The Card of Contempt

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. 

We Begin the Process of Vetting Colonel Bernie Sanders

Burnie
(Bernie Sanders) thinks Social Security should increase benefits, no matter that it is heading toward insolvency. Higher taxes can make up the difference. He’d shrink the defense budget so foreign military operations would be all but impossible. He wants single-payer health care, though his own state gave up the experiment as too expensive. He thinks foreign trade impoverishes the middle class. (Wall Street Journal, 5/2/2015)

The phrases that you will hear (endlessly) from Colonel Bernie Sanders include:

Millionaires and billionaires - (Bernie's definition): The people responsible for the evil in the world

Bush and Cheney - (Bernie's definition): The people responsible for the evil in the world


Question for Bernie:

If elected president will you immediately bring charges against hedge funders George Soros, Tom Steyer and (Clinton son-in-law) Marc Mezvinsky? If not, why not?


New York Times, May 3, 2015:
Christie’s Camp Mobilizes to Salvage White House Hopes

With Bridge Case Charges, a Cloud Descends on Christie’s White House Hopes

2 Indicted in George Washington Bridge Case; Ally of Christie Pleads Guilty

Document: Indictment Against Baroni and Kelly

Coverage of the Bridge Scandal

George Washington Bridge Scandal: What You Need to Know

Graphic: Chris Christie and the Lane Closings: A Spectator’s Guide

First Draft: Hogan Fund-Raiser for Christie Comes at a Bad Time

Question: What story has the New York Times identified as the most important of the decade?


Weathered
Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to have initially weathered a barrage of news about her use of a private email account when she was secretary of state and the practices of her family’s foundation, an indication that she is starting her second presidential bid with an unusual durability among Democratic voters. (New York Times, 5/5/2015)

In a poll of Democrat voters taken on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, support for Hillary remains strong. To have their preferences included respondents had to answer the following pre-qualification question in the affirmative: Have you given money to Hillary for President in the past 48 hours?


Super Duper
Hillary Rodham Clinton will begin personally courting donors for a super PAC supporting her candidacy, the first time a Democratic presidential candidate has fully embraced the independent groups that can accept unlimited checks from big donors and are already playing a major role in the 2016 race.

Her decision is another escalation in what is expected to be the most expensive presidential campaign in history. Mrs. Clinton’s allies hope that with her support, Priorities USA Action, the top Democratic super PAC, will be able to raise as much as $200 million to $300 million, on par with what the largest Republican organizations, such as the Karl Rove-founded American Crossroads super PAC and its nonprofit affiliate, spent in 2012.

Running for re-election that year, President Obama reluctantly endorsed fund-raising by the same super PAC now supporting Mrs. Clinton because of fears that he would be outspent by Republicans who were more aggressive in using what was then a new vehicle for raising large amounts of money that could be used in support of a campaign but not go directly to it. But he never appeared at any of its fund-raisers. (New York Times, 5/6/2015)

So noble Democrats only get down in the dirt and go the Super PAC route...because of the evil Republicans!

Thug Life

Stemmed
A former Port Authority official and ally of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is expected to plead guilty on Friday to the first charges stemming from the 16-month federal investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closings scandal. (New York Times, 5/1/2015)

The New York Times interrupts its ongoing investigation into the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal to report on Chris Christie and Bridgegate. Just kidding!  The New York Times has moved on from the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal. Better to circle back to an (even older) Republican scandal. And so the Times provides readers with a useful color graphic showing all the Bridgegate players. Also included is a helpful Q&A for readers who want even more information. No doubt the Times is thinking Pulitzer Prize....


It's Never the Perp's Fault
The problem is not black culture. It is policy and politics, the very things that bind together the history of Ferguson and Baltimore and, for that matter, the rest of America.

...the financial enrichment of landlords, corner store merchants and other vendors selling second-rate goods.

