DELETED TWEETS

The top 20 deleted tweets from liberals in 2012.  I guess people tweet without thinking, but it must somehow show what is in their hearts.  It reveals the violent aspect of those who so often publicly try to come across as caring individuals concerned about life and justice. 

OBAMA ON BENGHAZI

Obama blames the failures on "sloppiness"--I think better words could have been used.  People did die.  If government is this sloppy on foreign policy what other sloppiness is being committed by government?

GUN LAWS

Evidently strict gun laws in Great Britain and Australia have not made people safer.

Strict gun laws in Great Britain and Australia haven't made their people noticeably safer, nor have they prevented massacres. The two major countries held up as models for the U.S. don't provide much evidence that strict gun laws will solve our problems.

Because of my earlier post on violence in movies and my memories of less violence when there were no gun laws, I want to start following the pros and cons of gun laws as the reason crime goes up or down.

The American Civil Rights Union.  Quotes a Harvard study among others that nations with higher gun ownership have lower murder rates.

Washington Post.  Gun ownership in America is going down, but states with more sringent gun laws have fewer shooting deaths.

CNN.  Violent crime is up. . .but the WAPO study says gun ownership is declining so are more people using other weapons to commit crime???

WORST FISCAL IDEAS OF 2012

The Christian Science Monitor appears to be an equal opportunity judge--everything or everyone from California to Obama and the Tea Party came up with lousy fiscal proposals.

VIOLENCE IN AMERICA

After the recent Newtown school attack a lot of attention has been focused on guns as the cause of violence and mass-killings in America. Mass-killings is a phenomena my generation did not grow up with.  I am still not sure why someone needs an AK 47 or an Uzi, but I don't think guns are the real problem.

This afternoon I went to the theater to watch "Lincoln."  Before it began there were a number of the usual previews. 

The first preview was for "Gangster Land" which deals with Mickey Cohen's gangster activities in Los Angeles sometime before the 1960s. The film previews showed extensive gratuitous violence and people being shot in cold blood.  It got me thinking about the old black & white gangster movies I saw on TV as a teenager with Eliot Ness chasing Chicago gangsters and the later 1960s television program "The Untouchables" starring Robert Stack.  In those movies guns were fired and the bad guys died, but I never recall seeing gratuitous violence and the vivid depiction of gruesome death or killing.  And then I saw a preview of "Jack Reacher" starring Tom Cruise and more violence.  And in 2013 a remake of the "Lone Ranger" starring Johnny Depp is coming. . .but in the short preview it appears that it, too, is a far cry from the original Lone Ranger's fight against bad guys (most of whom were arrested and taken to jail).

I forget the other previews, but only one seemed to be non-violent and that was "Parental Guidance."  So out of 6 or so previews, only one seemed not to contain some kind of experiential excitement with death and violence. 

As I thought more about the movies of my younger and even college years and I just do not recall the blood and gore that I saw in today's movie previews.  Sure there were cowboy movies and bad guys got killed, but it was not done in a way that glorified the process of killing and dying.  And the good guys did not seem to get some kind of gruesome satisfaction about the whole process.  And even old monster movies did not dwell on the excitement of mass killing with the gore and blood that followed.  There was terror but the focus was not on watching the process of killing or dying. These movies may seem hokey today (they do to me), but killing did not create an adrenalin rush.

All this has cause me to consider holding Hollywood accountable for the violence in America today.  There were no gun laws to my knowledge until sometime in the 1990s, yet as I have said I don't recall the level of violence that I see today.  So are guns really the major problem?  If what I saw today is typical of Hollywood, shouldn't its violence be part of the media discussion.  Or is Hollywood producers just giving American audiences what they want?  If so, the problem goes deep into the American soul.

But as I watched "Lincoln" I saw a movie focused on the human struggle of Lincoln and others to deal with racial justice and civil war.  While battle scenes were graphically portrayed the focus was not on the process of killing, but the results of the horrors of war.  Violence is portrayed as something destructive, not something to create emotional excitement. I would hope one would leave the movie thinking about deeper issues of humanity than being titillated by the gruesome process of killing and psychopathic destruction.

AMERICAN DECLINE BEGINNING

Simon Johnson in Bloomberg. 

Those predicting an imminent American economic decline have usually been no exception. This time, though, they may be on to something.

Even so, the U.S. has serious economic, social and political problems. Just look at the current budget debacle. Democrats and Republicans are at each other’s throats, struggling theatrically, rather like Holmes and Moriarty above Reichenbach Falls. If they get a fiscal deal done in the next few weeks, do you really think it will result in a sensible tax system, or bring long-term health-care spending under control? Are we going to invest more in education? Will we really have a frank discussion about what kind of social-insurance programs we want, and how to pay for them?

TOP TEN FOREIGN RELATIONS BLUNDERS IN 2012

From U.S. News & World Report: 

1. Obama continuously mispronounces name of nobel laureate.
2. Romney's summer trip to Europe mistakes.
3. Julian Assange & Wikileaks.
4. Obama's "pivot" in Asia.
5. Obama's open microphone in meeting with Putin.
6. Biden asking audience if they knew of a serviceman serving in Iraq and Iran.
7. Romney's statement on Benghazi.
8. London Olympics when North Korean women's soccer team marched into stadium with South Korean flag.
9. Obama's failure to meet with other world leaders at UN meeting.
10. Europe's nomination for Nobel Peace Prize.

DEATH PENALTY FOR GLOBAL WARMING DENIERS

"Eliminationist rhetoric" from the left--these are pretty strong words even if they have been revised.  Global warming deniers are causing the deaths of millions so they must pay the penalty.

In this article I am going to suggest that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for influential GW deniers. But before coming to this surprising conclusion, please allow me to explain where I am coming from.

CHRISTIANITY DYING IN MIDDLE EAST

The Telegraph. 

The study warns that Christians suffer greater hostility across the world than any other religious group.

