Tuesday, November 13, 2012

War of Words Shaping up Between Gov. Cuomo and Power Utilities

A war of words is shaping up between New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and the Long Island Power Authority.  As usual, civilians are often its first victims.  New York residents are shocked by the slow pace of power restoration from Hurricane Sandy and they are lashing out against Governor Cuomo.   Many residents feel that their pleas for relief have been stalled in bureaucratic limbo.  The heavily populated New York metro area is an interlocking network of separate authorities.   The situation  is complicated by a unique set of facts:

The Long Island Power Authority is not a private company.  It is a public governing board of trustees whose members are appointed by Governor Cuomo of New York and by the New York legislature.

Widely respected sports talk-show host Mike Francesca summed up popular criticism of Governor Cuomo for an ineffective response to Long Island power outages.  Politics on the Hudson captured the sentiment expressed by many fellow Long Islanders recently.  “I blame Cuomo and I blame the guys in charge of the state that allowed this system,” says Francesca.

While LIPA supplies management, administration, and direction for Long Island gas and electric utilities, National Grid supplies the energy.

LIPA executive staff have backgrounds as corporate managers, lawyers,   financial executives, and electrical engineers like Chief Operating Office Michael Hervey.

Michael Hervey was among a host of power company CEOs receiving a letter from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo threatening to revoke operating certificates and fire management personnel, according to a press release from Cuomo’s office.

The agency in charge of revoking public utility operating certificates is the New York State Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities and approves utility operations. 

As of November 11, a New York State Public Service Commission press release stated that power has been restored to 97 percent of New York homes and businesses.  The 97 percent figure excludes “36,200 customers, the majority of which cannot safely receive power yet.”

Enter the lawyers.  According to Thomson Reuters, a class action lawsuit has been filed in Nassau County today against LIPA and National Grid by Melville, NY attorney Kenneth Mollins.  The lawsuit seeks civil damages, and criminal prosecution if those charges should apply.

LIPA serves 1.1 million customers on Long Island, New York.  The bulk of customers without power as of Nov. 10 are concentrated on the southern or lower portions of Long Island, according to a LIPA map.

87 percent of LIPA’s 1.1 million customers lost power in the aftermath of Sandy, compared to approximately 25 percent of customers for Consolidated Edison, according to the Wall Street Journal.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Benghazi is a Story of Public Deception Framed in a Sex Scandal - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Benghazi is a Story of Public Deception Framed in a Sex Scandal - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Things were falling apart in Libya, as Ambassador Stevens and the CIA were reporting, and drastic measures were needed. The situation called for vast public lying. Did the political cover story emanate from the White House or did the false narrative originate at the Central Intelligence Agency?

Monday, November 12, 2012

Petraeus’ Resignation Offers Everything but the Facts - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Petraeus’ Resignation Offers Everything but the Facts - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Mistrust of the Obama administration response to the Benghazi attacks is sure to be racheted up by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein's statement to NBC reporters. NBC reporters Andrea Mitchell and Robert Windrem write that Feinstein said Petraeus "will not need to testify at Benghazi hearings she is chairing next week

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Generation Generator Meets Hurricane Sandy - Yahoo! News

Generation Generator Meets Hurricane Sandy - Yahoo! News

Electrical energy produced by generators, if not properly connected, can "backfeed" to outside electrical lines and electrocute power company utility workers trying to restore power to homes, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

I Called it for Mitt -- What was I Thinking? - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

I Called it for Mitt -- What was I Thinking? - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Victorious Democrats voted for a rock star president who hugs it out with celebrity icons of hipster counterculture. In a recent news conference reported by ABC, voluble New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gushed about his three-way ménage with President Obama and Bruce Springsteen.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Evidence Mounts Against Obama Administration: #Benghazi Nights


The darkness that surrounds the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi threatens to envelope us all, and the U.S. constitution with it.  Our freedom depends on an independent free press, yet much of media has harnessed itself to President Obama’s press office.  These toadies prefer to write and report about New Jersey Governor’s Chris Christie kumbaya moment with Obama for a photo op.  But Benghazi is an acid that will eat through the flimsy reporting of the liberal phalanxes of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN.  Should Obama and his fifth column be re-elected, Benghazi will destroy his presidency and leave the United States vulnerable to additional outside incursions by people who wish the worst for America and its freedoms. 
Meanwhile, the evidence of Obama’s deceit, cover up, stonewalling and disrespect of America’s citizens continues to mount up:
The CIA had a fat file on the AQ affiliate called Ansar al-Shariah and its operations outside of Benghazi. 
The liberal New York Times, which occasionally does real reporting, has reported on the terrorist camps in the mountains outside of Benghazi.  They are not there to roast marshmallows or hot dogs.
 The Red Cross had to close its offices in Benghazi due to attempted assassinations and bombings such as the one that occurred at the embassy in June 2012.
The Benghazi consulate, including Ambassador Stevens, made repeated requests for additional security.  In response, Hillary Clinton’s state department withdrew or denied the requested security and moved security assets away from Benghazi. 
This criminal negligence is matched only by the negligence of the people who let brave men die on the roof of the embassy as terrorists swarmed down below.  
The worst part of the Benghazi fiasco is that it presages the years to come, encouraging further attacks and allowing the fanatical Islamo-fascists to claim that America can be weakened and conquered.    But a weak and effete president who accommodates and succors those who hate America is not all of America. 
 
We are America.  We need to address this now.   We need to vote the Obamanuts out of office.    Short of that, we are in for a rough patch.   But AQ and its affiliates have made a huge mistake in  the Benghazi 9-11 and the 9-11 that preceded it.  AQ knows that Obama blows smoke with his empty perorations, that he's anxious to create the illusion of peace even at the cost of freedom.
Half of America may be sleeping now, but history tells the story of what happens when it wakes up.  By the grace of God, I hope it is awake today.
 
 
 
 
 

Friday, November 2, 2012

Government Storm Help Should Start at the Gas Station - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Government Storm Help Should Start at the Gas Station - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

If government must take care of the others, a good place to start might be at the gas stations.  But then again, at least we are relieved of hearing those utterly moronic GM television ads for the Chevy Volt, a car that will soon go the way of the Edsel and the Corvair.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Obama Will Ask for Election Replay Due to Sandy?


COMMENTARY |On October 28th, while meteorologists were warning everyone about the impending storm Sandy, I tweeted what I thought was a facetious remark:

“Wanna’ bet Obama extends voting if he doesn’t get enough (early) votes?

Right now, after the terrible storm, I’m flabbergasted to hear media pundits speculating about the possibility, as does Indiana’s WSBT-TV.   So far the conversation about a delayed election hasn’t moved beyond the chattering classes. 

Mainstream news outlets like ABC and USA Today cite historical and legal precedent that infers there would be no electoral delays. 

However, the November 6 election is balanced on a knife edge, and you have to think campaign managers, especially on the Democratic side, are searching for reasons not to talk about the economy or Benghazi or the “fiscal cliff.”

Don’t think for a minute that raising the issue would be extensively ridiculed.    We live in an era of reality TV, an era where TV news organizations openly flaunt their partisanship and routinely blend news into a potpourri of questionable “facts” and biased opinion. 

