Third Act in Defunding Drama? Boehner's

Andy McCarthy gets it.

...When it comes to spending, Congress has primacy, and pride of place rests with the House (the one-half of one-third Republicans control) because the Constitution mandates that spending bills originate in the lower chamber – the one closest to the people. Equally important, the hard jobs in government are the ones where an officeholder has to do something. It is a lot easier when all that’s necessary is to refuse to act. Spending requires a positive act by Congress – not a thin dime may be spent unless Congress approves. That is, there can be no spending on Obamacare unless Congress votes to approve it. Thus, the one-half-of-one-third crowd is in the driver’s seat. All they need to do is say, “No.” It is President Obama who needs action here – congressional Republicans need only decline to act.

And by the way, if Republicans do act, if they vote to fund Obamacare, then they are for Obamacare. Don’t let them fool you with meaningless “repeal” votes. Repeal – i.e., changing the law – is a positive act; unlike refusing to spend money, it cannot be accomplished simply by saying no. Just as President Obama needs Republicans to get his spending, Republicans would need the president (or substantial cooperation from congressional Democrats) to get their repeal. This, we all know, they will never get – there will be no repeal until an election or two drastically changes the landscape. But spending is another story – and President Obama should be made to understand that it is just as hopeless to get Republican assent to spending on Obamacare as Republicans understand it is hopeless to get Obama’s assent on repeal....

Like everyone else, I expect that the de-funding will fail in the Senate.  (There could be a miracle, but...)

So on to Act III, Scene I:  (A possibility)

Obama demands money.  Boehner says 'you got all you need--just get Harry out of his stupor, have it passed in the Senate, and voila!  budget money!!'

Obozo refuses to motivate Reid (or maybe to pick him up off the floor of the hotel.)

Boehner has to decide:  recess the House, or vote FOR ObozoCare.

Decisions, decisions, they're so hard. 

In the alternative, McCarthy's Act III, Scene I (a possibility)

Obozo demands money.  Boehner says 'you got all you need---just get Harry out of his stupor, have it passed in the Senate, and voila!! budget money!!'

Obozo decides to pick Harry up off the floor of his suite at the hotel and tells Harry to pass the CR as is.

Not a hard decision at all.

Actually, the CBO Study Predicts DOOM

A local pundit's website prints only half the story from the CBO.

The half that Ryan's office didn't feed them?  It's far, far, worse.

....here’s the thing: that forecast, as the CBO notes, does not factor in “the harm that growing debt would cause to the economy.”  Hey, that would be a good thing to know, right? Well, you have to dig deeper into the CBO study to find those numbers.

And when you take into account stuff like how deficits might “crowd out” investment in  factories and computers and how people might respond to changes in after-tax wages, you find the debt is much, much larger, closer to 200% of GDP.

The CBO:

Projected budgetary outcomes under the extended alternative fiscal scenario are worsened by the economic changes that result from its policies. With the effects of lower output and higher interest rates incorporated, federal debt held by the public under the extended alternative fiscal scenario would reach 190 percent of GDP in 2038—about 80 percentage points greater than that under the extended baseline with economic feedback— according to CBO’s central estimates.

Further, in the "worst case" scenario, debt would be TWO HUNDRED FIFTY PERCENT of GDP by 2038.  The CBO refused to guess what might happen in that case, because they have absolutely no precedents to follow.

Pocan Walks Out on Benghazi Mom

The compassion of the Democrat Party in all its glory.

During the second portion of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing about Benghazi Thursday on Capitol Hill, the majority of Democrats on the Committee left the room and refused to listen to the testimony of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods. Ms. Smith is the mother of Sean Smith, an information management officer killed in the 9/11 Benghazi attack. Charles Woods is the father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who was also killed.

Madison Lefty (yah, I repeat myself) Pocan was one of those who walked out.

"Shutdown"? Yawn.

So when Obozo "shuts down" the Gummint, what elements of the Gummint WILL continue to operate?

....an OMB memorandum from 1981 lays out examples of the many government functions of federal agencies that may continue during a funding lapse:

• National security, including the conduct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life and property;
• Benefit payments and the performance of contact obligations under no-year or multi-year appropriations or other funds remaining available for those purposes;
• Medical care of inpatients and emergency outpatient care and activities essential for the safe use of food, drugs, and hazardous materials;
• Air traffic control and other transportation safety functions;
• Border and coastal protection and surveillance;
• Protection of federal lands, buildings, waterways, and other property of the U.S.;
• Care of prisoners and others in federal custody;
• Law enforcement and criminal investigations;
• Emergency and disaster assistance;
• Activities essential to the preservation of the money and banking system of the U.S., including borrowing and tax collection;
• Production of power and maintenance of the power distribution system; and
• Protection of research property.  (Heritage Foundation via HE)

NSA will continue to record all your emails and phone calls; IRS will continue to take your money.  Granny will get her SocSec check and Medicare treatments.

Yawn.

Boondoggle and Bushdoggle

A couple of days ago Belling screwed up royally on the question of "Common Core."

Now I know why:  it's a Bushdoggle (boondoggle with a Bush flavor.)  Belling reads all the Bush propaganda as gospel. 

Oh, well.  Let's hope that Walker doesn't have the same delusions.

ObozoCare: The Movie

Watch it here.  It's everything you need to know in 1 minute.

ObozoPout: "I'll Shut Down the Government"

Yawn.

Exactly as Cruz and Lee predicted--and exactly what Boehner and the Cowardly Kittens SHOULD have been saying from Day One:

Obozo, not the House, will "shut down" the Government.

Yawn.

Levin Knocks It Out of the Park

Just go here for the best 7:50 on the French Republicans you'll ever hear.

It will be interesting to see if little Social Climber Duffy will vigorously support this action with speeches, appearances, and actions--or if he'll sit in his corner, sucking his thumb, and pouting some more.

Will Ribble?  Or the Quiet One, Sensenbrenner?  Ryan, the Compromiser-in-Waiting?

What of RoJo, who PROMISED to rid this land of Obozo's tyrannical "healthcare", and then resigned his promise because, ah, expediency?

Look, boys (and you can take that whatever way you want), Ted Cruz and Mike Lee shamed you.  You were useless little bumps on a log, whimpering and whining "poor us.  we can't win."

You never even began to fight, boys.

Can you become men in the next 10 days?  Can you?

A Very Curious FEMA Order

That's the only word for it:  curious.

A local company, Falcon UAV, makers of special drones which are built for the government, approved by the FAA, and specialize in using GPS and cameras to generate highly accurate maps, started helping to map the damage with those drones. It was basically making very useful, near real-time maps showing the floods. You’d think that would be useful to, say, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency in charge of helping to coordinate the response to the floods. Instead, FEMA ordered the drones grounded or it would have people from Falcon UAV arrested.  --MoonBattery quoting TechDirt

Apparently the local Sheriff was using the drone-info to better coordinate the Sheriff's helo usage.

Too bad.  So sad.  Somebody died?  Awww.......

MSM Stylebook Notes

Someone found the MSM Stylebook and reports its content:

…when Obama refuses to negotiate or compromise, we call that “steely,” “masterful,” and “commanding.” Possibly even “panty-dropping.”

When Republicans do it the media style guide demand it be called “hostage-taking,” “terroristic,” “partisan,” and “ideologically extreme.”

Please update your records accordingly.

Found at Cold Fury.

pResident FAIL

Not only is Obozo a joke in Europe, Russia, and PRChina.

He's a knave and a fool. 

And a complete failure.

