Move over, Truth Team; Here come the Democratic ‘factivists’

◼ Mo Elleithee, the Democrats’ communications director, is looking for a few good “factivists” to push back against those nasty Koch brothers and their lies. All you have to do is sign up. Hey, it’s got to pay at least $10.10 an hour, right? - Twitchy

Sign up as a Factivist (http://t.co/P3Vh7hE8j1) & help @TheDemocrats protect our party’s brand with the truth! http://t.co/tAGf9HTv6V

— Mo Elleithee (@MoElleithee) March 1, 2014

@DWStweets R U sure #Factivist is a good name? Sounds awfully close to Fascist. Just saying.

— James (@PhearlessLeader) February 28, 2014

@TheDemocrats is #factivist code for "Lying your asses off to fool low info voter base"¿ Mission accomplished! #DNC2014FAIL

— CS in Reno (@CinSmith1) March 1, 2014

@TheDemocrats Speaking of #factivist, the #Koch Brother's rank #59 in federal election spending. Who are the top 25? pic.twitter.com/reWpQuEMot

— Soquel by the Creek (@SoquelCreek) March 1, 2014

From 2011: Celebrating 91st Anniversary of 19th Amendment

Celebrate Women’s History Month!

Obama Skips National Security Team Meeting on Russia, Ukraine

◼ "The President's national security team met today to receive an update on the situation in Ukraine and discuss potential policy options. We will provide further updates later this afternoon," reads the full statement. - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard

According to Time magazine's Zeke Miller, Obama skipped the meeting. "Obama did not attend the meeting, but WH official says he has been briefed by Susan Rice and his national security team," says Miller.

◼ Putin Acts, Obama Affirms - Bill Kristol/Weekly Standard

Here's President Obama on Friday: "The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine." Characteristically, Obama establishes a few degrees of separation between himself and actually acting. He doesn't say, straightforwardly, that the United States will lead the international community in imposing costs for any military intervention in Ukraine. No. The United States will "stand with" others in "affirming" that "there will be costs."

Dumb, Uneducated, And Eager To Deceive: Media Coverage Of Religious Liberty In A Nutshell

◼ In the aftermath of the abominable media coverage of Arizona’s religious liberty bill, an editor shared his hypothesis that journalists care about freedom of speech and of the press because they practice them. And journalists don’t care about freedom of religion because they don’t. - Mollie Hemingway/The Federalist

But one of the most interesting things about modern media’s deep hostility toward the religious, their religions, and religious liberty in general is that press freedom in America is rooted in religion.

...The First Amendment begins with religious liberty because (and even our non-traditionally religious Founders agreed with this), all freedom of expression — speech, press, assembly, etc. — is rooted in the importance of man determining truth according to his own conscience.

So What’s That Have To Do With Our Modern Media?

Moving forward nearly 300 years, we have a press that loathes and works actively to suppress this religious liberty, as confident in being on the “right side of history” as they are ignorant of natural rights, history, religion and basic civility.

A broad religious liberty bill — renamed by a juvenile and nakedly activist press as “anti-gay” — gives us a good opportunity to see this dynamic in action.

Perhaps a framework for understanding the truth-avoiding goat rodeo the media participated in is in order.

Remembering Breitbart

February 1, 1969 - March 1, 2012

◼ ANDREW BREITBART’S VISION AND MISSION THRIVING TWO YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH - LARRY SOLOV, STEPHEN K. BANNON, ALEX MARLOW, & JON KAHN/BREITBART

Two years ago today, we lost Andrew Breitbart. He was a father, husband, and a brother — a gregarious and hilarious personality. He was a new media pioneer. But perhaps he is best remembered as a fighter. He fought alongside us. He fought when we couldn't. Justice. Accountability. Freedom. An even playing field. Those were the fights of his life.

On March 1st we think of him, but every day at Breitbart News we honor him. Every day we strive to keep the fighting spirit of this unique individual alive on the pages of the entity to which he gave all and which bears his name.

And progress is being made. New media is growing and thriving, reaching more people in more countries all over the globe, breaking stories and fighting battles minute to minute, if not second to second. Meanwhile, the corrupt media establishment is struggling to modernize and maintain credibility with the public. Just as Andrew had envisioned.

Andrew Breitbart was a giant among men, and we will not see his kind come our way again. But his passion, his resolve, his patriotism will not fade from living memory as that has been passed on to the men and women who labor everyday in his memory to bring you the news, information, and analysis that are the foundations of our freedoms and our country.

◼ ‘Hating Breitbart’ makers release never-before-seen clip [video] - Twitchy 



◼ What and who Andrew Breitbart faced - William A. Jacobson/Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

...At the Breitbart Awards in Providence in 2012, the only blogger conference I’ve attended so far, numerous people spoke to how Andrew thought of himself as the point man in the movement, the person who drew the fire so that others didn’t have to.

It’s important to remember what and who Andrew faced.

When I scrolled through a Twitter search for Andrew Breitbart’s name, I saw a tweet by Max Blumenthal referring to Andrew reaching his “tweet limit” and linking to an article by Blumenthal from May 2013 mocking how “it was convenient that Breitbart’s heart exploded when it did….”

From the comments: >>”It’s important to remember what and who Andrew faced.”

I’ll never forget. I can’t. I grew up with them. They’ve been around me my whole life. They still are. Andrew is the only person I ever saw take it as his personal challenge to call them out to their faces. He unnerved them. His challenge shattered their sense of invulnerability. They thought they were safe within the folds and behind the bulwarks of the popular culture. No ever hunted them down before. No one ever dared. We kept our distance and our “good manners.” Not Andrew. He went in after them, like Rikki Tikki Tavi went down the snake hole after the cobra in Kipling’s story.

Celebrate Women’s History Month

Did you know?
A Republican Wrote The 19th Amendment Giving Women The Right To Vote
In 1878, U.S. Senator Aaron Sargent (R-CA) introduced in Congress the proposed 19th Amendment according women the right to vote. Over the next four decades, it was primarily the Democrats who would oppose the measure.

Not until 1919, after the Republican Party won majorities in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, did Congress approve what became the 19th Amendment.

We’re very proud of our history.
The story of Republican women's clubs begins many years before women even had the right to vote.

Hundreds of independent Republican women’s clubs grew up around the nation in the late 1800s. In 1938, the Republican National Committee helped to organize these clubs into a national organization. Eleven states became the charter states of NFRW - California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Learn more.

Our local club was one of those first clubs. We've been here since 1938.

Today, the NFRW consists of thousands of active members in local clubs across the nation and in several U.S. territories.

We are proud to be part of the California Federation of Republican Women (CFRW), and the National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW), the largest women’s political volunteer organization in the nation.

◼ Learn more about the Republican Women Organizations.
◼ NFRW: National Federation of Republican Women
◼ History: GOP Accomplishments
__________________
◼ Help Us Celebrate Women’s History Month - League Of Women Voters

Women’s History Month begins March 1st.

After 3 Years, 2 Months & 10 Days – Tea Party Patriots Granted Tax Exempt Status By Phone Call on Eve of Congressional Testimony

◼ After 3 years, 2 months, and 10 days; after thousands of man-hours, after tens of thousands of dollars in legal and accounting fees – the IRS called Jenny Beth Martin of the Tea Party Patriots to inform her that the conservative 501(c)(4) group was given tax-exempt status. - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit

This was just hours before her testimony today before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Subcommittee on the IRS targeting scandal.

