Tuesday, September 24, 2013

'Lady'

With the exception of one or two below at the playlist, I've previously posted most of these songs from yesterday morning's drive time. Styx is not my favorite, although I confess to listening to "The Grand Illusion" (LP) all the time in high school ("Miss America" is particularly good). (On Facebook here.)

A great drive-time set, in any case, at The Sound L.A.

Today's my long day and I'm going out tonight with my family, so I'm not sure when blogging's going to kick back up. Until then, God bless...




You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet --- B.T.O. 08:18 AM

I Wanna Be Sedated --- Ramones 08:16 AM

Gimme Shelter --- The Rolling Stones 08:10 AM

Maggie May --- Rod Stewart 08:05 AM

Let My Love Open the Door --- Pete Townshend 08:02 AM

Lady '95 --- Styx 07:59 AM

Hold On Loosely --- 38 Special 07:55 AM

Suzie Q --- Creedence Clearwater Revival 07:50 AM

My My Hey Hey --- Neil Young 07:47 AM

With a Little Help From My Friends --- The Beatles 07:39 AM

Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Live) --- Pat Benatar 07:36 AM

The Evil of Global Jihad

From Tom Rogan, at National Review:

The Evil of Global Jihad photo c3080a09-9354-47f0-9a68-54eed521c4f7_zps002e13fb.jpg
Nairobi’s Westgate mall is more than a retail center. It’s a social hub — a space for shared enjoyment and community celebration. It’s also a place for kids. In fact, a children’s event was taking place on Saturday. Then the jihadists turned up and turned it into a death trap. And that’s not all they did this weekend.

Rampaging through a mall.

Attacking a funeral in Iraq.

Blowing up worshipers in a Pakistani church.

This weekend has verified the identity of the global jihadist movement: a death cult that finds spiritual unity in the murder of innocents.

Let’s be clear. Westgate was attacked for two reasons. First, in its public character, the mall offered al-Shabab an opportunity to spread terror across all of Kenyan society. Second, packed with families, Westgate offered the terrorists hundreds of strategic pawns. In its killing sprees, al-Shabab seeks a new regional understanding: that its resolve is supreme above all others. That unless its adversaries yield, more Westgates will follow.

At a basic level, al-Shabab’s strategy is far from original. By definition, terrorism involves the deliberate cultivation of fear as a political tool.

Yet modern Salafi Jihadism takes this dynamic to an unprecedented level. It has the instinctive reflex toward unrestrained brutality. Gratuitous violence guarantees attention. Think about the Iraq war. The image of masked assailants sawing off the heads of bound and terrified prisoners is seared indelibly into our memory.

Of course, this raises a key question: How do the jihadists excuse their atrocities?

In the blend of theocratic absolutism and perverse consequentialism. From the jihadist perspective, their violence is justified in the service of God’s intrinsic will.

Grappling with this notion of ordained will is crucial. It affords us insight into the existential rigidity with which these terrorists regard the world. In short, Salafi Jihadists claim that the price of peace is our non-interference — they hint that our acquiescence will buy us our safety. They’re lying. Theirs is an ideology with a supra-national (and, as they see it, divine) pursuit — a global caliphate of absolute power.
Still more at the link.

And see Robert Spencer, "Jihad in Kenya."And Daniel Greenfield, "In the Name of Islam."

Monday, September 23, 2013

British 'White Widow' Killed as Security Forces Storm #Westgate Mall?

Reports are unconfirmed.

Here's London's Daily Mail, "Has British 'White Widow' been killed in final assault on Kenyan shopping mall? Body of white woman terrorist is found at scene."

But see the Guardian UK, "Kenya siege: UK officials investigate claims Britons were involved in attack."



More, from @ColorMeRed on Twitter, "Belfast Telegraph Front Page Tues Sep 24: Security services hunt down White Widow over Kenya massacre."

Video: Special Forces Storm #Westgate Mall in Nairobi

From KTN Kenya.



PREVIOUSLY: "Reports: Kenyan Forces Secure #Westgate Mall."

Reports: Kenyan Forces Secure #Westgate Mall

It's hard to know what's going on. Up-to-date information is sketchy, and I'm linking this stuff below provisionally. I'll be checking around for more information, especially on the identities of the assailants.

Until then, a number of reports are claiming the siege has come to an end and security forces have the mall under control.

Here's Agence-France Press and Telegraph UK on Twitter:



And at the Wall Street Journal, "Kenyan Mall Siege Enters Third Night: Security Forces Mount Assault as Details on Attackers Begin to Emerge":
NAIROBI, Kenya—The standoff at a popular shopping mall here entered its third night on Monday, as sketchy details began to emerge about the assailants, among them a Caucasian-looking woman in a head scarf.

The woman, said a Western security officer briefed on the assault, fired on shoppers with an assault rifle as they fled and dove for cover. Most of the other attackers remain unidentified.

Meanwhile, on Monday afternoon, Kenyan security forces mounted a major assault in an effort to free the more-than-40 people still believed to be inside. Gunfire and explosions erupted as the operation started, accompanied by a black plume of smoke billowing into the air.

Kenyan officials said they had been able to free almost all of the civilians inside, but declined to give a figure.

At least 62 people have been killed in the three-day siege that started on Saturday, after armed assailants rushed into the mall from three entrances and opened fire on those inside.

At least two attackers were killed and 10 people have been arrested in Kenya for questioning in connection with the assault, police said.

The account of female militants jibes with witnesses who said they saw women taking part in the assault.

One man said he saw three women among the assailants that came in and out of the supermarket storeroom in which he was hiding. Interior cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku said Monday that some militants had disguised themselves women, without explaining why.

Meanwhile, Kenya's military, which is taking part in the counterassault on the mall, confirmed that the assailants came from a number of countries, although an official declined to disclose details in a briefing with reporters Monday.

"We have an idea who these people are, and they are clearly a multinational collection from all over the world," said Maj. Gen. Julius Karanja, the chief of general staff for the Kenyan military.

The Somali al-Shabaab militant Islamist group claimed responsibility for the attack but didn't provide details on the assailants.

A list of purported attackers, including Europeans and Americans, appeared to have come from a Twitter account not sanctioned by the group. The list couldn't be independently verified.

The security forces also appeared to be growing to include international participants. Israeli forces joined Kenyan troops pursuing the militants inside the mall on Monday, said witnesses.

The Israeli government declined to comment on their presence and Kenyan officials continued to stress that the rescue was a purely Kenyan operation.

There are a number of Israeli-owned shops in Westgate and the mall itself is at least partially Israeli-owned.
More at that top link.

I'll be updating throughout the night.

Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union Wins Triumphant German Election

Chancellor Merkel was reelected to a third term.

At the New York Times, "Merkel Re-Elected in Show of Strong Support for Party":


BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel scored a stunning personal triumph in Sunday’s national elections in Germany, becoming the only major leader to be re-elected twice since the financial crisis of 2008 and winning strong popular endorsement for her mix of austerity and solidarity in managing troubled Europe.

Although final vote tallies were not expected until Monday, the surprising show of strength for the chancellor and her center-right Christian Democrats — even their own polls had not suggested such a result — might just translate into an absolute majority, according to exit polls by both major German television stations. That is something no German chancellor has achieved since Konrad Adenauer in 1957.

