Scrambled
As investors scramble to make sense of the wild market swings in recent days, a number of financial experts argue that, for more than a year now, signs pointing to an equity crisis were there for all to see. (New York Times, 8/26/2015)
There is one thing and one thing only that we can say about the current state of the equities market. Obama will blame Bush.
Two Time Loser
“The Vice President is somebody who has already run for President twice,” Mr. Earnest added. “So I think you could make the case that there is probably no one in American politics today who has a better understanding of exactly what is required to mount a successful national presidential campaign.” (Wall Street Journal, 8/25/2015)
So Obama's press secretary is saying that because Joe Biden has run twice for president - and lost - he knows exactly what it takes to run a third campaign and win. Imagine how much more qualified Biden would be to run for president if he lost a third time!
Heartless
The IRS admitted to a federal court there was a second personal email account that Lois Lerner, the official at the heart of the Tea Party targeting scandal, used to conduct agency business. (foxnews.com, 8/25/2015)
We know that the IRS did nothing wrong because President Obama said that it did nothing wrong. (His exact words: "not a smidgen of corruption.") We know that Hillary Clinton did nothing wrong because she told us she did nothing wrong. We know that Planned Parenthood did nothing wrong because the Liberal Media has not covered the story about its thriving business selling aborted baby parts.
Methodology
Mr. Obama's method is to ignore a crisis for as long as possible, give a speech, impose a sanction, and switch the subject to climate change or income inequality. (Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, 6/16/2014)
To sum up: As the Arab world blows up, President Obama plays golf and complains about the weather. (Allysia Finley, Wall Street Journal, 6/16/2014)
De - vas - tat - ing.
Ineligible Receivers
The Obama administration is contacting hundreds of thousands of people with subsidized health insurance to resolve questions about their eligibility, as consumer advocates express concern that many will be required to repay some or all of the subsidies....More than eight out of 10 people who selected health plans through the exchanges from October through mid-April were eligible for subsidies, including income tax credits....So far this year the federal government has paid out $4.7 billion in subsidies, and the amount is expected to total $900 billion over 10 years. (New York Times, 6/15/2014)
1) So, if you like your subsidy you can't keep your subsidy. Another Obama lie!
2) Eight out of ten people get Obamacare freebies (actually "more than eight out of ten!") What a wonderful government program! Why not ten out of ten?
3) $900 billion. Speaks for itself.
Profiles in Political Courage
“So do you personally believe that the U.S. should go ahead with the pipeline?” Clinton’s interviewer asked.
“I can’t respond,” she replied. (Hotair.com, 6/16/2014)
Can't or won't?
After being wrong in the eyes of Liberals on the Iraq War and Gay Marriage, Hillary 'Inevitable' Clinton is playing it cautious. Or maybe she is gutless. Our next president.
Backed Up
The I.R.S. told congressional investigators on Friday that two years’ worth of emails sent and received by Lois Lerner, the former official at the center of the inquiry, had been destroyed because of a computer crash in mid-2011. The committees are examining whether the lost emails involved obstruction or a violation of the Federal Records Act, aides to the committees said....The I.R.S. said that because of financial and computing constraints, some emails had been stored only on individuals’ computers and not on servers, and that “backup tapes” from 2011 “no longer exist because they have been recycled.” (New York Times, 6/17/2014)
No back-up?
The IRS requires that you keep your tax returns for....well, forever. But they can't keep their own files for three years?
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......
Devil's Work
Few international problems have bedeviled Mr. Obama as much as Syria and few have so challenged his desire to reduce the American footprint in the world in order to focus energies instead on what he calls “nation building here at home.” As much as he wants to avoid getting entangled in what he regards as another quagmire, he finds himself confronted by a conflict that is spilling over into the region and testing American resolve. (NYT, 6/14/2013)
And so, once again, there is greater understanding and appreciation for....George Bush. Is it any wonder that new polling indicates that his approval numbers have risen and now match or exceed those of....Barack Obama?
Steamed Up
A current and a former top tax official have been physically threatened in recent weeks as the scandal over Internal Revenue Service targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups has gathered steam, people familiar with their situation say. (NYT, 6/15/2013)
The New York Times breaks its self-imposed silence on the IRS targeting-of-conservative-groups scandal to report that IRS officials have been threatened. Probably it was those conservative groups who did it....
