A Natural Way To Curb The Danger Of Forest Fires

Before the days of radical environmentalism, forests were harvested and partially cleared by lumber companies. Since the lumber companies wanted to stay in business, in most cases they were careful to harvest the trees in a way that guaranteed to sustainability of the forest. Unfortunately, the radical part of the environmental movement has stopped not only the harvesting of trees, but the clearing out of the underbrush. As a result of this, we have seen horrible fires in the western states of America. Because the underbrush and dead trees have not been cleared, the forests have plenty of fuel to keep them going.

Well, there is a natural way to help prevent these massive forest fires–and it doesn’t even involve the use of carbon emitting machines.

In December of 2014, The Colorado Springs Independent posted an article about Lani Malmberg.

The article reports:

Though she’s currently on a 10-day contract to clear brush from Cedar Heights, she’s best known in these parts for 16 years of fall visits to Bear Creek Park, where her “employees” manage weeds in a more eco-friendly manner than commonly used machinery or chemicals. A visit to her EWE4IC Ecological Services website, goatseatweeds.com, begins with a Top 10 list of why goats rule in this manner. Among benefits: They aid in fire prevention while helping build healthy soil by tramping, aerating and fertilizing it, also making it more absorptive for water, combating runoff.

She uses border collies to herd the goats and keep them in line while they clear the underbrush. Although there would be nothing wrong with harvesting wood and clearing underbrush from our national forests (as long as new trees were planted), those efforts are being blocked by environmentalists (thus creating the situation which allows these massive wildfires we have been dealing with). Mrs. Malmberg provides an alternative that is natural and ecologically sound. This is one idea that I believe both the environmentalists and those who live near the forests should be willing to support.

It’s Important–Even If The Media Chooses Not To Cover It

There have now been seven videos released showing the sale of aborted baby body parts by Planned Parenthood. I have not watched the entire video series although I have listened to enough to make me feel very uncomfortable (and somewhat sick to my stomach) with what Planned Parenthood is doing. The stories coming out are gruesome, and I don’t understand how medical personnel can be so calloused in dealing with the life of an innocent newborn child.

It seems as if many Americans are totally unaware of this story. Yesterday, The Federalist posted an article providing a possible explanation for the ignorance of the American public. The article details the role of a news site called BuzzFeed.

The article states:

If you use BuzzFeed as your primary source of news, however, you’d know nothing about the story. The same goes for the video in which a top Planned Parenthood official said she needed a good price on aborted baby organs because, “I want a Lamborghini.” That little detail was also never reported. In fact, it’s been over a month since BuzzFeed published any standalone stories featuring details from newly released undercover videos.

Now we know why: last night, BuzzFeed’s senior health editor Casey Gueren received an award from Planned Parenthood for “media excellence.”

The article details the stories that received the award. Suffice it to say that they were not stories that most Americans over the age of twenty-five would have read.

The article at The Federalist also reports:

Journalists from several other organizations also received Planned Parenthood “Maggie” awards, named after Margaret Sanger, the racist, eugenicist, Hitler-supporting founder of Planned Parenthood.

This Yahoo! Health editor received an award just hours after she published this story about how those multi-state and federal investigations of Planned Parenthood are like, totally, not a big deal you guys.

…More than a dozen additional journalists also received awards yesterdayfrom the nation’s largest abortion provider and unborn baby organ harvester. It would appear that the only thing Planned Parenthood enjoys more than harvesting baby parts to sell is rewarding activists with bylines for their work in snuffing out news coverage before it even leaves the cradle.

We have reached the point where Americans need to expand their news sources to make sure they are getting the news. There are a number of good news cites on the Internet that I would recommend (this one included). I particularly like PowerLine Blog and Lucianne.com. We have reached to point where we need to educate ourselves constantly. It takes some time and effort, but our national conscience is worth it.

Does Anyone Else Think This Is Upside Down?

My Way News posted an article today about the hacking into the cheating website Ashley Madison. The list of clients includes some with sensitive jobs in the White House, Congress, and law enforcement agencies who used Internet connections in their federal offices to access and pay membership fees to the website. The obvious concern is that the information could be used to blackmail people in sensitive positions.

The article reports:

The AP traced many of the accounts exposed by hackers back to federal workers. They included at least two assistant U.S. attorneys; an information technology administrator in the Executive Office of the President; a division chief, an investigator and a trial attorney in the Justice Department; a government hacker at the Homeland Security Department and another DHS employee who indicated he worked on a U.S. counterterrorism response team.

…The AP is not naming the government subscribers it found because they are not elected officials or accused of a crime.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter confirmed the Pentagon was looking into the list of people who used military email addresses. Adultery can be a criminal offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

So let me get this straight–a high level security officer probably won’t face any consequences for his stupidity, but an army private who was using the site will be investigated. Ask yourself, which is the greater risk to the country? Either go after everyone or leave everyone alone. Remember when President Clinton was doing whatever in the White House, we were told that it was a private matter. He was, at the time, Commander in Chief. The same rules that apply to the Chief should apply to the Indians.

The Constitution Works–We Just Need To Get Back To It

Yesterday Breitbart.com posted an article that featured Mark Levin explaining the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and what it actually says (or doesn’t say) about birthright citizenship.

Dr. Levin explains:

Levin said that people are getting the clause wrong, “Because they’re result-oriented. Because they want to insist the Constitution says what it doesn’t say. Moreover, the Supreme Court has never ruled that the children of illegal aliens are American citizens. So the Supreme Court never ruled, even if they did, it would be wrong. The clause speaks for itself, the author of the clause made it abundantly, unequivocally clear, let’s add another thing, let’s read the clause together, shall we? ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States.’ Let’s stop there. If it means what the proponents of birthright citizenship say, it would stop right there. ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States’ are citizens. There’s no need for anything else, but that’s what it says. Then it says, and, ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’ Now, you have slip and fall lawyers, some phony constitutional lawyers, they have ‘Esquire’ after their name, they come on TV, they go all over the place, ‘Jurisdiction means geography.’ Jurisdiction has nothing to do with geography. zero. It had to do with political allegiance to the United States of America. How do we know it? Because they said it. And they also excluded everybody that the left, and some of the Republicans want to include. Now here’s the good news, there’s another part of the Constitution. It’s Article I, Section 8, Clause 4. Here’s what that says, in plain English. ‘The Congress shall have power to…establish a uniform rule of naturalization.’ Now, you know what that means, that means Congress, not the courts, not the president, not ICE, it means the United States Congress has the power to regulate immigration in this regard. And guess what, Sean, in the 1920s, that’s exactly what it did. The 14th Amendment excludes Indians, that is Native Americans, as US citizens, because they felt that they had allegiance to their own national tribes. Okay, great, and I believe it was in 1923, Congress reversed course, and said, ‘You know what? Under the 14th Amendment and under this Article I, we’ve decided to  grant citizenship, national citizenship to all Native Americans.”

He added, “Of course Trump is right, and Cruz is right, and Sessions is right, they’re all right.

