Posted on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - 06:26 pm:

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Horowitz at Heritage Foundation: 'The Communist Party Is The Democratic Party'
By Breitbart News 12 Nov 2013

...Horowitz then analyzed what he claimed were the four features of the leftist mentality...

...Third, Horowitz said that the left was characterized by “alienation from this country... What weakens America is actually good.” Horowitz cited the Obama administration’s eager withdrawal from Iraq as evidence of that proposition: “Obama betrayed every American who gave their life for the people of Iraq.” He also slammed the Obama administration with regard to Benghazi: “Benghazi is the most shameful act in the history of the American presidency.” [emphasis mine]

Finally, said Horowitz, the American left “lie. And it's not like politicians spinning...you cannot be a leftist without lying about the most basic strategic facts about who you are.”

Horowitz summed up pessimistically: “We are within reach of a totalitarian state in this country…These are very very dark days for this country.”

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Posted on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - 07:39 pm:

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Study Finds IRS Suppression of Tea Party Swung 2012 Election

A new study by the American Enterprise Institute -- "Do Political Protests Matter? Evidence From The Tea Party Movement" -- finds that the movement boosted Republican turnout by three to six million votes in the 2010 election. This effect was blunted in the 2012 election, though, because growth in the movement stalled.

That slowdown happened, co-author and AEI economist Stan Veuger notes, at the same time that the IRS began coming down hard on these groups. He argues in a RealClearMarkets.com article that this most likely had a major impact in the 2012 election.

"The founders, members, and donors of new Tea Party groups found themselves incapable of exercising their constitutional rights, and the Tea Party's impact was muted in the 2012 election cycle," Veuger said.

He added: "The data show that, had the Tea Party groups continued to grow at the pace seen in 2009 and 2010, and had their effect on the 2012 vote been similar to that seen in 2010, they would have brought the Republican Party as many as 5 to 8.5 million votes [emphasis mine] compared to Obama's victory margin of 5 million."

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Posted on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - 07:49 pm:

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Yes, IRS Harassment Blunted The Tea Party Ground Game
By Stan Veuger

The controversy over the IRS's harassment of conservative groups continues. President 0bama's team continues to blame low-level bureaucrats. Some conservatives suspect a more sinister explanation: that the levers of government were used to attack an existential threat to the president's 2012 reelection. The president and his party dismiss this as a paranoid fantasy. The evidence, however, is enough to make one believe that targeting Tea Party groups would have been an effective campaign strategy going into the 2012 election cycle.

It is a well-known fact that the Tea Party movement dealt the president his famous "shellacking" in the 2010 mid-term election. Less well-known is the actual number of votes this new movement delivered-and the continuing effects these votes could have had in 2012 had the movement not been de-mobilized by the IRS.

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Posted on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 - 10:13 pm:

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11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. [WINNER! WINNER! WINNER!]

20. Infiltrate the press [WINNER! WINNER! WINNER!]. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

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Posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - 08:26 am:

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By the time you read this Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu will be sitting down to coffee with key Egyptian political and military figures nailing down the $4-billion dollar purchase of advanced Russian weaponry. It’s a done deal. The Russians will not only receive the cash but naval basing rights (hate to say ‘I told you so’) on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast (most likely at Alexandria) but on the Red Sea also. To interested types that means they’ll have virtual control of the Suez Canal. The Russians will control the eastern Med and the Red Sea, a position they won’t have had since Mubarek threw them out.

The defensive side of the package is reported to include antiaircraft radar and AA missiles capable of reaching to the middle of the Med and covering the Suez Canal – anybody remember the Yom Kippur War? The systems are reported to protect against cruise missiles, drones and stealth aircraft. Hmmm…the latter’s interesting as Israel ordered stealth aircraft from the US in 2011 to counter an Iranian threat and, even though the types of missiles the Russians will supply is still secret, the S-400 (SA-21) was designed to counteract US stealth technology.

The offensive side of the package is said to include unspecified ground attack missiles capable of reaching Iran. The ‘Iran’ thingie was most likely put in to salve the magic thinkers into denying they meant Tel Aviv and any potential US bases in the area. We still don’t know if the offensive missiles will be site-based or mobile (most likely), the latter allowing their ranges to be extended by relocating the launch vehicles.

