Doug Ross @ Journal: August 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

THE TRIFECTA: Poverty, Mass Murder, and Liberals

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Wherein I go nuclear on the mentally defective, traitorous Leftists who have now become pro-war hawks for reasons of principle, not politics

After reading today's headline story on Larwyn's Linx -- illustrating the stunning transformation of long-time anti-war Democrat Nancy Pelosi into a pro-war hawk vis a vis Syria -- I turned to Twitter to express my, eh, concerns.

Shrieking harpie anti-war Democrat, Rep. Chickenhawk, @NancyPelosi suddenly banging drums of war! Where's @CindySheehan, still in Crawford?
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

Perhaps Rep. Chickenhawk, @NancyPelosi, can tell us what strategic national security goal will be achieved by blowing up four Syrian camels.
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

Dear Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi, which side should we assist in Syria? The terrorists with WMD or the government with WMD? #JustWondering
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

Intel indicates Benghazi's murderers are in Syria aiding the rebels... and Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi wants air cover for them?
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

Perhaps Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi can brief Congress on our new war in Syria, since @BarackObama is with @MagicJohnson and Reggie Love
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

Perhaps the suddenly pro-war Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi can advise us where @BarackObama was during the Benghazi attacks? #PlayingCards
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

There were several "red lines" on the walls of the Benghazi compound, ain't that right Rep. Chickenhawk, @NancyPelosi?
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

Gee, I wonder where Syria's WMDs came from, Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi? I'm so perplexed. What a conundrum.
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

I'm anxiously awaiting Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi to brief Congress on reasons for war in Syria. It should be fascinating, @MagicJohnson
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

I wonder if Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi has consulted with @ValeriePlame on Syria's WMDs and that's why she's so pro-war now? #NukeaCamel
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

If it's alright with you, I'm going to channel Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi circa 2005: YELLOWCAKE! HALLIBURTON! LYING US INTO WAR!
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

I'm still mystified by pro-war Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi's failure to press for action during the Benghazi attacks?
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

If it turns out that no WMDs were used in Syria, will Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi repeatedly shriek "Obama lied us into war!!!"?
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi: is it true that if Reggie Love wins 4 of 7 hands we attack Syria but if POTUS wins, our Ambassador is killed?
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

Give @CodePink credit: at least they're consistent, unlike Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi who suddenly wants air cover for Al Qaeda.
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

Is it true that you parachuted to the rescue during the Benghazi attacks and just arrived a bit too late, Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi?
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

War is Hell, except when Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi is behind it, and then it's totally glam
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

War is Hell, especially on the sensitive skin near the lips, nose and eyes of Rep. Chickenhawk @NancyPelosi
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

This is Not the War We've Been Waiting For

Guest post by Dan from New York

Remember "the mother of all battles?" It's easy to dismiss the primitive war cries coming from Iran, Hezbollah and Syria as the same schoolyard hyperbole we get every time the USA and the West take aim at the Islamic world. We've become inured to the empty threats, but listen up. This time will be different.

It won't be 1991 when Bush The Elder successfully blocked the Israelis from responding to Saddam's hapless Scud missiles. Today's Israel - even one led by Obama's cat's-paw, Benjamin Netanyahu – is in no mood for that. If the Islamics insist on hitting Israel with reprisal attacks, Israel will likely respond with disproportional force, and a furious multi-front exchange of unknown duration would ensue.

We certainly don't hear that grim possibility reported or "analyzed" by the Obama-controlled media. But folks, look around the room. That's the war we should all be worried about.

The Daily Star (Lebanon), 8/31/13

Israel faces retaliation if U.S. attacks Syria: Iran military

BEIRUT: Israel will face retaliation if the United States launches a military strike against Syria, a senior Iranian military official warned, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported Saturday.

“Israel will be hit by retaliatory attacks if the United States launches an offensive on Syria since it [the Jewish state] is the first instigator in attacking [Syria],” Iranian Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi said.

Iran staunchly backs the regime in Damascus and is Hezbollah’s leading supporter in the region.

Firouzabadi accused Israel of spearheading efforts to drag Washington into a war with the government in Damascus.

The U.S. has stepped up its war rhetoric against Damascus after accusing President Bashar Assad’s regime of using chemical weapons earlier this month against opposition strongholds outside Damascus.

