FIREWALL: THE DEAR LEADER'S SMART DIPLOMACY

YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES TODAY - VOL. 841

The Game of Tax Thrones: Season 2016

Ted Cruz Stumbles Again on Foreign Policy

Who Wants to Be America's Top Socialist: Wisconsin Edition

Face It, Bernie Sanders Is Obama's Real Successor

Huma Abedin and the Tangled Clinton Web

The Muslim Man's Sexual "Rights" Over Non-Muslim Women

Germany's Migrant Crisis: January 2016

Political Correctness Is A Mask For Leftists' Intellectual Insecurity

Why Are Media Ignoring These Threats To Rape A Pro-Lifer's Family?

Rubio winning GOP youth vote in South Carolina

RUBIO'S PLAN FOR DEALING WITH NORTH KOREA

How Marco Will Stand Up to North Korea 

Marco has been warning throughout the presidential campaign that North Korea is a rogue state run by a lunatic with a growing number of nuclear weapons. The Kim regime's January 2016 nuclear test was just the latest reminder of its aggressive, dangerous ambitions. Meanwhile, its government ranks as possibly the world's worst human rights abuser - jailing, torturing, and killing its people with abandon.

President Obama and Hillary Clinton have stood idly by while Kim Jong-un has tortured his people and threatened his neighbors and the United States. When they have engaged on North Korea, they have only offered concession after concession in the hopes of cutting an Iran-style deal that would only empower the regime. Years of this behavior has allowed North Korea to test multiple nuclear weapons and build ballistic-missile technology capable of hitting the United States. Moreover, North Korea is more of a force for instability in the region, a crucial one with a number of close U.S. allies, than ever before.

This failure must be replaced with a policy of strength and clarity: Stop the giveaways, ratchet up the pressure on North Korea's leaders and their Chinese supporters, back up our allies in the region, restore critical funding to our missile defense programs, and promote human rights and access to outside information within North Korea.

Click here to read more...

RUBIO: NATIONAL SECURITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

While Obama has used the presidency to pursue political goals, Marco will remember that priority number one is keeping Americans safe.

Marco has outlined a concrete plan for real national security in the 21st Century.

YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES TODAY - VOL. 825

Ted Cruz Has a Problem

Ted Cruz Jettisons His 2013 Compromise on Immigration

Ted Cruz's foreign policy vision turns ugly

Kumbaya: Trump backs off criticism of Cruz, says he has a "wonderful temperament"

10 Events That Changed the World in 2015

Iran Taking Over Latin America

Perfect: The 'You Ain't No Muslim' Guy Now Afraid Of Being Killed By Muslims

The Islamic State and Turkey's Betrayal

Leftists Are The Economic Science Deniers

Planned Parenthood Spox Lena Dunham: I Would Punch Pro-Lifers in the Face!

YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES TODAY - VOL. 823

How Marco Rubio is quietly killing ObamaCare

Why Young Voters May Choose Marco Rubio Over Hillary Clinton

Should Hillary Clinton be worried about Marco Rubio? Probably. Here's why...

Rubio ridicules 'ridiculous' Obama climate deal

Many GOP Foreign-Policy Leaders Are Suspicious of Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz: The Anti-Reagan

The Massive Climate Change Agreement Give-Away

In Paris, Climate Change Alarmists Con Everyone, Including Themselves

Suppress Shooters' Islamist Ties, Obama Ordered

"One Christian Slaughtered Every Five Minutes"

WALKER'S FOREIGN POLICY VS. CHINA & IRAN

http://scottwalkercomms.tumblr.com/post/129248960236/cnn-debate-walker-chinese-state-visit

http://scottwalkercomms.tumblr.com/post/129249081061/cnn-debate-walker-iran-deal

YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES TODAY - VOL. 756

Hillary Clinton: National Security Disaster

CNN: Aide's Fifth Amendment declaration sure makes the Hillary server fiasco look criminal, huh?

NYT's Patrick Healy Spins Frantically for Hillary: GOP Overreach (Including Ken Starr) Is Helping Her

Hillary contradicts herself as to who made decision on personal emails

Dems Push Investigation of Pro-Life Group Behind Videos Exposing Planned Parenthood

When Chickens Trump Babies…Time to Re-Prioritize?

The Syrian Refugee Crisis is Not Our Problem

Is the Migration Crisis Killing the European Dream?

