Month: April 2014
News/Politics 4-23-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
1. I can’t help but wonder if it’s intentional.
From TheNYPost “A computer meltdown is crippling the nation’s immigration courts — creating an overwhelming backlog of deportation cases, The Post has learned.
The problem began April 12, when five servers that help power a nationwide computer network failed and shut down the entire system, an insider at the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement revealed.
Without access to the electronic records, court proceedings have slowed to a crawl and officials are resorting to old-fashioned methods — including paper, pens and cassette recorders — to keep track of cases.”
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2. Of course she did.
From TheDailyCaller “When the embattled Kathleen Sebelius announced her intention to resign as secretary of Health and Human Services, she pledged to stay in President Barack Obama’s cabinet until her replacement was confirmed by the Senate.
Turns out, there may be a financial incentive for the former Kansas governor to take her time getting out of Washington.
Next week, Sebelius becomes eligible to receive a government pension and continue certain taxpayer-funded health-care benefits when she hits her five-year employment mark with the federal government, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) policy indicates.
Under OPM rules, Sebelius, who was sworn into office on April 28, 2009, would be eligible to receive these benefits after completing five years of continuous service in the federal government.”
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3. This is why even Democrats won’t vote for this joke of a budget.
From CNSNews “In the budget proposal he presented to Congress last month, President Barack Obama called for what would be the highest level of sustained taxation ever imposed on the American people, according to the analysis published last week by the Congressional Budget Office.
Under Obama’s proposal, taxes would rise from 17.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 2014 to 19.2 percent in 2024. During the ten years from 2015 to 2024, federal taxation would average 18.7 percent GDP.
America has never been subjected to a ten-year stretch of taxation at that level.”
Just put it on the taxpayers’ tab, right Barry?
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4. Meanwhile these same people can audit you and threaten your tax exemptions, just for who you support politically.
From TheAP “The Internal Revenue Service has paid more than $2.8 million in bonuses to employees with recent disciplinary problems, including $1 million to workers who owed back taxes, a government investigator said Tuesday.
More than 2,800 workers got bonuses despite facing a disciplinary action in the previous year, including 1,150 who owed back taxes, said a report by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. The bonuses were awarded from October 2010 through December 2012.
George’s report said the bonus program doesn’t violate federal regulations, but it’s inconsistent with the IRS mission to enforce tax laws.
“These awards are designed to recognize and reward IRS employees for a job well done, and that is appropriate, because the IRS should encourage good performance,” George said. “However, while not prohibited, providing awards to employees who have been disciplined for failing to pay federal taxes appears to create a conflict with the IRS’s charge of ensuring the integrity of the system of tax administration.”
Gee, ya think? 🙄
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5. The Supreme Court dealt a blow to Affirmative Action fans yesterday. Justice Sotomayor, being a liberal and an AA beneficiary, used it as an opportunity to play the race card. How original. 🙄
Thankfully, Scalia called her on it.
From TheWashingtonExaminer “Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia faulted Justice Sonia Sotomayor for making what he regards as a “shameful” suggestion that the Michigan voters who decided to ban affirmative action in college admissions were motivated by racism.
Scalia wrote a concurring opinion upholding a 2006 ballot initiative that amended Michigan’s constitution to ban affirmative action.
“As Justice Harlan observed over a century ago, ‘[o]ur Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens,'” Scalia concluded, quoting the dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson. “The people of Michigan wish the same for their governing charter. It would be shameful for us to stand in their way.”
“And then, the Parthian shot: “And doubly shameful to equate ‘the majority’ behind [the constitutional amendment] with ‘the majority’ responsible for Jim Crow,” he added in a final footnote, citing the first two pages of Sotomayor’s dissent.”
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Our Daily Thread 4-22-14
Good Morning!
Today’s header photo is from Janice.
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On this day in 1861 Robert E. Lee was named commander of Virginia forces.
In 1864 the U.S. Congress passed legislation that allowed the inscription “In God We Trust” to be included on one-cent and two-cent coins.
In 1914 Babe Ruth made his pitching debut with the Baltimore Orioles.
In 1915 the New York Yankees wore pinstripes and the hat-in-the-ring logo for the first time.
And in 1970 the first “Earth Day” was observed by millions of Americans. Tree-hugging Hippies. Fixed it for ya’. 🙂
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Quotes of the Day, but only because actions in our current political climate bear a striking resemblance to what he had in mind. Many today employ his methods. I believe it helps to know what your adversaries think, and what motivates them.