And it claims politicians have been “blind” to the extent of violence faced by Christians in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The most common threat to Christians abroad is militant Islam, it says, claiming that oppression in Muslim countries is often ignored because of a fear that criticism will be seen as “racism”.

ISLAMISTS DESTROY MALI TOMBS

From Reuters.  Islamists are destroying their own historical heritage.

Residents said the attacks on traditional Sufi Islamic shrines were being carried out by about 15 heavily-armed fighters, some weilding pick axes. At least two previously untouched tombs in Timbuktu, a UNESCO world heritage site, were destroyed on Sunday, residents said.

THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS FROM HITLER TO THE PRESENT

A brief analysis on Hitler's attack on Christianity.

In the new versions of the old songs reference to Nazi tenets of race, blood and soil replace familiar words concerning Christ, Child and the like. The accepted English translation of Mohr’s “Silent Night,” stanza three lines two and three is: “The Son of God loves pure light, radiant beams from thy Holy faith.” Equivalent lines in the Nazified version are “German blood, O how laugh the lips of thy children, blessed with joy.”

Foxnews chronicles the current war on Christmas.  The atheists react.  From the Blaze.  Foreign Policy discusses the international war on Christmas--from Saudi Arabia and Uzebekistan to Cuba and Venezuela.

PUTIN & THE DECLINE OF RUSSIA

Russia has been in decline demographically for a number of years.  How will Putin handle it?

President Putin is too intelligent and clear eyed a man to miss these truths, however the propagandists and spinners around him try to paint a different picture. His foreign policy needs to be understood against this background of uncertainty and decline. Bluff, caution, patience and opportunism are the chief instruments of a power in Russia’s current position, and those (plus the diligent and determined use of the legacy intelligence and propaganda capabilities inherited from the Soviet era) are the instruments we expect President Putin to use.

OBAMA STATEMENTS ON WEAPONS

Ann Althouse raises some interesting questions about Obama's statements after the Aurora attackand the Newtown attack.

CAUSE OF SUBPRIME MORTGAGE CRISIS

A study from the National Bureau of Economic Research shows how the Democrat supported Community Reinvestment Act led to the subprime crisis.  It led to increasing delinquencies. Democrats and the media disagree.

ANOTHER DEMOCRAT ETHICS VIOLATION IN CONGRESS

This ethics issue in congress has not been covered in the mainline media so it must not see this as a problem. A Democrat congresswomen, Shelley Berkeley (Nevada), helped her husband get medical work with Veterans Affairs, Medicare, and Medicaid. Senator Menendez (D, New Jersey) also has had problems with prostitutes and an aide who was an illegal immigrant and sex offender.  How many more Democrats have had ethics problems that the public is largely unaware of?

The committee’s report noted that between April 2008 and December 2010, Berkley’s husband, Dr. Lawrence Lehrner, contacted her office four times on behalf of Kidney Specialists of Southern Nevada to discuss payments his practice was due from the VA, Medicare and Medicaid. On two occasions, Berkley and her staff took actions to address those issues.

“Because such actions caused ‘compensation to accrue to the beneficial interest’ of Representative Berkley, the Committee finds that they violated [House Rules],” the committee’s report said.

UPDATE on Menendez scandal (1/15/2013).

CONGRESS ABANDONING CIVIL LIBERTY PROTECTIONS

Conor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic summarizes the recent infringements on the 5th amendment occurring in the Senate.  American citizens can be held in jail or confinement without any charges being filed or trials conducted.  If this were happening in the Bush administration the press would be all over this issue. 

It may seem like a United States senator would be widely ridiculed for suggesting that American citizens can be imprisoned indefinitely without chargers or trial, and that if numerous U.S. senators took that position, the press would treat the issue with at least as much urgency as "the fiscal cliff" or the possibility of a new assault weapons bill or likely nominees for Cabinet posts. 

UPDATE:  It was stripped from the final bill, but it is still troubling that some senators thought there was no problem with it.

OBAMA'S RELATIONSHIP TO CONGRESS

Walter Shapiro believes Obama has been unable to "manage" congress.  In the past historians generally rated presidents that could move congress in their direction as the more successful.  Shapiro calls Obama the most guarded and emotionally remote modern president. 

During his reelection campaign, Obama remained elusively vague about his second-term plans. But the assumption was that—once free of political pressures—Obama would reveal his governing agenda. Now, it seems quite possible that even after the Inaugural Address next month, we will still be searching for the Rosetta Stone that deciphers Obama’s vision.

SEX & GENERALS

In light of the David Petraeus affair Victor Davis Hanson gives a brief summary of past generals of historical fame and their sexual conduct as commanders.

BENGHAZI REPORT

Just like bureaucrats. . .people mess up, but no one can be held responsible.  No accountability.

In a properly functioning society, this report would signal the end of Clinton’s chances of becoming president. The Peter Principle isn’t supposed to apply when it comes to the highest office in the land. But then, in a properly functioning society, Clinton’s successfor would not be the wannabe statesman who concluded that Bashar al-Assad was the answer to our prayers for peace and harmony in the Middle East.

Thomas Joscelyn's critique of the events.

MORE ON OBAMA VICTORY

Interesting.  If these preliminary statistics are correct, almost 20% of young black males voted for Romney--is this the beginning of a black gender voting gap that parallels a white male gender voting gap?  The article also cites the continuing failure of Obama to change the black unemployment rate--it has actually gotten worse for blacks under his administration while improving for whites.

Not only has Obama failed to address the sorry state of families in the black community, his policy stances actively undermine the family and leave many blacks feeling less secure. Elizabeth Flock of U.S. News & World Report details:

A new study from Washington University in St. Louis finds that under Obama, many black Americans feel less free than whites when it comes to political participation.
…
The study found that while the election of Obama initially boosted feelings of political empowerment among black Americans, those sentiments significantly faded in the years that followed—especially among conservative and religious blacks.

