Monday, October 07, 2013

Clairvoyant Produces Startling Picture From the Future

Guest post by iOwnTheWorld

Future government bargaining in action:


As Dave Carter wrote on Saturday,

What began as an effort to reverse a draconian law that even now exacts a high toll in terms of jobs lost and skyrocketing premiums, has become a contest of wills in which a President instructs his apparatchiks to inflict as much pain on the citizenry as possible. Chiefly instructive in all this is the salient reality that any person capable of wielding the instrumentalities of the state in a despotic manner in the present, will prove equally capable in the future when he controls your health care.

The fight over Obamacare is not just about stopping the destructive effects of an unconstitutional law; it is about preserving the last vestiges of individual liberty from an all powerful, authoritarian administration that treats the Constitution as bird-cage liner.

Which reminds me: Call your representative now, thank them, and tell them to stand strong against this catastrophic, lawless excrement disguised as legislation.


There, I fixed it for you, Cory Booker

Spotted this ad on a website:


Which prompted me to repair it:


For those unfamiliar with the tale, New Jersey's hard left Senate candidate Cory Booker has an imaginary drug-dealer friend named "T-Bone", who he uses to add a little spice to his stories. Suffice it to say that T-Bone is about as real as Booker's record for good governance in Newark.

If you have the wherewithal, please consider supporting conservative Steve Lonegan for U.S. Senate. His website is a great resource for background on Booker, who has a sordid history of extreme and bizarre behavior.


Larwyn's Linx: ObamaCare: Prolonging Survival Not Covered

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

Nation

ObamaCare: Prolonging Survival Not Covered: MagNote
Obamacare or the Debt Ceiling: Erick Erickson
Mr. Pinko Predicts Future Vindictive Government: iOwnTheWorld

Shutdown Theater Requires that The Public Suspend Their Disbelief: Heine
Amnesty is Alive and Well and Moving Forward: NoisyRoom
Will the courts derail Obamacare?: Christopher J. Conover

Affordable Care Act? “I Was Laughing At Boehner Until The Mail Came”: RWN
Bring It On: I Will Not Comply with Obamacare: Daisy Luther
Why The Left Must Destroy The Tea Party: Black & Right

Economy

Californians experiencing Obamacare sticker-shock: Moe Lane
Obama and financial markets: fear itself: LI
The Cold Hard Facts of Obama's Economy: Chad Stafko

I didn't know I was the one who going to pay for it!: Daniel Greenfield
NHS to employ 1 in 8, account for half of UK budget: Commentator
The Rise of a Semi-employed America: MyBudget360

Scandal Central

Common Core Reaches a New Low – Check This Out!: Sara Noble
Common Core’s Warped View of the Constitution, It’s Time to Worry: Sara Noble
White House shuts down Amber Alert system, leaves golf courses open: Moe Lane

Shutdown theater: Obama evicts senior citizens from their private homes: Howard Portnoy
Ohio WWII Vets Will Risk Arrest to Visit Their Memorial: Maggie Thurber
60 Minutes uncovers how the federal disability system is being gamed: Scoop

Media

CBS’ Anchor: ‘Most Manipulative and Secretive’ Administration Ever: Sara Noble
Ted Cruz Dribbles Dem. Party Proxy Candy Crowley In The Basketball Fashion: R.S. McCain
Duck Dynasty star: A&E removed “Jesus” to avoid offending Muslims: Creeping

Pelosi faces unexpected tough questions from CBS hosts: BPR
Dems Have More to Lose Than They Think: Jack Kelly
Boehner in Charge: Fred Barnes

Maureen’s Been Hitting the Cooking Sherry Again: Ed Driscoll
Listen Up, Furloughed F***s!: Barely a Blog
NPR Asks Chris Matthews: 'Can You Remember That Far Back, To When You Were Partisan?': NB

World

The Anglosphere miracle: Daniel Hannan
‘We Have Never Recovered from World War I’: Ed Driscoll
Obama Sends “Elite FBI Unit” to Read Al Qaeda Terrorist his “Rights”: Daniel Greenfield

Time to dump the increasingly benign "Islamo-fascist" phrase for straight out Islamo-Nazi?: Libertarian Republican
Palestinian Authority Endorses Shooting of 9-Year-Old Jewish Girl: Daniel Greenfield
Kerry defends raid that led to Al Qaeda leader's capture after Libya seeks 'clarification': Fox

Sci-Tech

Instagram and Me: 3 years later, a love affair continues: Om Malik
Twitter rolls out Nielsen rating to track TV tweets: The Verge
Sktchy for iPhone invites artists to create portraits of user-submitted photos: NextWeb

Cornucopia

NPS National Parks Service Cops: Government Shutdown Edition: Morlock Revolt
Government Shutdown Day 6: Lie, Lies, Lies and Five Guys: MOTUS
On Marching in Mordor: Western Rifle Shooters

