Saturday, March 15, 2014

Another Friday, another violation of American freedoms and rights. This one is personal. Today, ICANN and the US government announced their intention to relinquish control of the Internet to the UN by 2015.


Internet Control — Keys To The Kingdom - Trevor Loudon/New Zeal
U.S. to relinquish remaining control over the Internet - Washington Post

In a statement, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) called the move “consistent with other efforts the U.S. and our allies are making to promote a free and open Internet, and to preserve and advance the current multi-stakeholder model of global Internet governance.”

But former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) tweeted: “What is the global internet community that Obama wants to turn the internet over to? This risks foreign dictatorships defining the internet.”

U.S. To Relinquish Remaining Control Of The Internet - NPR
US announces plan to give up control over internet plumbing - Mother Jones
U.S. government pulls out of ICANN - PC World

Condoleezza Rice speaking on the power of the private sector and rebuilding California #CAGOP14


◼ At the California Republican Party (CRP) Convention

Satellite data shows hijacked MH370 was last seen flying towards Pakistan OR Indian Ocean as investigators search pilots' luxury homes and reveal one had home-made flight simulator


Support: Thousands of people have written messages of support on a wall at a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, for passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines plane - AP

Officials confirmed missing plane was hijacked by one or several people - Daily Mail

Could have turned off communication system and steered it off-course
Now believed plane could have flown for another seven hours
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak refused to confirm the reports
Investigators working to establish motive and where plane was taken
Both captain and co-pilot are now said to be under investigation
Police raided the pair's luxury homes in upmarket Kuala Lumpur suburb

The Year Of Living Dangerously

Gunmen Storm Crimea Hotel Full of Reporters on Eve of Referendum

A day before the breakaway leaders of Crimea stage a referendum on their secession from Ukraine, roughly two dozen commandos took over a major hotel on Saturday night in the Crimean capital of Simferopol, where dozens of journalists — including a TIME correspondent — are staying.

UPDATE: Ukraine reports Russian 'invasion' on eve of Crimea vote - AFP
Forces Seize Natural Gas Station - AP
PAPER: Paranoia Leads Putin To Point Of No Return - Telegraph
US Navy destroyer to conduct more Black Sea drills...
REPORT: Russia Downs Drone - AFP
Obama national security aides meet - AFP

The stalemate is about to change. Congress is about to have a fascinating year. After his threats in the State of the Union to go it alone, Obama will find, however ...


The GOP is calling his bluff - Washington Times

Congress will have a busy 2014

GALLUP: President's Approval Sinks Back Into 30's...

Gallup Daily: Obama Job Approval
Dems in Distress - Maureen Dowd/NY Times
Obama Factor Adds to Midterm Fears - NY Times
Democrats are becoming increasingly alarmed about their midterm election fortunes amid President Obama’s sinking approval ratings, a loss in a special House election in Florida last week, and millions of dollars spent by Republican-aligned groups attacking the new health law.

The combination has led to uncharacteristic criticism of Mr. Obama and bitter complaints that his vaunted political organization has done little to help the party’s vulnerable congressional candidates....

“The state of Democrats is very much tied to the state of the president, and in that regard, these are far from the best of times,” said Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster.

In addition to problems with the health law, the White House is losing the support of Democrats on key appointments such as Mr. Obama’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and his choice to be surgeon general. Also last week, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, broke with the administration with a scalding criticism of the Central Intelligence Agency.
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What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Rasmussen Reports™

What do Americans think about the relationship between parents and their children under 18?

For one thing, 74% believe that it’s important for people to be married before having children, with 44% who think it’s Very Important.

Eighty-nine percent (89%) feel it’s important for children to grow up in a home with both parents, including 62% who say it’s Very Important.

An overwhelming majority believes parents should be allowed to impose reasonable standards of behavior on children living at home. But few believe parents should be required by law to provide financial support for their children after they turn 18.

Given the record level of student debt and the continuing so-so jobs picture, it’s no surprise that many are wondering if they are getting their money's worth from college these days.

Fifty percent (50%) believe the Obama administration already has increased government spending too much.

Seventy-seven percent (77%) predict that the new national health care law will cost the government more than has been projected.
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READ MORE AT THE LINKS.

No more Mr. Nice Guy

President Obama warns youth: Sign up for Obamacare or we will charge you a penalty - Charlie Spiering/Washington Examiner @charlesspiering

During an interview with radio host Ryan Seacrest, Obama explained that young people might be charged a fine if they don't get insured.

"If you can afford it — you just decide you don't want to get it because your attitude is 'nothing's ever going to happen to me' — then you'll be charged a penalty," Obama explained.

U.S. weakness breeds global instability

What America needs most right now is a strong leader. Russia has one. It’s why Putin has taken Ukraine’s Crimea without a second thought. - J.D Gordon/Washington Examiner

It seems Barack Obama thinks he can influence strongmen like Russia's Vladimir Putin, Iran's Ali Khamenei, Syria's Bashar Assad, North Korea's Kim Jong-Un and Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro like honest, well-intentioned business executives. That's fantasyland.

LOST



CNN Exclusive: Analysis shows two possible Indian Ocean paths for airliner - CNN

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 made drastic changes in altitude and direction after disappearing from civilian radar, U.S. officials told CNN on Friday, raising questions for investigators about just who was at the controls of the commercial jetliner that went missing one week ago with 239 people on board.

The more the United States learns about the flight's pattern, "the more difficult to write off" the idea that some type of human intervention was involved, one of the officials familiar with the investigation said.

The revelation comes as CNN has learned that a classified analysis of electronic and satellite data suggests the flight likely crashed either in the Bay of Bengal or elsewhere in the Indian Ocean.

DRUDGE:
Missing airliner may have flown on for 7 hours - Washington Post
'Deliberate Action': Focus Shifts to Passengers, Crew as New Clues Emerge - CNN
'Conclusive' Someone Hijacked Jet - CBS DC
Malaysian police search home of pilot...
Malaysian plane was 'deliberately' diverted...
'Act of piracy'...
Sharp Changes in Altitude and Course After Jet Lost Contact...
Descended 40,000 feet in minute...
THEORY: Landed on remote island...
Satellite Firm Says Data From Jet Could Offer Location...
Missing airliner reveals huge market for bogus passports...

