Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Federal Judge Rips Obama's Executive Amnesty as Unconsitutional

Jeff Dunetz offers a sliver of hope for those who still believe in the Constitution:

Judge Arthur J. Schwab, sitting in the western district of Pennsylvania has found parts of President Obama’s new deportation amnesty to be unconstitutional, and he issued a scathing memo accusing him of usurping Congress’s power to make laws, and dismantling most of the White House’s legal reasoning for circumventing federal statute.

Stephen Dinan adds some colorful detail.

“President Obama’s unilateral legislative action violates the separation of powers provided for in the United States Constitution as well as the Take Care Clause, and therefore is unconstitutional,” Judge Schwab wrote.

The judge also said the policy allows illegal immigrants “to obtain substantive rights.”

The memo came as part of a deportation case before the judge, and Judge Schwab’s order does not invalidate the president’s policies. But it serves as a warning shot as other direct challenges to the new amnesty begin to make their way through the courts.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., will hear one of those challenges in oral arguments next week, and a similar case is proceeding in Texas.

...The administration lawyers also said the policy doesn’t grant illegal immigrants any rights, and said they could still be deported “at any time.”

But Judge Schwab went point-by-point in refuting those arguments, saying that since Mr. Obama couched his policy as a moral imperative to keep families together, it is not so easy to undo his policy... And the judge repeatedly used Mr. Obama’s own words against him, listing some of the times the president had previously said he didn’t have the power to take the exact actions he has now taken.

It's an encouraging baby-step.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: Ted Cruz: They want to come after me? Knock yourself out

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Nation

Ted Cruz: They want to come after me? Knock yourself out: Scoop
Obama's Grand Plan: Ed Lasky
GOP joins Democrats in defending Obama’s amnesty executive order: RS

Operation Remove Speaker Boehner: Josh Bernstein
Mark Levin Reads the Riot Act to the GOP: Scoop
Mike Lee: We are not to blame for Harry Reid pushing through nominees: Scoop

Ted Cruz: They want to come after me? Knock yourself out: Scoop
The Madison Project Endorses Senator Mike Lee for Re-Election: Madison Project
WA: Thousands of Gun Owners Defy Gun Ban Law at Rally: RWN

Commie Elizabeth Warren Won't Rule Out Future Presidential Run: Daniel Halper
A “Mind-blower” of a Nominee: Mark Pulliam
Defiant Pelosi Stands Firmly on Left: Roll Call

Economy

How the minimum wage destroyed 1.4 million jobs: Stan Veuger
Smotherers of Invention: Steven Malanga
Money Laundering Is Financial Thoughtcrime : Jon Matonis

Scandal Central

Obama DHS Inspector General Sentenced to More Than Three Years in Prison: DOJ
Unlike 2014, witches got trials: Don Surber
Life in Post-Truth America: Sultan Knish

Climate & Energy

UN Ridiculed Over Non-Binding “Climate” Deal in Peru: Alex Newman
In These 13 States, Gas Is Selling for Below $2 a Gallon: Natalie Johnson
Warmists Reach “Bare Minimum” Deal At #COP20Lima: Cove

Media

MSNBC Host: ‘Too Early To Tell’ If Man Asking For ISIS Flag Was Motivated By Islam: DC
Unhinged WaPo Blogger Jennifer Rubin Falls for Left's Tricks Every Time: Jen Kuznicki
The Sandy Hook Families’ Lawsuit Against Bushmaster Will Fail. Here’s Why.: Bob Owens

NYPD Shreds de Blasio After Cops are Assaulted by ‘Peaceful’ Protesters: JWF
Four Things You Need to Know About the First Amendment: Free Enterprise
No Blogger, You Don’t Understand the Senate Better than Ted Cruz Does: Leon Wolf

World

Sydney Siege and Monitoring Extremists: Max Boot
In Wake of Sydney Siege, Liberals Side With Radical Islam Yet Again: MB
The Moral Minority: Erick Erickson

Australian Jihadist Took Hostages To Prove Islam Is Religion of Peace: Treehouse
Australian Hostage Taker Named as Iranian Refugee with Criminal Past: WFB
A Man of Peace: GoV

Read Sydney Muslim Terrorist Man Haron Monis’s 2008 Letter to Barack Obama : GotNews
Gazans Speak Out: Hamas War Crimes: Mudar Zahran
Latest Hamas Gems: A Failed Terror Plot, Praise for ISIS: IPT

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Panicked Hollywood Avoids Email, Returns to Faxes After Sony Hack Attack: TheWrap
Comcast Will Finally Let Roku Owners Stream HBO, Showtime: Recode
The Flu Shot Isn’t a Good Match This Year. Is It Ever?: Gizmodo

Cornucopia

What happens if you ask 13 gay-owned bakeries to bake a pro-marriage cake?: Knight
Christmas Penguins: MOTUS
Taxed Enough Already: IOTWreport

Image: Heroic Sydney cafe manager, 34, shot dead as he grabbed terrorist's gun
Sponsored by: Boehner REPLACEMENT INSTRUCTIONS; Your step by step guide to replacing the SPEAKER!

