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....

Get Ready to Blame the Gun

Ding-a-Ling
Other emails suggest the secretary of state’s lack of technological prowess. In one, Mrs. Clinton tells Ms. Abedin that she cannot turn on her phone’s ringer. (New York Times, 9/30/2015)

One of the Bush presidents - we don't remember which one - once expressed surprise at the technology of a grocery store price scanner. To Liberals this was proof that he was unfit to be president. They now say what?


Assigned
In oral history interviews released on Wednesday, Senator Edward M. Kennedy talked about how Scotch helped him get subcommittee assignments in 1963. (New York Times, 9/30/2015)

Why does the New York Times continue to report news that every American already knows?


Below Norm
Ms. Richards does make a lot of money relative to the rest of the American work force. Her pay puts her in the top 1 percent of all earners in the United States. But her salary is actually on the low side when it is compared with executive pay at other large nonprofits. When compared with the pay for hospital executives running nonprofit health care organizations of similar budgets, it is actually well below the norm. (New York Times, 10/1/2015)

So the head of Planned Parenthood is a 1 percenter! Where are Liz Warren and Bernie Sanders railing about outrageous executive pay? Are Liberals outraged that the head of a non-profit healthcare company is making all that money? You know the answer. 


Recovery
About two months of emails from the start of Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state are missing, and federal officials haven’t been able to recover them. (Wall Street Journal, 9/30/2015)

Honest mistake, probably.


Scrutiny
For starters, it’s implausible that a majority of Democrats would ever investigate Hillary Clinton on their own, no matter what she’d done or hidden or lied about, because of the dominant incentive to defend their partisan interests. Republicans will scrutinize Hillary whenever they can because they have different incentives. Both postures are comparably partisan. Neither precludes the committee from finding out the truth—a goal both parties once claimed. (David Harsanyi, thefederalist.com, 10/1/2015)

Is the Benghazi investigation political? Of course it is. Harsanyi explains why that is not an issue. Well done!

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. 

Another Day, Another Clinton Scandal

Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record.

Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act. (New York Times, 3/3/2015)

Question: How do we know that the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal is serious? 
Answer: ABC News yesterday featured the story fourth...after reporting on an imminent East Coast snow storm.

Question: Why would the New York Times even bother to report the story?
Answer: This is a bit more difficult to ascertain, but RedStateVT has a theory. Goes like this...

We believe that some "Ready for Hillary" staffers working at the New York Times may have broken ranks. Recent revelations that Hillary has accepted money from foreign governments including Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, ISIS, etc. may have led these staffers to conclude that Hillary was unelectable. With much regret, this group may have decided to trade in their pantsuits for native American headdresses and get behind Lizzie Warren. Hence the e-mail-gate story effectively putting both Bill and Hill out to pasture. The silver lining for Bill, of course, is that he does not have to tone down the skirt-chasing for the next ten years. 

By the way, here is Hillary's defense:
Mrs. Clinton’s aides have said her use of private email was not out of the ordinary, pointing to the fact that former Secretary of State Colin Powell also used a personal email account, before the current regulations went into effect. (New York Times, 3/4/2015)

So Colin Powell used his personal e-mail account before the policy was changed to prohibit the SOS from using his/her personal e-mail account. Therefore, Hillary Clinton - who used her personal e-mail account AFTER the policy was changed to prohibit such usage - is in the clear. 

Got it. 


Boom Time
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received numerous standing ovations and booming cheers from both sides of the aisle when he addressed a joint meeting of Congress Tuesday. Netanyahu’s remarks focused on the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran.

A deal with Iran, the prime minister said, will permit the country to keep its large nuclear infrastructure of thousands of spinning centrifuges intact. This will enable Iran to get to the bomb in a short period of time, he said. (Dailycaller.com, 3/3/2015)

Left unsaid in Netanyahu's statesman-like address was the following:

"Hey people, is there anyone left on the planet who thinks that Obama is a good negotiator? I am NOT going to have the fate of Israel decided by a community organizer who has screwed up every negotiation he ever engaged in."  (See Russia, Cuba, Iraq, etc.)

All This And More!

Step Off
Brian Williams, acknowledging that the scrutiny and criticism he was attracting was becoming a distraction for his network, said on Saturday that he was stepping aside as anchor of NBC’s “Nightly News” for the next several days. (New York Times, 2/8/2015)

The Liberal News Oligarchy is in disarray! First Al Sharpton is forced to resign from MSNBC when it is learned that he purposefully ginned up racial conflict in a number of stories, then Brian Williams takes a leave of absence from NBC. 

What?

Al Sharpton hasn't resigned? He is still on the air?