Ms. Merkel, 59 and a physicist raised in Communist East Germany, was unusually buoyant when she appeared before supporters, who chanted “Angie! Angie!” and gave her two whole minutes of applause at party headquarters. She exuberantly thanked voters, campaigners and her husband, the quantum chemist Joachim Sauer. Mr. Sauer, who tends to shun the limelight, stood at the side of the stage, acknowledging the jubilation of her fans.

Later, during a raucous celebration at her party headquarters, Ms. Merkel clapped and sang along with the crowds but reminded them, “Tomorrow, we work.”

For all her success, it is not clear how Ms. Merkel will govern in her third four-year term. Her allies for the past four years, the business-minded Free Democrats, were expected to lose their place in Parliament, missing the 5 percent cutoff. And a narrow majority would be unstable — risking defeat in crucial parliamentary votes needed to pass more aid or credits for troubled economies.

So the most likely course is that Ms. Merkel will enter a grand coalition with the No. 2 party nationally, the center-left Social Democrats.
Continue reading.

Also at Der Spiegel, "Election Triumph: Merkel Victorious But Faces Tough Talks, and "Merkel Country: Trouble Ahead for Triumphant Queen Angela."

More, "Wiped Out: Free Democrats Reel from Election Fiasco," and "Grand Coalition? Social Dems Deflect Talk of Merkel Alliance."

Plus, an analysis at the Economist, "Angela Merkel's bittersweet triumph."

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Jihad in Kenya: Photos

At Pamela's, "PHOTOS: JIHAD IN KENYA, DEATH TOLL HITS 68 IN MUSLIM MASSACRE AT WESTGATE MALL."

And at BNI, "UPDATE NAIROBI ISLAMIC TERRORIST MALL ATTACK: 59 dead, 175 wounded, terrorists still holding hostages, Israeli Security Forces arrive to help."

Simple, Free Image and File Hosting at MediaFire

And then see FrontPage Magazine, "UK PM Says Terror Attack Carried Out for Islam has Nothing to do with Islam" (via Blazing Cat Fur).

Boy, that David Cameron. He's a regular riot.

Don't Wave the White Flag of Surrender — Sarah Palin Slams Cannibalistic RINOs on #DefundObamaCare

Sarah Palin's laying down some major support for Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.

She references her Big Government piece today at the clip, "Sarah Palin: Americans Are Fed Up with #ObamaCare."



And see William Jacobson, "What are the Republican doughboys afraid of?"

Also at Twitchy, "‘See your filthy paw prints, Rove’ Who sent oppo research on Ted Cruz to Chris Wallace?", and "Sarah Palin to Chris Wallace: Expose which GOPers are trying to ‘trash Sen Cruz’."

Carnage and Survival at Westgate Mall, #Nairobi

At at the National Post, "Graphic: Survivor’s Stories from the Nairobi Mall."

Hat Tip: Trending Kenya.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."

Piling On Branco Cartoon photo D-for-Gun-C-590-LA_zps5a15f1e9.jpg

Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Reaganite, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

CARTOON CREDIT: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Piling On."

Raw Video From #Nairobi Terrorist Attack

At Pamela's, "SHOUTS, SCREAMS... AND THEN A SPRINT FOR THEIR LIVES: RAW VIDEO FOOTAGE SHOWS FULL TERROR OF MOMENT MUSLIM TERRORISTS STRUCK AT KENYA MALL."



Added: Another version of the video with talking head commentary, at KTN Kenya, "Most chilling video of the Westgate attack."

'Well I tried to make it Sunday...'

I should post America more often.

It's been a couple of years now.

I love their music.


Starting Over With Emily Ratajkowski!

Working on my roundup yesterday I couldn't find a decent Rule 5 post over at Dana Pico's, even in the archives. The pictures weren't loading. Turns out his blog was devastated by a malware attack.

But he's back: "Rule 5 Blogging: Starting Over."

And here's Emily to form a one-woman welcoming committee, lol.

(I'm on on Emily jag, in case you haven't noticed.)

Emily Ratajkowski photo EmilyRatajkowskiforNastyGal2013-005_zps220f94d6.jpg

The Cult of #ObamaCare

A majority of Americans disapprove of the law, yet according to some Obama cultists, folks like this should be denied health coverage.

Support for Obama has always been cultish, but calling people who disagree on policy grounds "non-believers" is a new low.

At Twitchy, "Unhinged: UCSF fundraiser wishes death on all Obamacare ‘nonbelievers’; Nick Searcy shreds."



Truly creepy. But that's the left in action. Creep-tastic 24/7.

#Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw Tunes Up for Playoffs With 4-0 Victory Over Padres

The Dodgers are playing right now at San Diego.

Yesterday's game was a gem, as reported at LAT.



Wife of U.S. Diplomat Killed in #Nairobi Terror Attack

Really, this is a major attack, a breakthrough for al-Qaeda in Africa, represented by al-Shabab.

At Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Wife of American diplomat killed in Kenya as death toll rises to 68."

And at London's Daily Mail, "US Embassy worker's wife among 68 dead in Kenya mall massacre: Witnesses report huge explosion as special forces move in to free dozens of hostages held by Muslim terrorists in siege live-blogged on Twitter."

Also at Reuters, "Islamist gunmen hold hostages in Kenya siege, 68 dead."

Previous coverage here.

Added: More at Gateway Pundit, "Nairobi Mall Terror Attack Continues, Americans Injured, Wife of U.S. Diplomat Killed."


New Rash of Gun Killings Overnight Friday in #Chicago

This should be the national gun debate we are having, but the left is all about lies and deceit, so the social pathologies of urban, black-on-black crime just don't rate.

Sad.



Can 'Blurred Lines' Elevate the Culture?

Well, I don't know if Robin Thicke's song can elevate the culture or not, although no doubt Emily Ratajkowski has caused some elevation, IYKWIMAITYD.

From Megan Fox, at PJ Media, "From Rapey to Righteous: Can Robin Thicke’s Controversial Hit Song ‘Blurred Lines’ Elevate the Culture?"

Blurred Lines photo Robin-Thicke-TI-Pharrell-Blurred-Lines-NSFW_zpsbb571f02.jpg

Read it all at the link.

Megan discusses and links this version of the song, "Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines (Freestyle) Lyrics."

And I'll disagree with Megan here: I don't think the original topless "Blurred Lines" is gross. As Emily Ratajkowski puts it, "I think that the video was tasteful, beautiful, and there’s nothing offensive about it."

New York Times' Tyler Hicks Interview at 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos'

I posted on Tyler Hicks' amazing coverage earlier, "Witness to a Massacre in a Nairobi Mall."

And he's interviewed by Martha Raddatz at "This Week."



More at Atlas Shrugs, "*GRAPHIC* SCENES FROM JIHAD MASSACRE IN KENYA."

'You Can Keep Your Plan' — The Left's #ObamaCare Lies

Following up from yesterday, "Leftists Cheer as Anthem Blue Cross Boots Michelle Malkin From Company's Individual Insurance Market."

I'd be remiss if I didn't update with the clip from Linkmaster Smith, at the Other McCain, "Mrs. Malkin Misapprehends: The Underside of the Bus *IS* Your Healthcare Plan."



Keep in mind this "you can keep your plan" lie is just one lie in an epic campaign of lies designed to socialize and destroy the American healthcare market.

Leftism is predicated on lies. Most everyday citizens have little time or inclination to do the enormous fact-checking required to fully expose the deceits of the left. But it is being done by patriots who saw this coming a mile away. Of course, the leftist cluster-k media keeps the lies going for the Democrat-Socialist usurpers -- the clusterf-k media is key to the entire Big Lie deception underwriting the left's totalitarian project for the fundamental transformation of America.

