Spear in Hand

Shock and Awe
Coulter, “Outnumbered” and the puckish sections of the Free Beacon all function in similar ways. The provocations they put out into the world are not untethered from real thinking and emotions. But they exist primarily to evoke shock and then to deny that those provocations were in earnest. It is an awfully clever sort of trap, one that lures critics into spending time and emotional energy refuting seemingly outrageous propositions before it’s revealed that the only people really engaging in the exchange were the critics themselves. (Alyssa Rosenberg, Washington Post, 6/26/2014)

Although her by-line does not say so, we assume that Rosenberg is a board-certified psychologist given her pronouncements on the ulterior motivations of Ann Coulter and other conservative thinkers. Per Dr. Rosenberg, Coulter and others just want to be provocative and drive up their click counts. Well, after - what is it eight? ten? New York Times best sellers - we doubt Coulter is overly focused on how many people read her weekly column.

And then there is: "...to deny that those provocations were in earnest." One of the truly wonderful things about the lithesome Coulter is that she never backs down from anything she writes or says. Ever. RedStateVT does not call her the toughest conservative out there for no reason. 

The provocations that Dr. Rosenberg attributes to Coulter fall well within the mainstream of conservative thinking. A few examples:

• Abortion is the taking of a life.
• If we don't get control of our borders we will all be speaking Spanish in ten years. 
• Ted Kennedy was a drunk who murdered a woman.
• Bill Clinton is a sex pervert.
• Barack Obama is an incompetent buffoon. 

Again, well within the mainstream and hardly controversial positions. Finally, Coulter just happens to be hysterically funny, all while she is carving up Liberals. In political commentary, only Rachel Maddow comes close. Although, of course, people are laughing at Maddow, not with her. 


Optional
The Obama administration has developed three options for further actions, according to government officials: banning any interactions with some of Russia’s largest banks; cutting off technology transfers to Russian energy and defense firms; and shutting down business with Russian defense companies. (New York Times, 6/25/2014)

A fourth option still under consideration: Obama calls Putin up and expresses his profound disappointment. 


Warmly
About 10,000 years ago, temperatures warmed sharply, by eight to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. By that time, the European ice sheets had melted, but the much thicker North American sheets took much longer. While the climate had warmed to today’s levels, allowing mixed oak woodland to grow and humans to recolonize Britain, the sea level remained some 130 feet lower for another 3,000 years.

When it did rise, it would have been traumatic for the population, wiping out whatever settlement there was, and eventually the forest of Borth. The displaced humans of the time, Dr. Bates said, were prehistoric refugees from climate change. (New York Times, 6/24/2014)

Man-made climate change is settled science. Man-made climate change is settled science. Man-made climate change.....


Over Par
On June 14, Sunni rebels threatened Baghdad after seizing much of Iraq — and President Obama fearlessly played a round at the Sunnylands Golf Course in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

The next day, the militants posted pictures of their mass execution of Shiite members of Iraq’s security forces — and Obama boldly teed off again, at Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s Rancho Mirage estate.

These split-screen scenes were reminiscent of the weekend in March when Russia was about to annex Crimea. Obama played golf both Saturday and Sunday at Key Largo, Fla.’s Ocean Reef resort with former NBA star Alonzo Mourning and former NFL player Ahmad Rashad. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 6/24/2014)

When Liberals revolt!


Already Against the Next War
If you like the unfolding disaster in Obama-abandoned Iraq, you are going to love Obama-abandoned Afghanistan.

Just two weeks before Iraq descended into chaos, President Obama stepped into the Rose Garden to announce his plan to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2016. “It’s time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Obama declared. “Americans have learned that it’s harder to end wars than begin them — but this is how wars end in the 21st century.”

If Iraq is how wars end in the 21st century, we’re in big trouble. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 6/23/2014)

Obama has squandered the blood and treasure of America. He deserves his eventual fate as the president who lost both Iraq and Afghanistan, who re-energized the Islamic jihad and who put American lives at risk.

Desire for Gain

Seeing Red
Having stripped the Washington Redskins of patent protection could the next target of Obama's out-of-control patent office be....RedStateVT? 

If it happens, RedStateVT will respond exactly as the Redskins have:

Redskins attorney Bob Raskopf said that no thought has been given to changing the professional football team's name in the wake of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's decision Wednesday to revoke six trademarks to the team's name and logo. The USPTO ruled that the team's name disparaged Native Americans and was therefore impermissible under federal trademark law.

