The Concord Between the Orders

Ignorance is de Blissio
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has characterized New York’s inequities as a “Tale of Two Cities,” and his administration have taken steps to get more food into the hands of the poor. The Human Resources Administration announced in May that it would seek to increase enrollment for food stamps — about 1.8 million residents currently receive them — by reaching out to older Medicare recipients and expanding online services, among other measures.

In a significant change, human resources officials also received a waiver last month of a federal work rule that cut off food stamps to thousands of New Yorkers a year. Under that rule, more than 46,000 so-called able-bodied adults — ages 18 to 49 with no dependents — had to work at least 20 hours a week or participate in job training to continue receiving an average of $35 a week in food stamps after three months, according to city officials. (New York Times, 6/28/2014)

We have been meaning to mention this months ago after Sub-Commander de Blasio started this "Tale of Two Cities" nonsense. Obviously de Blasio has never read the Dickens tale. It is not a story about the "haves" and the "have-nots" as he apparently believes. The two cities in Dickens' book are Paris and London, the former in the grips of the anarchy following the French revolution and the latter a place of refuge for the story's protagonists. New York City resembles Paris only in the sense that it is now being run by closed-minded reactionaries as Paris was after the revolution. de Blasio is another ill-informed Liberal.

Of course, it is also sad to note that the Sub-Commander eliminates the welfare work requirement, thereby consigning another generation to perpetual poverty. How compassionate! 


Lengthy
On Friday Mr. Obama denounced at length the GOP's "obstruction," which his Minneapolis audience no doubt agreed was an appropriate topic for an event billed as a lakeside family picnic. "They don't do anything except block me and call me names," he said, shortly after he had observed that Republicans "think we should let big banks, and credit card companies, and polluters, and insurers do only whatever is best for their bottom line without any responsibility to anybody else." (Wall Street Journal, 6/27/2014)

Has there EVER been a president who whined more?


Stoned
When an interviewer compared her (Hillary Clinton) to Mitt Romney in terms of wealth, she got a stony look. That is a "false equivalency," she said. You could see she feels she should not be compared to a wealthy Republican because she's liberal and therefore stands for the little guy. So she can be rich and should not be criticized, while rich people who have the wrong policies—that would be Republicans—are "the rich" and can be scorned and shamed. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 6/27/2014)

Probably the best analysis we have read on the subject of Liberal hypocrisy when it comes to wealth. 


Attention Deficit
When Mr. Obama handed Mr. Biden the Iraq portfolio in June 2009, it was hardly a prize. The president had run for office on his opposition to the war, and he wanted a high-level official other than him to pay attention to it so he could focus on Afghanistan. (New York Times, 6/29/2014)

So to be clear: it is really Biden who screwed up Iraq and Obama who screwed up Afghanistan. Got it. 


Trailer
One year after bursting onto the national scene with a marathon filibuster against abortion restrictions, Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator and Democratic nominee for governor, has been doing everything she can to mark the anniversary of that speech last June, even donning the same pink Mizuno sneakers.

The problem: A year after her filibuster pumped her up into the kind of galvanizing candidate Texas Democrats have not had for decades, she seems very much dragged down to earth, dwarfed by the perception that Democrats’ chances of ending the Republican domination of Texas remain slim. Recent polls have shown her trailing her Republican opponent — the state attorney general, Greg Abbott — by up to 12 percentage points. (New York Times, 6/29/2014)

Amazingly - in Texas at least - a political identity tied to free and unfettered access to abortion, including partial birth abortion, may NOT be a winning ticket.


Lapsed
An examination by The New York Times of the sprawling United States military hospital system — entirely separate from the scandal-plagued veterans system — has found persistent lapses in patient care that have led to severe injuries and deaths. (New York Times, 6/28/2014)

When the government runs health care. 

Easy Prey

Back Court
The court ruled that the president’s action violated the Constitution and said that the Senate and House have the ultimate power to block such recess appointments by scheduling the mini-sessions when they want to. (New York Times, 6/27/2014)

Former constitutional law professor Barack H. Obama is rebuked by SCOTUS. We do not know how the individual Supreme Court justices opined because in twenty-three paragraphs the New York Times does not say. 

Oh, the decision was unanimous. Ouch!

Apparently the story was not really big news, because the Times puts it fourth....after a story on a Ukrainian trade deal.


