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News/Politics 9-25-13

What’s of interest in today’s news?

Sen. Ted Cruz began filibustering over ObamaCare funding yesterday. In fact, as of 6:15 AM this morning, he still was. Sen. Harry Reid is not happy, and would like to remind you it’s not a real one, it just looks and sounds like one. And “Green Eggs and Ham” was the perfect reading selection for an ObamaCare related filibuster. Like the man said, “We do not like it Sam I am”.

From WeaselZippers  “Cruz Begins “Talking Filibuster,” Vows To Speak “Until I Am No Longer Able To Stand” – Update: Harry Reid Whines: Your Filibuster Isn’t Real – Update: Enters Third Hour – Update: Dingy Complains, This Is “Fake” – Update: Reads “Green Ham And Eggs” On Senate Floor – Update: Passes 7 Hour Mark – Update: 8 Hours And Counting…Update: Approaching 16 Hours, Still Going! 

And it’s not just Dems and ObamaCare he’s being critical of.

From TheWashingtonTimes  “In his remarks, he repeatedly took aim at fellow Republicans, urging  them to  join him in voting against limiting debate on a stopgap spending  bill that also  defunds Obamacare. Many Republicans said they will vote  along with Democrats to  proceed with the stopgap bill because as of now  it contains the defunding  provisions.

Mr. Cruz, though, said it is certain Democrats will be able to strip  the  defunding provision with a majority vote later in the process, so  the only  chance to exert influence is early on, when it will take a  60-vote threshold to  even proceed with action.”

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The House GOP is offering another solution.

From Politico  “The House Republican leadership is seriously considering attaching a one-year  delay of Obamacare’s individual mandate to the Senate bill to avert a government  shutdown, according to senior GOP aides.

If House Republicans decide to go this route, it would all but provoke a  government shutdown, since Senate Democrats might not even schedule a vote on a  bill that includes that provision, Senate leadership staffers say. Even if the  Senate schedules a vote, there might not be time to move the legislation through  the slow-moving chamber.”

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Here’s an interesting read on the US terrorists involved in the mall massacre.

From YahooNews  “A heated debate has erupted among Somali refugees in the U.S. over the slaughter of civilians in the Kenyan shopping mall, highlighting what U.S. intelligence officials fear is fertile recruiting ground for Islamic jihadists.”

“When the conversation turned to Kenya, the room erupted in debate in a smattering of broken English and Arabic dialects between the men playing cards and sipping tea on ramshackle furniture.”

“”Al-Shabaab is not just recruiting young Somalis in the U.S. Also around the world,” Abtieon said in an interview outside the din of his arguing countrymen in the market’s back room.”

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Bob Beckel has had a stunning moment of clarity. Perhaps some on the left are starting to wise up.

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The same can’t be said for major US print news sources. Not surprisingly, they won’t point out the obvious, or the relevant facts. That wouldn’t be politically correct.

From NewsBusters  “Dare a top newspaper journalist to play connect-the-dots and chances are  he’ll fail miserably – at least with drawing the line between Islam and  terrorism. In Nairobi, Kenya last weekend, Islamist militants took over a  high-end shopping mall and began executing non-Muslims. In Pakistan, Islamist  suicide bombers detonated at a Christian Church on Sunday. 

Yet on Monday, September 23, 90 percent of the top ten (via  circulation numbers) daily newspapers’ headlines in the United States  censored the words “Islam” and Muslim” from Nairobi and Pakistan reports. One –  the New York Daily News – didn’t even have a headline for the latest Islamic  terrorist attacks. That’s journalism at its finest.”

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Looks like Obama and Kerry have a backdoor route to their gun control utopia in mind.

From TheHill  “Secretary  of State John Kerry is expected to sign an arms trade treaty opposed by the  Senate and the gun lobby as early as Wednesday, and Republicans aren’t happy  about it.

Kerry’s plan to sign the treaty on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly  in New York this week has sparked immediate criticism from GOP  opponents. 

“This treaty is already dead in the water in the Senate, and they know it,” said  Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services.  “The Administration is wasting precious time trying to sign away our laws to the  global community and unelected U.N. bureaucrats.”

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This one I only have one comment on. It’s about time.

From TheWashingtonTimes  “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has no  Catholic right to be  granted Communion, said the leading cardinal of the  highest court at the  Vatican.”

“That’s canon law, not opinion, he said. Canon 915 states that  Catholics who are stubbornly contrary “in manifest grave sin  are not to  be admitted to Holy Communion.”

And Cardinal Burke said Mrs. Pelosi fits   the definition.

