Long Division

Hate Speech
There is one major political party in the U.S. that is consumed with hate. And it is not who you think. For Democrats, any position contrary to the one they espouse is hateful. Question whether after 3,000 years of civilization in which heterosexual marriage has been the norm, homosexual marriage should now be embraced? You hate gays. Believe that government funding of abortion should be reconsidered? You hate women. Concerned that trillions of dollars spent on anti-poverty programs may have created a permanent underclass dependent on government hand-outs? You hate the poor. Suggest that a temporary ban on Muslim immigration might make sense in order to ensure the security of Americans? You hate Muslims. Express a conservative view on a college campus? That is hate speech.

Why are Democrats so consumed with hate?

Truth be told, it is the childish way in which they defend their beliefs. No one wants to be thought of, never mind accused, of hating. So instead of making the case for their agenda, Democrats taunt Republicans as haters. 


Faithless
The public has little faith in President Obama’s handling of terrorism and the threat from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Fifty-seven percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of terrorism, and seven in 10 say the fight against the Islamic State is going badly. There have been few foreign-directed terrorist attacks in the United States in the past decade, and American officials have repeatedly said that there is no credible evidence of planning for a large-scale attack in the United States by the Islamic State or its supporters. (New York Times, 12/11/2015)

Faced with a majority of the country disapproving of his anti-terror program, RedStateVT has learned that President Bilbo Baggins has decided on the following course of action:

- He will give another speech reproaching Americans for fearing Muslims.

We note also the new lexicon that the New York Times has adopted, no doubt after being directed to do so by the Baggins administration: there is no credible evidence for a LARGE-SCALE attack in the U.S. 

Lots of small ones, but no LARGE-SCALE attacks. 

America rests a little easier knowing that President Baggins has got this one.


Endless
Putting an end to more than a decade of strict federal control of public education, President Obama on Thursday signed a sweeping rewrite of the No Child Left Behind act that returns power to states and local districts to determine how to improve troubled schools. (New York Times, 12/11/2015)

What the New York Times does not tell you, notwithstanding a twenty-three paragraph article, is that No Child Left Behind was a bipartisan bill championed on the Democrat side by none other than Teddy (the Lion of the Senate) Kennedy. Inconvenient Democrat facts are whitewashed from history by the Liberal media. Did you know that NAFTA was signed by Bill Clinton. Or that it was Bill Clinton who did not sign on to the Kyoto Protocol? If the Times does not write it, it did not happen.


All Talk
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been talking tough on Wall Street, but that’s yet to stop finance industry bigwigs from opening up their checkbooks for her....The price of entry was $33,400, with the proceeds of around $400,000 going to  the Hillary Victory Fund, which is split between the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. (Wall Street Journal, 12/11/2015)

We'll leave it to Bernie Sanders to trumpet this one. Frankly, we give not a whit where politicians get their contributions from...as long as there is FULL DISCLOSURE. That way we know who is supporting whom (or attempting to buy influence).

Instead, we will note again that Democrats are very willing to both take money from Wall Street AND castigate them at the same time. Perhaps we were wrong yesterday when we opined that Liberals were the dumbest people on the planet. Maybe Wall Streeters are.

Bring Back the Complaint Department

Conceptual
(Secretary of State John Kerry) added that President Obama had charged his aides with “coming up with any concepts that will, in fact, work, and which could help change the situation on the ground.” (New York Times, 11/24/2015)

Kerry and Obama nail exactly what is required in the fight against ISIS: concepts that will in fact work.

How these geniuses ever got to the pinnacle of power is something that future historians will study.


Shady
“One of the things I insisted on the day I walked into the Oval Office was that I don’t want intelligence shaded by politics. I don’t want it shaded by a desire to tell a feel-good story,” he said. (New York Times, 11/23/2015)

So is this why Obama told the American public that Al Queda was neutralized and ISIS contained? It would be just like him to throw the military under the bus. It may be difficult to find out the truth because it would also be just like him to lie for political reasons.

“It’s not as if I’ve been receiving wonderfully rosy, glowing portraits of what’s been going on in Iraq and Syria over the last year and a half,” Mr. Obama said, adding: “At my level, at least, we’ve had a pretty cleareyed, sober assessment of where we’ve made real progress and where we have not. (New York Times, 11/23/2015)

So upon further review, Obama seems to be saying that he did NOT get "feel-good" assessments about Iraq and Syria. He got the truth. That his policies have created chaos and put American lives at risk. And he did what?


It's Working! (Part 47)
UnitedHealth is the largest U.S. insurer by enrollment, and the company is warning it may withdraw from ObamaCare in 2017. The insurer has already suspended advertising for its ObamaCare coverage and stopped paying commissions to insurance brokers for signing people up. It literally doesn’t want consumers to buy its products. (Wall Street Journal, 11/23/2015)

Don't forget to sign up for Obamacare. While there are still insurance companies.


