Friday, September 05, 2014

THE GOP MADE THEIR BED: Now They're Going to Have to Lie In It

Writing at National Review, Neal Freeman offers what may be the most incisive summary of the GOP's recent, suicidal antics yet written.

Imagine if you would a prayer breakfast in Washington attended by the leadership of the GOP — Messrs. Boehner, McConnell, Priebus, and their associates. They drop to their knees, bow their heads, and invoke divine intercession in the country’s troubled affairs, and in the party’s parlous condition. Would it be too much to ask Him to deliver unto them a mass political movement, self-financed and benignly led, God-fearing and well-mannered, almost all of whose members believed in the literal version of the Republican platform and almost none of whose members wanted anything from the federal government but constitutional restraint?

Yes, it would have been too much to ask, but, yes, it has been given unto them, anyway. The Tea Party arrived in vast, friendly numbers and said to the GOP, “We’re not from the federal government and we’re here to help.”

What happened next was not pretty. Or smart. The GOP brass responded with insults, attack ads, collaborative media trashing, and, finally, over the past six months, the charge of McConnell’s geezer brigade seeking to “crush” the Tea Party. And here we thought congressional Republicans were too prone to compromise, too quick to split the difference.

Our colleague M. Stanton Evans once said of the two-party system: “One is the evil party and the other is the stupid party. I’m proud to be a member of the stupid party.” I am as well, but sometimes party stupidity asks too much. Here we have before us an epochal opportunity to revive the national enterprise, and we are woefully (and smugly) ill prepared to realize it. As we look forward to 2016, where do we find ourselves? We find ourselves, in my estimate, with no candidate, no message, no coalitional unity, and a thoroughly rusted party machine. Only this question remains: Can we rally in time to save the country from a terminal identity politics that could over the next few cycles bring us not principled and experienced leaders, but (regardless of their qualifications) the first woman president, the first Hispanic president, the first gay president?

HILLARY, BENGHAZI, OBAMA AND ISIS: A Möbius Strip of Terror

By Richard Larsen

It is not uncommon to find inconsistencies and even contradictions in U.S. foreign policy. Usually a few years of separation are required to reveal our inconsistency, as in the case of Iran. Rarely do we see such striking contradictions in real time as we do today in the Middle East policies of the Obama administration.

ISIS occupies the center stage of our current iteration of contradictory policy. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which subsequently changed their name to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), apparently now wants to be known simply as The Islamic State (IS). This is the militaristic group that has emerged out of Syria, Al-Nusra, and merged with Al Qaeda of Iraq, to take over significant portions of eastern Syria and northern Iraq.

Threatening to violently take over all of Iraq and Syria, establishing an Islamic caliphate that would eventually cover the world, they have mercilessly spread their destruction from city to city. They behead or conduct mass executions against whoever opposes them (including American journalists), kidnap for ransoms to fund their operations, and have vowed to raise the ISIS flag over the White House. They are well funded from bank robberies, selling oil on the black market, and from kidnap ransoms. They are well trained, militant, and are well armed, predominantly with U.S. equipment.

This is the Al Qaeda-linked group of terrorists that Obama referred to as “JV” (junior varsity) just a few months ago. In an interview with New Yorker magazine in January, the president applied a metaphor, saying of ISIS, that putting on a “Laker’s uniform doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant.” That “JV” group of militants, now figured to be 10,000 strong (including some westerners and as many as 300 Americans) is now perceived to be the greatest terrorist threat in the world.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, more than 32 times the president claimed Al Qaeda was “decimated” or “defeated.” To acknowledge their resurgence just two years later would not fit with his narrative as slayer of Osama bin Laden and vanquisher of his terrorist group. Consequently, their emerging threat had to be minimized.

But that’s just the tip of the ISIS iceberg for the administration. We have to realize that for the past few years the president has been actively engaged in toppling Middle Eastern regimes; Khadafy in Libya, Mubarak in Egypt, and Assad in Syria. In fact, just over a year ago the president was requesting $500 million to help the “freedom fighters” in Syria topple the Assad regime. The majority of those “freedom fighters” now go by the name ISIS, and the president was poised to fund them.

Larwyn's Linx: ISIS threatens America's electric grid: blackout could kill 9 of 10 in United States

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Nation

ISIS threatens America's electric grid: blackout could kill 9 of 10: Exam
Marie Harf Must Apologize for Her Remarks: Keith Koffler
No More Affirmative Action Presidents: Thomas Sowell

Obama at 38% in Gallup Daily: Ace
Suddenly Obama finds out he needs Congressional approval for stuff: Scoop
Has ISIL Killed Right's Move to Skepticism Of Military Interventions?: Ace

Where in the World Is Jihad Pilot Adnan Shukrijumah?: Michelle Malkin
Muslim Brotherhood front group, CAIR, attacks Oklahoma lawmaker: BNI
Exclusive: What We Found On #MichaelBrown’s Instagram Account: GotNews

Kay Hagan: Look, I didn’t realize people would lose their health plans: Hot Air
Bombshell Quote Mark Udall Wants You to Forget: MinorityReport
Nobody’s Buzzing About Alison Lundergan Grimes Anymore: Jim Geraghty

