Sunday, July 07, 2013

White House: we can't enforce Obamacare's income eligibility requirements and never mind that the IRS is in charge

The rolling train wreck you may know as Obamacare suffered two spasmodic shocks this week as Yuval Levin explains.

When the Obama administration announced last Tuesday that they would be delaying Obamacare’s employer mandate and its associated reporting requirements by a year, many observers... noted that this could create problems for verifying eligibility for subsidies in the Obamacare exchanges.

[...California and many other] states clearly shared this worry about how they were supposed to confirm eligibility for subsidies. But on Friday, the Obama administration answered their question with what is becoming the familiar refrain of Obamacare implementation: “never mind.” Buried in a massive 600-page rule released without fanfare the day after July 4, the administration announced that it would effectively delay the requirement to verify eligibility in the state exchanges...
The delay of the individual mandate announced on Tuesday and the delay of the verification requirements for eligibility announced on Friday both suggest the same two kinds of problems: logistical difficulties with getting complex systems into place, and the fear of ending up with too few people in the exchanges.

...If not enough people sign up for the exchanges, the system could end up with an insufficient and unsustainable insurance pool—too few healthy people to balance the sick ones and fund the cost of their care... This concern is very high on the agenda of those implementing the law. It is why they are investing in a huge PR effort to drive enrollment. It is surely part of the reason for delaying the employer mandate—allowing some large employers to dump their workers into the exchanges without a penalty. And it seems very likely also to be a key factor behind the decision to allow people access to the exchange subsidies without proving they actually qualify for them.

Opening the door wide open to fraud could well increase the number of people in the exchanges, but it will also make that number far less meaningful—casting a shadow over whatever is achieved by the enrollment effort set to launch in the fall. It will also, needless to say, increase the cost of the exchange subsidies. The administration is clearly worried enough about enrollment to take that risk and bear that cost. It seems to be operating under the assumption that the way to secure Obamacare’s future is to get as many people as possible into the system and receiving subsidies...

So in short, ObamaCare is impossible to implement, its costs are spiraling out of control and now it turns out there will be no effort whatsoever to fight fraud. And the income eligibility requirements of Obamacare will be too difficult to verify, even though the IRS is supposed to be the law's enforcement arm.

But what I don't understand is how these problems didn't come to light during the months of hearings held on this legislation.

Isn't that the purpose of legislative hearings? To bring in experts who are familiar with the subject and will help explore all of the potential pitfalls of the proposed legislation? To debate the strengths and weaknesses of a proposed law so that the American people and their representatives could render an informed judgment before voting?

Oh, that's right. Forgot. The hearings never happened, because it was vitally important to pass the Obamacare monstrosity quickly before more people died or something. You see, we needed to pass the legislation in order to find out what was in it.


Hat tips: WarEagle1 and BadBlue News.

THREE CRISES: An Essay

Why am I a conservative? For one, I'm literate. I read history. I know that every government is a social experiment. Every one is an experiment in power and respect, truth and enlightenment, integrity and frailty.

And all too frequently, history teaches us that governments descend into corrupted forms of their original selves no matter how grand their vision. Hitler and Gaddafi, Stalin and Pol Pot, Ivan the Terrible and Genghis Khan are only the most infamous examples of murderous despots bent on destruction, pillage, and mass murder.

The old saw "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" is more than an old saw: it is a truism. Governments are populated with human beings, be they monarchs or elected representatives. And all too frequently -- in fact, in almost every case throughout history -- those in power prove susceptible to base urges, emotions, and predilections.

For most rulers, greed turns infectious. Power proves addictive. An almost sexual urge enervates them: to use every means at their disposable to remain seated at the levers of power. This insatiable urge appears wedded to compromised principles, which are inevitably explained away as somehow benefiting the people when in fact it is aimed only at satisfying the gut lust of rule.

Few rulers willingly leave their seats of power; they do so only when forced out whether at the point of a bayonet or through the ballot box.

All of this helps us put the American form of republican government in perspective. Our founders, unlike so many who had the chance, seized power not for themselves but for the people. These men risked their lives and fortunes to resist an unaccountable, authoritarian government. In doing so, they recognized that each attempt at government is a social experiment. Their unique experiences led them to despise tyranny and authoritarianism. They yearned for accountable and responsible government.

In formulating the American system, these men attempted to devise a set of restrictions on government -- on government, not the people -- that would guard against what they knew to be endemic corruption and avarice. Drawing upon the lessons of Montesquieu, Locke, and other political philosphers, these men created a framework for a republican form of government. They separated powers not only between branches of government but between the levels of government.

First Crisis: Leadership. Very few of our leaders -- of either political stripe -- honor their oath of office. Each places their hand on a Holy Bible and recites a pledge to uphold the Constitution. And yet, for the longstanding reasons of avarice and addiction to power, the vast majority promptly ignore the nation's founding document -- its highest law -- and willfully twist it into unrecognizable shapes.

We must demand in our leaders a basic fidelity to the Constitution and replace those who refuse -- whether through word or deed -- to honor it.

