Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Political Digest for August 15, 2012


Political Digest for August 15, 2012
Robert A. Hall

Still out of town for my LT evaluation, but grabbed some time on a borrowed computer to pull a few items and clear e-mail. Finished day one of the 4-day process and I feel like the fellow who fell off the ten-story building. As he passed a guy on a balcony on the seventh floor, he shouted, “So far, so good!” ~Bob.

Sign Up! Obama Campaign Sues To Restrict Military Voting In Ohio
Excerpt: The implications of this lawsuit cannot be overstated. The safeguards and accommodations provided to military voters across the country are at stake. If the Obama campaign succeeds in this lawsuit, the court could call into question numerous other state and federal voting laws that aim to make it easier for members of the military to vote. We need your help right away. To join Governor Romney in opposing this lawsuit by the Obama campaign, sign up here.

Worth Reading: The Ryan Pick and the Election Test: Are voters willing to listen to the hard facts? By Thomas Sowell
Excerpt: If this year’s election is going to be decided on the basis of hard facts, the Obama administration is doomed. But the Obama campaign is well aware of that, which is why we are hearing so many distracting innuendoes and outright lies about such peripheral issues as what Mitt Romney is supposed to have done while running Bain Capital — or even what is supposed to have happened at Bain Capital years after Mitt Romney was gone.

Worth Reading: ‘White’ on the Brain: Racial comity got Obama elected. He hopes racial division will get him reelected. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: The election of the biracial Barack Obama was supposed to usher in a new era of racial harmony. Instead, that dream is becoming a tribally polarized nightmare — by design, and intended to assist in the reelection of Barack Obama. Consider the increasing obsession with the term “white” (as in versus “black”), along with the old standby charge of “racism” — nearly all of it emanating from the president’s surrogates and celebrity supporters. 

In Upheaval for Egypt, Morsi Forces Out Military Chiefs. By Kareem Fahim
Excerpt: President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt forced the retirement on Sunday of his powerful defense minister, the army chief of staff and other senior generals, moving more aggressively than ever before to reclaim political power that the military had seized since the fall of Hosni Mubarak last year.

US Navy ship collides with oil tanker in Gulf
Excerpt: A U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer was left with a gaping hole on one side after it collided with an oil tanker early Sunday just outside the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The collision left a breach about 10 feet by 10 feet (three by three meters) in the starboard side of USS Porter. (everyday brings something to be thankful for. Today I’m thankful I’m not the captain nor the officer who had the conn of the Porter at the time. ~Bob.)

Tweet from @IowaHawk David Burge:
The USA is $16T in debt. What does a PAC accusing Romney of murder call itself? “Priorities USA.”

Obama Policies Hurt Less-Skilled Workers Most. By W. Michael Cox And Richard Alm
Excerpt: To understand his reticence, all we have to do is look at education levels, average weekly wages and unemployment rates. In the Obama years, high school dropouts have faced unemployment rates of 14% or more, well above the 8% of previous administrations. Wages for these workers had been rising, but they've stagnated under Obama.

The college-cost calamity: Many American universities are in financial trouble.
Excerpt: Long-term debt at not-for-profit universities in America has been growing at 12% a year, estimate Bain & Company, a consultancy, and Sterling Partners, a private-equity firm (see chart 1). A new report looked at the balance-sheets and cashflow statements of 1,692 universities and colleges between 2006 and 2010, and found that one-third were significantly weaker than they had been several years previously. (No sweat—they’re too big to fail. Obama will throw the grandkids money into the breach. ~Bob.)

Obama hosting Ramadan dinner at White House
Excerpt: President Barack Obama will celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan by hosting an iftar (ifta) dinner Friday night at the White House.

Senate Primary in Connecticut Sets Experience Against Money
Excerpt: It may take a lot more than concierge-quality, one-on-one politics for him to prevail in the Republican Senate primary on Tuesday against the former wrestling executive Linda E. McMahon, who since 2010 has spent roughly $65 million on two races for the Senate and has blanketed the state with advertisements while he has barely been on the air. 9Shays is considered a RINO, but in CT, only a RINO has a hope of defeating a liberal Harry Reid supporting Democrat. ~Bob.)

Six United States Marines Murdered; Two Acts of Treachery; One Day in the True Afghanistan!
Excerpt: The tenth of August has given us two more examples of just how miserable the United States Government's vision for the "war" in Afghanistan is! In what can only be described as an "in-your-face" declaration by the very focused, ideologically motivated forces at work within the borders of Afghanistan, these two incidents, the latest in an ever increasing number of like attacks, once again demonstrate just how wrong our understanding of Afghan culture is.

Gunmen attack central Nigerian village, kill at least one
Excerpt: Gunmen attacked a mainly Christian village outside the flashpoint central Nigerian city of Jos, killing at least one person and injuring two others, a military spokesman said Sunday. (Nigeria has few Jews, so the poor Muslims there have to make do with slaughtering Christians. And each other, of course. ~Bob.)

