News of the Week (May 11th, 2014)

Posted on May 11, 2014 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for May 11th, 2014


 

Election 2014

 

Dem. Congressman Posts Article Calling Gay Republican Opponent a ‘Mary’
The Log Cabin Republicans are calling on Representative Scott Peters (D., Calif.) to apologize for a post on his campaign website that used a pejorative term for his Republican challenger, Carl DeMaio, who is gay.

GOP Poised to Control More State Legislatures
Party Gains Put More Policy Changes Into Play

Boehner Below 50 Percent Republican Support In Own District Ahead Of Tuesday’s Primary
Republican House Speaker John Boehner would win only 49 percent of the Republican vote if his re-election race were held today, according to an internal survey conducted by Gravis Marketing, results of which were obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller.

An Affiliated Nightmare
Could language in the margin tax send innocent Nevadans to federal prison?

Check Out Clay Aiken’s ‘Tolerant’ Tweet Towards Black Republicans and Mormons From 2012
Democrat Congressional candidate Clay Aiken likes to tweet about drinking games, or at least he did in 2012.

Do the Benghazi hearings pose a political risk for Republicans?
Charles Krauthammer argues that the upcoming Benghazi hearings “are a big political risk to Republicans,” but should go forward anyway because “the country deserves the truth.” Krauthammer worries that the hearings could distract voters from major issues like Obamacare, the economy, and chronic unemployment.

California Stars ‘n’ Bars Update
The California Assembly sponsor of a bill to outlaw sales of the Confederate flag by state agencies got back to National Review Online Friday, days after the bill began to blow up in the face of the Golden State’s leading Republican candidate for governor.

Dem Candidate’s Plan to Mock Republicans’ ‘Racist Record’ Unravels When He’s Confronted by Black GOP Delegate
Rather than pass out Ku Klux Klan hoods as originally promised, Democratic candidate for Wisconsin governor Brett Hulsey instead dressed in a homemade Confederate uniform and outlined Gov. Scott Walker’s “racist record” outside the state’s Republican convention last weekend.

 

Obama Scandals

 

Discrepancies between Benghazi emails released to Congress, watchdog group
Documents reviewed by Fox News show there are differences between Benghazi emails released through the federal courts to the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch and emails released to the House oversight committee as part of its investigation into the attacks.

Gowdy to Lead Benghazi Select Committee
Speaker John Boehner announced that Representative Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) has been chosen to head the select committee to investigate the September 2012 Benghazi attacks. Heralding Gowdy’s background as a federal prosecutor, Boehner called him the “ideal person” to serve as its chairman.

Obama Regime Science Czar John Holdren Wants To Sterilize Whole Populations
John Holdren is a dangerous left-wing extremist, an ideologue who has expressed open support for forced abortions and mass sterilization programs.

House votes to hold Lerner in contempt of Congress
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about the agency’s targeting of conservative groups.

Operation Chokepoint: Creeping into Unconstitutionality?
Operation Chokepoint is part of the administration’s Obamaloans strategy to wipe out the small dollar lending industry that I wrote about in January. Briefly, this initiative aims at putting pressure on banks (what in other circumstances would be called “leaning on” them) to stop doing business with third-party payment processors who enable the industry to process payments. It does this by increasing oversight requirements to such levels that it becomes unprofitable for the banks to work with them. However, it has always been intended to have a wider reach.

What Happens Next For Lois Lerner?
Yesterday, the House, in a bipartisan vote, found former IRS Exempt Organizations Director Lois Lerner in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about the IRS targeting of conservative groups.

Gun Rights

 

Supreme Court won’t rule on carrying guns in public
The Supreme Court appears hesitant to wade back into the national debate on guns.

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Manufacturing Scientific Consensus—In Four Easy Steps!
Among the many virtues of aggressive litigation — in addition, of course, to the fundamental goal of obtaining justice for your clients — is the ability to gain knowledge. Through sworn testimony, compelled document disclosures, and other features of the discovery process, one can learn about institutions and attitudes at a level far deeper than can the typical pundit or journalist.

Climate Change Is Real. Too Bad Accurate Climate Models Aren’t.
The Obama Administration released a new report on climate change this week, and its findings and recommendations are about what you’d expect: conservatives are stupidheads who hate Science™, so give us eleventy trillion dollars.

New paper tells climate scientists how to fudge the numbers supporting overheated climate models
A paper published today in Geophysical Research Letters demonstrates how climate scientists can fudge the numbers of the so-called “basic physics” and “settled science” of climate change. According to the authors, “Estimates of the Earth’s equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) [to CO2] from 20th-century observations predict a lower ECS than estimates from climate models, paleoclimate data, and interannual variability.” Indeed, 20th century observations show the climate is less sensitive to CO2 changes than the models indicate, therefore the physics incorporated into the models is incorrect.

