Rich Democrats think concern "world falling apart" is funny

  Wow.
  We knew he was an ill informed Muslim Islamic terrorist sympathizer, unfocused and narcissistic but whew. (I should specify I believe Obama's sympathies lie with the "Arab Spring" that's pretty obviously evolving into an Islamic terrorist state uprising, something Obama referred to the other night as "the old order not working, but the new order not being born yet -- and it is a rocky road.")
  That a man who preens his peacock feathers routinely in front of admirers would reveal such a baseness of understanding of the threat matrix around us is, well, astounding.
  In the alternative media, Obama continues to be roasted about his behavior the last few months and especially the last week.
  As he embarks on yet another vacation weekend, he is, of course, oblivious and unconcerned about inconveniencing the 100% of people--millionaires & billionaires included--around him. From the NY Post:

“A flight restriction was issued banning operations in the NYC area due to the president’s visit on Friday for practically the whole weekend, causing major business losses and inconvenience for our passengers on the busiest weekend of the year. It is frustrating. We have had to move at least 10 flights and cancel a number of private charters, costing us thousands of dollars. We count on this weekend to get us through the quieter months of the year.

  The bizarre speech Obama gave the other day and then later that night reveals so much about him.
  Hardly ready to defend our foreign interests, Obama went back on the road begging for money and criticizing his fellow Americans for their "cynical genius" of disagreeing with his plan and, thus, screwing up his world, presumably because he's ignorant of what's going on globally :

President Barack Obama on Friday blamed dysfunction in Congress on a Republican Party he said is captive to an ideologically rigid, unproductive and cynical faction, urging like-minded Democrats to show up for November's midterm elections.

  As usual, the "messy world" he complains about is everyone else's fault, there's nothing we can do about it and, besides, it's the way the media is reporting it anyway.
  Plus Twitter.
  In an apparent complete disconnect from reality, Obama "reassured" Americans Democrats that now is the time that American leadership is so necessary. No, seriously, the guy who doesn't have a plan said this:

"If you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart," Obama said, referring to crises from the Middle East to Europe. "The good news is that American leadership has never been more necessary."

  Yeah, we know.  
  We know.
  Then there's this: when he explains to his rich sycophant friends who can "afford his policies," they laugh at this:

"Second reason people are feeling anxious is that if you watch the nightly news, it feels like the world is falling apart. (Laughter.) 

  I think that's what gets to me most about all the chicanery in the last few days.
  "It feels like the world is falling apart" is a call for laughter among the rich, who move their patriotically businesses to Canada to benefit themselves while still criticizing people out here like us who just don't want to be taxed to death. 
  Mind you, I have no problem with Burger King buying Tim Horton's and moving to Canada. What I have a problem with is Warren Buffett, who has proclaimed many times that he wants to be taxed more, is adored by the Obamabots and then gets a pass for doing what he claimed he doesn't want all of us to do.
  I dunno.
  Like my friends, I am nauseated by the news this past week.
  It's repellant. Disgusting. Pukeworthy.
  So, honestly, I've had quite a problem even writing this post.
  There's much more to criticize about Obama and his party's behavior this past week. 
  There's much to be concerned about regarding ISIS, drug cartels, al Qaeda, rumors of an attack on a major US city and, yes, Obama's behavior regarding the safety of this country. 
  Though I'm not comparing Obama's behavior to ISIS, I am saying there are many reasons to be concerned about the security of this country with a man like this in charge of it.
   And rich Democrats live behind their walls, behind their bodyguards and their gates, laugh at concern out here that the "world is falling apart," unworried that any of their family will be hurt. 
  It's so reassuring to know that fat cat millionaire billionaire Democrats laugh at the world "falling apart."
  Ha. 
  Ha. 
  Ha.

Richard Mourdock resigns

Once again Richard Mourdock has made me proud that I did not endorse him in his successful race against Dick Lugar. My decision was made after seeing him fumble campaign after campaign in his bid for congress and watching him serve as a county commissioner. I reasoned he was not senatorial material and that he wasn't Tea Party material either. He proved me right on the first point by losing to Joe Donnelly and on the second point this evening by resigning as State Treasurer in order to lock in his state pension at a higher rate. This is the sort of self serving behavior the public has come to expect from its leaders who demand sacrifice from everyone but themselves. Good riddance!
Governor Mike Pence immediately appointed Daniel Huge, chief financial officer and chief operating officer of the Indiana Finance Authority, will serve as state treasurer on an interim basis until a longer-term replacement can be identified to finish the rest of Mourdock‘s term, set to end Dec. 31.

Democrats fear climate change more than ISIS

From Pew Research;
Republicans are more likely than Democrats and independents to see Islamic extremist groups, Iran’s nuclear program, China’s emergence as a world power and the Israel-Palestinian conflict as major threats to the U.S. On the other hand, global climate change registers for Democrats as among the greatest threats to the U.S. (68% major). By comparison, just 25% of Republicans see global climate change as a major threat to the U.S.
Strange. Democrats fear fantasy more than reality. I'm not looking forward to the 11th of next month but the Democrat's worst fear is generations out.

Obama intends to issue more green cards

Now we'll see who has the moral high ground on immigration. To date the Obama administration and its enablers have resorted lofty moralizing that has some appeal in the popular media. Yes, we must do right by Miguel and Rosa who have kept our pool clean and cooked for our children all these many years but there is more to the Obama immigration agenda than amnesty for illegals. The administration is also meeting with corporate lobbyist to expand the number of green card issued above the annual global limit of 366,000. As the Washington Post puts it "the administration also is weighing measures that would streamline the legal immigration system by reducing huge backlogs of foreigners hoping to obtain legal permanent residence."
So it's not only the illegals that are here who will be competing for American jobs it's future illegal immigrants and maybe up to 1 million per year legal immigrants. This is being done at the behest of mostly Silicon Valley companies. As the Valley has been the source of billions in campaign cash for Obama it now feels it is owed. Donors are now called stakeholders and treated with the same deference if not more than the La Raza crowd and infinitely more so than mere taxpayers.
Since the annual green card number is set in law the Obama administration hopes to apply it own interpretation. Under the law, 226,000 green cards are reserved for family reunification and 140,000 for employment in specialized fields, numbers that Congress established in 1990. The spouses and children of permanent U.S. residents and foreign workers have counted against the limits as well but under the proposed rule change only the holder would be counted. There is also a proposal to “recapture” unused worker visas from previous years. That change alone could allow for an estimated 200,000 additional visas for foreign high-tech workers.
At the center of of the lobbying effort is Compete America. Members include the usual suspect, Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce but also Analog Devices, Business Software Alliance, Cisco Systems, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Intel Corporation, Microsoft, Motorola, National Semiconductor, Oracle, and Qualcomm.
This press release from Compete America's web site perhaps indicates Obama's strategy

“We welcome the news that the administration recognizes the positive impact highly skilled immigrants have on our economy. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced two proposed regulations that offer some hope. The first is a proposed rule to extend employment authorization to spouses of highly skilled immigrants while waiting for their green cards. These are taxpaying couples already living in America, raising their families, and contributing daily to U.S. job growth and our economy. The second is a proposal to enhance opportunities for certain groups of highly-skilled workers by removing obstacles to their remaining in the United States. Yet we know that much more must be done. As the Compete America Jobs Calculator has vividly demonstrated, the lack of highly skilled immigrants is costing us American jobs. We applaud the Administration for these proposed rules; but we urge Congress to act legislatively to enact immigration reform.”

If Republicans and the Tea Party can make the case to the public that the so called immigration reform is more about crony capitalism and corporate greed (which it is) it will be a cold November for Democrats.

Take them at their word

Maybe we could blame it on the Dog Days. It seems that the left and the Obama administration know that words have meaning, but things don't sound so very clever when they put pen to paper. Witness this breaking news from The Nation.

