It’s Monday, August 18th, 2014…but before we begin, two brief items which caught our eye over the weekend:
“I saw him talk to two women in white shirts, who looked at me and then shook their heads,” he told NJ.com. “And then the man grabbed my arm and asked me to leave. I told them that it’s not offensive, that it’s a military shirt and that it means nothing. But they said: ‘I don’t care, get out of the park.’”
“Politically active liberal Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook is now blocking Republican candidates from his social media website Facebook in the GOP’s bid to retake control of the U.S. Senate in November. Facebook deleted late Monday night an “Event” this author created to ask for donations to Kevin Wade, running for U.S. Senate as a Republican in Delaware from his 4,937 Facebook friends.
…Breitbart warned on June 3 that Mark Zuckerberg was likely to manipulate Facebook to influence tight elections in 2014 in favor of pro-amnesty, mostly Democrat candidates. In the New Republic, Facebook co-founder and former Obama campaign operative Chris Hughes revealed that Facebook actually manipulated voter turn-out in the 2010 elections, increasing targeted voter turn-out by 400,000 votes. That technique centered on influencing Facebook users to vote in response to their friends on Facebook having already voted. Harvard law professor and programmer Jonathan Zittrain then explained with Hughes how Mark Zuckerberg can “use what he calls ‘digital gerrymandering’ to actually tip a tight election” by manipulating the massive Facebook audience. That is, by influencing higher turn-out in favorable locations, Facebook can control the outcome of the 2014 elections…”
What’s the point? Believe it or not, like it or not, Americans are at war for the heart and soul of the country. Yet many otherwise right-thinking, Conservative citizens are aiding and abetting the enemy. We do it in the movies we see (with very few exceptions, the product of pretty much any Hollywood studio, let alone starring Jane Fonda!), cable television we watch (can you spell “H-B-O”?), newspapers we read (USA Today, NY Times, WaPo, ad nauseum), the businesses we frequent (Costco comes to mind) and the products we buy (anything General Electric). Case in point:
Boycott Travel Lodge. Businesses like Facebook and Six Flags, who by their actions stand in opposition to the values of the Founding Fathers, could not enjoy the profitability they do without the support of Conservatives. Which is why we urge you to join us in boycotting any business, any service, any professional, be they lawyer, engineer, dentist or doctor, who doesn’t share a commitment to the Constitution…as written. This isn’t to condone in any way, shape or form discrimination, harassment, hatred or abuse of any kind. Indeed, what we’re supporting needs no public pronouncement of any kind; it’s more in the way of a shunning. Think about it: why on earth would or should we want to provide funds to those voting to dismantle the Republic when there are others far more deserving of our support?!? As for Liberals with who we’re personally acquainted (particularly those around who we cannot discuss politics), we’ve far more friends than we’ve time to see half as much as we’d like, so forgive us if we’ve better things to do than waste a minute with you. Please feel free to give us your thoughts in the comments section. Now, here’s The Gouge! First up, writing at the WSJ, Brendan O’Neill believes folks in the U.K. dislike Jews as much as anyone, but…
“…Alone among the states of the world, Israel is treated as perversely infanticidal, awesomely powerful and terrifyingly destabilizing. Thus are ancient prejudices updated and transferred from an apparently problematic people to an apparently uniquely barbarous state, so that it is now increasingly difficult to tell where anti-Semitism ends and anti-Zionism begins. Britain hasn’t escaped the anti-Semitism sweeping Europe—the British have merely found new and subtler ways of expressing it.“
Such attitudes continue to amaze us, particularly in view of the actual facts as detailed by Noah Beck:
“…As of August 9, Israel’s military has attacked about 5,000 targets in Gaza (4,762 during the first 29 days of Operation Protective Edge and a few hundred since) resulting in 1,915 deaths (according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health). Even if this total were accurate and represented entirely civilian deaths, the strike-to-kill ratio absurdly implies that Israel’s military needs about 2.5 attacks to kill one person. But if Israel’s goal were just to kill Gazans, it could kill well over 1,915 with a single airstrike. Why spend so much on intelligence-gathering and precision-guided bombs (or force Israeli citizens to endure so many costly weeks of war) when the IDF could raze half of Gaza in an hour? The fact that the IDF has struck so many times with so few casualties shows the extent of its restraint and precision while destroying the terrorist infrastructure threatening Israelis.