Economy

Health Care Spending To Hit $5.2T By 2023: WFB
The US Housing 'Recovery' In 1 Chart: ZH
Markets Climb as World Faces Crisis: RWN

Scandal Central

Shocking IRS Abuse, the Case You Haven’t Heard About: Sara Noble
US Security Team Members Say Top CIA officer in Benghazi delayed response to terror attack: RWN
Mohamed Elibiary resigns from Obama DHS: FAM

White House Policies That Jihadists Are Using To Legally Immigrate To America: Michael Snyder
Tijuana´s Border Administrator lives in luxurious neighborhood in Houston: Borderland
How Does a Democrat Governor Accidentally Tweet a Pic of a Dominatrix!??!: Sooper

Climate & Energy

Global Temperature Update – No global warming for 17 years 11 months: WUWT
Top EPA official accused of assault denies charges: Jim McElhatton, Times
Costco to cut greenhouse gas emissions in deal with EPA: The Hill

Media

In Lieu of Coherent ISIS Strategy, Team Obama Opens New Front in War on Fox News: JWF
A foreign legion for losers: Jonah Goldberg
Hiding In His Lair: Nuking Politics

State Deplt starts Twitter war with Fox, immediately regrets decision, then gets dominated: YoungCons
Networks Ignore Gallup Poll Showing Obama Approval Rating at an All-Time Low: NB
AG Candidate Happ Suddenly Wants Her Record Off Limits: Brian Sikma

World

Hamas TV broadcasts call to "exterminate" all the Jews: Commentator
"War Has Been Declared against Us": A Speech in the Netherlands Parliament: Geert Wilders
NATO, Then and Now: Stephen Green

To hell with “pragmatism”: Cold Fury
Megyn Kelly just shared a 2007 George Bush Iraq speech, and it’s going VIRAL: YoungCons
American Man Suspected of Working With ISIS As Social Media Guru: FNI

Do The Rapes of Rotherham Tell a Tale of Conquest?: The Anchoress
Silencing The Other: Erick Erickson
World Shudders as Israel Declares 988 Acres of the West Bank State Land: Rich Baehr

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Cities scramble to upgrade “stingray” tracking as end of 2G network looms: Ars Technica
Data: Nearly All U.S. Home Depot Stores Hit: Brian Krebs
A Stunning New Map Reveals For The First Time Where Our Galaxy Fits Into The Universe: Insider

Cornucopia

7 moments that show how funny Joan Rivers was: Vox
Islamic State Zombies: 3 Strategies Revealed: MOTUS
D.C. WHISPERS: Obama “Out Of It” During “Bizarre” Conversation With Prime Minister: Ulsterman

Image: Your Tax Dollars at Work: 8 Christians Crucified in Syria
Sponsored by: Don’t Miss: ‘Fox News Reporting: 13 Hours at Benghazi’ Friday at 10p ET

QOTD: "We know that if we are joined by the international community, we can continue to shrink ISIL’s sphere of influence, its effectiveness, its financing, its military capabilities to the point where it is a manageable problem." --Pres. Barack Obama

Thursday, September 04, 2014

SUPER-SIZED INFLATION: What a $15 Minimum Wage Would Do to Fast Food Prices

By Melissa Quinn and Kelsey Harris


Thousands of fast-food workers across 150 cities nationwide gathered today to call for a $15-an-hour minimum wage.

However, a report released today by James Sherk, senior policy analyst in labor economics at The Heritage Foundation, found that fast-food restaurants would have to boost their prices 38 percent to make up for the increased labor costs.

Such an increase, Sherk said, would drive away about one-third of these restaurants’ customers.

If fast food’s biggest restaurants decide to raise their wages to $15 an hour, here’s how some of your favorite meals would fare.

NO GLOBAL WARMING FOR 17 YEARS, 11 MONTHS: Crazed Sex Poodle* Hardest Hit

So reports Christopher Monckton:

The Great Pause has now persisted for 17 years 11 months. Indeed, to three decimal places on a per-decade basis, there has been no global warming for 18 full years. Professor Ross McKitrick, however, has upped the ante with a new statistical paper to say there has been no global warming for 19 years.

Whichever value one adopts, it is becoming harder and harder to maintain that we face a “climate crisis” caused by our past and present sins of emission...

...This is the longest continuous period without any warming in the global instrumental temperature record since the satellites first watched in 1979. It has endured for half the satellite temperature record. Yet the Great Pause coincides with a continuing, rapid increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration.

The RSS satellite records shows no global warming at all for the 215 months from October 1996 to August 2014. That is more than half the entire 428-month satellite record.

* The term "crazed sex poodle" was first used to describe Al Gore by a Denver masseuse who alleged the infamous climate grifter had "fondled and groped her".

Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Incapacitated by Narcissistic Rage

By Lawrence Sellin

For those perplexed by Barack Obama's often inexplicable behavior, wonder no more.

An individual with narcissistic personality disorder exhibits extreme self-importance, has a constant need for attention and admiration, is secretive and controlling, cannot empathize with others, and has a heightened sensitivity to criticism. To get the attention he craves, a narcissist may try to create crises or diversions that return the focus to him. The narcissist feels entitled, that the world owes him, regardless of whether he makes a contribution.