Caught on Tape: What Mitch McConnell Complained About to a Roomful of Billionaires. At a secret meeting of elite donors convened by the Koch brothers, McConnell laid out his plan for shrinking the federal government and whined about having to vote on minimum wage bills.

And now the coup de grace. The Nation has obtained a secret recording that proves McConnell said essentially the same thing in private as he did in an interview with Politico.

What McConnell didn’t tell Politico was that two months ago, he made the same promise to a secret strategy conference of conservative millionaire and billionaire donors hosted by the Koch brothers.

Whatever happened to double talk? How can McConnell get away with saying publicly what he says in private? The post  goes on to say that McConnell is in a tight race that may cost a preposterous $100 million and the Koch Brothers have contributed $41,800. Yo, boys, banality is not a virtue. Read your own text.
Then there is the EPA that seems to be telling a court not to believe any of the hysteria it has whipped up about ocean acidification.

“There were no in situ field studies documenting adverse effects on the health of aquatic life populations in either state,” the EPA’s motion says. “Nor was there any other information documenting effects on indigenous populations of aquatic life in state waters indicating stressors attributable to ocean acidification. The only information available regarding aquatic life in ambient waters under natural conditions was inconclusive.”

Anthony Watts at Watts Up With That puts it his way. "If I have understood this ridiculous situation correctly, the EPA is now in a position in which it may have to admit in court that some of its previous official statements about ocean acidification were not supported by available evidence."

One hopes for Lois Lerner's sake this faux pas was accidental otherwise the IRS lawyers have tossed her and God knows who else under the bus.

Thomas Kane, Deputy Assistant Chief Counsel for the IRS, wrote in the declaration, part of a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch against the IRS, that the Blackberry was “removed or wiped clean of any sensitive or proprietary information and removed as scrap for disposal in June 2012.”

Let's hope Barry can afford a better lawyer at his impeachment hearing. Did not the IRS attorney admit under oath that Lois and others deliberately destroyed evidence? Lerner was already under investigation when she got her new Blackberry and the IRS lawyer thinks everyone will overlook this admission? Give it up, girl and get a public defender.

Koch Industries ranked 36th on top donor list

Open Secrets .org has just released the list of top money donors. The definition of donor is complicated so I'll quote directly from the web site.
"Totals on this page reflect donations from employees of the organization, its PAC and in some cases its own treasury. These totals include all campaign contributions to federal candidates, parties, political action committees (including superPACs), federal 527 organizations, and Carey committees. Because 501(c) organizations do not disclose their donors, contributions to those groups are not included here, except in cases where the group discloses voluntarily. Only contributions to Democrats and Republicans or liberal and conservative outside groups are included in calculating the percentages the donor has given to either party."
So how did the perennial threat to American democracy, Koch Industries rank? It's 36th on the list of 50, just below the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and a notch above Google. Comcast Corporation which owns a controlling interest in NBC and its bastard step child, MSNBC placed 24th. Remember that the next time you hear the White House's go to man on Ferguson, Al Sharpton, bemoaning the role of corporate money in politics.

The danger of apathy

  Most of my friends, both in the working and retired world, have grown war weary of worrying over what Leftists are doing to "fundamentally transform" this country.
  These next two years will be critical to the future and health of this country. Even if Republicans take the Senate in 201 4, Obama will continue his destructive go it alone policies of writing executive orders and, now, we find, entering into "politically binding" agreements with other countries.
  So, having abandoned our allies and reinforced Islamic fundamentalists' reach into the Middle East, Obama will seek to further bind this nation's ability to maintain its sovereignty.
  Has there ever been such a selfish destructive leader from behind in this history of this country?
  The latest threat will further endanger the country's ability to heat and cool the homes of Americans, not to mention our economy. Obama wants the US to cut emissions further, though as a civilized nation we have already drastically emissions while other countries do nothing.
  The truth is that the only reason the US is still in better shape economically than European nations is that they are so badly run, so deeply in debt is our oil industry. Obama brags about the oil surge by private companies in this country but refuses to support on federal lands. Indeed, he has done everything possible to shut down oil production; if he could close private companies' oil production, I have no doubt he would.
  (Which really is fishy, considering that Obama pushed a 2 billion dollar "loan"  to Brazil for oil production, the product of which went to China, while at the same time "drastically slowing down leasing and permitting in the US and whining about “subsidies” to US oil corporations." Is he actively working against our success?)
  One important tactic to notice is that through all the turmoil of the last six years, our government is increasingly using fear as a motivator to beat people into submission.
  If you are a radio listener, you know what I mean, particularly the Ad Council psas.
  Is your child laughing age appropriately? If not, he might have autism. Does he have autism?
  Are you achy? Could you have lupus?
  Can your child breathe? If only the EPA could do its job and cut emissions, those poor children wouldn't feel like fish out of water, strangling in the very air they breathe.
  Does your family have a plan in case of disaster?
  Does a woman in your family have heart disease? Wear a red ribbon.
  Or wear pink for breast cancer.
  Are you having a stroke? Having a stroke?
  And you don't still smoke, do you? Because you'll die, if you do, and so will your children!
  Are you going to run out of money when you retire?
  And watch out or the IRS will get you. Or the police. Or Obamacare.
  What will we all do?
  I could go on, but the point is that by constantly pushing the fear meme, the feds are conducting a psy ops campaign, intentionally or not, to encourage dependency on government as parent.
  And the media is complicit, of course, as their goals are Obama's goals and vice versa.
  The Huffington Post (which exemplifies all these points, in addition to the utter devotion to pop culture decay and obsession) is pushing dramatic photographs of "frightened scientists" who fear the dire consequences of climate change:

We've read the daunting headlines. We've seen the bleak predictions. We know in our minds that climate change is putting our Earth's future in danger. And yet there's something uniquely frightening about this artist's attempt to transform global warming data into visceral, human responses.

  The tawdry cartoonography by Nick Bowers is even entitled "Scared Scientists," all looking pensive, frightened and ever so, um, intelligent as the photographer prompts his subjects for the camera. "I'm thinking polar bears drowning. Children standing alone on an island. Soccer fans blowing up because of environmental denial. Scream with your souls, people!"
  Lots more pics just like this one over there:

   Ooooo, so sad. See his wrinkles? See his concern that YOU'RE not biking instead of driving?
  And look at this one. 

  Look at the horror, the fear in her eyes, in the dropped jaw and sagging jowls. The forehead wrinkles emphasized through years of applying for grants from the government to support her anti-climate destruction program at whatever entity.
  Yeah. That'll do it, you rummy HuffPo fans who buy all this crap.
  Here's another example of climate change jumping the shark, or blowing it up, as it were.

  Fear is the motivator. Submission is the goal.
  Now is not the time to grow weary.
  If we do, these sickos win.

Ben Carson heats up

  It looks like Dr. Ben Carson is going to run for POTUS: a PAC has been organized to urge him to run, he has organized his own PAC for political purposes and for health care purposes, he has won the most recent polling and his presence in media is increasing.
  Indeed, Carson isn't denying his interest anymore, saying recently that he needs to gain momentum and cash by November to be a contender.
  Of course, the Democrat long knives are out for Carson.
  I especially like Carson's approach to politics; we have become increasingly hostile in this nation. I would attribute this to two circumstances: 1) in response to Leftist policies, ridicule and persecution of their "enemies," conservatives have become more vocal  2)  Leftists have gone wildly lawless since Obama was elected, utilizing all arms of government to achieve their goals.
  See, they were used to having us shut up and sit down, so rather than learn how to argue their positions logically, Leftists have traditionally bullied, name-called and used emotional appeals (often extremely cheesy) to "win" arguments.
  Carson has the sort of "healing" persona that could benefit this nation, if Leftists haven't gone so far as to completely lose civility altogether, from the Washington Times:

There is no need for political differences to precipitate hostility in personal relationships. We can build a strong, prosperous nation together if we are willing to talk and use our collective strengths to accomplish common goals. We must maintain open channels of communication and, as a society, we must learn to vote wisely with the ballot and the wallet.