Deceivers
Texas and a handful of other states — including Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana — have moved to eliminate Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood amid the controversy. Secretly recorded videos that were released starting in July purported to show Planned Parenthood officials trying to illegally profit from the sale of aborted fetal tissue and discussing the issue with abortion opponents who posed as representatives of a biomedical firm.

Planned Parenthood said that the videos were deceptively edited and that the group did not do anything illegal or unethical. (New York Times, 11/24/2015)

Whenever Liberals are caught red-handed on tape they resort to their standard defense: who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes? Of course, the full, unedited videos are available and prove that Planned Parenthood officials were doing exactly what it is they were alleged to be doing.

Lying does not matter to Liberals because Planned Parenthood is serving a higher purpose: ensuring that the government continues funding abortion.

Bernie's Next Target: Too Many Breakfast Cereal Choices

Tumultuous
In a sign of the tumult in the health insurance industry under the Affordable Care Act, companies are seeking wildly differing rate increases in premiums for 2016, with some as high as 85 percent, according to information released on Monday by the federal government for the 37 states using HealthCare.gov as their exchange. (New York Times, 6/2/2015)

Barack Obama: "You can keep your insurance. In fact, it is going to cost less. We're bending the cost curve. Everything will be wonderful."


Shot Through
Shootings in New York City have been rising for two straight years, the first time that has happened since the end of the 1990s, when the city was still in the early years of a remarkable downturn in crime. 
....
New York is not alone in seeing a rise in violence. In some cities, like Baltimore and Chicago, the increase has been far greater, a fact that New York officials are quick to highlight, albeit privately. (New York Times, 6/2/2015)

So to be clear, chaos reigns in cities where Liberals rule and where the aforementioned Liberals have defanged the police. 


Her Highness
Hillary Rodham Clinton will hold the first major rally of her presidential campaign on June 13 on Roosevelt Island in New York City, before embarking on a five-day swing through the four states with the earliest Democratic nominating contests, her campaign said on Monday. (New York Times, 6/2/2015)

In keeping with protocol, Clinton will not take any questions from the press. Or from attendees. She will, however, take contributions. Make your check out to the Clinton Crime Family Foundation.


Kidding
When the media describe the Clintons as resilient or unsinkable or bulletproof—the ultimate “Comeback Kids”—what they really mean is that they are shameless. Nothing embarrasses them, so nobody stops them. (Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, 6/2/2015)

Kinda makes sense, doesn't it?


Asked and Answered
Monday while President Barack Obama was answering questions at a town hall with YSEALI Fellows, an exchange program for community leaders from ASEAN, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, he said his administration has restored the United States as the “the most respected country on earth.” (Breitbart.com, 6/2/2015)

This is not a joke. Obama actually said this.

Sanders to run for president! America to get another crackpot candidate from Vermont

Outed
Ian Reisner, one of the two gay hoteliers facing boycott calls for hosting an event for Senator Ted Cruz, who is adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage, apologized to the gay community for showing “poor judgment.”

Mr. Reisner put the apology on Facebook, where a page calling for a boycott of his properties, the gay-friendly OUT NYC hotel and his Fire Island Pines holdings, had gotten more than 8,200 “likes” by Sunday evening. (New York Times, 4/27/2015)

Gay Rules:
--A flower shop run by conservative Christians cannot refuse to service a gay wedding. 
--A gay couple cannot host a Republican presidential candidate. 

The Gay Mafia strikes again!


Worse Than
These include Mr. Tsarnaev’s youth, since he was 19 at the time of the bombings; his rootless family and the powerful influence of Tamerlan, who was killed during a shootout with the police; and the idea that a lifetime spent at the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colo., which is known as ADX and is the nation’s toughest federal prison, would be hellish and perhaps worse than death. (New York Times, 4/27/2015)

Let's see, in prison Tsarnaev would get access to the library, Muslim cuisine, television, GED courses, etc. 

No, we think death is worse. Let's go with death.


Harmful
Months after President Obama formally declared that the United States’ long war against the Taliban was over in Afghanistan, the American military is regularly conducting airstrikes against low-level insurgent forces and sending Special Operations troops directly into harm’s way under the guise of “training and advising.” (New York Times, 4/29/2015)

This is the way it is with Obama and other Liberals. They will slander Bush and Cheney, secretly adopt the same policies and then lie about it. 

Flight of the Arrow

Influence
But it is also true that Mr. Cotton and other Republicans benefited from millions in campaign spending in 2014 by several pro-Israel Republican billionaires and other influential American donors who helped them topple Democratic opponents. (New York Times, 4/5/2015)

The New York Times breaks the bombshell story that Republicans accept campaign contributions from people who share their views on issues such as Israel. No word yet as to whether Democrats do the same.


