Showing posts with label World. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

The Curious Case of the New Year's Day Explosion in Minneapolis and a Disinterested DOJ

Guest post by Baron Bodissey

On New Year’s Day 2014 a powerful explosion and fire occurred at 514 Cedar Avenue South in Minneapolis, in a predominantly Somali neighborhood of the city.

The building was gutted by the blaze. Two bodies were found in the rubble, and fourteen people were hospitalized, one of whom died later. Within 72 hours, the building had been pulled down into a heap of rubble by a backhoe.

Two days after the blast, before any real investigation occurred — which could never be conducted, anyway, with the potential crime scene destroyed — Greg Boosalis, the supervisory special agent with the FBI in Minneapolis, told the press that there was “no evidence of terrorist activity”.

Ever since that day I have been asking the question: How did the FBI know there was no terrorist activity without examining the scene of the explosion?

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

The Killing Fields, an Illustrated Tale of Societal Destruction

Another exclusive from @BiffSpackle:


Related: The Fork in the Road.

SOLYNDRA OVER SOLDIERS: America's Enemies Rejoice as Obama Decimates the Military

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Defense: The U.S. withdrawal from global leadership continues as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel proposes cutting the Army to its smallest size since before World War II, leaving no replacement except tyrants and chaos.

The best analysis of the devastating military cuts ordered by President Obama came from former Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday's "Hannity": "He would much rather spend the money on food stamps than he would on a strong military or support for our troops."

Considering the Obama administration has ignored or violated the Constitution in so many ways, we're not surprised that the imperative to provide for the common defense has been reduced to the level of nonessential discretionary spending. Nor are we surprised Secretary Hagel is the messenger delivering this bad news.

His views differ sharply from those of his predecessor Leon Panetta, who warned that under Obama's budget cuts and sequestration our military would have "(t)he smallest ground forces since 1940," "a fleet of fewer than 230 ships, the smallest level since 1915," and the "smallest tactical fighter force in the history of the Air Force."

Hagel made news in 2011 when he told the Financial Times, after a "trim" of $487 billion from the Pentagon budget, that he wanted even more cuts. "I don't think that our military has really looked at themselves strategically, critically, in a long, long time," Hagel said.

Now we know what they mean. Under the new proposal, the Army would drop over the coming years to between 440,000 and 450,000, the lowest level since 1940 prior to our jolting entry into World War II.

Monday, February 24, 2014

OH, MY: Citizens of Ukraine Demand Their Own Second Amendment

Guest post by Mary Chastain

The Ukraine Gun Owners Association wants the new government to add their own right to bear arms to the country's constitution.

As of today Ukrainian Gun Owners Association will start to work on the preparation of amendments to the Constitution, which will provide an unconditional right for Ukrainian citizens to bear arms.

People gathered in Independence Square in Kiev after President Viktor Yanukovich rejected a European Union trade deal for a $15 billion bailout from Russia in November. It was relatively peaceful for three months, but violence escalated on February 18. Over 70 people died during the week and amateur videos showed snipers shooting at unarmed protesters.

People should have the right to bear arms, which will be put in written into the Constitution.

Authorities should not and will not be stronger than its people!

Armed people are treated with respect!

America's founding fathers implemented the Second Amendment because it is a natural right for people to defend themselves.

According to GunPolicy.org, Ukraine's gun laws are described as restrictive. The government owns seven million guns while there are only three million guns for private citizens. A citizen must prove they have a legitimate reason to own a firearm.


Sunday, February 23, 2014

Well, you don't see that every day: nasty collision between Ferrari 458 and... SmartCar

"Ferrari 458 Speciale and Smart ForTwo involved in nasty Berlin crash":

ANALYSIS: Obama puts national security at risk by gutting defense budget in favor of massive welfare programs

Guest post by James Carafano

Randy Forbes is a lonely man. President Obama’s stewardship of American armed forces has been a dismal failure, yet few on Capitol Hill have waved red flags over it.

Forbes, however, has been waving them furiously.

The Republican congressman from Virginia recently penned a pointed letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. It’s a warning shot, discharged in anticipation of the Quadrennial Defense Review, the report the Pentagon must deliver to Congress every four years to layout the long-term plans, concerns and requirements for the armed forces.

“The QDR has become an exercise in lowest-common-denominator thinking that fails to light a way forward for our long-term military planning,” Forbes wrote Hagel. The lawmaker fears that the forthcoming QDR will amount to little more than a rubber stamp for slashing military capabilities and lowering readiness.

