Thursday, December 11, 2014

ILLINOIS: Dead Broke and Getting Broker

By Ted Dabrowski

Imagine a company contributing the equivalent of 30 to 40 percent of its workers’ salaries each year to worker-retirement costs alone. No business could sustain that level of costs and compete, let alone survive.

In fact, the market is littered with companies bankrupted by the ballooning costs of traditional pension plans.

But that’s precisely what the Illinois government is trying to get away with. Illinois’ five state-run pension plans are so deep in the hole that the state – the employer – is now contributing the equivalent of 35 to 127 percent of its government-worker salaries just to keep its pension systems afloat. It’s simply unsustainable.

On average, the government contributes to its pension plans the equivalent of 38 percent of each worker’s salary in order to meet the state’s pension obligations. Those contributions cover not only the benefits workers accrue today, but also the shortfall created by the inherent flaws of Illinois’ politician-run pension system.

For example, to keep both the Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS, and the State Universities Retirement System, or SURS, afloat, the state contributes the equivalent of 35 percent of an employee’s salary each year.

EXCLUSIVE: Photo of Dianne Feinstein Press Conference, Plus Our Comment o' the Day Award

Chris wins our oh-so-prestigious Comment o' the Day award, which entitles him to either a 2015 Mercedes GLK 350 or a box of Kaboom Cereal (our choice):


The level of hypocrisy has jammed the meter's needle up against the peg and wrapped it around.

These hyperventilating, panties-in-a-wad harpies (female, male, and ?) are the same slime balls (alternately, slime-without-balls) who were BRIEFED many times on what was planned and done, as well as wondering if there wasn't more that could be done.

These now-incredulous (golly gee, we never would have guessed) geniuses let the dogs off the leash, loudly commanded, "Sic 'em!" and then jumped up and down, pom poms waving, while they gleefully cheered, "Go team, go! Fight, team, fight!"

Now they're collectively on the fainting couch (getting a tad crowded there, it is), ready to throw under the bus those out on the pointy end of the spear who did their expressed bidding.

As they cry out for punishment for the "doers" of all this "evil" and those at the CIA who gave the orders, they conveniently ignore that it was they, themselves, who ordered the CIA to march forward. If the "foot soldiers" just "carrying out orders" are to be indicted, how about the ultimate order-givers? Does Nuremberg ring a bell?

Chris refers to, of course, the fact that Feinstein, Pelosi and the other weasels were fully briefed on the Enhanced Interrogation program. Further, their very "investigation" failed to interview a single member (not one) of the very intelligence community it claimed to review.

I would call these people pond-scum, but that would unfairly tarnish hard-working algae.

Larwyn's Linx: Cromnibus: a winter festival of unrestrained spending

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Nation

Cromnibus: a winter festival of unrestrained spending: John Hayward
Scalise On The Benefits Of Cromnibus: HayRide
Republican Budget Deal Spits in the Face of Voter Anger: Leon Wolf

The “Torture Report” and American Values: Max Boot
Awash in a Sea of Progressive Lies : DiploMad
Why release a report on the CIA in wartime?: Cal Thomas

This is Not Complicated: Erick Erickson
"The Bastards are Corrupt": Scoop
Pelosi And Reid Reveal Democrats’ '15 Strategy: Government Shutdown: WZ

States Move Forward With Plan To Alter Constitution: IBD
10th State Set to Nullify Obama’s Gun Control: ConTrib
Torture Focus is Poison Pill for Democrats: Jonathan S. Tobin

Welcome to TotCare: Obama's preschool takeover: Michelle Malkin
The Decline And Fall Of The Arkansas Battleaxe: Bob Mack
South Texas College Prof Compares Tea Party to Nazis: CI

Economy

Duck And Cover——-The Lull Is Breaking, The Storm Is Nigh: David Stockman
Nearly $200,000,000 Spent in Four Months on Illegal Alien Children: Sara Noble
10 reasons the “Free-Market Jesus Paradise” is awesome: LI

Scandal Central

Emails Show IRS’s Lois Lerner Met with DOJ Officials Just Before 2010 Elections: JW
Feinstein's Duplicity: 68 Congressional Members Briefed On Enhanced Interrogation From 2001-2007: Lid
'You're Not Going to Be Deported,' Obama Assures 'Ordinary' Illegal Immigrants: CNS

Media

LI wins FOIA suit over David Gregory gun law non-prosecution: William A. Jacobson
Don't Cry (Too Much) for The New Republic: Lee Smith
Jon Stewart Uses His Own Mistake to Bash Fox News: LI