  Carson is courteous to opponents, which could kill a campaign for president but he possesses a charismatic quality that many politicians simply do not have.
  With war clouds looming, we do not need another weak brain at the helm of the country which is why I've been pleased to observe that Carson is willing to venture into hostile territory such as this interview with the absurd Jesse Jackson.
  He needs to do more of this; indeed, Carson will be an attractive candidate. Carson's life story was made into a film starring Democrat Cuba Gooding. Heh.

Update: I forgot to add that the press is pushing the "people are not that upset about Obamacare" meme these days. This isn't true. They are. They have just had to triage their concern with concern over national security and the horrendous flood of illegal immigrants massing in our country like a foreign army.

Gateway Slander

Fair is fair and in this instance Missouri State Police Capt. Ron Johnson is being treated very unfairly. I have been very critical of the Ferguson Police Department and the St. Louis County Police but I have never resorted to selective video editing to make a point. Gateway Pundit posted a still photograph of Capt. Johnson with his gun drawn accompanied by the following text.

Now there’s this photo of Captain Johnson pulling a gun on white kids…
This photo was from the “Ride of the Century” stunt bikers event in 2013. There was No reason for a gun to be drawn. The kids were doing bike stunts and the highway was clearly already shut down at this point.

What Gateway Pundit was not telling his readers is the reason the highway " was clearly already shut down" was because it was a roadblock. Yes, the bikers, some of whom were "white kids" and some a great deal older staged their stunt bike event on public highways. Looking beyond Johnson one can see a long line of "white kids" on bikes. This was the midwest version of the hooligan bike gang that pulled Alexian Lien from his SUV and beat him mercilessly in Manhattan about a year ago. Among the "white kids" in that gang were two undercover NYC cops.
A quick search of YouTube produced this 24 second video that indeed does show Johnson drawing his gun.



A longer video puts things in perspective. It is not evident what caused Johnson to draw his weapon so it's impossible to tell if he was justified in doing so. It is clear that he is dealing with a lawless gang of thugs. Shame on Gateway Pundit.

Iran sends tanks into Iraq; Iraq has air forces from 4 countries.

To learn what going on in Iraq one has to get away from the news channels and popular domestic publications and look toward specialty media that is informed and knowledgeable in warfare. Real Clear Defense, a sister web site of Real Clear Politics, is a knowledge source but it's impossible to double check the facts as it is the sole source of facts. Three recent posts should tell readers how woefully they have been informed by the popular media about the ongoing violence in Iraq. The first post come from a mainstream source, Market Watch. If it has been reported on television I missed it but the U.S. is preparing to begin flying both drones and conventional aircraft over Syria.

The Pentagon is preparing to send surveillance aircraft, including drones, into Syrian airspace to gather intelligence on Islamist targets, laying the groundwork for a possible expansion of the limited U.S. military air campaign beyond Iraq, senior U.S. officials said.
The move amounts to an acknowledgment that U.S. intelligence-collection efforts must be expanded to provide a better picture of the threat posed by the group calling itself the Islamic State, which holds large swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory.
The U.S. military’s Central Command, which oversees American operations in the region, has requested more surveillance aircraft, including drones, to gather more intelligence on potential Islamic State targets, and officials said they could start flying missions over eastern Syria shortly.
“The Pentagon is preparing to conduct reconnaissance flights over Syria,” a senior U.S. official said. “There is no decision yet to do strikes, but in order to help make that decision, you want to get as much situational awareness as possible.”

On assumes that when the intelligence is collected Obama will authorize air strikes in Syria. He could avoid a constitutional crisis by asking for new war powers from Congress as he boxed himself in last year by asserting that he needed congressional authority to bomb Assad's forces for allegedly using chemical weapons. The other two post come from Real Clear Defense and are written by Jassem Al Salami. Al Salami keeps a low public profile and his location is never stated but one must assume he has some first hand knowledge of his subject.
The upshot of the two post are first, Iran has sent tanks into Iraq to fight ISIS and second, there are presently four air forces flying in Iraq air space; belonging to the US, Iraq, Syria, and Iran.

On Aug. 21, Kurdish social media activists published pictures that appear to depict elements of the Iranian 81st Armored Division entering southern Kurdistan via Khaneghein, north of Jalawla.
The 81st is a battle-hardened division that fought hard during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. And before that, it had fought Kurdish insurgents in Iran’s restive northern provinces. Today the 81st Division is fighting alongside the Kurds.
After the Iran-Iraq War, the division reorganized and re-armed. As other units gained Russian T-72 tanks, the 81st gathered up all the leftover, American-made M-60s, M-48s and M-47s. More recently, the 81st broke into three largely independent brigades—the 181st and 281st Armored Brigades plus a mechanized brigade.
The units the activists spotted in Kurdistan most likely are elements of the 181st, as it’s responsible for defending the Sar-e-Pole Zahab border town near Khaneghein. Previously, there had been a build-up of armored units on the Iranian side of the border.
Elements of same unit conducted a counterinsurgency drill in mid-May. M-60 and M-48 tanks provided fire support for infantry units in the Zulfagharwar game.
Iranian army aviation stations Cobra attack helicopters in the vicinity of the 81st Armored Division. Iranian AH-1J Cobras are old by world standards, with outdated electronics and limited missile compatibility. But their crews possess a wealth of experience battling Kurdish separatists. They know how to fight fleet-footed insurgent troops. Read more.

So U.S. ground troops could be teamed up with the Iranian army? And ISIS targets could be assigned to the air force best suited to the task?

On the morning of June 24, unidentified jet fighters bombed a market in the Islamist-held city of Al Qa’im in northwestern Iraq. The city, which recently fell to militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is near the Syrian border, so we’re assuming the bombers were Syrian—an eastward extension of Damascus’ brutal air war against rebel forces.
At approximately the same time as the market exploded, Iraqi social media users reported contrails over Baghdad heading from west to the east. The contrails didn't match the usual twin pattern of civilian airliners or military cargo aircraft, indicating fighters.
Four separate air arms are now active over Iraq, which is fighting a desperate battle against invading ISIS militants coming from Syria. Iraq, Syria and—possibly—Iran have bombed ISIS. And the U.S. Navy and Air Force are flying reconnaissance missions. Read more.

Since that post the U.S. has moved beyond reconnaissance and has hit ISIS forces.
Like it or not the U.S. will be aligned with Syria and Iran in the fight against ISIS. The only other course is to do nothing. I can hardly wait for Obama to talk of partnering with our allies.

So Lois Lerner's emails are alive and well and living on a secure server!

After the IRS has testified before Congress and provided written testimony to two different federal district courts a DOJ lawyer representing the IRS states that all government electronic documents are backed on secure servers but that it would be too much trouble to retrieve them. No mention was made of the all-encompassing backup system in testimony filed in Judge Emmet Sullivan's court. Judge Reggie Walton who is hearing the True the Vote case was sold the same bill of goods. One suspects the IRS is about to regret that omission. No federal agency needs two federal judges angry with it at the same time.


Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch:
'So everything we've been hearing about scratched hard drives, about missing emails of Lois Lerner, [and] other IRS officials, other officials in the Obama administration,' Fitton told Fox, 'it's all been a pack of malarkey.'
'They could get these records, but they don't want to. And they haven't told anyone about it, frankly, until we were able to get it out of them on Friday.'
'And there's no such thing as Lois Lerner's missing e-mails,' he insisted. 'It's all been a big lie. They've been lying to the courts, to the American people and to Congress.'
If the Republicans regain the Senate, as it appears they will, you would not want to be IRS Director John Koskinen or FBI Director James Comey. Republicans will name House-Senate joint committee to investigate the IRS and Comey will have to explain his supposedly independent agency's lack of action not only in the IRS matter but also in the cases of destroyed data at the EPA, the FEC, and the HHS.