A Census Bureau report released on Tuesday reveals that the typical American family now earns less than it did in 1989. In 1989, median household income was $51,681 (in current dollars). In 2012, median household income was $51,017.

Poverty levels in 2012 also climbed to 46.5 million Americans-15% of the country-from 46.2 million in 2011. --quoted at AOSHQ

But you can bet a lot of your money that Tammy Baldwin will vote to preserve ObozoCare--the signature FAIL of the pResident.

Starbucks and the Solidarity Singers

Seems that Starbucks doesn't want open-carry of pistols, rifles, and shotguns in its stores.

That's reasonable.

Concealed carry is fine with them.  Also reasonable.

After all, one doesn't need an AR to slurp coffee; a 9mm inside the waistband is sufficient.

Starbucks has been plagued with AR-toting "rights" bozos who show up and (frankly) scare the bejabbers out of other customers.  So they've instituted the "please don't open-carry it here" policy.

What does this have to do with the Solidarity Singers?

Simple.  No one has the "right" to be a jackass.  Those twits in Madistan are being jackasses, as are AR-toters at Starbucks. 

They ought to grow up.
 

DeSantis/Vitter: Where's the House Vote? Where's Duffy??

Rep. DeSantis and Sen. Vitter (supported by RoJo!! kudos!!) have proposed legislation which would put Congresscritters and their staffers on the same playing field as lunchbucket American workers when it comes to ObozoCare.

A little history:

...Until now, members of Congress received a 75 percent subsidy funded by taxpayers to enroll in the Federal Health Benefits Program. Signing up for Obamacare will cost them thousands of dollars because the law does not entitle anyone earning $174,000 (base salary for Congress) to get a subsidy. Yikes! Congress doesn’t think the Affordable Care Act is affordable for them.

Just before Congress’ August recess, Republican and Democratic leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, pressed President Obama to do something. Ignoring the fact that the president has no constitutional authority to change the law and arrange for a subsidy that will cost taxpayers at least $55 million a year, members of Congress put their self-interest first.

The president complied and weaseled an illegal arrangement with the Office of Personnel Management to award members of Congress and their staff a 75 percent subsidy to pay for their own Obamacare health plans. It’s in a new official OPM ruling.

DeSantis, Vitter, & Co. want to reverse this Ruling Class crap.  (Where's Rep. Duffy??)

Just as a reminder, Rep. Duffy and his pals get a few perks with the $174K/year salary:

....private elevators, private gyms, free parking at airports and large office budgets. When a member or former member dies, even of old age, the family is awarded the member’s salary for a year....

Not to mention the on-staff/in-the-building doctors who provide typical general practitioner services for a very, very, very small co-pay of $5.00/visit.

Boy Duffy Squeals

Seems that Rep. Duffy doesn't like getting his widdle feets held to the fire.

"Today, Senator Ted Cruz & United States Senator Mike Lee called on House Republicans to "stand firm, hold their ground, and continue to listen to the American people" on defunding #Obamacare. 

 

"House Republicans have stood firm. We have voted to defund, repeal & delay #Obamacare dozens of times. It is time for Sens. Cruz & Lee to show they can hold the line against Senate Democrats.

 

"Let's hope they do not surrender before the fight even begins.

So tweeted Boy Duffy, sore feet and all.

Let us remind Cong Duffy that his "defund, delay, and repeal" votes were NEVER taken when it actually counted--as it will in the next two weeks.

And Boy Duffy (nor Paul Ryan, nor The Tanned One, nor Jim Sensenbrenner) has NEVER made a crusade of doing exactly what 53++% of the country wants done, as have Cruz and Lee.

 

By the way, Duffy:  have you voted to put your staffers into the exchanges yet?  Or have you surrendered on that fight without lifting a single little finger?

Memo to Belling: College Admissions Are A "Measure"

Yesterday the usually correct Belling semi-endorsed "Common Core".  He had reservations--mostly that the program was designed and enforced by Lefties.

His endorsement rested on "measurable" criteria--that is, that without "Common Core" there is no "national" basis for evaluating students and school systems.

Belling is wrong on two counts.

1)  The Constitution does not award K-12 education responsibility to the Federal Gummint.  That is reserved to the States.  And there is no "national emergency" which allows for an over-ride of the Constitution.

2)  College admissions are the best measure of K-12 achievement and accountability.  Students from piss-poor districts will not be admitted to good schools (think Purdue, UW-Madistan, Yale, G'town, Marquette, etc.)

3)  Both ACT and SAT are "measures" and are operative--but not "Federal".  Surprise!!  The private sector works.

'S OK, Mark.  Eventually you'll learn that Statism under any guise is still Statism.

Well, Harry, If It's "The Law...."

Slugsucker Harry Reid's response to 53% of the country who oppose ObozoCare:

“Americans have spoken loudly and clearly on Obamacare. It’s time to move on,” with an image of a poster telling Republicans to “Grow up.”

We can agree with Slugsucker Harry that 'Americans have spoken loudly and clearly'.

But it's not "the law of the land" if the President refuses to enforce it.  That creature has waived compliance requirements for corporations and for Congressional staffers.

So it's not "the law."  It's merely a suggestion.  And Conservatives should continue to treat it as such by de-funding it.

Delay ObozoCare? Really?

As we all know, the Latest, Greatest, "Achievable" Plan is not to de-fund ObozoCare, but to "delay" it.

I have my doubts about that; as originally sketched, the House would give the Senate and the golfer-in-chief an end to the sequester AND a hike in the debt limit if ObozoCare gets delayed by a year.

So.  Obozo gets to spend even more than he's ever spent before; our children and grand-children and great-grandchildren get to pay unimaginable sums toward interest and principal (assuming that it's within their means to pay it)--all so that the Senate can go barely Pubbie in '14 and Obozo can veto the end of ObozoCare when it finally passes both the House and Senate.  Then Obozo's veto will be sustained in the Senate and ObozoCare will merrily roll on.

Right.  That's a helluva plan.

DrewM (via Cold Fury) brings up another angle.

...What if Obama doesn’t accept the Boehner/Cantor offer to delay ObamaCare for a year? Jay Carney has already said Obama would veto that, just like they said they’d veto a defunding bill. Team Delay insists we take the threat seriously when it comes to defunding but not delaying.

So what then? We’re supposed to believe that they along with Boehner and Cantor weren’t willing to go over the fiscal cliff, they aren’t willing to deal with a government shutdown but they are TOTALLY committed to not raising the debt ceiling and seeing the government “default” (not be able to pay some bills) unless Obama caves on delay? Really? You guys have avoided every fight and punted at every chance but you are totally going to the mattresses on the thing that might have huge fiscal repercussions for the world economy?

Let’s just say I have my doubts.

Both Ribble and RoJo have defended their position of NOT de-funding ObozoCare on the basis that they don't want to 'shut down the Gummint.'  But the 'delay' plan will almost certainly have exactly the same effect.

Both of those gentlemen ignore the fact that they were ELECTED based on their promise to 'stop ObozoCare.'  They also ignore the fact that de-funding ObozoCare is NOT "shutting down the Gummint."  Only Obozo can (and will) "shut down the Gummint" by his veto.  (Well, OK, Slimebag Reid could, too.)

When in the course of human events.....

Fact-Vacuum: MSM on Nutbag at Navy Yard

They reported that there were two shooters.

Woops.

They reported that the shooter used an AR-15.

Woops.

They (CNN) also reported that the shooter used an AR-15 shotgun.

Head-bang woops.

