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News/Politics 3-19-14

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. The chances of this ending peacefully are getting slimmer.

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2. Mitt might not like to say he told you so, but yeah, he did. And he was mocked for it.

From HotAir  “Mitt Romney doesn’t, not explicitly anyway. However, the context of this op-ed from Barack Obama’s 2012 opponent could not be clearer. After Obama and Democrats ridiculed his worldview in that campaign, calling it a relic of the 1980s, Romney warns that what America and the West need now is leadership that anticipates events and sees the world realistically so as to seize opportunities when they arise:

Why, across the world, are America’s hands so tied?

A large part of the answer is our leader’s terrible timing. In virtually every foreign-affairs crisis we have faced these past five years, there was a point when America had good choices and good options. There was a juncture when America had the potential to influence events. But we failed to act at the propitious point; that moment having passed, we were left without acceptable options. In foreign affairs as in life, there is, as Shakespeare had it, “a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.”

“When protests in Ukraine grew and violence ensued, it was surely evident to people in the intelligence community—and to the White House—that President Putin might try to take advantage of the situation to capture Crimea, or more. That was the time to talk with our global allies about punishments and sanctions, to secure their solidarity, and to communicate these to the Russian president. These steps, plus assurances that we would not exclude Russia from its base in Sevastopol or threaten its influence in Kiev, might have dissuaded him from invasion. …”

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3. Here’s an update to the international control of the internet story. And once again as Mitt said, the Obama admin misses the obvious when it comes to Russia.

From National Journal  “The Commerce Department announced Friday that it will give the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an international nonprofit group, control over the database of names and addresses that allows computers around the world to connect to each other.

Administration officials say U.S. authority over the Internet address system was always intended to be temporary and that ultimate power should rest with the “global Internet community.”                                    

But some fear that the Obama administration is opening the door to an Internet takeover by Russia, China, or other countries that are eager to censor speech and limit the flow of ideas.”

“Castro argued that the world “could be faced with a splintered Internet that would stifle innovation, commerce, and the free flow and diversity of ideas that are bedrock tenets of world’s biggest economic engine.”

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4. Here’s yet another way Obama buys off the insurance industry to keep quiet about his illegal changes to the law.

From TheDailyCaller   “Republican Tennessee Rep. Diane Black says that the Obama administration’s most recent Obamacare rule change will result in insurance companies keeping more profits while paying less for customers’ health care needs.

“I am writing to express my concern with the proposed rule change released on Friday, March 14th that would allow insurance companies to keep an additional two percent of premiums for purposes other than medical care…your department is now proposing to increase the amount of money that insurance companies will be allowed to retain for profit,” Black wrote in a letter Tuesday to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, which was obtained by The Daily Caller.

HHS’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services quietly introduced the new rule Friday, which relieves insurance companies of some of the damage about to be levied on them by Obamacare-related administrative costs.”

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5. Lowering costs and reducing premiums? No. And it never will.

Also from TheDailyCaller  “Health insurance premiums have risen more after Obamacare than the average premium increases over the eight years before it became law, according to the private health exchange eHealthInsurance.

The individual market for health insurance has seen premiums rise by 39 percent since February 2013, eHealth reports. Without a subsidy, the average individual premium is now $274 a month. Families have been hit even harder with an average increase of 56 percent over the same period — average premiums are now $663 per family, over $426 last year.

Between 2005 and 2013, average premiums for individual plans increased 37 percent and average family premiums were upped 31 percent. So they have risen faster under Obamacare than in the previous eight years.”

It seems the president’s promises always come with an expiration date.

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6. Yesterday I linked a story about the Obama admin’s horrible record when it comes to transparency. Here’s how they do it. And yet another example of how this admin ignores and re-writes laws it doesn’t like.

Seeking FOIA documents? Everything gets edited by the White House first.

From TheWashingtonExaminer  “It’s Sunshine Week, so perhaps some enterprising White House reporter will ask press secretary Jay Carney why President Obama rewrote the Freedom of Information Act without telling the rest of America.

The rewrite came in an April 15, 2009, memo from then-White House Counsel Greg Craig instructing the executive branch to let White House officials review any documents sought by FOIA requestors that involved “White House equities.”

That phrase is nowhere to be found in the FOIA, yet the Obama White House effectively amended the law to create a new exception to justify keeping public documents locked away from the public.

“FOIA is designed to inform the public on government behavior; White House equities allow the government to withhold information from the media, and therefore the public, by having media requests forwarded for review. This not only politicizes federal agencies, it impairs fundamental First Amendment liberties,” Cause of Action explains in its report.”

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7. More intolerance from the tolerant left. So much for the free exchange of ideas concept huh?