Mann Misrepresents the EPA – Part 1
In one of the major graphics in the IPCC 2001 report, declining values of the Briffa reconstruction were deleted (“amputated” is Christy’s apt term), resulting in the figure giving a much greater rhetorical impression of consistency than really existed. This truncation of data had been known (and severely criticized) at Climate AUdit long before Climategate. However, the incident came into an entirely new light with the release of the Climategate emails, which showed that senior IPCC officials had been concerned that the Briffa reconstruction (with its late 20th century decline) would “dilute the message” and that Mann was equally worried that showing the Briffa reconstruction would give “fodder to the skeptics”.

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Hospital CEO: Obamacare Has Not Reduced ER Visits
CEO of Tenet Healthcare Trevor Fetter told CNBC’s Squawk Box Obamacare has not reduced emergency room visits Tuesday morning.

CA Obamacare Patients Driving to Tijuana, Mexico for Cheaper, Faster Care
California Obamacare patients are finding it more affordable to drive to Tijuana, Mexico for health care treatment than to use their high-deductible Obamacare plans.

 

War & Terror

 

Would you be willing to spend $500 million to save 90 percent of the American population from death? May10 by Thomas Mitchell
What if someone turned off all the electronics? All it would take is for some lunatic rogue nation or even a terrorist to detonate a relatively small nuclear device in the atmosphere over the heartland of America. It would release an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that would virtually shut down all technology.

National

 

Who Among Us Will Cast the First Bid for Donald Sterling’s Clippers?
Americans are outraged by old, sick and pathetic Donald Sterling’s racist rantings—and the manipulative con-artist mistress who recorded their conversation.

It’s Completely Out of Control Now
Having previously noted a guy who got fired — fired! — for a Tweet — a Tweet! — now we can report that a black Christian minister may lose his day job in California because of his sermons

Rialto Assignment Asking to Students to Question Holocaust to Be Revised
The Rialto school district planned to revise an eighth-grade assignment that raised red flags by asking students to consider arguments about whether the Holocaust — the systematic killing by the Nazis of some 6 million Jews and millions of others — was not an “actual event” but instead a “propaganda tool that was used for political and monetary gain.”

Fairfax aims to downsize home assemblies
The proposed zoning ordinance limits “group assembly” at residences to 49 people a day. Such gatherings “shall not occur more frequently than three times in any 40-day period.”

California School Blocks Pro-American Flag Demonstration
A California school constructed a temporary fence to obstruct the view of protestors demonstrating against the school’s ban on American flag shirts for Cinco de Mayo.

Supreme Court upholds legislative prayer in Town of Greece v. Galloway
This morning the Supreme Court held in Town of Greece v. Galloway, that the town’s practice of beginning legislative sessions with prayers does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. It was a 5-4 decision, split along traditional right-left lines, though there is not a clear majority opinion.

‘Today was the first day I was ever ashamed to be a teacher’
Students around the country are taking high-stakes Common Core-aligned standardized tests now and some teachers are expressing unhappiness about having to administer them.

Redick: Donald Sterling ‘Didn’t Want To Pay Me Because I Was White’
Los Angeles Clippers guard J.J. Redick says that owner Donald Sterling was hesitant to sign him last summer because he’s white.

Liberal donors eye new long-term investments in states and new voters to boost Democrats
A group of wealthy liberal donors who helped bankroll the Center for American Progress and other major advocacy groups on the left is developing a new big-money strategy that could boost state-level Democratic candidates and mobilize core party voters.

FEC chair warns that conservative media like Drudge Report and Sean Hannity face regulation — like PACs
Government officials, reacting to the growing voice of conservative news outlets, especially on the internet, are angling to curtail the media’s exemption from federal election laws governing political organizations, a potentially chilling intervention that the chairman of the Federal Election Commission is vowing to fight.

Not of History, I Hope
Ms Barlow describes herself as “a green and leftwing schoolteacher.”

UCLA Professor Blows Whistle on Illegal Admissions Practices at University
In 1996 California voters passed Proposition 209, which prohibited discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, ethnicity or sex in admissions to public college and universities. But the moment 209 passed, UCLA, according to a new book, set about figuring ways around it.

World Turned Upside Down: Gay New Yorkers Say ‘OK’ to Chick-fil-A
Well, the thought police storm troopers aren’t going to be happy about this.

