Two Chilling Developments Suggest Asia May Be One Step Away From War

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Photo Credit: businessinsider.comChina and Japan, along with North and South Korean troops at the DMZ, appear one step away from armed combat and tensions don’t look likely to ease any time soon.

New developments within both regions illustrate how close to open combat the four countries are, and how quickly one incident could expand to war among very powerful nations.

Tokyo reported two January events where Chinese naval vessels targeted its East China Sea forces with fire-control radar. This specific type of radar is used almost exclusively to assist guided weapons systems in their flight toward a target. It’s an unmistakable action that can be the first step to open combat, and was taken seriously enough by the Japanese captain to prompt a combat alert aboard his vessel.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded to the allegations by saying it hadn’t heard about the engagements until news of the events appeared on international news. It has since said that the event didn’t happen and is a total Japanese fabrication. Whether it’s true or not China is using Japan’s claim to prove Tokyo is preparing for war.

If Chinese ships did engage their fire-control radar, it may be in Beijing’s interest to deny it because either it approved the maneuver, or the ship’s captains acted independently. Both scenarios offer a long list of concerns that would be easiest for China to address if avoided entirely.

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Confederalism

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photo credit: christianrh7When our Constitution was ratified, there was no debate about the purpose of government. The words of the Declaration of Independence are clear:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men[.]

The purpose of government was to secure liberty; the founders did not argue about that point. Rather, they argued about the best way to do that.

Our first government was a confederation, and the mission of the men in Philadelphia was not to end that confederation, but to fix it. What were the problems with the Articles of Confederation? The standard litany runs thus: Congress had no power to raise taxes; a supermajority was required for Congress to pass laws; the national government had no method of enforcing those laws; each state had a single vote. America could never have been great if it had remained a confederation.

But is this true? Canada and Australia were both, in practical terms, confederations. Switzerland, the most successful nation in Europe, has been a confederation for centuries. The United Provinces of Netherlands, which were really a loose confederation of seven little nations (Holland, for example, was simply the largest of the seven provinces), were wildly successful.

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Woman With Pacemaker Refuses Smart Meter- Has Power Cut In The Dead Of Winter

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Photo Credit: YouTubeA handicapped woman in western Ohio has to battle the freezing winter weather this weekend because she refused to allow the local power company to install a “smart meter” on her property.

Brenda Hawk has a pacemaker for her heart and because her brain was injured in a car accident, she requires a breathing machine in order to sleep at night. She does not want the new radio-frequency emitting meter because of the health problems these devices have been said to cause. But American Electric Power AEP-Ohio, the local power company, has persisted in their push to swap out Hawk’s analog meter and replace it with the new one.

TheBlaze spoke with Hawk on Saturday. At the time, she was using a kerosene heater to stay warm in the freezing weather. Hawk gave us a basic timeline on the story.

In October of last year, a utility worker arrived on her property and announced that he had removed her old analog power meter and replaced it with a new one. Hawk told him that she had not approved the meter swap and requested that the old one be restored. A series of phone calls between Hawk, the power company and the sheriff’s office was enough to get the new meter pulled out and the old one re-installed.

Fast forward to Jan. 24, 2013. A certified letter from AEP executive Ralph Rocca, Jr. arrived at Hawk’s home announcing that she would be getting a new meter or her power would be cut off. Her efforts to contact Rocca were not successful. All that Hawk wanted was a guarantee from the company that the new meter’s electrical signals would not interfere with her pacemaker. The company could not give her that assurance and it was her position that unless and until they did, no “smart meter” would be installed.

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Rand Paul To Give Official Tea Party Response To SOTU

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreSen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., will deliver the Tea Party’s official response to President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, Tea Party Express announced on Friday.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., will deliver the Republican response.

