News of the Week for February 2, 2014

• Election 2014
• Gun Rights
• Hide the Decline
• Obamacare
• War & Terror
• National News
• Economy & Taxes
• International News
• Opinion

 

Election 2014

 

Hagan Trails GOP Challenger by 7 Points
North Carolina’s Kay Hagan is becoming the country’s most vulnerable Democrat even after distancing herself from President Obama during his recent visit to the state. A new Rasmussen poll reveals that Hagan is trailing her likely Republican opponent by the largest margin yet.

The incredible, shrinking blue-state advantage
The Democratic Party’s advantage in the states was halved last year, continuing a dramatic multi-year decline.

GOP Candidates Trail Leading Dem. in Georgia Senate Race
A race previously thought to be safe for Republicans is now looking like a toss-up in Georgia, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey. The poll shows likely Democratic candidate Michelle Nunn leading four of her potential Republican opponents.

La., N.H. Senate Races Swinging Republicans’ Way
Two competitive Senate races are looking more promising for Republicans, according to recent polls in Louisiana and New Hampshire.

#KYSen: New poll shows McConnell in the same precarious position as ever
PPP conducted a poll of Kentucky this past weekend for the union front group Americans United for Change, and it shows McConnell in the same precarious, borderline position he’s found himself in for months — narrowly leading and right around 45 percent

Gun Rights

 

California’s Diabolical Plans to Shred the Bill of Rights
In 1976, the Brady Campaign, then known as the National Council to Control Handguns, said that the first part of its three-part plan to get handguns and handgun ammunition made “totally illegal” was to “slow down the increasing number of handguns being produced and sold in this country.” This month, anti-gunners finally got that wish in California.

Stanford law prof: Second Amendment is about restricting gun rights
A Stanford University law professor took the view that the Second Amendment permits strong gun control, telling the crowd that “restriction has to be at the core” of the right to carry a gun.

NY SAFE Act becomes issue in NY-23 swing race
Was Dem challenger in NY-23 against the SAFE Act before she was for it?

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

No New Continent ‘Hottest’ Temperature Records Since 1978
If indeed we are seeing hottest ever type scenarios, or if you prefer, greater extremes, where are the continental representations of this? If on the other hand, what we are experiencing is within bounds of natural variations, you would expect to see new continental records set.

Idaho Firm that Beat EPA in Court Now Targeted by the Army Corps of Engineers?
Nearly two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court smacked down the Environmental Protection Agency in a landmark property rights case. The court ruled that the EPA was overstepping its bounds in going after the Sackett family of Idaho. In 2007 the Sacketts wanted to build their dream home on their own land, but the EPA swept in and tried to stop them, arguing that their land was a “wetland.” It wasn’t a wetland, the Sacketts tried to go to court to win their property rights back, but the EPA ruled that they had no right even to defend themselves in court. The EPA staked out the position that the Sacketts could only deal with the EPA, which had already ruled against them.

Better living through carbon conversion chemistry
UD catalyst can convert CO2 to CO with 92 percent efficiency

Popular anti-fracking study discredited by Colorado health department
Research claiming that hydraulic fracturing — fracking — causes increased cancer risks and birth defects have been discredited by Colorado state public health officials.

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Many Children Unable To Be Included In Parents’ Obamacare Family Plans
Families shopping for health insurance through the new federal marketplace are running into trouble getting everyone covered when children are eligible for Medicaid but their parents are not.

Secret Abortion Fees Hidden In Obamacare Premiums
Insurance companies working under the Obamacare umbrella have secretly added a surcharge to cover the cost of abortions, an apparent violation of federal law that forbids the practice, congressional leaders charge.

California’s Obamacare Scandal
Officials say a criminal record should not keep someone from getting a job. But why this job?

