A RedStateVT Editorial
The initial promise of the Bernie Sanders No Deodorant Presidential Campaign is beginning to fade. The Bern has failed to deliver any new bon mots lately and, frankly, we are getting bored of hearing about how the "billionaires and millionaires" are ruining everything. And then the Colonel heads to Martha's Vineyard to party. How very unprogressive. Sure Hillary is stepping up to the plate. We just loved it when she said of her self-inflicted e-mail scandal: "The facts are clear." That is good stuff. As for the other Dems....zip, zero, zilch. O'Malley and Chaffee have given us nothing. (There might be one other Dem running but we cannot remember his name. What does that tell you?) It is time for Joe Biden, serial groper and human gaffe machine to enter the race. We need him now!
Castaway
Therefore, Mrs. Clinton cast questions about her emails as little more than an interagency squabble over which emails should be made public under freedom of information laws. “What I think you’re seeing here is a very typical kind of discussion, to some extent disagreement, among various parts of the government over what should or should not be publicly released,” she said. The debate among government agencies “has nothing to do with me,” Mrs. Clinton added. “They can fight over it or argue over it. That’s up to them.” (Wall Street Journal, 7/26/2015)
So Hill sets up her own server, sends classified e-mails from it, then deletes the e-mails and the fuss is all just a bureaucratic squabble. As Peggy Noonan famously says: "the Clintons are insulated from charges of corruption by their reputation for corruption."
Commuter-in-Chief
President Obama announced on Monday that he was commuting the sentences of 46 federal drug offenders, more than doubling the number of nonviolent criminals to whom he has granted clemency since taking office. (New York Times, 7/13/2015)
Once again President Obama focuses with laser-like precision on the issues that a majority of Americans deem MOST important. Who among us has not said: "Gee, I wish the president would let more criminals out of jail?"
End Game
After years of debate about whether the government should encourage end-of-life planning – an idea that Sarah Palin claimed would lead to “death panels” cutting off care to the sick – Medicare, the federal program that insures 55 million older and disabled Americans, is now proposing to reimburse doctors for having conversations with patients about whether and how they would want to be kept alive if they become too sick to speak for themselves. (New York Times, 7/8/2015)
Obsessed with Sarah Palin as they are, Liberals constantly belittle and misrepresent her. It makes them feel intellectually superior. It turns out, of course, that Palin is right. Through Obamacare, Medicare seeks to reduce reimbursement rates for doctors treating the elderly infirmed and now will instead pay them to talk grandma into ending it all. Sarah Palin will now accept your apologies.
Revved Up
But with the presidential campaign revving up, Democrats and abortion rights supporters are bracing for a sustained, sophisticated and coordinated effort to force a debate on the uncomfortable moral and ethical questions that abortion raises. (New York Times, 7/27/2015)
The New York Times admits that abortion raises "uncomfortable moral and ethical questions?" How did this slip past their editors? We thought abortion was a women's health issue.
Insecurities
Government investigators said Friday that they had discovered classified information on the private email account that Hillary Rodham Clinton used while secretary of state, stating unequivocally that those secrets never should have been stored outside of secure government computer systems. (New York Times, 7/25/2015)
No the lead story is not about a presidential candidate who broke the law. That presidential candidate is a Democrat and so the story appears buried underneath a headline in 6 point font. Lead stories about controversial things that Donald Trump says get the really big headlines.
Unclear
Campaigning in Iowa on Saturday, she was asked about the email issue. “I think there’s so much confusion around this that I understand why reporters and the public are asking questions, but the facts are pretty clear,” she told reporters, according to The Associated Press. “I did not send nor receive anything that was classified at the time.” But the two inspectors general said on Friday that the information they found was classified when it was sent and remains so. (New York Times, 7/26/2015)
So another lie.
Crier
President Obama has said repeatedly that each mass shooting cries out for stricter controls to keep mentally ill people and criminals from obtaining guns, but the issue has not resonated on the campaign trail. (New York Times, 7/25/2015)
Another idea...stop calling the mentally ill "differently-abled" and start locking them in insane asylums like we used to do.