Editor's note: I've placed an All Points Bulletin for the oft-used term of yesteryear: chickenhawk:

There were several "red lines" on the walls of the Benghazi compound, ain't that right Rep. Chickenhawk, @NancyPelosi?
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) August 31, 2013

Larwyn's Linx: Absolute proof that Democrats are national security traitors

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

QOTD: "I have great news to share. Over 900,000 freedom-loving Americans have now signed the petition to defund Obamacare! But, we need 1 million to truly send a signal to Washington that we want Obamacare defunded.

If we work hard, we can accomplish this goal by Labor Day. Please help us reach 1 million signatures by forwarding this email to your friends and family. Encourage them to join hundreds of thousands of other Americans who are expressing their opposition to Obamacare at DontFundObamacare.com.

Then, spread the word by sharing it on your Facebook and Twitter accounts. If we work together, we can reach 1 million signatures and send a message to Washington that can't be ignored. We can stop Obamacare, but we need a grassroots tsunami to do it. There are far too many Republicans scared of the fight, but together we can unite Republicans to stop this huge train wreck. Thank you for standing strong for freedom." --Sen. Ted Cruz

Friday, August 30, 2013

Barack Obama and Eric Holder Bar the Schoolhouse Door, Blocking Minority Children From a Quality Education

Guest post by Investors Business Daily

Pro-Choice: The Justice Department has asked a federal court to stop 34 school districts in Louisiana from handing out private-school vouchers so kids can escape failing public schools, just like the president's daughters.

He didn't say it on the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech," but President Obama, along with Attorney General Eric Holder, also has a dream — one of leaving every black child in the Pelican State behind, trapped in schools that cannot educate them.

Almost simultaneously with the president's speech, Holder's Department of Justice filed suit in federal court to stop Louisiana's statewide voucher program.

Passed in 2012, the program guarantees a voucher to students from families with incomes below 250% of poverty and who attend schools graded "C" or below.

Liberals are all for choice when it comes to having children, but not when it comes to educating them. The irony of Obama's speech is that he pretended to honor a man who fought to have black children attend schools they were barred from as his administration fought to keep them in schools they can't escape from, a form of educational apartheid that's both separate and unequal.

White liberal hypocrite Matt Damon is typical of the elitists who don't practice what they preach.

Read more »

PLEASE REMEMBER TO THANK A DEMOCRAT: Labor Force Participation Rate Hits a 34-Year Low

We have now experienced five years of Obamanomics.

The results have been, in a word, catastrophic.

Here's an open question for any liberal reading along (and by that I mean you, Carlito, among others): how many more failed experiments in central planning, including the $1 trillion "Stimulus", Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, nationalization of the student loan business, "Cash for Clunkers", open borders, etc. will you tolerate before you finally declare that this regime's Marxist agenda will only end in misery?

How many more failures will you accept before you put your children above your religion of Statism?

Please consider Exhibit 4,806 in a series I call "Legacy of Failure - The Results of Barack Obama's Marxist Agenda":

President Obama’s policies have devastated all age groups, but the most heartbreaking impact is on the young:

Gallup reports that, “The lack of new hiring over the past several years…seems to have disproportionately reduced younger Americans’ ability to obtain full-time jobs.” ... According to Gallup’s “Payroll to Population” measure, fewer Millennials were working full time in June of 2013 than in June of 2012, 2011, or 2010... A recent 2012 Pew Research Center study found that 36 percent of the nation’s Millennials were still living with their parents.

Millions of older Americans have responded to the lack of job opportunities under Obamanomics by becoming “disabled.” Based on disability statistics, you would think that Americans have suddenly gotten sickly, or perhaps that we have been fighting a war:

A study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco also attributes the drop in [labor force participation] in part to the “increased use of some social benefit programs, notably disability insurance.” ... Fourteen million Americans, including roughly 8.5 million former workers receive disability. In 2011, that included 4.6 percent of the population between the ages of 18 and 64. These Americans are not included among the “unemployed.”

Fourteen million Americans on disability–that is more than the populations of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Delaware, Rhode Island, Montana, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, Idaho and West Virginia, combined: every man, woman and child in 13 states. The exploding ranks of the “disabled” are due to the absence of jobs in Barack Obama’s economy. The human cost of this tragedy is incalculable.

The CEO of Express Employment Professionals, a former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, says: “All indicators suggest this shift [out of the labor force] is not sustainable.” That’s putting it mildly.

How much suffering do you want, liberals? How much more misery are you willing to impart on the next generation before you finally reject central planning? On a scale of Spain to North Korea, how far are you willing to go?

Hat tip: BadBlue Financial News.