It's all lies. Anti-Americanism and lies. And that's why no matter how successful are the defunding efforts this week, the long-term project of exposing Democrat lies never ends. Patriots will turn this around. So much of the system is working to screw the average person, and the smokescreens of "fairness" have been spread so far and wide that it takes a Herculean effort to bust through. But it's happening. The health care law is a miserable failure. Only epic Orwellian lies have been keeping it going. But we're approaching the reckoning. And patriots don't give up. We can see the whites of their eyes now.

More from Darleen Click, at Protein Wisdom, "#ObamaCare — designed to fail."

Nairobi Terror Continues in Second Day Standoff

At the BBC, "Kenya standoff: At least 59 dead, Uhuru Kenyatta says."



Also at USA Today, "Blast rocks Kenya mall in second day of standoff."

Sarah Palin: Americans Are Fed Up with #ObamaCare

From Governor Palin, at Big Government, "BOMBS AWAY ON OBAMACARE; CRUZ IS OVER THE TARGET":
Americans who are fed up with Obamacare won a victory yesterday. The House voted to defund Obamacare while still funding the federal government to avoid a “devastating” shutdown. (I shall not digress, but it’s beyond distressing to hear liberals try to convince Americans that any government slowdown is comparable to “terrorism.”)

Now the battle goes to the Senate, and we’ll find out if Harry Reid is so committed to the horrendous “Un-affordable Care Act” that he’ll be the one to shut down the government to fund the unworkable Obamacare.

Let’s be clear. Republicans in Congress aren't advocating a government shutdown. That’s why they voted in the House to fully fund our bureaucracy while defunding Obamacare. The conservatives in Congress are listening to the majority of Americans who do not want Obamacare.

Following the will of the people is apparently a novel idea in D.C. these days. Just ask Senator Ted Cruz and his liberty-loving posse on Capitol Hill who have led the charge to defund Obama’s train wreck.

Those of us who hang in there supporting a major political party with our energy, time, and contributions would like to believe that that party would praise principled conservatives like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for following through on campaign promises. We’d like to believe that the GOP establishment would applaud the way these bold leaders have rallied the grassroots to their cause. But, no, such praise would require a commensurate level of guts and leadership, and the permanent political class in D.C. is nothing if not gutless and rudderless.

We’re now, once again, subjected to the “anonymous sources” backstabbing game. The Capitol Hill cowards are rushing to anonymously denounce Senator Cruz to any reporter with a pad and pen.

Welcome to our world, Ted. The same people have been denouncing conservatives like me for years (right after they ask for help fundraising for themselves or endorsing the latest candidate they’ve suckered into paying their exorbitant consulting fees). We can compare shiv marks next time we meet, my friend.
Continue reading.

More at Memorandum.

PREVIOUSLY: "'A Vote for Cloture is a Vote for #ObamaCare' — Senator Ted Cruz on Fox News Sunday."

'A Vote for Cloture is a Vote for #ObamaCare' — Senator Ted Cruz on Fox News Sunday

The interview this morning with Chris Wallace, via Becca Lower.

Discussion at PuffHo, "Ted Cruz: Republicans Who Vote To Take Up Bill Defunding Obamacare Are Voting For Obamacare."



Also at Politico, "McCaskill: GOP should stop throwing 'tantrums'" (via Memeorandum).

India's Child Slavery Scourge

At Der Spiegel, "Daughters for Sale: Aid Organizations Confront Child Slavery in India":
Millions of Indian children work as slaves in factories, brothels or in the homes of families. Out of poverty and desperation, parents sell their daughters, and human traffickers wait at train stations for runaways and scour for orphans in monsoon-ravaged villages.

On the day that Durga Mala was rescued, she lay crying on the stone floor, where she was attempting to cool her back. She was 11 years old and her skin was covered with blisters, from her shoulder blades to her buttocks. A few days earlier, her owners had poured hot oil over her because they thought she was working too slowly.

Suddenly Durga heard screams and huddled on the floor. Acting on a tip, police stormed the apartment in the heart of Bangalore. When they broke the door down, Durga crossed her arms in front of her chest and closed her eyes. She was only wearing a pair of panties -- that's all the clothing that her owners had allowed her to have. Durga says: "I was ashamed."

One of the men wrapped the small girl in a sheet and brought her to a hospital. Doctors treated her for a number of days. In addition to her burns, she was malnourished, infected wounds covered her fingers and her lips were scarred. "I dropped a glass once," says Durga, "and the woman got angry and pulled my fingernails out, one by one." Sometimes they poked her in the mouth with a needle. Durga was supposed to work, not speak.

It's estimated that millions of children in India live as modern-day slaves. They work in the fields, in factories, brothels and private households -- often without pay and usually with no realistic chance of escaping. The majority of them are sold or hired out by their own families.

According to an Indian government census from 2001, this country of over 1 billion people has 12.6 million minors between the ages of 5 and 14 who are working. The real number is undoubtedly significantly higher because many children are not officially registered at birth -- and the owners of course do their best to keep the existence of child slaves a secret. Aid organizations estimate that three-quarters of all domestic servants in India are children, and 90 percent of those are girls. Although both child labor and child trafficking are illegal, police rarely intervene -- and the courts seldom convict child traffickers and slaveholders.
Continue reading.

And what to say?

India's a developing country with a huge population. Tremendous poverty obviously forces many parents to think of children as burdens and sources of financial remuneration. Hence, parents selling off children to human traffickers, which is something that people would find horrifying in the United States.



Witness to a Massacre in a Nairobi Mall

Very compelling, at the New York Times:
The New York Times staff photographer Tyler Hicks was nearby when gunmen opened fire at an upscale Nairobi mall, killing at least 39 people in one of the worst terrorist attacks in Kenya’s history. He was able to go inside the mall as the attack unfolded.
Check it out at the link.

Hard Times for the Climate Change Alarmism Industry

Again.

I should say "Hard Times for the Climate Change Alarmism Industry" again, since it seems with each passing year there's another devastating setback for the global warming climate shills.

Here's a report on the latest controversy surrounding the upcoming IPCC climate report, at the Telegraph UK, "Row over IPCC report as nations 'try to hide lack of climate change’":
Scientists working on a landmark UN report on climate change to be published this week are at loggerheads over their explanation for why the earth’s surface temperature has stopped rising as rapidly as they previously predicted.

The behind-the-scenes wrangling is likely to cast a shadow over the publication on Friday of the 2,000-page report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The report is still in a draft version and will be finalised over the next five days with heated discussion centring on how to explain the fact that since 1998 the earth’s temperature has barely risen.

It is claimed some governments have even tried to intervene to remove references to the 15 year climate change 'hiatus’ or 'pause’.

The report - the fifth report by the IPCC and the first in five years - is hugely influential because its conclusions serve as the scientific basis for UN negotiations on curbing emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. A global climate treaty is supposed to be adopted in 2015.

A leaked copy of an earlier draft of the report, seen by The Telegraph, will insist that the likelihood that global warming exists and that its cause is man-made has risen from 90 per cent certainty to 95 per cent certainty.

The study will also make predictions for rises in the earth’s temperature and sea levels to the end of the century.

One scenario suggests an average temperature rise of as little as 1.8 F by 2100 while at the most alarming end of the scale temperatures may rise by as much as 8.6 F, according to the draft version.
In the worst case scenario, the sea level could rise by as much as 3ft by the end of the century, the final report is expected to say.

