Source: Obama Will Nominate Illegal Alien To Supreme Court

The Supremes
Democrats said that if Mr. McConnell persisted in trying to block a nomination, he should anticipate little cooperation from them moving forward, and that they would strive to frame the refusal to act as a radical and unprecedented move. (New York Times, 2/15/2016)

Why kind of like using reconciliation to pass Obamacare!


Mr. McConnell’s threat to block a confirmation could complicate the re-election chances of Republican senators in swing states. (New York Times, 2/15/2016)

And President Obama's insistence on nominating someone could complicate re-election chances of Democrats in other swing states. 


Reid to GOP: For the good of the country, stop your nakedly partisan obstruction: Mr. McConnell’s threat to block a confirmation could complicate the re-election chances of Republican senators in swing states. (Harry Reid, Washington Post, 2/16/2016)

Has there ever been a more hypocritical politician in the United States than Harry Reid? The same Harry Reid who used parlor tricks to pass Obamacare. Who obstructed at every turn. Who accused Mitt Romney of not paying his taxes. Who never submitted a budget. Who has gotten wealthy through a career in politics. 

We think not. 

The Democrat attack line on the brewing fight over the Supreme Court is that the public will turn on Republicans who obstruct Obama. No they won't. Fifty percent of the country will stand up and cheer. 


Appetizers
This attitude intensified the unappetizing solipsistic subtext of her campaign, which is “What is Hillary owed?” It turned out that female voters seem to be looking at Hillary as a candidate rather than as a historical imperative. And she’s coming up drastically short on trustworthiness. (Maureen Dowd, New York Times, 2/17/2016)

Maureen Dowd is as partisan as one can get. Her unending attacks on the Bush family long ago crossed the line of basic decency. We'll give her kudos, however, for this biting column on the Clintons. 


Singular
Mr. Sanders’s synecdoche for his idea is Wall Street. Everything wrong with American life can be charged up, in his telling, to a small neighborhood in lower Manhattan. Something old-fashioned there is about blaming Wall Street for all the country’s deficiencies. But, then, lunatics of one idea, basking in the pleasure of Manichaeism, like to focus all their enmity on one target. (Joseph Epstein, Wall Street Journal, 2/17/2016)

Must read column on One Trick Pony Bernie Sanders. 

Listen and Understand

Deliver Us From Evil
One by one, they looked to the screen in a corner of the courtroom on Friday, into the expressionless face of the young man charged with making them motherless, snuffing out the life of a promising son, taking away a loving wife for good, bringing a grandmother’s life to a horrific end. And they answered him with forgiveness. (New York Times, 6/20/2015)

The sight of Christians forgiving the man who murdered their relatives and friends amazes us, but it should not. That is what true Christians do and it is extraordinarily humbling. In an age where progressive secularism has become ascendant in some places and radical Islam in others, the world needs more Christians.

Other thoughts:
Because the Charleston killer apparently used a handgun, Liberals cannot go off on their usual rants about assault weapons. So instead they have decided to exploit the tragedy by pointing to the Confederate flag. Sorry, we don't see the connection.

Atheist Bill Maher has reportedly found the (real) guilty party. According to Maher it is Fox News. He got us wondering though, if Fox News is responsible for white on black crime, does that mean MSNBC is responsible for black on white crime? Liberal logic.


In a Name
Mr. Obama’s power as his party’s most important figure was on display after the speech to the mayors’ conference. A fund-raiser at the home of Tom Steyer, a hedge fund manager and environmentalist, drew about 50 guests, who paid $10,000 to $33,400 to hear Mr. Obama speak. (New York Times, 6/20/2015)

So Tom Steyer has now been reborn as a "hedge fund manager and environmentalist." We are guessing that means that the Koch brothers are henceforth going to be described by the New York Times as "billionaire philanthropists." 

But we would be wrong...


Down and Out
As secretary of state, she helped Obama push the Trans-Pacific Partnership that is at the center of the current trade fight. In Australia in 2012, she was effusive, saying that the trade pact “sets the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade, the kind of environment that has the rule of law and a level playing field. And when negotiated, this agreement will cover 40 percent of the world’s total trade and build in strong protections for workers and the environment.”

Now Hillary says she is unsure about the pact and would likely oppose giving President Obama the special authority to negotiate trade deals for an up-or-down vote in Congress. (Maureen Dowd, New York Times, 6/20/2015)

Thanks to Maureen Dowd for reminding us who Hillary Clinton is. 

