Obama Jobs Council going away...

The election is over. Nobody cares about jobs anymore...

President Barack Obama's jobs council, a panel formed in January 2011 to gather outside expertise on job creation, is set to expire Thursday. It appears unlikely that the president will renew it for another term, but experts say that the council has been such a loser that its death might actually be a good thing.

The jobs panel, officially called the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, is made up of 26 important people from industry, labor, and academia, and was "created to provide non-partisan advice to the President…on ways to create jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for the American people," according to its website. But the panel failed to accomplish much over its two-year life span, and a lot of what it did turn out was more friendly to business than to regular people.

Obama shot skeet...once...

 He's a real Rambo...

Via Fox News:

News of President Obama’s apparently long-secret fondness for skeet shooting came as a surprise to those who say they have witnessed the president’s “awkward” attempts at pinging the (clay) pigeons.

This has only happened with the president at Camp David, at most, a couple of times, according to a source who says he has been to the retreat on a half-dozen visits with Obama.

“The only time he shot skeet was for President’s Cup,” said the source, referring to a shooting competition tradition involving the presidential Marine guards. “I was there. He stayed for about five minutes, and couldn’t leave fast enough.”

Skeet shooting “is very hard,” said the source. “Especially for someone not used to guns … He couldn’t have been more uncomfortable.”

The source said a friend of his recalled Obama skeet shooting one other time at Camp David — very early on in his first term.

Liberal Heartache: Barney Frank bypassed for interim Massachusetts Senate seat...

Barney Frank get tossed on the ash heap of history...

Via Boston Herald:

Interim Senate pick William “Mo” Cowan today vowed his political career would be short — and ruled out all future plans to run for office — as he prepares to take over for U.S. Sen. John Kerry for the next five months.

“This is going to be a very short career,” said Cowan. “I am not running for office. I’m not a candidate for public service at any time today or in the future.”

Cowan beat out a list of challengers, including Barney Frank, who had been at the center of an intense lobbying effort by progressive groups pushing his nomination.

“There were other very capable candidates on the list — including Congressman Frank,” said Patrick. “All of whom, because of how capable they were, made it a difficult choice.”

Economy suffered surprise economic contraction in the fourth quarter of 2012. WH blames Republicans...

The lamestream media lets Team Obama get away with crap like this:

Via The Hill:

White House press secretary Jay Carney laid the blame for a surprise economic contraction squarely at the feet of congressional Republicans Wednesday, saying economic threats during the “fiscal cliff” negotiations had prevented important defense spending.

“Our economy is facing a major headwinds, and that’s Republicans in Congress,” Carney said.

The Commerce Department projected Wednesday that the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Carney said that was partially attributable to the threat of sequestration, which would implement across-the-board spending cuts if a long-term deficit deal is not reached.
“This is political brinkmanship that results in one primary victim. That’s American taxpayers and the American middle class,” Carney said, acknowledging the GDP projection was bad news.

Jay Carney refuses to deny Obama said the country did not have a spending problem

Baghdad Bob Jay can neither confirm or deny...

(CNSNews.com) – White House Press Secretary Jay Carney did not deny President Barack Obama, who oversaw a $5.8 trillion increase in the national debt during his first term, believed the country did not have a spending problem.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Jan. 6 about a conversation between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). In the article, Boehner said Obama told him, “We don’t have a spending problem.” The article quotes Boehner saying Obama told him the problem is limited to health care spending.

On Wednesday, Fox News reporter Wendell Goler asked Carney, “Boehner also reportedly said the president told him personally this country does not have a spending problem. Did that happen?”

Carney did not give a specific answer.

“Well, you know, there’s a lot of reports about conversations internally,” Carney said. “I don’t have a readout of any of the president’s personal conversations with the speaker or anyone else to provide to you.

Keep on reading…

Leaked IPCC report: Global warming models overestimating warming...

If a climate model is off this much over such a short term, it is useless for long-term forecasting...

Via Fox News:

A preliminary draft of a report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was leaked to the public this month, and climate skeptics say it contains fresh evidence of 20 years of overstated global warming.

The report — which is not scheduled for publication until 2014 — was leaked by someone involved in the IPCC’s review process, and is available for download online. Bloggers combing through the report discovered a chart comparing the four temperature models the group has published since 1990. Each has overstated the rise in temperature that Earth actually experienced.

“Temperatures have not risen nearly as much as almost all of the climate models predicted,” Roy Spencer, a climatologist at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, told FoxNews.com.

“Their predictions have largely failed, four times in a row… what that means is that it’s time for them to re-evaluate,” Spencer said.

The IPCC graph shows that the midpoints of the various models predicted that the world would warm by between about 0.5 degrees Fahrenheit and 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit between 1990 and 2012. Actual warming was much less than that: 0.28 F, according the data the IPCC cites.

Flashback: Defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel declared Israel “keep[ing] Palestinians caged up like animals.”

Hagel is the wrong man and should not be confirmed.



Via WFB:

Defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel protested what he called the “completely distorted” record on Israel that his critics are promoting in an interview earlier this month with his hometown newspaper.

The former Nebraska senator said an accurate assessment would show “unequivocal, total support for Israel.”

Yet a decade earlier, the same newspaper–the Lincoln Journal Star–quoted Hagel making a startling accusation against Israel in a Jan. 12, 2003 article. Israel, Hagel declared, was “keep[ing] Palestinians caged up like animals.”