What they have NOT reported on is this:  how did a damn-near-certified loony obtain "Secret" clearance and a job with a Federal subcontractor?  A loony who also had a violent past and "anger management" issues...

And how did the Navy manage to avoid giving him a DD?

Those items are of vital interest and importance.

(Of course, eliminating damn-near-certified-loonies with anger management issues might eliminate 60% of Congress.

And that is a bad thing....how?)

The House Pubbies' Border "Security" Laugher

Hoooboy.  The Republicans came up with another pile of foofoodust and call it "security." 

We are reminded of "Every Child a Federal Captive" and "Democracy for All in the Middle East!!", not to mention "Bail Out Bankers for Their Own Good!!!"

Not everyone agrees that HR 1413 is worth a bucket of warm spit. 

See what you think:

[It would]:  require DHS to regularly report on the status of operational control of the U.S. Borders, which will be verified by the GAO;

require DHS to submit a plan to gain operational control (90% effectiveness rate) of the high traffic areas of the border within 5 years, including the implementation plan and various metrics which will be reported on by the GAO;

require DHS to submit a plan to implement a biometric exit system at ports of entry. If the Secretary determines such a plan is not feasible, he or she may submit an alternative plan to achieve the same level of security. 

(Current law requires a biometric exit system and does NOT allow 'feasibility' horsehockey exceptions.)

Looks like DHS "planners" win a multi-year contract.  "Do-ers"?  Not so much.

(NumbersUSA provided the material in blue above.)

"Some Pigs..."

Let's see how the Hypocritic Oath plays out.

...In 1995, the newly elected Republican Congress passed a Congressional Accountability Act to fulfill a promise made the previous year in the Contract with America. For the first time, the Act applied to Congress the same civil-rights employment and labor laws that lawmakers had required everyday citizens to abide by. With some lapses, it’s worked well to defuse public outrage about “one law for thee, one law for me” congressional behavior.

In 2009, Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) decided that the principle deserved to be embedded in Obamacare, and he was able to insert a provision requiring all members of Congress and their staffs to get insurance through the Obamacare health exchanges. “The more that Congress experiences the laws it passes, the better,” said Grassley. Although his amendment was watered down before final passage to exclude committee staff, it still applies to members of Congress and their personal staffs. Most employment lawyers interpreted that to mean that the taxpayer-funded federal health-insurance subsidies dispensed to those on Congress’s payroll — which now range from $5,000 to $11,000 a year — would have to end....

Oh, no, they don't.  Parent-Pigs took care of their offspring pigs.

...Democratic and Republican staffers alike were furious, warning that Congress faced a “brain drain” if the provision stuck. Under behind-the-scenes pressure from members of Congress in both parties, President Obama used the quiet of the August recess to personally order the Office of Personnel Management, which supervises federal employment issues, to interpret the law so as to retain the generous congressional benefits.

("Brain Drain" from D.C.?  Is this not oxymoronic?)

It's no wonder that Republican "leadership" doesn't give a fart-in-the-wind about de-funding ObozoCare.  They will win either way.

Because Some Pigs Are More Equal, you see.

"They Don't Have Well-Creased Pants!!"

So said David Brooks, the fashion consultant/establishment apologist, forgetting American history.

...New York Times columnist David Brooks warned that Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and similar legislators’ rise to prominence threatens the traditional Republican Party.

Brooks insists the motives of Cruz are less about legislation and policy and more about the politics of undermining the Republican establishment.

Gott in Himmel!  What's next?  Some revivification of Patrick Henry???

Well, yes:

...Ted Cruz, the senator from Canada through Texas, is basically not a legislator in the normal sense, doesn’t have an idea that he’s going to Congress to create coalitions, make alliances, and he is going to pass a lot of legislation. He’s going in more as a media-protest person. And a lot of the House Republicans are in the same mode. They’re not normal members of Congress. They’re not legislators. They want to stop things. And so they’re just being — they just want to obstruct.”...

Brooks, the well-known pants-crease adviser, nearly faints as he hysterically observes that....

"...they’re running against their own party,” he continued. “Ted Cruz is running against Republicans in the Senate. The House Republican Tea Party types are running against the Republican establishment."

Let's flesh out that Patrick Henry allusion a bit, shall we?

..."The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

"Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it. 

"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry Republican party for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House....

And to the foppish Brooks' remarks that these un-creased pants-Conservatives cannot be bought with committee assignments or with earmark-bribes, Henry also had a riposte:

"Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss".

Clearly, this Patrick Henry character didn't have well-creased pants!  But apparently he had critics just like Brooks.

"...Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament Administration and Republican National Committee. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free-- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending--if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained--we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight!...

Brooks belongs to the Old Guard.  But there's a New Guard in town, called the Tea Party. 

Patrick Henry would be proud.

Why No ObozoWar in Syria?

The glitterati pundits are convinced that Kerry's stupidity--and Putin's cunning--were the proximate cause of  Obozo's calling-off of his teeny, tiny, missile-strike on Assad & Co.

Just by co-incidence, millions of Catholics joined the Pope in a day of fasting and prayer for the purpose of avoiding Obozo's teeny, tiny, missile-strike on Assad & co.

Hmmmmm.

No reason that God can't use an idiot and a cunning thug, is there?

Obozo's Plot Goes Wrong Way

Nice observation here from Phil Klein.

President Obama has long desired to be the liberal answer to Ronald Reagan, who he once said, “changed the trajectory of America.”

... Yet a Gallup survey released on Sept. 13 found that fewer Americans currently trust the government to handle international and domestic problems than at any time in the past 40 years.

That’s an era that includes Watergate, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War.

Judging by elections, they didn't find either McCain or Romney a better option, which should tell Priebus something.

The Perils of George Zimmerman

Egads.

In a stunning turn of events, police in Lake Mary Florida have retrived video from the broken iPad of Shellie Zimmerman indicating that she had LIED about the actions of George Zimmerman and that SHE was the aggressor in the alleged attack reported earlier this week.

Police spokesman Zach Hudson was interviewed just a few hours ago and had this to say: “This is definitely not over, we live in a video world, we live in an electronics age, and an iPad was being used to record the events.”

Shellie is being charged with Domestic Battery, Resisting Arrest and Obstruction of Justice and is being held at the Lake Mary jail on a $100,000 bond.

Who needs Hollywood for soap operas?  We have Floriduh!

HT:  Ticker

What Evil Is

A brief and useful excerpt:

One of the most significant intellectual breakthroughs of Augustine's life was the insight that evil is not something substantial, but rather a type of non-being, a lack of some perfection that ought to be present. Thus, a cancer is evil in the measure that it compromises the proper functioning of a bodily organ, and a sin is evil in the measure that it represents a distortion or twisting of a rightly functioning will. Accordingly, evil does not stand over and against the good as a kind of co-equal metaphysical force, as the Manichees would have it. Rather, it is invariably parasitic upon the good, existing only as a sort of shadow.

J.R.R. Tolkien gave visual expression to this Augustinian notion in his portrayal of the Nazgul in The Lord of the Rings. Those terrible and terrifying threats, flying through the air on fearsome beasts, are revealed, once their capes and hoods are pulled away, to be precisely nothing, emptiness. And this is exactly why, to return to Arendt's description, evil can never be radical. It can never sink down into the roots of being; it can never stand on its own; it has no integrity, no real depth or substance. To be sure, it can be extreme and it can, as Arendt's image suggests, spread far and wide, doing enormous damage. But it can never truly be. And this is why, when it shows up in raw form, it looks, not like Goethe's Mephistopheles or Milton's Satan, but rather like a little twerp in a glass box.

