Saturday, January 24, 2015

Rob Lowe: Obama prefers fruit loops over Netanyahu



◼ Rob Lowe can't believe that Obama won't meet with Netanyahu, but will meet with YouTube star. - Jerusalem Post

Lowe mocked Obama, for a live streamed meeting he held Thursday with three YouTube stars on Thursday, GloZell Green, Hank Green and Bethany Mota.

In a publicly move that targeted younger Americans, the three YouTube stars interviewed Obama.

A GloZell's video that garnered 9.7 million hits on YouTube, showed her eating fruit loops in a milk filled bathtub for what she called the cereal challenge.

Her interview with Obama occurred the same day that the White House announced that the US President would not meet with Netanyahu in early March, when he visits Washington.

◼ Incredibly, Obama to Give Interviews to These 3 YouTube Stars - Daily Signal



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#iafreedomsummit: Chris Christie









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#iafreedomsummit: Mike Lee

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#iafreedomsummit: Ben Carson

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Boehner, McConnell: Obama tax hikes 'dead' on arrival

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#iafreedomsummit: Ted Cruz













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#iafreedomsummit: Rick Perry

















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#iafreedomsummit: Scott Walker





◼ 'So Scott Walker Is the Breakout Star…?’: Wisconsin Gov. Blows Away Crowd in Iowa - THEBLAZE.COM

DES MOINES, Iowa (TheBlaze/AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is holding up his “go big and go bold” attitude as something Republicans need to emulate in Washington.

In a speech to Iowa conservatives Saturday, Walker ran through a litany of changes he’s implemented that curtailed union power, relaxed teacher tenure laws, strengthened gun rights and restricted abortions. All resonated with a Freedom Summit crowd sizing up potential 2016 GOP presidential candidates like him.

“Our property taxes are lower today than they were four years ago,” he said. “How many governors can say that?”

Walker shared stories of staring down union interests in the face of mass protests, constant jeering and even death threats to him and his family.

“Someone sent me a threat that said they were going to gut my wife like a deer,” Walker said. “All they did was remind me how important it was to stand up for the people of my state.”

He fought off a recall attempt and then won re-election last fall.
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Jeb Bush snubs Iowa summit

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McConnell Leads Open Keystone Debate, Dems Moan And Complain

◼ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already allowed more votes on amendments to the Keystone XL pipeline bill than former leader Harry Reid allowed in all of 2014 — but Democrats complained when McConnell tried to wrap up the process late Thursday. - Daily Caller

After holding votes on 10 amendments to the bill Thursday — five from Democrats and five from Republicans – McConnell wanted to hold a series of votes on additional amendments Thursday night. But Democrats did not want to vote on their amendments, saying they wanted more time to consider them before voting.

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#iafreedomsummit: Jim DeMint

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Obama's Justice Department won't charge Officer Darren Wilson.

◼ What the DNA and the bruises on Wilson showed: - Star Parker/BlackCommunityNews.com

After all the “Black lives matter,” “Hands up, don’t shoot” protests, which included burning down businesses, blocking streets, and generally being a public nuisance, President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice, with Eric Holder still sitting at the top of it, will not charge Officer Darren Wilson with violating the late Michael Brown’s civil rights when he shot and killed him.

◼ U.S. Not Expected to Fault Officer in Ferguson Case - New York Times

Justice Department lawyers will recommend that no civil rights charges be brought against the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo., after an F.B.I. investigation found no evidence to support charges, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and his civil rights chief, Vanita Gupta, will have the final say on whether the Justice Department will close the case against the officer, Darren Wilson. But it would be unusual for them to overrule the prosecutors on the case, who are still working on a legal memo explaining their recommendation.

A decision by the Justice Department would bring an end to the politically charged investigation of Mr. Wilson in the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. The Missouri authorities concluded their investigation into Mr. Brown’s death in November and also recommended against charges.
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FACT: The Obama administration has suppressed energy production on federal lands, while Republicans have consistently pressed for a true all-of-the-above energy policy to help create jobs and address costs for working families.


◼ Speaker Boehner's Press Office: CLAIM: “Today, America is number one in oil and gas. ... And thanks to lower gas prices and higher fuel standards, the typical family this year should save $750 at the pump.” (President Obama, State of the Union Address, January 20, 2015)

FACT: The Obama administration has suppressed energy production on federal lands, while Republicans have consistently pressed for a true all-of-the-above energy policy to help create jobs and address costs for working families.