“Since the President has been re-elected, the debt has continued to skyrocket and unemployment has ticked up, but he has offered no solutions and has shown no leadership,” said Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer. “In contrast, Senator Rand Paul has put forth solutions that would spur economic growth and rein in Washington’s out-of-control spending. We are excited that Senator Paul, a conservative leader and strong voice for the Tea Party movement, will be offering our perspective on the state of the union.”

The first Tea Party response was given by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., in 2011, and former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain delivered last year’s response.

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The ‘Electability’ Myth

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Photo Credit: TownhallMuch has been said and written regarding Karl Rove and the Republican Party establishment’s latest plan to go harder after conservatives than they ever would Democrats. And I’ve had much to say about it myself.

But I’ve yet to see anyone question the premise of the phony argument Rove is hiding behind to justify his crusade to purge the GOP of anybody that won’t grovel at the feet of the ruling class (which is what Rove’s pro-establishment Jihad is really all about). See, in Rove’s world if you actually have principles and want to defeat Democrats and not just negotiate the terms of liberty’s surrender, you’re a “nutcase.”

Rove claims he’s out to find “electable” candidates. Well, who isn’t? Of course, all of us want to win elections. The candidate you’re supporting doesn’t get to act on any of the principles he’s running on if he doesn’t win. Nothing in politics is more crushing than losing on election night when you’ve spent your time, talent, and treasure on behalf of a candidate who’s a champion of your principles. So for Rove and the establishment to claim they’re the only ones concerned about “electability” is patronizing at best and disingenuous at worst.

Besides, how do we define “electability?” Furthermore, how come we allow the very people who oppose our ideas and principles to define who is and who isn’t “electable?” Should the General Manager of the Boston Red Sox consult with the New York Yankees front office on personnel decisions? Maybe Auburn’s new football coach should call Alabama’s Nick Saban and get his take on whom to recruit?

“Electability” is a ruling class fallacy, both on the right and the left. It’s essentially the political equivalent to Jim Crow laws, aimed at stifling the potential for upward mobility of those in the grassroots who would challenge the ruling class’ status quo. Despite all their public hand-wringing and pandering, they don’t really reach out to minorities for all the same reasons they don’t really reach out to their own base. They are adherents to the “Golden Rule,” which is he who has the gold gets to make all the rules. They may speak of a “big tent” but really they crave the small tent where they remain in charge of their own little fiefdom, crumbling infrastructure and all. Ironically, it’s been we in the base they hate that has diversified the GOP. Where did Ted Cruz, Allen West, and Tim Scott (just to name a few) come from?

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Tea Party Groups Attack Rove Machine

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Photo Credit: Breitbart.comWith Karl Rove under heavy fire after his group, the Conservative Victory Project, took to the pages of the New York Timesto attack the Tea Party, donors are beginning to turn on the Project. Politico reports Friday morning that the Project will “essentially preform oppo research and grade potential candidates on a variety of factors that might affect their ability to win a general election contest.” Some donors are overjoyed at the opportunity, including media honcho Stan Hubbard and Fred Malek of the American Action Network.

But others don’t trust Rove and the American Crossroads team to judge talent for office, says Politico: “the plan has sparked nearly unanimous opposition from anti-establishment deep-pocketed conservatives who have begun formulating their own big-money counter plans.” Those opponents could include other major super PACs who have long believed that Rove’s establishment bona fides prevent him from making truly conservative decisions about candidates.

And even some of Rove’s heretofore allies may be wary of his crystal ball strategy after the disastrous 2012 election cycle, which heralded not just the loss of Senate seats in Tea Party-influenced races like Indiana, but establishment strongholds like Wisconsin. American Crossroads had a mere 5.7% rate of return – just 5.7% of the money they spent on the 2012 election was actually spent on winning candidates.

Steven Law, president of American Crossroads, understands that he is now facing an uphill battle with conservative, especially given his group’s less-than-stellar 2012 performance. Law promises an investigation into “all of our activities last year, as well as external factors that contributed to last year’s deeply disappointing results.”

