Obama Bravely Confronts America's Biggest Problem: Cost of Community College

Fueled
Months of investigation by The New York Times, centered on extensive interviews with Libyans in Benghazi who had direct knowledge of the attack there and its context, turned up no evidence that Al Qaeda or other international terrorist groups had any role in the assault. The attack was led, instead, by fighters who had benefited directly from NATO’s extensive air power and logistics support during the uprising against Colonel Qaddafi. And contrary to claims by some members of Congress, it was fueled in large part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam. (New York Times, 1/15/2015)

We knew that The New York Times was heavily invested in Hillary Clinton for president. We just did not realize how much. The Times conducts an "investigation" and concludes that Hillary's hands are clean on Benghazi. Incredibly, absent any other excuse they revert to "the video made them do it." 

A video that no one saw. 

Of course, the Times must neutralize any potential threat to Hill. Henceforth, any time a Republican challenger brings up Benghazi, the Times will be able to refer to their own article as "proof" and accuse the Republican of deceit. This is how journalism works in a Liberal world.


Abstract Thinking
In the abstract, President Obama’s proposal for making community college tuition-free seems a reasonable response to a troublesome fact: The American work force is less educated than it needs to be at a time when most jobs in the new economy will require some college education. But for such an idea to work, states and localities that have been starving community colleges for decades will need to begin holding them to higher standards and commit to sustained financing instead of using the new federal money to dodge their own financial obligations....the preliminary plans released last week call for an estimated $60 billion in new spending over 10 years to help cover tuition and fees for full-time and half-time students who maintain a 2.5 grade point average — about a C-plus — and who make consistent progress toward completion. (New York Times editorial, 1/15/2015)

Catch the logic here! Editors at The Times demand that states need to hold community colleges to higher standards...and give them more money. Students, of course, will not be held to higher standards. A C+ will be just fine! This is accountability in a Liberal world.


Our Favorite Quotes
Two weeks ago, the economist Thomas Sowell posed a question that I can’t get out of my mind: “Has anyone asked the question, ‘How could so many people across the country spend so much time at night marching, rioting and looting, if they had to get up and go to work the next morning?’ ” (quoted by Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 1/16/2015)


We're now in a situation where the Belgians are carrying out preemptive raids against ISIS terrorists. The Belgium police are now taking a harder line than the White House. (former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, quoted on Foxnews.com, 1/16/2015)

 Yeah, liberals hate bullying all right, but they’re not opposed to using it. When they casually throw out words like ‘bigot’ and ‘racist,’ it does cow people into avoiding this debate. And if you’re doing that, you don’t get to wear the ‘Je Suis Charlie’ button, the button you should wear says, ‘Je Suis Part of the Problem.’ (Bill Maher quoted on Breitbart.com, 1/17/2015)

Hat tip to Bill Maher, someone we have been highly critical of in the past...and will be again in the future. For now, however, we will note that he has been incredibly brave in exposing both Liberal hypocrisy on the issue of free speech and on calling out Muslims on the intolerance and violence that plague their religion. 


Fruitless
Wall Street may be growing anxious about the negative impact of falling oil prices on energy producers, but the steep declines of recent weeks are delivering substantial benefits to American working-class families and retirees who have largely missed out on the fruits of the five-and-a-half-year economic recovery.

Just last week, the federal Energy Information Administration estimated that the typical American household would save $750 because of lower gasoline prices this year, $200 more than government experts predicted a month ago. People who depend on home heating oil and propane to warm their homes, as millions do in the Northeast and Midwest, should enjoy an additional savings of about $750 this winter. (New York Times, 1/18/2015)

Given lower energy prices Liberals will seek to raise taxes on oil and gas. That is basic economics in a Liberal world. 


Drop Outs
When Colorado legalized marijuana two years ago, nobody was quite ready for the problem of exploding houses.

But that is exactly what firefighters, courts and lawmakers across the state are confronting these days: amateur marijuana alchemists who are turning their kitchens and basements into “Breaking Bad”-style laboratories, using flammable chemicals to extract potent drops of a marijuana concentrate commonly called hash oil, and sometimes accidentally blowing up their homes and lighting themselves on fire in the process. (New York Times, 1/18/2015)

Coming soon to Vermont when Governor Shumlin realizes his dream of legal dope.  This is logic in a Liberal world.