Offshore
In six months’ time, the heartless practice of refusing to let sick people buy affordable health insurance — private-sector death panels, the most odious kind of American exceptionalism — will be illegal from shore to shore. (Timothy Egan, NYT, 6/14/2013)
So here's a question for Mr. Egan: If it is heartless to deny health insurance to sick people, is it equally heartless to deny life insurance to dying people?
Here's another question: Do you know what "insurance" is?
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY! THANKS TO ALL OUR BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN WHO SERVED AND SACRIFICED TO KEEP AMERICA FREE.
Cry Havoc
Representatives of these organizations have cried foul in recent weeks about their treatment by the I.R.S., saying they were among dozens of conservative groups unfairly targeted by the agency, harassed with inappropriate questionnaires and put off for months or years as the agency delayed decisions on their applications.
But a close examination of these groups and others reveals an array of election activities that tax experts and former I.R.S. officials said would provide a legitimate basis for flagging them for closer review. (NYT, 5/26/2013)
Breaking its silence on the IRS targeting of conservative groups, the New York Times declares...it was all their own fault.
Adjustments
Republicans simply want to see the entire law go away and will not take part in adjusting it. Democrats are petrified of reopening a politically charged law that threatens to derail careers as the Republicans once again seize on it before an election year. As a result, a landmark law that almost everyone agrees has flaws is likely to take effect unchanged. (NYT, 5/26/2013)
And as everyone knows, the New York Times has provided detailed coverage of the "flaws" in Obamacare. Just kidding!
Land of Confusion
Yet important new evidence — especially from California, the law’s most important test case — suggests that the real Obamacare shock will be one of unexpected success.
...
So there will probably be a lot of administrative confusion as the law goes into effect, again especially in states where Republicans have been doing their best to sabotage the process. (Paul Krugman, NYT, 5/26/2013)
Not to worry, Krugman sees great success in Obamacare implementation... provided Republicans don't screw it up.
Spasms
In Stockholm and other towns and cities last week, bands made up mostly of young immigrants set buildings and cars ablaze in a spasm of destructive rage rarely seen in a country proud of its normally tranquil, law-abiding ways.
...
The left, which dominated Swedish politics for decades and devised the cradle-to-grave welfare system, has blamed reduced state benefits and a modest shift toward the privatization of public services for the unrest, pointing to an erosion of the country’s tolerant, egalitarian ethos. (NYT, 5/26/2013)
Coming to America. (And it is all the fault of conservatives and their crazy ideas about the private sector.)
Kill Zone
“The Obama administration continues to claim authority to kill virtually anyone anywhere in the world under the ‘global battlefield’ legal theory and a radical redefinition of the concept of imminence,” said Zeke Johnson of Amnesty International. “President Obama should reject these concepts in his speech tomorrow and commit to upholding human rights, not just in word but in deed.” (NYT, 5/23/2013)
Amnesty International recommends that in cases like that of Anwar al-Awlaki and others who are actively trying to kill Americans, the U.S. use the following approach:
-Listen to their demands
-Provide incentives to get them to stop
-Surrender
Denial of Service
The Internal Revenue Service official who first disclosed that the agency had targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny, and in doing so ignited a controversy that has ensnared the White House, denied on Wednesday that she had ever provided false information to Congress. She then invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to testify at a House hearing on the agency’s actions. (NYT, 5/22/2013)
Sounds to us like a pretty stunning development in the IRS portion of the Obama Scandals(tm). The New York Times does not rate it in the top three stories of the day.
Hook, Line, Sinker
President Obama's former senior adviser, David Axelrod, told MSNBC recently that his guy was off the hook on the IRS scandal because "part of being President is there's so much beneath you that you can't know because the government is so vast."
In other words, the bigger the federal government grows, the less the President is responsible for it. Mr. Axelrod's remarkable admission, and the liberal media defenses of Mr. Obama's lack of responsibility, prove the tea party's point that an ever larger government has become all but impossible to govern. They also show once again that liberals are good at promising the blessings of government largesse but they leave its messes for others to clean up. (WSJ, 5/22/2013)
Bingo. Republicans should not say one more word about the Obama Scandals(tm). They should just let the Carneys, Pfieffers, Axelrods and others do all the talking (or in the case of Lois Lerner, the not talking). They dig the hole deeper every time they speak.
