News of the Week for June 30th, 2013
- Obama Scandals
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Obama Scandals
Putin says no to US request to extradite Snowden
Russian President Vladimir Putin bluntly rejected U.S. pleas to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden on Tuesday, saying Snowden is free to travel wherever he wants and insisting that Russian security agencies haven’t contacted him.
No, ‘Progressive’ Groups Weren’t Targeted by the IRS Like Conservative Organizations Were
Yesterday’s IRS news bulletin was a bit perplexing. It was no real surprise that the agency had used inappropriate ‘BOLO’ lists more widely and for longer than we’d previously known. Sweeping malfeasance and subsequent dishonesty is par for the course with them at this point.
Treasury: IRS targeted 292 Tea Party Groups, Just 6 Left-wing Groups
The media is entirely too enamored with a local crime story in Florida to report on this, or a second IRS official taking the fifth, or the IRS abusing taxpayer money and taxpayers.
Obama Administration’s Warrantless Collection of Citizens’ Personal Financial Data
Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained records from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) revealing that the agency has spent millions of dollars for the warrantless collection and analysis of Americans’ financial transactions. The documents also reveal that CFPB contractors may be required to share the information with “additional government entities.”
Gun Rights
Recall Of Second Colorado Democrat Legislator Validated
This afternoon, Scott Gessler and the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office deemed the petition to recall the Democrat state Senator from Pueblo, Angela Giron, sufficient.
New York City’s Special Counsel Registered as a Paid Lobbyist on Behalf of Bloomberg’s 501c4 MAIG in Nevada
What’s going on here?
Charges Dropped Against Kid Who Wore NRA Shirt to School
Well, it looks like we’re not going to criminalize T-shirts after all
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
Climate Expert von Storch: Why Is Global Warming Stagnating?
Climate experts have long predicted that temperatures would rise in parallel with greenhouse gas emissions. But, for 15 years, they haven’t. In a SPIEGEL interview, meteorologist Hans von Storch discusses how this “puzzle” might force scientists to alter what could be “fundamentally wrong” models.
Obama to lay out three-part plan for addressing climate change
With little to no hope on Capitol Hill for action on climate change, President Obama on Tuesday plans to bypass Congress and move forward with executive actions designed to reduce carbon emissions.
The Sierra Club’s Violent, Totalitarian Tendencies
Richard ‘Rick’ Nunno is a member of the Executive Committee of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Sierra Club. He’s also the editor of the Capital Sierran newsletter.
Twitchers flocking to see rare bird saw it killed by wind turbine
Scores of twitchers flocked to the Outer Hebrides to see a bird that has been recorded just eight times previously in the UK in nearly 170 years – only to see it slain by a wind turbine.
‘plug-and-play’ CO2 Scrubbers
Proposed method could be more efficient than previous systems and easier to retrofit in existing power plants.
Failure Deniers: Climate Change and Public-Sector Science
If not taxpayer-funded, the massive failure of warmism advocates would have been addressed long ago.
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Pediatricians have a new mission: Fight ‘homophobia’
In its first sexual-orientation policy update in nearly a decade, the nation’s largest pediatricians group said its members should do more to fight “heterosexism” and “homophobia,” as well as step up their care of teens with same-sex attractions.
Obamacare Hits Hollywood: Studios Brace for the Affordable Care Act
As payroll companies struggle to predict the impact of new laws on movie and TV shoots, one insider says the act “wasn’t written with this industry in mind.”
So Much For “Patient Privacy”…….
The Obama Administration has been getting hammered recently for their lack of preparation in the lead-up to the “official” roll-out of The Great and Powerful Obamacare on January 1, 2014.
