Source: Obama Will Nominate Illegal Alien To Supreme Court

The Supremes
Democrats said that if Mr. McConnell persisted in trying to block a nomination, he should anticipate little cooperation from them moving forward, and that they would strive to frame the refusal to act as a radical and unprecedented move. (New York Times, 2/15/2016)

Why kind of like using reconciliation to pass Obamacare!


Mr. McConnell’s threat to block a confirmation could complicate the re-election chances of Republican senators in swing states. (New York Times, 2/15/2016)

And President Obama's insistence on nominating someone could complicate re-election chances of Democrats in other swing states. 


Reid to GOP: For the good of the country, stop your nakedly partisan obstruction: Mr. McConnell’s threat to block a confirmation could complicate the re-election chances of Republican senators in swing states. (Harry Reid, Washington Post, 2/16/2016)

Has there ever been a more hypocritical politician in the United States than Harry Reid? The same Harry Reid who used parlor tricks to pass Obamacare. Who obstructed at every turn. Who accused Mitt Romney of not paying his taxes. Who never submitted a budget. Who has gotten wealthy through a career in politics. 

We think not. 

The Democrat attack line on the brewing fight over the Supreme Court is that the public will turn on Republicans who obstruct Obama. No they won't. Fifty percent of the country will stand up and cheer. 


Appetizers
This attitude intensified the unappetizing solipsistic subtext of her campaign, which is “What is Hillary owed?” It turned out that female voters seem to be looking at Hillary as a candidate rather than as a historical imperative. And she’s coming up drastically short on trustworthiness. (Maureen Dowd, New York Times, 2/17/2016)

Maureen Dowd is as partisan as one can get. Her unending attacks on the Bush family long ago crossed the line of basic decency. We'll give her kudos, however, for this biting column on the Clintons. 


Singular
Mr. Sanders’s synecdoche for his idea is Wall Street. Everything wrong with American life can be charged up, in his telling, to a small neighborhood in lower Manhattan. Something old-fashioned there is about blaming Wall Street for all the country’s deficiencies. But, then, lunatics of one idea, basking in the pleasure of Manichaeism, like to focus all their enmity on one target. (Joseph Epstein, Wall Street Journal, 2/17/2016)

Must read column on One Trick Pony Bernie Sanders. 

Travel Plans

Rahm Emanuel laid into POLITICO’s Mike Allen on Wednesday when Allen revealed the Chicago mayor’s plans to vacation in Cuba with his family over the holidays, angrily saying, "I really don't appreciate that." (POLITICO, 12/2/2015)


Ino Gómez, who fled Cuba in 1970, caught (New York City Mayor Bill) de Blasio off guard during their interview on WADO 1280 AM when he shifted the conversation from housing and education to the Dem’s visit to Cuba in 1991 for his honeymoon.(nypost.com, 9/27/2013)


After Vermont senator Bernie Sanders announced his run for president, Britain’s Guardian newspaper pawed through old archives in his home town of Burlington, Vermont where he served as mayor in the 1980s. They discovered that Sanders really did practice the socialist solidarity he preached about rhetorically. During Bernie’s mayoral tenure, Burlington formed an alliance with the Soviet city of Yaroslavl, 160 miles northeast of Moscow. When in 1988 he married his wife, Jane, the mayor decided it would be a perfect place for his honeymoon. (nationalreview.com, 6/24/2015)

Why is it that rabid right-wingers are always accusing Liberals of being pinko Commies?

Oh, maybe because it's true....

Source: Liberals Looking to Ban Hot Dogs

The Media is Fair, the Media is Even-Handed
As a Boss, Fiorina Could Be Warm One Day, Cold the Next (actual New York Times headline, 10/26/2015)

As a Boss, Hillary Was Wonderful, Each and Every Day (proposed New York Times headline, 10/26/2015)


Vitality
Russian submarines and spy ships are aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global Internet communications, raising concerns among some American military and intelligence officials that the Russians might be planning to attack those lines in times of tension or conflict. (New York Times, 10/26/2015)

Not to worry, as president, Hillary will just declare another Russian reset. Vlad cannot wait.

...and then there is this (NYT):
Adm. James Stavridis, formerly NATO’s top military commander and now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, said in an email last week that “this is yet another example of a highly assertive and aggressive regime seemingly reaching backwards for the tools of the Cold War, albeit with a high degree of technical improvement.”

Recall Obama smugly saying to Mitt Romney that 'the 70s wants it foreign policy back.' Yet another example of our boy-wonder president getting it wrong.


Traffic Accident
Last Thursday, the union and Fiat Chrysler sealed a four-year deal that, over time, brings wages of entry-level workers into line with those of veteran employees. The two-tier wage system was not expected to be as big an issue at General Motors. More than 45 percent of Fiat Chrysler workers are entry-level, compared with about 20 percent at G.M. (New York Times, 10/26/2015)

Prediction: Fiat Chrysler will declare bankruptcy within three years; GM within five years. 


Bad Bern
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has denounced candidates who are overly poll-tested, a line of attack that has been used against Hillary Rodham Clinton in the past and one he had in his prepared text as a veiled reference to her at the Iowa Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on Saturday night.

