Monthly Archives: November 2012

2012 Primary, Budget, Health Law, Obama, Stuck on Stupid, Taxes, Treason, True Talking Points

Government spends $100,000 to teach young girls “condom negotiation”

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We are printing up money and borrowing it from China for this? Can anyone say that Obama and the Democrat leadership is at all serious about getting the spending under control? There is no attempt at fiscal discipline. They literally say one thing and do another.

All of the talk about deficit control is just that, the tax they want to raise targets small domestic businesses to make it hard to compete against the mega-corps that fund the Democratic Party and assuming such a tax increase passes it will only raise enough money to run the government for a few days. Yet Democrats have the audacity to call their tax hike proposals “Deficit Reduction”.

The Democrat Leadership knows the spending and printing and borrowing will blow up the currency and make it collapse, and yet they are doing everything that can to bring it about.  The only question left to ask is why.

Washington Examiner:

The [Obama] administration is funding a $100,000 study of pregnant and “at-risk” 14-17-year-old girls on probation in Houston, Texas, to determine ways to help them choose safer lifestyles and avoid pregnancy, including better “condom negotiation” tactics.

The National Institutes of Health, part of the Health and Human Services Department, is providing a University of Houston researcher the money because of the lack of study of female teen juveniles in trouble with the law.

The school said the study, “Choices – Teen: A Bundled Risk Reduction Intervention for Juvenile Justice Females,” will include 30 at-risk girls, ages 14-17, on intensive probation with the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department.

The goal, said the school, is to determine if intervention programs will help the kids make better life decisions.

According to Danielle Parish, the assistant professor at the school’s Graduate College of Social Work who is conducting the NIH-funded effort, one of the big problems young girls need to learn is how to talk their boyfriends into using condoms.

According to the school’s release, “Parrish notes one of the big issues for this population of adolescent girls is condom negotiation. They may have a boyfriend who says it isn’t ‘cool’ to use a condom. To prepare the girls for these types of situations, the counselors and pediatricians will teach them how to negotiate condom use with their partner. The intervention also helps empower and motivate girls to make healthier choices regarding their alcohol use, smoking and prevention of unplanned pregnancy.”

2012 Primary, Academic Misconduct, Econ, Editorial, Elections have Consequences, Gangsta Govt, Obama, Pay to Play, School Indoctrination, True Talking Points

Editor: I debated Dr. Gilarducci just as Mark Levin did

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by Chuck Norton

In the video below Mark Levin very gently takes apart Dr. Teresa Gilarducci. She works for George Soros now, but before that she was an econ professor at Notre Dame. She was also on President Clinton’s Social Security task force.

When she was at Notre Dame I debated her when I was an undergrad in front of an audience, as I was the only one between IU and Notre Dame who would take the partial privatization position point of view on Social Security. Her incredible hypocrisy, that Levin exposes so well in the video below, showed itself in true form in my debate with her as well. Her “logic” is entirely political, circular and based largely on denial and misdirection. She is sweet, attractive and charming, and well knows it as she uses that as a weapon in her arsenal.

Dr. Gilarducci thought she was going to be debating a “college republican” undergrad, what she got is a former radio talk show host who passed the state exams and used to sell retirement and insurance products.

I will not outline the entire debate, but in short I did two things.

First: I outlined the Galveston Plan which has worked wonders as a legal exception to Social Security. I also pointed out the government managed, but partially privatized retirement plan that Members of Congress have which has been a great success through thick and thin. Such a plan would serve as a good model to grow at least a small percentage of Social Security to at least attempt to have a growth to pre-fund our retirement benefits.

All she would say about these partially privatized plans is that the retirees wouldn’t get the money and even though retired Members of Congress and some in Galveston were already  getting great benefits now she insisted that soon that money would vanish because only government transfer payments can be trusted. She kept saying again and again, “Until you go to get your money at retirement and it’s not there.”

Ironically in the video below, the type of plan she insisted could never work because the “greedsters” in the private sector would steal it all, is the exact same plan that she has for herself for her own retirement by her own admission.

Second: Dr. Gilarducci had written some good papers on 401K reform. She argued that too much of the 401K investment is in the employers own stock, so if the employer goes under said employee looses a lot of their retirement. As a fix she proposed that 401K laws be changed to require diversity of investment to more reliably pre-fund such retirement plans. Social Security has much the same problem as all of the eggs are in one basket, there is no diversity of investment and people’s retirement’s are not pre-funded.

So I used her own words and arguments on how to have a reliable and secure 401k, but replaced the term “401k” with “Social Security”. I used those near verbatim arguments to make most of my case.

All through the debate she insisted that (what she didn’t realize were her own arguments in her own published work) were just bad arguments from a young undergrad who just didn’t know better and that is how she treated me……until the end when I dropped the bomb that many of the arguments she so cutely poo-poohed were actually her own published work. She was floored.

Mark Levin:

During my last few shows, including as recently as yesterday, I have alerted you to Obama’s desire to nationalize your 401-k plan and eliminate your mortgage interest deduction.

Some background on the former.  Back in October 2008, I got word that Professor Teresa Ghilarducci of the New School had testified before Rep. George Miller’s committee in support of a plan to nationalize private pension plans — in particular, 401-k plans.  I not only spoke about it on my show back then, but we tracked down the professor and I conducted the first interview on talk radio.  I will discuss this at more length on my program this evening, but I thought you might want to be among the first to listen to that interview again.  Please pass it along to as many people as you can.  See below.

http://marklevinshow.com/article.asp?id=2441845&spid=32364

Econ, Europe, Jobs, Stuck on Stupid, Taxes, True Talking Points

Two-thirds of millionaires leave Britain to avoid 50% tax rate

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It is an undeniable truth of life that wealth, capital and labor go where they are treated well. It is this economic truth more than any other that prevents socialism, communism, fascism, and kleptocracy from yielding positive economic benefits in the long term.

When you raise the tax rate, people will modify their behavior to avoid paying the tax, even if that means halting economic activity. As Ronald Reagan said:

The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

UK Daily Telegraph: 

Almost two-thirds of the country’s million-pound earners disappeared from Britain after the introduction of the 50% top rate of tax, figures have disclosed.

In the 2009-10 tax year, more than 16,000 people declared an annual income of more than £1 million to HM Revenue and Customs.

