All Nines

Unexplained
But beyond these problems, the failure to intervene early in Syria (when "leading from behind" might well have worked) has handed important victories to both the terrorists and the Russia-Iran axis, and has seriously eroded the Obama administration's standing with important allies. Russia and Iran backed Bashar al-Assad; the president called for his overthrow—and failed to achieve it. To hardened realists in Middle Eastern capitals, this is conclusive proof that the American president is irredeemably weak. His failure to seize the opportunity for what the Russians and Iranians fear would have been an easy win in Syria cannot be explained by them in any other way.

This is dangerous. Just as Nikita Khrushchev concluded that President Kennedy was weak and incompetent after the Bay of Pigs failure and the botched Vienna summit, and then proceeded to test the American president from Cuba to Berlin, so President Vladimir Putin and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei now believe they are dealing with a dithering and indecisive American leader, and are calibrating their policies accordingly. Khrushchev was wrong about Kennedy, and President Obama's enemies are also underestimating him, but those underestimates can create dangerous crises before they are corrected. (Walter Russell Mead, WSJ, 8/23/2013)

Outstanding article in the Journal by a former Obama supporter that deserves to be read in its entirety. It provides details and analysis to support the claim - one that RedStateVT has made repeatedly - that Obama's foreign policy approach is disastrous and it is dangerous. A docile America does not make the world safer. It makes it more perilous.


Changes
But there have been other changes, particularly in black family life, that are not so clearly positive. The percentage of blacks who had never married rose to 49 percent in 2011, from 23 percent in 1963, a jump that far outstrips the rise in that category among whites. Black households headed by a woman jumped by nearly 12 percentage points at a time when similar households for whites rose just under 4 percentage points. (NYT, 8/23/2013)

The Times writes about the many positive changes in American society for blacks fifty years after Martin Luther King's march in Washington. And then we get this paragraph on the black family with absolutely no analysis as to why these things occur. The Times would have you believe that it is because of lingering racism or perhaps the legacy of slavery. Honest black leaders like Bill Cosby and Herman Cain will tell you that it is because of dysfunction in many black communities including glorification of thug culture and a declining influence of the black church.


Wizardly
“But,” he (Obama) added, “let’s assume that we eliminated all discrimination magically with a wand, and everybody had goodness in their heart, you’d still have a situation in which there are a lot of folks who are poor, and whose families have become dysfunctional, because of a long legacy of poverty, and live in neighborhoods that are run-down and schools that are underfunded and don’t have a strong property tax base.”

His solution, he continued, was to promote programs like an expansion of early childhood education and his latest effort to make college more affordable — including, he said, making law school two years instead of three. Such policies, he said, “help lift everybody,” and therefore “everybody will be better off.” (NYT, 8/23/2013)

And - providing a wonderful contrast with Cosby and Cain - we get President Clueless. His answer to black poverty is apparently to graduate lawyers in two years instead of three. You cannot make up the nonsense that comes out of his mouth.


Kiss Off
Coupled with BT’s debt of about $17 million to the city that was secretly loaned during the administration of former Mayor Bob Kiss, the utility’s fiscal challenges partly account for Burlington’s recent series of credit downgrades, according to Moody’s Investors Service, a New York based rating firm. (Burlington Free Press, 8/24/2013)

Oh, yeah. Whatever happened about the crimes committed involving Burlington Telecom during the Kiss administration? Progressive misconduct is buried in Vermont.

Covert Action

Intentions
Mayor Bob Filner of San Diego agreed to resign on Friday under a barrage of sexual harassment complaints, offering an apology to his accusers while still denying the allegations and blaming his downfall on “a combination of awkwardness and hubris.”  “I never intended to be a mayor who went out like this,” Mr. Filner said before a packed City Council chamber, drawing sporadic applause from some supporters in the audience. (NYT, 8/23/2013)

Prediction: Filner will be back on the political scene in nine months; first with a show on MSNBC, then with a new run for mayor of San Diego. In 2016 he will make the keynote address at the Democrat National Convention. 


