POLICE UNITE: THOUSANDS ATTEND FUNERAL

◼ The wife and two sons of a New York City policeman gunned down along with his partner have been joined by hundreds of uniformed officers at his wake. - CBS NY ◼ Via Drudge

◼ Police Again Turn Their Back on de Blasio... - ABC

◼ Crowds Line Streets to Mourn Slain Officer... - Reuters

Officers from around the country attend funeral for one of the NYPD officers killed last week: http://t.co/Zt0wpBErwJ pic.twitter.com/askZh0v94F

— WKRN (@WKRN) December 28, 2014

Here's video of the Empire State Building glowing blue with a moving siren at the top https://t.co/HPbseBkQWH

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) December 28, 2014

Tonight, the Empire State Building is lit in blue with a siren mast to honor fallen #NYPD Officers Ramos and Liu. pic.twitter.com/Xx62I2vysP

— Adam Khan (@Khanoisseur) December 28, 2014

This happened in Cleveland. pic.twitter.com/MD4KBlDrvU

— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) December 28, 2014

◼ Bill de Blasio 2 hours late to wake for slain officer Rafael Ramos - Breitbart

On Friday evening, thousands of New Yorkers attended a memorial service for Rafael Ramos, one of the two NYPD officers assassinated a week ago by an Eric Garner protester. The service brought mourners from every corner of the city. Noticeably late was embattled Mayor Bill de Blasio, who made it to the service only just before its conclusion.

Ramos, 40, and partner Wenjian Liu, 32, were shot to death on December 20 as they sat in their patrol car. Both were murdered by a 28-year-old named Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley who claimed he was avenging the death of a man who died after police used a choke hold on him as he resisted arrest in July.

Also in attendance were contingents from dozens of Police departments from as far away as Ohio, Georgia, and Maine—all of whom came to show support for the fallen officer, his family, and their fellow police officers in the NYPD.

◼ Thousands stood ramrod straight and waited in the cold. Brietbart says 2 hours late, NYPost says way less. - Discussion at Lucianne

2014: The Year of the Imploding Narrative

◼ Ever since the days of Watergate, at least on the level of the national media’s overculture, America has had very little pure journalism, but loads of narratives being advanced by the left. But these can only be pushed so far before they overreach. - Ed Driscoll/PJMedia

2014 was the year a lot of leftwing narratives overreached very, very badly, with occasionally exceedingly ugly results for those at the center of them. At Reason, Cathy Young describes 2014 as ◼ “The Year the Crusade Against ‘Rape Culture’ Stumbled”

Another myth of the left is also long overdue for a reassessment, when, as Heather Mac Donald writes at City Journal, ◼ “The Big Lie of the Anti-Cop Left Turns Lethal” KEEP READING

◼ Hot Air’s top 50 posts in 2014: 31-40 - Ed Morrissey/HotAir

It was a strange year in media, and in politics, as you’ll shortly recall...

2014 was a historic year for the GOP.

Republicans now hold:

• 54 U.S. Senate seats, the most since 2006
• 246 House seats, the most since 1946
• 31 governorships, the second highest GOP total since the 1920s
• 4,100+ state legislative seats, the highest GOP total in history
• 69 of the nation's 99 state legislative chambers, the highest total in history
• More than half of the nation's Lieutenant Governors, Attorneys General, Secretaries of State, and State Treasurers

This victory was fueled by your contributions and driven by our grassroots leaders and volunteers. We invested over $105 million to win on the ground – including tens of millions of dollars on our data and digital efforts – to identify and turn out GOP voters.

◼ And we're not finished....

- Reince Priebus/GOP.com

We have many more historic races to win — especially the 2016 presidential election.

This is our time to continue making history, elect our country's next remarkable leader to the White House and get our country back on track.

Can GOP shatter 'Obama coalition' in 2016?

◼ Republicans crowed in 2004 that freshly re-elected President George W. Bush had established a "permanent governing majority" for the GOP. Eight years later, Democrats were touting the enduring power of the "Obama coalition" to keep their party in the White House. - AP

But Democrats couldn't sustain that coalition for this year's midterm elections, leading to Republican gains in Congress, governorships and state legislatures nationwide.

"The notion of demographics as destiny is overblown," said Republican pollster and media strategist Wes Anderson. "Just like (Bush aide Karl) Rove was wrong with that 'permanent majority' talk, Democrats have to remember that the pendulum is always swinging."

So how will it swing in 2016? Is the path to 270 electoral votes so fixed that one side just can't win? Does Obama's unpopularity carry over into the next race for the White House? Or will an increasingly diverse electorate pick a Democrat for a third consecutive presidential election for the first time since Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman won five straight elections from 1932 to 1948? KEEP READING

JetBlue offering free flights to cops wanting to attend slain NYC officer's funeral

◼ There are some stipulations; only two flights per police department, and the flights are subject to availability. But it's a generous gesture that will allow police departments across America to express their solidarity with their brother and sister officers in New York. - Rick Moran/American Thinker
◼ POLICE UNITE: TENS OF THOUSANDS EXPECTED AT FUNERAL - CBS NY

President Obama´s Hawaii vacation:

◼ Day 7 - AP
◼ Day 6 - AP
◼ Day 5 - AP
◼ Day 4 - AP
◼ Day 3 - AP
◼ Day 2 - ABC
◼ Obama in Hawaii: An Inside Look at the First Family´s Winter Vacation - ABC

The men behind Obama took a calculated gamble in 2008 that the nation was ready for the first post-American president, a man with no meaningful cultural roots in the nation he would profess to lead.

◼ With Two Years Left, the Inflection Point of the Obama Presidency - Michael Walsh/PJmedia

They relied on the intrinsic good-heartedness of the electorate to show their lack of prejudice in voting for a man with an exotic Arabic/Muslim name only seven years after the atrocity of Sept. 11. They counted on the innate good will of the American people, judged that the time was right for a black president, and then went out and found the only half-black candidate who had absolutely nothing to do with the black American experience and ran him as an avatar of black America.

And they won, twice, both times against half-hearted Republican candidates with no skin in the game, married to interchangeable blonde wives — one a half-crazy former prisoner of war/political accommodationist and the other a Mormon whose religious faith was guaranteed to lose him some much-needed votes. If they had tried to throw both elections, they could not have done a better job, both of them refusing to go after Obama head-on, and neither of them apparently realizing the danger he posed to the republic. Neither could fathom a new kind of Democrat candidate, one who observed the surface appearances of a traditional candidacy, but who was brimming with new, extra-Constitutional ideas about how to effect his political program.

Shortly before his first election, the president promised a “fundamental transformation” of the United States of America, and it is instructive to note the tone in which he made that pledge. Listen, please; it only takes a few seconds:



Note the finger-pointing. Check out the saturnine look on his face. America was warned, early on, that beneath the smiling facade of Barack Hussein Obama was a very angry man. The smile and the shoeshine got him elected but since that day he has waged unremitting war on the country as founded, pillorying the nation, putting it in the dock, and making us all atone for its sins. Obama’s is a presidency-as-payback, and the “transformation” is meant to ensure that it is permanently hobbled. The animus positively radiates from him.

“Why?” is a question best left to shrinks and historians. But for those of us dealing with the consequences, what matters most is, “What next?” KEEP READING

California readies for 900 new laws

◼ New Year’s Day will usher in hundreds of new laws in California, including a landmark law that allows undocumented individuals to receive a driver’s license. - SF Chronicle

In all, California will add 930 new laws, most of which will go into effect Thursday. Some of the most talked-about laws won’t take effect until July, such as a statewide ban on plastic bags, required sick leave for employees and a requirement that new smartphones come with antitheft technology.