  • Republicans have consistently supported increasing American energy production as a way to lower gas prices, while President Obama is on record supporting increasing gas prices in order to reduce Americans’ dependence on oil. And when the foundations for today’s lower prices were being laid a few years ago by the private sector in states like North Dakota and Texas, President Obama was insisting that increased production would never result in lower prices.
  • President Obama’s pick for Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, said, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” At the time, that meant $7-9 per gallon.
  • From 2009 to 2013, oil production on non-federal lands increased 61 percent while falling six percent on federal lands. Similarly, natural gas production has seen a 33 percent increase on non-federal lands, but a 28 percent drop on federal lands, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service.
  • According to the Institute for Energy Research, “In 2013, even though the federal government is the largest landowner in the country, federal lands produced 25 percent of the fossil fuels produced in America, down from 36 percent a decade ago.”
  • Factcheck.org challenged a similar claim made by the president in last year’s State of the Union Address, determining that “the remarkable boom in U.S. oil production is chiefly the result of new drilling technology…and not of any government policy.”
  • President Obama’s five-year leasing plan bans energy development on 85 percent of America’s offshore areas and provides for the fewest number of new lease sales ever offered in a plan since the process began in 1980, says the House Natural Resources Committee. The committee also notes that “onshore, the Obama Administration has had the four lowest years of federal acres leased for energy production – going back to 1988.”
  • Speaker Boehner’s five-point vision for resetting America’s economic foundation calls for a true-all-of-the-above energy policy, as Republicans have advocated for for years. As Boehner notes, America’s energy boom is “driving real growth” in areas that have embraced increased oil and gas production, like Youngstown, Ohio, resulting in lower unemployment rates and higher wages for middle-class workers.
◼ While the United States is the world's biggest producer of oil and gas, the American people have accomplished this feat despite Obama's policies, not because of them. - Conn Carroll/Washington Examiner

Only because Republicans stayed unified, and rejected Obama's cap and trade carbon tax, was the shale oil and natural gas boom able to produce the astounding results we are all enjoying today.

◼ President Obama was not shy about taking credit for low gasoline prices, touting the booming oil and natural gas production that has occurred under his administration. - Daily Caller

Since 2009, domestic oil production has gone from only 5 million barrels a day to more than 9 million barrels per day thanks to fracking and horizontal drilling. The U.S. is now set to overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer — the country has already beaten out Russia as the world’s top natural gas producer.

But virtually all of the increased oil and natural gas production has come from private and state lands, where Obama has no jurisdiction over approving drilling permits. Meanwhile, oil production on federal lands has floundered under Obama. From 2009 to 2013 oil production on federal lands fell by 11 percent and natural gas production fell by 28 percent.
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In Maryland: A historic first couple

Larry Hogan arrives with his wife, Yumi, as they are greeted by supporters at an event in Annapolis in this file photo. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

◼ Md. Gov. Larry Hogan and his Korean-born wife, Yumi, are a historic first couple - Washington Post (image source)

They made history this week, moving into the Maryland governor’s mansion as a mixed-race couple in an increasingly diverse state — and as novices in wielding political power. Larry Hogan, a Republican in an overwhelmingly Democratic state, had never held elected office before he won a stunning upset in November.

The love story of Larry and Yumi Hogan received scant attention during last year’s contentious race for Maryland’s governorship. But as they ease into their new roles — Yumi will hold her first official event Sunday — their late-in-life relationship will continue to help shape their public image and personal lives.
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Jeb Bush previews 2016 run

◼ ...promising ‘adult conversations’ on big issues - Philip Rucker/Washington Post

SAN FRANCISCO — Jeb Bush previewed the ideas at the heart of his likely presidential campaign, delivering a sweeping address here Friday about the economy, foreign affairs and energy exploration, and challenging the country to question “every aspect of how government works.”

In his first major speech since stepping into the 2016 presidential sweepstakes in December, the Republican former Florida governor spoke confidently and in significant detail about the broad range of issues beginning to shape the campaign for the White House. Bush signaled he would offer the country the “adult conversations” he said are lacking in Washington and would focus on people who have been left out of the economic revival.....
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Friday, January 23, 2015

Chris Christie to keynote California GOP convention

◼ Christie, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, will address Republican activists at a luncheon during the Sacramento convention on the last weekend in February. - David Siders/Sacramento Bee
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Against GOP critics who said taxing 529 plans taxes middle-class families...

◼ Obama adviser defends proposal to tax college savings plans - Washington Examiner

Obama's proposal, introduced before Tuesday's State of the Union Address, would tax withdrawals from the college savings plans created under section 529 of the tax code, and expand other tax incentives for college-goers.

Chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Jason Furman defended the change in an interview with Bloomberg News Friday, saying that the president's plan as a whole created more tax savings for college than it took away with the section 529 plan.

