RUTHFULLY YOURS

Libya seeks ceasefire as south Tripoli a militia ‘war zone’ By Patrick Markey and Aziz El Yaakoubi

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Black plumes of smoke marked shell blasts and bulldozed earthen barricades mapped out the frontlines around Tripoli’s largest airport, now at the heart of a standoff between the country’s powerful militias.

With barrages of Grad rockets, anti-aircraft guns and artillery fired at their rival enclaves just kilometers apart, brigades of former rebels have turned parts of southern Tripoli in a battleground for nearly a fortnight.

The clash over Tripoli International Airport is the latest eruption in a deepening rivalry among bands of ex-fighters who once battled side by side against Muammar Gaddafi, but have since turned against each other in the scramble for control.

Since the 2011 fall of Tripoli, fighters from the western town of Zintan and allies have controlled the area including the international airport, while rivals loyal to the port city of Misrata had entrenched themselves in other parts of the capital.

Heavily armed, they have refused to hand over their guns and sided with competing political forces trying to shape the future of Libya in the messy transition since Gaddafi’s four-decade rule over the North African state.

Libya’s government on Friday urged the two broad factions to sit down for talks, and negotiators were trying to broker a ceasefire between the groups which have become de facto powerbrokers in post-Gaddafi Libya.

“We call the people of Zintan and Misrata to urgent talks with the government to resolve this crisis and work out an initiative to settle this at once,” Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni’s office said.

Deep divisions, however, were clear along Tripoli’s empty airport road, where burning grasslands smoked from recent shelling. Sporadic artillery and anti-aircraft fire could be heard booming out from the airport toward southern Tripoli.

Outside on the highway, Zintani fighters were dug in to defend the airport they say they are officially sanctioned to protect as part of Libya’s armed forces. Young fighters in Toyota trucks mounted with canons guarded the road.

“They are strong and we are strong,” said Mohammed, a Zintan fighter inside the airport terminal, which has been damaged by shelling. “When we fought Gaddafi’s army, they did not resist more than two hours. Now we are fighting for ten days and no one has won.”

Inside the main terminal, debris was scattered across the floor of the passenger area, where a hole has opened in the ceiling from a shell hit. An empty wheelchair sat among rubble in the check-in area packed with travelers just weeks before.

According to a report in le Figaro the UN is disturbed by a fatwa from the Caliphate ordering excision (genital mutilation) for all women. Don’t expect the world’s cameras to take positions inside the clinics—or above dirty blankets spread on the ground—to witness the mutilation of a potential 4 million victims. Unless and until Western media, civil rights organizations, thinkers and governments understand that this fatwa will spread like the jihad conquest of the Middle Ages and put the knife to the cherished sexual freedom of the free world, there will be no peace worthy of the name. Not in the Middle East, not in London, Paris, New York and Tokyo.
From the general to the particular: there was no cluster of journalists in front of the Pitzman restaurant Thursday morning. No visible police presence either. On the surface, everything was back to normal. I stopped by to verify the information heard that morning on Radio J, one of the best Jewish radio stations broadcasting from Paris. Yes, that’s how it happened. About 40 men apparently split off from the “good-natured” demonstration that dispersed at les Invalides on Wednesday and headed for the restaurant. Warned by someone who saw them running down the rue de Rivoli, the personnel lowered the metal shutter that protects the front door. The windows are bullet-proof. I asked how much time they had to batten the hatches. “Two minutes.”
The restaurant was filled. Diners could hear the raucous cries for Jewish blood as the assailants hammered the shutter with iron bars and baseball bats and tried to pry it open. One of the owners slipped out the back and came out through the synagogue where he was able to rescue two Jews trembling in fear.
Think of it: if or when these Jews make Aliyah and the young men don the uniform of the Israeli Defense Forces, they will become the heartless monsters portrayed in the soap opera that has been running successfully for 14 years. They will not cower, they will not wait for French riot police. They will defend themselves. And the media, and this and that human rights league, and the UN, and the pro-Hamas proto-caliphaters will deplore their use of “disproportionate force.” Supplications will mount to the high heavens. Ceasefire! Immediate ceasefire. Humanitarian ceasefire.
The crash of an Air Algérie plane on its way from Ouagadougou to Algiers and points north with 54 French citizens on board was a coincidence, unrelated to the FAA ban on flights to and from Israel. There is no reason to believe that the passengers tragically killed on that flight would have gone to Tel Aviv instead. That would be ridiculous. So there is no reason to believe that the city of Paris decided to repair the botched paving on the rue des Rosiers this very week, when the heart of the old Jewish quarter is the target of those “good-natured pro-Palestinian demonstrators.”

