News of the Week for July 28th, 2013
- Obama Scandals
- Gun Rights
- Hide the Decline
- Obamacare
- War & Terror
- National News
- Economy & Taxes
- International News
- Opinion
Obama Scandals
Embattled IRS chief counsel met with Obama 2 days before agency changed targeting criteria
The Obama appointee implicated in congressional testimony in the IRS targeting scandal met with President Obama in the White House two days before offering his colleagues a new set of advice on how to scrutinize tea party and conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
IRS Scandal Circles Back to Lerner
The investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of tea-party groups is likely to circle around Lois Lerner once again. Testimony from key witnesses indicates that the embattled former head of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations division and her senior adviser, Judith Kindell, involved the chief counsel’s office in the processing of tea-party applications. At issue were two “test” applications elevated from the agency’s Cincinnati outpost to its headquarters in Washington, D.C., the handling of which was supposed to guide the treatment of the remainder of the tea-party cases that sat in Cincinnati. Though three years has elapsed since one of applications was filed, IRS lawyers say the organization that applied for tax-exempt status has yet to hear from Lerner’s team at the IRS.
Records of Christine O’Donnell tax snooping disappear
Delaware state officials have told Congress that they likely destroyed the computer records that would show when and how often they accessed Christine O’Donnell’s personal tax records and acknowledged that a newspaper article was used as the sole justification for snooping into the former GOP Senate candidate’s tax history.
Gun Rights
Everything You Need to Know About the Colorado Recall Elections
If you’re a fan of the Second Amendment, and you feel that a whole bunch of lawmakers — mostly Democrats — reacted to the horror of Newtown by rushing to pass a bunch of ill-thought gun control laws that would have done nothing to prevent that tragedy, then you need to pay a lot of attention to the recall efforts against two Colorado state lawmakers.
Gay man defends life by shooting attacker who was beating him to death
In a tranquil town in Florida a homosexual man was taking a walk at night when he passed within sight of a black teenager on the phone.
Gun Rights Group Collecting Donations To Buy Zimmerman New Gun
A non-profit gun rights group is collecting donations to buy George Zimmerman a new firearm
Why Gun Owners Are Right to Fight Against Gun Control
The anti-gun crowd doesn’t want “compromise.” They want confiscation and control.
Houston Gas Station Shooting: Stand Your Ground or not?
Hungry for another claimed example of a deadly Stand-Your-Ground defensive encounter, the mainstream media has seized upon the gas-station shooting death of a black man by a rifle-armed woman, also black, this past Sunday in Houston.
North Carolina Lawmakers Pass Sweeping New Gun Laws
North Carolina lawmakers have approved a bill greatly expanding where concealed handguns are legally allowed.
Houston Man Provides High-Crime Neighborhoods With Free Pump Action Shotguns (Video)
After a violent break-in last year in Oak Forest, resident Kyle Coplen, founder of the Armed Citizen Project, is giving away free pump action shotguns to anyone who wants one.
Hide the Decline
Environment &
“Green Energy”
The Shale Boom and Income Mobility
A fascinating map of American income mobility has been making the blogging rounds today
Another uncertainty for climate models – different results on different computers using the same code
New peer reviewed paper finds the same global forecast model produces different results when run on different computers
Obamacare
Government in Healthcare
Doctors are skeptical and confused about Obamacare, survey finds
The doctor is . . . skeptical about the Affordable Care Act. And clueless, too.
Obamacare Battle Takes Bizarre Turn
The Affordable Care Act originally passed the House in 2009 with 220 votes, all but one of them Democrats. Recently 251 members of the House, including 22 Democrats, voted to postpone for one year implementation of the heart of the act — the individual mandate to purchase health insurance. If this were any other issue, liberal commentators might see a governing majority emerging in favor of delaying Obamacare.
Civil War: Dem Compares Obamacare Fight to Gettysburg
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) compared those who oppose Obamacare to the South in the Civil War saying, “This is Gettysburg, this is the big battle and after this the Civil War was pretty much down hill for the South. That’s really what’s happening here for the forces against Obamacare.”
War & Terror
Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords
Secret demands mark escalation in Internet surveillance by the federal government through gaining access to user passwords, which are typically stored in encrypted form.
NSA vote splits parties, jars leaders
A $512.5 billion Pentagon appropriations bill cleared the House Wednesday evening after the leadership narrowly beat back efforts to curb the National Security Agency’s authority to collect private call records and metadata on telephone customers in the U.S.