For black Americans, the advent of an alternative to vampiric institutions which thrive on perpetual black poverty should be welcome news. Leftist non-profit organizations which claim to serve the black community and advocate for “progressive” change succeed only so long as their constituency continues to fail. Were blacks to meet with actual success, become better educated, deeply motivated, and increasingly wealthy, many of these left-leaning non-profits would be out of business. That truth prompts Minneapolis-based conservative activist and black commentator Don Allen to label such groups as “poverty pimps.”

A column worth reading.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE OBAMA VICTORY

The technological sophistication of the campaign is far superior to what the Republicans did.  But it also begins to raise the issue of privacy!

How President Obama’s campaign used big data to rally individual voters, Part 1.

How President Obama’s campaign used big data to rally individual voters, Part 2.

NEWTOWN INCIDENT

POLICE RESPONSE:  It took police 20 minutes to respond to the Sandy Hook shooting according to the CNN timeline. This seems like an awfully long time. If all police forces are this slow in responding to a crisis, one rally needs to have some kind of plan to wait for such a delayed response if something serious is happening.

REASONS: And it also raises issues of why some people are not being treated in mental facilities. David Kopel gives a lot of statistics to show it is not just a gun issue. In the 1960s there were laxer gun laws, but not these kind of massive shootings. He also raises the role of the media in bringing attention to these incidents, but as is pointed out this is not just a contemporary issue (haven't seen "The Young Werther" ever mentioned before!).

Loren Coleman's 2004 book "The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines" shows that the copycat effect is as old as the media itself. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1774 classic "The Sorrows of Young Werther" triggered a spate of copycat suicides all over Europe. But today the velocity and pervasiveness of the media make the problem much worse.

A second explanation is the deinstitutionalization of the violently mentally ill. A 2000 New York Times study of 100 rampage murderers found that 47 were mentally ill. In the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry Law (2008), Jason C. Matejkowski and his co-authors reported that 16% of state prisoners who had perpetrated murders were mentally ill.

DEMOCRAT RESISTANCE TO CLOSING LOOPHOLES

In all of the arguments about the fiscal cliff, I don't understand the Democrat resistance to closing tax loopholes on the rich.  Closing loopholes is the ultimate in fairness.  No one should get a bigger break on these loopholes than others.  And in a recent Wall Street Journal article it shows how these loopholes favor wealthy Democrats.

But suddenly liberals are having second thoughts, and our guess is that this is because residents of high-tax Democratic-run states are about twice as likely to take advantage of tax loopholes as taxpayers in low-tax states. For example, 44% of Connecticut filers itemize their deductions, but only some 21% of North and South Dakota residents do.

One tax writeoff in particular illustrates the point: the deduction for state and local income taxes. This allows a high-income tax filer who pays, say, $20,000 in state and local income taxes to deduct those payments from his federal taxable income.

Raising the tax rate on earners making over $250,000 is irrelevant if they can turn around and use loopholes to avoid the higher taxes.

TOP 5 FOREIGN POLICY SCREW-UPS IN 2012

From Reason:  Libya, Syria, Mali, Drones, Egyptian F-16s.

President Barack Obama came into office promising a foreign policy different from his predecessor, but after four years, U.S. interventionism is no less common than it was during the presidency of George W. Bush.

US DROPPING IN PROSPERITY

The London Legatum Institute notes that the American dream is in jeopardy.  The nation's prosperity is dropping.

In an unprecedented fall, the US drops out of the top ten of the 2012 Legatum Prosperity Index. The new edition of the index also includes 32 new entrants, bringing the total number of countries to 142 and extending the Prosperity Index coverage to 96% of the world’s population and 99% of global GDP. 

The United States has dropped to 12 our of 142 countries.  Small Business Ttends argues that the Obama administration needs to promote entrepreneurship and innovation.

EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF US STUDENTS

This is interesting.  US students compare well with students in other countries until they get to high school when the scores begin to drop.  There is something wrong in American secondary education.

The U.S. performed above average on international standardized tests in elementary and middle school math, science and reading, according to reports released Tuesday. But experts said the rankings, along with similar exams that test students at later ages, show a fundamental problem in America's education system: students tend to perform worse as they age.

The reports also looked at the context of these scores, and found high correlations between students in homes that play math and reading games with advanced fourth grade achievement.

US AS SUPERPOWER

The Director of National Intelligence reports that by 2030 the US will not be the world's only superpower.  I think it will have to face that fact long before 2030. If this is happening it does not speak well for the leaders in Washington, but maybe it also speaks to the complacency of the American people.

"The United States’ relative economic decline vis-a-vis the rising states is inevitable and already occurring,but its future role in the international system is much harder to assess," it argues

"The U.S. most likely will remain 'first among equals' among the other great powers, due to the legacy of its leadership role in the world and the dominant role it has played in international politics across the board in both hard and soft power," it argues.

THE ENVIRONMENT

A summary of where the US stands with regard to global warming and carbon levels.  The author comments on how fracking has helped the environment.

The negative:  The oceans are now roughly 30 percent more acidic than in the pre-industrial era. And unlike future climate change, the effects are already apparent. Just head down to the Tidewater area of Virginia or out to coastal Oregon and talk to the folks who raise shellfish.

The positive:  Before we all put on the sackcloth and ashes, though, note some good news: America’s carbon dioxide emissions are actually falling. In fact, they have not been this low since 1992. And while no single factor can account for the entire shift, much of the credit goes to something environmentalists often detest: hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

RISING ANTI-SEMITISM

Discussion with links of what is happening in Sweden, Great Britain, and California with the rising attacks on Jews and even Arabs who cooperate with the state of Israel.

THE FISCAL CLIFF DEBATES

The Chicago Tribune weighs in with an editorial to come forward with his proposed spending cuts and also his proposals for reforms in programs like social security..  It is  time for him to fulfill his promise to "stop kicking the can down the road" and get control of the deficit.

