Taken for Granted

The Swarm
After Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke at a luncheon in Beverly Hills, Calif., last month, women from the audience swarmed around her, many of them asking the same question: will you run for president? (NYT, 9/29/2013)

So the Democrat Party's two hottest members are now 1) Wendy Davis - running for governor in Texas - who came to fame by speaking out against ANY restrictions whatsoever on abortion and 2) Elizabeth Warren who lied about her ethnicity, her law credentials, her wealth and who knows what else. Meanwhile all we hear is about how the Tea Party is out-of-control.


Proof Positive
Proving that everyone hates it, Congress has now exempted itself from Obamacare's provisions, having asked for, and received, a waiver from President Obama. (AnnCoulter.com, 9/25/2013)

The Great One speaks. 

Never Before Seen

Generally
The Obama administration on Tuesday provided the first detailed look at premiums to be charged to consumers for health insurance in 36 states where the federal government will run new insurance markets starting next week, highlighting costs it said were generally lower than previous estimates. (NYT, 9/25/2013)

Even the Times admits that Obama cherry-picked the data.

Of course, in Vermont true high deductible insurance plans will no longer be offered, thus tripling premiums for some residents. Thank you Democrats.


Suddenly
... it was a somewhat diminished American leader who faced a skeptical audience of world leaders here. After first threatening, then backing off, a military strike against Syria, and now suddenly confronting a diplomatic opening with Iran, Mr. Obama has employed a foreign policy that has at times seemed improvisational and, in the view of many critics, irresolute.

The president acknowledged as much, saying his zigzag course on military strikes had unnerved some allies and vindicated the cynicism of many in the Middle East about American motives in the region. But he said the bigger threat would be if America withdrew altogether. (NYT, 9/25/2013)

Obama essentially confirms what RedStateVT has argued. Namely that he is a foreign policy rube. And once again, note how Obama uses his tired straw dog rhetorical trick, here suggesting that he is being pressured to withdraw from the Middle East. If such a threat exists, its origin is with Obama's Liberal base.


Quote of the Day
“We will be engaged in the region for the long haul. For the hard work of forging freedom and democracy is the task of a generation.” (President George W. Bush speaking about the Middle East)

RedStateVT CORRECTION: The quote above attributed to former President George W. Bush was actually made by President Barack H. Obama on September 24, 2013 at the United Nations. We apologize for the error. 


Allegedly
The U.N. has charged the IPCC with weighing the evidence on climate change in an objective manner. The problem is that numerous IPCC personnel have ties to environmental groups, many of which raise funds by hyping the alleged dangers of climate change. This relationship raises a legitimate question about their objectivity. (Donna LaFramboise, WSJ, 9/25/2013)

Excellent article on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the name kind of gives it away, doesn't it?).

We particularly liked this point - no climate change, no money. Put another way, would Vermont's Bill McKibben have a job if climate change could not be scientifically proven? Of course he hypes it. It pays his bills. 

Clash of Ideas

Fifths
San Jose now spends one-fifth of its $1.1 billion general fund on pensions and retiree health care, and the amount keeps rising. To free up the money, services have been cut, libraries and community centers closed, the number of city workers trimmed, salaries reduced, and new facilities left unused for lack of staff. From potholes to home burglaries, the city’s problems are growing. 
....
“I think it needs to be led by Democrats,” Mr. Reed said. “It can’t become something Republicans are doing to unions.” (San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed-Democrat) (NYT, 9/23/2013)

Reed is correct that only Democrat governors and mayors can forestall the financial Armageddon that will come from public employee benefits. Then again, turnaround is fair play as it was Democrats who created the problem.


Refusnik
House Speaker John Boehner is chiding President Obama for negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin while refusing to negotiate with House Republicans. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 9/23/2013)

Actually a pretty good line from Boehner.

To which we would add the following: Wasn't it Nobel Prize winner Barack Obama who said "No blue states, no red states?" Whatever happened to that guy?

Wind of the Plot

Dark Times
Because of Obama’s fecklessness — abetted by a Congress that has turned darkly isolationist — the world is now a less safe place. The policeman has proved to be a bumbler. He is unschooled in foreign policy. Rogues and killers have taken the measure of him. He is smaller than first appeared. 

This editorial from the Wall Street Journal might seem harsh, but it bears consideration.

Oh wait. It's not from the Journal. It's from Liberal Washington Post opinion columnist Richard Cohen (Washington Post, 9/16/2013). 

