This and That...

[Ross]

Rise of the Warrior Cop
Is it time to reconsider the militarization of American policing?

By RADLEY BALKO

(Copied from the middle of the article on the Wall Street Journal)
A number of federal agencies also now have their own SWAT teams, including the Fish & Wildlife Service, NASA and the Department of the Interior. In 2011, the Department of Education's SWAT team bungled a raid on a woman who was initially reported to be under investigation for not paying her student loans, though the agency later said she was suspected of defrauding the federal student loan program.

The details of the case aside, the story generated headlines because of the revelation that the Department of Education had such a unit. None of these federal departments has responded to my requests for information about why they consider such high-powered military-style teams necessary.

Americans have long been wary of using the military for domestic policing. Concerns about potential abuse date back to the creation of the Constitution, when the founders worried about standing armies and the intimidation of the people at large by an overzealous executive, who might choose to follow the unhappy precedents set by Europe's emperors and monarchs.

(From further down the article.)
Nor does it help when political leaders lend support to this militaristic self-image, as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg did in 2011 by declaring, "I have my own army in the NYPD—the seventh largest army in the world."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323848804578608040780519904.html?KEYWORDS=Swat

[Warph]

July 20, 2013 by Dean Garrison
Barry Soetoro Is Registered To Vote In DC – Barack Obama Is Not


President Obama will be able to spend as much time campaigning on Election Day as he wants to because he voted in Illinois on Oct. 25. An Explainer reader points out that the Obama family resides more than 700 miles from Chicago, at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW in Washington, D.C. Why is the president eligible to vote in Illinois?


President Obama will be able to spend as much time campaigning on Election Day as he wants to because he voted in Illinois on Oct. 25. An Explainer reader points out that the Obama family resides more than 700 miles from Chicago, at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW in Washington, D.C. Why is the president eligible to vote in Illinois?

Because he's serving the people. Illinois allows anyone who has "resided in this State and in the election district 30 days" before the election to cast a vote. According to judicial interpretation, residence requires both physical presence and an intent to make the residence a "permanent abode." People who own houses in different states can choose to make any of them their official residency for voter registration purposes, as long as they can plausibly argue it's their legitimate home. That would be a close call for the Obamas, who have spent most of the past four years in Washington, D.C., where their children attend school. An article in Chicago magazine noted that a couple who moved into the house next door to the Obamas' Chicago home in September 2011 didn't meet the Obamas until January 2012. Fortunately for the president, the Illinois voter-eligibility statute contains an exception for residents who are absent from the state "on business of the United States."

http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/April-2012/Barack-Obama-Next-Door-Neighbor/


This has no real significance in and of itself. Presidents choosing to vote in their home state is common. And upon checking Washington D.C. voter registration records, Barack Obama does not appear to be registered. But, guess who is registered? Barry Soetoro and he is registered with a White House address.





You can verify this completely (unless they pull the records) by going to The District of Columbia Board of Elections.
http://www.dcboee.org/home.asp
You will need a first name, last name, birthdate and zip code. Barack Obama's birthdate is August 4, 1961 which is also the date that Soetoro used to register. The zip code to use is 20500.

If you use the same info for both Barry Soetoro and Barack Obama you will find that Soetoro is a registered Washington D.C. voter and Barack Obama is not.

So the obvious question is the significance. Did someone find a way to register Barry Soetoro knowing that it would eventually come out and make Obama look bad?

Or is it possible that our President is so arrogant that he actually registered and may have voted twice?

If Barack Obama voted twice or even registered twice I would say it might qualify as a scandal for the ages. Get this in the face of as many people as possible. The more this info gets out, the more chance we have of it falling into the hands of someone who can run with this story and get the truth.

My gut feeling is that Barack Obama is arrogant enough that he might have actually tried to pull this off. We all know that voter fraud controversies are not foreign to him. But would he actually be so stupid as to try to vote twice? I don't know.

I actually slept on this one because I wanted to make sure I really believed it. Why would anyone be that stupid? Well we have no proof that Obama went there but we do know he has a big ego.

People with large egos do things just to see if they can sometimes. It's like a god-complex. They feel like they write the rules.

For this reason I am not positive that it was not Barack Obama trying to register twice. Yes, it could have been someone who was having fun or looking to do damage. And it also could have been Obama trying to see if he could get by with it.