The report will also touch upon solutions to global warming, including a hugely controversial and expensive proposal to put giant mirrors in space which can deflect the sun’s rays in order to cool the earth down.

The report, co-authored by 257 scientists, will be finalised this week ahead of its publication in Stockholm on Friday.

But scientists are “struggling” to explain the slowdown in global warming since 1998, it is being claimed.

Documents seen by the Associated Press (AP) show attempts at political interference in the final report, and that “several governments that reviewed the draft objected to how the issue was tackled”.
In a leaked draft, dating from June, the IPCC said that the rate of warming between 1998 and 2012 was about half the average rate since 1951.

The draft report blames the slowdown on the “natural variability” in the climate system, as well as cooling effects from volcanic eruptions and a change in solar activity.

The draft says that a reduction in warming for 1998 to 2012 compared to 1951 to 2012 is “due in roughly equal measure” to natural variations in the climate and factors such as “volcanic eruptions and the downward phase of the current solar cycle.”

But the documents, according to AP, show Germany called for the reference to the slowdown to be deleted while the US urged scientists to include as its “leading hypothesis” that the reduction in warming is linked to more heat being transferred to the deep ocean. Both countries’ governments have policies which state their belief in man-made climate change.

Belgium meanwhile objected to using 1998 as a starting year for any statistics because it claimed it was a particularly warm year.

The row will fuel claims by global warming sceptics that the issue has become too political and that governments are now spending vast sums of money on policies to combat a phenomenon that may not exist and may not be man-made. The effect of those policies, claim sceptics, is to increase global poverty because the policies are expensive to implement.
Continue reading.

This is simply another case of "hide the decline," only this time it's "hide the tapering temperatures," since they badly disprove all the sky-is-falling predictions of IPCC hacks.

These climate change hucksters are a freakin' joke. They've got their global warming co-religionists backing them, but that's about it. The science is not settled, as it shouldn't be. And as more and more countervailing evidence comes to light, the climate change industry simply must escalate the lies and intimidation to keep the whole house of cards standing.

More on this from Erika Johnsen, at Hot Air, "UN climate panel: Hmm, how can we selectively edit these inconvenient truths to outwit those anti-science denialists?"

Also from Alan Caruba, at Theo Spark's, "Global Warming: The BIGGEST LIE Exposed." Following the links takes us to a big report from the Heartland Institute, "Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science." The executive summary is here.

And somewhere earlier I clicked on this report from the Wall Street Journal last year, "No Need to Panic About Global Warming: Concerned Scientists Reply on Global Warming." A very concise summary of why the alarmism should be rejected.

Expect updates. It's going to be a rough week for the climate hucksters.

Fabulous Kate Hudson Steps Out at iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas

At London's Daily Mail, "Kate Hudson shows off her sculpted legs in purple playsuit as she supports fiance Matt Bellamy at iHeartRadio music festival":
Having given birth to two children, actress Kate Hudson is one hot mama.

The 34-year old showed off her gorgeously sculpted pins, donning a purple playsuit while supporting her husband at the iHeartRadio music event in Las Vegas on Friday.

Rocking her blonde tresses straight, the married actress made a bold beauty statement, wearing a bright red lipstick.
Definitely hot.

More at the Los Angeles Times, "iHeartRadio 2013: Katy Perry, Elton John roll out the hits."

Video of Heavily Armed Starbucks Customer Thanking Staff Before Policy Change

Via the New York Times:



Following the links takes us "KHOU Houston, "Pastor carries rifle in Hunstville to raise awareness of open carry laws."

The man's group, Open Carry Texas, is here.

RELATED: From Dana Loesch, "Gun Ban Fail: Starbucks Only Frowns Upon Firearms."

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Dutch Welfare State Unsustainable, King Willem-Alexander Declares

Amazing.

The Netherlands realizes that the European-style welfare state is totally unsustainable, at the same time that the increasingly-socialist U.S. just keeps digging itself in deeper.

You can't make this stuff up.

Seriously. We're a freakin' nightmare. To say nothing of the world's sickest joke under this administration

Blazing Cat Fur reports, "Dutch King Willem-Alexander declares the end of the welfare state":
King Willem-Alexander delivered a message to the Dutch people from the government in a nationally televised address: the welfare state of the 20th century is gone.

In its place a "participation society" is emerging, in which people must take responsibility for their own future and create their own social and financial safety nets, with less help from the national government.

"The shift to a 'participation society' is especially visible in social security and long-term care," the king said, reading out to lawmakers a speech written for him by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's government.
So, the Dutch are announcing the aspirations toward a "participation society" based on personal responsibility, while the U.S. is consolidating a "dependency society" based on rapidly-expanding welfare-state freeloading and Democrat class-warfare demonization. That's real progress.

Leftists Cheer as Anthem Blue Cross Boots Michelle Malkin From Company's Individual Insurance Market

Here's Michelle on Twitter, "The Anthem letter informs us open enrollment begins Oct. 1. Look what they're advertising: Obamacare exchanges!"

And she writes further, "Obamacare is destroying the private individual market for health insurance. By design, not accident."

Yep. And the leftist ghouls are loving it.

At Twitchy, "Liberals gleefully berate ‘whining losers’ forced to switch health plans."

Things are really coming into focus. Have your liberty destroyed, and your health choices ruined, and leftists couldn't be happier.

Depraved. But you knew that.
Anthem photo BUsFjRhCYAEtz4Q_zpsba091f0d.png

IDF Sergeant Tomer Hazan Kidnapped and Murdered in West Bank

He got lured away to his death?

At the Times of Israel, "IDF soldier Tomer Hazan, 20, kidnapped and killed in West Bank":
An IDF soldier was murdered by a Palestinian acquaintance who lured him to a village near Qalqilya in the West Bank, Israeli authorities said Saturday. The soldier was named Saturday night as 20-year-old Bat Yam native Sgt. Tomer Hazan.

Hazan, a sergeant in Israel Air Force, was lured on Friday to the village of Beit Amin, south of Qalqilya, by a 42-year-old Palestinian resident of the village, Nidal Amar. Amar worked illegally at an Israeli restaurant, in Bat Yam, where Hazan also worked part-time.

Amar was arrested and confessed to killing Hazan, the Shin Bet security service said.

According to the Shin Bet, Amar recounted how he picked up Hazan in a taxi on Friday after convincing him to accept a ride. He took the Israeli to an open field, killed him and threw his body in a well, the agency said.

Israeli forces raided Amar’s home early Saturday and interrogated Amar and his brother.

Relatives seen near the house of murdered IDF soldier Tomer Hazan in the coastal city of Bat Yam in central Israel on September 21, 2013 (Photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)

The Shin Bet said Amar confessed to intending to trade Hazan’s body for the release of another brother, a member of the Fatah Tanzim terror group, who has been serving time in an Israeli jail since 2003 for his role in several terror attacks, including planning a suicide bombing by a female bomber that was thwarted.

Amar showed the Israeli forces where Hazan’s body was hidden. The agency did now say how Amar convinced the soldier to join him on the ride Friday.
More at that top link.

And at the New York Times, "Israeli Soldier Is Lured to West Bank and Killed":
The kidnapping of soldiers in Israel, where military service is mandatory for most Jews, is among the most profound fears for Israelis. In late 2011, Israel agreed to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit, a soldier who had been abducted five years before by Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military recently reported a sharp rise in Palestinian plots to kidnap soldiers in hopes of trading them for some of the 4,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. A total of 37 such plans have been thwarted so far this year, more than in all of 2012, according to Colonel Lerner.