...The problem originates in a political culture that has long bound black bodies to questions of property. Yes, I’m referring to slavery.
...
The conditions in West Baltimore today are the direct consequence of speculative real estate practices that have long targeted people with few to no options.
...
Cities that are starved for income have found ways to raise revenues by way of fines and fees exacted from poor, underemployed African-Americans and migrants of color. These include property taxes and court costs. (N. D. B. Connolly is an assistant professor of history at Johns Hopkins University, New York Times, 5/1/2015)

You might have thought the root causes of the rioting in Baltimore were illegitimacy, the breakdown of the black family, the glorification of violent rap culture and decades of misguided government policies toward poverty. 

You would be wrong. 

Luckily we have Professor Connolly to set us straight.

Professor Connolly helpfully informs us as to the REAL issues which include: the merchants who provide goods and services to impoverished communities, landlords who provide housing to the poor and the local governments who collect taxes.

Oh, and slavery. (If only America would outlaw slavery....)

Time to take Johns Hopkins off the list of potential schools for Junior.

The Exaction of Justice

Unfocused
Indecisiveness is the predominant characteristic of how Mr. Obama executes U.S. national-security policy. Undoubtedly there are other influences: ideological blinders; mistrust of America’s presence in the world; inadequate interest, knowledge, focus and resolve. But in implementing his policies, good or bad, the president has shown that equivocating is what he does best. (John Bolton, Wall Street Journal, 2/18/2015)

That pretty much sums it up, doesn't it? There is almost no decision that Obama isn't willing to postpone.

Best line from Bolton? This one:
Colin Powell as secretary of state once advised British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that “if you want to bring the Iranians around, you have to hold an ax over their heads.” Instead, Mr. Obama is holding a selfie stick over his own.


Ending
CNN reports that “between 4.5 million and 7.5 million taxpayers received subsidies,” and an earlier CNN report cites an H&R Block estimate that 3.4 million of them will end up owing the IRS money on the deal. (Wall Street Journal, 2/18/2015)

OK, for the one-thousandth time: What would be the reaction to news like this if George Bush and Republicans had promulgated a policy like Obamacare? Answer: Rioting in the streets, egged on by MSNBC and the New York Times.


Error
About 800,000 taxpayers who enrolled in insurance policies through HealthCare.gov received erroneous tax information from the government, and were urged on Friday to hold off on filing tax returns until the error could be corrected. (New York Times, 2/20/2015)

Liberals prove - once again - that government cannot be trusted to do much of anything correctly. 

Liberal answer? Hire more government workers.


Avoidance
President Obama chooses his words with particular care when he addresses the volatile connections between religion and terrorism. He and his aides have avoided labeling acts of brutal violence by Al Qaeda, the so-called Islamic State and their allies as “Muslim” terrorism or describing their ideology as “Islamic” or “jihadist.”

With remarkable consistency — including at a high-profile White House meeting this week, “Countering Violent Extremism” — they have favored bland, generic terms over anything that explicitly connects attacks or plots to Islam. (New York Times, 2/19/2015)

In his ceaseless quest not to offend Muslims Obama is all-too-willing to offend just about everyone else - Christians, Jews, Americans, Europeans, etc.

In return for his delicacy, radical Muslims continue with the beheadings. We're guessing this is just another example of how Obama has been "set free to be himself" because he has no more elections. 

Best line from the WSJ on this topic:
Foreign policy is not a Harry Potter tale of good versus He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. (Wall Street Journal, 2/19/2015)


Argumentative
As he sought to rally the world behind a renewed attack on terrorism, President Obama argued on Thursday that force of arms was not enough and called on all nations to “put an end to the cycle of hate” by expanding human rights, religious tolerance and peaceful dialogue. (New York Times, 2/20/2015)

Because what the radical Islamists are really seeking is human rights, religious tolerance and peaceful dialogue....