◼ Tax Benefits of College-Savings Plans Would Be Cut by Obama - Wall St Journal

◼ Obama wants to start taxing 529 college savings withdrawals, but only after exempting his own - Dan Calabrese/Herman Cain

One of the less talked-about proposals President Obama offered this week was to take away the tax-exempt status of 529 college savings plans. These very popular plans allow parents to defer income - before it's taxed - into savings accounts to then be withdrawn, also tax-free, to use for qualified college expenses.

I'll dispense for the moment with the larger question of whether stuff like this represents a wise overall approach to the tax code (it doesn't) and just focus on the particular change Obama wants to make. That is: He wants to start taxing the withdrawals parents make from their 529 accounts when it's time to pay for college, so there would be far less reward for socking that money away in the first place. But the federal government would get to confiscate more capital from the private sector! The Democrat dream is fulfilled every time a dollar goes from private hands to politicians' hands.

But here's the kicker: The Obamas themselves have already put more than $240,000 into a 529 account. So they'll now have to pay the tax, right?

No, sillies. Obama only wants the government to tax withdrawals of funds deposited after the change is made. So those who have already made the deposits - like him - can still withdraw them tax-free. Nice, huh?
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Obama tilts the scales against stay-at-home moms



◼ Obama wants the tax code to take sides, tilting the scales towards working over staying at home. This is social engineering by Obama. - Timothy P. Carney/Washington Examiner @TPCarney

President Obama couldn’t come up with a middle-class tax agenda until his party had lost all control over the legislative branch. This suggests his new tax proposal is little more than meaningless political posturing. After all, if he really wanted these or similar tax cuts and tax hikes, Obama could have advanced them when his party controlled the House and the Senate.

Many commentators have correctly noted that this is the White House’s effort to frame the 2016 election in class-warfare terms. When the tax provisions of the president’s budget die on arrival, Democrats will respond that Republicans are protecting the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.

But rather than ignore Obama’s plan totally, it’s worth studying it as a statement of his values and the values of his party. Doing this, you see it's less class warfare and more culture war. One clear message of the president’s tax plan: Moms who stay at home with their children are less valuable than moms who work for pay.

Obama, alongside his tax hikes on the wealthy and on people who save for their children’s college, proposed tax cuts that go only to dual-income families.... KEEP READING

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"Majorities seldom, if ever, yield power back to the minority."

◼ Defending the Filibuster: The Soul of the Senate - Daily Signal
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Krauthammer: Rubio Most Likely To Win GOP Nomination



◼ Poll: Rubio surges to second, just 3 points behind Romney - Washington Examiner


World News Videos | ABC World News

◼ Marco Rubio Moves Toward 2016 Presidential Bid - ABC

◼ KRAUTHAMMER: RUBIO IS MOST LIKELY TO WIN GOP NOMINATION - Breitbart

He added “he’s [Rubio] my underestimated dark horse candidate who threads his way, young, energetic. He’s got a program and I think if he runs against Hillary, the contrast say the vigor, the energy that Kennedy-esque idea will be be a major one.”
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Thursday, January 22, 2015

Saudi King Abdullah, Cautious Saudi Moderniser, Is Dead at 90



◼ The absolute ruler of one of the most conservative societies on Earth, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had to tread a narrow line between maintaining relationships with the West and appeasing opinion at home. - BBC

Raised with traditional Islamic views he was, nevertheless, seen as something of a reformer and became a vocal advocate of peace in the Middle East.

Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud is believed to have been born in August 1924 in Riyadh, although there is some dispute about his actual birth date.

He was the 13th of at least 45 sons of King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud who created the modern state of Saudi Arabia in 1932, and gave his family name to the new country.



























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Report: EPA Tested Deadly Air Pollutants On Children



◼ The EPA may have violated the Nuremberg Code - DAILY CALLER

A government watchdog group has obtained documents detailing how EPA-backed research exposed children as young as 10 to deadly air pollutants without disclosing the full risks of the substances.

Government watchdogs say these EPA-backed studies could violate California state and federal law, because children were exposed to diesel exhaust in experiments with no health benefits to the subjects.

Between 2003 and 2010, the EPA backed experiments done at the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles that exposed children aged 10 to 15 to diesel exhaust — an air pollutant which the EPA and the California Air Resources Board says has no safe exposure limit.... KEEP READING
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“The Internet is the greatest empowerment of citizens…in many years,”

◼ Google Chairman Eric Schmidt: "The Internet Will Disappear" - Hollywood Reporter

...At the end of a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland where his comments were webcast, he was asked for his prediction on the future of the Web. “I will answer very simply that the Internet will disappear,” Schmidt said.