One Democrat blasts Feinstein for "Torture Report": FAM
Dick Cheney: Torture Report ‘Full Of Crap’: GWP
Epic: Phil Kerpen Shakes Hands With Gruber, Thanks Him for "Helping Us Destroy Sh*tty Law You Passed”: WZ

World

Military on High Alert So Obama, Feinstein Can Blame Bush: Sara Noble
Oh My God: Obama Wants AUMF From Congress, But Won't Say What He Wants In It : Ace
NSA's Auroragold Mining Operation : Richard Adhikari

How the Palestinian Authority Manufactures its Own Martyrs: Daniel Greenfield
Because…Moral Equivalence.: MOTUS
The Treasury Department Is Seeking Survival Kits For Bank Employees: NoisyRm

The Other America: Victor Davis Hanson
Russian Sanctions + Low Oil Prices = Pontential Trouble For The West: Hideout
Will Islamic State wring its hands over torture? Not likely: John Kass

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Why Is Gillette Struggling to Compete on Social With the Dollar Shave Club? : Jordan Con
Comcast sued for turning private home routers into public hotspots: ExtremeTech
2015 Pocket Pistols Buyer’s Guide: Dennis Adler, Tactical Life

Cornucopia

Torcher: Hopenchange
Dianne Feinstein should keep her head on a swivel: Obiter Dictum
Video: Man Stole Ambulance to Get to Strip Club: PoliceMag

Image: HEY LIBERALS: ISIS Just Threw a Man Off The Roof for Being Gay
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Tech News

QOTD: "One of the most common and most understandable reactions to the Senate’s “torture report” is that the practices described by Dianne Feinstein’s investigators are contrary to “American values.” On a certain level the assertion is undeniable: torture (and that’s what the “enhanced interrogation techniques” amount to, even if it is not torture as heinous as that routinely practiced by dictatorships) is definitely not an “American value.” But what about incinerating civilians? Is that an “American value”?

The reality is that the U.S. has often done things in the past that, looked at in another light, could be judged as immoral acts or even war crimes. Exhibit A is the strategic bombing of Germany and Japan in World War II which culminated in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two atom bombs killed an estimated 190,000 civilians. The non-nuclear bombing of Japan killed at least 330,000 more. That’s more than half a million dead civilians in Japan alone. The toll was not as high in Germany but it was high enough. One bombing raid alone, on Dresden, killed between 25,000 to 40,000 people. The total number of Germans killed in Anglo-American bombing raids has been estimated at over 300,000.

It would be interesting to know what those who now decry the torture of terrorist suspects have to say about the deaths of some 800,000 people, mostly civilians, in these World War II bombing raids. Were Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, the presidents who ordered these bombing campaigns, war criminals? And if not how can one argue, a so many on the left seem to, that George W. Bush is?" --Max Boot

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

HEY, WHY NOT? Boehner Omnibus Spending Bill Funds Social Security Benefits for Obama's Amnesty Aliens

What else would you expect?

Pages 958 and 959 of the 1,603-page omnibus spending bill from House Speaker John Boehner include a provision that gives Social Security benefits to illegal aliens under President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty...

...Right after Obama’s executive amnesty announcement, the White House confirmed to the Washington Post that illegal aliens who get amnesty from Obama—paid for by Boehner, and any Republican who votes for this omnibus bill—will have access to Social Security benefits.

By not including language saying that Social Security benefits can’t go to illegal aliens under the executive amnesty—just as they didn’t include language going after funding for the implementation of the executive amnesty itself—Republicans are completely surrendering, ensuring that millions of illegal aliens will get Social Security.

...[A] GOP aide said he’s not surprised Boehner caved to Obama’s amnesty... “I can’t say I’m surprised by this, given the apparent lack of will to protect the American people against Obama’s illegal actions,” the aide said.

I get the feeling that the Oligarchs in Washington can be segmented not as Democrats and Republicans, but as "Traitors" and "Quislings", respectively.

Yeah, you can use that one, royalty-free. It's the least I can do.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Why don't you ask him about torture?

The corrupt, conscious-less, traitorous Democrat Party released the one-sided Senate report on interrogation techniques this week for one reason and one reason alone: to shriek "BUSH" at the top of their lungs one last time before the reins of power are ripped from their greasy hands.


The Democrat cruds -- it was an entirely partisan enterprise -- did not interview CIA directors during the time in question; did not interview CIA personnel during the time in question; and whitewashed their own involvement and approval of the techniques.

MAP: Support for Gun Control Across the United States

Interesting interactive map at iSideWith that purports to depict regions of the country color coded by support (or loathing) of gun control.


