What’s interesting in the news today?
Open thread.
1. Remember folks, as always, vote fraud is a myth.
________________________________________
2. This will embolden Russia for sure.
From MSNNews “Final results of the referendum in Crimea show that 97 percent of voters have supported leaving Ukraine to join Russia, the head of the referendum election commission said Monday.
Mikhail Malyshev told a televised news conference that the final tally from Sunday’s vote was 96.8 percent in favor of splitting from Ukraine. He also said that the commission has not registered a single complaint about the vote.
The referendum was widely condemned by Western leaders who were planning to discuss economic sanctions to punish Russia on Monday. Ukraine’s new government in Kiev called the referendum a “circus” directed at gunpoint by Moscow.
________________________________________
3. Some interesting immigration stats.
From CNSNews “was less than the approximately 12.5 million people whom the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated were unemployed in the United States in the average month of 2012.
However, it exceeds the approximately 11.46 million people whom BLS says were unemployed in the average month of 2013. “
“If Pew’s estimate that there were 11.7 million illegal aliens in the United States as of March 2012 is accurate–and if that population has not begun to decline again as Pew estimated it did during 2007-2009 recession—then there would have been more illegal aliens in the United States in 2013 than people who were unemployed.”
_________________________________________
4. President Obama is doing his best to increase the number of illegal aliens in the US.
From TheDailyCaller “President Barack Obama may further reduce the small percentage of illegal immigrants who are sent home each year, say advocates for immigrants and would-be immigrants.
Obama “has charged his Secretary of Homeland Security… to reduce where they can the levels of deportation,” Janet Murguia, president of the major Latino ethnic lobby group, the National Council of la Raza.
“Our hope and expectation is with that [policy change] would come some reduction in the level of deportations,” she told reporters gathered outside the White House Friday evening.
The reduction could be as high as 50 percent, depending on how much Obama is willing to change agency rules, Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, told The Daily Caller.”
Once again, the president ignore or re-writes laws he doesn’t like.
________________________________________
5. And once again the president cuts benefits for our fighting men and women, while protecting unionized civilian workers.
From InvestorBusinessDaily “The administration plans to cut the military pensions of those who served their country while giving public employees a break by exempting their ObamaCare subsidies from sequestration.
On the heels of announcing that Army troop levels will be cut below pre-World War II levels, the Military Times has reported that the Obama administration is planning to reduce military pension costs by 10% by converting part of their retirement to 401(k)-like defined-contribution plans from defined-benefit plans.
What makes this interesting is that it affects military retirees and members of the military who are non-union and therefore can’t strike or engage in collective bargaining. Public-sector union employees will retain their defined-benefit plans.
So, those who defend this country will be cut while those who feed at the public trough and whose union dues provide a ready supply of campaign cash will not.”
________________________________________
6. Democrats lead by Harry Reid have been attacking the Koch Bros. non-stop lately. As you’d expect, they’re not above lying to try and score points with the low info voters.
From TheWashingtonPost “The pro-GOP group Americans for Prosperity has relentlessly attacked Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), so the pro-Democratic group Senate Majority PAC has made AFP’s main backers, the Koch brothers, the subject of a new attack ad. This is all part of a larger Democratic strategy of tying GOP candidates to the conservative billionaires, as witnessed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s near-daily attacks on them.
A number of the claims in the ad we have covered before, such as the hyperbolic charge that Republicans want to “end Medicare.” The so-called Social Security cuts stem in part from changing the formula for indexing benefits to inflation — something also supported by President Obama. And AFP did not oppose hurricane relief; it opposed a version that it believed was fiscally irresponsible. (Moreover, this mostly had to do with money for Hurricane Sandy, which didn’t even come close to Louisiana.)
For the purpose of this fact check, we will examine the claim that the Koch brothers have an agenda of protecting “tax cuts for companies that ship our jobs overseas.” That’s a new one.”
“Upon examination, this claim crumbles into dust. The ad not only mischaracterizes an ordinary tax deduction as a special “tax cut” but then it falsely asserts that “protecting” this tax break is part of the Koch agenda. It turns out this claim is based on a tenuous link to an organization that never even took a position on the legislation in question.”
The fact checkers give them 4 Pinocchios.
_________________________________________
Wandering Views 
Mike Huckabee, on today’s radio update, tells of a woman who died in 2008. All her bills were sent and paid electronically. So, no one knew that she was dead for six years.
Only she voted in the 2010 election.
LikeLike
Military retires can be powerful because their former junior officers are now in senior command positions and it is a tight, mostly, brotherhood.
They also can engage in political activities active duty cannot. Their careers are over, so they don’t need to feel reprisals.
They tend to be organized, disciplined, keen thinkers who are not afraid of battle. They often end up leaders in their communities.
You better believe they’re dangerous,
Fortunately, they’re hard working, too, and while many are counting on their military pensions (particularly those with service-related injuries), they’re used to sacrifice and discomfort.
But it infuriates them when their families suffer.
LikeLike
This is looking more and more like Czechoslovakia 1939: http://www.worldmag.com/2014/03/crimeans_vote_to_join_russia/page1
I note the two options were independence or join Russia – no option for staying with Ukraine. I also note that the Taters abstained – I wonder how many others abstained for fear of reprisals – 97% of those who voted is not the same as 97% of all those who could vote. Really, the independence or join Russia alternative basically forced people to vote to join Russia, as the Crimea is an area dependent on outside support.
LikeLike
I normally don’t buy American cars, particularly cars made by union workers. However, I am going to take a close look at the new 2015 Mustang.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/17/ford-st-patricks_n_4979552.html
LikeLike
Comparisons to 1938 are hyperbolic. Putin is not Hitler; he’s more rational and a better chess player.
A little St. Patrick’s Day reading on Paul Ryan ironically inverting and betraying his Irish roots;
Interesting science news — more proof for the inflation theory
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26605974
LikeLike
roscuro: Perhaps the more apropos description of the Crimeans’ choice should be:
□ Crimea should be annexed by Russia
□ Crimea should be invaded and taken by Russia
LikeLike