Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Can a Republican Governor Start to Fix the Nation's Worst Economic Mess in Illinois?

By Investor's Business Daily

State Government: Bruce Rauner became Illinois' 42nd governor on Monday, the first Republican since 2003. He inherits a state that's been dubbed "America's Greece," but it's another opportunity to show what a GOP chief executive can do.

A big part of the GOP tsunami in 2014 occurred at the state level, with Republicans expanding their hold on governors' mansions and legislatures with wins in blue states such as Maryland, Massachusetts and President Obama's Illinois.

The number of GOP governors has grown to 31 from 21, control of legislatures has expanded to 68 of 98 partisan legislative chambers, and Republicans now have total control of some two dozen states.

There's a reason for this success, and it's the fact that GOP governors tend to promote a free-market economy with lower taxes, less regulation and a generally friendlier business climate that emphasizes wealth creation rather than redistribution.

According to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nine of the 10 fastest-growing state economies last quarter had GOP governors, including North Dakota with its fracking boom and 8.4% growth rate. Six of the 10 worst-performing states were run by Democrats. We'll refrain from another Texas vs. California comparison.

Surrounded by Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin, where GOP governors Rick Snyder, Mike Pence and Scott Walker turned their states around by taking on public-sector unions and enacting right-to-work laws, Illinois has languished as the bluest of blue states, an example of the atrophy that dominance by statist Democrats can impose.

GOOD NEWS: Democrats' Latest Economic Plan Goes Full-Bore Marxist

By James Pethokoukis

There’s been a big gap between how Democrats have described America’s economic problems and the scope of the solutions they’ve offered. Recall President Obama’s late 2013 speech where he declared the “dangerous and growing inequality and lack of upward mobility that has jeopardized middle-class America’s basic bargain” to be the “defining challenge” of our time. Strong stuff.

But what have been the subsequent policy prescriptions? Relatively small stuff, like raising the minimum wage. You can debate whether it’s a good idea or not, but only 3% of workers age 25 and over earn the minimum wage or less. Raising it to nearly $10 would raise incomes of only 11% of workers who live in poor households. Or take the “free” community college proposal. Attendance is already essentially free for many students. What’s more, research on student outcomes suggest, notes AEI’s Andrew Kelly, that “pushing tuition to zero may not be a silver-bullet solution to lackluster student success.”

Party progressives, such as Elizabeth Warren, have pushed for bolder policies. And a new proposal by Rep. Chris Van Hollen — the ranking minority member on the House Budget Committee not some radical back bencher — certainly qualifies. This from ace Washington Post reporter Lori Montgomery:

The question is...

...at this point, should we send it back?



Hat tip: Papa B.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama Couldn’t Make the Paris Rally - The NFL Playoffs Were On

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

Nation

Obama Couldn’t Make the Paris Rally - The NFL Playoffs Were On: Sara Noble
Islam’s One-Two Punch: Violence Then Moonbattery: Moonbattery
Obama Wasn't There: GayPatriot

Barack Obama’s Harriet Miers moment. Seriously.: Moe Lane
Kerry: You People Quit Criticizing Us About The Paris March: Patterico
Jake Tapper: President Of France Was First To Visit U.S. After 9/11: WFB

Here’s Who Is And Isn’t Publishing The New Charlie Hebdo Cover: Austin Hunt
Tweets of the Day, …It Really IS All Valerie Jarrett’s Fault edition: Moe Lane
Islam Gets Special Treatment: Dennis Prager

Snowden and Russian Intelligence: An Update: 20 Committee
Romney And The GOP’s Five-Ring Circus: Moe Lane
Twitter account for CENTCOM hacked by (maybe) ISIS: Sooper

Economy

Letter: Why aren’t we taking care of our own poor people first?: RRW
Meet the ‘Other’ Woman Union Bosses Want in the Oval Office: LUR
Basic Economics: Walter Williams

Scandal Central

Unanswered Benghazi Questions: 7th in a Series: Sharyl Attkisson
Snowden and Russian Intelligence: An Update: 20 Committee
Holder Accuses GOP of Intentionally Using Voter ID Laws to 'Depress the Vote': Breitbart