“There will be so many IP addresses…so many devices, sensors, things that you are wearing, things that you are interacting with that you won’t even sense it,” he explained. “It will be part of your presence all the time. Imagine you walk into a room, and the room is dynamic. And with your permission and all of that, you are interacting with the things going on in the room.”

...“You now see so many strong tech platforms coming, and you are seeing a reordering and a future reordering of dominance or leaders or whatever term you want to use because of the rise of the apps on the smartphone,” Schmidt said Thursday. “All bets are off at this point as to what the smartphone app infrastructure is going to look like” as a “whole new set” of players emerges to power smartphones, which are nothing but super-computers, the Google chairman argued. “I view that as a completely open market at this point.”
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Wife of Christian Pastor Trapped in Iran Reveals ‘Really Emotional Moment’ During Closed-Door Meeting With The President

◼ President Barack Obama met face-to-face with Naghmeh Abedini, the wife of Christian pastor Saeed Abedini, who has been detained inside the brutal Iranian prison system since 2012, and her two children on Wednesday, affirming his commitment to bringing the pastor home safely. - The Blaze

...Obama met Abedini and her two children Rebecca, 8, and Jacob, 6, at Boise State University before he delivered a speech about education. Perhaps the most touching moment came when Jacob, who turns seven on March 17, asked if Obama would bring his father home before his birthday — a moment that Abedini said was intensely “emotional.”

“President Obama said, ‘When is your birthday?’” she told TheBlaze. “And then there was a look of shock [when Jacob responded] and he kind of stepped back and he said, ‘I don’t know if I can do it that quick’ and he said, ‘I will try.’”

Abedini added, “I could see in his eyes that he’s a dad and for him to see that that’s what Jacob wants — it was a really emotional moment.”

In addition to voicing his commitment to bringing Saeed home, Obama told Abedini that her husband was a topic of conversation in a phone conversation he had with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
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Speaker John Boehner invites Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address joint session of Congress, White House Upset

◼ Boehner rolls out welcome mat to Netanyahu for Iran speech; Update: Menendez says Obama argument “sounds like talking points… from Iran” - HotAir

(On Tuesday), Barack Obama threatened to veto any new sanctions on Iran that the newly-Republican majority might pass as a way to pressure Tehran to stop its nuclear program. Obama lectured Congress on his successes in “halt[ing] the progress of its nuclear program and reduc[ing] its stockpile of nuclear material,” and warned that Congressional action would isolate the US from its allies:
There are no guarantees that negotiations will succeed, and I keep all options on the table to prevent a nuclear Iran. But new sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails — alienating America from its allies; and ensuring that Iran starts up its nuclear program again. It doesn’t make sense. That is why I will veto any new sanctions bill that threatens to undo this progress.
This morning, John Boehner provided an answer to Obama’s challenge. While the President brags about his diplomatic acumen in a joint session, Boehner will have Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu explain the reality of the Iranian threat in the region to Congress as a rebuttal:
The invitation for Netanyahu to speak to lawmakers on Feb. 11 comes hours after Obama, in his State of the Union address, said he would veto any sanctions legislation.

Boehner was informing the GOP caucus of his invitation in a private meeting. He says Obama expects Congress to stand idly by and do nothing while the administration negotiates with Tehran.

Boehner’s response: “Hell, no.”
Netanyahu will deliver reality to the joint session. That will be done tactfully by Netanyahu, to be sure, who is taking political heat at home for the deterioration of the US-Israeli relationship. But Netanyahu won’t pull punches either, especially on the need to increase pressure on Iran rather than let them off the hook in the naive hope that being nicer will produce a similar reaction from the Iranians. Tehran sees America on the retreat in the region, and they want to fill that vacuum. That is an existential threat to Israel, and Netanyahu wants to make sure the US understands that, even if Obama does not.

Inside the Beltway, Boehner’s invitation will deliver a reminder that the floor of Congress is not Obama’s fiefdom. He’s not the only person in Washington with a pen and a phone, after all.... KEEP READING









◼ ‘Feels unprecedented’: MSM, WH aghast Boehner didn’t inform Obama of Netanyahu invite - Twitchy

◼ Slam-tastic! WH accusation that Boehner didn’t follow ‘protocol’ for Netanyahu invite gets torched - Twitchy



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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

President Obama is either the most cynical man in Washington today, or the blindest.

◼ Obama's State of Disunion - Conn Carroll/Townhall

"Over the past six years, the pundits have pointed out more than once that my presidency hasn't delivered on this vision," Obama continued. "How ironic, they say, that our politics seems more divided than ever."

