Month: January 2015
Rants! and Raves! 1-24-15
It’s Saturday, so you know what that means….
Rants! 😦
and
Raves! 🙂
News/Politics 1-24-15
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread Weekend
Our Daily Thread 1-23-15
Good Morning!
It’s Friday!!!
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On this day in 1789 Georgetown College was established as the first Catholic college in the U.S.
In 1920 the Dutch government refused the demands from the Allies to hand over the ex-kaiser of Germany.
In 1937 seventeen people went on trial in Moscow during Josef Stalin’s “Great Purge.”
And in 1950 the Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
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Quote of the Day
“There, I guess King George will be able to read that without his spectacles!”
John Hancock
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Today is Mike Hogan’s birthday, so that means Dave Crowder Band. From emimusic
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And I know I played this a month or so ago, but I like it, and it’s a live version. From Opry
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 1-23-15
It’s Friday, so please remember to pray for Mumsee, Mike, and the Nestlings.
Anyone else?
Psalm 39
¹I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.
3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,
4 Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.
5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.
12 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
News/Politics 1-23-15
What’s interesting in the news today?
1. You’d think a “constitutional scholar” would know better.
From NationalReview “Obama Administration: We Don’t Need Congress to Approve an Iran Treaty”
Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the White House doesn’t view an agreement with Iran as a treaty that requires Senate approval, but a matter of “executive prerogative.”
Article II, Section 2, clause 2, U.S. Constitution:
[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur . . . “
“Not only do we have a president who just ignores the Constitution, we have an administration full of people who go along with it.”
The White House even went so far as to claim that Israel’s Mossad agreed with them. But in a rare public statement, Mossad says that’s not true.
From TheWeeklyStandard “A rare statement released from the Mossad, which is meant to deny reports that say the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, favors not imposing additional sanctions on Iran:
Reaction of the Mossad Chairman to the new crisis with Washington: On 19 January 2015, Mossad Chairman Tamir Pardo met with a delegation of American Senators. The meeting took place at the Senators’ request, and with the Prime Minister’s approval.
Contrary to the report, the Mossad Chairman did not say that he opposes additional sanctions against Iran. In the meeting, the Mossad Chairman emphasized the unusual effectiveness of the sanctions imposed on Iran a number of years ago in bringing Iran to the negotiating table.”
“The Mossad Chairman explicitly pointed out that the agreement that is being reached with Iran is bad, and may lead to a regional arms race.”
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2. If the president is talking up your company, I’d be nervous about it. It just might be the kiss of death.
From TheFreeBeacon “POLITICO reports that President Obama, during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, gave shout outs to a number of American companies in an effort to highlight the strength of the U.S. economy. Nearly all of those companies, it turns out, are big political spenders and have contributed heavily to Democrats.
One of those companies was eBay, which Obama cited as an example of how “millions of Americans [are working] in jobs that didn’t even exist 10 or 20 years ago.” That now seems like an unfortunate choice, because less than 24 hours after Obama’s speech, eBay announced it was cutting 2,400 jobs, or about 7 percent of its workforce. Investors welcomed the layoffs, and the company’s stock jumped more than 4 percent on the news.”
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3. But if your CEO is an Obama pal and bundler, and he’s feeding you govt. contracts, you should be fine. He loves rewarding failure.
From TheDailyCaller “Seven months after federal officials fired CGI Federal for its botched work on Obamacare website Healthcare.gov, the IRS awarded the same company a $4.5 million IT contract for its new Obamacare tax program.
CGI is a $10.5 billion Montreal-based company that has forever been etched into the public’s mind as the company behind the bungled Obamacare main website.
After facing a year of embarrassing failures, federal officials finally pulled the plug on the company and terminated CGI’s contract in January 2014.
Yet on Aug. 11, seven months later, IRS officials signed a new contract with CGI to provide “critical functions” and “management support” for its Obamacare tax program, according to the Federal Procurement Data System, a federal government procurement database.
The IRS contract is worth $4.46 million, according to the FPDS data. The contract expires Aug. 15, 2015.”
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4. Pass the popcorn, this is getting interesting….
From TheWashingtonTimes “When Sen. Dianne Feinstein took to the Senate floor last March, she told a harrowing tale of spying, intrigue and possible law-breaking — all by the CIA.
And the targets were her own Democratic staff, whom the then-Intelligence Committee chairwoman portrayed as innocent victims of a band of intrusive agency officers who penetrated the aides’ computer hard drives.
Sounding grave, the California Democrat said the CIA searches “may have undermined the constitutional framework” and violated federal criminal law. She said she had not gotten a requested CIA apology or an admission of wrongdoing.