Narcissists are selfish and self-centered people, who are capable only of thinking about their own issues regarding power, prestige, and personal adequacy. They cannot understand the problems of people around them, and are not aware of other peoples' feelings. Although they act superior and confident, this actually hides the fact that they have very fragile egos. They live with the illusion that they are perfectionists and that people revere them. The slightest disrespect or challenge can quickly lead to the development of "Narcissistic Rage," a term coined by Heinz Kohut in his 1972 book "The Analysis of the Self." The fuming rage the narcissist exhibits is different from the anger that people usually feel; it is either irrational or severely blown out of proportion from an insignificant remark or action. According to Kohut, this rage impairs a narcissist's cognition, therefore impairing his judgment.

A narcissist needs to sustain the illusion of being bigger, larger, smarter and more successful than everyone else in order to feel stable. Narcissists need constant admiration, attention and compliments, not to increase their self-esteem, but to prevent a feeling of instability that could lead to dysfunction or breakdown. Narcissistic rage occurs when that core instability is heightened. In essence, the reason narcissists are so self-centered is that their grandiosity-based personality needs to be constantly reinforced to remain stable.

HEH: On Her Voter Registration, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) Lists Home Address as... Washington, DC

Oligarchs: John Binder at The Hayride just opened up a can on Mary "Landfill" Landrieu, Senator from Louisiana and Godmother of Obamacare.

When it comes to running for public office and actually voting on voting day, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) uses two different addresses.

In order to qualify for the Louisiana Senate race against Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) this November, Landrieu is claiming that she lives with her parents Moon and Verna Landrieu at their large-scale New Orleans bungalow on South Prieur Street. Landrieu has a $2.5 million home in Washington DC with her husband Frank Snellings that the two built together.

But, on her voter registration card, Landrieu lists Washington DC as her primary residence...


Landrieu asserts that she still lives with her parents though, saying “I have lived at my home on Prieur Street most of my life and I live there now, when not fulfilling my duties in Washington or serving constituents across the state.”

In a report by the Washington Post, the Moon and Verna’s neighbors say they haven’t seen Mary in years...

Do the citizens of Louisiana really want or need a Senator who doesn't even bother to maintain a pretense of living in their state?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: Wonderful: Dead ISIS Jihadi Worked For Delta Airlines at Minneapolis Airport

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

Nation

Wonderful: Dead ISIS Jihadi Worked For Delta at Minneapolis Airport: JWF
Bachmann: What FBI told me about ISIS terrorists returning to U.S.: Blaze
Moderate Islam is the Left's New Religion: Daniel Greenfield

Will Obama Throw Republicans Into the Briar Patch on Amnesty?: Leon Wolf
‘Bonjour, Malaise’: Ed Driscoll
Eric Holder: A More Dangerous Race-Card Hustler Than Al Sharpton: Larry Elder

War — past, present and future: Victor Davis Hanson
The President Is Not Checked Out: Erick Erickson
It's the Democrats' Foreign Policy, Too: Jonah Goldberg

Are Progressives The Real Authoritarians?: Ace
DUDE. Federal judge upholds Louisiana gay marriage ban: Scoop
Law Proposed in New Jersey: “Shaneen’s Law”: Pagun

Economy

Why Are Governments Afraid of Ridesharing like Uber and Lyft?: Jeff Carter
Colossal waste: Chicago public high school has just 12 students: Marathon
Speed Kills Racial Profiling Study: Ann Coulter

Scandal Central

58,000 Foreign Students Overstayed Visas Last Year & ICE Can’t Find Them: Creeping
22 Jihad Training Camps in the US – FBI Refuses to Take Action: MadWorld
Obama Hides Steady Inflow Of Central American Migrants: DC

Liberal Dem Blasts Obama Amnesty: “Illegal Immigration Is Not a Victimless Crime”: JW
Illegal Immigrant Convicted of Deadly Hit-and-Run Gets More Leniency Than American Citizens: MadWorld
Illegal Immigrant Kills Two Kids in Hit-and-Run, Yet Avoids Deportation and Prison: RWN

Climate & Energy

John Kerry: Bible Commands America To Protect Islamic Countries From Global Warming: WZ
Laughable new paper claims 99.999% certainty global warming over past 25 years is man-made: WUWT
Climate Crusader George Clooney Takes Private Jet To Germany For Medical Treatment: WZ

Media

Univision Reporter Gets Owned: MB
Big Media Ignores Hamas's "Ugliest Crimes": Gatestone
Mike Lupica Urges Obama to Do Something About ISIS By Ranting Against Bush and Cheney: JWF

James Rosen Corners Jen Psaki: Keith Koffler
"Unarmed" Suspects and Un-brained Media: Greg Meyer, PoliceOne
Milwaukee Concealed Carrier Killed Arms Robber, Leads To Arrest Of Robbery Ring: Bob Owens