This number fell to just 6,000 after Gordon Brown introduced the new 50% top rate of income tax shortly before the last general election.

The figures have been seized upon by the Conservatives to claim that increasing the highest rate of tax actually led to a loss in revenues for the Government.

It is believed that rich Britons moved abroad or took steps to avoid paying the new levy by reducing their taxable incomes.

George Osborne, the Chancellor, announced in the Budget earlier this year that the 50% top rate will be reduced to 45% from next April.

Since the announcement, the number of people declaring annual incomes of more than £1 million has risen to 10,000.

However, the number of million-pound earners is still far below the level recorded even at the height of the recession and financial crisis.

Last night, Harriet Baldwin, the Conservative MP who uncovered the latest figures, said: “Labour’s ideological tax hike led to a tax cull of millionaires.

Far from raising funds, it actually cost the UK £7 billion in lost tax revenue.

“Labour now needs to admit that their policies resulted in millionaires paying less tax and come clean about whether they would reintroduce this failed policy if they were in power.”

Mr Osborne argued earlier this year that the 50% rate was deterring entrepreneurs from coming to Britain.

Academic Misconduct, Alarmism, Education

British Meteorology Office: No Global Warming for 16 Years

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The British Meteorology Office, commonly referred to as the “British Met” has been on the paranoid tip of global warming fraud and alarmism for years. After the Climategate scandal where “top” climate scientists own emails revealed that they were rigging some data-sets and hiding others to make it appear as if man made global warming was real resulted in more oversight and ethics rules. After years of false claims of doom and incorrect predictions the British Met is now admitting the truth.

UK Daily Mail:

Global warming stopped 16 years ago, reveals Met Office report quietly released… and here is the chart to prove it

  • The figures reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012 there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures
  • This means that the ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996
No Global Warming in 16 Years
Research: The new figures mean that the ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996.

The world stopped getting warmer almost 16 years ago, according to new data released last week.

The figures, which have triggered debate among climate scientists, reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures.

This means that the ‘plateau’ or ‘pause’ in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996. Before that, temperatures had been stable or declining for about 40 years.

The new data, compiled from more than 3,000 measuring points on land and sea, was issued quietly on the internet, without any media fanfare, and, until today, it has not been reported.

This stands in sharp contrast to the release of the previous figures six months ago, which went only to the end of 2010 – a very warm year.

Ending the data then means it is possible to show a slight warming trend since 1997, but 2011 and the first eight months of 2012 were much cooler, and thus this trend is erased.

Professor Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia [Editor’s Note – Jones is one of the busted Climategate scientists and had a long record of making over the top doomsday claims], last week dismissed the significance of the plateau, saying that 15 or 16 years is too short a period from which to draw conclusions.

Others disagreed. Professor Judith Curry, who is the head of the climate science department at America’s prestigious Georgia Tech university, told The Mail on Sunday that it was clear that the computer models used to predict future warming were ‘deeply flawed’.

Communications Theory, Culture War

Science Fiction is the last playground of the philosophers – Gene Roddenberry (video)

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We have said many times here at Political Arena that just quoting people facts and Lincoln-Douglass style debate isn’t enough. In order to teach the great lessons of life and deeper wisdom, it must be done through stories and narratives.

Star Trek is one of the very best programs that demonstrates this truth. Several of the Greek philosophers, plays, and literature have their work retold in Star Trek. The Roman legal philosopher and rhetorician Cicero is featured throughout the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine shows. William Shakespeare also is well represented in Star Trek.

To the intellectually dim Star Trek is just “space invaders” with actors, but to those with eyes to see and ears to hear, to the intellectually and philosophically curious, Star Trek becomes a wondrous teaching tool that can be used to reinforce the ideals that America was founded upon.

Here is an example:
Star Trek: Samuel T. Cogley Attorney at Law

Star Trek: The Wisdom of Captain Jean Luc Picard

Another reason why Star Trek works as a story telling medium is that the people of Star Trek are exploring the final frontier. Americans are a frontier people who have run out of “frontier”.

Communications Theory, Health Law, Obama, True Talking Points

Majority Polled Now Against Gov’t Healthcare Guarantee

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With Canada, Sweden and other countries making steady progress moving away from Government run health care it seems that at least some people are starting to get the fact that e do not want the same people who run the BMV, Embassy Security, the Post Office, and DC Metro Escalators running our health care.

The rationing is already begun and the Obama administration is targeting women’s cancer health screenings as the first target, but unless Republicans move to keep educating people, Obama, his corporate backers, and his allies in the media will launch a propaganda campaign to swing the opinion back the other way. Obama has no mandate for more government control of healthcare.

Rasmussen Reports:

Views of healthcare system overall more positive in some respects

by Jeffrey M. Jones

PRINCETON, NJ — For the first time in Gallup trends since 2000, a majority of Americans say it is not the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all Americans have healthcare coverage. Prior to 2009, a majority always felt the government should ensure healthcare coverage for all, though Americans’ views have become more divided in recent years.

Government responsible for healthcare of all Americans?.gif

The current results are based on Gallup’s annual Health and Healthcare poll, conducted Nov. 15-18 this year.

The shift away from the view that the government should ensure healthcare coverage for all began shortly after President Barack Obama’s election and has continued the past several years during the discussions and ultimate passage of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010. Americans are divided on that legislation today — 48% approve and 45% disapprove — as they have been over the last several years.

Republicans, including Republican-leaning independents, are mostly responsible for the drop since 2007 in Americans’ support for government ensuring universal health coverage. In 2007, 38% of Republicans thought the government should do so; now, 12% do. Among Democrats and Democratic leaners there has been a much smaller drop, from 81% saying the government should make sure all Americans are covered in 2007 to 71% now.

One thing that has not changed is that Americans still widely prefer a system based on private insurance to one run by the government. Currently, 57% prefer a private system and 36% a government-run system, essentially the same as in 2010 and 2011. Prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the percentage of Americans in favor of a government-run system ranged from 32% to 41%.

2012 Primary, Alarmism, Communications Theory, Editorial, Health Law, Jobs, Obama, Taxes, True Talking Points

Poll shows most people blame GOP for the “Fiscal Cliff” when much of it is due to Obamacare taxes

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Where is the establishment GOP? Where is anyone in the GOP to make the case?

