Disrupting the Narrative of the New Left, its allies in Academia, Hollywood and the Establishment Media, and examining with honesty the goals of cultural Marxism and the dangers of reactionary and abusive political correctness.
THE NARRATIVE AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
“Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.”-George Orwell
Senior European officials expressed concern Sunday at reports that U.S. intelligence agents bugged EU offices on both sides of the Atlantic, with some leftist lawmakers calling for concrete sanctions against Washington.
The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said he was "deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of U.S. authorities spying on EU offices" made in a report published Sunday by German news weekly Der Spiegel.
The magazine said the surveillance was carried out by the U.S. National Security Agency, which has recently been the subject of leaks claiming it scanned vast amounts of foreign Internet traffic. The U.S. government has defended its efforts to intercept electronic communications overseas by arguing that this has helped prevent terror attacks at home and abroad.
Schulz said that if the allegations that the NSA bugged European Union offices were confirmed "it would be an extremely serious matter which will have a severe impact on EU-US relations."
GLAAD, the organization dedicated to defending the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, acted swiftly after learning of Alec Baldwin's latest homophobic rant.
The group allowed Baldwin to use its web site to apologize and/or attempt damage control, essentially shouting, "you're already forgiven." Here's the group's official response to Baldwin's apology over his hateful Tweets directed at a British journalist:
Alec Baldwin is making it clear that the intent behind his tweets does not excuse his language, especially at a time when there were 11 incidents of violence against gay men in New York City just last month. As we all work to end such senseless acts of violence, allies like Baldwin are right to use these moments to reinforce support for the community and LGBT equality.
Compare that to the group's reaction when director Brett Ratner said, "rehearsal is for fags" during a press interview. Ratner lost his coveted gig producing the Oscars and subsequently went through a GLAAD-approved re-education process culminating in a PSA shoot on behalf of gay rights.
Following meetings with GLAAD as well as outrage from community members and allies, Ratner issued an apology and today resigned as producer of the 84th Annual Academy Awards. GLAAD and Ratner are working to convene public discussions featuring leaders in the entertainment industry about promoting fair and accurate inclusions of LGBT people and stories. The discussions will address anti-LGBT jokes and slurs in films and on television today as well as their trickle-down effect into popular culture. The first event will take place in coming weeks with additional discussions to take place over the next three years. Additional details to follow.
Let's not forget how GLAAD handled CNN anchor Roland Martin's case. Martin, who is black, was castigated by GLAAD for a series of Tweets regarding a soccer player that were likely meant as humorous, not mean spirited.
Not everyone who supports gay rights is following GLAAD's lead in the Baldwin case. Andrew Sullivan called out Baldwin in no uncertain terms on his web platform.
This is not just hate speech; it's a specific call for other people to physically attack a gay man. It's a call to violence against a specific person, which, last time I checked, was a crime. He's a pro-gay liberal, so he may get a pass for this. He shouldn't.
Sounds like Baldwin just did. Meanwhile, a Texas teenager is still in jail for making a threat on Facebook he said was an innocent joke.
Baldwin deleted his offensive tweets and briefly shut down his account (it's been restored). Nevertheless, here is the rant in full:
The Today Show downplayed the homophobia from Baldwin rant, as did CNN. However, on his personal Twitter account, Anderson Cooper pointed out the obvious, well-known hypocrisy regarding how these kinds of incidents are dealt with in the media.
While acknowledging the hypocrisy is a step in the right direction, Cooper isn't exactly innocent himself, as Michelle Malkin pointed out on Twitter.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released a parody of President Barack Obama's "Life of Julia" campaign ad in order to highlight the fundamental flaws of the Senate's Schumer-Rubio immigration bill, which was passed by the Senate this afternoon by a final vote of 68 to 32. At the bottom is a video of Rand Paul speaking with Fox's Stuart Varney after the vote.
I've separated the text in order to highlight it but I encourage everybody to click the link to the CIS page for loads of info on the issue and the legislation. Also, do click the individual links below in order to get the full effect of the excellent infographics. Julia applies for amnesty.
Via Greg Hengler. Alternate headline: "Even Tingles starting to compare Obama to Nixon."