Democrats Sell Out America, Again

Never Ever
I’m bemused that the Senate could devote so many resources to studying the interrogation program and yet never once speak to any of the key people involved in it, including the guy who ran it (that would be me). (Jose Rodriguez, Washington Post, 12/5/2014)

Rodriguez is a patriot and an American hero. Democrats hate that.

These are the same Democrats who first blamed intelligence agencies for not stopping 9/11; then received briefings on the measures taken by these same intelligence agencies to find the people responsible for 9/11 and prevent another attack; and who now claim amnesia while blaming the intelligence agencies for...what? Doing too much?

Ann Coulter says it all the time: Democrats cannot be trusted with national security. They should not be allowed to hold power for forty years. 


Their Trauma
Over the weekend Columbia Law’s interim dean, Robert Scott, announced that exams would be postponed for students who feel traumatized over the two grand jury decisions not to indict white police officers in the deaths of Brown and Garner, both of whom are black. (dailycaller.com, 12/8/2014)

Those crazy kids will do ANYTHING to get out of finals!


Worst Case
Administration officials acknowledged that the briefings given to lawmakers included worst-case scenarios. They say that is a legacy of the attack on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, which erupted after the posting of a satirical video about the Prophet Muhammad. State Department officials were faulted for inadequate security and for not responding quickly enough when the assailants overran the complex. (New York Times, 12/9/2014)

After having been thoroughly discredited, the Obama administration and the New York Times are back to touting the "bad video" as the reason for Benghazi. This is propaganda that Joseph Goebbels would admire. 


No Mystery
While the names of these countries are redacted in the declassified report, their identity is scarcely a mystery. Poland, for example, has been cited by a court for its involvement in the program, which has been highly controversial among both opponents inside Poland and international human rights activists for more than a decade.

“We have suspected that Polish authorities knew about the black sites and that the C.I.A. had planned for them from the very beginning,” said Adam Bodnar, vice president of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. “Hopefully, it will allow this issue to be finally resolved, and make sure those in Poland who are guilty are brought to justice.”

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in July that Poland was complicit in the interrogation program and awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to two men: Abu Zubaydah, suspected of running a Qaeda facility in Pakistan, and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, believed to have planned the attack on the U.S.S. Cole.

“Poland, for all practical purposes, facilitated the whole process, created the conditions for it to happen, and made no attempt to prevent it from occurring,” the court ruled. Polish officials have steadfastly denied the country was involved in the secret prison program. (New York Times, 12/9/2014)

America has no more stalwart ally than Poland. Which pains us at RedStateVT when - once again - the Obama administration throws Poland under the bus. RedStateVT apologizes to the Poles on behalf of all fair-minded Americans. 


Run Run Run
Some Democrats are “Ready for Hillary.” MoveOn.org is ready for Elizabeth Warren.

The liberal group is poised to spend $1 million on a campaign to draft Senator Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, into the 2016 presidential race, an indication of an appetite among some activists for a more progressive alternative to Hillary Rodham Clinton. (New York Times, 12/9/2014)

Can you imagine a Democratic race which included Hillary Clinton, Lizzie Warren and Colonel Bernie Sanders? It would be a RedStateVT dream come true! We would easily have a year's worth of material. 

Sue for Peace

Everything Old
The Obama administration is preparing to carry out a campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that may take three years to complete, requiring a sustained effort that could last until after President Obama has left office, according to senior administration officials. (New York Times, 9/8/2014)

President Obama's proposed military actions in the Middle East were met by boisterous objections from Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, Code Pink and Senator Barack Obama. 

Get it?


Price of Victory
Unilateral action by the president might undermine the prospects for bipartisan agreement on a broad immigration overhaul for years to come.

As the election draws closer, some nervous Senate Democrats have told White House officials that President Obama’s actions could cost them victory at the polls.

It was that concern, shared by members of Mr. Obama’s inner circle as well as other members of Congress, White House officials said, that ultimately prompted the president to break the promise he made on June 30 in the Rose Garden to act on his own before summer’s end to fix the immigration system. (New York Times, 9/8/2014)

Another broken promise! Is anyone out there keeping track...anyone?

And again, Obama will not act - at least for now - to implement a policy that if implemented would cause people not to vote for Democrats. Sounds like another winner.


Pointless
His (new Meet the Press host Chuck Todd) questions to President Obama were succinct and pointed, but Mr. Obama is not a rewarding guest in a one-on-one interview. He tends to give long, meditative and atonal answers that wear down listeners. (New York Times, 9/8/2014)

So Obama is boring and doesn't answer the question asked. Really? The greatest orator of this or any generation?