Climate & Energy

College Prof Retires and Admits Global Warming is a Lie: CI
Slate Proves Beyond A Shadow Of A Doubt That Global Warming Science Is Bunk: DownTrend
Kerry: Climate Change 'Enormous Cloud Hanging Over All of Us': WS

Media

The Media’s Standard in the Terrorist Fight: Erick Erickson
The Trouser Press: Mark Steyn
The Last Garrison of Defense for Obama’s Legacy is Manned by Jonathan Chait: Leon Wolf

NBC Silent on 2,000 Dead in ‘Deadliest Massacre’ by Islamist Group: Kristine Marsh
Black Mob Brawl Hits Major U.S. City: Paul Bremmer
Nitwit Liam Neeson Doesn’t Think You Should Have A Right To Bear Arms: Bob Owens

World

Is Paris Burning?: Cal Thomas
Au revoir les juifs et La France: LI
How did the Charlie Hebdo Terrorists Plan Their Rampage?: Jack Dunphy

Argentina’s Tampon Shortage: AmInt
Putin Playing The Great Game Of Civilizations While West Chips Away At Russia’s Finances: NoisyRm
Of all the EU failures, its policy on asylum seekers is the worst: Telegraph

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Ivy League’s meritocracy lie: How Harvard and Yale cook the books for the 1 percent: Lani Guinier
Viking Runes as Encryption in the 1500s: Bruce Schneier
NASA’s 10 rules for developing safety-critical code: SD Times

Cornucopia

Join me in asking CAIR to respond to Egyptian president’s call for religious reform : Allen West
Terrorists Get Inspired By A Whoremaster: TSG
Is the White House a ‘Sleeper Cell’?: Roger L. Simon

Image: How did the Charlie Hebdo Terrorists Plan Their Rampage?
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Gun News

QOTD: "The attack on Charlie Hebdo in France was not cyber [like the attack on Sony that George Clooney so vociferously protested]. It was more serious. It was the murder of 12 journalists for exercising their freedom of speech. And while millions of people expressed solidarity with the slain journalists, and their right to speak freely, Clooney has been silent. No petition. No newspaper ad. No online petition...

Liberals in show business are afraid of getting killed by Muslims, you see. And apparently they’ll defend–though not to their deaths–the rights of Muslims to kill them." --Warner Todd Huston

Monday, January 12, 2015

Guess who will grace the next cover of #CharlieHebdo?

CNN has the story, but not the cover itself.

Editors of the Paris-based satirical magazine released the cover of their next issue on Monday night, and it shows a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, holding up a sign with the now-famous slogan "Je Suis Charlie."


That slogan has become a rallying cry in the wake of the horrific shootings that left 12 dead at the magazine's offices last week.

...The new cover was shared by Liberation, a French newspaper that lent office space to the surviving staff members of Charlie Hebdo... Liberation's news story about the new cover said it was specifically meant to depict Mohammed.

...Many major news organizations, including CNN, have refrained from showing any of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons that purport to show the prophet. Executives at CNN have cited concerns about the safety of staff members and sensitivity about Muslim audiences.

Frauds. Punks. Cowards. Either you believe in freedom of speech or you don't.

So we know where CNN stands. Or rather squats. On its knees, in a pose of submission.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

RESET: Russia Names NATO its Number One Military Threat

By Investor's Business Daily

New Cold War: A revised Russian military doctrine identifies NATO as Moscow's No. 1 threat, as the Obama administration announced it was returning control of 15 bases in Europe back to the host governments.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave President Obama a lump of coal in his Christmas stocking in the form of a revised strategic doctrine.

It re-emphasizes that NATO, notwithstanding President Obama's "flexibility" and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's "reset" button, is the No. 1 strategic threat facing Russia.

We are reminded of Obama's rebuke of Mitt Romney in the third presidential debate, when the GOP nominee was ridiculed for listing, in response to a question, Russia as our No. 1 strategic geopolitical threat.

"The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because ... the Cold War's been over for 20 years," said the president who promised the Russians more flexibility as he disarmed the United States.

Apparently Putin does not share the view that the frigid era of confrontation is over.

