Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Ted Cruz Negotiates Delay in Obamacare's Individual Mandate

Did I say Ted Cruz?

Sorry, I meant Barack Obama. You know, the guy who repeatedly bleated "I WILL NOT NEGOTIATE" over delaying any aspect of Obamacare's oppressive and capricious mandates.

Guess what? Obama has decided to delay Obamacare's oppressive and capricious mandates. Of course, it has absolutely nothing to do with Healthcare.gov, the only website ever built that crashes in 150 languages.

The Obama administration said Wednesday night that it will give Americans who buy health insurance through new online marketplaces an extra six weeks to obtain coverage before they risk a penalty...

...Administration officials said the change is unrelated to the many problems that the marketplace’s Web site, HealthCare.gov, has had in its first three weeks. Instead, they said, the shift relates to what they called a “disconnect” among dates in new rules for buying coverage...

...under the new rule, anyone who buys coverage during the open enrollment period will avoid a penalty, whether their coverage has started by April 1 or not. Administration officials said Wednesday that they will issue formal guidance in the next few days about the change. An HHS official said it remains unclear whether the deadline shift will apply to Americans who buy insurance without using the exchanges...

You know how the White House used human props a few days ago to advertise how great Obamacare was working?

Why don't Republican leaders (I know, an oxymoron) arrange a virtual town-hall meeting of the millions of Americans who have lost their health insurance thanks to Obamacare?

I mean, if a single blogger like Matt Walsh can do it, perhaps even the feckless RINO establishment can pull it off.


WHOA: Dick Durbin Calls Barack Obama a Liar

Rumor on the Hill has it that Senator "Little" Dick Durbin (D-IL) is the single most despised member of the U.S. Senate of either party. He is said to have lied repeatedly to other Senators during a variety of critical negotiations. Now he is embroiled in a tête-à-tête with the White House. It began when he alleged that an unnamed Republican insulted President Obama to his face.

Allegation:

A top Senate Democrat said that a leading House Republican told President Obama that they could not ‘even stand to look at you’ during negotiations over the government shutdown...

Denial:

...Spokesmen for both Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor say neither official said or remembers anyone else saying they couldn’t stand to look at President Obama at a White House summit during the government shutdown, as Democratic senator Dick Durbin of Illinois alleged...

Annnnd here’s the confirmation of the denial from… the White House:

JACKIE CALMES, NEW YORK TIMES: Just to follow up on that. In terms of the president talking to Republicans, can you rule out — there was the number two Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin, said on his Facebook page that someone in recent exchange with the president said he can’t even stand, this member of Congress, that he can’t even stand to look at the president. Can you say whether that happened?

JAY CARNEY: I will say this, I spoke with somebody who was in that meeting and it did not happen.



*Crunch* *Crunch* *Crunch*

Hey, pass the popcorn, Nahanni!


Hat tip: BadBlue News (seriously, there's no better place for breaking news).

BUT DON'T CALL IT A DEATH PANEL: Canada's Supreme Court rules a government board, not family, can pull the plug on patients

Guest post by Investors Business Daily

Health Care: Canada's Supreme Court has ruled that under the "law of the land" in Ontario, a government board, not the family or doctors, has the ultimate power to pull the plug on a patient.

Lost in the discussion of defunding ObamaCare and the failed effort in Congress is the fact that failure means the government's ability to defund your life through the ObamaCare's Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) remains. IPAB is regarded by many, starting with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, as a death panel whose decisions based on cost effectiveness would result in health care rationing.

A glimpse of this brave new world can be had by casting a glance at our neighbor to the north. There, Canada's Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that under Ontario's Health Care Consent Act, which has been on the books for nearly two decades, doctors cannot overrule a family's wishes for an incapacitated patient regarding life or death decisions, but an administrative tribunal can.

In 1996, Ontario's provincial legislature created the Consent and Capacity Board, a body with the power to make the final decision when doctors and families disagree on keeping a patient alive with continued treatment or pulling the plug, a conflict that can result in endless legal battles.

At issue in the Ontario case was the fate of Hassan Rasouli, a retired engineer who suffered complications following brain surgery three years ago and has been in a vegetative state in a Toronto hospital ever since. Doctors say there is no hope of recovery but the family doesn't want to turn off life support.

The court ruled that the doctors could not overrule the family's wishes, but are able to appeal to the Consent and Capacity Board, which could. Canada has a full-blown single-payer system, which President Obama is undoubtedly aiming for. So the question of when it is cost-effective to treat or keep patients alive becomes more of a matter of space and budget rather than a medical issue.

The question of whether one's life is worth saving or one's condition is worth treating remains a key part of ObamaCare, even while being eclipsed by political maneuverings and enrollment difficulties. And having that decision made by a body such as IPAB has led to legislative efforts to pull the plug on ObamaCare itself.

Larwyn's Linx: Tales From Obamacare’s War On The Middle Class

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

Nation

Tales From Obamacare’s War On The Middle Class: HayRide
Not so fast, GOP establishment: Protein Wisdom
Where Is Our Amnesty?: Daniel Horowitz

Beating Obama: Daniel Greenfield
What to do, what to do: Cold Fury
One Guy Can Make a Difference: Rush Limbaugh

If ObamaCare is delayed, it dies: John Hayward
Mitch McConnell #1 Corrupt Bastard in DC?: CHQ
A constitutional right to anonymity in political contributions: Rob Natelson

Economy

Craigslist makes turning food stamps into cash a SNAP: Barracuda
Shocking: ObamaCare a job killer for franchises: Sister Toldjah
UnitedHealthcare drops doctors, patients from Medicare: Providence

Another Rose Garden Speech; Another Set of Props: ATRS
Loving and Hating America: Walter Williams
90,609,000: Americans Not in Labor Force Climbs to Another Record: CNS

Scandal Central

Watch Your Guns Around Obamacare: RWN
HHS Official Will Brief House Democrats Only on Obamacare Rollout: Ace
Confessions of an ObamaCare Call Center Operator : MB

