News of the Week (March 23rd, 2014)

Posted on March 23, 2014 by The Political Hat

 

News of the Week for March 23rd, 2014


 

Election 2014

 

#TXSen: Elections have been lost over less serious gaffes than this one
No, Senator Cornyn.

The 2014 Governors’ Races That Aren’t Really Races
Yesterday I mentioned that Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval heads into 2014’s general election with no major competitors on the Democratic side. There are two other 2014 governors races where, so far, the state Democratic Party has effectively chosen to concede.

Is This Illinois’s Scott Walker?
Bruce Rauner is running against a weak Democrat incumbent on an anti-public-union message.

McClintock Race Could Give Democrats New Playbook To Take Out Conservatives
In 2012, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) won re-election by 22 percent. So why is he sending fundraising appeals warning of a “total liberal takeover”? Because in California, it’s happened before.

Tea Party candidate wins St Rep seat as write-in, defeats GOP & DEM nominees by wide margin
Politicos and election officials are confirming Republican Scott Wagner’s apparent victory in the 28th Senate as the first time a write-in candidate has won an election for state Senate in Pennsylvania.

The Democrats’ 2014 Whitewash
Barack Obama’s electoral success has shown the Democratic Party the value of a non-white candidate in driving turnout and enthusiasm among the non-white voters that are vital to the party’s success. So why are nearly all the statewide Democratic candidates this year white?

GOP ‘Manchurian Candidate’ Colluding with Dems to Oust Rep. Tom McClintock
Liberal Democrats and the Republican establishment have disliked Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) mainly because of his staunch fiscal conservatism and his association with the Tea Party. Now, they may be colluding to try to oust him from his House seat by manipulating California’s “jungle primary” system in which the top-two finishers advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.

Prove it: Court rules states can make voters prove citizenship
Election commission can’t stop voter ID laws

 

Obama Scandals

 

WH Press Secretary Gets Questions from Reporters Before Press Briefing
A CBS reporter from Arizona reveals that President Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, receives questions from the press in advance of his daily press briefing. In fact, she says, the reporters often receive the answers in advance of the briefing, too.

Gun Rights

 

California gun store owner refuses to hand over customer list
The owner of a California gun parts store has refused to hand over his list of customers to federal agents.

Ninth Circuit Makes Hawaii a Shall-Issue State
The Peruta dominos continue to fall. In an earlier decision in Baker v Kealoha, a District Court refused to rule in favor of the plaintiff, Christopher Baker. Baker had moved for an injunction against various Hawaii state agencies that had denied him a carry license. As a Ninth Circuit panel summed up the District Court’s rationale, the District Court denied the motion because, “Baker was not likely to establish that Hawaii’s restrictions on carrying firearms in public were unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, and therefore, Baker was not likely to succeed on the merits.” But that was pre-Peruta . . .

Found it on Facebook: Teaching the Second Amendment
This could be real . . . or not. It’s so deeply, horribly wrong, maybe it’s a hoax

Del. court bars limits on gun in public housing
The Delaware Supreme Court has ruled that the Wilmington Housing Authority cannot prohibit residents from carrying guns in common areas.

NY Officials Are Demanding They Register Their Guns – Here’s What They Did With the Registration Forms
Gun rights advocates in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., reportedly burned nearly one thousand gun registration forms to ashes in a clear act of civil disobedience.

Hide the Decline

Environment &
“Green Energy”

 

Climate as Religion: Craving a Holocaust
Do climate activists yearn to be oppressed? I’ve argued they do. Now I take the case a step further in “Ecologism: The Campus Cult of Victimhood,” from the latest issue of Academic Questions. I survey Pascal Bruckner’s biting treatment of climate fanaticism as religion then give his argument a twist. Today’s secular religions crave holocausts.

Lawsuit Challenges Use Of Endangered Species To Stop Energy Boom
Oklahoma’s attorney general has filed what could become a landmark lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, arguing the so-called “sue and settle” procedure for listing animals and plants on the endangered and threatened list violates the federal Endangered Species Act.