It's a bit before my time, so remind me: Did Nixon run for president in '68 opposing the Apollo program the way Obama opposed gay marriage to convince especially gullible social conservatives that he was some kind of middle-of-the-roader on "values?" Even now, I'm amazed at what a total pass he's gotten on that. Marco Rubio may decide tomorrow that he's "evolved" into a border hawk and therefore must vote against the Gang of Eight, but that won't excuse him for having deceived the voters three years ago by posing as something he really wasn't on this issue. He lied, on a subject that a lot of people care about, for his own personal political gain. He showed contempt for the voters. And so did Bambi, who as far as I can tell has paid not the slightest price for it and even now has Matthews fawning over the fact that he deigned to play approving National Father today.
This is one of the most grating things about the movement towards legalizing gay marriage, even for someone like me who supports it: Too many proponents seem too willing to grant each other rhetorical carte blanche after "evolving," no matter how long they opposed SSM before and no matter how nasty they might get now with people who hold the same stance in opposition that they used to. If you go to bed on Monday opposed to gay marriage and wake up on Tuesday in favor, there's no issue, it seems, with calling opponents "bigots" and "h8ers" on Tuesday afternoon. O was a fraud for years on this subject, for selfish reasons, and reversed himself last year only after he'd decided that the road to reelection was by rallying and turning out his liberal base. If he thought his only chance was by holding onto some social conservative votes, he'd be anti-SSM even now. And yet all that's forgotten; suddenly he's the leader of the gay-marriage spirit squad, with duly admiring coverage from his fans at MSNBC. It's good to be the king.
One of the revelations coming out of last week's Netroots annual moonbat jamboree was their confusion and dismay at the fact that we Conservatives repeatedly kick their collectivist asses all over Twitter. In their view the person most responsible for this phenomenon is none other than Michelle Malkin who, among so many great things, is the creator of Twitchy.
At Netroots Nation – a progressive conference for bloggers and activists that is coincidentally being held in the heart of Silicon Valley this year in San Jose, Calif. – the general consensus of panelists and convention goers alike is that the Right is killing it on twitter. Liberals at the conference have zeroed in on one conservative activist as example of how to effectively get your message out on twitter: Twitchy creator Michelle Malkin.
Malkin's name has repeatedly come up at the conference and in one instance prominently where her ability to "amplify" and bring attention to issues that would otherwise go ignored was dubbed the "The Michelle Malkin effect."
At a panel Thursday on "Fighting Together to Block the Right-Wing Agenda" attendees were advised to court influential tweeters on their side similar to Malkin if they wanted to bring the maximum amount of attention to their issue organizations’ issues.
The panel lamented how hard it is to push back on conservative messaging on issues like abortion when conservative Twitter power users like Malkin are constantly tweeting and their side is not.
"The truth is, it's pretty hard when Michelle Malkin's tweeting literally on the minute on this stuff," said Heather Holdridge, director of digital strategy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, noting that Malkin's numerous followers make her "an incredibly effective amplifier."
"We have to figure out ways to rally our supporters to push back, understanding that there's a Michelle Malkin effect that I'm not certain I've figured out either," Amy Runyon Harms, executive director of ProgressNow Colorado, added later.
Yes, the official subtitle of "President Obama's Plan to Cut Carbon Pollution" is "Taking Action for Our Kids." That should give you plenty of clues about the policies proposed therein.
The policy centers around three areas of executive action: killing coal-fired power plants, setting tough efficiency standards for homes and appliances, and generating more renewable energy on federal lands. Oh, and he's also going to stop any aid to the developing world that would be used to build coal power plants.
Taking these in order, killing coal-fired power plants is the culmination of the president's War on Coal. Coal provides more electricity than any other single power source in the U.S. however, and it does so at half the price of its nearest competitor, natural gas. Killing coal without making it far easier to extract natural gas (by, for example, lifting regulatory restrictions on fracking) will massively increase the nation's energy costs as well as putting thousands of coal miners out of work in some of the nation's poorest areas. The war on coal is a war on jobs.
Four years ago today, President Obama took to the podium to pressure Congress into supporting his job-killing national energy tax known as "cap-and-trade."