Oh God, Whatever happened to good taste?

I'll reserve judgment on Connecticut gubernatorial candidate Joe Visconti. Suffice it to say I find him and his campaign video a little overstated. The Hartford Courant reports " Joe Visconti has muscled his way onto the November ballot," meaning he collected the required 7500 signatures. I don't think the Courant reported that either the Pat Malloy, the laughably incompetent Democratic governor nor his Republican challenger Greenwich millionaire Tom Foley muscled their ways onto the ballot.
We do not have another Governor Scott Walker or Sarah Palin in Visconti. In fact I can find no member of any Tea Party group that even mentions his name nevertheless he is referred to in the Courant and online as the Tea Party candidate.
If your tastes run to the garish you may be drawn to the Pontiac Grand Ville that was once owned by Buck Owens. It may be Visconti's most endearing personal asset.

Deliver us from moral hazards

Where would we be without the clear thinking that the NYT's editorial page brings to public discourse? In what maybe the foremost example of hard headed, deductive, editorial, reasoning since "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus", Michael Boyle warns that moralistic language used by Obama and Kerry creates a moral hazard and blurs reality.

In an eerie echo of President George W. Bush’s description of the global war on terrorism as a campaign against “evildoers,” President Obama described ISIS as a “cancer” spreading across the Middle East that had “no place in the 21st century.” Secretary of State John Kerry condemned ISIS as the face of a “savage” and “valueless evil,” while Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, called the group “barbaric.”

Where was Mr. Boyle when Vice President Biden called the Tea Party terrorists?

There is no question that ISIS has committed thousands of grave human rights violations against civilians in Iraq and Syria, and that many of its most gruesome acts, like the execution of Mr. Foley, constitute war crimes. Anyone with a conscience is disgusted by their brutality toward not just Mr. Foley but the thousands of Iraqi and Syrian civilians whom they have killed, raped and even buried alive.

Of course, as Mr. Boyle points out, that doesn't make them bad people. According to him normative labels only confuse the issue. He probably wet all over himself when President Ronald Reagan called the old Soviet Union an evil empire yet it was Reagan's perception of evil and the courage to call evil by its proper name that gave him the moral resolve to win the cold war. Readers should not be surprised to learn that "see no evil Boyle" was a counter terrorism advisor to the first Obama presidential campaign.

Unlike Al Qaeda, whose dreams of forming a caliphate were little more than mysticism and hyperbole, ISIS now occupies large swaths of Syria and Iraq, administering social services and running rudimentary Shariah courts in its claimed Islamic State. In other words, it operates less like a revolutionary terrorist movement that wants to overturn the entire political order in the Middle East than a successful insurgent group that wants a seat at that table.

In addition to wondering what sort of social services other than ethnic cleansing ISIS brings to the party one wonders if ruthless efficiency begets moral legitimacy. If a group can capture a territory quickly enough it becomes a state deserving a seat at the table? It's as if a horse thief can steal horses quickly enough he be comes a respected rancher and begin lynching horse thieves.
When murder is no longer sin nor crime but merely a human rights abuse equivalent to keeping a felon in a dirty cell Boyle and ISIS will have defeated morality and not for the first time. Up until the very day the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from power and jailed in Egypt the New York Times, the State Department, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama portrayed the Brotherhood as merely an especially exuberant fraternal organization not much different than the Shiners or Knights of Columbus. Without moral labels there is little morality. This editorial is a reminder to Obama to turn off the heat lest the public realize he is not doing anything.

The saddest thing about Barack Obama's administration

  One of the most discouraging aspects of the last six years is the continued insistence of many Leftists, culled from today's New York Times comments section, that Barack Obama  
1) is still Godlike    
2) deserves more vacation time than he's getting  
3)  is a hard working contributor to the country's security  
4)  is not responsible for anything under his watch since W
  Oh, and since Congress because Harry Reid Republicans haven't passed any legislation to further Obama's goals.
  The article I reference was by famous Leftist Dowd who has become safely but increasingly critical of her guy Obama, but, still. 
  Oh, and yeah, other Leftists seem increasingly concerned that the vacant Obama is a Being There POTUS, something many of us tried to tell everyone, who's going to ruin it for other Democrats, not to mention the rest of the country.
  The Al Franken faction has admitted even comedians have contributed to the lack of responsibility Obama feels for his job, per Kyle Smith at the NY Post. There's nothing funny about our Doofus in Chief.

The charter Choom Ganger, confessed eater of dog and snorter of coke. The doofus who thinks the language spoken by Austrians is “Austrian,” that you pronounce the p in “corpsman” and that ATMs are the reason why job growth is sluggish. The egomaniac who gave the queen of England an iPod loaded with his own speeches and said he was better at everything than the people who work for him. The empty suit with so little real-world knowledge that he referred to his brief stint working for an ordinary profit-seeking company as time “behind enemy lines.” The phony who tells everyone he’s from Chicago, though he didn’t live there until his 20s, and lets you know that he’s talking to people he believes to be stupid by droppin’ his g’s.

  Perhaps I should take heart that middle of the road commenters are making more of a commitment to telling the truth about what a limp, ineffectual and selfish leader from behind we have in charge of our destiny.
  Most cuttingly insightful is Obama voter NY Post's Michael Goodwin's commentary today:

He looked like an empty-headed frat boy, numb to the world.
Maybe that’s not just an appearance. Maybe it’s the truth. Maybe that’s all there is.
It is a bitter idea to consider. To say he is a failed president, even unfit, does not rule out the possibility he deeply wants to measure up but doesn’t know how.
But what if it’s worse than that? What if, after six years of frustration and failure, he’s just not into being president anymore?

  Yes, the whole world was shocked at Obama's behavior last week, denouncing the Foley beheading and laughing on the golf course 7 minutes later, which prompted a White House announcement that they had tried to save Foley in a failed attempt. 
  Why you would announce that failure was for political purposes only, certainly not for the good of the country.
  His admirers have been reluctant to mention that, except for the carefully executed White House photographs, Obama never seems to be working, though his critics hound him because he's so into his "endless vacation" that he wears Golf Game, undoubtedly spending hours studying the results before his dinner parties, scheduled because he's just so bored with the rest of society that he needs the intellectual stimulation of "talking and talking and talking and talking" with people who think he's God.
  But setting national security aside as the primary function of a Commander in Chief, there's one thing that bothers me the most about Barack Hussein Obama's legacy.
  He had the opportunity to really improve and strengthen not only race relations in this country, but also the economic and spiritual climate for the oppressed.
  He had a once-in-a-century opportunity to unite the races, to encourage minorities to build strong families, nurturing not only their societal responsibilities but their children's educations.
  Instead he has squandered his time in office, instead preferring to party down with the Beyonces of the country between jetting around the country from estate to fundraiser after fundraiser.
  There's no fooling ourselves.
  The unrest in Ferguson is partly attributable to the bad attitude and neglect of this president, encouraged by "his" (note: apparently not the U.S.'s) attorney general, who mocks and ridicules Whites for being unwilling to enter into discussions about race, for some odd reason.
  Quite apparently any leader from behind who regards the shyster Al Sharpton as a confidant is himself empty, deceitful and corrupt.
  And that is a tragedy, both for the country and our struggling Black families, or what's left of them.
  What it is not is a tragedy for Barack Obama because, frankly, it's pretty obvious at this point that he doesn't care.

Everything you think you know about Kurdistan is probably wrong!

