Sorry I've Been Gone So Long But Been Having Computer Problems and Blogger Won't Let my Portable Write in the Body of theText So I'll Be Back After Thanksgiving. Have a Good One!

Gallup: Majority in U.S. Want GOP in Congress to Set Nation's Course

Chart from Gallup article linked below

"You folks think a wretched election can stop me?! Think again!"

Change.

From Gallup:

Republicans' 17-percentage-point edge over Obama on this measure exceeds what they earned after the 2010 midterm, when Americans favored Republicans by an eight-point margin (49% to 41%). It also eclipses the nine-point advantage Republicans had over Bill Clinton following the 1994 midterm in which Republicans captured the majority of both houses.  

[...]  

The midterm election provided a clear signal as to which party voters want to control Congress. That message is echoed in the results of the latest Gallup poll showing Americans expressly asking for the Republicans -- rather than Obama -- to guide the direction the country takes in the next year. But, after four years of partisan gridlock, most Americans are not optimistic that the election's outcome will improve things.

Don't worry though. Obama said that he heard the voices of all those who didn't vote... and all of them want the American middle class to continue being punished.

Wednesday Funnies: 10 Hours of Princess Leia Walking in NYC

What can you expect when walking about in a wretched hive of scum and villainy? Oh, New York. Sorry, I was thinking of Washington DC. My bad.

Video: ObamaCare Architect Says ObamaCare Passed Due to "Lack of Transparency" and "the Stupidity of the American Voter"

Amazingly, people who release these kind of pictures are trying to lie and deceive you. Weird, I know. Most people working hard to deify a leader are usually so trustworthy...

Gloating about lying to and deceiving the the American public. These people have no shame-- which should surprise no one, by the way. (Video by way of The Daily Signal h/t Instapundit)

The man in the video is Johnathan Gruber, an economist at MIT, who helped write the Affordable Care Act-- ObamaCare. Have a listen:

So let's see here, Gruber says

(a) that the bill was intentionally written so that the CBO would not score the individual mandate as a tax-- although the Supreme Court would of course rule that the mandate is a tax so that the law could be ruled constitutional. Furthermore, Gruber acknowledges that the bill dies if the CBO scores it as tax, which is undoubtedly true.

(b) the bill was written to intentionally deceive so that people would not understand that healthy people would be paying more to support the ill.

(c) that "lack of transparency is a huge political advantage."

(d) that "the stupidity of the American voter or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass."

Nice. And classic Leftism, by the way.

Does anyone remember when Obama was grating on about how transparent his presidency was going to be? I believe MSNBC still touts that trash.

Of course all of this was pointed out by me and other critics of ObamaCare. We were called "racist" and "delusional" and "conspiracy theorists" for saying this. But then we're all just stupid proles who don't know what's best for us.

Remember, people like Gruber and Obama are your betters. Do not think for yourself. Do not criticize. If you have an opinion, do not voice it. And realize that your betters will lie, deceive, and insult you. But don't worry. It's all for you own good.

Obama's Pet $1.6 Billion Solar Plant Needs $500+ Million Bailout



"I deem this plant profitable and economically sustainable-- even though it needs a gift of more than half-a-billion dollars of your money. You folks can all thank me later."

(pic from DailyTech)

It's Obamanomics in action! Get money from limitless source (such as middle class taxpayers), blow it on some piece of sh*t that doesn't work and/or makes no economic sense, then request or demand more money from said limitless source and/or complain about racism.

Brilliant!

From Fox News (via Gateway Pundit):

After already receiving a controversial $1.6 billion construction loan from U.S. taxpayers, the wealthy investors of a California solar power plant now want a $539 million federal grant to pay off their federal loan.

"This is an attempt by very large cash generating companies that have billions on their balance sheet to get a federal bailout, i.e. a bailout from us - the taxpayer for their pet project," said Reason Foundation VP of Research Julian Morris. "It's actually rather obscene."

The Ivanpah solar electric generating plant is owned by Google and renewable energy giant NRG, which are responsible for paying off their federal loan. If approved by the U.S. Treasury, the two corporations will not use their own money, but taxpayer cash to pay off 30 percent of the cost of their plant, but taxpayers will receive none of the millions in revenues the plant will generate over the next 30 years. [That may not be a big deal, since this thing is economically suspect at best.]

"They're already paying less than the market rate," said Morris, author of a lengthy report detailing alleged cronyism and corruption in the Obama administration's green energy programs. "Now demanding or asking for a subsidy in the form of a grant directly paying off the loan is an egregious abuse."

NRG doesn't see it that way, telling Fox News the money is there for the taking."NRG believes in a clean and sustainable energy future and therefore participates in available government programs to develop and expand the use of clean energy to accelerate America’s energy independence." In 2013, the Obama administration handed out $18.5 billion in renewable energy grants, with $4.4 billion going to solar projects.

Ivanpah is the largest concentrated solar power plant in the world. It was unveiled in February with great fanfare. Dr. Ernest Moniz, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, justified taxpayers' investment at the time, saying, "We want to be technology leaders. It's good for our economy and it’s also good for helping stimulate the global transition to low carbon."

But since then the plant has not lived up to its clean energy promise. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the plant produced only about a quarter of the power it's supposed to, a disappointing 254,263 megawatt-hours of electricity from January through August, not the million megawatt-hours it promised. [emphasis mine]

As an added bonus, the plant also kill birds at an alarming rate due to the fact that the plant's mirrors both attract and roast them alive. It's "speciesism" at its worst. So, that young woman who adopted that rescue chicken "Snow" probably doesn't like it much.

But let's remember that Obama and cronies didn't fail us all with the solar plant, the sun and the solar plant failed them. Probably because of racism and ungovernable people and such...