In the elections series at Family Security Matters (http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/) we have now concluded full coverage of the congressional elections in 42 states and the facts are incontrovertible:

The strongest support for Israel comes from the GOP even in states with small Jewish populations…..stay tuned….rsk

It’s a chicken-or-the-egg question. Which came first: The Obama administration’s public contempt toward our allies in Jerusalem, or liberal Democratic animosity toward Israel?

Either way, when Barack Obama steps down as president in January 2017, the Democratic Party he leaves behind will be one whose sympathies no longer embrace the Jewish state.
It’s an extraordinary legacy. And it’s underscored by the more or less constant snubs President Obama has directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Of course, world leaders not getting along is nothing new. As Churchill’s wartime liaison to de Gaulle said of Britain’s French ally, “The greatest cross I have had to bear is the Cross of Lorraine.”

But the case of Obama and Netanyahu is much more than a clash of personalities. It’s a conflict between two competing world views. And if a poll released this month by the Pew Research Center is any clue, this conflict has now become embedded in American party politics.

Pew asked a basic question: “In the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians, who do you sympathize with more?”

In the coming days, Israel will likely need a massive re-supply of military goods of all kinds. It is then when Obama’s real intentions will be exposed for Israel to see.

President Obama is the master of Double-Speak, saying one thing and meaning the exact opposite. Remember how Obama promised, “You can keep your doctor if you like him,” and how it turns out that you can’t keep him because Obamacare won’t pay him?

Given Obama’s track record of betrayal of Israel, his hollow recital of “Israel has the right to defend herself,” might actually have a doublespeak meaning as well – that “Israel has the right to defend herself”, but without any American military resupply.

Israel could now be on collision course with the most anti-Israel president America has ever seen.

On October 6, 1973, Yom Kippur, Israel was shocked by the massive and effective surprise attacks by Egyptian and Syrian armies after America forced it to refrain from attacking the Egyptian army massing on its borders. On October 8th, Israel was losing the war. On October 8-9th, Israel went on to nuclear alert. Kissinger learned of the Israel nuclear alert on the morning of October 9. That day, President Nixon ordered the commencement of Operation Nickel Grass, a massive American military airlift to replace all of Israel’s military material losses. In a couple of weeks, Nixon’s military air-bridge shipped 22,325 tons of military supplies to Israel and saved Israel from might have been her destruction.

In Mid-June 2014, Hamas kidnapped and murdered three Israel teens. Israel launched an operation to sweep up the Hamas operatives in Judea and Samaria and exact punishment for Hamas’ crimes. On July 6, after Israel defeated Hamas in their quiet battle to take over Judea and Samaria, Hamas began to launch barrages of various range missiles into Israel from Gaza and employ its tunnels to murder and attempt to kidnap Israelis inside of Israel.

Hamas declared, “All Israelis” had become “legitimate targets.” Hamas refused any reasonable ceasefire, and Israel was forced to attack Gaza proper in a land operation. Instead of President Obama declaring the immediate creation of a military re-supply of America’s ally Israel, Obama ordered his FAA to shut-down Israel’s entire economy by grounding all flights to Ben Gurion Airport. The FAA banned not only passenger planes, but supply planes as well.

Apparently, there is no way to avoid the creation of a commission of inquiry once Operation Protective Edge is over. The commission will have to discuss what Israeli cabinet ministers are describing as a “resounding security failure.” Why didn’t Israel mark the threat posed by the Hamas tunnels as a strategic threat, as is now so obvious? Why didn’t it devote thought, effort, budgets and attention to this threat, just as it did to the rocket threat, which received an appropriate response in the form of the Iron Dome air-defense system?

The commission of inquiry will have to investigate three distinct tiers of questioning: Did the security forces have intelligence about the tunnels? If so, was it relayed to the political leadership? And if it was relayed, why didn’t the political leadership act accordingly? It should be remembered that had Hamas not rejected the Egyptian cease-fire initiative, Israel would not have discovered the scope of this threat, and Hamas would have continued digging and expanding its tunnel network, right until the moment it was deployed.