Zeroed Out
Egypt today is a zero-sum game. We’d have preferred there be a democratic alternative. Unfortunately, there is none. The choice is binary: the country will be ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood or by the military. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 8/22/2013)

Krauthammer gets it exactly right. 


Sued Up
Currently, the U.S. Army doesn't provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery. But David Coombs, Pfc. Manning's attorney, indicated that he will sue the military if they don't make it available to his client at Fort Leavenworth prison in Kansas. (WSJ, 8/22/2013)

Of course Chelsea's attorney will sue. He'll probably even win. The military is no longer the military of the Greatest Generation. Now - thanks to Liberals - it is a traveling circus. The Islamists don't even have to fight us anymore. All they have to do is wait. 


Rush to Judgment
During President Obama's wide-ranging interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo Friday, the president responded to a question about the "lack of action in Washington" with the claim that when it comes to shutting down the government to kill ObamaCare, his "Republican friends" tell him "privately" that they agree with him but are afraid of Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Party. (Breitbart.com, 8/23/2013)

Rush actually talks about this a lot on his show: Obama's total obsession with him. Nary a week goes by but that Obama doesn't mention Limbaugh. To what end we cannot fathom.

Deep in the Purse

Red Letter Day
As Western powers pressed the Syrian authorities to permit United Nations inspectors to examine the site of a claimed poison gas attack outside Damascus, France said on Thursday that outside powers should respond “with force” if the use of chemical weapons was confirmed.
...
The notion of “red lines” was initially introduced last August by President Obama, who said the use of chemical weapons in Syria would radically alter American calculations about the war.

At the time, Mr. Obama declared that the use or deployment of chemical or biological weapons would “change my calculus” and “change my equation.” (NYT, 8/22/2013)

The Middle East is a cesspool. Bush went in because of 9/11. We get that. Beyond that, however, we believe that the U.S. should stay out other than to back Israel, the only democracy in the region. Obama's hesitancy to get involved is understandable. Give weapons to the "freedom fighters" and they will turn around and kill Americans at the first opportunity. But Obama was the one who said "red line." He created the current problem which has America looking weak because he will not enforce a line that he himself drew in the sand. He is a foreign policy rube.


Soiled
A federal judge sharply rebuked the National Security Agency in 2011 for repeatedly misleading the court that oversees its surveillance on domestic soil, including a program that is collecting tens of thousands of domestic e-mails and other Internet communications of Americans each year, according to a secret ruling made public on Wednesday. (NYT, 8/21/2013)

Let's play a game. Substitute 2007 for 2011 in the above excerpt. How many times would the name of President George Bush appear in this article? If you guessed "more than five times" you would probably be right. 

Now guess how many times the name President Barack Obama appears. 

Correct. Zero.


Chelsea Mourning
Bradley Manning, sentenced to 35 years in military prison for the biggest breach of classified U.S. documents in U.S. history, said in a statement on Thursday he is female and wants to live as a woman named Chelsea.

"As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning, I am a female," Manning, 25, said in the statement read on NBC News' "Today" show.

"Given the way that I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible," Manning said. "I also request that starting today you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun."

Manning's lawyer David Coombs said on the program that he expected Manning to get a pardon from President Barack Obama. (NYT,8/22/2013)

Where to begin? First, perhaps, a rare RedStateVT correction, albeit provisional. Yesterday, we predicted a pardon of Chelsea Manning by President Hillary Clinton. Turns out that Obama might beat her to it.

Next we wonder how taxpayers feel about the fact that they will now be on the hook for Manning's hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery. (That's what they call it, right?)

The world is upside down, my friends. Upside down. 


Usual Suspects
In the past, for example, Mr. Spitzer has railed against offshore tax shelters, portraying them as dubious practices of the financial elite.

On his Current TV news talk show last fall, he wagged his finger at “offshore shelters and other games that are suspect,” as he questioned the personal finances of Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate.

But as of 2011, the last year for which public documents are available, the Spitzer family trust invested in at least four funds that are incorporated offshore.