Don't be surprised that Tolkien knew that.  Don't be surprised that Arendt knew that.  Instead, remember it.  It will serve you well.

HT:  PowerLine

FBI Hits Web-Host

Seems that the Feebs have been busy.

...the FBI yesterday acknowledged that it secretly took control of Freedom Hosting last July, days before the servers of the largest provider of ultra-anonymous hosting were found to be serving custom malware designed to identify visitors....

Freedom Hosting was also a major hub for child porn distribution.  So a slimebucket and lots of his clients are looking at hard time.

But there's more to the story.

...the notion of shotgunning active malware out onto the general public's computers and hoping to snag a known culprit in that wide net is something that needs discussing....

The Feebs specifically went after Firefox 17 ESR, which is the browser used by TOR, an anonymizer.  Not everyone who uses TOR is a child-porn consumer or purveyor.

Yup.  Some discussion to follow.

HT:  AOSHQ

Trumka Wanted It. Now He's Got It!

You all remember how Big Labor pushed for ObozoCare, right?

Now they've got it.

Good and hard.

The Obama administration on Friday denied a request from labor unions to have their healthcare plans receive tax subsidies under ObamaCare.

A White House official said the Treasury Department has determined that the healthcare plans used by many union members — known as multi-employer or Taft-Hartley plans — cannot be made eligible for subsidies that are intended to help uninsured people afford coverage.

Of course, Obozo's playing the long-term game, figuring that he'll get single-payer out of this.  And that he'll get Big Labor to push for that, too.

Meantime, John Boehner is cowering someplace near a tanning lamp.

WEAC Now a Museum Piece

Write the obit.

Today, teachers in Kenosha, Wis., voted to decertify their union, the Kenosha Education Association, by a margin of nearly two to one. Only 37 percent of the teachers opted to retain the union in an election made possible by the labor reforms enacted under Gov. Scott Walker (R).  --HotAir quoting CEI

That's not all.

...Christina Brey, [speaking for WEAC, said]

“It seems like the majority of our affiliates in the state aren’t seeking re-certification, so I don’t think the KEA is an outlier or unique in this,” she said.

Buh-bye.  Don't let the door hit you in the ass.

US Manufacturing: Overstated?

Interesting little item here at Manufacturing News.

...Substituting imported products for those that were domestically produced "resulted in an overstatement of the annual growth in real value added by 0.2 percentage points to 0.5 percentage points per year from 1997 to 2007," according to the Upjohn/MIT research. This might not sound like a lot, but it is huge, "implying that real value-added growth was upward biased by as much as 50 percent" for the majority of U.S. manufacturing during that period, says the study. "Estimates on the bias from materials offshoring to multifactor productivity ranged from about 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points per year for all of manufacturing and about 0.2 to 0.4 for the computer and electronics industry."...

Seems that the number-crunchers at BLS haven't secured funding to put up an accurate measure of import-substitution.

This is not a small item; estimates range up to a FIFTY percent overstatement of US manufacturing output.  And that explains something else:

This statistical lapse is the likely reason why productivity rates have increased, but wage gains have not -- a situation that poses an intellectual quagmire for most economists who have been ignorant about the statistical anomalies associated with globalization's impact on the United States....

So the price-inflation item (below) becomes even more ...ahhh.....ugly.

Inflation? Damn Right!

All you have to do is scroll to the candle-charts.

And ignore Bernanke and the other morons.

Spend Lots, BK the Country: Ryan

Which is worse:  ObozoCare or this?

...House Budget Committee Paul Ryan, R-Wis., pitched exactly such a plan to a closed-door Republican Study Committee meeting Wednesday.

The Washington Examiner's David M. Drucker reports that, under the Ryan plan, Republicans would agree to raise the debt limit for a year, and undo the scheduled automatic sequestration cuts, but in return, Obama would have to agree to a one-year delay of Obamacare....

So Ryan--a "fiscal hawk"--would green-light even more taxpayer debt AND spend a whole bunch of money for a one-year reprieve from ObozoCare.

Ryan makes us all into Hobson.

Diversity Is Good!

HT:  Protein Wisdom

Big Biz: The Pigs

There's an old saying having its genesis in the stock market to the effect that bulls and bears have their ups and downs, but only the pigs get slaughtered.

And a hundred+ of those pigs went public with their squeal today.

On Tuesday, the chief human resources officers of more than 100 large corporations sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urging quick passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

...at the same time the corporate officers seek higher numbers of immigrants, both low-skill and high-skill, many of their companies are laying off thousands of workers.

For example, Hewlett-Packard, whose Executive Vice President for Human Resources Tracy Keogh signed the letter, laid off 29,000 employees in 2012. In August of this year, Cisco Systems, whose Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Kathleen Weslock signed the letter, announced plans to lay off 4,000 — in addition to 8,000 cut in the last two years. United Technologies, whose Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Organization Elizabeth B. Amato signed the letter, announced layoffs of 3,000 this year. American Express, whose Chief Human Resources Officer L. Kevin Cox signed the letter, cut 5,400 jobs this year. Procter & Gamble, whose Chief Human Resources Officer Mark F. Biegger signed the letter, announced plans to cut 5,700 jobs in 2012....

Belling seems to think that the anti-Ryan (immigration) ads are from Lefty activists.

And I suppose that Belling considers Big Biz to be Rightist?  He ought to know better.

Frankly, I'm an American--and to me, this letter is both shameful and disgusting. 

There will be all the usual mumbo-jumbo from these jackwads about "re-alignment," "different skills," "strategic re-assessment" and "plant consolidation," almost every word of which can be translated thus:  "We don't really give a shit about the people who work(ed) for us.  We won't relocate them, and we won't re-train them.  F*&^ 'em."

Eight dollars an hour and no benefits (let the taxpayers eat the cost of ObozoCare).

Makes one want to change the tax rates for these folks, ain'a? 

HT:  AOSHQ

Boehner's War Strategy: "We Give Up"

Boehner, ever the spineless but well-tanned insider, gave up on de-funding ObozoCare.

He also repeated his laugh-line that "...Republicans have voted against funding...more than 40 times...."  He doesn't mention that they NEVER voted against funding when it counted.

IOW, Boehner won't even do what Obozo did in the Syria affair.  He won't even issue a threat.

Recalling Anti-Gunners: 2 for 2

The Colorado recalls went very nicely, thanks!

Couldn't Happen to Nicer People

ObozoCare:  the gift that keeps on giving.  Just like syphilis.

“There’s a new 2.3 percent excise tax on medical device manufacturers. According to some reports, Kalamazoo based Stryker has laid off more than a thousand people because of it–and owes the federal government upwards of $100 million dollars this year alone. Late last week a Stryker spokesperson told me that Obamacare will cost the company fully 20 percent of its total research and development investments...."WWMT quoted at Gateway

Yup. that's the Stryker which is owned by a major-league Obozo donor. 

Now she's getting what she paid for, good and hard.

Putin: Example for Boehner

Putin is bitch-slapping the Preener-in-Chief back and forth around the entire globe.

It's something many of us have wanted to do for .....oh.....6 or 7 years.

Boehner?  He doesn't have the balls to follow Putin's lead.

The Contradiction-in-Chief

HT:  MoonBattery

Promising Poll on Syria

One of the commenters brings up a new poll on the Syria situation.

WASHINGTON—As President Obama continues to push for a plan of limited military intervention in Syria, a new poll of Americans has found that though the nation remains wary over the prospect of becoming involved in another Middle Eastern war, the vast majority of U.S. citizens strongly approve of sending Congress to Syria.