But Mr. Sanders’s campaign, flush with cash from low-dollar donors, has hired a pollster of its own, his senior adviser Tad Devine confirmed. Mr. Sanders has brought on Ben Tulchin, who polled for Howard Dean, the insurgent Democratic presidential candidate of the 2004 cycle. (New York Times, 10/26/2015)

Because that whole Howard Dean thing worked out so well....

Colonel Bernie Sanders: I am not a Liberal

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.

Clinton Crime Family Foundation Claims Another Victim!

George Stephanopoulos’s Gifts to Clinton Foundation Reinforce G.O.P. Doubts 
Even after more than a decade as an analyst, anchor and public face for ABC News, George Stephanopoulos has never been able to shake the image that many Republicans have of him: Clinton hatchet man. (New York Times, 5/15/2015)

Only Liberals and the New York Times can turn a story about blatant journalistic bias into a story about Republicans. Stephanopoulos admits his error in giving $25,000 a year for three years to the Clinton Crime Family Foundation.*

That sounds like three mistakes to us not one!

ABC News and the Mainstream Liberal Media are standing by Georgie. 

Why? 

Well Brian Williams has already been disgraced and sent out to pasture. If objectivity were the rule of law, Georgie would have to go also; his crime is worse. But Liberals simply cannot have another Liberal journalist fall. It would lend truth to what conservatives have been saying for years about the media. Can't have that. 

Georgie stays. 

* credit to Rush Limbaugh


School Daze
A federal jury on Friday condemned Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a failed college student, to death for setting off bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon that killed three people and injured hundreds more in the worst terrorist attack on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Times, 5/15/2015)

"A failed college student?"

Are we the only ones scratching our head over this characterization? What is the New York Socialist Times trying to convey to us? Probably something like...."Tsarnaev is a product of our dysfunctional education system. If only Republicans would agree to increase education spending." 

This is beyond ludicrous. The New York Times has lost its marbles. 


Risky Business
The Department of Veterans Affairs has been spending at least $6 billion a year in violation of federal contracting rules to pay for medical care and supplies, wasting taxpayer money and putting veterans at risk, according to an internal memo written by the agency’s senior official for procurement. (Washington Post, 5/14/2015)

And who was in charge of Senate oversight of the VA until just recently? Why it was Colonel Bernie Sanders, the Left's socialist hero and now presidential candidate. Maybe George Stephanopoulos will ask him about that. 

Just kidding! 

George Stephanopoulos will not ask him about it. George Stephanopolous will, however, ask Ted Cruz about his position on contraceptives. 

Obama: Acts of religious-inspired violence are to be condemned...like the Crusades for example

...Meanwhile ISIS beheads a dozen Egyptian Christians. 

College Daze
Liberals are aghast that Wisconsin governor Scott Walker did not graduate college....as did neither Harry Truman or Bill Gates. George W. Bush not only graduated college, but was a Harvard MBA, the nation's first MBA president. Of course, that did not discourage Liberals from disparaging Bush's intellect. They saw his transcripts and realized that he was no genius, unlike say, Barack Obama. The only problem, of course, is that Obama has not released his grades. What is he hiding? Do you think if he had gotten straight A's that he would NOT have released them? Our guess is that he got a couple of C's or even a D. Probably in American History....or Oration.


Connected
As Dynasty’s Son, Jeb Bush Used His Connections Freely (New York Times headline, 2/15/2015)

Now that Mitt Romney is not running, it's back to softening up Jeb Bush at the New York Times. Article #227 on Jeb Bush appears today. 

Now as Yemen descends into chaos and anarchy, if the Times would only remind us who declared the U.S. anti-terrorism policy there to be a success....


Doubtful
The notion that income inequality has continued to rise over the past decade is part of the conventional wisdom. You’ve no doubt heard versions: The rich just keep getting richer. Inequality is higher than ever. Nearly all of the gains from the economic recovery have gone to the top 1 percent.

No question, inequality is extremely high from a historical perspective – worrisomely so. But a new analysis, by Stephen J. Rose of George Washington University, adds an important wrinkle to the story: Income inequality has not actually risen since the financial crisis began. (New York Times, 2/17/2015)

Lizzie Warren and Bernie Sanders now will have nothing to talk about!

The Riven Heart

Fact-based
The fact that Netanyahu felt compelled to speak directly to Congress in order to oppose the administration’s position speaks poorly, not of Netanyahu, but of Obama. If the leader of one of our closest allies is so worried about the deal Obama is going to cut with Iran that he is willing to risk a diplomatic rift with the administration to speak out, perhaps the problem is not with Israel, but with the Obama administration. And it is not just Israel that opposes Obama’s deal with Iran; Arab leaders have made clear that they share Israel’s view. (Marc Thiessen, Washington Post, 1/27/2015)

How, we wonder, is President Hillary Clinton going to handle Israel?  While she has always publicly supported Israel, the moonbat wing of the Democrat party has become increasingly anti-Israeli, favoring the peace-loving Palestinians (who lob missiles into Israel from schoolyards in Gaza). It is the same dilemma she faces as she attempts to reconcile her service on the Wal Mart Board of Directors with Speaking Bull Liz Warren's chants against corporate America. 
   

