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Republicans To Craft and Present Alternative To the ACA...

Republicans To Craft and Present Alternative To the ACA...
by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Purveyor if Truth


House Republican leaders are adopting an agreed-upon conservative approach to fixing the nation’s health-care system, in part to draw an election-year contrast with President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

The plan includes an expansion of high-risk insurance pools, promotion of health savings accounts and inducements for small businesses to purchase coverage together.

Well by gosh it's about time! Finally the Republicans are getting their proverbial s**t together on a healthcare plan. Only problem is the ACA is moving steadily along its path to full implementation like the lumbering bureaucratic behemoth that it is. In other words the Republicans are five years too late and a few million (or is it a billion) dollars short.

In any case this is a welcome development. At the very least it should be hoped by everyone of all political persuasions that it opens honest and constructive dialog between the two parties. If it does maybe, just maybe, the nation will wind up with a first rate affordable health care system.

“We’ve got to get to where you can compare the two perspectives, Republican and Democrat,” House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in an interview. “We’ve got all of these bills out there, so we’re going to take this core of policies and grow from there.”

Absolutely! Presenting a comprehensive plan with open honesty verifiable data will be key. Washington DC from top to bottom has become a city of politicians and lawmakers the public simply no longer trusts.

“It’s going to be all about giving people a choice,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), an anesthesiologist.

Freedom of choice with a multitude of options is where health care insurance choices should be. Democrats and Progressives want a one size fits all universal government ran and operated national health system. Make no mistake, the ACA was designed precisely with that ultimate end in mind. A system to make that happen is already being put in place. By design it can and will grow

Democrats dismissed the Republican approach as a purely political gesture ahead of this year’s midterm elections, saying the focus on long-held conservative ideas was more of an attempt to rally Republicans than to find bipartisan solutions.

“If they had fixes, I’d certainly consider it,” Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.) said. “But if they are trying to scrap it all, going back to the bad old days, it’s not going to go anywhere.”

We'll just have to wait and see if the Democrats are really willing to listen and work to better a flawed ACA.

My guess, they'll give the Republicans the middle finger. After all, that is what they believe the Republican did to them during the work up to the ACA (with some justification) and as it as been said, payback is a bitch.

Read the rest of the article BELOW THE FOLD

Via: Memeorandum



Speak Softly And Carry A ... Wet Noodle? ... J. D. Longstreet

Speak Softly And Carry A ... Wet Noodle?   ...   J. D. Longstreet
Speak Softly And Carry A ... Wet Noodle? 
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*******************************

I must tell you -- I am embarrassed by our President. I mean red-faced embarrassment. 

Obama is proving to be the empty suit we warned he was back in 2008.  That doesn't make me feel any better ... being right, I mean.  In fact, it scares the heck out of me.

Look.  Mitt Romney was right about Russia being our number one enemy.  (OK.  So it's a toss-up between Russia and China, but Russia always seems to be more overt with their meanness.)

Putin is going to get away with his invasion and occupation of the Ukraine.  If you think he will stop with the Crimea, well, don't hold your breath. Even western Ukraine, which leans heavily toward the western orbit, was all, for hundreds of years, a part of Russia -- and Putin believes it still is. He feels he is entitled to take it back into the Russian fold anytime he pleases and right now -- he pleases.  

Putin is not bothered by Obama's and Kerry's threats.  He knows they are empty threats from two guys who can talk a pretty fair game but when the chips are down and it's time to put up or shut up, he has nothing to fear because they will not put up. Unless, of course, he fears another torrent of words emanating from the golden throat of one B. H. Obama.

"Roll out the teleprompters, Obama is gonna attack!"  How utterly ridiculous.

One of Obama's sycophants has stated that Obama is the smartest President the United States has ever had.  (Huh?  No kidding?)  How the heck would we know?  His scholastic records have been sealed.  Could it be his grades were so bad he's embarrassed by them? 

He is as naive as the day is long.  His mouth continues to write checks his derrière is unable to cash.  That IS NOT the attribute of an overly intelligent person.  And yet he continues to get high praise from the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party, the Mainstream Media.  As they continue to run interference for Obama, they simply overlook the fact that the game is already lost and everybody knows it -- save for the MsM.

Now here's the thing.  Scary as it may be, we have to prepare for three more years of brinksmanship in which the US will be embarrassed internationally by the world's tin pot dictators and rag-tag bully boys around the globe. Don't expect Obama to put up a fight.  He can't.  It isn't in him.  The wiring just isn't there.

THIS is the most serious of problems with having a civilian President, with no military experience, as Commander-in-Chief of the US military.  I'd really like to see the constitution amended to demand that all Presidential candidates in the future have experience in the military -- even if it is only as a Private in the Infantry.   At least that experience is more than Obama has.

So, then.  Russia takes the Ukraine. Then what? The Baltic states?  Why not?  Whose going to stop Putin?

All the while the other bad guys are watching and learning.  China wants those Islands in the South China Sea.  You know ... the Islands that Japan owns.  What or who is to stop them?  Japan?  Well, there's a problem.  You see, we have a mutual protection treaty with Japan that we will go to war to protect them and they, in turn, will do the same for us. Do you really think Obama will stand by that treaty?  Really?  How do you think the Japanese feel about now?

And lest we forget... China wants Taiwan back.  The island, formerly know as Formosa, has been protected by another treaty with the US that binds America to fight for, and alongside, Taiwan in the event she is attacked by China, or anyone else for that matter.   

Then there is North Korea.  The DPRK badly wants to, uh, merge with South Korea.  How long before the North decides Obama will do nothing but make another speech if he dispatches his crack troops south, takes Soul and reunites the Koreas under the communist flag of his regime.  Well, he has three years to do it and that can be a very long time with Washington dragging its feet.                      

Then there is Iran.  Currently Iran has dispatched naval forces to patrol waters in the Atlantic just outside US territorial waters.  Many believe it is a dress rehearsal for Iran lobbing a missile with an EMP warhead over Washington, or worse -- deeper over the continental US.  Those Iranian "boats" should be shadowed, day and night, by some of the biggest and baddest combat ships at our disposal.  Not to mention the underwater escort of US submarines snorkeling  every few hours just to get the Iranian's attention.  Iran should know that if they pull the trigger, it WILL be a suicide mission. 

The plain truth is -- Iran does not respect nor fear Obama.  So they continue to pluck the tiger's whiskers.

Neither does any other country on the globe.

There is a price to pay when the US is neither respected or feared.  Unfortunately for the remainder of the world that price will be extracted from them as well as from the Americans.

With all this to consider, with war clouds gathering in a 360 degree circle around America, what is Obama obsessing about today?  Non-existent Global Warming! 

It is disturbing to this old country boy that with all the danger surrounding America at this hour, our President is probably off on another of those endless vacations playing golf and whooping it up with celebrities much as Nero fiddled while Rome burned.  Like Nero, he will most assuredly blame his failures on someone else.

He can't fail, you see.  Why, he's the smartest President the US has ever had.  RIGHT!!

J. D. Longstreet

The Continuing Hoax of Global Warming! ... J. D. Longstreet

The Continuing Hoax of Global Warming!   ...   J. D. Longstreet
The Continuing Hoax of Global Warming!
Dems Intend to Ram "Global Warming" Down Our Throats, too!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**************

I would have enjoyed a full-throated belly laugh at the spectacle of idiots on display recently as the Democrats held an all night talkathon on Global Warming, er, Climate Change. 

As I said -- I WOULD HAVE -- had I not remembered how such antics -- so easily seen through by those of us with a modicum of formal education and a smattering of street smarts -- is soaked up by the so called Low Info Voters who are the Democrat's "useful idiots" and shock troops on election day. Like sponges, they soak up the lies, the distortions, the utter nonsensical propaganda spewed forth by the democratic "Bovine Scatology machine" then repeat it with simulated authority to their fellow low lights ad nauseum.

Look.  The Democrats KNOW how ridiculous, how stupid, they appear involved in such antics. And yet they continue acting the fool. 

Why?

Because that's what you do when your supporters enjoy lives entirely supported, from cradle to grave, by the redistribution of the working people's wealth by way of the government dole, dispensed through the public trough. You play down to them.  You try to depict yourself as one who exists on the same intellectual level as the low info voters.  It's called gaining the confidence of the masses.  However, it is quickly recognized by those of us who feel ourselves moderately intelligent as what we call a CON GAME! 

It is a time honored method of playing voters for fools. And it works. And the Democrats know it. They have become past masters at its deployment.

