Saturday, January 19, 2013

Democrat’s Proposal Will Force Gun Owners to Store Guns At Government Approved Storage Depots

That way if someone breaks in your house, all you have to do is run down to the local gun storage facility to get your guns. It makes perfect sense. - Gateway Pundit

Provisions in the bill include:
◼ Having one standard of the issuance of all gun licenses, giving local police chiefs the ability to evaluate all aspects of an application for a gun license.
◼ Requires proof of liability insurance for possession of a firearm, rifle or shotgun.
◼ Requires that all large capacity weapons and grandfathered assault weapons must be stored at gun clubs or target ranges.
◼ Requires live shooting as part of the curriculum for a basic firearms safety course; this is not a current requirement.
◼ Requires all applicants for gun licenses and FID cards to sign a waiver of mental health records for review to be destroyed after decision.
◼ Imposes 25% sales tax on ammunition, firearms, shotguns, and rifles; dedicates funds towards firearms licensing, police training, mental health services, and victim’s services.
◼ Brings Massachusetts into compliance with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Limits gun buyers to one firearm purchase per month.

Do You Know What is Happening in Mali?

Surprise!!!! Al-Qaeda in Mali is a serious enough threat that the French, THE FRENCH!, have invaded Mali to fight them there. - Arutz Sheva (Israel National News)

During the third debate of the 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney talked about Mali and the danger al-Qaeda represented there. The Obamamedia laughed and derided Romney, carrying Barack Obama’s water and continued advancing the fraud that Obama had decimated al-Qaeda, even though al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists had taken over an American consulate and killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya just weeks prior.

Surprise!!!! Al-Qaeda in Mali is a serious enough threat that the French, THE FRENCH!, have invaded Mali to fight them there.

It looks like Romney was indeed correctly focused on foreign threats, al-Qaeda is not decimated but in fact very much alive, and the Obama administration is as blind, or more likely deceptive, about Mali as it was about Benghazi.

Or is Obama giving cover to Islamists in Mali like he does in Egypt and the Palestinian Authority?

Honesty in the 21st Century

I could talk about Lance Armstrong’s recent shameless exploitation of his prior shameless lying, but y’all know I like the economic topics. And one aspect of honesty is, calling things by their right name. - Gay Patriot

To his credit, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey recently called Obamacare by its right name:
Mackey told NPR[,] “Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it — and that’s what’s happening with our health care programs and these reforms.”
Of course that set off the howling spree, and now we have a partial climbdown:
“I made a bad choice of language,” Mackey said on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show… I was trying to distinguish it between socialism so I took the dictionary definition of fascism, which is when the means of production are still owned privately but the government controls it — that’s a type of fascism. However, I realize that that word has so much baggage associated with it… So I do regret using that word…
Funny: Leftists never seem to regret it, when they use the word.

Whole Foods CEO: ObamaCare Is "Fascism" - Ace Of Spades

CBS NEWS DIRECTOR’S ASTONISHING ADVICE: OBAMA ‘MUST GO FOR THE THROAT,’ ‘PULVERIZE’ & ‘DECLARE WAR’ ON THE GOP

“Go for the throat!” declares the title of John Dickerson’s latest column for Slate, posted Friday. Its subtitle: “Why if he wants to transform American politics, Obama must declare war on the Republican Party.” - Madeleine Morgenstern/The Blaze

link - John Dickerson/Slate

Obama’s only remaining option is to pulverize. Whether he succeeds in passing legislation or not, given his ambitions, his goal should be to delegitimize his opponents. Through a series of clarifying fights over controversial issues, he can force Republicans to either side with their coalition's most extreme elements or cause a rift in the party that will leave it, at least temporarily, in disarray.

This theory of political transformation rests on the weaponization (and slight bastardization) of the work by Yale political scientist Stephen Skowronek. Skowronek has written extensively about what distinguishes transformational presidents from caretaker presidents. In order for a president to be transformational, the old order has to fall as the orthodoxies that kept it in power exhaust themselves. Obama's gambit in 2009 was to build a new post-partisan consensus. That didn't work, but by exploiting the weaknesses of today’s Republican Party, Obama has an opportunity to hasten the demise of the old order by increasing the political cost of having the GOP coalition defined by Second Amendment absolutists, climate science deniers, supporters of “self-deportation” and the pure no-tax wing.

The president has the ambition and has picked a second-term agenda that can lead to clarifying fights. The next necessary condition for this theory to work rests on the Republican response. Obama needs two things from the GOP: overreaction and charismatic dissenters.

CBS News Political Director: 'Obama Can Only Cement His Legacy If He Destroys the GOP' - Noel Sheppard/Newsbusters

"The president who came into office speaking in lofty terms about bipartisanship and cooperation can only cement his legacy if he destroys the GOP. If he wants to transform American politics, he must go for the throat."

So astonishingly wrote CBS News political director John Dickerson at Slate Friday evening in a piece astonishingly titled "Go for the Throat! Why if he wants to transform American politics, Obama must declare war on the Republican Party."

Dickerson is no longer interested in Obama trying bipartisanship in his second term - as if that's what the President did in his first....

Did I mention this man was the political director for CBS News?

...Is this in any way appropriate for a so-called journalist that's supposed to remain neutral and impartial in his dealings with political leaders?

This is what one expects from people on MSNBC.

◼ FOLLOW UP: They hate me, they really hate me - John Dickerson/CBS News

On the eve of the president's inauguration, I wrote a piece about what President Obama needs to do to be a transformational rather than caretaker president. I was using a very specific definition of transformational presidencies based on my reading of a theory of political science and the president's own words about transformational presidencies from the 2008 campaign. It was also based on these givens: the president is ambitious, has picked politically controversial goals, has little time to operate before he is dubbed a lame-duck president, and has written off working with Republicans. "Bloodier-minded when it comes to beating Republicans," is how Jodi Kantor put it in the New York Times. Given these facts, there is only one logical conclusion for a president who wants to transform American politics: he must take on Republicans--aggressively.

For me, this was a math problem with an unmistakable conclusion. Some people thought I was giving the president my personal advice. No....

People see my article as an argument for one-party power, which is impossible since I posit that Obama's second-term conflict with the GOP will be the first step leading to its rebirth as a majority party. Some assume I hate Republicans. This latter charge will confuse my close relations, who are not only proud conservatives but among Fox News' most ardent fans (the two groups not necessarily overlapping). Indeed, one of the many reactions I received on my reporting on the tensions within the Republican Party came from a family member who wrote: "Barack Obama is the best thing ever for those who believe in conservative principles because it would show that with hard work, regardless of race, anyone can achieve, and it would give Republicans a few years in the wilderness to get back to a coherent philosophy. Now I believe that Obama will help conservatives because he will make them better. He has totally figured out how to use technology to deliver mass customized messages to individual voters and now citizens. Ultimately, this is a great boon to democracy. He is smart and articulate. He is tough and ruthless. All of this will make conservatives and Republicans raise their game. Ultimately, that is good. ... I look forward to a Republican Party that is a worthy adversary and a worthy advocate. Barack Obama should inspire us conservatives to be better, not to be whinier."

You can disagree with that analysis, but it is in keeping with the theory of political transformation that I was articulating as I considered the central question on the eve of Obama's second term: What is the pathway for transforming American politics given the president's current posture? There may be another way to solve this math problem, but I still don't see it.

Fake dead girlfriends and fake debt limits

Michael Ramirez

Did the entire U.S. media really fall for the imaginary dead girlfriend of a star football player? Did the president of the United States really announce 23 executive orders by reading out the policy views of carefully prescreened grade-schoolers ("I want everybody to be happy and safe")? Clearly, these vicious rumors were merely planted in the foreign press to make the United States appear ridiculous. - Mark Steyn/OC Register

Meanwhile, hot from the fiscal-cliff fiasco, the media are already eagerly anticipating the next in the series of monthly capitulations by Republicans, this time on the debt ceiling. While I was abroad, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, a Harvard professor of constitutional law, a prominent congressman and various other American eminencies apparently had a sober and serious discussion on whether the United States Treasury could circumvent the debt constraints by minting a trillion-dollar platinum coin. Although Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider called the trillion-dollar coin "the most important fiscal policy debate you'll ever see in your life," most Democratic pundits appeared to favor the idea for the more straightforward joy it affords in sticking it to the House Republicans. No more tedious whining about spending from GOP congressmen. Next time Paul Ryan shows up in committee demanding to know about deficit reduction plans, all the Treasury Secretary has to do is pull out a handful of trillion-dollar coins from down the back of the sofa and tell him to keep the change....