Dopes
Shumlin said he believes Vermont should legalize marijuana but has approached the topic carefully, waiting to take lessons from Colorado and Washington, which have authorized a retail marijuana market.

If Vermont lawmakers pursue legal marijuana, the regulatory system might not look like the set-up in Colorado or Washington. A lengthy report on the options was released Jan. 16.

The report, written by the Rand Corporation based in California, found that Vermont could reap millions of dollars of tax revenue by allowing a legal marijuana industry, but the highest tax revenues depend on becoming the first state in the Northeast to do so. (Burlington Free Press, 1/27/2015)

Well, the lessons from Colorado and Washington would lead any rational person to conclude that legalizing marijuana was a bad idea. Admitted ex-pothead Shumlin, however, cannot get beyond that additional tax revenue. Why it could even bring back single payer! Shummy would call that a win-win!


A Prayer
Oh, dear Lord above, I try not to ask for much, but if You could find it appropriate, please let the Democrats nominate Bernie Sanders to run for President. (Jazz Shaw, Hotair.com, 1/27/2015)

The conservative groundswell for Bernie Sanders to run for president (initiated by RedStateVT) continues to grow. Run Bernie, Run!

It would be great fun. 


Relent-less
President Obama, facing angry reprisals from parents and from lawmakers of both parties, will drop his proposal to end popular college savings accounts known as 529s....The decision came just hours after House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio demanded the proposal be withdrawn from the president’s budget, due out Monday, “for the sake of middle-class families.” But the call for the White House to relent also came from top Democrats, including Representatives Nancy Pelosi of California, the minority leader, and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the ranking member of the Budget Committee. (New York Times, 1/27/2015)

When you have lost Nancy Pelosi, it is pretty much game over....

Did Obama the Mastermind really think this idea was going to fly?

RedStateVT Welcomes Readers from Czech Republic!

Under Pressure
Yemeni officials say the president has resigned under pressure from Shiite rebels who seized the capital in September and have confined the embattled leader to his home for the past two days. (Washington Post, 1/21/2015)

Obama: Yemen is an example of my administration's counter-terrorism success.

WaPo: Yemeni president forced to resign by terrorists. 


Face Off
Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday he might enter the 2016 presidential race even if it would mean facing off against Hillary Clinton—a scenario that could force her and other potential Democratic candidates to rethink how they would position themselves in the primary. (Wall Street Journal, 1/22/2015)

Imagine for just a moment Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren and Colonel Bernie Sanders on stage together for a Democrat primary debate. They would be scrambling over each other to pander, redistribute wealth, and blame George Bush! Millions would pay to watch the hi-jinks as a pay-per-view event. Why the money raised could even be given to those poor souls hurt by Republican policies..... 

The Weight of Expectation

The Worm Turns
For weeks, university officials were careful not to strike a defensive tone, emphasizing that whatever doubts there were about the account, they saw a problem that needed addressing. But on Friday, the university’s rector, George Keith Martin, opened a meeting of its governing Board of Visitors with a broadside at the news media.

“Our tightly knit community has experienced the full fury of drive-by journalism in the 21st century — of callous indifference to the truth and callous indifference to the consequences,” he said, adding, “our great university’s reputation has been unfairly tarnished.”

Before reciting a long list of things the administration is doing to make the campus safer, Teresa A. Sullivan, the university president, said, “Our concern with sexual assault was not something that started with the Rolling Stone article.” And she said she felt compelled to state that “UVA’s climate and culture are generally healthy.” (New York Times,. 12/19/2014)

The University of Virginia Rape Hoax. 

Instead of an apology to the fraternity that she was quick to punish, UVA President Teresa A. Sullivan now blames...the media!

To Liberals who suddenly and unexpectedly face scrutiny from a previously docile and compliant media we offer little in the way of sympathy. Imagine for just a moment how the UVA frat that was unjustly accused feels. 

And just remember, the next time that you hear of some atrocious sexual assault on a college campus: it is undoubtedly a hoax. 


Why?
A Vermont Senator Asks, Why Not a Socialist President? (New York Times headline, 12/19/2014)

Well...because he's a nut-job.


Heavy Lifting
Still, the president acknowledged that he would have to work with Congress on contentious issues, including lifting the 54-year-old American trade embargo against Cuba. “We cannot unilaterally bring down the embargo,” he said, although his administration is undertaking a major effort to loosen key elements. (New York Times, 12/20/2014)

Prediction? 

Six months from now Obama will announce an executive order lifting the trade embargo against Cuba. He will deny ever having said that he could not take such action unilaterally. 

You read it here first. 

You Choose The Headline

Obama normalizes relations with Cuba, where torture is legal

What do Obama's deals with Russia, China, the Taliban and Cuba have in common? Answer: He got taken!

Christmas comes early in Vermont! Single payer shelved

Obama: We will no longer torture, drone strikes to continue


Pressing
Days earlier, two big progressive groups, MoveOn.org and Democracy for America, also pressed the first-term Massachusetts senator to seek the party’s presidential nomination.

The implicit logic of the Draft Warren movement is that after eight years of the Obama presidency, the American people want to move . . . further left. (Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal, 12/17/2014)

A challenge from Bernie Sanders or Liz 'Pocahantas' Warren or a more Left-leaning Hillary Clinton all spell good news for Republicans in 2016.


