News of the Week for September 21st<\/sup>, 2014<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick\u2019s (Arizona-01) campaign float spurns American flag for Mexican one.<\/a> Democrats Sound the Alarm on Southern California Race<\/a> Democrats in Michigan and Georgia Engage in Elaborate Scheme to Steal the Election<\/a> 93% of Democratic Senate or Governor Candidates Are White<\/a> Cuomo wins Democratic primary<\/a> The breakout star of the 2014 primaries is not a candidate<\/a> GOP Candidate Takes 10-Point Lead in Colorado Governor\u2019s Race <\/a> Kansas \u201cIndependent\u201d Comes Out of the Closet as a Democrat<\/a> Democrats may face 2nd fight in Kansas Senate race<\/a> \u2018CATALIST\u2019: Obama\u2019s Database for Fundamentally Transforming America<\/a> The Kansas Supreme Court gives Democrats what they want\u2014but the fight may not be over <\/a> Quinnipiac Downgrades Udall To Toast In Colorado.<\/a> Maine Democratic gubernatorial candidate promotes video with sexual remark about Sen. Susan Collins<\/a> At GOP convention, Swearengin says she’s undecided on Kashkari <\/a> Watch Greg Abbott lay a SMACKDOWN on Wendy Davis\u2019 failed talking point in tonight\u2019s Debate<\/a> Wisconsin Dem Candidate For Gov. Caught Plagiarizing -Throws Consultant Under Bus <\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Inspector general “softened” report on VA deaths<\/a> Koskinen: \u2018Hard Drive Crashes Continue As We Speak\u2019<\/a> <\/p>\n Obama administration forcing new gun buyers to declare race, ethnicity<\/a> The dishonesty of assault weapon laws<\/a> <\/p>\n Antarctic Sea Ice Reaches Record Levels, Scientists Blame Extra Ice on Warming (Of Course) <\/a> University Fire: Environmental Scientists Make Shock Discovery that Eco-Friendly Wood Is Combustible<\/a> People’s March, People’s Republic <\/a> Climate Science Is Not Settled<\/a> <\/p>\n Obama Threatens to Veto Bill Letting People Keep Their Health Insurance<\/a> Socialized medicine and passive-aggressive genocide<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Report: ISIS used chemical weapons in assault on Iraqi Security Forces<\/a> 14 IS militants killed as their rocket explodes <\/a> Morale: The U.S. Navy Is Fading Away<\/a> <\/p>\n NY Time: Maybe it\u2019s time to put lithium in the water supply<\/a> Jeff Sessions vs. Facebook Escalates: Board Member Calls Senator \u2018Clinically Insane\u2019 <\/a> Allah and Ali at Yale<\/a> Democratic State Senator Sentenced for Perjury, Voter Fraud<\/a> ESPN Commentator Calls for \u201cReprogramming\u201d Men<\/a> Co-opting Regulation for Profit <\/a> Officer in Daniele Watts handcuff incident was responding to a call<\/a> Teacher group: Math is \u2018the domain of old, white men\u2019<\/a> Then they came for the squeaky fresh cheese curds<\/a> Border Bridge Protest Organizers to Militia: You’re Not Welcome<\/a> Study Suggests Hollywood Is Not So Gay-Friendly<\/a> America\u2019s Most Infamous Drunk Driving DA Sets Up to Persecute Another Republican<\/a> Women Force Tenants out of Apartment at Gunpoint: ‘Tired of White People Moving In’<\/a> Five Mind-Blowing Ways Cosmopolitan Will Push Policies That Harm Women<\/a> #NotYourShield Video Shows All The Different Faces Behind #GamerGate<\/a> Is Everybody Single? More Than Half the U.S. Now, Up From 37% in ’76<\/a> FBI\u2019s facial recognition system will combine faces of criminals and ordinary citizens <\/a> Ninth Circuit Guts Student Free Speech, Upholds \u2018Heckler\u2019s Veto\u2019 of the American Flag <\/a> Photos, Witness Testimony Should End Django Unchained Actress\u2019 Race Card Claims<\/a> After 9 Months, Federal Probe of GWB Closure Finds No Link to Christie, Federal Sources Say<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Newsboy.jpg\" "\\"News")
<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n\n
<\/a>Election 2014<\/h1>\n
\nCome, I will conceal nothing from you: being of sound Boston Irish Catholic stock, I am quite familiar with the idea that a politician might think it prudent to use more than the American flag in a campaign display. Is it pandering? Of course it\u2019s pandering: but it\u2019s not pernicious. Fly an Irish flag at a St. Patrick\u2019s Day parade, have an Italian one at the few places that still dare do Columbus Day festivals; even wave a Mexican flag at the nascent Cinco de Mayo celebrations that this culture is adopting. This is an established practice.<\/p>\n
