Thursday, October 17, 2013

Turkey Gave Iran Names of Israeli Spies… Obama Said Nothing, Continued To Push Netanyahu To Apologize To Turkey For Flotilla Raid…

 
Weasel Zippers  "Then again, Obama considers Erdogan one of his “top five friends” among world leaders."
Knowledgeable sources describe the Turkish action as a “significant” loss of intelligence and “an effort to slap the Israelis.” The incident, disclosed here for the first time, illustrates the bitter, multi-dimensional spy wars that lie behind the current negotiations between Iran and Western nations over a deal to limit the Iranian nuclear program. A Turkish Embassy spokesman had no comment.



The Jerusalem Post; Analysis: Turkey's unprecedented act of betrayal against Israel
"For over 50 years, Israel and Turkey were strategic allies. At the heart of this relationship were the extremely close ties between the Mossad and Military Intelligence on one hand, and the Turkish MIT and its military intelligence apparatus on the other hand." 

That EBT card riot put into persective a bit

EBT benefit card glitch sparks Walmart shopping sprees in Louisiana   "The Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system allows recipients of government food stamps to purchase goods using a digital card with a set spending limit, but for a few hours over the weekend, that limit disappeared for many users visiting Walmart stores in Louisiana."
 
 Riot time!’: Food stamp users in near-panic over EBT card failures   Can you say "Obamacare"?

Portrait of two Americas  "One of them is the entitlement, gimme, gimme, gimme welfare food stamp recipients who grab more than their fair share whenever they can because well, they're entitled.  If they can't get their entitled freebies now! they threaten violence--on their Obamaphones  or Obama pads until they get their way.
"While the entitled were whining and wondering how to survive without their free food, American veterans took action against a petty, petulant Democratic president.  After all, as a vet's t shirt truthfully proclaimed  this nation is the "Home of the free, because of the brave."
Emphasis mine, as usual. TD

It Depends on What the Meaning of 'Settled Law' Is

Political Cartoons by Ken Catalino
Ann Coulter  "No major legislation has ever been passed like Obamacare -- and I'm using the word "passed" pretty loosely.

"It became law without both houses ever voting on the same bill. (Say, is the Constitution considered "settled law"?) Not one Republican voted for it -- and a lot of Democrats immediately wished they hadn't.

"Historically, big laws have been enacted with large, bipartisan majorities. In 1935, President Roosevelt enacted Social Security with a 372-33 vote in the House and 77-6 in the Senate."
....
"Reagan's magnificent tax cuts in 1981 -- which Democrats now denounce as if they'd been appalled at the time -- passed with a vote of 89-11 in the Senate and even 323-107 in the hostile Democratic House." 

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Where Are They Now?

Downtrend
want-more-joe-biden-moments
"Just because they’re no longer in the news doesn’t mean former Obama officials are not wreaking havoc somewhere else. The following is a short list of pseudo-academics, political hacks, bureaucratic blunderers, and outright frauds that have fled the Administration."
 
One such is Van Jones: 
...A hard core Marxist and self admitted revolutionary, Jones didn’t last long on the job. Thanks to the press’s moratorium on  reporting about any of the dodgy characters surrounding the president, Jones’s communist background went unnoticed.

Awww! Daily Kos Scribe Whines That Obamacare Sent His Premiums Soaring

Newsbusters   "Every so often but not nearly often enough, the opportunity to revel in guilt-free schadenfreude rolls around. This is one of those moments.

"Over at Daily Kos, one of the most heavily-trafficked liberal websites and a revealing glimpse into the repugnant id that is the leftist mind, Daily Kos diarist "Tirge Caps" is belatedly learning that the Affordable Care Act is not the glorious legislative accomplishment that "progressives" have trumpeted over the last three years."
....
"Here's what "Tirge Caps" wrote about his first tangible encounter with Obamacare --"...
Well, now, because of Obamacare, my wife's rate is gong (sic) to $302 per month and mine is jumping to $284.I am canceling insurance for us and I am not paying any f***ing penalty. What the hell kind of reform is this?   Read more.
 Rush Limbaugh on this: Daily Kos Robot Hit with Obamacare Reality
" Now, if you look at the comments of this piece, I mean, folks, they are hilarious.  Most of the people commenting on this little guy's post think that he's just an outlier, he's an exception to the rule, this isn't the way it is for most people."