Dopes
New York moved last week to join 22 states in legalizing medical marijuana for patients with a diverse array of debilitating ailments, encompassing epilepsy and cancer, Crohn’s disease and Parkinson’s. Yet there is no rigorous scientific evidence that marijuana effectively treats the symptoms of many of the illnesses for which states have authorized its use. (New York Times, 6/27/2014)

The same Liberals who argue that climate change is settled science agitate for medical marijuana......in the absence of scientific studies. If we can't trust them on the latter, why should we trust them on the former?


Shumlin Wants Your Stuff
Overheard at a local marina: Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin sits in the back seat of his hulking black solar-powered SUV. Admiring a particular boat he jokes with its owner saying that the state may have to commandeer the vessel for the day. Funny stuff.... Until one remembers the last time that Shumlin coveted private property. Namely the land of his beleaguered neighbor. Only the light of day was able to expose Shumlin's attempt to swindle his fellow Vermonter. Our advice to the intrepid mariner: Head out of port and don't look back!

Spear in Hand

Shock and Awe
Coulter, “Outnumbered” and the puckish sections of the Free Beacon all function in similar ways. The provocations they put out into the world are not untethered from real thinking and emotions. But they exist primarily to evoke shock and then to deny that those provocations were in earnest. It is an awfully clever sort of trap, one that lures critics into spending time and emotional energy refuting seemingly outrageous propositions before it’s revealed that the only people really engaging in the exchange were the critics themselves. (Alyssa Rosenberg, Washington Post, 6/26/2014)

Although her by-line does not say so, we assume that Rosenberg is a board-certified psychologist given her pronouncements on the ulterior motivations of Ann Coulter and other conservative thinkers. Per Dr. Rosenberg, Coulter and others just want to be provocative and drive up their click counts. Well, after - what is it eight? ten? New York Times best sellers - we doubt Coulter is overly focused on how many people read her weekly column.

And then there is: "...to deny that those provocations were in earnest." One of the truly wonderful things about the lithesome Coulter is that she never backs down from anything she writes or says. Ever. RedStateVT does not call her the toughest conservative out there for no reason. 

The provocations that Dr. Rosenberg attributes to Coulter fall well within the mainstream of conservative thinking. A few examples:

• Abortion is the taking of a life.
• If we don't get control of our borders we will all be speaking Spanish in ten years. 
• Ted Kennedy was a drunk who murdered a woman.
• Bill Clinton is a sex pervert.
• Barack Obama is an incompetent buffoon. 

Again, well within the mainstream and hardly controversial positions. Finally, Coulter just happens to be hysterically funny, all while she is carving up Liberals. In political commentary, only Rachel Maddow comes close. Although, of course, people are laughing at Maddow, not with her. 


Optional
The Obama administration has developed three options for further actions, according to government officials: banning any interactions with some of Russia’s largest banks; cutting off technology transfers to Russian energy and defense firms; and shutting down business with Russian defense companies. (New York Times, 6/25/2014)

A fourth option still under consideration: Obama calls Putin up and expresses his profound disappointment. 


Warmly
About 10,000 years ago, temperatures warmed sharply, by eight to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. By that time, the European ice sheets had melted, but the much thicker North American sheets took much longer. While the climate had warmed to today’s levels, allowing mixed oak woodland to grow and humans to recolonize Britain, the sea level remained some 130 feet lower for another 3,000 years.

When it did rise, it would have been traumatic for the population, wiping out whatever settlement there was, and eventually the forest of Borth. The displaced humans of the time, Dr. Bates said, were prehistoric refugees from climate change. (New York Times, 6/24/2014)

Man-made climate change is settled science. Man-made climate change is settled science. Man-made climate change.....


Over Par
On June 14, Sunni rebels threatened Baghdad after seizing much of Iraq — and President Obama fearlessly played a round at the Sunnylands Golf Course in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

The next day, the militants posted pictures of their mass execution of Shiite members of Iraq’s security forces — and Obama boldly teed off again, at Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s Rancho Mirage estate.

These split-screen scenes were reminiscent of the weekend in March when Russia was about to annex Crimea. Obama played golf both Saturday and Sunday at Key Largo, Fla.’s Ocean Reef resort with former NBA star Alonzo Mourning and former NFL player Ahmad Rashad. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 6/24/2014)

When Liberals revolt!


Already Against the Next War
If you like the unfolding disaster in Obama-abandoned Iraq, you are going to love Obama-abandoned Afghanistan.

Just two weeks before Iraq descended into chaos, President Obama stepped into the Rose Garden to announce his plan to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2016. “It’s time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Obama declared. “Americans have learned that it’s harder to end wars than begin them — but this is how wars end in the 21st century.”

