A RedStateVT Editorial
The initial promise of the Bernie Sanders No Deodorant Presidential Campaign is beginning to fade. The Bern has failed to deliver any new bon mots lately and, frankly, we are getting bored of hearing about how the "billionaires and millionaires" are ruining everything. And then the Colonel heads to Martha's Vineyard to party. How very unprogressive. Sure Hillary is stepping up to the plate. We just loved it when she said of her self-inflicted e-mail scandal: "The facts are clear." That is good stuff. As for the other Dems....zip, zero, zilch. O'Malley and Chaffee have given us nothing. (There might be one other Dem running but we cannot remember his name. What does that tell you?) It is time for Joe Biden, serial groper and human gaffe machine to enter the race. We need him now!
Castaway
Therefore, Mrs. Clinton cast questions about her emails as little more than an interagency squabble over which emails should be made public under freedom of information laws. “What I think you’re seeing here is a very typical kind of discussion, to some extent disagreement, among various parts of the government over what should or should not be publicly released,” she said. The debate among government agencies “has nothing to do with me,” Mrs. Clinton added. “They can fight over it or argue over it. That’s up to them.” (Wall Street Journal, 7/26/2015)
So Hill sets up her own server, sends classified e-mails from it, then deletes the e-mails and the fuss is all just a bureaucratic squabble. As Peggy Noonan famously says: "the Clintons are insulated from charges of corruption by their reputation for corruption."
Commuter-in-Chief
President Obama announced on Monday that he was commuting the sentences of 46 federal drug offenders, more than doubling the number of nonviolent criminals to whom he has granted clemency since taking office. (New York Times, 7/13/2015)
Once again President Obama focuses with laser-like precision on the issues that a majority of Americans deem MOST important. Who among us has not said: "Gee, I wish the president would let more criminals out of jail?"
End Game
After years of debate about whether the government should encourage end-of-life planning – an idea that Sarah Palin claimed would lead to “death panels” cutting off care to the sick – Medicare, the federal program that insures 55 million older and disabled Americans, is now proposing to reimburse doctors for having conversations with patients about whether and how they would want to be kept alive if they become too sick to speak for themselves. (New York Times, 7/8/2015)
Obsessed with Sarah Palin as they are, Liberals constantly belittle and misrepresent her. It makes them feel intellectually superior. It turns out, of course, that Palin is right. Through Obamacare, Medicare seeks to reduce reimbursement rates for doctors treating the elderly infirmed and now will instead pay them to talk grandma into ending it all. Sarah Palin will now accept your apologies.
Revved Up
But with the presidential campaign revving up, Democrats and abortion rights supporters are bracing for a sustained, sophisticated and coordinated effort to force a debate on the uncomfortable moral and ethical questions that abortion raises. (New York Times, 7/27/2015)
The New York Times admits that abortion raises "uncomfortable moral and ethical questions?" How did this slip past their editors? We thought abortion was a women's health issue.
Crossed Up
Her Political Majesty finally agreed to give her first national campaign interview Tuesday to CNN, though she still hasn’t crossed the threshold of being interesting. The Clinton campaign is a joyless entourage that behaves as if it’s entitled to the White House in return for her family’s privileged life in government. (Wall Street Journal, 7/8/2015)
Our sources say that this is the last interview that Hillary will give until she is elected.
Trumpster
Republican Party leaders agonize over the prospect that Donald Trump will mount a third-party candidacy that could undermine their nominee. They fear insulting the white working-class voters who admire him. They are loath to tangle with a threat-flinging firebrand for whom there are no rules of engagement. (New York Times, 7/10/2015)
Donald Trump's sin? He spoke out against illegal immigration. Key word: illegal.
Nothing demonstrates more clearly the state of America today....
(And, by the way, Democrat Party leaders have no such similar worries about the effect of Colonel Bernie Sanders.)
Here's Peggy Noonan on the same topic:
...illegal immigration is a calamity. It is an admission by a nation that it has lost control not only of its borders but of itself. It is no longer functioning as a sovereign nation; it has lost its self-protectiveness and dignity. (Wall Street Journal, 7/10/2015)
Well stated!
Costly
Cost has long been a major obstacle to women getting birth control, and declines in what they pay for contraceptives have the potential to increase access and reduce unplanned pregnancies. (New York Times, 7/8/2015)
As has been documented many times, birth control pills are available for $10 per month. Condoms cost less than a coffee at Starbucks. But the crack investigative journalists at the New York Times have not yet uncovered these facts. That would get in the way of the pre-packaged conclusion that Obamacare has saved the female sex.