PUTIN CALLS BLUFF: REQUESTS MILITARY FORCE

◼ Putin Asks Russia’s Senate to Use Military Force in Ukraine - New York Times

Mr. Putin’s request, largely a formality, signaled publicly for the first time the Kremlin’s readiness to intervene militarily in Ukraine, and it served as a blunt response to President Obama, who just hours earlier pointedly warned Russia to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty.

◼ Ukraine: Putin´s Crimea aim is to make the West look weak - Telegraph UK

This is tragic for Ukraine, for the near-abroad and for Nato not because it is taking us by surprise but because we have expected it for so long and seen it before and yet remain incapable of acting. This is the salami-tactics that Yes, Prime Minister joked about decades ago. Slice by slice, Russia is invading Ukraine and weakening the alliance that has kept the peace in Europe for almost 70 years.

It is a textbook KGB-led operation: the agent provocateur, followed by a self-organised militia, then Russian military protection to defend 'their’ people. The tactic was used to good effect throughout the Soviet period in Communist coups. It’s what brought down the government of Afghanistan and caused 30 years of war. And again it is unlikely to be resisted....

◼ Putin Asks to Deploy Troops in Ukraine - LUKAS I. ALPERT in Moscow, JAMES MARSON in Kiev and PAUL SONNE in Simferopol/Wall Street Journal

Russia's parliament voted unanimously on Saturday to authorize a request from President Vladimir Putin to deploy Russian troops in Ukraine, defying warnings from U.S. President Barack Obama and other Western leaders not to intervene.

Russian lawmakers also asked Mr. Putin to recall the country's ambassador to the U.S. Mr. Obama has publicly warned Russia that there would be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.

◼ Revealed: The forgotten treaty which could drag the US and UK into WAR with Russia if Putin's troops intervene in Ukraine - JILL REILLY and LIZZIE EDMONDS/Daily Mail

◼ The agreement sees signatories promise to protect Ukraine's borders
◼ It was signed by Bill Clinton, John Major, Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kuchma in 1994
◼ Ukrainian parliament has now reached out directly to all the countries who signed the treaty
◼ Putin currently has 150,000 troops on Ukraine's borders and it is reported some have crossed into the country
◼ President Obama says he is 'deeply concerned' by the news
◼ The US and Britain have both made 'crisis calls' to President Putin to warn him to respect territorial boundaries

◼ Putin asks Russian parliament for approval to use military force in Ukraine; Update: Gets unanimous approval - HotAir

What will the Obama administration do? As it turns out, one reason why Russia finds this such a low-risk scenario is because the US and UK convinced Ukraine to give up its leftover Soviet-era nuclear weapons in 1994. In exchange for its unilateral disarmament, the US and UK pledged to defend Ukraine’s territorial integrity against any aggression in a pact known as the Budapest Memorandum...

Update: Apparently, the Crimean peninsula has a third interested party — Turkey. A late-eighteenth-century treaty gave Crimea to the Russians, but only under certain conditions...

◼ Putin Wakes Up the World - J. Christian Adams/Breitbart

'Son of God':

◼ A miraculous journey to the big screen - FOX

Tim Donnelly: "Keep The Change"

I aim to give hard-working, lower-wage Californians more of their hard-earned money, which is why I recently introduced a bill that will allow wait staff, bartenders, and other service industry staff who make minimum wage or lower, and rely upon tips, to be exempted from income tax on those tips.

On the campaign trail, I hear from wait staff and others that they are growing increasingly concerned with the demands on their tips and the big government rules affecting them. A great first step is to allow hard-working Californians in the service industry keep more of their hard-earned money.

READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE: ◼ http://www.electtimdonnelly.com/keep-the-change/

Leap Day

“Mr. Obama, tell us about your plan for nuclear war with Russia!”

◼ After slamming Republicans for getting “all stirred up” over his plan to unilaterally act to “help middle class families,” Obama was interrupted.

“Mr. Obama, tell us about your plan for nuclear war with Russia!” an unidentified man can be heard yelling during the president’s speech.

“I’m sorry,” Obama said sarcastically. “Who is that back there? What the heck are you talking about?”

◼ ‘Another line’? Did the Obama admin just warn Russia ‘not to do what Russia has already done’? - Twitchy 

@southsalem @markknoller Personally I think tanks and helicopters cross a line. But that is just me.

— Ross . (@indyrallen) February 28, 2014

◼ Russian troops enter Ukraine, President Obama and Democrats declare ‘happy hour’ - Twitchy 

Shifting mood from his Ukraine statement, Pres Obama tells DNC: it's after 5PM - so it's Happy Hour with the Democratic Party.

— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 28, 2014

@ZekeJMiller And people wonder why Putin doesn't take this incompetent doofus seriously.

— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) February 28, 2014

◼ Albert Brooks: ‘Did Obama just declare war or wish us a good weekend?’ - Twitchy 

Did Obama just declare war or wish us a good weekend? I can't tell.

— Albert Brooks (@AlbertBrooks) February 28, 2014

Michelle Obama: America's Moms Are 'Confused and Bewildered,' 'Defeated' by Grocery Shopping

◼ In pitching new, improved nutrition labels at the White House on Thursday, first lady Michelle Obama tried to identify with women who do the grocery shopping for their families. - CNS News

"So there you stood, alone in some aisle in a store, the clock ticking away at the precious little time remaining to complete your weekly grocery shopping, and all you could do was scratch your head, confused and bewildered, and wonder, is there too much sugar in this product? Is 50 percent of the daily allowance of riboflavin a good thing or a bad thing? And how on Earth could this teeny little package contain five whole servings?"

“The Ukrainians, and I think everybody, is shocked by the weakness of Obama’s statement. I find it rather staggering.”

◼ Krauthammer’s Take: Obama Tells the World We Aren’t Going to Do Anything About Invasion of Ukraine - NATIONAL REVIEW

As reports are coming in that Russia has placed 2,000 troops in Crimea, within the borders of Ukraine, President Obama said that “the United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.”

Charles Krauthammer responded on Special Report tonight saying, “The Ukrainians, and I think everybody, is shocked by the weakness of Obama’s statement. I find it rather staggering.”

◼ PAPER: Ukraine Invasion Begins - armed Russian-speaking gunmen with Crimea in their grip as Barack Obama warns Moscow - Independent UK
◼ 'Several Hundred' Russian Soldiers in Crimea - AFP
◼ Ousted president emerges at press conference - Independent UK (autoplay)
◼ DEFIANT: 'Fascist hooligans' - BBC UK
◼ Tensions echo Georgia '08... - FT
◼ UPDATE: Russia Seeks Access to Bases in 8 Countries for Its Ships, Bombers...Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua... - CNS
Palin: I told you...
◼ Meanwhile: Iran advancing nuke program despite pact with West - USA Today

‘Pineapple Express’ pattern for drought stricken California is shaping up – how long will it last?

◼ The storm that arrived on Feb. 26, 2014, and the one about to hit, are contained within the “Pineapple Express,” an atmospheric river that extends from the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii to the Pacific coast of North America, where it often brings heavy precipitation. - Watts Up With That?

This next storm is expect to be the largest rain producer in Southern California in three years.

There are some REAL problems in Connecticut...

◼ (Video) CT State Police: “If Necessary” -Will go Door to Door to Confiscate Your Guns…(says) “I am the master” - Universal Free Press

It’s safe to say this Lieutenant is the new face of American Fascism. He clearly doesn’t know who he works for (the tax payers) or much care. A sworn police officer who views anyone who asserts their rights as a threat is not someone who should be wearing a badge. He would send his officers door to door to confiscate any weapon deemed “unlawful” and arrest and imprison anyone who dares get in his way. He claims he’s not the Gestapo while conceding to Gestapo logic. It’s truly chilling to hear this nut. He needs to be fired immediately.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin warned that if Senator Barack Obama were elected president, his "indecision" and "moral equivalence" may encourage Russia's Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.