Where is the GOP telling people that Taxmageddon, also known as the Fiscal Cliff, is largely do to 13 new Obamacare taxes, and the Democrats desire to raise taxes not on the rich, but on the productive middle class and small business S-Corps?

Where is the GOP to lambaste all of the wasteful spending and corrupt crony green energy boondoggles?

No one in the GOP is even defending themselves much less making a fight of it (please correct us if I we are wrong).

Robert Davi
Robert Davi

Famed actor Robert Davi said recently that he believes that elements in the establishment GOP and the Democratic Leadership are in a conspiracy to bring the country down. It is nonsense like this that make him correct.

It is nonsense like this that will finally push those who care about good policy to form a new party to replace the Republican Party because its brand is damaged and it’s establishment doesn’t seem to even really believe what it preaches.

I bet many in the GOP wishes they had Newt Gingrich right about now to make the case.

Via Breitbart News:

A new poll from CNN/ORC shows that President Obama remains Teflon despite the fact that he designed the upcoming fiscal cliff to speculation. Even though Obama insisted on massive defense cuts and huge tax increases as the two alternative parts of the fiscal cliff, the American public will apparently blame Republicans if the fiscal cliff isn’t stopped. A full 45% of respondents said they would blame Congressional Republicans – even though the Democrats control the Senate – while just 34% would blame President Obama.

The public, by and large, sees Republicans as obstructionist. That’s due to a combination of messaging failure on the part of the GOP — nothing new, in that they seem incapable of explaining the simple fact that low tax rates, particularly on job creators, spur economic growth and thereby raise tax revenues — and a media concerned only with saving its flailing president. The Republicans’ mixed messaging on the fiscal cliff has been astounding to watch. They signed off on the sequester, which put a fiscal gun to their heads, forcing them to choose between raising taxes partially or watching tax rates skyrocket and defense get slashed. Then they turned around and complained about the gun being put to their heads. Now, they’re standing for the principle that we need more tax revenue, but it can’t be raised by raising rates. No wonder the public is confused.

Poll numbers like this could be the reason that Republicans are looking to cave on tax increases, or ending tax deductions. 25% of the country says that the nation would undergo a crisis if we hit the fiscal cliff; 44% expect major problems. 25% say that it would cause minor problems. A full 77% of the public believes the fiscal cliff would hurt them personally.

Republicans have done such a poor job of informing the public about why taxes shouldn’t be increased that even Republicans, by a margin of 52%-44%, say they want both spending cuts and tax increases. An unbelievable 56% of Americans say they want high taxes on higher income earners, despite the fact that higher income earners pay a vastly disproportionate share of all tax revenue.

Econ, Jihad, Stuck on Stupid, Treason, True Talking Points

The US Govt Spent $24.3 Billion on Black Friday; $211.69 Per Household.

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Welcome to the new America, where the federal government cost you $211.69 per day.

CNS News:

The U.S. Treasury increased the net debt of the United States $24,327,048,384.38 on the day after Thanksgiving, which equals approximately $211.69 for each of the nation’s 114,916,000 households.

At the close of business last Wednesday, according to the Treasury, the national debt was $16,283,161,895,179.85. On Thanksgiving, the Treasury took the day off and did no borrowing. But on Friday, the Treasury increased the debt of the United States to $16,307,488,943,564.23. That was a one-day increase of $24,327,048,384.38.

That means that since Obama has been president, the national debt has increased by about $49,432.73 per household.

Culture War, Editorial, Elite Media

Leftist film critics think those who liked “Red Dawn” are mentally ill. Sound Familiar? – UPDATED!

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The elite media film reviews of the film remake of Red Dawn speak volumes of just who and what is in the elite media. The hostility is so great that they couldn’t help but reveal their collectivist politics in the reviews.

Did the idea of communists in America offend them? Not in the least. Did the idea of some American’s becoming sympathizers with and aiding the invading communists in the film make them even flinch? Nope.

What made the elite media positively furious? The idea of traditional Americans, including an active duty US Marine and three retired Marines, gearing up to act as an insurgent force to make the invading communists regret trying to gain a foothold in the United States.

In fact, so indoctrinated into the radical left are so many in the elite media including these film critics, that they present the exact same false narrative that communists throughout history have treated domestic dissidents who would dare oppose them; they present them or accuse them of being mentally ill.

Breitbart News:

The film’s critical drubbing was about more than just storytelling hiccups, says National Review contributor John J. Miller.

“Better dead than Red Dawn,” sneered the Washington Post’s Rita Kempley, who called the film “sick and silly.” Janet Maslin of the New York Times labeled it “rabidly inflammatory,” “incorrigibly gung-ho,” and “a virulently alarmist fable.” Bob Thomas of the Associated Press condemned its “bathos” as “unrelenting.” Perhaps these were the honest assessments of dispassionate reviewers….

The makers of Red Dawn, complained Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times, “spent too much time playing to the rabid anti-Commies.” You know: The movie must be awful because those icky conservatives approve of it. Even today, many liberals resort to knee-jerk denunciations: “Its guiding ideology is actually fascism,” wrote David Plotz of Slate in 2008.

That was then. This is the response the “Red Dawn” remake is getting from movie critics.

The Chicago Reader calls it a “Tea Party wet dream.” Time Magazine says “both movies play like hokey advertisements for the National Rifle Association, injected with high school pep rally enthusiasm.”

The Washington Post’s review says the film will be “red meat for tea party patriots,” as if Obama voters would rather allow an invading force take over rather than fight back.

Well film critics, we cannot speak for “all Obama voters”, but in your case the constant overt hostility you have shown over the years to American Exceptionalism leaves little doubt as to whose side you would end up aiding…just as Ronald Reagan knew all so well:

[Editor’s Note – I have seen the film, and even though it is not as good as the original, it is fun and worth the cost of a few tickets and popcorn. The biggest flaw in the film is that the film creators didn’t take a little more time to develop the characters to a point where you really cared about them. People make a story and stories are not as interesting when you don’t have a certain intimacy or identity with the characters.]

