Hi there, !
Today Mon 01/18/2016 Sun 01/17/2016 Sat 01/16/2016 Fri 01/15/2016 Thu 01/14/2016 Wed 01/13/2016 Tue 01/12/2016 Archives
Rantburg
531688 articles and 1855967 comments are archived on Rantburg.

Today: 67 articles and 168 comments as of 10:32.
Post a news link    Post your own article   
Area: WoT Operations    WoT Background    Non-WoT    Opinion       
U.S. designates ISIS in Afghanistan as foreign terrorist organization
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 6: Politix
2 19:34 DarthVader [] 
14 20:38 Bangkok Billy [] 
7 14:29 Steve White [1] 
9 14:48 rjschwarz [] 
14 17:57 Lampedusa Creretch3679 [] 
Page 1: WoT Operations
0 [1]
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
2 10:50 trailing wife []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 [1]
0 []
1 23:27 Bov Flimbers []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
0 []
3 22:36 JosephMendiola []
0 []
3 14:14 Pappy []
4 23:22 Bov Flimbers []
0 []
Page 2: WoT Background
10 17:28 Lampedusa Creretch3679 []
4 08:37 Bright Pebbles []
1 09:27 Skidmark []
3 16:23 bman []
0 []
0 []
0 []
2 19:47 phil_b []
0 []
1 17:30 Lampedusa Creretch3679 []
1 09:16 Skidmark [1]
0 [1]
0 []
2 13:37 Skidmark [1]
5 14:38 rjschwarz []
13 22:27 JosephMendiola [1]
3 12:53 Grins Snese4215 []
0 []
1 22:29 JosephMendiola [1]
4 22:30 JosephMendiola []
Page 3: Non-WoT
22 22:16 trailing wife []
2 13:33 Shipman []
3 08:55 Bright Pebbles []
5 19:55 Halliburton - Foreign Affairs Division []
0 []
0 []
0 []
6 12:31 Ebbang Uluque6305 []
1 22:38 JosephMendiola []
9 23:05 JosephMendiola []
Page 4: Opinion
1 17:48 Lampedusa Creretch3679 []
6 14:56 NoMoreBS [2]
4 17:52 Lampedusa Creretch3679 []
Economy
9,000 words worth of Obama's legacy By Donald Sensing
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 01/15/2016 17:11 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Talk about a hockey stick.
Posted by: Matt || 01/15/2016 19:22 Comments || Top||

#2  He met his goal. He fundamentally changed America. Changed it right into the ground.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/15/2016 19:34 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Reuters/Ipsos Poll: Quarter of Republicans think Cruz's birthplace disqualifies him for president
Please put all election articles on Page 6, even if it's not about seedy politicians. Except for op-eds, of course.

-- trailing wife for the moderators at 3:30 p.m. ET
Believe it or not, Donald is just trying to make sure the Republicans don't step on their dic& here. One thing is for sure, if Donald wins the nomination, he certainly won't take Cruz along with him unless this is settled.
A quarter of Republicans think White House hopeful Ted Cruz is disqualified to serve as U.S. president because he was born in Canada to an American mother, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
And I'm pretty sure 80% of Dems are going to think the same thing if Ted ends up getting nominated for POTUS or VPOTUS.
Republican voters nearly mirror independents and the broader electorate in their belief that Cruz cannot hold the White House, with 27 percent of all voters and 28 percent of independents responding he should be disqualified.
Looks like the birther argument that the MSM claims Cruz "won" wasn't such a win after all.
Cruz, a U.S. Senator from Texas who was born to a U.S. citizen mother and Cuban father in Calgary, Alberta, has brushed aside the attacks about his eligibility as pure politics. But the questions could hamper his ability to rally the broad Republican support he would need to win the party's nomination to run for the presidency in November's election.

Only 47 percent of all voters surveyed responded that they thought Cruz is qualified to be president with regard to his citizenship, with 26 percent saying they were not sure.