Those of us who know and understand the entire Climate Change movement is a hoax understand that it is not about the climate, at all.  It IS about power.  The Democrats have it and they intend to keep it -- no matter how depraved they must appear to their constituents to do so.

But first, they feel a pressing need to scare the living daylights out of their supporters.  That's why we are being inundated, everyday, by volumes of data telling us how hopeless life will soon be on this planet, as a result of Global Warming/Climate Change. 

Well, now, wait a consarned minute! What if things WON'T be so bad IF we do, indeed, have a warm-up of the planet?

Suppose, for just a moment, there actually happens to be something to this Global Warming theory.  Suppose that the earth’s temperature does actually rise.  Will it be ALL doom and gloom? Judging from history the answer is a resounding NO!

For one thing that water shortage, we have been warned about, would be ended by global warming

How about agriculture?  I mean, CO2 is a natural fertilizer to plants.  At  nationalcenter.org they report the following:

“Global warming could also mean greater agricultural productivity and greater water conservation. CO2 acts as a fertilizer on plant life while reducing plant transpiration (the passage of water from the roots through the plant's vascular system to the atmosphere). Thus, with global warming, agricultural output could be expected to increase while making less demand on the water supply.” -- SOURCE:  http://www.nationalcenter.org/KyotoQuestionsAnswers.html

Well, now… the "Warmers" never mention that -- do they? 

Lets look a little closer.

At heartland.org we learn this:  “According to climatologist, the villain causing a warmer world is the unprecedented amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) we humans keep pumping into the atmosphere. But as high school biology students nationwide know, plants absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen. Researchers have shown that virtually all plants will do better in a CO2-rich environment than in the current atmosphere, which contains only trace amounts of their basic food.

Plants also prefer warmer winters and nights, and a warmer world would mean longer growing seasons. Combined with higher levels of CO2, plant life would become more vigorous, thus providing more food for animals and humans. Given a rising world population, longer growing seasons, greater rainfall, and an enriched atmosphere could be just the ticket to stave off famine and want.”
-- SOURCE:  http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=13860

These folks at heartland.org go on to say:  “The doomsayers have predicted that a warmer world would inflict tropical diseases on Americans. They neglect to mention that those diseases--such as malaria, cholera, and yellow fever--were widespread in the United States in the colder 19th century. Their absence today is attributable not to a climate unsuitable to their propagation, but to modern sanitation and the American lifestyle, which prevent the microbes from getting a foothold. It is actually warmer along the Gulf Coast, which is free of dengue fever, than on the Caribbean islands, where the disease is endemic. 

 ... …… … research shows that a warmer world would be a healthier one for Americans and would cut the number of deaths in the U.S. by about 40,000 per year, roughly the number killed on the highways.”  -- SOURCE:  http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=13860  

You know, I’m beginning to like Global Warming!  It would seem the advantages of a warmer climate seriously outweigh the disadvantages -- by far. 

As one who dwells near the coast, I have been looking forward to having “beach-front” property.  Turns out that all the scare tactics concerning the rise in the oceans and the inundation of the coastline is something of a pipe-dream.

“A slowly rising sea level constitutes the only significant drawback to global warming. The best guess of the international scientists is that oceans will rise about 2 inches per decade.
 

The cost to Americans of building dikes and constructing levees to mitigate the damage from rising seas would be less than $1 billion per year, an insignificant amount compared to the likely gain of over $100 billion for the American people as a whole.”  (also from: http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=13860  )

Now.  Let's take a closer look at the health benefits of Global Warming.  Consider this:

“Although satellite data over the past 25 years show no trend toward increasing global temperatures, Americans would benefit from improved health and quality of life if the earth's climate were to warm moderately over the next few decades. Based on an analysis of data on mortality, illness and wage rates:
 

If temperatures rose 2.5 degrees Celsius, deaths in the United States from respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and influenza, diseases of the circulatory system and even infectious diseases would drop by about 40,000 per year.

Warming might reduce medical costs by about $20 billion annually.

Since Americans prefer warm climates and will accept lower pay to work in those areas, they would value a warmer climate at between $40 billion and $61 billion.
 

A 1995 report by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expressed concern that increases in heat waves would cause a rise in deaths from cardio respiratory complications, vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue and yellow fevers. But the IPCC report also acknowledged that global warming would result in fewer cold-related deaths.

In addition, a 1992 IPCC report found that over this century, in much of the world, winter and night temperatures have risen while summer temperatures have fallen.”
  SOURCE:  http://www.ncpa.org/ea/eamj96/eamj96e.html

I must tell you that all this information, countering the fear mongers over the theory of Global Warming, is out there and it’s yours for the few minutes it will take you to look it up on the Internet.

You may ask, why then are the proponents of Global Warming so strident, so insistent and so unceasing in the drive to convince Americans that Global Warming is real and is threatening the life of billions of people on this planet, but especially those who inhabit the USA.

Simple, really.

Because Global Warming is not about Global Warming!!!  The Global Warming movement is not about saving the earth.  It is about destroying America!  That is the goal.  That is the target the Global Warming movement is aiming for.

Cloaked by their love for the Earth and the people of the earth, the world’s socialist movement, and Marxist movement, long ago saw the environmental movement as a new front in their war against the one nation on this earth which has withstood their onslaught the longest -- America.  They have successfully infiltrated our institutions of higher learning and molded the minds of our young to believe their lies and their propaganda.  And it worked!  

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma has said the catastrophic threat of Global Warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."  The good Senator is correct.

It is strange, indeed, that we find ourselves deluded by a simple hoax.  When the combined knowledge of the world is at our fingertips today.  The Internet “runneth over” with knowledge countering the alarmists of the Global Warming Movement. Yet, the purveyors of information, those who guard the portals of information, namely the Mainstream Media, refuse to disseminate that information.  Instead they heap column upon column of propaganda from the “doom and gloomers”.

It is past time for Americans to recognize the Global Warming movement as the hoax that it is.

Maybe P. T. Barnum was right when he said:  “There’s a sucker born every minute”!  The Global Warming crowd is COUNTING on it!

J. D. Longstreet

Sacrificing America's Troops ... J. D. Longstreet

Sacrificing America's Troops   ...   J. D. Longstreet
Sacrificing America's Troops
America's Next War Will Be A Blood Bath
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

****************

Look.  I'm no "super patriot" or anything approaching that.  I do, however, have a deep and abiding love for America and at one point in my youth signed my name to the necessary papers stating that I would willingly give up my life for my country as a soldier in the United States Army.

I was a lousy soldier.  In fact, I was so bad, I was chosen for Officer's Candidate School, which I promptly turned down,  ticking off my commanding officer something awful and, as a result, I spent much of my time for the next several weeks working KP duty and any dirty job the CO could come up with to degrade and humiliate me.

Not a problem.  I stuck to my guns and he to his.  I never felt the least bit of remorse for my decision -- and -- given the same set of circumstances as then, I'd make the same decision again.  However, had I known then what I know now, I'd have taken that slot at OCS school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma  and got my behind off Tank Hill at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

C'est la vie -- such is life.

This stroll down Longstreet's Memory Lane is brought to you courtesy of Obama's gutting of the US military.

For those of you who have been around as long as I have, you understand what is happening and what will, inevitably, happen when next we go to war.  (Never think, for an instant, there will not be a "next" war.  There is always, repeat -- ALWAYS --  another war. So long as human beings inhabit this planet, we're going to fight each other.  Why, it's the greatest adventure a man can have and we're not about to give it up.)

Students of American history know that our Founding Fathers had an aversion to a standing army.   The Founders knew that standing armies often used the power with which they had been entrusted to enslave the very peoples they had sworn to protect even though they had been organized and sworn-in precisely to protect the country from its enemies. 

Eventually, reaching the decision that a country MUST, indeed, have a trained military to protect its interests, the Founders settled upon a military under strict civilian control.  It has worked tolerably well, but there is a prickliness between our military leaders and the civilian politician controllers that is, at times, palpable.

It is an open secret that (until recently), by far, the US military -- from the enlisted ranks to the officer corp are of a conservative political bent.  It is the nature of the beast.  The political left has been attempting to destroy that bastion of conservatism, which has been a burr under their saddle for two and a half centuries.

Today they are making serious inroads into the military and the destruction of same is well within sight.  By infusing the greatest fighting force the world has even known with homosexuals and female combat soldiers, the capability of the American combat arms to be effective on the battle field has been deeply compromised.  We will see just how compromised when we count the body bags returning from wherever the next war is fought, if, of course, it is not fought here on our own shores (which is a growing possibility every day).