Who hasn’t heard some version of the question asked by PolicyMic:  “Can Hurricane Sandy Help Obama Win Election 2012?”   It’s only a short leap to an apoplectic New Jersey voter shrieking into a CNN camera:

“How could I vote when my iPhone battery is still dead?”

Stormwise, the political tectonics are shifting toward the president.  President Obama has ready photo ops as he tours inundated New Jersey with Governor Chris Christie.

Even Fox News, not noted for liberal editorial opinion, found it necessary to harmonize with liberal media in underscoring Christie’s praise of President Obama’s response to Hurricane Sandy. 

The hard facts of the matter are that the storm will cut down on voting in two states President Obama is presumed to have in the bag.  In New York State, President Obama leads Romney by 26 points, according to Real Clear Politics.  The vote in blue state New Jersey also heavily favors the president.

Yet, a diminished voting turnout due to Hurricane Sandy would be a convenient political red herring for the hard core Democratic base.   But only if President Obama loses the election in 2012 and Romney becomes America’s new president.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, October 22, 2012

Benghazi Will Speak for Itself in Tonight’s Debate - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Benghazi Will Speak for Itself in Tonight’s Debate - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

After weeks of listening to Obama administration officials blame an anti-Islamic video, Americans find out there were no protests, little security, and no escape for the victims of the attacks. Perhaps the most damning of yesterday's accounts came from Time Magazine's Steven Sotloff, who interviewed the guards present when swarms of Islamic fighters blasted through the compound.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Foreign Policy Reduced to Bumper Sticker Wars - Yahoo! News

Foreign Policy Reduced to Bumper Sticker Wars - Yahoo! News

The next president will be able to claim a foreign policy "mess we inherited," a fact that hasn't gone unnoticed by experts in the foreign policy world. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Stanford University senior fellow Fouad Adjami scathingly criticizes President Obama as a man with an "affectation of worldliness" beneath which lies "a calculating politician with a superficial knowledge."

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Hollywood Launches Enviro-Missile Against Natural Gas Drilling - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Hollywood Launches Enviro-Missile Against Natural Gas Drilling - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

The ideal intellectual target of the anti-fracking campaigns is the wealthy urbanite or celebrity who worries neither about transportation nor home heating bills. Think Yoko Ono or actor Matt Damon, roughly equal in wealth and privilege, and determined to convince "the masses" of the evils of energy beneath the surface.

Last week, we sold our house in a down market, moving from Pennsylvania to New York. There were not enough silver linings to make up for the asset loss but one of them was a tremendous savings in home heating costs.

Our Pennsylvania house was heated with oil, and even with our energy-efficient boiler, our winter energy costs were four times higher than the average monthly cost for natural gas heating of our New York house. Our annual energy use cost average on our new house was provided by National Grid, which serves this New York area.
According to the environmental evangelicals of Hollywood, I'm supposed to militate against my own self-interest to further the media interests of Hollywood types who expiate their energy guilt in money-making political activist films.
Damon portrays a gas company environmental criminal in a new anti-fracking film called "Promised Land," set for a January release, according to IMDb. Damon's environmentally sinful character solicits drilling rights in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale and later experiences a spiritual transformation into an angel of "green" pietism.

Factbox: ‘itsoknoproblembro’ Toolkit Could Be Big Problem for Iranian Hackers - Yahoo! News

Factbox: ‘itsoknoproblembro’ Toolkit Could Be Big Problem for Iranian Hackers - Yahoo! News

Today, the Wall Street journal reported new Iranian attacks on Capital One Financial Corporation and BB&T Corporation. The latest hack attacks on American banking followed last month's intrusions into PNC, Wells-Fargo, J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America, reported in Mail Online. This silent war­­­ could turn into a shooting war if Iran's government is proven to be behind continuing and damaging attacks. Yet, "plausible deniability" is characteristic of computer warfare. Where does a government draw the line between malicious mischief and open warfare? Consider some relevant facts:
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has frequently warned of a "cyber Pearl Harbor." Stars and Stripes also detailed a litany of known intrusions into "chemical, water and electrical plants, as well as public transportation control software."
Prolexic Technologies identified the latest attacks as stemming from the sophisticated "itsoknoproblembro" toolkit. The ironically named hacking method could indeed pose special problems for version 1.0 security systems, according to Softpedia's Eduard Kovacs.

Read on, hit the headline

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Not Too Late To Turn Back Now

President Obama's latest trope is hilarious, borrowed from a 70s pop song about a guy who has lost his love and can't return to her.  Obama has borrowed the phrase without regard for copyright, and holds it out as if it were an original stroke of brilliance, then he tried to spin his election as some sort of inevitability.  Under Obama's misguided "leadership," we've gone so far over the borderline that we cannot "turn back now" as we approach:

  • the fiscal cliff
  • conflagration in the Middle East
  • massive debt and the ensuing threat of further credit rating decline
  • a gutted military
  • a national welfare state
  • abrogations of the U.S. Constitution
  • lies, deceptions, coverups
The list goes on.  But the fact is we DO have time to turn back now, and the moment is propitious.    It's important to seize the day.  Romney's counter-slogan should be Carpe Diem, in the way he snatched the first debate, exposing Obama as the bumbling little wretch he is without a teleprompter & and compliant media.

We have only a month to go before we get the chance to oust the Great Deceivers who lied about the terrorist attacks and the murders of our embassy personnel, who covered up donor scandals, fast & furious revelations, and who know what else, and in their latest incantation doctored the unemployment figures retroactively to benefit Obama & the DNC. 

The time to act is now.  Romney is an incredibly brilliant man of integrity, a man of the center-right who can lead this country out of its economic miasma and back to its core values.  Let's do it.  We're on the verge, staring down into the abyss, and with courage we will prevail.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

School Vouchers Would Resolve Chicago’s Teacher Strike Issues - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com


Great timing on the Chicago teacher's strike!




With many parents longing for the first weeks of school so as to enjoy a few uninterrupted hours, the Chicago Teacher's Union knew precisely when to strike the blow that would put the most pressure on Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the school administration to cave in.





School Vouchers Would Resolve Chicago’s Teacher Strike Issues - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Israel Evacuates West Bank Outpost - WSJ.com

Israel Evacuates West Bank Outpost - WSJ.com

The link above is to an article in the Wall Street Journal.  I didn't write that (ha-ha) and I didn't write the following challenge to the removal of Orthodox Israelis from the town of Migron.  Not only did I learn a new word (Fakensteins), but the writer also forced me to remember Ariel Sharon, a man much vilified by the left but admired by all those who consider that today's "Fakenstinians" were not around in 1967, nor very much in evidence 2500 years ago in Judea and Samaria.  Anyway, here's what one guy thought: 

1. It has never been proven that the land on which Migron was built is owned by an Fakenstinians. No one has proven or even offered to prove that the land is owned by anyone. The so called legal experts in the Israeli government base their opinion of the Supreme Court decision that any land not owned by individual Israelis or by the State is considered to be owned by Fakenstinians.

