He’s not pretending to care about compromise or being a President for all the people any more…
Obama has finally come clean and openly declared war on half of America’s voters and ALL of America’s principles.
Politicians
Did VP Biden Lie About Hearing 2006 Gun Shots?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Last week as Vice President Joe Biden talked publicly about his efforts to assist President Obama with his various gun-banning schemes, he made a startling new claim. He said that while golfing in Pennsylvania in 2006 he personally heard the gunfire from a mass shooting being committed at a nearby school. But did he really? Facts seem to run contrary to Biden’s late claim.
The shooting Biden was referring to occurred at an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on October 2, 2006. During the crime, a gunman entered the schoolhouse, killed five children and wounded five others.
Employing his favorite, most overused word–literally–Biden regaled an audience last week about his personal connection to the shooting calling it “pure coincidence.”
On January 17, the Washington Times reported that Biden made this revelation at a meeting of the U.S. Council of Mayors.
“I happened to be literally–probably, it turned out, to be a quarter of a mile [away] at an outing when I heard gunshots in the woods,” Biden claimed. “We didn’t know… we thought they were hunters.”
Biden continued with the tall tale saying, “As I got back to the clubhouse of this outing and saw helicopters, it was a shooting that had just taken place in a small Amish… school just outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. So it’s not just big cities or well-to-do suburbs. It can happen anywhere.”
But is any of this true? Facts seem to cast doubt on the Vice President’s claims.
Firstly, Biden has never mentioned this incident before. This complete lack of his ever mentioning this close connection to the Amish schoolhouse shooting seems out of character. If he was that close to the shooting and with as much as Joe likes to make everything about Joe, it’s hard to believe he would never have mentioned this story before now.
That aside, there’s the physical realities involved in Biden’s claims.
In a follow up report, the Washington Times found that there aren’t any golf courses close enough to the Amish school for golfers to have heard gunshots from so far away.
But a search of maps of the area in Lancaster County, Pa., shows the nearest golf course to the site of the shooting, Moccasin Run Golf Club, is about five miles away. Rodney King, the golf pro at Moccasin Run, said Friday he was working at the course on the day of the shooting and never saw Mr. Biden, who was then a U.S. senator.
At ten miles distant, the only other golf course is even farther away. Both courses are certainly too far away for golfers to have heard gunshots that were fired inside a school building.
Interestingly, a look through last week’s news coverage finds little notice of Biden’s sudden claims conveniently made just as he’s pushing new gun control schemes. One wonders why Joe Biden so often gets away with these tall tales? In light of how VPs Quayle and Cheney were treated by the media, why won’t Old Media operatives ever call Joe Biden on his often times impossible claims?
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.
CNN ‘Reporter’ Writes Obama a Letter Every Day For Four Years
-By Warner Todd Huston
In a strange exercise, CNN reporter Tom Foreman has written a letter to the president every day of his presidency and intends to continue doing so until the bitter end. Talk about obsessive behavior.*
Tom Foreman is one of CNN’s third tier reporters and is frequently seen covering a gamut of stories on “Anderson Cooper 360º,” “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer,” and other CNN shows.
Starting with his first letter on inauguration day in 2009, Foreman began his letter writing campaign congratulating President Obama and asking, “Do you have any idea what you’ve gotten yourself into?”
The creepiest aspect of this strange campaign is how Foreman ends nearly every letter pleading for Obama to give him a call. Thus far the President has not availed himself of that opportunity.
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CNN ‘Reporter’ Writes Obama a Letter Every Day For Four Years”
No HuffPo Inaugural Party This Year?
-By Warner Todd Huston
For the President’s 2009 inauguration, one of the “it” parties was the one thrown by the Huffington Post. But this time around HuffPo isn’t throwing a party at all. That’s quite a let down from 2009.
A quick run down of the celebs that attended the party not to mention and how out of control the party was has been penned by Roger Friedman who himself missed most of the shindig.
During the 2009 blow out, party goers saw Robert DeNiro, Ben Affleck, Josh Groban, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Norman Lear, Rosie Perez, Gerald Butler, Marisa Tomei, John Cusack, Kerry Washington, Leigh Taylor-Young, and many more.
