How long before Clinton machine turns Robert Gates into “trailer trash”?

Legal Insurrection

 

"Expect former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to quickly be turned from hero of the Democratic Party for being a Republican willing to work for Barack Obama, into just more trailer trash because of his tell-all book about that service which reinforces an accurate meme about Hillary Clinton: She has no core, and will say anything to win.

"From Chris Cillizza at WaPo, How Bob Gates’s memoir could haunt Hillary in 2016:" ....
 

"Drag a dollah bi-yull through the Pentagon halls and this is what y'all catch!"

Cuba: 55 years of human rights violations

Silvio Canto, Jr.  "The Castro regime just turned 55.  At the same time, what do they have to show for it?  The answer is nothing, specifically in the area of human rights.

"From the beginning, the regime shut down dissent and closed newspapers. The political prisons were full of Cubans, in some cases for simply calling Castro a communist.  

"This is a regime built on lies and more lies, as Fabio Rafael Fiallo, a Dominican-born economist and author, reminded us:"  More.

Castro and Terrorism: A Chronology  "Castro also became involved with African-Americans in the U.S. and with the Macheteros, a Puerto Rican terrorist group.  Cuba focused particular attention on the black struggle in the U.S., providing aid and training to the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army, as well as a safehaven on the island for black leaders."

African American activists, including Jeremiah Wright and Cornel West, blast Cuba on racism   ... "But Obama may also be a factor. Suddenly, Cuba's great enemy -- long denounced as hopelessly racist by the Castros -- has a black president, one who has toned down the U.S. rhetoric toward Cuba."

Rudy Giuliani not really a big fan of Bill de Blasio or his “basically Marxist ideas”

http://terrellaftermath.com/

If New Yorkers don’t think de Blasio’s pitch is tired and juvenile, they deserve it.  

"... De Blasio’s “new” inequality agenda borrows heavily from the old War on Poverty, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this week. And no city has poured more money into government anti-poverty programs — to negligible results — than New York."

Hot Air   ... "Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, however, thinks that even the term “progressive” is too generous in describing the egregiously old-and-busted policies of which de Blasio is now trumpeting himself as a noble pioneer. “Retrogressive” is rather closer to the mark, Giuliani insisted on Fox News last night:"  Video.

Two by Ann Coulter

The Anus Monologues  "Instead of the government censoring speech, what we have is shock troops of liberal agitators demanding people's heads for the slightest divergence from Officially Approved Liberal Opinion.

"Evidently, the word of God is on the banned list. As Robertson himself has said, all he did "was quote from the Scriptures, but they just didn't know it.'  ....
....
"Gays have gone from being the bullied to the bullies -- a modern American phenomenon detailed in my book "Guilty: Liberal Victims and Their Assault on America.' " ....

Could We Get Some Immigrants Who Can Take A Poll?

 "Not only that, but a Fox News poll last year showed that a majority of Americans would like to curtail legal immigration, with 55 percent supporting a decrease in legal immigrants and only 28 percent supporting an increase.

"My thought is: Republicans should push policies that are popular.

"But instead of proposing immigration reforms that are runaway hits with a majority of Americans -- without anyone even having made the argument! -- Republicans have been hoodwinked by Democrats into trying to outbid Democrats for the Hispanic vote. They still won't win the Hispanic vote, but now the rest of the country will hate Republicans, too."

UPDATED: An incomparable strategic weapon for the United States: Fracking

Thomas Lifson  "As Russia prepares to strut its stuff before the world at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the economic foundation of Russian power and prosperity is crumbling, thanks to a strategic weapon developed by the United States. That weapon is fracking, and it is paying havoc with Russia's ability to exercise power on the world stage. Three articles lay out the devastating consequences of this technological revolution developed mostly not by a national laboratory, huge government initiative, or top scientists, but by guys out in the Texas and Oklahoma oil patches."

Top Saudi lets the cat out of the bag  "Thanks to the miracle of fracking, we have in prospect the breaking of the Muslim world's stranglehold on the world economy, making it possible for Western democracies to grow a spine and stand up to the oil-powered theocrats who want to extinguish other religions and impose their seventh century way of life on the globe.