A voter registration card was likely sent to the White House. Whoever was in receipt of that card did nothing to fix a fraudulent registration if that's what it is.

For whatever reason the system didn't not throw a red flag on this registration. With today's technology I would think that if someone tries to register to vote with a White House address it might at least throw up an alert.

I am not going to get to the truth this morning but we have enough information to raise a serious question.


Did Barack Obama vote twice in November?

Even if he did not vote twice and we can prove that he was knowingly registered twice you will have one of the greatest presidential scandals of all time and that's a fact.

Hold on folks it is liable to get stranger with this POS.

UPDATE: When you search Barack Obama on the DC Board of Elections site, notice what you get:

[Warph]

Your Corrupt President Barack Husein Obuma

Hawaii Elections Official Signed Sworn Affidavit That Obama Long Form Birth Certificate Doesn't Exist

July 21, 2013 by Dean Garrison

To see the two page sworn affidavit of Tim Adams:
http://cdn.freedomoutpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/110123adams1.pdf

http://cdn.freedomoutpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/110123adams2.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oruT3k2RmI#at=16

Published on Jul 17, 2013

http://www.belligerentpolitics.com/ce...

Certified in Triplicate Obama's Birth Certificate is a FRAUD without a single doubt

New Jersey police detective and lead investigator for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Cold Case Posse, Mike Zullo, discuss new developments regarding Obama's Birth Certificate.

Certificate released by the White House http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/defau...

Mr. Zullo zeroes in on the fraudulent nature of the alleged Obama birth certificate posted on the White House website.

Mike's affidavit, reveals that the issue is still alive and of paramount importance despite the decision by the main stream media to ignore the matter. You can help by donating to help at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office at: http://www.mcsoccp.org/

Cold Case Posse: "Obama's Selective Service Card poorly forged."


CCP Lead Investigator Mike Zullo on Obama Birth certificate "it's FRAUD" !!! -Pt 2



Cold Case Posse - Obama's Birth Certificate Investigation - Sheriff Joe Arpaio MCSO






Tim Adams, former Hawaii Senior Elections Clerk, signed a sworn affidavit back in 2011 that no long-form Hawaii Birth Certificate exists for Barack Obama and no proof exists that he was born in a Hawaiian hospital. Adams was employed at the City and County of Honolulu Elections Division from May 2008 through September 2008.

In a sworn affidavit dated and witnessed on January 20, 2011 Adams states, "Senior officers in the City and County of Honolulu Elections Division told me on multiple occasions that no Hawaii long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate existed for Senator Obama in the Hawaii Department of Health and there was no record that any such document had ever been on file in the Hawaii Department of Health or any other branch or department of the Hawaii government."

In addition to the lack of a genuine Hawaii long-form birth certificate Adams notes that there was no evidence that Obama was born at any Hawaiian hospital.

Senior officers in the City and County of Honolulu Elections Division further told me on multiple occasions that Hawaii State government officials had made inquiries about Sen. Obama's birth records to officials at Queens Medical Center and Kapi'olani Medical Center in Honolulu and that neither hospital had any record of Senator Obama having been bom there, even though Governor Abercrombie is now asserting and various Hawaii government officials continue to assert Barack Obama, Jr. was born at Kapi'olani Medical Center on Aug. 4, 1961.

Adams swore in his statement that the corruption ran deep and Hawaiian officials were working with Obama for purely political reasons. He stated, "During the course of my employment, I came to understand that for political reasons, various officials in the government of Hawaii, including then-Governor Linda Lingle and various officials of the Hawaii Department of Health, including Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the director of the Hawaii Department of Health, were making representations that Senator Obama was born in Hawaii, even though no government official in Hawaii could find a long-form birth certificate for Senator Obama that had been issued by a Hawaii hospital at the time of his birth."

Again, all of this transpired back in 2011, almost two years before the November 2012 elections and my bet is that 80% of our readers have never heard this story.

Tim Adams is just one man and it is his word against many who would dispute his claims. There is a major difference between Adams side of the story and those who would refute it. Adams has more proof on his side than those who would support the validity of the White House provided birth certificate.

Barack Obama's Hawaii birth certificate has proven to be a fraud by forensic examiners. No one has been able to provide a real birth certificate and it's been nearly 5 years since Barack took office. This is the perhaps the greatest travesty in American History.