The Great Destabilizer

Interesting comment by JVictor vis a vis Daniel Greenfield's article entitled "Liberal Hypocrisy in Iraq and Syria."

[A] so-called change of heart with members of the Obama administration is not a change at all.

Every time there has been a destabilizing force that poses a greater threat to Israel, the Obama administration has supported that force. Cases in point:

• whether people liked him or not, Mubarak was a stabilizing force in Egypt--he was thrown under the bus in favor of the destabilizing Muslim Brotherhood revolution;

• whether people liked him or not, Qadafi had become a stabilizing force in Libya--he was ousted by radicals supported by this administration;

• when the Arab Spring fever tried to take hold in Iran to overthrow [Iran's] Ahmadinijad, this administration sat by silently while the revolution was quelled;

• Assad has been a stabilizing force in Syria--now this administration is talking about taking him out;

• now that the people of Egypt have spoken out against the abuses of power by Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, this administration has been silent and absent in its support for the people;

• Saddam was a destabilizing force in his own right.

It is clear that the Obama administration is working diligently, either actively or by apparent inaction, to destabilize the Middle East and northern Africa while alienating Israel at the same time.

The question is, why?

I encourage commenters to offer conjecture. I have my suspicions, but then again, I'm a right-wing, Consitutional, conservative Hobbit Visigoth and all.

Hat tip: BadBlue Real-Time News.

Larwyn's Linx: Obama Leaks His Own War

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

Nation

Obama Leaks His Own War: Daniel Greenfield
24 hours that define Barack Obama Perfectly: DTG
Cory Booker’s Imaginary Friend: Eliana Johnson

This is “Read My Lips” All Over Again: Erick Erickson
Obama’s Two ‘New Executive Actions’ on Gun Control: Tammy Bruce
New Black Panther leader’s gun charges dropped: Marcus K. Gaynor

A Truly Great Phony: Thomas Sowell
The ‘To Hell with Them’ Doctrine: Ed Driscoll
Rep. Bill Pascrell Lives Up His “F” Rating from the NRA: Max McGuire

Economy

Levinomics for America: Peter Ferrara
Another Veiled Call for Communism From Obama: Moonbattery
Move Over, Obamacare. Here Comes Obamaschool: Hunter Lewis

“Sending your kids to private school doesn’t make you a bad person”: PW
Can Democrats Fool All of Their Base All of the Time?: Elephant
How To Solve The Fast Food Strike In Two Simple Words: Glob

Scandal Central

Hillary's $500K Saudi jewelry: Ben Goad, The Hill
U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary: WaPo
Whoa: US Intelligence Officials Not So Sure Assad Regime Behind Chemical Weapons Attack: Nice Deb

Climate & Energy

Climate Scientists Continue To Bury Facts That Disprove The Theory Of Manmade Climate Change: Jeff Reynolds
Climate Science Exploited for Political Agenda Says Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons: AAPS

Media

Your Semi-Official Obama vs. Syria Armageddon Predictions Thread: Robert Stacy McCain
Did Cory Booker's imaginary drug dealer pal ever meet Barack Obama's composite girlfriend?: WyBlog
National Journal Admits: Affordable Care Act Turning Out to Be Unaffordable: Bryan Preston

Actual quote: Obama seeks Syria response ‘just muscular enough not to get mocked’: Doug Powers
Show A Lefty Friend This Video, But Have Some Popcorn Handy: HayRide
Verify chemical weapons use before unleashing the dogs of war: Kenneth Timmerman

States’ Rights: OK for Dopeheads; Hateful Hillbilly Bible-Thumpers, Not So Much: R.S. McCain
Obama's two new executive orders on guns, relying on the media's ignorance of guns: John R. Lott
Levin: Ted Cruz is a natural-born U.S. citizen: Scoop

World

White House: Obama Eyeing “Discrete” Attack In Syria: WZ
Kim Jong-un Has Ex-Girlfriend Executed Via Firing Squad: Lid
Panama: Cuban weapons “in mint condition”: Fausta

Five Questions On Syria For POTUS Who Received Nobel Peace Prize for Doing Nothing: RWN
Obama DOD: Catholics, Evangelicals, Jews, Mormons are Radical Extremists: Joseph R. Carducci
The 2013 White House ornament theme is, ironically, Peace on Earth: Emily Zanotti

Sci-Tech

This is How Facebook is Going to Die: Steve Hall, AdRants
China moon mission scheduled for December: Juha Saarinen, ITnews
F-22 May Get Its First Combat Mission: DefTech

Cornucopia

Guns Along the Potamac: A Shot and a Bow: MOTUS
Understanding natural monopoly: Seth Godin
Woman's Possessions Trashed After Bank Sends Repo Men to Wrong House: Neetzan Zimmerman, Gawker

Image: Hezbollah's Hitler-style Salute
Sponsored by: Call John Boehner's office now ((513) 779-5400), tell him: pull the plug on Obamacare

QOTD: "America is in a constitutional crisis as well as an economic crisis. The problem is not just Barack Obama. It is the entire Democrat party, which has been taken over by Marxists (that is a literal truth and not just hyperbole), and which caused and continues to perpetuate both crises.