"Self-interest would dictate that the Saudis and other oil oligarchs would be wise to fund American anti-fracking groups, in order to remove this potential game-changer. Any group that opposes fracking should be asked to prove they have received no oil money." Read more:

But the demagoguery of environmentalists will not rest:

UPDATE: U.S. Oil Boom Upsets World Markets - 15 Refineries Close In Europe - U.S. Cuts Back On Nigerian Crude, and Will Soon Cut Back on Saudi Arabian Crude As Well   "The Muslim world is about to take a big hit, and it is directly the result of American Capitalism.

"It is not because of Obama, or our war policy, or because Americans are, or are not aware of Sharia law and the evils of Islam.
"It is because Capitalists believed that with investments in Fracking technology, they could bring oil up from the Earth that was never previously thought to be recoverable." ...

Advances in extracting oil from shale rock drove a 39 percent jump in U.S. production since 2011, the steepest rise in history, and will boost output to a 28-year high this year, according to the EIA. While drilling in shale is more expensive than other methods and poses environmental challenges, the prospect of a growing supply is encouraging analysts to predict a more energy-independent nation.

UPDATE: Groundtruthing Academy Award Nominee 'Gasland'  "The oil and gas industry has not been as supportive as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Industry groups, such as the Independent Petroleum Association of America, have accused Fox of confusing hydraulic fracturing with drilling in general. They allege many other errors, large and small. IPAA's "Energy In Depth" campaign issued a seven-page rebuttal to the film, called "Debunking Gasland".
....
... "The filmmaker and industry have each made errors and have spun some facts to their outer limits. In an attempt to clear the air before the envelope is opened Sunday night, Greenwire sifted through the claims.
"We read the documents, the ones Fox and EID refer to, and many more. We called the experts and people involved and succeeded in "running to ground" many of the major points of contention." ....

Referring to a segment in the movie showing a water faucet emit flame:

The same agency found (pdf) that methane in the Ellsworths' well water did originate from oil and gas development. The Ellsworths settled with a gas company and Colorado officials replugged a 60-year-old well located near their well that the agency considered (pdf) to be a possible source of or conduit for migration of gas from drilling.  

"Filmmaker and journalist Phelim McAleer asks Josh Fox, the director of Gasland, some inconvenient questions about the accuracy of his Oscar-nominated documentary. For more go to: noteviljustwrong.com"

Even the Daily Kos denies filmmaker's claim the Gas industry is not regulated by the EPA   "This is...to give notice to both Democrats and environmental/conservation organizations that Gasland is not a reliable source of information for making decisions about the oil and gas industry for all reality and science based communities."

Thomas Sowell: The 'Trickle-Down' Lie

 
Thomas Sowell   "New York's new mayor, Bill de Blasio, in his inaugural speech, denounced people "on the far right" who "continue to preach the virtue of trickle-down economics." According to Mayor de Blasio, "They believe that the way to move forward is to give more to the most fortunate, and that somehow the benefits will work their way down to everyone else."

"If there is ever a contest for the biggest lie in politics, this one should be a top contender.

"While there have been all too many lies told in politics, most have some little tiny fraction of truth in them, to make them seem plausible. But the "trickle-down" lie is 100 percent lie."  More.

Robert Gates, former defense secretary, offers harsh critique of Obama’s leadership in ‘Duty’

Bob Woodward  "In a new memoir, former defense secretary Robert Gates unleashes harsh judgments about President Obama’s leadership and his commitment to the Afghanistan war, writing that by early 2010 he had concluded the president “doesn’t believe in his own strategy, and doesn’t consider the war to be his. For him, it’s all about getting out.”
"Leveling one of the more serious charges that a defense secretary could make against a commander in chief sending forces into combat, Gates asserts that Obama had more than doubts about the course he had charted in Afghanistan. The president was “skeptical if not outright convinced it would fail,” Gates writes in “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.' ” Via Drudge.

Hillary Clinton and Obama admitted they opposed Iraq troop surge only to look good politically   "Hillary Rodham Clinton, a likely Democratic Party standard-bearer in the 2016 presidential contest, staked out her military-related positions in the 2008 race based on how they would play politically, according to a former secretary of defense who served in both the Obama and Bush administrations."

Gates describes Obama as a feckless commander-in-chief who was less interested in winning wars than in taking political advantage of withdrawing America from them
....