But this year? As Friedman says, “There is no such thing this time around” as a HuffPo inaugural party.
Why not? Perhaps the HuffPo team doesn’t feel quite as exultant as they did in 2009? It might also be because Huffington Post chief Arianna Huffington sold HuffPo to AOL a few years after the 2009 inaugural. It just ain’t like the old days at HuffPo, is it?
So, instead of throwing another party to die for, Huffington Post is opting just to cover the parade and swearing in ceremony as, you know, “journalists,” instead of whooping it up as invested participants.
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No HuffPo Inaugural Party This Year?”
Bensmithing GOP Minority Outreach
-By Warner Todd Huston
The GOP-as-racists narrative continues on Buzzfeed with a piece today focused on the minority outreach being planned by National Republican Campaign Committee Chairman Greg Walden.
Reporting for Buzzfeed on Walden’s appearance at a recent GOP retreat, John Stanton reports only on Walden’s comments about new plans to get more minority candidates and to try and appeal more to minority voters.
But any look at the GOP National Convention last year would have revealed any number of minority candidates. Indeed, one of the most talked about new Senators is Florida’s Marco Rubio.
Rubio was joined by Texas colleague Ted Cruz this year, as well. Not to mention South Carolina’s Tim Scott.
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Bensmithing GOP Minority Outreach”
Guns to Stop Tyranny? Don’t Be Ridiculous!
-By Warner Todd Huston
All you right wingers out there saying you need guns because you are afraid of the government attacking you in your homes…. stop with the histrionics. That would NEVER happen. Ask Elian Gonzalez.
Cost of Obama’s 2012 Regulations: $236 Billion
-By Warner Todd Huston
Despite Obama’s promise to cut unnecessary regulations, his administration issued $236.7 billion in new regulations in 2012.
According to a report by the American Action Forum, headed by former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the direct costs of the regulations force America’s businesses to waste 87 million man-hours to fill out regulatory paperwork.
Adding Obama’s 2012 regulatory costs to that of the rest of his first term adds up to a total of $518 billion in new costs forced onto an already anemic economic recovery.
This onslaught of new regulations comes even after Obama was celebrated for claiming he was going to be the regulation-cutting president.
Indeed, in 2011, Obama released a plan claiming he would cut regulations and reduce the burden on the business sector. Not long after, Obama operative Cass Sunstein praised Obama claiming that his plan would work “to eliminate unjustified regulatory costs and to reduce burdens.” Sunstein went on to say that Obama had done more to cut regulations than any president in recent history.
Sunstein was given one Pinocchio for his misleading claims and for good reason as Obama’s small cuts have been dwarfed by the increases.
American Action Forum says that the costs of regulations have “added tremendous costs to the economy” and finds that the year 2012 tops every year in the past twelve in “terms of final rule cost.”
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Cost of Obama’s 2012 Regulations: $236 Billion”
Slate Writer: Your Kids Not As Important As Obama’s
-By Warner Todd Huston
Slate’s Matt Yglesias has a Twitter message for all you parents out there. Your kids aren’t as important as Obama’s.
Yglesias recently Tweeted that very thing saying, “Sorry haters, a kidnapping of the First Kids would be a way bigger deal than a kidnapping of your kids.”
This is in response to the new NRA ad that calls the President and his gun-banning cohorts hypocrites and elitists for hiding behind armed guards and for having armed guards at their children’s schools even as they scoff at armed guards in your kid’s schools and while they endeavor to take your guns away from you.
“Are the president’s kids more important than yours?” the new NRA ad begins. “Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their schools?”
Slate Writer: Your Kids Not As Important As Obama’s”
WaPost Says Political Party Power Dying for GOP, But What Does it Mean?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Originally posted at TheOtherMCain.com.
In his latest piece at The Fix Blog, Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza focused on the apparent waning power of the Republican Party among the center right coalition. Cillizza makes some good points, of course, but I do have at least one warning to our side over the points Cillizza makes.