With a joke of a Commander-in-Chief (who could not successfully command a Cub Scout troop) in charge, and rules of engagement that do not allow American forces to inflict serious, lasting, damage on the enemy and subjects our fighting forces to unacceptable levels of unnecessary danger, more and more of our troops are breaking down mentally from the mounting stress of the battlefield with no way to release the pressure in a good old knock -down-drag-out, no-holds-barred, winner-take-all firefight.

That happens when you take a group of men and train them to kill in great numbers as quickly and efficiently as possible -- and then force them to take the enemies abuse in battle without exercising their superior ability to wipe the floor up with said enemy. It is depressing and degrading to our fighting forces. 

Esprit de corp is all but gone.   Active duty soldiers dread being outed as US soldiers for fear of being thought of as homosexuals.  As a result fewer recruits are enlisting.  If the job market was better, there would be even less fresh recruits signing up.

The US military which has traditionally enjoyed the love and devotion of the American civilian is finding that admiration has slipped and is continuing to decline at an alarming rate.

With the political purge of the officer corp by the Obama regime, we have lost far too many fighting generals and are left with parade ground peacocks and politician soldiers whose worst fight to date has been a traffic jam on some freeway. 

Think I'm nuts, huh?  Just remember:  The US hasn't won a war since the Second World War!  Still think I'm blowing smoke??

And now the Obama Regime intends to cut the standing Army to levels it has not experienced since BEFORE WWII. 

For those of you too young to remember, after World War One we cut the US military tremendously.  When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the US barely had a military.  We had what we are about to have again, a bare bones force of old equipment and badly trained kids for soldiers. 

So.  What happened?  Well, for six or eight months after the US decided to officially put up a fight, our military was slammed all over the globe.  We lost one battle after another.  Our dead and wounded piled up because we had nothing -- and no one -- with which to fight.  The will and the spirit was there, but not the wherewithal. 

That was what the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo was all about.  The American public and the American military had become so dispirited the Roosevelt government felt it had to do something to boost morale.  Thus, the Thirty Seconds over Tokyo spectacle.

If the US is called to a conventional war with "Obama's military" we can expect to take unacceptable losses for months, maybe longer.   But this is a different time, a time of Buck Rogers' weapons. 

What I'm attempting to say is this:  if an enemy gets in a first strike and that first strike happens to be a nuclear attack or and EMP attack, the US won't have the time or the opportunity to rebuild it's military.  We will be stuck with whatever we have on hand, both men and materiel.    As a former Secretary of Defense famously said:  "We go to war with the army we have."

Doesn't it make sense to have a standing Army that is the biggest, best equipped, best trained, best led fighting force on earth -- I mean, seeing that there won't be a second chance to get it right?

So far, the Obama Regime has managed to alienate practically every country on earth, to one degree or another, against America.  Even centuries long friends are stand-offish as a result of Obama's unpredictability. 

Usually a country has AN arch enemy.  America has a whole list of them -- anyone of which could deliver a debilitating attack upon our shores at any moment.

The world we live in today is a reflection of the world as it was in the 1930's -- just before it blew up.

There is Russia, China, Iran, North Korea,  the Islamofascists, all of them preparing to hit America with nuclear and/or EMP attacks.  All the while, Obama is cutting our military to the bone and decimating our nuclear arsenal.

I am very concerned that we have missed our chance to save America.  By reelecting Obama in 2012, America chose defeat, ruin, and eventual enslavement.  And there appears no chance for redemption in the coming Presidential Election in 2016. 

More and more, I am coming to understand that the dye is cast, the Rubicon has been crossed.  Our course has been chosen and set.   I get the feeling that the train has left the station, the journey has begun and, unfortunately, we are all along for the ride.

Defeatism?  No.  Defeatism was in November 2012.  No.  This is acceptance of reality.

J. D. Longstreet

Obamacare: A legacy unraveling

Obamacare: A legacy unraveling

Obamacare: a legacy unraveling

 

While the majority of the population slept our misdirected government engineered major changes to their legacy legislative effort, Obamacare. Most startling of the alterations, many will be able to keep their traditional plans intact deep into 2017. Thirty other changes, through Executive edicts, have been implemented to make this egregious law more palatable to voters in 2014 and  subsequently for the presidential election in 2016. Driven by political considerations candidates running for Democrat seats in the House and Senate are running away from this catastrophe in evolution. Many ardent supporters of Obama are having second thoughts concerning his agenda, as the President tweaks the legal nightmare he has inflicted on the nation. Dozens of mandates have been modified, extended and or simply circumvented to keep the Affordable Care Act afloat. Insufficient numbers of paying subscribers have signed up in the Exchanges. Reportedly four million have enrolled. Those in the know question the mix of this group. White House officials are mum whether these new Exchange patrons have been moved off Medical Assistance to this newest of subsidized programs. This leaves a small window of possibility that a few paying customers joined. Many are asking the question whether the Affordable Care Act is on life support. Omens of failure are omnipresent. Insurance premium nightmares are being reported throughout the country, rising by as much as 100%.  Those who have not lost their jobs are seeing their hours cut by 25% or more. Clever means have been purported to deny patrons of this disaster the very elements advertised by the President and his minions. Obamacare was never about improving health care in America. Instead it was designed to usurp one-sixth of the economy and create a unitary payer system with the central core controlled by the Washington D.C.  bureaucracy. Confusion has been introduced into the health system, at every level, which completely defeats its endgame, better medical care for all.  Affordable care Act has been found to be not so affordable. From the perches of many Obamacare is unraveling and could sink under its own weight. In subsequent articles the dangers of Obamacare will be discussed.

 

Mark Davis, MD author of Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Prescription for Disaster. http://amzn.to/1d4poKi.  https://www.createspace.com/3801630
platomd@gmail.com   President of Davis Book Reviews and Healthnets Review Services. www.healthnetsreviewservices.com

Government encroachments on liberty, in the name of fighting terrorism

 Government encroachments on liberty, in the name of fighting terrorism
Commentary by James Shott

These days talk of government excesses is routine. A list of recent infractions contains things like the Internal Revenue Service using its resources to persecute applicants for non-profit status and the National Security Agency collecting data on every American’s phone calls and email.

Government excesses have been growing for a long time, and since 19 Muslim terrorists hijacked four airliners and successfully crashed three of them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the U.S. has been taking strong measures to detect potential terrorist threats, and these are by far the most threatening excesses.

The first of these was the USA Patriot Act, created and passed less than two months after the 9-11 attacks, and signed into law by President George W. Bush. Things have not improved since that fateful law passed.

The problem with such measures is that while they may or may not help prevent a terrorist attack, they present a frightening opportunity for government abuse. Americans are rightly distrustful of such mechanisms, and our Constitution prohibits our government from adopting liberty-crushing measures like these.

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) was passed and signed into law by President Barack Obama, and greatly expanded the power and scope of the federal government to fight the War on Terror, including codifying into law the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects without trial. Including US citizens. Under the new law the US military has the power to carry out domestic anti-terrorism operations on US soil under the broad new anti-terrorism provisions provided in the bill.

This is not the first time such extraordinary misuse of the military has been considered. In 2002 a similar discussion arose, but was ultimately quashed by Mr. Bush.

Those features in the NDAA are unacceptable, even in the name of fighting terrorism. Prior to the NDAA the Posse Comitatus Act prohibited Federal military personnel and units of the United States National Guard under Federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. Americans also enjoyed the protections of the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The intention was to prevent precisely what the 2012 NDAA enacted into law.

Nevertheless, Mr. Obama signed the NDAA into law, saying, “I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation and prosecution of suspected terrorists.”

However, according to Michigan Democrat Senator Carl Levin, Mr. Obama demanded that American citizens be included under the detention law and that the President of the United States have exclusive authority to invoke the statute. “The language which precluded the application of Section [1021] to American citizens was in the bill that we originally approved…and the administration asked us to remove the language which says that U.S. citizens and lawful residents would not be subject to this section,” Sen. Levin said after the NDAA was signed into law.

Critics all across the political spectrum rightly opposed the NDAA because of elements in section 1021.

While many government excesses and cases of misbehavior go along uninterrupted, a federal judge appropriately put a stop to the offending elements of the 2012 NDAA only months after it took affect.

