Doug Ross @ Journal: July 2015

Friday, July 31, 2015

Improbable Dialogue Comix

Masterfully illustrated by our year-round summer intern, Biff Spackle (follow Biff on Twitter at @BiffSpackle).

You can see some of our all-time best comic strips here.

CHANGE, PART 1,803: Obama Edits Oath of Allegiance for New Americans, Deletes Pledge to Defend the U.S.

By Warner Todd Huston

Newly naturalized Americans will no longer have to pledge to defend the USA thanks to the Obama administration’s decision to remove the lines requiring new citizens to bear arms on behalf of the United States or perform noncombatant duties in the armed forces in times of war.

Obama’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ruled that effective on July 21 of this year, some candidates for naturalization will skip the services clause while taking the oath to become Americans.

So that means that in an age when people are streaming here to pretend to become Americans in order to commit acts of terror, now Obama won’t even ask them to voice the words that they will defend the USA.

The current oath reads as follows:

Read more »

Here is the Ironclad Case for Impeaching IRS Head John Koskinen

By Logan Albright

Key members of the House Freedom Caucus are demanding that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen be removed from office. In an op-ed written for the Wall Street Journal, Reps. Jim Jordan and Ron DeSantis told President Obama that if the Commissioner is not removed, they will begin the proceedings to impeach him.

Modern Americans view impeachment with a sort of awe and reverence. To most, it seems like an inconceivably drastic thing to do. But it was not always this way, nor was it the intention of the founders. Impeachment has always been a practical tool for getting rid of bad actors in government and, given the amount of government corruption we see today, a tool that should be used with much greater frequency.

If there is any doubt that Koskinen is a worthy target for impeachment, let’s run down a few of his misdeeds since he assumed the office in 2013.

First, the IRS targeting scandal. In 2013, it emerged that the IRS had been targeting conservative non-profit groups, delaying their applications, demanding ridiculous amounts of paperwork including highly invasive personal questions, and general obstructing conservative grassroots activities. The American Enterprise Institute estimated that this depressed Republican voter turnout in the 2012 elections, and could have even made the difference between Barack Obama winning or losing.

Of course, this was all before Koskinen became commissioner, so what does it have to do with him? Koskinen assumed office in December 2013, during the ongoing investigation into the scandal. Any serious public servant would have done everything possible to clean up the agency and get to the bottom of the wrongdoing. Koskinen instead chose to obstruct. Koskinen responded to subpoenas for emails regarding the scandal with the unbelievable claim that all the emails from the specified time period had suddenly gone missing.

Read more »

Larwyn's Linx: Dem Congressman: With Sanctions Lifted, Iran Can Just Buy a Nuke from North Korea

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

QOTD: "What we do know is this deal is catastrophic...

...It means, Dana, if this deal goes through; the Obama administration, President Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry will become the world's leading financiers of radical Islamic terrorism." --Sen. Ted Cruz

Thursday, July 30, 2015

DEMOCRAT POLICIES WORK! Which country is out of food, pays doctors $15 a month, and has no beer?

By Daniel Greenfield

Venezuela used to have oil literally coming out of the ground. Then the Socialists took over and under Hugo Chavez made it a model for the world... to run away from. Here's what's going on in Venezuela now.

Universal Health Care - Venezuela's widely praised government health care system is doing great. Doctors are being paid $15 a month

In some hospitals, they had less than a third of the medical supplies they require. Almost every patient told me they had to buy at least some of their drugs on the street.

Oncologists said that people who were diagnosed with breast cancer sometimes had to wait more than 18 months for treatment, while surgeons said that other patients often die while waiting for operations.

It's not just a lack of medicines that is making life difficult. Spiralling inflation, which topped 600 percent in July 2015, has meant that doctors' salaries are now worth less than £10 per month.

That's about $15 a month. But even that may be optimistic because Venezuelan currency is monopoly money. Obama had to bail out Cuba because Venezuela couldn't keep carrying Castro.

It’s taken what, no more than a couple of decades, to turn an oil rich middle income country into something worse than most sub-Saharan economic wastelands (the minimum manufacturing wage in Ethiopia is currently $21 a month or so).

Minimum wage in Venezuela is now about $11 a month. But that's okay because there's no food to buy so the government is just confiscating it from farmers, Bolshevik style.

Read more »

Sanctuary Cities Represent Naked Crimes against the American people

Testimony of Jessica M. Vaughan before Congress:

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on the public safety problems created when local governments adopt policies that obstruct immigration enforcement, commonly known as sanctuary policies. According to ICE records, as of October 2014 there were 276 such jurisdictions in the United States. Over an eight-month period in 2014, more than 8,100 criminal aliens who were the subject of detainers were instead released back to the streets as a result of local non-cooperation policies. Approximately two-thirds of these individuals had a serious criminal history at the time of their release. Nearly 1,900 have subsequently re-offended. Only 28 percent have been re-apprehended by ICE.