[Warph]

Conservatives Dismissed Birther Concerns To Tackle Obama
On "Serious Issues" – How's That Working Out?

July 18, 2013 by Susan Harris

In a recent Freedom Outpost article by Tim Brown, we learned that Obama's presidential eligibility appeal will finally be ruled on by Judge Roy Moore and the Alabama Supreme Court.
http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/07/investigator-obama-eligibility-is-now-causing-congress-to-pay-attention/

As we look back, we see a long road strewn with the wreckage of a divided Conservative base. We see some Conservatives that can be likened to the kindly driver who, in a quest to prove his generosity and fairness, waves a car into traffic and directly into an accident — then drives on feeling no responsibility for the crash.


In the same way, Conservatives who refused to acknowledge there was a problem with Obama's birth certificate have continued to feel no responsibility for failing to defend Article II of the Constitution; and no remorse for attacking those who did. We watched them cite newspaper birth announcements, and a short form certificate, as proof enough. Eventually they accepted a long form certificate that experts and scientists agree was faked. "It's not a winning issue," was their mantra. Liberals so successfully mocked so-called "birthers," that many Conservatives slunk off embarrassed and distancing themselves from those who continued to assert the issue had grave Constitutional ramifications.


Many of us knew that the Democrats long-awaited, unblemished red heifer had been groomed to take our country into Socialism within two terms, but unfortunately for everyone, we couldn't unite to stand and say, "You shall not pass."


Five years into the presidency and steeped in scandals and corruption, those who scoffed at "birthers" got what they wanted. They wanted to tackle Obama on the "serious" issues. The point of those who could see through the lies surrounding his birth certificate was that they didn't want to tackle him on the serious issues. They never wanted him to get that far because they feared when he did, it would be too late to save the country.


To the Conservatives who wanted to "take the high road" and engage Obama on his own terms and merits, now is your chance. Try to expose his abuse of the Patriot Act or peel back the layers of lies on Benghazi. Try to get beyond the "Cincinnati office" and find who was really responsible for the IRS targeting of so many Conservative groups that it may have played even a small role in the outcome of the 2012 election.


Carol Davidson, the head of integration and media targeting for the 2012 Obama campaign, spoke on the Fox News special Your Secret's Out. Speaking in generalities of "the cave," a central Obama campaign hub that manipulated the voting public, she said: "The cave was where we put the analysts...Multiple analysts were in that room," doing "more like top secret work right? So, you know, you don't want...people coming by seeing what was on the screens of everyone. And we actually, during the election, didn't want people to know that the group even existed." Why the secrecy? Could it be because they knew Americans wouldn't appreciate their President dissecting and evaluating them in a way that no elected official has ever stooped to before?


In the cave, they worked on determining who the persuadable voters were in the battleground states. They successfully blitzed television networks that Republicans dismissed as irrelevant. Meanwhile the IRS was standing on the necks of Conservative groups who naively thought they were contenders in a fair fight.


Davidson developed something called the "optimizer," to let her know what television shows the target audience was watching and when. Obligingly, cable companies sold out our privacy to assist. "We were able to get the data from our vendors, ingest the data into our system, and at the same time pair that data to the voter file data," Davidson said. John Roberts, host of the show, told her some people might find it creepy that there "was that much data out there about them," only to learn it was used in a political campaign. In a valley girl accent dripping with the words "like" and "right?" Davidson answered, "To me at the end of the day you get e-mails or direct mail sent to your house all the time that like, you didn't know the person who sent them to you and they still knew your name...Is it just a difference, or is it really a concern about invading your life?"


Note to Ms. Davidson: Like, it really is a concern about invading our lives. Right?


Maybe I'm just feeling too parental, but when I see young women like Carol Davidson and Holly Paz, the IRS supervisor who issued rulings on tax-exempt groups, I can't help but feel like these women needed to be sent to their rooms without supper and had their cell phone privileges revoked, long before they acquired any position of power.


As a woman, I am embarrassed by the likes of Lois Lerner, Victoria Nuland, Susan Rice, Jen Psaki, Samantha Power, Carol Davidson, Holly Paz, and yes, Hillary Clinton. These volunteers mustered into Obama's army are helping him fundamentally transform (aka destroy) the country they are leaving to their own children. I just hoped women would be smarter than that.