Linkage
But several former directors and deputy directors of the CIA have all attested to the link between KSM’s interrogation and the identification of bin Laden’s courier.

I am sorry that the Feinstein Report, which failed to interview those directors and thus has the credibility of a Rolling Stone article, seeks to deny this. Maybe Sabrina Rubin Erdely, author of the discredited University of Virginia gang-rape story and a pro at failing to interview key witnesses, will find a new career in Sen. Feinstein’s office. (Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, 12/15/2014)

Good point from Bret Stephens!

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. 

Coming Soon from Democrats: The Republican War on Children!

Bernie Sanders: Keystone XL 'makes no sense to me' (Washington Examiner, 11/18/2014)

RedStateVT: Bernie Sanders 'makes no sense to us' (RedStateVT, 11/18/2014)


Currently
In the current Democratic-controlled Senate, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, has long refused to bring a Keystone bill to a vote for fear that it could hurt the re-election chances of environmental-minded Democrats who might have voted against a project that is popular with many voters. (New York Times, 11/18/2014)

So to fellow bloggers who write endlessly of Republican obstructionism we forward the passage above. Turns out Harry Reid's Senate (which never passed a budget either, by the way) may have doing some obstruction of their own! Also nice to hear that the Keystone pipeline is "popular with many voters." We are guessing that said voters like jobs and low gas prices. 


Starkly
President Obama is poised to ignore stark warnings that executive action on immigration would amount to “violating our laws” and would be “very difficult to defend legally.”

Those warnings came not from Republican lawmakers but from Mr. Obama himself.

For years, he has waved aside the demands of Latino activists and Democratic allies who begged him to act on his own, and he insisted publicly that a decision to shield millions of immigrants from deportation without an act of Congress would amount to nothing less than the dictates of a king, not a president. (New York Times, 11/18/2014)

For any of you cynics out there, remember: Republicans flip flop, Democrats evolve.


Mutually
But since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, the relationship between the Obama administration and insurers has evolved into a powerful, mutually beneficial partnership that has been a boon to the nation’s largest private health plans and led to a profitable surge in their Medicaid enrollment. (New York Times, 11/17/2014)

During the Obamacare debate, Charles Krauthammer once famously said: "I care not a whit about the insurance companies." We agree. They sold their souls to Obama for short term profits but given the opportunity Obama will sell them out in a heartbeat.


Surely
As headlines go, “ Obama Moves Close to Calling Russian Action in Ukraine an Invasion,” from a weekend story in the New York Times , must surely rank among the year’s most revealing. The Obama presidency has long been at odds with the obvious. Once this was called hope.

Now it is generally recognized as farce. (Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, 11/17/2014)

Bret Stephens picks up on RedStateVT's recent point!


Extensively
Mr. Gruber wrote a 2011 cartoon book called “Health Care Reform” that aimed to explain the federal law. A note about the author says Mr. Gruber “consulted extensively with the Obama administration and Congress during the development” of the law. (Wall Street Journal, 11/17/2014)

Of all the egregious sins that Gruber has perpetrated, surely this is the worst: he wrote a cartoon book on Obamacare. 


And Then This
Here comes the tea party of the left. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 11/17/2014)

Honest column from Milbank. Yes, the Dems have a tea party too.

Disregard The Cost

RedStateVT's Thought for the Day
Liberals shout at Conservatives to get out of private bedrooms on issues like homosexuality and birth control. Making it somewhat ironic - actually making it enormously ironic - that Liberals in California (and now elsewhere) have come up with the bizarre rules for consensual sex on college campuses. 


Historical
Before his 2008 presidential campaign, Mr. Obama had little history of managing anything larger than a Senate office. To his critics, the breakdowns in various agencies are the natural result of that inexperience, a conclusion that really began taking hold with the botched rollout of his own health care program last year. (New York Times, 10/22/2014)

Six years in, the New York Times finally admits what many of us have said all along: Obama was not qualified to be president.


The Best Thing You Will Read Today on the Minimum Wage
Entry-level fast-food jobs have never been intended to support an entire family. So-called quick-service restaurants provide opportunities to lots of young people with few skills and limited experience. (Wall Street Journal, 10/21/2014)

Second best is this from Chris Christie (quoted in the New York Times): “I don’t think there is a mother or father sitting around a kitchen table tonight in America who are saying, ‘You know, honey, if my son or daughter could just make a higher minimum wage, all our dreams would be realized.’ ”


Remains of the Day
There are 149 prisoners remaining at Guantánamo. As a result of Mr. Zahrani’s change in status, 80 are now recommended for transfer if security conditions can be met, the majority of whom are from Yemen; 59 are recommended for continued indefinite detention without trial as wartime prisoners; and 10 have either been charged or convicted before the military commissions system.

Ten low-level prisoners were transferred in late 2013. But the process appears to be faltering again; it has transferred just one low-level prisoner in 2014. (New York Times, 10/21/2014)

There is something the New York Times is neglecting to mention in this article on prisoner transfers from Gitmo. What could it be? Oh, now we remember... Obama's release of five high risk Taliban prisoners! Probably an honest omission.