Second Crisis: Knowledge. Even a cursory study of human history would reveal a basic truth: the American form of government, while imperfect, is the most perfect structure ever arrived at by man. Whether judged by wealth, by tolerance, by good deeds, by charity, by invention, by scientific advancement, or simply by the number of people trying to immigrate, there can be no doubt that the American form of government has been more successful than any that has come before or since.

We must ensure that our family members, our friends and colleagues have a basic understanding of America's founding. The more one understands the unique, historical significance of America the less inclined he or she would be to sacrifice it on the altar of the Utopian promises of a charismatic demagogue.

Third Crisis: Will. It is easy to lose courage and hope. We live in truly challenging times; the most progressive and corrupt administration in American history -- aided and abetted by a complicit media -- has operated with lawless abandon in pursuit of its Marxist agenda. Even more discouraging are the ostensible leaders of the opposition party. Confronted with political and media bullies, they cower in fear. They stand not on principle or with the vast base of voters that brought them into power, but instead formulate policy behind closed doors with consultants, corporatist donors, and pollsters.

A third party is nonsensical. It is a vote to fail. We must become the opposition party within the opposition party. Just as Ronald Reagan fought the establishment for decades, so too must we continue to fight using the party only as a vessel for our needs.

We face three crises, each one seemingly more daunting than the last. But Americans have faced much tougher challenges before. Washington's surprise attack at Trenton, the Battle of Gettysburg, D-Day, Iwo Jima, Desert Storm, and many other dire struggles in hellholes around the world required the ultimate sacrifice from our best, bravest and brightest. Compared to those heroes, we have it easy.

Each of us can respond to these crises with three consistent actions: (1) vote for integrity; (2) share your knowledge, and (3) will yourself to take action. Each of us must become an agent for Constitutionalism unwilling to take no for an answer.


Related: The Fork in the Road.

EXCLUSIVE: House Speaker Unveils Official Portrait

Biff Spackle scoops the world, snapping an exclusive look at the Speaker's official portrait.


Obamacare is melting down, no one knows what the president did for 8 hours after learning American diplomats were being murdered in Benghazi, the IRS was caught targeting Obama's political opposition, journalists are being monitored and harassed by the White House, and the Attorney General of the United States has been exposed as a serial perjurer.

And what is John Boehner's top priority? Not defunding the IRS. Not defunding Obamacare. Not naming a special investigative committee for these scandals. No. Boehner's top priority is granting amnesty to tens of millions of illegals, the vast majority of whom are net drains on the national treasury and who will vote Democrat.

It will take all of us -- each and every one of us -- making our voices heard to stop this madness. Call Boehner now at (202) 225-0600 and tell him it's not border security first. It's border security period.


Larwyn's Linx: Hypocrites, Obama, and the "Will of the People"

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Nation

Hypocrites, Obama, and the "Will of the People": Mish
Ted Cruz's father delivers epic speech blasting Obama's Castro-like actions: Blaze
How to Re-Energize the Right and Begin Turning Blue States Red: Medved

The Obamacare mess: Rich Lowry
For the Fourth of July — Declare Independence from Government: RWN
Manchin Officially Bought & Paid For: Days of our Trailers

Call Your Congressman: Senate Immigration Bill A Failure -- CBO: CHQ
Protesters party in front of Rahm Emanuel’s home on Fourth: BizPac
2 killed, 40 badly hurt in SFO plane crash: SFGate

Economy

FRAUD: Obamacare guts consumer verification requirement: Twitchy
Obama Administration Guts Obamacare: Loren Heal
The Obamacare mess: Rich Lowry

The Most Delinquent Loan of Them All: Student Debt: CI
Say, How’s that New New Deal Working Out?: Ed Driscoll
The jobless rate for poor Black teen dropouts? Try 95 percent: Rare

Scandal Central

Drug Thugs Use Fast and Furious Gun to Kill Mexican Police Chief: TAG
I am of two minds about this John Kerry Nantucket story.: Moe Lane
The Top 5 Lies About Fracking: Reason

Media

Paranoid Enough Yet? FEMA’s Russia ‘Protocols’ Raise Serious Questions: Robert Stacy McCain
Russell Simmons Unveils Obama as Gun-Toting Superhero B-Rock: JWF
Michael Weiner-Savage: An Example Of A Blithering Idiot: OG&M

Jim Lehrer Reveals Decades of Liberal Journalists Assisting Democrats in Presidential Debates: Scott Whitlock
Thurston, We Have a Problem: Ed Driscoll
Pew poll: One-word description for Obama: BizPac

World

EU Times: Obama’s DHS Requests 15,000 Russian Troops: ViralRead
TSA’s subtle warning to non-Muslims about Ramadan: Creeping
A Thousand Year Reich: Hugo Jaeger (Adolf Hitler’s personal photographer)

The Obama administration has achieved the hat trick of alienating all factions in Egypt: Kori Schake
Video: Mursi Supporters Murder Teens, Throw them from Roof: Shoebat
Muslim DHS adviser to Obama still defending Muslim Brotherhood: Creeping