UPDATE: 

Kate Dalzell comments –  Goodness, what will these children think of next. Seriously, anything that has the slightest hint of pro-America or American exceptionalism throws these reprobates into a fear-based frenzy. Since they cannot self-govern, anything that opposes that which protects them from having to do so will induce such a tremendous amount of fear that they feel they must project, as a weapon, in order to maintain their therapeutic state. 

Kimberly Saunders comments –  Who wouldn’t like an America kicks ass over bad guys movie? I’d call it unAmerican and mentally ill if you didn’t like it.

Econ, Health Law, Obama, Pay to Play, True Talking Points

Smaller insurance companies going away thanks to Obamacare

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As we have said several times before and even when yours truly wrote for his old college blog, consolidation is a goal of the progressive secular left.

What is consolidation? It is when smaller players are driven out of the market by slanted government regulations, enforcement, and taxes in favor of the biggest players who tend to be campaign contributors. It also makes controlling the economy easier as a few players are easy to monitor and control. You cannot control the economy without first controlling people, so the less people to control the better. [Smaller companies tend to contribute to Republicans – Editor.]

Forbes: Obamacare Consolidation Continues: Aetna Buys Coventry For $7.3B

Consolidation in the healthcare sector was an obvious consequence of the latest Supreme Court ruling that upheld Obamacare. On Monday, Aetna announced it reached an agreement to buy Coventry Health for a transaction value of $7.3 billion including debt in over to increase its exposure to government business such as Medicare and Medicaid.

On the market side of that issue, major companies are already in consolidation stage. Aetna’s acquisition of Coventry, for which it will pay $5.7 billion in cash and stock, is a direct consequence of the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the individual mandate. As I wrote in the aftermath of the ruling, “in the face of it, this should be negative for major health insurance companies, as it will drive more customers at lower margins, and positive for Medicaid companies.”

Aetna was very clear in the press release, the transaction will increase its “share of revenues from government business to over 30% from 23% currently.” Coventry will add over 5 million members to Aetna’s plans, including about 4 million medical members and 1.5 million Medicare part D members. The deal also “substantially increase[s] Aetna’s Medicaid footprint, creating more opportunity to participate in the expansion of Medicaid and to pursue high acuity positions as they move into managed care.”

The Supreme Court ruling already fueled WellPoint’s acquisition of Amerigroup for about $5 billion, while last year Cigna bought HealthSpring for $3.8 billion in a push to gain exposure to Medicare patients. Markets appear to approve of consolidation in the industry, as stock prices showed on Monday.

Gangsta Govt, Israel, Jihad, Obama, True Talking Points

Americans in Israel sue State Department for Providing aid to Palestinian terrorists illegally

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Obama’s White House and State Department providing aid to Gaza in violation of guidelines passed by law? You don’t say.

Times of Israel:

State Department, White House ignored transparency requirements in delivering Palestinian aid, allowing some of the money to flow to the likes of Hamas, plaintiffs claim.

A group of 24 Americans living in Israel, some of them victims of terror, on Tuesday filed a civil action lawsuit against the United States government over what they claim is its funding of Palestinian terrorism in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The plaintiffs were being represented by the Tel Aviv-based Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, a legal advocacy group that combats terror organizations.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Washington, DC, contends that the State Department and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ignored Congressional safeguards and transparency requirements attached to US aid to the Palestinian Authority, thus allowing for the funneling of funds to Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Palestine Liberation Front. It also accuses the White House of not complying with the regulations and reporting obligations governing presidential waivers which facilitate emergency funding to the Palestinians.

“I just want justice,” said Stuart Hersh, one of the plaintiffs, an elderly Jerusalem resident and victim of a terror attack on Ben Yehuda Street in the same city in 1997, which caused him brain damage and left him partially disabled. “I am against the American government indirectly financing Hamas — the very people who try to kill me,” Hersh said by telephone, adding that he differentiates between “humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people and supporting political agendas.”

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the Tel Aviv-based director of Shurat HaDin told The Times of Israel that the State Department and USAID were particularly “lax” in requiring the Palestinians to “utilize bank accounts and other transfer methods that ensure transparency.” US funds have been flowing to the terror groups as a result of this noncompliance, Darshan-Leitner added.

“USAID’s funding of the PA, for example, is partially distributed to Gaza, where Hamas employees are paid, or Fatah, which still has anti-Israel elements in its charter,” Darshan-Leitner said. ”The American people are opposed to terror and do not want to fund it via their taxes.”

Karen Bell Eisenberg, an American-Israeli who lives outside Bethlehem in the West Bank, put it this way: “I don’t begrudge Palestinian aid money. But I’m tired of my tax money [she works for an American company and pays taxes in the US] being used to fund the very people who are trying to kill me.”

The State Department, under the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, is prohibited from providing “material support” to banned terrorist groups. Under that law, the State Department is required to certify that the Palestinian government is committed to peace and coexistence with Israel before distributing funds.

According to the advocacy group’s estimates, since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the State Department, via USAID, has given over $4 billion to Palestinians, with portions of that funding illegally falling into the hands of terrorists. Over the last four fiscal years, the average aid package has been roughly $600 million per year, compounded by the $200 million or so given annually to the United Nations Refugee Worker’s Administration (UNRWA).

The suit asks the federal court to review the conduct of the State Department and the safeguards on funds being distributed by USAID, and seeks to suspend future American aid to the PA and UNRWA until all the Congressional regulations and reporting requirements are fully complied with.

Econ, Jobs

Is your state a “death spiral” state?

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Are private sector workers are outnumbered by folks dependent on government in your state? If so don’t buy a house in that state, rent.

The list from the worst, New Mexico with a 1.53 ratio to Ohio with a 1.00 ratio:

New Mexico, Mississippi, California, Alabama, Maine, New York, South Carolina, Kentucky,Illinois, Hawaii, Ohio.

Forbes:

Thinking about buying a house? Or a municipal bond? Be careful where you put your capital. Don’t put it in a state at high risk of a fiscal tailspin.

Eleven states make our list of danger spots for investors. They can look forward to a rising tax burden, deteriorating state finances and an exodus of employers.

If your career takes you to Los Angeles or Chicago, don’t buy a house. Rent.

If you have money in municipal bonds, clean up the portfolio. Sell holdings from the sick states and reinvest where you’re less likely to get clipped. Nebraska and Virginia are unlikely to give their bondholders a Greek haircut. California and New York are comparatively risky.