If Iraq is how wars end in the 21st century, we’re in big trouble. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 6/23/2014)

Obama has squandered the blood and treasure of America. He deserves his eventual fate as the president who lost both Iraq and Afghanistan, who re-energized the Islamic jihad and who put American lives at risk.

Obama Gives Up

Quotes Which Require No Further Comment
“I hate that man Obama more than any man I’ve ever met, more than any man who ever lived,” Bill Clinton said to friends on one occasion... (NYPost.com, quoting from "Blood Feud" by Edward Klein, 6/21/2014)

In 2011, the situation in Iraq was so good that the Obama administration was actually trying to take credit for it, with Vice President Joe Biden declaring that Iraq “could be one of the great achievements of this administration.” (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 6/16/2014)


Catch a Wave
This tourist mecca (Waikiki) has had a surge in its homeless population, which is up 32 percent over the past five years. (New York Times, 6/23/2014)

A rare article on homelessness and in Obama's home state to boot! Rare because journalism today does not normally permit such articles to be written when a Democrat is president. As all school children are taught, homelessness is a product of heartless Republican policies meant to disenfranchise the poor. 

Desire for Gain

Seeing Red
Having stripped the Washington Redskins of patent protection could the next target of Obama's out-of-control patent office be....RedStateVT? 

If it happens, RedStateVT will respond exactly as the Redskins have:

Redskins attorney Bob Raskopf said that no thought has been given to changing the professional football team's name in the wake of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's decision Wednesday to revoke six trademarks to the team's name and logo. The USPTO ruled that the team's name disparaged Native Americans and was therefore impermissible under federal trademark law.

"Zero. It's not happening," Raskopf told the Washington Examiner Thursday when asked if there had been any discussion at all on finding an alternate moniker, if only to spare the team from legal and public relations problems related to continuing to fight to retain the name. (Washington Examiner, 6/19/2014)


No Talking
As we have noted, the Liberal defense of the collapse of Iraq under President Obama is that anyone who supported the war cannot pass judgement. So let's use the same argument on Obama. Given the bankruptcy of Solyndra, Obama cannot talk about solar energy. How's that?


Anaerobic
As to the American people now pushing his approval below 40%, Barack Obama entered office with more good will than any president since John F. Kennedy. If the Obama presidency has run out of aerobic capacity 2½ years from the finish line, it is because of Mr. Obama's own decisions. He did this to himself. (Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal, 6/18/2014)

The response Democrats try to use - heck, Obama uses it himself - is that his failures are due to Republican obstructionism. Which, of course, just confirms his ineptitude.


Above Average
All of the 470 senior executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs received annual ratings over the last four years indicating that they were “fully successful” in their jobs or even better, according to data released at a congressional hearing on Friday, despite delays in processing disability compensation claims and problems with veterans’ access to the department’s sprawling health care system. (New York Times, 6/20/2014)

In a statement, Vermont's Senator Bernie Sanders who oversees veterans affairs in the Senate said...... 

Just kidding! Sanders has nothing to say. 


Taxing
Why shouldn't taxpayers be allowed to use the same excuses the IRS, and other elements of our imperial government, deploy when they get in trouble?  Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) aims to make it happen with his "The Dog Ate My Tax Receipts Act."  "Taxpayers should be allowed to offer the same flimsy, obviously made-up excuses the Obama Administration uses," Stockman declared... (Breitbart.com, 6/20/2014)

This is actually pretty funny!


She Was Once a Poor Black Child
Warren also recounted her struggles, painting a vivid picture of life as a harried parent juggling a career by reading from her book about the time she forgot toast in a toaster oven until it caught fire. And when she tossed the flaming slices toward the sink, one hit the curtains.

Warren noted that today, toaster ovens turn off automatically before flames erupt. "Government agencies ensure basic safety of nearly everything offered for sale," she noted, "but in 2007, no government agency stopped the sale of exploding mortgages." (Burlington Free Press, 6/20/2014)

So in Elizabeth Warren's world we have the government to thank for mitigating the national tragedy of toaster fire casualties. 

Maybe she should stick to describing her time on the reservation.

And what is it about rich white women who are running for president always telling us how tough their lives were?

Quick! Who Still Thinks Obama is the Smartest Guy in the Room?

Doubtful
Hillary Clinton, in a sit-down interview with Fox News, suggested Tuesday that she had doubts from the outset about whether the Benghazi terror attack was triggered by a protest over an anti-Islam film -- though her State Department ended up pushing that narrative for days. (Foxnews.com, 6/17/2014)

So Hillary 'Inevitable' Clinton admits that all Republicans were right and all Democrats were wrong. Next thing you know, she will admit that there really never was a 'vast right wing conspiracy.'