The New York Times/CBS News poll showed that though just 1 in 4 Americans believe that the United States has a responsibility to intervene in the Syrian conflict, more than 90 percent of the public is convinced that putting all 535 representatives of the United States Congress on the ground in Syria—including Senate pro tempore Patrick Leahy, House Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and, in fact, all current members of the House and Senate—is the best course of action at this time....

Only 90+%?  What, the others are comatose?

The Real Statist: Obozo

I know, it's piling on to bring this up....

The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material. In addition, the court extended the length of time that the NSA is allowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years — and more under special circumstances,...

So it must be Bush's fault, no?

No.

...What had not been previously acknowledged is that the court in 2008 imposed an explicit ban — at the government’s request — on those kinds of searches

Well, maybe it's "the WORLD'S surveillance community" which begged for the permission.

Walter R. Mead: "Putin's Really Stupid"

The professor misjudges:

...Foreigners will no longer know when and whether to take anything this President says as representing American policy rather than his own editorial opinions. We hate to say it, but that is so dangerous that there’s a strong argument for Congress to back the Syria resolution simply to avoid trashing the credibility of the only President we’ve got.--quoted at The Other McCain

What Mead is really saying is that Putin (and PRC, and others) are really quite stupid.

They're not.

They're doing to Obozo exactly what Boehner should have been doing years ago:  slapping him across the chops.

The Trotskyites Return Home

"Truth is not mean.  It's the truth." ---Breitbart

Over at the American Conservative, Kelley Vlahos writes that the “Neocons are back,” and they’re flocking to the left over the matter of Syria. Kelley’s correct—the neocon hold on the Republican Party has slipped, giving way to a rejuvenated non-interventionist vanguard.

Kelley traces an excellent history of the movement’s contemporary manifestation, beginning with Bill Kristol’s “now defunct” Project for a New American Century. However—and I imagine Kelley would agree—a lengthier look back at the movement shows its home on the left offers a comfortably collectivist fit, having emerged from the Soviet-side of the political spectrum.

Yup.  That showed up in the Rove/Kristol-inspired Big Gummint of GWBush, too--not to mention the Iraq problem, which was another "we can get every country to be peaceful democratic types if we stomp the crap out of them with the military." 

Yah, that worked real well.

So in a twist on the old saw, the Neocons now effectively argue that 'stomping really works; it just hasn't been done correctly yet.'

Trotskyism hasn't been done "correctly" yet, either.  Maybe Billy Kristol should start his own country and try it there, eh?

Slaughtering Christians = "Moderate": WSJ

The Wall Street Journal was known for its pro-capitalism editorial page and center-left news pages.

Things have changed.  Now it's a pro-AlQuaeda editorial page.

...On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry encouraged members of the House of Representatives to read a Wall Street Journal op-ed by 26-year-old Elizabeth O’Bagy — an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War — who asserted that concerns about extremists dominating among the Syrian rebels are unfounded.

“Contrary to many media accounts, the war in Syria is not being waged entirely, or even predominantly, by dangerous Islamists and al-Qaida die-hards,” O’Bagy wrote for the Journal on Aug. 30. “Moderate opposition groups make up the majority of actual fighting forces,” she wrote.

But in addition to her work for the Institute for the Study of War, O’Bagy is also the political director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), a group that advocates within the United States for Syria’s rebels — a fact that the Journal did not disclose in O’Bagy’s piece.

Yah, hey.

Aristotle's Guide: How to Be a Tyrant

Aristotle was a very smart guy.

I wonder if he could spell "Obozo".

Fourth Generation Warfare

Synopsis provided by Sipsey from the pen of a French general (!):

The outcome is to force the enemy to accept the terms we wish to impose on him. In this dialectic of wills a decision is achieved when a certain psychological effect has been produced on the enemy: when he becomes convinced that it is useless to start or alternatively to continue the struggle. (MBV: Emphasis in the original) -- General D'Armee Andre Beaufre, An introduction to Strategy, 1965.

This should be nothing "new" in terms of war, but the general included 'maintenance of the existing political scene' as a part of '4GW.'

IOW, even "peace" is war.  In recent history, the Cold War was the example.

The Short Course on Nominalism

The guy manages to put it into a very short essay and along the way supports the "Shakespeare Was Catholic" gang.

Rates Going Up?

Interesting little note from ZeroHedge:

...Speaking of bonds blowing out, the US 10Y[ear bond] is now just 6 bps away from 3.00%, the widest since July 2011, and likely to breach the support level, taking out a boatload of stops and leading to the next big step spike in rates as the second selling scramble ensues....

It's worth remembering that as bond yields increase, equities take it on the chops. Of course, rates for mortgages and car loans will also rise...

Historical Society Must Answer

Great.

The Walker Administration approves state agency spending to lobby for MORE State spending.

And the agency refuses to talk.

Looks to me as though a couple of schmeissings are in order, Governor.

Objective? "I Dunno."--Dempsey

Little Lord Fauntelroy sent his very best General, all dressed up with medals and everything, to talk to Congress.

Then someone asked the wrong question.

CORKER: And this authorization will support those activities in addition to responding to the weapons of mass destruction.

DEMPSEY: I don’t know how the resolution will evolve, but I support –

CORKER: What you’re seeking. What is it you’re seeking?

DEMPSEY: I can’t answer that, what we’re seeking.

Little Lord Fauntelroy stamped his widdle feets. 

Corker, who very much fears foot-stamping, voted to help Little Lord Fauntelroy anyway, for some day, Corker might grow up to be the next Little Lord Fauntelroy (he'd been admiring himself in the mirror for years, and his mommy told him he could be really important when he grows up.) 

The Cost of ObozoCare

Useful little item here to figure your bankruptcy-time under ObozoCare (scroll to the bottom to start the widget.)

Note that your out-of-pocket will be rather high (ours is over $10K) and the premium--well--it's not going to be cheap, either.

HT:  Sykes

Mukhabarat Amriki?

That's translated "CIA".

Various sources (recently this one) have indicated that Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the USA have been supporting the Syrian rebels since the beginning of the action. 

This happens to be the second report I've read which posits that the gas attack was a false-flag op about which the Mukhabarat Amriki had foreknowledge (at the very least.)

"War", of course, "is the health of the State".  So said Mr. Bourne in opposing Dewey of Columbia University, who had argued for US participation in WWI on the theory that war would advance democracy.  (Sounds vaguely familiar, no?) 

Dewey was wrong, as most Progressives are.  Twenty-one years after the war-to-end-all-wars ended, it started all over again.

As always, the question is cui bono?  Who benefits?

Maybe Obozo's thinking about FDR.  Fundamental transformation will take more than 8 years, ya'know.

Boehner's All In--on the Wrong War

Boehner and his mini-me Cantor are all in on the Stupid Syrian Strike.

Wrong war, predictably.

The right war?  ObozoCare.

The justification for Boehner's sudden ferocious lurch?  To deprive Obozo of someone to blame.

Now THAT'S a really, really, good reason to ignite the entire Middle East. eh?

Oh, Yes. They're Spying on You

We re-discovered the Spingola Files a while ago and thankfully, he's writing more often.

...The most visible sign of domestic spying initiatives are the millions of cameras posted along interstate highways, mounted on poles at key intersections, or those little white boxes containing cameras found, in some instances, every mile on stretches of southeastern Wisconsin freeways.  This data is recorded and archived by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s State Traffic Operations Center in Milwaukee...