Cillizza’s focus is on the recent departure from the Senate of South Carolina’s Jim DeMint who abruptly left a high profile political career to take the top spot leading the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Cillizza doesn’t mention it, but DeMint wasn’t just any old faceless senator. He had made himself an important voice in conservative circles even going so far as to become a major national player in elections whereby candidates would make a pilgrimage to his offices to seek his endorsement.
So, when DeMint left the power of the Senate behind, it was a big shock to conservatives who had hoped he’d continue to be a major conservative voice inside Washington.
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WaPost Says Political Party Power Dying for GOP, But What Does it Mean?”
VP Gaffemaster: ‘No Silver Bullet’ to Stop Gun Violence
-By Warner Todd Huston
This month’s busy work for Vice President “Sheriff” Joe Biden is his great gun control task force assigned him by his boss, Barack. Now that it is close to wrapping up, Biden has told us a bit about his progress and in his gaffetastic way he’s told us that there is “no silver bullet” to any gun-grabbing solutions.
After he met with the National Rifle Association, “Sheriff” Joe bellied up to the closest microphone and told his constituents in the press that “We know that there is no silver bullet” to stop gun violence.
Biden claimed that his meetings with the NRA was “productive,” though he did not elaborate upon what that meant.
For its part, the NRA thought that Biden and his gun control crew didn’t really listen to a thing they said. The NRA told the Old Media establishment that it was “disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment.”
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VP Gaffemaster: ‘No Silver Bullet’ to Stop Gun Violence”
In Lincoln’s Shadow: Obama’s Up Coming State of the Union Speech
-By Warner Todd Huston
President Obama will deliver the first State of the Union address for his second term on February 12 this year.
As is the custom, the President was invited to give the address by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In his letter, Speaker John Boehner (R, OH) noted the “immense challenges” we face as a nation.
“Our nation continues to face immense challenges, and the American people expect us to work together in the new year to find meaningful solutions,” Boehner wrote. “This will require a willingness to seek common ground as well as presidential leadership. For that reason, the Congress and the Nation would welcome to an opportunity to hear your plan and specific solutions for addressing America’s great challenges. Therefore it is my privilege to invite you to speak before a Joint Session of Congress on February 12, 2013 in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol Building.”
Few expect Obama to use his upcoming State of the Union speech to offer any conciliatory gestures in order to work with the Republicans per Speaker Boehner. It is more likely that Obama will use his speech to outlay another series of demands to enlarge government and, since Sandy Hook, initiate new efforts to ban guns.
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In Lincoln’s Shadow: Obama’s Up Coming State of the Union Speech”
Obama Signs Law Giving Himself Armed Guards for Life
-By Warner Todd Huston
President Obama has signed a law that will give himself and all presidents Secret Service protection for life, reversing a law passed during the Clinton administration that gave former presidents a security detail for only 10 years after leaving office.
Armed guards. For life. Meanwhile he is trying to take away guns from the rest of us
The new law signed on Wednesday also gives former first ladies lifetime security details (unless they divorce their former presidential spouse) and all presidential children a security detail until they are 16-years-old.
The now nullified law passed in the 1994 was originally presented as a way to save millions of dollars to the federal treasury. It was postulated that former presidents would have enough money of their own to hire private security services, as Nixon did when he decided to forego his government-supplied Secret Service details in his post presidential years. The 1994 law was to take effect for all presidents elected after 1997, so of the surviving presidents only George W. Bush and Barack Obama would have been affected.
The new law sailed through both houses of Congress and had massive bi-partisan support.
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Obama Signs Law Giving Himself Armed Guards for Life”
Gore’s TV Staffers Not Happy About Being Sold to Al Jazeera
-By Warner Todd Huston
Al Gore may have gotten a multi-million dollar payday from his new friends in Jihadland, but his Current TV employees don’t seem so all fired up about being sold to Al Jazeera.
Current TV employees were called to an early staff meeting in San Francisco and via teleconference to the New York and Los Angeles offices in order to be introduced to their new Al Jazeera masters.
Ehab Al Shihabi, executive director of Al Jazeera’s international operations, and Muftah AlSuwaidan, general manager of the London bureau were in attendance and so was Al Gore’s partner Joel Hyatt. But, Al Gore, Current TV’s globalwarming-pushing star was nowhere to be seen.
