Thursday, June 19, 2014

Larwyn's Linx: We Don't Need No Stinkin' Emails!

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

Nation

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Emails: Mark Steyn
IRS continues to flail about in Lerner case; consequences to ensue: Moe Lane
The immediate dividends of Cantor’s defeat: RS

We are a People of self-made Heroes: III Percent
The Hillary Gaffe-athon, Domestic Terrorist-Slash-Gun Owner Edition: Hewitt
The GOP Creates a Squirrel for Hillary: Wilderness

You Bet This Is Swiftboating: Ann Coulter
Obama to Congress: If I Decide to Declare War on Iraq, I'll Email You: Ace
CT High School Blocks Student Access To Conservative Web Sites: 54° 40′

"Child Migrants" Surge into NYC, Overwhelming the System: Ace
Perry orders surge of TX state troopers along Mexican border: Poor Richard
Illegal Immigrants Treated Better Than Homeless in US: Kristin Tate

Economy

The Affordable Care Act isn't so affordable in New Jersey: WyBlog
Surprise: Obamacare Will Cost Way More Than Predicted: Ace
Social Security closes offices as baby boomers age: AP

Scandal Central

Catherine Engelbrecht: “This administration is rattling the very foundations of this republic”: Scoop
Judicial Watch Smoking Gun Busts Open IRS Scandal, Again: Tom Fitton
IRS Promises Soros-funded Group It Will Further Regulate Nonprofits: MRC

IRS Officials: ‘Oops, Lerner’s Hard Drive Is Gone Too’: Stephen Kruiser
Terrific: Single-Payer VA Routinely Fails to Respond to Reporter Inquiries: By Jim Geraghty
Communists Call Cops, Shut Down 'Right-Wing Blogger' at Portland State Open Public Meeting: AmPower

Climate & Energy

Eight Thumbs Down!: Mark Steyn
Who’s Responsible For The Latest Attack on America’s Power Grid?: Joshua Krause
Senators propose 12-cent gas tax increase: KATC-3

Media

Protecting the Precious: Erick Erickson
NBC’s Chuck Todd: The Public is Saying ‘Your Presidency is Over’: TR
With ‘Oodles of … Insider Cred,’ Cantor Can Write His Ticket: PJM

Massively Popular Hillary Clinton Down to 44% Public Approval in NBC Poll: JWF
The Redskins Get Their Trademark Yanked by Aggrieved White Liberals: RS
Ted Cruz educates Democrats on consequences of their anti-free-speech bill: Scoop

Survey: Over Half The Country Thinks Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger Is A Terrible Idea: Consumerist
Patent Office’s Rejection of Redskins Trademark Violates First Amendment: Ace
Isn't It Odd to Hear Obama Praising Capture of a Benghazi Terrorist After Releasing 5 from Gitmo?: FNI

World

Thanks to Barack Obama, Al-Qaeda Controls More Territory Than Anytime in History: GWP
New ISIS Video Shows Shia Soldiers Being Taunted Before They Are Executed: WZ
Intelligence Chairman on Iraq: ‘We Have a Very Narrow Window to Get This Right’: PJM

Brigitte Gabriel schools Muslim woman claiming all Muslims are portrayed badly: Scoop
Vox Explains: Israel Is The Worst: Federalist
Ignoring the Elephant: Caroline Glick

Middle East Holds Few Attractive Options For Obama: Victor Davis Hanson
Slaughter In Iraq — Bush’s Fault?: Larry Elder
Honduras to ask U.S. not to deport Honduran kids: CNN

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

The NSA now owns Bitcoin: Global Guerillas
Stalker: A creepy look at you, online: Erica Fink, CNN Money
US marshals leak list of possible Bitcoin buyers: Register

Cornucopia

A Master Shares His Secret: Nuking Politics
Hillary 2016: She’ll make the trains run on time: PW
The 20 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media for 2014: John Hawkins

Image: The 20 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media for 2014
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: DONATE TO CHRIS McDANIEL NOW!

QOTD: “I think that it’s now up to the citizens to take a long hard look in the mirror and get reengaged in this country. Because this administration is rattling the very foundations of this republic and we need not kid ourselves about where this is going if we just allow it to continue.” --Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of True the Vote, targeted by multiple government agencies

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

MARVELOUS: As Obama Touts Partnership With Iran, Mullahs Warn U.S. Against Intervening in Iraq

It seems like only hours ago that Barack Obama and his bumbling sycophants advisers were insisting that they could partner with Iran to stop the Al Qaeda-offshoot-slash-throwback barbarians known as ISIS.

In fact, it was only hours ago and yet it was instantly repudiated -- in stark and degrading terms -- by Iran's radical nut-job leaders.

Adam Kredo fills us in:

The head of Iran’s armed forces on Tuesday called the United States “supporters of terrorists” and warned the Obama administration against any intervention in Iraq, where extremist terrorists are seeking to depose the American-backed government.

Iran’s warning came less than a day after senior Obama administration officials expressed optimism about partnering with Tehran and signals that the White House may be misreading Iran’s intentions in Iraq.

The State Department in recent days has taken heat for ignoring its own warning about Iran’s efforts to destabilize Iraq. U.S. official have instead conducted a full court press to convince the nation that Iran and America have a “shared interest” in the region...

...Iranian General Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of staff of the country’s armed forces, slammed the United States and blamed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for sponsoring terrorist groups in Iraq and the region... Clinton’s State Department, the general claimed, “created terrorist groups” and is now “displeased with the results of the recent elections in Iraq and is cancel election results.”