This is how a Constitutionalist interprets the U.S. Constitution. If you agree with Dr. Levin, you need to vote for a Constitutionalist in the next election. If not, there are a number of people running that you would be happy with. The real problem that Dr. Levin is pointing out is that over the years our government has had a tendency to ‘make it up as they go along’ rather than following the Constitution. Since the Constitution is the foundation of all American law, it would be a really good idea if our leaders paid attention to what it says.

Wisdom From One Of My Favorite Liberals

As a conservative, there are some liberals whom I truly respect and listen to when they speak. In the past that list included Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Zell Miller, and Bob Casey, Sr. Presently that list includes former Senator Joe Lieberman and Alan Dershowitz. All of these men had principles that they upheld regardless of the political shenanigans going on around them.

In a recent press conference, Jimmy Carter was asked about what he would like to see happen before he dies. This is what he said:

In international affairs I would say peace for Israel and its neighbors. That has been a top priority for my foreign policy projects for the last 30 years. Right now I think the prospects of are more dismal than anytime I remember in the last 50 years. Practically, whole process is practically dormant. The government of Israel has no desire for two-state solution, which is policy of all the other nations in the world. And the United States has practically no influence compared to past years in either Israel or Palestine. So I feel very discouraged about it but that would be my number one foreign policy hope.

With all due respect, President Carter, Israel is not the problem.

Alan Deshowitz recently made some comments about former President Jimmy Carter to NewsMax Magazine that I think are important.

These are excerpts for the article that included those comments:

“[Carter] recommended to Yasser Arafat that Yasser Arafat turn down the deal that … would have resulted in the Palestinian state,” Dershowitz said. “He has blood of thousands of Jews and Palestinians on his hands. He should just stop talking about the Middle East.

“The idea that the International Criminal Court should create moral equivalence between a democracy — which has the most moral army in the world and has fewer civilian casualties than any other army in history — facing comparable threats to a terrorist regime that includes Hamas, that commits multiple war crimes every time it sends a rocket, is so obnoxious and so hypocritical and so typical of Jimmy Carter that the world understands that he has made himself irrelevant and tossed himself into the trash pan of history.”

…”Jimmy Carter has always had a problem with Jews and it borders on anti-Semitism,” he said. “In the midst of this tragedy, in the midst of this serious debate, to again blame it on Israel. He said that the terrorism and the reason the Jews and this anti-Semitism problem (exist) is because of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

…Continuing to create a moral equivalency between Hamas and Israel, as Carter suggests, only encourages Hamas acts of terror, Dershowitz added, feeding right into their hands.

…”Jimmy Carter goes back to the time he was running for governor. He has a long, long history of theological anti-Semitism coupled with virulent anti-Israelism. He never met a terrorist he didn’t like. He loved Yasser Arafat and he hated every Israeli leader he ever met.”

President Carter has made many statements about Israel that show either a total lack of understanding of the Middle East or a rather wide streak of anti-Semitism. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Israel is not the country lobbing rockets into civilian populations, and Israel is not the one tunneling under the border in order to attack and kill kindergarten children. President Carter’s statement that Israel is the obstacle to peace in the Middle East is simply wrong.

This Is Just Wrong

There have always been some very basic problems with the so-called alliance we have formed with the soldiers of Afghanistan. There are aspects of the Afghani culture that are simply not in agreement with the customs of Western civilization. Our political leaders have chosen to ignore those practices which are morally reprehensible to the average American in order to form an alliance to fight the Taliban. While I understand the need to fight the Taliban, once you give away your morality, it is very easy to lose your perspective. That is what I believe has happened in Afghanistan. I don’t know if this problem was there in the beginning, but I believe there is a problem now. One of the aspects of the Muslim culture in its most basic form is the acceptance of pediphelia. The practice of adult men sexually abusing young boys and young girls is not uncommon or particularly noteworthy in Afghani society. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini was an amazing picture of this aspect of Afghani life. We also see this behavior in ISIS, where the claim is that having sex with underage girls or the rape of non-Muslim women is a valid part of Islam, condoned by the Koran. Needless to say, the American media has not often mentioned the practice of pediphelia in Afghanistan, and has chosen to ignore the instances where our military has turned a blind eye to the practice. Now the chickens have come home to roost.

The information I am about to share comes from the Facebook page taken out in the name of Marine LCpl Greg Buckley, Jr., a Marine killed by an Afghani.

This is the story:

Jason Brezler is a Marine Reservist facing discharge from the Corps.

While off-duty and in a life-and-death emergency, Jason emailed a requested document about a Taliban-associated Afghan sexual predator living on the Marines’ Forward Operating Base Delhi in Afghanistan.

Jason’s warning was ignored, and soon after one of the Afghan’s young sex abuse victims murdered three Marines in the base gym: Scott Dickinson, Richard Rivera and Greg Buckley.

The Gold Star families of those slain Marines sought information about the deaths from the Marine Corps, but were stonewalled in their attempts to get answers. Finding the Marine Corps unhelpful, one Gold Star Family – the Buckleys – sought help from their Congressman, Representative Peter King, in an effort to get the information about their son’s death, information that Congress has promised to all Gold Star families and that they are legally entitled to under federal law.

Representative Peter King reached out to Jason through contacts in the Fire Department of New York, of which Jason still currently serves. In an effort to help the Buckleys find the information they are entitled to about their son, Jason responded to and spoke with Representative King about the murders. Under federal law, Jason has a right to speak to his Congressman and that speech is legally protected.

Immediately after the media reported on the Buckleys quest for information and Congressman King’s efforts to help them, Jason became the target of retaliatory efforts from Commandant James Amos who immediately moved to throw Jason out of the Corps.

Amos used the alleged presence of classified information in Jason’s email warning as a pretext to unlawfully retaliate against him.

Because of obstruction of justice by the Marine Corps, the murderer of the three Marines received a sentence of only SEVEN YEARS!!

There are a lot of problems with the way this situation is being handled. The first is the idea that our military would tolerate the sexual abuse of young men and not do something about it. I know that we are in a different culture, but there are some things we just shouldn’t put up with. The second is the idea that Jason Brezler is being severely punished for making an attempt to save lives. The reason the information was considered classified is that it contained negative comments about the people we were working with. This information was not likely to be of interest to the Russians or the Chinese, the people who usually enjoy hacking into computers and reading classified emails. Contrast the fact that Jason Brezler is considered unworthy of the Marine Corps for his minor infraction and Hillary Clinton is running for President despite a major infraction.

Why is the military coming down so hard on Jason Brezler? Because they do not want the American people to know about the dark underside of the Islamic culture. The information that the saga of Jason Brezler will reveal about Afghani society is not something our military is interested in sharing with the American public. Jason Brezler is a threat to the status quo. That is why justice in his case is so skewed.

The Facebook page includes the following:

Please let the Secretary of the Navy know that Congress thinks Jason Brezler belongs in the Marine Corps, and that the FBI should investigate what happened at Forward Operating Base Delhi. You can do this by contacting your congressional representative and both of your state’s senators.