Heroes of the Left, Illustrated

Don't let anyone try to convince you that the despots of history were men of the right. They were not and their own words prove it.


Related: HELPFUL GRAPHIC: Political Left and Right Properly Defined


Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The UAW's 4 Huge Blunders in Trying to Unionize VW

Guest post by LaborUnionReport.com

Editor’s note: Having written about the United Auto Workers’ attempt to unionize the South since 2010, unlike much of the media’s reports thus far, the following is an analysis (with input from Volkswagen employees themselves) of how—when everything was stacked to the UAW’s favor—the union blew its chances of winning the hearts and minds of the employees in an election at an employer that favored unionization.

Having spent an estimated $5 million (or nearly $8,000 per vote) and two years’ worth of time, the United Auto Workers loss last Friday night at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee has left UAW bosses (and its left-leaning allies in the media and academia) blaming everyone—from the Koch brothers to Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform and Tennessee Republicans—for the union’s defeat…blaming everyone but themselves.

What few, including the UAW, realize is that the union’s defeat in Chattanooga is more of a David vs. Goliath story and how Goliath (the UAW) handed David (the employees) the stones.

The fact is, the Detroit-based United Auto Workers targeted Volkswagen workers from the outside in, used a Trojan Horse to cajole Volkswagen management into entering what may be an unlawful agreement allowing the UAW to penetrate the Chattanooga plant, and got caught dealing behind workers’ backs–not once, but twice.

If UAW bosses really want to discover the reason for the union’s loss, they need look no further than their own mirror and the Volkswagen employees themselves.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

If We Continue Down Europe's Path, Our Lives Will Look Like This:

Guest post by Michael Snyder

Becoming more like Europe is not a good thing. But that is the path that we are currently on. For the most part, Europeans live in a socialist “Big Brother” system in which the government completely dominates your life from the cradle to the grave. Of course there are differences from country to country, but generally speaking the lives of most Europeans are very tightly regulated. You see, the truth is that high levels of individual liberty and freedom are considered to be “dangerous” by the European elite. They believe that if we are all allowed to just do whatever we want that it would result in utter chaos. They are convinced that life is better when those that are smarter (them) control the lives of everyone else. In essence, Europe is like a giant religious cult in many ways (minus the religion). With each passing year, the number of rules and regulations governing the daily lives of Europeans steadily grows, as does the level of control. If you try to live outside of that control, you could very well find yourself in a direct confrontation with the authorities very rapidly.

Just consider what is happening in Germany. Authorities there have stated repeatedly that they do not believe in having any “parallel societies”, and therefore everyone must participate in the system that the government has established.

That includes all children. In Germany today, almost all forms of homeschooling are illegal. In fact, one judge shockingly ruled that one set of parents could not have custody of their children because they might move them to another country and homeschool them there

A judge has issued a stunning verdict in a homeschooling case in Germany, ordering that the parents cannot have custody of their children because the family might move to another country and homeschool, posing a “concrete endangerment” to the children.

Dirk and Petra Wunderlich’s case made international headlines in August when 20 armed police arrived with a battering ram and forcibly took their four children from their home in Darmstadt, Germany, and enrolled them in public school... the children, ages 7 to 14, were taken into police custody. They were allowed to return home three weeks later when their father and mother, given no choice by the federal bureaucracy in Germany, agreed to allow their kids to attend public schools despite their objection to the social and religious instruction there.

Are you starting to see what I meant when I compared Europe to a cult?

Friday, February 14, 2014

WHEN A GOVERNMENT RUNS OUT OF MONEY: Obama Lays Groundwork To Confiscate 401k and IRA Plans

Guest post by Mac Slavo

This morning Reuters obtained a leaked proposal disclosing that European Union officials are looking for new and innovative ways to fund their immense debt levels. As noted by Zero Hedge, they’re no longer turning exclusively to central bankers to simply print more money as needed.

Because last year’s bank bail-in forcing the confiscation of funds from average depositors in Cyprus worked so well, EU regulators and bankers have determined that they’ll use a similar method to fund their future endeavors.

In a nutshell, and in Reuters’ own words, “the savings of the European Union’s 500 million citizens could be used to fund long-term investments to boost the economy and help plug the gap left by banks since the financial crisis, an EU document says.”

… The solution? “The Commission will ask the bloc’s insurance watchdog in the second half of this year for advice on a possible draft law “to mobilize more personal pension savings for long-term financing”, the document said.”

