Choosing The Right Lane To Travel

In pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, free markets and individual liberty

Information you can use

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"States, like individuals, who observe their engagements, are respected and trusted: while the reverse is the fate of those who pursue an opposite conduct." --Alexander Hamilton

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Jihadists with rockets by Elliott Abrams

"Even with the fighting in Syria, the hottest crisis spot right now is obviously Gaza. In the last two weeks the number of rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel grew into the hundreds, something no Israeli government could tolerate for long. ... Hamas could have done more to repress the other groups and prevent them from firing into Israel; instead it joined the fray and officially claimed credit for some of the attacks. The Israelis do not seek another ground war in Gaza, but something had to be done. Their air attacks into Gaza in early November were meant to signal Hamas to knock it off, but failed; in the three-day period from Saturday to Monday, November 10-12, more than a hundred rockets were shot into Israel. Israel responded on November 14 with airstrikes that among other things killed the Hamas military leader in Gaza, Ahmed Jabari. ... The Israeli tactic is to make the Hamas leadership pay directly for these terror attacks on Israel rather than to make the population of Gaza pay. Israeli targeting was extremely careful, and by Friday afternoon there had been several hundred strikes by the Israeli Air Force but fewer than two dozen Palestinian deaths -- and very few accidental hits at civilians that Hamas could turn to propaganda advantage. ... Not only will there be Syria, the violence coming from Gaza, a Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt whose commitment to democracy is at best unproved, and an increasing sense of instability in Jordan, but looming over all this will be Iran. ... The next three to six months in the Middle East will make Obama administration officials look back to 2012 with nostalgia as a quiet time when they were able to focus on the campaign. The coming year will be much tougher -- starting now."

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Too many believe that what is, will always be - WCM

"We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lost that war, and in doing so lost this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening. ... If we lost freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth." --Ronald Reagan

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White House Changed CIA Talking Points BY: Bill Gertz

Senior Republican members of Congress confirmed Sunday that the Obama administration changed CIA guidance to senior officials that had identified the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi as an al Qaeda attack.

“The intelligence community had it right, and they had it right early,” said chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.). The CIA “talking points” on Benghazi initially identified the attackers as al Qaeda or al Qaeda-linked terrorists but senior administration officials removed the reference, Rogers said on NBC’s Meet the Press.  Rogers said the talking points were reviewed by a “deputies committee” of senior officials that is “populated by appointees from the administration. That’s where the narrative changed.” Rogers was commenting on closed-door testimony Friday by former CIA Director David Petraeus who revealed the talking points were changed, apparently to play down the terrorist connection. Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.), an intelligence committee member, first disclosed this information shortly after the Petraeus hearing. United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice in five Sunday talk show interviews used the altered talking points that emphasized falsely that the Benghazi attack was a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Muslim video. Vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Saxby Chambliss (R., Ga.) also said on Fox News Sunday that Petraeus said the initial talking points were altered and that senior intelligence and security officials did not know who was behind the changes. “At the hearing we had on Thursday and Friday, we had every leader of the intelligence community there, including folks from the State Department, the FBI, everybody there was asked, do you know who made these changes? And nobody knew,” Chambliss said. “The only entity that reviewed the talking points that was not there was the White House.

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Benghazi Betrayal May be a Cover-Up of American Weapons in Hands of Terrorists
In a scandal looking more and more like Fast and Furious, information is coming out revealing what may be the real reason why the Obama administration refused to provide military support to save Americans in Benghazi. Obama was terrified the public would find out that American weapons had been given to Libyan terrorists, who then used them against Americans in the attack. Glenn Beck reported that Glen Doherty, the former Navy Seal who was killed alongside Ambassador Christopher Stevens, told ABC News that he was looking for weapons in Libya. Middle East expert Barry Rubin has said U.S. intelligence confirms that Ambassador Stevens was in Benghazi to negotiate for the return of an American weapons’ system. Beck suspects that due to the lack of military security around Stevens, he was a CIA operative sent to bring back the wayward weapons, not just a diplomat. The terrorists may have even attacked the embassy in order to seize the American weapons stored there from the rebel-arming program.

