News of the Week (May 25th, 2014)

Posted on May 25, 2014 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for May 25th, 2014


 

Election 2014

 

Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund Poll: McDaniel beating Cochran 43-36
A new poll from Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund shows that Tea Party-backed state Sen. Chris McDaniel has seven-point lead over 36-year incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS).

POLITICO poll shows mounting danger for Dems
President Barack Obama’s job approval slump and voters’ entrenched wariness of his health care law are dogging Democrats ahead of the 2014 midterm elections, and Republicans have captured a lead in the areas home to the year’s most competitive races, according to a new POLITICO poll.

These are the voters that will decide the 2014 election
Your vote matters. But depending on where you live, your vote in 2014 might matter a lot more or a lot less than someone else’s. That’s not just because some states and districts are more competitive — it’s also because some states just don’t have a Senate race going on this year.

 

Obama Scandals

 

Girl with cerebral palsy denied operation to let her walk at same NHS trust that gave a model breast enlargement using taxpayer’s cash
Sophie has type of cerebral palsy which means she can’t use her legs
An operation on her spinal cord would enable her to take her first steps
Deemed to expensive – and her parents are trying to raise £25,000 needed
Was referred to Leeds General Infirmary which specialises in procedure
Hospital is part of of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Aspiring glamour model given breast implants at same NHS Trust last year

Barack Obama: Man, that Abraham Lincoln and his Intercontinental Railroad!
Yeah, we also had adequate schooling, once upon a time. Which is why I know that it was a Transcontinental Railroad. And since we’re bringing up American history, I feel compelled to note that the only reason why the Pacific Railroad Acts** passed in the first place was because half of the Democratic party at the time was engaged in an armed insurrection against the legitimate government of the United States of America.

The VA and the Limits of Liberalism
Many have noted, including our own John Fund, that the VA scandal poses an acute threat to the Obama administration because of how much its problems resemble the criticisms of Obamacare itself. But let’s imagine there was no Obamacare. Let’s imagine that Obama had actually followed through on his occasional promises to focus on the economy and jobs first and foremost and didn’t blunder into the huge wasteful distraction that is the Affordable Care Act.

More VA Whistleblowers Coming Forward, Campaign Says
Lawyers who have represented VA informers say the agency is a heinous abuser of rights.

Miami VA Whistleblower Exposes Drug Dealing, Theft, Abuse
When asked why he would risk his job and speak publicly, Detective Thomas Fiore considered the question carefully before answering.

This memo shows that the VA knew of records manipulation in 2010
Robert Petzel resigned last week as the top health official for the Department of Veterans Affairs, just one day after testifying before a Senate committee that he knew VA health clinics were using inappropriate scheduling practices as early as 2010.

2010 VA memo.pdf

Veterans Affairs whistleblowers face ‘long slog’ in fighting retaliation
Retaliation comes quickly to whistleblowers who expose wrongdoing at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Gun Rights

 

Smart Gun Maker Filed Patent for Remote Kill Switch
An alert reader emailed TTAG central with news that Armatix GmbH – makers of the iP1 “smart gun” – filed a patent application that included a remote kill switch for the firearm. Click here to view patent EP 1936572 A1, dated 2006. (Not a bug; a feature!) I’m not a patent attorney or an electrical engineer, but as far as I can tell this is the bit (translated from the original German) that indicates remote disabling

NC Restaurant With “No Weapons” Sign Robbed at Gunpoint
North Carolina restaurant The Pit was robbed at gunpoint on Sunday. Normally, local crime stories like this wouldn’t merit a Townhall post, but this one is different: The Pit has a “no weapons” sign displayed prominently on its door declaring the restaurant a gun-free zone, and bans patrons from carrying concealed weapons.

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Climate change science has become ‘blind’ to green bias
Climate change science is becoming ‘blind’ to green bias which risks suppressing research which challenges man-made global warming, scientists have warned

UN climate change expert reveals bias in global warming report
Three of the four installments of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which claims to show the state of the global climate system under stress, are now available.

Lefty Scientist: Jail Pols Who Deny Global Warming; PBS Host Worries There’s Lack of Prison Space
Left-wing extremism has a home at PBS – and that home, to be specific, is the set of Moyers & Company. Host Bill Moyers kicked off Sunday’s episode with a flashback to the previous week’s broadcast, in which scientist and environmental activist David Suzuki had announced that he believes society should literally punish politicians who don’t believe in global warming

Hollywood celebrities caught on hidden camera accepting money from “Middle Eastern oil interests”
In a blockbuster new video, Project Veritas has exposed the truth about the dark funding behind Hollywood’s anti-fracking messaging machine.