From TheCollegeFix  “An upcoming conference organized by Stanford University’s Anscombe Society called “Communicating Values: Marriage, Family & the Media” has been dubbed “hate speech” by the college’s graduate-level student government, which refused to allow any of its student fee-funded budget to support the event.”

“They voiced a litany of complaints over why they believed the event should not be funded – as well as why it should not even take place on campus at all, comments met with strong support by most on the dais, who echoed similar sentiments.”

How can you reason with such unreasonable people?

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24 thoughts on “News/Politics 3-19-14”

  3. A president can do anything Congress and the Courts permit. Hitler wasn’t permitted to do most of what he did, either.
    I’m not kidding.
    The Gay, lesbian, Transgender bunch has convinced the younger generation that it is a civil rights issue. Equality, etc.
    It is a redefinition of marriage and of who a man or woman is.
    They will pay a price for it. Not just at the judgment, but here and soon.
    Possibly not in my lifetime, but surely in the life of most of you.

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  4. If I were the Ukrainian government, I would have every naval base in the Crimea on evacuation alert on a moment’s notice. I wouldn’t put it past the Russians to try to seize the Ukraine’s ships: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/crimean-forces-storm-ukrainian-navy-headquarters-1.2578168
    And: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26637296

    I don’t believe Putin’s assertion that he has no further interest in Ukraine. The world heard a similar statement from another leader, right before his army walked into Poland. Putin has shown himself willing to say one thing and then do another when it suits his agenda. Let us not forget that he learned his craft in the KGB.

    Ricky, Franklin Graham is a pale imitation of his father. Is it also a characteristic of your generation to think that life consists of good guys and bad guys? The real world is not so simple. I do not regard Putin as an archvillain or Obama as the white knight. In fact, as regards their respective leaderships, I would describe Obama as bumbling and naïve, while Putin is sophisticated and Machiavellian. As to their personalities, probably if I met them I would get along better with Putin, as Obama lacks a sense of humour. But this isn’t about Putin and Obama, nor even about Russia and the US. This is about an independent country being interfered with by a powerful neighbouring country. HRW has left out some details in his history, such as the Great Hunger of the early 1930s, a famine manufactured by Stalin against the Ukrainians and the forcible relocation both before and after WWII of Ukrainians in order to make room for Russians. The Kyiv protestors remembered the history of those ethnic cleansings and they feared that Russia had not changed. It looks as though they had reason to be fearful – already the Tatars are under threat.

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  6. Tych – Billy Graham – whatever else one might think of him – by his discreet conduct, became highly respected by international figures. Franklin, as son and heir of his father, is often consulted by the media as if he were his father. Unfortunately, his replies show a lack of his father’s discretion and often betray shallowness of thought, like saying Japan’s tsunami could be a signs of the end times and then saying in the same interview that not every storm is caused by God: http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/franklin-graham-japan-tsunami/2011/03/18/id/389996/ I don’t dispute Samaritan’s Purse has done some good (though the shoeboxes were a bad idea, but that is a whole different topic), but Franklin is not his father and I wish he would stop trying to be his father.

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  10. rickyweaver,

    Have you changed many minds by argumentation? How about calling people by names? Truth often hurts. When I have pain I often will pull back from the object that causes that pain.

    I agree with you about perversion but don’t think that calling someone a pervert will cause him to change his mind, do you?

    When you put a finger in the face of someone, the natural reaction for many people is to swat the finger away. And get mad. Please reconsider putting a finger in the face of many people. They will just get mad.

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  11. I don’t see how saying Japan’s tsunami COULD be a sign of the end times and then saying that not every storm is caused by God contradicts.

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  12. Ricky, never heard of Russell Moore before (at least not to remember), but he’s got the right idea. What has struck about the anti-homosexual laws in Russia is the timing. Putin has been in power since 2000 – I am counting the second premiership years, because Putin was essentially the force behind Medvedev – and the West has been debating gay rights and marriage since at least the 1990’s. Yet, only now does he pass a law which gains him the admiration of the powerful conservative wing of the West. If it was on purpose, it worked. Knowing how fomented the Western countries are over this issue – even in France, there were marches of millions against gay marriage – it was the perfect dust to throw in Western eyes, with the added dash of Olympics, before moving on Ukraine.

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  13. Kbells, it contradicts the Bible for one thing, which is quite clear on God’s complete control over creation. What is more, is how the non-Christians are going to perceive it – to them, the two different statements would sound double-minded at worst and unprepared at best. If one is going to set themselves up as a spokesman for Christianity to the world, one should be both prepared and focussed.