Fearful
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a possible Republican presidential candidate, said it was “probably the best deal that Barack Obama could get with the Iranians because the Iranians don’t fear” him. (New York Times, 4/6/2015)

This is exactly the point: America's adversaries do not fear Obama. America, and the world, are weaker as a result. Liberals derided Ronald Reagan and George Bush as "cowboys" but you better believe that the world's bad actors took notice.


Showered
The White House says that now that it has the specific outlines of a deal, it will have an easier time allaying lawmakers’ concerns. It plans to shower them with technical detail and essentially argue that the accord is the only alternative to war. (New York Times, 4/6/2015)

Obama is notorious for his use of straw men and false comparisons to make whatever idiotic point he is trying to make. A bad deal or war? That is ridiculous. Here's another idea: How about no deal with the Iranians and a tightening of sanctions?


Hidden
Warning “you can’t just hide” from the problem of workplace sexism, Ellen Pao says Silicon Valley must continue to work on the issues brought up in her loss to venture capital-firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in a much-watched gender-bias trial.

“You need to work through these issues,” Ms. Pao said in her first interview since the March 27 verdict, “because they are here and they’re not going to go away.” (Wall Street Journal, 4/6/2015)

What issues, exactly? Pao lost. On every count! Kleiner Perkins was found not guilty and Pao's allegation were deemed baseless. What issues do we need to work through? Perhaps the ones that involve baseless charges of discrimination by radical feminists. Let's "work through" that issue.


Memory Loss
“Civil-rights laws are turned upside down when used to harass small businesses with minority viewpoints,” says Mr. Epstein. “These viewpoints need constitutional space between them and the relentless ambitions of an ascendant gay rights movement that seems to have quickly forgotten that its members were once on the receiving end of the unthinking and abusive exercise of state criminal law.” (New York University law professor Richard Epstein, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, 4/7/2015)

Echoing our favorite comment from a brave gay man who said: "We used to be bullied. Now we are the bullies."

RedStateVT: Liberal Fascism on the Rise

Unimposing
President Obama had set March 31 as a deadline for reaching a political accord to define the main terms of a final, comprehensive agreement due by the end of June. The Obama administration has extended that self-imposed deadline. (New York Times, 4/2/2015)

When is a deadline not a deadline? When it is an Obama deadline.

Here is all you need to know about a nuclear deal with Iran:

--Obama will give away more than he will get.
--The Iranians will cheat on whatever deal is reached.


Foreigner
“Right now, he has no foreign policy legacy,” said Cliff Kupchan, an Iran specialist who has been tracking the talks as chairman of the Eurasia Group, a consulting firm. “He’s got a list of foreign policy failures. A deal with Iran and the ensuing transformation of politics in the Middle East would provide one of the more robust foreign policy legacies of any recent presidencies. It’s kind of all in for Obama. He has nothing else. So for him, it’s all or nothing.” 
... 
An agreement with Iran remains the most promising goal left in a foreign policy agenda that has unraveled since Mr. Obama took office. Rather than building a new partnership with Russia, he faces a new cold war. Rather than ending the war in Iraq, he has sent American forces back to fight the Islamic State, though primarily from the air. Rather than defeating Al Qaeda, he finds himself chasing its offshoots. Rather than forging peace in the Middle East, he said recently that is beyond his reach. (New York Times, 4/3/2015)

Somewhat amazingly the Times reports the foreign policy failures that comprise the real Obama legacy. Which explain why he is so desperate for any deal with Iran, even one that disadvantages the U.S. and Israel.


Cornered
Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader who announced his retirement last week, settled into a corner booth at the Triple George Grill here, his faced masked by dark sunglasses, evidence of lingering injuries from a workout accident that left him blind in one eye. For the next hour, in a conversation that veered from Washington to Nevada and back again, Mr. Reid made clear that he would deploy all of his resources to make sure Democrats hold on to his seat — critical to any hopes his party has of winning back the Senate in 2016. (New York Times, 4/2/2015)

The New York Times writes a love letter to Harry Reid. No mention - none - of his lies about Mitt Romney. No mention of his nuclear waste deal with Obama. No mention of how he became a millionaire while in office. No mention of his scurrilous attacks on the Koch brothers. 

Do Over

Phased Out
Waged by a president with faded public standing, the new phase will not involve many American troops on the ground, but seems certain to require a far more intense American bombing blitz than in Somalia or Yemen. (New York Times, 9/11/2014)

President Obama's entire foreign policy when it comes to using American might to fight the bad guys is first, do nothing if possible; and second, if that does not work, bomb them. The reason is because he, like all Democrats, cannot get past the Viet Nam War. And so, in their view, the U.S. can NEVER fight another war in which we have "boots on the ground." Soldiers might die and how would that look? Of course, the freedoms that we enjoy today are ONLY because brave men sacrificed their lives to defend our country. In the bizarre world of Democrat national security, boots in the air is OK, boots on the ground, not. The logic is mind-bending, but typical. 