Fast & Furious Documents Finally Released to Congress

The Light-bringer sayeth: "When trying to sway public opinion regarding gun control, sometimes a few folks have to die. Also George Bush did it."

Yeah, releasing the papers on Tuesday during the election. The Obama Admin. does everything it can to conceal. Of course, with the abysmal record and the various illegal activities, I suppose that's to be expected.

So let's not overlook this, even in the aftermath of this wave election. This idiotic operation, which was almost certainly a purely political operation to move forward then gun control agenda, is directly linked to the murders of hundreds of Mexicans and the killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

From The Washington Times article by Steve Dinan:

The Justice Department sent Congress 64,280 pages of documents it had previously withheld from the botched Fast and Furious gun-walking operation on Tuesday, in a move Republicans said was an admission by President Obama that he overstepped his legal bounds. 

Investigators had sought the documents for years, with the House even suing in federal court to force their release. Mr. Obama had asserted executive privilege, claiming the documents were part of the “deliberative process” of White House decision-making and therefore didn’t need to be divulged, but the court rejected those claims.

So, do you wanna bet that the 64,000+ pages don't show that George W. Bush was behind operation Fast & Furious as Obama publicly claimed.

GOP Wins the Senate!

Congrats to the GOP, but mostly this a rebuke of Obama. Get it GOP? Now stop acting like cowards and let's get rid of ObamaCare, reform the partisan IRS, EPA, DOJ, and other ABC government agencies. and let's bring back some lawful restraints against our imperial president.

In the meantime, a little celebration:

Q: How is Obama's ISIS Strategy Going? A: Disastrously

But the State Dept. and White House used sad faces and hashtags! What could've gone wrong?!

Which is exactly how I and about 90% of those not smitten with Obama expected.

And tell me, where are the hashtags? I mean, how can these people understand how disapproving the Obama State Department is without some lame hashtag and sad faces?

From Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Not too much attention has been paid to our efforts to “degrade and destroy ISIS” in the past few days. Perhaps the White House can find something in this election cycle for which to be grateful, because this Washington Post report on our efforts to use proxies for that mission would otherwise dominate the news cycle. Not only has the US focused entirely on preparing our “moderate” allies in Syria for defense rather than attacking ISIS, they turned out to be incompetent even at that effort:

The Obama administration’s Syria strategy suffered a major setback Sunday after fighters linked to al-Qaeda routed U.S.-backed rebels from their main northern strongholds, capturing significant quantities of weaponry, triggering widespread defections and ending hopes that Washington will readily find Syrian partners in its war against the Islamic State.

It’s not just that they got defeated — some of them switched sides:

Moderate rebels who had been armed and trained by the United States either surrendered or defected to the extremists as the Jabhat al-Nusra group, affiliated with al-Qaeda, swept through the towns and villages the moderates controlled in the northern province of Idlib, in what appeared to be a concerted push to vanquish the moderate Free Syrian Army, according to rebel commanders, activists and analysts.
Other moderate fighters were on the run, headed for the Turkish border as the extremists closed in, heralding a significant defeat for the rebel forces Washington had been counting on as a bulwark against the Islamic State.

Michael Totten says that Syria is gone, and so is any hope of containing ISIS without boots on the ground:

They were bad proxies anyway. The Syrian Revolutionary Front was an Islamist organization. Less deranged than Al Qaeda and the Islamic State, sure, but it was still an Islamist organization. Harakat Hazm is more secular, but it consists of a measly 5,000 fighters while the Islamic State has as many as 100,000.
Syria is gone. The only portions of that former country that may still be salvageable are the Kurdish scraps in the north. The Kurds are good fighters and they may be able to hold on with our help, but there is no chance they will ever destroy the Assad regime or the Islamic State. They don’t have the strength or the numbers.
So unless the United States decides to invade outright with ground forces—and fat chance of that happening any time soon—we’re going to have to accept that the geographic abstraction once known as Syria will be a terrorist factory for the foreseeable future.  

[...]  

In other words, good luck trying to “degrade and destroy” ISIS through the weak proxies on either side of the former Iraqi-Syrian border. As Totten writes, until we decide that this mission is worth doing ourselves, it won’t get done at all — or will it? The AP reported today that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are considering the formation of a ground force to intervene in the conflict, which might help in Syria — but might touch off a bigger war, since those nations want to push Bashar al-Assad out of power, too, and counter the influence of Iran

So, we could very well see a major war triggered by Obama's stupid withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. And all of this to score some political points with Obama's Leftist base. Nice job.

It's odd that this Administration's two-pronged diplomatic strategy of putting pressure to the point of betrayal on Israel, while saying dumb and disingenuous crap to make Arabs feel better about themselves hasn't magically solved all the Middle East's problems. Weird.

Of course, the Left's interests do not lie in what's best for the US and its allies the Middle East. It's mostly about what will make the American Left feel better about themselves. Undoing Bush's work in Iraq, pulling out of Afghanistan, and releasing terrorists from Guantanamo has never been about "doing good," but is instead about righting the imperialism and arrogance Americans have shown under Bush. If this results in a major war, or mass killing, or terrorist attacks, or beheadings then so be it. In fact, it then gives them a chance to show how impotently compassionate they are with their #BringBackOurGirls and #UnitedForUkraine campaigns.

Election Day! Make Sure You Vote!



Pic from Legal Insurrection

Indeed. Make sure you get out and cast your ballot.

Happy Halloween

Have a Happy Halloween!

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Responds to Obama Administration "Chickensh*t" Comment

A chickenshit and a fighter (Photo and caption from Dani Danyan's Twitter)

Smart diplomacy, huh?

