Friday, October 25, 2013
YES, VIRGINIA: There Really is a Conspiracy to Take Your Guns, Courtesy of Bloomberg and McAuliffe
Apparently, having billions of dollars in disposable income and being the mayor of America's most populous city (and let's face it, a place with problems of its own) isn't enough to keep billionaire Michael Bloomberg busy. We've often reported on his antics here in the Commonwealth of Virginia (see here, here, and here, for example), and we can thank him for at least one pro-gun law being on Virginia's books.
To no one's surprise, the billionaire buttinksi is back and throwing his considerable fortune behind an attempt to defeat NRA "A"-rated Republican Ken Cuccinelli and to elect NRA "F"-rated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia's upcoming gubernatorial election. Unfortunately for Bloomberg, while his money can buy a huge amount of negative advertising attacking Cuccinelli, it cannot alter basic facts. Even the Washington Post, normally a far friendlier outlet for McAuliffe and Bloomberg than the NRA, had to call foul at an ad Bloomberg is running that tries to fault Cuccinelli over the so-called gun show loophole. In its fact-check of the ad, the Post awarded Bloomberg's super PAC, "Independence USA," three well-deserved Pinocchios for bending the truth.
The ad claims that the "gun show loophole" means "anyone can buy a guy without a background check," including "the dangerously mentally ill" and "criminals." To underscore this point, it flashes pictures of several high-profile murderers who committed their crimes with guns.
The Washington Post takes issue with the ad on the basis that gun shows are rarely the source of crime guns and that none of the criminals pictured actually obtained their firearms at a gun show without a background check. Indeed, as the Post notes, three of the four pictured killers obtained their firearms through licensed dealers, passing background checks in the process. The fourth killed his own mother and then stole the guns he used from her.
In other words, the so-called "gun show loophole" had nothing to do with the murderers pictured. If anything, they represent the failure of the background check system Bloomberg and his puppets seek to expand.
OF COURSE NOT: Feds won't investigate Tesla even though electric sedan caught fire after running over road debris
U.S. auto safety regulators decided against opening a formal investigation into a Tesla car fire that started after the vehicle ran over debris on a Washington state highway.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in an e-mailed statement, said it found no evidence the fire resulted from a vehicle defect or violations of U.S. safety standards.
NHTSA didn't send investigators to the scene of the Oct. 1 fire involving one of the plug-in electric carmaker's Model S sedans because it was the first day of a 16-day U.S. government shutdown. After consulting with the company, regulators decided not to begin their investigation process, which can lead to recalls.
NHTSA Administrator David Strickland on Oct. 22 said the agency was "gathering data" on the fire, which destroyed the Model S.
A Tesla spokeswoman said the carmaker had no immediate response to NHTSA's decision.
Regulators formally investigated fires in two other battery-powered vehicles, the Chevrolet Volt and the Fisker Karma. Both of those investigations led to recalls.
The lithium ion battery in the Model S caught fire after the vehicle collided with a large metallic object on a road in Kent, Wash., Tesla has said. CEO Elon Musk defended the car's safety in an Oct. 5 blog post, saying it was an unusual crash that would have resulted in a fire in a gasoline car as well.
Is it just me, or is it getting hot in here?
Hat tip: BadBlue Car News.
PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING: New York Times commenters urge Obama administration to kill Republican lawmakers
And it's not just the rabid kooks who read the Times. Unfortunately, this kind of fascistic behavior is becoming all too commonplace for the increasingly radicalized Democrat Party.
For the first time in American history, mainstream Democrats are openly calling for the arrests of their political opponents.
• Democrats called for the arrest of Sen. Ted Cruz "for sedition" in offering specific, focused appropriations bills to fund the government. Never mind the Constitution explicitly grants the power of the purse to Congress, not the President. Never mind that James Madison himself described that the House could, in fact, shut down any program it wanted to. Never mind all that: the Constitution doesn't matter to these hard left sixties retreads. They don't want any political opposition. They want you gone. They want you silent, or in prison, or dead (what do you think Obamacare is really about?).
• MSNBC plainly calls lawful dissent "sedition", presumably punishable by death.
• Democrat Congressman Steve Cohen (TN) labels conservatives "domestic enemies", alluding to presidential actions to secure the country from the Tea Party, veterans, and Constitutional conservatives.
• A public MoveOn.org petition calls for the arrests of Republicans in Congress by the Holder DOJ.
These are some dangerous times, my friends. I urge you to pray for the best but prepare for the worst.
Hat tip: Mountaintop
*GASP* Michelle Obama's Classmate is Top Executive at Company That Built the Worst Website Ever
First Lady Michelle Obama’s Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company that earned the contract to build the failed Obamacare website.
Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of ’85, is senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no-bid contract to build the $678 million Obamacare enrollment website at Healthcare.gov. CGI Federal is the U.S. arm of a Canadian company.
Townes-Whitley and her Princeton classmate Michelle Obama are both members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni.