New information on Flight 370: - Neoneocon
Radar Suggests Jet Shifted Path More Than Once - NY Times
Nothing about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 makes sense - Neoneocon
I’ve been writing about this story on a daily basis because it’s unusually gripping, with all the elements of a Tom Clancy novel except the author’s explication, or the pleasure of knowing it’s just a story. This is a story, but not just a story; it’s reality, unfortunately for the passengers, their families, and the rest of us. Just as 9/11 was a revelation about what was possible with a bunch of determined and planful terrorists, so Flight 370 is a revelation about how a flight can go missing in real time without a whole lot known about it, if certain human agents (which it appears were responsible) want it to disappear.
The wandering airplane - Neoneocon
The question on everyone’s mind: how can an airliner just disappear? - Neoneocon
More Evidence That Flight 370 Was Intentionally Diverted
This has stopped being a morbid curiosity and become something more menacing.
Two sources said an unidentified aircraft that investigators believe was Flight MH370 was following a route between navigational waypoints - indicating it was being flown by someone with aviation training - when it was last plotted on military radar off the country's northwest coast.
...

A third source familiar with the investigation said inquiries were focusing increasingly on the theory that someone who knew how to fly a plane deliberately diverted the flight...
The Andsmans are a chain of hundreds of islands off the coast of India. Most are uninhabited.

Will Asians Kill Race Preferences in California?

If you’re looking for moments when tectonic issue shifts seem to become visible–like the moment when Dems realized they had to give up on gun control, or the (coming) moment when there are enough charter school parents to defeat teachers’ unions–here’s one: the moment when California Democrats abandon a push to reinstate race preferences because of constituent-driven opposition from Asian Americans in their own ranks. - DAILY CALLER

...the state’s Asians, who have done fine in the admissions game without preferences, now constitute about 11 percent of the electorate–bigger than the state’s black vote, though still smaller than the Latino share (which was 22% in the 2012 exit poll). Asian communities seem to worry, not without reason, that preference-aided admissions for blacks and Latinos will mean fewer slots for Asians.

Friday, March 14, 2014

California Republican Convention: March 14-16






Condoleezza Rice headlines Republican spring convention - Sacramento Bee

Gubernatorial candidates Neel Kashkari, Tim Donnelly and Andrew Blount also have speaking slots. Newly-elected San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus kick off the festivities on Friday evening.

Democrats meet Republican convention with a digital prod - Sacramento Bee

"In 2014, Republicans Renew their Faith in California" - Oakland Post News

HOUSE REPUBLICANS TRY TO STOP INTERNATIONAL CONTROL OF INTERNET


USA GIVES UP CONTROL OF NET: NEW GLOBAL GOVERNANCE - Washington Post
U.S. officials announced plans Friday to relinquish federal government control over the administration of the Internet, a move that pleased international critics but alarmed some business leaders and others who rely on the smooth functioning of the Web.

Pressure to let go of the final vestiges of U.S. authority over the system of Web addresses and domain names that organize the Internet has been building for more than a decade and was supercharged by the backlash to revelations about National Security Agency surveillance last year.

The looming change — if successfully executed — would end the long-running contract between the U.S. Commerce Department and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a California-based non-profit group that goes by the acronym ICANN. That contract is due to expire next year but could be extended if the transition plan is not complete.
In a statement, the U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration said it wants to relinquish its oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. - NPR

UN launches new attempt to control the Internet - RT
Although the United States and dozens of other countries have refused to sign the proposal, the ITU is nevertheless powering through with plans to put new rules and regulations on the world’s Internet, including implement sweeping deep-packet inspection powers and other efforts that could censor the Web.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS TRY TO STOP INTERNATIONAL CONTROL OF INTERNET - Breitbart

U.S Education Secretary Arne Duncan was right about one thing when he attacked anti-Common Core activists again in November: like George, they are mostly mothers.

Big Business Targets Common Core’s Band of Mothers - The Federalist

The powerful strike back against those who dare question Common Core.

The media still usually labels Common Core opposition as Tea Party-driven, and that’s true to some extent, but the real drivers are mothers who saw Common Core in their kids’ classrooms and thought it degraded instruction....

Common Core opponents typically don’t have much money or prestige. They do have a common motivator: their kids. George’s biggest concern is her ability to have a say in the policies that affect her family.

“I grew up with parents who said, ‘You can do anything you put your mind to,’ and that was the beauty of the country we live in,” George said. “I don’t want to see that changed for my children.”

Another Man Who Keeps Harry Reid Up at Night


Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval is nearly impossible not to like. He has a sunny disposition and seems ever eager to work with Democrats, who have nary a bad word to say about him. He’s highly popular in Nevada, with approval numbers in the mid-60s, and he stays on message as well as anyone in politics. - _ Jon Ralston/Politico

He is, in a phrase, the anti-Harry Reid.

Which is why the prospect of Sandoval facing off against the occasionally dyspeptic, sharply partisan and manifestly unpopular Senate majority leader in the 2016 U.S. Senate race has some Republicans writing Reid’s political eulogy.

“It would be a wipeout,” said one Nevada insider. “He is 100 percent the perfect candidate against Harry Reid.”

What is our foreign policy? Disliking global warming?

Warnings From the Ukraine Crisis: A new century's dangers begin to come into focus. - Peggy Noonan/Wall St. Journal

What has been happening in Ukraine is not a wake-up call precisely but a tugging at the attention, a demand to focus.

There's a sense that in some new way we are watching the 21st century take its shape and express its central realities. Exactly 100 years ago, in August 1914, the facts that would shape the 20th century gathered and emerged in the Great War. History doesn't repeat itself; you can't, as they say, step into the same stream twice. But it does have an unseen circularity.

Sept. 11 started the century and brought forward the face of terrorism. It is still there and will continue to cause grave disruptions. Since then we have seen we are living in a time of uprisings, from the Mideast to Africa to the streets of Kiev. We are learning that history isn't over in Europe, that East-West tensions can simmer and boil over, that the 20th century didn't resolve as much as many had hoped.

...Not being George W. Bush is not a foreign policy. Not invading countries is not a foreign policy. Wishing to demonstrate your sophistication by announcing you are unencumbered by the false historical narratives of the past is not a foreign policy. Assuming the world will be nice if we're not militarist is not a foreign policy.

What is our foreign policy? Disliking global warming?

