Wednesday, July 29, 2015

THUNDER: Federal Judge Threatens to Hold IRS Chief and DOJ Attorneys in Contempt of Court Over Lerner Cover-Up

By Judicial Watch

U.S District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan today threatened to hold the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department attorneys in contempt of court after the IRS failed to produce status reports and newly recovered emails of Lois Lerner, former director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the IRS, as he had ordered on July 1, 2015.

During the a status hearing today, Sullivan warned that the failure to follow his order was serious and the IRS and Justice Department’s excuses for not following his July 1 order were “indefensible, ridiculous, and absurd.” He asked the IRS’ Justice Department lawyer Geoffrey Klimas, “Why didn’t the IRS comply” with his court order and “why shouldn’t the Court hold the Commissioner of the IRS in contempt.” Judge Sullivan referenced his contempt findings against Justice Department prosecutors in the prosecution of late Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and reminded the Justice Department attorney he had the ability to detain him for contempt. Warning he would tolerate no further disregard of his orders, Judge Sullivan said, “I will haul into court the IRS Commissioner to hold him personally into contempt.”

After the hearing, Judge Sullivan issued the following “minute order”:

Larwyn's Linx: Kerry: Iran “May” Kill Americans Or Israelis

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

Nation

Kerry: Iran “May” Kill Americans Or Israelis: WZ
Kerry: Congress can kill the Iran deal: Charles Hoskinson
Is a Criminal Probe of Clinton Near?: Matthew Vadum

The GOP Senate is Not On Our Side: Leon H. Wolf
Mitch McConnell is actually worse than Reid...: Breitbart
McConnell's vision of 'governing' drags GOP astray: Timothy P. Carney

How To Solve The Illegal Immigration Problem – Part I: Treehouse
Illegal Charged in Murderous Crime Spree After ICE Refused to Detain Him: GWP
Punished conservative moves to oust Boehner: Susan Ferrechio

How Close Was Donald Trump To The Mob?: David Marcus
Linda Tripp: Hillary Clinton Is a Walking, Talking War on Women: Daily Mail
I dunno, folks. What *do* you call a socialist who ISN’T an internationalist?: Moe Lane

Economy

The No Trust State: The Z Man
Order, Please, Not Utopia: Myron Magnet
What’s the Matter With San Francisco?: Stephen Frank

Scandal Central

3rd Shock Video: Planned Parenthood Exec Selling Body Parts of Aborted Babies: LifeNews
Third Planned Parenthood video released: 'Huge trafficking of fetal tissues': Exam
Obama Cronyism + Your Personal Data = Trouble: Michelle Malkin

The Missing Hillary Emails No One Can Explain: Daily Beast
IRS Failed to Search Five of Six Locations for Lois Lerner Emails: ATR
IRS Produces Recovered Lerner Emails: JW

Climate & Energy

EPA Chief: Climate Change Is Fact Because Bad Weather Leads the News: Nicholas Ballasy

Media

It’s Official: Jon Stewart is an Obama Shill: LI
Mark Levin Calls for Resignation of Boehner and McConnell: Jen Kuznicki
The word "#cuckservative" is being used as a banner-of-convenience: Ace

Mark Levin and the Big Picture: Kevin D. Williamson
A flashing red light for America's rising generation: Jeffrey Lord
Ted Cruz Just Threw An Epic Challenge At Obama- '...In Front Of The American People': WJ

World

Obama Knows Iran will Use its Nukes on Israel: Mark Langfan
In Congress, Kerry unsure if Iran wishes to destroy US: Times of Israel
Jonathan Pollard granted parole: Insider

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Is this the only universe?: Laura Dattaro
The Military Will Test a New Terrifyingly Loud Noise Gun: Patrick Tucker
A Visual Introduction to Machine Learning: R2D3

Cornucopia

Why Women Like ‘Retro Sexism’: Stephanie Edelman
Mister Whoopee explains the Iranian deal to Tennessee Tuxedo and Chumley: Don Surber
Social Justice, American Style. Coming Soon To a Town Near You.: MOTUS

Image: John Kerry's Face
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Rally Time: TED CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT

QOTD: "It is unprecedented that President Obama is taking this major and likely damaging step in the foreign policy arena with absolutely no bipartisan support. This deal with revolutionary Iran will be opposed by all leading Republican candidates for president. It will be overwhelmingly rejected by Republican members of the House and Senate. Our closest ally in the region and the Middle East’s only true democracy, Israel, is dead set against deal. The same is true for our key Arab allies. In response, the president in his press conference lumped Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, “the Israeli Ambassador” and “the Republican Leadership” into a group that must argue for a new Middle Eastern “war” as the only viable alternative to his deal with Iran’s Supreme Leader. This straw man argument that America only has a choice between the president’s weak deal and “war” is so discredited as to no longer merit a serious response.  

After Prime Minister Chamberlain signed the Munich Accords with the Supreme Leader of another ideological and cruel regime, Winston Churchill said in Parliament that the British people “should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road..." Sadly, his prophetic warning in 1938 appears to be applicable to us today." --Robert C. O’Brien

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

MARTIN PERETZ: The Democrat Party is on the Edge of the Abyss

By Martin Peretz, Editor-in-chief of The New Republic, 1974-2013

How the party of FDR and JFK deals with the Iran agreement will determine its credibility on foreign policy for decades to come.