Couple of large grains of salt with which to digest this map: the provenance of the site is unknown to me. And the political affinity of those that visit could dramatically skew results. In this case, my guess is that this map understates support for gun rights.


Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News.

JUST SUPER: FBI Most Wanted Al Qaeda terrorist "crossed back and forth" between US and Mexico for years

The invaluable Judicial Watch reports that deportations of illegal aliens has hit another new low. And the inevitable result is as disgusting as it is predictable.

Illegal border crossings have "skyrocketed":

Obtained from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this month by a mainstream newspaper, the figures reveal that President Obama deported fewer illegal aliens in the last year than at any time during his tenure. This despite the fact that federal agents caught nearly half a million people trying to cross into the U.S. in the fiscal year ending in September. “An even bigger decline came in the numbers of people removed after living for some time in the U.S., mostly after being ensnared in the criminal justice system,” the newspaper reports.

Oh, wait! It gets better. An FBI "Most Wanted" Al Qaeda terrorist crossed freely back and forth between the U.S. and Canada "for years".

The news could not come at a worse time, on the heels of a shocking case reported by Judicial Watch this week involving an Al Qaeda terrorist on the FBI’s most wanted list who for years crossed back and forth into the United States from Mexico. The jihadist, Adnan G. El Shukrijumah (also known as “Javier Robles”), met with fellow militant Islamists in El Paso Texas, according to JW’s law enforcement sources, and even piloted an aircraft into the Cielo Dorado airfield in Anthony New Mexico earlier this year. Shukrijumah is the poster child for the need to secure the perpetually porous southern border.

Instead, Obama has issued an administrative amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. while the border remains particularly vulnerable. The new ICE report says that federal agents removed 315,943 last year, a 14% drop from the previous year. The administration went even easier on illegal aliens with criminal records, removing only 102,000, a 23% drop from 2013 and fewer than half the number of people deported in 2011. Only two-thirds of the illegal immigrants caught at the border were sent back, marking a 9% decline from the previous year.

We get word from Matthew Boyle today that John Boehner's insane "Omnibus" spending bill gives Social Security benefits to Obama's Amnesty aliens.

Rest assured that this means you and I will be paying for the Social Security benefits of terrorists (not to mention gang-bangers, felons, kidnappers, murderers and other illegal alien criminals).

How's your rear end feel?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: Memo To House Republicans: If You Fund It You Own It

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Nation

Memo To House Republicans: If You Fund It You Own It: CHQ
Gruber Lawyers Up Regarding How Much Money He Made From Governments: Ace
Levin: Gruber hearings pointless; GOP will fund every cent of Obamacare: Scoop

The CIA, Interrogation, and Feinstein’s Parting Shot: Max Boot
Ex-Dem Senator: Why Does Feinstein Support Drones, But Not Torture?: DC
George W Bush declines to back-stab the CIA over waterboarding: Moe Lane

Gruber gets Gowdy-ed: LI
Issa to Gruber: Prepare for a Subpoena, Putz: Scoop
Dear Democrats You Did this to Yourselves: DTG

Second Ferguson Witness Reportedly Found Dead: MB
Senate Democrats Never Heard Anything About This "Torture" Business: Ace
Elizabeth Warren Goes Full Orwell: Ed Driscoll

Economy

Surprise? Ocare Has A Doctor Shortage: Cove
Obamacare’s Contracting Bonanza in 8 Charts: Jay Hancock
Madoff Ops. Chief Gets 10 Years: FINalternatives

Scandal Central

Leaked Docs: Obama Amnesty Increases Risk of Terrorism: Tea Party
Email Chain: Obama Intended to Destroy Legal Businesses With Harsh Regulations: LibertyNews
Lois Lerner Met With DOJ To Plot Against Tax Exempts As Early As Oct 2010: Lid

Climate & Energy

The Gods Have Made Them Mad: Jonathan David Carson
Climate Catastrophe: John Stossel
With future uncertain, Colorado shields its water: Stamford Advocate

Media

Obama Cursed Reporters: Dossier
Mississippi Burning – Jessica Chambers Murder: Treehouse
Catalog of Krugman quotes regarding Gruber and Obamacare: Reddit Libertarian

Time Magazine: Lena Dunham Rape Allegation Fake But Accurate: Ed Driscoll
Mara Liasson: Gruber 'Could Be the Undoing of Obamacare': Breitbart
NBC Nightly News Breaks Silence on Jonathan Gruber 32 Days After First Video Surfaced: MRC

