@NatureGuy101 @directorblue
Federal gov has shrunk under obama. You are thinking of Bush.
— Paula (@Paula68154) October 9, 2014L.D. Jackson, writing at Political Realities, speaks truth to idiocy.
@NatureGuy101 @directorblue
Federal gov has shrunk under obama. You are thinking of Bush.
— Paula (@Paula68154) October 9, 2014War On Terror: Though they've given material assistance to terrorists by fighting for the Islamic State, which is a federal crime, the FBI director says American jihadis are "entitled" to come home and move about freely.
FBI Director James Comey told Scott Pelley on CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday that we know who the dozen or so Americans fighting with the Islamic State are, but we can't do much more than follow them around if they decide to return to the U.S.In the aftermath of 9/11, and in the face of IS atrocities and threats, this is an appalling statement.
"Ultimately, an American citizen, unless their passport's revoked, is entitled to come back," Comey said. "So someone who's fought with ISIL, with an American passport, who wants to come back, we will track them very carefully."
Presumably we will do a better job than we did with the Tsarnaev brothers, who bombed the Boston Marathon after Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent time in the terrorist-infested Russian republic of Dagestan.
QOTD: "On Wednesday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “The Kelly File,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer reacted to remarks aimed at President Barack Obama from two prominent Democrats in the last few days – former President Jimmy Carter and former Obama administration Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
Both Carter and Panetta have questioned Obama’s resolve to accomplish certain goals he had set out in speeches, especially regarding the threat of ISIS in the Middle East... Krauthammer pointed to not just Panetta remarks as former secretary of defense, but Panetta’s predecessor Bob Gates as well, who was also critical of Obama.
“[L]ook, what's important about that statement is what Carter mentioned about the two secretaries of defense,” Krauthammer said. “Here are two people with a certain loyalty and sympathy to the president -- one a Democrat and one a Republican. In fact, the Democrat, Panetta, is an icon of the party, he's known as a straight shooter. And they both say in their memoirs this guy is indecisive, he vacillates, he doesn't know how to lead. And the word they haven't used but I think we can use is that he's been unserious.”
“He wasn't serious in Libya,” he continued. “He wasn't serious about the red line. He wasn't serious about supporting the moderate opposition two years ago in Syria when it would have made a difference, as Panetta says. And he wasn't serious when he left Iraq entirely with no residual American force which would have made a huge difference. This is on the advice of his political advisors so he can run for re-election as ‘I'm the guy who ended the war in Iraq.’ He didn't end the war in Iraq. Petraeus ended the war in Iraq. Obama is the man who threw away the fruits of victory and a result of that -- the whirlwind we are reaping right now.”" --Jeff Poor
Taxpayers are apparently buying welfare recipients booze and cigarettes for the road — at times a very exotic road.
A Watchdog.org analysis of a Colorado Department of Human Services welfare ATM withdrawals database shows that $3.8 million was withdrawn by Colorado welfare recipients outside the state in the past two years. There were withdrawals at out-of-state liquor stores and tobacco outlets, as well as vacation destinations like Hawaii, Las Vegas and even the Virgin Islands, data shows.State Rep. Tim Dore, R-Elizabeth, who has urged limitations on where welfare recipients can use their electronic benefit transfer cards in Colorado, was shocked taxpayers are apparently funding some exotic travel.
“I wasn’t even aware of that,” said Dore, who promised to try to address the misuse of cards at liquor stores, casinos and marijuana shops in the next legislative session after Watchdog asked him about those items for previous stories. “That’s an additional issue we need to look into it.”
Last week, Watchdog.org published stories about Colorado welfare withdrawals at liquor stores and casinos despite federal and state law banning such actions and welfare recipients taking out money at the state’s legal marijuana shops. Federal law prevents EBT withdrawals from ATMs at liquor stores, casinos and other adult establishments, and Colorado law since 1996 prevented ATM use in liquor stores and casinos in Colorado.
JUST IN TIME FOR NOVEMBER: Democrats Unveil New Logo http://t.co/BjJhIccDXF (Obama is the Democrat Party) pic.twitter.com/DFi2K7yikK
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) October 9, 2014Just how big do Democrats/left-liberals/progressives want to grow government? And how high are they willing to raise taxes? If only there were a left-wing version of Paul Ryan’s famous long-term budget blueprint that would outline a multi-decade path for taxing and spending (including how to deal with the coming entitlement tidal wave).
