Saturday, November 30, 2013

Hard Sell:

A Couple Of Good Saturday Reads - Ace Of Spades

The first from Matt Labash over at The Weekly Standard really is a must-read. He followed around the completely "non-partisan" Enroll America group in Florida, who were walking around door-to-door looking to "inform" people about their "choices". Hilarity ensued.

One thing I've noticed, and it's a good thing for those of us that oppose the ACA, is just how deeply this Obamacare failure perception has penetrated the public consciousness....
Going door-to-door for Obamacare - Matt Labash/The Weekly Standard

I’ve come to Florida to go door-to-door with the foot soldiers of Get Covered America, the boots-on-the-ground division of Enroll America, which bills itself as a “nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to maximize the number of uninsured Americans who enroll in health coverage made available by the Affordable Care Act.” These Obamacare evangelists are very serious about the “nonpartisan” nature of their business. Nearly every Enroll America staffer I speak to emphasizes it, often repeatedly....

After all, Enroll America boasts all manner of nonpartisan credentials. Most of its staffers seem to have worked in the nonpartisan Obama presidential campaigns of 2008 or 2012, often both. Its president, Anne Filipic, served as deputy executive director of the nonpartisan Democratic National Committee, and came here straight from the nonpartisan White House Office of Public Engagement. The nonpartisan Obamacare czar, Kathleen Sebelius (whom Filipic also worked for), has admitted putting the arm on companies to make donations to Enroll America, sparking several nonpartisan congressional investigations.

...With my nonpartisan concerns allayed, we’re ready to roll! At the Hollywood public library, I meet up with Get Covered America’s Katie Vicsik and Rhianna Hurt, 2 of 28 Florida staffers (they also have nearly 1,800 volunteers on the ground in the state). They are twentysomething, earnest, clipboard-carrying, and as adorable as speckled pups. They’re the Platonic ideal of Obama campaign staffers (which they both were) from back in the salad days, when the winds of hope’n’change blew across the prairie, and there was still dew on the world.... Learn how it goes, at the link...
Also, check out this Daily Beast article that examines the shifting demographics and leftward sprint in urban politics. Cities are becoming more and more Democrat super-majority controlled, largely because the middle class is getting squeezed out.
The Revolt Against Urban Gentry - Joel Kotkin/Daily Beast
__________________

The War on Human Nature - Victor Davis Hanson/National Review Online

For nations as for individuals, pretending self-interest doesn’t exist is perilous.

America’s Coastal Royalty: The real national divide isn’t between red and blue states. - Victor Davis Hanson/National Review Online

Proud day for Egypt: panel votes on draft constitution

The draft text of Egypt's new constitution was revealed today, five months after the army deposed an Islamist president. - Republican Security Council

The new Constitution must now be approved by a national referendum in December, and that would be followed by parliamentary and presidential elections next year. Early this morning the 50-member constituent assembly voted to approve the draft text article by article.

• It bans all religious political parties including the Muslim Brotherhood.

• All of the constitutional changes added by the Brotherhood have been abolished. The discrimination against women has been removed. The support of terrorist groups has ended and there is no longer any special relationship with Iran.

• All assets of the Brotherhood have been confiscated, and all of its activities are now banned.

• AP quotes one member of the constituent assembly as saying, “The plan is to drain the sources of funding for the Brotherhood, break the joints of the group, and dismantle the podiums from which they deliver their message.”

• The Brotherhood operates 60 schools and 50 lucrative businesses, which, along with members’ dues and donations, finance its activities. At least 10 schools have already been closed.

• The new government has cancelled licences for thousands of pro-Brotherhood preachers, ordered thousands of Brotherhood-operated mosques to close, and is monitoring sermons.

• Another assembly member said "This is the end of political Islam in Egypt."

• Since Morsi's ouster on July 3, there have been at least 253 reported attacks in the Sinai Peninsula, most of which were carried out against Egyptian security forces and assets.

• The Egyptian government has also asked Turkey's ambassador to leave in protest for its support of the Muslim Brotherhood. They accused Turkey of supporting an organization bent on spreading instability.

Former United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali praised the new document. He said Egypt's "road ahead will be difficult. The one year rule of the Muslim Brotherhood was a disaster. It will cost my country five years at least to reconstruct what they demolished.”

He says the Muslim Brotherhood's rule only worked to cripple the North African country.

Egypt's new constitution, according to a draft text completed on Saturday - nearly five months after the army deposed an Islamist president - will bolster the military's hand and ban religious parties. - haaretz
50-member committee bars torture, guarantees freedom of belief as panel adjourns - Ahram Online

Racing to meet a 3 December deadline to prepare a new constitution for the country, the 50-member committee started Saturday making decisions on 246 articles finishing 138 by mid-evening

Article 53: Citizens are equal before the law; they are equal in rights, freedoms and general duties. There should be no discrimination based on religion, faith, sex, ethnicity, race, color, language, disability, social class, political affiliation, geography or any other reason.

Discrimination and incitement to hatred is a crime punished by the law. The state is obliged to take appropriate measures to eliminate all forms of discrimination. The law regulates the forming of an independent commission for this purpose.

Article 64: Freedom of belief is absolute.

A LOOK AT KEY ARTICLES IN EGYPTIAN DRAFT CHARTER - AP

The draft is a milestone in the path toward democratic rule after the stunning ouster of Egypt's elected Islamist president in a July military coup and the suspension of a previous constitution passed under his watch.

Krauthammer: Dems Will Regret Allowing Obama’s ‘Lawlessness’ When GOP Returns to Power

Appearing on Friday night’s On the Record, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer strongly criticized President Barack Obama for his “cavalier attitude” towards the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution. “Democrats will rue the day that they allowed all this,” Krauthammer declared. - Noah Rothman/Mediaite

“I’m talking about how the administration, particularly the president, seems to think that he has the right to change duly passed statutes on his own or to suspend parts of laws on his own,” Krauthammer said when asked to clarify his critique of the Obama administration’s “lawlessness.”

“The Constitution is pretty clear,” he continued, “the Congress passes the laws and the president executes the laws.”

Occupy Oakland goes full KKK






◼ Occupy Oakland Burns Wooden Dollar Sign On Walmart Property via WeaselZippers (note they pulled the image of the burning cross dollar sign down.)

Humboldt County voters are strange political animals.

We linked to this Editorial back on Election Day, but thought several points were worth revisiting:

Especially when it comes to their own backyard. - Times-Standard EDITORIAL from 11/08/2013

The numbers tell the tale: When it comes to national and state elections, Humboldt County voter turnout regularly exceeds statewide turnout.

November 2012, presidential election: California 71.3 percent, Humboldt County -- 72.6 percent.

June 2012, California primary: California 32.4 percent, Humboldt County -- 41.99 percent.

November 2011, Humboldt County consolidated election: Humboldt County -- 22.47 percent.

When it comes time to pick a candidate in a national contest in which California's electoral votes are pretty much a foregone conclusion, or when it's time to put our pinky on the scales of Golden State politics when other, larger communities are piling thumbs and whole limbs atop the works in Sacramento, that's when Humboldt County voters flock to the polls.

