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?

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. 

Go On Pretending

Whether
With the end of open enrollment, the administration must now turn its attention to a handful of practical questions that may have as much impact on the law’s success as the number of people who sign up. These include whether consumers continue to pay their share of monthly premiums, whether they have access to the doctors and hospitals they need and whether insurance companies will be required to raise premiums. (New York Times, 4/2/2014)

We already know the answers to these questions. No, no, yes. 


No Buts
But Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, said she did not think the health care law would be the decisive issue in this year’s midterm elections, regardless of the intensity of the attacks leveled by Republicans.

“I never said that we would run on it,” Ms. Pelosi said in an interview. “That wasn’t why we passed it. But we are not running away from it.” In the end, she said, “elections are always about jobs and the economy.” (New York Times, 4/2/2014)

And how is that working out for Dems, Nance? The jobs and economy thing?


Saving Paul Ryan
Mr. Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman and a possible White House contender in 2016, laid out a budget plan that cuts $5 trillion in spending over the next decade. He said it would bring federal spending and taxes into balance by 2024, through steep cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, and the total repeal of the Affordable Care Act just as millions are reaping the benefits of the law.
....
“This is what elections are about,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee. “Budgets are the clearest roadmaps for discovering what people’s priorities are.”
....
Because Senate Democrats do not intend to even draft a budget this year, the Ryan plan will serve more as a political manifesto than a legislative roadmap for the 113th Congress. (New York Times, 4/2/2014)

First of all, Paul Ryan is brilliant. Think of his intellect in the VEEP chair versus the bozo we have and weep that America did not elect Mitt Romney. Second, Ryan is courageous in spelling out his budget in minute detail. In doing so, he opens himself up to Democrat nitpicking over every line item which they then turn around and campaign on. Sample Democrat party news release: Ryan budget would kill the poor! 

And the most dishonest thing about Dems? They don't even have the guts to propose a budget as the Times generously points out.


Euphoria
Suddenly ObamaCare is a roaring success, happy days are here again and liberals are euphoric, or claim to be. There are more than a few reasons to doubt this new fairy tale, not least the behavior of Senate Democrats running for re-election this year.

In the Rose Garden Tuesday, President Obama reported that 7.1 million people had signed up so far, confirming a Monday night White House news leak. "That doesn't mean all our health-care problems have been solved forever," he conceded with customary modesty. The government appears to have tapped heretofore-unknown reserves of bureaucratic efficiency by releasing numbers timed to this campaign-style pep rally. (Wall Street Journal, 4/1/2014)

So just to be clear, 45 million people did not have health insurance. That is what the Dems told us was a major reason why America needed Obamacare. Now 7.1 million have signed up. Therefore, the percentage of people in the U.S. without health insurance went from 15% to 12.7%. And Dems score Obamacare as a raging success. Only remember that the 7.1% includes many who had health insurance before, but had to sign up because Obamacare resulted in the cancellation of their policies. Let's say, conservatively, that enrollees who were previously insured total 2 million. Obamacare then moved the uninsured percentage from 15% to 13.3%. Victory!

Of course, don't forget that 80% are getting government subsidies... 


Run-In
Today, we are going to discuss the Supreme Court decision on political donations. Already, we have run into a terrible problem, which is the difficulty in having a fun conversation about campaign finance laws. (Gail Collins, New York Times, 4/3/2014)

Typically dishonest op-ed piece by a New York Times Liberal. Collins decries the Supreme Court ruling on campaign donations while mentioning the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson. Geez, Ms. Collins, are there any billionaires who give lots of money to Democrat candidates? Maybe you could Google it...

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)

RedStateVT's 1000th Post

The Sad Truth

In Texas last month a flap arose over legislation that would require the following with respect to abortion:

- Prohibit abortions after 20 weeks

- require abortions to be performed in surgical centers

- stipulate that doctors who perform abortions have an affiliation with a nearby hospital

Liberals reacted, as they are wont to do, as though it were the end of days. Democrat Nancy Pelosi weighed in as follows:

"What is at risk is the discretion of a woman to make judgments about the size and timing of her family. It's respect for the judgment of women about what is good for them, for their families, their health," Pelosi said. "The reality is that people in our country do practice birth control and use contraception."

Pelosi added, "I don't know if my colleagues need a lesson on the birds and the bees. I really don't get it." (Huffington Post, 7/17/2013)

As with many of the things that come out of Pelosi’s mouth, her comments were bizarre and unintelligible. Women practice birth control (which Pelosi would provide for free) and yet they need late term abortions?

It gets worse.

Senator Wendy Davis filibustered the legislation for 11 hours. She became a national political celebrity overnight and is now considering a run for governor. Is there any doubt that she will be a featured speaker at the 2016 Democrat National Convention? Her political future is boundless.

We certainly have come a long way since Democrat Bill Clinton suggested that abortion should be safe, legal and rare. Now Liberals can argue with impunity that no restrictions should be placed on abortion after 5 months of a 9 month pregnancy. Notice how Liberals will always use the metric of “weeks” instead of “months.” Why? Well it certainly sounds less damning.

The Legitimate Media (VP Joe Biden’s terminology) quickly rushed in to laud Davis and paint Governor Perry and Texas legislators as chauvinist Neanderthals for passing a law which Bill Clinton would likely not have objected to just a few years ago.

Notwithstanding this minor victory for conservatives in Texas, the aftermath provides a startling glimpse of the growing chokehold which Liberalism has over how public opinion is shaped in America.