Of course we will update you as things develop.

I don’t have a problem with helping Afghanistan fight the Taliban, but we need to be very careful about choosing our friends. We also need to realize that not everyone we think is our friend is our friend. There are some things that simply should not be permitted on our military bases–regardless of where those bases are located.

 

 

 

 

The Most Accurate Weather Predictor

Oddly enough, the group of people who have most accurately predicted weather in recent years are the writers of the Farmer’s Almanac. There is a reason many American farmers rely on their advice on when to plant and when to harvest–they are generally right.

On Monday The Daily Caller posted an article about the successful prediction record of The Farmer’s Almanac vs. the global warming people.

The article reports:

Who cares what a folksy book of hocus pocus for farmers says about the weather? We know better. Al Gore, Barack Obama, and the supposed consensus of 97 percent of climate scientists all say global warming, climate change, is real. They base their reasoning on “solar cycles, climatology, and meteorology” which happens to be what the Old Farmer’s Almanac uses for its forecast too.

So who’s right? Last year the Almanac predicted, “Snowfall will be above normal in most of the Northeast.” Turns out Boston set a new record for the snowiest season. Eight years ago, “Al Gore predicted that the North Pole could be completely liquidated by 2014 due to the impending threat of global warming.” Instead the Arctic ice cap is growing.

It seems global warming only exists in the world of computer models. And how accurate are these predictions? When tropical storm Sandy became a hurricane, the forecast track was all over the map, literally. Most models had her heading to Bermuda and only a few tracks leading to the New York metro area. This was only five days before she made landfall in New Jersey.

It is ironic that the people who have been so often wrong are the ones guiding U.S. energy, economic, and foreign policy. It is also ironic that none of the computer models that have predicted global warming have proven to be accurate. The global warming debate has consistently been an area where politics has trumped science. That is unfortunate for all of us.

Just as a reminder in case you are new to this site, the best website on the Internet for information on global warming is wattsupwiththat.com. On occasion the site can be a bit overly technical, but it is a great source of information on climate change.

The Deal With Iran Just Keeps Getting Worse

The Associated Press is reporting today that Iran will be able to use its own experts to inspect a site suspected of developing nuclear arms. Evidently this is part of the secret agreement with the United Nations that parallels the Iran agreement with the United States, Germany, France, etc.

The article reports:

The investigation of the Parchin nuclear site by the International Atomic Energy Agency is linked to a broader probe of allegations that Iran has worked on atomic weapons. That investigation is part of the overarching nuclear deal.

The Parchin deal is a separate, side agreement worked out between the IAEA and Iran. The United States and the five other world powers that signed the Iran nuclear deal were not party to this agreement but were briefed on it by the IAEA and endorsed it as part of the larger package.

Why in the world would any sane person sign on to this agreement? It’s like asking an alcoholic to inspect his house for alcohol.

The article further reports:

But the agreement diverges from normal inspection procedures between the IAEA and a member country by essentially ceding the agency’s investigative authority to Iran. It allows Tehran to employ its own experts and equipment in the search for evidence for activities that it has consistently denied – trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Evidence of that concession, as outlined in the document, is sure to increase pressure from U.S. congressional opponents as they review the July 14 Iran nuclear deal and vote on a resolution of disapproval in early September. If the resolution passed and President Barack Obama vetoed it, opponents would need a two-thirds majority to override it. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, has suggested opponents will likely lose.

If the Senate cannot override a Presidential veto of this agreement, every Senator who voted for the agreement needs to be voted out of office as soon as possible. This is an unbelievably bad deal.

As Our Population Ages, This Is Important

 The Wall Street Journal posted an opinion piece this morning about the impact of doctor-assisted suicide on the practice of medicine. The author of the piece is Dr. William L. Toffler, national director of Physicians for Compassionate Care.

The article points out that in recent years, there have been about two dozen suicide bills introduced in legislatures in America. Dr. Toffler suggests that before we support these measures, we examine what has happened to the practice of medicine in Oregon, where assisted suicide was introduced 20 years ago.

The article details some of the impact of assisted-suicide laws:

In one case a patient with bladder cancer contacted me. She was concerned that an oncologist treating her might be one of the “death doctors,” and she questioned his motives. This was particularly worrying to her after she obtained a second opinion from another oncologist who was more positive about her prognosis and treatment options. Whichever of the consultants was correct, such fears were never an issue before.

Under Oregon’s law, a patient can request lethal drugs only if he has a terminal illness and less than six months to live. However, it is nearly impossible to predict the course of an illness six months out, and many patients given such prognoses live full, rewarding lives long past six months.

There is also the question as to whether cost enters into assisted-suicide decisions:

Also concerning are the regular notices I receive indicating that many important services and drugs for my patients—even some pain medications—will not be covered by the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program. Yet physician-assisted suicide is covered by the state and our collective tax dollars. Supporters claim physician-assisted suicide gives patients choice, but what sort of a choice is it when life is expensive but death is free?

It also appears that the statistics on physician-assisted suicide are being hidden:

A shroud of secrecy envelops the practice of assisted suicide. Doctors engaging in it do not accurately report the actual manner of death. Instead they are required by state law to fabricate the death certificate, stating that the cause is “natural” rather than suicide. In late 1997, right before assisted suicide was about to begin, the state legislature implemented a system of two different death certificates—one that is public and includes no medical information and another that is kept private by the state. As a result, no one outside of the Oregon Health Division knows precisely how many assisted suicides have taken place, because accurately tracking them has been made impossible.

Dr. Toffler shared his own experience with a patient afflicted with MS:

One inquiry came from a patient with a progressive form of multiple sclerosis. He was in a wheelchair yet lived an active life as a general contractor. I asked him how the disease affected his life. He acknowledged that MS was a major challenge and told me that if he got too much worse, he might want to “just end it.”

I told him I could understand his fear and frustration and even his belief that assisted suicide might be a good option. I also told him that should he become sicker or weaker, I would work to provide him the best care and support available. No matter how debilitated he might become, his life was, and would always be, inherently valuable. As such, I said that would I not recommend nor would I participate in his suicide. He simply replied: “Thank you.”

As our population ages, there will be an increase in the number of terminally ill patients. Most of us have watched a loved one struggle with terminal illness and wondered what in the world was being accomplished by their suffering. I suspect we will never know the answer to that question. However, we need to look at the impact of doctor-assisted suicide on the practice of medicine.

When researching this article, I discovered the following at Wikipedia:

It is a popular misconception that the phrase “First do no harm” (Latin: Primum non nocere) is a part of the Hippocratic oath. Strictly speaking, the phrase does not appear in the oath, though an equivalent phrase is found in Epidemics, Book I, of the Hippocratic school: “Practice two things in your dealings with disease: either help or do not harm the patient”.  The exact phrase is believed to have originated with the 19th-century surgeon Thomas Inman.