Brit Hume: Obama 2006, “Wouldn’t it be great for the world if I were president?”: Hot Air
HILARIOUS — Al Sharpton vs the Teleprompter – Volume 3: Scoop
Back By Political Necessity: The Stupid-Or-Evil Trilogy: Liberty's Torch (2012)

World

Reagan vs Obama, from "we win, they lose" to "shrink them to a manageable problem": WyBlog
Obama signals no major action against ISIS: RS
WaPo gives Obama 4 Pinocchio for denying he called ISIS JV: FAM

The world is dry tinder, and Obama is playing with matches: JihadWatch
Muslims Behead 6-Year-Old: MB
ISIS Justifies Brutality By Citing Mohammed Having Traitors Eyes Gouged Out With Hot Irons: WZ

Palestinian poll finds Hamas leader twice as popular as Abbas: Hayom
Kerry has ‘constructive’ talks with Palestinians: Times of Israel
Another Day in Immigration Court: 71 Juvenile Cases and a Judge ‘Just Trying to Make You Smile’: Daily Signal

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Milky Way's Home Supercluster Found: Clara Moskowitz, SciAm
Making of Maps: Reaching a milestone: GoogleBlog
​Intel's $1,000 Wearable Is a Luxury Smart Bracelet For Women: Gizmodo

Cornucopia

Obama’s ISIS Strategy Revealed: MB
Duffel Blog Writers Launch Surprise Air Assault On Onion News Network: DuffelBlog
Dr. Pangloss, I Presume?: MOTUS

Image: Another Day in Immigration Court: 71 Juvenile Cases and a Judge ‘Just Trying to Make You Smile’
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Defeat the Obamacare Six

QOTD: "Two years after the Benghazi attack, Islamists are doing cannonballs in our embassy’s pool in Libya. Just this week, the Islamic State beheaded a second American journalist. The Russian “reset” was more like a starter’s pistol for Putin’s race to reclaim lost Soviet territory. The Chinese are testing us more every day and the Iranians laugh at our so-called resolve. The Taliban is simply running out the clock on America’s withdrawal before it takes over Afghanistan, the location of what Obama frequently described as the necessary war. As Bret Stephens recently noted in the Wall Street Journal, Obama has expressed personal rage at only one nation: Israel. Why? Because the Israelis don’t sufficiently hide their contempt for Obama’s incompetence and his secretary of state’s haplessness." --Jonah Goldberg

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Scott Walker is Almost as Bad a Misogynist as Bill Clinton

By The Masked Avenger

In the pantheon of dimwitted Democrats, Debbie Wasserman Schultz has ascended to a plane once occupied only by Joe Biden and Hank "Guam" Johnson.

Today DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said, "Scott Walker has given women the back of his hand. I know that is stark. I know that is direct. But that is reality." Wasserman Schultz added: "What Republican tea party extremists like Scott Walker are doing is they are grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back. It is not going to happen on our watch."

Well beyond being offensive and insensitive these quotes stand in direct contradiction of what she said after the Gabby Giffords shooting. Check out some of these quotes which show Debbie telling Americans and politicians how they must be careful about the words they choose and how they need to use more civil discourse. It’s just like a Democrat to not practice what they preach.

"I think all of us need to be more careful about the words that we choose to use."

And who could forget this DWS greatest hit?

"It is absolutely critical that we ... stop treating our opponents like the enemy. And try to push the reset button on a more civil discourse because that's what Gabby was a leader on. That's what -- that's what her hopes were for the future."

Hypocritical, duplicitous, or lying: which adjective best precedes the word "weasels" when describing today's leaders of the Democrat Party?


THE MYSTERY DEEPENS: Who is Erecting "Interceptor" Cell Towers Across the United States?

Mysterious "interceptor" cell towers have been discovered scattered throughout the United States and it's unclear who is behind them.

Mysterious “interceptor” cell towers in the USA are grabbing phone calls — but they’re not part of the phone networks... The towers were revealed by Les Goldsmith to Popular Science last week. He’s CEO of ESD America, which builds the super-secure Cryptophone 500 for clients that need the military-grade security and can handle the phone’s estimated $3,500 price tag.

In the course of testing the phone, Goldsmith’s team discovered the existence of phone cell towers that intercept a call and hand it off to the real network — allowing the tower to listen in or load spyware to the mobile device... In July, ESD America identified 17 of the towers, but now it has increased that outed inventory to 19...


...Who is installing and managing these interceptors? ... Not the NSA, cloud security firm SilverSky CTO/SVP Andrew Jaquith told us. “The NSA doesn’t need a fake tower,” he said. “They can just go to the carrier” to tap your line.

...They could be from perhaps law enforcement agencies or the military, he suggested. A number of these towers are around military bases, although they’re also found in other locations, including the vicinity of the South Point Casino in Las Vegas...

...The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last month that it is launching an investigation into the use of cell network interceptors by criminal gangs and foreign intelligence...

Andrew Rosenblum, writing at Popular Science, offers additional detail.

BILL OF RIGHTS BANNED IN NEW YORK: State Troopers Demand Gun Shop Customer List, Threaten With Warrant-less SWAT Team Raid

By Ammoland

Joseph Palumbo, co-owner of the Albion Gun Shop, released information today that New York State Police officers from the Narcotics Enforcement Unit demanded the shop’s release of all customers who purchased New York SAFE Act compliant rifles under threat of a warrantless SWAT Team Raid.

