Friday, September 21, 2012

Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for September 22, 2012

Your one-stop-shop for political news and opinion. Please forward to friends who need to be informed. This SitRep (Military for “Situation Report”) is created by many readers who send me items for inclusion, which I would have likely missed or skipped. And I can only spend at most three hours a night pulling stuff, plus the healthcare or economic stuff that crosses my desk at work. As always, I—and you—owe them thanks and appreciation. 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, or too far a stretch, regardless of the view point, but I don’t always succeed. As always on the Net, or in the legacy media, you must read critically and with skepticism.

On the road to Madison early this evening, so this is posted late. Sorry, but a lot of good stuff. I expect to spend Saturday with the Granddaughter and my bride, but have left you two great guest posts. Enjoy. ~Bob.

Best older posts for new blog readers

Excerpt: The Muslim Youth Center (MYC), an al Qaeda affiliate in East Africa and Shabaab ally, released a statement today on its blog as well as on Twitter that addresses the imminent assault on Kismayo by Kenyan and Somali forces. The combined Somali and Kenyan forces have been slowing advancing on the southern port city, and have taken Jana Cabdalla, a town just 25 miles from Kismayo. A Kenyan military officer claimed that more than 50 Shabaab fighters were killed during clashes in Jana Cabdalla. (“Muslim Youth Center?” what’s the next headline: “Baptist Sunday School Fights Back?” ~Bob.)

Middle East Madness: We need to understand the real source of Islamist rage. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: Embarrassed White House press secretary Jay Carney and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice insisted that these assaults were just reactions to an insensitive video that disparaged Islam and was circulating on the Internet. As embassies burned, we were assured that there was no animosity directed at America in general, or at this administration and its foreign policy in particular. That is hogwash.

Letter from doomed soldier helped change congressman's mind
Excerpt: Sarah Sitton knew her husband Matt, an Army staff sergeant, was upset he and his men were forced to trudge through fields laden with improvised explosive devices. She knew he was so concerned he wrote a letter essentially predicting his own death to U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, who attended the same Largo church as the Sittons.

Numbers Don't Lie: The Real Obamanomics
Excerpt: Twenty years ago, when Democrats tried to oust an incumbent Republican president from office, they questioned his economic stewardship. Vice presidential candidate Al Gore famously bellowed: “Everything that ought to be down is up, and everything that should be up is down!” The argument seems more relevant today than it was in late 1992.

Iftar Dinner Lies - Obama Butchers The Truth - Bolsters Muslim Brotherhood

The ACLU’s Battle Against “Blatant Gender Stereotypes.” By Michael Brown
 Excerpt: Now, in 2012, with the help of the ACLU, Cranston, Rhode Island is back in the news. According to NBC News, “The school system in Cranston, R.I., announced it is banning traditional father-daughter and mother-son activities, saying they are a violation of the state’s gender discrimination law, the Providence Journal reported late Monday.” (Yep, another one of these. Just when you think they've plumbed the depths of utter stupidity, they show you how they can dive even deeper. Apparently no single person of a somehow recognized minority group is ever to be offended. Of course, that might mean curtailing activities that the great majority of people find enjoyable and worthwhile, but hey, you just can't be too solicitous of those poor individuals who somehow have a beef against the practices of society, no matter how far back they go in history. Or common sense. Now wait.... the next thing will be some kind of horrible scandal because that one daughter of a single mother is going to find that a whole bunch of her classmates don't want anything to do with her. Not because they're mad and nasty, but because they're afraid they might say or do something that will bring the lawyers out again and get them in trouble. Hell, if I knew the girl or her mother and they were walking towards a door I was about to open, I would beat a hasty retreat and let them open the door for themselves and walk in. After all, if I held the door for them, that would be some kind of gender discrimination and I'd be in front of a judge before I could blink. --Del)

Rethinking the Classroom: Obama’s overhaul of public education
Excerpt: In 31 / 2 years in office, President Obama has set in motion a broad overhaul of public education from kindergarten through high school, largely bypassing Congress and inducing states to adopt landmark changes that none of his predecessors attempted. (Congress? We don’t need no stinking Congress. Checks and Balances don’t apply to monarchs. ~Bob.)

