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News/Politics 12-20-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. Another court loss for the Obama admin.

From TheFreeBeacon  “A federal judge Tuesday rejected the Obama administration’s sweeping claims of executive privilege and ordered the disclosure of a foreign aid directive signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 but never publicly released.

U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle ruled the presidential order is not within the bounds of executive privilege and called the government’s arguments in favor of secrecy “troubling.”

“The government appears to adopt the cavalier attitude that the President should be permitted to convey orders throughout the Executive Branch without public oversight … to engage in what is in effect governance by ‘secret law,’” Huvelle said.”

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2. A+E has some decisions to make. Will they put Phil back to work, or continue to bow to the vocal minority and their PC nonsense? The balls in their court now. The family has decided it’s future with the network depends on what happens with Phil. And chose wisely, because lots of networks will offer them plenty to go elsewhere.

From FoxNews  “We have had a successful working relationship with A&E but, as a family, we cannot imagine the show going forward without our patriarch at the helm,” the Robertson family said in a prepared statement. “We are in discussions with A&E to see what that means for the future of Duck Dynasty.”

The family said it has “spent much time in prayer” since learning A&E had suspended Phil Robertson, the patriarch of the Louisiana family, over comments he made about homosexuality.”

“While some of Phil’s unfiltered comments to the reporter were coarse, his beliefs are grounded in the teachings of the Bible,” the family said. “Phil is a Godly man who follows what the Bible says are the greatest commandments: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Phil would never incite or encourage hate.”

The family also criticized A&E for its actions, saying he was placed on hiatus “for expressing his faith, which is his constitutionally protected right.”

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3. Poor Pajama Boy. Even MSNBC is making fun of him. Talk about Epic Fails….

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4. And things are getting even worse for PJ Boy.  He’s done 3 different ObamaCare ads thru his gig with OFA, but now it looks like he may have to find a real job. Heartbreaking as it may be, the ObamaCare ad blitz is coming to an end. 🙄

From TheHill  “The White House will conclude its 16-day media blitz designed to promote ObamaCare on Thursday with the release of a series of reports touting state-specific benefits of the president’s signature law, according to an official familiar with the plan.

“These state reports mark the culmination of a multi-week effort by the White House and supporters of reform to bring a renewed refocus on each of these benefits and what the cost of repealing them would mean,” the White House official said.”

“According to the official, the reports will show what the cost of repealing the controversial law would mean to average families across the country.”

“The White House insisted Wednesday that, although the daily ObamaCare messaging push would wrap up for the holidays, the administration would continue to push consumers to purchase coverage over the next three months.”

But don’t worry, OFA is sending out liberal bots, some of whom you may be related to, in order to harass you about ObamaCare at GrandMa’s house on Christmas day. 🙂 They got ya’ covered. 😉

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5. GRINCH ALERT!

The Grinch is a shifty one, he’s using one of his favorite aliases this time. (Mikey Whinestein) 

From TheMiamiHerald  “GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba —         The commander of this remote outpost said Wednesday night he would move two Nativity scenes from U.S. troops’ cafeterias to the base chapel, ending a daylong controversy kicked up by a few troops who protested to the Pentagon in secret.

“No one’s ever complained to me about it. We’ve been doing it for 10 years,” said Capt. J.R. Nettleton, commander of this Navy base, which has a school, a golf course and about 6,000 residents, a third of them civilian contract workers from Jamaica and the Philippines.”

“A total of 18 U.S. service members stationed here, five of them officers, appealed to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation after an agonizing, secret meeting earlier this week about what to do about the two créches and other Christmas decorations that festoon the main prison and base dining rooms, the rights group’s president, Mikey Weinstein, said Wednesday.

Weinstein said eight of the protesting American troops work inside the detention center zone that this week held more than 150 Muslim prisoners. Weinstein said the protesters included 11 Christians, both Protestants and Catholics, and said the other seven included Jews, Muslims, agnostics and atheists from a variety of services, including the Army and Navy.”

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6. Some of Mikey’s friends are trying to push the Army to label the Family Research Council as a hate group. Given this administrations track record, they probably get their way.

From LifeSiteNews  “In response to calls by the Southern Poverty Law Center to have the army declare the American Family Association as an “extremist” group, the spokesman for the AFA has shot back, accusing the SPLC of being the true “hate” group.