Mobilize, once again, is a more palatable word than, say, confiscate.

This is what happens when governments run out of money.

But if you think this is limited to just Europe, then consider the words of President Barack Obama in his recent State of the Union address.

For all intents and purposes, a similar groundwork is being laid right here in America.

They’ve already taken over the health care industry… why not nationalize our retirement savings while they’re at it?

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

JUST ANOTHER REMINDER, MR. PRESIDENT: You swore to faithfully execute the law, not rewrite it!

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Presidential Power: After making yet another unconstitutional and illegal change to ObamaCare, the president tells his French counterpart that it's good to be king of the United States, even if this emperor has no clothes.

In times past, tyrants would rule with scepter and sword. President Obama, as he recently stated, says he needs only his pen and his phone, something the Founding Fathers did not envision when they threw off the yoke of King George III and proclaimed a republic united under a Constitution that bowed to the consent of the governed.

A republic, Ben Franklin is said to have remarked, if we can keep it, a struggle that gets harder with each passing day of this administration.

"I am not a dictator," Obama once said at a press conference, "I'm the president."

In his case, that's a distinction without a difference as he has proceeded to evade both the laws passed by Congress and the restraints placed on his office by the Constitution.

"That's the good thing as a president, I can do whatever I want," Obama quipped while visiting Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, Va., with French President Francois Hollande.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

A country built on a Himalayan mountain of fallacies

Guest post by Jim Quinn

“Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. While certain public policies would in the long run benefit everybody, other policies would benefit one group only at the expense of all other groups. The group that would benefit by such policies, having such a direct interest in them, will argue for them plausibly and persistently. It will hire the best buyable minds to devote their whole time to presenting its case. And it will finally either convince the general public that its case is sound, or so befuddle it that clear thinking on the subject becomes next to impossible.

In addition to these endless pleadings of self-interest, there is a second main factor that spawns new economic fallacies every day. This is the persistent tendency of man to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups. It is the fallacy of overlooking secondary consequences.” Henry Hazlitt – Economics in One Lesson

Saturday was the first day since a double shot of snow and ice storms hit the Philadelphia metro area on Monday and Wednesday I had a chance to drive around Montgomery County and witness the devastation firsthand. Over 750,000 homes lost power at the height of the ice storm on Wednesday and over 100,000 remained without power this past weekend. The mainstream media has become such a farce and propaganda machine for vested interests, it is essential to verify with your own eyes everything they report as fact. Their purpose is to entertain the consciously ignorant, exaggerate threats to keep the low IQ multitudes fearful, and function as mouthpieces for the ruling class. Deceitful corporate executives, mendacious government apparatchiks, and oblivious teleprompter reading media talking heads have been utilizing cold weather as an excuse for every poor earnings announcement, horrific employment report, and dreadful decline in retail sales. It certainly has nothing to do with decades of stagnant household income, awful monetary and fiscal policies, or the consequences of Obamacare.

We have become a delusional state dependent upon fallacies to convince ourselves our foolhardy beliefs, ludicrous economic policies, corrupt captured political system, and preposterously fraudulent financial system are actually based on sound logic and reason. Some fallacies have been perpetrated intentionally by the ruling class to manipulate, sway and deceive the populace, while others have been willfully employed by millions of techno-narcissistic iGadget addicted zombies as a substitute for thinking, reasoning and taking responsibility for the course of our nation.

You have men who constitute the unseen true ruling power of the country making a conscious and intentional effort to peddle fallacies to the masses in order to manipulate, mold, and corral them in a manner beneficial to the ruling power, financially, politically, and socially. The ruling class has been hugely successful in their capture of the public mind, creating a vast majority of the willfully ignorant who desperately grasp at fallacious concepts, beliefs, and storylines in order to avoid dealing with reality and being accountable for their actions and the actions of their leaders.

The fallacy being flogged by government drones and the legacy media about companies not hiring new employees because it has been cold and snowy during the winter is beyond absurd, except to someone who lives in the cocoon of Washington D.C. or regurgitates words processed on a teleprompter by paid minions of the ruling class. If you live in the real world, run a business, or manage employees, you understand weather has absolutely nothing to do with your decision to hire an employee. An organization takes weeks or months to hire employees. They don’t stop hiring because it snowed on Wednesday or the temperature was below normal. The contention that hiring has been weak for the last two months due to weather is outlandish and based upon flawed logic and warped reasoning. It is so illogical, only an Ivy League economist could believe it.