The latest Russian strategic doctrine, the fourth since the end of a Soviet Union whose demise Putin has mourned and whose territories he seeks to reclaim, comes after the 2008 war against the former Soviet republic of Georgia, its annexation of Crimea and its creeping invasion of Ukraine.

Russian strategic doctrine was revised by Boris Yeltsin after the USSR's demise. It was revised again in 2000 under Putin, and again in 2010 by Dmitry Medvedev.

Some would argue the newest incarnation merely gives shape for the first time to Russian neighbors' fears and has a few disturbing new wrinkles that bear watching in light of a staggering Russian military renaissance.

The doctrine announces Russia intends the "lawful use of the armed forces . . . to ensure the protection of its citizens outside the Russian federation."

This was the pretext Moscow used to seize the Crimea and Nazi Germany's excuse to annex Austria and the Sudetenland prior to World War II. This is not good news for the Baltic states NATO is obligated to defend.

Bold Career Move by @BenAffleck

I guess good ol' Ben stands with Charlie, too.



Hat tip: BadBlue Fame

CARTOON O' THE DAY: John Kerry Stands With Charlie

From the brilliant Stilton Jarlsberg:


So true.

Also, John Kerry is whining about all of the progressives who are criticizing the administration for playing hooky during this weekend's solidarity march.

To be fair, the NFL playoffs were on.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Legendary Cartoonist R. Crumb Weighs in on Charlie Hedbo

Robert Crumb was the iconic cartoonist of the sixties counterculture.


It would seem he's not impressed with the "bravery" of the media as it pertains to Islamofascism.

The hat tip goes to Jake Tapper, who notes the President's absence from the weekend's solidarity rally as follows: the President of France was the first to visit the U.S. after 9/11.


3 of the Best Global Warming Images Ever

Spotted at Stormfax:


Related:
  • 'This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow...'
  • Al Gore and his UN global warming profiteers
  • Let Them Eat Dirt

Larwyn's Linx: On Radical Islam: You Have Exactly Three Choices

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

Nation

On Radical Islam: You Have Exactly Three Choices: Karl Denninger
The Colonization of the West by the Third World: HillBuzz
France Declares War on Radical Islam, Eric Holder Refuses: Leah Barkoukis

Tweet of the Day: Great Moments in World History: WZ
White House to Host Home-Grown Terrorist Summit: Keith Koffler
Feinstein: Mass Casualty Attack By Terrorists Possible: Kate Scanlon

The Party of Snobbish Elites: Victor Davis Hanson
Prepare for yet another immigration showdown: Quentin Kramer
Female Gun Store Owner Shoots 3 Robbers Who Killed Her Husband: BlurBrain

So They Were Actual Muslims Then?: Erick Erickson
Clash of Civilizations: “It is time for the West to change.”: Protein Wisdom
As If On Cue...: Derek Hunter

Boehner: It hurts when critics call me 'spineless, or a squish': David M. Drucker
Boehner Re-elected Speaker . . . And You Got Played: RWN
Boehner embrace of GOP rebels nudges House to right: Charles Babington

Economy

Betrayed single-payer fanatics throw temper tantrum in Vermont: Moe Lane
#FreeCommunityCollege – You Morons Can’t Afford It!: Steven Crowder
The Unions-Driven Crisis That Could Be Coming to a City Near You: Stephen Moore

Scandal Central

Report: No U.S. Representation At Rally, Holder Didn’t Show Up: WZ
Obama doesn’t even send Kerry to Paris: FAM
Obama Helping to Ban Reenactments of 1889 Land Rush Because it’s ‘Racist’: Publius

Climate & Energy

Biofuels Have Never Made Less Sense: AmInt
Vent Your Heating & Cooling Frustrations with Ecovent: SoundAndVision
How OPEC Weaponized the Price of Oil Against U.S. Drillers: Bloomberg

Media

This isn't national news? EVIL: Don Surber
Charlie Hebdo Could Never Have Existed on an American College Campus: CI
These are the biggest hypocrites celebrating free speech today in Paris: Kabir Chibber