...As reported by the Washington Examiner in early October, the Department of Health and Human Services reviewed only CGI’s bid for the Obamacare account. CGI was one of 16 companies qualified under the Bush administration to provide certain tech services to the federal government. A senior vice president for the company testified this week before The House Committee on Energy and Commerce that four companies submitted bids, but did not name those companies or explain why only CGI’s bid was considered...
These Chicago politicians are truly something to behold. In a sane society, the entire crew would be the subject of a RICO indictment.
Hat tip: BadBlue News Service.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
6 MIND-BLOWING REVELATIONS: How Eric Holder and Barack Obama Perverted the 2012 Election Using the DOJ
6. THERE ARE COMPANIES BEING TOLD THEY'RE SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE INVESTIGATION, CRIMINAL AND CIVIL AND LITERALLY THOSE COMPANIES ARE SOLICITED TO DONATIONS TO THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN AND NOW TO OBAMA POLITICAL COMMITTEES AND THERE IS STATISTICAL EVIDENCE IN THE BOOK THAT LITERALLY YOU CUT YOUR CHANCES OF GOING TO JAIL IN HALF IF YOU MAKE A CONTRIBUTION.
5. AFTER THE 2010 MID-TERM ELECTIONS WHERE THEY HAD THAT STUNNING DEFEAT IN CONGRESS, [the Obama Department of Justice] TARGETED THE INDUSTRIES THAT FINANCED THE TEA PARTY CANDIDATES THAT GOT ELECTED...
4. LITERALLY DAYS AFTER PRESIDENT OBAMA MADE THAT FAMOUS STATEMENT "WE'RE GOING TO PUNISH OUR POLITICAL OPPONENTS," [the Holder DOJ] SENT OUT AN INDUSTRY SWEEP LETTER [to companies in the oil and gas sector] WHICH SAID YOU ARE SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION AND YOU BETTER SHARE AND COOPERATE... IT WAS A CLEAR INTIMIDATION TACTIC USED.
3. THE TOP [Republican] FINANCIERS IN 2012 WERE ALL SUBJECT TO DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CRIMINAL CHARGES.
2. THE TOP FIVE POSITIONS AT DOJ BEGINNING WITH ERIC HOLDER WERE ALL CAMPAIGN BUNDLERS FOR THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN.
1. [Obama] FUND-RAISERS [were] RAISING MONEY TO PUT [Obama] INTO POWER WHO [are] NOW MAKING DECISIONS ABOUT WHO THEY'RE GOING TO PROSECUTE AND WHO THEY'RE NOT GOING TO PROSECUTE... THIS [is a] MELDING OF THE DOJ AND THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN.
You know, it's getting harder and harder to keep President Barack Obama's Complete List of Historic Firsts current. These guys seem to invent a new Executive Branch crime each and every day.
Tell you what's scarier: this is only the stuff we know about.
Click here to read Extortion.
Ted Cruz Negotiates Delay in Obamacare's Individual Mandate
Sorry, I meant Barack Obama. You know, the guy who repeatedly bleated "I WILL NOT NEGOTIATE" over delaying any aspect of Obamacare's oppressive and capricious mandates.
Guess what? Obama has decided to delay Obamacare's oppressive and capricious mandates. Of course, it has absolutely nothing to do with Healthcare.gov, the only website ever built that crashes in 150 languages.
The Obama administration said Wednesday night that it will give Americans who buy health insurance through new online marketplaces an extra six weeks to obtain coverage before they risk a penalty...
...Administration officials said the change is unrelated to the many problems that the marketplace’s Web site, HealthCare.gov, has had in its first three weeks. Instead, they said, the shift relates to what they called a “disconnect” among dates in new rules for buying coverage...
...under the new rule, anyone who buys coverage during the open enrollment period will avoid a penalty, whether their coverage has started by April 1 or not. Administration officials said Wednesday that they will issue formal guidance in the next few days about the change. An HHS official said it remains unclear whether the deadline shift will apply to Americans who buy insurance without using the exchanges...
You know how the White House used human props a few days ago to advertise how great Obamacare was working?
Why don't Republican leaders (I know, an oxymoron) arrange a virtual town-hall meeting of the millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance thanks to Obamacare?
I mean, if a single blogger like Matt Walsh can do it, perhaps even the feckless RINO establishment can pull it off.
BUT DON'T CALL IT A DEATH PANEL: Canada's Supreme Court rules a government board, not family, can pull the plug on patients
Health Care: Canada's Supreme Court has ruled that under the "law of the land" in Ontario, a government board, not the family or doctors, has the ultimate power to pull the plug on a patient.
Lost in the discussion of defunding ObamaCare and the failed effort in Congress is the fact that failure means the government's ability to defund your life through the ObamaCare's Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) remains. IPAB is regarded by many, starting with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as a death panel whose decisions based on cost effectiveness would result in health care rationing.