Do you ever get the feeling America's choo-choo has jumped the tracks? Joe Weisenthal says that the trillion-dollar coin is the most serious adult proposal put forward in our lifetime, "because it gets right to the nature of what is money." As Weisenthal argues, "We're still shackled with a gold-standard mentality where we think of money as a scarce natural resource that we need to husband carefully." Ha! Every time it rains it rains trillion-dollar pennies from heaven. I believe Robert Mugabe made a similar observation on Jan. 16, 2009, when he introduced Zimbabwe's first one hundred-trillion-dollar bank note. In that one dramatic month, the Zimbabwean dollar declined from 0.0000000072 of a U.S. dollar to 0.0000000003 of a U.S. dollar. But that's what's so great about being American. Because, when you're American, one U.S. dollar will always be worth one U.S. dollar, no matter how many trillion-dollar coins you mint. Eat your heart out, you Zimbabwean losers. As Joe Weisenthal asks, what is money? Money is American: everybody knows that....

Memo to John Boehner and Paul Ryan: No one will take you seriously until you find some photogenic second-graders and read out their cute letters. "I want everybody to be happy and safe and fithcally tholvent." They may have to practice.

The Authenticity of Fake - Sultan Knish

In a culture where everything is really fake, exposing the few people who seem virtuously really is an industry. The media deconstruction process establishes once and for all that all families are bad and that all virtuous people are fake. Except the virtuous people being profiled by them tomorrow and destroyed the week after that.

The more fake the culture is, the more of a sucker it is for fake authenticity....

Politics thrives on that same fake authenticity. Mitt Romney, a fake authentic politician of the old school, back when politicians were working with magazine covers, snapshots and a 30 second clip, couldn't compete against the truly fake Barack Obama, who in truly modern media style doesn't just fake 30 seconds or 30 minutes in front of the camera, but fakes his entire life going back decades.

Obama is truly fake. He is authentically unreal. There is absolutely nothing to him. If you take away all the work that was done to make him famous, there would be nothing there. And that is exactly why he is the perfect avatar for the media age.

Federal Appeals Court upholds Wisconsin union law

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit has upheld the Wisconsin union law that was the subject of massive protests in 2011, including a takeover of the State Capitol and widespread threats and acts of intimidation. The decision was unanimous in most respects. - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

Federal court of appeals upholds Walker's Act 10 union law - Journal Sentinel

A federal court of appeals on Friday upheld Wisconsin's law repealing most collective bargaining for most public employees, handing a victory to Gov. Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans who put the law in place amid tumult two years ago.

Parts of the collective bargaining law, known as Act 10, remain on hold because of a state judge's ruling in a separate case, but Friday's decision was a setback for public employees and their unions...

"Today's court ruling is a victory for Wisconsin taxpayers," Walker said in a statement. "The provisions contained in Act 10, which have been upheld in federal court, were vital in balancing Wisconsin's $3.6 billion budget deficit without increasing taxes, without massive public employee layoffs, and without cuts to programs like Medicaid."

REPORT: ALL HOSTAGES DEAD IN ALGERIA w/updates

Why Algeria Didn’t Warn the U.S. About Its Hostage Raid - Eli Lake/The Daily Beasy

A messy hostage raid put Americans lives at risk—and Obama didn’t even get a heads up. Eli Lake on the years of mistrust (and spurned cash) between the two nations.

Algeria's special forces stormed a natural gas complex in the middle of the Sahara desert on Saturday in a "final assault" aimed at ending a four-day-old hostage crisis, the state news agency reported. It said 11 militants and seven hostages were killed. - AP ◼ Via Drudge

The siege at the Ain Amenas plant, jointly run by BP, Norway's Statoil and Algeria's state-owned oil company, transfixed the world after radical Islamists stormed the complex, which contained hundreds of plant workers from all over the world.

Algeria's response to the crisis was typical of the country's history in confronting terrorists - military action over negotiation - and caused an international outcry from countries worried about their citizens.

The latest deaths bring the official Algerian tally of dead to 19 hostages and 29 militants, although reports on the number of dead, injured and freed have been contradictory throughout the crisis....

The accounts of hostages who escaped the complex highlight the cavalier attitude toward their lives taken by both kidnappers and the military.

Ruben Andrada, 49, a Filipino civil engineer who works as one of the project management staff for the Japanese company JGC Corp., described how Algerian helicopter gunships had earlier opened fire on vehicles carrying hostages and the gunmen who used them as shields.

On Thursday, about 35 hostages guarded by 15 militants were loaded into seven SUVs in a convoy to move them from the housing complex to the refinery, Andrada said. The militants placed "an explosive cord" around their necks and were told it would detonate if they tried to run away, he said.

◼ Earlier: Escaped hostages recount horrors in Algeria - Washington Post
◼ Yesterday: Algeria launches second rescue effort: State media report more than 650 hostages are freed as second round of search for 30 foreigners still missing begins. - Al Jazeera
Possibly our next war and we're getting our news from Algore Jazeera. Discussion at Lucianne

Algerian hostage crisis throws spotlight on spillover of Libyan war - Washington Post

The Libyan boomerang in Mali - Ed Morrissey/HotAir

Executed: Five Britons feared dead after Algeria hostage crisis ends in bloodbath as first chilling pictures emerge of Al Qaeda gunmen storming gas plant - Daily Mail

◼ Siege reaches climax after seven executed in final act of violence
◼ Happened just as special forces soldiers storm desert gas facility
◼ All 11 remaining militants shot dead in a fierce gun battle
◼ In total, 32 kidnappers and 23 captives had died in the siege

Hostages Executed by Terrorists Before Final Assault by Algerian Military - Rick Moran/PJ Tatler

Algeria hostage crisis: latest as French minister describes 'act of war' - Jennifer O'Mahony/The Telegraph

“Two years ago, when I first stood here as your new governor, Wisconsin was facing a $3.6-billion budget deficit, property taxes had gone up 27 percent over the previous decade, increasing every year, and the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent.”

Walker hits familiar themes in State of the State - Lakeland Times

Today, he observed, Wisconsin has a $342-million budget surplus, while property taxes on a median valued home have declined in each of the last two years, and the unemployment rate has dropped to 6.7 percent....

Walker said that, unlike the message coming out of Washington, he believed in putting more money in the hands of people instead of the government, and a critical way to do that was to create jobs.

He cited an improving business climate, greater employer confidence, and recent jobs announcements by various companies. But at the top of the jobs’ list was an iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Der Spiegel, Germany’s equivalent of Time magazine, laughs at crumbling California


NEW: German mag laughs at crumbling CA - Cal WatchDog

The situation is a catastrophe for everyone who hasn’t packed up and moved away. It is also representative of the bankruptcy of a country that failed to use its prosperous decades to sustain a functioning government. Funds are short at all levels, from Washington to the states to the cities and towns. The US is no longer investing in its infrastructure, weakening the foundation that gives all Americans a chance to have a piece of the American Dream.

House Republicans unveiled a plan to avert a potentially perilous game of political brinksmanship over raising the debt ceiling and to force Democrats to pass a budget for the first time in nearly four years.

The plan: pass a three-month temporary debt limit increase in exchange for an agreement to pass a budget or face no pay for members of Congress. - Wynton Hall/Breitbart

“The principle is simple,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Friday. “No budget, no pay.”