The Russians say that some 1500 Russian ‘support’ personnel will accompany the equipment for setup and training but I believe the number will really be many times that number. I’ve worked with the Egyptian military and while there are some good people in it there are many more whose skill sets are less than hi—tech, and even that’s giving them credit. There’s another BIG problem too – after 40+ years of US tutoring the military’s set up on a US paradigm and many of the senior staff are more Western/US oriented than they are Russian. The Russians and Egyptians will have to have a major military-wide shakeup and shakeout of the Egyptian military, especially the command staff, before the Russians are comfortable working with them – that will take time and the Russians will have their people managing and maintaining their equipment for sometime. The Russian will also not allow the Egyptians to have access to some of the mainline equipment I’m betting they’ll filter in with the Egyptian stuff, especially the intel and threat targeting stuff they’ll be aiming against the Israelis and US/NATO forces if the latter ever grow a pair. The Russians are infamous for having their specialists sit in and operate gear they’ve provided to foreign countries to make sure it’s used correctly and effectively – ala’ Korea…Vietnam…

I’m also hearing that much of the cash to buy the equipment’s coming from…wait for it…Saudi Arabia. Sounds fishy until you figure that the Iranians have been attacking the Saudis at a low level for decades now – I remember many years ago when a Saudi AF guy told me they had Iranian AF pilots flying practice nuclear-attack patterns against Saudi oil fields and we’ve seen the Iranians militarize the islands in the throat of the Gulf, setting up to attack shipping and close it off. Now we have the Russians and Iranians on the Saudi east, the Russians will be on the Saudi west in the Red Sea and as soon as Russia and Iran secure Syria and get Hezbollah to start moving on the Levant the Saudis will have the Iranians and Russians on their north. I do believe the Saudis DO NOT trust the US to come to their aid and are hedging their bets by playing nice to the Egyptians (Russians). I’m wondering if the Saudis being elected to the UN Human Rights Council (a walking, talking oxymoron) hasn’t helped in turning the Saudis? Along with the Saudis, Russia, China and Cuba were elected and will undoubtedly help the Saudis blunt the constant US criticism of the Wahabist treatment of…well…everyone?

So now we’ll have Russian and Iranians almost completing an encirclement of a large chunk US oil supplies in the Gulf (not to mention our CENTCOM’s forward headquarters in Qatar and operational theater in the Arabian peninsula) and I’ll look soon for Russia to start making moves into US sub-Saharan oil sources. Geez, POtuS, your actions in helping the US get its ass kicked out of the Mideast seems to be the long way round to force the US into a green energy mode.

There’s another thing bothering me – back in the Bush II era the Iranians were trying to establish an oil bourse that would replace the US dollar as the standard for oil prices. It didn’t really get anywhere until 2011 (Obama era) when it opened on Kish Island. They value oil there in a market basket of currencies other than the US dollar, and where it hasn’t replaced the US Mercantile Exchange hopes are that it will dent the hell out of it in the near future. Iran has also called for the creation of the Petrochemical Exporting Countries Forum, which would include Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE. Qatar, Turkey and – here it comes – Russia. The idea seems to be to replace the US as the main player in the world’s oil trade, lock up the Mideast’s oil in an Iranian led cartel and make the US dance to their song. The turning point seems to be Russia’s playing in the game – it not only has huge oil and gas reverses itself but the military power to back up Iran’s play. Perfect payback for the US’s active work in destroying the USSR. This not only gets the other Mideast oil suppliers to play ball with the Iranians, does it without a direct military threat to them and sweetens the pot by giving them a locally controlled bourse that will be able to call its own prices. In the meantime the West cannot get oil out of the Gulf without having to pass Russian checkpoints in the northern Red Sea and eastern Med or an Iranian chokepoint at the throat of the Gulf – our oil supply’s surrounded.

In the eastern Med the Russians, with the Syrian’s and Egyptian’s help, will control traffic there and neutralize Turkey by having yet more Gulf and Russian petro transfer lines going through it. Europe’s in the bag as most of the product in those lines will be going to the EU, routed through – Syria and Turkey. So here we are, possibly looking at the Forces of Darkness sitting on top of a majority of the West’s oil supply and not a lot we can do about it as our ‘friends’ now see more of a benefit in not being out friends. If I’m right the POtuS in just under five years may have undone over 60 years of US work in the Mideast, out capitalisted by an ex-communist. I do hope I’m wrong.

Source: http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/11/13/wed nesday-open-thread-november-13th/

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Posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2013 - 11:41 am:

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John Kerry and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week in Diplomacy
David Gerstman Tuesday, November 12, 2013

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/11/john-kerry-an d-the-horrible-no-good-very-bad-week-in-diplomacy/

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