Keep reading…

MSNBC’s Karen Finney: Republicans Are “Crazy Crackers”

 Can you imagine if a conservative used a racial slur to describe democrats?

“Those crazy crackers on the right, if they start with their very hateful language, that is going to kill them in the same way that they learned, at their little retreat, let’s not talking about rape.”

Hero: TX Gov. Rick Perry wants to return tax money directly to the people who paid it

It's a shame we don't have President Perry...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Gov. Rick Perry presented a glowing assessment of the Texas economy Tuesday and said there was more than enough money in the state’s Rainy Day fund for a one-time, $3.7 billion-investment in water and transportation upgrades while also cutting taxes.

The Republican governor, who for weeks has called on the Legislature to hold down government spending even with the state’s economy booming, used his biennial State of the State speech Tuesday in the House chamber to call for a one-time investment in infrastructure he said is needed to ensure a high quality of life. The Texas constitution calls for a percentage of oil and gas revenues to go into the Rainy Day Fund, which is nearing its constitutional cap.

“Our bank balance is healthy, our economy is growing, our future is limitless,” Perry said.

Perry also called on lawmakers to amend the Texas Constitution to allow the state to return tax money it collects but doesn’t spend to its citizens.

“Today, I’m calling for a mechanism to be put in place so when we do bring in more than we need, we’ll have the option of returning tax money directly to the people who paid it,” the governor said. “Currently, that’s not something our constitution allows. We need to fix that.”

Keep on reading…

Amusing: GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn Challenges Obama To Skeet Shooting Match…

My money is on Rep. Marsha Blackburn. 

(CNN) - It’s about time for some bipartisan…skeet shooting?

Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, joined a chorus of skeptics who questioned President Barack Obama’s recent comments about his hobby of skeet shooting, a sport where participants fire shotguns to break airborne clay disks.

“If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this? Why have we not seen photos? Why hasn’t he referenced this at any point in time?” Blackburn said Monday on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”

“I tell you what I do think,” she later added. “I think he should invite me to Camp David, and I’ll go skeet shooting with him and I bet I’ll beat him.”

Obama said in an interview published Sunday by The New Republic that he won’t ignore the concerns of hunters and sportsmen as his administration pushes for tighter gun laws. To illustrate his point, he added an anecdote about his previously unknown penchant for shooting.

“Up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time,” he said, responding to a question about whether he had ever fired a gun. He also added he has included guests on his skeet shooting outings.

Top Democrats ask Obama to stand down on his own immigration bill...

Democrats are afraid a partisan Obama bill will destroy the  delicate bipartisan talks.

Washington (CNN) – Some senior Democratic members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus used a private White House meeting Friday to urge President Obama not to unveil his own immigration legislation, for fear of blowing up delicate bipartisan talks, Democratic sources tell CNN.

This is significant for several reasons.

First, because the White House has been telling senators and advocates that they are writing their own immigration bill, in legislative language. It is incredibly rare for the White House to write its own bill.

Second – Democrats urging the president not to release a bill illustrates how polarizing the immigration issue remains – especially for Republicans who fear that signing onto any legislation that could be seen as authored by the president could invite primary challenges for Republicans.

 Obama isn't one to miss a partisan fight if he can create one.

Via WaPo:

The Obama administration has developed its own proposals for immigration reform that are more liberal than a separate bipartisan effort in the Senate, including a quicker path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, people with knowledge of the proposals said.

President Obama is expected to provide some details of the White House plans during a Tuesday appearance in Las Vegas, where he will call for sweeping changes to the nation’s immigration laws. The speech kicks off a public push by the administration in support of the broadest overhaul of immigration law in nearly three decades.

Liberal groups want to help Tea Party oust Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell

Hmm...

Via Politico:

Tea party activists looking to oust Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a GOP primary may get some help from an unlikely source: Democrats.

Big Democratic donors, local liberal activists and a left-leaning super PAC in Kentucky are telling tea partiers that they are poised to throw financial and organizational support behind a right-wing candidate should one try to defeat the powerful GOP leader in a 2014 primary fight.[...]

“We are doing a lot of reaching out to some of the tea party folks across the state,” said Keith Rouda, a field organizer with the liberal group MoveOn and the Democratic super PAC, Progress Kentucky. “What we’re finding — at least in this stage of the race — we’re finding that our interests align. It’s unusual.”

Amusing: Allen West tweets: CBS now propaganda wing of White House.

I love this guys plain talk...

Disturbing interview @60minutes w/POTUS & SofS. Both delusional re: Egypt & Al Qaeda in Maghreb. @cbs now propaganda wing of White House.
— Allen West (@AllenWest) January 28, 2013

Obama wants to ban guns not used for hunting...

The Second Amendment has absolutely nothing to do with hunting...

Via Politico:

President Obama reiterated his determination Monday to see Congress act to reduce gun violence.

“The only way that we’re going to be able to do everything that needs to be done is with cooperation of Congress,” he said at the start of a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and law enforcement officials from the Major Cities Chiefs Association and the Major County Sheriffs Association.

“That means passing serious laws that restrict the access and availability of assault weapons and magazine clips that aren’t necessary for hunters and sportsmen, those responsible gun owners who are out there. It means that we are serious about universal background checks, it means that we take seriously issues of mental health and school safety,” he said.

Journalist confronts hypocrite Mayor Bloomberg about his armed guards...

