Tuesday, September 03, 2013

"If a single White House pic could capture the essence of the Obama presidency, I might pick this one"

Ken Gardner tweets:

Twitchy commenter Sardiverdave asks, "Any videos of him spinning around in the chair?"


What do John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, Karl Rove and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz Have in Common?

They all support war in Syria, even though we have no idea whether anyone actually used chemical weapons and, if they were used, who used them; or who we're fighting for; or what the goal is; or whether a regional or global conflict will result; or how blowing up some camels helps U.S. national security interests. Aside from those issues, the case for action is rock solid.

• "Nancy Pelosi to Congressional Democrats: Use of Force in Syria 'Is In our National Interest'"

• "Of course: John Boehner supports Obama's call for military action against Syria"

• "Wasserman-Schultz says ‘dozens of countries’ will fight with us, but she can’t name them"

• "Karl Rove siding with Muslim Brotherhood in Syria"

I know why anti-war moonbats Nancy Pelosi and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz are now angrily banging the drums of war: because they put politics over principle every hour of every day.

But I have no earthly idea why John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Karl Rove would support this bumbling, feckless administration when there is no concrete proof that: (a) chemical weapons were used; and (b) who used them if they were indeed employed.

Writing at World Tribune, Yossef Bodansky reports that there is evidence a "Aug. 21 chemical strike in the Damascus suburbs was indeed a premeditated provocation by the Syrian opposition."


Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News.

Larwyn's Linx: We Need Republicans Who Will Punch Back Twice As Hard

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

Nation

We Need Republicans Who Will Punch Back Twice As Hard: Jen Kuznicki
ICE Union: Obama's Amnesty Orders are Illegal: Suzanne Hamner
Gun-carrying criminals taunting NYPD cops after stop-frisk ruling: Post

A Fool's Errand: Maggie's Notebook
Run Away!: Scoop
Staggering Incompetence: Peter Wehner

An Excellent Dumb Question: Dave Blount
Calling It Treason: Jeffrey T. Brown
Conservatives Should Oppose Syrian Intervention: RS

Economy

Attention Dick Trumka, MLK called; he wants his dream back: MOTUS
We're Turning Japanese Now: Sultan Knish
Labor Day: 90 Million Americans Without Jobs; 36% Of Population: Mac Slavo

Scandal Central

DEA accesses Americans’ phone records dating back to …: Ed Morrissey
Unlikely Figure Claims Obama Is Muslim Brotherhood: Shoebat
DEA Can Access 26 Years of AT&T Phone Records: Liz Klimas

Climate & Energy

Obama’s Tsunami Of Regulations Sending Capital Oversees: LoneCon
Environmental Activist Vera Scroggins Endorses Pedophilia: Dave Blount
Nature Suggests Treating “High Carbon Lifestyles” Like Drug Addiction: William Teach

Media

All the King's Bootlickers: Sean Davis
Flashback: Chemical Weapons In Syria Include WMDs Shipped From Iraq: WZ
"Impeach Obama" ad to appear in Washington Times: Watchdog Wire

You’re wrong and you should know better: This Ain't Hell
Is 'Family Guy' Programming Young Voters to Despise Republicans?: Tim Graham
CNN Staging Fake News On Syria?: Marooned

World

Kerry: Dining With "Hitler": Atlas
Suez Canal Attacked by Terrorists: Foundry
Caroline Glick: Obama is turning United States into a global laughing stock: Scoop

Mideast Nuclear Holocaust: Raymond Ibrahim
Pentagon pushback: Joint Chiefs said to oppose Obama’s Syria strike order: World Tribune
American Troops to Obama On Syria: We Didn’t Sign Up To Fight For Al-Qaeda: WZ

Snub: While In Russia, Obama Will Meet With LGBT Activists Instead of Putin: GWP
Obama has given Cameron the chance to go back to Parliament and overturn Thursday's vote: Dan Hodges
Russia Wants to Talk to US Congress About Syria: VOA

Sci-Tech

Candy Crush: You play, you're hooked. Now what?: Jennifer Van Grove
Stephen Elop Is Now the Microsoft CEO Candidate to Beat: Kara Swisher
Did Microsoft's Nokia purchase just put the final nail in BlackBerry's coffin?: Matthew Miller

Cornucopia

Error Sends Bradley Manning to Death Row, Nidal Hasan to Gender Reassignment Surgery: DuffelBlog
September 1st, 1939: Chicago Boyz
Ain't As Easy As It Looks: Diogenes

Image: American Troops to Obama On Syria: We Didn’t Sign Up To Fight For Al-Qaeda
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Sign the Petition at DontFundObamacare.com

QOTD: "President Obama addressed the 50th annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America via videotape, praising the U.S.Muslim Brotherhood entity for its partnership with his administration. A Clarion Project report showed that the convention’s roster of speakers includes many extremists.

“Over the last half-century, you’ve upheld the proud legacy of American-Muslims’ contributions to our national fabric and this gathering is a testament to that tradition,” Obama says to ISNA.

The gathering is anything but a testament to American tradition. The speaker with the most sessions (eight), Zaid Shakir, preached earlier this year that the U.S. Constitution is flawed because it grants equality to Muslims and non-Muslims.

