Old Jarhead's Political SitRep for October 6, 2012
My Saturday work schedule runs from about 6:00 AM to probably about midnight, so no SitRep on Sunday, but will lpost a few items for you. Sorry. The AMA RUC is meeting in Chicago Byzantine Empire .) ~Bob.
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.
Advice for my Granddaughter: For When I'm Gone
All royalties go to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.
Obama Debate Strategy
Cartoon
Gas Prices
Great picture.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: As the sitting Commander-in-Chief, Mr. Obama's performance Wednesday evening should not be casually dismissed. This 'he'll be ready next time' is nonsense. Tell that to a Marine preparing for a combat patrol. No, Mr. Obama's performance must be called exactly what it was - dereliction of duty.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: Two themes predominated this debate and will be addressed in the next two sessions: For so long Barack Obama has assumed that he will not face cross-examination from the media that he simply has little grasp of policy details, and in exasperation seems to look around for the accustomed helpful media crutch. But there is no such subsidy in a one-on-one debate, and only now it becomes clear just how the media for the last six years have enfeebled their favorite.
Excerpt: I’ve been getting more and more cautiously optimistic about Romney in the last few days and, going in, I had a pretty good feeling about tonight’s debate. But I had no expectation that Romney would simply control the night the way he did. I don’t think Obama did terribly on the merits, even though he clearly lost by a wide margin on points.
Excerpt: In 1805, Napoleon, his forces outnumbered by those of the Russians and the Austrians, set a classic trap, feigning weakness and timidity, and lulling his opponents into complacency and overconfidence. They took the bait, and he fell upon them at the moment he could do the utmost damage. Something similar happened last night.
Worth Reading
Excerpt: The presidential campaign, hitherto a plod through a torrent of words tedious beyond words, began to dance in Denver
No Tax Breaks for Corporate Jets?
In the debate, Obama said he wants to eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets. I don’t own one, will never buy one and make them, so it doesn’t matter to me. But as with the luxury tax on boats passed in the 1980s, it means fewer jets will be sold, so the working stiffs who make them will be laid off. Then they won’t buy cars, new homes, clothes, etc. But if it sounds good to the economically ignorant, the leftists don’t care about the results. ~Bob.
Debate comment from The Patriot Post
Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto several years ago devised a theory that the Leftmedia so pamper leftist politicians that they are unable to defend themselves when presented with a strong conservative argument from a determined opponent. Certainly we saw the "Taranto Principle" in effect Wednesday, as Obama could do little to deflect Romney's rhetorical blows other than simply repeat his feeble demagoguery.
Cheney: Obama Admin’s Handling Of Benghazi
Excerpt: Former VP Dick Cheney said the Obama administration's handling of Benghazi
Excerpt: The Obama campaign arm, Organizing for America , is telling voters in Pasco County , Florida Florida
Obama’s November Surprise The Federal Housing Administration has a big problem — and the bill is about to come due. By Dan Murphy
Excerpt: With the presidential race entering the homestretch, most of the political world is wondering: Will there be an “October surprise”? But this year the real surprise may come in November, when the American people learn about the need for a taxpayer-funded bailout of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).
Jobless rate falls to 7.8 percent, boosting Obama
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/economy/260453-jobless-rate-drops-to-78-percent-economy-adds-114000
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/economy/260453-jobless-rate-drops-to-78-percent-economy-adds-114000
Excerpt: The unemployment rate dipped below 8 percent in September to 7.8 percent, providing welcome news for President Obama just a month before Election Day.
The economy added only 114,00 jobs, yet the unemployment rate still dropped from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent. (Wait until he’s reelected and has more flexibility to implement job-killing policies for his green cronies. ~Bob. A little digging, however, tells a far different story. For example, in order for the rate to drop 0.3 percentage points 31 days before a presidential election, 456,000 people would have had to either find work -- or drop out of the labor force. So what happened to 342,000 people? Also, buried in this Associated Press dispatch is a notable caveat: "Still, many of the jobs added last month were part time. The number of people with part-time jobs who wanted full-time work rose 7.5 percent to 8.6 million." –The Patriot Post. How convenient that the unemployment rate managed to drop below 8% at this date! Any ideas? Maybe because so many people fell off their unemployment roles due to length of time and ran out of benefits, or, maybe students went back to school, etc. In any case, I believe Representative Joe Wilson, Limbaugh, and others tell the truth when they say the Obama lies! - Tom)
Excerpt: U.S. unemployment, as measured by Gallup
Anemic Job Growth Continues
Excerpt: Job growth continues to sputter—this morning's jobs report shows that 12.1 million Americans are still out of work. Going against other economic indicators, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent. Economists are already looking into the drop, saying it seems to be a statistical fluke, because it doesn't match up with the sluggish job creation and recent downward revision of GDP growth. (You don’t think they’d cook the books five weeks before an election? ~Bob.)