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  14. The Real – On the shoeboxes: I didn’t want to start a another big topic, but I’ll tell you something I saw. Early in my time in Africa, I had occasion to buy a drink of water in a hotel. The waiter, when he brought the drink, had with him a notebook and some pens – very average, cheap school supplies such as we might buy in a dollar store. He put them on the table as he served me and my companion; then said, by way of explanation, that another customer had given them to him for his children for school. As he talked, he turned them over as if they were treasured gifts. I realized with a sense of shock that they really were that valuable to him. He had probably brought them with him in order to prevent anyone else from stealing them. I thought immediately of all those school supplies that we and others had sent in those gift boxes and realized that we had no idea what such a casual gift to us might mean on the other side of the world. From that story, it sounds as if the boxes were a good idea. Except consider a few points:

    1. Envy – Not every child in a region would receive a gift box. Now, for items that valuable, to give to one but not to another, creates a lot of envy. We always had to carefully evaluate our giving to make sure we could not be accused of favoritism. The waiter would not be envied, because he had served the customer who gave the things to him, but if another waiter also served those customers and did not receive a gift, there would be envy. I have talked to missionaries who have seen places split apart because some had received aid and others hadn’t.

    2. Dependency – This is a big one. Every gift you give in an impoverished country, you must consider if you are creating a precedent. Will that person now look to you to supply X, Y, Z? That is why charity drops are so unhealthy. You create a sense of entitlement – they did it before for us, so they will do it again. Now, it is certain that we do need to go and minister to those in need – but it is the gift of time, of investing of one’s whole self in a place which will really make a difference. The hit and run practice in charity, unless it is in a disaster zone, does more harm than good.

    3. Misdirection – I mentioned that those simple supplies were valuable. Valuable enough to steal, valuable enough to sell. Now, of course, people have a right to do what they want with gifts given to them; but there are whole markets in developing countries based on charitable donations. Once again, personal knowledge of the situation is invaluable. When children in the village asked me for school supplies, I made sure I knew the situation before I gave anything, because not every child went to school.

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  15. BobBuckles, In Texas we sometimes call people and things what the Bible calls them. Romans 1:27 ISV:

    27 In the same way, their males also abandoned the natural sexual function of females and burned with lust for one another. Males committed indecent acts with males, and received in themselves the appropriate penalty for their perversion.

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  16. Roscuro, I have followed the progress of the various Russian laws for some time. They were not passed to make friends in the West. There are very few Westerners who agree with Franklin Graham and me on this issue. Even Fox News is increasingly pro-homosexual. Just watch Megyn Kelly, Bill O’Reilly or Shepherd Smith.

    Conservative Russians are genuinely concerned about their children. That is why their law doesn’t criminalize homosexuality, but does prohibit the promotion of perversion to minors. This is also why they have taken steps to prevent their children from being adopted by homosexuals. The Russian people overwhelmingly support these laws. Like some of us in the West, I believe the Russians were genuinely shocked at how quickly the homosexuals came to dominate the West.

    BobBuckles, I realize my language may offend some, but I am more concerned about the young people who may be lured into homosexuality than those already practicing homosexuality. This is why I use hard Biblical language rather than the euphemisms preferred by the homosexuals.

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  18. To criticize Obama for not focusing on Russia is to ignore the mess left him by the previous administration. By declaring war on terrorism (and not a specific enemy), Bush expressed sympathy for Putin’s Caucasus campaigns against Chechens and other groups. And then he compounded the lack of focus with a war in Iraq. By the time Obama became president, US forces were overextended and suffering from fatigue.

    The Crimea has been pushing for reunification since the break up of the USSR, maybe Obama didn’t focus there but neither did Bush. The Ukraine has placated the Russians with access treaties and military bases but with the advance of pro-Western and nationalist parties in Ukraine, Putin may have felt the need to move in. Western support of the coup may have also made Putin nervous. In addition, the Ukraine has encouraged Tartars to moved back to the Crimea from Tartarstan an autonomous region in central Russia. From a Russian perspective, it was time to move it before demographics and governance changed.

    Analogies to Hitler are a knee jerk rejection whenever a group wishes to limit compromises to what they see it as a tyrannical regime. Analogies only work if the context is similar enough …. however, its not. If one wants to reach for an analogy, Stalin is a better bet. Stalin knew how to manipulate Russia nationalism in order to protect and expand. And here Putin’s “family values” comes into play. By bringing the Orthodox Church onside, Putin increased his domestic support.

    Roscuro is right — the Holodomor or the purposeful starving of land owning peasants in the western Ukraine makes it difficult for the Ukrainians to have any trust in Russian assurances especially one led by a man resembling Stalin. However, history works both ways. The western Ukrainians celebrate Stepan Bandera as a national hero meanwhile the pro-Russian eastern Ukrainian see him as a Nazi collaborator. In 2010 he was proclaimed as a Hero of the Ukrainian people but when the gov’t changed to one based in eastern Ukraine, they promptly stripped the award.