Rally Cap
While other commanders in chief enjoyed a surge in public support when they took the nation to war, the nation is not exactly rallying behind Mr. Obama this time around. A fresh battery of polls this week indicated that most Americans do want him to go after ISIS yet disapprove of his leadership. In other words, they support the policy but not the president.

Peter D. Feaver, a former national security aide to Mr. Bush and President Bill Clinton, said the public unease was due, in part, to Mr. Obama’s own shifting descriptions of the threat and his acknowledgment two weeks ago that he had no strategy yet. “Until tonight, the Obama administration has done a textbook job of following the script on how to undermine public confidence,” he said. (New York Times, 9/11/2014)

It was fascinating to flip channels last night after the President's speech on ISIS. On Fox, the panel discussed how Obama's actions represented a reversal of many of his previous pronouncements and policies. On MSNBC, the panel debated whether Obama needed to get Congressional approval and whether Republicans would obstruct him. The Fox panel included a retired four star general. The MSNBC panel included foreign policy guru Al Sharpton decked out in his trademark track suit. Just kidding! (Sharpton is not really a foreign policy expert. He just plays one on TV.)

MSNBC turned to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for reaction and analysis. A highly agitated Sanders talked about how the middle class in America is disappearing. Then he talked about the Viet Nam War. He said "Bush-Cheney" three times in sixty seconds. He opined that everything Obama had done so far in Iraq and the Middle East was correct and how what Obama was now proposing was also correct. He and MSNBC's Chris Matthews talked about how they agreed with each other.

Lean Sideways.


Hands Down
The demonstration took place about five miles from the street in Ferguson where Mr. Brown, who was black and unarmed, was killed by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, on Aug. 9. Some witnesses have said that Mr. Brown, 18, had put his hands up in surrender. Officer Wilson, who has not been charged, has been placed on leave, and his location is unknown. (New York Times, 9/11/2014)

Full disclosure (which you will not get from the Times): 

"Others said that Mr. Brown - after robbing a convenience store, assaulting a clerk and refusing police instructions to walk on the sidewalk instead of the middle of the road - punched Officer Wilson in the face."


What The Kids Are Doing
California is poised to become the first state to require all colleges that receive state funds to strengthen their policies on sexual assault by mandating that students give active consent to one another before all sexual activity, either by saying “yes” to a spoken query or by signaling assent in a nonverbal way. (New York Times, 9/10/2014)

For years and years and years all we heard from Liberals was that conservatives were inserting themselves and their morality (no pun intended) into people's bedrooms. 

My how times have changed!



From RedStateVT
On this day we again remember and honor all those citizens who lost their lives due to Islamic terrorism, our soldiers who have also died and those who are now serving.

Belief System

Avoidance
If we withdrew from the Middle East, especially from Iraq; if we avoided new entanglements, such as in Syria; and if we engaged with our adversaries, such as Iran and Russia, the anti-American furies would subside and the world would be safer. We should nation-build at home, not overseas, and slash the defense budget accordingly.

Mr. Obama pursued this vision starting with his Inaugural Address and throughout his first term. He tried to "reset" relations with Russia by dismantling a missile-defense deal with Poland and the Czech Republic. He muted support for the democratic uprising in Iran in 2009 lest it upset the mullahs he needed for a nuclear weapons deal. 
...
One way to start undoing the damage would be to concede that Dick Cheney was right all along. (Wall Street Journal, 9/9/2014)

Of course, Liberals would jump off a bridge before conceding that Cheney was right. Instead we get Obama attributing the various meltdowns throughout the world to the power and influence of Facebook and Twitter. 

A Liberal, but loyal reader takes it further explaining that Bush initiated rapprochement with Putin and Russia and that Obama did not do anything about ISIS initially because they were U.S. allies. Which does not explain 1) why Obama and Hillary Clinton made such a big deal about a "reset" with Russia (why reset if you are continuing Bush's policy?); and, 2) if ISIS was an ally (a preposterous suggestion) why did Obama belittle them by calling the group wanna-be terrorists?


Other Worldly
The goal seemed more preparing the NATO alliance for a new Cold War with Russia than exploring how to make peace, even as Moscow was helping to bring about the cease-fire agreement.
...
The meeting was just the most recent disturbing example of how cavalierly and cynically the NATO leaders — including President Obama — have escalated tensions, while dismissing opportunities to bring the conflict to a reasonable conclusion quickly. Absent from the discussion in Wales, among other things, was any recognition of NATO members’ own roles in triggering the crisis.
...
There would not have been such a concerted Russian nationalist response to the crisis had the West not sowed the seeds of suspicion and mistrust over the past 18 years by growing NATO’s presence in Eastern Europe, in spite of the assurances that Russia ostensibly received from the George H.W. Bush administration that “NATO will not expand one inch to the east.” Russia clearly views NATO expansion not only as provocative but also as a betrayal of an agreement, and it perceives NATO’s push toward its borders as an act of aggression — and Western leaders know it. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 9/9/2014)

At last the long-awaited Katrina vanden Heuvel analysis of the Ukranian-Russian conflict. 