One senior Cabinet member I spoke with this week described that possibility to me: “Imagine,” he said, “that we are in the middle of a conflict with Hezbollah up north. Our top-notch infantry brigades are up there, in the north, when suddenly Hamas deploys its network of dozens of tunnels all at once. Some 2,000 Hamas commandos suddenly burst out of them and embark on a killing spree, slaughtering thousands of people in the cities and towns across Israel’s south, from Sderot through Ashkelon, Netivot and Ofakim, maybe even all the way to Beersheba. Who would stop them? The police? The air force? It would take weeks to clean up the mess, and at the end of the entire process, we would find death and destruction across southern Israel. I know,” the minister continued, “that it sounds like a figment of the imagination, but based on what we are discovering these days, the scenario is far more realistic than it is imaginary. In this region, the reality easily exceeds anything we can imagine.”

IDF Excavation of the tunnels has resulted in the seizure of tons of Hamas supplies as well as the discovery of plans for future operations.

Hamas had apparently been preparing a murderous assault on Israeli civilian targets for the coming Jewish New Year Holiday, Rosh Hashanah, which begins on September 24, according anonymous sources in the Israeli security services, as reported today by the Israeli daily Maariv.

The Hamas plan consisted of what was to be a surprise attack in which 200 fighters would be dispatched through each of dozens of tunnels dug by Hamas under the border from Gaza to Israel, and seize kibbutzim and other communities while killing and kidnapping Israeli civilians.

Israeli soldiers already frustrated a surprise assault by Hamas through one tunnel from Gaza into the Eshkol district of Israel on July 19. The Hamas fighters escaped back into the tunnel, but the clash cost the lives of two Israel Defense Force [IDF] troops.

My friend and e-pal Ed Cline, brilliant essayist and novelist pulls no punches….You should hear him when he’s really angry…..rsk

Israel must press on and destroy Hamas, trunk, root, branch and twig. It must decimate Hamas’s “army,” and then go after every kingpin of Hamas, and kill them all through assassination in their five-star hotels and homes or whatever other means is feasible. Lop off the heads, and the mass of kill-crazy jihadists will collapse into confusion and be easier to defeat permanently. If that means large “civilian” casualties, so be it. Remember that the “Palestinian” population is taught to hate Jews and Israel without thought, even though Jews and Israel have foolishly supplied them with the necessities of life. This incontinent generosity of people who Arabs and Muslims want to kill means nothing to Hamas’s leadership and most ardent and blood-thirsty “militants.” Hamas “soldiers” Israel takes prisoner should not be subsequently confined in cushy jails, as they are now, but just tossed into cells and fed bread and water. No more “exchanges.” And about all those “helpless” Gazans: don’t forget that they all cheered on 9/11, and 7/7, and on the occasion of all Islamic massacres (Bali, Madrid, Moscow, Beslan, Luxor, etc.). Israel is a life-giving nation, but the rest of the world forgets that when it must fight for its own life. So I hope fervently that Israel does not agree to another cease-fire, because, as Mr. MacEoin, stresses, cease-fires with Hamas or with any other murdering Islamic outfit merely gives the killers chance to catch their breath and rearm to renew the assault on Israel – and on the West. “Humanitarian” gestures amount to Israel turning its cheek so Hamas can drive a knife through it. Islam isn’t the only problem in this context: it is the altruistic “impulse” not to seem ruthless. But ruthlessness is what is necessary to combat killers intent on killing Israel.

Check out:

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http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/west-virginia-2014-candidates-for-congress-where-they-stand

Forgive a tad of boasting, but no other election site has such thorough coverage of candidates and issues in every single state. rsk

Primary: May 13, 2014

Voter Registration: http://www.sos.wv.gov/elections/voterinformation/VoterRegistration/Pages/default.aspx

Deadline for Registering to Vote: The deadline for citizens to register to vote, change their address, or switch political parties is exactly twenty-one (21) days before that election. General Election 2014 – October 14, 2014 ​

To see the actual voting records of all incumbents on other issues such as Foreign Policy, Second Amendment Issues, Homeland Security, and other issues as well as their rankings by special interest groups please use the links followed by two stars (**).

U.S. Senate

US SENATE LOGO SQ
Joe Manchin (D) Next Election in 2018.