Media

Nobody But Us: Richard Fernandez
Schweizer Book a 'Slap Upside the Head' to Media's Blindness to D.C. Corruption: Sarah Palin
Still not sold on President ShamWow’s Obamacare pitch? #ButWaitTheresMore: Twitchy

CNBC's Liesman: Can We Get 'Mexican Music' for Ted Cruz?: TruthRevolt
Washington Post: #obamacare exchange flunked pre-launch testing. *Grotesquely*.: Moe Lane
Did the White House get heavy handed with THE FIVE’s BOB BECKEL? : Gretawire

Allen West: Democrats remain proud to display burning crosses: Scoop
Jay Carney walks out on black female reporter asking a polite question about Obamacare site: Althouse
Why I Never Argue Politics With Liberals: R.S. McCain

World

Jim Inhofe: Obama Disarming U.S. While Allowing Iran to Stall: MagNote
Shocking admission on Army preparedness: No training the last 6 months: Andrew Malcolm
Exclusive: White House Official Fired for Tweeting Under Fake Name: Josh Rogin

Sci-Tech

US court rules warrant required for GPS tracking of vehicles: John Ribeiro, PCWorld
Don’t Forget Obamacare’s Electronic Medical Records Wreck: Michelle Malkin
Booz & Company’s 2013 Global Innovation 1000 Study: Barry Jaruzelski

Cornucopia

Guy gets towed, bitches about it. Guy who towed him makes hilarious response video: Reddit
Bumper Sticker Of The Day: Conservative Treehouse
Who Will Protect You from the Police? The Rise of Government-Sanctioned Home Invasions: John W. Whitehead

Image: Hey Young Reporters: Five Huge Stories On Which To Launch Your Woodward-Like Career
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support Matt Bevin for U.S. Senate - Bye, Bye Mitch McConnell

QOTD: "Obama can fire 10,000 people and the ObamaCare system still won't work.

And remember, the part of the system that doesn't work just enrolls a member.

Just wait till they attempt to process the gazillions of medical, financial and reporting events. " --Commenter Beckwith

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

THANK A DETROITOCRAT: The Number of Americans Who Left the Labor Force Hits Another All-Time High

I'm trying to get the term "Detroitocrats" -- referring, of course, to the members of the hard left Democrat Party who ruin everything they touch -- popularized. Today's jobs report can only help my cause.

...The number of Americans who are 16 years or older and who have decided not to participate in the nation's labor force has climbed to a record 90,609,000 in September...


...In January 2009, when President Barack Obama took office, there were 80,507,000 Americans not in the labor force. Thus, the number of Americans not in the labor force has increased by 10,102,000 during Obama's presidency...

Please take a closer look at the chart. Notice that around May of 2010, when Obamacare was jammed through Congress without a single Republican vote, the labor-force participation rate started heading south. And it hasn't let up since.

In fact, less than 150,000 people in the U.S. -- total -- found work last month. That's less than 3,000 people per state -- or about the number of people who attend a high school football game.

...just 148,000 people found work last month.

"I think it is an absolute disaster," says Brian Sozzi, chief equity strategist at Belus Capital Advisors in the attached video, where he calls today's release a "horrifically depressing report."
As Sozzi sees it, "there's stuff going on out there in the economy that nobody is talking about."

Specifically, he cites the need to listen to what companies such as Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) and Hasbro (HAS) are telling us this earnings season, and to take heed of the restructuring plans, earnings misses, and soft revenue results.

The Detroitocrat Party is literally turning all of America into Detroit.

They have no blueprint, no master plan, no overarching document describing their endgame they can share with us. They will continue to tinker, to social-engineer, to "fix" society using increasingly totalitarian methods to address the "non-compliant".

And like D.C., like Chicago, and -- yes -- like Detroit and all of the other bankrupt cities in California, jobs, opportunity and hope will disappear from the landscape like a wheat field devastated by a swarm of locusts.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Who Will Be the Next Innocent Person to Die Because of Alan Grayson?

You already knew that Alan Grayson was a despicable troll, but now we know he's also inciting violence in a craven and corrupt attempt to remain in office.

...In a campaign email sent Monday, the Orlando Democrat includes the transcript of an interview he did recently on MSNBC -- with the Rev. Al Sharpton as host -- in which Grayson said that the politics of the government shutdown had turned many Americans away from the Tea Party.

"At this point, the Tea Party is no more popular than the Klan," Grayson said.

The email then takes that comparison one step further by including a photograph of a burning cross with Klansmen in the background. The cross then becomes the "T" in the words "Tea Party" transposed over the picture. Below is the caption: "Now you know what the 'T' stands for."

Within hours there was a response from Jorge Bonilla, one of the Republicans running against Grayson in a heavily Democratic district that includes Osceola County and parts of Orange and Polk.

"The depiction of burning crosses in Congressman Alan Grayson's most recent fundraising ask is despicable and needlessly hurtful to the many millions of families that still deal with the wounds of racial prejudice," wrote Bonilla.

"What's worse, he does so for no other reason than to troll for donations for his re-election campaign," he added.

Grayson must have missed the decades of American history where the KKK served as "the terror wing of the Democrat Party". As recently as the last decade, Democrats elevated a former Klan official -- Robert Byrd -- to one of the highest offices in the land.

Furthermore, the imagery that Grayson picked as supposedly representative of Republican racism was likely created by he and other progressives. This is who they are. This is what they do. Remember this classic case of Democrat false flag tactics?

Note the black man holding up the poster. This screenshot was used in reports by the MSM who painted the protesters as Nazis. Here's the thing, though - that black man is a Dingell supporter! Last Friday, Frank Beckmann on his show broadcast on WJR 760 AM interviewed an eyewitness that said not only were union thugs let in through a side door before anyone else was let into the venue, but that he clearly saw from his vantage point that very Obama as Hitler poster in that back hallway after the union thugs took their seats.

...A couple that were at [Dingell's] meeting said there was a black man outside with a sign comparing Obama [with] Adolf Hitler. After the meeting ended and when everyone was leaving this same man was handing out [Dingell] campaign flyers.

