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News/Politics 5-4-13

What’s interesting in the news today.

Open Thread.

The President took his gun control campaign to Mexico, where he blamed the US for gun violence in Mexico. No mention of the thousands his admin allowed to go to drug cartels in his Fast and Furious fiasco. From TheDailyMail

“President Obama used a speech at Mexico’s  Museo Nacional de Antropología – the National Anthropology Museum – to claim  that ‘most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States.’”

“‘But at the same time, as I’ve said in the  United States, I will continue to do everything in my power to pass common-sense  reforms that keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people.”

“Obama also did not mention the more than 2,000  firearms that his Department of Justice ‘walked’ across the Mexican border as  part of Operation Fast and Furious, a federal law enforcement project that aimed  to track weapons to drug traffickers.”

Gee, I wonder why… 🙄

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Meanwhile back in the States, the biggest opponent to his anti-gun agenda held their annual meeting. Needless to say, liberals are not happy that Republicans spoke to the NRA at the meeting. The comment section is quite amusing. The meme is R’s support gun rights and gun groups, so they support murder. Yet they have no problem with abortion and abortion groups, which are responsible for killing many millions more. From NBCNews

“In an indicator of the continued influence of the nation’s largest gun-owners’ group, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and other Republican politicians addressed the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Houston Friday, celebrating the defeat of gun legislation in the Senate, assailing the media, and offering a strong defense of the powerful lobbying organization.”

“Alluding to the defeat of a Senate measure two weeks ago to expand background checks for gun buyers, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told the crowd that gun control measures a month ago had “looked like an unstoppable freight train” but that they and fellow gun owners across the nation had mobilized to stop it in a victory that was “truly amazing.” But he said Obama and his allies have said “that they intend to come back at us” with another attempt to pass gun legislation in the Senate.

“We must do everything we can to stop violent crime,” the Texas Republican said, as he accused the Obama administration of not doing enough to prosecute felons and fugitives who try to buy guns as well as criminals who use a gun in the commission of a crime.”

While there, Ted Cruz issued a challenge to debate the issue with VP Joe Biden. That seems kinda unfair. Cruz would be in a battle of wits with an unarmed man. 🙂 From TheWashingtonExaminer

“Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, noting that Vice President Joe Biden reportedly plans to revive a legislative push for gun control,  challenged him to a debate about policy responses to gun violence.”

“Cruz indicated that he doesn’t regard Biden as a formidable opponent, noting that Biden’s home defense advice — firing a shotgun twice into the air — “is very useful, if it so happens that you’re being attacked by a flock of geese.”

So I guess it goes without saying, Chris Matthews is beside himself over the whole affair. 🙂 From NewsBusters

“The staunchly pro-gun control Chris Matthews on Friday sneered that the  National Rifle Association is doing a “dance of death” in celebration of their  victory over Barack Obama. Regarding senators who voted with the gun group, the Hardball host mocked, “These are the guys who took the easiest vote in  American political history. They backed the NRA.” He added that “it was almost a  religious experience for these clowns.” (Couldn’t that last part be said of  journalists in relation to Obama?)

Regarding speakers at the NRA conference in Texas, Matthews snarled, “I  think it might be a dance of death over the President’s political grave, is what  it really is. ”

🙄 Drama Queen.

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New info, and confirmation, that it was high level people in the Obama admin that changed the talking points on Benghazi to more politically friendly language for the President’s benefit. From TheWeeklyStandard

“Even as the White House strove last week to move beyond questions about the Benghazi attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2012, fresh evidence emerged that senior Obama administration officials knowingly misled the country about what had happened in the days following the assaults. The Weekly Standard has obtained a timeline briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence detailing the heavy substantive revisions made to the CIA’s talking points, just six weeks before the 2012 presidential election, and additional information about why the changes were made and by whom.”