◼ PALIN MOCKED IN 2008 FOR WARNING PUTIN MAY INVADE UKRAINE IF OBAMA ELECTED - Tony Lee/Breitbart

Palin said then:

After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama's reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia's Putin to invade Ukraine next.
For those comments, she was mocked by the high-brow Foreign Policy magazine and its editor Blake Hounshell, who now is one of the editors of Politico magazine.

In light of recent events in Ukraine and concerns that Russia is getting its troops ready to cross the border into the neighboring nation, nobody seems to be laughing at or dismissing those comments now.

◼ Russian aircraft carrying nearly 2,000 suspected troops have landed at a military air base near the regional capital of the restive Crimean peninsula, a top Ukrainian official said Friday, accusing Moscow of an "armed invasion". - Agence France Presse

◼ Ukraine crisis live: UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting on Ukraine crisis - Telegraph [UK]

◼ Ukraine crisis: Latest updates - BBC News [UK]

Ukraine´s interim President Oleksandr Turchynov accuses Russia of aggression, saying Moscow has deployed troops in Crimea and is "trying to provoke" Kiev into an "armed conflict".

◼ Putin’s Ukraine gambit - Charles Krauthammer/Washington Post

Russia does. Moscow denounces the overthrow as the illegal work of fascist bandits, refuses to recognize the new government created by parliament, withholds all economic assistance and, in a highly provocative escalation, mobilizes its military forces on the Ukrainian border.

The response? The E.U. dithers and Barack Obama slumbers. After near- total silence during the first three months of Ukraine’s struggle for freedom, Obama said on camera last week that in his view Ukraine is no “Cold War chessboard.”

Unfortunately, this is exactly what it is for Putin. He wants Ukraine back.

...What Obama doesn’t seem to understand is that American inaction creates a vacuum.

◼ CNN: Obama admin assesses Russian troops entering Ukraine as ‘uncontested arrival,’ not invasion [video] - Twitchy

Smart Power RT @SalenaZitoTrib: 2000 Russian troops land in your country, 2 airports taken over. WH calls it an "uncontested arrival".

— Phineas Fahrquar (@irishspy) February 28, 2014

Out: The word "invasion" In: "Uncontested Arrival" #ukraine #tcot

— Matt Vespa (@mVespa1) February 28, 2014

◼ HOW EMBARRASSING FOR THE MEDIA: Sarah Palin Right Again on Foreign Policy - Doug Ross

“Never in my life did I ever believe that our country would be taken over by people like the people who are running it at this day.”

◼ Steven Seagal: If the Truth Comes Out About Benghazi, Obama Will be Impeached (Video) - Right Wing News

“If the truth about Benghazi were to come out now, I don’t think that this man would make it through his term. I think he would be impeached.”

"I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon law and upon courts. These are false hopes, believe me, these are false hopes."

"I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon law and upon courts. These are false hopes, believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no courts to save it." - Judge Learned Hand

NFRW Capitol Connection

Board Meeting Room Reservation Cut-off Date
This is a reminder that Tuesday, March 4th is the last day for NFRW members planning to attend the Spring board of directors meeting to make hotel reservations at the group rate of $199. After that date, the hotel will work to accommodate attendees, but we cannot guarantee room or group rate availability.

As of today (Thursday, February 27), there are still rooms available in the NFRW room block for Thursday, March 27 and Friday March 28. If you are interested in arriving earlier, please contact meetings@nfrw.org and we will work with the hotel to ensure you will be added to the NFRW room block.

Also, Friday, March 7 is the last day for early registration for the board meeting. The initial registration fee will go from $285 for full registration to $320.

Campaign School in California This Weekend

This Saturday in Fresno, California the NFRW will host a campaign management school. Grassroots leaders and activists will learn how to write a campaign plan, fundraise, organize volunteers, conduct issue and opposition research, utilize social media, and target voters.

When Republican women formed the NFRW in 1938, they adopted political education as one of the fledgling organization's primary objectives. Today, the NFRW effectively pursues this long-time objective by training Republicans to win elections through the highly-successful Campaign Management School (CMS) program. To host a campaign school in your state, contact Maria Jeffrey at political@nfrw.org.

We Want to Hear About Your Successes!

If your club has put on a successful fundraising event, grassroots effort, or membership drive, we want to hear about it! Contact political@nfrw.org and send in your stories.
March Board Meeting Speakers

NFRW is excited to have Ben Shapiro, Editor-At-Large of Breitbart.com, national best-selling author, and co-host of the Morning Answer, as the keynote speaker for the luncheon on Friday, March 28.

On Saturday afternoon, from 2:30 to 3:30, Executive Director of the Republican Senatorial Committee, Rob Collins, will be giving a presentation on the committee's work to elect Republicans to the Senate this election season. Deputy Executive Director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Jessica Furst Johnson, will be joining Rob and presenting on what the NRCC is doing to elect Republicans in the House of Representatives this year.

On Saturday morning, Sheriff B.J. Barnes of Guilford County, North Carolina, will preside at the installation ceremony and give a talk. Stay tuned for more speaker information!

Additional Board Meeting Information

The Official Call for the annual Spring Board Meeting was sent the NFRW Board of Directors, Capitol Regents, and Regents on Tuesday evening.

The registration for the meeting is up as well.

Below is the tentative agenda:

Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Morning, Optional Tour of Mount Vernon
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm, NFRW Headquarters Open House
Thursday, March 27, 2014
10:00 am - 5:00 pm, Registration Desk
10:00 am - 12:00 pm, Executive Committee Meeting
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm, State Presidents Meeting
8:00 pm - 9:00 pm, Regents Reception
Friday, March 28, 2014
7:00 am - 5:00 pm, Registration Desk
7:30 am - 8:30 am, Standing Committee Meetings
9:00 am - 12:00 pm, Board of Directors Meeting
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm, Luncheon
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm, Board of Directors Meeting
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm, Regional Meetings
Evening, Attendees on own
Saturday, March 29, 2014
6:30 am - 12:00 pm, Registration Desk
7:00 am - 9:30 am, Continental Breakfast
7:30 am - 8:30 am, Prayer Meeting
9:00 am - 11:30 am, Board of Directors Meeting
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm, Executive Committee Meeting

◼ www.nfrw.org

NOT OVER YET. KAMALA HARRIS APPEALS NINTH CIRCUIT CONCEALED CARRY RULING

◼ On February 27 California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris "filed a petition in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals... urging the court to review and reverse its decision in Peruta v. County of San Diego." - Awr HawkinsBREITBART

On February 13 Breitbart News reported the court struck down the "good cause" requirement for concealed carry permit applicants in CA. The court in essence ruled that the "mere desire to carry a gun, when applying for a concealed carry permit," is sufficient.

Peruta was heard by a three-judge panel, and Harris is asking the court to revisit the decision and reverse it.

◼ California attorney general tries to overturn gun carry ruling in 9th Circuit - Emily Miller-The Washington Times

Kamala Harris uses dirty tactics to get Peruta v. San Diego County reversed

Chuck Michel is the west coast counsel for the National Rifle Association, which funded the lawsuit. He said Ms. Harris‘ motion to intervene was far out of line because her office wasn’t part of the lawsuit, despite repeated requests from both plaintiffs and Sheriff Gore to get involved.