Should someone in his district meet race-based violence -- I don't care whether they're black, white, green, red, yellow or blue -- they should sue Alan Grayson for inciting to riot.


Hat tip: BadBlue News

AWESOME: IRS gives away $4.2 billion to illegal aliens while attacking Tea Party, Christian and Pro-Israel Groups

Guest post by Kenric Ward

WASHINGTON, D.C. — While harrying and stalling tea party groups seeking nonprofit status, the Internal Revenue Service mailed $4.2 billion in child-credit checks to undocumented immigrants.

Critics say midlevel IRS bureaucrats continue to abuse the Additional Child Tax Credit program by dispensing $1,000 checks to families in this country illegally.

“The law needs clarification that undocumented immigrants are not eligible,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, told Watchdog.org in a statement.

AP file photo

LEGAL RESIDENTS ONLY: Sen. Charles Grassley says it was never Congress’ intent for the IRS to issue tax-credit checks to people in this country illegally.

To make Congress’ intent clear – that only legal U.S. residents are entitled to ACTC credits — Grassley co-sponsored a clarifying amendment with Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wy.

“Unfortunately, the majority leader (Harry Reid, D-Nev.) cut off debate, so we weren’t given the chance to offer our amendment,” said Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The IRS’ practice of paying out billions to undocumented-immigrant families never received full congressional scrutiny, said David North, a fellow at the enforcement-oriented Center for Immigration Studies.

“I’ve been in government and I know kind of how these things work out,” North told the Washington Times.

“It struck me that (GS) 15s and 16s got together at some point and decided this is how we should handle it, and it stuck,” said North, who wrote “Paying Illegals to Stay,” an analysis of how benefit programs increase illegal immigration.

The IRS has said it doesn’t believe the ACTC law allows the agency to deny payment to undocumented immigrants.

Watchdog reported in June that disbursement of ACTC credits has grown rapidly — and suspiciously — with increased issuance of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers as substitutes for Social Security numbers.

ITIN holders are not required to prove legal residency, and ITIN applications are running at the rate of 1 million a year.

Federal investigators identified one address in Atlanta where 23,994 ITIN refunds totaling $46,378,040 were delivered. A single bank account there received 8,393 refunds.

Records indicate that undocumented immigrants in Virginia received $87.9 million in ACTC cash from the IRS. Watchdog reported that $163,711 went to a single address in the tiny eastern shore town of Parksley.

In lightly populated Iowa, Grassley’s home state, undocumented immigrants got an estimated $30 million.

With an average of 15 percent of ACTC refunds directed to undocumented households nationally, North calculates that roughly half of the money went to ITIN holders who paid “little or no income taxes.”

An audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration stated:

“We believe legislation is needed to clarify whether or not refundable tax credits such as the ACTC may be paid to filers without a Social Security number. Such a legislative change could result in cost savings to the federal government of $1.8 billion annually.

“As it now stands, the payment of federal funds through this tax benefit appears to provide additional incentive for aliens to enter, reside and work in the U.S. without authorization, which contradicts federal law and policy to remove such incentives.”

The recommendations of that audit, conducted in 2009, have yet to be acted on.

Meantime, the IRS continues to be dogged by controversy over its handling of tax-exempt requests by tea party groups and other conservative organizations.

Judicial Watch this month filed a Freedom of Information lawsuit against the agency asking the District Court for the District of Columbia to compel the IRS to produce records of all communications relating to the review process for organizations seeking 501(c)(4) non-profit status since Jan. 1, 2010.

On May 14, the Treasury inspector general concluded the IRS had singled out groups with conservative-sounding terms such as “patriot” and “tea party” in their titles when applying for tax-exempt status.



Hat tips: BadBlue News and @KenricWard.

THERE, FIXED IT FOR YOU: Healthcare.gov Modified for Accuracy

It's the least I could do.






Sean Hackbarth has additional insight into the half-billion dollar website failure.


Larwyn's Linx: The high cost of ObamaCare deception

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

Nation

The high cost of ObamaCare deception: John Hayward
Boehner should hold presser with those hurt by Obamacare: Toldjah
Young strategist behind shutdown – more powerful than Boehner?: BPR

When You've Lost NPR...: Tammy Bruce
Watch Ted Cruz Speak at King Street Patriots: Scoop
Rand Paul Introduces Constitutional Amendment: Minority Report

Big Business Wants A Divided GOP – You Can Stop Them: CHQ
The Republican Schism: Erick Erickson
McConnell’s primary opponent snags high profile conservative endorsement: RWN

Economy

A Fifth of Doom: Stephen Green
Reid: Obamacare first step to single-payer, Soviet-style system: Eric Boehm
Marc Faber Blasts "We Are The Bubble... There Is No Exit Strategy": ZH

Sticker Shock: Obamacare Increases Premiums in 42 States: PJM
Report: Boehner about to lose Speakership due to surrender: John Hawkins
If I Were In Charge of Welfare: Fellowship of the Minds (2011)

Scandal Central

Obama Orders ICE Not To Detain Illegal Immigrants With Criminal Records: RWN
Obama tells everyone to use 800-number. Which directs everyone back to malfunctioning website.: GWP
Ladies and Gentlemen . . . The Kinks!: Keith Koffler

Republicans Hate ObamaCare? How Come Some Are Implementing It?: Ace
Sebelius Agrees to Testify on Obamacare Rollout … Eventually: Emily Pierce, Roll Call
Gun Control Through Obamacare: GJWHG

Climate & Energy

Four Colorado Localities To Hold Votes On Whether To Impoverish Themselves: Ace

Media

No lapdog here! Philly-area columnist slams ‘fraud’ Al Gore, GOP establishment; Praises Cruz: Twitchy
ABC Wakes Up to 'Massive Technical Glitches' on ObamaCare Website: 'It's a Bust': MRC
AP White House Reporter: WH Stonewalling on Enrollment Figures: Keith Koffler