Since the passing of the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (S.A.F.E.) Act, the New York State Troopers Narcotics Enforcement Unit has been delegated to enforce the S.A.F.E. Act and to handle all matters pertaining to the S.A.F.E. Act.

This unit has visited Mr. Palumbo on several occasions, disrupting his business, to see that Mr. Palumbo is compliant with the S.A.F.E. act provisions for licensed gun shops owners.

“The New York State Police told me that my guns were NY S.A.F.E. compliant. The chief of the Medina police told me my rifles were NY S.A.F.E. compliant and in fact purchased one of the guns from my shop.” James D. Tresmond, attorney for the Albion Gun Shop, raised the possibility of entrapment. “My client disclosed to me that he would not have sold these rifles to the general public had they not been approved by the New York Division of State Police”

Meanwhile, a confidential informant from within the state police released an email from New York State Police Division Counsel Kevin Bruen which insinuates that police department itself cannot understand the S.A.F.E. Act itself. The email, which was a response to a state trooper’s inquiry as to whether modified rifles were New York S.A.F.E. compliant. Division Counsel ordered that “a court would have to rule on the legality of these rifles”.

“The New York S.A.F.E. Act is being enforced arbitrarily on a case by case basis,” Tresmond said. “That amounts to unconstitutional vagueness under the Supreme Court’s Morales standard, and the law should be enjoined for that reason alone.”

Mr. Palumbo, concerned that his license to sell firearms in New York may be affected by recent solicitation by the New York State Trooper Narcotics Enforcement Unit, has retained Tresmond Law to represent him in all legal matters concerning any possible investigation or litigation made by the New York State Narcotics Enforcement Unit regarding his business. Mr. Palumbo opened up the Albion Gun Shop in 2012 and it is through this business that he makes his livelihood.

The Albion Gun Shop intends to take immediate legal action tomorrow morning to remedy this problem.

We will post updates as they become available.


Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News and WHEC News (image).

Larwyn's Linx: How to Destroy a People Through Immigration

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

Nation

How to Destroy a People Through Immigration: GoV
Prepare For the Worst: Jon Gabriel
The FBI’s Islamic Terrorism Denial: Robert Spencer

The Summer of Obama's Disconnect: Ron Fournier
Obama's Miserable Failure: Daniel Greenfield
Just resign already.: Quin Hillyer

Cruz: Expect Impeachment of Top Obama Official if GOP Takes Senate: RWN
Ad Targets Red State Democrat "Puppet Senators": Ace
White House Offers Tepid Response to #MarineHeldInMexico Petition: iOTW

The American Aristocracy: Erick Erickson
Dianne Feinstein’s—and the Left’s—Cognitive Dissonance on Guns: Michael Walsh
Maryland’s thought police strike: RS

Economy

Gary Peters (D-MI) vs. The Michigan Economy: Leon Wolf
Obama’s eat-the-rich campaign hauled out for mid-terms: John Kass
“Ich bin ein Berliner” and I have emigration rights!: MOTUS

Scandal Central

REPORT: Lois Lerner let unions get away with misreporting millions: Scoop
Obama briefed for more than a year on ISIS as serious threat: Hot Air
West Point report describes Islamic State threat as crisis 4 years in the making: Fox

Climate & Energy

UN/WMO Propaganda Stunt: climate fantasy forecasts of hell on Earth from the future: WUWT
Time to Stock Up on Styrofoam and Plastic Dishes and Utensils: Zilla
The EPA About to Spike Your Utility Bill: J. Robert McClure

Media

CBS Analyst: Three Senate Seats Are ‘Gone’ For Democrats: MRC
Our "No Strategy President": Sean Hannity
CNN: Democrats twisting themselves into knots trying to avoid Obama: Scoop

ISIS Beheads American Journalist Steven Sotloff: DC
Steven Sotloff Twitter account and last tweet: FAM
Beheaded Journalist Sotloff’s Tweets Reveal Support for Syrian Terrorist Friends: GotNews

Of Racial Delusions and Riots: Ben Shapiro
Enraging: Fox News reports Obama briefed on ISIS for A YEAR. Still no strategy?: Twitchy
Time to Find a Rock, Mr. Obama: Nuking Politics

World

Obama “Enraged” at Israel: Keith Koffler
Deport the Tsarnaev Sisters: Michelle Malkin
Making Friends With the Muslim Brotherhood in Boston: GoV

Missing Libyan Jetliners Raise Fears of Suicide Airliner Attacks on 9/11: WFB
Obama’s non-ideological foreign policy not working: Jonah Goldberg
A real strategy for ISIS & Islamist Extremism: BlackFive

ISIS’ Theater of Evil and the Thirst for Blood: Jean Kaufman
Are The Kurds Preparing To Weapon Up For ISIS? Guess Who Supports Gun Control?: Herschel Smith
How Bono Destroyed African Wildlife: Hannes Wessels (2010)