A Warning from 1968

By Eric Hoffer


The Jews are a peculiar people; things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman.

Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese and no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel , the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single one.

Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious, it must sue for peace.

Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world. Other nations, when they are defeated, survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June [1967], he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.

No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in Rhodesia . But, when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him.

The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.

The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment, Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.

I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us all.


By Eric Hoffer, 1968

Monday, February 10, 2014

HANSON: Illegal immigration "the reason California is destroyed" and the "path to Armageddon" for the U.S.

Would you be surprised to find out that California is ranked 47th in 8th grade science scores?

Or that 40 percent of California's children aren't fluent in English?

Or that 44 percent of incoming freshmen into the California state university system need help with remedial English and math?

Furthermore, "it is forbidden to notice that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between illegal immigration and these woes."

On January 30, 2014, historian Victor Davis Hanson visited the Mark Levin Show (click here to open a new tab and listen to the podcast) and offered the most succinct, powerful and ominous summary of illegal immigration that I've ever heard.

The American Thinker's John Bennett captured the salient points and they are shocking.

America could be on "a path to Armageddon," given the blend of relativism, racial preferences, and nullified immigration laws...

Hanson pointed out that many of today's immigrants are not repeating the pattern of the Italians or Greeks, as just two examples. While Latino studies programs can be found at almost all universities, one does not find such "studies" for Italians or Greeks. That is just one dramatic distinction between immigrants today and past immigrants.

...Instead of amnesty, the Republicans should be pushing for limits on immigration. Hanson suggests that we can take 100,000 legal immigrants per year, but we can't take one million per year, especially when they lack high school diplomas or English proficiency.

...A Californian, Hanson has seen firsthand the fiscal, social, and educational problems stemming from illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is "the reason the state is destroyed," Hanson bluntly stated...

California, as a state, serves as the shining example of what happens under lax enforcement of immigration laws. The state is going bankrupt. The Republican Party is going extinct. At their lowest level of registration since 1922, Republicans are 29% of registered voters in California, while Democrats are 44%. In the face of population changes of the type that have occurred, the Republicans can't modify, they can't adjust, they can only die out.

...conservative voters understand that "blanket amnesties" are "going to unravel the American experiment and its also going to empower the Democratic Party for 40 years."

Besides, any Republican effort to pander can be easily outdone by the Democrats. "Trying to outrace and outclass and outgender the Democratic Party is a losing proposition."

While they pander, the Republicans would be losing a core group of voters who do actually support them in large numbers. "Why is this leadership deliberately trying to estrange and alienate 70% of the people who will go out and vote?" Hanson asked.

...Hanson concluded by describing the "postmodern relativism" inherent in local efforts to nullify immigration law, efforts driven by racial pandering.

There are "sanctuary cities" that forbid local law enforcement from asking about immigration status or engaging with federal authorities. Hanson urged that Republicans should be seizing on this "nullification" of federal law, to illustrate the left's hypocrisy and recklessness. Even convicted violent felons have been harbored by cities like San Francisco, where one violent felon who should have been deported went on to murder a father and two of his sons.

Illegal immigration not only promotes anarchy, it endorses Balkanization and conflict.

Legal immigration encourages assimilation, the advancement of the civil society, and a harmonious respect for the written law.

The Republicans who push amnesty are encouraging suicide of their party -- and America as a Consitutional republic.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

EPAM says it has no ties between Healthcare.gov and references to HHS refer to a different system

See late-breaking updates, below:

A week ago, Bill Gertz of the Washington Free Beacon reported that U.S. intelligence officials had uncovered evidence that the troubled Healthcare.gov site was developed, in part, by a firm based in Belarus.

U.S. intelligence agencies last week urged the Obama administration to check its new healthcare network for malicious software after learning that developers linked to the Belarus government helped produce the website, raising fresh concerns that private data posted by millions of Americans will be compromised.

The firm, called EPAM, has offices around the world, but is headquartered in Belarus.

Officials disclosed the software compromise last week after the discovery in early January of statements by Belarusian official Valery Tsepkalo, director of the government-backed High-Technology Park (HTP) in Minsk.

Tsepkalo told a Russian radio station in an interview broadcast last summer that HHS is “one of our clients,” and that “we are helping Obama complete his insurance reform.”