A glimpse of this brave new world can be had by casting a glance at our neighbor to the north. There, Canada's Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that under Ontario's Health Care Consent Act, which has been on the books for nearly two decades, doctors cannot overrule a family's wishes for an incapacitated patient regarding life or death decisions, but an administrative tribunal can.
In 1996, Ontario's provincial legislature created the Consent and Capacity Board, a body with the power to make the final decision when doctors and families disagree on keeping a patient alive with continued treatment or pulling the plug, a conflict that can result in endless legal battles.
At issue in the Ontario case was the fate of Hassan Rasouli, a retired engineer who suffered complications following brain surgery three years ago and has been in a vegetative state in a Toronto hospital ever since. Doctors say there is no hope of recovery but the family doesn't want to turn off life support.
The court ruled that the doctors could not overrule the family's wishes, but are able to appeal to the Consent and Capacity Board, which could. Canada has a full-blown single-payer system, which President Obama is undoubtedly aiming for. So the question of when it is cost-effective to treat or keep patients alive becomes more of a matter of space and budget rather than a medical issue.
The question of whether one's life is worth saving or one's condition is worth treating remains a key part of ObamaCare, even while being eclipsed by political maneuverings and enrollment difficulties. And having that decision made by a body such as IPAB has led to legislative efforts to pull the plug on ObamaCare itself.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
THANK A DETROITOCRAT: The Number of Americans Who Left the Labor Force Hits Another All-Time High
...The number of Americans who are 16 years or older and who have decided not to participate in the nation's labor force has climbed to a record 90,609,000 in September...
...In January 2009, when President Barack Obama took office, there were 80,507,000 Americans not in the labor force. Thus, the number of Americans not in the labor force has increased by 10,102,000 during Obama's presidency...
Please take a closer look at the chart. Notice that around May of 2010, when Obamacare was jammed through Congress without a single Republican vote, the labor-force participation rate started heading south. And it hasn't let up since.
In fact, less than 150,000 people in the U.S. -- total -- found work last month. That's less than 3,000 people per state -- or about the number of people who attend a high school football game.
...just 148,000 people found work last month.
"I think it is an absolute disaster," says Brian Sozzi, chief equity strategist at Belus Capital Advisors in the attached video, where he calls today's release a "horrifically depressing report."
As Sozzi sees it, "there's stuff going on out there in the economy that nobody is talking about."
Specifically, he cites the need to listen to what companies such as Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) and Hasbro (HAS) are telling us this earnings season, and to take heed of the restructuring plans, earnings misses, and soft revenue results.
The Detroitocrat Party is literally turning all of America into Detroit.
They have no blueprint, no master plan, no overarching document describing their endgame they can share with us. They will continue to tinker, to social-engineer, to "fix" society using increasingly totalitarian methods to address the "non-compliant".
And like D.C., like Chicago, and -- yes -- like Detroit and all of the other bankrupt cities in California, jobs, opportunity and hope will disappear from the landscape like a wheat field devastated by a swarm of locusts.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
Who Will Be the Next Innocent Person to Die Because of Alan Grayson?
...In a campaign email sent Monday, the Orlando Democrat includes the transcript of an interview he did recently on MSNBC -- with the Rev. Al Sharpton as host -- in which Grayson said that the politics of the government shutdown had turned many Americans away from the Tea Party.
"At this point, the Tea Party is no more popular than the Klan," Grayson said.
The email then takes that comparison one step further by including a photograph of a burning cross with Klansmen in the background. The cross then becomes the "T" in the words "Tea Party" transposed over the picture. Below is the caption: "Now you know what the 'T' stands for."
Within hours there was a response from Jorge Bonilla, one of the Republicans running against Grayson in a heavily Democratic district that includes Osceola County and parts of Orange and Polk.
"The depiction of burning crosses in Congressman Alan Grayson's most recent fundraising ask is despicable and needlessly hurtful to the many millions of families that still deal with the wounds of racial prejudice," wrote Bonilla.
"What's worse, he does so for no other reason than to troll for donations for his re-election campaign," he added.
Grayson must have missed the decades of American history where the KKK served as "the terror wing of the Democrat Party". As recently as the last decade, Democrats elevated a former Klan official -- Robert Byrd -- to one of the highest offices in the land.
Furthermore, the imagery that Grayson picked as supposedly representative of Republican racism was likely created by he and other progressives. This is who they are. This is what they do. Remember this classic case of Democrat false flag tactics?
Note the black man holding up the poster. This screenshot was used in reports by the MSM who painted the protesters as Nazis. Here's the thing, though - that black man is a Dingell supporter! Last Friday, Frank Beckmann on his show broadcast on WJR 760 AM interviewed an eyewitness that said not only were union thugs let in through a side door before anyone else was let into the venue, but that he clearly saw from his vantage point that very Obama as Hitler poster in that back hallway after the union thugs took their seats.
...A couple that were at [Dingell's] meeting said there was a black man outside with a sign comparing Obama [with] Adolf Hitler. After the meeting ended and when everyone was leaving this same man was handing out [Dingell] campaign flyers.