The constitutional crisis is that President Obama will not follow the law. He regularly makes up the law rather than administers the law as written. He abuses the powers of his office, effectively seizing the power to rule by decree, announcing new laws or changes in the law that he has no power to make. This goes on almost daily now. Will Obama follow the law now in taking any military action against Syria?

But worse is that the entire Democratic Party is supporting Obama in this effective coup d’état, with nary a peep of any protest regarding such presidential abuse of power from any Democrat quarters. Instead, it is clear that the Democratic Party embraces what Obama is doing, and would vigorously defend it if Republicans and conservatives ever managed to mount a serious challenge to this presidential abuse of office." --Peter Ferrara

Thursday, August 29, 2013

RED LINES, INDEED: Obama to provide air support for Al Qaeda and Ambassador Chris Stevens' killers in Syria?

Guest post by Investors Business Daily

Mideast: The same al-Qaida-linked Ansar al-Sharia that killed four Americans in Benghazi is now training foreign jihadists to fight with Syria's Islamist rebels. Are we about to provide them air support?

On Sept. 11, 2012, U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was crouched in a safe room waiting for help as the al-Qaida terrorist group Ansar al-Sharia was taking credit for the attack, according to emails reaching the White House and the State Department.

Ambassador Stevens did not survive, nor did Glen Doherty, Sean Smith and Ty Woods, all killed by the terrorists of Ansar al-Sharia and other groups whose training camps surrounded Benghazi and were ignored by an oblivious Obama administration that now calls the scandal "phony."

Well, phony scandals do not produce body bags.

President Obama promised to bring the Benghazi attackers to justice, which he has not. Ansar al-Sharia roams free. Ali Ani al-Harzi, a leading suspect in the attack and a member of Ansar al-Sharia who was taken into custody after fleeing Libya for Turkey and then sent to Tunisia, is also free.

"Make no mistake," President Obama told reporters the morning after the attack, "we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people."

Well, not exactly. Fellow suspect Ahmed Abu Khattala was tracked down by the New York Times and found to be peacefully enjoying a strawberry frappe at a luxury Tunisian hotel.

Read more »

Remember When Pictures Mattered?

As cnredd reminds us:

Remember the good old days? ... You couldn't go 25 seconds without some Leftie bringing up this photo that was taken 8 years before [George H. W. Bush] got Iraq out of Kuwait and 19 years before [Bush 43] took out Saddam himself...

Good times, good times...

Any Lefty bringing this one up recently?

How about Bill Clinton with the vicious Hafez al-Assad, Bashir's father?

John Kerry and Bashir?

Democrat Senator Bill Nelson and Bashir?

How about Jimmy Carter and Bashir?

How about the pathetic leftist nitwit Dennis Kucinich -- who visited with the ruthless dictator a mere two years ago -- and appeared to "heap praise upon Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is being widely criticized for the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations"?

But don't worry: the greatest Secretary of State ever -- Hillary Clinton -- called Assad "a reformer", so we know this administration is on top of things.

Historian Predicted America's Financial Collapse... in 1857

Guest post by J. R. Nyquist

The Great British historian, Lord Macaulay, predicted the future unraveling of the United States economy in a letter written in May 1857. Macaulay’s prediction was based on his analysis of American institutions. Discussing the life of Thomas Jefferson with an American author, Macaulay wrote, “You are surprised to learn that I have not a high opinion of Mr. Jefferson, and I am surprised at your surprise. I am certain that I never wrote a line, and … uttered a word indicating an opinion that the supreme authority in a state ought to be entrusted to the majority of citizens [counted] by the head; in other words, to the poorest and most ignorant part of society.”

According to Macaulay the United States was becoming increasingly democratic throughout the nineteenth century. And this tendency, he argued, was dangerous to liberty and to the country’s economic well-being. As Macaulay explained, “I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilization, or both.”