Image: Ed Driscoll
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: MILLION VET MARCH ON THE MEMORIALS

QOTD: "[Mr. Obama, r]ather than leading like a statesman, you hide in the shadows; scheming, conniving, exploiting. You emerge only to make hyper-partisan speeches, with rhetoric best left to Democratic talking heads on afternoon cable news shows. Far from being a “new kind of politician” (as you were advertised), you are the most political politician this country has ever seen. You are political to your core, in your essence, at an atomic level, and so you are unable to offer any direction or clarity when the nation needs it most. Sometimes, Mr. President, the affairs of this nation require a man, not a politician, and it is during those times that you are especially useless. You don’t have any interest in fixing our present crisis because you’re too busy finding ways to keep a busload of 90 year old war veterans from looking at a memorial.

Closing down parks, monuments and memorials just to score political points is hardly your most insidious deed, but it’s certainly one of your pettiest. That’s why it stands, ironically, as a monument of its own. If we ever build a statue of you, Mr. President, you won’t be triumphantly holding a flaming torch like Lady Liberty, or standing authoritatively with a look of determination, like the MLK memorial. No, it will be a statue of you pulling the wings off of a fly, or spitting in someone’s orange juice. It will show you in your essence, as monuments are meant to do. It will show you as a petulant, skulking, juvenile bully. It will show you as you are.

And we’ll make sure it’s always open, especially during a government shut down." --Matt Walsh

Sunday, October 06, 2013

ONE STEP CLOSER TO JUSTICE FOR BRIAN TERRY: Judge Rejects Holder's Fast and Furious Document Cover-Up

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Scandal: The truth about how and why Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata and hundreds of Mexican nationals were killed with weapons supplied by this administration may yet come out as a court lets a lawsuit proceed.

The most transparent administration in history suffered a defeat Monday, when U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson turned down the Justice Department's request to dismiss a lawsuit seeking "Fast and Furious" documents hidden by Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department after President Obama invoked executive privilege.

The lawsuit was brought by Rep. Darrell Issa's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after the president asserted executive privilege to prevent records about the administration's response to the "Operation Fast and Furious" gun-running scandal from being turned over to Congress.

The administration's position was that the oversight committee's demand for information and documents was settled by a Feb. 4, 2011, letter to Congress in which Assistant Attorney General Ron Welch, in response to the investigations by Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley of the Fast and Furious "gun-walking" program run out of ATF's Phoenix office, stated that the "allegation that ATF 'sanctioned' or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons . . . is false."

The Justice Department refused to turn over any documents after the date of the letter, contending there was nothing more to see and Congress should just move on.

A Gallery of Shutdown Images

Best images spotted on the blogo- and twitter-spheres.





Larwyn's Linx: When The Bleeding Heart Becomes The Iron Fist

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

Nation

When The Bleeding Heart Becomes The Iron Fist: Dave Carter
The Speaker’s office is keeping score of #HarryReidsShutdown: Moe Lane
“I Was Laughing At Boehner Until The Mail Came”: RWN

Obama: “I Won’t Violate The Constitution, Unless You Make Me": NR
Obama Incites Federal Workers to Target Conservatives: John DeMayo
Perry to CA: Success isn't measured by those on public assistance: RWN

Bachmann: GOP Not Caving: 'Bigger Than Obamacare': Ben Shapiro
Steve Stockman: Will Eric Holder sue over Obamacare photo IDs?: Twitchy
WI Gov. Walker refuses to close parks, defies Obama: RWN

Economy

'Shutdown': $63B Spent, $26B Taxed; $1B in Salaries--in Just 2 Days: CNS
Where's sense of crisis in a 17% government shutdown?: Byron York
I Signed Up for Obamacare and All I Got Was Screwed: AWD

Just because it’s a phony crisis doesn’t mean it can’t be made even phonier: Mark Steyn
Obama admin allows government union reps to work during shutdown: Susan Crabtree
US Postal Service Employee of the Year: Fellowship

Scandal Central

Battle of the Barrycades – Vets storm Vietnam Memorial, U.S Park Police called in: LI
Police officer pushes John Ondrasik out of Jefferson Memorial: Twitchy
NOT THE ONION: Obama closes the ocean.: IHTM

Meet the Vets who moved “water-filled barriers” to get to Iwo Jima Memorial: LI
NBC: Police Remove Vietnam War Veterans at Memorial Wall: John McCormack
Shutdown Theater™ moves from the petty to the sublime: Ace

Climate & Energy

EPA Ordered to Recheck Greenhouse Gas Records: Courthouse News

Media

NYT reporter: Obama admin “most closed, control-freak administration I’ve ever covered”: Hot Air
You might be a liberal if … you think the government “shutdown” is racist: LI
The English-to-Democrat Dictonary: JPA

Chad Henderson Claimed He Donated $1000 to Obama's Reelection: John Sexton
Government Shutdown, Day 5: Bring Me Your Sob Story: MOTUS
Occupy WWII: Charlie Foxtrot