“Certainly this is a case when Canon 915 must be  applied,” he said,  the Western  Center for Journalism reported. “This is a person who  obstinately, after  repeated admonitions, persists in a grave  sin — cooperating with the crime of  procured abortion — and still  professes to be a devout Catholic.”

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34 thoughts on “News/Politics 9-25-13”

  1. Wouldn’t it be interesting, and very boring, to spend a filibutster actually reading the Obamacare bill all the way through on the Senate floor. Not sure it would be possible as the boredom would put you to sleep.

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  5. I watch the Five often and though Bob is very liberal in other areas, he is seldom too politically correct on the issue of Muslims. He has even been dissed by Jon Stewart a couple of times over it. As a matter of fact, he and Eric Bolling challenged Stewart to come sit between them and debate the issue.

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  6. How can you not admire a man sticking to his principles?
    I’m ashamed to be in the same country as Reid, Pelosi, and Obama. Not a real filibuster? Looks like it’s more real than their fake care for the poor.

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  7. He’s still going. And the RINO squad is not happy. They’ve got surrender to Obama on their agenda and this guy is holding them up. Bunch of pansies.

    “Here is Mr. King, a Republican congressman who represents Long Island, speaking on Tuesday afternoon about Ted Cruz, the Republican senator from Texas, who is bringing the federal government to the brink of a shutdown because he wants to cut all the money for President Obama’s health care plan.

    “My sound bite is to say he’s a fraud,” Mr. King said. “I start with that, and then I go on. It takes me two or three minutes to explain it.”

    Jumping ahead to that third minute, Mr. King said precisely what he thought of the Cruz tactic: “It is just a form of governmental terrorism.”

    Boo-hoo, poor Peter. Somebody get him some cheese to go with his whine. 🙄

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  10. I saw that “5” episode. Bob is correct, but doesn’t understand that there are no “moderate” Muslims.
    A Muslim is obliged to be on jihad against infidels.
    And if any should speak out against jihad, he is in danger of his life.
    That’s the reason no one speaks out. They believe in what’s happening.

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  11. From Drudge

    A treaty has no meaning until the Senate ratifies it.

    Secretary of State John Kerry plans to sign a controversial U.N. treaty on arms regulation on Wednesday, a senior State Department official told Fox News — despite warnings from lawmakers that the Senate will not ratify the agreement.
    A State official said the treaty would “reduce the risk that international transfers of conventional arms will be used to carry out the world’s worst crimes,” while protecting gun rights.

    “The treaty builds on decades of cooperative efforts to stem the international, illegal, and illicit trade in conventional weapons that benefits terrorists and rogue agents,” the official said.

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  13. Kerry cannot negotiate a treaty and neither is he authorized to sign a treaty. Only the President has the authority and 2/3 of the Senate must ratify a treaty.

    The arms treaty regulates the sale of small arms. So all the arms stolen at Benghazi would be considered under this treaty. So who’s going to jail, Clinton, Obama or James Clapper. Oh wait No one is. Just like in Fast and Furious. 🙄

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  14. Worth a read:

    http://thefederalist.com/2013/09/25/can-we-finally-start-talking-about-the-global-persecution-of-christians/

    ” … We’re talking about Christian persecution by Muslims because of a particularly macabre issue: Jews have already largely been driven out of many Muslim countries.

    “Lela Gilbert, a journalist who writes about Jewish and Christian persecution, tells of encountering jihadi graffiti in Jerusalem that read “First comes Saturday, then comes Sunday.” She didn’t get the meaning at first. A friend explained that it referred to Jews worshiping on Saturday and Christians on Sunday and, more subtly, about the order that non-Muslims would be targeted.

    ” ilbert notes that in 1948 there were about 135,000 Jews in Iraq. Now there are fewer than a dozen. In 2003, Iraq had a fairly strong Christian population. Since 2003, more than half of the 800,000 Christians have fled church bombings, rapes, torture, kidnapping, beheading and house eviction. … “

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  15. And on the same topic:

    http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/09/the-silence-of-our-friends-the-extinction-of-christianity-in-the-middle-east/

    “The last month and a half has seen perhaps the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt in seven centuries, with dozens of churches torched. Yet the western media has mainly focused on army assaults on the Muslim Brotherhood, and no major political figure has said anything about the sectarian attacks. …

    ” ‘Where was world Christianity when this happened?’ … Nowhere. Watching X-Factor. Debating intersectionality. Or just too frightened of controversy to raise Muslim-on-Christian violence.”