The hit to GDP is the real threat in this bill. The whole point of cap and trade is to hike the price of electricity and gas so that Americans will use less. These higher prices will show up not just in electricity bills or at the gas station but in every manufactured good, from food to cars. Consumers will cut back on spending, which in turn will cut back on production, which results in fewer jobs created or higher unemployment. Some companies will instead move their operations overseas, with the same result.
When the Heritage Foundation did its analysis of Waxman-Markey, it broadly compared the economy with and without the carbon tax. Under this more comprehensive scenario, it found Waxman-Markey would cost the economy $161 billion in 2020, which is $1,870 for a family of four. As the bill's restrictions kick in, that number rises to $6,800 for a family of four by 2035.
Note also that the CBO analysis is an average for the country as a whole. It doesn't take into account the fact that certain regions and populations will be more severely hit than others -- manufacturing states more than service states; coal producing states more than states that rely on hydro or natural gas. Low-income Americans, who devote more of their disposable income to energy, have more to lose than high-income families.
A cap-and-trade bill did pass in Nancy Pelosi's House on June 26, 2009. The legislation ultimately died in the Harry Reid's Senate. Now, four years later, Dear Leader has decided to bypass Congress with a scheme that Obama himself once admitted would cause electricity rates to "necessarily skyrocket."
The House Republican Conference today released a new video, "Don't Try It Again," highlighting the Dear Leader's plan to announce a series of new energy taxes and EPA regulations to combat climate change. While the regime's excessive EPA regulations have already resulted in significant job loss, Dear Leader has now called for more. His energy plan will hurt families, manufacturing, and job growth – and it will destroy a growing coal industry that is responsible for 760,000 American jobs.
Daniel P. Schrag, a geochemist who is the head of Harvard University’s Center for the Environment and a member of a presidential science panel that has helped advise the White House on climate change, told the New York Times that he hoped the presidential speech would mark a turning point in the national debate on climate change.
"Everybody is waiting for action," he said. "The one thing the president really needs to do now is to begin the process of shutting down the conventional coal plants. Politically, the White House is hesitant to say they're having a war on coal. On the other hand, a war on coal is exactly what's needed."
Mitch McConnell responded to it yesterday and referenced the quote:
"It is an astonishing bit of honesty from someone that close to the White House, but it really encapsulates the attitude this administration holds,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor Tuesday.
"Declaring a war on coal is tantamount to declaring a war on jobs. It's tantamount to kicking the ladder out from beneath the feet of many Americans struggling in today’s economy, and I will be raising this issue at the White House with the president later today."
Many news organizations linked to the article in the Times because of the newsworthy statement by an Obama adviser but by the end of the day the "war on coal" quote, indeed all references to Schrag had been scrubbed.
Ever since current editor Jill Abramson famously said in 2011, "In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion. If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth." — only to have that quote airbrushed out hours later, it seems like the Times' touch-up artists have gone into overdrive, removing doubleplusungood crimethink remarks, even after they've been quoted by dozens of blogs and Websites — and in this case, the Drudge Report and Instapundit — before the Gray Lady has tossed the original quote down the Memory Hole. But then, each time they airbrush an article, the original quote becomes magnified that much more, much like the Barbra Streisand Effect.
It's rare to hear someone in the Hollywood scene speak the truth about guns, but that's exactly what Madonna did in a recent interview with ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas.
When asked about the choice of choreography in her current tour, which drew criticism because of the first act's heavy use of guns, the pop icon said she would have never left that part out.
"That would be like asking people to not have guns in action movies," she said. "I mean the thing is, guns don't kill people, people kill people. That whole first section of the show is like an action movie, and I was playing a super vixen who wanted revenge."
Madonna even gave a statement that she does not condone violence, and that her work is art and nothing more.
"But I know there was several movies that delayed release because of the shootings, for example, at Sandy Hook Elementary school," Vargas said.
"Well that's not going to change the situation," Madonna replied. "This all comes from fear and ignorance, and people not really raising their children, or not paying attention to what's going on."
Will Madonna, an ardent supporter of Barack Obama (remember this?), survive the outrage that’s sure to follow from her liberal friends and fans? Probably. But then again, with the way the Left reacted to actress Katee Sackhoff's tweet about gun safety, we can't be sure.