“They are trying to improperly influence the court,” Mr. Michel said in an interview. “The are stretching the rules to file in order to get their arguments in front of the court in the hopes that a liberal judge will get the message and ask for a vote himself.”

Since Sheriff Gore did not ask for review, the only way for a hearing by a larger panel of justices in the 9th Circuit is if one asks to go en banc.

Today, Jerry Brown filed paperwork for re-election.

Ted Cruz: We’ll ‘turn this country around’

◼ Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday praised the tea party movement on its fifth birthday while vowing to activists that Republicans would repeal every word of Obamacare. Alex Pappas/Daily Caller

During a celebration of the five year anniversary of the tea party movement in Washington, Cruz said: “I think the tea party is the most exciting political development in decades in this country.”

“God Bless the tea party,” the Texas Republican said....

Cruz, whose popularity with the conservative grassroots was evident with the repeated chants of “Ted, Ted, Ted” from the crowd, told the hundreds of activists at the celebration not to give up on repealing President Obama’s health care law.

“Let me tell you right now,” Cruz said. “I’m absolutely convinced. We are going to repeal every single word.”

'A whole new level of violation of our users' privacy'

◼ Yahoo webcam images from millions of users intercepted by GCHQ - Spencer Ackerman and James Ball/The Guardian

Material included large quantity of sexually explicit images

Britain's surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal.

In one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery – including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications – from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.

Yahoo reacted furiously to the webcam interception when approached by the Guardian. The company denied any prior knowledge of the program, accusing the agencies of "a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy".

...Optic Nerve, the documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden show, began as a prototype in 2008 and was still active in 2012, according to an internal GCHQ wiki page accessed that year.

The system, eerily reminiscent of the telescreens evoked in George Orwell's 1984, was used for experiments in automated facial recognition, to monitor GCHQ's existing targets, and to discover new targets of interest. Such searches could be used to try to find terror suspects or criminals making use of multiple, anonymous user IDs.

...It is not fully clear from the documents how much access the NSA has to the Yahoo webcam trove itself, though all of the policy documents were available to NSA analysts through their routine information-sharing. A previously revealed NSA metadata repository, codenamed Marina, has what the documents describe as a protocol class for webcam information.

In its statement to the Guardian, Yahoo strongly condemned the Optic Nerve program, and said it had no awareness of or involvement with the GCHQ collection.

"We were not aware of, nor would we condone, this reported activity," said a spokeswoman. "This report, if true, represents a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy that is completely unacceptable, and we strongly call on the world's governments to reform surveillance law consistent with the principles we outlined in December.

"We are committed to preserving our users' trust and security and continue our efforts to expand encryption across all of our services."

◼ Guardian: Spy Agencies Collected Intimate Webcam Content From Innocent People - Personal Liberty

If you got full-frontal during a webcam chat on Yahoo Messenger in the latter part of the last decade (we hope you didn’t… then or ever), there’s a possibility that spies at the British GCHQ spy agency as well as some at the U.S. National Security Agency got a look at your junk.

It's not every day that members of the Legislature do unsolicited stories highlighting Proposition 13.

But Assemblyman Brian Jones (@asmbrianjones) is not your average legislator

#Prop13 passed in 1978, keeps gov't from taxing people out of their homes. #ThrowbackThursday #TaxpayersWin @HJTA pic.twitter.com/COdg79stWL

— Brian W. Jones (@AsmBrianJones) February 27, 2014

◼ Via Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association

Progressive activists still talk as if we can afford any level of social service expenditures if we raise taxes on the rich, but workers can’t be created by raising taxes. Everything that the left has done, from breaking up the family to driving out manufacturing industries to promoting Third World immigration has made its own social welfare spending completely unsustainable.

◼ The Coming Collapse of the Welfare State - Daniel Greenfield/Front Page

Liberals and libertarians both act as if the crisis facing us can be fixed if we take more from the “wealthy elderly” or give them less. The crisis is born of demographics. It can’t be fixed by targeting the elderly because they haven’t been the problem in some time....

The welfare state has been spending more money with an unsustainable demographic imbalance. There are fewer working families supporting more elderly, immigrants and broken families. The Russians invest money into increasing the native birth rate. Instead we fund Planned Parenthood because liberal economic eugenics dictates that we should extract “full value” from working women as a tax base to subsidize the welfare state while discarding the next generation.

The “modern” system that we have adopted with its low birth rates, high social spending and retirement benefits is at odds with itself. We can have low birth rates, deficit spending or Social Security; but there is no possible way that we can have all three.

And yet we have all three.

...After a century of misery, the left still hasn’t learned that there is no substitute for the middle class. It’s not just running out of money, it’s running out of people.

The welfare state has no future. It is only a question of what terms it will implode on and what will happen to the social welfare political infrastructure when it does. The violence in Venezuela and the slow death of Detroit give us insights into the coming collapse of the welfare state.

Senator Rubio Advances The Ball With Higher Education Ideas That Could Be "Game-Changers"

◼ As Senator Rubio told his audience, his bill “aims to give students reliable data on how much they can expect to make versus how much they can expect to owe.” - George Leaf/Forbes

...Perhaps the most subversive idea Rubio has in this regard is a federal program that would certify people who have learned valuable skills outside of the formal educational system.

The Senator said, “We could jumpstart and create private sector confidence in this practice by creating a pilot program to hire such workers in federal agencies. The agencies would identify occupations where employees could have learned skills from non-traditional sources….I suspect that we will find that in many fields, the sources of an employee’s education is far less important than many previously thought. Those who have the skills and aptitude to be successful in a job deserve the opportunity to be considered for employment, even if they learned the trade from a non-traditional source.”

Here’s why that could be revolutionary. Much of the private sector has succumbed to degree snobbery to such an extent that having a degree from an accredited college is now mandatory for people seeking a wide array of jobs that could be done by any intelligent and industrious person, with or without any college coursework. Hardly any firms have shown a willingness to break free of the college credential mania.

GREENPEACE FOUNDER: NO SCIENTIFIC PROOF FOR GLOBAL WARMING

◼ According to Moore, environmental groups like Greenpeace are not really concerned with the truth or the sciences that govern the earth as it evolves in the cosmos. - Robert Wilde/Breitbart

Moreover, the Canadian ecologist, who was a member of Greenpeace from 1971-86, admitted that Greenpeace intentionally used faulty computer models and scare tactics in promoting claims man-made gases are heating up the planet. More told the Senate committee that he decided to leave Greenpeace because it was more concerned with politics than it was with the environment.

Moore also makes the same point that Danish writer and professor of environmental studies at the University of Copenhagen, Bjorn Lomborg, ascribes to; that even if the planet is warming up, it would not be calamitous for humanity, which Moore described as a “subtropical species.” Lomborg claims “economic models generally find that moderate global warming is a net global benefit. Worldwide and in almost all regions, many more people die from cold than heat. With increasing temperatures, avoided cold deaths will vastly outweigh extra heat deaths. By mid-century, researchers estimate 400,000 more heat deaths but 1.8 million fewer cold deaths.”
__________________
◼ Flashback: Greenpeace disappears a founder, much like ‘The Commissar Vanishes’ in Soviet Russia

Conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin spoke at the Tea Party's fifth anniversary

◼ LEVIN TELLS THE TEA PARTY TO FIGHT OBAMA'S TYRANNY: 'FIREWALL OF THE CONSTITUTION HAS BEEN BREACHED'

I can has?

When youth enrollment isn't good, bring on the memes...

