Saturday, August 17, 2013

Two New, Humiliating Judicial Defeats for Obama Administration, in Remarkably Harsh Language

Guest post by Timothy H. Lee


“The President and federal agencies may not ignore statutory mandates or prohibitions merely because of policy disagreements with Congress.”

That rudimentary truth, familiar to any freshman political science major, should not be necessary instruction for a former professor of constitutional law like Barack Obama. The fact that it is necessary underscores the depth of lawlessness to which his administration has descended.

On a more optimistic note, however, two new judicial rebukes this week, notable for their harsh terms, show that he remains subject to some degree of adult supervision.

In the first decision, quoted in part above, the nation’s second-highest court commanded Obama’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission to cease “simply flouting the law” by refusing to rule on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository in Nevada. The governing 1983 statute mandates that the Commission “shall consider” applications and “issue a final decision approving or disapproving” within three years. Here, however, the application in question was filed in 2008, making it more than two years overdue.

That is no accident or innocent oversight, but rather deliberate delay in violation of federal law. Obama had promised during his campaign to stifle the project, so his appointees to the Commission just refused to take up the application.

Exacerbating matters, in 2011 the same D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals had directed the Commission to complete the procedure post haste. “By its own admission,” however, “the Commission has no current intention of complying with the law.”

Accordingly, the Court issued a rare writ of mandamus, which amounts to an extraordinary order compelling performance of a ministerial act when all other judicial remedies have failed. In so doing, it felt compelled to address the broader issue of the Obama Administration’s habitual lawlessness:

“This case has serious implications for our constitutional structure. It is no overstatement to say that our constitutional system of separation of powers would be significantly altered if we were to allow executive and independent agencies to disregard federal law in the manner asserted in this case by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Our decision today rests on the constitutional authority of Congress, and the respect that the Executive and the Judiciary properly owe to Congress in the circumstances here.”

Larwyn's Linx: The Liberty Amendments

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

The Liberty Amendments: John Hayward
Making Constitutional Restoration a Reality: Jeffrey W. Barrett
Just before Snowden Leaks, Obama fired most of his intel advisers: TechDirt

It Isn’t About A Clown: Missouri’s History Of Attacking Dissent: Dana Loesch
At Townhall, Rep. Tom Cole Downplays Benghazi and Obamacare: MagNote
Lewiston police unveil armored vehicle at Night Out: Sun Journal

Economy

Food Stamp Trafficking Up 30% From 2008 to 2011: WS
What's Phony? An Economic Recovery: Jim O'Sullivan
Illegal Alien Students Demand Lower Tuition in North Carolina: Breitbart

Ladies, prepare for TSA Operation Boob Squeeze.: NakedDC
Going Around Congress, Again: Elephant
Moody's downgrades Cook County bond rating--over pensions: Marathon

Scandal Central

Dems Warn NSA Violations Just ‘Tip of a Larger Iceberg’: Bridget Johnson
Rep. Kinzinger: Hillary “Yelled” at Us for Suggesting Benghazi was Terror Attack: IM41
NSA Violations ‘Just the Tip of a Larger Iceberg,’ Say Wyden, Udall: Niels Lesniewski

Climate & Energy

EPA Chief Demands People Stop Arguing Global Warming Isn’t Real: WZ
Dope: William A. Jacobson
Obama forges ahead with green energy agenda despite congressional opposition: Doug McKelway

Media

Big Oops – Business Insider says Reince Preibus did not say self-deportation “racist”: William A. Jacobson
Business Insider Forced to Apologize for Lying About RNC Chairman's Romney Remarks: Randy Hall
EMILY's List Demands Apology from Vogue...Just Kidding!: Sunshine State Sarah

Mark Levin's "The Liberty Amendments" -- What You Can Do to Save the Country: Rush Limbaugh
CBS: Three more Fast and Furious guns recovered at Mexican crime scenes: Guns
How The Corrupt Establishment Is Selling Moral Bankruptcy To America: Brandon Smith

World

Egypt Disintegrating: Jeffrey Carter
Tallying the Destruction: Coptic World
#ObamaMotherHasNoHair trends; Angry Egyptians lay on the smack talk: Twitchy

September 11, 2012: A day that will live in infamy: James Lewis
A Survivor’s Memory, an Ill-Fated Peace Process: Abraham H. Miller
FIGURES: Muslim Brotherhood Rioter Sports Obama T-Shirt: J. Christian Adams

Sci-Tech

PRISM Prompts Deeper Probe of US Tech Players: David Vranicar
Samsung Said to Unveil Wristwatch-Like Smartphone Next Month: Jungah Lee
Elon Musk’s Hyperloop gets its own hilarious Taiwanese animated video: Sean Ludwig

Cornucopia

Playing Spades: Hopenchange
These Just In: C&S (NSFW)
Nooz From the Heartland: Sondrakistan

Image: Muslim Brotherhood Supporter Wears Barack Obama T-Shirt
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Morality is a highly misunderstood component of human nature. Some people believe they can create moral guidelines from thin air based on their personal biases and prejudices. Some people believe that morality comes from the force of bureaucracy and government law. Still, others believe that there is no such thing; that morality is a facade created by men in order to better grease the wheels of society.

All of these world views discount the powerful scientific and psychological evidence surrounding Natural Law — the laws that human beings form internally due to inherent conscience regardless of environmental circumstances. When a person finally grasps inborn morality, the whole of the world comes into focus. The reality is that we are not born “good” or “evil.” Rather, we are all born with the capacity for good AND evil, and this internal battle stays with us until the end of our days.

