What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Looks like border security has been replaced by border processing.
From CNSNews ““We saw border processing, not border security,” Bachmann said in a news release describing her trip to Brownsville, McAllen and Laredo.
“While the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agency performs admirably on a daily basis, their purpose has become people processing — not stopping foreign nationals from unauthorized entry into the U.S.
“Currently, not one person who attempts to come into the country is stopped; instead, they are taken to a processing center before a decision is made if they will be allowed to stay,” she added.”
“As of June — nine months into fiscal 2014 — 57,525 “unaccompanied minors” and “family units” have been taken into custody, according to the U.S. Border Patrol. Some 57,234 of those are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.”
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2. Republicans remain mostly clueless, as usual.
From NationalReview “Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) denounced the House Republican border bill as a “surrender to a lawless president” because the legislation does not include any language to prevent President Obama from expanding his unilateral legalization of illegal immigrants.”
“The Obama Administration has openly declared its plan to implement a unilateral executive amnesty for 5–6 million more illegal immigrants. This unlawful amnesty—urged on by congressional Democrats—would include work permits, taking jobs directly from millions of struggling American citizens.
Any action Congress might consider to address the current border crisis would be futile should the President go forward with these lawless actions. Congress must speak out and fight against them. It must use its spending power to stop the President’s executive amnesty.
That the House leaders’ border package includes no language on executive actions is surrender to a lawless President. And it is a submission to the subordination of congressional power.”
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3. The IRS scandal’s other victims.
From AmericanThinker “Israel organization founded and run by AT contributor Lori Lowenthal Marcus, based on Z-Street’s pro-Israel positions that conflicted with Obama administration policy. This is known as “viewpoint discrimination,” and is strictly illegal.”
“…emails uncovered by the House Ways and Means Committee show that the IRS and State Department were conferring in 2009 about pro-Israel groups like Z Street and considering arguments to deny their tax-exempt applications.
In an April 16, 2009 email, Treasury attache to the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem Katherine Bauer sent IRS and Treasury colleagues a 1997 JTA News article sent to her by State Department foreign service officer Breeann McCusker. The subject was whether 501(c) groups buying land in Israel’s disputed territories were engaged in “possible violations of U.S. tax laws.” The article chronicles the controversy and whether “ideological activity” can “legally be financed with the help of U.S. [tax] dollars.”
“Another thing that the emails demonstrate is that bureaucratic bungling within the IRS can’t be a believable excuse. This is now a scandal that involves a conspiracy between different departments of the federal government, strongly implying a coordinating effort senior to the Departments of State and Treasury. Which would be…the White House.
This is so incriminating that a full court press is being invoked to delay further discovery. The lawsuit filed by Z-Street in 2010 is the furthest along of any judicial inquiries into the IRS scandals. And the IRS is doing everything possible to slow it down:”
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4. The last surviving crew member of the Enola Gay has died.
From StarsAndStripes “The last surviving member of the crew that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, hastening the end of World War II and forcing the world into the atomic age, has died in the southern state of Georgia.
Theodore VanKirk, also known as “Dutch,” died Monday of natural causes at the retirement home where he lived in Stone Mountain, Georgia, his son Tom VanKirk said. He was 93.
VanKirk flew nearly 60 bombing missions, but it was a single mission in the Pacific that secured him a place in history. He was 24 years old when he served as navigator on the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the first atomic bomb deployed in wartime over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.
He was teamed with pilot Paul Tibbets and bombardier Tom Ferebee in Tibbets’ fledgling 509th Composite Bomb Group for Special Mission No. 13.”
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5. Of course they did. Then they can claim that those evil Israelis attacked a hospital. And an all too willing media will play along with the gag, as they’re already doing.
From HotAir “Just a friendly (read: revolting) reminder about the nature of Israel’s enemy. We’ve touched on this fact in passing in a number of previous posts, but it deserves to be highlighted, front and center. Tablet tells the truth and calls out the media:
The idea that one of Hamas’ main command bunkers is located beneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is one of the worst-kept secrets of the Gaza war. So why aren’t reporters in Gaza ferreting it out? The precise location of a large underground bunker equipped with sophisticated communications equipment and housing some part of the leadership of a major terrorist organization beneath a major hospital would seem to qualify as a world-class scoop—the kind that might merit a Pulitzer, or at least a Polk. So why isn’t the fact that Hamas uses Shifa Hospital as a command post making headlines? In part, it’s because the location is so un-secret that Hamas regularly meets with reporters there. On July 15, for example, William Booth of the Washington Post wrote that the hospital “has become a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders, who can be seen in the hallways and offices.” Back in 2006, PBS even aired a documentary showing how gunmen roam the halls of the hospital, intimidate the staff, and deny them access to protected locations within the building—where the camera crew was obviously prohibited from filming. Yet the confirmation that Hamas is using Gaza City’s biggest hospital as its de facto headquarters was made in the last sentence of the eighth paragraph of Booth’s story—which would appear to be the kind of rookie mistake that is known in journalistic parlance as “burying the lede.” But Booth is no rookie—he’s an experienced foreign reporter, which means that he buried the lede on purpose.”
“Click through for fascinating details, including the fact that Israel actually built the subterranean bunker under Shifa Hospital that’s currently being used to protect top Hamas militants. They did so back when they occupied Gaza, prior to 2005 (when Israel unilaterally and forcibly withdrew from the strip as a good faith gesture for peace; they’ve since been rewarded with roughly 11,000 rockets fired at their civilians). The piece also describes the very tight media controls Hamas imposes on reporters who are granted access to the hospital. Its conclusion:
What Hamas has done, therefore, is to turn Shifa Hospital into a Hollywood sound-stage filled with real, live war victims who are used to score propaganda points, while the terrorists inside the hospital itself are erased from photographs and news accounts through a combination of pressure and threats, in order to produce the stories that Hamas wants. So if reporters aren’t entirely to blame for participating in this sick charade, then who is?”
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Wandering Views 
I was in on a Q & A teleconference call for an hour last night with Dr. Ben Carson. I hope he decides to run. He has great wisdom and would do good to restore respect for our nation in our nation and around the world.
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I like him, too, but I did hear him on an interview recently (may have been CNN on the car radio) and he let himself get unintentionally boxed into corners quite easily, he needs to get a little better at fielding hard political questions and at choosing his words more carefully/thoughtfully.
Talking off the cuff is refreshing, but it takes much wisdom to know how to handle questions that could inadvertently lead down a path that makes it sound like you’re saying something that is not meant.
If that makes sense …
(Why I can’t ever run for office.)
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Donna J
That means he is not a politician.
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I heard him say the reason he retired was because he looked around and there were few heart surgeons (is it heart?) who lived past 62–the pressure got to be too much.
So, given that, why run for president?
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Very scary stuff over on Powerline about the coalition of Billionaire Boys Clubs.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/07/breaking-the-leftist-billionaire-boys-club.php
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Thanks for posting, Bob Buckles. I bet no IRS official ever referred to the tree-huggers as “wackos”.
Thanks for everyone’s thoughts on Dr. Carson. I wish him well along with Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Rick Perry and the other conservatives. I really don’t give any of them much of a chance to beat Hillary, but I hope I’m pleasantly surprised.
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Pat Buchanan wrote an interesting article on the foreign policy views of Republican Senators. It’s hard to picture Buchanan arm in arm with Rand Paul, but he clearly is with Paul in the Perry/Paul debate, as am I.
http://townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/2014/07/29/a-gop-ultimatum-to-vlad-n1870981
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Bob, he may not be a politician but one still needs to be as wise as a serpent when venturing into the public square. There are all sorts of traps laid that you’ll step right into if you’re not careful.
From what I recall of the interview, he seemed to phrase things a little over the top, leading to some tough questions (Is that what you really mean — actually it was clear he didn’t, but he did use the language) from the interviewer.
He meant well (and I knew what he was trying to say). But talking off the top of one’s head can get one in trouble. I wish I could remember the details. But some of his phrases made me cringe and I knew the interviewer would (and should) pounce.
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Speaking of Democrat weirdos trying to buy power and influence:
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