Deep in the Purse

Red Letter Day
As Western powers pressed the Syrian authorities to permit United Nations inspectors to examine the site of a claimed poison gas attack outside Damascus, France said on Thursday that outside powers should respond “with force” if the use of chemical weapons was confirmed.
...
The notion of “red lines” was initially introduced last August by President Obama, who said the use of chemical weapons in Syria would radically alter American calculations about the war.

At the time, Mr. Obama declared that the use or deployment of chemical or biological weapons would “change my calculus” and “change my equation.” (NYT, 8/22/2013)

The Middle East is a cesspool. Bush went in because of 9/11. We get that. Beyond that, however, we believe that the U.S. should stay out other than to back Israel, the only democracy in the region. Obama's hesitancy to get involved is understandable. Give weapons to the "freedom fighters" and they will turn around and kill Americans at the first opportunity. But Obama was the one who said "red line." He created the current problem which has America looking weak because he will not enforce a line that he himself drew in the sand. He is a foreign policy rube.


Soiled
A federal judge sharply rebuked the National Security Agency in 2011 for repeatedly misleading the court that oversees its surveillance on domestic soil, including a program that is collecting tens of thousands of domestic e-mails and other Internet communications of Americans each year, according to a secret ruling made public on Wednesday. (NYT, 8/21/2013)

Let's play a game. Substitute 2007 for 2011 in the above excerpt. How many times would the name of President George Bush appear in this article? If you guessed "more than five times" you would probably be right. 

Now guess how many times the name President Barack Obama appears. 

Correct. Zero.


Chelsea Mourning
Bradley Manning, sentenced to 35 years in military prison for the biggest breach of classified U.S. documents in U.S. history, said in a statement on Thursday he is female and wants to live as a woman named Chelsea.

"As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning, I am a female," Manning, 25, said in the statement read on NBC News' "Today" show.

"Given the way that I feel and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible," Manning said. "I also request that starting today you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun."

Manning's lawyer David Coombs said on the program that he expected Manning to get a pardon from President Barack Obama. (NYT,8/22/2013)

Where to begin? First, perhaps, a rare RedStateVT correction, albeit provisional. Yesterday, we predicted a pardon of Chelsea Manning by President Hillary Clinton. Turns out that Obama might beat her to it.

Next we wonder how taxpayers feel about the fact that they will now be on the hook for Manning's hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery. (That's what they call it, right?)

The world is upside down, my friends. Upside down. 


Usual Suspects
In the past, for example, Mr. Spitzer has railed against offshore tax shelters, portraying them as dubious practices of the financial elite.

On his Current TV news talk show last fall, he wagged his finger at “offshore shelters and other games that are suspect,” as he questioned the personal finances of Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate.

But as of 2011, the last year for which public documents are available, the Spitzer family trust invested in at least four funds that are incorporated offshore.

That strategy has insulated the trust from taxes it would have owed for investing in certain kinds of domestic funds. (NYT, 8/21/2013)

Proof (once again) that there are two sets of Liberal standards. 

Dark Days

No Country For Traitors
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela said Friday that he would offer asylum to the fugitive intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden, who has been stranded in a Moscow airport searching for a safe haven. (NYT, 7/5/2013)

Excellent choice for Snowden! What with all the transparency in government that he favors......


The Wages of Sin
Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York five years ago amid a prostitution scandal, is re-entering political life, with a run for the citywide office of comptroller and a wager that voters are ready to look past his previous misconduct. (NYT, 7/7/2013)

If you see us about town walking with a spring in our step, now you know why. Client #9 is back!

We'll reiterate that Republicans are mortified about Mark Sanford. Democrats welcome the return of Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer and lionize Bill Clinton. 


No Worries
In an effort to put President Obama’s health care program back on track, the White House has recruited Chris Jennings, a respected veteran of the Clinton administration, to join the Obama team as a health policy coordinator and strategist, the White House said on Sunday night.
....
Mr. Jennings was a registered lobbyist, but has not been one for a couple of years, so he would not have to worry about Obama administration restrictions on lobbyists joining the government. (NYT, 7/7/2013)

We got a laugh out of the hypocrisy here. Obama has spent half of his (admittedly short) political life railing against lobbyists.

We never quite understood the problem with lobbyists. In a representative democracy, groups hire individuals to promote their interests.