Every waking moment we are given a choice, a test of our free will, to be ruled by desire and fear, or to do what we know at our very core is right. When a man silences his inner voice, the results can be terrible for him and those around him. When an entire culture silences its inner voice, the results can be catastrophic..." --Brandon Smith

Friday, August 16, 2013

Female Member of Israeli Parliament Obliterates John Kerry: You will "cause the whole region to spin out of control"

Now, this is speaking truth to power:

In letter publicized to the press, Shaked attacks US pressure to release terrorists: "You are putting me and my children's lives at risk"

Bayit Yehudi MK Ayelet Shaked has released a scathing open letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry, for pushing the Israeli government to release convicted terrorist murderers...

"In light of the current situation that you have brought about, I feel that I cannot be bound by the restraints of 'politically correct' wording, and I therefore will allow myself to convey my following message to you in the most straightforward fashion... By forcing Israel to capitulate to terrorism by releasing murdering terrorists with so much blood on their hands that the US would never dream of releasing if it was their own citizens murdered – you are not only being extremely hypocritical, but are actually dabbling in experimentation and gambling, by putting me and my children's lives at risk..."

..."Mr. Secretary: the price of releasing over a hundred convicted murderers will be borne by my family and my people, not by you." she continued, asking "How will you carry the burden of the terrible price toward which you are leading us?"

"You forced us into peace talks during a period of time that the entire Middle East is in chaos, without realizing that by doing so, you have foolishly put us in an impossible situation in which we cannot and will not make any concessions."

By "raising expectations to a dangerous level" in this way, Kerry is threatening "to cause the whole region to spin out of control," she claimed... Shaked ended the letter with a word of "advice" for the US Secretary of State.

"The past four years in Israel have been as quiet and peaceful as ever. Therefore I suggest you perform your job in a much more effective and relevant fashion by focusing your attention on Syria and Egypt, where people are actually being slaughtered."

Oh, damn.

Which reminds me: Hillary Clinton is the greatest Secretary of State ever.


Hat tip: BB.

Phony Scandal Curiously Reveals Real Dead Bodies and Real Guns

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Media Bias: Rodeo clowns constitute a real crisis in media eyes, while deaths from the administration's gun-running operation to Mexican drug cartels are ignored as three more guns show up at crime scenes in Mexico.

The media have had a field day with a single, supposedly racist rodeo clown. But somehow, with few exceptions, mainstream media ignore the far-more-dangerous clowns in the Obama administration — those whose incompetence in the Fast and Furious scandal has led to human tragedy and deaths.

One exception is the relentless Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News, who reported Wednesday that three more weapons from Fast and Furious, the administration gift that keeps on killing, have turned up at violent crime scenes in Mexico. CBS News reported all three guns are WASR-10 762-caliber Romanian rifles.

Two were purchased by Fast and Furious suspect Uriel Patino in May and July of 2010. Sean Steward, who was convicted on gun charges in July 2012, purchased a third. The rifles have been traced to the Lone Wolf gun shop in Glendale, Ariz.

Details of exactly where the guns were found and what the crimes were aren't known at this point. And the Department of Justice, under Attorney General Eric Holder, is not about to divulge that information or any information about the recovery of Fast and Furious weapons at crime scenes.

A month ago, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter to Holder asking why the Department of Justice was covering up deaths and weapons linked to Operation Fast and Furious. The inquiry came shortly after a Mexican police chief and his bodyguard were killed by cartel members using Fast and Furious guns.

Luis Lucio Rosales Astorga, police chief in the city of Hostotipaquillo, was shot to death Jan. 29 when gunmen intercepted his patrol car and opened fire. A bodyguard also was killed. A semi-automatic WASR rifle, the firearm that killed the chief, was also traced back to the Lone Wolf Trading Co.

OUTRAGE: Guess who wore an Obama mask on national TV?

Yeah. Him.


Obama on SNL.

Remember, it's only controversial when the Left wants it to be controversial.


Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News.

Will Mark Levin Actually Moderate the GOP Debates? Exclusive Interview with RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer

A few days ago Sean Spicer, the Communications Director of the Republican National Committee, made a surprising statement: he said that Mark Levin should moderate the GOP debates. Levin has formally accepted the offer. To explore this issue and a few others, I made a few attempts to get a hold of Mr. Spicer and, after a time, was able to synch up with him this evening.

Ross: Sean, thanks very much for taking the time out of your schedule to meet with us. Give us a little bit of background on yourself and how you arrived at the RNC and rose to such a key position.

Spicer: I got involved in several Congressional campaigns, House races in the nineties... after a time, I became the Republican National Congressional Committee's Retention Director. Three years later, I became a spokesman for the House Budget Committee. More recently, for the last three years of the Bush Administration I had a very lengthy title, but was really a trade spokesman.

Ross: Sean, a recent statement you made really caught conservatives by surprise -- and in a positive way. You said you thought Mark Levin and perhaps other conservative thought leaders should moderate GOP debates. How serious was that statement and did the reaction catch you by surprise?

Spicer: That was a very serious statement. Obviously, we're not at a point yet of picking debate forums or moderators, but we are definitely committed to energizing the conservative base. It's common sense: anyone's who listening to Rush, Levin, Hannity... they are addressing the issues that the grassroots are concerned with.

What I also find absolutely unbelievable is that in 2008 Chris Matthews, of all people, moderated two GOP debates. Yet why wouldn't we insist on the converse situation?