Obama gets huffy when Spanish host calls him the ‘Deporter-in-Chief’: Scoop
‘OMG! Hilarious!': Obama says ‘when we make mistakes, we admit them’: Twitchy
CBS’s Pelley Asks Former Acting CIA Director If He Feels ‘Ashamed’ After Release of ‘Torture’ Report: MRC

World

Make No Mistake, Dianne Feinstein Is Releasing The 'Torture' Report For Political Reasons: Lid
Former top Obama CIA official defends interrogation program: Marc A. Thiessen
Obama's Reaction to the Senate Report: Torture is Good: Chris Floyd

Ralph Peters: Releasing CIA report will “provide aid and comfort to the enemy”: Scoop
China Takes Nuclear Weapons Underwater Where Prying Eyes Can’t See: NoisyRm
Statement of Geert Wilders during His Interrogation by the State Police: Gatestone

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Glassdoor: Google dethrones Twitter as the best tech company to work for in the U.S.: VB
The Content Marketing Stack: Alltop
The Pirate Bay goes offline after police raid server room: Verge

Cornucopia

The 2014 Hater's Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog: Drew Magary
Bumper Sticker o' the Day: Treehouse
The Best Quotes From Jack Donovan’s “The Way Of Men”: John Hawkins

Image: Obama’s immigration taunt: Next president won’t dare reverse my executive action
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The First of Many 2016 Polls

QOTD: "As things get worse and the State seems powerless to help, the State will seem less and less legitimate. People will lose their moral connection to it. Laws will seem more like revenue traps and shakedowns. The state will start to seem more like another extortion racket, and, as in Mexico, people will have a harder time telling the good guys from the bad guys." --Jack Donovan

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

BEYOND BENGHAZI: Massive Security Gaps in State Department Security on Hillary's Watch Revealed

And this seems so unexpected coming as it does under the watch of a Secretary of State whose sole qualification was squelching "Bimbo Eruptions."

The Wall Street Journal elaborates:

State Department investigators discovered numerous security deficiencies in global hot spots when reviewing U.S. diplomatic facilities in 2012 and 2013, suggesting problems were more widespread than previously known.

...The review, which hadn’t been made public before, was undertaken from April to October 2012, toward the end of Hillary Clinton ’s tenure as secretary of state. It provides the best snapshot of security when the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked in September 2012, leading to the deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.

Congressional panels investigating the Benghazi attacks concluded that State Department officials didn’t beef up security despite requests from diplomats in Libya. The reviews suggest such problems went well beyond Benghazi.

DRONES ARE JUST PEACHY: Ex-Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-KS) Slams Dianne Feinstein for enhanced interrogation hypocrisy

Alex Griswold points us to a disappointed Andrea Mitchell, whose face resembles papier-mâché (not that there's anything wrong with that) when confronted with the stark idiocy of Democrat policy positions.

Former Democratic Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey called out Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” for her “incompatible” positions in support of droning terrorists, but in opposition to using enhanced interrogation.

“Well the other thing is, you’ve got guys out there right now running drones. Dianne Feinstein supports the use of drones,” he noted. “What happens if ten years from now, there is another investigation saying those guys violated international law as well?”

“I mean you’re basically saying, ‘I can’t interrogate Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, but I can put him out with his family and drop a drone [strike] on him.’ There seems to be something incompatible with those two positions.

Well, let's put it this way, Bob: wiping out a terrorist's family with a drone strike is no more hypocritical than Michelle Obama gorging on fast food while insisting that growing kids starve themselves.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

THE ENERGY BUST: What it heralds for the economy

By Michael Snyder

Are much lower oil prices good news for the U.S. economy? Only if you like collapsing capital expenditures, rising unemployment and a potential financial implosion on Wall Street. Yes, lower gasoline prices are good news for the middle class. I certainly would rather pay two dollars for a gallon of gas than four dollars. But in order to have money to fill up your vehicle you have got to have an income first. And since the last recession, the energy sector has been the number one creator of good jobs in the U.S. economy by far. Barack Obama loves to stand up and take credit for the fact that the employment picture in this country has been improving slightly, but without the energy industry boom, unemployment would be through the roof. And now that the “energy boom” is rapidly becoming an “energy bust”, what will happen to the struggling U.S. economy as we head into 2015?

At the start of this article I mentioned that much lower oil prices would result in “collapsing capital expenditures”.

CONFIRMED: the President Lied to You About the IRS Scandal

The Las Vegas Review-Journal offers an incisive summary of the most egregious abuse of political power in modern American history.

It seems rather startling to me that the press would ignore the use of the IRS as a political bludgeon, but -- then again -- anything goes when a Democrat occupies the Oval Office.

