The 'Thug Culture' has claimed another victim

The family of the victim, 88-year old WW2 veteran 

Delbert "Shorty" Belton, hopes this will go viral so this 'thug' can be brought to justice.

Economic Ignorance OR Marxist Bona Fides?

Fritz Pfister / Townhall Finance Columnist

Friday, President Obama said Republicans are spending too much time trying to repeal Obamacare. That won’t create jobs, that won’t help the middle class, and that won’t build ladders to the middle class.

Pure socialist rhetoric when we know businesses by the thousands have laid off full time employees, cut full to part time, and most announced new hires will be part time only ALL due to Obamacare mandates.

We also know about the jobs created since Obamacare passed in 2010, 7 of 8 jobs have been part time. Incomes are down 4.4% since the end of the recession.

This has resulted in the worst economic recovery in history. We are in the midst of the longest stretch of sub 3% GDP growth since 1929.

Health insurance costs have increased 29% since Obama became president, food costs are up 30%, gas has doubled, and electricity rates have risen faster than inflation every year since 2009.

Fewer jobs, fewer hours, lower wages, and skyrocketing costs of living. 76% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and a record 16.1% are living in poverty.

Although the BLS says the unemployment rate for August was 7.4%/14.7% underemployed, Gallup polling indicates it is much higher at 8.9%/17.9% underemployed with an astounding 8,332,000 workers no longer counted.

Any reasonable person would understand this economy is an abject disaster for the working family, middle class, and the nation.

The reason we have this disaster is due precisely to the Marxist Obamacare law. For the president to say the Republicans are wasting time and it won’t create jobs or opportunity to repeal Obamacare is an insult to any thinking American.

President Obama is either economically ignorant or a dedicated Marxist intent on a government takeover of health care to fully implement the fundamental transformation of America into a socialist welfare state.

Which is it President Obama?

India-Pakistan Border Heats Up

Night Watch / Townhall Columnist

North Korea-South Korea: North Korean authorities have agreed to hold talks on separated family reunions at the truce village of Panmunjom, as required by South Korea.

Comment: Pyongyang had proposedthat the Mount Kumgang resort be the venue for negotiating reunions and the resumption of tours from South Korea. The South preferred that the two sets of negotiations be separate. The North's prompt acceptance of the South's position reinforces the judgment that the Pyongyang regime needs the cash flow. In any event, the North's charm offensive continues, despite Allied training in the South.

That is unusual and is tonight's good news.

Kaesong. South Korean authorities provided a progress report on resuming operations at the Kaesong industrial zone. According to the Unification Ministry on 22 August, 253 staff members from companies in thezone visited Kaesong to check on facilities with the aim of preparing them for operations, rather than for preservation.

Comment: The press statement indicates that the42 hi-tech and machinery firms thatarein the zonewere the focus of today's visit. On the 23d inspection of textile firms will take place. On the 26^th, repairs to manufacturing equipment will commence.Production is expected to resume by the end of September.

India-Pakistan: Update. The Pakistan Army said unprovoked Indian fire from across the Line of Control killed two of Pakistani soldiers on 22 August.

A Pakistani security official said one soldier was killed in the Poonch District, which is about 80 miles east of Islamabad. The second death occurred south of Poonch. Two Pakistani soldiers also were wounded.

India said its forces came under automatic weapons fire in roughly the same area in the evening and reported "effective retaliation" by its own soldiers, but made no mention of casualties.

Comment: Pakistan denies that it is provoking India, but its soldiers are getting killed and Pakistan Army units are not retaliating against India, which would be the normal counter-reaction. Pakistan claims it is exercising maximum restraint.

Both sides have based major conventional forces along the Line of Control for so long that almost every potential target has been registered for artillery fire for years. Both sides maintain careful watch of unusual activity and movements and know the range of each other's guns. Commanders understand the risks of movements and fire exchanges, which appear to be fairly commonplace and harmless. 

That has changed for now.

The ambush and killing of five Indian Army soldiers in Indian Kashmir on 6 August are driving India's hard-line response to firing incidents from the Pakistani side of the Line. India blames the deaths on Pakistan Army soldiers as well as Pakistan-backed militants. Since the 6th India has engaged in asymmetrical retaliation for any incidents, using artillery to respond to machinegun fire, for example.

If these incidents continue, India will authorize more aggressive and prolonged attacks, not as retaliation but as deterrence. Escalation to a significant sectoral firefight will remain a threat Pakistan provides India a satisfactory report about the deaths on the 6^th. In such firefights in the past, India has on occasion used attack helicopters to reinforce artillery to destroy bunkers and other targets on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control. This situation shows signs of moving towards such a firefight.

Egyptian bishop: Christians running out of food, but "afraid to come out of their homes" for fear of Muslim Brotherhood attacks

From Jihad Watch / Posted by Robert Spencer

“I would like to help Christians but I can’t because I myself am confined to my home.”

"Egyptian bishop: Christians live in fear as attacks continue," from CNA, August 21 (thanks to Benedict):

Luxor, Egypt, Aug 21, 2013 / 12:09 pm (CNA).- Bishop Joannes Zakaria of Luxor, Egypt, said that Christians in his country are running out of food, but are “afraid to come out of their homes” for fear of attacks by the Muslim Brotherhood. 

In statements to the Fides News Agency, Bishop Zakaria explained that even those who have money cannot buy food because stores are closed.

“I would like to help Christians but I can’t because I myself am confined to my home,” he said.

Bishop Zakaria said that he was the victim of an Aug. 16 attack by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Fortunately police arrived on the scene in time to protect him, and two armored cars are now parked out front to shield his home.

However, the region is experiencing great unrest, with numerous Christian homes burned to the ground as the Muslim Brotherhood calls for “death to Christians,” he said.

“Because of security we canceled the celebrations of the Assumption, which we commemorate on August 22, not August 15,” the bishop explained.

“Everyone is at home, and I myself have been at the bishop’s residence for 20 days now. Security officers have advised me not to leave.”

Bishop Zakaria said he thinks that the Muslim Brotherhood’s campaign against Christians for last month’s ousting of Egyptian President Morsi “is senseless.”

“It is true that Christians took part in some demonstrations against him, but there were 30 million Egyptians, most of whom were Muslim, who protested against the deposed president,” he observed, voicing fears that “by attacking Christians they want to send Egypt into chaos.”

“I make Pope Francis’ call for prayers for peace in Egypt my own,” the bishop said.

“Only with dialogue and mutual respect can we get out of this dramatic situation.”...

Did The IRS Kill Obamacare?

by Bob Livingston 

PHOTOS.COM

Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution ascribes to Congress the sole “Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises” on the American people. Somebody at the Internal Revenue Service didn’t get the memo.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the deathcare trap we call Obamacare), legislation allows States to choose whether they want to set up State-run health insurance exchanges. Twenty-six States declined, prompting the Federal government to move to set up exchanges in their place.

Under the State exchanges, States are able to fine employers under the employer-mandate penalty. Those fines are then given back to employees in the form of subsidies to purchase healthcare insurance through the State-run exchange.

As the law was written, the employer-mandate penalty did not apply under Federal exchanges. But the IRS, at President Barack Obama’s direction, decided the penalty had to apply to Federal exchanges as well. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed suit last year challenging the IRS on the rule change.

Essentially, Pruitt believes the employer mandate penalty does not apply under a Federal-run exchange, and the State’s policy decision not to set up an exchange should protect employers from the penalty. Pruitt is alleging that the IRS is violating the Administrative Procedures Act, which prevents an agency from exercising powers it doesn’t have. He claims the IRS has altered the effect of the law through regulation and implementation.

Last week, a Federal judge in Oklahoma ruled that the State had the legal standing to sue the Federal government over the employer mandate. The case will now make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it should be struck down as unConstitutional.

But if SCOTUS just rules the IRS actions illegal, Obamacare will be left in a bigger pile of debris than it currently is. Without the penalties on employers, the exchanges will be bereft of money.

Op-ed:

Fast track Hasan to his 72 virgins and be done with it 

By: Diane Sori

Justice of sorts comes four years later yet justice has NOT been fully served for the Purple Hearts that should rightly be given to the victims and survivors of the Fort Hood Massacre are still being denied them, because Barack HUSSEIN Obama continues to say that the carnage of that day is NOTHING but ‘workplace violence’.

And so after numerous trial delays, finally yesterday, fourteen months after the first scheduled trial start date, the self-proclaimed ‘soldier of allah’...Army Major Nidal Hasan...has been found guilty by a 13-member panel of high-ranking officers who voted unanimously to convict him on all 45 charges levied against him…13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted pre-meditated murder…for the November 5, 2009 shooting spree…slaughter is more like it…at the Fort Hood (Texas) military base. And with this ‘guilty on all charges’ verdict, Hasan might now very well be the first person the US military puts to death in more than 50 years, for as the trial now enters the penalty phase, prosecutors are likely to ask that this barbarian be put to death by lethal injection.

The other possible option on the table is life in prison with NO possibility of parole for the 42-year old Hasan, who is in a wheelchair and paralyzed from the waist down…shot by the military police who arrived at the scene of the massacre.

Death…IMMEDIATE death…NOT  allowing him to live for years as he goes through appeal after appeal…is the option of choice for why should we taxpayers have to foot the bill for this piece of human garbage who would get to live his life...albeit it a 5' by 9 cell'...while the victims do NOT even get the Purple Hearts that should be rightfully theirs.

But sadly, like those in our civilian prison system who languish on death row for decades (our military last carried out an execution in 1961, when Army Pvt. John A. Bennett was convicted of the 1955 rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old Austrian girl), I can promise that some liberal military lawyers will manage to mire down the soon to be adjudicated sentence in appeal after appeal to stretch a death sentence out to as many years of life as possible for this man who is a traitor to uniform he once wore.

And so this Virginia born, self-radicalized muslim serving as an Army psychiatrist, who against legal advice acted as his own attorney and used a ‘defense of others’ argument, claimed the killings inside Building 42003…where soldiers were getting their final medical clearance before being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan…were justified because he was protected islamic and Taliban leaders from those soon to be deployed troops (which included his own pending deployment to Afghanistan), and also that he was protecting them from US forces currently in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And yet this attack did NOT have to happen for there were signs that Hasan was NOT loyal to America but these signs were overlooked by the military for the sake of political correctness (NOT really their fault as they have been infiltrated from within) and to NOT appear as racial profilers…. heaven forbid anyone step on the muslim barbarian’s toes.

Warning signs including that Hasan had many communications with now dead al-Qaeda terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki, the ‘spiritual advisor’ to some of the hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks, but it was decided these communications were NOT important because NO specific threats of violence or terrorist plots were mentioned.

In addition, Hasan had made statements that muslims should NOT have to be in the military and go overseas to fight against other muslims in the ‘War on Terror’. Hasan also complained to any that would listen about his upcoming deployment, because he did NOT feel ‘comfortable’ going overseas to fight fellow muslims.

Guess what...I really don’t give a damn about Hasan’s comfort level…what I care about is that besides the outrage over the victims NOT receiving the Purple Heart, I am absolutely fuming that while the survivors are fighting to get their way overdue military benefits (and some of the survivors and victim’s family members are suing the government over missing the warning signs of Hasan’s views before the attack) this bast*rd has been collecting his military pay…pay now worth over $300,000…that is until yesterday when a verdict was reached, because according to military law Hasan had the right to remain on the military payroll until proven guilty.

That’s one law that needs a revisit for sure.

And even with the as expected guilty verdict reached, the fact remains unchanged that the continued refusal of both the Army and the Obama administration to re-classify this shooting as either a terrorist attack or combat related (which would automatically allow the wounded to receive Purple Hearts and combat-related benefits, especially the much needed medical benefits), shows this verdict to be NOTHING but a hollow victory.

And that adds salt into the wounds of those whose lives are forever changed.