of Americans were lined up outside the building and the line for the drive through continued out of the property and south for nearly a mile. The entire north bound right lane of 83rd avenue was occupied with drive through customers. I had to continue south on 83rd and try to find a place to U-turn and return to the long line of cars trying to get into the Chick Fil A outlet.

Zawahiri: Arab revolts by-product of jihad against US. By Al-Masry Al-Youm
Note to media and leftists cheering the “Arab Spring.” ~Bob. Excerpt: The brother of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri has said that recent Arab revolts would not have seen successful had not it been for pressure by Salafi jihadists who fought against the US and brought war to its soil through the September 11 attacks.

Somali comedian who poked fun at Islamists shot dead
Didn’t get the “Islam is a religion of peace” memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: Gunmen shot dead a well-known comedian known for poking fun at Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents in the Somali capital Mogadishu, officials and colleagues said Wednesday.

Polygamous immigrant families to be paid more benefits after Government blunder 
It would be Islamophobic not to pay them more. ~Bob. Excerpt: Immigrants with more than one wife will qualify for extra benefits under reforms to Britain’s welfare system, after an attempt to crack down on the problem backfired. Polygamous marriages, largely confined to Muslim families, are only recognised in Britain if they took place in countries where they are legal.

On “Republicans versus Women.” By Larry Greenberg
Those for whom abortion rights is the main issue (Republicans vs. Women) in favoring Democrats have fallen for ideological hyperbole. This editorial reveals how much of a silly rag the Times has become. While I would not want to see anything like complete prohibition of abortion, for this to be considered a social justice issue is bizzaro feminism. Where are these proponents of women's' rights on honor killings, sex slavery, etc., right here in America. Oh by the way, I don't hear our feminist Secretary of State Hillary and her pals criticizing the Saudis whose firemen let girls die in a burning school lest they touch them. How about this horror against a woman?

Woman burnt alive in front of daughters Subhro Maitra, TNN Jul 29, 2012, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-29/kolkata/32922675_1_minor-daughters-malda-complaint
MALDA: The failure to give birth to a son and the inability to fulfill her husband and in-laws' demand for money cost a woman her life. She was burnt alive allegedly by her husband and in-laws in front of her minor daughters on Friday night. The victim, a resident of Khejurbona village, succumbed to her injuries on Saturday morning. The woman's mother has lodged a complaint but the accused have gone into hiding. The victim, Jahiran Biwi, married Serajul Islam, a labourer, seven years back. They had two daughters - Tamanna, 5, and Sahamida, 2.

I have to conclude that much of the hullabaloo about "women's rights to their bodies" is, in many cases, their rationalization of their desire to live the life of Park Avenue "Sex in the City" convenience. As to the notion that fetuses are not viably human and do not merit protection of law, that is easily refuted by science. Fetuses may not be viable until the 7th or 8th month, but they are certainly human beings: http://www.ehd.org/prenatal-images.php?thum_id=411 , http://www.babycenter.com/fetal-development-images-10-weeks. I don't think most conservatives are zealots on this subject, but it seems that adherents to Democrat orthodoxy have given a bad name to common sense.

Report cites killings blamed on non-deported illegals
Excerpt: The Obama administration released illegal immigrants who went on to commit more crimes, including charges of 19 murders, 3 attempted murders and 142 sex crimes, the House Judiciary Committee said in a report Tuesday. All told, 16 percent of the nearly 47,000 illegal immigrants the administration was notified of but declined to deport between 2008 and 2011 under its Secure Communities program have gone on to be charged with other crimes, the committee said. (As long as they voted early and often…. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: The Obama administration will not explain how it came to issue a visa to Hani Nour Eldin, a known member of the Egyptian terrorist organization Ga’amat al-Islamia, the Islamic Group (IG). The explanation is not forthcoming because what it portends is even more sinister than this one infuriating incident. To call the IG a “terrorist organization” is not just purple prose.

Excerpt: Milosz was interested not only in the compulsions of totalitarianism but in the significant emotional and psychological attractions of the Communist system: the reassurances and rewards of ceding responsibility for judgment, and the manifold reasons why an intellectual could find himself at home in conformity. Can it be that, even free of threat or compulsion, many intellectuals will choose to surrender their independence of thought?

France: Pig heads placed at entrance to mosques
Excerpt: Muslims attending morning prayers Wednesday were confronted by two pigs’ heads in the entrance to their mosque in a French town where an Islamist gunman killed two paratroopers in March. The incident in Montauban was described as a “racist provocation” by a watchdog which monitors anti-Islamic actions in France and as an “odious and blasphemous act” by the Montauban mayor, Brigitte Bareges.

GOP Angry Over Reid Claim That Romney ‘Paid No Taxes for 10 Years’
Excerpt: Republican anger was welling up on Wednesday after Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid claimed — without any supporting evidence — that Mitt Romney had paid no taxes for 10 years.