Fact Check: Labor Secretary Solis Misleads On Jobs Revisions
Excerpt: Suspicion about the federal government's September jobs report has fallen on Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who appeared on CNBC this morning and defended the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), claiming--falsely--that upward revisions of 86,000 jobs were from the private sector. In fact, the new number is entirely accounted for by upwards revisions to state and federal government payrolls.
Jobs Numbers Have A “Santa Claus On A Unicorn” Feel: That, or Houdini's ghost is in charge of BLS surveys now. By Stephen Kruiser
Excerpt: While it is highly improbable that BLS conspired to cook the books, there is still a huge 756,000 job gap between the number of jobs employers told the Labor Department they created in September (114k), and the number of Americans who told the labor department that they got new jobs (873k). As the chart below shows, these two numbers never match up perfectly, but this month’s gap, particularly the spike in Americans saying they found jobs, is striking:
Tweet from John Hawkins @johnhawkinsrwn
The funny thing about rigging the job report numbers to get them to 7.8% is that 7.8% is still terrible. It's like cheating to lose 52 to 3.
Tweet from Joel Pollak @joelpollak
101k new gov't jobs + 104k pvt. jobs + 600k losing benefits and taking pt-time jobs = 7.8% unempl.
Tweet from James Pethokoukis @JimPethokoukis
10.7%: Unemployment rate if labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office
Worth Reading
Excerpt: These numbers are always tremendously volatile, but the reasons are statistical, not political. The volatility arises because the numbers are based on a tiny survey with a margin of error of 400,000. … The numbers, by the way, are especially imprecise (and prone to revision) when the economy is making a turn, or when regular seasonal patterns start to change — which may have been happening in September with the college school calendar and summer jobs.
From LAT: Jobs numbers show working-class voters struggling
Excerpt: They’re one of the most sought-after voting blocs, prevalent in swing states such as Ohio
Wonder if he’s in trouble for getting the date wrong?
This photo released by Obama for America shows Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his bride Michelle Robinson, a fellow Harvard Law School graduate, on their wedding day Oct. 18, 1992, in Chicago , Illinois
The Streetcar Swindle: It’s time to rethink America
Excerpt: But the sad secret is that streetcars of all descriptions and vintages are at best modestly successful transportation projects, at worst expensive objets d’art that very few people use. Demand for the vehicles is driven not by the public but by the dreams of land-use planners and downtown boosters who imagine that aesthetically pleasing vehicles lumbering in slow circles through walkable areas will somehow prompt a boom in economic activity.
THE FOOD STAMP RECOVERY: The Unprecedented Increase in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program 2008–12. By Diana Furchtgott-Roth
Excerpt: Three years after the end of the 2007–09 recession, which officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, 47 million people each month are using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). At the beginning of the recession, fewer than one in 10 Americans received SNAP benefits. Nearly 15 percent of Americans now use SNAP benefits, formerly called food stamps, a program administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This translates to more than one in 7 Americans currently using SNAP benefits, a record non-emergency high. (Recently at Walgreens, a young, healthy, fit-looking guy about 25 tried to use his SNAP card to buy a couple of expensive energy drinks. It didn’t work, so he paid with a $100 bill. After he left, the clerk, a 40s-something lady, who looked tired from standing on her feet at a low-pay job all day, said to me, “Our money.” Just that. We know who he will vote for, I think. ~Bob.)
Food Stamps—from an e-mail forwarded to me with permission to post
At approximately 2:30 pm, September 6, 2012, I entered the Publix store on Main St. Gainesville , FL
Black America
Excerpt: What if President Obama were white? Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said last year, "If (former President) Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the White House." The problem to which Cleaver refers is black unemployment.
Under Obama, African-American unemployment up; wealth, wages, political influence down. By Neil Munro
Excerpt: In his controversial June 2007 Hampton Roads speech, then-Sen. Barack Obama pledged to remove a metaphorical bullet from a wounded African-American community….Since Obama made that speech, he has served almost four years in the White House, and African-Americans’ median wealth has crashed, their wages have flat lined, their unemployment has spiked, and their political power has waned. The metaphorical bullet wound has turned septic.
Judge: Florida
Excerpt: A judge ruled that federal law does not prohibit the state from removing noncitizens from the voter rolls 90 days before an election. (Wait! Isn’t it racist not to let non-citizens vote as often as they want? ~Bob.)