2. Migron was authorized by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and built with the approval of the Israeli government

3. Although most nations consider Israeli town built in Judea and Samaria to be illegal, there are many well written legal opinions that conclude just the opposite including a recent report by the Levy Commission that grants Israel the right all of the land it won in the defensive war of 1967. This is land captured from Jordan who illegally occupied the land after the 1947 war until 1967. An excellent book entitled “The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law” by Howard Grief a noted international law expert, gives ample reason why Judea and Samaria belong to the State of Israel.

4. Although Israel agreed under pressure from the Obama Administration to a ten month moratorium on building in Judea and Samaria to facilitate a return to peace talks, Fakenstinian President Mahmoud Abbas, refused to negotiate during that time.



This forced evacuation of Jewish people from our own land is a disgrace, and points out how spineless our current Prime Minster is. He worries more about the opinion of the rest of the world than he does about the people who voted his government into office.



The Prime Minister recently blocked legislation that would have annexed all of Judea and Samaria to the State of Israel rather than leaving under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Defense. He chose to table the bill with threats that any of his party members who supported it would lose their ministerial appointments. Had the legislation passed, which it surely would have done, had it come to a vote, then evacuations of towns like Migron would never happen.



The Prime Minster has also decided to ignore the aforementioned Levy Report, which gives legal credence to Israel's right to the land it won in the 1967 Six Day War.



In spite of the failures of this government the people of Israel, and particularly the people who have the gumption and tenacity to live in Judea and Samaria will prevail in Jewish people occupying our land. This will happen only because the birth rate of the people who live in Judea and Samaria is several times greater than those who would give away our land in a nanosecond.



Never forget that G-d made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that this land belongs to the Jewish people, and in spite of the fact that we were banished from our land for almost 2,000 years, we, the Jewish people are occupying our land, and we will continue to do so. The G-d that I believe in is good on His promises, and no matter what our Prime Minister and the other nations of the world think or do, we will prevail, and we will move toward the coming of Mosiach (Messiah), and humanity finally realizing that G-d is the only power that runs the world.




Free Rider

 

2012-07-20 13.00.11

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Factbox: Freight Cars Ride to the Rescue of Oil Companies - Yahoo! News

Factbox: Freight Cars Ride to the Rescue of Oil Companies - Yahoo! News

The latest Daily Fuel Gauge Report shows an average price of mid-octane fuel of $3.97 per gallon. Things aren't looking good for the 16-wheelers, either, with diesel at $4.08 per gallon. The problem, we are told, is not an insufficient supply of crude, but bottlenecks at the refineries. Projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline would have helped, but oil companies are turning to old-fashioned methods in bringing crude to the refineries on the east, west, and southern coasts.






Norway's Statoil ASA is the latest company to lease rail cars for crude oil transport, according to a company press release. The race to get oil to the refineries gets added impetus by Hurricane Isaac, which caused shutdowns and pullbacks at Gulf Coast refineries. Here are a number of important facts about U.S. refinery operation in the current environment:



Monday, August 27, 2012

‘2016 – Obama’s America’ and the Ostrich Syndrome - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com



‘2016 – Obama’s America’ and the Ostrich Syndrome - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com


Referring to the documentary's number eight position, the AP quotes box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian who says it's "extremely rare for a documentary to break into the top 10."




Among the clips offered by Dinesh D'Souza and co-director John Sullivan is a screen graphic wherein the upheaval in the Middle East results in a "United States of Islam," presumably led by an Iran seeking nuclear weapons.



The idea of a caliphate stretching across country borders is not a far stretch.






Sunday, July 1, 2012

Obama Administration Appeasers Struck Dumb as Morsi Calls for Release of Blind Sheikh

You've heard, haven't you?  The new Egyptian president-elect Mohammed Morsi wants the United States to release the "Blind Sheikh" from prison.  Or maybe you were too young to have heard of the Islamist potentate Omar Abdel-Rahman who spearheaded the World Trade Center bombing.

No!  Not the one that murdered and incinerated 3,000 Americans, the one before that, where only six people were killed, but a hundred injured.  Did I say only 6 people?  It goes to show you how numb and how accepting we have become to Islamic violence. 

As if it were a mere trifle.   But the 1993 attack was apparently not enough of a wake-up call for President Clinton, who refused to take Osama Bin Laden into custody when the Sudanese offered him up on a platter.

Sheikh Omar-Rahman, you may know, had family connections with bin Laden and was the mastermind of the 1993 attacks, among other accomplishments.  The BBC quoted Bruce Pomper, a broker in the World Trade Center, after the attack.

"It felt like an airplane hit the building," said Pomper.

Hello!  Airplane!  Anyone home?   Aside from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, I mean.  But don't be angry, the new Islamic Muslim Brotherhood, headed by Mohammed Morsi, last week announced to the world it has moderated its views in an inaugural message of tolerance to women and Coptic Christians in Egypt.

Morsi forgot to send a message of tolerance to Israel.  Nor did he make any statement in reference to the decades old peace treaty signed by Anwar Sadat.  You do remember Sadat?    The Egyptian leader who courageously  broke with fellow Arabs to sign a peace treaty with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin? 

 Of course,  Egypt's Anwar Sadat was assassinated shortly thereafter but what better way to show moderation and tolerance by the Muslim Brotherhood and affiliated Islamo-Nazis than to murder and infidel president?

There is good reason to think the Obama administration is buying into the idea of a moderated Muslim Brotherhood.   An administration that loudly called for Mubarak to step down is suddenly cowed into silence at Morsi's insulting and offensive call for Abdel-Rahman's release.


It's not as if Morsi's call for the release of the Blind Sheikh came as a surprise.  A pro Blind Sheikh demonstration at the U.S. Embassy in March of this year provided a clue, but the Obama administration is so anxious to curry favor with Islamic militants that it has looked the other way and tolerated the humiliation in silence.

Hillary Clinton's State Department hasn't yet told Morsi to shut his face, and that is a statement in itself.  There is an election coming in November and the whole lot of appeasers need to be booted out of office:  Hillary, Valerie, Barack and Joe;  Eric, Tim, and Benedict Bernanke, too.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Obama-Holder: The Odor of Fast & Furious Corruption Hangs Over White House

Obama has intervened in the Fast and Furious investigation to protect Attorney General Holder who will protect him when the 2012 election explodes into deception, illegal activity, and some level of violence.




A president with integrity would have fired Holder, or at least ordered him to release the documents that Chairman Issa wants. We are not talking about national security secrets here.



As time goes by, it becomes clearer to everyone that President Obama has a particular kind of closed-end mentality. Key people may leave the administration but they are never fired.



The only person ever to have been "fired" is Samantha Powers, the Obama foreign policy advisor and architect of R2P, who called Hillary Clinton a "monster." That was plainly embarrassing, but Powers' position was unpaid, and who gave a damn about a female aide at that early point in the administration?



The Obama administration is all about image, not reality or truthfulness, for the stonewalling associated with Fast and Furious is precisely an attempt to present a view of the administration which is precisely opposite of what it really is.



Obama can leak when it comes to Stuxnet or the use of drones or the Seal Team attack on Bin Laden, but the lid is iron-tight on a routine investigation of Eric Holder's justice bureaucracy.



