Thursday, March 19, 2015

Why does he ignore this one simple lesson from the Eighties?

By James Pethokoukis

President Obama pushed hard his “middle class economics” message during a Cleveland speech yesterday. And in the process, offered his take on recent US economic history:

For the first eight years of this century, before I came into office, we tried trickle-down economics. We slashed taxes for folks at the top, stripped out regulations, didn’t make investments in the things we know we need to grow. At the end of those eight years, we had soaring deficits, record job losses, an economy in crippling recession. In the years since then we’ve tried middle-class economics. Today we’ve got dramatically lower deficits, a record streak of job creation, an economy that’s steadily growing.

The president modified his usual argument just a bit to frame the economic battle as middle-out Obamanomics vs. trickle-down Bushonomics, But in the past, he has subtlety lumped Bushonomics in with Clintonomics and Reaganomics. All part of the same tax-cutting, regulation-slashing, neoliberal wave from 1981 through 2008 that overall benefited the 1% at the expense of everyone else.

Yet despite the president’s critique, many voters probably recall the 1980s and 1990s with great fondness. For instance: A 2014 Quinnippiac survey founds American consider Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton to be the best two postwar presidents.

What’s the matter with Kansas? What’s the matter with America?

Both Reagan and Clinton pushed deregulation. Both cut taxes for wealthier Americans. Yes, inequality rose. The share of market income going to the top 1% doubled from 1981 through 2001. But it was also a period when nonfarm payrolls increased by 42 million. The employment rate rose to 63% from 59%. Median incomes — when adjusted for transfers, taxes, benefits, and changing household size — rose by 30%. While the middle class shrank, it wasprimarily caused by more Americans climbing the economic ladder into upper-income brackets,” the New York Times recently noted. A recent Brookings study found that through the 1980s and 1990s, “households of virtually every type experienced large, steady income gains, whether they were headed by men or women, by blacks, whites or Hispanics, or by people with high school diplomas or college degrees.” Clearly there was a lot happening during those decades other than just the rich getting richer.

Obama's Iranian partners in peace endorse nuclear EMP attacks on U.S.

Yesterday, Iran's leaders were quoted as saying: "...a society steeped in the spirit of homicide bombings is unstoppable."

Today, we discovered that Iran plans to engage in a nuclear EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack on the U.S., which would effectively destroy the electric grid and kill tens of millions. Paul Bedard reports:

Suspected for years of plotting to dismantle the U.S. electric grid, American officials have confirmed that Iranian military brass have endorsed a nuclear electromagnetic pulse explosion that would attack the country's power system.

American defense experts made the discovery while translating a secret Iranian military handbook, raising new concerns about Tehran's recent nuclear talks with the administration...

The issue of a nuclear EMP attack was raised in the final hours of this week's elections in Israel when U.S. authority Peter Vincent Pry [warned] of Iran's threat to free nations... "Iranian military documents describe such a scenario — including a recently translated Iranian military textbook that endorses nuclear EMP attack against the United States," he wrote.

A knowledgeable source said that the textbook discusses an EMP attack on America in 20 different places.

Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks, who is leading an effort to protect the U.S. electric grid from an EMP attack, has recently made similar claims based on the document translated by military authorities.

Once sneered at by critics, recent moves by Iran and North Korea have given credibility to the potential EMP threat from an atmospheric nuclear explosion over the U.S.

Pry has suggested ways for Iran to deliver a nuclear attack: by ship launched off the East Coast, a missile or via satellite.

Either way the result could be destruction of all or part of the U.S. electric grid, robbing the public of power, computers, water and communications for potentially a year.

Such an attack would be horrific to contemplate. Let "Operation Starfish" paint the scenario for you, if you have the stomach.


Larwyn's Linx: 150 Years Later, Democrats Are Still Fighting Efforts to End Slavery      

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Nation

150 Years Later, Democrats Are Still Fighting Efforts to End Slavery: Erick Erickson
Gen. Powell, Who are the GOP’s ‘Dark Veins’?: Larry Elder
Sen. Klobuchar (D-MN) Admits Her Staff Scuttled Human Trafficking Bill: RS

Barack Obama spins gold into straw in Israel elections. Again.: Moe Lane
The Dangers of Ignorance in a Civilization Jihadi World: Paul Sutliff
Memo to Republicans: Standing for something Wins, Moderates don’t: Last Tradition

Fox Makes It Easy for Amnesty: Mickey Kaus
Changing Your Vote on ObamaCare: Jon N. Hall
Who’s ‘Near Tears’ Now? It’s Not Bibi: Debra Saunders

The Criminal Arrogance of Hillary Clinton: Bill Whittle
Fiorina: 'What Have You, Mrs. Clinton, Accomplished on Behalf of Americans?': WS
Glenn Beck: I'm Done With the GOP: Ace

Economy

H-1B Workers Have Minimal Skills: Infosys Whistleblower: Press Trust of India
Foreign workers and the new Reagan Democrats: Bill Weckesser
"Who's gonna pay my rent?": BuzzPo

Scandal Central

Egypt Fights ISIS—Obama Cuts Off Egypt: P. David Hornik
State Dept. Employees Who Don’t Sign Separation Agreement Face Dire Consequences: Daily Caller
Transparency Failure: Obama Sets Record for Refusing to Release Government Files: RWN

