Sunday, June 5, 2011

Political Digest for June 5, 2011

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. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on.

The Coming Collapse of the American Republic
Info about my book. All royalties go to wounded veterans. Please forward and post where possible.

Best older posts for new blog readers

Book Recommendation: Islamic Imperialism
http://www.amazon.com/Islamic-Imperialism-History-Efraim-Karsh/dp/0300122632/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307163076&sr=1-1
Excerpt: I wish I could buy a copy for every member of Congress, the President and the Secretary of State--and get them to read it. Required reading for an understanding of this aspect of the challenges facing us. Islamic Imperialism is well written and well researched. It starts with the advent of Islamic conquests of other peoples and brings it forward to the struggles in our current day. It also reveals how many "Islamic" leaders used Islam as a handy rallying point and cover for their personal ambitions. We must find an answer to the Islamist threat if we are to survive. Israel and Europe may be lost, and America is in the balance

Only fooled the rubes. Unfortunately, that's a solid majority. ~Bob. Excerpt: The documents produced as a result of CEI’s FOIA request show GM coordinating PR strategy with the Obama Administration more than three weeks before launching the campaign. Starting on March 30, 2010, in advance of the GM’s planned launch of its campaign to announce that they had supposedly repaid taxpayers, Brian Deese from the Executive Office of the President and numerous Treasury Department officials began exchanging emails related to the announcement. (See pages 55-59;97-102.) These emails included draft schedules, draft remarks to be given by GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre, and draft press releases from both GM and the Treasury Department. See pp. 9-14; 18-24; 36-39; 83-96. The Treasury Department saw the misleading advertisements GM was planning to make in advance. GM’s marketing strategy was laid out for Treasury Department officials, who had the opportunity to object, but raised no objections to these misleading claims.

Who's funding the deficit?
This is too funny, British satire. Been around, but worth seeing again. Sadly too true. ~Bob.

Evidence mounts TheTeaParty.net is a FAKE
Scam artists are everywhere.

Wisconsin Reopens Fight Over Collective Bargaining
Excerpt: That measure, which also took away nearly all collective bargaining rights from state workers, was voided by a circuit court judge last month and hasn't taken effect. The state Supreme Court is hearing arguments Monday as to whether it should take the case and allow the law to be enacted. The Legislature is also considering passing the law again as part of the budget in case the court fails to act or strikes down the law. The change added to the budget Friday by the Joint Finance Committee deals only with police and firefighters. It would force newly hired police and firefighters to pay 5.8 percent of their pension benefits and 12 percent of their health care costs, just like other public workers under the bill passed earlier.

Federal Employees Spent 3 Million Hours of Official Time on Union Activities
Finally some good news. Far less than I expected. ~Bob. Excerpt: The cost of official time used by federal employees participating in union activities increased nearly 7 percent between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009, according to a new report from the Office of Personnel Management.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Gave $1.29 Million to China
Seems fair--we borrowed it from them. ~Bob. Excerpt: The Environmental Protection Agency has given at least $1,285,535 in grants to China to promote environmental research in the country. In all, the EPA issued six grants that went to China, most of which pertained to researching methane in Chinese coal mines and reducing carbon emissions in China, a communist dictatorship long criticized by human rights groups. Two of those grants were awarded during the Bush administration; four were awarded during the Obama administration. The issue, at a time of mounting debt and deficits, is about fiscal responsibility, said Robert Gordon, senior advisor for strategic outreach for the Heritage Foundation, who has closely monitored EPA grants, and recently wrote a piece criticizing the Chinese grants. 

Space Policy And The Constitution #3
Excerpt: China will control lunar resources for terrestrial energy and space flight as well as dominate the Settlement of the Moon and eventually Mars. China repeatedly expresses interest in harvesting helium-3 fusion fuel present in the Moon’s surface materials. A lunar settlement, sustained by the by-products of helium-3 production, constitutes the most cost and politically effective means of gaining this critical future energy resource. If the Moon comes under China’s control, long-term geopolitical reality would be changed in the same way that the Middle East’s control of oil dominates our current national security vulnerabilities.

Al Qaeda Urges American Muslims to Buy Guns for Terror Attacks
Excerpt: Al Qaeda has released a video urging Muslims who live in the U.S. to take advantage of the easy access to firearms and buy guns to kill Americans. In the two-hour video released Friday, Adam Gadahn, an American-born spokesman for the terror network, cited America as an example where Muslims in the West have tools at their disposal for a holy war against "the enemies of Islam." "America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms," said Gadahn, who is known as Azzam al-Amriki. "You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check and most likely without having to show an identification card. "So what are you waiting for?" he asked in a matter-of-fact tone. (Huh. Full auto assault rifle with no background check or ID. Wonder what state he's thinking of. Been listening to the anti-gun folk's lies. ~Bob.)

What's the first question an Obama supporter usually asks? Will you have fries with that? ~Bob. Excerpt: According to the unemployment data released this morning, the economy added only 54,000 jobs, pushing the unemployment rate up to 9.1 percent. However, this report from MarketWatch suggests the data is much worse than that: McDonald’s ran a big hiring day on April 19 — after the Labor Department’s April survey for the payrolls report was conducted — in which 62,000 jobs were added. That’s not a net number, of course, and seasonal adjustment will reduce the Hamburglar impact on payrolls. (In simpler terms — restaurants always staff up for the summer; the Labor Department makes allowance for this effect.) Morgan Stanley estimates McDonald’s hiring will boost the overall number by 25,000 to 30,000.