Conclusion? 

It is all the fault of the West! Yes, you read that correctly and - as best as we can tell - it is not meant to be satirical. In the world that vanden Heuvel lives, the threat of NATO expansion provoked Russia into an unavoidable response and Russia gets credit for the tentative cessation of hostilities. Oh, and Bush Sr. is also somehow to blame.

vanden Heuvel is obviously making her bid to be named Vladimir Putin's favorite Western journalist. Right now, no one else comes close. Her only nit with Putin is the following:

"While there is no question that Russia at times has contributed to tensions in the region..."

And by "contributing to tensions" vanden Heuvel must mean Russia's armed annexation of Crimea.

Can journalists be fired for stupidity?

Everyday Moods

He's Got the Fever
In part, of course, that depends on what Republicans do in the next two years. Mr. Obama has been frustrated by his inability, even after a decisive 2012 re-election victory, to “break the fever” of hard-core Republican opposition. With control of both chambers of Congress, Republicans might feel a greater responsibility to join Mr. Obama in governance by striking politically appealing compromises. (New York Times, 8/21/2014)

After George W. Bush was re-elected, Democrats immediately began advising him that now was the time to compromise. Whereupon HRH Ann Coulter said something to the effect of: "Compromise? Why should Bush compromise? He has Dems in a cage. He should be poking them with a stick!"

Anticipating a shellacking in the coming elections, Dems are already urging Republicans....to compromise!


Touchy
Darren Wilson, the Ferguson, Mo., police officer whose fatal shooting of Michael Brown touched off more than a week of demonstrations, suffered severe facial injuries, including an orbital (eye socket) fracture, and was nearly beaten unconscious by Brown moments before firing his gun, a source close to the department's top brass told FoxNews.com. (Foxnews.com, 8/20/2014)

And so it unfolds as it always does. A black teenager coming home from choir practice is killed by a racist white cop. Slowly we learn that the teen had marijuana in his system, had just robbed a convenience store and busted the cop's face. The details change slightly from incident to incident, but the basic pattern is the same. Maybe the cops should sue claiming racial profiling.....


Kill Them Before They Kill Us
But Foley is dead and his killers won't fail on their own. They will not fail because Barack Obama reached out his hand in peace on Inauguration Day. They will not fail because of a progressive vision that mankind has finally in the 21st century reached some higher level of being. Like every evil in human history, ISIS will stop only when it is forced to stop. This means only when enough of its fanatics have been killed. (Wall Street Journal, 8/21/2014)

Our favorite paragraph from today's WSJ editorial.

But the lesson of the last century is that a coalition of the willing forms only when America leads. The main reason that ISIS has advanced so far has been the U.S. failure to act against it. Mr. Obama's refusal to intervene in Syria created a breeding ground for jihadists. And his total withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 created a vacuum for those jihadists to spill over and occupy Sunni Iraq.

No, this is our favorite.

Even if Mr. Obama absolves himself and still blames George W. Bush for his Middle Eastern troubles, that does him and the world no good now. Disorder is spreading while he is the world's ostensible leader. ISIS is marching while he is Commander in Chief.

Or maybe this one...

It does not matter, the point is that the lesson that Liberals like Obama have not learned and may never learn is that evil exists in the world and it must be eradicated by force and only by force. 

We have to kill them. 

Withdrawal, reset buttons, and vacillation only allow the cancer of evil to spread until it is at our doorstep. We have seen that movie before.
  

Devil's Bargain
Economic growth is nonpartisan. But inner-city public education is totally partisan. Democratic politicians made a Faustian bargain with the teachers unions, and the souls carried away have been the black children in those doomed schools. (Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal, 8/20/2014)

Dems have sold their souls in exchange for the votes and campaign contributions of unions. That is a fact. 

Press 2 For English

Irrefutable Proof of Liberal Bias at the New York Times
The long-simmering case has centered on Mr. Perry’s veto power as governor. His critics asserted that he used that power as leverage to try to get an elected official — Rosemary Lehmberg, the district attorney in Travis County — to step down after her arrest on a drunken-driving charge last year. Ms. Lehmberg is Austin’s top prosecutor and oversees a powerful public corruption unit that investigates state, local and federal officials; its work led to the 2005 indictment of a former Republican congressman, Tom DeLay, on charges of violating campaign finance laws. (New York Times, 8/16/2014)

In a story on the indictment of Texas governor Rick Perry, the New York Times reminds us that Republican Tom DeLay was also indicted. Here is what the New York Times "forgets" to mention:

The Travis County District Attorney’s office has a long history of politically-motivated prosecutions, including the 2005 indictment of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay for alleged campaign finance violations. DeLay’s convictions were completely overturned and he was acquitted after an appeal to the Third District Texas Court of Appeals in 2013—too late to save his political career. (Breitbart.com, 8/15/2014)

An honest, unbiased news organization would have mentioned this fact - inconvenient to those who want to eliminate Rick Perry as a potential challenger for Hillary Clinton. Alas, the New York Times is not an honest news organization.