CBS: White House Risks 'Credibility Death Spiral' Over 'Total Fiasco' of ObamaCare Site: NB
NBC's Guthrie Grills Cheney on Tea Party; Cheney Calls Obama 'Most Radical' in D.C.: Kyle Drennen
Hitler is pissed about the failed Obamacare rollout!: TPC

Abandon in Place: Ed Driscoll
Who Would Jesus Shoot?: Herschel Smith
MSNBC Contributor: White House Lying About Obamacare Enrollment Numbers: Breitbart

World

Families suspect SEAL Team 6 crash was inside job: Times
U.S. quietly releasing $1.6B in Pakistan assistance: Marine Times
Fleet weeks, Blue Angels back for fiscal '14, but with cuts: Navy Times

12 Clues: What America Will Look Like When The Next Great Economic Crisis Strikes: Michael Snyder
A worldwide Second Amendment? Interpol boss suggests it may be time.: Bob Owens
Dragon Day – Opens 1 November: Western Rifles

Czesława Kwoka, prisoner number 26947: HappyAcres
To the Left and the RINOs: No, I Won't Be Silent: Rick David
Russian terror attack caught on dash cam: Blazing Cat Fur

Sci-Tech

Pre-launch tests of Obamacare site crashed with only a few hundred visitors.: Poor Richard
Google Helping Small Businesses Visualize Location Data As Easily As Making a Pie Chart: Matthew Panzarino
Hand built submachine guns seized in Israel / Palestinian territories: TFB

Cornucopia

Know When to Hold Em’, Know When to Fold Em’: MOTUS
Just Press the Apply Button to Find Out What Your Coverage Is: Rex Harrison's Hat
Top Ten Things Overheard from the Obamacare Website Design: IMAO

Image: via Twitchy
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please Support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "Perhaps it's anecdotal, but it seems to be a pretty common anecdote -- outside the Beltway, no one cares. The shutdown, the debt ceiling -- it's not even on normal peoples' radar...

In 2014, the fact that their insurer is dumping their health insurance plan and making them pay twice as much for a crummier one -- now that will get their attention. They will have an opinion on that, plus they will be plenty interested in who is responsible for it. And does anyone want to guess who is responsible for ensuring that the Scarlet "O" of Obamacare is tattooed right onto the forehead of every Democrat running in 2014? Three guesses, and if your first two are John and Lindsey you are wrong, wrong, wrong.

This wasn't a defeat. Sure, the Democrats will cluck about it, and their media serfs will repeat the Journolist talking points du jour, but it doesn't matter. They won nothing except the chance to allow Obamacare to fail even more spectacularly.

Congratulations, President Pyrrhus. A couple more "wins" like this one and we'll be on our way to fundamentally changing America back." --Kurt Schlichter

Monday, October 21, 2013

MSNBC's Chuck Todd Offers Advice to Obama Over Disastrous Healthcare.gov Rollout: FIND A SCAPEGOAT!

Last time I checked, MSNBC was getting lower ratings than the spin cycle at the local laundromat. Here's Chuck Todd, longtime apologist for the disastrous track record of Detroitocrats, offering free advice to the president.

Sunday on NBC Meet the Press, White House correspondent Chuck Todd offered his best advice for the Obama administration’s self-imposed-disaster relief team: find a fall guy.

When host David Gregory asked how the president needed to reframe the national narrative, Todd provided the tried and true “fire somebody” stratagem:

Well, there's a couple things. I think one, if all else fails, they're going to have to find a fall person, somebody, and say, "You know what? This design work.

Fire somebody. Maybe high profile."

Kathleen Sebelius is very nervous about her standing with the president. Who knows what happens? But that would be the ultimate sort of, "If all else fails, bring in somebody to quote unquote, 'Fix this.'"

Hey, Chuckie! I just thought of a potential scapegoat: It's all the fault of Ted Cruz, rogue Javascript programmer!


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Quantitative Easing Worked for the Weimar Republic, Too. For a While.

Guest post by Michael Snyder

There is a reason why every fiat currency in the history of the world has eventually failed.

At some point, those issuing fiat currencies always find themselves giving in to the temptation to wildly print more money. Sometimes, the motivation for doing this is good. When an economy is really struggling, those that have been entrusted with the management of that economy can easily fall for the lie that things would be better if people just had "more money".

Today, the Federal Reserve finds itself faced with a scenario that is very similar to what the Weimar Republic was facing nearly 100 years ago. Like the Weimar Republic, the U.S. economy is also struggling and like the Weimar Republic, the U.S. government is absolutely drowning in debt. Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve has decided to adopt the same solution that the Weimar Republic chose.

The Federal Reserve is recklessly printing money out of thin air, and in the short-term some positive things have come out of it. But quantitative easing worked for the Weimar Republic for a little while too. At first, more money caused economic activity to increase and unemployment was low. But all of that money printing destroyed faith in German currency and in the German financial system and ultimately Germany experienced an economic meltdown that the world is still talking about today. This is the path that the Federal Reserve is taking America down, but most Americans have absolutely no idea what is happening.

It is really easy to start printing money, but it is incredibly hard to stop. Like any addict, the Fed is promising that they can quit at any time, but this month they refused to even start tapering their money printing a little bit. The behavior of the Fed is so shameful that even CNBC is comparing it to a drug addict at this point...

The danger with addictions is they tend to become increasingly compulsive. That might be one moral of this week's events.

A few days ago, expectations were sky-high that the Federal Reserve was about to reduce its current $85 billion monthly bond purchases. But then the Fed blinked, partly because it is worried that markets have already over-reacted to the mere thought of a policy shift.

Faced with a choice of curbing the addiction or providing more hits of the QE drug, in other words, it chose the latter.

So why won't the Fed cut back on the reckless money printing?

Former White House Volunteer: Hillary Clinton IS a "War on Women"

Guest post by Kenric Ward


FALLS CHURCH — Hillary Clinton whipped up a “Women for Terry” crowd for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe on Saturday.

AIR KISS: Terry McAuliffe and Hillary Clinton are longtime political allies.