A Brief History of "White Privilege"

Stumped Trump lashes out at Hewitt for asking him foreign-policy questions

YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES TODAY - VOL. 750

Scott Walker Op-Ed: Our China Policy Must Be Based on Strength

Walker: FBI Investigating Islamic State In All 50 States

Scott Walker Has a 20-Year Record of Protecting Unborn Babies From Abortions

Defense Secretary Carter: Russia and ISIS Are Greatest Threats to U.S. Security

Great news from Obama: This nuclear deal "solves" the problem of Iran as an existential threat to Israel

Obama's Iran Deal Hypocrisy Knows No Limits

To Solidify His Legacy, Obama Moves the World Closer to War

The Last Days of Hillary

Can Trump Round Up 20 Million Illegals?

Pursuing True Happiness in a World Without Truth

YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES TODAY - VOL. 749

Scott Walker talks China, Clinton and pie in Missouri Valley

Walker Stakes His Territory on Foreign Policy

The China Syndrome

As Beijing Lashes Out, the Anti-China Coalition Grows

Yes, Trump Sorta Bombed In Mobile

Poll: Voters Overwhelmingly Think Hillary Is A Liar

Do Guns Cause Violence?

An Open Rant Aimed at Those Who Would Repeal the Second Amendment

Gun Control Advocates Need To Find Some Better Arguments

10 Key Ways To Break The Mass Delusion Machine

YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES TODAY - VOL. 747

This Is How Scott Walker Wants to Take a Stand Against China

Is China's Soft-Power Bubble about to Burst?

Kiss of death for Hillary? Obama reportedly gives Biden his blessing to run for president

Hillary and Alger

Traitor Senators Took Money from Iran Lobby, Back Iran Nukes

Destruction of Syrian Monastery and Dispersion of Christians Part of ISIS Plan, Experts Say

How Nazism Explains 'Moderate' and 'Radical' Islam

Mass Immigration and the Undoing of Europe

Slaying the Hydra: Can Virtue Heal the American Right?

With His Health-Care Plan, Scott Walker Shows His Titanium Core

BATF: MAY 21, 2015

Welcome to the Burueau of Alcohol Tobacco and Friends! This week, regular panelists Leon Wolf of RedState, F. Bill McMorris of the Washington Free Beacon, Neal Dewing of The Federalist, and Jeff Blehar of the Ace of Spades Decision Desk are joined by producer Aaron Gardner of RedState, Heather Wilhelm of RealClearPolitics (filling in for Scott Lincicome) and Brandon Finnigan of the Ace of Spades Decision Desk. Conversation topics this week will include Mattress Girl Emma Sulkowicz and #FakeRape, the 2016 GOP debates, and foreign policy.

YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES TODAY - VOL. 644

The Mideast Maelstrom on Obama's Watch

How Obama's Made Sure to Leave Every Part of the World More Dangerous than He Found It

The Russian Bear and the Chinese Dragon Are Standing Together...against America

Obama's Crackdown on Dissent Has Made Conservatives a Little Paranoid - and Rightly So

Don't Draw Mohammed, Debate the Origins of Islam

How the Left Uses Silencing Tactics

Has the British silent majority shown progressive class warriors the ugly future?

Children of Transgender Parents Deserve a Voice

Polyamory Isn't Good for Children: My Story

Planned Parenthood and Kermit Gosnell's Grisly Mother's Day Celebrations

THREE MARTINI LUNCH: MARCH 10, 2015

National Review's Jim Geraghty and Radio America's Greg Corombos discuss current events. Today's Martinis: Clinton is forced to answer questions about her private e-mail system, Obama's cheap shot at Scott Walker, and Dems call Republicans "traitors" for writing a letter to the Iranian mullahs.



Clinton's E-Mails May Cost Taxpayers Millions

The State Department is beginning to sort through more than 55,000 pages of e-mails from Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary that she handed over late last year, sticking taxpayers with additional costs that could reach into the millions. It's an additional burden for her former department and another aspect of an e-mail fiasco her political opponents plan to highlight.

Clinton's office sent the e-mails to the State Department last December, a portion of the total in her possession, after printing them out and stacking them in boxes. The department largely sat on them until last week, when news broke that she had used a "homebrew" server rather than her government account to conduct her official business. Clinton tweeted last week that she wanted the State Department to release her e-mails, but she hasn't acknowledged what a huge job it will be for her former employees.