Israel has made extraordinary efforts to minimize civilian casualties – despite Hamas’s plan to maximize them. Israel aborts airstrikes that will result in excessive civilian casualties, warns civilians to clear areas that will be targeted, and loses ground troops in densely populated areas like Shejaiya to avoid airstrikes that would kill far more Gaza civilians. Israel chose not to target Gaza City’s main Shifa Hospital, even though it knew that Hamas leaders were cynically hiding there, and an airstrike could have substantially harmed Hamas’ military leadership…“
Those who fail to grasp this reality are either (1) ignorant of the nature of the warfare in which Hamas and Israel are engaged, (2) woefully uniformed, (3) selling some political agenda, or (4) all of the above. For those still a little fuzzy on the reality regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, we offer this helpful primer, courtesy of Bill Whittle:
Moving on, we continue our coverage of the Ferguson Fiasco with this opinion piece from Red State‘s Erick Erickson, who asks…
“The facts that seem undisputed — and in these situations that is so rare — are that an unarmed 18-year-old named Michael Brown was walking in a street; an altercation occurred with a police officer; the officer gave chase to Mr. Brown after the scuffle and shot Mr. Brown at least once in the back, approximately 20 feet from where the scuffle occurred.
…Conservatives have long lamented the buildup of armaments and stockpiling of bullets by the Department of Homeland Security. The media has mostly treated these conservative concerns with derision. Suddenly, last week, when reporters were detained by the police in Ferguson, Missouri, the media had to pay attention to the militarization of the police and overkill by local police forces.
Given what happened in Ferguson, the community had every right to be angry. The police bungled their handling of the matter, became very defensive and behaved more like a paramilitary unit than a police force. Property damage and violence by the citizenry cannot be excused, but (UGH!) is also the result of a community seeing those who are supposed to protect and serve instead suiting up and playing soldier…“
Except he WASN’T shot in the back! And sorry, no “ifs”, “ands” or “buts“; we’re either a nation of laws or we doomed to descend into anarchy. Nothing…we repeat, NOTHING…ever…EVER…justifies rioting, looting, arson and random destruction in reaction to anything; particularly when it’s directed at innocent third parties with nothing whatsoever to do with what gave those with a criminal bent in the first place the excuse to engage in such mayhem. Anything else exemplifies the soft bigotry of low expectations. And with all due respect to Erick Erickson, a man we truly do hold in high esteem, actually…it’s already happened:
And to the best we’ve been able to ascertain, not only have charges never been filed against Arnold, he’s sued Orange, TX for reinstatement…and back pay! Surprised you’ve never heard or read about it?!? You shouldn’t be; after all, if The Obamao had a son, he wouldn’t look like James Whitehead. Next, the editors at NRO make a number of points well worth noting:
“…A young man is dead, and a police officer is accused of deadly misconduct. What is needed, to begin with, is a full, fair, transparent, and non-politicized investigation of the shooting. By suppressing not only the identity of the officer in question but practically all of the relevant details of the investigation, and by reversing itself on the matter of releasing information, the police department is doing itself a disservice, and probably making matters worse.
While it is necessary that the police do their job and protect life and property, the sight of men in quasi-military uniforms training sniper scopes across crowds of protesters is an unseemly one. Cops should be peace officers, not combat troops. (Easy to say when you’re not the one exposed to random rocks, molotov cocktails and rifle fire.)
Other unseemly presences include the hearse-chasing representatives of the racial-grievance industry. Al Sharpton, an old hand at inciting riots, is on the scene. As if matters weren’t bad enough, Sharpton et al. probably will find a way to make them worse.
Prudence counsels taking a step back. But prudence rarely prevails in these situations.
The police must maintain the physical security of the city’s people and property. A convenience store may be a modest thing, but that was somebody’s livelihood, as is the Foot Locker, the beauty-supply stores, and other victimized businesses. Ferguson can ill afford the destruction of property and public disorder.
Community leaders with any influence and investment in Ferguson’s future should do what they can to ensure that the protests are peaceful. Hurling accusations is one thing; hurling rocks is another.