QOTD:


--Sen. Ted Cruz

Monday, December 15, 2014

SEN. MIKE LEE: The CRomnibus Was The Perfect Bill

By Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)

On Saturday night the Senate held a vote on a $1.1 trillion dollar spending bill that many referred to as the CRomnibus. I voted against this bill because I oppose the cynical substance of the legislation. I also could not support the un-republican and undemocratic process by which a small collection of political and economic insiders crafted it, to benefit each other at everyone else’s expense. I also oppose the signal this bill sends to political insiders on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue; the signal it sends to special interest cronies on Wall Street and K Street; and the signal it sends to working families struggling on Main Streets across this country who have been waiting for a decade for someone in this city to start putting them first. Above all, this bill failed to exercise Congress’ power of the purse to prevent the president’s lawless executive amnesty.

Since this bill was taken up in the House of Representatives, supporters of the CRomnibus have couched their support in the language of compromise. “This isn’t a perfect bill,” they say.

However, I believe it is perfect. As a representation of everything wrong with Washington, D.C, and as an example of exactly the kind of unfair, unrepresentative legislating that triggered successive electoral waves of bipartisan condemnation in 2006, 2008, 2010, and again in 2014 – the CRomnibus is perfect.

More and more today in America, the people who work hard, play by the rules, and live within their means are being forced to subsidize political and economic elites who don’t.

The miserable process we have witnessed last week represents the last gasping throes of a discredited Washington status quo. Ten years ago, this bill would not have been controversial. Five years ago, an easy majority would have been purchased with earmarks. This week, with the full weight of both party’s leaderships, it barely made it over the finish line.

Change comes slowly, as we know. And it comes slowest to those institutions that make the rules.

But change is coming. The era of passing 1600-page bills, written in secret, via a process that includes lobbyists but excludes the American people is coming to an end. The era of big government rigging the rules for big business and big special interests while leaving everyone else behind is coming to an end.

The Pigmen Win Again

By Jim Quinn

“The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they’re an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They’ve got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They’ve got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying ­ lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else.” - George Carlin

After the disgusting example of politicians of both spineless parties bowing down before Wall Street, the military industrial complex and corporate interests this weekend with the passage of a bloated pig of a spending bill totaling $1.1 trillion, how can anyone not on the payroll of the vested interests not admit there is only one party – and it serves only the needs of the wealthy business interests. Obama, champion of the common folk, signed this putrid example of political corruption and corporate capture of the American political system. For all the believers who voted for the red team in the November mid-terms, this is what you got – a bipartisanship screwing of the American people.

The entire episode has been nothing but Kabuki Theater. Both parties have proven to be puppets marching to the tune of Wall Street moneyed interests, while further entrenching the status quo by voting to allow more corporate influence over the election process. Each side of the aisle allowed just enough dissent to make it appear they might not reach an agreement. But at the end of the day Pelosi, Boehner, Reid and McConnell joined hands and gave it to the American public good and hard. And of course we had the candidates for president in 2016 Warren and Cruz playing to their constituents with speeches and maneuvers designed to make them look like fighters for the common man. It was nothing but a show, as they did nothing substantive to stop the bill from passing.

The Stupid, It Burns

A cornucopia of actual headlines, ripped from America's real-time news aggregator of choice, BadBlue News:



Larwyn's Linx: 'Nancy Boehner' Ushers in Era of Unaccountable Oligarchy

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

Nation

'Nancy Boehner' Ushers in Era of Unaccountable Oligarchy: Daniel Horowitz
CRomnibus passes because of GOP support: RS
It’s Time To Kill The ‘Lame Duck’: Derek Hunter

Cruz corners Harry Reid to make a point conservatives will remember: BPR
Wall Street Über Alles: Rod Dreher
The Architect of Obamacare Speaks: John McCormack

Obama Orchestrating Regime Change in Israel: Steve Berman
The Demand for Perfection: Theodore Dalrymple
Remember how Senate Dems rushed through Obamacare on Xmas Eve 2009?: LI

Terry McAuliffe Pushes Unlawful Gun Control Restrictions In Virginia: Bob Owens
"You are Tea-bagger": Punch Back Twice as Hard: Instapundit
AZ-02 election results to be FINALLY certified on Tuesday: Moe Lane

Economy

The Campus as California: Victor Davis Hanson
Why Are We Spending a Billion on Government Preschool?: Lindsey Burke
Let’s Get Government Out of the Charity Business: Star Parker

Scandal Central

Dianne Feinstein's $50 Million Travesty: Rich Lowry
Former CIA Chief: Pelosi and other Dems knew exactly what interrogation methods were used: Scoop
Gowdy: Gruber Work Product to Be Reviewed for Possible Fraud, Perjury: Breitbart

Climate & Energy

The China Climate Accord: A bad deal for the US: S. Fred Singer

Media

And yet CNN wonders why their ratings are so lousy?: Doug Powers
‘Movements have to cause trouble’ – Frances Piven of Cloward-Piven infamy on Ferguson: Scoop
Time for a convention of states: Ken Kotoski

Did Edward Snowden Hack Sony Pictures?: Roger L. Simon
Moonbats defend fable not the facts: Howie Carr
Blog, online commenters force arrest of alleged child molester: John Ruberry

Life in Post-Truth America: Daniel Greenfield
Black Woman Takes On Narrative: WZ
Reagan Biographer: RFK Got Reagan Fired From General Electric Theater: Jack Coleman