Headline News from the New York Times
In Wichita, Koch Influence Is Revered and Reviled
Koch Group Forms ‘Super PAC’ as 2014 Races Near

The Koch Brothers share two of the top three headlines in the U.S. section of the online New York Times today. And just in case you missed it, the same headlines make up two of the top three listings in the Politics section.

Liberals despise the Koch Brothers and we cannot figure out why. The only reasons we can come up with are that they employ thousands of people and give millions of dollars to charity. Employing people and giving out largess are both functions that Liberals believe are the proper functions of government.

For the Times, from now until the mid-terms elections, it is going to be all Koch Brothers all the time with an occasional Sheldon Adelson thrown in.  How else to change the subject from the disaster that awaits Democrats?


Face Time
In the face of this threat, Mr. Obama is busy ushering America's adversaries into positions of power in the Middle East. First it was the Russians in Syria. Now, in a move that defies credulity, he toys with the idea of ushering Iran into Iraq. Only a fool would believe American policy in Iraq should be ceded to Iran, the world's largest state sponsor of terror. (Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney, Wall Street Journal, 6/18/2014)

A lovable, if misguided Liberal blogger friend asks: why would we NOT talk to the Iranians? 

Answer above.

Answer (also) below:

Such is America's strategic disarray in Iraq that the Obama Administration has come up with a new version of an old idea—court Iran as an ally. So in order to defeat Sunni extremists who want to form a potentially terrorist state, we are going to get in bed with a terrorist-sponsoring Shiite regime that wants to dominate the Middle East....This outreach to Iran smacks mostly of strategic desperation. It is what an Administration does when it realizes its policy has failed and the damage to U.S. interests is becoming too obvious to hide from the American public. (Wall Street Journal, 6/18/2014)


Equivalent
In the current cacophony of Washington, we must remember that there is no equivalence to be drawn between Bush’s 2003 decision to invade Iraq and Obama’s 2011 decision to withdraw U.S. troops. Bush’s invasion, after all, was not just a mistake. At best a fool’s errand, at worst a criminal act, this great blunder helped set the stage for Iraq’s chaos today. The increased sectarian violence stems not from the 2011 withdrawal; rather, it is the fruit of the 2003 invasion, subsequent occupation and much-vaunted “surge” of 2007–08. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 6/16/2014)

Katrina 'Always Wrong, Never in Doubt' vanden Heuvel says that no one who was in favor of the Iraq War is allowed to comment on what is happening now in Iraq. Well, that eliminates Hillary Clinton and a lot of other Democrats. Further, in order to preserve her fantasy that everything Bush did was wrong and everything Obama did is right, she gives us this whopper: the current situation is a result of the 2003 invasion. If we recall correctly, the results of such invasion were Saddam Hussein being toppled, Baghdad being secured and democratic elections being held. All of which dates to ten or eleven years ago. Now - a mere three years after President Feckless cut and ran, squandering all gains, sectarian violence breaks out and Baghdad is threatened. But it's Bush's fault!  Which is what you would think if you were completely deranged. 


Stuck
Marijuana can be ingested in a tincture, capsule and vaporized form. But the issue of smoking, which advocates for the drug’s medical benefits say is often the most efficacious and controllable method of use, has become a major sticking point.

“Smoking needs to be an option for people,” said State Senator Diane J. Savino, a Democrat representing parts of Staten Island and the bill’s sponsor in that chamber. “And we’re going to hold to that.” (New York Times, 6/18/2014)

Liberals sued tobacco manufacturers for billions because people inhaled. Inhaling dope is perfectly fine to Liberals, however. In fact, it is preferable.

There Shall Be No Accountability

Methodology
Mr. Obama's method is to ignore a crisis for as long as possible, give a speech, impose a sanction, and switch the subject to climate change or income inequality. (Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, 6/16/2014)

To sum up: As the Arab world blows up, President Obama plays golf and complains about the weather. (Allysia Finley, Wall Street Journal, 6/16/2014)

De - vas - tat - ing.


Ineligible Receivers
The Obama administration is contacting hundreds of thousands of people with subsidized health insurance to resolve questions about their eligibility, as consumer advocates express concern that many will be required to repay some or all of the subsidies....More than eight out of 10 people who selected health plans through the exchanges from October through mid-April were eligible for subsidies, including income tax credits....So far this year the federal government has paid out $4.7 billion in subsidies, and the amount is expected to total $900 billion over 10 years.  (New York Times, 6/15/2014)

1) So, if you like your subsidy you can't keep your subsidy. Another Obama lie!