Sanctuary policies do nothing to build trust between immigrant communities and local law enforcement. They do not improve access to law enforcement services for immigrants; nor have they been shown to increase the likelihood that more immigrant crime victims will report crimes. On the contrary, they destroy the trust of the community at large that the laws will be faithfully enforced to preserve the quality of life for all.

Despite widespread public outrage at the San Francisco Sheriff’s policies that caused the release of a man with five prior deportations and seven felony convictions, and who was the subject of an ICE detainer, who then went on to kill Kathryn Steinle, it is clear that some jurisdictions will not budge from their criminal alien sanctuary policies. To make matters worse, the Obama administration’s new Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) explicitly allows local jurisdictions to obstruct ICE – and also establishes the entire country as a sanctuary for nearly all illegal aliens by further narrowing enforcement priorities and severely restricting the ability of ICE officers to deport removable aliens, including many with criminal records. Therefore, Congress must step in to correct the situation by a) clarifying in the law that local law enforcement agencies are expected to comply with ICE detainers; b) establishing that local law enforcement agencies will have qualified immunity when cooperating in good faith; c) implementing sanctions for those jurisdictions that continue to refuse to obstruct enforcement; and d) reversing the Obama administration’s non-enforcement policies.

Read more »

Where Have All the Bullets Gone?

By James Simpson

Since the day President Obama was elected, gun owners have been on an unprecedented buying spree, purchasing everything from .22 ammunition to every kind of semi-automatic firearm available.

Their fears are not unwarranted — especially because, for a while, the federal government seemed to be racing private owners to buy the ammo first.

Closer examination shows that some fears of federal activity on this front are overblown. Others, though, are deeply rooted in legitimate concerns.

While Obama claims to support “common-sense” gun laws, he has made high-profile public announcements telegraphing his anti-gun intentions and engaged in behind-the-scenes gun control — tweaking government regulations to deny gun rights to veterans, seeking the same for Social Security recipients, and using the ATF to ban certain types of popular ammo. Calling guns more dangerous than terrorism, Obama recently indicated he’ll devote the rest of his time as president to gun control.

Read more »

Larwyn's Linx: Joint Chiefs Chairman Dempsey: Obama Presenting False Choice Between Deal and War

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

Nation

Joint Chiefs Chair: Obama Offering False Choice Between Deal and War: Blake Seitz
Kerry: We Can't Reveal Contents of Secret Side Deals to American People: Daniel Halper
Ted Cruz Toys With Kerry, Carter, Moniz: "Sir, Do You Apologize Or Not?": RCP

Defense Secretary: Iran Will Not Change Behavior as Result of Nuke Deal: Daniel Halper
The Price Of Ignorance: WIlliam Pollack
Kerry's disrespectful mocking stance on Israel, and Congress: Michael Curtis

Cecil the Lion: MagFarm
Two Weeks Later, Hillary Clinton Finally Comments On Planned Parenthood Video: DC
Fear and Fascism: Judge Bars Release of More Planned Parenthood Videos: Treehouse

John Boehner's 10 Worst Moments as Speaker: Logan Albright
Meadows Files Resolution to Fire Cryin' Johnny Boehner: Camp o' the Saints
Boehner, McConnell 'Destroying Party From the Top': Greg Corombos

Economy

9.6MM Americans Unemployed—8.1MM Illegal Aliens EMPLOYED: Stephen Frank
Situation critical: Obamacare costs set to pummel state budgets: Jason Hart
Obama Cost Us All Over $5 Million Just for the Flight Alone for His Vacation to Africa: RWN

Scandal Central

A curious — and coincidental — two-month gap in Hillary e-mails: Ed Morrissey
Cause of Action Sues State for Clinton Records Failure: Destiny Albritton
Obama’s Border Patrol Releases Another Illegal Alien Who Murdered and Raped Americans: RWN

Judge threatens to hold Obama’s lawyers in contempt over Lerner’s IRS emails: Stephen Dinan
Cruz on lost IRS emails: ‘Nixon’s ghost must have been smiling’: Fox
Ted Cruz presses IRS commissioner on non-profit targeting: Sylvan Lane

Climate & Energy

Hillary on Keystone Pipeline – I’ll tell you my position when I’m President: LI
Massive Tampering By GISS: Paul Homewood
Failure Theater, Regulatory Edition: Rob Garver

Media

Can Mark Levin’s New Book, ‘Plunder and Deceit,’ Rescue America’s Youth?: Hans A. von Spakovsky
Mark Levin's Plunder and Deceit: Thomas Lifson
Watch: Cruz compares Obama to Nixon: Sean Langille