World

How Far Should the CIA Go to Keep Us Safe?: Herbert E. Meyer
God Bless Dick Cheney: Erick Erickson
Cheney: ‘We’re Still at War’ and Dems Are ‘Trashing a Program That Worked and Saved Lives’: WFB

#Lindt café refused to be Halal certified: FAM
Islamist militants take hostages in Sydney cafe, display black jihadist flag: RT
Unrewarded Valor: This Ain't Hell

The Middle East realists: Old and new: Rich Baehr
Rinsing Israel Out of Europe: Brendan O’Neill
Danish ambassador, Caroline Glick exchange verbal blows over EU attitude toward Israel: JPost

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

2015 Is the Year of the Crowd: Jeremiah Owyang
Forbes Blasts Latests Windows 7 Patch as Malware: Slashdot
Got a Leafblower? Then You've Got a Hoverboard: Gizmodo

Cornucopia

Fishing With Grandpa: Springer
Day By Day: WRSA
How Cool Is This? Paul Revere’s 1795 Time Capsule Was Discovered: Jerome Hudson

Image: This Week in Photos
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Sports News

QOTD: "The Senate Intelligence Committee spent roughly $50 million on its investigation into the CIA and apparently couldn’t find Michael Hayden’s phone number.

The committee portrays Gen. Hayden, the former CIA director, as a liar who deceived Congress about the agency’s interrogation program, yet the committee couldn’t be bothered to interview him.

That’s because the committee, led by California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, didn’t bother to interview anyone. The committee didn’t want to include anything that might significantly complicate its cartoonish depiction of a CIA that misled everyone so it could maintain a secret prison system for the hell of it." --Rich Lowry

Sunday, December 14, 2014

An Anonymous Commenter Predicts What Will Happen in 2015 Courtesy of the GOP Establishment

A person who I wish wouldn't stay anonymous wins our prestigious Comment o' the Day Award, explaining the unvarnished idiocy (or outright traitorous behavior) of the GOP establishment in far more cogent terms than I could:

Boehner and the GOP elite are playing checkers while Obama and his comrades in the Democratic National Communist party are playing chess. So let me explain to you all what is going to happen in the next few months.

First of all, when the time arrives to ‘defund’ homeland security it will FAIL. The socialists will all scream in unison about national security and suddenly be worried about terrorism and disease entering the country (and anything bad that does happen will be blamed on the GOP naturally). They will be everywhere talking up this now found appreciation for Homeland Security and it will be funded and thus Obama’s Illegal Amnesty will be set in stone.

This will take place as millions of illegal invaders flood over the border causing all kinds of “serious crises” that will have to be addressed with, you guessed it – more government!

[BTW, did you know that upwards of 150 Million Adults Worldwide would like to ‘migrate’ to the US?]

And so that part of the budget will be funded as well, and by the time the next opportunity to defund the illegal amnesty it’ll be too late – by then millions of illegal invaders will have crossed the border.

As soon as Obama’s illegal amnesty has the imprimatur of legitimacy attached, the socialists will then clamor for the ‘civil rights’ of the illegal invaders – healthcare, housing, food stamps and last but not least: The Right to Vote.

You can bet your life that by the next ‘election’ millions of new minted citizens will be all ready to vote themselves some more of that sweet taxpayer loot they are ‘entitled’ to just because of all the past wrongs committed by the country (don’t ask me to explain the ‘logic’ of that – I don’t get it either).

And with millions of new looter brethren on their side the quote from Alexis de Tocqueville will apply:

”The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”

And the Democratic National Communist party will have their ‘permanent’ majority (at least until the country implodes).

That’s just the rough outline of events.

Somewhere in there the economy will have another downturn – necessitating another huge expansion of the government over our lives.

And of course the new ‘majorities’ in the Southeast will begin calling a ‘restoration’ of that region back to Old Mexico or to be independent nations.

Hey, but some selfish buzzards will get their cheap labor, so who cares what happens to the country!

Say, I wonder what the super-genius Jen Rubin has to say about this? Actually, I don't.


IF ONLY AUSTRALIA WOULD GET OUT OF "PALESTINE": Islamists Take Hostages in Downtown Sydney

Islamonazi terrorists displaying the flag of ISIS have raided a busy Sydney cafe and taken as many as 50 hostages.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, who were disarmed beginning in 1996 with draconian gun control laws that literally read "personal protection [shall] not be regarded as a genuine reason for owning, possessing or using a firearm."

I'll bet there are many people in Australia today who wish concealed carry permits were as plentiful as they are in the U.S.

...live TV footage showed people standing inside a café with their hands pressed against the windows. At least one of the attackers was caught on camera wearing a traditional Islamic cap.


...The hostages were forced to hold a black flag with an Arabic inscription, prompting fears that ruthless Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) militants were behind the attack.

...The gunmen’s attack, which took place in Sydney’s central business district, forced nearby buildings in Martin Place – including the Reserve Bank of Australia – to go on lockdown... Soon after news of the hostage situation emerged, Sydney’s iconic Opera House was also evacuated. The move was reportedly prompted by a suspicious package found inside the building.

But this tragedy is just another coincidence, eh, Ben Affleck?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

ALLEN WEST: In Lame-Duck Session, Nancy Boehner Surrenders All Leverage Over a Rogue Administration Through 2015

By Allen B. West

Well, the “cromnibus” monster spending bill passed last night, and President Obama and Vice President Biden worked hard to get Democrat support — which they did not receive.