It seems to me that even if “First do no harm” does not appear in the Hippocratic oath, it is a really good idea. I have no answers as to why some people suffer through terminal illness, but I also do not feel that as mere human beings we have the right to decide when a person dies. I truly think that decision is above all of our pay grades.

Just as an aside, I recently attended my 50th High School Reunion. The person I sat next to at the reunion was told years ago that he would only live a few months (he had cancer). He was sitting next to me, cancer free, and fully alive. It would have been a shame if someone had wanted to ‘end his suffering,’ which I am sure he went through in fighting the disease.

How Media Bias Works

There have been a number of videos posted on Facebook of people attempting to list the accomplishments of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. There have also been numerous articles, jokes, etc. This is something of a problem for her presidential campaign, and CNN has done its part to solve the problem.

John Hinderaker at Power Line posted an article yesterday about a CNN op-ed by Eleni Kounalakis. The article praised the accomplishments of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

These are some of the articles glowing accounts of Secretary of State Clinton’s accomplishments:

As a diplomat, she wielded the star power of one of the world’s most well-known female leaders. And finally, she had the right kind of work ethic, the right brand of wonkiness, to be embraced quickly by her 70,000 new employees at the State Department.
***
For three and a half years at my post in Budapest, I started my mornings reading Clinton’s daily schedule. Hillary Clinton traveled to more countries than any other secretary in the history of the department, logging nearly a million miles and visiting 112 nations. She visited countries that hadn’t had a U.S. secretary of state visit for up to five decades (Laos) or ever (Togo). After all, America can never have enough friends.

The article decribes Mrs. Kounalakis as follows:

Eleni Kounalakis was United States ambassador to Hungary from 2010 to 2013. She is the author of “Madam Ambassador, Three Years of Diplomacy, Dinner and Democracy in Budapest,” published by The New Press. She is a senior adviser to the Albright Stonebridge Group.

That’s fine. Sounds good. However, the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine tells us a little bit more:

Although a case could be made that she, like many ambassadors before her, was tapped only because of her political activism—and the more than $1 million she helped raise as head of Greek-Americans for Hillary Clinton—Tsakopoulos Kounalakis brings to her post professional and personal experience well suited to navigating the challenges her new job presents.

As Ambassador Ken Yalowitz, director of Dartmouth’s Dickey Center and a 36-year State Department veteran, points out, “Although ambassadors will always have their respect, foreign service professionals have a general concern when a political appointee is named. But political appointees can be exceptional diplomats—well qualified, highly motivated. Often they can accomplish things because of their access to people a career foreign service officer might not be able to reach.”

Indeed, in addition to other political activism such as serving four times as delegate to the Democratic National Convention from California, Tsakopoulos Kounalakis has meditated with the Dalai Lama and been honored by the Greek Orthodox Church for her interfaith work mediating forums with the World Council of Religions for Peace. She has also served on the California State World Trade Commission.

Does anyone actually believe that the CNN op-ed piece was objective?

 

From A Friend On Facebook

I don’t know if this is true, but it’s a great story.

One of my sons serves in the military. He is still stateside, here in California. He called me yesterday to let me know how warm and welcoming people were to him and his troops everywhere he goes, telling me how people shake their hands and thank them for being willing to serve and fight for not only our own freedoms, but so that others may have them also.

But he also told me about an incident in the grocery store he stopped at yesterday on his way home from the base. He said that ahead of several people in front of him stood a woman dressed in a burkha.

He said when she got to the cashier she loudly remarked about the U.S. flag lapel pin the cashier wore on her smock. The cashier reached up and touched the pin, and said proudly, “Yes, I always wear it and probably always will.”

The woman in the burkha then asked the cashier when she was going to stop bombing her countrymen, explaining that she was Iraqi.

A gentleman standing behind my son stepped forward.

Putting his arm around my son’s shoulders and nodding towards my son, he said in a calm and gentle voice to the Iraqi woman: Lady, hundreds of thousands of men and women like this young man have fought and died so that YOU could stand here, in MY country and accuse a check-out cashier of bombing YOUR countrymen. It is my belief that had you been this outspoken in YOUR own country, we wouldn’t need to be there today. But, hey, if you have now learned how to speak out so loudly and clearly, I’ll gladly buy you a ticket and pay your way back to Iraq so you can straighten out the mess in YOUR country that you are obviously here in MY country to avoid.”

Everyone within hearing distance cheered!

The Economic Recovery Is Still Struggling

Market Watch is reporting today that New York area manufacturing conditions fell rapidly in August.

The article reports:

The Empire State general business conditions index nose-dived to a reading of negative 14.9, from positive 3.9 in July, marking the worst level since April 2009, the New York Fed said. The index, on a scale where any positive number indicates improving conditions, was far worse than the positive 4.5 forecast in a MarketWatch-compiled economist poll.

The article includes the following chart:

NewYorkStateManufacturingConditions

The only good news in this is that the decline may cause the Federal Reserve to delay interest increases for a while.

Sometimes You Just Have To Smile

I love to watch professional football. I lived about 8 miles from the Patriot’s stadium for about 35 years. I will admit that I am a JETS fan, but I still like the Patriots. Like any other profession, football is made up of some people with class and some people without class. It is also made up of players who have worked hard to get where they are and understand the value of hard work. You don’t become an NFL linebacker without a lot of hard work. Talent helps, but without hard work, it won’t get you where you want to go.

ESPN posted an article today about James Harrison, an outside linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It seems that Mr. Harrison totally understands the value of a work ethic.

The article reports:

Not everyone gets a trophy in James Harrison‘s house, as the Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker wrote on Instagram on Saturday. Harrison is taking away his kids’ participation trophies because he wants them to “EARN a real trophy.”

Explaining his position, Harrison said he’s proud of his two sons and will always encourage them. But the “2015 Best of the Batch Next Level Athletics Student-Athlete Awards” are going back.

This ought to get the attention of a few parents out there. Parenting styles aside, Harrison’s football background might provide insight into why he feels this way. Harrison was a Kent State walk-on who went undrafted in 2002, played a season in NFL Europe and was cut by the Baltimore Ravens before latching on with the Steelers and becoming a force. That all drove him to “do better.”

I hope he becomes a high school coach when he retires from football. I love his attitude.

Why APUSH Is Important

Last year, the College Board, under the leadership of David Coleman, introduced a new APUSH, (Advanced Placement U. S. History) Curriculum Framework. I have previously written about the content of the new APUSH curriculum (rightwinggranny.com). If you would like to see all of the articles, use the search engine at the top of the page. However, in this article I would like to share some quotes from a speech given by Dr. Wilfred M. McClay, G.T. and Libby Blankenship Professor in the History of Liberty at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. McClay spoke on July 10, 2015, at Hillsdale College. The full text of his remarks can be found at the Imprimis section of the Hillsdale College website.

Here are a few excerpts from his speech:

…the chief purpose of a high school education in American history is as a rite of civic membership, an act of inculcation and formation, a way in which the young are introduced to the fullness of their political and cultural inheritance as Americans, enabling them to become literate and conversant in its many features, and to appropriate fully all that it has to offer them, both its privileges and its burdens. To make its stories theirs, and thereby let them come into possession of the common treasure of its cultural life. In that sense, the study of history is different from any other academic subject. It is not merely a body of knowledge. It also ushers the individual person into membership in a common world, and situates them in space and time.