It's hard to believe that Sarah Palin — a constitutionally articulate, intelligent, God-fearing woman with exceptional leadership skills — is merely a Fox News Contributor. I fear the day may never come when Palin, and others like her, will wrest our country from the mindless cast of Glee, who view us as experimental tadpoles in their Progressive petri dish.


Many Conservatives left the birth certificate issue nicely covered in the litter box. And while they spent their time attacking their fellow Conservatives, young Progressives like Davidson and Paz were using their Machiavellian skills to ensure they'd be ready when Conservatives decided it was time to tackle the "serious issues."


The fact remains that neither our citizens, nor our government or media properly vetted a presidential candidate who had a childhood and upbringing that would have raised red flags at the Behavioral Analysis Unit on Criminal Minds.


Many Independents, Democrats, (and some Conservatives) are just beginning to realize the scope of Obama's lies. With this much scandalous water under the "Hope and Change" bridge, the fact that a president forged/faked his birth certificate may actually be a small blot on the American landscape by the time he's done dividing and conquering it. The sad part is — it didn't have to be this way.

[Warph]

John Boehner:
"I Can't Stand On The Issues Because It Will Make My Job Harder"

by Tim Brown
July 23, 2013

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) apparently doesn't understand that his role as House Speaker is a leadership role, not a facilitator. Boehner appeared on CBS' Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer on Sunday and told him "My job in this — in this process is to facilitate a discussion and to facilitate a process so the American people can see what we're doing and so the members understand that we're dealing with this in a deliberative way."

Boehner sidestepped the question over and over as to whether he was in favor of a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal aliens in the United States. Instead of answering, he basically said that his job was not to take a stand, but to let the House "work its will."

"[P]eople have been trying to get me to do this since the day after the election," Boehner said.

"Well, you're the leader of the Republicans," Schieffer responded.

While Boehner has said that he believes Congress needs to do something about immigration, he seems lost on how to lead them, probably because he is not a leader.

This is exactly the kind of spineless, numb-skulled approach that has resulted in more advancement from the Socialist Democrats, including the implementation of Obamacare and the infamous "fiscal cliff" deal earlier this year. Why he was re-elected as Speaker of the House is anyone's guess.

"It's not about me," Boehner said. "It's not about what I want. What I'm — what I've committed to when I became speaker was to a more open and fair process. And as difficult as this issue is, me taking a hard position for or against some of these issues will make it harder for us to get a bill."

"If I come out and say I'm for this and I'm for that, all I'm doing is making my job harder," Boehner told Schieffer. "My job is to — as the leader of the House, is to facilitate this conversation and this process that involves members on both sides of the aisle, involves the American people and where they can see us moving in a deliberative, step-by-step, commonsense way."

What Boehner failed to state was that as a representative of the people of Ohio, he has a duty to determine where he stands on what he's facilitating too.

Though Boehner called the immigration system "broken," he said the House wouldn't take up the Senate's amnesty bill because it fell short of border security. So wait. He's willing to come right out and speak on that, why not the idea of citizenship for illegals? This seems a bit hypocritical to me.

"What we're going to do in the House is, we're dealing with this in a commonsense, step-by-step approach," Boehner continued. "We want to deal with this in chunks, chunks that the members can deal with and grapple with and, frankly, chunks that the American people can get their arms around."

Schieffer said Boehner's lack of a stance on the issue "is kind of an interesting take on leadership...In other words, you don't see yourself as someone who has an agenda? You're there to just sort of manage whatever your people want to do?"

"The House should be allowed to work its will," Boehner said. He then added that he's watched what other House speakers did before he got the job. "And, you know, I could talk about what happened just before I became speaker. All the bills were written in the speaker's office. Those bills turned — all turned out to be very unpopular, whether it was the stimulus bill, the Dodd-Frank bill, Obamacare, shoved through the floor of the House, 430 members, Democrats and Republicans locked out in the process. This is not the way the House is intended to work."

Boehner then made another attempt to try and save face concerning his lack of leadership and claims that he can't control his caucus. "Bob, I talked about this the day I was sworn in as speaker, that I considered my job was to open up the process, to let members participate. Yeah, I've got certain things that I'd like to see accomplished. But this is not going to be about me. I said it the opening day, and it's never going to be about me. It's what's in the best interests of the country."