“The press should be not only a collective propagandist and collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses.”
“Give me four years to teach the children and the seeds I have sown will never be uprooted.”
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”
Vladimir Lenin
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It’s Glen Campbell’s birthday.
And it’s Danny Stephens’ birthday.
From ArdentMusic
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 4-22-14
Anyone have a request or praise they’d like to share?
Psalm 82
¹God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
2 How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
6 I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
News/Politics 4-22-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
1. This will be interesting to watch.
From TheDailyCaller “Congressman Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, could be facing an ethics investigation if Cleta Mitchell has her way.
Mitchell — a partner at Foley & Lardner and the legal counsel for True the Vote in its case against the IRS for its targeting of conservative groups — is pursuing Cummings over his conduct in the wider investigation.
“[Cummings] announced within 30 days after the IRS scandal that “Whoops, all this investigation is over, and we don’t need to be doing anything more on that,’ and he has done everything he can do to thwart and obstruct this investigation,” Mitchell said. “And has just been adamant that the investigation needs to end, that this is just a witch hunt, that there’s nothing there, that nobody did anything wrong.”
Mitchell believes that Cummings’s actions, including what he described as ”his investigation of True the Vote” is outside of his jurisdiction and that it is a gross abuse of power to investigate private citizens.”
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2. The culture of corruption in the Obama admin continues.
From HotAir “When Congress refused to appropriate more funds for ObamaCare enrollment after already committing a deluge of cash to that effort, now-outgoing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius began working the phones to perform an end run around Capitol Hill. Sebelius began calling corporate CEOs to push them into donating millions of dollars to Enroll America, an outside group started by Anne Filipic, a former White House staffer. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigated, and discovered that Filipic wasn’t the only White House staffer involved in the fundraising campaign:
The White House allegedly was involved in seeking financial support for a pro-ObamaCare group, according to a new report issued in response to Republican concerns about the administration’s fundraising efforts.
Until now, outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was the only official known to have solicited financial support for Enroll America, a nonprofit that promoted enrollment for the Affordable Care Act. But a Government Accountability Office report released Monday detailed not only the secretary’s involvement but that of a White House adviser.”
“It’s worth noting at this point that HHS regulates these markets in significant ways, especially after the passage of ObamaCare. This wasn’t just a case of working the phones for a charity. This was the Cabinet official with the most impact on these businesses extolling the efforts of a supposedly independent group launched by a close adviser to the President. It doesn’t take much ink to connect those dots, which is why insurers began complaining loudly enough about the pressure for Congress and the media to take notice.”
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3. Once again the result of feel-good policies are unintended consequences worse than what they supposedly fixed.
From TheAP ” Biofuels made from the leftovers of harvested corn plants are worse than gasoline for global warming in the short term, a study shows, challenging the Obama administration’s conclusions that they are a much cleaner oil alternative and will help combat climate change.
A $500,000 study paid for by the federal government and released Sunday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change concludes that biofuels made with corn residue release 7 percent more greenhouse gases in the early years compared with conventional gasoline.
While biofuels are better in the long run, the study says they won’t meet a standard set in a 2007 energy law to qualify as renewable fuel.”
Of course the govt funds this stuff so it disagrees with the findings, as does the companies taking that money. Not shocking.
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4. Missing the obvious, and I suspect mostly for political reasons. After all, they’d have to admit to 50+ years of failure and the fact that their entire platform of policies has resulted in a disaster for America. They have to ignore it, because they made it that way.
From TheWallStJournal “Suppose a scientific conference on cancer prevention never addressed smoking, on the grounds that in a free society you can’t change private behavior, and anyway, maybe the statistical relationships between smoking and cancer are really caused by some other third variable. Wouldn’t some suspect that the scientists who raised these claims were driven by something—ideology, tobacco money—other than science?
Yet in the current discussions about increased inequality, few researchers, fewer reporters, and no one in the executive branch of government directly addresses what seems to be the strongest statistical correlate of inequality in the United States: the rise of single-parent families during the past half century.
The two-parent family has declined rapidly in recent decades. In 1960, more than 76% of African-Americans and nearly 97% of whites were born to married couples. Today the percentage is 30% for blacks and 70% for whites. The out-of-wedlock birthrate for Hispanics surpassed 50% in 2006. This trend, coupled with high divorce rates, means that roughly 25% of American children now live in single-parent homes, twice the percentage in Europe (12%). Roughly a third of American children live apart from their fathers.”