Jay Rockefeller (D) Retiring in 2014

Shelly Moore Capito (R) Challenger

Currently represents District 2.

http://www.capitoforsenate.com/welcome/ http://capito.house.gov/#dialog

http://www.ontheissues.org/house/shelley_moore_capito.htm**

Rated -2 by AAI, indicating a anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

HEALTHCARE Congresswoman Capito has championed policies to increase access to affordable and quality health care for all West Virginians. Before coming to Congress, she was a leader in the State Legislature in establishing West Virginia’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Early in her tenure, Congresswoman Capito was a leader in establishing Medicare Part D, a program that today provides prescription drug coverage to over 31 million seniors, including more than 60 percent of West Virginia Medicare beneficiaries, and earns the support of 90 percent of its enrollees. Congresswoman Capito continues to champion medical liability reform to root out frivolous lawsuits that drive up the cost of health care. She has also co-sponsored legislation that would allow health insurance policies to be sold across state lines in order to reduce the cost of health insurance. Capito voted against President Obama’s health care reform legislation (the Affordable Care Act) because the law increases taxes and government mandates, while doing nothing to address the ever increasing cost of health care. Once fully implemented, the health care reform law will impose 21 separate tax increases which collectively impose over $1 trillion in new taxes over the next 10 years. The regulations included in the law force government into the doctor-patient relationship.

Congresswoman Capito will continue to support efforts to improve the quality and accessibility of health care through patient centered reform, rather than a government takeover of our health care system.

IMMIGRATION Congresswoman Capito believes that a strong immigration policy is important to our nation’s security, as well as to the security of our economy. As a member of the House Immigration Reform Caucus, Capito has worked to secure our borders, prevent amnesty, and enact sound immigration reform. Cracking down on illegal immigration begins with protecting our borders which leads to a secure nation. Capito fully supports efforts to build a security fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, including efforts to build a virtual fence that uses cameras, sensors, and motion detectors. Capito wants to make sure border officials have the resources and the manpower necessary to successfully patrol the border and fund the efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.) During the 112th Congress, Capito voted for the Border Tunnel Prevention Act of 2012, legislation that was passed into law that will strengthen the laws against construction of border tunnels as well as charge individuals who conspire to build or finance a border tunnel with harsh penalties.

Since her first term in 2001, she has supported the employee verification program that allows America’s small businesses to have confidence that their employees are legally eligible to work in the United States. She wants to ensure that millions of jobs are not taken from hardworking Americans by illegal immigrants and believes that employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants should be penalized. Capito opposes amnesty for the estimated 7 million illegal immigrants working in the United States. She has cosponsored legislation that excludes illegal immigrants from receipt of social security benefits, as well as opposed the Administration’s announcement to bypass Congress in them granting amnesty.

ENERGY Voted for the keystone XL Pipeline without limiting amendments West Virginia is an energy state. Supporting an all of the above energy policy that includes West Virginia coal and natural gas, oil produced in North America, together with renewable energy, is one of Congresswoman Capito’s most important legislative initiatives. As a co-chair of the Congressional Coal Caucus, Congresswoman Capito is a leader in the fight against excessive and unnecessary regulations from the EPA and other federal agencies aimed at reducing both the production of and the demand for West Virginia coal. She was a co-sponsor of the Stop the War on Coal Act and has fought to protect the jobs of miners as well as the truckers, contractors, railroad employees, utility workers, and many others whose jobs have been placed at risk by the current regulatory efforts targeting coal. Congresswoman Capito has authored legislation that would require the EPA to perform an economic assessment of any regulation that would negatively impact employment and hold public hearings in local communities adversely affected by regulatory decisions.
Natalie Tennant (D) Challenger

http://natalietennant.com/

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

HEALTHCARE As the mother of a child who has been denied health-care coverage because of a pre-existing condition, I understand the anxiety associated with not having access to affordable health care. I am disappointed about the implementation of health care reform because it has made it harder for West Virginians to get affordable coverage they expected. Changes must be made to the Affordable Care Act in order for the law to work for West Virginians.

