RUTHFULLY YOURS

An Excellent Republican Candidate You May Not Know: Dan Bongino By Ron Radosh

URL to article: http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2012/09/24/a-republican-candidate-you-may-not-have-heard-of-and-who-deserves-to-win-his-name-is-dan-bongino/

http://www.bongino.com/

A few weeks ago, I moved from West Virginia back to Montgomery County in Maryland, where I had previously lived from 1992 through 2006. Maryland is a solid Democratic state, and therefore Republicans have written it off and the president has no need to campaign in it. So what conservative would even bother to run for Senate in such a liberal state, one in which Michael Steele, a former lieutenant governor in the state, lost to current Senator Ben Cardin by 54 percent to 44 percent?

The answer is Dan Bongino [1], whom I was privileged to hear speak before a packed meeting today in Silver Spring, Maryland. I predict Bongino will be another one of those rising stars in the Republican Party, a man who is able to produce in an audience the kind of passion and enthusiasm that we have seen for stars like Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan. Like both of these men, Bongino has the knack for explaining and defending conservative policies and programs in a way that people can understand without demonizing his opponents — he makes clear it is their policies, not them, that he opposes.

Go to his website and watch the video of him in action, and you’ll catch a glimpse of how he talks to people. In his speech today, Bongino stressed how different this election is than previous ones. He mentioned that while he voted for Bob Dole, he did not think it was a catastrophe that Bill Clinton won a second term. After all, he said, Clinton did some good things with Republican support, and some things he opposed. But the republic lasted, and the country continued to thrive. This election, he said, was something different: the choice is between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, who, he posited, is an “ideologue” who sees things differently than most people.

A former Secret Service officer in the elite Presidential Protection Division during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, Bongino said he would have given his life for Obama if need be, and that he considers himself a decent person and a good family man. But he said he entered the race for one reason alone: he believes the policies of the Obama administration are wrong for the country he loves, and he felt compelled to not leave it to others to put America back on the right course. So this former Secret Service officer, who was the lead agent coordinating Obama’s trips to Prague, Jakarta, and the war zone in Afghanistan, has decided to enter the race against the president he served with distinction.

Bongino has a background not just in active police and security work — he has a B.A. and master’s degree in psychology, with a concentration in neuro-psychology and behavioral learning, and a second master’s degree in business administration. He describes himself, as he did today, as a man who is not rich, but a member of the middle class — the very group that polls show is gaining Mitt Romney the most votes. With his wife, he started three small businesses and left his work with her for this campaign.

Bongino is particularly interested in what he calls the main civil rights issue today — that of education for minorities and the poor in central cities. He spoke about his own work on that behalf in those sections of Maryland where poor and minority residents are forced to attend bad schools and have no choice for anything else. As a young boy growing up in Jackson Heights in Queens, New York, only a scholarship from a Catholic school in his borough allowed him to gain the advantage of a solid education denied his friends, who attended poor public schools in his own community.

Listening to Bongino speak, it occurred to me that it is possible he will receive more votes on the Republican line in Maryland than Mitt Romney. There is even a real chance that he could win against his opponent Ben Cardin. Like the presidential candidates, Cardin and Bongino have two or three debates coming up, one of which will be broadcast on one of the three major networks, and another on the local Maryland PBS station. I have not heard Cardin speak, but Bongino is up on both domestic and foreign policy, and can handle anything thrown at him. Like Paul Ryan, he has studied economics and he regularly cites works that have influenced him, like the writings of Thomas Sowell, Milton Friedman, and others.

At today’s talk, many of the seniors present were concerned about what their fate might be should Obamacare not be defeated. Explaining the stakes, Bongino answered that the IPAB boards set up to judge what Medicare will or will not cover would result eventually in a two-tier health system: good medical care for the wealthy who can afford concierge service and pay their own way, and poor and diminished medical care for everyone else forced to go into the government-run program without the ability to make a choice of what they want.