2) Eight out of ten people get Obamacare freebies (actually "more than eight out of ten!") What a wonderful government program! Why not ten out of ten?

3) $900 billion. Speaks for itself.


Profiles in Political Courage
“So do you personally believe that the U.S. should go ahead with the pipeline?” Clinton’s interviewer asked.

“I can’t respond,” she replied. (Hotair.com, 6/16/2014)

Can't or won't?

After being wrong in the eyes of Liberals on the Iraq War and Gay Marriage, Hillary 'Inevitable' Clinton is playing it cautious. Or maybe she is gutless. Our next president. 


Backed Up
The I.R.S. told congressional investigators on Friday that two years’ worth of emails sent and received by Lois Lerner, the former official at the center of the inquiry, had been destroyed because of a computer crash in mid-2011. The committees are examining whether the lost emails involved obstruction or a violation of the Federal Records Act, aides to the committees said....The I.R.S. said that because of financial and computing constraints, some emails had been stored only on individuals’ computers and not on servers, and that “backup tapes” from 2011 “no longer exist because they have been recycled.” (New York Times, 6/17/2014)

No back-up?

The IRS requires that you keep your tax returns for....well, forever. But they can't keep their own files for three years?

Obama Announces Plan to Use Social Media to Fight Iraqi Rebels

Degrees
Commencement speakers made news this year mostly by their absence. Protesters on the left assailed speakers who had been invited by colleges and universities, and in some cases, they got their wish, driving away the intended guests. (New York Times, 6/15/2014)

"Protesters on the left" who drove away speakers with whom they disagreed were only doing what their professors had been teaching them to do for the previous four years. No one should be surprised. 


Habla Ingles?
Judge David Segura of Santa Fe County Magistrate Court called his first housing case of the day, a disagreement between Gabriela Herrera and her landlord over a rental payment. In Spanish, Ms. Herrera — born in California, raised in Mexico and a resident of this city for six years — recounted her side of the story, fixing her eyes on the judge, whose eyes, in turn, kept shifting to the interpreter translating her words into English in a booming baritone.

It was a typical interaction in the adobe courthouse here, where a rotating cast of interpreters bridges the language divide in housing disputes, traffic infractions, drunken driving hearings and a host of other matters. It is also such a costly enterprise that for five of the past six fiscal years, the courts in this state — where roughly one in three residents speaks a language other than English at home — have run out of money to pay not just the interpreters, but also jurors and expert witnesses, whose compensation comes from the same fund. (New York Times, 6/15/2014)

Let's brainstorm solutions. How about this one? Require Americans to speak English. 


Checked Out
Even as Iraq is falling to renewed attacks by radical Islamists, pro-Russian forces escalate the killing of Ukrainian soldiers, and as thousands of illegal immigrants are surging across our borders causing misery and a national health crisis, President Obama has decided to take an extended weekend vacation, perhaps to get in a little golf.
The president and his family have jetted off to the desert oasis of Rancho Mirage, California, for an extended Father's Day vacation. As the Los Angeles local CBS affiliate noted, Obama's staff has helpfully "scoped out some golf courses and gave a list to Obama just in case he wants to spend Father’s Day on the links." (Breitbart.com, 6/14/2014)

Exactly as predicted by RedStateVT.

Three Questions for Vermont's Colonel Bernie Sanders on the VA Scandal

Colonel Sanders:
You are the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. You were quoted as saying that Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki had your support. Then he resigned. Does Shinseki still have your support?

Asked about stories of mismanagement and fraud at VA hospitals, you were quoted as saying "people die." Please explain.

The VA has been described as being a model for the type of single payer government run health care program that you support. How is that working out for you?


Collapsed
President Obama said on Friday that he would make a decision “in the days ahead” about whether to use American military power to help the besieged Iraqi government stave off collapse at the hands of Islamist insurgents, but he ruled out using ground forces. (New York Times, 6/13/2014)

"In the days ahead" is Obama-speak for "after my weekend golf games."

"Ruling out using ground troops" is Obama's way of telling the terrorists that they have nothing to fear. 


Stun Gun
The stunning collapse of Iraq’s army in a string of cities across the north reflects poor leadership, declining troop morale, broken equipment and a sharp decline in training since the last American advisers left the country in 2011, American military and intelligence officials said Thursday. (New York Times, 6/13/2014)

Who lost Iraq? 