The funding measure passed and in doing so, the new incoming GOP majority will have little to no say in funding measures through the entire year — basically half of the new GOP majority Congress. A better approach would have been to execute a continuing resolution (CR) that went into February and then do appropriations by agency, funding what is essential by priority. Instead Obamacare is funded through October next year and funding to President Obama’s illegal immigration executive action — $2.5 billion. However, Speaker Boehner has declared that next February Congress will take up the illegal immigration fight, since the DHS is only funded through February. Whoopee.

In effect Speaker Boehner essentially surrendered the majority which the American people gave the House GOP and with it, the greatest leverage — the power of the purse. Some 1,800 pages, no doubt including pork, has passed which most did not read.

And what if the gambit Speaker Boehner has doesn’t work out next February? That’s the question The Hill asks, writing, “Even if Republicans shut down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) next year, President Obama could still carry out his executive actions giving legal status to up to 5 million undocumented immigrants. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other GOP leaders have punted the funding fight over Obama’s immigration action to February, arguing their new majority will have more leverage to stop the plan dead in its tracks.”

Once Again, Ted Cruz Schools the GOP Hacks and Beltway Punditry

The Uniparty in Washington, which consists of the Republican Establishment and the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Democrats, is angry -- very, very angry -- that they were forced to work over the weekend by a few Constitutional conservatives in the Senate.

A chorus of voices, ranging from Mitch McConnell's press agent Jennifer Rubin to the GOP Establishment's favorite progressives at Politico, gleefully pointed to the failure of Cruz's amendment on the Constitutionality of Obama's Amnesty Order.

As Erick Erickson explained last night, the Cruz-Lee strategy had no impact -- none -- on the confirmation of Obama's nominees despite the whining from GOP leadership.

Yesterday Cruz explained the strategy, which shows he is a far more strategic thinker than the preposterous Uniparty hacks cloistered inside the Beltway:

Forcing a vote on the constitutionality of Obama's amnesty is important for two reasons. First, since President Obama enacted his unilateral amnesty after the elections, Democrats have never been made to answer for it. Tonight, they will and they will show America whether they stand with a lawless President, who is defying the will of the voters or the millions of Americans who want a safe and legal immigration system.

Second, it allows Republicans to also show they are committed to ending Obama's amnesty once and for all in the next Congress. If we agree it is indeed unconstitutional, we have no business funding it when the GOP controls Congress next year.

The Constitution matters, and we must defend it. That is why we have fought so hard to ensure this vote.

Stunningly, and despite the overwhelming midterm repudiation of Obama's policies, there were 20 Republicans who voted in support of Obama's assault on the Constitution, and it will come back to haunt many of them.


Cruz was looking ahead to the 2016 Senate races. And he won.

He highlighted, for all of the world to see, that the GOP supported Obamacare and the illegal Amnesty Executive Order. Instead of passing a short-term CR, say for two months, the hacks in the GOP gave Obama everything he wanted. They funded essentially all of the federal government until October of 2015, hamstringing the new majority that will take the reins in January.

The American people are disgusted with this activity. God Bless Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.

We're coming for you Uniparty hacks in 2016, because the Democrat and GOP Establishment have become one. Only a Constitutional Conservative can begin to unwind the federal leviathan.

Were they alive today, America's founders would be enjoying beers tonight with Ted Cruz and Mike Lee while ridiculing the pathetic, cowardly and bought-off Establishment elites.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

Larwyn's Linx: Pro-Amnesty Senate GOP Leaders Find Harry Reid’s Crap Sandwich Quite Tasty

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Nation

Pro-Amnesty Senate GOP Leaders Find Harry Reid’s Crap Sandwich Quite Tasty: RS
BREAKING! Constitution voted DOWN, CRomnibus victorious!: Scoop
God Bless Senator Mike Lee: R.S. McCain

Leftist Lynch Mobs from Ferguson to Rolling Stone: Sultan Knish
Stand With Cruz, Lee Against Imperial President: Jen Kuznicki
Dear progressives: don’t wear Obama shirts while burning American flags: Moe Lane

Headline correction: “Ted Cruz makes his mark” (#CRomnibus): LI
So, How Low is the Morale at ICE?: WeaponsMan
Senate passes $1.1T funding bill: The Hill

Hillary will crumble if Elizabeth Warren just says “Yes”: LI
Jeb Bush Doesn’t Think He Needs Conservative Support in 2016: LI
NYC: Sorry, Idiots Blocked the Brooklyn Bridge: WZ

Communist/Anarchist-Linked ‘Millions March’ in NYC Brings Out 12 Thou: Sara Noble
#MillionsMarchNYC Protesters Chant “What Do We Want? Dead Cops!": DownTrend
Why NYC police don't want mayor at police funerals: CS Monitor

Scandal Central

Federal Judge Blasts DOJ Prosecutor For Lying To The Court: TeaParty
Illegal Immigrant Drug Smuggler Sues After He’s Bitten By Border Patrol Dog: RWN
Top Democrat Congressman propositioned policy expert for sex: RWN

Climate & Energy

John Kerry Announces that Obama is Wasting $3 BILLION Tax Dollars on UN’s Global Warming Scheme: RWN