When it comes to picking the women and men among us who will direct the course of schooling, water, sewage and firefighting in our own neighborhoods? Crickets. Voters disappear in droves.

The Humboldt County Clerk/ Recorder's Office says that 67,450 of you are eligible to vote in (November's) election. Recent history says most won't.

Any one of you can help change that.


It's food for thought.

The NY times bestseller list, CNN and Jay Leno

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

#1. ◼ THINGS THAT MATTER, by Charles Krauthammer. (Crown Forum.) Three decades’ worth of essays from the conservative columnist.

#2. ◼ KILLING JESUS, by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. (Holt.) The host of "The O'Reilly Factor" recounts the events leading up to Jesus’ execution.

#3 ◼ MIRACLES AND MASSACRES, by Glenn Beck with Kevin Balfe and Hannah Beck. (Threshold Editions/Mercury Radio Arts.) Little-known stories from the American past.

#4. ◼ GEORGE WASHINGTON'S SECRET SIX, by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger. (Sentinel.) The story of the Culper spy ring, which aided the American cause during the Revolution.

#5. ◼ THE BULLY PULPIT, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. (Simon & Schuster.) The relationships between Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the muckraking press.

#9. ◼ GOOD TIDINGS AND GREAT JOY, by Sarah Palin. (Broadside/HarperCollins.) The former vice presidential candidate urges Americans to keep Christ in Christmas....

#14. ◼ DOUBLE DOWN, by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. (Penguin Press.) Insider reporting on the election of 2012 from the authors of “Game Change.” (Was #6)

CHILDREN'S MIDDLE GRADE

#1. ◼ RUSH REVERE AND THE BRAVE PILGRIMS, by Rush Limbaugh. (Simon & Schuster.) A time traveler lands on the Mayflower. (Ages 8 to 12)

CNN and MSNBC Lose Almost Half Their Viewers in One Year - Noel Sheppard/Newsbusters

Jay Leno Crushing David Letterman in Final Late Night Battles - Breitbart



Friday, November 29, 2013

CNN Poll: Chris Christie’s Lead Grows Among Possible 2016 GOP Contenders

According to a new national poll, Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) is still the early frontrunner among possible 2016 Republican presidential candidates. - Andrew Kirell/Mediaite

The same poll also found Hillary Clinton to be the overwhelming frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic nomination...

At the end of the day, the root of President Barack Obama’s mendacity on Obamacare was simple: He didn’t dare tell people how the law would work. He couldn’t tell people how the law would work. Forthrightness was the enemy. It served no useful purpose and could only bring peril, and potentially defeat.

The Bad Faith Presidency - Rich Lowry/National Review Online

Forthrightness was the enemy. It served no useful purpose and could only bring peril, and potentially defeat. It had to be banished. Instead, President Obama made the sale on the basis of dubious blandishments and outright deceptions. If this is the only way to pass your signature initiative — and achieve a decades-long goal of your party — it ought to give you pause.

Report: You betcha Sarah Palin helped John McCain in 2008, has 2016 support base

(A) comprehensive new analysis of the so-called “Palin Effect” finds that in the final analysis, the former Alaska governor helped McCain by attracting more voters to the ticket, crushing a mainstream media view. - Paul Bedard/Washington Examiner

“Palin had a positive effect on McCain,” according to the new Palin analysis in the authoritative Political Research Quarterly.

Digesting mountains of data, two political science professors from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., said their findings showed that the conventional wisdom that independent voters ran from the McCain-Palin ticket was wrong. They found that independent voters had the same reaction to Palin as Republicans, who largely liked her.

ObamaCare website going down for extended repairs at 9 pm tonight

◼ AP

Obama´s goal: Avoid ´Mission Accomplished´ moment - David Nather/Politico

But Democrats on Capitol Hill have their own nightmare scenario, too: The White House gives them nothing to brag about, no evidence that the site is actually better...

After second opinion, ObamaCare website re-do deadline set for Saturday - FOX

President Obama´s healthcare rollout re-do is headed for a crucial test Saturday – and there´s a lot on the line. If the federal healthcare.gov website doesn’t deliver, the president´s credibility, political support and fate of his landmark health care law could be in jeopardy. If the site is able to recover from its disastrous Oct. 1 rollout, it will go a long way is restoring confidence in the program.

Just hours before the self-imposed Nov. 30 deadline, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the website would be down for an extended period overnight Friday for maintenance, until 8am ET Saturday. During that time, the online application and enrollment system will not be available.



Kathleen Sebelius pushes #GetCovered as HealthCare.gov goes dark - Twitchy



It was the Cinderella-at-midnight moment of the Obama presidency—the moment when the gold chariot turned into a pumpkin, the stallions into junkyard dogs, and the liveried carriagemen into mice.

Will Obamacare Bring Down Progressivism? - Jim DeMint/Heritage

The implosion of Obamacare indicts not just the law itself, but the whole edifice of progressivism—a philosophy rooted in the belief that government, supposedly administered by “the best and the brightest,” can run things better than individuals. That idea is now, again, being proven incorrect....

Those on the left of the political spectrum started reviving the term progressivism in earnest about a decade ago, after they had thoroughly discredited the word “liberal.” (Liberal, incidentally, is a perfectly legitimate term rooted in the word liberty. In its original use—its present use on the other side of the Atlantic—it meant a dedication to free markets, exactly the opposite of what it now means here.)

Once it became associated with big government, high taxes, wasteful spending and crippling debt, “liberal” became a liability with voters. So the left adopted an old label—“progressives”—and set about to position themselves as political leaders who would throw off the antiquated ideas of the past and move the country forward. In the meantime, they did an excellent job of redefining conservatives as people who were stuck in the past, backward–looking, and too judgmental about new ideas and lifestyles....

Progressivism turns out to be disastrous for Americans from all walks of life…except those who work for big government, big corporations, big Wall Street banks, and big lobbying firms. ◼ Family structures collapse, education achievement stagnates, ◼ middle-class incomes flatline,government debt explodes, and America’s economic and military strength decline.

All this happens for myriad reasons. Big government becomes a ◼ trough for the well-connected only, while ◼ dependence on government assistance dissolves the fissures of civil society. But progressivism fails especially because, as we have seen with Obama, “the best and the brightest” set up to govern us are theorists removed from reality who don’t know that “insurance is complicated to buy” before they set out to overhaul it for a country of 310 million.

“And So It Begins: New York Sending Out Gun Confiscation Notices”


Which of course can never happen – nobody is going to confiscate your weapons, and registries make us all safer! — so stop your hyperventilatory scare-mongering, you gun-fetishizing nutters, with your ammo hoards, your generators, and your pre-fab bucket food stored in your basement bunker. - See more at: http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=52054#sthash.6doB8xuh.dpuf - Protein Wisdom

And So It Begins: New York Sending Out Gun Confiscation Notices - Robert Farago/The Truth About Guns

New York’s SAFE Act is a bad, bad thing. It requires people to register, sell or transfer (out of state) “assault rifles” and “high capacity” magazines. Many Empire State gun and standard capacity ammunition magazine owners have complied. Many have not. So, at some point, the State’s gonna go get ‘em. People on both sides of the law enforcement divide will die and the s will hit the fan. Meanwhile, there it is: the reason why expanded background checks, indeed all background checks and any type of registration, set the stage for confiscation. And tyranny.