Two of the most powerful members of the Democratic Party, former and current senators from New York, now hold the fate of the putative deal with Iran in their hands. Because they alone can overturn it, this means that presumptive presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and presumptive Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer carry a heavy burden that will deeply affect their personal reputations and, most probably, the trustworthiness of the Democrats in foreign policy for at least a generation.

Their former senatorial colleagues Barack Obama, Joe Biden and John Kerry already own their decision, though their logic still remains unclear to both the most diligent and the most casual observer. The president asserts that his piece of paper will prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, presuming both the honesty of a regime that has displayed mendacity and hostility for 35 years as well as the existence of a wide-ranging verification capability that his own agreement has fatally compromised. And then, of course, there is the sunset provision that enables Iran to acquire nuclear weapons anyway. As they congratulate themselves on the hard work that produced this bizarre document—Bloomberg News related that “[a]ll present were in a kind of awe”—have these former Solons stopped to wonder why Iran negotiated in the first place when their leaders still insist on claiming they don’t want nuclear weapons? The entire process is built on lies. If the Iranians didn’t want nukes, then why would they want a time limit?

Of course the Iranians are dissimulating—they want the funds that come from sanctions relief, the legitimacy that comes from press conferences with great powers in central Europe, and, finally, an eased path to nuclear weapons. They have managed to achieve all three, without having to pause their “Death to America” street rallies, return their American hostages, curb their aggression in the Middle East, or release their defrauded presidential candidates from house arrest. (Nor has the U.S. President seen fit to even mention these ongoing depredations.) On the U.S. side, the assertion is that Iran will modify its irredentist behavior, even as its last demand (to which Obama and Kerry shamefully caved) was to lift the arms and ballistic missile embargos. Not exactly evidence-based decision-making when you consider the Ayatollah Khamenei’s comment just this weekend: “Our policies toward the arrogant government of the United States will not be changed at all.”

PLUNDER AND DECEIT: Mark Levin Pulls Back the Curtain on an Ominous Future for America’s Next Generation

Author, radio show host and Constitutional attorney Mark R. Levin has written a fifth consecutive bestseller. Entitled Plunder and Deceit, it serves as a comprehensive guide to one of the nation's great mysteries.

Why, for the first time in modern history, do the majority of Americans now believe that their children will be worse off than they are?

The reasons are manifold. Consistent with his prior works on topics of law and government, Levin describes a national political system that has completely unshackled itself from the Constitutional bonds that were intended to limit its scope and power. The hundred-year effort by the progressive movement to implement socialism in America has finally reached a terminal stage.

Americans are no fools; they know that, despite the government's best efforts to position economic data as good news, the future is very bleak indeed.

It is not simply the fact that the federal government is borrowing, spending and printing currency on a scale never before seen in world history. Its debts and unfunded obligations are, by some estimates, over $200 trillion and have accelerated from merely insane under George W. Bush to flatly suicidal at the direction of Barack Obama. It is certain that, without a rapid course correction, the economy is on the road to long-term collapse.

And, ominously enough, that is the assessment not of a right-wing pundit, but the very government auditors and trustees charged with fiscal oversight. The CBO, the OMB and the Trustees of Social Security have all sounded the alarm as the metrics that underpin government solvency rapidly unwind.

The financial health of the federal government aside, Levin points to a series of poor -- and, in all likelihood, unconstitutional -- decisions that have stolen powers from the states, localities and people and instead placed them in the hands of central planners in Washington.

More "Deleted" Lois Lerner Emails Revealed...

No, not by the feckless boobs John Boehner and Darrell Issa.

But by Judicial Watch, again. There's copy of the dump here.

It's long past time to impeach John Koskinen.
 

CURRENT OBAMA PLAN TO CLOSE GUANTANAMO BAY HAS ONE TINY FLAW: It’s Illegal

Not that appears to have ever stopped this particular president. That said, Molly O'Toole at DefenseOne describes yet another bizarre White House plan to endanger Americans.

White House officials say they’re getting close to delivering a plan to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as Congress has demanded for years. There’s one problem: a key part is illegal — at least for now.

Current U.S. law forbids the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to prisons on U.S. soil — and yet there are some prisoners who cannot be sent anywhere else, Deputy National Security Advisor Lisa Monaco said Saturday.

“We are going to whittle down this group to what I refer to as the irreducible minimum, who would have to be brought here to a secure location, held under the laws of war, continuing under military detention, and that’s the only way we’re going to be able to close Guantanamo,” Monaco said at the Aspen Security Forum. These prisoners would be prosecuted in the military justice system or federal courts and subjected to a “supermax cell,” Monaco said. “Ultimately, that’s the way we’re gonna do it.”

“We gotta work with Congress,” she said, “but right now we aren’t even able to put that facility together because of the legal restrictions.”

Not only is it currently illegal to bring Guantanamo prisoners to the U.S. for prosecution or detention, the federal government is forbidden to spend any money to “assist” in doing so. This means no funding to build a U.S. prison to hold them, or improve an existing one, or even to perform an in-depth study on related options. This has left national security leaders to plan the future of U.S. detention while trying to avoid the appearance of spending taxpayer-funded time on options for moving detainees to U.S. soil.