Iranian officials say that they can handle the Iraq terror group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) without any U.S. assistance.


Well, that appears to have been the fastest foreign policy bust in American history, though certainly not Obama's first encounter with utter and complete humiliation on the foreign stage.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

COMPUTER CRASH? Try Obstruction of Justice

By Investor's Business Daily

Scandal: The IRS descends into criminal enterprise, with word of a 26-month gap of lost emails from the very period it was illegally targeting Tea Party groups. Computer crash? Try obstruction of justice.

Just as the claim that President Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, inadvertently hit the "erase" button instead of "pause" gave impetus to the drive to impeach Nixon, so too should the IRS announcement that it can't find two years of Lois Lerner's emails lead to a criminal investigation of this administration and creation of a select committee.

In April we wrote, "Lois Lerner Should Go To Jail." We think so now more than ever and also that she shouldn't be the only one to be measured for an orange jumpsuit. As in Watergate, this fish rots from the head.

We are reminded how, during his Arizona State University commencement speech in 2009, President Obama noted that ASU had refused to grant him an honorary degree and "joked" that "President (Michael) Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS."

The joke was not funny then and is less funny now. It was a predictor of administration behavior. Lerner's knowledge of and participation in planning to use the IRS as a political weapon, in coordination with the White House, is why she twice invoked the Fifth Amendment in her congressional visits, even as she was cooperating — or is it coordinating? — with Eric Holder's Justice Department.

As Joseph Curl notes in the Washington Times, the Articles of Impeachment against Nixon charged that he "endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigation to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner."

Anyone who thinks ISIS will stop with Iraq is delusional

By Claude Salhani

The slaughterhouse that Iraq has become in the past week is the stuff that nightmares are made of. And this is just the beginning. 

The threat emanating from the group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is so serious to the stability of the region -- and beyond – that even Iran said it would not oppose U.S. military intervention if it were aimed at the Islamists who have embarked on a rampage of murder and looting across Iraq.

The stunning and unexpected victories by the Islamists are very worrisome. In a region that is no stranger to conflict, this one is particularly frightening and has far-reaching consequences, including the threat of spin-off groups similar to ISIS taking root in surrounding nations.

A militarily successful Islamist force straddling over parts of Iraq and Syria will pose a real threat to the security and stability of those countries’ immediate neighbors. Even Syria, where government forces are fighting their own civil war, has offered to send troops to Iraq.

Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and, of course, Israel, would be the first to feel the effect of a takfiri victory.  But so would Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Oman and Yemen. If ISIS is successful in Iraq, there is little reason to believe they would stop

Left unchecked, the Islamists could eventually threaten the stability of countries in Central Asia.

Here’s why the threat goes beyond Iraq and Syria.

THE PLUNDERERS AND THE PEOPLE

by Christopher Manion


I still remember the day - June 2, 1964.

My new banjo arrived in the afternoon (on Railway Express - this was pre-Woodstock, remember), and late that evening, the news came in that Barry Goldwater had won the California primary, defeating New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller by two percentage points.

I'm still playing that banjo, and that election is still changing history.

On June 10, another earthquake hit, this time shaking the Seventh Congressional District of Virginia to its core.

And it's going to make history too.

Last week, Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who had been tipped as the natural successor to House Speaker John Boehner, was soundly defeated by Dave Brat, an economics professor, for the Republican nomination.

I remember when Democrat Majority Whip John Brademas - my Congressman - lost his longtime seat to a Republican businessman who, like Brat, was a political novice in 1980.

It was a pretty big deal, but Brademas' loss was drowned out by the the Reagan victory, a political earthquake that would never have happened without that California primary 16 years before.

Like Cantor, Brademas was accustomed to being reelected almost automatically - until he wasn't.

If past is prologue, the defeat of Cantor by a political unknown does not augur well for the Republican Establishment - or for the Democrats: it's hard to tell, on any given day, which of them hates conservative upstarts like Brat the most.

Larwyn's Linx: White House To Welcome In, Honor Illegal Immigrants

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

Nation

White House To Welcome In, Honor Illegal Immigrants: DC
Obama Funded Kidnappers of American Citizen Naftali Frankel: RWN
New York Dem: Illegals Should Have The Right To Vote: Jonah Bennett, DC

Judd Gregg Unintentionally Highlights What’s Wrong With The GOP: Cove
Democrat Political Operative Running Thad Cochran’s GOTV effort: Dan Riehl
Hillary’s Sense Of Entitlement On Full Display In Interviews: RWN

The Quote that Should End Hillary Clinton’s Political Career: Tatler
Hillary should totally run on a promise for four more years of Obama!: Moe Lane
5 Reasons Hillary Won't Run: Tom Bevan

Join Or Die: Bob Belvedere
Bloomberg's ex-"Right-Hand Man" Admits Flaws of Gun Control: BuzzPo
Obama Blames Right-Wing Billionaires For Obamacare Failures: WZ

Economy

The .01%: Greedy Clintons Use Trusts to Limit Estate Tax They Back: JWF
GM adds more than 3 million cars to recalls: Hot Air
American workers forced to train their foreign guest worker replacements: RWN

Scandal Central

IRS Was Required By Law to Print Out Lois Lerner’s Emails: Patrick Howley
Lerner on missing emails: 'Sometimes stuff just happens': Rick Moran
This Is Why Benghazi Suspect Khattala Was Apprehended, And Not the Dozen Others Charged: Sooper

Climate & Energy

Another Act of Domestic Terrorism at a Substation Near the Border: Sara Noble
No Mr. President, You are the 'Serious Threat to Everybody's Future': Lauri B. Regan
Militants strike Iraq's largest oil refinery: LAT