At this point, even a slightly more honest or self-aware politician would have acknowledged his own role in making politics more divisive. Not Obama. He proceeded straight to a lecture on what his opponents could do to make the country more united.

"Imagine if we broke out of these tired old patterns," Obama said. "A better politics is one where we debate without demonizing each other," Obama continued. "Where we talk issues, and values, and principles, and facts, rather than 'gotcha' moments, or trivial gaffes, or fake controversies that have nothing to do with people's daily lives."

All this from a man whose 2008 campaign held the record for spending on negative ads right up until his 2012 campaign broke it.

All this from a man who built his entire 2012 reelection campaign around demonizing and other-izing his opponent.

All this from a man whose staff pounced on every gaffe and "gotcha" moment and created fake controversies like it was their job.

If Obama wants to blame anyone for today's divisive politics he need only look in the mirror.... KEEP READING



◼ MSNBC: ‘Obama’s Rose-Colored Glasses Not Even Close To Reality’ - Daily Surge



Obama told a lot of lies last night in his State of the Union address. There were just too many to count. Some were small. Some were huge. And apparently, Obama’s so-called foreign policy successes were lies too big for NBC News’s chief foreign correspondent, Richard Engel, to let slide.

Engel could barely compose himself while reacting to Obama’s statements that his strategy against ISIS is working (video above).
“It seems that the rose-colored glasses through which President Obama was viewing the foreign policy were so rose-colored that they don’t even reflect the world that we’re living in,” Engel said during MSNBC’s post-speech coverage.

“ISIS is doing very well, and the strategy is completely disjointed,” he added. “To sell that as a success, I think was missing the point, maybe even disingenuous.”

Similarly, MSNBC anchors Andrea Mitchell and Chris Matthews were both equally amazed at how completely divorced from reality Obama’s “rosy” international picture is...



◼ NBC’s Richard Engel Blasts Obama’s Foreign Policy Claims as Wishful Thinking - Washington Free Beacon

Wow. NBC's reporter in Istanbul absolutely dismantles Obama's foreign policy ‪#‎SOTU‬ claims. “It sounds like the president was outlining a world he wishes we were all living in…”
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Focus Group Does Not Beleive Obama That SOTU is Strong



A FOX News focus group does not believe Obama. At all. - Jim Hoft
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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

State of the Union Address 2015 (#SOTU)



◼ You can watch the address here: - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

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RAND PAUL’S RESPONSE TO OBAMA’S 2015 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS



◼ at Breitbart

I think we should put limits on the terms of Congress and infuse our government with fresh ideas....

Not only do we need new blood in Washington, we need a new way of thinking in Washington.

As a physician, I was taught first to do no harm:

To think before you act,

To analyze the unintended consequences of your actions.

I think America would be better off if all our politicians took that same approach: “First, do no harm.”

It is self-evident that the President and Congress are unable to do what every family in America must do—balance the budget.

If Congress cannot, or will not, balance the budget, then we should amend the Constitution to make it mandatory. President Obama is on course to add more to our national debt than all previous presidents combined. We borrow a million dollars a minute. Our $18 trillion dollar debt has become an anchor. Some economists argue that the burden of debt costs us a million jobs a year.... KEEP READING

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The #SOTU Drinking Game and more



◼ If Obama Spoke Honestly, Here’s What He’d Say in State of the Union - Daily Signal





◼ SOTU open thread: Semi-retired troll ready to bring his troll A-game - HotAir

Prepare yourself at 9 p.m. ET for the magic that only a seventh-year State of the Union speech can create. Every SOTU is a political Groundhog Day but tonight’s looks to be more repetitive than usual — tax hikes on the rich, some whining about the Citizens United decision, a few studiously vague sentences on “progress” made in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, etc. Seventh verse, same as the first. What’s novel is the new reality in Congress and Obama’s reaction to it. Having just seen Democrats obliterated in an election which he himself sold as a referendum on his policies, The One is going to greet the Senate’s Republican majority by … doubling down on the policies that got obliterated. He calls that “playing offense.” Conservative commentators, recognizing that Obama’s proposals are going nowhere legislatively, aptly call it trolling. The more he irritates the GOP by pushing bills they want nothing to do with, the greater the chance that they’ll engage him in a war of words, supplying media oxygen for those bills. Better to have them preoccupied with rejecting his proposals than pushing popular ones on him, like Keystone approval, that he’ll be forced to reject.