◼ Nate Beeler editorial cartoon/Washington Examiner

“Everything is on hold. We won’t grow. We won’t reach that threshold. It is not worth it for us”

◼ Video: NY small business owner on expansion, job creation: “It’s just not worth it” - HotAir

The reporter adds, “He says he scrapped his plans because of the Affordable Care Act. Opening two more locations would increase his company’s employee size to 50, making it mandatory for him to provide health care for all his workers.”

“If we wouldn’t cover those 50 employees, I think there’s a $2,000 penalty per employee. So that is a $100,000 bill,” says the owner.

Yes, that’s what happens when one does the math on ObamaCare’s employer mandate.

"Why is it appropriate for a federally funded organization to produce a video that promotes bondage, sadism and masochism to teens?"

◼ Planned Parenthood Produces Video Promoting Bondage and Sadomasochism to Teens - CNS News

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE)--which received more than $2.75 million in government funding in 2012--has produced and posted online a video specifically aimed at teenagers that promotes bondage and sadomasochism (BDSM) and proposes "rules" to follow when engaging in these activities.

“People sometimes think that those who practice BDSM are emotionally scarred or were once abused—not true, it’s a total myth," the host of the video, Laci Green, informs its intended audience of teens.

"So Brewer’s veto was no surprise. What was a surprise..."

◼ "... was the powerful, profoundly un-weaselly nature of her statement." - Althouse
◼ JAN BREWER: “SO IS NONDISCRIMINATION” - New Yorker

Women in Art

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art

New Product for Parents: 3D Model of Your Unborn Baby

◼ Parents are getting life-size 3D models of their babies growing in the womb, thanks to a melding of 3D printing technology and prenatal imaging by a Brazilian company called Tecnologia Humana 3D

Originally, the models were created for complicated medical cases (like conjoined twins), the company's founder Jorge Roberto Lopes Dos Santos says.

”You’re all lying scumbag tools of the Koch Brothers, now vote for me” is not a winning campaign slogan. Neither is “I sign off on monster bills I don’t understand, and that’s why you must return me to Congress.”

◼ HARRY REID CALLS OBAMACARE VICTIMS LIARS - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o

You’d think Democrats would learn the importance of throwing a blanket over Harry Reid until they squeak through a tough election. This is not the desirable Face of the Party for such a… delicate moment. I doubt many imperiled 2014 Democrats – such as Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, who dodged her own press conference to avoid answering questions about ObamaCare – are going to embrace Reid’s tactic of claiming all the ObamaCare horror stories are false.

...On the other hand, money from that Yankee Doodle Dandy George Soros is just wonderful, positively dripping with good-old fashioned patriotic virtue. Not that anyone should try confusing Harry Reid with facts, but the Koch Brothers are not even in the top 10 political donors. To be specific, they’re Number 59. Eighteen of the donors ahead of them on the list are labor unions that donate heavily to people like Harry Reid.

MILLENNIALS: THE GENTLE GENERATION(?)

◼ ...My generation is also a creative one, because we’ve been encouraged to try things, and the word “failure” is foreign to us. - Teresa Mull/Human Events

◼ CODGERS FREAKING OUT - John Stossel/Human Events

Crotchety old geezers always complain about “the kids.” The Boston Globe frets about “Idle Trophy Kids.” The New York Post asks if millennials are “The Worst Generation?” Older folks (my age) complain that young people spend so much time texting each other that they can’t communicate. And because they spend hours playing violent video games, violence is up.

Bunk.

It’s true that kids today play incredibly violent games like “Halo” and “Grand Theft Auto,” but as the games’ popularity increased (over the past 20 years), youth violence dropped 55 percent. In Japan, kids spend more time playing violent games, and there’s even less violence. And in America, despite media hype, there are fewer school shootings now, not more.

Kids “can’t communicate” because they text all the time? Recently, kids invented Facebook, YouTube, Firefox, Groupon, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and so on. They communicate something.

Inevitably, we older people misunderstand new ways young people do things — we are frightened by the risks and oblivious to the benefits.

RUSSIAN WARSHIP DOCKS IN HAVANA

◼ A Russian warship was docked in Havana Wednesday, without explanation from Communist Cuba or its state media. - AP

Rubio Delivers Remarks On U.S. Policy Toward Russia At The Heritage Foundation

Venezuela at the edge

◼ Another Marxist revolution begins to crumble in Caracas - Washington Times

The convulsions racking Venezuela are predictable, and tragic. When the heavy boot of government suppresses a nation’s commerce to a standstill, the people eventually go to the streets to protest their lost freedoms. This might take decades, as in the old Soviet empire, but an effective backlash against radical socialism is inevitable.

...Mr. Maduro created a “Vice Ministry of Supreme Social Happiness,” to implement onerous new regulations, as if he had lifted the doubleplusungood idea from George Orwell’s dystopian novel, “Nineteen-Eighty Four.” At a department store chain, supremely happy Venezuelan ministers ordered drastic price cuts, making them an example for others. The stores were quickly overrun by mobs bursting with “happiness,” buying up expensive electronic products for pennies on the bolivar.

When politicians interfere with the free market, messy things happen. Businessmen unable to profit lose incentive to sell and shoppers fearful of empty shelves hoard essentials. When Venezuelans began to stock up on the most essential of essentials — toilet paper — the president ordered the “People’s Defense” to take over a paper products factory to review “the production, marketing and distribution of toilet paper.” There was no clearer signal that Chavismo was headed for a wipeout.

Two weeks of violent protest later, more than a dozen lie dead and hundreds are nursing wounds. In desperation, Mr. Maduro plays the gringo card, arresting the main opposition leader, Harvard-educated Leopoldo Lopez, and blaming the unrest on the United States. Both countries have expelled each other’s diplomats, the usual way of expressing official displeasure.

The events are a useful reminder that the red banner can survive only by force and oppression. Socialism makes war on man’s innate desire to be the master of his own fate. Socialists believe that they can better arrange the economy and lives, redistributing the property of the many to enrich the few.

Harry Reid Denies All Obamacare 'Horror Stories'; 'All Are Untrue'

◼ Harry Reid spoke about the Obamacare "horror stories" on the Senate floor this morning. He said that "all are untrue."

"Despite all that good news, there's plenty of horror stories being told. All of them are untrue, but they're being told all over America," said Reid.

◼ Despicable Harry Reid claims O-care horror stories ‘all untrue’; Epic refutation ensues [videos] - Twitchy

@guypbenson So I haven't been cut to 25 hrs/wk? Awesome! @SenatorReid

— Benjamin Green (@BGreenAZ) February 26, 2014

It's amazing that Harry Reid can smear cancer patients by calling them liars and most of our media just ignores it.

— AG (@AG_Conservative) February 26, 2014

"All of them are untrue" - @SenatorReid http://t.co/VFP5uv0jGm

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 26, 2014

"All of them are untrue" - @SenatorReid http://t.co/qtjh0FQSa5

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 26, 2014

"All of them are untrue" - @SenatorReid http://t.co/9ucsUJWiB6

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 26, 2014

"All of them are untrue." - @SenatorReid http://t.co/7za97PNQmt

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 26, 2014

Public Rebellion Brewing...

POLL: Uninsured opposition reaches all-time high...

Did you know?

You can pay 150% MORE just by switching to Obamacare.

What Will Putin Do?

◼ He still means to cause real trouble in Ukraine. - Peter Hannaford/American Spectator, 2.26.14

“Fluid” is the one word that describes the rapid flow of events in Ukraine over the last five days. The unpopular President, Viktor Yanukovych, decamped from Kiev for parts unknown; the parliament appointed a new government; finance officials kept telephone lines busy talking with European and U.S. Treasury counterparts to try to put together a $35 billion aid package needed to bail out the country’s damaged economy.

