Friday, February 28, 2014
RUSSIA'S "UNCONTESTED ARRIVAL"
The administration is not calling the movement of Russian troops into the Crimea an "invasion" but an "uncontested arrival." Clearly the Obama administration does not want to see this as a crisis or the infringement of Russian interests on the Ukraine. I can't ever recall when the term "uncontested arrival" was ever used in history. Not even Chamberlain in the 1930s was clever enough to come up with this terminology. So don't look for Washington to do much to pressure Putin.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
RUSSIA SEEKING BASES
From Ria Novosti. It looks like Putin wants to be a much larger geopolitical player. Russia is trying to get bases in Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, the Seychelles, Singapore and several other countries.
Most of those bases are in the western hemisphere. . .he is sending a message to Obama and Washington.
Most of those bases are in the western hemisphere. . .he is sending a message to Obama and Washington.
CORRUPTION IN THE BUREAUCRACY
I suspect this is the tip of a much larger iceberg. From the Washington Examiner: "Top Treasury employees swindled thousands of dollars, in-the-know bosses did nothing." The taxpayer is footing the bill for the corruption and high-living that takes place in the higher level of the bureaucracy.
THE IRS SCANDAL TIMELINE
From the Wall Street Journal, "Connecting the Dots." Bradley A. Smith gives a timeline to how the scandal developed. However, he doesn't mention Obama's 2009 speech in Arizona where he jokingly kidded about using the IRS to audit his enemies--was this a Freudian slip? And a number of Democrat senators were pushing the IRS to engage in its singling out of conservative groups.
The mainstream press has justified its lack of coverage over the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups because there's been no "smoking gun" tying President Obama to the scandal. This betrays a remarkable, if not willful, failure to understand abuse of power. The political pressure on the IRS to delay or deny tax-exempt status for conservative groups has been obvious to anyone who cares to open his eyes. It did not come from a direct order from the White House, but it didn't have to.
The mainstream press has justified its lack of coverage over the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups because there's been no "smoking gun" tying President Obama to the scandal. This betrays a remarkable, if not willful, failure to understand abuse of power. The political pressure on the IRS to delay or deny tax-exempt status for conservative groups has been obvious to anyone who cares to open his eyes. It did not come from a direct order from the White House, but it didn't have to.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
ABORTION RACIST?
In Mississippi 72% of the babies aborted are black even though whites make up a slight majority of the population. Sounds like genocide to me. I wonder where Planned Parenthood stands on this? Its founder Margaret Sanger would not have been particularly concerned. One of her quotes regarding African-Americans: "...human weeds,' 'reckless breeders,' 'spawning... human beings who never should have been born."
And if you look at Table 12 on this CDC report whites have a much lower abortion rate across the states that reported than blacks and Hispanics.
And if you look at Table 12 on this CDC report whites have a much lower abortion rate across the states that reported than blacks and Hispanics.
POLITICAL APPOINTEES IN OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
From WAPO. An academic appointee to the National Council on the Humanities was expected to sign a document that she would never criticize the Obama administration in order to be appointed.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
WHERE ARE THE SUPPORTERS OF THE CHAVEZ REGIME NOW?
7 famous supporters of the leftist dictator of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Most of his supporters were (are?) the Hollywood elite.
Monday, February 24, 2014
EVENTS IN THE UKRAINE
John Fund's assessment--television and images played a major role in the events.
Regimes can stay in power in an age of mass media only if they have enough murderers willing to gun down people in the street. Snipers were willing to kill their fellow countrymen in the streets around the Maidan last Thursday, but their superiors reached a breaking point when the shots didn’t achieve the desired level of fear. “The shooting stopped when the security chiefs realized the game was over — not because they didn’t have enough Kalashnikovs, but because they proved ineffective: For one person killed, many more came out on the Maidan,” Maria Semykoz, a Ukrainian economist from Lvov, told me by e-mail.