Journalist Accosted By Security Over Mayor Bloomberg Gun Control Question 


Via PJM:

Jason Mattera caught up with New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg at the US Conference of Mayors on January 18. Bloomberg has been making headlines lately for pushing gun control, and New York State passed one of the most sweeping gun bans in the nation earlier in January.

Mattera confronts Mayor Bloomberg and asks him to disarm his praetorian guard, in the spirit of gun control. Bloomberg balks.

“Uh, we’ll get back to you on that,” Bloomberg says. Bloomberg’s five visible, and very large and armed, bodyguards get between Mattera and the mayor.

But that’s not where the story ends.

Keep on reading…

 

There wasn't enough money for security in Benghazi, but State Department has $1 billion for climate change...

Priorities...

Via Frontpage:

According to Hillary Clinton’s long-delayed Benghazigate testimony, the State Department just did not have enough money to provide security for a mission in one of the most dangerous places in the world.

It did however have 16 million dollars to spend on 2,500 kindle book readers at the drastically inflated price of $6,600 per device.

How much security could that 16 million buy?

It had $79,000 to spend on Obama’s books and $20,000 on a portrait of Obama. The US Embassy had $150,000 to spend on a book about the ambassador’s residence. The US Embassy in Austria had $150,000+ for a Chevy Volt and its charging station.
And here is what else Hillary’s State Department did have money for…

7.9 billion dollars for Obama’s Global Health Initiative.

1 billion for global climate change.

2.2 billion to strengthen democratic institutions in Pakistan.

And of course… Mosque renovations.

 In 2011 the State Department provided funds to restore the 15th century Gobarau Minaret in Katsina State in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north, an area which has become a virtual killing field for Christians at the hands of Muslim militants, led by the al-Qaeda-linked terror group Boko Haram.

Keep reading…

Satire: Avid skeet shooter Barack Obama reveals his favorite clay pigeon recipe...

Me: So, Mr. President you shoot skeet. Do you eat them afterwards?
BO: Why yes. There is nothing more satisfying than killing and dressing your on inanimate object for dinner. My favorite recipe for clay pigeons is Braised Pigeons in Chocolate Sauce .
Me: Is there a secret to preparation?
BO: I like to soak them overnight in salt water and boil them for a long time to make them tender.
Me: Does the rest of the family eat them?
BO: Michelle loves them. She says they are good for her hips.
Me: What about the girls?
BO: Well. they are picky eaters and I usually fly in a pizza from Chicago when we have clay pigeon. 
Me: Isn't that extravagant?
BO: No this is Washington DC. We deserve it.
Me: Don't you think that could cause some resentment in fly-over country?
BO: Those bitter clingers in fly-over country need to get with the plan. They should get fired from their jobs, sign up for 99 weeks of unemployment, food stamps, Medicaid,  and a free Obamacphone. They would have plenty of money then.
Me: Thank you Mr. President.
Me: ....In other news CNN's Piers Morgan suffered grievous knee injuries in an exclusive gun control interview with President Obama.

Poll: 65 percent would defy law requiring them to give up their guns...

Is revolution coming to America again?

Via Daily Caller:

As anti-gun lawmakers push for a government ban of more than 150 types of firearms, a new Fox News poll shows that two-thirds of American voters who have guns in their household would “defy” any law requiring them to give up the guns.

A majority of poll respondents – 52 percent – revealed that someone in their home owns a gun. Those respondents were then asked, “If the government passed a law to take your guns, would you give up your guns or defy the law and keep your guns?”

Approximately 65 percent indicated they would “defy the law,” including 70 percent of Republicans and 52 percent of Democrats who answered the question. Only 22 percent said they would “give up” their guns, while 13 percent were not sure.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Prime goal of the Muslims should be terminating the issue of Zionism.

Iran will soon have a nuke bomb. What could possibly go wrong? 

Tehran, Jan 27, IRNA – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that all Muslims should mobilize their resources to uproot Zionism.

He made the remarks in his speech to the 26th international conference on Islamic Unity.
He said that the prime goal of the Muslims should be terminating the issue of Zionism.

”World Muslims should forge unity in their struggle with bullying powers and by the time that the Zionist usurpers commit crimes through occupation and vandalism. It is not advisable to sit idle and take no action.”

Elsewhere in his speech, he said that it is not possible to attain unity without having a unique leadership.

The only leader who can guide Muslim World is the guidelines of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), he underlined.

WTH? Jail breaking Unlocking your cell phone is now illegal...

How many lobbying dollars did it take to buy this travesty of justice?  If you unlock your cell phone software in order to use a different network, it is now a copyright violation. This is kind of like buying a car and having the vehicle manufacturer install a GPS device that only allows it to be driven on their toll roads. Then, the government makes it a crime to disable the GPS.You can still get a HTC G2 Vision Google Cellphone - Unlocked from Amazon.


Via Mail Online:

A new law that makes it illegal to 'unlock' your cell phone and switch carriers goes into effect today and will carry fines between $2,500 and $500,000, and in some cases, prison time.

The change made by the U.S. Copyright Office and Library of Congress to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act will make it illegal for consumers to unlock mobile devices without the permission of their carrier.

The lock feature on mobile devices essentially allows carriers a way to prevent customers from switching to a new plan with a different company. Unless your phone came unlocked and are grandfathered in under the law, you're device is legally chained to your service provider.[...]

Now, it is illegal to unlock a phone from a carrier unless you have that carrier's permission.