Who Are the Muslim Brotherhood-Linked Leaders Obama Met?: Elliot Friedland
Obama Justice Department Refuses to Seek Justice for Targeted Americans: RS
Hillary committed obstruction of justice: AT

Climate & Energy

States Should Defy Unlawful EPA Carbon Dioxide Rules: Anthony Watts
FedGov Moves To Seize Water Rights From 100,000 Montanans: "All Surface Water And Wells": Mac Slavo
Obama's EPA is coming for your barbecue grill: WyBlog

Media

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith: For One Election, Every Black Person Should Vote GOP: Breitbart
Mark Levin: Netanyahu Victory Shows GOP You Have To ‘Fight For What’s Right’: WJ
Picking Your Fights: Mark Steyn

Netanyahu’s win causes the New York Times to have a cow: RS
Journalistic liars cost 8,000 households $250 million in Ferguson: Don Surber
The Role of the Palestinian Authority in Israel's Election Results: Alan Dershowitz

World

A Statement on the Crisis in the U.S.—Israel Relationship: Commentary
Voter fraud in Israel: Obama and his thugs must be in town: Pamela Geller
NATO jets intercept Russian warplanes as Putin ramps up deadly game of cat and mouse: Express

Please Ignore the Ongoing Christian Genocide: Zilla
Bizarre: Obama Congratulated Radical Islamists When They Won Elections, But Not Israel’s Leader: RWN
Cringe! Obama snubs Ireland prime minister’s handshake in mortifying moment: BPR

Obama’s Temper Tantrum Continues: WH Revisiting America’s Stance As Israel’s Shield: WZ
France Seeks to Reclaim 'No-Go' Zones: Soeren Kern
China to Send over 40 Spacecraft in 20 Launches: CRI

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Reuters: Tag Heuer teams up with Intel to challenge the Apple Watch: Mariella Moon
Here Is NASA's 18-Motor All-Electric Plane: PopMech
Uber offices raided by police in France and South Korea: Steve Dent

Cornucopia

Irish I Could Get Out of Work Today: Hopenchange
“Bibi Wins Big”: MOTUS
The Mystery of the Jews: Simpletoremember

Image: In the autonomous car of the future, we're all passengers
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Gun News

QOTD: "I don’t think [Netanyahu's attitude towards Iran] hardens, because I don’t think his stance was ever politically driven. I think that the prime minister’s views on Iran are well-known. We don’t want to be too gradiose about these things but I think that he really does go to sleep and wake up fearing Iran will acquire … nuclear weapons technology and use it to kill millions and millions and millions of innocent people. And I think that’s what he expressed when he came to the United States and I think that is what his government is oriented towards, the national security parts of his government are oriented towards." --Omri Ceren

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

THE BETRAYAL PAPERS: Colonized by the Muslim Brotherhood

NOTE: This essay is a supplement to the first four parts in a five-part series from the Qatar Awareness Campaign. Previously: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

This supplementary article puts Parts I-IV in some perspective. It’s a condensed version that attempts to paint a picture of the domestic problem in terms that are easily accessible to those who are not already deeply familiar with the issues. A variety of factors are explored, from Congressional complicity to the silence of the press.

Part V will be released next week.


The Betrayal Papers — And the Press Says Nothing…

The United States of America, primarily through the political left and Democrat Party, has been virtually colonized by the Muslim Brotherhood. Also known by their Arabic name, Ikhwan, they are a totalitarian, terrorist Islamic group that seeks our destruction because we are a free people.

We witness the Muslim Brotherhood’s planned destruction of America in many areas of contemporary life. A purposefully weak economy fails to produce the capitalist dynamism that has defined America for generations, and many millions remain unemployed. Abroad, the Muslim Brotherhood’s domination of American foreign policy instigated and backed the failed “Arab Spring,” which may ultimately result in Iranian domination of the Middle East. We feel their suffocating effects on our democracy every day, as our freedoms, traditions, opportunities, and rule of law slip away. The people suffer as prices continue to rise and the public sinks into a bottomless pit of debt.

The hostile, conquered government in Washington strangles our liberty each time Obama, like a self-crowned emperor, passes new regulatory laws without Congress.

OBAMA'S IRANIAN PARTNERS IN PEACE: "A society steeped in the spirit of homicide bombings is unstoppable"

What could possibly go wrong with the Obama-Kerry plan to appease Iran's march to secure nuclear weapons?

Iranian Leader Khamenei: A Society Steeped In The Spirit Of Martyrdom Is Unstoppable; Khamenei's Representative In IRGC Qods Force: We Shall Not Rest Until We Raise Flag Of Islam Over The White House


In statements on February 26, 2015, both Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Ali Shirazi, his representative in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) elite Qods Force, stressed the need to instill the values of jihad and martyrdom in Iranian society, and reiterated the ideological principles of the Islamic Revolution – enmity towards the U.S. and opposition to American hegemony and the existing world order.

At a closed meeting, Khamenei urged daily dissemination of the culture of martyrdom and jihad in society, and enshrining it as an eternal truth and as a necessary sacrifice on the path towards long-term goals. He explained that this would inoculate Iranian society against defeat, rendering its enemies unable to halt its progress. He also stressed Iran's role as the standard bearer of opposition to the existing world order, and as a country that could stand fast against the U.S. despite the latter's technological advantages, thanks to its revolution that relies on God's support.

