As Alaska Goes, So Goes America?

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

Mid-term elections are problematic for the party holding the Presidency; mid-term elections following scandals or highly divisive policy choices are particularly problematic.

The Republican Party experienced disaster in 1974 following Watergate, the granddaddy of all modern political scandals, losing 49 seats in the House and four in the Senate, giving Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in that body. When Reagan won his second term in 1984 (carrying 49 out of 50 states), the GOP held a 53 to 47 majority in the Senate only to give up 8 seats in 1986 and control to the Democrats following the Iran-Contra Affair.

Bill Clinton sold himself as a New Democrat in 1992, but after seeking to implement Hillarycare and raising taxes, voters sent his party to the cleaners in 1994, with the Republicans gaining back control of the House (in a 54 seat swing) and the Senate (9 seat change) for the first time since the 1950s.

The mid-term elections of 2010 followed a strikingly similar path. After the passage of the Stimulus Bill and Obamacare, the Democrats experienced the greatest reversal of party fortunes in House history. The GOP picked up 63 seats and leadership of the House, as well as 6 seats in the Senate, though Democrats retained control of that body.

Both scandal and unpopular policy choices are once again in the mix as 2014 begins to take shape, and the outcomes in a few key states may change the entire balance of power in Washington.

Read more from this story HERE.

Unusual Record-Setting Heat Wave Baking Alaska (+video)

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A heat wave hitting Alaska may not rival the blazing heat of Phoenix or Las Vegas, but to residents of the 49th state, the days of hot weather feel like a stifling oven — or a tropical paradise.

With temperatures topping 80 degrees in Anchorage, and higher in other parts of the state, people have been sweltering in a place where few homes have air conditioning.

They’re sunbathing and swimming at local lakes, hosing down their dogs and cleaning out supplies of fans in at least one local hardware store. Mid-June normally brings high temperatures in the 60s in Anchorage, and just a month ago, it was still snowing.

Read more from this story HERE.

Legislation Finalizing Sealaska Land Claims Advances in U.S. Senate

Photo Credit: SitNews

Photo Credit: SitNews

The Southeast Alaska Native Land Entitlement Finalization and Jobs Protection Act (S. 340) was approved Tuesday by the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee by unanimous voice vote. The bill now heads to the Senate floor for consideration.

The measure provides Sealaska Corp., the Alaska Native regional corp. for Southeast Alaska, with 70,075 acres to finalize transfer of land owed to the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian tribes under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA).

“It has taken six years, but today we’ve taken a major step toward fulfilling the promise made to Southeast’s 20,000 Alaska Natives more than four decades ago,” U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said. “This has been a difficult process because every acre of the Tongass is precious to someone, but we have worked tirelessly with all of the stakeholders to address their concerns. I truly believe that all of that work has resulted in the best bill possible. It will help the region’s timber industry grow, while at the same time protect more than 150,000 acres for fisheries and habitat.”

Under ANCSA, which extinguished aboriginal land claims in Alaska, Sealaska was entitled to an estimated 375,000 acres of the 16.9-million acre Tongass National Forest to help improve the livelihoods of its shareholders. The government never made good on its promise.

Sealaska is currently owed some 85,000 acres, but under the compromise worked out in Murkowski’s bill it will accept about 15,000 acres less in exchange for 68,400 acres for timber harvesting, 1,099 acres for renewable energy resource and recreational tourism projects, and 490 acres of Native cemetery and historic sites.

Read more from this story HERE.

TWA 800 Investigators Claim NTSB Conclusion “Falsified,” Explosions Outside Plane Brought it Down

Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

Skeptics who have long theorized that TWA Flight 800 was brought down by sinister forces will get a fresh surge of energy when a new documentary attempts to disprove that the 1996 crash was accidental…

It includes six members of the accident investigation team who, publicists say, will “break their silence” on the cause of the explosion.

They will petition the National Transportation Safety Board to reopen its investigation some 17 years after the B-747 fell in pieces into the waters off of Long Island, New York.

They include Hank Hughes, who served as a senior accident investigator with the NTSB and helped reconstruct the aircraft following its destruction. Also included, Bob Young, a top TWA investigator who participated in the investigation, and Jim Speer, an accident investigator for the Airline Pilots Association.

“These investigators were not allowed to speak to the public or refute any comments made by their superiors and/or NTSB and FBI officials about their work at the time of the official investigation,” a news release announcing the documentary said.

“They waited until after retirement to reveal how the official conclusion by the (NTSB) was falsified and lay out their case.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Bill Ayers: Try Obama for War Crimes (+video)

Photo Credit: Mediaite

Photo Credit: Mediaite

Bill Ayers believes President Obama gets a “failing grade” for his presidency, and should be tried for “war crimes,” along with all living presidents who have engaged in acts of “terrorism” abroad.

Sitting down for an episode of RealClearPolitics’ “Morning Commute,” Ayers told host Charlie Stone that, on policy, Obama receives a “failing grade” along with the “F-minuses” he’s given previous presidents like George W. Bush and Richard Nixon…

“Do you think Barack Obama should be put on trial for war crimes?” Stone asked.

