The Poor Man's Tuesday Knock-Off Generic Gluten-Free Edition of the Jolt

- June 24, 2014

Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty

June 24, 2014

Dear Jolt Readers,

If you want to know what's causing that shaking this morning, if you're not in the Alaska earthquake zone, it's the Geraghty withdrawals kicking in. But you can tough it out Jolters, and take solace in the fact that, before you know it, the author of the best-selling comic political novel The Weed Agency will be back in his NRO saddle.

And now for the poor man's Tuesday knock-off generic gluten-free edition of the Jolt.

Let's start it off with a shout out to the good folks of Watchdog.org, who are reporting on this election day (yes, in various places) that there seem to be signs of "election irregularities" in Mississippi. This might be a good place for a Haley's M-O joke/pun, but I will refrain. Read Steve Wilson's report here.

And now, on to groovy NRO stuff.

Ace political reporter Joel Gehrke is out in Tulsa at Steak Stuffers USA ("A Veritable Cornucopia of Meaty Delights") with former Oklahoma speaker T.W. Shannon, covering his GOP Senate primary battle with Congressman James Lankford. On the menu: immigration. If you ordered medium rare, forget it, because Joel's piece is well done (rimshot).

A little further south, Ryan Lovelace (the new NR Institute William F. Buckley Political Journalism Fellow), is on the scene reporting that border-area Texas ranchers are under attack from the illegal-immigrant overrun. A sample:

Other ranchers tell me that the amount of OTM — other than Mexican — traffic is increasing in South Texas, and that the disposition of the travelers has grown more hostile. Ranchers say the immigrants who reach Brooks County are ready to fight.

Mike Vickers, a doctor who lives on a ranch a few miles north on the opposite side of the Border Patrol checkpoint, says he has had his home broken into too. He says that one week, he had to pull his gun three times. Two of those times, he says, he wasn't sure whether or not he'd have to pull the trigger.

"We're fighting a war here and we've been fighting it a long time," Mike Vickers says. "These people we're encountering here are combative."

As to other armed struggles, particularly those in the Middle East, John O'Sullivan today has a thoughtful column defending former UK prime minister Tony Blair, baldly titled "No, Tony Blair and the West Aren't to Blame for Violence in the Muslim World." Before the knee jerks, read it.

The Presbyterian Church USA gets its Israel hate on, and a new NRO editorial slams the nasty, mob-like wickedness.

Kevin Williamson considers San Francisco, health care, liberals, utopia, and cheeseburgers, weaves it all together, and damned if it doesn't make absolute sense!

And finally, if you are looking for a great bit of prose that says federal agencies exist not for the public good but for their employees' benefit and Obama's agenda, then you had best read Victor Davis Hanson's new NRO column, "The Federal Octopus."

But before I sign off, why don't you buy an NR T-shirt? Awwww look! It wants to hug you!

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See you tomorrow, same bat time,

Jack Fowler
Publisher
National Review

To read more, visit www.nationalreview.com

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