Obama Reaches Out to Congress: Plans White House Ice Cream Social

Bogie
FORE! Score? And seven trillion rounds ago, our forecaddies brought forth on this continent a new playground, conceived by Robert Trent Jones, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal when it comes to spending as much time on the links as possible — even when it seems totally inappropriate, like moments after making a solemn statement condemning the grisly murder of a 40-year-old American journalist beheaded by ISIL. (Maureen Dowd, New York Times, 8/24/2014)

Loyal readers know that RedStateVT is no fan of New York Times op-ed writer Maureen Dowd. Dowd is a committed Liberal and her obsession with the Bush family borders on mental illness. However, credit where credit is due. Her riff on Obama and the Gettysburg Address is an instant classic. 

And so, the Liberal flight from Obama continues...in earnest. Next we will be hearing the following from our friends on the Left: "I never really thought he was going to be as great as everyone was saying!" 

Yeah, right.


Babylon and On
The question "What should we do about ISIS?" is not the same as the question "Do we want to go back to Iraq?" One is about facing up to an extreme and immediate challenge, which we have to do. The other is about returning to an old experience, which almost no one wants to do. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 8/22/2014)

Really, an excellent point by Noonan.

Humble Origins

Slow, Depressed, Weak
The American economy slowed drastically in the first quarter of 2014, as wintry weather depressed corporate spending and housing sector activity, while weak exports and smaller additions to inventories by businesses also held back growth. (New York Times, 4/30/2014)

Does Obama own the economy...yet?


Liberals Turn
Stop whining, Mr. President. And stop whiffing.
...
You simply proclaim what you believe as though you know it to be absolutely true, hoping we recognize the truth of it, and, if we don’t, then we’ve disappointed you again.
...
It doesn’t feel like leadership. It doesn’t feel like you’re in command of your world.
...
The Times’s Mark Landler, who traveled with the president on his Asia trip, reported that Obama will try to regain the offensive, including a graduation address at West Point putting his foreign policy in context.

Mr. President, don’t you know that we’re speeched out? It’s not what we need right now.
...
But now when captured alone in a picture, you seem disconnected and adrift. (Maureen Dowd, New York Times, 4/29/2014)

When you've lost Maureen Dowd (who writes her first non-Bush column in five years), your presidency is pretty much over.


Hollywood Turns
The difference for Mr. Obama may be the gap between what his supporters expected and what they now see.
...
“The arts are often a left or progressive community,” said Nato Thompson, the chief curator at Creative Time, a public arts group in New York City that sponsors and promotes art exhibitions around the country. “There are a lot of people being let down by a president they were very enthusiastic about. There’s a big sense of betrayal.” (New York Times, 4/30/2014)

CLARIFICATION: When you have lost Maureen Dowd AND Hollywood, your presidency is pretty much over. 

Physical Manifestation

Liberal Hate Speech
Do you think Wyoming wants a fresh face? Cheney is extremely fresh, having lived in the Virginia suburbs until recently. In her YouTube announcement, she basically argued that her genes were from Wyoming, where her grandmother was the first female deputy sheriff of Natrona County. She frequently points out that her great-grandmother was a settler who walked across the state in her bare feet. If we could get a re-enactment of that, it could make this a campaign for the ages.

Meanwhile, her supportive father has agreed to take part in Wyoming’s annual antelope hunt competition with Colorado. Exciting things happen when Dick Cheney goes off to shoot wild critters. (Gail Collins, NYT, 7/17/2013)

With snide female New York Times Liberal columnist Maureen Dowd claiming the hate Bush space, snide female New York Times columnist Gail Collins goes for the hate Cheney space (see the pattern?) Collins takes exception to Liz Cheney running for office in Wyoming after living in Virginia. Which brings to mind a former female senator and later Secretary of State who, having decided on a career in politics, shopped around for a state to run in, eventually settling upon New York. What was her name again? 

Of course, Collins wrote extensively about that at the time. Or maybe she didn't.

As to her reference to Dick Cheney's hunting accident. Well shame on Collins. That is despicable.


Liberal Policies in Action
Detroit has become the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy.

State-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr on Thursday asked a federal judge permission to place the city into Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. (Washington Post, 7/18/2013)

Here is what you need to know: the last seven (count em, seven) mayors of Detroit have been Democrats. Dating back to 1962. That's 1962. 