For Better or Worse
His policy is better than he has articulated it.... (E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post, 9/3/2014)

Does Dionne even recognize the irony of what he writes? Obama the orator (the greatest of this or any generation - see above) is unable to 'articlulate' his foreign policy. 


Round Up
When President Obama addresses the nation on Wednesday to explain his plan to defeat Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria, it is a fair bet he will not call them the “JV team.”

Nor does he seem likely to describe Iraq as “sovereign, stable and self-reliant” with a “representative government.” And presumably he will not assert after more than a decade of conflict that “the tide of war is receding.”

As he seeks to rally Americans behind a new military campaign in the Middle East, Mr. Obama finds his own past statements coming back to haunt him. Time and again, he has expressed assessments of the world that in the harsh glare of hindsight look out of kilter with the changed reality he now confronts. (New York Times, 9/9/2014)

Yes, that about sums it up. Thank you New York Times. It's true we are hard on you, but it feels so right and so honest when you get it correct.


Heartless
A new ABC News poll has nothing but heartache for Democrats and President Obama. By a wide margin of 52-42%, voters see President Obama as a failed president. Americans also see Obama as more of a divider than uniter. Only 38% believe President Obama is uniting the country. A majority of 55% believe he's dividing the country. (Breitbart.com, 9/9/2014)

And he is not yet halfway through his second term! Just think of how much further Obama has to fall. Let's hope Americans remember the next time they use the polls to elect novelty candidates. 

Imperial Templates

Obama Motors
With a full battery charge, the ELR has an E.P.A.-estimated driving range of 37 miles — roughly the average American round-trip commute — in all-electric mode. That charge takes from 12.5 to 18 hours with a standard 120-volt outlet, and about five hours at 240 volts. (New York Times, 5/9/2014)

Liberals' favorite car company announces the Cadillac ELR. You read that right, it can go 37 miles on one charge. Which takes one-half day. 

Why can't conservatives get behind these wonderful green energy initiatives?


Sound the Trumpets
President Barack Obama on Friday trumpeted new executive actions and public- and private-sector commitments aimed at cutting carbon pollution and improving energy efficiency, saying that climate change is real and must be addressed now.

In a speech at a Wal-Mart store in Mountain View, Calif., the president laid out a list of clean-energy objectives he can accomplish without Congress's help and touted corporate pledges to expand the deployment of solar power. He lamented the lack of cooperation from lawmakers on clean-energy issues but said he would make sure the federal government does its part. (Wall Street Journal, 5/9/2014)

No humility, none at all when it comes to wasting more taxpayer dollars on these green energy sinkholes. Obama and his Legitimate Media sycophants do not even remember what Solyndra was all about. 


Dress Rehearsal
The reasons Benghazi is important do not have to be rehearsed here. An American outpost, virtually undefended, was attacked by armed and organized al Qaeda-associated militants on the anniversary of 9/11 and four were left dead, including the U.S. ambassador. It happened eight weeks before the 2012 presidential election. From day one White House management and leadership focused on spin and an apparent fiction. Did they deliberately mislead and misdirect? Why was there no military response? Who is responsible? (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 5/9/2014)

Good piece by Noonan which is incorrect only in the first line above. Democrats apparently do have to be reminded. 


Neither Nor
Yet others—until now not often quoted in news accounts—see Mr. Snowden as neither a hero nor a whistleblower. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified to the House Armed Services Committee on March 13, 2014, that "The vast majority of the documents that Snowden . . . exfiltrated from our highest levels of security had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities." (Edward Jay Epstein, Wall Street Journal, 5/9/2014)

Epstein posits that the Snowden case is really more about espionage. We were fascinated to learn the information above: the bulk of what Snowden stole were national security secrets. Which means that when we get him back in the U.S. and he is tried and found guilty, the proper sentence is either life imprisonment...or execution. We would support either. 

Turn Like a Wheel Inside a Wheel

Write Off
Ukraine has already been written off. But Eastern Europe need not worry. Obama understands containment. He recently dispatched 150 American ground troops to Poland and each of the Baltic states. You read correctly: 150. Each. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 5/1/2014)

If Obama reads Krauthammer's devastating piece on his foreign policy failures and if he had any humility, he would resign the presidency. 

