Obama: For gay marriage before he pretended to be against it

Name Calling
In the long-running political battles over climate change, the fight about what to call the various factions has been going on for a long time. Recently, though, the issue has taken a new turn, with a public appeal that has garnered 22,000 signatures and counting.

The petition asks the news media to abandon the most frequently used term for people who question climate science, “skeptic,” and call them “climate deniers” instead. (New York Times, 2/13/2015)

We suggest calling those who do not question "climate science"...."climate truthers."


In The Name Of
Why does Obama have no problem declaring that “people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” yet he has never once said that terrorists have “committed terrible deeds in the name of Allah” or “in the name of Islam”? In his prayer breakfast speech, Obama bent over backward to avoid using the word “Islamic” in reference to the terrorists. He will not even call it the “Islamic State,” the name that virtually every U.S. news organization uses. He said that “ISIL” killed “in the name of religion.” So the Islamic State kills “in the name of religion,” but Christians killed “in the name of Christ”?

Obama is willing to condemn by name what he considers Christian radicalism, but he still to this day refuses to condemn “Islamic radicalism” by name. You can’t defeat an ideology if you are unwilling to even name it. When the president of the United States watches Islamic terrorists burn a man alive in a cage and responds by saying we should not “get on our high horse” because “people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ” it is a propaganda victory for the terrorists and a loss for persecuted Christians struggling to survive under the Islamic State’s brutal rule. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 2/10/2015)

Why indeed. We have pondered this long and hard and a possible answer is beginning to dawn on us.... Obama is a Muslim. 

Could it be true? (After all, Obama famously declared he was a Muslim in an interview with George Stephanopolous years ago. Stephanopolous bailed him out by saying: "You are a Christian." If you haven't heard about this, no surprise as it was largely suppressed by the State Media.) 

We are not yet certain, but how else to explain his constant reminders of American and Christian sins coupled with his soft apologies for Islamic terrorism.


Long Ago
Months ago, Mrs. Clinton’s top advisers encouraged the three pro-Clinton super PACs — Ready for Hillary, Priorities USA and Mr. Brock’s American Bridge 21st Century — to combine efforts. Mr. Brock’s organization would provide opposition research to Priorities, which would eventually raise high-dollar donations to pay for attack ads. (New York Times, 2/11/2015)

Three Super PACs. High dollar donations. Attack ads.

Kind of makes the Koch brothers look genteel ...

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?

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. 

Discreet and of Good Character

What is in Today's New York Times?
A Ban With Roots in Myth and Xenophobia: An atmosphere of hysteria in the 1930s took hold and shaped a national policy on marijuana that lives on today.

Evolving on Marijuana

Highlights from the Editorial Board’s changing view of marijuana over six decade

Editorial Observer: The Federal Marijuana Ban Is Rooted in Myth and Xenophobia

Editorial: Let States Decide on Marijuana

Repeal Prohibition, Again

What Science Says About Marijuana by the Editorial Board
While marijuana is not harmless, it is less dangerous to human health than alcohol and tobacco.

Oh, and there are problems in the Middle East...

But the most important thing the Times wants you to know about is dope.


In a Line
After the military ouster of the Islamist government in Cairo last year, Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states — including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — that has effectively lined up with Israel in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. (New York Times, 7/31/2014)

So with Arab governments on the side of Israel, those opposed now include only Liberals in the U.S. and Europe.


Countless
The real utility of the body count is that it offers reporters and commentators who cite it the chance to ascribe implicit blame to Israel while evading questions about ultimate responsibility for the killing. Questions such as: Why is Hamas hiding rockets in U.N.-run schools, as acknowledged by the U.N. itself? What does it mean that Hamas has turned Gaza's central hospital into "a de facto headquarters," as reported by the Washington Post? And why does Hamas keep rejecting, or violating, cease-fires agreed to by Israel? (Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, 7/28/2014)

The fact is that Liberals only use "body counts" when it is to their advantage. Hence, we heard endless recitations of body counts when George Bush was president or when Israel fights Palestinians terrorists, but nothing about how many soldiers have died during Obama's reign.