I guess all of that is going with Obama's "don't do dumb shit, call an ally's head of state chickenshit" policy.

From Prime Minister's Office website (via Gateway Pundit):

As Prime Minister, I stand firm with regard to Israel's security. I care about the lives of each and every citizen and each and every soldier. I have been on battlefields many times. I risked my life for this country, and I am not prepared to make concessions that will endanger it. And it must be understood, our supreme interests, first and foremost security and the unity of Jerusalem, are not the top priority of those same anonymous sources that attack us and me personally. I am being attacked only because I am protecting the State of Israel. If I did not protect the State of Israel, if I did not stand up decisively for our national and security interests, they would not attack me. And despite the attacks I face, I will continue to protect our country; I will continue to protect the citizens of Israel. 

I would also like to add that I respect and appreciate our deep connection with the United States. Since the establishment of the country, we have had disagreements with the US and we will have disagreements in the future as well. However, they are not at the expense of the close relationship between our peoples and our countries. We have seen time and again, this year as well, that support for the State of Israel is ever increasing among the American public, and this support reached an all-time high. The strategic alliance and the moral covenant between our countries continues and will continue. [emphasis mine]

You know, Netanyahu deserves better than to be knocked around by the legacy 'C' students working at the State Department.

And, of course, the U.S. deserves better than the ungifted amateur that is currently alienating or openly betraying our allies. It's going to be long two years until that national embarrassment finally leaves office...

In Ukraine Election, Pro-Western Parties Win Big

Amazingly, the hashtag diplomacy has shown little results...

All of this happening while Russian backed separatists continue to battle the Ukraine military. And this, of course, coming after Obama's limp response to Putin's aggression against Ukraine. It seems Obama is perfectly happy at Ukraine being a Russian vassal state.

From The Washington Free Beacon article by Daniel Wiser:

Pro-Western parties prevailed in Ukraine’s parliamentary elections over the weekend, but the country’s armed forces continued to suffer casualties amid fighting with Russian-backed separatists in the east. 

President Petro Poroshenko’s political group began talks with Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk’s People’s Front party on Monday to form a majority coalition in the parliament that would push democratic reforms. The Opposition Bloc, a pro-Russian party with allies of former leader Viktor Yanukovich, received slightly less than 10 percent of the vote. 

The election results keep Ukraine on a path toward closer integration with the European Union following the ouster of Yanukovich, a Russian ally, in February. Russia responded aggressively to the toppling of Yanukovich earlier this year by invading and annexing the Crimean peninsula and funneling arms and troops into eastern Ukraine to support the rebels there. 

Ongoing fighting between Ukrainian forces and the pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east—despite a ceasefire agreement reached in early September—remains a serious obstacle to closer Ukrainian ties with Europe. Two Ukrainian troops were reportedly killed in the region on Sunday.  

[...]  

The White House press office released a statement from President Obama on Monday praising Ukrainians for holding the elections and pledging to “continue to support Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and “stand with its people as they seek to build a more secure, prosperous, and democratic future.” Obama offered no indication that he would reverse his policy of not providing lethal aid to the Ukrainian military. 

Poroshenko bluntly told U.S. lawmakers in September that “one cannot win the war with blankets,” a reference to the limited supplies U.S. officials have contributed to the Ukrainian effort thus far. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Moscow would recognize Ukraine’s elections in the hope that the country now has leaders who “do not drag Ukraine to the West or to the East” but “will deal with the real problems facing the country.” Last Friday, President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for the recent breakdown in the ceasefire.

The situation is getting very tense in Eastern Europe, as America continues to be weak and divided under Obama's incompetent and divisive lead. No European state really has much of a military to speak of-- aside from Russia-- and if the US signals that it will not protect its allies, Russian military action is not out of the question. Russia has been rehearsing an invasion of Poland for many years, and I do wonder if they might not seize the opportunity.

Obama's "the 1980s have called and they want their foreign policy back" quip is looking more and more stupid and naive by the day.

City of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Backs Down-- Won't Force Christian Ministers to Marry Gay Couples

I posted about this a few days ago. It seems that someone blinked in the city government and Coeur d'Alene has backed away from forcing unwilling Christian ministers to officiate at gay marriages.

From Boise State Public Radio article by Jessica Robinson (h/t to Sig94):

The city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, said a for-profit wedding chapel owned by two ministers doesn't have to perform same-sex marriages.   

The city has been embroiled in controversy ever since the owners of the Hitching Post sued the city. They say a city anti-discrimination law threatened to force them to marry same-sex couples now that gay marriage is legal in Idaho.  

The story lit up conservative and gay-rights blogs. Wedding chapel owners Donald and Evelyn Knapp said they feared jail time or fines if they declined marriage services to a same-sex couple.  

Initially, the city said its anti-discrimination law did apply to the Hitching Post, since it is a commercial business. Earlier this week, Coeur d'Alene city attorney Mike Gridley sent a letter to the Knapps’ attorneys at the Alliance Defending Freedom saying the Hitching Post would have to become a not-for-profit to be exempt.  

But Gridley said after further review, he determined the ordinance doesn’t specify non-profit or for-profit.  

“After we've looked at this some more, we have come to the conclusion they would be exempt from our ordinance because they are a religious corporation,” Gridley explained.

I wonder what will happen when somebody brings up charges like these in a deep blue state like California, New York, or Illinois, rather than somewhere like Idaho?

I'm sure it's already happened, but I haven't really heard much about it. Let's not forget that people in those more "enlightened" states scoff when anyone says the First Amendment is under attack.

Good News: 2nd Dallas Nurse Ebola Free

This means both Dallas nurses who contracted the Ebola virus have been cured of the disease.

From Reuters:

A second Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola is now free of the virus, Emory University Hospital in Atlanta said on Friday. 