Kerry, White House Try to Beat Back Belief That They’re Rooting for Muslim Brotherhood: Tatler
McCain Broadcasts His Stupidity About Egypt- Calls For Aid Cut Off: Lid
Egypt: Army destroys more than 40 Gaza-Sinai tunnels: ynet

Sci-Tech

RIAA Takedown Strategy Backfires: OTB
Tools for Treason: Devin Coldewey, TechCrunch
Rate Of Mental Decline Much Slower For Bookworms And Penpals: MedDaily

Cornucopia

20 Of Trayvon Martin’s Tweets That Stand Out (Language Warning): John Hawkins
No Beards!?! What Difference, at This Point, Does it Make?: MOTUS
I did it... I got nail clippers on the plane... how do I kill someone with these?: Reddit (NSFW)

Image: The Camp of the Saints
Sponsored by: Call Eric Cantor at 804-747-4073 and Paul Ryan at 202-225-3031; tell them NO AMNESTY!

QOTD: "Obamacare was sold on two flagrantly false promises: that you could keep the insurance you have and that prices for insurance would drop. But employers will dump significant numbers of employees onto the exchanges to save on their own health-care costs. And the latest indication of the law’s price shock came via The Wall Street Journal this week, which reported, “healthy consumers could see insurance rates double or even triple when they look for individual coverage.”

The delay of the employer mandate might create political pressure to delay the more important individual mandate as well, on grounds that ordinary people shouldn’t face the fines that businesses have been spared. Certainly, the maneuver on the employer mandate is a painful concession and a signal of weakness. Now everyone can now agree: Implementation of the president’s proudest achievement is chaotic and off schedule — at best." --Rich Lowry

Saturday, July 06, 2013

GOOD NEWS: President Obama Wants Control of Your Appliances

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Regulation: No longer the stuff of science fiction, a little-noticed change in energy-efficiency requirements for appliances could lead to government controlling the power used in your home and how you set your thermostat.

In a seemingly innocuous revision of its Energy Star efficiency requirements announced June 27, the Environmental Protection Agency included an "optional" requirement for a "smart-grid" connection for customers to electronically connect their refrigerators or freezers with a utility provider.

The feature lets the utility provider regulate the appliances' power consumption, "including curtailing operations during more expensive peak-demand times."

So far, manufacturers are not required to include the feature, only "encouraged," and consumers must still give permission to turn it on. But with the Obama administration's renewed focus on fighting mythical climate change, we expect it to become mandatory to save the planet from the perils of keeping your beer too cold.

"Manufacturers that build in and certify optional 'connected features' will earn a credit towards meeting the Energy Star efficiency requirements," according to an EPA email to CNSNews.com.

We are both intrigued and bothered by the notion that a utility company, the regulated energy sock-puppet of government, could and probably will have the power to regulate the power we use and how we use it, as long as we're paying our electricity bills, even to the point of turning these devices and appliances off at will.

We're reminded that former EPA director Carol Browner was a big fan of the smart grid and its potential ability to monitor and control power usage down to the thermostat in your home.

"Eventually," she told U.S. News & World Report in 2009, "we can get to a system when an electric company will be able to hold back some of the power so that maybe your air-conditioner won't operate at its peak."

The same year, President Obama, who had won election on a pledge to "fundamentally transform America," signed a stimulus bill to "transform the way we use energy" with a smart grid that would abandon "a grid of lines and wires that dates back to Thomas Edison — a grid that can't support the demands of clean energy."

To make sure we respond properly to the "demands of clean energy," Obama said this "investment will place Smart Meters in homes to make our energy bills lower, make outages less likely and make it easier to use clean energy." It'll also make it easier to monitor and control our energy use.

So if one day you keep your house too cool or your beer too cold and the dials start moving, don't be surprised. Its just a campaign promise being kept.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

HIGH-LARIOUS: Man With $7 Million Yacht Lectures India on Carbon Emissions, Links Them to Deadly Floods

There's hypocrisy, there's flaming hypocrisy, and then there's John Kerry.

After expressing his condolences to the flood victims, Kerry said in a speech in New Delhi on Sunday night that the U.S. had donated $150,000 to the flood relief effort — “not the highest sum in the world,” he admitted, but “a beginning.” He went on to warn India not to dismiss the deadly intensity of the floods as a one-off tragedy. “Perhaps Mother Nature in her own way is telling us to heed some warnings,” Kerry said before a packed auditorium. “Today the science of climate change is screaming at us for action.”

I'll treat global warming climate change like a planetary emergency, when the mega-wealthy green profiteers like Al Gore and John Kerry treat it like a planetary emergency.

You know, when they sell their immense yachts and and multiple mansions.


Oh, and here's an idea. How about they use Skype rather than jet-setting around the world?

And pay their taxes to boot?


Via: Just the Tip.