Ali Shirazi, speaking at a ceremony attended by families of martyrs, emphasized that Iran would persist in fighting the U.S. until it had "rais[ed] the banner of Islam over the White House." He too praised the culture of martyrdom as a supreme value, and noted that it had spread to many countries in the Islamic world, including Nigeria, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Yemen. This, he said, showed that the Islamic Revolution had penetrated deep into these countries and had become a model for emulation across the region. Shirazi added that Iran was determined to avenge the January 18, 2015 killing in Quneitra of IRGC Gen. Mohammed 'Ali Allahdadi and the Hizbullah commanders, and that Hizbullah's operation against Israel in late January 2015 was only the beginning of this vengeance.

In a 2009 post entitled "The Atomic Mahdi", I described the historical background underpinning Iran's race to acquire nuclear weapons:

The Little Pantsuit That Couldn't (Tell the Truth)

By Investor's Business Daily

Emailgate: The refusal of State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki to answer a simple yes or no question — did Hillary Clinton sign separation form OF-109? — is proof of a cover-up of a felony by the former secretary of state.

You'd think that if Clinton didn't sign separation form OF-109 or was not asked to, the State Department and Team Hillary would have just said so.

After all, it would be easier to deflect questions about getting special treatment than acknowledging the committing of a felony by essentially lying under oath with the false claim that you have returned all government materials in your possession, including your emails.

As former DOJ lawyer Shannen Coffin first pointed out, OF-109 is more than a promise that you have not absconded with some office supplies.

It's meant as a reminder that you can't take your work product with you, and that the employee is required to sign under penalty of perjury something akin to the threat of prosecution that looms just above the signature line on your Form 1040 at tax time.

NOT ISLAMIC AT ALL: Remember how Obama congratulated radical Islamists after their elections (but ignored Israel)?

By Warner Todd Huston

Our petty president Barack Hussein Obama has thus far today refused to personally congratulate Benjamin Netanyahu on his landslide re-election as Israel’s Prime Minister. But a look back at other recent elections shows that he had no problem immediately congratulating radical Islamist tyrants on their election victories. Obama even immediately congratulated one of our biggest international enemies, Vladimir Putin, on his last election victory.

As David Steinberg notes Obama immediately congratulated Turkey’s Erdogan–a radical Islamist tyrant. He also congratulated Egypt’s president not to mention praising the faux “election” of the terror-supporting Iranian president. He also congratulated Putin, the Saudis, Morsi and a whole list of other Islamist tyrants.

And how does the US government congratulate Bibi Netanyahu on his landslide re-election?

Our president stays silent and instead Obama sends John “Lurch” Kerry to do the duty.

Once again this proves that Barack Obama is a friend to tyrants and an opponent to free peoples everywhere.

But this should not surprise anyone. After all, Obama sent his operatives over to Israel to work to defeat Netanyahu. Obama, it seems, finally saw a regime change plan he liked. Fortunately Obama failed to destroy Benjamin Netanyahu.


Read more Warner Todd Huston at PubliusForum.com

Larwyn's Linx: Battleground Israel Turns Out Like Battleground Texas

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Nation

Battleground Israel Turns Out Like Battleground Texas: Erick Erickson
Lying In State: Mark Steyn
Clintonworld's Self-Pitying Shadiness Returns: Ramesh Ponnuru

The Big, Fat “American Worker Recruitment First” Lie of H-1B: Michelle Malkin
Hillary or Bust!: Victor Davis Hanson
President is not Commander in Chief of Foreign Policy: Alan M. Dershowitz

John Boehner, The Dishonorable Gentleman From Ohio: Ace
The Hastert Rule is dead; Nancy Pelosi runs the House: RS
Today's GOP stands for nothing and the highest bidder: Erick Erickson

Democrat Jeb Bush Pushes For Massive Immigration Increases: Jen Kuznicki
Joe Manchin Shows His Anti-Gun Colors Again: Herschel Smith
Dems Push ATF To Ban Bullets Now: Brian Lilley

Economy

Boehner Trades $200B in New Spending Now for Nothing Later: Leon Wolf
A Nasty End to the Blue Model: AmInt
Sen. Grassley: H-1B Visa Bill “Only Makes the Problem Worse”: NumbersUSA

Scandal Central

Clintons UAE Quid Pro Quo: Dick Morris
Hillary Clinton’s Top Five Secrecy Scandals: Jeff Gerth
I ran the government’s FOIA program, so trust me: Hillary’s defense is laughable: Dan Metcalfe

Bogus Payments By Federal Agencies Reach All-Time High Of $125 Billion: WZ
Shocka: State Dept. Has “Apparently No Record” Of Hillary Signing Separation Agreement: Treehouse
GOP rep backs probe into US group, Israeli election: Ben Kamisar

Climate & Energy

Obama’s EPA Now Wants to Prevent You From Showering Too Long in Hotels: RWN
Fracking saved U.S. economy: Chriss Street
Boston breaks snowfall record with 108.6 inches: The Week

Media

Dismantling of Mika by Ted Cruz Demonstrates Why MSNBC One of the Great Media Failures of All Time: EIB
POLITICO: Bob Corker is a Reasonable Republican and totally a grown-up: RS
CBS Evening News Omits United Flight Passenger Was Screaming About Jihad: CNS

Anti-Obama Street Art at L.A. Marathon Will Make Your Day: 100% F'ed Up
NYT Caught Manipulating Story That Didn’t Fit Their Narrative: iOTWreport
MVS fires Journalist Carmen Aristegui: Borderland

