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News/Politics 10-1-12

What’s news today?

Interesting.

From WFB

“A lawyer who came to prominence for his full-throated defense of a subsequently convicted terrorist was quietly promoted to the No. 3 slot at the Department of Justice last month, a post that puts him in charge of the administration’s policy regarding Guantanamo Bay detainees.

The move has raised red flags on Capitol Hill and elsewhere among national security stalwarts who argue that the promotion could imperil the country’s longstanding war on terrorism.”

“The Obama administration appointee at the center of the debate is Tony West, a longtime Justice Department lawyer who received national attention for his aggressive defense of John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban who is currently serving 20-years in prison for colluding with al Qaeda in Afghanistan and taking up arms against U.S. troops.”

““If you volunteer your services to the enemy in wartime, … that’s not performing the traditional role of an attorney in the U.S. justice system,” said Andrew McCarthy, a former assistant U.S. attorney who led the 1995 prosecution of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman—the so-called “Blind Sheik”—and several other terrorists. “That is helping the enemy in wartime.””

Read more here

Also,

From ABCNews

“Fifty seven previously unidentified firearms linked to Operation Fast and Furiouswere recovered in sites associated with murders, kidnappings, and at least two gruesome massacres.

Univision News obtained the list of Fast and Furious weapons and a list containing almost 60,000 recovered firearms compiled by Mexico’s Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (SEDENA). A cross-reference of the serial numbers of the guns resulted in 96 full matches (several partial matches were discarded). The 96 firearms linked to Operation Fast and Furious all turned up at crime scenes in Mexico from 2009 to 2010.”

Read more here

Gee, after reading those, I have very little confidence in Holder’s office for getting to the bottom of this.

From VirginiaWatchdog.org

“A 92 percent drop in absentee-ballot requests by military personnel in Virginia is raising concerns that the Pentagon is failing to carry out a federal voting law.

With only 1,746 military voters in Virginia requesting absentee ballots so far this year — out of 126,251 service members in the state —the Military Voter Protection Project says the system has broken down.”

Read more here

35 thoughts on “News/Politics 10-1-12”

  1. From APReligion news (on email)
    This is surprising. All the Nazarines I have known have been conservative Christians..

    Nazarene pastor Lance Schmitz says more than 80,000 people signed petitions opposing the Oklahoma-based arts and crafts chain’s lawsuit. The Oklahoma City pastor tried to deliver the petitions Thursday to Hobby Lobby headquarters but was ordered to leave the property. He says he will mail the petitions instead.

    Hobby Lobby, which operates more than 500 stores in 41 states, says providing coverage for the morning-after pill violates its Christian owners’ “deeply held religious beliefs.”

    The petitions say Hobby Lobby’s owners shouldn’t use their beliefs to deny women access to birth control. The company says it has no objection to preventive contraceptives.

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  6. Chas, I have received another nomination. It seems Oklahoma is heading to Lubbock this weekend to take on Texas Tech. There are going to be many Obama stickers in any of those parking lots.

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  7. I have just finished reading an article in The American Spectaror by James Pierson, called “Understanding the Budget Crisis”.
    His lead paragraph:
    “Larry Summers published an article recently in the Financial Times asserting that US federal spending will continue to grow both in real terms and as a share of the economy regardless of whether Barack Obama or Mitt Romney is elected in November. ……”
    I recently received an e-mail that showed that the US commitment to SS, Medicare, Medicade and Federal Retirement are more than all the rest of the US government. That is, if we eliminated all the non-entitlements, we would still not balance the budget.
    As someone said, it’s all a giant Ponzi.
    Something has to be done.
    I realize that, as a federal retiree, with a wife on SS, that I am part of that problem. I think that I have participated for my part of the agreement with 15% of my total salary. Plus 15% from my employer should have made a good retirement bankroll. Social Security did also until LBJ put all of them out of the so called “lockbox” and into the budget.
    Nevertheless, something has to be done. I am willing to take my part of the pain if the entire country rallies around a solution.
    In his article, Pierson says that not even Ryan’s plan will solve the problem. Some mitigation, but it doesn’t solve the problem.
    The most important thing is, “But their approach takes the problem seriously-and, more importantly, permits us to start now to attack a problem that, if we wait to address it, will in a few years impose spending cuts of a kind that few dare to complete today”.

    As I said before, $16,000,000,000,000 doesn’t exist. If we print it, as the Fed is doing now, the money will soon become worthless.

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  9. Chas, this is in reference to your musings on the Daily Thread, but I put it here because it is a news item. The US isn’t necessarily Israel’s last ally. In fact, just now, Canada is probably Israel’s most vocal ally, pulling its embassy out of Iran, walking out before Ahmadinejab’s UN speech. Netenyahu has publicly thanked our Prime Minister for his actions: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/09/28/pol-mackay-panetta-washington.html
    – while the Jewish-founded Appeal to Conscience Foundation awarded Mr. Harper with the World Statesman Award (he is not the first Canadian Prime Minister to have won the award): http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/in-accepting-world-statesman-award-harper-paints-picture-of-uncertain-world/article4573794/
    I cannot comment on whether world events are leading up to a final culmination, because I do not know – but there is more happening in the world than what is reported on Fox News and CNN.