Newspaper Office in California Vandalized Simply For Using The Word ‘Illegals’ In Headline: RWN
Mental Midget Anti’s Using Hebdo Attack To Push Gun Control: Extrano's Alley
Why Has George Clooney Remained Silent About ‘Charlie Hebdo’?: Publius

World

50 World Leaders at Paris Anti-Terror Rally But Guess Who’s Missing?: Clash
Obama spent his day watching NFL playoff football: FAM
Pushing Back Against Free Speech Hypocrisy In Britain: VDARE

Venezuela puts food distribution under military protection: Rick Moran
Hacktivists declare war on terrorists; it’s more than Obama’s done anyway: BPR
In Honor Of Charlie Hebdo: WZ

I’m Running Out of Ways to Defend Islam: Allen Clifton, ForwardProgressives
The U.S. Marines' 5 Most Lethal Weapons of War: National Interest
Calling Islamism the Enemy: Daniel Pipes

Islam’s wars betray a deadly problem: John Ruberry
Is Boko Haram Using Abducted Girls as Suicide Bombers?: Patrick Goodenough
Can Islam Be Reformed?: Dennis Prager (2011)

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Blaming The Gun For The Battle Losses: Herschel Smith
Your Own Private Two-Person Submersible Is Here: John Wenz
Men Who Post Lots of Selfies Show Signs of Psychopathy, Says Study : Darren Orf

Cornucopia

The End of Outrage: MOTUS
Two Familiar Things to Comfort You: Ace
Chris Christie Lampooned as Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader: OTB

Image: Amedy Coulibaly shot and killed at grocery store in Vicennes - Uncensored and uncut
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Gun News

QOTD: "In terms of profile, these jihadist murderers fit it perfectly, to an almost comical extent: angry young losers, drug users with criminal records, coming from broken families, known unpleasantly in their community as violent troublemakers. There was even the obligatory aspiring rap artist cliche. These are essentially spree killers seeking an ideology to justify their murderous urges, and in Salafi jihadism they found it: that being the hate-based worldview of choice for many would-be terrorists these days, anywhere. When travel to foreign jihad was added to the Kouachi dossier, the French intelligence services had something to work with, but not enough to keep them off the streets for long. It was inevitable that the security apparatus — which can only track so many targets in “real time” or something close to it, and resources are always finite — placed other, more dangerous-looking jihadists higher on the list to be watched than the Paris killers." --20 Committee

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Cost to New Jersey Taxpayers to Protect World's Largest Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Rises 1,800 Percent

By Mark Lagerkvist

No matter who paid for Chris Christie’s ticket to the Dallas Cowboys vs. Green Bay Packers football game on Sunday, the New Jersey governor ran up the score on taxpayers.

The travel costs of state police troopers assigned to protect the governor are 18 times higher than when Christie took office, a New Jersey Watchdog investigation found.

New Jersey spent nearly $1 million on travel expenses for its state police Executive Protection Unit during Christie’s four years and nine months as governor, according to documents obtained under the Open Public Records Act. Last year, Christie traveled out-of-state on more than 100 days while visiting 36 states, Mexico and Canada, primarily on personal and political trips that were not official state business.

The current average monthly travel costs to protect Christie for a single month are 50 percent more than former Gov. Jon Corzine’s entire final year in office, according to state records. For 2009, EPU’s expenses were only $21,704 – compared to $32,933 per month for the first three quarters of 2014.

Spokesmen for Christie did not respond to New Jersey Watchdog’s requests for comment.

The governor announced he will pay is pay for his own travel and ticket to the game in Green Bay. Last week, Christie acknowledged Cowboys owner Jerry Jones paid for him, his wife and their four children to fly to Dallas on a private charter jet as well as their VIP seats at the Jan. 4 game against the Detroit Lions – an admission that stirred controversy about ethics and gifts to the governor.

The dramatic increase in EPU travel costs coincides with the political rise of an ambitious governor considering a run for the White House in the 2016 election:

The 4 Biggest Hypocrites Praising Free Speech in Paris Today

Kabir Chibber of Quartz helps bust the tyrannical hypocrites who today claim to stand with Charlie Hedbo. Here are the four of the worst offenders.

Foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, Egypt
Three al-Jazeera journalists—Peter Greste, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed—were jailed for seven years for spreading false news and supporting the now-banned group, the Muslim Brotherhood. The trio had denied the charges. On New Year’s Day, the country’s top court ordered a retrial... Reporters Without Borders ranks Egypt as second in the world for the number of journalists arrested, including this photojournalist who describes his 16 months behind bars as an “endless nightmare.”
Prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkey
Turkey held almost 50 journalists in jail two years ago. There are seven journalists in jail at the moment, mainly for producing propaganda for outlawed political parties.
King Abdullah, Jordan
Mudar Zahran, a Palestinian writer for The Jerusalem Post, was sentenced to as much as 15 years in jail with hard labor for writing about the king’s dependence on Israel for power. He told the the paper he was charged with “inciting hatred and attacking Jordan’s image and the image of its one nation.” He spoke from the UK, where he has been granted asylum.
Prime minister Enda Kenny, Ireland
Perhaps most surprising of all in these circumstances, Ireland has had “blasphemy” as a criminal offense on its books since 2009. Already one Muslim has threatened legal action against any Irish publication that reprints Charlie Hebdo’s front-page depiction of the Prophet Muhammad. Blasphemy is punishable with a fine of up to €25,000 ($29,500), but there are plans to hold a referendum to abolish it... Blasphemy is defined by the Irish as “publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters sacred by any religion.” It doesn’t sound like the drafters of this law would have much time for the people at Charlie Hebdo.

Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News

QOTD: Right of Return

By Dan from New York

Sent via a friend:

“This attack only underscores the need for France to immediately engage in negotiations with French Muslims that will result in the creation of two states for two peoples, living side by side in peace and security, with Paris as a shared capital..."

Similar notion expressed here:


Related: The 751 No-Go Zones of France.


Larwyn's Linx: "Smoking Ruins And Crying Widows"

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

Nation

"Smoking Ruins And Crying Widows": Springer
The meaning of peace in Islam: Diane Weber Bederman
Blasphemy for Me, But Not For Thee: Matthew Continetti

Obama Imported 300,000 Muslims Into the US in 2013: WAW
Guess who else Obama is dumping onto your state welfare troughs?: BNI
Obama absent as world leaders gather to protest Islamic terror: Thomas Lifson

GOP Makes First Move Against Obamacare: AmInt
The coming Republican failure on immigration: Byron York
GOP sets up fight over Social Security disability fund: Joseph Lawler

Enough Part 3: Coping With The Objectors: Liberty's Torch
Je Suis Sick and Tired of Cant: Clarice Feldman
Obama’s remarks on Paris shooting ‘Shariah-compliant’: WND

Jeb In 94: I Would Do ‘Probably Nothing’ For African-Americans: Scott Greer
Centrist angst over Dems' leftward lurch: Susan Crabtree
2015: The year Democrats change Obamacare?: Silvio Canto, Jr.

Scandal Central

HHS execs living large, flying first class around the world: Luke Rosiak
The U.S. Govt. vs. Gen. David Petraeus: Sharyl Attkisson
GOP senators slam FBI's recommendation to charge David Petraeus: Justin Green

Climate & Energy

Ben Santer tries to explain ‘the pause’ in global warming: WUWT
How To Prepare For The Imminent 30-Year Cold Spell (You’ve Probably Never Heard Of): OTGN
More Mann Grafting: Steve McIntyre

Media

Leaked Newsroom Emails Reveal Al Jazeera Fury over Global Support for Charlie Hebdo: NRO
Moderate Muslims Criticize the Charlie Hebdo Attacks: Patterico
On week Islamists murder over ‘offensive’ cartoon, Obama’s DOJ hammers Redskins: Scoop

Dem Dilemma: Hillary “very old, slow” but Elizabeth Warren unelectable: Flopping Aces
Cultural Marxism Strikes Again in Aftermath of Gun Store Robbery: Treehouse
CNN’s Cuomo and Amanpour suffer self-inflicted beclownings covering terrorist attack in France: Doug Powers

