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Politics

Republican _Tom Foley_Connecticut_Governor_race_AP

Republican Tom Foley, the GOP candidate for Connecticut governor, listens to a concerned business owner during a campaign stop in Middletown, Connecticut, on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014. (Photo: AP)

With their guy trailing in the average of polls less than six week until Election Day, Connecticut Democrats are accusing Republican nominee Tom Foley of plagiarism. Plagiarism can be a campaign-ender, to be sure, but the charge falls short of other clear cases of plagiarism this cycle, including Democrat Sen. John Walsh and Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Oregon, Monica Wehby.

The Connecticut Democratic Party is accusing Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley of plagiarizing passages in his newly released urban policy proposal. Foley’s urban action plan was unveiled Wednesday in New Britain and includes Foley’s ideas for improving the economy, reducing crime and fixing under-performing schools, long-held issues of importance to urban voters.

The Connecticut Post reported that the Democratic Party claims Foley copied passages from various sources, including The Pelican Post, Heartland.org and the Connecticut Policy Institute. But, regarding the Connecticut Policy Institute, Foley’s campaign is offering a pretty solid explanation.

“The urban policy agenda released today is largely drawn from the work of the Connecticut Policy Institute, a think tank Tom Foley founded and he has said from start would be the foundation of his urban policy agenda,” Foley’s communications director Mark McNulty wrote to FoxNews.com in an email.

“We’d like to know which of the ideas the state [Democratic] party thinks are bad ideas. For example, do they think we should reduce the car tax in cities or not? What does the governor think?”

Foley is currently leading incumbent Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy by 6 points according to the latest poll, which was conducted by independent pollster Quinnipiac University. The Connecticut governor race is actually a rematch, as two ran for the governor’s mansion in 2010. It was one of the closest races in the country, with just a half-percentage point separating the two when the total votes were tallied.

When examining the records, aside from the policy institute, only the Pelican Post passage couldn’t be described as tenuous at best. Still, even if the plagiarism charge was even a bit more credible, it is unclear whether Malloy could get the voters in Connecticut to dislike Foley more than they dislike him. Even though Connecticut was just named the third-least business friendly state and Gallup’s state scorecard shows just 23 percent say taxes aren’t too high, something else is weighing Malloy down more than taxes, which is the focus of McNulty’s message.

“A difficult problem for Malloy to overcome is his high negative favorability rating, as 53 percent say they have an unfavorable opinion of him, including 40 percent who say they have a strongly unfavorable opinion,” said Douglas Schwartz, PhD, director of the Quinnipiac University poll.

“It is tough for a well-known incumbent to change voter opinion once formed. In contrast, only 33 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Foley.”

The Connecticut Governor race is currently rated a “Toss-Up” by PPD’s 2014 Governors Map Predictions model (Read Expanded Analysis).

Poll Date Sample Foley (R) Malloy (D) Spread
PPD Average 8/18 – 9/8 — 46.8 42 Foley +4.8
Quinnipiac 9/3 – 9/8 1304 LV 49 43 Foley +6
CBS News/NYT/YouGov 8/18 – 9/2 1808 LV 41 42 Malloy +1
Rasmussen Reports 8/18 – 8/19 750 LV 45 38 Foley +7
CBS News/NYT/YouGov 7/5 – 7/24 1177 RV 48 41 Foley +7
Quinnipiac 5/1 – 5/6 1668 RV 43 43 Tie
Quinnipiac 2/26 – 3/2 1878 RV 42 42 Tie
Quinnipiac 6/12 – 6/17 1154 RV 43 40 Foley +3

(Please note: PPD average is calculated using PPD’s Pollster Scorecard, which rates and weighs pollsters on past accuracy. The RCP average, for instance, is currently Foley+4.)