The bailout would take weeks and, put through the International Monetary Fund, would require unpopular reforms such as currency devaluation and reductions of state subsidies of natural gas (which comes from Russia).

That, in turn raises a very big question: What will Putin do? To keep his plans to himself, he has stood aside, letting Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expand the Russian narrative to the effect that the months of protest were the work of paid “foreign” agents; that Yanukovych’s ouster was a “coup” and the new government is “illegitimate.”

RT.com, Russia’s English-language website yesterday began to work in a sub-theme: “Political instability settled over Ukraine...with eastern and southern Ukraine saying they no longer see parliament as legitimate.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s Facebook page stated, “Western media prefer not to talk about the fact that the riots (in Kiev) were organized by extremists. Perhaps the management of the European structures does not know how extremists, posing themselves as ‘civilians,’ acted.”
RT.com adds a note that Ukraine’s acting president claims there are “signs of separatism “ in the Russian-speaking areas of eastern and southern Ukraine. It noted, “Protesters on the southern peninsula (Crimea) have held rallies since President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted.” Crimea was turned over to Ukraine by the USSR in 1954. Russia holds a long-term lease on its Black Sea naval fleet base in the city of Sevastopol. Yanukovych got his political start in eastern Ukraine and drew much of his support from Russian-speaking citizens there.

Last November, Putin muscled Yanukovych into backing out of Ukraine’s wide-ranging “partnership” agreement with the European Union just days before it was to be signed. Yanukovych then agreed to sign an agreement with Russia, turning Ukraine into a vassal state in exchange for a $15 billion loan. Many Ukrainians, especially in the west of the country, had seen the EU agreement as a path to Europe and prosperity. Large, but peaceful demonstrations over Yanukovych’s about-face ensued in Kiev. Over time, added to this issue was anger over corruption in government. Yanukovych resisted all demands for reforms until the last minute. Last week, he allowed his security forces to shoot at demonstrators, despite pleas from U.S. Vice President Biden and others not to fire on citizens. Eighty people died. Yanukovych finally made a tentative agreement with the protestors for a new government, then left Kiev in the middle of the night.

Putin’s feckless erstwhile ally had managed to reverse the Russian leader’s victory over the EU agreement. Putin does not want it to appear to be a pyrrhic victory so will more-than-hope for political in-fighting in Kiev, leading to chaos. As suggested by the articles in RT.com, getting pro-Russian friends in eastern Ukraine to stir up secession talk would be to Putin’s advantage. His agents may try to bring this to critical mass so that it forces the new government to try to solve the problem.

Under such circumstances the parliament might propose that the country have two autonomous states, West and East, each with the ability to keep a good portion of the taxes it collects and the right to set local policy. Foreign and national economic policy would continue to be the province of the central government. Ukraine could point to the various “autonomous” republics in Russia as its model. That fact might slow down Putin in his determination to construct a new Russian Empire, but it would to stop him. Through all this, Putin could use leverage by increasing the price of the natural gas it pumps to Ukraine, which is vital to it.

At worst for Ukraine would be an accelerating secession movement in the east, all manipulated by Moscow. This might cause civil war. In that case, Putin would have to calculate that winning would be worth the cost. Most of the country’s industrial production lies in the east and he would not want it destroyed. In the case of civil war, Putin might do an end run around the U.S. and E.U. by casting himself as "peacemaker" and calling for a contingent of U.N. members' troops to end the fighting. Thus, he would have "plausible deniability” for causing the civil war and a halo for ending it. As a result of the peace conference that would no doubt follow, he might still get eastern Ukraine or, at the least, new economic levers over a unitary state.
__________________
Peter Hannaford is a member of the board of the Committee on the Present Danger. He was closely associated with the late President Reagan for a number oF years. His latest book is “Presidential Retreats.”

Obama kickstarts the ‘minimum wage economy’

◼ Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal came up with the perfect name for the Obama economy that you’ll be hearing a lot during this year’s midterm election campaigns.

“After more than five years under this administration, the Obama economy is now the minimum-wage economy,” the Republican governor told reporters after a meeting he and his gubernatorial colleagues held with President Obama at the White House.

With his anemic economy still unable to produce enough jobs to put millions of unemployed Americans back to work full-time, Mr. Obama is offering a threadbare idea to raise the nation’s minimum hourly wage above $10. Congress‘ budget analysts say it could result in the loss of at least a half-million jobs and possibly a million.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said forcing small businesses to raise their hourly wages would result in layoffs to keep their payroll costs down, or cause employers to hire fewer low-wage workers.

In a nation with a workforce of 160 million people, millions of whom are jobless or can only find part-time work, this is a poor excuse for an economic recovery program. In fact, it is pathetic.

And now it's global COOLING! Return of Arctic ice cap as it grows by 29% in a year

◼ And now it's global COOLING! Return of Arctic ice cap as it grows by 29% in a year

The Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has remained blocked by pack-ice all year. More than 20 yachts that had planned to sail it have been left ice-bound and a cruise ship attempting the route was forced to turn back.

Some eminent scientists now believe the world is heading for a period of cooling that will not end until the middle of this century – a process that would expose computer forecasts of imminent catastrophic warming as dangerously misleading.

◼ Antarctic sea ice hit 35-year record high Saturday - Washington Post

Antarctic sea ice has grown to a record large extent for a second straight year, baffling scientists seeking to understand why this ice is expanding rather than shrinking in a warming world.

On Saturday, the ice extent reached 19.51 million square kilometers, according to data posted on the National Snow and Ice Data Center Web site. That number bested record high levels set earlier this month and in 2012 (of 19.48 million square kilometers). Records date back to October 1978.

◼ Arctic sea ice delusions strike the Mail on Sunday and Telegraph - The Guardian

One way or another, CalSTRS must get its $240 billion. If not, public education in California will not survive and the next generation will be thrown into chaos. But first, citizens deserve the truth. CalSTRS’s representatives must be completely forthcoming – and the sooner the better

◼ Full Explanation Required From CalSTRS’s CEO - Fox&Hounds

On February 19, California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) CEO Jack Ehnes appeared before a committee of the California State Assembly considering CalSTRS’s request for a $240 billion bailout, starting with $4.2 billion this year.

There is no question that CalSTRS needs the money....But there is a question about why CalSTRS needs help. In that regard and according to two attendees at the hearing, Ehnes referenced the Great Recession of 2008-9 and claimed that “two-thirds” of CalSTRS’s deficit is related to investment problems. Let’s evaluate that claim.

Assume you had some money to invest on July 1, 2003 and that you measure your investment performance annually on June 30 of every year. Assume further that, as of June 30, 2013, your annual performance for the past ten years — including the Great Recession in the middle of that period — looked liked this:

2004: +17.38%
2005: +11.09%
2006: +13.21%
2007: +21.03%
2008: - 3.69%
2009: -25.03%
2010: +12.20%
2011: +23.10%
2012: + 1.84%
2013: +13.80%

Next, ask yourself what compound annual rate of return is produced by that series of investment returns. The answer: 7.52% per annum. The two down years of the Great Recession were more than offset by eight up years, including six double-digit gain years. 7.52% per annum for ten years is a wonderful return. In all, it was a good decade for your investments, despite the Great Recession...