The Democrats’ 2016 presumptive presidential hopeful delivered her “formal endorsement” to the man she said “has always been there for me.”

While the adoring throng at the State Theatre chanted “Hill-ary! Hill-ary!” the New York Post updated the spate of sex scandals involving officials and prostitutes during Clinton’s watch at the State Department.

“Records show that staffers were given cushy jobs or allowed to retire, and watchdogs say the feds have hardly bothered to investigate since the shenanigans came to light this past summer,” the Post said.

Damon Mathias, a lawyer for Aurelia Fedenisn, a former investigator with the State Department’s inspector general who leaked an internal memo citing probes that were derailed by senior officials under Clinton, said, “Nobody’s barking anymore. As a concerned citizen, what the hell is going on here?”

Kathleen Willey, a White House volunteer who alleged she was groped and fondled by then-President Bill Clinton in 1993, called the Terry-Hillary hookup ironic as Democrats pound the Republican Party’s reputed “War on Women.”

“Hillary is the war on women. She goes after any women who crossed her husband’s path. Why people don’t notice that is beyond me,” Willey told Watchdog.org from her suburban Richmond home.

Still jaded two decades after her run-in at the White House, the native Virginian says, “I’ve gotten no help from women’s groups. It comes down to one thing for them: abortion.”

Gloria Steinem publicly defended Clinton at the time, saying his treatment of Willey — even if Willey was telling he truth — did not amount to sexual harassment, let alone sexual battery.

NO FAN: One-time Democrat Kathleen Willey doesn’t feel so warm and fuzzy about Hillary Clinton or Terry McAuliffe these days.

“(Willey) pushed him away,” Steinem said, “and it never happened again.” At least not to Willey.

During the Willey incident, and amid a series of what White House insiders called “bimbo eruptions,” McAuliffe remained a close Clinton confidant. He stayed loyal during the subsequent investigation by Kenneth Starr and the president’s impeachment by the House of Representatives.

“One of the few people the president spoke with regularly was Terry McAuliffe, the chief fund-raiser for the Democrats,” Bob Woodward wrote in the Washington Post.

“The first cheerleader, McAuliffe tried to keep Clinton in a fighting mood. ‘I’m with you,’ he said in a phone conversation. ‘People support you, love you, sir. We’re going to get through this,’” Woodward wrote.

Twenty years on, it’s McAuliffe’s turn to embrace Hillary – and vice versa.

After hosting recent fundraisers for McAuliffe in Georgetown and New York, Mrs. Clinton will headline a Beverly Hills event for McAuliffe on Oct. 30. As with the previous soirees, admission is $15,000 per person, or $25,000 per couple.

It’s a far cry from Willey’s hardscrabble world. She has struggled financially – even before her husband committed suicide – and is fighting to keep her home from foreclosure at the end of the month.

Before giving a deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case in 1998, Willey said the tires on her car were nail-gunned. No culprit was ever charged, and she never pursued legal action against Clinton.

In her book — “Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton” – Willey says she was the target of a “coordinated campaign” by unidentified operatives.

“They threatened my children. They took one of my cats and killed another. They left a skull on my porch. They told me I was in danger. They vandalized my car. They subjected me to a campaign of fear and intimidation, trying to silence me,” wrote Willey, who also told her story on “60 Minutes.”


Hat tips: BadBlue News and @KenricWard.

Break Out the Champagne, Everyone! The Fiscal Crisis is Over!

Gosh, I was so worried when the federal government was shut down. It was nerve-wracking. I don't know about you, but all of the stores here in California were closed, there was no electric power, and someone ran over an endangered swamp mollusk on the 101 to San Jose.

Thank goodness that crisis is over! Jon Gabriel explains:

The D.C. press corps was giddy last night, declaring that the fiscal crisis had ended. Senators praised "honorable friends" from "great states," congressmembers gave standing O's to their stalwart leaders, and the president saluted bipartisanship while ridiculing Republicans, bloggers, activists and pretty much anyone else who dared oppose him.

If the whole thing seemed a bit surreal, it's because the whole thing was a bit surreal. America's fiscal crisis is not that our debt ceiling isn't quite high enough — it's that we have too much debt.

It's as if I had $250K in credit card debt and I told my wife, "Great news, honey — our fiscal crisis is over! I just got a new Visa!" If she didn't hit me over the head with a rolling pin, she would most assuredly tell me where I should place it.

To help visualize how up the creek we find ourselves, I created [the] infographic [at right]...

...When a conservative hesitates before raising the debt ceiling, he's portrayed as a madman. When Paul Ryan offers a thoughtful plan to pay down debt over decades, he's pushing grannies into the Grand Canyon and pantsing park rangers on the way out.

Forget sustainable — how is this sane?

In today's Wall Street Journal, renowned money manager Stanley Druckenmiller pilloried the catastrophic irresponsibility of the president when it comes to the nation's finances:

...this president, despite what he says, has shown time and time again that he needs a gun at his head to negotiate in good faith. All this talk about, 'I won't negotiate with a gun at my head.' OK, you've been president for five years."

His voice rising now, Mr. Druckenmiller pounds his fist on the conference table. "Show me, President Obama, when the period was when you initiated budget discussions without a gun at your head."

Druckenmiller is more optimistic than I am.

He says that America's debt-to-GDP ratio, which is the amount of debt the country has compared to all the goods and services it produces, will hit the Greece level of collapse by 2030. I personally don't think we have nearly that long. When the system becomes imbalanced, chaos and fear trump rationality.