“The AFA doesn’t hate anyone,” AFA Director of Issue Analaysi and Spokesman Brian Fischer told LifeSiteNews.com in an e-mail. “The real hate in all this debate is coming from the SPLC and is directed toward people of faith. The real hate group here is the SPLC.”

Last week, the SPLC urged Army Secretary John McHugh to list the American Family Association (AFA) as an extremist group. 

According to SPLC’s Josh Glasstetter, McHugh should classify the AFA as an extremist group because, he claims, Director of Issue Analysis and spokersperson Bryan Fischer has said homosexuals are responsible for the Holocaust. He also says Fisher has said Muslims should be deported from America, and wants women, Muslims, and homosexuals disallowed from military service.

Please, the SPLC is Hate Inc..

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7. Remember folks…

Vote Fraud is a myth.

From FoxNews  “Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted announced Wednesday that his office found 17 non-citizens illegally cast ballots in the 2012 presidential election — and has referred the case for possible prosecution. 

 The alleged crime would be a notable case of voter fraud in a key swing state. By law, only American citizens are allowed the privilege of casting ballots for the nation’s leaders.”    

 “Voting advocates have long complained that some of the country’s voter fraud investigations amount to voter suppression, aimed at preventing minorities and others from voting. But supporters say the efforts only are aimed at preventing voter fraud and maintaining the integrity of the electoral process. 

The new investigation comes after election officials secured several voter fraud convictions stemming from last year’s election in Ohio, including that of one poll worker who was accused of voting six times in the November presidential election.”

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19 thoughts on “News/Politics 12-20-13”

  2. My liberal friends have had a couple good points about the Phil Robertson brouhaha. Many people have claimed that his Freedom of Speech has been violated. But he hasn’t been jailed for what he said, so that’s not applicable. (Although, it seems to me we Americans use the term Freedom of Speech as a general principle as well as a constitutional right.)

    Another point had to do with his contract at A&E having a clause that covers this sort of thing, that A&E was firmly within their rights to suspend him.

    But even so, I still think A&E execs, at the very least, used poor judgment in this matter.

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  6. A&E has a right as an employer to do what it did. But I think this has struck a nerve because of what has been constant drum beat in the culture to silence and/or shame those who hold what is clearly now an unpopular opinion on the issue.

    Perhaps those who have quietly acquiesced and are trying not to make waves over the issue are starting to speak up as they see the unfairness (not to mention the danger) of the cultural pressure to conform.

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  8. Bob,

    I was going to post something on it tomorrow. But since you brought it up now, here’s a link to a Washington Times story on it too. Very troubling indeed. This judge alone has seen 4 such cases, and no doubt there are many more. They just do as they please, because the media never calls them on it. That’s especially true when the subject is illegals. The mainstream press doesn’t inform anyone about their actions because they agree with them.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/dec/19/border-patrol-helps-smuggle-illegal-immigrant-chil/?1

    “A federal judge in Texas late last week accused the Obama administration of aiding drug cartels, saying that instead of enforcing immigration laws, agents knowingly helped smuggle an illegal immigrant girl into the U.S. to live with her mother, also an illegal immigrant, in Virginia.

    In a 10-page order, Judge Andrew S. Hanen said the case was the fourth such case he’s seen over the last month, and in each instance Customs and Border Protection agents have helped to locate and deliver the children to their illegal immigrant parents.”

    “The judge said in each case, the taxpayers footed the bill for flights — including flights to multiple locations in different parts of the U.S. that it took to find one of the children’s parents.

    “The DHS is rewarding criminal conduct instead of enforcing the current laws. More troubling, the DHS is encouraging parents to seriously jeopardize the safety of their children,” the judge said, adding that some of the children have been made to swim the Rio Grande River or traverse remote areas as part of the smuggling.”

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  9. Some liberals can also see that ‘there’s something happening here,’ to quote an old (ate 1960s) protest song.

    http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/19/paglia-duck-dynasty-uproar-utterly-fascist-utterly-stalinist/
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    “(Camille) Paglia went on to point out that while she is an atheist she respects religion and has been frustrated by the intolerance of gay activists.