200 Experts Agree
With advice from more than 200 policy experts, Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying to answer what has emerged as a central question of her early presidential campaign strategy: how to address the anger about income inequality without overly vilifying the wealthy. (New York Times, 2/8/2015)

Having tried and failed badly at the "you didn't build it" meme owned by 1%er Lizzie Warren, Hillary searches for a new catch phrase to capture her economic vision. May we suggest the following:

Be Like Bill!

Instead of vilifying the rich, Hillary should embrace wealth, using her husband as the poster child for economic opportunity in America. The backstory goes like this: 

My husband grew up as a backwoods hillbilly. Through hard work and determination he became the governor of Arkansas where his position afforded him sexual access to many local women. He parlayed his roguish charm into a successful run for the highest office in the land which afforded him sexual access to even more women. After leaving office we were "dead broke." He (and I) became fabulously wealthy attracting hundreds of millions of dollars (lots from foreign donors) to our "foundation." (By the way, the foundation thing is the way to go if you can pull it off!) 

Be Like Bill!


Good One!
National Review’s Eliana Johnson quotes a wonderfully pithy response from Louisiana’s Gov. Bobby Jindal: “The Medieval Christian threat is under control, Mr. President. Please deal with the Radical Islamic threat today.” (James Taranto, Wall Street Journal, 2/9/2015)

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?

All Together Now

Longing
Warren is considered a long shot to challenge Hillary for the Democratic nomination in 2016. Hillary Clinton is not only older and richer than Warren; she has also published more memoirs. (freebeacon.com, 12/2/2014)

Now that is funny!


RedStateVT Dissects MSNBC's Analysis of Hillary Clinton's Appearance At Georgetown 
It was the right topic at the right venue for Hillary Clinton Wednesday morning at Georgetown University, but the timing was off. Poor weather and impending finals kept students from filling up the ornate Gaston Hall, and her wonky foreign policy remarks left many disappointed who are hungry for something more from the likely presidential candidate. (MSNBC.com, 12/3/2014)

Liberal Georgetown students were unwilling to brave the rain to see the Democrat party's presumptive presidential nominee. Students - who could normally be enticed to do almost anything else instead of studying - decided to study. 

Questions from students were submitted ahead of time and reviewed by a committee of faculty and students before being read by Verveer. At the start of the program, an announcer declared that interruptions to the program “will not be permitted.”

Her Majesty will not suffer any surprises. 

Approved questions:
How is Bill doing?
How is Chelsea doing?
How is the baby doing?
How does it feel to be a grandmother?

Questions not approved:
What exactly did you accomplish when you traveled one million miles as Secretary of State?
What exactly did you mean when you said of Benghazi: what difference does it make?
What exactly did you mean when you said that corporations do not create jobs?

Meanwhile, as she speaking, an entirely different theme was being pushed by Republicans operatives, who filled reporters’ inboxes and Twitter feeds with pictures showing empty rows of seats in the hall.

The vast right wing conspiracy lives!

The university said the hall seats over 700 people, but that only 400 turned out. The entire balcony was empty, save reporters, while there were several empty seats downstairs.

It is likely that high ticket prices - in addition to the confounded weather - also depressed attendance. 

Tickets were offered free to every student.

Scratch that.

The university and students sympathetic to Clinton pointed out that many students were busy studying for upcoming finals. The rainy weather also may have kept some students indoors...

Just to reiterate, it was the weather and finals. It has nothing to do whatsoever with the plummeting appeal of the prickly Hill. 


Truly Deeply
Randi Weingarten, the affluent, fancypants president of the American Federation of Teachers, issued a statement on Wednesday expressing her deep concern about the salaries of American teachers....Certainly, Weingarten is not feeling squeezed. The teachers union honcho’s salary of $360,000 per year puts her squarely in the top one percent of all Americans. It is 641 percent higher than the $56,130 annual income of an average elementary school teacher. (dailycaller.com, 12/3/2014)

Good timing, we have been thinking about this exact point. So when Liberal redistributionists decry the purported "income inequality" in America, are they also talking about the union bosses who make 641% more than their constituents? We doubt it. With the characteristic hypocrisy of Liberals, it is only corporate CEOs that are greedy.


Dead Letter
While the United States and Iran are traditional rivals, if they can reach a deal over Iran’s nuclear program, more normal relations could follow, including close cooperation against the Islamic State. That was the point Mr. Obama made in a letter to the ayatollah last month urging him to sign off on the nuclear deal.

But the letter, as well as an earlier one wishing the Iranian leader a speedy recovery from surgery, may have backfired, one analyst said, projecting a weakness that only encouraged Iran to display its power more openly.