And, by the way, where is Sandra Fluke, America's leading expert on the topic of (free) birth control?
Sandra?
Sandy?
Up and Away
The odds that Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber may face charges for padding invoices are going up.
Vermont State Auditor Douglas Hoffer’s methodical investigation of Gruber’s undocumented billing practices shifted to a higher gear on Friday, when Hoffer called Gruber’s response to his inquiries to date “unsatisfactory.” (Breitbart.com, 1/23/2015)
Thankfully we have Breitbart to tell us what is happening in Vermont.
Consequential
Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana was a bad idea, the state’s governor said Friday.
Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat who opposed the 2012 decision by voters to make pot legal, said the state still doesn’t fully know what the unintended consequences of the move will be.
“If I could've waved a wand the day after the election, I would've reversed the election and said, 'This was a bad idea,’ ” Hickenlooper said Friday on CNBC's “Squawk Box.” (thehill.com, 1/23/2015)
So let's review. California's decision to legalize dope was an abject failure. Even the hippie politicians realized that things were out of control and forced a crackdown on the "medicinal" dope stores that had opened on every corner. (Patient to Doctor: I'm in pain! Doctor to Patient: Here is a prescription for weed. Smoke it twice a day and you will feel better.)
Then we had the stories of Colorado's dope-loving politicians being caught by surprise on the issue of how to regulate dope-infused cuisine. The old hash brownies thing...
And then - also in Colorado - we had the recent story of hash-extraction procedures going bad and blowing up the neighborhood.
Not to worry, Vermont's Governor Peter Shumlin is still "all in" for legal dope. No doubt he is jealously looking at Colorado's marijuana tourism dollars and thinking: 'Hey, I can close the budget deficit I created if we can get some of that money.'
Detachment
The president’s habit of detaching from what is actually happening—of declaring in fact that the opposite is happening—is a marvel to behold. History will speak of it. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 1/24/2015)
Of course, Noonan is exactly correct. In Obama's world, Obamacare is a raging success, terrorism has been defeated, Russia did not invade the Ukraine, the economy is roaring, and Liberalism is triumphant.
Broadly
But accusations of a presidential abuse of power appear to have gained traction in recent days, as a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found just 38 percent support for Mr. Obama’s executive actions even as there was broad support for a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants. In the poll, 48 percent said they opposed Mr. Obama’s actions. Even a few Democrats have expressed concern about the propriety of the president’s actions. (New York Times, 11/21/2014)
Actually - if only 38% of the country supports Obama - he has lost more than "a few" Democrats. We wonder how many Democrats are quietly saying: "this guy is going to hurt our brand for years...."
Zoned Out
I don’t know how ObamaCare will go, but it won’t last as it is. If the White House had wisdom, they’d declare that they’d won on the essential argument—health coverage is a right for all—and go back to the drawing board with Congress. The only part of the ObamaCare law that is popular is its intention, not its reality. The White House should declare victory and redraw the bill. But the White House is a wisdom-free zone. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 11/21/2014)
Another score for Noonan!
Wanted
People who wanted market-driven health care now have it in the Affordable Care Act (Alice M. Rivlin, Washington Post, 11/20/2014)
Completely dishonest analysis from Rivlin. Liberals do this all the time. They impose draconian rules and then talk about free markets.
Inflation
President Barack Obama's much-touted 8 million Obamacare enrollment number was inflated by 1.3 million, the Obama administration now admits. "The mistake we made is unacceptable," tweeted Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell. "I will be communicating that clearly throughout the department." (Breitbart.com, 11/23/2014)
Is there anything that the Obama administration will not lie about? Answer: no.
At Least
President Obama decided in recent weeks to authorize a more expansive mission for the military in Afghanistan in 2015 than originally planned, a move that ensures American troops will have a direct role in fighting in the war-ravaged country for at least another year. (New York Times, 11/21/2014)
Hey, don't get us wrong we think fighting the terrorists on their home turf is a good idea. But where is Code Pink? Where is the condemnation by the New York Times editors? Where is the rambling incoherent speech by Harry Reid on the Senate floor? Where is the reminder of how many soldiers have died already? Oh, and where are the apologies to George Bush and Dick Cheney?
Holy Holy Holy
McAllister points out that the usual separation-of-church-and-state crowd has been remarkably quiet about the president’s invocation of the Old Testament, that bloodiest and most patriarchal part of holy writ. “No scathing posts. No statement from the Freedom From Religious Foundation. Oh, right,” she says, “this is a Democratic president, so it’s okay.”(Ian Tuttle, nationalreview.com, 11/21/2014)
Killer point! Recall the endless criticism any time a Republican politician invokes religion. Liberal secularists are mute when Obama quotes scripture.