Obama has no humility and he will not resign. Whether it is Syria, or the broader Middle East, or the Ukraine, he thinks he is winning. Obama's solution to these issues is to "pivot" to Malaysia.


Feelings
The effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States, scientists reported Tuesday, with water growing scarcer in dry regions, torrential rains increasing in wet regions, heat waves becoming more likely and more severe, wildfires growing worse, and forests dying under assault from heat-loving insects.

Such sweeping changes have been caused by an average warming of less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit over most land areas of the country in the past century, the scientists found. If greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane continue to escalate at a rapid pace, they said, the warming could conceivably exceed 10 degrees by the end of this century. (New York Times, 5/7/2014)

George Will had a wonderful piece a month or so ago. He related how a hundred or more German scientists, supported by the Nazis, denounced Albert Einstein's work. Will quotes Einstein as saying "if I were wrong, they would only need one." And so it is with climate change, or whatever Liberals are calling it now. The gist of the Liberal argument is that XX% of scientists agree. Of course, no mention is made of the conflicts of interests, e.g. the funding received by these scientists, their political affiliation, etc. 

Oh, and then there is this:

According to the RSS satellite data, whose value for April 2014 is just in, the global warming trend in the 17 years 9 months since August 1996 is zero. The 212 months without global warming represents more than half the 423-month satellite data record, which began in January 1979. No one now in high school has lived through global warming. (Climatedepot.com, 5/4/2014)


Projectile
Premiums were soaring, they declared, when they have actually come in below projections. (Paul Krugman, New York Times, 5/5/2014)

Krugman declares victory for Obamacare. And shame on those Republicans who do not acknowledge it! 

Note his deceit, however. "Premiums have come in below projections." Not, premiums are lower because of Obamacare and everyone is paying less for healthcare. If Krugman was honest he would say that premiums are higher, but not as high as was feared. 


Non-Qualified
As I’ve argued before, Benghazi doesn’t qualify as a scandal because the Republican allegations, even if true, don’t amount to much. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 5/5/2014)

Well, the Republican allegation is that the Obama administration sought - immediately before the 2012 presidential election - to deflect attention away from their claim of success in dealing with Al Qaeda by blaming an Al Qaeda attack (that cost the lives of four Americans including an ambassador) on an internet video and "not a foreign policy failure." In doing so, Republicans allege that the Obama administration misled the American people...again immediately before the presidential election.

Dana Milbank believes that this does not "amount to much." 

What price, we wonder, does someone like Milbank place on his journalistic integrity?

The Mirrored Dusk

Profiles in Stupidity
The Justice Department will significantly expand its definition of racial profiling to prohibit federal agents from considering religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation in their investigations, a government official said Wednesday.

The move addresses a decade of criticism from civil rights groups that say federal authorities have in particular singled out Muslims in counterterrorism investigations and Latinos for immigration investigations. (New York Times, 1/16/2014)

And so, because terrorism is inextricably tied to radical Islam and illegal immigration to Latinos, profiling is now prohibited. This makes perfect sense if you are a Liberal. We already know, of course, what will happen the very next time an Islamist succeeds in blowing something up and killing Americans. Liberals will demand a Congressional investigation while demanding to know how this could have happened. 


Uncivil
More than six years later, the onetime constitutional lawyer is now the commander in chief presiding over a surveillance state that some of his own advisers think has once again gotten out of control. On Friday, he will give another speech, this time at the Justice Department defending government spying even as he adjusts it to address a wave of public concern over civil liberties. (New York Times, 1/16/2014)

Dick Cheney smiles...

Yet it is hard to express indignation at actions of the government after five years of running it, and some involved in surveillance note that it was Mr. Obama who pushed national security agencies to be aggressive in hunting terrorists. “For some, his outrage does ring a little bit hollow,” said a former counterterrorism official. (New York Times, 1/16/2014)

...and smiles again.


The Sting
A stinging report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released Wednesday concluded that the attack 16 months ago that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, could have been prevented, singling out the State Department for criticism for its failure to bolster security in response to intelligence warnings about a growing security crisis around the city. (New York Times, 1/16/2014)

Twenty-eight paragraphs on Benghazi and 2016 Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's name is mentioned exactly twice. (Those who follow Washington closely may recall that Clinton was Secretary of State at the time of the Benghazi attacks.) One of the citations references a Republican addendum to the report criticizing Clinton. So, of course, that is entirely political.