Touty
President Barack Obama on Thursday will tout the benefits of the Affordable Care Act to a skeptical public during a speech at the White House as part of an effort to build support for the health law in the face of continued Republican efforts to block it. (WSJ, 7/17/2013)

We wonder. Will the president's speech address the following?:

The letter was unusually harsh. Addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, it was really intended for President Barack Obama. The letter was not from Mr. Obama's GOP adversaries but from the presidents of three powerful unions.

On July 12, James Hoffa of the Teamsters (1.4 million members), Joseph Hansen of the Food and Commercial Workers (1.3 million members) and D. Taylor of UNITE-HERE (200,000 members, mostly culinary and hotel workers) wrote to complain about the president's Affordable Care Act. (Karl Rove, WSJ, 7/17/2013)


Pursuit
The military judge in the trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning decided on Thursday not to drop a charge accusing Private Manning of “aiding the enemy.” 
......
The government has said it will not pursue the death penalty against Private Manning. (NYT, 7/18/2013)

So basically, good news/bad news.

Dear Diary

More the Pity
Safely re-elected, President Obama at long last spoke bluntly about the Faustian deals struck by his predecessor, some of them cravenly continued by his own administration. (Maureen Dowd, NYT, 5/25/2013)

Maureen Dowd writes perhaps her most despicable column yet on the Bush family. Considering that she has now written over 10,000 columns on the same topic that is saying something. Drawing on her doctorate in psychology, she once again recycles the Freudian father-son themes that she has written about ad nauseum. We also get Cheney and Rumsfeld redux. Then 'Mission Accomplished.' Then 'The Decider.' We are reminded that Obama, not Bush, killed bin Laden (who knew?) And finally, the snarky description of the gracious former First Lady as 'Laura the Librarian.' 

This is beyond obsession. This is journalistic mental illness. And so we move from despising Dowd to feeling sorry for her. Hopefully her employer can get her the help that she so desperately needs. 


Why Indeed
A reporter asked on Thursday, Why exactly was he running now? “It was a process of figuring out what felt right for the city, what felt right for me,” he said. “I apologize if I inconvenienced you with the scheduling.” (NYT, 5/23/2013)

And now we learn the truth from Weiner-Dog. He had to be sure that running for mayor was the best thing for New York City. Fortunately, it was and no doubt all of NYC breathes a sigh of relief. 


Tip Top
Does the IRS scandal go all the way up to the top? As of now, doubtful. It’s nearly inconceivable that anyone would be stupid enough to have given such a politically fatal directive from the White House (although admittedly the bar is rapidly falling).

But when some bureaucrat is looking for cues from above, it matters when the president of the United States denounces the Supreme Court decision that allowed the proliferation of 501(c)(4)s and specifically calls the resulting “special interest groups” running ads to help Republicans “not just a threat to Democrats — that’s a threat to our democracy.” It’s especially telling when it comes amid letters from Democratic senators to the IRS urging aggressive scrutiny of 501(c)(4) applications. (Charles Krauthammer, 5/23/2013)

Krauthammer's excellent point is a variation of one that we have heard from Peggy Noonan. Namely, Obama did not have to explicitly order the IRS to do anything. They merely listened to his speeches. 

And more from Noonan:

We know the IRS commissioner wasn't telling the truth in March 2012, when he testified: "There's absolutely no targeting." We have learned that Lois Lerner lied when she claimed she had spontaneously admitted the targeting in a Q-and-A at a Washington meeting. It was part of a spin operation in which she'd planted the question with a friend. We know the tax-exempt bureau Ms. Lerner ran did not simply make mistakes because it was overwhelmed with requests—the targeting began before a surge in applications. And Ms. Lerner did not learn about the targeting in 2012—the IRS audit timeline shows she was briefed in June 2011. She said the targeting was the work of rogue agents in the Cincinnati office. But the Washington Post spoke to an IRS worker there, who said: "Everything comes from the top." (Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 5/23/2013)


Just Next Door
On Monday, the terminators gained a victory when Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin signed into law the "Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act." The bill had been passed by the state legislature the week before without consulting the electorate, possibly because the lawmakers had seen what happened last fall next door in Massachusetts, where voters rejected a similar initiative. Now Vermont doctors will be able to prescribe lethal medication to patients as the state joins Oregon, Washington and Montana in supporting the practice. (WSJ, 5/24/2013)

Key phrase above, of course, is "without consulting the electorate."