COMIC BOOK VERSION SUITABLE FOR LOW-INFORMATION VOTERS: The Road to Serfdom

By Friedrich A. Hayek





HELPFUL FOR TOURISTS: A Murder Map of Chicago

Welcome to the human hunting preserve known as Chicago: where to this day, law-abiding citizens are forcibly disarmed by the state and local governments while criminals rule the streets. Six months into the year, according to the Chicago Tribune, more than 1,000 people have been wounded or killed by gunfire in Chicago.

For the glorious Fourth of July celebration, gun-free Chicago saw 5 shot dead and 27 wounded.

And with the weekend only half over, 9 were killed and 36 wounded celebrating Friday night. The casualties include two boys, ages 5 and 7.


How could it be that the entire rest of the country has more liberalized concealed-carry laws than Chicago -- and every one of those areas is infinitely safer than the Second City? For you drones, liberals, progressives and other miscreants: that's a rhetorical question.


Hat tip: BadBlue Gun News.

Larwyn's Linx: The Obamacare Big City Bailout

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

Nation

The Obamacare Big City Bailout: Chris Jacobs, Foundry
Sunset in America: Baron Bodissey
Why do Democrats despise the Constitution?: Publius

Police Commandeer Home: Possible 3rd Amendment Violation: Mataconis
Tyranny in the Silver State: RWN
McCain, House GOP headed for clash on Amnesty: Molly K. Hooper

Obama’s Gun Violence Study Destroys His Argument: Tim Brown
Permits Soar to Allow More Concealed Guns: WSJ
Obama Skips Past Congress Again With Health Mandate Delay: Roll Call

Economy

Obamacare strikes: Part-Time Jobs Surge, Full-Time Jobs Plunge: ZH
Cheap Money Isn’t Monetary Policy: P&F
Medicare failed to collect back $543 million in overpayments: WG

California Jumps Off the Cliff Into Total Insanity: MB
MBS Clobbered, Treasury Yields Soar After "Good" Job Numbers: Mish
President Obama shopping for a new ride: BizPac

Scandal Central

Potentially explosive development in IRS scandals: Thomas Lifson
Victims furious FBI won’t investigate IRS targeting: Tom Tillison, BizPac
Reversing denial, State says Kerry was briefly on boat: Politico

Fast and Furious rifle used in murder of police chief: This Ain't Hell
Key commander to be questioned on Benghazi goes missing: Cheryl Carpenter Klimek, BizPac
Oopsie, Seems Like The Senator From MA May Have Avoided A Bundle In MA “Docking Taxes”: WZ

Climate & Energy

Obama: Electricity is absolutely crucial for industry and personal growth! : Protein Wisdom
Hopey Change Creates Record High Electricity Prices: Moonbattery
Brace for Blackouts: America's Power Grids at Risk Under Obama: Bloomberg

Media

Leading Conservatives Call on Capital One to Fire Alec Baldwin : RWN
‘Bingo’: Iowahawk sums up the jobs report in one tweet about Taco Bell: Twitchy
Campbell Brown destroys Al Sharpton over union protections for sex offenders in schools: EAG

World

Dangerous Times: Obama's Arab Spring Logic: James Lewis, AT
Israel's reviled strategic wisdom: Caroline Glick
Copts under the Gun: Obama's Anti-Christian Allies: Raymond Ibrahim

8 Simple Rules Liberals Use For Arguments : Varight
Cairo newspaper sends personal message to Obama: Michael Dorstewitz, BizPac
Obama golfs, Kerry kayaks, Egypt implodes : BizPac

Sci-Tech

Microsoft offloads heap of critical fixes in 'ugly' Patch Tuesday: John Leyden, Register
Mobile Application Hacking Diary Part 1: PacketStorm
Facetune is a powerful portrait editor for iOS: Mel Martin, Tuaw

Cornucopia

Hope n' Change Cartoons: Last Day for Free Patriotic Porn! : Hopenchange
Just Stole This From Bob Belvedere...: Reaganite
Right Where He Belongs: TCOTS

Image: Boston Herald
Sponsored by: Call Eric Cantor at 804-747-4073 and Paul Ryan at 202-225-3031; tell them NO AMNESTY!

QOTD: "[Obama's] regulatory agenda would not only cost West Virginians jobs, but it would deliver a severe blow to our nation’s economy and any hopes of becoming energy independent... Sadly, instead of moving our country forward like he once promised, the president has decided to turn the lights off in states like West Virginia." --Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)

Friday, July 05, 2013

10 Devastating Facts About Today's Unemployment Numbers (That Will Be Curiously Ignored by the Media)

While America's Pravda media and Wall Street heralded today's 7.6 official unemployment number, the real situation on Main Street is ugly -- and getting uglier.

10. True unemployment -- which includes part-timers seeking full-time work (also known as "U-6") -- jumped to 14.3 percent, a six-month high.

9. While the economy supposedly created an anemic 195,000 jobs this month, the quality of those jobs is decidedly poor:

In June, the household survey reported that part-time jobs soared by 360,000 to 28,059,000 – an all time record high. Full time jobs? Down 240,000.

8. The Labor Force Participation Rate -- the percentage of eligible workers who actually have a job -- has stubbornly remained under 64 percent since 2011.