We must work to attract additional health-insurance providers to the West Virginia marketplace so that West Virginians have more options and cheaper premiums. A single provider does not constitute a competitive marketplace.
I support delaying the individual mandate penalty. West Virginians who have previously tried to register and purchase insurance through the website should not be penalized because the site did not originally work as intended.
No West Virginian should lose their current coverage or be forced to see a different doctor because of the Affordable Care Act.
We must also provide additional relief to small business and streamline reporting requirements.
I stand with the 270,000 West Virginians without access to health care.

COAL AND ENERGY With some of the finest coal in the world, abundant natural gas, manufacturing know-how, and our research capacity, West Virginia should continue its key role in powering our nation as part of an “all of the above” approach. In addition to supporting thousands of families and jobs across our state, our state’s energy resources go a long way toward reducing our dependence on foreign oil and making the United States energy independent. I want to keep our coal miners working and will stand up to any misguided efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that will destroy our coal industry. I’ll fight the EPA and any politician regardless of party who tries to stand in our way. Coal should not be a partisan issue – it’s an economic issue for our state and a critical strategic issue for our nation.

To secure the future of coal, we must acknowledge that struggling with the same battles of the past is not enough. In the Senate, I will fight for funding for the development of clean coal technology which is critical to securing coal’s future. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown and West Virginia University should lead the way in clean coal research. As I’m fighting to keep our coal miners working, I will also fight to keep them safe. I will co-sponsor the Robert C. Byrd Mine Safety Act, which has languished in Congress for three years. The number of mine fatalities in recent years in West Virginia is unacceptable and I will support efforts to reduce that number to zero. I also believe the promises made to miners when they are working must be kept when they retire. I have been a strong advocate for the Patriot retirees and miners whose health care benefits and pensions have been jeopardized –because of corporate greed. In the Senate, I will support legislation that reforms our bankruptcy laws so that retirees and workers will not be on the losing end in our court system.

As we are working to secure the future of coal, we must also acknowledge the incredible potential of our natural gas reserves, especially the Marcellus Shale. I support Marcellus Shale development that creates jobs for local workers and improves our communities, while protecting our other natural resources. I am supportive of efforts to build cracker plants in West Virginia – those facilities can be critical in reviving our chemical industry in the Ohio and Kanawha valleys. I will always support efforts to create jobs in coal and natural gas as well as renewable energy – wind, solar, water and biomass. The potential for West Virginia energy jobs is great and I will make it a priority in the US Senate. With our manufacturing capabilities and research base, we need to be growing this industry to complement our coal and natural gas.

US HOUSE OF REP LOGO

District 1
David McKinley (R) Incumbent

http://www.mckinley2014.com/ http://mckinley.house.gov/#dialog

http://www.ontheissues.org/house/David_McKinley.htm**

Rated -7 by AAI, indicating a anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

HEALTHCARE Obamacare – As a former hospital board member and the husband of a critical care nurse, Congressman McKinley draws upon his experiences to influence his work on health care. The rising cost of health care is unsustainable and America is facing a crisis in health care. While advances in technology have brought us treatments our grandparents couldn’t even dream of, the cost of providing care has increased significantly. McKinley believes that we must lower health care costs, increase access to high-quality care, and put patients in charge of their health care dollars and decisions, not government. President Obama’s new health care law does not achieve this.

Affordable Care Act – Rep. McKinley continues to work to repeal Obamacare and replace it with reforms that will help ensure access to affordable, quality health care to all Americans without hurting our economy and adding to our national debt.

ENERGY Voted for the Keystone XL Pipeline without limiting amendments. The War on Coal must stop. Coal and other energy sources provide tens of thousands of West Virginia jobs, and Rep. McKinley considers them our state’s lifeblood. He is using his Energy and Commerce Committee assignment to curb the EPA’s over-regulation, which is stifling the energy industry and preventing the creation of more jobs.

In addition to coal, natural gas and oil are very important to the economy of West Virginia and this country. Exploration and aggressive drilling for these two fuels should be permitted without further delay. Rep. McKinley believes we should also encourage the use of wind, water and solar as alternatives to fossil fuels. Additionally, he supports nuclear power as a complement to meet our growing energy demands.