Larwyn's Linx: Marco Rubio and the Immigration Surrender

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Marco Rubio and the Immigration Surrender: John Hayward
Why the Law Does Not Matter to Obama: Donald Sensing
World Gone Mad: HayRide

As He Guts Military, Obama Is Militarizing a Domestic Force: Moonbattery
Hillary or Bust?: LI
GOP Must Shed Establishment Defeatism: David Limbaugh

State A.G.'s warn: ObamaCare a “privacy disaster waiting to happen”: Hot Air
George Will Notices that Obama has Hacked the Constitution: Bryan Preston
Robert Blagojevich ‘comes clean’ and gives up Jesse Jackson, Jr.: IP2P

Economy

SEIU leaders openly brag about illegal immigrant members: Breitbart
Obamacare Let Feds Use Force To Do Home Inspections: John Hawkins
Is Selling Bonds the Taste of Things to Come?: Mish

Scandal Central

Hillary Tied to Group That Laundered $250B for Iran, Violated Sanctions: RWN
NSA Violated Surveillance Privacy Rules – at Least 2,776 Times: Reason
EPA may have tried to evade Freedom of Information request, judge says: Lenny Bernstein

Can Obama write his own laws?: Charles Krauthammer
The NSA is Commandeering the Internet: Bruce Schneier
TX Rep. on Possible Rodeo Clown Probe: ‘We Can’t Even Get the DOJ to look at Benghazi!’: Nice Deb

Media

WaPo Bombshell: Obama Lied About NSA Not ‘Actually Abusing’ Its Powers: Bryan Preston
White House submits ‘substitute language’ for Washington Post’s NSA story: Twitchy
Obama card-playing Situation Room pic-slam sparks side-splitting riff: Twitchy

Interview: Ben Shapiro Talks Bullies: Ed Driscoll
RNC considering Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin as moderators?: Ed Morrissey
Let Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin And Sean Hannity Moderate A Democrat Debate: Glob

Egypt Burns, Obama Makes Waffles: Stephen Kruiser
Checkmate: Bill O’Reilly Humiliates Al Sharpton On National TV: Nice Deb
Anthony Weiner’s Relationship With Former Staffer Raises Questions: Politicker

World

It's official: Obama has surpassed Jimmy Carter: John Hinderaker
US Troops Beg for Supplies: DOD Turns a Blind Eye: Hannity
Syrian rebels McCain supports executes young boys: Shoebat

Eisenhower, Snowden and the military industrial complex: Robert X. Cringely
So the Egyptian military is killing the Muslim Brotherhood? Great! Pass the popcorn: AWD
Unstoppable Super-Packs of Wolves Roaming Russia: Julian Kossoff

Sci-Tech

New species is first carnivore found in the Americas in 35 years: John Timmer
Learning more about our advertising future in Google Glass world: Scobleizer
" target="_blank">The Top 20 Data Visualization Tools: Brian Suda

Cornucopia

Pics from the Interwebz! 8/9 - 8/15: Morlock Revolt (Language)
The End of Books: Seth Godin
Insane Clown Posse Award Poll: MOTUS

Image: 90 Miles From Tyranny
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Focus: List of Congressional Town Halls - Find One Near You!

QOTD: "[I]nstead of the new birth of hope and change, it is the transformation of a constitutional republic operating under laws passed by democratically accountable legislators into a servile nation under the management of an unaccountable administrative state. The real import of Barack Obama’s political career will be felt long after he leaves office, in the form of a permanently expanded state that is more assertive of its own interests and more ruthless in punishing its enemies. At times, he has advanced this project abetted by congressional Democrats, as with the health-care law’s investiture of extraordinary powers in the executive bureaucracy, but he also has advanced it without legislative assistance — and, more troubling still, in plain violation of the law. President Obama and his admirers choose to call this “pragmatism,” but what it is is a mild expression of totalitarianism, under which the interests of the country are conflated with those of the president’s administration and his party. Barack Obama is the first president of the democracy that John Adams warned us about." --Kevin D. Williamson

Thursday, August 15, 2013

EXCLUSIVE: White House releases new photo from Situation Room during Bin Laden raid; proves Love and Obama weren't playing cards

Earlier today Biff Spackle received the following encrypted email concerning the Reggie Love-Barack Obama card game controversy:

Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 16:04:06 -0700
To: Biff Spackle <biff@badblue.com>
From: Richard Windsor <fatlisa@whitehouse.gov>
Subject: Proof that Obama was in the Situation Room during Bin Laden raid

TELL YOUR WINGNUT FRIENDS THAT WE HAVE PROOF THAT OUR LIGHTBRINGER WAS NOT1!!!!!!!! PLAYING CARDS WITH REGGIE!!!!!!


SEE???? WE WANT A RETRACTION!!!! BECHES@!!!.

RW

Well, I suppose that clears things up.

China aggressively testing advanced nukes that can hit mainland U.S. as Obama slashes missile defense

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Defense: Beijing tests a mobile missile capable of hitting the continental U.S. and prepares to deploy ballistic missile submarines that can do the same, while our commander-in-chief slashes our missile defenses.

In a speech before the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Rep. Mike Rogers, R.-Ala., chairman of the House armed services subcommittee on strategic forces, warned that the Obama administration has cut $6 billion from U.S. missile defense programs at a time of growing missile threats from potential adversaries.

According to Rogers, Obama cut $1.16 billion from missile defense — a 10% reduction — in his first budget as president and has continued the reductions. "Over four fiscal years, this underfunding adds up to almost $6 billion less than President Bush planned for missile defense; this represents a 16% reduction," Rogers said.

Thanks largely to President George W. Bush and his push to fulfill President Ronald Reagan's dream, the continental U.S. and overseas allies are protected against missile attack by 30 deployed long-range Ground Based Interceptors (GBI), 32 ships armed with more than 100 SM-3 IA interceptors, and two dozen advanced SM-3 IB interceptors, dozens of Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors, and eight X-band missile defense radars deployed abroad.

However, a GBI test on July 5, the first such test in five years, failed. Our missile defense capabilities, which President Obama told the Russians he would have more "flexibility" to scuttle after his re-election, have been allowed to atrophy and deteriorate.

To placate Moscow, President Obama betrayed our allies in Poland and the Czech Republic by abandoning plans to deploy GBIs and missile defense radar there.