'It wasn't a good ruling,' Rebecca Jeschke, a digital rights analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), told ABC News. 'You should be able to unlock your phone. This law was meant to combat copyright infringement, not to prevent people to do what they want to do with the device they bought.' Keep on reading...

Bronco Bama thinks the Second Amendment is about hunting...

You would think someone who lectured college classes on the Constitution would know the Second Amendment is about shooting tyrants, not deer.

The AP reported:

President Barack Obama says gun-control advocates should be better listeners in the debate over firearms in America.

In an interview with The New Republic, Obama says he has “a profound respect” for the tradition of hunting that dates back for generations.

“And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake. Part of being able to move this forward is understanding the reality of guns in urban areas are very different from the realities of guns in rural areas,” he says.

Obama has called for a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and is pushing other policies following the mass shooting last month at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. In response, gun-rights advocates have accused Obama and others of ignoring the Second Amendment rights of Americans.

The president says it’s understandable that people are protective of their family traditions when it comes to hunting.

“So it’s trying to bridge those gaps that I think is going to be part of the biggest task over the next several months. And that means that advocates of gun control have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes,” he says.

Has Obama himself ever fired a gun?

“Yes,” the president says, “in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time.”

Obama skeet shoots? If so, he has kept this secret for a long time. If he said he target shot silhouettes of Tea Party patriots, he would be more believable.  

Good News: European cap-and-trade system collapsing...

It is all a scam anyway...

Via Spiegel: 

The European cap-and-trade system has slid into near meaninglessness as Germany bickers on the sidelines. Hopes that the election in Lower Saxony might resolve the high-level bickering were misguided. Now Europe's carbon market has hit a new low.

For those involved in European Union climate policy, the German regional election in Lower Saxony on Sunday was a nail-biter. The hope for many was that Germany's pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) would suffer defeat and leader Philipp Rösler, who has been under pressure within his party for weeks now, would be forced to step down as economics minister. But that didn't happen. Instead, Rösler ended up in a stronger position than before, and the flagship project of Europe's climate policy settled deeper into a lifeless coma.[...]

'Something Has To Be Done Urgently' 
 
Indeed, the market for carbon credits has reached new lows. On Thursday, the price of carbon credits dropped 40 percent within 30 seconds before regaining most of the losses. In an indicator of just how vulnerable ETS threatens to become, the volatility followed a nearly meaningless vote for a non-binding recommendation by the industry committee of the European Parliament that the backloading plan be rejected.... Keep on reading...

Hero: Man writes 4th Amendment on chest, strips to shorts at TSA checkpoint, gets detained, wins $250 ,000 lawsuit...

Today's feel good story is via Wired:

A Virginia man who wrote an abbreviated version of the Fourth Amendment on his body and stripped to his shorts at an airport security screening area won a trial Friday in his lawsuit seeking $250,000 in damages for being detained on a disorderly conduct charge.

Aaron Tobey claimed in a civil rights lawsuit (.pdf) that in 2010 he was handcuffed and held for about 90 minutes by the Transportation Security Administration at the Richmond International Airport after he began removing his clothing to display on his chest a magic-marker protest of airport security measures.

“Amendment 4: The right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated,” his chest and gut read.

Bonus: Judge quoted Ben Franklin in opinion.

Obvious: MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry: U.S. Military “Despised As An Engine Of War By Many Progressives”…

Via Newsbusters:

It’s hardly a secret.  After all, in a letter to a senior officer, no less than a young Bill Clinton openly admitted that many of his cohort to “loath[ed] the military.” Still, it’s stunning to hear a modern-day liberal make a similar admission.

On her MSNBC show today, Melissa Harris-Perry stated that the U.S. military is “despised as an engine of war by many progressives.”

Keep on reading…

Liberal mainstream media deathwatch: Reuters lays off 3000...

The death of the biased liberal media can't come fast enough...

Via New York Observer: 

Last week was a bleak one at Thomson Reuters, the financial news and wire service giant. According to sources, as many as 3,000 people were let go, out of approximately 50,000 employees around the globe. Most of the layoffs came from the financial sector—the sales, training and analysts’ divisions—but some were on the editorial side.

“Yes, I can confirm there have been layoffs across Thomson Reuters today, including editorial,” Barb Burg, vice president and global head of communications at Reuters, told Talking Biz News last week. “Similar to efforts across the company, the Reuters organization is focusing attention on our global cost structure as well as the need to simplify and ensure we have the skills and expertise within our organization so we can continue to contribute maximum value to the business and our customers.”


A Reuters spokesperson declined to elaborate when reached by OTR.

Obama's plan to bankrupt coal power plants is succeeding; 2600 jobs lost...

Barack Obama is using regulations to literally bankrupt the coal power industry. We shouldn't be surprised. He pledged to do just that by severe regulations...

Via Washington Examiner:

Chase Power, the parent company behind the $3 billion Las Brisas coal power plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, announced yesterday that it was cancelling the project.

“Chase Power … has opted to suspend efforts to further permit the facility and is seeking alternative investors as part of a plan of dissolution for the parent company,” Chase CEO Dave Freysinger told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

Freysinger made it very clear who was responsible for the projects death. “The (Las Brisas Energy Center) is a victim of EPA’s concerted effort to stifle solid-fuel energy facilities in the U.S., including EPA’s carbon-permitting requirements and EPA’s New Source Performance Standards for new power plants,” he said.

The Las Brisas power plant had been part of a larger Las Brisas Energy Center project planned for Corpus Christi’s Inner Harbor.Economists had projected that in the first 5 years of construction and operation the project would create as 1,300 direct and 2,600 indirect jobs. Now none of those jobs will exist.

Speaker John Boehner suffers "fiscal-cliff" regret...

Speaker John Boehner should feel bad. Obama and democrats made a fool of him and Republicans...

Via The Hill:

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is sharing his regrets about his "fiscal-cliff" strategy, less than a month after the House bitterly swallowed a last-minute deal hatched in the Senate.

In a private speech to the Ripon Society on Tuesday, Boehner said that he should have taken a different course after the November election by immediately demanding that the Senate produce a bill to avert the worst parts of a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that were due to hit on Jan. 1.

Instead, Boehner delivered a formal speech at the Capitol on the day after President Obama won a second term, in which he offered a major Republican concession – new tax revenue as part of a broader fiscal deal.

You know you live in a Country run by idiots if...

Via Free Republic:

This applies to all political parties & their representatives...
You Live In A Country Run By Idiots that we elected !!!


==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if...You can get arrested for expired tags on your car but not for being in the country illegally.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more of our money.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... A seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for calling his teacher "cute" but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... The Supreme Court of the United States can rule that lower courts cannot display the 10 Commandments in their courtroom, while sitting in front of a display of the 10 Commandments.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Children are forcibly removed from parents who appropriately discipline them while children of "underprivileged" drug addicts are left to rot in filth infested cesspools of a “home”.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Hard work and success are rewarded with higher taxes and government intrusion, while some slothful, lazy behavior is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing, and free cell phones.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... The government's plan for getting people back to work is to provide 99 weeks of unemployment checks (to not work).
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Being self-sufficient is considered a threat to the government.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Politicians think that stripping away the amendments to the constitution is really protecting the rights of the people.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... The rights of the Government come before the rights of the individual.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... You can write a post like this just by reading the news headlines.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... You pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big screen TV while your neighbor defaults on his mortgage (while buying iPhones, TV's and new cars) and the government forgives his debt and reduces his mortgage (with your tax dollars).
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you "safe".
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... You have to have your parents signature to go on a school field trip but not to get an abortion.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... An 80 year old woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a Muslim woman in a burka is only subject to having her neck and head searched.
==================================== You know you live in a Country run by idiots if... Using the "N" word is considered "hate speech" but writing and singing songs about raping women and killing cops is considered "art".

Hero: GOP Rep. Mo Brooks Files Bill To Make Budget Deficits An Impeachable Offense…

You have to balance your budget. The government shouldn't be different.

Via The Hill:

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) this week proposed a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution that would make the president’s failure to enforce that amendment an impeachable offense.

His Protecting America’s Solvency Act, H.R. 371, would let the debt ceiling rise by $1 trillion after congressional passage of the balanced-budget amendment. The ceiling could rise another $1 trillion after states ratify it.

The bill says the amendment must require federal spending not to exceed the revenue it collects, a goal it must meet after five years. But it does allow Congress to suspend this limit with a four-fifths majority vote, or by a simple majority during wartime.

If a budget deficit occurred for any other reason, the president would have to take “such steps as are necessary” to avoid it. Failure would leave him open to impeachment.

“The President may not order any increase in taxes or other revenue measures to enforce the Amendment,” the bill reads. “A President’s failure to prevent a prohibited fiscal year deficit is an impeachable offense.”

Rotten Apple

Apples stock has plummeted over 30% recently. There is fear the company has lost it's mojo after the death of Steve Jobs. Adding to thier misery is the news they are using child labor in China.

Apple has discovered multiple cases of child labour in its supply chain, including one Chinese company that employed 74 children under the age of 16, in the latest controversy over the technology giant's manufacturing methods.

An internal audit found a flipside to the western consumer's insatiable thirst for innovative and competitively priced gadgets. It uncovered 106 cases of underage labour being used at Apple suppliers last year and 70 cases historically. The report follows a series of worker suicides over working conditions at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that assembles must-have products such as the iPad and iPhone, and lethal explosions at other plants.

Apple's annual supplier report – which monitors nearly 400 suppliers – found that children were employed at 11 factories involved in making its products. A number of them had been recruited using forged identity papers.

Sign held by Egyptian protester in Tahrir Square calls Obama "jerk" and "idiot"

Zing...

Feinsten's so-called assault weapon ban excludes government officials...

Who would you trust more with a modern firearm? Some government official or your friends, family and neighbors?

Via Washington Times:

Her bill seeks to reinstate and expand the ban on assault weapons that was first enacted in 1994, but which lapsed in 2004.

It would prohibit semiautomatic pistols that can accept a detachable magazine and have at least one military feature, such as a pistol grip or telescoping. Purchasing the AR-15 Bushmaster rifle, which was used by the shooter in Newtown, would be illegal under the ban.

Mrs. Feinstein's measure would exempt more than 2,200 types of hunting and sporting rifles; guns manually operated by bolt, pump, lever or slide action; and weapons used by government officials, law enforcement and retired law enforcement personnel.

It would also ban ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.

Change: Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey says combat standards may be lowered if women can't meet them...

Our enemies must be rejoicing...

(CNSNews.com) – Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that with women now eligible to fill combat roles in the military, commanders must justify why any woman might be excluded – and, if women can’t meet any unit’s standard, the Pentagon will ask: “Does it really have to be that high?”

Dempsey’s comments came at a Pentagon news conference with Defense Sec. Leon Panetta Thursday, announcing the shift in Defense Department policy opening up all combat positions to women.

Dempsey, who is at the pinnacle of the military’s top brass, was asked by a reporter: “You indicated that — well, at least it sounds like that there may be certain combat operational forays that women might be excluded from still. I mean, what would be the reasons for that? What sorts of operations?”

Dempsey replied: “No, I wouldn’t put it in terms of operations, Jim. What I would say is that, as we look at the requirements for a spectrum of conflict, not just COIN, counterinsurgency, we really need to have standards that apply across all of those.”

Somebody is happy about Obama's gun ban plans...It's the Communist Party USA...

Birds of a feather flock together...

Via New American:

It should come as no surprise that the Communist Party USA is on board with President Obama’s plan to attack Americans’ right to keep and bear arms as a means to “end gun violence.” A cardinal feature of communist regimes, like all dictatorships, is the prohibition of private ownership of arms, creating a monopoly of force in the hands of the State.

In a January 18 article, People’s World, an official publication of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), declared that “the ability to live free from the fear or threat of gun violence is a fundamental democratic right — one that far supercedes any so-called personal gun rights allegedly contained in the Second Amendment.”

The article, entitled, “Fight to end gun violence is key to defending democracy,” written by People’s World labor and politics reporter Rick Nagin, claims that “the right-wing extremists opposing all efforts to curb gun violence are the same forces that rallied behind Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, hoping to undermine every other democratic right as well as the living standards of workers and ordinary Americans.”

Obvious: Obama's unconstitutional Labor Board appointees to ignore court ruling and Constitution...

Would you expect anything different from an Obama appointee? 

Via Washington Examiner:

Mark Gaston Pearce, chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, issued the following statement in reaction to today’s DC Appeals Court decision that President Obama use of recess appointments to install three people on the NLRB last year was unconstitutional. The action renders the board without a quorum to act and potentially invalidates a year’s worth of actions and rulings by it. [...]

Pearce, in short, is indicating that the NLRB’s strategy is to act as if the court’s ruling that the appointments were unconstitutional somehow only applies only to the particular case that went before the Appeals Court and hope that the White House can get the Supreme Court to quickly review the case.

Surprise: Richard Trumka disagrees with court ruling overturning Obama pro-union Labor Board recess appointments...

Get over it dude...

Strongly disagree with reasoning and shocking decision today by the panel of Republican judges on the DC Circuit
— Richard L. Trumka (@RichardTrumka) January 25, 2013

Appeals Court unanimously rules Obama recess Labor board appointments unconstitutional...

Obama really stepped in it this time. This has far-reaching consequences...

In a case freighted with major constitutional implications, a federal appeals court on Friday overturned President Obama’s controversial recess appointments from last year, ruling he abused his powers and acted when the Senate was not actually in a recess.

The three-judge panel’s ruling is a major blow to Mr. Obama. The judges ruled that the appointments he made to the National Labor Relations Board are illegal, and hence the five-person board did not have a quorum to operate.

But the ruling has even broader constitutional significance, with the judges arguing that the president’s recess appointment powers don’t apply to “intra-session” appointments — those made when Congress has left town for a few days or weeks. They said Mr. Obama erred when he said he could claim the power to determine when he could make appointments.

“Allowing the president to define the scope of his own appointments power would eviscerate the Constitution’s separation of powers,” the judges said in their opinion.

Liberals on NBC's Today really like Hillary Clinton's crocodile tears at Benghazi hearing...

Yes. I believe Hillary was faking emotions for political reasons. 

Via Newsbusters:

At the top of the 9 a.m. et hour on Thursday’s NBC Today, the morning show cast devoted a four-minute panel discussion to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton getting emotional during her congressional testimony on Wednesday. News reader Natalie Morales gushed: “She was speaking passionately about, you know, that heat of the moment. And also, you know, I think she just loved those people [who died in Benghazi]. So that was true emotion.”

Hillary's voice changes, but her demeanor and pace never change.  I am calling BS on her. You watch the video and decide for yourself.

Strange: British Foreign Office human rights violators report contains twice as much about Israel as Iran...

The Jews must be much more evil than the Mullahs or something...

Via JTA:

The British Foreign Office included Israel as “a country of concern” in a report on human rights violators.

Israel appeared on a list in a quarterly report on human rights and democracy issued Thursday by the foreign office of 28 countries accused of perpetrating human rights violations.

The report cites the Gaza war of last year and other recent violence on the joint border, Israeli settlement expansion and Israel’s withholding of Palestinian tax revenues.
It also criticized the Palestinian Authority for not effectively controlling protests, but said that Israel also was culpable for withholding the money used to pay Palestinian police.
The part of the report on human rights violations in Iran was half as long as the part about Israel, according to the European Jewish Press.

Sen. Rand Paul asks John Kerry why bombing cambodia without congressional approval was wrong and Libya was OK...

Rand Paul is one of the few Republicans who still have a pair...

Via HotAir:

Excellent, and not just the Libya stuff. Stick with it for Paul’s questions about how smart it is to be arming the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt when Morsi is already wheezing about Jews controlling the media in official diplomatic sessions with the U.S. If you’re wondering why it fell to Paul to ask this question instead of any of the more senior senators who preceded him, it’s because the Senate was perfectly happy to have Obama act unilaterally on Libya. The Iraq war authorization came back to haunt many of them; no one knew at the time how messy Libya might get. O did them a favor, left and right, by freeing them from a tough vote. But Kerry can’t say that so instead he squirms through a few minutes of how the two bombing campaigns are different because they just are. Frankly, Paul let him off easy. You could, if you chose, defend U.S. actions in Cambodia as a cross-border extension of the war already being fought in Vietnam. No such defense for Libya; if anything, the Libya war cut against the AUMF against Al Qaeda that was passed after 9/11 because, as we’ve recently learned, eliminating Qadaffi was actually a boon to jihadist groups like AQ.

Asinine: Sen. John Kerry claims the Pakistanis haven’t gotten enough credit for their assistance in the killing of Osama bin Laden

The  Pakistanis are still keeping the doctor who helped up in prison. What kind of alternate universe is Kerry living in?


Via Washington Examiner:

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., opposed cutting foreign aid to Pakistan by arguing, among other things, that the Pakistanis haven’t gotten enough credit for their assistance in the operations that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Kerry was responding to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who suggested that the United States demand that Pakistan release Dr. Shakeel Afridi, whom they arrested after he helped the United States find bin Laden. Kerry noted the logistical support Pakistan provides to the Aghanistan war before suggesting that Pakistan helped American forces get bin Laden.

“Our folks were able to cooperate on the ground in Pakistan,” Kerry said during his first hearing about his nomination to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. “That’s one of the ways we were able to get Osama bin Laden. I don’t think the Pakistanis have frankly gotten credit, sufficiently, for the fact that they were helpful. It was their permissiveness in allowing our people to be there that helped us to be able to tie the knots that focused on that. To some degree — not exclusively, obviously, but to some degree.”

Keep on reading…

Unlikely: Jay carney claims Obama doesn't want to annihilate the GOP

Actions speak louder than words...

Q John Boehner — Speaker Boehner was quoted saying that “the President’s goal is to annihilate the Republican Party.” What’s the President’s reaction to that?

MR. CARNEY: Well, I haven’t spoken to the President about that, but I know it’s not his goal. His goal is to work together with Congress, with members of both parties to achieve progress on behalf of the American people. You heard him say in the inaugural address that even though we have profound differences and differences that we will not resolve necessarily in the next year or two or three or four, it is imperative that we come together and act on behalf of the American people. And there are things that we can and must do together.

The President believes that a strong two-party system is the foundation of our democracy and looks forward to working with Republicans as well as Democrats to get things done.

Q He wouldn’t object to the annihilation of the Republican Party, would he? (Laughter.)

MR. CARNEY: I think he would object to — he believes that the two-party system is part of the foundation of our democracy, and that it is a healthy aspect of our democracy even if it’s contentious.

Ours is not the only politics in the world that is contentious and appropriately so. What he believes, however, is that we need to have spirited debates but not debates that paralyze us. We need to compromise, not be absolutists, but agree that the call — that the need to act on behalf of the American people should compel us to make reasonable compromise while we stick to our principles. And that’s the approach he’s taken since he entered the White House, and it’s the approach he intends to take in the second term.

House Republicans pass ‘no budget, no pay’ proposal

I am not sure if this is a good strategy, but I am willing to wait and see. They should have made the 'no pay' provision more severe. They don't actually lose any money. It is only delayed until they pass a budget. 

Via Washington Examiner:

House lawmakers passed the  ‘no budget, no pay’ proposal that requires Congress to pass a budget, which Senate Democrats have refused to do since 2009. The vote comes as Senate Democrats received about $46 million from taxpayers in salary and benefits.

“With the passage of this bill today, it’s pretty clear that we’re sending a message to the Democrat-controlled Senate that it’s time to do your job,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a press conference after the bill — which suspends the debt ceiling for three months but requires Congress to pass a budget by the end of that time — received 285 votes in the House.

“The House proposal is a step in the right direction,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, added in a statement to The Washington Examiner. “There’s no doubt the Senate hasn’t done its job. The Senate should do its job and pass a budget.”

Clueless Sen. Feinstein vows to take "Weapons of war" off the streets...

She does realize these are semiautomatics, doesn't she? 

Tomorrow I will introduce my assault weapons legislation. Weapons of war do not belong on our streets. #AWB2013
— Sen Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) January 24, 2013

Scary: NYPD to deploy device to see under your clothes...

Hmm...

Via Daily News:

Get ready for scan-and-frisk.

The NYPD will soon deploy new technology allowing police to detect guns carried by criminals without using the typical pat-down procedure, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday.

The department just received a machine that reads terahertz — the natural energy emitted by people and inanimate objects — and allows police to view concealed weapons from a distance.

 

 

Pic of the Day: Don't make Hillary angry...

...or you get to see this expression...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham pounds her fist as she testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the deadly September attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Don't look now, but that guy in your front-line foxhole could soon be a girl...

What could possibly go wrong? 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior defense officials say Pentagon chief Leon Panetta is removing the military’s ban on women serving in combat, opening hundreds of thousands of front-line positions and potentially elite commando jobs after more than a decade at war.

The groundbreaking move recommended by the Joint Chiefs of Staff overturns a 1994 rule banning women from being assigned to smaller ground combat units. Panetta’s decision gives the military services until January 2016 to seek special exceptions if they believe any positions must remain closed to women.

Tingles: Let's cancel the midterm elections or something...

Fat chance...

