RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=7293

During an interfaith breakfast in Washington on Thursday, President Barack Obama made a point of thanking Secretary of State John Kerry “for his extraordinary passion and principled diplomacy that he’s brought to the cause of peace in the Middle East.”

This particular public display of affection was Obama’s response to a barrage of verbal attacks on Kerry this week from Israeli sources. The criticism followed a speech Kerry delivered last Saturday at the Munich Security Conference, in the course of which he issued a veiled threat. If the peace process fails, he said, the call for anti-Israel boycotts would intensify. In addition, he called Israel’s current prosperity and security “illusionary.”

Obama’s show of support for Kerry also came on the heels of the recent release of a satirical YouTube clip, produced by the Yesha Council and MyIsrael, in which Kerry is ridiculed for his ignorance and incompetence in relation to Israel and the Palestinians. This parody clearly struck a nerve. When asked about it during a press conference on Wednesday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, “We find [its] rhetoric unacceptable.”

As Kerry’s mouthpiece to the media, she ought to know about unacceptable rhetoric.

If anything characterizes her boss’s behavior, it is his pattern of placing the onus on Israel for reaching a peace deal with the Palestinian Authority. Each time he returns from a trip to the region empty-handed — due to unrealistic Palestinian demands — he warns Israel of the consequences it will suffer in the absence of an agreement, such as a third intifada and international boycotts, divestment and sanctions.

Then, when members of the Israeli government react negatively to his threats, he huffily denies all allegations and casts aspersions on anyone who dares doubt the sincerity of his support for Israel.

This pattern was on display during his interview on Wednesday with CNN’s Jake Tapper. “Israel needs to understand we will always stand by its security needs, but no one should distort what we’re doing or saying because they’re opposed to the peace process or don’t like two states or whatever,” he said. “And, you know, words — I have to tell you, my friend, I’ve been attacked before by people using real bullets, not words, and I am not going to be intimidated. I am not going to stand down with respect to President Obama’s commitment to trying to find peace in the Middle East.”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304549504579320581530052114?mod=Opinion_newsreel_9 Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte had a will of steel and an unrelenting stubbornness not unlike that of her legendary brother-in-law. In the 1870s, a still-beautiful and distinguished old woman could be seen walking through the streets of Baltimore holding a red parasol against rain or sun, a splendid hat on her head, said to hold […]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303942404579361421256273630?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop The nods to Russian culture and history in Friday’s opening Olympic ceremony are said to include ballet dancers, a fleet of ships under the command of Peter the Great, and current czar Vladimir Putin’s favorite folk rock band, Lubeh. Mr. Putin wanted the Sochi Games to be a showcase of modern Russia, and he […]

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/bruce-thornton/republicans-go-on-an-immigration-reform-bender/print/

Rather than twisting the political knife in the gaping wound that is Obamacare, House Republicans are off on a “comprehensive immigration reform” toot. The latest news has the Speaker putting off any action for now, and waiting until after the midterm elections in order not to anger the anti-amnesty base, and “to goose Latino turnout or to swing purple districts” in 2016, as political blogger Allahpundit put it. In other words, electoral timing rather than principle is determining what happens.

But principle, not to mention common sense, is what’s at stake here. Anyone proposing “comprehensive” anything after the debacle of Obamacare is delusional. Complex problems are not going to be solved with grandiose legislation that tries to politically please everybody. Nor are most sensible voters likely once again to play Charlie Brown to the Congressional Lucy jerking away the promised “enforcement triggers” and “border security” football after the de facto amnesty is already in place. We went through all that in 1986, when the same promises of employer checks of legal residency and beefed-up border security were broken, more than doubling the number of illegal immigrants from 5 million to 11 million today.

And please, let’s stop all the delusional dreams of Hispanic “natural conservatives” flocking to the GOP after the boon of amnesty is bestowed upon them. John McCain partnered with Teddy Kennedy in 2005 and 2007 to craft legislation to create a “path to citizenship,” and still got half as many Hispanic votes (31%) as Barack Obama did in 2008. By the way, McCain beat Mitt “self-deport” Romney by a whole 4 points with Hispanic voters. Voters vote their interests, and the interests of the majority of Hispanic voters are best served by the Democrats, as evidenced by the fact that 75% percent favor a “bigger government providing more services,” according to a Pew poll. That’s why the best a Republican candidate has done with Hispanics, George W. Bush in 2004, was still 18 points behind the Democrat John Kerry, one of the least likable and most incompetent candidates since Mike Dukakis. To think that being nice will trump those interests is nonsense. And any gain that might accrue is likely to be offset by losses among the base angered at such pandering.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/the-most-corrupt-village-in-america/print/

When the police stopped Luvina Mobley Smith, they found a pound of pot in her car and five EBT food stamp cards which drug dealers often take in payment for drugs. It would have been an ordinary enough story except that Smith, despite being a convicted felon, was also the Deputy Clerk of Alorton.

Luvina is the daughter of Callie Mobley, Alorton’s former mayor, who had collected double her salary and served time in jail for income tax evasion. Mayor Mobley, who had been the mayor of Alorton for two decades, had been doing the same thing back to her days as liquor commissioner.

St. Clair County State’s Attorney Brendan Kelly warned, “Alorton City Hall is becoming a criminal narco state at the expense of the citizens of Alorton.”

Alorton, an African-American village run by Democrats, may actually be the most corrupt village in Illinois and the United States.