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  17. Although I knew some of you would support Cruz, I wonder what’s his point. It seems all he’s done is annoy his Republican colleagues some of whom called his tactics amateur. He appears to have burned his bridges after comparing those who don’t resist Obamacare to Chamberlain and the policy of appeasing Hitler. Republicans were not impressed by being associated with appeasing Hitler and Nazism. Matthews isn’t the only one afflicted by hyperbole.

    http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2013/0925/Ted-Cruz-vs.-John-McCain-This-time-it-s-about-Hitler

    I’m not an expert on the arcane rules of the Senate but Cruz did not impede any legislation and he knew his speech would be cut off at noon. I wouldn’t consider that a filibuster. Perhaps he was hoping for a Mr. Smith goes to Washington moment and misread the rules in which case the amateur tag is fairly apt.

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  18. I do wonder at the Republican obsession of ending Obamacare before it even really gets started. This obsession has helped make this Congress the least productive in the nation’s history. Are they scared that it will actually succeed in providing affordable health care to Americans? As Gingrich pointed out where is the alternative? From the left side of the fence reports are being made that the ACA is succeeding.

    http://www.classwarfareexists.com/obamacare-premiums-lower-than-cell-phone-bills-in-some-areas/

    The title is a bit deceptive in the above link — its almost as cheap as a cell phone bill for a single person.

    I have no idea whether these reported rates are low, normal or higher than before as I’ve never paid an insurance premium in my life (and hopefully never will) I do know its as cheap as my car insurance. If anyone cares to tell me how these rates compare I’d find it interesting.

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  19. I’m somewhat amused when someone notes a person of opposing political views stating something they agree with. People are not caricatures of left and right.

    The NewsBuster article is hyperbole. There’s no censorship …. unless an other authority intervenes. Also, it appears most newspapers did mention Islam. The US Today (in the headline), NY Post, Chicago Sun-Times, and Washington Post all mention Islamic terrorists in the subtitle or the article. Most of the other papers mentioned al-queada and Pakistan Taliban. Thus, unless Americans are as ignorant as Europeans like to say, most people know the terrorists are Islamic. Headlines are written by someone other than the journalist or editor and his/her word choices are usually governed by space. And finally, we can surmise from the NY Daily News lack of any coverage that its a not a serious paper but rather content to cater to the lowest common denominator of pop culture (Emmys, baseball).

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  20. Just read elsewhere that Cruz read Green Eggs and Ham during his filibuster. Quite ironic. The story ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ is about someone who declares they don’t like something and has made their mind up about it before they even tried it. After some friendly persuasion , the person discovers that they did indeed like it after-all. Sounds like the Republicans and the ACA … well at least the first part.

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  23. HRW, If this Congress could be the least productive in history, that would be great news. Whenever Congress passes a law, there is at least a 99% chance it will make things worse. There is also a 99% chance the new law will increase federal spending.

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  27. A lack of one or more Republican plans for health care does not make Obama’s a good one.

    I agree with rickyweaver: An “unproductive” Congress is better than a “productive” one. That’s one reason Ron Paul was a good legislator, and why ‘conservative’ criticisms about his ‘lack of productivity’ were such a farce. Many of those critics now see how stupid they were to voice that argument.

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  29. kbells — you’re right but the irony of reading a book about trying new things during a speech about preventing the implementation of a new idea just had to be mentioned.

    ricky/solar — With a limited gov’t of Ron Paul or similar persons, Eisenhower (a Republican) would never been able to build the Interstate. If you want inefficient and very limited gov’t move to the libertarian paradise of Somalia.

    Its strange people enter government with the intention of not governing and in fact deliberately shutting the gov’t down. And have no idea of their own in terms of what should be done for benefit of the country and its people.

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  30. Jo, thanks for the heads up on the Olasky take on Cruz’s very long talk. 😉

    ” … Last night I put aside my baseball watching for one evening and watched a couple of hours of what Harry Reid called ‘a big waste of time.’ It was time well spent.”

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  31. With a limited gov’t of Ron Paul or similar persons, Eisenhower (a Republican) would never been able to build the Interstate and etc.

    This is the kind of thinking that says if GM had been allowed to fold, empty auto plants would have sat idle in the wake.

    See any leaps there?

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  32. I like the Interstates. However, you might remember the country (with a non limited govenment) that invented such limited access freeways. You might also remember the reason they were invented: to move the Wehrmacht quickly between the Western Front and the Eastern Front.

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  33. HRW: All governments are inefficient. Right now, I would not agree that our government is more inefficient than the government of Somalia. We spend billions at the federal level to make energy more expensive and our education system worse. Do you think the Pentagon is efficient? Do you think Medicare is efficient? How about the TSA? Even our tax system is very inefficient. We have scores of programs to promote and reward sloth. We can make fun of Somalia and Haiti, but what about Detroit and East St. Louis?

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