I still remember what she said: “So all of us can be with our families on Christmas.”

◼ At Christmastime, George W. Bush was Santa, Obama is Scrooge - Joseph Curl/Washington Times

...(H)ere’s the thing: In December, we never left Washington, D.C., until the day after Christmas. Never. Mr. Bush and his wife, Laura, would always depart the White House a few days before the holiday and hunker down at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland. After a few years, I asked a low-level White House staffer why.

I still remember what she said: “So all of us can be with our families on Christmas.”

Who was “us”? Hundreds and hundreds of people, that’s who. Sure, the reporters who covered the president, but also dozens and dozens on his staff, 100 Secret Service agents, maybe more, and all of those city cops required whenever the president’s on the move in D.C.

For me, that one-day delay was huge. My kids were 6 and 8 years old when Mr. Bush took office. When he went home to Prairie Chapel that last time in 2009, my girl was driving, the boy was 6 foot 1. But in the meantime, I was home for eight Christmas mornings, playing Santa, stoking the fire, mixing up hot chocolates.

That was President Bush. And every year for the past five, I’ve thought about what that meant to me. (By the way, some years, I got holiday duty, which meant I was off to Waco, Texas, the day after Christmas. But once again, the Bush White House had us covered: A press plane flew out with the president, and back then, reporters could pay $100 per family member for the plane ride. So sometimes, the family went along. For the kids, it was an adventure; for me, well, we were all together.)

All that has changed with President Obama. No more press plane, for one. Reporters are on their own — so taking family is, say, $1,000 a pop. Not likely. And this president would never delay his trip to his island getaway. He’s off every year well before Christmas. Hundreds and hundreds head off with him, leaving family behind.

Sony Releases "The Interview" on YouTube (FULL MOVIE) UPDATED

◼ Trailer - Conservative Outfitters

◼ The Interview in Fortuna - North Coast Journal

While corporations may cower before North Korean hackers, Fortuna will not yield. A revised movie schedule from CA Theatres that reached the Journal after press time for the Dec. 25 edition includes showings of The Interview at the Fortuna theater starting on Dec. 25.

NEW: Sony to make 'The Interview' movie available for rent online starting at 1 p.m. ET: http://t.co/TRm7KmbGGi pic.twitter.com/3fzcNFCei8

— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 24, 2014

◼ 'The Interview' release marked by capacity crowds - FOX

Hundreds of theaters made special arrangements for the highly-talked about comedy depicting actors James Franco and Seth Rogen assassinating the North Korean dictator to be shown in its theaters Christmas Day.

Tt turned out to be a mega hit.



◼ ‘THE INTERVIEW’ A HIT WITH PIRATES, 750K ILLEGAL DOWNLOADS IN FIRST 20 HOURS - Breitbart

No, North Korea Didn’t Hack Sony

◼ The FBI and the President may claim that the Hermit Kingdom is to blame for the most high-profile network breach in forever. But almost all signs point in another direction. - Daily Beast

All the evidence leads me to believe that the great Sony Pictures hack of 2014 is far more likely to be the work of one disgruntled employee facing a pink slip.

I may be biased, but, as the director of security operations for DEF CON, the world’s largest hacker conference, and the principal security researcher for the world's leading mobile security company, Cloudflare, I think I am worth hearing out.

The FBI was very clear in its press release about who it believed was responsible for the attack: “The FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions,” they said in their December 19 statement, before adding, “the need to protect sensitive sources and methods precludes us from sharing all of this information”.

With that disclaimer in mind, let’s look at the evidence that the FBI are able to tell us about....KEEP READING

◼ Four-star spymaster behind North Korean hacking; Sony’s ‘The Interview’ available online - Bill Gertz/Washington Times

U.S. intelligence agencies have identified the military officer orchestrating North Korea’s state-sponsored hacking attacks, such as the one on Sony Pictures Entertainment. He is Gen. Kim Yong-chol, director of the espionage and clandestine operations service known as the Reconnaissance General Bureau, or RGB.

◼ North Korea was NOT behind the Sony hack according to multiple security experts who discredit FBI findings and reveal that a studio insider named 'Lena' may be responsible - Daily Mail UK

• The FBI last week announced that they had discovered conclusive evidence proving the North Korean government was behind the Sony hack
• President Obama then attacked the country for their behavior during a news conference, and informed them that the United States would retaliate
• Now, the findings of the FBI are being called into question by many of the cybersecurity industry's leading experts
• What's more, after an independent investigation, Norse has determined that they believe a woman named 'Lena' is responsible for the hack
• Almost every expert stated that they believe the hack had to have been an inside job
◼ Who Hacked Sony Becomes Internet's New Mystery - NYT

Everyone has a theory about who really hacked Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Despite President Barack Obama's conclusion that North Korea was the culprit, the Internet's newest game of whodunit continues. Top theories include disgruntled Sony insiders, hired hackers, other foreign governments or Internet hooligans. Even some experts are undecided, with questions about why the communist state would steal and leak gigabytes of data, email threats to some Sony employees and their families and then threaten moviegoers who planned to watch "The Interview" on Christmas. "Somebody's done it. And right now this knowledge is known to God and whoever did it," said Martin Libicki, a cyber security expert at RAND in Arlington, Virginia, who thinks it probably was North Korea. "So we gather up a lot of evidence, and the evidence that the FBI has shown so far doesn't allow one to distinguish between somebody who is North Korea and somebody who wants to look like North Korea."

◼ We Spoke To A North Korean Defector Who Trained With Its Hackers — What He Said Is Pretty Scary - IBD

How they’re trained: Mirim University produces most of the hackers that get placed in Bureau 121. It’s a highly competitive program, with each class accepting only about 100 students out of 5,000 applicants. They take six 90-minute classes every day, learning different coding languages and operating systems, from C to Linux. Jang says a lot of time was spent dissecting Microsoft programs, like the Windows operating system, and how to attack the overall computer IT systems of enemy countries like the US or South Korea. But the core principle is to develop its own hacking programs and computer viruses without having to rely on programs already built in the outside world. Jang says he believes North Korean hackers are as good as the top programmers at Google or CIA, if not already better. “Especially in terms of coding, I’m confident they’re better because they’ve invested in it for so long,” he says. What it’s like to work for Bureau 121: They’re all very sophisticated professional hackers, with almost nine years of intense training by the time they get hired. They’re split into different focus groups based on countries to attack, like the US, South Korea, and Japan. Once they’re placed in their respective groups, they spend nearly two years traveling to their assigned country, learning the language and culture. The ability to travel outside of North Korea and make US dollars is part of the reason so many North Koreans want this job. Jang estimates there are about 1,800 cyber warriors in Bureau 121.

EPA can't regulate lead bullets, says federal court

◼ Hunters, hold your fire — the Environmental Protection Agency won't regulate your bullets. - Washington Examiner

A federal appeals court denied a lawsuit Tuesday by environmental groups that the EPA must use the Toxic Substances Control Act regulate lead used in shells and cartridges.

"We agree with EPA that it lacks statutory authority to regulate the type of spent bullets and shot identified in the environmental groups’ petition," Judge David Tatel wrote for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Environmental groups had sued the agency to do so, saying spent lead ammunition posed an "unreasonable risk of injury" to wildlife and humans who would eat the animals they kill. The groups rejected the EPA's assertion that it lacked the authority to do so.