Say, I've got an idea: let's have Lois Lerner and John Koskinen do all the planning for this patently illegal operation and the cover-up which is sure to follow. They appear to have all of the necessary experience.
 
 
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

HOUSE CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS: Top 5 Reasons IRS Commissioner John Koskinen Must be Impeached

In the wake of the Obama administration scandal that saw the IRS illegally targeting conservatives and pro-Israel groups for daring to oppose Democrat policies, little has been done. The administration appears to be in full cover-up mode, with "crashed" hard-drives, missing emails, and lost backup tapes.

Hoping to jumpstart scrutiny of the IRS's plainly illegal activities, House representatives Jim Jordan and Ron Desantis offer a powerful argument that IRS chief John Koskinen should be immediately terminated by the President. And, if Mr. Obama refuses, that Congress should impeach the head of the troubled agency. Writing at the Wall Street Journal, Jordan and Desantis offer five clear reasons for their recommendation (emphases mine):

Destruction of evidence. Lois Lerner, at the time the director of the IRS’s exempt-organizations unit, invoked the Fifth Amendment on May 22, 2013, when appearing before Congress; her refusal to testify put a premium on obtaining and reviewing her email communications. On the same day the IRS’s chief technology officer issued a preservation order that instructed IRS employees “not to destroy/wipe/reuse any of the existing backup tapes for email, or archiving of other information from IRS personal computers.”

Several weeks later, on Aug. 2, the House Oversight Committee issued its first subpoena for IRS documents, including all of Ms. Lerner’s emails. On Feb. 2, 2014, Kate Duval, the IRS commissioner’s counsel, identified a gap in the Lerner emails that were being collected. Days later, Ms. Duval learned that the gap had been caused in 2011 when the hard drive of Ms. Lerner’s computer crashed.

Despite all this—an internal IRS preservation order, a congressional subpoena, and knowledge about Ms. Lerner’s hard-drive and email problems—the Treasury inspector general for tax administration discovered that the agency on March 4, 2014, erased 422 backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 emails. (Congress learned of the discovery only last month.)

Ms. Duval has since left the IRS and now works at the State Department, where she is responsible for vetting Hillary Clinton’s emails sought by congressional investigations of the Benghazi attacks.

Larwyn's Linx: The Case is Clear: Obama Deserves Impeachment over his Iran Nuke Deal

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

Nation

Case is Clear--Obama Deserves Impeachment over the Iran Deal: Andrew C. McCarthy
The Iran Deal: Weimar Days Are Here Again: Roger L. Simon
Kerry Ducks Question: Must US Help Protect Iran From Sabotage?: Clarion

Levin: It's Time for Boehner and McConnell to Resign: Aaron Bandler
Ted Cruz – A Matter Of Honor: NoisyRm
This is the lie GOP leadership told ME: Allen West

Can States sink the Iran Nuke Deal?: LI
Oh, BTW: the Democratic front-runner is quite cordially hated in swing states: Moe Lane
Missing in Action: Where is Rand Paul?: Erick Erickson

Study: 20% of El Salvador, 25% of Mexico Now Illegally Living Inside U.S.: RWN
New California: Mass Immigration Turning Virginia Blue and Poor: Julia Hahn
Documented Irresponsibility: Thomas Sowell

Why Does The Republican Party Exist?: Ben Domenech
Ted Cruz Issues Manifesto For Conservative Populism: CHQ
Hillary Clinton's Bewildering Economics: Ramesh Ponnuru

No, The Lafayette Gunman Did Not Buy His Gun Legally: Ace
White Man Shot by African Americans Over Confederate Flag on His Car: RWN
Concealed Carrier Stops Attempted Mass Shooting In Cincinnati: Bob Owens

Scandal Central

Wow. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Destroys Hillary’'s Email Lies: Ed Morrissey
House GOP panelists demand resignation of IRS chief: S.A. Miller, Washington Times
‘Do You Hear Me?’ Judge Benchslaps State Department Over Hillary Clinton-Related Documents: David Lat

Media

“Creepy Weird” – Hillary Clinton Gives Climate Policy Speech In Empty Room With No Audience…: Treehouse
Democrat-controlled Senate Tells Conservatives To Go To Hell, Sets Up Hot GOP On GOP Action: Ace
Media Confounded by 'Trump's Ascent': Bradford Thomas

With its Planned Parenthood editorial, the New York Times repeats a shameful history: Joshua Rogers
Who is Eric Greitens?: Dana Loesch
Ohio Cops Hunt 70 Juveniles In Late Night "Mob And Rob" Of Circle K Store: TSG

Hillary Clinton Just Hit an Ominous Polling Number For the First Time in Nearly 8 Years: Chris Enloe
Meet the Press Anchor: Hillary's Favorability 'Dismal,' Email Probe 'Incredibly Significant': Guy Benson
Clinton Is Massively Underwater With Registered Voters: Jake Tapper

World

So the U.S. will help Iran fight...Israel?: Chad Groening
Even Iran deal supporters shocked by lifting of arms embargo: Charles Hoskinson
White House launches Iran side deals counterattack: The Hill