Change of Fortune
After years of grueling battles over state budget deficits and spending cuts, California has a new challenge on its hand: too much money. An unexpected surplus is fueling an argument over how the state should respond to its turn of good fortune.
...
Instead, the surplus has set off a debate about the durability of new revenues, and whether the money should be used to reverse some of the spending cuts or set aside to guard against the inevitable next economic downturn. (NYT, 5/25/2013)

It will be fascinating to watch what the Democrat majority in California does with the budget surplus (if it is even real). Will they learn from history and set up that rainy day fund? Somehow we doubt it, but here's hoping.

Things Change

Spin This
Administering the nearly four-million-word federal tax code involves so many arcane legalities, and is so fraught with potential to ignite Washington’s partisan skirmishes or infuriate taxpayers, that much of the I.R.S. is run by lawyers. (NYT, 5/18/2013)

Yes, the same IRS that will now be responsible for enforcing Obamacare!

Writing on the IRS scandal, the New York Times gives us an inside look at the Cincinnati office where the trouble began. The scandal involves more than this office, but the intent of the Times is to attempt to convince that it was a localized problem, did not reach up high in the organization and was not part of a larger effort to target conservative groups. And so we get lots of details about just how disorganized things were, we hear that liberal advocacy groups were also targeted, and - our favorite - the terms "low level" and "mid level" referring to IRS employees repeated THREE TIMES EACH. 


Impressionism
More troubling for the current crew is that news outlets are starting to pivot to broader questions about whether Obama is competent at the business of government or a passive bystander in his own administration. That impression, if it takes hold, cannot be Etch-a-Sketched away. (Howard Kurtz, CNN.com, 5/17/2013)

A key issue for RedStateVT. Never mind black or white, Democrat or Republican, big government or small government or a hundred other demarcation points. Or deepest fear has always been this: competence or incompetence. There is little that Obama has done in five years that speaks to his competence to hold the office he holds. Be it leading an economic recovery or projecting American strength, he has been a dismal failure. Democrats who point to Obamacare are reminded that Obama's signature achievement was passed by a Democrat super-majority led by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, that Obama was often a bystander in the process, and that the road to implementation has to date been rocky. 

Electing a junior Senator with scant experience and no legislative accomplishments, almost solely on the premise that it would assuage racial wounds of the past, has proven to be a disastrous idea.


Compensatory
Obama would never pull what Hillary pulled with her longtime aide Huma Abedin. Abedin was allowed, after the birth of her and Anthony Weiner’s son, to work part time as a top adviser in the State Department for $135,000 while also working as a consultant for private clients, some of whom had to be interested in her influence in the government.

As Politico reported, the arrangement was similar to the way many of Hillary’s aides were paid while she was a senator: “They were compensated partly through work on her government staff, and partly through her political action committee.” And others would later land lucrative gigs at Clinton-friendly organizations.

Hillary has a blind spot on ethics, not minding if things look terrible if they’re technically legit. And she has a tight grip on money, so she didn’t choose to simply shift Huma to her personal payroll. (Maureen Dowd, NYT, 5/18/2013)

Well look at what a Liberal columnist has revealed! One possible benefit to the Obama Scandals(tm)? The Obama - Clinton rivalry - always just below the surface - now comes out into the open. Here's hoping!

Finishing Touches

Logged Out
Hillary was an indefatigable secretary of state — she logged 956,733 diplomatic frequent-flier miles — and a star ambassador, especially on women’s issues.  (Maureen Dowd, NYT, 4/6/2013)

Dowd writes an entire column avowing that Hillary Clinton is running for president in 2016. Dowd hits all the issues: Hillary's health, her age, her hair, her outfits, her previous run-in with health care reform, her psyche, her relationship with her father. There is even a brief reference to long ago Clinton-era scandals. 

What is missing? Not a single word - not one - on Benghazi. 

This is journalistic malpractice. 


Hey Good Lookin'
President Obama late Thursday night called Kamala Harris, the California attorney general, and apologized to her for telling a group of wealthy donors that she is the “best-looking attorney general in the country.” (NYT, 4/5/2013)

Is it only RedStateVT that discerns the deeper context behind Obama's comment? 

He has been hanging around Joe Biden too much. 