Uniformed and Ignorant
The government should open a special enrollment period that lasts beyond April 15, the traditional filing time for most taxpayers. That would be fair to millions of consumers who remain uninformed about the health care law and ignorant about the subsidies it provides and the penalties for failing to enroll. And it would strengthen implementation of health care reform. (New York Times editorial, 2/19/2015)

New York Times editors apparently believe that there are still "millions of consumers" out there who do not know about the free health care available to them courtesy of Obamacare.


Endurance
Still, the country was treated to a level of detailed testimony on sexual indiscretion that surely surpassed what President Bill Clinton was made to endure over the liaison that eventually led to his impeachment in 1998. (New York Times, 2/20/2015)

In an article on French pervert Strauss-Kahn, the New York Times throws this line in. "What Bill Clinton was made to endure." Never mind what Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky and others endured.... In just a few short years, the Times will have reshaped Clintons travails from a sordid case of sexual abuse of an employee into a Republican hit job. 

Actually the Times has pretty much already done that, haven't they?


Supportive
He does not return phone calls. He does not ask for support. He arrives late for meetings. And he acts as if he has all the time in the world. The complaints have piled up for weeks, dismaying many longtime supporters of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and sending others into the arms of his rivals for the presidential nomination, according to interviews with more than two dozen Republican donors and strategists. (New York Times, 2/20/2015)

Jeb Bush. Chris Christie. Scott Walker. Jeb Bush. Jeb Bush. Scott Walker. Jeb Bush. Chris Christie. Scott Walker. 

What is it?

The New York Times rotation for hit pieces on potential Republican presidential contenders. 

Small Victories

Longing
Long before revelations in the spring that the Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix had manipulated waiting lists to hide that veterans were facing long delays to see doctors, senior department officials in Washington had been made aware of serious problems at the hospital, according to filings before a federal administrative board. (New York Times, 12/26/2014)

An entire article on the Veterans Affairs scandal and not one mention of the politician in charge of Senate oversight of the VA. Who would be..... Vermont's own Bernie Sanders! Can you imagine such a journalistic oversight if the senator had been, say, Ted Cruz?


Jihadist
The revival of the U.S. financial system after the crash of 2008 is arguably the Obama administration’s biggest domestic policy success. But Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), in her jihad against Wall Street, seems determined to devalue this accomplishment — and to make financial expertise a mark of shame for Democrats, rather than a source of pride. (David Ignatius, Washington Post, 12/23/2014)

Even Liberal columnists realize that - when it comes to the financial markets - Lizzie Warren is off the reservation..... wait, can we say that? 


Let's Analyze Kat's Column
The embargo hurt the Cuban people it claimed to help and bolstered the regime that it intended to undermine. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 12/23/2014)

And how we know that the U.S. embargo has "bolstered the regime" is because ... what?

The effort to isolate Cuba has been increasingly isolating the United States both in the hemisphere and across the world.

And the specific proof that the U.S. has been 'isolated' by its embargo is that Hugo Chavez in Venezuela is no friend to the U.S. Oh wait, he's dead. 

Normalizing relations with Cuba enables the United States to advocate for individual liberty, without being seen as a bully trying to club a small neighbor into submission.

Great idea Kat! Let's try this with North Korea!

The Cold War is over; the Soviet Union no more.

And Putin's invasion of the Ukraine, that doesn't count.

For more than a century, we have casually and routinely trampled the sovereign rights of our neighbors to the south.

Finally we get to the real point that Comrade vanden Heuvel wants to make: it is all America's fault! Yes, blame America.


Eyes On
Polls taken over the last three months reveal a list of home-state complaints: Mr. Christie’s favorability is at its lowest point, with more voters disapproving than approving of his job performance. New Jersey residents think he is making decisions with an eye on his national standing rather than on what is good for their state. (New York Times, 12/28/2014)

Chris Christie probably breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the New York Times had pivoted away from writing endless negative stories about him to focus on Jeb Bush. He was foolish if he thought he could let his guard down. Given that the Times will be writing no hit pieces on Hillary Clinton, Lizzie Warren or Bernie Sanders, it has plenty of capacity to focus on all the potential Republican candidates.