Don't we need to know the degree to which America's top cop suborned the important mission of the national criminal enforcement agencies?



Don't we have sons like Brian Terry who are motivated to serve the interests of national security and must not be sacrificed to the giant egos and hidden agendas of politically motivated and appointed bureacrats?



Fast and Furious stonewalling has all the appearance of a rat's nest. The contemptible Holder is most interested in covering up the facts of the Fast and Furious operation with its 140,000 pages of documents.



There's something horribly rotten there, something dark. The stink of it hangs over the White House like a noxious gas.



Blog: Issa drops 'bombshell' wiretap applications letter that makes Holder out to be a liar#.T-8Z7TSA3dc.twitter

Blog: Issa drops 'bombshell' wiretap applications letter that makes Holder out to be a liar#.T-8Z7TSA3dc.twitter

Obama has intervened in the Fast and Furious investigation to protect Attorney General Holder who will protect him when the 2012 election explodes into deception, illegal activity, and some level of violence. 

A president with integrity would have fired Holder, or at least ordered him to release the documents that Chairman Issa wants.  We are not talking about national security secrets here.

As time goes by, it becomes clearer to everyone that President Obama has a particular kind of closed-end mentality.    Key people may leave the administration but they are never fired.  

The only person ever to have been "fired" is Samantha Powers, the Obama foreign policy  advisor  and architect of R2P, who called Hillary Clinton a "monster."   That was plainly embarrassing, but Powers' position was unpaid, and who gave a damn about a  female aide at that early point in the administration? 

The Obama administration is all about image, not reality or truthfulness, for the stonewalling associated with Fast and Furious is precisely  an attempt to present a view of the administration which is precisely opposite of what it really is.

Obama can leak when it comes to Stuxnet or the use of drones or the Seal Team attack on Bin Laden, but the lid is iron-tight on a routine investigation of Eric Holder's justice bureacracy.

 Don't we need to know the degree to which America's top cop suborned the important mission of the national criminal enforcement agencies?

 Don't we have sons like Brian Terry who are motivated to serve the interests of national security and must not be sacrificed to the giant egos and hidden agendas of politically motivated and appointed bureacrats?

Fast and Furious stonewalling has all the appearance of a rat's nest.  The contemptible Holder is most interested in covering up the facts of the Fast and Furious operation with its 140,000 pages of documents.

There's something horribly rotten there, something dark and unholy.  The stink of it, as it wafts across the White House lawn, can be measured by a gas chromatograph but it will continue to stink.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Will Obama’ Lapdogs in Liberal Media Bail Him Out on Fast & Furious?

Our local newspaper, the Pocono Record, is a dead issue. A resurrection will not be forthcoming, as the managers of the news in it are guilty of assistive suicide. There’s plenty of news in the Pocono area, but instead of reporting it the local rag is more concerned with buttressing President Obama’s campaign chances.


Case in point is the clumsy daily political cartoon which today features a guy with a squirt gun squirting water at an Obama figure with deeply furrowed brow. The squirt gun label says “Fast and Furious Investigation.”

The not-too-clever caption reads: “Why aren’t you melting down?” Get it? Tough president, weak prosecution of an unimportant issue, thy think.

Yet, Border Patrol agent Brian Terry bought the farm with bullets fired from one of the big burners Eric Holder walked across the Mexican border to the Zetas. Coinciding with this view is another Obama-Holder viewpoint that Brian Terry’s family do not exist, and have no right to find out who gave the orders which led to their son’s death.

It’s offensive; it offends all of us who can see how this reckless and pathetic administration operates.

So if you’re retarded and need further translation, you have only to look at the editorial beside it on the “opinion” page. The editorial is a reprint from the LA Times.

The LA Times urges Congress to compromise with the Obama administration to avoid an Eric Holder contempt citation from the entire House. Stupid, you are thinking. The “compromise” has no meaning because you either produce the documents or you don’t.

How do you “compromise?” Do you give Issa’s committee half a sheet of paper? Eric Holder has already done that, after months of lying that the Fast and Furious Operation even existed.

Why the LA Times? One reason is that the paper is losing money so fast they can’t afford to hire a real political columnist. Therefore, the Pocono Record must copy from the most liberal newspaper in the nation, one that is published straight from the heartland of the California Social Republic.

It’s somehow fitting that a lame liberal left newspaper which tells lies would back a lame liberal left political administration which tells lies.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Will Obama Administration Aid Eurozone Bailout? - Yahoo! News

Will Obama Administration Aid Eurozone Bailout? - Yahoo! News ........Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends Explore news, videos, and much more based on what your friends are reading and watching. Publish your own activity and retain full control. ..To get started, firstLogin with Facebook. ..YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY1-0 of nullprev next ... ....This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites. Do you have a story to tell? Become a Yahoo! contributor....Will Obama Administration Aid Eurozone Bailout? ..By Anthony Ventre .PostsWebsite .By Anthony Ventre | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Tue, Jun 5, 2012....Email Share3Print...... COMMENTARY | Diverse cultures with different political and social appetites cannot be made to dance to the same economic tune. For more than two years, eurozone officials have been dithering, holding meetings, giving speeches, intimations, observations and obfuscations. Yet, the financial crisis has gotten steadily worse. Zacks reports the G-7 finance ministers and central bank officials are holding a remedial teleconference today, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke worries about the drag on the U.S. economy. Markets might move a little as confidence is again temporarily bulwarked, but the sun will rise next day on the same failed empire of promises. Let's face facts. Greece has spent itself into a coma with debt last year at 165 percent of GDP and voted for more debt and abrogation of contracts this year in the form of Alexis Ysipras, leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left.

Friday, June 1, 2012

The ‘Road to Damascus’ Is Not Road to Peace - Yahoo! News

The ‘Road to Damascus’ Is Not Road to Peace - Yahoo! News:

'via Blog this'


COMMENTARY | "I think we may be beginning to see the wheels coming off this bus," said U.N Ambassador Susan Rice after a Security Council Meeting yesterday.
In Syria, months of queasy diplomacy among Arab League, European Union, and U.N. emissaries had come to nothing. Rice's dire warning appeared today in the Wall Street Journal.
Responsibility to Protect or "R2P" is the U.N. policy invoked as justification for the NATO bombing of Libya, where there were no large-scale massacres of civilians, as there are today in Syria. R2P assumes a moral dimension that is perhaps lacking in the Syrian crisis.
Ambassador Rice's bleak outlook followed days after an Associated Press report that there were 32 children "under the age of ten" among the 90 persons massacred last week in Houla.
To excuse failure of Syria policy, we emphasize the well-publicized diplomatic factors that argue for inertia. Syria could implement the peace deal it abrogated last month. The U.N. Security Council could impose sanctions, with nasty letters to follow.