Percentage
“If you’re looking for someone you agree with 100 percent of the time, go home and look in the mirror, because you’re it.” (New Jersey governor Chris Christie, quoted in George Will, Washington Post, 10/8/2014)
We liked this line from Christie. And this one from Will:
Christie, who exudes executive authority, is the antithesis of today’s bewildered incumbent floundering from the disappearing “red line” regarding Syria to the HealthCare.gov debacle to the Veterans Affairs scandals to the no-one-tells-me-anything surprise about the Islamic State to the Secret Service that cannot lock the White House’s front door.
Not Fonder
There’s the sense of an absence where the president should be. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 10/10/2014)
Noonan continues to get off some memorable one-liners on President Abject Failure.
Freshly
Secretary of State John Kerry announced $212 million in fresh aid for Gaza on Sunday as diplomats from more than 40 nations gathered here to pledge funds for the territory’s reconstruction.
The new assistance is in addition to $118 million in humanitarian aid that the United States provided to residents of Gaza earlier this year. (New York Times, 10/12/2014)
Remind us again, why are we giving millions of dollars to people who hate us?
Take a Pass
It would be wonderful if we were able to give this man all of the power that he needs to pass the things that he needs to pass. (Gwyneth Paltrow, quoted by Robert Davi on Breitbart.com, 10/10/2014)
Hollywood nitwit Paltrow reveals something that Liberals will occasionally let slip: they like dictators. In their world, dictators get things done without all the unnecessary red tape of a democracy. This explains their fascination with Mao, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.
The Burn
With the contretemps over lane closings on the George Washington Bridge on the back burner for now and Mr. Christie laying groundwork for a Republican presidential run... (New York Times, 10/12/2014)
So what the New York Times is telling us is that - after they provided wall-to-wall coverage of Bridgegate with an endless spate of articles and notwithstanding the eventual exoneration of Christie - they are not done covering the story. Should Christie run for president the Times will be back to gin up the issue. Benghazi coverage, by the way, has concluded.
Provocateurs
The secretary general of the United Nations on Monday condemned what he called “provocations” at Jerusalem’s holy sites, hours after the Israeli police said officers had locked Palestinians inside Al Aksa Mosque to thwart a riot as Jews visited for the holiday of Sukkot. (New York Times, 10/12/2014)
What could have prompted the Israelis to act so belligerently, violating the rights of the Palestinians to worship in peace? Luckily we have only to read the next sentence of the article to find out:
Scores of officers entered the mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem at 7 a.m. on Monday and found “petrol bombs, stones, bottle rockets and fireworks” as well as “masked Palestinians,” according to the police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld.
OK, got it.
Bluntly
Islamic State militants have gained territory in Iraq and Syria despite weeks of bombing by the U.S. and its allies, raising questions about the coalition’s strategy of trying to blunt the jihadists’ advance while local forces are being trained to meet the threat on the ground. (Wall street Journal, 10/12/2014)
Well thank God we have no boots on ground....
Just Because
The president thinks people are depressed because they don't understand how good the economy is. Actually right now they are depressed because he is president. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 9/18/2014)
Loyal readers know that RedStateVT holds Ann Coulter in high esteem for her brilliant political analysis and superb wit. Here she gets a run for her money from Peggy Noonan.
Great Moments from the Obama Presidency
If you like your health plan you can keep it
The 1980s wants their foreign policy back
There is not a smidgen of scandal at the IRS
Tell Vladimir I will have more flexibility after the election
I did not set a red line on Syria
ISIS is a JV team
We do not have a strategy yet
No boots on the ground
Shutdown
Nearly a year after its bungled rollout subjected thousands of Vermonters to a state mandated health insurance marketplace that was more expensive, nearly impossible to navigate and never fully functional, Governor Shumlin today announced that Vermont Health Connect will be shut down for repairs until after the November elections. (VTGOP.org, 9/16/2014)
In the private sector, you get fired for this level of incompetence. In Vermont, Burger Boy Shumlin will get re-elected.
Declaration
Gov. Peter Shumlin declared $721,445 in income on the 2013 federal income tax return he filed last spring. Nearly half the money came from real estate income. Shumlin also released a list of $10.3 million in assets that includes 16 properties valued collectively at $3.86 million. (Burlington Free Press, 9/19/2014)
Another Liberal 1%er!