Other programs canceled by the Obama administration include a missile defense space sensor system; a next-generation Aegis missile, which was to replace the abandoned European GBIs; the Airborne Laser, an airborne sensor system; and a next-generation missile defense interceptor kill vehicle.

Imagining an America with truthful headlines

I know, it's difficult.


Mark Levin's comments from Tuesday certainly apply.


The Face of the Lawless Bureaucracy

Kevin D. Williamson's "The Front Man" is a strong contender for article of the year (emphases mine).

Democracy never lasts long,” [John] Adams famously said. “It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” For liberal regimes, a very common starting point on the road to serfdom is the over-delegation of legislative powers to the executive. France very nearly ended up in a permanent dictatorship as a result of that error, and was spared that fate mostly by good luck and Charles de Gaulle’s patriotism. Long before she declared her infamous state of emergency, Indira Gandhi had been centralizing power in the prime minister’s office, and India was spared a permanent dictatorship only by her political miscalculation and her dynasty-minded son’s having gotten himself killed in a plane wreck. Salazar in Portugal, Austria under Dollfuss, similar stories...

...But the United States is not going to fall for a strongman government. Instead of delegating power to a would-be president-for-life, we delegate it to a bureaucracy-without-death. You do not need to install a dictator when you’ve already had a politically supercharged permanent bureaucracy in place for 40 years or more. As is made clear by everything from campaign donations to the IRS jihad, the bureaucracy is the Left, and the Left is the bureaucracy. Elections will be held, politicians will come and go, but if you expand the power of the bureaucracy, you expand the power of the Left, of the managers and minions who share Barack Obama’s view of the world. Barack Obama isn’t the leader of the free world; he’s the front man for the permanent bureaucracy, the smiley-face mask hiding the pitiless yawning maw of total politics...

...the president would very much like the unemployment problem to be somewhat abated by the time of the 2014 congressional elections, but he knows that this is unlikely to happen with employers struggling under an expensive health-care mandate that he has not told enough of a story about. And so he has decided — empowered to do so by precisely nothing — that the law will not be enforced until after the elections. Neither does the law empower him arbitrarily to exempt millions of his donors and allies in organized labor from the law, but he has done that too.

This is a remarkable thing. The health-care law gives the executive all sorts of powers to promulgate regulations and make judgments, but it does not give the executive the power to decide which aspects of the law will be enforced and which will not, or to establish a different timeline from the one found in the law itself. For all of the power that Congress legally has given the president in this matter, he feels it necessary to take more — illegally...

...[Obama] has a constitutional duty to enforce the law. Representative Tom Cotton says that the president’s health-care delay makes a deal on immigration less likely — if the president can simply decline to enforce the provisions of a law he fought for, why trust him to enforce provisions of a law he is accepting only as a compromise? Representative Cotton must also of course have in mind the fact that after Congress had unequivocally rejected another piece of immigration reform, the so-called DREAM Act, that the president had supported, he simply instituted it unilaterally, as though he had the authority to declare an amnesty himself. He then did away with criminal-background checks for those to be amnestied, also on his own authority. Strangely, the order to halt background checks came down on November 9, 2012, the same day that John Boehner said Republicans would seek a compromise on immigration reform...

...The law also prohibits the president and his allies from using the instruments of government to persecute their rivals, but that is precisely what the IRS has been up to for several years, as it turns out. And not just the IRS: Tea-party activist Catherine Engelbrecht was subject to an IRS audit, two FBI visits, an OSHA investigation, and an ATF inspection of her business (which does not deal in A, T, or F). And although the IRS has no statutory power to collect Affordable Care Act–related fines in states that have not voluntarily set up health-care exchanges, Obama’s managers there have announced that they will do so anyway...

...Barack Obama’s administration is unmoored from the institutions that have long kept the imperial tendencies of the American presidency in check. That is partly the fault of Congress, which has punted too many of its legislative responsibilities to the president’s army of faceless regulators, but it is in no small part the result of an intentional strategy on the part of the administration. He has spent the past five years methodically testing the limits of what he can get away with, like one of those crafty velociraptors testing the electric fence in Jurassic Park. Barack Obama is a Harvard Law graduate, and he knows that he cannot make recess appointments when Congress is not in recess. He knows that his HHS is promulgating regulations that conflict with federal statutes. He knows that he is not constitutionally empowered to pick and choose which laws will be enforced. This is a might-makes-right presidency, and if Barack Obama has been from time to time muddled and contradictory, he has been clear on the point that he has no intention of being limited by something so trivial as the law.

The president's acts of lawlessness have become so egregious, so outre, that even the buttoned-down George Will -- pseudo-conservative columnist at The Washington Post -- just penned his own, far less cogent warning ("Obama’s unconstitutional steps worse than Nixon’s") to the Beltway elite.

And if the Republicans served as a true opposition party -- rather than a deer-like herd of feckless cowards -- they would have thrown roadblock after roadblock in front of the engine of Obama's long train of abuses and usurpations.

Instead, they watch and whimper and cower, terrified of their own shadows, interested only in preserving their tenuous grips on power rather than acting on principle.


Hat tip: Donald Sensing.

Larwyn's Linx: Wait — Isn’t President Obama Already Defunding Obamacare On His Own?