Excess
Tom Steyer, the billionaire hedge fund founder who has pledged to spend $50 million of his own money to defeat Republican candidates in Senate and governor’s races this campaign cycle, exceeded that mark in September.

Mr. Steyer’s “super PAC,” NextGen Climate Action Committee, reported on Monday night that it received $15 million from him last month, putting his total contributions to the committee since June 2013 at $55 million.

That makes Mr. Steyer the largest super PAC donor, putting him ahead of the casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson, who gave $49.8 million to super PACs during the 2012 campaign. (New York Times, 10/20/2014)

Liberal hedge fund fossil fuel 1%er gives millions to Dems. Elizabeth Warren silent. Speaking of Liz:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she isn’t running for president. At this rate, however, she may have to. (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, 10/20/2014)

Run Liz, Run! As we have said many times, it is only on a national stage where the moonbat ideas and multiple hypocrisies of Warren and Vermont's Colonel Bernie Sanders can really get the attention they deserve.


Unseen
Obama is President Pariah in these final weeks of the 2014 midterms. Vulnerable Democratic candidates don’t want to be seen with him. Three Democratic senators have run ads distancing themselves from him, and Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic Senate candidate in Kentucky, has refused — absurdly — to say whether she voted for Obama. Obama’s support is 40 percent nationally and lower in the Republican states where many of this year’s competitive races are taking place. (Washington Post, 10/20/2014)

Tough column by Charles Krauthammer on Obama. Oh wait. It's not Krauthammer, it's Liberal Dana Milbank!


At Least
Democrats accuse the opposition of mindless obstructionism, deliberately sabotaging government, or at least tearing down belief in it, out of ideological fervor and political ambition. (New York Times, 10/22/2014)

Mindless obstructionism, ignoring, of course, Harry Reid's refusal to bring ANYTHING up for a Senate vote. Now that is some kind of obstructionism!


Instinctual
Although we believe that the president has many progressive instincts, he has shown an inclination to seek consensus rather than to fight. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 10/21/2014)

Kat is disturbed that Obama sometimes seeks consensus. Funny, when Republicans are in charge all Liberals can talk about is the need for consensus. 

E. J. Dionne Jr.: Liar at the Washington Post

Dainty Boy
There is no reason to be dainty or evasive in saying that racism and racial resentment are part of the equation, and it’s not just that Obama is our first African American president. Racial politics has been helping Republicans since the 1960s when much of the white South realigned toward the GOP in reaction to the Democrats’ embrace of civil rights. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 10/19/2014)

Dionne thinks that no one knows how Democrats and Republicans voted on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Wrong, E.J. This from Wikipedia:

The Senate version:
Democratic Party: 46–21   (69–31%)
Republican Party: 27–6   (82–18%)

The Senate version, voted on by the House:
Democratic Party: 153–91   (63–37%)
Republican Party: 136–35   (80–20%)

So, Dainty Boy, turns out that Republican supported civil rights by A HIGHER PERCENTAGE than Democrats. We will await your apology. Our guess is that - as with all things Democrat - it will come AFTER the election. 


Instability
A newly created database of New Yorkers deemed too mentally unstable to carry firearms has grown to roughly 34,500 names, a previously undisclosed figure that has raised concerns among some mental health advocates that too many people have been categorized as dangerous. (New York Times, 10/19/2014)

Of course, when one of these crazies goes on a killing spree Liberals will bemoan the country's lax firearm laws.


Wonderful
One of the wonders of this political moment is feminist contentment about the infantilization of women in the name of progressive politics. Government, encouraging academic administrations to micromanage campus sexual interactions, now assumes that, absent a script, women cannot cope. And the Democrats’ trope about the Republicans’ “war on women” clearly assumes that women are civic illiterates.

Access to contraception has been a constitutional right for 49 years (Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965). The judiciary has controlled abortion policy for 41 years (Roe v. Wade, 1973). Yet the Democratic Party thinks women can be panicked into voting about mythical menaces to these things. (George Will, Washington Post, 10/17/2014)

Great column by Will reminding us (yet again) that Democrats are the Party of Grievances, Real or Imagined. 


Little Man
Bernie’s annual average growth rate in net worth 2004-2012 was 29%.  The average American’s growth rate for the same period?  -0.94%.  So when Bernie’s telling you he’s working for the little guy, remember that in Berniespeak, little guy means “Bernie Sanders”. (Chris Campion, ethanallen.org, 10/13/2014)

Colonel Bernie Sanders: Vermont's Millionaire Socialist. 


Strike Out
No one knows if the Obama administration will manage in the next five weeks to strike what many in the White House consider the most important foreign policy deal of his presidency: an accord with Iran that would forestall its ability to make a nuclear weapon. But the White House has made one significant decision: If agreement is reached, President Obama will do everything in his power to avoid letting Congress vote on it. (New York Times, 10/20/2014)

Choose your response:

-Gwyneth Paltrow will be just so pleased.

-Democracy in action.

-What Imperial Presidency?

Obama Searches for New Strategy as Kumbaya Fails with Russia, Middle East

Poland 1939
Our apologies for failing to note the 75th anniversary on September 1st of Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland. It is a time to reflect again on the dangers of the failure to recognize evil and of the use of appeasement to avoid hard choices. The proud Polish people have persevered notwithstanding and remain one of America's greatest allies. 