National
Income Mobility Correlates with Intact Families Not Higher Taxes on the Wealthy
A new study of income distribution based on data from millions of people across the U.S. found several factors, including family structure, that correlate with income mobility and at several that do not, including higher taxes on the rich.
Maybe You Should Come to “Work Without Your Panties On:” One Filner Accuser Comes Forward, Files Suit, Details Harassment
A knock against the woman is that she’s hired Gloria Alred to represent her, but hell, this guy is guilty as sin.
Mood turns somber for Democrats in 2014 contest for Senate control
President Obama talked earlier this year of a Democratic takeover of the House, but instead his party is now in danger of losing the Senate.
George Zimmerman Emerged From Hiding for Truck Crash Rescue
George Zimmerman, who has been in hiding since he was acquitted of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, emerged to help rescue someone who was trapped in an overturned truck, police said today.
HUD’s New ‘Fair Housing’ Rule Establishes Diversity Data for Every Neighborhood in U.S.
To ensure that “every American is able to choose to live in a community they feel proud of,” HUD has published a new fair-housing regulation intended to give people access to better neighborhoods than the ones they currently live in. – See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/huds-new-fair-housing-rule-establishes-diversity-data-every-neighborhood-us#sthash.UASLGfON.dpuf
Constitution Check: Who wins the battle between federal and state courts over Detroit’s bankruptcy?
Problems Pile Up for San Diego Mayor Filner in Sex Scandal
There was a major development in San Diego today, as notorious civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred just finished a press conference with her client, a woman charging Mayor Bob Filner with sexual harassmen
American Commitment Action Fund hits the Cory Booker charade
The Democrats’ candidates in the primary for the New Jersey U.S. Senate seat aren’t the only ones releasing campaign ads.
Federal judge orders Ohio to recognize gay marriage performed in Maryland
Yes, he’s an Obama appointee.
Third Woman Comes Forward In Filner Harassment Scandal
A third woman has come forward on Wednesday with allegations of sexual harassment against San Diego Mayor Bob Filner. In an exclusive KPBS interview, Morgan Rose details an encounter where she alleges the former congressman repeatedly tried to kiss her in a public restaurant.
Nevada sets up hotline to fight government waste
Nevada has set up a hotline to combat fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer money.
How Academe Turned Zimmerman into a Racist
I first heard of Trayvon Martin via a posted comment on an article I had written for the Chronicle of Higher Education in early March 2012. In retrospect that seems significant. The comment from some anonymous academic came a few days after the shooting and a month before President Obama observed in a Rose Garden talk, “You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” In fact, academics from the start helped to drive the polarizing racial narrative that became inseparable from the Trayvon Martin case. And in the aftermath of the not-guilty verdict, academics have continued the effort to poison public opinion.
San Diego Clerk Sues over Gay Marriage
San Diego County Clerk Ernest J. Dronenburg, Jr. has petitioned the California Supreme Court to order marriage licenses not be issued to gay couples while the court considers whether these licenses are illegal under California law. California’s Proposition 8 amended the California Constitution to define marriage as one man and one woman.
Alternet vs. Free Speech
Yesterday, someone called Sean McElwee had enough of a sense of humor to post in the “civil liberties” section of the website Alternet an ode to the censorship of free speech. McElwee’s “case for censoring hate speech” comes down to the novel idea that certain groups must be protected from verbally attacks on the Internet lest they come feel that they are unwelcome in society and struggle permanently to recover. If individual websites and social media services will not step in, McElwee pleads, then the state must.
Gay Marriage Imposed on Ohio: Hurrah for Federalism.
This is strictly for the “I told you so” files.
Students sign petition to legalize abortion after childbirth
Several students at George Mason University (GMU) signed a petition on Wednesday demanding lawmakers legalize “fourth trimester” abortions.
College republicans say they were denied entry into Obama event over ‘security reasons’
A group of college republicans say they were denied entry into President Obama’s speech at the University of Central Missouri on Wednesday for security reasons.
Is Prince George of Cambridge Really a Boy?
Only the politically incorrect would declare the royal baby George Alexander Louis to be a boy. Enlightened moonbats recognize gender to be a fluid construct, driven by political considerations.
12 People Who Want the Royal Baby to Choose it’s Gender, Not the Patriarchy
It seems as if the entire world is squealing at the birth of the British royal baby. While there are some detractors of the global glee, there are also those who question whether it’s right to even assign a gender to a child who hasn’t opined on the issue him..uh.. her.. itself. How imperialist of the royal parents to declare their child a “boy” just because he has male genitalia?!