“As intelligence officials pieced together the puzzle of events unfolding in Libya, they concluded even before the assaults had ended that al Qaeda-linked terrorists were involved. Senior administration officials, however, sought to obscure the emerging picture and downplay the significance of attacks that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. The frantic process that produced the changes to the talking points took place over a 24-hour period just one day before Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, made her now-famous appearances on the Sunday television talk shows. The discussions involved senior officials from the State Department, the National Security Council, the CIA, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the White House. ”

“The exchange of emails is laid out in a 43-page report from the chairmen of five committees in the House of Representatives. Although the investigation was conducted by Republicans, leading some reporters and commentators to dismiss it, the report quotes directly from emails between top administration and intelligence officials, and it includes footnotes indicating the times the messages were sent. In some cases, the report did not provide the names of the senders, but The Weekly Standard has confirmed the identities of the authors of two critical emails—one indicating the main reason for the changes and the other announcing that the talking points would receive their final substantive rewrite at a meeting of top administration officials on Saturday, September 15.”

No surprise that the lap-dog members of the media would dismiss it. Just like with Gosnell, it doesn’t fit their agenda. And heaven forbid they ever report on anything that may make their chosen one look bad.

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Israel appears to have carried out air strikes in Syria. From CNN

“The United States believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria, two U.S. officials tell CNN.

U.S. and Western intelligence agencies are reviewing classified data showing Israel most likely conducted a strike in the Thursday-Friday time frame, according to both officials. This is the same time frame that the U.S. collected additional data showing Israel was flying a high number of warplanes over Lebanon.”

“The Israeli military had no comment. But a source in the Israeli defense establishment told CNN’s Sara Sidner, “We will do whatever is necessary to stop the transfer of weapons from Syria to terrorist organizations. We have done it in the past and we will do it if necessary the future.””

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This one is disappointing, and I must say a little surprising that it comes from Texas. From WFAADallas

“An act of faith has cost an area track team a win and a chance to advance to the state championships.

This past weekend, the Columbus High School Mighty Cardinals had just won a boys relay race when a runner’s final gesture got them disqualified.

As he was crossing the finish line, Derrick Hayes pointed up to the sky. His father believes he was giving thanks in a gesture to God.”

“Though O’Connor cannot say why the student pointed, he says it was against the rules that govern high school sports. The rules state there can be no excessive act of celebration, which includes raising the hands.”

C’mon Texas. I’ve come to expect better from you folks given past history. I mean really, it’s not like he Tebowed….. 🙂

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25 thoughts on “News/Politics 5-4-13”

  2. It’s time to impeach the President. Isn’t it sad he thinks he has to blame America while on foreign soil. Isn’t that called disloyalty, getting way close to sedition?

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  3. I find it interesting these stories are coming out of business papers or from abroad (isn’t the Weekly Standard a British paper?). A good story cannot stay hidden and these are big ones.

    Similarly, Ramirez had a political cartoon comparing Gosnell’s activities to Auschwitz. Didn’t see it in the big papers, but I’m pretty sure World’s got it up. Business Investor’s magazine is where the link came from I saw. 😦

    The Weekly Standard article certainly makes a case, unintentionally, for impeachment. Staggering. It won’t happen of course, The president is more popular than Nixon was, but it’s hard to read the entire thing and not feel steam come out of your ears. Very sad.

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  4. I was bemused to see that msnbc yesterday posted something about their investigation into how Bush got us into Iraq.

    Just interesting with Benghazi and so many other issues about to literally throw the lid off a boiling pot that they’re seemingly “stuck” in the blaming Bush mode (to be fair I didn’t read the piece, just saw the tweet). And someone else posted today about how Bush cancelled his European trip because he might be arrested on war crimes.

    Sigh.

    😦 Three more years. Three more years. Three more years. But, my, it’s going slowly. … 😦 😦 😦

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  5. I find a lot of useful and relevant info from foreign publications. Much of it never reported on by US media sources. Bias isn’t just in what’s printed, more often it’s shown in what’s not. But it’s so obvious anymore. They don’t even bother to try and hide it.

    Local affiliates are pretty good as well. Alot of what they get first hand is more useful. Usually if I find something like that from the alphabet networks, it’s from a local source. But their own national network ignores the story. You know, like Gosnell. “It’s just a local interest story so we didn’t cover it” was the excuse they used. But then when called on it they point out the local story and say “See, our network covered it.” It’s disgraceful.