James O’Keefe Dupes Hollywood with Fake Anti-Fracking Film
Undercover journalist James O’Keefe released his latest video featuring a sting operation to expose Hollywood environmentalists.

Conservatives Draft Manifesto to Help Republicans Attract Middle-Class Voters
Hoping to push their agenda ahead of the presidential election, a group of prominent conservatives has devised a 121-page policy manifesto aimed at giving the Republican Party a message that will attract some of the middle-class voters the party lost in recent White House races.

#MTSen: Daines’ campaign posts lightning-fast response to Democrat opponent’s ‘rape ad’
I’m a bit astounded that Steve Daines’ campaign managed to pull this off so quickly. Compare the two videos

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Nevada will dump Xerox as health insurance exchange contractor
The Silver State Health Insurance Exchange board voted unanimously Tuesday to end its relationship with Xerox, the vendor contracted in 2012 to build the exchange’s Nevada Health Link website.

GM Sure Recalled A Lot Of Cars Right After The Feds Sold Their Shares
According to recent reports, GM just recalled another 2.4 million vehicles this week, bringing the total number of recalled GM vehicles this year to a record 13.6 million. USA Today got right to the point when it asked, “Are there any GM cars that haven’t been recalled?”

 

War & Terror

 

Y-12’s Oxide Conversion Facility remains out of operation; impact unclear
The Oxide Conversion Facility at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant has scarcely operated in recent years, and it’s not operating now. A recently released report by staff of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board said there was a plan to resume operations in early April. But that didn’t happen, and a federal spokesman at Y-12 didn’t offer much detail about what’s going on with OCF.

Hard for NATO to defend Baltic states from Russia
NATO would struggle to defend the Baltic states from any Russian aggression “with conventional means”, Germany’s Spiegel magazine reported on Sunday, citing sources close to the organization and a draft of a NATO planning document.

National

 

Male Scent May Compromise Biomedical Research
Jeffrey Mogil’s students suspected there was something fishy going on with their experiments. They were injecting an irritant into the feet of mice to test their pain response, but the rodents didn’t seem to feel anything. “We thought there was something wrong with the injection,” says Mogil, a neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. The real culprit was far more surprising: The mice that didn’t feel pain had been handled by male students. Mogil’s group discovered that this gender distinction alone was enough to throw off their whole experiment—and likely influences the work of other researchers as well.

Plan to name Lake Tahoe cove after Mark Twain scrapped after tribe complains
An effort to name a Lake Tahoe cove after American literary icon Mark Twain has been scuttled for the second time in three years, citing opposition from a tribe that says the writer held racist views of Native Americans.

Students Accused of Rape Can Fight Back // Court OKs Suits Against University, Employees, and Female
With so much attention focused on alleged failures to prosecute students accused of date rape, the problem of universities whose judicial proceedings are unfair to the accused have been largely overlooked

Commencement Speaker Gets STANDING Ovation For Calling Leftist Protesters ‘Immature,’ ‘Arrogant’
On Sunday, the commencement speaker at Haverford College satisfyingly used his pulpit to tell off 40 or so radical leftist students and three radical professors who had forced an honorary degree recipient to withdraw from the event.

House GOP bill would roll back school lunch rules
House Republicans are proposing to let some schools opt out of healthier school lunch and breakfast programs if they are losing money.

Science Fiction fandom has now been thoroughly marched through by the Gramscians…
The full moon rose and the craziness came out
I swear this past week was straight out of The Twilight Zone. Or maybe we fell down the rabbit hole and took a sharp left into Bizarro Land. Whatever the case, not only have we seen a return to social media by members of the SJW clique and the GHHers but also another attack (at least a perceived one) on indie authors by the establishment. If it was a remnant of the full moon, it can go away now. I’m ready for sanity to finally find its way into the publishing world. Not that I’m holding my breath.

Police Shutdown of 11-Year-Old’s Lemonade Stand at California Race Widely Unreported
Of more than 24 arrests and numerous citations at San Francisco’s 103rd annual Bay to Bridges Race – where nudity and general debauchery were central to the race’s “fun” theme – one 11-year-old girl who was forbidden by police to simply give away lemonade and fudge brownies somehow didn’t make it to the police’s statistics sheets.