JV President
This much is certain: The president did not take the Islamic State threat seriously. In a January 2014 interview with the New Yorker, Obama glibly dismissed the Islamic State as a bunch of junior varsity terrorists who posed little danger to Iraq or the United States. “The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a jayvee team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant,” Obama declared. He brushed aside the rise of the Islamic State as just internal Iraqi sectarian violence, something that is not “a direct threat to us or something that we have to wade into.”
...
Obama’s own attorney general, Eric Holder, recently told ABC News that the rise of the Islamic State is “more frightening than anything I think I’ve seen as attorney general,” adding that “9/11 was something that kind of came out of the blue. This is a situation that we can see developing.” (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 7/28/2014)

Obama must have thought himself enormously clever with his basketball reference. Now even his own attorney general takes time out from searching for racism in America to go on the record about ISIS. One guesses that - should the unthinkable happen again and America is attacked - Holder wants to distance himself from Obama's dismissive remarks.  


Peach Pelosi
In June 2008, 12 House Democrats—including committee and subcommittee chairmen and close allies of Mrs. Pelosi—introduced a bill to impeach President George W. Bush. (Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal, 7/31/2014)

Thanks to Rove for this reminder amid all the Democrat hysteria. 

Obama Gives Up

Quotes Which Require No Further Comment
“I hate that man Obama more than any man I’ve ever met, more than any man who ever lived,” Bill Clinton said to friends on one occasion... (NYPost.com, quoting from "Blood Feud" by Edward Klein, 6/21/2014)

In 2011, the situation in Iraq was so good that the Obama administration was actually trying to take credit for it, with Vice President Joe Biden declaring that Iraq “could be one of the great achievements of this administration.” (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 6/16/2014)


Catch a Wave
This tourist mecca (Waikiki) has had a surge in its homeless population, which is up 32 percent over the past five years. (New York Times, 6/23/2014)

A rare article on homelessness and in Obama's home state to boot! Rare because journalism today does not normally permit such articles to be written when a Democrat is president. As all school children are taught, homelessness is a product of heartless Republican policies meant to disenfranchise the poor. 

Spear in Hand

Baseless
Yet the culture of the professional Left, enthusiastically aided by the establishment media, is going bonkers in pushing active homosexuality (or any one of several exotic variants thereof) as an absolute virtue. One can hardly turn around these days without facing, in fiction or in real life, what amounts to homosexual chic. From the amount of primetime air time afforded to gay Americans, one would think they constitute at least a large minority of the population, rather than the 3 to 5 percent they actually do..... At base, the problem isn’t homosexuality, but public sexuality. There was a time, a better time, when the sex lives of strangers were nobody’s business. (Quin Hillyer, Nationalreviewonline.com, 2/24/2014)

Great article that deserves to be read in its entirety endorsing the RedStateVT doctrine on sexuality: Stop talking about it.


Willful
In the ongoing saga of the Affordable Care Act, oddly referred to by Democrats as the law of the land even as it is amended at will by presidential fiat... (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 2/13/2014)

Krauthammer devastates with a mere phrase.


Bemoaner-in-Chief
In his address, Obama bemoaned the fact that over the past four years, “average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled.” Put aside for a moment the fact that Obama is describing the economy after five years of his economic stewardship. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 2/10/2014)

Ouch!


At Fault
A co-founder of Greenpeace told lawmakers there is no evidence man is contributing to climate change, and said he left the group when it became more interested in politics than the environment.

Patrick Moore, a Canadian ecologist and business consultant who was a member of Greenpeace from 1971-86, told members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee environmental groups like the one he helped establish use faulty computer models and scare tactics in promoting claims man-made gases are heating up the planet. (Foxnews.com, 2/26/2014)

Repeat after us: "Climate change is settled science, climate change is settled science, climate change is....."


Story Time
Harry Reid spoke about the Obamacare "horror stories" on the Senate floor this morning. He said that "all are untrue." (Weeklystandard.com, 2/26/2014)

A family member has been trying to sign up for insurance in New York for a month. So far, no luck. Does that qualify as a "horror story?"

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.

Tossed Upon Cloudy Seas

Barry v. Bill
Even after Mr. Obama named Mrs. Clinton as secretary of state, seemingly binding the wounds from their hard-fought 2008 primary campaign, the book says, he still could barely endure spending much time with the often-exhausting Bill Clinton. 
...
Mr. Obama succinctly expressed his view of Mr. Clinton to an aide after coming off the course at Andrews Air Force Base. “Obama grimaced and replied, ‘I like him ... in doses,’ ” the authors write.
...
“Clinton held Obama captive in the presidential limo” outside a fund-raiser at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, the authors write, grabbing Mr. Obama’s hand as he reached for the door. Instead of having a one-on-one meal together that night, as was planned, Mr. Obama, unable to “handle any more undiluted Clinton,” invited aides from both of their staffs to join the dinner and talked to them about their children, rather than talking about politics with his predecessor. (NYT, 11/1/2013)

Once Obama is no longer politically relevant (which could be any time starting now until the end of his term) Bill Clinton is going to avenge Obama's slights. It is going to be great fun to watch him unload with an exhaustive catalog of his advice and warnings, all of which were ignored by Obama. 