On March 5, Secretary of State John Kerry pledged that the department would work "as rapidly as possible" to go through all the new documents, redact any sensitive information, and then release them to the public. The department has since said that the effort will take several months.

Representative Mike Pompeo, a member of the House special committee on Benghazi that is subpoenaing Clinton's personal e-mails, told us that based on his committee's experience sorting through 44,000 other hard-copy paper documents provided by the State Department last year, the new effort could involve "hundreds and hundreds of man hours." 

"I think the effort of reviewing these documents will greatly exceed a million bucks," said Pompeo. "The United States taxpayer is going to pay for that."

The State Department must have employees review every page to ensure that no sensitive or classified information will be released. Those redacted documents must then be scanned and compiled into a database searchable by the public.

If Clinton had used her departmental e-mail account -- as she insisted her employees do during her tenure -- the messages would already be in the government's electronic records management system and could be redacted and released as part of the regular Freedom of Information Act process, Pompeo said.

It's a big "FU". RT @SonnyBunch: Hillary Clinton is just trolling the transparency geeks at this point. http://t.co/EEdjDAcmoa
— Melissa Clouthier (@MelissaTweets) March 9, 2015

Also read:

State Department to Be Slammed With FOIA Lawsuits

Why Did Obama Tolerate Clinton's Use of Secret E-mail?

THIS DAY IN TWITCHY: MARCH 9, 2015

'Really want to go there?' NYU journalism prof's media defense is laughable

LMFAO RT @jayrosen_nyu: From my piece in 2008. "Just so you know, 'the media' has no mind... It does not 'get behind' candidates."
— RB (@RBPundit) March 9, 2015

'Wait till Obama finds out'! Josh Earnest: Actually, Obama 'did trade emails' with Hillary

@charliespiering Most technically advanced president ever. Kind of.
— Foghorn Leghorn (@FoghornBLeghorn) March 9, 2015

Who's 'empowering' Iran? Harry Reid blasts Senate GOPers for 'undermining' Obama

Excuse me, @SenatorReid I think you forgot to take your meds today. It's Obama empowering Iran. But I know this stuff gets confusing.
— Lady TX Patriarchy (@CounslrObvious) March 9, 2015

'Are you capable of shame?' Political Wire hack 'running interference' for Iran against GOP

Fresh off of mocking Scott Walker for praying, @politicalwire is now running interference for Iran's sharia gov't. https://t.co/T0a1KwllM9
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 9, 2015

'Wow. Just wow.' Obama: GOPers making 'common cause with hard-liners in Iran'

I'm not sure you can top this for projection https://t.co/qeHzGoNyAc
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) March 9, 2015

'Does that not raise eyebrows?' WH on Iran deal: We don't need no stinkin' Senate!

Good news everyone. We finally have a king. https://t.co/dR3KqTcOya
— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) March 9, 2015

'GOP sedition!': Axelrod has selective memory on foreign policy

.@davidaxelrod For starters: Dec 2013 letter from senators to Chinese re air defense; Feb 1990 letter to Gorbachev re Jewish emigration.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) March 9, 2015

Examiner's Byron York on GOP letter to Iran: 'Now Congress is telling Obama to go to hell'

Short version: Time after time, Obama has told Congress to go to hell. Now Congress is telling Obama to go to hell. http://t.co/BVebNBszOS
— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 9, 2015

'It's a big 'FU'": Hillary reportedly left one heck of a paper trail

Did @HillaryClinton really hand over her emails as thousands of pages of paper? What, does she also pay her taxes in one dollar bills?
— Susan (@shoshido) March 9, 2015

Bloomberg Politics editor: 'Nothing will be good enough for the Clinton haters'

@MarkHalperin that's a scorchin' hot take, bro! pic.twitter.com/nI2GIhvgZh
— Mark McClain (@MarkMMcClain) March 10, 2015

THREE MARTINI LUNCH: MARCH 6, 2015

National Review's Ian Tuttle and Radio America's Greg Corombos discuss current events. Today's Martinis: Polls show Americans approve of Netanyahu and disapprove of Obama's Iran policy, history suggests Hillary will survive E-mailgate, and the insulting campaign to put Margaret Sanger on the $20 bill.