Deficient
“At least since World War II, presidents have been unwilling to discuss deficiencies in capability because they’re expected to do everything, and they like that sense of omnipotence,” said Jeremy Shapiro, a former Obama State Department official now at the Brookings Institution. “Obama has been trying to change that in the last year because he senses that the requirements of omnipotence have gotten so far out of whack with what he can actually accomplish that he needs to change the expectations.” (New York Times, 8/16/2014)

With Obama and his apologists it is all about what he CANNOT do. We never heard Ronald Reagan speak thusly. He recognized, as Obama does not, that appearances matter. Even George Bush understood this. Derided by U.S. Liberals as a "cowboy," the bad actors in the world were just frightened of Bush enough to be wary. None of the world's bad actors - in North Korea, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, the Middle East - are afraid of Obama. They know, because he has told them, that he will run from the fight. 


Unexplained
Some Democrats said Mr. Obama’s challenge has not necessarily been his approach to these crises, but his ability to explain and sell it.

“What he’s come up with in Iraq and in Ukraine are sensible strategies,” said former Representative Jane Harman of California, now president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “He now needs to link them with a narrative that explains to the American people why we have to re-engage in foreign policy matters, and I hope he does that.” (New York Times, 8/16/2014)

The greatest orator the world has ever seen and heard cannot explain his foreign policy? Did Democrats oversell this guy or what?


Here We Go Again
With the release of tape today by the Ferguson Police Department of a man who appears to be Michael Brown allegedly physically assaulting a much smaller clerk while stealing Swisher Sweet cigars, the media’s narrative has collapsed. The media – and top-level politicians across the political spectrum – portrayed Michael Brown in saintlike fashion. That narrative no longer holds. (Ben Shapiro, Breitbart.com, 8/15/2014)

We are sorry for the death or Michael Brown as we were sorry for the death of Trayvon Martin.

Unfortunately, in both cases the rush to judgment that the deceased were blameless allows Liberals to berate Florida gun laws and police procedures. Only when pictures of George Zimmerman's battered head are made public does his story that Trayvon Martin was on top of him smashing his head into the concrete sidewalk gain credibility. And now we have video of Michael Brown robbing a convenience store while manhandling a clerk. Is it possible that the 6'4" 300lb Brown caused a cop to fear for his life. Just maybe.

Wanted: An Apology From Democrats For Giving Us Obama

Twisted
The latest twist came just hours after Benjamin J. Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, told reporters on Martha’s Vineyard, where President Obama is vacationing, that the president was likely to receive recommendations about how to mount a rescue operation in the next several days. He said those recommendations could have included the use of American ground troops.

But Mr. Rhodes made those comments as the secret team of Marines and Special Operations forces were already on Mount Sinjar, in the middle of a 24-hour trip to talk to the displaced people and pesh merga fighters. (New York Times, 8/14/2014)

White House and State Department officials who were leading U.S. efforts to rein in Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip were caught off guard last month when they learned that the Israeli military had been quietly securing supplies of ammunition from the Pentagon without their approval. (Wall Street Journal, 8/13/2014)

So now it is official. As these two passages note, the Obama administration left hand does not know what the Obama administration right hand is doing.


Mindful
Mind you, Obama does deploy grand words proclaiming grand ideas: the “new beginning” with Islam declared in Cairo, the reset with Russia announced in Geneva, global nuclear disarmament proclaimed in Prague (and playacted in a Washington summit). But, untethered from reality, they all disappeared without a trace.
...
He thus admits that Russian and other outside support was crucial to tilting the outcome of this civil war to Bashar al-Assad. Yet he dismisses countervailing U.S. support as useless. He thus tells the world of his disdain for the traditional U.S. role of protecting friends by deterring and counterbalancing adversarial outside powers. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 8/14/2014)

Leave it to Charlemagne Krauthammer to expose Obama's foreign policy incompetence. (See the following for more on Obama's incompetence...)


Poll Tested
Senate Republican strategists like Mr. Dayspring cite several recent polls as evidence that the results will turn on doubts about Mr. Obama’s competence, chiefly a late-June survey by Quinnipiac University in which 54 percent of registered voters said the president was not “competent in running the government.” In mid-July, 57 percent said “no” when asked in a CNN/ORC International poll if Mr. Obama “can manage the government effectively,” and 53 percent said in a Pew Research Center poll that he is not “able to get things done.” (New York Times, 8/14/2014)

More than one-half of the people think Obama is incompetent. But that is not even what excites the editors here at RedStateVT the most. What excites us is that the Liberal media is even willing to talk about Obama's competence. 