World

There was no “Intelligence Failure” in Paris: 20 Committee
Report: Jihadist Sleeper Cells Activated Throughout France: Treehouse
German paper that printed French cartoons firebombed: Fox

2,000 Dead in Boko Haram Assault on Africa?: BattleSwarm
Two Muslim Heroes of Paris Terror Attacks : LI
Muslim Behavior/Terrorism Correlated With Population Size: Common Sense Evaluation

Those who refuse to learn from history etc: Cold Fury
Boko Haram Sends 10-Year-Old Girl as Suicide Bomber To Market…. 20 Dead: Treehouse
For first time since WWI, Paris’ Grand Synagogue closed on Shabbat: JTA

Negotiators head to Iran nuclear talks under pressure for a deal: Charles Hoskinson
When I Questioned the History of Muhammad: Tom Holland
Old Nazis Never Die: Nicholas Kulish

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Sony Pictures CEO: call to Google got 'The Interview' out: Tami Abdollah
The Latest Russian Fighter Jet Blows America's Away: Federico Pieraccini
Flexible spinal cord implants will let paralyzed people walk: Jon Fingas

Cornucopia

Just When You Think It Couldn’t Get Worse…: MOTUS
People's Cube commissars stage mock show trial in Ferguson: Cube
Cartoon: BYOD Meets Internet of Things: Dark Reading

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Gun News

QOTD: "Can you imagine the media reaction if just one Christian murdered just one person as a reprisal for some offensive joke or provocative cartoon? We’d be ready to ban the entire religion in this country. Progressives are so desperate to prove that Christianity is just as violent as Islam that they frequently cite the murder of abortion doctors as an example. Only, none of those attacks were carried out in the name of Jesus. As far as I’m aware, none of the murderers shouted “Praise be to Christ” when they pulled the trigger. And how many incidents are we even talking about here? I’ll tell you: eight. Eight abortionists and abortion clinic workers have been killed in the U.S. in the past 40 years. It’s happened once in the last decade and a half. Once.

Yet Christians are held to such a high standard that even these extraordinarily rare killings, not even done in the name of the faith, and always condemned by nearly every prominent Christian, are cited in almost every conversation about religious violence. Meanwhile, Muslims just gunned down 12 people over a cartoon this morning, and what do we immediately hear? Islam is a religion of peace.

A White House spokesman came out within hours of the attack and spent about 40 seconds condemning the violence before immediately repeating this same slogan. While another dozen bodies lay dead in the street, we’re told that it all happened at the hands of a “peaceful” religion. (But at least he didn’t repeat Obama’s quote from 2012: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”) This is a sick joke. Islamist militant wreak havoc across the globe, and the best our simpering, kowtowing, politically correct leaders can do is continuously suck up to the religion that produces these travesties like it’s operating some kind of terrorist assembly line. It’s pathetic. It’s shameful." --Matt Walsh

Saturday, January 10, 2015

SHARYL ATTKISSON: The U.S. Government vs. David Petraeus

By Sharyl Attkisson

The New York Times reports federal prosecutors are recommending felony charges against former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus for allegedly providing classified information to a civilian author and journalist with whom he allegedly had an affair.

In light of the news, it’s worth looking at the following excerpt from my book: Stonewalled.

Meanwhile, another controversy is waiting to boil over within the Obama administration: a sex scandal involving the CIA’s Petraeus. The timing is—intriguing. Only after the Benghazi attacks, as Petraeus’s loyalty to the administration falls into question, does everything turn sour for the spy chief.

In the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attacks, Petraeus first draws ire from some administration colleagues for not reading from the Carney-Obama-Clinton-Rice book of fiction. While they’re pushing the spontaneous protest narrative, he’s disclosing full information on the suspected al-Qaeda links, to House Intelligence Committee members at a classified briefing, according to those present. Then the talking points his agency approves for public dissemination on September 14 say that the CIA provided warnings on September 10 that the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, could come under attack and that Benghazi was in a precarious state. Clinton’s state department sees the inclusion of that damning information in the CIA’s original proposed talking points as a “knee-jerk cover-your-ass moment” on Petraeus’s part. One official later tells me, “We thought, Why are you guys [Petraeus’s CIA] throwing us under the bus? . . . They made it seem like the State Department was given a warning they ignored. [But] no specific warning was given.”