Occupy Shumlin!
Unsettling
...the climate lobby should return to the climate science and explain the hiatus in warming that has now lasted for 16, 19 or 26 years depending on the data set and which the climate models failed to predict even as global carbon dioxide emissions have climbed by 25%. Their alibi is that the new warming is now hidden in the oceans, an assertion they lack the evidence to prove. (Wall Street Journal, 9/22/2014)
To which climate liars (i.e. the opposite of climate deniers) say...what?
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.
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!
Ignorance is de Blissio
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has characterized New York’s inequities as a “Tale of Two Cities,” and his administration have taken steps to get more food into the hands of the poor. The Human Resources Administration announced in May that it would seek to increase enrollment for food stamps — about 1.8 million residents currently receive them — by reaching out to older Medicare recipients and expanding online services, among other measures.
In a significant change, human resources officials also received a waiver last month of a federal work rule that cut off food stamps to thousands of New Yorkers a year. Under that rule, more than 46,000 so-called able-bodied adults — ages 18 to 49 with no dependents — had to work at least 20 hours a week or participate in job training to continue receiving an average of $35 a week in food stamps after three months, according to city officials. (New York Times, 6/28/2014)
We have been meaning to mention this months ago after Sub-Commander de Blasio started this "Tale of Two Cities" nonsense. Obviously de Blasio has never read the Dickens tale. It is not a story about the "haves" and the "have-nots" as he apparently believes. The two cities in Dickens' book are Paris and London, the former in the grips of the anarchy following the French revolution and the latter a place of refuge for the story's protagonists. New York City resembles Paris only in the sense that it is now being run by closed-minded reactionaries as Paris was after the revolution. de Blasio is another ill-informed Liberal.
Of course, it is also sad to note that the Sub-Commander eliminates the welfare work requirement, thereby consigning another generation to perpetual poverty. How compassionate!
Lengthy
On Friday Mr. Obama denounced at length the GOP's "obstruction," which his Minneapolis audience no doubt agreed was an appropriate topic for an event billed as a lakeside family picnic. "They don't do anything except block me and call me names," he said, shortly after he had observed that Republicans "think we should let big banks, and credit card companies, and polluters, and insurers do only whatever is best for their bottom line without any responsibility to anybody else." (Wall Street Journal, 6/27/2014)
Has there EVER been a president who whined more?
Stoned
When an interviewer compared her (Hillary Clinton) to Mitt Romney in terms of wealth, she got a stony look. That is a "false equivalency," she said. You could see she feels she should not be compared to a wealthy Republican because she's liberal and therefore stands for the little guy. So she can be rich and should not be criticized, while rich people who have the wrong policies—that would be Republicans—are "the rich" and can be scorned and shamed. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 6/27/2014)
Probably the best analysis we have read on the subject of Liberal hypocrisy when it comes to wealth.
Attention Deficit
When Mr. Obama handed Mr. Biden the Iraq portfolio in June 2009, it was hardly a prize. The president had run for office on his opposition to the war, and he wanted a high-level official other than him to pay attention to it so he could focus on Afghanistan. (New York Times, 6/29/2014)
So to be clear: it is really Biden who screwed up Iraq and Obama who screwed up Afghanistan. Got it.
Trailer
One year after bursting onto the national scene with a marathon filibuster against abortion restrictions, Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator and Democratic nominee for governor, has been doing everything she can to mark the anniversary of that speech last June, even donning the same pink Mizuno sneakers.
The problem: A year after her filibuster pumped her up into the kind of galvanizing candidate Texas Democrats have not had for decades, she seems very much dragged down to earth, dwarfed by the perception that Democrats’ chances of ending the Republican domination of Texas remain slim. Recent polls have shown her trailing her Republican opponent — the state attorney general, Greg Abbott — by up to 12 percentage points. (New York Times, 6/29/2014)
Amazingly - in Texas at least - a political identity tied to free and unfettered access to abortion, including partial birth abortion, may NOT be a winning ticket.
Lapsed
An examination by The New York Times of the sprawling United States military hospital system — entirely separate from the scandal-plagued veterans system — has found persistent lapses in patient care that have led to severe injuries and deaths. (New York Times, 6/28/2014)
When the government runs health care.
Obama Motors
With a full battery charge, the ELR has an E.P.A.-estimated driving range of 37 miles — roughly the average American round-trip commute — in all-electric mode. That charge takes from 12.5 to 18 hours with a standard 120-volt outlet, and about five hours at 240 volts. (New York Times, 5/9/2014)
Liberals' favorite car company announces the Cadillac ELR. You read that right, it can go 37 miles on one charge. Which takes one-half day.