    ‘I think that this intolerance by gay activists toward the full spectrum of human beliefs is a sign of immaturity, juvenility,’ Paglia said. ‘This is not the mark of a true intellectual life. This is why there is no cultural life now in the U.S. Why nothing is of interest coming from the major media in terms of cultural criticism. Why the graduates of the Ivy League with their A, A, A+ grades are complete cultural illiterates, etc. is because they are not being educated in any way to give respect to opposing view points.’ ….

    “’To express yourself in a magazine in an interview — this is the level of punitive PC, utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist, OK, that my liberal colleagues in the Democratic Party and on college campuses have supported and promoted over the last several decades,’ Paglia said. ‘This is the whole legacy of free speech 1960’s that have been lost by my own party.'”

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  12. Michelle, what happens is that the government tells you what insurance you must buy, that you cannot celebrate Chrismas in public places, that you must convert your coal furnaces to gas, that you must sell your house to some conglomerate, and someday, the president will shoot his uncle if he finds fault.

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  13. There is an article in today’s Times-News about a paper mill in Canton, NC.
    It wants the state to provide $15 million to help pay for a conversion from coal to gas.
    “The company needs at least 18 months to order and install new natural gas fired boilers to replace two coal fired boilers in a five year effort expected to cost $50 million…..”
    “The mill, which makes packaging for juice cartons, employs about 1,000 people with an average wage or $78,300 with benefits…..”
    There is a 2016 deadline imposed on this by the EPA.

    Another 1,000 jobs for China.
    This will help pay for their new aircraft carrier and space program.
    But we can’t permit coal furnaces, can we?

    This is what I was referrint to , above.

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  14. Contnued: From Drudge

    A new bill proposed by Senator Capri Cafaro (D-Ohio) would require parents who have decided to homeschool their child to undergo an investigation by social services, who would then decide whether or not it would be permitted.

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  15. 1. Any time the executive has his power curtailed is a victory for the people. Post watergate there was a weak executive and although Reagan and Clinton were strong presidents it was due to their powers of persuasion and/or cooperative style. Bush/Cheney created the overly strong executive which Obama is naturally using. For supporters of Bush/Cheney the saying be careful what you wish for has some added meaning.

    2.Everyone has the right to free speech and every cooperation has the right to employ you or not. Robertson exercised his free speech and AE exercised their corporate rights. Your job isn’t guaranteed no matter what you say or do even off site. Martin Bashir found that out on MSNBC. Its basic free market capitalism; the employer can decide if an employee is no longer useful to them. In the case of Robertson, AE decided his behavior was a detriment to the organization and suspended him. And I’m sure the fine print on his contract allows for it. This isn’t about anything fundamental as right to free speech or religion rather changing public tolerance and mores which disturb Robertson and his fans.

    5,6 Never understood the need for religious groups to be associated with the military but a the same time I don’t understand the need for other groups to be so upset about it.

    7. Voter fraud may occur but isn’t the problem the Republicans claim it is. The amount of corporate money involved in elections is a bigger problem

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  16. Chas — often parents withdraw their children from public schools when teachers/principals/social workers ask too many questions. Although to the typical home schooler it may appear to be intrusive, there is a real reason behind the state’s intrusion. The school system is often the first time children have regular outside contact and parents with something to hide will try to avoid this contact.

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  17. I’d argue that Bush was president during very unique circumstances — many of us cringed at least just a bit with the Patriot Act; but we also understood these were perilous times following 9/11.

    The challenge becomes how you rescind those powers once the immediate, perceived danger has passed.

    Schools — I think of my Christian friends (with lots of kids) who were very pro-public schools (the dad, a public defender, harkened back to his mom’s role as a school board member of many years). The turning point for them came a number of years ago when they felt that the schools were urging their children to automatically/necessarily confide in their parents, but to come to school officials instead.

    Granted, the intention was good. But my friends — best parents ever — felt that the schools were planting suspicions and essentially trying to take over the role of parenting. They’ve home schooled ever since, their children all going on to community colleges by 16 and graduating (so far) from Ivy League colleges by 18-19. They’re all incredibly well-adjusted and starting families of their own.

    Home schooling will become increasingly popular among Christians who reserve the right to raise their children as they wish, with the ethics and morals they want to pass on — ethics and morals that increasingly are in conflict with the “popular” secular society.

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