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  10. Hey, The Real, can you take me out of moderation – I didn’t post anything bad, honest and truly I didn’t.
    😉

    As regards the certain economic doom of re-electing Obama, you just never know. I have often drawn parallels between Obama and the Liberal premier of my province (the premier occupies a similar position to a state governor). Said premier has, among other things, instituted expensive green programs, banned incandescent lightbulbs, raised taxes and effectively discourage manufacturing – sound familiar? The Conservative party has failed to provide a viable candidate, and thus the premier has stayed on for three terms. Each time, things get a little tighter in the province.
    Well, this time, in order to finally deal with the huge provincial debt, the premier has – wait for it – frozen the wages and benefits of public unions: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/11/dalton-mcguintys-liberals-pass-bill-banning-strikes-freezing-wages-for-ontario-teachers/ That’s right, he has pulled a Governor Walker. Needless to say, the unions are furious, while the conservative base finds the whole thing darkly comedic. So you never know, Obama may yet do a 180.

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  11. Photoguy, I have trouble with your fatalist or determinist view that Christ will win this election. Human beings as well as nations are at their best capabLe of free will.

    ShouldRomney or Obama win, I should say that would be aa result of the preference of a majority of the voters, not necessarily the will of Christ. I understand that ultimately the Lord rules, though that doesn’t diminish the free will of the people to think and act for better or worse.

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  12. Phos, it isn’t the same. Your premier is probably trying to save his province. Obama wants to redistribute wealth worldwide. Even up what the Western nations have taken from the colonies.

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  14. Fred and Elena Kagan are out today with a National Review Online with a carefully reasoned article stating that the Obama administration is in the process of losing the Iraq War including the following summary:

    It is most important of all to recognize the price of that failure. Iraq has become a major strategic vulnerability for the United States. It is an outlet for Iranian goods skirting sanctions. It is a launching pad for Iranian-backed terrorist groups looking for “plausible deniability.” It is a critical line of communication between Tehran and its once-solid proxy in Damascus. It is again becoming a safe haven for one of the most lethal and determined al-Qaeda franchises in the world. That franchise, in fact, is now projecting terrorist operations into Syria in a way it was never before able to do. And Iraq is in danger once again of becoming a failed state.

    This is what happens when America elects a president who wishes to essentially disengage from difficult foreign policy matters.

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  16. Sails, The Kagan article is interesting. It second-guesses Obama on many details. I would argue that the Kagans and their allies guaranteed an Iraq than is ally of Iran when they persuaded Little Bush to:
    1 Invade Iraq and remove the Sunni dominated government; and
    2 Impose a democracy in Shia-majority nation.

    Attached is Brent Scorcroft’s famous op-Ed piece warning Little Bush against the Iraq invasion.

    http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2002/08/15_scowcroft_dont-attack.

    I was actually disappointed that it did not address Iran since the effect on Iran was obvious to many of us. Nevertheless, it is an interesting read.

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  18. Ricky, that Scowcroft article link doesn’t work, though I’m familiar with his view on the Iraq War. Your view ignores the danger of Saddam Hussein’s regime to both America and the Middle East. Had Obama kept a reasonable number of troops in Iraq, Iran would likely have been largely thwarted and the Sunni Muslim’s interests would probably have been protected. Kagan is correct that Obama is in process of having snatched defeat from a war that Bush I managed to win. Of course, the heartland isolationists are thrilled with this turn of events.

    BG, McCarthy’s correct argument is that any lawyer would be free to defend Lindh, though having defended an enemy that lawyer would be a questionable high level Justice official dealing with matters of foreign policy.

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  19. UPDATE

    More military voting shenanigans.

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/09/30/Dept-Of-Defense-Corrects-Incorrect-Deadline-Published-For-Return-Of-Military-Ballots-In-Wisconsin

    “After the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) published an incorrect deadline for the return of absentee military ballots of Wisconsin servicemen overseas, the Department of Defense emailed service members Thursday to inform them the initial deadline was wrong.

    “Please follow the directions that come with your ballot and allow sufficient time to ensure that your ballot is received in time to be counted,” the email read, according to a MacIver Institute report. “We regret any inconvenience that this may have caused.””

    “”It’s alarming to know that an untold number of our men and women in uniform were provided incorrect information,” Lungren said. “This is an unacceptable error that cannot continue. Whether it’s from the battle field or at the ballot box, our men and women in uniform deserve to have their vote counted.””

    Oooops, sorry. Sure they are.