The activities of Ukrainian protesters are compared to medieval military tactics.
But to understand why the protests succeeded in toppling Yanukovych, it’s worth taking a glance at its strategies and military-style tactics. The protesters not only built a broad and inclusive coalition, but innovated where it mattered most: on the streets.
Really, it turned medieval.
Protesters shot fireworks with makeshift launchers. In combination with throwing stones and using slingshots, they overwhelmed disoriented Berkut special forces units, who were pelted with flying objects as fireworks exploded around them.
Regimes can stay in power in an age of mass media only if they have enough murderers willing to gun down people in the street. Snipers were willing to kill their fellow countrymen in the streets around the Maidan last Thursday, but their superiors reached a breaking point when the shots didn’t achieve the desired level of fear. “The shooting stopped when the security chiefs realized the game was over — not because they didn’t have enough Kalashnikovs, but because they proved ineffective: For one person killed, many more came out on the Maidan,” Maria Semykoz, a Ukrainian economist from Lvov, told me by e-mail.
The activities of Ukrainian protesters are compared to medieval military tactics.
But to understand why the protests succeeded in toppling Yanukovych, it’s worth taking a glance at its strategies and military-style tactics. The protesters not only built a broad and inclusive coalition, but innovated where it mattered most: on the streets.
Really, it turned medieval.
Protesters shot fireworks with makeshift launchers. In combination with throwing stones and using slingshots, they overwhelmed disoriented Berkut special forces units, who were pelted with flying objects as fireworks exploded around them.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
IRS & OBAMA TARGETING
From the Heritage Foundation. A discussion of how Obama attempts to stop groups that oppose him.
Opponents are targeting businesses or business leaders who support conservative causes, for example.
“Media Matters, David Brock’s group, has intentionally made clear in fundraising pitches their intention to expose donors, so that other left-wing groups and they can organize boycotts of these conservative donors,” said Smith.
CP Politics discusses how Obama tried to silence groups supporting his Democrat rivals in 2008.
"You go all the way back to the Democratic Primary in the Spring of 2008, and you find Bob Bower filing a complaint with the Federal Election Committee against an organization called the American Leadership Project, which was backing his opponent in the primary, Hilary Clinton," Strassel recalled. She argued that the IRS targeting scandal is only the latest version of this sort of political attack. The Obama campaign also went after a group supporting John Edwards, the WSJ columnist said.
Opponents are targeting businesses or business leaders who support conservative causes, for example.
“Media Matters, David Brock’s group, has intentionally made clear in fundraising pitches their intention to expose donors, so that other left-wing groups and they can organize boycotts of these conservative donors,” said Smith.
CP Politics discusses how Obama tried to silence groups supporting his Democrat rivals in 2008.
"You go all the way back to the Democratic Primary in the Spring of 2008, and you find Bob Bower filing a complaint with the Federal Election Committee against an organization called the American Leadership Project, which was backing his opponent in the primary, Hilary Clinton," Strassel recalled. She argued that the IRS targeting scandal is only the latest version of this sort of political attack. The Obama campaign also went after a group supporting John Edwards, the WSJ columnist said.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
THE LEFT & THE MEDIA
The case for the Liberal attempt to control the media.
Cronkite even used to close his broadcasts by intoning, “and that’s the way it is, today” followed by that day’s date. They insisted that they were just giving us news and that they were impartial, and they did sound dispassionate, but reality was otherwise. By choosing what was news, what they prioritized, the tone they used and whom to interview, the old set of journalists were able to bias the news. Comment, context and background in the transmission of news massage the message. It wasn’t just news we were getting. When Cronkite turned against the Vietnam War the gig was up, and LBJ knew it, saying famously, “If I’ve lost Cronkite I’ve lost the nation.” The nation really did pay attention to what Uncle Walter said.
