The Mirrored Dusk

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

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

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


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

Dick Cheney smiles...

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

...and smiles again.


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

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

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


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

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

Or are we remembering that wrong?

Nor'easter

Intervention
Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey intervened with federal health officials on two occasions in the last four years in an effort to help a close friend in a billing dispute with Medicare, federal investigators said Wednesday. (NYT, 2/7/2013)

The New York Times finally writes an article about the allegations surrounding Robert Menendez (who we learn seven paragraphs in is a Democrat). Alas, the story focuses on a friend of Menendez who may have had some questionable business dealings. The seventeen paragraph story makes no mention of the other allegations. You know, the ones about Menendez and the underage prostitutes. 

In fairness, writing a story about the allegations involving Menendez and underage prostitutes would be akin to....what? Writing a story about allegations that George H.W. Bush had an affair? Or that John McCain had an affair? Or that George W. Bush did not report for his final two weeks of National Guard duty? Or that 50 years ago, Mitt Romney may have bullied a kid in middle school? Those stories would never be written. Just kidding!


Familiarity Breeds
"President Barack Obama's speeches have a familiar ring these days--no matter if it's guns, immigration or the budget," Politico reports:

Tout what he's already done. Say the public's in his corner. Demand Congress do something. Lament Washington dysfunction. Lay out his own plan. Avoid details. Urge voters to keep up the pressure. Warn it won't be easy. Bask in the applause.

It's the fill-in-the-blank approach to selling a presidential agenda: same template, just adjusted for the topic. (WSJ, 2/7/2013)

POLITICO? Wow, a deliciously incisive indictment! 

The second Obama term is only days old and already the bloom is off the rose. Call it "Obama fatigue."


Manifest
And what do you know, Chris Dorner, the former-police officer suspected of being behind the murder rampage presently unfolding in Los Angeles, has apparently left behind a manifesto addressed to America that the media's already selectively reporting on to leave out the more inconvenient portions. You see, there's no political upside for the media to reveal the politics of this suspected madman.

What's being reported as Mr. Dorner's manifesto not only endorses Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 and vigorously defends Barack Obama and the Democrats' current gun control push, he also savages the NRA's Wayne LaPierre and expresses all kinds of unabiding  for some of the biggest stars in the left-wing media -- by name. (Breitbart.com, 2/7/2013)

It's hard to imagine what we would do without Breitbart. Because of them, we learn that the ex-LA cop wanted for multiple murders is a Liberal. So RedStateVT will now be the first to issue a national warning about the dangers of .... Left Wing Militias. We call upon the Department of Justice to investigate immediately!


Land Of Confusion
Democratic partisans might be confused. They considered Bush a threat to America’s liberty because of his defense of his war powers, yet their hero stands on similar ground. How to resolve the contradiction? Easy. Conclude that they were wrong the first time. (Rich Lowry, POLITICO.com, 2/6/2013)

In an article entitled "Dick Cheney's Revenge" Rich Lowry echoes RedStateVT's recent post about Obama and drone assassinations. Will Liberals take Lowry's advice? Will they say "Cheney was right before as Obama is right now?"  

When asked, Liberals responded: "We must do something about the threat of climate change...."