Saturday, January 25, 2014

Netflix on Friday premiered its exclusive documentary, “Mitt,” which promises “an authentic view the public rarely glimpsed during the media frenzy of a national campaign.” What did viewers take away from this unprecedented access to Mitt Romney and his family?

◼ ‘I just want to give #Mitt a hug’: Netflix documentary wins over viewers - Twitchy





at Labels: , , ,

‘I Look Down On Young Women With Husbands And Kids’: Feminist pens ‘worst blog post ever’

◼ A post over at Thought Catalog is generating a lot of buzz, which isn’t surprising, considering the provocative title: “I Look Down On Young Women With Husbands And Kids And I’m Not Sorry.” - Twitchy




at Labels: , , , ,

“A poorly crafted internal memo meant to highlight editorial discussions and planning incorrectly indicated that such a database was being planned; it has been considered and rejected.”


◼ Newspaper conglomerate considers REJECTS building massive database of gun owners - Daily Caller

A U.S. newspaper conglomerate has considered building state-by-state databases of people who have the right to carry concealed firearms.

Civitas Media, which owns 88 newspapers in 12 states and more than 100 total publications, is planning to use public records requests to build their databases, according to an internal Civitas email obtained by the Buckeye Firearms Association in Ohio.

Civitas director of content Jim Lawitz emailed content directors, managers, and producers in a January 19 email, saying that exploring the “explosion” of conceal and carry permits in the U.S. will be one of the company’s short-term objectives.

UPDATE: Following the publication of this report, Civitas Media announced that it rejected its internal proposal to build a database of concealed carry permit holders.
at Labels: , ,

Greenpeace disappears a founder, much like ‘The Commissar Vanishes’ in Soviet Russia


◼ On our Friday Funny, which pointed out that Dr. Michael Mann labeled Greenpeace co-founder Dr. Patrick Moore as a “garden variety troll”, we thought it was funny that Dr. Mann couldn’t make the connection to who he was labeling. But then, something funny happened on the way to the forum; we discovered that Greenpeace had been actively erasing Dr. Moore from their history page. - Watts Up With That?

From a comment:
CaligulaJones says: January 24, 2014 at 8:54 am
” David Sanger (@davidsanger) says:
January 24, 2014 at 8:22 am

Well certainly Greenpeace does not think that Patrick Moore was a “co-founder of Greenpeace.”

Unfortunately for the Peas, this is 2014, not 1984, where unpeople are memory-holed:
◼ http://www.greenpeace.org/international/about/history/founders
◼ http://web.archive.org/web/20021119050900/http://www.greenpeace.org.au/aboutus/founders.html
Why would Greenpeace do such a thing, erasing a founding member?

It is likely because Dr. Patrick Moore has become a climate skeptic, and appeared in a skeptic film in 2007. From his Wikipedia page:

In 2005, Moore criticized what he saw as scare tactics and disinformation employed by some within the environmental movement, saying that the environmental movement “abandoned science and logic in favor of emotion and sensationalism.”[30] Moore contends that for the environmental movement “most of the really serious problems have been dealt with”, seeking now to “invent doom and gloom scenarios”.... He suggests they romanticise peasant life as part of an anti-industrial campaign to prevent development in less-developed countries, which he describes as “anti-human”.... Moore was interviewed in the 2007 film documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, in which he expressed similar views. In 2007 The Guardian reported on his writings for the Royal Society arguing against the theory that mankind was causing global warming, noting his advocacy for the felling of tropical rainforests and the planting of genetically engineered crops.

And perhaps most infuriating to the greens, he advocates for improving the third world with the introduction of Golden Rice, which the GMO activists in Greenpeace see as an evil thing.

at Labels: , , , ,

The upcoming movie from Dinesh D'Souza, "AMERICA", is a point-by-point refutal of the Progressive Left's belief that our country was founded and developed via "theft" -- which is the prevailing belief that is taught to our children from K-12 and especially on into college and graduate schools.

Due out just in time for July 4th this year, more thought-provoking ideas from the maker of "Obama 2016". D'Souza promises that his current problems with the Justice Department's indictment for election-campaign violations will NOT deter the timely release of this film. ◼ Watch the trailer here



◼ Obama Uses Government To Harass, Intimidate Foes. Activist and filmmaker Dinesh D´Souza is just the latest example. - IBD Editorial

The Obama administration has turned the executive branch loose on its enemies — part of a disturbing and unprecedented trend toward delegitimizing political differences and marginalizing conservatives.
Behind the special status of his presidency, President Obama has used the machinery of government to harass and intimidate political opponents — to an extent greater even than former Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, both threatened with impeachment....

◼ Enemies List: Is Dinesh D'Souza Being Politically Targeted? - Ace Of Spades

◼ link - Althouse

Laws need to be enforced neutrally, across the board, or we need to be free of them. When the executive authority spares its friends or, worse, targets its enemies, what is revealed is the insufficient or fake commitment to rules that bind everyone and that deter rule-followers (like me) from engaging in activities we might want to engage in.

◼ Is there anything this administration does that isn’t politically motivated? - Instapundit

◼ At Ace’s place, co-blogger Maetenloch sees a pattern of political abuse of power.
◼ Coincidence: Hollywood's only conservative group is getting close IRS nonprofit scrutiny

◼ Another Coincidence: James O'Keefe Group Being Audited by NY. Again.

◼ Yet Another Coincidence: Dinesh D'Souza Indicted For Election Fraud

◼ Still Another Coincidence: IRS Proposes New 501(c)(4) Rules That Just Happen to Cover Most Tea Party Groups

◼ Judge Strikes Down Wisconsin's 'John Doe' Subpoenas

Secret investigations targeted coincidently at most prominent conservative groups in WI who can only now legally talk about their harassment. If you want to see what American fascism would look like, well this is it.
Isn't it a good thing we have the new media? Or you'd never hear of any of this.
at Labels: , , ,

Mitt Romney 'Slow Jams' the News with Jimmy Fallon - And It Doesn't Pull Any Punches



◼ This is exactly the kind of segment that never would have saw the light of day before the 2012 election. It goes after ObamaCare and NSA spying, and doesn’t spare the president. It makes one wonder if at least some members of the audience are having buyer’s remorse. - IJ Review
at Labels: ,

CNN Host on Obama's Fox News and Rush Complaints: Isn't He Above That? Like, You Don't Punch Down.



◼ link - Kyle Becker/IJ Review

In an absolutely brutal segment with Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, CNN host Don Lemon and conservative guest Reihan Salam dismantle the argument that Fox News and Rush Limbaugh are responsible for Obama’s failings.

This is one of those segments that leaves you wincing as Rosen puts out one weak argument after another, which are subsequently batted down with astute observations, and well, the truth.

After Rosen argues that the president’s words and intentions are “blown out of proportion” by Republicans, Lemon asks pointedly, “Isn’t the president above that? Like, you don’t punch down.”

Amazingly, Rosen comes back with an absolutely silly argument.

...Don Lemon turns to Reihan Salam and it gets even worse for Rosen. “Is he giving them ammunition just be speaking about this?”