Cronkite even used to close his broadcasts by intoning, “and that’s the way it is, today” followed by that day’s date. They insisted that they were just giving us news and that they were impartial, and they did sound dispassionate, but reality was otherwise. By choosing what was news, what they prioritized, the tone they used and whom to interview, the old set of journalists were able to bias the news. Comment, context and background in the transmission of news massage the message. It wasn’t just news we were getting. When Cronkite turned against the Vietnam War the gig was up, and LBJ knew it, saying famously, “If I’ve lost Cronkite I’ve lost the nation.” The nation really did pay attention to what Uncle Walter said.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
EVOLUTIONARY & HOMOSEXUALITY
Researchers in Great Britain are struggling to find how evolution can support the homosexual belief that homosexuality is genetic.
But since gay and lesbian people have fewer children than straight people, a problem arises.
"This is a paradox from an evolutionary perspective," says Paul Vasey from the University of Lethbridge in Canada. "How can a trait like male homosexuality, which has a genetic component, persist over evolutionary time if the individuals that carry the genes associated with that trait are not reproducing?"
But since gay and lesbian people have fewer children than straight people, a problem arises.
"This is a paradox from an evolutionary perspective," says Paul Vasey from the University of Lethbridge in Canada. "How can a trait like male homosexuality, which has a genetic component, persist over evolutionary time if the individuals that carry the genes associated with that trait are not reproducing?"
IRS RULES & FREE SPEECH
From the Chicago Tribune. The IRS wants to curb free speech, but it also lets some social advocacy groups off the hook by letting them camouflage political activity.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Monday, February 17, 2014
CAMPAIGN DONATIONS, 1989-1914
From Open Secrets: a list of the biggest donors to Republicans and Democrats.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
THE PERSONALITY CULT OF CHE GUEVERA
What Michael Totten observed in Cuba regarding the glorifcation of Che Guervara in Cuba. . .and how at least one American is brain dead regarding the horrible atrocities committed by Che in the name of his communist revolution. There are more posters of him in Cuba than of Fidel and Raul Castro!
“Just as Jacobin Paris had Louis Antoine de Saint-Just,” wrote French historian Pascal Fontaine, “revolutionary Havana had Che Guevara, a Latin American version of Nechaev, the nineteenth century nihilist terrorist who inspired Dostoevsky’s The Devils. As Guevara wrote to a friend in 1957, ‘My ideological training means that I am one of those people who believe that the solution to the world’s problems is to be found behind the Iron Curtain.’…He was a great admirer of the Cultural Revolution [in China]. According to Regis Debray, ‘It was he and not Fidel who in 1960 invented Cuba’s first corrective work camp,’ or what the Americans would call a slave labor camp and the Russians called the gulag.”
“Just as Jacobin Paris had Louis Antoine de Saint-Just,” wrote French historian Pascal Fontaine, “revolutionary Havana had Che Guevara, a Latin American version of Nechaev, the nineteenth century nihilist terrorist who inspired Dostoevsky’s The Devils. As Guevara wrote to a friend in 1957, ‘My ideological training means that I am one of those people who believe that the solution to the world’s problems is to be found behind the Iron Curtain.’…He was a great admirer of the Cultural Revolution [in China]. According to Regis Debray, ‘It was he and not Fidel who in 1960 invented Cuba’s first corrective work camp,’ or what the Americans would call a slave labor camp and the Russians called the gulag.”
US HEADED FOR DEMOGRAPHIC DISASTER
Reacttons to Harry S, Dent Jr.'s book, The Democratic Cliff. The US is facing the same destiny Japan began in the 1980s.
From the New York Post: Implicitly, Dent is saying: Don’t blame politicians, the decline of manufacturing, education or cheap foreign imports for the economic stagnation that has already begun and will continue for many years. Blame your parents and grandparents for losing interest in having children back in the Sixties.
The Amazon reviews.
From the New York Post: Implicitly, Dent is saying: Don’t blame politicians, the decline of manufacturing, education or cheap foreign imports for the economic stagnation that has already begun and will continue for many years. Blame your parents and grandparents for losing interest in having children back in the Sixties.