Amber Vinson, one of two nurses from a Dallas hospital infected with Ebola after treating the first patient diagnosed with the disease in the United States, is still receiving supportive care at Emory and no release date has been set. 

But tests no longer detect the virus in her blood, the hospital said in a statement.

At least CDC incompetence didn't kill these two young women. 

Ebola Czar's Name Removed from List of Trustees of Progressive Think Tank

As Glenn Reynolds wrote: "TRANSPARENCY."

From The Washington Free Beacon article by Elizabeth Harrington (via Instapundit):

Third Way, a progressive think tank with ties to the Democracy Alliance, has removed newly appointed Ebola czar Ron Klain from its website, following a Washington Free Beacon report. 

The Free Beacon reported Friday on Klain’s status as a trustee for Third Way, and his past experience lobbying on behalf of a drug company that was accused of denying life-saving drugs to dying cancer patients.   

The choice of Klain to head the administration’s emergency response to Ebola was criticized as a political move. Klain is a political operative with no medical experience and a former advisor to former Vice President Al Gore, Vice President Joe Biden, and President Barack Obama.  

[...]  

“He gained national notice as General Counsel for the Gore Recount Committee in 2000, in recognition of which he was selected as one of National Law Journal’s ‘Lawyers of the Year,’ and portrayed by Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey in HBO’s film ‘RECOUNT,’” a biography of Klain had read on the group’s website. 

Well, we all knew that Obama's "Ebola Czar" was really going to be Obama's "Cover Your Ass with PR Flack Czar." But now the Administration doesn't want him associated with Third Way? Do they really think that doing that will make Klein look less like a partisan PR man? Seriously?

Heh. Or is that Third Way doesn't want to be associated with any of Obama's czars?

I suppose it could go either way right now...

Govt. Attempts to Force Christian Ministers to Perform Same-Sex Weddings

Because thou shall not have anything greater than the will of the Left's current mascot identity group.

And do I not remember various pundits and politicians assuring us that stuff like this wouldn't happen with the legalization of gay marriage? Or is my memory faulty?

From the ADF Media site (via Jazz Shaw at Hot Air):

City officials [of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho] told Donald Knapp that he and his wife Evelyn, both ordained ministers who run Hitching Post Wedding Chapel, are required to perform such ceremonies or face months in jail and/or thousands of dollars in fines. The city claims its “non-discrimination” ordinance requires the Knapps to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies now that the courts have overridden Idaho’s voter-approved constitutional amendment that affirmed marriage as the union of a man and a woman.  

[...]  

Coeur d’Alene officials told the Knapps privately and also publicly stated that the couple would violate the city’s public accommodations statute once same-sex marriage became legal in Idaho if they declined to perform a same-sex ceremony at their chapel. On Friday, the Knapps respectfully declined such a ceremony and now face up to 180 days in jail and up to $1,000 in fines for each day they decline to perform that ceremony. 

“The city somehow expects ordained pastors to flip a switch and turn off all faithfulness to their God and their vows,” explained ADF Legal Counsel Jonathan Scruggs. “The U.S. Constitution as well as federal and state law clearly stand against that. The city cannot mandate across-the-board conformity to its interpretation of a city ordinance in utter disregard for the guaranteed freedoms Americans treasure in our society.”

An obvious infringement on the Free Exercise clause. I suppose that since the First Amendment has been interpreted to protect government from religion rather than the obvious reading of protecting religion from government, such cases are inevitable.

The Left has spent far too much energy deifying the embodiment of their hopes. Surely they won't let a little thing like Christian faith trump both their own and their Dear Leader's political and social agendas.

 

 

Friday Funnies: When Amateurs Fight in the Boxing Ring

Ah, yes. My favorite boxing match with a comedic edge. Watch as the "street fighter" Sutherland takes on a-- at best-- competently trained boxer in a professional bout. The results were not surprising.

Enjoy:

Okay, that wasn't so great for Sutherland. But I bet that if he'd been taking on some smaller, drunk guy in a bar's parking lot, he would've totally won.

I remember watching this match with my dad on Tuesday Night Fights back in the '80s. It was something we would still smirk about many years later.

Report: ISIS Losing in Kobane Fight

Good news, if a BBC report of a Kurdish fighter is to be trusted. I hope and pray that it can.

From the BBC (via Ace of Spades):

The Islamic State (IS) militant group has been driven out of most of the northern Syrian town of Kobane, a Kurdish commander has told the BBC. 

Baharin Kandal said IS fighters had retreated from all areas, except for two pockets of resistance in the east. 

US-led air strikes have helped push back the militants, with another 14 conducted over the past 24 hours. 

Meanwhile, the new UN human rights commissioner has called IS a "potentially genocidal" movement.  

[...]  

Speaking by phone, Kurdish commander Baharin Kandal told the BBC's Kasra Naji that she hoped the city would be "liberated soon". 

Ms Kandal said her militia group had been receiving arms, supplies and fighters but she refused to say how, reports our correspondent, who is on the Turkish border near Kobane.  

Kurdish defenders have victory in their sights. After exactly a month of fighting, they say they have driven Islamic State from most of the city.  

[...]  

The battle for Kobane, which is also known as Ayn al-Arab, is regarded as a major test of whether the US-led coalition's air campaign can push back IS.

Well, the answer for that last bit is "no, an air campaign will not push back ISIS." In Kobane ISIS met stiff resistance from people who possessed no illusions about the consequences of an ISIS victory. ISIS's penchant for burying people alive, beheading, crucifixion, mass executions and public displays of the bodies hardened the resolve of the Kurds, rather than throwing them into a panic. The Kurds' response of throwing everyone who was willing into the fight (including the elderly, children, and women) against this terrible enemy, is both an admirable and an atypical response. It is unrealistic to expect any and all  people fighting ISIS to respond with the same heightened grit, determination, and heroism as the Kurds displayed in Kobane. Thus, the results cannot and will not be the same in future battles.