2014 Power Rankings: 25 Most Loved and Hated Conservatives in America

◼ Right Wing News has released its 7th Annual Poll of Conservative Websites on the Most Loved and Hated People on the Right. Let’s just say there are some unexpected results. The online survey was delivered to 230 influential conservative websites and the results tabulated. - IJ Review

◼ The 7th Annual Poll of Conservative Websites On The Most Loved And Hated People On The Right - Right Wing News

The Most Admired Conservatives

1. Thomas Sowell (63)
1. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (63)
1. Scott Walker (63)
4. Mia Love (60)
5. Charles Krauthammer
5. Michelle Malkin (57)
5. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (57)
5. Mark Steyn (57)
9. Condi Rice (55)
9. Rush Limbaugh (55)
11. Bobby Jindal (54)
12. Megyn Kelly (53)
12. David Limbaugh (53)
12. Glenn Reynolds (53)
15. Matt Drudge (52)
15. Jonah Goldberg (52)
15. The Koch Brothers (52)
15. Allen West (52)
19. Ted Cruz (51)
20. Ben Carson (50)
20. James O’Keefe (50)
20. Tim Scott (50)
23. Dick Cheney (49)
24. Mark Levin (49)
25. George W. Bush (47)
25. Trey Gowdy (47)
25. Darrell Issa (47)
25. Dana Loesch (47)
25. Rick Perry (47)

18 Vintage Photos That Will Make You Nostalgic For Christmases Past

◼ Whether it's the tinseled trees, the heartfelt gifts, or just the general kind-hearted and simple spirit of the times, no era captured the true essence of Christmas quite like the 1940s and 1950s. Even today, our traditional associations of the holiday are from that time period, and the most beloved holiday films are either from it (It's A Wonderful Life) or about it (A Christmas Story).... - Country Living

So this is Christmas

- John Lennon

Rick Perry - From our family to yours, merry Christmas. "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." (Isaiah 9:6)

Paul Ryan - From our family to yours, warm wishes for a wonderful holiday season and a very happy New Year!

Mitt Romney - Merry Christmas from the Romney family.

National Republican Congressional Committee - On this Christmas Eve we would like to thank all of our troops especially those who will not be able to come home for Christmas. God Bless our troops.

Read the Pope’s Christmas Message to the World

◼ Here is the official Vatican English-language translation of Pope Francis’ “Urbi et Orbi” Christmas Day message, which he delivered in Italian from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday: - The Blaze
◼ 'WORLD NEEDS TENDERNESS' - AP
◼ Pope urges world to be open to God... - Reuters

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined" (Is 9:1). "An angel of the Lord appeared to (the shepherds) and the glory of the Lord shone around them" (Lk 2:9). This is how the liturgy of this holy Christmas night presents to us the birth of the Saviour: as the light which pierces and dispels the deepest darkness. The presence of the Lord in the midst of his people cancels the sorrow of defeat and the misery of slavery, and ushers in joy and happiness.

We, too, in this blessed night, have come to the house of God. We have passed through the darkness which envelops the earth, guided by the flame of faith which illuminates our steps, and enlivened by the hope of finding the "great light". By opening our hearts, we also can contemplate the miracle of that child-sun who, arising from on high, illuminates the horizon.

The origin of the darkness which envelops the world is lost in the night of the ages. Let us think back to that dark moment when the first crime of humanity was committed, when the hand of Cain, blinded by envy, killed his brother Abel (cf. Gen 4:8). As a result, the unfolding of the centuries has been marked by violence, wars, hatred and oppression.

But God, who placed a sense of expectation within man made in his image and likeness, was waiting. He waited for so long that perhaps at a certain point it seemed he should have given up. But he could not give up because he could not deny himself (cf. 2 Tim 2:13). Therefore he continued to wait patiently in the face of the corruption of man and peoples.

Through the course of history, the light that shatters the darkness reveals to us that God is Father and that his patient fidelity is stronger than darkness and corruption. This is the message of Christmas night. God does not know outbursts of anger or impatience; he is always there, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, waiting to catch from afar a glimpse of the lost son as he returns.

Isaiah's prophecy announces the rising of a great light which breaks through the night. This light is born in Bethlehem and is welcomed by the loving arms of Mary, by the love of Joseph, by the wonder of the shepherds. When the angels announced the birth of the Redeemer to the shepherds, they did so with these words: "This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger" (Lk 2:12).

The "sign" is the humility of God taken to the extreme; it is the love with which, that night, he assumed our frailty, our suffering, our anxieties, our desires and our limitations. The message that everyone was expecting, that everyone was searching for in the depths of their souls, was none other than the tenderness of God: God who looks upon us with eyes full of love, who accepts our poverty, God who is in love with our smallness.

On this holy night, while we contemplate the Infant Jesus just born and placed in the manger, we are invited to reflect. How do we welcome the tenderness of God? Do I allow myself to be taken up by God, to be embraced by him, or do I prevent him from drawing close? "But I am searching for the Lord" - we could respond. Nevertheless, what is most important is not seeking him, but rather allowing him to find me and caress me with tenderness. The question put to us simply by the Infant's presence is: do I allow God to love me?

More so, do we have the courage to welcome with tenderness the difficulties and problems of those who are near to us, or do we prefer impersonal solutions, perhaps effective but devoid of the warmth of the Gospel? How much the world needs tenderness today!

The Christian response cannot be different from God's response to our smallness. Life must be met with goodness, with meekness. When we realize that God is in love with our smallness, that he made himself small in order to better encounter us, we cannot help but open our hearts to him, and beseech him: "Lord, help me to be like you, give me the grace of tenderness in the most difficult circumstances of life, give me the grace of closeness in the face of every need, of meekness in every conflict".

Dear brothers and sisters, on this holy night we contemplate the Nativity scene: there "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Is 9:1). People who were unassuming, open to receiving the gift of God, were the ones who saw this light. This light was not seen, however, by the arrogant, the proud, by those who made laws according to their own personal measures, who were closed off to others. Let us look to the crib and pray, asking the Blessed Mother: "O Mary, show us Jesus!'"

---

Copyright Vatican Publishing House

We Three Kings (Piano/Cello)

- ThePianoGuys

Use the NORAD Santa tracker to see when Santa Claus and his reindeer will be in your neighborhood!

◼ NORAD prepares to track Santa’s flight - US Air Force

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AFNS) -- The North American Aerospace Defense Command’s NORAD Tracks Santa website, http://www.noradsanta.org, launched Dec. 1, featuring a mobile version, a holiday countdown, new games and daily activities and more.

The website is available in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese.

Official NORAD Tracks Santa apps are also available in the Windows, Apple and Google Play stores, so parents and children can countdown the days until Santa’s launch on their smart phones and tablets. Tracking opportunities are also offered on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+. Santa followers can go to any of these sites and search for “@noradsanta” to get started.

Merry Christmas.