Back in February, President Barack Obama said the apparent targeting of conservative organizations by the IRS was not illegal or politically motivated, but rather the result of “some bone-headed decisions,” and that “not even a smidgen of corruption” was at play. A few months — and developments — later, however, the president’s words are even less believable than they were then.

First, nonprofit watchdog group Cause of Action filed a Freedom of Information Act request for documents from the IRS indicating that the agency had been sharing individuals’ private tax data with the White House. (The group was trying to obtain information proving the existence of an independent investigation into alleged unauthorized access to the Koch brothers’ tax returns by former White House senior economics adviser Austan Goolsbee.) When the agency dragged its feet and ultimately denied the request, Cause of Action sued. A judge ruled in Cause of Action’s favor, ordering the IRS to turn over all of the documents by December 1.

Despite the court order, however, the IRS has continued to stonewall, refusing to share the requested records. While the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) claimed initially that the IRS would comply and turn over more than 2,000 pages of documents, it abruptly reneged, saying in a letter to Cause of Action on December 1 that, yes, they did indeed have 2,043 pages of documents relating to the FOIA request, but that Cause of Action couldn’t see them due to federal privacy laws.

Yes, that's right: through its refusal to release the documents, the Inspector General has essentially confirmed that the IRS shared private taxpayer with the White House.

And, yes, that's a federal crime.

JOHNNY, GET YOUR PRINTER: The Bernanke Era

The greatest money-printing exercise in world history continues apace, spurred in part by the federal government's uncanny ability to spend everything it takes in and then some.


This may be a good time to reacquaint oneself with the Pyramid of Doom.


Hat tip: BadBlue Money News.

Larwyn's Linx: Boehner to Conservatives: you have to pass the omnibus to find out what’s in it

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

Nation

Boehner to Conservatives: you have to pass the omnibus to find out what’s in it: RS
Now Or Later: Why Not Wait to Fight Over Amnesty?: Erick Erickson
McConnell Plots a Functional, Bipartisan Senate: Roll Call

Obama Didn't Even Bother to Issue an Actual Executive Amnesty Order: Power Line
A Lay Person’s Guide To The States’ Amnesty Lawsuit Against DHS: Federalist
Conservatives Need To Re-Establish Control Of Party And Nation: David Limbaugh

They Don't Want to Stop Crime: Don Surber
Obama wants public schools to create memorials to Michael Brown: RWN
If Profiling Doesn't Work Why Does TSA and Secret Service Do It?: RCP

Mass Rapes at UC Berkeley?: Zombie
Police in WI: Citizens Should Volunteer to Have Homes Searched for Guns: GayPatriot
"Careening Toward A New & Different Kind Of Civil War": ZH

Economy

Obama's Cloward Piven Strategy Explained: ConWife
College prof makes students recite anti-American 'pledge of allegiance': Fox
Cromnibus Stalling Behind Closed Doors: Roll Call

Scandal Central

The Pentagon Finally Details its Weapons-for-Cops Giveaway: MuckRock
Obamacare Architect Jonathan Gruber to Testify on Capitol Hill This Week: Katie Pavlich
North Carolina: More Than 4,000 Charges of Child Sex Assault Filed Against Illegal Aliens in Past Year: UFP

Climate & Energy

The Emperor's New Carbon Credits: Mark Steyn
Fuel prices fall, time for gas tax hike: Pennsylvania's Rendell: CNBC
Kuwait Sees Oil Stuck at $65 for Six Months Until OPEC Moves: Bloomberg

Media

Ann Compton on Obama: He Launches 'Profanity-Laced' Tirades Against Press: MRC
Chuck Todd Defends Hillary From Claims She Can't Connect With Public: MRC
Predictable CNN Suggests Tea Party Could Destroy GOP: CNS

The Optimistic Democrat: Joe Cunningham
Rolling Stone Editor, 2006: "I Want to Do Stuff That's Biased;" "We'll Write What We Believe": Ace
Sabrina Rubin Erdely’s Old Stories Sure Read Like Bad Lifetime Movies: Mollie Hemingway

World

Iran: Obama Begging To Meet Ayatollah Khamenei, “Knocking On Every Door Just To Meet For A Few Minutes”: WZ
NAACP Aligns With Terrorists: Sara Noble
Obama and Putin are both Frozen in the Past: James Lewis

Report: Islamic State Claims ‘Radioactive Device’ Now in Europe: Adam Kredo
ISIS Reportedly Beheads Four Christian Children in Iraq for Refusing to Convert to Islam: Matthew Clark
Israeli stabbed in New York Chabad headquarters: Times of Israel