Bouncer
What’s the important lesson from this late Obama bounce? Mainly, I’d suggest, that everything you’ve heard about President Obama’s economic policies is wrong. (Paul Krugman, New York Times, 12/29/2014)

After six years of dreadful economic news, it is now official. We can refer to any uptick as "the Obama recovery." Yes, those specific programs that Obama put in place have led to this "bounce." Guess they just took a little time to work..... Of course, voters rewarded Obama and the Democrat party for their careful stewardship of the economy by keeping the Senate in their hands and returning the House to the Dems. That happened, right?

Shadow Shall Cover Us

Buffed
House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday rebuffed conservatives who had been urging him not to invite President Obama to deliver the State of the Union address, in protest over his executive actions on immigration. 

Boehner reasoned that giving Obama the floor would hurt, not help, the president's cause. 

"The more the president talks about his ideas, the more unpopular he becomes," Boehner said. "Why would I want to deprive him of that opportunity?" (Foxnews.com, 12/4/2014)

Who would have guessed that Boehner had such a good sense of humor? He should thank Obama for giving him good material. 


Busted
First, while it’s true that most Americans have insurance through Medicare, Medicaid, and employment-based coverage, that doesn’t mean that only the current uninsured benefit from a program that guarantees affordable care. Maybe you have good coverage now, but what happens if you’re fired, or your employer goes bust, or it cancels its insurance program? What if you want to change jobs for whatever reason, but can’t find a new job that comes with insurance? (Paul Krugman, New York Times, 12/5/2014)

It is shocking that Krugman does not know what you do if you lose your employer-sponsored health insurance. 

So here's the answer: you buy individual health insurance. It is offered in all 50 states. 

We are pleased to be able to provide this public service message...


Evidentiary
A long-awaited report by a New Jersey legislative committee says that there is “no conclusive evidence” whether Gov. Chris Christie knew about the controversial lane closings at the George Washington Bridge in 2013 before or as they were happening.

But in a detailed chronology, the report argues that the governor had many opportunities to know about the lane closings, the political motive behind them and the involvement of his administration, even as he insisted he knew nothing. (New York Times, 12/5/2014)

The Times continues its hard-hitting investigative reporting on what New Jersey Governor Chris Christie knew about a traffic back-up on the GW Bridge. Once reporting has been completed - and not before - they will be able to turn their attention to Lois Lerner and those lost and found e-mails.

Liberals: Ebola Not the Fault of Obama, Maybe of Bush

Percentage
“If you’re looking for someone you agree with 100 percent of the time, go home and look in the mirror, because you’re it.” (New Jersey governor Chris Christie, quoted in George Will, Washington Post, 10/8/2014)

We liked this line from Christie. And this one from Will:

Christie, who exudes executive authority, is the antithesis of today’s bewildered incumbent floundering from the disappearing “red line” regarding Syria to the HealthCare.gov debacle to the Veterans Affairs scandals to the no-one-tells-me-anything surprise about the Islamic State to the Secret Service that cannot lock the White House’s front door.


Not Fonder
There’s the sense of an absence where the president should be. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 10/10/2014)

Noonan continues to get off some memorable one-liners on President Abject Failure. 


Freshly
Secretary of State John Kerry announced $212 million in fresh aid for Gaza on Sunday as diplomats from more than 40 nations gathered here to pledge funds for the territory’s reconstruction.

The new assistance is in addition to $118 million in humanitarian aid that the United States provided to residents of Gaza earlier this year. (New York Times, 10/12/2014)

Remind us again, why are we giving millions of dollars to people who hate us?


Take a Pass
It would be wonderful if we were able to give this man all of the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass. (Gwyneth Paltrow, quoted by Robert Davi on Breitbart.com, 10/10/2014)

Hollywood nitwit Paltrow reveals something that Liberals will occasionally let slip: they like dictators. In their world, dictators get things done without all the unnecessary red tape of a democracy. This explains their fascination with Mao, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.