So that’s what you’re in for tonight, a solid 60-75 minutes of the most powerful man in the world essentially trying to irritate his opponents because he now lacks the votes he needs to actually get his agenda passed.

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What You Need to Know About Joni Ernst, the Iowa Senator Giving the Republican Response to the State of the Union













◼ link - Daily Signal

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U.S. Embassy in Yemen set to evacuate

◼ U.S. Navy on alert - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

Yemen is in chaos.

For the past two days, Shiite Houthi rebels have laid siege to the presidential palace. Now, reports claim that the rebels have seized the palace; and the status of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi remains unknown. Although the Houthi rebels are not targeting Americans—at least for the time being—U.S. officials are preparing for the possibility of a “non permissive environment,” meaning that the city of Sana’a will have descended into combat-like conditions.

Unfortunately for Americans in Yemen, evacuation isn’t simply a matter of driving to the airport and hopping a flight.
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$7.5 Trillion in Debt Added Since O...







◼ PAPER: Obama spent more for dinner in Hawaii than his tax credit for families... - Paul Bedard/Washington Examiner via Drudge
Among the highlights of President Obama’s State of the Union address plans to pull the American family out of economic plight is a $500 tax credit for two-earner families....

It’s to pay for the added commuter and child care costs of two-earner families, but it wouldn’t cover much....

Put another way, the credit wouldn't even cover the tab for two at Hawaii's Vintage Cave restaurant where the president and first lady dined on New Year's Day. It costs $295 per person, and doesn't even include wine.
◼ Tax Hike on College Savings Plans Breaks Pledge... - Americans For Tax Reform
Tonight, in his State of the Union address, President Obama will propose a series of tax increases on the American people. One of these tax increases is indisputably an income tax hike on middle class families with children.

Under Obama’s plan, earnings in “Section 529” (named for its location in the Internal Revenue Code) college savings plans will face full income taxation upon withdrawal.

Under current law, earnings growth in 529 plans is tax-free if account distributions are used to pay for college tuition and fees. The Obama plan will tax earnings in these accounts even if they are used to pay for college tuition and fees.

These accounts are commonly used by middle class families. There are about 12 million 529 accounts open today, and they have an average account balance of approximately $21,000. Most 529 plans permit monthly contributions as low as $25 per month.
◼ Worst record on promises kept since Gerald Ford... - Stephen Dinan/Washington Times
Mr. Obama has the second-worst record of getting his State of the Union policy requests enacted into law of any president in the last five decades, according to an analysis by two scholars that puts him only above the unelected two-year presidency of Gerald Ford....
◼ Full list/video montage at the link... - Grabien

◼ Biden pitches 'free' stuff... - Paul Bedard/Washington Examiner
He did not mention the proposed $320 billion in taxes the White House is also heralding.
◼ As Obama Prepares To Paint A Rosy Picture Of His Presidency, A Look At The Numbers He Won't Mention  - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard
$7.5 Trillion: Amount Added To The National Debt Despite Obama's 2010 State Of The Union Declaration That He Would Not Leave "A Mountain Of Debt." (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/14/15; President Barack Obama, Remarks On The State Of The Union, Washington, D.C., 1/27/10)

4 Trillion: Amount Of Debt That Obama Once Called "Irresponsible" And "Unpatriotic." (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At A Campaign Event, Fargo, ND, 7/3/08) MORE at the link
◼ RUSSIAN SPY SHIP IN HAVANA ON EVE OF USA TALKS - AFP









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Will the crisis with ISIS be a part of the conversation during the State of the Union address this evening? If not, the message of Obama’s silence on the issue will speak volumes — loudly.



◼ German reporter: ISIS enthusiastically planning to kill hundreds of millions [VIDEO] - Allen West

Just a year ago our President Barack Hussein Obama referred to a small growing militant Islamic group as a “jayvee” team. They now control a huge swath of territory in Syria and Iraq the size of Great Britain and call themselves the Islamic State.

ISIS has grown stronger, bolder and more deadly – with horrific plans beyond comprehension. A German reporter who survived 10 days embedded with ISIS says they are enthusiastically planning to kill hundreds of millions of people.

...As reported by Breitbart.com, “Jurgen Todenhofer, the first Western reporter to embed with Islamic State fighters and not be killed in the process, spoke to Al Jazeera about his time with the terror group. Todenhofer lived side by side with the jihadist fighters for ten days in the Islamic State-stronghold city of Mosul, Iraq. He was accompanied only by his son, who served as his cameraman.”

“I always asked them about the value of mercy in Islam,” but “I didn’t see any mercy in their behavior,” explained Todenhofer. He added, “Something that I don’t understand at all is the enthusiasm in their plan of religious cleansing, planning to kill the non-believers… They also will kill Muslim democrats because they believe that non-ISIL-Muslims put the laws of human beings above the commandments of God.”