Bipartisan Senate Panel Tells John Kerry He’s a Sucker on Iran: LI
Iran Deal Flunks In Polls: Dick Morris
ADL Joins Obama’s War on Israel: Adam Kredo

Iran Deal Worth More than All U.S. Aid to Israel Since 1948: Joel B. Pollak
Illegal Immigrants Hop From Boat, Run Ashore in Miami Beach: Jodi Giddings, Victory Girls
Morality Police Come to France: John Hinderaker

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Could bomb-proof lining prevent another Lockerbie?: David Szondy
The F-35: Throwing Good Money after Bad: Mike Fredenburg
Hacked Jeep: Whom to Blame?: Junko Yoshida

Cornucopia

‘Plunder and Deceit’: A flashing red light for America's rising generation.: Jeffrey Lord
Signs of the Apocalypse: For all the lonely giraffes out there: American Digest
The MOTUS 2016 GOP Presidential Brackets: MOTUS

QOTD: "...in this current Republican field, if Scott Walker's the nominee, I'm gonna as enthusiastic as I've ever been.

If Carly Fiorina's on the ticket, I would be as enthusiastic as I've ever been. If Cruz is somehow involved... I mean, there are reasons to be hopeful here. I know it's close, in terms of getting to the point of no return, but even that is a bit extreme because we've been more divided and more partisan. The Civil War. We're not nearly there yet, and we came out of that. We came out of Great Depression.

So, the great concern is for your kids and grandkids and what kind of country are they gonna grow up in. Will it be free? Will they be free? Will they be free to be the best they can be and use all the talents that they have? You know, time will tell on this, but I don't think any defeat is permanent. And at some point this current crop of Republicans is going to be gone for a whole host of predictable reasons.

But, having said all that, I'm not gonna try to talk you out of what you said. If you want to sit out if Trump's not the nominee, have at it. I'm not gonna do that. I couldn't. I can't envision a point where I say, "It's worth giving up the fight." It's worth too much. And I know that cyclical, generational change happens." --Rush Limbaugh

Monday, July 27, 2015

FALSE FLAG 101: Democrat Fundraisers Said to Back Jeb Bush

Why, of course they do. Who is the only candidate that Hillary Clinton can beat? Uhm, Joan, that would be Jeb "Call me Jeb!, not Bush" Bush:

Behind a garden modeled on Monet's, Jeb Bush addressed a lawn-full of chief executives and hedge-fund managers at an East Hampton, New York, estate Saturday morning. While the candidate is no stranger to courting wealthy donors, this time was different: about half the attendees were Democrats.

"This guy sells well," said Kenneth Lipper, the money manager and registered Democrat who hosted the event, after Bush left. Virtually the only one who left without writing a check, Lipper said, was a buck deer that wandered past the group assembled on the wooded grounds...

...In some ways, the Hamptons are Hillary Clinton territory. The Democratic candidate and her husband have often rented summer homes here, and it's popular with movie stars and entertainers who tilt liberal. Suffolk County favored Democrats in the last three presidential races.

But Lipper estimated that the crowd of about 70 at his event was almost evenly split between the parties, and virtually every one of them donated to Bush. Lipper, 74, said he introduced Bush as the candidate who will "bring unity and civility to the process." He was impressed when Bush started his visit by introducing himself to Lipper's kitchen staff.

How dim do you have to be to believe that Jeb! can win a general election against any Democrat?

How's that Bush brand name doing? Is Common Core suddenly popular? How about illegal immigration in the wake of Kate Steinle's senseless murder?

Friends, this is a course called False Flag 101, and Jeb Bush is the subject. As well as the antithesis of an electable candidate for the GOP.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

Democrat on powerful Foreign Affairs Committee goes on record opposing Iran deal, but DNC head can’t make up her mind

At least one Democrat has stopped goose-stepping with Barack Obama toward a nuclear Iran.

Calling the recently announced Joint Comprehensive Plan for Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the P5+1 powers “historic … for all the wrong reasons,” Rep. Juan Vargas (D – Calif.), who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote that he will vote against the nuclear agreement in an op-ed published Saturday in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Vargas argued that instead of providing limited sanctions relief and cutting Iran’s “path to a nuclear bomb,” the deal gives Tehran a “rapid payday” of up to $150 billion and “[legitimizes] its path to nuclear-threshold status.” The congressman noted that Iran never explained its past nuclear work to international inspectors and continues defying demands to do so.

Vargas further pointed out that the JCPOA threatens to spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East by allowing Iran to become a nuclear-threshold state. In addition to failing to stem Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Vargas criticized the deal for failing “to halt Iran’s aggressive imperialism in the Middle East.” He also observed that Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the terrorist group Hezbollah, praised the deal because it “will also reinforce the position of [Iran’s] allies.”

...Declaring that the vote is “not a partisan issue,” but “an issue of national security,” Vargas urged his Congressional colleagues to oppose the deal.

Conversely, the chairperson of the Democrat National Committee, a Jewish representative named Debbie Wasserman Schultz (whose district is heavily Jewish) just can't seem to make up her mind. It's all so confusing.