Media

Progressivism Is Simply Barbarism: Bill Whittle
Governor Sarah Palin: "Whose Side Are You On": C4P
Report: 2A Support Reaches Record Highs: Extrano's Alley

The Left’s plan to retake state legislatures through targeted character assassination: Moe Lane
St. Louis Post Dispatch Declares That Banning Editorial Comments Will 'Elevate The Ferguson Conversation': TechDirt
Sony suspends film shoots after hackers hit payments: Telegraph

World

Senile Old Fool McCain Denounces America for Interrogating Terrorists and Even for Bombing Nazis: MB
Al-Azhar: No Takfir Against the Islamic State: GoV
Report: Up to 1,000 Syrian Rebels Vetted By Obama Admin Have Joined Al Nusra Front: RWN

Thanks, Obama: Iran Uses Truce To Buy Reactor Parts: AmInt
Is Obama secretly working to replace Netanyahu?: Aaron Klein
China Wins a Day in Hong Kong: AmInt

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Did mysterious pipeline blast in 2008, not Stuxnet, open new cyberwar era?: Stripes
Leaked Emails Reveal MPAA Plans To Pay Elected Officials To Attack Google: TechDirt
Giant Sun Storm of 2012 Shown in Fiery Detail: Space

Cornucopia

So What Am I, Chopped Liver?: MOTUS
The Hobbit and The Office Collide for Epic SNL Parody: Mediaite
Most Moving Part of This ‘Angels We Have Heard on High’ Rendition Comes at 3:00 Mark: Blaze

Image: Pew, Pew! Navy Laser Blasts Targets In Air, On Sea | Raw Video
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Tech News

QOTD: "The activists of the left must be forced to admit whether they are for or against the presumption of innocence. If they want to dispense with the presumption of innocence when it comes to enemies of the people like police officers and fraternity members, it will also go away for Islamic terrorists and violent thugs. Not to mention Weather Underground terrorists teaching at prestigious progressive colleges.

We cannot have a presumption of innocence for some people and not others. The left is not entitled to create two justice systems for two types of people. One group will be lynched with a formality of a trial manipulated to produce a verdict that not only damns one defendant, but also his entire race or gender. The other will receive every possible defense no matter how obvious his guilt may be.

America is a nation of laws, not of racist lynch mobs. Its trials are based on facts, not on narratives. The presumption of innocence matters more than the narrative and the social justice hashtag. Without it all we have left are racist lynch mobs with smartphones marching through Manhattan." --Daniel Greenfield

Saturday, December 13, 2014

A NEW, ORIGINAL SHORT STORY: The Thrilling Adventures of Secret Agent Double-Oh Boener

The name's Boener. John Boener.

While you may know me as the Speaker of the House in Congress and a Republican, by night I'm actually a secret agent.

I plopped down on the last open barstool and waited for the bartender to swing by.

It was getting harder and harder to find a bar in DC where I wouldn't be recognized. After a careful check of an old AAA map, though, I'd found one that was certain to be off the political grid.

The big fat guy next to me was wearing a cheap suit and a clip-on tie. He rotated his stool 90 degrees to face me.

"Hey, Mr. Speaker! How'z ya doin'?"

"Eh, I'm not John Boener," I grumpily intoned, "Get mistaken for him all the time. Name's, uh, Smokey Smith."

Before he got a chance to say anything more, the bartender ambled up.

"Give me a Southern Comfort and Ginger Ale with lemons, olives, and a maraschino cherry," I said, "And make it shaken, not stirred."

The bartender looked surprised.

"You want Ginger Ale shaken? But, sir --"

"You heard me, sonny! And put some elbow grease into it!"

Seeing the expression on my face, he hurriedly departed to make the Boener signature drink, one not found in any book.

CROMNIBUS-CRUSHING CRUZ: I keep finding a new reason to love Ted Cruz every day

And I mean "love" in a strictly platonic, ultra-masculine kind of way, of course.

Alexander Bolton of The Hill whines that Cruz is the center of the Senate's budget meltdown:

Sen. Ted Cruz, the firebrand conservative freshman from Texas, has blown up the Senate leadership’s plans to have a peaceful weekend by forcing round-the-clock votes on President Obama’s nominees and the $1.1 trillion omnibus.

Cruz took to the floor late Friday to castigate congressional leaders for trying to pass the 1,600-page spending bill after only a few hours of debate and questioned the resolve of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to fight Obama’s executive order protecting five million illegal immigrants from deportation.

“Even though millions of voters rose up just one month ago to protest how President Obama and the Senate Democrats were running Washington, business as usual is continuing inside the marble halls of the United State Congress,” Cruz said in a fiery floor speech.

Because of objections from Cruz and his ally Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the Senate will begin slogging through procedural votes on nominees starting at noon Saturday and vote to end a filibuster of the omnibus spending package at 1 a.m. Sunday morning...

...Cruz will force colleagues to vote Sunday on a point-of-order procedural objection that he is raising to the spending bill to protest Obama’s immigration order.

“This procedural tool will ensure that every Senator will be on record regarding the constitutionality of President Obama's illegal amnesty,” said Cruz’s spokeswoman Catherine Frazier... Cruz questioned whether McConnell and Boehner are fully committed to battling Obama on immigration.