The Amazon reviews.
DEMOCRATS VIEW OF WORK
From Michael Goodwin:
"Opportunity created by affordable, quality health insurance allows families in America to make a decision about how they will work, or if they will work,” Jay Carney said. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi applauded the law for freeing people from “job-lock.”
"Opportunity created by affordable, quality health insurance allows families in America to make a decision about how they will work, or if they will work,” Jay Carney said. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi applauded the law for freeing people from “job-lock.”
HILLARY PREPARES FOR 2016
The New York Post reports that the Clintons have an enemies list that includes Dems who supported Obama.
The Daily Mail adds more information.
From Time: Then-Sen. John Kerry, who would succeed Clinton as Secretary of State years later, was among the worst offender in the eyes of Clinton aides, according to the book, HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton. Kerry endorsed Obama at a critical moment in the race, after Clinton had recovered from losing the Iowa caucuses to win the New Hampshire primary.
The Daily Mail adds more information.
From Time: Then-Sen. John Kerry, who would succeed Clinton as Secretary of State years later, was among the worst offender in the eyes of Clinton aides, according to the book, HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton. Kerry endorsed Obama at a critical moment in the race, after Clinton had recovered from losing the Iowa caucuses to win the New Hampshire primary.
The Hill: “It wasn’t so much punishing as rewarding, and I really think that’s an important point,” said one source familiar with Bill’s thinking. “It wasn’t so much ‘We’re going to get you.’ It was ‘We’re going to help our friends.’ I honestly think that’s an important subtletly in Bill Clinton, in his head. She’s not as calculated, but he is.”
It would be political malpractice for the Clintons not to keep track of their friends and enemies. Politicians do that everywhere. The difference is the Clintons, because of their popularity and the positions they’ve held, retain more power to reward and punish than anyone else in modern politics. And while their aides have long and detailed memories, the sheer volume of the political figures they interact with makes a cheat sheet indispensable. “I wouldn’t, of course, call it an enemies list,” said one Clintonworld source. “I don’t want to make her sound like Nixon in a pantsuit.”
It would be political malpractice for the Clintons not to keep track of their friends and enemies. Politicians do that everywhere. The difference is the Clintons, because of their popularity and the positions they’ve held, retain more power to reward and punish than anyone else in modern politics. And while their aides have long and detailed memories, the sheer volume of the political figures they interact with makes a cheat sheet indispensable. “I wouldn’t, of course, call it an enemies list,” said one Clintonworld source. “I don’t want to make her sound like Nixon in a pantsuit.”
Saturday, February 08, 2014
NBC COVERAGE OF THE OLYMPICS
The Soviet period of Russian history is referred to "as one of history's pivotal statements."
George Orwell, call your office. As he wrote in “Politics and the English Language,” in 1946, such euphemisms are “designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable,” and certainly describing Communism as “one of modern history’s pivotal experiments” fits the bill in spades
George Orwell, call your office. As he wrote in “Politics and the English Language,” in 1946, such euphemisms are “designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable,” and certainly describing Communism as “one of modern history’s pivotal experiments” fits the bill in spades
Friday, February 07, 2014
US FOREIGN POLICY IN DISARRAY
Richard Fernandez summarizes the disintegration of US-Russian relations. The situation in the Ukraine is dismal and in an attempt to weaken US relations with Europe Russia leaked the "f__k the EU" quote from a state department official. And on top of this problem there is the failure of US policy in the Middle East and Iran.
The irony is that Obama campaigned on the platform of “smart diplomacy.” But as things have turned out, he was smart only in his own mind.
Under his watch the 70-year-old Pax Americana has fallen apart. Al-Qaeda has flourished. President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines caught the tone of rising concern when he warned, in an interview with the New York Times, that China was doing to Southeast Asia what Nazi Germany did to Central Europe in the late 1930s. “At what point do you say, ‘Enough is enough’? Well, the world has to say it — remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent World War II.”