Weighty
The New York Times weighed in on the Planned Parenthood sting videos Wednesday with an editorial that reads like a press release for America’s largest abortion provider. Like a press release, the Times‘ editorial conveniently omits any evidence which might tend to undercut its claims. (Breitbart.com, 7/23/2015)
The folks at Breitbart channel their inner RedStateVT!
Headline of the Day
Sound familiar? Democrats blame people who made a video for horrific acts of others (Michellemalkin.com, 7/23/2015)
Prideful
Russia may be an authoritarian state, but it does have nuclear weapons and a deep national pride. We have every reason, as Stephen F. Cohen has argued, to seek a new detente with Russia. (Disclosure: Cohen is this columnist’s husband.) (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 7/21/2015)
We haven't heard from Kat in a while, but the wait has been worth it. She always delivers the yucks. Here she and her hubby cook up this gem: Putin invades a sovereign country and we should......seek a new detente!
Survey Says
A new New York Times/CBS News poll reveals that nearly six in 10 Americans, including heavy majorities of both whites and blacks, think race relations are generally bad and that nearly four in 10 think the situation is getting worse. By comparison, two-thirds of Americans surveyed shortly after President Obama took office said they believed that race relations were generally good. (New York Times, 7/23/2015)
And so there can be one conclusion and one conclusion only. It is all Obama's fault. (They will try to blame George Bush, but that one would be hard to sell even for Liberals.)
Sordid
A hidden-camera video released last week purported to show that Planned Parenthood illegally sells tissue from aborted fetuses. It shows nothing of the sort. But it is the latest in a series of unrelenting attacks on Planned Parenthood, which offers health care services to millions of people every year. The politicians howling to defund Planned Parenthood care nothing about the truth here, being perfectly willing to undermine women’s reproductive rights any way they can. (New York Times editorial, 7/22/2015)
Abortion holds a special place in the Liberal canon and so it must be protected at all costs, including with lies, deception and omissions. It is a "choice," a matter of "privacy," and even a critical component of "women's health." When the ugly truths about abortion crop up such as Dr. Kermit Gosnell's abortion house of horrors, these are largely ignored. Here the New York Times editors purposefully ignore the Planned Parenthood rep talking about altering the abortion procedure to preserve more fetal body parts. Oh, and also the part where she says: "I want a Lamborghini." It is similarly ignored in a 'news' article that the Times runs today on the story.
Guess they thought those comments were not relevant. The New York Times is a dishonest enterprise.
Loser
After two presidential victories, Mr. Obama presides over a Democratic Party that has lost 13 seats in the U.S. Senate and 69 in the House during his tenure, a net loss unmatched by any modern U.S. president.
Democrats have also lost 11 governorships, four state attorneys general, 910 legislative seats, as well as the majorities in 30 state legislative chambers. In 23 states, Republicans control the governor’s office and the legislature; Democrats, only seven. (Wall Street Journal, 7/20/2015)
What a nice reminder!
Hamburger Hell
A panel appointed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is scheduled to meet in Lower Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon to recommend that the minimum wage be raised for employees of fast-food chain restaurants throughout the state. The three-man panel has indicated that it favored increasing the wage, in stages, to $15 an hour — the amount the protesters have been demanding. (New York Times, 7/22/2015)
The college students who work at McDonalds are elated.
The college students who buy Big Macs are dejected.
Meanwhile, fast-food restaurants ramp up automation efforts.
Fakers
The vast majority of patients who seek a doctor’s authorization for pot do not have cancer, glaucoma or other serious illnesses. In Oregon, “severe pain” is reported as a condition requiring treatment in 93 percent of patients, while fewer than 6 percent had cancer. Most people are getting prescriptions for conditions where cannabis is not clearly effective, and for symptoms that are very subjective and potentially faked. (Aaron E. Carroll, New York Times, 7/20/2015)
Not to worry, stoners, Liberals have already declared the case for "medical" marijuana to be "settled science."