Let me start by saying that I do not necessarily endorse the political views of Clare Daley. She is a Leftist, who stands out even in a largely liberal country like the Republic of Ireland. However, I do agree with her basic complaints in this instance: the pathetic pandering to the Obama family while Michelle Antoinette and her children live it up and travel like royalty at the expense of taxpayers. Did I say royalty? Sure, Obama is the King of Hypocrites.
I also agree that the U.S. has no business arming the Syrian "rebels" who are, in fact, nothing more than an army of fanatical jihadists involved in an Islamic civil war between Sunnis and Shiites.
By the way, the "Mr. Tax Exile" Daley refers to is Bono.
My real point in posting this is for people to get a taste of what I think is the primary selling point of a parliamentary system: direct questions and answers between legislators and the executive. The Republic of Ireland does have a president (Uachtaran na hEireann), but that office is largely ceremonial. The head of the government is the Taoiseach, the Prime Minister, who is Enda Kenny of the Fine Gael party. He's the one responding to Daley, an independent TD (Teachta Dail) who represents North Dublin. This exchange is taking place in the lower house, known as the Dail Eireann.
I would never want the U.S. to adopt any kind of parliamentary system (our system is the best in the world!) but just picture this: Replace Clare Daley with Ted Cruz and Enda Kenny with Barack Obama. How epic would that be?
The Hill reports that Democrats are trying to get Hillary Clinton to appear on the campaign trail for midterm elections next year. The second-term congressional elections are often trouble for the party that controls the White House, and the Obama administration is beset by scandals that may curb the enthusiasm of the party's base and thus liberal turnout on Election Day.
Republicans continue to press their advantage in the House and Democrats will be on the defensive in the Senate as well. If the Democrats' liberal base is in danger of apathy from the fuss over the NSA's data collection, the other scandal - the IRS's targeting of Tea Partiers - is likely to have the opposite effect for many Republicans. That means Democrats may need some extra help in many races, but those same races will be for districts or states where a visit from President Obama won't help.
Signs of ObamaCare's failings mount daily, including soaring insurance costs, looming provider shortages and inadequate insurance exchanges. Yet the law's most disturbing feature may be the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB, sometimes called a "death panel," threatens both the Medicare program and the Constitution's separation of powers. At a time when many Americans have been unsettled by abuses at the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department, the introduction of a powerful and largely unaccountable board into health care merits special scrutiny.
The board, which will control more than a half-trillion dollars of federal spending annually, is directed to "develop detailed and specific proposals related to the Medicare program," including proposals cutting Medicare spending below a statutorily prescribed level. In addition, the board is encouraged to make rules "related to" Medicare.
The ObamaCare law also stipulates that there "shall be no administrative or judicial review" of the board's decisions. Its members will be nearly untouchable, too. They will be presidentially nominated and Senate-confirmed, but after that they can only be fired for "neglect of duty or malfeasance in office."
Once the board acts, its decisions can be overruled only by Congress, and only through unprecedented and constitutionally dubious legislative procedures - featuring restricted debate, short deadlines for actions by congressional committees and other steps of the process, and supermajoritarian voting requirements. The law allows Congress to kill the otherwise inextirpable board only by a three-fifths supermajority, and only by a vote that takes place in 2017 between Jan. 1 and Aug. 15. If the board fails to implement cuts, all of its powers are to be exercised by HHS Secretary Sebelius or her successor.
I find it very difficult to separate James Gandolfini the man from Tony Soprano, the larger-than-life mobster he portrayed so brilliantly on television. And given the mysterious way the series ended, it almost feels as if we now have the answer to the question: Whatever happened to Tony Soprano? He died of a heart attack while on holiday in Italy with his son. Over the course of 86 episodes, I watched as Gandolfini made Tony Soprano - a man that, by all rights, I knew I should both fear and hate - the most loveable anti-hero in the history of television. After all, Tony had ordinary people intimidated, robbed, swindled, beaten and killed. He cheated on his wife relentlessly and without remorse, yet reacted violently when she threatened to do the same to him. He murdered his best friends and even two of his own cousins to protect himself, his loved ones and his small-scale criminal empire. Time and again he lied to everyone, including himself. And yet...and yet people loved Tony Soprano. I know I did. What a perfect match it was. An Italian guy from Jersey...playing an Italian guy from Jersey. The realism was such that even real New Jersey mobsters were said to be both fascinated and a little spooked. The show always did a great job of reminding us that while we do share a common humanity with them there is a big difference: they are supremely selfish, narcissistic, casual killers who will always look out for themselves first.