(Click on the link to read more)

Obama’s Economic Attacks on Romney Were Badly Timed - Yahoo! Search Results

Obama’s Economic Attacks on Romney Were Badly Timed - Yahoo! Search Results:


COMMENTARY | President Obama may have a chance at a second term, but it won't be because of his economic record. So why would he focus on Mitt Romney's record as governor of Massachusettsone day before the release of a disappointing May jobs report?
Surely, the White House had some indication of the May unemployment figures in advance. The image of Obama as a deft politician seems to be overshadowed by bad timing and poor strategic advice.
President Obama's assertion yesterday that Massachusetts ranked 47 out of 50 states in job creation when Romney was governor was carried by several media outlets, including Reuters. Appearing at the bankrupt Solyndra plant, Romney countered that the Massachusetts unemployment rate tumbled under his governorship from 5.6 percent to 4.7 percent, reports the Wall Street Journal.


'via Blog this'

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Cacophony of Crickets from White House on Gay Marriage

COMMENTARY |Long ago, when I “followed” Richard Grenell on Twittter, I didn’t know he was a “somebody” and I didn’t know he was gay. I found out soon enough when Grenell’s resignation from a campaign position in the Romney campaign ignited controversy within the Republican Party. The Keen News Service quoted Log Cabin Republican head R. Clarke Cooper saying that Grenell resigned because he “was essentially hounded by the far right and far left.” Grenell’s editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal justifies my previous high opinion of the man. Grenell applauded President Obama for his public statement in support of gay marriage, but continued to criticize the administration’s foreign policy failures. I applaud Grenell for not hanging his hat on single issues of identity politics. This differentiates him from people who tend to vote based on single issues like skin color, sexual orientation, or religion. Grenell is not an anomaly among gay policy activists who vote Republican. A 2010 Keen News Service article cited data reflecting that the 2012 gay vote was moving in a Republican direction. In his editorial, Grenell points to the “conservative ideal of limiting government involvement in our lives…” Ironically, I justify my opposition to gay marriage by the same logic. Government should leave marriage to the clergy. Civil unions can effectively address practical and legal issues in a more direct manner than by a broad stroke of the federal brush. The courageous Grenell recognized he would be stoned by both left-wing and right-wing mullahs for not anchoring his political identity within a single issue. And he is. But if it’s hypocrisy regarding gay issues you’re looking for, you have to look no farther than President Obama, for it, against it, and for it again. Obama’s support for gay marriage was not well received by black clergy, according to Politico, so there is now a cacophony of crickets at the White House. The crickets chirped even louder when it was announced that Obama was not invited to the wedding of Barney Frank to partner Jim Ready. It is ridiculous for Frank to offer the press narrative that Obama was not invited to his wedding out of concern that the Secret Service would put a damper on wedding spirits. Obama simply wants to avoid the political downside of gay marriage wedding photos with the Dodd-Frank architect. .

Richard Grenell: Marriage, Gay Republicans and the Election - WSJ.com

Richard Grenell: Marriage, Gay Republicans and the Election - WSJ.com

For those people looking for hypocrisy in gay issues, you have only to look at President Obama, who was forced by Joe Biden to come out with his remarks in support of gay marriage. Sinice that position did not poll well in the black community, you will not hear more of it and Axelrold has made the "issue" disappear. Obama , not having the courage of his convictions, stopped at the water's edge, in any case. Richard Grenell is courageous, by contrast, knowing that he will be stoned by liberal-left mullahs for not basing his entire identity on disagreement with a single issue. Smaller people cannot do that and vote based on single issues like skin color, sexual orientation, or religion.




While we're on the subject, who believes Barney Frank when he says Obama was not invited to his wedding because Barney was afraid the Secret Service would put a damper on the proceedings? That is a statement of political cover for Obama. Obama's refusal to atttend the wedding of Barney Frank to Jim Ready is a matter of pure political optics. Since the gay vote isn't as important to Obama as that of the broad hetero constituency, Obama cannot afford the political fallout of a wedding photo with the Dodd-Frank architect. Let me be clear (to use one of Obama's murky expressions) : Obama doesn't have the courage of his convictions, any of them.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Goodbye Euro, Hello Drachma - Yahoo! News

Goodbye Euro, Hello Drachma - Yahoo! News

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Greek debt drags on the survival chances of the European Union, especially if the larger economies of Spain and Italy follow Greece. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she's fighting to keep Greece in the EU. The Germans have also said the EU could take the hit and go on if Greece defaults. Somewhere there is a contingency plan for a Greek exit from the EU, and according to the New York Times, Europe is getting used to the idea.





What would be the currency impact if Greece is kicked out?





Greece would go back its original currency, the drachma. That is easier said than done since there is no exchange rate. The value of the drachma could drop as low as 40 percent of a euro. Everything bought and sold in Greece would become more expensive. The flip side is Greece would become cheaper for tourists with stronger currencies.



So now would be a good time to visit Greece?   Click the headline--read the rest.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Facebook IPO: Will You Still Love it Tomorrow? - Yahoo! News

Facebook IPO: Will You Still Love it Tomorrow? - Yahoo! News COMMENTARY | The last and final stage of Facebook nirvana is to be Mark Zuckerberg on the day of the multi-billion dollar Facebook IPO. I've reached the penultimate stage of Facebook nirvana. I deactivated my account two years ago and deleted it one year ago. There is a lot of sniping at Zuckerberg, some of it perhaps deserved. Appearing in a hoodie last week in New York, Zuckerberg flouted an understandable resistance to the seductive burden of wealth and the less attractive burden of maturity. Zuckerberg paid off the "Winkelvii" and another Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin with cash or shares. The kind of infighting that characterized the Harvard "Mashbook" days turned cunning techno-schemer Zuckerberg into the martial refusenik who rejected billion dollar offers for the company from Yahoo and Microsoft. BusinessWeek tells the story in lustrous detail. That's one tough nerd-- with vision, yet.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Dharun Ravi is a Victim of New Jersey’s Bias Crime Statute - Yahoo! News

Dharun Ravi is a Victim of New Jersey’s Bias Crime Statute - Yahoo! News COMMENTARY | The Indian Asian News Service reports hundreds people in New Jersey's Indian-American community marched on Trenton to protest Dharun Ravi's his bias-crime convictions. The protestors have a point. The largely quiet and conservative Indian community appears to be a target of discrimination by a law intended to curtail discrimination. Ravi was convicted of spying on his gay roommate with a webcam. New Jersey prosecutor Julia McClure thinks Ravi's conviction is an important milestone in the annals of crime. She wants to see him rot in state prison. That doesn't square with Star-Ledger reports that Ravi was offered two pleas.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Beached ‘London Whale’ Loses $2 Billion at J.P. Morgan Bank - Yahoo! News

Beached ‘London Whale’ Loses $2 Billion at J.P. Morgan Bank - Yahoo! News ..... J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon yesterday admitted to costly mistakes in its Chief Investment Office in New York. In an AP story, the loss was termed a "surprise" that will affect stock market trading today. The $2 billion loss didn't sink America's largest bank, which still earned about $4 billion for the quarter. But the gigantic loss adds fuel to the fight in Congress as to how much regulation of the banking industry is necessary and how much of it is political frosting on a cake that's already been eaten. What's not surprising is that many Americans have questions about J.P Morgan and the way America's banks do business.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Foreign Policy Reduced to Bumper Sticker Wars - Yahoo! News

Foreign Policy Reduced to Bumper Sticker Wars - Yahoo! News COMMENTARY | The Associated Press quotes President Barack Obama hailing his Afghanistan policy as "the light of a new day." Will that fit on a bumper sticker? Without a doubt, the Obama administration wants to shift the focus of the national elections from the economy to foreign policy. Though the speech had a practical side, the selection of date and location is part of Obama's election strategy. (Click on the headline to read more)

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Details Emerge in Brooklyn Gun Battle - WSJ.com

Once upon a time there were some New York thugs with guns.   The thugs came on shooting at people they were trying to rob in an auto repair shop.  One of the victims was a cop.  The cop exchanged fire, got shot in the shoulder, dropped his Glock.