“Here’s the fundamental problem, Don,” Salam responds. “The problem is that there are a lot of people, including Democratic lawmakers, including women who serve in the Obama administration who say that this is a difficult guy to work with. There are lawmakers, Democratic lawmakers, who feel as though he has just been tremendously difficult working helping them achieve their goals. It’s not just Republicans. So I have a feeling that the president sometimes wants to shift blame to other people for some of his failures as a communicator and someone who is building communications.”

“Is he shifting blame or is it just the truth?” Don Lemon follows up with Rosen.
at Labels: , , , ,

COLDEST MONTH IN CENTURY: Four of the 10 coldest days of the 21st century in the 48 contiguous U.S. states occurred this month, including the first and second

◼ Colder Weather Heads for U.S. as Ice Set to Coat Texas - Bloomberg

...“The crazy thing is that the current cold snap this week looks to be a bit more modest in the face of next week’s outbreak,” Rogers said. “The cold coming for the end of January is sufficient to make this the coldest month of the century so far and the coldest the Lower 48 has felt in at least 20 years.”

Temperatures in Chicago fell lower than the South Pole this month as freezing weather boosted energy consumption, grounded thousands of flights across the U.S. and disrupted operations at refineries and natural gas production sites.

...“A wave of low pressure along the cold front currently settling into the southern states is expected to spread a rare coating of ice across southeast Texas and southwestern Louisiana,” the National Weather Service said.

The service forecast snow, sleet, and rain over parts of Texas and the central Gulf Coast through tomorrow morning.

Natural gas futures headed for the biggest weekly gain since September 2012, rising as much as 3.9 percent to $4.913 per million British thermal units in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange today. They are up 13.6 percent this week.
at Labels: , , ,

"We were promised the most transparent administration ever and instead we’ve gotten the opposite"

◼ Colorado firestorm: Administration bars scribes from public meeting - Ben Wolfgang & Valerie Richardson/Washington Times

The Obama administration’s testy relationship with the press is nothing new for Washington, but it’s now extended to Colorado and has touched off a firestorm after Interior Department officials booted local reporters from a public meeting earlier this week.

Journalists with Colorado's Craig Daily Press and at least two other media outlets were barred from a Tuesday question-and-answer session with Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, despite the fact that members of the public were allowed to attend.

“What happened would be in complete alignment with the administration’s policies. We were promised the most transparent administration ever and instead we’ve gotten the opposite,” said Moffat County, Colo., Commissioner John Kinkaid, who attended the meeting along with his two fellow commissioners, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and other officials.

“What Sally Jewell did — it makes total sense. That’s how this administration runs,” Mr. Kinkaid added....

◼ New Yorks Times' Jill Abramson: 'Most secretive White House I have ever dealt with' - John Seigenthaler/Al Jazeera
..."How secretive is this White House?" ...I would say it is the most secretive White House that I have ever been involved in covering, and that includes — I spent 22 years of my career in Washington and covered presidents from President Reagan on up through now, and I was Washington bureau chief of the Times during George W. Bush's first term.

I dealt directly with the Bush White House when they had concerns that stories we were about to run put the national security under threat. But, you know, they were not pursuing criminal leak investigations. The Obama administration has had seven criminal leak investigations. That is more than twice the number of any previous administration in our history. It's on a scale never seen before. This is the most secretive White House that, at least as a journalist, I have ever dealt with.
And do you think this comes directly from the president?
I would think that it would have to. I don't know that, but certainly enough attention has been focused on this issue that, if he departed from the policies of his government, I think we'd know that at this point.
at Labels: , , , , , , ,

Friday, January 24, 2014

In New Hampshire: Vote Fraud Web – More Strands Leading Back to the State Democrat Party

◼ New Hampshire Democrats have been bringing in out of state voters to pad the rolls for a while. But just a few years ago, circa 2008, Michelle Bensignor (NY, PA, MD, DC – but not NH) went to work for the State Democrat party. That’s what is says on her LinkedIn page. - granitegrok

Guess where she registered to vote from during her brief stay, which ended after election day?
That’s right, 1200 Elm Street, Manchester. (Martha’s Motel must have been booked up.)

1200 Elm is the ideal Manchester flop house for campaign refugees, wealthy lawyers who need a break from their mansions in other states, and the names of non-resident voters who are not here to vote in person but somehow manage to vote.

granitegrok.com has been added to the Blog List on the right.
at Labels: ,

Dear #WendyDavis, You Can Have a Job AND Kids

◼ Fired-up Bristol Palin slams lying ‘hero of the Left’ Wendy Davis - Twitchy



◼ Dear Wendy Davis, You Can Have a Job and Kids - Bristol Palin @ Patheos

Turns out, she lied about much of her “pulling herself up by her own bootstraps” story. Actually, she found a man to marry her, pay her way through college, and then through Harvard Law School. The day after he paid the last bill, she left him. By the way, she left her kids too. She said, “it’s not a good time for me right now” to be a parent.

Is everyone paying attention? This woman is the hero of the Left? A woman whose ambition and ego were so big she couldn’t have both a career and kids at the same time.

Gosh, children are sooo inconvenient, huh? I’m glad my mother didn’t put motherhood on the shelf when she was elected to City Council, then became our mayor, then Governor. Oh sorry – I mentioned my mother… Have you liberals gone into a tail spin of hate already? Did I lose you?...

If you truly believe in strong, independent women, you’d be a conservative. (Read the rest at the link)
at Labels: , ,

The Republican National Committee passed a resolution Friday renouncing “unconstitutional” National Security Agency surveillance programs

◼ The GOP’s official governing body called upon Republican lawmakers “to immediately take action to halt current unconstitutional surveillance programs and provide a full public accounting of the NSA’s data collection programs.” - Politico

A page-long resolution also called for “a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying.” This committee would then make suggestions for reform beyond what President Barack Obama suggested a week ago. The committee also wants to “hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance.”

...The push to criticize the NSA was spearheaded by Nevada national committeewoman Diana Orrock, a supporter of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
at Labels: , , , , ,

The Chef Who Brought Down Bob McDonnell Tells All


◼ link - Luke Mullins/Washingtonian

You don’t have to remind Bob McDonnell who Schneider is. Before Virginia’s 71st governor got crossways with his onetime executive chef, McDonnell was the Great Republican Hope. His win in 2009 snapped a four-year losing streak for the GOP in statewide elections, and after taking power in 2010 he wasted no time establishing himself as a conservative who could cut deals with Democrats. Mitt Romney considered him for the vice-presidential ticket in 2012, and pundits called him a credible contender for the White House in 2016.

Today the McDonnell brand is toast. As the governor departs Richmond, federal authorities are reportedly probing his relationship with an executive who gave him and his family gifts and loans totaling more than $160,000. The executive, Jonnie Williams, reportedly bankrolled a McDonnell daughter’s wedding, bought the governor a $6,500 Rolex, and financed a shopping spree in New York City for his wife, Maureen....

What began with some groceries missing from the governor’s kitchen has snowballed into the biggest—and most unlikely—political scandal to hit Virginia in decades.

◼ McDonnell rejected plea offer to face one felony, spare wife any charges, avoid trial - Washington Post

Maureen McDonnell relayed to federal prosecutors last summer that she felt responsible for the relationship with a wealthy businessman who had drawn legal scrutiny to Virginia’s first family, and her attorney asked whether the case could be resolved without charges for her husband.

