On His Library’s Dedication Day, Bush Derangement Syndrome Takes Center Stage Again

Here’s a little linkfest tour of some of the day’s reactions to the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library from the tolerant Left.

Media Matters took a break from whining about Fox News to weigh in.

The none-too-intelligent Jonathan Chait wants you to know that Bush isn’t a smart man.

Think Progress says W killed the planet.

Without the slightest hint of irony, Salon calls Bush’s tenure a “mess of a presidency“.

More from Salon-the execrable Joan Walsh did double duty, complaining about both W and Jeb.

Worry not, tomorrow they will all be busy pretending that there is no Islamic connection to Islamic terrorism.

Donna Brazile Praises Bush’s Katrina Efforts, Dems Become Apoplectic

Refreshing honesty.

George W. Bush was good as his word. He visited the Gulf states 17 times; went 13 times to New Orleans. Laura Bush made 24 trips. Bush saw that $126 billion in aid was sent to the Gulf’s residents, as some members of his own party in Congress balked.
Bush put a special emphasis on rebuilding schools and universities. He didn’t forget African-Americans: Bush provided $400 million to the historically black colleges, now integrated, that remain a pride, and magnet for African-American students. Laura Bush, a librarian, saw to it that thousands of books ruined by the floods were replaced. To this day, there are many local libraries with tributes devoted to her efforts.
It was a team effort. I’m glad to report the commission I served on went out-of-business in 2010. I’m also grateful and proud to report that President Bush was one of the leaders, and a very important member, of that team. Our recovery can be credited to the civility and tireless efforts of President Bush and other Americans, who united and worked together to help rebuild the Gulf and the place of my birth, New Orleans.

Breaking from the Hive Mind narrative is always met with revulsion among the Democrats, but countering the Bush-Cheney Weather Machine Katrina fairy tale is a mortal sin. And Bush Derangement Syndrome is still a brain rotting disease for which no cure, or even treatment for the symptoms, has been found. Check out this post and the ensuing comments from Democratic Underground.

Resistance is futile…

Salon Clown David Sirota: Yeah, We Totally Deserve Terrorist Attacks

Bonus — he starts with a quote from Jeremiah Wright!

Remember, this is the same intellectual powerhouse who last week was fervently hoping the Boston bombing would turn out to have been done by a white guy.

This is a wearisome line we’ve been hearing from the Left and Ron Paul fans for some time, but little Davey thinks this nonsense has all kinds of credibility now because Tom Brokaw subscribes to it.

This is the news from Tom Brokaw’s appearance on “Meet the Press” last Sunday. Discussing revelations that the bombing suspects may be connected to Muslim fundamentalism, he said:

“We have got to look at the roots of all of this because it exists across the whole (Asian) subcontinent and the Islamic world around the world. I think we also have to examine (America’s) use of drones (because) there are a lot of civilians who are innocently killed in a drone attack in Pakistan, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And I can tell you having spent a lot of time over there, young people will come up to me on the streets and say, ‘We love America, but if you harm one hair on the head of my sister, I will fight you forever.’ And there is this enormous rage against what they see in that part of the world as a presumptuousness of the United States.”

As one of the establishment’s most venerated voices, Brokaw is not prone to radical statements. But in a nation that often avoids acknowledging its own role in intensifying cycles of violence, it is unfortunately considered radical to do what the NBC News veteran did and mention that our violent attacks abroad increase the chance of retributive attacks at home.

Sirota lives on a planet where MSM journalists like Brokaw are venerated. Sane people do not. Sane people read and understand history. Radical Islamic violence against the West, and the United States in particular, has been relentless since the late 1970s. Sane people know that there were no drone strikes going on then. But this country is currently polluted with people who are so desperate to be politically correct that they are forever engaged in a fantasy game called “Anything But Islam.”

And that’s what’s getting people killed.

Also read: 

Donna Brazile Praises Bush’s Katrina Efforts, Dems Become Apoplectic

Reality Bites: Majority Of Americans Fear Falling Into Lower Economic Class

Hope. Change.