Drug companies warn innovation could suffer under Obamacare
Cutbacks harsh medicine

Covered California Spends $1.37 Million on PR Campaign Featuring Video of Richard Simmons Dancing
Covered California, the Golden State’s Obamacare exchange, spent $1.37 million on a recent marketing campaign that included a six-hour long live web stream featuring a dancing, gyrating Richard Simmons, Cal Watchdog reports. In the video, the famously flamboyant fitness guru takes part in a dance-off — at times rolling on the floor and hugging another dancer — while the host of the show chants phrases like “get covered” and “be flexible about your health-insurance options.”

Sick Kids Denied Specialty Care Due to Obamacare in Washington
In Washington state, some sick kids have been denied specialty care due to Obamacare, a local news outlet reports

Labor unions utterly betrayed by #obamacare.
Labor leaders who have spent months lobbying unsuccessfully for special protections under the Affordable Care Act warned this week that the White House’s continued refusal to help is dampening union support for Democratic candidates in this year’s midterm elections.

92 Air Force nuclear officers implicated in cheating scandal
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said Thursday the number of nuclear force officers implicated in a proficiency test cheating scandal has grown to 92 out of a force of 500.

 

War & Terror

 

US looks at ways to prevent spying on its spying
The U.S. government is looking at ways to prevent anyone from spying on its own surveillance of Americans’ phone records.

“Do you realize that this is how wars start?”
The Chinese professional suggested that this limited strike could be effected without provoking a broader conflict. The strike would have great symbolic value, demonstrating to China, Japan, and the rest of the world who was boss. But it would not be so egregious a move that it would force America and Japan to respond militarily and thus lead to a major war.

Pentagon Concerned by China’s New High-Speed Missile
Hypersonic strike vehicle test is high-tech arms breakthrough that will be difficult for missile defenses to counter

Boston bombing suspect will face death penalty
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings, will face a possible death penalty if he is convicted in the first deadly terrorist assault in the U.S. since the Sept. 11 attacks, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday.

India’s Struggling Military Gets Major Boost From Japan
The details are still being worked out, but it looks like India is about to become the first country since World War II to buy military aircraft from Japan. This is big news not just for Japan, which is experiencing a revival under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but also for India as it tries to keep pace with a rapidly developing Chinese military.

Howard Dean Opposes Iran Nuclear Deal
Says U.S. has not placed enough emphasis on human rights issues in talks

Iranian commander: We have targets within America
A top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards boasted Saturday that his forces have plans in place to attack the United States from within, should the U.S. attack the Islamic Republic.

National

 

Blame baby boomers for the financial crisis, says PJ O’Rourke: ‘We invented playing with money’
What prompted the legendary libertarian satirist P.J. O’Rourke to write a book, titled The Baby Boom: How It Got That Way (And It Wasn’t My Fault) (And I’ll Never Do It Again),summarizing his early life and the impact the Baby Boomer had on American history? O’Rourke’s generation, by all accounts runs the world — what does he have to show for it?

Politico Pressures Sean Hannity to Alter Comments About Michael Savage
When a news outlet asks someone for a comment about a piece being written involving him or her, you would think said outlet would have the decency of accurately quoting said individual.

Forget 5:2, it’s time for the WEREWOLF diet: Eating to lunar calendar like Madonna and Demi Moore claims to shed 6lb in ONE DAY
Werewolf diet advocates juice cleanses at specific times of month
Based on idea that moon affects water in our bodies in same way as tides
Some claim fasting at New or Full moon can help you lose 6lb in one DAY
Demi Moore and Madonna have both used diet, according to Grazia
There is little evidence from science to back up diet claims

New York Teachers Come Out Against Common Core
It’s official, New York teachers really don’t like Common Core. My own kids’ teachers let it be known that they weren’t fans, but now the union has come out against it.

A Carlos Henriquez Alternative Reality Timeline
This morning on Morning Joe Mika & company continue to go all in on the war on women hitting Mike Huckabee & now Rand Paul for daring to suggest that a party who celebrate a person who used his authority to get sex from a young subordinate has no business talking about a “war on women”.