But prosecutors showed no interest, according to people familiar with the conversation. Instead, months later, authorities proposed that then-Gov. Robert F. McDonnell plead guilty to one felony fraud charge that had nothing to do with corruption in office and his wife would avoid charges altogether. The governor rejected the offer, the people with knowledge of the conversations said....
at Labels:

Feds Indict Obama Critic Dinesh D’Souza


◼ FLASHBACK: Edwards donor charged with misdemeanor for same crime... - Moonbattery

If there is one guy the Obama Administration has really wanted to shut up, it is Dinesh D’Souza. Not only is D’Souza among the most articulate advocates of conservatism out there, he is a particular thorn in Obama’s side due to his own Third World background and the understanding it has given him of Obama’s alarming anti-neocolonialist ideology. No reasonable person watched D’Souza’s 2016: Obama’s America — the second most popular political documentary in US history — and still voted to reelect Obama....
Federal authorities accuse D’Souza of donating more than is legal to the campaign of Wendy Long, who ran in 2012 for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton but lost to now-Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. …

According to the indictment, D’Souza donated $20,000 to Long’s campaign by aggregating the money from various people and falsely reporting the source of the funds. But Gerald Molen, a co-producer of 2016, says the charge is politically motivated.

“In America, we have a long tradition of not doing what is commonly done in too many other countries — criminalizing dissent through the selective enforcement of the law,” Molen tells THR.
◼ Conservative author and pundit Dinesh D’Souza charged in campaign finance case

Conservative author Dinesh D’Souza was indicted Thursday on federal charges of violating campaign finance laws by using straw donors to funnel money to a U.S. Senate candidate....

D’Souza, whose books include “The Roots of Obama’s Rage,” went to Dartmouth College with Long and his name was listed on an invitation as co-hosting a fundraiser for Long during the campaign. Long, a former clerk to Supremc Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and D’Souza worked together on the Dartmouth Review, famous for its outspoken take on social and political topics....

Straw-donor cases have been brought against prominnent individuals from time to time. For example, in 2011, a prominent Los Angeles attorney, Pierce O’Donnell, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor chargest of making $20,000 in donations to the presidential campaign of former Sen. John Edwards and reimbursing straw donors.

◼ Read the indictment
at Labels: ,

A nursing home in Germany photographed residents in scenes from their favorite classic films to make into a calendar.


◼ See all the pics here.
at Labels:

The Vile Voice of Wendy Davis’ Supporters Ridiculing a Paraplegic



◼ Wendy Davis cannot run from Battleground Texas now. - Erick Erickson/RedState

The Fort Worth office of Battleground Texas and Wendy Davis’s Fort Worth campaign office are common ground with each other. They share resources. Wendy Davis, last week, claimed she out raised Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott by including fundraising totals from Battleground Texas in her numbers.

She and Battleground Texas are the same. And that is according to Wendy Davis’s own campaign. Project Veritas went undercover and found Wendy Davis supports and Battleground Texas coordinators ridiculing and mocking Attorney General Abbott for being in a wheel chair.

Just the other day, Wendy Davis herself encouraged it by claiming Greg Abbott had never walked a day in her shoes. Abbott has been in a wheelchair for about thirty years. Now her supporters, volunteers, and surrogates are doing it too — mocking a man in a wheelchair because he cannot stand up.

◼ Greg Abbott Responds to Wendy Davis Supporters' Mocking of His Wheelchair in the Classiest Way - IJ Review

Battleground Texas, the group of Davis supporters caught making the comments, naturally denied the video’s validity. Additionally, Davis issued a statement condemning the language used in the video. In an interview with Megyn Kelly, Abbott, who is the attorney general of Texas, responded to the ordeal:
Denigrating the disabled is unworthy of Texas….What Texans really look at is the depth of character. There’s a reason why I have been elected statewide in Texas five different times. That’s because Texans know I have the quality and depth of character to represent their families and their values.
When Kelly pressed Abbott about allegations that Davis’s entire “Stand With Wendy” campaign is misleading the people of Texas, he kept tight-lipped and maintained that it is up to voters to make that judgement.

◼ Absolutely brutal (and correct) assessment of Wendy Davis’ core political problem - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion
at Labels: , , ,

SCOTT WALKER: "What do you do with a surplus? Give it back to the people who earned it."

◼ Speaking during his annual State of the State address to the Wisconsin legislature, Walker proposed $800 million in tax cuts he said were made possible by the $912 million state surplus that has resulted from policies he put in place following his election in 2010.

The cuts include reductions in property taxes, as well as cuts in the state's payroll tax and the tax rates for lower income brackets.

If all his proposals are enacted, property taxes on a typical home "will actually be lower in December 2014 than they were in December of 2010. What a difference a few years make."

"What do you do with a surplus? Give it back to the people who earned it. It's your money," Walker said of his proposals....

Looking back on his state's sad state of affairs when he took office, Walker reminded Wisconsinites that things were going downhill fast prior to his election:

"Thankfully, the days of double-digit tax increases, billion-dollar deficits, and major job loss are gone. We replaced them with massive tax cuts, growing budget surpluses, and significant job growth. Wisconsin is going back to work. ...

"Every time we help someone find a job, it makes for a stronger home, a stronger community, and a stronger state."

◼ Text of Gov. Walker's State of the State speech - The State
at Labels: , , , , ,

When the central domestic fact of your presidency was a fraud, people won't listen to you anymore.

◼ Noonan: The Sleepiness of a Hollow Legend - Peggy Noonsn/Wall St Journal

The State of the Union is a grand tradition—but only if people are listening.

...He gave a speech on the National Security Agency, that bitterly contested issue, the other day. Pew Research found half of those polled didn't notice. National Journal's Dustin Volz wrote that Americans greeted the speech with "collective indifference and broad skepticism." Of the 1 in 10 who'd followed it, more than 70% doubted his proposals would help protect privacy.

The bigger problem is that the president stands up there Tuesday night with ObamaCare not a hazy promise but a fact. People now know it was badly thought, badly written and disastrously executed. It was supposed to make life better by expanding coverage. It has made it worse, by throwing people off coverage. And—as we all know now but did not last year—the program was passed only with the aid of a giant lie. Now everyone knows if you liked your plan, your doctor, your deductible, you can't keep them....

You know when we will know America is starting to come back? When some day the sergeant at arms bellows: "Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States" and the camera shows a bubble of suits and one person emerges from the pack and walks into the chamber and you're watching at home and you find yourself—against everything you know, against all the accumulated knowledge of the past—interested. It'll take you aback when you realize you're interested in what he'll say! And the members won't just be enacting, they'll be leaning forward to hear.

And the president will speak, and what he says will be pertinent to the problems of the United States of America. And thoughtful. And he'll offer ideas, and you'll think: "Hey, that sounds right."

That is when you'll know America just might come back.

