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. 

In Flux

Lines of Sand
Ms. Sebelius, who was in Florida on Tuesday, said the website would improve, but she appeared to lower expectations and to play down the significance of a Nov. 30 deadline set by the White House to fix it.

“The 30th of November is not a magic go, no-go date,” Ms. Sebelius told The Associated Press. “It is a work of constant improvement. We have some very specific things we know we need to complete by the 30th, and that punch list is getting knocked out every week.” (NYT, 11/20/2013)

First Obama did not set a "red line" in Syria. Now - apparently - he did not set a November 30th "deadline" for Healthcare.gov. 

Despite what everyone heard him say, that is. 


Profiles in Liberal Journalism
No responsible cable news host would call for defecating on a public figure. That’s just beyond the pale, right? But that’s exactly what Bashir did on his MSNBC show, while spewing venom at Sarah Palin.
...
MSNBC rightfully suspended Alec Baldwin for two weeks for hurling an anti-gay slur at a photographer.
...
MSNBC once suspended Ed Schultz for calling Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut.”
(Howard Kurtz, Foxnews.com, 11/18/2013)

Just another day at America's Liberal News Network.
(And we haven't even talked about Al Sharpton!)


Free to Be
President Barack Obama is bestowing the Presidential Medal of Freedom on more than a dozen prominent Americans 50 years after the death of the award's founder, President John F. Kennedy.

Obama is honoring former President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and leaders in sports, science and public service in a White House ceremony on Wednesday. (Huffington Post, 11/20/2013)

Yes, it is true. President Obama today gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former President Bill Clinton. Readers may recall that Bill Clinton conducted numerous extra-marital affairs during his time as governor of Arkansas. He went on to become president where he coerced a White House intern young enough to be his daughter to service him sexually. On multiple occasions. He then lied about his behavior under oath and impeachment proceedings were brought against him. His law license was eventually revoked.

Today we honor Bill Clinton - Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient - for his service to America. 

Regression Analysis

Swipe-Out
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took a swipe Friday at those calling for her to resign over the botched ObamaCare website rollout, suggesting that Republican efforts to delay and defund the law contributed to HealthCare.gov's glitch-ridden debut. (Foxnews.com, 10/26/2013)

Just to be clear, we had a Republican-led government shutdown over the issue of defunding Obamacare. 

Which was unsuccessful in defunding Obamacare. 

And which now - according to Sebelius - is a reason that the website does not work. Not a surprise really coming from the administration which is accountable for NOTHING. Meanwhile there appears to be plenty of money to run prime time commercials urging everyone to sign up for health care. 


Pusher
In the months ahead, Mr. Obama is expected to push for Congress to pass an immigration overhaul in the face of conservative skeptics who doubt that the government can secure borders or verify the status of all workers. He has said he will push to create a Web-based system to rank colleges and universities, with the intention of eventually linking $150 billion in student aid to the results. (NYT, 10/27/2013)

Choose the RedStateVT response:

A) Having proven we can do technology.
B) For my next trick.
C) What could go wrong?


Non-responsive
RedStateVT happened to catch Mark Larson, Commissioner of the Department of Health Access in Vermont, on local radio last night participating in a softball interview talking about healthcare in the state. One exchange caught our attention, however. Asked if Vermonters who liked their current health plan would be able to keep it, Larson launched into a description of the eighteen plans now available to residents. (Since there are only two providers in Vermont offering plans that vary primarily by the deductible amount, the claim that there are eighteen plans is a stretch. A big stretch.) 

The question called for a simple yes or no answer which, of course, was not forthcoming. 

Because the answer is no. 

Larson has learned well from the Obama administration that in service of the greater good - Obamacare - evasion is the proper course when faced with inconvenient truths. See the following:

Though the news coverage is still not accurate...the story of middle class Americans losing the health insurance they were happy with, and promised they could keep, is finally starting to break through in the mainstream media. Hundreds of thousands who were perfectly happy with their health plans, and took Obama at his word, have already been blindsided by cancellation notices. Soon, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the same will happen to millions. Basically, millions are and will be herded into government-approved, one-size-fits-all plans that are more expensive, have higher deductibles, and might not allow them to keep their doctor (another Obama broken promise). (Breitbart.com, 10/28/2013)


Unknown
The account suggests President Barack Obama went nearly five years without knowing his own spies were bugging the phones of world leaders. (WSJ, 10/28/2013)

Quick, what scares you more? That the Obama administration was spying on allies or that Obama did not even know. 