Pigs fly.


Limits
Federal officials often say that health insurance will cost consumers less than expected under President Obama’s health care law. But they rarely mention one big reason: many insurers are significantly limiting the choices of doctors and hospitals available to consumers. (NYT, 9/22/2013)

Now they tell us. The Obamacare lies continue to be exposed. Next thing you know they will tell us that seniors WILL receive counseling on "end-of-life" options....


No Thanks
...policing is far better than it used to be, thanks to innovations by Mayor David Dinkins and in particular Mr. Giuliani’s police commissioner, William Bratton. (New York Times editorial, 9/22/2013)

There are lies and then there are the editorials of the New York Times. Here we learn of the wonderful period in NYC history known as the Dinkins administration when peace ruled the five boroughs. 

Well that's not the way we remember it and we were there. 

The Dinkins years were characterized by chaos, crime and racial divisiveness. It was only when Sheriff Rudy Guiliani rode into town that things got better. Liberals constantly believe that they can rewrite history to suit their purposes. 

Wooden Props

Not So
Skeptics — and there are plenty in the National Security Council, the Pentagon, America’s intelligence agencies and Congress — are not so optimistic. They think Mr. Obama runs the risk of being dragged into long negotiations and constant games of hide-and-seek that, ultimately, will result in little change in the status quo. They argue that the president’s hesitance to pull the trigger on Tomahawk strikes on Syria nearly two weeks ago, and the public and Congressional rebellion at the idea of even limited military strikes, were unmistakable signals to the Syrian and Iranian elites that if diplomacy fails, the chances of military action ordered by the American president are slight. (NYT, 9/19/2013)

Well, what do you think?

Is it likely that the mullahs in Iran looked at Obama's actions with respect to Syria and said to themselves: "This infidel Obama is serious. We'd better not mess with him. Let's see if we can cut a deal..."


Aspirations
He told one man affiliated with the temple that he aspired to be a monk, but he would stay up late at night playing violent video games in his room. (NYT, 9/19/2013)

Aaron Alexis. Another mass murderer. Another video game addict. Connect the dots. 


Free Fall
While the unemployment rate has fallen steadily, hitting a five-year low of 7.3 percent in August, much of that improvement has come from workers dropping out of the labor force rather than vigorous job creation. The monthly pace of new jobs has slowed, falling from well over 200,000 new jobs being added each month at the end of 2012 to 169,000 in August 2013. (NYT, 9/19/2013)

Exactly the point that the New York Times raised so vigorously during the 2012 presidential election and the reason that they ultimately decided to endorse Mitt Romney.  

Or did that not happen?


Supreme AND Drastic!
In what can be seen only as an act of supreme indifference, House Republicans passed a bill on Thursday that would drastically cut federal food stamps and throw 3.8 million Americans out of the program in 2014. (New York Times editorial. (9/19/2013)

OK, here's an idea. If you want to qualify for food stamps you have to meet the following criteria, in addition to the income threshold:

You cannot have a smartphone with a data plan. Basic cell phone only.
You cannot have enhanced cable television. Basic cable only.
You cannot smoke or use alcohol. 
Public transportation only.
No fast food.
No piercings. 
No tattoos.
You have to show proof that you are actively looking for a job. No job training. No on-line courses. McDonald's is hiring.

Comply and Republicans will consider reinstating your food stamps. Or maybe you will not need food stamps....


Big Time
Apparently some White House staffers have a new nickname for the president: "Obam-me," because it's all about him and his big thoughts. (Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 9/19/2013)

Wow!


Walkers
On Thursday, all but two Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee walked out before the parents of two of the victims killed in the Benghazi attacks testified. (Breitbart.com, 9/20/2013)

Among those who walked out: Vermont's own Peter Welch. Thanks for honoring the fallen, Pete.


The Path to Doom 
California is challenging the historic status of American citizenship with measures to permit noncitizens to sit on juries and monitor polls for elections in which they cannot vote and to open the practice of law even to those here illegally. It is the leading edge of a national trend that includes granting drivers’ licenses and in-state tuition to illegal immigrants in some states and that suggests legal residency could evolve into an appealing option should immigration legislation fail to produce a path to citizenship. (NYT, 9/20/2013)

And so America ends.


Iced
Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean underwent a sharp recovery this year from the record-low levels of 2012, with 50 percent more ice surviving the summer melt season, scientists said Friday. It is the largest one-year increase in Arctic ice since satellite tracking began in 1978.
....
Contrary to popular impression, the melting of sea ice does not cause a rise of sea level, since the ice is already floating and displacing its weight in water. (NYT, 9/20/2013)

Now they tell us. 