Basically, the U.S. air campaign will be effective only if all of the enemies of ISIS display heroic levels of courage and determination at all times. Sheer idiocy. An American general planning for a battle and who is expecting, or indeed relying upon, this level of desperation and requiring this amount of heroism from American troops is unreasonable-- and possibly criminal. Expecting constant heroism from loosely-organized, non-professional militias is ludicrous.

Yet, this seems to be the plans of the Obama Administration.

Utter foolishness...

CBO: ObamaCare Increases Deficit by Billions and Billions

"I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits, either now or in the future. I mean just look at this halo behind me! Would a man photographed with a golden halo lie to you? Never!"

Obama lied. Again. What a shocker.

From The Washington Free Beacon article by Caroline Lee Smith:

A new analysis of data from the Congressional Budget Office has provided a final cost estimate for the implementation of Obamacare over the next decade–and the results are bleak. 

With the initial plan for the law’s enactment, the legislation issued in March 2010 concluded that–based on its scoring conventions and assuming the law would be implemented as written, the health care provisions of the plan would have reduced the federal budget deficit by $124 billion between 2010 and 2019. In 2012, the CBO updated its 10-year estimate, saying health care would reduce the deficit by $109 billion. 

Since then, the CBO has again updated its estimates to fall in line with changes in the implementation of Obamacare and its botched rollout and limited enforcement. In those estimates they discovered that instead of saving money, Obamacare will only increase the deficit. 

The United States Senate Budget Committee wrote:

Altogether, the SBC Republican staff analysis finds that after taking these significant changes since 2012 into account, the Democrats’ health care law will increase the budget deficit by $131 billion over the current 10-year budget window (FY 2015–2024).  

This estimate is arrived at by taking the $180 billion in projected deficit reduction from the CBO 2012 extrapolation and then accounting for the lower net cost of the coverage provisions ($83 billion), the lower estimated federal health care savings under the plan ($132 billion), as well as the lower projected revenue levels when including the labor market effects of the legislation ($262 billion). 

The difference between the 2012 extrapolation and the current estimate of the cost of the Democrats’ health law amounts to a $311 billion change in its net deficit impact.

Never mind that President Obama promised this would not happen.

Gosh, I'm beginning to think that maybe this Obama fellow isn't really that honest. Or is it just that he seems dishonest because of dog whistle racism, and George W. Bush, and stuff.

Well, I'm sure this increase in cost will make the unpopular ObamaCare even more unpopular. However, I doubt the Democrats will care. And we already know Obama doesn't give a crap.

ObamaCare Website Withholds Revealing Higher Rates Until After Election

 

"Suck it, America. My wife and I never liked you much anyway..."

At this point, the Obama Administration is becoming impossible to parody.

From The Washington Times (via Drudge):

Those planning to purchase health insurance on the Obamacare exchange will soon find out how much rates have increased -- after the Nov. 4 election. 

Enrollment on the Healthcare.gov website begins Nov. 15, or 11 days after the midterm vote, and critics who worry about rising premium hikes in 2015 say that’s no coincidence. Last year’s inaugural enrollment period on the health-care exchange began Oct. 1.  

“This is more than just a glitch,” said Tim Phillips, president of free-market Americans for Prosperity, in a Friday statement. “The administration’s decision to withhold the costs of this law until after Election Day is just more proof that Obamacare is a bad deal for Americans.”

Robert Laszewski, president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, said in a Monday column in USA Today that "when it comes to a lack of openness and transparency about Obamacare, this administration has no peer."

I guess we can't have people finding out exactly how big of turd ObamaCare is until after the election. Because, you know, Obama did so well jamming ObamaCare down our throats when he had a Democrat-controlled congress.

Most transparent presidency evah.

Like I said, beyond parody.

Congressional Report: Chance of Military Conflict with China Increasing

Not a surprise to me, but worth noting. And at least there's some attention being paid to China's progressively aggressive behavior.

From The Washington Free Beacon:

China’s decades-long buildup of strategic and conventional military forces is shifting the balance of power in Asia in Beijing’s favor and increasing the risk of a conflict, according to a forthcoming report by a congressional China commission. 

China’s military has greatly expanded its air and naval forces and is sharply increasing its missile forces, even while adopting a more hostile posture against the United States and regional allies in Asia, states a late draft of the annual report of the bipartisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. 

As a result, “the potential for security miscalculation in the region is rising,” the report said, using the euphemism for a conflict or shootout between Chinese forces and U.S. forces or those of its regional allies. 

The report paints an alarming picture of China’s growing aggressiveness and expanding power, including development of two new stealth jets, the first deployment of a naval expeditionary amphibious group to the Indian Ocean, and aerial bombing exercises held in Kazakhstan. 

China’s communist government also views the United States as its main adversary—despite strong trade and financial links between the two countries, the report says.

Yes, thank you for finally acknowledging that Beijing sees America as an adversary, if not enemy. They have had this view for decades. I guess we need to send Hilary Clinton over there with a big ol' red "Reset" button, huh?

Other key findings of the report include:

• Chinese President Xi Jinping has made China’s missile forces the “core strength” strategic deterrence.
• Chinese defense spending will continue to fund an acceleration of the military modernization for the next five years.
• A U.S. defense analyst said China’s efficient defense spending could render U.S. aircraft carriers difficult to defend. China could build 1,127 DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles for the cost of one U.S. aircraft carrier at $13.5 billion.
• China is using the estimated 235,000 Chinese students studying in the United States to conduct technology collection for the Beijing government.
• Joint ventures between Chinese and U.S. companies include a legal requirement for the Chinese firms to share technology with the Chinese military and intelligence services.