Two factors determine whether a state makes this elite list of fiscal hellholes. The first is whether it has more takers than makers. A taker is someone who draws money from the government, as an employee, pensioner or welfare recipient. A maker is someone gainfully employed in the private sector.

Let us give those takers the benefit of our sympathy and assume that every single one of them is a deserving soul. This person is either genuinely needy or a dedicated public servant or the recipient of a well-earned pension.

But what happens when these needy types outnumber the providers? Taxes get too high. Prosperous citizens decamp. Employers decamp. That just makes matters worse for the taxpayers left behind.

Let’s say you are a software entrepreneur with 100 on your payroll. If you stay in San Francisco, your crew will support 139 takers. In Texas, they would support only 82. Austin looks very attractive.

Ranked on the taker/maker ratio, our 11 death spiral states range from New Mexico, with 1.53 takers for every maker, down to Ohio, with a 1-to-1 ratio.

The taker count is the number of state and local government workers plus the number of people on Medicaid plus 1 for each $100,000 of unfunded pension liabilities. Sources: the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and a study of state worker pensions done in 2009 by two academics, Joshua Rauh and Rovert Novy-Marx. Professor Rauh estimates that the shortage in pension funding is on average a third higher today.

The second element in the death spiral list is a scorecard of state credit-worthiness done by Conning & Co., a money manager known for its measures of risk in insurance company portfolios. Conning’s analysis focuses more on dollars than body counts. Its formula downgrades states for large debts, an uncompetitive business climate, weak home prices and bad trends in employment.

Conning rates North Dakota the safest state to lend money to, Connecticut the most hazardous. A state qualifies for the Forbes death spiral list if its taker/maker ratio exceeds 1.0 and it resides in the bottom half of Conning’s ranking.

2012 Primary, Communications Theory, True Talking Points

Some political strategists do get it…

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Jay Heine is one that has always “gotten it”.

Political Strategist Jay Heine:

You want to know why we lost ground in 2006, 2008 and 2012? We elect/select candidates that tell us what we want to hear, who are “electable”, but not trustworthy. They get into office and they follow the crowd. The most successful office holders are those that stand on principle and are unwavering. It doesn’t matter whether they are conservative or liberal, it matters whether they do what they say they are going to do. If they don’t they alienate the electorate. And all the Republicans who are about to sell us out on the fiscal cliff are making the same error.
Econ, Europe, Global Security, Taxes, True Talking Points

Euro zone falls into second recession since 2009

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Because central planning by internationalist socialists works so well…

It works well at chasing wealth and jobs out of a country.

Reuters:

The euro zone debt crisis dragged the bloc into its second recession since 2009 in the third quarter despite modest growth in Germany and France, data showed on Thursday.

The French and German economies both managed 0.2 percent growth in the July-to-September period but their resilience could not save the 17-nation bloc from contraction as the likes of The Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Austria shrank.

Economic output in the euro zone fell 0.1 percent in the quarter, following a 0.2 percent drop in the second quarter.

Those two quarters of contraction put the euro zone’s 9.4 trillion euro ($12 trillion) economy back into recession, although Italy and Spain have been contracting for a year already and Greece is suffering an outright depression.

A rebound in Europe is still far off. The debt crisis that began in Greece in late 2009 is still reverberating around the globe and holding back a lasting recovery.

Analysts said even the euro zone’s top two economies were likely to succumb in the final three months of the year.

Culture War, Health Law, Obama, SCOTUS

Supreme Court to reexamine Obamacare

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Fox News:

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a federal appeals court to reconsider Liberty University’s legal argument that President Obama’s health care law violates the school’s religious freedom.

The case will be returned to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

“Today’s ruling breathes new life into our challenge to ObamaCare,” Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, which filed the suit on behalf of the school, said Monday. “Our fight against ObamaCare is far from over.”

A federal judge in 2010 rejected Liberty’s claim, and the appeals court later ruled the lawsuit was premature and failed to address the substance of the school’s arguments.

The Supreme Court upheld the health care law in June 2012.

In the high court’s 5-4 decision, the justices used lawsuits filed by 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business to uphold the health care law, then rejected all other pending appeals, including Liberty’s.

The school is challenging the constitutionality of the part of the law that mandates employers provide insurance and whether forcing insurers to pay for birth control is unconstitutional under the First Amendment’s free exercise of religion clause.

The appeals court ruled last year the Anti-Injunction Act barred it from addressing the merits in the case. The act blocks any challenge to a “tax” before a taxpayer pays it — in this case referring to the penalties associated with failing to obtain health insurance.

However, the Supreme Court’s ruling stated the act did not serve as a barrier to lawsuits challenging the health care law. On that basis, Liberty University immediately petitioned the court to allow it to renew its original case.

2012 Primary, Breitbart is Here, Communications Theory, Culture War, Elections have Consequences, True Talking Points

Cadell, Gingrich, Ingraham: The Republican Establishment Consultant Complex Responsible for Romney Defeat

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[Editor’s Note – For anyone concerned about politics, or freedom in general, or the culture, should read this post carefully and watch every video link. We are gratified to see that that some in the regular GOP are seeing what we have seen for a long time which we summed up in our “Why Republican’s Lost” post. Fortunately I have been told by a mutual friend of this editor and the former Speaker that he was told to read our post. If he did it certainly shows in his speech at Restoration Weekend sponsored by Dave Horowitz.]

Newt Gingrich’s and Laura Ingraham’s speech at Restoration Weekend.

Read carefully what former Democratic political strategist Pat Caddell has to say which has been well reported by Breitbart News:

Speaking at The David Horowitz Freedom Center’s “Restoration Weekend” in Florida on November 16, Pat Caddell indicted what he called the Republican “consultant-lobbyist-establishment” complex for losing a presidential campaign in 2012 President Barack Obama had no business winning.

“No presidential campaign should be run by consultants,” Caddell said. “They should be run by people who are committed to the candidate and not into making big money.”

Caddell, the former Jimmy Carter adviser who consulted on the “Hope and the Change” movie that profiled disaffected Obama 2008 voters who were not going to vote for him in 2012, warned Republicans that the consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex may threaten to take the party into oblivion if not marginalized.

The Romney campaign, Caddell said, was driven be establishment consultants and was a failure of mechanics and message.