Class Act: Eric Garner's Daughter Offers Support to Families of Slain NYPD Officers

Class Act: Eric Garner's Daughter Offers Support to Families of Slain NYPD Officers http://t.co/GH97cU2lXB

— Raffi Williams (@Raffiwilliams) December 23, 2014

NEW YORK CITY SLIDES TOWARD CHAOS AFTER POLICE OFFICERS ASSASSINATED

RT @NRO: The Race Card’s Steep Cost http://t.co/dRpXoLMV7y pic.twitter.com/9tGCrmH2lm
— WhiteHousePressCorps (@whpresscorps) December 24, 2014

◼ Take a bow, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Hero of the Revolution. You got what you were pushing for. After weeks of the Mayor treating his own police force like a gang of psychotic racist killers he couldn’t even trust to watch over his mixed-race son, in order to curry favor with the mobs of protesters filling the streets (often illegally, but apparently city ordinances don’t apply to such righteous crusaders), a particularly deranged protester murdered two police officers on Saturday afternoon. - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o

Of course, characters like de Blasio are scrambling to retract their most incendiary statements and pouring forth a geyser of tears over these murders. It doesn’t take very finely-honed political instincts for them to realize they’ve gone too far. But this horror also resulted from what they didn’t do. They didn’t stand up for the rule of law. They indulged the worst paranoid fantasies of angry mobs, because they wanted to be seen as “down with the struggle” by those whose votes Democrats must harvest in order to win elections. People who could have short-circuited the racism narrative constructed without a shred of evidence around the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner were instead content to indulge those bleak fantasies, assuring the mob that their concerns about police racism were well-founded. Democrat city officials haven’t even been willing to enforce the rules surrounding street demonstrations – a willful dereliction of duty that telegraphs the message, your cause is so righteous that mere city ordinances don’t apply to you.

That goes all the way up to President Obama, who – predictably but still incredibly – strolled off the golf course to dump a brief statement, made a phone call to the NYPD commissioner, and then returned to the links in Hawaii.

◼ Who's Responsible? - Thomas Sowell /Real Clear Politics

The cold-blooded murder of two New York City policemen as they sat in their car is not only an outrage but also a wake-up call. It shows, in the most painful way, the high cost of having demagogues, politicians, mobs and the media constantly taking cheap shots at the police.

...We can only hope that Mayor de Blasio has some residual decency, so that he will not defile these two officers' memorial services with his presence. No politician in the country has done more to play the race card against the police and spread the notion that cops are the big problem in minority communities.

It so happens that the police officers killed were both members of minority groups -- Officer Rafael Ramos, Hispanic, and Officer Wenjian Liu, Asian. It so happens that a substantial part of the New York City police force are members of minority groups.

But you might never know that from the story told by demagogues who depict the black community as a "colonial" society being "occupied" by white policemen who target young blacks. Mayor de Blasio joined the chorus of those saying that they have to warn their black sons how to cope with this situation.

"What can we say to our sons?" some demagogues ask. They can say, "Don't go around punching strangers, because it is only a matter of time before you punch the wrong stranger."

Mayor de Blasio has made anti-police comments with Al Sharpton seated at his side. This is the same Al Sharpton with a trail of slime going back more than a quarter of a century, during which he has whipped up mobs and fomented race hatred from the days of the Tawana Brawley "rape" hoax of 1987 to the Duke University "rape" hoax of 2006 and the Ferguson riots of 2014.

Make no mistake about it. There is political mileage to be made siding with demagogues like Al Sharpton who, as demagogue-in-chief, has been invited to the White House dozens of times by its commander-in-chief....

◼ The Monsters Who Screamed for Dead Cops - Daily Beast

◼ Thought those anti-cop protesters were peaceful? Think again - NY Post

’Tis the season of magic, so let’s play pretend. Let’s make believe that only an itsy-bitsy handful of those anti-police protesters disrupting the city are hell-bent on mayhem.

To get there, you have to ignore the hundreds if not thousands in Manhattan caught on tape chanting, “What do we want?” and answering: “Dead cops.” They must have been in some other city.

You have to overlook those “shoot back” chants as well. As for that nut from CUNY caught trying to throw a garbage can onto the Brooklyn Bridge roadway and punching a cop — blame your lying eyes!

And pretend you didn’t see those “peaceful” protesters who were taped helping him escape, and kicked one cop when he was on the ground. Hey, the camera lies, too!...

It’s only by peeling back the layers of pretend that we get to the naked truth: The whole narrative of widespread police brutality is a big fat lie.

It’s a lie that turns truth on its head, meaning the movement the mayor praises as “organic” and says is raising legitimate concerns is a scam foisted on the public for the sole purpose of advancing a far-left political agenda.

The NYPD saved the city from killers, rapists and muggers and most New Yorkers know it. They showed their appreciation by trusting cops and giving former commissioner Ray Kelly sky-high approval ratings all through his 12 years — higher, in fact, than any politician, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg....

What do we want? Justice! When do we want it! Now! If we don't get it? Shut it down! #ShutDown5thAve #PoliceBrutality pic.twitter.com/GyxXwEOHvp
— ANSWER Coalition (@answercoalition) December 23, 2014

◼ 'NYPD KKK': ANTI-COP PROTESTERS FLOOD STREETS... Anti-cop protesters flood NYC despite de Blasio’s appeal - NY Post

people tried to do last-minute Christmas shopping — defying Mayor de Blasio’s call for a moratorium on the demonstrations after two Brooklyn police officers were slain.

Many of the activists took shots at the mayor.

“The mayor says stop that, we say fuck that!” yelled activists, while jumping in place. They started on 59th Street and 5th Avenue, went down to 53rd Street, and then marched up the Upper East Side.

Tarik Grand, 25, of Brooklyn said he was out there because of de Blasio’s words on Monday. “We’re protesting tonight, because the mayor specifically said not to,” he said.

◼ Sharpton says “no” to holding off protests until after police officers’ funerals - Jazz Shaw/HotAir

If you were holding out some hope for things to get better sooner rather than later, I would say that this response pretty much puts the kibosh that idea. It is only four days until the funeral of Rafael Ramos on Saturday. (Services for Wenjian Liu can not be finalized until travel plans for relatives from China can be arranged.) Of those four days, two of them are Christmas Eve and Christmas day. To think that a brief pause over such a period of time is an excessive demand is absurd. Nobody is trying to chill free speech or shut the conversation down. It was a simple, civil request to not add insult to injury by having crowds out in the street chanting Hands Up Don’t Shoot (or even What Do We Want, Dead Cops) while the bodies are awaiting interment.

◼ NYC protesters say they won't stop demonstrations despite de Blasio's wishes - FOX & AP

Al Sharpton told Reuters late Monday that de Blasio's request was too "ill-defined" to heed.

"Is a vigil a protest? Is a rally?" Sharpton asked.

◼ Anyone need more proof of who is driving this honeywagon? - Discussion at Lucianne

◼ The Big Lie of the Anti-Cop Left Turns Lethal... The real story behind the murder of two NYPD officers - City Journal

Since last summer, a lie has overtaken significant parts of the country, resulting in growing mass hysteria. That lie holds that the police pose a mortal threat to black Americans—indeed that the police are the greatest threat facing black Americans today. Several subsidiary untruths buttress that central myth: that the criminal-justice system is biased against blacks; that the black underclass doesn’t exist; and that crime rates are comparable between blacks and whites—leaving disproportionate police action in minority neighborhoods unexplained without reference to racism. The poisonous effect of those lies has now manifested itself in the cold-blooded assassination of two NYPD officers.

The highest reaches of American society promulgated these untruths and participated in the mass hysteria.

◼ Here comes the great unraveling. - Discussion at Lucianne

◼ DeBlasio, Black Leaders Fueling Flames of Racism in America - Robert Davi/Breitbart Big Hollywood

President Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Bill de Blasio, and the Rev. Al Sharpton are fueling the flames of racism in America just as the Ku Klux Klan did 100 years ago. Sounds inflammatory? It is. What’s worse, it’s true.

The reason? They are considered the establishment. They are out in broad daylight perpetrating a racist agenda and, instead of wearing a white sheet to protect their identity, they are shrouded in the cloak of government.

◼ Once again blacks are being used and lied to. They don't know it. - Discussion at Lucianne

◼ De Blasio’s nightmare - Politico
◼ The NYPD had many ways and reasons to dis the mayor but one swift, silent group gesture was the killer.