This month former Sen. Evan Bayh issued his report on the same unprecedented cyberspy game between two branches of government. Mr. Bayh came to nearly completely opposite conclusions, creating a remarkable public disagreement between two former Democratic colleagues on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
He was chairman of a CIA accountability board review that portrays the Feinstein staffers as the ones who first penetrated and snatched restricted CIA files. The staffers copied some and, as a committee Republican report said, they spirited material out of the CIA off-site in Northern Virginia — without authorization.”
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5. An underage sex scandal would ruin most political careers. But not this slime ball. The voters who re-elected him are getting exactly what they deserve.
From TheToledoBlade “A Virginia lawmaker who was just re-elected despite being jailed for a sex scandal with a teenager has been indicted on new felony charges, according to a special prosecutor. The forgery and perjury indictment of Del. Joseph D. Morrissey was returned and sealed the day before the election, and announced today by Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney William Neely.
The lawmaker now stands accused of forging a document he vouched for in court, and persuading the girl’s mother to swear to its authenticity as well. That woman, Deidre Warren, also was indicted on perjury and forgery charges. Morrissey faces up to 10 years on each count if convicted, Neely said.
Morrissey says the charges are false and he will fight them in court. “This is a very harmful and mean-spirited blow, but I’ll do what I’ve always done. I’ll prevail,” Morrissey told reporters after arriving at the Capitol today for the legislative session.
Morrissey is spending nights in jail for contributing to the delinquency of a minor but is allowed out on work release during the day. He accepted the misdemeanor conviction to avoid trial on charges of child pornography, soliciting a minor and taking “indecent liberties” with a 17-year-old — felonies punishable by decades in prison and the automatic loss of his legislative position.
After his conviction, the four-term Democrat resigned under pressure from his colleagues and then angered them by running as an independent in the special election to hold onto the seat, defeating a Republican and a Democrat last week on the eve of the start of the General Assembly session.”
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Our Daily Thread 1-22-15
Good Morning!
On this day in 1771 the Falkland Islands were ceded to Britain by Spain.
In 1824 the Asante army crushed British troops in the Gold Coast.
In 1874 a patent was issued to Samuel W. Francis for the spork.
And in 1973 the Roe vs. Wade decision legalized abortion. 😦
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Quote of the Day
“The mare set off for home with the speed of a swallow, and going as smoothly and silently. I never had dreamed of such a motion, fluent and graceful, and ambient, soft as the breeze flitting over the flowers, but swift as the summer lightning.”
Richard Blackmore
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Today is Steve Perry’s birthday. From journeyVEVO
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 1-22-15
It’s Thursday, so don’t forget the folks in PNG.
Anyone else have something?
Psalm 38
¹O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
5 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
7 For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
9 Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
10 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.
11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
12 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
13 But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.
14 Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.
15 For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.
16 For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.
17 For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.
18 For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin.
19 But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.
20 They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is.
21 Forsake me not, O Lord: O my God, be not far from me.
22 Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.
News/Politics 1-22-15
What’s interesting in the news today?
1. So I guess Obama and Sharpton will now hold a joint press conference to apologize to the Ferguson PD, Officer Wilson, and the rest of the country for their unnecessary race-baiting, right?
From TheNYTimes “Justice Department lawyers will recommend that no civil rights charges be brought against the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo., after an F.B.I. investigation found no evidence to support charges, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his civil rights chief, Vanita Gupta, will have the final say on whether the Justice Department will close the case against the officer, Darren Wilson. But it would be unusual for them to overrule the prosecutors on the case, who are still working on a legal memo explaining their recommendation.
A decision by the Justice Department would bring an end to the politically charged investigation of Mr. Wilson in the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The Missouri authorities concluded their investigation into Mr. Brown’s death in November and also recommended against charges.”
“But a broader Justice Department civil rights investigation into allegations of discriminatory traffic stops and excessive force by the Ferguson Police Department remains open. That investigation could lead to significant changes at the department, which is overwhelmingly white despite serving a city that is mostly black.”
So they have no evidence, but they’ll keep doing what they do. Which is to attack police and divide the country.
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2. So is this Boxer’s going away present to herself and family? And remember folks, she’s on the Ethics Committee.
From CapitolCityProject “Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Cali.), who recently announced her plans to retire from the Senate after 2016, appeared to use her position as a high-ranking public official to financially benefit close family members — including her son and husband to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2008 — through her campaign committee and leadership PAC.
Boxer, who is currently serving her fourth and final term as a California senator and serves as the chairwoman on the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, paid out over $300,000 combined to her son’s company and husband’s law firm over the span of the 2008, 2010, and 2012 election cycles.
On top of setting up contracts and paying her son’s and husband’s firms, Sen. Boxer also reimbursed herself through her leadership PAC for expenses totaling tens of thousands of dollars, according to reports.
Boxer’s campaign committee, Friends of Barbara Boxer, reimbursed the senator a total of $35,657 during the 2010 election cycle for travel expenses. That same year Boxer’s leadership PAC, PAC for a Change, reimbursed her $500 for a venue rental used to host a fundraiser. In 2012, her campaign committee reimbursed the senator $3,389 for travel expenses and meals.”