Colorado student injured after setting himself on fire, authorities say
A student was injured after deliberately setting himself on fire Monday in the cafeteria of suburban Denver high school, causing officials to cancel classes at the school for the day.

International Zoophile Rights/Bestiality Rights Day
The Gay Agenda blitzkrieg has been a smashing success for the forces of moonbattery. Behavior that had been nearly universally regarded with revulsion until very recently is now shielded from criticism under the umbrella of “civil rights.” Each victory by the radical left provides momentum for its next campaign. Those wondering where we go from here will find out this Saturday

You Won’t Believe the Reasons that This Colorado Man Continues to Buy Marijuana Illegally
It’s now legal to buy pot in two different ways in Colorado. You can get clearance to use it for medicinal purposes, or you can just go to a dispensary and buy your pot and pay sales and other taxes along the way.

As Drought Continues, Farmers Fear Feds Could Seize Water
With no end in sight to California’s drought, farmers in the San Joaquin Valley fear federal officials could seize water in the San Luis Reservoir intended for their crops.

Rep. Ryan: GOP Looking at Legal Status, Chance for Citizenship
Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.), a leading GOP advocate for tackling immigration, confirmed Wednesday that Republicans are looking to give illegal immigrants legal status right away, with the chance for a green card—and citizenship—down the line.

‘Wearable’ book allows reader to feel emotions of characters
Students have created a “wearable” book that enables you to feel the characters’ feelings as you read the story

Man who tricked girlfriend into taking abortion pill sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison
The Florida man accused of tricking his (now ex) girlfriend into taking an abortion inducing drug to cause her to miscarry their unborn child has been sentenced to nearly 14 years behind bars.

Some San Fransisco Bay Area Communities Could Run Out Of Water Within 4 Months
As the drought in California continues, 17 communities throughout the state could run out of water within 60 to 120 days, state officials said.

Chicago anti-political machine activists disgusted with SOTU
They know Obama

Outraged parents oust gay sex books from New Jersey school reading list
Two books, one containing an explicit depiction of statutory lesbian rape, and the other a homosexual orgy, have been ousted from a local high school by outraged New Jersey parents.

Academic Poison: Professor Says Bin Laden Was A ‘Freedom Fighter’ In Required Textbook
Usama bin Laden was a freedom fighter and the U.S. is a “neocolonial power,” according to a California state university teacher whose writings are required reading for his political science students.

Christian film stripped of ‘Best Song’ Oscar nomination
Academy says that writer broke its rules against lobbying

GOP insiders back Rubio in 2016
Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) political stock is rated a buy by major Republican fundraisers in Washington, who are bullish on Rubio’s future as a 2016 presidential candidate.

US cattle herd at lowest number since 1951
The lingering effects of drought across the Great Plains in recent years have led to another decrease in the U.S. cattle herd.

No, Women Don’t Make Less Money Than Men
It’s the bogus statistic that won’t die—and president deployed it during the State of the Union—but women do not make 77 cents to every dollar a man earns.

More States Are Quietly Becoming Republican
A Gallup Poll in late January showed that more and more states are becoming Republican. Gallup tells us that 14 of the 50 states have a clear majority of respondents calling themselves “Republicans,” and 17 of the 50 states have a clear majority of respondents calling themselves “Democrats.” This, however, dramatically understates the growing Republican advantage in many states.

 

Economy
& Taxes

 

California’s New Corporate Tax Falls 30% Short
When billionaire Obama donor Tom Steyer, the leading opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline, bankrolled California’s Proposition 39 in 2012, voters were told that the new corporate tax reform would bring $1 billion into state coffers by charging out-of-state companies more. Instead, it has only generated about $700 million of the promised windfall–and without creating many of the “green jobs” for which the revenues were earmarked.