That strategy has insulated the trust from taxes it would have owed for investing in certain kinds of domestic funds. (NYT, 8/21/2013)

Proof (once again) that there are two sets of Liberal standards. 

Like It or Not

Born Again
But even in Dallas, Mr. Cruz could not escape questions stemming from a report in The Dallas Morning News on Monday that because he was born in Calgary, Alberta, he held both Canadian and American citizenship. He was forced before the rally to reiterate to reporters eager to discuss the matter that he had “been an American since birth.”

On Monday, Mr. Cruz — the child of an American mother and a Cuban-born father who moved to Texas from Canada when he was 4 — renounced his Canadian citizenship. “Nothing against Canada,” he said. But as a United States senator, he added, “I believe I should be only an American.” It may not be quite the same as printing up signs or fashioning a presidential campaign Web site, but the announcement was widely seen by analysts as another step leading to his entry in the 2016 Republican primary race.

It is a novel episode in the annals of presidential politics. Looming over his prospects are questions about his eligibility to run, given his place of birth. (NYT, 8/21/2013)

The New York Times suddenly and curiously develops an interest in where a prospective presidential candidate was born. Cynical yet?


Implausible Denial
New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson denied Tuesday that her paper has a liberal bias, despite the fact that her current and former public editors both criticized the paper’s left-leaning viewpoint. (Dailycaller.com, 8/20/2013)

RedStateVT has a conservative bent. Strongly conservative. Maybe even fanatically conservative.

There, that wasn't so hard. Why does the Times refuse to come clean?


Leaky
The Army soldier who leaked more than 700,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and diplomatic cables while working as an intelligence analyst was sentenced Wednesday to 35 years in prison.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, 25, who gave reams of classified information to WikiLeaks, faced up to 90 years in prison. He was credited with 1,294 days already served and was and be dishonorably discharged (sic). He could be eligible for parole before he reaches the age of 40. (Foxnews.com, 8/21/2013)

Admittedly we lost interest in the Manning case once the death penalty was taken off the table. But here's a prediction. President Hillary Clinton will find a way to get Manning out on parole during her first term. At the end of her second term, she will award him the Presidential Medal of Honor.

Don't doubt RedStateVT.

(And we sincerely hope that Manning uses his time productively. Like perhaps by working out his gender identity issues.)

Two Beaten Swords

Behavior Modification
Sixteen women, the latest a great-grandmother, have now stepped forward to accuse Mr. Filner, 70, a Democratic former congressman, of inappropriate behavior. Calls for his resignation have been piling up, including demands from national Democratic leaders and the entire City Council. (NYT, 8/19/2013)

So how does this work exactly? Is the Filner story part of the "War on Women?" Or is that strictly a Republican thing?


Nearly
An international panel of scientists has found with near certainty that human activity is the cause of most of the temperature increases of recent decades, and warns that sea levels could conceivably rise by more than three feet by the end of the century if emissions continue at a runaway pace. (NYT, 8/19/2013)

All scientists who support the finding of climate change caused by human activity vote Democrat and receive government funding. (RedStateVT, 8/19/2013)

(Readers are referred to Marc Morano's wonderful website ClimateDepot.com for the other side of the "settled science" of climate change.) 


Undeserving
Secretary of State John Kerry has "determined that the four State Department officials placed on administrative leave by Hillary Clinton" after Benghazi "do not deserve formal disciplinary action" and he has asked them to come back to work. (Breitbart.com, 8/20/2013)

Cynical yet? There are no consequences - none - in Liberal Land. 


Keyhole
The key political asset is the ability to sit in a room with four or five other people and have them accept your leadership.....Obama doesn’t have that. (Chris Matthews quoted in WashingtonFreeBeacon.com, 8/20/2013)

RedStateVT agrees with Chris Matthews. RedStateVT agrees with Chris Matthews? Is it Backwards Day?

By the way, does Matthews now agree that Mitt Romney, a former governor, head of the U.S. Olympic Committee and CEO, would have been a more effective leader than BHO? Just wondering. 