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

CDC Director: Ebola in Africa now an ‘epidemic,’ ‘completely out of control’: Hot Air
Glitch in Apple iCloud security may have been behind photo 'leak', experts claim: Telegraph
11 Steps Attackers Took to Crack Target: CIO

Cornucopia

Moschino Fast Food iPhone 5 Case: Shop Bazaar
The ISIS Bucket Challenge: Cube
29 Parents Who Are Clearly Way Better At Texting Than Their Kids: BuzzFeed

Image: Steven Sotloff beheaded by Islamic State
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by:

QOTD: "History may ultimately consider Obama’s 2008 nomination as a representation not of progressivism’s resurgent appeal, but as its death rattle—a speed bump along the way to the Democratic Party’s becoming a fully corporatist, Clinton-owned entity. In practice, the party now resembles a protection racket with an army of volunteers, with friends who never suffer and enemies who never relax. And who are those enemies? Not big business or Wall Street, which has paid their way to new alliances; not America’s insurers, whose products Democrats have made it illegal not to buy; not privacy-challenging government, which Obama has expanded to unprecedented degrees. No, the only enemies who really matter to today’s Democratic Party are those wayward intolerant social-policy traditionalists with their un-American views of religious liberty." --Benjamin Domenech

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Obamacare Ruins More Than Health Care

By Richard E. Ralston

The suppression of liberty in health care choices will take all privacy down with it. Tight government control of electronic medical records—which used to be private—seems a minor contribution to the destruction of the Fourth Amendment compared to the seizure of everyone's communications with everybody, without individual court orders based on probable cause.

How can we protest loss of privacy in any communications when we must surrender it for our medical records?

In 2014, virtually no new physicians will be available to treat millions of new Medicaid patients, but 10,000 newly hired IRS agents will impose fines on those unwilling to buy mandatory insurance.

Hopefully this will distract the IRS from persecution of nonprofit organizations that oppose the party line coming from Washington, DC.

As the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just reported, businesses will continue to cut jobs and implement reduction in the working hours of millions of employees to avoid the insurance mandate in 2015. Then they will cut insurance policies for employees in favor of paying fines and saving billions of dollars in rising insurance costs.

Who could have imagined they would do such a thing?

We will get more bad news when insurance companies announce far higher premiums for 2015, as young people are not rushing to sign up for more expensive insurance to subsidize their more affluent elders.

Who could have expected that?

President Obama could have expected it, just as he knew that insurance commissioners would generally reject his one-year reprieve from the lie that if you like your insurance, you can keep it.

The president will continue to delay or set aside any provision of the law without authorization of Congress or reference to the provisions of the law. In fact, the replacement of law approved by Congress with arbitrary and vague administrative regulations—approved by countless anonymous bureaucrats—is not just a consequence of Obamacare but an explicit objective of the president.

STRATFOR: Ukraine, Iraq and a Black Sea Strategy

By George Friedman

The United States is, at the moment, off balance. It faces challenges in the Syria-Iraq theater as well as challenges in Ukraine. It does not have a clear response to either. It does not know what success in either theater would look like, what resources it is prepared to devote to either, nor whether the consequences of defeat would be manageable.

A dilemma of this sort is not unusual for a global power. Its very breadth of interests and the extent of power create opportunities for unexpected events, and these events, particularly simultaneous challenges in different areas, create uncertainty and confusion. U.S. geography and power permit a degree of uncertainty without leading to disaster, but generating a coherent and integrated strategy is necessary, even if that strategy is simply to walk away and let events run their course. I am not suggesting the latter strategy but arguing that at a certain point, confusion must run its course and clear intentions must emerge. When they do, the result will be the coherence of a new strategic map that encompasses both conflicts.

The most critical issue for the United States is to create a single integrated plan that takes into account the most pressing challenges. Such a plan must begin by defining a theater of operations sufficiently coherent geographically as to permit integrated political maneuvering and military planning. U.S. military doctrine has moved explicitly away from a two-war strategy. Operationally, it might not be possible to engage all adversaries simultaneously, but conceptually, it is essential to think in terms of a coherent center of gravity of operations. For me, it is increasingly clear that that center is the Black Sea.

Ukraine and Syria-Iraq

There are currently two active theaters of military action with broad potential significance. One is Ukraine, where the Russians have launched a counteroffensive toward Crimea. The other is in the Syria-Iraq region, where the forces of the Islamic State have launched an offensive designed at a minimum to control regions in both countries -- and at most dominate the area between the Levant and Iran.

Ride Across a Lake on a Bike With the Schiller X1

And it ain't no stupid paddle-boat, either.


Ethan Wolff-Mann of Supercompressor fills us in.

To stay afloat, the Schiller X1 water-bike uses inflatable pontoons and is propelled by twin oscillating props, which enable steering—using the handlebars—without a rudder. The X1 internals are sealed off and can be easily maintained by anyone who knows their way around a bike, but Schiller says they shouldn't need much upkeep...

"You May Not Be Interested in War, But War is Interested in You"

By Alan Caruba

Younger generations can be forgiven if all they know of war is what they have learned in school or seen dramatized on film and television. For most Americans, the Civil War, the two World Wars, and the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam are events that occurred “a long time ago.” For my generation, born just prior to or during World War Two, wars have been a constant element of our lives.