Barack Obama lost Iraq.


Stroked
In an interview with the BBC on Thursday, Hillary Clinton spun her Russian “Reset” policy as a “brilliant stroke.”

“You famously pressed the reset button. Are you embarrassed by that now, that gesture?” a BBC host asked Clinton.

“No I think it was a brilliant stroke which in retrospect it appears even more so, because look at what we accomplished. (freebeacon.com, 6/13/2014)

In other words, in Hillary's world, what looks to the average observer as complete and utter failure is actually pure genius. Apparently 'Hill the Inevitable' views Putin's seizure of Crimea as a coup for American foreign policy interests. How can we have an intelligent debate in this country when one side is delusional?

The Riven Heart

The Waiting
More than 57,000 patients have been waiting more than three months for medical appointments at hospitals and clinics run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and nearly 64,000 others have been enrolled in the system for a decade but have still not been seen by doctors despite their requests, according to a nationwide audit released Monday....The audit also found that 13 percent of patient schedulers said that they had been instructed by “supervisors or others” to enter false information related to how long veterans had to wait for appointments. (New York Times, 6/10/2014)

What happens when you put Vermont's Colonel Bernie Sanders in charge of oversight.


Unfocused
Instead of focusing on making it harder for the mentally ill to get guns, maybe we should be making it harder to get guns, period. Something to consider before the next mass shooting. (Joe Nocera, New York Times, 6/2/2014)

And all those millions of guns already out there?

No, let's stick with the first option and keep the mentally ill from getting guns.


The Past
Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday there was “sexism” in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign that she and the president needed to get past. “Beginning the process of working with then-Senator Obama after I ended my campaign, we had an awkward but necessary meeting to clear the air on a couple of issues, and one of them was the sexism that - unfortunately - was present in that ‘08 campaign,” Clinton told Robin Roberts on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” (Politico.com, 6/10/2014)

Here we thought it was Republicans who were waging the "War on Women." Hillary "Inevitable" Clinton reveals for the first time that it was, in fact, Barack Obama who was the culprit. Shouldn't this be front page news?


Bemoaned
During her interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer Monday evening, Clinton bemoaned the financial hardships she and Bill Clinton faced post-presidency. “We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt. We had no money when we got there and we struggled to piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for Chelsea’s education. You know, it was not easy,” she told Sawyer. (Freebeacon.com, 6/10/2014)

And now we finally learn the true story of why the Clintons tried to steal the White House china as they departed Washington after Bill's second term. 


Quote of the Day
When conservatives say we should rescue our POWs, they mean, “Leave a trail of dead enemies in your wake as you snatch our guy from the enemy’s clutches.” (Sonny Bunch, Freebeacon.com, 6/10/2014)

Catching Up with the Taliban 5

A RedStateVT Exclusive
RedStateVT recently caught up with the Taliban 5, celebrating their release from Gitmo at the Jihadi Disco in Qatr. The group, known informally now as the T-5, were relaxing after a night of bogeying with the locals. What did you like least about Gitmo, we asked? The food, Mohammed said immediately. The other four jihadists, also named Mohammed, all nodded in agreement. 

How much goat can you eat they asked rhetorically. 

So what was the first meal you had once you were back on sacred ground we wondered. In unison, the Mohammeds shouted out: KFC!!!

How soon do you think you will be back fighting the infidels?

Mohammed said: "Well today is our eighth free day, so 365 minus eight is 357. Call it 357 days, Allah willing."

We asked, what do you think Obama should do in the Middle East? Exactly, what he has been doing, said the T-5.


Raggedy Andy
The platoon was, an American military official would assert years later, “raggedy.”

On their tiny, remote base, in a restive sector of eastern Afghanistan at an increasingly violent time of the war, they were known to wear bandannas and cutoff T-shirts. Their crude observation post was inadequately secured, a military review later found. Their first platoon leader, and then their first platoon sergeant, were replaced relatively early in the deployment because of problems. (New York Times, 6/8/2014)

Rising in defense of Obama's release of five "aging" or "hardened" Taliban (the paper cannot decide which), the Times decides to "swift-boat" Bowe Bergdahl's platoon. Their crime? They wore "bandannas and cutoff T-shirts." 

Oh the humanity....

In another apparent breach of military discipline the platoon also apparently "might have made it too easy for him to walk away.." Wait, isn't that desertion?


Hardly
In an apparent cost-savings move, the New York Times asks the Hillary "Inevitable" Clinton 2016 presidential campaign staff to review her book "Hard Choices." 