Slow Burn

Thanks to our loyal readers for 15,000 pageviews. Get the word out on RedStateVT and let's get to 20,000!


Our Long-Suffering Government Agencies
Most government travel budgets have been cut this year by 30 percent, the result of an administration directive forcing managers to make difficult policy decisions about whom to send, where to send them and for how long. The result, agency officials say, is a government that cannot conduct essential business and is embarrassing itself abroad. (NYT, 8/18/2013)

Nice try by the Times, but we are not buying it. Whenever revenues are down at private corporations the travel budget is one of the first things to get cut. Until sequestration, the government never had to act responsibly because it would just order up more money...from taxpayers. That game is over, at least for now. 


Rejection
The state appeals court ruled 2 to 1 on Thursday that the state’s right-to-work law applies to 35,000 unionized state employees, rejecting a lawsuit filed by labor unions. The measure went to court after questions were raised because the Michigan Civil Service Commission, which sets compensation for state employees, has separate powers under the state Constitution. The law prohibits forcing public and private workers to pay union dues or fees. (NYT, 8/15/2013)

Exciting stuff! We know what happens when workers who are forced to join unions and pay union dues are no longer forced to pay union dues. They don't pay union dues, thus starving Democrats of campaign contributions. It's all good. 


Belief System
Biden allies believe he could run on some of the accomplishments Mr. Obama notched over two terms. If the economic recovery continues, Mr. Biden could run on the basis that he was a partner in combating the recession. Unemployment hit 10% in the first year of Mr. Obama's term and as of July was down to 7.4%. (WSJ, 8/18/2013)

Sit down for this one. Biden may run on the Obama economy. Where is that sharp knife we keep around here?

The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Persuasion
The court found that states are “pre-empted” from regulating safety by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, which made safety a federal responsibility. The Legislature had sought to shut the plant by denying Entergy a “certificate of public good” that is required for all power plants. But the court said Vermont was unpersuasive when it said that the reasons for the denial were that the reactor was too costly and unreliable, and that closing it would encourage the development of renewable energy from wind or wood. (NYT, 8/14/2013)

Reliable, cheap power survives in Vermont...at least for the present. Do not underestimate the desire and creativity of moonbats when it comes to returning humanity to the Stone Age. 


Ideology
Do liberals have any arguments for their idiotic ideas besides calling their opponents "racist"? 

The two big public policies under attack by the left this week are "stop-and-frisk" policing and voter ID laws. Democrats denounce both policies as racist. I'm beginning to suspect they're getting lazy in their arguments. 
...
Yes, Democrat Bob Filner can pat down his female employees, but cops can't pat down suspected criminals. (AnnCoulter.com, 8/14/2013)

RedStateVT had the best line about Filner: He should issue a ringing endorsement of abortion in all its permutations in order to save his career. Coulter is a close second. 


Obamacare Lies
This fall, Indiana's new online health-insurance marketplace will present some tough choices for consumers like John Nowak, who will be able to pick a plan from his current insurer—or go for one that includes his primary-care doctor.

That is because Mr. Nowak's current insurer won't include Indiana's biggest health-care provider, 19-hospital Indiana University Health, in the plans it sells on the consumer exchange. If Mr. Nowak buys a new exchange plan from WellPoint Inc.'s WLP -0.51% Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, he will generally have to pay the cost out of his own pocket if he sees the system's doctors, because they aren't in the network. (WSJ, 8/14/2013)

"If you like your current insurance coverage you can keep it." 
President Barack H. Obama

Forced Error

North Carolina
But with Republicans controlling all branches of the state government for the first time in more than a century, the legislature pushed through a wide range of conservative change. The Republicans not only cut taxes and business regulations, as many had expected, but also allowed stricter regulations on abortion clinics, ended teacher tenure, blocked the expansion of Medicaid, cut unemployment benefits, removed obstacles to the death penalty, allowed concealed guns in bars and restaurants, and mandated the teaching of cursive writing. (NYT, 8/13/2013)

Vermont
But with Progressives controlling all branches of state government, the legislature pushed through a wide range of Liberal change. Progressives raised taxes, decriminalized marijuana, put the state on a path toward single payer healthcare, legalized assisted suicide and enacted draconian energy policies. (RedStateVT.blogspot.com, 8/14/2013)


Echoes
Soon after the 10th anniversary of the foundation bearing his name, Bill Clinton met with a small group of aides and two lawyers from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Two weeks of interviews with Clinton Foundation executives and former employees had led the lawyers to some unsettling conclusions.