Media

Documentary Exposing Kevin McCarthy's Reckless Spending Wins Award: Riehl
The New York Times’ Delusional Paul Krugman Sees Obama as a Victim of Unfair Press: AIM
John Podhoretz Misses Cantor Loss By Over 90 Miles: Jen Kuznicki

Dana Milbank, call your office: David Freddoso
U.S. Captures One Benghazi Attacker... Hours Before Hillary Clinton’s Live Fox Interview: Pat Dollard
Krauthhammer SLAMS Obama: What He Just Did “Is A High Crime”: Western

Hillary’s book is bombing so badly she’ll need to blame it on a YouTube video: CFP
Met Cancels Anti-American, Anti-Semitic Broadcast: TR
Benghazi Victim’s Mom: Hillary Clinton “Doesn’t Give A Damn” About Telling The Truth: Jerome Hudson

World

Hillary, read the news: Ex-GITMO detainee arrested in Spain for recruiting jihadists: Allen West
I’m sick of being labeled an Islamophobe for stating the truth: Allen West
Congressman from Texas Refuses to Be Kept Away From Border Patrol Facility: RWN

Oliver North: The Charter of ISIS Includes Attacking the American Homeland: MinorityReport
Nature of the Beast…: Battlefield USA
Reminder: like ISIS leader, man who killed Amb. Chris Stevens was freed by Obama's actions: TAB

Downsizing people's freedoms and outsourcing the work of terror to the Thugs United: Logos politikos
Has the Dept. of Homeland Security become America’s standing army?: John Whitehead
Recon – Another Essential Element In Conducting Operations: WRSA

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Google and ISIS' YouTube Channel (Caution: Graphic): Black & Right
You can now push YouTube live-events to Chromecast with your mobile device: Timothy J. Seppala
Creating a Hashtag to Build Engagement at Your Event: Kristen Curtiss

Cornucopia

SEALs want more 'Don't Tread on Me' patches, 8 months after controversy: Stripes
The Urban Dictionary definition for “Progressive” is actually really funny: YC
An Interview With Colorado Governor Candidate Tom Tancredo: RWN

Image: Militants strike Iraq's largest oil refinery
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: DONATE TO DAVE BRAT NOW

QOTD: "As the terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) threaten Baghdad, thousands of slaughtered Iraqis in their wake, it is worth recalling a few of President Obama's past statements about ISIS and al Qaeda. "If a J.V. team puts on Lakers' uniforms that doesn't make them Kobe Bryant" (January 2014). "[C]ore al Qaeda is on its heels, has been decimated" (August 2013). "So, let there be no doubt: The tide of war is receding" (September 2011).

Rarely has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many. Too many times to count, Mr. Obama has told us he is "ending" the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—as though wishing made it so. His rhetoric has now come crashing into reality. Watching the black-clad ISIS jihadists take territory once secured by American blood is final proof, if any were needed, that America's enemies are not "decimated." They are emboldened and on the march.

The fall of the Iraqi cities of Fallujah, Tikrit, Mosul and Tel Afar, and the establishment of terrorist safe havens across a large swath of the Arab world, present a strategic threat to the security of the United States. Mr. Obama's actions—before and after ISIS's recent advances in Iraq—have the effect of increasing that threat." --Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

CAUGHT IN A WEB OF LIES: IRS Chief John Koskinen Faces Serious Consequences for Email Statements

By Investor's Business Daily

Scandal: In testimony last March, the IRS chief told Congress that the now-allegedly irretrievable emails were not immediately available because they were safely stored offline. Maybe the NSA can help find them?

Rep. Darrell Issa's House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to testify June 23 about Lois Lerner's suddenly lost emails. One of the topics is expected to be his prior contradictory congressional testimony.

Koskinen testified about the emails at an Oversight hearing in March and, as investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson notes, gave quite the opposite impression from the current storyline that has every computer nerd in America rolling on the floor laughing.

Koskinen said the reason that requested emails were difficult to provide was that IRS emails "get taken off and stored in servers." He failed to mention any Lerner hard-drive crash that allegedly occurred long before, only to be divulged in this administration's habitual Friday data dump of unpleasant news.

Was he lying then or is he lying now? Federal law requires that such records be archived and accessible — particularly records subject to congressional investigation — and that the destruction or loss of any such records be authorized according to the law and reported to the archivist of such records. Someone is either lying or has broken the law big time, or both.

#44: No Ordinary Weakling

Papa B relays this letter to the editor, reportedly published earlier this year in the Eugene, Oregon Register Guard and authored by an 80-year old from Springfield, Oregon:



#READYFORHILLARY: Dana @Milbank and @WashingtonPost Flat Busted Lying About Benghazi Forum

By James Simpson

The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank wrote a column on Monday titled “Heritage’s ugly Benghazi panel,” portraying a forum held the same day at the Heritage Foundation, hosted by the newly formed Benghazi Accountability Coalition, as nothing more than an anti-Islamic hate-fest. This was a serious panel with numerous, widely recognized experts, a couple of whom were also members of Accuracy in Media’s Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi. CCB’s April report, “How America Switched Sides in the War on Terror,” made international headlines.

That report took some serious skin. Diane Sawyer, Bob Woodward, and other stalwarts of the mainstream media, have taken Hillary Clinton to task over Benghazi. With Heritage and others now picking up the baton, something clearly needed to be done. They can’t have Hillary’s chances in 2016 threatened by that Benghazi “old news.” As Hillary herself said, “What difference, at this point, does it make!?”