Federal Judge Kathleen Forrest granted a preliminary injunction striking down those sections of the NDAA that sought to provide the president the power to indefinitely detain citizens without benefit of their rights.

Judge Forrest concluded that Section 1021 “…failed to ‘pass Constitutional muster’ because its broad language could be used to quash political dissent.” In a statement clearly directed to lawmakers, she added, ”Section 1021 tries to do too much with too little – it lacks the minimal requirements of definition and scienter that could easily have been added, or could be added, to allow it to pass constitutional muster.”

The Obama administration, however, then fought successfully to appeal Judge Forrest’s injunction, and a 2013 version of the bill contains the same intolerable provisions as the 2012 version, and was also signed by President Obama.

Despite Mr. Obama’s comforting words, despite the bi-partisan opposition to section 1021, Mr. Obama demanded that language exempting America citizens and lawful residents from the provisions of Section 1021 be removed, he fought for and won keeping the Section alive in the 2012 version, and signed the 2013 version with those provisions contained in it.

No matter how much you may trust Mr. Bush, Mr. Obama, or any future president, no president can be allowed to have the absolute authority provided in the NDAA to detain citizens without due process, or to set the US military against the people. No individual can be allowed that authority. Ever!

There goes “innocent until proven guilty,” a major protection for citizens against tyranny. Erik Kain, writing on Forbes.com, says: “We’re talking about the stripping away of our most basic freedoms. We’re talking about a potential state that can call me a terrorist for writing this blog post and then lock me up and throw away the key.”

A majority of the US House and Senate approved these measures. Is this what you expect of your elected representatives?



Cross-posted from Observations

Brushfires of Freedom ... J. D. Longstreet

Brushfires of Freedom   ...   J. D. Longstreet
Brushfires of Freedom
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

****************
During this country's first "... times that try men's souls...," a member of a small minority of the American colonists, thought of as a radical, a rabble rouser, even a traitor, kept the fires of freedom burning in the hearts and minds of his fellow colonists.  His name was Samuel Adams.  He was known by his friends as just plain "Sam."

Just plain Sam became a Founding Father of the United States of America.

Sam was born on September 27, 1722 in Boston, Mass..  At the height of his formal education he held a Master of Arts degree from Harvard. 

Sam became a Politician.  He was a tax collector.  So when he wrote those rants concerning the king's taxes, ole Sam knew what he was talking/writing about.

He was elected to Massachusetts Assembly in 1765, became a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774,  signed Declaration of Independence in 1776, became a member of Massachusetts State constitutional convention in 1781, was  appointed Lieutenant Governor of Mass. in 1789. and was elected Governor of Massachusetts, 1794 until 1797.

No grass grew beneath the feet of just plain "Sam."

"Samuel was the son of a merchant and brewer. He was an excellent politician, an unsuccessful brewer, and a poor businessman. His early public office as a tax collector might have made him suspect as an agent of British authority, however he made good use of his understanding of the tax codes and wide acquaintance with the merchants of Boston. Samuel was a very visible popular leader who, along with his second cousin John (John became President), spent a great deal of time in the public eye agitating for resistance."  -- SOURCE:  http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/adams_s.htm

It was as a Massachusetts Assemblyman that Samuel first purposed a Continental Congress.

Of all Sam Adams' accomplishments, the single most important, for me, is his ability to fire up the masses with his writing. Ole Sam could write -- and he had a flare for embedding his passion for freedom and republicanism in every treatise he produced as a pamphlet.

Sam also managed to fire-up the British (and American) King and the British government, too.  When Sam published his circular letter in 1768 calling for colonial non-cooperation with the Brits it prompted the occupation of Boston by British soldiers.  Many historians claim that led to the Boston Massacre in 1770.

"To help coordinate resistance to what he saw as the British government's attempts to violate the British Constitution at the expense of the colonies, in 1772 Adams and his colleagues devised a committee of correspondence system, which linked like-minded Patriots throughout the Thirteen Colonies. Continued resistance to British policy resulted in the 1773 Boston Tea Party and the coming of the American Revolution." -- SOURCE:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Adams  

241 years later, Sam Adams' actions and writings are STILL motivating Americans to political action in defense of freedom.

Ole Sam wrote such sagacious nuggets as:  "It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.' 

He also wrote: "The Constitution shall never be construed... to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."

Sam also wrote this one and I am very afraid we modern Americans have completely forgotten the wisdom it encapsulates:  "The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks."

It is difficult to believe, but Sam Adams is considered a controversial figure in early America. So far as I am concerned, that is pure bunk.  Sam Adams was a passionate patriot who fought for freedom from Great Britain with the skill and talent with which God had blessed him.  This country was extraordinarily lucky to have had a Samuel Adams in the right place at the right time.

Some claim that Sam had been steering his fellow colonists towards independence long before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.  There is written evidence of that.

Then there are others who say Sam was a propagandist who incited his fellow colonists to mob violence to accomplish HIS goals. 

"In January 1748, Adams and some friends, inflamed by British impressment, launched the Independent Advertiser, a weekly newspaper that printed many political essays written by Adams. Drawing heavily upon English political theorist John Locke's Second Treatise of Government, Adams's essays emphasized many of the themes that would characterize his subsequent career. He argued that the people must resist any encroachment on their constitutional rights. He cited the decline of the Roman Empire as an example of what could happen to New England if it were to abandon its Puritan values." -- SOURCE:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Adams

The more one reads of Sam Adams' writings the more he begins to sound very mush like a modern day conservative blogger.  Indeed, I suspect that were he alive today that is exactly what he would be doing.

I did not set out to deliver a history lesson in this piece.  My intention was  to draw a comparison between the literal host of conservative bloggers who write daily much the same message as did Samuel Adams.  Unfortunately the conditions in America have deteriorated until they once again resemble the same conditions between the government and the governed as they did in Sam Adams' day.  The only difference -- we are now suffering oppression at the hands of our own government and not that of a British king.  To this scribe that makes it doubly difficult to abide.

I submit that Americans are going to find they must become bold again.  Sam Adams showed the way.  His love of freedom, his passion for liberty was the fuel that drove him to become a Founding Father of this nation.

Each time we sit or stand passively by and allow our President and our Congress to ignore the constitution with impunity, we are spitting on the constitution. We are effectively "selling-out" our Founding Fathers who risked everything to give us a free nation.   We are also demonstrating disrespect for our fellow Americans who have given their lives, their limbs, and their future on some foreign battle field to preserve the freedom and rights enumerated within our constitution.

What's happening in America today is unconscionable.  Americans standing by and allowing the US to be bludgeoned and bled dry by the domestic communist movement -- with renewed vigor  -- as a result of the election of a Marxist (Communist) President is a deeply troubling mystery.  I cannot fathom it.

We desperately need men of the caliber of Samuel Adams to lead a freedom movement in America today.  Without those men, we will lose out beloved country.

J. D. Longstreet

Game of Stones ... J. D. Longstreet

Game of Stones   ...   J. D. Longstreet
Game of Stones
Czar Putin Resurrecting Old Soviet Empire
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

******************

Once upon a time in the land of Russka, Czar Vladimir of Putin, perceived himself of a notion, and was, thereby, convinced (easily and quickly) that somewhere it was written that he, and ONLY he, would be the savior of the glorious  Empire of the Council of Soviets.  

An invasion of the ancestral home of the feared and ferocious Cossacks was necessary to begin the sacred campaign to restore the empire of the comrades.

The army of Vladimir of Putin, stripped all insignia of the tribe of Russka from their battle dress, disguised themselves as local bands of freedom fighters dedicated to saving the Cossack's homeland from the influence of the western devils led by the Black King of a much diminished mongrel people from many tribes and many lands who were forever fighting among themselves for favors of the Black King or for the Black King's throne.  His domestic weakness stemmed chiefly from the belief by many subjects that he was/is an interloper in the royal line as his genealogy is said  to lead to a paternal origin -- and his own birth -- in the Land of the "Mountain of Whiteness" or Kirinyaga in a land far to the south of the Cossack's homeland and far, far, to the east of the land he now rules.
 
The gravitas and power of the Black King has been measured on the scales of Czar Putin and has been found wanting.  As the question of his legitimacy damaged his value as a leader,  so the fealty and allegiance of the near vassal kings, whose thrones lie near upon the continent of the Cossack homeland, wavered.  Worry rests with varying degrees of security upon the heads of the kings bearing the crowns of the great and ancient kingdoms bounded by the vast cold reaches of the great northern ocean.  Though they treat together in a mutual protection pact their hearts are troubled by the Black King's penchant for seeking refuge behind a cascade of words that pour from his golden tonsils onto mere plowshares and pruning hooks once employed in their original shapes as swords and spears by the Black King's predecessors to win the freedom of these very same northern sea kingdoms from such as Czar Putin. 