Macaulay pointed to the French Revolution and to the tendency of democratic movements to despoil the rich. “You may think that your country enjoys an exemption from these evils,” Macaulay wrote to his American correspondent. “I will frankly own to you that I am of a very different opinion. Your fate I believe to be certain, though it is deferred by a physical cause. As long as you have a boundless extent of fertile and unoccupied land, your laboring population will be far more at ease than the laboring population of the Old World, and, while that is the case, the Jefferson politics may continue to exist without causing any fatal calamity.”

Eventually, of course, the United States must fill up with people. It must lose its economic advantages. “[T]he time will come, noted Macaulay, “when New England will be as thickly peopled as old England. Wages will be as low, and will fluctuate as much with you as with us.” America will then be urbanized, with a large population of “artisans.” Then it will happen that large numbers of these artisans will sometimes find themselves out of work. “Then your institutions will be fairly brought to the test,” wrote Macaulay. “Distress everywhere makes the laborer mutinous and discontented, and inclines him to listen with eagerness to agitators who tell him that it is a monstrous iniquity that one man should have a million, while another cannot get a full meal.”

Read more »

The Continuing Resolution Speech John Boehner Must Give

That is, if he wants to retain a majority and his Speakership next year.

Line in the Sand, a speech by Speaker of the House John Boehner

The ill-named Affordable Care Act -- also known as Obamacare -- has been a "trainwreck" according to its very architects since day one. From the CLASS Act, to the delay of the Employer Mandate, to exempting Congress from the law, the sheer size and complexity of this partisan bill makes it virtually impossible to implement.

I and my peers, all of us, we took an oath to uphold the Constitution. And today we are going to stand by that oath and defend the Constitution of the United States.

This bill was passed in an unconstitutional fashion -- with bribes and payoffs and other skulduggery -- by a single party that temporarily held power during the 110th Congress. The bill consisted of thousands of pages and not one person was permitted to read the bill before it was voted upon.

This bill fundamentally changes the relationship of the citizen to the government.

This is an unconscionable violation of representative government. Nancy Pelosi famously told us we had to pass the bill to find out what's in it. Now we know, and it's an unconstitutional disaster.

Because a single judge bows to some unknown pressure, and changes his vote at the last minute to rewrite a bill that is clearly unconstitutional... because, unlike every other entitlement program, Democrats had no Republican support for this bill...

Because Democrats used every underhanded tactic -- bribes, payoffs and corporate reacharounds -- possible to pass a bill that not one of them read before voting upon...

Because the IRS, already caught punishing groups based upon their political and religious affiliations, will be the enforcers of Obamacare... because radical, left wing groups like La Raza and ACORN will be hired as "Obamacare Navigators" with access to their political opponents' most sensitive health care data...

Because jobs are being destroyed. Because good jobs are disappearing before our very eyes as small businesses are driven not to hire by the law. Because full-time jobs are turning to part-time jobs. Because employers are slashing benefits for spouses and other family members to adapt to a law no one read.

Because the lies that were told to sell this bill were as awful as they were brazen... Because you can't keep your policy, you can't keep your doctor, you can't keep your plan, you can't keep your insurer, and you will pay far more, not far less...

Because Democrat lobbyists and staffers are raking in million advising companies how to comply with the tens of thousands of pages of regulations that this law has spawned... Because they have built a law so complex that no one can possibly understand its effects without paying off the very people who created it!

Most of all, because the people who want Obamacare most are the very same people who have exempted themselves from the law! Obamacare waivers have been issued for Congress, staffers, unions, special interest groups...

I have a question for President Obama and the Democrats? Aren't the American people the most important special interest group Congress serves? The vast majority of Americans want a waiver from Obamacare, just like the lobbyists and the other Beltway elites.

True to my word, Republicans will not shut down the government. We have passed a continuing resolution that funds every single aspect of the federal government except for Obamacare. Every single penny.

But we are drawing a line in the sand when it comes to the trainwreck of Obamacare. We want at least a year delay in its implementation, just like Congress, just like the unions, just like the employers subject to the mandate, and just like other Democrat special interests got.

So if Democrats want to shut down the government, so be it. The House Continuing Resolution funds the entirety of the government -- every single penny -- just not the trainwreck called Obamacare, which President Obama has already defunded for his pals. The vast majority of the American people have told us over and over again: we want a waiver from Obamacare too, just like Congress got.

Call up your Senator and tell them: we want a waiver too. Pass the House Continuing Resolution and delay Obamacare now.