“I would note that a whole lot of citizens across the country feel a little bit like Charlie Brown with Lucy and the football, wherein fight after fight leadership in Congress says, we’ll fight next time — not this time, no, no, no. The wise thing to do is to fight in a month, fight in two months,” he said on the Senate floor... “This bill is not designed to help working Americans. It is designed to pay off all the promises made to lobbyists who funded campaigns over the past year,” Cruz said in his lengthy floor statement... Before the United States Senate is a bill that does nothing, absolutely nothing to stop President Obama’s illegal and unconstitutional amnesty,” he said.

In an era of Oligarchs and partisan mush, Cruz is a beacon of hope. The Framers would be proud.

We need a Constitutional conservative with some testicular fortitude in the White House in 2016. I see only three viable contenders at the moment: Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, or Scott Walker. I could support any one of the three -- with gusto.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: CROmnibus: A $1 Trillion Betrayal

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Nation

CROmnibus: A $1 Trillion Betrayal: James Simpson
Obama Flashback: ‘If you don’t like my policies, go out there and win an election’: PJM
An Open Letter To The Republican Leadership In Congress: John Hawkins

Boehner Betrays His Conservative Base: NoisyRm
Boehner to Aide-Turned-Lobbyist: 'No One Ever Really Leaves Boehnerland': Breitbart
House buys Senate some time on budget bill; approves second stopgap: Fox

9/11 Widow On ‘Torture Report': Torture Is What We Suffered From 9/11: WZ
Cruz, Lee, Sessions Pushing To Defund Amnesty In Vote Tonight: WZ
What 2014 Means For 2016: Michael Barone

Why Isn’t Elizabeth Warren Being Branded a Dangerous Kook?: Keith Koffler
Gohmert, Salmon: Boehner worked with Obama, not conservatives: Scoop
This Is Life Under Totalitarianism: WRSA

Economy

Obama: ‘I Spend Most of My Time Watching ESPN in the Morning’: WFB
Tom Coburn’s Stirring Message to Fellow Senators, in 90 Seconds: Melissa Quinn
Christmas Bonuses for Uniformed Retirees Weaken the NYC Pension Funds: CBCNY

Scandal Central

IRS Gave $14.5 Billion in Low-Income Tax Credits to the Wrong People: FiscalTimes
Obama just tweeted something that is straight up communist: WAW
New Lois Lerner emails indicate Obama’s DOJ involved in IRS targeting scandal: Noah Rothman

Climate & Energy

How Icelandic volcano Bardarbunga will plunge Europe into the dark ages: Big Wobble
Kerry: Renewable Energy Will Make the Tech Boom Pale in Comparison: IOTWreport
Bolivian President Blames Capitalism For “Climate Change”: Cove

Media

Michael Brown's Adult Criminal Record: 90 Miles
Gay Hollywood Exec Outs Obama: TAB
Palin: ‘RINO Season Opens Soon And Don’t Hold Back’: FNI

An Hour with Ann Barnhardt: Andrea Shea King
Sheriff Clark: After Obama, We'll Need “Period Of Reconstruction To Put The Country Back Together”: Nice Deb
NBC Hails Elizabeth Warren ‘the Liberal Wing’s Newest Star’; Blasted Cruz Over 2013 Funding Fight: MRC

Hannity: 'John Gruber Boehner' 'Should Not Be Speaker' : Breitbart
RINOS Beware: Sean Hannity Yanks Karl Rove Off The Air!: Hideout
Krauthammer: Elizabeth Warren’s Cromnibus Protest is “Spectacular Hypocrisy”: LI

World

The Feinstein Report Is Going to Cost Us: Andrew C. McCarthy
To whom it may concern: Vic Rosenthal
CIA Docs Obtained by JW in 2010 Show Congress Approved of Enhanced Interrogation: JW

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Verizon's New, Encrypted Calling App Plays Nice With the NSA: BizWk
Las Vegas Sands' Casino Network hit by Destructive Malware: Hacker News
No Respite for Sony: TNW

Cornucopia

Mysterious Death of Obama Critic and Reporter on Bin Laden’s Death and Ferguson Labeled Suicide: Daily Sheeple
"On any street in any town / In any state if any clown": American Digest
Video reveals how to wrap Christmas gifts in just 12 SECONDS: DailyMail

Image: Salvador Dali
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Tech News

QOTD: "Back in 2010 Judicial Watch obtained government documents—once marked “Top Secret”—that reveal between 2001 and 2007, the CIA briefed at least 68 members of Congress on its interrogation program. This included so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” The dates of all congressional briefings and, in some cases, the members of Congress in attendance as well as the specific subjects discussed are included in the files. Pelosi, who has publicly denied she was briefed by the CIA on the use of these techniques, is specifically referenced in a briefing that took place on April 24, 2002, regarding the “ongoing interrogations of Abu Zubaydah.”

After being the subject of enhanced interrogation techniques, Zubaydah identified Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) as the mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed thousands of innocent Americans. Before Zubaydah identified KSM, currently held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, the 9/11 mastermind didn’t even appear in the intelligence community’s file of key Al Qaeda operatives or associates. KSM, in turn, provided valuable intel about another Al Qaeda jihadist, Majid Khan, who, in turn, identified a terrorist named Zubair who was subsequently captured. Zubair later provided information that led to the arrest of Al Qaeda’s South Asia leader.