“More than 20% of children in single-parent families live in poverty long-term, compared with 2% of those raised in two-parent families, according to education-policy analyst Mitch Pearlstein’s 2011 book “From Family Collapse to America’s Decline.” The poverty rate would be 25% lower if today’s family structure resembled that of 1970, according to the 2009 report “Creating an Opportunity Society” from Brookings Institution analysts Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill. A 2006 article in the journal Demography by Penn State sociologist Molly Martin estimates that 41% of the economic inequality created between 1976-2000 was the result of changed family structure.”
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5. I see they’ve responded to the criticism they received for getting caught off guard.
From HotAir “Last week, CNN reported that an al-Qaeda conference took place in Yemen, headed by the number-two man in the global structure, and that the US appeared to have missed it. If so, we may be making up for lost time. A series of drone attacks in Yemen has killed dozens of terrorists from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the most dangerous of the constituent networks in the AQ umbrella:
An operation targeting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is under way in Abyan and Shabwa, Yemen, a high-level Yemeni government official who is being briefed on the strikes told CNN on Monday.
The official said that the scale of the strikes against AQAP is “massive and unprecedented” and that at least 30 militants have been killed. The operation involved Yemeni commandos who are now “going after high-level AQAP targets,” the official said.”
“CNN’s Mohammed Jamjoom reports that the Yemenis are a little skeptical of these operations, and that the embarrassment of missing the convention last week may be driving the claims now:”
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6. The worst is yet to come. This is what has been behind all the illegal delays by the White House. This is what they’re seeking to avoid before the mid-terms. And this is coming from a Democrat.
From NationalReview ““There are parts of Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, that were postponed because they are unpalatable,” he told the Boston Herald. The “Cadillac tax” that goes into effect in a few years and taxes employer health plans over a certain value, he said, will be “the first time in this country’s history that we have actually taxed health care.”
““We will lose seats in the House,” he said. “I am fairly certain of that based on the poll numbers that are coming out from the more experienced pollsters down there, and I think we may lose the Senate.””
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Our Daily Thread 4-21-14
Good Morning!
Today’s header photo is from Cheryl.
On this day in 1649 the Maryland Toleration Act was passed, allowing all freedom of worship.
In 1789 John Adams was sworn in as the first U.S. Vice President.
In 1836 General Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. This battle decided the independence of Texas.
In 1918 German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen, “The Red Baron,” was shot down and killed during World War I.
And in 1959 the largest fish ever hooked by a rod and reel was caught by Alf Dean. It was a 16-foot, 10-inch white shark that weighed 2,664 pounds.
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Quote of the Day
“Children are not casual guests in our home. They have been loaned to us temporarily for the purpose of loving them and instilling a foundation of values on which their future lives will be built.”
James Dobson
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Today is Randall Thompson’s birthday.
Today is also Clara Ward’s birthday.
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 4-21-14
Anyone have a praise or request they’d like to share?
Psalm 81
¹Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.
6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
7 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me;
9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.
10 I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever.
16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
News/Politics 4-21-14
What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Today’s Boston Marathon, and the anniversary of last years terrorist attack, have turned the focus again to the bombers. Some in the press, including the NY Times, have gone overboard with stories that look like the terrorist’s fan club wrote them.
From TheBostonHerald “Yesterday it was the turn of The New York Times, under the headline, “Marathon Bombing Suspect Waits in Isolation.”
“This one was perfectly timed — on the first anniversary of the Joker placing one of his kettle bombs in front of little Martin Richard, who had moments to live after the Times’ victim du jour decided he wanted to murder an 8-year-old infidel.
Does every trust-funded, pony-tailed male Marxist writer in this country have a crush on the “tousle-haired” youth? Rolling Stone, the Globe, now the Times — they start writing about this guy and suddenly they sound like heartsick teenage girls.
This isn’t journalism, it’s mash notes. If these Tiger Beat-like stories were Top 40 songs, they’d have to bring back Leslie Gore to sing them.”
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2. Does Obama foreign policy embolden enemies like Al-Qaeda?