Until then, as John Dickerson just put it: Barack Obama, Inaction Figure.
at Labels: , ,

Thursday, January 23, 2014

GOP taps highest-ranking woman for State of the Union response


◼ Republican leaders have tapped the highest-ranking woman in their party, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), to deliver the GOP response to President Obama's State of the Union address. - Aaron Blake/Washington Post

◼ Senator Mike Lee will deliver the tea party’s response to the State of the Union address - Politico
at Labels: , , ,

New poll finds 59 percent of voters oppose Obamacare

◼ In addition, a majority thinks the new law will increase their health care costs, while few think it will improve their quality of care. - FOX
at Labels: , , ,

Little-known aspect of Medicaid now causing people to avoid coverage: State can seize your assets to pay for care after you’re forced into Medicaid by Obamacare

◼ After you die, the state could come after your house. - Sandhya Somashekhar/Washington Post

The concern arises from a long-standing but little-known aspect of Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health coverage to millions of low-income Americans. In certain cases, a state can recoup its medical costs by putting a claim on a deceased person’s assets.

◼ #Obamacare’s expanded Medicaid asset seizure bonanza - Moe Lane/Red State

Hey, you had to pass the act to find out what was in it...

Basically, the problem is that the Democrats, in their infinite wisdom, decided to drastically expand the Medicaid rolls without considering the consequences – one of which being, state governments have been long in the habit of trying to get at the remnants of Medicaid recipients’ estates in order to cut costs. That’s arguably* not even an entirely horrible policy – ‘free’ health care is never free – but the problem is that policies created to handle the situation of, say, an 85 year old woman with mild dementia and no relatives are now going to be applied to, say, two reasonably healthy retirees in their early sixties.

◼ Fine print: State can seize your assets to pay for care after you’re forced into Medicaid by Obamacare - Mary Katharine Ham/HotAir

◼ This Daily Kos diarist has a nice write-up (I know) on the toll this could take on lower and middle-class people looking for relief and getting what amounts to a surprise predatory loan instead...Medicaid Estate Recovery + ACA: Unintended Consequences?
...if you go on Medicaid, you owe the entire amount that Medicaid spends on you from the day you turn 55.
The fact that this is being treated with seriousness at Kos is an indication of how large a liability it could be for this government program. Washington is scrambling to change the law. No doubt other states will start looking at their implementation of this part of Obamacare. But there will be people caught unaware that their houses effectively belong to the government because the government forced them into Medicaid coverage. You’re welcome!
at Labels: , , ,

"Governor Cuomo's shocking words this past week aren't simply words," O'Keefe said in a statement. "Governor Cuomo and the New York Department of Labor are on a witch hunt, demanding all documents and financials since our founding. ... His goal, of course, is to harass us and limit our effectiveness by tying us up in court. Just like President Obama used the IRS to target and suppress conservatives, Governor Cuomo is using his Department of Labor to do the same exact thing."

◼ Conservative activist O'Keefe claims Cuomo targeting his group - FOX

Conservative activist James O'Keefe is accusing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration of targeting his group with document requests and a subpoena, claiming the Democratic governor's recent comments critical of conservatives "aren't simply words."

O'Keefe, whose Project Veritas is behind a series of hidden-camera investigations against left-leaning groups and causes, made the claims on the heels of the controversy over a recent Cuomo interview. In it, Cuomo blasted "extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay" and said they "have no place" in New York.

◼ NYC Mayor De Blasio Agrees With Cuomo: Conservatives Need to Get Out (Audio) - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit
◼ DE BLASIO BACKS CUOMO: WANTS CONSERVATIVES TO GET OUT - Kerry Picket/Breitbart

Meanwhile:
◼ IRS Targets Hollywood Conservatives - IRS Targets Hollywood Conservatives/Townhall
◼ IRS targets conservative group in Hollywood... - New York Times
◼ Dinesh D’Souza Indicted - New York Times
at Labels: , , , , , , ,

50-Foot Monster Waves Crash Into Hawaii's Beaches



◼ A low-pressure system is finally beginning to pull away from Hawaii after creating huge waves and attracting surfers to the shores for several days. - Weather.com
◼ Swell that produced huge waves in Hawaii to hit California coast - LA Times

A strong storm system over the central Pacific will send a swell that is expected to produce waves of 10 to 19 feet along the California coastline, forecasters warned....
at Labels: , ,

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers to deliver GOP response to SOTU

◼ She’s the first Republican woman to do the honors (solo) since New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman addressed the nation in 1995

at Labels: ,

The problem...is that the middle class votes when its interests are threatened, a detail that they somehow neglected to master. And that they are finding out now.

◼ Obama's polls fall as middle class gets his number - Noemie Emery/Washington Examiner
at Labels: , , , ,

The law known as Obamacare doesn’t require most companies to cover part-time workers, and offering them health plans may disqualify those people from subsidies in new government-run insurance exchanges

◼ Target to Drop Health Insurance for Part-Time Workers - Alex Wayne/Bloomberg

Target Corp. (TGT) will end health insurance for part-time employees in April, joining Trader Joe’s Co., Home Depot Inc. and other U.S. retailers that have scaled back benefits in response to changes from Obamacare.

...The health law requires all companies employing 50 or more people to offer health insurance to those working at least 30 hours a week starting in 2015. Those that don’t comply may be liable for fines of as much as $3,000 per worker.

“Health-care reform is transforming the benefits landscape and affecting how all employers, including Target, administer health benefits coverage,” Jodee Kozlak, Target’s executive vice president of human resources, said in yesterday’s web posting. She cited “new options available for our part-time team, and the historically low number of team members who elected to enroll in the part-time plan.”

◼ More victims of Obama’s signature legislation, aided and abetted by most Democrats - William Teach/Right Wing News

◼ Moody's slashes outlook on insurers, cites Obamacare 'uncertainty' - Philip Klein/Washington Examiner @philipklein

Credit ratings firm Moody's Investors Service on Thursday lowered its outlook for health insurers to "negative" from "stable," citing "uncertainty" swirling around the rollout of President Obama's health care law.

◼ 'Tsunami' of store closings seen hitting retail... - CNBC
at Labels: , , ,

The happiness of unorganized imperfection is about as close to expressing the contrast between the American and the European way of life as any phrase can. It’s also a foreign idea, not just to Bill de Blasio or Bloomberg, but to the larger political culture of urban progressives who are less interested in making the trains run on time, than in making the men and women run on time.

◼ The Totalitarians of New York - Daniel Greenfield/Front Page

...Progressives are only popular until the people realize that the men and women offering them everything for free can’t clean up the snow, but can beat them bloody and can’t fix their healthcare, but can destroy it. The left wins at politics, but fails at policies. It’s learned to stop looking like Carter, but it hasn’t figured out how to stop governing like him.

When Americans realize that the political choices they make are also policy choices between large sodas, salty pretzels, open market health care and open streets on the one hand or food fascism, DMV health care and bloody faces on the other; they will choose the unorganized happiness of freedom over the disorganized tyrannies of Bloomberg, De Blasio and Obama.
at Labels: , , , ,

8 Things in Washington That Could Hit Your Wallet This Year

◼ Several developments in Washington could have a significant impact on the economy and, ultimately, on your wallet in 2014, whether you are a business owner, a homeowner in a high-risk flood area, or an online shopper. - Rodrigo Sermeno/PJ Media
at Labels: , , , , , , ,

CA Assembly Bill 1425 a threat to non-profit homebrew festivals & events

◼ On October 1, 2013, Governor Brown signed into law a Committee Bill that is being interpreted by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to prohibit homebrew festivals - California Homebrewers Association

The bill (◼ California Assembly Bill 1425) was originally written to allow the donation of home brewed beer and wine to be used for fundraising purposes by worthy non-profit organizations, but excludes groups that “promote home production of beer or wine, or whose membership is composed primarily of home brewers or home winemakers”.