The poll was taken from Jan. 7 to Jan. 14, before questions about Cruz's eligibility became one of the most heated moments of Thursday night's Republican primary debate.

New York businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump has made questions about Cruz's eligibility a regular attack line on the campaign trail and the debate stage.

"I already know the Democrats are going to be bringing a suit. You have a big lawsuit over your head while you're running, and if you become the nominee, who the hell knows if you can even serve in office?" Trump said during Thursday night's debate. "So you should go out, get a declaratory judgment, let the courts decide."

But Cruz tried to use Trump's own previous words against him in response.

"Back in September, my friend Donald said that he had his lawyers look at this from every which way and there was nothing to do this," Cruz said. "Since September, the Constitution hasn't changed, but the poll numbers have."

Trump became a conservative darling in 2011 when he repeatedly questioned President Barack Obama's eligibility to be president, insisting that the president may have been born in another country and demanding to see his birth certificate.

Obama was born in Hawaii. It made Trump one of the most well-known "birthers," a term used to describe those who insisted Obama had been born elsewhere.

The constitutional issue at question is the requirement that a president be a "natural born" citizen.

Cruz, 45, has argued that because he became a citizen at the time he was born, that makes him qualify as natural born. But his opponents argue that at the time of the writing of the Constitution, natural born would have required being born on American soil.

U.S. Senator John McCain, who ran as the Republican nominee in 2008, was born in Panama, but argued he met the requirement because his birth took place on a U.S. military installation, which is the same as American soil.

The poll, which has a confidence interval of 5 percentage points, posed two questions to two separate polls of voters. One group was asked about Cruz's eligibility. The other half was asked a generic question about the eligibility of anyone born in Canada with an American parent.
Personally, I think the office of POTUS should only go to a natural-born citizen of two natural born citizens. Where natural-born means born and raised fully on American soil. Vacations, etc. allowed of course.

I have seen what happens when someone suddenly finds out that they have (insert nationality/race/religion/whatever here) in their past. Suddenly they become overly curious/loyal to it. I'm tired of those complications. Of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger gets a waiver here. And Mark Steyn.

I don't like the current pansy who worries too much about how other countries think.
Posted by: gorb || 01/15/2016 12:29 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So poll is really about how much Americans know about the Constitution.

An intelligent poll would've asked ... No, never mind. I can't finish that question.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/15/2016 13:02 Comments || Top||

#2  So poll is really about how much Americans know about the Constitution.

Yep. And what happens if this 25% of the voters change their vote based on an incorrect idea? Better get this ironed out in their minds before we get there.
Posted by: gorb || 01/15/2016 13:09 Comments || Top||

#3  So, Cruz definitely is NOT a naturalized citizen that would be part of the public record. So, If he's not a native born citizen a) what is he? b) how can he be a senator if he's not a citizen?

These people are insane.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/15/2016 13:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Citizenship is not a requirement of any elected federal office other than President.

Cut them some slack. They've been repeated told that anyone born in the borders of the US, regardless of origin is a anchor baby American citizen. Now they're being told someone born in Canada is not a Canadian citizen.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/15/2016 13:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Cruz, a U.S. Senator from Texas who was born to a U.S. citizen mother and Cuban father in Calgary, Alberta.

I think the spread of origin pretty much makes him a 'NorteAmericano'.

Unlike Mitt Romney.
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2016 13:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Procopius2k, Vice President and Speaker of the House or whomever is next in line for the Presidency have the same requirements as the President.

I think Gorb nailed it (#2). Doesn't really matter what the constitution says if enough people believe the wrong thing. Cruz should have run this all the way through the Supreme before the primaries because its obvious the Democrats would use it against him.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/15/2016 14:44 Comments || Top||

#7  I don't believe the courts will accept a case before an alleged violation has occurred. Cruz would have to be elected before someone can contest his election as invalid. Am I wrong?
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/15/2016 15:59 Comments || Top||

#8  "Cruz would have to be elected before someone can contest his election as invalid. Am I wrong?"
I think you're right. Leaving an issue this important unsettled is a steaming pile of BS, and should have been clarified / corrected 200 or more years ago. This is far more important than the shadow of a penumbra.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/15/2016 16:16 Comments || Top||

#9  And beyond the three positions that are directly in line for the President there is nothing else with that same demand? Meaning your f-d if you status is at all in question and the electorate is opinionated and semi-ignorant.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/15/2016 17:36 Comments || Top||

#10  Consider a military dependent born in a hospital in Germany. The family is there because they are stationed there. Is that kid barred from being a US President?

Please.

The US law defines a child born to a US citizen overseas as a natural US citizen. This is smoke and mirrors.

One of the things I stressed to my kids growing up is just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should. Trump shouldn't have set off this stink bomb.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/15/2016 18:12 Comments || Top||

#11  Consider a military dependent born in a hospital in Germany. The family is there because they are stationed there. Is that kid barred from being a US President?

When we were civilian expats in Germany, I was told that if my child was born in a hospital on an American military base, there was no issue -- that counts as US soil. But if my child was born in a German hospital, while she (it was trailing daughter #2) was automatically an American citizen because she had at least one American parent who was born on American soil, if she did not marry an American-born American citizen, then if her children were not born on American soil they would not inherit her American citizenship.

This is the same rule that held for John McCain (born on a US military base in Panama) and Barack Hussein Obama (had he been born in Kenya as he claimed for years before he claimed otherwise).
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/15/2016 18:28 Comments || Top||

#12  Cruz would have to be elected before someone can contest his election as invalid.

I think that you are correct. The U.S. Supreme Court is an appellant court. A lower court would have to rule and that ruling appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Someone would need standing to sue. Until the "crime" is committed nobody could prove harm which is required for standing to sue. I am not a lawyer and that one constitutional law class that I took was a long time ago.

I believe that the law is on Cruz's side and if it came before the courts they would quickly rule in his favor.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/15/2016 18:42 Comments || Top||

#13  If you are born to an American anywhere, You are a Naturalized Citizen. It is as easy as that. This stupid conversation ends right at the Constitution, right now.

Shut Up Trump.
Posted by: newc || 01/15/2016 20:21 Comments || Top||

#14  This whole thing is a fart in windstorm. TC is a natural born US cit. The law on this is pretty clear and has been for decades. He was born abroad in wedlock to an American citizen mother who met the requirements for transmission of citizenship to her son (TC). End of flippin story. I'm embarrassed that 47% of the survey population is brain dead and cannot spend 10 minutes researching this. Does not bode well for our future.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy || 01/15/2016 20:38 Comments || Top||


GOP turning into the old white man's party, warns Rand Paul
[Iran Press TV] Thank you for that slap in the face, Senator Paul, and might I invite you to bite my ass?
Posted by: Fred || 01/15/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You mad, bro?
Posted by: Raj || 01/15/2016 0:58 Comments || Top||

#2  I see no 'turning' or need for apology. Does Rand believe the son of Senzangakhona could have done better, and we'd be living in more enlightened, genteel times today ?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2016 5:35 Comments || Top||

#3  I don't think that Dr. Ben Carson would agree with him.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/15/2016 7:14 Comments || Top||

#4  I don't think that Dr. Ben Carson would agree with him or Carly or Marco or Bobby or Ted or Nikki or...........( need I go on?).