Partly
In the 2008 campaign, he said he believed “that part of my job is to make government cool again.” His campaign sometimes talked about creating an “iPod government” that is user-friendly and efficient. (NYT, 10/27/2013)

Who was it that said Obama has succeeded in creating a Commodore 64 government?


End of Times
Finally, for consumers, the era of legalized medical marijuana has meant an expanded market and often cheaper prices. Buyers here gaze over showcases offering a rich assortment of marijuana, promising different potencies and different kinds of highs. Cannabis sativa produces a pronounced psychological high, a “head buzz,” while cannabis indica delivers a more relaxed, lethargic effect, a “body buzz.” (NYT, 10/27/2013)

Ain't life grand? Liberals should be ashamed of themselves. They aren't, of course, because they have no shame. 

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!

Empire Building

Titular
Republicans insist the buck stops with the secretary. But although Ms. Sebelius runs the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency directly responsible for the health care law, there are questions about how deeply she was involved in the development of the troubled Web site.

“Kathleen has the title, but she doesn’t have the responsibility or in many respects the kind of wide authority and access to the president that she really needs to make a difference,” said one person close to Ms. Sebelius and the White House, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss internal decision-making. “Everybody thinks that she’s the driving force, but unfortunately she’s not.” (NYT, 10/23/2013)

The alibis and finger pointing over Obamacare will only grow. Here we learn that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (geez, is that a cabinet level position?) may NOT be to blame. What with that limited authority and all....


Thrills and Chills
“Of course, we want to know when it’s going to be over,” Pelosi told POLITICO, referring to the sign-up problems. “But that is not to diminish the thrill that we have about the Affordable Care Act, and member after member emphasized the fact that good things were happening.” (POLITICO.com, 10/23/2013)

Such thrills which include people finding out that their health insurance premiums are doubling. That thrill, Nance?


Noisy
Because of all the noise and disinformation, President Obama and the Democrats don’t just own Obamacare as a political issue. They own health care. Anytime something bad happens — premiums rise, or employers change plans or pare coverage — Obamacare will be blamed, even if the new law had nothing to do with the change.

“It’s one of the most frustrating things,” says Brad Woodhouse, the former Democratic National Committee official who runs Americans United for Change. “If anybody has a problem with health care, Republicans say it has to be a problem with Obamacare.”

Does Woodhouse believe Democrats now own health care? “In some ways we probably do, which is unfair,” he said. “Nobody said Obamacare was a panacea for everything.” (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 10/22/2013)

Milbank goes back in the RedStateVT doghouse (that was quick!) after this column which talks about how darn unjust it is that Dems will be blamed for any and all problems with the health care system going forward. Hold on a second there, Bucky! First, Dems wanted to own the health care issue. It was their way of demonstrating the compassion they had for their fellow Americans, in contrast to the callous disregard of their political opponents. Second, you can bet that if things had gone swimmingly, they would have claimed credit for everything.  (Life expectancy increase! Dems credit Obamacare...and themselves!)


Uproarious
Mr. Obama assured the German leader that the U.S. isn't monitoring her communications and won't in the future, a White House spokesman said. He wouldn't say whether it had occurred in the past.

The uproar in Berlin is the latest sign that the National Security Agency scandal has the potential to continue to inflict damage on Washington's relationships with overseas partners. Earlier this week, Mr. Obama called French President François Hollande, who expressed his "deep disapproval" over reports that the NSA was collecting data on tens of millions of French phone calls and messages. Reports of U.S. spying on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as well as Mexico's Enrique Peña Nieto during his successful presidential campaign have already strained the U.S. relationship with Latin America. (WSJ, 10/23/2013)

Reset button time!

Wait, wasn't Obama the one who was going to undo decades of American bad behavior and get the rest of the world to love us? How's that working out for him?

And then there is this:

Bluntly, Mr. Obama's partners are concluding that they cannot do business with him. They don't trust him. Whether it's the Saudis, the Syrian rebels, the French, the Iraqis, the unpivoted Asians or the congressional Republicans, they've all had their fill of coming up on the short end with so mercurial a U.S. president. And when that happens, the world's important business doesn't get done. It sits in a dangerous and volatile vacuum. (Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 10/23/2013)

All This...and More!