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Wait — Isn’t Obama Already Defunding Obamacare On His Own?: Tatler
The Obamacare Throwdown – Let’s Not Be Gutless Wonders: RS
The people support defunding ObamaCare: Dan Spencer

Chris Christie refuses to help Steve Lonegan get elected to Senate: WyBlog
A constitutional cure for what ails us: Cal Thomas
Senate Democrats Move to Reverse Supreme Court’s Heller decision: GOA

Congressman: Obama stirring up "racial tension and violence": John Hawkins
The Liberal Definition Of Scandal: Glob
Originalism: It’s not just for conservatives anymore: Adam Winkler

Economy

The Obama Agenda: The More You Learn, the Scarier It Gets: Elephant
No sign of Obama's Auntie Zeituni or Uncle Omar on Vineyard: Howie Carr
Farrakhan blasts Obama over black unemployment: RightPundit

How much did it cost to airlift First Dog Bo to the Vineyard?: Samuel Gonzalez
Safe Streets, Overruled: Heather Mac Donald
Documents: Banks stole trillions of dollars in houses: Cory Doctorow

Scandal Central

Frank Wolf renews call for special Benghazi panel after new questions surface: Susan Crabtree
Benghazi attorney: What Obama just did absolutely illegal, impeachable: Michael Dorstewitz
Love: Obama Played Cards During Osama Raid; 'I Can’t Watch This Entire Thing': WS

Faux-Conservative George Will: Obama’s Unconstitutional Steps Worse Than Nixon’s: WZ
Fed Appeals Court Rules Obama is “Flouting the Law": JW
The Carnage Continues: Three more Fast & Furious guns recovered in Mexico: Bearing Arms

Climate & Energy

Zero Attendance for Obama Global Warming Rally: Moonbattery

Media

"We're Building A Domestic Army Because The Government Is Afraid Of It's Own Citizens": XRepublic
Obamacare Provision: “Forced” Home Inspections: Joshua Cook
The Importance of Virginia: Erick Erickson

NY Times: Clinton Foundation Rife with Cronyism: Breitbart
Clinton Foundation Savaged by Unlikely News Outlet: T. Becket Adams
Spy Reveals Hillary’s Clinton’s BIG Secret: Unsolicited

Racism Card Looking A Little Dog-Eared: Ann Coulter
Mark Levin's 'Liberty Amendments' Deserves a National Discussion: David Limbaugh
New Record? Six Shot In One Hour In Gun Control ‘Haven’ Of Chicago: Brian Carey

Noonan Calls for White House to Comment on Crushing of Dissent; White House Obliges: Ace
Oprah’s Racism Hoax Was Not Her First – She Did Same Thing Before 2005 Movie Release: GWP
10 images mocking George W. Bush that were far worse than a harmless rodeo clown: Michelle Malkin

World

Lindsey Graham Challenger Lee Bright: “He is a community Organizer For The Muslim Brotherhood”: IM41
Proof: Huma has Ties to Muslim Brotherhood – Countless Documents Surface: Shoebat (PDF)
"White House rejects call for ‘Gun Free Zone’ around Obama, Biden.": John Lott

Sci-Tech

Kevlar for the Mind: MMA, yoga may offer benefits as PTSD treatment: NavyTimes
Hacker hijacks baby monitor camera, terrorizes family: NetSec
At $1.2M, photocopy breach proves costly: Mike Miliard, Healthcare IT News

Cornucopia

The Million Obama Mask March: Cube
Clown who looks like Obama gets banned for life: PHOTOS: Cube
“Breaking Bad” season premiere: Walt’s destruction foretold: Jen Chaney

Image: American Glob
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Importance of Virginia

QOTD: "Let me be blunt. If you are opposed to using the Continuing Resolution to de-fund Obamacare because you are afraid that conservatives and the GOP might take the blame in the media, then you are a political coward.

It’s as simple as that.

Now there’s a caveat here – if you have a better plan, bring it forward and convince us that you have a different idea. Thus far, all of the myriad of bills passed in the House have accomplished exactly nothing. So what’s your plan for reversing course on Obamacare? Do you have a plan? Or do you just plan to do the equivalent of crawling into a fetal position in the closet and cowering in fear?" --Bill S.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

MARK LEVIN: Hillary Clinton is the Greatest Secretary of State Ever

Mark Levin:

Did you know Hillary's the greatest Secretary of State ever? Can anyone give me one reason?

• We now have a new Cold War.

• We're hollowing out our military while the Chinese are massively building up theirs.

• Damn near the entire Middle East is on fire.

• Communism is spreading throughout Central and South America.

• And our allies can't stand us.

But she's the "greatest Secretary of State ever".

Maybe for Russia, but not for us.

Oh, by the way, she was once the greatest Senator ever.

What's she do? I don't know. But she was the greatest.

So what happens if she's elected? What happens with Bill Clinton? Is he put in charge of the Internship Program at the White House?


Follow Mark Levin on Twitter at @MarkLevinShow.

CNN: During Bin Laden Attack, Obama Abandoned Situation Room to Play Hours of Cards With Reggie Love

While the famous photo op depicts President Obama hunkered down in the Situation Room while SEAL Team 6 pulled off its dazzling assault on Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound, the reality was far more galling.

Via CNN, we discover that a bored President Obama and his "body man" Reggie Love were deeply engaged in hours of card-playing during the attack.

A famous photo shows President Barack Obama hunkered down in the Situation Room in May 2011 with his national security team as U.S. Navy SEALS carried out the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.


But his former body man Reggie Love said in an interview posted online Wednesday that Obama also played cards to distract himself during the day-long ordeal...


...In the July 18 interview, which took place during a lunch hosted by UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs, Love talked about life with the president, including the historic moment more than two years ago when bin Laden was killed.

Describing it as a "very long day," Love said most people were in the Situation Room but Obama came to the private dining room to play cards with Love, White House photographer Pete Souza and staffer Marvin Nicholson.

"[President Obama] was like, 'I'm not, I'm not going to be down there, I can't watch this entire thing'," Love said. "We must have played 15 hands-15 games of Spades."

The revealing video appears to have been sufficiently damning that it has since been removed by the user who uploaded it.

Which begs the question: since the media still will not ask what the president was doing for eight hours while the Benghazi attack raged, perhaps we could ask Reggie Love.

And: what the hell is a "body man"?