Suspended Columbia athlete files federal lawsuit over campus sexual assault conviction
Alleges one night stand was consensual, and university deprived him of due process rights under campus pressure to prosecute student athletes

Kerry Compares Homophobia and Transphobia to Racial Segregation of Schools
Secretary of State John Kerry marked last week’s International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia by comparing it to the Supreme Court ruling that desegregated schools 60 years ago.

Michelle Obama Would Like Students to Monitor Family Members for Racial Insensitivity
First lady Michelle Obama is encouraging students to monitor their older relatives, friends and co-workers for any racially insensitive comments they might make, and to challenge those comments whenever they’re made.

Long Island Democrat on Local Town: ‘It’s full of those black people. All they want to do is play basketball’
Don’t forget, folks, the Democrats are the party of African-Americans and only tea partiers are racist or something. Just imagine how big a story this would be if a Republican uttered such offensive statements.

Dinesh D’Souza Pleads Guilty to Making Illegal Campaign Contribution
The filmmaker behind “2016: Obama’s America” faces up to two years in prison; the more serious charges are expected to be dropped.

More Hispanics Declaring Themselves White
Hispanics are often described as driving up the nonwhite share of the population. But a new study of census forms finds that more Hispanics are identifying as white.

Comedian: Cross Hollywood’s gay mafia, and ‘You’re not going to get your movie directed’
Longtime comedian Adam Carolla has warned the Hollywood blacklist is back, this time for anyone who runs afoul of homosexual activists. If an artist does not support the homosexual political agenda, Carolla said, “You’re not going to get your movie directed.”

Towson Debate Team Earns Its Participation Trophy

Michelle’s meals turn off the kids
More than a million kids confronted by healthier school lunches are turning up their noses, leaving the cafeteria and heading out to get a burger instead.

Dem Congressman: ‘We’ve Proved That Communism Works’
Democratic Florida Rep. Joe Garcia — fresh off being caught eating his own earwax on camera — was caught red-handed (or is it yellow-fingered?) in another gaffe this week, claiming that low crime rates in border cities with lots of federal immigration workers is proof that “Communism works.”

Tribal leaders demand expulsion of students who wore ‘Siouxper Drunk’ t-shirts at off-campus party
Tribal leaders have now called on UND to expel the students and show “zero tolerance.”

Teacher admits he helped write Common Core to end white privilege

The VA’s Socialist Paradise
For the left, the Department of Veterans Affairs is how health care is ideally supposed to work. No insurance companies, no private doctors, no competition — just the government and the patient.

UCLA Judicial Board rejects attempt to disqualify pro-Israel students
Anti-Israel Lawfare Fails; Pro-Israel Groups Take Offensive

This May be the Most Important Future Story of the Day
Is demography destiny? If you listen to any Texas Democrat, the answer is yes. Ever since they lost power in the Lone Star State 20 years ago, after more than a century of dominance following Reconstruction, Democrats have openly pined on race to restore their fortunes. They believe that once Texas’ population becomes more Hispanic, Democrats will start winning offices again. They don’t need to change any policies or listen to the people. No need to moderate on gun control or abortion. They will rely on race.

Public Schools Shred Students’ Constitutional Rights
On the issue of religious freedom and freedom of speech, where do we allow the United States government and the public school system to draw the lines? This is precisely the question that parents at one Pennsylvania elementary school are asking after a student was reprimanded for exercising his religious freedom. Park Lakes Elementary School punished a fifth-grade student named Giovanni for reading the Bible.

Mavericks owner Cuban under fire for comments touching on race
Outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban fended off social media criticism on Thursday for his “bigoted” response when asked at a business conference to address the controversy over banned Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.

‘Duck Dynasty’ Star: ‘They Railed Against Me For Giving Them The Truth About Their Sins’
Phil Robertson, star of the popular “Duck Dynasty” television show, defended his controversial comments on homosexuality, giving a church sermon in which he ridiculed media coverage and others “blurring” the lines between “sinners” and homosexuals.

Arrestee alleges government misconduct; federal magistrate orders arrestee to apologize and recant, as a condition of bail
Here are the magistrate judge’s hand-written bail conditions in U.S. v. Lipsen (W.D. Tex. May 16, 2014). (I’ve checked the federal courts’ electronic records system and confirmed the document posted at the linked site is authentic)

Toure Tells Man His Concentration Camp Surviving Family Made It Because They’re White
Un-friggan believable…

Sullivan’s law professor husband criticized by gay rights group
A UVA law professor married to the University’s president is coming under fire from an advocacy group that claims his recent legal arguments in favor of religious exemptions are aiding anti-gay and anti-woman agendas.