World

The British Health Care Scandals in Context: Walter Russell Mead
Boston Globe says Ft. Hood jihadist’s motive “unknown”: Creeping
Jerusalem 101 – 4000 Years of History in 5 Minutes: MagNote

The Goal of Muslim Immigration According to Muhammad’s Teachings: Y.K. Cherson
Connecticut: Terror-linked CAIR Gets Muslim Holidays on School Calendar: Creeping
Obama Eviscerates Troops’ 1st Amendment Rights: GWP

Master Sergeant Nicholas Oresko, RIP: Oldest Living MOH Recipient Passes Away At 96: Ace
Million Vet March on the Memorials: MVM
Truckers Offer Free Rides To DC To Veterans For October 13 March: CDN

Sci-Tech

IT experts on Healthcare.gov website’s problems: “The site basically DDOS’d itself”: Hot Air
HHS could look to the 'cloud' to help fix exchange site: Kelly Kennedy, USA Today
Choosing a “biker mob” gun: Bearing Arms

Cornucopia

Obamaha Beach: Day by Day
Wanted by the White House: MORE Sob Stories!: Cube
DMF Volunteers Services to Update White House Social Sites: DMF

Image: Vets Storm Vietnam Memorial
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Calling All Patriots: Million Vet March On The Memorials 10/13

QOTD: "Welcome to liberal utopia, where barriers are not erected against terrorists or illegal aliens on our nation's borders, but rather against citizens, and where wheelchair-bound veterans enroute to honor their comrades face tighter security than terrorists enroute to murder a US Ambassador. This is where up is down, wrong is right, illegality is celebrated as progress, and where Constitutionalism is derided as racist. No longer relegated to the fever swamps of academic fancy, utopia has acquired real estate and made known its demands." --Dave Carter

Saturday, October 05, 2013

LISTEN UP, REPUBLICANS ON THE SUNDAY SHOWS: Here are your damn talking points...

Write 'em down on your hand if you need to:



Obama Makes History!

I don't know much about this Rep. Steve Stockman fellow, but I like the cut of his jib.


Hat tips: The Right Scoop and BB.

"If Government can be so petty and spiteful, imagine what they’ll do with your health care. STOP OBAMACARE!"

Guest post by iOwnTheWorld


Hey, GOP: here is your meme, your talking point, your weapon against Obama and the Big Government Democrats. It comes from our esteemed contributor, Mr. Pinko, who says:
If Government can be so petty and spiteful, imagine what they’ll do with your health care. STOP OBAMACARE!
As an example, consider this story:

S.D. officials object to feds barring visitors from highway viewing areas near Mount Rushmore


The National Park Service placed cones along highway viewing areas outside Mount Rushmore this week, barring visitors from pulling over and taking pictures of the famed monument.


The National Park Service closed the monument in response to a government shutdown, but South Dakota officials say the National Park Service went too far when it coned off the highway viewing areas.

The illustration is a satire, but the article is not.

We have a would-be despot in the White House, who respects neither the power of Congress nor the American people. And he is out to punish both.


Visit iOwnTheWorld for more

Network News Still Trying to Sell the U.N.'s Climate Change Scam

Guest post by Investors Business Daily

Global Warming: Temperatures have flat-lined for 15 years, the Arctic and Antarctic are gaining record amounts of ice, most computer models have been wrong, yet the networks are buying into the alarmists' narrative.

Earth might not have a fever but the media do, judging by their hyperventilating about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's quite fraudulent report (Fifth Assessment Report or 5AR) released Sept. 27. One network — CBS— even turned a blind eye to the truth and claimed that temperatures "could have risen by more than 200 degrees."

This fiction came from CBS' Ben Tracy, who said the carbon dioxide absorbed into the ocean is a time bomb already impacting sea life. Tracy said the oceans have absorbed much of the heat caused by increasing CO2 levels and claimed that had "all that heat gone into the atmosphere, air temperatures could have risen by more than 200 degrees," while "212 degrees" appeared in graphics.

In other words, were it not for the oceans, Earth would be Venus. But what Tracy should have concluded is our world is not all that fragile and is a self-regulating entity where temperatures are not a straight-line path to doom but rather a fluctuating condition over millennia. Similarly, ice ages, droughts, hurricanes, tornadoes and the like come and go in cycles.

NBC and ABC were only slightly less hysterical. ABC flashed "big warning" onscreen as it announced the "landmark" report from "top scientists." NBC predictably linked strong storms such as Hurricane Sandy to climate change. They all swallowed the IPCC report whole, providing no time to "top scientists," such as Dr. Don J. Easterbrook, who question the "settled science" of climate change.

Easterbrook, professor of geology at Western Washington University, wrote in a recent essay that "Mark Twain popularized the saying 'There are liars, damn liars, and statisticians.'" But, after he read the IPCC AR5 report, he said "we can now add, 'there are liars, damn liars, and IPCC.'"

