Tuesday Morning - The Front Page Cover

The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
 
Featuring:
Tidbits & Ironies
Burt Prelutsky
"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
~~~lll~~~
 
 CRUZ SHOVES MCCON-NELL ON A.G. NOMINATION 
Roll Call: “Sen. Ted Cruz [R-Texas] called attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch’s immigration views ‘dangerous’ Wednesday and questioned whether Majority Leader Mitch McCon-nell [R-Ky.] should even have the chamber consider her nomination. ‘That is the decision the majority leader is going to have to make. I believe we should use every constitutional tool available to stop the president’s unconstitutional executive action. That’s what Republicans, Republican candidates all over the country said over and over again last year,’ the Texas Republican said in a brief interview with CQ Roll Call as the daylong Judiciary Committee hearing on Lynch’s nomination neared conclusion.”
          [In the latest Fox News
poll, the majority of voters say the White House has mostly failed on priorities including illegal immigration at 64 percent, economic improvement at 52 percent failed the economy and making the country safer at 49 percent.]
          “I would just say that fundamentally [Loretta Lynch] openly advocated for the providing of scarce jobs in America to those who are here illegally.” --Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., on “The Kelly File” Watch here-Fox News 
 
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 FEDS: UP TO 6 MILLION WILL PAY nOBAMACARE TAX 
The Hill: “As many as 6 million people will have to pay a penalty under nObamaCare for going without health insurance in 2014, federal officials suggested in projections released Wednesday. That means between 2 percent and 4 percent of all taxpayers lacked medical coverage for all or part of the year and do not qualify for an exemption under the individual mandate, according to the Treasury Department. Another 10 to 20 percent of taxpayers, or 15 million to 30 million people, were uninsured but will qualify for an exemption from the mandate, shielding them from paying $95 or 1 percent of household income when they file their taxes. Wednesday's estimates are the clearest picture so far from the administration ahead of nObamaCare's first tax season.”  -Fox News 
 
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 Beyond parody -   #mediabuzz” host Howard Kurtz rips into Al-Jazeera’s English outlet for banning the use of the word “terrorist” to describe Islamist militants who carry out attacks like the one in Paris this month: “This is the worst kind of political correctness, an effort to avoid calling out crimes against humanity in the name of linguistic neutrality.”  -Fox News 
 
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 AGEISM CLAIMS DIPPY 
The Mirror in England reports that an iconic member of the Natural History Museum is forcing the retirement of Dippy the Diplodocus. The dinosaur skeleton has been in the museum for over 100 years but is being forced out because he was deemed “no longer relevant” for the natural world today. In the summer of 2017, a real whale skeleton will be suspended from the ceiling of Hintze Hall. Meanwhile Dippy, a plaster replica skeleton, will be preserved for a possible tour of England. The change is part of a “decade of transformation” according to director Sir Michael Dixon. “As the largest known animal to have ever lived on Earth, the story of the blue whale reminds us of the scale of our responsibility to the planet. This is an important and necessary change,” he said. The female blue whale arrived at the museum just 10 years after opening in 1891 but remained in storage until 1938 while Dippy was first put on display in 1905 after a donation by American millionaire Andrew Carnegie-Fox News 
 
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 Israel-Hizballah-Syria:   The Israeli army reported on 28 January that two Israeli soldiers were killed and seven wounded in a Hizballah attack near Mount. Dov / the Shebaa Farms. Hizballah fired five anti-tank missiles at Israeli military vehicles in the Shebaa Farms area, killing an officer and a soldier. The Israeli message said that the armed forces hold Hizballah responsible for the attacks in northern Israel. A Spanish soldier who was a member of the UN mission, UNIFIL, also was killed. The Israeli army declared the Golan Heights and its northern frontier a closed military zone. For a time, Israel evacuated the ski resort on Mount Hermon.