But hey, let's not worry about this. Russia is our good pal, Ebola will never come to America, the CDC hasn't been politicized to the point of mockery, we'll be able to keep our doctor/health insurance plan, ObamaCare will be super popular, and China will never be aggressive to ourselves or our allies in Asia. We have Obama's word on all of this.

That's enough. Right?

Obama's Ebola Czar Conspicuously Absent

Dr. Nicole Lurie

I guess there wasn't enough political currency to be gained by touting her-- unlike claiming that the new, agenda-driven CDC and NIH needs mountains of more money to do their job. Oh, and then there was the $400 million+ scandal involving her back in 2011.

From The Federalist article by Mollie Hemingway (via Instapundit):

...nobody has even discussed the fact that the federal government not ten years ago created and funded a brand new office in the Health and Human Services Department specifically to coordinate preparation for and response to public health threats like Ebola. The woman who heads that office, and reports directly to the HHS secretary, has been mysteriously invisible from the public handling of this threat. And she’s still on the job even though three years ago she was embroiled in a huge scandal of funneling a major stream of funding to a company with ties to a Democratic donor—and away from a company that was developing a treatment now being used on Ebola patients.  

[...]  

So, we have an office for public health threat preparedness and response. And one of HHS’ eight assistant secretaries is the assistant secretary for preparedness and response, whose job it is to “lead the nation in preventing, responding to and recovering from the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters, ranging from hurricanes to bioterrorism.” 

In the video below, the woman who heads that office, Dr. Nicole Lurie, explains that the responsibilities of her office are “to help our country prepare for, respond to and recover from public health threats.” She says her major priority is to help the country prepare for emergencies and to “have the countermeasures—the medicines or vaccines that people might need to use in a public health emergency. So a large part of my office also is responsible for developing those countermeasures.”

Hemingway goes on to suggest that perhaps one of the reasons for Dr. Lurie's absence is a $433 million scandal involving Lurie, billionaire Democrat donor Ron Perelman, and a no-bid contract for small pox vaccines. She's probably right, although really what is one more scandal involving graft and another democratic donor?

Regardless, we can see that, once more, the Obama administration has subverted the original purpose of many government agencies (IRS, CDC, NIH, HHS), some of which are quite valuable in times of crisis, for pushing political agendas and for facilitating graft.

What a legacy Obama has left for us...

America is Out of Top 10 in Economic Freedom

How bad is this? Well, Canada is ranked higher.

From Breitbart (via Drudge):

A new report of "economic freedom" around the world finds the US ranked 12th among 152 countries, tied with the United Kingdom, and lower than neighbor Canada or Australia. The index, published by the Cato Institute and Canada's Fraser Institute, has been published since 1996. As recently as 2000, the US ranked 2nd in the world, in terms of boasting a free economy. The US's declining ranking will lower future economic growth.  

The index, built on decades of research by Nobel laureates and dozens of leading scholars, measures 5 broad factors that impact the economy: 1. Size of government; 2. Legal structure and security of property rights; 3. Access to sound money; 4. Freedom to trade internationally and; 5. Regulation of Credit, Labor and Business. Countries where citizens are freer to engage in business and trade and property and legal rights are protected by the rule of law will score higher on the index. According to economic research, though, these countries will also do better economically and create and generate more wealth.  

The 10 freest economies in the world are: Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, Mauritius, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia, Jordan, and Chile and Finland tied for 10th.  

America's descent down the ladder of economic freedom is unsettling, in itself. More troubling, however, is the chief factor behind the US decline. The biggest drop in US economic freedom has been in the country's legal structure. The report notes that, "increased use of eminent domain to transfer property to powerful political interests, the ramifications of the wars on terrorism and drugs, and the violation of the property rights of bondholders in the auto-bailout case have weakened the tradition of strong adherence to the rule of law in United States."  

[...]  

A balanced federal budget is insignificant and meaningless if the rule of law has been subverted. No single election or administration can repair that damage. That is a task that must be tackled by a generation.

So let's all keep this in mind as we start voting for the next ten to twelve years. It's not enough to simply oppose Obama, Elizabeth Warren and others on the hard Left. We need to hold every politician accountable.

Is Obama's Competence a Factor in Mid-Term Elections?

"Someday all the folks will see how good they had it under my rule. Folks like Democratic bundlers, unions, Washington bureaucrats, and golf caddies."

The answer is, of course, yes.

From The Washington Free Beacon (video at link):

USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page said the sense that the Obama administration is “not competent to protect the American people” is a “big factor” going into the midterm elections. 

“Both of these stories, the Ebola virus and the threat from ISIS are feeding into a sense that Americans have that the world is not only a dangerous place but the government is not competent to handle them,” Page told Face the Nation on Sunday. 

“I think it is a very dangerous thing for president Obama, the sense that his administration is not competent to protect the American people, that is the most fundamental job of a U.S. president and I think it is a big factor in the midterm elections.”

Since I don't believe Obama is competent enough to sullenly manage a McDonald's or Denny's, I guess this is pretty bad news for Democrats. But mostly it's continued bad news for America, as Obama still has two more years to further ruin the economy, to further demoralize and disarm the military, and to further agitate racial tensions and violence. Aren't we all in for a good time...

Russia Deploys Nukes in Crimea

Huh. This hashtag diplomacy thing from the State Department seems to have not worked. I guess Russia's not living in the 21st century or something.