The review echoed criticism of Mr. Clinton’s early years in the White House: For all of its successes, the Clinton Foundation had become a sprawling concern, supervised by a rotating board of old Clinton hands, vulnerable to distraction and threatened by conflicts of interest. It ran multimillion-dollar deficits for several years, despite vast amounts of money flowing in. (NYT, 8/13/2013)

Whitewater. Just saying.....


Authenticity
To make a second impression, Snowden would need to come home, make his case and face his accusers. It would mean risking a lengthy jail term, but also trusting the fair-mindedness of the American people, who, I believe, will not allow an authentic whistle-blower to be unfairly punished. (Thomas L. Friedman, NYT, 8/13/2013)

And so we have the Liberal viewpoint: Snowden is an "authentic" whistle-blower. Even Obama would not cop to that.

Counting the Score

Sign Post
Mr. Biden’s attendance is a sign, Democratic officials here say, that he wants Iowa voters to know he is very much considering another White House bid in 2016. (NYT, 8/11/2013)

Run Joe, run!

In keeping with our practice of supporting the novelty candidacy of Democrats for office (see Sharpton, Rev Al; Weiner, Anthony; Spitzer, Eliot) RedStateVT urges Joe to get in the race. It's not too early, especially with Hillary out there grabbing the headlines. (Benghazi? What's Benghazi?)


Limited
In another setback for President Obama’s health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care.
...
The discovery is likely to fuel continuing Republican efforts this fall to discredit the president’s health care law. (NYT, 8/12/2013)

Republicans do not have to do anything to discredit the law. That is happening organically.


Two By Four
Two decisions Monday, one by a federal judge in New York and the other by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., were powerful signals that the pendulum has swung away from the tough-on-crime policies of a generation ago. Those policies have been denounced as discriminatory and responsible for explosive growth in the prison population. (NYT, 8/12/2013)

And yet somehow, magically almost, crime is down. Liberals just do not get this whole cause-and-effect thing.


Sympathies
Whenever I write sympathetically about religion, I get bombarded by tweets and notes from readers who normally agree with me but cannot abide by the idea that religious belief should be seen as intellectually serious.
...
Getting lambasted doesn’t bother me. On the contrary, citizens talking back to the purveyors of opinion is a glorious aspect of free speech. But my correspondents underscore the existence of a strong anti-religious current within a segment of the liberal community that is both an important political fact and a potential problem for progressives. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 8/4/2013)

Loyal readers know that Dionne Jr. is often a subject of our ridicule. Today we will give him a tip o' the hat for calling out Liberals on their animosity toward religion. We saw this first hand recently at a local lecture. The topic was a theistic view of the big bang theory and the speaker was a local professor who was also a minister. His presentation was wonderful. He was clear about where his beliefs lay; he was scientific in his approach; and he fervently welcomed a discussion on opposing views. Such openness and candor which drew scorn from the atheists in the audience who were more interest in scoring cheap shots then in having an intellectual discussion.


How Bob Filner Can Save His Political Career
San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s endurance in the face of mounting sexual harassment accusations may be driven by his need to get out of an even bigger problem: a federal criminal investigation that has received little attention from the national media. (Dailycaller.com, 8/9/2013)

It is very simple, actually. All Filner has to do to escape sexual harassment charges is to issue a press release reaffirming his iron-clad, 100% support of abortion. All abortion including late-term abortion, partial birth abortion, abortion for minors, abortion for minors without parental notification. Feminists and Liberals will rally to his defense. 