But the president's reaction, delivered by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, is to cut total spending by a meager $400 million over 10 years while raising a net $1.6 trillion in new taxes. Obama also proposes tens of billions in spending on stimulus projects and continuance of long-term unemployment insurance and the supposedly temporary payroll tax cut.

And while he and Treasury Secretary Geithner are vilifying House Republicans the Democrat-controlled Senate is not able to come up with 60 votes to support the President's budget request.  So there are even Democrat Senators who are suspicious of the President's goals and agenda.

A bunch of "little pigs" in Washington.  We have thieves in Congress and in the White House because we have thievery in our hearts. Because we have larceny in our hearts, wanting to pay off 2012 debts with 2022 money, we put up with Bernake's monkeyshines at the Fed. Because we have larceny in our hearts, we hear a politician say that the rich should pay their "fair share" and we reflexively say yeah! -- in the name of justice. 

LIBYAN WEAPONS

According to the New York Times, the Obama administration "approved" the transfer of Qaddafi's arms to radical Islamists.There seems to be a lot of naivete regarding Middle East policy.  Will the administration do the same thing and arm rebels in Syria. . .who certainly seem to be al-Qaeda types.

The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats. 

Rick Moran gives a critique of the decision.

LOUIS FREEH AND 9/11

A call to investigate Louis Freeh, director of the FBI at the time of 9/11.  There are serious questions about his leadership and ignoring staff warnings that he needed to do more with counter-terrorism. The passage of time often brings out truths which are not dealt with in a crisis. It is clear the FBI was out-of-touch with what was happening with the increasing terrorism appearing in the 1990s.  But these are pretty serious charges.

In the summer of 2001, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Robert Wright, a counterterrorism expert from the Chicago office, made some startling claims about the Bureau in a written statement outlining the difficulties he had doing his job.  Three months before 9/11, he wrote: “The FBI has proven for the past decade it cannot identify and prevent acts of terrorism against the United States and its citizens at home and abroad.  Even worse, there is virtually no effort on the part of the FBI’s International Terrorism Unit to neutralize known and suspected terrorists residing within the United States.”[1]

Judicial Watch pointed to a “legacy of corruption” at the FBI under Freeh, listing the espionage scandal at Los Alamos National Laboratories, as well as “Filegate, Waco, the Ruby Ridge cover-up, the Olympic bombing frame-up of Richard Jewell, [and] falsification of evidence concerning the Oklahoma City bombing.”[4]

Judicial Watch said that Director Freeh believed he was above the law.  The group went on to say that Freeh was “a man so corrupt he destroyed the office he led, and a man so cowardly he refuses to face the music for the illegalities he has allegedly committed.”[5] To this was added a claim that the FBI under Freeh was being directed by sinister yet unknown forces. “In case after case throughout the 1990′s, the FBI seems to have tailored its investigative efforts to fit somebody’s pre-arranged script. The question is, who wrote that script — and why?”

CORRUPTION IN FEMA MONEY

Evidently FEMA money leads to increasing corruption at the state and local level. There are a number of articles on this phenomenon. People want to help hurting people, but just throwing government money in does not appear to be the best way to accomplish this!

 

From Science Daily: "We find each $100 of FEMA-provided disaster relief increases the average state's corruption by nearly 102 percent," write Peter Leeson (George Mason) and Russell Sobel (West Virginia U.). Leeson's article can be read here.  

 

Hurricane Katrina and corruption.

 

The Economist:  Help from FEMA encourages graft in many ways. Public officials can embezzle cash directly; they can overstate peoples' damage claims in return for a bribe, or demand kick-backs for rebuilding contracts. All told, the impact is big. The authors' calculations suggest that in the average state, an extra $1 per person in money from FEMA increases corruption in that state by 2.5%. Eliminating FEMA relief entirely would cut corruption by more than 20% in the average state. But don't hold your breath.

RACHEL CARSON WAS WRONG

Bad science caused people to die? Chemicals can help crops from being destroyed and thus more people can be fed.

History has proven Carson’s claims wrong. Contrary to her admonitions, a chemically caused cancer epidemic never came to pass. Researchers who identified environmental factors did not simply target trace chemical exposures as significant, but instead focused on major cancer causes such as tobacco and poor diets. In fact, people are living longer and healthier lives, cancer rates have declined even as chemical use has increased, and chemicals are not among the key causes of cancer.

FEDERAL RECEIPTS/OUTLAYS SINCE 1999

Things really began to turn bad after 2008.

 

And here is another article from Reason.com.  It is increased spending that is the source of the problem.

NEW INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY

Confusionism!  It is ignorance and stupidity that is behind international policy decisions.

. . . you've probably heard about the various "isms" in the field of international relations. There's realism, of course, but also liberalism, idealism, and social constructivism. And don't forget Marxism, even though hardly anybody claims to believe it anymore. These "isms" are essentially families of theory that share certain common assumptions. For example, realists see power and fear as the main drivers of world affairs, while liberals place more weight on human acquisitiveness and the power of institutions. 

But there's another major force in world affairs, and sometimes I think it deserves an "ism" all its own. With tongue in cheek and apologies to a famous Chinese sage, I'll call it "Confusionism." For Confusians, ignorance and stupidity are the real key to understanding state behavior, not fear, greed, ideals, class interests, or any of those other things that people think drive world affairs. When Confusians seek to explain why states act as they do, they start by assuming that leaders do not understand the problems they face, have only a vague sense of where they want to go, and no idea at all about how to get there. Instead of starting with the rational actor assumption beloved by economists, realists, and most liberals, Confusians hone in on all the reasons why humans typically get things wrong.