Easterbrook reminds us a "vast published literature exists showing that recent warming is not only not unusual, but more intense warming has occurred many times in the past centuries and millennia."

OOPS: President Obama Asserts That Striking Workers Should be Fired

Guest post by James Simpson

Back in 2007, presidential candidate Obama said:

If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I'm in the White House, I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself and I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America. Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their shoes.

Yesterday, however, Obama said exactly the opposite. On October 3, 2013, Obama spoke at a “minority owned” business in Rockville, MD, a DC suburb, and blamed Republicans for the shutdown. It was a sympathetic, mostly Hispanic (illegals?) crowd.. In the category of you can’t make this stuff up, Obama said:

If you’re working here, and in the middle of the day you just stopped and said ‘I wanna get something… I’m gonna shut down the plant until I get something,’ you’d get fired!

So is Obama now saying we should fire him?

In his unguarded minutes, or perhaps more to the point, when he doesn't have his handlers, scripts and teleprompters with him, sham "President" Obama reveals what a grossly incompetent idiot he really is.

It it almost embarrassing to point out how vociferously Obama has supported and defended unions. Under this administration unions have gained unprecedented power, to the point of even having the National Labor Relations Board attempting to prevent private companies like Boeing from relocating to right-to-work state, South Carolina.

During the Wisconsin protests, union astroturfers were supported behind the scenes by the Obama administration and publicly by Democrats, in one of the most filthy displays of crude mob behavior in decades - exceeded only by the revolting Occupy protests, where protesters urinated, defecated, masturbated and fornicated in public, while Occupy leaders suppressed news of widespread robberies and rapes within the camps. Obama supported them too, if you recall, quite publicly. So did the unions.

Some years back, Union thug Richard Trumka said after a non-union strike breaker was murdered, "...if you strike a match and you put your finger in it, you’re likely to get burned..." Trumka now brags that he talks to the White House every day and visits twice a week.

The only way such an empty suit as President Obama can maintain power and a good public image is through the massive support he receives in the way of free PR from media. Notice for example, using this same video, MSNBC selected only one quote, and it was when Obama blamed Republicans for the shutdown. They have wisely avoided presenting the rest of this ridiculous speech. The news report is a conspicuous cheerlead for Obama, designed to help him apply pressure on Republicans regarding the shutdown. They should have their FCC licenses revoked for such clear cut bias, which the license forbids in news reporting.

Obama must drive his handlers nuts. Even in a friendly crowd, with friendly reporters, he can't be left alone safely for a minute. David Axelrod must have fits.

And this guy went to Harvard. Is it any wonder we are where we are today?


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: HELL, YES: Dear House Republicans: Stay the course

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

Nation

Find Your Representative, call them, thank them, and tell them to HOLD THEIR GROUND

HELL, YES: Dear House Republicans: Stay the course: LI
The progressive endgame, and how to prevent it: Protein Wisdom
Obamacare: ‘WARNING: No Expectation of Privacy’: WFB

Shutdown Reveals Obama’s Warped Worldview… Again.: Right Sphere
Mark Levin: Obama is preparing to destroy the role of Congress: Scoop
Meet the man who will make Obamacare fail: ConIntel

An Open Letter to President Obama: Matt Walsh
Who shut down Yellowstone?: Charles Krauthammer
John McCain and Bob Corker: Enemies of the Constitution: Scoop

Economy

Obama official: It doesn’t really matter how long shutdown lasts: Scoop
Limbaugh – Did The GOP Just Discover They’re Winning?: IM41
Public Sector Unions Must be Abolished: AT

Scandal Central

CEI Suit Seeks Injunction Against Ongoing EPA Record Destruction: CEI
Congress And Staff Get Gold Health Care – It’s Required: LoneCon
What a coincidence: Single ObamaCare success story is … OFA volunteer: Hot Air

Climate & Energy

Obama’s Green Car Only Burns Up If It Hits a Metallic Object – Yay!: Sentinel

Media

Comments from some people who are getting really frustrated with HealthCare.gov: David Freddoso
Frightening! – Mark Levin Predicts Obama’s Final Death Blow To America: IM41
HHS-Run Website Hacked; Now Selling NFL Jerseys, Ugg Boots, Armani Fragrances: WS

NBC Shutdown Story Ignores Harry Reid Rejecting GOP Plan to Fund Cancer Research: Kyle Drennen
Salt Lake City mayor lies about successfully enrolling his son on Obamacare exchange: Poor Richard
Longtime Second Amendment writer and activist Bob Owens named new editor: BearingArms

Napolitano: Obama is acting like a dictator: TPNN
Wolf Blitzer: Shutting Down Obamacare Website For Repair “An Embarrassment”: WZ
Has Strong Shutdown Rhetoric Violated Senate Rules? : Roll Call