Paint a Gold Nugget

Catch and Release
Second, the state must do more to help released prisoners get the re-entry and rehabilitation services that already exist across California. Inmates are often released with no warning to friends or family, with no money, no means of transportation and no clothes other than the jumpsuits on their backs. It is no wonder a 2012 report showed that 47 percent of California prisoners returned to prison within a year of their release, a significantly higher rate than the national average. (New York Times Editorial. 8/10/2013)

This from the Times editors on California prisons. Apparently criminals are re-incarcerated not because they commit additional crimes, but because the state did not provide them with cash, a car and a fashion-forward wardrobe when they were previously released.

Ghost of a Chance

Personalities
Andrei A. Piontovsky, a political analyst, said the cancellation underscored a visceral personal enmity between the two leaders. “Putin openly despises your president, forgive my bluntness,” he said.

He added that Russia sensed weakness in Mr. Obama that could lead to more dangerous confrontations. (NYT, 8/7/2013)

Liberals were forever bemoaning the way Republican presidents like Reagan and Bush (41/43) conducted foreign policy. Cowboys, they were said to be and not in any good way. Well cowboys or not, at least they were respected and even feared a bit by America's enemies and rivals. And that is much better (and safer) for America then to be perceived as weak.


Granted
Colonel Lind reduced the maximum sentence facing Private Manning to 90 years from 136 years on Tuesday, granting part of a request from the defense team and acknowledging the similarities between some of Private Manning’s charges. (NYT, 8/8/2013)

More proof that the military has gone soft.


Thought Process
"No, I don't think Mr. Snowden was a patriot," Obama said. (Huffington Post, 8/9/2013)

Well thank God for that. The bigger tragedy, of course, is that any American would ever even consider Snowden anything other than a traitor. 


Hard Rein
Warning of the fiscal danger if New York City fails to rein in its spiraling pension and health care costs, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Tuesday challenged his would-be successors to take a tough line in negotiations with the city’s unions, while worrying aloud that whoever is elected will be too beholden to labor. 
....
Over the course of Mr. Bloomberg’s three terms in office, the city’s annual pension costs have increased from $1.4 billion to more than $8 billion as a result of raises, pension sweeteners and a growing number of retirees, while health care spending has swelled to $6.3 billion. The city also has $85 billion in unfunded liabilities for future retiree health care benefits. (NYT, 8/6/2013)

On the way out the door, Bloomberg cautions about New York City becoming the next Detroit. Which begs the question why he was not more effective during his three terms. Prediction: NYC's next mayor will cave to the unions. 

Designs on a Moving Violation

Funny Headline!
New York Times sells Boston Globe at 93 percent loss, returns to advising America how economy should be run (Doug Powers, MichelleMalkin.com, 8/3/2013)


Signal Fire
In a speech on Tuesday, President Obama signaled that Washington may finally be returning to the place where the financial crisis started. With the housing market on the mend, Mr. Obama said it was time to “wind down” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (NYT, 8/6/2013)

Which, of course, reminds us to, in turn, remind readers once again of the role of Democrats in the housing market collapse and the financial crisis. Famously it was Barney Frank who browbeat Fannie/Freddie officials to "roll the dice" on increasing sub-prime lending. His words and the YouTube video are out there for EVERYONE to see. Liberals thought it would be just a wonderful thing for humanity if everyone owned their home, whether or not they could really afford it. 


Confrontation
The challenge that confronts us is how we will live with that threat. We have created an economy of fear, an industry of fear, a national psychology of fear. Al Qaeda could never have achieved that on its own. We have inflicted it on ourselves.

Over the coming years many more Americans will die in car crashes, of gunshot wounds inflicted by family members and by falling off ladders than from any attack by al Qaeda.