\nDemocrats are sending warning signals on a previously sleepy southern California House race \u2014 a tangible sign of an increasingly tough midterm for the party.<\/p>\n
\nThe House Minority Leader in the Georgia State House, Stacy Abrams, leads an organization now being investigated for fraudulent voter registration applications. WSB television in Atlanta broke the story last night. The group, New Georgia Project, is a subsidiary of Third Sector Development run by Stacy Abrams. Abrams also has direct ties to the Democrats\u2019 Senate candidate, Michelle Nunn, and their gubernatorial candidate, Jason Carter.<\/p>\n
\nNot So Diverse<\/p>\n
\nGov. Andrew Cuomo won his Democratic primary fight Tuesday \u2014 but not without getting bruised by little-known leftist insurgent Zephyr Teachout\u2019s surprisingly strong showing.<\/p>\n
\nDuring the 2014 primary elections, a ragtag group of unknowns took on the Goliaths and won. And no, I\u2019m not talking about the Tea Party versus Establishment fight in the Republican Party.<\/p>\n
\nNational media types have gone into overdrive to focus on the Kansas governor\u2019s race where GOP incumbent Sam Brownback is struggling to win re-election after enacting a conservative agenda. But Brownback is within the margin of error in recent polls. That might not be the case about another governor in a larger state who is trouble for enacting a liberal agenda. The latest Quinnipiac University Poll finds Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper trailing his opponent, former GOP congressman Bob Beauprez, by 10 points.<\/p>\n
\nYou are probably generally aware of the situation in Kansas, where long-time (and not very inspiring) Senator Pat Roberts survived a primary challenge by insurgent Milton Wolf, but was badly weakened for the primary election. The Democrats shrewdly talked their endorsed candidate out of the race, and instead are coalescing behind \u201cindependent\u201d candidate Greg Orman. Kansas voters surely would not elect Orman if they knew that doing so would keep Harry Reid in place as Majority Leader, but Orman\u2019s \u201cindependent\u201d stance is confusing quite a few Kansans.<\/p>\n
\nThe Republican serving as Kansas\u2019 top elections official won\u2019t give up on forcing Democrats to field a U.S. Senate candidate even if the state Supreme Court orders the current nominee to be removed from the ballot, in a dispute that could affect which party controls the Senate.<\/p>\n
\nThe Democrats and the institutional left have a new political tool that allows them virtually to ignore moderates yet still win elections.<\/p>\n
\nLate yesterday, the Kansas supreme court granted the writ of mandamus filed by former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Chad Taylor and ordered Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach to remove Taylor\u2019s name from the November ballot. But the controversy may not yet be over because of another writ filed by a Democratic voter.<\/p>\n
\nGardner Has Done Things Other GOP Candidates Haven’t<\/p>\n
\nThe Maine GOP is in a tizzy over a video promoted by Rep. Michael Michaud, the Democratic candidate for governor, which included a crude lyric referring to Republican Sen. Susan Collins.<\/p>\n
\nThe state Republican Party\u2019s fall convention opened on a sour note Friday when the night\u2019s keynote speaker acknowledged she might vote to reelect Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.<\/p>\n
\nWendy \u201cAbortion Barbie\u201d Davis really tried to get at Greg Abbott with a robotic talking point about Texan education of children, but it was the perfect set up for Abbott to embarrass her with her own voting record. She responded by whining incoherently and had to be quieted by one of the moderators.<\/p>\n
\nWisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke, who is running on a jobs platform was found to plagiarize significant portions of her jobs plan from old proposals published by three Democratic candidates who ran for governor in other states. Today she fired the consultant who she blames for copying the plan–which is either a demonstration that she has a “dumping the subordinate under the bus” management style or it is an admission she knew very little about her primary campaign promise.<\/p>\n<\/a>Obama Scandals<\/h1>\n
\nExpect a showdown Wednesday over the Department of Veterans Affairs health scandal on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n