The federal government already has poked its snout into the matter, with the Justice Department exploring a possible civil-rights case. There are few situations materially improved by the involvement of Eric Holder…“
Or, for that matter, his boss! As Jonah Goldberg observed:
“…There should be an honest investigation. If the officer unlawfully shot an unarmed man, he should face the consequences. If he didn’t, there should be no (criminal) consequences. How this is a complicated issue intellectually is a mystery to me. How this has become a complicated political problem, sadly, is not.
Consider the following photos and video clips from Ferguson, and then answer the following two questions: 
Ferguson High honor roll students getting a jump on the Back-to-School sales!
In the Missouri remake of It’s A Wonderful Life, George Bailey (played by “Big Mike” Brown) thanks Mr. Gower for the free cigars.
No, Trymaine; the cigars cost more like $50; is this all-but illiterate MSLSD clown reporting…or inciting?
Are we hearing this right, or do all these people have the same mother?!?
Is Whitey the biggest problem faced by the good citizens of Ferguson? And will hiring a few Black police officers make even an iota of difference in their lives?
In a related item, here’s a follow-up on an earlier item detailing the assault on a teenage pro-life demonstrator by an overweight Educated Ethnic Idiotress:
So what if I’ve never experienced the faintest actual impact of slavery; I’m fat, Black, ugly and pregnant! What’re the Constitutional rights of some skinny-ass White girl against THAT?!?
“Supporters of Mireille Miller-Young cite the “cultural legacy of slavery” and even the effects of pregnancy to explain why the feminist studies professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara would accost a teenager spreading a pro-life message on campus.
The pregnant 38-year-old who pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of theft, vandalism and battery after stealing and destroying an anti-abortion poster and injuring a 16-year-old activist (who she outweighed by about 160 lbs.), says she’s sorry for some of her actions and hopes to “makes amends through community service.”
The story of this bovine bully brought these next two video clips to mind; but with a slightly different twist, as shown below:
Just tell me, Bevo: what man would pledge a…woman…like you; let alone impregnate you?!?
Aw, c’mon guys; it’s so simple maybe you need a refresher course. It’s all the latent effects of slavery nowadays!
Turning to the “Your Tax Dollars at Work” segment, Shannon Bream reports a story you won’t catch anywhere but FOX News:
Build It & They Won’t Come
Finally, your federal government has decided to help build the long awaited border fence…in Ukraine. More than $400,000 has been allocated for razor wire to — quote — “defend the newly imposed borders between Ukraine’s mainland and the Crimean Peninsula and to strengthen Ukraine’s eastern border.”
That spending is not sitting well with some. One lawmaker tweeted — quote — “So Obama can give money to Ukraine to build a border fence…but can’t find the money to do that here? #Unacceptable.”
In a related item, courtesy of the WaPo, Captain Obvious finally covers a story inquiring minds have known about for some time:
“…The wheelchair scam was designed to exploit blind spots in Medicare, which often pays insurance claims without checking them first. Criminals disguised themselves as medical-supply companies. They ginned up bogus bills, saying they’d provided expensive wheelchairs to Medicare patients — who, in reality, didn’t need wheelchairs at all. Then the scammers asked Medicare to pay them back, so they could pocket the huge markup that the government paid on each chair.
A lot of the time, Medicare was fooled. (Only because they were willing to be.) The government paid.
Since 1999, Medicare has spent $8.2 billion to procure power wheelchairs and “scooters” for 2.7 million people. Today, the government cannot even guess at how much of that money was paid out to scammers.
…The power-wheelchair scam provided a painful and expensive example of why Medicare fraud works so often. The fault lay partly with Congress, which designed this system to be fast and generous. And it lay partly with Medicare bureaucrats — who were slow to recognize the threat and use the powers they had to stop it. As a result, scammers took advantage of a system that was overwhelmed by its own claims and lacked the manpower and money to check most of those claims before it paid.“
No, the fault lay with a system designed to buy the votes of seniors, paid for with your tax dollars and likely initiated not by scammers, but rather by the manufacturers of the power wheelchairs with generous campaign contributions to the correct members of Congress. Guess the Rascal lobby spent their money… ![image_thumb[8]](http://www.thedailygouge.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/image_thumb8-215x300.png)
…on the wrong side of the aisle! Finally, on the Lighter Side… 
Magoo
![image_thumb[8]](http://www.thedailygouge.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/image_thumb8.png)
Loading ...
You must be logged in to post a comment.