Miscues Before Libya Assault: Limited Security in Benghazi, Secrecy Over Safe House, Contributed to Tragedy
Excerpt: The deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya on Sept. 11 was preceded by a succession of security lapses and misjudgments, compounded by fog-of-battle decisions, that raise questions about whether the scope of the tragedy could have been contained. U.S. officials issued alerts and ordered security precautions in neighboring Egypt ahead of protests and violence on Sept. 11, but largely overlooked the possibility of trouble at other diplomatic postings in the region. (Romney’s fault. If he wasn’t running, Obama wouldn’t have to spend all his time at fund raisers and could pay attention to the job. ~Bob.)

Tax penalty to hit nearly 6M uninsured people
Excerpt: Nearly 6 million Americans — significantly more than first estimated— will face a tax penalty under President Barack Obama's health overhaul for not getting insurance, congressional analysts said Wednesday. Most would be in the middle class.
The new estimate amounts to an inconvenient fact for the administration, a reminder of what critics see as broken promises. (They’ll scream, but it will be after the election—too late to do anything. The timing is NOT an accident. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Myth: Mitt Romney is a rich guy who doesn't relate to the working man and is somehow taking money from you. The 1% are evil and if they were punished somehow your life would be better. Fact: Mitt Romney and the 1 percenters have never stuck their hand in your pocket and taken money out of your wallet. Any connection you have had with a 1 percenter has been a mutual decision in the open market. They did not force you to sign a mortgage agreement or compel you to buy an overvalued home you couldn't afford.

Romney Deserves A Break, Obama Doesn’t! By Burt Prelutsky
http://www.burtprelutsky.com/2012/09/romney-deserves-break-obama-doesnt.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+burtprelutsky%2FSQlQ+%28BurtPrelutsky.com%29
Excerpt: It’s not often I get to feel sorry for a multi-millionaire, but my heart goes out to Mitt Romney. Thanks to Team Obama working in cahoots with a corrupt media, he gets slammed no matter what he does. If he generalizes about his plans as president, he gets hit for being vague. But when he comes out with a five-point program, he gets no credit. 

The Time Will Come When 51% Pay No Taxes. by Ann Coulter
Excerpt: Only our totally unbiased watchdog media could turn the burning of U.S. embassies in countries where Barack Obama had recently supported mob revolts into Mitt Romney’s blunder. Journalists couldn’t risk having Obama’s campaign slogan “Osama is dead” being amended with “and so is our ambassador.” (Yes. The time is fast approaching when more funding for vote-buying entitlements cannot be squeezed out of a shrinking number of payers. That will lead to fiscal collapse, entitlement riots and social and political collapse. Brought on by the Ponzi scheme called “Progressivism.” ~Bob.)

Rare Film Footage of Ben Bernanke as a child

Some Things Never Change: More Teamsters Arrested & Charged Under RICO
Excerpt: Earlier this week, arrests were made and RICO charges filed against four Boston-area Teamsters for “committing multiple acts of extortion and racketeering among other crimes.” While news of a 30-count indictment always generates a fair amount of buzz, the fact is, regardless how much money the Teamsters spend on Democrat politicians, corruption is still alive and well within Hoffa’s union. (Well, to be fair, they probably didn’t realize this kind of thing was illegal under Obama. ~Bob.)

Dupes Of A False Flag Operation. By James E. Horn, Author of Experiencing Islam
Excerpt: I am a retired American Diplomat. I served my country abroad for twenty-five years, a ten of those in Islamic countries. … Has the US government been suckered? An Ambassador and his body guards/staff have been murdered in the most heinous manner by barbarians in an attack that is spreading to Americans all over the Islamic world. These attacks are a well planned and carried out act of terrorism under the Moslem Brotherhood and their al Qaeda.

Excerpt: Should President Barack Obama lose his bid for reelection in November, would that be the end of his political career? And if it were — what would his political obituary look like?
Excerpt: The ruling parties of Catalonia have sought guidance from Brussels on the legality of secession from Spain, requesting a “route map” for membership of the European Union and the euro as an independent state. (InTrade should take bets. Will the collapse reach the tipping point first in Europe or California? With Detroit and Chicago as dark horses. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: The Department of Justice's inspector general released a long-awaited report on the Operation Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal this week. It marked the culmination of a 19-month investigation into the operation, which allowed as many as 2,000 firearms to "walk" into Mexico, where they were handed off to drug cartels.