This is especially true in a democracy. The American Founders, and perhaps most notably Thomas Jefferson, well understood that no popular government could flourish for long without an educated citizenry—one that understood the special virtues of republican self-government, and the civic and moral duty of citizens to uphold and guard it. As the historian Donald Kagan has put it, “Democracy requires a patriotic education.” It does so for two reasons: first, because its success depends upon the active participation of its citizens in their own governance; and second, because without such an education, there would be no way to persuade free individuals of the need to make sacrifices for the sake of the greater good.

…The 2014 framework grants far more extensive attention to “how various identities, cultures, and values have been preserved or changed in different contexts of U.S. history, with special attention given to the formation of gender, class, racial, and ethnic identities.” The change is very clear: the new framework represents a shift from national identity to subcultural identities. Indeed, the new framework is so populated with examples of American history as the conflict between social groups, and so inattentive to the sources of national unity and cohesion, that it is hard to see how students will gain any coherent idea of what those sources might be. This does them, and all Americans, an immense disservice. Instead of combating fracture, it embraces it.

If this framework is permitted to take hold, the new version of the test will effectively marginalize traditional ways of teaching about the American past, and force American high schools to teach U.S. history from a perspective that self-consciously seeks to decenter American history. Is this the right way to prepare young people for American citizenship? How can we call forth the acts of sacrifice that our democracy needs, not only on the battlefield but also in our daily lives—the acts of dedication to the common good that are at the heart of civilized life—without training up citizens who know about and appreciate that democracy, care about the common good, and feel themselves a part of their nation’s community of memory? How can we expect our citizens to grapple intelligently with enduring national debates—such as over the role of the U.S. Constitution, or about the reasons for the separation of powers and limited government—if they know nothing of the long trail of those particular debates, and are instead taught to translate them into the one-size-fits-all language of the global and transnational?

Please follow the link above to Imprimis to read the entire speech. Dr. McClay has named one of the causes of the divisions we face today. Because our children have not been taught patriotism (it is out of favor right now and referred to as ‘gringoism’), they lack pride in themselves and in their country. When everyone gets a trophy, we have no one to celebrate. When everyone gets a trophy, no one is exceptional. It is time to start recognizing those who are worthy of trophies and letting those who don’t earn them at first to keep trying until they do. American History should be ‘warts and all,’ but it shouldn’t be all warts. The new APUSH curriculum is mostly warts.

We Have Seen This Play Before

Bloomberg Business is reporting today that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may boost oil production dramatically after the sanctions are lifted on Iran.

The article reports:

The global oil market is already in surplus by about 3 million barrels a day, with Saudi Arabia and Iraq responsible for OPEC’s oversupply in the past six months, Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported Sunday, citing Mehdi Asali. Iran can boost output by 500,000 barrels a day within one week after sanctions are lifted, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said earlier this month.

…Iran made a “big mistake” when it backed OPEC’s decision in December 2011 to discard individual production quotas, Asali said. That allowed Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other members to take over Iran’s share which was diminishing because of sanctions, he said.

…Brent oil futures closed at $49.19 a barrel on Friday, down 14 percent for this year.

We have seen this play before. There is an oil price at which fracking, a major part of American oil and natural gas production, is no longer profitable. To restart a fracking operation after it has been suspended is expensive and cumbersome. The easiest way to prevent America from becoming energy independent is to drop the price of oil as America begins to develop her oil and natural gas resources. This severely impacts the development–American businessmen are in business to make money. If fracking is not profitable, they will not invest the money to do it. OPEC would very much like to keep America dependent on their oil. Our dependency on OPEC oil has a tremendous impact on our diplomatic policy in the Middle East. We give money to and support in other ways countries whose basic ideas and values are in total conflict with our own. It would be very nice to be energy independent and be able to make decisions on international matters according to our principles–not our dependence on oil.

 

Donald Trump’s Immigration Plan

I will repeat–I am not endorsing Donald Trump, but a friend emailed this to me and I think it is interesting. Also, I am told that anything with Donald Trump’s name in it will get multiple clicks, and I am not above pandering. At any rate, this is Donald Trump’s plan:

IMMIGRATION REFORM THAT WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN

The three core principles of Donald J. Trump‘s immigration plan

When politicians talk about “immigration reform” they mean: amnesty, cheap labor and open borders. The Schumer-Rubio immigration bill was nothing more than a giveaway to the corporate patrons who run both parties.

Real immigration reform puts the needs of working people first – not wealthy globetrotting donors. We are the only country in the world whose immigration system puts the needs of other nations ahead of our own. That must change. Here are the three core principles of real immigration reform:

1. A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border.

2. A nation without laws is not a nation. Laws passed in accordance with our Constitutional system of government must be enforced.

3. A nation that does not serve its own citizens is not a nation. Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.

Make Mexico Pay For The Wall

For many years, Mexico’s leaders have been taking advantage of the United States by using illegal immigration to export the crime and poverty in their own country (as well as in other Latin American countries). They have even published pamphlets on how to illegally immigrate to the United States. The costs for the United States have been extraordinary: U.S. taxpayers have been asked to pick up hundreds of billions in healthcare costs, housing costs, education costs, welfare costs, etc. Indeed, the annual cost of free tax credits alone paid to illegal immigrants quadrupled to $4.2 billion in 2011. The effects on jobseekers have also been disastrous, and black Americans have been particularly harmed.

The impact in terms of crime has been tragic. In recent weeks, the headlines have been covered with cases of criminals who crossed our border illegally only to go on to commit horrific crimes against Americans. Most recently, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, with a long arrest record, is charged with breaking into a 64 year-old women’s home, crushing her skull and eye sockets with a hammer, raping her, and murdering her. The Police Chief in Santa Maria says the “blood trail” leads straight to Washington.

In 2011, the Government Accountability Office found that there were a shocking 3 million arrests attached to the incarcerated alien population, including tens of thousands of violent beatings, rapes and murders.

Meanwhile, Mexico continues to make billions on not only our bad trade deals but also relies heavily on the billions of dollars in remittances sent from illegal immigrants in the United States back to Mexico ($22 billion in 2013 alone).

In short, the Mexican government has taken the United States to the cleaners. They are responsible for this problem, and they must help pay to clean it up.

The cost of building a permanent border wall pales mightily in comparison to what American taxpayers spend every single year on dealing with the fallout of illegal immigration on their communities, schools and unemployment offices.

Mexico must pay for the wall and, until they do, the United States will, among other things: impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; increase fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them); increase fees on all border crossing cards – of which we issue about 1 million to Mexican nationals each year (a major source of visa overstays); increase fees on all NAFTA worker visas from Mexico (another major source of overstays); and increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico [Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options].  We will not be taken advantage of anymore.