Psychologists posit that the brain can only handle so many narratives at one point; if we are distracted by problems at home, for example, we tend to perform less well at work. The same holds true in politics: if our brains are occupied with worries about the war on women, for example, we’re less likely to be thinking about the horrors of Obamacare.

2014 STRATEGY: OBAMA'S TOP 5 DISTRACTIONS - Ben Shapiro/Breitbart

...the bottom line is that the Obama administration will do everything in its power over the course of the next few months to distract from the issues Americans care about most: the economy, and the threat of Obamacare. Republicans and conservatives will have to work hard to avoid following him down the rabbit hole of misdirection if they hope to win a sweeping victory at the polls in November.

What's Really Behind the Ban Bossy Movement

Quick word association: Bossy = [fill in potential presidential candidate name] - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

Why have the word police suddenly descended on us to shape our speech? Can’t boys and men be bossy too? Has there been some epidemic of bossy such that now is the time to act.

A follower on Twitter made the connection to prepping the battlefield for Hillary:





Ashe Schow at The Washington Examiner expands on the point,
Make no mistake, there is always a deeper agenda whenever a seemingly innocent campaign pops up overnight.

On Sunday, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg launched a new campaign, known as ‘Ban Bossy,’ which would – as you can imagine – encourage people to ban the word “bossy.”

Is there some kind of epidemic of that word being used to keep girls from achieving? Many of the surveys cited by the Ban Bossy campaign are decades old, and a more recent survey by the Girl Scouts of America found that girls are more likely than boys to see themselves as a leader or have the desire to be a leader.

So, why start a national campaign?

For starters, Sandberg is an ally of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016….

Two years ago, Democrats launched a campaign to brand Republicans as engaging in a “war on women,” a campaign with a lasting impact that will no doubt stretch into the 2016 elections if Clinton runs.

Now the Ban Bossy campaign gives Democrats another weapon to use against those who disagree with Clinton’s policy ideas.
I think that’s right. The banning of the terms “illegal immigrant” or “illegal aliens” were an integral part of the amnesty push. So too, any criticism of Hillary’s demeanor will be portrayed as sexist, and the type of belittling done to little girls.

It’s not about Hillary, it’s about our daughters!

Do not underestimate this. We all thought Julia was a joke, until a generation of young, single women voted for Obama.

Think about what's coming up in the next year or two and you'll see why the movement is starting up now. - Ace Of Spades Open Thread
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My Message to Girls: Be Bossy! - Michelle Malkin/Townhall

A bunch of aggrieved women led by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg launched a high-profile "public service campaign" this week to "ban" the word "bossy." Sandberg, Beyonce, Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham and first lady Michelle Obama have joined femme forces to combat this phantom menace. In their rarefied world, it's a "very negative experience" and a crippling act of gender discrimination to be called bossy. "This isn't a word we should use," Sandberg complained on National Public Radio.

To which I say: Oh, buck up.

...It is a blessing to be able to make a living exercising the First Amendment. It would be an absolute waste of those precious free speech rights for any woman to pull her punches for fear of, gasp, an adjective.

The power of ‘bossy:’ Banning ‘offensive’ words is easier than defeating what they mean - Tammy Bruce/Washington Times

In 2001, I wrote my first book, “The New Thought Police,” about the left’s mission to defeat conservatism and, consequently, destroy the core of America’s greatness through thought and speech control.

I never would have guessed that more than 12 years later, it would be more relevant than ever.
Leftists have always found it impossible to compete on the details of the issues, so they work to make discussion dangerous. If they can make certain words forbidden, banned or even illegal, all the better.

Because they are unable to persuade people about the rightness of their unjust cause, their mission becomes to frighten clear-thinking people out of the public arena.

The latest iteration illustrating the pathetic absurdity of the left and its reliance on thought and speech Gestapos once again comes wrapped in the cloak of “It’s for the children!” led by one of the more powerful women in business, Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook.

In 2009, Obama said "No matter what you've heard, if you like your doctor...you can keep them."



Now, Obama: You Might Lose Your Doctor Under Obamacare

This is different than what Obama said when he was selling Obamacare. "If you like the plan you have, you can keep it. If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold," said Obama in his weekly address on June 6, 2009.

It Takes Obama 51 Uncomfortable Seconds To Simply Admit He Lied About Keeping Your Doctor - IJ Review

It took Barack Obama 51 brutal seconds to dance around the topic long enough to finally admit that millions of Americans will indeed be forced to change their doctors under ObamaCare. Even worse? He tried (subtly) to blame it on employers.

‘Shut Up Your Mouth, Obama’:



Egyptian Woman’s Rant Goes So Viral It Even Has a T-Shirt - The Blaze

A video in which an Egyptian woman accuses President Barack Obama of interfering in Egypt’s business, calling the U.S. president a “donkey” and exclaiming multiple times, “Shut up your mouth, Obama,” has gone viral in the Middle East, inspiring a remix, Photoshopped spoofs and even T-shirts.

In the video which appears to have been taken during a protest, the unidentified woman wearing a turquoise-colored hijab speaks both in English and Arabic....

“I’d like to convey the following message to Obama. Listen, Obama. We are Egyptian women. You are listen, Obama? Shut up your mouth, Obama. Shut up your mouth, Obama!” she says in the video.

“Our message to you, you donkey: No matter what you do, we will not restore the ousted president [Mohammed Morsi],” she said according to a translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“Al-Sisi, yes. Al-Sisi, yes. Morsi, no. Morsi, no,” the woman chanted, referring to Egyptian Defense Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who played a key role in deposing Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated President Mohammed Morsi last summer.

Egyptians have repeatedly accused the U.S. of intervening in Egyptian affairs, more notably after the ouster of Morsi which prompted an Obama administration decision to withhold some of the annual U.S. military aid to Egypt.

Ted Cruz chastises Harry Reid: It’s not his place to attack private citizens



He also noted the hypocrisy of Reid, attacking the Koch brothers while not mentioning the billionaire who has pledged to give money to Democrats to get Climate Change laws passed. - The Right Scoop VIDEO

Reid blames Ukraine standoff on Koch Brothers - The Hill

Ted Cruz slams Harry Reid over Ukraine aid bill, demonization of Koch brothers





WaPo: Four Pinocchios for Dems’ Koch habit - HotAir

Harry Reid’s unhinged rants on the Senate floor about David and Charles Koch reflect not just one man’s paranoia but an empty strategy of demagoguery by a major political party....