Dumb and Dumber
Among the dumbest (regulations) were Washington’s affordable-housing mandates, beginning in 1977, that led to a loosening of underwriting standards and put people into homes they couldn’t afford. The Federal Reserve played its part in the 2008 financial crisis by keeping interest rates too low for too long, inflating the housing bubble. Washington not only failed to prevent the crisis, it led us into it. (Wall Street Journal, 7/20/2015)
We have, on several occasions, talked to Liberal friends about the financial crisis and specifically the role that meddling politicians like Barney Frank had in the meltdown. We've pointed to YouTube videos where Frank urges Fannie/Freddie to "roll the dice." Getting their talking points from Rachel Maddow, Liberals say these things were minor and the real problem was Wall Street and the hedge fund managers.
By the way, we have no love for either Wall Street or hedge-funders (like Hillary Clinton's son-in-law) who give inordinate contributions to Democrats. One cannot deny, however, the guilt of Democrat politicians. Including some you may have heard of:
The Clintons’ mortgage policy saga began two decades ago during the booming early Internet era, when concern grew in Washington that minorities and the working poor weren’t reaping the benefits of an improving economy, especially in the housing market.
In a bid to create affordable housing for minorities and low-income residents, Mr. Clinton in 1995 ordered new bank regulations to encourage lending in poor neighborhoods. The Community Reinvestment Act gave banks higher ratings if they lent more in credit-deprived localities. (Washingtontimes.com, 7/20/2015)
Speaking of Bill and Hillary, our next presidents:
The Clintons reported pre-tax earnings of more than $30 million over the past year by giving speeches to Wall Street banks and other major corporations. This is consistent with the modern Democratic view that individuals/corporation are entitled to obscene wealth so long as they believe the right things. (Andrew Stiles, freebeacon.com, 7/20/2015)
The Slippery Slope
With same-sex marriage on the books, we can now ask whether polyamorous relationships should be next. There is a very good argument that they should. (William Baude, New York Times, 7/21/2015)
And so it begins. Or is it continues?
Kick out the foundations of civilization and civilization crumbles.
Dealer
“You have a large country, with a significant military, that has proclaimed that Israel shouldn’t exist, that has denied the Holocaust, that has financed Hezbollah,” Mr. Obama said, speaking of Iran. “There are very good reasons why Israelis are nervous about Iran’s position in the world, generally.” (New York Times, 7/16/2015)
And then Obama said to himself: 'But I am doing the deal anyway.'
Dealt
With a better deal impossible, Mr. Obama said that the only viable alternative to the negotiated settlement his administration had presented was war. And he challenged critics of the deal to acknowledge that what they really wanted was a military solution. (New York Times, 7/16/2015)
This is Obama's most gratuitous argument. It has been effectively rebutted numerous times and yet he still uses it. The alternative is not war with Iran. The alternative - the status quo - is that sanctions remain in place and Iran is eventually suffocated. The mullahs relent or they are overthrown.
Ill Repute
Valerie Jarett, reputed to be Obama’s closest adviser, remembers Shiraz, the Iranian cultural capital and the Florence of the East, where she was born and grew up....Secretary of State John Kerry admires Iran because he knows it through his Iranian son-in-law, who hails from a pre-revolution middle-class family. (NYPost.com, 7/19/2015)
So does this explain why the Obama administration did the deal?
Focused
“I’m not a liberal. Never have been. I’m a progressive who mostly focuses on the working and middle class.” (Bernie Sanders, quoted by Nate Cohn, New York Times, 7/13/2015)
We are guessing that Liberals and Progressives agree on raising taxes, cutting military spending, immigration policy, gay marriage, abortion, legalizing marijuana, climate change, voter ID (or lack thereof), campaign finance, etc. What don't they agree on? In fact, you could not shine a photon between the two. They are one and the same.