World

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wins Re-Election in Squeaker: Warner Todd Huston
Official Tally Reveals Landslide Victory for Likud: The Tower
With Ballots Counted, Netanyahu Scores Dramatic, Decisive Victory in Israeli Elections: Algemeiner

Islamic State overruns Iraqi Army brigade headquarters north of Fallujah: LWJ
President Obama Blames Bush For Rise Of ISIS: Breitbart
British Girls Raped by Muslim Gangs on "Industrial Scale": Soeren Kern

The Ukraine Invasion: One Year Later: David J. Kramer
Has the Russian System’s Agony Begun?: Lilia Shevtsova
How Many People Did Communism Kill? (2010): BattleSwarm

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

WATCH: The Solar Eruptions That Caused Today’s Spectacular St. Patrick’s Day Auroras: Discover
The chemistry of Guinness [infographic]: Holy Kaw!
Scientists Capture Snapshots of Water Splitting in Photosynthesis for the First Time Ever: SWR

Cornucopia

Brett Kimberlin lawsuit against Mandy Nagy dismissed: LI
No – See, She’s Riding Her Broomstick. Really.: WRSA
Man turns bathroom inside of Wal-Mart into a mini-meth lab: The Week

Image: Shocka: State Dept Has “Apparently No Record” Of Hillary Signing Separation Agreement
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Gun News

QOTD: "I thought when I retired from the Justice Department in 2007, I was done with records-related scandals. By that point, I had spent more than a quarter-century as founding director of the Justice Department’s Office of Information and Privacy, effectively serving as the federal government’s chief information-disclosure “guru.” In that position, I had weathered many a Clinton records scandal during the 1990s—about two dozen, all told, including two that amazingly have still never become public—and I thought I had seen the last of them. At the very least, I thought I had become immune to being shocked by anything in that vein.

It turns out I was wrong on both counts.

We now have former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton being revealed as someone who took the unprecedented step of arranging to use her personal email account for all of her official email communications. What’s more, she decided to use her own email server equipment, rather than a commercial Internet service provider, so that the records of her email account would reside solely within her personal control at home. And if that were not enough, she then proceeded blithely—though not uncharacteristically—to present herself to the public, at a press conference held on March 10, as if there were really nothing “wrong” about any of this at all.

Well, as the saying goes, 'reality is not her friend.'" --Dan Metcalfe

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

"NOW WE HAVE A CALIPHATE" -- Dick Cheney Obliterates the Foreign Policy Disaster That is Barack Obama

In an interview featured in Playboy Magazine (I only read it for the compelling stories), Dick Cheney unleashes a fusillade of nuclear truth-bombs on Barack Obama, who is -- without question -- the worst president in American history. Some highlights:

ON SQUANDERING A VICTORY IN IRAQ

...Where do you start? I think with respect to the situation in Iraq, his precipitous withdrawal and refusal to leave any stay-behind forces, to negotiate a Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqis, was a huge mistake; we are paying a price for it now. He’s having to go back in now, and the guy who campaigned on the basis of bring the boys home and get out of Iraq is now redeploying forces to Iraq...

ON DEGRADING THE MILITARY CAPABILITY OF THE UNITED STATES

...I don’t think he ever bought into the notion that we’re at war, in terms of a war on terrorism; I think he always wanted to treat it as a law-enforcement problem. I think he’s done enormous damage to the military. I think what’s happened to the military in terms of morale, in terms of financing, budget and so forth is just devastating. The way Obama is functioning now, he’s crippling the capacity of future presidents to deal with future crises. It takes a long time to build up that military force. And I am absolutely convinced there will be a future president—two or three times down the road, perhaps—who will be faced with a major crisis and will not have the military capability he needs to deal with it. We are limiting the options of future presidents because of what is happening to the defense budget today...

BUMMER: Obama loses Israeli election to Netanyahu (UPDATE: includes funniest reactions to the losers)

Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett hardest hit.

Netanyahu faced an insurgent left-wing party, likely because of his hard line against both Iran and President Obama’s horribly failed foreign policy.

This is the first time the Israeli left came so close to coming back to full power in this post 9/11 world.


...Netanyahu’s Likud Party isn’t in such a strong position that it can control the whole government and seeing as how Israel is a Parliamentary system Netanyahu and Likud will now have to arrange a governing agreement with some of the lesser, left-wing parties.

But the fact that Bibi pulled this out at the last second is also telling. Israel is not ready to hand leftists full power.

Recall that Obama and his minions are reported to have spent U.S. taxpayer dollars to defeat Netanyahu.

Ted Cruz Befuddles MSNBC Hack on Congressional Role in Foreign Policy Using... History, Facts

For some reason, Ted Cruz decided to appear on MSNBC's The Morning Shmoe (Mark Levin's name for the lowest-rated news program on the lowest-rated network), where the combined IQ of the hosts -- the science is settled -- is roughly the square root of that of a goldfish.

Which makes Ted Cruz schooling Mika Brzezinski akin to teaching calculus to a Maine lobster.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well, okay, do you know exactly what the deal is to call it a bad deal? Do you have all the information? I don't think you do.

TED CRUZ: We don't. We have some that the administration has leaked. And oddly enough the administration leaks more details about the deal to the media than they actually inform Congress. But I can point out the idea you're suggesting, if I'm understanding you'll right, that Congress shouldn't be interfering in what the president is doing, from the beginning of our country, Congress has done so.