Alorton’s violent crime rate has been as high as ten times the national average. Its biggest employers are health care, fast food, welfare and education. The unemployment rate for black men is at 31%. Half the people in Alorton live below the poverty line. 70% of poor households consist of single mothers.

The village has the fourth highest poverty rate of any place in Illinois. Its corruption and misery are examples of what happens when the Democratic Party’s power goes unchallenged.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/02/06/why-is-the-u-s-postal-service-buying-ammunition/?print=1

This posting by the U.S. Postal Service is certainly eye-catching. On January 31, 2014, the USPS posted this solicitation for purchasing small arms ammunition. Contrary to some reports, the posting does not specify a quantity or type, other than specifying “assorted small arms.” It closes on February 10, 2014.

Synopsis:

Added: Jan 31, 2014 4:54 pm

The United States Postal Service intends to solicit proposals for assorted small arms ammunition.If your organization wishes to participate, you must pre-register at https://uspsesourcing.emptoris.com, the Postal Service’s eSourcing tool. From the login page, click on the “Register Supplier Organization” hyperlink and provide all required information. Organizations are encouraged to have each participating representative registered individually. When registering, include 332992 as one of your NAICS selections.

It may seem odd for the USPS to be in the business of buying ammunition, but actually it has had armed officers for centuries. Chances are, this buy is for the US Postal Inspection Service. The USPIS employs about 1,600 special agents who investigate mail fraud and related crimes. Some of these investigating agents pack firearms, usually a Beretta semi-auto 9 mm pistol.

The USPIS is not new nor is its having armed agents new. The inspection service has been around since the days of Ben Franklin, who created the post of “surveyor” when he was postmaster general. Surveyor eventually evolved into the present-day special agent, which is a detective or investigator. Think of them as similar to arson investigators, who typically work for a fire department but carry firearms, investigate crimes, and have some police powers. USPS has periodically purchased guns and ammunition for longer than the United States has been a country.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/370563/heading-right-nevada-betsy-woodruff Ron Paul is not the president. He was never going to be the president. He was never even going to be the Republican party’s 2008 nominee for president. This is not disputed. But it’s also true that his perennial and perennially ill-fated presidential bids changed America’s political topography in ways that East Coast political […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/370564/print

YES! DEROY MURDOCK IS RIGHT….. IN CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGNS HEALTHCARE IS NOW SEEN AS A PRIORITY….AND “REPEAL AND REPLACE” IS THE MANTRA GUIDING THE BEST CONSERVATIVE INCUMBENTS AND CHALLENGERS……RSK

Obamacare continues to unravel, even more thoroughly than its harshest critics could have hallucinated. Now, rather than chop the GOP in two by enacting comprehensive immigration reform, House Republican leaders should divide Democrats by scheduling incremental votes on pro-patient ideas to replace Obamacare.

Just this week, the Congressional Budget Office reported that Obamacare’s disincentives to hire and incentives not to work will reduce the U.S. work force by the equivalent of 2.3 million jobs by 2021.

Meanwhile, HealthCare.gov lurched into another wall. Some 22,000 Americans have completed seven-page-long appeals after they incorrectly were denied coverage or overcharged for Obamacare. Unfortunately, as the Washington Post revealed, “The part of the computer system that would allow agency workers to read and handle appeals has not been built.” Not built? The $677 million website premiered on October 1!

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/370552/print It’s only February, but it’s already my favorite word — or phrase, I guess — of the year. (Who knows, by December it may be shortened to “joblock.”) It’s not euphonious or edgy, but it does offer insight into the unreality of the Democrats’ predicament. The Congressional Budget Office issued a politically explosive report […]

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-enduring-requirements-of-deterrence-principals-to-keeping-the-peace?f=puball

On November 8, 2013, Franklin Miller, Principal in the Scowcroft Group, underscored in his remarks, at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia, entitled “Sustaining the Triad: The Enduring Requirements of Deterrence in the 21st Century,” that the current radical campaign of Global Zero to undo the deterrent principals of the past three-quarters century was largely based on faulty assumptions and dangerous recommendations. Miller noted that the deterrent equation of the 21st century may indeed have to resemble that of the 20th century, not because anyone wants to return to the “Cold War”, but because those deterrent qualities worked and preserved the peace between the nuclear armed powers of the globe. Global war which had engulfed humankind twice in the first half of the 20th century was avoided. Remarkably as well, the average number of deaths from warfare dropped significantly from 2% of the world’s population per year to less than .2%, a drop of 90%, a not inconsequential achievement, a point made by the former Commander of the US Strategic Command, Admiral Ed Mies. Here are Franklin Miller’s remarks.

MR. FRANKLIN MILLER: I want to thank the Camden Partnership, the Camden Kings Bay Council of the Navy League and the Camden Country Chamber of Commerce, and Peter Huessy, for inviting me to appear at this breakfast. And my goal this morning is to start your day off right. Peter Huessy is surely an unsung hero in our campaign to keep our nuclear deterrent. In the current public debate in Washington on our nuclear deterrent is completely unbalanced and intellectually empty.

Last year’s report by the Global Zero organization was built on faulty assumptions, questionable if not downright incorrect assertions, and dangerous recommendations. But you can’t find a mainstream publication which ever seriously analyzed it. We are routinely subjected to stories sneeringly referring to our existing deterrent posture as Cold War-like. But no one steps forward to explain why, just maybe why, the nuclear deterrence equation in the 21st century may have to resemble that of the 20th century. But Peter, by keeping his speaker’s series going, provides a forum where some small degree of balance can be introduced into the debate. So thank you for that, Peter.