Logjam
Since becoming secretary of state in February 2013, John Kerry has carved out a deserved reputation as the ultimate road warrior. Before his current diplomatic trip, Mr. Kerry had traveled 519,136 miles to 51 countries, logging 230 travel days. (New York Times, 8/14/2014)

The New York Times has just got to get a new measure of the success of a secretary of state. With Hillary Clinton we got endless recitations of how many countries she visited and how many miles she traveled. 

As if these constitute success. 

Now, coming after his astonishingly dismal performance in the Middle East, the Times touts "road warrior" Kerry. We suspect that Woody Allen was right: 90% of life is just showing up. 


Injection
While opportunistic civil rights leaders and liberal commentators are pretending that policemen not only routinely kill black people but do so for no reason, the New York Police Commissioner decided to inject some common sense into the discussion.

"What we've seen in the past few months is a number of individuals failing to understand that you must submit to arrest. You cannot resist," said Mr. Bratton in a radio interview Tuesday. "The place to argue your case is in the court, not in the street." (Jason L. Riley, Wall Street Journal, 8/13/2014)

Wonderfully stated by Bratton. Award-winning MSNBC host and revered holy man Al Sharpton could save black lives if - instead of ginning up racial conflict - he urged black teens not to confront police. 

White House Confirms: Obama to Attend Choom Gang Reunion

At Pains
For President Obama, any decision to reinforce the Iraqis or Kurds will be painful. On Thursday night he still took credit for removing all U.S. forces from Iraq in 2011. He was at pains to reassure Americans that the U.S. will not fight another war in Iraq even as he committed U.S. air power to the war that continues in Iraq.

It's clear now that his decision to withdraw all U.S. troops in 2011 was a strategic and increasingly a moral disaster. The President—which is to say the United States—bears responsibility now for the humanitarian catastrophe occurring in Iraq... (Wall Street Journal, 8/8/2014)

So Obama takes credit for withdrawing from Iraq which emboldened Islamic terrorists to commit atrocities which now requires Obama to reengage in Iraq. Only Liberals can see the logic of Obama's thinking.


Low Tide
As he explained himself to a national television audience, Mr. Obama made a point of reassuring a war-weary public that the president who pulled American forces out of Iraq at the end of 2011 had no intention of fighting another full-scale war there. Yet his presence in the State Dining Room testified to the bleak reality that the tide of events in that ancient land have defied his predictions and aspirations before. (New York Times, 8/8/2014)

At Iraq to the list of things that have disappointed Obama. 


Sorted
... Mr. Obama managed to condemn "torture" while simultaneously lecturing Americans not to be "sanctimonious" against CIA officials doing their "job." Sort through that one. (Kimberley A. Strassel, Wall Street Journal, 8/7/2014)

Like most presidents Obama has discovered that it is much easier to throw darts at the decisions of his predecessor when you are a candidate. The small voice in the back of his head must torture him everyday as it reminds him that Bush/Cheney were right.

And then there is this, also from Strassel's column:

All this started when Nancy Pelosi claimed in 2009 that the CIA failed to brief her in 2002 about its enhanced-interrogation program. Details then flooded out, including embarrassing facts about just how repeatedly and thoroughly Democratic leaders and Intelligence committee members in both chambers had been briefed—including Mrs. Pelosi. 


Gain and Loss
Mr. Abu Marzook said Hamas had gained popularity, remained able to fire rockets at Israel, and could re-establish its network of tunnels under Gaza.

For agreeing to the cease-fire, he argued that Hamas should receive relief from the blockade on its territory. “The Palestinians should gain something out of these battles,” he said. “They want the siege to end; they want all the gates to open.” (New York Times, 8/6/2014)

A Hamas spokesman argues - incoherently - that Hamas should be rewarded for their actions and that things have just gone swimmingly for them. THIS is why there is no peace.


Deadly
The 72-hour truce came after 29 days of fierce fighting that left more than 1,800 Palestinians dead, many of them civilians. On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and three civilians were killed. (New York Times, 8/8/2014)

A Fox commentator noted recently that Hamas never announces the deaths of its own. All we ever hear about are the deaths of women and children.


Just Business
Promising a major change in the “way the V.A. does business,” President Obama traveled to this Army base outside Washington on Thursday to sign a bill that will expand access to health care for veterans and strengthen the powers of the Department of Veterans Affairs’s new leader to clean up abuses in its troubled network of hospitals. (New York Times, 8/7/2014)

Obama bails out Bernie Sanders. 