Grounds for Prosecution

The Punisher
In its bid to make the sequester as painful as possible, the White House announced Tuesday that it is canceling all visitor tours of the White House "during the popular Spring touring season." This fits President Obama's political strategy to punish the eighth graders visiting from Illinois instead of, say, the employees of the Agriculture Department who will attend a California conference sipping "exceptional local wines" and sampling "tasty dishes" prepared by "special guest chefs." (WSJ, 3/5/2013)

Does Team Obama really believe that voters are going to blame Republicans for his sequester? We think his advisers are a pretty savvy bunch, but also think that they may get this one wrong. Repubs should continue the steady drip of disclosures about government waste. We are guessing that within a couple of weeks the White House tours will quietly resume.


We Heart Cheney
Cheney still hearts waterboarding. “Are you going to trade the lives of a number of people because you want to preserve your honor?” he asked, his voice dripping with contempt.

“I don’t lie awake at night thinking, gee, what are they going to say about me?” he sums up.

They’re going to say you were a misguided powermonger who, in a paranoid spasm, led this nation into an unthinkable calamity. Sleep on that. (Maureen Dowd, NYT, 3/5/2013)

Maureen Dowd is a New York Times op-ed writer that we first began ignoring years ago. Occasionally we will check back in and we always regret it. Her specialty, actually obsession, is writing about the Bush family. La Familia Bush treated her with kindness which she repaid with unending scorn. 

Here she goes after Dick Cheney who she posits as the puppet-master of W. And then she wants to have the waterboarding discussion again. What was it....two or three people at most that were waterboarded? Information learned that saved American lives?

Perhaps Dowd likes her VPs more like Biden, lovable goofballs. Anyway, talking about Cheney at least distracts Dowd from asking whether Obama lied to the country about the sequester....


Virtual Reality
Virtually no savings come from Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, the entitlement programs whose growth is driving projections of unsustainable debt as the population ages and medical costs increase. And revenues are insufficient to support the size of government. 

As a consequence, the legacy-minded president is forcing himself to do something he has largely avoided or left to senior advisers — personally reaching out to rank-and-file members of Congress.
...
Dissatisfaction with Mr. Obama’s attentions to Capitol Hill, however, has been longstanding and bipartisan. Democrats complain that the president has done little to use the trappings of office to woo opponents or reward friends. Republicans say they rarely hear even from the White House aides tasked to reach out to Congress.

One senior Democratic Congressional aide said the president seemed to view relations with lawmakers “as a chore, not an opportunity.” (NYT, 3/5/2013)

Something is happening over at the New York Times. The censors are letting their guards down and we are seeing more objective reporting slipping through. With a healthy dose of skepticism we have said that the Times is free to do so now having accomplished their main objective (along with the rest of the Legitimate Media), that of getting Obama re-elected. So here we have the following:

• Entitlement reform
• The size of government
• A president obsessed with his legacy
• A president who has never personally engaged Congress

All of which, by the way, were first term issues as well.


Hooded
The police in Oberlin, Ohio, have been unable to confirm a report of a person wearing a white robe and hood that caused Oberlin College to cancel classes on Monday and plunged the campus in to a day of soul-searching. (NYT, 3/5/2013)

....city police told a local reporter that eyewitnesses saw no one in KKK garb — but instead saw a pedestrian wearing a blanket. Yes, the dreaded Assault Blanket of Phantom Bias. Moreover, after arresting two students involved in the spate of hate messages left around campus, police say “it is unclear if they were motivated by racial hatred or — as has been suggested — were attempting a commentary on free speech.” (MichelleMalkin.com, 3/6/2013)

Yesterday we referenced Ann Coulter in analyzing the Great Oberlin College Racism Scandal. For years Coulter has debunked these types of events as hoaxes. It turns out that another of our favorite conservatives, Michelle Malkin, is an Oberlin alum and has added useful firsthand information to the story...uh, hoax.


Bogie
Congressman Gohmert (R-TX) introduced an amendment to the Continuing Resolution preventing Obama from using federal funds to transport himself to/from a golf course until White House resumes giving tours to the public. (Breitbart.com, 3/5/2013)

This is just plain brilliant.


Lost In The Barrio
"Today the people of the United States lost a friend it never knew it had. And poor people around the world lost a champion," says Penn in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "I lost a friend I was blessed to have. My thoughts are with the family of President Chavez and the people of Venezuela." (Hollywoodreporter.com, 3/5/2013)

What is the thought process if you are a Hollywood socialist like Sean Penn, we wonder. Chavez is insulting to George Bush. OK, that fits with your world view. You hate Bush too, so you and Chavez are in synch. But, it turns out, Chavez is equally insulting to Obama. And he is still your hero? 

Liberals hate to have their patriotism questioned....so we question Penn's patriotism.