Close Encounters
Obama and Wasserman Schultz have rarely even talked since 2011. They don’t meet about strategy or messaging. They don’t talk much on the phone. Instead, the DNC chairwoman stakes out the president of the United States at the end of photo lines at events and fundraisers. “You need another picture, Debbie?” Obama tends to say, according to people who’ve been there for the encounters. (POLITICO.com, 9/18/2014)

This is just too funny!


Skeptical
Emails sent by liberal activists and obtained by The Hill reveal significant dissatisfaction with Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. The critical messages about the former first lady show that she has a long way to go to assuage skepticism from influential voices on the left. (thehill.com, 9/18/2014)

Our Liberal friends are endlessly talking about how good Republicans need to distance themselves from the "extremist" views of the Tea Party. Of course our view is that good Republicans need to become more like the Tea Party. Now with Hillary 'Maybe-Not-So-Inevitable' Clinton readying herself for 2016, the question is how she will reconcile with the Far Left moonbat constituency of the Democrat party. Liberals would not be floating novelty candidate names like Elizabeth Warren (she's a fighter!) and Colonel Bernie Sanders (Vermont's crazy old uncle in the Senate) if all was well on the Left. 


Handy
President Obama will take a hands-on approach to the United States airstrikes in Syria against the Islamic State and will personally sign off on bombing targets in the country, according to the Wall Street Journal. (nationalreview.com, 9/16/2014)

As with Obama personally picking which Islamic terrorists would get his drone cure, we find this a little creepy. Why not let the military do its job?


From Yesterday's WSJ
Economist Thomas Sowell's "The Vision of the Anointed" (1995):

Among the many other questions raised by the nebulous concept of "greed" is why it is a term applied almost exclusively to those who want to earn more money or to keep what they have already earned—never to those wanting to take other people's money in taxes or to those wishing to live on the largess dispensed from such taxation. No amount of taxation is ever described by the anointed as "greed" on the part of government or the clientele of government. . . .


Transformation
Lawrence J. Ellison on Thursday announced his retirement as chief executive of Oracle, a company he founded in 1977 that has transformed the way businesses use technology and made him one of the world’s richest people. (New York Times, 9/19/2014)

Giving proof to Thomas Sowell's quote above we looked at the comments section of this New York Times article on Larry Ellison and found this from NYT reader Pancho: "Definitely a robber baron. Obscene wealth..."

Remind us Pancho, what have you created?


Freebies!
The municipal identification cards that New York plans to start issuing next year in an effort to make life easier for undocumented immigrants will come with an added benefit so enticing that many others may sign up for them too: an offer of free tickets or discounts at 33 of the city’s leading cultural institutions. (New York Times, 9/19/2014)

Sub Commander Bill de Blasio continues the Liberal War on America. Namely, turning America over to illegal immigrants. Next up: government pensions for the 'undocumented.'

Liberals are destroying America. 

Boots In The Air

Reversal
Democrats have reversed the partisan imbalance on the federal appeals courts that long favored conservatives, a little-noticed shift with far-reaching consequences for the law and President Obama’s legacy.

For the first time in more than a decade, judges appointed by Democratic presidents considerably outnumber judges appointed by Republican presidents. (New York Times, 9/13/2014)

So now there is a "partisan imbalance" in favor of Liberals. Got it.

And how did Liberals accomplish this? 

"The Democrats’ advantage has only grown since late last year when they stripped Republicans of their ability to filibuster the president’s nominees."

Of course, now we remember, they cheated by unilaterally changing the rules. Well these things have a way of turning around. Republicans will remember and Dems will rue the day.


The Count
Obama Death Count (Servicemen and women who have died since January 20, 2009) = 2115
(from Conservativeamerican.org)

Thanks to Conservative American for keeping the tally that the Legitimate Media will not. 


Bitter Clinger
At one point, Mr. Obama noted acidly that President Ronald Reagan sent Marines to Lebanon only to have hundreds of them killed in a terrorist attack because of terrible planning, and then withdrew the remaining ones, leaving behind a civil war that lasted years. But Reagan, he noted, is hailed as a titan striding the earth. (New York Times, 9/14/2014)

One of President Obama's least attractive attributes is his endless whining about how he is treated differently than past presidents, how he is held to a different standard, how everyone is just so unfair. Obama has essentially coasted through life, attaining positions far beyond his skills, his effort and his intellect. Finally, he has reached a point where he is held accountable. And he does not like it. 

Yes, Reagan was a giant. Obama cannot carry his shoes, let alone fill them. 


Selfie
Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” self-identified socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said he is considering running as a Democrat in the 2016 presidential election. Sanders said, "I am the longest serving independent in the history of the United States congress. That's how I have always won in the state of Vermont. I am thinking about running for president. The issue whether you run as an independent with the necessity of setting up a 50-state infrastructure, running as a Democrat that's something i'm looking at." (Breitbart.com, 9/14/2014)

RedStateVT has led the charge to rally Colonel Bernie Sanders to run for president. It is only on the national stage that he can be exposed as the charlatan that we in Vermont know him to be. 


