White House Confirms: Obama to Attend Choom Gang Reunion

At Pains
For President Obama, any decision to reinforce the Iraqis or Kurds will be painful. On Thursday night he still took credit for removing all U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011. He was at pains to reassure Americans that the U.S. will not fight another war in Iraq even as he committed U.S. air power to the war that continues in Iraq.

It's clear now that his decision to withdraw all U.S. troops in 2011 was a strategic and increasingly a moral disaster. The President—which is to say the United States—bears responsibility now for the humanitarian catastrophe occurring in Iraq... (Wall Street Journal, 8/8/2014)

So Obama takes credit for withdrawing from Iraq which emboldened Islamic terrorists to commit atrocities which now requires Obama to reengage in Iraq. Only Liberals can see the logic of Obama's thinking.


Low Tide
As he explained himself to a national television audience, Mr. Obama made a point of reassuring a war-weary public that the president who pulled American forces out of Iraq at the end of 2011 had no intention of fighting another full-scale war there. Yet his presence in the State Dining Room testified to the bleak reality that the tide of events in that ancient land have defied his predictions and aspirations before. (New York Times, 8/8/2014)

At Iraq to the list of things that have disappointed Obama. 


Sorted
... Mr. Obama managed to condemn "torture" while simultaneously lecturing Americans not to be "sanctimonious" against CIA officials doing their "job." Sort through that one. (Kimberley A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal, 8/7/2014)

Like most presidents Obama has discovered that it is much easier to throw darts at the decisions of his predecessor when you are a candidate. The small voice in the back of his head must torture him everyday as it reminds him that Bush/Cheney were right.

And then there is this, also from Strassel's column:

All this started when Nancy Pelosi claimed in 2009 that the CIA failed to brief her in 2002 about its enhanced-interrogation program. Details then flooded out, including embarrassing facts about just how repeatedly and thoroughly Democratic leaders and Intelligence committee members in both chambers had been briefed—including Mrs. Pelosi. 


Gain and Loss
Mr. Abu Marzook said Hamas had gained popularity, remained able to fire rockets at Israel, and could re-establish its network of tunnels under Gaza.

For agreeing to the cease-fire, he argued that Hamas should receive relief from the blockade on its territory. “The Palestinians should gain something out of these battles,” he said. “They want the siege to end; they want all the gates to open.” (New York Times, 8/6/2014)

A Hamas spokesman argues - incoherently - that Hamas should be rewarded for their actions and that things have just gone swimmingly for them. THIS is why there is no peace.


Deadly
The 72-hour truce came after 29 days of fierce fighting that left more than 1,800 Palestinians dead, many of them civilians. On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and three civilians were killed. (New York Times, 8/8/2014)

A Fox commentator noted recently that Hamas never announces the deaths of its own. All we ever hear about are the deaths of women and children.


Just Business
Promising a major change in the “way the V.A. does business,” President Obama traveled to this Army base outside Washington on Thursday to sign a bill that will expand access to health care for veterans and strengthen the powers of the Department of Veterans Affairs’s new leader to clean up abuses in its troubled network of hospitals. (New York Times, 8/7/2014)

Obama bails out Bernie Sanders. 


Train to Nowhere
High-speed rail was supposed to be President Obama’s signature transportation project, but despite the administration spending nearly $11 billion since 2009 to develop faster passenger trains, the projects have gone mostly nowhere and the United States still lags far behind Europe and China. (New York Times, 8/6/2014)

Obama continues to waste your tax dollars. How does that make you feel?

Ancient Virtues

Remove and Replace
The tax, which applies to devices like artificial joints, pacemakers, wheelchairs and gloves, is expected to raise about $29 billion over 10 years. It is one of several sources of new revenue in the health care law that will pay for the expansion of health coverage to 30 million uninsured people, many of them poor. The industry claims the tax will hurt demand for its products, but, in fact, sales of these devices, which are not purchased directly by consumers, are unlikely to be affected by price, especially by a small tax increase. As more people receive health coverage that pays for devices, the industry will more than make up the cost of the tax.
...
Ms. Warren and other Democrats say they would support an actual repeal of the tax if another tax could be found to replace it. That could save the tax, because Republicans aren’t interested in raising another tax, and the Obama administration already has its eye on potential replacement taxes for other, more important purposes, like investments in education and infrastructure.  (New York Times editorial, 4/1/2013)

Interesting editorial wherein the Times laments....well, a couple of things. 

First, the bi-partisan Senate opposition to the Obamacare medical devices tax. As the Times tries to tell us, this harmless tax was going to pay for health insurance for the poor. How dare anyone oppose it!

Second, the fact that the medical device industry had the nerve to lobby Senators including the likes of Elizabeth Warren and Al Frankel who - good on them - did what Senators are supposed to do and represented the interests of their states. In the New York Times worldview, it is perfectly all right for the Sierra Club to lobby, but never a corporate interest.

Well thankfully as the Times points out, Team Obama has "replacement taxes" lined up. Liberals always do, don't they? Although we ponder how these replacement taxes are going to fill the gap of the medical device tax in paying for health insurance for the poor when the Times says they are going to pay for education and infrastructure*.... Perhaps the Times did a sloppy cut-and-paste on their various editorials with the theme of: Why We Need More Taxes.

* Editor's Note: Henceforth RedStateVT will always refer to "infrastructure" by the more correct description "crumbling infrastructure."


Tight Lies
Unable to meet tight deadlines in the new health care law, the Obama administration is delaying parts of a program intended to provide affordable health insurance to small businesses and their employees — a major selling point for the health care legislation.

The law calls for a new insurance marketplace specifically for small businesses, starting next year. But in most states, employers will not be able to get what Congress intended: the option to provide workers with a choice of health plans. They will instead be limited to a single plan. (NYT, 4/1/2013)

First, we repeat again our suspicion that Obamacare is such an unwieldy beast that it may self-implode. 

Second, does anyone else get the sneaking fear that "limited to a single plan" sounds a bit like "single payer?"


Unaided
But it stipulates that any educational institution that receives aid meant to encourage or promote normalization of ties with Israel will face punishment: a 10-year prison term for an individual perpetrator and a fine of 20,000 Jordanian dinar (about $28,200) for any institution involved in organizing exchange programs or activities that include Israelis. (NYT, 4/1/2013)

This edict from Hamas. And the world wonders why there is no peace in the Middle East. Imagine if the Israelis "stipulated" something like this!


Dark Future
The bill makes little attempt to grapple with the complicated issue of how to identify and treat the violent mentally ill. That thorny topic has been relegated to a committee to study and report on, at some future date. (WSJ, 4/2/2013)

Connecticut punts on the real issue raised by the Newtown massacre.