I guess they plan to keep that piece of property. And this happens in spite of Obama's stern recrimination that Putin isn't behaving like a 21st Century man. I guess pissy little comments from Obama didn't have much effect on Russia. Go figure.

From The Washington Free Beacon:

 Russia is moving tactical nuclear weapons systems into recently-annexed Crimea while the Obama administration is backing informal talks aimed at cutting U.S. tactical nuclear deployments in Europe. 

Three senior House Republican leaders wrote to President Obama two weeks ago warning that Moscow will deploy nuclear missiles and bombers armed with long-range air launched cruise missiles into occupied Ukrainian territory.  

[...]  

Regarding the nuclear deployments to Crimea, Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member James Inhofe (R., Okla.) first disclosed last month that Putin had announced in August his approval of deploying nuclear-capable Iskander-M short-range missiles along with Tu-22 nuclear-capable bombers in Crimea, located on the Black Sea. [emphasis mine]

And as Obama continues to take both the teeth and the morale out of our military, Russia is amping up both its rhetoric, its military capabilities, and its aggression. What could go wrong for a president who promised a return of hope, lower seas, and peace in our time?

Poll: Huge Majority of States Disapprove of Obama

CLICK TO ENLARGE Chart from Phil Kerpen and posted on Powerline

"It appears to me that lots and lots of folks in lots and lots of states want to be audited."

Tell us something that we didn't know-- not just something that media doesn't know.

From Powerline (h/t Instapundit):

National approval/disapproval polls have shown President Obama consistently under water for some time, but the numbers are even worse when viewed state by state. Liberals–generally speaking, Obama’s last defenders–are heavily concentrated in a few large states; in fact, within certain urban areas in those states. When those states are taken out of the picture, the result is truly bleak for Obama and the Democrats.  

[...]  

Outside of a handful of states–California (49/48), New York (50/47), Massachusetts (50/47), Maryland, which benefits from the D.C. boom (56/43)–the numbers are brutal. Even blue states like Minnesota (40/57) and Oregon (44/54) have had it with Obama. And in his last redoubts, California et al., Obama is not much more than breaking even.

Weird. It's almost like Obama's use of government agencies (IRS, CDC, EPA, etc.) as political weapons to punish his enemies,  heavy-handed political b.s., preening, thin-skinned ego, piss-poor performance with international relations, betrayal of allies, racial political games, and golfing immediately after the beheading of an American reporter has an effect on his numbers. Whoulda thunk it? Certainly not the Ministry of Truth MSM.

UN: Syria Still Using Chemical Weapons Against Rebels and Civilians

"This has never been about trusting Asaad. It's about training and arming Islamic militants who may or may not be marching on Baghdad and Kobane. I mean international relations are like totally hard, okay?"

And this despite Obama's Operation "Oops I Said Red Line" which resulted in a "deal" brokered by our good friend Putin.

From The Washington Free Beacon:

Syria has revealed the existence of four chemical weapons facilities that were previously undisclosed, a top United Nations official said on Tuesday, raising new concerns about the government’s commitment to eliminating its chemical weapons under an agreement struck last year. 

Sigrid Kaag, a special representative of the U.N. secretary-general, reportedly told diplomats on the U.N. Security Council about the newly declared facilities at a closed meeting. Three of the facilities are for research and development and the fourth for production, but no new chemical agents are contained at the sites, according to the Associated Press report on Kaag’s comments. 

The disclosure of more facilities raises new questions about whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime might still be hiding parts of its chemical weapons program. Assad agreed to the removal and destruction of his chemical weapons as part of a deal brokered by the United States and Russia in September 2013, which followed the Syrian government’s alleged use of chemical agents on civilians in a Damascus suburb. About 1,400 people died in the August 2013 attack, including hundreds of children.  

[...]  

When asked by a reporter whether Assad could be trusted to declare all of his chemical weapons—given U.S. officials’ frequent claim that he has “lost all legitimacy to lead Syria”—Psaki [State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki] said it was more important to focus on U.S. efforts to train the Syrian opposition as an alternative to Assad.

Huh. So Assad still has and is using chemical weapons, and the U.S. State Department's response is to train and arm other fighter in the area... like ISIS maybe?

Gee, I wonder if this attitude/strategy could account for ISIS using American made ammunition, weapons, trucks, etc. Just thinking out loud here...

Observing Obama and his State Department flounder, flail, and generally act like children would be awfully amusing if the consequences weren't so terrible. This is like watching Public Access amateur hour...

"JV" ISIS Advances into Both Iraq and Syria

I hope our State Department is ready to hashtag out #FreeIraq or something...

Who could've predicted this? Certainly not Obama, who is intentionally being kept in the dark by the racist Secret Service.

From The Washington Free Beacon:

The United States appears to be losing its fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, experts say, as the jihadist group adapts to U.S. airstrikes and advances toward Baghdad and a strategic town on the Syrian-Turkish border. 

McClatchy reported on Friday that ISIL had established an operational presence in Abu Ghraib, a town within miles of the capital Baghdad that could enable the militants to shell the Baghdad International Airport with artillery. The airport serves as a key transit point for Western embassies and houses a joint operations center with U.S. military advisers. 

A Defense Department spokeswoman said there were no indications yet that ISIL had taken over Abu Ghraib. 

ISIL has also made significant gains in recent days in Iraq’s western Anbar province, where it has seized the town of Hit and launched assaults on other military bases in the region. Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers have been captured, and U.S. and allied airstrikes appear to have failed to push back ISIL from its strongholds in Anbar. 

In Syria, ISIL engaged in intense fighting on Monday with Kurdish forces in Kobani—a key town near the Turkish border that could grant Islamic militants new smuggling lines for fighters and supplies if they control it. U.S. airstrikes have also failed to relieve ISIL’s siege of Kobani. 