In 1987 Congress passed the Boland Amendment restricting the funding of the Contras in Nicaragua. Now Ronald Reagan at the time was trying to stop communists in Nicaragua. Now my guess is you probably would have been very supportive of the Boland Amendment which was literally ripping the carpet out from underneath what President Reagan was trying to do in Nicaragua.

Let’s go even further back. Woodrow Wilson, at the end of World War I, negotiated the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I. Went back to Congress, the Senate rejected it. Now on your view, I guess, you know, the New York Daily News would run a story on the front page putting the pictures of all the senators and calling them traitors.

SERIOUS QUESTION: Why doesn't Jeb Bush just run for the Democrat nomination?  

Jeb Bush has zero, none, zippo chance of winning the presidency. Should he somehow secure the Republican nomination -- an unlikely prospect given his bizarre and unpopular opinions -- the notion that he could both secure the support of a conservative base that he has demonized and insulted and the Democrat masses is delusional.

Rumor had it that his brother did cocaine at one point in his early years. Given his Quixotic quest, it could be that Jeb indulged in some serious hallucinogens. Jen Kuznicki explains the latest temper tantrum by "the Smart Bush":

...Using the same logic as President Barack Obama on Iran, Bush condescendingly stated in South Carolina this morning, “I have not seen, I don’t know if you’ve seen, a plan that says ‘we’re gonna deport everybody,’” Mr. Bush said at a breakfast event in Greenville Tuesday morning, kicking off a multi-day swing through the state.

So, according to Jeb, it’s either massively increase immigration on all levels, or deport everyone, a convoluted logic that rules Obama’s dealings with Iran; Obama’s way or war.

The plain fact is, that Jeb is pursuing illegal actions. It is the cornerstone of his campaign that we not enforce immigration law–another thing he has in common with the Imperial Obama... ...See, for Jeb Bush, obeying the law is too hard, and he conveniently gives no remedy for those refusing to “come out of the shadows.”

...[According to Jeb,] everyone who disagrees with him is an extremist candidate who wants to deport everyone, and then he says they don’t want to do anything but fear monger, when actually, they are more in line with what the American people actually know; you must enforce immigration law.

Given that Hillary is damaged goods, why doesn't Jeb try for the Democrat nomination? He has the name recognition, the far Left policy positions on Amnesty and Common Core, and the backing of crypto-liberal Karl Rove.

This isn't a joke.

Bush should switch parties and make a serious run for the Democrat nomination. Because what is a joke is the idea that he could win the presidency running as a Republican.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: Document theft and destruction nothing new for Hillary

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Nation

Document theft and destruction nothing new for Hillary Clinton: Paul Mirengoff
Clintons Cover-Up Team: John Fund
Psaki Sweater Bombs: Hot Air

A Monster of Our Own: Kevin D. Williamson
Obama’s Iran deal imperiled by… Democrats?: LI
“We live in constant fear of upsetting the WH [White House]”: Sara Noble

Two Warnings: Thomas Sowell
Hillary Clinton should face criminal charges: Joseph Curl
The 5 Most Profound Political Quotes Of The Last 5 Years: John Hawkins

Democrat-Controlled House May Add $100+ Billion In Deficit Spending: Ace
Pathetic Mitch McConnell finally plays "hardball": Ace
Draconian Chris Christie Gun Laws Brand Aspiring Police Officer a Felon: BuzzPo

Economy

Dems Choose Coercively Financed Abortion Over Fighting Human Trafficking: MB
Hillarynomics: Bill’s third term or Barack’s?: James Pethokoukis
White House Floats Bankruptcy Process for Some Student Debt: WSJ

Scandal Central

Obama’s Immigration Nightmare: Exponential Executive Lawlessness: David Limbaugh
Tu casa es mi casa: Economist
White House office to delete its FOIA regulations: USA Today

Climate & Energy

California Is Turning Back Into A Desert And There Are No Contingency Plans: Michael Snyder
Slip Sliding Away: Audubon

Media

Run, Al Gore, Run!: LI
The “Hillary Was Right to Break the Law Because Republicans Are Mean” Defense: GayPatriot
Dishonest Australian Correspondent Attempts To Turn M855 Into “Cop Killer” Ammunition: Bob Owens

Ron Fournier on Dems and Hillary’s Email: Don’t buy the spin, they are scared to death: Glob
‘Outstanding propaganda’! Valerie Jarrett touts Obama’s ‘uniquely American recovery’: Twitchy
Former White House Advisor: Hillary Clinton Email Scandal A ‘Pimple on the Ass of Progress’: Breitbart

World

Cotton Letter Smokes Out Dangerous Concession to Iran: David Gerstman
US intel report scrapped Iran from list of terror threats: Times of Israel
ISIS’ Soldiers Caught Cowardly Fleeing Battlefield in Attire that Would Get Them Killed Back at HQ: IJR

Hillary Clinton's Anti-Israel, Pro-Hezbollah Donor: IBD
Obama refuses to renew 40-year-old emergency oil supply pact with Israel: Pamela Geller
Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?: Jeffrey Goldberg

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Spam Filtering Service had access to Clinton Classified Emails: Marc Perkel
Xiaomi's fitness tech to help power smart shoes: Michael Kan
Adobe gets its docs ducks in a row with Document Cloud: iMore

Cornucopia

Obama’s Guiding Light: MOTUS
A Chess Tournament At The White House: Springer's Blog
Old Hippies Still Dying of Drug Overdoses by the Thousands: BlurBrain

Image: Israeli polls open with Netanyahu's power hanging in the balance
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Gun News

QOTD: "Those who say that Hillary Clinton’s email scandal is the 1990s all over again may not know how right they are. We’re not just witnessing a replay of Hillary’s “rules don’t apply to me,” hunker down mentality. We’re witnessing a replay of document expropriation and destruction by Ms. Clinton.