There is always the nightmare of terrorists acquiring and using a weapon of mass destruction. But nothing would give our terrorist enemies greater satisfaction than that we focus obsessively on that remote possibility, and restrict our lives and liberties accordingly. (Ted Koppel, WSJ, 8/6/2013)

In a bizarre and almost incomprehensible Op-ed, Liberal journalist Koppel gives us this screed. It is is close to the Obama worldview which holds that we should just basically ignore the threat of Islamofacism. Yeah, that is a smart idea.


Tip Top
The U.S. economy has not stagnated over the past four decades, but so much of its wealth has been claimed by the very top that most Americans have experienced it as a zero-sum game in which they’ve lost ground. As tax rules favored the wealthy, as employees lost the power to bargain for their wages, as globalization reduced the incomes of millions of workers, the rich grew richer at everyone else’s expense. That’s the reality that today’s air travel illustrates, as the comfortable standard seat that once was the norm goes the way of the dwindling middle class. (Harold Meyerson, Washington Post, 8/6/2013)

But wealth is NOT a zero sum game! Do Liberals think that Steve Jobs got wealthy because he took wealth from others? It's preposterous, but - as a wealthy Vermonter once told us - Liberals believe that if you are wealthy, then you must have cheated someone. By the way, Meyerson's beef is that airlines offer first class seats. You cannot make this stuff up!

Let's Dish

Woebegone
The financial woes of Detroit, which last month became the nation’s largest city to file for bankruptcy protection, dwarf the financial issues here. But as Detroit makes its way through the federal court system, other cities, including Chicago, are wrestling with overwhelming pension liabilities that threaten to undermine their capacity to provide municipal services and secure their futures. (NYT, 8/5/2013)

Let's see...what do both Detroit and Chicago have in common? Yes, it's true that they are both cities, but that is not the answer we were looking for. If you said, however, that they are both cities that are financial basket cases and that have been run for decades by Democrats then you would be correct. Democrats see no connection whatsoever between their policies and financial ruin. 

We are not a big fan of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, but - credit where it is due - at least he gets it:

But Mr. Emanuel has openly called for increasing retirement ages, raising workers’ contributions toward their own pensions and temporarily freezing inflation adjustments now paid to retirees, all of which amount, union leaders say, to benefit cuts. (NYT, 8/5/2013)


Interception
The Obama administration’s decision last week to close nearly two dozen diplomatic missions and issue a worldwide travel alert came after the United States intercepted electronic communications in which the head of Al Qaeda ordered the leader of the group’s affiliate in Yemen to carry out an attack as early as this past Sunday, according to American officials. (NYT, 8/5/2013)

It has been a year since Obama ran for re-election proclaiming Al Qaeda was "on the run." Will the Legitimate Media now challenge him on this point? Of course they will not. Obama gets a pass, just as he got a pass on high unemployment, high gas prices, Solyndra, "saving" Detroit, golf, Benghazi and everything else. 


Stakeout
Michael R. Bloomberg has staked much of his reputation as the mayor of New York City on improving students’ test scores, and has trumpeted gains in math and reading as validation of his 12-year effort to remake the city’s schools.

But the mayor’s telling of history is poised to receive one of its most vigorous challenges yet on Wednesday, when New York State is expected to report drastic drops in student performance across the state because of a new set of tougher exams.

In New York City, the proportion of students deemed proficient in math and reading could decrease by as many as 30 percentage points, city officials said, threatening to hand Mr. Bloomberg a public relations problem five months before he is set to leave office.

Already, many of Mr. Bloomberg’s rivals — the teachers’ union, parent groups, and several of the Democratic candidates vying to succeed him — have begun to use the prospect of a steep drop in scores to call into question the mayor’s record on education.

The United Federation of Teachers on Friday released a 1,000-word memo, in part blaming Mr. Bloomberg for poor test results, saying he had not done enough to train teachers for the new standards, known as Common Core. (NYT, 8/4/2013)

We loved this one. We are no great fans of Bloomberg (either), but we give him credit for standing up to the teachers union. 

According to the union it is Bloomberg's fault that test scores for NYC students declined. It has nothing to do with teachers.

Why do young people so often fail to demonstrate accountability for their actions? Maybe THAT is what they are learning in school from teachers.