From the children's web site, Vox;

But it wasn't until they encroached into semi-autonomous Kurdish territory and near the Kurdish capital of Erbil — an oil boomtown full of Western companies like Chevron and Exxon Mobil — that the Obama administration decided to authorize air strikes against ISIS.
That rather felicitous timing has already led a few commentators to suggest that the current US intervention is all about oil. That's probably overstating things — the US intervention seems to have a variety of goals here, like protecting the Kurds more generally and preventing ISIS from massacring Iraq's Yazidis. But it'd also be wrong to pretend that oil is totally irrelevant to the larger crisis in Iraq.

We heard this before. It's always about the oil. Yes, oil is all important from the Iraqi point of view. That's how its population eats but the suggestion that the profit motive drives U.S. military policy in the middle east is overworked and overstated. Were it not for the internecine blood lust exhibited by both Sunni and Shia alike they would be eating pretty well.
While researching the impact of oil production in Iraq I stumbled across what must be the best kept secret in the American media. As far as the semi-autonomous Kurdistan is concerned the Iraq War was a stunning success. While Baghdad and the southern two thirds of the nations are ravaged by mass executions and suicide bombers the third leading cause of death in Kurdistan is automobile accidents. With a population of 5 million Kurdistan has 1.1 million automobiles or about one car for every four and a half Kurds. With its abundance of oil and small population Kurdistan is being compared to Kuwait and Dubai. Erbil is, as Vox termed it, an oil boomtown full of Western companies but think along the lines of cosmopolitan Dallas, Texas not some muddy shanty town from Oklahoma Crude.
Note: Because of the space limitations of this blog format each photograph is linked to the original. Right click to see it in full size. The prosperity, or better, the opulence of Erbil must be seen to be believed. None of this existed before Saddam Hussein was deposed.
Does your hometown airport look this modern?
Then there are vocational schools such as the Lukoil Training Center where the oil industry schools its workforce. Eat your heart out Texas A&M!
The Divan Erbil Hotel looks comfy!
The Kurds are the quintessential moderate Muslims. They are pragmatic and forgiving or devious and opportunistic depending on who is doing the evaluation but they have put aside past border skirmishes with Turkey and built an oil pipeline to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan thereby cementing a working relationship with an old enemy, cutting the central government of Baghdad out of the action, and avoiding a potential choke point in the Strait of Hormuz in one fell swoop. Eventually the pipeline may carry as much as 250,000 barrels per day.
Readers may wonder who made all of this possible. The answer is President George W. Bush.
Ray Hunt of Hunt Oil is one of those outsized personalities cast in the mold of T. Boone Pickens or our personal favorite Aubrey McClendon. Hunt, like every other Texas oilman is always described in the liberal press as a close confidant of President Bush. In 2007 when the central government of Iraq could not pass legislation as to how oil revenues would be divvied up Hunt used his phone and his pen. He contacted the Kurdistan regional government and signed an oil exploration contract leading the way that 7 other American oil companies followed. This was de facto independence for Kurdistan. The popular press howled cronyism and Congressman Henry Waxman, who chaired the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held hearings but in the end it was an unmitigated victory for the Kurdish people. Yes, to the Kurds it is all about the oil. They sit on an estimated 45 billion barrels. The remainder of Iraq could enjoy much of the same were it not for religious intolerance. Kurdish tolerance and moderation have made them receptive to Western Thinking and while they meet the west on their own terms this flash dance in a palatial shopping mall is strong evidence of an affinity to Western Culture.


These two videos from Jewish News One document Kurdistan's success and present graphic evidence of Kurdish prosperity.





Lastly, this video offers a quick tour of Erbil and northern Iraq.

Democrats encourage racism, hate in Ferguson

   It's difficult to watch this week's political and racial activities and not wish just about everybody in charge would just go to hell.
  I really can't say Obama is uninterested in his job; to say that would be to imply he ever viewed the presidency as a "job." He hasn't. He's seen it as some kind of royal perk he was destined to enjoy after a lifetime of preening preference and grandparental head petting.
  After another bloodless speech about yet another crisis, the  Obama who had some dynamism, who had some energy for the office, is disappearing. 
  What we are left with seems like a character out of the Manchurian Candidate or worse, Being There. Characters who have little substance whose strings are being pulled by others or who is simply so vacant but worshiped by fools that the entire country is in danger because of ineptitude.
  He sends his hard edged activist conspirators into difficult situations to muscle the locals into doing what the feds want.
  The entourage arrives.
  Eric Holder has gone to Ferguson accompanied by 40 FBI  and various DOJ officials to "convince" the people of Ferguson that the feds are aware of Black grievances concerning the law and that "justice" will be served. 
  How does Holder deal with the issue?
  He makes his own racial grievances part of the story, complaining that he was stopped by cops and "humiliated" by having his car searched.
  This is because he was Black?
  Please.
  Back before 9/11 in the hippie area, my friends and I were stopped and searched at the American border because we looked like hippies.
  The beleagured Ferguson residents complained to Holder this:

Though African-Americans are about 70% of the population, last yer they accounted for 94% of arrests, 92% of searches, and 86% of vehicular stops. The racial divide is deep, perhaps deeper through the lens of Brown’s killing.

  Apparently if you make up 70% of the population, you should be exempt from arrests, searches and vehicular stops.
  Pleased that Holder had arrived with an expensive taxpayer entourage, this "minority" population ignores the fact that 90% of Black men are Black men. 
  Indeed, in Chicago last weekend, a breathtaking seven people were killed and 29 wounded, most of them Black. Killings in Chicago are so common that people just shrug and say, "That's Chicago."
  Yet when a cop shoots a "teenager" who's twice his size at nearly 300 pounds who appears at this juncture to have assaulted him causing grievous injury, all hell breaks loose, with "looter tourism" becoming a major "industry" in the area.
  Black crime has reached enormous levels: in fact, Whites are overwhelmingly assaulted by Blacks than the reverse.
  The Democrat governor called for "justice" for the 300 pound "boy" but not for the cop.
  Does any of this sound fair to all parties?
  Watch this stunning video by Bill Whittle to understand what's really going on in America, encouraged by the nation's first Black president, elected by a majority of voters in this country.
  It's all about power.
  As Whittle concludes, these progressives would rather clutch their grievance industries and rule over the ruins of what's left of the country than try to heal the nation and push independence from the government.

It's not seismic but it's moving!

It's beginning to look like 2010. It's extremely hard to keep track of 435 House races but Stuart Rothenberg does just that. What Rothenberg and his writer Nathan Gonzales are seeing is a subtle shift in competitive House races. In a Roll Call post Gonzales writes;

Democrats believe, as competitive races become more engaged and the party exercises some of its financial advantage to get its message out, that some contests will turn in their favor. That scenario is possible, but in many cases Democratic challenges aren’t developing as quickly as expected and some Democratic incumbents are struggling to gain their footing.
We’re changing The Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call ratings in a half dozen House races, all in favor of Republican candidates:
California’s 21st District: The race between Republican Rep. David Valadao and Democrat Amanda Renteria moves from Tossup/Tilts Republican to Leans Republican.
California’s 26th District: The race between Democratic Rep. Julia Brownley and Republican Jeff Gorell moves from Democrat Favored to Leans Democratic.
Illinois’s 12th District: The race between Democratic Rep. Bill Enyart and Republican Mike Bost moves from Leans Democratic to Tossup/Tilts Democratic.
Illinois’s 13th District: The race between Republican Rep. Rodney Davis and Democrat Ann Callis moves from Tossup/Tilts Republican to Leans Republican.
Michigan’s 8th District: The race between Republican Mike Bishop and Democrat Eric Schertzing moves from Leans Republican to Republican Favored.
Texas’s 23rd District: The race between Democratic Rep. Pete Gallego and Republican Will Hurd moves from Democrat Favored to Leans Democrat.