The bill was introduced by the California Assembly Committee on Governmental Organizations, whose intent was to make the sharing of home brewed wine and beer easier, not harder. However, at some point in the process, wording was added that excludes the CHA from conducting their festival for So Cal homebrewers.
at Labels: , ,

"...it’s sad the Democrats have made supporting life a partisan issue.”



◼ Seven Famous People Who Were Almost Aborted - Townhall

◼ All is fair in love, war and politics: GOP attacks Dem claims of a ‘war on women’ - Ralph Z. Hallow & Meredith Somers/Washington Times

Thousands of pro-life activists donned scarves, gloves and knit hats Wednesday to brave the blowing snow and arctic temperatures on the Mall as the 41st March for Life was punctuated by an unusually blunt exchange between the Republican and Democratic Party leaders that signaled a shifting fight for female voters.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz opened the barrage, accusing her GOP counterpart, Reince Priebus, of rallying “against women’s rights” and assailing Republicans for spending “more time fighting to restrict the rights of women to make their own health care choices.”

...Though Democrats have made electoral gains with women, polling suggests Republicans could reclaim lost ground: 57 percent of Americans declared in a CNN poll this month that abortion is “morally wrong.” And 49 percent of likely U.S. voters told a Rasmussen poll that they believe there should be a waiting period before a woman can get an abortion.

“It was pathetic to see the chair of the Democratic National Committee bash our members for attending a rally whose theme was ‘Adoption: A Noble Decision,’” RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer said. “The marchers have traveled from all across the country to take a stand for the value of life and to celebrate adoption and it’s sad the Democrats have made supporting life a partisan issue.”

◼ ‘Amazing’: Pro-life sign wins ‘best sign I’ve ever seen from a political rally’ [pic] - Twitchy



◼ Praise for Brit Hume’s eloquent and hopeful pro-life commentary [video] - Twitchy



◼ Mary Katharine Ham nutshells #MarchForLife ‘burning irony’ reaction as only she can - Twitchy



◼ Here’s your annual roundup of vitriolic hatred for the March for Life - Twitchy
at Labels: , ,

Smith & Wesson, Sturm, Ruger, to stop selling guns in California

◼ Smith & Wesson announced it will stop selling its handguns in California rather than manufacture them to comply with the new microstamping law. The other publicly traded firearms manufacturer in the U.S., Sturm, Ruger, also said this month that it will stop new sales to California. - Emily Miller/Washington Times

The announcement late Wednesday came a week after the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for firearms manufacturers, filed suit against California for requiring that all new semi-automatic pistols that are not already on the state’s approved gun roster have the microstamping technology.

...The District of Columbia is the only other place in the country that has mandated microstamping. It was supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1, but the city council passed an emergency measure in December to postpone it until 2016.

A spokesman for Phil Mendelson, the city council chairman who wrote the D.C. law, told me that, “The decision to delay was made recently in order to piggyback on the California program and create more of a market for gun manufacturers.”

In other words, there were no manufacturers willing to stick this unproven contraption on their firearms, which meant no new ones could be sold in the city.

While that would fit with the District’s anti-gun agenda, the politicians are clever enough to know that banning all new guns would just help the plaintiffs in the Heller II case that is challenging all the registrations laws written in 2009.

Microstamping is simply a ban on guns. California and D.C. will have a short period to enjoy their gun grab until the courts rule that this dictate violates the Second Amendment.
at Labels: , ,

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Jerry Brown lauds California's 'comeback,' urges caution in State of the State speech

◼ Gov. Jerry Brown said today that California is continuing its "comeback," with a budget surplus and an improving economy, but he urged the Legislature to restrain spending. - Sacramento Bee

...Brown largely avoided an issue on which Republicans have been hammering him in recent months, giving only passing mention to California's nation-high poverty rate.

...The speech was Brown's 11th State of the State address. Brown, who surpassed Earl Warren as California's longest-serving governor last year, did not deliver a State of the State speech in 1975, his first year in office.

◼ Read Jerry Brown's State of the State speech, as delivered - Sacramento Bee
at Labels: , , , ,

Greta Van Susteren recounts administration’s shocking attempt to persuade her to kill Benghazi coverage

◼ Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren shared a very personal and very disturbing story about the extent to which the Obama administration attempted to shut down Fox News Channel from reporting on the terror attack in Benghazi. - Janeen Capizola/Right Wing News

...She took readers for a “little walk in history” to remind of how Fox News Channel was the only network “shut out” of a State Department conference call specifically set up to answer “questions about Benghazi for the media” in the days after the attack in September 2012 and she reminded of “the CIA briefing about Benghazi at the CIA for all the networks – except one: Fox News Channel. The CIA would not let Fox News Channel attend.”

But, as she wrote next, it was the phone call she received from a “good friend in the Obama administration,” that was most shocking and the most “low.”

This “friend” attempted to have Van Susteren stop Fox News’ national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin from reporting on Benghazi.

Van Susteren held nothing back but the “friend’s” name, as she wrote, in part:
And then as I was sitting at my desk thinking about the reporting since September 2012, I thought about the weirdest of all and the worst of all for me personally! I remembered a disturbing phone call from a good friend in the Obama Administration. I have known this friend for years. The call was a short time after 9/11 (maybe Oct. 2012?) In the call, my friend told me that my colleague Jennifer Griffin, who was aggressively reporting on Benghazi, was wrong and that, as a favor to me, my friend in the Administration was telling me so that I could tell Jennifer so that she did not ruin her career. My friend was telling me to tell Jennifer to stop her reporting. Ruin her career?

In 20 plus years, I have never received a call to try and shut down a colleague – not that I even could – this was a first....

◼ VAN SUSTEREN: WH SOURCE TOLD HER TO WARN FOX REPORTER TO BACK OFF BENGHAZI - Kerry Picket/Breitbart
at Labels: , , , ,

Into every life a little rain must fall. And Common Core is bringing the rain in torrents. But isn’t it hilarious to see a few truth bolts striking from the storm?

◼ More Common Core: Pay Attention, Democrats - Caleb Howe/Red State

Common Core is an ongoing disaster foisted upon American schools and messing with our kids futures. As an Arkansas mom pointed out recently, we’re forcing our kids to bypass real, efficient problem-solving in favor of .. well, nonsense.

There is a perception, at least in the fever-swamps of the internet that I lovingly call home, that this is an issue that naturally breaks down along party lines. Republicans are against it because they hate science!, and Democrats are for it because they love children once they’re born. In reality, the divide can be more subtle, with small government local control folks at odds with big government, big solutions types. Common Core divides Bobby Jindal from Jeb Bush, for example, and typically anti-standardized testing democrats are finding themselves anew and in agreement with the Chamber of Commerce and the evil oil barons at Exxon. But in general terms, people see it as Dimocrats against Rethuglicans. Only, now, there may be reason for both sides to take another sideways glance....
at Labels: , , , , ,

Federal Government Has Declared War On Work

◼ While 50 years ago the federal government declared war on poverty, I would submit that in recent years it has led an undeclared but real new war: a War on Work. The government increasingly is using its coercive powers to punish people who want to work, creating a vast class of able-bodied Americans dependent on the government — and politicians — for their daily bread. - Richard Vedder/IBD

While a vast number of government policies cause a decline in work, let me mention just six:

• Extended unemployment benefits.
• Expansion of food stamps.
• Higher taxes on workers, especially the most productive ones.
• Increases in Social Security disability payments.
• Increases in Pell Grants and other forms of federal higher education aid.
• Increases in minimum wage laws at local, state and federal levels.