HGTV Pulls New Home-Flipping Series After Report Emerges Identifying Its Stars As Anti-Gay Activists
After the group Right Wing Watch reported the twins who star in HGTV’s recently greenlit reality series Flip It Forward are anti-gay activists, the network said this morning it had given the hook to the series, which was set to debut in October. Yesterday, HGTV said it was “currently in the process of reviewing all information about the Benhams and we will provide an update as soon as possible.”

Police Shooting Frenzy Raises Concerns
On December 10, more than two dozen police officers from across Miami Dade County converged on a blue Volvo that had crashed in the backyard of a townhouse on 65th Street just off 27th Avenue.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott Blasts His Democratic Challenger’s Plans To Visit Cuba
In Florida, U.S. policy on Cuba long has been factor in local politics.

CDC study: Traditional, two-parent biological family the safest environment for children
A new study just released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that children living in traditional, two-parent biological families are overwhelmingly safer than children living with just one biological parent or with non-parental caregivers.

‘The Longer You Are in the Tea Party, the More Racist You Become’: What Educators Learned at Alarming ‘White Privilege’ Conference
Would it surprise you to learn that educators were recently taught at the fifteenth annual White Privilege Conference in Madison, Wisconsin, that “racism is central to America;” “the longer you are in the Tea Party, the more racist you become;” and “this country was built on white principles for white people”?

Bloomberg Writer: Black Republicans Are a ‘Lower’ Group
Bloomberg writer Francis Wilkinson recently wrote a piece claiming that Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina–an African American–only became a senator because Republicans “lowered the bar” for his appointment. He also claimed that Scott’s candidacy serves as a “shield” for racist Tea Party members to hide behind.

Insane ‘how to add’ guide for parents has frustrated mom saying ‘stop Common Core’
Six steps, two pages of instructions and all the hallmarks of Common Core math standards, just to add 14 and 4? Yes, according to one mom who shared a “how to do addition” tutorial for first-grade parents.

Decapitated Birds Found On Streets In Vegas Neighborhood
Residents in the valley’s east side are disgusted by what they’ve been finding in the streets.

Mel Brooks Blasts Political Correctness: ‘Blazing Saddles’ Couldn’t Be Made Today
In an interview with Yahoo News surrounding the 40th anniversary of his comedic masterpiece “Blazing Saddles,” co-writer/director Mel Brooks blasted present-day political correctness and says he was “lucky” to have made the film in the days when he still could

Economy & Taxes

 

Nevada AFL-CIO opposes proposed margins tax to fund public schools
The Nevada State AFL-CIO on Friday voted to oppose the margins tax measure to fund public education that is on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.

The recent downturn gave egalitarians precisely what they said they wanted: relative poverty fell
Would you rather live in a 1000 square foot house where everyone else’s was 800, or a 1200 square foot house where everyone else’s was 1400? I sometimes think it’s the most elemental question in politics. Where we stand on equality versus prosperity depends, more than we usually admit, on personality traits rather than logic. We start with an intuitive feel for what makes sense, and we elevate that instinct into a principle.

 

International

 

China’s Campaign Against Foreign Words
Twice in late April, People’s Daily railed against the incorporation of acronyms and English words in written Chinese. “How much have foreign languages damaged the purity and vitality of the Chinese language?” the Communist Party’s flagship publication asked as it complained of the “zero-translation phenomenon.”

Venezuela’s mosquitoes bite back as malaria returns after half a century
Health officials call for political support amid fears rainy season will cause spread of disease pushed into cities by poverty

Putin Accidentally Posts Real Crimean Election Results; Only 15% Voted For Annexation
The website of the “President of Russia’s Council on Civil Society and Human Rights” posted a blog that was quickly taken down as if it were toxic radioactive waste. According to the Council’s report about the March referendum to annex Crimea, the turnout was a maximum 30%. And of these, only half voted for annexation – meaning only 15 percent of Crimean citizens voted for annexation.

Nigeria leader orders push to free abducted girls
Anger at government’s ineffectual response has fuelled protests at home and abroad

Panama’s vice president wins presidential election
Vice President Juan Carlos Varela pulled off a surprise victory in Panama’s presidential election Sunday, thwarting an attempt by former ally President Ricardo Martinelli to extend his grip on power by electing a hand-picked successor.

58 Percent of UKIP’s EU Election Voters Will Stick with Party in 2015
More than half of people intending to vote UKIP in this month’s European Elections will also vote for them at next year’s General Election. This is in stark contrast to last time, where UKIP received 16.5 percent of the vote in the 2009 European Elections but just 3.1 percent in the following year’s General Election, and suggests that more voters see it as a credible political force.