... Wisconsin has two such [fusion] centers: one operated by the Milwaukee Police Department and the other housed in a benign office park on Madison’s north side.  The equipment used by these centers was purchased with Department of Homeland Security grant money.  Moreover, federal funds underwrite about 20 percent of the Milwaukee fusion center’s budget.

These high-tech fusion centers can access one’s personal information from private sector data mining companies, such as ChoicePoint, in order to ascertain an individual’s financial transactions, book purchases, vehicles and properties owned, credit information, as well as names and addresses of relatives and neighbors.  Fusion centers also use software to track cellular telephones absent judicial oversight.  This technology enables an agent of the government to follow a cell phone from room-to-room within a particular building or structure....

...In Wisconsin, over 37 law enforcement agencies use automated license plate readers (ALPR), which are generally mounted on patrol vehicles, although some are placed at fixed locations.  These devices scan hundreds of license plates of passing vehicles each minute to check on the driver’s license status, possible warrants, or other fugitive data.  These devices also record the date, time, and location that the vehicle was scanned.  This information is then stored in various databases. ...

Nothing to see here.  Move on, subjects.

UPDATE:  What Spingola didn't mention (yet):

...The Hemisphere Project, a partnership between federal and local drug officials and AT&T that has not previously been reported, involves an extremely close association between the government and the telecommunications giant.

The government pays AT&T to place its employees in drug-fighting units around the country. Those employees sit alongside Drug Enforcement Administration agents and local detectives and supply them with the phone data from as far back as 1987....Ticker quoting NYT

There's no "secret court" involved here; it's all "administrative".  Whatever DEA wants, they get through non-judicial warrants.

Obama: The Wizard of Oz

You all know the story.  Apply it.

Hint:  all hat, no cattle.

"Bomber" Billy Kristol, Again

I really don't care that Billy Kristol wants interventions to stop tinpot dictators from doing terrible things.

But I think Billy should send himself and his own family for a change, particularly when there is zero/zilch/nada US interest at stake.

Note carefully:  the writer that Kristol endorses does not provide one teeny-tiny bit of evidence that there are "US interests" at stake.  None.

The poor babbling professor, instead, tells us that blood and treasure should be spent because it's important that Obozo retains credibility in the world.

Does this poor fool think--for one second--that Obozo HAS credibility with the rest of the world?

Is The Syria Question Just More Politics?

With Obozo, one never discounts the political.

...The president couldn’t care less about the plight of Syrians, the 1,500 gassed to death — including nearly 500 children. It’s all about 2014. Win the House, reign supreme.

...The conventional wisdom is, as usual, wrong. Losing the congressional vote won’t be an embarrassment for the president, as all the talking heads are still parroting. A loss would be a double win. First, because a “No” vote would allow the foreign policy neophyte to walk away from his blundering “red line” declaration on chemical weapons (“I wanted to go in, but Congress said no”). And second, should Republicans who voted for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars now oppose Syria, the president would be armed with clear “evidence” that their opposition is purely political....

It's notable that the Administration is leaking intel (and the source of same) to gin up support for the War Resolution.  This info seems to confirm that Assad's kid ordered the gassing.

Even if that is granted as fact, the operative question for the US remains "So what?" 

We all know that Assad is a mini-Hitler, but there are a lot of them around running various 'countries.'  We all know that gassing civilians is a war crime--but then, 'collateral damage' happens with Obozo's very own drone war, too.

So.  War is bad for children and other living things.  Granted. 

That's not what Congress has to decide.  The question before them is this:  what vital national interest of the USA is at stake here?

And given the facts that neither Assad nor his AlQuaeda opponents are friends of the USA, it is clear:  there are NO US interests at stake.

So pPresident Obozo:  who shall be the first to die for your mistake?

Obozo, Our New Warmonger

The stupid "red line" ad-lib from our college professor idiot-in-chief now gets its own resolution for congressional approval.

...The substantive part of Obama’s proposed authorization of the use of military force, conveyed to congressional leaders over the weekend, contains 172 words. That’s significantly more than either the 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution authorizing the Vietnam War or the 2001 resolution authorizing retaliation for the 9/11 terror attacks,...

...University of Texas Law School Professor Robert Chesney said in an interview, Obama’s proposed authorization did not include a sunset date....

It gets worse:

...Obama has repeatedly said that “we would not put boots on the ground.” His proposed authorization, though, did not limit the kinds of military forces that could be used. It also does not specify the forces against which force can be used....

Not only is it "I'll do what I damn please, when I damn please, where I damn please, against whomever I damn please!"--it's also, quel horreur!  an up-yours to the fabled "international community."

...“Unfortunately, the president’s draft (authorization) states a violation of international law in every line,” said Mary Ellen O’Connell, a University of Notre Dame law professor. “Resort to military force is not permitted to punish the use of banned weapons; to address arms proliferation, or to respond to vague threats to the United States.”...

Should be fun to watch Wisconsin's junior senator decide on this one, eh?

Sign of the Times: Lefty Catholics Are Old

One of the darlings reports back from her College Town.

The local Catholic church has the usual lineup of silly instruments--tambourines, drums, yadayada--in the sanctuary (a contradiction in terms, I know) and our offspring expected the worst.

It wasn't "worst".  It was in the upper 30% of bad, but not "worst."

Here's the interesting thing, though:  following the sweaty-palm-holding exercise at the Our Father, the assembled crooned their 'Lamb of God'. 

Then, mirabile dictu, the college kids all knelt down, as they should

Only the Old Farts--the boomers and the boomers++--remained defiantly standing.

This is not unusual, by the way.  At a parish not far from home, there's a 60++++ woman who will do anything in her power to chase off people (priests and laity) who demonstrate a little too much respect for liturgical propriety.  And since she has "a position" in the parish, she's been effective.

The Biological Solution is imminent for her, as for the others.  God is good.

Threat Level Measurements

Apparently this is NOT John Cleese' work.

From JOHN CLEESE
The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Syria and have therefore raised their security level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.” Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.” The English have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from “Tiresome” to “A Bloody Nuisance.” The last time the British issued a “Bloody Nuisance” warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from “Pissed Off” to “Let’s get the Bastards.” They don’t have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years....

There's more--the Frogs and Italians get it, too...

HT:  PowerLine

How Idiotic ARE the NSA Managers?

Apparently Snowden was a busy little beaver.

In a signed statement revealed at Friday’s hearing, a detective superintendent with the Counter-Terrorism  branch of the Metropolitan Police said that the material on an “external hard drive” seized from him “discloses approximately 58,000 UK documents of the highest level of classification.”--NBC News quoted at Hot Air

At least the Brits could count up the coup.

The NSA?  Not so much:

...The NSA, as it turns out, didn’t have the kind of controls in place for them to know just how much Snowden managed to purloin while working in two consecutive jobs as a contractor to the agency.  Of course, the NSA also didn’t have enough security in place to keep the files from being stolen in the first place...

Whatever the Managerial Class at NSA is paid, it is too much by at least 3 orders of magnitude. And I think that we should find them guilty of treason-by-misrepresentation-of-capability.  That is, they should be shot at dawn for being idiots.

Mormon? Catholic? Evangelical? DOD Has a Word for You!

....and that word is "extremist."

...the Chaplain Alliance uncovered a U.S. Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief that it says expressly pronounced “Catholicism,” “evangelical Christianity,” and “Mormonism” as examples of “religious extremism” like Al Qaeda, Hamas, and the Ku Klux Klan. This led to the FOIA request that uncovered the latest assault on religion by our military establishment.