    In Poland, he is remembered as a terrorist who fought for Ukrainian independence in the Lvov area (then controlled by Poland) After the Germans invaded, he allied himself with the Germans and in 1941 he worked with the Germans in the western Ukraine. In 1944 he volunteered to go back to the Ukraine and fight the Russians in the rear. He is remembered by many Poles for his ethnic cleansing of the Lvov district during the German occupation killing up to 70,000 Polish women and children. After the war, the Poles fought Bandera’s forces until 1947 and the Soviets fought Bandera until 1949 suffering casualties comparable to Afghanistan. Many of the nationalists groups in Ukraine view Bandera as a hero alarming the eastern Ukraine, Putin and even some Poles. Placed in this context, Hitler is the wrong analogy instead one needs to long at the myriad of confusing conflicts which existed during WWII in the western Ukraine. For many Russians, this is the resurgence of a fascist nationalistic enemy. If one has time I recommend Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder;

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  19. The dependency argument against charitable giving is rather bothersome and marginal. During the potato famine, the English refused to feed the Irish as it would promote dependency — instead they let millions starve or to be shipped out in coffin ships. Of course it makes sense to teach a man to fish rather than give him fish but a well fed pupil is a better learner than a starving man. Look at the charity boxes as similar to Christmas presents — you’re not creating dependency when you give out Christmas presents neither does this happen when you send shoe boxes overseas with necessary goods.

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  20. HRW – You notice I did make the exception for disaster relief. The Irish potato famine was a disaster. Dependency is a very real problem, and having seen it first hand I cannot say that it is a marginal problem, though I agree that having to deal with it can be very bothersome.

    I’m not the only one who draws comparisons to Hitler. Ukraine’s prime minister did today. It isn’t a knee jerk reaction to see analogies when they are clear, and the parallels between the rhetoric surrounding the Sudetenland and the Crimea are clear. Just because the Nazis analogy is overused doesn’t mean it isn’t ever applicable. Also, the allegations that fascists are working within the present Ukrainian government is an exaggeration at best, propagating Russian propaganda at worst. True, there was a fascist faction which was involved in the protests, but they were by no means the leading force and the other players can hardly be blamed for their involvement. As for the arguments over the hero vs. villain status of a dead man, that is a red herring. I note that Poland is supporting the Ukraine, in spite of what happened between them in WWII..

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  21. Yes the analogies to Hitler are everywhere but they are used only to inflame public opinion.

    The fascist allegations are in fact true — the fascist are in the new cabinet. Just today they physically forced the head of Ukrainian TV to resign. Here’s a short article from Foreign Policy magazine
    http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/03/18/yes_there_are_bad_guys_in_the_ukrainian_government

    Svoboda holds a larger chunk of its nation’s ministries (nearly a quarter, including the prized defense portfolio) than any other far-right party on the continent. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister represents Svoboda (the smaller, even more extreme “Right Sector” coalition fills the deputy National Security Council chair), as does the prosecutor general and the deputy chair of parliament — where the party is the fourth-largest. And Svoboda’s fresh faces are scarcely different from the old: one of its freshmen members of parliament is the founder of the “Joseph Goebbels Political Research Centre” and has hailed the Holocaust as a “bright period” in human history.

    The West is naive to ignore the real fascist in this dispute — its Svoboda (formerly called the Social-National Party … think about it) not Putin. Putin is a modernist version of Stalin and despite Stalin’s misdeeds he understood realpolitik — for example he withdrew from Vienna and Austria in the early 50s and honored the agreement with the West. I’m more confident the west can negotiate with Putin than the west can control the neo-Nazis that we have somehow chosen to support.

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  22. History matters especially in eastern Europe. The Polish gov’t does support the Ukrainians because they don’t trust Putin. On the other hand, my Polish friends, whose family originally came from Lvov, don’t trust western Ukrainians especially those that support Bandera. This dead hero/villain matters because as a symbol we can trace the Ukrainian far right.

    http://www.academia.edu/2481420/_The_Return_of_the_Ukrainian_Far_Right_The_Case_of_VO_Svoboda_in_Ruth_Wodak_and_John_E._Richardson_eds._Analyzing_Fascist_Discourse_European_Fascism_in_Talk_and_Text_London_and_New_York_Routledge_2013_228-255

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  23. ricyweaver said,

    “BobBuckles, I realize my language may offend some, but I am more concerned about the young people who may be lured into homosexuality than those already practicing homosexuality. This is why I use hard Biblical language rather than the euphemisms preferred by the homosexuals.”

    “Matthew 10:16
    Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”

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  24. Young people are and have been taught that there is nothing wrong with being LGBT and if anyone even slightly disapproves, they are prejudiced and haters. I am afraid the way you talk is like flipping a switch, the reason flicks off and nothing you say will be heard. You have been found a Hater! You will have lost any ability to be heard.

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