“Our programmers wrote the program that appears on the monitors in all hospitals and all insurance companies—they will see the full profile of the given patient,” Tsepkalo said June 25 on Voice of Russia Radio.

A week later, the intelligence report had been "recalled" and the Obama administration issued denials that a Belarusian firm had been involved in development of the website.

...The recall of the intelligence report, which was produced by the CIA-based Open Source Center, has raised questions about the politicization of intelligence—the suppression or skewing of intelligence to conform to policy prescriptions.

DNI spokesman Shawn Turner, in a statement, denied that the withdrawal of the report was based on political motives... Turner said the Open Source Center circulated its report on Obamacare software Jan. 29 under the title “United States’ Affordable Care Act Software – Cyber Attack Target.” ... According to Turner, the report was not reviewed by intelligence experts and did not meet “tradecraft standards,” including certain pre-publication reviews.

HHS, its Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that helped set up the system, and CGI Federal so far have declined to provide details on [all of the] contractors involved in Healthcare.gov.

...The fears of cyber attack are compounded by the anti-U.S. stance of the Minsk government and an incident in February 2013 when large amounts of U.S. Internet data were hijacked and rerouted to Belarus where it was sifted for intelligence.

For those who speak Russian, you can find the complete 40-minute interview with Mr. Tsepkalo here. During the interview, Mr. Tsepkalo proudly names the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a key customer, adding he's helping Obama to reform American healthcare.

Answering the interviewer's question, he further adds, the money is very, very good (while smirking). At around 16:00, Mr. Tsepkalo also names some of his other U.S. customers. Among them are CitiBank and a new customer for him, NYSE.

So, let's summarize what we have learned. CGI Federal had allegedly subcontracted part of the software development to a Belorussian company called EPAM, which is a part of Belorussian High Technology Park, which is run by Lukashenko's advisor and former Belorussian Ambassador to the United States, Tsepkalo.

Is there any independent confirmation of ties between EPAM and HHS?

Possibly. Around the time that Healthcare.gov was being unveiled a software developer, who attempted to keep his name hidden, asked a series of technical questions on a popular software site called StackOverflow. Using the alias "gstackoverflow2", the developer visited a variety of such sites and posted questions regarding testing procedures for a Java framework.


Coincidence 1. The software deployment mentioned in the questions specifies both EPAM and HHS:


Coincidence 2. Though the user asks questions in -- and much of the code is written in -- English, the user's real name may have been inadvertently exposed in the files he uploaded to ask questions.


Nikolay Tkachev appears to be the name of someone of Ukrainian or Belorussian descent.

Coincidence 3. The timing of the questions corresponds to a great deal of rushed work before, during and after the horrific launch of Healthcare.gov.

To be fair to EPAM, it has officially denied any involvement with HHS, despite the claims in Belarus.

EPAM Systems, Inc., releases an official statement, that contrary to recent online blog posts issued by various outlets, EPAM has never been involved in software development for the Healthcare.gov website or any Affordable Care Act related engagements. Any claims to the contrary are completely false.

However, that statement came before these particular leads were uncovered.

Therefore, I will formally submit the following questions to EPAM and HHS:

1. Did someone named "Nikolay Tkachev" and/or someone employing the alias gstackoverflow2 on the aforementioned websites ever work for EPAM?

2. If so, did the individual(s) work on any software for the Department of Health and Human Services, state exchanges, or other systems or platforms related to Obamacare?

3. If not, what do the modules marked epam.hhs represent? Who is the customer?

I'll be sending these to EPAM for their review and will let you know what I hear.

Update I: Received the following from EPAM:

..EPAM is a highly regarded U.S. publicly traded company, headquartered in Pennsylvania with highly skilled technical resources in the United States and around the globe. EPAM has a long history of quality software engineering and IT services capabilities. EPAM stands by its previous statement-- that the company is not now and has never been involved in software development for the Healthcare.gov website. Any claim to the contrary is completely false. The report appearing at your post incorrectly associates a simple folder name and references to “hhsystems.” To be clear, these references on the postings relate to an internal training project called “Head Hunter Systems”, and are unrelated to any customer engagements or the healthcare industry.

Regards,

Ginger Mosier
V.P, General Counsel & Secretary

Consider the record corrected.


Sunday, February 09, 2014

GOOD NEWS: Obama "Executive Action" Eases Immigration Restrictions on Terrorists

It wasn't enough to have an Attorney General whose law firm gleefully defended terrorists involved in 9/11. And it wasn't enough to have Muslim immigration to the United States skyrocket.