"Obama, too, 'conceded vaguely that [his] opposition to the Iraq surge had been political,' Gates recounts. 'To hear the two of them making these admissions, and in front of me, was as surprising as it was dismaying.' "



Gates Slams Biden in Memoir, Reveals He Nearly Quit    “ 'I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” Gates writes, according to the Times."

Krauthammer on Gates' revelations about Obama: 'How can a commander-in-chief do that?'  Video.

White House disputes Gates memoir claims   "I’m interested to see how quickly the media, having lauded Gates as a consummate professional capable of bipartisan feats of strength for years, can decide he’s nothing but a dishonest, partisan hack." ...  
Remember the adoration that Democrats gave to Scott McClellan for his tell-all book on Bush?

The National Journal stands  by the president: In Defense of Obama on the Gates Memoir   "Consider first what the memoir says about Gates himself. Criticism of a sitting president from a former Cabinet member is rare and should be taken with a grain of salt. In a breach of propriety that raises questions about his integrity, the excerpts reveal Gates to be surprisingly petty at times, such as when he complains about spending cuts at the Pentagon and the lack of notice about Obama's decision to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gays serving in the military."
This same publication had this to say about former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan's tell-all book criticizing the Bush Administration.

Remember the adoration that Democrats gave to Scott McClellan for his tell-all book on Bush?

US News wrote this of Gates in 2008: America's Best Leaders: Robert Gates, U.S. Secretary of Defense

NRO: Gates: Hillary, Obama Admitted They Opposed Surge for Political Reasons

Gates describes the difficult relationship that he had with President Obama  "The same cavalier attitude is playing out again, as Islamists sweep the Middle East and Iraq falls apart thanks to Obama’s premature retreat from the country, and he allows anti-war politics coupled with his own tilt toward some Islamist factions to drive his moves. Obama’s whole approach to the war against al Qaeda has been to claim victory while sounding retreat."

Bob Gates vs. the White House  "Gates says his instructions to the Pentagon were: “Don’t give the White House staff and [national security staff] too much information on the military options. They don’t understand it, and ‘experts’ like Samantha Power will decide when we should move militarily.' ”
....
"But the splash being made by these (mostly unsurprising) insider claims is a testament to the credibility Gates has earned over his distinguished career, and suggests the considerable authority his account of these last few years will carry."
 

Top 10 Revelations From Robert Gates’s Memoir

Wall Street Journal

"Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is releasing his memoir, “Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War,” a 600-page book that offers a stark, insider’s view of Washington, the Pentagon, Congress and America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (You can read an exclusive WSJ excerpt.) Here’s a look at some of the book’s most riveting revelations:"

Here are the sub-heads. A discussion of each is at the link

1. Contempt for Congress....

2. Contempt for Vice President Biden....

3. Suspicion of White House Control....

4. Friction with the National Security Staff....

5. White House vs. Pentagon....

6. Mr. Gates as Peacemaker....

7. The War in Iraq....

8. The War in Afghanistan....

9. Obama’s Domestic Politics....

10. Hatred for D.C.  ...

When Democrats use the word "Investments", hang on to your wallet!

Hat tip to Chicks on the Right

The Answer, Stated Simply And Perfectly, Why So Many Climate Scientists Claim Climate Change Is So Dire.

Chicks on the Right  "The Weekly Standard recently interviewed MIT climate scientist Richard Lindzen, and the entire column is great if you want to check it out, but there was one paragraph that stood out to me above all the rest. It explains exactly why climate scientists with uber-impressive resumes have so many people alarmed about man-made global climate change:

If Lindzen is right about this and global warming is nothing to worry about, why do so many climate scientists, many with résumés just as impressive as his, preach imminent doom? He says it mostly comes down to the money—to the incentive structure of academic research funded by government grants. Almost all funding for climate research comes from the government, which, he says, makes scientists essentially vassals of the state. And generating fear, Lindzen contends, is now the best way to ensure that policymakers keep the spigot open.

 

....   " 'When you have an issue that is somewhat bogus, the opposition is always scattered and without resources.  But the environmental movement is highly organized. There are hundreds of NGOs. To coordinate these hundreds, they quickly organized the Climate Action Network, the central body on climate. There would be, I think, actual meetings to tell them what the party line is for the year, and so on.”

"Climate change skeptics, conversely, aren't organized into one central totally made up "network."  They're normal, thinking, rational people who don't have time to be community organized for the sake of fear mongering and power grabs, like the enviro-alarmists." 