With their guy trailing in the average

World

radical London imam Anjem Choudary

Radical London imam Anjem Choudary. (Photo: RAY TANG/REX FEATURES)

Radical London imam Anjem Choudary was one of nine men arrested by Scotland Yard as part of a major investigation into Islamist terrorism. Choudary tweeted a number of controversial tweets shortly before his arrest by Metropolitan Police, claiming in one that “it has already been foretold by Muhammad(saw) that Muslims & Christians will fight a big battle in As-Sham & that Muslims will prevail.”

https://twitter.com/anjemchoudary/status/514999043735699456

A spokesman from Scotland Yard said the men were arrested and detained on suspicion of being members of, or supporting, a banned organization, and that all nine men were between the ages of 22 to 51. The nine men arrested in the string of raids were aged 51, 47, 39, 38, 36, 32, two 31-year-olds and a 22-year-old. The majority are under 40 years of age.

Al-Muhajiroun is, in fact, the banned organization in question, according to reports. The police investigation is also taking a look at potential publication of illegal terrorism material. It has been well-established that Choudary has long-standing ties with Omar Bakri Mohammed, another radical imam involved in Al-Muhajiroun and another radical group, Hizb ut-Tahrir. However, Omar Bakri fled Britain in 2005 and was banned from returning by the then home secretary.

Up until now, Choudary had been pretty adapted at walking the line between legal and illegal, or outspoken and radical. He began truly coming out of his skin following the bombings of the ISIS terror army in Iraq. Another tweet sent shortly before his arrest proclaimed his belief that ISIS rerpresented the real brand of Islam, and that the campaign against ISIS was really a war against “Islam & Muslims.”

https://twitter.com/anjemchoudary/status/514992331268055041

Yet another tweet went even further, offering a true justification for the violence ISIS perpetuates not only on non-Muslims, but Muslims by majority they deem unworthy, such as Shia denominations.

https://twitter.com/anjemchoudary/status/514994030611296256

“These arrests and searches are part of an ongoing investigation into Islamist related terrorism and are not in response to any immediate public safety risk,” the spokesman said.

The men are being held on suspision of being members of a proscribed (banned) organization, supporting a proscribed organization contrary to Section 11 and 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and encouraging terrorism, contrary to Section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

Eleven of the raided properties were in east London, one in west London, one in north-west London and five in south London. Scotland Yard did confirm police hit a total of 19 addresses shortly after 5 AM (local time)this morning. The arrest operation, run by ‘SO15’, the Met’s Counter-Terrorism Command, was thought to have involved more than 100 officers in total.

Britain has long had a Nile Gardiner, a leading authority on transatlantic relations and director of The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, says Britain’s overtly tolerant society has been exploded by Islamists. But since the beheading video of American journalist James Foley surfaced, in which the ISIS executioner is clearly heard talking with a British accent, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has kicked up efforts to crack down on homegrown terrorism.

Recent reports claim the U.S. has identified “Jihad Johnny,” otherwise known as the ISIS executioner in at least the first video, but PPD reported on August 24 that 23-year-old, British-born and London-based rapper Abdel Majed Abdel Bary is the suspect believed to be James Foley’s executioner. He is but one member of a three-person group known among former hostages as “The Beatles.”

It is thought to be another British, very faint voice heard on the video depicting the beheading of another American journalist Steven Sotloff. Following the release of a third video, Choudary said he had no sympathy for British-born Alan Henning, a volunteer aid worker captured in Syria and is now threatened to meet the same fate at the hands of the Islamic State.

“In the Koran it is not allowed for you to feel sorry for non-Muslims,” Choudary said. “I don’t feel sorry for him.”

Western intelligence agencies largely agree that the videos are used by ISIS not only to provoke a response, but for recruiting efforts. According to another tweet from Choudary, ISIS has and will continue to use the air campaigns to further those recruiting efforts.

https://twitter.com/anjemchoudary/status/514995497401348096

Sean Hannity interviewed the imam once portrayed as a moderate in late August, but he quickly snapped on national television shortly after discussing the beheading of American journalist James Foley. Choudary admitted that the true goal of Islam was to establish a world-wide caliphate, an intolerant theocratic society where Sharia law is the only law, and openly mocked Americans for believing their goal is anything other.

“You don’t have a choice,” he said. “It’s coming to you in America.”

https://twitter.com/anjemchoudary/status/514996848495702016

Radical London imam Anjem Choudary was one

Politics

eric holder

Aug. 20, 2014: Attorney General Eric Holder speaks during his meeting at the FBI building in St. Louis. (Photo: AP)

Eric Holder will announce Thursday that he is resigning as attorney general from the Obama administration, a Justice Department official has confirmed.

The resignation ends a controversial six-year term for the nation’s top law enforcement official.

Immediately after taking over at the Justice Department, Holder drew harsh criticism for dropping the voter intimidation case against New Black Panther Party leaders who were caught on tape wielding a billy club and hurling racial slurs at elderly white people as they attempted to enter a polling station in Philadelphia. The Bush administration opened the prosecution, but despite threats about killing white babies and several threats using the word “cracker,” Holder decided the case didn’t warrant prosecution.

Racial tensions and the arbitrary administration of justice in racial cases was telegraphed in his “a nation of cowards” comment, while addressing how the U.S. deals with issues of race. “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,” Holder said on February 18, 2009, while addressing the Justice Department in commemorating Black History Month.

And it never ended.

“There’s a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that’s directed at me and directed at the president,” Holder said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on July 13, 2014. “You know, people talking about taking their country back … There’s a certain racial component to this for some people. I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there’s a racial animus.”

Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress for lying under oath during a congressional hearing. While investigating the gun-running scheme “Fast and Furious,” which led to the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Holder and the Obama administration claimed executive privilege in an attempt to conceal documents at the center of the controversy.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an appointee of President Barack Obama, recently ordered the Justice Department to provide Congress with a slew of documents that Eric Holder had long tried to keep from Congress. However, the Justice Department officials who confirmed Holder’s resignation offered little response when asked if the documents played a role in the AG’s decision to resign.

Federal agents lost control of some 2,000 weapons and many of them wound up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S., and two of the guns were eventually found at the scene of the December 2010 slaying of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry near the Arizona border city of Nogales. The ATF and the Justice Department also attempted to block the whistleblower, John Dodson, from writing a book on the gun trafficking scandal, “because it would have a negative impact on morale,” according to the agency.

Ironically, Holder also headed-up the administration’s unique push for new gun control measures. He asked the House Appropriations Subcommittee back in April to consider new smart gun technology as a means to curb gun violence. Opponents not only say there is a cynical motive behind the government’s push that has nothing to do with gun safety, but also that the technology is a logistical and practical nightmare.

Holder also refused to prosecute former IRS official Lois Lerner despite the House Ways and Mean Committee voting 23 – 14 to refer her to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation. It was revealed she corruptly used the IRS to target conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

House Republicans learned that the Justice Department’s investigation into the IRS targeting Tea Party groups had been “compromised” after the Obama administration outrageously appointed an Obama donor to head up the probe. In a January letter to Holder, lawmakers said they’ve learned that Barbara Kay Bosserman, the trial attorney appointed to investigate the IRS scandal, is a long-term donor of both the Democratic National Committee and President Obama.

The attorney general did nothing.

Holder reportedly has agreed to stay on the job until his successor is confirmed, but is now the fourth-longest serving attorney general in history.

Eric Holder will announce Thursday that he

World

Kobani Syria refugees fleeing from ISIS

Islamic State fighters have launched an assault on Kobani, a strategically located Kurdish town in Syria roughly 6 miles from Turkey. (Photo: Reuters)

Despite U.S. airstrikes selectively hitting Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq, Kurdish fighters confirmed the terror army still advances on the Syrian town of Kobani. Rooz Bahjat, a senior Kurdish military officer, said upwards of 400,000 residents and refugees are trapped, while 70,000 refugees have already fled across the border into Turkey. Still, hundred of thousands more, including women, are staying behind to fight the advancing terror army.

“Tell the world what is happening” Bahjat said Wednesday on the phone to a Fox News reporter. “This could be a massacre if no help arrives.”

The Kurdish people are both the only truly pro-U.S. and pro-West Arab nation in the Middle East and the most-capable fighting force mentioned in Obama’s ISIS strategy. However, as D.C.-pundits argue the merits of Obama’s no “boots on the ground” strategy, the reality that airpower is insufficient is undeniable to allies on the ground. The bottom line is that in the absence of further U.S. action they are threatened with mass genocide.

As of last night, the town of Kobani was surrounded by ISIS tanks, artillery and mortars, American weapons largely stolen from depots insufficiently protected in the absence of U.S. troops. Bahjat said hours ago that they were just miles from the city limits.

“What happened on Mount Sinjar will seem like nothing compared to this if ISIS gets through,” Bahjat said, citing the Iraqi mountain village where thousands of religious minorities were trapped without food and water. They had been under siege from ISIS until U.S. airstrikes broke the siege. “They have now surrounded the city and are fighting on all sides.”

“Those airstrikes are not important. We need soldiers on the ground,” said Hamed, a refugee speaking to Reuters said as he fled into Turkey. However, as the Kurds and others make desperate pleas to the U.S., President Obama’s ISIS strategy and his rhetoric still struggling to reconcile themselves, a luxury the Kurds do not have.

“The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death,” President Obama said speaking to the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday. But he was quick to walk it back and muddy up the message to the world.

“I have made it clear that America will not base our entire foreign policy on reacting to terrorism,” he said. “In this effort, we do not act alone. Nor do we intend to send U.S. troops to occupy foreign lands.”

While the U.S., led by a president bent on carrying out an unproven strategy of multilateralism sits back waiting for regional powers to step up, the conditions on the ground continue to deteriorate.

“We will do everything to resist these advances,” Polat Tan, a senior commander with the Kurdish militia in Syria, which is defending Kobani told Fox News. “We will fight till every last drop of blood, but if help does not arrive soon, disaster is at hand.”

In Iraq, the situation is no less dire. After six weeks of American airstrikes, the Iraqi government’s forces have failed to break the Sunni Islamic extremists’ hold on more than a quarter of the country.

On Monday, more than 300 soldiers died after the loss of the base, Camp Saqlawiya. Ali Bedairi, a regional lawmaker from the governing alliance, confirmed the horrible events, noting a soldier’s testimony heard on video only because he was one of 200 who managed to escape said.

“They did not have any food, and they were starving for four days,” the soldier said. “We drank salty water; we could not even run.”

Sunni tribes eventually joined the fight after President George W. Bush boldly ordered the surge in Iraq in 2007, a component in-power politicians are too cowardly to admit. With the presence of U.S. fighters on the ground and committed, the Sunni tribes in Anbar and other regions drove al-Qaeda-linked terrorists from their home towns in what is now known as the Sunni Awakening. Now that President Obama has taken that option off the table, allies and would-be allies dimply do not trust the U.S., thus the military strategy is failing.

“The Sunni tribes’ role here is almost nonexistent,” said Ali al-Jabouri, a local fighter. “There are many tribes in the villages near here, but they were not serious about joining us to combat the Islamic State, and until now none of them have joined us.”

In the rare instances the Iraqi Army recaptures lost territory, they have been relinquishing control to the local Iraqi police. Then, the police are quickly defeated in preplanned advances by the Islamic State. These losses are predictable, but in the case of the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, not preventable.

“We will fight till every last drop of blood, but if help does not arrive soon,” Tan said, “disaster is at hand.”

Despite U.S. airstrikes selectively hitting ISIS targets

Economy

Long-lasting manufacturing goods, or durable goods are being made at Boeing plant. (Photo: Boeing/REUTERS)

August orders for durable goods, or long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods posted their biggest drop on record, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. It wasn’t all bad news, as a rebound in business spending plans may show some underlying strength in the manufacturing sector.

The Commerce Department said durable goods orders, which include products ranging from toasters to aircraft that are designed to last consumers three years or more, dropped 18.2 percent. It was the largest drop since the measurement began being tracked in 1992. The new report largely erased July’s 22.5 percent surge, which was almost solely aircraft-driven.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast durable goods orders would decline 18 percent last month.