Fear of economic blow as births drop around world
Nancy Strumwasser, a high school teacher from Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, always thought she’d have two children. But the layoffs that swept over the U.S. economy around the time her son was born six years ago helped change her mind. Though she and her husband, a market researcher, managed to keep their jobs, she fears they won’t be so fortunate next time.

Yuppie, Get Your Gun
Harking back to the partisans of World War II, young Ukrainians train for irregular combat against the Russians.

HuffPo Writer Admits Vandalising UKIP Poster
A writer for the Huffington Post has admitted vandalising a UKIP poster in Birmingham. In an article published today, Bill Drummond, who describes himself as an artist, proudly posted photos of himself defacing the poster and justified his actions by comparing the UKIP billboard to Nazi propaganda.

“New Russia” – Is This What East Ukraine Will Soon Look Like?
As “The Russian Spring” spreads across various sub-regions of current non-Russian sovereign nations, Russian historian Sergey Lebedev warns that Transdniestria is “the first liberated part of Novorossiya,” Putin’s term for what he sees as a new state spreading across Ukraine into Moldova and perhaps beyond… here is what that region will look like… welcome to Novorossiya, or as one would translate it… New Russia.

Pope demands ‘legitimate redistribution’ of wealth
Pope Francis called Friday for governments to redistribute wealth to the poor in a new spirit of generosity to help curb the “economy of exclusion” that is taking hold today.

Students Forced to Pray to Allah in British Schools
A couple of young boys were reportedly suspended after they refused to pray to Allah during a religious education class at a school in Cheshire, England. Parents are livid over the “practical demonstration” of how Muslims worship and the discipline meted out to the youngsters.

Pro-Russian Forces in Control of Mariupol, Ukraine
May 9 was Victory Day in Ukraine, but there was nothing to celebrate in Mariupol where people were killed in clashes between pro-Russians and pro-Ukrainians. As of Saturday morning, the important port city is under the control of the pro-Russian forces.

Toronto Schools’ Equity Advisor To Speak At Marxism 2014 Conference
McCaskell, who is endorsed by OISE as an “Education Activist” and is a spokesman for QuAIA, is going to speak at the Marxism 2014 conference.

Fermented herring explosion causes a stink
The smell of rotten fish filled the air in a northern Swedish town when a store of cans of surströmming – fermented herring – caught fire.

 

Opinion

 

Joining the New Elite: A How-to Guide (Part 4)
In the last installment of this series, Blackmailers Don’t Shoot told you where to write in order to join the New Elite. As luck would have it, Salon editor Elias Isquith has a piece up that perfectly illustrates what the aspiring New Elite should write. We’ll get back to this in a bit. First, it’s time for a quick review.

What Is Marriage?
As Jonah has pointed out, that “Freedom to Marry, Freedom to Dissent: Why We Must Have Both” statement is not flawless. He wrote in part: “If you’ve spent a decade or more advancing the argument that opposition to same-sex marriage is morally equivalent to opposition to interracial marriage and other Jim Crow laws, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise when people who bought your argument then go out and apply its ruthless and unforgiving logic.”

The Common Core
Common Core seems like a good idea. In a society as mobile as ours, kids moving from one state to another should not be so far behind or ahead students in their new state. A common set of skills at each grade across the nation makes sense. At least that is the sales pitch.

Conservatism and the Psychopath Psychology
Years ago, I read an excellent book on the psychology of the career criminal. In the introduction, the author cautions readers against “medical students’ disease”: the tendency of first-year med students to suddenly notice that they have symptoms that are superficially similar to those of the strange diseases they’re studying. Similarly, he warned, as you read about the psychology of criminals, you might notice—in your most self-critical moments—that you have a few superficially similar traits. But unless you’re actually sticking up liquor stores, this does not mean you are a criminal.

Liberals And Their Ad Hominem War of Attrition
Liberals and progressives are nothing if not patient – if not on the surface, then deep down. They wage a constant war of attrition on conservatives, working to wear us down through allegations of racism, sexism and bigotry. Who on the Right hasn’t breathed an exasperated sigh and thought of quitting in frustration at the unfounded ad hominems relentlessly slung by the Left?

What Do You Do When You Are on the Wrong Side of History?
It is almost a cliché now that Christians and all those who oppose same sex marriage are ‘on the wrong side of history.’

Sooner or later, they’re going to come for people you do like
Online liberalism, as I’ve said many times, is not actually a series of political beliefs and alliances but instead a set of social cues that are adopted to demonstrate one’s class background– economic class, certainly, but more cultural class, the various linguistic and consumptive signals that assure those around you that you’re the right kind of person and which appear to be the only thing that America’s 20-something progressives really care about anymore.