At one point in time REMFs knew better than to open their mouths.

Things have changed.

HT:  PowerLine

The Collapse of the Culture

A very noteworthy quotation:

"When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them." - Plato, Republic

I cadged that from an entry which makes several other good points echoing E. Michael Jones' (Ph.D) commentaries in his "Culture Wars" and "Fidelity" journals.

Whether one agrees with the rest of Vox' post or not, Plato's statement is valid.  We've seen that in the Roman Catholic church--in the West, generally, but particularly in the US--where the Church has utterly failed to catechize her members over the last 50 years.  That's admitted by no less than Cdl. Tim Dolan.

The "Rembert Revolution" of ~1965 had consequences.

Tom Barrett: B-List

While Milk-Carton Tom's office spins his trip to D.C. as "a meeting with the President" (it was), the national press writes it up differently.

Among those attending the session were Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, N.J., a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate; Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter; Washington, D.C., Mayor Vincent Gray; New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu; Mayor Jean Quan of Oakland, Calif.; Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Mayor Sly James of Kansas City, Mo.; Mayor Molly Ward of Hampton, Va., and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

No mention of Milk-Carton.  None at all.  

So, RoJo: What's At Stake?

Senator Ron Johnson says "there's a lot at stake" in Syria for the US.

When you listen to the interview, RoJo's "at stake" is a nothing-burger.  For example, he said that Syria's WMDs could slip into the wrong hands.

Yah.  That's right.  And exactly how would RoJo prevent that, other than putting a helluvalotta US boots on the ground with packing-crates?

Maybe Ron should define "a lot" a lot better.

Either Amnesty or Mass Rape

From the mouth of Paul Ryan's amnesty-deal BFF:

...“What we need to understand is today, someone is going to die in that desert trying to return to their families; women and men are going to die in that desert,” Gutierrez said in the video, captured by C-SPAN (beginning at ~47:12). “Someone’s going to lose a finger, a hand, an eye, a life today because an unscrupulous employer is going to put them in harm’s way. Someone’s going to die.”

He continued, “There’s a woman that’s going to be raped in a field somewhere in America today because she has no rights in this country, and we need to end that."...

Huh?  So when amnesty happens, rape will stop?

Put another way:  if no amnesty, more rapes?

Given the track record to date, the perps will be illegals.  They're also pretty good at DUI homicides, by the way. 

Amnesty will cure all that, eh?
 

Walker Needs a Refresher on ConLaw 101

It's kinda sad when you think about it:  Scott Walker does not understand the Constitution of the US.  (There is another possibility:  see below)

....after his speech I asked him what he thought about the effort by some Republican lawmakers to defund Obamacare.

“I think in the end, the only caution I put up is, I don’t think you should shut down the government for it,” Walker told me. “I think people, at least in my state, Republicans like me want less government, want limited government, but we want government that works, and I don’t think shutting things down makes anything work.”...

Scott, young man, you need a little lesson in the US Constitution.

See, the House of Representatives writes the budget.

Only the PRESIDENT can shut down the Gummint by vetoing said budget--no matter what was funded, or de-funded.

Which would you rather be, Scott?  A toadying suck-up to Party Bigs, or a Constitutional illiterate from 'tosa?

Jesse Jackson Jr. Now a Rich Slimebag

The slimebag suddenly developed a "mood disorder" which pays him $100K+/year in Federal "disability" pay.

Not bad at all.

This gives rise to the question "How much is paid to other Federal "disability" cases, and what is their "disability"?"

The Back-and-Forthright GOP

When Walt Kelly, Pogo's creator, invented the back-and-forthright Senator Foghorn Leghorn, John Boehner was only cryin' when he didn't get enough attention from his Mommy.

Now Cryin' John gets lots of attention, and--though not a Senator--has become the Back-and-Forthright pol that Kelly satirized; and he's managed to co-opt the office of Paul Ryan in the process.

Back in January, as Republicans geared up for a fight on the debt ceiling, House Republican Leaders assured their constituents that a continuing resolution was the way to fight Obamacare.

... Former Speaker Newt Gingrich went on CBS to advise Republicans that their fight with Barack Obama should be during a continuing resolution fight, not a debt ceiling fight.

... Well, now it is later. And having first told the Republican base that it would have to wait until the continuing resolution and not the debt ceiling fight, now the GOP is telling everyone that it will make its stand on the debt ceiling fight. Never mind that Republicans have said repeatedly that they would never allow the U.S. to default. Never mind that in January, when conservatives tried to get House Republican leaders to fight over Obamacare through the debt ceiling, the GOP got every willing right-of-center columnist, talking head, and pundit to bash conservatives. They told us we could not afford to default on our obligations.

Below, we asked the question 'Fools or Knaves?' about the House "Intelligence" Committee.

In Cryin' John's case, we KNOW the answer.  He's a lying sack of s*&^, the longhand form of knave.

Flat Temps v. Flat Earth Society

The Flat Earthers--AlGore and the IPCC--have been implementing their propaganda strategy again.

Unfortunately, the RSS (satellite temp-data) refuses to self-immolate for The Cause.

The graphic above shows 3 lines. The long line shows that RSS has been flat from December 1996 to July 2013, which is a period of 16 years and 8 months or 200 months. The other slightly higher flat line in the middle is the latest complete decade of 120 months from January 2001 to December 2010. The other slightly downward sloping line is the latest 120 months prior from present. It very clearly shows it has been cooling lately, however this cooling is not statistically significant.

Count "Lightbulb" Rogers (Idiot--MI) as part of the AlGore bunch, by the way.

HT:  JunkScience

House "Intel" Committee: Fools or Knaves?

Any outfit chaired by "Lightbulb" Rogers (who enabled the ban of the incandescent bulb AND who lied like Hell about "fixing" that ban) is almost a bunch of dim bulbs by definition.  So here's the list of Likely Dim Bulbs.

But wait:  they could also be knaves like Rogers, who is already a proven flagrant liar.  So here's the list of (pick one) Fools or Knaves.

Mike Rogers, Chairman
8th District of Michigan
Mac Thornberry
13th District of Texas
Jeff Miller
1st District of Florida
Mike Conaway
11th District of Texas
Peter King
3rd District of New York
Frank LoBiondo
2nd District of New Jersey
Devin Nunes
21st District of California
Lynn Westmoreland
3rd District of Georgia
Michele Bachmann
6th District of Minnesota
Thomas J Rooney
16th District of Florida
Joe Heck
3rd District of Nevada
Mike Pompeo
4th District of Kansas

You might say "Well, maybe they're not!  After all, Because King!  Because Bachman!  Because Nunes!"

Really?  Then read this little essay and re-assess your opinion in light of the facts.

Coincidence, Eh?

Vox phrased it correctly, although the sarcasm doesn't come across in pixels too well.

In an amazing and unsettling coincidence, it seems the recent massacre in Syria, which we are supposed to believe was committed by the Assad regime just as it had taken control of the civil war, was anticipated by the need for one more than 18 months in advance....

He goes on to quote a Wikileaks-discovered Stratfor email (posted at ZeroHedge) which just happens to describe a strat-session envisioning a "mass murder" by Assad which will gin up US animosity to that thug--so much so that the USAF will have a chance to test its capability against the Syrians.

Jack Ryan, call your office!

It's the Culture, Stupid!

Nothing to see here.

...How dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from the ages of 12 to 18.