Challenged
During an appearance on "The Daily Show," she (Kathleen Sebelius) addressed viewers crucial for the health program's success—young adults, whose participation is needed to spread the costs of care in the new system.

"We're going to do a challenge," host Jon Stewart said on the TV show. "I'm going to try and download every movie ever made, and you are going to try to sign up for Obamacare, and we'll see which happens first." (WSJ, 10/18/2013)

Loyal readers know that we are no fans of Jon Stewart, but this is hilarious. Good for him!

And then there is this from the same article:

Mrs. Sebelius has personal as well as professional interest in getting it to work. "My 29-year-old son is an entrepreneurial artist who is too old to be on his parents' plan but has a job that doesn't come with health insurance," she said. "So he is also going to be in the marketplace looking for coverage."

She plans to return home to Kansas this weekend, where she will navigate healthcare.gov with her son John, she said, "and see for myself every step of the way."

So it's October 18th. And Sebelius is saying that she hasn't even tried the healthcare website herself? RedStateVT reverses its previously held position that Sebelius should resign. It seems to us that if you oppose Obamacare, the best thing to do is to insist that she remain. 


Doormat
Separately, major American corporations like the Silicon Valley tech giants are once again preparing to intensify their campaign to persuade Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration law, an effort that has been dormant since late spring.

That will include a late-November “Hackathon” that will bring together executives and immigrants without work documents to contact members of Congress to push the cause. (NYT, 10/20,2013)

Sample script: "Hello Senator, my name is Manuel and I am in this country illegally...."

Reasonable Doubt

Book Him
The campaign gave him less flattering national attention for his Twitter exchanges with a dancer in a vegan strip club, and renewed old questions about whether he embellished an oft-told story about a moving encounter with a drug dealer, who may or may not have existed (Mr. Booker called him “an archetype”). He had to resign from a media company that Silicon Valley investors had paid him millions to start — but not before the resignation of the 15-year-old son of a television executive, whom Mr. Booker had put on the company’s board. (NYT, 10/16/2013)

Congratulations to New Jersey's new Democrat senator! Well done to New Jersey voters for electing another black celebrity politician! (You get what you voted for.)

And from the same article there is this:

Having started his political career by moving into a Newark housing project, Mr. Booker spent the final days before his Senate election beating back stories in the conservative news media that he did not actually live in the city; the fact that this story could catch hold at all suggested the level of suspicion aimed at the mayor in the city where he began his rise. And he had to call off campaign events during a nearly two-week spree of murders in Newark this summer, underscoring the layoffs of police officers during his tenure, and a complaint that has long made him bristle: that he is a better orator than manager.

Kinda reminds us of someone else......


Clearly
Obamacare wasn't passed because the nation changed its mind. We got Obamacare because, at a brief moment in time, the Democrats happened to have aberrationally large majorities in the House and Senate, as well as the presidency. It was quickly and unconstitutionally enacted on a strictly party-line vote.

In the very next election, the American people elected 63 new Republicans to the House of Representatives -- the largest sweep of Congress for any party since 1948. Even liberal Massachusetts elected a Republican senator solely because of his vow to vote against Obamacare.

This is why the duly elected Republican majority in the House keeps funding the entire federal government -- except Obamacare. Or except Congress' exemption from Obamacare. Or except the individual mandate that Obama has already waived for his big-business friends. (Anncoulter.com, 10/16/2013)

Lest yea forget.


The Fix Is In
Discussing the new online insurance market during a visit to Cincinnati on Wednesday, Ms. Sebelius acknowledged the problems with the exchanges, but said that fixes were in the works.

“I am the first to admit that the launch was rockier than we would have liked,” she said. But after two weeks, she added, “there are vast improvements,” and people who were frustrated should “come back” and try again.

Some consumers who did so said they were still unable to log in and shop for insurance on Wednesday. (NYT, 10/16/2013)

OK, now can she be fired?

The Fever Swamps

Refusniks
Obamacare is such a disaster that the people who wrote it refuse to live under it themselves. That's right, Congress won a waiver from Obamacare. 

Responding to the people's will, House Republicans first voted to fund all of government -- except Obamacare. Obama refused to negotiate and Senate Democrats refused to pass it. 