Americans still believe they can reach for the stars, but they are increasingly fearful they are standing on a trapdoor as they try.
That’s the deeply ambivalent message from the latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll exploring the public’s perception of what it means to be middle class in America today. Fully 56 percent of those surveyed said they believe they will eventually climb to a higher rung on the economic ladder than they occupy now. But even more said they worry about falling into a lower economic class sometime in the next few years. Reaffirming the results in earlier Heartland Monitor polls, most of those surveyed said the middle class today enjoys less opportunity, job security, and disposable income than earlier generations did. And strikingly small percentages of American adults said they consider it “very realistic” that they can meet such basic financial goals as paying for their children’s college, retiring comfortably, or saving “enough money to … deal with a health emergency or job loss.”

The poll also reflects President Obama’s plummeting approval ratings since the election last year. The tricky thing about appealing solely to the emotions of the electorate is that those emotions can shift in a hurry. The administration and its trained press chimps will, of course, continue to attempt to portray the nation’s economic woes as being the fault of anybody but The Lightbringer’s, even if they have to start throwing other Democrats under the bus.

Here is the screenshot of the pertinent question, showing the 59% number that was avoided in the beginning of the article (click to enlarge):

Three Minute Solar Quickie Open Thread Video

Three years of solar activity in three minutes. And you thought NASA didn’t do anything fun anymore.

GE Capital Anti-Gun Hysterics Target Small Biz Owners

In this economy, no less.

General Electric Co. is quietly cutting off lending to gun shops, as the company rethinks its relationship to firearms amid the fallout from the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

This month, Glenn Duncan, owner of Duncan’s Outdoor Store in Bay City, Mich., said he received a letter from GE Capital Retail Bank in which the lender said it had made “the difficult decision” to stop providing financing services to his store. Other gun dealers have received similar notices.

Small business owners and their employees will be hit hard enough by the implementation of Obamacare. It is sadly understandable that these same people are now collateral damage for an overly zealous, misguided Obama policy pursuit that’s unsuccessful because he holds them in such low regard. Big government politicians have almost zero understanding of the role small businesses play in both the economy and the American Dream, especially those like President Obama, who have no private sector experience whatsoever.

Four more years.

David Harsanyi: Constitution Is There To Protect Us From Authoritarian Freaks Like Bloomberg

OK, he didn’t call him a freak.

Bloomberg is an authoritarian. He’s not an authoritarian in the way Josef Stalin or Pol Pot was authoritarian, but every instinct tells you he’s a man who would use any power given to him to govern every aspect of public and private life whenever necessary — or, more precisely, whenever he finds it necessary, which is frequently. All said, he’s exactly the type of person who makes the Constitution a necessity.

Anyone who believes your caloric intake is government’s prime concern should be watched carefully, of course; but no matter what crusade the man’s on, his rationalization for limiting personal freedom is a dangerous one. Some of his proposals are popular (smoking bans), and others are less so (limiting portion sizes and banning ingredients), but all of them set precedents that distort the relationship between government and citizens. The jump from minor infringements on personal liberty to giant ones is a shorter one than you think. Allow a politician to tell you what your portion sizes should be and the next thing you know you’re letting Washington force you to buy insurance you don’t want.

When the nicest thing you can say about a guy’s governing style is “Hey, at least he’s not a mass-murderer,” you know you have a problem on your hands. What’s most disturbing about Bloomberg is the fact that he’s a billionaire megalomaniac who truly believes he can run your life better. There is no reason to believe this is the final political office he wants to hold. He changes political parties on a whim to suit his needs and he may begin looking very attractive to nanny state Democrats when they realize the folly of running Hillary Clinton in 2016.

If there’s anything to be learned from the last five years it’s that just because a disturbing statist shouldn’t be elected doesn’t mean he won’t be.

Commentary Mag: About That ‘Tsarnaevs Acted Alone’ Stuff…

Exactly.