Now that the black velvet shadow of the great sun dial is cast upon "their turn" they lurch about leaderless as their fellow descendents of the Alans gaze wistfully westward and see only a setting sun whose rays are slipping quickly away and the lights of a once great city on a hill dimming in the far distance and leaving only darkness, decline, destitution, depression, and the death of a nation allowed only an all too little taste of freedom before it was quickly snatched from them by the power hungry Czar Putin, leader of the great army from the North.

It has become clear to all that this war is a game played between the primary combatants, the Czar and the Black King.  It is already clear that the Black King has lost and is but marking time, marching in place, while the tides of history wash past him.

Czar Vladimir of Putin looks westward.  He would lock gazes with the Black King, but the Black King will not.  A newly formed bi-polar world knows instinctively that the rhetorical war over the Cossack's land has become a "Game of Stones."


With apologies to "Game of Thrones" American author George R. R. Martin and all the producers, directors, actors and everyone affiliated with the excellent production of HBO we have attempted to show just how ancient the the origin of the war, (and that is exactly what it is) in Ukraine really is and the causation, which is even more ancient than the war itself. 

It is extremely rare that the US finds itself negotiating from a position of weakness rather than strength and this lethal bargaining position can only result in many decades of slavery and oppression for those caught behind the digital(?) curtain soon to descend between the two spheres of free and unfree peoples of the earth.

Many of those of us who fancy ourselves students of history are convinced that Czar Putin is intent on resurrecting the old Soviet Empire.  (Note:  I refer to myself as "a student of history" as I am still studying it and learning from it."  Only a fool deliberately ceases to study and learn.)  If we are correct, he is not finished, not by a long shot.  he wants and will take the remainder of the Ukraine. 

It is said that without the Ukraine, Russia is a country.  However, WITH the Ukraine, Russia is an empire!

The Ukraine was, for many centuries, the breadbasket of not only Russia, but of much, if not all, of Europe, as well.  Though Russia is afloat upon a sea of oil, one quickly learns one cannot consume oil as a part of the human diet.  Therefore a source of bread must be secured.   Czar Putin is well on the way to doing just that.

Invading and securing the Crimea for Russia was a given.  As sure as sunrise, Putin would, and did, seize that fertile peninsula mostly populated by old Russian families long inhabitants of that enclave.  It is quickly becoming a staging base of uniformed Russian troops readying for a massive push into the Ukraine proper to the north and west of the Crimea. Oh, those "freedom fighters" in nondescript unmarked uniforms sans unit insignia and country of allegiance insignia appear to this scribe as Spetznaz GRU troops, elite Russian special forces troops under the immediate command of the Russian military much like the US Green Berets and US SEALs.  Their demeanor is far more akin to that of active duty military soldiers than of loosely run, locally controlled, militia units.  No.  Without doubt, they are active duty Russian military.

Driven by a deep seated, DNA ingrained form of national paranoia, Russia has a bloody history of attacking and invading its neighboring countries and holding them at the point of a bayonet to create an empire. Reluctant though the citizens of those enslaved countries have been, they were held together by spit, hay bailing wire, gut wrenching fear,  and 7.72 caliber ammunition belched from the barrels of those infamous AK-47 assault rifles. 

And now, Putin is dead set upon recreating that pseudo empire. It's not real, it's not genuine -- but -- it does have the appearance of the real thing though it is a fake, a mockery, and a falsity.  It serves its purpose -- and that is to fool the "useful idiots" of the west.

Days before those Spetznaz troops showed up in the Crimea, this scribe off-offhandedly mentioned the fact that they would soon arrive.  And they did.

So.  What can the US do?  The short and accurate answer is -- nothing.   The current leadership of the US has neutered our armed forces and left us with hardly enough military strength to protect the homeland and certainly not enough to project what used to be formidable power in diverse places overseas.

No longer.  Obama has transformed the US into that "paper tiger" we have so often been accused of being. 

J. D. Longstreet

Humor of the Week.., or Would That be the Weak..., Hell, Nevermind

Humor of the Week.., or Would That be the Weak..., Hell, Nevermind

Liberal Professors At Rutgers University Displaying Liberal Lunacy... Want to Cancel Condoleezza Rice Invitation To Speak At Commencement Ceremony

Liberal Professors At  Rutgers University Displaying Liberal Lunacy... Want to Cancel Condoleezza Rice Invitation To Speak At Commencement Ceremony
by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth


How is the public served by muzzling one of the most thoughtful, accomplished and respected political voices of her time just because she happens to be a Republican?

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was extended an invitation to speak at Rutgers University graduation ceremonies, as well as receiving an honorary degree from the University. Rutgers University obviously feels this highly intelligent, accomplished, patriotic African American woman was deserving of both the honorary degree and the speaking invitation. Most Americans would agree. Unless you happen to be a liberal professor with a political agenda.

Following is what the New Brunswick Faculty Council of Rutgers University had to say with respect to the university extending the invitation when they voted last week to ask the universities leadership to cancel their invitation.

Condoleezza Rice lacks “moral authority.” She fails to meet the standards of “exemplary citizenship” and she does not have what it takes to “inspire” graduating college seniors.

When something smells of fish, or pure political ideology run amuck, it simply smells, and badly.

Juan Williams, a rational and reasonable liberal with whom it is possible to find agreement with, finds the facts cited by the faculty council to be correct but their conclusion way off the mark.

Yes, apparently the first African-American woman to serve as National Security Adviser and the nation’s Secretary of State doesn’t have what it takes to be honored by Rutgers.

Rice holds a Ph.D. in political science. She has taught college for decades. She was Provost of Stanford University. She worked her way up from a working-class family in the segregated South to the highest echelon of world power and politics.

But according to the Rutgers faculty council, all of that is negated by her service in President George W. Bush’s administration.

They cited her roles in pushing the false claim of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They also point to her support for using enhanced interrogation techniques to get information from terror suspects.

The facts are right. The conclusion is wrong.

I, too, disagreed with many of the policies Rice faithfully supported as a member of the Bush administration. But only partisan hatred can blind the faculty to her extrao

Indeed. Only the blind pursuit of political correctness and the desire to hush the voices of those you disagree with will lead supposedly intelligent, qualified professors to partake in such blatantly partisan actions.

Read the full article and view the video BELOW THE FOLD.

As an aside, thinking about the Debo Adegbile nomination that went down in flames I see some similarities at work after here. After doing a bit more research on Adegbile it's looking more and more like groupthink and political fear may have had a part. But perhaps that's just me.

I would be most interested in hearing what my more liberal leaning readership has to say about the New Brunswick Faculty Council of Rutgers University request to nix the invitation extended to Ms. Rice, PHD and former Secretary of State.

Via: Memeorandum

Israel And The Rest of the World

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

By Dennis MacEoin

Everybody hates Israel. That is not just accepted wisdom, it is a reality that chokes all rational debate on the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. There are exceptions, of course, such as Canada, but most of Western Europe has slipped from support for Israel to support for the Palestinian cause, as if both sides might not have valid claims to the disputed land.

Most Americans are enthusiastic about Israel, but the U.S. government under Barack Obama, has, in recent years, shown increasing antagonism. Unsurprisingly, not a single Muslim nation likes Israel at all.

Many hate the Jewish state precisely because it is a Jewish state -- there seems no other reason why they might hate it. Many, in a display of true prejudice, have never even visited it.

In the world in general, and Europe in particular, anti-Semitism is growing at a rate not unlike the 1930s. It does not take much mental grip to see the link between that escalation of the "oldest hatred" and the refined political and religious rejection of Israel as the one and only state in the world that deserves to be abolished. Or, as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once put it in Farsi, "exterminated" (Umam-e Eslami bayad Isra'il-ra qal' o qam' kard: The nations of Islam must exterminate Israel.)

In a Friday sermon, former Iranian President Rafsanjani also made the statement, "If one day, a very important day of course, the Islamic world will also be equipped with the weapons available to Israel now, the imperialist strategy will reach an impasse, because the employment of even one atomic bomb inside Israel will wipe it off the face of the earth, but would only do damage to the Islamic world."[1]

While the world focuses on Israel's flaws (often imaginary), in Saudi Arabia there are special roads for non-Muslims to ensure they cannot enter Mecca or Medina.