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  8. Donna,

    And my vote for the SQUIRREL!! story of the week goes to………

    LOOK! A gay NBA player!

    Why spend time on Benghazi and our corrupt WH, when there are important stories like that to report on. Priorities People!

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  10. AJ, Benghazi should get some more coverage in the coming week. We hope.

    Sadly, it’s become somehow a “political” story and it never should have been perceived as such. Those on the left want to ignore it, and so it has been ignored for the most part.

    Three more years.

    Keep the faith.

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  11. Distraction and omission are common complaints from both sides of the political spectrum. And distractions are actively used by political parties to avoid difficult questions.

    I agree that a gay NBA player story is a distraction but for me its a distraction to the left to ignore the economic questions. The left has been satisfied by social stories and has ignored the economic regression of the past thirty years. This same tactic was worked on the right …. moral conservatives more or less ignore the economic vices of their supposed right wing brethren in exchange for lukewarm support on moral questions.

    Meanwhile omissions and distractions continue. The textile factory in collapse in Bangladesh is being compared to Triangle shirt factory fire in New York 100 years ago and the media speculates how the present tragedy may lead to changes. Yet while they comment on lack of gov’t oversight and ignored regulations in Bangladesh they fail to admit that these concerns are still relevant int the US.

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  12. I tried to find a youtube video that’s become a classic on the left. I thought it was called hey look over there but I can’t seem to find it. It basically outlines how people are distract from the growing economic disparity and the decline of services by blaming the middle class and especially gov’t employees as opposed to the decline in taxes and civic involvement of the wealthy and corporate elite.

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  13. I was thinking of the Gosnell story. I’m not sure its a deliberate case of omission but rather apathy to that particular issue. Those in the media just aren’t interested ….. while a large minority may think its important, this may never have occurred to those who cover stories. Personally I think its a shame because I see it as illustrative of the need for strong government intervention/regulation in health care. Not exactly what many of you see but I think you do want the government to intervene in one particular aspect of health care.

    Of course, you would do well to argue that abortion itself is not health care. That is a contentious point however pre and post care for women do constitute health care. And for me the Gosnell case points to a larger role for the government. (As does West, Texas in a different context)

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  14. On filing complaints:

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/04/what-it-would-take-to-file-a-complaint-against-kermit-gosnell-today/275096/

    And I think for the most part there was even an unconscious tendency in the media not to pay much attention to this because of an unspoken, perceived (real or not) idea that it put “pro-choice” issues in, well, a rather bad light.

    There’s no escaping the fact that this makes abortion — and what really happens with these procedures, late term or not — a little too real for people who would prefer to sanitize and de-humanize it.

    This reminds us that this kind of a “choice” has a very human consequence.

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  15. HRW, Tonight is my night to agree with you, to an extent. Here is a partial list of ways that the US government took steps to make the rich richer at the expense of the middle class and poor since the end of the Reagan Administration:
    1. Taxation of capital gains at a lower rate than ordinary income.
    2. Taxation of qualified dividends at a lower rate than ordinary income.
    3. The green energy subsidies that benefited a very few (such as Gore) while hurting taxpayers and consumers.
    4. The government-created higher education bubble that artificially raised college tuition by a government loan program.
    5. Gutting of the federal anti-trust laws.
    6. The government’s huge role in the housing bubble and the Wall Street bailout.
    7. The near-destruction of urban public education by forced integration and other schemes.
    8. The incredibly inefficient government healthcare system that has enriched doctors, hospital administrators, insurance executives, drug company executives, etc.
    Reagan was a principled conservative. Too many Republicans bend with public opinion (like the Bushes) or are for sale. The Democrats have to buy off their voters, but many Democrat politicians are for sale themselves.

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  16. I’ll agree with 1,2,4,5,6,. I don’t know about 3 (there is pork in green energy programs but probably no more than other programs). I’m not sure what you mean by 7 and in number 8 we agree but we have a different solution.

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  17. HRW- I guess you don’t realize that the government regulates and inspects health care institutions, but for some reason that does not include “abortuaries”. If the government did that, who knows how many of them would get fined or shut down.