Lawsuit Challenges Use Of Endangered Species To Stop Energy Boom
Oklahoma’s attorney general has filed what could become a landmark lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, arguing the so-called “sue and settle” procedure for listing animals and plants on the endangered and threatened list violates the federal Endangered Species Act.

US college professor demands imprisonment for climate-change deniers
An assistant philosophy professor at Rochester Institute of Technology wants to send people who disagree with him about global warming to jail.

American Physical Society Sees The Light: Will It Be The First Major Scientific Institution To Reject The Global Warming ‘Consensus’?
The American Physical Society (APS) has signalled a dramatic turnabout in its position on “climate change” by appointing three notorious climate skeptics to its panel on public affairs (POPA).

EPA arms Democrats with data, snubs Republicans
Little trace of FOIA requests from Republicans

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

 

Unexpectedly, Vermont’s Plan for a State Single-Payer System Is Also Circling the Drain
Vermont didn’t embrace Obamacare. You see, Obamacare didn’t go far enough. Vermont instead choose to meet Obamacare’s legal mandates on the states by implementing a single-payer system, planned for a 2017 start-up. The law — is it even a law anymore? — permits states to seek a waiver from Obamacare’s other strictures if they propose their own plan which is at least as generous (that is, socialized) as Obamacare itslef.

Health insurance premiums up 39% to 56% under Obamacare, reach $2,604 a month in California
Americans buying health insurance outside the new Obamacare exchanges are being forced to swallow premiums up to 56 percent higher than before the health law took effect because insurers have jumped the cost to cover all the added features of the new Affordable Care Act.

Hispanics souring on Obamacare — and Democrats too?
Will Hispanics remain a heavily Democratic voting bloc? Maybe not. The 2008 electoral exit poll showed them breaking 67 to 30 percent for Barack Obama (despite John McCain’s support of comprehensive immigration legislation) and the 2012 exit poll showed them breaking 71 to 27 percent for Obama (making them one of the few demographic groups whose support for Obama increased rather than decreased between 2008 and 2012).

To The Obama Administration, Everybody Is A Child
Do you remember the scene from ‘A Christmas Story’ where Ralph is forced by his mother to try on the pink bunny suit his aunt Clara made for him? Voiceover Ralph says, “Aunt Clara had for years not only perpetually labored under the delusion that I was 4 years old, but also….a girl.”

 

War & Terror

 

Crimea Through a Game-Theory Lens
A Russian occupation of Crimea raises the specter of the Cold War, in which the nuclear stalemate between the United States and the Soviet Union devolved into regional disputes around the world.

Ukraine Preparing For Russian Invasion
Now that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order annexing the Crimean peninsula to the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian government is preparing its defenses in anticipation of a Russian invasion, CBS reports.

A MARINE SPEAKS FRANKLY – SHE SURE DOES
The following, written a couple of months ago, was sent to me last night. The author’s experience and insight is consistent with, and supports, the couple of handfuls of articles, at least, written on the topic – women in combat

Ukraine military to pull out of Crimea
Earlier today, the government in Kyiv attempted to issue an ultimatum over the seizure of Ukrainian military bases in Crimea and the capture of their naval chief. That turned out to be an empty bluff. Instead, the Ukrainian government will withdraw from the peninsula, and take their personnel and families back to the mainland

National

 

California Keeps Its Ban on Racial Preferences
“California voters will not be asked this year to decide whether to roll back California’s ban on racial preferences in college admissions, Assembly Speaker John A. Perez” announced today, according to the Sacramento Bee. The story notes, “The move came a week after three Asian-American state senators — who had previously supported putting the question to voters — asked Pérez to put a stop the measure.”

Zoning Board member’s NAZI salute brings Florida meeting to an awkward halt
A Florida zoning board member brought a community meeting to an awkward halt when she used a stiff-armed gesture to compare a village official to Adolph Hitler.

Handing Over the Keys to the Internet
It’s nuts to cede control of the Internet to countries with poor records on free speech.