Meanwhile, studies have shown that the average number of times that Chris Christie's name is mentioned in articles on Conegate is forty-seven.


Uninspired
An accountable democracy doesn’t work without real information, gathered from the ground up, about people in power, everywhere. Be inspired by the beleaguered but unintimidated reporters of Chris Christie’s New Jersey: Whatever your partisan affiliation, or lack thereof, subscribe to your local paper today. It’s an act of civic virtue. (Rachel Maddow, Washington Post, 1/15/2014)

Maddow celebrates the small town Jersey reporters who doggedly pursued the Christie-Conegate scandal shedding a light on political corruption. It is this same dedication and perseverance that Maddow employed in her quest to get at the truth about Benghazi and the IRS targeting of conservative groups. 

Or are we remembering that wrong?

Heart and Hand Accomplished

Rigor
Supporters of President Obama’s health care law had predicted that expanding insurance coverage for the poor would reduce costly emergency room visits because people would go to primary care doctors instead. But a rigorous new experiment in Oregon has raised questions about that assumption, finding that newly insured people actually went to the emergency room a good deal more often.
...
The findings cast doubt on the hope that expanded insurance coverage will help rein in emergency room costs just as more than two million people are gaining coverage under the Affordable Care Act. And they go against one of the central arguments of the law’s supporters, that extending insurance to large numbers of Americans would reduce emergency room use, and eventually save money. (New York Times, 1/3/2014)

Well it is just all falling apart, isn't it? 

If you can't keep your doctor, and you may not be able to keep your hospital, and you pay more (unless you get a government subsidy), and it does not reduce emergency room visits, and it will not reduce health care costs, isn't it time for a time-out? What brave Democrat out there will stand up and say that the president should suspend Obamacare unless and until these issues are resolved? That Democrat could practically be guaranteed re-election.


Lab Rats
Liberals across the country are looking to Bill de Blasio, who was sworn in as mayor early Wednesday, to morph New York City’s municipal machinery into a closely watched laboratory for populist theories of government that have never before been enacted on such a large scale. (New York Times, 1/1/2014)

Detroit. What is it that Liberals don't understand about Detroit?


Deflection
Democratic Party leaders, bruised by months of attacks on the new health care program, have found an issue they believe can lift their fortunes both locally and nationally in 2014: an increase in the minimum wage. (New York Times, 12/29/2013)

It's "Wag the Dog" time for Democrats. Look for them to ramp up their usual grab bag of fringe issues as the 2014 elections near. Next thing you know, they'll declare that Republicans are engaging in a "War on Women."


Law-Abiding
Judge Rules N.S.A. Phone Surveillance Is Lawful in Case Filed by A.C.L.U.
A federal judge in New York on Friday ruled that the National Security Agency’s program that is systematically keeping phone records of all Americans is lawful, creating a conflict among lower courts and increasing the likelihood that the issue will be resolved by the Supreme Court. (New York Times, 12/27/2013)

Here is a good rule of thumb for RedStateVT readers: If the A.C.L.U. is arguing a position, it is usually something that is bad for America. 


Compounded
The September 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans was led by fighters who had benefited directly from NATO’s extensive air power and logistics support during the uprising against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. And contrary to claims by some members of Congress, it was accelerated in part by anger at an American-made video denigrating Islam. (New York Times, 12/28/2013)

The single biggest issue that could haunt a Hillary Clinton run for president is Benghazi. First, Hillary investigated herself and found that she was not at fault. However that did not make Benghazi go away, what with those pesky journalists at Fox News. Now the Hillary Clinton for President campaign office at the New York Times steps in to squash the concern. And so we are back to: It was the video all along!

This is truly pathetic. 

Two Beaten Swords

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

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


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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

Jester to the Clown

Frayed
Many Democrats also want to see a more aggressive and visible president to push the law across the country. This week Mr. Obama is returning to the fray to an extent unseen since he signed the law in 2010, including a White House event on Friday to promote the law’s benefits for women, the first in a series of appearances for health care this year. (NYT, 5/6/2013)

As we recently joked with a long-time reader, Liberals have brilliantly commandeered the term "women's health" as an omnipotent shield with which to either explain the validity of any crazy idea they might have or to attack any opposing opinion. 

Do you oppose Obamacare?  You are against women's health!
Do you oppose free contraception?  You are against women's health!
Do you oppose gun control?  You are against women's health!