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Operation AURORAGOLD: How the NSA Hacks Cellphone Networks Worldwide
The Intercept: http://ohmyg.viralnova.com/frozen-fog/
This Dangerous Fog In Hungary Froze Nearly Everything In Its Path
ViralNova
The Latest Sony Leak Includes Extra Scripts, Phone Numbers and More: Gizmodo

Cornucopia

Cellophane on Ice: MOTUS
Owning A Ferrari For A Year Was A Disappointment: Jalopnik
Is The Obama Regime Implementing His Civilian Army Via Holder’s Civil-Rights-Fabricated-Crisis?: GWP

Image: Detroit by Air
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Car News - All Automotive, All the Time

QOTD: "I think most presidents realize – had a personal connection. I don't think they ever -- we were ever in a confrontation-type moment where they felt the need to apologize. I have seen in the last year Barack Obama really angry twice. Both were off the record times. One, profanity-laced where he thought the press was making too much of scandals that he did not think were scandals. Another where he took us to task for not understanding the limits he has with foreign policy and the way he's dealing with the Middle East and Iraq, and Afghanistan. And I don't find him apologetic. But I find him willing to stand up to the press and look them in the eye, even though it was off the record and just give us hell.

...From his point of view, he may [have a point]. But we cover what we are allowed to cover. And when policy decisions and presidents are inaccessible and don't take questions from the press on a regular basis, I think they get -- they reap what they sow." --Retired ABC News journalist Ann Compton

Monday, December 08, 2014

Analysis of Obama's Executive Amnesty Scheme: It Will Put an End to Secure Communities

By Dan Cadman

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson testified before the House of Representatives on December 2 that he thinks it's a "bad idea" for Congress to consider a short-term funding bill in lieu of full funding for his department, so that it can implement the stunningly broad sweep of "executive actions" on immigration announced by the president during a nationally televised speech on November 20. He may think so, but it's not at all clear why the House should adopt that view given the executive branch usurpation of authorities granted to the legislature under Article I of the Constitution, and the undermining of an entire system of federal immigration laws.

Concurrent with the president's speech, Johnson issued a series of 10 policy memos outlining the various programs covering 10 key areas that would constitute this "executive action".

One of the 10 memos announced an end to Secure Communities, a program that uses electronic matching of fingerprints to identify alien criminals in near-real-time among the people arrested by police nationwide. It's to be replaced with a new "Priority Enforcement Program (PEP)" ... that uses electronic matching of fingerprints to identify alien criminals in near-real-time among the people arrested by police nationwide.

Don't think, though, that this is just a re-branding of Secure Communities under a puerile new name such as "PEP" in order to escape the controversy that has been its hallmark. Most assuredly it's not — the changes are substantive and damaging.

NO, REALLY, I'M SERIOUS: RNC Braintrust Actually Believes Jeb Bush is a Viable Presidential Candidate

What, Jon Huntsman wasn't available?

I know for a fact that the RNC is prepping the Jebster for a run because I happened to be at a corporate event a while back and The Smart Bush® made an appearance. Trailing him into the room at a discrete distance was ReiNCe Priebus, ostensible chair of the RNC.

I say "ostensible" because we all know that the RNC is actually run by Tom Donahue, president of the Chamber of Commerce. And Donahue, more than anything else, seeks cheap immigrant labor--the American economy, the American citizenry, and the Constitutional system be damned.

Which explains Jeb Bush's borderline-insane pleas for open borders, Amnesty, and the inevitable voting rights and citizenship for tens of millions of illegal aliens.

In contrast, Kurt Schlichter highlights the weakness of the Democrat's 2016 candidates, headlined by the ludicrously unqualified Hillary Clinton, who -- at best -- represents a third term for Valerie Jarrett Barack Obama.

RESET: China Conducts Third Test of Game-Changing "Carrier Killer" Missile System

By Investor's Business Daily

Defense Threat: China conducts its third test in a year of a hypersonic glide vehicle designed to evade our missile and other defense systems, including the Aegis defense system guarding our carrier battle groups.

As we downsize our military, scale back weapons procurement and development, China proceeds at top speed towards weapons designed to counter our once-huge technical advantage and qualitative superiority. Case in point is the third flight test of a hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), dubbed the WU-14 by the Pentagon, following earlier tests on Jan. 9 and Aug. 7 of this year.

The U.S. Navy is particularly concerned, as an HGV would be a potent weapon against U.S. carrier battle groups in the western Pacific.

A Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile — the road-mobile DF-21D, called a "carrier killer" by some — already poses a potent threat, but it is countered by our extraordinarily capable sea-based Aegis missile defense.