Time Out

Short Circuit
To recap: California's emissions mandates are so onerous that they require mandates for electric cars that consumers won't buy without subsidies that go mainly to the wealthy and that are now so expensive that they have become another drain on the state budget. Look for the middle class to be hit with a fee or tax increase to make up the difference. (WSJ, 9/17/2013)

From poverty to crime to energy, when Liberals begin social engineering you can bet the result will be a mess.

Can you imagine what will happen if they get a carbon tax?


Unwillingly
I'm talking about the hesitant, timorous America that we have seen—through the incredible sequence in which Secretary of State John Kerry's wise, forceful speech was juxtaposed against Barack Obama's strangely indecisive remarks—taking seriatim and almost simultaneously every conceivable geopolitical position. I'm talking about an America willing itself into weakness. A quiescent America that Mr. Putin, with his astounding lecture on democratic morals published in the New York Times, has allowed himself the luxury of humiliating on her home field. (Bernard-Henri Levy, WSJ, 9/18/2013)

Obama decries the actions of Assad and says that the use of chemical weapons would be a "red line."
Assad uses chemical weapons.
Obama decries the use of chemical weapons.
Kerry makes Obama's case for bombing the Assad regime.
Obama says Congress must approve bombing Assad.
Obama says that he never said "red line."
Putin says: "I can fix this."
Obama agrees.
Putin smiles. Won again.


Revolutions
Washington’s health care revolving door is spinning fast as the new online health insurance marketplaces, a central provision of President Obama’s health care law, are set to open Oct. 1. Those who had a hand in the law’s passage are now finding lucrative work in the private sector, as businesses try to understand the complex measure, reshape it by pressing for regulatory changes — or profit from it. (NYT, 9/17/2013)

Frankly, RedStateVT has little or no problem with this. But shouldn't Obama find this appalling? Isn't he the one who railed endlessly against just this thing? Like so many things about this administration, we are supposed to just ignore it.


Level Setting
Time and again, Mr. Alexis’s behavior fell below a level that would have brought a serious response, like a less-than-honorable discharge from the military or involuntary commitment to a mental institution, experts and officials said. (NYT, 9/17/2013)

Another tragic reminder of the failure of Liberal policy; namely the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. And - what do you think - maybe we should reset that level?

Aim in Mind

Analyzing the Washington Navy Yard Shooting
Aaron Alexis, the 34-year-old suspect killed in the U.S.Navy Yard shooting spree, had at least two earlier brushes with the law involving guns that led to the end of his four-year Navy career in 2011. (WSJ, 9/16/2013)

Undoubtedly, the Legitimate Media will focus on the weapons used by Alexis to kill a dozen people. If only he did not have an assault rifle they will lament. If only Congress would limit the size of the gun magazine. As RedStateVT has reported repeatedly when these horrible events happen, this thinking is Liberal nonsense. The real culprit, yet again, is the culture of violence and, yet again, a contributing factor is violent video games:

There, he played computer games “at the nighttime and all day,” Ms. Wilton said, on one of three computers he kept in his room, driving up the house’s electricity bills. (NYT, 9/16/2013)

When will the country wake up?

Think that we are crazy? Well permit RedStateVT to share with you excerpts from the New York Times review (9/16/2013) of the new video game called Grand Theft Auto V:

Grand Theft Auto V is still an action game about hoodlums and thieves; we start with an extended bout of cop killing and proceed to a series of increasingly ambitious heists...Trevor, an oddly lovable psychopathic meth dealer and gun runner...Another of the political provocations is a gruesome and unpleasant torture sequence — conducted by the player — that casts waterboarding and other violent methods as games played for the entertainment of the interrogator.

Where to begin? Cop killing...psychopathic meth dealer...torture. How uplifting. Thankfully we get the following disclaimer:

Sure, the new installment, to be released on Tuesday, contains plenty that might offend those who enjoy taking offense, and it is still disturbing to see parents giving these games to preteenage children. (NYT, 9/16/2013)

Disturbing indeed.

Sadly, Alexis is but the latest in the recent lineage of mass murderers who have been linked to video violence. 

