News of the Week (June 21st, 2014)

Posted on June 21, 2014 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for June 21st, 2014


 

Election 2014

 

Franken, Dayton Have Single-Digit Leads
Gov. Mark Dayton and Sen. Al Franken survived recounts when they won their first elections to the governor’s office and U.S. Senate. According to our latest KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, they might have to sweat our close races again in 2014. Franken clings to a six-point lead over his closest Republican challenger Mike McFadden, 48 percent to 42 percent. The poll has a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.1 percent.

Cantor will vote for Brat
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Sunday he will vote for Dave Brat, the man who ended his career in Congress, but stopped short of congratulating him or mentioning his name.

‘Duck Dynasty’ Relative Running For Congress: ‘There Is No God’ In Washington
A nephew of “Duck Dynasty’s” Phil Robertson says he is running for the Louisiana congressional seat held by Vance McAllister, who was elected with the TV family’s support and later was wrapped up in scandal when video surfaced showing him kissing a married staffer.

Controller 2014: 7 Things to Know about John Perez’s slim lead over Betty Yee
California’s too close to call race for state controller has gotten even closer.

Senate Majority Might Not Be Decided Until December
For all the money spent on the November elections, control of the Senate might not be decided until a Saturday three weeks before Christmas.

 

Obama Scandals

 

Emails Show Lois Lerner Fed Confidential Tax Information, Database to FBI For Investigation Ahead of 2010 Midterms
Back in April, Judicial Watch released documents showing IRS officials, including former head of tax exempt groups Lois Lerner, discussing the possibility of bringing criminal charges against tea party groups for engaging in “political activity.” In fact, the documents showed Lerner wanted to make an example out of someone with charges in order to chill all of the groups in the tea party movement.

IRS Has Lost More E-mails . . .
It’s not just Lois Lerner’s e-mails. The Internal Revenue Service says it can’t produce e-mails from six more employees involved in the targeting of conservative groups, according to two Republicans investigating the scandal.

Why Darrell Issa just asked the IRS to hand over a hard drive
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa on Tuesday issued a subpoena to the Internal Revenue Service, ordering the agency to turn over the hard drive they claim is responsible for wiping out two years of critical email communications.

IRS Contracted With Sonasoft for ‘Email Archiving Done Right’ Back in 2005
The IRS first signed a contract with Sonasoft in 2005. And Sonasoft evened bragged about being the backup servers for the IRS in a 2009 tweet.

IRS contracted with email archiving company in 2005
Is that a smoking gun I smell? It turns out the IRS contracted with a company that provides email backup services starting in 2005. This first came to light in the Twitter feed of moregenr, who noticed that the IRS appears on the client list of email archiving service provider Sonasoft.

Gun Rights

 

Miss USA Stands by Statement that Self-Defense Can Help Prevent Sexual Assault
In a HuffPost Live interview on Thursday, Miss USA Nia Sanchez defended a controversial statement about sexual assault that she had made during the competition. Sanchez had suggested that women should learn self-defense abilities in order to help protect themselves from assault, which some interpreted to mean that women are wholly responsible for preventing violence against themselves. She was criticized extensively on social media, which you can read about in Andrew’s article here.

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

EU Eco Chief Threatens British Press Over Opposition to EU Energy Directives
The EU’s energy commissioner has threatened politicians and journalists who campaign against his eco-policies, accusing them of stirring “anti-EU sentiment” and warning them that their opposition to his EU energy-savings directives will “not be taken lightly.”

‘Climate Disruption’ of the past seen in mummy DNA
One of the favorite boogeyman arguments used in climate alarmism is that climate has been stable for thousands of years, and that our recent industrialized era emissions will result in climate tipping point. However, this study in the Proceeding of the National Academies of Science suggest that climate disruption caused people in the Central Andes to migrate to find a better climate over a thousand years ago.

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Colorado Christian University Beats Obamacare Contraceptive Mandate
The Obamacare contraceptive mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a federal judge in Denver ruled in a closely watched case involving Colorado Christian University.

 

War & Terror

 

President Obama Wasted American Victory and Lost Iraq: What Now?
This is what happens when a president declares an end to a war that wasn’t truly over.

ISIS butchers leave ‘roads lined with decapitated police and soldiers’
Battle for Baghdad looms as thousands answer Iraqi government’s call to arms and jihadists bear down on capital

Iraq crisis: Baghdad prepares for the worst as Islamist militants vow to capture the capital
Iraq is breaking up. The Kurds have taken the northern oil city of Kirkuk that they have long claimed as their capital. Sunni fundamentalist fighters vow to capture Baghdad and the Shia holy cities further south.

