Tuesday, March 11, 2014

The Lurking Peril of Ignorance

THE DRYER REPORT  "On this the day that 68 years ago Churchill first proclaimed and coined the phrase “Iron Curtain”…we can see today the prophetic words he spoke that day.  Churchill warned ….
 
From what I have seen of our Russian friends and allies during the war, I am convinced that there is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness, especially military weakness. For that reason the old doctrine of a balance of power is unsound. We cannot afford, if we can help it, to work on narrow margins, offering temptations to a trial of strength. Last time I saw it all coming and I cried aloud to my own fellow countrymen and to the world, but no one paid any attention. Up till the year 1933 or even 1935, Germany might have been saved from the awful fate which has overtaken her and we might all have been spared the miseries Hitler let loose upon mankind. There never was a war in history easier to prevent by timely action than the one which has just desolated such great areas of the globe. It could have been prevented, in my belief, without the firing of a single shot, and Germany might be powerful, prosperous and honored today; but no one would listen and one by one we were all sucked into the awful whirlpool. We must not let it happen again.
 

Park Service Knew World War II Veterans Would Be Locked Out

"Internal e-mails reveal Interior feared being blamed, bent rules for its own staff."
 
 
"The Department of the Interior knew beforehand that two groups of aging veterans would be visiting the World War II Memorial as the partial government shutdown began on Oct. 1 but decided to barricade the site anyway, according to e-mails obtained by National Review Online.
 
"The newly released public records also show National Park Service employees busily monitoring the news for any bad publicity and making shutdown exceptions for their co-workers."
....
"Tom Buttry, a legislative correspondent in Harkin’s office, wrote on Sept. 30:
While I understand that these memorials have remained accessible to the public during past shutdowns (I’d imagine with the mall being so open, it’d probably [be] more manpower intensive to try to completely close them), I wanted to do my due diligence and make 100 percent sure that people could visit the outdoor memorials on the National Mall in the event of a shutdown.
"The Department of the Interior and National Park Service decided instead to fully shut down the site, e-mails show:"  Full article

The President will protect us from the IRS


"A GOP-led House panel Tuesday released an extensive report that attempts to show former top Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner lied to Congress about her involvement in the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax exempt status.
 
"Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the 141-page report “offers detailed evidence about steps she took to crack down on organizations that exercised their Constitutional rights to free political speech.' ”
Political Cartoons by Glenn Foden

What Else Can the Obama Administration Do to Undermine U.S. Security? Feinstein's bombshell .

Ron Fournier  "They spied on you. They lied to the Senate. They seized telephone records from the Associated Press and considered criminalizing investigative journalism at Fox News. What else can the U.S. intelligence community do to destroy its credibility, curb civil liberties, and ultimately undermine U.S. security?
 "Spy on Congress.
 "Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat bravely challenging a Democratic White House, accused the CIA of searching computer files used by her staffers on the Senate Intelligence Committee to review the CIA's now-defunct interrogation programs, potentially violating:
  • The constitutionally sacred principle of separation of powers, which prohibits one branch of government (say, a runaway executive branch) from strong-arming the other two branches.  
  • The Fourth Amendment, which protects from unreasonable search and seizure.
  • The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Executive Order 12333, which bar domestic surveillance.


"The expanding dispute has opened a rift between the CIA and the Senate committee that oversees it and often has defended it. Already, some CIA officers could face criminal prosecution as a result of a Justice Department investigation of the incident."  More.

Sharyl Attkisson resigns from CBS News


Politico  "Attkisson, who has been with CBS News for two decades, had grown frustrated with what she saw as the network’s liberal bias, an outsize influence by the network’s corporate partners and a lack of dedication to investigative reporting, several sources said. She increasingly felt that her work was no longer supported and that it was a struggle to get her reporting on air.
 
"At the same time, Attkisson’s reporting on the Obama administration, which some staffers characterized as agenda-driven, had led network executives to doubt the impartiality of her reporting." ...
Via Lucianne 

Leftist Racism 101:

Bloviating Zeppelin compares these two stories and comes up with a conclusion about leftist racism.

"MRCTV's Dan Joseph decided to stop by the DNC winter meeting to ask committee members just how much of the opposition to President Obama is racist." 

CNS lists their bona fides:
CNSNews.com is not funded by the government like NPR.
 CNSNews.com is not funded by the government like PBS.
 
"For years, the Federal Communications Commission has allowed TV stations to execute joint operating agreements allowing themselves to outsource tasks such as advertising sales to group owners with more resources.
 
"But when conservative columnist and entrepreneur Armstrong Williams recently purchased two stations, making him one of America’s few black owners of local TV affiliates, the commission unexpectedly decided to use his acquisition as a test case to review the practice." Video at the link.
 
Juan Williams writes about this in the Wall Street Journal: The Feds Target a Black TV Station Owner 
"How many black people own a broadcast television station in the United States? The answer is one: Armstrong Williams. I know this because he's a friend.
 
"So imagine my surprise when I heard that the Federal Communications Commission is currently considering pulling the financial rug from under him by changing its regulations to—get this—promote diversity."
 
So BZ concludes with this revelation:
 
Now, in brief, what have we learned?

1. That to question Mr Obama, who is black, is racist in nature, and
2. To question a black who is a Conservative is not racist in nature
See?  Aren’t racial issues simpler when you’re a Leftist?
 

Daylight savings time gives us a longer day.

Oliver Stone: filmmaker to the Commies

Oliver Stone: filmmaker to the Commies
 
"Famous foe of imperialism Oliver Stone recently premiered his documentary Mi Amigo Hugo (“My Friend Hugo”) in the Cuban colony of Venezuela. As the title suggests, the film honors Hugo Chavez, Cuba’s late Venezuelan viceroy. ...
“Venezuela today is a country that is practically occupied by the henchmen of two international criminals, Cuba’s Castro brothers,” recently declared Luis Miquilena, who served as Hugo Chavez’ Minister of Justice for three years before finally resigning in disgust. “We are in the hands of a foreign country. This is the darkest period in our history.”
....
"When a few questions strayed from the banal talking points and Castro answered evasively, Stone twinkled that, “his elusiveness is always charming.”
 
" 'Fidel is magnetic and charismatic,” Stone concluded. “He is a movie star.”
 
More on this: