History for August 8

History for August 8 - On-This-Day.com:

Kool-Aid Days, Hastings, NE (Aug 8-10). See www.kool-aiddays.com

200th birth anniversary of Esther Hobart McQuigg Morris (1814-1902), women's rights pioneer.

Birth anniversaries of Matthew Henson (1866-1955), Fredric March (1897-1975), Emiliano Zapata (1879-1919).

Happy Birthday! Keith Carradine, Roger Federer, Dustin Hoffman

1588 - The Spanish Armada was defeated by the English fleet ending an invasion attempt. 


1876 - Thomas Edison received a patent for the mimeograph. The mimeograph was a "method of preparing autographic stencils for printing." 


1899 - The refrigerator was patented by A.T. Marshall. 


1940 - The German Luftwaffe began a series of daylight air raids on Great Britain. 



1974 - U.S. President Nixon announced that he would resign the following day. 


1992 - The "Dream Team" clinched the gold medal at the Barcelona Summer Olympics. The U.S. basketball team beat Croatia 117-85. 


1995 - Saddam Hussein's two eldest daughters, their husbands, and several senior army officers defected. 

Doctors Begin To Refuse Obamacare Patients | The Daily Caller

Doctors Begin To Refuse Obamacare Patients | The Daily Caller:
"Obamacare plans have shrunk payments to physicians so much that some doctors say they won’t be able to afford to accept Obamacare coverage, NPR reports.
Many of the eight million sign-ups in Obamacare exchanges nationwide already face more limited choices for physicians and hospitals than those in the private insurance market. But with low physician reimbursement rates, the problem could get even worse."

Liberal Newspaper Warns Obama: Don’t ‘Tear Up the Constitution’ With Executive Action on Immigration | TheBlaze.com

Liberal Newspaper Warns Obama: Don’t ‘Tear Up the Constitution’ With Executive Action on Immigration | TheBlaze.com:
“If, in fact, I could solve all these problems without passing laws in Congress, then I would do so. But we’re also a nation of laws,” Obama said at the time.
The Post noted that “some of the same Democrats and pro-immigrant advocates urging” Obama to take action “would be outraged if a Republican president took a similarly selective approach to enforcing the laws.”
Obama has asked Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to review the options the administration can take on immigration without congressional authorization."

Watch: Judge Napolitano Just Blew The Lid Off This Huge Obama Admin Scandal

Watch: Judge Napolitano Just Blew The Lid Off This Huge Obama Admin Scandal:

"Judge Napolitano criticized Obama’s attitude towards the CIA’s conduct:
Yet the language you just heard from the President of the United States as he attempted to justify it, is enough to make George Orwell blush.
The government is out of control.  The President is permitting spying on the Senate and these guys can’t keep their jobs when they lie."

Michigan housing chief runs up thousands in bills, expense records show

Michigan housing chief runs up thousands in bills, expense records show | Detroit Free Press | freep.com: "LANSING — The head of the state housing authority has rung up tens of thousands of dollars in expenses since taking office in 2012, dining on filet mignon, escargot and foie gras, staying in hotels that cost $400 to $500 a night, and traveling in a stretch limousine, records show.
Most — but not all — of the expenses have been paid by the state agency.
Officials who vet expense vouchers have rejected hundreds of dollars in reimbursements Scott Woosley has sought, such as a $47.60 “dinner” receipt from a Washington, D.C., bar for which the only items consumed were three glasses of 15-year-old El Dorado rum.
In June 2013, the state agency paid $1,253 for Woosley and other Michigan State Housing Development Authority officials to drive across Nebraska in a stretch limousine after a mix-up sent the state-owned plane they flew in to Omaha instead of Lincoln, where their meeting was to take place, according to the records obtained by the Michigan Democratic Party under the Freedom of Information Act.
Woosley, who is paid $135,000 a year, made no apologies for his expense vouchers in a telephone interview Wednesday, though he said any reimbursement requests he made for alcohol charges were unintentional. 
He said he generally submits the expenses he incurs believing the state will reimburse him for only those charges they deem appropriate.
“You can’t find a hotel in New York around the holidays that’s not four or five hundred a night,” Woosley told the Free Press."

Angry Republican leaders ready to shut door on open primaries

Angry Republican leaders ready to shut door on open primaries - Washington Times:
"CHICAGO — Any party that allows its opponents to help pick its candidates in “open” primaries is a PPINO — a “political party in name only” — say many Republican officials at their annual summer meeting.
Republican National Committee members and activists are still seething about reports that longtime Sen. Thad Cochran, Mississippi Republican, enlisted Democrats to help him win his tough primary contest this summer against state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who was backed by the tea party."

New NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll Spells Bad News for Obama | TheBlaze.com

New NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll Spells Bad News for Obama | TheBlaze.com:
"President Barack Obama’s approval rating has hit a new low of 40 percent, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday."

Chart of the day: Work vs. jail shares for black male high school dropouts ages 20-24 since 1935

Chart of the day: Work vs. jail shares for black male high school dropouts ages 20-24 since 1935 | AEIdeas:

Guess What Obama Has Racked Up More of Than All the Presidents From Washington to Clinton Combined

Guess What Obama Has Racked Up More of Than All the Presidents From Washington to Clinton Combined

"Remember when President Barack Obama boasted of lowering the debt by half? Or when, in 2008, Obama accused President George W. Bush of being “unpatriotic” for taking out a “credit card in the name of Bank of China.”

Well, it appears that Obama has reached his self-defined “unpatriotic” zone himself. According to CNS News, the new debt increase from the Obama administration is more than all of the presidents from George Washington to Bill Clinton COMBINED:

- The total federal debt of the U.S. government has now increased more than $7 trillion during Barack Obama’s tenure as president.

- When President Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, the total federal debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Now it has risen to $17,618,599,653,160.19 — up $6,991,722,604,247.11 from Obama’s first day on the job.

- The $7,060,259,674,497.51 in new debt alone from Obama’s presidency is $61,341.82 per household.

Worldwide------Italy Falls Back Into Recession, Raising Concern for Eurozone Economy

Italy Falls Back Into Recession, Raising Concern for Eurozone Economy - NYTimes.com:
"FRANKFURT — The Italian economy shrank in the second quarter, according to an official estimate on Wednesday, taking economists by surprise and provoking concern that violence in Ukraine and tension with Russia could be pushing the broader eurozone back into recession.
Italy’s gross domestic product contracted 0.2 percent from April through June, compared with the first quarter of 2014, Istat, the Italian statistics office, said in a preliminary estimate.
It was the second quarterly decline in a row for Italy, meeting the most common definition of a recession. In the first quarter, output shrank 0.1 percent compared with the previous quarter.
The decline dashed hopes that Italy, the third-largest eurozone economy after Germany and France, was finally emerging from a decade of stagnation."

How Elizabeth Warren and Other Democrats Want Obama to Bypass Congress to Mandate ‘Economic Patriotism’ | TheBlaze.com

How Elizabeth Warren and Other Democrats Want Obama to Bypass Congress to Mandate ‘Economic Patriotism’ | TheBlaze.com:
"Democratic senators are calling for President Barack Obama to take executive action that would essentially increase the tax burden on many American companies. The White House isn’t ruling out a unilateral act, invoking the phrase “economic patriotism” to condemn companies that incorporate overseas."

Is Gardeners' Question Time racist?

Is Gardeners' Question Time racist? - Telegraph:

"One current presenter, Bob Flowerdew, rubbished the idea, calling it “ridiculous”, and asked whether experts on the show “should stop using Latin names to avoid offending the Romans”.
But Dr Ben Pitcher, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Westminster, claimed the programme’s regular discussions on soil purity and non-native species promoted nationalist and fascist beliefs.
Speaking on another Radio 4 programme, Thinking Allowed, the academic said: “Gardeners’ Question Time is not the most controversial show on Radio 4, and yet it is layered with, saturated with, racial meanings.
“The context here is the rise of nationalism. The rise of racist and fascist parties across Europe. Nationalism is about shoring up a fantasy of national integrity. My question is, what feeds nationalism? What makes nationalism powerful?”
Dr Pitcher said the “crisis in white identity in multicultural Britain” meant people felt unable to express their views for fear of being called racist, so expressed their racial identity in other ways, such as talking about gardening.
Speaking on the same programme, Lola Young, a crossbench peer and former professor of cultural studies, backed Dr Pitcher’s analysis.
She added: “I remember back in the late 80s-early 90s when rhododendrons were seen as this huge problem, and people were talking about going out rhododendron-bashing.
“That was at a time when Paki-bashing was something that was all too prevalent on our streets.”
However Mr Flowerdew, a regular panellist on the show, denied that people who enjoyed talking about gardening were closet racists.
He said: “People aren’t gardening because they have some narrow nationalist view of the world.
“They are gardening because they enjoy it and they like to be outside in nice surroundings.”

Republicans Are Losing Faith in Their Michigan Senate Candidate

Republicans Are Losing Faith in Their Michigan Senate Candidate - NationalJournal.com:
"August 6, 2014
Terri Lynn Land is officially her party's nominee for Michigan's open Senate seat, and Republicans are less than inspired. 
Not that that should come as any surprise.
There's one simple reason Michigan Republicans worked feverishly to recruit someone other than Land to run:
She is not a top-tier candidate.
The last few months of her campaign is proof, revealing the warts and weaknesses that her allies have always known could ruin the GOP's best opportunity in two decades to take a grab at this Senate seat.
Certainly, Land has some things going for her.
The former secretary of state is a woman in a male-dominated party.
She's known by GOP donors nationwide after serving on the Republican National Committee, and has raised impressive sums of money, self-funding roughly one-third of her campaign.
She also won two statewide elections with healthy majorities, giving her solid name identification.
But on the nuts and bolts of campaigning – operational tactics, articulating policy specifics, messaging through advertisements and media – there were serious doubts about whether Land could compete.
With partisan control of the Senate up for grabs, Michigan's race this year is a nationally significant one. Republicans who know Land were concerned about her lack of exposure to the national spotlight, and whether she could survive the scrutiny of such a campaign.
Those fears are now being realized."

John Bolton: ‘The World's Descending Into Chaos’ Under Obama

John Bolton: ‘The World's Descending Into Chaos’ Under Obama | Truth Revolt

Varney then transitioned to the recent WSJ/NBC poll that presents damning numbers about the American people’s opinion of President Obama’s leadership—particularly in foreign policy, with a dismal 36% approval.

Bolton: Yeah, I’d like to know who those 36% are because the world’s descending into chaos. And I think this poll and the drop in approval numbers overall, gives the lie to the conventional political wisdom that Americans don’t care about foreign policy, that it’s too remote from their lives.

I think the American people are much more sensible and practical than their political leaders, and they see that because our economy here at home depends on a global economy that instability in Europe can have a profound effect...

Varney argued that the American public has become used to the 24-hour news cycle, and expects stories like Ukraine to be resolved, but they are “just not going away.”

Bolton responded, “It’s just the tip of the iceberg,” pointing out that Putin broadcasted his intentions eight years ago, but was being met by "no effective American or European resistance":

Bolton: It’s just the tip of the iceberg. Look, Putin gave us strategic warning eight years ago when he said the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. That was a statement right then that he intended to get Russian hegemony in the space of the former Soviet Union.

That’s what he is doing and he is meeting no effective American or European resistance.

See which neighborhoods and precincts in Muskegon had the highest voter turnout

See which neighborhoods and precincts in Muskegon had the highest voter turnout | MLive.com:

Conservative Commentator Ben Shapiro Appears on CNN, Utterly Slams Network for Gaza Coverage | Video | TheBlaze.com

Conservative Commentator Ben Shapiro Appears on CNN, Utterly Slams Network for Gaza Coverage | Video | TheBlaze.com:

“You should also mention all the restrictions that Hamas puts on your reporting in the Gaza Strip, you should also mention all the context with regard to Hamas putting children in harms way, you should also routinely mention the fact that Hamas’ charter calls for the destruction not only of the state of Israel but for the murder of Jews across the world, which of course, CNN does not.”

Is New York the Next Detroit?

Is New York the Next Detroit? - Bloomberg View:

In theory, unions should be leading the charge for more conservative accounting standards; after all, it is their job to make absolutely sure that their members will be able to count on those pensions in their old age. 
In practice, unions often have other priorities. Witness Detroit, where the unions did nothing to stop the absolutely grotesque mismanagement of the city's pension funds.
In New York, reports the Times, the unions don’t want to move to more conservative pension accounting, because if they do, the city will be required to put more money into the pot . . . and the taxpaying public might mobilize against the union workers who put them in this spot.
Of course, putting it off will ultimately just make the problem worse; the inexorable logic of compounding is just not very forgiving. 
Over the next few decades, we are going to come face to face with more problems like Detroit’s: pensions that must be paid, legally and morally, but cannot be paid while still offering an acceptable level of government services. 
Taxpayers’ wallets are not an inexhaustible resource, and cities and states that demand too much will see their citizenry depart for more fiscally responsible climes.

History for August 7

History for August 7 - On-This-Day.com

Birth anniversary of Ethiopian marathoner and two-time Olympic gold medalist Abebe Bikila (1932-73).

Birth anniversary of WWI spy Mata Hari (Margaret Gertrude Selle, 1876-1917).

Happy Birthday! David Duchovny, Charlize Theron, B.J. Thomas

1789 - The U.S. War Department was established by the U.S. Congress. 


1782 - George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart. 


1882 - The Hatfield-McCoy feud erupted along the Kentucky-West Virginia border.


1888 - Theophilus Van Kannel received a patent for the revolving door. 


1914 - Germany invaded France. 


1942 - U.S. forces landed at Guadalcanal, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II. 


1960 - The Cuban Catholic Church condemned the rise of communism in Cuba. Fidel Castro then banned all religious TV and radio broadcasts. 


1964 - The U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which gave President Johnson broad powers in dealing with reported North Vietnamese attacks on U.S. forces. 

1978 - The Love Canal, a section of Niagara Falls, NY, was declared a disaster area.

1974 - French stuntman Philippe Petit walked a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center. 


2003 - In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that he would run for the office of governor. 

2003 - Stephen Geppi bought a 1963 G.I. Joe prototype for $200,000.

LIBERTY REVIEW

LIBERTY REVIEW:
http://www.libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2014/08/an-asterisk-by-tammy-derouin-internal.html

I wonder what will be said about the United States in future history books. Will we be mentioned at all?  How much of our past will have been completely re-written?  How much of the present transformation will be twisted and falsified?  Will it say the majority of the people really wanted to give up their freedom to be enslaved by the state?

Perhaps there will simply be an asterisk next to the United States.  Maybe it will state that we were once the freest nation in the world but due to lack of interest and the difficulty of living independently, we opted out of responsibility.

Scientific review finds aspirin significantly cuts cancer rates

Scientific review finds aspirin significantly cuts cancer rates | Fox News:
"Taking a small daily dose of aspirin can significantly reduce the risk of developing — or dying from — bowel, stomach and esophageal cancer, according to a large review of scientific studies.
Researchers who analyzed all available evidence from studies and clinical trials assessing benefits and harm found that taking aspirin for 10 years could cut bowel cancer cases by around 35 percent and deaths from the disease by 40 percent.
Rates of esophageal and stomach cancer were cut by 30 percent and deaths from these cancers by 35 to 50 percent.
Professor Jack Cuzick, head of the center for cancer prevention at Queen Mary University of London, said the evidence showed that, to reap the benefits of aspirin, people need to take a daily dose of 75 to 100 milligrams for at least five years and probably up to 10 years between the ages of 50 and 65."