Rand sounds like a Democrat projecting.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/15/2016 7:53 Comments || Top||

#5  If it looks like a Rhino, smells like a Rhino, and acts like a Rhino he's a Rhino. Seeing metal health issues more and more.
I have long felt O was in need of being tucked away in a padded cell myself.
Posted by: Dale || 01/15/2016 8:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Like father, like son.
Acorn does not fall far from the tree.
Etc. etc.
Posted by: Nguard || 01/15/2016 10:54 Comments || Top||

#7  Not so much who's running, it's who's voting.
Posted by: KBK || 01/15/2016 11:39 Comments || Top||

#8  I guess it just always has to be about race no matter how much logic you try to apply.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/15/2016 14:14 Comments || Top||

#9  Two Cubans, an Indian-American, an African-American, and a woman are running for President along with 5 or so white guys. Seems Rand needs to open his eyes.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/15/2016 14:48 Comments || Top||


Government
Senator Lindsey Graham endorses Dynasty
[USA Today] South Carolina senator and former presidential candidate Lindsey Graham will endorse Jeb Bush for the Republican nomination on Friday, aides said.

The Bush campaign scheduled a news conference with Graham for 9:45 a.m. ET Friday.

Graham made national security and the fight against the Islamic State his major campaign themes, but could never gain traction in the crowded Republican field. He dropped out of the race last month, and he and Bush have spoken fondly of each other in the weeks since.

"Lindsey Graham is probably the most knowledgeable person on the Hill as it relates to national security, military affairs, foreign policy, and his endorsement is very meaningful," Bush told Fox News.

A former House member first elected to the Senate in 2002, Graham is well-connected and well-organized in South Carolina, and his support could help Bush mobilize Palmetto State voters ahead of a Feb. 20 primary.

Others questioned the value of Graham's support in the long run.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2016 10:13 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This bromance is going on right now for, it seems like 25 minutes.

Losers coalescing.
Posted by: USN, Ret. || 01/15/2016 10:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Yes, beltway pity party.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2016 10:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Oh man is this a case where the Unified Republicrat Beltway Party is totally oblivious.

Does anyone still believe that one Rino endorsing another Rino matters at all? These guys are so far into the bubble that it's turned into a Klein bottle.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/15/2016 11:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Klein bottle? Nice imagery.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/15/2016 11:21 Comments || Top||

#5  Knowing full well poor Jeb is history, the spiteful klein piel's not so hidden message is...'go ahead and elect Trump, he'll get nothing from the 'Beltway Party' Senate.'
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/15/2016 11:41 Comments || Top||

#6  ..as though the Beltway Senate has done anything seriously to constrain our current Nero.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/15/2016 12:03 Comments || Top||

#7  So Jeb is getting both of Lindsey's voters...
Posted by: Steve White || 01/15/2016 14:29 Comments || Top||


Obama pledges nearly $4 billion for self-driving cars
[THEHILL] President B.O. is calling for politicians to spend $4 billion on the development of self-driving cars.
It's probably a dumb question, but how's that a federal govt responsibility?
The B.O. regime said Thursday the money would be used "to accelerate the development and adoption of safe vehicle automation through real-world pilot projects."
Just like we did electric cars...
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a speech at the North American International Auto Show in bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit
... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang...
that automated cars on U.S. roads more quickly would pay dividends in safety improvements.

"We know that 80 percent of car accidents are due to human error. So we ask ourselves, what happens if human error was eliminated?" Foxx said.

"If the technology meets its promise, my back of the envelope math tells me that more than 25,000 lives would have been saved in 2015 alone," he continued. "That is powerful possibility, and that is not only worth pursuing, it is worth working aggressively to determine whether or not it is true."
Posted by: Fred || 01/15/2016 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We know that 80 percent of car accidents are due to human error. So we ask ourselves, what happens if human error was eliminated?" Foxx said.

According to the people who make up the narrative on unemployment figures, we would reduce human error to 0%, and therefore the problem would be solved.
Posted by: gorb || 01/15/2016 1:17 Comments || Top||

#2  The prez can ask. Congress decides if money is appropriated, or not.
Posted by: Sven the pelter || 01/15/2016 6:56 Comments || Top||

#3  Two points:
1) They just put out a study about over-reliance on automation in flying a plane and the loss of ability of pilots when the SHTF.
2) Where's the graft in that? Oh yeah that's where.
Posted by: AlanC || 01/15/2016 7:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Pushing the envelope in the development of self delivering car bombs...
Posted by: ed in texas || 01/15/2016 8:25 Comments || Top||