Siraj Wahhaj, who is teaching five sessions, has a history of anti-American preaching and now advises Muslims to avoid discussion ofSharia because “we are not there yet.”" --Atlas Shrugs

Monday, September 02, 2013

Captain Kirk Encounters Miley Cyrus

Robert Stacy McCain says this is "Funniest Thing on the Internet Today."


Watch to the end.


Related Classic: The Olbermann Gambit.

German Media: Obama Reversed Course on Syrian Attack Due to "Mutiny" in the Ranks

Reports from around the world paint a picture of a military that has no interest in an attack on Syria. If these accounts can be believed, the military has effectively rejected Obama's meandering "red line".

U.S. military mutiny forced Obama to retreat (German Economic News - via Google Translate):

The surprising over by U.S. President Barack Obama of his plans Syria is apparently due to a massive mutiny in the U.S. Army... So far, the U.S. military has always publicly silent and obey the orders of the military-political leadership. The basis for most applications, it was the president managed to convince the soldiers believe that the particular use of "national security" serve.

Even in the case of Syria, Obama tried this term... But his own soldiers did not believe him...

So said the retired Lieutenant General Gregory S. Newbold post: "The politicians are naive about the obligations that exist in foreign policy. Many are woefully ignorant about what can achieve a military operation. "Newbold was the leading cadres in the Iraq war. He said that many of his colleagues share his active serious concerns.

An officer who declined to comment anonymously, said: "I can not believe that the president ever takes this step into consideration. In the past 10 years we have been fighting against insurgents. Syria has advanced weapons systems. We would have to fight in a conventional war. "

Already in the past week had Gen. Martin Dempsey, the head of the commander in chief, pointed to the heedlessness of the Obama administration. He said the station ABC : "The simple use of weapons, without a precise strategy, such as the use is completed, probably never leads to the conclusion that we imagine."

General James Mattis said: "If the Americans actually perform such an operation, then that is a brutal, very, very serious war."

Another active officer said: "What political end state we want to achieve? Ch I do not know what it is. We say it should not be a regime change. If there is to be punishment - there are other ways to punish someone. "

Obama's War on Syria: Dissent in the Ranks (Stephen Lendman, IndyMedia):

The Pentagon goes all out to avoid dissent in the ranks. It surfaced in Vietnam... Army officials admitted they couldn't account for over 1,400 officer and noncom deaths. Perhaps as many as one-fourth occurred at the hands of subordinates.

America was at war with itself. Everyone was the enemy. Officers at times fragged troops they suspected of planning to target them... Congressional hearings in 1973 estimated around 3% of officer and NCO deaths from fragging...

...America's heading for more war. Servicemen wonder when they'll all end. They bear the brunt of war's harshness.


The Washington Post headlined "US military officers have deep doubts about impact, wisdom of a US strike on Syria," saying:

Many in America's military have "serious reservations." They're "coping with the scars of two lengthy wars." They're uneasy now.

According to "interviews with more than a dozen military officers ranging from captains to a four-star general," they've had enough... They fear "potential unintended consequences of launching cruise missiles against Syria."

...Marine Lt. Colonel Gordon Miller warned about "potentially devastating consequences, including a fresh round of weapons attacks and a military response by Israel."

Military skepticism grows. Obama's rushing headlong into the breach. He's heading where angels fear to tread. He's mindless of potential fallout. Hindsight won't save thousands of lost lives.

In fact, World Tribune reports that "the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as many in the U.S. military command have opposed Obama’s directive to prepare for imminent air strikes on the regime of President Bashar Assad."

It would seem the U.S. military is exhibiting all the respect for the president that he has earned.


Hat tip: BB.

Inside the Muslim Recruiting Station on Lackland Air Force Base, TX

Guest post by Dave Gaubatz


A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to visit the Islamic Center of San Antonio, San Antonio, TX. The research findings were typical of most Sunni mosques around America. This is a Salafist (Wahabi) mosque. Inside were the typical violent materials such as Fiqh Us Sunnan, Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Riyadh Al Salheen, and more.

The research findings were not a surprise since I have seen this type mosque hundreds of times during my research. What was interesting is the Islamic Center is near Lackland AFB. This is one of the U.S. Military largest training bases. All USAF personnel must conduct their initial training on this base. Here is what I discovered:

1. The Imam is Yousef Said, Ph D. Most of the worshippers are from Pakistan/Sunni-Salafist.

2. They had all the materials that identify them as supporting Al Qaeda, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

3. Very strict Sharia adherence. Many of the young girls were completely veiled.

4. The Center has a strong security team on the grounds 24 hours a day.

5. I met several men, the Imam, custodians, and their head of security.

6. The Islamic Center is closely linked to Masjid Beit El Magdes, 7627 Culebra Rd., San Antonio. They are also behind the Mosque on Lackland AFB. A Brother Jeffrey is the Imam at the Lackland mosque. I was informed the new USAF recruits at Lackland must study Islam and attend the mosque on base. Brother Jeffrey has a goal of recruiting/converting at least 3 Airmen per week. Thus far they have had no problem doing this.

7. There were brochures of Imam Siraj Wahhaj coming to San Antonio on 8 June 2013. Remember I have always said Wahhaj is America’s most dangerous Islamic leader. The meeting is open for all and will be held at the Crossroads Mall Wonderland of America, 4522 Fredericksburg Rd, San Antonio, TX 7pm – 10pm.