“The German reporter then elaborated on how shocked he was about how “willing to kill” the ISIS fighters are. He said that they were ready to commit genocide. “They were talking about [killing] hundreds of millions. They were enthusiastic about it, and I just cannot understand that,” said Todenhofer.”

◼ GERMAN EMBED REPORTER: ISIS PLANS ON KILLING ‘HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS’ IN ‘RELIGIOUS CLEANSING’ - Breitbart

◼ Q&A: German journalist on surviving ISIL - Al Jazeera spoke to Jurgen Todenhofer who embedded with ISIL fighters - and lived to tell about it. - Al Jazeera
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MSNBC Guest Says Bobby Jindal's 'Scrubbing The Brown Off His Skin'... Network's Reaction Says It All



◼ On an appearance on MSNBC Monday, Arsalan Iftikhar of TheMuslimGuy.com appeared with host Alex Wagner to discuss Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s latest comments on so-called “no-go zones” (areas in the U.K. that are supposedly off limits to non-Muslims). - KEVIN BOYD/IJREVIEW

Wagner asked Iftikhar about Jindal’s comments and the criticism that he’s received about them.

Here’s what Iftikhar said:
“I think Governor Jindal is protesting a bit too much. He might be trying to scrub some of the brown off his skin as he runs to the right in a presidential bid.
◼ MSNBC about to give Bobby Jindal the Herman Cain treatment UPDATE: Banned - HotAir

...Let’s hope MSNBC imposes a bit more discipline on their hosts when it comes to talking about race in the next election cycle. For the country’s sake.

UPDATE: Credit where credit is due. It looks like MSNBC is trying to impose some discipline on its overzealous talent. As a response to this controversy, the Comcast property revealed on Tuesday that Iftikhar will not be invited back on MSNBC anytime soon. Good for them.
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California Media Denies Equal Coverage for Republican Candidates

◼ Recently, the junior Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer from California announced her retirement at the end of her current Senate term. - The Blaze

...With all of the media hype surrounding prominent Democrats in California, prominent Republicans who might seek to run are being briefly mentioned or completely omitted from news stories. Republicans are automatically being overlooked as viable contenders, even though they have the experience and name recognition to win the seat....

Briefly mentioning a viable contender because they’re of the minority party is journalistically appalling. Whatever happened to fair reporting, where any personal opinions and political agendas were irrelevant? What happened to real journalism, where all the facts are reported, not just the facts the reporters and the publishers like?

California has a real opportunity to seek change. Californians can seek a different path. We don’t know what the Golden State will choose until we leave it to the voters. Assuming voters will choose the most progressive liberal possible is an insult to those of us who live here. Not all of us want “hope and change.” Not all of us chose to have our beloved state move the direction it’s going.

It’s time for the media to allow the voter to make their own decisions. It’s time for the media to do their job and report the facts, not their own biased opinions. Jumping to conclusions this early in the game not only hurts our political process but it’s degrading to voters.
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White #BlackLivesMatter Boston Protesters Found Living with Parents in Luxury Mansions



◼ Boston reporters went to the homes of several Boston area protesters who were arrested for blocking highways on Thursday. What they found were adult children playing revolutionary while living with their rich parents. - Kristinn Taylor/Gateway Pundit

...Lawyers for people trapped in the traffic-blocking protest might want to look in to not only suing the protesters but also their deep-pocket supportive parents like Tim McKenna. WRKO reported houses in McKenna’s neighborhood are listed at Zillo in the $1.5 million range.

◼ Confirmed: Protesters who shut down Boston interstate are exactly how you pictured them - HotAir

To cleanse the palate, via Joel Pollak, nothing says “blocking ambulances for social justice” like white-guy dreads. This makes twice in the span of four days that our worst stereotypes about liberals were magically vindicated, the other being John Kerry rolling out his favorite hippie troubadour to serenade France with an apology on Friday. As with celebrity deaths, these things tend to happen in threes, which makes me wonder what sort of show Obama might be preparing to put on for us tomorrow night during the SOTU.

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As we’re about to see, this is a claim that dissolves on contact with actual science.

◼ The Hottest Most Dishonest Year on Record - The Federalist
Last week, according to our crackerjack mainstream media, NASA announced that 2014 was the hottest year, like, ever.

No, really. The New York Times began its report with: “Last year was the hottest in earth’s recorded history.”

Well, not really. As we’re about to see, this is a claim that dissolves on contact with actual science. But that didn’t stop the press from running with it....