Then the Republicans voted to fully fund the government, but merely delay the implementation of Obamacare for one year. Obama refused to negotiate and Senate Democrats refused to pass it. 

Finally, the Republicans voted to fully fund the government, but added a requirement that everyone live under Obamacare. No more special waivers for Congress and their staff, and no waivers for big business without the same waivers for individuals. 

Obama refused to negotiate and Senate Democrats refused to pass it. So as you can see, Republicans are the big holdup here. (AnnCoulter.com, 10/9/2013)

The official response issued jointly by the Obama administration and the office of Senator Harry Reid is as follows:

"Ted Cruz...hostage-takers...anarchists...Ted Cruz...Ted Cruz...blackmail...Ted Cruz."


Crash Test
The administration claims the Obamacare online exchanges crashed because the Web site got more than 8 million hits in the first week. Please. You know how many people visit Amazon.com every week? More than 70 million. The difference is: 1.) Amazon seldom crashes, and 2.) on Amazon, people actually buy something. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 10/14/2013)

And yet somehow Kathleen Sebelius continues to have a job.

(Killer point by Thiessen.)


Tipped Off
But ObamaCare is the tipping point, the tea party believes. Unless the law is defunded, the land of limited government, individual liberty and personal responsibility will be gone forever, and the new America, dominated by dependent minorities who assert their "rights" without accepting their responsibilities, will have no place for people like them.

For the tea party, ObamaCare is much more than a policy dispute; it is an existential struggle. (William A. Galston, WSJ, 10/15/2013)

You may love the tea party, you may hate it, but you need to understand it.


What's for Lunch?
ObamaCare promised a free lunch: universal (or near-universal) coverage at lower cost without any diminution of quality or choice. It's a perpetual-motion machine. But even the Supreme Court can't strike down the laws of physics. If a large number of people benefit from ObamaCare--itself a big if--somebody has to pay. Much of the burden was supposed to fall on young, healthy people, who frequently do not have medical insurance. To compensate for price controls on premiums for patients with pre-existing conditions, their premiums would be jacked up. Somehow higher prices are supposed to induce them to get insured. (James Taranto, WSJ, 10/15/2013)

And you were cynical about today's youth!

(Killer point by Taranto.)


Threat Level
In response, Republicans threatened to default on America’s debts to force agreement on the Budget Control Act, which cut nearly $1 trillion in spending over 10 years with no tax increases. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 10/15/2013)

Trying to find the logic in a vanden Heuvel column is like...well, don't bother. The whole point of Republican spending cuts is to cut spending. It is not to cut spending and then raise more revenue so that spending cuts could be reversed. As RedStateVT has said a thousand times, the Liberal answer is ALWAYS taxes, more taxes.

The Bass with the Bow

If Government Worked Like Business
Marilyn B. Tavenner, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, both insisted in July that the project was not in trouble. Last month, Gary M. Cohen, the federal official in charge of health insurance exchanges, promised federal legislators that on Oct. 1, “consumers will be able to go online, they’ll be able to get a determination of what tax subsidies they are eligible for, they’ll be able to see the premium net of subsidy,” and they will be able to sign up.

But just a trickle of the 14.6 million people who have visited the federal exchange so far have managed to enroll in insurance plans, according to executives of major insurance companies who receive enrollment files from the government. And some of those enrollments are marred by mistakes. Insurance executives said the government had sent some enrollment files to the wrong insurer, confusing companies that have similar names but are in different states. Other files were unusable because crucial information was missing, they said. (NYT, 10/13/2013)

If government worked like business, Tavenner, Sebelius and Cohen would be fired. 

Absolutely devastating article in the Times yesterday about the Obamacare rollout which deserves to be read in its entirety. No doubt Obama administration officials had some stern private words for Publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger. We'd wager that the "Obamacare Back on Track After Shaky Start" article is already being prepared. 

But at least we have a glimmer of honest journalism for one day. From the same article:

Worried about their reputations, contractors are now publicly distancing themselves from the troubled parts of the federally run project. Eric Gundersen, the president of Development Seed, emphasized that his company had built the home page of HealthCare.gov but had nothing to do with what happened after a user hit the “Apply Now” button.

So here's a question: When will Democrats, similarly worried about their reputations, begin publicly distancing themselves from Obamacare?