Scary times.
The irony is that Obama campaigned on the platform of “smart diplomacy.” But as things have turned out, he was smart only in his own mind.
Under his watch the 70-year-old Pax Americana has fallen apart. Al-Qaeda has flourished. President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines caught the tone of rising concern when he warned, in an interview with the New York Times, that China was doing to Southeast Asia what Nazi Germany did to Central Europe in the late 1930s. “At what point do you say, ‘Enough is enough’? Well, the world has to say it — remember that the Sudetenland was given in an attempt to appease Hitler to prevent World War II.”
Scary times.
NEW US AMBASSADOR TO ARGENTINA
President Obama has appointed Noah Mamet as his nominee for the ambassador to Argentina. Mamet's only qualification appears to be that he bundled $1 million in donations for Obama's presidential campaign. While political hacks are often appointed to ambassadorships, normally an appointee has "some" knowledge of the country to which he or she is being sent. Mamet has admitted never even visiting a Latin American country let alone Argentina. And evidently there have been a series of less than stellar diplomatic appointees to various posts by Obama. Obama may even out do President Ulysses S. Grant for poorly prepared appointees.
From the Washington Examiner. Mamet's ignorance is even more marked in this account. Argentina is in the middle of a crisis and he seems to know nothing.
Buzzfeed reported Mamet's nomination angered Democratic donors. "Democratic Party donors complain privately that Mamet unfairly leveraged his clients' work for his own political gain and benefited from a close personal relationship with President Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina," Ruby Cramer wrote.
From the Washington Examiner. Mamet's ignorance is even more marked in this account. Argentina is in the middle of a crisis and he seems to know nothing.
Buzzfeed reported Mamet's nomination angered Democratic donors. "Democratic Party donors complain privately that Mamet unfairly leveraged his clients' work for his own political gain and benefited from a close personal relationship with President Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina," Ruby Cramer wrote.
BILL GOTHARD
I never was fond of this fellow and his teaching, but he was "adored" by so many conservative Christians. When his brother was in some kind of sex scandal many years ago, I thought something was not right. Now the truth of Bill Gothard's sexual misconduct is coming out. Authoritarian Christian leaders do not model Jesus Christ in any way.
PUTIN & THE OLYMPICS
Bob Costas in his Olympic NBC coverage had a rather laudatory piece on Vladimir Putin's leadership in the world. He noted that last year Forbes magazine named him the most influential leader on the world stage (Obama was second).
I was thinking that maybe Bob Costas should have run this clip.
I was thinking that maybe Bob Costas should have run this clip.
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
COPTS IN EGYPT
The future for Egyptian Copts is rather grim. So much for Islamic compassion. Dhimmni status is the goal.
Patterns of persecution continued after the revolution and were reinforced. The number and scope of the attacks swelled dramatically and they were no longer limited to obscure villages or shantytowns but spread to the streets of Cairo and in front of the official TV headquarters. Church buildings were attacked and burned, mob violence against Copts was on the rise, and the new horror of forced evacuations from villages was becoming more common. Copts in small villages were increasingly forced to adhere to the Islamists’ standards and vision enforced on the ground. Accusations of blasphemy and insulting religion rose with Copts as their primary targets. Seven Copts today linger in Egyptian prisons as a result of court verdicts due to such accusations. The most worrisome aspect for Copts remains the participation of their neighbors, coworkers, and people they had grown up with in attacking them. Even if the Egyptian state ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood miraculously decided to intervene, the local hatreds are now impossible to contain.