We’ll fly black flag of jihad over London
Britons who have gone to fight in the Middle East are threatening to bring violent extremism back home

British-Born ISIS Fighters Vow to Bring Jihad Back to Britain
Britons fighting for Al Qaeda splinter group ISIS have vowed to bring Jihad back to Britain and the West when they finish in Syria. The Sunday Times reports that one fighter is a computer hacker from Birmingham who stole Tony Blair’s details, while another is a former private school pupil.

Iraq: Barack Obama’s self-regarding goodness is bad news for the rest of us
The would-be Peace President, by failing to grasp strategy the force, will leave a legacy of war

Afghan election: Taliban ‘removed voters’ fingers’
Taliban insurgents cut the index fingers off 11 Afghans who participated in this weekend’s presidential run-off poll, officials say.

Feds: Armed Mexican troops, police regularly jump border to cross into U.S.
More than 500 armed Mexican troops or police have strayed across the border into the U.S. over the past decade, according to numbers the Homeland Security Department provided to Congress on Tuesday that shed new light on how often the international boundary is violated by official agents.

Turkey’s AKP Spokesman: Iraq’s Kurds Have Right to Decide Their Future
Kurdistan Region—The Kurds of Iraq have the right to decide the future of their land, said Huseyin Celik, a spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Friday.

What We’re About To Lose In The Middle East
U.S. negligence may be costing the world a territorial compromise that has worked for decades.

National

 

Rolling Stones Song “Under My Thumb” Declared to Be a Thought Crime
Bad enough that the Rolling Stones played in Israel despite Pink Floyd’s righteous boycott on behalf of Palestinian terrorists. Now we learn that they are sexists too. A militant moonbat named Lynn Stuart Parramore (no relation to treasonous moonbat luminary Lynne Stuart, so far as I know) screams on AlterNet that she was in Trader Joe’s and was forced to listen to the 1966 Stones hit “Under My Thumb” — right there in ultra-liberal New York City, despite the lyrics being a thought crime

Former Johns Hopkins Psychiatrist: Transgender Surgery Isn’t the Solution
Doctor says that medical intervention for transgendered children comes close to child abuse.

Condom Use Drops Among US Teens
The percentage of sexually active teens who use condoms has declined over the last decade, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Can Raul Labrador capitalize on grassroots anti-establishment sentiment in GOP?
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) looks to have the votes for a bid to replace Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) as Republican House Majority Leader all sewn up. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), once McCarthy’s chief rival for the post, has already bowed out. But, as many commentators have already noted, McCarthy’s ascension to leadership in the House would be the ultimate expression by establishment Republicans that they do not understand the moment or the anxieties of average GOP voters.

Pennsylvania mom of 7 dies in jail over unpaid school-related fines
A growing number of Americans are expressing outrage that a Pennsylvania mother of seven died in jail last weekend while serving a 48-hour sentence over unpaid, school truancy-related fines.

A Guide to the Supreme Court’s Remaining Cases
The First Amendment and executive power are the major themes for this term’s remaining cases. Here is the run-down on the most important cases yet to be decided this term. Monday, June 23, is the Court’s next official decision day, with more decisions likely to be handed down later in the week.

Liberals Furious over SC Law to Teach the Constitution in Schools
The Republican controlled legislature in South Carolina recently infuriated liberal groups by insisting that state universities teach students about the U.S. Constitution and other founding documents.

Supreme Court Decision Day
The Supreme Court released decisions moments ago in Abramski v. United States and Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus.

Confirmed: Las Vegas Cop Killers Were Members of Far Left #Occupy Movement
Amanda and Jerad Miller took part in the far left Million Mask March in Indiana.

Couple Responsible For Vegas Shooting Spree Recently Lived In Indiana
The husband and wife who gunned down two Las Vegas police officers and a shopper at a Las Vegas strip mall on Sunday lived in Lafayette, Indiana, before moving to Nevada in January.

Divided 9th Circuit Strikes Down CA Law Requiring Identity of Ballot Measure Proponents on Face of Petition
The vote on this point in Chula Vista Citizens for Jobs v. Norris was 2-1.