If you're a Democrat, I want you to remember that sentence. Be sure and tell your kids and grandkids what you did to destroy their futures.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: Tea Party victory: Americans will not forget who warned of impending disaster

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

Nation

Tea Party victory: Americans won't forget who warned of disaster: Jeffrey T. Kuhner
Ted Cruz Gets 8-Minute Standing Ovation; Consider Speaker Pelosi: MagNote
Chuck Schumer Introduces the ‘McConnell Rule’: Daniel Horowitz

Obamacare Failure Highlights Tone Of Obama Administration: Realities
Turncoat Senate Republicans Staged 'Intervention' to Stop Ted Cruz: AmPower
Cruz: McCain Sabotaged the House Republicans: Breitbart

Stop rooting for “bipartisanship”: Matt Walsh
Hapless Obama to Trot Out Alleged ObamaCare Enrollees at White House: JWF
Sen. Ted Cruz calls for HHS Secretary Sebelius’ resignation: Anna Giaritelli

Economy

To Each His Own: Erick Erickson
Great News! The Fiscal Crisis Is Over!: Jon Gabriel
The Political Class Uses Fear of "Default" To Get Its Way: Sheldon Richman

The Tea Party Is Not "Wrong": Karl Denninger
Assessing the Exchanges: Yuval Levin
Obamacare seeks to segregate patients, doctors by race: Katie McHugh

The Democratic Disasters to Come: Victor Davis Hanson
Yes, This is Your Fault: Karl Denninger
Shutdown No More (Cartoon): Nate Beeler

Scandal Central

DC's 'Corrupt Bastards Club': Sarah Palin
Occupy Arsonist GUILTY Of Destroying $10+ Million Worth Of Homes And Property: SHN
White House bringing in “*Top* Men” to ‘fix’ #Obamacare exchanges.: Moe Lane

Media

From Dissident Gold to Imperial Dross: The Neutering of the NSA Archives: Chris Floyd
ABC's Jonathan Karl to Cruz: 'How Much Do Your Colleagues Just Despise You?: TruthRevolt
Obamacare Advice Call: iOTW

How and Why #Shutuppery Works: R.S. McCain
Just as Everyone Thought: Hillary Clinton fuels 2016 speculation: AIM
NBC's Loathsome Andrea Mitchell Rips Heritage Action: 'Completely Discredited': TruthRevolt

World

Obama Admin Continues To Order ICE Agents Not To Enforce Law, To Let Illegal Criminals Go: WZ
Sex Scandals From Hillary Clinton's State Department Ignored/ Swept Under The Rug: Lid
Double Standard in Obamacare Favors Illegals: James R. Edwards Jr., CIS

Islam, Not Nazism, Motivated Hajj Amin el-Hussini, Part 1: Andrew Bostom
Islam, Not Nazism was the Mufti's Motivation: Part 2: Andrew Bostom
Socialism is Force: Milton Friedman

Sci-Tech

The Oculus Rift and User Experience: Peter Hornsby, UX Matters
Internet Explorer 11 BREAKS Google, Outlook Web Access: Simon Sharwood
The Lean Agency: UX Matters

Cornucopia

Was That You?: iOTW
Dennis Miller to businesses: Fire Obama supporters, they’ll understand: iOTW
Obamacare's Success: MinorityReport

Image: Relax, GOP — Obamacare Will Defund Itself
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Please Support the Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "As Obamacare is being implemented, Americans can’t afford to pay for it. We can’t even sign up for it on the impossibly cumbersome websites, but the IRS will fine us for not doing so anyway! Obama gave his pals, and Congress gave themselves, tickets off this train wreck via waivers. Cruz and Lee fought for us to get the same relief the big guys got. The media and disloyal politicians turned on them and, divided, we lost. Now we little guys are stuck on this train, which will soon collide with hardship and real-world economics that don’t pencil out. Friends, by the time the electoral stars align for this hoped-for GOP hat trick the country will be out billions, if not trillions, more of our tax dollars and will have already begged D.C. to relieve us of this corporatist nightmare even if it means a socialized single-payer system. And once there, do you think we’ll ever go back and strip this “entitlement”? Unarguable history proves otherwise.

The only credible plan of action was to do everything in our power to delay the implementation of Obamacare – defund it, postpone it, whatever – while at the same time work to elect a majority to repeal it. That is what Cruz and Lee and those Tea Party aligned House Members were doing. There was no other credible alternative plan to seize the constitutionally appropriate opportunity to legislatively close the purse strings to stop the juggernaut of full socialized medicine." --Sarah Palin

Sunday, October 20, 2013

10 Epic Quotes About the Colossal Failure of Obamacare's Rollout

Guest post by Travis Perry and Dustin Hurst

What is Obamacare?

We already know what politicians think it could be. Republicans believe the health law will soon bring about the apocalypse. Democrats, on the other hand, think the law will bring peace to the earth and begin a utopian state of peace and tranquility for all.

For right now, though, the law — represented by the online marketplaces set up by governments across the land — is pretty terrible. Well, at least that’s what a whole bunch of pundits and news outlets are saying.

Sure, the exchanges, powered by a central operated by the federal government, might make purchasing health insurance easier someday, but first they have to, you know, work. But they don’t. One buyer in Delaware, for example, tried purchasing coverage for 11 days straight before finally succeeding.

The project cost a mere $400 million, or just another drop in the bucket for the federal government.

Here are 10 epic quotes that reveal just how bad the Obamacare rollout has been:

1. Nick Gillespie, The Daily Beast:

daily beast

2. Robert Gibbs, former Obama administration spokesman:

fired2

Newsweek's David Freedlander (Who? Exactly) Has Never Heard of Mark Levin, Best-selling Author, Famed Litigator, and Top Radio Host

I daresay that anyone reading the old, failed Newsweek Magazine -- now renamed The Daily Beast -- is well aware of Mark Levin. Levin, the author of five New York Times bestsellers and the president of Landmark Legal Foundation, is heard by roughly 10 million people each week.

Yet someone named "David Freedlander" -- if that is his real name -- begins a lengthy article with the bizarre assertion that a wide swath of Democrats, liberals and other miscreants are unfamiliar with Levin. I assure you that's not the case. Entitled "Radio’s Mark Levin Might Be the Most Powerful Conservative You Never Heard Of", his amateurish "exposé" is riddled with typos, grammatical gaffes, and problematic diction:

• "...understand the issues form a different perspective..."

"Form"? Is that a new turn of phrase? Or just the hastily typed missive of a hack?

• "...He has no problem rewriting statues..."

"Statues"? Someone's rewriting statues?