Can One Judge Stop California From Being Railroaded?

Does the Rule of Law matter or is it an antiquated concept in this day and age? Tom Del Beccaro/Forbes

After all, our President regularly violates the separation of powers by unilaterally rewriting laws. So it comes with some surprise when a judge stands up to California’s executive branch and puts the brakes on California’s High Speed Rail project by, of all things, requiring government to follow the Rule of Law. Surprise or not, it could be an important test case for years to come.

...California’s Governor, its legislature, bureaucrats and Attorney General want the High Speed rail built right away. The project is the crown jewel destined to satisfy Governor Jerry Brown’s edifice complex – that uncontrollable desire of politicians to have something built on their watch, regardless of the cost, for which they can claim credit.

In their rush to get to the train station, however, California government officials chose to disregard the requirements of the law.

A Health and Human Services official has resigned after dealing with the frustration of the “profoundly dysfunctional” federal bureaucracy, which left him “offended as an American taxpayer.”

HHS official resigns, pens a must-read rebuke of federal bureaucracy - Caroline May/Daily Caller

...“As for the rest, I’m offended as an American taxpayer that the federal bureaucracy — at least the part I’ve labored in — is so profoundly dysfunctional. I’m hardly the first person to have made that discovery, but I’m saddened by the fact that there is so little discussion, much less outrage, regarding the problem. To promote healthy and productive discussion, I intend to publish a version of the daily log I’ve kept as ORI Director in order to share my experience and observations with my colleagues in government and with members of the regulated research community,” he wrote.

WELL, MARK, MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT HARDER BEFORE YOU GOT HIM RE-ELECTED:


Zuckerberg Says He Called Obama To Express ‘Frustration’ Over NSA Surveillance. - ◼ Via Instapundit - Andy Greenberg/Forbes

Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the first name that comes to mind as a champion of privacy. But the seemingly endless revelations of NSA surveillance programs has inspired Facebook’s founder to call up no less than President Obama himself to defend his users from government intrusion.

On Thursday Zuckerberg posted a statement on Facebook calling on the U.S. government to take more measures to respect users’ privacy and security. “The US government should be the champion for the internet, not a threat,” reads his statement. “I’ve called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform.”

Though Zuckerberg never explicitly names the NSA in his statement, his comments follow news of NSA programs that have potentially allowed spying on Facebook users for years–particularly the majority of those users outside the United States. The initial stories on the NSA’s PRISM program last July cited NSA slides that made Facebook appear to have given direct backdoor access to its servers, a notion Zuckerberg and others have vehemently denied. In October, more revelations pointed to NSA efforts to decrypt or surveil data as it traveled between the data centers of companies like Yahoo! and Google. Yet another program siphoned users’ entire contact lists from services like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail and Facebook–NSA documents cited a single day when 82,857 contact lists were taken from Facebook users.

Most recently, the news site the Intercept reported that the NSA ◼ impersonates Facebook servers to infect users’ machines with spyware. image source

Thursday, March 13, 2014

"America" The Movie Trailer



Dinesh D'Souza's New Movie 'America' Asks An Amazing Question

Patriot Act Author: CIA Spying 'Almost Nixonian'...



"Tapping into computers used by members of Congress and attempts to use the Justice Department to intimidate congressional staff is a gross violation of the constitutional principles of separation of powers," Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner wrote in a Thursday letter to Deputy Attorney General James Cole. "It paints an almost-Nixonian picture of an administration that believes it can act with impunity behind a veil of secrecy." - National Journal

Rand Paul on alleged CIA-Senate hacking: 'This cannot happen in a free country' - Joel Gehrke/Washington Examiner @joelmentum

"There's an incredible arrogance to me that the CIA thinks they can spy on a committee that is providing oversight for the CIA, and I think it's a real, very serious constitutional breach," Paul said outside the Senate chamber on Thursday. "This cannot happen in a free country."

...House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., praised Feinstein. "I tell you, you take on the intelligence community, you're a person of courage, and she does not do that lightly," Pelosi said during her weekly press briefing Thursday morning. "Not without evidence -- when I say evidence, [I mean] documentation of what it is that she is putting forth."

...Although Sen. Feinstein did not single him out by name in her speech, she noted that the CIA lawyer who asked the Justice Department to intervene—Acting General Counsel Robert Eatinger—was deeply involved in the interrogation program.... - Newsweek

President Obama is now the most powerful insurance salesman in the free world

)

President Obama's approval rating is at or near record lows. His foreign policy has been feckless. And his recent budget proposal was virtually ignored because his domestic agenda is going nowhere in Congress. So with 2014 looking like an increasingly grim year for Democrats seeking re-election, the role of the most powerful leader of the free world has been reduced to that of an insurance salesman. - Philip Klein/Washington Examiner @philipklein

Appearing on an online video comedy skit with “Hangover” co-star Zach Galifianakis, Obama urged Americans to visit healthcare.gov “or call 1-800-318-2596,” where, “they can get coverage all for what it costs to pay your cell phone bill.”

...The spectacle of the president of the United States turning into a pitchman for multibillion-dollar publicly traded insurance companies is jarring. It also represents quite a journey for Obama, who once described himself as a "proponent" of single-payer health care, which largely eliminates for-profit insurers.

But Obama finds himself in this situation due to a combination of his own choices and political constraints. He rejected market-based reforms of the health care system (such as allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines and ending the discrimination in the tax code against individuals buying insurance on their own) that would have increased competition for insurance and brought down premiums.

Transcript: Obama's appearance on 'Between Two Ferns'

Time to clean house in Veterans Affairs

Calls for VA reforms have fallen on deaf ears in the Obama administration. Fortunately, members of Congress are stepping up to demand change. - Pete Hegseth/Washington Examiner

Both Republicans and Democrats on veterans' affairs committees in both houses have explicitly challenged VA’s leadership. For VA’s management and senior leadership cadre, these challenges are no doubt unwelcome and even unpleasant. But they are absolutely necessary if a sense of accountability is to be restored at the department.


That's the core principle behind the VA Management Accountability Act of 2014, recently introduced by House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

In contrast to VA’s current “see no evil” approach to management, the Miller-Rubio bill would empower the VA secretary to fire underperforming managers. That much-needed reform would be in line with basic principles of effective management and conform to the lesson in leadership I cited above: Managers must perform or risk being replaced. This type of accountability has a tendency to ripple throughout an organization, which is the point.

