California at Twilight

Victor Davis Hanson   "More importantly, our power companies have the highest energy bills in the nation, given all sorts of green and redistributionist mandates. The costs fall most heavily on the cold winter/hot summer interior residents, who are the poorest in the state. Those who insist that the utilities invest in costly alternate energy and other green fantasies live mostly in 65-70 degree coastal weather year-round and enjoy low power bills.

"Yet the liberal coastal political lock-hold on the state continues.

"No one in San Joaquin or Tranquility cares about a baitfish in the delta, but they do vote nonetheless for the elites who divert water from farms, put the poor farm worker out of work, and feel good about saving the smelt in the process. Go figure."

Obama's Jihad in Egypt: #Tahrir Sign "Down with the American Democratic Party the ally of Morsi"

 Atlas Shrugs  Notice anything familiar in this picture?

"Obama owns Egypt. No matter how the media obfuscates, deceives and misleads on this jihadist takeover, Obama's Muslim Brotherhood coup in Egypt is DOA and the blood is on Obama's hands. There's no getting out from under that boot. Just ask the Iranians, 24 years and counting." 

Ann Coulter on The Republicans' Primary Problem

About.com

Townhall  "Having just lost an election, many Republicans are anxious to remake our party in the image of Democrats. The theory seems to be that whatever we're doing isn't working, so we better change everything.
"But in fact, whatever Republicans did in 2012 -- other than an overly long primary fight -- worked amazingly well, given the circumstances.
"In a detailed analysis of the 2012 election, William A. Galston, a fellow with the liberal Brookings Institution, makes a number of fascinating observations that Republicans would do well to consider before embracing amnesty, abortion, gay marriage and Beyonce. " ....

jewishworldreview.com

We would do well to remember this next point which Ms. Coulter brings out later in the article and to which I have added emphasis:
"By contrast, Obama faced zero opposition from his party, the media, the education establishment or Hollywood, all of which were madly in love with him.
"And yet, Obama may be the only president ever to win re-election with fewer votes than his initial election, down nearly 4 million votes compared to 2008."

Some quick links

It's official: Post Office to stop delivering mail on Saturday  Beginning about August.

Al Sharpton drops 'God' from Pledge  "MSNBC might be the only place where God can’t get a shout-out from a Baptist minister."

72-year-old Las Vegas Homeowner ventilates burglar
....“Don’t screw with an old guy. They don’t have the strength to fight you, they’ll just kill you.”

Young Bucks: How And Why Your 401(K) Is Changing "We all wish people would not have to borrow from their 401(k)s, but when you consider the alternatives, it’s a viable option."

 

Drone Strikes, Waterboarding, and Moral Preening

Cliché alert: Obama is quoted herein saying - wait for It - "let me be clear".

Peter Wehner  "The president went on to trumpet the fact that he banned the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, saying, “I know some have argued that brutal methods like waterboarding were necessary to keep us safe. I could not disagree more.” .... Obama insisted that his policies would “regain America’s moral stature in the world.” This was a common Obama theme: He would act in ways that respect international law and human rights and remove the stain from America’s reputation."
....
A good argument in here is that no innocent bystanders were killed because of waterboarding captured terrorists. My big problem with all this is that the Obama Administration wanted to criminally prosecute Bush officials who used enhanced interrogation on those people.

"....there is a serious argument to be made that during wartime targeting terrorists, including Americans, with drones is justified. But that justification probably best not come from someone who has spent much of the last half-dozen years or so sermonizing against waterboarding, accusing those who approved such policies of trashing American ideals and shredding our civil liberties, and portraying himself as pure as the new-driven snow."....

I cannot dredge up much indignation for the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki because his fate was his own choice. He chose to be an enemy of the US and desired to kill as many of us as possible.
Should Americans fighting in Hitler's army have been arrested and brought to trial instead of killing them? And just how would we have done that?