• "I don’t why when..."

Eh?

• "...but are rally just leaders of their own movement..."

Rally? Really?

• "... have you ever heard of a party attacking its base."

Is that a question?

The article is flatly embarrassing, but -- frankly -- not unexpected for a magazine that was recently sold for a tidy, shiny silver dollar.

I suspect if Levin had known how pathetic Freedlander's writing skills were, he'd never have agreed to spending time discussing economics, philosophy, law and history with him.

Here's a heads up, David. The reason Levin and other conservatives have mobilized millions is because we are losing our country.

Democrats are openly calling for the arrest of their political opponents.

The administration has tripled warrantless wiretaps of U.S. citizens (according to the ACLU) and is data-mining all of the phone records of 300 million Americans.

The president lied -- repeatedly -- to the American people about the murder of a U.S. ambassador and has never revealed what actions he took when first informed of the terror attack.

The Obama White House also unquestionably used the IRS to target its political opponents prior to the 2012 reelection campaign; this was one of the proposed articles of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon.

The president ignored the Senate's advice and consent role, becoming the first to unilaterally declare the upper chamber in recess over a long weekend to name radical leftists to the National Labor Relations Board. This lawless act was completely rejected by two separate U.S. Courts of Appeal.

The administration also was held in contempt of Congress for unlawfully hiding documents on its "gun-walking" program in which Eric Holder's Justice Department knowingly sent thousands of firearms and grenades to Mexican drug cartels. This effort was clearly intended to demonize American gun-owners and set the stage for further erosion of the Second Amendment.

The administration has become increasingly hostile to the press, targeting wide numbers of journalists at the Associated Press and even wiretapping the parents of Fox reporter James Rosen.

The White House even "developed its own network of websites, social media and even created an online newscast to dispense favorable information and images," an act unprecedented in American history and consistent with the actions of a dictatorship.

And that's just the short list. The complete list is here.

So, Davey -- can I call you, Davey? No? Too bad -- we regular Americans see that we're in the process of losing our country to fanatical, hard left progressives that are doing their level best to install what can only be called a fascist government in the United States.

This isn't the Democrat Party of JFK, a tax-cutting advocate for strong national security. The Democrat Party is now controlled by radical sixties retreads who continue expanding the welfare state even as the country runs up massive deficits. These tactics are called "Cloward-Piven Government" and are naked attempts to destroy capitalism.

The facts are unassailable.

Because he is cognizant of history, facts, logic and reason -- and Freedlander clearly is not -- Levin has attracted millions of like-minded Americans who worry about massive deficits, lawless presidents, and a Beltway elite that is more concerned with the needs of illegal aliens than their own constituents.

David Freedlander's writing appears to be consistent with the level of his intellect, which is to say: he's a drone.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

THINKING OF SITTING THINGS OUT IN 2014? Consider That Mainstream Democrats Now Openly Call for Arrests of Political Opponents

For those of you as disgusted as I am with GOP leaders, consider the ramifications of sitting out the midterms. Should Nancy Pelosi regain the Speakership, well, in six words, they'll be coming for your guns. That's a guarantee.

For the first time in American history, mainstream Democrats are openly calling for the arrests of their political opponents. Yes, the hard left Democrat Party's tactics come straight out of the playbooks of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Castro, Pol Pot, and Mugabe.

They will be coming for anyone who expresses dissent against their Marxist policies, but before they do, they'll be coming for your guns.

If Democrats regain control of the House, rest assured that your Second Amendment rights will be eviscerated as they very nearly did following the mass shooting by the lunatic in Sandy Hook. Dianne Feinstein -- the loathsome and brazen crook from California -- had her gun ban bill in place, just waiting for a nice, bloody tragedy to exploit.

These are some truly frightening portents.

Democrats are openly calling for the arrest of Sen. Ted Cruz "for sedition". Never mind the Constitution explicitly grants the power of the purse to Congress, not the President. Never mind that James Madison himself described that the House could, in fact, shut down any program it wanted to. Never mind all that: the Constitution doesn't matter to these hard left sixties retreads. They don't want any political opposition. They want you gone. They want you silent, or in prison, or dead (what do you think Obamacare is really about?).

MSNBC plainly calls lawful dissent "sedition", presumably punishable by death.

Democrat Congressman Steve Cohen (TN) labels conservatives "domestic enemies", alluding to presidential actions to secure the country from the Tea Party, veterans, and Constitutional conservatives.

A public MoveOn.org petition calls for the arrests of Republicans in Congress by the Holder DOJ.

These are some dangerous times, my friends.

I'm voting Republican in 2014 if for no other reason than to keep our Second Amendment rights intact. Yes, I support the most conservative candidates possible (Matt Bevin over Mitch McConnell, for example). But I'm not sitting anything out in 2014.

I'm not going AWOL, even with the feckless boobs running the GOP, because they're the last line of defense. Let the RINOs form a third party. The grassroots can and will succeed by avoiding the GOP, the NRSC, the NRCC, and other establishment entities, instead working through independent groups like the Senate Conservatives Fund, FreedomWorks, and Americans For Prosperity.

I urge you to do the same next November and to marshal all the conservatives you can. If you aren't motivated to continue electing conservatives like Ted Cruz... if you aren't pumped up to save your Second Amendment rights and preserve the last vestiges of the Constitution... if you aren't interested in staying on the political battlefield in 2014, well, then don't be surprised when they do come for your guns.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Larwyn's Linx: Thank a Democrat -- 300,000 Floridians Just Had Their Health Insurance Cancelled

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

Nation

300,000 Floridians Just Had Their Health Insurance Cancelled: Poor Richard
Seventy Two Hours: Richard Fernandez
Sebelius Refuses House Hearing Request On Obamacare Meltdown: WZ

GOP grassroots unite to block immigration ‘disaster’: Neil Munro
Business Groups Preparing to Fight Conservatives over Immigration: Breitbart
NYC Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio's support for jihad against Israel: Atlas