During a House Republican retreat on Friday, Boehner said passing a budget is critical to putting the breaks on Washington’s out of control spending:
“Before there is any long-term debt limit increase, a budget should be passed that cuts spending. The Democratic-controlled Senate has failed to pass a budget for four years. That is a shameful run that needs to end, this year.

We are going to pursue strategies that will obligate the Senate to finally join the House in confronting the government’s spending problem. The principle is simple: no budget, no pay....

A long-term increase in the debt limit that is not preceded by meaningful and responsible reductions in government spending might avert a default, but it would also invite a downgrade of our nation’s credit that damages our economy, hurts families and small businesses, and destroys jobs.”
House GOP Will Pass Three Month Debt-Ceiling Hike; Further Extension Requires Senate Democrats to Finally Pass a Budget - Ace of Spades

Uhhh... I guess I like the attempt at forcing the issue but we know the Democrats will not comply. Reid doesn't want a budget; Obama doesn't want a budget. They don't want to make it official how many trillions they've increased spending by. Not having a budget helps them hide this.

So the whole gadget-play is really an effort to drum up media interest -- the media absolutely refuses to cover why a law demanding a budget has been ignored four years running.

And we also know how that's going to work -- the media will ignore it, because they are no longer hiding the fact that they're Democrats and working for Reid, Pelosi, and Obama. (Well, they hide it in the sense that they'll lie and deny it if accused of it; but otherwise they make little pretense.)

So... it results in nothing. Cute idea, but it makes false assumptions about the Democratic Party and the media (but I repeat myself).

But our thought-leaders seem to be giving up on the prospect of actually winning anything. Charles Krauthammer stated:

“Don’t force the issue if you don’t have the power....” - More, at Ace

House GOP: We’ll raise the debt ceiling for three months — so that Harry Reid and Democrats can pass a budget; Update: Pelosi rips GOP “gimmick”

As Krauthammer said... ◼ “Don’t force the issue if you don’t have the power.” His suggestion: Try to win the messaging war now by making Democrats pass a budget and then, when you’re on firmer ground politically, force the issue later. - National Review

CALIFORNIA TRIES TO COUNTERACT RESIDENTS FLEEING INCREASED TAXES

After California residents voted to increase taxes via Proposition 30, state revenues have decreased, and residents and businesses are leaving to avoid burdensome taxes and regulations. - Tony Lee/Breitbart

However, as Forbes notes, “leaving” California “is not always easy”; the state considers anyone in the state for anything other than a temporary or transitory purpose as a resident.

The burden is on the taxpayer to show they are not a Californian. The state presumes anyone who has been in California for at least nine months is a resident.

It “usually takes 18 months” for someone to no longer be presumed a resident, which can make it difficult for people who flee the state to convince the state government they are no longer California residents.

California considers someone’s “days inside and outside the state," bank accounts, and where someone’s social, religious, professional and other organizations are located in determining whether an individual is no longer a Californian.

Fleeing California Taxes? Get In Line - Robert W. Wood/Forbes

After all, leaving is not always easy. A California resident is anyone in the state for other than a temporary or transitory purpose. ◼ See FTB Publication 1031. Guidelines for Determining Resident Status (PDF) Plus, it includes anyone domiciled in California who is outside the state for a temporary or transitory purpose. The burden is on you to show you’re not a Californian. If you’re in California for more than 9 months, you are presumed a resident.

...Your domicile is your true, fixed permanent home, the place where you intend to return even when you’re gone. You can have only one domicile, but many facts are relevant. Start with where you are employed and where you own a home....

If you own several, compare size and value. Consider your homeowner’s property tax exemption, where your spouse and children reside, etc. Your days inside and outside the state are important, as is the purpose of your travels. Where do you have bank accounts and belong to social, religious, professional and other organizations?

Voter registration, vehicle registration and driver’s licenses count. Where you own or operate businesses counts, as does the relative income and time you devote to them. You can own investments far and wide, but you can expect them to be compared.

Many of these points may not be too significant on their own. Yet they can have a cumulative effect. California is likely to pursue you and probe how and when you stopped being a resident. Get some legal advice and plan carefully.

The last time the Senate passed a budget,
the iPad did not exist.

Humboldt Republican Women, Federated BYLAWS

(Members need to review these by/or at the February meeting and we vote for approval at the March meeting.

The Main changes are:
-Name changed to Humboldt RWF from Eureka RWF
-Addition of the ability to have a non-Republican speaker on non-partisan subjects as the Executive Committee desired. (it is shown in yellow highlight in
Article IV Ethics, Section 2.) There was concern this wording would not be accepted but Fran did not comment on it. (so far so good)
- Addition of one signature required on checks less than $600.00.
If you have any questions or see something that could be changed, please contact our Parliamentarian)

New Poll: 65 Percent See Second Amendment as Protection From Tyranny

A new Rasmussen Report shows an overwhelming majority of Americans believe the Second Amendment and gun rights are necessary to protect against tyranny. - Katie Pavlich /TownHall

NRSC: Harry Reid has been paid about $720,000 in taxpayer salary since the last time the Senate passed a budget

Former New Orleans Mayor DEMOCRAT Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin has been indicted on 21 federal corruption charges including wire fraud, bribery and money laundering.

Ex- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin indicted - USA Today

The charges are the outgrowth of a City Hall corruption investigation that already has resulted in guilty pleas by two former city officials and two businessmen.

The counts include wire fraud, bribery, money laundering, filing false tax returns and conspiracy.

Nagin, a former cable television executive, was a political novice before being elected to his first term as mayor in 2002, buoyed by strong support from white voters.

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 elevated Nagin to the national stage, where he gained a reputation for colorful and sometimes cringe-inducing rhetoric.

During a radio interview broadcast in the storm's early aftermath, he angrily pleaded with federal officials to "get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

In January 2006, he apologized for a Martin Luther King Day speech in which he predicted New Orleans would be a "chocolate city" and asserted that "God was mad at America."

ABC, CBS, and NBC all refuse to identify indicted Nagin as Democrat - Brent Baker/Newsbusters

All three broadcast network evening newscasts on Friday night ran short items on the federal corruption indictments against the bumbling former Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, but skipped his party affiliation, a fact Reuters considered newsworthy – if not until their sixth paragraph: “Nagin, 56, and a Democrat...”

ABC anchor Diane Sawyer generously described Nagin as “the face of Hurricane Katrina...then the Mayor of New Orleans fighting for his city.”

On CBS, anchor Scott Pelley conversationally relayed: “We heard today that Ray Nagin, the former Mayor of New Orleans, was indicted on federal corruption charges...”

The toughest line came from NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, but also he left out the identity of Nagin’s party: “Ray Nagin, who as Mayor of New Orleans gained notoriety for his erratic behavior during Hurricane Katrina when the city needed a steady hand, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 21 counts of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering, tax fraud and filing false tax returns...”

“Chocolate City” Ray Nagin Indicted on on 21 Corruption Charges - Before It's News

With no George Bush to blame or a democrat party to shield him from being imprisoned for negligence in the death of hundreds of people, I want to see this low life shyster talk his way out of this one! Ray-Na faces many years in Federal Prison. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.