Also present was a school safety guard who picked up the cop’s dropped weapon and chased the thugs away.  Two of the thugs were shot. Now the school safety guard is being prosecuted.

In Mayor Bloomberg’s town, the honest people are criminalized.  The thugs are granted easy pickings, certain that they can wreak havoc without interference.

Details Emerge in Brooklyn Gun Battle – WSJ.com

Bronx Van Tragedy Claims Seven

The word "accident" is a misnomer applied to the tragedy that occurred on the Bronx River Parkway a few days ago. Seven people were killed when a minivan left the highway, hurdled over a barrier, dropped through the air, and landed within an area of the Bronx Zoo. Pray for the victims, pray for the family and friends of the victims. But the usual ambulance chasers have descended like pidgeons upon the scene to convince us all that the "accident" could have been prevented by anyone other than the driver of the van. According to police, the van was speeding along at 70 mph on a road that many consider difficult at safe speed. Safe speeds are the ones that are posted on the signs along the roadside, but who reads them? There is no way to bring those lovely children back but, as usual, city officials, lawyers, assembled pidgeons and herds of sheep, will have to pretend they are doing something. The harsh reality of New York highways is that everyone is afraid to slow down. Driving at speed limits would lead to immense traffic jams, just like the immense traffic jams that occur when people drive at breakneck speeds. My point here is that no one addressed the real problems that resulted in these tragic deaths. No one says "slow down." Would the van have catapulted into space if it had been driving at 50 instead of 70? Probably not, but another point to consider is that the driver would have been able to maintain control of the vehicle. Okay, I'm not a traffic cop but it pisses me off to hear the lamentations, the denials, the excuses, the lawsuits, the b.s. coming from people who do not have the courage to tell the truth. America's highways are a war zone,and New York City is a popular battleground. Stop b.s. ing us in the hopes of a fat lawsuit. You can't bring those children back. Putting the blame where it belongs may help someone else.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

White House Placated China in Neil Heywood Affair - Yahoo! News

White House Placated China in Neil Heywood Affair - Yahoo! News:

'via Blog this'


COMMENTARY |Reuters reports that China holds $1.18 Trillion in U.S. debt. The Obamaadministration would like Chinese support at the P-5 plus 1 talks with Iran. The Chinese are also expected to curb the reckless impulses of the North Korean leadership.
The political scandal stemming from a mysterious British businessman's suspicious death in China is the last thing President Obama needs right now. The New York Times says the incident has left "the Obama administration in a scandal it wants nothing to do with."
Republicans are now questioning why the U.S. State Department in February refused to shelter Wang Lijun, a would-be Chinese defector considered to be of significant intelligence value.
I'll give you the cable television political thriller version:
Last November, British citizen Neil Heywood was found dead on the floor of his hotel in the burgeoning city of Chongquing.

(hint: click on the headline link 4 the rest of the story)

Friday, April 20, 2012

Q&A: New Twist in 33-Year-Old Etan Patz Case Stuns New York - Yahoo! News

Q&A: New Twist in 33-Year-Old Etan Patz Case Stuns New York - Yahoo! News After 33 years, a police cadaver dog picked up human scent beneath a slab of concrete in the basement of a Lower Manhattan apartment. At that Prince Street location lived Etan Patz, a 6-year-old child who vanished while walking to his school bus stop alone for the first time. The resurfacing of the Etan Patz case, after 33 years, has generated shock but also new hope that there will be closure for the parents of the child. What police find now will either point to a building handyman or leave even more questions unanswered. Here are the pertinent questions and answers in the now-revived case: (tricked you--you have to click on the headline)

Are Oil Speculators to Blame for High Gas Prices? - Yahoo! News

Are Oil Speculators to Blame for High Gas Prices? - Yahoo! News President Barack Obama's targeting of oil speculators coincided with a Los Angeles Times report of a national average gasoline price of $3.92 per gallon. The president accused oil speculators of irresponsibility for the gasoline price increases that threaten the recovery. While there are several factors affecting the price of gas, oil speculators are an easy target. Public anger makes people more willing to blame them for the price increases. What is oil speculation?

Thursday, April 19, 2012

I’m Taking Pennsylvania’s New Voter ID Law for a Test Run - Yahoo! News

I’m Taking Pennsylvania’s New Voter ID Law for a Test Run - Yahoo! News


COMMENTARY | Having volunteered to work the polls for Pennsylvania's April 24 primary, I was required to attend a process briefing. The elections supervisor for our district reviewed the state's newly enacted voter I.D. regulation stemming from House Bill 934.

The elections supervisor told the assembled mixed party crowd of election workers that voter identification was not a rigid requirement to vote in the primaries. She said we were to ask the voter for photo identification, but not to prevent anyone from voting if they didn't have identification acceptable under Pennsylvania's voter ID law.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Trayvon Martin Shooting: Illegal Homicide, Not Hate Crime - Yahoo! News

Trayvon Martin Shooting: Illegal Homicide, Not Hate Crime - Yahoo! News

Angela Corey Should Bargain Zimmerman Case Down to Manslaughter - Yahoo! News

Angela Corey Should Bargain Zimmerman Case Down to Manslaughter - Yahoo! News

COMMENTARY

If you were in the court docket as a defendant, would you want top officials of the United States commenting on your criminal case?



According to "The Washington Examiner," Eric Holder appeared at Al Sharpton's National Action Network Convention to rally this week support for the 17-year-old shooting victim whose case has become a rallying cry for racial injustice.



Of course, the "potential federal criminal civil rights crime" he alluded to is not part of the charges levied against George Zimmerman, the man who admits killing Trayvon Martin in self-defense.



My own first thought after the tragic death of Trayvon Martin was that George Zimmerman was guilty of manslaughter.



But special prosecutor Angela Corey perhaps missed an opportunity for "justice and peace" by charging Zimmerman with murder in the second degree. Since that charge requires that a guilty defendant must also have acted with "depraved mind," there's a good chance Corey may fail to prove the charge.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Visit Your Favorite Presidential Candidate… - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Visit Your Favorite Presidential Candidate… - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com:

'via Blog this'


I haven't seen President Obama in person, but I'd love to test my theory of retail politics against him.

Popular media invariably presents President Obama as a media deity - in images majestic, warm, wise, or pensive.

By contrast, the media often snaps Mitt Romney either from a distance, or from a bad angle. There is often suitably disparaging text to follow, as in this ABC OTUS article.

Compare the Starpulse gallery on Romney with the Starpulse gallery of President Obama.

