India has successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile with a range of more than 1,800 miles.
Much has been made about the sanctions the Obama administration has imposed on any cooperation with Russia due to the situation in Ukraine and how those sanctions might damage the commercial and manned space efforts of the United States.
So far, all evidence has suggested that the sanctions have little teeth. The Obama administration exempted ISS from the sanctions. It also appears to be allowing the shipment of all commercial satellites to Russia for launch. Even a court injunction against using Russia rocket engines in U.S. military launches was lifted when the Obama administration asked the judge to do so.
The Russians now have responded. Why do I take their response more seriously?
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Another day, another witch hunt — this time in duplicate. “Twin brothers David and Jason Benham,” CNN reports, “have lost their opportunity to host their own HGTV show.” On Tuesday, the pair was gearing up for their new role; by sundown the next day, the network had announced tersely that it had “decided not to move forward with the Benham Brothers’ series.” And that, as they say, was that.
Their real crime:
Per Right Wing Watch’s rather hysterical indictment, the brothers’ main crimes against humanity are to have “led a prayer rally,” talked a few times on the radio, written a few articles, and — shock! — been involved in “protests outside of abortion clinics” and “at a 2009 LGBT event.” In other words, to have taken to the public square and to have spoken — an activity free societies have traditionally tended to cherish.
The persecution shall continue until we are all free!
And then there’s this: A football player has been fined and suspended for posting tweets critical of a newly drafted homosexual football player.
Colorado’s new gun control law has forced police there to steal a woman’s pistol.
They appear to want to return it, but the law has created a situation where they can’t return it legally.
The 2013 Walter Duranty Prize for mendacious journalism was announced on Monday.
This prize – in honor (or, more accurately, dishonor) of Walter Duranty, the New York Times Moscow correspondent during the 1920s and 1930s – was first given in 2011 by PJ Media and The New Criterion. For various reasons of sloth and bureaucracy, it has taken the organizations a year and a half to award a second round, but the prize will now be put on an annual basis.
A second award – The Rather (after Dan Rather) — for lifetime achievement in mendacious journalism was initiated this year.
Sadly, the number of qualified candidates far exceeded the number of prizes.
Google tells a major conservative website to take a hike.
It sure appears that Google has cut the website off for political reasons.
Less than 24 hours after the House held Lois Lerner in contempt, the IRS has finally agreed to turn over all her emails to House investigators.
Republican lawmakers have been demanding the documents for months and, in March, Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa threatened to hold IRS commissioner John Koskinen in contempt if he did not produce the e-mails requested by the committee. Koskinen had told lawmakers it might take years to produce them. [emphasis mine]
Years, eh? That’s suddenly changed, hasn’t it?
What happens next for Lois Lerner?
The article is an excellent legal analysis of the situation and what could happen next.
The House today voted to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt.
The case now heads to Eric Holder’s Justice Department. I would not hold my breath waiting for them to uphold the law.
Working for the Democratic Party: The IRS audited 10 percent of all Tea Party donors, a rate much higher than for average Americans.
Republicans said 24 conservative groups were asked for their donor lists. The IRS initially told Congress that those lists were destroyed, but when they went through their files they discovered three lists that weren’t destroyed.
Rep. Dave Camp, Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, asked the IRS to review the names on those lists to see whether any had been audited. The IRS reported back that 10 percent were audited — substantially higher than the average rate of 1 percent of average Americans who are audited each year.
In other words, the IRS acted as an agent of the Democratic Party to harass and strike fear into their opponents.
According to a GAO report, the sequester cuts that were going to destroy civilization as we know it resulted in exactly one layoff across the entire federal government.
That is not a typo. Only one person total was laid off to meet the mandated cuts imposed by sequestration. Most agencies froze hiring or imposed furloughs, though even the number of furloughs was less than predicted.
Remember this fact the next time a politician screams dire warnings about any cuts in the federal budget.
Obama administration officials from three departments have asked a federal judge to lift her injunction against Lockheed Martin’s use of Russian engines in its Atlas 5 rocket.
Not much teeth in these sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, is there? They exempt ISS, which is the bulk of NASA’s effort with the Russians. Now they wish to exempt the Atlas 5. Pretty soon I expect them to exempt almost everything else.
Putin and the Russians are certainly watching this story unfold, and will use what happens here to help gauge how much they can get away with in the Ukraine. And based on some fascinating information conveyed by a caller to my appearance last night on the Space Show, the Russians are definitely going to have to grab more of the Ukraine to make their capture of the Crimea stick. Expect that situation to remain very hot for the near future.
I will again be discussing this subject in depth tonight on Coast to Coast with George Noory.
“Obama’s 3-Part Benghazi strategy: Lie, lie, and lie again.”
I haven’t posted much on Benghazi, but even a nonchalant read of the subject reveals the same pattern of blatant lies from the Obama administration as we saw with his promise that “If you like your healthplan you can keep it.” Why anyone with any intelligence trusts anything this administration says is beyond me.
Theft by government: Iowa City police seized $48K in cash from a Minnesota couple during a traffic stop in March and now refuse to return it.
The publication says Kearnice C. Overton, of St. Paul, was pulled over March 16 for speeding. Overton’s kids were in the car at the time. Police say a K-9 signal gave them the authority to search the car, the Press-Citizen reports. So they did, found the $48,000 in cash, and seized it.