Less is Less
The controversy that erupted in May has focused on an ideological question: Were conservative groups singled out for special treatment based on their politics, or did the I.R.S. equally target liberal groups? But a closer look at the I.R.S. operation suggests that the problem was less about ideology and more about how a process instructing reviewers to "be on the lookout" for selected terms was applied to any group that mentioned certain words in its application (NYT, 7/4/2013)

The New York Times breaks its silence on the IRS scandal to conclude, well, it's not really a scandal after all.

This despite IRS officials invoking the Fifth Amendment and overwhelming evidence that conservative groups were targeted. Nothing to see here folks......


Ballot Box
But ballot initiatives on gay rights have overwhelmingly failed, aided by national groups that have run campaigns against them. And Democrats here have said that they do not want to put a civil rights matter on the ballot. (NYT, 7/2/2013)

A stunning - if unwitting - revelation by the Times. Democrats do not want to put gay marriage on the ballot....why? Well the obvious answer is that in many states where it has been voted on, it has been defeated. If the country was united across the board in favor, you could bet your last nickel that Democrats would push for the the issue to be on the ballot. We also loved the comment: "... aided by national groups that have run campaigns against." It makes us wonder why those in favor of gay marriage have not collected money, endorsed candidates who support their cause and run similar campaigns. 

What? They have?


Restricted
The North Carolina Senate gave its final approval Wednesday to legislation adding new restrictions for abortions in North Carolina, even as hundreds of angry protesters descended on the legislature to express their displeasure.
...
The updated bill also would prohibit gender-selective abortions, restrict abortion insurance coverage and require a physician to be physically present during an entire surgical abortion and when a woman takes an abortion-inducing drug such as RU-486. (Foxnews.com, 7/3/2013)

The pro-abortion crowd always says that they want abortion to be safe and legal. Sometimes they say they want it to be rare. But in reality, they only care that it is legal. Try to make it safer and rarer and they start screaming about the war on women......

Divinely Inspired

The Pervs
As he considers a potential mayoral run in the wake of an online sex scandal, former Representative Anthony D. Weiner has won a vote of confidence from a politician who can identify with his predicament: Eliot Spitzer.

Mr. Spitzer, who resigned in 2008 as governor of New York amid revelations that he had solicited prostitutes, said in a radio interview that Mr. Weiner “will make it as a serious candidate if he plunges in, as I think he will.” (NYT, 4/13/2013)

We won't even make this a partisan issue because we would include South Carolina's Mark Sanford: politicians are among the lowest forms of life on the planet. Whore-monger Spitzer endorses Trench-coat flasher Weiner. That is priceless!


Soda Break
It had been building since mid-2011, when the president, in private negotiations with Speaker John A. Boehner, tentatively agreed to the new formula for calculating cost-of-living adjustments in Social Security; economists recommend the formula as more accurate, but it would mean smaller increases for Social Security beneficiaries. Even so, Democrats in Congress and the White House agree that the party would have supported Mr. Obama back then if a compromise deal had come to a vote. (NYT, 4/13/2013)

Here is what the proposed formula tweak for Social Security will do: it will slow the rate of future cost-of-living adjustments. That's it. It won't reduce any current recipient's payment one nickel. That is what has Liberals and Oregon Republican Greg Walden so outraged. 


Grossly
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama paid $112,214 in federal income taxes for 2012 on adjusted gross income of $608,611, an effective rate of 18.4%, the White House said. (WSJ, 4/12/2013)

We just had an national election which centered almost entirely on Mitt Romney's tax rate (14%). Now we find out that Obama paid 18%. Are Liberals satisfied with that? Is the Legitimate Media outraged?


Armed
As federal and state legislators continue to debate gun control and school safety measures in the months after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., communities around the country are wasting little time taking safety issues into their own hands. Some schools have hired armed guards. Others have implemented buzzer systems at their doors. (NYT, 4/14/2013)

At last, some common sense on guns and school safety. Liberals proudly proclaimed their schools as "gun-free zones" thus giving free reign to mass murderers. Let's try it a different way and see what happens.

The article is remiss in not mentioning the many cities (Houston, St. Louis, Los Angeles) where armed security is already in place. 

From the same article we get the following excerpt which reminds coastal Liberals of how things are in the rest of the country:

By the time they are 6, many young boys and girls already have learned how to safely handle a weapon and have shot their first deer. Some live in homes where guns are not under lock and key, or on vast prairies where they shoot skeet with their families. (NYT, 4/14/2013)