This time, the documents in question are records, in the form of emails, that document her conduct as Secretary of State. In the 1990s, the documents Clinton stole and/or caused to be destroyed established her role as the attorney for participants in a fraudulent scheme called Castle Grande.

Clinton, working with Webster Hubbell and Vince Foster, stole hard copies of the billing records of the Rose law firm where they were partners. They erased the electronic version of these records. One set of these documents was later found in the White House, just outside Hillary’s private office, by an employee. Another set was found in Foster’s attic by his widow, some years after he committed suicide. Clinton’s time sheets (handwritten, as was the practice back in the day) were never found." --Paul Mirengoff

Monday, March 16, 2015

GOOD NEWS: Obama administration reports Iran and Hezbollah are no longer terror threats!

Oh, my goodness. What a relief! The 36-year long era of state-sponsored terror by the Iranian regime has finally drawn to a close.

An annual report delivered recently to the US Senate by James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, removed Iran and Hezbollah from its list of terrorism threats, after years in which they featured in similar reports.

The unclassified version of the Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Communities, dated February 26, 2015 (PDF), noted Iran’s efforts to combat Sunni extremists, including those of the ultra-radical Islamic State group, who were perceived to constitute the preeminent terrorist threat to American interests worldwide.

...The United States and other Western nations, along with a coalition of regional allies, both Sunni and Shiite, has been launching attacks against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria in recent months. The Sunni group, also known by its acronyms IS, ISIS and ISIL, is an offshoot of al-Qaeda that has carved out a self-proclaimed caliphate across large swaths of Syria and Iraq, both of whose governments are allied with Iran’s.

The Shiite Lebanese group Hezbollah, which is funded and mentored by Tehran, has been fighting the Islamic State, independently of the American-led campaign, both in Syria and Iraq.

Meanwhile, the US has been engaged in marathon talks with Iran in an effort to reach an agreement on its nuclear program. Tehran, according to the National Intelligence threat assessment, has “overarching strategic goals of enhancing its security, prestige, and regional influence [that] have led it to pursue capabilities to meet its civilian goals and give it the ability to build missile-deliverable nuclear weapons, if it chooses to do so.”


I'm so relieved. After all of the years of killing American warriors, Iran has finally renounced terrorism and has become our ally.

Thanks, President Jarrett!


Hat tip: BadBlue News. Illustration adapted from TNR.

SECURITAY: Hillary's Super-Secret, Super-Secure Email Server Can Only Be Accessed with a... Web Browser

Crowd-sourcing at its finest.

Marc Perkel reveals that Hillary Clinton's personal email server has web access enabled, which means an intrepid password-guesser might be able to access all of the Pantsuit's yoga emails.

Although we don’t know what IP address Clinton’s real email is on. It’s interesting to note IP addresses in the DNS for the clintonemail.com domain. Most host names like www.clintonemail.com all map to some holding page of no importance. However that host mail.clintonemail.com maps to a different IP address 64.94.172.146, which is in a data center in the New York area, Internap.com. Interesting that her “home server” resolves to a data center. Seems worth investigating to me. mail.presidentclinton.com resolves to the same IP address and also uses MxLogic.

So I thought, what if she has web mail? And sure enough – I GOT A LOGIN PROMPT! https://mail.clintonemail.com And I have verified by the SSL certificate that this is indeed the clintonemail.com server – still online! Click here and type in mail.clintonemail.com

I already tried hillary2016 for the password and that didn’t work. But I’m looking at this and thinking WTF!

Is Hillary’s server secure? It get’s a B rating here. Only supports weak protocols...


Gee, no security risk here. No, nothing to see, just move along.


Hat tips: RF and BadBlue Tech News.

REVEALED: Obama using the U.N. to enter a "binding" Iran nuclear agreement without Congress

By David Gerstman

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday (Google link) that Secretary of State John Kerry is still upset about the open letter Sen. Tom Cotton (R – Ark.) wrote last week that was signed by 46 other Republican senators arguing that it was Congress’ role to review treaties.

Mr. Kerry said on Saturday in Egypt that these American lawmakers were “wrong.”

“It is almost inevitable it will raise questions in the minds of the folks with whom we’re negotiating as to whether or not they are negotiating with the executive department and the president, which is what the constitution says, or whether there are 535 members of Congress,” Mr. Kerry told reporters in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

“Let me make clear to Iran…that from our point of view, this letter is incorrect in its statements,” he added. “As far as we are concerned, the Congress has no ability to change an executive agreement.”

It strikes me as odd that Kerry is doubling down on his non-binding argument. An executive agreement is not binding, unlike a treaty, and therefore not subject to Congressional review. It’s also odd that he claims, “as far as we are concerned.”