The Fever
Then there's Poland, the exception to Europe's feverish disarmament. The Poles already have the Continent's seventh-largest army and are adding to it. This year's defense budget is 7% higher than in 2012. Even more eye-catching is Poland's decision to devote 140 billion zlotys ($43 billion) over the next decade—a third of all military spending—to upgrade and purchase equipment.
...
For NATO to stay remotely relevant, Europe needs militaries modern enough to deploy alongside the U.S. The Poles are doing their part, and there's a lesson for others here. The first step is a serious political commitment to security. The country's leaders recognize growing threats to the south (from Islamists in Africa and the Middle East) and from an authoritarian Russia to the east. Warsaw wants to play a leadership role in its region. (WSJ, 5/22/2013)
Unlike (ahem) some in the U.S., the Poles get it. They learn from history. That is what comes from being overrun by the Germans from one side and the Soviets from the other. Imagine how they felt hearing Obama tell Putin's flunky that he "would have more flexibility after the election." No doubt they figured that U.S. support under the current administration was squishy...and so they increase defense spending.
Maddening
You know the world’s gone mad when I think Rand Paul is the only one who made sense at Tuesday’s Senate grilling of Apple CEO Tim Cook. Cook’s crime? Making sure his firm pays as little in taxes as the law allows. (Matt Milller, Washington Post, 5/22/2013)
Miller added: "And while we are on the topic, I want to remind readers that the same applies to how individuals approach their own payment of taxes. Namely, pay as little as the law allows. That is why I alone among Liberal columnists did not criticize Mitt Romney on this issue during the election."
Just kidding!
Spin This
Administering the nearly four-million-word federal tax code involves so many arcane legalities, and is so fraught with potential to ignite Washington’s partisan skirmishes or infuriate taxpayers, that much of the I.R.S. is run by lawyers. (NYT, 5/18/2013)
Yes, the same IRS that will now be responsible for enforcing Obamacare!
Writing on the IRS scandal, the New York Times gives us an inside look at the Cincinnati office where the trouble began. The scandal involves more than this office, but the intent of the Times is to attempt to convince that it was a localized problem, did not reach up high in the organization and was not part of a larger effort to target conservative groups. And so we get lots of details about just how disorganized things were, we hear that liberal advocacy groups were also targeted, and - our favorite - the terms "low level" and "mid level" referring to IRS employees repeated THREE TIMES EACH.
Impressionism
More troubling for the current crew is that news outlets are starting to pivot to broader questions about whether Obama is competent at the business of government or a passive bystander in his own administration. That impression, if it takes hold, cannot be Etch-a-Sketched away. (Howard Kurtz, CNN.com, 5/17/2013)
A key issue for RedStateVT. Never mind black or white, Democrat or Republican, big government or small government or a hundred other demarcation points. Or deepest fear has always been this: competence or incompetence. There is little that Obama has done in five years that speaks to his competence to hold the office he holds. Be it leading an economic recovery or projecting American strength, he has been a dismal failure. Democrats who point to Obamacare are reminded that Obama's signature achievement was passed by a Democrat super-majority led by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, that Obama was often a bystander in the process, and that the road to implementation has to date been rocky.
Electing a junior Senator with scant experience and no legislative accomplishments, almost solely on the premise that it would assuage racial wounds of the past, has proven to be a disastrous idea.
Compensatory
Obama would never pull what Hillary pulled with her longtime aide Huma Abedin. Abedin was allowed, after the birth of her and Anthony Weiner’s son, to work part time as a top adviser in the State Department for $135,000 while also working as a consultant for private clients, some of whom had to be interested in her influence in the government.
As Politico reported, the arrangement was similar to the way many of Hillary’s aides were paid while she was a senator: “They were compensated partly through work on her government staff, and partly through her political action committee.” And others would later land lucrative gigs at Clinton-friendly organizations.
Hillary has a blind spot on ethics, not minding if things look terrible if they’re technically legit. And she has a tight grip on money, so she didn’t choose to simply shift Huma to her personal payroll. (Maureen Dowd, NYT, 5/18/2013)
Well look at what a Liberal columnist has revealed! One possible benefit to the Obama Scandals(tm)? The Obama - Clinton rivalry - always just below the surface - now comes out into the open. Here's hoping!