Additionally, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that ISIL fighters have adopted new tactics to evade airstrikes and retain control of territory, including avoiding the use of cell phones and radios, removing their leaders and weapons from bases in Syria, and blending in with the civilian population.

For a group of jayvees pretending to be The Lakers, ISIS isn't doing too badly. And since Obama has promised not too put American boots on the ground-- probably one of the only Obama promises I actually believe-- all ISIS has to do is keep its head down for a while as they continue to murder stacks of people, and cut the heads of selected Westerners.

Obama has no plan, no stomach, and is afraid to deal with actual enemies of the US and its allies. Expect nothing but more ISIS killings, and Obama's attempts to blame others and downplay the violence. Oh, and expect the media to continue to roll over on Obama's command.

Study: Maybe Marijuana's Not So Harmless After All...

Shocker.

From The Daily Mail:

A definitive 20-year study into the effects of long-term cannabis use has demolished the argument that the drug is safe. 

Cannabis is highly addictive, causes mental health problems and opens the door to hard drugs, the study found. 

The paper by Professor Wayne Hall, a drugs advisor to the World Health Organisation, builds a compelling case against those who deny the devastation cannabis wreaks on the brain. Professor Hall found:

 

One in six teenagers who regularly smoke the drug become dependent on it,

Cannabis doubles the risk of developing psychotic disorders, including schizophrenia,

Cannabis users do worse at school. Heavy use in adolescence appears to impair intellectual development

One in ten adults who regularly smoke the drug become dependent on it and those who use it are more likely to go on to use harder drugs,

Driving after smoking cannabis doubles the risk of a car crash, a risk which increases substantially if the driver has also had a drink

Smoking it while pregnant reduces the baby’s birth weight.

Last night Professor Hall, a professor of addiction policy at King’s College London, dismissed the views of those who say that cannabis is harmless.

‘If cannabis is not addictive then neither is heroin or alcohol,’ he said. 

‘It is often harder to get people who are dependent on cannabis through withdrawal than for heroin – we just don’t know how to do it.’  

Those who try to stop taking cannabis often suffer anxiety, insomnia, appetite disturbance and depression, he found. Even after treatment, less than half can stay off the drug for six months.

But let's remember that tobacco and the big corporations that manufacture it are the real villainous threat. I know because I've been watching those "the truth" commercials for like 15 years now. Marijuana's just groovy and cool and totally sophisticated and stuff... I mean just ask Obama and his choom gang.

Two Killed in Explosion at Iranian Nuclear Factory

This is an interesting development. We'll have to see what happens in the next few days.

From The Washington Free Beacon:

A large explosion near a suspected nuclear site in Iran has reportedly killed two people and prompted speculation of sabotage at a military site long suspected of housing Tehran’s clandestine nuclear activities, according Iran’s Defense Industries Organization (DIO), which operates under the country’s Ministry of Defense. 

One explosion rocked a production plant late Sunday night in east Tehran, near the Parchin nuclear site, according to Farsi language reports in Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency. 

The explosion at a facility referred to as a “production plant” caused a fire that killed two workers, according to Fars, which cited information provided by Iran’s DIO. 

Fars first reported news of the explosion, claiming that it took place at an “explosive material factory” near Parchin. 

Iranian opposition groups claimed a higher death toll than reported, with some claiming that “at least four military personnel were wounded” in the blast.

This is probably just a standard accident. Yet, whenever I read about some accident in regard to the Iranian attempt to develop a nuclear weapon, I can never completely disregard the possibility of sabotage. Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part. Still, I'm frankly rather astonished that Iran hasn't developed a nuclear weapon under Obama's watch-- especially since Obama et al have basically resigned themselves to a nuclear Iran. The fact that this basically means that Islamic terrorists would then also have access to nuclear weapons seems somewhat overlooked by the Obama Administration. 

They still have two years, so I guess we'll see.

Is Kim Jong-Un Ousted from North Korea?

Despite the apparent adoration of North Korean girls in ill-fitting WW2 helmets, Kim Jung-Un is likely out of any position of actual political power in North Korea

Personally, I never felt this Kim had the political backing nor the skills to run North Korea. Of course, I felt the same way about his father and that guy ran the country until his death.

From The Daily Mail (h/t Gateway Pundit):

A former North Korean counter-intelligence officer has claimed that Kim Jong-Un is no longer in control of the nation and is now just a 'puppet leader'. 

Jang Jin-sung, who used to be an influential officer in Kim Jong-il's propaganda division, made the sensational assertion at a September conference in Holland attended by several elite exiles, it's been reported. 

The capital, Pyongyang, meanwhile, has been placed into lockdown with even the elite banned from entering or leaving, according to a respected news site. This adds weight to Jin-sung's claim, as a North Korean expert said that this kind of measure is only put in place when a coup has taken place - or is suspected.  

Jin-sung said that Kim Jong-Un was actually overthrown in 2013 and that the political strings in North Korea are being pulled by the powerful Organization and Guidance Department (OGD), which used to report directly to Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-Un's father.  

North Korea is currently embroiled in a sort of civil war, he said in his speech. 

Some officials want to keep the communist status quo, he said, others are open to elements of capitalism being introduced.

Doubtlessly, something is going on in North Korea, although I'm not sure that Jin-Sung is absolutely correct in his assertions. Let's remember that Jin-Sung is simply giving us his best guess. I'm betting that the military leadership will ultimately be the ones deciding the eventual outcome of this fracas.

Anyway, let's hope that those people supporting a loosening of the Marxist state win. Marxist North Korea is doomed to be brushed into the ash bin  of history, but in the meantime it can do catastrophic damage to both Asia and the world.