Short Stuff
Without the participation of that generally healthy young population, insurance premiums for everyone else would increase — threatening support for a law already short of it. (NYT, 5/6/2013)

You already knew this, but just to be clear: Obamacare is a transfer tax (primarily) on the young to pay for the medical expenses of those who couldn't be bothered to get insurance on their own. However, everyone who now has insurance will pay more. 


Benghazi-gate!
The Obama administration wants to consign the Benghazi terrorist attack to the history books, but this week three State Department officials will tell Congress that the Obama administration’s version of history is false — and that the falsehoods it told the American people were willful and deliberate. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 5/6/2013)

Some in the conservative blogosphere are bubbling up the idea that Benghazi-gate will mean the end of the Obama administration. In addition to Fox News and Breitbart, CNN has even dipped its toe into the scandal. We wish the pundits were right - actually, more than that we wish the truth would come out. 

In our view, the odds are long. The New York Times completely ignored the story again today, despite pending potential blockbuster testimony from whistleblowers.

Glass Houses

Devoted
Aware that intensified American counterterrorism efforts have made an ambitious Sept. 11-style plot a long shot, Al Qaeda propagandists for several years have called on their devotees in the United States to carry out smaller-scale solo attacks and provided the online education to teach them how. (NYT, 5/5/2013)

The article - as the New York Times says in this first paragraph - is on al Qaeda's calls for attacks in the U.S. The accompanying pictures are of Maj. Nidal Hasan, Faisal Shahzad, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev....and Timothy J. McVeigh.

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not like the other........

It frustrates the Liberals at the Times (and elsewhere) to no end that it is Muslims carrying out these attacks. And so their response whenever possible is to gratutitously throw in references to non-Muslims, right-wing militias and domestic terrorists...but not Bill Ayers.


Interested In You
Republican senators are likely to be interested in the Pritzker family’s reputation as innovators in the use of offshore trusts and foreign bank secrecy laws to shelter their wealth from income, capital gains and inheritance taxes. Even after tax code loopholes were closed, the family’s trusts were grandfathered in and it kept benefiting from them.

Indeed, Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, has called for scrutiny of her family’s trusts, saying she was “associated with the kind of tax avoidance activity that the president dismisses as fat cat shenanigans for others. It’s hypocritical to overlook tax avoidance when it’s convenient.” (NYT, 5/5/2013)

It might surprise you to know that RedStateVT has no problem with any of Pritzker's legal offshore accounts or foreign bank holdings, just as we had no issues with those of Mitt Romney.

But it is incredibly fun nonetheless to chronicle once again the utter hypocrisy of Liberals.

And so we add "being a 1%er" to the list of things that Liberals can no longer accuse Republicans of being. 


Lapsed
Clinton, the former Secretary of State and likely frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, could be severely damaged by testimony about the attacks, which occurred in part because of security lapses for which the State Department is primarily responsible. 

Past testimony about the attacks has also revealed that President Barack Obama did nothing once informed the attacks were under way, and that there was no communication among key members of the administration and military who could have responded. (Breitbart.com, 5/6/2013)

History has shown that Republican scandals live on forever while scandal-ridden Democrats are rehabilitated. Bill Clinton is now a revered senior statesman and Anthony Weiner can seriously considering running for mayor of NYC. Jay Carney has already described Benghazi as "old news." Think about what Democrats will say four years from now should Hillary run for office. Likely they will deny it ever happened.

Finishing Touches

Logged Out
Hillary was an indefatigable secretary of state — she logged 956,733 diplomatic frequent-flier miles — and a star ambassador, especially on women’s issues.  (Maureen Dowd, NYT, 4/6/2013)

Dowd writes an entire column avowing that Hillary Clinton is running for president in 2016. Dowd hits all the issues: Hillary's health, her age, her hair, her outfits, her previous run-in with health care reform, her psyche, her relationship with her father. There is even a brief reference to long ago Clinton-era scandals. 

What is missing? Not a single word - not one - on Benghazi. 

This is journalistic malpractice. 


Hey Good Lookin'
President Obama late Thursday night called Kamala Harris, the California attorney general, and apologized to her for telling a group of wealthy donors that she is the “best-looking attorney general in the country.” (NYT, 4/5/2013)

Is it only RedStateVT that discerns the deeper context behind Obama's comment? 

He has been hanging around Joe Biden too much.