The Native Tongue
Years ago it was a joke in New York City that you could not get a native born American cab driver. It is such a fact of city life now that it is no longer elicits even a faint smile. New Yorkers accept it and for New Yorkers to accept something it has to mean that the system works. The immigrant cabbies speak passable English, know where things are and can get you where you need to go, albeit with some occasionally exciting rides.
Doing field research in Philadelphia this past weekend we had a different experience. Namely, the cab drivers do not speak English, at least not enough to communicate. Second, they do not seem to know the streets or landmarks of an historic city. We had an exciting adventure wherein the first cabbie of Middle Eastern origin drove us around for fifteen minutes unable to find our destination. Eventually he flagged down a fellow cabbie, of African origin, who also took us on an unintended tour of the city.
So is this the state of the country today? We allow in people who cannot speak the language and cannot even do the jobs for which they are hired. Yeah, we certainly need immigration reform. But not the kind that Liberals imagine.
Unguarded
This week, as Mr. Obama confronted a scandal frenzy unlike any he has faced, he let his guard down during fund-raisers in New York. “My thinking was after we beat them in 2012, well, that might break the fever,” he told donors. “And it’s not quite broken yet.” (NYT, 5/15/2013)
This is the secret narrative of Obama. Absent a super-majority he has neither the talent nor the will to get anything done. No recent president - not Clinton, not Bush - spent as much time complaining about how he is so hamstrung by having to deal with the other side. Obama is a weak and ineffectual leader.
(You know things are bad for the president when the New York Times puts a story on the Obama scandals ahead of their 60-part series on sexual assaults in the military.)
Angry
President Obama announced Wednesday that Steve T. Miller, the acting commissioner of the IRS, had resigned in the wake of the controversy over the IRS's targeting of conservative groups. In an angry statement in the White House, Obama said the IRS’s actions were “inexcusable and Americans are right to be angry about it and I’m angry about it.” He added, “I will not tolerate this type of behavior in any agency but especially the IRS given the power it has and the reach it has.” (Washington Post, 5/15/2013)
Make no mistake about it. The president is.....angry.
Previously he was outraged.
Vote on YOUR Favorite New Obama Scandal!
And on Monday evening, The Associated Press reported that the Justice Department had secretly obtained two months of telephone records of its reporters. (Snoop-gate)
(President Obama) joined a bipartisan chorus of outrage over disclosures that the Internal Revenue Service had singled out conservative groups for special scrutiny. (Tax-gate)
Kathleen Sebelius, Mr. Obama’s secretary of health and human services, has drawn criticism in recent days for soliciting corporate donations to pay for the rollout next year of the new health care law. (Obamacare-gate) (NYT, 5/13/2013)
(Note: Voting on Fast and Furious, Solyndra and Benghazi has closed.)
Special Offer! A free 6 month trial subscription to RedStateVT to any Legitimate Media representative who now refers to the Obama administration as "Scandal plagued." Don't miss this opportunity!
Uninvolved
Jay Carney, a White House spokesman, said the White House was not involved in the subpoena. “Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the A.P.,” he said, adding “we are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations.” (NYT, 5/13/2013)
Carney added: "Yes, while it is true that President Obama is the Commander in Chief, he really has no idea what that goofball Eric Holder is doing over there at Justice."
Over There
“We dishonor them when we turn things like this into a political circus.” “Suddenly, three days ago,” he added, “this gets spun up as if there’s something new to the story. There’s no ‘there’ there.” (NYT, 5/13/2013)
Actually, Mr. President, we dishonor our fallen when we lie about the circumstances of their death.
Price Tag
“Justice was served to Kermit Gosnell today and he will pay the price for the atrocities he committed,” Ilyse Hogue, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, said in a statement. “Anti-choice politicians, and their unrelenting efforts to deny women access to safe and legal abortion care, will only drive more women to back-alley butchers like Kermit Gosnell.” (NYT, 5/13/2013)
Follow the logic of the pro-abortion spokeswoman:
Abortion is legal.
Kermit Gosnell performed abortions at a time when abortion is legal.
Gosnell was a butcher.
If abortion is made illegal, we will get more butchers like Gosnell.
Such is Liberal Logic.