Nearly 1,200 people have starved to death in NHS hospitals because ‘nurses are too busy to feed patients’
For every patient who dies from malnutrition, four more have dehydration mentioned on their death certificate
In 2011, 43 patients starved to death and 291 died in a state of severe malnutrition
Department of Health branded the figures ‘unacceptable’ and said the number of unannounced inspections will increase
War & Terror
KGB operation seeded Muslim countries with anti-American, anti-Jewish propaganda during the 1970s, laying the groundwork for Islamist terrorism against U.S. and Israel
The highest-ranking Soviet-bloc intelligence officer ever to defect to the West claims in a new book that anti-American Islamic terrorism had its roots in a secret 1970s-era KGB plot to harm but the United States and Israel by seeding Muslim countries with carefully targeted propaganda.
National
Supreme Court DOMA decision – Unconstitutional
Supreme Court Gay Marriage Decision – No Standing
Professor: White men out to ‘cannibalize’ the bodies, minds of Detroit students
Public school apologists gathered at the state capitol last week to once again complain about education reform and Republican legislators.
Transgender first-grader wins civil rights suit after girls’ bathroom ban
The Colorado Civil Rights Division has decided in favor of the transgender first-grader who had been prohibited from using the girls’ bathroom at a public elementary school.
Gang of Eight Giveaways
The Senate will vote this afternoon to end debate on the latest version of the Gang of Eight’s immigration-reform bill, which now runs more than 1,200 pages. That includes the Corker-Hoeven border-security amendment, along with a laundry list of other amendments that have been tacked on to the original bill in the last few days. Senators will have had a little over 72 hours to read the amended text before casting their votes.
Man accused of bias intimidation at concert
Authorities say a man attending a Toby Keith concert in New Jersey’s most impoverished city climbed a fence into a housing complex, waved a Confederate flag and shouted racial slurs at residents.
Supreme Court Punts on Texas Affirmative-Action Case
Capping a year of suspense with a surprise anticlimax, the Supreme Court Monday sidestepped a sweeping ruling on affirmative action and instead directed lower courts to re-examine whether a race-conscious admissions program at the University of Texas at Austin should survive constitutional scrutiny.
The Rootless Netroots
Free Beacon crashes premiere progressive confab
Bolton Plans a Tour of Early-Primary States
Watch out, Rand Paul. As Paul, a Kentucky senator, plans for a 2016 presidential run, he is talking up his views on foreign policy, which, broadly speaking, include less intervention in foreign conflicts and a smaller military budget.
Democratic lawmaker hits justice as ‘Uncle Thomas’
A Democratic lawmaker from Minnesota criticized Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act by calling Justice Clarence Thomas “Uncle Thomas,” then saying he didn’t know “Uncle Tom” was a racist epithet.
Feds to Students: You Can’t Say That
The Justice and Education departments issue a dangerous new speech code for colleges.
Anger mounts after Facebook’s ‘shadow profiles’ leak in bug
Facebook said Friday it fixed a bug that exposed contact info for over six million accounts. The admission revealed its ‘shadow profile’ data collection activities, and users are furious.
Sen. Coburn: “Dysfunctional” Senate now has a “rules committee of Harry Reid alone”
Clarence Thomas Continues His Long War on Affirmative Action
In his memoir My Grandfather’s Son, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas pointed to his years at Yale Law School as the genesis of his hostility to affirmative action. “Before long I realized that those blacks who benefitted from it were being judged by a double standard,” Thomas wrote. “As much as it stung to be told that I’d done well in the seminary despite my race, it was far worse to feel that I was now at Yale because of it.” In response, he took extra course credits and pursued a tough field of study. But in the end, Thomas recalled, he found “the stigmatizing effects of racial preference” impossible to escape and “began to fear that it would be used forever after to discount my achievements.”
The Immigration Bill (Or Is It the Corker-Hoeven Amendment?): Everything That Is Wrong with Washington
I was just watching Senator Ted Cruz’s floor speech in opposition to the atrocious immigration bill and took note of a remarkable exchange between Senators Cruz and Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and mastermind of the legislation.
Supreme Court Gay Marriage Decision – No Standing
The death of the ballot initiative movement as Court gives de facto veto power to government officials who want to lose a case.