\nInternal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner John Koskinen testified Wednesday that the IRS did not save any of the information on Lois Lerner\u2019s destroyed Blackberry and that there is no outside system to store agency emails.<\/p>\n<\/a>Gun Rights<\/h1>\n
\nThe Obama administration quietly has been forcing new gun buyers to declare their race and ethnicity, a policy change that critics say provides little law enforcement value while creating the risk of privacy intrusions and racial profiling.<\/p>\n
\nLast week an op-ed from left wing \u201cinvestigative jounalism\u201d non-profit, ProPublica appeared in the New York Times. Surprisingly, it laid out the fraudulent nature of the legal attacks on \u201cassault weapons\u201d and showed the actual damage it is doing to the reduction of attacks committed with the use of firearms.<\/p>\n<\/a>Hide the Decline<\/h1>\n
Environment &
\n“Green Energy”<\/h2>\n
\nAccording to scientists from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) there is more sea ice surrounding Antarctica than at any other time since scientists began keeping records.<\/p>\n
\nEnvironmental scientists at the University of Nottingham have made a shocking and expensive discovery: eco-friendly buildings made of “sustainable” wood burn much more easily than eco-unfriendly ones made of stone, concrete, steel or glass.<\/p>\n
\nThe streets of Manhattan are teeming with hippie filth this afternoon as the People\u2019s Climate March (and Rally Against Personal Hygiene on General Principles) rolls through town like an addled occupation force. One particularly loopy-looking couple of well-seasoned veterans of the protest circuit, little signs reading \u201cDivest from Fossil Fuels\u201d pinned to their shirts, were desperately trying to hail a taxi. New York City taxis, as everybody knows, run on magic. I offered them a ride in my invisible solar-powered unicorn chariot; they did not take me up on it. I assume Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Gore shared a unicycle to get here.<\/p>\n
\nWe are very far from the knowledge needed to make good climate policy, writes leading scientist Steven E. Koonin<\/p>\n<\/a>Obamacare<\/h1>\n
Government in Healthcare<\/h2>\n
\nPresident Obama issued a veto threat against a House bill designed to allow people to keep health insurance plans otherwise unavailable due to Obamacare regulations.<\/p>\n
\nLong ago in China, a boy coming home from school met up with his father, who was carrying on his back a basket holding the boy\u2019s grandfather.<\/p>\n<\/a>War & Terror<\/h1>\n
\nThere are reports coming out of Iraq that ISIS has used chemical weapons in an assault on Iraqi forces north of Baghdad.<\/p>\n
\nAt least 14 members of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group were killed Tuesday near Baghdad when a rocket whose warhead they were filling with chlorine gas exploded.<\/p>\n
\nThe U.S. Navy recently ran an opinion survey which confirmed that morale was low and getting worse, with a growing number of experienced sailors eager to get out of the navy.<\/p>\n<\/a>National<\/h1>\n
\nTrying to make sense of their results, the authors of the Japanese study speculated that lithium exposure, even in these tiny amounts, might actually be neuroprotective or even enhance the growth of neurons. Other studies have supported their speculation; lithium appears to promote the health, growth and resilience of neurons, reducing stress-induced damage.<\/p>\n
\nSenator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) isn\u2019t getting any \u201clikes\u201d from Facebook anytime soon.<\/p>\n
\nThe William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale is hosting Ayaan Hirsi Ali to speak on campus today. Her appearance has provoked the Yale Muslim Students Association to issue a letter in protest with 35 co-signers<\/p>\n
\nDemocratic California state senator Roderick Wright was convicted Friday on eight felony counts including perjury and voter fraud and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.<\/p>\n
\nProgressives were able to impose their sick ideology on a previously healthy society by making a long march through the institutions so as to capture the cultural high ground. They infiltrated the influential pillars of the establishment and eventually took them over, driving out most everyone who would resist their agenda. It happened to the news media, to Hollywood, to education, to the federal bureaucracy. Given that so many focus their attention obsessively on sports, it is unsurprising that progressives have strategically taken over the sports media too.<\/p>\n