Enter Dana Milbank, WaPo’s hit “journalist,” who sees Joseph McCarthy, and racist bigots behind every conservative door. He could not, and did not, dispute the facts raised during this afternoon-long forum. Instead he used a now-standard device of the left when confronted with uncomfortable truths. The discussion and topic was discredited by simply describing what was said in a presumptuous and mocking tone. It is a clever way to discredit facts in the reader’s mind without actually disputing the facts. So for example, he wrote:

“The session, as usual, quickly moved beyond the specifics of the assaults that left four Americans dead to accusations about the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating the Obama administration, President Obama funding jihadists in their quest to destroy the United States, Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton attempting to impose Shariah blasphemy laws on Americans and Al Jazeera America being an organ of ‘enemy propaganda.’”

Most of the above, of course, is true. President Obama did fund the Libyan opposition, which was known to have al Qaeda ties, and those same jihadists turned around and attacked the Benghazi Special Mission Compound, killing Americans. He blatantly supported the Muslim Brotherhood in the misnamed Egyptian “Arab Spring” where one of America’s most reliable Muslim allies, Hosni Mubarak, was deposed.

Obama and Clinton are certainly doing nothing to stop the spread of Shariah in America, and the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the Obama administration. Another report out Monday quoted Mohamed Elibiary, an advisor to the Homeland Security Department and Muslim Brotherhood supporter, writing in a tweet, “As I’ve said b4, inevitable that ‘Caliphate’ returns…” Finally, anyone even remotely familiar with Al Jazeera knows it is an Islamist propaganda organ. The fact that it occasionally does a better job of reporting news than the American mainstream media is simply a reflection of just how bad the American media have become.

But apparently Milbank’s job is not to delve into the facts. Instead, his job is to discredit Obama’s detractors. So he used another standard leftist device as well. He found a convenient straight man to play the victim, innocently asking questions and making statements designed to provoke a predictable response, which could then be attacked with the usual leftist rhetoric. In this case, he utilized a Muslim woman named Saba Ahmed. He wrote, “Saba Ahmed, an American University law student, stood in the back of the room and asked a question in a soft voice…” He quoted her as saying:

GOOD NEWS: Mexican Embassy Says That Mexicans "Illegally" Invading U.S. "Are Not Committing a Crime"

I guess they have a point, considering the fact that the President ignores the very immigration laws he swore to uphold.

Furthermore, with the likes of Obama, the Democrat Party, the unions, Jeb Bush, the RINO establishment, the Chamber of Crony Capitalism, vintage media, and the rest of the DC Ruling Class all agitating for open borders, I got to thinking.

Who in Washington stands with the American citizen?

That's a rhetorical question. No one but a few Constitutional conservatives like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee appear to be on our side. America's side.

MRCTV talks to protesters calling for the release of U.S. Marine Andrew Tahmooressi outside the Mexican Embassy - where a spokesperson for the Mexican Embassy tells them illegal border crossing is "not committing a crime."

"When a Mexican, or any other citizen, crosses a border, let's say illegally, they are not committing a crime. They are doing it illegally, but they are not committing a crime. No, they are not. Check your law," Public Affairs Minister Ariel Moutsatos-Morales says.

Well, I guess we can close the file on that particular issue.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

Larwyn's Linx: Cleta Mitchell to the IRS: Answer this

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

Nation

Cleta Mitchell to the IRS: Answer this: Power Line
SCOTUS begins demolition of 2nd Amendment: Protein Wisdom
IRS Commissioner Subpoenaed to Testify on Lois Lerner’s ‘Lost’ Emails: Signal

Leaving From Behind: Mark Steyn
Hanna’s Lies Bring Out Energized Base For Claudia Tenney: Jen Kuznicki
Twenty Seven Shot Over the Weekend in Gun Free Chicago: BuzzPo

NYT: VA went after whistleblowers in a big way: Hot Air
Mrs. Clinton Yuks It Up Recalling How She Helped Free Child Rapist: JWF
Now It's a Race for Cantor's Seat Or Is It?: PJM

The Ticking IRS IT Department Time Bomb: DTG
Surprise! The Vegas Cop Killers Weren't So Right-Wing After All: Ace
N.Y. lawmaker aims to give voting rights to illegal immigrants: Reuters

Economy

Fourth Turning Accelerating: The Burning Platform
Up to 2MM ObamaCare Enrollees to be Questioned on Subsidies: JWF
From barista to bachelor’s degree … and back to barista: James Pethokoukis

Scandal Central

ICE shipping planeloads of illegal immigrants to Massachusetts: BPR
95% of Illegal Aliens Say They Came for New Amnesty Promise: IJR
Benghazi’s Most Important Whistleblower Just Came Forward: Shoebat

Media

Shorter Krugman: ‘Kool-Aid, Anyone?’: R.S. McCain
Metropolitan Opera romanticizes one NYer’s murder: Ronn Torossian
The Principled Left: iOTW

Only CBS Covers IRS Losing Two Years of Lois Lerner Emails: MRC
Neal Boortz: The IRS scandal is now worse than Watergate: Rare Radio
Liberals in Line to Buy Hillary’s New Book Can’t Name Her Accomplishments: R.S. McCain

Progressives and the Unnecessary Lie: Derek Hunter
Six in 10 Americans Dissatisfied with Obama Administration Handling of 2012 #Benghazi Attack: AmPower
CONFIRMED: Oregon School Shooting Stopped by Armed Resource Officers!: BuzzPo