Bringing Mitch McConnell Out of the Shadows
Mitch McConnell got another lucky break today when Obama announced his latest climate fascism that will cripple the coal industry. He was provided with another low-hanging talking point to distract from the most immediate threat of amnesty – something he actually has the power to stop.
Did the Supreme Court’s Gay Marriage Ruling Just Destroy Colorado’s TABOR Law?
In its decision regarding the 2008 California ballot initiative that prohibited gay marriage, the Supreme Court ruled this morning that citizens who supported the initiative have no standing to defend it in federal court. Only government officials have that right, the Supreme Court ruled.
Scalia’s DOMA Dissent
My simple rule of the thumb….if you find yoursefl on the opposing side of Scalia, rethink your position.
Boehner tells House GOP that he won’t bring Gang of Eight bill up for a vote
Doesn’t mean the House won’t pass something of its own, and it doesn’t mean something resembling the Gang of Eight bill won’t emerge from the conference committee later. But let’s appreciate good news while we have it.
Forbes: Glenn Beck earned more than Oprah over last year
Conservative personalities Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity all made Forbes magazine’s 2013 list of the 100 most powerful celebrities — the only political celebrities, left or right, to do so.
26% of Obama Supporters View Tea Party as Nation’s Top Terror Threat
Half of all voters consider radical Muslims the bigger terrorist threat facing the nation, but supporters of President Obama consider the Tea Party to be as big a danger.
Holder: Universal Voter Registration Through Federal Benefits
Election integrity advocates must always remember that even progressive contingency plans have contingency plans. President Obama’s reported statement in Senegal regarding the Supreme Court decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act as outdated and unconstitutional was a dog whistle to election law agitators that deserves interpretation.
Sen. Ron Johnson’s Grown-Up Reasoning Behind His Immigration Bill Vote
It’s insane enough to bloat the nanny state for citizens, psychotic to do it for non-citizens.
NASA’s Voyager 1 Probe Enters New Realm Near Interstellar Space
NASA’s venerable Voyager 1 probe has encountered a strange new region at the outer reaches of the solar system, suggesting the spacecraft is poised to pop free into interstellar space, scientists say.
Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for UVa student
When a half-dozen men and a woman in street clothes closed in on University of Virginia student Elizabeth Daly, 20, she and two roommates panicked.
Anti-Bullying Bill Could Jail People Who Criticize Politicians
School’s out for summer and Nanny of the Month is taking the opportunity to salute the zealots within the otherwise laudable anti-bullying movement. They take a real problem–few things are more loathsome than picking on the vulnerable–and bungle the response, as has been done with most every “get tough!” effort from D.A.R.E., the failed anti-drug program, to all the idiotic iterations of the “zero tolerance” fad.
Economy
& Taxes
US First-Quarter GDP Gets a Haircut, Rises Only 1.8%
U.S. economic growth was more tepid than previously estimated in the first quarter, held back by a moderate pace of consumer spending, weak business investment and declining exports.
Corzine Officially Charged By CFTC For Filing False Reports, Commingling Funds And Other VIolations
CFTC Charges MF Global Inc., MF Global Holdings Ltd., Former CEO Jon S. Corzine, and Former Employee Edith O’Brien for MF Global’s Unlawful Misuse of Nearly One Billion Dollars of Customer Funds and Related Violations
Ten States Now Buried by Pensions
There are currently ten states whose pension liabilities are higher than total yearly revenues, according to a new Moody’s report on public pensions. The states in question included Colorado, Kentucky, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Connecticut. Worst of all was Illinois, where pension liabilities are more than twice as high as revenues.
Gold Crashes Through Production Cost Levels
Gold fell to its lowest level since 2010 on Friday to under $1,200, which is what it costs many miners to produce an ounce of gold, and analysts tell CNBC that miners will be “severely” impacted if prices stay here.