7. The unemployment rate for African-Americans is a devastating 23.7 percent.

6. The unemployment rate for Hispanics is 13.2 percent.

5. The unemployment rate for women is an unbelievable 11.6 percent.

4. The unemployment rate for youth is 16.1 percent.

3. The Labor Force Participation Rate has never been lower since the seventies, when the rise of the two-income household began. This, truly, represents a War on Women.


2. For the entire first half of 2013, only 130,000 full-time jobs have been created.

1. On January 10, 2009, Christina Romer, Obama’s top economic adviser, and Jared Bernstein, Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, predicted that if Obama’s stimulus plan passed the unemployment rate would not top 8 percent.

In fact, we are in the midst of a 54-month stretch of 7.5%+ unemployment, the longest such run ever. Prior to Obama’s presidency, the longest stretch of national unemployment at 7.5 percent or higher was a measly 32 months.

The Democrats' miserable predictions have helped run up trillions of dollars in debt while helping to destroy employment opportunities for every race, gender, creed, color, religion and age group.

The Obama White House is an Equal Opportunity Job Destroyer.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

THE DEMOCRATS' WAR ON WOMEN: Obamacare Kicking Wives Off Husbands' Health Insurance Plans

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Dumped: An unintended consequence of the abomination that is called ObamaCare is the dropping of wives from husbands' employer-provided health care insurance. It's a de facto war on women.

ObamaCare is filled with grinding mandates. One of them requires that children remain covered by their parents' health care plans until they're 26 when their parents' insurance "provides dependent coverage of children."


The government calls this "protecting young adults." But insuring children long past the day they are dependent on their parents exposes companies, which will bear the added costs of paying the inevitable higher premiums. And in some cases, the extra expense could be significant.

So at many companies, something has to go. Quite often, the rational response to rising health insurance costs is to drop spouses, more specifically wives, from insurance plans. Sometimes it's the husbands who must go. But benefits experts have confirmed to MarketWatch that those who are kicked out of plans "tend to be women."

Employers also have a strong incentive to drop spouses because of a "per life" fee that ObamaCare requires from companies that insure their workers. That fee is now $1 or $2 per life. But it will be substantially more — $65 — in 2014.

The trend of dumping spouses will only accelerate when the federal health exchanges are open next year, health care experts told MarketWatch.

As Egypt Implodes, Obama and Kerry Party, Golf, Kayak and Hit the Yachting Circuit. And Then Lie About It.

Lazy, incompetent liars. I refer, of course, to the Obama administration and the Secretary of State. With all due respect.

Lazy and incompetent, because while Egypt imploded this week, President Obama found time to catch his 130th round of golf (130!) and John Kerry was MIA.

As for lying, John Campbell elaborates:

On Wednesday, as Egypt remained in political upheaval, the Obama Administration wanted everyone to know that they were committed to working… Or at least tweeting a photo illustrating as such.

The White House tweeted out a photo of top Obama Administration advisers working diligently around a table, but conspicuously absent from the photo-op was Secretary of State John Kerry. As media outlets questioned why the Secretary of State was not present, CBS’ Moshesh Oinounou seemed to have the answer: Kerry was on his yacht.

Oinounou tweeted out a picture of Kerry’s yacht, the Isabel, and claimed that the Secretary of State was on it on Wednesday afternoon. The Obama Administration vehemently denied the claim.

“Since his plane touched down in Washington at 4 a.m., Secretary Kerry was working all day and on the phone dealing with the crisis in Egypt,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “He participated in the White House meeting with the president by secure phone and was and is in non-stop contact with foreign leaders, and his senior team in Washington and Cairo. Any report or tweet that he was on a boat is completely inaccurate.”

After the denials were met with understandable skepticism by media outlets, the Obama Administration reversed course and Psaki stated,

“While he was briefly on his boat on Wednesday, Secretary Kerry worked around the clock all day including participating in the president’s meeting with his national security council.”

This is the underlying problem: Why lie about it? Americans already know that John Kerry is a (to borrow the left’s ridiculous parlance) “one-percenter” who would much rather be soaking up the sun on his yacht than doing his job; the revelation is just one more eye-roll-inducing piece of information.

No, the real problem here is that the Obama Administration relies on deceit at every turn. The president and his masters of spin are pathologically incapable of telling the American public the truth.

Worse yet, they are only willing to admit that for which they have been caught red-handed.

If it takes investigative journalism to get the this administration to admit the whereabouts of the Secretary of State, it illustrates why the Obama Administration is so hell-bent on waging a war against journalism and it further begs the question, “What else are they doing that they’re not being caught for?”

Please note that this administration was willing to instantly and blatantly lie about John Kerry's whereabouts during a coup in Egypt.