Pizza, pizza: $1 million a pie?
THE LANCASTER Avenue Redevelopment Corp. talked a good game when tax dollars were up for grabs.

DNC Celebrates Flag Day With The Wrong Flag
The Democratic National Committee wished America a “Happy Flag Day!” by tweeting out a picture of a child holding a flag over the weekend.

Central American Media Promote Illegal Child Immigrant Tsunami, Give Tips
Instead of discouraging the wave of illegal child immigrants headed toward the U.S. border, major media outlets in Central America are encouraging the phenomenon in recent news coverage.

U.S. Patent Office cancels trademark registrations for NFL’s Washington Redskins
The United States Patent and Trademark Office canceled six federal trademark registrations for the NFL’s Washington Redskins on Wednesday, saying the nickname is “disparaging to Native Americans” and cannot be trademarked under federal law that prohibits trademark protection on offensive or disparaging language.

Redskins lose trademark, Harry Reid says team will be ‘forced’ to change name
In what some see as the first step to forcing the Washington Redskins football team to change their name, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday cancelled six federal trademarks of the team name because it’s “disparaging” to Native Americans.

This Is What the Administration Gets for Aiding and Abetting Human Trafficking
The humanitarian and security crisis being caused by waves of illegal immigrants, many of whom are children, surging across our southern border is no surprise.

Obama Met a Giant, Talking Robot Giraffe at the White House Today
The robotic animal that speaks with a British accent and can carry 30 people is just one oddity in a giraffe-centric news cycle this week.

Brian Schweitzer: Eric Cantor Sets Off My ‘Gaydar’
Just how much can you run your mouth and still run for higher office?

Kevin McCarthy Elected New Majority Leader
Kevin McCarthy of California will rise in the ranks of Republican House leadership after the caucus voted him the next majority leader. The four-term congressman will take over for Eric Cantor of Virginia next month, who lost in a shocking primary defeat last week to upstart Dave Brat.

Steve Scalise Elected New Majority Whip
House Republicans picked Steve Scalise of Louisiana as the next majority whip on Thursday, adding what some consider a more conservative voice to current leadership.

A Basic Primer On The Scott Walker Case For Ignorant Reporters
I’m going to tell you a true story, and then tell you how the news media is covering it.

Marion Zimmer Bradley was a child abuser – says her own daughter
Every so often, the question of a writer’s life versus their work comes up – specifically, whether the value of the work mitigates, or even has any legitimate connection with, the wrongs they committed, endorsed, or sympathized with in their life.

Gay, white professor sues historically black university for discrimination
Dr. John Garland’s lawsuit alleges that “a small, powerful group” worked to “destroy” his career, as well as the career of his husband.

Ex-Redskins Player Mocks Name Uproar by ‘Boycotting’ the Chargers
Former Redskins tight end Chris Cooley is getting tired of all the arguing over the team’s name needing to be changed because of its perceived offensiveness. So on his ESPN radio show this week, he mocked the outrage by calling for a boycott of the San Diego Chargers because of global warming and the ozone or something.

Economy & Taxes

 

A Closer Look at Income Inequality
Economic inequality is the big thing these days. Barack Obama has called it the “defining challenge of our time” and the number of books being published on the subject could fill a small library. Of particular note is a survey by Michael Norton and Dan Ariely of 5,000 Americans asking what they thought wealth inequality should be compared to what it actually is. Norton and Ariely asked which of two distributions the survey participants preferred, either that of the United States or Sweden (without knowing what those distributions represented).

Under Dodd-Frank, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Can Now Close Any Business at Any Time for Any Reason
“It’s a free country,” people used to say. Only the clueless say it anymore. Katie Pavlich reports on yet another reason why

 

International

 

A Europe of Nations
It has fallen on the continent’s minor parties to insist on national sovereignty.

Demonstrators burn US flag before Americans’ debut
Demonstrators burned a U.S. flag near the stadium in northern Brazil where Vice President Joe Biden planned to attend the U.S. soccer team’s opening World Cup match Monday evening.

India Doubles its Forces along Border with China
It looks likes one of the global flashpoints I mentioned earlier this year is heating up.

China must import more water than the US imports oil
In one of the most comprehensive studies ever conducted of China’s bubblicious property market, Professor Gan Li at Texas A&M University estimates that there are a whopping 49 million vacant homes in China right now.

Concern over possible coup in Lesotho
The South African government has reportedly expressed concern over a possible coup in Lesotho, amid reports of increased military presence in Maseru.