Cutter Concedes $5 Trillion Attack On Romney Is Not True
Bet it doesn’t stop them from saying it, though. ~Bob.
We Fund Dependency. By John Stossel
Excerpt: "There are no jobs!" That is what people told me outside a government "jobs center" in New York City Del
Quotes from the Sgt Grit Newsletter (www.grunt.com)
Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught falsehoods in school. And the person that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool. --Plato, 427 BC
Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat disregarded. --Unknown
Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as the sturdy horse pulling the wagon. --Winston Churchill
Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. [I]ndustry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them. --Benjamin Franklin (1753)
The world is suffering more today from the good people who want to mind other men's business than it is from the bad people who are willing to let everybody look after their own individual affairs. --Clarence Darrow, 1908
http://www.investigativeproject.org/3761/guest-column-egypt-christians-distraught
Excerpt: Reuters reported last week that "Most Christians living near Egypt 's border with Israel [in the town of Rafah
Patrick Murphy slams Rep. West's military record
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2012/oct/3/patrick-mu
rphy-slams-rep-wests-military-record/
Excerpt: Democratic House candidate Patrick Murphy of Florida South Florida nightclub. (I can't believe the guy is stupid enough to do this. Having never been in the military, much less in combat, he's dragging up West's court-martial for scaring a local into giving away the location of the ambush waiting for West and his men. Our PC generals could not let that pass, so they basically tried him for torture, and threw the book at him. He never touched the local, just yelled at him and fired his 9mm past his head to really get his attention. By doing so he avoided taking his men into a planned kill zone. In normal military thinking, you know, like back before PC infected all the upper ranks, he would have gotten a medal for saving some lives. But today they get nutty up in the ranks where they wear stars, so he got a court-martial, fined, and was allowed to retire. Bring this up shows his opponent is ready to slime West any way he can, but also shows his opponent is an idiot. The full story will come out and only increase respect for West. We definitely want him back in Congress again, and maybe later go for the Senate, or who knows, maybe the Oval Office. --Del.
Exclusive: Former CIA Official: Obama 'October Surprise' Airstrike in Libya
Excerpt: The former senior CIA official told Breitbart News that with America’s lack of intelligence on the ground in Libya, the fallout for any sort of airstrike could be catastrophic, leading to civilian casualties, and more broadly, to the fall of a weak but moderate Libyan government. He pointed out that the government in Pakistan has been forced to answer for US airstrikes inside Pakistan , thanks to the high level of civilian casualties; such scrutiny for a weaker and far more moderate government in Libya
Worth Sharing: Brutal New Anti-Obama Ad To Run Oct. 5 Through 10th: 'Security'
Excerpt: The ad by the folks at American Future Fund slams Obama on Libya and Israel
Greek PM says can't manage beyond November without next aid tranche
Excerpt: Greek leader Antonis Samaras told a German paper in an interview published on Friday his country could not manage beyond November without the next tranche of international aid and suggested the ECB could help by easing the terms of its Greek debt holdings. (How long can we manage, with our debt? And who will decide we are “to big to fail” and bail us out? ~Bob.)
No Exit. By Daniel Lansberg-Rodriguez
Excerpt: For the first time in many years, Venezuela
Worth Viewing but Caution: Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
Some very graphic photos from women who know political Islam up close and personal. ~Bob.
Excerpt: The first Presidential debate for this political season was so much more than Romney defeating The Anointed One with facts. It was Mitt Romney's first opportunity to address the American people without the filter of the liberal media obscuring his message. Just the other day MSNBC was caught doctoring a video to try and make Romney look bad.
Why Ryan’s Medicare Is Better for Seniors Than Obamacare’s Medicare. By Peter Thomas and Peter Ferrara
Excerpt: But it was Obamacare that already changed Medicare as we know it, transforming it literally into a death trap for seniors. Obamacare cuts Medicare by $716 billion over the next 10 years alone, mostly by slashing Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals. And that is just a downpayment on what is to come. Medicare’s Chief Actuary Rick Foster reports that by the end of this decade, Medicare will be paying less to doctors and hospitals for health care for seniors than Medicaid pays for health care for the poor. And Medicare will be falling farther and farther behind Medicaid each year.
Obama-Speak for Socialism. By David Blaska
http://www.ibmadison.com/Blogger/Bring-It/October-2012/Obama-Speak-for-Socialism/ Excerpt: The failures of the current president and his congressional allies are so incontestable that they retaliate by demonizing those who have succeeded. Their failures are due not as much to executive ineptitude as to their very creed. The Obama regime has added nearly $6 trillion to a public debt that has eclipsed the $16 trillion mark for the first time in history. That’s more government debt per person than Portugal, Italy, Spain, or Greece.