On the Vine

Understanding the Summers Decision to Withdraw
...the lingering concerns over his 2005 comments, as president of Harvard, suggesting that the dearth of female scientists stems partly from inherent differences between the genders. (NYT, 9/15/2013)

Why did Larry Summers withdraw his name for consideration for Fed Chairman? Two reasons. First, Liberals have determined that the next chairman should be a woman. It doesn't really matter which woman. Oprah Winfrey would do, but it has to be a woman. Sadly, Summers is a male. Second, as noted above, in 2005 Summers committed a mortal sin. He challenged his colleagues to examine why males outnumbered females in the "hard" sciences. 

That's it. 

That's all. 

Of course, Liberals went crazy. One attendee at the event where Summers raised this issue (one that few have had the guts to raise) went into convulsions and had to seek medical attention. Others passed out. Eight years and several apologies later, Summers has not been forgiven. This is what happens when you break with Liberal orthodoxy. 


Favored
But many Democrats who favor stricter regulation of the nation’s financial institutions have expressed concerns about Mr. Summers’s role in the Clinton administration’s opposition to regulating the derivatives market, a factor that many economists believe helped precipitate the 2008 market collapse. (NYT, 9/15/2013)

Opposition to regulating derivatives during the Clinton administration led to the 2008 financial collapse? How did this get by the fact checkers at the New York Times? As schoolchildren are taught and as everyone knows, it was the Bush administration that was responsible for the financial meltdown. 


Show Time
But this time, it was members of the president’s own party who were going to make any confirmation process extremely difficult. Democrats on Capitol Hill said that this was a showdown they were hoping to avoid. (NYT, 9/15/2013)

So first pushback from Dems on Syria and now on Larry Summers. Will the Washington Post Op-ed Liberals - and fellow bloggers - now question the patriotism of Democrats? Will they write of Democrat obstructionism?

You know the answer.


Simmer Down
The White House said late Friday that it can't legally make the primary change unions are seeking to the new health-care law, a long-simmering dispute between President Barack Obama and one of the main backers of his signature domestic initiative. (WSJ, 9/13/2013)

No sympathy here for the unions. 

None.


Foreign Intrigue
For how else to characterize a president who declares war against what he calls a great evil demanding immediate extirpation and in the next breath announces that he will postpone taking action for at least 10 days—and then goes off to play golf before embarking on a trip to another part of the world? As if this were not enough, he also assures the perpetrator of that great evil that the military action he will eventually take will last a very short time and will do hardly any damage. Unless, that is, he fails to get the unnecessary permission he has sought from Congress, in which case (according to an indiscreet member of his own staff) he might not take any military action after all. (Norman Podhoretz, WSJ, 9/8/2013)

Even if Assad does declare and destroy his entire CW stockpile, he will have emerged unpunished for having used these terror weapons. Mr. Obama told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that "my entire goal throughout this exercise is to make sure that what happened on August 21st does not happen again."

That isn't how he and Mr. Kerry described their goal over the last two weeks when Mr. Obama explicitly urged a military strike to "make clear to the world we will not tolerate their use," referring to chemical weapons. Assad will have violated what Mr. Obama repeatedly called "international norms"—killing at least 1,400 people including 400 children—and then get a pass for promising not to do again what he claims he didn't do but Mr. Kerry says he did at least 14 times. (WSJ, 9/15/2013)

Conservative commentary on Obama's Syrian adventures has been outstanding. Then again it has not been difficult.

Silence the Critics

Devil's Due
The education proposal reflects the Obama modus operandi. First, identify an American industry that long ago made a Faustian bargain for federal support, such as hospitals and housing. Then describe the subsidy-dependent industry's inevitable bloat and inefficiency in images so stark no reasonable person could disagree. "Burdened with tens of thousands of dollars" in student debt, Mr. Obama said at Binghamton University in New York, "they have to put off buying a home, or starting a business, or starting a family." [Footnote: That was federal student debt.] Then after getting buy-in from the mortified industry, he imposes the solution—on his terms. (Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 8/28/2013)

This is brilliant analysis. We have nothing to add. 


Cause and Effect
Here’s how deterrence works in the Middle East. Syria, long committed to the destruction of Israel, has not engaged Israel militarily in 30 years. Why? Because it recognizes Israel as a serious adversary with serious policies.