Replacing poor managers and employees isn’t the only reform needed at VA. But it’s a first step to fixing this broken department and renewing its commitment to serving the needs of veterans and their families.

Ron Fournier: POTUS May Be In The Middle Of “Full Blown Constitutional Crisis” (Video)



Another major scandal for the regime is coming to light as the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee is accusing the CIA of “breaking laws and breaching constitutional principles in an alleged effort to undermine the panel’s multi-year investigation of a controversial interrogation program.” - Nice Deb

...The lapdogs couldn’t rouse themselves to bark about Fast and Furious, Benghazi or the IRS and they barely blinked at the NSA and DOJ spy scandals, but now that a liberal Senator has been spied on by the CIA, we’ve got a “full blown constitutional crisis on our hands according to National Journal’s Ron Fournier....

All I can say is, welcome to the party, pal. We started crying foul in Obama’s first few months in the White House when the Regime closed down Republican Chrysler dealers, screwed over the bondholders and non-UAW workers in the auto bailout, and used its power to fire and discredit an Inspector General who had found corruption and wasteful spending in one of Obama’s pet projects – Americorps, and more. Michelle Malkin wrote a 500 page book on the Obama administration’s already gut-wrenchingly obvious corruption six months into his sorry regime.

‘How far have we come’? This far:



‘How far have we come’? This far: Ted Cruz blasts Obamacare with ‘brilliant’ cartoon [pic]  - Twitchy, Who Said What on Twitter
‘How far have we come’ - Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion

Obama Admin Trots Out Angry Mom to Push Obamacare



This, of course, is not the only misguided ad strategy from Obamacare advocates. President Obama himself trotted out Pajama Boy, a young man wearing footed pajamas, sipping hot chocolate, and wondering about his healthcare - Truth Revolt



◼ And if Mom's not enough: ‘This is stupid. You should feel bad’: Is OFA ‘employing 4th graders’ to promote Obamacare? [pics] - Twitchy



‘BIG MOTHER IS WATCHING YOU!’ Ludicrous HHS #GetCovered ad fixed; Explains Pajama Boy? [Photoshops] - Twitchy

‘We don’t pass suggestions in this body. … We don’t pass ideas — we pass laws. And we expect them to be faithfully executed.”



‘How Does Going From Being a Senator to a President Rewrite the Constitution?’: Trey Gowdy Explodes on Obama in Stirring Floor Speech - Jason Howeton/The Blaze

Ignoring President Barack Obama’s veto threat, the House voted on Wednesday for a bill that would expedite congressional lawsuits against the chief executive for failure to enforce federal laws.

The vote was 233-181 in the Republican-led House as GOP lawmakers excoriated Obama for multiple changes to his 4-year-old health care law, steps he’s taken to allow young immigrants to remain in the United States and the administration’s resistance to defend the federal law banning gay marriage.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., sponsor of the ENFORCE the Law Act, delivered a fiery speech and read a series of statements by Obama when he was an Illinois senator in which he warned of the encroachment of the executive on the powers of the other branches of government.

‘WATCH THIS’: Fired-up Trey Gowdy ‘nails it’ in must-see Obama-slamming speech [video] - Twitchy

Lower crime now may be a fruit of welfare reform 20 years ago

link - Michael Barone/Washington Examiner @michaelbarone

...Research has shown that work requirements for welfare recipients have produced not just greater income but more satisfaction.

Entry-level jobs for welfare recipients have proven not to be dead ends but the avenue to greater job skills and promotions.

The welfare reform work requirements may also be contributing -- this is my hypothesis -- to the remarkable decline in violent crime in America over the last 20 years....

Today's 15-to-25s were more likely to have mothers who, if they collected welfare, had to hold a job. Mothers with jobs are away from home during work hours.

But they are also likely to have more moral authority. They bring home the bacon and are entitled to demand good behavior in return.

And, especially if they move ahead at work, they set a better example for their children, male and female. They show that there is a connection between honest effort and legitimate reward. A mother who earns success shows her children they can, too.....

History shows that societies have experienced sharp increases and reductions in crime rates within a generation. Public policies and demographic trends account for much of the change. But much change surely comes form attitudes inculcated in the home.

Another corollary, if my hypothesis is right, is that the decline in jobs and work-force participation may produce bad effects that are not just economic. All the more reason to think hard about how to turn it around.

Trader kills self in finance world’s latest suicide

link - NY Post

A Manhattan trader was killed Tuesday morning by a speeding Long Island Rail Road commuter train, marking at least the seventh suicide of a financial professional this year.

PREVIOUSLY:
The banker suicide wave that started in late January has now become an epidemic
Exclusive: Emails Reveal Deceased Hedge Fund Manager Refused To Join Bill Gates’ "Worthless" Giving Pledge

US State Dept Denying Israelis Entry Visas at Record Level

Nearly one out of every ten Israelis who apply for tourist visas denied - Truth Revolt

The denial numbers have grown so dramatically that Charles Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry last week demanding an end to the “State Department policy of categorically denying young Israelis tourist visas that makes it nearly impossible for any young Israeli to visit the U.S.”

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

The NSA Is Using Facebook to Hack Into Your Computer


The spy agency is not above infecting networks with malware by posing as the social-media site, according to newly released Snowden files. - National Journal

Is the Facebook you log in to the real one?

This just in from the Edward Snowden vault of government secrets: The National Security Agency is breaking into "potentially millions of computers worldwide" and infecting them with malware "implants" as part of an effort that is increasingly relying on automated systems and not human oversight, according to a by First Look Media report published Wednesday.

And the NSA is pretending to be Facebook to get the job done.

"In some cases the NSA has masqueraded as a fake Facebook server, using the social-media site as a launching pad to infect a target's computer and exfiltrate files from a hard drive," First Look reported on Glenn Greenwald's Intercept channel, citing a classified slide presentation from 2009. "In others, it has sent out spam emails laced with the malware, which can be tailored to covertly record audio from a computer's microphone and take snapshots with its webcam.....

Liberal Democrats are bankrupting California



Author James V. Lacy weighs in on taxes, the economy and politics in California, and his book ‘Taxifornia.’

Forward this and go to jail

The criminal ‘link’ of forwarding websites: Justice Department wants to make sharing information a crime - Washington Times EDITORIAL

A federal prosecutor in Texas wants to change that by making it a crime to link to things the government doesn’t want anybody to see.

For more than a year, a young journalist, Barrett Brown, has been held in custody, threatened with spending the rest of his life in prison because he shared a link.

...Whether on email, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, links are the lifeblood of the Internet. Shut them down, and life at the White House becomes much more convenient.

This was to be “the most transparent administration in history” — Barack Obama himself said so. The First Amendment seems always under government assault.

Save The Date: 2014 Lincoln Reagan Dinner on Friday, April 25!


Republican Party of San Diego County

Feinstein wakes up to reality


Feinstein late to the party on misbehaving spies - Washington Times EDITORIAL

Ask CIA Director John O. Brennan “Who watches the watchers?” and his answer will be “Nobody.” Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday applied a hot hand to the seat of the spy agency’s pants after catching it snooping on the Senate.

From her post as Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Mrs. Feinstein, California Democrat, has been one of the most enthusiastic cheerleaders for domestic surveillance, endorsing unprecedented intrusions into the privacy of millions of Americans.

Now that the tables are turned, and Mrs. Feinstein is the target of the snoopers, she declares a constitutional crisis. We’re glad that she’s finally awake and has joined the skeptics at the right conclusion....

With its domestic snooping enterprise, the intelligence agency has been doing what it “has not in its constitutional power to do.” Now that she has seen the scope and pattern of misfeasance, cover-up and intimidation, perhaps the senator better understands the dangers of unchecked executive authority.

We welcome her to the ranks of those of us resisting the intrusions into the privacy of all the law-abiding, and not just senators, noble and august as they may be.

500 economists, including three Nobel laureates, on Wednesday urged Congress to junk President Obama's proposal to boost the minimum wage to $10.10, claiming it will cut jobs and raises prices.

Over 500 economists slam minimum wage hike as a jobs killer - Paul Bedard/Washington Examiner

...“One of the serious consequences of raising the minimum wage is that business owners saddled with a higher cost of labor will need to cut costs, or pass the increase to their consumers in order to make ends meet. Many of the businesses that pay their workers minimum wage operate on extremely tight profit margins, with any increase in the cost of labor threatening this delicate balance,” they warned.

Among the signers were economists from major schools, including Obama’s alma mater, Nobel laureates Vernon Smith, Edward Prescott and Eugene Fama, and George Shultz, who was secretary of State, Treasury secretary, and a former top budget chief.

It was timed to coincide with a Senate hearing on legislation to boost the minimum wage, which the Congressional Budget Office warned could lead to thousands of job cuts.

“To address the very real concerns of out of work and low-wage workers, many of our nation’s policymakers point to raising the minimum wage as a ‘silver bullet’ solution,” the economists wrote. “Although increasing wages through legislative action may sound like a great idea, poverty is a serious, complex issue that demands a comprehensive and thoughtful solution that targets those Americans actually in need.”

The Florida special election was thought to give Democrats hope for their future in 2014. Instead their historic loss means Democrats don't have much prospects for future mid-term elections:


Just how much of a bellwether was the special election in FL-13? - HoAir

If there’s one solid prediction to make in a special election, it’s that the winning side will call it a bellwether and the losing side will insist it’s not. In this case, though, denial will be difficult to support from Democrats, who poured $5.4 million into Alex Sink’s campaign, only to see her lose to David Jolly, a candidate the broad consensus called “flawed.” Jolly ran against ObamaCare more than Sink, though, while Sink got forced into defending it — and that’s why Joe Scarborough declared the race a harbinger of a “historic” midterm defeat for Democrats...

Wasserman Schultz Spins Florida Election Defeat: This Just Proves ObamaCare is Popular & GOP is Weak - IJ Review

Florida Republican David Jolly won the special election on Tuesday to fill the 13th district House seat left vacant by the death of Rep. Bill Young (R). With nearly all of the votes counted, Jolly had 48.5 percent of the vote vs. Democrat Alex Sink’s 46.7 percent.

Not even the Libertarian in the race, Lucas Overby, taking 4.8 percent was enough to stop Jolly. The GOP candidate fell $1.5 million short of the Democratic Sink in fundraising, and was outspent in negative campaigns ads via outside sources, which tallied a whopping $9 million total.

Yet the Democratic National Committee head Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said Jolly’s victory — the Democrat candidate’s loss — proved how weak the GOP is. Or something.

IT BEGINS: GOP WINS FL CONGRESSIONAL SEAT - AP
Clinton Push Doesn't Save - Truth Revolt
FLASHBACK: Race Dems Can't Afford to Lose - Stuart Rothenberg/Roll Call
Axelrod 'explains' - Politico
NATIONAL JOURNAL: Republican wave looks more likely - National Journal

ZoNation Vid: Stephanie Miller; A Liberal Licensed Racist

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Alfonzo Rachel/ZoNation

Obama: Health insurance isn’t expensive – just cancel cable and phones

...Pshaw, Obama replied. Why, all those low-income folks need to do is stop spending money on luxuries like cable television and cell phones! - HotAir

No, really:

)

The President responded that “if you looked at their cable bill, their telephone, their cell phone bill… it may turn out that, it’s just they haven’t prioritized health care.” He added that if a family member gets sick, the father “will wish he had paid that $300 a month.”

The Libre Initiative points out that premiums have skyrocketed, thanks to the forced changes in ObamaCare, along with the mandate for comprehensive coverage

In 2009, President Obama famously told a woman that her 100 year old mother who might be refused a pacemaker under Obamacare might need to “simply take pain killers.” - Ben Howe/RedState

This is an attitude common to liberals. They know what’s best and when pushed, they’ll spell it out for you: make whatever accommodations you must but you will comply with what they’ve presented to you as your “choices.”

A conservative 'war on women'? That's just silly

The idea of a conservative "war on women" is as silly as the propaganda I was taught in college - John Stossell/FOX

I was taught that the only reason boys and girls behave differently is because we're raised differently. If society and parents were to treat genders the same, behavior differences would vanish.

I believed it.

Then I had kids, and spent more time with kids, and learned what a fool I'd been.

...Liberal social engineers may dream of a society where genders are exactly equal, but that's nonsense. Men and women are different. We should celebrate that difference instead of claiming that women are victims.

After Being Dead For Six Years, Woman Found Mummified in Her Home Voted in 2010 Elections

In what is one of the most bizarre cases I’ve heard in weeks, a Michigan woman was found mummified in her garage – six years after she actually died. - IJ Review

Because she lived by herself, traveled a lot, paid her bills automatically and picked up her mail at the post office, neighbors just assumed she was out of town and took care of her yard for her.

In the most recent development, however, it seems that this woman, whom officials are certain died in winter of 2008, “voted” in Michigan’s 2010 gubernatorial election:
Voting records in Oakland County show Farrenkopf, who has not been positively identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office, is shown as voting in the November 2010 gubernatorial election.
Of course, such problems could be solved by a voted ID system. But wouldn’t that be discriminating against the dead?

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

“As a matter of fact, he [Obama] said at that meeting, he said, ‘If I hear any of you pushing back, making statements about Washington spends too much money, you’ll hear from me,” he said, adding, “I’m highly offended by that.”

)

Rick Perry shaken up by Obama’s disturbing threat to governors in meeting - Right Wing News

“When you have governors, and we all compete against each other — we are the laboratories of innovation — and for the President of the United States to look Democrat and Republican governors in the eye and say, ‘I do not trust you to make decisions in your state about issues of education, about transportation infrastructure,’ — and that is really troubling,” he said.

ObamaCare's Secret Mandate Exemption

HHS quietly repeals the individual purchase rule for two more years. - Wall St. Journal

ObamaCare's implementers continue to roam the battlefield and shoot their own wounded, and the latest casualty is the core of the Affordable Care Act—the individual mandate. To wit, last week the Administration quietly excused millions of people from the requirement to purchase health insurance or else pay a tax penalty.

This latest political reconstruction has received zero media notice, and the Health and Human Services Department didn't think the details were worth discussing in a conference call, press materials or fact sheet. Instead, the mandate suspension was buried in an unrelated rule that was meant to preserve some health plans that don't comply with ObamaCare benefit and redistribution mandates. Our sources only noticed the change this week....

Keep in mind that the White House argued at the Supreme Court that the individual mandate to buy insurance was indispensable to the law's success, and President Obama continues to say he'd veto the bipartisan bills that would delay or repeal it. So why are ObamaCare liberals silently gutting their own creation now?

The answers are the implementation fiasco and politics. HHS revealed Tuesday that only 940,000 people signed up for an ObamaCare plan in February, bringing the total to about 4.2 million, well below the original 5.7 million projection. The predicted "surge" of young beneficiaries isn't materializing even as the end-of-March deadline approaches, and enrollment decelerated in February.

Meanwhile, a McKinsey & Company survey reports that a mere 27% of people joining the exchanges were previously uninsured through February. The survey also found that about half of people who shopped for a plan but did not enroll said premiums were too expensive, even though 80% of this group qualify for subsidies. Some substantial share of the people ObamaCare is supposed to help say it is a bad financial value. You might even call it a hardship.

DRUDGE HEADLINES:
Pop Singer Lance Bass Visits White House to Discuss ObamaCare...
OK Man Loses Insurance Due to Law, Owes $100K in Bills...
900,000 Obamacare 'enrollees' still haven't paid for coverage?
42-sign ups a minute needed to reach goal...
OR exchange fails to attract young...
FLASHBACK: Feds drop $3.2m on ads featuring guitar-strumming hipsters...
WSJ: Secret Mandate Exemption...
HHS: We Lack 'Statutory Authority' to Extend Open Enrollment Period...
RUBIO: Dem goal is single-payer system...

“The NSA, the sort of global mass surveillance that’s occurring in all of these countries, not just the U.S. — and it’s important to remember that this is a global issue — they’re setting fire to the future of the Internet,” Snowden said. “And the people who are in this room now — you guys are all the firefighters. And we need you to help us fix it.”

link - Ashe Schow/Washington Examiner

Snowden’s suggestion was end-to-end encryption, which limits communication to just the party sending and the party receiving information.

“And the result of that is a more constitutional, more [inaudible] sort of intelligence-gathering model, law-enforcement model,” Snowden said. “Where if they want to gather somebody’s communications, they have to target them specifically. They can’t just target everybody all the time.”

NSA whistleblower accuses Dianne Feinstein of double standards, pointing out her lack of concern about widespread surveillance of ordinary citizens... - Paul Lewis in Washington/The Guardian
Snowden, who is in Russia on temporary asylum, added: “But it’s equally if not more concerning that we’re seeing another ‘Merkel effect,’ where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of millions of ordinary citizens are violated by our spies, but suddenly it’s a scandal when a politician finds out the same thing happens to them.”

Is This Why There Were So Many Young Faces At CPAC?

Throughout our coverage of the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, we were pleased to report that youth involvement in the conservative cause is increasing more than it has in decades. Most of the 20-somethings in attendance at CPAC had a clear message when asked why they’ve decided to get involved: The future looks bad. - Personal Liberty Digest

Via a ◼ CNS News analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers out today (emphasis in bold):
The labor force participation rate in 2013 for Americans in their twenties hit the lowest level recorded since 1981, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics started releasing employment data on people in the full age bracket of 20 through 29.
The labor force participation rate for people ages 20 through 24—which BLS has been tracking since 1948—hit a 42-year low in 2013.

Since 2008, the last year before President Barack Obama took office, the number of Americans in their twenties who were not in the labor force during the average month has climbed from 8,756,000 to 10,511,000—an increase of 1,755,000 or 20 percent.

The 10,511,000 Americans age 20 through 29 who were not in the labor force in 2013 is the highest ever recorded by BLS.

DON'T SPY ON ME!


Dianne Feinstein: CIA spied on Senate Intelligence Committee - Washington Examiner
Feinstein: CIA searched Intelligence Committee computers - Washington Post

...The comments by Feinstein, traditionally a strong advocate for the intelligence community, blew wide open a dispute that has simmered behind closed doors in recent weeks.

WAR: Senate accuses CIA of seaching computer network established for Congress

FEINSTEIN: 'Defining moment' - CNBC
The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that the CIA searched the panel's computers and that the search may have violated the Constitution.

"The CIA just went and searched the committee's computers," California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a lengthy speech on the Senate floor, calling the the matter a "defining moment" for the oversight of the Intelligence Committee.
__________________

Snowden slams hypocrisy - Paul Lewis in Washington/The Guardian
NSA whistleblower accuses Dianne Feinstein of double standards, pointing out her lack of concern about widespread surveillance of ordinary citizens...

In a statement to NBC News, Snowden said: “It’s clear the CIA was trying to play ‘keep away’ with documents relevant to an investigation by their overseers in Congress, and that’s a serious constitutional concern.”

Snowden, who is in Russia on temporary asylum, added: “But it’s equally if not more concerning that we’re seeing another ‘Merkel effect,’ where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of millions of ordinary citizens are violated by our spies, but suddenly it’s a scandal when a politician finds out the same thing happens to them.”
__________________

Director Denies - ABC

FOURNIER: Spying and Lying - Ron Fournier/National Journal

What Else Can the Obama Administration Do to Undermine U.S. Security?After the administration spied on Americans and lied to Congress, Feinstein's bombshell now raises even more questions about its activities.

They spied on you. They lied to the Senate. They seized telephone records from the Associated Press and considered criminalizing investigative journalism at Fox News. What else can the U.S. intelligence community do to destroy its credibility, curb civil liberties, and ultimately undermine U.S. security?

Spy on Congress.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat bravely challenging a Democratic White House, accused the CIA of searching computer files used by her staffers on the Senate Intelligence Committee to review the CIA's now-defunct interrogation programs, potentially violating:
The constitutionally sacred principle of separation of powers, which prohibits one branch of government (say, a runaway executive branch) from strong-arming the other two branches.
The Fourth Amendment, which protects from unreasonable search and seizure.
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and Executive Order 12333, which bar domestic surveillance.
Feinstein said the CIA "may have undermined the constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activities or any other government function."

DESPERATE Obama admin now begging moms to help get their ‘adult children’ signed up for Obamacare



link - The Right Scoop

WH to moms: Get your kids to enroll in O-Care - The Hill

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Monday said the administration is calling on moms to get their adult children "off the couch and on the computer to enroll" in ObamaCare before the March 31 deadline.

The White House spokesman was asked why the administration was spending the week targeting mothers in an enrollment push when women were among the president's strongest supporters during the 2012 election.
"We're not," Carney said. "We're calling on moms to reach out to their adult children, get them off the couch and on the computer to enroll and make sure that they have quality affordable health insurance, because ... a lot of young folks, because they're young and healthy today, think they're invincible and are not fully aware of the need to have quality affordable health insurance because, you know, they're an accident away or an illness away from needing it very much."

The "Mom Knows Best" week will see President Obama sit for an interview with WebMD, first lady Michelle Obama thank volunteers who are helping to enroll individuals, and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius travel to Atlanta to highlight the president's signature healthcare reform law.

Was the missing Malaysian airliner the victim of a terrorist test run? [VIDEO]


Mystery Malaysia Passengers IDed - Newser

New information on two passengers from Malaysia Air Flight MH370 — which disappeared without a trace off the coast of Vietnam on Friday — raises the possibility the plane was bombed as part of a terrorist test run. If confirmed, the guilty organization’s silence means more attacks may be forthcoming. - Daily Caller

Why are the missing Malaysian Airlines passengers' phones still ringing? Relatives' agony as search zone now switches to entirely new area and Iranian man on missing passport traced and 'isn't terrorist' - James Nye/Daily Mail

Another day, another radical Obama nominee.


Surgeon General nominee Murthy thinks guns are a health care issue - Allen West

Hat tip to Howard Portnoy at Liberty Unyielding who writes, “President Obama has jumped right back into the fray with another radical nominee, this time for Surgeon General. But what makes Vivek Hallegere Murthy, 36, such a controversial choice for the post is not what you might expect. The problem with Murthy is his position on guns. Namely, he thinks one of the questions doctors should ask patients during a routine medical history is whether the person has any guns in his home.”

Portnoy reports that Murthy is president and co-founder of Doctors for America, {like Obama For America} an anti-gun group that advocates making gun control a facet of the practice of medicine. He also wants to spend tax dollars on more research to prove that fewer guns mean a lower crime rate – never mind that numerous reputable studies prove the opposite.

Before the 2012 presidential election, Murthy tweeted that “guns are a health care issue” and believes not only should doctors counsel patients against gun ownership, but patients’ private medical records should include gun ownership – which of course would be available to government scrutiny under Obamacare.”

Monday, March 10, 2014

Up for a laugh? #Up4Climate Senate sleepover inspires mockery

The senators are scheduled to speak until 9 a.m. Tuesday. - Twitchy

Democrat senators are only a few hours into their Capitol Hill sleepover, dubbed “Up4Climate,” but the mockery is in full swing.











◼ Forget Russia, Crimea and the Ukraine, forget Iran... DEMS DECLARE WAR ON WEATHER! - CS Monitor

Senate holds global warming all-nighter: Senate Democrats will talk about the importance of addressing global warming until 9 a.m. Tuesday. But the issue is fraught with difficulties for four Democrats who won't appear.

Twenty-eight Democrats and two left-leaning Independents, including Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada and his top lieutenants, are scheduled to speak in shifts until about 9 a.m. Tuesday. The event is not a filibuster, nor is it related to any legislation. The intent is to urge a divided Congress and nation to “wake up” on this issue.

Some notable Democrats, however, are no-shows: Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. It’s not that they want their shut-eye. It’s that they want to win their very competitive races come November.

You see, the senators chattered about global warming nonsense. Why? Evidently just to hear themselves and smugly pat themselves on the back or something. They didn’t offer any legislation. Actual thinkies are hard! - Twitchy



Railroads may have built the West, but now they're broke, propped up by the feds -- subsidized by billions of your tax dollars. It all makes as much sense as re-electing California's Governor Moonbeam, who loves ...

Insolvency at high speed - Washington Times

“Last fall, the California High-Speed Rail Authority, which oversees the boondoggle, said the final cost would more likely be $98.5 billion, and the completion date 2033 instead of the initial estimate of 2028. Only after a public outcry was $30 billion shaved off that higher estimate, bringing it down to $68 billion.”

Undaunted, Gov. Jerry Brown's administration is plowing ahead, fortified by yet another study, which should reassure California’s beleaguered taxpayers, who will foot most of the bill.

According to The Los Angeles Times, “Despite the prospect of declining revenue and rising costs, researchers predicted that the 500-mile network — with construction paid for by a blend of state and federal money — will be self-sustaining and not require a government subsidy to help pay for operations.” Sure it won’t.