Comment: Today's action is the latest in a series of exchanges that began 10 days ago. On 18 January, an Israeli air attack killed six Hizballah fighters on the Golan Heights, including an Iranian Revolutionary Guard General, Mohammad al Allahdadi. These people supposedly were fighting on behalf of the Ba'athist government in Damascus, Syria. Iran and Hizballah vowed revenge for the deaths and began by firing rockets. Israel responded by firing artillery and rockets. The Israeli operations are almost counterintuitive. They damage Hizballah and Syrian government forces that are more friendly to Israel than ISIL and other forces dedicated to overthrowing the Ba'athists in Damascus. Israeli leaders, however, trusts that Israel has no friends in the Syrian civil war, whether pro-Iranian forces or Sunni Islamic terrorists win. There is no good end-state for Israel. Iranian generals and Hizballah fighters on the Golan Heights, almost by definition, signify that Iran is looking at objectives far beyond the current fighting in Syria. Those objectives include attacks against Israel. Israeli actions signify that Israel also is looking beyond the current situation to discern the nature of the threat in the middle years. Meanwhile, it is sending the signal that Hizballah and Iran remain tactical and strategic enemies. At a ceremony in southern Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "At this moment, the IDF is responding to events in the north. To everyone who is trying to challenge us at the northern border, I recommend that they look (at) what happened not far away, in Gaza: Hamas took its hardest hit since its formation. And the IDF is prepared to act strongly on all fronts."  -NightWatch 
 
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1.
 nObama’s Track To Communism, Implementing His Transformation  
(Rick Wells) - nObama will be submitting his budget in the upcoming week, one that will build upon the socialist agenda outlined in his State of the Union Address...While he is waging a multi-front war against the American people, and most of those assaults, including “climate change” and his so-called “free trade” monopolistic corporate benefits packages, were included in the speech, for the sake of brevity this video was composed only of the communist redistribution portion of his speech, in a compact, direct format. Minus all of the pauses for applause as the adoring trained seals rise up to receive their sardine, the message becomes much clearer. He’s coming after our liberty, our property and our American way of life. He’s going to decide where our money goes, to whom it goes and how much of it we are allowed to keep.       http://www.rickwells.us/obamas-fast-track-to-communism-implementing-his-transformation-of-america-in-his-own-words/
2.
 The Greatest Threat in Syria Comes from Iran  
(Efraim Inbar) - As the Assad regime is losing its grip over the country, Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah‎, both active defenders of the regime, are gaining greater freedom of action and trying to change the status quo along Israel's northern border...Both are ideologically committed to the destruction of Israel and are trying to establish a new operations stage against Israel on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights -- something that Assad has resisted for years. Hezbollah‎ seeks an additional arena from where it can harm Israel, as conducting operations against the Jewish state from Lebanon is problematic due to domestic political constraints (primarily fear of escalation and spillover effects on the Lebanese economy). Iran has a perennial interest in bleeding Israel. Creating a new threat from Syria serves this purpose. A new front in Syria will also to enhance its ability to deter an Israeli attack on its nuclear installations.       http://www.meforum.org/5002/iran-greatest-threat-Syria
3.
 Hilly Clinton Will Testify Before Benghazi Committee  
(Rick Wells) - Ranking Democrat member of the Select Committee investigating Benghazi, Elijah Cummings (D-MD), announced after he had discussions with the former Secretary of State, that she would in fact be testifying before the committee...Requests for the State Department emails of Ms Clinton have been largely unanswered to this point, but Committee chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) has indicated that once they are received the questioning could proceed in as little as thirty days. Rep Mike Pompeo (R-KS), a member of the Select Committee, is asked about his opinion of the characterization by Cummings of the process as no longer being bi-partisan as well as his goals for the Committee.       http://www.rickwells.us/hillary-clinton-will-testify-before-benghazi-committee-rep-pompeo-has-some-questions-hes-anxious-to-ask/
4.