Instead, pretty much all you can find are 10-year budgets showing taxes a bit higher here, spending a bit high there. After that, however, it gets pretty fuzzy. It’s almost as if the pols and wonks on the left are avoiding the subject of what’s beyond the near horizon.
The book’s title, according to Amazon, comes from the first words infamous Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank “the Irishman” Sheeran. To paint a house is to kill a man. The paint is the blood that splatters on the walls and floors.
The book is essentially the deathbed biography of one-time Delaware Teamster boss and mob hit-man Frank Sheeran and truly is a fascinating read.
[Spoiler alert: Before he died, Sheeran claimed to be the one who killed his friend and mentor, Jimmy Hoffa--whose body was apparently later cremated.]
Despite the book purportedly being made into a movie called The Irishman, starring Robert De Niro , Al Pacino , Joe Pesci, as well as directed by Martin Scorcese, it has not been released yet.
While the book has been out for some time, it wasn’t until last night, during Joe Biden’s prime time speech, that I was reminded of some of the books contents, most notably this piece that appeared in the Orange County Register a few weeks ago:
QOTD:"Yay! Six percent fewer part-time employees have coverage because of ObamaCare! That’s quite an “achievement,” especially since the primary result of Barack Obama’s economic plans has been the wholesale conversion of full-time jobs to part-time positions. An America full of people who work hard, but don’t make enough money to take care of their needs, dependent on an insolvent corporatist program that will soon collapse into a single-payer black hole for their health care? What’s not to like, if you’re a dishonest socialist?
Let us pause once more to remember that President Barack Obama loudly, clearly, and repeatedly promised that nothing like this would ever happen, and anyone who (accurately) warned otherwise was a fearmonger who just wanted poor people to die. ObamaCare remains the biggest con job ever pulled on the American people, dwarfing Bernie Madoff’s financial misadventures by several orders of magnitude.
And the hell of it is, the people telling all these lies, jacking up insurance premiums across the land, and blowing health care plans to smithereens love to congratulate themselves on their compassion. They really care, you see… unless you’re one of the designated losers in their scheme to have the government pick winners. In that case, your travails count for nothing. Not only is your suffering meaningless, but they’ll attack you as a selfish counter-revolutionary for even daring to mention it. No American politician is so callous as a “compassionate” left-winger confronted by someone who got the fuzzy end of a Big Government lollipop." --John Hayward
The way people engage with Google search engine result pages (SERPs) has changed significantly over the past decade, according to a recent report from Mediative.
The report was based on data from an eye-tracking study of 53 participants who were asked to complete 43 common search tasks, such as looking for an apartment to rent in a particular neighborhood. All searches were conducted on desktop computers in Canada using the Google search engine.
A similar study conducted by Mediative in 2005 found that users tended to focus their gaze on the "Golden Triangle"—the top-left corner of a SERP where the first result was usually displayed.
The 2014 results were strikingly different from those a decade ago. The Golden Triangle has all but disappeared; instead, users tend scan more vertically and to vary their focus depending on what they are searching for...
War On Terror: While hitting a truck here or a tank there, the administration blows another chance to shatter Islamic State forces in open country as they plant their black flags on NATO's doorstep in the Kurdish city of Kobani.
One of the benefits of being a superpower is that you have super power. But power is effective only if you use it, something President Obama is loathe to do.We have commented before on the administration's video-game air campaign against ISIS, designed to score points with the electorate even as ISIS relentlessly advances.
CNN reports that over the weekend "allied airstrikes destroyed two ISIS tanks, a bulldozer and another ISIS vehicle," likely one of those white pickup trucks ISIS is fond of. We're sending expensive high-tech fighters to fire laser-guided weapons at solitary bulldozers. This is beyond pathetic.
A week ago we warned of the Islamic State advance on Kobani, and the desperate pleas from the Kurds for something more than token airstrikes as they struggled to survive an ISIL onslaught complete with tanks, armored personnel carriers and even heavy artillery.