Unfortunately, I was just shy of my 12th birthday when the show premiered in January 1999. I didn't start watching the show until Season 4 and had to catch up on the rest. I have now seen every episode multiple times. It never gets old.
To watch Gandolfini as Tony Soprano is the rare occasion of seeing an actor fully inhabit a role, from those little quiet moments where Tony relaxes with giant bowls of ice cream, watching the History Channel (one of my personal favorite things about him was his love of history) or a Jimmy Cagney movie, nostalgic for a black-and-white world he never got to experience, to the bursts of violence that remind us of the volcanic sociopath lurking inside.
Tony Soprano was, like all humans, a complicated mess, and James Gandolfini made the character the most complete realization of that human condition I've ever seen. I love Don Draper but the quintessential Mad Men character will always rank second behind "T." Beneath the superficial exterior of the "mob boss" - as shallow an archetype as was ever created - Gandolfini found endless layers: the anxious father, the affection-starved son, an alternately loving and terrible husband, a helpless romantic, a ruthless pragmatist, a coldblooded killer, an adolescent goofball, a raging bull, and on and on.
That he contained and portrayed these identities so effortlessly is what made Tony Soprano real, and James Gandolfini so strangely familiar and endlessly fascinating to watch, in ways we will never be able to fully explain. And who needs to, anyway? Fuhgeddaboudit!
It started with this, which apparently led to this. Shortly afterwards came this...and this...and finally this. Unbelievable! At a time of transition, when the Republican Party is seeking to expand the tent and attract not only new voters but new and talented individuals to run for office, we get this nonsense. It's hard enough being an Illinois Republican I would think without idiotic, racist, sexist, demeaning and embarrassing self-inflicted wounds making it worse. Ironically, this ugliness could actually help Erika Harold going forward. In the past she has proven herself to be a tough-minded, staunch social Conservative who can overcome adversity. Merely by throwing her hat into the ring she has disrupted the status quo in the Illinois GOP. If she can win the primary and then win the general election then Erika Harold can be a very welcome addition the House GOP and yet another disruptor of the Narrative!
In a major national security address in May, President Obama said it was time to take the United States off the war footing it has been on since the September 11 terrorist attacks - and at one point stated, "This war, like all wars, must end."
The speech was widely seen as a signal Obama views the war on terrorism as winding down.
A Fox News national poll released Wednesday finds American voters disagree.
The poll was conducted in the wake of revelations that the government's National Security Agency has been secretly collecting telephone and internet records of millions of Americans as part of a program to prevent future terrorist attacks.
Asked how they see the war on terrorism, 77% of voters say the war is ongoing and "should continue to be a top priority to the government." Far fewer - 17% - feel the war is over and should be a lower priority. The majority opinion overwhelms partisan differences. Ninety percent of those who identify with the Tea Party movement and 87% of military veterans believe the fight against terrorism should continue to be a top priority, as do most Republicans (86%).
There was little in this speech that advances US interests, or makes the world a safer place. Completely missing from Obama's address was a call for the West to stand up to the rising threat of Islamist militancy, the defense of Christians facing huge levels of persecution and intimidation in the Middle East, strong condemnation of Iran and North Korea's nuclear ambitions, and any criticism of growing authoritarianism in Russia. The president paid lip service to the NATO alliance, which has proved critical in preserving Europe's security for over 60 years, but made no call for the alliance to be strengthened in the wake of waning support and investment in Europe.
Devoted fanboy Chris Matthews did his best to spin the disaster, claiming it was that horrible Berlin sun that ruined everything.
"I think a lot of the problem he had today was the late afternoon sun in Berlin ruined his use of the teleprompter and so his usual dramatic windup was ruined," Matthews said immediately after the speech. "I think he was really struggling with the text there."