Hat tips: Weasel Zippers and Wanda.

"It's time to panic, Illinois."

Not exactly known for its political diatribes, Crain's Chicago Business is sounding the alarm claxons. In "Illinois on its way to becoming Detroit, and our pols don't give a rap", business writer Joe Cahill doesn't mention a political party by name, but his implication is crystal clear.

Decades of corrupt and incompetent Democrat governance have squeezed the state dry.

Unfunded pension obligations to state employees have reached $100 billion. Unpaid bills to various state vendors are estimated at $6 billion. The city of Chicago faces a $1 billion budget deficit in fiscal 2015. Credit ratings for the state and city have been slashed.

The ground is crumbling away under our feet. Yet our political leaders can't muster the will to act.

Legislators thumbed their noses at Gov. Quinn's July 9 deadline for action on the pension crisis. A conference committee of state Senate and House members formed to deal with pensions hasn't met since July 8, though they assure us they're working on it.

If the ramifications for everyone in Illinois weren't so dire, it would make a fascinating study in the human capacity for denial, deflection and self-delusion.

...Governments, like businesses, file for bankruptcy protection when they don't have enough money to pay their bills and can't borrow enough to cover the gap. We don't have enough money to pay our bills.

Until now, we've avoided going bust by borrowing. Despite our fiscal mess, bond investors have been willing to lend us money. That's because of a peculiar paradox that won't last. Because our credit is so weak, our bonds pay higher interest rates, making them attractive to investors at a time of historically low interest rates...

... our credit keeps getting worse. Rating agencies have made it clear they're no longer willing to give Illinois and Chicago a pass on their massive pension funding shortfalls.

As bond ratings drop, more and more institutional investors will be barred from buying Illinois bonds, no matter how high the interest rate. And with rates in general rising, risk-reward calculations start shifting against the city and state...

...One of these days, Illinois or Chicago will float a bond offering and find no takers. That's when we become Detroit.

One wonder whether the taxpayers of Illinois will someday have had their fill and throw the entire Democrat machine out of office.


Hat tip: BadBlue Financial News.

Larwyn's Linx: The Liberty Amendments Could Save Our Republic

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

The Liberty Amendments Could Save Our Republic: Victory Girls
The Ted Cruz Phenomenon: CHQ
Boehner, Cantor act like terrified little girls over de-funding Obamacare: Hot Air

Obama, the Imperial President, Will Act on His Own: Foundry
Black American citizens file "Articles of Impeachment" against Obama: Wire
Who Killed SEAL Team 6?: iOTW

Unlikely Events: Orson Scott Card
The Illegal Alien Murderer of Vanessa Pham: Michelle Malkin
Wussypants Republicans Will Fold on Everything: AWD

Economy

Lawsuit Challenging Obamacare Subsidies Moves Forward: WFB
White House daily emails use tax dollars to boost Obama image: Dave Boyer
Democratic Governors Raise $13M, Republicans Raise $24M: Kent Cooper

U.S. Holds “Labor Rights Week” to Protect Mexican Workers: JW
The "Union Boss of the Year" contest: Dan Spencer
Treasury Ran $98B Deficit in July--But Debt Stayed Exactly the Same: CNS

Scandal Central

The Mother of All Scandals: Victor Davis Hanson
Support student athletes by keeping embarrassing rape photos off the internet: Cube
Jerry Brown Makes It Official: Perverted Lunatics Are Running the Asylum in California: MB

Climate & Energy

#OfA’s rather embarrassing Climate Change spluttering, in three tweets.: Moe Lane
MIT Professor Says Obama's Climate Models Are Useless: Lid
What Global Warming? 2012 Data Confirms Earth In Cooling Trend: Barbara Hollingsworth

Media

Watch Mark Levin and Cavuto converse about Obamacare, America, and more: Scoop
Mark Levin's 'The Liberty Amendments' Premieres at No. 1 on Amazon: CNS
Clown who looks like Obama gets banned for life after public outcry over insulting antics: Zombie

CNN says Ted Cruz eligible to run for president: Scoop
Rodeo Clown Outrage Flashback: Lee Cary, Tea Party 911
What’s More Offensive Than a Rodeo Clown?: Glob

Another Huge Failure for Obamacare: John Hawkins
Greatest Post in Ricochet History: Brian Ward
Rodeo Clown Controversy Goes Nuclear: IJ Review

World

Does Jailed Brotherhood leader have goods on Obama?: Shoebat
Obama Quietly Signs Firearm And Ammo Killswitch Order: American Journal
US: ‘Serious concerns’ over new Israeli settlements: Julian Pecquet

U.S. Foils Al-Qaeda, but Blows Own Cover Again: Fiamma Nirenstein
IDF launches airstrike after Gaza rockets target Israel: Times of Israel
Egyptian army opens fire on Cairo protesters: Reuters witness: Reuters

Sci-Tech

Elon Musk unveils Hyperloop design: Catherine Green and W.J. Hennigan
Google Glass update hints what the final product will be: Kit Eaton, FastCo
How much confidential info is left unprotected in SharePoint?: NetSec

Cornucopia

Day By Day: Chris Muir
Our New Political Class: Money Talks and BS Squawks: MOTUS
Photo: Meteors streak above the Wyoming countryside early Tuesday morning: AP

Image: MOTUS
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Congressional Outreach for Today and Tomorrow

QOTD: “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.” --Article V of the United States Constitution

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

It Would Seem That the Email Address of Sean Spicer, the so-called RNC "Communications Director", is a National Secret

There's a rumor circulating that the Republican Party has a Communications Director by the name of "Sean Spicer".

Sean Spicer, the communications director for the Republican National Committee (RNC), said conservative talk radio host Mark Levin should ask 2016 Republican presidential candidates questions in debates during the next election cycle... [he said,] "the people who are out there talking to grassroots" should be asking Republican presidential candidates questions in the debates...