Pathologies that went undescribed in print 40 years ago, that were still only sparingly outlined a generation ago, are now spelled out in stomach-clenching detail. Profanity that would get a song or movie branded with a parental warning is, in young-adult novels, so commonplace that most reviewers do not even remark upon it....

But hey!  They'll be voting in 4-10 years. And if Boehner has his way, ObozoCare will still be the law of the land.

HT:  AOSHQ

War Party Setback

The War Party--an eclectic mixture of (R) and (D) folks also known as NeoCons, don't really give a rip about the national mood.  In all likelihood, Obozo will jump in here with both feet. other people's boots.

But sensible people do.

...About 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria's civil war, while just 9 percent thought President Barack Obama should act....

...25 percent of Americans would support U.S. intervention if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces used chemicals to attack civilians, while 46 percent would oppose it. That represented a decline in backing for U.S. action since August 13, when Reuters/Ipsos tracking polls found that 30.2 percent of Americans supported intervention in Syria if chemicals had been used, while 41.6 percent did not....

The "To Hell With Them All" group is growing rapidly.

Frankly, if McCain, Graham, and Obozo want to intervene, let 'em.  

But they should do it in person.  Anyone else who wants to go can follow them.  We'll pack a picnic basket for them. 

HT:  WeaselZippers 

JS' "March on Washington" Story

The JSOnline has been running advertisements asking participants in the '63 March on Washington to call in and tell their stories.

Prolly part of a larger story on the March.

What WON'T the JS story say?

In the 50 years since the 1963 March on Washington,it’s connection to the socialist movement has been largely airbrushed from history.

Wanna take bets?

Eric Holder, Racist, In the Schoolhouse Door

It's no small irony that this is happening in the Deep South.

The U.S. Justice Department is suing Louisiana in New Orleans federal court to block 2014-15 vouchers for students in public school systems that are under federal desegregation orders. The first year of private school vouchers "impeded the desegregation process," the federal government says.
Thirty-four school systems could be affected,...

...The Justice Department's primary argument is that letting students leave for vouchered private schools can disrupt the racial balance in public school systems that desegregation orders are meant to protect....

Yes, it does!

...State Education Superintendent John White took issue with the suit's primary argument and its characterization of the program. Almost all the students using vouchers are black, he said. Given that framework, "it's a little ridiculous" to argue that students' departure to voucher schools makes their home school systems less white, he said. He also thought it ironic that rules set up to combat racism were being called on to keep black students in failing schools....

That's not "ironic"; it's Holder's Schoolhouse Door stand, where he chains them IN, never to let them free.

Cryin' John: Master of the 'Prevent Defense'

As we all know, the "prevent" defense doesn't prevent a damn thing.

Insight in the Tee Shirt

Apparently the NSA lawyers forced the designers to cease using the vague likeness above.

'S OK.  If you read this blog, you're going to Club Fed with me!!

HT:  MoonBattery

Perma-War and .....Walker???

The Spectacle brings interesting news.

Walker is reportedly putting together a campaign book and he’s having Marc Thiessen write it. I suppose it’s possible that Walker could choose to work with Thiessen without knowing about or agreeing with the latter’s extremely hawkish views on national security, but it seems unlikely. Put another way, if you were a politician interested positioning yourself “somewhere in between” Paul and Christie on national security issues, would you select an ardent defender of Bush-era torture methods as your ghostwriter? No, you wouldn’t.  (Larison), quoted at AmSpec

Oh, good.  Another one who believes that If Only We Could Implant Democracy, Whirled Peas!!

I joined the "to Hell with them" club a while back, when it became clear as crystal that neither Iraq nor Afghanistan will profit from our long-term adventures there.

NRO Asks a Silly Question

For crying out loud, Mr. Stiles, it's been all over the "news" for the last few months, NRO.

It’s worth noting that people launching these attacks on Ted Cruz are the same people who instantly impute malign or racist motives to almost any criticism of President Obama. (In the world of MSNBC, for example, it is apparently racist to point out that the president plays a lot of golf, or even to refer to him as “Obama.”)

Cruz, on the other hand, is fair game.--quoted at AOSHQ

Cruz is a WHITE Hispanic.  QED

Wiggy, Again

I'll defer answering Wiggy's first question ("...which half is right?") but leave you to speculate whether it's the top or the bottom half.

Meantime, he's on another tangent:

Let the state patrol roam the freeways (consolidation!) and get rid of the sheriff’s department. Milwaukee County taxpayers would be better off without the extra layer of government inefficiency.

As Grim sagely observed in the combox, appointed LEO's are the preferred choice of statists everywhere.

Some are far more comfortable with a State Patrol which--coincidentally--is run by an appointed head, in preference to local Sheriffs who, in Wisconsin, are elected.  Police chiefs are also appointed.

Hmmmmm. 

One may argue that any given Sheriff is not managing his resources well.  Fine.  That's what "elections" are for.  But mis- or mal-management by a political appointee?  Yah--it's another election, but only indirectly.

But one cannot argue that the State Patrol is an unalloyed good.  They are not even full-bore LEO's, as their powers to arrest are limited.

We've argued before, and still maintain, that the State Patrol's highway-patrol operations should be eliminated in favor of county Sheriff's departments.  The Patrol's truck-inspection business should be maintained; otherwise, the Patrol should be dismantled.  It's an expense which is needless.

THAT should demonstrate that my name is not Fitzgerald, eh?

By the way, Jim:  "inefficiency" is having 8 police chiefs instead of one, and 24 captains instead of 3, and 72 lieutenants instead of 24.  Not to mention 8 multi-million dollar communications installations, 8 maintenance facilities (etc., etc., etc.)

Wiggy's Half-Right

Wiggy's combox is shut down, so here's a response.

I had a conversation today with a well-connected individual who related to me that many municipal police and fire departments were on a path toward absorption by other, larger departments.

In the case of law enforcement, small villages, townships--and even cities--are ceding LEO duties to County Sheriffs.  The fire/rescue departments are on a similar path, but "county fire chiefs" do not exist (yet)--so instead, they are forming regional departments.

The North Shore fire department is one example, but look to the Oconomowoc/Lake Country Fire/Rescue brouhaha and you see another merger which WILL take place.

In Waukesha County, the Sheriff patrols Sussex and Pewaukee.

The City of Milwaukee may be an exception.  Wauwatosa may be another.  But in 20 years, don't expect to find an Elm Grove PD, nor a Town of Brookfield PD; and perhaps even the City of Brookfield will use the Sheriff instead.

Just sayin'...

State: "They Had Careers"

The four scapegoats (and bumbling idiots) that Hildebeeste strung up have been returned to State, pardoned by Kerry.

The State reasoning?  "They had careers."

Uh-huh.  So did the Ambassador and the three other dead people.

These "careers" were on paid leave for 8 months.

Did you miss them?  Did State collapse without their "services"?

Hmmmmm?

Who Said "Shutdown"?

One of the First Things in politics is "Never, ever, adopt the language of the enemy."

So when Ted Cruz and Mike Lee started the movement to de-fund ObozoCare, they never said "shut down" the Gummint.

The White House and Harry Reid said that.  A compliant press repeated it endlessly.

De-funding the administration of ObozoCare--thus, stopping its implementation by turning off the money-spigot paying thousands of bureaucrats to write millions of rules--is NOT "shutting down" Gummint.  It is simply de-funding ObozoCare.

But the simpleton semi-Statist Pubbies made a fatal error:  they used the Enemy's term:  "shutdown."

And they wet their own pants in fear, and they will drown the country in their pee-puddles.

Men with chests?  Nope.