From FoxNews “All Americans should be aware of some very disturbing events that speak to the state of terrorism, the strength of al Qaeda and our nation’s security. In light of the danger unfolding around us, we also need to question whether or not President Obama’s administration is serious about confronting what is clearly a gathering storm, or whether, in fact, his policies are encouraging those who wish to harm us.
One of the more shocking events illustrating the growing strength of al Qaeda is the release of a video this week showing what CNN reports as “the largest and most dangerous gathering of al Qaeda in years.” It’s what experts think is a recent gathering of the terrorist group’s leadership and more than 100 fighters in Yemen.
It now appears al Qaeda was “on the run” in the same way you were able to keep your doctor and hospital.
Whether we didn’t know about the gathering, or did and chose to do nothing, it’s another signal to the beasts around the world that no one is home in Washington, D.C.”
The story then goes on to mention how some 9-11 families feel they’re sabotaging trials at Gitmo, and that the FBI is interfering.
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3. You can read more on that here.
From MSNNews “Frustration simmered into suspicion Wednesday as relatives of Sept. 11 victims attending stalled hearings here accused a jealous Justice Department of conducting an FBI probe of 9/11 defense lawyers to derail the long-awaited war crimes tribunal.
“These things just don’t happen. It’s not some rogue FBI agent. This had to be approved from the highest level of the FBI to do this,” said Don Arias of Panama City, Fla., a former Air Force officer and New York City firefighter whose brother Adam was killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Some could even say that this was done purposely to derail these hearings and to force it back into federal court,” he told reporters. His sister Lorraine added: “It looks like a well-orchestrated snafu. We’re going to stall now for them to all be investigated. A reappointment process could drag it out another year or more.”
The 10th round of hearings stalled this week on the revelation that two FBI agents questioned a security officer on one 9/11 defense team, then had him sign a nondisclosure agreement, an incursion into attorney-client confidentiality that defense lawyers called “chilling.”
The Obama admin has always wanted show trials in federal court.
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4. Did the Obama admin put off the Keystone Pipeline decision in exchange for 100 million to help finance their 2014 campaigns?
Yes. And yet they still whine endlessly about the Koch Bros.
From TheIJReview “While the media is obsessed with the Koch brothers this campaign season, a billionaire hedge fund manager from San Francisco just bought off the White House to the tune of $100 million in order to delay the Keystone XL pipeline decision.”
“What you won’t hear about in mainstream media is how Billionaire Tom Steyer drove the decision by promising to spend $100 million to help Democrats in the midterm election who help defeat the project:”
The hypocrisy is stunning, but just what we’ve come to expect from Dems.
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5. China appears poised to become the world’s most Christian nation.
From TheTelegraph “Officially, the People’s Republic of China is an atheist country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.
Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao’s death in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world’s number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation.
“By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon,” said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.”
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Common Core required readings that would make a longshoreman blush
Read more at http://libertyunyielding.com/2014/04/17/common-core-required-readings-make-longshoreman-blush/#JrLSyOTaARjJXS7E.99
Read more at http://libertyunyielding.com/2014/04/17/common-core-required-readings-make-longshoreman-blush/#JrLSyOTaARjJXS7E.99
Common Core required readings that would make a longshoreman blush
Read more at http://libertyunyielding.com/2014/04/17/common-core-required-readings-make-longshoreman-blush/#JrLSyOTaARjJXS7E.99
Read more at http://libertyunyielding.com/2014/04/17/common-core-required-readings-make-longshoreman-blush/#JrLSyOTaARjJXS7E.99
Happy Easter! 4-20-14
Good Morning!
He is Risen!
I hope everyone has a Happy Easter! 🙂
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Matthew 28
¹ In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
2 And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
3 His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
4 And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
5 And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
7 And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
8 And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.
9 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.
10 Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.
11 Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.
12 And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers,
13 Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.
14 And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.
15 So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
17 And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
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From RoyalChoralSoc
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Our Daily Thread 4-19-14
Good Morning!
On this day in 1764 the English Parliament banned the American colonies from printing paper money.
In 1861 President Lincoln ordered a blockade of Confederate ports.
In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation that removed the U.S. from the gold standard.
In 1960 baseball uniforms began displaying player’s names on their backs.
And in 1989 a gun turret exploded aboard the USS Iowa. 47 sailors were killed.
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Quote of the Day
“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf at springtime.”
Martin Luther
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Today’s a good day for some G. B. Shea.
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Wandering Views 