In February 2008, the Aegis missile cruiser Lake Erie shot down a National Reconnaissance Office 2.5-ton spy satellite before it could strike the Earth with its deadly hydrazine fuel tank nearly full.

"The beauty of the HGV (hypersonic glide vehicle) is that it can perform hypersonic precision strikes while maintaining a relatively low altitude and flat trajectory, making it far less vulnerable to missile defenses," says Rick Fisher, a China military affairs expert with the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

Larwyn's Linx: GOP Leadership Lies to its own Caucus to Support Obama's Executive Amnesty

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

Nation

GOP Leaders Lie to Caucus to Support Obama's Executive Amnesty: Matthew Boyle
Another Democrat Falls. Republicans Still Won’t Listen.: Erick Erickson
Gruber: Abortion of 'Marginal Children' a 'Social Good': Austin Ruse

Divider In Chief: Obama Calls America a “Deeply Rooted” Racist Nation: Treehouse
Obama, If Racism So Deeply Rooted, How Were You Elected?: Wayne Dupree
Why Hillary Hasn’t Declared Yet: WZ

Alwyne Cashe’s Medal of Honor moves slowly forward: This Ain't Hell
Protesters Block Bridge In Oakland, Throw Explosives At Police Officers: WZ
The looting begins in Berkeley and Oakland: FAM

Why the Democrats stupidly wrote off Louisiana too quickly: Moe Lane
GOP House Majority Largest In 67 Years: Doug Mataconis
Trent Lott to Mitch McConnell: Vidkun Quisling was an effective leader: RS

Mark Levin urges states: 'take back your power' from 'runaway' Obama: Paul Bedard
State Sen. Standridge To Represent GOP At Assembly Of State Legislators: KGOU
12-year-old girl kills stalker: Jonn Lilyea

Landrieu and the myth of the southern realignment: Jazz Shaw
I Don’t Have All That Much Tonight; I Just Have This…: HayRide
Democrats still confused as to why the South has given up on them: Moe Lane

Economy

Sessions: Under Obama Amnesty Feds to Write Checks to Illegals: Breitbart
Mathematician Takes Issue With Common Core: CI
EEOC Has Become the Problem, Not the Solution: Star Parker

Scandal Central

Obama Deputies Free 30,862 Foreign Criminals: Neil Munro
Eric Holder's Crusade to Federalize Police Departments: Andrew C. McCarthy
‘It’s the Constitution ITSELF that is under attack by Obama...’ – Greg Abbott: Scoop

Media

Politically Intimidated Police Afraid to Shoot Maniac Who Chased Them With Butcher Knife: MB
Virginia cop is kidnapped and murdered by several black gang members. Sharpton, where are you?!: RWN
Commie Van Jones threatens to sexually assault National Review’s Rich Lowry: Scoop

WaPo trips over the truth about the Deep South: Don Surber
Rush Limbaugh Interview on Fox News Sunday: Treehouse
Bobby Jindal celebrates Landrieu defeat; Epic butthurt ensues: Twitchy

Reflections on Rolling Stone’s Messy, Mossy UVA Rape Story: Sharyl Attkisson
Here’s Jackie Coakley “Rape Obsessed” Pinterest Account #UVAHoax: GotNews
Progressivism Claims Another Life: Derek Hunter

World

Venezuela: The oil teat runs dry: Fausta
Repression unleashed in apartheid Cuba: Political arrests have quadrupled in 2014: Babalu
The Reality of Canada’s Generous Immigration and Refugee Position: CFP

Reports: Israel bombs Syrian missile transfers to Hezbollah: LI
Iran Instructs U.S.: Stop the ‘Racist’ Crackdown on Blacks: WFB
Will Early Elections in Israel End Netanyahu’s Career?: LI`

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Timeline: Operation Choke Point: American Banker
Portland officials launch sting operation against Uber, issue hefty fines to drivers: GeekWire
Sony's First Comment on Hacks: An 'Unprecedented, Unparalleled Crime': Gizmodo

Cornucopia

Larry Perry: IOTWreport
21 Photos of Pearl Harbor and a Day That Will Live in Infamy: Signal
Veterans Who Survived Pearl Harbor Mark 73rd Anniversary: Hideout

Image: Your Saturday caption contest. What is Vice President Biden thinking?
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Uncensored News, 24 x 7

QOTD: "[Eric] Garner was selling “illegal cigarettes” that day, or “loosies” – individual cigarettes from a pack. Why would anyone buy individual cigarettes? Because government, in this case New York, both city and state, have, through exorbitant taxation, made buying a whole pack too expensive for many.