"If we're listening to the American people and we're following their will, our House will work just fine," he concluded.

Well apparently you aren't listening John Boehner. You're playing with fire and you're going to get burned. In fact, you've already been getting burned. Don't you smell the smoke? You aren't following the will of the people or you would have started up that independent House investigation into Benghazi, but you waved your hand on that. If you were listening to the people, you would never have made that stupid fiscal cliff deal. There are far too many things to point out that Boehner and House leadership are not leading, but are simply caving to their opposition.

Finally, and this is just an observation, you can never trust a man who wears a pink tie.

[Warph]

Exclusive photo of the Duchess and her Royal Baby:

[Warph]

25 Terrifying Factoids Regarding the Democrat Utopia of Detroit

Guest post by Michael Snyder
July 22, 2013


It is so sad to watch one of America's greatest cities die a horrible death.  Once upon a time, the city of Detroit was a teeming metropolis of 1.8 million people and it had the highest per capita income in the United States.  Now it is a rotting, decaying hellhole of about 700,000 people that the rest of the world makes jokes about.  On Thursday, we learned that the decision had been made for the city of Detroit to formally file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy.  It was going to be the largest municipal bankruptcy in the history of the United States by far, but on Friday it was stopped at least temporarily by an Ingham County judge.  


She ruled that Detroit's bankruptcy filing violates the Michigan Constitution because it would result in reduced pension payments for retired workers.  She also stated that Detroit's bankruptcy filing was "also not honoring the (United States) president, who took (Detroit's auto companies) out of bankruptcy", and she ordered that a copy of her judgment be sent to Barack Obama.  How "honoring the president" has anything to do with the bankruptcy of Detroit is a bit of a mystery, but what that judge has done is ensured that there will be months of legal wrangling ahead over Detroit's money woes.  


It will be very interesting to see how all of this plays out.  But one thing is for sure - the city of Detroit is flat broke.  One of the greatest cities in the history of the world is just a shell of its former self.  The following are 25 facts about the fall of Detroit that will leave you shaking your head...


1) At this point, the city of Detroit owes money to more than 100,000 creditors.


2) Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities.  That breaks down to more than $25,000 per resident.


3) Back in 1960, the city of Detroit actually had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation.


4) In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit.  Today, there are less than 27,000.


5) Between December 2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost.


6) There are lots of houses available for sale in Detroit right now for $500 or less.


7) At this point, there are approximately 78,000 abandoned homes in the city.


About one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.


9) An astounding 47 percent of the residents of the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.


10) Less than half of the residents of Detroit over the age of 16 are working at this point.


11) If you can believe it, 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.


12) Detroit was once the fourth-largest city in the United States, but over the past 60 years the population of Detroit has fallen by 63 percent.


13) The city of Detroit is now very heavily dependent on the tax revenue it pulls in from the casinos in the city.  Right now, Detroit is bringing in about 11 million dollars a month in tax revenue from the casinos.


14) There are 70 "Superfund" hazardous waste sites in Detroit.


15) 40 percent of the street lights do not work.


16) Only about a third of the ambulances are running.


17) Some ambulances in the city of Detroit have been used for so long that they have more than 250,000 miles on them.


18) Two-thirds of the parks in the city of Detroit have been permanently closed down since 2008.


19) The size of the police force in Detroit has been cut by about 40 percent over the past decade.


20) When you call the police in Detroit, it takes them an average of 58 minutes to respond.


21) Due to budget cutbacks, most police stations in Detroit are now closed to the public for 16 hours a day.


22) The violent crime rate in Detroit is five times higher than the national average.


23) The murder rate in Detroit is 11 times higher than it is in New York City.


24) Today, police solve less than 10 percent of the crimes that are committed in Detroit.


25) Crime has gotten so bad in Detroit that even the police are telling people to "enter Detroit at your own risk".


It is easy to point fingers and mock Detroit, but the truth is that the rest of America is going down the exact same path that Detroit has gone down.


Detroit just got there first.


All over this country, there are hundreds of state and local governments that are also on the verge of financial ruin...