“Absolutely,” the activist answered. “Every president in this century should be on trial for war crimes. Every one of them goes into an office dripping with blood.”

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama’s alleged contacts with Ayers became a source of controversy, with the Republican ticket focusing a great deal on Ayers’ past association with the violent Weather Underground organization during the Vietnam War.

Video:

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Establishment: Stupid or Sinister?

Photo Credit: Lifestyle News

Photo Credit: Lifestyle News

A question I’ve been asked a lot lately goes a little something like this:

Beyond the fact it betrays the rule of law and rewards lawbreakers by giving them what they broke the law for in the first place, I don’t understand why all these Republican “leaders” want to engage in a scamnesty program that will just result in adding over $6 trillion more in debt for taxpayers while simultaneously allowing Democrats to register millions of more new voters. Hispanics have voted Republican only 31% of the time since 1980. Do they want the whole country to look as broke as California following the Reagan Amnesty, which was a Republican-leaning state for decades (GOP won California in 7 of the 10 previous presidential elections prior to the Reagan Amnesty) and now less than 30% of Californians are registered Republicans? Are these GOP “leaders” so stupid as to not understand they’re actively aiding and abetting their own destruction?

The answer, of course, is yes – they are this stupid. But the answer doesn’t end there. To truly understand what’s driving the GOP ruling class’ self-immolation train you have to realize why they’re this stupid.

There are two reasons for their stupidity.

The first is easy to identify, because we recognize the ruling class mindset is largely a non-partisan phenomenon. It seems nobody, regardless of party, gets more principled the longer they’re a part of the District of Corruption. The den of iniquity known as the beltway culture is like a rotting corpse that eventually infests everything and everybody it touches. Some have the depth of worldview, character, and courage to resist its side effects longer than others, but prolonged exposure over time eventually leads to even the best of us being infected with a lack of critical thinking, self-righteousness, and ambition masquerading as conviction.

Once infected, the patient then loses detachment from all reality outside of the 202 or 212 area codes. This produces an echo chamber, whereas a bunch of people presume to play God by making decisions with regular people’s lives they themselves haven’t had to live in a long time and no longer understand. From high atop their subsidized Valhalla they issue edicts and commandments they often exempt themselves from. Sure we complain, vent, and when we’re really upset we might even – gasp! – blog about it. Because nothing threatens gangster government like a blog.

However, when they do descend down to the depths to commiserate with we in the huddled masses, which is usually only for fundraisers or campaigning, they are often treated by their bosses (us) like they are rock stars and not our employees, which only feeds their egocentric existence. Instead of holding them accountable for what previous generations of Americans would’ve called treason, we often thank them for not selling us out even more. We then send them right back to the source of their temptation expecting a different result each time.

Wash, rinse, and repeat.

So, yes, the insulated ruling class world these people are allowed to live in (often for decades) feeds their stupidity. But there is something else afoot here that is far more subtle and sinister.

Those that run the Republican Party are ashamed of their base. I say that knowing ashamed is a strong word, yet in this case it might not actually be strong enough. These are often successful and wealthy people. They understand Coke doesn’t make money promoting Pepsi, or that the Yankees shouldn’t take advice on how to build a winner from the Red Sox. They’re not morons. They just hate us.

To them the big argument between Republicans and Democrats isn’t a clash of worldviews with a civilization at stake. To them the big argument is whether the check from the taxpayer trough gets written out to Democrat special interests or theirs. This thing we call politics isn’t faith and ethics in action to these people, but rather a cynical battle of dueling self-interests. Therefore, it’s those of us who attempt to interject our faith and/or ethics into the political process that are the real threat to them—much more so than Democrats.

Democrats don’t threaten their way of life, but we do.

They’re fine arguing with Democrats about issues like job creation, because both of them wrongly believe that’s the government’s job. They fall apart when the conversation changes to what government shouldn’t do, or a culture’s moral responsibility. In other words, we’re often aligned with people who don’t share our value system. That is the recipe for a dysfunctional relationship.

And dysfunctional relationships often end in divorce.

They know the reason Mitt Romney lost in 2012 was the loss of the GOP base, not the Hispanic vote. They know Romney would’ve needed 72% of the Hispanic vote to win. They know these facts are readily available to all who care to research them for themselves. They know they’re lying to you, often using “conservative media” you frequent to do it. They know you’re alienated from the party.

They just don’t care.

See, this is all part of a greater plan, a plan to replace you with voters who want the same thing from government that they want. So they’re going to replace you with voters who believe in entitlement, bending the rules or outright breaking the law to get what they want, and don’t care about the Constitution or the “laws of nature and nature’s God” anymore than they do.

In the meantime they don’t mind losing a few elections if that’s what it takes to preserve their gravy train. Besides, many of these people have been there for decades anyway, so two or three crucial elections are barely a wrinkle in time for them. This explains why they don’t have the sense of urgency about America’s future that we do.

Once they’ve sufficiently watered down your influence within the Republican Party by flooding the electorate with more “government-Americans,” they’ll try and come back and make you part of the team again—but only on their terms, of course.