Via Mediaite:

MSNBC host Chris Matthews had tough words for Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Rand Paul (R-KY) who pointedly questioned Sec. Hillary Clinton today regarding her role in the September 11, 2012, attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Matthews called Johnson a “pissant” due to his harsh line of questioning and said that Johnson is only in the Senate due to a low turnout election in 2010. “He doesn’t represent anybody,” Matthews scoffed. He suggested that he thinks off-year and midterm elections should be abolished, forcing all lawmakers to run on a national ticket. [...]

Amusing: Matt Damon’s anti-fracking film “Promised Land” bombs...

If you have natural gas heat and have noticed that your heat bill has been lower the last two years, you should thank fracking.Ironically, environmentalist oppose fracking, but increased use of natural gas has significantly reduce CO2 emissions in the U.S.

Via Newsbusters:

Matt Damon’s much hyped anti-fracking film “Promised Land” has failed to make the impact that its producers and environmental groups had hoped for. As of January 20, “Promised Land” has raked in a whopping total of $7,542,000 since it opened on December 28, according to Box Office Mojo. According to The Hill, the movie cost $15 million to make. Box Office Mojo ranked it 139 out of all movies from Jan. 23, 2012 to Jan. 21, 2013.

Matt Damon said that he didn’t make a biased movie and claimed to have just wanted to start a conversation on the subject. “Nobody wants to go see a movie where they get a message at the end. That really wasn’t our intent. It was just to show this moment in time in our country, and what happens when big money collides with real people, people who are struggling on the back end of a recession.” he told The Morning Call, a Lehigh Valley, Pa., newspaper. Apparently Damon was right about nobody wanting to go see his movie.

Keep on reading…

Meet the anti-Obama protester banned from Washington DC

Rives Miller Grogan opposes Obama's position on abortion...

Via WaPo:

Rives Miller Grogan has something to say. The way he says it keeps getting him in trouble at the U.S. Capitol.

Now, after the 47-year-old Californian allegedly climbed 40 feet up a tree near the Capitol reflecting pool and tried to shout down President Obama’s inaugural address on Monday, a judge has ordered him to stay away not only from Capitol building but from the District entirely.

Grogan, an antiabortion activist, eluded capture for five hours on Monday. A Capitol police spokesman said he annoyed onlookers below by loudly shouting.

He had just been arrested and charged with disorderly conduct last week, after police said he shouted from the gallery of the U.S. Senate. He’s been convicted five times in the District since 2009, mostly on charges of disorderly conduct and disobeying police. He’s typically been fined and given probation and suspended sentences that result in short jail sentences.

Obama heartache: Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party wins largest faction in Tuesday parliamentary election

Barack Obama hardest hit...

FOX News reported:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party emerged as the largest faction in a hotly contested parliamentary election on Tuesday, positioning the hard-liner to serve a new term as prime minister, according to exit polls. But a lackluster performance by Likud, along with surprising gains by a centrist newcomer, raised the strong possibility that he will be forced to form a broad coalition.

The exit polls aired on Israel’s three major TV stations all forecast Likud along with its traditional hardline and religious allies, capturing a shaky majority of just 61 or 62 seats in the 120-member parliament. With official results trickling in throughout the night, it was possible that the two sides could end in deadlock.

In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Netanyahu said he would reach across the aisle and try to form a broad-based coalition.

Harry Reid threatens 'nuclear option' if Republicans fail to cave on filibuster in 36 hours...

Harry Reid is flexing his geriatric muscles...

Via The Hill:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is giving Republican colleagues 36 hours to agree to a deal on filibuster reform or he will move forward with the nuclear option.

“I hope in the next 24, 36 hours we can get something we agree on. If not, we’re going to move forward on what I think needs to be done,” Reid told reporters.

Reid’s trump card in negotiations with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is the threat he will change Senate rules with a simple majority vote, a tactic known as the nuclear option. This maneuver would allow Reid to change the Senate rules with a simple majority vote, something that has never been done, according to parliamentary

The next Frenchman to flee high taxes is...Nicolas Sarkozy?

I can't blame anyone who leaves France. 

Via The Daily Mail:

Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing to move to London to set up a billion pounds plus investment fund, it was claimed today.

If the move goes ahead, the controversial Frenchman will become the latest to escape a potential top tax rate of 75 per cent in his home country. 

He and his former supermodel third wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy would be likely to settle in an affluent district like South Kensington – so becoming the most high profile Gallic celebrity couple in the city. 

But the former president is under investigation for corruption in France, and if he does cross the Channel there will be outrage.

U.S. plan to deliver F-16s to Egypt. What could go wrong?

The Muslim Brotherhood is about to get an Air Force upgrade.

Via Washington Free Beacon:

The Muslim Brotherhood is about to get an improved Air Force. The State Department has refused to cancel or delay the delivery of several American-made F-16 fighter jets to Egypt, claiming that the arms deal serves America’s “regional security interests,” according to an official State Department document obtained by the Free Beacon.

The news that the Obama administration would uphold an aid package to Egypt that included the military hardware prompted concern on Capitol Hill from lawmakers who said the deal was not prudent given the political situation in Egypt, where Muslim Brotherhood-backed President Mohammed Morsi has clashed with democratic protestors.

“Sixteen F-16s and 200 Abrams tanks are to be given to the Egyptian government before the end of the year under a foreign aid deal signed in 2010 with then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak,” Fox News reported Tuesday.