As with "gravitas", here's a new word you will hear every channel use to the point of nausea

Polar Vortex! And it even has a name! And it will kill us all in ten years!

"Until it got really cold this week I had never heard of a polar vortex. Thanks to The Weather Channel I’ve learned it means we swapped weather with Fairbanks.

"Same goes for a Derecho, which I learned last summer means rain storm.

I’ve also learned The Weather Channel has acquired naming rights to the weather. This week’s polar vortex is named Ion."  Chip Bok.

 

The Comical Conservative
 

 The Polar Vortex: Best Late-Night Jokes  "Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Jay Leno were among those who poked fun at the frigid temperatures."
 ... "That was followed by a series of "How cold is it?" jokes, with Leno offering up zingers like "It is so cold, most of the country has numbers lower than President Obama" ...
 

Stephen Colbert: "As a newsman, I want to salute whoever came up with the term 'polar vortex,' " Colbert said. "It is terrifying but still sounds all science-y. A lesser meteorologist could have overreached with 'arctic coldnado' or 'alaskan dick punch,' but 'polar vortex' is restrained but menacing."

Silly you! Of course global warming is behind frigid temps  "Can we please stop equating "weather" with "climate?" It will probably be another two decades before we're this cold again. And next year, when it's possible we will experience warmer winter weather than normal, you can bet the global warming advocates will be out in force claiming it as proof that global warming is "real.' "

Survivors of the Blizzard of ’78 Mock the ‘Arctic Vortex’  "My personal reaction to the wall-to-wall news coverage of this “dangerous weather event” has been something along the lines of “seriously?”
Why all this derision — even hostility — simply because the schools and some businesses wanted the public to stay home for a couple of days until this cold weather blew over?
"Quite simply, Ohioans of a certain age remember January 26, 1978, the day the Great Blizzard of ’78, also known as the White Hurricane, also known as the Cleveland Superbomb, descended upon Ohio." 

 

Not showing off; I had to look up "vortex" and figured you might want to as well.

Vortex; "In fluid dynamics, a vortex is a region within a fluid where the flow is mostly a spinning motion about an imaginary axis, straight or curved. That motion pattern is called a vortical flow." ....

Class dismissed.

The Outlaw Campus; The university has become a rogue institution in need of root-and-branch reform.

Victor Davis Hanson   ... "Not now. Colleges have gone rogue and become virtual outlaw institutions. Graduates owe an aggregate of $1 trillion in student debt, borrowed at interest rates far above home-mortgage rates — all on the principle that universities could charge as much as they liked, given that students could borrow as much as they needed in federally guaranteed loans."...
....
"Here are ten areas that need radical reform..."
....
3. Curriculum.  ...  "The result was advocacy, not disinterested empiricism. Nationwide, thousands of traditional classes in history, philosophy, literature, and the social sciences gave way to ethnic studies, women’s studies, leisure studies, gender studies, peace studies, environmental studies, etc. ... It was also nearly impossible to do well in these courses for a student who disagreed with the political assumptions of the advocate faculty. “Studies” contributed in no small part to the unfortunate emergence of the arrogant and ignorant graduate, who left the campus zealous for social change but sadly without the skills to even articulate his goals."
Emphasis added, TD

Case in point: Far Left Demagogue Harry Belafonte to Speak at U. Michigan on Martin Luther King Day
The Ann Arbor Journal gave us this example of "advocacy" ... "Other symposium events on Jan. 20 include discussions on “The Power of Protest: Black Student Activism at the University of Michigan” and “From Martin Luther King to Tupac Shakur: Implications of Hip Hop for Graduate Education, Pedagogy, and Engaged Scholarship” and a screening of the movie “42,” among other activities."  Hat tip to College Insurrection

Are Our Children Actually Learning Anything in School Today?  "Finally, Ryan Rotela, a Florida Atlantic University student, is accusing an instructor and local Democratic party leader of suspending him for refusing to stomp on a piece of paper with the word “Jesus” written on it.  This “exercise” was part of an intercultural communications class (whatever that means) and was supposed to encourage discourse.  Could you imagine if a student was told to stomp on the name “Mohammed” or even “Obama”?  Fortunately, Ryan has received an apology but the instructor has been put on administrative leave for “safety reasons” whatever that means. "