World

America's Iraq Bet Goes Bust: Ace
ISIS Declares All Guns in Iraq Illegal…Except Those Used by ISIS: Nick Leghorn
Apocalyptic prophecies drive both sides to Syrian battle for end of time: Reuters

Army begins Bowe Bergdahl investigation: Susan Crabtree
'My husband told them we were Christians and they shot him in the head': Daily Mail
Tamaulipas: Important Capture of a Brutal Zeta, "El Ricky": Borderland

This War Isn't Over: Cal Thomas
A Bitter Aftertaste: Thomas Sowell
France Starting to Reckon with Its History of Anti-Semitism?: PJM

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

DARPA Closer to Urban-combat Spidey Soldiers: DefTech
What is Project RoseLine and why did it get $4M in federal money?: GigaOm
The story behind the first Photoshop image: Verge

Cornucopia

Oh what the heck, let’s just bunt it.: MOTUS
Andy McCarthy’s Faithless Execution: David Limbaugh
Michael Schumacher out of coma, transfered to hospital in Lausanne: EuroNews

Image: The Principled Left
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: DONATE TO DAVE BRAT NOW

QOTD: "You'll notice that the dominoes are getting bigger. The Arab Spring was a sappy delusion in which sentimentalist pap about the "Facebook Revolution" ran up against the hard, cruel reality of the only viable alternatives to the dictators. In Benghazi, the powder-puff illusions were blown apart, but realpolitik cynics could conclude it's not an important town, or even an important country, so what's the big deal? In Syria, we strengthened Russia, Iran and the jihad, but it's mostly Assad's hapless citizens who are on the receiving end, so who cares? Between Aleppo and Tikrit, ISIS redrew the map of the Anglo-French Middle East for the first time since 1922 and created a hardcore jihad state, but hey, we can probably blame that on Bush and Cheney, right?

And so the consequences of a shrunken America metastasize - from jihadist gangs in Benghazi to chemical gas attacks in Syria to the world's wealthiest jihad state in western Iraq to nuclear ayatollahs, the biggest domino of all. Any US-Iranian deal will be like that Bergdahl/Taliban one. The purpose of "cooperation" for the mullahs would be to provide cover for getting them into Iraq, while the purpose of "cooperation" for the Obama Administration would be to provide cover for staying out. So Iranians would be on the ground in the Shia south while a few drones and whatnot would bomb the Sunni Triangle. The bombing raids would end, but the Iranians would remain. And a nuclear Iran would be born not as a global pariah but within the context of a Washington-Teheran rapprochement.

... And what of the dominoes beyond? Thousands of nominally "western" citizens - young men from Britain, Canada, Europe and, yes, America - have swarmed to Syria to join the jihad. In Osama's strong horse/weak horse terms, they're riding high. But one day they'll saddle up and return "home" with their western passports, having acquired lots of new and incendiary skills." --Mark Steyn

Monday, June 16, 2014

JEB BUSH SHOWS UP: Anti-Common Core Protest Breaks Out

Correspondent Amalaur files this report from Cincinnati:

I'm walking downtown to go shopping and spotted a protest a block away in front of a private club. I stopped a passerby and asked what was going on. He said that Jeb Bush was in town and, as he is a Common Core advocate, they had come to register their opposition to the national curriculum.

I then walked over and spoke with some of the protesters. They were anti-Common Core and anti-Amnesty.

THE JOYS OF SINGLE-PAYER: At least 175 Veterans Administration whistleblowers targeted for retribution

Those who lobby for a single-payer health care system must either be: (a) exceedingly rich, having never been to a DMV; or (b) exceedingly dimwitted, having visited a DMV and been ecstatic with the service.

The VA, after all, is the ultimate example of a single-payer health care system. And the VA turns out to be at once both less efficient and more corrupt than any DMV anywhere.

Here’s the latest appalling development in the VA hospitals scandal: Emails, audits, and personal statements reveal a systematic silencing of whistleblowers working inside the agency. The NYT reports that the Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency dedicated to probing whistle-blowing cases, is investigating 37 cases in 19 states in which VA employees were punished for speaking out about the fraud in the system. The Project on Government Oversight, a private organization, reports even more cases: 175 former or current employees have come to them confidentially to detail the abuse at the VA.

The NYT interviewed six of these whistleblowers, and here’s just one example:

Dr. Jacqueline Brecht, a former urologist at the Alaska V.A. Healthcare System in Anchorage, said in an interview that she had a heated argument with administrators at a staff meeting in 2008 when she objected to using phantom appointments to make wait times appear shorter, as they had instructed her. She said that the practice amounted to medical fraud, and complained about other patient care problems as well.

Days later, a top administrator came to Dr. Brecht’s clinic, put her on administrative leave, and had security officers walk her out of the building ... Her complaints were corroborated by other Alaska personnel... Dr. Brecht wrote that administrators “schedule fake patient appointments (i.e. commit FRAUD).” They do so, she wrote, “just so our numbers look good to DC (and the administrators get their bonuses for these numbers).”

This is what the culture of large, closed bureaucratic organizations looks like... [It is certain that] more government control over health care isn’t a shortcut to efficiency and competence, despite what American supporters of European-style single payer systems often suggest.


No, single-payer has absolutely nothing to do with the successful delivery of health care. It has to do with power.

Like gun control, smart meters, the IRS, the IPAB, the CFPB, the NLRB, the EPA... the Democrats crave control over you -- and they will use any means at their disposal to get it.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

IPAB: Obamacare's Unconstitutional 15-Person Death Panel Faces Major Legal Challenge

By Eric Boehm

It might sound like the latest new product from Apple, but IPAB is actually the newest major legal challenge to Obamacare.