No, now Islamists who support terror are welcome, too. Which is pretty much the Wall Street Journal position on immigration.

The Obama administration has eased the rules for would-be asylum-seekers, refugees and others who hope to come to the United States or stay here and who gave "limited" support to terrorists or terrorist groups... The change is one of President Barack Obama's first actions on immigration since he pledged during his State of the Union address last month to use more executive directives...

The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department now say that people considered to have provided "limited material support" to terrorists or terrorist groups are no longer automatically barred from the United States.

...Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called the change naive given today's global terrorist threats... "President Obama should be protecting U.S. citizens rather than taking a chance on those who are aiding and abetting terrorist activity and putting Americans at greater risk," said Goodlatte, R-Va.

As an up-and-coming politician, Mr. Obama feted terrorists and marinated in anti-semitism.

Which makes this unlawful "executive action" on the part of the president all the less surprising.

And when innocent Americans die -- and they will -- remember who Obama is and what his administration did.


Hat tips: Dan from New York and BadBlue News.

Thursday, February 06, 2014

As Obama Disarms, China Moves to Solidify Its Control Over the Pacific

Guest post by Investor's Business Daily

Balance Of Power: Beijing may soon declare another air defense identification zone over the disputed Paracel and Spratly Islands and possibly the entire South China Sea as its military power matches its territorial ambitions.

China's plans to define a second new air-defense identification zone, this one in the South China Sea, were reported in the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun. Such a move would follow Beijing's announcement in November of an ADIZ in the East China Sea encompassing the Japanese Senkaku Islands that Beijing claims as its own.

China denies it has any such plans, claiming the news is merely a Japanese provocation. But Beijing has long declared the South China Sea to be its territorial waters and has laid claim to the Spratlys in the southeastern part and Paracels about 200 miles off Vietnam.

After the implementation of the East China Sea ADIZ, Chinese defense spokesman Yang Yujun said in November that "China will establish other Air Defense Identification Zones at the right moment after necessary preparations are completed."

FANATIC FUNNIES: Bachmann Was Right Edition

Yes, all of this really happened.


Related links:

Muslim Brotherhood Leader Meets Obama in White House

Boehner, McCain stand by Huma Abedin, calls Bachmann's accusations 'dangerous'

House Members Demand Answers on Depth of U.S. Involvement With the Muslim Brotherhood

Tsarnaev Warning Came as Brennan Purged Material 'Offensive' to Muslims

Michele Bachmann Sticks To Accusations About Muslim Brotherhood

A Brief, Illustrated History of the Obama Administration's New Pals, the Muslim Brotherhood


Wednesday, February 05, 2014

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: Don't Call Lawbreakers Lawbreakers

It would seem that the acts of wantonly breaking our immigration laws and violating U.S. national sovereignty don't qualify as illegal acts, at least in the view of one of our radical, hard left, activist Supreme Court Justices.

Sotomayor: Labeling Illegal Immigrants Criminals Is Insulting


Sotomayor, the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court, said she didn’t even know what an Ivy League college was when a friend suggested she apply. She wound up attending Princeton and Yale Law School.

On the Supreme Court since 2009, Sotomayor said it was tough at first as justices made references that went over her head. She said joining the high court amounted to joining an ongoing conversation among justices who had served for years... “I figure I may not be the smartest judge on the court but I’m going to be a competent justice,” she said.

Sotomayor was asked at a talk at Yale Law School later in the day about her use of the term “undocumented immigrants” rather than the traditional illegal alien. Sotomayor characterized the issue as a regulatory problem and said labeling immigrants criminals seemed insulting to her.

“I think people then paint those individuals as something less than worthy human beings and it changes the conversation,” Sotomayor said.

Hey, La Raza: no one's painting those individuals as something less than human. We're calling them illegal aliens because they broke our laws. You know, the same laws you took a freaking oath to uphold and protect.

This is the problem with the radical left: they think they can pick and choose the laws they want to enforce. In the end, however, lawlessness begets lawlessness. And when people like this -- presumably the very authorities upon whom the law rests -- belittle the legal system or, worse, ignore it, they are unraveling the fabric that holds the civil society together.

Sotomayor and Obama are, in a subtle way, fomenting anarchy. Because when people believe that even their president and the highest court in the land can simply disregard the written law, they'll figure they can too.

Such behavior is amoral and deeply malevolent.


Hat tip: BadBlue News