Shouldn’t the Constitution be the standard by which the Republican claims are judged? Finally, there’s Kerry’s famous declaration at the time the Joint Plan of Action was signed in November 2013 that the agreement was not based on trust. So if the agreement is not based on trust and it’s non-binding what “mechanism” will there to be verify that Iran isn’t overtly or covertly pursuing an illicit nuclear program?

More and more I’m convinced that Cotton’s reason for writing the letter was to smoke out the administration on this point.

It wasn’t unknown that the administration was portraying the emerging agreement with Iran as “non-binding.” Armin Rosen of Business Insider, for example, suggested this a week before Kerry and other administration officials admitted it. The problem of course with the administration’s position is, as Rosen wrote last week:

The US wouldn’t have a firm legal obligation to uphold the agreement, so Iran would have a built-in reason to assume American bad faith and push the limits of a future deal. In other words, without a legal guarantee on the US side, compliance with an agreement is potentially diluted Tehran’s side as well — and remember, this is a regime that hid the existence of two secret nuclear facilities and operated 20,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges in defiance of repeated UN Security Council resolutions.

One problem with Kerry’s harping on the Cotton letter is that it reinforces the weakness of the agreement that the United States is negotiating with Iran. The other problem is that despite the administration’s claim that the deal it is negotiating is non-binding, there is an effort to make this deal binding – on the United States.

30 Blocks of Racism, Incompetence and Collapse

By Jim Quinn

I haven’t provided an update from the 30 Blocks of Squalor in a while, so here are some reflections I’ve made over the last few weeks. It’s a hodgepodge of observations with no overall theme other than West Philly continues to deteriorate and slowly descend into chaos and collapse. It’s a microcosm of Philadelphia in general, which is a microcosm of the country overall. It’s like watching a slow moving disease ravaging a once healthy human being. I’ve made dozens of posts about the 30 Blocks of Squalor and have been accused of racism by delusional liberals. Describing the exact conditions in West Philly I have observed every day for the last eight years is considered racist by liberals, do gooders, and Obama lovers.

Philadelphia’s mayor is black. Its previous mayor was black. Its City Council is overwhelmingly black, with a few Hispanics and liberal union loving whites sprinkled in. Its police chief is black. Its fire commissioner is black. Its school district is run by blacks. The population of West Philly is 76% black. And you know who is racist? The black leadership of Philadelphia is racist.

Last week we had two ice/snowstorms that struck the Philadelphia area. By the morning all of the roads in my northern suburban area were plowed and easily drivable. When I got off the Schuylkill Expressway at Girard Avenue and entered West Philly, the land where snowplows and salt evidently don’t exist, it was like I had arrived in a third world country where government services were nothing but a dream. At least the inhabitants of West Philly understand they live in a third world environment as reflected in this photo from Lancaster Avenue in West Philly. It makes you wonder where that 3.72% they extract from my paycheck goes.

The City snow emergency plan for the black neighborhoods of West Philly is to wait until warm weather melts the snow. No effort whatsoever is made to clear the streets or even put salt down to make them safer for vehicle traffic. The racism is evident as you progress down 36th street towards University City. The demarcation line between the poor black neighborhoods and the rich white sections around the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University is Lancaster Avenue. Miraculously, as soon as you cross Lancaster Avenue the streets are clear of snow and easy to navigate. It seems money talks to the hypocrites at City Hall who pretend to care about those living in squalor, but leave them to fend for themselves during snowstorms, while clearing the streets for the lily white inhabitants of University City. This fits the definition of discrimination: the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people. The poor black people of West Philly are treated worse than the rich institutions of West Philly by the black government leaders of Philadelphia.

Larwyn's Linx: Trey Gowdy: House may go to court to get Hillary Clinton's email server

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Nation

Trey Gowdy: House may go to court to get Clinton email server: Susan Ferrechio
Obama to Senate: You are irrelevant on Iran: RS
Bolton calls Iran deal 'unprecedented' surrender: Mark Hensch

Many Conservatives are Blowing it on the Ferguson DOJ Report: Leon Wolf
Blood On Their Hands: Derek Hunter
St. Louis County Police: Suspected Shooter Of Two Cops In Custody: WZ

John Kerry: idiot and poltroon: RS
The Faustian Pact Between Obama And Iran: NoisyRm
Ted Cruz Blasts Obama: You Can’t Appease Radical Islamists Like Iran: Tatler

Jeb: amnesty is the “grown up plan” for immigration reform: Jazz Shaw
Stand for Truth, Stand with the People: Sen. Ted Cruz
Walker gets standing ovation in NH, but most in attendance still undecided: WKOW

Economy

It’s Official: Obama Deficits in 6 Years Exceed All Prior Presidents Combined: GWP
Thanks To Obamacare Nearly 200,000 In Colorado Will Lose Health Plans: LoneCon
"Cancel All Student Debt" - The Petitions Begin: ZH

Scandal Central

On Benghazi, a timeline of State Department obstruction: Byron York
Hillary Clinton Lies... A Lot: Ben Shapiro
Clinton camp issues clarification on deleted emails, claims ‘every’ message was reviewed: Fox

Climate & Energy

A Tale of Four Droughts: Victor Davis Hanson
Backyard burger and wiener roasts targeted by EPA: Paul Bedard
The Royal Society Misrepresents Climate Science: WUWT

Media

Politico sat on allegations Lois Lerner had prior history of targeting conservatives: T. Becket Adams
Arrest Made in Shooting of Ferguson Cops–Shooter Was a ‘Hands Up’ Protester: RWN
Black Girl Beats, Stomps White Girl and Her Little Brother While Her Friends Laugh: GWP

James Carville “suspects” fear of Louie Gohmert made Hillary hide emails: LI
Tolerance For Me. Not For Thee.: Erick Erickson
Elizabeth Warren ducking Hillary questions—No, make that all questions: Howard Kurtz

World

Kurds: ISIS is using chemical weapons on us: Noah Rothman
Islamic State overruns Iraqi Army brigade headquarters north of Fallujah: LWJ
Egypt sacks 41 judges for supporting the Brotherhood: sources: Yahoo!