Road Trip
Abortion clinic owners and women’s health advocates said the decision would have catastrophic effects because as many as 13 of the 36 clinics providing abortions in the state would have to stop doing so immediately, forcing women in large swaths of Texas to travel several hours on at least two days to obtain abortions. (NYT, 11/1/2013)

People routinely travel several hours for surgery and other medical care. Liberals are upset because the Texas law makes it more difficult to site an abortion clinic on every corner. War on women!


The Best of Obamacare Funnies
“I don't think the website not being able to sign up six people is a problem with Republicans not liking Obamacare,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Friday on MSNBC. “It has to do with incompetency at HHS and a president who is totally aloof, doesn't know what's going on, and finds out his news at the same time you and I do. That's the problem.” (NBCNews.com, 11/1/2013)

... it is not politically insignificant that the largest recent expansion of government should exactly confirm the worst stereotypes of government. (Michael Gerson, Washington Post, 10/31/2013)

Gerson goes on to describe the Obamacare roll-out as a "face plant." 

That is a funny line!

“Obama lied and the individual market died.” (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 10/31/2013)

Also good!

Escape Plan
The (IPCC) report also finds other sweeping impacts from climate change already occurring across the planet, and warns that these are likely to intensify as human emissions of greenhouse gases continue to rise. The scientists describe a natural world in turmoil as plants and animals colonize new areas to escape rising temperatures, and warn that many could become extinct. (NYT, 11/2/2013)

Wow, plants and animals colonizing new areas! Those things have never happened before. 

Oh wait, yes they have. 

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.

Clash of Ideas

Fifths
San Jose now spends one-fifth of its $1.1 billion general fund on pensions and retiree health care, and the amount keeps rising. To free up the money, services have been cut, libraries and community centers closed, the number of city workers trimmed, salaries reduced, and new facilities left unused for lack of staff. From potholes to home burglaries, the city’s problems are growing. 
....
“I think it needs to be led by Democrats,” Mr. Reed said. “It can’t become something Republicans are doing to unions.” (San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed-Democrat) (NYT, 9/23/2013)

Reed is correct that only Democrat governors and mayors can forestall the financial Armageddon that will come from public employee benefits. Then again, turnaround is fair play as it was Democrats who created the problem.


Refusnik
House Speaker John Boehner is chiding President Obama for negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin while refusing to negotiate with House Republicans. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 9/23/2013)

Actually a pretty good line from Boehner.

To which we would add the following: Wasn't it Nobel Prize winner Barack Obama who said "No blue states, no red states?" Whatever happened to that guy?

Spin the Dial

Seeing Red
Why should the mullahs in Tehran worry about crossing Obama’s red line on WMDs when they see the Syrians cross Obama’s red line on WMDs — and the president’s reaction is to do as little as he can without getting mocked? (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 9/2/2013)

In the Illinois legislature, he voted “present” 129 times to avoid difficulties; now he stoops from his executive grandeur to tutor Congress on accountability. In Washington, where he condescends as a swan slumming among starlings, he insists that, given the urgency of everything he desires, he “can’t wait” for Congress to vote on his programs or to confirm persons he nominates to implement them. The virtues of his policies and personnel are supposedly patent and sufficient to justify imposing both by executive decrees.
....
Now, concerning Syria, he lectures Congress, seeking an accomplice while talking about accountability. (George Will, Washington Post, 9/2/2013)

But overall the Obama foreign policy team seems to suffer from a Pollyannaish approach to the world. They do not seem to understand that those who hate America will hate us, and will try to harm us, whether our president is Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama. (WSJ, 8/27/2013)

Having leaked to the world, and thus to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a detailed briefing of the coming U.S. air attack on Syria — (1) the source (offshore warships and perhaps a bomber or two), (2) the weapon (cruise missiles), (3) the duration (two or three days), (4) the purpose (punishment, not “regime change”) — perhaps we should be publishing the exact time the bombs will fall, lest we disrupt dinner in Damascus.