The Gambler
Mr. Obama will be long out of office before any reasonable assessment can be made as to whether that roll of the dice paid off. The best guess today, even among the most passionate supporters of the president’s Iran project, is that the judgment will be mixed. Nothing in the deal announced Tuesday eliminates Iran’s ability to eventually become a nuclear threshold power — it just delays the day. To Mr. Obama’s many critics, including Henry A. Kissinger, the architect of the China opening, that is a fatal flaw. It does nothing, Mr. Kissinger wrote recently with another former secretary of state, George P. Shultz, to change “three and a half decades of militant hostility to the West.” (New York Times, 7/15/2015)
So the question is, if it all goes south, will the New York Times write the story ten or fifteen years from now about how Obama's deal with Iran led to a Middle East nuclear arms race?
And then there is this:
Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, made a brief statement, saying that the Iranian people’s “prayers have come true.” (New York Times, 7/14/2015)
Yes, sadly for the world it's true.
Harms Way
The Pentagon is moving to allow transgender people to serve openly in the military by early next year and end an “outdated” regulation that harms the armed forces, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said on Monday. (New York Times, 7/15/2015)
Quick show of hands. How many out there feel more secure knowing that America is protected by transgenders? We thought so. The military long ago caved in to the political correctness of Liberal politicians.
Relationships
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s relations with the political news media had been tense long before she declared her candidacy in April, and her campaign’s efforts to try and improve those relations have backfired at times. (New York Times, 7/11/2015)
Such efforts to try and improve those relations which include - literally - roping off the press. Funny that the New York Times does not mention that.
From the same article, Big Dog Bill tells us who is really too blame for bad relations between politicians and the press:
"...Mr. Clinton ultimately put the blame squarely on the political press."
And the fawning lapdog Liberal Media responds: "Hit us again, sir, harder!"
Honesty
This summer insurers must submit rates to state regulators for approval on the ObamaCare exchanges in 2016—and even liberals are shocked at the double-digit requests, or at least the honest liberals are. Under ObamaCare, year-over-year premium increases above 10% must also be justified to the Health and Human Services Department, and its data base lists about 650 such cases so far. (Wall Street Journal, 7/11/2015)
It's working! Obamacare is working!
Nuked
While U.S. and Iranian negotiators gave themselves more time Friday to reach a nuclear deal that could improve the countries’ ties, crowds of Iranians here chanted “Death to America,” just as they have for 36 years. (latimes.com, 7/11/2015)
Coming soon, a nuclear deal with Obama's BFFs: the Iranian mullahs!
Do Black Lives Still Matter?
Now the surge in violent crime — as of Wednesday there had been 155 homicides in Baltimore this year, up from 105 in the same period last year — has made the mayor’s balancing act even trickier: Can she rein in a Police Department with a long history of aggressive, sometimes abusive behavior and at the same time bring crime under control? ... Homicides are higher than a year ago in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, St. Louis and other cities. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti recently announced a 12 percent increase in overall crime, though killings were down slightly. (New York Times, 7/12/2015)
Of course black lives matter. But Liberals are pathologically focused on the occasional death of a black man in police custody - yes, tragic - under ambiguous circumstances. Meanwhile hundreds more are being killed.
Mr. Sanders Goes to the Vineyard
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has risen in the polls thanks in part to his denunciations of the forces of concentrated wealth, drawing thousands of liberals to hear his jeremiads against corporate power in early nominating states and liberal hubs such as Madison, Wis.
But Mr. Sanders quietly stepped off the campaign trail this weekend to visit Martha’s Vineyard, a favorite summer destination of the country’s elite, in order to mix with representatives of some of the same interests he inveighs against in his stump speech. (New York Times, 7/12/2015)
Speaks for itself....
Crossed Up
Her Political Majesty finally agreed to give her first national campaign interview Tuesday to CNN, though she still hasn’t crossed the threshold of being interesting. The Clinton campaign is a joyless entourage that behaves as if it’s entitled to the White House in return for her family’s privileged life in government. (Wall Street Journal, 7/8/2015)
Our sources say that this is the last interview that Hillary will give until she is elected.