"Zero. It's not happening," Raskopf told the Washington Examiner Thursday when asked if there had been any discussion at all on finding an alternate moniker, if only to spare the team from legal and public relations problems related to continuing to fight to retain the name. (Washington Examiner, 6/19/2014)


No Talking
As we have noted, the Liberal defense of the collapse of Iraq under President Obama is that anyone who supported the war cannot pass judgement. So let's use the same argument on Obama. Given the bankruptcy of Solyndra, Obama cannot talk about solar energy. How's that?


Anaerobic
As to the American people now pushing his approval below 40%, Barack Obama entered office with more good will than any president since John F. Kennedy. If the Obama presidency has run out of aerobic capacity 2½ years from the finish line, it is because of Mr. Obama's own decisions. He did this to himself. (Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal, 6/18/2014)

The response Democrats try to use - heck, Obama uses it himself - is that his failures are due to Republican obstructionism. Which, of course, just confirms his ineptitude.


Above Average
All of the 470 senior executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs received annual ratings over the last four years indicating that they were “fully successful” in their jobs or even better, according to data released at a congressional hearing on Friday, despite delays in processing disability compensation claims and problems with veterans’ access to the department’s sprawling health care system. (New York Times, 6/20/2014)

In a statement, Vermont's Senator Bernie Sanders who oversees veterans affairs in the Senate said...... 

Just kidding! Sanders has nothing to say. 


Taxing
Why shouldn't taxpayers be allowed to use the same excuses the IRS, and other elements of our imperial government, deploy when they get in trouble?  Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) aims to make it happen with his "The Dog Ate My Tax Receipts Act."  "Taxpayers should be allowed to offer the same flimsy, obviously made-up excuses the Obama Administration uses," Stockman declared... (Breitbart.com, 6/20/2014)

This is actually pretty funny!


She Was Once a Poor Black Child
Warren also recounted her struggles, painting a vivid picture of life as a harried parent juggling a career by reading from her book about the time she forgot toast in a toaster oven until it caught fire. And when she tossed the flaming slices toward the sink, one hit the curtains.

Warren noted that today, toaster ovens turn off automatically before flames erupt. "Government agencies ensure basic safety of nearly everything offered for sale," she noted, "but in 2007, no government agency stopped the sale of exploding mortgages." (Burlington Free Press, 6/20/2014)

So in Elizabeth Warren's world we have the government to thank for mitigating the national tragedy of toaster fire casualties. 

Maybe she should stick to describing her time on the reservation.

And what is it about rich white women who are running for president always telling us how tough their lives were?

Quick! Who Still Thinks Obama is the Smartest Guy in the Room?

Doubtful
Hillary Clinton, in a sit-down interview with Fox News, suggested Tuesday that she had doubts from the outset about whether the Benghazi terror attack was triggered by a protest over an anti-Islam film -- though her State Department ended up pushing that narrative for days. (Foxnews.com, 6/17/2014)

So Hillary 'Inevitable' Clinton admits that all Republicans were right and all Democrats were wrong. Next thing you know, she will admit that there really never was a 'vast right wing conspiracy.'


Headline News from the New York Times
In Wichita, Koch Influence Is Revered and Reviled
Koch Group Forms ‘Super PAC’ as 2014 Races Near

The Koch Brothers share two of the top three headlines in the U.S. section of the online New York Times today. And just in case you missed it, the same headlines make up two of the top three listings in the Politics section.

Liberals despise the Koch Brothers and we cannot figure out why. The only reasons we can come up with are that they employ thousands of people and give millions of dollars to charity. Employing people and giving out largess are both functions that Liberals believe are the proper functions of government.

For the Times, from now until the mid-terms elections, it is going to be all Koch Brothers all the time with an occasional Sheldon Adelson thrown in.  How else to change the subject from the disaster that awaits Democrats?


Face Time
In the face of this threat, Mr. Obama is busy ushering America's adversaries into positions of power in the Middle East. First it was the Russians in Syria. Now, in a move that defies credulity, he toys with the idea of ushering Iran into Iraq. Only a fool would believe American policy in Iraq should be ceded to Iran, the world's largest state sponsor of terror. (Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney, Wall Street Journal, 6/18/2014)

A lovable, if misguided Liberal blogger friend asks: why would we NOT talk to the Iranians? 

Answer above.