So, even if Mitt Romney does not win — and at this point he can pull it out and become our next president — there are local races where good candidates have emerged, and where they can have the ability to reach people, change their way of thinking, and possibly even win. Dan Bongino is one of these candidates, and I hope that this column has served to introduce him to those who until now have not heard about him. And if you live in Maryland like I do, don’t despair. Get out there and do your part.

Article printed from Ron Radosh: http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh

http://pjmedia.com/spengler/2012/09/27/an-economic-primer/?singlepage=true

Consider these Americans:

Our first case is one of five million Americans unemployed for more than 27 weeks:

A second American is part owner of a $20 trillion investment fund.

A third American is terrified that her pension fund will go bust (as the Illinois teachers’ fund will some time during the next ten years, among many others).

The $20 trillion fund squirrels away its money in safe, low-yielding assets. It won’t invest in the kind of risky investments that put bricks on top of mortar and hires workers.

Because American #2 at the $20 trillion investment fund won’t take risks, American #1 can’t find a job. And because low-risk investments now pay very little — investment-grade corporate bonds and mortgage-backed securities with federal backing yield barely 3% — pension funds can’t earn enough to meet their obligations to prospective retirees, and American #3 won’t have enough retirement income to live on.

All these Americans could well be the same individual, and probably are members of the same family.

Pension and retirement funds in the United States control $16 trillion in assets. That’s more than double the total assets of the whole U.S. banking system, and more than five times the total assets of hedge funds world-wide. The retirement savings of ordinary Americans dominate the capital markets, not the sort of fat-cats caricatured in the press. Add another $4 trillion in life insurance assets, which mainly reflect the retirement savings of the middle class, and the middle class investment fund now stands at $20 trillion.

Americans won’t take risks on each other. That’s our problem. A decade ago, at the peak of China’s investment in American securities, I quipped that a rich Chinese won’t lend money to a poor Chinese, unless the poor Chinese moves to America. That’s starting to change. China’s huge trade surplus has shrunk to nearly zero as the Chinese consume more at home. The problem now is that middle-class Americans won’t invest in themselves.

http://pjmedia.com/blog/western-courts-bend-to-islamic-practices/ Judges’ consideration of Shari‘a [1] when deciding cases may be the most alarming avenue by which Islam influences Western legal systems, but it is not the only one. With increasing regularity, Islamic practices sway the administration of courtrooms, affecting when sessions are held, who must rise, and what attire is permissible. This trend should […]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/09/advice_for_romney_from_national_reviews_editors.html

Hooray for J.Robert Smith…..Romney should just shut out the cacophony of whining from his erstwhile supporters….the vapors of Peggy Noonan, the sob sister, and the Weekly Standard bearers who used to root for the Arab “spring”…..rsk

On Thursday morning, National Review’s editors offered a surefire way of putting Mitt Romney over the top with “swing” voters. Call it a circular firing squad. Or just mush.

The NR editors’ advice: ladle out a share of blame to George W. Bush for the nation’s economic mess. No. Wait. Don’t blame the former president. Instead, indict Republican governance before Barack Obama assumed the presidency.

But no, come to think of it, don’t do that.

Of course, you know swing voters — that 5% to 8% of the electorate that Romney and the Republicans are handling gingerly like porcelain figurines. Establishment Republicans and their conservative cohorts have tied themselves into pretzels to convince everyone and his brother that Romney needs to run a non-campaign campaign lest the former governor turn off undecideds. So the Romney campaign serves out heaping-helping spoonfuls of Gerry Ford tapioca, George H. Bush cream puffs, and Bob Dole pabulum. Not always, but alarmingly, all too routinely.