“But most of all, it was a failure of imagination,” Caddell said. ““It was the single worst campaign in modern history of a challenger who had a chance to win … and that’s the truth and nothing can take away from that.”

Caddell said “Republicans never attempted to put a frame around the national election” because “the people who run the messaging in the Republican party and their consultants refused to do it.”

As a result, Rommey lost decisively to voters who voted for the candidate who “cares about me,” which was more than 20% of the electorate. Many of these voters are Reagan Democrats and independents.

“You have to have some connection to the people,” Caddell said, noting Romney lost the “empathy vote” by 65 percentage points to Obama.

Caddell said the Republican establishment thought, “We don’t have to do anything, [Obama] will be defeated because of the economy.”

He said Republicans believed the “numbers” told them they would win the election, and that is why many in the establishment and consultant class thought they could win by default by “holding the ball” and running out the clock. As a result, Caddell said the party neither controls the presidency nor the Senate after having played so unimaginatively and cautiously in 2012.

Caddell blasted the Romney campaign’s strategy of not running positive biographical ads about Romney until the convention. He said he was puzzled the Romney campaign did not play up Romney’s success in managing the Winter Olympics, which the Obama campaign even admitted was a winning issue.

More shockingly, Caddell said the Romney campaign made no effort to run positive spots about Bain Capital, even after Ted Kennedy’s campaign had already eviscerated Romney over Bain during the Senate campaign two decades ago.  Letting the Obama campaign define Romney again was, he said, campaign malpractice.

Caddell asked: “Don’t you think you would want to say something positive about Bain?”

Caddell also wondered why Romney, who spent nearly $50 million of his own money in losing the 2008 GOP presidential primary, did not loan his campaign a similar amount of money in the spring so his campaign could more positively define him to voters.

He then brutally told donors in the audience that the Republican consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex took millions of dollars from them to only enrich themselves without having any meaningful impact on the election.

“You donors and others were played for marks by groups like [Karl Rove’s American] Crossroads,” Caddell said, noting that establishment super PACs cared more about “preserving arrangements in the media.”

Too often, Caddell said the Republican consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex ignores anything that could be effective if it does not allow them to profit.

For instance, even though a Frank Luntz focus group found that the “Hope and the Change” movie was the most effective way for Republicans to appeal to independent voters, Caddell accused the Republican “consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex” of not utilizing the film because “that communication didn’t fit” in their conventional plans to make the consultant class wealthy.

Caddell said Republicans have to go away from a bureaucratic, top-down approach to messaging and outreach and be more imaginative in the future if they do not want to go the way of the Whigs. He said Republicans have been so poor on combating narratives and framing their own messages that minorities — like Asians — voted overwhelmingly for Obama despite sharing conservative values because they think Republicans “do not care about minorities.”

He said the Republican party needed to be more imaginative — like promoting education reform against teachers unions as the new battle for civil rights and running against corruption in Washington, which a Breitbart News/Judicial Watch Election Night poll found 85% of voters were concerned about.

“Why are Republicans not the anti-establishment party?,” Caddell asked.

Caddell emphasized a “narrative is a story” that comes over a period of time and “not just a single message.”

He cited Ronald Reagan as someone who knew how to speak to Democrats and “ordinary and common” Americans and bring them over to his side because Reagan had been one of them and came from regular Americans and shared their experiences.

“That is a quality that has been missing a long time in a search for alternative candidate,” Caddell said, in reference to Reagan’s ability to resonate with blue collar Americans.

In contrast, Caddell compared Romney to the “man on the wedding cake” and Thomas Dewey in 1948, who lost to Harry Truman in an election nobody thought Truman could win. Obama, Caddell said, turned “hope and change” into “divide and conquer” and activated his liberal base just like Truman energized the New Deal coalition in 1948.

Caddell said Republicans played into Obama’s strategy because they continued to believe they could win by default and did not aggressively confront Obama and his machine. For instance, even after the first debate in which Romney thumped Obama, Caddell said Republicans tried to run out the clock. They advised Romney not to challenge Obama on Libya, which Caddell said was as much of a transparency and honesty issue as a foreign policy issue.

As a result, the media was able to protect Obama and go on the offensive against Romney for most of the campaign.

Caddell again called the media the “enemy of the people” for wanting to protect Obama instead of trying to uncover the truth about Benghazi, and told Republicans if they do not confront the mainstream media like the Romney campaign failed to do, “they will continue to kill you.”

Caddell said those in the Republican consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex “do not want to hear any views from outsiders” because it threatens their racket. Caddell said this mentality will just result in more Republican losses unless this Republican consultant-lobbyist-establishment complex is eviscerated.

“As long as the establishment wants to preserve the establishment and their special deals, you will lose,” Caddell said.

 

 

2012 Primary, Editorial, Education, Obama, School Indoctrination, True Talking Points

Russian Columnist: Americans are repeating “The Soviet Mistake”

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It is interesting to see how those not influenced by our elite media and our union controlled public schools view American politics.

It reminds me of my Eastern European friends I went to college with who told me that American News Media read like Communist propaganda. Those who are from Europe and Russia know very well what how a Marxist and a Communist behave, but unlike too many Americans, they are not afraid to call it what it is [except several foreign professors I had who would say this privately, but were very clear that if they told the truth about this it would be the end of their teaching career as American universities are heavens for radicalized ideologues who cannot function in the private sector – Editor].

Russian columnist Xavier Lerma asks how can Americans be so foolish as to elect a communist like Obama again, how can they not see that he says one thing and does the opposite, don’t they read history in America?

Xavier Lerma:

Bye, bye Miss American Pie. The Communists have won in America with Obama but failed miserably in Russia with Zyuganov who only received 17% of the vote. Vladimir Putin was re-elected as President keeping the NWO order out of Russia while America continues to repeat the Soviet mistake.

After Obama was elected in his first term as president the then Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January of 2009. Ignored by the West as usual, Putin gave insightful and helpful advice to help the world economy and saying the world should avoid the Soviet mistake.

Recently, Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term by an illiterate society and he is ready to continue his lies of less taxes while he raises them. He gives speeches of peace and love in the world while he promotes wars as he did in Egypt, Libya and Syria. He plans his next war is with Iran as he fires or demotes his generals who get in the way.