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Welcome to America! Here’s Some Welfare

Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your new country can do for you. “Welcome to USA.gov,” a website maintained by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), bills itself as the “primary gateway for new immigrants to find basic information on how to settle in the United States” — featuring a prominent section for new immigrants about how to access government benefits. “Depending on your immigration status, length of time in the United States, and income, you may be eligible for some federal benefit programs,” the Web page reads. “Government assistance programs can be critically important to the well-being of some immigrants and their families. Frequently, however, there is a lack of information about how to access such benefits. Benefit programs can be complicated and you may be given misleading information about how they operate.”

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HOLA, TWINKIES? Mexican Billionaire Eyes Deal to Buy Hostess Icon
Hostess Brands is going out of business and it’s possible the company’s most iconic sugary confection – Twinkies — could be bought by a Mexican business. The Monitor reports Bimbo has already been present around the bankruptcy proceedings that have haunted Hostess for a decade, in a bid to further expand its North American portfolio and pad its $4 billion net worth.  Ask AFLCIO Trumka how his unions did not cause this and O's Administration how Obamacare is not contributing!

"What’s happening with Hostess Brands is a microcosm of what’s wrong with America, as Bain-style Wall Street vultures make themselves rich by making America poor. Crony capitalism and consistently poor management drove Hostess into the ground, but its workers are paying the price. These workers, who consistently make great products Americans love and have offered multiple concessions, want their company to succeed. They have bravely taken a stand against the corporate race-to-the-bottom. And now they and their communities are suffering the tragedy of a needless layoff. This is wrong. It has to stop. It’s wrecking America." AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka

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"But the safety of the people of America against dangers from foreign force depends not only on their forbearing to give just causes of war to other nations, but also on their placing and continuing themselves in such a situation as not to invite hostility or insult; for it need not be observed that there are pretended as well as just causes of war." --John Jay, Federalist No. 4

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Israel Against to World?
Turkish PM Erdogan: Israel Is a ‘Terrorist State’ by Tiffany Gabbay

When one wonders just how quickly and severely relations between Egypt and Israel can deteriorate, one only needs look at Turkey, the first Muslim country to ever recognize the State of Israel. In 2010, Turkey, led by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, turned on the Jewish State after decades of shared cooperation over the now-infamous Gaza flotilla incident. With the growing hardline Islamist bend of Erdogan, who also happens to share a collegial relationship with President Obama, Turkey has made its disdain no secret, condemning Israel’s defensive strikes on Gaza and calling it a “terrorist state” Sunday.

MSNBC Anchor Tells Israeli Ambassador Hamas Rockets ‘Rarely Do Damage’ by Sharona Schwartz

Beyond its military operation targeting the Hamas terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, Israel is invested in an intense media campaign to make sure its side of the story is being heard overseas. But that’s not always easy to do. In an interview with Israel’s top envoy to the United States on Saturday, MSNBC provided yet another example of how much work Israeli officials face in their effort to pass through the filter of the mainstream media and present their side of the story. MSNBC’s Mara Schiavocampo began her interview of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren straightforwardly enough, asking “What would be the trigger for a ground operation? What’s the red line here?” Oren answered, “You have the equivalent of what would be about 170 million Americans under bomb shelters. If Hamas continues to escalate we will take the necessary and legitimate measures to defend our citizens.” Schiavocampo’s second question might be considered more controversial, positing the argument that long-range rockets carrying warheads weighing between 20 and 90 kilograms — 46 to 198 pounds — aren’t actually dangerous to human life. She asked: “Living under the threat of rocket attack is certainly a psychological trauma. But what would you say to those who argue that the rockets are essentially very ineffective, they rarely do damage and that the response from Israelis is disproportional to the threat they’re under.”

Canadian TV Catches Protesters in Toronto Comparing Hamas Rockets to Mere ‘Firecrackers’ by Sharona Schwartz

Reporter Paige MacPherson and her crew attended a rally Thursday night where some 300 protested against Israel and in support of Hamas. Though those in the group had strongly-held opinions, those opinions weren’t always backed up by fact, as MacPherson quickly discovered. TheBlaze provides reality checks of the protester’s statements in brackets below. She began by asking protesters: Does Israel have a right to defend itself? Her first interviewee said: “They’re not defending themselves. They’ve been stealing people’s land since 1946” [Note: the State of Israel was established in 1948, not 1946.] This was her exchange with a man wearing a Palestinian keffiyah around his neck:

Demonstrator: “These rockets don’t actually have firepower.” Reporter: “They’re rockets.” Demonstrator: “They’re rockets, yes, they have flight capability. But they don’t have firepower to the same extent as phosphorous bombs that are being dropped on Gaza every single day.”