Rep. McKinley believes in market-based solutions to providing America’s energy needs. Protecting American jobs should be just as important as protecting the environment.
Glen Gainer (D) Challenger

http://www.glengainerforcongress.com/

District 2
Shelley Moore Capito (R)
Is a Candidate for US Senate in 2014

Alex Mooney (R) Challenger

http://mooneyforcongress.com/

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

GOVERNMENT AND TAXES Politicians in Washington, D.C., have been racking up $1 trillion deficits annually, leaving our nation with a national debt approaching $17 trillion. This amounts to over $53,000 in federal debt for every man, woman, and child in the United States. We must cut wasteful government spending and eliminate expensive new entitlement programs like Obamacare to ensure our children and grandchildren are not burdened with massive amounts of government debt. I will stand up and vote “No” when President Obama and his liberal allies in Congress propose new wasteful government spending programs. I support a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will require the federal government to balance its budget every year. Currently, forty-five states, including West Virginia, require their legislatures to enact a balanced budget – Congress should be required to do the same. Finally, I believe our government has a spending problem. Tax increases are just an excuse for the spending addicts in Washington to spend more of your hard-earned money. That’s why I signed Americans for Tax Reform’s “No New Taxes Pledge.” As your congressman, I will vote against every attempt to raise taxes.

HEALTHCARE Obamacare has to go. Already, Obamacare has resulted in new taxes and fees, massive regulation, and an increase in the cost of health care. I am fully committed to repealing Obamacare and will do whatever it takes to see that goal through. I support replacing Obamacare with commonsense, free-market health care reforms that will keep health care affordable, increases access to good health care in rural communities, and keeps government out of our most personal health care decisions. Some of these reforms include allowing people to buy health insurance across state lines, expanding health savings accounts, passing commonsense tort reform, and removing the discrimination in our tax code that prohibits individuals from buying health insurance with pre-tax dollars. Finally, doctors struggle to treat patients when government gets in the way. I have witnessed this firsthand due to my wife’s work as a neurosurgeon. Let’s repeal Obamacare so doctors can do what they need to do to treat patients and save lives.

IMMIGRATION Our immigration process is broken, and instead of fixing it, Washington is trying to push through amnesty legislation that will only exacerbate our current problems. I oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants.

As the son of Cuban and Irish immigrants, I want America to be a country that welcomes hard-working legal immigrants who want to live the American Dream. But we must make sure that we do it in a manner consistent with our fundamental belief in the rule of law and fairness. I will support legislation that focuses first on securing our borders and fixing the problems in our immigration system.

NATIONAL SECURITY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS I believe our government has a duty to protect its citizens from foreign threats, but that it can and must do so without sacrificing our fundamental civil liberties. I am deeply troubled by the expansive overreaching of the NSA’s surveillance program and recent revelations about the program’s many abuses. I will fight to make sure our government does not overstep its constitutional bounds in the process of fighting terrorism and protecting our country.

Support for Israel Israel is the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East and one of its closest allies in the world. Not only do we share strategic goals; we share a common belief in democracy and freedom. Like America, Israel is blessed with an entrepreneurial people that have produced military and non-military inventions. U.S. cooperation with and support for Israel makes both countries stronger, more secure and more prosperous.

ENERGY President Obama has made no secret of his disdain for the coal industry. His radical policies and the increasingly burdensome regulations imposed by his administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are destroying jobs and hurting West Virginia families. Liberal Harvard professor, Daniel P. Schrag, a prominent member of Obama’s Presidential Science Panel publicly revealed President Obama’s true intentions when he declared, “A war on coal is exactly what’s needed.” West Virginia has a long and rich history of providing energy to the rest of the nation, and I will do everything in my power to defeat President Obama’s EPA and support West Virginia’s proud coal industry. In addition, I will oppose other radical energy regulations, like President Obama’s proposed cap-and-trade plan that will increase the cost of energy and impose a de facto energy tax on every family in the United States. Finally, I support expanding the development of our natural energy resources in the United States to increase our domestic energy supply and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
Nick Casey (D) Challenger

http://nickcaseyforwv.com/

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

ENERGY West Virginia has the energy America needs to make us a more independent and prosperous nation. West Virginia has the coal, gas, wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal energy that our country needs. Washington however does not have a workable energy plan. We are suffering under an ever-expanding web of EPA regulations, especially in our coal industry. Congress needs to set energy policy, not the EPA. I will fight for common-sense regulations that businesses can operate under and our workers can make careers out of to provide for their families.