Needless to say, any organization – especially a public organization run by public employees — seeking billions in public assistance should be completely forthcoming. CalSTRS is a huge financial intermediary, just like AIG was before its bailout in 2008, and no different than AIG’s CEO at that time, CalSTRS’s CEO must level with the authorities from which it seeks help....

Now the American Foreign Service Association, an independent professional body representing US diplomats, is considering making its first formal complaint about a US ambassadorial nominee’s suitability since 1992, in a sign that recent appointments may have proven the final straw for the diplomatic community.

◼ US ambassadorial nominees face more backlash over appointments - The Guardian

Association of diplomats considers criticising the giving of posts to donors who had little or no knowledge about assigned countries...

The three nominees – George Tsunis, Noah Mamet and Colleen Bell – combined raised more than $4.2m for Obama’s re-election campaign. Their appointments caused outrage last month after Senate hearings revealed they had little or no knowledge of their future postings.

A Guardian investigation in July revealed that the controversial practice of rewarding donors with plum foreign postings has accelerated under Obama, leaving the average “price” paid by his donors for ambassadorships in the last election cycle at nearly $2m.

BLACK PASTORS CALL TO IMPEACH 'DANGEROUS IDEOLOGUE' ERIC HOLDER

◼ According to a press release, the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP) said it will “launch a grassroots effort seeking to secure the signatures of one million people calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to be impeached.”

#VALege Special Election last night: Dem gets absolutely crushed in district Obama won by 10 points

They had a special election in VA yesterday. You won't believe what happened next! http://t.co/GkVXirDC9b

— David Freddoso (@freddoso) February 26, 2014

◼ Last month, Republicans just narrowly came up short on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in a special election where control of the Virginia Senate was at stake. Former state Sen. Ralph Northam, D, had left his seat behind when he was elevated to the post of Lieutenant Governor. - Conservative Intel

But the winner of that special election, state Del. Lynwood Lewis, D, left another vacancy behind him, which Virginia voters filled last night. The Republican candidate, Robert Bloxom, crushed Democrat Willie Randall, 60 to 40 percent, despite the fact that the district had gone 54 percent for President Obama in 2012 and 55 percent for Tim Kaine for Senate.

Not only did Bloxom win the district big, he also came within a hair of winning its most liberal precincts — the ones in Norfolk city itself.

Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford, issued a statement after Bloxom’s win, saying it was a clear sign that voters in Virginia reject ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion:

Rob’s opponent proudly and vocally ran on President Obama’s agenda, ObamaCare and implementing Medicaid expansion in Virginia. The citizens of the 100th House District made it absolutely clear tonight that they oppose ObamaCare and ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion.

IRS WARNS: OBAMACARE TAX MUST BE PAID

◼ IRS Warns: Obamacare Tax Must Be Paid with Tax Return - Americans For Tax Reform

President Obama’s Internal Revenue Service today quietly released a series of Obamacare “Health Care Tax Tips” warning Americans that they must obtain “qualifying” health insurance – as defined by the federal government – or face a “shared responsibility payment” when filing their tax returns in 2015. The term “shared responsibility payment” refers to the Obamacare individual mandate tax, one of at least seven tax hikes in the healthcare law that directly hit families making less than $250,000 per year.

◼ IRS' Friendly Reminder to Make Obamacare Payment (or Else) is Dripping in Leftist Language - Michael Hausam/IJReview

4. Your 2014 tax return will ask if you had insurance coverage or qualified for an exemption. If not, you may owe a shared responsibility payment when you file in 2015.

Dear President Obama: This is what a passionate defense of U.S. values looks like

◼ Watch Marco Rubio's speech on deadly repression of protests in Venezuela and its connection to Cuba's communist government - Charles Hoskinson/Washington Examiner

◼ After a Democrat Praises Cuba, Marco Rubio Blasts Communism Like No U.S. Politician Since Reagan - Kyle Becker/IJ Review

After Democratic Senator Tom Harkin praised Cuba on several issues, Senator Marco Rubio gave what has been called by Miami Herald reporter Marc Caputo as the “best oration of his career.” Its passion and candor about the despicable socialist regimes of Cuba and Venezuela should put those politicians who can actually praise the oppressive nations to shame. The best lines from Rubio’s stemwinder, which is worth every minute:

Let me tell you what the Cubans are really good at, because they don’t know how to run their economy, they don’t know how to build, they don’t know how to govern a people. What they are really good at is repression.

He cited a poll, ‘More Americans want normal relations with Cuba.’ So do I — a democratic and free Cuba. But you want us to reach out and develop friendly relationships with a serial violator of human rights, who supports what’s going on in Venezuela and every other atrocity on the planet? On issue after issue, they are always on the side of the tyrants. Look it up. And this is who we should be opening up to? Why don’t they change? Why doesn’t the Cuban government change? Why doesn’t the Venezuelan government change?

But here’s the great news. I don’t know if they get C-SPAN in Cuba. I bet you the government people do. I hope you see that in America, we’re a free society. You’re allowed to come on the floor and you’re allowed to say and spread whatever you want. You think Cuba’s a paradise? You think it’s an example and a model that we should be following? You’re free to say that, here, in the press and anywhere you want. But we’re also free to come here and tell the truth. We’re also free to come here and denounce the violations of human rights and brutality....

More bad news for the Church of Global Warming

◼ CLIMATE-CHANGE CONSENSUS: THERE IS NO CONSENSUS - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o

Clearly there is no “consensus” among climate scientists, and there never really was, not even in the salad days of the Church of Global Warming. There were a lot of hard-core scientific frauds running in the Eighties and Nineties, creating academic pressures that scientists were reluctant to resist. In the early years of the “pause,” it was more reasonable to suppose the problem itself existed in a big way, leaving human involvement the major topic of debate. But even then, nothing like the “consensus” claimed by fanatics and opportunistic politicians ever existed. At best, the number of scientists who would answer a binary “do you believe in climate change” question in the affirmative was somewhat higher than it is now… but as the AMS survey shows, it was never truly a Yes or No question.

And science is not a matter of consensus. That is the realm of politics, which has always been one of the greatest corrupting influences upon the scientific method....

It’s long past time we put paid to the illusion of climate-change believers as disinterested seekers of truth and saviors of the planet, while all who question their edicts must be hired knives in the employ of Big Oil. Big Climate is perhaps the biggest business on the planet, one of the largest special interests you can find. Gigantic amounts of money, and enormous political power, are riding on this ideology. It’s one of the most useful tools for the expansion of government in the free world, hovering right on the line of “because I said so” dictatorship, as you can see from the movement’s easy lapse into totalitarian denials that honorable dissent is possible at all.

It’s long past time strip the climate-change movement of the pretense they represent a consensus of scientists… because there is no consensus, and they represent interests that have nothing to do with science. Those who possess high-quality data don’t have to protect their hypotheses by invoking peer pressure to silence doubters. Take away the peer pressure, and nothing remains except brute government force… which we should also take away.

California paroling record number of lifers under Jerry Brown

◼ Opponents of the death penalty — myself among them — argue that life sentences are enough to keep society safe. What happens when life sentences … aren’t? The Associated Press reports that paroles of lifers in California have skyrocketed under Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration - Ed Morrissey/HotAir

...California needs to make some tough decisions on incarceration, sentencing, and investment in prisons. This is just another symptom of the state’s governing class kicking those decisions down the road for far too long.

For Obama’s supporters, what matters is not what he does, but what he says and represents.

◼ When Failure Is Success: - Victor Davis Hanson/National Review

...For elite rich liberals, whose money and privilege exempt them from the consequences of Obama’s policies, and their own ideology, he will always be their totem. He is iconic of their own progressivism and proof of their racial liberalism, and thus allows them to go on enjoying their privilege, without guilt and without worrying too much about how they got it or whether they might lose it.