“Of course Al didn’t show up,” one staffer grumbled. “He has no credibility.”
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Gore’s TV Staffers Not Happy About Being Sold to Al Jazeera”
Politico Celebrates Obama’s ‘Bipartisan Spirit’ With Hagel Nomination
Politico Celebrates Obama’s ‘Bipartisan Spirit’ With Hagel Nomination
-By Warner Todd Huston
Upon President Obama’s nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, Politico celebrated the move as proof of Obama’s “bipartisan spirit.”
Politico notes that Hagel has detractors on both sides of the aisle, but it appears the Washington political newser feels that makes him a great choice.
But inside the White House, the choice makes sense. It appeals to Obama’s bipartisan spirit — and the optics aren’t bad, either — to have any Republican as Defense secretary when Obama is seeking to end the war in Afghanistan and dramatically reduce the Pentagon’s budget.
Obama’s mythic sense of “bipartisanship” is deftly laid low by Peggy Noonan who wrote last week that Obama just loves to taunt.
Politico buries at the bottom of its long piece any listing of just why Hagel is opposed by some left and right.
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Politico Celebrates Obama’s ‘Bipartisan Spirit’ With Hagel Nomination”
Nat’l Review Readers Approve Dumping Boehner
-By Warner Todd Huston
National Review, one of the nation’s preeminent conservative magazines, recently hosted an online reader poll asking whether or not the attempted coup against House Speaker John Boehner was a good idea. A majority of NR’s respondents said it was.
Over the weekend on National Review’s website the reader poll showed that 66 percent of respondents thought the attempted coup against Boehner was a good idea. Only 34 percent didn’t. 14,090 visitors to the site voted.
National Review did excellent work keeping abreast of the attempt to oust Boehner. Most of its coverage was strictly news-like in its treatment of those threatening a coup by having Boehner ousted as Speaker last week and some NR voices were supportive of the Ohioan.
NR has supported Boehner’s plans in the past and only a few days before his re-election as Speaker, National Review was mostly supportive of Boehner’s work.
NR reporter Robert Costa followed the drama and did yeomen’s work reporting the ins and outs of the re-election of Boehner to his Speakership. Through his sources, Costa maintained throughout the struggle that Boehner had nothing to worry about.
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Nat’l Review Readers Approve Dumping Boehner”
Obama’s Lawless Presidency
-By Warner Todd Huston
President Obama’s supporters love to call him the “cool” President, a “no drama” guy, and generally like to claim he is unflappable in office. Whatever the truth of that claim, there is one thing for sure: he doesn’t sweat the small stuff. Like following the law. During his four years in office this president has shown he couldn’t care less about the laws he’s supposed to be governed by as president.
This lawlessness started all the way back before he even became president. It was widely discussed in 2008 that he blatantly violated campaign donations laws by refusing to put in controls on his website that would prevent illegal, foreign donations. And we’ve only just learned as 2013 began that his 2008 campaign was levied the largest fine ever imposed on a presidential campaign for violations of campaign laws. In January the nation learned that the FEC fined Obama $375,000 for campaign reporting violations.
Once he became President, Obama immediately began misuse his powers to control Washington’s regulatory machinery to pay back pals and warp rules for ideological reasons. This president generally wields his regulatory powers with kid gloves to pay off supporters while at the same time that velvety hand holds a cudgel to smite foes.
One of his very first moves when he was swept into Washington, for instance, was to begin a program to give big payoffs to his union masters.
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Obama’s Lawless Presidency”
Obama’s Labor Sec: Jobs Are ‘Saved’ By Unemployment Payments
-By Warner Todd Huston
Obama’s Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, recently gave a quixotic assessment of how many jobs were “saved” by Obama’s work in the White House. In fact, she felt it was the constant extension of unemployment benefits that somehow “saved” millions of jobs.
On a January 4 segment on CNBC, Solis maintained that the benefits “generate” spending in “the community.”
“…what I think about is, those 2 million people that would have lost their unemployment insurance. Because think about it, all that money that goes out in terms of what’s being spent by that unemployment check helps to generate two additional dollars back in the community. Everyone continues to keep their jobs. I can’t give you an exact figure, but I’ll tell you just by the movement that the President made, we’ve saved millions and millions of jobs,” Solis claimed.