Fed eases up on QE by another $10 billion
As it said goodbye to the man who led it through eight history-making years, the Federal Reserve did as it was expected Wednesday, voting to reduce the monthly stimulus program by another $10 billion.

India raises interest rates rise to stem inflation
India’s central bank has unexpectedly raised interest rates in an attempt to rein in stubbornly high consumer prices in a crucial election year.

The Three-Accounts Plan for a Real American Recovery
We’re stuck with this guy until January 2017. We don’t know exactly what the future holds, but the outlook on the horizon isn’t good. The economy sputtering along, unemployment still high by historical standards, low workforce-participation rate, a complicated mess in health care, annual deficits that are merely ludicrously high instead of incredibly ludicrously high, chaos overseas, hoping our numbskull big campaign-donor ambassadors manage to avoid exacerbating a crisis . . .

New evidence on the political views of mixed-race adopted and step-families
There was a small furor yesterday over an MSNBC staffer’s intolerant views of conservatives and the political right. Erik Wemple at the Post published MSNBC’s apology, which announces that a staffer was fired. You can also follow the dispute at New York Magazine, Reason, Michele Malkin, Instapundit, and Gateway Pundit (which captured the fullest screenshot of the now-scrubbed tweet).

Abortion Activist: “I Want to Rip the Uterus Out of Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Eat It”
A pro-abortion “comedian” on Twitter is getting negative national attention today for tweeting a graphic and disgusting tweet saying she wanted to “rip out of the uterus” of pro-life Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers and eat it.

Washington Man Survives Going Through Wood Chipper
A Longview man is recovering from serious injuries after he was trapped and sent through a shredding wood chipper machine at work.

Rutgers University offers class on Beyonce
Rutgers is so crazy in love with Beyoncé Knowles, it’s offering a course on the famed diva.

Gibson Guitar Company Gives the Feds the Finger
The award for P.R. champion of the week goes to the Gibson guitar company, makers of the famous Les Paul guitar, and headquartered, I’m proud to say, here in my hometown of Nashville, Tennessee.

 

International

 

School ditches rules and loses bullies
Ripping up the playground rulebook is having incredible effects on children at an Auckland school.

Nicaragua scraps term limits in boost for socialist Ortega
Nicaragua’s national assembly on Tuesday voted to scrap presidential term limits, which could allow socialist President Daniel Ortega to remain in power indefinitely and has stoked concerns about democracy in the Central American country.

Ukraine government resigns, protest bans repealed
The government of Ukraine took a big step backward today — and then fled the field — in the face of growing unrest in Kiev and across the country. The parliament controlled by President Viktor Yanukovich repealed the law that banned political demonstrations on public land, which Yanukovich had hoped to use to bully his opposition into silence. His Prime Minister and entire Cabinet then tendered their resignations

‘UK Tea Party’ Surges to Become Country’s ‘Most Favoured’ Political Movement
Nigel Farage’s right-wing UK Independence Party (UKIP) has once again rocked the British political establishment by coming first in a recent poll which quizzed Brits on their feelings towards the four main political parties.

Auschwitz survivors mark liberation anniversary
Auschwitz survivors and Israeli officials on Monday marked 69 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camp, in a ceremony that included a large group of Israeli lawmakers.

Pope John Paul II’s blood stolen from church in Italy
Custodian describes night-time theft, from San Pietro della Ienca church in Abruzzo mountains, as more like a kidnapping

Turkish Prime Minister Delivers Speech As a Hologram
On January 26, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan addressed the ruling Justice and Development Party at a meeting in Izmir…as a hologram.

Swedish Divorce Rates and Female Income
In 2004, researchers looked at Swedish marriage data from the ‘80s and ‘90s. And they found some interesting relationships between a wife’s income and the likelihood of divorce

South African opposition groups merge ahead of vote
Ahead of elections this year, South Africa’s main opposition party merged with a smaller group on Tuesday to jointly challenge a ruling party whose immense popularity, buoyed by its anti-apartheid credentials and close ties to Nelson Mandela, has frayed amid corruption scandals and other problems.