For the vast new millions on federal disability insurance, food stamps, and other entitlements, Obama is their lifeline to government support. Who would risk losing that by worrying that the world is becoming a very dangerous place? If the IRS has to become politicized, better that it become politicized by going after right-wing tea-party types who would cut government. And if the media are to be investigated, at least the target might be Fox News, which — as the president just complained again to Bill O’Reilly on Super Bowl Sunday — is a thorn in the side of the president’s progressive agenda. And if the country is going broke, at least those who will raise taxes are preferable to those who might cut government.

In short, there can be no scandals, or even good or bad news, just what Obama represents — an exemption from normal protocols of public and media scrutiny of his actual record....

"We don't have kings in this country. We have the right to speak up and disagree with the policies of President Obama. The truth is that President Obama has brought us a minimum wage economy. He has given up on growth."

◼ The annual meeting of the nation’s governors at the White House tries to be the most bipartisan of affairs: The president praises the governors. The governors talk about solutions. Everyone grins broadly as the cameras click away.... - New York Times

“The Obama economy is now the minimum-wage economy,” Mr. Jindal said when it was his time at the microphone. As his colleagues stood, appearing surprised, Mr. Jindal ripped into the president, saying he should approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline and take other steps to improve the economy.

◼ Obama’s war on opportunity - Marc A. Thiessen/Washington Post

...What the Obama administration does not seem to grasp is that the way to create opportunity is not through government mandates but through economic growth. And here is where the news gets really bad. Under Obama’s leadership, the United States is experiencing an unprecedented “growth gap” — the difference between gross domestic product and the GDP we would be experiencing if the economy were running at full speed....

◼ Obama Consciously Engineering America’s Decline - Peter Wehner/Commentary Magazine

◼ Rick Perry: “I was troubled today by the tone of the president…” - The Right Scoop

Rick Perry admitted at the RGA today that he was very troubled by Obama’s tone today addressing the National Governors Association:

I don’t mind telling you I was a bit troubled today by the tone of the president. …For the president of the United States to look Democrat and Republican governors in the eye and to say ‘I do not trust you to make decisions in your state about issues of education, about transportation infrastructure…’ – that is really troubling.

Perry went on to say that Obama was going to hollow out the National Guard and warned the state governors not to push back against it or they would hear from him:

Democrat Governors are very concerned, I will suggest to you, about what they heard today about the Guard. I left the United States Air Force in the mid ‘70s, in February of 1977, as our country was going through a similar period of time of reducing the force. But those men and women who had extraordinary expertise in combat were going into the Guard and into the Reserves.

I hope we’re not about to make a tragic mistake in this country by hollowing out our Guard in our states in some political statement of ‘you’re all going to feel the pain’. Because that’s certainly what I heard from the president of the United States today.

As a matter of fact he said in that meeting “if I hear any of you pushing back, making statements about Washington spends too much money, you’ll hear from me.”

If I’m a Democrat governor, if I’m a Republican governor, I’m highly offended by that.

Yes it is our duty to defend the people of this country. But I will suggest that making a political statement about the Guard is not in the best long-term interest of this country and it’s certainly not in the best long-term interest of those men and women who have committed and often times sacrificed greatly for this country.

The Obama administration is short of star power as it begins its last public relations blitz for ObamaCare

◼ President Obama’s celebrity supporters are not in the forefront as they were during the star-studded campaign-style videos that hogged the airwaves in 2008. - The Hill ◼ Via Drudge

Contrary to expectations, the White House’s A-list backers have mainly stuck to Twitter to voice support for ObamaCare, while others have appeared in inexpensive online videos, or chosen to promote California’s insurance marketplace instead of HealthCare.gov, the notoriously troubled website for the federal exchanges.

It seems that not even the president’s most fervent and committed supporters want to get too close to ObamaCare. Some of Obama’s most powerful allies — figures including Oprah Winfrey, Bruce Springsteen and Beyoncé — have stayed in the wings for the enrollment push.

...An administration official told The Hill that social media is one of the best ways to reach young people directly, and to expect those efforts to continue. The official noted that tens of thousands of people tweeted using the hash-tag “GetCovered” over Valentine’s Day weekend.

Still, a Twitter campaign lacks the financial backing and gravitas of a commercial that airs during the Olympics, and the administration was only able to net Johnson and Mourning for those.

Without the overarching celebrity component, White House officials are stepping in to be the face of the enrollment push.

First lady Michelle Obama took the ObamaCare message on youth enrollment to “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” last week, and Vice President Biden will make appearances on “The Late Show” and “The View” this week.

◼ Nation's Best Obamacare Website Back up After 5-Day Crash; LA Times Recycles Details - Joel Pollak/Breitbart

The situation is so bad that the LA Times has resorted to repeating, verbatim, full paragraphs from previous stories about the problems at Covered California. From Feb. 20:

California's website at coveredca.com has performed better than the federal exchange site, healthcare.gov, which had a disastrous launch in the fall.
Instead, Covered California has experienced problems with hourlong wait times on the phone, faulty notices sent to applicants and an error-ridden physician directory that got pulled this month.

And from Feb. 25 (changes in bold):

California's website at coveredca.com has performed better than the federal exchange site, healthcare.gov, which had a disastrous launch in the fall.
But Covered California has experienced problems with hour-long wait times on the phone, faulty notices sent to applicants and an error-ridden physician directory that got pulled this month.

So "hour-long" has acquired a hyphen. Other than that, nothing has changed.

◼ REPORT: 11 million small biz employees to see insurance rates hiked... - FOX

◼ OBAMA'S CLAIM ABOUT MEDICAID ENROLLMENTS UNDER OBAMACARE GETS 'FOUR PINOCCHIOS' Robert Wilde/Breitbart

Tinney waves at high school students walking by every day. It fills her with joy to bring a smile to their faces

However, she never expected THEM to give her such a surprise.

Heating up: Global Warming Climate change advocates try to silence Krauthammer

◼ The myth of ‘settled science’ - Charles Krauthammer/Washington Post

“The debate is settled,” asserted propagandist in chief Barack Obama in his latest State of the Union address. “Climate change is a fact.” Really? There is nothing more anti-scientific than the very idea that science is settled, static, impervious to challenge....

Climate-change proponents have made their cause a matter of fealty and faith. For folks who pretend to be brave carriers of the scientific ethic, there’s more than a tinge of religion in their jeremiads. If you whore after other gods, the Bible tells us, “the Lord’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit” (Deuteronomy 11).

Sounds like California. Except that today there’s a new god, the Earth Mother. And a new set of sins — burning coal and driving a fully equipped F-150.

But whoring is whoring, and the gods must be appeased. So if California burns, you send your high priest (in carbon -belching Air Force One, but never mind) to the bone-dry land to offer up, on behalf of the repentant congregation, a $1 billion burnt offering called a “climate resilience fund.”

Ah, settled science in action.

◼ Charles Krauthammer says it right up front in his Washington Post column: “I’m not a global warming believer. I’m not a global warming denier.” - Howard Kurtz/FOX

He does, however, challenge the notion that the science on climate change is settled and says those who insist otherwise are engaged in “a crude attempt to silence critics and delegitimize debate.”

How ironic, then, that some environmental activists launched a petition urging the Post not to publish Krauthammer’s column on Friday.

◼ Ice-breaking ships help keep Chesapeake Bay waters safe - Miami Herald