World

Jerry Brown: Illegal Immigrant Driver's Licenses 'Only the First Step': Breitbart
UK: Muslim out celebrating Eid used his car as a "lethal weapon" : JihadWatch
Stooge In A Robe: Justice Ginsberg On The Second Amendment: Western Rifle Shooters

Sci-Tech

Adobe Didn’t Notice Hackers Stole 2.9 Million Users' Info Back In August: Consumerist
2013 Winners of Innovation by Design Awards: FastCoDesgin
Why New Fiber Networks Are Required To Shatter Monopolies Of Comcast, Other ISPs: Consumerist

Cornucopia

Bikers Ride for WW II Veterans Memorial Oct. 5, 2013: Kick Stands Up Again!: MagNote
Truckers Ride Oct 11-13: 3-Day Traffic Jam, Flags Flying – How You Can Help, Where to Meet: MagNote
The Terrorists vs. the Scare-O-rists: Day 4 Government Shutdown: MOTUS

Sponsored by: CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW, THANK THEM, AND TELL THEM TO HOLD THE LINE

QOTD: "With each day, as Republicans in the House pass funding bills, Democrats appear ever more intransigent. Denying funding to children with cancer? Even CNN called Harry Reid out on that.

Veterans? FEMA?

The hateful language spewing daily from senior Democratic politicians does them no good.

Don’t fall prey to the pundits and “sky is falling” Republican who are predicting that this is the worst thing ever for Republicans and a bonanza for Obama.

It’s way too early to know how this plays out in electoral terms down the road. Don’t worry about that. Stay strong." --William A. Jacobson

Friday, October 04, 2013

LEAKS REVEAL: Obama Preparing to Destroy the Separation of Powers

Constitutional attorney and radio host Mark Levin has warned us repeatedly what is coming.

The President is preparing to raise the debt ceiling unilaterally -- like a dictator -- usurping the power of the purse granted solely to Congress.

OBAMA: “An economic shutdown, that results from Default, would be dramatically worse.”

LEVIN: You get it? You get it, folks? He’s laying the foundation for exactly what I’m saying.

He is going to break the debt ceiling. He is going to spend more than Congress has authorized. He’s preparing to do it... If he can’t get what he wants, he is going to circumvent the United States Constitution... And I smell this a mile away.

And he’s being encouraged repeatedly by pseudo-intellectuals, by Marxists dressed up as Constitutionalists, by people in his own party, he’s being encouraged to conduct himself as a dictator, and to bypass Congress and to bypass the Constitution, why work with him?

They want a full-blown Constitutional crisis. Please, listen to me, this is what they want! So they can continue to shred it!

This is why Obama won’t budge, like Clinton did and Carter did and Reagan did and Ford did and Nixon did. He’s the only one who won’t negotiate. This is why. This is his fundamental transformation. And I’m going to keep hollering this as loudly as I can because more and more people need to see it!

Oh, and it's not just conservative thought-leaders like Levin saying it.

Consider the most terrifying thing I've heard all week: on Fox News Special Report, Amy Stoddard -- the left wing writer for Roll Call -- said the following:

There is a report out that says the President believe he's going to "reorder" the [balance of] power in Washington between the branches with this exercise.

Such an act would be an unprecedented high crime against the Constitution. No less an authority than the left-leaning Professor Laurence Tribe of Harvard describes it as such in no uncertain terms.

Professor Tribe ... rejected the idea, saying it was proposed by ''otherwise very sensible law scholars'' who in this case had concocted ''a prescription for a free-for-all that abandons the rule of law.''

''We have no metric for comparative lawlessness,'' he said.

Mark my words well, Leftists: should your charismatic demagogue attempt such a wanton act of criminality, he will touch off far more than a "Constitutional Crisis". You have been warned.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: In Case the Republican Establishment Didn't Notice, They’re WINNING Shutdown Fight

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

Nation

Find Your Representative, call them, thank them, and tell them to HOLD THEIR GROUND

In Case GOP Didn't Notice, They’re WINNING Shutdown Fight: RWN
Next time, Democrats will take your doctor hostage: John Hayward
404care: Explained: Cold Fury

The Left is 'terrified out of their minds,' says Ted Cruz: Charlie Spiering
Ted Cruz’s fantastic interview with Michael Berry: Poor Richard
Obamacare: Obama’s Signature Chemistry Experiment: David Limbaugh

Obamacare Propaganda in All Its Glory: Lady Liberty
Astroturf: Media’s Obamacare Poster Boy is OFA Volunteer: Ed Driscoll
Welcome to the Harry and Barry Shutdown Show: Daniel Horowitz

Economy

Why did Obama try to scare the markets?: Tyler Cowen
CNBC Outs Obama's Strategy of ‘Scaring the Market’: Sean Long
Who Shut Down the Government?: Thomas Sowell