A race that I find interesting is the New Jersey Senate race. While trendy and publicly affable Cory Booker has a 7 point lead in the most recent poll his lead is quickly sinking in the race against Jeff Bell. At 70 Bell is running in his first statewide race. The economist/author started the race with a pronounced disadvantage in name recognition and resources but seems capable of turning the race competitive.

The Anonymous audio tapes contradict the official account of the Ferguson shooting.

Heroes and sympathetic victims are in short supply in Ferguson. There are no good actors. The only winners are the cable news channels who breathlessly offer up the latest tidbits of hearsay evidence that validates the reporter's particular point of view. My own view is anyone who shoots an unarmed man 6 times, and we do not know yet how many times he missed, should expect to have to defend that decision in a court of law. I would presently make Officer Darren Wilson a slight favorite to prevail not because I favor that outcome but society is very reluctant to punish those whom it charges to keep order.
One detail that has not gained much currency is the question, did Officer Wilson bother to call in the shooting. The assertion that the shooting was not reported was made by actor/activist Jesse Williams of Grey's Anatomy renown on CNN's State of the Union.

"This started with a kid getting shot and killed and left in the street for four hours," Williams said. "I've never seen a white body left in the street for four hours in the sweltering heat. I've never — you know, the cop doesn't call — doesn't call in the shooting. The body isn't put in an ambulance. It's (shuttled) away in some shady unmarked SUV."

Dorian Johnson's lawyer, Freeman Bosley is quoted in the Washington Post as saying, that Wilson "doesn't attempt to resuscitate. He does not call for medical help. The officer didn't call it in that someone had been shot."
PolitiFact dissected Williams' assertion and conclude it may or may not be true. It traced Williams' claim to the Saint Louis County Police dispatch recording that was posted by the hactivist group Anonymous. Apparently the recording didn't evoke much interest as there are only 175 views currently. Incredibly county dispatch learned of the shooting from the news media. The dispatch operator called the Ferguson Police Department and it was unaware of the shooting.
Fast forward to 9:30. The dispatcher says Ferguson is asking for crowd control assistance at Camfield and Copper Creek.
At 11:15 she says there was an officer involved shooting but does not know the source. "It was just called into my desk."
At 11:25 "Be advised this information came from the news."
At 11:55 "We just called Ferguson and they don't know anything about it."



The dispatch audio is at variance with timeline created by Saint Louis Public Radio from reports of the Ferguson Police Department.
12:00:07 p.m., Wilson left a scene where he was assisting with a "sick call."

12:01:50 p.m., a shooting event is opened by the Ferguson police department.

12:02:22 p.m., Ferguson dispatch alerts another officer, who is en route and arrives on scene.

12:04:55 p.m. EMS is contacted.
If EMS ever did arrive they certainly kept a low profile. In any event the audio suggests breathtaking incompetence at the best and a conspiracy to concoct a plausible alternative account at the worse.
 

Wow! Montana Democrats hit the bottom of the barrel

Montana Democrats must have looked high and low, especially low, to come up with a candidate of this caliber. Amanda Curtis was selected to replace plagiarizing Senator John Walsh.
 

What ever happened to Tom Steyer?

When Tom Steyer promised to put $100 million into the 2014 elections Senate Democrats showed their enthusiasm and greed by staging an all night session to discuss climate change. Steyer's specific promise was he would raise millions from his wealthy friends and match up to $50 million out of his own pocket. Two good friends, Marion and Herb Sandler whose World Savings Bank figured prominently in the financial meltdown of 2009 managed to scrape together $1 million but that's about it. Goldman Sachs smeared 100 grand to NextGen Climate Action as did the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employee. Some jaybird from Fort Lauderdale kicked in 10 thousand and that is the end of the donor list.
Steyer has put $13.4 million into his PAC so as of July 21 the Democrats $100 million windfall looks a lot like $15 million.

Democrat overreach as Lehmberg's shameful history is exposed

  I remember watching the video of a drunk Travis County District Attorney back when she was caught belligerently demanding to be released even though she was drunk as a skunk. Many Texans, apparently not Democrats, were shocked that she refused to give up her job as both DA and head of the Public Integrity Unit.
  It's pretty appalling stuff, so when Lehmberg was at the bottom of the current indictment of Governor Rick Perry, my first reaction was this: Why wouldn't SHE want to put her bad behavior in the past?
  Why would SHE want to further draw attention to her shameful and embarrassing conduct as an officer of the court?
  Lehmberg pled guilty, served time and paid a fine for driving with three times the acceptable value; she even had an open bottle of vodka in her car.
  Yet here we are in the middle of another Democrat led witch hunt, using the law to punish their enemies.
  Perry used his legal power to veto money to "integrity" unit Lehmberg heads; her judgment has been called into question repeatedly for its vindictive politicization:

The unit Lehmberg oversees investigates statewide allegations of corruption and political wrongdoing. It led the investigation against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican who in 2010 was convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering for taking part in a scheme to influence elections in his home state - convictions later vacated by an appeals court.

  When Democrats like Axelrod and Joe Trippi call this indictment sketchy, Texas Democrats---the weird Austin bunch--ought to realize they've made a mistake.
  Think of the "fun" Republicans can have showing this --really incredible-- video:

  Lehmberg has other problems, as one might have guessed.
  This is terrible conduct by Democrats, once again, but it doesn't surprise.
  This kind of thing is all to common; one hopes the public will have had enough by the next election.

Jail innocent US citizens, fly illegal invaders to Hawaii.

  Sheneen Allen is a great example of the uneven application of legal principles to US citizens; you may have heard of Sheneen, who has a license to carry in Philadelphia but went to New Jersey for a birthday party, not realizing she was breaking the law because New Jersey does not recognize her license to carry.
  Shockingly, Allen spent 46 days in jail and has been charged and may spend a minimum of 3 years in jail for having a licensed weapon in her purse.
  Again, this story is shocking, especially considering the thousands of criminals and terrorists and/or children who are pouring across our borders illegally and being released without ID or charges into the general population.
  In fact, Obama's government pampers these people and children, at times even flying them to Hawaii.
  Where's the justice, one wonders.

Ferguson's Lawless Law Enforcement

The shooting of Michael Brown to many of us was never about race; it is about liberty. The idea that a jaywalking hassle could escalate into a fatal shooting would have been gist for Saturday Night Live a decade ago. I can sympathize with the store owners who lost property and others who may have suffered vandalism but the city fathers of Ferguson deserve everything they get. Their behavior is befitting the Obama police state. Consider:

• Four days after the shooting we still do not know the how many times the victim was shot. Authorities say a "preliminary autopsy" has been performed but it may take 6 weeks to get the toxicology report as if evidence the victim had smoked a joint in the past week is a mitigating factor.
• The officer's name is still bring withheld. Ordinary citizens do not enjoy this consideration. If they fear for the officer's life put him in the federal witness protection program.
• Police routinely level automatic weapons at peaceful demonstrators.
• Police departments do not have the authority to stop peaceful demonstrations. Nor should fire tear gas at peaceful demonstrators. In this video anyone in this residential neighborhood seems to be fair game.

• Reporter are are told to leave the area. The FAA order issued an order essentially making aerial photography impossible. Two journalist, Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post were arrested  apparently for being reporters. They were released a short time later but were unable to obtain a copy of the police report. The arresting officers refused to give their names. Lowery explained the the local McDonalds had become a favorite work place for the media. It offered Wi-Fi and charging stations.

SWAT just invade McDonald's where I'm working/recharging. Asked for ID when I took photo. pic.twitter.com/FOIsMnBwHy
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) August 13, 2014

Here is the confrontation that lead to their arrest.

Someone once said you don't pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel and probably someone in the Ferguson Police Department saw the error.