8. A former U.S. military member Terry Holdbrooks assigned to GITMO was converted by three GITMO prisoners. Holdbrooks now speaks at mosques. He was in San Antonio on 24 May 2013.

9. The Islamic Center has close ties with CAIR National.

The Myth of a Runaway Amendments Convention

Guest post by Rob Natelson


The Founders bequeathed Americans a method to bypass the federal government and amend the Constitution, empowering two thirds of the states to call an Amendments Convention. In the wake of Mark Levin's bestselling book, The Liberty Amendments, proposing just such a convention, entirely unnecessary alarms have been raised by even some of the leading lights of conservatism, based on an incomplete reading of history and judicial case law.

Phyllis Schlafly is a great American and a great leader, but her speculations about the nature of the Constitution's"convention for proposing amendments" are nearly as quaint as Dante's speculations about the solar system. Those speculations simply overlook the last two decades of research into the background and subsequent history of the Constitution's amendment process. They also ignore how that process actually has worked, and how the courts elucidate it.

The Founders provided, in Article V of the Constitution, for a "convention for proposing amendments." They did this to enable the people, acting through their state legislatures, to rein in an abusive or runaway federal government. In other words, the Founders created the convention for precisely the kind of situation we face now.

Mrs. Schlafly doesn't think we know much else about the process. She writes, "Everything else about how an Article V Convention would function, including its agenda, is anybody's guess."

But she's wrong. There is no need to guess. We now know that:

The "convention for proposing amendments" was consciously modeled on federal conventions held during the century leading up to the Constitutional Convention, when states or colonies met together on average about every 40 months. These were meetings of separate governments, and their protocols were based on international practice. Those protocols were well-established and are inherent in Article V.

Each federal convention has been called to address one or more discrete, prescribed problems. A convention "call" cannot determine how many delegates ("commissioners") each state sends or how they are chosen. That is a matter for each state legislature to decide.

A convention for proposing amendments is a meeting of sovereignties or semi-sovereignties, and each state has one vote. Each state commissioner is empowered and instructed by his or her state legislature or its designee.

As was true of earlier interstate gatherings, the convention for proposing amendments is called to propose solutions to discrete, pre-assigned problems. There is no record of any federal convention significantly exceeding its pre-assigned mandate -- not even the Constitutional Convention, despite erroneous claims to the contrary.

The state legislatures' applications fix the subject-matter for a convention for proposing amendments. When two-thirds of the states apply on a given subject, Congress must call the convention. However, the congressional call is limited to the time and place of meeting, and to reciting the state-determined subject.

In the unlikely event that the convention strays from its prescribed agenda (and the commissioners escape recall), any "proposal" they issue is ultra vires ("beyond powers") and void. Congress may not choose a "mode of ratification," and the necessary three-quarters of the states would not ratify it in any event.

Contrary to Mrs. Schlafly's claim that "Article V doesn't give any power to the courts to correct what does or does not happen," the courts can and do adjudicate Article V cases. There has been a long line of those cases from 1798 into the 21st century.

 "But," you might ask, "Will the prescribed convention procedures actually work?"

They already have. In 1861, in an effort to prevent the Civil War, a convention of the states was called to propose a constitutional amendment to Congress. Congress subsequently deadlocked over the amendment, but the convention did everything right: It followed all the protocols listed above, and it produced a compromise amendment. Although the convention met in a time of enormous stress, this "dry run" came off well, with none of Mrs. Schlafy's speculative "horribles."

In any political procedure, there are always uncertainties, but in this case they are far fewer than predicted by anti-convention alarmists. And they must be balanced against a certainty: Unless we use the procedure the Founders gave us to rein in a "runaway" Congress, then Congress will surely continue to run away.



Rob Natelson, Professor of Law (ret.), The University of Montana, taught constitutional law and constitutional history, and currently serves as Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Independence Institute. He is a widely-published scholar on the Constitution and on the amendment procedure, and several Supreme Court opinions have relied on his work. For his biography and bibliography, see http://constitution.i2i.org.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama Indicts Obama

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

Nation

Obama Indicts Obama: Victor Davis Hanson
From Cowboy to Mau-Mau Diplomacy: DiploMad
Elitism, the Great Unwashed and the Destruction of America: DeRP

The Plot to Save America: Andrew C. McCarthy
Minority Voting Actually Up In States With Vote ID Laws: SAB
And Now, It's Golfing Time (Or Putin +1, Obama 0): ZH

Full Speech: Ted Cruz at Right Online and Defending the Dream Summit: Scoop
Obama Backs GOP into Debt-Ceiling Corner with Syria Move: Wynton Hall
Protesters show up at John Kerry’s house: Twitchy

Economy

Suicide Pact: How to cripple your state in five easy steps. : Kevin D. Williamson
Food Stamps And Welfare Promoted At The New York State Fair: LoneCon
Government Killed Buckyballs, Now Seeks to Destroy CEO, Too: Ari Armstrong

Citing Obamacare, 40,000 Longshoremen Quit the AFL-CIO: Warner Todd Huston
Living Wage? How about not dropping out of high school first?: RWN
India in Serious Trouble (and Gold at the Heart of It): Mish

Scandal Central

Is Eric Schneiderman a Crook?: Jeffrey Lord
The Top Twenty Obama Administration Scandals: Keith Koffler
Bolton: We’re watching the collapse of American influence in the Middle East: Scoop

Media

Ben Smith, Chuck Todd Crush on Obama's Heroic "OPERATION ENDURING HESITATION": Ace
Media Now Openly Lying To The American People To Cover For Obama On Syria: Glob
Right Online 2013 in Pictures: John Hawkins

Chris Wallace: 'What Message Does It Send' That Obama Golfed After Syria Speech?: Breitbart
Black Mob Violence: More and More and more in Baltimore: WGBAL
AP Amends Map With Golan Heights: CAMERA

World

Ted Mack! Calling Ted Mack! Please Pick up Your Royalty Check at the Rose Garden!: DiploMad
Sunni Arab allies exasperated with Western inaction: Matzav
Kerry says top advisers not undermined by Obama Syria decision: Ed Henry

UK Paper: Obama an Amateur on World Stage Compared to Bush: Daniel Greenfield
Sec of State Kerry Briefs US Muslim B’hood Group ISNA on Mideast Negotiations: Creeping
In Rare Interview, Head of Jewish Community in Yemen Describes Segregation, Persecution: MEMRI

Sci-Tech

What a Sweltering City Really Looks Like in the Summer: Eric Limer, Gizmodo
he ten most embarrassing, exploitative, soul-killing, downright dangerous tech jobs: Ian Paul
Apache Software Foundation may have hit a midlife crisis: Serdar Yegulalp

Cornucopia

Drunks Gone Wild: Robert Weissman
Come Back Newton Minow, All is Forgiven!: Ed Driscoll
National Defense Takes a Vacation in the Age of Obama: MOTUS

Image: So democracy won, now what about Syria?
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: We're in a fight with Mayor Bloomberg and need your help!

QOTD: "Although most discussions of separation-of-powers focus on checks and balances among the federal departments, the principal curb on federal power was to be the states. The Constitution, as the Federalist Papers attest, left control over the infinite details of everyday life to the individual and the local government closest and most accountable to him. The federal government was to handle just a few external matters, mainly dealing with national security and foreign relations. To restore that balance, to strip Leviathan back down to size, would take the collective strength and determination of the states. But how to do it?

Levin realizes it is not enough to say the state amendment convention provides the mechanism. It would be as hopeless as herding cats unless there was a concrete plan for the convention: a comprehensive body of proposed amendments tailored to rein in Washington’s multifaceted, unsustainable excess. Thus, the lion’s share of the book is devoted to proposing and explicating ten specific amendments to revive liberty by re-animating the Constitution’s power-checking purpose.

No priority is greater than supplanting the entrenched Beltway ruling class. As designed, the Republic’s central government featured citizen legislators, representatives of the people who actually were, well, representative of the people. More out of patriotic duty than financial remuneration, they met infrequently in the nation’s capital—just a few months out of the year—reflective of the fact that the national government’s responsibilities, though vital, were few and critically reliant on the indulgence of state governments. Over time, as the progressive administrative state grew, particularly under the Wilson and FDR administrations, Washington incrementally devoured state sovereignty. With this dramatic shift in the balance of power, a governing elite emerged—a permanent Beltway ruling class of career politicians whose main interest was in increasing federal power. They now inhabit Congress as if they were life peers or revolve between the bureaucracy and its back-scratching cottage industry of lobbyists, consultants, and celebrity media commentators." --Andrew C. McCarthy

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Obama Agitates for Syrian Intervention Even While Ignoring a Nuclear Iran                                    

Guest post by Anne Bayefsky


President Obama has turned to Congress to save him from staggering political isolation on the global stage. It is an isolation that is the inverse of the promise of a passionate and reciprocal multilateral embrace that carried him into office.

Asking Republicans to rescue him from a foreign policy catastrophe entirely of his own making is not a neat political trick. It dramatically cheapens the office of commander-in-chief. Contrary to the President’s devious portrayal, therefore, the coming vote is so much more than a response to “this attack” or “the massacre” in Syria.

The President had the audacity to ask Congress about the message “we” will send if he does not go forward with his highly circumscribed attack on the Syrian regime. The real question is, what is the message he has already sent by his deed and his words, his paralysis and his verbal scam?

First and foremost, the President cast the rationale for an attack on Syria as a “danger to our national security.” And yet, what is the single greatest threat to the national security of the United States – not tomorrow, but today? There is only one incontrovertible answer, and it is Iran. Not once in his rare appeal to Congress and the American people to use force, however, did President Obama use the word “Iran.”

This happenstance juxtaposition of paragraphs caught my attention

Bear with me. It will be worth it, promise.

The New York Times takes down the Clinton Foundation (Dr. Tim Stanley, The Telegraph, 8/14/2013):

The cynical might infer from the NYT piece that the Clintons are willing to sell themselves, their image, and even their Foundation's reputation in exchange for money to finance their personal projects. In Bill's case, saving the world. In Hillary's case, maybe, running for president.

It's nothing new to report that there's an unhealthy relationship in America between money and politics, but it's there all the same. While the little people are getting hit with Obamacare, high taxes and joblessness, a class of businessmen enjoys ready access to politicians of both Left and Right that poses troubling questions for how the republic can continue to call itself a democracy so long as it functions as an aristocracy of the monied.

The Plot to Save America (Andrew C. McCarthy, September 2013):

Despite some 11,539 proposed modifications since the first Congress convened nearly two-and-a-quarter centuries ago, the Constitution has only been formally amended twenty-seven times (and just two times in the last forty-two years—the last in 1992). One must say “formally” because ... the Constitution has been contorted to a fare-thee-well by judicial ukase (which, for example, enables Leviathan to hyper-regulate virtually every item in your home by construing the Interstate Commerce Clause to control intrastate commerce), by ambitious legislative schemes like Obamacare, and by imperious presidents overseeing the vast, metastasizing, and unaccountable administrative state to which Congress has delegated much of its legislative authority.

To roll back this tide is the burden of The Liberty Amendments...

...Although most discussions of separation-of-powers focus on checks and balances among the federal departments, the principal curb on federal power was to be the states. The Constitution, as the Federalist Papers attest, left control over the infinite details of everyday life to the individual and the local government closest and most accountable to him. The federal government was to handle just a few external matters, mainly dealing with national security and foreign relations. To restore that balance, to strip Leviathan back down to size, would take the collective strength and determination of the states...

...No priority is greater than supplanting the entrenched Beltway ruling class. As designed, the Republic’s central government featured citizen legislators, representatives of the people who actually were, well, representative of the people. More out of patriotic duty than financial remuneration, they met infrequently in the nation’s capital—just a few months out of the year—reflective of the fact that the national government’s responsibilities, though vital, were few and critically reliant on the indulgence of state governments. Over time, as the progressive administrative state grew, particularly under the Wilson and FDR administrations, Washington incrementally devoured state sovereignty. With this dramatic shift in the balance of power, a governing elite emerged—a permanent Beltway ruling class of career politicians whose main interest was in increasing federal power. They now inhabit Congress as if they were life peers or revolve between the bureaucracy and its back-scratching cottage industry of lobbyists, consultants, and celebrity media commentators.

I've concluded that there are two major political parties in this country.

There are the Beltway Elites, Democrats and Republicans, who are committed only to bigger government even as the country commits fiscal suicide.

And there are the rest of us.


Politico and Colin Powell: A Match Made in Intellectual Dishonesty Heaven                                                      

The outplacement service for The Washington Post is a website called Politico. It is, in short, the official newsletter of the Democrat National Committee and for certain leakers inside the RINO establishment.

Nothing illustrates the feckless nature of Politico and its Statist agenda better than a story this week headlined "Colin Powell slams North Carolina voting law."

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell bashed North Carolina’s recent voting law at a forum in the state Thursday, with the governor that signed the bill in the audience... Powell said the law harms the Republican Party...

The bill requires voters to show government-issued ID, shortens early voting and ends early pre-registration for teens, among other changes. Civil rights groups have already challenged the law in federal courts.

Thursday, Powell said the bill sends a bad message to minorities.

“What it really says to the minority voters is … ‘We really are sort-of punishing you,’” Powell said.

Powell also took aim at defenders of the law, including McCrory, who say such restrictions are necessary to stop voter fraud, which is hard to detect.

You can say what you like, but there is no voter fraud,” Powell said. “How can it be widespread and undetected?”

I will not denigrate Colin Powell's service to this country, for which I offer my sincere thanks, but when it comes to matters of law and politics, he is a buffoon.

And, for someone who is so fixated on skin pigmentation rather than character, it's difficult to believe Powell missed the story about the "Mississippi NAACP leader sent to prison for 10 counts of voter fraud."

And the fact that more than 50 people employed by or linked with ACORN have been convicted of voter fraud.

During the 2008 election cycle alone, ACORN was linked to as many as 600,000 bogus voter registrations. Combined with their tactics of encouraging early voting and use of absentee ballots, ACORN is responsible for widespread election fraud.

17 seconds using Google would have allowed an honest journalist to quickly debunk Powell's nonsense. But since this is Politico -- and some hack named "Tal Kopan" (if that is his real name) -- we're talking about, any connection to the truth is purely coincidental.


Related: If you read the list of things you need an ID to do, you would -- if you had an ounce of intellectual honesty -- admit that the entire bogus voter ID controversy is about one thing: the Democrats' insatiable desire to destroy the integrity of the ballot box.


BACK TO THE FUTURE: Hillary Clinton Edition

Mr. Peabody, please set The Wayback Machine to December 2007:

...Mr. Obama has begun to challenge Mrs. Clinton on her central claim that her candidacy represents a return to the Age of Pericles, a k a the 1990s. The Clinton candidacy -- everyone knows it is a her-and-his affair -- is at its core an appeal to selective nostalgia. We are supposed to remember the lack of a hot war, not the "holiday from history" as al Qaeda gained strength. We are supposed to recall the late-1990s boom, not that it began only after the GOP took Congress and repudiated many Clinton policies.

And we are supposed to forget entirely about Travelgate, Whitewater, lost billing records, the Rose law firm, the Lippo Group, Johnny Chung, Harold Ickes, miraculous cattle-future winnings and lying under oath. So selective is our memory supposed to be that we are asked to credit Mrs. Clinton as a kind of co-President during her husband's eight years, while her husband blocks public access to his Presidential records that might let us examine her actual contribution...

We can now add Benghazi and the entire, catastrophic "Arab Spring" to her impressive C.V. Not to mention the growing Clinton Foundation scandal.

If the field of politics didn't exist, precisely what would a woman like Hillary Clinton be qualified to do?


Larwyn's Linx: Is Obama setting up two-prong Constitutional crisis?

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

Nation

Is Obama setting up two-prong Constitutional crisis?: Donald Sensing
Obama's Rose Garden Speech: "Everything I Said in 2007 Was a Lie": Ace
May’s Quabbin Incident might be more than Trespassing? Inconceivable!: DTG

Obama gets Cold Feet: Walid Shoebat
Enacting the Liberty Amendments: James W. Lucas
Bring On the Elephants: Richard F. Miniter

Slouching Towards Armageddon: Cold Fury
4th Grade Students Taught: “Government Is Like Your Family”, Provides For You: WZ
Discrediting America for the Purpose of Installing Communist Change: John Risselada

Economy

Rubio: Obama Only One Threatening Government Shutdown: Breitbart
Chicago makes sex-ed mandatory for kindergarteners: Ed Morrissey
500 days since Quinn said he was "put on earth" to fix IL pensions: Marathon

Scandal Central

More Photos that Implicate Malik Obama and Lois Lerner: Shoebat
NYT: This Whole Syria Thing? Yeah, It's the UN and Congress's fault: RWN
Michigan: Dial 3 for Public Assistance…in Arabic: Creeping

Climate & Energy

Al Gore's New Hurrican Guide: Morlock
Nature Suggests Treating “High Carbon Lifestyles” Like Drug Addiction: RWN

Media

Krauthammer: Obama boxed himself in and now he’s looking for a way out of attacking Syria: Scoop
Mob of Teens (of Curiously Unidentified Race) Rape Two Women: WZ
Wapo editorial: Maybe we should just let teachers rape students: Jazz Shaw

World

U.S. Military In Syria: We Can’t Afford It: Realities
Shorter Obama to France: Do This War for Me?: Bridget Johnson, Tatler
Muslim Brotherhood Wears Obama T-Shirts: IM41

CCB Member Just Back From Syria Thinks U.S. Backing Wrong People There: Roger Aronoff
From Munich 1938 to Damascus 2013, nothing has changed: Matzav
Syrian state-run daily calls Obama move a retreat: AP

Sci-Tech

Tech Companies and Government May Soon Go to War Over Surveillance: Wired
How Patent Trolls Stalled a New Transit App: Slashdot
Connect Betterer: DailyWTF

Cornucopia

Actor’s ‘selfless service’ earns him title of honorary US Marine: Cheryl Carpenter Klimek
What could you do with pastry sprinkles, dill pickles, shower curtains, honeycomb and $2700?: MOTUS
Obama as Miley Cyrus: NoisyRoom

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: DontFundObamacare.com

QOTD: "...anti-Israeli authoritarians are fighting to the death against anti-Israeli insurgents and terrorists. Each is doing more damage to the other than Israel ever could — and in an unprecedented, grotesque fashion. Who now is gassing Arab innocents? Shooting Arab civilians in the streets? Rounding up and executing Arab civilians? Blowing up Arab houses? Answer: either Arab dictators or radical Islamists." --Victor Davis Hanson

Saturday, August 31, 2013

THE TRIFECTA: Poverty, Mass Murder, and Liberals

Guest post by The DiploMad


Words evolve. They take on new meaning over the years. Social and political movements appropriate certain words, redefine them, and then use them to shape the ideological battlefield. The classic example of that, of course, is "bolshevik" and "menshevik." The Bolsheviks were, in fact, the Mensheviks and vice-versa. The word bolshevik, derived from the word meaning "majority," was appropriated by the radicals who were in reality the minority of the old Social Democratic party. The minority labeled the majority the minority and got away with it. Clever. There are many other examples of this in history such as the insistence on calling nazis and fascists right-wing when they are clearly left-wing products.

In our once great, still beloved, but evermore daft United States, precisely those who are not liberal, as in broad minded and generous in their attitudes towards others, have appropriated "liberal" as theirs. The political philosophy of this "liberalism" is one which portrays life as a series of problems that needs addressing by the state--the state guided and run, mind you, by the "well-educated liberal elite" produced by our increasingly decrepit "liberal" universities and informed by "liberal" Hollywood and "liberal" Big Media. Modern U.S. liberals are a variant of European social democrats who believe in a big state and mistrust the individual; the big difference being that US liberals have much more power in the world than their European co-religionists ever could hope. They advocate the "positivist" attitude so aptly summed up in the motto emblazoned on the national flag of Brazil, "Ordem e Progresso," so long, of course, as they are in charge of imposing the order and defining the progress. They take positivism's emphasis on rational thought and logic, and its opposition to superstition and fantasy, and turn it on its head into a "science-based" fantasy that somehow just so happens to lead to more power for them and their state. Global climate change is one stirling example of how liberals have taken a legitimate scientific-based concern over pollution, and turned it into a monumental hoax, known as Manmade Climate Change. That hoax somehow, just somehow ends up demanding more money and power for--guess who?--the liberals and their state. As we will discuss, this philosophy comprises followers who proclaim a great love for humanity while in practice exhibiting a great hatred for people.

Sorry for the long-winded intro, but it brings us to today's topic, for which I provide the following bumper sticker, "Liberals love humanity and hate people." Oh, and by the way, liberals will get you killed. Yes, killed. Modern liberalism kills people, and does so by the millions, all in the name of humanity, of course. It should have a warning label that asks you not to practice liberalism at home, or something along the lines of "I am a trained professional, do not attempt liberalism on your own."

Liberals hate all sorts of people but their special, most lethal hatred is reserved for the poor and the "uneducated." They kill the poor by the bushel, by the ton, by the hectare . . . they kill them at home and abroad. No poor person is safe from the lethal loving embrace of the liberals.

Wherein I go nuclear on the mentally defective, traitorous Leftists who have now become pro-war hawks for reasons of principle, not politics

After reading today's headline story on Larwyn's Linx -- illustrating the stunning transformation of long-time anti-war Democrat Nancy Pelosi into a pro-war hawk vis a vis Syria -- I turned to Twitter to express my, eh, concerns.



















This is Not the War We've Been Waiting For

Guest post by Dan from New York


Remember "the mother of all battles?" It's easy to dismiss the primitive war cries coming from Iran, Hezbollah and Syria as the same schoolyard hyperbole we get every time the USA and the West take aim at the Islamic world. We've become inured to the empty threats, but listen up. This time will be different.

It won't be 1991 when Bush The Elder successfully blocked the Israelis from responding to Saddam's hapless Scud missiles. Today's Israel - even one led by Obama's cat's-paw, Benjamin Netanyahu – is in no mood for that. If the Islamics insist on hitting Israel with reprisal attacks, Israel will likely respond with disproportional force, and a furious multi-front exchange of unknown duration would ensue.

We certainly don't hear that grim possibility reported or "analyzed" by the Obama-controlled media. But folks, look around the room. That's the war we should all be worried about.

The Daily Star (Lebanon), 8/31/13

Israel faces retaliation if U.S. attacks Syria: Iran military


BEIRUT: Israel will face retaliation if the United States launches a military strike against Syria, a senior Iranian military official warned, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported Saturday.

“Israel will be hit by retaliatory attacks if the United States launches an offensive on Syria since it [the Jewish state] is the first instigator in attacking [Syria],” Iranian Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi said.

Iran staunchly backs the regime in Damascus and is Hezbollah’s leading supporter in the region.

Firouzabadi accused Israel of spearheading efforts to drag Washington into a war with the government in Damascus.

The U.S. has stepped up its war rhetoric against Damascus after accusing President Bashar Assad’s regime of using chemical weapons earlier this month against opposition strongholds outside Damascus.

Editor's note: I've placed an All Points Bulletin for the oft-used term of yesteryear: chickenhawk:


Larwyn's Linx: Absolute proof that Democrats are national security traitors                                    

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

Nation

Absolute proof that Democrats are national security traitors: American Power
Tap Out: Ralph Peters Destroys John Kerry's Disgusting Hypocrisy: Scoop
Narcissist-In-Chief Refers To The U.S. Military As “My Military”: WZ

82% Of Whites, 83% Of Non-Whites Support Voter ID: WZ
Palin obliterates Obama on Syria: Scoop
Horowitz: Conservatives Must ‘Fight Fire with Fire’: FPM

Economy

Mark Levin Eviscerates Grover Norquist Over Debate Comments: Tim Graham
Detroit: City of the Living Dead: Tammy Bruce
Obamanomics: Labor Force Participation Hits 34-Year Low, 63 Percent: WZ

Evict the Rich, White Liberals: Kevin D. Williamson
A Note From Ted Cruz: Protein Wisdom
Obama: Sex Ed for Kindergartners ‘Is the Right Thing to Do’: CNS

Scandal Central

Rep. Mike Kelly knows about Malik Obama / IRS scandal: Walid Shoebat
More on the NSA Commandeering the Internet: Bruce Schneier
Checkmate: 90 Miles

Media

Obama’s new Amerika: LA Times prints ’1964 Civil Rights Act led by Dems!’: Cheryl Carpenter Klimek
Cornel West Attacks Al Sharpton: ‘Bonafide House Negro of the Obama Plantation’: Andrew Kirell
The Aftermath of the George Zimmerman Case, Part 1: The Trial, the Evidence and the Verdict: Jonathan Cohen

Ace of Spades’ John Ekdahl goes nuclear over media's Syria double-standard: Twitchy
HuffPo Nut Says Vulgar Tweet Was ‘Pressure Test’ for Dana Loesch; Goes Crazy in Interview: ViralRead
Limbaugh blasts Chris Matthews’ book signing at the Reagan Library: Cheryl Carpenter Klimek

NBC's Mitchell: Trust Obama, He'll Bomb Syria With 'Cautious Anti-War Point-of-View': CNS
Kevin Williamson: I Agree Completely With Slate - and Let's Go Further.: Ace
12 Unspoken Rules for Being a Liberal: John Hawkins

World

Mr. Flexible's Inflexible Stance on Syria: Jeannie DeAngelis
Attack On Syria Is About Saving Face, Not U.S.: IBD
Obama’s bread and circuses: Caroline Glick

The FBI and the Muslim Brotherhood: Arnold Ahlert
Conspiracy and Truth are upside down: Keith Davies
What a Difference the Party Affiliation of a President Makes: Emperor Misha

Sci-Tech

Statins Combat Aging By Protecting Against Telomere Shortening: Benita Matilda
9 Reasons To Avoid Sugar As If Your Life Depended On It: Kris Gunnars, PopSci
Why does paper feel different after it has been wet and dried?: Reddit

Cornucopia

Breitbart Lives On: Breitbart.com Helps Out the Gateway Pundit in Hour of Need: GWP
In 2016, Put Her In The Big House: 90 Miles
Japanese Dinosaur Prank: Nora Kushti

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: DontFundObamacare.com

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Friday, August 30, 2013

Barack Obama and Eric Holder Bar the Schoolhouse Door, Blocking Minority Children From a Quality Education

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Pro-Choice: The Justice Department has asked a federal court to stop 34 school districts in Louisiana from handing out private-school vouchers so kids can escape failing public schools, just like the president's daughters.

He didn't say it on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech," but President Obama, along with Attorney General Eric Holder, also has a dream — one of leaving every black child in the Pelican State behind, trapped in schools that cannot educate them.

Almost simultaneously with the president's speech, Holder's Department of Justice filed suit in federal court to stop Louisiana's statewide voucher program.

Passed in 2012, the program guarantees a voucher to students from families with incomes below 250% of poverty and who attend schools graded "C" or below.

Liberals are all for choice when it comes to having children, but not when it comes to educating them. The irony of Obama's speech is that he pretended to honor a man who fought to have black children attend schools they were barred from as his administration fought to keep them in schools they can't escape from, a form of educational apartheid that's both separate and unequal.

White liberal hypocrite Matt Damon is typical of the elitists who don't practice what they preach.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO THANK A DEMOCRAT: Labor Force Participation Rate Hits a 34-Year Low

We have now experienced five years of Obamanomics.

The results have been, in a word, catastrophic.

Here's an open question for any liberal reading along (and by that I mean you, Carlito, among others): how many more failed experiments in central planning, including the $1 trillion "Stimulus", Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, nationalization of the student loan business, "Cash for Clunkers", open borders, etc. will you tolerate before you finally declare that this regime's Marxist agenda will only end in misery?

How many more failures will you accept before you put your children above your religion of Statism?

Please consider Exhibit 4,806 in a series I call "Legacy of Failure - The Results of Barack Obama's Marxist Agenda":

President Obama’s policies have devastated all age groups, but the most heartbreaking impact is on the young:

Gallup reports that, “The lack of new hiring over the past several years…seems to have disproportionately reduced younger Americans’ ability to obtain full-time jobs.” ... According to Gallup’s “Payroll to Population” measure, fewer Millennials were working full time in June of 2013 than in June of 2012, 2011, or 2010... A recent 2012 Pew Research Center study found that 36 percent of the nation’s Millennials were still living with their parents.


Millions of older Americans have responded to the lack of job opportunities under Obamanomics by becoming “disabled.” Based on disability statistics, you would think that Americans have suddenly gotten sickly, or perhaps that we have been fighting a war:

A study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco also attributes the drop in [labor force participation] in part to the “increased use of some social benefit programs, notably disability insurance.” ... Fourteen million Americans, including roughly 8.5 million former workers receive disability. In 2011, that included 4.6 percent of the population between the ages of 18 and 64. These Americans are not included among the “unemployed.”

Fourteen million Americans on disability–that is more than the populations of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, Montana, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, Idaho and West Virginia, combined: every man, woman and child in 13 states. The exploding ranks of the “disabled” are due to the absence of jobs in Barack Obama’s economy. The human cost of this tragedy is incalculable.

The CEO of Express Employment Professionals, a former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, says: “All indicators suggest this shift [out of the labor force] is not sustainable.” That’s putting it mildly.

How much suffering do you want, liberals? How much more misery are you willing to impart on the next generation before you finally reject central planning? On a scale of Spain to North Korea, how far are you willing to go?


Hat tip: BadBlue Financial News.

The Great Destabilizer

Interesting comment by JVictor vis a vis Daniel Greenfield's article entitled "Liberal Hypocrisy in Iraq and Syria."

[A] so-called change of heart with members of the Obama administration is not a change at all.

Every time there has been a destabilizing force that poses a greater threat to Israel, the Obama administration has supported that force. Cases in point:

• whether people liked him or not, Mubarak was a stabilizing force in Egypt--he was thrown under the bus in favor of the destabilizing Muslim Brotherhood revolution;

• whether people liked him or not, Qadafi had become a stabilizing force in Libya--he was ousted by radicals supported by this administration;

• when the Arab Spring fever tried to take hold in Iran to overthrow [Iran's] Ahmadinijad, this administration sat by silently while the revolution was quelled;

• Assad has been a stabilizing force in Syria--now this administration is talking about taking him out;

• now that the people of Egypt have spoken out against the abuses of power by Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, this administration has been silent and absent in its support for the people;

• Saddam was a destabilizing force in his own right.

It is clear that the Obama administration is working diligently, either actively or by apparent inaction, to destabilize the Middle East and northern Africa while alienating Israel at the same time.

The question is, why?

I encourage commenters to offer conjecture. I have my suspicions, but then again, I'm a right-wing, Consitutional, conservative Hobbit Visigoth and all.


Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News.