Last week, a three-judge panel in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco heard arguments about the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB, a 15-member panel created by the Affordable Care Act and empowered to make all kinds of decisions regarding health coverage for Americans. The board’s powers are significant, and some say completely unconstitutional, because language in the ACA frees the board from any kind of congressional or judicial oversight.

The board, which many in the right-wing have labeled the ACA’s “death panel” after Sarah Palin coined the term in 2009, would be able to set Medicare policy and health care payment rates for virtually all Americans starting in 2017. Language in the ACA even prevents Congress from being able to repeal the IPAB’s existence after that same year.

“It’s really and truly an unprecedented concentration of power,” said Christina Sandefur, an lawyer at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, Ariz., who argued the case June 10 before the 9th Circuit Court.

Those challenging the legitimacy of the IPAB in the Coons v. Law lawsuit argue that it is unconstitutional for a variety of reasons — in particular, they say it violates the Fourth, Fifth and Ninth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, while also running afoul of the separation of powers that are enshrined throughout the Constitution.

“It consolidates the powers of every single branch of government into one body, and yet it is unaccountable to any of those branches,” Sandefur told Watchdog.org on Friday.

NOT A SMIDGEN OF A SCANDAL: Benghazi Pilot Says Stevens, Smith, Doherty and Woods Could Have Been Saved

By Investor's Business Daily

Scandal: The pilot who flew the survivors of the Benghazi tragedy to Germany says we could have rescued those who died and that the State Department knew who was attacking as it listened to the terrorists on captured cellphones.

In her book "Hard Choices," Hillary Clinton doubles down on the administration's Benghazi lies, writing that President Obama "gave the order to do whatever was necessary to support our people in Libya. It was imperative that all possible resources be mobilized immediately."

Of the terrorist attackers, Clinton, the originator of the Benghazi video lie, says:

"It is inaccurate to state that every single one of them was influenced by this hateful video. It is equally inaccurate to state that none of them were."

We'd like to introduce the former secretary of state to Eric Stahl, a recently retired major from the U.S. Air Force. Stahl was the commander and pilot who flew the corpses of the four killed at the Benghazi mission — U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, information officer Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. Also on board were the survivors of the raid. All were taken to the U.S. military base in Ramstein, Germany.

Stahl, who — like Clinton — was for some strange reason never interviewed by the State Department's Accountability Review Board, says, no, we didn't do whatever was necessary and that none of the survivors knew anything about a spontaneous protest or a video that was put forth by her and by Obama repeatedly as the cause.

In fact, says Stahl, the State Department knew that night it was a terrorist attack.

Stahl told Fox News' Bret Baier that members of a CIA-trained Global Response Staff who raced to the scene of the attacks were "confused" by the administration's repeated implication of the video as a trigger for the raid, because it "knew during the attack ... who was doing the attacking."

The administration knew, according to Stahl, because immediately after leaving the consulate in Benghazi and moving to the (CIA) safe house, there were reports "that cell phones, consulate cell phones, were being used to make calls to the attackers' higher-ups."

Larwyn's Linx: Pirro: I’m Worried – And You should Be Too

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

Nation

Pirro: I’m Worried – And You should Be Too: Nice Deb
Can Conservatives Give Labrador a Chance as Majority Leader?: Rod Kackley
‘Good Thing President Nobody Is Running Things’: Camp o' the Saints

How Barack Obama Let the Iranians Bully Him Out of Iraq: Erick Erickson
Daughter Learns Terrorist Behind her Dad’s Death Freed for Bergdahl: RWN
False flag PAC attacks Tea Party challenger to prevent Cantor-style upset: LI

On immigrant surge, White House story falls apart: Byron York
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper is Lying.: RS
VA Lawmakers Block Medicaid Expansion, but Governor Vows Fight: Signal

Lawyer Hillary Vs The Allegedly Raped Child: S&L
For love of country, impeach Obama: Diana West
SC Requires Teaching the Constitution in Schools… Liberals Go Crazy: ConTrib

Economy

Our Decimated Labor Force: Irwin M. Stelzer
Time Lapse Image of Growing US Political Polarization: Mish
FOMC Preview: More Tapering: Bill McBride

Scandal Central

Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Warrantless Cellphone Tracking: NewAm
Obama Used Commencement Speech To Attack Americans Who Disagree With Him: LoneCon
Meet The “Minerva Research Initiative”, Pentagon’s Preparation For “Mass Civil Breakdown”: NC Renegade

Media

‘Are you kidding?’ – Mitt Romney calls Hillary ‘clueless’ on Bergdahl traded terrorists: Scoop
Thank God David Gregory is there to grill Mitt Romney and hold him to account for Iraq: Treehouse
Romney blasts Hillary Clinton as 'clueless': Dylan Stableford

In 2007, Romney Predicted Events In Iraq So Accurately He Must Have Had A Time Machine: IJR
Obama’s Favorability Rating in the Basement: Hideout
Cross-Eyed Hillary Appears on Conan O'Brien: TR

Laura Ingraham, Luis Gutierrez Face Off on Immigration, Cantor's Loss: Breitbart
In Today’s America, “Mainstream” Means Left: Star Parker
Hillary told secret service agent who refused to carry her bag to ‘get the f*** away from me’: DailyMail

World

ISIS reportedly engaged in mass murder, other war crimes in Iraq: Moe Lane
The Southern Poverty Law Center Stands Up for Hamas: Daniel Greenfield
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair Calls for Western Intervention in #Iraq: AmPower