The politically correct Bob Costas does more PC bandwagon-hopping

 
Twitchy on Costas

Jonah Goldberg; Redskins: No Harm, No Foul, Mr. Costas  "Time's Sean Gregory sarcastically responds: "So we have to be sensitive to the one offended person, but can't change the name, because it's been around for a long time. Sorry, offended person. We love the name too much, for too long.' "
 
 
Political Cartoons by Michael Ramirez
 
 
 

Reading list on Obamacare: when government gets involved

NYT: Obamacare Collapse 'Has Deeply Embarrassed' White House  "A New York Times investigative article based on two dozen interviews with industry insiders and confidential Obama Administration documents reveals that the catastrophic $500 million Obamacare rollout "has deeply embarrassed the White House" and has the technology companies involved "publicly distancing themselves" from the Obamacare fiasco. "

Well, this may be splitting hairs, but the embarrassment is over the website and not, as yet, over the ACA itself and its issues.

The NY Times article From the Start, Signs of Trouble at Health Portal; Even some supporters of the Affordable Care Act worry that the flaws in the system, if not quickly fixed, could threaten the fiscal health of the insurance initiative, which depends on throngs of customers to spread the risk and keep prices low.
...."Former government officials say the White House, which was calling the shots, feared that any backtracking would further embolden Republican critics who were trying to repeal the health care law. "

Daily Caller; Obamacare is in Crisis Now. Right Now. ..."Young people won’t make the effort to look up insurance companies on their own when they don’t really care that much about getting insurance anyway. They won’t try 50 times to use a balky web site.  ”Without the exchanges, the death spiral seems almost assured.' ”...

All the above and many more at Lucianne.

Mona Charen; Republicans’ Secret Ally Against Obamacare   "For all its flaws, the GOP remains the only vehicle for advancing conservative ideas in practice, and it is the only possible vehicle for saving this country from the truly awful consequences of Democratic governance. If the Republican party loses all purchase with voters, Democrats will do to America what they’ve done to Detroit, Philadelphia, and Chicago."
....
"As is typical of Democratic solutions, it imposes a nationwide mandate on everyone to solve the discrete problem of a few."  Emphasis added.

The Top 10 Reasons Why Obamacare Will Always Be Controversial   "While some Americans will come to depend on Obamacare and its subsidies, driving up dependence on government and solidifying more Democrat votes, their signature law will always be a divisive, controversial law."
Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell

The President’s Lawn

131015vets-lawn-obama
"The president thinks the National Mall is his lawn. He used park service storm troopers to try to keep veterans and everyone else – except illegal immigrants – away from the mall and memorials. Maybe the illegal immigrants were represented by illegal immigrant lawyers.

Lawn Job

"Over the weekend veteran groups uprooted park service barricades and dumped them on the White House  lawn."
 

Israel's blind watchmen

Caroline Glick   "During his visit to Israel in March, US President Barack Obama compelled Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to apologize to his Turkish counterpart for the actions of IDF Naval Commandos aboard the Mavi Marmara terror ship in May 2010."
matcal.jpg
...."By forcing Israel to apologize to Turkey, Obama took the side of the aggressor against the victim."
...."They did not consider the possibility that Obama could transfer US support from the man who upheld the peace treaty with Israel for three decades - and so served as the anchor for the US's alliance system in the Arab world - to his greatest enemies, the Muslim Brotherhood, which spawned Hamas and al-Qaida, along with jihadist networks throughout the world including in the United States."

A Return to Keynes?

Thomas Sowell

"The nomination of Janet Yellen to become head of the Federal Reserve System has set off a flurry of media stories. Since she will be the first woman to occupy that position, we can only hope that this will not mean that any criticism of what she does will be attributed to sex bias or to a "war on women."

"The Federal Reserve has become such a major player in the American economy that it needs far more scrutiny and criticism than it has received, regardless of who heads it."

Almost 100% Of Visitors To ObamaCare Website Did NOT Sign Up

American Glob  "I believe this is what the kids at BuzzFeed would call a FAIL…"
...."Here’s a handy chartful o’ fail from the story linked above."
 
 
 
The chart above is a perfect match for this Rich Terrell, um, cartoon below:
White wabbit

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

America Is Intervened Out

"Our security interests have changed, along with out sense that we can make a difference."

Victor Davis Hanson   "In the immediate future, I do not think the United States will be intervening abroad on the ground — not in the Middle East or, for that matter, many places in other parts of the world. The reason is not just a new Republican isolationism, or the strange but growing alliance between left-wing pacifists and right-wing libertarians." 
....
..."Their attitude to the Obama administration’s unfortunate abdication of both theaters is mostly, “I am unhappy that we look weak getting out, but nonetheless happier that we are getting out.”
....
.... "Rather, Americans are not sure that we have the security interests we once had in the Middle East and elsewhere, and our elites do not have the wisdom to explain how our projected aims, methodologies, and desired results will improve life for the supposed beneficiaries of limited U.S. intercessions."