◼ In Bloomington, Minnesota: Charges Expected To Be Filed Against MOA Protest Organizers
◼ Let's roll. There is more work to be done.

◼ De Blasio aide has history of vulgar tweets - NY Post

This is what passes for “community relations” in Mayor de Blasio’s New York.
A foul-mouthed former campaign aide to the mayor who was previously scolded for her Twitter rants against the NYPD and NAACP was quietly hired as the mayor’s new co-director of community affairs in Brooklyn....

Her highlight reel included:

• “NYPD fatally shoot knife-wielding man in Times Square. (VIDEO) F–k. The. Police” Motley wrote on Aug. 11, 2012, after cops shot Darrius Kennedy, 51.
• She slammed the NAACP in January 2013 for siding with drink companies against Bloomberg’s soda ban: “@NAACP aka corporate d–k riders. Standing with soda makers for a few bucks.”
• In February 2013, she linked to an article highlighting Bloomberg’s pro-gun-control efforts and wrote, “Hey rest of #America, welcome to Bloomberg using his #money to mess up your sh-t.”
• Motley also used Twitter to cheer crazed ex-LAPD cop Chris Dorner, who went on a wild shooting spree across Southern California in February 2013 after claiming he was fired because of racism.
• “There’s a part of me rooting for #Dorner. This racist, imperialist country gets the best of people sometimes. It makes some snap. #lapd,” she tweeted several days before Dorner was killed by cops during a standoff.
• After The Post exposed the tweets, Motley pulled down her Twitter page and apologized, but stayed on with the campaign.

Obamacare Architect Gruber Going To The Supreme Court

◼ Erstwhile Obamacare adviser Jonathan Gruber is going to play a key role in the Supreme Court battle over the law’s premium subsidies at HealthCare.gov. - Daily Caller

The disgraced adviser to the Obama administration on Obamacare may be best known for calling the American voters “stupid” and bragging about preventing transparency in the passage of the health-care law, but Gruber’s notoriously candid style first got him into trouble when multiple recordings emerged of him explaining that premium subsidies were restricted to state-run exchange alone.

The Supreme Court will hear a pivotal case, King v. Burwell, on March 4, they announced Monday. A decision is expected to follow in June.

The case revolves around a phrase repeated throughout the text of the Affordable Care Act which doles out premium subsidies to health-care exchanges “established by the State.” The plaintiffs in this case, along with several others that haven’t made it to the Supreme Court, argue that the law restricts those subsidies to state exchanges — which would cut off the payments to the 37 states that currently use HealthCare.gov.

The Obama administration is arguing that Congress didn’t intend to cut off the subsidies and that an IRS rule that allows the agency to hand out the payments to all 50 states is legal. While the case was in lower courts, Gruber signed a brief in support of the Obama administration’s position, but several recordings that surfaced over the summer display Gruber making the opposite argument. The embattled economist called the multiple instances a mistake — just a “speak-o.”

Was Tim Donnelly the year’s biggest California politics story?

◼ How do we define the year that was? - Sacramento Bee

According to the top stories on Capitol Alert, it’s defined by the high-profile arrest of state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco; a controversial plastic bag ban that dominated the end of the Legislative session; and...the prospect of man’s best friend soon being able to join us at outdoor dining locations.

Here’s a look at the blog’s ten biggest headlines of the year, which features a surprising political player at the top of the list:

1. VIDEO: Boisterous GOP activists cheer Tim Donnelly (March, 16, 2014)

He may not have won the governorship, but during his sometime-quixotic run at the state’s highest office, former Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, rallied serious support among the California Republican Party’s disaffected conservative base. At the party convention in March, Donnelly received an enthusiastic reception from attendees, who were excited by his call to “retire Jerry Brown and replace him with Tim Donnelly for governor."

That tea party-backed fervor wasn’t enough to propel Donnelly past the primary, but perhaps another elected office lies ahead for Donnelly. After terming out of the Assembly this year, he is still mulling future political opportunities....

◼ TOP 25 CONSERVATIVE VOICES IN CALIFORNIA - Jon Fleishchman

While California has become a bastion of liberalism, the Golden State is not without conservative voices. It was actually a project to narrow this list to 25 people – my apologies to many who would have made the top 50.

JON COUPAL – President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Coupal has a weekly column that is a “must read” for all those following California politics.

TOM DEL BECARRO – A regular columnist at Forbes.com, Del Becarro is the publisher of Political Vanguard. He is the former chairman of the CA GOP.

TIM DONNELLY – A retired assemblyman and former gubernatorial candidate, Donnelly is a strong writer who is quite articulate in his defense of first principles.

JON FLEISCHMAN – On the advice of some friends, I humbly include myself here, as Politics Editor of Breitbart California and publisher at FlashReport.org.

STEVE FRANK – A longtime conservative activist Steve has long toiled to produce his California Political News & Views, a “must read” for conservatives trapped in California.

STEVE GREENHUT – No columnist who covers California politics and policy writes as prolifically and as eloquently as Greenhut. He has several columns a week in the Union Tribune San Diego, but his works appear in many publications. KEEP READING

Fantasyland, U.S.A.

◼ One way of reinventing reality is to warp the meaning of words. No president in memory has waged such a war on the English language as has Barack Obama — changing the meaning of vocabulary to hide what he fears might otherwise be unpopular. - Victor Davis Hanson/PJMedia

...On another front, Obama simply makes up names that imply the opposite of reality. The Affordable Care Act was hardly affordable. Obama knew that he could not save the American family the promised $2,500 in premiums, or reduce deductibles, or lower the deficit through health care reform. Instead, insurance policy premiums have gone up, plans and doctors have been dropped, and deductibles have soared. According to Jonathan Gruber, these known downsides of Obamacare had to be disguised from the supposedly “stupid” American people.

In the world of the Obama administration, Bowe Bergdahl, the deserter who was exchanged for four terrorists held at Guantanamo, did not, as National Security Advisor Susan Rice insisted, serve “with honor and distinction.” Instead, he abandoned his fellow soldiers at the front, and walked over to find the enemy Taliban. Traitor, like the word jihadist, has been excised from the Obama vocabulary....

California’s Christmas gift — new tax on gasoline

◼ This time of year most people are buying presents and celebrating with their families, but bureaucrats at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) are preparing a new gas tax that could raise prices up to 76 cents a gallon on January 1st. - Lodi News Sentinel

Our California legislature has a holiday greeting for you. Beginning in January, you will be paying a minimum of $1 to $2 more per tank full of gas.
Apparently having the second-highest gasoline tax in the nation is not good enough for the majority of folks we put into political office. And it may not stop there. Some experts say these new fees could eventually tack on as much as an additional 76 cents per gallon!
Of course, it’s all going for a good cause. It will be used to fix California’s decaying infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, right? Dream on.

Hollywood, White House stunned by North Korea's apparent victory over Sony UPDATED

UPDATE:

Freedom Prevails. 'The Interview' Starts Christmas Day. pic.twitter.com/TojWDhN8j2

— PzFeed Top News (@PzFeed) December 24, 2014

◼ Confusion and fear reign supreme as the White House and Hollywood come to grips with Sony Pictures agreeing this week to shelve a movie indefinitely over reported threats from North Korea. - T. Becket Adams/Washington Examiner

...Simply put, it does not appear that anyone in Hollywood or the White House seems to know what is happening or what the appropriate response should be.

“Really hard to believe this is the response to a threat to freedom of expression here in America,” comedian Ben Stiller lamented.