Why can't conservatives get behind these wonderful green energy initiatives?
Sound the Trumpets
President Barack Obama on Friday trumpeted new executive actions and public- and private-sector commitments aimed at cutting carbon pollution and improving energy efficiency, saying that climate change is real and must be addressed now.
In a speech at a Wal-Mart store in Mountain View, Calif., the president laid out a list of clean-energy objectives he can accomplish without Congress's help and touted corporate pledges to expand the deployment of solar power. He lamented the lack of cooperation from lawmakers on clean-energy issues but said he would make sure the federal government does its part. (Wall Street Journal, 5/9/2014)
No humility, none at all when it comes to wasting more taxpayer dollars on these green energy sinkholes. Obama and his Legitimate Media sycophants do not even remember what Solyndra was all about.
Dress Rehearsal
The reasons Benghazi is important do not have to be rehearsed here. An American outpost, virtually undefended, was attacked by armed and organized al Qaeda-associated militants on the anniversary of 9/11 and four were left dead, including the U.S. ambassador. It happened eight weeks before the 2012 presidential election. From day one White House management and leadership focused on spin and an apparent fiction. Did they deliberately mislead and misdirect? Why was there no military response? Who is responsible? (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 5/9/2014)
Good piece by Noonan which is incorrect only in the first line above. Democrats apparently do have to be reminded.
Neither Nor
Yet others—until now not often quoted in news accounts—see Mr. Snowden as neither a hero nor a whistleblower. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified to the House Armed Services Committee on March 13, 2014, that "The vast majority of the documents that Snowden . . . exfiltrated from our highest levels of security had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities." (Edward Jay Epstein, Wall Street Journal, 5/9/2014)
Epstein posits that the Snowden case is really more about espionage. We were fascinated to learn the information above: the bulk of what Snowden stole were national security secrets. Which means that when we get him back in the U.S. and he is tried and found guilty, the proper sentence is either life imprisonment...or execution. We would support either.
Easy
High energy costs, declining industrial competitiveness and a recognition that the economy is unlikely to rebound strongly any time soon are leading policy makers to begin easing up in their drive for more aggressive climate regulation.
On Wednesday, the European Union proposed an end to binding national targets for renewable energy production after 2020. (New York Times, 1/23/2014)
Whenever Liberals want to justify a kooky idea, they point to Europe where it has usually already been adopted...and is failing (witness: socialized medicine, confiscatory taxes, unlimited welfare state benefits, unchecked immigration, and "renewable" energy). So, taking a cue from Europe, will Liberals now back off on their moonbat energy policies? No, they will claim that the policies work...and point to Europe!
No Need
What we didn't need was to destroy the market for the many in order to give aid to the few. (John Goodman, Wall Street Journal, 1/23/2014)
This is precisely the (brilliant) point that RedStateVT made several months back in one of our many posts deconstructing the Liberal argument for Obamacare. Loyal readers will recall that we peeled back the talking point that Obamacare was essential because "millions" were without insurance. In fact, millions of the uninsured were voluntarily uninsured. The remaining pool amounted to 10% or (very probably) less. Hence, Obama, Pelosi and Reid blew up the American healthcare system in order to deal with a problem affecting less than 10% of the entire population.
As Goodman notes, it did not have to be done that way.
Windy
No one's really listening to the president now. He has been for five years a nonstop wind-up talk machine. Most of it has been facile, bland, the same rounded words and rounded sentiments, the same soft accusations and excuses. I see him enjoying the sound of his voice as the network newsman leans forward eagerly, intently, nodding at the pearls, enacting interest, for this is the president and he is the anchorman and surely something important is being said with two such important men engaged. (Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal, 1/23/2014)
Noonan makes a point that we suspect at least a handful of Democrats might agree with in private: people are just tired of listening to Obama's speeches. He gives too many and they are filled with the same old same old.
We stopped listening to the State of the Union speeches long ago. They are simply ridiculous and it is embarrassing to watch grown men and women jump to their feet every time the Presidential Pavlovian bell is rung. More money for education!!! Raise the minimum wage!!! Rebuild the infrastructure!!!
One Trick President
Now that Healthcare.gov has been fixed (you heard that it's fixed, didn't you?), Obama and his media sycophants can pivot to the next issue: economic inequality. Which was his issue for the past five years as well. Yes, class warfare is back.
