Watching the World

Ooops!
And when Mr. Obama took office in January 2009, the Secret Service recorded an alarming surge in threats against him. (New York Times, 10/3/2014)

Finally, The Washington Post's Carol Leonnig is doggedly pushing the hoax about Obama getting more threats than any previous president....Even after being corrected by an MSNBC host, Frances Rivera, last Sunday, Leonnig plowed ahead with her thoroughly disproved thesis, based on what someone had told her -- it was at either a DNC fundraiser or a Volvo dealership. (Ann Coulter, 10/1/2014)

And in fact, the agency assigned agents to guard him starting in May 2007, the earliest a presidential candidate has ever been provided protection. (New York Times, 10/3/2014)

(Washington Post writer Carol) Leonnig even recycled the old folk tale about Obama's receiving Secret Service protection "much earlier than other candidates." How many times do we have to disprove this gibberish? The reason Obama's Secret Service protection started earlier than usual is that campaigns start earlier than usual. Obama declared he was running for president on Feb. 10, 2007. Three months later, he got Secret Service protection. (Ann Coulter, 10/1/2014)

We knew Ann Coulter was great, but now we are starting to believe that she has magical powers. She refutes a New York Times story two days before the story is published!


Standard of Care
Thirteen abortion clinics in Texas were forced to close immediately after a federal appellate court on Thursday sided with Texas in its yearlong legal battle over its sweeping abortion law and allowed the state to enforce one of the law’s toughest provisions while the case was being appealed.
...
The ruling gave Texas permission to require all abortion clinics in the state to meet the same building, equipment and staffing standards as hospital-style surgical centers, standards that abortion providers said were unnecessary and costly, but that the state argued improved patient safety. (New York Times, 10/3/2014)

We are confused. For decades proponents of abortion have raised the specter of dangerous "back-alley abortions" as justification for why it should be legal. They said it so many times that "back-alley abortion" is now part of the lexicon. Now Texas requires abortion clinics to meet minimum standards for care and the pro-abortion crowd is aghast. 


Alarming
“When alarms go off somewhere in the world, this is who the world calls — America,” the president said in a speech that lasted a little less than an hour. “They don’t call Moscow. They don’t call Beijing. They call us. We welcome that responsibility and leadership. That’s who we are.” (New York Times, 10/3/2014)

After six years of purposefully reducing America's influence in the world Obama suddenly feels a surge of American exceptionalism. Now that is hypocrisy. 


Who Said It?
 “President Obama this week committed professional suicide.” 
...
He called Obama’s throwing of the intelligence community under the bus a “shameless, reprehensible display of buck-passing” that will result in some analysts’ exacting “cold-blooded revenge on Obama by drip-feeding negative stories about him until he’s gone.” (John Fund, Nationalreview.com, 10/3/2014)

Who is the "he" above? Give up?

Piers Morgan!

Come back to America, Piers! All is forgiven.

Tossed Upon Cloudy Seas

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

That is a funny line!

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

Also good!

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

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

Oh wait, yes they have. 

RedStateVT's 1000th Post

The Sad Truth

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

- Prohibit abortions after 20 weeks

- require abortions to be performed in surgical centers

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

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

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

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

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

It gets worse.

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

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

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

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

The Days Last Rays

Could Have Been
President Obama spoke publicly for the first time Friday on the acquittal of neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, calling for an examination of 'Stand Your Ground" laws nationwide. 

"Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago," Obama said, adding that "it's important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away."  (Washington Post, 7/18/2013)

In the good old days, presidents had trusted advisers who would quietly counsel them. Often the advice was to shut up. President Dum-Dum has only sycophants like Valerie Jarrett and she is not about to tell him to stop putting his foot in his mouth. First Obama has an imaginary son who is Trayvon Martin. Next Obama himself is Trayvon Martin.  How bizarre is it that we have a black president pandering to black people?


Nobody
No one likes bailouts or the prospect of rewarding Detroit’s historic fiscal mismanagement. But apart from voting in elections, the 700,000 remaining residents of the Motor City are no more responsible for Detroit’s problems than were the victims of Hurricane Sandy for theirs, and eventually Congress decided to help them. America is just as much about aiding those less fortunate as it is about personal responsibility. Government does this in so many ways; why shouldn’t it help Detroit rebuild itself? (Steven Rattner, NYT, 7/19/2013)

Pension fund crook Rattner gets it exactly wrong. The residents of Detroit share in the responsibility for Detroit's plight BECAUSE of their votes. They elected Democrats for the past 50 years. Those Democrats who ran the city into the dirt. 