NYC alarms with notice: ‘Immediately surrender your rifle’ - Cheryl K. Chumley/Washington Times

New York City authorities have been sending out notices to residents who own guns that now violate new ammunition capability laws, demanding they relinquish their weapons — and even though the notifications may just be standard police procedure, the text is a shocker.

Proof: Gun Registration Leads To Confiscation - InfoWars

In the wake of New York’s latest gun control law, the New York Police Department is now sending out notices to registered gun owners demanding that they give up their firearms, clear proof that gun registration leads to outright confiscations.

The notice provides gun owners, who possess firearms now prohibited under New York’s unconstitutional SAFE Act, the “options” to either surrender their firearms to the police, remove them from the city limits or otherwise render them inoperable.

The NYPD knew exactly who to send the notices to by using a centralized firearms registry which lists the city’s gun owners and what firearms they have in their possession....

The Crisis of the Obama Cult

Ace nailed it the other day: - The Other McCain
Margaret Carlson: Is the President's Intellect Finally Engaged By the Catastrophe of Obamacare? - Ace Of Spades

...the Liberal Chattering Classes are facing a question now: "Will my reputation and sense of pride survive Obama's incompetence?"

And: "How absurd am I willing to make myself in order to cover up for this arrogant buffoon's incompetence?"

Some people may begin to peel off -- not because they're not in-the-tank partisan shills, mind you, but because they're in-the-tank partisan shills who still have some functioning sense of self-respect left in them.

They are beginning to realize that loving Obama means, in the end, hating yourself. You have to sacrifice everything for him -- your honesty, your integrity, your autonomy. Your reputation, your legacy, your pride.

His incompetence and deceit are at such a level that he will not permit you to support him and retain a shred of self-respect for yourself.

Devotion to Obama requires destruction of the self. Obama is a jealous Messiah, and will not permit you to love anything else -- even yourself....

One more time: there’s an attack on allowing employers to be required to provide this insurance. To the left, there is no freedom without government coercion. This is either incoherent or Orwellian, or both. But that’s the argument the left is running with: they want you to be forced to provide the funding for even their most private activities; only then will you be truly free.

ObamaCare, Religious Liberty, and a Crucial Supreme Court Showdown - Seth Mandel/Commentary Magazine

The fact that the Supreme Court will hear a religious freedom-based challenge to the ObamaCare contraception mandate is the kind of story that possesses significance likely beyond any volume of coverage it will receive. Indeed, while liberal activists will repeatedly try to cast this in the mold of the fictional “war on women,” their own arguments reveal just how far-reaching a definitive ruling on this would be for American religious and political practice.

Thus it is instructive to listen to how the left frames the debate.

Cancer Patient Who Spoke Out Against ObamaCare Now Being Audited

Bill Elliot was a cancer patient who lost his insurance due to ObamaCare and couldn’t pay the expensive new premiums. He was talking about paying the ObamaCare fine, going without health insurance and “letting nature take its course.” - Daniel Greenfield/Front Page



He went on FOX News where his story was picked up by C. Steven Tucker, a health insurance broker who helped him keep his insurance.

Now suddenly Bill Elliot is being audited for 2009 with an interview only scheduled in April 2014. Assuming he lives that long. That might be a coincidence, but Tucker is being audited back to 2003.

That’s a rather strange coincidence.

USA Today Puts Foot Down on White House Propaganda - Refuses to Publish 'Official' Photos of Obama

One of the nation’s top newspapers by circulation has finally had enough of the Obama administration’s gladhandling of newspaper reporters as if they are nothing more than extensions of its propaganda team. - Kyle Becker/IJ Review

Nice to see media oulets showing their independence just in time for the 2012 elections — oh wait, those are already behind us. Now where did I put my binder full of Big Birds?

USA Today joins media boycott of White House's official photos - The Guardian

A mini-revolt by news organisations against White House press restrictions gathered momentum Monday as USA Today joined other media shops to have declared a boycott on officially issued photographs.

“We do not publish, either in print or online, handout photos originating from the White House press office, except in very extraordinary circumstances,” deputy director Andrew Scott said in a memo to employees. “The functions of the president at the White House are fundamentally public in nature, and should be documented for the public by independent news organizations, not solely by the White House press office.”

The memo followed the submission to the White House last Thursday of a letter signed by 38 US media organisations to protest limits on photographers' access.

Black Friday Spending Spree (in Washington)

American shoppers aren’t the only ones getting ready to spend big this holiday season.

In Washington, members of the budget conference committee are considering several options that could increase spending by up to an additional $100 billion.

What’s standing in their way is sequestration: the automatic spending cut mechanism President Obama signed into law with the Budget Control Act (BCA). Sequestration enforces spending caps on the discretionary budget, which includes those domestic programs that brought you the infamous IRS Star Trek parody video and the $325,000 RoboSquirrel....

Instead of spending even more of taxpayers’ money, lawmakers should address future debt by controlling the growth in entitlement spending, sticking to the Budget Control Act, and enforcing lower levels of spending. If the committee fails to begin solving America’s entitlement problem, this means spending and debt will continue to go up and harm the opportunities of all Americans.

The credit card has been maxed out too many times already. This is the season to curb Washington’s spending spree.

Obama's cave-in to Iran may be worse than we knew

While Americans enjoyed their day of thanks and feasting yesterday, news emerged from the Arab world about a shocking dimension of the cave-in to Iran at Geneva. If true, this report from Al-Arabiya is highly disturbing: - Thomas Lifson/American Thinker
Iran and the United States are to establish a joint chamber of commerce within a month, with direct flights also planned, an Iranian official said Wednesday in a newspaper report.

"Iran-U.S. chamber of commerce will be launched in less than one month," Abolfazl Hejazi, a member of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, told the English-language Iran Daily.

In the wake of a historic accord on Sunday between Tehran and major powers on Iran's controversial nuclear program, Hejazi also said his country was ready to start direct flights to the United States.
Why on earth would we want direct flights from Iran to the United States? Iran would control the cargo hold on such flights, which would be able to enter American airspace. Does anyone think the Itanians are so respectful of human life that they would not martyr a planeload of passengers (sending the Muslims to heaven in their view) for the pleasure of detonating a nuke a few thousand feet above New York City?