‘F**k ‘Em,’ ‘Just Kill Yourself’: Kim Kardashian & Jon Lovitz Face Backlash, Death Wishes for Defending Israel by Billy Hallowell

When celebrities defend Israel, they typically face no shortage of criticism. Remember when pop singer Katy Perry tweeted that she was praying for the Jewish state back in 2011? She was met with a multitude of attacks from supporters of Palestine. With the current violence going on between Israel and Hamas, celebrities are, again, coming under fire for pro-Israeli sentiment. The latest targets: Kim Kardashian and Jon Lovitz. On Friday, Kardashian, a reality television star, tweeted, “Praying for everyone in Israel.” Instantly, nasty responses followed her support for the Jewish state. From attacks against Israel to personal slurs against the star, the comments and proclamations were harsh to say the least.

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Nancy Pelosi Vows: No Budget Deal Without Tax Hikes for the Wealthy by Madeleine Morgenstern

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) vowed there will be no deal to head off the coming “fiscal cliff” that does not include raising tax rates on the wealthy. Pelosi said she’s optimistic a deal can be reached but won’t agree to merely closing tax loopholes or capping deductions without raising taxes on top earners. “Just to close loopholes is far too little money,” Pelosi told ABC’s “This Week” in an interview aired Sunday. “If it’s going to bring in revenue, the president has been very clear that the higher-income people have to pay their fair share.”

Well, I'm not sure where you define wealthy...but the upper 50% of the wage earners pay @97% of all tax collections, and the lower ones only @3%. The upper of the upper pay a disproportionate share of that too, the Top 1% of earners = 37% of taxes paid, the next bracket 2-5% accounts for another 20%. So about 57% paid by the top 5%. Especially as this is for Personal Income Tax only, and many of the more wealthy have much of the income taxed (some would say double taxed) by in the Corporate returns of those corporations they control/own.
Also, this is of those filing returns. The percentage of people whose income is, because of deductions/exemptions below where they have to file returns, and with things like Earned Income tax credits, actually get more back than they might pay, is huge...something like 40% of the populace. And of course, the lower earners pay at much reduced rate anyway. Some quick statistics: The top 1% of earners pay 21.20% of all taxes paid at an average rate of 24%, the top 2 - 5% of earners pay 14.55% of all taxes at an average of 18% (Top 5% pay @36% of all tax) The bottom 50% pay 3% of all tax collected at an average rate of 2.98%.

Wonder if good old Nancy can even do simple math or is she just pandering to her base (that is not there because they mooch off tax payers).  Ya Think?

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75% of the costs of Obamacare will be paid by those making $120,000 or less

Obamacare imposes a penalty—or tax increase—on Americans who do not purchase health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that most of those paying these taxes are middle-class individuals and families making less than 500 percent of the federal poverty level: $59,000 for an individual and $120,000 for a family of four. Three million lower-income and middle-class Americans will pay an estimated $2 billion in these “mandate taxes.” The “individual mandate” is a constitutionally permissible tax increase [SCOTUS]. This violates Obama’s pledge. Middle-class families will pay the vast majority of these new taxes

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Treasury Secretary Geithner: Lift Debt Limit to Infinity By Elizabeth Harrington

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Friday that Congress should stop placing legal limits on the amount of money the government can borrow and effectively lift the debt limit to infinity. On Bloomberg TV, “Political Capital” host Al Hunt asked Geithner if he believes “we ought to just eliminate the debt ceiling.” “Oh, absolutely,” Geithner said. “You do?  Will you propose that?” Hunt asked. “Well, this is something only Congress can solve,” Geithner said. “Congress put it on itself. We've had 100 years of experience with it, and I think only once--last summer--did people decide to use it to threaten default on the American credit for the first time in history as a tool for political advantage.  And that’s not a tenable strategy.” Hunt then asked: “Is now the time to eliminate it?” “It would have been time a long time ago to eliminate it,” Geithner said. “The sooner the better.”  Another example of the mindset of those that influence Obama.  Debt and runaway spending is at the heart of our economic woes and Geithner wants to give the government a blank check!!

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"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God."  Thomas Jefferson