Even if no further links with al-Qaeda or related groups (such as the Caucasus Emirate) are discovered, it is still not correct to claim, as so many media outlets now do, that the brothers were “self-radicalized.” They were radicalized and trained by al-Qaeda–whether in cyberspace or outside of it. It is also likely, moreover, that older brother Tamerlan, the ring leader, came into contact with influential individuals in either Boston and/or Dagestan who guided his intellectual development toward becoming a jihadist. Whether those individuals formally belonged to a terrorist organization or not, they were doing its bidding as long as they were urging violence against the West.

The post also mentions the absurdity of the fact that this alleged autonomy is being reported solely because the surviving terrorist says it’s so. If the press can keep this idea floating for a while, it can continue to pretend that what these two monsters did isn’t really representative of the Islamic terror that’s been relentlessly hyperactive for over thirty years. It is the most elaborate game of “Avoid the Obvious” ever played and they really don’t want to admit they’ve lost.

Media Matters Lies About Content Of Its Own Post

Those crazy, drunk, stupid kids.

The gist of the article: some people on Fox News and other less-than-liberal places are annoyed that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was on welfare in Massachusetts and expressed as much. Oddly enough, this is rather accurate, which is a rarity at Media Matters.

This Drudge screencap, however, is the teaser on the website (click to enlarge):

“Conservative Media Push Idea That Food Stamps And Welfare Cause Terrorism”

While I am loathe to give any of the Soros monkeys editorial advice, they might want to read their own stuff before pimping it to their brine shrimp intellect readership. Then again, pathological liars do have their thing to do.

Return Of The Open Thread, Taylor Swift And The Watertown Boat Edition

Headline from The Onion:

Taylor Swift Now Dating Watertown Boat

Following a string of highly publicized breakups, sources confirmed today that singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is now dating the 22-foot Watertown, MA Sea Hawk pleasure cruiser in which alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev sought shelter while evading the FBI Friday. “Taylor was seen cozying up to the Watertown boat over dessert at Finale last night, and we can confirm that the two are officially an item,” Hollywoodlife.com blogger Bonnie Fuller reported of the budding romance between the 23-year-old multiplatinum crooner and the bloodied, bullet-ridden watercraft, nicknaming the couple “Swiftboat.”

Let’s all gather around the virtual water cooler, relax and be grateful that, so far, this week is quieter than last.

LA Times: Obama Magic To Run Out In 2014

Let’s, um, hope.

Earlier this month, President Obama visited San Francisco and was joined by Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for a fundraising event. In the course of the evening, Obama told the donors that he expected that after the 2014 election, Pelosi would resume her place as speaker, which she relinquished after the 2010 election.

It’s easy to see why the president would want that to be so. If the Democrats were to win the 218 House seats needed for the majority and put Pelosi back in the speaker’s chair, it would allow Obama to spend his final two years in office doing more than marking time as a lame duck.

But even if Obama were to inject himself massively into the campaigns of congressional Democrats, it’s unlikely he could guarantee a Democratic victory.

A gain of congressional seats by a president’s party in his sixth year in office may not be quite as elusive as the Higgs boson or Fermat’s Last Theorem, but it’s nearly the equivalent in the political world. Only once in the last 80 years has a president’s party managed to gain seats in his second midterm election. That feat was pulled off in 1998 by Bill Clinton, when Democrats gained eight seats on the GOP. In general, however, losses by presidents in midterm elections are as predictable as anything in politics.

This is all very true. However, recent history was also against a first term senator (or any senator, actually) with no real accomplishments in government or the private sector running away with an election and becoming president. It was also nigh on impossible for a president who was in office while the economy was getting swallowed by quicksand to get reelected.

What may factor into the unlikelihood of the Democrats regaining a majority in the House more than history will be the reality of this president’s singular achievement. Great pains were taken to have as little of Obamacare implemented before the 2012 election because even those most ardently supportive of it know that its promise and reality are unlikely to bear any resemblance to one another. Premiums will go up, people won’t be able to keep their doctors and the sobering difference between access to health insurance and availability of health care will become apparent. The victory parties from election night hadn’t even been cleaned up yet when Obamacare related layoffs began.

This is all, of course, rather obvious but the MSM has to begin the excuse-making now to protect their deity.