Trumpster
Republican Party leaders agonize over the prospect that Donald Trump will mount a third-party candidacy that could undermine their nominee. They fear insulting the white working-class voters who admire him. They are loath to tangle with a threat-flinging firebrand for whom there are no rules of engagement. (New York Times, 7/10/2015)
Donald Trump's sin? He spoke out against illegal immigration. Key word: illegal.
Nothing demonstrates more clearly the state of America today....
(And, by the way, Democrat Party leaders have no such similar worries about the effect of Colonel Bernie Sanders.)
Here's Peggy Noonan on the same topic:
...illegal immigration is a calamity. It is an admission by a nation that it has lost control not only of its borders but of itself. It is no longer functioning as a sovereign nation; it has lost its self-protectiveness and dignity. (Wall Street Journal, 7/10/2015)
Well stated!
Costly
Cost has long been a major obstacle to women getting birth control, and declines in what they pay for contraceptives have the potential to increase access and reduce unplanned pregnancies. (New York Times, 7/8/2015)
As has been documented many times, birth control pills are available for $10 per month. Condoms cost less than a coffee at Starbucks. But the crack investigative journalists at the New York Times have not yet uncovered these facts. That would get in the way of the pre-packaged conclusion that Obamacare has saved the female sex.
And, by the way, where is Sandra Fluke, America's leading expert on the topic of (free) birth control?
Sandra?
Sandy?
Earthbound
Much of the early campaign was about allowing Mrs. Clinton to exist in a safe political space, bringing one of the world’s most famous political faces back down to earth from her days as secretary of state so that voters could forge a bond with her. But over the weekend, a half-dozen protesters created an unpredictable environment for Mrs. Clinton as she marched in a parade in northern New Hampshire. At the same time, her aides sought to give her a buffer so that voters could see her, separating journalists with a rope, creating a series of viral photos that ricocheted through Twitter. (New York Times, 7/7/2015)
Apparently the most powerful woman in the world is really a battered girl-child who needs safe spaces and a calm environment. How is that going to work out for America and the world when Putin starts threatening Poland?
Clearly
Mr. Obama’s daybook is clear as far as the eye can see, save for a briefing Monday afternoon with military commanders at the Pentagon and a meeting on Tuesday with the head of Vietnam’s Communist Party. (New York Times, 7/7/2015)
We're betting that he'll find the time to squeeze in a quick eighteen holes.
Lowdown
The Obama administration on Tuesday will announce an initiative to help low- and middle-income Americans gain access to solar energy, part of a series of steps President Obama is taking to tackle climate change, according to administration officials. (New York Times, 7/7/2015)
Because what the poor want more than anything else in the world are solar panels. No doubt you hear it all the time. Give us solar panels! How come only the rich get solar panels?
Lawyers in Love
Lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was sentenced to death for his role in the Boston Marathon bombing, filed a preliminary motion Monday for a new trial.
The filing in Federal District Court was a procedural motion, described by the lawyers as merely a “place holder,” but it was a prelude to an appellate process that is expected to drag on for years.
“A new trial is required in the interests of justice,” wrote Mr. Tsarnaev’s lawyers, who include the death penalty expert Judy Clarke. (New York Times, 7/7/2015)
"Drag on..." "Interests of justice..." Where to begin?
With the entrance of Webb, the Democrats are now running four white men for president. In addition to Webb, these include Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley and Hillary Clinton. If Joe Biden revives his presidential comedy tour, the number will grow to five.
Where is the diversity?
Seekers
Health insurance companies around the country are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40 percent or more, saying their new customers under the Affordable Care Act turned out to be sicker than expected. Federal officials say they are determined to see that the requests are scaled back. (New York Times, 7/4/2015)
It's working! Obamacare is working!
Of the 10.2 million people who obtained coverage through federal and state marketplaces this year, 85 percent receive subsidies in the form of tax credits to help pay premiums. (New York Times, 7/4/2015)
And has been reported previously, 79% of the people who are getting their health care paid for by someone else like it!