"Mark Levin should ask the questions," Spicer declared...

...He urged listeners to follow him and send him feedback and ideas on twitter to him (@SeanSpicer) and Priebus (@Reince).
Spicer said he could not emphasize how even the simplest suggestion can be adopted and help make the RNC better and more receptive to the concerns that grassroots conservatives, bloggers, and activists have...

I had the idea of interviewing Mr. Spicer concerning his offer to Levin -- which the famed author, attorney and radio host has formally accepted -- but contacting the "Communications" director has proven more difficult than interviewing Jimmy Hoffa.

Tweeting @SeanSpicer hasn't worked thus far.

Nor has emailing every permutation of email address I can think of, including -- but not limited to:

• sean.spicer@rnc.org; sean@rnc.org; seans@rnc.org; spicer@rnc.org; ssspicer@rnc.org;

• sean.spicer@gop.com; sean@gop.com; seans@gop.com; spicer@gop.com; ssspicer@gop.com;

All of which were returned as undeliverable.

It would seem that the Republican Party's "Communications Director" is in the Witness Protection Program.

He's harder to get a hold of than Howard Hughes.

All of which seems appropriate for a GOP that is more out of touch with its conservative base than Michael Moore with his toes.


Update: Hallelujah! I have received an email and a tweet from Mr. Spicer himself. I will keep you apprised as to our communications.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

LEVIN: If you oppose Voter ID then you oppose fair elections

I happened to be "debating" a liberal at the gym the other day and the topic of voter ID came up. This crackpot believes that requiring voter ID is somehow "suppressing the vote" (his words).

When I asked whether the TSA is suppressing airline passengers, or the liquor stores are suppressing whiskey sales, or states are suppressing driving, his response was the typical Leftist gibberish.

He brought his heels together, did a mock Seig Heil, and affected: "Let me zee yore paperz" -- with the obligatory Hitler accent.

Do they grow these coconuts at some kind of Alinsky farm?

Last night, Mark Levin addressed the issue of voter ID in his usual succinct and effective manner.

Why does the government issue photo IDs? It’s not the private sector issuing them, it’s not the [Ku Klux] Klan issuing them. The government is issuing voter ID so the government can know who you are. Now why does the government want to know who you are? Because they want to know who they are giving driver's licenses to; if a police officer stops you they want to know who you are. They want to know if you have insurance. They want to know your age if you want to buy booze. And I can go on and on. There wouldn’t be government-issued photos IDs but for the government.

So my question is [this]: Is the government – are all state governments racist because they are requiring you to have a photo ID, that is a photo with your pigmentation on it? I mean, this is so asinine what the Left is up to in this administration.

You know what it is? Let’s just be honest, they want to defend fraud. They want to defend fraud. You can’t get on an airplane without a government issued ID. You can’t buy booze without a government issued ID. You can’t lease an apartment without a government issued ID. You can’t do damn near anything without a government issued ID.

Except vote! Anyone can vote without a photo ID at the polls!

Have you ever tried to check into a hotel without a government ID? Have you ever tried to rent a car without a government ID? Don’t we hold voting, like, at the top? Haven’t we fought the civil rights movement for people to have the right to vote? Why is it ipso facto discriminatory against minorities for people to show an ID? If you have a specific case in which a state, a town, a county or somebody has discriminated against you because of your race, you can bring a federal lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act, still today and a state lawsuit under state voting rights acts, still today!

But voter integrity is something the Democrat party rejects. Because they want multiple voting. Because they want dead people voting.

Who uses it? The big cities use it, among others. When LBJ was running for president or first, for the Senate, it was rural areas that were using it.

So this isn’t some civil rights issue. This is to promote fraud.

It's just that simple: Why do governments issue IDs? Because they're racist?

Of course not.

Those who object to IDs for voting, as opposed to everything else that requires an ID, are aiding and abetting criminals. They are trying to destroy the integrity of the ballot box in America.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

GERAGHTY: McAuliffe vs. Cuccinelli is a dry run for Hillary 2016

Writing at The Morning Jolt, Jim Geraghty raises some excellent points for conservatives to ponder.

Why the Cuccinelli vs. McAuliffe Race Matters to You, Even If You Don't Live in Virginia

First, does anyone want to argue that Ken Cuccinelli–Virginia's attorney general, and the current GOP candidate for governor – is not a conservative?
  • Led the legal challenge to Obamacare.
  • Defended Arizona's immigration-enforcement statute.
  • Filed legal challenges to the EPA's findings on greenhouse gases being a threat to human health and thus an emission they have the authority to regulate.
  • Supports right to life from conception until death, supported and pushed several pro-life bills while in the state legislature.
  • Endorsed by the NRA.
...So if you're one of those folks who believes that Mitt Romney was a RINO squish, and that Republicans always lose when they nominate RINO squishes, then you really, really, really need Ken Cuccinelli to win this year.
If Ken Cuccinelli – Mr. Conservative Record – loses against a flawed competitor like Terry McAuliffe, in a purple state like Virginia . . . and simultaneously, Governor Hug-Obama-After-a-Hurricane-and-Move-Left wins in a landslide up in New Jersey . . . the message to the rest of the Republican party will be pretty clear. What you fervently believe – conservatives win, moderate squishes lose – will be refuted in the eyes of many Republicans.
Proud conservatives like to believe that their like-minded grassroots voters are, collectively, like a sleeping giant... [but if] the conservative grassroots are indeed a sleeping giant, so far they're hitting the "snooze" button on this race. At least through mid-summer, Cuccinelli's fundraising is pretty "meh"...
Cuccinelli, 44, had $2.7 million in cash as of the end of June, compared with $6 million for McAuliffe, 56, the former national Democratic Party chairman and fundraiser. While McAuliffe had been expected to out-raise Cuccinelli, the Republican is lagging behind where McDonnell was at this point in his 2009 race, when he had $4.9 million in cash on hand.
What, national conservatives, the stakes aren't high enough? You don't feel sufficiently invested in the success of Cuccinelli in November?
Okay, then think of the Terry McAuliffe 2013 campaign as a dress rehearsal for the Hillary Clinton 2016 effort.
Because that's how the McAuliffe team sees themselves ... In fact, McAuliffe and some of his top allies have suggested to big donors and consultants that supporting his campaign is a way to get in on the ground floor of Hillary 2016, several donors and operatives told POLITICO.
Geraghty's right.