Pro-Islamist elected to head Libya assembly http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0812/libya_muslim_brotherhood.php3
Your tax dollars at work, supporting the Arab Spring. ~Bob. Excerpt: Libya's ruling national assembly picked Mohamed al-Megaryef, leader of the National Front party, as its president on August 9, 2012 in Tripoli, in a vote carried out a day after it took power from the outgoing National Transitional Council.

I’m your huckleberry: Romney/Ryan ticket starts a showdown
Excerpt: The political press and President Obama alike claim they want a campaign about big ideas, an adult debate about policy differences. Now they’ve got it in spite of, not because of, Barack Obama. With Ryan on the ticket, the debate should no longer be about contraception and the deferred cancer-causing capabilities of Bain investments. It will be about the budget and the $16-trillion debt, the unsustainable trajectory of the federal government and the promises it’s already breaking to generations to come. It will be about Simpson-Bowles and a federal government that hasn’t even bothered to pass a budget since before the iPad existed.

Quotes from NRO Newsletters Morning Jolt with Jim Garaghty
Now, you know me. Show me somebody who believes they can win by losing, and I'll show you a loser. I'm not a fan of protest votes, staying home, third-party votes, write-ins, or other forms of "sending a message" that result in the other side -- you know, the one that stands for everything we oppose and that enacts policies you and I believe are harmful to the country -- in charge of the reins of government. You put the guy who is closest to your perspective in and keep the worst guy out. You push in your direction a little bit each day, and don't expect to enact your dream policies overnight. But . . . like many others, I've concluded that this coming election is make-or-break for the country's future. All in. Go big or go home.

If indeed, this election turns on whether the American people are willing to hear hard truths they don't want to hear, it may be worth asking how our society reached the point where so many people are so resistant to hearing these sorts of hard truths: You can't spend more than you have. There aren't many substitutes for working hard. You can't rely on someone else to improve the quality of your life -- particularly not the government. Government cannot be Santa Claus. There is no free lunch. (Worth Subscribing to Morning Jolt. ~Bob. http://www.nationalreview.com/)

The CBO Just Rendered Its Verdict On The Cost Of Obamacare, And It Isn't Pretty. By sally Pipes.
Excerpt: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just rendered its latest opinion on the cost of Obamacare following the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of the law back in June. The numbers aren’t pretty. Despite breathless media reports of additional “savings,” the government’s bean counters actually exposed several flaws in the law that will, in the long term, lead to higher costs and reduced access to insurance coverage.

Excerpt: President Barack Obama signed a bill Friday evening that would exempt some senior-level presidential appointees from Senate confirmation. The law now sidesteps that process, with Congress willingly giving up oversight of these appointees. “The United States Constitution does not bestow kingly powers on the President to appoint the senior officers of the government with no process,” wrote Thomas McClusky, senior vice president for the Family Research Council’s legislative arm, in a memo to lawmakers last week.

Gender-based violence leading cause of death for women aged 15-44
Excerpt: The number of women who die due to gender-based violence surpasses the number of women who lose their lives due to cancer, traffic accidents, wars and malaria, revealed a study by the Turkish Ministry of Family and Social Policy. (In “moderate” Turkey, that wants to join the EU. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: A man violently struck his wife last Thursday because she removed her veil. (In Socialist, multicultural France. ~Bob.)

Pak terrorist attacks killed at least 3,898 in 2012
http://zeenews.india.com/news/south-asia/pak-terrorist-attacks-killed-at-least-3-898-in-2012_792644.html
Excerpt: The deaths include 1,705 civilians, 485 security forces personnel and 1,708 terrorists. 

Excerpt: In contrast to the proposals put forward by left-of-center policy analysts, a group of right-of-center economists, also writing in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), are proposing two ideas with merit: Give Medicare enrollees the opportunity to enroll in private health plans, with the government paying a fixed sum of money toward the premium. Replace the current system of tax subsidies for private health insurance for the working age population with a lump sum, refundable tax credit and make it available regardless of where the insurance is purchased — at work, in the marketplace or in a health insurance exchange.

Ambiguity in Health Law Could Make Family Coverage Too Costly for Many
Excerpt: The new health care law is known as the Affordable. But Democrats in Congress and advocates for low-income people say coverage may be unaffordable for millions of Americans because of a cramped reading of the law by the administration and by the Internal Revenue Service in particular.

Excerpt: Does a group named "Demos" sound like it's a nonpartisan public-policy organization? Why don't you ask George Soros, the ultra-liberal billionaire and one of its major backers? Should a group with the daughter of the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts as its board chair be lodging lawsuits in that state during that person's campaign? And why would Massachusetts, which has a state Legislature and congressional delegation dominated by Democrats, be the only one that agreed to send out mass mailings to encourage welfare recipients to register to vote, in order to satisfy the suit's demands?