Piers Morgan’s Massive Hypocrisy



Oh, after he was fired from the Daily Mirror, he described for The Daily Mail what he would do to his professional enemies, including Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, writer A.A. Gill and editor Ian Hislop if he owned a fully automatic MACHINE GUN. - Nice deb

Newsweek revels in Obama cultism with creepy ‘second coming’ Inauguration cover


Framing President Obama as our lord and savior isn’t surprising. We’re more shocked by the news that Newsweek still has covers after killing its print publication. But that doesn’t make it any less creepy and cult-like. - Twitchy

Newsweek Meets Muggeridge’s Law - Ed Driscoll/PJM

Tom Wolfe on “Muggeridge’s Law:”
While Malcolm Muggeridge was the editor of Punch, it was announced that Khrushchev and Bulganin were coming to England. Muggeridge hit upon the idea of a mock itinerary, a lineup of the most ludicrous places the two paunchy pear-shaped little Soviet leaders could possibly be paraded through during the solemn process of a state visit. Shortly before press time, half the feature had to be scrapped. It coincided exactly with the official itinerary, just released, prompting Muggeridge to observe: We live in an age in which it is no longer possible to be funny. There is nothing you can imagine, no matter how ludicrous, that will not promptly be enacted before your very eyes, probably by someone well known.
Newsweek Makes It Official: Obama’s Inauguration Is ‘The Second Coming’ - Brent Baker/Newsbusters

Conservatives have long joked that the national press corps see Barack Obama as the second coming of Jesus Christ. Today, Newsweek – at least what’s left of it, an online product for tablets and e-readers – made it official.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Holder Begs Court to Stop Document Release on #FastandFurious

Does.not.fit.the.gun.grab.narrative. - My Pet Jawa

HOLDER BEGS COURT TO STOP DOCUMENT RELEASE ON FAST AND FURIOUS

Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice have asked a federal court to indefinitely delay a lawsuit brought by watchdog group Judicial Watch. The lawsuit seeks the enforcement of open records requests relating to Operation Fast and Furious, as required by law.

Judicial Watch had filed, on June 22, 2012, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious and “specifically [a]ll records subject to the claim of executive privilege invoked by President Barack Obama on or about June 20, 2012.”

The administration has refused to comply with Judicial Watch’s FOIA request, and in mid-September the group filed a lawsuit challenging Holder’s denial. That lawsuit remains ongoing but within the past week President Barack Obama’s administration filed what’s called a “motion to stay” the suit. Such a motion is something that if granted would delay the lawsuit indefinitely.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said that Holder’s and Obama’s desire to continually hide these Fast and Furious documents is “ironic” now that they’re so gung-ho on gun control. “It is beyond ironic that the Obama administration has initiated an anti-gun violence push as it seeking to keep secret key documents about its very own Fast and Furious gun walking scandal,” Fitton said in a statement. “Getting beyond the Obama administration’s smokescreen, this lawsuit is about a very simple principle: the public’s right to know the full truth about an egregious political scandal that led to the death of at least one American and countless others in Mexico. The American people are sick and tired of the Obama administration trying to rewrite FOIA law to protect this president and his appointees. Americans want answers about Fast and Furious killings and lies.”

The only justification Holder uses to ask the court to indefinitely delay Judicial Watch’s suit is that there’s another lawsuit ongoing for the same documents – one filed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Judicial Watch has filed a brief opposing the DOJ’s motion to stay.

They’re all about the transparency, you see. - Protein Wisdom

HOW OBAMA'S GUN 'ORDER' WILL BACKFIRE

On what happened last time a president made same demand - David Kupelian/WND

During the late ’70s, President Jimmy Carter and his inner circle determined to push through comprehensive new federal gun-control legislation. They decided the best way to grease the congressional skids would be to have a massive scientific study conducted which, in the end, would proclaim that gun-control laws were effective in reducing crime.

So the Carter folks handed out a major gun-control research grant to University of Massachusetts sociology professor James D. Wright and his colleagues Peter Rossi and Kathleen Daly. They spent four years and lots of tax dollars to produce what would be the most comprehensive, critical study of gun control ever undertaken. In 1981, they published the results of their research – an exhaustive, three-volume work titled “Under the Gun.”

There was only one problem.

Their findings, summarized starkly by co-author Wright, were that “Gun control laws do not reduce crime.” Much more at the link.

Obama Jobs Council hits 1 year without official meeting

President Barack Obama's Jobs Council hit a notable milestone on Thursday: one year without an official meeting. The 26-member panel is also set to expire at the end of the month, unless Obama extends its tenure. - Politico

The group, formally known as the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, last convened on Jan. 17, 2012 for a White House session where it presented formal recommendations to Obama. It was the panel's fourth official meeting since it was created in early 2011.

A spokesman for Jobs Council chairman Jeffrey Immelt, who's the CEO of General Electric, referred questions about the panel's future to the White House.

A White House spokeswoman had no comment Thursday.

I don't know why you think you're a fiscal conservative. The simple fact is you're not. The green-eye-shaded Republicans you claim to miss would be scandalized by the mess we're in, largely thanks to voters like you, Bob. Eisenhower would take a flamethrower to today's Washington.

Wake Up, Socially Liberal Fiscal Conservatives - Jonah Goldberg/Townhall

Dear Socially Liberal Fiscal Conservative Friend,

That's pretty toothy, so I'm going to call you Bob.

But whatever specific name you go by, Bob, you know who you are. You're the sort of person who says to his conservative friends or co-workers something like, "I would totally vote for Republicans if they could just give up on these crazy social issues."

When you explain your votes for Barack Obama, you talk about how Republicans used to be much more moderate and focused on important things such as low taxes, fiscal discipline and balanced budgets.

When Colin Powell was on "Meet the Press" the other day, you nodded along as he lamented how the GOP has lost its way since the days when it was all about fiscal responsibility.

And, Bob, you think Republicans are acting crazy-pants on the debt ceiling. You don't really follow all of the details, but you can just tell that the GOP is being "extreme," thanks to those wacky tea partiers.

So, Bob, as a "fiscal conservative," what was so outrageous about trying to cut pork -- Fisheries in Alaska! Massive subsidies for Amtrak! -- From the Sandy disaster-relief bill? What was so nuts about looking for offsets to pay for it?

Bob, I'm going to be straight with you. I never had much respect for your political acumen before, but you're a sucker.....

"This is a president who has drunk the Kool-Aid."

Cruz: Obama 'High on His Own Power' - Michael Warren/Weekly Standard

>Republican senator Ted Cruz of Texas said Thursday that Barack Obama is "high on his own power" with regard to the president's announced efforts on gun control. Speaking on Laura Ingraham's radio talk show, Cruz, who was just elected to the Senate last November, said..

"He is feeling right now high on his own power, and he is pushing on every front, on guns... And I think it's really sad to see the president of the United States exploiting the murder of children and using it to push his own extreme, anti-gun agenda. I think what the president is proposing and the gun control proposals that are coming from Democrats in the Senate are, number one, unconstitutional, and number two, they don't work. They're bad policy."

Cruz told Ingraham that he does not believe Obama will be successful in passing gun control legislation and that the political ramifications of pursuing such laws could be bad for Democrats.

"I think he's going to pay a serious political price, and I think the price that's going to be paid on this is going to manifest in Senate races in 2014, in some red states," Cruz said. "And there have got to be some Democrats who are up for reelection in 2014 who are very, very nervous right now that Presidnet Obama is picking this fight."

Noonan: His Terms Are Always Hostile Ones. No one has good faith but Obama. Doesn't this get boring, even to him? - Peggy Noonan/Wall St. Journal

...On cultural issues, this Democratic president could have done a Nixon to China—the bold move that only he could make without inspiring fierce dissent, the move that could break through.

Instead he did a Nixon to the Orange County GOP.

Maybe the president doesn't operate with as much good faith as he thinks, and maybe the other side isn't as bad as he pretends. As I watched his news conference and his gun-control remarks I thought, for the first time in a while, that the Republicans are finally getting a break.

He is overplaying his hand.

He does that. He's doing it again.

To judge from his surly demeanor and defiant words at his press conference Monday, Barack Obama begins his second term with a strategy to defeat and humiliate Republicans rather than a strategy to govern.

Ivory-tower Obama can't abide views he doesn't share - Michael Barone/Washington Examiner @michaelbarone

His point-blank refusal to negotiate over the debt ceiling was clearly designed to make the House Republicans look bad.

But Obama knows very well that negotiations usually accompany legislation to increase the government's debt limit. As Gordon Gray of the conservative American Action Network points out, most of the 17 increases in the debt ceiling over the last 20 years have been part of broader measures.

Working out what will be in those measures is a matter for negotiation between the legislative and executive branches. That's because the Constitution gives Congress the power to incur debt and the president the power to veto.