 “Overwhelming majority of Muslims reject” jihadists’ view of Islam  
(Robert Spencer) - 99.9% of Muslims, nObama says, reject the terrorists’ understanding of Islam. That still leaves 1.3 million jihadis or jihad sympathizers, but never mind that for now — where is this 99.9%?...Where are the Muslim organizations that are dedicated to working against the jihadists? Where are the Muslim marches and protests against al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and all the hijackers of Islam? We have seen many protests lately by Muslims against the latest Muhammad cartoons in Charlie Hebdo. Where are the Muslim protests against the killing of the cartoonists and in support of the freedom of speech? Why is this 99.9% so silent and passive in the face of this “hijacking” of their religion?       http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/02/obama-overwhelming-majority-of-muslims-reject-jihadists-view-of-islam?utm_source=Jihad+Watch+Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=b451d820bf-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ffcbf57bbb-b451d820bf-123451509
5.
 Pro-Illegal Mayor Fund Raising $10 Million To Law-Breakers  
(Rick Wells) - Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced a new fundraising drive to benefit the illegal aliens who are overrunning the United States...He is joining with other open borders politicians and activists in an effort to raise $10 million to pay attorney fees and other expenses for illegals who want to take advantage of the Hussein nObama amnesty decree. Garcetti made the announcement at a get-together at his home with like-minded pro-amnesty politicians, where he estimated as many as 500,000 illegals may sign-up for amnesty in the Los Angeles area, and he hopes to aid and abet at least 100,000 of them. Grasping for a justification for supporting law-breakers, the Mayor referenced the always useful pretext of public safety, saying, “It will make our communities and our streets safer.”  He offered no indication of how qualifying people for amnesty would accomplish that feat, but he was addressing fellow open border proponents so he’s not required to make any sense.  He could have even admitted the truth, who’s going to stop him?       http://www.rickwells.us/sad-state-pro-illegal-invasion-mayor-fund-raising-10-million-benefit-law-breakers-hire-amnesty-attorneys/
6.
 Ending Groundhog Republicanism  
(Erick Erickson) - Humanity is tormented once again by an age-old issue—is man to live in dignity and freedom under God or be enslaved—are men in government to serve, or are they to master, their fellow men?...It befalls us now to resolve this issue anew—perhaps this time for centuries to come. Nor can we evade the issue here at home. Even in this Constitutional Republic, for two centuries the beacon of liberty the world over, individual freedom retreats under the mounting assault of expanding centralized power. Fiscal and economic excesses, too long indulged, already have eroded and threatened the greatest experiment in self-government mankind has known. We conservatives claim no monopoly of love of freedom. But we challenge as unwise the course the leadership of both political parties have charted; we challenge as dangerous the steps they plan along the way; and we deplore as self-defeating and harmful many of the moves already taken.       http://www.redstate.com/2015/02/02/ending-groundhog-republicanism/
7.
 5 Ways the Middle Class Is Getting Screwed  
(John Hawkins) - When Democrats talk about middle class Americans, they almost inevitably use them as a cudgel to attack the rich. On the other hand, bizarrely, Republicans seem to spend much more time defending the rich from attacks by the Left than talking about what they’re going to do to help the middle class...That’s unfortunate because middle class Americans are the backbone of the country; yet their interests always seem to take a backseat to those of the wealthy, the poor and the naked self-interest of BOTH political parties. There’s nothing wrong with giving the poor a hand-up or making sure that the rich are treated fairly, but looking after the interests of America’s middle class should be priority #1 for both parties.       http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2015/02/01/5-ways-the-middle-class-is-getting-screwed-n1951126/page/full
8.
 Treason - nObama Aids the Enemy!  
(Matt Barber) - Well, that didn’t take long. This summer after Barack nObama inexplicably (and illegally) freed five of the Taliban’s most deadly terrorists in exchange for army deserter Bowe Bergdahl, I asked a burning question – a question that remains unanswered... “What will it take for our spineless U.S. Congress to impeach this tyrant? This is way beyond partisan politics. This is about justice. This is about the safety of the American people. Barack Hussein nObama is America’s biggest threat to national security. He is ‘an enemy within.’” By striking this Faustian bargain with the devil, not only did nObama unilaterally trash the U.S. government’s long-standing policy never to negotiate with terrorists, he brazenly violated a 2013 national defense bill that unambiguously requires he give Congress 30-days notice before releasing any Guantanamo Bay prisoners, much less five of its most deadly.       http://eaglerising.com/14607/treason-obama-aids-enemy/
9.