Quotes
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. --HL Mencken

I believe in an America where the free enterprise system flourishes for all other systems to see and admire -- where no businessman lacks either competition or credit -- and where no monopoly, no racketeer, no government bureaucracy can put him out of business that he built up with his own initiative. --President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963). (Guess JFK didn’t know they “didn’t build that. ~Bob.)

Manufacturing Gaffes. By Daniel Greenfield.
Excerpt: If you read the newspaper, watch the telly or turn the radio dial to something besides talk or the greatest hits of the 70's, 80's and today, then you know that Romney's international trip was a disaster. How do you know that? Well you know it the same way that Soviet citizens knew that their economy was booming and it would only be a matter of time before the oppressed slaves of capitalism threw off their shackles and bowed their arrogant heads to the hammer and sickle. They read it in the paper.

Man texts, "I need to quit texting," before driving off cliff
Excerpt: A college student from Texas believes he is lucky to be alive after a terrible crash. He was texting and driving when his truck flew off of a cliff. (Going for the Darwin Award, 2012. ~Bob.)

Germany: Muslim sprays tear gas into face of two women wearing the Star of David
Excerpt: Because of a Jewish Star of David, a Muslim in the small Bavarian town of Stein has attacked two women. As the 23-year-old in a swimming pool noticed that one of the two older ladies chain had a chain around her neck featuring the religious symbol, he first showered them with insults from the desert and then showed the Hitler salute. Then he lay in wait for the duo before coming up and spraying tear gas into her face.

Excerpt: Today Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter was mocked for using "ugh" in an email about Solyndra going under. While Solyndra was a terrible idea implemented with zero respect for American taxpayers, Operation Fast and Furious was implemented and carried out with zero respect for human life. ATF supervisor David Voth, who was in charge of overseeing field agents in Phoenix, responded to news that the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was connected to the Fast and Furious case with annoyance, not remorse. Voth wrote, "Ugh….things will most likely get ugly."

Obama Campaign Sues to Restrict Military Voting
Excerpt: Obama, like many Democrats, like to say that, while they may disagree with the GOP on many issues related to national security, they absolutely share their admiration and dedication to members of our armed forces. Obama, in particular, likes to be seen visiting troops and photos taken with members of our military. So, why is his campaign and the Democrat party suing to restrict their ability to vote in the upcoming election? (Why? Because service members are citizens and patriots, thus not in Obama’s “base.” ~Bob.)

Ukrainian feminists stage topless protest near Tower Bridge over Olympic body’s ‘support for bloody Islamist regimes’
Excerpt: Four topless activists from a women's rights group were arrested today after they carried out a protest in central London. Police were called to City Hall to deal with the protesters, who had accused the Olympics' governing body of having supported 'bloody' Islamist regimes.

Excerpt: The House Energy and Commerce Committee released some White House and other e-mails relating to Solyndra. Unsurprisingly, there were many, many warnings that this was a quite risky method of using taxpayer dollars, and it appears those warnings were ignored: … (Investor): “One of our solar companies with revenues of less than $100 million (and not yet profitable) received a government loan of $580 million; while that is good for us, I can’t imagine it’s a good way for the government to use taxpayer money.

Is the Inertia Greater Than the Momentum? By Dr. Robert Owens
Excerpt: The causes of our problems are not hard to see. Americans aren’t obese because evil restaurateurs are forcing them to eat fried butter on a stick. We are bulging at the seams because we eat too much and exercise too little. Americans aren’t trapped in upside down mortgages because evil bankers waylaid us and forced us to sign up for a house that was too big and cost too much. (Yes. And Druggies don’t have a “disease” because a giant germ ran out of am ally and stuffed coke up their noses. They made a choice to try illegal drugs. ~Bob.)

Romney’s 4% GDP solution is mathematically possible!. By James Pethokoukis
Excerpt: In the WSJ today, Romney economic adviser Glenn Hubbard outlines what results Americans can expect from the Romney economic plan of tax cuts, deregulation and entitlement reform:

Vacant Detroit becomes dumping ground for the dead
Life and death in a progressive-run utopia. ~Bob. Excerpt: From the street, the two decomposing bodies were nearly invisible, concealed in an overgrown lot alongside worn-out car tires and a moldy sofa. The teenagers had been shot, stripped to their underwear and left on a deserted block. They were just the latest victims of foul play whose remains went undiscovered for days after being hidden deep inside Detroit's vast urban wilderness - a crumbling wasteland rarely visited by outsiders and infrequently patrolled by police.

Making Its Triumphant Return: TOTUS
Excerpt: If you've become president, you didn't do that on your own. You didn't build that Teleprompter or program in that script. Someone else did that. President Obama spoke to supporters in Florida this afternoon, but was careful to stick to his script, relying heavily on his teleprompters. (Suggest he dump Biden, make TOTUS the VP nominee. ~Bob.)


-- 
Robert A. Hall

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