And their terms are stand for nothing meaningful, believe in nothing meaningful, but vote Republican just because we’re not Democrats. “After all,” they’ll say, “at least we still say ‘God bless America’ at our convention.”

The end game here is control. Always has been. They’re not ideologically driven one way or the other. They are purely agenda driven, and the agenda is control. Stand in the way of them being in control regardless of your ideology – either conservative or libertarian – and you’re a threat. This explains why these people go after us harder in primaries than they go after Democrats in general elections.

What for many years we have wrongly believed to be a battle between moderates and conservatives is really a battle for control. To believe these people have an ideology is giving them too much credit. Their only ideology is control. They want you involved—but on their terms. They want diversity in the party—but on their terms.

These people would rather lose elections than lose control, and that’s why they keep doing over and over again what has proven to be a loser every time it’s tried. That’s why they accept the liberal media’s talking points on the death of the Tea Party or social conservatives at face value. To admit defeat or to admit you’re relevant would be the same as admitting you have power and influence over the process, and the minute they admit that they lose control.

What we have viewed as “a battle for the soul of the Republican Party” is nothing of the sort. These people are soul-less. To them this is simply a clash of two factions within a board of directors for control of a corporation. They simply want control to pay off their investors/shareholders with dividends and/or coveted jobs/appointments. They don’t care what product the company sells or doesn’t sell, provided they’re in control.

The only way to beat these people is to realize this and beat them at their own game. The numbers have always been in our favor, but they have done a magnificent job of buying off several of our so-called leaders and champions, so we couldn’t sufficiently organize to overthrow them.

But that topic deserves its own book.

____________________________________________________________

You can friend “Steve Deace” on Facebook or follow him on Twitter @SteveDeaceShow.

At Least 100 Americans Held Captive in Kuwait for Months

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

At least 100 American citizens have been trapped for months on two U.S. bases inside Kuwait after local police unjustly issued warrants for their arrest, a U.S. defense contractor told FoxNews.com.

Most of the Americans were working as Arabic translators for Global Linguist Solutions, which ended a lucrative deal with its sponsoring Kuwaiti subcontractor, Al Shora International General Trading & Contracting and signed on with another company. Sources told FoxNews.com Al Shora’s managing director is the sister-in-law of the Kuwaiti prime minister.

When the contract ended Feb. 17, Al Shora refused to transfer the employees’ visas to the new Kuwaiti subcontractor and falsely accused the Americans of being “runaways and absconders,” according to Charles Tolleson, president of Global Linguist Solutions. His company has barred workers from leaving the bases since May 31 to protect them from arrest and imprisonment.

Read more from this story HERE.

North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un Admires Hitler, Wants Nation to Follow Nazi Model

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Kim Jong-un handed out copies of Adolph Hitler’s jailhouse memoir “Mein Kampf” at his Jan. 8 birthday party, New Focus International first reported Monday…

“Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in World War I, Kim Jong-un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked that practical applications be drawn from it,” a DPRK official who serves in China told the news site.

“Kim Jong-un gave a lecture to high-ranking officials, stressing that we must pursue the policy of Byungjin in terms of nuclear and economic development,” the source said. The phrase “Byungjin” refers to Kim’s policy of improving the country’s nuclear program while strengthening the economy.

Read more from this story HERE.

Murkowski, Rubio Join With Democrats to Kill Border Fence Amendment to Immigration Bill

Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said late Tuesday that he supports securing the United States border with Mexico with a double-tiered fence but voted against an amendment to the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill that would have required exactly that.

Rubio and his fellow Gang of Eight Republicans helped the Democrats kill an amendment from Sen. John Thune (R-SD) that would have required the double-tiered fence be built, as current law requires, before amnesty was granted to America’s at least 11 million illegal immigrants. The only other Republican to vote against the amendment was Sen. Lisa Murkowski…

The amendment would have undercut Rubio’s promise to Univision’s Spanish-speaking audience this past weekend that amnesty would come before border security in the end. “First comes the legalization. Then come the measures to secure the border.” He added, “It is not conditional. The legalization is not conditional.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Calls NSA’s Unconstitutional Surveillance “Transparent” (+video)

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

President Obama has had difficulty finding his footing and has been late to the game in defending federal intelligence surveillance programs as a valuable weapon for thwarting terrorist plots, national security analysts say.

When Mr. Obama appeared on TV with PBS interviewer Charlie Rose Monday night, it was his first high-profile comment on the secret phone and Internet surveillance since the story broke on June 5, nearly two weeks earlier. And even then, the president’s remarks were seen even by supporters of the programs as muddled.

For example, the president told Mr. Rose that the surveillance programs run by the National Security Agency (NSA) were “transparent” because they are overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court. But the court itself is secret, with the public barred from learning any details of its operation, its location, or the orders issued by its judges.

“The Charlie Rose show was a good tactical choice in terms of setting, but the case made so far doesn’t seem to be persuading folks,” said Peter Singer, a national security specialist at the left-leaning Brookings Institution. “What he is battling is not just a facts-based argument but a lost-trust issue that is far harder to turn around.”

As Mr. Obama himself said on the show, “This debate has gotten cloudy very quickly.”

Read more from this story HERE.