HUGE Victory for the Tea Party!

HUGE Victory for the Tea Party! » Grassroots in Michigan:
Tea Party backed newcomer Lee Chatfield scored a huge win last night over incumbent Rep.Frank Foster in the 107th District! Republican voters rejected Foster’s support of Medicaid Expansion, Common Core and support for amending Michigan’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act to include “sexual ordination” (Are you listening Lansing?!) 
Equally repugnant to voters was Foster endorsers, the Powering the Economy PAC, funded by the Detroit Regional Chamber sending a mailer encouraging Democrats and independents to vote for Foster during Tuesday’s primary!

Will the Party hold the Detroit Chamber responsible at all? Imagine if the Michigan Chamber was advocating for crossover like this, the furor? Even if the Party does not, will individual members? Could there be a rep ‘boycott’ meeting with the Detroit Chamber going forward?

Other Tea Party backed or supported winners are:
As of this writing, Justin Amash, 3rd District Representative in Congress, 7th District State Senator Patrick Colbeck, Lana Theis, 42nd District State Representative, Jim Runestad, 44th District State Representative, Cindy Gamrat, 80th District State Representative, Todd Courser, 82nd District State Representative, Gary Glenn 98th District State Representative, Triston Cole, 105th District State Representative
Congratulations to All!!

Ummmm, they don't have tax-paying parents either-------Feds, state to VA schools: Law says educate undocumented children

Feds, state to VA schools: Law says educate undocumented children « Watchdog.org:

"ALEXANDRIA, Va. — With less than a month until school starts in September, Virginia taxpayers will be footing the bill for some of the thousands of undocumented school-age children who have come here in recent months.

 The Virginia Department of Education is echoing the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education in saying that schools “may not deny a free public education to undocumented school-age children who reside within their jurisdiction because they do not hold valid United States citizenship or a student visa.”"

Border Patrol Agent Killed by Illegals

Border Patrol Agent Killed by Illegals:
"Javier Vega was innocently fishing with his family in Willacy County, Texas when two individuals approached them in a robbery attempt. The suspects opened fire on the Vega family after they noticed Vega’s gun holstered on his hip. The 30-year old Vega, who was off-duty from his job as a Border Patrol Agent, and his father proceeded to fire back. Vega was shot in the chest and later died."

Stimulus ‘boondoggle’: School board member details disastrous school computer giveaway

Stimulus ‘boondoggle’: School board member details disastrous school computer giveaway - EAGnews.org powered by Education Action Group Foundation, Inc.:

HOBOKEN, N.J. – When the Hoboken school leaders decided in 2010 to use a windfall of federal stimulus money to purchase laptops for all students in the city’s junior-senior high school, former board member Maureen Sullivan was the only one to vote against the measure.     

Four years later, the district’s superintendent Mark Toback has deemed the initiative “unsustainable” and canceled the program, leaving school officials to explore options for recycling dozens of machines that are now collecting dust in a school storage closet.

“It was clear it was going to be a boondoggle and a disaster and that’s what it turned out to be,” Sullivan told EAGnews.

“The stimulus money came and it had to be soaked up … It was like, ‘It’s free money, let’s just spend it,’” she said of the board’s rush to dole out computers, which her colleagues on the board viewed as an opportunity to help the district’s mostly poor students keep up with their wealthier peers.

“There was just no planning or thinking things through logically,” she said. “In general, that’s how the school board operates.”

Sooooo. We can trust everything else in the article?-----The black HIV epidemic: A public health mystery from Atlanta’s gay community

The black HIV epidemic: A public health mystery from Atlanta’s gay community - The Washington Post:

Editor’s note: Several passages have been removed from this story because the source of those passages, Mickyel Bradford, has admitted to fabricating them. 
The passages include descriptions of a lunch in Bradford’s town and a ball that Bradford claimed he attended with a man identified as Seth. Bradford now confirms that neither of those events occurred as described. 
Additionally, Bradford admits the two men never discussed getting tested for HIV. 
All passages concerning the two men have been removed.