“When Obama sends letters to our leader wishing him a speedy recovery, to us that is a sign of weakness,” said one Iranian journalist closely connected to the conservative Revolutionary Guards. “During meetings the letter is discussed and we conclude: ‘Obama needs a deal. He needs us.’ We would never write him such a letter.” (New York Times, 12/4/2014)

The Bush Doctrine broadly holds that America will pre-emptively deal with threats to our national security. The Obama Doctrine holds that America will make any deal (Russia, China, Iran), no matter how lopsided, in an attempt to get our enemies to like us. Under Bush, our enemies feared us. Under Obama they laugh at us. This will be Obama's legacy. 

Forget About Your Women and That Water Can

The Game
It has been a decade since he (Obama) confidently declared, hours before his Democratic National Convention debut, “I’m LeBron, baby. ... I got some game.” (New York Times, 10/26/2014)

Note to the President: Stop using basketball references. Everyone remembers them and they usually backfire on you. 


Rarely
Despite Mr. Sharpton’s current mainstream patina, his stock-in-trade has changed little from his Tawana Brawley-Crown Heights days, as the disintegration of his inflammatory narrative about the police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., demonstrates. Apart from rare forays into the rhetoric of personal responsibility, he still peddles the dangerous lie that police officers are the greatest threat facing young black men and that racial discrimination is the main force holding blacks back. (Heather MacDonald, Wall Street Journal, 10/24/2014)

Thanks to MacDonald for a stroll down the lane of Al Sharpton's most ignominious moments. And a reminder that the buffoonish reverend is held in high esteem by Obama and the Democrat party. A party whose senior statesman is an adulterer who lost his law license after committing perjury and whose leading candidate for president in 2016 is the aforementioned adulterer's wife. Also possibly contending for top honors is a millionaire lawyer who rails against the 1% and whose personal history narrative falsely asserts that she is a native American. With an honest media this party would be defunct. 


Telling
"Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs."

"I shorthanded this point the other day, so let me be absolutely clear about what I’ve been saying for a couple of decades: Our economy grows when businesses and entrepreneurs create good-paying jobs here in an America where workers and families are empowered to build from the bottom up and the middle out—not when we hand out tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs or stash their profits overseas..."

Hillary Clinton. 

Perfectly clear.


Without Regard
When asked whether they would vote for Mrs. Clinton or the Republican nominee for president in 2016, regardless of who that is, 63 percent of Latinos ages 18 to 34 said they would vote for Mrs. Clinton, according to a poll conducted in September by Bendixen and Amandi International for Fusion, the fledgling network owned by ABC and Univision. (New York Times, 10/27/2014)

Why Obama and the Democrats support immigration reform (a.k.a. unilateral rebadging of "illegals" as "legals"). 


Viral
On Sept. 16, Obama promised Americans that his administration was “taking the necessary precautions . . . so that someone with the virus doesn’t get on a plane for the United States.” Four days later, on Sept. 20, an Ebola-infected Liberian national, Thomas Eric Duncan, flew to Dallas, where he later died in a Texas hospital.

Obama further assured Americans that “In the unlikely event that someone with Ebola does reach our shores, we’ve taken new measures so that we’re prepared here at home.” A few weeks later, two Dallas nurses contracted Ebola because, as a nurses union put it, there was “no advance preparedness on what to do with the patient, there was no protocol, there was no system.” And now, a month later, an American doctor with Ebola was taking the subway and bowling in New York — all while following federal safety guidelines. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 10/27/2014)

We quote extensively from Thiessen's piece...because it is fun to do so. 


Swept Away
It is time for President Obama to offer clemency to Edward Snowden, the courageous U.S. citizen who revealed the Orwellian reach of the National Security Agency’s sweeping surveillance of Americans. His actions may have broken the law, but his act, as the New York Times editorialized, did the nation “a great service.” (Katrina vanden heuvel, Washington Post, 10/27/2014)

So when Republicans say that Democrats cannot be trusted with national defense and when Republicans say that Democrats are soft on crime, now you know why. 

Fight to Win

Blessed
Complacency is a kind explanation for Washington's latest plan to make it harder for the National Security Agency to prevent the next attack. A bill recently introduced by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, with the blessing of President Obama, went so far beyond earlier proposals that a judge writing on behalf of the entire federal judiciary last week objected that the bill is unworkable and unconstitutional and would make terrorism likelier. (L. Gordon Crovitz, Wall Street Journal, 8/10/2014)

Thanks to the efforts of Vermont's senior statesman Patrick Leahy, America's ability to fight terrorism is now weaker. And so this:

...no one should be surprised if intelligence fails to stop the next attack. In an area where accountability has been scarce, the names on the to-blame list would begin with Barack Obama and Patrick Leahy.


Sheared
The question is whether she (Hillary Clinton) can belittle Barack Obama as much as she must in order to win, but not so much that it plays as an act of sheer betrayal. (Frank Bruni, New York Times, 8/11/2014)

A Liberal commentary that we (gulp) agree with....