Orders made for the transportation category, a volatile category, plummeted 42.0 percent last month due to civilian aircraft orders tumbling by 74.3 percent. Boeing reported on its website that it had received 107 orders last month, just a third of July’s unusually large gains.

Orders for automobiles decreased 6.4 percent after rising 10.0 percent the prior month.

Wall Street is hoping that the underlying trends in new orders points to further gains in the months ahead. A separate survey released early this month showed new orders jumped to a near 10-1/2-year high in August and businesses increased capital spending, but it remains unclear whether the index was simply off the mark.

Manufacturing, a staple of the U.S. economy and driver of middle class jobs, is being artificially propped up by firming domestic demand, which for now is offsetting fundamental weaknesses at home and abroad.

August orders for durable goods, or long-lasting

Economy

weekly jobless claims

Weekly jobless claims, or the measure of the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose, though less than expected last week. According to a report released Thursday by the Labor Department, initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 293,000 for the week ending on September 20.

Meanwhile, claims for the prior week were revised to show 1,000 more applications than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to slightly more last week than Labor reported, or 300,000.

The four-week moving average of claims, which is widely cited as a better measure of labor market trends due to its ability to iron out week-to-week volatility, actually fell by 1,250 to 293,500.

A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors influencing the state level data.

Claims are hovering near their pre-recession levels, which economists argue is either an indication that labor market conditions are improving or that there are simply not enough eligible Americans left after so many dropped out of the labor force.

The Labor report found the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid edged up 7,000 to 2.44 million in the week ended September 13, while data for the so-called continuing claims covered the household survey week from which the unemployment rate for September will be calculated.

Continuing claims fell 89,000 between August and September, which some suggest is a sign of improvement in the unemployment rate. The jobless rate was at 6.1 percent in August, but again that is a bit misleading. The unemployment rate has fallen due to the abysmal labor force participation rate and counting of part-time, low-paying jobs.

Weekly jobless claims, or the measure of

World

obama climateChina has responded to President Obama’s climate change proposal at the United Nations to join the U.S. effort to drastically reduce carbon emissions. The emerging Asian power plans to flat-out extort the U.S. and other Western developed nations for their participation in the deal, or they will take their ball and go home.

According to a document first obtained by Fox News, and now viewable below on PPD, China, the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases says that the U.S. and other developed countries should have to suffer the economic pain of carbon cutbacks, particularly increases in taxes that would slow the rate of GDP growth further.

The results would certainly allow China — now the world’s second-largest economy — to surpass the U.S. as number one in sooner-than-projected fashion.

The document, which was drawn up for Geneva-based U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in advance of a planned meeting next month, says emission cutbacks by China and other developing countries will be “dependent on the adequate finance and technology support provided by developed country parties” to any new climate accord.

In other words, only if America and, to a smaller degree other developed nations, bear the costs of their economic pain that disproportionately affects the wealthy in Beijing.

The Chinese communist regime will demand next month, or is already demanding is this document, that the stem from “new, additional, adequate, predictable and sustained public funds” — rather than mostly private financing, as the U.S. hopes.

In other words, the U.S. government must further squeeze already-burdened U.S. taxpayers by raising taxes. They also included a list of short- and long-term demands that must be met first.

SHORT-TERM DEMANDS

  • A promised $100 billion in annual funding to be appropriated to climate change reforms that the West has already pledged until 2020 is just the “starting point,” and further commitments must be laid out in a “clear road map,” including “specific targets, timelines and identified sources.”
  • $100 billion pledge to the same fund should be reached by $10 billion increments, starting from a $40 billion floor this year.

LONG-TERM DEMANDS

  • In the long-term, developed countries should be committing “at least 1 percent” of their GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, to put “into a U.N.-administered Green Carbon Fund to pay for the developing country changes.”
  • Western countries must clear “obstacles such as IPRs [intellectual property rights]” to “promote, facilitate and finance the transfer” of “technologies and know-how” to developing countries. This must be done before any future climate deal with be agreed to by China.

The theft of intellectual property rights has long been a grievance of U.S. and other Western transnational and national corporations. The Justice Department in May announced the first-ever criminal cyber-espionage case against Chinese military officials, claiming they have been hacking major U.S. companies to steal intellectual property right and company secrets.