We need a plan to use all of our energy resources as cleanly and efficiently as possible. As a nation, switching from foreign oil to West Virginia natural gas to fuel our trucks and cars is an obvious opportunity. Vehicles will run cleaner, cheaper and we keep money here at home while creating good paying jobs. Energy gives us a tremendous opportunity to provide many more good-paying jobs and to keep our children in West Virginia…I will to work to make that happen.

JOBS Every politician says ‘they are for jobs,’ but I have a plan… And it’s really a simple plan: we need a government that gets past the petty partisan infighting and gets back to work for the American people.

Our economy is being hurt by the constant fiscal cliffs, shutdowns, debt crises, etc….we need Congress to get back-to-basics and pass budgets on a regular basis. Some agencies, like the EPA, are creating new regulations at a pace that businesses cannot keep up with…we need Congress to work together and set an energy policy that utilizes all of our energy sources. Our federal government has spent $1.7 trillion in Iraq and Afghanistan and wasted much of that spending…we need Congress to reprioritize and reinvest that money in infrastructure projects here at home. If you send me to Congress, I will get to work and reach out to representatives on both sides of the aisle, who may often disagree, to develop reasonable solutions that solve problems and help our government foster an environment where businesses can grow and create jobs.

District 3
Nick Rahall (D) Incumbent

http://www.nickrahall.com/ http://rahall.house.gov/issues

http://www.ontheissues.org/house/nick_rahall.htm**

Rated +2 by AAI, indicating pro-Arab pro-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

ENERGY AND REGULATIONS Voted against the Keystone XL Pipeline without limiting amendments. From programs aimed at generating cleaner electricity using coal to those that would promote the development of liquid transportation fuels from coal, I have long worked to clear the way for coal to address our energy challenges more cleanly, efficiently, and affordably. I have worked to prevent unfair regulatory requirements that could undermine coal jobs, increase energy prices for working families, and reduce energy reliability. In addition, while welcoming the growth of the natural gas industry in West Virginia, I have supported policies that would balance that growth with conservation and protection of property-owner’s rights. Looking ahead to intensifying international competition for energy and increasing concerns about the world’s changing climate, I remain determined to help find workable, long-term solutions to America’s energy challenges. Rahall’s Committee Acts to Rein in EPA’s Permitting Overreach – Apr 9, 2014 Issues: Washington, D.C. – Following the recent move by the Supreme Court not to consider the Spruce Mine case, U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall pushed for congressional action to put an end to the EPA’s Clean Water Act permitting overreaches. Today, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, where Rahall is the top Democrat, advanced H.R. 524, a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) that puts an end to the EPA’s practice of retroactively revoking permits they issue. Rahall is an original cosponsor of the bill.

“The EPA’s overreach threatens coal industry jobs, but it’s also a direct threat to economic activity in communities across the country,” said Rahall. “What good is a permit if it can be retroactively taken away, sometimes years later? I appreciate the Committee’s action today to address this situation moving forward. Allowing the EPA to continue to do business like this will have a chilling effect on our economy and public construction projects nationwide.”

HEALTHCARE I have always believed that quality healthcare must be accessible, affordable, and available for every West Virginian. Let’s fix portions of the new healthcare law that need to be corrected while ensuring that Insurance companies can no longer deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions or place arbitrary financial caps on the amount of coverage patients can receive. And, as I voted to do, let’s allow patients to be able to keep their existing plans.

IMMIGRATION I am proud of my family history and of the immigrants who helped to build West Virginia. My grandfather emigrated from Lebanon and scraped together a living selling linens in West Virginia’s coal camps. He believed in hard work, God, and family, and fell in love with the United States and West Virginia.
West Virginia greatly benefited from the immigrant families who migrated to our southern coal fields in the last century, working in our mines and factories and steel mills and building our railroads and economic infrastructure, as well as contributing to our State’s culture and arts. Certainly, West Virginia and our Nation will benefit from future generations of immigrants. But, we must ensure that those generations live up to their responsibilities as past generations did – learning the English language, absorbing our Constitutional principles, and abiding by the law. And, of course, we must always be protective of the jobs and salaries of American workers, and making sure that the American taxpayer is not forced to shoulder any unfair burdens.
Evan Jenkins (R) Challenger

http://evanjenkins.com/

HOT BUTTON ISSUES

COAL President Obama and his EPA are waging a War on Coal, and Evan will fight it tooth and nail. He’ll strongly oppose Obama’s cap-and-trade scheme, a carbon tax and job-killing EPA regulations. Evan understands that in West Virginia, coal is not just our economic lifeblood – it makes us who we are. In the state legislature, Jenkins has supported numerous measures to protect the health, safety and pensions of West Virginia coal miners, and he is firmly opposed to any cuts to the Federal Black Lung Benefit Program.