Putin said regarding the military [militarization is what the author meant as Russian is his first language],

Well, any normal individual understands that as true but [American style] liberalism is a psychosis . O’bomber even keeps the war going along the Mexican border with projects like “fast and furious” and there is still no sign of ending it.  He is a Communist without question promoting the Communist Manifesto without calling it so. How shrewd he is in America. His cult of personality mesmerizes those who cannot go beyond their ignorance. They will continue to follow him like those fools who still praise Lenin and Stalin in Russia.  Obama’s fools and Stalin’s fools share the same drink of illusion.

Xavier Lerma Continues to show that Obama is “repeating the Soviet mistake” by comparing what Obama is doing with what the Russian government now admits was their mistake:

“…we are reducing taxes on production, investing money in the economy. We are optimizing state expenses.The second possible mistake would be excessive interference into the economic life of the country and the absolute faith into the all-mightiness of the state.

There are no grounds to suggest that by putting the responsibility over to the state, one can achieve better results.

Unreasonable expansion of the budget deficit, accumulation of the national debt – are as destructive as an adventurous stock market game.

During the time of the Soviet Union the role of the state in economy was made absolute, which eventually lead to the total non-competitiveness of the economy. That lesson cost us very dearly. I am sure no one would want history to repeat itself.”

President Vladimir Putin could never have imagined anyone so ignorant or so willing to destroy their people like Obama much less seeing millions vote for someone like Obama. They read history in America don’t they? Alas, the schools in the U.S. were conquered by the Communists long ago and history was revised thus paving the way for their Communist presidents. Obama has bailed out those businesses that voted for him and increased the debt to over 16 trillion with an ever increasing unemployment rate especially among blacks and other minorities. All the while promoting his agenda.

Jihad, Jobs, True Talking Points

“Palestinians” have the 8th highest obesity rate in the world; third highest among women

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“Palestinians”(Southern Assyrian’s) who live in the Gaza Strip and the Wast Bank of Israel  have the 8th highest obesity rate in the world, and the third highest among women according to statistics collected by The World Health Organization (WHO) and published in The Economist magazine.

Far left and antisemitic activists often claim that Israel cuts off food and other humanitarian supplies to Gaza and that as a result Gaza’s go without food, clothing and suitable water. Ironically the largest contributor of humanitarian aid to Gaza is Israel.

2012 Primary, Econ, Education, Elections have Consequences, Health Law, Jobs, Obama

Colleges start cutting professors work hours because of Obamacare

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Elections have consequences. In a future post we will list the job layoffs that have resulted from Obama’s re-election and the slew of tax increases businesses and individuals will be paying as of January 1st. The number of layoffs are staggering and keep growing.

Companies that have employees work more than 28 hours a week are now considered full time by the law and employers must buy federally approved health insurance, which Obamacare has caused premiums to rise by $2,500 per year because of it’s mindless one sized fist all coverage and new taxes on insurance and health care. If employers do not provide the insurance they will have to pay a tax penalty….unless employees get less than 28 hours a week.

Welcome to mass layoffs and hiring of part timers only.

The first ones hit were not just the evil capitalists, this counts for most everyone, including university professors who are now feeling the heat. Radicalized academia actively supported and campaigned for Obama. Enjoy.

I am running into all sorts of people who voted for Obama again that had no idea about “Taxmageddon“. Most are shocked when they learn the truth, some just go into denial and even deny that anyone is getting laid off. Some even believe that we will have free health care and “gubmint” will just pay for it.

Breitbart News:

Pennsylvania’s Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) is slashing the hours of 400 adjunct instructors, support staff, and part-time instructors to dodge paying for Obamacare.

“It’s kind of a double whammy for us because we are facing a legal requirement [under the new law] to get health care and if the college is reducing our hours, we don’t have the money to pay for it,” said adjunct biology professor Adam Davis.

On Tuesday, CCAC employees were notified that Obamacare defines full-time employees as those working 30 hours or more per week and that on Dec. 31 temporary part-time employees will be cut back to 25 hours. The move will save an estimated $6 million.

“While it is of course the college’s preference to provide coverage to these positions, there simply are not funds available to do so,” said CCAC spokesperson David Hoovler. “Several years of cuts or largely flat funding from our government supporters have led to significant cost reductions by CCAC, leaving little room to trim the college’s budget further.”

The solution, says United Steelworkers representative Jeff Cech, is that adjunct professors should unionize in an attempt to thwart schools seeking similar cost-savings efforts from avoiding Obamacare.

“They may be complying with the letter of the law, but the letter of law and the spirit of the law are two different things,” said Mr. Cech. “If they are doing it at CCAC, it can’t be long before they do it other places.”

Under the new CCAC policy, adjunct professors will only be allowed to teach 10 credit hours a semester. Adjuncts are paid $730 per credit hour.

That is $14,600 dollars a year. You have a Masters or a PhD and you are just a tick above the poverty level. Good luck paying your student loans. How can you attract the best teachers when you can make more money working at Walmart?

Communications Theory, Israel, Jihad, Lies, True Talking Points

Gazan’s stage injuries for reporters (video)

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We often talk about the power of a narrative. People often do not remember facts but they remember a story (narrative) and the attitude it evokes. This goes for war as well as politics as we have posted before:

The rhetoric utilized by government has done more to defeat liberty than all the armies of the world. The war all around us is being fought over the very meanings of words. Meaning does not exist a priori. It is order imposed by individuals with arsenals of communication devices. Every inscription, every utterance, every gesture seeks to dominate the plain of meaning. Real violence is only an extension of this process. Culture, by definition a shared territory of meaning, inspires conflicts far more destructive than any other dispute over territory on the Earth’s surface. It is the message, the communication event that must be targeted.

This is exactly what Hamas does. They put rocket launchers in homes, at schools and mosques and they use children, civilians and even reporters as human shields.

They also stage injuries and fake the deatsh of children for the cameras. It is common in Gaza and behind the scenes the press calls it “Pallywood”.

Israeli National News:
Miraculous Recovery by Injured Gaza Man?

Pallywood is in high gear as Gazans dupe BBC viewers in time-honored style.

Barely one day into the fighting in Hamas-run Gaza, the locals are hard at work playing the victim for the world’s press.