Minneapolis Lesbian Police Chief Dons Hijab for “Hijab Day”
When the left finally cracks up, the few survivors will have a really good laugh.

Hierarchical differences
Female academics less likely to cross rank in collaboration, study finds

Sugars found in tequila may protect against obesity, diabetes
Tequila shots may do more than lighten the mood at a party; the drink may be beneficial for your health as well.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kane lawyers up
The decision of Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane to drop the investigation and potential prosecution of Philadelphia Democrats who were recorded accepting cash, money orders, or jewelry certainly seems suspicious. According to news reports, investigators collected over 400 hours of audio and video of five Democrats, including four state lawmakers, before Kane, also a Democrat, secretly killed the investigation last fall. When confronted with this troubling story by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kane cited racism and mismanagement in the investigation, but the detailed descriptions of the recordings certainly seem to indicate that the payments were made.

Sixth grader suspended for taking razor blade away from suicidal student, throwing it away
A Virginia beach middle school suspended sixth grader Adrionna Harris for ten days — and recommended expulsion — because she was briefly in possession of a razor blade after she confiscated it from a friend who was trying to kill himself.

Intolerance and Stanford’s Free-Expression Tax
There’s tolerance aplenty on today’s campuses. Too bad it runs only in one direction.

Fighting hipsters with hipsters: the new GOP strategy?
The Republican National Committee is out with a new series of web ads that star people of a variety of different demographics designed to appeal to different segments of the American population that they’ve recently struggled to win: minorities, women, and, yes, hipsters.

Non-Christians Given ‘Special Consideration’ In Union Teacher Contract
Ferndale Public Schools provision could violate state and federal laws

Principal who told kids not to speak Spanish will lose job
Hempstead issue sharpens focus on rising state Latino enrollment

UC Santa Barbara professor steals young anti-abortion protester’s sign, apparently assaults protesters, says she ‘set a good example for her students’
The Santa Barbara Independent had a story on this last week, but I’ve just seen the police report (linked from a follow-up story), and it has to be read to be believed.

Study: Blacks with white friends are ‘less black’
When Washington, D.C., councilman and former Mayor Marion Barry this week said that whites need to be “more open-minded” about African-American politicians, claiming “blacks are more open-minded than” whites, he was suggesting that whites can’t do what blacks do — embrace the other race.

In a world of standardized tests, should parents drop out of trying to help?
The Atlantic: Don’t Help Your Kids With Their Homework

Friends of Ross Miller using anti-free speech state law to try to gag opposition group Mar22 by Thomas Mitchell
Some pals of Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller, son of former Gov. Bob Miller, are trying to gag of a Republican-leaning group airing an ad on TV and the Internet ridiculing Miller for taking $60,000 in gifts while in office — living the high life, as they put it.

Economy & Taxes

How a Clever Man Is Using Selfies to Protect Himself From the IRS
Andrew Jarvis, an architect who had to work out of his firm’s New York City and Philadelphia offices, quickly grew tired of the exhausting commute. So he started renting an NYC apartment to lighten the burden.

Nevada public employee pensions are the richest in the nation
We knew Nevada’s public employees had generous pension benefits, but now a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute has done the calculations and found Nevada’s public pensions are the richest in the nation — $64,000 a year or more than $1.3 million in lifetime benefits. That doesn’t include public-safety workers, such firefighters and police, who can retire earlier and generally have higher salaries, especially in Nevada.

 

International

 

Welcome to #Venezuela Social Revolution. No enough beds to take care of patients

Residents in Ukraine’s Luhansk Want to Join Russia
Crimea voted to join Russia on Sunday and cities in east Ukraine wish to follow in their footsteps. Pro-Russians in Donetsk and Kharkiv have staged many protests since parliament ousted Russia-backed president Viktor Yanukovych on February 22. Ethnic Russians in Luhansk are the latest to voice their wish to be a part of Russia.

In Venezuela, Cuba Is Fighting To Hang On
In Venezuela, protests against the failed socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro are ongoing, but they have largely been crowded out of the news by events in Crimea and the drama of Flight 370. Still, from an American perspective, what is happening in Venezuela is of great importance. Venezuela under Hugo Chavez, and now Maduro, is a client of Cuba, and Cuba’s Communist government is a client of Russia, even though Russian largesse is not what it once was. These days, the Castro brothers are largely dependent on Venezuelan oil to keep their regime afloat. So Russia’s effort to extend its power into the Western Hemisphere depends in great part on what happens in Venezuela.

Crimea parliament declares independence after vote
Crimea’s parliament on Monday declared the region an independent state, after its residents voted overwhelmingly to break off from Ukraine and seek to join Russia.

Ukip banned from speaking at student’s union because of ‘extremist’ views
UKIP has been banned from speaking to students ahead of the European elections because it’s members hold “extremist views”.

The Empty Threat of Future Judgment
Putin doesn’t care which “side of history” we think he’s on.

The Hitler Model
Why do weak nations like Russia provoke stronger ones like the United States?

Ukrainians and Venezuelans Need Guns To Be Free
The U.S. isn’t coming to the rescue, so they had better be able to defend themselves.

Echoes of the Past
Analysts compare Putin to Hitler following annexation of Crimea

Tank Girls, Sexy Sailors, and the Rising Popularity of Japan’s Military
Mai Fuchigami might seem an odd choice to feature on the cover of a military magazine. She has never served in the armed forces and looks like a typical youthful Japanese girl, all smiles and peace signs. But there she is on the cover of the December issue of Mamoru, the Japanese Defense Ministry’s official magazine, which, according to Reuters, has taken to featuring popular female models and articles on dating and relationships.

Venice residents support leaving Italy in unofficial referendum
Organisers say a clear majority of voting Venetians were in favour of restoring the independent Venetian Republic

Mexican cartel henchman arrested for killing children to harvest their organs
Relative of top cartel leader nabbed in Mexico, held on charges of kidnapping, killing kids to steal their organs. Manuel Plancarte Gaspar is nephew of Knights Templar kingpin.

Venezuela arrests one opposition mayor, jails another
Venezuelan intelligence agents on Wednesday arrested one opposition mayor accused of stoking violent protests, while another was jailed for 10 months in the latest moves against rivals of President Nicolas Maduro.

Generation of children left without vital skills
Lord Baker, the former Conservative education secretary, says that large numbers of children are being forced to leave school lacking the vital skills needed to find a job

Islamic law is adopted by British legal chiefs
Solicitors told how to draw up Sharia-style wills penalising widows and non-believers

 

Opinion

‘Snools Rule’: Mary Daly and the Radical Feminist School of Atrocious Writing
In one of the deranged rants by anti-PIV feminist Radical Wind quoted here previously, this sentence occurs: Women’s situation is more complex since we are oppressed by all the different classes of men who are the originators and subjects of patriarchal snooldom.

The anti-Asian battle in California, once limited to high school, now plays out in the world of higher education
I grew up entirely surrounded by Asians. I think I had one friend who was Jewish. The rest were Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Filipino. They all came from homes that had exactly the same values: marriage, education, hard work, and self-reliance were the family watch words. Those are still watch words amongst conservatives who believe (and have the data to support them) that those people most likely to leave poverty behind are the ones who do well in school, get married before they have children, and then work extremely hard. Nevertheless, if I am to judge by Facebook, all of my Asian high school friends are hard-core Progressive Democrats.

Is Mexico entitled to Yuma County Arizona?
Imagine that when you woke up this morning CNN was blasting the news that Mexico had announced it planned to annex Yuma County, Arizona and neighboring Imperial County, California. Mexican troops were massing on the U.S. border, about to invade. Mexico’s reason? Both counties have over 40% of their populations comprised of persons of Mexican ancestry, by far the dominant ethnic group, and both used to be part of Mexico. If you’d have a problem with a Mexican invasion, you should have an equally big problem with Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea and its open threats to seize portions of Eastern Ukraine.