BECAUSE WE’RE NOT BROKE ENOUGH: Obama Poised to Give College Education Grants to Prisoners

I have this queasy feeling in my stomach that upon leaving office, Barack Obama will mass-pardon tens of thousands of federal prisoners. The odious Slate Magazine hinted at this last year (don't click, the site is definitely not sanitized for your protection).

But I just have this strange vibe, which only grows stronger when I read something like this.

More prisoners may soon have access to federal subsidies to pay for college under a new Obama administration initiative, ending a 20-year ban on Pell grants for state and federal prisoners.

The move could come as soon as this week. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Loretta Lynch are scheduled to visit ... the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup on Friday, to make “an important announcement related to federal aid.”

On Monday, Duncan said that restoring Pell eligibility for those potential students is one way his agency hopes to "increase college affordability" [Ed: quotes added for comic effect]...

...The Obama administration has increased total federal aid available to students by more than $50 billion and increased tax benefits and credits by an additional $12 billion, part of a total of about $150 billion a year in grants and loans for higher education...

Sure, when your country is the brokest nation on Earth and the brokest nation in history, why not?

Fueled by rampant intervention into the student loan business by the government, the costs of college have exploded ("Instapundit" Glenn Reynolds wrote an outstanding book on the topic entitled The Higher Education Bubble, a startlingly ominous description of the problems surrounding a college degree that costs more than many homes).

So let's go further in debt paying for college for felons, when our kids are left high and dry, with outrageous tuition bills and a federal debt that is destined to crush them.

But that's entirely consistent if you use Obamalogic: felons and illegal aliens are more virtuous than your children; and Iran can be trusted with ballistic missiles and nukes while you shouldn't be able to own a handgun.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

30 Blocks of Government Incompetence

By Jim Quinn

There were two accidents on the Schuylkill Expressway last Monday morning. You know what this meant. I had the pleasure of traveling to work on the scenic 30 Blocks of Squalor. The 30 blocks from 69th Street in Upper Darby to 39th Street in West Philly is a tribute to government incompetence, failed government policies, shoddy union labor practices and fiscal mismanagement.

This entire thirty block trek could be completed in 5 to 10 minutes if the hundreds of union government drones in the Philadelphia Streets Department would get off their fat asses and timed the lights. The blocks are identical in distance. They don’t need advanced degrees in physics or calculus to set the lights to go green every ten seconds in order. They were timed in the 1970s and 1980s. Would smoothly flowing traffic be such a bad thing? Do they not care or are they really this incompetent? The first light at 61st Street was red when I arrived. It turned green and before you could touch the gas, it immediately turned yellow and red again. I wondered how long they’d allow this to go on. My guess would be days.

I’ve noted in previous 30 Blocks screeds that Philadelphia put a thin veneer of blacktop on the entirety of Chestnut Street about two years ago. I’ve also detailed the dozens of water main breaks that occur on a regular basis under the streets of Philadelphia, causing tens of millions in property damage. This is how corrupt incompetent government drones run the show. They gloss over the long-term real structural problems with a thin veneer of cheap half assed faux solutions that provide the false appearance of fixing something.

Larwyn's Linx: Where's the Outrage?

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

Nation

Where's the Outrage?: Erick Erickson
The Congressional battle Over Iran: Richard Baehr
Hillary Operatives Brace for “Clinton Collapse”: GWP

McConnell Blocks Defunding Planned Parenthood, Kate’s Law: Derek Hunter
Lee about to expose McConnell's true loyalties to Obamacare: Newsmachete
What about the civilians?: Dan Zimmerman

Hillary's web of lies keeps unraveling: Daniel John Sobieski
Hillary faces dangerous enemy in the Obama administration: Michael Goodwin
Billionaire brothers give Ted Cruz super PAC $15 million: KDVR

The Coming (And Hilarious) Democrat Implosion: Kurt Schlichter
The State GOP Wave: Steven Malanga
Which cities are Americans ditching?: Steve Sailer

McConnell, GOP senators slam Cruz: Jordain Carney and Kevin Cirilli
The Cloud People’s Trump Problem: The Z Man
US mosque link between Islamic attacks authorities are ignoring: Pamela Geller

Economy

Why Obamanomics Will Never Work: Daniel Horowitz
Furious Coal CEO Lets It All Out: "Obama Is Nation's Great Destroyer": ZH
Coca-Cola Says No to Planned Parenthood: Erick Erickson

Scandal Central

Obama calls for banning of American Revolutionary Gadsden flag: Fellowship of the Minds
Attorney General Loretta Lynch Faces Potential Minefield With Hillary Clinton Email Investigation: ABC News
Attorney suggests Clinton attacks ‘prejudiced’ court: Bob Unruh

Climate & Energy

Y2Kyoto: How To Fund Your Mammoth Fetish In 6 Easy Steps: SDA

Media

The Rise of a New Darkened America: The Ignorant Fishermen
Gun Free Zone versus Gun Carry Zone: GFZ
‘Mr. Obama, You are a Tyrant!’: Chattanooga Marine Veteran’s message goes Viral: Scoop

Black Lies Matter: Taxicab Depressions
The Crowd: Dave Smith, PoliceMag
Englewood Shooting: Second City Cop