Obama Administration: “The U.S. has great respect for the religious importance of a fatwa”: Treehouse
Saudis warn Iran deal could spur nuclear race in Mideast: Avi Lewis
RESET: U.S. Army sending armored convoy 1,100 miles through Europe: CNN

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Strange snafu hijacks UK nuke maker’s traffic, routes it through Ukraine: Dan Goodin
Who's afraid of the Apple Watch?: Daniel Eran Dilger
Alibaba uses facial recognition tech for online payments: Michael Kan

Cornucopia

The Ides of March Are Upon Us: MOTUS
Audience Participation: Preezy of the Steezy A to Zeezy: Sondrakistan
Dairy Queen Free Cone Day Is March 16: Consumerist

Image: The Ides of March Are Upon Us
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: BadBlue Gun News

QOTD: "This administration, the Obama administration, will do virtually anything to prevent Hillary from becoming president." --Edward Klein

Sunday, March 15, 2015

IMMIGRATION: A Better Plan

By Heather Mac Donald


The lesson from the last 20 years of immigration policy is that lawlessness breeds more lawlessness. Once a people or a government decides to normalize one form of lawbreaking, other forms of lawlessness will follow until finally the rule of law itself is in profound jeopardy. Today, we have a constitutional crisis on our hands. President Obama has decided that because Congress has not granted amnesty to millions of illegal aliens living in the U.S., he will do so himself. Let us ponder for a moment just how shameless this assertion of power is.

Article 2, Section 3, of the Constitution mandates that the president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” This provision assumes that there is a law for the president to execute. But in this case, the “problem” that Obama is purporting to fix is the absence of a law granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Rather than executing a law, Obama is making one up—arrogating to himself a function that the Constitution explicitly allocates to Congress. Should this unconstitutional power grab stand, we will have moved very far in the direction of rule by dictator. Pace Obama, the absence of a congressional law granting amnesty is not evidence of political failure that must somehow be corrected by unilateral executive action; it is evidence of the lack of popular consensus regarding amnesty. There has been no amnesty statute to date because the political will for such an amnesty is lacking.

On February 16, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen halted President Obama’s illegal amnesty with a temporary injunction. The proposed amnesty program, Judge Hanen found, went far beyond mere prosecutorial discretion not to enforce the law against individuals. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security proposed to confer on illegal aliens a new legal status known as “legal presence.” But Congress has not granted DHS the power to create and bestow legal status. The amnesty program represented a “complete abdication” of DHS’s responsibility to enforce the law, Judge Hanen declared. Indeed, DHS was actively thwarting the express will of Congress.

Obama’s Treason Is the New Patriotism

By Daniel Greenfield

When Republicans complained that Obama refused to talk about Islamic terrorism, he accused them of playing into the hands of ISIS by demanding that he identify the enemy we’re fighting.

When they spoke out against his Iranian nuclear sellout, he accused them of “wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran”.

Those hardliners would presumably toe a harder line than Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who responded to Obama’s outreach in his first term by saying, “The Islamic peoples all over the world chant ‘Death to America!’” and who stated last year that “This battle will only end when the society can get rid of the oppressors’ front with America at the head of it.”

(The Supreme Leader of a country which stones teenage rape victims and rapes teenage girls so that they don’t die as virgins, also claimed that “The European races are barbaric.”)

If the moderate Supreme Leader that Obama is dealing with wants Death to America, what could the real hardliners want for America that’s even worse than death? A third term of Obama?

Meanwhile Joe Biden, Obama’s number two, accused Republicans of undermining Obama. This would be the same Biden who threatened to impeach President Bush if he bombed Iran’s nuclear program and who blasted Bush and the idea of an Axis of Evil at a fundraiser in the home of a pro-Iran figure.

Biden undermined President Bush’s efforts to rein in Iran’s terrorism by voting against listing the Revolutionary Guard, which was supplying weapons to help the Taliban kill American soldiers, as a terrorist group (a position he shared with Kerry, Hagel and Obama) and berating Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for not negotiating with Iran and Assad.

The toadying of “Tehran Joe” to Iran had already reached its absolute lowest point when Biden responded to the terrorist attacks of September 11 by suggesting, “Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran.”

The administration that Biden is part of has instead been releasing $490 million a month to Iran.

Biden, along with Kerry and Hagel, became notorious as the Tehran Trio during the Bush years for their advocacy for Iran and Assad, and their appearances at pro-Iranian lobbying groups and fundraisers despite criticism from Iranian democracy advocates. Biden, Kerry and Hagel, Obama’s VP, the Secretary of State and the former Secretary of Defense, all appeared at American-Iranian Council events, a group whose founder stated that he is “the Iranian lobby in the United States.”

Treason doesn’t get more treasonous than that.