Disavowed
There are a few possible answers to that one. One is that the views she expressed in the interview are sincere and long-held and she was always a closet neoconservative; Commentary magazine is delivered to her mailbox in an unmarked brown envelope. Another is that Mrs. Clinton can read a poll: Americans now disapprove of the president's handling of foreign policy by a 57% to 37% margin, and she belatedly needs to disavow the consequences of the policies she once advocated. A third is that she believes in whatever she says, at least at the time she's saying it. She is a Clinton, after all. (Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, 8/11/2014)

So what is Hillary thinking now that she has begun distancing herself from Obama?  There is certainly a part of us that thinks she is or was a 'strong defense' Democrat. She voted for the Iraq War and agreed with Bush that Sadaam Hussein had WMDs. One can conclude that the Howard Dean faction of the Dem party pulled her to the left forcing her to disavow earlier positions. Which, of course, does not speak well of her on issues of fortitude and consistency.


Stuffed
As the criticism became public, Obama was doggedly sticking with his plans to go on vacation — a decision that, if not in the category of stupid stuff, could fit under the heading of “tone deafness.” (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 8/11/2014)

It is Liberals who are now attacking the Vacationer-in-Chief.


Urged
The Obama Administration was so preoccupied with a grand political solution in Baghdad that for weeks it refused to arm the Kurds for fear of offending Mr. Maliki, even as it was urging Mr. Maliki to resign. How's that for consistent logic? (Wall Street Journal, 8/11/2014)

Possible Obama responses? 

I never urged Maliki to resign.

It is all Bush's fault.

Fore!


Stunned
After nearly four decades in elected office in Hawaii, Gov. Neil Abercrombie was dealt a stunning defeat in his bid for re-election over the weekend, becoming the first incumbent governor in the state’s history to lose in his party’s primary....The race will almost certainly mark the end of Mr. Abercrombie’s long political career. At age 76, he collected only about 31 percent of the vote, compared with 66 percent for Mr. Ige....Mr. Abercrombie enjoyed strong support from the Democratic establishment, including President Obama, as well as huge fund-raising advantages. (New York Times, 8/9/2014)

A firmly entrenched Democrat backed by Obama IN HIS HOME STATE secures only 31% of the vote!

November could be fun!

Mailing in a Presidency

Cursed
So far, at least 620 Palestinians have died, around 75 percent of them civilians, according to the United Nations, including more than 100 children. Gazans did not get a vote when Hamas chose to escalate conflict, nor did they when Hamas selected areas near their homes, schools and mosques to fire rockets from the densely populated strip. At the family house of four boys killed last week by an Israeli strike while playing on a beach, some wailing women cursed Hamas along with Israel. (New York Times, 7/23/2014)

Nothing changes in the Middle East until honest Palestinians rise up and throw out their oppressors...Hamas. 

Yes this Hamas:

But as the recent fight with Israel has revealed, Hamas was importing tons of cement — desperately needed for Gazan schools and houses and construction jobs — to reinforce the tunnels it built to infiltrate Israel and hide its weapons.


Courted
The Obama administration has consistently underestimated court challenges to the health care law.... (New York Times, 7/23/2014)

Of course.


Smoked Out
Asked last month for her opinion of marijuana, Hillary Clinton told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, “I didn’t do it when I was young, I’m not going to start now.”

Not so fast, says Daniel Halper. In his new book Clinton, Inc., which hits bookshelves today, Halper quotes a friend and law-school classmate of the former first lady and New York senator who says: “I think she’s acknowledged it, and if she hasn’t acknowledged it everybody else will tell you: She was an enthusiastic pot user.” (Nationalreview.com, 7/22/2014)

What is it about the Clintons and the lying about their past drug use? It is particularly silly because - as Obama has proven - the Legitimate Media is not the least bit interested in past illegal drug use if you are a Democrat. Hillary should embrace her stoner past, go on Jimmy Kimmel and get some yucks about it.

The Top Four Lies of the Top Four Democrats

Bill Clinton
"I did not have sex with that White House intern young enough to be my daughter."

Hillary Clinton
"My philandering husband Bill and I were dead broke when we left the White House."

Elizabeth Warren
"I am a Native American and therefore eligible for special treatment."

Barack Obama
"If you like your health care plan you can keep it....oops!"

The Riven Heart

The Waiting
More than 57,000 patients have been waiting more than three months for medical appointments at hospitals and clinics run by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and nearly 64,000 others have been enrolled in the system for a decade but have still not been seen by doctors despite their requests, according to a nationwide audit released Monday....The audit also found that 13 percent of patient schedulers said that they had been instructed by “supervisors or others” to enter false information related to how long veterans had to wait for appointments. (New York Times, 6/10/2014)

What happens when you put Vermont's Colonel Bernie Sanders in charge of oversight.


Unfocused
Instead of focusing on making it harder for the mentally ill to get guns, maybe we should be making it harder to get guns, period. Something to consider before the next mass shooting. (Joe Nocera, New York Times, 6/2/2014)

And all those millions of guns already out there?

No, let's stick with the first option and keep the mentally ill from getting guns.


The Past
Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday there was “sexism” in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign that she and the president needed to get past. “Beginning the process of working with then-Senator Obama after I ended my campaign, we had an awkward but necessary meeting to clear the air on a couple of issues, and one of them was the sexism that - unfortunately - was present in that ‘08 campaign,” Clinton told Robin Roberts on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” (Politico.com, 6/10/2014)

Here we thought it was Republicans who were waging the "War on Women." Hillary "Inevitable" Clinton reveals for the first time that it was, in fact, Barack Obama who was the culprit. Shouldn't this be front page news?


Bemoaned
During her interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer Monday evening, Clinton bemoaned the financial hardships she and Bill Clinton faced post-presidency. “We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt. We had no money when we got there and we struggled to piece together the resources for mortgages for houses, for Chelsea’s education. You know, it was not easy,” she told Sawyer. (Freebeacon.com, 6/10/2014)

And now we finally learn the true story of why the Clintons tried to steal the White House china as they departed Washington after Bill's second term. 


Quote of the Day
When conservatives say we should rescue our POWs, they mean, “Leave a trail of dead enemies in your wake as you snatch our guy from the enemy’s clutches.” (Sonny Bunch, Freebeacon.com, 6/10/2014)

Soft Disorder

Accidents Will Happen
In 2008, Mr. Obama accidentally thanked Sioux City, a town in Iowa. The only problem: He was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He also said he had visited 57 states. (New York Times, 6/6/2014)

Six years later, the New York Times reports Obama's gaffes.


Signs
In recent months, the labor participation rate has been hovering at lows not seen since the late 1970s, a sign that increasing numbers of Americans have given up the search for jobs and dropped out of the work force entirely. (New York Times, 6/7/2014)

Is it the Obama Economy...yet?


Promotion
The events will allow Mrs. Clinton to promote her memoir “Hard Choices,” about her time at the State Department, and to lay the groundwork for a possible 2016 presidential campaign. But her packed schedule serves another important function: It projects to the news media, political rivals and voters that she has the energy and stamina required of a presidential candidate. (New York Times, 6/6/2014)

The Times removes health issues as a concern for "inevitable" 2016 Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Next article: Ted Cruz - What Dark Secret is He Hiding?


Forced Error
The Rose Garden stunt wasn’t a messaging failure. It’s a category error. The president seems oblivious to the gravity, indeed the very nature, of what he has just done. Which is why a stunned and troubled people are asking themselves what kind of man they have twice chosen to lead them. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 6/5/2014)

No one dissects Obama better than Krauthammer.


Whiskey
The five hardened Taliban militants were quickly whisked in a fleet of cars to the shoulder of a highway on the outskirts of the capital just as they arrived. There, out of the public eye and under the watchful gaze of Qatari security, they exchanged warm hugs with a welcome delegation and then once more were whisked off into hiding. (New York Times, 6/7/2014)

Under mounting public pressure, the New York Times recategorizes the Taliban Five. Why just a day or two ago the Times called them "aging." Today they are "hardened."

Rich in Disasters

It's Official
Breitbart News and others have chronicled the "Unmatched failure" that Cover Oregon has now officially become. As was pointed out on March 20 of this year, "The Oregon Obamacare exchange has received $305 million in taxpayer-funded federal grants, spent $160 million on its busted website, dropped $10 million on hipster promotional ads, erroneously enrolled 4,000 illegal immigrants in full Oregon Health Plan coverage contrary to federal law, and has not enrolled a single Oregonian online." (Breitbart.com, 4/24/2014)

There certainly is something to be said about Liberals, isn't there? Massive waste of taxpayer dollars for failed ventures such as Solyndra and Cover Oregon does not faze them one bit. Of course, it does not hurt that it is tax dollars from wealthy Republican 1%ers that are financing all their wacky social experiments. 


Preppers
DC Prep operates four charter schools here with 1,200 students in preschool through eighth grade. The schools, whose students are mostly poor and black, are among the highest performing in Washington. Last year, DC Prep’s flagship middle school earned the best test scores among local charter schools, far outperforming the average of the city’s traditional neighborhood schools as well. (New York Times, 4/26/2014)

Liberals - who claim to have the interests of poor, inner-city minorities at heart - really do not. As the following demonstrates:

In Washington, where the charter system has strong backing in City Hall, supporters have been more successful than in New York, where opposition from teachers unions and others has kept charter school enrollment to about 6 percent, despite growth in the past decade. (New York Times, 4/26/2014)

Liberals hypocrites would rather suppress charter schools in order to keep teachers union contributions flowing to the Democrat party. 


No Horns
Upon the latest exasperating delay of the Keystone XL pipeline project, our union — the Laborers’ International Union of North America — suggested that the Obama administration grow a set of antlers or take a lesson from Popeye and eat some spinach.

After all, the evidence points to federal approval of the pipeline. After nearly six years of delay, thousands of pages of research, five environmental impact statements confirming the evidence and millions of public comments, a pipeline that could put thousands of Americans to work and help ensure our nation’s energy security remains stalled.

The evidence is clear: It’s the politics that are tricky. And that’s where courage comes in. (Terry O’Sullivan, general president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), Wall Street Journal, 4/24/2014)

OK, Mr. O'Sullivan, well said. Now is your union going to do the right thing and vote Republican? Nothing changes if you do not....


Prospective
But with the prospect of an even higher office on the horizon, Mr. Walker finds his earlier track record under increasing scrutiny, not only for how closely it hews to conservative principles but also for the criminal convictions of some staff members and the release of staff emails that included racial and ethnic slurs. (New York Times, 4/27/2014)

In its ongoing series - Roughing Up Potential GOP Presidential Candidates - the Times pivots away from Chris Christie to begin the smear job on Scott Walker. Up next on the Dem side: Hillary and Chelsea go shopping for baby clothes!


Attention Deficit
The Vermont Workers Center is holding a demonstration at the Vermont Statehouse on May 1 to bring attention to “fundamental rights,” namely universal health care, paid sick leave, affordable housing, better educational opportunities and livable wages for working class Vermonters.

In a post on the organization’s website, the center says lawmakers and the Shumlin administration are not paying enough attention to the problems of low-income Vermonters.

“Over the past year, we have seen these needs and rights come under attack,” Vermont Workers Center officials write. “Decisions are being made that will affect our lives for years to come, and we aren’t given a seat at the table.”

More than 25 local organizations are sponsoring the May 1 event, including several environmental groups, health care advocacy organizations, disability rights groups and unions. (VTDigger.org, 4/27/2014)

So to summarize: the Vermont Workers Center (communists) is unhappy with Vermont Progressives (socialists). 

The workers/communists want more freebies paid for by others.


Labeled
“Snowden is interested in returning home,” said Ben Wizner, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who also represents Mr. Snowden. “He is and always has been on America’s side. He would cooperate in extraordinary ways in the right circumstances. But he does not believe that the ‘felon’ label is the right word for someone whose act of conscience has revitalized democratic oversight of the intelligence community and is leading to historic reforms.” (New York Times, 4/29/2014)

Suggestion. Let's let 'Snowden the patriot' stew for a couple more years in Russia before bringing him back to the U.S. where he can serve his life sentence. 

Lest We Forget

Under Pressure
A billionaire retired investor is forging plans to spend as much as $100 million during the 2014 election, seeking to pressure federal and state officials to enact climate change measures through a hard-edge campaign of attack ads against governors and lawmakers.

The donor, Tom Steyer, a Democrat who founded one of the world’s most successful hedge funds.... (New York Times, 2/18/2014)

Steyer has vowed to give up his private jet and his fleet of cars and travel the country in his Prius to spread his message. Just kidding!

(Will the climate change crowd embrace a rapacious 1%er hedge fund manager who plundered the country? Stay tuned.)


Born That Way
Americans who had not even been born when Bill Clinton first took the oath of office in 1993 will be eligible to vote two years from now. They need to know that Hillary Clinton has been more than Secretary of State.

Those voters need to know, for starters, that Mrs. Clinton once displayed incredible investment skills. In 1978 and 1979, when her husband was attorney general and then governor of Arkansas, she enlisted the help of a well-connected crony to invest $1,000 in the highly volatile and risky cattle futures market. Several months later, she walked away with $100,000 -- a 10,000-percent profit. (Byron York, Washingtonexaminer.com, 2/17/2014)

Great column by York which reminds us about Hillary scandals from the past. How could we have forgotten them?

If something Mitt Romney did in prep school when he was seventeen years old is fair game, then certain Hillary's actions as First Lady of Arkansas, FLOTUS, and SOS are in play. 

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?

Patterns on a Screen

Nobody
I can’t think of any individual who had more influence in 2013. Edward Snowden is the person of the year. (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, 12/23/2013)

Really, Eugene, no one? 

Robinson considers Pope Francis, but then passes. How about Nelson Mandela? A philanthropist? No, Robinson instead chooses a traitor. How very typical. 


War of the Words
To many Americans, the war on poverty declared 50 years ago by President Lyndon B. Johnson has largely failed. The poverty rate has fallen only to 15 percent from 19 percent in two generations, and 46 million Americans live in households where the government considers their income scarcely adequate. (New York Times, 1/4/2014)

We've written about this many times. The Liberal solution to poverty is to give the poor money so they won't be poor anymore. How is that working out...after 50 years?