Classified Information Found On Hillary’s Private Email Account, Media Corrections Edition: Dan Spencer
Hillary Clinton tries to change the subject: RS
Fundamental Change – Military Recruitment Centers in Obama’s America: Treehouse

World

Unbelievable: WH Supports Turkey’s Attack On Kurds: WZ
Fear and Loathing for Jews in France: AmInt
Iran’s Secret New Balkan Spy-Terror Offensive: The XX Committee (10/24/2014)

John Kerry's Passive-Aggressive Anti-Israel Speech Is Nothing New: Lid
Sharansky Calls on US Jews to Stand Up to White House Over Iran Nuclear Deal: Shiryn Ghermezian
Kenyan president rebukes Obama’s gay rights message: Sarah Ferris, The Hill

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Truckpocalypse!: Trucker Classifieds
The “Assault Weapon” From 1780: Bob Owens

Cornucopia

“Just War Theory” vs. American Self-Defense: Yaron Brook and Alex Epstein (2006)
Random Thoughts About Disarmed Disney World: Robert Farago
Private Citizens stop 16% of mass shootings: GunNuts (2014)

Image: The Troubling Question in the French Jewish Community: Is It Time to Leave?
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Fight the Washington Cartel: TED CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT

QOTD: "Somebody very high in the food chain leaked the memos requesting the probe [into Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information]. The New York Times, which broke the story, identified its source only as “a senior government official.”

My money is on Valerie Jarrett, the Obamas’ Rasputin, who is known to despise Clinton. If it was Jarrett, she would not do this against the president’s wishes.

That also would be true for any “senior government official” who leaked the memos. Targets don’t get any bigger than Hillary Clinton, so this was not a rogue operation. This was an approved hit.

Clinton has an enemies list — and it looks like she’s on Obama’s. It’s also possible the White House is ­using the issue to keep her in line on the Iranian nuke deal. The implied threat is “look what happened to Robert Menendez.”
Either way, she had it coming. Her arrogance and bald-face lies about the e-mails must have infuriated her boss and colleagues. Her decision to conduct government business on a private server in her home and use personal e-mail accounts was a giant “f–k you” to the administration." --Michael Goodwin

Sunday, July 26, 2015

The irony of the expulsions from Gaza

By Caroline Glick

Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza 10 years ago was a strategic disaster. But it could have been much more devastating if the ideologues behind it had had their way.

Formally, the withdrawal was supposed to do two things. It was supposed to strengthen Israel’s diplomatic position vis-à-vis the US and Europe by demonstrating Israel’s commitment to Palestinian statehood, and it was supposed to enhance Israel’s security by redeploying the IDF along more defensible lines.

Neither argument for the withdrawal was particularly plausible. But due to the media’s lockstep support for it, neither was seriously challenged.

The truth is, these justifications were never anything more than a smoke screen to hide the true purpose of the withdrawal from the public. The real purpose of the withdrawal from Gaza was to deal a strategic blow to Zionism and the Jewish character of the state.

The destruction of those communities – and the expulsion of the 350,000 Jews who live in them – was also not an end unto itself. For the leftist ideologues who invented the idea of unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza, destroying the settlement enterprise is a necessary precondition for destroying religious Zionism.

And religious Zionism has to be destroyed in order to destroy Zionism.

This true purpose of the Gaza withdrawal was made clear by leftist ideologues in the months that preceded the withdrawal.

THE $400 COLLEGE TEXTBOOK IS HERE: Thanks, Government Intervention into Student Loans and Higher Education!

By Mark J. Perry

A new milestone must have been established recently – we’re now officially in a new era of the $400 new college textbook and the $300 used college textbook, see accompanying graphic showing the top 15 most expensive textbooks at the University of Michigan-Flint based on a new unpublished report by Matthew Wolverton, an electronic resource management librarian at the Thompson Library (UM-Flint’s library). The graphic below shows the most expensive college textbooks by discipline at UM-Flint, based on the average price of new textbooks for each discipline in winter 2015 semester.

For business students taking five classes per semester and paying an average of $250 per textbook, their textbook bill would be $2,500 per year and $10,000 over four years! Of course, those students would be taking courses in non-business disciplines where the average textbook price is lower, but even at an average price of $200 per new textbook, students could be facing costs as high as $8,000 over four years. And even though renting textbooks is a less expensive option compared to purchasing books, rental costs per semester are running above $200 per new book and well above $100 per used textbook (and as high as $180), see top graphic above. Even if students could rent used textbooks for all of their college classes at $100 per course (which is probably on the low side), that would still amount to $1,000 per year (for ten classes) and $4,000 over four years (for 40 classes).

The graph below shows the historical increase in college textbooks (981%) between 1978 and 2014 in comparison to increases in the overall CPI (262%), the CPI for medical care (604%), and the median sales price for new homes (408%) over that 37-year period. Textbook prices seem like they are clearly on an unsustainable trajectory, especially in the face of new low-cost alternatives as discussed below.

You won’t believe this stunning and credible theory on the secret Iranian nuclear side deals

A note from a reader stuck a chord with me and I thought I'd pass it along, edited slightly for clarity:

John Kerry is lying when he claims he doesn't know what is in the Iranian side deals. He would rather pretend ignorance than admit their contents.