Emails indicate that on September 15, 2012, a CIA representative sent Petraeus the final version of the talking points that had been revised “through the Deputies Committee” after “State voiced strong concerns with the original text.” The CIA’s references to terrorism and early warnings had been removed.

Petraeus expresses disapproval of the final version, writing that he would just assume that they not be used. But his deputy, Morell, and the White House give them the green light.

Is all of this the beginning of the end of Petraeus’s career as CIA director?

Let’s look at a timeline constructed primarily using government accounts:

In November 2011, Petraeus, who’s married, allegedly begins an affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

IT'S TIME: The Cruz Coalition Is Coming!

Based upon a speech by the invaluable Trevor Loudon.


Could you support a ticket like that? Let me know in the comments.

Oh, and let Ted Cruz know on Twitter. It's time we started taking this country back.

The Official Apologist for Murder and Terror of The New York Times: Nicholas Kristof #CharlieHebdo

By Abigail R. Esman

On the day when journalists were massacred in Paris, while blood still ran wet where they had fallen, and as eye witnesses described the killers' shouts of "Allahu Akbar" – "Allah is great" – the New York Times' Nicholas Kristof asked the world not to judge the killers too quickly: most urgently, he said, don't jump to the conclusion they are Muslims.

Really? Even when they sounded the Muslim prayer? Even when they called their deeds, loud and clear in the streets of Paris, "vengeance for the Prophet"?

Here's what Kristof did not do: condemn the killings. Praise those who had been slaughtered. Express horror at their execution. And admit that men who praise Allah after committing mass murder are, religious profiling or not, probably going to turn out to be Muslim.

It just kind of is that way.

(Interestingly, in listing a number of Islamic terrorist attacks on Western targets, he also failed to mention that Muslims were involved in the attacks of 9/11. Ask yourself why.)

Instead, he begged his readers not to judge. He repeated the clichéd platitudes about the "majority of Muslims" having nothing to do with Islamic extremism, and praised, not the editors and cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo, but non-Muslims who rose to the aid of Muslims who feared reprisals after the recent (Muslim-led) hostage crisis in Sydney, Australia.

What he might have done, but didn't, was take a lesson or two from the New Yorker's George Packer, a man who actually knows a thing or two about Islamic extremism, and about the courage of journalists confronting it: he was one of them. At around the same time Kristof seems to have been penning his column, Packer wrote:

Larwyn's Linx: 6 Times The Obama Administration Said Its Job Was to Promote Islam

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

Nation

6 Times The Obama Administration Said Its Job Was to Promote Islam: Breitbart
Urgent: Obama Tells States They Can’t Block His Immigration Order: Sara Noble
House’s DHS funding bill makes enforcement a priority: LI

Just two or four dangerously stupid Muslims: MagFarm
Islamophobia: Thought Crime of the Totalitarian Future: FPM
Lamenting Liberty Lost: Andrew Napolitano

Obamacare and the Irritation Factor: Scott Rasmussen
Obama's math doesn't add up on free tuition, critics say: Brian Hughes
U.S. to Shutter 15 European Bases Under Cost Cutting Plan: WFB

GOP takes first shot at blocking Obama's Amnesty dictate: Susan Ferrechio
The Media’s Main Bias is Anti-American: Leon Wolf
Four observations prompted by the Paris attack: Paul Mirengoff

Economy

The waiter, bartender, retail worker recovery continues: BizzyBlog
Average CalPERS Pension 5 Times More Than Social Security Payouts: CalPolicy
Greek minister moves to allay fears of bank run: Guardian

Scandal Central

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane (D) *may* be indicted soon: Moe Lane
Obama’s Hawaii vacation is over, now it’s time for us to pay the tab: Watchdog
'Every single French Jew I know has left Paris': DailyMail

Climate & Energy

Keystone Fight Is About Much More: Phil Kerpen
High Flying EPA Head Gina McCarthy: Doing Nothing On Climate Change Is “Scary”: RWN
EPA Moves to Count Methane Emissions from Fracking: SciAm