Authorization
President Obama’s first initiated war against an Islamic terrorist group is authorized, the White House says, by George W. Bush-signed legislation that Mr. Obama has criticized and wanted to repeal since last year. (Washington Times, 9/14/2014)

And so once again, Bush and Cheney were right. 

Do Over

Phased Out
Waged by a president with faded public standing, the new phase will not involve many American troops on the ground, but seems certain to require a far more intense American bombing blitz than in Somalia or Yemen. (New York Times, 9/11/2014)

President Obama's entire foreign policy when it comes to using American might to fight the bad guys is first, do nothing if possible; and second, if that does not work, bomb them. The reason is because he, like all Democrats, cannot get past the Viet Nam War. And so, in their view, the U.S. can NEVER fight another war in which we have "boots on the ground." Soldiers might die and how would that look? Of course, the freedoms that we enjoy today are ONLY because brave men sacrificed their lives to defend our country. In the bizarre world of Democrat national security, boots in the air is OK, boots on the ground, not. The logic is mind-bending, but typical. 


Rally Cap
While other commanders in chief enjoyed a surge in public support when they took the nation to war, the nation is not exactly rallying behind Mr. Obama this time around. A fresh battery of polls this week indicated that most Americans do want him to go after ISIS yet disapprove of his leadership. In other words, they support the policy but not the president.

Peter D. Feaver, a former national security aide to Mr. Bush and President Bill Clinton, said the public unease was due, in part, to Mr. Obama’s own shifting descriptions of the threat and his acknowledgment two weeks ago that he had no strategy yet. “Until tonight, the Obama administration has done a textbook job of following the script on how to undermine public confidence,” he said. (New York Times, 9/11/2014)

It was fascinating to flip channels last night after the President's speech on ISIS. On Fox, the panel discussed how Obama's actions represented a reversal of many of his previous pronouncements and policies. On MSNBC, the panel debated whether Obama needed to get Congressional approval and whether Republicans would obstruct him. The Fox panel included a retired four star general. The MSNBC panel included foreign policy guru Al Sharpton decked out in his trademark track suit. Just kidding! (Sharpton is not really a foreign policy expert. He just plays one on TV.)

MSNBC turned to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for reaction and analysis. A highly agitated Sanders talked about how the middle class in America is disappearing. Then he talked about the Viet Nam War. He said "Bush-Cheney" three times in sixty seconds. He opined that everything Obama had done so far in Iraq and the Middle East was correct and how what Obama was now proposing was also correct. He and MSNBC's Chris Matthews talked about how they agreed with each other.

Lean Sideways.


Hands Down
The demonstration took place about five miles from the street in Ferguson where Mr. Brown, who was black and unarmed, was killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, on Aug. 9. Some witnesses have said that Mr. Brown, 18, had put his hands up in surrender. Officer Wilson, who has not been charged, has been placed on leave, and his location is unknown. (New York Times, 9/11/2014)

Full disclosure (which you will not get from the Times): 

"Others said that Mr. Brown - after robbing a convenience store, assaulting a clerk and refusing police instructions to walk on the sidewalk instead of the middle of the road - punched Officer Wilson in the face."


What The Kids Are Doing
California is poised to become the first state to require all colleges that receive state funds to strengthen their policies on sexual assault by mandating that students give active consent to one another before all sexual activity, either by saying “yes” to a spoken query or by signaling assent in a nonverbal way. (New York Times, 9/10/2014)

For years and years and years all we heard from Liberals was that conservatives were inserting themselves and their morality (no pun intended) into people's bedrooms. 

My how times have changed!



From RedStateVT
On this day we again remember and honor all those citizens who lost their lives due to Islamic terrorism, our soldiers who have also died and those who are now serving.

How to Waterboard a Terrorist

Despicable Him
Sanders, who chairs the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, has been one of the most outspoken defenders of the VA against allegations of misconduct. When asked about reports of multiple deaths related to long wait times at the VA healthcare system, Sanders told CNN: “People die every day.” (Freebeacon.com, 5/23/2014)

Thanks to the Washington Free Beacon for reminding us of this despicable comment by 2016 presidential candidate - and Vermont's own disgrace - Colonel (Bernie) Sanders. Of course, no Vermont media is reporting the Colonel's remarks. This is why you have RedStateVT. 

Here are a couple other of our favorite recent comments about the Obama administration's V.A. scandal:

This is precisely why President Obama’s VA scandal is the most serious and damaging of his presidency. It is the Obama administration in sum and in miniature: incompetent management of a health system, defended by crude media manipulation. (Michael Gerson, Washington Post, 5/22/2014)

As recently as November 2011, Paul Krugman praised the VA as a triumph of "socialized medicine," as he put it: "What's behind this success? Crucially, the V.H.A. is an integrated system, which provides health care as well as paying for it. So it's free from the perverse incentives created when doctors and hospitals profit from expensive tests and procedures, whether or not those procedures actually make medical sense." Ah, yes, the VA lacks the evil profit motive. (Wall Street Journal, 5/23/2014)


GM is Alive and Osama bin Laden is Dead
"We just went through the opening of the 9/11 museum. I know they will come after us if they can. I see the intelligence. Terror is not down in the world. It is up. Both deaths, injuries in many, many different places. Al Qaeda has metastasized. The question becomes how do we prevent an attack in this country." 