Evidence to the contrary, the media has invented a mythical president who cries, holds our collective hand, and has compassion for the "poor," a statistical category President Obama has helped to enlarge.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Gasoline Prices are ‘The Daily Beast,’ Tina Brown

COMMENTARY | In an appearance last week on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, Daily Beast and Newsweek editor-in-chief Tina Brown defended the Obama administration’s decision to block the XL Pipeline.

It’s hardly surprising that ABC’s Laura Effron reports that neither publication is making money, given the credibility gap resulting from defending the pipeline decision.

The problem is that President Obama’s XL Pipeline decision has rankled Senate Democrats, too. Asked to respond to Mitt Romney’s criticism of President Obama for high gasoline prices, Brown went on the attack.

“When you mention about the gas pumps, that was the most intellectually dishonest thing that Romney said.... It’s world markets that dictate the price of oil,” said Brown.

True. But inasmuch as the XL Pipeline would increase supply on world markets, Brown seems to have missed a fundamental point of supply and demand. An expansion of world supply by Canadian XL Pipeline oil would help to meet demand.

There are other products that flow from hydro-carbons.
One can expect that Tina Brown never had to grease her bearings but surely she uses fingernail polish.

Grease and fingernail polish are just two of about 6,000 items requiring petroleum to manufacture, according to Ranken Energy. Oil from the Canadian fields would be siphoned off for the manufacture of these products, holding production and consumer costs down.

The company that re-paves your asphalt driveway can tell you how much the cost of hydro-carbon based materials have increased. Even if you could pave your driveway with green algae, it’s doubtful that asphalt could be replaced any time soon in the construction of vital airports and roads.

Environmentalism is important, especially in the recycling of asphalt materials. Bit Obama’s energy plans are unrealistic, resembling a Stalin-era Five Year Plan to create an eco-industrial collective.

President Obama has hinted at another release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to combat the perception of short supply. Why then shouldn’t a sustained supply moving down the XL Pipeline from Canada do the same?

Reuters today reports that shale oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Range could save east coast refineries from closing this year. Imported oil costs from $20 to $35 dollars more than that produced by Bakken Crude, says Reuters.

A steady supply of U.S. or Canadian oil through the XL Pipeline could immediately create new jobs, keep jobs open at east coast refineries, and hold oil prices down.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Could Voice Analysis Prove George Zimmerman a Liar? - Yahoo! News

Could Voice Analysis Prove George Zimmerman a Liar? - Yahoo! News

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......Could Voice Analysis Prove George Zimmerman a Liar?
..By Anthony Ventre
.PostsWebsite .By Anthony Ventre | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Mon, Apr 2, 2012....This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites. Do you have a story to tell? Become a Yahoo! contributor....Email
Share0Print......Media attention has been devoted to suggesting George Zimmerman had "hate crime" on his mind when he pulled the trigger on an unarmed Florida teen. The Cutline tells of media excess in the wake of the Trayvon Martin tragedy.


The latest media "evidence" offered to advance the hate crime narrative is an audio analysis of screams heard on the 911 call to Sanford, Fla., police. Zimmerman's defenders say this was Zimmerman's scream for help. Martin's mother believes the screams came from her son moments before the fatal shot was fired.

The Orlando Sentinel offers the opinions of two forensic experts who have concluded it was Martin calling for help.

How does audio analysis work?

Click on the headline to find out...

Pennsylvania Could Deliver Knockout Punch to Santorum in GOP Primary - Yahoo! News

Pennsylvania Could Deliver Knockout Punch to Santorum in GOP Primary - Yahoo! News

COMMENTARY | I'm hoping Pennsylvania will knock Santorum out of its primary race with sufficient power that he's unable to beat the 10-count.

But that knockout punch comes with a disclaimer. The Romney camp's attempt to lower expectations has rippled out in the media, reflected in the politics blogs at the Washington Post.

Historically, Pennsylvania has been an important swing state in picking presidents. In primary campaigns? Not so much.

This year will be different. The state where Rick Santorum is Senator ex-officio could give him a second chance or leave him collapsed on the canvas.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Don’t Be Surprised If Obamacare Loses Its Mandate - Yahoo! News

Don’t Be Surprised If Obamacare Loses Its Mandate - Yahoo! News

COMMENTARY | No one should be surprised that the Justices of the Supreme Court are taking the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act seriously. Yet, The Atlantic Wire conveys a slightly incredulous tone at the notion that parts of the law could be struck down.

Liberal lawyers have long treated anyone who questioned the constitutionality of the individual mandate as if they were part of a vast right-wing conspiracy. Opponents of the Affordable Care Act were scoffed at, belittled, and ridiculed on news shows, comedy shows, and in internet forums.

Then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi embodied the haughty sang-froid attitude of Beltway imperials toward those who were in doubt about the bill's 2,700 pages.

"But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it," said Pelosi.

The reach of federal power has been at issue since the founding days of the American republic. Our democracy is different from other countries in that power flows from the individual to the state, not the other way around.

(click on the headline, you'll get there at warp speed)

Friday, March 23, 2012

Trayvon Martin Shooting: Illegal Homicide, Not Hate Crime - Yahoo! News

Trayvon Martin Shooting: Illegal Homicide, Not Hate Crime - Yahoo! News


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story'Hunger Games' vies for record......This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites. Do you have a story to tell? Become a Yahoo! contributor....Trayvon Martin Shooting: Illegal Homicide, Not Hate Crime
..By Anthony Ventre
.PostsWebsite .By Anthony Ventre | Yahoo! Contributor Network – 16 hrs ago....Email
Share1Print......
COMMENTARY | The shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., a few weeks ago is a simple homicide.

Nonetheless, the Sanford police are in a fix and haven't arrested shooter George Zimmerman. They say they have no clear evidence disputing Zimmerman's claim of self-defense.

Meanwhile, angry protests are swelling across the country and around the internet. USA Today reports on the mounting pressure for Sanford Police Chief Bill Lee to resign.

Because Trayvon was a black youth, civil rights advocacy groups are claiming that his death was a racially motivated attack, and the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is investigating whether there was a racial component to the shooting.

ABC News reports a snippet of audio on a 911 call which they seem certain is evidence of racial bias

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Rick Santorum Fails in Puerto Rico English Lesson - Yahoo! News

Rick Santorum Fails in Puerto Rico English Lesson - Yahoo! News:

'via Blog this'




COMMENTARY | Presidential candidate Rick Santorum should direct his efforts at uniting citizens around being Americans, not dividing them according to his own peculiar notions of the English language.
Santorum's recent statements regarding statehood for Puerto Rico, reported in the National Journal, further alienate GOP Latinos, many of whom otherwise share values of family, work, religion, and country.
On a campaign trip to Puerto Rico, the former Pennsylvania senator told reporters he'd support statehood for Puerto Rico if the U.S. territory adopted English as the official language.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Rick Santorum: Latest Fictional Character Created by Big Media

There are many ways to spin Rick Santorum’s wins in Alabama and Mississippi, and the news media is busy spinning them, but the fact is that Mitt Romney wasn’t even supposed to show.

Had he been a horse, Mitt Romney would have paid off at the race track, coming in third as a long shot against former Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum.