MSNBC’s Harris-Perry Likens NBA to Slavery
MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry drew parallels between the NBA and slavery on the Saturday episode of her eponymous show. She teased a segment on Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban by saying “you can’t really talk about reparations and ignore the modern day wealthy Americans who own teams made up predominantly of black men and profit from their bodies and labor.”

Economy & Taxes

 

Poll: 47% of Unemployed Have ‘Completely Given Up’ Looking for a Job
A new poll suggests that finding employment, particularly for the long-term unemployed, continues to be a struggle for Americans. The poll, conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals, asked questions of 1,500 unemployed adult Americans last month.

 

International

 

The most ridiculous police appeal ever? Officers release picture of ‘armed robber’ with his face completely hidden – then won’t call him a ‘suspect’ because it would breach HIS human rights
Dorset Police say naming man as suspect could impede ‘right to a fair trial’

Army imposes martial law in Thailand
It’s tense in Thailand, where violence has spilled into the streets, people have died or been injured, and the army declared martial law Tuesday.

Poll: UKIP Set to Come First in European Elections
A new poll for the Sun predicts that UKIP will shake off weeks of negative headlines and win today’s European Elections. The YouGov projection, based on a larger-than-usual sample of 6,124 voters over the past two days, gives the anti-EU party the highest support, at 27 percent.

Pak PM Nawaz Sharif to attend Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be attending Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony here on May 26, Pak government sources said on Saturday.

Douglas Murray – Prince Charles, UKIP, Political Correctness
Douglas Murray with James Delingpole discusses’ the Prince Charles-Putin scandal, UKIP and the recent elections and political correctness.

Christians offer safe houses to Muslim converts
A CHRISTIAN campaign group is launching a national network of safe houses for Muslim converts who face ostracism or violent reprisals for leaving their religion.

Pak PM Nawaz Sharif to attend Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be attending Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony here on May 26, Pak government sources said on Saturday.

Eurosceptic ‘earthquake’ rocks EU elections
The National Front has come first in France’s elections to the European Parliament according to exit polls in what PM Manuel Valls has declared a “political earthquake”.

European election: Lib Dem result ‘as bad as feared’
The Liberal Democrats’ result in the European election looks set to be “as bad as I’d feared”, the party’s president says.

Labour tops Euro poll in Wales with UKIP close behind
Labour has narrowly topped the European election poll in Wales, on 28.7% of the vote, just ahead of UKIP on 28.1%.

Ukip storms European elections
Nigel Farage says Ukip’s success in the European elections will ‘terrify’ political establishment and prove ‘disastrous’ for Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg

Marine Le Pen wins record victory for Front National in French elections
Marine Le Pen’s far-Right Front National party has scored its highest ever percentage of the vote, exit polls in France show

European elections results 2014: Nigel Farage’s Ukip on course to top poll as Europe takes a swing to the right
Ukip likely to beat Labour to first place, with Tories dropping to third for first time ever in a national election

 

Opinion

 

(Trigger Warning) You commencement disinviters are immature brats
And also take your privilege check and…

Sweden goes insane
Leading the suicidal “progressive” war on free speech.

War on Boys
What ever happened to letting “boys be boys?” Take these two cases: In one, a seven-year-old boy was sent home for nibbling a Pop Tart into a gun. In another, a teacher was so alarmed by a picture drawn by a student (of a sword fight), that the boy’s parents were summoned in for a conference. In short, boys in America’s schools are routinely punished for being active, competitive, and restless. In other words, boys can no longer be boys. Christina Hoff Sommers, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, explains how we can change this.

Mr. Politically Correct Obama, Meet Your Opposite, India’s Mr. Modi
India’s new prime minister has been barred from the U.S. because of alleged links to a religious massacre, but that’s not the only reason a meeting with the president will be difficult.

The Loneliness of American Society
A modern condition that isn’t improving. To the contrary.

Check your bigotry
It was called by some the ouroboros — a serpent that swallows its own tail. For some it was an early emblem of utter futility. And I think about it when I hear some of the strange, absurd and utterly self-contradictory reports from North American campuses, particularly those that come filed under the “anti-racism” banner.

A Simple Message Conservatives Should Adopt: Government Doesn’t Work
One of the problems I have with conservative messaging is it tends to be aimed mostly at people who are already conservatives and a lot of what we pitch to people is too conceptual. We talk a lot about the founding principles of the country and the appeal to traditional values and point to the Constitution as if it that settles the argument.