"Everyone will say, 'Oh well, it's Detroit. I thought it was already in bankruptcy,' " said Michigan State University economist Eric Scorsone. "But Detroit is not unique. It's the same in Chicago and New York and San Diego and San Jose. It's a lot of major cities in this country. They may not be as extreme as Detroit, but a lot of them face the same problems."


A while back, Meredith Whitney was highly criticized for predicting that there would be a huge wave of municipal defaults in this country.  When it didn't happen, the critics let her have it mercilessly.


But Meredith Whitney was not wrong.


She was just early.


Detroit is only just the beginning.  When the next major financial crisis strikes, we are going to see a wave of municipal bankruptcies unlike anything we have ever seen before.


And of course the biggest debt problem of all in this country is the U.S. government.  We are going to pay a great price for piling up nearly 17 trillion dollars of debt and over 200 trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities.


All over the nation, our economic infrastructure is being gutted, debt levels are exploding and poverty is spreading.  We are consuming far more wealth than we are producing, and our share of global GDP has been declining dramatically.


We have been living way above our means for so long that we think it is "normal", but an extremely painful "adjustment" is coming and most Americans are not going to know how to handle it.


So don't laugh at Detroit.  The economic pain that Detroit is experiencing will be coming to your area of the country soon enough.

[Warph]

The Obama Administration's Race-Baiting Campaign

Democrats want 2014 to be an us-versus-them election.

By Andrew C. McCarthy

The first thing to remember is that, with the Obama administration, there are no coincidences.


The attorney general of the United States is engaged in a shocking extrajudicial publicity campaign. Eric Holder is prosecuting George Zimmerman in the court of public opinion because he knows he wouldn't have a prayer of convicting him in a court of law. Worse, in doing so, Holder is quite deliberately stoking resentment and tension — under the guise of leading a "national conversation" about race.



At precisely the same time, the United States secretary of health and human services has loathsomely injected race into the debate over Obamacare. Toward the conclusion of this week's NAACP grievance fest, Kathleen Sebelius took the podium to demagogue Obamacare opponents. The fight against them, she inveighed, is reminiscent of "the fight against lynching and the fight for desegregation." She made these inflammatory remarks just as violence was erupting over Zimmerman's acquittal in the Trayvon Martin shooting, no small thanks to Holder's accomplice, Al Sharpton.


These episodes are not unrelated. They are coordinated.


The second thing to bear in mind is that race-baiting is the last resort of scoundrels whose insipid policy claims cannot survive collision with real-world conditions. The incitements that transform policy debates into an us-versus-them rumble are not about race per se. They are about advancing a hard-left agenda through the community organizer's crude bag of tricks — the extortion that Alinskyites euphemistically call "direct action." It is what happens when social-justice prescriptions turn out to be unjust and unworkable.


Sebelius is not agitating because she actually believes there is some faint connection between Jim Crow and opposition to socialized medicine. Sensing that no one was looking as the country kicked back for an extended Independence Day weekend, the president's Myrmidons conceded that Obamacare is collapsing of its own fiscally reckless weight. Alinskyites are about power. Obama realizes he won't have much left if Democrats are yoked to a smoldering train wreck in advance of the 2014 midterms. So he is struggling to keep it a looming train wreck. A third-string Treasury bureaucrat was thus dispatched to announce, in passing, that Obama has "waived" the employer mandate until 2015.


Quite apart from the lawless imperiousness of this maneuver, it is not going to work. Not being well acquainted with the private sector, the president may not realize that, for corporate executives, planning ahead means more than scheduling the next tee time. As National Review's editors have observed, Obamacare has already "complicated business decisions touching on everything from long-term investments to hiring to the number of hours worked by part-time employees." It is, right now, a ball and chain around the ankle of a high-unemployment, no-growth economy.


Even if Obama gets his way — such that only the employer mandate is delayed, with Republicans unable to shame Senate Democrats into putting off the equally noxious individual mandate — the calendar is not in his favor. The administration cannot allow 2014 to be an election about policy. It has to be an us-versus-them election, with the "us" enjoying the "animated by rage" advantage. What we saw from Holder and Sebelius this week is the ugly start of a wickedly divisive enterprise.