Obamacare headed for U.S. Supreme Court again



The diagnosis is getting worse for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – Obamacare. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would hear Hobby Lobby Stores v. Sebelius and Conestoga Wood Corp. v. Sebelius. Both cases challenge Obamacare’s mandate that employers pay for health insurance plans that give employees coverage for contraceptives. The owners of these businesses object for religious reasons. - Pacific Legal Foundation

...But that is just the tip of the iceberg ahead for Obamacare. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will soon be hearing arguments in ◼ Coons v. Geithner, a case challenging IPAB – the unelected board that under Obamacare has authority to unilaterally make healthcare law without any checks or balances. And PLF’s own lawsuit, ◼ Sissel v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, could end Obamacare completely. PLF argues that the passage of Obamacare violated the Constitution’s Origination Clause. In other words, if Obamacare is a tax ◼ (as the Supreme Court said last year), then it is an ◼ unconstitutional tax.

In the meantime, ◼ public support for Obamacare ◼ is low, and disgust over glitchy websites and canceled policies high. Hopefully, through either the legislature or the courts, the constitution will ultimately triumph and Obamacare will finally kick the bucket.

The Origination Clause III: ObamaCare´s a Good Amendment to Die Hard - Daniel Smyth/American Thinker

PROFESSOR: OBAMA SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO RUN FOR A THIRD TERM SO SENATE WILL "FEAR HIM"

In The Washington Post, Jonathan Zimmerman, a history professor from NYU, has written an article claiming that all of America’s problems would be solved–GET THIS–if only we would allow Barack Obama to run for a third term! - The College Fix
End presidential term limits - Jonathan Zimmerman/Washington Post
WaPo Op-Ed Urges Letting Obama Run for a Third Term so Senate Will “Fear Him” - Daniel Greenfield/Front Page

Lack of Doctors May Worsen as Millions Join Medicaid Rolls

(I)n just five weeks, millions of additional Americans will be covered by (Medicaid), many of them older people with an array of health problems. - via @nytimes

...In California, with the nation’s largest Medicaid population, many doctors say they are already overwhelmed and are unable to take on more low-income patients....

“There could easily be 10,000 patients looking for us, and we’re just not going to be able to serve them,” said Dr. Flores, who is also the chairman of the family medicine department at White Memorial Medical Center in Los Angeles.

California officials say they are confident that access will not be an issue. But the state is expecting to add as many as two million people to its Medicaid rolls over the next two years — far more than any other state. They will be joining more than seven million people who are already in the program here. One million of the newly eligible will probably be enrolled by July 2014, said Mari Cantwell, an official with the state’s Department of Health Care Services.

On top of that, only about 57 percent of doctors in California accept new Medicaid patients, according to a study published last year in the journal Health Affairs



Medicaid Fraud: Obamacare promise of free quality healthcare. Millions who lose their health plans and are enticed or forced onto Medicaid will find out they also have lost quality health care. - William A. Jacobson/Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

It may be the biggest Obamacare lie of all.

Not that you can keep your health care plan if you like your plan.

Not that you can keep your doctor if you like your doctor.

Not all of the phony cost estimates and supposed efficiencies.

The biggest lie of all is that 15-30 million additional people who will be enticed or shoved onto Medicaid will receive quality health care.

In reality, they will receive health care “insurance,” but there will be few doctors willing to see them because the reimbursement rates are so low.

Thanks, Obama! Here’s what happened when Obamacare came up at Thanksgiving dinners

@jimgeraghty So... how did everyone's Obamacare discussions go? - Twitchy









‘I’m dying!’ 8-year-old kid scores on Thanksgiving with sidesplitting Obamacare hashtag - Twitchy



FAIL: Woman gets laughed at after bringing up Obamacare at Thanksgiving… - The Right Scoop

56 women killed in 2013 for giving birth to girls

Fifty-six women have been killed in Pakistan this year for giving birth to a girl rather than a boy, human rights activist IA Rehman said at a symposium here on Monday. - Hassan Naqvi/Express Tribune [Pakistan]

“A country where mothers are killed for giving birth to baby girls can’t be called an ethical society,” Rehman said at the symposium, titled ‘Youth emerging as a force for positive change’, meant to mark the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women. The event was arranged by the All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA).

From January 2012 to September 2013, there were also 90 acid attacks on women, 72 cases of burning caused by other means, 491 cases of domestic violence, 344 cases of gang rape and 835 cases of violence, he said. “Young girls are being raped in Pakistan and all we do is shout rather that do anything practical,” he said.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

‘As God is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly’



‘As God is My Witness, I Thought Obamacare Could Fly’ - Ed Driscoll/PJMedia

Leave this turkey out of your dinner.

The Obama Who Stole Thanksgiving - Daniel Greenfield/FrontPage

Because there’s nothing that says “family time” like teaching people to hijack family dinners to become used health care salesmen; BarackObama.com offers sales tips like “Make it memorable,” “Be Persistent, but keep it positive” and “Find a quiet place.” That last tip will prevent other family members from hearing their screams of horror at the size of their new ObamaCare premiums and deductibles....

Doing its best to make ObamaCare seem like a creepy cult, Obama supporters are instructed to badger family members with cries of “Have you thought about signing up,” “Would you like to sign up now,” “When do you plan on signing up” and “Have you signed up yet.”

The only thing missing is; “If you don’t sign up for ObamaCare; I won’t love you anymore.”

But it’s not just Organizing for America, the rebirth of Obama’s 2012 campaign as a mutated Super PAC, that is working on ruining your Thanksgiving. MSNBC, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post and the Washington Post have also gotten into the Thanksgiving Knockout Game....

The Los Angeles Times offers the only honestly dishonest liberal debating guide with debate tips like “Flatter your opponent,” “Argue by anecdote” and “Call out the other person for arguing by anecdote.”

And if any family members get sick of your Los Angeles Times approved plan to hijack Thanksgiving by coming to a prepared debate with an assistant to look up things for you on a smartphone while you anecdotally compare Republicans to Hitler; the Los Angeles Times also offers tips for handling “annoying peacekeepers” who say things like “Why don’t we just try to have a nice time on Thanksgiving?”

How To Pick a Fight With Your Relatives This Thanksgiving - Slate
So here are some good rules to follow to make sure your Thanksgiving descends into a screaming match that mortifies your loved ones and makes you feel superior to all your troglodyte cousins.
Helpful Tips On Picking A Fight With Your Republican Relatives During Thanksgiving Dinner - IJ Review
A word to the wise (conservative): Whatever you do, never – and I mean never - let them anger you. Even If they do, don’t show it. Your best defense is to simply smile. Better yet, agree with them – tongue-in-cheek. This will irritate them to no end. Happy Thanksgiving. And good luck.


Mayor Bloomberg's gun-control group is pushing table placemats to push a message about the need for stricter gun-control laws.... - HotAir

As In Every Year Past, Obama's Elder Minions Urge Lesser Minions to Fight With Their Families At Thanksgiving Dinners - Ace Of Spades
It truly is insidious, I think, this devotion to cause such that one would seriously -- earnestly! -- urge others to fight with family in order to advance a political goal.