\nRegulations often increase monopoly power. Indeed, increasing monopoly power is often why regulations are enacted. In other cases, however, ostensibly neutral regulations are co-opted by entrepreneurs who spot an opportunity to leverage the regulation for profit. Derek Lowe points us to an interesting case of the latter involving drug pricing and the FDA. <\/p>\n
\nYesterday we brought up the story of actress Daniele Watts who was briefly handcuffed by police when she refused to show her ID during questioning. That generated a lot of discussion among our readers (a discussion which was still going on well into the afternoon today) but there are updates which bring a little more clarity to the story. This will include a video and an interview with Watts and her boyfriend. What may be of the most interest here is not what is said, but what is not said.<\/p>\n
\nAccording to a Teach for America website, culturally responsive teaching in math is important because \u201cmath has traditionally been seen as the domain of old, White men.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nBecause people remained silent when they came for the Roquefort<\/p>\n
\nThe organizer of this weekend\u2019s planned protest to shut down international ports of entry have a message to militia groups \u2013 You are not welcome. This statement came in response to a Breitbart Texas article about police agency preparations for the protest planned for the weekend.<\/p>\n
\nA survey of 5,700 SAG-AFTRA members has found that over half of lesbian, gay and bisexual performers \u201chave heard directors and producers make anti-gay comments about actors\u201d and that \u201c53% of LGBT respondents believed that directors and producers are biased against LGBT performers.\u201d The study (read it here), conducted by UCLA\u2019s LGBT think tank Williams Institute and funded by the SAG-Producers Industry Advancement and Cooperative Fund, will be formally presented tonight during simultaneous guild town hall meetings in LA and NY.<\/p>\n
\nUniversity of Texas Regent Wallace Hall is a hero. He ought to be given a medal and there ought to be a parade through downtown Austin in his honor.<\/p>\n
\nTwo New York women were arrested Monday after allegedly forcing the dwellers of a Brooklyn apartment to flee their home at gunpoint. The attack was apparently racially motivated, as police claim one woman said she was tired of white people moving into her neighborhood. <\/p>\n
\nCosmopolitan Magazine will be telling women they can\u2019t get paid, get laid, or use contraception without a politician\u2019s blessing.<\/p>\n
\nMainstream media may be pointing a very biased view on #GamerGate and the people involved in it, but gamers from all over the world have come together in a mixing pot of inclusion, acceptance and a fight against the corruption currently plaguing games media. They did so with a video called \u201cWe Are Gamers\u201d. <\/p>\n
\nSingle Americans make up more than half of the adult population for the first time since the government began compiling such statistics in 1976. <\/p>\n
\nTHE FBI has launched its \u201cnext generation\u201d facial recognition system \u2014 and the implications are terrifying.<\/p>\n
\nThis morning the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined a request for an en banc hearing in a case holding that school officials could censor students who peacefully wore American flag clothing because those students were violently threatened by anti-American classmates. In other words, the court upheld a classic \u201checkler\u2019s veto,\u201d and in so doing empowered violent bullies and undermined decades of free-speech jurisprudence.<\/p>\n
\nWatts initially claimed that police arrested her for kissing her white boyfriend, Brian James Lucas, in public. But then a tape of her confrontation with police came out \u2014 and it\u2019s Watts who plays the race card, even saying that as a black actress she \u201craises awareness\u201d of race issues.<\/p>\n
\nThe U.S. Justice Department investigation into New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie\u2019s role in \u201cBridgegate\u201d has thus far uncovered no information he either knew in advance or directed the closure of traffic lanes on the George Washington Bridge, federal officials tell NBC 4 New York.<\/p>\n