Should someone in his district meet race-based violence -- I don't care whether they're black, white, green, red, yellow or blue -- they should sue Alan Grayson for inciting to riot.
Hat tip: BadBlue News
AWESOME: IRS gives away $4.2 billion to illegal aliens while attacking Tea Party, Christian and Pro-Israel Groups
WASHINGTON, D.C. — While harrying and stalling tea party groups seeking nonprofit status, the Internal Revenue Service mailed $4.2 billion in child-credit checks to undocumented immigrants.
Critics say midlevel IRS bureaucrats continue to abuse the Additional Child Tax Credit program by dispensing $1,000 checks to families in this country illegally.
“The law needs clarification that undocumented immigrants are not eligible,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told Watchdog.org in a statement.

LEGAL RESIDENTS ONLY: Sen. Charles Grassley says it was never Congress’ intent for the IRS to issue tax-credit checks to people in this country illegally.
“Unfortunately, the majority leader (Harry Reid, D-Nev.) cut off debate, so we weren’t given the chance to offer our amendment,” said Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The IRS’ practice of paying out billions to undocumented-immigrant families never received full congressional scrutiny, said David North, a fellow at the enforcement-oriented Center for Immigration Studies.
“I’ve been in government and I know kind of how these things work out,” North told the Washington Times.
“It struck me that (GS) 15s and 16s got together at some point and decided this is how we should handle it, and it stuck,” said North, who wrote “Paying Illegals to Stay,” an analysis of how benefit programs increase illegal immigration.
The IRS has said it doesn’t believe the ACTC law allows the agency to deny payment to undocumented immigrants.
Watchdog reported in June that disbursement of ACTC credits has grown rapidly — and suspiciously — with increased issuance of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers as substitutes for Social Security numbers.
ITIN holders are not required to prove legal residency, and ITIN applications are running at the rate of 1 million a year.
Federal investigators identified one address in Atlanta where 23,994 ITIN refunds totaling $46,378,040 were delivered. A single bank account there received 8,393 refunds.
Records indicate that undocumented immigrants in Virginia received $87.9 million in ACTC cash from the IRS. Watchdog reported that $163,711 went to a single address in the tiny eastern shore town of Parksley.
In lightly populated Iowa, Grassley’s home state, undocumented immigrants got an estimated $30 million.
With an average of 15 percent of ACTC refunds directed to undocumented households nationally, North calculates that roughly half of the money went to ITIN holders who paid “little or no income taxes.”
An audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration stated:
“We believe legislation is needed to clarify whether or not refundable tax credits such as the ACTC may be paid to filers without a Social Security number. Such a legislative change could result in cost savings to the federal government of $1.8 billion annually.
“As it now stands, the payment of federal funds through this tax benefit appears to provide additional incentive for aliens to enter, reside and work in the U.S. without authorization, which contradicts federal law and policy to remove such incentives.”
The recommendations of that audit, conducted in 2009, have yet to be acted on.
Meantime, the IRS continues to be dogged by controversy over its handling of tax-exempt requests by tea party groups and other conservative organizations.
Judicial Watch this month filed a Freedom of Information lawsuit against the agency asking the District Court for the District of Columbia to compel the IRS to produce records of all communications relating to the review process for organizations seeking 501(c)(4) non-profit status since Jan. 1, 2010.
On May 14, the Treasury inspector general concluded the IRS had singled out groups with conservative-sounding terms such as “patriot” and “tea party” in their titles when applying for tax-exempt status.
Hat tips: BadBlue News and @KenricWard.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Quantitative Easing Worked for the Weimar Republic, Too. For a While.
There is a reason why every fiat currency in the history of the world has eventually failed.
At some point, those issuing fiat currencies always find themselves giving in to the temptation to wildly print more money. Sometimes, the motivation for doing this is good. When an economy is really struggling, those that have been entrusted with the management of that economy can easily fall for the lie that things would be better if people just had "more money".
Today, the Federal Reserve finds itself faced with a scenario that is very similar to what the Weimar Republic was facing nearly 100 years ago. Like the Weimar Republic, the U.S. economy is also struggling and like the Weimar Republic, the U.S. government is absolutely drowning in debt. Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve has decided to adopt the same solution that the Weimar Republic chose.
The Federal Reserve is recklessly printing money out of thin air, and in the short-term some positive things have come out of it. But quantitative easing worked for the Weimar Republic for a little while too. At first, more money caused economic activity to increase and unemployment was low. But all of that money printing destroyed faith in German currency and in the German financial system and ultimately Germany experienced an economic meltdown that the world is still talking about today. This is the path that the Federal Reserve is taking America down, but most Americans have absolutely no idea what is happening.
It is really easy to start printing money, but it is incredibly hard to stop. Like any addict, the Fed is promising that they can quit at any time, but this month they refused to even start tapering their money printing a little bit. The behavior of the Fed is so shameful that even CNBC is comparing it to a drug addict at this point...
The danger with addictions is they tend to become increasingly compulsive. That might be one moral of this week's events.