But let's face it, when you lose 97% of your audience (200,000 in 2008 compared to 6,000 yesterday) you're dealing with a much bigger problem. And no, it really isn'tglobal warming.
"More severe storms. More famine and floods. New waves of refugees. Coastlines that vanish. Oceans that rise. This is the future we must avert. This is the global threat of our time. And for the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late. That is our job. That is our task. We have to get to work."
There was actually some question as to whether or not there were even 6,000. According to a pool reporter the crowd was even smaller than that, perhaps as few as 4,500.
Not only was Obama's emphasis on "global warming" misplaced (undoubtedly an attempt to pander to a German audience) but his tribute to the heroic Germans who resisted Communism during the Cold War was characteristically lame:
Today, speaking at the Brandenburg Gate, President Obama paid appropriate tribute to the brave East Germans who rebelled 60 years ago against Communist dictatorship:
"Today, 60 years after they rose up against oppression, we remember the East German heroes of June 17th. When the wall finally came down, it was their dreams that were fulfilled."
But he drew a strange lesson from their uprising:
"Their strength and their passion, their enduring example remind us that for all the power of militaries, for all the authority of governments, it is citizens who choose whether to be defined by a wall, or whether to tear it down."
If only.
In 1953, the citizens of East Germany chose freedom. But their uprising failed. It failed because it was repressed by superior power - by armed force, by military might. If you were a 30-year old who sought freedom in 1953, your dream of living in freedom wasn't fulfilled until you were 66. And it was fulfilled in large part because of Western military strength, and in particular Ronald Reagan's military build-up.
So it's not enough for citizens to "choose" freedom or justice. Freedom needs to be backed by strength. Otherwise it loses. Otherwise we see what Leo Strauss called "the sorry spectacle of justice without a sword or of justice unable to use the sword." Contra Obama, the lesson of 1953 - and of the Weimar Republic, to which Strauss was referring - is that merely wishing for justice, and seeking freedom, is not enough.
It would pay greater honor to the brave men and women of 1953 to acknowledge this fact.
With the shit hitting the fan on a daily basis at home it's no wonder Obama ran to a foreign capital to get some love. If that was his intent then there is only one way to describe the junket to Berlin: EPIC FAIL!
President Barack Obama made references to gay rights and immigration reform during the speech in Berlin, Germany Wednesday that was intended to focus on nuclear weapons reductions. He further demanded respect for religion at the same time his administration is being sued at home for violating religious liberty.
"When we respect the faiths practiced in our churches and synagogues, our mosques and our temples, we're more secure," Obama said. "When we welcome the immigrant, with his talents or her dreams, we are renewed. When we stand up for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters and treat their love and their rights equally under the law, we defend our own liberty as well. We are more free when all people can pursue their own happiness."
The problem is that too many of our "gay and lesbian brothers and sisters" have nothing but hatred and contempt for the "faiths practiced in our churches and synagogues..." They've managed to twist the concept of "tolerance" so badly that it in no way resembles the actual definition of the word. To them, "tolerance" translates into "give us what we want or else!!" Twisted.
I'm not a fan of Russell Brand but I have to admit it: I love how he intimidates the hell out of Mika and the others and literally takes over their pathetic little show. This video has already gotten more views than Morning Joe gets in a two-month period.
Actor and comedian Russell Brand paid a visit to the Morning Joe set, which co-host Mika Brzezinski admitted made her nervous. While the segment - intended to promote his comedy tour "Messiah Complex" - started out with compliments all around, Brand soon took over, showed them how they should be doing their jobs, and… ended by calling Brzezinski a "shaft grasper."
And, he's quick to add, so should every other president of the past century. A fun clip for many reasons. One: Because Ayers is such a far-left caricature, you can bait him all day long knowing to a virtual certainty what his responses will be. The two RCP guys can't suppress their smirks at how easy it is. There's a 99 percent chance that he's going to call O a war criminal and a one percent chance that he's going to betray his anti-war ethos by defending O's drone policy out of pure personal loyalty. Either way, it's news.