“Wow. Everyone caved. The hackers won. An utter and complete victory for them,” Rob Lowe, who co-stars briefly in “The Interview,” said.

Actor Steve Carell, who was slated to appear in a North Korea-based thriller until it was also shelved, added: “Sad day for creative expression.” ...

◼ Sony to Release ‘The Interview’ in Theaters, on VOD Despite Threats (Exclusive)

After a national clamor to release the film despite threats, Sony finds a way to get the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy out there
Sony Pictures will release the canceled Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy “The Interview” in theaters and on video on demand, TheWrap has learned. President Obama and the stars of the film are among the people hailing the decision, while the move has reportedly exacerbated relations between major distributors and the studio.

The plan is to release the film simultaneously in participating theaters and via video on demand. A number of independent theaters — including The Plaza Theater in Atlanta, MX Theaters in St. Louis, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Dallas/Fort Worth and others — have announced they will distribute the film. The MX said it would be selling tickets as of 2 p.m. CT Tuesday....

Republicans Are Winning the Fiscal Fight

◼ This is the great untold story of the Obama presidency. A president who wanted to “fundamentally transform” the country has completely failed to make America more like France. He didn’t even make us more like Germany. - Daniel J. Mitchell/The CATO Institute

...there’s been a remarkable shift in fiscal policy.

Many Democrats presumably can’t be happy that the lion’s share of the Bush tax cuts were made permanent. As a result, revenues are now projected to average only 18 percent of GDP over the next 10 years. That’s a smaller tax burden than we had throughout the Clinton years. And you can’t finance big government in the long run without a lot more revenue.

And they definitely can’t be happy that domestic discretionary spending is now below where it was during the Bush years, when measured as a share of GDP. And with sequester-enforced budget caps, it’s quite likely that number will drop even further.

Republicans, meanwhile, should be happy that all their fiscal battles have paid dividends. As a general rule, GOPers think that they lost the various shutdown fights, appropriations battles and debt limit showdowns. But short-term polling doesn’t matter nearly as much as the long-term policy results (not to mention the fact that voters just gave the GOP a landslide victory).

Perhaps even more important, looking forward, is that House Republicans for four consecutive years have approved budget resolutions that assume genuine reform of Medicare and Medicaid. And they’ve won their biggest majority since before World War II, so GOPers can feel reasonably confident that voters (perhaps sobered up by the fiscal disarray in Europe) understand the need to modernize these programs.

A turning point in 2017?

It’s unlikely that either party will alter the fiscal outlook over the next two years. At the risk of stating the obvious, any White House initiatives to expand the burden of government will get a chilly reception on Capitol Hill. But it’s equally true that Republicans have almost no chance of forcing additional spending restraint over a presidential veto.

But 2017 could be different, at least for Republicans. If they manage to win the White House and hold the Senate, then serious entitlement reform is genuinely possible. So not only will America have avoided becoming France or Germany during the Obama years, but the country would also be spared that fate in the 2020s and 2030s when tens of millions of baby boomers will be retired.

The best the Democrats can hope for, by contrast, is to block entitlement reforms by retaining the White House and/or retaking the Senate. But since it’s virtually impossible for them to get control of the House, there isn’t much opportunity to go on offense.

Home Free - O Holy Night

Mannheim Steamroller - Christmas Extraordinair

The Moment ISIS Terrorists Are Forced to Come Face-to-Face With Their Victims on Iraqi Reality Show

◼ ...instead of showing grisly beheadings, suicide bombers and mass executions, In the Grip of the Justice brings convicted ISIS terrorists face-to-face with their victims. Those who survived, anyway.... - IJReview

One episode featured 21-year-old Haider Ali Motar, who was convicted of participating in a series of car bombings. He was taken to one of the bombing locations, where he was confronted by a wheelchair-bound survivor, who also lost his father in one of the attacks.

As the camera rolled, Motar broke down and began to sob. An unidentified senior Iraqi intelligence officer explained:

“Many of these terrorists feel a lot of remorse when they see the victims.”

...While their remorse may be genuine, these terrorist cast members also know that they most likely face the death penalty after their “15 minutes of (infamous) fame” is over.

Roger L. Simon: "The left is vastly more racist than the right. It’s not even close."

◼ Racism Right and Left: One Man’s Opinion - Roger L. Simon/PJM

Because I am in New York for a short visit and, as the world well knows, the city of my birth is in a period of racial turmoil, I am going to say something I have been thinking about for a long time. And because I am one of the relative few to have spent long periods of his life on both the left and the right and because I was a civil rights worker in the sixties. I think — though it is purely personal and based only on observation — I have earned the right to an opinion. So here goes.

The left is vastly more racist than the right. It’s not even close. Since I was publicly identified with the right, roughly from when I started blogging in 2003 (although it was actually several years earlier in private), I have personally witnessed not a single incident of racism from anyone who could be considered a right winger and heard only one racial slur — and that was from a Frenchman. In the seven years I was CEO of PJ Media, I came to know or meet literally dozens of people who identified with the Tea Party. I did not hear one word of anything close to racism from any of them even once. Not one, ever. This despite their being accused of racism constantly.

The left, on the other hand, is filled with racism of all sorts, much, but not all, of it projected..... KEEP READING

Lynch mobs have consequences.

◼ The Democratic Party Killed Two Cops in New York - Daniel Greenfield/Front Page

A lynch mob is all fun and games until someone actually gets lynched.

At first everyone has a good time marching around and shouting “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe.” The police are accused of being racist killers by the defenders of actual racist killers like Mumia Abu Jamal. Every community organizer within a thousand miles shows up to brandish signs claiming cops are randomly killing innocent black men even as he spits and throws bottles at any cop within reach. Not to mention engaging in the occasional act of convenience store redistribution.

The Mayor of New York City announces that his ridiculously famous son has to be afraid of the police. Obama agrees that his imaginary son also has to be afraid of the police. Their claims are equally plausible.

The lynch mobs make it their mission to invade holiday events, protest parades and scream racist rants. Then they begin attacking police officers. The media insists that protests whose participants chant, “What do we want? Dead cops!” are peaceful.

This homicidally insane definition of “peaceful” had only previously been applied to Islam.

And then, shockingly, surprisingly, out of the blue, protests led by Al Sharpton featuring violent attacks on cops finally achieve their goal with the murder of two police officers.

Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley announced on Instagram, “I’m Putting Wings On Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours…Let’s Take 2 of Theirs.” #ShootThePolice #RIPErivGarner #RIPMike Brown.

It may have been the first murder that came with its own progressive social media hashtags.

But even the most violently peaceful lynch mobs eventually end with a lynching. There is no such thing as a peaceful lynch mob. There is no such thing as peacefully supporting a lynch mob.... KEEP READING

De Blasio, NYPD commissioner try to quell firestorm after cop murders http://t.co/C6hfw0Fv5A via @foxnewspolitics pic.twitter.com/na3T6pUFlf

— Fox News (@FoxNews) December 22, 2014

BREAKING: Cop Killer Ismaaiyl Brinsley Attended Mike Brown-Eric Garner Rally http://t.co/IpNHIPZxuk via @gatewaypundit

— DanRiehl (@DanRiehl) December 22, 2014

◼ PROGRESSIVELY WORSE: Marches and protests went from demanding "justice" to wanting "Dead Cops Now!" and Mayor de Blasio was playing right along...‘Pro-Justice’ Became ‘Anti-Cop,’ And The Mayor Was In The Middle [VIDEO] - Daily Caller

Notice anything? pic.twitter.com/dgog6nBdQY

— Fishing With Fredo (@FishingwFredo) December 23, 2014

◼ ‘He’s a doorknob': Photo collage shows President Podium ‘Eastwooding’ over NYPD slayings - Twitchy

American Soldiers’ Support for President Obama Breaks All-Time Record

◼ ...his approval rating among active-duty members of the U.S. military has fallen to an all-time low of just 15 percent, The Military Times reports... - IJReview

◼ ...According to a Military Times survey of almost 2,300 active-duty service members, Obama’s popularity — never high to begin with — has crumbled, falling from 35 percent in 2009 to just 15 percent this year, while his disapproval ratings have increased to 55 percent from 40 percent over that time.... - Western Journalism

The third reason for Obama’s failure is that most of his ideas were wrong. There were no shovel-ready jobs waiting for the stimulus spending. Fixing health care did not require ripping apart the insurance market. The answer to a weak economy was not expensive green energy.

◼ The Reasons Behind Obama’s Failures - Ted Bromund/Daily Signal

Another reason for Obama’s failure was that he sought, in his words, to begin “the work of remaking America.” The entire American political system was designed by the Founding Fathers to frustrate his plans. The Constitution, with its checks and balances and its separation of powers, was intended to limit the government and prevent transient majorities from having their way.

Within those limits, Obama has actually – and from a conservative perspective, regrettably – done a lot: Obamacare itself is proof of that. But inevitably, having set out to, as he claimed, fundamentally transform the United States, Obama has come up short. He has increasingly resorted to unilateral executive actions precisely because he resents the system’s constraints, but that just feeds the narrative that he’s more emperor than president....

The fiasco of Obamacare was bad enough. But then there was the Veterans Administration scandal, the Secret Service’s prostitute parties, the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups, Ebola and the Justice Department’s gun-running into Mexico, to name only a few of the screw-ups that have tainted the administration.

President George W. Bush Plays Santa at Children’s Hospital in Dallas

◼ Former President George W. Bush dressed in a Santa suit to visit a Dallas children’s hospital and hand out toys to patients who have to spend Christmas in the hospital, the Daily Mail reports. - Washington Free Beacon (Photo: Shayde and Emily Hearts/Facebook)

Gangbangers Unbound. Obama´s ´propaganda´ pushed people to ´hate the police,´ Giuliani says

◼ President Obama has engaged in “propaganda” encouraging people to “hate the police,” former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) charged a day after two New York City police officers were shot and killed in their patrol car by a man who posted anti-police messages to his social media account. - The Hill

“We’ve had four months of propaganda starting with the president that everybody should hate the police,” Giuliani said during an appearance on Fox News early Sunday. “The protests are being embraced, the protests are being encouraged. The protests, even the ones that don’t lead to violence, a lot of them lead to violence, all of them lead to a conclusion: The police are bad, the police are racist. That is completely wrong.”

◼ Cop killer Ismaaiyl Brinsley had a long criminal record, was violent and suicidal, and frightened his mom: police - New York Daily News
◼ Killer of 2 NYC officers had long criminal history - Kansas City Star
◼ From grief over police officer killings to honor for NYPD bravery and restraint - New York Daily News Editorial
◼ The Brooklyn Slaughter and the End of Gotcha - Colin Flaherty/American Thinker

◼ FLASHBACK: 11/30/2014 Obama Tries To Focus Public On Racist Cops - Daily Caller

◼ Gangbangers Unbound - J.R. Dunn/American Thinker

What remains to be said -- and what has been widely overlooked -- is what lies behind this campaign, what exact role Ferguson -- and Staten Island, and Cleveland, all the way back to Sanford, Florida -- play in the agenda of the American left.

That there is an agenda is not in question. Presidents, attorneys general, sports and entertainment celebrities, and the media sphere as a whole do not get involved in small local disturbances for no reason. Stepping back, we can see a consistent thread of deliberately aggravated racial incidents throughout the Obama presidency, from the Gates incident through the Trayvon Martin controversy on to Ferguson. All featured intervention from Obama, and most from Eric Holder as well. You can search all you like among previous presidencies for comparable actions, but you will do so in vain....

◼ Friend of Slain NYPD Cop Hits De Blasio For Anti-Police Stance [VIDEO] - Daily Caller

...“We don’t want the city of New York to think that everyone is against the police department. Everyone here with me tonight is with NYPD,” Juan Rodriguez, family friend of murdered officer Rafael Ramos, told the media.

Rodriguez continued: “Mr. Mayor, you need to have a sit down and you need to get everything corrected from the mayor’s office down. This is wrong. We need you to work with the community and the police department. We don’t need you to just go to one side.”...

Obama ''Black people think they're guilty of walking down the street while black in-front of Police Officers.'' FANNING THE FLAMES

— toni smith (@palmaceiahome1) December 22, 2014

BREAKING: NYPD says video of recent #BlackLivesMatter rally at Union Sq found on cop killers phone.

— #BlueLivesMatter (@DefendWallSt) December 22, 2014

De Blasio didn't "battle the police" in some official showdown. He threw them under the bus during high-profile media interviews.

— John Hayward (@Doc_0) December 22, 2014

◼ Bill O’Reilly: DeBlasio Should Resign Today – “He Has Disgraced the Office of Mayor of New York City” (Video) - Jim Hoft/Gateway Pundit

The week the dam broke in Russia and ended Putin's dreams

◼ “It’s going to be worse than the default crisis in 1998. This time you have a situation where the West is against them,” said Mr Browder from Hermitage - The Telegraph UK

Gallows humour is back in Moscow. Asked what he would do to stop the rouble spiralling out of control, the former governor of Russia’s central bank replied: “I would pick up a pistol and shoot myself.”
This was the week when the country’s long-festering crisis turned virulent. A last-ditch attempt to defend the exchange rate by raising interest rates to 17pc failed within hours, yet the shock is surely enough to set off a chain of corporate failures and push banks over the edge.
Traders in the City watched open-mouthed as the dam broke on Black Tuesday. The event exposed the awful reality that the Kremlin does not have the infinite foreign reserves that many had supposed. “What is happening is a nightmare that we could not even have imagined a year ago,” says the central bank’s deputy chief, Sergei Shvetsov.
The currency has since stabilised at 60 to the dollar. But it has lost half its value in a year. Russia’s $2.1 trillion (£1.3 trillion) economy has shrunk to $1.1 trillion, half the GDP of California.....

THE IRS’S SCHOOL BOND DODGE

◼ A tiny budget cut sends director Koskinen into threat mode. - Peter Hannaford/American Spectator 12.22.14

There was a time when many a school board threatened to cancel the football season or disband the school band when its members sensed the voters might vote against the latest school bond measure. The threats were usually idle ones, but they often galvanized enough voters to put the issue over.

Voters are probably more savvy now and don’t fall this trick, but the head of the Internal Revenue Service, Commissioner John Koskinen, apparently doesn’t think so. When Congress last week, by way of the “Cromnibus” budget bill, reduced the IRS’s budget by $346 million (to a measly $10.9 billion), Mr. Koskinen wrapped the old School Bond Dodge in new clothing and announced that the budget cuts could very well result in delayed mailing of income tax refund checks. Not only that, but taxpayers who call in with questions will probably be dealt with by automatic telephone messages instead of human beings. (You know that drill: “All of our agents are busy with other customers.”)

The IRS is also moaning that its workload is expanding greatly now that it will play a role in the implementation of Obamacare. Taxpayers must report on their 2014 tax returns whether they have health insurance (so that those who don’t have it can be tracked down and charged Obama’s special tax). And those who are getting tax credits (subsidies) for the new health insurance will have to report these.

Commissioner Koskinen was a witness at more than one House of Representatives committee hearing about the excesses of the IRS in singling out for the delays and harassment several conservative non-profit organizations that had applied for tax-exempt. When asked questions about the recalcitrant Lois Lerner’s “lost” e-mails, Mr. Koskinen gave answers that were oh-so-polite airballs.

Just as the school board of yore wanted the voters to say “yes” to the bond issue, Mr. Koskinen’s aim is to get a supplemental appropriation added to the IRS budget.

He is hoping that many taxpayers will implore their elected Representatives and Senators to restore the cuts so these folks can get their refund checks and their questions answered on the telephone.

What the IRS needs, instead of a one-step-removed lobbying campaign, is more Congressional hearings and some serious investigations into its practices which, from various press reports, suggest that it needs to return to the days when it was considered tough, professional, and thoroughly non-political in the way it did business.

Even Mr. Koskinen wouldn’t disagree with that, at least not publicly. Privately, being an Obama appointee, he is likely to resist any such effort while continuing to lobby for more money.
_______________
Peter Hannaford was closely associated with the late President Reagan for a number of years. He is a member of the board of the Committee on the Present Danger. His latest book is ◼ “Presidential Retreats.”

Why single payer died in Vermont

◼ Vermont was supposed to be the beacon for a single-payer health care system in America. But now its plans are in ruins, and its onetime champion Gov. Peter Shumlin may have set back the cause. - Politico

Advocates of a “Medicare for all” approach were largely sidelined during the national Obamacare debate. The health law left a private insurance system in place and didn’t even include a weaker “public option” government plan to run alongside more traditional commercial ones.

So single-payer advocates looked instead to make a breakthrough in the states. Bills have been introduced from Hawaii to New York; former Medicare chief Don Berwick made it a key plank of his unsuccessful primary race for Massachusetts governor.

Vermont under Shumlin became the most visible trailblazer. Until Wednesday, when the governor admitted what critics had said all along: He couldn’t pay for it.

The Winter Solstice occurs at 3:03 PM PST today!

◼ US National Weather Service Eureka California

Just 89 days until Spring...

We Must Demand The Press And Politicians Disassociate Themselves From Al Sharpton

Krauthammer: 'Disgrace' Obama Working with Sharpton http://t.co/yJXsKy7p9W (h/t @MarlonBateman via @hughhewitt) pic.twitter.com/odEbm5tNnm

— Breitbart.TV (@BreitbartVideo) December 22, 2014

◼ AL SHARPTON LEADS MARCH IN DC AS NYC PROTESTERS CHANT: ‘WHAT DO WE WANT? DEAD COPS!’ - Warner Todd Huston/Breitbart

◼ For most of his life Sharpton has been promoting violence - Jeff Dunetz/Yid With Lid

...Most of Sharpton’s acts of hate were not criminal they were immoral. But the press never confronts him about it, even worse the President and Attorney General of the United States makes this hater an adviser.

Now just like Freddy's Fashion Mart this pseudo preacher has had a role, inciting the deaths of innocents. This time it was the deaths of two people charged with protecting all New Yorkers, black and white, or like the two murdered cops Asian and Latino....

The mainstream media should be perusing truth and justice about Al Sharpton, indeed we all should. They should be asking the Sharpton to justify his hatred of others. And the rest of us should be pressing the media to ask those tough questions. We must begin to demand that our leaders not give this man the time of day. It’s time for Al Sharpton to be labeled for what he is-- a hater not a healer.

Heartbreaking. 13-year-old son of fallen #NYPD officer says goodbye to his father on Facebook: http://t.co/sLRLFyqfQ2 pic.twitter.com/cOPe0nh1o4

— Kelsey Harkness (@kelseyjharkness) December 21, 2014

#GOP blames #BilldeBlasio for creating anti-cop environment in New York leading to weekend shootings. #NewYork police http://t.co/0Ut18BEFNN

— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) December 21, 2014

Peter King say Obama and de Blasio should stop "cop-bashing." http://t.co/gND1ONqZB6 pic.twitter.com/wHDUt8i4Wh

— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) December 21, 2014

I talked with two officers - if you only knew how demoralized they are over the lack of support - that no one gives a fuck about them.

— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) December 20, 2014

The murder of NYPDs was not justified, it is not understandable, it is not a subject for patient dialogue & those who say otherwise are sick

— David Limbaugh (@DavidLimbaugh) December 21, 2014

Cop-Hater Kills Two Cops in Brooklyn Ambush; NY Times Obfuscates Motive http://t.co/W1gbCPSmR2 #tcot

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) December 21, 2014

Stop the madness RT @WashTimes: Off-duty police officer shot multiple times in St. Louis http://t.co/1eYQtxXYMW pic.twitter.com/oykJByoyEx

— #NYPDLivesMatter (@Cameron_Gray) December 21, 2014

DRUDGE:
◼ Officers Were ‘Targeted for Their Uniform,’ Police Commissioner Says - Wall St. Journal
◼ DE BLAMEIO: For Mayor, Attack Comes Amid Tension Over Police - NYT
◼ NYPD members SHUN - NY Daily News
◼ Sharpton scrambles - NY Daily News
◼ Civil rights leaders fear backlash - AP
◼ 'President should declare national day of Support for Police' - TIME

We have seen nothing but police bashing from some of the highest offices in the land.

Police lives matter. Let’s demonstrate it nationally.

◼ Killer's INSTAGRAM threat: 'I'm putting wings on pigs today' - NY Daily News
◼ 'They take 1 of ours, let's take 2 of theirs'...
◼ People Take To TWITTER To Celebrate...
◼ VIDEO: Frantic aftermath at scene...
◼ Connection To Baltimore Gang 'Black Guerilla Family?'
◼ NYC TORN APART...
◼ PROTEST FLASHBACK: 'WHAT DO WE WANT? DEAD COPS!' - Breitbart
◼ FERGUSON: 'PIGS IN A BLANKET'...
◼ Vandals Knock Down, Deface Sign Honoring Slain In CA...
◼ Officer shot, killed in FL...
◼ Warnings Issued To Cops: Be on guard...
◼ 'Fever Pitch Of Anti-Police Sentiment'...

◼ They gave their lives - New York Post Editorial
◼ The slaughter of two NYPD cops focuses the mind on how far we've fallen. - Discussion at Lucianne

◼ Police turn their back on DeBlasio - New York Post
◼ A silent wall of fury and revulsion greets NY's race baiting mayor. - Discussion at Lucianne

◼ Police believe New York City cop killer was a member of the Black Guerrilla Family: sources - NY POST
◼ Which is more of an act of war. Cold blooded Guerrilla murders or a bad movie review? - Discussion at Lucianne

◼ Sharpton: Use of Garner, Brown Names by NYPD Killer ‘Reprehensible and Against the Pursuit of Justice’ - Bridget Johnson/PJMedia
◼ Putting the 'Ick" in Icarus, Sharpton finally flies too close to the Sun King. - Discussion at Lucianne

◼ 'Watch what I'm going to do': How double cop killer told two passersby to follow him on Instagram before walking up to patrol car and executing two policemen in broad daylight - Kieran Corcoran For Dailymail.com and Martin Gould In Owings Mills, Maryland

PHOTO: Dozens of candles lit at makeshift memorial near site two NYPD officers were slain Saturday pic.twitter.com/iKyTBoHNog

— TheBlazeNOW (@TheBlazeNOW) December 22, 2014