Brock oppo file on Ryan: the cure for insomnia. By Joel Pollak
Excerpt: I literally fell asleep while reading David Brock’s opposition research file on Paul Ryan, the Republican candidate for Vice President. The 290-page media cheat sheet, prepared by Brock’s super PAC, American Bridge 21st Century, and released on the Internet so that the Obama campaign could borrow from it without coordinating with the super PAC (wink, wink), is not just boring, but a giant failure, except as a cure for insomnia.
 
True, that: The Most Divisive Campaign in American History. By Daniel Greenfield
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-most-divisive-campaign-in-american.html
Excerpt: In 1980, when President Reagan asked Americans, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago", it was still possible to campaign on a theme as simple as the job performance of the other guy. But now, 32 years later, the campaign hinges on a much more fundamental split among the voting population. Romney appeals to voters who are dissatisfied with the last four years. Obama appeals to voters who are dissatisfied with America. (Very sad but pretty accurate.... and how dangerous it all is. We can only pray the GOP and Romney get their campaigning act together and really rebut Obama's approaches, and really get people to understand what this is all about. --Del)

Excerpt: Documents and a whistle-blower affidavit obtained by The Daily Caller charge that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., and Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., participated in an unethical — and possibly illegal — effort to force 76 employees of an Illinois state agency to engage in political activity on the taxpayers’ dime. (Everyone here in Chicago is stunned…that anyone notices this stuff any more. ~Bob.)

Terrifying Corn Supply/Demand Situation Unfolding, By Sara Schafer
Excerpt: ….Gulke says on a recent CNBC segment, it was reported it takes 3 lbs. of corn to put a 1 lb. of gain on a hog, 5 lbs. of corn to put 1 lb. on a cow and about five times as much to make a gallon of ethanol. "There’s going to be a real push out there to do something about ethanol." The general public, Gulke believes, is not going to want to see meat and food prices increase, at the expense of ethanol. (Sorry, still looks like regime decided to keep the ethanol and kill the animals for “military and federal programs.” --Barb)

Excerpt: Holder’s Department of Justice directed Ronald Machen, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, to not enforce the criminal contempt resolution. Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and others have argued that the move showed Machen is incapable of making decisions independent of political influence. Those contempt votes came shortly after President Barack Obama asserted executive privilege over the documents. “Waiting nearly eight months after the subpoena had been issued to assert a meritless claim of privilege, the President’s decision was a calculated political maneuver designed to stop the release of documents until after November’s elections,” Issa added.

Excerpt: Billboards sure to offend and enrage the faithful will appear at the Democratic National Convention in September, according to advocacy group American Atheists. The billboards, which attack Mormonism and Christianity, will appear in CharlotteN.C., as part of a campaign the group says “exposes the foolishness of religion in the political landscape.” An attempt to have the billboards also appear in TampaFla., for the Republican National Convention in August fizzled, American Atheists says, because companies in that city “refused to display the billboard focusing on Mormonism.”

USDA to purchase $170 million worth of meat to help farmers struggling with drought
Excerpt: The government will buy up to $170 million worth of pork, lamb, chicken and catfish to help drought-stricken farmers, the White House said Monday as President Barack Obama brought his re-election campaign to rural voters in Iowa. The purchase for food banks and other federal food nutrition programs is expected to help producers struggling with the high cost of feed during the worst drought in a quarter-century. Federal law allows the Agriculture Department to buy meat and poultry products to help farmers and ranchers affected. (The magnanimous O helps the farmer—makes a great byline. Heard on the farm report that they were going to sell off all the protein crops to “relieve the pressure on corn” prices; the regime refuses to drop the ethanol quotas for “green” despite need of families next year for food. Expect famine…unless you bear the mark of O and get a handout. –Barb.)

J&K women told to keep veil, not to use mobile
Excerpt: Taking a cue from Taliban extremists, militants in Kashmir have threatened to throw acid on the faces of women who use mobile phones and don’t keep veil. 

Paul Ryan on Medicare
Excerpt: This 2010 six minute discussion of the budget by Paul Ryan shows you how he operates. Whatever you've heard about his proposed budget, good or bad, may be another subject, but no matter what, he sure can examine the details of finance and parse out what they really mean. That capacity is as rare as hen's teeth among politicians. Is he more on the Right than people really know and would like? I don't know, but I have deep respect for his analytical skills and tend to believe those skills would be tremendously useful in a new Administration. And I sure want to rely more on what I see and hear from him directly than what assorted media figures say. --Del

No Future in France: Dire Times for French Jews: The Toulouse massacre did not bring French anti-Semitism to a halt. It actually increased. By Michel Gurfinkiel
Excerpt: “Any time young people approach me in order to get married, I ask them various questions about their future. Eighty percent of them say they do not envision any future in France.” This is what one rabbi in Paris told me last week.

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