This year alone, Israel has four times conducted airstrikes in Syria. No Syrian response. How did Israel get away with it? Israel had announced that it would not tolerate Assad acquiring or transferring to Hezbollah advanced weaponry. No grandiloquent speeches by the Israeli foreign minister. No leaked target lists. Indeed, the Israelis didn’t acknowledge the strikes even after they had carried them out. Unlike the American president, they have no interest in basking in perceived toughness. They care only about effect. They care about just one audience — the party to be deterred, namely Assad and his allies. Assad knows who did it. He didn’t have to see the Israeli prime minister preening about it on world television. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 9/5/2013)

Speaking of brilliant analysis, we have Charles, yet again. 

By the way, for a hoot be sure to read the reader comments in the Washington Post whenever Krauthammer or George Will write. The Liberals go crazy. Usually the commentary runs to personal attacks and complaints that Krauthammer/Will cannot be taken seriously because they never liked Obama. Liberals will NEVER argue based on the facts.  


Torn and Frayed
Congressional Democrats, torn over involving the United States in another unpredictable Middle East war, are emerging as a major barrier to President Obama’s plan to strike Syria. (NYT, 9/4/2013)

Further fueling discontent were Mr. Obama's Wednesday comments that Congress's "credibility" is at stake. Democrats were already frustrated that Mr. Obama had demanded they share his red line. It is one thing for a president to ask his party to support him in a tough moment, but it is quite another for that president to tell voters it is congressional Democrats—not him—who now own his foreign-policy mess. The steam was practically rising from Capitol Hill. (Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 9/5/2013)

After months (years?) of hearing about divisions within Republican ranks, it is interesting to hear the same about Dems.


Tick Tock
He chose his home state as the venue, and did not refrain from ticking off several problems he saw with the law. But former President Bill Clinton on Wednesday made a meticulous, if wonkish, case for Americans of all political leanings to embrace the Obama health care law.
...
Mr. Clinton made the speech at the request of the White House, but on his own terms. He chose to deliver it at the glass building in downtown Little Rock that houses his presidential library. The venue allowed him to lend a hand to Senator Mark Pryor, a Democrat who is facing a difficult re-election fight here...
...
Mr. Pryor did not attend the event for risk of being too closely associated with the health care law, according to one person with knowledge of his plans, but who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. A campaign spokesman has said that Mr. Pryor had a scheduling conflict. (NYT, 9/4/2013)

This is priceless! Clinton endorses Obamacare while lending support to a local politician. Such politician who does not want his support for Obamacare to be widely known in a state where the law is not popular. And who does not show up for the event.


Slights
The nation’s employers added 169,000 jobs in August, slightly below what economists were expecting, and the unemployment rate ticked down to 7.3 percent from 7.4 percent. (NYT, 9/6/2013)

More proof for all you cynics out there that the Obama economic plan is working. Unemployment is now projected to be below 5% sometime during Obama's fourteenth term.


Of Course
Just in case you missed it, the New York Times features a story today called "Putting the Sex Back in Homosexuality." Actually you cannot miss it because it is a featured story with a photo in the INSIDE NYTIMES.COM section and then the lead story in the Arts Section and also the lead story in the Movie Section. The Times continues to be the paper of record for the .01% of the population that is homosexual.

Spin the Dial

Seeing Red
Why should the mullahs in Tehran worry about crossing Obama’s red line on WMDs when they see the Syrians cross Obama’s red line on WMDs — and the president’s reaction is to do as little as he can without getting mocked? (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 9/2/2013)

In the Illinois legislature, he voted “present” 129 times to avoid difficulties; now he stoops from his executive grandeur to tutor Congress on accountability. In Washington, where he condescends as a swan slumming among starlings, he insists that, given the urgency of everything he desires, he “can’t wait” for Congress to vote on his programs or to confirm persons he nominates to implement them. The virtues of his policies and personnel are supposedly patent and sufficient to justify imposing both by executive decrees.
....
Now, concerning Syria, he lectures Congress, seeking an accomplice while talking about accountability. (George Will, Washington Post, 9/2/2013)

But overall the Obama foreign policy team seems to suffer from a Pollyannaish approach to the world. They do not seem to understand that those who hate America will hate us, and will try to harm us, whether our president is Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama. (WSJ, 8/27/2013)

Having leaked to the world, and thus to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a detailed briefing of the coming U.S. air attack on Syria — (1) the source (offshore warships and perhaps a bomber or two), (2) the weapon (cruise missiles), (3) the duration (two or three days), (4) the purpose (punishment, not “regime change”) — perhaps we should be publishing the exact time the bombs will fall, lest we disrupt dinner in Damascus.