Anyone with an interest in U.S. history knows that America was born out of a long war (1775-1783) with Great Britain which eventually led to the writing of the Constitution in 1787 whose ratification became official in June 1788. A year later George Washington, the wartime general, became the first President and, thereafter, nearly every President has had to dispatch U.S. naval, land and air forces in combat. This is why the Founders concluded that the President also had to be Commander-in-Chief in order to respond to threats to the nation whether near or far.

Not all Americans were eager to engage in various conflicts and most of the larger ones have had to address a fair measure of opposition. Even the Revolution was resisted by those who felt being a colony was a wiser choice than being independent.

In the greater world, wars have been constant somewhere, a shaper of history, and, according to Benjamin Ginsberg, a prolific historian and director of the Center for Advanced Governmental Studies at Johns Hopkins University, it has some beneficial aspects. His latest book, “The Worth of War”, explores this aspect of history.

Larwyn's Linx: Reminders of Obama’s policies may be toxic for Dems in battleground states

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Nation

Reminders of Obama’s policies may be toxic for Dems in battleground states: LI
The Self-Hating Leftist: GayPatriot
Nine Days, Mr. President: Erick Erickson

Feds to Run Ads In Border Towns Telling Deportees They Can Return: TeaParty
ISIS: “US-Mexican Border Is Now Open", Plan on Crossing In: FreePost
Irresponsible Choices: Thomas Sowell

The Clinton Machine Is Alive: Benjamin Domenech
The Imaginary Non-Interventionist: Daniel Greenfield
Cruz, Perry: Change Is Coming in 2016: CBN

America at the Tipping Point: Chuck Norris
Churches Vandalized With Koran Verses Condemning Infidels: WZ
An Incident in Massachusetts: P. Bernard

Obamacare ‘Lie’ Touted By Landrieu Is Now A Reality In Louisiana: HayRide
The most desperate, stupid #NCSEN attack line you’ll see this year: Toldjah
Unions open their coffers as Senate hangs in the balance: Benjamin Goad

Economy

The Day After Labor: Mark Steyn
'Wage Theft' Claims: The Latest Left-Wing Scam to Bilk Employers: AmPower
Barack Obama Marks Labor Day With A Picture Of . . . Barack Obama: WZ

Scandal Central

Supporter to Obama: 'Announce a State of Emergency' To Get Around GOP Congress: Jeryl Bier
GOP Strategist Lisa Boothe Takes Down Democrats On Executive Amnesty: CHQ
Exposing The Manufactured Cloward Piven Immigration Fraud : Treehouse

Climate & Energy

Mythologies and Pathologies of the California Drought: Victor Davis Hanson
When Science is Settled - by Government: Mark Steyn
California drivers brace for costly new gas tax: Fox

Media

My Rant about Ferguson and Michael Brown: Heather Scott
WaPo Crank Posts Ferguson Whitewash, Bashes Progressives Today and Gateway Pundit: ProgsToday
Winooski, Vermont and the Dismantling of America’s Values: Dennis Prager

A Tale of Two Conferences: Jon Gabriel
Michelle Obama – ROCKstar!: All the Right Snark
The 20 Best Quotes From Greg Gutfeld: John Hawkins

World

We Are At War With ISIS And They Are A Real, Sophisticated, Threat: Aaron Gardner
What the Middle East should look like…according to ISIS: Scoop
First Captured ISIS Foreign Fighter Reveals Threat to West: Breitbart

What the United Nations Doesn’t Want You to Know: Right Planet
French Exodus: 'When Jews Flee, a Nation is Sick': CBN
Video: Libyan Rebels Swim, Belly-Flop in U.S. Embassy Pool in Tripoli?: Daniel Halper

The Unfinished War: Caroline Glick
Yet more blatant plagiarism of Exposing the Real Che Guevara by another “libertarian”: Humberto Fontova
Photos of Vladimir Putin's Secret $1 Billion Palace: Supercompressor

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

If programming languages were weapons: Bjorn Tipling
The German Empire of Luxury Cars is Falling: CarBuzz
This Bike Lets You Ride on Water: SuperCompressor

Cornucopia

The Tweets Smell of Excess: Hopenchange Cartoons
Ivy Mike Sends: WRSA
Four Years Hence And It’s Still The Same As It’s Ever Been: MOTUS

Image: Every James Bond Car - Ranked
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Defeat the Obamacare Six

QOTD: "Let’s accept, arguendo, that the outgoing DIA chief is right, and that we are now in an era of danger similar to the mid-1930s. How did we get here? It’s worth looking back into the mists of time — an entire year, to Labor Day weekend 2013. What had not happened then? It’s quite a list, actually: the Chinese ADIZ, the Russian annexation of Crimea, the rise of ISIS, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the fall of Mosul, the end of Hungarian liberal democracy, the Central American refugee crisis, the Egyptian-UAE attacks on Libya, the extermination of Iraqi Christians, the Yazidi genocide, the scramble to revise NATO’s eastern-frontier defenses, the Kristallnacht-style pogroms in European cities, the reemergence of mainstream anti-Semitism, the third (or fourth, perhaps) American war in Iraq, racial riots in middle America, et cetera and ad nauseum.