A Wall Street Journal article today has this to say about Santorum’s corporate tax reform plan:

“By proposing special breaks for manufacturing, Rick Santorum follows the president’s incorrect lead and introduces a significant economic distortion.”

If the phrase “significant economic distortion” needs interpretation, that comes later in the piece where it is made plain that the “Santorum plan adds greatly to federal deficits.”
Following President Obama’s $16T deficit, the Santorum deficits would be even scarier if he had any chance of winning against Obama in the fall. He doesn’t. Yet Mr. Santorum, his ego inflated by appealing to a narrow segment of the electorate, crows cock-a-doodle as the “true conservative.”
The outcome was predictable in states like Mississippi where 80 percent of the state’s residents describe themselves as evangelicals.

It wasn’t much different in Alabama with Governor Bentley insinuating to Fox News before the primary that Romney’s Mormon religion would be a “subtle” factor among the state’s evangelicals.

Facts are facts and there is no point crying about them. After all, we are not Rick Santorum, and we are not Newt Gingrich, both of them candidates of the crying towel.
The biggest takeaway from the night is that Alabama and Mississippi chose Santorum over Gingrich. Both men are flawed in that they are Washington insiders.

But why were the southerners so smitten with Santorum, a one-trick pony if ever there was one? It appears that Santorum’s record of big government voting didn’t trouble too many people in Alabama or Mississippi.

Where Santorum is concerned, there are more questions about the southern votes:

Why did the southerners look past Santorum’s vote against right-to-work bills when right-to-work has been such a boon for southern workers?

Why did the southerners overlook Gingrich and his grasp of politics and government for Santorum who failed badly in Pennsylvania in his 2006 race?

Why did the southerners look past Santorum’s support for turncoat Arlen Specter against a bona fide fiscal conservative and current Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey?

For the south, the answer is simply that he wasn’t vetted nor much thought about. That Santorum should have any credibility in the rest of the country is even more puzzling if you don’t understand he is largely a fictitious creation of Big Media.

Meanwhile, reality moves along outside of anti-Romney media narratives. Counting the vote in Hawaii and American Samoa leads to the official tally that Romney won the night on delegates by 42-38.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Big Media Props Up Gingrich, Santorum

Make no mistake about it, a large part of the media is waging not-so-subtle warfare against Mitt Romney.

Romney is far ahead of the other candidates and yet Big Media portrays his campaign as a kind of insurgency-- off center, out of the mainstream.

This partisanship and lack of fairness by Big Media has some resonance with a narrow part of the GOP primary electorate, but it is not the best part.

I suppose some of that comes from anti-Mormon bias but you hope that all voters discover the better parts of themselves and do the right and moral thing for America.

The focus of the non-Romneys and their jock strap caddies in the media is to highjack the election and subvert the will of the voters.

You do remember the voters, don’t you? They’re the ones who gave Romney 454 delegates, compared to distant runner-up Rick Santorum with 199. Yet Big Media pounds voters with the tired narrative of a fill-in-the-blank Romney as if they’re no smarter than the Democrat Donkey (or is it a jackass?).

The hilarity of media ineptitude is only outpaced by its pathology as it touts a “Southern Strategy” narrative in which Mitt Romney was given “no chance” in Alabama and Mississippi. So why are the polls now showing a neck and neck race with Mitt Romney?

In fact, coming in second in either southern state would be a herculean feat for Romney since both states reward delegates proportionally.

MSNBC, Fox, CNN and many on the major networks are pushing a script trying to tell you Rick Santorum’s the “true conservative” in spite of his support of Democrat Arlen Specter vs. Pennsylvania’s truly conservative Republican Senator Pat Toomey.

Nor do “true conservatives” vote against right-to-work bills, as Santorum did.

Celebrity ostensibly conservative pundits shouldn’t forgive and forget that foundational part of conservatism, as they have been doing in the cases of Mssrs. Gingrich and Santorum.

Mr.Gingrich has won only two of 25 contests. Mr. Santorum hasn't fared much better except when he could wheedle votes to his side, and he dropped ten points in three days when he lost Ohio.

Don't forget that Mr. Santorum lost his 'home state' of Pennsylvania by a historical record 18 points in 2006.

Why don’t the pundits of left and right tell their audiences that car companies locate plants in the south because they are right-to-work states? Obviously, it's because they're trying to hold President Obama's union coalition together.

Hearing the truth about Santorum's support of unions in swing state Pennsylvania would surely be more enlightening than listening to Andrea Tantaros of “The Five” spouting “what Romney has to do” and why he “can’t close the deal” and every other false tired cliché of a moribund news enterprise.

We are living in a world of “special” candidates Gingrich and Santorum for whom the bar has been set low. Meanwhile, the Big Media continues to move the goalposts every time Mitt Romney scores.

While some respectable candidates have dropped from the race, two of the worst dissemblers remain, propped up by Big Media. The two math-challenged candidates have almost no path to winning the primaries, and no chance at beating Mr. Obama.

Pundits like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh do a good job of taking on the White House but somehow they pretend not to notice Santorum and Gingrich are essentially Beltway lobbyists who traded on political connections. Perhaps, that’s what the pundits are about anyway, more eyeballs and more revenues.

Except for courageous Ann Coulter, most of the celebrity pundits implicitly believe that political news is about them. The candidates are only incidental, in their view.

Better candidates than Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum have dropped out, and so would the twin lobbyists except for the propulsion of Big Media and a vortex of unclean and tangled motivations.

We need now to remember the times when winning elections was a major goal of the GOP, when we were not held hostage by a growing number of snake oil peddlers who call themselves “conservatives.”

It is not hyperbole to say that Romney Army is fighting to save America from slipping into the deep crevasses of history where lesser civilizations have vanished.

Support Mitt Romney. The Romney Tsunami is coming your way soon.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Romney Tsunami Coming to Your State Soon - Yahoo! News

Romney Tsunami Coming to Your State Soon - Yahoo! News

COMMENTARY | We're getting news at the speed of light these days, and it can make fools of us all. Some broadcast outlets continue to report that presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum split the delegate votes evenly in the Michigan primary.

Twitter, by several hours, beat yesterday's Washington Post story that state Republicans awarded two more delegates to Romney, who won the state totals.

Once a narrative is out there, it tends to stick, even when it's untrue or partially true. That may have worked in such ancient times as the 2008 elections, but now most people are too sophisticated to believe "narrative."

The prevailing narrative, supported by stale polling data, was that Santorum was a cinch to beat Romney in Michigan. It turned out that Romney won Michigan and slam-dunked Arizona.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Andrew Breitbart Practiced the Dangerous Art of Political Blogging - Yahoo! News

Andrew Breitbart Practiced the Dangerous Art of Political Blogging - Yahoo! News

COMMENTARY | Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who died unexpectedly at age 43 , was an original.

Breitbart adapted '60s protest methods to a millennial anarchist framework and turned it all back to the left with a fury and rage that may have ultimately broken his health.

He died in Los Angeles early today, reportedly of natural causes, according to "The Cutline."

New Yorker Magazine profiled Breitbart's bombastic and sometimes theatrical nature in a 2010 article which detailed some of his political machinations.