 

I just called Ferguson police chief to ask about @WesleyLowery and @ryanjreilly, told him what I knew. His response: "Oh, God."
— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) August 14, 2014

Radio Television Digital News Association’s Executive Director Mike Cavender wrote a letter to Ferguson, Missouri’s chief of police on Wednesday urging “Ferguson police to work with journalists.”
"RTDNA has received reports of journalists being subjected to harassment and restrictions of access to areas of the city not being enforced on the general public"
Soon Senator Claire McCaskill took to twitter and announced the she had called the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ. Yes, rioting is wrong but this governmental thuggery is despicable.
  and

Images & reports out of #Ferguson are frightening. Is this a war zone or a US city? Gov't escalates tensions w/military equipment & tactics.
— Justin Amash (@repjustinamash) August 14, 2014

McConnell leads Grimes by 4

Even the left leaning PPP poll gives Mitch McConnell a 4 point lead over Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes. McConnell takes 44% of the vote to Grimes' 40%. When Libertarian candidate is thrown into the mix McConnell gets 47% with Grimes getting 42%. I had assumed that Kentuckians would like Grimes even if they wouldn't vote for her but she is upside down in her favorability ranking. Only 41% have a favorable opinion of Grimes while 45% express an unfavorable opinion.

Utica Shale production increased 10 fold in 2 years!

The EIA report on Ohio's Utica Shale was about as bullish as any governmental publication I've ever read. The report issued Monday found that production from the Utica region in eastern Ohio increased by more than 10 times over the last two years, from 115 million cubic feet per day in 2012 to an estimated 1.3 billion cubic feet per day by September 2014. The Utica also produces about 40,000 barrels of oil per day but essentially wet gas production is driving the boom. To put the production data in perspective, 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas will heat from 10,000 to 11,000 homes for one year.



Savor the slope of that production curve! This is what an energy boom looks like! The report confirms my contention that the lack of midstream infrastructure has slowed production growth.
"Utica Region natural gas production growth was constrained before July 2013 because of limited natural gas processing capacity in the area. As a number of processing plants have been built and brought into service over the past year, more natural gas is being gathered from wells and processed to meet pipeline specifications, allowing the gas to flow on interstate pipelines."
Related to the infrastructure build out last week Aubrey McClendon's American Energy Partners announced that its midstream wing would joint venture with Regency Energy Partners LP to build a 52-mile, 36-inch gathering trunkline that will be capable of delivering up to 2.1 billion feet per day to Rockies Express Pipeline and Texas Eastern Transmission on the southern end of the line. Additionally, there is the potential to connect to the interstate grid on the northern end of the trunkline which would increase overall system capacity to 3.5 Bcf/day. The project will also consist of the construction of 25,000 horsepower of compression at the REX interconnect. The full project is expected to be completed in the third quarter of next year. That little project will cost about $500 million.
In other words you ain' t seen nothing yet. Daily production is now 1.3 Bcf/day but one company is building capacity to deliver 3.5 Bcf/day.

Braley does it again!

I had previously declared Alison Lundergan Grimes as the Democrat's gaff master. After consideration I feel compelled to withdraw that award and bestow it on Iowa's Bruce Braley. For the record, both of these bumbles are lawyers, an occupation generally considered to produce the smoothest of smooth talkers. Eat you heart out Sarah Palin you don't have a law degree.
Pity Congressman Braley. He is running in a state whose senior Senator Chuck Grassley is a farmer who never went to law school. He appeared on a liberal talk radio show, Ring of Fire, and complained Iowans were not clever enough to understand progressive ideas.


“I think part of the problems that progressives have faced is, at times, there has been an impression that there is an elitism among progressive policies that wants to ignore the realities of what’s going on in places between the East Coast and the West Coast. And, look, I face this every time I do a town hall meeting.  I listen to the concerns of people. You know, from what you’ve done your entire life is that the biggest concern people have is that nobody is listening to them. And by engaging voters and talking about why you are a proud, progressive, populist and what that means in terms they can understand, that’s how you connect with voters and show them the false policies that are being offered to them and the choices that don’t lead to an economic boom for the middle class.”

McClatchy-Marist poll: Republicans win generic congressional ballot by 5

With the caveat that one should always be wary of relying on a single poll the latest McClatchy-Marist poll is a heartbreaker for Democrats! Obama is underwater by 12 percent, with 40% approving of his job performance and 52% disapproving which is old news but the poll shows a sharp up tick for Republicans on the generic congressional ballot. It's plus 5%. Responding to the question, "If November's election for Congress were held today, which party's candidate are you more likely to vote for in your district," 43% answered Republican and 38% answered Democrat.
That's a sharp reversal of the April poll that had Democrats with 48% and Republicans with 42% but the internals of the poll make for pleasant reading. The gender gap vanished. It is true that Republicans run stronger among men than among women but they still win among women 43% to 42%. This reflects the lack of a gender gap in the Kentucky Senate race where Mitch McConnell is winning the women's vote against a woman, Alison Lundergan Grimes. Abortion Barbie, Wendy Davis, is also losing the female vote to Greg Abbott in the Texas gubernatorial race.
The biggest surprise is the Hispanic vote. If this poll is accurate everything you have heard about the political fallout from the border crisis is wrong. Yes, the Democrats still win the Hispanic vote-by 2 whole points 40% to 38%. In the April poll Hispanics went with the Democrats by 36 points - 61% to 25%.
About that amnesty, Mr. President, do you feel lucky?

Witnesses call Ferguson shooting murder

From the beginning this story sounded all wrong. Originally police stated that the deceased had struggled with the officer in the front seat of the car. Then the story changed to Michael Brown had reached through window to try to take the officer's weapon which sounded more absurd. The first witness says the unnamed officer started shooting while he was still in the car. Brown went down and the officer continued shooting.

Dorin Johnson says he was with Michael Brown Saturday night when the officer confronted them for walking in the street. Words were exchanged. Brown was not armed and had his hands in the air when he was shot multiple times.

The rioting is another matter for which there is no excuse. There are reports that police stood by and did not try to stop the looting. Possibly there was a decision made not to escalate the matter and cause further bloodshed. Unfortunately Brown's family has hired Benjamin Crump who represented Trayvon Martin's parents and race hustler Al Sharpton is planning a visit to Ferguson. One suspects the Community Organizer-in-Chief will not be long in adding to the frustration and the polemic with his well reasoned advice to the nation.

Obama will need 15,000 troops in Iraq

The mainstream media and cable television do a terrible job of reporting the news. It's easier for Fox, CNN and MSNBC to analyze what the president said than to dig up real new. Relative to Iraq here are a few stories to keep in mind while Ambassador Boulton is blathering on Greta this evening.
The British have already dispatched special forces to Iraq.
From the Daily Mirror;

British special forces teams have deployed to Iraq to help rescue tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the murderous onslaught of Islamic State fighters. Crack SAS and Special Boat Service operators are helping locate non-Sunni Muslims who have escaped IS - formerly known as ISIS - who are hell-bent on murdering non-believers. American forces today launched devastating air-strikes against IS positions - the first US air attacks on Iraq since they pulled out in 2011.As many as 250,000 escapees are hiding on a Kurdish mountain, desperate to stay one step ahead of IS forces who have already murdered thousands.The fresh IS horror was met with demands for the recall of British Parliament and the announcement that the UK military will be involved again in Iraq. Britain’s Department for International Development announced it will give £8million towards the air drops and the plight of the refugees. A military source said: “The IS threat looks terrifying in all the video nasties and it may seem like they are taking over the whole of the Middle East.“But their lines of communication are now stretched and that will be why America finally has decided to start hitting them with air-strikes.“Trouble is there has to be a small 'boot on the ground' element helping locate the targets and special forces have been deployed to help out.”