...But the larger point here is not what’s happening, because what’s happening is obvious. Things are falling apart. The point is how fast it’s come.

It takes the blood and labor of generations to build a general peace, and that peace is sustained by two pillars: a common moral vision, and force majeure. We spent a quarter-century chipping away at the latter, and finally discarded the former, and now that peace is gone. All this was the work of decades.

Look back, again, to Labor Day weekend 2013, and understand one thing: its undoing was the work of mere months." --Via Aaron Gardner

Monday, September 01, 2014

Leading From Behind Into a Cauldron of Anarchy

By James Simpson

The U.K. Daily Mail is reporting today that an Islamist group is now occupying the former U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya. This was a non-violent takeover. They basically walked in. Embassy staff had departed in July because of the deteriorating security situation in Libya.

The video embedded here shows the Islamic group, which goes by the name Fajr Libya, or Dawn of Libya, swimming in the pool and showing reporters around. The Mail cites one of the group's commanders as saying they are occupying the compound to protect it from looters. The video however, suggests a group of men reveling in their newfound prize. According to the report, they have been there about a week.

Still, the commander may really want to keep the Embassy in presentable shape. While the country is racked by violent confrontations between the various militias that took down Qaddafi, this group has taken up positions throughout Tripoli and are telling foreign diplomats that it is safe to return. In fact it is part of a power play between the recently elected parliament and the former, Islamist parliament that took over following Qaddafi's ouster.

The group is not associated with Ansar-al-Sharia, which was responsible for the Benghazi attacks in 2012, nor is it associated with the new parliament - called the House of Representatives - elected in June. It is allied with the deposed parliament, the General National Congress, which is now trying to reassert itself after Dawn of Libya secured Tripoli.

Europe may not be interested in Jihad, but Jihad is interested in Europe

In his must-read article "Jihad Comes to Europe", Guy Millière lays out the dire mathematical equation that points to an imminent European crisis, one that pits Islamists and Marxists against Christians and secular liberals.

Government leaders in all major European countries know that hundreds of well-trained European jihadists are in Syria and that some of them will return. They do not ignore that some are already back in Europe and that attacks are likely. They do not ignore that if European jihadists are in the hundreds, those who support jihadism in Europe are probably in the tens of thousands. In recent demonstrations in support of the "Palestinian cause" all over Europe, flags of Hamas, Hizbullah and the Islamic State were abundant, and slogans explicit.

Governments in all major European countries do not ignore that many of the countries they lead are in financial dire straits, faced with sclerosis, stagnation, wretchedly controlled immigration, policies that retard economic growth, and the results of multiculturalism.

They do not ignore that many prisons in Europe are jihadi hotbeds, and that (mostly Muslim) no-go zones are proliferating.

They do not ignore that risks of riots are very real, and that judges under the influence of ideas that for a hundred years have been proven not to work -- in Russia, Cuba and everywhere -- nevertheless still serve everywhere in Europe.

They cannot ignore the existence in every European country of "anti-racist" organizations and Islamic lobbies, imams and journalists, almost exactly similar to those which exist in France and Belgium.

They cannot ignore the growing weight of Muslim votes in many parts of Europe.

They can break up some networks, thwart some attacks, symbolically strip some jihadists of their citizenship.

They know they are largely hostage to a situation they no longer control.

Their attitude is dictated by the fear of being confronted with more serious problems than murders: some European counter-terrorism services say that a Mumbai-style armed attack in Europe is possible, even probable.

The attitude of governments can be defined by a word often used to describe the attitude of Daladier and Chamberlain in 1938: appeasement.

And appeasement will work just as well as it did prior to 1 September 1939, which is to say not at all.

Europe will be faced with a stark choice that it is likely to confront only after the growing piles of dead bodies outweigh political correctness on the scale of public opinion.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

YET ANOTHER IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE: Obama's U.N. Climate "Accord" Will Trump U.S. Constitution

By Investor's Business Daily

Power: This lawless administration plans to bypass the two-thirds requirement for Senate ratification on a climate change treaty by entering into a "politically binding" hybrid agreement to "name and shame" climate scofflaws.

Apparently letting the Environmental Protection Agency run amok with regulations fulfilling candidate Obama's pledge to bankrupt the coal industry, and enact a de facto cap-and-trade regime the president couldn't get through Congress, is not enough.

The man who said his nomination was the moment the seas began to recede and the planet began to heal now plans to deal the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution yet another blow.

He's doing it by agreeing to a Kyoto-like "accord" he can use as moral cover for further destroying the U.S. economy, in lieu of an actual climate change "treaty" that must be ratified by two-thirds of a Senate that has already unanimously rejected such a pact.

The accord, to be signed at a United Nations summit meeting in Paris in 2015, is designed to bypass both Congress and the Constitution through the manipulation of language.

"Accords" do not have to be ratified, but they commit the nations involved to action, in this case meeting artificial and meaningless emission targets.

U.S. negotiators are meeting with diplomats from other countries to hammer out this deal, which is grounded neither in science nor the law.