Defend The Laws And Constitution Of The United States

America will only be great as long as America remains a nation of laws that lives according to the Constitution. No one is above the law. The following steps will return to the American people the safety of their laws, which politicians have stolen from them:

Triple the number of ICE officers. As the President of the ICE Officers’ Council explained in Congressional testimony: “Only approximately 5,000 officers and agents within ICE perform the lion’s share of ICE’s immigration mission…Compare that to the Los Angeles Police Department at approximately 10,000 officers. Approximately 5,000 officers in ICE cover 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam, and are attempting to enforce immigration law against 11 million illegal aliens already in the interior of the United States. Since 9-11, the U.S. Border Patrol has tripled in size, while ICE’s immigration enforcement arm, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), has remained at relatively the same size.” This will be funded by accepting the recommendation of the Inspector General for Tax Administration and eliminating tax credit payments to illegal immigrants.

Nationwide e-verify. This simple measure will protect jobs for unemployed Americans.

Mandatory return of all criminal aliens. The Obama Administration has released 76,000 aliens from its custody with criminal convictions since 2013 alone. All criminal aliens must be returned to their home countries, a process which can be aided by canceling any visas to foreign countries which will not accept their own criminals, and making it a separate and additional crime to commit an offense while here illegally.

Detention—not catch-and-release. Illegal aliens apprehended crossing the border must be detained until they are sent home, no more catch-and-release.

Defund sanctuary cities. Cut-off federal grants to any city which refuses to cooperate with federal law enforcement.

Enhanced penalties for overstaying a visa. Millions of people come to the United States on temporary visas but refuse to leave, without consequence. This is a threat to national security. Individuals who refuse to leave at the time their visa expires should be subject to criminal penalties; this will also help give local jurisdictions the power to hold visa overstays until federal authorities arrive. Completion of a visa tracking system – required by law but blocked by lobbyists – will be necessary as well.

Cooperate with local gang task forces. ICE officers should accompany local police departments conducting raids of violent street gangs like MS-13 and the 18th street gang, which have terrorized the country. All illegal aliens in gangs should be apprehended and deported. Again, quoting Chris Crane: “ICE Officers and Agents are forced to apply the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Directive, not to children in schools, but to adult inmates in jails. If an illegal-alien inmate simply claims eligibility, ICE is forced to release the alien back into the community. This includes serious criminals who have committed felonies, who have assaulted officers, and who prey on children…ICE officers should be required to place detainers on every illegal alien they encounter in jails and prisons, since these aliens not only violated immigration laws, but then went on to engage in activities that led to their arrest by police; ICE officers should be required to issue Notices to Appear to all illegal aliens with criminal convictions, DUI convictions, or a gang affiliation; ICE should be working with any state or local drug or gang task force that asks for such assistance.”

End birthright citizenship. This remains the biggest magnet for illegal immigration. By a 2:1 margin, voters say it’s the wrong policy, including Harry Reid who said “no sane country” would give automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.

Put American Workers First

Decades of disastrous trade deals and immigration policies have destroyed our middle class. Today, nearly 40% of black teenagers are unemployed. Nearly 30% of Hispanic teenagers are unemployed. For black Americans without high school diplomas, the bottom has fallen out: more than 70% were employed in 1960, compared to less than 40% in 2000. Across the economy, the percentage of adults in the labor force has collapsed to a level not experienced in generations. As CBS news wrote in a piece entitled “America’s incredible shrinking middle class”: “If the middle-class is the economic backbone of America, then the country is developing osteoporosis.”

The influx of foreign workers holds down salaries, keeps unemployment high, and makes it difficult for poor and working class Americans – including immigrants themselves and their children – to earn a middle class wage. Nearly half of all immigrants and their US-born children currently live in or near poverty, including more than 60 percent of Hispanic immigrants. Every year, we voluntarily admit another 2 million new immigrants, guest workers, refugees, and dependents, growing our existing all-time historic record population of 42 million immigrants. We need to control the admission of new low-earning workers in order to: help wages grow, get teenagers back to work, aid minorities’ rise into the middle class, help schools and communities falling behind, and to ensure our immigrant members of the national family become part of the American dream.

Additionally, we need to stop giving legal immigrant visas to people bent on causing us harm. From the 9/11 hijackers, to the Boston Bombers, and many others, our immigration system is being used to attack us. The President of the immigration caseworkers union declared in a statement on ISIS: “We’ve become the visa clearinghouse for the world.”

Here are some additional specific policy proposals for long-term reform:

Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs. We graduate two times more Americans with STEM degrees each year than find STEM jobs, yet as much as two-thirds of entry-level hiring for IT jobs is accomplished through the H-1B program. More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program’s lowest allowable wage level, and more than eighty percent for its bottom two. Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas. This will improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program. Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple H-1Bs that would decimate women and minorities.

Requirement to hire American workers first. Too many visas, like the H-1B, have no such requirement. In the year 2015, with 92 million Americans outside the workforce and incomes collapsing, we need to companies to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed. Petitions for workers should be mailed to the unemployment office, not USCIS.

End welfare abuse. Applicants for entry to the United States should be required to certify that they can pay for their own housing, healthcare and other needs before coming to the U.S.

Jobs program for inner city youth. The J-1 visa jobs program for foreign youth will be terminated and replaced with a resume bank for inner city youth provided to all corporate subscribers to the J-1 visa program.

Refugee program for American children. Increase standards for the admission of refugees and asylum-seekers to crack down on abuses. Use the monies saved on expensive refugee programs to help place American children without parents in safer homes and communities, and to improve community safety in high crime neighborhoods in the United States.

Immigration moderation. Before any new green cards are issued to foreign workers abroad, there will be a pause where employers will have to hire from the domestic pool of unemployed immigrant and native workers.

I don’t agree with everything listed, but I think it is time to have a discussion that includes compassion for refugees who want to come here and some protection for unemployed Americans.The ideas above might be a place to start the discussion.

No Wonder They Are Concerned

When something happens once, you can overlook it. When it happens twice, you begin to wonder. There have been some recent events that would cause me to wonder if I lived in Israel. We all know that most of the Middle Eastern countries have at one time or another threatened to wipe Israel off the map. Lately, that has been limited to one or two countries and a few terrorist organizations. Right now one of the real oddities in the Middle East is the alliances in the Middle East that are being formed in light of the possibility of the Iranian treaty being approved. I never thought I would see Israel and Saudi Arabia or Israel and Egypt cooperating, but it is happening.

Now back to wiping Israel off the map. John Hinderaker at Power Line posted an article today about a globe being sold in a discount store in the United Kingdom. Palestine is shown on the globe, but Israel is not. Also, last week on Air France, the maps the passengers looked at during the flight showed Cyprus, Lebanon, the West Bank, Gaza–but no Israel. The Air France maps have been corrected. The company that manufactures the globe is looking into the situation to see if a correction is necessary.