What does that say about their other hidden activities, from gun-running to Mexican drug cartels (Operation Fast and Furious), the president's missing 8 hours during the Benghazi attacks, and the IRS scandals? What other lies have they foisted upon the American people in a craven attempt to retain their white-knuckled death grip on power?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: The Right to Happiness

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

Nation

The Right to Happiness: Daniel Greenfield
The eternal choice: freedom or slavery: Robert Spencer
Independence Day, 2013: Jazz Shaw, Hot Air

Afterburner with Bill Whittle: Dependence Day: Scoop
de Tocqueville's Warning to America: Joel Pollak
Ill. Gov. Demands Gun Limits in Concealed Carry Law: LawOfficer

Dan Bongino’s 4th of July speech on why we must fight back!: Scoop
Independence Day: It's Time to Act: Stacy Rush
Obama administration’s support for Mursi: Huma Abedin’s mother: Shoebat

Economy

ObamaCare Kicks Wives Off Husbands' Health Plans: IBD
Pelosi's 'Dependence Day' Pitch: William Sullivan
Coburn, Gingrey demand answers on 201 full-time IRS union reps: DC

Lew Urges Newly Sworn U.S. Citizens to Back Illegal Immigration: PJM
Time to Sequester Air Force One Vacation Flights: FTTWR
442 days since Quinn "put on earth" to fix Illinois pensions: Marathon

Scandal Central

Government tracking all snail-mail, no warrant required: Joe Saunders
And Now They Trample The Third Amendment: Herschel Smith
Chicago Fourth of July shootings kill at least 6 in last 24 hours: ABC-7

Climate & Energy

EPA Wants Control Over Your Appliances: BlurBrain
Volcano's eruption has American Airlines, other U.S. carriers canceling Mexico flights: Dallas News
Trillions of dollars worth of oil found in Australian outback: Telegraph

Media

An Independence Day Plan of Action: Watchdog Wire
Lib ‘journalist’ blasts Twitchy for ‘fake’ pro-abortion photo, ends up eating crow: Twitchy
‘Never heard of him’: Notable Columbia prof says he isn’t sure Obama attended Columbia University: Oliver Darcy

America!: C&S
The best anti Obama protest signs in Egypt: FAM
MSNBC Ratings In Free Fall, Liberal Network Sees Worst Quarter Since 2007…: WZ

World

Obama Doubles Down on Egypt Folly: Jonathan S. Tobin
Egyptians to US Ambassador Anne Patterson: Get the hell out of our country: Twitchy
Terror Cleric Anwar al-Awlaki Spent Kinky Nights in D.C. With at Least 7 Hookers: American Power

Obama threatens to cut aid to Egypt; Lawmakers charge pro-Morsi policy damaged U.S. interests: WorldTribune
Egyptians Not So Excited About Future President Clinton: JWF
Islamist gunmen stage multiple attacks in Sinai: Reuters

Scum-Sucking Anti-Semite Jimmy Carter doesn't acknowledge Israel exists: Matzav
Loud explosions heard in Eilat: Times of Israel
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Recovers After Morsi's Ouster: Stratfor

Sci-Tech

3D Printed Firearm Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament By Reporters: TFB
Mysterious radio bursts in far parts of universe hint at cataclysm: LAT
Perfection, No Matter What Caliber You Feed It. Well Almost.: TAG

Cornucopia

Intelligent Design: American Digest
The Alternative Secret History of the World: The People's Cube
Arresting Active Resisters: PoliceMag

Image: On July 4, Statue of Liberty to Finally Reopen
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: American Digest

QOTD: "Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelary power, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications, and to watch over their gate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident, and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent, if, like that authority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, on the contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content that the people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing. For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industr, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?

This, it every day renders the exercise of the free agency of man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within a narrower range, and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself. The principle of equality has prepared men for these things; it has predisposed men to endure them, and oftentimes to look on them as benefits.

After having thus successfully taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp, and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting: such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd." --Alexis de Tocqueville

Thursday, July 04, 2013

When the Arab successor of Nazi Germany is Overthrown, There is Cause for Celebration

Guest post by David Bedein


There is no reason for a long winded article with a Jerusalem by line over the ouster of the Moslem Brotherhood, the ideological ally and successor of Nazi Germany.

Haj Amin El Husseini, Hitler's ally and the Mufti of Jerusalem, played a decisive role in pioneering the Moslem brotherhood, whose focus rests on an obsession with Israel's destruction.

To witness the overthrow of the Moslem Brotherhood regime in Cairo is a blessed day for the people of Israel.

The Israeli government does not need to say anything or do anything except to breathe a collective sigh of relief.

There are those who bemoan the fact that Egyptian president Morsi was brought to power in a democratic process.

Give me a break. So was Hitler. And so was Hamas for that matter.


David Bedein is director of Israel Behind the News (via Dan Friedman)

How the Tea Party Can Save America and the World – a Plea From New Zealand

Guest post by Trevor Loudon


Many Tea Partiers and American patriots understand that the fate of the United States of America hangs in the balance.

No melodrama here. If the US loses its position as the world’s number one military super power, another country, or countries, will take its place.

Realistically, that can only be Russia or China, or more likely, an alliance of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Vietnam and whoever ever else climbs aboard.