Free Fall

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.

This and That

Intense
The marketplaces would intensify competition, she said, adding, “When plans have to compete side by side and it’s very transparent, that in and of itself drives prices down.” (NYT, 4/12/2013)

HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius tries to explain how capitalism works...and gets it wrong.

Capitalism does NOT work when the government gets involved, dictating who insurance companies should cover (everyone, for example), what services they should provide for free (lots of them), and how much they should charge (not too much). 


Chain Chain Chain
First, the proposal — “chained CPI,” a change in the way inflation is measured — is very small. It reduces Social Security by a quarter of a penny on the dollar — a $2,000 check reduced by a five-dollar bill.

Second, the change is merely technical. The White House itself admits that the result is simply a more accurate measure of inflation. It’s not really cutting anything. It merely eliminates an unintended overpayment. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 4/11/2013)

It is always good to quantify things. Here Krauthammer tells us the impact of the chained CPI proposal which will wreak untold havoc on the well being of the poor....according to Liberals. 


Proportionality
Consider out-of-wedlock births. In 1980, about 18 percent of births were to unmarried women; by 2009, the proportion was 41 percent.  (Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, 4/14/2013)

What shocks you more, dear reader? That the illegitimacy rate is now 41%....or that 30 years ago it was almost 20%?!?!

Chills and Thrills and Spills

Ten Years After
The last time the differences among intelligence agencies came into such sharp relief was 10 years ago this spring, when the Bush administration sought to explain why it had dismissed the dissenting opinions of parts of the intelligence community over Iraq’s nonconventional weapons. (NYT, 4/12/2013)

This on differing assessments of North Korean capabilities by U.S. intelligence agencies. So let's see, Obama will ultimately have to make national security decisions based on conflicting data. 

Just like Bush did! 

We'll see if the New York Times and others in the Legitimate Media then spend the next ten years examining 'why Obama dismissed dissenting opinions.'


Moments
Advocates for better mental health services said that many of them were initially uneasy about seizing on an event as tragic as the Connecticut school shootings to win improvements in care. And many have noted that very few violent crimes are committed by mentally ill people. But they came to believe that the current time was the best opportunity for real change, and that they might not get another one for a while.

“This is our moment,” said Linda Rosenberg, the president of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare. “I hate the connection between gun violence and the need for better mental health care, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.” (NYT, 4/12/2013)

Let's review this strange excerpt.

"...uneasy about seizing on an event as tragic as the Connecticut shootings to win improvements in care." 

• Gun control advocates obviously have no such qualms about seizing on Newtown to push an agenda. 

"...very few violent crimes are committed by mentally ill people."

• Well that may be true, but EVERY mass killing IS committed by a mentally ill person!

"I hate the connection between gun violence and the need for better mental health care..."

• Rosenberg may hate it, but she better admit it or there is no doubt that some town will eventually be dealing with another massacre. Liberals apparently do not want to stigmatize the mentally ill, they would rather stigmatize law-abiding gun owners. 

Goofball VEEP Biden was asked about mental illness and gun violence in a roundtable discussion on MSNBC this week. He replied by describing the administration's plan to provide funding to map the human brain. Yeah, that will solve the problem.

We will end the discussion with Coulter:

If liberals had a decent argument for taking guns away from the law-abiding while doing nothing to prevent schizophrenics from getting guns, they'd make it. Manifestly, they don't, so they send out victims to make the argument for them, knowing no one will argue with a person whose child has just been murdered. 

This allows liberals to act as if Republicans' only counter-argument to their idiotic gun control proposals is: We don't mind dead children.  (Ann Coulter, 4/10/2013)


Complexities
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), one of the architects of the Affordable Care Act, said on Tuesday that the healthcare law, set to go into full effect in less than eight months, is “probably the most complex piece of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress” and “is just beyond comprehension.” Rockefeller said he is concerned that early missteps with implementing the healthcare overhaul may cascade into confusion and chaos. The law, said Rockefeller, is “so complicated and if it isn’t done right the first time, it will just simply get worse.”

Rockefeller’s consternation echoes comments made earlier this week by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who groused that "no one fully anticipated” all the complexities of the federal government's deep penetration into an industry that represents one-fifth of the U.S. economy.  (Breitbart.com, 4/12/2013)

We have been out of town. Did they really say this?