http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/../2012/09/wake-up_jews.html No doubt, it’s hard for people to give up their lifelong attachments and identity. But there are moments in history when a turning point arrives, and those with eyes to see and ears to hear recognize it. Many Jews have made political liberalism their religion and personal identity and the Democrat Party their unexamined […]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444620104578012281306687070.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop The industry that gave us stents, replacement joints and defibrillators will get a dose of bad fiscal medicine. The Supreme Court decision in June upholding the Affordable Care Act leaves in place a tax on medical devices that threatens thousands of American jobs and our global competitiveness. It will also stifle critical medical innovation […]

http://newmediajournal.us/indx.php/item/6960 While many concerns face those on the Right side of the aisle who are politically aware – concerns like the misapplication of voter demographics in the polling used to score the presidential race, the exploding deficit, the enflamed tensions in the Middle East, and/or the honesty deficit displayed by the Obama Administration, among many […]

http://yeshaviews.blogspot.co.il/2012/09/the-gauntlet.html

My e-pal Marc is probably the best guide to Israel….also

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The holiday season in Israel is readily noticed also by the increase of tourists arriving here. Indeed many even make their way out to Judea and Samaria, not only the biblical heartland, but where we actually started here in Israel, from Abraham onward. Always noticeably missing are the secular Jewish tourists, Jews who hail from Conservative and Reform congregations. They are in Israel, in fact there are always “missions” here, but their leadership makes sure to keep them away from the Jewish Heartland. Often claiming “too politically charged”, “dangerous” and many other pitiful excuses.

Funny how we can always find mainstream US Jewish “leadership” in Ramallah, but a visit to Shilo, Beit El and more, simply out of the question. Gd forbid they visit sites directly connected to their own history. Sites that would strengthen their own identity and connection, their congregations identity and connection, stated challenges they face in keeping their respective flocks at home. Why would they wish to keep their people disconnected and ignorant to their history? Why would they deny them the chance to walk in the steps of their forefathers? What are they afraid of?

I am not talking politics, simply the chance to visit these places that are so important to us as a people. They all claim to be so “pro-Israel”, so why should these places be so different.

Federations and so on, will always visit Jewish sites in other countries on “Heritage” tours, but to see their own heritage in Israel, to be denied them by their own leadership??? Seems suspicious.

http://dispatch-international.com/content/now-playing-washington-more-lies-tariq-ramada
WASHINGTON, DC. When I read that Tariq Ramadan would be speaking at a local bookstore in Washington, DC on September 11, the juxtaposition gave me a jolt. Was Ramadan – the world-famous and Left-celebrated Muslim “intellectual” banned from France for six months in the 1990s for alleged terror ties, and later from the US for six years (2004-2010) for reasons said to include charitable donations to HAMAS – really an appropriate choice for this darkest of anniversaries? But there was something intriguing about the prospect. What message would this scion of the Muslim Brotherhood deliver to the largely liberal upper middle class masses who would throng the bookstore to hear him?

I had never before seen Ramadan in action, but I knew his reputation for glibness, “doubletalk”, and contradiction. From these waves of words, as I would see, listeners seem to extract what is most shiny and appealing, and, as I would watch, nod their heads in recognition.

Never mind that among his favorite Muslim philosophers is Mohammed Rashid Rida, whom Islamic expert Andrew Bostom has described as a “full-throated, public supporter of the political aspirations of Ibn Saud’s Wahhabism”. Never mind that Ramadan, grandson of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, unequivocably states there is “nothing is this heritage” that he rejects.

The Muslim Brotherhood, a shadowy organization with violent offshoots (including al-Qaeda) is best summed up by its motto: “Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” But not to worry: Tariq Ramadan says he isn’t a member. Here in the bookstore, he repeatedly emphasized “dignity, justice and freedom” as the goals of so-called Arab Spring. People nodded. I doubt many realized these are the English-language buzz words of the Muslim Brotherhood, too.

Another thrill-and-spill Of late, Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority appears to be staging recurrent verbal thrills-and-spills extravaganzas. It’s almost as if, when nothing else works, generating headlines constitutes a viable alternative to actual policy and governance. And so the latest bombshell Abbas attempted to toss was the suggestion that Ramallah might abrogate the Oslo Accords with […]