A few days ago, expectations were sky-high that the Federal Reserve was about to reduce its current $85 billion monthly bond purchases. But then the Fed blinked, partly because it is worried that markets have already over-reacted to the mere thought of a policy shift.
Faced with a choice of curbing the addiction or providing more hits of the QE drug, in other words, it chose the latter.
So why won't the Fed cut back on the reckless money printing?
Former White House Volunteer: Hillary Clinton IS a "War on Women"
FALLS CHURCH — Hillary Clinton whipped up a “Women for Terry” crowd for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe on Saturday.
The Democrats’ 2016 presumptive presidential hopeful delivered her “formal endorsement” to the man she said “has always been there for me.”
While the adoring throng at the State Theatre chanted “Hill-ary! Hill-ary!” the New York Post updated the spate of sex scandals involving officials and prostitutes during Clinton’s watch at the State Department.
“Records show that staffers were given cushy jobs or allowed to retire, and watchdogs say the feds have hardly bothered to investigate since the shenanigans came to light this past summer,” the Post said.
Damon Mathias, a lawyer for Aurelia Fedenisn, a former investigator with the State Department’s inspector general who leaked an internal memo citing probes that were derailed by senior officials under Clinton, said, “Nobody’s barking anymore. As a concerned citizen, what the hell is going on here?”
Kathleen Willey, a White House volunteer who alleged she was groped and fondled by then-President Bill Clinton in 1993, called the Terry-Hillary hookup ironic as Democrats pound the Republican Party’s reputed “War on Women.”
“Hillary is the war on women. She goes after any women who crossed her husband’s path. Why people don’t notice that is beyond me,” Willey told Watchdog.org from her suburban Richmond home.
Still jaded two decades after her run-in at the White House, the native Virginian says, “I’ve gotten no help from women’s groups. It comes down to one thing for them: abortion.”
Gloria Steinem publicly defended Clinton at the time, saying his treatment of Willey — even if Willey was telling he truth — did not amount to sexual harassment, let alone sexual battery.

NO FAN: One-time Democrat Kathleen Willey doesn’t feel so warm and fuzzy about Hillary Clinton or Terry McAuliffe these days.
During the Willey incident, and amid a series of what White House insiders called “bimbo eruptions,” McAuliffe remained a close Clinton confidant. He stayed loyal during the subsequent investigation by Kenneth Starr and the president’s impeachment by the House of Representatives.
“One of the few people the president spoke with regularly was Terry McAuliffe, the chief fund-raiser for the Democrats,” Bob Woodward wrote in the Washington Post.
“The first cheerleader, McAuliffe tried to keep Clinton in a fighting mood. ‘I’m with you,’ he said in a phone conversation. ‘People support you, love you, sir. We’re going to get through this,’” Woodward wrote.
Twenty years on, it’s McAuliffe’s turn to embrace Hillary – and vice versa.
After hosting recent fundraisers for McAuliffe in Georgetown and New York, Mrs. Clinton will headline a Beverly Hills event for McAuliffe on Oct. 30. As with the previous soirees, admission is $15,000 per person, or $25,000 per couple.
It’s a far cry from Willey’s hardscrabble world. She has struggled financially – even before her husband committed suicide – and is fighting to keep her home from foreclosure at the end of the month.
Before giving a deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case in 1998, Willey said the tires on her car were nail-gunned. No culprit was ever charged, and she never pursued legal action against Clinton.
In her book — “Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton” – Willey says she was the target of a “coordinated campaign” by unidentified operatives.
“They threatened my children. They took one of my cats and killed another. They left a skull on my porch. They told me I was in danger. They vandalized my car. They subjected me to a campaign of fear and intimidation, trying to silence me,” wrote Willey, who also told her story on “60 Minutes.”
Hat tips: BadBlue News and @KenricWard.
Break Out the Champagne, Everyone! The Fiscal Crisis is Over!
Thank goodness that crisis is over! Jon Gabriel explains:
The D.C. press corps was giddy last night, declaring that the fiscal crisis had ended. Senators praised "honorable friends" from "great states," congressmembers gave standing O's to their stalwart leaders, and the president saluted bipartisanship while ridiculing Republicans, bloggers, activists and pretty much anyone else who dared oppose him.
If the whole thing seemed a bit surreal, it's because the whole thing was a bit surreal. America's fiscal crisis is not that our debt ceiling isn't quite high enough — it's that we have too much debt.
It's as if I had $250K in credit card debt and I told my wife, "Great news, honey — our fiscal crisis is over! I just got a new Visa!" If she didn't hit me over the head with a rolling pin, she would most assuredly tell me where I should place it.
To help visualize how up the creek we find ourselves, I created [the] infographic [at right]...
...When a conservative hesitates before raising the debt ceiling, he's portrayed as a madman. When Paul Ryan offers a thoughtful plan to pay down debt over decades, he's pushing grannies into the Grand Canyon and pantsing park rangers on the way out.
Forget sustainable — how is this sane?