Israel released 26 long-serving Palestinian prisoners last month, and is expected to release about 75 more in three phases, as part of the Washington-brokered peace talks that started this summer. Right-wing politicians who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state seized on the killing to bolster their argument.

“One does not make peace with terrorists who throw soldiers’ bodies into a hole in the ground,” Naftali Bennett, an Israeli minister, said Saturday. “One fights them without mercy.”
Well, yeah.

Also at Ynet, "IDF soldier's murder: Shin Bet's race against time."

HAT TIP: Israel Matzav, "Angry protesters outside restaurant that hired IDF soldier's killer."

Emily Ratajkowski for Fredericks of Hollywood

At Bro Bible, "25 Photos of Emily Ratajkowski Smoldering in Frederick's Lingerie."




Eagle's Flight

Via Althouse, "Fly Like an Eagle."



Also at Geek, "Camera attached to an eagle creates amazing flight video."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Video: Camera accompanies eagle soaring over France." That's France. It's some of the most beautiful footage I've ever seen.


Modesto Junior College Restricts Constitutional Speech on Constitution Day

Greg Lukianoff of FIRE reports, "“I Bet They Wouldn’t Even Let You Pass Out Constitutions on Constitution Day”":
Robert Van Tuinen, a student at Modesto Junior College in California, had a theory. He believed that the policies at his college limiting protests and expression were so restrictive that the college would try to shut him down even if he tried to hand out copies of the United States Constitution on September 17--Constitution Day.

Sadly, he was correct.
Continue reading at the link.

Also embedded there is this clip from FIRE:



More at Tech Dirt, "California College Tells Student He Can't Hand Out Copies Of The Constitution On Constitution Day."

Keystone Inaction Hurts American Families

From Cathy McMorris-Rogers, for the GOP conference:

WASHINGTON – House Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) released the following statement today on the 5th anniversary of the first application to begin construction of the Keystone XL pipeline:

"The President's refusal to approve the Keystone XL pipeline is hurting American families. Five years ago today, the first permits were filed to begin construction on the pipeline, and the project remains impeded by the President’s political posturing. And the consequences are significant. To the American people, this means 20,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs that will not be available. It means $7 billion that won't be invested in the U.S. economy. And it means 830,000 barrels per day of North American oil that won't be transported.

"Our economy is in a state of stagnation – and recent numbers only paint a grimmer picture. The Census Bureau just today announced that the percentage of Americans on food stamps has risen yet again. Just days ago, we passed the bitter milestone of 1,000 days where gas prices have hovered around $3 per gallon.

"The President's policies continue to make life more difficult for hardworking Americans – from gas pumps to grocery stores. Approving the Keystone XL pipeline would create shovel-ready jobs and ease the burden on America's working families. They've waited long enough, and they can no longer afford to pay the price for the President's inaction. It's time for the President to put people before politics."

The Consistently Divisive Rhetoric of President Obama

This is something Victor Davis Hanson has been highlighting for years.

See Jay Cost, at the Weekly Standard, "Uncommonly Partisan":
In the wake of last week’s mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, as first responders were tending the victims, police were searching for more culprits, and the nation’s capital was entering lockdown, President Barack Obama gave a speech. This normally would not be news. After all, the president is a loquacious man, and, moreover, the country now expects the president to be therapist-in-chief whenever some sort of disaster, human or natural, occurs.

But Obama’s speech was different from what one would expect. After a few rote words of condolence to the victims, he went after his political opponents with vehemence, charging them with fiscal recklessness and a disregard for the plight of the middle class, and mocking them for wanting to repeal Obamacare. It was a remarkably tone-deaf presentation considering the events of the day. But it was par for the course for this administration, which is one of the most partisan we have seen in the last 60 years.
Emily Miller made similar points on the day of the speech, focusing especially on the gun control angle.

But seriously, Obama's not only the most partisan president we've had in 60 years, he's the worst president. Indeed, he's the worst ever.

What a disgrace.

More at that top link.

Amerisclerosis — and Poverty

From James Pethokoukis, "The Age of Amerisclerosis: Are jobless recoveries here to stay?"

Amerisclerosis photo 092013jobless1-600x346_zps6c22dd7b.jpg
It’s not just Obamanomics. The US is stuck in its third-straight “jobless recovery,” just like after the 1990 and 2001 recessions. And new research suggests this “persistence of unemployment” could mean future US recessions and recoveries will continue to resemble Europe’s 1980s downturn. Even after growth recovered, hiring didn’t. That’s when “Eurosclerosis” was coined.

Now get ready for Amerisclerosis. US labor markets used to rebound much faster. After the 1981-82 downturn, the jobless rate was back to normal in 18 months. More than four years after the Great Recession’s official end, however, the unemployment rate is only halfway back to where it was in 2007. And even this slow rate of recovery overstates the job market’s true health given the accompanying decline in the labor force participation rate.
The trends aren't new, although I wouldn't discount "Obamanomics" for exacerbating them.

The U.S. might have had a Reagan-esque recovery had the U.S. focused on job creation this last five years, rather than social redistribution, "universal" health care, and blame-the-rich demonization politics. The economy is primed for a surge of growth. Government policy is not only holding it back, but it's keeping people poor. As the New York Times highlighted earlier this week, "Median Income and Poverty Rate Hold Steady, Census Bureau Finds":
The government’s authoritative annual report on incomes, poverty and health insurance, released Tuesday, underscores that the economic recovery has largely failed to reach the poor and the middle class, even as the unemployment rate continues to sink and growth has returned.

Government programs remain a lifeline for millions. Unemployment insurance, whose eligibility the federal government expanded in response to the downturn, kept 1.7 million people out of poverty last year. Food stamps, if counted as income, would have kept out four million.

Since the recession ended in 2009, income gains have accrued almost entirely to the top earners, the Census Bureau found. The top 5 percent of earners — households making more than about $191,000 a year — have recovered their losses and earned about as much in 2012 as they did before the recession. But those in the bottom 80 percent of the income distribution are generally making considerably less than they had been, hit by high rates of unemployment and nonexistent wage growth.

Moreover, economists believe that the report understates the degree of income inequality in the United States, by not including, among other things, earnings from capital gains made on rising stock prices.

In one glimmer of improvement, the number of men working full time year-round with earnings increased by one million from 2011 to 2012, to a total of 59 million. Still, the labor market continues to look weak, in particular for less-educated and lower-income men. The labor force participation rate of men has fallen steadily for the past 60 years. In no small part, that is because the median earnings of men working full time have not increased in real terms since the early 1970s.

For women, the earnings stall started about a decade ago, when the gender pay gap stopped closing. “The wage gap hasn’t budged a penny,” said Fatima Goss Graves of the National Women’s Law Center. “After 11 years of no progress on equal pay, policy makers need to get moving to improve the country’s pay discrimination laws, raise the minimum wage and remove the barriers women face in higher-wage jobs.”

The West was the only region that experienced a statistically significant increase in median income, the Census Bureau said, while all other regions were flat. That most likely reflects the relatively strong growth in Washington, Oregon, California and Utah last year. North Dakota, experiencing an oil and gas boom, is the fastest-growing state, though its population is so small that it barely affects the national statistics.