Democrats and the Clinton Train Wreck

How can something that is such a sure thing seem so shaky? That's the question that many supporters of Hillary Clinton are wondering this week as reports about her exclusive use of a private email account while serving as secretary of state prove to be the latest indication of her bad political judgment.

Though many Democrats insist that there's nothing to this story, others speaking off the record to journalist are less sanguine and admit that this is just the latest evidence that shows that her apparent coronation as Democratic presidential nominee is only partially obscuring her genuine shortcomings as a candidate.

Though Clinton's loyalists are bravely, if somewhat inadequately, defending her, the email story looks to have legs. The real question many in the part are asking today is whether the former First Lady's current troubles will be enough to tempt Senator Elizabeth Warren to jump into the 2016 presidential race.

Some Democrats are claiming that conservative critics complaining about Clinton's emails are hypocrites because various Republican governors have been hounded about some of their own emails. That's a fair point but only to a point. But none of those Republicans were in charge of U.S. foreign policy while their spouse was shaking down foreigners for contributions to their family foundation.

Even more to the point, it is important to play the substitution game. Imagine the reaction from Democrats if highly placed figures in a Republican administration were accused of doing far less than what Clinton has done when it comes to emails. Substitute the words Dick Cheney for Hillary Clinton and just imagine the same liberals telling us there's nothing to see and that this is mere Republican lunacy about Benghazi as their heads explode.

But actually we don't have to use our imaginations. We can just find the video of Hillary Clinton speaking in June 2007...

Also read:

Hillary Clinton's media plan on e-mail scandal since August: Our lips are sealed...

Did the White House expose Clinton's e-mails this week to protect their deal with Iran?

YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES TODAY - VOL. 582

Obama's Dishonest and Unconstitutional De-Authorization

Latest News Events Suggest U.S. Constitution a Dead Letter

U.S. Allies Left in the Dark

Scott Walker is Right, Leadership Matters More Than Expertise

Netanyahu Is Everything Obama Is Not

Civil war on the Left: Centrist Dems about to take on Warren wing?

Howard Dean and the Elmer Fudd Theory of Economic Policymaking

Judge Slams EPA for Discriminating Against Conservative Group

'Born In the USA' Now Fits The Conservative Message

Why 'Star Trek' - and Mr. Spock - Matters

THREE MARTINI LUNCH: FEBRUARY 27, 2015

National Review's Ian Tuttle joins Radio America's Greg Corombos. Today's topics: New polls show voters prefer the GOP on foreign policy, the FCC moves to regulate the Internet, and the Internet melts down over a mysteriously-hued dress.



On Net Neutrality, Even John Oliver Would Call John Oliver An Idiot

If you are in favor of net neutrality because you detest Comcast, you are being played, just as John Oliver, the latest adorable enfant terrible of Comedy Central and HBO, is being played.

His impassioned - and hilarious - rant on the urgent need for the Federal Communications Commission to formally disallow such things as a "fast lane," and instead impose "net neutrality," has been viewed on YouTube nearly 8 million times, making it likely the most influential single factor in the public debate. Indeed, the FCC passed a proposal Thursday that paves the way for net neutrality by classifying broadband as a government utility.

Oliver's segment is as funny and persuasive in its presentation as it is wrong-headed in its conclusions. Take a look, and then we'll discuss how and why it is so misleading, and its wide circulation so unfortunate. You are being led to believe that "net neutrality" will deliver one thing when, in fact, it will deliver exactly the opposite...

Also read:

No War with Russia? Don't Be Too Sure...

The Ultimate Nightmare: Are the U.S. and China Destined for War?

YESTERDAY'S HEADLINES TODAY - VOL. 572

Surprise: The media rushes to defend Obama's honor from Rudy Giuliani

Sure Obama Loves America. His America...

Islamism and Obama's Dangerous Flight from Reality

The Most Transparent Wartime Administration in History

Aiding Islamic Terrorists Is Our Foreign Policy

The Battle for Central Europe: Freedom is in danger, from Prague to Budapest

Scott Walker, Marie Harf, and a College 'Education'

Bush and Clinton's problem --- "experience" is overrated

The Bill, Hillary, Chelsea & His Royal Highness King Salman of Saudi Arabia Clinton Foundation

Colorado Springs Bomb Targeted Tax Preparer, Not NAACP

THREE MARTINI LUNCH: FEBRUARY 6, 2015

National Review's Jim Geraghty and Radio America's Greg Corombos discuss current events. Today's topics: Tom Brokaw is "furious" at Brian Williams, President Obama tells Christians to get off their "high horse" and calls his international ineptitude... "strategic patience."