Two: It'll never stop being amusing watching leftists express their disappointment in Hopenchange. Obama skeptics had to endure a lot of self-congratulatory piety and messianism from the other side in 2008. Five years later, the faithful are split between those like Ayers who see O as having betrayed The Cause and all the Democrats who've contorted themselves into supporting things like NSA surveillance chiefly out of partisan allegiance. They still believe in Hopenchange, it's just a … different Hopenchange, one which requires collecting Americans' phone and Internet data. No more messiah, whichever camp you're in.
Three: The fact that Ayers is quick to mention O's curiosity when asked what he likes about him is, knowingly or not, almost a goof on Jane Mayer and the liberal intelligentsia for giving Obama a pass on style points for his foreign-policy aggressiveness. As I said once before, it's a straight line from David Brooks admiring the crease in O's pants to Mayer et al. deciding that U.S. drones firing missiles at unknown people on the ground in Pakistan is kinda sorta okay because Obama's smart, thoughtful, morally conflicted about all this, etc. He's a well-educated, right-thinking liberal who has his stuff together. He's a lot like them. They trust him. Ayers, at least, refuses to give O a pass on those grounds, although I leave it to you to judge from the clip how deeply troubled he is by Obama's sins. ("I like him personally. I mean, he's a really good guy.")
Four: Are we really watching a guy who got off scot-free for domestic terrorism, then crowed about it by declaring that he was "guilty as sin, free as a bird," complain that someone else isn't being sufficiently punished for terrorism? What?
A new CNN poll provides the sharpest evidence yet that a month of scandals (IRS, Benghazi, AP, leaks, etc.) is taking its toll on Obama's approval rating.
The president's approval rating stands at 45%, down from 53% in mid-May. And 54% say they disapprove of how Obama's handling his job, up nine points from last month. It's the first time in CNN polling since November 2011 that a majority of Americans have had a negative view of the president.
"The drop in Obama's support is fueled by a dramatic 17-point decline over the past month among people under 30, who, along with black Americans, had been the most loyal part of the Obama coalition," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
The president also dropped 10 points among independent voters, from 47% last month to 37% now, with Obama's disapproval among independents jumping 12 points to 61%.
The full pdf of the data is here. The data indicates that 60% disapprove of how Obama is handling government surveillance of U.S. citizens, which is higher than the 52% who disapproved of George W. Bush on the same issue in 2006, when government surveillance was also in the headlines. Obama's lack of character, finally, is beginning to be recognized and penalized. The number of Americans who think he is honest has plummeted nine points over the past month, to 49%. Fifty-seven percent of those questioned say they disagree with the president's views on the size and power of the federal government, and 53% say he cannot manage the government effectively. Everybody knows that Obama had it easy when he came into office in terms of repudiating Bush's ideas (he was given a Nobel peace prize simply for not being Bush), but he had much bigger ambitions than that. He has dedicated much of his rhetorical firepower to debunking the message of the Reagan presidency - that government is too big, and that big government often creates bigger problems than it solves.
This poll suggests that the abuse of power and multiple failures of the Obama regime are providing confirmation that Reagan was right all along.
First Lady Michelle Obama is staying Monday evening in the $3,300-per-night Princess Grace suite of Dublin's Five-Star Shelbourne Hotel, according to Irish press reports, adding some credence to accusations she is in the city for a quick vacation at taxpayer expense.
Michelle jetted to Dublin Monday afternoon Irish time after a brief stop in Belfast with President Obama, who is in the city for the two-day G-8 Summit.
The White House is billing Michelle’s trip to Dublin as having diplomatic significance, but her itinerary suggests otherwise. She and her daughters will visit the Trinity College library to explore President Obama's Irish family roots, attend a performance by the world-famous Riverdance troupe, and visit the Wicklow Mountains national forest.
Judging by the tail number of her plane on the ground at Dublin Airport, it appears Air Force Two has been flown to Europe along with Air Force One and is being used to transport Michelle around.
The Shelbourne's Princess Grace suite is so-named because it was often used by Grace and her husband Prince Ranier. Here's a look inside:
It's an excellent and informative interview from last week. It's well worth watching the entire thing. Then compare what you hear in the video to what Clueless Joe Biden has to say about Rand Paul and fellow wacko bird, Ted Cruz.