Will Asians Kill Race Preferences in California?
If you’re looking for moments when tectonic issue shifts seem to become visible–like the moment when Dems realized they had to give up on gun control, or the (coming) moment when there are enough charter school parents to defeat teachers’ unions–here’s one: the moment when California Democrats abandon a push to reinstate race preferences because of constituent-driven opposition from Asian Americans in their own ranks.

Asian-American Voters Thwarting Affirmative Action Push in California
Reliable Liberal Voters Hate Actions That Affirmatively Shortchange Their Children

The Left’s new racism: cultural appropriation
Thanks to political correctness and multiculturalism, the vast majority of Americans and Europeans would never dream of saying anything negative about a racial or cultural group, other than straight white males or conservative blacks. As to those last two groups, it’s always open season. The rest of us, as I said, have been cowed. But have we been cowed enough? No!!! A thousand time no.

Cops or soldiers?
America’s police have become too militarised

The Supreme Court should reverse the Ninth Circuit and uphold Slaughter-House!
Courtney v. Danner is a case brought by the Institute for Justice challenging a government-imposed ferry monopoly as irrational and arbitrary, and therefore violative of the Fourteenth Amendment. Anyone who knows me knows that I believe the Supreme Court’s 1873 decision in The Slaughter-House Cases was an egregious mistake that has distorted the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment ever since. Yet today, Richard Epstein, Ilya Somin, James Ely, Josh Blackman, Chistopher Green and I submitted an amicus brief in this case urging the Supreme Court to grant cert and uphold Slaughter-House! We make this claim because, in denying this challenge, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit eviscerated one of the few rights of that Slaughter-House affirmed as among the “privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States”: the right “to use the navigable waters of the United States.” The Ninth Circuit ruled that this right did not include the use of navigable waters for economic purposes.

Deep secrets of affirmative action debated
Preparing to speak at the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention this past fall, I read the astounding book Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It’s Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won’t Admit It by Richard H. Sander and Stuart Taylor, Jr. The book came out to wide acclaim in October 2012. Amazon does not indicate that a paperback edition is forthcoming. You might want to pick up a copy of the book before it becomes a collector’s item.

Judge Strikes Down Michigan’s Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
A judge has struck down Michigan’s ban on gay marriage, the latest in a series of decisions overturning similar laws across the country.

The Rise of Secular Religion
Today’s secular liberals are the direct descendants of the past century’s Puritans and Protestants, deeply concerned with matters of sin and salvation in the church of politics.

The San Francisco Democrats Finally Rule the Roost
In 1984, Jeane Kirkpatrick, a lifelong Democrat who Ronald Reagan appointed Ambassador to the United Nations, took to the stage at the Republican National Convention in Dallas. The Republicans and this Democrat roundly mocked the unseriousness of the Democrats who wanted to replace Ronald Reagan. Calling them “San Francisco Democrats” — the Democrats had held their convention in San Francisco — Kirkpatrick delivered many broadsides that ring true today. As she said of these San Francisco Democrats, “they always blame America first.”

Trigger Warning: Free Speech
The police report regarding UC Santa Barbara Professor Mireille Miller-Young has been released. Miller-Young made news after tearing a sign away from an anti-abortion activist in the university’s Free Speech Zone.

The Hangover: Obama Loses His Cool
A great philosopher once said “There’s nothing more pathetic than an aging hipster.” Ok, that was Dr. Evil in Austin Powers. However, the aging hipster that occupies the Oval Office is certainly living up to that observation. The Obama White House, in several desperate attempts, is shamelessly squeezing every last ounce of magical Hope and Change they have left in a final push to somehow make a health care law suddenly popular and attractive to young people who aren’t buying the gimmicks.

Something Obama failed to mention
When Obama screened a movie about Cesar Chavez at the White House this week, he did not mention Chavez’s disdain for illegal immigrants.

2014 – Year of the Microaggression
Saturday Night Card Game – Everybody must get microaggressed

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