The Burn
With the contretemps over lane closings on the George Washington Bridge on the back burner for now and Mr. Christie laying groundwork for a Republican presidential run... (New York Times, 10/12/2014)

So what the New York Times is telling us is that - after they provided wall-to-wall coverage of Bridgegate with an endless spate of articles and notwithstanding the eventual exoneration of Christie - they are not done covering the story. Should Christie run for president the Times will be back to gin up the issue. Benghazi coverage, by the way, has concluded. 


Provocateurs
The secretary general of the United Nations on Monday condemned what he called “provocations” at Jerusalem’s holy sites, hours after the Israeli police said officers had locked Palestinians inside Al Aksa Mosque to thwart a riot as Jews visited for the holiday of Sukkot. (New York Times, 10/12/2014)

What could have prompted the Israelis to act so belligerently, violating the rights of the Palestinians to worship in peace? Luckily we have only to read the next sentence of the article to find out:

Scores of officers entered the mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem at 7 a.m. on Monday and found “petrol bombs, stones, bottle rockets and fireworks” as well as “masked Palestinians,” according to the police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld. 

OK, got it.


Bluntly
Islamic State militants have gained territory in Iraq and Syria despite weeks of bombing by the U.S. and its allies, raising questions about the coalition’s strategy of trying to blunt the jihadists’ advance while local forces are being trained to meet the threat on the ground. (Wall street Journal, 10/12/2014)

Well thank God we have no boots on ground....

Fertile Soil

Christie Count
Seeking Political Revival, Christie Joins ’16 Contenders at G.O.P. Forum (New York Times, 3/30/2014)

Only one Chris Christie story in yesterday's New York Times. This is outrageous. Write the Times today and demand more Christie/Bridgegate stories. 

(Of course still nothing on gun-running California Democrat Leland Yee....)


Melting, Collapsing, Intensifying
The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations group that periodically summarizes climate science, concluded that ice caps are melting, sea ice in the Arctic is collapsing, water supplies are coming under stress, heat waves and heavy rains are intensifying, coral reefs are dying, and fish and many other creatures are migrating toward the poles or in some cases going extinct. (New York Times, 3/31/2014)

The previously discredited IPCC issues its April Fools Day missive on global...make that climate change.

Of course you would have to dig deep to find out the real objective. It's all about foreign aid:

It cited a World Bank estimate that poor countries need as much as $100 billion a year to try to offset the effects of climate change; they are now getting, at best, a few billion dollars a year in such aid from rich countries.

The wonderful Climatedepot.com provides the real (convenient) truth:

Seventeen and a half years. Not a flicker of global warming. The RSS satellite record, the first of the five global-temperature datasets to report its February value, shows a zero trend for an impressive 210 months. (Climatedepot.com, 3/4/2014)


Horror Story for Harry Reid
Then there is Donna Morse, 61, a widowed dental hygienist and yoga buff who is long overdue for a mammogram and blood work. She lost her insurance last year because it did not meet the new law’s standards. Now she has a new plan with much higher premiums, and which few doctors and hospitals will accept. (New York Times, 3/31/2014)

Not sure how this got by the censors at the Times, but it would appear that, for some, health care premiums are much higher and their doctors and hospitals are no longer available. Oh well...


Transoutrage
A Cambridge transgender woman, outraged that convicted wife killer Michelle Kosilek could receive a free gender reassignment operation that health insurers refuse to cover for law-abiding citizens, has filed suit demanding the same right to tax-funded surgery — a move critics say could mark the beginning of a dramatic, costly shift in entitlements under the controversial federal court ruling. (Bostonherald.com, 3/31/2014)

So - to be clear - an individual wants his/her health insurance company to pay for his/her "gender reassignment" surgery based on the legal precedent that a convicted criminal has apparently won the right to have taxpayers pay for his/her surgery (the criminal's that is).