Obama Comes Out for Union-Busting!: HayRide
Charade: Regime Spends Money to Close Park That Costs It No Money: RWN
Democrats’s Shutdown Is Refusal To Face The American People: Dana Loesch

Dept. of Education: Almost 95% Non-Essential Personnel: FW
Paging Federal Obamacare Enrollees: Is Anybody Out There?: Walter Russell Mead
WH Orders Hundreds of Privately Run, Privately Funded Parks to Close: Tatler

Scandal Central

Shutdown overreach: More guards at WWII memorial than Benghazi: Exam
After Shutdown: Administration Gives $445,000,000 to Corporation for Public Broadcasting: CNS
Seven Stupid Ways Obama Admin Spent Money During Shutdown: RWN

Security breach rattles MN health-care exchange: Tom Steward, Watchdog
A Camp Bastion Mom’s Call of Duty: Michelle Malkin
"Congress orders NPS to retain all records of Barrycade's of America's public treasures.": Strata

Climate & Energy

Tesla says car fire began in battery after crash: Yahoo!

Media

21 Comments Posted On The Official Obamacare Facebook Page: RINF
Historic Numbers Are Enrolling for Obamacare But You Can’t Know How Many: Sara Noble
Waxman on 10,535 Pages of Obamacare Regs: ‘Is It Important That I Read It?’: CNS

How AP altered its headline to protect Obamacare: Sister Toldjah
Obamacare hotline number sums up Obama’s message to US: 1800FU . . . : BPR
New tone: Thomas Friedman likens GOP to Hezbollah: Twitchy

No Peace for the Obstinate Squish: Jen Kuznicki
Poll: Shutdown Hardly a Catastrophe for GOP: Dossier
Why Harry Reid Lost His Temper: Seth Mandel, Commentary

World

Former Joint Chiefs chairman: Obama plotted to destabilize regimes in Bahrain, Egypt: WorldTribune
US government shutdown: Barack Obama looks like a bitter, petty and partisan president: Nile Gardiner
‘We were determined to go through’: Veterans allowed to visit World War II Memorial: Jake Tapper

Sci-Tech

Iran's cyberwarfare czar is allegedly assassinated: Dara Kerr
The Death of Microsoft: Robin Harris
Why Conformists Are a Key to Successful Innovation: Ella Miron-Spektor, HBR

Cornucopia

Cali: Told To Turn In Their Guns To Get Obamacare?: WZ
Government Shutdown Disaster Movies: Morlock Revolt
The Obama Blame Game: LiberalLogic101

Sponsored by: CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW, THANK THEM, AND TELL THEM TO HOLD THE LINE

QOTD: "The thing is…since the federal government shut down…nothing much has changed. Actually, nothing at all has changed for AWD! The sun came up, Texas remained the bad-assiest state in the republic, and liberal womerns were still butt-ugly while libtarded males remained effeminate and worthless. Situation normal...

...Sure, 800,000 non-essential government employees were furloughed because of the shutdown. The fact that the federal government employs 800,000 non-essential employees shows precisely the reason the federal leviathan should be shut down!" --Angry White Dude

Thursday, October 03, 2013

Storming the Barackades

Guest post by Hans von Spakovsky

Americans are justifiably angry over the political game being played by the Obama administration to barricade the World War II Memorial in Washington. And they should be. Under federal law, there is no justifiable reason for closing the memorial.

On Tuesday, the National Park Service put up barricades around the open-air memorial that is normally accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even when Park Service personnel are not there. Police threatened to arrest visiting veterans, who came to Washington as part of Honor Flight, a non-profit that gives veterans free transportation so they can see war memorials.

It is one of the most blatant and shameful political stunts being carried out by the White House, which appears intent on keeping the government shut down to protect Obamacare.

How do we know this is purely political theater? Because under applicable federal law – and the interpretation of that law by both the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget — all “law enforcement” operations of the federal government are exempted from being shut down during any funding lapse.

James Joyner: Constitutional Conservatives are "Insane"

Writing at Outside the Beltway, James Joyner derides those who would save the Republic from fiscal apocalypse:

Sane Republicans Trying to Take Party Back


...That there’s no plausible way that Cruz and company will get what they want here has been blindingly obvious for quite some time, yet they’ve insisted on driving over the cliff.

Leaving aside for a moment that this is a criminal waste of taxpayer money and that it’s bad for the country becomes more obvious by the hour, it’s a political disaster for the Republican Party.

...Moreover, their “government is bad” mantra gets weaker with each news story about government services and programs that got shut down that seem pretty useful after all.

Useful. Yeah, I mean, without non-essential workers, who would barricade the open-air World War II Memorial from veterans?

One pragmatic and honest commenter responded to Joyner's bizarre insults (slightly edited for readability).