These jihadists didn’t exactly provide this valuable information willingly over tea and biscuits. The CIA held meetings with legislators as it pursued broader authority for its interrogation program, which did not begin until the agency got legal guidance from the Department of Justice (DOJ). A separate CIA report obtained by JW details the effectiveness of enhanced interrogation techniques to thwart Al Qaeda operations in the United States and overseas. Nevertheless, President Obama banned the use of enhanced interrogation techniques during his first week in office in January 2009 and withheld information detailing the program’s successes. His allies in Congress did an about-face, pretending to be shocked and in the dark about the interrogation program they had been briefed about—and apparently endorsed—so many times" --Judicial Watch

Friday, December 12, 2014

A Government of Wolves

By John W. Whitehead

“The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens.”—Leo Tolstoy

My 7-year-old granddaughter has suddenly developed a keen interest in card games: Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Old Maid, Blackjack, and War. We’ve fallen into a set pattern now: every time we play, she deals the cards, and I pretend not to see her stacking the deck in her favor. And of course, I always lose.

I don’t mind losing to my granddaughter at Old Maid, knowing full well the game is rigged. For now, it’s fun and games, and she’s winning. Where the rub comes in is in knowing that someday she’ll be old enough to realize that being a citizen in the American police state is much like playing against a stacked deck: you’re always going to lose.

The game is rigged, and “we the people” keep getting dealt the same losing hand. Even so, we stay in the game, against all odds, trusting that our luck will change.

The problem, of course, is that luck will not save us. The people dealing the cards—the politicians, the corporations, the judges, the prosecutors, the police, the bureaucrats, the military, the media, etc.—have only one prevailing concern, and that is to maintain their power and control over the country and us.

It really doesn’t matter what you call them—the 1%, the elite, the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex—so long as you understand that while they are dealing the cards, the deck will always be stacked in their favor.

Incredibly, no matter how many times we see this played out, Americans continue to naively buy into the idea that it’s our politics that divide us as a nation. As if there were really a difference between the Democrats and Republicans. As if the policies of George W. Bush were any different from those of Barack Obama. As if we weren’t a nation of sheep being fattened for the kill by a ravenous government of wolves.

Democrat Staffers Shame Themselves With Anti-Law Enforcement Lie

By Investor's Business Daily

Justice: Led by the Senate chaplain, of all people, congressional staffers fan the flames of racial division by doing something that Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri, never did before he assaulted officer Darren Wilson.

It mattered not to the congressional aides who walked off their jobs Thursday to protest the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Eric Garner in New York that a police officer dies while on duty every 58 hours — or that a grand jury found that officer Darren Wilson had reason to fear becoming one of them.

There they were, raising their hands in a gesture that black witnesses testifying before a grand jury said Michael Brown never made as he charged Wilson "like a football player" and after he punched Wilson and struggled for the cop's firearm.

President Obama's Post-Racial America

Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke is the real deal:


As for all of the vainglorious promises candidate Obama made about a post-racial America?


He and Eric Holder have set race relations back at least five decades. At least.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

TOP 12 QUOTES FROM RUSH'S EPIC RANT: Boehner and Obama Have Joined Forces to Destroy Conservatives

There's only one problem with their plan: Constitutional Conservatives are the American people; therefore, any attempt to destroy conservatism is an attempt to eradicate the fabric of America:

1 The news is that the Republican Speaker of the House has thrown in with Barack Obama. I don't care what the Democrats are doing. What does that matter? Holy smokes: John Boehner has just squandered the election results before the Republicans even are sworn in to run the Senate...

2 There is a major falling out taking place in the Democrat Party, and we're supposed to be enthused by this, by the way, we're supposed to be excited by it... we're supposed to look the other way while our Speaker of the House gets in bed with Obama and advances the Obama agenda, takes care of it, amnesty, Obamacare, fully funded, done deal. The election must not have mattered.

3 [Campaign contribution] limits have practically been obliterated, which means that corporate donors can just start giving left and right. It used to be a limit of $37,000. Now it's $737,000, something... You know why? The Republicans put it in... This is how corporate America's gonna defeat the Tea Party. By allowing limitless donations from that crowd under the rubric that it's campaign finance and money is speech and freedom of speech and First Amendment. The theory is that Main Street, Tea Party people can't come close to competing with corporate money.

4 Marlin Stutzman is a Republican from Indiana... he's saying ... that he was lied to by the Republican leadership; that the Republican leadership reneged on a deal they made with him to get his support for the omnibus bill... Stutzman, Republican, Indiana, was one of the last Republicans to vote in favor of the rule allowing the House to fully vote on the omnibus spending bill, the $1.1 trillion omnibus... Stutzman backed the rule at the last minute after the Republican leadership told him that they would pull the $1.1 trillion omnibus bill, once the rule was passed, and they would replace it with a short-term continuing resolution that conservatives, including Stutzman, wanted, and that they would take up the whole thing next year after the Republicans and the new Congress are sworn in, and he was lied to.