But then, one might surely ask, if everyone hates Israel, will it make the slightest difference if it actually is wiped off the face of the earth? Will it matter if another six million Jews are gassed or driven into the Mediterranean? If most of the people on the planet hate Israel and want to see a massive Palestinian state take its place, then who will weep if the Jews go and the Arabs come and take over, as so many people now say they have every right to do? Would it not be a blow for humanity, justice and people everywhere if the oppressive, violent, and apartheid Jewish state were to be removed from the earth?

Are you starting to feel a bit uneasy about this?

Some might hold back from wishing death on the Jews, but would not hesitate if someone else were to kill them. Or force them to pack their bags and leave their homes to make room for an army of Palestinian "refugees." If you hate Jews enough, nothing may seem too bad for them, and no history of pogroms and the Holocaust will be enough to dissuade you and your friends from doing it all over again, or rejoicing that someone else is doing it for you.

The treatment—or rather, mistreatment—of the Jews stands out in the modern era as the single greatest emblem of man's inhumanity to man. From the Christian (and post-Christian) West to the Islamic East, hatred of Jews has led to unfettered cruelty, and a continuing refusal to accept any form of moral or ethical constraint. However much Jews suffer, anti-Semites want them to suffer more. However far Jews might try to run, their self-appointed overlords will try to hunt them down and start the process of hate and persecution all over again. However much Jews contribute to human civilization, win Nobel prizes, develop cures for illness, create remarkable films, set up hospital units worldwide to treat the sick, irrigate the fields of the poorest farmers and change our lives for the better — the haters sneer and lie and kill Jews with the same knives; and every time a Jew is killed or wounded, dance on the same floors.

And what have the Jews ever done to deserve any of this? Are the Jews really the masterminds behind every war, every revolution, every economic disaster, every plot, even the Holocaust itself? Yes, according to anti-Semites, either the Holocaust never happened and was made up to secure Israel as a country for the Jews; or else the Jews instigated it to force other Jews to flee Europe to Mandatory Palestine, to take it over. Just read a few comments on YouTube as a measuring stick for this mental illness.

Of course, I know the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion says all this (apart from the Holocaust slurs), but the Protocols is a forgery;[2] and not just a forgery, but a cheap and shoddy product of the Tsarist secret police before World War I. Even though it is now more than a century later, some people still treat this libel as Gospel, and write comments on YouTube to prove that the Jews are the worst of mankind.

In Arab countries, after many years, the Protocols is still a bestseller. And Hitler's Mein Kampf, tagged in 2011 by Waterstone's in the UK as the "perfect Christmas present", in its electronic form is selling hand-over-fist. How hurtful -- and deeply unjust -- that is to Jews who have just made critical advances in medicine or saved a Palestinian child's life when operating in an Israeli hospital, or journeyed to Africa to teach better methods of farming, or traveled with an Israeli aid team to Haiti or the Philippines to save yet more lives.

The Jews are not the worst of mankind; they are like the rest of us, some bad, some good, and some so talented they have left indelible marks on every field of human endeavor. They have always been an underappreciated force, above all in the realm of ethics. No religion has developed in so well-structured a fashion as Judaism; its impact on Christian and Islamic ethics is well attested. Without the Jews, a major force for good and a barometer for moral concern would be taken from civilization entirely -- or is moral concern something the world would secretly rather do without?

The irony is that it is precisely these prejudiced, conniving, and racist haters of Jews -- including those who envisage the destruction of the one and only Jewish state and those who conjure up a realistic threat of a second Holocaust -- who have the arrogance to treat the Jews, including the Israelis, as if they are the most prejudiced, the most conniving, the most racist of all mankind -- and the most immoral -- and, of course, deeply inferior to Christians or Muslims.

The false piety of much Christian condemnation of Israel is matched only by the cheap moralizing of the followers of Islam in their attacks, both physical and verbal, on the Jewish state; or their failure to recognize that Jerusalem was always a Jewish city; that there were two Jewish temples there; and especially in the obsessive Palestinian refusal to recognize any part of Israel as a Jewish entity, or to make peace with Israel, or even to acknowledge that there has been a continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land for three thousand years.

The loss of Israel -- engineered as it would be by a coalition of "progressive" Muslims and Western secularists, along with anti-Semitic Christians and hard-line Islamists -- would not be a victory for any of the values we hold dear. On the contrary, it would be one of the greatest disasters to befall mankind. The values we consider highest – such as peacemaking, neighborliness, cooperation, caring for the less fortunate, for those of different religions, ethnicity, and mutual defence against aggression – would start to crumble, and our sense of human progress would weaken and lose its hold on our minds and hearts. If we could do that to the Jews, a people of great deserving, who have done so much for us, what might we then do to others? For even if the Jews were gone, there would still be other, weaker people for us to persecute and eliminate.

Does such a prognosis seem inflated, even barely respectable? Israel, however, did not emerge in the way most other countries have done, as an expression of traditional boundaries, a containment of one or more specific languages, a repository of a single culture, a place determined by one king, one dominant holy man, or one parliament, or one body of laws. Of course, Israel has had several of those things, beginning with the establishment, on that same plot of land, of the oldest set of laws after Hammurabi: the Ten Commandments and the earliest set of social welfare laws.

Modern Israel had the original acclamation of much of the international community; it set up a democratic parliament, established a set of basic laws, and, when other nations let boatloads of refugees sink at sea, served the Jews as the only sanctuary, free from a persecution which still exists to this day, and, sadly, which is once again being orchestrated by people supposedly educated enough to know better.

For civilization — any civilization — to work, there must be a core set of values that crosses from one culture to another, acquiring on the way a sort of universal validity. Small differences may exist between one country and another, one language and another, and even one religion and another. With few exceptions, people who belong to Western civilization believe that it is absolutely wrong to take a human life (except in life-or-death cases or self-defense). We strongly believe in human rights even if we are not always observant of them. In general, Western countries advocate and legislate for equality between men and women, equal justice under law, an independent judiciary, and freedom of and from belief. We attempt to expunge racism in its various forms from our streets and businesses. We defend minorities, religious, political or gender-based. And free speech, we defend that too, even when it hurts us to do so.

Islamic civilization holds often starkly different values. A man's or woman's life may be taken, often by beheading or stoning, for a wide range of "sins," from heresy (really, free thinking; there, called blasphemy) to adultery to apostasy (more free thinking). A Muslim also may not be punished for killing a non-Muslim, or even another Muslim if his intent is to further the cause of Islam. Although not Islamic in any true sense, female genital mutilation and honor killings are far from uncommon. They happen in the UK and the US, mainly within Muslim communities – as well as in Muslim countries.

Perhaps Islamic civilization would find the disappearance of the Jewish state a satisfactory gift. But Western civilization might not wear this too well, except for that part occupied by those who consider themselves as members of the far left -- Stalinists, Trotskyites, anarchists and anti-Semitic Christians who believe they do the will of God, and even Quisling Jews -- when they curse Jews and boycott Israel.

When the Nazis took power, Germany seemed to be one of the most civilized countries in the world, with a rich culture, a deep grasp of academic achievement, and a growing mastery of science and technology. Within a few years, the country had been reduced to the status of the most barbaric of countries, the most abusive of human rights, perhaps the most savage political entity in history. And not many years later, Germany was in ruins, destroyed by the very totalitarianism it had used to impose itself on the rest of Europe.

Across the world, people came to condemn the great wrongs Germans had done to mankind. Germans rebuilt their nation only by rigorously excluding that tendency to totalitarianism. Yet today, young Germans march against Israel and, in fighting Israel, fight the Jews. What conceivable right do the scions of that black period and the years of wiedergutmachen [compensation] have to treat Jews as untermenschen [subhuman] once again, to march in the streets where the SS marched, to bellow as their grandfathers bellowed, Juden Raus, "Jews out" -- out of "Palestine," out of the Middle East, out of everyplace.

Whatever its detractors may say, Israel declares loudly that it is a country where the best Western values are honored, where democracy, the rule of law, the creation of new laws through an elected parliament, the fair treatment of all minorities, rights for women, for gays, for all citizens, Jews and non-Jews alike, are demanded. But say it is also a Jewish country based on Jewish ethics, and someone of limited intellect will come along clutching a copy of the Torah, the Talmud, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or anything else they can lay their hands on, and declaiming that they can prove Judaism is a bloodthirsty religion that has always worked to defeat and mistreat non-Jews. In the past years, I have only known a violent and angry Islam; yet the world is silent. The world excuses Islamic murder, but focuses on flaws, often imaginary, on the part of Israel.