FISCAL CLIFF AND SEQUESTRATION

Hypocrisy.  The same media that praised the Republicans for signing on to sequestration in 2011 (Budget Control Act of 2011) is now criticizing them for having done this now that the fiscal cliff is near!  Even Obama and Harry Reid praised it--the votes of Democrats and Republicans were lopsided in its favor.  Poor Republicans cannot win.  This year the same deal is a disaster!

So my question to the media is this: Harry Reid celebrated this agreement, Tim Geithner likes it, Nancy Pelosi voted for it and The President signed it. Yet now this deal is responsible for a fiscal cliff that is apparently a disaster for all America.

And moreover, the MSM is laying the blame for said potential “disaster” squarely at the feet of the same GOP who the very same media urged to make the in 2011.

WEALTHY REPUBLICAN DONORS TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS

From Red State:  Proposes a way for Republicans to win races by using campaign donations more effectively.

EGYPT'S NEW PHARAOH

Michael Totten has an excellent summary of recent events.  He includes many of his conversations with Egyptians, including some disillusioned with the Muslim Brotherhood.  Mohammad Morsi is leading Egypt down the path of dictatorship and away from democracy under the direction of the Muslim Brotherhood. Many in Washington spoke of the Muslim Brotherhood as democratic, but events are proving them wrong.  But sure, the Brothers threw the word “democracy” around when they were on their way up, especially when gullible foreign journalists were in town.

How the Muslim Brotherhood recruits is interesting and he quotes from an article by Eric Trager in the New Republic.

It begins when specially designated Brotherhood recruiters, who work at mosques and universities across Egypt, identify pious young men and begin engaging them in social activities to assess their suitability for the organization. The Brotherhood’s ideological brainwashing begins a few months later, as new recruits are incorporated into Brotherhood cells (known as “families”) and introduced to the organization’s curriculum, which emphasizes Qur’anic memorization and the writings of founder Hassan al-Banna, among others. Then, over a five-to-eight-year period, a team of three senior Muslim Brothers monitors each recruit as he advances through five different ranks of Brotherhood membership—muhib, muayyad, muntasib, muntazim, and finally ach amal, or “active brother.”  

Throughout this process, rising Muslim Brothers are continually vetted for their embrace of the Brotherhood’s ideology, commitment to its cause, and—most importantly—willingness to follow orders from the Brotherhood’s senior leadership. As a result, Muslim Brothers come to see themselves as foot soldiers in service of the organization’s theocratic credo: “Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law; the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.” Meanwhile, those dissenting with the organization’s aims or tactics are eliminated at various stages during the five-to-eight-year vetting period.

JAMIE FOXX ON OBAMA

At the Soul Train Awards Jamie Foxx referred to Obama as "our Lord and Savior." 

Now there is a picture of Obama as a crucified Savior. 

 

SUSAN RICE NOMINATION

There have been criticisms of her in the past.

A CNN article from 2008 discusses her involvement in the decision not to capture Bin Laden in the 1990s or help with the Rwandan genocide.

Terrorism experts blame Rice for having played a key role in blocking efforts to neutralize Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. According to Mansoor Ijaz, a former trouble shooter for Clinton, the FBI had their efforts to capture bin Laden "overruled every single time by the State Department, by Susan Rice and her cronies, who were hell-bent on destroying the Sudan." In a Washington Post Op-Ed published in 2002, Mansoor Ijaz and Tim Carney, U.S. Ambassador to Sudan blamed Susan Rice for being a major obstacle to accepting offers of help from Sudan and to share their intelligence on bin Laden's terror network. Rice was also influential in the Clinton Administration's remaining uninvolved in the Rwandan genocide that took place in that nation in 1994.

And a 2001 article in the Atlantic by Samantha Powers is also critical of her decisions with regard to Rwanda. Evidently Rice has remorse for her involvement in failing to stop the genocide.  But the horrors were committed and in rereading the account, it is tragic that the Clinton administration was not held more accountable for its failure to act.  But today, I fear no one remembers the consequences of these decisions.

A few years later, in a series in The New Yorker, Philip Gourevitch recounted in horrific detail the story of the genocide and the world's failure to stop it. President Bill Clinton, a famously avid reader, expressed shock. He sent copies of Gourevitch's articles to his second-term national-security adviser, Sandy Berger. The articles bore confused, angry, searching queries in the margins. "Is what he's saying true?" Clinton wrote with a thick black felt-tip pen beside heavily underlined paragraphs. "How did this happen?" he asked, adding, "I want to get to the bottom of this." The President's urgency and outrage were oddly timed. As the terror in Rwanda had unfolded, Clinton had shown virtually no interest in stopping the genocide, and his Administration had stood by as the death toll rose into the hundreds of thousands.

Others, including a few members of the Africa subcommittees and the Congressional Black Caucus, eventually appealed tamely for the United States to play a role in ending the violence—but again, they did not dare urge U.S. involvement on the ground, and they did not kick up a public fuss.

November 29, 2012:  Further questions about her candidacy by Anne Bayefsky and Michael B. Mukasey in the Wall Street Journal.  There are many other questions about decisions she made in her various positions.  

From Foreign Policy (Nov. 29, 2012).   The ghosts of Rwanda's genocide are in her past.

THE LEFT CRITICIZES OBAMA

From the Chronicle of Higher Education (November, 18, 2012). 

In an interview the week after Barack Obama’s re-election, Cornel West said he was glad Mitt Romney hadn’t won, but he also expressed his displeasure with the president, calling him a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface.”

As for Cornel West’s recent rant, he invoked the name of Richard Nixon when talking about Obama’s shortcomings, arguing that Nixon was to the left of Obama on a list of issues, including health care, guaranteed income, and foreign policy. Meanwhile, Dorrien, despite his disappointments, offered a different historical comparison: “Obama is well on his way to becoming the best president since Franklin Roosevelt.”