U.S. officials accused five Shanghai-based Chinese officials of targeting companies in U.S. nuclear power, metals and solar sectors, including major U.S. firms like Alcoa World Alumina, Westinghouse Electric and U.S. Steel Corp. The other victims cited include Allegheny Technologies, United Steelworkers Union, and SolarWorld.

China’s submission, a nine-page paper tellingly titled, “Submission on the Work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Durban Platform for Enhanced Action,” is one of many to be submitted by various nations ahead of negotiations on a new global climate treaty that will be unveiled at a climate summit meeting in Paris at the end of 2015.

The Paris 2015 treaty is supposed to replace the largely useless Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2020. The U.S. never ratified the treaty in large part due to other greenhouse emitters, including China and India, never having to abide by the agreement.

But according to the Chinese, developing countries have already done their fair share at cutting back greenhouse gases — or, as the document states — “have already communicated and implemented ambitious nationally appropriate mitigation actions.”

“Their contribution to global mitigation efforts is far greater than that by developed countries,” the Chinese say in the document of Western developed countries.

Western countries are “responsible for the current and future concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere because of their historical, current and future emissions,” while “developing countries have the right to equitable development opportunities and sustainable development.”

In fact, that was the failed premise behind the outdated if ever needed Kyoto Protocol. China just agreed to reduce the “carbon intensity” of its industrialization, which is a relative measurement absent of actual cutbacks.So, naturally, the Chinese submission argues that any new treaty must “be based and built” on principles of the Kyoto Treaty, with “developed country Parties taking the lead in greenhouse gas emission reduction.”

Except, of course, for the amount of money they are extorting from the West for their participation.

“Commitments by developed country Parties [to the new treaty] on providing finance, technology and capacity-building support to developing country Parties shall be of the same legal bindingness as their mitigation commitments.”

China plans to flat-out extort the U.S.

Opinion, Video

Issues liberals champion in modern American politics seem small and trivial compared to the heyday of the Progressive Movement. A created war on women, minimum wage laws even Bill Gates agrees will destroy jobs and hurt the poor and working class, represent a very small shadow of their former shelves.

Despite dramatic changes in the U.S. economy since the passage of Progressive Era reforms, Democrat power-brokers — members of a modern party that actually opposed civil rights and most 20th century progressive causes — have refused to reform unsustainable programs. Republican Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mike Lee (R-UT) put out a series of bold reforms this week, marking the second time in only a few months Republican politicians released a viable plan to preserve America’s social safety net and increase economic mobility.

In July, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the 2012 vice presidential nominee and Chairman of the House Budget Committee, delivered a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a D.C.-based policy think-tank outlining his plan for “expanding opportunity in America,” because he also understands that without a strong economy there is no social safety net.

Meanwhile, as Barack Obama accuses Islamist terrorists and Vladimir Putin of behaving as if they are still in the “19th century” at the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday, many thoughtful intellectuals are pointing out that progressives haven’t had a new idea since that same period.

“On domestic policy, liberals see history as a story of progress from tiny government to ever-larger government,” columnist and analyst Michael Barone recently wrote. “Though never stating exactly how far that movement should go.”

Kevin Williamson of National Review said he believes that’s because modern Democrats — and, the American Left as a whole — are simply out of new ideas. As a result, the party is defending outdated government-centered solutions because they are struggling to offer new policies.

“I can’t remember the last time I heard a new idea from the left; they’re intellectually bankrupt,” Williamson told the audience at an event this week dubbed, “Where is Liberalism Going?” The event was hosted by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank championing free market solutions that decentralize power, a smart and strong national defense, economic choice and opportunity.

Williamson joined William Voegeli, senior editor of the Claremont Review of Books, and David Azerrad, director of The Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics, on a panel moderated by Ben Domenech, the editor of The Federalist. The discussion was on the future of liberalism and how conservatives can take action to thwart Democrats’ plans to balkanize Americans in order to push through an indefensible agenda.