The very establishment of a Jewish state stood for more than even its founders guessed. It was open defiance of the universal impulse to persecute and kill Jews.

Only in their Holy Land could the Jews weave their own destinies at last -- and do. Israel thrives. They have won Nobel prizes and made some of the greatest advances in science, technology, and medicine. Israelis create world-class hospitals and universities. They have written more scientific papers per capita than any other nation, and have saved children's lives – Palestinian children's lives – in a dozen operating theaters, and sent aid teams around the world to save yet more lives. Israeli "apartheid"? Far from it. All facilities and opportunities are equally open to all Israelis: Black, White, Arab, Christian, Jew -- everyone. Far more than in say, Saudi Arabia, where there are special roads for non-Muslims to ensure they cannot enter Mecca or Medina, or where a Bible is not even allowed in the country. Or all the mosques where every Friday congregants are told that Jews are the sons of pigs and apes. It would seem that is racism; that is apartheid.

What the destroyers of Israel would do is negate every one of Israel's achievements and more, and leave a hole in the world, in their own world. What, after all, would take the place of Israel? Another failed state, riven by strife, characterized by failure, poverty-stricken, dependent, just another victim of the authoritarian Arab way of governing? Is that something that will set civilization towards new horizons? It is up to us to keep the lights on, to place civilization against barbarism, to put our minds and bodies between Israel and all who mean her ill.

[1] "Iran Calls for the Destruction of Israel," Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, Center for Special Studies, Special Information Bulletin, November 2003, citing Khabar TV, December 14, 2000. Cited in Joshua Teitelbaum, What Iranian Leaders Really Say About Doing Away with Israel, Jerusalem Center for Pubic Affairs.
[2] See David Aaronovitch, Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History, London, Jonathan Cape, 2009, pp. 22-48.

Rational Thought Prevails In The Senate...

Rational Thought Prevails In The Senate...
by: Les Carpenter
Ration Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth


Today the Senate rejected President Obama's nomination of Debo Adegbile to head the DOJ's civil rights division. In a surprising 47-52 vote seven democratic senators joined republicans to deny Mr. Adegbile confirmation.

This defeat highlights the break with the Obama administration and Senate leadership by more moderate centrist democrats. In what is developing as a tough election cycle for democrats seeking reelection to the Senate this defeat only adds to the democratic parties potential difficulties in holding the Senate.

From THE HILL:

The Senate rejected President Obama’s nominee to lead the Justice Department’s civil rights division on Wednesday in a stunning 47-52 vote in which seven Democrats abandoned their leadership.

The vote was all the more remarkable for the five Democrats in tough reelection races this year who voted in vain to move Debo Adegbile’s nomination forward.

Their votes now become ammunition for Senate Republicans, who argued Adegbile was unfit to serve because of his legal work in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing Philadelphia

police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981.

The vote was a stinging defeat for the White House that showed President Obama is politically out of step with some centrist Democrats heading into the midterm elections.

Obama labeled the vote a “travesty” based on “wildly unfair” character attacks.

Skip

Every Republican voted against the nomination, forcing Reid to secure the support of at least 50 members of his 55-person caucus. Vice President Biden presided over the vote and would have been available to break a tie, but his vote was not needed.

It was the first time a nomination has gone down since Democrats changed the Senate’s filibuster rules to require simple majority votes on many procedural motions.

Skip

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) insisted the vote was not a sign that Obama is losing support among Senate Democrats.

“The vast majority of Democrats voted to confirm him so I don’t think it says anything about the president,” said Reid, who switched his vote from “yes” to “no” in a procedural move that allows him to bring the nomination up again for a future vote.

Skip

Democratic leaders immediately faced questions about whether it was wise to schedule a vote without knowing for certain the nominee could attract enough support.

“These 2014 Democrats can’t be happy with their leadership over the Adegbile vote. They all walked the plank while others got to vote ‘no,’ ” said a Senate GOP leadership aide.

A senior Democratic leadership aide said the White House and Adegbile were informed that he might fall short of the 50 votes needed to advance his nomination but both wanted to roll the dice and proceed.

Skip

Abu-Jamal has long been a cause célèbre in leftist political circles who argue his case exposed racism in the criminal justice system — he even has a street named after him in Paris. But Republicans say he was an unrepentant cop killer and noted there was overwhelming evidence he shot and killed Faulkner at point-blank range.

GOP senators claimed Adegbile’s record of “left-wing advocacy” would further politicize the Justice Department.

The choice of Adegbile split civil rights and law enforcement groups and put Democrats in an awkward position of having to pick a side.

“It was a tough one because you had the NAACP on one side and police officers on the other so people voted the best they could given the circumstances,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who voted for Adegbile.

Complete article BELOW THE FOLD.

Sometimes reasoned moderate heads within the Democratic Party act to do the right thing. Hope springs eternal...

Via: Memeorandum

Strachota Becomes First Wisconsin Majority Assembly Woman Leader After Kramer Ousted

State Representative Strachota became the first woman to be elected as Assembly majority leader after Representative Kramer was ousted by GOP.

By H. Nelson Goodson
March 6, 2014

Madison, WI - On Tuesday,  State Representative Patricia Strachota (R-West Bend) was selected as the new Assembly majority leader, making her the first woman to get elected to the position in state history. She replaced former majority leader State Representative Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha).
Wisconsin state Assembly Republicans on Tuesday ousted Representative Kramer of Waukesha, as majority leader after inappropriate touching of women surfaced. Some of the inappropriate behavior by Kramer was witnessed by other members of the Assembly.

Joseph Pepe Gets 210 Years In U.S. Prison For Raping Seven Cambodian Girls

Michael Joseph Pepe 

(News photo taken in 2006)

Pepe showed no remorse when he was sentenced on Friday in federal court after a 2008 conviction for raping and molesting at least seven girls, who are Cambodian nationals between the age of 9 to 12.

By H. Nelson Goodson
March 5, 2014

Los Angeles, CA - On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Dale S. Fischer sentenced Michael Joseph Pepe,  60, of Oxnard,  a retired U.S. Marine captain to 210 years in a federal prison for raping and savagely molesting at least seven young Cambodian girls between the age of 9 to 12, while he was living abroad. Judge Fischer also ordered Pepe to pay $247,000 in restitution to the victims. 
Pepe was convicted in May 2008 for seven counts of having sexual contact with a child abroad, under a federal law that makes it a federal crime for Americans to travel abroad to rape, molest or pay to have sex with children. During the trial, prosecutors presented testimony from six of the seven girls, Pepe sexually abused. The girls, who were between the ages of 9 and 13 at the time of the abuse, testified that Pepe drugged, bound, beat and raped them. Several victims testified that Pepe required them to give him sexual massages and perform oral sex on him on a daily basis.
Each count brought a 30 year sentence for Pepe.
Pepe was taken into custody at his Phnom Penh home in 2006 by Cambodian National Police on charges that he repeatedly drugged, beat, raped and forced the young girls to perform oral sex between the Fall of 2005 to June 2006. Pepe was extradited to the U.S. in 2007.
Judge Fischer said in court that Pepe showed no remorse and that the stiff sentence would send a strong message that U.S. Citizens that travel abroad for the purpose to engage in sexual contact with children would be severely punished. "Monstrous does not begin to capture the horror of the crime or the impact on the victims," Judge Fischer said.
Pepe moved to Cambodia in 2003 and got married. Federal prosecutors claimed that he paid a prostitute a finder's fee to get him young girls between the ages of 9 to 15. He would even pay the parents of the girls about $30 a month or $300, so he could spend time alone with the girls while acting on his sexual urges on the girls. The parents of the girls were also taken into custody for selling their daughters for sex and prostitution. 
The prostitute who acted as Pepe's broker testified on videotape about bringing young victims to his residence. Pepe paid the broker and the victims' families for unlimited access to the girls, according to federal prosecutors. 
Police in Cambodia found a bedroom that was equipped with bondage type of restraints, including condoms, viagra, mind altering drugs and pedophilia newspaper articles. They also confiscated his computer,  which had hundreds of images of child pornography and children held in bondage and adults performing sex acts on them.
"This sentence clearly demonstrates to the Cambodian people that the United States will not tolerate this type of abuse," said William E. Todd, the United States Ambassador to Cambodia. "This sentence not only signals to the Cambodian victims our commitment to justice, but it will also act as a powerful deterrent for those individuals who are contemplating traveling to Cambodia to engage in illegal sexual activity with minors."
Homeland Security Investigators received substantial assistance in the investigation from the Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service and the Cambodian National Police.
Pepe was prosecuted under the provisions of the PROTECT Act, which took effect in 2003. The act substantially strengthened federal laws against predatory crimes involving children outside the United States by adding new crimes and increasing sentences.