It's kinda like grading your own paper. 

Here is what they had to say: 

--The book itself, however, turns out to be a subtle, finely calibrated work that provides a portrait of the former secretary of state and former first lady as a heavy-duty policy wonk.

-- “Hard Choices” is a statesmanlike document intended to attest to Mrs. Clinton’s wide-ranging experience on national security and on foreign policy. 

--Mrs. Clinton displays a pragmatic, case-by-case modus operandi. 

--Mrs. Clinton’s main legacy lies in reorienting American foreign policy in a globalized, tech-savvy 21st century, and in helping restore the country’s image abroad in the wake of the Iraq war and the unilateralism of President George W. Bush’s administration.

--One of the few things this book shares with “Living History” is its emphasis on Mrs. Clinton as someone capable of growth and change

--Mrs. Clinton has always been a conscientious A-student

--she provides the lay reader — and potential voter — with succinct and often shrewd appraisals of the complex web of political, economic and historical forces in play around the world

This is the kind of hard-hitting analysis loyal readers have come to expect from that bastion of journalistic integrity, the New York Times. 

Next up from the Times, another cost-savings move wherein they have the Hillary "Inevitable" Clinton 2016 presidential campaign staff review Ann Coulter's latest book. 

Soft Disorder

Accidents Will Happen
In 2008, Mr. Obama accidentally thanked Sioux City, a town in Iowa. The only problem: He was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He also said he had visited 57 states. (New York Times, 6/6/2014)

Six years later, the New York Times reports Obama's gaffes.


Signs
In recent months, the labor participation rate has been hovering at lows not seen since the late 1970s, a sign that increasing numbers of Americans have given up the search for jobs and dropped out of the work force entirely. (New York Times, 6/7/2014)

Is it the Obama Economy...yet?


Promotion
The events will allow Mrs. Clinton to promote her memoir “Hard Choices,” about her time at the State Department, and to lay the groundwork for a possible 2016 presidential campaign. But her packed schedule serves another important function: It projects to the news media, political rivals and voters that she has the energy and stamina required of a presidential candidate. (New York Times, 6/6/2014)

The Times removes health issues as a concern for "inevitable" 2016 Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Next article: Ted Cruz - What Dark Secret is He Hiding?


Forced Error
The Rose Garden stunt wasn’t a messaging failure. It’s a category error. The president seems oblivious to the gravity, indeed the very nature, of what he has just done. Which is why a stunned and troubled people are asking themselves what kind of man they have twice chosen to lead them. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 6/5/2014)

No one dissects Obama better than Krauthammer.


Whiskey
The five hardened Taliban militants were quickly whisked in a fleet of cars to the shoulder of a highway on the outskirts of the capital just as they arrived. There, out of the public eye and under the watchful gaze of Qatari security, they exchanged warm hugs with a welcome delegation and then once more were whisked off into hiding. (New York Times, 6/7/2014)

Under mounting public pressure, the New York Times recategorizes the Taliban Five. Why just a day or two ago the Times called them "aging." Today they are "hardened."

Continuing Outreach Obama to Challenge Five Released Taliban to Pick-Up Hoop Game

Who Said It?
All along, Obama’s weakness has been the lack of a worldview. Problems are approached individually — unconnected to anything else — and often left to languish. We pivot to Asia . . . in a speech. We applaud the Arab Spring and promise hugs and kisses . . . in a speech. We call recent developments in Ukraine a success for U.S. policy, but Russia’s seizure of Crimea stands. Sure, this was not Obama’s fault, but it is not his success, either — and certainly not something to boast about.

What can be done? Although Obama is by nature a prudent man, there’s always the chance that he will overreact, attempt to show he is strong by doing something a tad reckless. In the meantime, no more speeches. They no longer work because they are no longer believed. They are coming attractions for a movie that never opens and merely reminds us all — the world’s bad guys most of all — of the president’s intellectually chaotic and bumbling foreign policy. Fix the policy, then give the speech. (Washington Post, 6/2/2014)

Was it: 
1) Charles Krauthammer
2) Ann Coulter
3) George Will
4) Liberal Washington Post Op-ed Writer Richard Cohen

If you guessed 4) you are today's winner!


Old and in the Way
Issues that had bitterly divided the Obama administration — about the wisdom of the prisoner swap and the risks of releasing a group of aging Taliban commanders from Guantánamo Bay — were swept aside in the rush to secure Sergeant Bergdahl’s release. (New York Times, 6/5/2014)

This is how the New York Times shills for the Obama administration. Those five terrorists that Obama released? They are "aging." In all likelihood they just want to go home and play dominoes. Call us skeptical, but we're guessing they still have some of the old jihad in their bones.