Staked Out
“Now that the website is working for the vast majority of people,” Mr. Obama added, “we need to make sure that folks refocus on what’s at stake here, which is the capacity for you or your families to be able to have the security of decent health insurance at a reasonable cost through choice and competition on this marketplace, and tax credits that you may be eligible for that can save you hundreds of dollars in premium costs every month, potentially.” (NYT, 12/5/2013)
Who would not want health insurance that is subsidized by other people?
Only You
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, one of Obamacare's architects and staunchest supporters, is also the only top congressional leader to exempt some of his staff from having to buy insurance through the law's new exchanges. (CNN.com, 12/4/2013)
Remember our last post? When we talked about the corruption surrounding Obamacare?
The Waiting
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney confirmed for reporters Monday that President Obama has yet to sign up for Obamacare, saying “I know he will and has said that he will… but I don’t have an update.”
When asked what the President was waiting for and whether the White House would announce when the President did sign up for Obamacare, Carney laughed uncomfortably and could only respond, “I’ll get back to you on that.” (Washington Free Beacon, 12/2/2013)
Actually, the truth is that Obama tried to sign up, but has been placed in one of those waiting queues...
Lesser
Most important, Mr. Dorn said, younger enrollees, who also tend to be less affluent, will receive tax subsidies. If premium prices spike, the government will absorb that cost, ensuring they do not flee the exchanges. (NYT, 12/5/2013)
So the young who are needed to enroll in Obamacare in great numbers to offset the high medical costs of the old and sickly will receive tax subsidies from the government to pay for their premiums...which are needed to offset the high medical costs of the old and sickly. Does any of this make sense to you?
Not to worry, if premiums go up the government will "absorb that cost." Government will absorb that cost in one of two ways: either through tax revenue collected from taxpayers or from the Magic Money Machine.
Entirely
A fellow very friendly to the administration, a longtime supporter, cornered me at a holiday party recently to ask, with true perplexity: “How could any president put his entire reputation on the line with a program and not be on the phone every day pushing people and making sure it will work? Do you know of any president who wouldn’t do that?” (Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 12/3/2013)
Certainly not George Bush and certainly not Bill Clinton.
The Toker
More than 20 years after saying he "didn't inhale," Bill Clinton is setting the record straight about his youthful pot smoking. “I didn’t say I was holier than thou, I said I tried. I never denied that I used marijuana," Clinton told Fusion TV's Jorge Ramos in an interview aired Tuesday night.
Back in 1992, in the midst of his first presidential campaign, Clinton famously equivocated when asked about his drug use, saying that during his days as a Rhodes Scholar in England, "I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it, and didn’t inhale, and never tried it again." (Yahoo.com, 12/4/2013)
Permit RedStateVT to set the record straight:
Technically Clinton did not deny smoking dope (depending upon what the definition of "deny" is).
He did, however, deny having an adulterous sexual relationship with an employee, a White House intern young enough to be his daughter.
Imagined
Mr. Bush was more of a reader than many Americans imagined — he had reading contests with Karl Rove, his top political adviser, measured not just by the number of books finished, but the cumulative number of pages and even square inches of text. He was particularly drawn to Lincoln, reading 14 books about the Civil War president while in office. (NYT, 12/5/2013)
We are not sure what the average American thought about how many books George Bush read. The only thing we do know is that the Liberal media relentlessly depicted Bush as an intellectual lightweight. Bush who was America's first MBA president.
Day in the Park
...Chicago parks workers, whose unfunded pension liability grew from $77 million in 2003 to $550 million in 2012, a 615 percent increase. (NYT, 12/5/2013)
Coverage shifts from Detroit to Chicago, now facing its own pension time bomb. What floored us here was the one-half billion dollar pension shortfall for park workers! Not for all Chicago public employees....for park workers alone! How many "park workers" can Chicago have? What kind of pension promises were made to them? One-half billion dollars...? We will say it again: this is what happens when Democrats buy votes from public sector unions.
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.
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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.
Misunderstood
The Internal Revenue Service, according to an inspector general’s report, was not reacting to political pressure or ideology when it singled out conservative groups for special scrutiny in evaluating requests for tax exemptions. It acted inappropriately because employees couldn't understand inadequate guidelines. (New York Times editorial, 5/16/2013)
Such guidelines which said to scrutinize conservative groups? No ideological issue there, huh?
The utter lack of curiosity by the Legitimate Media about the Obama Scandals (we are trademarking that one, too) is truly astounding. The same media, for example, which spilled endless ink over two fruitcakes like Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame is suddenly maxed out on Benghazi and the IRS. Everyday they confirm what conservatives say about a biased media.