 Swapping Prisoners with Terrorists  
(Andrew McCarthy) - Suddenly, there is outrage in the land over President nObama’s policy of negotiating prisoner swaps with terrorist organizations, a national-security catastrophe that, as night follows day, is resulting in more abductions by terrorist organizations...Well, yes, of course. But what took so long? Sorry if I sometimes sound like I work the “I Told You So” beat at the counter-jihad press. But as recounted in these pages, immediately upon assuming power in 2009, Obama started negotiating exchanges of terrorists – lopsided exchanges that sell out American national security for a net-zero return. Critics now point to the indefensible swap nObama negotiated with our Taliban enemies in 2012 as if it were the start of the problem. In reality, the springing of five top Taliban commanders in exchange for the Haqqani terror network’s release of U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl was fully consistent with what was by then established nObama policy. There was nothing new in our president’s provision of material support to terrorists even as those terrorists continued to conduct offensive terrorist operations against our troops.       http://www.aim.org/guest-column/swapping-prisoners-with-terrorists/?utm_source=AIM+-+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=email020215&utm_medium=email
10.
 Bill de Blasio under fire over payoff of man who attacked cops  
(Jazz Shaw) - Just in case you thought that things had finally calmed down and returned to normal between Big Apple Mayor Bill de Blasio and the boys in blue, don’t worry. They haven’t...But this week the cops and the mayor aren’t battling over something new. Instead, a nasty case from a couple of years back has sparked yet another round of accusations down at City Hall. Back in 2010, Brooklyn resident Ruhim Ullah attacked police officers with a machete. (Yes… a machete.) In response, the cops shot Ullah in the leg and disarmed him. Given the reputation that the NYPD has among at least some in minority communities, one might think that Mr. Ullah would be grateful to get out of that one with his life, but alas it was not so. The machete wielding maniac found a lawyer to take up his case and sued the city for $3M. That case came to a close this week, but not in the way you might expect. And the cops hit the roof.       http://hotair.com/archives/2015/02/02/bill-de-blasio-under-fire-over-payoff-of-man-who-attacked-cops/?utm_source=hadaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
Tidbits & Ironies
Burt Prelutsky
 
     (burtprelutsky.com) - I am like a squirrel but instead of storing nuts in a hollow tree trunk for future consumption, I store idle thoughts away in my in-box. Then one fine day, I decide it’s time to empty the contents on an unsuspecting world. This is that day.

     To start with, a doctor friend of mine informed me that while taking a patient’s history before performing an appendectomy, he discovered she was receiving Social Security disability and was on Medicare/Medicaid, but the only ID she had other than the benefit cards was a Mexican voter photo ID.

     When my friend, who speaks Spanish, asked her if photo IDs were required to vote in Mexico, she said they were because the Mexicans didn’t want people who were in Mexico illegally to be able to vote. Apparently she thought that was only sensible, as do I, but unlike her, I’m aware of the irony.

     In Greensboro, North Carolina, a black lawyer named Larry L. Archie has paid for a billboard that reads: “Just Because You Did It Doesn’t Mean You’re Guilty.” Now that’s what I call an honest lawyer, though not necessarily an honest man.

     It doesn’t mean anything, but I find it odd that a century ago, Russia was saddled with a creep named Rasputin and today it’s run by a creep named Putin. At this rate, in another hundred years, they’ll probably be stuck with some schmuck named Tin.

     I’ve heard that HarperCollins is reconsidering its decision to print an atlas to be sold in the Middle East that doesn’t include Israel in its pages. It makes for interesting speculation. Would HarperCollins be willing to remove South Korea from atlases sold in North Korea? Would they be open to Putin’s request to place Ukraine within Russia’s borders? Or to the Islamic demand that London be renamed Londonistan?

     In “Fiddler on the Roof,” one of the songs has a lyric: “Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match.” Perhaps the folks at HarperCollins could adapt it to “Mapmaker, mapmaker, make me a map” and use it in their commercials.