It was an advance through the wide-open northern desert of Syria that could have been stopped with a sustained around-the-clock air campaign that targeted more than bulldozers.
It would have been a shooting gallery for our B-1 and B-2 bombers. Even a single B-52 might have done more to "degrade and destroy" advancing ISIS forces in one pass than we have accomplished since Obama's anemic air campaign began.
Now it may be too late to do anything as house-to-house fighting in Kobani is under way.
On August 7, 2014, Barack Obama announced "Operation Annoy ISIS," ordering U.S. aircraft to drop humanitarian supplies to tens of thousands of Yezidi refugees fleeing the terrorists of the Islamic State. He also ordered U.S. combat aircraft to be ready to launch airstrikes to protect Americans in Erbil, Iraq, and to lift the siege of the Yezidis.
The airstrikes began on Aug. 8, 2014, when two F/A-18 aircraft dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece near Erbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region.On September 10, 2014, Obama declared his intention to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIS, while precluding a combat mission for American ground forces in Iraq.
As of October 7, 2014, 60 days into the air campaign against ISIS, a total of 376 airstrikes have been conducted, 266 in Iraq and 110 in Syria, the vast majority targeting vehicles, equipment and buildings, not terrorists.
Supporters of the Obama Administration's approach to the ISIS threat cite the 1999 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) air campaign in the Kosovo War as an example of how air power alone can end wars.
On the night of 24 March 1999, NATO launched Operation Allied Force in response to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians. The violence had already taken the lives of more than 250,000 people by 1995, and when the conflict continued to escalate, the United Nations Security Council warned of an "impending humanitarian catastrophe" if action was not taken.
During the 78-day campaign, NATO aircrews flew 38,004 sorties, 10,484 of which were strike sorties. Overall, the U.S. Air Force flew 30,018 sorties, including 11,480 airlift, 8,889 fighter, 322 bomber, 6,959 tanker, 1,038 Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), 834 Special Operations, and 496 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missions.
Undercover reporters from O’Keefe’s “Project Veritas” organization visited Grimes campaign offices and Democratic-party headquarters in Kentucky, posing as anti-coal environmentalists. Hidden cameras caught staffers explaining that Grimes doesn’t really support Kentucky’s robust coal industry, and is instead seeking to blur the lines between herself and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a state deeply hostile to President Obama and his environmental agenda.
“You know she has to say that,” said Juanita Rodriguez, a Warren County Democratic operative. “Because in Kentucky if you don’t support the coal industry, you are dead . . . It’s a lying game, unfortunately.”
“If we can get her elected, do you think she is going to do the right thing and she’s gonna try to wipe out that coal industry and go for better resources?” one of the reporters asked Fayette County Democratic Committee member Gina Bess.
“I absolutely think she is,” Bess replied.
A top Grimes donor and real estate tycoon, Niko Elmaleh, was caught on tape saying Grimes was going to f*** the coal industry.
PV: So you know that Alison will help us stop coal?
Niko Elmaleh: Come on Dude. What do you think?
PV: I think yes, but I haven’t heard it straight up.
Niko Elmaleh: She can’t say it straight up.
PV: She supports big coal.
Niko Elmaleh: No. She’s going to f*** ‘em as soon as she gets elected.
PV: Really?
Niko Elmaleh: Yeah. Take my word for it. Here. Take my word for it.
Niko Elmaleh: She’s going to have to do what she has to do to get elected and then she’s going to f*** them.
Niko Elmaleh: Okay trust me. She’s a killer.
QOTD: "A prominent conservative political pundit was uninvited from speaking at Scripps College, in a program designed to promote conservative views on campus, because of his conservative views." --Brad Richardson
Sen. Kay Hagan’s husband and son created a solar energy contracting company in August 2010, and then, using $250,644 in federal stimulus grant funds, her husband hired that same company to install solar panels at a building he owns.
Public records show that Green State Power was formed seven weeks before JDC Manufacturing — a company owned in part by Greensboro attorney Charles “Chip” Hagan III, Sen. Hagan’s husband — received the stimulus grant for the solar project at a 300,000-square-foot facility in Reidsville, N.C.
A story in late September on the Washington, D.C.-based website Politico revealed that JDC Manufacturing received “nearly $390,000 in federal grants for energy projects and tax credits created by the 2009 stimulus law, according to public records and information provided by the company.”