Quote from Morning Jolt with Jim Geraghty
One of my favorite assessments of the Obama era involves paraphrasing the former Arizona Cardinals head coach Dennis Green, who had one of the all-time most memorable meltdowns when his team almost beat a much-favored Chicago Bears team in 2006: "The Bears are who they thought they were! They are who we thought they were! And we let them off the hook!" With a few exceptions, Barack Obama has been as president who we -- his critics and skeptics -- thought he would be. (I'll let you decide who, exactly, let him off the hook.)

According to Massachusetts Voters Senator Brown Won the First U.S. Senate Debate
Excerpt: Fifty percent (50%) of voters who watched tonight's U.S. Senate debate between Senator Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren said the Senator won, with 40% saying that Warren won the debate (6% thought it was a tie and 4% were undecided) according to a Kimball Political Consulting survey of "likely voters" in Massachusetts.

Tweet from @AHMalcolm
Leno: MSNBC reports the economy has bottomed out. There's an Obama slogan: "It Can't Get Any Worse Than This."

Important: Diplomatic missions close amid fear of more protests
Excerpt: The protests come a day after about 100 small children in Karachi repeated anti-American slogans during a protest in the coastal Pakistani city, a police official said.
Video showed children repeating an adult voice that said "Death to America" and "Any friend of America is a traitor." … The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, U.S. Consulate General in Surabaya, U.S. Consular Agency in Bali and two other facilities will be closed Friday because of the "potential for significant demonstrations that might be held in front of these facilities." officials said in a news statement. (Run away! Run away! The Religion of Peace is coming! ~Bob.)

Somalia suicide bombing hits Mogadishu - 14 killed
Didn’t get the memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: The dead included the former editor of Somali National TV, Liban Ali Nur, two other journalists and two policemen.

World's Obama fever cools
Excerpt: The two sets of images show a gap between aspirations and reality: A president who is popular overseas has not managed to radically transform America’s standing in the world through the illuminating force of his biography or personality.

Worth Reading: US had fed the al-Qa'ida scorpion and now it had bitten the United States. By Robert Fisk, Belfast Telegraph
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/robert-fisk/us-had-fed-the-alqaida-scorpion-and-now-it-had-bitten-the-united-states-16211878.html
Excerpt: A Damascus friend of mine called this weekend and was pretty chipper. "You know, we're all sorry about Christopher Stevens. This kind of thing is terrible and he was a good friend to Syria – he understood the Arabs." I let him get away with this, though I knew what was coming. "But we have an expression in Syria: 'If you feed a scorpion, it will bite you'." His message couldn't have been clearer.

Worth Reading: Absent Military Preemption against Iran: US Devastation. By David Goldman, Asia Times
http://send.hadavars.com/lt.php?c=12553&m=11054&nl=2096&s=68142afc4d83ce7ac3ca1eb770d3f00b&lid=97151&l=-http--atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/NI18Aa01.html
Excerpt: If a contrarian thought might be permitted, consider the possibility that all-out regional war is the optimal outcome for American interests. An Israeli strike on Iran that achieved even limited success - a two-year delay in Iran's nuclear weapons development - would arrest America's precipitous decline as a superpower. Absent an Israeli strike, America faces: (I agree with the statement “we might as well get on with it”. I firmly believe Obama does not care if Iran gets nuclear weapons (see movie 2016), but the US will have no choice but to get involved by clearing the Straits of Hormuz from mines. Of course this will lead to a greater confrontation. The author has done a great job explaining the courses of action and impacts. Start storing food, gas and ammo! –GBH. GBH is a retired Marine Major General. I tend to agree, but what does a SSgt know? ~Bob.)

Excerpt: The House Ethics Committee has completed a report clearing Rep. Maxine Waters of all ethics charges after nearly three years of investigating the California Democrat. At a rare public hearing for Waters on Friday, members of the secretive Ethics panel said they were prepared to issue a report finding the lawmaker innocent of allegations that she tried to secure federal money during the financial crisis for a bank in which her husband owned stock. (Afraid of being called racists, I suspect. ~Bob.)

Maslow and Islamists
I'm disappointed that I haven't seen an article or opinion piece that addresses Islamism on the following way: Maslow categorized human existence in a hierarchy of 5 needs. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs for a description. Simply put, Islamists threaten our very base need (level 2, safety, and freedom from harm) because they feel their higher order need (level 4, self esteem) is threatened. –George.