No racial or ethnic group experienced significant changes in income, but that left the gap between Asians, at the top, and blacks, at the bottom, as wide as before. The median income for Asian households was $68,600. For non-Hispanic whites, it was about $57,000, while the typical Hispanic household had an income of $39,000, and blacks were at $33,300.

The poverty rate held steady at about 15 percent in 2012, about 2.5 percentage points higher than before the recession began. Neither the number nor the proportion of people living in poverty changed from 2011 to 2012, the Census Bureau found.
Obama's crony capitalism is keeping higher income households above the heap, while his corrupt socialist redistributionism has actually done nothing but expand the size of government at the expense of individual upward mobility at the lower quartiles. In a word: Abomination.

Hot Saturday Rule 5!

Theo Spark's been on fire lately.

See, "Benghazi Black Friday Totty...," and"Saturday Totty..."

Also, "Bonus Totty..."

Theo's Totty photo BonusS16_zps382e6899.jpg

More at Blackmailers Dont' Shoot, "Pretty Girls on a Thursday, End of Summer Edition."

And Daley Gator, "DaleyGator DaleyBabe Nathalia Bodenmuller."

Wirecutter has "Your Good Morning Girl (#1)," and "Your Good Morning Girl (#2)."

At Drunken Stepfather, "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY."

Now over at Pirates' Cove, "If All You See……is a world killing bottle of water, you might just be a Warmist."

And from Subject to Change, "In the Kitchen."

Bob Belvedere has last Saturday's "Rule 5 Saturday: Arianna Sinn." And at A View from the Beach, "Rule 5 Saturday - Naomi Watts Stiff Upper Lip."

At Soylent, "Weekender: Bare Rug."

Plus, at Randy's Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart: Rozanna Purcell."

Also, from Reaganite, "'Miss Sweden World 2013' is Agneta Myhrman Lilliesköld..."

Still more from Proof Positive, "Friday Night Babe: Kellie Pickler!" And, "Best of the Web* Linkaround."

At Good Stuff's, "GOODSTUFF'S BLOGGING MAGAZINE (115th Issue)." And from the Last Tradition, "Weightlifting prego mother Lea-Anne Ellison gets heavily criticized as selfish for lifting weights up to her 9 month."

At Odie's Place, "Welfare Office ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

And see EBL, "Angie Dickinson Rule 5."

Plus, Postal Dogs has "Heavy Hitters." And from Wine, Women and Politics, "Hot Wednesday Women."

At American Perspective, "House Bunny" Anna Faris - Rule 5."

90 Miles From Tyranny has "Morning Mistress," and "Girls With Guns."

Dana Pico has, "From Around the Blogroll," and "Rule 5 Blogging: At Sea."

Finally, at the Other McCain, "Rule 5 Wednesday."

AND IF I MISSED YOUR RULE 5 ENTRY, DROP YOUR LINKS IN THE COMMENTS AND I'LL UPDATE ASAP!

RULE 5 FOREVER!

Islamists Massacre at Least 30 at Nairobi Shopping Mall

Religion of peace update.

Al-Shabaab is suspected.

At the Independent UK, "Nairobi mall attacks: Gunmen 'pinned down' as 22 killed after attackers open fire at Nairobi shopping centre."

And at London's Daily Mail, "All Muslims leave... we only want to kill non-Muslims': Gunmen massacre at least 22 in Kenyan shopping mall after releasing anyone who could prove they were Islamic by reciting a prayer."

Also at the New York Times, "Upscale Mall Becomes War Zone in Kenya Terror Attack":


NAIROBI, Kenya — An upscale mall popular with the Kenyan elite and the foreign diplomats and businesspeople who call Nairobi home turned into a war zone on Saturday, as gunmen opened fire on shoppers in an apparent terrorist attack, killing at least 30 people and wounding dozens more.

At nightfall, the mall remained sealed off to the public as police officers and soldiers searched floor by floor for the gunmen, who were still believed to be inside with hostages.

Witnesses described hearing explosions and gunfire as they fled, leaving behind blood, broken glass and carnage in what was apparently one of the worst terrorist attacks in the country’s history.

Joseph Momanyi, 26, an employee at the Nakumatt grocery store there, said that as he was running away he heard the attackers shouting that “Muslims should leave” the complex.

The authorities said it was too early to identify the culprits, but suspicion immediately focused on the Shabab, the ferocious Somali militant group that has been linked to past attacks in Kenya, including a grenade and gunfire attack on two churches last year that killed 15 people.

Kenya is widely considered a beacon of stability in an often unstable region. The United Nations has a hub here, as do many nonprofit organizations and corporations. The country’s economy is heavily dependent on tourist revenue, with peaceful safaris and gentle holidays on the coast attracting people from all over the world.

Even before the rise of the Shabab, Kenya was a target for terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda, like the 1998 bombing of the American Embassy in Nairobi and coordinated attacks on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa and an Israeli airliner in 2002. But Kenya has found itself ever more enmeshed in the bloody volatility of Somalia since October 2011, when Kenyan military forces invaded Somalia to help fight the Shabab.

Gen. Abbas Guled, secretary general of the Kenyan Red Cross, said in a phone interview on Saturday that 30 people had been killed and more than 60 wounded. The police had not yet confirmed any fatalities, and there was no claim of responsibility....
Also at Memeorandum.

#ObamaCare and Rape

Via Theo Spark, "Opt Out - The Exam - Creepy Uncle Sam."

And Gateway Pundit, "Creepy Care: Government Gynecologist."



Also at National Journal, "Right-Wing Ad Equates Obamacare and Rape." (The author there, naturally,  does a little editorializing against the group that sponsored the ad, Generation Opportunity.)


#Dodgers Reliever Brian Wilson Slams John McCain on Twitter

I love it.

At Hardball Talk, "Brian Wilson responds to John McCain on Twitter."



PREVIOUSLY: "#Dodgers Celebrate in #Diamonbacks' Swimming Pool."

Parents Remain Gloomy About America's Future While Teens Feel Confident

A Heartland Monitor Poll, sponsored by National Journal, "American Adults Believe Today’s Children Have Fewer Prospects and Opportunities, though Teens Remain Optimistic about the Future, according to the Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll":
Washington, D.C., September 20, 2013— New data from the quarterly Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll shows an American public that overwhelmingly believes childhood and parenthood were better for earlier generations, with 79 percent of poll respondents saying it was better to have been a child when they were young.

Watch a live briefing on key findings from the latest Heartland Monitor Poll today at 8:30 a.m. ET, at http://www.nationaljournal.com/events, featuring Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives Education and the Workforce Committee.

The most recent Heartland Monitor shows that Americans are deeply uncertain about the prospects for today's children. A majority (68 percent) of respondents believe that when today's children are adults, they'll have less financial security, with a poorer chance of holding a steady job and owning a home without too much debt. Almost the same percentage (62 percent) believes their children will have less opportunity to achieve a comfortable retirement. Overall, Heartland XVIII delivers a downbeat vision from parents and non-parents alike, who believe that today's children will display less patriotism, work ethic, and civic responsibility than today's adults.

Yet, in the face of this intense pessimism on the part of adults, teenagers are much more optimistic and clearly feel the older generations have it wrong. For the first time, the Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll also surveyed high school teenagers ages 13-18, and found an optimistic view of the economy: More than half of the teens surveyed (54 percent) say they believe it’s better to be a teenager today than it was when their parents were growing up. A plurality (45 percent) believe that when they are their parents' age, they will have more opportunity to get ahead than the previous generation. Just 24 percent of teens say they will have less opportunity.