Footage from the BBC captured by watchdog group Honest Reporting shows a heavy man lying on the ground and being carried away by residents, apparently after being injured by an Israeli attack.

Moments later, that same man again fills the frame, except he is walking about and obviously unhurt.

The widespread staging of such victim situations is a favored tactic of Arabs fighting Israel and has come to be known as “Pallywood.” Because Israel is stronger militarily, the Arabs cling to the underdog image of poor refugees under occupation and siege by evil Israelis, thus eliciting sympathy.

2012 Primary, Health Law, Obama, True Talking Points

Senator Mike Lee on the Obamacare SCOTUS Decision (video)

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This is most informational.

Address by Senator Mike Lee 11-16-12

Senator Mike Lee of Utah addressed attendees of the Federalist Society’s 2012 National Lawyers Convention on Friday, November 16, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. Senator Lee was introduced by Mr. Leonard A. Leo, Executive Vice President of the Federalist Society.

2012 Primary, Dirty Tricks, Lies, Obama, True Talking Points

Greta To Obama Administration: GROW UP!

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Greta Van Susteren:

The Obama Administration is playing dirty.  Trying to put a price tag on access — either a news organization plays ball and accepts what they dish out without challenge, or the news organization is excluded, punished.  Check this out:

Fox News has been aggressively reporting on Benghazi because it is newsworthy when 4 Americans are MURDERED and because it was obvious the Obama Administration was telling “silly stories” that didn’t make sense and were not supported by the facts.  The Administration’s Benghazi story got more curious when the Administration sent out Ambassador Susan Rice to sell the silly stories on 5 news shows.    Two months later, the American people still don’t have the straight story.  It is our job to get the facts.  We are trying.

The Obama Administration has done everything but give us the straight story and they are fighting us on getting the facts.

And why do I say the Obama Administration should grow up?   Because the Obama Administration is trying to punish Fox for trying to get the facts from the Administration (do I need to remind anyone that 4 Americans were murdered?)  The Administration in what looks like a coordinated effort is denying Fox access to information that they are handing out to other news organizations.  Why exclude Fox?  That is simple – to punish — to try to teach us a lesson not to pry,  not to look further for facts.

Here is my proof.  The Administration is now  3 out of 3:

1/  The State Department called a media conference call the night before its employees testified on Capitol Hill and OMITTED FOX FROM THE CALL; (they claimed it was an accidental oversight);

2/ About 2 weeks after the above State Department conference call to all in the media, the CIA had a media wide briefing and released their timeline.  The CIA invited major news organizations to the briefing but THE CIA EXCLUDED FOX FROM THOSE INVITED TO THE BRIEFING
3/ and now the latest…. DNI Director James Clapper told Capitol Hill last week that the DNI did not know who took the term Al Qaeda out of the talking points that was given to Ambassador Susan Rice.  It turns out that is not true and the DNI released a memo to the media last night indicating that DNI Director James Clapper was wrong last week when he said that (incidentally two plus months after the murders.)  The DNI / Intelligence removed Al Qaeda from the talking points memo given to Ambassador Susan Rice.    But that’s not all – it isn’t just the “who is on first” at the DNI, it is also what the DNI did to Fox last night.   The DNI LEFT FOX NEWS CHANNEL OFF ITS DISTRIBUTION LIST last night when it released this new memo to the media.

You know why Fox is left out 3 out of 3.  We at Fox are not simply accepting what they say, what they dish out.  We are looking for facts  and corroboration when there are inconsistencies and discrepancies.  To the extent we get anything wrong is because the Administration is doing whatever it can to thwart us from getting the facts.

They are trying to punish us into going away — hoping we get their message that we will never have access to them as long as we dare to challenge what they put out.  And guess what?  What they have put out and what we have challenged shows they are cagey and not giving the straight story.

Communications Theory, History, Israel, Jihad, True Talking Points

Walid Shoebat: ABC, NBC, and CNN correspondents pushing Hamas propaganda

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Hamas fires rockets at Israel for three years. Silence. Israel finally has enough and fights back. And NOW the world says, “Cease Fire.” – Jon Lovitz

Former Muslim Brotherhood terrorist Walid Shoebat:

We’ve already chronicled the egregious reporting over at CNN by Sara Sidner when it comes to what’s going on in Gaza. We can now add two more correspondents working for ABC and NBC respectively.

First, ABC’s Alex Marquardt tells George Stephanopolous that Palestinians believe they are firing rockets into civilian neighborhoods because they are “simply… defending themselves” and that “true peace cannot come along until Israel stops targeting people here in the Gaza Strip.”

Continue HERE to see the video reports.

It is not now, nor was this ever about land.

The Grand Mufti worked with Hitler to exact the “final solution” and try to kill every Jew..and that was before 1946.

So even when there was no land involved radicalized islamists were trying to genocide the Jews.

Most of the old “Palestine Mandate” that was drawn after WWI is in Jordan. So why is it that they never ask Jordan to give up some land…as they have plenty? Why is it that Southern Assyrians and Jordanians suddenly became “Palestinians” in 1946? Jews were living in that area as well so I guess this also makes them Palestinians by that standard. So how do you occupy yourself?

“Palestinians” were Jordanian citizens until 1988.

Maybe because it isn’t about was never about land, it is about killing Jews. As professed proudly by this Muslim girl:

See this video courtesy of Breitbart News:

On Tuesday afternoon, nearly 1500 Chicagoans gathered outside of the Thompson Center in downtown Chicago for a rally to show solidarity and support with Israel. The rally was quiet and peaceful, however, it did draw hostile opposition from anti-Israel protesters, who organized a counter protest across the street.

Aaron Cohen, Vice President of Communications for the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago told Breitbart News, “Their (Hamas) vision of what the outcome should be, is to eliminate the state of Israel… Until both sides say we want to live in peace together and Hamas has a policy to destroy the state of Israel, this is what we are going to see.”

Cohen’s claim seemed to be proven correct, when I asked a Palestinian-activist student what the solution to the conflict is at the counter protest. She told me, “it’s our land, we are going to get it back sooner or later.” After pressing further as to whether or not she meant only Gaza or the entire state of Israel, she continued, “It’s Palestine, they just call it Israel, so yeah, the whole map.”