The rule of law demands that criminal statutes be applied faithfully and that law-enforcement officials respect due process by conducting their investigations in silence, speaking publicly only when they are prepared to file charges they can prove in court. Yet Holder and his Department of Social Justice have publicly and unethically agitated against George Zimmerman for over a year: partnering with Sharpton, saber-rattling about a federal civil-rights prosecution, and browbeating Florida officials into charging Zimmerman with murder despite evidence woefully insufficient to meet the statute's terms.


Now, Holder is ensnared in this web of his own making. The state prosecution predictably failed, and it turns out there has never been a plausible civil-rights prosecution. Holder can commission all the bizarre anti-Zimmerman "tip lines" he likes; it won't fill the cavernous holes in his case.


Obviously, he knows this. But he has also dramatically raised the expectations of Obama's hard-left base — and note that the anti-Zimmerman protests are being driven at least as much by Occupy types and outfits such as the Party for Socialism and Liberation as by anguished supporters of the Martin family. After all the attorney general's bold talk, they want to know where the civil-rights indictment is. Holder's stall is that he is "investigating," but Trayvon Martin was killed nearly a year and a half ago. How long does it take to investigate a comparatively straightforward altercation about which Florida has already completed a full-blown trial and the FBI has already conducted exhaustive interviews?

So in his NAACP stem-winder, Holder refocused the community organizer's lens from civil-rights laws to "stand your ground" (SYG) laws. You are to believe that, while he'd love to charge that civil-rights case, he is being frustrated — justice is being frustrated — by these self-defense provisions that "sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods." According to Holder, justice for Trayvon mandates that SYG be repealed. Effectively, the attorney general would surrender the streets to criminal aggressors by imposing a "duty to retreat" on law-abiding citizens.


SYG has become the proxy for the case the Left can't win. The game is given away by Holder's race-mongering echo chamber. Pressed by Fox's Bill O'Reilly, radio commentator Tavis Smiley admitted that Zimmerman's trial had been consistent with Florida law. But, he groused, "it's the law I have a problem with." Taking Holder's bloviating to its illogical end, Smiley explained that Florida law gave Zimmerman a "right to stand his ground" but insidiously deprived Martin of this same right because our nation generally views black men "as a menace to society."

[Warph]

(America's standing military REQUIRES good moral fiber.  Without good moral fiber, our military is no better than any other in the world.  oBUMa's leadership is a wedge separating America from God like no other President ever reckoned could happen nor probably ever considered.  It is made possible only through the weak-minded leadership of today's military.  They are unable to effectively state why God's presence is so eminently needed amongst the hearts and minds of our soldiers and sailors.  To remove The Word is to remove His presence, and that in turn removes Hope and Courage when needed most by our military members.  It removes Righteousness and Discernment, without which Wisdom cannot well be exercised.  Removing God from the military will have the very same self-destructive results as we have seen in our education system.  Already, ethics (man's temporal mentality) is replacing morals (God's eternal wisdom), and so homosexuality ranks higher than God, which is fundamentally upside down.  THAT is the fundamental transformation envisioned by oBUMa, and is the mantle of ages-old Evil)

July 23, 2013
Queers in, Bibles out in the new American military
Bob Campbell

[Sick POS] President ObuttHead's Defense Department is waging a private war.  While our Pentagon is entrusted with the duty to "protect and serve" a secular zone is growing within the ranks of the Military.

A little over a year ago then Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the Military would honor through "Gay Pride Month" the contributions of homosexual service members.  This announcement came just a few months after the Department of Defense had begun its subtle campaign against the Bible.


1)  The Air Force Services Agency through its spokesman Michael Dickerson stated the Air Force has "no requirement to have Bibles in the lodging checklist." [1a]  In other words, as a military member checks into housing (much like a civilian would into a hotel or dormitory) there is no availability of a Bible to be by his or her bedside.  In defense of this Air Force Chaplain (COL) Ron Crews, Retired, has stated, "while there is no requirement to have them, why should there be a requirement to remove them?" [1b]  By the way, these Bibles are free to the Military, paid for by donating Christian churches and foundations.