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3. The House Immigration plan is a joke. Spends 10 billion, deports no illegals, and reduces the border fences.
From TheWashingtonExaminer “Critics including Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions are slamming a House GOP border security plan set for debate Wednesday, claiming it will spend $10 billion on new equipment and border security tricks, but not send one single illegal home.
Sessions, the influential Center for Immigration Studies, and the head of the association of former Border Control agents all slammed the H.R. 399 being marked up in the House Homeland Security Committee today as unfocused on the No. 1 issue: U.S. sanctuary to illegals.
The bill, however, is geared to handling the tight security of the actual border, not how illegal immigrants are handled once they cross in. Several related pieces of immigration reform legislation are expected to be addressed by the House.
“As long as sanctuary cities, welfare, education, and jobs and principally lack of enforcement and enabling by the federal government, are made available to the undocumented alien, we will not be able to secure the physical border,” said Zack Taylor, chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers.”
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More from TheDailyCaller “The new border bills drafted by Republican leaders require the actual removal of at least 66 miles of weak border fencing between laborers in Mexico and employers in the United States.
The border bills also only require for the construction of 27 miles of effective double-layer fencing along the 2,000-mile border.
“It is a remarkable that the direction of our progress is going backwards, from a goal of building 700 miles of double-layer border fencing [in 2006] to only 27 miles [in 2015],” said a Hill staffer who opposes the leaders’ bills.”
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4. How long until this happens here?
From LifeSiteNews “Richard Page, a 68-year-old British Justice of the Peace and evangelical Christian, has been condemned by the country’s highest legal authorities, suspended, and subjected to a day-long re-education session to rid him of the dangerous belief that a child would be better off being adopted by a family with a mother and a father than by a same-sex couple.
Page sat on a family court tribunal last summer to consider a social worker’s recommendation that a foster child be adopted by a gay couple. “I raised some questions in private with the other judges, including that I thought that because a baby comes from a man and a woman it made me think the child would be better off with a father and a mother than with single-sex parents. The other judges didn’t agree at all,” he told LifeSiteNews.
Worse, the other judges complained. A review committee concurred, suspended him from the bench and recommended he be kicked off the lowest rung of the judiciary (but which handles 90 percent of all criminal crime, plus youth and family cases).
“They said I had a closed mind because of my Christian beliefs,” he said. “They said I could not put my Christian beliefs above the rights of single-sex couples. They said I had to open my mind. But I think when you order someone to open their mind, then you are the one with a closed mind.”
In the end, the Lord Chancellor, cabinet minister Chris Grayling, and the Chief Justice John Thomas, decided to issue a reprimand and a day-long re-education order. “Mr. Page, while sitting in Family Court,” it stated in part, “was found to have been influenced by his religious beliefs and not by evidence.” The pair rated his behavior “a serious misconduct” and added, “Mr. Page should have recused himself from the matter.””
Re-education? How commie like. 🙄
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5. When it does come, I bet I know which states will lead the way…..
From Time “Two California lawmakers backed by the family of a woman who drew national attention by choosing to end her life after an aggressive and debilitating cancer diagnosis are set to introduce a new right-to-die bill on Wednesday.
The End of Life Option Act would allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medications to terminally ill patients with six months or less to live, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Two state senators are pushing the bill with the support of Brittany Maynard’s family.
Maynard was living in the San Francisco Bay Area when she and her husband moved to Portland, Ore., to take advantage of the state’s Death With Dignity law, in a widely publicized story that the bill’s authors say could be a tipping point in support for medically assisted suicide. Oregon, Washington and Vermont have such laws, but attempts to pass similar legislation in California have failed before.”
All the “progressive” ones of course.
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Our Daily Thread 1-21-14
Good Morning!
Today’s header photo is from Cheryl.
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On this day in 1793, during the French Revolution, King Louis XVI was executed by guillotine after he had been condemned for treason.
In 1861 the future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, resigned from the U.S. Senate. Four other Southerners also resigned. It’s also Stonewall Jackson’s birthday.
In 1908 the Sullivan Ordinance was passed in New York City making smoking by women illegal. The measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.
And in 1954 the Nautilus was launched in Groton, CT. It was the first atomic-powered submarine. U.S. First Lady Mamie Eisenhower broke the traditional bottle of champagne across the bow.
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Quote of the Day
“There are always new places to go fishing. For any fisherman, there’s always a new place, always a new horizon.”
Jack Nicklaus
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Today is Placido Domingo’s birthday.
And since I’ll use any excuse to play his music…..
On this day in 1982 B.B. King donated his collection of nearly 20,000 rare blues records to the University of Mississippi.
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Wandering Views 