So much for the element of surprise. Into his third year of dithering, two years after declaring Assad had to go, one year after drawing — then erasing — his own red line on chemical weapons, Barack Obama has been stirred to action.  Or more accurately, shamed into action. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 8/29/2013)

Among the best of the commentary on Obama's Syrian problem. In a nutshell:

• By projecting weakness and vacillation, Obama emboldens America's real enemies. Not Syria, but North Korea and Iran.
• Obama flaunts executive privilege to get his way, but seeks Congressional consensus when he is looking for a skirt to hide behind.
• The Obama foreign policy charm offensive is an abject failure. 

Telling Tales
"First of all, I didn't set a red line," said Obama. "The world set a red line. The world set a red line when governments representing 98 percent of the world's population said the use of chemical weapons are [inaudible] and passed a treaty forbidding their use, even when countries are engaged in war. Congress set a red line when it ratified that treaty. Congress set a red line when it indicated that in a piece of legislation entitled the Syria Accountability Act that some of the horrendous things happening on the ground there need to be answered for. So, when I said in a press conference that my calculus about what's happening in Syria would be altered by the use of chemical weapons, which the overwhelming consensus of humanity says is wrong, that wasn't something I just kind of made up. I didn't pluck it out of thin air. There's a reason for it." (Weeklystandard.com, 9/4/2013)

So this is what it has come to: painted into a corner with his own brush, Obama resorts to lying. He didn't set a "red line?" Once again the video evidence and the transcripts will expose the lie, but once again it will pass because the Legitimate Media will not report it. (Don't expect Rachel Maddow to devote a show to red lines. There are more important topics to cover; like Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz.)

"I did not have sex with that woman."
"I didn't set a red line."

What is it with Democrat presidents and the truth?


Dog Days
Rep. Tony Klein, D-East Montpelier, chairs the House Committee on Natural Resources and Energy. Klein has doggedly pursued closing Yankee from the start of his political career. But like the governor, he also emphasized what he calls an important point.

"This plant is not closing because of anything the state of Vermont has done. This is clearly the economics and the sign of the times of big baseload generators, the price of natural gas," Klein said. (WCAX.com, 8/27/2013)

We got a snicker out of this one. So Tony Klein and Peter Shumlin hounded Vermont Yankee for years, making it all but impossible for it to do business in Vermont. Then in what should be their triumphant moment they don't want to take credit for what they have caused to happen. What's up with that?

Allow RedStateVT to explain. 

Make no mistake, within Progressive Party circles Klein and Shumlin are giving and getting high fives all around. Unfortunately there is the issue of the 650 jobs that will be lost. Klein/Shumlin won't man-up on that little problem (the unemployment, the lost tax revenue) and so the VY closure is really all about the low cost of natural gas. Hypocrisy has a name.

Feathers Fall

Tipsy
He has revealed to a German newsmagazine that the NSA has been using data from Internet hubs in south and west Germany to monitor Internet traffic to Syria and Mali — two hotbeds of al-Qaeda activity — tipping off our enemies to these vital U.S. intelligence operations.

Of course, this is all in addition to broader leaks about details of two NSA spying programs — revelations that, according to the Associated Press, have U.S. intelligence agencies “scrambling to salvage their surveillance of al-Qaida and other terrorists who are working frantically to change how they communicate.” (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 7/1/2013)

So for all the free speech - open government - no secrets crowd, how do you score this one? 

Aiding al Qaeda. 

We call it treason (as does Thiessen). Perhaps when homeless person Snowden gets back on U.S. soil we can get him a room. Right next to Bradley Manning. 


Full Disclosure
The Obama administration announced on Tuesday it would delay for a year, until 2015, the Affordable Care Act mandate that employers provide coverage for their workers or pay penalties, responding to business complaints and postponing the effective date beyond next year’s midterm elections. “We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively,” Mark J. Mazur, an assistant Treasury secretary, wrote on the department’s Web site in disclosing the delay. (NYT, 7/2/2013)

So the Obama administration - which did not listen to at least 50% of the country and steamrolled Obamacare - is now apparently in listening mode.

Don't be fooled. The key words above are "beyond next year's midterm elections." There is a healthcare crisis coming all right and Dems are petrified of what it will mean for the elections. 