France: Qur'an art exhibit pulled after near-riot
Excerpt: "One young woman was slapped for putting her foot on a verse." Maybe a new exhibit needs to be organized, in which Infidels of all races, creeds and colors put their feet on Qur'an verses like 2:63-66 (Jews turned into apes and pigs); 2:191 (kill the Infidels wherever you find them); 4:34 (beat disobedient women); 4:89 (kill the apostates wherever you find them); 5:59-60 (Jews as apes and pigs again); 7:166 (Jews as apes and pigs yet again); 8:39 (fight until the whole world submits to Islamic law); 9:5 (kill the Infidels wherever you find them again); 9:29 (fight the Jews and Christians until they submit and pay jizya); 47:4 (behead the Infidels); etc. The contortions of Islamic supremacists as they attempt to explain that my characterizations of the verses above are inaccurate are often imaginative and entertaining, but the plain unavoidable fact remains: Muslims worldwide prove on a daily basis that I have not misrepresented those verses. They prove it by acting on their plain meaning.
Arabs Riot for Third Day on Temple Mount
Didn’t get the “Islam is a Religion of Peace” memo. ~Bob. Excerpt: “The police again did nothing, even towards the end of the visit when the Arabs really came close to us and blocked our exit, shouting, 'We will expel the Jews in blood and fire and will butcher Jews.' The police still did nothing,” and the group of Jews escaped without harm, Fried said.
Iranian born Valerie Jarrett gets Secret Service detail, American born Ambassador Stevens denied protection in Benghazi
Excerpt: The Iranian born Jarrett reportedly has her own Secret Service detail, highly unusual according to Keith Koffler. A US Ambassador in traveling to Benghazi doesn’t deserve the security protection of the US Marines but a senior aide warrants Secret Service protection even while on vacation?... In the interim, Valerie Jarrett ought to be sent to Benghazi to staff the consulate with the same protection Obama provided for Ambassador Chris Stevens.
A Marine Buddy fro Radio Relay Repair School, MCRD, San Diego, 1965!
Here's a pic of me, my wife, our daughter and her twin daughters taken March 2010 at our daughter's deployment send off to Afghanistan. –Dave
Excerpt: RebelPundit interviewed Obama supporters asking them if it was fair for the debate commission to disallow Obama from using his teleprompter at the debate. By an large, most of them said it was unfair and that he should’ve been able to use it
Governor sees unattended baby, tracks down father
Excerpt: When Gov. Susana Martinez, R-N.M., stopped at a Santa Fe Walgreens on Wednesday, she saw a 1 year old strapped into a car seat -- in an unlocked car with the engine running and no parents in sight. … Paged over the store intercom, the baby's father stepped forward to face a dressing-down from Martinez, who asked him why he left his child unattended in the parking lot. (Democrats will call her heartless for not signing the kid up for welfare, Medicaid, foot stamps and Head Start. ~Bob.)
Excerpt: A new Rasmussen poll and early absentee ballot requests both suggest that President Barack Obama is losing his lead in Ohio after Mitt Romney’s performance in Wednesday night’s presidential debate.
WAPO Gives Obama Campaign $18,000 Birth Control Claim Three Pinocchios. By Katie Pavlich
Excerpt: I pointed out the $18,000 figure was clearly given to the campaign by Planned Parenthood and is the total cost some women spend on birth control throughout an entire lifetime. Now, the Washington Post is giving Team Obama three pinocchios for their $18,000 birth control claim.
Health Canada Approves Esbriet® as First Treatment for Fatal Lung Disease
InterMune, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITMN) today announced that Health Canada has approved Esbriet® (pirfenidone) for the treatment of mild to moderate idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in adult patients. IPF is a progressive and uniformly fatal disease that affects approximately 5,000 to 8,000 Canadians, is characterized by scarring of lung tissue, and has a similar short life expectancy to that of many forms of cancer, including lung, colorectal and breast cancers. Health Canada designated Esbriet for Priority Review and completed the accelerated review according to target guidelines of 180 days. (Huh. I’d move to Canada, but not worth it to live with draft dodgers. ~Bob.)
Leaked memo shows plane was denied US Benghazi consulate
Excerpt: A leaked memo shows the US State Department rejected a request to retain a plane for its security team in Libya, raising further questions about the protection provided for diplomats in Benghazi. (Who says the media doesn’t report this stuff? Okay, it’s the British media, but still… ~Bob.)
Homeless guy who gets it
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