“The world looks to America as a beacon of hope to realize one’s dreams. While we see pessimism in this poll, the younger generation feels a sense of optimism about the future,” said Sanjay Gupta, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Allstate. “These findings reinforce a challenging backdrop, but the optimism of the  younger generation gives us hope in the enduring American dream.”

The 18th quarterly Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll digs into the increased concerns about the country's political direction and the economy. American adults say that opportunities for a quality education, access to health care, fair treatment, adequate play time, and sufficient love and attention are accessible to some, but are not guaranteed for the average American child.

This negative view of the future parallels a noticeable chilling of the national mood, with a high percentage (64 percent) of Americans believing that the country is on the wrong track. President Obama's approval rating has hit a low (40 percent), as has that of Congress (13 percent), since this poll's first installment in April 2009. Almost half of Americans (47 percent) say that the Obama administration's actions decrease the opportunity for them to get ahead, the highest percentage since the poll began asking the question in April 2009. Respondents are relatively split on whether the economy will improve (28 percent), become worse (31 percent), or stay the same (36 percent) over the next 12 months.

In the area of education, more teens than adults consider college a worthy investment. While over half of adult respondents (53 percent) still believe the average four-year college education is a ticket to the middle class, and that a degree helps people get good jobs and build successful careers,  a full 39 percent view college as an economic burden. Teenagers, meanwhile, feel that college is a good investment for the future (86 percent), rather than an unnecessary expense that is not worth it (14 percent).

In other areas of the poll, a large majority (69 percent) of adults polled believe parents are too busy with work and their own personal lives to spend enough time with their children or to give them the attention they need to learn and grow.

“The operative definition of the American Dream is that each generation will live better than its predecessor,” added Ronald Brownstein, editorial director of Atlantic Media. "The latest Heartland Monitor survey shows how much the sustained economic slowdown has frayed that expectation among average Americans. While the poll shows that most Americans believe the country is still providing kids with many of the necessary ingredients for success—particularly a quality education—it captures a widespread fear that the economy simply won't provide as many opportunities to future generations as Americans remember from when they were young.”

Key findings from the 18th Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll are also available via PDF. Additional information on the entire polling series can be found at: http://www.theheartlandvoice.com/category/insights.

Key Findings

1. Americans overwhelmingly believe that today's children and parents are facing more difficulties and challenges than previous generations.

79 percent of Americans believe it was better to have been a child when they were young while just 16 percent of American adults believe it is better to be a child in America today.
75 percent believe it was better to be a parent when they were growing up, while just 19 percent of Americans think it is better to be a parent in America today.
This sentiment is remarkably consistent across demographic lines, including age, education, and income.
More than half of teens surveyed (54 percent) say it's better to be a teenager today than it was when their parents were growing up (46 percent).
Teens are less positive about the state of parenthood today - 40 percent think it is better to be a parent today than it was when their own parents were growing up (60 percent).
Overall, Americans overwhelmingly believe that today's children face more challenges (66 percent) than opportunities (25 percent).

2. Looking forward, Americans remain concerned about opportunities and achievement for the next generation.
Just 20 percent of Americans believe that today's children will have more opportunity to get ahead when they are grown, compared to 45 percent who fear that today's children will have less opportunity, and 30 percent believe they will have about the same level.
Today, fewer Americans believe their children will have more opportunities to get ahead than did so a year ago. In September 2012, the Heartland Monitor showed that 32 percent of Americans believed the next generation will have more opportunities, while 32 percent believed they will have less.
Young adults ages 18-29 are the most optimistic, but just 31 percent believe that today's children will have more opportunity when they are grown, a 12-point decline since last September.
Today's teens are more hopeful about their future opportunities, with 45 percent believing they will have more opportunity than their parents had, 24 percent believing they will have less opportunity.
Thinking about the achievements and activities of their own generation, Americans believe today's children will not quite measure up on a number of factors:
68 percent think that today's children will have less financial security;
65 percent think they will have less patriotism and pride in their country;
63 percent think they will have less work ethic and professional motivation;
62 percent think they will have less financial freedom and the ability to afford luxuries;
53 percent think they will have less financial responsibility;
48 percent think they will have less civic and community responsibility.

3. Americans are conflicted on policy approaches related to the cost of raising children and college education.
When considering the idea of shared societal responsibility and sacrifice as it relates to assisting parents and children, a slight majority of Americans express hesitation about asking businesses and non-parents to contribute too much.
51 percent believe that "while the country should be supportive of children and young families, raising those children is the responsibility of the parents.”
42 percent think that "the entire country has a shared responsibility to invest more in children and young families.”
When told the average cost of cost of raising a child totals more than $240,000:
60 percent say that the best approach to making parenting more affordable is "lowering taxes.”
34 percent prefer "increasing public spending” on programs like pre-K, public education, child care, health care and college tuition.
More than half of Americans see college as a ticket to the middle class (53 percent) rather than an economic burden (39 percent).
Teenagers overwhelmingly believe that college is "a good investment for the future" (86 percent) rather than an "unnecessary expense that is not worth it" (14 percent).
Fewer than half of parents with school-age children think it's realistic that they will be able to pay for college education for themselves or their children.

4. This poll shows a decline in the American political environment and a fading confidence in President Obama and the economy.
Just a quarter of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction, a slippage from the 30 percent we measured in May/June. Half of Democrats (50 percent) and only 45 percent of African-Americans now believe things are headed in the right direction.
President Obama's job approval sits at 40 percent, down from 48 percent in May/June and the lowest we've measured across 18 Heartland Monitor polls.
Just 13 percent approve of the job Congress is doing, even lower than the 17 percent we measured in May/June.
47 percent of Americans now believe that the Obama administration will decrease opportunity for people like them to get ahead. This is the high-water mark for this measure of pessimism, up from 43 percent in April and 40 percent in May/June.
Just 28 percent believe the economy will improve 12 months from now, the lowest we've measured from 44 percent last November to 34 percent in April and 37 percent in May/June.

5. Americans continue to occupy a "middle ground" between optimism and concern regarding their personal financial situation.
44 percent rate their own personal financial situation as excellent or good, compared to with to 49 percent in May/June 2013.
43 percent expect their financial situation to improve by this time next year, a slight decline from 47 percent in May/June but notably higher than the 36 percent measured in April 2013.
Click here for methods and contact information.

Friday, September 20, 2013

L.A.'s Department of Water and Power Funneled $40 Million to Union-Controlled Non-Profit Groups

Totally corrupt, but that's what you get these days with morally-bankrupt big-city Democrat machine politics.

At LAT, "DWP says it can't track millions in ratepayer money":
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has directed an estimated $40 million in ratepayer money to two nonprofit groups charged with improving relations with the utility's largest employee union, but the agency claims to have scant information on how the public funds have been spent.

The Joint Training Institute and the Joint Safety Institute, controlled by DWP managers and union leaders, have received up to $4 million per year since their creation more than a decade ago after a contentious round of job cutbacks at one of the nation's largest municipal utilities.

Nearly all of the nonprofits' money comes from DWP ratepayers, records show. About $1 million per year has been used to pay the salaries of a handful of administrators, according to the limited records the utility has provided to The Times under the California Public Records Act. Separate federal tax records offer only summaries of the organizations' outlays, including more than $360,000 spent on travel from 2009 to 2011.