MEDIA COVERAGE OF BENGHAZI

From Peter Wehner at Commentary:  Yet with a few honorable exceptions—Fox News being the most conspicuous—the press has shown no real appetite for this story. It’s not that it hasn’t been covered; it’s that the coverage has lacked anything like the intensity and passion that you would have seen had this occurred during the presidency of, say, Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush.

The media needs to be equal opportunity investigators if it is to be the Fourth Estate protecting our freedoms.

Why was  General Carter Ham losing his job?  Is it because he wanted to help the personnel in Libya and disobeyed orders?

References to Watergate (by Democrats)! 

GENERAL PETRAEUS

A case is made for General Petraeus's leadership in the Middle East.

But three points need to be made here. First, Petraeus had no way of knowing this at the time; both in Mosul and later, in 2007, as U.S. commander in Iraq, he saw his goal as giving the factions “breathing space,” creating a “zone of security,” where they might reach a settlement in peace. It’s not his fault that the factions had no interest in reaching such a settlement. Second, for as long as he was in command, Petraeus succeeded at what he set out to do, if only tactically and in the short term. In retrospect, a case can be made that it may have been wiser to pull out after Saddam fell, to let the Iraqis find their own way. But those weren’t Petraeus’ orders; whatever else might be said of him, he accomplished a great deal with what he had. Finally, America’s big mistake in Iraq was invading it in the first place—and neither Petraeus nor any other general had anything to do with that decision.

Emily Yoffe wants Petraeus back!

I have a great idea whom Barack Obama should nominate as his next CIA director: Gen. David Petraeus. With that simple announcement, Obama could strike a blow for civil liberties and against the silly and destructive sexual Puritanism that has taken down so many public figures. Since Petraeus’ departure both Democrats and Republicans have been mourning the loss of a public servant of extraordinary ability. 

STATE DEPARTMENT BRIEFING ON ISRAEL & GAZA

This is an unusually sharp exchange between a journalist and a State Department spokesperson.  I haven't seen this kind of grilling of an administration spokesperson since the Bush administration.

 

OBAMA'S ASIA TRIP

It was marked by mistatements, which as the London Telegraph points out, would have been front page news if Bush had said them.

It is rather embarrassing, as well as sad, that the leader of the free world can’t even pronounce the name of the most famous human rights activist on the planet. Or that he is so quick to appease Burma’s authoritarian regime by calling it “Myanmar”. Barack Obama’s gaffes demonstrate not only a marked lack of attention to detail and a high degree of amateurishness on the part of the White House, but also a disturbing willingness to curry favour with unsavoury regimes. Hardly a good omen for Obama’s second term.

OBAMA & BENGHAZI

Obama knew on September 12th that it was a terrorist attack and not because of some film.  Even the New York Times, the paper of the left noted that in an article on September 12th.

Director Petraeus statement this morning is at complete odds with the Administration’s narrative. The CIA did its job on September 11 and reported the facts as they saw them.

Someone else was responsible for editing the report. But Ambassador Rice has a very difficult position. When she was trooped out to mouth the party line to the talk shows a few days after the assault, there was only one person who was authorized to approve her talking points; the President himself.

State reports to the President. The U.N. Ambassador reports to the President. The Director of National Intelligence reports to the President. The Director of the CIA reports to the President. The buck stops there.

The President has been caught in a web of his own lies. It is now up to us to hold him accountable.

November 28, 2012.  London Telegraph.  The lack of clarity from the White House on Benghazi is proving a disaster for the Obama administration, giving every impression that it is lacking in transparency, competence and accountability. During the second presidential election debate, Barack Obama promised to take responsibility for what happened. It is time for him to do so, and for his presidency to come clean over its handling of the intelligence relating to the Benghazi attack, and be held to account.

RELIGIOUS CONSERVATIVES IN POLITICS

Michael Gerson analyzes the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the 2012 election, but also discusses the evangelical Protestants.  Both have failed to reach out to the Hispanic voter.

Catholics have a historical advantage in understanding the imperative of inclusion in modern politics. They belong, after all, to an institution that has been multicultural since Peter first set foot in Rome. But white evangelicals are now getting their own education in coalition politics. They gave Mitt Romney a remarkable 79 percent of their vote — the same share that George W. Bush received in 2004 — while constituting a larger percentage of the electorate than they did in 2004. But their energy and loyalty were rendered irrelevant — washed away — by GOP failures among other groups. 

“Rather than a repudiation of cultural conservatism,” concludes Green, “this was an election in which cultural conservatives did everything they could, but the party fell short.”

In the long run, social conservatives will have serious trouble exerting influence unless they are allied with rising ethnic populations, which tend toward conservative social views. But social conservatives are now in a toxic alliance with political forces — the wall-builders and advocates of self-deportation — that are alienating rising ethnic populations.

THE GOP

Anne Applebaum argues that British conservatives could teach a thing or two to the GOP.  Among other issues she addressed she raised the failure of the GOP to reach out to Hispanics.  McCain gets a lot of criticism, but when the GOP rejected his reforms, it began to dig a hole for themselves in the 2012 election.

If Republican leaders really want to appeal to Hispanic voters, for example, they don't need clever Spanish-language marketing or better slogans. Nor do they need to steal political positions from across the aisle. Instead, they could resurrect the only sensible comprehensive immigration reform bill not passed into law—a bill largely written by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The McCain-Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 was a grand compromise: It attempted to win support from immigrants' rights groups, which tend to be on the left of the political spectrum, and business leaders who employ immigrants, who tend to be on the right. It would have created not only a sensible path to citizenship for illegal immigrants but also a "guest worker" status for people who want to work for short periods, and it would have enhanced border security. The Bush White House supported the bill, which was defeated largely by congressional Republicans.

ADMIRAL PLOTTING

Recently Admiral Charles M. Gaouette was recalled from deployment with the Persian Gulf Fleet.  According to some reports from Iran and Israel, he was involved in a coup to overthrow Obama.  But a coup from the Persian Gulf?????