International
Egypt’s army delivers an ominous warning
Egypt’s army chief warned on Sunday that the military is ready to intervene to stop the nation from entering a “dark tunnel” of internal conflict.
Obama to Egyptian Christians: Don’t Protest the Brotherhood
As Egyptians of all factions prepare to demonstrate in mass against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi’s rule on June 30, the latter has been trying to reduce their numbers, which some predict will be in the millions and eclipse the Tahrir protests that earlier ousted Mubarak. Among other influential Egyptians, Morsi recently called on Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to urge his flock, Egypt’s millions of Christians, not to join the June 30 protests.
Aussie PM Gillard loses leadership ballot to Rudd
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was ousted as Labor Party leader Wednesday by her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, in a vote of party lawmakers hoping to avoid a huge defeat in upcoming elections.
36 killed after knife gang attacks China police station
Knife-wielding assailants killed nine policemen and 17 civilians in a bloody attack that only ended after 10 attackers were shot dead in western China early Wednesday.
Free Speech Dies in UK: Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller Banned From Entering
“U.S. Bloggers banned from Entering the UK.” That’s how a BBC headline broke the news that authors Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer were denied entry to the country that gave the world the Magna Carta.
Opinion
A really good Gabriel Gomez question concerning the Gang of Eight Bill
One of the regular arguments that we’re constantly told is that if the GOP would only support the amnesty Immigration Bill it will solve our problems with Latinos or at least be the first step in solving said problems.
Today Republican Senators will vote to implode the party
That’s what today’s vote on the Corker amended immigration bill is about.
Why Are Illegal Immigrants More Important Than American Citizens?
Notwithstanding copious evidence that the Gang of Eight bill will be devastating for low-skilled American workers, senate leadership insists on conducting a vote on the 1,200–page monstrosity before anyone has a chance to read it. Americans have a right to ask just who the senators think they represent.
Regressive Progressive’s strike again, spending hundreds of thousands of education dollars on recycled liberal claptrap
The thing about Progressives, as I’ve mentioned often enough, is that their arguments have remained unchanged over decades. They frame abortion as if we still live in a world where pregnancy out-of-wedlock is a social crime that leads women to back alleys and death; they view race relations as if the Civil Rights fight in the South happened yesterday, but took place all over the country; and they believe in Keynesian economics despite decades of evidence that it fails.
The Bill Of Rights: An Updating
The Long Twilight Struggle of the 21st Century: We Can Give in, We Can Hide, We Can Fight, or We Can Leave
In the larger sense, what should we do in the face of these threats to our liberty and well-being, foreign and domestic? How should we react? As a people, we have four basic choices over the next century: We can give in, we can hide, we can fight, or we can leave.
Restraining the ambitions of the State
“Nobody is talking about preventing the legalization,” Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) assured his audience during an interview with the Spanish-language network Univision a couple of weeks ago. ”The legalization is going to happen. That means the following will happen: First comes the legalization. Then come the measures to secure the border. And then comes the process of permanent residence.”
Uncles, Fruits, and Nuts
A look at some American slurs
Why indeed? And a revelation about Guardia
This is really priceless. A Guardian hack bemoans and decries the young of Britain what seek real work, instead of opting for the readily available state welfare.
Defenders of Rachel Jeantel Channel John C. Calhoun
The Left’s latest generation of segregationists.
Cultural Decline And The United States Supreme Court
Another Rigged Game We Play In America.
This Is What Fundamental Transformation Looks Like
This week he pressed forward on three fronts, even as preparations to implement Obamacare — putting one-sixth of the economy on the path to government domination — slowly grind away. The country will be worse off if he succeeds.
What would tyranny look like in America? Look around.
Mr. Bridenstine goes to Washington again. After a very depressing week, one in which we have undergone a full assault on our civil society, popular sovereignty, federalism, and separation of powers, Congressman Bridenstine shares in our pain
The Glue Holding America Together
As it fragments into various camps, the country is being held together by a common popular culture.