We Constitutional conservatives like to think we have far more support for our principles than the RINO establishment has for its non-principles.  We need to prove it when it comes to serious candidates like Cuccinelli, especially when lined up against loathsome, crooked-as-a-corkscrew moonbats like Terry McAuliffe.

If you have a few bucks to spare, please drop by Ken Cuccinelli's site and help out.


You can read Geraghty most days he decides to wake up before noon by subscribing to The Morning Jolt.

Larwyn's Linx: Schumer: Dems Won't Take Anything but Citizenship For Illegal Immigrants

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

Schumer: Dems Won't Take Anything but Citizenship For Illegals: Breitbart
The Liberty Amendments: Restoring The American Republic: Jen Kuznicki
Obama’s Constitutional Violations and Contradictions Mount: Jaye Ryan

Mark Levin's The Liberty Amendments: Thomas Lifson
After a nuke hits Detroit, only roaches and a horseshoer will be left: RWN
Mark Levin accepts offer to moderate GOP primary debate: Scoop

400 surface-to-air missles stolen in Benghazi while Obama slept: Bob Owens
DiGenova: Obama Leaked About Sealed Indictment: Nice Deb
Is being telegenic the only remaining qualification for high office?: Toldjah

Economy

University of California Study: National Debt Is Really $70 Trillion: NewAm
Holder Caught Lying About Mortgage Fraud: John Hayward
Pizza Chains Suffer Under Another Obamacare Regulation: Matt Vespa

Are we serious about education?: Thomas Sowell
The Obamas Taste The Sweet Life: Dossier
Lerner's FEC Problem: NRO

Scandal Central

Attorney For Whistleblower: 400 U.S. Missiles Stolen In Benghazi: AmmoLand
Benghazi: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood implicated: Shoebat
Politico on Cory Booker's Questionable Finances: Breitbart

A Scandal Bigger than Benghazi: Arnold Ahlert
BBC: Obama to weaken criminal code to make it easier for crooks: TAB
Obama’s Maya Shankar, A 20-Something That Thinks She Knows How to Run Your Life: Publius

Climate & Energy

Obama Mocks Global Warming Skeptics: WZ
Scathing MIT Paper Blasts Obama’s Climate Models: CFP
War On Coal Chasing Democrats Out Of Party: Western

Media

Dana Loesch pulverizes Dems, media over #MOStateFair racist rodeo clown idiocy: Twitchy
NPR’s Ombudsman Demolishes Reckless NPR Series; NPR News Stands by It: John Williams
Koppel: US overreacted to terrorist threat: Flopping Aces

Mike Lee debates defunding Obamacare with Karl Rove on Hannity Radio: Scoop
But it's Free Speech When Bush is the Clown: Brian Drake
#NRCC aggressively swinging in NY-19 race.: Moe Lane

Michelle Malkin Annihilates Race-Baiting ‘Passive Aggressive Punk’ Harry Reid: TPNN
New RNC ad reveals what the MSM won’t show you in the Hillary films: Scoop
Mystery priest IDENTIFIED who prayed for girl at crash scene then vanished: Scoop

TURN OFF 'MAINSTREAM' MEDIA FOR GOOD: Andrea Shea King

World

Shock Report Reveals Alarming Iranian Recruitment Efforts in Central and South America: Erica Ritz
Obama Will Sign UN Gun Treaty While Congress Is On Vacation: AmmoLand
The Death of the U.S.-Egypt Alliance: Joseph Klein

Will Lorance verdict have a “chilling” effect in combat?: This Ain't Hell
Obama Fights for Homosexual Freedom but Not When it Comes to Islam: Outcast
NSA Increasing Security by Firing 90% of Its Sysadmins: Bruce Schneier

Obama Puts Man Who Lied About NSA Spying to Congress In Charge of NSA Spying Investigation: Lid
Muslim Interfaith Outreach Initiative Invites Christians To Flee Or Be Slaughtered: Blazing Cat Fur
Pic: Muslims Flexing Their Muscle In Brooklyn: WZ

Sci-Tech

NSA hunger demands 29 petabytes of data a day: Chris Duckett, ZDNet
Is Windows RT dead? Asus jumps ship, now only one OEM left: Sebastian Anthony, ExtremeTech
Web Security Relies on SSL; Which Relies on Email; Which is Broken: WhiteHat

Cornucopia

19 OMG Moments From The Midseason Premiere Of “Breaking Bad”: Louis Peitzman
What Did This TV Anchor Do When His Video Stopped Working?: Mediate
2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray Already Attracts Steep Dealer Markups: MotorAuthority

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Don't Fund Obamacare - Sign the Petition!

QOTD: "The pension benefits that unions have negotiated are now killing the jobs of their fellow union members. As in Washington, D.C., the entitlement excesses of liberalism are jeopardizing current liberal priorities.

Many people have been predicting this crack-up for years, the inevitable result of a political alliance in which unions elect Democrats who pad benefits for unions, which then spend to re-elect Democrats, who repeat the cycle. The music stops only when the taxpayers are tapped out or the city and state can't borrow any more." --Wall Street Journal