Doctors Without Borders: Ebola virus is “totally out of control” in West Africa
The international volunteer medical organization Doctors Without Borders has issued a chilling warning — that the deadly Ebola virus is “totally out of control.”

 

Opinion

 

America as Spectator to History
In 2003, President George W. Bush persuaded Congress and the United Nations to authorize the invasion of Iraq. After Saddam Hussein’s forces were quickly routed, Mr. Bush declared we had an obligation to install a democracy. Our generals agreed to undertake the role of nation-building.

Global Warming Is Fake, Bradley Manning Is a Dude and Other Assorted Haterisms
Linkfest!

The Invention Of Patriarchy
Homo sapiens have been around for quite a while, though we didn’t start developing the traits that would ultimately give rise to great art, such as Van Halen’s “Unchained,” till about 50,000 years ago. The ride has often been bumpy. Were it not for one man, it would have been bumpier. So on this Father’s Day, we embark on a journey back to the roots of masculinity itself. It is a history of creation, invention, machination, and heteronormativity. First, though, our forebears had to invent heteronormativity.

Americans Think School Is for Socializing
‘School’ is a tool of socialization primarily wielded by progressives. So why do parents think it’s normal?

War Was Interested in Obama
Leon Trotsky probably did not quite write the legendary aphorism that “you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” But whoever did, you get the point that no nation can always pick and choose when it wishes to be left alone.

Putting the ‘PC’ in Providence College
The other day, I wrote about Harry Stein’s new comic novel Will Tripp: Pissed Off Attorney at Law. It’s an hilarious send-up of the rancid PC establishment that rules the roost at most American colleges and universities. It is, like David Lodge’s Small World or Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, intended as a species of satire. But as I noted in an update to that piece, the absurdist realities of contemporary academia make it very difficult to distinguish reliably between satire and the reality being satirized. Give it a try: Which of the following biographical sketches is satire, which is business as usual?

Why Conservatives Might Be Left Out of the Next Wave of Tech
Only 4 percent of consistently conservative Americans want to live in cities, but urban environments are where the tech action is.

SBA List v. Driehaus: The Perils of Regulating Political Speech
More speech, not less.

Lefty Pundits Distort Unanimous Supreme Court Ruling to Smear Pro-lifers as Liars
Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony List should be allowed to challenge in court an Ohio state law that criminalizes making false statements in an election campaign. The law, which subjects individuals and groups to costly litigation, fines, and even jail time if they can’t defend their political speech to bureaucrats and judges, was used in 2010 to intimidate billboard owners into rejecting the pro-life group’s election advertising. The question of whether “somebody should be able to get into federal court,” in the words of Justice Kagan at oral argument, united both the left and right wings of the high Court given the obvious and repellent injury to free speech rights.

12 Best Replacement Names For The Washington Redskins
In case you were wondering whether the Obama administration could possibly find another federal agency to weaponize against its opponents, wonder no longer. The U.S Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just canceled the trademark for the Washington Redskins, claiming that the team’s name is disparaging to Native Americans.

“Redskins” trademark cancelled by USPTO as “disparaging” — Are “Negro” and “Colored” next?
So when do challenges to United Negro College Fund and NAACP trademarks start?

15 Myths Millennials Accept as Fact
Last week an everyday group of anti-gun nuts called Everytown published data that claimed there have been 74 school shootings since Sandy Hook. Most of us went, “No there haven’t,” because we’ve only read about a few.

Cognitive Dissonance and Tech ‘Diversity’
Another day, another tech company lambasted for its lack of diversity. Here’s the headline and the lede of CNET’s writeup of Yahoo’s release of statistics about its workforce

Why the Redskins Trademark Ruling Should Terrify You
Anyone deemed politically incorrect is now outside the protection of the law.

The Crumbling Cultural Foundations of American Democracy
Democracy rests on a complex set of values—and many of those values are fading.

Of the Bureaucrats, by the Bureaucrats, for the Bureaucrats
The naked self-interest of the government-worker class

Trans Against Levity
I’m not greatly interested in whether this is “offensive” or not. “Offended” has become such a fluid and subjective term these days that I can’t possibly keep up — and, frankly, I don’t especially care to. Either way, that the outrage brigade would go after this game is nothing short of extraordinary.

Absolute power corrupts comprehensively
Everyone knows Lord Acton’s warning about how “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It also has a way of corrupting comprehensively.

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