Let's consider some conservative ideas on the subject. Like first of all, understanding that the poor are often not a static pool. People rise up out of poverty. Others fall back into it. How about work and training requirements for the poor? How about some tough love? These ideas - embraced by none other than Bill Clinton - were undone by Obama. And finally, how about some RedStateVT suggestions? For the poor; no alcohol, no cigarettes, no fast food, no piercings, no tattoos, no smartphones, public transportation, basic cable. The poor need to be trained to spend their money - and the taxpayer's money - wisely. 


Fighting Words
In his first remarks since Islamic militants with Al Qaeda ties overran the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry promised support for Iraq's government, but emphatically rejected any possibility that the U.S. would send troops back into the country, saying of the Baghdad government "this is their fight." (Foxnews.com, 1/5/2014)

Who lost Iraq? Barack Obama lost Iraq. 


Senior Moment
Concurrently, Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), the paradigm of government-controlled health care, turned 65 years old in 2013 and officially entered senior citizenship. The NHS received its review by the British press this past year on an almost daily basis. Headlines blared across the UK, endlessly documenting scandalous patient care, shameful waiting lists, catastrophic hospital practices, and financial debacle. Directly undermining those who advocate for an even stronger role for government in U.S. health care, the British press has instead been documenting the disgraceful state of the NHS. (Scott Atlas, Foxnews.com, 1/3/2014)

Coming to America.

Liberals continue to tell us how wonderful government run healthcare is by citing every country that now has it (including - incredibly - Cuba!) No it's not.


Confidence Man
If the White House was so confident that “the product is good” and Americans are “willing to be patient,” then they would have been eager for a photo op of the president signing up with other happy customers. But there was no photo op.

Then, to add insult to injury, Obama chose the cheapest of the four plans available — the bronze plan costing $400 a month. Not for his whole family, mind you. They don’t need Obamacare. He chose a low-cost plan just for himself. Which makes sense. He’s not going to actually use it, so why pay sky-high premiums like the millions of people he drove out of their individual market health plans? Besides, most Americans stuck with Obamacare plans can get their families covered elsewhere for free, right?

And finally, to cap it all off, Obama waited until the last minute to sign up. If the president was so enthusiastic about signing up for Obamacare, why wasn’t he customer No. 1 when the exchanges opened in October? Or when the government relaunched the Web site in November? (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 12/30/2013)

Good smackdown by Thiessen. 


Ten Times Ten
It is incumbent on me as a columnist to do one of those year-end things — the 10 best of this, the 10 worst of that or, as you will see, who had the worst year in politics. That distinction goes, with some reluctance on my part, to Hillary Rodham Clinton. As has sometimes happened in her life, events got away from her. (Richard Cohen, Washington Post, 12/30/2013)

If you thought based on this opening that Cohen was going to give us an honest rendering of Hillary Clinton's year, you would be sadly mistaken. Why was it a bad year for Hill accordingly to Cohen? Because Obamacare was such a dud that it reminds people of Hillarycare. No kidding, this is Cohen's argument.

And what does he ignore? What does he fail to mention? What else might have made it a bad year for Hill? 

You guessed it. Benghazi! 


History Lesson
Historically, after leaving Mecca, Mohammed moved to Medina, where he established the world’s first Islamic polity. He and his followers then launched military operations to raid the caravans of their opponents. Mohammed’s army eventually conquered Mecca and a large portion of the Arabian Peninsula before the Prophet’s death. Within a century of Mohammed’s passing, his followers had forged a vast empire that crossed North Africa and most of Spain to the west, reaching to the borders of China and India in the east. Just as Mohammed and his followers had conquered much of the known world, the jihadists seek to reconquer this empire and then expand it to encompass the earth. (http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/gauging-jihadist-movement-part-1-goals-jihadists">Gauging the Jihadist Movement, Part 1: The Goals of the Jihadists
is republished with permission of Stratfor.)

From the always informative Statfor. Included here because you can never understand the world unless you know history.

RedStateVT Presents the Worst of 2013

Here it is! Our annual list. Happy reading.

President Obama
Readers may be surprised to learn that Obama does NOT appear every year on RedStateVT’s annual list. (See, we are an objective blog!) “If you like your health plan, you can keep it” will go down as one of the biggest (maybe THE biggest?) presidential lies of all time. Of course, “I didn’t set a red line” was a good one as well….


Obamacare
Twenty thousand pages of sheer madness. 


Kathleen Sebelius 
“Hold me accountable for the debacle. I’m responsible.” 

Done.  We hold Sebelius accountable for the debacle.  Then she does not even have the decency to resign!