It's not just about the casual denigration of the family in favor of the Real Family, which is of course like-minded socialists in the Progressive Cult. It is that, but it's not just that.
Michelle Obama's 14 Obamacare talking points for Thanksgiving dinner - Paul Bedard/Washington Examiner

Because there’s no reason every Thanksgiving table in America can’t double as a re-education camp. - Doug Powers/Michelle Malkin


Liberals have a different view of Thanksgiving - Betsy's Page
What kind of view of the family do liberals have that they are urging their followers to take advantage of Thanksgiving get-togethers to propagandize their family with "the talk." When I was growing up, "the talk" was not something that happened at the dinner table and it didn't concern health insurance. It certainly didn't include people downloading talking points from the President's activism website to have that "talk." But times change.

The DCCC also has recommendations for to say for that "crazy Tea Party Relative (or two) who just loves bashing President Obama" that "we all have." My experience is that liberals are much more likely to bring up their political opinions and just assume that everyone agrees with them....
Now, as John E at Ace points out, the administration and their supporters are coordinating discussions about Obamacare. John E. Points to similar posts at the Huffington Post, Slate, and the Washington Post about how to counter criticisms they might hear about Obamacare from their "crazy uncle." And they're not the only liberals who see Thanksgiving as a political opportunity to sway minds. ◼ Mayor Bloomberg's gun-control group is pushing table placemats to push a message about the need for stricter gun-control laws....

This Thanksgiving Message Tweeted by Barack Obama is a Real Turkey - IJ REVIEW





Get stuffed: Dems pimp ‘guide to talking politics with your Republican uncle’ - Twitchy
You know, you’ve gotta hand it to the Dems. Just when you thought they’d out-jackassed themselves with their ridiculous guides to peddling Obamacare at the Thanksgiving table, they found a sure-fire way to piss off your family even more: Explain to your Republican relatives “who spend way too much time listening to Rush Limbaugh” that they’re also ignorant and wrong about economics, immigration, and climate change!






OBAMA'S ORWELLIAN THANKSGIVING - Joel Pollak//Breitbart

The idea that politics must be brought into every family discussion and every personal relationship has been a hallmark of Obama’s style since the 2008 campaign, when he told his supporters to confront their neighbors, to get “in their face.” During the debate over Obamacare in 2009-10, the White House did the same--and provided an email address, flag@whitehouse.gov, to which people could report “lies” among their friends.

One of those “lies” was that people could lose their insurance coverage due to the new law--a “lie” that has since proven true for millions of Americans. Clearly, Obama’s talking points have a short shelf life. Yet he remains undeterred, as are many of his followers, in imposing politics on intimacy. In 2009, supporters of Obamacare even encouraged each other to withhold sex from partners who did not support passage of the troubled law.....

It is worth remembering that Thanksgiving was founded as a celebration of freedom by those who had escaped government repression. They recognized that the bounty of the New World went hand-in-hand with faith and liberty--something our present would-be masters have forgotten.
__________________

NEED HELP COUNTERING THE PROPAGANDA?

Heritage releases witty Thanksgiving cards poking fun at Obamacare, ‘Let’s Move’ - Red Alert Politics
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank , has released a set of six Thanksgiving cards that poke fun at the Affordable Care Act and Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative that promotes healthy eating and exercise. The cards are a cheeky way to “express exactly what we can all be thankful for this year,” according to the website.
See the cards here.


The Thanksgiving guide to making conservative arguments liberals can understand - Timothy P. Carney/Washington Examiner @TPCarney

Ten Obamacare Talking Points To Ruin Your Thanksgiving - Ben Domenech/The Federalist

...now that these insufferable partisans in the administration have distributed their talkers, you’re a lot more likely to hear any one of these ten statements at tomorrow’s dinner, to which I am now obligated to offer a prebuttal. And yes, Mr. President, I hate you for making me write this.

1) Healthcare.gov may suck, but state exchanges are performing really well.
No, most of them aren’t.;;;
2) The website’s problem is demand and once the front-end problems are fixed, it’ll work great.
No, it’s not – in fact, the website couldn’t even handle 500 visitors without problems according to internal documents from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, released in hearings last week (the all-caps emails are the best ones)....
3) Only a few young and healthy people will pay more – for most people, they will keep their plans or have something better.
No, actually, premiums are going up just about everywhere, and for most people.
MORE, at the link.
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RECENT OBAMACARE HEADLINES:
Survey finds doctors rebelling against Obamacare, famous hospitals declining to join. - Washington Examiner
Almost 80 million with employer health care plans could have coverage canceled, experts predict - Jim Angle/FOX
More Lies and Propaganda: ‘Non-partisan’ group paid $1 million to produce positive Obamacare stories - CAPITOL CITY PROJECT
RIGGING THE FUTURE: Obamacare Creates 50 New State Databases With No Function Beyond Gathering Potential Voter Information, Real or Fraudulent - David Steinberg/PJMedia
Why voters are finished believing Obama's health care promise - Byron York/Washington Examiner
Panic: Democrats Sweating Bullets Over Saturday's Obamacare Deadline - Guy Benson/Townhall
White House: Website won’t be fixed by December 1 - HotAir
Two More Reasons Why ‘Obamacare Delenda Est!’ (Must be Destroyed) - Tom Blumer/PJMedia
Mark Halperin: Obamacare Contains "Death Panels" - Real Clear Politics
Time Editor: Obama Also Lied About Death Panels 'Built' Into Obamacare - But We Do Need to Do Some of That - IJ Review

Just in case, the Abel Maldonado campaign guide to help YOU cope with few remaining relatives still supporting Jerry Brown: For example, if they try to sell you on the idea that Obamacare may be a disaster in other places, but it's really working great in California: NO, Obamacare is a disaster, including in California. More than one million Californians who get their health insurance by purchasing an individual policy have had their health insurance cancelled. Meanwhile, only about 80,000 people have signed up for insurance through the state health exchange, Covered California. Rates are higher, and we have fewer choices. Covered California thew a sign up party at the Sacramento Convention Center, but only 10 people signed up. ...MUCH MORE AT THE LINK....

Though the best advice of all may be to avoid politics at the family gathering.

GIVING THANKS FOR AMERICA

As we gather with loved ones to celebrate Thanksgiving, let us give thanks for something we all share -- that we are blessed to be American. - Callista Gingrich/Breitbart

‘Powerful reminder’: Ted Cruz flashes back to Ronald Reagan’s 1985 Thanksgiving address [video] - Twitchy, Who Said What on Twitter



The Borg Vs. The People - PJMedia

The American Declaration of Independence is an intellectual and moral challenge to excessive collectivization, an eternal declaration of war “against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

The Light of Chanukah


A candle is a brief flare of light. A wick dipped in oil burns and then goes out again. The light of Chanukah appears to follow the same narrative. Briefly there is light and warmth and then darkness again. - Sultan Knish

(T)hat old light is still the light of possibilities. It burns to remind us of the extraordinary things that our ancestors did and of the extraordinary assistance that they received. We cannot always expect oil to burn for eight days, just as we cannot always expect the bullet to miss or the rocket to fall short. And yet even in those moments of darkness the reminder of the flame is with us for no darkness lasts forever and no exile, whether of the body of the spirit, endures. Sooner or later the spark flares to life again and the oil burns again. Sooner or later the light returns.

It is the miracle that we commemorate because it is a reminder of possibilities. Each time we light a candle or dip a wick in oil, we release a flare of light from the darkness comes to remind us of what was, is and can still be.

Chanukah, the eight-day Festival of Lights, starts this year on Wednesday evening, the only time it has ever just about coincided with Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgivukkah


Unless you’ve been living on the Jewish equivalent of a desert island, by now you know that Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah fall on the same day this year: the result has become popularly known as the once-in-a-lifetime, heavily-hyped holiday of Thanksgivukkah. - haaretz

Latkes With Cranberry Sauce Make for Perfect Holiday

This year’s confluence is a once-in-about-2,000-lifetimes experience. Hanukkah and Thanksgiving on the same day last happened in 1861, except that Thanksgiving wasn’t established until 1868! And the next time the first day of Hanukkah will happen on Thanksgiving — Thursday, November 28 — will be in the year 79,811. Who can plan that far in advance? So let’s enjoy this solar and lunar overlap and celebrate all that Hanukkah and Thanksgiving have in common. Religiously, there is a direct line connecting Thanksgiving, Sukkot and Hanukkah. Here’s how it works.

American Thanksgiving had a close affinity to biblical Sukkot. Both holidays included the theme of giving thanks for a bountiful harvest. It’s likely that the pilgrims who linked their migration and experience with the ancient Israelites learned to thank God for their harvest from the stories they read in what they called the Old Testament.

And Sukkot, in turn, was very much linked to Hanukkah....

This year, Thanksgiving + Hanukkah equals something very rare: Thanksgivukkah

KUWAITI NEWSPAPER: OBAMA NEGOTIATING WITH HEZBOLLAH TERRORISTS

The Obama administration has entered secret talks with the Hezbollah terrorist group, mediated by Great Britain, according to a report in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai, as relayed by the Jerusalem Post Wednesday. - Joel Pollak//Breitbart

The State Department lists Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.

ADS THANKING CRUZ FOR FIGHTING OBAMACARE TO RUN DURING THANKSGIVING NFL GAMES



The Conservative Campaign Committee made the $50,000 ad buy for the following commercial. It says one man stepped forward to try to stop Obamacare before Americans got hurt by it even though critics tried to "silence" and "smear" Cruz. The ad thanks Cruz of withstanding the criticism and sticking up for the American people. - BREITBART

Covered CA throws a party – only 10 sign up


This week California’s Obamacare health insurance exchange, Covered California, rented the Sacramento Convention Center, and opened its doors to the public for a sign-up party, complete with balloons and press. - Kay Grimes/Cal WatchDog...

Even with 300 Covered California “assisters,” by the end of the day only 10 people completed applications, the Sacramento Bee reported.

CalWatchdog.com reader John Thomas Flynn told me he emailed Sacramento Bee reporter Richard Chang with questions, after the enrollment celebration, and after he read Chang’s story, “Health care sign-ups proceeding, at least in California.”

“I was told that they need 24 hours to approve the applications,” Chang wrote back to Flynn, in an email forwarded to me. “Therefore, I reported it as 10 enrollments completed. They were completed, but we don’t know whether they’ve been approved.”

(National radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt discussed Covered California on his show this week: CoveredCa.com’s Bogus Numbers and Flimflam Job)

“The biggest con of all seems to be running out of California, where the huge flaws in the ‘CoveredCA.com’ scheme are getting easier and easier to understand as a fraud upon the people of the Golden State, even as the Los Angeles Times and other MSM outlets flee the facts.”

The Los Angeles Times story he was referred to was headlined, “Healthcare plan enrollment surges in some states after rocky rollout.” It claimed, “A number of states that use their own systems, including California, are on track to hit enrollment targets for 2014 because of a sharp increase in November, according to state officials.”

The Times article is short on details, and is mum on projected or current enrollments. It ignores the more than one million Californians who have received cancellation notices of their current health insurance plans.

The Health-Care Spoiler in California’s Rosy Budget

Despite a 30 percent increase in the top income tax rate, higher sales taxes and fees, and greater total revenue, the state is spending less on education, transportation, courts, welfare and parks than it was six years ago. The reason: State spending on health care, employee compensation and benefits, interest, and prisons is greater than it was six years ago. - Bloomberg

The largest spending growth is in Medi-Cal, which is California’s version of Medicaid. The program is the state’s second-largest and fastest-rising expenditure, and accounts for most of the Department of Health Care Services’ outlays, which grew 65 percent over the six-year period, to $24 billion a year, from $14 billion. (See chart.)


Worse, the increase in Medi-Cal costs occurred before implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The law is expected to cost the state budget an additional $2 billion to $4 billion in health-care spending a year, according to the Rand Corp. That means even less money for California’s colleges and universities, parks, courts, transportation, environment, and welfare, and even more pressure for fee and tax increases.

...Politicians love to make promises, but they don’t like to tell citizens about the costs of those promises or to challenge powerful lobbies funded in part by expenditures approved by those politicians. To protect its public services and residents, California’s leaders will sooner rather than later have to face down the elephant in the budget, Medi-Cal.

Survey finds doctors rebelling against Obamacare, famous hospitals declining to join

Obamacare applicants across the country are finding their premiums are tripling, their favorite doctors aren't available, the physicians they can see are often far away and many prestigious hospitals offering specialized care are off-limits to them, according to a Washington Examiner survey of health insurance agents and brokers across the country. - Washington Examiner

In parts of California, for example, low reimbursement rates have resulted in a doctor rebellion, as nearly seven out of 10 doctors refuse to participate in the exchanges.

SF Protesters to Obama: Please Be a Dictator!

One media member (a bored cameraman with nothing to film), and one local resident out walking her dog and curious why the street was blocked off. Grand total: two. And this was about half an hour before the event was set to begin, so the area should have been at its most crowded.

...even with the small turnout, there was a theme amongst Obama’s protesters/supporters (supportesters?): They didn’t want him to change his political agenda — instead, they demanded that he assume dictatorial powers so that he could finally implement the radical plans with which they already agree. - Zombie/PJMedia

The message of the day was: Stop dilly-dallying around, Mr. President: Ignore the Constitution and just make The Revolution happen, as you promised!

That message would be disturbing enough all on its own, but it becomes much more disturbing when you suspect (as I do) that many of these pro-totalitarian protesters were astroturfed. In other words: Is the White House scripting/encouraging/guiding protesters on the left to beg him to become a dictator? So that later, he can explain, “I had no choice — the people demanded it!”

...Innocent Theory #1 is that Obama is essentially announcing to his base via these symbolic heckling exchanges that he no longer has the political will to issue as many power-grabbing executive orders as he’s done up til now, and that The Revolution has been put back on hold. “Ram through the progressive wish list with brazen executive orders? Why, I couldn’t do that (any more, at least) — it’d be unconstitutional!” Theory #1, if true, would certainly be in response to plummeting poll numbers and the sobering reality that the Republicans are now almost certain to maintain control of the House of Representatives in 2014, meaning Obama is conceding that he has been effectively stymied, and is thus warning his supporters not to get their hopes up.