We’re No. 1! By Travis Akin
Hardly a surprise. ~Bob. Excerpt: To finish the season No. 1 is a remarkable achievement. But being No. 1 is not always a good thing. Illinois’s most populous County, Cook County, has just been named the most unfair and unreasonable court jurisdiction in the country, according to a new study from the highly respected survey company Harris Interactive. Wouldn’t it be better to be No. 1 for job growth or to be the No. 1 place for business development? Instead, Cook County is No. 1 for lawsuit abuse.

Quotes from The Patriot Post
"The Obama economic agenda failed not because it was stopped, but because it was passed." --Paul Ryan

"The most important lesson I've learned is you can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside." --Barack Obama in an interview with Univision. We'll let Mitt Romney have the rebuttal: "He said he can't change Washington from the inside. He can only change it from outside. Well, we're going to give him that chance in November. He's going outside. ... His slogan was 'Yes we can.' His slogan now is 'No I can't.'"

Worth Reading: Collapse of the Cairo Doctrine. By Charles Krauthammer
Excerpt: In the week following 9/11/12 something big happened: the collapse of the Cairo Doctrine, the centerpiece of President Obama's foreign policy. It was to reset the very course of post-9/11 America, creating, after the (allegedly) brutal depredations of the Bush years, a profound rapprochement with the Islamic world.

White House Nominates Wife Of Entertainment Mogul - And Obama Donor - For Choice Post
The Chicago way. ~Bob. Excerpt: Haim Saban is a major Democratic donor, personally giving more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and committees in the 2012 election cycle.

Excerpt: “My name is Craig K., and I’m an Obamaholic.” That’s the confession with which Craig Karpel opens The 12-Step Guide for the Recovering Obama Voter. It’s meant, of course, to be an aid not just to addicted individuals but also to a society that’s taken a wrong turn and gone off the rails.

A Short Visual History of the Creepy Obama Cult
Collection of the “cult of Personality” items of this guy. It is creepy. Imagine media reaction if a Republican did half of this. See the next item. ~Bob.

Worth Reading: More Distressing Signs From Cult Obama. By Andy Weddington
Excerpt: Who knows Mr. Obama's sentiments about the desecration of our colors. A word from him would end the nonsense. But his silence disconcerting, a sign of consent and another light-flashing, bell-ringing alarm ... Think about this, what would happen if that conservative cohort of male Americans between ages 17 - 26, or a significant portion thereof, decided, based on the social experiments going on in our military and the troubling behavior of the president, to not volunteer for military service?

The Major Toll of Secondhand Smoke. By Alexandra Sifferlin
Excerpt: Mining data collected between 2003 and 2006 by large government surveys, the researchers calculated that secondhand smoke kills 42,000 Americans each year, including nearly 900 infants. Secondhand smoke is linked to some of the same fatal illnesses caused by smoking, including heart and lung disease, and in babies, low birth weight, SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) and respiratory distress syndrome.
‘Popcorn Lung’: Colorado Man Wins $7.2 Million in Lawsuit
Excerpt: A suburban Denver man who was diagnosed with “popcorn lung,” possibly from inhaling the artificial butter smell of the microwave popcorn he regularly ate, has won a $7.2 million verdict against various food companies.

Why Misinformation Sticks and Corrections Can Backfire: A new review of the research explains why "mud" sticks — especially when it's flung in the midst of a heated political contest. By Maia Szalavitz
Excerpt: At the height of campaign season in any presidential election year, voters will be inundated with all kinds of information of dubious accuracy, from misleading claims about candidates’ personal lives to exaggerations about their policy differences. Unfortunately, it’s precisely this type of misinformation — the kind that hews to people’s preexisting political, religious or social ideology — that sticks.

Iran gains power in Latin America as Obama administration looks on; a brave leader speaks. By Ed Farnan
Excerpt: With little notice in the main stream media, Iran has been cementing it’s relationships with regimes in Venezuela & Bolivia, both countries under the control of strongmen friendly to communism. Iran is the main funder of terrorism throughout the world, For them to gain a foothold in Latin America, does not bode well for peace in our hemisphere.

Mitt Romney to release 2011 tax return today
Excerpt: Mitt Romney paid $1,935,708 in taxes on $13,696,951 in income in 2011 for an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent, according to a return that will be released Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. Romney also plans to post a letter from his tax preparer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, giving a summary of tax rates from the Romneys’ tax returns for the 20-year period of 1990-2009. … According to Malt, the returns will also show that the Romneys donated $4,020,772 to charity in 2011

Tweets on Romney’s Taxes:
Hi @BarackObama@mittromney has paid more than $50 million in taxes throughout his life, what's *your* fair share?