No one calls the ruling class on their lies. With a dysfunctional media -- that is now fully intertwined with the government -- the American people are left bereft of real news and thoughtful analysis.

We live in an alternate reality. Nothing is real, except their lies and only their lies. Lies are now the truth.

As for me, I believe the secret side deals with Iran are quite specific. Incredibly specific.

And I believe they call for an international military alliance and a protective force for Iran. An international force, sponsored by the United Nations.

And that deal is to protect Iran... from Israel.

We already knew this administration represented an existential threat to Israel, from its calls for pre-1967 "Holocaust borders" to its repeated intelligence leaks.

This sets the stage, ladies and gentlemen, for global aggression. Against Israel. And reprisals. Financial. Diplomatic. Even the boys in blue, firing their weapons for the very first time in recorded history.

Against the Jews.

It's called Armageddon.


Related: Former Marine Strike Planner on Obama's Azerbaijan Leak: "Start viewing this administration as an existential threat to Israel".
 

Larwyn's Linx: Steve King: Chamber of Commerce for 'cheap labor at any cost'

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

Nation

Steve King: Chamber of Commerce for 'cheap labor at any cost': Byron York
Know Your Enemy: A Primer on Islamic Jihad: Rep. Steve King
America’s Hippies Sired a Posterity of Idiots: Jonathan P. Henderson

Obama Releases the ‘Unified Agenda’ and the Slide to Hell Begins: InvestmentWatch
Hillary Clinton accepts invite to testify before Benghazi committee: Sarah Westwood
Joe Lieberman Blasts Iran Deal, Says Schumer Is Key To Stopping It: William Teach

Senator Ted Cruz Declares Parliamentary War in the Senate: Brian Darling
Ted Cruz Unloads on Mitch McConnell in Fiery Senate Floor Speech: Fred Lucas
Clinton's Conspiracy of Secrecy Worthy of Criminal Probe: Ron Fournier

Boehner Wants More ‘Facts’ Before De-Funding Planned Parenthood: Sarah Torre
Did McConnell just set a 51-vote Obamacare repeal threshold?: Timothy P. Carney
Domestic Terror, Fear & Voters' Anger: Salena Zito

Economy

Attention America’s Suburbs: You Have Just Been Annexed: Stanley Kurtz
Chalkboard Marxists In America: Sara Noble
With Illinois' budget in limbo, child cares serving the poor are closing down: Nancy Cambria

Scandal Central

Planned Parenthood Exec Cited Public Hospital as Possible Source of Aborted Baby Parts: CNS
First, They Came for the Bar Owners....: Pro Libertate
Clintons' charities got £50million of British aid cash: DailyMail

Climate & Energy

EPA Said Global Warming Unproven To Obtain Legal Ruling For its Climate Regulations: Dr. Tim Ball
You Don't Have To Be Venal and Creepy To Work In Climate Science. But It Certainly Helps.: James Delingpole
States ask for rehearing on EPA climate rules: John Siciliano

Media

Brent Bozell: ‘I Support Ted Cruz for President Unconditionally’: Breitbart
Cruz Calling McConnell a Liar Likely to Linger: Niels Lesniewski
Can You Guess Why You Probably Haven’t Heard About THIS Mass Murder in Oklahoma?: RWN

J. Edgar Hoover Eerily Familiar Testimony in 1967 on Race Riots in America.: Duane Lester
Mark Levin to Ted Cruz: The speech you gave on Senate floor today was ‘ICONIC’: Carmine Sabia
Jon Stewart Punished Daily Show's Only Minority Writer After Objection to Racist Herman Cain Sketch: Sooper

Trump Opponents Take Nuanced View of Child Rape: Ann Coulter
Here’s why Obama and Hillary must stop Donald Trump at all costs: Wayne Allyn Root
Five Spy Movies You Must See: The XX Committee

World

President Obama’s Trip to Kenya Doesn’t Go As Planned When His Speech Causes a Backlash: Katie Lapotin
Obama's legacy: Cuba, Iran, and silly, PC Brit-bashing: Robin Mitchinson
Hanoi’s Capitalist Revolution: Michael J. Totten

Democrats’ New Voting Bloc – Iran’s Terrorist Regime: Sara Noble
Iran says its frozen assets abroad are exaggerated: AFP
Unseen 9/11 White House photos showing Bush administration's reaction released: JPost

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

First Look: The ONE Smart Piano: Victor Marks
Rumor: Amazon To Test Drive-Up Grocery Stores in Silicon Valley: David Murphy
Software For The Full-Stack Era: Maxwell Wessel and Roy Ng

Cornucopia

Kenya: Home Again: MOTUS
He Plays “Taps” At The Same Time Everyday. Watch What His Neighbors Do When He Starts Playing…: TBMM
Fitness Motivator's Controversial Rant About Overweight People: Common Cents

Image: Kenya: Home Again
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: RALLY TIME FOR CONSERVATIVES: TED CRUZ FOR PRESIDENT

QOTD: "I wholeheartedly endorse Ted Cruz for president of the United States, and urge all conservatives nationwide to rally behind Ted, immediately. The Republican party establishment is counting on conservatives to be divided, so that they can nominate a moderate, do-nothing candidate. Make no mistake: If the Republican Party repeats what it’s done for the last two elections, Republicans will lose. I guarantee it.