That “recorded history” gaffe is even worse when you consider that during “recorded history,” in the 5,000-year sense of the phrase, there’s good evidence that the Earth has been warmer than it is today.

We don’t have thermometer measurements going back that far, but scientists can use “proxies”—things they can measure that tend to vary with temperature, such as the composition of ancient deposits of seashells, or the thickness of the rings in ancient, slow-growing trees—to get very rough estimates. These have usually shown warmer temperatures during Roman times and the Middle Ages, when “recorded history” describes wine grapes growing in Northern England and Newfoundland.

There have been a few attempts to write these warm periods out of existence—one of them being Michael Mann’s infamous “hockey stick” graph, which implausibly asserts that global temperatures remained totally flat in every century except the 20th—but these claims have been controversial to say the least....

So allow me to suggest a more accurate first sentence to sum up this story: “In the tiny little blip of geological time for which we have accurate surface temperature records, last year was pretty much the same as 2005 and 2010, continuing a plateau of global temperatures that has lasted nearly 20 years.”

What remains of the original description of this news? Nothing but bluff, spin, and the uncritical press-release journalism that dominates mainstream reporting on the climate. It may or may not be the hottest year ever, but this is definitely in the running for the most dishonest year on record.
◼ Climate scientist Dr. Roy Spencer lays the smack to '2014 warmest year ever' nonsense - Dan Calabrese/Herman Cain

Dr. Roy Spencer is a real problem for global warmists. They can't say he's not a climate scientist, because he is. They can't accuse him of taking oil industry money, because all the funding he's ever received has come from the U.S. government - including his work with NASA, NOAA and the Department of Energy.

And they can't refute his arguments, because he knows what he's talking about and they don't. So when he comes across their latest nonsense - this time the claim that 2014 was the warmest year on record - he takes aim and destroys the claim in beautiful fashion:

◼ 2014 as the Mildest Year: Why You are Being Misled on Global Temperatures - Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.
In what universe does a temperature change that is too small for anyone to feel over a 50 year period become globally significant? Where we don’t know if the global average temperature is 58 or 59 or 60 deg. F, but we are sure that if it increases by 1 or 2 deg. F, that would be a catastrophe?

Where our only truly global temperature measurements, the satellites, are ignored because they don’t show a record warm year in 2014?

In what universe do the climate models built to guide energy policy are not even adjusted to reflect reality, when they over-forecast past warming by a factor of 2 or 3?

And where people have to lie about severe weather getting worse (it hasn’t)? Or where we have totally forgotten that more CO2 is actually good for life on Earth, leading to increased agricultural productivity, and global greening? ...

It’s the universe where political power and the desire to redistribute wealth have taken control of the public discourse. It’s a global society where people believe we can replace fossil fuels with unicorn farts and antigravity-based energy.

Feelings now trump facts....
◼ NASA: There's only a 38% chance we were 100% right when we said that 2014 was the hottest year ever. - Robert Laurie /Herman Cain TV
It's common knowledge that we live in the environmental end times. The seas will soon boil away, the fish will die, and humanity will doubtless be forced into some kind of post-apocalyptic subsistence where we dwell in underground tunnels like worms. After all, back in 1988 environmentalists like Ted Danson were warning us that the oceans would be "dead" in ten years. We're well past that deadline, so something big bound to happen soon.

This weekend, as Dan discussed, we learned the horrible truth. NASA announced that 2014 was the "hottest year on record." Obviously, we've reached the point of no return. After all, this is NASA. It's science. ...And the scientific method involves proof, so it never lies.

But, apparently, it does leave things out. As the DailyMail is reporting, NASA admits that there's only a 38% chance that they are 100% correct.
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Monday, January 19, 2015

The photobomb heard round the world.

Anti-Semitism rears its ugly head...



◼ POLITICS INVADES THE MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT - Powerline

Nothing happened immediately, but the picture began attracting negative attention in Lebanon, where some criticized Miss Lebanon, Saly Greige, for appearing in a photograph with an Israeli. That led Greige to disown the picture. She wrote on Facebook:
To all my supporters and Lebanese citizens, I would like to thank you indeed for your continuous support of Miss Lebanon at the Miss Universe contest …The truth behind the photo: Since the first day of my arrival to participate to Miss Universe, I was very cautious to avoid being in any photo or communication with Miss Israel (that tried several times to have a photo with me) … I was having a photo with Miss Japan, Miss Slovenia and myself; suddenly Miss Israel jumped in, took a selfie, and put it on her social media…this is what happened and I hope to have your full support in the Miss Universe contest.










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