Guess who said this?

Give up?

Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein!  (As quoted in Daniel Henninger's column in the Wall Street Journal, May 23, 2014) 

And from the same column, there is this:

Here's a save-our-girls conundrum. If you asked their parents if they would waterboard a Boko Haram captive to find where the girls are, what do you think they'd say?

Here's an idea. Let's ask Bernie Sanders!

Secrets of Obama's Choom Gang Revealed!

Rarely
The requirement that doctors have admitting privileges has emerged as a new tactic of the anti-abortion movement, which says it is intended to protect women’s health. But major medical groups have said that the rule has no bearing on safety since, in the rare cases of emergency, hospitals will accept and treat women experiencing complications from abortion regardless. Abortion providers and many medical experts call the requirement a thinly disguised effort to shut down clinics and undermine the right to abortion under Roe v. Wade. (New York Times, 5/22/2014)

Other "rare cases" include pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, but the pro-abortion crowd screams about that every time that someone tries to place any restrictions whatsoever on abortion. Of course, it is not rape and incest that they are really concerned about. What they are obsessed with is free and unfettered access to abortion for any women at any stage of her pregnancy whether she can pay for it or not.


Nobody is Madder Than Him
The White House fought on Tuesday to contain the growing political furor over allegations of misconduct at the nation’s veterans hospitals as Republicans, eager to use the issue in the midterm elections, seized on the reports as new evidence that President Obama is unable to govern effectively. (New York Times, 5/20/2014)

Of all the myriad of scandals surrounding Obama, we were inclined to give him a pass on this one. Until we read this:

As a candidate for president, Mr. Obama denounced delays and poor care for veterans at hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs and vowed that his administration would address the backlogs and greatly improve care. He pledged in a 2008 campaign speech to build “a 21st-century V.A.” and to confront what he called “the broken bureaucracy of the V.A.”

So, we have yet another Obama screw-up. But we wanted to know why...and then we found the answer:

The president is also sending Denis R. McDonough, his chief of staff, to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to consult with the chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont. 

Obama puts Colonel Bernie Sanders, the pride of Vermont and the least competent person in the Senate in charge. No wonder the V.A. is a mess.

The Real March Madness

Promises Promises
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. met with Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland in Warsaw to assure allies in Eastern Europe that the United States would protect them against any Russian aggression. (New York Times, 3/19/2014)

Possible responses from Poland:

--Obama sends Biden, what is this, a joke?

--Five years ago Obama cancelled our missile defense treaty. Why should we believe him now?

--Thank you for your concern. By the way, we are moving Polish troops to our eastern border.


Seriously
The alternative to passivity is not war but a serious foreign policy. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 3/13/2014)

Peace through superior firepower.


Dintly
Sanders, a Senator with no private-sector experience and no scientific background whatsoever, declares that there is “no debate” on climate change. None. Simply by dint of him saying so, probably the least-qualified person schlumping down Senate hallways to make a pronouncement on science in any way, shape or form, says debate is over.

The core of science is debate. The core of science is to challenge accepted norms to find the flaws in the argument.  It’s like asking explorers to stop exploring because everything that could be explored has been explored – so stop exploring West in the Pacific, he would have argued, and North America wouldn’t have been discovered by European countries. (Chris Campion, Ethanallen.org, 3/17/2014)

Well put. The core of science is debate...except for Liberals. (Also loved the smackdown of "Bernie the Science Nerdie.")


Rank
Although a poll by the Pew Research Center last October found that 67 percent of Americans believe that global warming is happening, a Pew poll in January showed that Americans ranked global warming as 19th on a list of 20 issues for Congress and the president. (New York Times, 3/20/2014)

The cost of Obama and fellow Democrats focusing on issues like global warming, legalized marijuana, assisted suicide, opening more abortion clinics and gutting the military is Russian aggression, high unemployment, higher taxes and $4 per gallon gas.  


Pull
Guinness passed up a big beer moment this week when it pulled its sponsorship of the St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City. But it also sent a message about social change and the leading role that business, in its own interest, can play.

The flap in New York started when parade organizers said gay marchers were welcome but couldn't carry gay-related signs. Guinness called that a "policy of exclusion" and pulled the plug. (Wall Street Journal, 3/19/2014)

Because for the Gay Mafia, it is not enough to be included in the parade, they HAVE to be able to tout their sexual preferences, particularly if it is a family-friendly event. How would they feel, we wonder, about a group of Irish marchers under a banner that proclaims Proud Irish Heterosexuals?


The Brig
Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair received a reprimand on Thursday from a military judge, after he pleaded guilty to charges that included mistreating his mistress, adultery and requesting explicit photographs from female Army officers. (New York Times, 3/20/2014)

The Number One story in Liberal America for several weeks now has not been Crimea or the Malaysian airliner disappearance. No, it has been a sexual misconduct case in the military. We know that Liberals are serious about harassment of female subordinates in the workplace because of the way in which they went after Bill Clinton when he was doing the barely legal interns in the Oval Office. Just kidding!

Liberals are shocked - shocked - that after forcing the integration of the sexes in the military there is now sexual abuse. The military, which throughout the entire course of history has been male and included its share of deviants.

And one more thing, isn't the position of mistress a voluntary one?