This is the world that Liberals have created. And America as we knew it is gone.

The Emperor's Inclination

Headlines in Today's New York Times:
Port Authority Official Is Out Amid Scandal Over Shut Lanes
Christie Ally Is Undone by Word in an Email
Potentially Explosive Detail in Bridge Scandal Is Unlikely to Be Confirmed
Today's Editorials: A Christie Appointee Quits, Finally
Collins: A Christie Life Primer
Exchange in Bridge Scandal Unlikely to Be Confirmed
A Christie Appointee Quits, Finally

America's paper of record. Meanwhile, because the New York Times is a non-partisan paper we get this single headline:

Newly Released Clinton-Era Papers Show Damage Control During Scandal

Of course, the Times gives us not a word on gun-running California Democrat Leland Yee. Look away people, no media bias here. 


In This Corner
“No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation.” That’s the kind of sentiment you expect from a Miss America contestant asked to name her fondest wish, not from the leader of the free world explaining his foreign policy. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 3/27/2014)

Obama’s words and actions matter, however, and his handling of the Ukraine crisis has been firm, steady and realistic. (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, 3/27/2014)

Krauthammer vs. Robinson. It's just not a fair fight. 


Flaky Fluke
Depending on the court’s rulings, the cases’ outcomes could deny millions of women coverage of any or all forms of birth control, limiting women’s ability to control their reproductive health, plan their pregnancies and manage their lives. (Sandra Fluke, Washington Post, 3/24/2014)

America's oldest law student hasn't been heard from in a while, but she is back with her familiar cause: everyone should get free birth control. Never mind that it is well documented that birth control pills are available at Wal Mart pharmacies for $9.99. Less than a couple of vanilla lattes. No, "millions" of women are at risk. Even Liberals should run from this gibberish. 

Spirits to Enforce

Heavy Metal
Kennametal plant officials announced Tuesday they would close the Lyndonville plant, which employs a total of about 80 people. The last day of production will be June 30. (VTDigger.org, 3/27/2014)

Reached for comment about the latest hit to employment in Vermont while vacationing in the Caribbean, Gov. Peter Shumlin vowed to focus on job creation in the state when he returns. As soon as illegal aliens in the state are granted drivers licenses. 

Actually Crummy Shummy vowed to send a "Rapid Response Team" up to Lyndonville. Not to save the jobs of Kennametal workers, it is too late for that. The RRT will help the newly unemployed to apply for unemployment benefits. So Shyster Shumster apparently has no problem helping hard-working folks like the Kennametal employees, he would just rather wait until they lose their jobs first. 


Close Encounters
Self-employed people in her area — truck drivers and cosmetologists, for instance — seem eager to sign up, Ms. Walls said, but “negative press” and problems with the federal website have discouraged many consumers. At the small town educational sessions she runs, she often encounters people whose conservative political philosophy makes them uncomfortable about accepting federal subsidies to buy private coverage. (New York Times, 3/28/2014)

Ah yes, self-reliance. That is something that we conservatives are just going to have to get over if we are going to survive in Obamaworld. 


Praised
In some states that have expanded Medicaid, like Kentucky — which has drawn national praise as a model for other states to follow — the biggest chunk of the newly insured are Medicaid patients. More than 300,000 Kentuckians are enrolled in new health coverage, the state says, 80 percent of them through Medicaid. (New York Times, 3/28/2014)

Eighty percent on the public dole. That is something that Liberals can truly be proud of!


Headlines in Today's New York Times
A Whitewash for Chris Christie
Motive Still Unclear in Christie-Backed Lane Closing Report
Report Details a Claim That Christie Knew of Closings
About New York: Report’s Silence Is Deafening
Sexism Is Seen in Report on Former Christie Aide
About New York: Silence Is Deafening in Bridge Report
Report Details Claim by Ally: Christie Knew of Bridge Lane Closings

What is the most important story of the day according to the New York Times? 