And while President Obama has been extremely cryptic about the commitment he is making sources from within and outside the military say the president will need 15,000 troops. The Army Times;

“I think the slippery slope analogy is the right one for Iraq right now,” said Barry Posen, director of the Security Studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.On Thursday, Obama authorized a new open-ended operation in response to gains by the Islamic State militants in northern Iraq.For now, the new mission relies on aircraft based outside Iraq. The U.S. will help defend the Kurdish city of Erbil from Islamic State fighters using “targeted air strikes,” Obama said. Those air strikes began Friday morning and included at least three separate bombings before noon, defense officials said.The second mission is a commitment to protect some 40,000 Iraqi Yazidis who are trapped on a mountain surrounded by the militants. That began Thursday night with air drops of food and water for at least 8,000 people. Military experts say tactical commanders will want more ground forces. Forward air controllers could provide more precise targeting information. U.S. advisers could support the Kurdish forces fighting the militants. And U.S. commanders may need to expand their intelligence effort on the ground.In turn, U.S. forces might need a forward operating base with a security perimeter, more force protection and a logistical supply line. Medevac capabilities may require a helicopter detachment and a small aviation maintenance shed.“You’re talking about a 10,000- to 15,000-soldier effort to include maintenance, and medevac and security,” said retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor, who served as executive officer to David Petraeus during the 2007 surge in Iraq and now is a professor of military history at Ohio State University.

There is a counter view with some pointing to the fact that when the U.S. aligned itself with friendly indigenous forces in Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance, Osama bin Laden was driven out of the country by about 100 CIA operatives and 400 Army Rangers. They believe that a similar force aligned with the Kurdish Peshmerga could drive ISIS out of Kurdistan. That may work for pro American Kurdistan where at least one child was named Dick Cheney during the Iraq War but that still leaves the other two thirds of the country to pacify.
To carry out the operation the U.S. also has 100 warplanes and 8 ships ready for combat according to the Navy Times.

While President Obama has vowed that U.S. troops are not returning to Iraq, about 10,000 U.S. troops — mostly Army — are in Kuwait, a defense official said.

All American presidents since H. W. Bush have had to deal with Iraq. Probably many have forgotten that Clinton fired 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Iraq after he became aware of an plot to kill George Bush. Obama cannot wish his problems away. Much is made in the media about putting pressure on foreign leaders while forgetting that foreign and domestic leaders can also put pressure on the president. Despite the double talk Obama is marching down the road to yet another war. It's a pity he divided the country when unity is required.
 He is not the master of the ship of state but the republic is stuck with him until it can elect one. Yes I miss George Bush!

Just who "ended the war in Iraq?" Potus yes, Potus no.

Do they not understand we have the internets AlGore created?

Why don't Democrats like Mormons?

Why don't Democrats like Mormons? Mormons rank at the bottom of the ladder of all religions among Democrats and the lowest of Christian religions among Republicans. It's not as if they blew up the World Trade Center or decapitated children putting their heads on a stick. They prefer Osama bin Laden to Donny Osmond? Pew has more on this.

Obama-as president, my need....for vacations...is gone

  Via Weasel Zippers/Daily Caller, Obama said in 2008 before he ran for office:

“The bargain that any president strikes with is, you give me this office and in turn my, fears, doubts, insecurities, foibles, need for sleep, family life, vacations, leisure is gone,” Obama said. “I am giving myself to you.”

  Yet another foolish lie that has had no basis in any reality.

No respect for the friggin' constitution-Obama has decimated it

The video has since been removed but many will remember Helmetta, New Jersey Police Officer Richard Recine ranting, "Obama has decimated the friggin' constitution, so I don't give a damn. Because if he doesn't follow the Constitution we don't have to."
In light of numerous police shootings one wonders if this has not become an article of faith in police departments nationwide. Certainly lawlessness is rampant in the Obama administration. The IRS has attempted to deny Tea Party groups access to political activity and may have conspired with the DOJ to prosecute them on trumped up charges. It has smuggled firearms to drug gangs in Mexico. It has falsely named a reporter as a co-conspirator to obtain a warrant to tap his phone. It has waged war without the consent of congress and its FBI killed an unarmed Ibragim Todashev under mysterious circumstances.
The police shooting of an unarmed black youth in Ferguson, Missouri has brought the town to riot. Ironically the same police department that did the shooting brought in heavier armaments in the interest of public safety. The police department has called for calm and appealed to the public for reason but what possible reason can there be for the shooting of an unarmed teenager not once but 9 times? God help me, if I lived in Ferguson I might be breaking store windows too. The citizens of Ferguson have seen this movie before. It plays all across the nation on a daily bases. America's finest has gone to the dogs! This particular chapter has a racial element added for spice but municipal police departments have become equal opportunity killing machines.
Obama defenders will argue it is unfair to lay this at the President's doorstep. After all, this is just the sort of tragedy the Community Organizer-in-Chief relishes for one of his "if I had a son" hosannas. If I had a son he would look like Skip Gates. They may also make the plausible argument that since everything else has declined on his watch it's only natural for law enforcement to follow suit. Furthermore, this is a problem for local jurisdictions and the federal government's limited resources must target the more serious affronts to the common good such as date rape on college campuses and delinquent range grazing fees.
The fact is Obama is to blame. His DOJ, his FBI have been as absent as the Benghazi rescue team. His Secret Service is allowed to get drunk and solicit prostitutes with no serious consequences. His EPA destroys documents. His FEC destroys hard drives. His FBI shoots unarmed people. Local law enforcement is only an extension of the modern police state that Obama extols.

Hawaii dumps Abercrombie in primary

While Democrats have been smirking at Republican infighting and contested primaries a funny thing happened. One of their own, Governor Neil Abercrombie was unseated in a primary.

"For 40 years going back to 1974 — really at about this time — every waking breath that I've taken, every thought that I had before I slept was for Hawaii," he told supporters.

There is no polling for the winner, David Ige, and any Republican candidate but prior to the primary Real Clear Politics rated the race a toss up. What got Abercrombie fired? His confrontational style and a proposal to tax pensions. He always reminded me of the Travelocity gnome but there is no evidence to suggest his ridiculous looks contributed to his loss.
If anything this race illustrates the impotence of a hefty campaign war chest when the voters are angry. Abercrombie burned through $4.9 million; Ige spent $447,000.

Utica Shale Academy to open this month

One doubts if there will be much said about adherence to the the principles of the common core curriculum at the Utica Shale Academy when it opens its first academic year later this month. USA's focus is petroleum not pedagogy. It's mission statement:

The Utica Shale Academy provides a unique and vigorous learning environment through a specialized academic program which responds to employers’ and industries' current and emerging and changing global workforce needs and expectations through business/school partnerships.

Students will:
develop work habits that foster independence, self-awareness and commitment to personal growth.
achieve competency in industry and academic standards.

The school has agreements with Stark State and Eastern Gateway Community Colleges for students to earn college credit while in high school and has created an accelerated tract to earn certificates and associates degrees at Stark State. Coursework is recognized by the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC), which has been training the industry for more than 70 years, and officials are also consulting with the Society of Petroleum Engineers for curriculum options. Students will be eligible for RigPass and other oil and gas-specific certifications so they can leave high school ready to enter the job market. It also has a new partner, Express Energy Services LP.

“We have our own multimillion-dollar training facility in Texas with a rig and devices we call ‘Express U.’ We train all new employees and offer advanced training to existing employees,” said Brian Logue, a sales representative for Express Energy Services.

Imagine being recruited for a job while you're still in high school.

The school will offer more than 100 standard high school courses taught in conventional classrooms but the drilling related curriculum will be online and will tap a wealth of studies both from industry and academia.

While USA does not lack for enthusiasm from local educators and industry sponsors it has not done a good job of attracting students. It had forecast a first year enrollment of 50 but will open with only 24 students. Located in tiny Salineville in rural Columbiana County the school offers free tuition to any 9-12 grade student in the state of Ohio but obviously there are logistical problems to attendance.