And, as Barone noted, it’s not just the agenda but who is pushing it.

If someone would have asked James Carville in the 1990s which party he believed would physically appear to represent the future, he wouldn’t have taken a second to answer. Now, Carville spends his days chasing around his old boss’s wife to convince her to run for president in 2016, when she’ll be in her 70s. Her husband was first elected to public office in 1976 and, Bill Clinton’s 1992 theme song, “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow),” was first for sale in 1977.

Across the 2014 Senate Map the Democratic candidates are riddled with old faces and old names — Mark Pryor (Arkansas), Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), Mark Warner (Virginia) Mark Begich (Alaska), just to name a few — are all deeply connected political families still riding the entitlement train to political office.

And they are doing it on issues they have recreated out of political necessity, not because American society has reverted to an unjust system that it is now — once again — necessary.

Contraception and other aspects to the manufactured war on women is — unsurprisingly — manufactured. The Supreme Court, contrary to their claims, did not ban contraception for female employees of people of faith. They did, however, ban banning contraception in 1965. The Hobby Lobby was never an issue of contraception, it was over abortifacients. Anyone who argues the contrary, including former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos, who now poses as a journalist on ABC News, is intentionally lying.

Mr. Stephanopoulos is truly one to talk, considering his last boss set back the rights of women in power for decades.

Equal pay for women may sound great to young, single female voters, but it is a widely debunked myth even the White House can’t explain. Truthfully, intellectual women should expect it to be a myth, particularly because pay tables based on sexual discrimination has outlawed by federal law since 1964.

The minimum wage, first past by Congress in 1938, is a similarly recycled myth. Three years earlier, Congress passed the Social Security Act selling it as old-age insurance for superannuated workers. Yet, even as the government’s own trustees say the program will soon be another broken government promise, Democrats propose increasing payments.

“Since the cash-flow deficit will be less than interest earnings through 2019, reserves of the combined trust funds will continue to grow but not by enough to prevent the ratio of reserves to one year’s projected cost (the combined trust fund ratio) from declining,” a recent trustees report stated. “After 2019, Treasury will redeem trust fund asset reserves to the extent that program cost exceeds tax revenue and interest earnings until depletion of combined trust fund reserves in 2033, the same year projected in last year’s Trustees Report.”

Perhaps, in 2033, we will hear a new idea from the American Left. Unfortunately, by that time, Social Security will not be the only program in need of reform.

Issues liberals champion in modern American politics

World

french_hostage_beheaded_algerian_terrorists

Algerian ISIS loyalist terror group with beheaded French captive Herve Gourdel. Sept. 22, 2014.

French President Francois Hollande confirmed Wednesday that an Islamic extremist group beheaded a French hostage as retaliation for airstrikes against ISIS fighters in Iraq. Jund al-Khilafah, or Soldiers of the Caliphate, had said they would kill the French mountaineer after abducting him Sunday unless France ended its participation in the bombing campaign within 24 hours.

Herve Gourdel — a 55-year-old mountaineering guide from Nice — was abducted in the Djura Djura mountains of northern Algeria on Sunday during a hiking trip. The remote mountainous region may be a mountaineers paradise, but it is also a known stronghold of Islamist extremists in northern Algeria.

Despite Algerian forces sending in helicopters and special forces to comb the region for Gourdel, only his Algerian companions were found because the terrorist kidnappers released them on their own authority.

Hollande condemned the killing of Gourdel and said France would continue its fight against ISIS, the Sunni Islamic terrorists that have taken over large pieces of territory within the once-sovereign borders of Iraq and Syria. Terrorism watchdog SITE Intelligence Group distributed a video by Jund al-Khilafah Wednesday reporting the death of Gourdel, but Hollande responded later in the day. The group said the video had been posted on Twitter.

In the video, masked gunmen pledged their allegiance to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. They not only cited the French attacks in Iraq, but also France’s intervention targeting radical Islamists in Mali, as well.

“Herve Gourdel is dead because he is the representative of a people – ours – that defends human dignity against barbarity,” Hollande said, speaking along the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York. “My determination is total and this attack only reinforces it. We will continue to fight terrorism everywhere.”