Meanwhile, MSNBC (during our short daily watching period) did another ten minutes on Christie and Bridgegate. With a host and two analysts! After there was a brief mention of something happening in the Ukraine. 

The Education of Chris Christie

An article in today's New York Times discusses New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's break with MSNBC, a network that he had assiduously courted to burnish his credentials as a Republican who could reach across the aisle. MSNBC has been running daily 25 hour coverage of the New Jersey Conegate scandal and Christie understandably objects. Christie now joins McCain and past Republicans who MSNBC championed only to villify once it was in the interest of the Democrat party to do so. 

The original deal in these cases is structured as follows: MSNBC gets to portray itself as an objective news organization (we don't hate ALL Republicans!) and, of course, the Republican gets to appear as someone who Liberals can perhaps tolerate (if they must). In EVERY instance, however, the Republican eventually gets burned. Put your hand too close to the crocodile's mouth and, sooner or later, it will get bitten. 

Here, MSNBC recognized that the only thing that was going to deflect attention from the recent damning report claiming State Department culpability in the Benghazi tragedy - and the negative impact on Hillary Clinton - was something big. No doubt MSNBC would have preferred to defer wall-to-wall coverage of the Conegate scandal until Christie became the Republican nominee, but they simply could not wait. And it has worked. What report on Benghazi?

Christie will survive Conegate and has hopefully learned an important lesson. Never trust the Legitimate Media (Joe Biden's characterization of the non-Fox media). Keep your guard up at all times. Never trust MSNBC. They are not your friends. 

The Random is at Work

Gates Of Delirium
Then came an exchange that is seared into my memory. Biden said he was ready to move forward, but the military "should consider the president's decision as an order."

"I am giving an order," Obama quickly said.

I was shocked. I had never heard a president explicitly frame a decision as a direct order. With the U.S. military, it is completely unnecessary. As secretary of defense, I had never issued an "order" to get something done; nor had I heard any commander do so. Obama's "order," at Biden's urging, demonstrated the complete unfamiliarity of both men with the American military culture. (Robert M. Gates, Wall Street Journal, 1/12/2014)

The Legitimate Media, providing 24 hour coverage of Conegate in New Jersey, missed this gem from Robert Gates's new book. Actually, they did not miss it, they just ignored it. To our ear, it should go down as one of the all-time most memorable Obama quotes along with "They cling to guns and religion", "You can keep your plan", and "I did not set a red line." 

Speaking of Conegate or Bridgegate, here's a good one on the difference between Christie and Obama:

Accountability update: More heads have rolled over ‘Bridgegate’ than the IRS scandal, Benghazi and botched Obamacare rollout combined (Doug Powers, MichelleMalkin.com, 1/9/2014)


Victim Alert!
To spend time alone with the man she married four months ago, Ebony Fisher, 25, drives nearly three hours through the flat cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta until she pulls into a gravel lot next to the state’s rural penitentiary.

She joins her husband, who in 2008 began serving a 60-year sentence for rape, aggravated assault and arson, in a small room with a metal bunk and a bathroom. (New York Times, 1/13/2014)

The Times bemoans the end of conjugal visits for prisoners in Mississippi. What exactly did Fisher's hubby do? Well the article explains: 

"He is serving time for molesting his former wife’s daughter..."

OK, got it.


Tendencies
People signing up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s federal and state marketplaces tend to be older and potentially less healthy, officials said Monday, a demographic mix that could cause premiums to rise in the future if the pattern persists. But officials expressed optimism that more young people will sign up in the months ahead, calling it “solid, solid news” for the health care law. (New York Times, 1/13/2014)

We are confused. Less younger, healthier people sign up, but it is "solid news." Reading on we learn: 

So far, 24 percent of private plan enrollees are ages 18 to 34, a percentage that is lower than what officials had hoped for this group. 

Where is the "solid news?" Perhaps it is this:

Nearly 80 percent of those who selected a plan qualified for federal subsidies to reduce their premiums, officials said.