In today's Wall Street Journal, renowned money manager Stanley Druckenmiller pilloried the catastrophic irresponsibility of the president when it comes to the nation's finances:
...this president, despite what he says, has shown time and time again that he needs a gun at his head to negotiate in good faith. All this talk about, 'I won't negotiate with a gun at my head.' OK, you've been president for five years."
His voice rising now, Mr. Druckenmiller pounds his fist on the conference table. "Show me, President Obama, when the period was when you initiated budget discussions without a gun at your head."
Druckenmiller is more optimistic than I am.
He says that America's debt-to-GDP ratio, which is the amount of debt the country has compared to all the goods and services it produces, will hit the Greece level of collapse by 2030. I personally don't think we have nearly that long. When the system becomes imbalanced, chaos and fear trump rationality.
If you're a Democrat, I want you to remember that sentence. Be sure and tell your kids and grandkids what you did to destroy their futures.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Newsweek's David Freedlander (Who? Exactly) Has Never Heard of Mark Levin, Best-selling Author, Famed Litigator, and Top Radio Host
Yet someone named "David Freedlander" -- if that is his real name -- begins a lengthy article with the bizarre assertion that a wide swath of Democrats, liberals and other miscreants are unfamiliar with Levin. I assure you that's not the case. Entitled "Radio’s Mark Levin Might Be the Most Powerful Conservative You Never Heard Of", his amateurish "exposé" is riddled with typos, grammatical gaffes, and problematic diction:
• "...understand the issues form a different perspective..."
"Form"? Is that a new turn of phrase? Or just the hastily typed missive of a hack?
• "...He has no problem rewriting statues..."
"Statues"? Someone's rewriting statues?
• "I don’t why when..."
Eh?
• "...but are rally just leaders of their own movement..."
Rally? Really?
• "... have you ever heard of a party attacking its base."
Is that a question?
The article is flatly embarrassing, but -- frankly -- not unexpected for a magazine that was recently sold for a tidy, shiny silver dollar.
I suspect if Levin had known how pathetic Freedlander's writing skills were, he'd never have agreed to spending time discussing economics, philosophy, law and history with him.
Here's a heads up, David. The reason Levin and other conservatives have mobilized millions is because we are losing our country.
Democrats are openly calling for the arrest of their political opponents.
The administration has tripled warrantless wiretaps of U.S. citizens (according to the ACLU) and is data-mining all of the phone records of 300 million Americans.
The president lied -- repeatedly -- to the American people about the murder of a U.S. ambassador and has never revealed what actions he took when first informed of the terror attack.
The Obama White House also unquestionably used the IRS to target its political opponents prior to the 2012 reelection campaign; this was one of the proposed articles of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon.
The president ignored the Senate's advice and consent role, becoming the first to unilaterally declare the upper chamber in recess over a long weekend to name radical leftists to the National Labor Relations Board. This lawless act was completely rejected by two separate U.S. Courts of Appeal.
The administration also was held in contempt of Congress for unlawfully hiding documents on its "gun-walking" program in which Eric Holder's Justice Department knowingly sent thousands of firearms and grenades to Mexican drug cartels. This effort was clearly intended to demonize American gun-owners and set the stage for further erosion of the Second Amendment.
The administration has become increasingly hostile to the press, targeting wide numbers of journalists at the Associated Press and even wiretapping the parents of Fox reporter James Rosen.
The White House even "developed its own network of websites, social media and even created an online newscast to dispense favorable information and images," an act unprecedented in American history and consistent with the actions of a dictatorship.
And that's just the short list. The complete list is here.
So, Davey -- can I call you, Davey? No? Too bad -- we regular Americans see that we're in the process of losing our country to fanatical, hard left progressives that are doing their level best to install what can only be called a fascist government in the United States.
This isn't the Democrat Party of JFK, a tax-cutting advocate for strong national security. The Democrat Party is now controlled by radical sixties retreads who continue expanding the welfare state even as the country runs up massive deficits. These tactics are called "Cloward-Piven Government" and are naked attempts to destroy capitalism.
The facts are unassailable.
Because he is cognizant of history, facts, logic and reason -- and Freedlander clearly is not -- Levin has attracted millions of like-minded Americans who worry about massive deficits, lawless presidents, and a Beltway elite that is more concerned with the needs of illegal aliens than their own constituents.
David Freedlander's writing appears to be consistent with the level of his intellect, which is to say: he's a drone.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
THINKING OF SITTING THINGS OUT IN 2014? Consider That Mainstream Democrats Now Openly Call for Arrests of Political Opponents
For the first time in American history, mainstream Democrats are openly calling for the arrests of their political opponents. Yes, the hard left Democrat Party's tactics come straight out of the playbooks of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Castro, Pol Pot, and Mugabe.
They will be coming for anyone who expresses dissent against their Marxist policies, but before they do, they'll be coming for your guns.