After weeks of sustained air strikes in Iraq, Islamic State fighters have reportedly hit Baghdad’s international zone with mortars on Monday.
The so-called “Green Zone” is in the heart of the city and lies along the Tigris River. The U.S. Embassy is located there, along with several Iraqi government buildings.
CNN’s Ben Wedemen, reporting from Baghdad, said several mortar rounds landed in the Green Zone late Monday. Officials with U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Defense One. Several news outlets said the Islamic State is now operating in Abu Ghraib, a city just west of Baghdad and only a few miles from the Baghdad International Airport, where U.S. troops are positioned. It’s possible the mortar attacks were launched from Abu Ghraib, based on the proximity of its location. Pro-Shiite militias are also operating in the area.
QOTD: "US border security devotes more time and resources to Campbell Webster of Concord bringing in a bagpipe than to Thomas Duncan of Monrovia bringing in Ebola...
...But, of course, giving additional attention to West African visitors would be racist. Not like terrorizing Scotsmen over their bagpipes.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security expands its curious priorities from raiding Boston strip clubs for selling knock-off Red Sox T-shirts to raiding private homes to seize vintage cars that don't meet EPA standards. And yet more emission creep:
Homeland Security Is Now Helping To Protect Communities From The Effects Of Climate Change
Big Government is, inevitably, stupid government. The bigger it gets the more it will focus on trivia, and the less it will even be able to discern the few things it should be doing. But something more pathological is going on here: "Homeland Security" is more interested in controlling law-abiding Americans than protecting them." --Mark Steyn
With regard to ISIS, President Obama recently addressed the nation, but many have said that the President’s strategy is still unclear. However, the President does have a strategy for a global climate change agreement. It was reported last month that the Obama administration is pursuing a global accord to compel nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
On February 16, Secretary of State John Kerry stated, “In a sense, climate change can now be considered another weapon of mass destruction, perhaps even the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.” Only two days later, demonstrators set fire to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, protesting ties between then President Viktor Yanukovych and Russia. Yanukovych was forced to step down four days later. Events in Ukraine have continued to deteriorate, with the Russian seizure of Crimea in March and today’s growing insurrection by Russian-backed separatists in Eastern Ukraine.
European leaders and President Obama appear to have no effective plan to stabilize the situation in Ukraine. But the Europeans do have a strategy to halt global warming. The European Union has proposed a 40 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels and a 30 percent energy efficiency target by the year 2030 for member states.
I live only a two hour drive from New York City, but it is a world apart from my daily existence. I’ve visited the Big Apple probably a dozen times in my life, but never for longer than two or three days. I have a soft spot in my heart for NYC because it is where I proposed to my wife on a bitterly cold December evening in a horse drawn carriage ride in Central Park, twenty five years ago. But, I can honestly say that I never feel comfortable in the city.
Last week we had an opportunity to get away for a long weekend. My wife had gotten tickets to the Jimmy Fallon Show for Thursday afternoon and we decided to get a hotel room for one night and then drive directly down to Wildwood for the remainder of the weekend. My mother-in-law agreed to watch the kids, so we had ourselves a mini-vacation. I anticipated a more laid back trip than our visit to Occupy Wall Street a few years ago, that led to one of my most read articles.A couple years ago I was shocked to receive an email from David Stockman, complimenting me on a particular article I had written. When a former Reagan budget director, founding partner of the Blackstone Group, and world renowned financial mind takes notice of something you’ve written it really boosts your morale. We have had a periodic email dialogue ever since. When he created his own website earlier this year, he asked me to be a contributor. He also told me that if I ever make it to NYC, let him know and we would meet for a drink.
I was reluctant to bother such a busy man, but during a recent email exchange I mentioned I’d be in New York. He suggested we meet after the Jimmy Fallon Show for a drink. I told him to pick a place convenient for him. He emailed back, the morning we were leaving, to meet him and his wife at the Carlyle Hotel bar at 5:00 pm. I immediately googled the hotel and realized I should pack some nicer clothes. This was no Shamrock bar in Wildwood. It was on Seventy Sixth & Park Avenue. My uneasiness had begun.