Conservative firebrand Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have outsize influence within the Republican Party, giving Democrats "no one whom to deal with," Vice President Joe Biden said Friday night during a West Coast fundraising swing.
Biden called Cruz (R-Texas) and Paul (R-Ky.) "bright new guys," but said they had views he had never before seen in Congress.
"They are the ones that control the Republican party right now, literally," he said. "I've never seen a time in all the years I was in the Senate that two freshmen have so much impact on the entirety of the Republican party."
Roughly 100 people attended the event at a private home in San Francisco's upscale Seal Cliff neighborhood, paying between $500 and $10,000, according to a transcript of the vice president’s remarks released by the White House.
"This is not your father's Republican party, it's fundamentally different," Biden told the crowd. "There's no one with whom to deal with and there's no one in charge anymore." He expressed optimism that Democrats could hold onto the Senate next year and pick up the 17 seats needed to wrest control of the House away from Republicans, whose conservative views, he said, are out of touch with the country.
"America has moved on, well beyond where these guys are," Biden said about the GOP. "If we keep the Senate and change 17 votes in the House, it'll be fundamentally different."
During his remarks, Biden acknowledged that he "got ahead of everyone in the administration on gay marriage," and described his first meeting with President Obama after endorsing gay marriage on a Sunday talk show.
"He walked in and had that big grin on his face and hugged me and said 'I agree,'" Biden recalled.
Roughly 50 protesters opposed to the Keystone XL pipeline demonstrated a few blocks away from the fundraiser.
This mayoral hopeful in Mexico promises to eat, sleep most of the day and donate his leftover litter to fill potholes.
Morris, a black-and-white kitten with orange eyes, is running for mayor of Xalapa in eastern Mexico with the campaign slogan "Tired of Voting for Rats? Vote for a Cat." And he is attracting tens of thousands of politician-weary, two-legged supporters on social media.
"He sleeps almost all day and does nothing, and that fits the profile of a politician," said 35-year-old office worker Sergio Camacho, who adopted the 10-month-old feline last year.
Put forth as candidate by Camacho and a group of friends after they became disillusioned with the empty promises of politicians, Morris's candidacy has resonated across Mexico, where citizens frustrated with human candidates are nominating their pets and farm animals to run in July 7 elections being held in 14 states.
There are almost 2 million single dads raising kids in the U.S. About 24 million children do not live with their biological father. In 1965, dads spent about 2 1/2 hours a day with their child; today, dads spend about 6 1/2 hours with their child daily. 70% of Americans believe that a father’s absence from the home is the most significant problem facing our country today. Even in high crime neighborhoods, 90% of children from stable 2 parent homes where the father is involved do not become delinquents. And a bonus. Moments like this are absolutely priceless!
The federal government has not made religious freedom a foreign policy priority in the 15 years since Congress passed the International Religious Freedom Act, congressional testimony Thursday morning revealed.
The witnesses described to a House Oversight subcommittee a State Department and broader administration that is indifferent to religious freedom and tentative to defend it.
While the act created tools to fight for religious liberty around the world, "I believe they have never been fully used," Katrina Lantos Swett, chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, told the subcommittee.
The result has been an incoherent and shifting U.S. policy, said Tom Farr, director of the Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University and the first director of the State Department’s Office of Religious Freedom.
"It would be difficult to name a single country in the world over the past fifteen years where American religious freedom policy has helped to reduce religious persecution or to increase religious freedom in any substantial or sustained way," Farr contended in his written testimony.
The State Department declined to participate in the hearing because of a "longstanding" policy not to participate in a panel with non-governmental organizations, said Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah), chairman of the Oversight Committee's National Security Subcommittee.
Farr seized on this point at the beginning of his remarks.
"It is very unfortunate that the administration has decided that this hearing is not important enough to send a representative," he said. "As you will see, I consider this unfortunately symptomatic of the administration's view of religious freedom."
Farr blamed the administration's lack of interest in religious liberty abroad on a declining emphasis on the role religion plays in American life.
"Clearly the Obama administration has in its domestic policy weighed religious freedom against other rights claims it believes important, such as the right to contraceptives and abortifacients, or to same-sex marriage, and religious freedom has been found to be an inferior right."