Does the Left hate work?
The problem isn’t that the Left hates work; the problem is that they don’t understand the difference between productive work and unproductive work.

The Real Reason the Left Hates Work
Why does the left hate job creation? Exhibit number one: today’s lead editorial from the White House, that is, The New York Times. The paper notes correctly that this recovery is still woefully subpar, as measured by the number of people who remain out of work and – even more alarming – the number who have given up the hunt.

“Meet the White, Male Leftist Professors Who Kept a Black Woman from Speaking at Rutgers”
Here. I’ll let Bryan Preston do all the work on that account. While I note, simply as an aside, that those who are most vocal in flagellating themselves over things like “white privilege” are always presuming to exert influence over those who simply don’t buy into the notion of white privilege. Or against, in this case, those whose “group identity” carries with it a left-liberal, victim-sanctioned master narrative that they refute, either through their beliefs or the circumstances of their lives.

Racism and America’s Death March to Utopia
I won’t defend Los Angeles Clippers’ owner, Donald Sterling, for his racial attitudes and beliefs. But I will defend his right to hold them. One’s thoughts are his own private property. And until a jack-booted squad of Thought Police kick in your door and arrest you for unsanctioned thoughts, I’ll keep my tinfoil hat in the closet where it belongs. But I digress.

The Fool’s Golden State
On fiscal reform, Jerry Brown should listen to Jerry Brown.

Andrew Klavan: The Debate is Over
In which our host, Andrew Klavan, explains why conservative opinion is so unwelcome in Washington DC, Hollywood and the mainstream media: Because the debate is over, the science is settled, and the time for talking is past.

“Check Your Privilege” And the Leftist Ethic of Resentfulness
Yet Another Excuse To Demonize Those With More Than They Have

‘Homo Rapiens’: Anti-PIV RadFem Goes Total Moonbat on Climate Change
There are times when, in studying feminist theory, I start to think, “Hey, maybe they’re onto something here.” A bedrock conservative, unshakable in his patriarchal heteronormative christofascist worldview, can read the really hard-core feminists and glean insights into the fundamental psychosexual dynamic of male dominance, appreciating women’s experience within this dynamic.

Elites focus on inequality; real people just want growth
The economic debate is now sharply focused on the issue of income inequality. That may not be the debate Democrats want to have, however. It’s negative and divisive. Democrats would be better off talking about growth — a hopeful and unifying agenda.

Heinlein, Hugos, and Hogwash
Robert Heinlein could not win a Hugo Award today. If you are a fan of science fiction, you know how shocking that statement is. If you are not a science fiction fan, I salute you for having better things to do with your time than read stories about space princesses being rescued from bug-eyed monsters by stalwart and clean-limbed fighting men of Virginia; but please let me explain why this is shocking.

Less rush to motherhood: Delayed childbirth trend can reshape population
This Mother’s Day, odds are that the new mother pushing the stroller has a few more years on her than in years past.

The Devil Wears Obama
Column: Michelle Obama’s embarrassing tribute to a top Democratic donor

Monogamy Envy
Why do supposedly brave reconsiderations of a cherished notion sound so trite?

The privilege to tell others to “check your privilege”
Check your own damn privilege

White Guilt
Nothing makes me more ashamed of being white than watching a bunch of pansy-assed, effeminate, crybabies calling themselves “men” while apologizing for the color of their skin.

Why it’s impossible to argue with Progressives
I said yesterday that we have to confront Leftists, because they will never go away. Today, though, I got a perfect example of why it’s so gosh darn difficult to deal with them. To understand this point, I need to take you back to the post I wrote about a killer who is about to be released from prison in Texas.

Checking My Privilege
There is a phrase that floats around college campuses, Princeton being no exception, that threatens to strike down opinions without regard for their merits, but rather solely on the basis of the person that voiced them. “Check your privilege,” the saying goes, and I have been reprimanded by it several times this year.

Trigger Warnings, Campus Speech, and the Right to Not Be Offended
“It’s really not anyone else’s business to tell someone when they are mentally and emotionally ready to deal with things,” says Bailey Loverin, a University of Santa Barbara (UCSB) junior who authored a resolution to mandate that professors issue “trigger warnings” before presenting material that might trigger memories of past traumas in students.

What’s the Outcome Expected from an Article V Constitutional Convention?
Did you promote an Article V convention for your state? Were you sold on the safety of such a measure? Were you told that a balanced budget amendment was the focus of this effort?

This entry was posted in News of the Week and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.