Answer (also) below:

Such is America's strategic disarray in Iraq that the Obama Administration has come up with a new version of an old idea—court Iran as an ally. So in order to defeat Sunni extremists who want to form a potentially terrorist state, we are going to get in bed with a terrorist-sponsoring Shiite regime that wants to dominate the Middle East....This outreach to Iran smacks mostly of strategic desperation. It is what an Administration does when it realizes its policy has failed and the damage to U.S. interests is becoming too obvious to hide from the American public. (Wall Street Journal, 6/18/2014)


Equivalent
In the current cacophony of Washington, we must remember that there is no equivalence to be drawn between Bush’s 2003 decision to invade Iraq and Obama’s 2011 decision to withdraw U.S. troops. Bush’s invasion, after all, was not just a mistake. At best a fool’s errand, at worst a criminal act, this great blunder helped set the stage for Iraq’s chaos today. The increased sectarian violence stems not from the 2011 withdrawal; rather, it is the fruit of the 2003 invasion, subsequent occupation and much-vaunted “surge” of 2007–08. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 6/16/2014)

Katrina 'Always Wrong, Never in Doubt' vanden Heuvel says that no one who was in favor of the Iraq War is allowed to comment on what is happening now in Iraq. Well, that eliminates Hillary Clinton and a lot of other Democrats. Further, in order to preserve her fantasy that everything Bush did was wrong and everything Obama did is right, she gives us this whopper: the current situation is a result of the 2003 invasion. If we recall correctly, the results of such invasion were Saddam Hussein being toppled, Baghdad being secured and democratic elections being held. All of which dates to ten or eleven years ago. Now - a mere three years after President Feckless cut and ran, squandering all gains, sectarian violence breaks out and Baghdad is threatened. But it's Bush's fault!  Which is what you would think if you were completely deranged. 


Stuck
Marijuana can be ingested in a tincture, capsule and vaporized form. But the issue of smoking, which advocates for the drug’s medical benefits say is often the most efficacious and controllable method of use, has become a major sticking point.

“Smoking needs to be an option for people,” said State Senator Diane J. Savino, a Democrat representing parts of Staten Island and the bill’s sponsor in that chamber. “And we’re going to hold to that.” (New York Times, 6/18/2014)

Liberals sued tobacco manufacturers for billions because people inhaled. Inhaling dope is perfectly fine to Liberals, however. In fact, it is preferable.

There Shall Be No Accountability

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?

Obama Announces Plan to Use Social Media to Fight Iraqi Rebels

Degrees
Commencement speakers made news this year mostly by their absence. Protesters on the left assailed speakers who had been invited by colleges and universities, and in some cases, they got their wish, driving away the intended guests. (New York Times, 6/15/2014)

"Protesters on the left" who drove away speakers with whom they disagreed were only doing what their professors had been teaching them to do for the previous four years. No one should be surprised. 


Habla Ingles?
Judge David Segura of Santa Fe County Magistrate Court called his first housing case of the day, a disagreement between Gabriela Herrera and her landlord over a rental payment. In Spanish, Ms. Herrera — born in California, raised in Mexico and a resident of this city for six years — recounted her side of the story, fixing her eyes on the judge, whose eyes, in turn, kept shifting to the interpreter translating her words into English in a booming baritone.

It was a typical interaction in the adobe courthouse here, where a rotating cast of interpreters bridges the language divide in housing disputes, traffic infractions, drunken driving hearings and a host of other matters. It is also such a costly enterprise that for five of the past six fiscal years, the courts in this state — where roughly one in three residents speaks a language other than English at home — have run out of money to pay not just the interpreters, but also jurors and expert witnesses, whose compensation comes from the same fund. (New York Times, 6/15/2014)

Let's brainstorm solutions. How about this one? Require Americans to speak English. 


Checked Out
Even as Iraq is falling to renewed attacks by radical Islamists, pro-Russian forces escalate the killing of Ukrainian soldiers, and as thousands of illegal immigrants are surging across our borders causing misery and a national health crisis, President Obama has decided to take an extended weekend vacation, perhaps to get in a little golf.
The president and his family have jetted off to the desert oasis of Rancho Mirage, California, for an extended Father's Day vacation. As the Los Angeles local CBS affiliate noted, Obama's staff has helpfully "scoped out some golf courses and gave a list to Obama just in case he wants to spend Father’s Day on the links." (Breitbart.com, 6/14/2014)

Exactly as predicted by RedStateVT.

Three Questions for Vermont's Colonel Bernie Sanders on the VA Scandal

Colonel Sanders:
You are the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. You were quoted as saying that Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki had your support. Then he resigned. Does Shinseki still have your support?

Asked about stories of mismanagement and fraud at VA hospitals, you were quoted as saying "people die." Please explain.

The VA has been described as being a model for the type of single payer government run health care program that you support. How is that working out for you?