So Romney gave away 30% of his income and overpaid his taxes. The left sees this as further evidence he's terrible.

How funny, Romney showed Warren Buffet how you can pay more taxes if you want to #RomneyRule

Romney gave to charities $4million dollars but only deducted half of it. I'd say the man is way more generous than 90% of us.

Before the 2008 election Biden gave avg of $369 a year to charity.

So, liberal media, now that Romney released his taxes and they all check out, can we move on to the Obama staffers who owe taxes?

Elizabeth Fauxcahontas Warren refused to check the box to pay a red cent more than demanded on her $300K+ salary

California Debt Revised Upwards. By Walter Russell Mead
Excerpt: As we reported earlier today, California’s cities are going bankrupt left and right and are desperately awaiting help from the cash-strapped state government. Unfortunately, it looks like they’ll have to keep waiting: a new report from the State Budget Crisis Task Force shows that the state’s debts are much higher than originally thought.

Anti-Japanese Hatred in China Reshaping the Market. By Walter Russell Mead
Excerpt: German cars sell like hotcakes in China, partly because of the added prestige of the Communist Party’s fondness for luxury Audis. Still, we believe Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen, when it says that a violent anti-Japanese sign at a Chinese Audi dealership doesn’t represent the company’s views:

A Muhammad cartoon a day. By Daniel Pipes
Excerpt: Which prompts this question: What would happen if publishers and managers of major media outlets reached a consensus -- “Enough of this intimidation, we will publish the most famous Danish Muhammad cartoon every day, until the Islamists tire out and no longer riot”? What would happen if Korans were recurrently burned?

19 Reported Dead as Pakistanis Protest Muhammad Video
Excerpt: Violent crowds furious over an anti-Islamic video made in the United States convulsed Pakistan’s largest cities on Friday, leaving up to 19 people dead and more than 160 injured in a day of government-sanctioned protests. (it bears repeating: The most frequent victims of Allahmurder are Muslims. ~Bob.)

Chairman Price Votes to Stop President Obama’s “War on Coal”
Excerpt: In 2008, President Obama promised that ‘if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can – it’s just that it will bankrupt them.’ Clearly, that’s one promise he actually wants to keep.

ABC News: Fake RNC, DNC Websites Highlight Internet Campaign Donation Fraud
Excerpt: A 50-year-old fuel truck delivery man has allegedly run fake Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee donation websites that have raked in thousands of dollars over several years. (Spreading the wealth around. ~Bob.)

Stop Barack
Black Republican PAC ad.

Romney Leads, Obama Follows: Obama Acts Against China After Romney Exposes Weakness
Excerpt: In keeping with his administration's philosophy of "leading from behind," President Barack Obama filed a new complaint against China with the World Trade Organization (WTO) this week--after Republican nominee Mitt Romney began highlighting Obama's failure to out-compete China in trade and manufacturing.

Paul Ryan to AARP: Obama Has 'Put His Own Job Security Over Your Retirement Security'
Excerpt: The President likes to talk about how he is a champion for small business on the basis of a few temporary tax measures. But the truth is, if re-elected, President Obama has actually promised to raise the tax rates that many successful small businesses pay to over 40 percent – permanently.

An Anti-Romney Voter Who Will Now Vote for Romney
Excerpt: I’ve written on the futility of third parties at this point in history, the illogic of the lesser of two evils mantra, and how conservatives give up too soon. As a result I’ve received some vicious attacks. That’s OK. I’m used to it. Others have appreciated my comments. Agree or disagree, my goal is to get people to think.

Excerpt: Two dozen “patriotic millionaires” traveled to the Capitol on Wednesday to demand that Congress raise taxes on wealthy Americans. (they could do what Romney did—pay extra. ~Bob.)

The Love Song of AARP and Obama: Newly released emails reveal the 'nonpartisan' group's stealthy White House alliance on health care. By John Strassel
Excerpt: Thanks to just-released emails from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, we now know that AARP worked through 2009-10 as an extension of a Democratic White House, toiling daily to pass a health bill that slashes $716 billion from Medicare, strips seniors of choice, and sets the stage for rationing. We know that despite AARP's awareness that its seniors overwhelmingly opposed the bill, the "nonpartisan membership organization" chose to serve the president's agenda.

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