If, on the other hand, we nominate a principled, passionate conservative America can count on to restore her greatness, there will be an outpouring of support. We need a courageous conservative who tells the truth and does what he promises. We need to nominate an inspiring leader, who’s proven he’s willing to take on the Washington cartel and buck the political establishment of both parties. We need a leader who will win and reignite the promise of America.

And there’s some good conservatives running for president. But we need more than a ‘campaign’ conservative. We need a consistent conservative who has led the fights important to us. Ted Cruz is this leader. I support Ted Cruz for president unconditionally and enthusiastically." --Brent Bozell

Saturday, July 25, 2015

FORMER SAUDI AMBASSADOR TO U.S.: Obama’s Iran Deal is Far Worse Than the One With North Korea

In a recent letter to the editors of the Washington Post, the former Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. blasted the Obama-Kerry-Iran nuclear deal in no uncertain terms.

Pundits are saying that President Obama’s Iran deal stirs deja vu of President Clinton’s 1994 North Korean nuclear deal [“A landmark nuclear pact with Iran,” front page, July 15]. I humbly disagree. President Clinton made his decision based on a strategic foreign policy analysis, top-secret intelligence and a desire to save the people of North Korea from starvation induced by its leadership.

It turned out that the strategic foreign policy analysis was wrong. If Mr. Clinton had known about the major intelligence failure, he would have made a different decision. Mr. Obama made his decision on the Iran nuclear deal aware that the strategic foreign policy analysis, the national intelligence information and intelligence from U.S. allies in the region predict a worse outcome than in North Korea — and Iran will have access to billions of dollars.

This deal will wreak havoc in the Middle East, which is already a disastrous environment. Iran is a major player in the destabilization of the region. Why would Mr. Obama go ahead with such a deal with Iran? It is definitely not because Mr. Obama is not smart enough, because he is. He must believe that what he is doing is right. Still, I am convinced that my good friend Henry Kissinger was correct when he said, “America’s enemies should fear America, but America’s friends should fear America more.”

People in my region now are relying on God’s will and consolidating their local capabilities and analyses with everyone except our oldest and most powerful ally.

Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia


Hat tip: Western Journalism.
 

Congress "Alarmed" by Secret Side-Deals in Iran Nuclear Pact

Writing at Bloomberg View, investigative journalists Eli Lake and Josh Rogin reveal new and crucial details of Barack Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran. As we find out more about the nature of the deal, it is little wonder that members of Congress are growing increasingly "alarmed" (emphases mine).

As the White House campaign to persuade Congress about the wisdom of its Iran nuclear deal moves into its second week, important components of the complex agreement are emerging that will be shrouded from the public and in some cases from the U.S. government itself.

The existence of these secret clauses and interpretations could undermine the public's trust in the Barack Obama administration's presentations about the nuclear pact. Already Republicans and other critics of the deal have seized on the side agreements between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency as a weakness in the deal closed last week in Vienna.

The controversy began on Wednesday when Secretary of State John Kerry told House lawmakers behind closed doors that he neither possessed nor had read a copy of two secret side deals between the IAEA and Iran, according to Representative Mike Pompeo, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee who was inside the session. Congress hasn't seen those side agreements either.

“Kerry told me directly that he has not read the secret side deals,” Pompeo told us in an interview. “He told us the State Department does not have possession of these documents.”

Any "agreement" with a country that has dedicated itself to your destruction is inherently insane. The legacy of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry will center around the transformation of Iran from a terror state into a nuclear terror state.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.
 

BRING IT, FATCATS: Chamber of Crony Capitalism Declares War on Limited Government Conservatives

By Natalie Johnson

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is paving the way to unseat “obstructionist” Republicans in the House who have successfully blocked much of the organization’s agenda.

The move is spurred by Chamber frustration after the group poured nearly $70 million into the 2014 election to strengthen the Republican coalition in the Senate, only to have its efforts thwarted in the House, Politico reported Friday.

The Chamber intends to primary sitting House conservatives who have halted many of its legislative priorities, including immigration reform, the Export-Import Bank’s renewal and a long-term highway bill.

Ken Cuccinelli, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, said the group’s strategy to target conservatives verifies that the lobbying organization is interested solely in “cronyism.”

“The Chamber exists to force taxpayers to line the pockets of large corporations and will do whatever it takes to defeat lawmakers who fight for the American people,” he said.

Chamber spokeswoman Blair Holmes downplayed the move as a “recommitment” to the organization’s success in last year’s primary and general elections. She told Politico the Chamber supports “pro-business” candidates regardless of party affiliation or incumbency status.

But Politico noted that the move marks a “major shift” for the business community, as the Chamber has traditionally avoided targeting sitting lawmakers.

David Bozell, president of ForAmerica, said “preserving” conservative members will be a priority in the upcoming election cycle for both his organization and the entire conservative community.

“If the Chamber of Commerce wants to pick a fight, then the conservative movement is going to have to be ready, and I’m sure we will be,” he said.