If Democrats regain control of the House, rest assured that your Second Amendment rights will be eviscerated as they very nearly did following the mass shooting by the lunatic in Sandy Hook. Dianne Feinstein -- the loathsome and brazen crook from California -- had her gun ban bill in place, just waiting for a nice, bloody tragedy to exploit.
These are some truly frightening portents.
• Democrats are openly calling for the arrest of Sen. Ted Cruz "for sedition". Never mind the Constitution explicitly grants the power of the purse to Congress, not the President. Never mind that James Madison himself described that the House could, in fact, shut down any program it wanted to. Never mind all that: the Constitution doesn't matter to these hard left sixties retreads. They don't want any political opposition. They want you gone. They want you silent, or in prison, or dead (what do you think Obamacare is really about?).
• MSNBC plainly calls lawful dissent "sedition", presumably punishable by death.
• Democrat Congressman Steve Cohen (TN) labels conservatives "domestic enemies", alluding to presidential actions to secure the country from the Tea Party, veterans, and Constitutional conservatives.
• A public MoveOn.org petition calls for the arrests of Republicans in Congress by the Holder DOJ.
These are some dangerous times, my friends.
I'm voting Republican in 2014 if for no other reason than to keep our Second Amendment rights intact. Yes, I support the most conservative candidates possible (Matt Bevin over Mitch McConnell, for example). But I'm not sitting anything out in 2014.
I'm not going AWOL, even with the feckless boobs running the GOP, because they're the last line of defense. Let the RINOs form a third party. The grassroots can and will succeed by avoiding the GOP, the NRSC, the NRCC, and other establishment entities, instead working through independent groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund, FreedomWorks, and Americans For Prosperity.
I urge you to do the same next November and to marshal all the conservatives you can. If you aren't motivated to continue electing conservatives like Ted Cruz... if you aren't pumped up to save your Second Amendment rights and preserve the last vestiges of the Constitution... if you aren't interested in staying on the political battlefield in 2014, well, then don't be surprised when they do come for your guns.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
The Most Terrifying Chart You'll See All Week
[In 2012 we] spent $3,795.55 billion, while taking in $2,469 billion in taxes and receipts. That gave us a deficit for the year of $1.326.55 billion.
Much of the spending is required by law. Mandatory spending includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and retirement benefits for the military and federal workers. In addition, interest on the national debt of $227.73 billion must also be paid, by law. Overall, $2543.51 billion in spending was legally required. That’s 67% of all federal spending.
Keen observers will note that revenues of $2,469 billion do not cover that amount of mandatory spending. So, we missed being able to pay for required spending alone by by $74.51 billion. Essentially, we borrowed money to pay one-third of the interest on the money we’ve already borrowed.
Actually, we’re pretty lucky when it comes to the whole interest payments deal, because the average interest rate on the debt is hovering at around 2%. Every additional percentage point in that interest rate translates to about $115 billion dollars in additional interest charges every year. If interest rates were to rise to the historical average of 6%, that would add about $575 billion per year to cost of servicing the debt. That would raise the annual debt service costs from $228 billion to $803 billion. That’s about $44 billion more than we currently pay for defense. So, let’s hope for a weak, struggling economy, right? Gotta keep those interest rates at historical lows.
Anyway, the remaining spending is all discretionary, so, we chose to spend another $1,252.53 billion in discretionary spending. $759.11 billion was spent on killing foreigners. Everything else the Federal Government does—all of the executive departments, science and medical research, the Judicial branch, and giving money to heathen foreigners to try and make them our friends—cost us $492.42 billion. Giving money to the heathen foreigners—also known as foreign aid—accounted for about $38 billion for the year, or 1% of federal spending.
So, what can we extrapolate about the future? Well, we know that, even in interest rates stay steady, mandatory spending on entitlements will rise as the huge population bolus that is the Baby Boom generation begin retiring. Without either significant new taxes and/or significant entitlement cuts, re. That means that, in the not-too-distant future, revenues will not cover even the cost of mandatory entitlement spending.
We can—and probably will—ameliorate this by slashing defense. It’s what the Europeans have done, after all...
Here's the executive summary: the core function of the federal government -- national security -- will be sacrificed on the altar of redistributionist, Utopian fantasies.
The Chinese are creating a nuclear-capable Navy. The Iranians are practicing launches of EMP nuclear weapons. And Hezbollah is operating in the American southwest, thanks to the Democrats' open borders policies.
All is going according to plan. That is, if you seek the destruction of the American Experiment.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
FAST AND FURIOUS EXPLODES, LITERALLY: Eric Holder's ATF Gave Explosives to Mexican Drug Cartels
Scandal: A deadly battle involving grenades between a drug cartel and Mexican police has added to the toll of lives taken with weapons trafficked by suspects that U.S. officials watched but did not stop.
The same Obama administration officials responsible for letting thousands of weapons walk into Mexico and right into the hands of drug cartels in Operation Fast and Furious also passed on several opportunities to arrest and prosecute an arms smuggler who was busy supplying the cartels with hand grenades.
This according to a report by Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News, the one reporter who has taken the time to expose the deadliest of the administration's "phony" scandals.