Of course the real goal of Republicans - the Times tells - us is stopping Obama's agenda. Exactly.
Remote Control
It is not even remotely possible that all this was an accident, a mistake. Again, only conservative groups were targeted, not liberal. It is not even remotely possible that only one IRS office was involved. Lois Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups for the IRS, was the person who finally acknowledged, under pressure of a looming investigative report, some of what the IRS was doing. She told reporters the actions were the work of "frontline people" in Cincinnati. But other offices were involved, including Washington. It is not even remotely possible the actions were the work of just a few agents. This was more systemic. It was an operation. The word was out: Get the Democratic Party's foes. It is not remotely possible nobody in the IRS knew what was going on until very recently. The Washington Post reported efforts to target the conservative groups reached the highest levels of the agency by May 2012—far earlier than the agency had acknowledged. Reuters reported high-level IRS officials, including its chief counsel, knew in August 2011 about the targeting. (Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 4/16/2013)
Liberal astonishment that Republicans have jumped on the Obama Scandals(tm) does not pass "the shoe on the other foot test." Would Bush's IRS targeting Media Matters raise the ire of Dems? Of course it would.
Back-to-Back
One tactic was to misrepresent the Benghazi attack, lest it undermine his narrative about taming terrorism. Does anyone think the administration’s purpose in manufacturing 12 iterations of the talking points was to make them more accurate? (George Will, Washington Post, 5/16/2013)
Four days after the IRS announced that it discriminated against conservative organizations, Carney said repeatedly in his daily briefing that, if true, the president would be outraged. If? By then, the IRS had not only admitted the grievous misconduct but apologized for it — and the president was speaking in the conditional. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 5/16/2013)
Conservatives have the brilliance of Will and Krauthammer. Liberals have Dionne and vanden Heuvel. We like our team's chances.
Relentless
The Heritage Foundation and the Franklin Center presented conservative journalist, commentator, Fox News contributor and entrepreneur Michelle Malkin with the second annual Breitbart Award on Thursday for relentlessly pursuing the truth while empowering citizen journalists to do the same. (Breitbart.com, 4/25/2013)
Congratulations to Michelle Malkin. Loyal readers will recall that in 2011 Malkin was the winner of RedStateVT's coveted Cheney Award. Conservative women are the toughest!
Engaging
The top legislative leaders in Congress -- Reid, Boehner, McConnell, and Hoyer -- are now "engaged in high level confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Obama's health care overhaul" according to Politico.com. (DickMorris.com, 4/25/2013)
Heard this one? Congress to the American people: Shut up and take your medicine!
Starkly
In March 2011, the Russian security service sent a stark warning to the F.B.I., reporting that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was “a follower of radical Islam” who had “changed drastically since 2010” and was preparing to travel to Russia’s turbulent Caucasus to connect with underground militant groups. Six months later, Russia sent the same warning to the C.I.A. (NYT, 4/25/2013)
We can only guess what the Russians must think about U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
And while we are on the subject, our outrage is growing at the failures that led to the deaths and mutilations in Boston. Where is the Legitimate Media demanding answers? Where are Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi?
Response to RedStateVT: We do NOT ask those questions when the president is a Democrat. That is your answer.
Varied
The White House said Thursday that it believes the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in its civil war, an assessment that could test President Obama’s repeated warnings that such an attack could precipitate American intervention in Syria.
The White House, in a letter to Congressional leaders, said the nation’s intelligence agencies assessed “with varying degrees of confidence” that the government of President Bashar al-Assad had used the chemical agent sarin on a small scale.
But it said more conclusive evidence was needed before Mr. Obama would take action, referring obliquely to both the Bush administration’s use of faulty intelligence in the march to war in Iraq and the ramifications of any decision to enter another conflict in the Middle East. (NYT, 4/25/2013)
We wonder if President Obama ever wakes up and thinks: how is it that I get to relive the Bush presidency? All he wanted to do once elected was enact a single-payer healthcare system, grant citizenship to illegal immigrants and redistribute the wealth of the top 10%. Instead he gets to manage the same issues as W: attacks on U.S. soil and possible WMDs. Let's see how Obama deals with the same intelligence issues that Bush did. Of course, as the Times tell us, Bush used "faulty intelligence" while Obama is using "varying degrees of confidence" intelligence!