The Cult Of Big Government-FLOTUS Slobbers Praise On Federal Workers

Pepto, please.

“I … know that the work that you do isn’t easy, especially right now during these times. I know that budget cuts mean that you all are juggling even more responsibilities with fewer resources. And I know that many of you are stretched thinner than ever before,” said the first lady.

“So that’s one of the reasons why it’s just as important for me to be here at the start of this term as it was to be here four years ago, because I want you to know how much Barack and I truly appreciate everything that you do. And I know you don’t hear that. People don’t even know you exist. (Laughter.) It’s so true. I mean, federal workers are this invisible face. No one knows what they do, what it means, how much they benefit us.

People don’t know they exist?!?!? Has there been a time in American history when the average citizen has been made more aware of the presence of the federal behemoth on a daily basis? I’ve got constant trepidation about one of them greeting me with a towel as I step out of the shower, then raising my taxes to pay for the service.

Mrs. Obama also referred to the workers as “invisible” which is often true, as they like to sneak up from behind and surprise you with the last revenue grab.

After the speech, a source who prefers to remain anonymous says the First Lady ate 17 cheeseburgers.

Foreign Press Providing The Gosnell Coverage We Can’t Get Here

Here’s the headline:

Obama will address a Planned Parenthood gala. This is the group that knew about the Gosnell abortion horror and didn’t go to the police

According to his schedule, President Obama will take time out this week to address a gala thrown by Planned Parenthood – the abortion industry’s favourite lobby.
It’s an extraordinary move, not just because the issue is so controversial but because Planned Parenthood has recently disgraced itself over the Gosnell trial. To recap, Kermit Gosnell is the “doctor” is accused of killing hundreds of babies during late-term abortions by removing them screaming from the womb and then severing their heads from their bodies with a pair of scissors. He also operated a filthy clinic covered in cat feces and used untrained employees to carry out medical procedures. A question that has repeatedly been asked is “Who knew about this?” and “What did they do about it?” Last week, Planned Parenthood answered with “We did” and “As little as possible.”

Interesting, once one exits the progressive American media bubble, this is seen as “controversial”. Sadly, for this president and his supporters it is nothing more than business as usual. In fact, the press and abortion lobbyists go out of their way to portray Planned Parenthood as having nothing to do with abortion whatsoever.

One can only wonder if any of the charges against this modern day Dr. Mengele would have been dropped had there been any semblance of real coverage from the MSM.

The Little Economy That Couldn’t: Factory Activity Slows To A Crawl

“Recovery“.

Factory activity expanded at its slowest pace in six months in April, the latest sign that economic growth continued to lose momentum early in the second quarter, though the recovery has not been derailed.

Even as the economic picture has dimmed in recent weeks as the effects of government austerity started to filter through, strength in the housing market has provided an anchor.

New home sales in March were at their second-highest level in three years and overall house prices rose in February, other data showed on Tuesday.

“The numbers are not suggesting that the economy is surging, but none of them are really showing that the economy is falling off the cliff,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York.

This “Well it’s not a complete disaster” attitude is the new normal. One step forward and one step back leaves you in the same place but the press continues to whip out the champagne for each forward step, hoping that the public will get drunk enough to notice that nothing is getting better. This economy desperately needs some surging action and, despite every “necessary” action taken by the government, none of that is happening yet. And yes, you can bet what little retirement savings you have left on the fact that if anyone but The Lightbringer were in office right now the MSM would be oozing concern.

Four more years.

Shucks, Sequester Hits The IRS

HEARTBROKEN.

The Internal Revenue Service says it will close all public offices for five days over the next five months because of automatic spending cuts.
The cuts went into effect when Congress and President Obama couldn’t agree on a budget deal. Taxpayer assistance centers and toll-free phone lines will be shut down on May 24, June 14, July 5, July 22 and Aug. 30. Most IRS employees will be furloughed those days.
Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller told workers in an email that offices may have to be closed an additional two days in August or September, as the agency looks for more ways to save money.

Sorry to tease like that. Five days over five months just proves that the sequester cuts weren’t nearly severe enough.