     Recently, I heard rumors that Hilly Clinton had a hissy fit when she heard that her husband had been involved with teenage sex slaves. I can’t imagine why at this late date she would have a reaction to anything involving Bill’s %*$^#. But it did get me pondering how rarely politicians and their wives get divorced. Only a few come readily to mind: Newt Gingrich, Mark Sanford and Ronald Reagan. And in Reagan’s case, he and Jane Wyman split before he entered politics.

     It doesn’t make sense. I mean, millionaires get divorced, movie stars get divorced, divas get divorced, so why not politicians? The fact is that some of those other people are not only rich, but, unlike politicians, are good-looking and have discernible personalities. It makes you wonder: When politicians tie the knot, do they merely pledge vows like the rest of us or do they take blood oaths?

     In the wake of the recent French massacres, while nObama was on the hustings campaigning for no-fee community colleges and President Hollande was assuring everyone that the jihadists spilling all that innocent French blood had nothing whatever to do with Islam, it took Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a Muslim, to confront his nation’s imams and call for a religious revolution.

     Of course nObama already disapproves of Sisi because, as a general, he had led a military coup that toppled the Muslim Brotherhood. Whereas any other American president would have applauded the action, nObama cut off foreign aid to the one Muslim nation that isn’t a theocratic sewer led by those determined to kill us.

     Speaking of Muslims, I am getting awfully tired of those in the West, nearly always liberal secularists, who insist they can tell the difference between good Muslims and bad ones. To me, pretending that most of Allah’s followers are MINOs (Muslims in name only) is as childish as pretending Islam is a peaceful religion. Still, I agree that there are two kinds of Muslims, though, those who’d slice the throat of any infidel and those who would merely applaud their efforts.

     Like most “wealth distributors,” Elizabeth Warren talks the talk, but takes a nap or gives a speech whenever it’s time to walk the walk. As of 2012, when she had to disclose her finances because she was running for the Senate, her net worth was $14.5 million and she lived in a home valued at five million dollars. In 2009, when, between her Harvard salary and her stock investments, she made $980,000, this great champion of the poor and needy donated a measly two percent to charity.

     Speaking of money, I suppose we’re all aware of the trick that inflation can play on finances. In one era, a man can raise a family comfortably on an annual income of $2,000 and years later, he wouldn’t be able to pull it off on $25,000. But I recently saw a couple of movies that really drove the point home.

     In “The More the Merrier” (1943), before falling for Joel McCrea, Jean Arthur is engaged to a stuffy government bureaucrat whose most notable selling point was his $8,000-a-year salary.

     In “Charade” (1963), four thieves spend the better part of 18 years in pursuit of a treasure worth $250,000. It’s true that by the end of the movie, three of them are dead, along with a fifth thief who had gotten to the gold first. But, still, four men devoting 18 years in hopes of splitting $250,000 works out to $3,472-per man-per-year. Keep in mind that in 1963, the average income was $4,396. So, if instead of chasing around Europe and giving Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn a hard time, they had gone to work for the Post Office, they’d have had homes, cars and a little something put away for a rainy day.

     I saw a photo of Mt. Rushmore recently and found myself wondering if, early on, Jefferson’s nose had fallen off, they would have cancelled the entire project.

     A reader, Tanya Caligiuri, sent me a joke I thought worth sharing: It seems Al Sharpton was at Sears shopping for a new washing machine and, as usual, raising a ruckus with a salesman. Hoping to calm things down, the manager rushed over and asked Sharpton what the problem was.

     “The problem,” Sharpton replied, “is that all the machines are off-white, egg-white or white-white.”

     “Well, Reverend, it’s true that the machines are white, but if you’ll open the lids, you’ll be happy to see that all the agitators are black.”

     It occurred to me that a man needs two goals: One that he can actually achieve and one to which he can merely aspire. The first will convince him that anything is possible, while the second will prevent him from resting on his laurels.

     In emptying my in-box, I have achieved my first, leading me to momentarily believe I can prevent it from ever getting that crowded again.
 
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