Overton says he got the money from his wife, Tiffani D.S. Barber, to buy some property in Iowa; he drove down there, the deal fell through so he was on his way home. Barber and Overton filed a petition stating the money was wrongly seized – no charges were filed, Overton was not arrested, and he claims it wasn’t illegally earned – and they want it back, the Press-Citizen reports. [emphasis mine]
So, police can take your money, even if you broke no law, and keep it. A good deal, especially since there is no one around to arrest them for theft.
Fascists: Senate Democrats plan a vote to amend the First Amendment to curtail criticism.
Think of the big issues facing the American public. We now routinely borrow about 40 cents on the dollar for our federal budget, our entitlement programs are heading for a fiscal collapse in the hundreds of trillions of dollars, and our economy has stagnated through nearly five years of Democratic-run economic policy in the “recovery.” What do Senate Democrats plan to do about this? Make it harder for us to complain about it.
The text of the amendment specifically gives Congress the power to limit the right of citizens to support the candidates of their choice. Who thinks they won’t abuse that power, should they get it?
Finding out what’s in it: This year saw the biggest increase in healthcare spending in thirty years.
The cause is undeniably Obamacare, but whether the increase is good or bad can be argued. Supporters of Obamacare (few as they are) would say that this is because of the increased demand for healthcare and larger customer base that Obamacare mandated. Opponents (like me) would agree, but add that the increases are impractical, unrealistic, and raise prices unnecessarily. Many of these new unwilling customers are being forced to buy a product they don’t need.
A doctor’s declaration of independence.
I don’t know about other physicians but I am tired—tired of the mandates, tired of outside interference, tired of anything that unnecessarily interferes with the way I practice medicine. No other profession would put up with this kind of scrutiny and coercion from outside forces. The legal profession would not. The labor unions would not. We as physicians continue to plod along and take care of our patients while those on the outside continue to intrude and interfere with the practice of medicine.
We could change the paradigm. We could as a group elect not to take any insurance, not to accept Medicare—many doctors are already taking these steps—and not to roll over time and time again. We have let nearly everyone trespass on the practice of medicine. Are we better for it? Has it improved quality? Do we have more of a voice at the table or less? Are we as physicians happier or more disgruntled then two years ago? Five years ago? Ten years ago?
Uh-oh: Russia responds to new U.S. sanctions by threatening U.S. astronauts on ISS.
Moscow reacted with fury to the inclusion in the sanctions of high-tech exports to Russia and threatened reprisals. “If their aim is to deliver a blow to Russia’s rocket-building sector, then by default, they would be exposing their astronauts on the ISS,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said, according to the Interfax news agency.
“Sanctions are always a boomerang which come back and painfully hit those who launched them,” added Rogozin on a visit to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in March. [emphasis mine]
Was Rogozin actually hinting that Russia might strand U.S. astronauts on ISS?
A proposed House bill would forbid use of Russian rocket engines in launching any American military payloads.
This bill is being put forth partly because of the Ukrainian situation and partly to support SpaceX’s effort to break the ULA Atlas/Delta monopoly on military launches. Whether it makes any sense or not is of course beside the point.
Meanwhile, the State Department has expanded the sanctions on satellite exports to Russia, which might threaten some future commercial Proton launches.
Both actions suggest that Elon Musk’s political clout is growing. Obviously his company’s concerns are not the prime motivation behind these decisions, but we should note that both actions hurt his direct competitors, while doing little harm to SpaceX.
Another conflict between local residents, this time in Utah, and the BLM appears to be brewing.
The fall of western civilization: A man quotes Winston Churchill in England and is immediately arrested.
What Israel’s new surveillance satellite, Ofek 10, is doing.
Fascist: A Democratic prosecutor has waged a fifteen year campaign of harassment against a gun range and its owner because the owner publicly disagreed with that prosecutor.
More here.
The bottom line here is that this power-hungry bastard has to be voted out of office immediately.
Feel the love: Liberals on twitter call for the murder of the Bundy family in Nevada by the federal government.
Fascist: The Democratic comptroller of New York City does not like the political opinions of a Texas business and the conservative causes to which it contributes.
The next step: Investigate them and put them in prison for daring to support such causes.
Fascists: The BLM is considering taking advantage of an obscure legal dispute to confiscate 90,000 acres of privately owned land on the Texas-Oklahoma border.
The last thing a just government would want to do is to steal land from the citizens. The legal issues need to be settled, but that is not the way to do it.
A bill introduced in Congress would require numerous government agencies to study the role of telecommunications in the encouragement of hate crimes.
The bills require a report within one year by the NTIA (The National Telecommunications and Information Administration) with the assistance of the DOJ, the Commission, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, to be submitted to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate on the role of telecommunications in hate crimes. … The report, according to the bill, “shall analyze information on the use of telecommunications, including the Internet, broadcast television and radio, cable television, public access television, commercial mobile services, and other electronic media, to advocate and encourage violent acts and the commission of crimes of hate, as described in the Hate Crime Statistics Act.”
The bill leaves the definition of “hate” entirely up to the government, and would produce a report that would be a great tool in the hands of politicians to squelch speech they don’t like.
Finding out what’s in it: To avoid the cost of Obamacare ski resorts are being forced to shorten their seasons.