The House of Representatives cannot only refuse, but they alone can propose, the supplies requisite for the support of government. They, in a word, hold the purse that powerful instrument by which we behold, in the history of the British Constitution, an infant and humble representation of the people gradually enlarging the sphere of its activity and importance, and finally reducing, as far as it seems to have wished, all the overgrown prerogatives of the other branches of the government.

This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure.
James Madison, Federalist 58


What is insane is a government that borrows 42 cents of every dollar it spends.

What is insane is an unconstitutional law, passed illegally as a budget measure when there is no budget, that has been rewritten a dozen times by the President to carve out exceptions for big businesses and cronies.

What is insane is a government whose own actuaries say existing entitlements are poised to collapse — and then creates an even bigger and more debt-ridden entitlement program against the will of the people.

What is insane is a government that now runs up an NPV operating deficit of $7 trillion a year and monetizes virtually all federal debt to keep interest rates under control.

Cruz and Lee are among the few sane ones left — because they understand mathematics, facts, logic, reason and history — who try to abide by our nation’s highest law, which you and the Beltway elites never mention: the Constitution.

History is replete with tales of countries that have failed the way that we are failing. Beholden to a charismatic demagogue and fueled by a cult of personality, those that believe the banal, Utopian and paradisiacal promises are the ideological descendants of countless failed societies.

And that, my friends, is what is truly insane.

Especially for Mr. Joyner: "Don't cry for me, America".


ObamaDoesntCare: 10 percent of all employers may drop health insurance (Taegan Goddard presumably ecstatic!)

As if the crashing websites, massive price hikes, and rampant job losses aren't enough, well, here it comes:

Obamacare prompts firms to rethink health benefits


...About 10 percent of companies who responded are thinking about ending employer-sponsored health benefits ... according to the Buck Consultants’ Compensation Planning Survey.

The seventh annual survey collected data from 329 organizations, including some of the largest companies in the nation. Buck Consultants, a division of Xerox, conducts a range of human resources and compensation surveys.

...The mandate that companies with 50 or more full-time employees provide medical insurance or face fines has been [Ed: illegally] deferred to 2015 by the administration of President Barack Obama.

Roll Call's full-time Obamacare cheerleader Taegan Goddard could not be reached for comment at press time.


WHO WANTS A SHUTDOWN? Here is a hint: his name starts with the letter "O" and ends with "BAMA".

Who really wants a shutdown? It's the guy whose starting negotiating position is that he won't negotiate.

Republicans are voting to keep the government open, some Democrats agree, and Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the gang are trying to stop them while demanding a “clean” CR funding Obamacare.

Well, guess what? All federal government funding originates in the House.

That means the House decides what money is spent and what money isn’t.

If the House doesn’t support Obamacare, there is no Obamacare.

That’s not partisan politics, it’s institutional politics. It’s called the separation of powers, and it is PRECISELY how the Founders intended the country to work. This is what happens when you jam an unpopular law creating a new federal bureaucracy through Congress on a straight party-line vote. It was a stupid thing for Obama, Pelosi and Reid to do, it was an abuse of power for them to do it and the price to be paid is the loss of the Congressional body which is in control of enacting that law through funding.

The House is exercising its constitutional prerogative in deciding what is to be funded and what is not to be funded. It is the Senate and the president who are to blame for shutting down the government. And we’re now seeing that the Senate and the president are shutting down the government in order to continue forcing on the public something the market would kill with gusto were it subject to market forces. That is no position to be in.

It’s a political problem for Obama and Reid which will only be solved if the Republicans lose their nerve.

Another thing to remember: the longer the shutdown goes on, the more pressure Democrats will feel.

The federal bureaucracy is the Democrat Party. And the Democrat Party is the federal bureaucracy.

When enough bureaucrats demand that Obama negotiate with a separate but equal branch of government, he'll negotiate. Until then, Republicans can and should stand firm.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Democrats Are All Community Organizers Now #NewTone

Remember civility?

Democrats, who have long posed as the party of peaceniks and doves, have been anything but during the great rhetorical war of 2013. In fact, the party of George McGovern and Jimmy Carter has been mad as hell as of late, leading an offensive of bombastic insults and rhetorical bullying that has dominated the government shutdown...

...President Obama called Republicans “reckless and irresponsible,” casting the Grand Old Party in the role of villain. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, referred to Republicans as “anarchists,” and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, deemed Republicans “legislative arsonists.”
“I want to publicly praise Speaker John Boehner for standing firm against the Democrat government shutdown and their refusal to negotiate on a law they themselves have delayed and exempted themselves from,” said Rep. Steve Stockman, Texas Republican.

“Democrats have hurled every insult imaginable, such as ‘terrorist,’ ‘arsonist’ and ‘murderers’ against Americans who differ with President Obama. Despite their threats and childish behavior, the speaker has been steadfast in his vision to reduce the size and scope of government and treat everyone fairly,” Mr. Stockman said.

What do you call a furlough of 800,000 "non-essential personnel"? A good start.