HEALTHCARE Jenkins has been an outspoken opponent of ObamaCare since 2009 – Evan knows that ObamaCare will cost trillions, raise premiums and kill jobs. As the disastrous implementation of Obama’s health law has proved, this is a classic boondoggle that will greatly damage our health care system. Evan will lead efforts to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with common sense health care reforms that will improve access to quality health care and preserve your doctor-patient relationship.

Criticized ObamaCare for damaging the doctor-patient relationship
Criticized ObamaCare’s individual mandate as unconstitutional
Criticized ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion
Criticized ObamaCare, predicting a doctor shortage in West Virginia
Criticized ObamaCare’s lack of medical liability reform.

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/west-virginia-2014-candidates-for-congress-where-they-stand#ixzz38U2iasPi
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Even in its weakest moments, would Britain have risked a cease-fire with Nazi Germany during World War II — knowing that Hitler habitually broke his promises?

With their usual mixture of human rights concern and hypocrisy, several countries have stepped into the fresh Israel-Gaza conflict by demanding a cease-fire. Egypt has played an important role in this demarche; Hamas has turned down flatly all the conditions on which Egyptian President al-Sisi insisted. How far the war will go still hangs in the balance. As Israeli ground forces now fight with Hamas in their tunnels and bunkers, over 600 Palestinians (largely made up of men of fighting age) have died[1], as well as over 32 Israelis.

The international pressure from all sides for a ceasefire is widening and intensifying. Of course, what a ceasefire amounts to, as it has before, is to give Hamas a second chance. And a third and a fourth — whatever is needed for them to achieve their clearly stated goals of wiping Israel from the map, and then Jews.

What is odd is that the United States and the EU called for a ceasefire after only seven days — even before the ground offensive began. They did not do that while America and Britain were fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq. Nor did anyone call for a cessation of UN-sponsored NATO air and ground attacks during the Bosnian war. Today, calls for a ceasefire fall on deaf ears in Syria, Iraq, Somalia, and Nigeria, where governments (good or bad) face the forces of armed Islamist terrorists. So why so much pressure on Israel, dubbed as always the aggressor, whose responses to Hamas terrorism are unjustly considered “disproportionate,” and whose serious efforts to contain civilian casualties are always disregarded or sneered at?

Hamas has broken or refused to extend ceasefires before this conflict. On this occasion, Israel worked with Egypt to bring about a truce, but Hamas rejected all Egypt’s demands and began firing rockets again within hours of the agreement. As a result, Israel was forced to resume air strikes on Gaza.

It appears most everyone today is practicing what Pastor Gil referred to in a recent sermon – “situational ethics” – truth and right get to be bent to fit our agenda, instead of following a Higher Truth that compels us to do what is right, including being honest, even when it is inconvenient.

Perhaps someone might want to send that sermon as a reminder to our elected officials, most notably the hysteria mongers who are claiming women’s movement, freedom of choice, and reproductive rights have been undermined because of the Supreme Court decision freeing Hobby Lobby from a few of the Obamacare mandates that are in contradiction with the company owners’ religious beliefs (abortion).

The truth – the inconvenient truth? Hobby Lobby still covers the majority of contraception options most women select, just not all of them. Hobby Lobby’s owners, on religious grounds, don’t support abortion, certain forms of contraception. That is not the same thing as denying their workers a variety of viable options. It just means that some options are not being paid for by their healthcare benefits.

Stop the presses! Oh my gosh…someone might have to pay out of pocket for something they want. The world is coming to an end!

Who says you have to work for Hobby Lobby? If their benefit package isn’t what you want, you have the option to work for someone else, or pay for what you select. But in the purple dimension of Obama where unicorn ponies take us to the land of wishful thinking, individual responsibility is akin to a four letter word. How unpleasant indeed!

In Obamaland where we are owed something by someone else, and where affinity anarchy is alive and well – using gender and ethnicity issues to rev up the base, anyone in disagreement with the narrative must be challenged.