Obama supporters like to portray Republican attempts to negotiate as hostage-taking or extortion. But those are violent crimes. Negotiations -- discussions attempting to reach agreement among those who differ -- are peaceful acts.

What we do know, from Bob Woodward's "The Price of Politics," is that Obama is not very good at negotiating. He apparently can't stomach listening to views he does not share.... - Read the rest, at the link.

Humiliating the Opposition, it’s the Obama Way - B. Daniel Blatt/Gay Patriot

Rubio: Obama ‘doesn’t have the guts to admit’ that he doesn’t believe in the Second Amendment



“I’ll let you in on secret, I mean, the President is a liberal.” Rubio said wryly, “And this is part of the liberals’ long time dreams for our country and he sees this as a opportunity to get some of these things done." - Charlie Spiering/Washington Examiner @charlesspiering

“I think that the president – and he doesn’t have the guts to admit it – is not a believer of the Second Amendment,” Rubio said frankly. “If he doesn’t want it in the Constitution or he wants to reform the Second Amendment then have the guts to admit that.”

Whether or not President Obama’s big display of “doing something” will have any real teeth to it – his proposals of reinstating an “assault weapons” ban and imposing a 10-capacity limit on magazines are nothing more than recycled ideas that have hardly a snowball’s chance in hell of making it through Congress, not to mention the boundless evidence of their impotence at actually curbing violence — but what was on full display on Wednesday was President Obama’s prevailing attitude about the second amendment and gun-rights advocates. - Erika Johnsen/HotAir

President Obama conspicuously avoided the term “gun control” during his speech on Wednesday, but certainly threw “common sense” around a lot and didn’t neglect to heavily disparage the gun lobby. All of this denigrating of the NRA’s motives, as if it isn’t a huge and voluntary organization through which millions of Americans have taken gun safety and concealed weapons classes (which has an effective and direct impact in preventing and deterring would-be crime, by the way) and as if they somehow don’t give a fig about children’s safety and just stubbornly want to keep Americans well-armed for the oh-so-uncivilized sake of it, is telling. What’s more, as much as President Obama says he wholeheartedly approves of our “rich hunting and sport shooting traditions,” that fundamentally misses what the Second Amendment is really about.

Gov. Perry: Using Massacre of Children to Advance Agenda 'Disgusts Me'

Gov. Rick Perry released the following statement regarding President Obama's executive actions:

"The Vice President's committee was appointed in response to the tragedy at Newtown, but very few of his recommendations have anything to do with what happened there.

"Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror.

"There is evil prowling in the world - it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds. As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children.

"In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally. The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president."
Gov. Perry: Using Massacre of Children to Advance Agenda 'Disgusts Me'

Obama Tweets 8-Year-Old's Plea to Rally Support - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard

The use of children in politics — if you find it persuasive, you'd better sharpen up. - Althouse (image source)

...You won't slip into falling for Drudge's propaganda, because it's so obvious. It's ridiculous to equate Obama to Hitler and Stalin, but Obama is using a form of propaganda that should be considered not merely ridiculous but repulsive. For us today to see Hitler and Stalin using children is easily to perceive the absurdity of promoting a political agenda juxtaposing it to a lovely, innocent child.

Who falls for that? No one should! The implicit argument the political leader makes, in all 3 of these pictures, is: I'm making the country good for the sake of the children. The child can't vouch for the policies. The child hasn't competently requested anything. The child is merely a prop representing goodness, innocence, and the future....

Humiliating the Opposition, it’s the Obama Way - Gay Patriot

BROWNSTEIN: Expect Obama to Get EVEN MORE Aggressive - Ronald Brownstein/National Journal

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Did I mention that this is the same Al Jazeera that threw a televised birthday for Samir Kuntar? A terrorist who took a rifle butt to smash the skull of a 4-year-old Israeli girl when he attempted to kidnap her family?


You have to love it. - Jeffrey Lord/American Spectator

Joy Behar Does Sharia. So do Jennifer Granholm, Al Gore, the N.Y. Times, Media Matters’ David Brock, and the Color of Change....

Joy Behar now works for an employer whose Al Jazeera network, in the words of Current TV co-founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, “was founded with the same goals we had for Current.”

The co-star of Barbara Walters’ famous morning chat show The View, along with her Current colleague Jennifer Granholm, the former liberal Governor of Michigan, are now two of the main pillars of the Al-Jazeera line up....

Let’s begin with one of Ms. Behar’s and Ms. Granholm’s new Al Jazeera colleagues.
That would be one Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Islamic theologian who hosts Sharia and Life, a show that is said to have an audience of 60 million around the globe. Joy’s new colleague is also the host of a website called IslamOnline, for which he serves as the chief religious scholar.

So what does al-Qaradawi discuss on his show? What is it exactly that makes him such a hit with his large audience?

Al-Qaradawi hates Barbara Walters. Well, not really Barbara personally. No, he’s not that specific. It’s just that he hates Jews. And America’s most famous television journalist is Jewish. It’s nothing personal. So when he preached a sermon back there on January 28, 2009, on Jews saying he wanted to “kill them, down to the very last one” he was obviously including Barbara Walters.

Joy’s new buddy is also grateful for the Holocaust. As reported here by the Daily Caller:
As translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute, Al-Qaradawi said that “throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by Hitler.”
“By means of all the things he did to them –- even though they exaggerated this issue –- he managed to put them in their place,” Al-Qaradawi continued. “This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.”
Then there’s al-Qaradawi’s views on women. He’s all in favor of wife-beating if it’s deserved – although he believes it should be done “lightly.” (A belief he shares, by the way, with President Obama’s “Granny Sarah,” as we noted here in a story discussing Sarah Obama’s Sharia fundraising activities.) And but of course, he’s a big fan of female genital mutilation. - Read MORE at the link.

Interview with Cliff Kincaid: Stopping Al-Jazeera America - Cliff Kincaid/Trevor Loudon/New Zeal

The taking over of an American cable channel by Al-Jazeera is tantamount to giving American broadcast facilities during World War II to “Tokyo Rose” and “Axis Sally.” Tokyo Rose was the name given to an American broadcasting on Tokyo shortwave radio, while Axis Sally was “The American voice of Nazi Germany” and was broadcasting on Berlin radio. Both of them, incidentally, were apprehended and prosecuted for treason and sent to prison. The purpose of the broadcasts was to demoralize the American side in the war.

In Al-Jazeera’s case, the channel, through the acquisition of Current TV, is seeking to establish a more permanent base on U.S. soil, in order to undermine the U.S. war on Islamic terrorism and provide support for President Obama’s embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood.

We are not at war with Qatar, which owns Al-Jazeera, but we are at war with the jihadists being supported by Qatar, Al-Jazeera and the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar openly supports Hamas and Hezbollah and protected 9/11 mastermind and bin Laden lieutenant Khalid Sheik Mohammed from apprehension by U.S. authorities.

The hearings should examine why Al-Jazeera’s current broadcasts into the U.S. are not being labeled by cable and satellite providers as foreign propaganda under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and why public television stations are turning their broadcast time over to Al Jazeera and other foreign channels, in violation of Federal Communications Commission rules....

FreedomWatch Sues to Block Obama’s Gun Control Initiative

FreedomWatch’s suit is based on the argument that the White House group conducted illegal meetings with lobbyists without public notice that’s required. The suit, which was filed in Florida federal court, seeks to eliminate the task force and prevent any of its proposals from becoming law, The Hill reports. - Newsmax

GOP, Some Dems Vow to Fight Obama’s Gun-Control ‘Power Grab’

Anatomy of a proposal: From asking Holder to re-examine who should be excluded from gun ownership to "nurturing school climates" and background checks on victims of gun theft.

Reaction from Hill Republicans was swift.

“Nothing the president is proposing would have stopped the massacre at Sandy Hook. President Obama is targeting the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens instead of seriously addressing the real underlying causes of such violence,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “…I will oppose the president’s attempts to undermine Americans’ constitutional right to bear arms.”