Seven million will lose insurance under Obama health law

We the People   "Obama has said so many disingenuous things about this health care debacle."
"He claimed it would be revenue neutral, he wouldn’t sign it if it wasn’t, he said he favors competition in the health care market place, when in fact the ultimate goal is a single payer system thus breaking another promise that, “You can keep your own insurance and doctor.” "

Quoting Stephen Dinan  in the Washington Times"

President Obama’s health care law will push 7 million people out of their job-based insurance coverage — nearly twice the previous estimate, according to the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office released Tuesday.
CBO said that this year’s tax cuts have changed the incentives for businesses and made it less attractive to pay for insurance, meaning fewer will decide to do so. Instead, they’ll choose to pay a penalty to the government, totaling $13 billion in higher fees over the next decade.

Wounded Warrior Project changes mind and accepts donations from a Baptist organization

Still think America is a Christian nation?
American Thinker
"We were heartbroken," Pastor Wallace Cooley told Fox News.
It wasn't until after Liberty Baptist Church and Academy had already paid a $100 registration fee to raise funds for Wounded Warrior Project that the they received an email from the non-profit organization.








"Here is a copy of the actual letter sent to the Liberty Baptist Academy, as posted on The Blaze."

"But there has been an update to this story, due to the uproar on the internet and elsewhere. GOPUSA reports that:"

...."So what is going on here? Did the Wounded Warrior Project organizers commit a simple mistake, or are they bowing to public pressure. If funds from religious events are accepted on a "regular basis," then why does the web site state differently? And why did the e-mail received by the school also state that the funds raised by the church would not be accepted because of the religious nature of the fundraising event?"   Read more:

Taking America from Welfare State to Opportunity Society

Heritage  "Yet our modern, cradle-to-grave welfare state is structured in such a way that it hinders rather than boosts upward mobility. Despite a massive array of programs and colossal budgets, poverty rates remain high, our public education system is failing us, and the family—whose importance for the future well-being of children cannot be overstated—is falling apart among poor and low-income Americans.

arkansasgopwing.blogspot.com 

"President Obama made clear yesterday that he is more interested in additional tax increases than serious entitlement reforms. At the same time, the Congressional Budget Office was projecting that health care entitlement spending will be bigger than defense or even Social Security spending in just two years."

But the fight will be hard and the left will pound conservatives with their demagoguery. See this pro-welfare state cartoon and tell me how on earth Republicans will overcome things like this.  This is typical of ideas that are pounded into low-information voters' heads by movies, TV, most news channels, school books and pretty much every source of information they are exposed to.
Cartoon from schools.natlib.govt.nz 

Know what "trout pout" is? If you watch much TV, you've seen it often. (UPDATED)

Twisted sifter Update:

News for the low-information reader:

Watch out for 'trout pout,' one actress warns

"The lips get thinner as we age, and stars see lip plumping through injections of various substances as a way of looking younger.

Jocelyn Wildenstein after

"The problem is that many patients and doctors don’t get the lip proportions right. That’s when a full, “youthful” lip transforms into something fishy, said Youn, who runs the blog Celebrity Cosmetic Surgery.

"“The lower lip should be one and a half times the size of the upper lip,” he explained. “Some patients and doctors don’t know this and they go overboard with the upper lip. Some patients come in and say I want a bigger upper lip. And when you enhance it to the point where the upper lip is bigger than the lower lip, you get the ‘trout pout.’” Google photos





Jocelyn Wildenstein before

Vanessa Ferlito used to be on "CSI-NY", playing the typical, scowling, don't-mess-with-me role that was of a piece with the "trout pout" look. After the two previous photos, she looks almost normal, but then again, her look is the new normal.



Actual trout

Alan Caruba; A Cabinet of Dunces

Warning Signs  "A President reveals a lot about himself by his choices of his cabinet members to head various government departments and agencies. Some choices turn out to be historically significant such as Truman’s Secretary of State, George Marshall or Nixon’s choice of Henry Kissinger, but since the President sets policy, the blame or approval belongs to him."

...."This deliberate destruction of jobs, delaying access to traditional sources of energy, resistance to the actual transportation needs of the nation, a failed foreign policy, and panoply of other policies pursued by the out-going cabinet members will be continued by President Obama’s new choices to replace them."

The Rifleman; I knew Chuck Connors. Chuck Connors was a friend of mine and you, sir, are no Chuck Connors!

http://www.wnd.com/category/opinion/cartoons/

 

More irony in this administration