Government’s heavy hand incentivized the creation of a black market for cigarettes. But government’s heavy hand also made selling cigarettes outside of its approved, and taxed, avenues a crime. Government, like the mafia, doesn’t like competition. The mafia will execute you; the government will arrest you.

...Had reselling cigarettes, individually or in packs, not been criminalized by a government wanting its “taste of the action,” Eric Garner still would be alive.

Police have better things to do with their time, more important crimes to investigate, than selling cigarettes individually. But, unlike the newly discovered powers of the president to pick and choose which laws to enforce, when cops get a call, they have to respond—no matter how stupid they may think the “crime” is.

The race-baiting progressives saw an opening in the Garner case and took it. The media, either unwilling or incapable of seeing their philosophy caused this and many other deaths and arrests, followed their lead and made this story about race. Garner is still dead, and repealing the laws that led to his death isn’t even being discussed." --Derek Hunter, "Progressivism Claims Another Life"

Sunday, December 07, 2014

TRANSCRIPT: Mark Levin to State Legislators, "You are the last line of defense of liberty!"

Paul Bedard relays the highlights of a simply awe-inspiring speech by Constitutional Attorney Mark Levin


Wide-ranging decisions affecting virtually every aspect of life are being made by fewer and fewer masterminds in Washington, D.C., in an increasingly centralized federal government using a growing army of bureaucrats, a fourth branch of government if you will, to institute and enforce them.

More and more what the federal government does is insulate it from elections. If elections are one that advance the left’s agenda, then they’ll celebrate. If they lose the elections, elections are denounced as temporary inconveniences, and then they turn to the unelected federal institutions to advance their agenda."

In other words, the trajectory towards utopian statism, concentrated power, centralized government is never really checked or actually reversed, and the reason is, and the sad truth is, that we live largely under the post-constitutional government. This is no longer a federal republic, or a constitutional republic, or a representative republic. The federal constitutional representative character of the national government has been and are being expanded. We are mutating into something else.

In Washington today, we have an ongoing constitutional convention,” he said, “where one branch or another or the federal bureaucracy act far outside the limits imposed on them by the Constitution. And rather than the branches checking and balancing each other, they usually reinforce each other. And as lawless precedent is built upon lawless precedent, what remains of the Constitution’s firewalls are breached, and my question to you is, where does this end?

Well I’ll tell you where it ends – with you.

We are not without recourse, but the recourse is not in Washington, D.C. It’s not in federal elections. Why the hell would the very people who’ve done this to us reverse course? They like what they’re doing, and they’re going to keep doing it unless somebody speaks out and acts against them, and that’s you. There’s nobody else.

Obama-Jarrett-Kerry Deal With Iran All But Certain to Deliver Nukes into the Hands of Terrorists

By Ted Bromund

It’s no secret that the Obama administration badly wants a nuclear deal with Iran. And it’s no secret that the Iranians are playing hard to get. The talks, which were supposed to yield a final agreement this week, have been extended to July. That’s a relief, because right now, the best deal is no deal.

Many of the finest minds in strategy and physics have spent years arguing over the parameters of a deal with Iran. But it’s easy to overthink this problem. We know what nations that give up on nuclear weapons programs look like. They look nothing like Iran.

The United States has done a lot of good work to limit the spread of nuclear weapons. We discouraged Taiwan and South Korea from going nuclear. After the Soviet Union fell, we encouraged, and paid, the former Soviet states of Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus to get rid of the Soviet nukes they had inherited.

We supported confidence-building efforts between Brazil and Argentina that ended their nuclear rivalry. In the 1990s, our pursuit of Iraq’s nuclear program persuaded South Africa to come clean about its nuclear stash. In 2004, during the Iraq War, we frightened Moammar Gadhafi into giving up Libya’s program.

But all of these places either went through a democratic transition, or — in Libya’s case — were scared into doing the right thing. Fundamentally, they came clean about their nuclear programs of their own accord. While we offered incentives, our incentives were never decisive.

We’ve offered loads of incentives to North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, with no success. We’ve never been able to bribe or talk nations into giving up nuclear weapons: They usually give up nukes because they have newly free political systems and no longer want to have the bomb.

None of this is true of Iran. The anti-Western regime of 1979 is still in power. If you doubt that, watch the videos of the charming “Death to America” rallies held across Iran earlier this month. Rallies like that are organized by the regime.

This isn’t complicated. If Iran wanted only civilian nuclear power, it would make that clear. Instead, it has repeatedly been caught cheating, it is developing long-range missiles, and it demands the right to unlimited nuclear research, with no accountability for its past lies.