Indian court refuses to review gay sex ban
India’s top court has rejected a plea filed by the government and activist groups to review its shock ruling that reinstated a colonial-era ban on gay sex.

‘The number of jobs in the economy still is about 1.2 million lower than December 2007.’
This point, from the Washington Post’s Fact-Checker column, seems rather important

Boy-shaming “sex education” campaign planned for UK schools
We need to be careful when we start singling out only one group of people based on their genetic code and demanding that they “respect” another entire group of people. The reasoning is quite simple: it’s mindlessly discriminatory. It also has the potential to turn into a condescending shamefest.

Montenegro church depicts Tito, Marx and Engels in hell
A church in Montenegro has sparked controversy by displaying a fresco depicting Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito in the fires of hell with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Thailand’s Looming Crisis
Thailand’s struggles touch on issues that Thais for various reasons don’t like to speak openly and frankly about: the role of the monarchy, the health of the king and ethnic and regional divisions inside the country. But these issues are of the utmost importance.

UKIP’s Rise Haunts Left-Wingers as Well as Conservatives
The rise of the Tea Party-esque UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the United Kingdom has often been attributed to a disillusionment within conservative circles. But recent evidence has highlighted that the political left, and the Labour Party in particular, may have just as much to fear as the Conservative Party does by way of disillusionment and defections.

New Poll Causes Concern for Scottish Independence Vote
The question over Scottish Independence looms large in the consciousness of every political operative from Westminster to Holyrood. Many are cognizant of the fact that the caprice of the Scottish Nationalist Party and its leader could well break up a union that has endured for over 300 years.

Fury as Muslim girl adopted by lesbians
A MUSLIM family of Somali origin have protested after social services chose a white lesbian couple to adopt their three-year-old daughter.

 

Opinion

 

How Americans can kill Obamacare, legalize pot: Column
Nobody is signing up, and everybody — in Colorado,at least — is smoking.

White House panics as millennials wise up, bail on President Obama
President Obama is making a sudden push to win back millennial voters, who have grown disillusioned over his failed “Hope and Change” campaign that left them without jobs, living in their parents’ basement.

The Condescension of Paul Krugman
Just to get citizens into a suitably docile condition to receive the President’s State of the Union address, Paul Krugman reminds them in a recent New York Times column that they aren’t bright enough to criticize government policy.

Are House Republicans planning to pull a fast one on immigration?
In the House of Representatives, immigration reform is not only not dead, it’s actually the subject of a lot of working and talking as Republicans prepare for their annual retreat this weekend. That much has been clear at least since Speaker John Boehner announced the GOP will come up with a statement of “principles” on immigration reform that might — or might not — lead to legislation.

JOSH MARSHALL WONDERS WHY RICH PEOPLE FEEL PERSECUTED.
Josh has a lot of psychological interpretations, but perhaps we should revisit something that Ed Driscoll guestblogged here a while back

Is “Diversity” In Science Necessary? Legal?
The National Institutes of Health is worried that it, or somebody, is discriminating against blacks. According to a long article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, NIH “shocked itself in 2011 with a study that found a wide race-based variance in its grant awards,” and it is still struggling to explain that variance.

How Scott Walker and the conservatives saved Wisconsin. America, take note
There was a time when Wisconsin was headline news. You must remember the story? Wisconsinites elected some caveman called Scott Walker as their governor on a platform of drowning government in the bath. He wanted to reform the unions and bring spending under control – and the public sector came out onto the streets to stop him. It was a kind of velvet revolution led by teachers and social workers and the folks who shoot bears when they start eating out of trash cans. They tried to remove Walker from office, but that didn’t work because he somehow won the recall vote, making him the only governor in US history to do so. And then it all went oddly quiet from the Badger state…

What if Dinesh D’Souza had waved around a 30-round magazine?
Some criminals are more equal than others.