Hey David Muir and Almin Karamehmedovic, Why Cecil and Not Cecile?: Erick Erickson
Nets Spend More Time on Cecil the Lion in 1 Day Than Abortion Vids in 2 Weeks: MRC
Panic in Pittsburgh: Media Struggling to Ignore Black Mob Violence: Colin Flaherty

NYT backtracks, a little, amid email scandal: Bill Bumpas
President Obama’s Companion Rep For Criminal Justice Reform Arrested Today: Treehouse
Ratings for Bruce Jenner’s ‘I Am Cait’ Are In, and Guess What?: RWN

World

Israel: U.S. Officials Are Withholding Major Parts And Details Of Iran Deal From Us: Katie Pavlich
Iran agreement: Why you should read Paragraph 36: Owen Alterman
Ted Cruz: Release names of U.S. deaths linked to Iran: Andrew Tilghman

The Much-Too-Special Relationship: Nicholas Shaxson
Three ISIS Terror Trials This Week in America: Clarion
'May I Cut Off a Head as a Wedding Present?' - ISIS: 'Yes': Clarion

That Clicking Sound: The Z Man
What Is Life Really Like in North Korea? One Woman’s Story: Chelsea Scism
Gun Rights Advocates Have A Devastating New Argument Against Gun Control. Here It Is.: Kurt Schlichter

Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)

Search for Alien Life Ignites Battle over Giant Telescope: Lee Billings
Hackers can crack the self-aiming rifle to change its target: Andrew Tarantola
This is How Photoshop Artist Erik Johansson Creates His Mind-Bending Images: Michael Zhang

Cornucopia

Time for the GOP to Crap or Get Off the Pot: Leon H. Wolf
Let’s Hear It For Team-Boehner! Raw! Raw! Raw!: MOTUS
For the Little People: Hillary Clinton’s NYC haircut cost $600: Douglas Ernst

Image: Ted Cruz presses IRS commissioner on non-profit targeting
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Popehat Signal: Please Help Mandy Nagy And Her Family

QOTD: "Do you, [Defense] Secretary [Ashton] Carter, believe that Iran will change its behavior as a result if this agreement is finalized? And have you seen any indication of that?" Senator John McCain asked this morning.

"I've not, Mr. Chairman," said Secretary Carter. "In speaking just from my own judgment I don't foresee that or have any reason to foresee that. That is why it's important that the agreement be verifiable. That is why it's important that Iran not have a nuclear weapon and that is also why it's important that we keep doing everything that we need to do. Defend our friends and allies, remain strong in the Gulf, freedom of navigation, ballistic missile defense--all of the things we're doing. We need to keep doing those things, and the agreement doesn't limit us in anyway. Obviously if Iran changes its behavior, that would be a welcome thing. But I see no reason to foresee that chairman, personally." --Daniel Halper

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

John Kerry’s War: Nuclear Shot and Chaser

John Kerry yesterday in the House of Representatives:

REP. REID RIBBLE: For 228 years, the Constitution allowed treaties to [pass] with the advice and consent of 67 U.S. Senators. Why is this not considered a treaty?

SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY: Well Congressman, I spent quite a few years trying to get a lot of treaties through the United States Senate, and it has become physically impossible... That's why. Because you can't pass a treaty anymore. It has become impossible to schedule, to pass, and I sat there leading the charge on the Disabilities Treaty which fell to basically ideology and politics. So I think that is the reason why.

John Kerry today in the Senate:

Read more »

THE TROUBLE WITH TRUMP: 12 Years of Presidential Narcissists?

By Richard Larsen

After seven years of a narcissistic president, the last thing the nation needs is another four. Donald Trump has all the same outward egocentric manifestations to which we’ve become accustomed. The problem with politicians imbued with such characteristics, is that everything they do is all about them, not those whom they are elected to serve, or the Constitution to which they take an oath of fealty.

Dr. Charles Krauthammer, a psychologist by profession, has said it’s clear that the current inhabitant of 1600 Pennsylvania Av. is a narcissist. “This is a guy, you look at every one of his speeches, even the way he introduces high officials — I’d like to introduce my secretary of state. He refers to ‘my intelligence community.’ And in one speech, I no longer remember it, ‘my military.’ For God’s sake, he talks like the emperor, Napoleon. He does have this sense of this all being a drama about him, and everybody else is just sort of part of the stage.”

Dr. Sam Vaknin, the author of the “Malignant Self Love,” and an expert on narcissism, concurs. Vaknin says, “Obama’s language, posture and demeanor, and the testimonies of his closest, dearest and nearest suggest that the president is either a narcissist or he may have narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Narcissists project a grandiose but false image of themselves. After listing several 20^th century examples, he explains how they all “created a personality cult around themselves and with their blazing speeches elevated their admirers.”

Read more »

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”:

Read more »