The Bonfire of the Inanities
Column: The New York Times Devours Itself

The Washington Post Is Super Confused About Where Babies Come From
Last week, Sen. Marco Rubio took some heat for saying that he was skeptical of global warming activism. He was asked about the reaction to some of his comments and he noted some hypocrisy he’s witnessed on scientific consensus

Science: How Does It Even Work?
How does science work? With science being used as the basis for regulations that are supposed to turn the entire global economy upside-down, and in an age when having science on your side has become a point of partisan pride, allowing some people to condemn anyone who opposes their politics as “anti-science,” we could use a reminder about exactly how science is supposed to work.

You’re All Worthless and Weak
Hearken, youngsters, to another tale of those ancient days, the Eighties, when nobody wore bicycle helmets and there were precious few outbreaks of easily preventable infectious diseases owing largely to the fact that your mom didn’t get her health-care advice from the same place your dad got his porn. Dangerous days, they were, full of scraped knees and hurt feelings.

The Rise of the Campus Brown Shirts
A fusillade of attacks by students and faculty on commencement speakers and honorary degree awardees at four of our better known schools — Smith, Haverford, Rutgers and Brandeis — has tarnished this year’s commencement season beyond any in recent memory. Speakers as distinguished as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, former Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have been forced to withdraw even as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, one of the most courageous fighters of oppression on the planet, had to walk from her honorary degree from a university established in the shadow of the Holocaust. Go figure.

Parental Guidance Requested
College students want warning labels on literature.

Gay-Marriage Decisions Read Like GLAAD Press Releases Now
A district judge in Pennsylvania ruled yesterday that the state is obligated to recognize same-sex marriages. Given the sensitivity of the issue, the judge must have taken extra caution to present a sober, impartial analysis of the relevant case law, right? Of course not. His decision reads like a press release from a gay-rights organization, replete with emotional appeals, loaded terminology, and rhetorical flourishes.

Trigger Unhappy
“Trigger warnings” are the latest trend in political correctness — and they’re madness.

Prison For D’Souza, Beach Time For Corzine
Selective enforcement of the law is a dangerous thing.

Caution: Exposing children to the conservative world view can be dangerous
My daughter let loose this morning with a rant about the way in which political correctness stifles humor and free speech. She’s right, of course. No wonder Progressives want to silence conservatives. If conservatives are allowed talk, people — especially young people — will discover that they’re much more fun. Young people like fun, which is why Leftists keep telling them “sex, sex, sex.” Dig just a little past all that sex talk, though, and you realize that conservatives are actually having fun, while Progressives offer nothing more than a grim, puritanical slog through a Hobbesian life.

Admiral Bill McRaven: What a commencement speech should be like
Admiral Bill McRaven, Navy SEAL and head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, speaks to some very lucky University of Texas graduates

Five Reasons America Needs More Dads
Reduce poverty by reducing fatherlessness

“The pomposity and arrogance of these children (of the corn?) is just amazing”
Zero tolerance for differing legal opinions on campus.

The Power and Limits of Indoctrination
Cass Sunstein, Obama’s former regulatory “czar” and one of the smartest and most devious thinkers on the left, has a highly revealing Bloomberg column out this week reporting on the results of a study of the way China has attempted indoctrination in its school system. This column and the underlying study (it’s an NBER paper, behind a paywall unless you have academic access) are useful as background reading for everyone who is rightly concerned about how Common Core standards will likely become the means of nationalizing a liberal school curriculum. (What? You mean you aren’t reassured by the promises from Washington that if you like your local curriculum, you can keep your local curriculum? Why ever not?)

“Operation Choke Point”
The Justice Department’s “Operation Choke Point” initiative has been shrouded in secrecy, but now it is starting to come to light. I first heard about the program in January through this article and since then it has been difficult to discover details about it. It is so named because through strangling the providers of financial services to the targeted industries, the government can “choke off” the oxygen (money) needed for these industries to survive. Without an ability to process payments, the businesses – especially online vendors — cannot survive.

Freedom of Expression and Political Correctness
I see that an LGBT group is demanding that Gary Herbert, the governor of Utah, apologize for having said that the refusal of state officials to defend laws enshrining the traditional definition of marriage is a step toward anarchy. This demand is absurd. That the public servants charged with enforcing and defending the duly enacted laws of the people damn well ought to enforce and defend them is a kindergarten-level proposition of republican democracy. Our commitment to it stands prior to our support of or opposition to any particular law, and it’s perfectly possible to think both that same-sex unions should be recognized as marriages and that this ought to come about through the manifest will of the people rather than the caprice of government officials. Such is my own view.

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