Chain Reaction
An attempt by Washington’s City Council to force profitable chain stores to pay much higher wages than the city’s minimum has infuriated Walmart, which is threatening to pull out of up to six planned stores.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray, who worked hard to lure Walmart, finds himself caught in the middle, and many residents sound less than grateful to the lawmakers who claim to be looking out for them.

“Those big people in government, they don’t understand my situation,” said Fred Reaves, 45, who is unemployed and said he would gladly take a job at the current city minimum, $8.25. (NYT, 7/20/2013)

Proof once again that the true enemies of the poor are Liberals.


Imposition
...many European countries already have versions of Texas’s late-term abortion ban on the books. France, Germany and Italy all ban abortions after the first trimester, and impose waiting periods as well. (Ross Douthat, NYT, 7/20/2013)

Good point by Douthat for all those abortion rights hysterics who imagine the end of the world because Texas imposes a few conditions.

Distinct Advantages

The End of Civilization
At 11 on a weeknight earlier this year, her work finished, a slim, pretty junior at the University of Pennsylvania did what she often does when she has a little free time. She texted her regular hookup — the guy she is sleeping with but not dating. What was he up to? He texted back: Come over. So she did. They watched a little TV, had sex and went to sleep.

“We don’t really like each other in person, sober,” she said, adding that “we literally can’t sit down and have coffee.”

Ask her why she hasn’t had a relationship at Penn, and she won’t complain about the death of courtship or men who won’t commit. Instead, she’ll talk about “cost-benefit” analyses and the “low risk and low investment costs” of hooking up.

“I positioned myself in college in such a way that I can’t have a meaningful romantic relationship, because I’m always busy and the people that I am interested in are always busy, too,” she said.

“And I know everyone says, ‘Make time, make time,’ ” said the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity but agreed to be identified by her middle initial, which is A. “But there are so many other things going on in my life that I find so important that I just, like, can’t make time, and I don’t want to make time.”

It is by now pretty well understood that traditional dating in college has mostly gone the way of the landline, replaced by “hooking up” — an ambiguous term that can signify anything from making out to oral sex to intercourse — without the emotional entanglement of a relationship.

Until recently, those who studied the rise of hookup culture had generally assumed that it was driven by men, and that women were reluctant participants, more interested in romance than in casual sexual encounters. But there is an increasing realization that young women are propelling it, too. (NYT, 7/12/2013)

We read one page of this seven page New York Times article and got sick.  Here we have the logical endpoint of Liberalism, Feminism and Hollywood. 

--Never mind waiting until marriage to have sex. 

--Never mind having sex with your steady boyfriend. 

--Women are now free to have sex with men they don't even like.

War on women? Yes, indeed.


Spot On
House Republicans find themselves in a difficult spot on immigration, caught between the needs of the national party to broaden its appeal to Hispanics, and the views of constituents in gerrymandered, largely safe conservative districts. (NYT, 7/10/2013)

Hmmm...have we ever heard of "gerrymandered, largely safe LIBERAL districts?" 

The Times does not say whether they exist.


Standardized
The bill would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and hold abortion clinics to the same standards as hospital-style surgical centers, among other requirements. Its supporters say that the strengthened requirements for the structures and doctors will protect women’s health; opponents argue that the restrictions are actually intended to put financial pressure on the clinics that perform abortions and will force most of them to shut their doors. (NYT, 7/13/2013)

A question for opponents of Texas's new abortion law: do you think that abortions should NOT be performed in clinics with highly qualified doctors and high standards of safety?


Stamped Out
Ms. Pelosi's anger must be especially amusing to House Speaker John Boehner, because the Democratic leader helped to defeat the original $1 trillion version of the farm bill last month. That version included some $740 billion for food stamps, but Democrats opted to kill it because they wanted even more money for a program whose cost more than doubled from 2008 to 2012. They objected to a modest GOP proposal to allow states to adopt pilot work requirements for able-bodied food-stamp recipients. (WSJ, 7/12/2013)

Always good to get the complete story, isn't it?