I am reminded of the disappearing people in the picture in the movie “Back to the Future.” If I lived in Israel, I would wonder. I can’t imaging how America would react if someone started selling globes showing Texas as part of Mexico. (I can image how Texas would react, I just can’t imagine how America would react!)

The Downside Of Convenience

A friend of ours has a car with a keyless ignition. That means that when he goes somewhere, he does not have to put the key in the ignition of the car to start the car–the key can simply be in his pocket. I will admit that I don’t actually understand the purpose of this technology–if you have to have the key with you, why does it matter whether or not you have to put the key in the ignition? At any rate, if you own a Volkswagen, Fiat, Audi, Ferrari, Porsche or Maserati, your car might have a keyless entry. So what’s the problem?

Bloomberg News posted a story yesterday which stated:

“Keyless” car theft, which sees hackers target vulnerabilities in electronic locks and immobilizers, now accounts for 42 percent of stolen vehicles in London. BMWs and Range Rovers are particularly at-risk, police say, and can be in the hands of a technically minded criminal within 60 seconds.

Security researchers have now discovered a similar vulnerability in keyless vehicles made by several carmakers. The weakness – which affects the Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) transponder chip used in immobilizers – was discovered in 2012, but carmakers sued the researchers to prevent them from publishing their findings.

The article goes on to explain that the transponders that allow the vehicles to sense when the RFID chip is in the car can be hacked. Since the chips are used in some very high-end cars–Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini, as well as Fiats, Hondas, Volvos and some Maserati models, there is an increased risk of theft to begin with. The signal from the RFID chip to the car can be amplified and copied by a hacker. Then, when the car is left unattended, the signal can be duplicated, and the car can be easily stolen.

I am not opposed the progress, but if a car is more vulnerable to theft because of the RFID system, it might be a good idea to go back to the old system of putting the key into the ignition until you get the bugs out of the RFID system. However, the Bloomberg article points out that Volkswagen has spent the past two years trying to hide the security problem with the RFID chip, so the average car buyer has no idea he has an increased risk of having his car stolen because it uses an RFID chip instead of a good old-fashioned ignition key. That is a problem. If I spend the kind of money it takes to buy a Maserati, I don’t want an increased possibility of having my car stolen as part of the package.

This Is What Happens When An Investigation Takes Two Years To Get To The Point

Yesterday The New York Post reported that Hillary Clinton has handed over her server to the Justice Department. Unfortunately, the server is blank.

The article reports:

Clinton said she turned over all her official e-mails to the State Department in December and then wiped clean her server.

Clinton deleted some 30,000 personal e-mails but backed up work ones on thumb drives that were also turned over to federal authorities.

In compliance with a federal court order, lawyers for two top Clinton aides, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, assured a judge Wednesday the aides won’t delete any of their official e-mails.

The Clinton campaign said Thursday there is nothing on her server left to retrieve. “As David Kendall [Clinton’s lawyer] said in March, we do not believe any e-mails from her time as secretary exist on the server,” the campaign said in a statement.

Platte River says it began work for Clinton in June 2013, after she left office, to upgrade, secure and manage her e-mail server.

The company retrieved the server from her New York home and housed it at a data center in New Jersey, said company spokesman Andy Boian.

My advice on this matter is very simple–if you are an ordinary citizen, don’t try this at home!

Today’s Chutzpah Award

Yesterday Yahoo News reported that Fidel Castro celebrated his 89th birthday by declaring that the United States owes Cuba “many millions of dollars” because of the half-century-old American trade embargo. This is what happens when you begin diplomatic relations with a failing communist state–they immediately want money because communism doesn’t work.

The article reports:

The trade embargo that the United States slapped on communist Cuba in 1962, three years after Castro seized power by ousting a US-backed regime, remains in effect despite the thaw.

President Barack Obama wants Congress to lift it, although US officials say this will take time and is not an automatic part of the restoration of ties, as it requires congressional action.

Many Republicans, who control both chambers of the legislature, oppose the idea, insisting Cuba has to improve its human rights record and make other democratic reforms.

Fidel Castro pulled one of the most effective international deceptions in history in 1959 when he led a successful revolution and took over the government of Cuba. America supported him, believing he would bring freedom to the island nation. However, a quick review of his personal history would have revealed who he was.

Wikipedia has a few interesting notes about Fidel Castro:

Born in Birán as the son of a wealthy farmer, Castro adopted leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the University of Havana.

Maybe America needs to take a closer look at its universities and see what is happening to their students.

Wikipedia also tells us:

After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year’s imprisonment, he traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the 26th of July Movement, with Che Guevara and his brother Raúl Castro. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista’s forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista’s overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power.

America realized after Castro took office who he was, but his revolution was looked upon favorably by the American government. Many college students who don’t understand the cruelty of Che Guevara still wander around with t-shirts bearing his image. Che Guevara was a cold-blooded murderer who essentially functioned as the enforcer for the Castro regime. His t-shirts are worn by students who really have no idea who he actually was.

At any rate, we don’t owe Cuba anything for the embargo. Cuba owes the world an explanation and apology for the way it has treated its people. Castro’s regime was one of fear and terror. Innocent people were arrested, tortured, and mistreated. That still continues. Until it stops, I see no reason to trade with Cuba.

This May Be One Of Many Reasons ObamaCare Is So Expensive

On Tuesday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about an Inspector General audit of the Department of Health and Human Services. The purpose of the audit was to determine if the ObamaCare healthcare sign-up sites were monitoring the people who were signing up to see if they were eligible for ObamaCare.

The article reports:

The IG found that the internal controls did not always correctly verify Social Security numbers, citizenship status, annual household income, and family size information to determine eligibility.

One applicant understated her income by $7,000. According to the IG, the marketplace should have compared this income data to available electronic data sources and realized that the applicant’s income was more than 10 percent below the income listed on these data sources. Then, the marketplace should have asked the applicant for additional evidence of income.

Instead, this applicant was not only verified, but was approved to receive the advance premium tax credit.

Another example of weak internal controls was found in efforts to verify citizenship status. The marketplace did not always verify this information through the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, as was required.

The IG found that not only were there problems with internal controls, but once discrepancies were found, they were not handled properly.

…This report comes on the heels of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found Healthcare.gov approved coverage for fake accounts. GAO performed undercover tests and fabricated personal data of fake applicants for coverage under Obamacare. In 11 of 12 of these fake applications, the online marketplace approved coverage and granted each account $30,000 in premium tax credits.

Sounds like a typical government program to me.

 

Extreme? Or needed?

Some of this article was received in my email from a friend. More information can be found at Act for America and Congress.gov.

Our refugee program is broken. Already, 42 terrorists who were part of a Somali community resettled in the U.S. are fighting in the Middle East, one of whom became a suicide bomber. We know President Obama is working to bring even more refugees into the U.S. without proper background checks.

Rep. Brian Babin, R-TX, recently introduced a bill on July 30 that would suspend the current system of refugee resettlement until the Government Accountability Office “completes a thorough examination of its costs on federal, state, and local governments.”

The bill states:

SEC. 2. Suspension of admission of refugees.

Beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security may not admit into the United States an alien under section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157) until such time as Congress passes a joint resolution giving the Secretary authority to resume admitting aliens under such section.

SEC. 3. GAO study.

Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a report that includes, for the 10-year period preceding the date of the enactment of this Act, for aliens admitted into the United States under section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1157), the following information:

(1) The average duration for which such an alien received benefits under a program described in section 4.

2) The percentage of such aliens who received benefits under a program described in section 4.

(3) The cost, per year, to each program described in section 4 for such aliens.

(4) The number of such aliens who paid Federal income tax or Federal employment tax during the first year after being admitted to the United States.

5) The cost, per year, to the program described in paragraph (5) of section 4 for such aliens.

(6) The number and percentage of such aliens who received benefits under a program described in section 4—

(A) 2 years after being admitted to the United States;

(B) 5 years after being admitted to the United States; and

(C) 10 years after being admitted to the United States.

(7) The cost, per year, to the Federal Government, to State governments, and to units of local government of providing other benefits and services, directly or indirectly, to such aliens.

SEC. 4. Benefit programs described.

The programs described under this subsection are as follows:

(1) The Medicare program under title XVIII of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395 et seq.).

(2) The Medicaid program under title XIX of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396 et seq.).

(3) Disability insurance benefits under title II of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 402 et seq.).

(4) The supplemental nutrition assistance program under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.).

(5) Rental assistance under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f).

As you can see, the bill is relatively short and to the point. It would at least allow us to keep track of who is in the country and how we are supporting them. It is needed. Please call your Representative and ask him to support the bill. America has always been open to refugees, but in the past we have not agreed to support them indefinitely–refugees were encouraged to assimilate and be self-supporting as soon as possible. Somehow we have lost that concept. We need to be open to refugees who are willing to assimilate and become productive Americans.

 

What Difference Does It Make?

As the media covers the fact that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has finally agreed to hand over her computer server to the Justice Department, let’s back up a minute and look at the history of Secretary Clinton and her server.

On March 30, Byron York posted a story at The Washington Examiner that included the following:

The subpoena story began on Sept. 20, 2012, nine days after the attacks. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who was chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations, sent a letter to then-Secretary of State Clinton asking for “all information … related to the attack on the consulate.” Chaffetz specifically asked for all analyses, whether classified or unclassified, on the security situation leading up to the Benghazi attack, plus, among other things, all analyses that either supported or contradicted UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s assertion that the attack was the spontaneous result of outrage over an anti-Muslim video. The short version of the letter was that Chaffetz demanded “all information” on Benghazi.

Just to be clear, the Chaffetz letter included standard language telling Clinton, “In complying with this request, you are required to produce all responsive documents that are in your possession, custody, or control, whether held by you or your past or present agents, employees, and representatives acting on your behalf.”

…The routine got old fast. Republicans (and Democrats, for that matter) couldn’t copy the documents and couldn’t use them at hearings. Chaffetz and Rep. Darrell Issa, then the chairman of the full Oversight and Government Reform Committee, became frustrated. In response to their protests, the State Department stressed that it had made all the relevant documents available, even if under restrictive conditions. State has “provided Congress with access to documents, comprising over 25,000 pages to date, including communications of senior Department officials regarding the security situation in Benghazi,” State official Thomas Gibbons wrote to Issa on March 29, 2013.

That did nothing to quiet Republican unhappiness. The problem came to a head on Aug. 1, 2013, when the committee issued a subpoena to the State Department. (It was officially directed to new Secretary of State John Kerry.)

Note that the date of the subpoena was August 1, 2013–more than two years ago.

Yesterday The New York Post posted a story that included the following:

Security experts warned Wednesday that the chances of recovering deleted information from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s home e-mail server are slim — unless she did a lousy scrubbing job.

“Being the fact that this is Hillary Clinton with significant resources and a reputation to uphold, I would say that those who are seeking out additional information on the servers … would have a very difficult time finding something,” Robert Siciliano, an online-security expert, told The Post.

When items are deleted they still leave a trace — or “bread crumbs,” as ­Siciliano put it — but a skilled person doing the deleting can ensure that fewer crumbs are left to recreate the missing documents.

Does anyone really believe that the Justice Department is going to uphold the law in regard to Secretary Clinton? This case will be a litmus case to see if President Obama actually supports the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton. I suspect the President Obama does not want Hillary Clinton to become President, but I also suspect he has seen the list of people who have opposed the Clintons in the past and faced severe consequences. Watching this unfold will be extremely educational to all of us.

Why?

Townhall.com posted an article today about a young Mississippi couple who planned to join ISIS on their honeymoon, Thankfully they were arrested before they had a chance to carry out their plans.

The article reports:

Now these two are facing criminal charges after being arrested in Golden Triangle Regional Airport in Columbus, Mississippi, this past weekend with accusations of conspiring and attempting to provide material support and resources to ISIS.

“We learn very fast and would love to help,” the young couple told undercover FBI agents claiming to work with ISIS through social media messaging.

…The couple derive from Mississippi, where Dakhalla is the son of a local imam and, ironically, Young is the daughter of a Mississippi police officer.

What were they thinking?

Playing Politics With The National Labor Relations Board

Yesterday The Washington Examiner posted an article about Lafe Solomon, the former acting general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 2011 through 2013. Evidently his service violated the law that applies to federal appointments.

The article reports:

Solomon, a long-time board lawyer, was appointed acting general counsel by Obama in June 2010 and officially nominated to the position, which requires Senate approval, the following January. However, the Senate, then under Democratic control, never held a vote on his nomination. Solomon continued to serve through November 2013, when the current general counsel, Richard Griffin, was confirmed by the Senate.

That same year, SW General, Inc., an Arizona-based ambulance company, challenged a NLRB complaint against it, alleging that Solomon was serving in violation of 1998 law called the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. The law says that once the president nominates someone for a position that requires Senate confirmation, that nominee cannot serve until they are confirmed. It includes an exception if the nominee had previously been “first assistant” to the last person to hold the office. On Friday, the federal court sided with the company and against the board.

“Because Solomon was never a first assistant and the President nominated him to be General Counsel on January 5, 2011, the FVRA prohibited him from serving as Acting General Counsel from that date forward,” the court found.

Lafe Solomon was the person behind the NLRB’s move against Boeing when they built a plant in South Carolina.

The article comments on the Boeing case:

The case prompted loud complaints from business groups and Republican lawmakers, who argued the board was trying to make a business decision to locate in a right-to-work state like South Carolina itself evidence of a labor rights violation. The NLRB complaint was withdrawn after Boeing and the union reached a settlement in 2011.

President Obama has not been the President of the entire country. He has been the President of the special interest groups he likes–among them big labor. Remember that in the bailout of Chrysler, he favored retired union workers over secured bond holders. (rightwinggranny.com). The only hope for the survival of America is to elect a President who will faithfully uphold the Constitution and follow the law. There are a few candidates who fit that description, and hopefully the American people will realize the danger their country is in and elect one of them.