2)  The Department of Defense announced it would be removing military edition Bibles from its base exchange stores.  These military editions published by Holman Bible Publishers are "prominently emblazoned with exact replicas of the trademarked emblems of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force."  Known as the "Soldier's Bible, or Sailor's Bible and so forth," these Bibles have been published since 2003.  The Bibles "include a cover designed for the particular branch, as well as patriotic essays, prayers and hymn lyrics," according to Holman's website.  "Holman also produces Bibles for police, firefighters, sportsmen and students, each tailored to its particular audience." [2a]


Chaplin Ron Crews again spoke out: "I find it interesting that in the same week that the decision was announced to no longer allow Bibles to be published using military insignia, the Pentagon announced the celebration of homosexuality -- something the Scriptures clearly condemns.  Ironically, although DoD makes attempts to strengthen traditional families, it has never promoted a 'heterosexual month' to honor the contributions of heterosexual members who make up at least 97 percent of the military." [2b]


3)  The Air Force has stated that "personnel are not allowed to proselytize but are free to express their personal religious beliefs so long as it does not make others uncomfortable." [3a]  This comes as the result of an Air Force officer being told to remove a Bible from his desk. 


Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) challenged the word "uncomfortable."


Gohmert stated to Fox News:


If that is the standard, then Christianity will be over because there will always be somebody who is uncomfortable no matter what someone's belief is when it comes to Judeo-Christian beliefs.  It appears it is getting more and more difficult to be a Christian and serve in the military. [4a]

Fast forward to today and Obama's Defense Department is still at it.


Recent headlines:


Military Will Not Rescind Reprimand for Airman Opposed to Gay Marriage [5a]

Soldiers Could Face Court Martial for Discussing Faith, Says Pentagon [6a]

Wars are won and lost according to the sacrifices of our serving men and women.  Any veteran will tell you that being in combat, even serving in a support role, is dangerous work.  As far back as the founding of our Nation the Chaplain services have been an integral part of our Military.   When a soldier shows up for a Chaplain's prayer service he often prays, "God, please protect me, my comrades and my family."  He then leaves for duty knowing he may never return.


Where is our Military headed when God's word, the Bible, is relegated to second place because gay pride is more celebrated or the threat of court martial better enforced?  Such poison is now oozing within the ranks of the men and women who serve our Country.


May I suggest a way to fight back?  If you have a loved one enlisting in the Armed Services or returning to active duty, please give them a Bible on their way out the door.  It may mean nothing to them at the time but could be everything under the right circumstances.  Send your Senator, Representative or Base Commander a Bible and remind them that many of our serving troops may not have access to a Bible when they travel or visit a base exchange.

[Warph]

Random thoughts from wise thinkers

By Thomas Sowell on 7.23.13

"We do not live in the past, but the past in us"

"We shall not grow wiser before we learn that much that we have done was very foolish." (F.A. Hayek)


"Many respectable writers agree that if a man reasonably believes that he is in immediate danger of death or grievous bodily harm from his assailant he may stand his ground and that if he kills him he has not exceeded the bounds of lawful self-defense. That has been the decision of this court."
(Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Brown v. United States, 1921)


"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." (John Adams)


"A human group transforms itself into a crowd when it suddenly responds to a suggestion rather than to reasoning, to an image rather than an idea, to an affirmation rather than to proof, to the repetition of a phrase rather than to arguments, to prestige rather than to competence."
(Jean-François Revel)


"The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie." (J.A. Schumpeter)


"Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm — but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves."
(T.S. Eliot)


"The study of human institutions is always a search for the most tolerable imperfections."
(Richard A. Epstein)


"There is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men, and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief." (Edmund Burke)


"We do not live in the past, but the past in us."
(U.B. Phillips)


"It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be to-morrow."
(James Madison)


"A society that puts equality — in the sense of equality of outcome — ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests." (Milton Friedman)


"...leniency toward criminals contrasted starkly with severity toward the law-abiding citizen's right to defend himself or herself."
(Joyce Lee Malcolm)


"A government with all this mass of favours to give or to withhold, however free in name, wields a power of bribery scarcely surpassed by an avowed autocracy, rendering it master of the elections in almost any circumstances but those of rare and extraordinary public excitement."
(John Stuart Mill)


"Criticism is easy; achievement is more difficult." (Winston Churchill)


"Everybody has asked the question ... 'What shall we do with the Negro?' I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us!"
(Frederick Douglass)


"The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false." (Paul Johnson)


"It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation which sooner or later impairs their judgment. They are in grave danger of becoming careless and arrogant."
((President Calvin Coolidge)