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More Holes in White House Denial Of Arms To Jihadists

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Photo Credit: WNDThe White House denial of supplying arms to the al-Qaida-saturated Syrian rebels may be somewhat more difficult for some to swallow now that it has been revealed the arms-to-rebels plan had been endorsed by the leaders of the CIA, Pentagon and State Department.

If, indeed, President Obama rejected the arms plan, as reported earlier by the New York Times, it would mean the White House went against the recommendations of outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then-CIA Director David Petraeus.

The plan was said to have been generated by Petraeus and Clinton.

During Senate hearings on Benghazi yesterday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., asked Panetta and Dempsey whether they had supported a plan “that we provide weapons to the resistance in Syria.”

“We do,” Panetta replied.

“You did support that?” McCain asked again.

“We did,” added Dempsey, who was sitting next to Panetta.

Neither Dempsey nor Panetta elaborated on their positions.

This past weekend, the New York Times reported the White House rebuffed the Clinton-Petraeus plan developed last summer to arm and train Syrian rebels.

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Conservative Doc Reveals Why He Spoke Out Against Obama’s Policies At Prayer Breakfast- Plus, Would He Ever Run For President?

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesWith President Barack Obama sitting just feet away, Dr. Benjamin Carson stood up for conservative principles in his speech at Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast, discussing the national debt, political correctness and even healthcare. Readers loved his speech so much that TheBlaze’s story on it went viral.

On Friday, Carson appeared on Fox News’ “Hannity” to explain why he felt compelled to speak out against the big government policies endorsed by Obama, in front of Obama.

Carson, a renown neurosurgeon, said the response to his speech has been “overwhelmingly” positive. However, he argued he didn’t make a conservative argument, but rather a “logical” and “common-sense” one.

“I don’t know where we left our brains,” he told host Sean Hannity.

Carson went on to talk about his life story, saying he grew up in a single parent home in a poverty-stricken area. He said his mother “refused to be a victim” and “never felt sorry for herself,” despite only having a third grade education.

Regarding his comments on political correctness, the neurosurgeon emphasized the importance of “freedom of speech and freedom of expression” in the United States.

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ACLU Sues To Force Removal Of Ohio Middle School’s 65-Year-Old Jesus Portrait

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsTwo advocacy groups have gone to court to force the removal of a large portrait of Jesus Christ which has hung inside a rural southern Ohio middle school since 1947.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio and the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed the lawsuit on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Columbus, reports the Columbus Dispatch.

The suit claims that the portrait hanging in Jackson Middle School violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause by endorsing Christianity.

“The maintenance and display of the portrait has the effect of advancing and endorsing one religion, improperly entangling the State in religious affairs, and violating the personal consciences of plaintiffs,” the lawsuit claims, according to Fox News.

There are three plaintiffs in the suit. One plaintiff is a student at the middle school; the other two are parents of children at the school. The plaintiffs are reportedly only identified as “Sam Doe.”

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Tea Party Changes Tack To Hit McConnell

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Photo Credit: Tom WilliamsSome individuals in the tea party movement will try anything to undermine Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, even going so far as to question the Republican’s tenacity in bringing money back to Kentucky.

It’s an unusual stance for a conservative movement best known for opposing federal spending on just about everything. But McConnell has long been a target of anti-establishment conservatives, and their latest attack on his failure to secure funding for a deteriorating bridge over the Ohio River would seem to bring them closer to President Barack Obama’s position on federal infrastructure spending.

After all, Obama used the Brent Spence Bridge as a backdrop for a September 2011 event in an attempt to pressure Republicans to back more infrastructure spending. That Obama picked a “functionally obsolete” bridge which carries motorists between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Ky., for the photo-op was no surprise. It connects the congressional district of Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, with McConnell’s Kentucky.

Despite the notoriety the president brought to it, efforts to upgrade the bridge remain delayed. So last month, a former Northern Kentucky Tea Party leader named Cathy Flaig used the deferred construction to criticize McConnell, questioning, “What has he done for Kentucky?”

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