Wendy Davis
Urged on by Dems, Davis seeks to build a race for Texas governor (and a national profile) on a filibuster of modest requirements to abortion in the state. For example, the abortionist has to have an affiliation with an area hospital. In case, you know, something goes wrong. 


The Kardashians
Everything that is wrong with America encapsulated in one dysfunctional family. Wait; don’t we say the same thing every year?


Gay
No doubt as Gay looks back on 2013 it has much to be happy about. In fact, it was a marvelous year. Same sex marriage is out of the closet and well on its way to national legitimacy. But as always, Gay overplayed its hand. In 2014, this may come back to bite Gay on the backside. Average Americans who – like RedStateVT – believe that people should be free to love who they love are nonetheless getting fed up with the vilification of anyone who dares to disagree with Gay.  Fundamentalist Christians, Jews and Muslims all live by a moral code passed down for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. Society is better because of their focus on morality, charity and fellowship. What to do about their rejection of homosexuality? How about stop talking about your sexual preferences all the time?

As usual, Coulter gets it right:
The first time someone stands up to a bully and the sky doesn't fall, the tyranny is over. The gay mafia was out of control, drunk with power. This time, they got their wings clipped. (AnnCoulter.com, 12/31/2013)


Chris Matthews
Matthews makes the list for one action and one action only. (Yes, we ignore the daily nonsense he spews because it is expected.) We cannot, however, ignore his infantile and fawning interview with President Obama last month.  It was journalism at its most embarrassing. 


Hillary Clinton
Hill makes the list for one issue and one issue only: Benghazi. The death of brave Americans should never be politicized and never callously dismissed.  She did both.  “Who cares what caused it?” goes down as one of the most abominable utterances by any U.S. public figure…ever. 


Detroit Democrats
It took decades, but through hard work Democrats registered their biggest score. 

They killed a city.


Peter Shumlin and Vermont Progressives
Here is what Shummy and the Progs focused on in 2013: decriminalizing marijuana, assisted suicide, closing Vermont Yankee (with its 650 jobs and cheap, reliable power), single payer healthcare (no info on how to pay for it), drivers licenses for illegals, taxes on soda and more taxes.  In short, a grab bag of fringe Lefty issues. 

Too bad they did not spend any time figuring out how to attract more companies to the state and grow the job base. 

Central Planning

Ill Will
The Obama administration on Friday will complete a generation-long effort to require insurers to cover care for mental health and addiction just like physical illnesses when it issues long-awaited regulations defining parity in benefits and treatment.

The rules, which will apply to almost all forms of insurance, will have far-reaching consequences for many Americans. In the White House, the regulations are also seen as critical to President Obama’s program for curbing gun violence by addressing an issue on which there is bipartisan agreement: Making treatment more available to those with mental illness could reduce killings, including mass murders. (NYT, 11/8/2013)

So Obama and fellow Liberals have decided that the cause of mass shootings is now lack of insurance coverage for mental illness. Apparently Holmes, Loughner and Lanza could not get their insurance companies to pay for treatment. 

Here's another thought. Perhaps all should have been involuntarily confined at the first sign of problems (there were plenty of "first" signs) and forcibly medicated. Unfortunately, Liberals would never go for that, hence society is at risk. 


Bow Down
President Obama bowed Thursday night to mounting criticism that he had misled the American people about the health care law, apologizing to people who were forced off their health insurance plans by the Affordable Care Act despite “assurances from me.” (NYT, 11/7/2013)

The President Apologizes for 'Misleading' the American People! 

If you thought this stunning news would be the lead story in the New York Times you would be wrong. It comes after a story on new Obama administration regulations on how insurers cover mental illness, after a story on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential run, and after a story on how Mormons are really OK with gays. 


Rich and Beautiful
Mr. Katzenberg, who joined Mr. Geffen and Steven Spielberg in arranging a $1.3 million fund-raiser for Mr. Obama at Mr. Geffen’s Beverly Hills estate in February 2007, also said he planned to throw his weight behind Mrs. Clinton the next time around.

“If Secretary Clinton makes the decision to run, I expect she’ll have near-unanimous support here,” Mr. Katzenberg wrote in an email. “Hillary represents our best chance to win in 2016, build upon the successes of the Obama administration, and keep the country moving in the right direction.”

The shift reflects enthusiasm about Mrs. Clinton’s prospects for winning the election, but it also highlights the less rose-colored view of Mr. Obama now held by some of his most loyal supporters. “The Hollywood community really came together in the last election and raised an awful lot of money and supported him,” said Felix Schein, a Los Angeles-based political strategist. “I wouldn’t say that’s gone, but the mood is sour.” (NYT, 11/7/2013)

Obama is a lame duck. The Democrat party has moved on.

Also, just a reminder to fellow bloggers - make that Liberal bloggers - that Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen are the Democrat party's Koch brothers. You have your billionaires, we have our billionaires.