Jester to the Clown

Frayed
Many Democrats also want to see a more aggressive and visible president to push the law across the country. This week Mr. Obama is returning to the fray to an extent unseen since he signed the law in 2010, including a White House event on Friday to promote the law’s benefits for women, the first in a series of appearances for health care this year. (NYT, 5/6/2013)

As we recently joked with a long-time reader, Liberals have brilliantly commandeered the term "women's health" as an omnipotent shield with which to either explain the validity of any crazy idea they might have or to attack any opposing opinion. 

Do you oppose Obamacare?  You are against women's health!
Do you oppose free contraception?  You are against women's health!
Do you oppose gun control?  You are against women's health!


Short Stuff
Without the participation of that generally healthy young population, insurance premiums for everyone else would increase — threatening support for a law already short of it. (NYT, 5/6/2013)

You already knew this, but just to be clear: Obamacare is a transfer tax (primarily) on the young to pay for the medical expenses of those who couldn't be bothered to get insurance on their own. However, everyone who now has insurance will pay more. 


Benghazi-gate!
The Obama administration wants to consign the Benghazi terrorist attack to the history books, but this week three State Department officials will tell Congress that the Obama administration’s version of history is false — and that the falsehoods it told the American people were willful and deliberate. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 5/6/2013)

Some in the conservative blogosphere are bubbling up the idea that Benghazi-gate will mean the end of the Obama administration. In addition to Fox News and Breitbart, CNN has even dipped its toe into the scandal. We wish the pundits were right - actually, more than that we wish the truth would come out. 

In our view, the odds are long. The New York Times completely ignored the story again today, despite pending potential blockbuster testimony from whistleblowers.

The Emperor's Morale

College Daze
Oberlin College, known as much for ardent liberalism as for academic excellence, canceled classes on Monday and convened a “day of solidarity” after the latest in a monthlong string of what it called hate-related incidents and vandalism. (NYT, 3/4/2013)

Another college president takes the bait. 

We owe a huge debt to Ann Coulter for (among many other things) educating us about how these "college hate crimes" play out. Here's how it goes: somebody spots racist graffiti on campus; the college president shuts classes down and declares this a 'teaching moment'; the national press picks the story up and laments that America is still a racist country; some time later the whole thing is found out to be a hoax, but the media has moved on by that point. 

Let's say at Oberlin, however, that an underclassman or two or three really were responsible. So Oberlin's president thinks it is a good idea to lock 2800 students out of class because of three knuckleheads? It is the classic example of "the terrorists win."


Intangibles
“I don’t see how ‘I’m fine with the sequester’ differs from ‘I’m fine with slower growth and continued high unemployment, or longer delays at airports, fewer Head Start slots, furloughs among civilian D.O.D. folks’ and so on,” said Jared Bernstein, a former economic adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., referring to the Department of Defense. Mr. Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research group, said that as the cuts became real, they would “deeply discredit” those who foster the idea that government spending is inherently wasteful and that there is no tangible cost to reducing it. (NYT, 3/3/2013)

This nonsense about how the sequester (Obama's idea) is going to cause "longer delays at airports", gut national defense or make the streets unsafe is maddening. It is a pure Democrat partisan scare tactic. If Dems don't like the cuts as mandated, change them. Scale back the holiday party at the State Department, reduce the travel and conference budget of the GSA and don't replace retiring federal workers. Another problem solved by RedStateVT.


Hard Time
America keeps too many secrets, and much more that government does should be transparent and declassified. But that is not a decision for a Private First Class to make. He faces a sentence of 20 years on the charges to which he pleaded guilty, and the military is planning more serious charges such as aiding the enemy. He is not a hero, despite the attempts by the anti-antiterror left to make him one. He will learn that the hard way in prison. (WSJ, 3/3/2013)

A Wall Street Journal editorial on traitor Bradley Manning echoes RedStateVT!


Comeback Kids
Congressional Republicans have had quite a comeback. In January, the GOP was forced to vote for a major tax hike with zero spending cuts. Now it is President Obama who has been forced to accept spending cuts with no tax hike. Who says divided government doesn’t work? (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 3/4/2013)

The New York Times and MSNBC (among others) have been crowing about 'deep divisions' among Republicans, 'a party that has lost its way' and other predictions of the end of the Republican Party. (Democrats, by contrast, are apparently fully unified on every conceivable issue.) Helpfully, these and other representatives of the Legitimate Media offer useful prescriptions for curing Republicans of their malaise. All of which involves them acting more like ...Democrats. Anyway, Thiessen makes a good point above. Don't count the Republican Party out yet.