Sinister Theory #2 is that Obama is staging these repeated calls for him to assume dictatorial powers as a way to later justify his actions when he amps up and redoubles his unconstitutional executive orders. “I wanted to be a passive and humble president, I really did — but the public demanded that I seize power, so I had to obey the people!” Theory #2, if true, would be based on the fact that Obama is a lame duck president and thus immune from any need to remain “electable”: He could basically do whatever he wanted for the next three years, however extreme, and “get away with it” since he never has to run for office again and Congress obviously will never impeach him at this stage of the game.

To conservatives prone to fearing the worst from Obama I ask: Do you think Theory #1 is correct, or Theory #2?

To progressives calling on Obama to rule via executive order I ask: What’s more important — preserving our system of government, or winning political victories at any cost?

That’s the real dividing line in American politics today.


Politifact Fact Checks Obama Heckler’s ‘Mostly False’ Rant - Noah Rothman/Mediaite

On Monday, President Barack Obama’s speech before a crowd of supporters in San Francisco was interrupted when a heckler erupted with demands that the president halt deportations of illegal immigrants via executive order. Politifact took on the heckler’s claims on Tuesday with a thorough audit of his statements.

◼ UPDATE: Networks Hype 'Interesting' Moment With Liberal 'Heckler'; Obama Handled It 'Well' - SCOTT WHITLOCK/NEWSBUSTERS

It was only on the previous evening's Nightly News that Brian Williams revealed, "The White House confirmed [the hecklers] were invited guests, part of an advocacy group at the event."

Almost 80 million with employer health care plans could have coverage canceled, experts predict

Their losses would be in addition to the millions who found their individual coverage cancelled for the same reason. Stan Veuger of the American Enterprise Institute said that in addition to the individual cancellations, "at least half the people on employer plans would by 2014 start losing plans as well." - Jim Angle/FOX
It is possible to march carrying a drumstick in one hand and a torch in the other. - Discussion at Lucianne
Obamacare's Looming Landmine - Lewis Dovland/American Thinker
Now THIS is depressing. - Discussion at Lucianne

We've all heard the "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor" statements -- statements that now are being admitted to even by the administration as knowingly false when first made. We all know about the much higher premiums and deductibles faced by individuals, due in large part by the coverage mandated by the law.

What is being overlooked is the new and higher deductibles and total annual out-of-pocket expenditures, especially in the Bronze and Silver plans. The amount of these greatly exceeds the ability of most individuals and families to pay, thus providing the real possibility of personal bankruptcies due to medical bills and high losses for providers who cannot collect....

So what will happen? The family, being responsible citizens, will initially try to pay the bills, but that will soon prove impossible. They will ultimately default. And in any case, they will most likely end any college planning or retirement savings they were working toward.

But -- and this is the big but -- the entity chasing them for the money is not the government. Rather, it is the provider -- the doctor, hospital, lab, radiologist, etc. This permits the government to stand on the sidelines and shrug at the dastardly situation that government itself caused in the first place.

Once enough patients face this crisis, the provider will be painted as the devil, hurting all these working Americans and their finances. First there will be restrictions on how much the provider can ultimately collect. Eventually, providers will be eating a large portion of any of the money they don't collect at the point of service.

The government will neatly sidestep the mess they've set up on purpose, will be able to demonize the providers (who end up not getting paid), and can step in to "save the day." And saving the day means taking over the now-bankrupt assets of the provider side of the health care delivery system. Bingo: a full single-payer and provider system, under government control, without even having to fire a shot.

This is a main reason why the PPACA law is so bad. It is health insurance reform, not health industry reform. It does nothing to fix the cost problems we have in the delivery of health care. It addresses a nonexistent problem (lack of insurance) instead of the real problem (making health care affordable for all). All planned with an eye to wrecking the system from the bottom up.

The Front Man - Kevin D. Williamson/National Review Online

In an important sense, the American people have no political say in the health-care law, for example, because Congress did not pass a law reforming the health-care system; instead, Congress passed a law empowering the Obama administration, through its political appointees and unelected time-servers, to create a new national health-care regime.

It's Official: Obama Knew He'd Ruin Our Health Care - Rush

More Lies and Propaganda: ‘Non-partisan’ group paid $1 million to produce positive Obamacare stories

With the roll out of Obamacare being as disastrous as possible for the Obama administration, one group was given a $1 million grant to help lead a rebranding effort with hopes of salvaging the law in the eyes of the American people.

Families USA (FUSA) — an organization that describes itself as a “national nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans” — was given a $1.1 million grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on October 4, 2013, to gather “success stories” of Americans dealing with Obamacare and distribute them to the media who often refer to them as an “independent” group. This is part of a greater upcoming effort to bolster the perception of the lowly health care law....

However, the organization is a far cry from “non-partisan” and is extremely close to the Obama Administration and Enroll America – the group leading the efforts to sign people up for Obamacare.

Philippe Villers, the president of Families USA, serves as the Secretary and Treasurer of Board of a little-known group called the Herndon Alliance. The Herndon Alliance originated in Herndon, VA in 2005 and produced research the left used to sell the overhaul of the United States health care system and counteract opposition as the president was making a push for Obamacare. As Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon noted, they are credited with crafting President Obama’s, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it” message, and are even backed with money from George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

In fact, the grants given by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation show Families USA and Enroll America are in the exact same office building, in the exact same suite....

Throughout 2011, the group was cited numerous times by mainstream news outlets as an unbiased source in showing immediate “positive signs’ emerging from the law without reference to their liberal bend.

For example, a report from CBS News hyped Medicaid and Medicare sob stories, while calling them “an advocacy group for health care consumers.” They were used again by CBS to play up Obamacare’s “early success” while referring to Ron Pollack as a “patients rights advocate” with no mention of his liberal agenda.


Now, they will try once again to do damage control for the White House and Democrats.

USA Today joins boycott of White House propaganda

Newsroom Protests Against White House Spread - Washington Free Beacon

USA Today Deputy Director of Multimedia Andrew Scott said in a memo to staff the publication will not use “handout photos originating from the White House Press Office, except in very extraordinary circumstances.”

USA Today is now one of more than 35 news agencies refusing to use White House photography.

Last Thursday, a coalition of major news organizations including the Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, and CNN protested their photojournalists being locked out of public events in a letter to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

...The report, written by former Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr., said the White House has harnessed in-house media to “dispense to the public large amounts of favorable information and images generated by [Obama’s] administration, while limiting its exposure to probing by the press.”

The Times’ David Sanger told Downie the Obama administration is the “most closed, control-freak administration” he has ever covered.

“He’s the least transparent of the seven presidents I’ve covered in terms of how he does his daily business,” ABC News White House correspondent Ann Compton told Downie.

Other reporters described the Obama administration’s “across the board hostility” to press, overblown reactions to stories perceived as negative, and an overwhelming need to control its message.