Chuck Todd: Where is Obama's national security strategy?

Er, would that be Professor Barack Obama? I understand he's giving a lecture on medieval times at Medieval Times in Baltimore. Perhaps one might joust with him a bit there over it. And as soon as Obama finishes taking care of the eleventh century, he'll step right up and answer Chuck Todd's question.

Actually, Todd wanted Susan Rice to provide the answer, which says something about Obama's lack of performance on this score (note: this aired before Susan Rice's speech):

At 1:00 pm ET today at the Brookings Institution, National Security Adviser Susan Rice will deliver remarks on the Obama administration's national security strategy. This event will prompt many of the administration's critics — and even some of its supporters — to ask: "Is there really a strategy?" …

It shouldn't come as a surprise that more Americans approve of Obama's handling of the economy (49%) than handling of foreign policy (37%), according to last month's NBC/WSJ poll. (It wasn't that long ago when those numbers were reversed.) To be sure, the administration has had one foreign-policy success, sort of — getting Europe to economically isolate Russia, but it's an incomplete success since the sanctions haven't actually CHANGED Putin's behavior. As a whole, the administration's strategy looks more like crisis management than an actual strategy. A lot of that has to do with the Iraq war, of course. This administration and its advisers are incredibly gun-shy about getting dragged into quagmires.

They don't seem to mind starting quagmires, though. The Obama administration took down the Qaddafi dictatorship in Libya with no strategy for what followed afterward there, either. Instead, Libya has become a failed state on the Mediterranean, giving Islamist terror networks a strategic base of operations against Europe. We almost did the same thing with Egypt, but the Egyptian military seized control from the Muslim Brotherhood to prevent it from turning the country into a radical Islamist stronghold.

Now we have Yemen falling completely today into the hands of Shi'ite extremists.

The Hadi government formed after the U.S. and Saudi Arabia pressured the previous Saleh dictatorship into withdrawing in November 2011, at the waning of the Arab Spring. Supposedly, this was supposed to accelerate self-determination, even though Yemen had both al-Qaeda (Sunnis) and the Houthis (Shi'ite) competing for terrorist supremacy. The result is another failed state, one this time managed mostly by Shi'ites with ties to Iran. That will allow Tehran even more power in the region.

In fact, to the extent that this administration has a strategy in the Middle East, it appears to be tilting toward Tehran. Obama pulled entirely out of Iraq, against the advice of his Defense secretaries, allowing Nouri al-Maliki to push the Sunnis and Kurds out of the military and government and tilt decisively toward Tehran. That created an opening for al-Qaeda in Iraq to roar back to life as ISIS from the midst of the Syrian civil war and made the Iraqi army impotent to stop it. Now we're fighting the enemies of Bashar al-Assad, Iran's closest ally, while setting up Yemen to fall under Tehran's orbit.

Now we're negotiating a nuclear-power treaty with Iran on the hope that they will exercise more hegemony in the region. The Washington Post editorial board is aghast.

The tilt toward Iran, which has become so apparent that Israel has begun openly complaining about it as American policy allows Iranian power to expand, seems motivated by Barack Obama's attempt to hit a home run and set his foreign-policy legacy. He insisted during the 2008 campaign that he could succeed in getting Iran to negotiate reasonably, part of his "Bush is a cowboy" rhetoric before and during that campaign. He scoffed at the notion that Iran was a threat seven years ago, calling it a tiny country compared to the old Soviet Union (the newer iteration of which Obama has failed to counter effectively as well).

Six years into his presidency, Obama hasn't been able to get the Iranian leadership to act reasonably, because they're an extremist clique with extremist goals of regional domination. Instead of coming to his senses, Obama is becoming more and more desperate to prove himself correct, to the point of actually begging Iran to become the regional hegemon, in part due to Obama's feckless policies in Iraq and during the Arab Spring. The nuclear deal outlined above isn't designed to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon — it's designed to delay it until his successor takes office so that Obama won't get the blame for it.

It's appeasement, and nothing more. The only things missing are the piece of paper and the umbrella.

Also read:

Jihadis 14, Crusaders 2

Whose High Horse?