Larwyn's Linx: Let's Primary Every GOP Boneless Wonder Who Votes For The CRomnibus

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

Nation

Let's Primary Every GOP Boneless Wonder Who Votes For The CRomnibus: CHQ
Boehner CROmnibus passes House 219-206: FAM
Cromnibus passes: here's the roll call vote: Scoop

Jonathan Gruber Lied To Congress About Not Writing Obamacare: DC
Senate GOP: Should we reinstate the filibuster for presidential nominees?: Hot Air
Tea Party Reacts to Obama-Boehner Omnibus Passage With Defiance: Breitbart

The GOP: For Wall Street, Not Main Street: Erick Erickson
The Heroes in the House of Representatives: Erick Erickson
Breaking Down the ‘Cromnibus’ Vote: Roll Call

Hillary Clinton Will Be Called To Testify On Benghazi: Shark Tank
The Cop-Killing Cult of Larry Davis: Michelle Malkin
California Raid Nets Gang Members Connected to Mexican Mafia: LawOfficer

Economy

Obama-NLRB Gives Unions Access To Employers’ Email Systems: LUR
Unfunded pension liabilities are staggering: Hanford Sentinel
Burger King flees to Canada to avoid Democrats' insane corporate taxes: SRN News

Scandal Central

E-Mails Reveal Regime Scheming To Close Gun Dealers: Extrano's Alley
Ted Cruz: No One Is Above the Law, ‘Especially the President’: Daily SIgnal
USAF Major (Ret.) Told He Can’t Watch FNC at Med Facility: LL1885

Climate & Energy

A Global Tax? UN Debates Requiring Members to Report ‘GHG’ Emissions: PJM
Skeptics Cleared Off Stage at UN Climate Summit: Climate Depot

Media

Rush Was Right About Government Shutdowns: Jeffrey Lord
Palin To Congress: “Kill The Omnibus Spending Bill”: Real Revo
Record Number of Americans Want ObamaCare Repealed: Logan Albright

Angry Dad’s Letter to Jonathan Gruber: “You Arrogant B*****D!”: Tammy Bruce
CBS Continues to Ignore Emails of Racist Jokes by Sony Pictures Execs About Obama: MRC
Gruber on Obamacare in 2010: “Full disclaimer, I helped write it”: LI

World

Biden Lectured Ayaan Hirsi Ali On Islam: TR
Thinking About Torture: Jonah Goldberg
Jihadist Killings Equal to a 9/11 Pentagon Attack Every Day for a Month: Terry Moran

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Fitbit Surge Fitness Watch Early Hands-On Review: CIO
Disruption and the Uberization of Business: InnovExc
.300 Blackout AR Pistol: Guns & Tactics

Cornucopia

I literally can't even.: BB&B
Schoolin’ Gruber…Anyone?: MOTUS
Bitter Fruit: C&S

Image: Mudslide fears for L.A. as 'Pineapple Express' storm pounds West Coast
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Tech News

QOTD: "What a sad spectacle this [Cromnibus] is, that the principled left and the principled right are joined together against the middle who are hoping to reap the benefits of Wall Street’s campaign donation trough (a trough that has been mostly open to Democrats in the last decade, which is why Boehner knows he will have to depend on Democrats to pass this crappy bill). If this is the only thing Boehner can bring himself to show the testicular fortitude to defend, I really hope liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans refuse to pass anything more than a CR through February. Heck, I’d prefer they passed nothing at all rather than this garbage." --Leon H. Wolf

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Should You Believe What They Tell You or What You See?

By Jim Quinn

Sometimes I wish I could just passively accept what my government monarchs and their mainstream media mouthpieces feed me on a daily basis. Why do I have to question everything I’m told? Life would be much simpler and I could concentrate on more important things like the size of Kim Kardashian’s ass, why the Honey Boo Boo show was canceled, the Victoria Secret Fashion Show, whether I’ll get a better deal on Chinese slave labor produced crap on Black Thanksgiving, Black Friday, or Cyber Monday, fantasy football league standings, the latest NFL player to knockout their woman and get reinstated, Obama’s latest racial healing plan, which Clinton or Bush will be our next figurehead president, or the latest fake rape story from Rolling Stone. The willfully ignorant masses, dumbed down by government education, lured into obesity by corporate toxic packaged sludge disguised as food products, manipulated, controlled and molded by an unseen governing class of rich men, and kept docile through never ending corporate media propaganda, are nothing but pawns to the arrogant sociopathic pricks pulling the wires in this corporate fascist empire of debt.

I’m sure my blood pressure would be lower and my mood better if I just accepted everything I was told by my wise, sagacious, Ivy League educated, obscenely wealthy rulers as the unequivocal truth. Why should I doubt these noble, well intentioned, champions of the common folk? They’ve never misled us before. They would never attempt to use two highly publicized deaths as a lever to keep black people and white people fighting each other and not realizing all races are now living in a militarized police surveillance state supported by the one Party. They would never use their complete control over the financial, political, judicial, and media organisms to convince the masses that voting for one of their hand selected red or blue options will ever actually change anything. They would never engineer the overthrow of a democratically elected government, cover up the shooting down of an airliner, and attempt to blame their crimes on the leader of a nuclear power in their efforts to retain a teetering global empire. They would never overthrow or wage economic warfare on countries that don’t toe the line regarding the continued dominance of the petrodollar in global commerce.

Sadly, I’m cursed with a mind that questions everything and trusts no one in authority or associated with the status quo.