Related: SARAH PALIN CONTROVERSY: Rips Opponents as Terrorists and Hostage-Taking Anarchists Using Homophobic Rhetoric.

Larwyn's Linx: Hold the line. Undermine Obamacare. Shut it down.

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

Nation

Find Your Representative, call them, and tell them to HOLD THEIR GROUND

Hold the line. Undermine Obamacare. Shut it down.: Erick Erickson
100 Unintended Consequences of Obamacare: Andrew Johnson
It's the President's Fault: Peter Ferrara

How the Park Service Is Enforcing the Shutdown on the Mall: Jim Geraghty
How the Democrats got us to a shutdown: Soren Dayton
The Politics of the Government Shutdown: Sean Trende

‘We Will March On Washington Against Your Tyranny!’ -Vows Mark Levin: Camp o' the Saints
Letting Obama Force a Constitutional Crisis Is Best Republican Choice: Spengler
The Big "Shutdown": So Much About So Little; So Little About So Much: DiploMad

Ted Cruz & Mike Lee: Commanders of the Conservative Army: Erick Erickson
Gut the Progressive GOP: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
Obama says “Stick it” to America Through the NPS: Zion's Trumpet

Economy

Remember How Awesome It Is That Pre-Existing Conditions Get Covered In O’care?: HayRide
The sound of California Obamacare exchange going down in flames.: Moe Lane
Postal Service defaults on $5.6 billion payment: CNN

Scandal Central

WWII and Lincoln Memorial Barricade Showdowns – Live Updates: LI
Mounted Police Now Being Used To Keep WWII Vets Away From Memorial: SAB
McDonald’s Employee Admits Being Paid $15 to Protest WW2 Veterans : Tatler

Climate & Energy

EPA Imposes New ‘War on Coal’ Regulations: Bill Straub, PJMedia
Government Shutdown to Delay EPA $1 Gallon Gas Price Hike: Daniel Greenfield

Media

Mark Levin gives the most IMPORTANT reason EVER on why GOP MUST keep fighting: Scoop
The Great Government ShutDown Is Becoming Public Relations Debacle For Regime : Nice Deb
Barrycade Earns Entry At Urban Dictionary: Glob

Shutting Them Down: Liberty's Torch
Darrell Issa Deems Obama a ‘Non-Essential’ Government Employee: JWF
US government shutdown: Obama's welfare socialism sparked this crisis, not the Constitution: Telegraph
Planned Parenthood: $1M Attacking Pro-Life Gubernatorial Candidate Ken Cuccinelli: WZ

The mask falls, #794,878: Protein Wisdom
Bill Clinton: Americans Will Get Used to Communism: Godfather
Angry Dem Rep: GOP Has 'Jihad Against Americans' Access To Health Care': Breitbart

World

Iranian President Dismissed Obama 5 Times: Daniel Greenfield
Saudia Arabian Mufti: Destroy All Christian Churches On Arabian Peninsula: John Hawkins
CAIR Demands That Maryland Schools Close For Islamic Holidays: John Hawkins

Sci-Tech

Aawwk! Now They Want to Redefine the Word “Cancer”: Elephant
3D-printed toothbrush scrubs chompers in 6 seconds: Amanda Kooser
This Hornet Will Be the Last Thing You See Before You Die: Gawker

Cornucopia

#Shutdown: The Terrible, Terrible Reality!: MOTUS
Something Life-Changing Happened to an 87-Year-Old Veteran at the WWII Memorial: Blaze
Attorney sets date of 11/19 for "ending Obama's reign of terror': Outpost

Sponsored by: CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW AND TELL THEM TO HOLD THE LINE

QOTD: "Imagine the power the government would have today – let’s pretend it’s ten years from now and Obamacare is fully in place and there’s a legitimate fight over spending and taxing…and there’s a government shutdown… Do you know what a president like Obama would do?

He’d start cutting off your health care to force you to capitulate to his demands. Oh yes! They’d start shutting down hospitals, refusing to pay doctors and nurses, refusing to approve prescriptions. Because that’s where we’re headed, to the complete iron-fisted control of our health care. Can you imagine the kind of power they’d have over us then?

It’s certainly one of the reasons we must resist now." --Mark Levin

Bonus QOTD: "[The shutdown] is a good demonstration that we have too much government. A fourth of federal workers, 800,000, are sent home, and no one even notices. Obama and the Democrats wanted the shutdown because they are certain the public will blame the Republicans, and it is part of the grand Obama/Democrat strategy to manipulate the public into voting down the Republican House majority in 2014, the last check on Obama’s increasingly authoritarian rule. Democrats care ONLY about their own political POWER and nothing else. The poor, minorities, seniors, are all just used as props by the Democrats to expand their political power. Notice how easily the Democrats dropped seniors and slashed their Medicare when that was convenient to enact Obamacare, which is only all about another opportunity for massive expansion of their power." --Peter Ferrara