"The decision was made based on a conversation with the Secretary of Defense who, at the end of the talk, believed Gaouette was part of a group of military officers who have been under suspicion for planning a 'Seven Days in May' type overthrow of the US government if President Obama is re-elected," columnist Gordon Duff wrote.

"This is not conjecture," he insisted. "[D]ozens of key officers face firing, hundreds are under investigation, all with direct ties to extremist elements in the Republican Party and the Israeli lobby."

ABC News reports that there were questions of leadership judgment.

There is quite a list of officers being questioned for a variety of questionable behaviors. 

MORMON REPORTER ON THE ROMNEY BUS

From Buzzfeed.   It is sad to see liberals who are so disgusted by certain jokes or comments about some groups do not seem to have that sensitivity when it comes to religion.

GLOBAL WARMING

This article in the Daily Mail says it stopped 16 years ago.

The new data, compiled from more than 3,000 measuring points on land and sea, was issued  quietly on the internet, without any media fanfare, and, until today, it has not been reported. 

This stands in sharp contrast  to the release of the previous  figures six months ago, which went only to the end of 2010 – a very warm year. 

Ending the data then means it is possible to show a slight warming trend since 1997, but 2011 and the first eight months of 2012 were much cooler, and thus this trend is erased.

SAUDIS & IRAN

The Middle East gets even more interesting. Saudis tell the UN that Iranian helicopters and boats are intruding in its air and sea space. 

THE WELFARE STATE

Robert Samuelson challenges the viability of the increasing costs to support America's welfare state.  And some programs like social security have "strayed from their original purpose."  The future will be interesting. There is a point where there will not be enough people paying taxes to support the welfare state.

If you doubt there’s an American welfare state, you should read the new study by demographer Nicholas Eberstadt, whose blizzard of numbers demonstrates otherwise. A welfare state transfers income from some people to other people to improve the recipients’ well-being. In 1935, these transfers were less than 3 percent of the economy; now they’re almost 20 percent. That’s $7,200 a year for every American, calculates Eberstadt. He says that nearly 40 percent of these transfers aim to relieve poverty (through Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance and the like), while most of the rest goes to the elderly (mainly through Social Security and Medicare).

RUSSIAN HISTORY

A crash course!

INVADING MALI?

Radical Islamists have taken over northern Mali and now there is talk of US and European intervention.  

The harshest form of Islamic law in the world is now being imposed at gunpoint. Ancient tombs and shrines are being bulldozed for the exact same reason the Buddha statues were destroyed in Afghanistan. And the place has turned into a rat’s nest of the who’s-who of terrorist organizations operating in North Africa. 

This time around, we aren’t waiting for a devastating attack against an American city to do something about it, and not only because Al Qaeda is already a clearly identified enemy of the United States. Northern Mali may already be the return address for an attack against the United States. Some of the leaders of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb, which was presumably behind the terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, are believed to be based there.

There are war plans that seem to involve the US.

2012 ELECTION: HOW VOTES ARE SHIFTING

An interesting graphic from the Washington Post.  The Republican Party is not necessarily dead--it just has to do a better job of taking advantage of changing voting patterns and interests.

From the New York Times.   The chart goes back to 1972 to show how votes have shifted in presidential elections.

THE MOST PERSECUTED RELIGION IN THE WORLD

It is Christianity according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.  Her viewpoint is interesting because I don't see her as particularly devout.  But she evidently believes that German foreign policy should try to protect Christians around the world.  I wonder how the Obama administration  and State Department view Christian persecution?  Somehow I don't think Washington takes Christian persecution seriously.

Romney may lose, but his ads have been far superior to those of past Republican candidates.  Love vs. Revenge.

 

 

OLIVER STONE'S REVISIONIST HISTORY

Two years ago, Oliver Stone announced that he was preparing to make a documentary about recent American history. It premieres on the CBS-owned cable network Showtime on November 12.

Titled Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States, it is written by Stone and historian Peter Kuznick and narrated and directed by Stone. The series reflects the view Stone expressed in 2010 that the Soviet Union’s leader in the 1930s and ’40s, Joseph Stalin, has “been vilified pretty thoroughly by history,” so what is needed is a program allowing viewers to walk in both his and Hitler’s shoes “to understand their point of view.”

This story caught my eye because it would appear Stone is promoting Stalin, the greatest genocidal killer in history, into a "good" person that America could have worked with.  The Cold War would never have happened, according to this argument, if President Truman had listened to the advice of American communists and their sympathizers.  Stone is just rehashing the history of a WW II era American communist to create his narrative which makes President Truman the bad guy.  I just don't think America would be a better place from listening to the advice of Soviet agents.

SAUDIS BULLDOZING MUSLIM HERITAGE

From the London Telegraph.  I am sure this won't get much coverage because of the power and influence of the Saud family.

In Mecca, the house of one of Mohammed’s wives has been demolished to make space for public lavatories. His birthplace may disappear, too, as part of King Abdullah’s scheme to complement the skyscrapers and shopping malls with a Grand Mosque fashioned from the same materials as a multi-storey car park in Wolverhampton.

As for Islam’s second holiest place, the city of Medina, a recent article by Jerome Taylor in the Independent revealed a megalomaniac plan to pull down three 7th-century mosques. Taylor added: “Ten years ago, a mosque which belonged to the Prophet’s grandson was dynamited. Pictures of the demolition that were secretly taken and smuggled out of the kingdom showed the religious police celebrating.”

And there is more happening.

But what sticks in the craw is the hypocrisy of Muslims who throw a fit if Israeli archaeologists carry out non-intrusive work underneath the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, “Islam’s third holiest place”, as we’re constantly reminded. Such anger would be more convincing if the first and second holy sites weren’t being ploughed up by a police state. Likewise, are cartoons of Mohammed really more offensive than reducing the remains of his life to rubble?