Oxford Dictionary Considers Updating Definition of Marriage
Sonseeahray Tonsall talks to some newly married same-sex couples who are now excited to enjoy the same benefits straight couples have enjoyed.
Cops Tell Mom Her Son Was Murdered, Kill Her Dog for Good Measure
Police in Henrico County, Virginia, found 33-year-old Ricky Ellerbe dead (as originally noted by Mike Riggs), the apparent victim of a robbery that netted a cellphone and fifteen bucks. Officers then went to his home to deliver the bad news — and promptly killed the family dog. Really. This despite a growing awareness that police interactions with family pets are extremely problematic, a movement to pass laws to train police in better animal-management techniques, and official guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice cautioning that a majority of Americans view their dogs as members of the family.
Weiner Continues Sexting During Apology
New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner stirred controversy today by continuing to send dirty texts throughout a press conference devoted to apologizing for his behavior.
Rep. Issa Proposes Essentially Ruralizing Mail Delivery
We’ve all seen those packs of mailboxes all together on the side of some rural or semi-rural road where the postal carrier delivers mail to a group of neighbors. In attempt to try to handle the U.S. Postal Service’s fiscal collapse, Rep. Darrell Issa is proposing using this system everywhere.
Judge Orders $1 Million Returned to Exotic Dancer
A federal judge has ruled that Nebraska cops must return over $1 million confiscated at a traffic stop from a woman who saved the money $1 at a time during her 15 year career as an exotic dancer.
Attorney General opens new battle over Voting Rights
In a surprise move, Attorney General Eric Holder announced a legal effort today that could force the state of Texas to again submit any election law changes to the federal government for pre-approval, as the Justice Department tries to move past a recent Supreme Court ruling that set aside such a regime for Texas and other states in the South.
Four More Women Accuse Filner
Four prominent San Diego women came forth today accusing Mayor Bob Filner of unwanted sexual advances. They related specific incidents in an exclusive interview with KPBS News.
Paul Ryan lays out immigration proposals in Racine town hall meeting
Coming face-to-face with activists, immigrants and the children of undocumented immigrants, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan on Friday laid out his proposals to achieve a consensus in Congress and push through long-sought reform of the nation’s immigration laws.
Nevada: Local governments spend $3 million to lobby Legislature — for tax increases
The party’s over, and now the bills come due.
Why Your Little Alma Mater May Go Extinct
The Wall Street Journal has a sobering note today on higher education. After soaring for decades, college enrollments have actually declined for the classes scheduled to enter this fall.
MSNBC Analyst: Zimmerman Is Peruvian-American, Not Hispanic
Toure, a liberal MSNBC analyst, argued today that George Zimmerman is Peruvian-American, not actually Hispanic, and that Republicans “are in their mansions because they don’t care” about the black community or black-on-black crime.
Embattled President of American Academy of Arts and Sciences to Resign
Leslie Cohen Berlowitz, the embattled president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, will officially depart her post at the end of the month, the academy has announced.
Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks–With Me Behind The Wheel (Video)
Stomping on the brakes of a 3,500-pound Ford Escape that refuses to stop–or even slow down–produces a unique feeling of anxiety. In this case it also produces a deep groaning sound, like an angry water buffalo bellowing somewhere under the SUV’s chassis. The more I pound the pedal, the louder the groan gets–along with the delighted cackling of the two hackers sitting behind me in the backseat.
Policeman Stops Boy From Talking With Media – Why?
A young man is telling the press what he witnessed. At about 30 seconds into the video, a policeman, obviously working with some woman, comes up and whips the boy away from the newspeople. I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation. Wonder what it might be…?
Dry asparagus prompts questions about racial discrimination in University City
A dried-out batch of asparagus has touched off a debate about racial discrimination, grocery stores and the role of citizen-led commissions.
Cover-Up Alleged in Family Court
Multiple employees and managers at the Clark County family court are under investigation for allegedly covering up a sexual assault by a court marshal.
Economy
& Taxes
Statism is turning America into Detroit – Ayn Rand’s Starnesville come to life
Now here’s the really extraordinary thing. When Ayn Rand published those words in 1957, Detroit was, on most measures, the city with the highest per capita GDP in the United States.
The Downfall of Detroit
It took only six decades of “progressive” policies to bring a great city to its knees.