This is, of course, a perfect example of the classic “broken windows fallacy.”
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Obama’s Labor Sec: Jobs Are ‘Saved’ By Unemployment Payments”
Did Al Gore Give Jihadis A Foothold in U.S. Cable Market? Probably Not
-By Warner Todd Huston
When the Arab-owned TV network Al-Jazeera bought Al Gore’s Current TV Network, it likely imagined that it finally had its “in” into the U.S. television market, something the jihad-supporting network had for sometime hoped to find. But is it likely that Al-Jazeera’s purchase assure it of a ready-made American audience? It seems doubtful.
The first bad news for Al-Jazeera’s hope of pushing its Jihad-centric ideology came as soon as the purchase was announced and TIME-Warner cable announced it would immediately drop Al Gore’s little seen network once its sale to the radical Islamist broadcaster was announced.
Naturally, lefties in the U.S. slammed TIME-Warner along “free speech” lines for its common-sense business decision.
As John Nolte wrote Thursday,
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Did Al Gore Give Jihadis A Foothold in U.S. Cable Market? Probably Not”
Nancy Pelosi Defends Doctored ‘Diversity’ Photo of House Democrats
-By Warner Todd Huston
Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat leader of the House of Representatives and former Speaker of the House, is defending a faked photograph released on Thursday showing the “diversity” of the Female members of the Democrat delegation to Congress.
The photo featuring “all” the Democrat women of the House standing on the steps outside the Capital building was released by the California Democrat on her Flikr account on January 3.
But oddly, the four Democrats shown at the top steps in the back of the group are not really in the photo. The images of the four were photoshopped into the picture and weren’t present when the group photo was taken. The missing four were added later by Pelosi’s computer-wielding staffers. You can see both the original photo and the photoshopped results at Poynter. Or see below.
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Nancy Pelosi Defends Doctored ‘Diversity’ Photo of House Democrats”
Former Mich Gov. Jennifer Granholm Quits Current TV After Sale to Al-Jazeera
-By Warner Todd Huston
Jennifer Granholm has been touted as one of Current TV Network’s rising stars, but after the announcement that the cable network was sold to Arab-owned Al-Jazeera, she has announced she’s quitting her TV show.
Granholm, a former Democrat Governor of Michigan, announced on her Facebook page that she is not going to pursue another contract with the little seen cable network most famous for having been started by a cabal fronted by former Vice President Al Gore.
Granholm gave an explanation of sorts saying,
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Former Mich Gov. Jennifer Granholm Quits Current TV After Sale to Al-Jazeera”
Marine Tells Di Feinstein, ‘No Ma’am’ Over Gun Grabbing
-By Warner Todd Huston
Joshua Boston, a retired Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps, has a message for Senator Dianne Feinstein (D, CA) concerning her newest gun banning bill. Corporal Boston says, “No Ma’Am.”
Boston posted an open letter to Senator Feinstein at CNN’s ireport site on December 27 to let DiFi know that he, at least, would not submit to the government denuding him of his Second Amendment rights.
Boston informed Sen. Feinstein that he will not register his weapons nor does he believe the Senator or anyone else in government has the right to require him to do so. Boston also scoffed at someone proclaiming “the evil of an inanimate object” even as she bestows upon herself the ability to carry a gun in contravention to her own proclamations.
“I am not your subject,” Boston insists. “I am the man who keeps you free. I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve. I am not your peasant. I am the flesh and blood of America.”
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Marine Tells Di Feinstein, ‘No Ma’am’ Over Gun Grabbing”
David Gregory Fawns Over Obama’s ‘Lincoln Moment’
-By Warner Todd Huston
NBC’s David Gregory hosted the President on Sunday’s Meet the Press but compared to his last notable interview, when he verbally attacked his guest at every turn, Gregory was virtually asleep this weekend. Unfortunately, Gregory’s mostly timid questions and Obama’s rambling answers gave us nothing new.
The only real pointed question that Gregory asked Obama was over Susan Rice. But even there he asked the question in the meekest manner possible.