#5  If I remember right there was a pilot program for this,...it was called 'The Bus' with a slogan: "Leave the driving to Us".
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/15/2016 8:58 Comments || Top||

#6  That's four billion (with a "B") dollars worth of 100 percent pure pork lard. No wonder our government has a $20 trillion dollar debt. And with Republicans like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan running Congress Obummer won't have any trouble getting it.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/15/2016 12:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Meh. It's only 0.1% of the federal budget. Almost a rounding error. /sarcasm
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia || 01/15/2016 12:46 Comments || Top||

#8  I wish the 0.1% was almost rounding error. If the Republicans get into office and actually dig into what our current debt is, our "rounding error" is going to be more like 50% I have a feeling.
Posted by: gorb || 01/15/2016 13:07 Comments || Top||

#9  No thanks. I've seen "I Robot".
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 01/15/2016 14:20 Comments || Top||

#10  Bet a self-driving car will eventually be networked for traffic info and can download location information and report folks going into certain neighborhoods when the POlice ask.

Folks pushed back at the idea of a black box in cars but they'll slip that in through the self-driving back door.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/15/2016 14:32 Comments || Top||

#11  Can a self-driving Uber tell if their is a passenger in the car vs a box of drugs being delivered?
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/15/2016 14:33 Comments || Top||

#12  Its a payoff to Google for all of the free data mining they did for the One during the last presidential election and all of that free data on computer use they give to the Feds.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 01/15/2016 16:27 Comments || Top||

#13  Govmint Motors recently announced research into self driving vehicles. Another payoff to the unions.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 01/15/2016 17:19 Comments || Top||

#14 
Posted by: Lampedusa Creretch3679 || 01/15/2016 17:57 Comments || Top||



Who's in the News
32[untagged]
12Islamic State
3Govt of Pakistan
3Govt of Pakistain Proxies
2Govt of Iraq
2al-Qaeda
2al-Shabaab
2Govt of Iran
2Govt of Syria
2Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh
1Taliban
1al-Nusra
1Jaish-e-Mohammad
1Commies
1Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (IS)

Bookmark
E-Mail Me

The Classics
The O Club
Rantburg Store
The Bloids
The Never-ending Story
Thugburg
Gulf War I
The Way We Were
Bio

Merry-Go-Blog











On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2016-01-15
  U.S. designates ISIS in Afghanistan as foreign terrorist organization
Thu 2016-01-14
  Terror attacks in Jakarta -- 7 die so far
Wed 2016-01-13
  Suicide bomber kills 10 people, mainly Germans, in Istanbul
Tue 2016-01-12
  Bombings at Iraq cafe kill 20: Officers
Mon 2016-01-11
  It begins: Cologne gangs attack foreigners
Sun 2016-01-10
  US drone strikes kills 25 suspected militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan
Sat 2016-01-09
  Philadelphia police officer ambushed 'in the name of Islam'
Fri 2016-01-08
  ISIS Man Executes His Mom
Thu 2016-01-07
  Iran says Saudi-led airstrike hit Iranian Embassy in Yemen, but no damage seen
Wed 2016-01-06
  1 US soldier killed, 2 wounded in Taliban attack in Helmand
Tue 2016-01-05
  44 ISIS Bad Guys die in battles near Fallujah
Mon 2016-01-04
  38 die in Kurd, ISIS battles in Raqqa
Sun 2016-01-03
  Fierce Fighting Erupts Between Afghan Forces, Taliban In Marjah
Sat 2016-01-02
  Death sentences for nine 'hardcore terrorists' in Pakistan
Fri 2016-01-01
  New Year's Eve terror attack thwarted in NY

Better than the average link...



Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
35.172.223.130
Help keep the Burg running! Paypal:
WoT Operations (29)    WoT Background (20)    Non-WoT (10)    Opinion (3)    (0)