Eurozone debt burden hits all-time high in Q1
Europe’s debt dynamics keep getting worse in spite of years of cost-cutting and tax hikes designed to return public finances to health.
Obama on Economy: Sail With Me to ‘Ocean of Tomorrows’!
Speaking on Wednesday at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, President Obama laid out his plan for the failing economy. After his hour-long mashup of old Keynesian bromides, leftist platitudes, authoritarian braggadocio, and demonization of political opponents, he concluded with this glittery line, paraphrasing writer Carl Sandburg
Judge freezes challenges to Detroit bankruptcy
A federal judge on Wednesday swept aside lawsuits challenging Detroit’s bankruptcy, settling the first major dispute in the scramble to get a leg up just days after the largest filing by a local government in U.S. history.
MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry Says Life Begins When Parents Decide It Does
MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry thinks she has the answer to the ages old question of just when life begins. Her answer: life begins whenever parents “decide” it does.
Lamar Alexander Faces Tough Primary Battle
On Sunday, Breitbart News reported on a rally held the previous day in Smyrna, Tennessee by 300 Tea Party activists who have launched a ground game to support an as yet undetermined conservative challenger to Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in Tennessee’s Republican Senate primary in August 2014.
Iowa’s Civil War
Last year, supporters of Ron Paul’s presidential campaign took over the Iowa Republican party. Their rise has frustrated allies of Republican Terry Branstad, Iowa’s longest serving governor
Texas AG: DOJ Targeting Texas in Effort to Turn State Blue
Texas attorney general Greg Abbott claims Eric Holder and the Obama administration are “using the Voting Rights Act for partisan, political purposes” by pushing the state to seek preapproval for changes to its voting laws. Holder asked a court to require Texas to go back under “pre-clearance” status following last month’s Supreme Court decision that struck down that provision of the law.
Feds investigate Redneck Day at Arizona high school, have nothing better to do
The U.S. Department of Education has officially opened an investigation into allegations that an Arizona high school’s campus-wide “Redneck Day” amounted to a federal civil rights violation.
International
Abe Wins in Landslide, Neighbors Cringe
“Abe Win Is Good for the Neighbors,” reads the headline of Aaron Back’s story on Japan’s election this weekend. Is this right? Was Abe’s huge win really good for Japan’s neighbors?
Job Lost for Mentioning Racist Word “Bacon”
Do you like bacon? If so you had better keep your mouth shut about it, at least in dhimmified Britainistan. Even to mention bacon, you see, is racist
Egypt’s Deadly Slide
With 12 dead and 86 wounded in Cairo on Tuesday, the highest casualty toll since July 8 when the army opened fire on Muslim Brotherhood protesters and killed 62, a quick return to normalcy for Egypt after Morsi is looking increasingly unlikely.
‘What joy to set police speed guns off’: Spanish driver whose derailed train killed at least 80 people while travelling at 120mph in 50mph zone posted boasting Facebook photo of speedometer
The passenger train derailed outside city of Santiago de Compostela
All eight carriages of the Madrid to Ferrol train derailed
The train was carrying 218 passengers when it smashed into the wall
Many were travelling to the area on the eve of a Christian festival
Foreign Office confirmed a British citizen is among the injured
Driver posted picture of train speedometer at 125mph in March last year
Spanish PM has visited scene and declared three days official mourning
She Criticised Immigration, so an “Anti-Racist” Burned Her Children to Death: Daily Mail Censors Report
Read this story in the Daily Mail about how four children died in a fire that was started deliberately. What you won’t find there is any indication of why it happened. At the party there was a discussion on immigration. When Michelle Smith made a remarked that Dyson Allen judged to be ‘racist’, he decided to set fire to her children’s bedroom to get ‘revenge’. All four children died.
Fallout from China’s Barbaric One Child Policy
A man killed two Chinese government officials and injured four others at a family planning bureau on Wednesday. Earlier the man had gone to the bureau to register his fourth child but had failed to pay the exorbitant fee for having more than one child and was turned away. In China, your child must be registered to get an education, among other government benefits.
Anti-Semitic display at Roger Waters concert
Pig-shaped balloon with Star of David alongside fascist symbols released during British musician’s concert in Belgium. ‘I really love his music,’ says Israeli viewer, ‘but this time he crossed the line’
Opinion
How the Media Has Distorted a Tragedy
A week after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the fatal shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin, the backlash continues, with nationwide protests and calls to boycott Florida. President Obama spoke some undeniable truths when he noted that the African-American community’s reaction must be seen in the context of a long, terrible history of racism. But there is another context too: that of an ideology-based, media-driven false narrative that has distorted a tragedy into a racist outrage.