Gregory asked, “Do you feel like you let your friend Susan Rice hang out there to dry a little bit?”
The equivocation of “A little bit” was far more consideration than the badgering Gregory offered Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association last week.
But all of Obama’s answers were mere talking points. Take his line about what he thinks Republicans priority is.
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David Gregory Fawns Over Obama’s ‘Lincoln Moment’”
Obama to David Gregory’s Rescue
-By Warner Todd Huston
Last Friday NBC’s David Gregory announced a surprise visit by President Obama for the weekend’s Meet The Press.
Gregory made the announcement on his Twitter account saying, “Excited to announce that President @BarackObama will be my exclusive guest this Sunday on @MeetthePress.”
This reverses Gregory’s announced vacation. He was not scheduled to be on this weekend.
Host Gregory has been under a cloud of controversy since his December 23 gun stunt. During last Sunday’s broadcast Gregory broke Washington D.C.’s strict gun banning laws when he brandished an illegal 30-round rifle magazine on the air in the D.C. studios.
So what gives? Why did the President suddenly appear on Meet The Press? Could it be to help Gregory out of his troubles? This is obviously a presidential back patting for Gregory so that maybe the D.C. police will back off.
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Obama to David Gregory’s Rescue”
What Fiscal Cliff? VP Biden, Gov’t Workers Getting Raises
-By Warner Todd Huston
Imagine you are working for a company that is going bankrupt, but everyone you work with and your bosses are getting pay raises. Seem absurd? Not if you work for the failing federal government because President Obama has happily decreed that Vice President Biden, members of Congress and most federal workers are getting raises for 2013.
As the U.S. government is losing its luster on the bond market and as the fiscal cliff looms, President Obama issued an executive order to give everyone raises.
Obama has generously bestowed a $6,379 per year raise on Sheriff Joe, he’s given members of the House a $900 increase, and he’s doled out a .5 percent pay increase to federal workers. (See a full listing of pay raises for Congressional offices at The Weekly Standard)
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What Fiscal Cliff? VP Biden, Gov’t Workers Getting Raises”
NRA Still More Popular Than Media
-By Warner Todd Huston
For all the abuse the Old Media establishment has dished out to the National Rifle Association this month, polls show that the NRA is still more popular than the media.
Gallup released a poll this month stating that the NRA stands at 54 percent approval.
Fifty-four percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the National Rifle Association, while 38% have an unfavorable opinion. The public’s ratings of the NRA have fluctuated since first measured by Gallup in 1993 — from a low of 42% favorable in 1995 to a high of 60% in 2005.
On the other hand, the same polling firm shows that the media is distrusted at 60 percent! Approval rates for the media are below 30 percent.
And Congress? Their approval rate was last measured by Gallup at 21 percent.
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NRA Still More Popular Than Media”
U.S. Already Hitting Debt Ceiling on Monday?
-By Warner Todd Huston
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is warning Congress that the U.S. is on the cusp of hitting the debt ceiling yet again, maybe as soon as Monday.
Geithner said that the Treasury Dept. will be taking some “extraordinary measures” to prevent borrowing from exceeding the previous debt ceiling limit, measures such as a temporary halt of the reinvestment of federal workers’ retirement account contributions.
This, along with other measures might save the government $200 billion as the debt limit approaches to just under $95 billion below the $16.394 trillion debt ceiling limit.
A major problem with these “extraordinary measures” is that no one knows what effects the fiscal cliff may have on them. The biggest unknown is what effect new tax rules will have on the situation.
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U.S. Already Hitting Debt Ceiling on Monday?”
Report: Smaller Crowds for Obama’s Second Inauguration
-By Warner Todd Huston
Officials in the District of Columbia estimated that 1.8 million folks attended President Obama’s first inauguration. But for his second inauguration, numbers appear to be down. Officials are only expecting up to 600,000 to 800,000.
One clue to attendance expectations is hotel room bookings. Four years ago hotels were sold out quite early across the city. This year, however, rooms are still plentiful.
“Very few hotels are actually sold out at this point, so there’s a lot of availability,” said Elliott Ferguson, CEO of the tourism bureau Destination DC, who added that he expected demand to pick up after Christmas.