Media

WaPo Baffled to Discover Terrorists Don’t Obey Gun Control Laws: GayPatriot
Steyn destroys media for making Islam the victim: Scoop
Gutfeld Calls Out CNN's Amanpour for Labeling Terrorists 'Activists': FNI

The Sleepwalkers: American Digest
Nicholas Kristof & the Spirit of Charlie Hebdo: Abigail R. Esman
He Has a Pen, But Does He Know How To Use It?: MOTUS

World

Islam is the Most Violent Religion in the World, But Let’s Keep Calling it ‘Peaceful’ Anyway: Matt Walsh
Canada: Muslim cleric says cartoons of religious leaders should be outlawed: JihadWatch
Paris hostages run for their lives as 'at least four' in siege are dead: DailyMail

With the Paris Attack the European Civil War Just Began: John Zmirak
Murder of Innocents: Boko Haram Sacks Baga: AmInt
Saudi Arabia: Activist Raif Badawi's 1,000 lashes public flogging to commence after Friday prayers: IBT

2016 and Paris: It’s the Jihad, Stupid!: Roger L. Simon
69% of French Muslims (4.14 million) back the Islamic State, poll finds: MuslimStats
Charlie Hebdo jihad mentor’s wife lives on welfare in UK: JihadWatch

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

RetailNext Attempts Real-Time Targeting in Malls: DMnews
Pew report: Instagram use growing quickly, Facebook stagnant: InsideFacebook
The 9 Greatest Movie Car Chases of All Time: Supercompressor

Cornucopia

Spread Near And Far: Bracken On Petraeus: WRSA
"This is the Jihad of the Ummah. So France, are you ready for more attacks?”: The Intercept
Perhaps France deported the wrong immigrant element: Obiter Dictum

Image: Paris hostages run for their lives as 'at least four' in siege are dead
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Car News

QOTD: "Since 1939, France has had the kind of “Common Sense Gun Control Laws” that groups financed by Mike Bloomberg claim to favor (although the laws don’t go far enough, in their view, because they still permit a small number of private citizens to own firearms.) The editorialists at the Washington Post are baffled why France’s strict gun laws failed to prevent the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

A genuinely troubling question: Why didn’t France’s gun laws save the Charlie Hebdo victims? ... There is no right to bear arms for the French, and to own a gun, you need a hunting or sporting license which needs to be repeatedly renewed and requires a psychological evaluation.

You mean the Mohammedan terrorists refused to apply for gun permits or sit for psychological valuations, but decided to get guns anyway? Jamais dans la vie!

Even a dumb hick from flyover country could explain why gun control laws fail; because criminals and terrorists don’t obey gun laws. But the leftists at the Washington Post clearly are too educated to understand that." --Gay Patriot

Friday, January 09, 2015

Congress itself implicated in new Obamacare scandal

By Judicial Watch

They didn’t fess up willingly. But after we applied the appropriate pressure, government officials responsible for operating the Washington D.C. Obamacare “Small Business Exchange” have finally admitted that Congress is taking advantage of health benefits its members and staff are not entitled to claim.

At least 12,359 members of Congress, congressional staffers, and their spouses and dependents currently purchase health insurance in D.C.’s Small Business Exchange even though Congress far exceeds D.C. law’s 50-employee limit for participating in the exchange. That’s why we filed a lawsuit in October on behalf of Kirby Vining, a D.C. taxpayer, against the D.C. Health Exchange Authority. In a court filing, the D.C. government conceded that, under D.C. law, the U.S. Congress is not permitted to obtain insurance through the District’s Small Business Exchange. But members of the political class, true to form, do not believe the rules apply to them. How do we know?

Our lawsuit cites applications filed by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate with the D.C. Exchange Authority. The applications, which were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, show that the House and Senate claimed to have only 45 employees each. They also show that the House and Senate attested to having “50 or fewer full-time equivalent employees.” Congress employs upwards of 20,000 people. D.C. law limits participation in the exchange to small businesses having fewer than 50 full-time employees. The applications also falsely state that the House and Senate are “local/state governments.” The “electronic signature” section of the application includes the following language: