Saturday Funnies: The Most Awesome Cover of "The Final Countdown" EVER!

Way better than Europe's original:

Just awesome!

Al Jazeera America Averages 15,000 Primetime Viewers

Heh.

From the NRO peice by Andrew Johnson:

In its first six months, Al Jazeera America has managed to lose half the meager audience its predecessor Current TV drew every night. The latest Nielsen ratings show that the network, owned by the government of Qatar, averages only 15,000 total primetime viewers, which is effectively negligible. Just one third of that, around 5,000 viewers, is in the key 25-to-54-year-old demographic (known as “the demo”).

Ouch.

Obama's Approval Rating Drops Again

"It's the GOP's fault! It's racism! It's the European debt crisis! It's Bush's fault! It's Putin's fault! It's those tea-baggers' fault! It's..."

Boy, this is getting awfully familiar. I suppose Obama is just too smart and too enlightened for the likes of silly little us.

From FoxNews.com:

President Obama’s job approval rating hits a record low this week, as a majority of Americans say his administration has mostly failed at growing the economy ["mostly!" I wonder what a complete failure looks like... Trillions of dollars spent to create record unemployment, record numbers of homeless and a dropping GDP? Oh, wait...], creating jobs, improving health care and the country’s image. 

That’s according to a Fox News poll released Wednesday.

For the first time in a Fox News poll, fewer than four voters in ten -- 38 percent -- approve of President Obama’s job performance. Fifty-four percent disapprove. Before now Obama’s worst job rating was 40-55 percent in November 2013. Last month 42 percent approved and 53 percent disapproved (February 2014).  

Approval of Obama among Democrats stands at 71 percent, near its 69 percent record low (September 2013). For independents, 28 percent approve, which is also near the 25 percent all-time low among this group (July 2013). And approval of Obama among Republicans hits a new low of five percent. 

Overall, a 59-percent majority thinks the White House has mostly failed at creating jobs, up from 52 percent who said the same in October 2012. Likewise, 56 percent feel it has failed on growing the economy. That’s also up from 52 percent. 

The greatest erosion is on improving America’s image around the world -- something Obama vowed to do once in office. In 2012, by a four percentage-point margin, voters felt the administration had failed to improve the country’s image. In the new poll that’s now a 26-point margin: 33 percent say mostly succeeded and 59 percent mostly failed.  

[...] 

On health care, 36 percent say the administration has improved it, while 57 percent think it has failed to do so.

Keep it up, Obama! And for the rest of this we can live for the day where we have to clean up the epic trash pile that is the Obama presidency. And all the while listen to these people snivel, complain, and act bemused at our efforts as we work. It's the American Leftist way!

Did the Kremlin Issue an Ultimatum to Ukrainian Forces?

"The Light-bringer shall handle this as He handles all of His crises... laying the blame on others, vaguely claim bullying or racism,  and acting put upon and miffed. Problem solved. And I'm pretty sure that an obscure YouTube video caused all this."

That seems to be the claim, at least according to The Telegraph.

From The Telegraph article by Damien McElroy and Bruno Waterfield:

Russia has issued a series of ultimatums for Ukrainian forces in Crimea to surrender and disarm by this morning or risk coming under attack, the new government in Kiev said last night. 

As Russian fighters buzzed Ukraine’s borders, the Kremlin defied international pressure to back off and instead turned the screw on its neighbour.  

President Vladimir Putin visited military units deployed near Russia’s frontier with Ukraine, where they are conducting “exercises”. The defence ministry in Kiev said the country had been on the receiving end of a series of hostile acts, including incursions by Russian jets flying along its northern border with Belarus. 

European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels condemned Russia’s “act of aggression” in occupying Crimea and said that sanctions would be “considered” unless Russia took “de-escalating steps”.  

[...]  

A Russian ship broadcast appeals to surrender to Ukrainian vessels anchored off Sevastopol. The appeal, blasted through loudspeakers, urged the Ukrainian sailors to lay down their arms, but did not appear to set a deadline. 

The Russian defence ministry adamantly denied that any surrender ultimatums had been delivered, claiming that the reports were “complete nonsense”. 

Russia’s effective seizure of Crimea has proceeded without a shot being fired, partly because Ukrainian forces in the region have offered no resistance.  

On Sunday, Russian troops began blockading Ukrainian military units inside their bases, but demanding their surrender increases the risk of a violent clash. Last night, the US state department said that any such demands would be a “dangerous escalation”.

It seems that the Obama Administration's reaction of being alternatively snide, bemused and condescending is having little effect on Russia. Go figure.

Russia Now Controls Crimea; Obama Concedes and Asks Putin to Not Invade Rest of Ukraine

"Okay, here's the deal. I'll let you have have the Crimea. And if you stay out of the rest of Ukraine, then I won't have my assistant write any more strongly-worded catch-phrases for me to say during my 'outings.' What do you say?"

Smart diplomacy!

From The Wall Street Journal:

The American and Russian presidents spoke on the phone for 90 minutes on Saturday after Russia's parliament voted unanimously to deploy troops in Ukraine, defying warnings from Western leaders not to intervene.  

In his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin , U.S. President Barack Obama expressed "his deep concern over Russia's clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity." Mr. Obama urged Russia to de-escalate tensions by withdrawing its forces back to bases in Crimea and to refrain from any interference elsewhere in Ukraine. 

Saturday's developments come as Russian troops and their local allies have already largely taken control of Crimea, a restive province of Ukraine that belonged to Russia until 1954 and remains predominantly pro-Russian.

In a statement after the call between Mr. Putin and Mr. Obama, the White House said the U.S. "condemns Russia's military intervention into Ukrainian territory."

Mr. Putin told Mr. Obama that Russia reserved the right to intervene in Ukraine to protect its interests and those of the Russian-speaking population there, according to a statement from the Kremlin.

Mr. Putin also spoke of "provocations, crimes by ultranationalist elements, essentially supported by the current authorities in Kiev." It wasn't clear what incidents Mr. Putin was referring to.

So Obama Asked Putin to please stop and in return Russia can keep the Crimea. Pathetic even by Obama's ocean bottom standards.

There's a lot of talk about the U.S. having a 1994 treaty with Ukraine, but that appears to not be the case. It seems people are actually talking about The Budapest Memorandum of 1994 which basically states that the US, UK, and Russian Federation agreed to keep the territory of Ukraine intact. Interestingly, this agreement seems to be nullified if Ukraine attempts to court the EU.

From Rick Moran at American Thinker:

According to the agreement, the US, UK and Russia all agreed to protect the sovereignty and “territorial agreement” of Ukraine, meaning any Russian support for an attempt to declare Crimean independence would be in violation of their international obligations.
The three powers committed to “respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine” and “refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine”. 

Significantly, the wording suggests Russia’s insistence that Ukraine forgo an EU trade deal may have already breached the terms of the agreement. 

The signatories agreed to “refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind”.

While it may be true that the US and UK do not have an obligation under this agreement to protect the Ukraine, it cannot be overlooked that Russia's invasion of Ukraine can be only be viewed as aggression against a Western ally. Certainly the West is looking for any way it can to weasel out of any idea of obligation toward Ukraine-- this is hardly a difficulty for the Obama Administration who can contort themselves in all sorts of ways to avoid reproach or blame for their repeated domestic and international failures, however the true message is clear enough to all.

The US and the West have proven themselves to be unwilling to protect its allies. This is especially bad news to countries like Taiwan, The Philippines, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Poland, perhaps even Singapore. Countries that had once relied on American willingness to protect democracies from the incursions of powerful repressive governments-- such as China, its psuedo-vassal North Korea, and Russia are now being left out in the cold. Obama and the West have given a clear message that they will labor mightily to find legal outs from any obligations (and using deconstructionist techniques to nullify obligation is hardly beyond these people's morals), and deliver only vagues and limp tongue lashings in the way of support.

As tensions increase in Asia and Europe, it is very likely that we'll see more of these invasions. Do you really think Obama will do anything about them?

Thanks Obama: America's GDP Growth Downgraded Again-- Growth Gap Now at $1.31 Trillion

Graphic from Investors.com editorial

You know... I'm beginning to think that Obama just isn't the guy for the job.

From The Investor's Business Daily:

Stagnation: With fourth-quarter GDP growth downgraded in the latest government report, President Obama's anemic economy stretches on. If this had been only an average recovery, we'd be $1.31 trillion richer. 

Remember all that talk at the beginning of last year about how prosperity was — finally — just around the corner? In February 2013, for example, Reuters reported "signs are emerging that a more robust recovery is around the bend." 

The same month, Bloomberg told its readers that "most Fed policymakers expect growth of 2.3% to 3%." 

At the start of last year, the Obama administration projected growth in 2013 would be 2.3%. The Blue Chip consensus forecast was slightly higher. 

None of those projections was stellar. But with the Bureau of Economic Analysis' sharp downward revision of Q4 growth — from 3.2% to 2.4% — each turned out to be overly optimistic. Actual gross domestic product growth for 2013 came in at a pathetic 1.9%. 

That means annual growth during Obama's "recovery" has never topped 3%. By comparison, it never fell below 3% during the Reagan recovery. And in the nine years following the 1990-91 recession, GDP grew faster than 3% in all but two. Heck, even Jimmy Carter had some strong growth years. 

Looked at another way, if Obama's recovery had merely been average — that is, if it had matched the average growth of the previous 10 economic recoveries — the economy would be $1.31 trillion bigger than it is now. 

And 7.5 million more people would have jobs if employment growth had kept pace with the average post-World War II recovery. 

It seems the only thing that's shown solid growth under Obama is the pile of excuses he's made to explain away this ongoing subpar performance. 

First he rationalized that recoveries from financial crises are always slower. Then it was the tsunami in Japan, the debt crisis in Greece, the protests in the Mideast. He blamed Republicans for threatening to default on the debt and imposing across-the-board spending cuts. Later it was expiring unemployment benefits and "cuts" in food stamps. 

Our favorite excuse is the one trotted out for the latest downgrade ... bad weather. Seems a cold winter sapped growth. But the weather excuse doesn't make sense, either, since national temperatures and precipitation were close to average during all of Q4. [emphasis mine]

I'm getting really tired of hearing lame excuses and the word "unexpected" from people trying to excuse Obama's abysmal performance in handling the U.S. economy. All we get is excuses for the last failure, false hopes for the next, "unexpectedly" bad results and then another round of blame/excuses that often involve the GOP's nefarious plots and some nebulous reference to racism.

Will this cowardice ever stop?

Obama is, without a doubt, the worst president in modern history. And we haven't seen a smidgen of the results planted in the last five years. The anemic economy and Russian invasion of Ukraine is just the beginning results of this president's labors.

There's much more "fun" to come-- but the real fault won't lie with Obama. No, it'll be the fault racism or bullying.

Saturday Morning Funnies: Worst Shark Attacks in Movies

Saturday funnies... because sometimes you need a laugh no matter the circumstances.

So here's a mash-up of some of the silliest shark attacks ever-- and the original "Jaws" thrown in for some reason.

Enjoy:

By the way, is it kinda sad that I've seen just about all of the films these clips are from? It seems that the one with Coolio in it is the only movie I haven't seen. But I did see Coolio in "Pterodactyl."

What can I say? Bad monster movies are my guilty pleasure.

NBC Headlines Chinese News Service Using Racial Slur While Russians Head into Ukraine

It's good to know they have priorities.

From NBC News:

An official Chinese government news service lobbed a racial slur at outgoing U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke, calling the third-generation Chinese-American a "rotten banana" — an Asian with Western values. 

"When a banana sits out for long, its yellow peels will always rot, not only revealing its white core but also turning into the stomach-churning color of black," the China News Service editorial said, according to the Associated Press.

The invective shocked some members of the Chinese public, who have applauded Locke in the past, and the State Department declined to respond to the rhetoric.

A racial slur from the Chinese?! No! Really?!

Why the next thing you know, somebody will talk about how Blacks have been known to use the word Oreo in a similar fashion! Will these revelations never end?

Seriously, NBC has nothing better to headline on the MSN homepage today?

Russian Troops in Crimea-- Patrol Airport; Obama Issues Worthless Warning

Image matters, you know

From The Telegraph:

Ukraine accused Russia of staging an "armed invasion" of Crimea on Friday as the ex-Soviet state's ousted leader prepared to emerge defiant from five days of hiding after winning protection from Moscow.  

Unidentified armed men were patrolling outside of Crimea's main airport early Friday while gunmen were also reported to have seized another airfield on the southwest of the peninsula where ethnic Russians are a majority and where pro-Moscow sentiment runs high.

The arrival of these unidentified men just happens to coincide with the Russian military buildup in the area.

In response to the entire Ukraine situation, Obama made a worthless warning to Russia.

From the AP:

Delivering a blunt warning to Moscow, President Barack Obama expressed deep concern Friday over reported military activity inside Ukraine by Russia and warned "there will be costs" for any intervention.  

He did not say what those costs might be. 

Obama called on Russia to respect the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine and not try to take advantage of its neighbor, which is undergoing political upheaval. 

"Any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply stabilizing," Obama said in a hastily arranged statement delivered from the White House. Such action by Russia would not serve the interests of the Ukrainian people, Russia or Europe, Obama said, and would represent a "profound interference" in matters he said must be decided by the Ukrainian people. 

"Just days after the world came to Russia for the Olympic Games, that would invite the condemnation of nations around the world," Obama said. "The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine."

Such talk from Obama is useless of course. Obama has repeatedly shown himself to be ineffectual when dealing with other countries belligerence. Despite the MSM's swooning over Obama's drone attacks, foreign governments are not particularly impressed with such displays.

Indeed, Obama has given a loud and clear message to Putin and every other ambitious leader that Obama has no stomach for dealing with foreign incursions, invasions and such. He himself is far too busy golfing and giving domestic speeches that the press hardly even covers now, and his administration has been far to busy pushing an unpopular health insurance law and then scuttling for cover after its incompetent rollout-- that itself another indication to foreign powers of current U.S. inability.

By the way Obama, the 1980s called and said you haven't learned a thing from the past. No wonder his university records are sealed.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that after Obama's vague, worthless warning, Obama went out on a fund raiser. This guy is a gem of a president.

The WSJ Has an Interesting Timeline Regarding the IRS Scandal

"The Light-bringer has no time for false controversies and fake scandals. I'm too busy trying to find that filmmaker that started that protest in Benghazi."

Gee, when you lay it all out like this, it looks as there may be smidgen of a scandal and a touch of an abuse of power.

From Bradley A. Smith at The Wall Street Journal (h/t Instapundit):

Now consider the following events, all of which were either widely reported, publicly released by officeholders or revealed later in testimony to Congress. These are the dots the media refuse to connect:  

• Jan. 27, 2010: President Obama criticizes Citizens United in his State of the Union address and asks Congress to "correct" the decision.  

• Feb. 11, 2010: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) says he will introduce legislation known as the Disclose Act to place new restrictions on some political activity by corporations and force more public disclosure of contributions to 501(c)(4) organizations. Mr. Schumer says the bill is intended to "embarrass companies" out of exercising the rights recognized in Citizens United. "The deterrent effect should not be underestimated," he said.  

• Soon after, in March 2010, Mr. Obama publicly criticizes conservative 501(c)(4) organizations engaging in politics. In his Aug. 21 radio address, he warns Americans about "shadowy groups with harmless sounding names" and a "corporate takeover of our democracy." 

• Sept. 28, 2010: Mr. Obama publicly accuses conservative 501(c)(4) organizations of "posing as not-for-profit, social welfare and trade groups." Max Baucus, then chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, asks the IRS to investigate 501(c)(4)s, specifically citing Americans for Job Security, an advocacy group that says its role is to "put forth a pro-growth, pro-jobs message to the American people."  

• Oct. 11, 2010: Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) asks the IRS to investigate the conservative 501(c)(4) Crossroads GPS and "other organizations."  

• April 2011: White House officials confirm that Mr. Obama is considering an executive order that would require all government contractors to disclose their donations to politically active organizations as part of their bids for government work. The proposal is later dropped amid opposition across the political spectrum. 

• Feb. 16, 2012: Seven Democratic senators— Michael Bennet (Colo.), Al Franken (Minn.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Mr. Schumer, Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Tom Udall (N.M.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.)—write to the IRS asking for an investigation of conservative 501(c)(4) organizations.  

• March 12, 2012: The same seven Democrats write another letter asking for further investigation of conservative 501(c)(4)s, claiming abuse of their tax status. 

• July 27, 2012: Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) writes one of several letters to then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman seeking a probe of nine conservative groups, plus two liberal and one centrist organization. In 2013 testimony to the HouseOversight and Government Reform Committee, former IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller describes Sen. Levin as complaining "bitterly" to the IRS and demanding investigations. 

• Aug. 31, 2012: In another letter to the IRS, Sen. Levin calls its failure to investigate and prosecute targeted organizations "unacceptable." 

• Dec. 14, 2012: The liberal media outlet ProPublica receives Crossroads GPS's 2010 application for tax-exempt status from the IRS. Because the group's tax-exempt status had not been recognized, the application was confidential. ProPublica publishes the full application. It later reports that it received nine confidential pending applications from IRS agents, six of which it published. None of the applications was from a left-leaning organization. 

• April 9, 2013: Sen. Whitehouse convenes the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism to examine nonprofits. He alleges that nonprofits are violating federal law by making false statements about their political activities and donors and using shell companies to donate to super PACs to hide donors' identities. He berates Patricia Haynes, then-deputy chief of Criminal Investigation at the IRS, for not prosecuting conservative nonprofits.  

• May 10, 2013: Sen. Levin announces that the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hold hearings on "the IRS's failure to enforce the law requiring that tax-exempt 501(c)(4)s be engaged exclusively in social welfare activities, not partisan politics." Three days later he postpones the hearings when Lois Lerner (then-director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division) reveals that the IRS had been targeting and delaying the applications of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.  

• Nov. 29, 2013: The IRS proposes new rules redefining "political activity" to include activities such as voter-registration drives and the production of nonpartisan legislative scorecards to restrict what the agency deems as excessive spending on campaigns by tax-exempt 501(c)(4) groups. Even many liberal nonprofits argue that the rule goes too far in limiting their political activity—but the main target appears to be the conservative 501(c)(4)s that have so irritated Democrats. 

• Feb. 13, 2014: The Hill newspaper reports that "Senate Democrats facing tough elections this year want the Internal Revenue Service to play a more aggressive role in regulating outside groups expected to spend millions of dollars on their races."

Oh, who does The Wall Street Journal trying to kid... There's not a smidgen of evidence to outraged over. It was all just some misguided patriots in Cincinnati...

Ouch: 2/3 of Voters Want Congressional Benghazi Investigation

"Let's not open old wounds now. Nothing good can up of that."

I'm sure Hillary's not so happy about that...

From The Washington Times:

Though a wide spectrum of Democrats, progressives, Obama administration officials and certain members of the press pine for the Benghazi matter to fade away, voters will have none of it. 

“Should Congress continue to investigate the Obama administration’s handling of the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the deaths of four Americans?”
And so asks a new Fox News poll of 1,006 registered U.S. voters released Sunday, and here is what they said. 

Overall, 66 percent of the respondents want the investigation t continue. And more specifically, 83 percent of Republicans, 50 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of independents agree — along with 92 percent of tea partyers, 78 percent of conservatives, 47 percent of liberals, 58 percent of blacks, 67 percent of whites, 68 percent of women and 63 percent of men.

Hey, just because the Obama Administration falsely blamed an obscure film repeatedly, and then told a number of people involved not to speak to the press, and then raided reporters' computers who were reporting on the Benghazi incident doesn't mean there should be an investigation. I distinctly remember Obama calling this as false issue, so there you go...

Gun Sales Go Up and Violent Crime Goes Down in 2013

Gee, do you think there's a connection?

From Townhall.com:

The FBI has released new statistics on NICS background checks showing 2013 gun sales hit a new record. The total number of background checks conducted for gun sales last year add up to 21,093,273, beating the previous 2012 record of 19,592,303 by 1,500,970. Texas conducted the most background checks with 1,633,278. Kentucky came is second with 1,578,331 background checks conducted. 

These significant numbers came during a year when Democrats and the White House attempted multiple times to push through new gun control measures. In 2013, President Obama released a number of executive actions on gun control and wasted no time in 2014 doing the same. States that implemented more gun control measures in 2013 saw a spike in gun sales, especially in relation to population. Gun sales in Maryland doubled, going from 136,604 in 2012 to 231,361 in 2013. In 2012, Colorado conducted 414,838 checks, in 2013, there were 514,658. In Connecticut, 237,496 checks were conducted in 2012 and in 2013, 294,338 went through the system. Background checks in New York, home of the S.A.F.E. Act, also went up in 2013. 

So who's buying these guns? According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation and NBC news, women are the fastest growing demographic of gun owners.

So, you know, we should totally ban guns so that the American people will be less safe, but high profile murders with guns will, perhaps, decrease.

Obama's Crackdown on the Press

"The Bill of Rights is a 'living document' and really more like advice... advice for little people."

Unfortunately, it's just part of Obama's crackdown against political adversaries and dissenters.

Ben Shapiro over at Breitbart has an excellent piece on Obama's many abuses of power and his attempts to control and manipulate the press. Go check it out at the link below.

From Shapiro at Breitbart:

Selective Access. President Obama has regularly granted special access to reporters who give him preferential coverage. CBS’ Steve Kroft admitted as much after a late-2012 interview with the President during which CBS clipped Obama’s explicit refusal to label Benghazi an act of terror: “(Obama) knows that we’re not going to play ‘gotcha’ with him, that we’re not going to go out of our way to make him look bad or stupid.”

 Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball, got special access for a profile of Obama for Vanity Fair – but Obama insisted on redlining his quotes. Lewis explained that “the White House insisted on signing off on the quotes that would appear.” A reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle was threatened for covering an anti-Obama protest. As early as 2008, candidate Obama was kicking dissenters off planes after their outlets endorsed John McCain.

Targeting Reporters. In May 2013, the Associated Press dropped the bombshell that the Department of Justice had grabbed phone records for its reporters and editors of the course of two months. Records for 20 telephone lines belonging to the AP and reporters for it were seized between April and May of 2012. Those seizures affected over 100 journalists.

 The AP’s President and CEO Gary Pruitt stated, “There can be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of The Associated Press and its reporters.” Fox News’ James Rosen was also targeted by the DOJ after running a story about North Korea nuclear development. His State Department visits were tracked and his movements were followed. His parents’ phone records were even grabbed.

Placing FCC Monitors in Newsrooms. Last week, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai revealed in the pages of the Wall Street Journal that the FCC will be sending employees into media workplaces to monitor how and what stories are chosen. The goal: to “ferret out information from television and radio broadcasters” concerning “the process by which stories are selected.”

 Pai explained, the FCC “plans to ask station managers, news directors, journalists, television anchors and on-air reporters to tell the government about their ‘news philosophy’ and how the station ensures that the community gets critical information.” Reporters will also be asked whether their stories were killed by management in an effort to elicit “specifics about how editorial discretion is exercised, as well as the reasoning behind the decision.”   

[...]  

Refusing to Comply With Freedom of Information Act Requests. According to Bloomberg News, Freedom of Information Act compliance under the Obama administration has been abysmal. Bloomberg reported that “19 of 20 federal agencies did not comply within 20 days to a request for travel expenses made under the Freedom of Information Act.” Obama’s record on FOIA requests in his first two years was worse than George W. Bush’s in his last three – an odd pattern, given that administrations tend to tighten up on transparency as time goes on. When Obama was given an award for open government, it was not open to the press.

 Here are Obama’s stats: 38.4% denied in 2009, 37.7% denied in 2010, 35.3% denied in 2011. In his last three years, Bush’s stats were 23.5%, 24%, and 40.6%. In 2009, the Obama administration asked Judicial Watch to praise the administration’s transparency, but then refused to hand over Secret Service logs Judicial Watch requested. The Obama administration has said that documents about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are not subject to FOIA.

The White House Propaganda Machine. The White House infamously put restrictions on journalists taking some videos and photos of the President, but has simultaneously released administration-produced content that is little more than propaganda. In November 2013, news organizations sent the administration a letter protesting the treatment: “As surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist's camera lens, officials in this administration are blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the executive branch of government.”

 The Obama administration’s actions, the letter stated, have “a direct and adverse impact on the public's ability to independently monitor and see what its government is doing.” The letter asked news organizations to stop using White House produced photos. The White House banned independent photos of events including a meeting between Obama and black faith leaders and between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators and Vice President Joe Biden, as well as a meeting with Hillary Clinton. AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll stated, “are now recorded only by photographers who work directly for the White House, resulting in images that are little more than visual press releases." The White House also prefers to use non-profit group Media Matters to distribute its spin on the news.

But remember, anyone who believes that Obama is a petty, hard-Left wannabe dictator is stupid and a racist.

Expert Predicts Lake Superior Will Ice Over this Winter

"My election marked the day that the oceans began to recede and Lake Superior would begin to freeze over. Your welcome."

Remember, it's because of global warming.

From CNS News (h/t Instapundit):

Lake Superior hasn’t completely frozen over in two decades. 

But an expert on Great Lakes ice says there’s a “very high likelihood” that the three-quadrillion-gallon lake will soon be totally covered with ice thanks to this winter’s record-breaking cold. 

The ice cover on the largest freshwater lake in the world hit a 20-year record of 91 percent on Feb. 5, 1994. 

Jay Austin, associate professor at the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minn., told CNSNews.com that he expects that record will be broken this winter when the most northern of the Great Lakes becomes totally shrouded in ice. 

The thickness of the ice on Lake Superior “varies tremendously,” from a very thin sheet in some areas near the coast to several feet thick in other spots, Austin says. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that the mean thickness of the lake ice is 26 cm, or a little over 10 inches. 

Austin attributes the large amount of ice on the lake to the “extraordinary cold winter we’ve had,” pointing out that Duluth recently experienced an all-time record of 23 straight days of below-zero temperatures. 

The previous record of 22 days was set in 1936 and tied in 1963, according to the National Weather Service. 

Austin, who studies the effect of lake ice, predicts that it will have a “very strong influence” on the regional climate this summer, with the “air conditioning [lake] effect” more pronounced than usual. 

“Typically, the lake will start warming up in late June, but it will be August before we see that this year,” Austin told CNSNews.com. 

Let's all just keep in mind that if the weather gets warmer then it's due to global warming. And if the weather gets colder it's due to global warming.

 Got it?

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day!

IRS Scandal Continues-- Rep. Camp: 100% of Groups Audited by IRS Were Right-Leaning

"Anyone who believes that the Light-bringer would use the IRS to intimidate and harass political opponents is a racist. The IRS hates racists."

From The Wall Street Journal piece by John D. McKinnon: (h/t Sweetness & Light)

A Republican House committee chairman said the Internal Revenue Service targeted tax-exempt conservative groups for audits, widening the scope of GOP ire over the agency’s oversight of political activities. 

House Democrats pushed back, saying Republicans were seeking to use the IRS controversy to score political points with their conservative base in an election year.
The IRS has been under scrutiny since an inspector general’s report last May found that the agency had targeted conservative groups for lengthy and heavy-handed review of their applications to become tax-exempt organizations under section 501(c) 4 of the tax code. The controversy led to significant management shakeups at the IRS and generated a slew of congressional investigations, some of which are still going on. 

On Tuesday, House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp [sic] (R., Mich.) said his committee’s continuing investigation has found that the IRS also singled out established conservative tax-exempt groups for audits. 

“We now know that the IRS targeted not only right-leaning applicants, but also right-leaning groups that were already operating as 501(c)(4)s,” Mr. Camp said in a statement. “At Washington, DC’s direction, dozens of groups operating as 501(c)(4)s were flagged for IRS surveillance, including monitoring of the groups’ activities, websites and any other publicly available information. Of these groups, 83% were right-leaning. And of the groups the IRS selected for audit, 100% were right-leaning.” [emphasis mine]

Okay, so 100% of the groups targeted and audited by the IRS during a tight election were right-leaning. That proves nothing.

Furthermore, Obama has assured all of us that this is a fake scandal... right after he was done being "outraged" by it.

Just how much of Obama's crap are we supposed to believe? You know...disbelieve and not be considered racist.

Thursday Funnies: House Preview

Sorry that I haven't been posting recently. Between being (sort of) snowed in for a weekend and the Olympics, I've been distracted. Plus, I've been remarkably happier while being temporarily ignorant of Obama's lawlessness, stupid executive orders, and liberty-hating agenda. Ah, well...

Anyway here's a preview of "House," a Japanese horror film from the '70s. I haven't seen the film yet, so I don't know if it was meant to be a satire or actual horror-- I suspect the latter. However, the trailer is both bizarre and amusingly horrible. And there's some great music that jarringly starts and stops in the trailer for no particular reason. I get a good laugh from it.

There is some blood and gore in this cartoony/Monty Pythonesque way. You've been warned.

Enjoy:

Tea Party Groups Tell Congress Harassment Continues

"Bow before me and my golden halo. And remember dissenters will visited by the ATF, OSHA, FBI, EPA, etc. Oh, and you're all racist!"

But Obama reassured us that there wasn't any harassment in the first place...

From The Washington Examiner:

Tea Party officials told a congressional panel Thursday they are still being targeted for harassment despite claims by President Obama and top IRS officials that the illegal activities were stopped last year. 

“It's shocking, it's repugnant, it's infuriating,” Becky Gerritson told a subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “And most troubling of all, those responsible have not stopped.” 

Gerritson is president of the Wetumpka Tea Party Inc. in Wetumpka, Ala. She said IRS officials demanded names of everybody who attended the group's meetings, as well as names of donors, texts of speeches given and biographies of the speakers.   

The Wetumpka group applied for 501(c)(4) non-profit status in May 2010 but was not approved until July 2012. The process normally takes only a few months. 

Catherine Englebrecht described the government's response to her Houston-based True the Vote group's nonprofit application in 2009 as “the weaponization of government.”
She said she and her husband experienced multiple business and personal tax audits, as well as visits by officials from the FBI, OSHA, ATF and EPA. 

Neither she nor her husband had ever before been audited, and their 20-year-old high-tech manufacturing business had no previous OSHA inspections. 

“All of these incursions into my affairs began after filing applications for tax exemption,” Englebret said. “There is no other remarkable event, no other reason, to explain away how for decades I went unnoticed but now find myself on the receiving end of inter-agency coordination into and against all facets of my life, both public and private.” 

The hearing was the latest round in an intensifying battle between President Obama and House Republicans following a senior IRS official's admission in May 2013 that the tax agency had targeted and harassed more than 200 Tea Party, conservative and evangelical groups during the 2010 and 2012 campaigns. Only seven liberal groups were subjected to similar treatment. 

Obama initially described the IRS actions as “unacceptable” and promised a full investigation, but more recently he has called the controversy “a phony scandal.”
In an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that was broadcast before last Sunday's Super Bowl activities, Obama said there “isn't a smidgen of evidence” of corruption in the scandal.

Clearly there's no political harassment here. Obama said there "isn't a smidgen of evidence." So now I'm convinced.

Obama's political harassment is beneath contempt. This is kind of crap that Argentina would pull back in the day-- prior to the military dictatorship following Peron. It is unacceptable by any people in a free-thinking country.

But hey... it's racist to disagree with Obama. Or something.

Snow Edition: Updated with Photo

We got about two inches of snow here in Salem yesterday. This means that the local drivers immediately forget how to drive and then slam into one another. Furthermore, this means drivers forget where the border between the street and my front yard is. I'm now waiting for the power to go out, which is a part of the usual pattern.

So, I will be busy for a while and might not be posting today. Hopefully things will resolve themselves, but maybe not.

Thanks,
Yukio Ngaby

UPDATE:

Okay, we've now had about 7 inches of snow total. That's a lot for us. It's still no biggie, but we're supposed to get freezing rain tonight and tomorrow. That can cut the power for a lot of us as tree branches fall down.

Anyway, it's quite pretty right now.

Here's a shot from my backyard:

Hey Everyone! There Will Be Absolutely No Fishing in Sochi's Toilets! Thank You

Pic from Breitbart Post

Yeah. Okay.

And what exactly is that one next to the no fishing supposed to depict? Is it a "no partying with a roach in the toilet stall" sign?


From Elizabeth Sheld at Breitbart:

Canadian snowboarder Sebastien Toutant arrived in Russia before the Olympic Games to find a list of rules posted in the bathrooms. Among forbidden activities is fishing.  

While the list of dos and don’ts includes some reasonable tips in aid of promoting good hygiene - not standing up, being sick or squatting above the toilet being used - you might be forgiven for thinking the chart's designers had ran out of ideas when they got to the last two rules.

And to think I was little worried about these games. Clearly, the Russian authorities have thought of everything.