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  20. Sorry Phos. It sometimes happens. It’s nabbed MiM a few times too.

    But look at the bright side.

    It has saved us about 100 spam posts for shoes, handbags, and how to find singles in your area, and other such nonsense.

    🙂

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  21. Sails, Since Iran had a significant influence on the Iraqi government even at the peak of The Surge, I fail to see how the presence of 5,000 US troops would lessen that influence today.

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  22. Ricky,

    I’m interested to hear your thoughts on this.

    http://www.kens5.com/news/Texas-ranchers-and-farmers-speak-out-about-border-security–171612751.html

    “Border security has not been much of a presidential campaign issue but it’s still a hot topic in Texas where the agriculture commissioner launched the latest episode in a web series called “Texas Traffic.”

    The 16-part series is described on the Texas Department of Agriculture web page as “true stories of drug and human smuggling” and features border ranchers and farmers as well as local law enforcement.”

    Here’s some of the video series here.

    http://www.protectyourtexasborder.com/

    Also, here’s a PDF from the group.

    Click to access Narco-Terrorism%20PowerPoint%20(2).pdf

    This all sounds pretty awful. Especially when you consider the Univision/ABC story on FandF in the equation. Yet Homeland Security insists all is well on the border.

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  23. Ricky, had Ambassador Crocker been in Iraq with. about a mere 20, ooo troops, under an alert president, the situation would be, far from the present parlous state, doing as Iran bids.

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  24. I mentioned above that the Fed might print money to meet the national debt, thus causing inflation, resulting in a worthless dollar.

    An interesting article from the same American Spectator, by Tom Bethell.
    After commenting on what happened in Germany in the 1920’s, he says:

    “But there’s a new element today. Governments can only inflate away their debt if traders are unwary. Today, market participants are more alert than ever. If incipient inflation is spotted, ‘bond vigilantes’ demand a higher interest rate to compensate for the dollar’s decline. This makes inflation more problematic. Rapidly rising interest rates-they are historically low right now- would soon overwhelm the federal budget. Which means that the Fed has to be careful about its money creations.”

    i don’t know if the Fec knows or cares about that.

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  25. Charles, the Fed and the European Central Bank are well aware of the salutary bond market vigilantes. Neither really appreciates these bond markets, though they know of their acute relevance. Nevertheless, these central banks are lethally prone to print money.

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  26. AJ, Here are a few thoughts on the borders:
    1.Assuming the economy ever picks up, we will need Mexican workers. They do the jobs Americans won’t do.
    2. I favor a broad guest worker program with harsh employer sanctions. In other words, let plenty of Mexicans come in, document the guest workers and let employers hire documented workers. The human trafficking and associated violence of the current system must be stopped.
    3. I would amend the Constitution so that children of aliens born here would not be US citizens. That way guest workers could bring their wives and children. I don’t like the way we are splitting up families.
    4. I would not give free public education to illegal alien children. That’s not fair to our kids and taxpayers. That would be a good job for the Catholic Church and/or other churches.
    5. I would limit the path to citizenship. American citizenship should be a privilege. Ideally, we would offer it to the best and brightest of legal immigrants.
    6. Finally, Texas needs to sharply curtail immigration from the North. I feel sorry for the Yankees who have fled to Texas to look for work, but they are ruining our culture. They need to be under a limited guest worker program, and I don’t want them to be allowed to vote in Texas. Such immigrants have already ruined Florida and Northern Virginia. Texans and Mexicans generally get along well. Texans and Yankees often do not get along at all.

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  33. “McCarthy’s correct argument is that any lawyer would be free to defend Lindh, though having defended an enemy that lawyer would be a questionable high level Justice official dealing with matters of foreign policy.”

    Why would that make him questionable? That should only be the case if providing Lindh’s legal defense is in some way “wrong” or “improper”. It isn’t. He deserves representation just like anyone else.

    There’s “defending” and there’s “defending”. If the lawyer had written a public letter to the editor arguing Lindh’s actions were perfectly acceptable then yeah, that should disqualify him. Just defending him in court shouldn’t.

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  35. Regarding the federal budget and deficit, I like the way Dave Ramsey scaled it down into numbers we can comprehend. Here is a family whose finances are proportionately equivalent to the federal government’s:
    Household annual income: $55,000
    Household annual spending: $96,000
    Current debt: $366,000, and adding $41,000 every year

    Breaking down how that $96,000 is spent:
    Entitlements: $54,000
    Defense: $23,000
    Everything else: $19,000

    Our income is only enough to cover the entitlements, nothing else.

    Stories of wasteful earmark spending get our blood boiling, but earmarks account for only about $500 a year in the family budget. Eliminating them is like trying to fix the budget by cancelling all your magazine subscriptions. It’s not going to take care of a $41,000 a year problem.

    Something much larger has got to change. Income has to go up, spending has to go down, or both.

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