Mark Levin: Obama’s Executive Orders ‘Un-American,’ ‘Fascistic’



Conservative radio host Mark Levin tore into President Barack Obama on Wednesday after the president signed several executive orders aimed at curbing gun violence. Levin told Fox News Channel host Neil Cavuto that Obama’s executive orders were “un-American,” “fascistic,” and would do little reduce gun crime. - Noah Rothman/Mediaite

“Signed, sealed, and Republicans, well, delirious – apoplectic more the word – over a president they say is now out of control,” Cavuto began.

“What do any of these 23 have to do with what happened in Newtown?” Levin asked Cavuto rhetorically. “It’s a weird collection of proposals.”

Levin took issue with a number of provisions, some of which he says merely enforce existing law and others he says extend beyond the appropriate reach of the executive branch.

“There are some things in his executive orders that are un-American. In some ways they’re even fascistic,” Levin continued.

Doctors are private citizens. Do we really want doctors reporting to the federal government if they think somebody might have violent tendencies? Do we really want to discourage people who have mental health issues, or people bringing them in to see their doctor, because they may become part of a national law enforcement database? How is that going to stop any crime?

“There is no connection between reality and what this president is proposing,” Levin concluded.

Obama: Doctors Should Ask About Guns in Homes - Jim Meyers/Newsmax

FULL INTERVIEW – Mark Levin to Cavuto: There’s no connection between reality and what Obama is proposing - at the Right Scoop

Obama unveils $500 million gun violence package

The president's announcements capped a swift and wide-ranging effort, led by Vice President Joe Biden, to respond to the deaths of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. But Obama's gun control proposals set him up for a tough political fight with Congress as he starts his second term, when he'll need Republican support to meet three looming fiscal deadlines and pass comprehensive immigration reform. - AP
Discussion at Lucianne
What President Obama proposed on guns. And what might actually pass Congress - Sean Sullivan/Washington Post
At world’s largest gun show, few worries
about tighter controls: It's all about putting guns in the hands of sane people.
- Washington Post
FLASHBACK: In 1999, Obama wouldn’t support tougher prosecution for school shooters - Vince Coglianese/Daily Caller
In 1999, State Senator Barack Obama voted “present” on a bill that would require adult prosecution for discharging a gun in or near a school.

That legislation came as a response to the tragic Columbine High School shooting that year.

SB 759 provided that anyone 15 years of age or older charged with aggravated battery with a weapon in school or within 1,000 feet of a school would be charged as an adult.

It passed the Illinois State Senate in a 52-1 vote, with 5 members voting present — including Obama.

That vote followed a trend for the young lawmaker, whose controversial votes on crime legislation often raised eyebrows.

A Chicago Tribune editorial even accused Obama of being a “gutless sheep” for missing a vote on crime legislation in late 1999.

60% of young Americans plan to purchase firearms

According to the study, about 40 percent of the American students surveyed said they definitely planned to own firearms once they had established their own households. Another 20 percent said they were “contemplating” owning guns. - Campus Reform

Marco Rubio: "There is a constitutional right to bear arms... I did not create that and he cannot erase that. It is in the Constitution. If they want to change the Constitution, if they want to believe the Second Amendment should not be in there or if they believe it should be rewritten in the 21st century then let them have the guts to stand up and propose that."

link - Daniel Strauss/The Hill

...But until they do that, Rubio continued, "then they've got to abide by it. And if you're going to pass a bunch of laws that are not going to work but are going to infringe on the Second Amendment right of law abiding citizens you're going to have a problem with that."

Obama Decides He’s Emperor–Announces 23 Executive Orders on Gun Control - Tammy Bruce

The List, via Fox Nation.
1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.
18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

Hollywood's gun hypocrisy - Michael Medved

REPUBLICAN LEADERS RESPOND TO OBAMA’S GUN CONTROL ANNOUNCEMENT - John Hayward/Human Events @Doc_o

Here’s the Full Text of Obama’s Gun Press Conference - The Blaze

Rubio: President Obama is abusing his executive powers - Charlie Spiering/Washington Examiner @charlesspiering

From health care to gun control, the left has perfected this fallacious art of prop-a-palooza — the well-being of the children and national discourse be damned. Political vultures in Washington refuse to do the one thing that might actually benefit the children they recklessly use and abuse as fodder: Grow up

Prop-a-palooza: The Use and Abuse of Kiddie Human Shields - Michelle Malkin

The president of the United States will release a binder full of new gun-control executive orders on Wednesday. Instead of standing alone, bearing full responsibility for the imperial actions he is about to take, President Obama will surround himself with an audience of kids who wrote to him after the Newtown, Conn., school massacre. This is the most cynical in Beltway theatrical staging — a feckless attempt to invoke “For the Children” immunity by hiding behind them.

What has happened to the deliberative process in this country? Public debate in Washington has deteriorated into Sesame Street sing-a-longs. We are already inundated with logical fallacies: argumentum ad populum (it’s popular, therefore it’s true); argumentum ad nauseam (if you repeat it often enough, it’ll become truth); argumentum ad hominem (sabotage the person, sabotage the truth); and argumentum ad verecundiam (if my favorite authority says it’s true, it’s true).

Senator Greg Ball session comments

Republican Governor: Mike Pence’s first move: A regulatory moratorium for Indiana

As Congressional Republicans are constantly trying to point out, enacting all of the additional new sources of “revenue” in the world will never come even remotely close to solving our long term debt problems. The only real solution for turning our country around is inducing our economy into a rate of robust economic growth that creates more productive jobs, brings more people into the middle class, and reduces poverty and subsequently our entitlement burden — and no amount of “asking the wealthy to pay a little more” will ever accomplish that. - Erika Johnsen/HotAir

Indiana’s brand-new Republican Governor Mike Pence, after being inaugurated on Monday, quickly made it his first move to enact a regulatory moratorium to help fight unemployment. Take note, Washington:
The former House Republican Conference chairman issued an executive order suspending Indiana’s rulemaking process shortly after he was sworn in Monday. The measure is designed to lower the cost of doing business and encourage hiring in the state, where the 8.2 percent unemployment rate is slightly higher than the national average.

“Over several decades the proliferation of administrative rules and regulations at all levels of government has increased the complexity and expense of economic life,” the order says. “Reducing this regulatory burden will promote citizens’ freedom to engage in individual, family and business pursuits.”

In addition to directing state agencies to halt any rulemaking activity indefinitely, the order requires the state’s budget office to evaluate existing rules and put forth recommendations for which should be repealed, beginning with the most onerous.

The would-be murderers are shaking in their boots

New York Gov. Cuomo signs major gun-control package into law - Erika Johnsen/HotAir

The law-abiding citizens will be effectively disarmed. The would-be murderers are laughing all the way to the nearest gun-free zone. - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

From The Daily News editorial cheering the draconian gun control law passed in NY State with no public discussion, no public debate, no normal waiting period, no time for Senators to read it, no likelihood of actually reducing crime, but great likelihood of making criminals of otherwise law abiding citizens who run afoul of its unusual provisions and who are not David Gregory:
No longer would would-be murderers be legally permitted to buy obscene amounts of ammunition, enabling them to squeeze the trigger again, and again, and again, in quick succession.
Oooh, the would-be murderers are shaking in their boots....

The Reality of Bearing Arms - Larry Johnson/No Quarter

The ignorance of the American people with respect to the Second Amendment is startling.

...We will see where the debate goes once Obama and his team unveil their proposals. But I guarantee you one thing–if Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, the Principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School had been properly armed and trained, she would have had a good chance of stopping a crazed soul from slaughtering her and her students. We cannot ban the ability of someone to kill someone else. We can try futile, feckless methods to limit the number of people a crazy person can kill. But ultimately, you can always find a work around in an open society. It is only when you surrender your freedom and civil liberties that you can obtain the illusion of 100% security. And such security is a fantasy that weak minded, cowardly people grasp for desperately when confronted with the reality of evil....

A major part of my despair for the country is the manner in which our president and the Democratic Party openly worked to destroy the reputation of that kind, decent, honest man. That action was truly despicable. What makes it even worse was that it worked.