Obamacare is working!
Mr. Sanders contributed pieces only sporadically. He interviewed a “labor agitator” and an old-time farmer, and he wrote some articles about health, including one in which he cited studies claiming that cancer could be caused by psychological factors such as unresolved hostility toward one’s mother, a tendency to bury aggression beneath a “facade of pleasantness” and having too few orgasms.
“Sexual adjustment seemed to be very poor in those with cancer of the cervix,” he wrote, quoting a study in a journal called Psychosomatic Medicine. (New York Times, 7/3/2015)
As we have said many times about Colonel Sanders: It is best to just let him talk.
Liberals...this is your guy.
Scott Walker’s Hard Right Turn in Iowa May Hurt Him Elsewhere (New York Times headline, 7/2/2015)
By Contrast Hillary Clinton's Hard Left Turn Will Not Hurt Her Anywhere (RedStateVT headline, 7/2/2015)
The Protractor
She engaged in a protracted struggle to get her fax machine to work. (New York Times, 7/2/2015)
If Hillary can't work a fax machine maybe she is not qualified to be president.
Forbidden
ObamaCare putatively forbids IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board) from rationing or restricting care. But to adapt Humpty Dumpty, rationing means what IPAB chooses it to mean. As progressive single-payer champion Howard Dean explained in these pages (“The Affordable Care Act’s Rate-Setting Won’t Work,” July 28, 2013), IPAB will de facto determine which procedures and drugs get covered by setting reimbursement rates. IPAB will be able to restrict treatments by reducing rates to levels at which no doctor could provide care. (Wall Street Journal, 7/2/2015)
Our dear Liberal friends are obsessed with Sarah Palin. Sometimes they can talk of nothing else. In fact, they have engaged in a singular 'War on Woman' against Palin. Notwithstanding being elected the governor of Alaska, our snobbish friends somehow deem her to be not intellectual enough. Palin, of course, was the one who first exposed the Obamacare death panels which absolutely infuriated Liberals.
An outrageous lie they cried!
Then Obamacare guru Ezekiel Emanuel wrote an article about how no one should live beyond age seventy-five and what did we hear? Crickets.
So anyway, here the WSJ makes clear how Obamacare will ration healthcare. In a word: death panels. OK, that's two words. Just like Sarah Palin!
Radio Radio
On several occasions, Mrs. Clinton clearly appeared concerned about possible disconnect with the White House.
“I heard on the radio that there is a Cabinet mtg this am,” she wrote aides on June 8, 2009. “Is there? Can I go? If not, who are we sending?” (It turned out it was not a cabinet meeting but one for lower-level officials.)
Four days later, she emailed aides after showing up for a 10:45 a.m. meeting at the White House only to be told it was canceled. “This is the second time this has happened,” she wrote. “What’s up???” (New York Times, 7/1/2015)
The article is entitled "New Trove of Hillary Clinton’s Emails Highlights Workaday Tasks at the State Department" probably to discourage you from reading anything so mundane.
We read it anyway and found this bombshell! Hillary did not know when Obama was having meetings, including Cabinet meetings! Apparently Obama was keeping her in the dark.
Anyone else think this is just incredible?
Why, given the crickets we are hearing from the Liberal Media we are starting to wonder if they might even be biased.....
Living on a Prayer
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who officially entered the race Tuesday, won’t have to endure the negative impacts of an artist’s disapproval, according to POLITICO, as he got permission from rocker and fellow New Jersey native Jon Bon Jovi to use his music during his upcoming run at the White House.
Christie formally launched his campaign Tuesday from his former high school in Livingston, New Jersey, and played Bon Jovi’s “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.”
That’s okay, according to the New Jersey icon, who told POLITCO through his publicist: “My friendships are apolitical, and yes, I absolutely gave him permission to use my songs.” (Breitbart.com, 7/1/2015)
Adult of the week: Jon Bon Jovi.
To show our appreciation we are going to buy some Bon Jovi songs on iTunes today.