...No nation ever achieved greatness when vast portions of its productive workforce were idle. America will not regain its economic vitality until it ends this war on work.
at Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Security Expert: I Could Get 70K Obamacare Records in 4 Minutes...

◼ David Kennedy, CEO of TrustedSec, told Fox News Sunday the information can be obtained without even hacking. - CNS News



“Think of it this way, think of something where you have a car and the car doors are open and the windows are open and you can see inside of it, that’s basically what they allow you to do and there’s no real sophistication level here - it’s just really wide open.”

“And 70,000 was just one of the numbers that I was able to go up to and I stopped after that,” Kennedy continued. “You know, I’m sure it’s hundreds of thousands - if not more - and it was done within about a 4 minute timeframe."

Kennedy has testified before congressional committees twice about what he sees as security concerns regarding the HealthCare.gov website.

Other Obamacare News:

◼ Hundreds in Ohio Lose Their Doctor Due to Obamacare - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard
◼ AETNA CEO: We could be forced out... - CNBC
◼ Medicaid Rolls Swell... - Yahoo

Speaking of Identity Theft:

◼ Two Mexican citizens found at border with account info stolen in TARGET breach...Carrying 96 fraudulent credit cards - AP
at Labels: , , , ,

How “the case that could topple Obamacare” began

◼ link - Jonathan Adler/Volokh Conspiracy/Washington Post

On January 15, Judge Paul Friedman issued his opinion in Halbig v. Sebelius, upholding an IRS rule purporting to extend tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies for the purchase of qualifying health insurance plans in health insurance exchanges established by the federal government. The decision has already been appealed, and the plaintiffs are seeking expedited review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Halbig is one of four cases challenging the IRS rule, and a decision in at least one of the other cases (King v. Sebelius in the Eastern District of Virginia) is expected shortly.

... These cases could also have a significant impact on PPACA implementation. Newseek labeled Halbig “the case the could topple Obamacare.” That headline may have involved a bit of hyperbole, but only a bit. The reason is that, contrary to the expectations of most PPACA supporters, a majority of states refused to set up their own health insurance exchanges. Thus, if the challenges succeed and the IRS rule is struck down, there will be no federal tax credits or cost-sharing subsidies for the purchase of qualifying health insurance plans in a majority of states. Further, given the way the law is written, there will be no penalties on those employers that fail to offer qualifying health insurance to their employees either, as it is eligibility for subsidies that triggers these penalties.

◼ Volokh Conspiracy relocates... to the Washington Post. - Althouse
◼ In Brazil, you can always find the Amazon — in America, the Amazon finds you - Eugene Volokh

...We’re now trying what might be the most ambitious experiment yet: a joint venture with the Washington Post. The Post will host our blog, and pass along its content to Post readers (for instance, by occasionally linking to our stories from the online front page). We will continue to write the blog, and ◼ Volokh.com will still take you here....
at Labels: , , ,

Today is the 41st annual March for Life in Washington DC. God bless all the marchers standing up for precious life & religious liberty!

◼ Not so fast, Andrew Cuomo. We see what you did there. After publicly bashing conservative New Yorkers as “extreme” people who have no place in his state, the intolerant Democratic governor wants to blame the media for his unmistakable contempt for those who oppose abortion, support gun rights and defend traditional marriage. - Michelle Malkin

When he railed against socially conservative Republican candidates in a radio interview last week, Cuomo hyperbolically singled out those he called “right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay” citizens. Sounding unapologetically purge-tastic, the governor said these political opponents “have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.” His bigoted comments provoked a fierce social-media-driven backlash led by devout Catholics and Second Amendment activists in the Empire State. And now, he’s got job-creating, tax-paying conservative business people threatening to leave. Heckuva job, Andy!

...Cuomo also has set himself up for an unforgettable schooling by hundreds of thousands of pro-lifers who are gathering in Washington, D.C., this week for the 41st annual March for Life. “I am guessing that Andrew Cuomo’s remarks are going to be repeated by every speaker on the platform,” Stasia Zoladz Vogel, president of the Buffalo Regional Right to Life Committee, predicted in the Buffalo News before the Wednesday march.

As for Cuomo’s reckless dismissal of what he considers an “extreme” minority, a recent poll of New Yorkers showed that the vast majority “support sensible restrictions on abortions, with 80 percent opposing unlimited abortion through the ninth month of pregnancy and 75 percent opposing changes in current law so that someone other than a doctor can perform an abortion.” Contrary to Cuomo’s distorted view, the 21st-century pro-life movement is a diverse convergence of increasingly young and minority activists, feminist pro-lifers, independents and social conservatives. And contrary to Cuomo’s reckless telling of history, pro-life activism is ingrained in New York history....

◼ Blackmun: Roe was a doctor’s rights case, you know - Ed Morrissey/HotAir

Roe v. Wade is the case that has killed 55 million human lives on the premise that either they’re not really human, alive, or the ethically bankrupt notion that one life isn't as important as another and can be tossed away when inconvenient.

In honor of the March for Life, find out what you don't know about Roe v. Wade...
at Labels: , , , , ,

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Senator Mike Lee will deliver the tea party’s response to the State of the Union address

◼ The Utah Republican will speak immediately after the traditional Republican response to the State of the Union, which begins after President Barack Obama’s address, the Tea Party Express said. - Politico

Lee was a key figure in last year’s government shutdown, when along with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Lee advocated for a strategy on budget negotiations that would not pass a budget unless it defunded Obamacare. While the tactics drew criticism from Democrats and many mainstream Republicans, the pair became champions of the tea party movement.

The State of the Union is set for next Tuesday.
at Labels: , , ,

Wall Street adviser: Actual unemployment is 37.2%, 'misery index' worst in 40 years



◼ Don't believe the happy talk coming out of the White House, Federal Reserve and Treasury Department when it comes to the real unemployment rate and the true “Misery Index.” Because, according to an influential Wall Street advisor, the figures are a fraud. - Paul Bedard/Washington Examiner

...“Unemployment in its truest definition, meaning the portion of people who do not have any job, is 37.2 percent. This number obviously includes some people who are not or never plan to seek employment. But it does describe how many people are not able to, do not want to or cannot find a way to work. Policies that remove the barriers to employment, thus decreasing this number, are obviously beneficial,” he and colleague Megan Russell in their new investors note from their offices in Charlottesville, Va....

Then there is the Misery Index, which is a calculation based in inflation and unemployment, both numbers the duo say are underscored by the government. He said that the Index doesn’t properly calculate how Uncle Sam is propping up the economy with bond purchases and other actions.

“These tricks, along with a host of other dubious accounting schemes, underreport inflation by about 3 percent,” they wrote, adding that the official inflation rate is just 1.24 percent.