Collapsed
President Obama said on Friday that he would make a decision “in the days ahead” about whether to use American military power to help the besieged Iraqi government stave off collapse at the hands of Islamist insurgents, but he ruled out using ground forces. (New York Times, 6/13/2014)

"In the days ahead" is Obama-speak for "after my weekend golf games."

"Ruling out using ground troops" is Obama's way of telling the terrorists that they have nothing to fear. 


Stun Gun
The stunning collapse of Iraq’s army in a string of cities across the north reflects poor leadership, declining troop morale, broken equipment and a sharp decline in training since the last American advisers left the country in 2011, American military and intelligence officials said Thursday. (New York Times, 6/13/2014)

Who lost Iraq? 

Barack Obama lost Iraq.


Stroked
In an interview with the BBC on Thursday, Hillary Clinton spun her Russian “Reset” policy as a “brilliant stroke.”

“You famously pressed the reset button. Are you embarrassed by that now, that gesture?” a BBC host asked Clinton.

“No I think it was a brilliant stroke which in retrospect it appears even more so, because look at what we accomplished. (freebeacon.com, 6/13/2014)

In other words, in Hillary's world, what looks to the average observer as complete and utter failure is actually pure genius. Apparently 'Hill the Inevitable' views Putin's seizure of Crimea as a coup for American foreign policy interests. How can we have an intelligent debate in this country when one side is delusional?

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.

Old Fiddle Tune

Two Times Two
But on a conference call with reporters on Thursday, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials twice declined to answer questions about whether Kathleen Sebelius, Mr. Obama’s health secretary, knew about the problems. Asked if Marilyn Tavenner, the agency’s director, or anyone else had alerted Ms. Sebelius, an official cut off a reporter.

“Next question,” he said. (NYT, 10/25/2013)

The most transparent government ever....


Down Beat
Some Democrats said that, given the Republican assault on the measure, the White House was right to deliver upbeat presentations promoting it.

“To downplay expectations would have fed into the Republican narrative,” said Jim Manley, a former top aide to Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, who attended a session in the Roosevelt Room of the White House with other allies of the administration. (NYT, 10/25/2013)

So just to be clear, Democrats were justified in their optimism about Obamacare because Republicans were pessimistic. You can't make this stuff up. 


Undone
A flurry of recent attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants in Iraq—strengthened by their alliance with jihadist fighters in Syria—is threatening to undo years of U.S. efforts to crush the group, widening sectarian conflict in the Middle East.

The chaos across the border in Syria and Iraqi Sunnis' feeling of discrimination under the Shiite-led government has reignited the kind of intense sectarian strife that brought Iraq to the verge of civil war in 2006-2007. A security vacuum left by the withdrawal of American combat troops in December 2011 is also helping the fighters regain a foothold. (WSJ, 10/25/2013)

So we already have the answer to the question that will eventually be asked: 

Who lost Iraq?  

Barack Obama lost Iraq. 


Stacked
Jeanne Shaheen doesn't sound like a Democrat who just won a government-shutdown "victory." Ms. Shaheen sounds like a Democrat who thinks she's going to lose her job.

The New Hampshire senator fundamentally altered the health-care fight on Tuesday with a letter to the White House demanding it both extend the ObamaCare enrollment deadline and waive tax penalties for those unable to enroll....CNN reports that all 16 Senate Democrats up for re-election are expected to support Ms. Shaheen's proposal. In the House, Democratic members are stacking up behind all of these ideas, and more. (Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 10/24/2013)

Even before the most recent Obamacare troubles, it was difficult to find a Democrat who would run for election or re-election touting their support of the law. Why is that do you think? 


Like This
Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin will propose a new law next week called: "If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep It Act."

“One of the most important promises made by President Obama and Democrat congressional leadership to promote the Affordable Care Act was that Americans who were satisfied with their health plans could keep them.  That promise has been broken.  More than a million Americans have been notified that the plans they like with the coverage they have chosen have been canceled.  Millions more Americans will have the plans of their choice canceled in months to come,” says Senator Johnson in a statement. (Weeklystandard.com, 10/25/2013)

Like the Republicans' call for all in government to live under Obamacare, this is a pretty sensible proposal. 

Of course, it doesn't stand a chance.


He Spies
Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is calling National Security Agency electronic surveillance of some of America's closest allies "outrageous."

The left-leaning independent wrote to President Barack Obama to express his views after reports that the NSA spied on heads of state in Brazil, Mexico, France and Germany. (Burlington Free Press, 10/25/2013)

Sanders went on to blame the problem on George Bush.

By the way, note the description of Sanders as "left-leaning." The BFP gives us the under-statement of the century!