Train to Nowhere
High-speed rail was supposed to be President Obama’s signature transportation project, but despite the administration spending nearly $11 billion since 2009 to develop faster passenger trains, the projects have gone mostly nowhere and the United States still lags far behind Europe and China. (New York Times, 8/6/2014)

Obama continues to waste your tax dollars. How does that make you feel?

Another Free Day

Liberal Logic
Liberals want to ban "sugary" drinks....and legalize marijuana. (RedStateVT)


Libby Lobby
Let's compare and contrast the Liberal and Conservative views on the recent Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision. 

The Liberal View - Helpless women are involuntarily conscripted to work under indentured servitude-type conditions for a cult-like enterprise whose leaders worship someone they call "the savior of the world." They are denied access to life-saving medications. They are even unable to purchase these life-savings medications with their own money on their own time such is the control exerted by this company. Many die.

The Conservative View - Women voluntarily chose to work for a company whose leaders are well known to be deeply religious. They are offered many generous benefits (see below). The one thing that the company does not want covered under their health insurance plan is the abortion pill. Women employees are free to buy abortion pills on their own. 

That about sums it up. Oh, and here are some additional details about Hobby Lobby:

A retail chain with nearly 600 stores and 13,000 workers, this business sets its lowest full-time wage at $15 an hour, and raised wages steadily through the stagnant postrecession years. (Its do-gooder policies also include donating 10 percent of its profits to charity and giving all employees Sunday off.) (Ross Douthat, New York Times, 7/6/2014)


G.I. Blues
Speaking at West Point in May, President Obama laid out a blueprint for fighting terrorism that relies less on American soldiers, like the cadets in his audience that day, and more on training troops in countries where those threats had taken root.

But this indirect approach, intended to avoid costly, bloody wars like the one the United States waged in Iraq, immediately collided with reality when a lethal jihadi insurgency swept across the same Iraqi battlefields where thousands of Americans had lost their lives. (New York Times, 7/3/2014)

So - and we know it is true because the New York Times tells us - Obama's policies are now failing mere weeks after he announces them. 


Ciao
On his state trip to Italy in the spring, he asked to spend time with "interesting Italians." They were wealthy, famous. The dinner went for four hours. The next morning his staff were briefing him for a "60 Minutes" interview about Ukraine and health care. "One aide paraphrased Obama's response: 'Just last night I was talking about life and art, big interesting things, and now we're back to the minuscule things on politics.'''

Minuscule? Politics is his job. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 7/3/2014)

Noonan is very good at this!

Spear in Hand

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

When Liberals revolt!


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

Answer above.

Answer (also) below:

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


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

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


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

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

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

There Shall Be No Accountability

Methodology
Mr. Obama's method is to ignore a crisis for as long as possible, give a speech, impose a sanction, and switch the subject to climate change or income inequality. (Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, 6/16/2014)

To sum up: As the Arab world blows up, President Obama plays golf and complains about the weather. (Allysia Finley, Wall Street Journal, 6/16/2014)

De - vas - tat - ing.


Ineligible Receivers
The Obama administration is contacting hundreds of thousands of people with subsidized health insurance to resolve questions about their eligibility, as consumer advocates express concern that many will be required to repay some or all of the subsidies....More than eight out of 10 people who selected health plans through the exchanges from October through mid-April were eligible for subsidies, including income tax credits....So far this year the federal government has paid out $4.7 billion in subsidies, and the amount is expected to total $900 billion over 10 years.  (New York Times, 6/15/2014)

1) So, if you like your subsidy you can't keep your subsidy. Another Obama lie!

2) Eight out of ten people get Obamacare freebies (actually "more than eight out of ten!") What a wonderful government program! Why not ten out of ten?

3) $900 billion. Speaks for itself.


Profiles in Political Courage
“So do you personally believe that the U.S. should go ahead with the pipeline?” Clinton’s interviewer asked.

“I can’t respond,” she replied. (Hotair.com, 6/16/2014)

Can't or won't?

After being wrong in the eyes of Liberals on the Iraq War and Gay Marriage, Hillary 'Inevitable' Clinton is playing it cautious. Or maybe she is gutless. Our next president. 


Backed Up
The I.R.S. told congressional investigators on Friday that two years’ worth of emails sent and received by Lois Lerner, the former official at the center of the inquiry, had been destroyed because of a computer crash in mid-2011. The committees are examining whether the lost emails involved obstruction or a violation of the Federal Records Act, aides to the committees said....The I.R.S. said that because of financial and computing constraints, some emails had been stored only on individuals’ computers and not on servers, and that “backup tapes” from 2011 “no longer exist because they have been recycled.” (New York Times, 6/17/2014)

No back-up?

The IRS requires that you keep your tax returns for....well, forever. But they can't keep their own files for three years?

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

Who lost Iraq? 

Barack Obama lost Iraq.


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

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

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

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