Attkisson, whose yeoman work exposed much of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Fast and Furious operation, acquired a Justice Department "Significant Incident Report" filed last Tuesday. It details a deadly drug-cartel shootout with Mexican police in Guadalajara last week that killed three policemen and four cartel members and in which at least 10 hand grenades were used.
Grenades have been a weapon of choice for the Mexican cartels. A cartel attack on Aug. 25, 2011, in a Monterrey casino killed 53 people. One of those used in last week's battle with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel has been linked to Jean Baptiste Kingery, an alleged firearms trafficker U.S. officials allowed to operate for years without arresting despite significant evidence that he was supplying the cartels with massive amounts of grenade parts and ammunition.
Friday, October 18, 2013
HELPFUL CHART: Here's How Much You'll Be Paying For Health Care in the Obamacare State Exchanges
...Individuals in most states will end up spending more on the exchanges. It is true that in some states, the experience could be the opposite. This is because those states had already over-regulated insurance markets that led to sharply higher premiums through adverse selection, as is the case of New York. Many states, however, double or nearly triple premiums for young adults. Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, and Vermont see some of the largest increases in premiums.
...The Obama Administration is desperate for younger people to enroll to prevent an adverse selection death spiral.
...Our findings confirm that younger populations see larger percentage increases in premiums. A state that exhibits this clearly is Vermont, where the increase for 27-year-olds is 144 percent and the increase for 50-year-olds is still 60 percent, but far less. All states exhibit this relationship.
Charles C. W. Cooke helpfully summarized the litany of (quite obvious) lies the President and his sycophants told Americans in order to jam Obamacare through Congress.
• “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health-care plan, you will be able to keep your health-care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”
• “For people with insurance, the only impact of the health-care law is that their insurance is stronger, better, and more secure than it was before. Full stop. That’s it. They don’t have to worry about anything else.”
• "If you already have health insurance, the only thing that will change for you under this plan is the amount of money you will spend on premiums. That will be less.”
• "I want to be very clear: I will not sign on to any health plan that adds to our deficits over the next decade."
• "Health care reform will cut the cost of a typical family's premium by up to $2,500 a year."
Every major promise regarding Obamacare was a lie.
As Scott Johnson astutely observes, "If only we had a free press, Obamacare would be a bloody, unrelenting scandal, like Abu Ghraib, or Watergate. As it is, it is only business as usual for liberals and liberalism.."
Hat tips: Maggie's Notebook and BadBlue News.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
BOOM: Ironclad Proof That "This shutdown was orchestrated and planned [by] the White House"
I have worked in the government on and off for 40 years. During that time I became quite familiar with requisitions, bidding, awarding contracts etc. It is a time consuming process with bean-counters and pencil-necked bureaucrats every step of the way.
The simplest request takes months not days or hours.
In less than 8 hours of the shutdown, miraculously, professionally printed 3-by-4 foot signs appeared all over the country in the tens of thousands saying this [park, facility, etc. with custom logos] closed due to government shutdown.
There has not been a government shutdown in 17 years.
These signs were designed, specifications were determined, signs were then requisitioned, bids were posted and vetted, government contracts were awarded.
The materials were then ordered and the signs manufactured then distributed by the USPS or freight companies.
This shutdown was orchestrated and planned well in advance at least 6-8 month ago.
Likewise with all of the government websites that instantly flipped over to landing pages that read "due to the lapse in federal government funding, this website is not available."
Millions of tax dollars were appropriated and spent in this process.
Let me repeat that: millions of your tax dollars were spent preparing for this.
There is a paper trail a mile long leading directly to the White House.
Hat tip: Heisenberg.
PICTURES FROM OBAMERICA: Walmart shelves ransacked thanks to EBT glitch and Y2K, but mostly EBT glitch
KSLA reports on several Walmart stores that were ransacked after electronic welfare cards were "uncapped".
Shelves in Walmart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, LA were reportedly cleared Saturday night, when the stores allowed purchases on EBT cards even though they were not showing limits.
The chaos that followed ultimately required intervention from local police, and left behind numerous carts filled to overflowing, apparently abandoned when the glitch-spurred shopping frenzy ended...
...Lynd explained the cards weren't showing limits and they called corporate Walmart, whose spokesman said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700.00 and only had .49 on her card. She was held by police until corporate Walmart said they wouldn't press charges if she left the food.
Lynd says at 9 p.m., when the cards came back online and it was announced over the loud speaker, people just left their carts full of food in the aisles and left.
As of June 2013, more than 47.7 million Americans were on food stamps. That figure is 1.1 million more than June of 2012 and about 2.5 million more than June of 2011.
How can it be said that America is in a recovery when more people are living in poverty, more are on food stamps, and more are on dependent on government than ever before?
Tragic: that's what I call the fraud, the waste, the abuse -- and, worst of all, the human toll of dependency -- related to these failed federal programs.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
