Dem Rep. Cohen: Tea Parties are Domestic Enemies: RedAlert
Clashing Worldviews Roil the GOP: Rick Moran
Protein wisdom takes on a lecturing political “realist”: Protein Wisdom

Economy

Team Obama Really Psyched Over 476K Obamacare Applications: RWN
Illinoisans Beware: "Progressives" Seek Massive Tax Hike Again: Mish
"This Is Going To End Badly... And The Rest Of The World Knows It": ZH

Behold Our Elected Hypocrite: William Sullivan
Obamacare a Disaster: Bad For Families And More -- Doctors: RWN
Lawmakers seek truce with farm bill: Erik Wasson, The Hill

Scandal Central

BATFE Whistleblower Can Now Publish "Fast and Furious" Book: NRA-ILA
"New York Is Drowning In Bribes And Corruption": ZH
How Did Harry Reid Get So Rich?: Betsy Woodruff

Scooter Libby’s attorneys might be forced to “Win”: IP2P
'Fast and Furious' is Ok, But The Innocent Gun Buyer Goes to Prison: Michael Schaus
Still Searching for the Truth: HyScience

Climate & Energy

GOP accuses EPA of 'unprecedented' power grab with proposed water rule: Fox

Media

Next Big Media Push: Bully Boehner to Cave on Immigration: TruthRevolt
DefendWallSt Signs Up For Obamacare …Failure Ensues: WZ
The Five Trashes ‘Drunk’ Matthews, Liberal ‘Tools’ for Calling Tea Party Racist: Mediaite

You will hear this again: Arrest the Rs for Sedition: III Percent
The loathsome Taegan Goddard and how a racism lie spread half way around the world: LI
Bracken Sends: Western Rifles

Putting the Tea Party Anarchist Shutdown of 2013 “behind” us!: MOTUS
Ann Coulter In KC: Our 2 Smartest US Senators Are Now The Face Of The GOP: Nice Deb
The Tragedy of Jimmy Bise: DTG

World

Alert: FBI Investigating Threats to Midwest Water Supply Systems: “On High Alert”: Mac Slavo
Alamo “Come And Take It” Armed Rally Update: Western Rifles
Top 50 reasons people keep comparing Obama to Hitler: Examiner

U.S. Marines training al-Qaeda-linked Syrian jihadists in Saudi Arabia: JihadWatch
Americans warned of Kenya jihad massacre mall-style attack 'imminent' in Uganda: Atlas
Mexican Consulate plans Saturday, Oct. 19, Asheville visit to aid immigrants: MountainXpress

Sci-Tech

NatGeo’s ‘American Blackout’ Examines U.S. Without Power: Tara Dodrill

Cornucopia

We Need Another Boston Tea Party: III Percent
Detroitocrat (Detroit + Democrat): Barry Popik
Noncompliance Noncompliance-in-Chief: Cowboy Joe Salvatorio

Image: We Need Another Tea Party
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: The Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "I call on the Justice Department of the United States of America to arrest Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Speaker of the House John Boehner, and other decision-making House Republican leaders for the crime of seditious conspiracy against the United States of America.

Petition Background

The House GOP leadership’s use of the Hastert Rule and H. Res 368 to shut down the government and threaten the U.S. economy with default is an attempt to extort the United States government into altering or abolishing the Affordable Care Act, and thus, is self-evidently a seditious conspiracy. Arrest the perpetrators in Congress immediately and bring them to justice." --Petition at MoveOn.org

Saturday, October 19, 2013

The Most Terrifying Chart You'll See All Week

At the excellent econ blog Q&O, Dale Franks illustrates what should be obvious to even the most obtuse observer (which excludes all Democrats and Utopian Statists).

[In 2012 we] spent $3,795.55 billion, while taking in $2,469 billion in taxes and receipts. That gave us a deficit for the year of $1.326.55 billion.

Much of the spending is required by law. Mandatory spending includes Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and retirement benefits for the military and federal workers. In addition, interest on the national debt of $227.73 billion must also be paid, by law. Overall, $2543.51 billion in spending was legally required. That’s 67% of all federal spending.

Keen observers will note that revenues of $2,469 billion do not cover that amount of mandatory spending. So, we missed being able to pay for required spending alone by by $74.51 billion. Essentially, we borrowed money to pay one-third of the interest on the money we’ve already borrowed.


Actually, we’re pretty lucky when it comes to the whole interest payments deal, because the average interest rate on the debt is hovering at around 2%. Every additional percentage point in that interest rate translates to about $115 billion dollars in additional interest charges every year. If interest rates were to rise to the historical average of 6%, that would add about $575 billion per year to cost of servicing the debt. That would raise the annual debt service costs from $228 billion to $803 billion. That’s about $44 billion more than we currently pay for defense. So, let’s hope for a weak, struggling economy, right? Gotta keep those interest rates at historical lows.

Anyway, the remaining spending is all discretionary, so, we chose to spend another $1,252.53 billion in discretionary spending. $759.11 billion was spent on killing foreigners. Everything else the Federal Government does—all of the executive departments, science and medical research, the Judicial branch, and giving money to heathen foreigners to try and make them our friends—cost us $492.42 billion. Giving money to the heathen foreigners—also known as foreign aid—accounted for about $38 billion for the year, or 1% of federal spending.

So, what can we extrapolate about the future? Well, we know that, even in interest rates stay steady, mandatory spending on entitlements will rise as the huge population bolus that is the Baby Boom generation begin retiring. Without either significant new taxes and/or significant entitlement cuts, re. That means that, in the not-too-distant future, revenues will not cover even the cost of mandatory entitlement spending.

We can—and probably will—ameliorate this by slashing defense. It’s what the Europeans have done, after all...

Here's the executive summary: the core function of the federal government -- national security -- will be sacrificed on the altar of redistributionist, Utopian fantasies.

The Chinese are creating a nuclear-capable Navy. The Iranians are practicing launches of EMP nuclear weapons. And Hezbollah is operating in the American southwest, thanks to the Democrats' open borders policies.

All is going according to plan. That is, if you seek the destruction of the American Experiment.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.