The video resembled those showing the beheadings of two American journalists, James Foley and Steve Sotloff, as well as the British aid worker, but rather than depicting speeches of President Barack Obama or Prime Minister David Cameron, the video instead depicted Hollande.

“Our values are at stake,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Wednesday after hearing about the video. However, whose values Valls shares may not be that cut and dry.

Despite the fact that France is only 5-10 percent Muslim, a VOX poll conducted last month found at least 15 percent of French people said they have a positive attitude toward ISIS and the share of ISIS supporters is largest among France’s younger generation, a bloc gaining in Muslim proportion.

Meanwhile, the leader of the largest French Muslim group, Dalil Boubakeur, claimed to find “this barbaric crime” horrifying and supposedly condemns it “with the utmost energy.” The group has called for other imams to denounce the terror army in the past, but a growing anti-Semitic and anti-West radicalism still grows despite these so-called efforts.

On Gourdel’s Facebook page, viewers can see he had expressed an eery excitement about his camping trip and said he was looking forward to being shown around for a change, instead of being the guide. Sadly, that never happened.

French President Francois Hollande confirmed Wednesday that

Economy

home sales and home prices

(Photo: REUTERS)

The Commerce Department reports new, single-family home sales increased by 18 percent in August to an annualized rate of 504,000 units, the highest level since 2008. Wall Street expected sales to rise to an annualized rate of 430,000 units.

Though the short-term data report was optimistic, economists worry over a serious of reports out this week suggesting the housing market is struggling and incapable of floating without high risk.

The average number of mortgage applications for the week ended Friday fell 4.1% from the week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association weekly survey released Wednesday.

The seasonally adjusted purchase index was down 0.3 percent from the previous week and the unadjusted purchase index ticked up 2 percent from the previous week. However, it was down 16 percent from the year-earlier period, mirroring another report released Tuesday by the Federal Financial Institutions Examinations Council, which found the number of mortgage originations declined 11 percent last year to 8.7 million from 9.8 million in 2012.

The decline was caused primarily by a drop in refinance mortgages for one- to four-family properties, which fell by over 1.5 million or 23 percent, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the MBA said the refinance share of mortgage activity fell to 56 percent of total applications, down from 57 percent measured the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 8 percent of total applications.

Adjustable mortgage rates accounted for a large share of the high risk, subprime mortgages that crashed the U.S. economy in 2007 – 2008. Until recently, we had little recourse to gauge the amount of risk circulating in the housing market.

AEI’s National and State Mortgage Risk Indices provide the first-ever measure of how mortgage loans originated month-by-month would perform under severely stressed conditions. The National Mortgage Risk Index for home purchase was little changed at 11.28 percent in August from July (revised), according to a report from AEI’s International Center on Housing Risk.

“There continues to be little discernible volume impact from the QM regulations on the share of loans with debt-to-income ratios (DTIs) greater than 43 percent,” AEI’s email to PPD stated. “Subprime lending by FHA issuers continues at a strong pace in response to government calls for expanded use of the FHA credit box.”

The average rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loans — in other words, loans with balances up to $417,000 — increased to 4.39 percent, while rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo-loan balances– or, higher than $417,000 — rose to 4.3 percent.

But the notable number from the MBA index, regarding AEI’s National and State Mortgage Risk Indices, was that the average rate for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration rose to 4.08 percent from 4.03 percent the prior week.

Data from the AEI index confirms the impact of two policy statements reported by PPD made by Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and Shaun Donovan, secretary of HUD, which backed-off tight restrictions that required sound lending practices. The policies represent a return to a pre-crisis mindset and are repeating the mistakes of the subprime mortgage crisis. The government is again loosening lending practices in an effort artificially increase housing market data, such as mortgage applications.

The MBA report also claimed the average rate for 15-year, fixed-rate mortgages was unchanged at 3.56 percent, while the 5/1 ARM average rose to 3.2 percent, up from 3.19 percent the week prior.

The Commerce Department reports new, single-family home

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