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  18. Concerning item 3, my point is really apart from the pork. The green subsidies have functioned as a transfer program from taxpayers and consumers to a few wealthy green “businessmen”. It’s like farm subsidies to pay farmers to grow crops people don’t want, and in fact rich farmers often get richer “growing” inefficient windmills, transmission lines, etc.

    Concerning 7, public education used to be a powerful tool to help the poor and middle class rise up the economic ladder. In the 1940s and 1950s our urban public schools were pretty good. They are now primarily breeding grounds for crime. The federal government has started many well-intentioned educational programs (from forced busing in the 1970s to No Child Left Behind under Little Bush). Virtually all were based on false premises and helped destroy urban public education.

    Concerning 8, I’m not sure that your fully socialist solution is worse than the current semi-socialist mess. I also realize my free enterprise solution is a political non-starter.

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  19. Peter, You would think so, but a very interesting thing has happened since the explosion of affirmative action for all sorts of groups in government employment in the last 40 years.

    The government can no longer competently regulate. The former head of NASDAC is running a giant Ponzi scheme. Where was the SEC? Muslim terrorists infiltrate our military, train to bomb buildings or races and the FBI is unable to stop them even when tipped off by foreign governments.

    If you talk to old time federal employees, they will tell you that: 1. Many of the new affirmative action hires are completely unqualified and incompetent; and 2. Much of a bureaucrat’s time is spent on EEO complaints, hearings, etc. It’s sad when towns like West, Texas are blown up, but it we tripled the size of OSHA, there would just be more affirmative action hires fighting amongst themselves for the corner office.

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  21. I’d have no problem with gov’t oversight of abortion clinics. Public health is a legitimate area of state (ie the people’s) interest, however, limitations on personal access to services is not part of the legitimate area of gov’t unless public safety is compromised.

    An other area of public interest is cost containment. Free market health care doesn’t exist. Health care cost are routinely manipulated by insurance companies and providers and thus the gov’t has to step in for the interests of the people – the bankruptcy rate caused by medical needs is a drag on the country’s economy.

    Effective regulation and even more importantly enforcement is the problem. As ricky states the gov’t can no longer manage this function and as of late has basically handed over regulatory bodies to the very groups its supposed to regulate. Seats on the SEC are given to people from Wall Street. OSHA jobs are given to corporate managers.

    Ricky blames affirmative action but realistically gov’t jobs have almost always been rewards for supporters, relatives, etc. Affirmative action actually regulates this practice For me the real culprit in the decline of gov’t effectiveness was Reagan. Reagan and those that followed him had/have no respect for gov’t and they set out to starve the beast racking up deficits and debts as they went secure in the knowledge this would eventually shrink or even destroy the gov’t. With such little respect for gov’t, they “starved” the regulatory bodies, appointed friends (Bush’s horse loving FEMA appointee comes to mind — I’m sure there are Clinton/Obama examples) and removed any teeth for enforcement.

    The “rescue” of gov’t has made things worse. Technocrats (mostly under Clinton) with the Harvard Business School mentality arrived and implement an abundance of paper trails, “document everything” mentality, team building, goal setting, etc. Instead of just sending people out to work ie inspect factories, hospitals, public health concerns, etc.

    Finally, some blame must be shouldered by the left who forget economic policy at their peril. More concerned with identity politics they forgot the basic essentials of left-wing politics as practiced elsewhere; workplace health and safety, minimum wage laws, unionization, progressive taxation, health care, housing, etc. The bread and butter issues which get social-democrats/democratic socialist elected world wide.

    However, the US government still does things right. The CDC for example is a worldwide leader in contagious disease and public health. The state university especially in California was an example for the world and still has host some of the finest schools in the world. Government can and does work, a change of mentality is needed but it can work.

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  22. The government picks winners all the time. They build roads, bridges, railroads, etc. Changes in transportation policy affect businesses .. . some win some lose. With the US, as both parties acknowledge, the military buys stuffs and sets up bases thus picking winning and losing businesses and even more obvious the towns who host bases. Acknowledging this reality makes gov’t more effective in delivering services and assisting in economic growth.

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