The Least Free Place in America
Question: Which American institution—one that prides itself on being open, democratic, and diverse—punishes its members severely for offering unpopular opinions, while it offers them a very narrow, limited worldview? Answer: Universities.

Leave Us Alone
Tonight, Barack Obama will stand before the Parliament of Whores in Washington, D.C. with Chuckles and the Orange Man behind him and, in more ways than one, say, “Ask now what you can do for your government, but rather ask what your government can do for you.”

How many of us are Dorian Gray?
That quote is really all there is to say about this day and age. Many people have chosen to live by this creed and, with it, have spiraled further and further into hedonism and, in many cases, outright moral madness.

The State of Our Union Is Entirely Dependent Upon the State of Our Families and Communities
So the big theme of tonight’s State of the Union address is going to be income inequality.

Obama Is a Symptom, Not the Cause
I agree that every American should read Senator Cruz’s Wall Street Journal op-ed. But I think Cruz misses a point, one that Kevin captured in his awesome rant yesterday, and which I wrote about in articles in Politico and at The Week. Namely, Obama is setting the stage for “presidential dictatorship” as you rightly call it, because the presidency, and he in particular, is already imperial in nature. Enormous, non-constitutional influence and power has accrued to the office of chief executive since Woodrow Wilson and especially FDR long ago changed the sensitive balance of power the Founding Fathers intended.

Everything that’s wrong with America in two sentences
1. We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Funny how that works.
2. Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. How come we never hear about welfare running out of money? What’s interesting is the first group “worked for” their money, but the second didn’t.

The Case Against Early Voting
To the delight of anyone who’s ever waited in line to cast a vote, a bipartisan election commission convened by President Barack Obama concluded last week that states across the country should increase their use of early voting.

Small Businesses Don’t Add Jobs Because Government Makes Doing So Stupid.
Monday, I paid a couple of hundred dollars to the Internal Revenue Service for a penalty on a penalty that in turn by law I should never have been assessed.

Governing by Pen and Phone
Obama used to sigh that he was not a dictator who could act unilaterally. No more.

Space Monkeys
Politicians steer the economy like chimps fly rockets.

Political Correctness Exposed! Marxism Communism Frankfurt School: End of Freedom

The GOP Pulls Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory Because They Can
As incredible as it may sound, both major political parties have decided to throw in the towel on the 2014 elections. Both parties made their announcements true to their traditions. The Democrats did it in their typically coy way, having their plutocrat masters hint that no money would be forthcoming for House races. The Republicans did it by calling their base racist and telling it to DIAF (or FOAD depending on which member of the House leadership you talked to.) While the Democrats at least have the stated objective of retaining the Senate, the GOP seems to have set out to prove you can lose an election when your opponent has conceded defeat months in advance.

Even Slate Doesn’t Believe Obama’s Pay Gap Myth
I call it a myth instead of a lie because President Obama is such a shallow thinker that he probably thinks that women actually are earning 77% on the dollar to men for performing the same work.

Is the House GOP leadership being blackmailed into voting for amnesty?
People are asking why, with a potentially successful midterm election coming, the GOP has decided to go forward with amnesty, even though (a) only 3% of Americans care about the issue and (b) the base is strongly opposed to the GOP’s plan. On its face, this seems like an insane thing to do, since it can destroy the Republican party in two ways, first, by denying it success in the 2014 midterm and, second, by creating a permanent Democrat constituency.

Our political Justice Department
If you are one of the few remaining fans of Eric Holder’s Justice Department, it must be getting hard to say with a straight face that America’s top law enforcement agency isn’t engaging in political prosecutions.

Happy Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Day!
One hundred sixty six years ago, on this date in the year 1848, in the conquered and occupied Federal District of Mexico, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed by representatives of US President James Polk and interim Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, ending the war between the two countries.