So much for the element of surprise. Into his third year of dithering, two years after declaring Assad had to go, one year after drawing — then erasing — his own red line on chemical weapons, Barack Obama has been stirred to action.  Or more accurately, shamed into action. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 8/29/2013)

Among the best of the commentary on Obama's Syrian problem. In a nutshell:

• By projecting weakness and vacillation, Obama emboldens America's real enemies. Not Syria, but North Korea and Iran.
• Obama flaunts executive privilege to get his way, but seeks Congressional consensus when he is looking for a skirt to hide behind.
• The Obama foreign policy charm offensive is an abject failure. 

Telling Tales
"First of all, I didn't set a red line," said Obama. "The world set a red line. The world set a red line when governments representing 98 percent of the world's population said the use of chemical weapons are [inaudible] and passed a treaty forbidding their use, even when countries are engaged in war. Congress set a red line when it ratified that treaty. Congress set a red line when it indicated that in a piece of legislation entitled the Syria Accountability Act that some of the horrendous things happening on the ground there need to be answered for. So, when I said in a press conference that my calculus about what's happening in Syria would be altered by the use of chemical weapons, which the overwhelming consensus of humanity says is wrong, that wasn't something I just kind of made up. I didn't pluck it out of thin air. There's a reason for it." (Weeklystandard.com, 9/4/2013)

So this is what it has come to: painted into a corner with his own brush, Obama resorts to lying. He didn't set a "red line?" Once again the video evidence and the transcripts will expose the lie, but once again it will pass because the Legitimate Media will not report it. (Don't expect Rachel Maddow to devote a show to red lines. There are more important topics to cover; like Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz.)

"I did not have sex with that woman."
"I didn't set a red line."

What is it with Democrat presidents and the truth?


Dog Days
Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources and Energy. Klein has doggedly pursued closing Yankee from the start of his political career. But like the governor, he also emphasized what he calls an important point.

"This plant is not closing because of anything the state of Vermont has done. This is clearly the economics and the sign of the times of big baseload generators, the price of natural gas," Klein said. (WCAX.com, 8/27/2013)

We got a snicker out of this one. So Tony Klein and Peter Shumlin hounded Vermont Yankee for years, making it all but impossible for it to do business in Vermont. Then in what should be their triumphant moment they don't want to take credit for what they have caused to happen. What's up with that?

Allow RedStateVT to explain. 

Make no mistake, within Progressive Party circles Klein and Shumlin are giving and getting high fives all around. Unfortunately there is the issue of the 650 jobs that will be lost. Klein/Shumlin won't man-up on that little problem (the unemployment, the lost tax revenue) and so the VY closure is really all about the low cost of natural gas. Hypocrisy has a name.

RedStateVT's 1000th Post

The Sad Truth

In Texas last month a flap arose over legislation that would require the following with respect to abortion:

- Prohibit abortions after 20 weeks

- require abortions to be performed in surgical centers

- stipulate that doctors who perform abortions have an affiliation with a nearby hospital

Liberals reacted, as they are wont to do, as though it were the end of days. Democrat Nancy Pelosi weighed in as follows:

"What is at risk is the discretion of a woman to make judgments about the size and timing of her family. It's respect for the judgment of women about what is good for them, for their families, their health," Pelosi said. "The reality is that people in our country do practice birth control and use contraception."

Pelosi added, "I don't know if my colleagues need a lesson on the birds and the bees. I really don't get it." (Huffington Post, 7/17/2013)

As with many of the things that come out of Pelosi’s mouth, her comments were bizarre and unintelligible. Women practice birth control (which Pelosi would provide for free) and yet they need late term abortions?

It gets worse.

Senator Wendy Davis filibustered the legislation for 11 hours. She became a national political celebrity overnight and is now considering a run for governor. Is there any doubt that she will be a featured speaker at the 2016 Democrat National Convention? Her political future is boundless.

We certainly have come a long way since Democrat Bill Clinton suggested that abortion should be safe, legal and rare. Now Liberals can argue with impunity that no restrictions should be placed on abortion after 5 months of a 9 month pregnancy. Notice how Liberals will always use the metric of “weeks” instead of “months.” Why? Well it certainly sounds less damning.

The Legitimate Media (VP Joe Biden’s terminology) quickly rushed in to laud Davis and paint Governor Perry and Texas legislators as chauvinist Neanderthals for passing a law which Bill Clinton would likely not have objected to just a few years ago.

Notwithstanding this minor victory for conservatives in Texas, the aftermath provides a startling glimpse of the growing chokehold which Liberalism has over how public opinion is shaped in America.