As the U.S. Dollar slowly sinks and America’s prestige and power goes with it, the “Evil Axis” grows bolder.

But why should I care? I’m safe aren’t I? Way down at the bottom of the South Pacific, in New Zealand.
Well, maybe not so safe. China is steadily advancing through the Pacific. It now has several footholds in our region, particularly in Fiji, which is my country’s nearest major island neighbor. To any thinking Aussie or Kiwi, this is cause for major concern.

in June of 2012, Song Xiaojun, a “retired” Chinese general, told Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald, that “Australia has to find a godfather sooner or later…” “Australia always has to depend on somebody else, whether it is to be the ‘son’ of the U.S. or ‘son’ of China,” Song said, adding that Australia had best choose China because it all “depends on who is more powerful and based on the strategic environment.”

If America goes under folks, the West goes under. No ifs, no buts. Only a strong America can keep the bad guys in check. Just as soldiers from all over the world fought in Europe and the Pacific to save liberty in WW2, today’s freedom lovers need to join the fight to save the US. Once liberty was fought for in the Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, Normandy and Sicily. Now if liberty is to be saved, we must win the electoral battles of Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado.

From my home in Christchurch, I recently spent an hour on the phone with a savvy Florida activist. She outlined for me the crushing problems being faced by American patriots, in the face of a relentless leftist onslaught from the Obama Administration. According to my usually optimistic friend, much of the Tea Party is in disarray, the GOP leadership is even more arrogant and out of touch than usual and if the Dems pass “immigration reform” the Republic will be swamped with millions of new loyal Democrats, effectively turning the US into a permanent “one party state.”

And to cap that, now I’m hearing whispers of a third party.

Let’s get real. There is only one vehicle that can take back America from the Democrats and their union and far left allies, in the very limited time we have left. That is the Republican Party. If the Democrats hold the Senate and take back the House in 2014, or even 2016, which they could well do, America is done for.

Satan, the Great Deceiver and Prince of Lies, reaffirms that he is in no way associated with the Democrat Party

It is true that the Democrat Party gleefully embraces Satan:

This video was shot Tuesday in the capitol building in Austin, Texas. It was apparently shot at about 4:30 in the afternoon. The woman in the video is delivering powerful testimony about the reality of abortion... Fast forward to the 5:15 point, and you’ll clearly hear the pro-abortion forces singing “Hail Satan” in unison in the background...

Support for ultra-late-term abortions -- including fourth-trimester abortions, if President Obama's state senatorial voting record is any indication -- appears to be the foremost plank of the Democrat Party. Even to the point of marshaling Satan for help.

Oh, and including the use of non-aborted fetuses as props for extremist, filthy rhetoric:


Yes, that's a young child holding a sign that reads: "If I wanted the government in my womb, I would f*** a senator!"

In reality, each and every Democrat should hold a sign reading: "If I wanted the government in my womb, I would support Obamacare!"

That being said, the real worshippers of Satan are none-too-pleased.


One wonders what Democrats will do when they discover that Obamacare has helped the federal government create a National Abortion Database.




Headline hat tip: lawrenceperson.

Larwyn's Linx: A Most Dangerous, Risky and Radical Document

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

Nation

A Most Dangerous, Risky and Radical Document: Tatler
The Disastrous Results Of The Left's Attempts At Change: Thomas Sowell
Obama's Rhetoric Little Noted nor Long Remembered: AT

Levin to GOP: Stop Phony Repeal Votes--Use Power of the Purse!: RCP
Declaring independence from vicious backstabbing crapweasels: R.S. McCain
A Crisis in Competence: Richard Fernandez

Facebook instigating racial discord?: Ann Althouse
Obama Will Make Blacks Vote Republican: Larry Elder
Hilarious: Real Satanists Disclaim Late-term Abortion Supporters: Glob

Economy

Cruz Has It Right: Abolish The IRS: CHQ
The Obamacare delay — maybe not so clever: ConIntel
Nigel Farage Destroys Europe's Latest Bad Idea: ZH

WARNING: Millenial side effects of Obamacare: Carolyn Bolton, Rare
How the welfare state hurts the poor: Commentator
Change: Layoffs Rise Again in June: FoxBiz

Scandal Central

Why is the Media Agitating for Race Riots?: AWD
IRS official returns to Congress, seeks immunity in exchange for testimony : Human Events
More IRS Fun: IMAO

Media

Mark Levin on Cavuto: Whichever party deals with health care effectively will be successful: Scoop
White House Memo Shows Obama Administration’s Painful Efforts To Defend Valerie Jarrett: Andrew Kaczynski
Officer who testified in Zimmerman trial wore questionable ribbons, including one from WWII: Guns

Even CBS Admits: ‘Major Setback’ for Obamacare - ‘Law Was Going to Hurt Workers’: Tammy Bruce
The Origins of the Tea Party: Rush Limbaugh
“The Enemies Within: Communists, Socialists and Progressives in the U.S. Congress”: Trevor Loudon