In 2009, hotel bookings were at 98 percent capacity and due to supply and demand, prices remained high. For inauguration number two, however, most hotels are only half sold, so prices are dropping and staying times are increasing to entice guests.
Of course, posh spots like the Willard Hotel still have pricey packages to offer inauguration goers, but many deals abound throughout the city due to lower demand.
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Report: Smaller Crowds for Obama’s Second Inauguration”
Sam Donaldson Speaks for Minorities: ‘It’s OUR Country Now!’
-By Warner Todd Huston
Long-time ABC News correspondent Sam Donaldson has a message for “The Tea Party.” He wants them to know it isn’t their country anymore.
That is what he said on the Chris Matthews Sunday Show on December 23, anyway. Not only did Donaldson tell “The Tea Party” that they should be gotten “rid of,” but it appeared that he was deigning to speak for minorities on top of it. Yes, an old white guy presuming to speak for minorities.
The minorities re-elected president Obama, but I’m going with Katty. It’s the Tea Party and thinking of the Tea Party and people like that that are driving the Republicans out of contention as a national party. You cannot win nationally if you don’t know something about the way the country’s changed, and the Tea Party seems to think the country can go back 25 or 30 years. The greatest slogan that I hated during this last campaign was “We want to take back our country.” Guys, it’s not your country anymore – it’s our country and you’re part of it, but that thinking is going to defeat Republicans nationally if they don’t get rid of it.
So, to recap: Tea Partiers should stop imagining it is their country because it is the minorities’ country and Tea Partiers should be gotten rid of. Isn’t it great when “reporters” don’t pick sides and just report the news?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Years, America.
Donaldson was last in the news for having been arrested for drunk driving in Delaware. Maybe he was still drunk at the taping of the Matthews show?
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Sam Donaldson Speaks for Minorities: ‘It’s OUR Country Now!’”
Old Media Fail? No Gun Questions at Obama’s Gun Press Conference
-By Warner Todd Huston
It was a mixed message from the Old Media establishment at the President’s December 19 news conference about the newest “crisis” he is pushing. As Obama appeared before America to talk about the gun “crisis” and his decision to hand it off to Joe Biden, instead of asking about Obama’s gun agenda, the media deluged him with questions about the fiscal cliff.
It was so odd that even other members of the media criticized their brethren for ignoring what the press conference was called for and instead going off on tangents during the Q & A period.
Obama called his press conference to announce his new anti-gun agenda. But one might question the President’s dedication to the effort. After all Obama put Joe Biden in charge proving that he isn’t really that interested in the whole thing. Regardless, though, that was the main topic of the presser.
Interestingly, as soon as Obama’s statements were through, when the media joined the question and answer time, out of the many questions asked only 2 or so were about Obama’s gun agenda. Most were about the country’s financial woes.
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Old Media Fail? No Gun Questions at Obama’s Gun Press Conference”
Herman Cain: The New York Times is Racist
-By Warner Todd Huston
Herman Cain has had about enough of The New York Times and its racist columnists. The latest is the hate that The Times and guest columnist Adolph Reed, Jr. offered for South Carolina’s newest Senator, Tim Scott.
In an editorial Cain posted to CainTV.com, the one-time GOP candidate for President was incensed that Reed and The Times were so presumptuous as to imagine that no black conservative is smart enough to understand conservatism or even believe in what they claim to believe.
Reed, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, called all blacks in the GOP “tokens” and dismissed the “milestone” status that is Tim Scott’s advancement to the U.S. Senate saying it is no advancement for African Americans.
This is, of course, the ultimate insult. Reed is indulging the ages old epithet of saying that any black that doesn’t toe his extremist, liberal line of thinking is an Uncle Tom. It is the sort of dismissive attitude that assumes that black conservatives just aren’t smart enough to understand what conservatism really is. It is a way to dismiss the very intelligence of black conservatives not to mention their humanity.
As Cain noted, “Professor Reed makes it clear that he considers black Republicans to be little more than Stepin Fetchits, soulless black people who are willing to serve the white master at the expense of their true brethren”
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Herman Cain: The New York Times is Racist”