Despair Inside the Beltway: Reflections on the upcoming second inauguration of President Obama. - Arnold S. Trebach, J.D., Ph.D./American Spectator

I find myself in despair for our beloved country. It is quite likely that a large minority of the nation’s citizens agree with my pessimistic mood. The reasons for that despair are not difficult to discern.

Our beloved country is in terrible condition. The awful evidence is easily seen everywhere, for those willing to look. Our economic situation is unsustainable. Yes, the government of the richest country in the history of the world is, by all reliable measures, broke. Our national government cannot pay its bills and every day sinks deeper in debt because it is addicted to spending at extravagant rates. We are on our way to becoming the sad equivalent of Greece or another failed state.

There is plenty of blame to pass around for this condition and it should be shared by Democrats and Republicans, by George Bush and by Barack Obama, but the major part of the blame must be placed squarely on the shoulders of Mr. Obama and his administration. He has been in power for four years and he promised that he would deal with all of our major problems. He has not done so.

To put fine point on the matter, our president terrifies me, even though during most of my life I have been a liberal Democrat and voted for him in his first election.

If viewed honestly his first term has been an unmitigated disaster. The national debt is at an historic high. So is unemployment. Despite these sad, undeniable facts, he was elected to another term. That of course is typical of his history for much of his life. He is a master politician of the Chicago school and yet a disaster as a manager and practical leader.

A Reply to My Commenters - Arnold S. Trebach, J.D., Ph.D./American Spectator

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Video: Hannity Recites Litany of Obama Power Grabs



It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a conservative commenter run through even an abbreviated list of Obama’s amazing but unconstitutional power grabs - something people should be reminded about over and over again. - Nice Deb

OREGON SHERIFF: EXEC. ORDERS THAT OFFEND CONSTITUTION WILL NOT BE ENFORCED


Linn County Oregon Sheriff Tim Mueller cut right to the chase in an open letter to Vice President Biden on January 14: "Any federal regulation enacted by Congress or executive order...offending the constitutional rights of my citizens will not be enforced by me or my deputies." - Awr Hawkins/Breitbart

Elsewhere in the letter, Mueller touched on the key problem American citizens are now facing, as gun-grabbers use the crimes of a few to justify taking away the liberties of many:
We are Americans. We must not allow, nor will we tolerate, the actions of criminals, no matter how heinous the crimes, to prompt politicians to enact laws that will infringe upon the liberties of responsible citizens who have broken no laws.
Muller closed his letter thus: "In summary, it is the position of this Sheriff that I refuse to participate, or stand idly by, while my citizens are turned into criminals due to the unconstitutional actions of misguided politicians."

Reporter Mocks Carney: 'I'm Not Going to Indulge Your West Wing Fantasies'



White House Press Secretary Jay Carney tried to mock a reporter for asking a question he didn't like. The reporter, in turn, mocked Carney, the White House spokesman, telling him, "I'm not going to indulge your West Wing fantasies."

Journalists, Politicians Refuse to Post Lawn Sign saying "HOME IS PROUDLY GUN FREE"

What I most admire about James O’Keefe… - Michelle Malkin

As you all know, several newspapers over the years have endangered law-abiding gun owners under the guise of transparency and public service by publishing databases of registered concealed handgun permit holders (see an early example on this blog from 2007). After the horrible Newtown massacre,The Journal News in New York and the Star-Ledger in New Jersey took it upon themselves to demonize law-abiding gun owners and provide free road maps to criminals.

O’Keefe and his Project Veritas took it upon themselves to visit some of these journalists, as well as liberal MSNBC anti-gunner Toure’ and Eric Holder’s residence.

Watch:



Over the last few weeks, our citizen journalists visited the homes of well-known reporters who advocate FOR gun control measures. - Project Veritas

Monday, January 14, 2013

Debt Ceiling: Default Not at Issue, Federal Spending Is



President Obama is expected to make his case for a debt ceiling increase at a press conference this morning. The development comes as House Republicans are reportedly weighing “default” and “government shutdown.” While it’s encouraging that conservatives are gearing up for a fight, it’s important that policymakers and the public keep those two terms straight. - J.D. Foster, Ph.D./Heritage

Default. The only way the federal government would default on its debt in the event the debt ceiling remains unchanged is for the Treasury to choose to default—an utterly implausible eventuality. Suggestions to the contrary in the press and elsewhere are simply inaccurate and shameful.

The amount of debt the federal government is allowed to issue is set by statute.

Federal spending is similarly established by law. Treasury is at once prohibited by law from issuing additional debt above the limit and obligated by law to spend certain amounts for designated purposes. The Treasury has certain tools it can use to muddle through once the debt ceiling is reached, but these terms are limited and are expected to be exhausted toward the end of February.

If the federal government exhausted its financial management tools, then government spending would be limited to incoming receipts. At that point, the law setting a debt limit and the laws in place directing government spending would conflict—something would have to give.

Hume: ‘Strikingly aggressive and partisan’ Obama looking to deepen problems for GOP



On Monday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” senior Fox political analyst Brit Hume said that President Barack Obama’s tone in his press conference earlier in the day was unusually partisan, especially for a time when there is no election campaign underway. The speech “was strikingly aggressive and partisan,” he said. - Daily Caller

“If you heard it and you didn’t know when it was, you might think that the election campaign was still in full swing,” Hume said. “I mean it was unusually partisan. Most presidents, you know, they may make sort of quiet references to the other party. This president is more directly partisan under normal circumstance than any other president than I can remember. And I think he senses that the Republican Party is in bad order with the public and that if he can deepen that problem for them, it softens them up to do things his way. But it is striking. He was strikingly aggressive and partisan.”

Hume also said the upcoming debt ceiling fight will be better for the GOP than the recent fiscal cliff fight, though Obama’s willingness to attack was more evidence of “a real partisan brawl” to come.

“This is a place where the Republicans have more leverage than they did in the recent fight over the so-called fiscal cliff,” Hume said. “What was at the center of that was the fact that the law already was going to raise taxes on everybody. And that was the fact of life Republicans really never could get around, which is why they basically, you know, had to go along for what — by the time they voted on it — was a tax cut for most people. This situation is different: The debt ceiling doesn’t get raised by itself; and it has to be done, and everybody knows it eventually has to be done. So they understand it’s not a popular step, as the president’s own vote against it shows. They’re trying to extract some spending cuts as a price for that. And the president is accusing them of wanting to, you know, leave the lame, the blind and the children and the elderly people out in the cold. This is a real partisan brawl.”

Judge Napolitano: President Obama ‘Absolutely’ Cannot Use the 14th Amendment to Raise the Debt Ceiling

Some Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, have called on President Obama to use the 14th Amendment to the Constitution in order to raise the debt ceiling without Congressional approval. (Video) - FOX News Insider

The 14th Amendment reads: “validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.”

The debt ceiling of $16.4 trillion is set to hit again on March 1, and a report last week found that it could actually be reached as early as Feb. 15.

So does the U.S. Constitution actually give President Obama the authority to raise the debt ceiling? Stuart Varney asked the question to Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox Business Network this morning.

“Absolutely not,” said Napolitano. “Because the Constitution itself says that only Congress can raise money, only Congress can spend money, and only Congress can borrow money. The president knows that. Every single president – from Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama – when they want to raise money, goes to the Congress and gets permission for it.”

...Napolitano said the phrase of the Constitution cited by Pelosi and others is not being used in the right context.

“The 14th Amendment is one of the three post-Civil War amendments,” he explained. “So in order for the seceding southern states to return to the union, they had to agree to adopt the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. The 14th Amendment says ‘the public debt of the United States shall not be questioned,’ because one of the debts that the federal government still had to pay after the Civil War was the debt incurred by fighting the Civil War. And who was going to pay that? The returning southern states, as well as the northern states. … (The 14th Amendment) prevented (the southern states) from saying ‘we’re not going to pay.’”