Quote of the Day
The second shortest distance in Washington now runs between an Obama speech and its empirical disproof. (Bret Stephens, WSJ, 8/5/2013)

Final Footsteps

Innocence Lost
RedStateVT returned last weekend to our childhood town for a brief visit. What we saw saddened us deeply, but reflects the path of the country. The school playground which once teemed with children of all ages playing ball and attending rec department camps was empty on a sunny summer day. Now it is surrounded by a locked chain link fence. "No Playground Use Without the Consent of the Board of Education" reads the sign. 

Thank you, lawyers. 

Another sign enumerated prohibited activities. In English and Spanish. And so America is now a bi-lingual country. Generations of Poles, Italians, Irish, Germans and every other nationality came to this country, learned the language and assimilated, even as they remembered and celebrated their ethnic heritage. Alas, in the twisted name of diversity, that was not good enough. 

Thank you, Liberals.


Will and Power
World order is maintained by American power and American will. Take that away and you don’t get tranquillity. You get chaos. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 8/1/2013)

The shortest and most devastating condemnation of the Obama foreign policy doctrine that you will see. Ever. 


War Baby
We apologize for being late in our reaction to the Bradley Manning verdict. Here then are our thoughts based on the New York Times article of July 30th: 

In early 2010, he covertly downloaded gun-camera videos, battle logs and tens of thousands of State Department cables onto flash drives while lip-syncing the words to Lady Gaga songs.

Shouldn't this alone have been enough to find Manning guilty?

He spent much of his childhood alone, playing video games or huddled in front of a computer when he was living with his mother in Haverfordwest, Wales.

RedStateVT has spoken repeatedly of the dangers of video games. Here is more proof.

While serving on a base east of Baghdad, he was reprimanded twice, including once for assaulting an officer, and he complained in e-mails of being “regularly ignored by his superiors” unless they needed him to fetch more coffee.

The "wussification" of the armed forces continues. Poor Manning was ignored by higher-ups. Isn't that the way it is supposed to be in the army?

Private Manning rebelled quietly, friends said, wearing a dog tag that said “Humanist” and keeping a toy fairy wand on his desk.

Shouldn't this alone have been enough to find Manning guilty? Wait...did we already say that?

And finally, the New York Times editors weigh in with a typically weak-kneed verdict on Manning. Yes, what he did was technically wrong, but he should not be punished too severely. Maybe a slap on the wrist. (OK, we made that last one up.)

Reprise

Expectations
America’s employers added 162,000 jobs in July, less than expected, as the unemployment rate ticked down to 7.4 percent. (NYT, 8/2/2013)

Unemployment falls to 7.4%. Previously it was 7.4%. More proof that Obama's economic plan is working.


Granted
President Obama is even less likely to go through with a visit to Moscow this fall after Russia’s decision on Thursday to grant Edward J. Snowden temporary asylum. For Mr. Obama, though, the Snowden affair is only one of myriad reasons to beg off the scheduled meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin. (NYT, 8/1/2013)

Putin gives asylum to Snowden. More proof that Obama's "reset" strategy with Russia is working.


Lapped
The overlapping lines that characterize the Clinton world set off questions, at times, about whose interests are being represented: For example, Ms. Abedin was permitted, while working at the State Department, to also work as a private consultant for a company linked to former President Clinton, for Mrs. Clinton in a privately paid role, and for the family’s foundation. (NYT, 8/1/2013)

So Danger Bird Weiner's wife - a federal government employee - also moonlighted at (if we have counted correctly) three other jobs. Nothing to see here folks....


R for Funny
“2 Guns” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Violence throughout, including a disturbing scene involving live chickens that’s both played for laughs and comes with a sharp, ethical jab. (NYT, 8/1/2013)

From the New York Times movie review of the hilarious new buddy movie "2 Guns." Those wacky Hollywood moviemakers are at it again! Of course, none of this will have an impact on society....

(RedStateVT note: Jared Loughner was 22; James Holmes are 24; Adam Lanza was 20.)