President Nixon’s lawlessness was sneaky, and he had the decency to be ashamed of it. President Obama’s lawlessness is as bland and bloodless as the man himself, and practiced openly, as though it were a virtue.

The Front Man - Kevin D. Williamson/National Review Online

Monday's MOST READ: We kinda knew it would be Kevin Williamson's "The Front Man" by several thousand clicks. - Discussion at Lucianne

"Barack Obama’s administration is unmoored from the institutions that have long kept the imperial tendencies of the American presidency in check. That is partly the fault of Congress, which has punted too many of its legislative responsibilities to the president’s army of faceless regulators, but it is in no small part the result of an intentional strategy on the part of the administration." It is not "partly the fault of the Congress" -- it has been done in collusion with the Democrats who control Congress...first when they controlled both Chambers and now with Senator Reid, who is all too happy to hand over power to create an expansive administrative state. It is not as if Congress miscalculated and mistakenly gave up powers. HE.IS.THEIR.FRONT.MAN. After all, he came out of the legislative, not executive branch...

2016 Obama's America movie predictions now a REALITY.


When I directed 2016: Obama's America over a year ago, I prayed that I would be wrong. The damage that I predicted Obama would do to our country could never be worth an "I told you so." - ◼ Dinesh D'Souza

Unfortunately, I wasn't wrong. Wielding a weaponized national debt and a disdain for our standing in the world, President Obama draws us nearer and nearer to the dystopia that I warned against in 2016.

Because of this rapid decline, I created a special, eight-minute update to 2016 that you need to see. This exclusive video just came out, and you can ◼ click here to view it right now.

The Front Man - Kevin D. Williamson/National Review Online

...The real import of Barack Obama’s political career will be felt long after he leaves office, in the form of a permanently expanded state that is more assertive of its own interests and more ruthless in punishing its enemies. At times, he has advanced this project abetted by congressional Democrats, as with the health-care law’s investiture of extraordinary powers in the executive bureaucracy, but he also has advanced it without legislative assistance — and, more troubling still, in plain violation of the law. President Obama and his admirers choose to call this “pragmatism,” but what it is is a mild expression of totalitarianism, under which the interests of the country are conflated with those of the president’s administration and his party. Barack Obama is the first president of the democracy that John Adams warned us about.

“Democracy never lasts long,” Adams famously said. “It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”...

IRAN REJECTS 'INVALID' NUKE DETAILS

Iran: White House Lying About Details of Nuke Deal, Iranian officials say White House fact sheet is ‘invalid’ - Washington Free Beacon

...The White House released a multi-page fact sheet containing details of the draft agreement shortly after the deal was announced.

However, Iranian foreign ministry official on Tuesday rejected the White House’s version of the deal as “invalid” and accused Washington of releasing a factually inaccurate primer that misleads the American public.

“What has been released by the website of the White House as a fact sheet is a one-sided interpretation of the agreed text in Geneva and some of the explanations and words in the sheet contradict the text of the Joint Plan of Action, and this fact sheet has unfortunately been translated and released in the name of the Geneva agreement by certain media, which is not true,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham told the Iranian press on Tuesday.

Afkham and officials said that the White House has “modified” key details of the deal and released their own version of the agreement in the fact sheet....

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

ALEC BALDWIN BLASTS BASHIR, MSNBC'S DOUBLE STANDARDS OVER HATE-FILLED REMARKS

On Tuesday, hours after he was reportedly fired from MSNBC for an off-set anti-gay rant, Alec Baldwin lashed out at the network for terminating him while not disciplining Martin Bashir, who suggested on air that someone should defecate and urinate in former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's mouth.

Baldwin's remarks were made off-the-cuff, while Bashir's were scripted and produced.
In an interview with Gothamist, Baldwin exclaimed, "Martin Bashir's on the air, and he made his comment on the air!"

Baldwin then said he disputed the "half the comment I made... if I called him 'c*cksucking maggot' or a 'c*cksucking motherf*cker'... 'fa*got' is not the word that came out of my mouth."

Tim Donnelly states his case for governor in Claremont

“This is going to be an epic showdown between socialism and freedom. If you believe in the free enterprise system and you want to be left alone by the government, Tim Donnelly.” - Wes Woods/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

He added he was for people who “believe in the constitution, and constitutional civil rights, like the right of self-defense. There is nobody else who will be a stauncher supporter on those beliefs. If you’re tired of subsidizing illegals, giving them free stuff, whether its free college tuition, welfare, or free education, every time you turn around they’re being given a new right. ”

Donnelly said he was endorsed by a Hollywood actor “who was a left winger until he met me,” Rob Schneider.

"The new Iran deal is Obamacare II, only worse, a thousand megatons worse."


Iran Will Not Have an Atomic Bomb. Period. - Roger L Simon/PJ Media

...So many things are wrong with the agreement coming out of Geneva, it’s hard to know where to begin (for an excellent overall go to The Israel Project’s Tower website or look right here with our resident expert Dr. Ledeen), but the most egregious part indeed comes down to centrifuges. Iran has some 19,000 of them — more than three times the amount of longtime nuclear-armed Pakistan. The agreement forbids the Iranians to build anymore, but, much more importantly, it allows the Iranians to fix any of their centrifuges that may be broken and get them working again..

How many of those 19,000 are broken? I’m not sure anyone outside Iran knows, but as will be recalled, the Stuxnet computer virus of 2010 was designed to bring these centrifuges to a halt and apparently did so quite successfully in many cases. But now — thanks to the deal that Obama and Kerry have put together — the Iranians will have six unmolested months to get as many of them up and running as they can, enriching uranium....

Obama sides with Iran over the U.S. Congress - Philip Klein/Washington Examiner @philipklein

...What's especially striking is that though Obama constantly decries the inability of members of Congress to find common ground, sanctions against Iran have been one of the truly bipartisan issues over the past several years.

In December 2011, the U.S. Senate voted 100 to 0 for sanctions against Iran. In November 2012, the chamber voted 94 to 0 in favor of new sanctions. And last week, a bipartisan group of 14 senators sent a letter to Obama pledging to move forward with new sanctions and expressing concern about a final deal that would allow Iran to continue enriching uranium.

The fact that Congress seemed determined to impose new sanctions only added to the urgency for the Obama administration to strike a deal.

The State Department, CNN reported last week, "is in a race against the clock to close a deal, before Congress makes good on its threat to impose new sanctions against Iran."

The Times reported that the deal's "limited sanctions relief can be accomplished by executive order, allowing the Obama administration to make the deal without having to appeal to Congress, where there is strong criticism of any agreement that does not fully dismantle Iran’s nuclear program."

...The deal sends another signal to Iran's leaders — who have called for death to America and for the destruction of Israel — that Obama isn't serious about preventing them from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Iran Says Obama and Kerry Are Lying About the Nuclear Deal - Bryan Preston/PJMedia

What Is Obama Doing with Iran? - Larry Johnson/No Quarter

The pliant, sycophantic media cheerleaders–Dana Milbank is a prime example of those inclined to perform political fellatio on der Leader–were out in force pooh poohing Republican objections to the Iran deal...