Lying in the Age of Obama
The attorney general of the United States lied recently to Congress. He said he knew of no citizen’s communications that his department had monitored. Lie!
America no longer exceptional, ‘becoming just another social democracy’
America is no longer the exceptional country it once was, says famed libertarian social scientist Charles Murray.
Causation, Correlation and Detroit
Brought To You By The LLC
Suicide by Government
Detroit is responsible for its own demise.
The Value Of Being Judgmental
And yet, every time we make a stupid decision, we’re told “You should have used better judgment.” It sounds contradictory, because it is. Judgment is a valuable tool that keeps us from making stupid decisions and alerts us to take advantage of opportunities that may not be readily apparent. Good judgment tells you that being 95% sure that the hot chick you’re talking up in that French Quarter bar is actually a chick just isn’t good enough for a guy like you. That is, a guy who doesn’t want to wake up with a pounding ether headache and a rubber hanging out of his ass.
Traditionalists Live in a Fantasy World
Those who advocate for traditional lifestyles and respect of heritage will find themselves at odds with the globalist and modernist school of thought. The opposition will accuse you of living in a fairy tale, or trying to escape the world of reason.
Facing Facts about Race
Young black males are at greater risk from their peers than from the police or white civilians.
Reign of the man-child
There’s a common thread running through Anthony Weiner’s latest sexting escapades, Barack Obama’s 19th pivot to the economy, and much else that’s going wrong in America today. This is the reign of the man-child, the era of perpetual teenage indulgence. Nothing is my fault, man. Nobody understands me. Everyone keeps hassling me about little stuff. Nobody can see the superhero I really am. Consequences are a drag, so quit living in the past.
The Democratic Party’s War on Women
When I was a kid growing up in fifties Manhattan, if my mother had told me there would be a flasher running for mayor of New York, my mouth would have dropped open. Flashers were those guys I was supposed to run away from in Central Park.
The Road to Same-Sex Marriage was Paved by Rousseau
There is more to same-sex marriage than politics. It only becomes plausible if you accept certain assumptions about how to distinguish what is natural from what is unnatural and what is right from what is wrong. The intellectual origins of the debate stretch all the way back to the Greeks, but radical changes in philosophy over the past couple of hundred years accelerated the process.
America’s Star System
Last year, Bill Clinton earned seventeen million dollars giving speeches, including one before a company in Lagos that paid him seven hundred thousand dollars. Hillary Clinton will be paid two hundred thousand dollars for each speech that she gives to the likes of the American Society of Travel Agents and the National Association of Realtors. David Petraeus, the retired Army general and ex-C.I.A. director, was offered two hundred thousand dollars by the City University of New York to teach one course each semester and to give a couple of public lectures, until a small outcry from faculty and students embarrassed the university into reducing his salary to one dollar. CUNY’s swift retreat suggested that there’s something wrong with public figures commanding and getting spectacular fees for minimal work. But is there?
The Ephialtes Establishment in the Republican Party
I can see how the GOP loses in November of 2014. The establishment and base have moved so far apart the base is about ready to go third party or sit at home. If the GOP does not make a stand against Obamacare, they will not see the energy they need to effectively compete in 2014.
A brief and personal history of 100 years of Cuban history
Today is the 60th anniversary of one of the most unfortunate events in Cuban history. Sixty years ago today, Fidel and Raul Castro attacked some army barracks and could have been killed, had they fought as bravely as their companions. But they were cowards and survived. Dark, dark day.
From Citizen To Subject
Call a Briton a “citizen” of the United Kingdom, and he’ll correct you at once. He’s not a “citizen” but a “British subject.” I’ve made this “mistake” about two dozen times and have always been hauled up sharply for it. The folks to whom I’ve done it were unaware that I was probing for something, rather than exhibiting “typical American ignorance.”
Redefining Race in America
What if I told you I could solve the issue of racism in America? Bigotry, blind hate, and ignorance constitute part of the human condition. I cannot fight human nature. But what if the cure for real racism in America is nothing more than the definition of the word itself?
Quantum Conservatism?
So the big story on the right today is that Gov. Chris Christie has leveled a blast at libertarians, in particular his potential 2016 primary rival Sen. Rand Paul
Headdesk, She Replied
The standard psychodrama ensues and the ostentatious fretting gets a little knotty, as it must, not least when the subject turns to “white privilege.”