Putin, Obama, and Irrationality All Around...

Putin, Obama, and Irrationality All Around...
by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Purveyor of Truth


As the United States and the World watch and react (or not react, sometimes the best response) we are witnessing geopolitical posturing (and hyperbole) kicking into high gear. The management of this site has stocked up on healthy snacks (and not so healthy beverages :-) ) to watch the irrationality place itself out.

As much as it is tempting to pontificate on the current political idiocy unfolding before our eyes a sense of calm prevails here at Rational Nation USA. Knee jerk reactions, something our rather intellectually challenged officials and politicians in both parties seem to suffer from, are never advisable and usually always turn out badly.

Thinking Vietnam, Iraq, and the whole host of costly nation building endeavors that failed to produce the desired results the government of the United States had told the populace it would this site ain't gonna say too much. Other than provide links to several articles readership an click on for the most recent idiocy.

Putin's Press Conference Proved Merkel Right: He's Lost His Mind

Rubio, Cotton: Congress must act quickly to punish Putin, support Ukraine

"We Are Speaking Very Loudly. We Are Carrying a Small Stick."

In the Ukraine crisis, the U.S. has a credibility problem

Lindsey Graham Blames Benghazi For Ukraine Crisis


Putin's claim of no Russian troops in Crimea stuns Kerry

Obama, the feckless tyrant

Yep, I'm ready for a good stiff Scotch, straight up please.

Enjoy...

Via: Memeorandum

LAPD Long-time Policy Denies Media Access To Booking Photos Of Suspects Charge With Felonies

The Los Angeles Police Department continues to deny media access to mugshots of suspects charged with felonies, unless they are looking for more victims.

By H. Nelson Goodson
March 4, 2014

Los Angeles, CA - Hispanic News Network U.S.A. has learned that the Los Angeles Police Department has a policy that denies media requests for mugshots of those suspects charged with a felony crime, unless they are looking for more victims, according to Andrew Smith, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Commander of Media Relations and Community Affairs. Also, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LACSD) will not release a mugshot of a suspect charged with a felony unless the arresting agency approves the release of the mugshot or booking photo. The LACSD will release a mugshot, if they made the arrest,  but also certain review is taken into consideration to avoid being liable.
The media relations spokesperson for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office (LADA) can't even release a photo, but press releases are made public of suspect arrests and those charged with felony crimes without providing mugshots, according to Greg Risling, Public Information Officer for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.
The LAPD, LACSD and the LADA seemed to put liability first than the public interest to see who was actually charged, since a name of suspect has been released for an alleged crime that was committed. Some citizens might believe,  the LAPD does a disservice to the public it serves by not providing an image of a suspect charged for a felony due to liability. The less people get to know of a suspect's appearance (ID) or photo, less victims would ever know he/she was ever arrested for a crime.
The mugshot privacy policy has been in place for years, maybe it's time to modernize their policies and provide a courtesy to media like other law enforcement agencies in the country have by providing images or booking photos to media outlets of those suspects they actually charge with a felony and other crimes. 
In this particular case, the booking photo of Andron Gazarov, 33,  of North Hollywood has not been officially released, but a booking photo of Gazarov was posted by Wirednixon dot com.
Gazarov was arrested last Wednesday and charged with a felony charge for kidnapping, attempted kidnapping and great bodily harm after punching a babysitter and grabbing 4-year-old Grady O'Brien from the babysitter in Westchester, California. Luckily,  Jesus Delgado, a Taco 2 cook heard the screams for help and acted quickly. Delgado managed to catch up with Gazarov and was able to take O'Brien from Gazarov's grip. Delgado held Gazarov until police arrived and arrested him.
Since then, Delgado has been hailed as a hero and a fund was created to help him with his daughter's medical bills. She has a heart condition. Over $22.1K has been raised so far for Delgado. 

Reidin’, Rightin’, and ‘Rithmetic

 Reidin’, Rightin’, and ‘Rithmetic
Commentary by James Shott

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) gave a speech on the Senate floor last week where he said this about the disastrous implementation of the Affordable Care Act: "Despite all that good news, there’s plenty of horror stories being told. All of them are untrue."

This abjectly stupid remark ignores the problems millions of the people Harry Reid serves as Majority Leader have encountered at the hands of this Democrat-created nightmare, some of them with life-threatening consequences.

Some say he really was alluding to claims made in ads paid for by the Koch brothers, about which he specifically commented shortly after that major gaffe, claiming the Kochs are trying to “buy America” through Americans for Prosperity, a 501(c)(4) started by David Koch and Richard Fink.

He believes that the Koch brothers are the single greatest threat to liberty, “spending hundreds of millions of dollars telling Americans that Obamacare is bad for them.”

However, Koch Industries donated less than $3 million in the 2012 election cycle, earning 77th place on the Top Donor List of OpenSecrets.org. Americans for Prosperity is reported to have spent $40 million, but does not appear on the Top Donor List.

Top Donor organizations ahead of Koch Industries include: the National Education Association, #5 at $14.7 million; the United Auto Workers, #8 at $13.3 million; the American Federation of State/County/Municipal Employees, #10 at $11.4 million; the AFL-CIO, #14 at $9 million; and the Service Employees International Union, #18 at $6.6 million. Ten more labor unions beat Koch Industries in spending. Organized labor is “buying America” to a much larger extent than Koch Industries and Americans for Prosperity combined.

Harry Reid misleads us on political spending, and lied to us during the 2012 campaign about Mitt Romney having paid no taxes for 10 years. He epitomizes the sordid aspects of partisan politics, and simply cannot be believed.

*****

On May 5, 2010 Latino students at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California turned out to celebrate their Mexican heritage on Cinco de Mayo.

When some American students showed up at school wearing American-flag shirts, school officials ordered the American students to turn their shirts inside-out or go home, to avoid a repeat of the unrest that had occurred during past observances of this date.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld the action of school officials.

So, when students from Mexico attending American schools want to flaunt their Mexican-ness in the face of the American students by waving Mexican flags on a Mexican holiday, and some American students decide to show their patriotism by wearing American flag shirts, the school authorities believe that the American students are wrong, and the Mexican students are right, and a federal court agrees with them.

Disgusting!

Whacky, radical rulings like this one have earned the Court the nickname, “The 9th Circus.” The Mexican students should not be allowed to stir up sentiments by waving a foreign flag around to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. If they prefer Mexico to the U.S., perhaps they should just go back.


*****

Congressman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, has produced a tax reform plan based upon three years of hearings and discussions with bi-partisan groups.

Hardly anyone who pays taxes will argue against reforming this overly complex system. The last round was in 1986, and at that time the tax code was more than 26,000 pages. Thirty years later, the tax system is a incoherent mess that negatively affects prosperity, job creation and investment, and is regulated by a tax code that has nearly tripled in size to roughly 75,000 pages.

Each year the tax code gets further complicated with more special interest loopholes, credits, and carve-outs.

Rep. Camp would make several changes to the code, like eliminating loopholes, reducing tax rates, whittling down the current seven tax brackets to three, and lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent, the highest in the industrialized world, to 25 percent.

In those 75,000 pages are goodies for numerous interests, and they will scream bloody murder if their special goody is on the chopping block. The Heritage Foundation’s Stephen Moore notes that we can “expect the White House to lambast this plan as a ‘tax cut for the rich,’ but the evidence from history shows that lower tax rates are usually associated with higher overall tax receipts and more taxes paid by the rich. In the 1980s after two rounds of Reagan tax rate reductions, income tax receipts doubled, and the share of taxes paid by the top 1 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent rose as the economy expanded.”

This plan simplifies the tax code by allowing millions of tax filers a larger standard deduction, meaning they don’t need to itemize and can use the EZ form. For those who do itemize, the mortgage and charity deductions remain.

While the Camp plan isn’t perfect, and produced quite a few knee-jerk criticisms, it has many advantages, and is certainly a good start toward finally transforming the current tax code into something that is sensible and easy to understand. Let’s hope Congress has the courage to follow through.


Cross-posted from Observations