BILL MAHER WARNS WHITE PEOPLE

Bill Maher on Real Time (HBO):  "If you're thinking about voting for Mitt Romney, I would like to make this one plea: black people know who you are and they will come after you."

CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN OBAMACARE

The health-care bureaucrats are rushing to create the structure for Obamacare by the 2014 deadline.  There is the issue that some of the private contractors may not be vetted appropriately.  And the Security Exchange Commission has not been informed as it should have been.  So is there some under-handed wheeling and dealing taking place?

MEDIA COVERAGE OF OBAMA & ROMNEY

A Pew survey: "MSNBC’s coverage of Romney more negative than Fox’s of Obama."

Politico's view.

RUSSIAN IMMIGRANT HATES OBAMA

Alla Axelrod is not too happy with Obama!  But I don't think losing the Russian immigrant vote will really matter much in the end.

DECLINE AND FALL OF WESTERN CULTURE

One picture shows it all!

JEWISH SUPPORT OF OBAMA

Prominent Jews like New York City Mayor Ed Koch and Harvard law professor Allen Dershowitz have been very critical of Obama yet now they are supporting his reelection.  Why?

There’s a place for voters for whom strong support of Israel is the key issue—and that’s the Republican Party. But Israel’s security has long depended on backing from both parties. Without it, the Jewish state will rapidly become a partisan issue, and Israel will invariably pay the price. At a moment when Israel needs strong U.S. support, Koch, Dershowitz, and Saban are looking to postpone that day of reckoning.

We will see if this pragmatism pays off if Obama is reelected.  But the bottom line is that even Obama's Jewish supporters realize that the Democrat Party is going to dump them some day.

MORE ON BENGHAZI

From RealClearPolitics.  "The cover-up is worse than a third string burglary."  The scandal is compared to Watergate when Nixon tried to hide that scandal--this is a pretty stiff charge.

This cover-up, like that in Watergate, goes right to the top. What's being covered up is much worse than a "third rate burglary." Why was security so lax? Why were the ambassador's pleas for more turned down? Why did the president lie? Americans have a right to know. Few in the media have tried to find out.

Appeals to their integrity are unlikely to get "mainstream" journalists to do their jobs, since they have so little of it. Self preservation may. The leaked emails expose journalists who touted the administration's story as gullible chumps, corrupt shills, or both.

Spooks and diplomats are angry at the attempt to make them scapegoats; furious that the president didn't lift a finger to help their comrades in the consulate during the seven-hour siege. More leaks may be on the way. If they fail to follow up, journalists could lose more credibility than the president. They haven't much credibility left to lose.

More on a coverup.  Obama refused to give permission to help the Benghazi diplomats even when Hillary requested it--an interview with author Ed Klein.  

Background on what Ambassador Stevens was doing.  The Libya to Syria weapons pipeline was involved.

From WAPO.  What was the NSC doing? The President had some kind of briefing on 9/10?

DEMOCRAT CAMPAIGN AD

From MoveOn.org.  Find it here.

CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION AROUND THE WORLD

From the London Telegraph. Don't see this issue covered much in the secular media.

Imagine the unspeakable fury that would erupt across the Islamic world if a Christian-led government in Khartoum had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Muslims over the past 30 years. Or if Christian gunmen were firebombing mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers. Or if Muslim girls in Indonesia had been abducted and beheaded on their way to school, because of their faith. 

Such horrors are barely thinkable, of course. But they have all occurred in reverse, with Christians falling victim to Islamist aggression. Only two days ago, a suicide bomber crashed a jeep laden with explosives into a packed Catholic church in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 100. The tragedy bore the imprint of numerous similar attacks by Boko Haram (which roughly translates as “Western education is sinful”), an exceptionally bloodthirsty militant group. 

Abu Hamza, the 7/7 ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan and other totemic figures were allowed to practise their religion openly in Britain, yet there is scarcely a single country from Morocco to Pakistan in which Christians are fully free to worship without restriction. Muslims who convert to Christianity or other faiths in most of these societies face harsh penalties. There is now a high risk that the Churches will all but vanish from their biblical heartlands in the Middle East.

OLIVER STONE'S DISENCHANTED VIEW OF OBAMA

Oliver Stone, a liberal, tears into Obama in his new book.  Stone attacks Obama on his lack of Wall Street reform; health care; Afghanistan; civil liberties; imperialism; and defense spending.

DRONE STRIKES

Slate has an interactive map showing the drone strikes in Pakistan from the Bush years into the Obama presidency.  It shows how Obama stepped up the attacks significantly.

THE OLD AMERICAN CHARACTER HAS DISAPPEARED

George Will's recent column "Mugging Our Descendants" is quite sobering.  What are the consequences of piling up the public debt?  His column is baased on the work of Nicholoas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute.  Some of the statistics he gives are:
 
1.  Between 1960 and 2010, entitlements exploded from 28 percent to 66 percent of federal spending. By 2010, more than 34 percent of households were receiving means-tested benefits.
 
2.  “he growth of entitlement spending over the past half-century has been distinctly greater under Republican administrations than Democratic ones.
 
3.  Today, 27 percent of adult men do not consider themselves part of the workforce: “A large part of the jobs problem for American men today is not wanting one.” Which is why “labor force participation ratios for men in the prime of life are lower in America than in Europe.”
 
4.  In 1960, an average of 455,000 workers were receiving disability payments; in 2011, 8.6 million. Nearly half of the 8.6 million were “disabled” because of “mood disorders” or ailments of the “musculoskeletal system and the connective tissue.” It is, says Eberstadt, essentially impossible to disprove a person’s claim to be suffering from sad feelings or back pain.
 
5.  “In 1960,” Eberstadt says, “roughly 134 Americans were engaged in gainful employment for every officially disabled worker; by December 2010 there were just over 16.”
 
6.  For every 100 industrial workers in December 2010, there were 73 “workers” receiving disability payments.