Politico Tries To Rewrite History: Obama's Stunning Support for Muslim Brotherhood: WZ
Positivity: What the Declaration’s Signers Endured: BizzyBlog
Fourth-of-July Funnies: Reaganite

World

Islamists Freaking Out After Morsi Ouster: Bridget Johnson
Surprise: Obama revises history on his relationship with Morsy: Matzav
Report: Morsi Supporters Chant Anti-Jewish Slogan at Cairo University: Algemeiner

Egypt after Morsi: Joy and Worry: Daniel Pipes
Al-Qaeda's Jihad on Anti-Morsi Egyptians: Raymond Ibrahim
Chechen terror leader calls for attacks on Winter Olympics: Commentator

Sci-Tech

The do-or-die questions boards should ask about technology: Paul Wilmott, McKinsey
Bebo’s $849M Implosion Teaches a Brutal Lesson in Social Networking: Wired
A 4-Year-Old Android Bug Could Bring Malware to 99% of Devices: Gizmodo

Cornucopia

Surviving a Media-Fomented Riot: Bob Owens
Rush Caller: Obama Doing What On Night Of Benghazi?: Western
Wendy Davis for First Woman President!: Cube

Image: Fourth-of-July Funnies
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Orders We Will Not Obey

QOTD: "According to U.S. News White House reporter and author Kenneth T. Walsh, Obama considers the tea party a racist movement that rose up to stop him. “In May 2010,” writes Walsh, “(Obama) told guests at a private White House dinner that race was probably a key component in the rising opposition to his presidency from conservatives, especially right-wing activists in the anti-incumbent ‘tea party’ movement that was then surging across the country. … A guest suggested that when tea party activists said they wanted to ‘take back’ their country, their real motivation was to stir up anger and anxiety at having a black president, and Obama didn’t dispute the idea. He agreed that there was a ‘subterranean agenda’ in the anti-Obama movement — a racially biased one — that was unfortunate.”

Obama also stood silently while former President Jimmy Carter blamed racism for the opposition to Obama. “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama,” said Carter, “is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American. Racism … still exists, and I think it’s bubbled up to the surface because of a belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country.”

So much for no more irresponsible use of the race card." --Larry Elder

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

OBAMA BEGS EGYPTIAN MILITARY: Please Don't Arrest Members of Muslim Brotherhood or Al Qaeda in North Africa!

Unfortunately, that headline is deadly serious. Please consider Obama's just-released statement concerning the deposed Islamist Morsi:

The United States is monitoring the very fluid situation in Egypt, and we believe that ultimately the future of Egypt can only be determined by the Egyptian people. Nevertheless, we are deeply concerned by the decision of the Egyptian Armed Forces to remove President Morsy and suspend the Egyptian constitution. I now call on the Egyptian military to move quickly and responsibly to return full authority back to a democratically elected civilian government as soon as possible through an inclusive and transparent process, and to avoid any arbitrary arrests of President Morsy and his supporters...

...During this uncertain period, we expect the military to ensure that the rights of all Egyptian men and women are protected, including the right to peaceful assembly, due process, and free and fair trials in civilian courts. Moreover, the goal of any political process should be a government that respects the rights of all people, majority and minority; that institutionalizes the checks and balances upon which democracy depends...

Checks and balances? You mean like "If Congress won't act, I will"? Or declaring the Senate in recess to make unlawful recess appointments? Or ramming Obamacare down the throats of the American people in 2010 against overwhelming opposition?

Considering the actions of President Lead-from-behind over the last four-plus years, I suspect Egyptians won't be losing much sleep over the Obamaltimatum. It would seem that Mr. Obama has his cross-hairs fixed on Americans, not Egyptians.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Saudi worker receives 100 lashes after getting pregnant: Wendy Davis unavailable for comment.

Tolerance. It's what's for dinner in Saudi Arabia:

An overseas Filipina worker (OFW) received 100 lashes in Saudi Arabia because she had a child with a man who was not her husband.

In an interview aired on 24 Oras on Monday, the 29-year old woman said she was lashed 100 times on the back after being convicted of immorality under the Sharia or Islamic law... [under which] women who get pregnant out of wedlock face imprisonment or a penalty of lashes to be determined by courts


...The Filipina worker said she had to go through the pregnancy alone as she was immediately abandoned by the man who got her pregnant when he discovered she was with child.

It was only after she gave birth that authorities discovered she was unmarried.

Nanganak po ako sa ospital na pinagtatrabahuhan ko, Nalaman po nila na wala akong asawa. Pagkatapos noon, ni-report nila ako sa pulis,” she said.

The Filipina worker said she was sentenced to one-year imprisonment but received lashes instead as a result of being pardoned.

In 2010, another Filipina worker was sentenced to receive 100 lashes after becoming pregnant as a result of rape.

Texas state legislator Wendy Davis could not be reached for comment at press time. Although since the events in question did not relate to fourth-trimester abortions, I guess I'm not surprised.


Hillary 2016 Super-PAC introduces new branding!

The People's Cube has the exclusive:


It's not just a great logo: Hillary's political action committee appears to have global support!