Shia Muslims Distribute Khomeini Photos in Baghdad – 2,000 al-Quds Forces Sent to Baghdad: GWP
Obama Releases another 12 Jihad Terrorists from US Military Prison: FreePost
Rebels’ Fast Strike in Iraq Was Years in the Making: NYT

Obama’s “3,000 lives wasted” in Iraq revisited: DTG
Air Force in 'Stand Down' Position as 100 American Contractors Attacked by ISIS Jihadists: FreePost
How did 800 ISIS fighters rout 2 Iraqi divisions?: MilitaryTimes

ISIS continues march; Marines, Army arrive at embassy; Obama golfed a full round: Scoop
Flashback 2012: When Obama Grilled Mitt Romney For Wanting to Keep Troops in Iraq: RightPundit
ISIS-linked group takes responsibility for kidnapping three teens, including one American, in Israel: JihadWatch

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Amazon's MYSTERY mobe: Can 3D touch tech hype live up to reality?: Register
Why Isn't There A Standard Share Icon?: Fastcodesign
Microsoft’s secret Android patents revealed by Chinese government: Verge

Cornucopia

Arturo Prat Don't Give a S***: The hand of god
Veterans Pose As Illegal Aliens To Get help: BlurBrain
ISIS: Brought to you by NASA Muslim Outreach Program: Cube

Image: The Diary of Chick Bruns. June 12, 1944. 7th Army, 3rd Infantry Division, 10th Combat Engineers
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: DONATE TO DAVE BRAT NOW

QOTD: "The New York Times would like us to believe that there is a “mainstream” in America today because what “mainstream” means is status quo – don’t rock the boat. Because of the massive growth of government over recent years, today’s status quo means acceptance of a great lurch leftward, which has already occurred.

It sounds so measured and sober to call a candidate “mainstream.”

But “mainstream” is not measured and sober.

It means shrugging your shoulders at $17 trillion in federal debt, $4 trillion in federal spending, and a tax code of over 73,000 pages." --Star Parker

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Some Classy Father's Day Cards

Hmmm, I guess I should've gotten one of these.


As U.S. Evacuates Personnel From Iraqi Embassy; President Leads Robust Response From the Golf Course

Total collapse.

It's something this president seems to excel at. Now Iraq has officially joined the roster of Middle Eastern countries that have exploded into violence under Obama's watch, following Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Algeria, to name but a few.

Unfortunately, in this case of Iraq, we may have to prepare for a replay of the evacuation of the embassy in Saigon.

22.27 The Pentagon has issued a statement about the security boost and evacuation at the US Embassy in Baghdad. Staff will be evacuated using commercial, charter and State Department aircraft. The US military also has "airlift assets at the ready" should they be needed, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said:

The evacuations come as Baghdad itself has come under attack from ISIS forces.

he United States said Sunday it was evacuating some staff from its embassy and beefing up security as deadly explosions rocked the Iraqi capital and advancing militant Islamic insurgents released graphic images appearing to show its fighters massacring captured Iraqi soldiers.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that an undisclosed number of staffers will be moved to Amman, Jordan, or U.S. consulates elsewhere in Iraq not immediately threatened by the insurgent group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

Yes, it's another historic Obama "first"!

It is the first time since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that the embassy has drawn down its staffing levels in response to a threat posed by violence, and the redeployment was an indication of the level of concern that the unrest could reach even into the fortress-like Green Zone, where members of the Iraqi government also reside.

Meanwhile, the president is reportedly busy taking care of more urgent priorities:

The restless president, who has compared himself to a caged animal on recent wanderings by declaring the "bear is loose," took a long Father's Day weekend away with his wife and older daughter.

The visit to the desert resort area of Palm Springs is one of the ways Obama has been trying to escape during his sixth year cloistered in the White House.

Obama interspersed his four-day weekend with official duties, including Democratic Party fundraising, a speech on climate change and calls to his national security adviser... As his administration announced that some staff were being evacuated from the Baghdad embassy, Obama was on the golf course.

Well, we wouldn't want a major war breaking out in the Middle East -- with thousands of American personnel at risk -- to interfere with the President's golf game.

Can you believe this guy?


Hat tip: BadBlue News

GOOD NEWS: U.S. "Allies" Are Funding the ISIS Barbarians That Are Leaving Iraq Awash in Blood

Apparently, our beloved President is "fundamentally transforming" others areas of the world, too. Josh Rogin at The Daily Beast reports:

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), now threatening Baghdad, was funded for years by wealthy donors in Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, three U.S. allies that have dual agendas in the war on terror.


...As ISIS takes over town after town in Iraq, they are acquiring money and supplies including American made vehicles, arms, and ammunition. The group reportedly scored $430 million this week when they looted the main bank in Mosul. They reportedly now have a stream of steady income sources, including from selling oil in the Northern Syrian regions they control, sometimes directly to the Assad regime.

But in the years they were getting started, a key component of ISIS’s support came from wealthy individuals in the Arab Gulf States of Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Sometimes the support came with the tacit nod of approval from those regimes; often, it took advantage of poor money laundering protections in those states, according to officials, experts, and leaders of the Syrian opposition, which is fighting ISIS as well as the regime...

...Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been publicly accusing Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding ISIS for months. Several reports have detailed how private Gulf funding to various Syrian rebel groups has splintered the Syrian opposition and paved the way for the rise of groups like ISIS and others...

...Under significant U.S. pressure, the Arab Gulf governments have belatedly been cracking down on funding to Sunni extremist groups, but Gulf regimes are also under domestic pressure to fight in what many Sunnis see as an unavoidable Shiite-Sunni regional war that is only getting worse by the day...

I'm not exactly sure who this ISIS group is, but I suspect the Militant Quakers are behind it.

Ever since Obama came to power, these radical MQ groups seem to be increasingly terrorizing the normally peaceful countries of the Middle East: Egypt, Syria, Gaza, the Sinai, and Iraq, to name but a few. I'm sure that's just a coincidence, however.

Maybe someone should ask CAQR, the Council on American-Quaker Relations.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

Larwyn's Linx: Obama Opens Borders to Mexican Gang Members

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

Nation

Obama Opens Borders to Mexican Gang Members: Kellan Howell
3 Obama Contradictions Revealed by the Debacle in Iraq: Robert Spencer
The absurdity of McCarthy replacing Cantor as Majority Leader: Exam

Obama Even Worse Than We Thought: Peter Wehner
6 Reasons Obama Lost Iraq: Ben Shapiro
Obama’s Foreign Policy in one Tweet – by a member of his own staff!: Hideout

Influx of Illegal Alien Minors a Disaster; Overcrowded Shelters and Diseases: JW
Caged, diseased, desperate: Shocking pics of illegal immigrants flooding in: Mail
Is it possible Obama is hoping to goad the GOP into impeaching him?: Lifson

Poor, Poor Hillary: Rick Jensen
Kathleen Willey blasts Hillary’s ‘dead broke’ claim: Bob Unruh
Federal deficit for May 2014: $130 billion: Bankrupting

Economy

Democrats Bank on Heavy Student Loan Debt as Election-year Issue: PJM
How to Live With Your Parents: Thomas Purcell
California Can’t Convince Drivers to Trade in Clunkers for Cash: Signal

Scandal Central

White House Claim that Lerner’s Emails Are “Lost” Is Ludicrous: Power Line
IRS Rules: Lerner Required to Keep Printed Copies of 'Lost' Emails: Blaze
BOOM! IRS Head testified in March that they had Lois Lerner emails: Scoop

Climate & Energy

Baghdad's Fall Would Make Current Gas Prices ‘Look Like A Bargain’: RightPundit
Man Burns Massive Amounts of Fossil Fuel To Complain About “Climate Change”: RWN
Fate of Ukraine-Russia gas talks unclear as deadline looms: Reuters

Media

AP on IRS: No ‘evidence’ of outside pressure to target conservatives: Renee Nal
NEW YORKER’s Ryan Lizza Sorta Gets It About Dave Brat: VDARE
Hillary's already running: Carl Cannon

‘Exhausted’ Obama to drive golf balls as ISIS drives on Baghdad, Twitter erupts: BPR
Adam Carolla Rips "Ambush" Interview With NPR Host: "Speech Is Free Unless You Disagree With Them": RCP
ACTOR JAMES WOODS RIPS ON OBAMA: “Who Could Support This Loser Anymore?”: Clash

Harsh Words Provoke Harsh Reactions: Villainous Company
Correct Number Of Mass School Shootings Since Sandy Hook: ZERO: Bob Owens
NAACP Threatens LifeNews for Reporting Its Abortion Advocacy: LifeNews

World

ISIS terror leader's last words in US detention: "See you in New York": Poor Richard
Iraq War Vet Explains How JACKED UP Iraq Is With Blistering Tweet: Clash
Latest turn in Iraq spreads dismay among US veterans: Edward Colimore, Stripes

Stranded Americans in Iraq: Contractors Evacuating, Embassy Diplomats and Staff to Stay Put: IJR
ISIS Carries Out Gruesome Mass Execution of Shiite Soldiers: WZ
#ISIS Posts Sunni Police Chief Beheading in #WorldCup Tweet — WARNING GRAPHIC: AmPower

Erdogan’s Son Caught with Al-Qaeda Financier: Mead
GRAPHIC: ISIS releases PHOTOS of Mass Executions: Pamela Geller
As south heats up, Iron Dome deployed near Ashdod: Times of Israel

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Hookup App Tinder Gets Coveted Anthony Weiner Endorsement On Twitter: BuzzFeed
CSAIL wireless technology measures heart rate and breathing through walls: MIT
LG G Watch International Giveaway: Darcy LaCouvee

Cornucopia

America’s Families Need Strong Fathers: Marco Rubio
Iraq Islamists Suspend Attack While Obama Rests: Keith Koffler
Holy Cow! How Will You Celebrate Father’s Day?: MOTUS

Image: It Looks Like Chelsea Clinton Made $26,724 For Each Minute She Appeared On NBC
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: DONATE TO DAVE BRAT NOW

QOTD: "President Obama spoke on Iraq earlier today, pledging to do nothing and essentially saying nothing, even as that nation is breaking apart, with Islamic militants overrunning Iraq and vowing to capture Baghdad.

In light of the unfolding disaster in Iraq, which is linked to the unfolding disaster in Syria, which is part of a broader failure in the Middle East, which is only one part of an across-the-board failure in foreign policy, which is separate from the failures at home–including healthcare.gov and ObamaCare more broadly, chronically high unemployment, the stimulus and “shovel ready jobs,” a historically weak economic recovery, the lowest workforce participation rate since the 1970s, increasing income inequality, and record poverty–the following needs to be said. Even those of us who were highly critical of Mr. Obama early on, who twice voted against him and worked in campaigns to defeat him, could not envision how epically incompetent he would be.

The harm this man has done is immeasurable. And he still has more than two years left to go.

Mr. Obama belongs in a category all his own." --Peter Wehner