Patterns of persecution continued after the revolution and were reinforced. The number and scope of the attacks swelled dramatically and they were no longer limited to obscure villages or shantytowns but spread to the streets of Cairo and in front of the official TV headquarters. Church buildings were attacked and burned, mob violence against Copts was on the rise, and the new horror of forced evacuations from villages was becoming more common. Copts in small villages were increasingly forced to adhere to the Islamists’ standards and vision enforced on the ground. Accusations of blasphemy and insulting religion rose with Copts as their primary targets. Seven Copts today linger in Egyptian prisons as a result of court verdicts due to such accusations. The most worrisome aspect for Copts remains the participation of their neighbors, coworkers, and people they had grown up with in attacking them. Even if the Egyptian state ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood miraculously decided to intervene, the local hatreds are now impossible to contain.
IRS DRAFTING SECRET RULES
From the Daily Caller.
The Obama administration’s Treasury Department and former IRS official Lois Lerner conspired to draft new 501(c)(4) regulations to restrict the activity of conservative groups in a way that would not be disclosed publicly, according to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
No one would then no about why an organization was denied approval (or approved).
At least 292 conservative groups were subjected to unfair targeting between 2010 and 2012, against six liberal groups that were allegedly given similar treatment.
I guess the IRS believes liberals are more honest.
The Obama administration’s Treasury Department and former IRS official Lois Lerner conspired to draft new 501(c)(4) regulations to restrict the activity of conservative groups in a way that would not be disclosed publicly, according to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
No one would then no about why an organization was denied approval (or approved).
At least 292 conservative groups were subjected to unfair targeting between 2010 and 2012, against six liberal groups that were allegedly given similar treatment.
I guess the IRS believes liberals are more honest.
Tuesday, February 04, 2014
CBO ANALYSIS OF OBAMACARE, 2014
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just looks at the facts--it is not a partisan group. Its analysis of the impact of Obamacare is grim. It is slowing growth and an estimated 2.3 million jobs will be lost.
CNBC.
The Hill.
Fox News.
The White House response. Jobs have been added because of Obamacare. A critique of the White House statement.
CNBC.
The Hill.
Fox News.
The White House response. Jobs have been added because of Obamacare. A critique of the White House statement.
AMERICA IN DECLINE
An interesting column by David Goldman on America's weakened condition economically. He has graphs to support his argument.
It’s hard to ignore a second signal that the U.S. economy is dead in the water, though: on Monday the Institute for Supply Management reported the steepest drop in manufacturing orders since December 1980.
The problem is NOT government spending, contrary to the well-meaning obsession of the Tea Party. That will BECOME the problem a decade or two from now. The problem now is obstacles to investment: the highest corporate tax rate in the world, onerous regulation, the crazyquilt uncertainty of Obamacare. America needs aggressive tax cuts and regulatory rollback. It also needs to spend more on infrastructure, which is becoming a major obstacle to growth. It needs to spend more on R&D, particularly on cutting-edge military R&D. The way to do this, I’ve argued for years, is to emulate Roosevelt’s alphabet-soup federal agencies and put unemployed Americans to work repairing infrastructure at $20 an hour, rather than paying $50 an hour to the construction unions. That’s heresy from a free-marketeer like me, but it makes economic sense and will drive the Democrats crazy.
It’s hard to ignore a second signal that the U.S. economy is dead in the water, though: on Monday the Institute for Supply Management reported the steepest drop in manufacturing orders since December 1980.
The problem is NOT government spending, contrary to the well-meaning obsession of the Tea Party. That will BECOME the problem a decade or two from now. The problem now is obstacles to investment: the highest corporate tax rate in the world, onerous regulation, the crazyquilt uncertainty of Obamacare. America needs aggressive tax cuts and regulatory rollback. It also needs to spend more on infrastructure, which is becoming a major obstacle to growth. It needs to spend more on R&D, particularly on cutting-edge military R&D. The way to do this, I’ve argued for years, is to emulate Roosevelt’s alphabet-soup federal agencies and put unemployed Americans to work repairing infrastructure at $20 an hour, rather than paying $50 an hour to the construction unions. That’s heresy from a free-marketeer like me, but it makes economic sense and will drive the Democrats crazy.
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