And another way that Obama mirrors Bush:
When Bush left office, his approval rating was down in the 20s to low 30s. Now it's at 47%, which is what Obama's is. (Peggy Noonan,WSJ, 4/25/2013)
Once Adopted
Democratic senators, at a caucus meeting with White House officials, expressed concerns on Thursday about how the Obama administration was carrying out the health care law they adopted three years ago.
Democrats in both houses of Congress said some members of their party were getting nervous that they could pay a political price if the rollout of the law was messy or if premiums went up significantly. (NYT, 4/25/2013)
Of course they should pay a price for passing a bill that none of them had read.
Austere
But the great policy debate of recent years between Keynesians, who advocate sustaining and, indeed, increasing government spending in a depression, and austerians, who demand immediate spending cuts, comes close — at least in the world of ideas. At this point, the austerian position has imploded; not only have its predictions about the real world failed completely, but the academic research invoked to support that position has turned out to be riddled with errors, omissions and dubious statistics. (Paul Krugman, NYT, 4/25/2013)
Paul Krugman declares victory....again. After mere months of austerity, Krugman concludes that he was right after all. Austerity doesn't work and countries should begin ramping up the spending as he has long advocated. Here's another idea. How about we give it a bit more time.
Gains and Losses
Bolstered by a healthier private sector, the United States economy gained 236,000 jobs in February, well above what had been expected, while the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, its lowest level since December 2008.
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While many economists were encouraged by the report, some noted that the size of the labor force contracted by 130,000. Some of that was because of retirements, but some was also a result of discouraged workers giving up the search for jobs. As a result, the labor participation rate sank to 63.5 percent, a low for the current economic cycle.
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The unemployment fell from 7.9 percent in January. (NYT, 3/7/2013)
Unemployment at Four-year Low as U.S. Hiring Gains Steam screams the New York Times headline. We don't have to read very far to learn that labor participation rate is at a low and that the unemployment rate shrank a whopping 0.02%.
Stock headline had a Republican been president?
Unemployment Remains Stubbornly High, Millions Abandon Job Search.
All Over Again
Mr. Obama is making the same mistake he made four years ago. We are in a jobs crisis and he does not see it. He thinks he's in a wrestling match about taxing and spending, he thinks he's in a game with those dread Republicans. But the real question is whether the American people will be able to have jobs. (Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 3/8/2013)
While we agree with Noonan, we also point out that Obama's first term mistakes cost him very little. Will it be different in his second term? It is hard to say, but consider this. If Obama leaves office with an unemployment rate of - let's say 5.5% - can anyone say that his was a successful presidency?
Drip Drip
The government gave a $3,700 grant to build a miniature street in West Virginia—out of Legos. It shelled out $500,000 to support specialty shampoo products for cats and dogs. A San Diego outfit got $10,000 for trolley dancing. The feds last year held 894 conferences that each cost more than $100,000—$340 million altogether. But Mr. Obama is too broke to let American kids look around the White House. (Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 3/7/2013)
We wrote about this yesterday and note again that Republicans are winning the battle for the hearts and minds on the sequester. Given the way that Washington wastes our tax dollars, they have righteousness on their side. The sooner that Obama gets the White House tours up and running again the better for his approval ratings.
Fall in to the Gap
...Medicare's long-term "unfunded liability"—the gap between promised benefits and the program's ability to fund them—is roughly $42.7 trillion. When Republicans say they want to reform Medicare, they mean they want to make durable changes to the program's structure and operations so that this gap narrows over time while achieving the same or better results. They don't want to cut for the sake of cutting or "austerity." They want to solve Medicare's problems. (WSJ, 3/7/2013)
Remember this brief and articulate snippet the next time that Colonel Bernie Sanders starts lying about how Republicans want to destroy entitlement programs.
The Best Defense
Former President Bill Clinton, who signed the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 barring federal recognition of same-sex weddings, called on the Supreme Court on Thursday to overturn the law.
Just weeks before the court takes up a case challenging the law, Mr. Clinton said he had come to believe that the law is unconstitutional and contravenes the quintessential American values of “freedom, equality and justice above all.” In doing so, he joined President Obama in arguing that the law be overturned.
“As the president who signed the act into law, I have come to believe that DOMA is contrary to those principles and, in fact, incompatible with our Constitution,” Mr. Clinton wrote in an op-ed article posted on the Web site of The Washington Post on Thursday evening. (NYT, 3/7/2013)
Another Democrat flip-flops.....er, evolves! Bill Clinton is a bigot and a homophobe no more.
And the New York Times finally comes clean and admits that it was the Big Dog, Bill Clinton, who signed DOMA in the first place.