Officials at the nonprofits, the DWP and the employees' union, Local 18 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, declined to be interviewed about the institutes' activities and spending.

Nonprofits' financial records

After inquiries from The Times, a spokesman for Mayor Eric Garcetti said the mayor plans to meet with DWP managers in coming days to discuss the issue. "This is ratepayer money and they need to account for it," Jeff Millman said.

The broad purpose of the organizations, city records show, has been to "identify" safety and training as core values at the department, and to promote "communication, mutual trust and respect" between DWP managers and the electrical workers' union.

Ordinances establishing the nonprofits in 2000 and 2002 don't specify how the ratepayer money should be spent.

References to the organizations' work in public records reviewed by The Times give a spotty picture of the groups' activities. A recent report by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education notes that one, the Joint Training Institute, developed an online self-study course, including instruction in basic math and reading comprehension, for prospective DWP employees preparing for Civil Service exams.

Another report posted online in 2004 by a former Joint Safety Institute administrator discussed the need for "ergonomic training" and a "defensive-driving fair" for agency employees. "Probably the most dangerous thing we do every day is drive to and from work," the administrator wrote.

Three representatives of the DWP, including General Manager Ron Nichols, serve on the boards overseeing the nonprofits. Three additional board members come from the union local, led by Business Manager Brian D'Arcy. Board members are not paid for their service.

DWP managers and union leaders have struggled to agree on uses for the money, apparently contributing to an accumulation of cash in the nonprofits' accounts, records and interviews show. The two groups had $13.8 million on hand at the end of fiscal 2011-12, the most recent year for which the tax-exempt organizations' IRS filings are available. The filings do not detail outlays. For example, they don't indicate who traveled or where they went.
Jeez, DWP's a freakin' cash cow slush fund for the unions!

Still more at the link.

House Republicans Vote to Defund #ObamaCare

At NYT, "House approves Stopgap Money, Setting Up Fight." (Via Memeorandum.)

And WSJ, "Health Law Thrust Into Fiscal Fights: House GOP Votes to Strip Money for Insurance Overhaul as Oct. 1 Shutdown Deadline Approaches":


House Republicans on Friday thrust President Barack Obama's health law into the middle of two looming fiscal battles, a strategy that roils Congress's efforts to keep the government solvent this fall and avoid a partial government shutdown in less than two weeks.

The House on Friday passed a Republican bill to keep the government funded starting Oct. 1. That measure, however, also eliminates money for the health-care law. It was a triumph for a wing of the Republican Party that has campaigned for months to convince GOP leaders to make a fight over the health law a top priority.

With the government-funding issue unresolved, House Republicans opened another front Friday. Following a closed-door GOP strategy session, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) set a vote for the coming week on legislation that would link a yearlong postponement of the health law's implementation to a yearlong extension of the government's borrowing authority. The law's online insurance marketplaces are set to go live Oct. 1 for policies that will take effect in January.

Neither challenge to the health law is likely to survive the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The simultaneous showdowns and the injection of the health-care issue risk creating a market-rattling impasse reminiscent of the fight over raising the debt limit in 2011 that resulted in the U.S.'s credit rating being downgraded.

The budget that currently allocates funds to the federal government expires Sept. 30. Then, by mid-October, Congress would need to raise the federal debt limit or the government will run out of ways to keep paying its bills.

Mr. Obama called House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) Friday night to say he wouldn't negotiate on the debt limit, according to an aide to Mr. Boehner, reiterating comments the president made earlier in the day in Claycomo, Mo. The speaker replied that "the two chambers of Congress will chart the path ahead," the Boehner aide said.

"We're not some banana republic. This is not some deadbeat nation," Mr. Obama said earlier at the Missouri event. "So what I've said is, I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States."

The House bill would cut off all federal spending for implementing and running the health law, including subsidies to help low-income people pay their premiums and federal funding for states expanding their Medicaid programs.

The conservatives' victory Friday could be short-lived. The Senate in the coming week is expected to restore the health-care money and throw the government-funding bill back to the House. Republican leaders are hoping they will build up enough momentum to pressure Democrats to accept health-law cuts or other budget concessions during the debt-limit fight instead.

"The key thing is we are going to negotiate over the debt limit. The president isn't going to be able to say, 'I'm just simply not going to talk with anybody,' " Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.) told reporters Friday.

Natalie Portman Steals the Spotlight at NYC Ballet Gala

She's so wonderful.

At London's Daily Mail, "Natalie Portman steals the spotlight from fashionistas Sarah Jessica Parker and Doutzen Kroes at New York City Ballet gala."

#ObamaCare 'Glitches' as Health Law Can't Determine Enrollee Subsidy Eligibility

At Jammie Wearing Fools, "What Could Go Wrong? ObamaCare Exchanges in 36 States Can’t Calculate How Much People Will Pay."

And at Heritage, "Obamacare’s Insurance Exchange 'Glitches'."

Kill the monstrosity, as I always say.

#Dodgers Celebrate in #Diamondbacks' Swimming Pool

Here's Bill Plaschke:


It was the most unusual of clinching celebrations. Yet for the Diamondbacks, it was also one of the most infuriating. Citing security issues, team officials had earlier asked the Dodgers not to return to the field once they entered their clubhouse. Even though the stadium was virtually empty when the Dodgers ran to the pool, the Diamondbacks were furious at what they perceived as the Dodgers' lack of respect for their team, their fans and their building.

"I could call it disrespectful and classless, but they don't have a beautiful pool at their old park and must have really wanted to see what one was like," said Diamondbacks President Derrick Hall, a former Dodgers executive, in an e-mailed statement.
Well, seems like you don't go all hog wild in someone else's house. And it made the front-page of today's paper.



But see, "Why Los Angeles Dodgers jumping into Arizona's pool wasn't disrespectful."

L.A.'s Skidrow Homeless Exploited to Buy iPhones at Pasadena Apple Store

This is sick.

At KTLA, "Homeless People Hired to Buy iPhones for Businessman in Pasadena (VIDEO)."

And at LAT, "Homeless used to buy iPhones in Pasadena left stranded, unpaid (VIDEO)":


Dozens of people picked up on skid row by an enterprising man hoping to secure a load of new iPhones said they were left unpaid and stranded at the Pasadena Apple store.

Dominoe Moody, 43, said he was taken to Pasadena from a downtown Los Angeles homeless mission with several van-loads of people to wait in line overnight for the latest iPhone.

He was promised $40, but said he wasn’t paid because after handing the man the iPhone, the man was taken away by police when people became upset with him.

“It didn’t go right. I stood out here all night,” he said, adding that he has no way to get home.

Pasadena Police Lt. Jason Clawson confirmed that a fight broke out about 9 a.m. as a man left the store with multiple iPhones.

Other people who were in line and hired by the man began fighting with him because they said they weren’t being paid enough, Clawson said. Police escorted the man from the scene, he said.

Most people weren’t paid by the man, Moody said, estimating that 70 to 80 were recruited and driven to the store to wait in line.

“They need to bring him back ... to pick up the people that he brought here,” said Vivian Fields, 49. “We have no way to get home.”

Fields, who is in a wheelchair, said she was approached by recruiters at a homeless shelter on skid row and arrived in Pasadena on Thursday about 7 p.m. She waited overnight at the store.

Pasadena police are not investigating the incident, Clawson said.

"It's not a police issue. It's a business issue," he said.
Actually, it's an exploitation issue.

Pisses me off. Someone should pop the f-ker who stiffed these people.