Excerpt: China has dropped 97 percent of its holdings in U.S. Treasury bills, decreasing its ownership of the short-term U.S. government securities from a peak of $210.4 billion in May 2009 to $5.69 billion in March 2011, the most recent month reported by the U.S. Treasury. Treasury bills are securities that mature in one year or less that are sold by the U.S. Treasury Department to fund the nation’s debt. Mainland Chinese holdings of U.S. Treasury bills are reported in column 9 of the Treasury report linked here. Until October, the Chinese were generally making up for their decreasing holdings in Treasury bills by increasing their holdings of longer-term U.S. Treasury securities. Thus, until October, China’s overall holdings of U.S. debt continued to increase.

Proud of losing $14B
Excerpt: It's a sign of grim times indeed when the Obama administration is touting a potential $14 billion loss to the taxpayers as a great economic success. The White House is running on its auto bailouts as courageous acts that saved the industrial Midwest. It's a telling point of pride. In bragging about the bailouts of GM and Chrysler, the administration is boasting of a process shot through with lawlessness and political favoritism -- not to mention reckless disregard for taxpayer dollars. The administration believes it trumps all criticism with one data point: GM and Chrysler are still with us. GM has even been making money, and had the biggest IPO in American history last November. Yet, as The Atlantic's Megan McArdle tartly observes, it shouldn't have been in doubt that if government threw $80 billion at two companies, not expecting to get all of it back, it could save them. She points out that the loss from the bailouts (the administration's estimate is $14 billion) will be close to the entire market capitalization of GM in 2007. It will be several times as big as the company's 2008 market capitalization. McArdle figures that, at a cost of roughly $10 billion to $20 billion, we might as well have given GM's pre-bankruptcy workforce of 75,000 hourly workers $250,000 each and called it a day.

Jersey Muslim Cab Driver revolt
Excerpt: Hundreds of travelers trying to exit Newark Airport couldn't find a taxi for five hours yesterday after cabdrivers staged a wildcat protest against the arrest of a fellow hack, authorities said. The spontaneous boycott erupted at 3 p.m. when a cabby identified as Ahmed Deraz was busted at a taxi stand after allegedly cutting off a Jersey City police lieutenant on the Pulaski Skyway, said Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman. The bust enraged other drivers who refused to take passengers, until they relented at 8 p.m. The PA was forced to herd travelers onto buses to take them to rail stations to continue their trips.

The Way to Fight China's Hacking
Excerpt: Hint: Remember how government-sponsored piracy was brought to heel in the 1990s. Google wouldn't be human if it weren't relieved that the latest Chinese hacking incident targeted not a hole in Google's defenses but a gullibility of its customers. The proper term is "spear phishing" for the use of email cons to scam a specific, chosen individual into revealing his or her password, allowing unauthorized access to inboxes and online accounts. In a blog post this week, Google announced that the latest attacks seem to come from Jinan, China. The targets were the Gmail accounts of "senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists." The bait: an attachment that opened an imitation of Google's Gmail log-in page, inviting users to enter passwords so they could be zipped off to spies or criminals in China. On Thursday, the White House acknowledged some of its own personnel were among those whose Gmail accounts were targeted. The FBI is investigating, but what might really help is Google's example catching on. Dozens of firms are known to have been similarly mugged, including GE, Morgan Stanley and Disney. But most remain mum, fearing to antagonize China. Nothing could be better calculated to make sure the problem gets worse—as the world should have learned from a highly relevant precedent, the epidemic of high seas piracy in and around Southern China in the mid-1990s.

Minnesota: Woman who handed out Qur'ans at public library stabs two library patrons
Excerpt: "Now the question everyone wants answered is why a woman who was not seen as a threat suddenly became violent." Yeah, that's a real head-scratcher. It couldn't have anything to do with the contents of the book she was handing out, could it? The one that teaches that Muslims should slay the pagans wherever they find them (Qur'an 9:5)? Naaah. Impossible! That couldn't possibly have anything to do with it! No need even to inquire! After all, what about the Crusades???

MI6 attacks al-Qaeda in 'Operation Cupcake'
Excerpt: The cyber-warfare operation was launched by MI6 and GCHQ in an attempt to disrupt efforts by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular to recruit “lone-wolf” terrorists with a new English-language magazine, the Daily Telegraph understands. When followers tried to download the 67-page colour magazine, instead of instructions about how to “Make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom” by “The AQ Chef” they were greeted with garbled computer code. The code, which had been inserted into the original magazine by the British intelligence hackers, was actually a web page of recipes for “The Best Cupcakes in America” published by the Ellen DeGeneres chat show.

Malaysian women launch 'The Obedient Wife Club'
Let's chip in and buy Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Obama memberships. They can learn how domestic violence is the woman's fault, under Islam. ~Bob. Excerpt: A group of Malaysian Muslim women say they will fight divorce, domestic violence and other problems -- by appealing to wives to be more obedient, according to one of the organisers. Maznah Taufik said "The Obedient Wife Club" being launched Saturday is aimed at drawing women who will be taught how to please their husbands better to prevent them from straying or misbehaving. "We just want to ask all the wives to be obedient wives so that there will be fewer problems in our society," such as infidelity, divorce and domestic violence, she told AFP.

Rep. Corrine Brown
One of our members of Congress, discussing a vital issue, with great clarity. I used to have to lobby Corrine when I was in Tallahassee and she was a State Rep. Below she talks about how Florida was 51 out of 50 states in using stimulus money. ~Bob.

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