“Today, the Misery Index would be 7.54 using official numbers,” they wrote. But if calculations tabulating the full national unemployment including discouraged workers, which is 10.2 percent, and the historical method of calculating inflation, which is now 4.5 percent, ‘the current misery index is closer to 14.7, worse even than during the Ford administration.”

◼ Record 20% of Households on Food Stamps in '13 - CNS News

The USDA says that there were 23,052,388 households on food stamps in the average month of fiscal 2013, an increase of 722,675 from fiscal year 2012, when there were 22,329,713 households on food stamps in the average month.
at Labels: , , ,

The Divided And Troubled State Of California

◼ It’s a New Legislative Year. That means it’s time for California Governor Jerry Brown to give his “State of the State” address. - Tom Del Beccaro/Forbes

Undoubtedly, Brown along with his California Democrats and their supportive media will claim that California is in good shape. The truth, however, is that California is facing real problems and is deeply divided economically and politically.

When we consider the state of the state, you might ask what is the core mission of government? Keeping its citizens safe? Educating its youth? Taking care of its roads and water supply? Or perhaps fostering economic prosperity? Most people would count those among the most important. On each of those counts, however, California is in real trouble and government policies are to blame.

...Democrats...like to crow that the state now has a balanced budget. The price for that success? California now has the highest tax rates in the country, with over half of the income taxes being paid by less than 145,000 people....
at Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Voters Stick to Their Guns:
Another Bloomberg Mayor Ousted



Butler, Pennsylvania has a new mayor. Incumbent Margaret Stock, a member of Michael Bloomberg's anti-gun coalition Mayors Against Illegal Guns, was ousted in favor of retired police officer Tom Donaldson. Voters made it very clear that any threat to our firearm freedoms is a threat to our safety and who we are as Americans.
at Labels: , , , , , , , ,

California’s legislature passed, as usual, hundreds of laws that took effect on January 1st, but two of them are prime examples of how the Golden State has turned its governance over to an alliance of public sector unions, environmentalist extremists, and wealthy elites. Nowhere within this privileged clique is there any recognition of how difficult they are making everyday life for ordinary people.

◼ Ushering in 2014 with Laws that Government Unions and Greens Adore

...California’s elites...do not care about ordinary people. They hide behind extreme environmentalist scare scenarios – hatched by organizations whose directorships are opportunistically populated by trial lawyers and crony “green” capitalists. And, of course, thousands of public sector union jobs are created, as code enforcement officers fan out into the urban hinterland to enter our homes, peering behind our walls and into our ceilings, checking our pipes and wires, ferreting out the errant rebels.
at Labels: , , , , ,

Humboldt State University raised a new Centennial flag this morning.


◼ Via Rollin Richmond, Humboldt State University President
at Labels: , ,

Millennials Unhappy With Obama's War on the Young

◼ link - Michael Barone/Real Clear Politics

What do young Americans want? Something different from what they've been getting from the president they voted for by such large margins.
at Labels: , , , , , , ,

Once the American people figure out how rich they are—and how the Greens have conspired to cloak that wealth and keep them poor—there will be genuine hell to pay.

◼ THE $128 TRILLION RIP-OFF - Breitbart

The biggest theft in world history is occurring right here, right now—literally, right under our feet. It’s a theft of wealth that measures in the 15-digits—wealth that’s being taken away from its rightful owners, the American people, and being sacrificed, in effect, to the Green Gods of Austerity and Sacrifice.

The exact size of the loot? It totals $128 trillion in recoverable oil and natural gas, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Energy Research (IER). To put that $128 trillion sum in perspective, we could use a mere 13 percent of it to pay off the entire US national debt. Indeed, that $128 trillion is almost 35 times greater than federal expenditures for fiscal year 2014, and more than seven times the annual US GDP.

...If the pro-growth forces got into a bidding war with the anti-growth forces, the right could make an opening bid of $128 trillion. That is, $128 trillion to rebuild the lives and life-prospects of recession-ripped Americans.

Try as they might, there aren’t enough liberal trust-funders in the world to top such a bid.
at Labels: , ,

California: Worst in Total Debt, Worst in Unfunded Pensions


◼ State governments are piling up debt almost as fast as the federal government, with a total of $5.1 trillion now on their books. - Mark Tapscott/Washington Examiner

Calculated on a per capita basis, the $5.1 trillion represents an obligation of $16,178 for every state resident in the country, according to State Budget Solutions' fourth annual State Debt Report....

Viewed in terms of total debt, big states dominate the top 10, with California being in the worst shape at $778 billion. Most of the Golden State's total is accounted for by public pension liabilities at $584 billion.

Given the prominence of unfunded public employee pension liabilities in state debt, the role of unions representing government workers is an important factor.
at Labels: , , , , , , ,

GRAPH: Here's what the 2014 budget that Congress just passed looks like

at Labels: , , ,

Monday, January 20, 2014

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King’s Dream


My favorite line from that speech is when Dr. King declared the dream he had for his children: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” I do not believe Dr. King was asking for a handout. Rather, his message was a demand that government recognize the fundamental rights of people everywhere—namely, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Dr. King wanted freedom, and I don’t believe he ever intended for any of us, whether black, white, or any other color or group, to receive special status in society. -- ◼ Mia Love, running to represent Utah’s 4th congressional district in Congress.
at Labels: , , , ,

Every three working Americans provide sustenance for two who are not ill, enfeebled, or too young. The former help the disabled, the latter take resources from them.

◼ The Last Generation of the West and the Thin Strand of Civilization - Victor Davis Hanson/PJ Media

...Over 90 million Americans who could work are not working (the “non-institutionalized” over 16). What we take for granted — our electrical power, fuel, building materials, food, health care, and communications — all hinge on just 144 million getting up in the morning to produce what about 160-170 million others (the sick, the young, and the retired who need assistance along with the 90 million idle) consume....

We forget that the obligations of the working to care for the 70-80 million who genuinely cannot work become more difficult, when the 90 million who can work for all sorts of reasons won’t. Note the theme of this essay: the more in humane fashion we provide unemployment insurance, food stamps, subsidized housing, legal advice, health care and disability insurance, the more the recipients find it all inadequate, inherent proof of unfairness and inequality, and always not enough....

A very few people are saving very many. But how thin the strand of civilization hangs — given that the forces of our modern Lotus Eaters (every bit as dangerous in their postmodern imaginations as the Cyclopes are in their premodern savagery) have stopped the Keystone Pipeline, stopped most federal leasing of new gas and oil finds, and are trying to regulate fracking and horizontal drilling out of existence where it might be most vital to the U.S. — as in the Monterey Shale formation in California.

How ironic is the Sierra Club Bay Area grandee who finds light when he flips on his office switch, and would find no light were his utopian ideas about wind, solar, and biomass to come to full fruition. Only what he despises — radioactive uranium, messy drilling rigs, and unnatural dams — for now continue to bring him what he must have. Again, the theme: the more the green activists empty reservoirs to save a bait fish, or stop fracking, or prevent salvage logging, the angrier they sigh that it is not enough and the more they must count on someone ignoring them to provide them with what they must have....
at Labels:

“Gov. Cuomo, I’m going to leave and I’m taking all of my money with me – every single solitary penny,” he added. “And by the way governor, because I work here – there’s a whole bunch of people that work for me and benefit because I do two shows. And I guess maybe some of them will be out of work, governor. I’m sure you’ll take care of them.”



◼ Hannity announced on his radio show today that he’s preparing to leave the highly-taxed liberal mecca of New York, and he’s taking all his money with him. After all, as he pointed out, as a conservative he’s no longer welcome in the state of New York according to Cuomo. So he’s gonna pack up ship and head out... - The Right Scoop

◼ Glenn Beck to New York Gov. Cuomo: Are our tax dollars not welcome here? - Jessica Chasmar/Washington Times

In an open letter, Mercury Radio founder and CEO Glenn Beck is asking New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo if his right-leaning company is still welcome in the state, after the Democrat said Friday that “extreme” conservatives have no place in New York.

Citing a “schism” within the GOP, Mr. Cuomo said, “Their problem is not me and the Democrats; their problem is themselves. Who are they? Are they these extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay? Is that who they are? Because if that’s who they are and they’re the extreme conservatives, they have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are.”

◼ GLENN BECK’S OPEN LETTER TO GOV. CUOMO: ARE WE WELCOME IN NEW YORK? - The Blaze

“We are fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, entrepreneurs, dreamers, visionaries, hard-workers, straight, gay, black, white, believers, non-believers, liberals and conservatives,” he wrote Monday. “More importantly than any one of these labels, we are decent and kind human beings, and upstanding, loyal and patriotic Americans.

“We don’t see things as left and right. We see things as right and wrong,” he continued. “Our organization creates jobs for hundreds of people in your state, and provides news, opinion, entertainment and a helping hand for millions of people across this country. Are our contributions, tax dollars, and genuine goodness as citizens not welcome here? We respectfully request an answer on whether there are two classes of citizens.”

◼ Hey, ‘displaced and persecuted New Yorkers’: Bobby Jindal has an idea for you - Twitchy

at Labels: , , , , , , ,

Turns out that Jan 20th is National Cheese Lover's Day


◼ Via Cypress Grove Chevre
at Labels: ,

Brains of elderly slow because they know so much

◼ The brains of older people only appear to slow down because they have so much information to compute, much like a full-up hard drive, scientists believe. - The Telegraph

“The human brain works slower in old age,” said Dr. Michael Ramscar, “but only because we have stored more information over time...The brains of older people do not get weak. On the contrary, they simply know more.”

...“Imagine someone who knows two people’s birthdays and can recall them almost perfectly.
“Would you really want to say that person has a better memory than a person who knows the birthdays of 2000 people, but can ‘only’ match the right person to the right birthday nine times out of ten?” said Dr Ramscar.

The study provides more than an explanation of why, in the light of all the extra information they have to process, we might expect older brains to seem slower and more forgetful than younger brains.

The study was published in the Journal of Topics in Cognitive Science
at Labels: ,

Davis’ ex-husband saw it coming. And so did the Davis campaign, which tried to keep him quiet. Only the progressive movement and the big money donors didn’t have a clue as to what they were buying into.


◼ Wendy Davis’ ex-husband: “They’ve asked me not to talk to reporters” - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

But he didn’t listen to the campaign, and the result is the implosion of Wendy Davis’ personal and political narratives...

Here’s the key thing.

The Wendy Davis campaign has been trying to keep Jeff Davis from speaking to the press for months. According to the Houston Chronicle article (emphasis added):
“They’ve asked me not to talk to reporters,” Jeff said. He is anyway, because: “If she runs, the scrutiny on her will be extraordinary. She needs to deal with it in a constructive way. She needs to take control of the message. … My goal in all this, I think, is just try and protect the kids as much as I can.”
Now we know why. Wendy Davis’ personal and campaign narratives don’t hold up to scrutiny.

◼ Uh oh, Wendy Davis’ life story not what it seems - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

...To summarize... ◼ her second husband paid her way through her last two years of college and all of Harvard Law School, he raised their two daughters for whom she didn’t even fight for custody. She left her husband the day after he made her last student loan payment

◼ Wendy Davis’ Ex Asked a Court to Order Her Not to Use Drugs Before Seeing Her Kids - Red State

It is her ex-husband who talked to a left-of-center Dallas reporter. It is also her ex-husband who asked a Texas District Court to issue a temporary restraining order against Wendy Davis in 2003.

In that order, the judge ordered that Wendy Davis “be immediately restrained from . . . using illegal drugs or consuming alcohol within 24 hours before or during the period of possession of or access to the child.”

Speaking of the child, at the time her twelve year old daughter requested her father serve as her managing conservator.



◼ The latest pathetic chapter in the campaign of @WendyDavisTexas - Sister Toldjah

◼ ‘DNC hacks!’ You won’t believe how MSNBC, CBS framed Wendy Davis’ lies; Dana Loesch blasts - Twitchy





◼ The response from the Wendy Davis campaign to the exposure of her factually-challenged campaign biography and narrative as a single mom who put herself through law school turned out to be as inconsistent as the biography itself. - HotAir

In other words, the Davis campaign obviously did not do their homework before grasping at that blame-a-Republican-shill strategy. The response, more than the story itself, demonstrates just how unready the Davis campaign and Davis herself are ready for a high-profile gubernatorial fight in Texas … or anywhere else, for that matter.
at Labels: , , ,

Dr. Ben Carson Says More About MLK Day With 25 Words Than the Huffington Post Says With 800




◼ Nailed it! A lot of other people thought so, too, tweeting sentiments like “Amen!” and “Exactly” in response - Emily Hulsey/IJ Review

It’s a day to recognize how far we’ve come thanks to Dr. King’s service, to realize what kind of nation we want to be in the future, and to remind ourselves what it will take to get there. To me, Dr. Carson’s tweet accomplishes that.

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, everyone!

◼ Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday
at Labels: , ,

'In honor of MLK': Sarah Palin asks Obama to stop playing race card; Cue massive outrage

◼ What The President Said About Racism Being Responsible For His Failed Policies Is Really, Really Sad - IJ Review

President Obama has taken a big hit to his approval ratings after being awarded Politifact’s “Lie of the Year” for misleading Americans on “keeping your plan” under ObamaCare. But now he’s pulling a familiar card. You got it – the race card.

In an interview with The New Yorker, Obama addressed his falling job-approval ratings:
“There’s no doubt that there’s some folks who just really dislike me because they don’t like the idea of a black President.”
Obama has always been more popular than his policies; that is, until recently. He was elected – and reelected – with support from millions of white Americans. The majority of (white) Americans did give him the benefit of the doubt - many of them, precisely because he was America’s first black president, but his policies and results have proved otherwise.

I’m going to go out on a limb, here, and suggest that none of the above has anything to do with the color of Obama’s skin – nor that of any of the other people to whom I referred. It does, however, have everything to do with their respective policies, proposals, ideology and track records. Think about it, America.

◼ ‘In honor of MLK’: Sarah Palin asks Obama to stop playing race card; Cue massive outrage - Twitchy



The full message from Sarah Palin’s Facebook post:

Happy MLK, Jr. Day!

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mr. President, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and all who commit to ending any racial divide, no more playing the race card.

You probably guessed what happened next. Here’s just a sampling:








__________________

This kind of hate is nothing new:























at Labels: , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)