That MUST be it! Eighty percent of enrollees getting government goodies certainly qualifies as "solid news" for Liberal redistributionists.


Declare Victory
Despite the treasured right-wing talking points, it’s increasingly clear that Obamacare is a success. (Harold Meyerson, Washington Post, 1/8/2014)

There is delusion. And then there are Liberals. And finally there is Meyerson.


Minimalism
The next item on Gesture Liberalism’s agenda is to raise the minimum wage for the 23rd time. Less than 3 percent of the workforce earns the minimum; more than 60 percent of those who do earn it get a raise within a year; more than half of minimum-wage earners are students or other part-time workers from households with average incomes of $53,000. Never mind. Raising the minimum is a gesture of devotion to “equality.” (George Will, Washington Post, 1/8/2014)

Will reveals more facts about the minimum wage. Which Liberals will ignore. So they can paint opponents as uncaring. This is getting old. 


Strictly Speaking
With the United States and Iran about to embark on a critical phase of nuclear talks, President Obama is waging an intense rear-guard action to prevent Senate Democrats from supporting strict new sanctions that could upend his diplomatic efforts.

Sponsors of the bill, which would aim to drive Iran’s oil exports down to zero, have secured the backing of 59 senators, putting them within striking distance of a two-thirds majority that could override Mr. Obama’s threatened veto. Republicans overwhelmingly support the bill. So far 16 Democrats have broken with the president, and the bill’s sponsors hope to get more. (New York Times, 1/14/2014)

Obstructionist Democrats! 

Tiny Terrors

Unqualified
The announcement itself was vague, saying only that if website problems had prevented any consumers from enrolling, they might qualify for what the government has called “a special enrollment period.” The administration did not say how long that would last. Nor did it define what website errors might be involved. 
...
In its effort to help consumers and to avoid political damage to the president, the administration has announced a series of policy changes, delays, extensions and clarifications in recent months. (New York Times, 12/24/2013)

Vague...undefined...changes...delays...extensions...clarifications. It's Obamacare!


Early Bird
Imagine a candidate who comes out early, and strong, for adding a public option to the ACA exchanges. It could become a signature issue with the liberal grass roots during the primaries, and it wouldn’t be a bad general election issue either — the polls in 2010 showed support for a public option among Republicans and independents as well as Democrats. (George Zornick, Washington Post, 12/24/2013)

There is cluelessness and then there is Liberalism. Still poverty after 50 years and hundreds of billions of dollars in aid? The Liberal answer is that we are not spending enough. Millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S.? Answer: wave a wand and decree them to be legal. Obamacare imploding? Take the next step and make the entire health care system government-run. Yes, the same government that has so effectively managed the U.S. Postal Service. (New postal rate hike imminent.) 

Speaking for the other side, RedStateVT strongly strongly strongly encourages Democrats to take up Zornick's charge. Demand that single payer be on the Democrat party platform and insist that all Democrats running for office sign on. 

(Republicans would have a super-majority for a hundred years...)


Swept Away
Taken together, they amount to a sweeping exercise of executive power — what Prof. Jonathan Turley of George Washington University Law School describes as a “pattern of circumventing Congress in the creation of new major standards, exceptions or outright nullifications.” (New York Times, 12/24/2013)

And once again, it is important to point out the obvious. For all the Liberal outrage about abuse of executive power by George Bush, it is Barack Obama who has repeatedly and shamelessly upped the game.

Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is quiet as a church mouse.


Math Problem
Stories Add Up as Bully Image Trails Christie (New York Times headline, 12/25/2013)

Time for the Times to start roughing up Chris Christie. Can't let those numbers get too high. They've got a female Democrat to get elected.


More Math
There are ten stories featured in the POLITICS section of the 12/24 edition of the New York Times. Three of the ten are about same sex marriage. Reached for comment, a Times spokesperson said: "Yeah, that's about right."

(OK, we made that last part up.)