Sources Say Clinton to Pick Rev. Al Sharpton as 2016 Running Mate

A RedStateVT Exclusive
A well-place Democrat strategist speaking under deep cover and wearing one of those Groucho Marx eyeglasses with the fake eyebrows and mustache has revealed that inevitable Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is set to name Rev. Al Sharpton as her 2016 running mate. The strategist - we'll call him Elmo - explained the move: 

First, it was crucial to lock up Sharpton before other potential candidates such as Colonel Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Lying Bear Warren went after the (formerly rotund) Rev. "Clinton simply could not risk the optics of a Warren - Sharpton pairing," said Elmo. "A Native American woman paired with an African American man (and a preacher to boot!) would be tough to beat." In addition, Elmo said, the Clinton move made sense because with Obama and AG Eric Holder no longer in the picture in 2016, Democrats would need someone to gin up racial animosity, a key plank of the party. "Is there a single person in the country who has done more to fan the flames of racial unrest?" 

Elmo would not say if Sharpton would revive his 1970s track suit style. "It would make a lot of sense", Elmo said, "the look reminds many disaffected voters of the racial grievances of the past."


Struggling with Confusion
Sometime after midnight on June 30, 2009, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl left behind a note in his tent saying he had become disillusioned with the Army, did not support the American mission in Afghanistan and was leaving to start a new life. He slipped off the remote military outpost in Paktika Province on the border with Pakistan and took with him a soft backpack, water, knives, a notebook and writing materials, but left behind his body armor and weapons — startling, given the hostile environment around his outpost. (New York Times, 6/3/2014)

Oh yeah, this is going just swimmingly for Obama. Does he ever touch anything that doesn't end up in a tangled mess?


Back to the Action
The president said the five Taliban figures sent to Qatar in return for Sergeant Bergdahl would be monitored. (New York Times, 6/3/2014)

Huge sigh of relief here. At first we were unsure of whether or not the released terrorists were going to be "monitored."


No Time
It took little time for Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democrat who is challenging Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican minority leader, in the most high-profile Senate race this year, to distance herself from the Obama administration’s proposal for sharp cuts to emissions from power plants. (New York Times, 6/3/2014)

California Governor Jerry Brown is a gun owner, Senate majority leader Harry Reid is pro-life, and Kentucky's Grimes is pro-coal. 

Democrats all. 

When IS the Times going to write that article about disarray in the Democrat party?

Obama: The Musical

Quipped Out
“Poland is the most pro-American country in the world — including the United States,” goes a quip, well known here, from an American foreign policy expert more than a decade ago.

“Yes,” Marcin Zaborowski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs, said a little ruefully last week. “We had long periods like that. But not so much now.”

Poland is still a warm haven of pro-American sentiments, as President Obama will no doubt feel when he revisits Warsaw on Tuesday. But after more than a decade that has seen Poland shifting from a Washington-centric focus to an increasingly vigorous engagement in the European Union, the intensity of that love affair has diminished. (New York Times, 6/2/2014)

The New York Times writes a twenty-six paragraph article about a slight cooling of pro-American feelings in Poland. The Times describes Poland as making a pivot toward the EU. What the Times does not examine - not a single word - is whether Obama's actions have anything to do with this change. 

What actions you ask?

Well, how about when he shelved a missile defense treaty with the Poles because he was more interested in cozying up to his pal Vladimir Putin? (How did that work out?) Oh, and he managed to do that on a September 1st further alienating Poles. The significance of September 1 - as any American president except Obama knows - is that on that date back in 1939 Hitler invaded Poland. And to add to the insult, several years later Obama referred to Nazi concentration camps in Poland as "Polish" death camps. One suspects that Poles have not forgotten these slights.

We are pleased to do the reporting and analysis that the New York Times refuses to do.


Withdrawn
Before long, he withdrew from class work into World of Warcraft, the online interactive video game that had become his obsession. (New York Times, 6/2/2014)

Elliot O. Rodger.

Mental illness.

Video games.

Again.

Liberals are not particularly interested because Rodger did not use an AR-15.


Discretion
PBS reporter Christi Parsons asked the president during today’s V.A. press conference why he rejected former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s resignation following the healthcare.gov debacle but accepted Shinseki’s.

Obama argued the problems with healthcare.gov were more discreet than the problems at the V.A. (Freebeacon.com, 5/30/2014)

Which means what exactly?