The American middle class is caught between two rebellions. One by an urban middle class elite that would like a more closed and regulated society and another by a rural middle class that would like a more open and less regulated society, with the suburbs split in the middle.

And This is Revolution - Daniel Greenfield/Sultan Knish

Sandy Hook shooting - AR-15 rifle was left in the car!



◼ Some reports Busting the mythology surrounding the Sandy Hook shooting, this video reveals that the AR-15 rifle was actually left in the car! it wasn't used in the school shooting at all.

OBAMA TAKES SHOT AT GUN GROUPS WHILE OUTLINING NEW FIREARMS LAWS HE SUPPORTS: ‘GINNING UP FEAR’

Signaling an all-of-the-above approach to reducing gun violence, President Barack Obama said Monday that he is reviewing a range of proposals from Vice President Joe Biden, including executive actions that would bypass Congress, and will present his plan within days. - The Blaze

Soon after, President Obama weighed in on the record gun sales in recent months:

“As far as people lining up and purchasing more guns, I think that we’ve seen for some time now that those who oppose any common sense gun control or gun safety measures have a pretty effective way of ginning up fear on the part of gun owners that somehow, the federal government’s about to take all your guns away. And, you know there’s probably an economic element to that, it obviously is good for business, but I think that those of us who look at this problem have repeatedly said that responsible gun owners, people who have a gun for protection, for hunting, for sportsmanship– they don’t have anything to worry about.

“The issue here is not whether or not we believe in the Second Amendment. The issue is are there some sensible steps we can take to make sure that somebody like the individual in Newtown can’t walk into a school and gun down a bunch of children in a shockingly rapid fashion…but part of the challenge that we confront is that even the slightest hint of some sensible, responsible legislation in this area fans this notion that somehow, ‘here it comes,’ and that everybody’s guns are going to be taken away. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the case.” [Emphasis added]

Rep. Stockman threatens Obama impeachment over guns

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) is threatening to file articles of impeachment against President Barack Obama if he moves to change gun regulations through executive order. - Politico

“I will seek to thwart this action by any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles of impeachment,” Stockman said.

In a statement, Stockman didn’t hold back, saying Obama is launching an “attack on the very founding principles of this republic.”

“The President’s actions are an existential threat to this nation,” Stockman said in a statement. “The right of the people to keep and bear arms is what has kept this nation free and secure for over 200 years. The very purpose of the Second Amendment is to stop the government from disallowing people the means to defend themselves against tyranny. Any proposal to abuse executive power and infringe upon gun rights must be repelled with the stiffest legislative force possible.”

...“The President’s actions are not just an attack on the Constitution and a violation of his sworn oath of office – they are a direct attack on Americans that place all of us in danger,” he said. “If the President is allowed to suspend constitutional rights on his own personal whims, our free republic has effectively ceased to exist.”

Obama says Congress must pay its dinner bill. But he’s the guy who ordered the caviar and champagne

Obama gave a press conference today that displayed some of the most controversial features of his governing style. The big issue was raising the debt ceiling. - Tim Stanley/The Telegraph

Whereas the Republicans want to debate spending and then lift the ceiling, Obama wants to lift the ceiling first and debate spending later. “We are not a deadbeat nation” he insisted, and then delivered this interesting analogy:
You don’t go out to dinner and then eat all you want and then leave without paying the check. And if you do, you’re breaking the law. And Congress should think about it the same way that the American people do. Now, if Congress wants to have a debate about, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t go out to dinner next time, maybe we should go to a more modest restaurant,’ that’s fine.
Okay, it’s true that eating dinner and then refusing to pay the bill would be an unethical thing for Congress to do. But Obama’s the guy who ordered all the champagne and caviar – it’s partly his fault that the tally is so high....

The issue here is that the GOP sees the debt ceiling as a fiscal problem, whereas Obama sees it as a political headache. The Republicans acknowledge Obama’s point that lifting the ceiling only pays for past bills and doesn’t commit to future spending – so it's probably best to do it. But the battle over the rise does set the context for decisions made on spending in the new year. Without that fight, the big spenders won’t feel any political pressure to reduce their ambitions. The debt ceiling debates are ugly and unseemly for such a great nation to indulge in – but they at least recognise that a fiscal problem exists....

Obama: Not raising the debt ceiling would be like a dine-and-dash at a restaurant - Doug Powers/Michelle Malkin
“You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college. You prioritise. You make tough choices.” – President Obama, February 2010
*****
President Obama held the final press conference of his first term today. “We need to pay our bills” is the latest craze to justify raising the debt ceiling (try that one on your credit card company when you hit your limit).

Here are a few quotes from a presser that revolved in part around the debt ceiling and gun control, which led to some interesting metaphor placement:
“I’m happy to have that conversation,” Obama said of future deficit-reduction talks. “What I will not do is have that negotiation with a gun at the head of the American people.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S MISSED BUDGET DEADLINES

An Unprecedented Disrespect for the Law - COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET: U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 requires the President to submit his budget request for the upcoming fiscal year no later than the first Monday of February. Earlier this week, the Obama administration announced that for the third time in four years it will not adhere to this legal deadline. The Office of Management and Budget cites “the need to finalize decisions and technical details of the document.” This failure to meet statutory budget obligations has become a pernicious pattern for the President and his party’s leaders. For over 1,000 days, Senate Democrats have failed to pass a budget resolution, ignoring the legal requirement to pass a budget resolution by April 15 of each year.

As House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan recently noted, “The decision to delay the release of his budget again could not come at a more precarious moment for our fiscal and economic future. Rather than tackle these challenges head-on, this President continues to punt, while his party’s leaders in the Senate have simply abandoned responsible budgeting altogether.”

Despite trillion-dollar deficits and a growing urgency for Washington to put its fiscal house in order, President Obama continues to demonstrate an unprecedented disrespect for his legal obligations. A review of the historical record reveals that no administration has so flagrantly ignored its budgetary roles and responsibilities. The House Budget Committee has compiled a chronological review of Presidential budget submissions dating back to 1923. Several key points from the data:
◼ In just one term, President Obama has missed the budget deadline more than any other President.

◼ In the 90 years covering FY1923 through FY 2013, President Obama is the only President to miss the deadline two years in a row. He is the only President who has missed the deadline in three of the four years of a term. And, he holds the record for the longest delay (at 98 days).

◼ All Presidents from Harding through Reagan’s first term met the statutory budget submission deadline in every year. In five of these years, a change in the law was requested and passed to extend the deadline, and the President always met it.

◼ Since the budget process moved the date of submission to the first Monday in February, the incoming President’s first budget submission has been delayed for practical reasons (the President’s inauguration is less than three weeks before the budget submission’s deadline). Yet President Obama’s first budget in his first year set a new record with a 98-day delay for his FY2010 budget.

◼ Since the statutory deadline was extended to the first Monday in February, with the exception of the first budget for a new President, this deadline has only been missed three times: Clinton FY1998; Obama FY2012; and Obama FY 2013.

The President’s flagrant disrespect for budget deadlines extends beyond the late submissions of his annual budget request. The President is required to submit a Midsession Review no later than July 16 each year. The President is required to submit a Financial Report of the U.S. Government no later than December 15. The President is required to submit a plan to shore up Medicare’s finances within 15 days of a funding warning by the Medicare Trustees.

Not once has President Obama adhered to any of these deadlines:
◼ The President’s Midsession Review has never been released by July 16;

◼ The President’s Financial Report of the U.S. Government has never been released by December 15;
◼ The President has not once responded to the Medicare Trigger.
The President’s failures to meet his legal obligations are symptomatic of a failure to meet his more critical moral obligation to the American people by tackling our most pressing fiscal and economic challenges. DETAILS at the link.

White House tells Paul Ryan it won’t meet budget deadline - The Hill

The White House has informed House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that it will miss the legal deadline for sending a budget to Congress.

Acting Budget Director Jeff Zients told Ryan (R-Wis.) in a letter late Friday that the budget will not be delivered by Feb. 4, as required by law.