As for looking for ways to save money, why don’t we avoid letting them accrue costly man hours working on that and let a citizen panel decide where fat can be trimmed from this behemoth.

Of Breaking News And People Who Still Don’t ‘Get’ Twitter

As the manhunt began in Watertown, MA late last night here on the West Coast, there were no cable news networks to be found covering it anywhere. Oddly enough, I had just gotten off the phone with someone who had been two hundred yards away from the first bomb in Boston on Monday. Minutes later, my Twitter timeline began flying with news about the police giving chase to the suspects. Some tweeted a link to live audio from the Boston police scanner and everyone began to listen in real time.

And there was still no TV news coverage.

A detailed account of the events began playing out on Twitter, delayed only by the typing ability of whomever was relaying what was heard on the scanner. No editorial bias, no filter, just a barrage of quotes from law enforcement personnel who were in the middle of the melee.

And we were still waiting for the “news” people to show up.

The number of people listening in quickly went from around 16,000 (when I signed in) to around 80,000. Not everyone in America, of course, but larger than your average news crew. It also seemed as if all of those 80,000 people were on Twitter and passing along details. We were hearing things like, “Definitely hand grenades, and automatic gunfire,” from the police. Had a reporter said “automatic gunfire” one would have to be skeptical, when a cop who is there says it, you tend to believe him. Shortly after all of that erupted, I received a tweet from a guy who lived in the neighborhood saying, “Loud boom outside my window, gunfire everywhere, sounds like a war zone out there.”

Still no CNN, MSNBC or FNC.

As a longtime champion of social media, I’ve said for a while that Twitter moves information faster than any other medium available at the moment. Yes, there are bound to be inaccuracies but, as we saw yesterday, that’s still a big problem with conventional media as well. Ironically, one of the big things most social media people got wrong last night happened after the MSM showed up, reported something and many of us repeated it. Lesson learned.

One person (I wish I could remember who and give credit) (UPDATED: It was @BobMcGovernJr, here is the tweet)noted that an old technology (police scanner) came together with a newer one (Twitter) and made the massively funded cable news networks seem almost obsolete. By the time they did show up it was hard not to laugh each time they said or tweeted “BREAKING”. Their sole function seemed to be providing some visual snapshots of the scene, like so many hipsters posting pictures of brunch on Instagram. CNN’s spiral into nothingness continued as they spent several minutes just showing video of one of their “reporters” on the phone. Had said reporter began communicating with smoke signals, it wouldn’t have seemed out of place.

This doesn’t mean that television news is dead. It merely means, as we have seen so many times in recent years, that it isn’t really “news” anymore. It’s function is often to give a recap of what they’re learning on social media and providing some visual accompaniment. During the Iranian election unrest a few years ago CNN finally just resorted to reading tweets.

This is a shift that should be embraced by those who have long lamented the awful bias and declining journalism skills of the MSM. Yet I still run into people are almost proud of their disdain for social media. Is it a hot mess sometimes? Most definitely. But, especially on Twitter, it’s our hot mess. Conservatives got a foothold there early and never let it go. It’s imperfect but more often than not it’s still a far cry better than what you can get from a “reporter”. I actually double check something I’ve heard on the radio or television on Twitter now before I’ll believe it.

Embrace it and enjoy watching Brian Williams and company look more like dinosaurs every day.

Much Ado About Nothing-The False Promise Of Background Checks

Reality check.

As the U.S. Senate embarks this week on another spasm of gun control legislation in response to the Newtown, Conn., mass shooting, the Northwestern victim (his name is being withheld by the school district) is a reminder that Sandy Hook is an anomaly — the overwhelming majority of homicides in America take place in cities like Detroit, affect young males and rarely get media headlines.

If Washington passes a federal background check for all gun sales, it will be largely symbolic. Not only would a background check not have prevented Adam Lanza from acquiring a gun (his mother owned the firearm), it would do little to address violence in inner cities awash with illegal guns and drugs. This week’s White House-driven gun circus is politically calculated to embarrass the gun lobby, but attacking the root causes of gun violence means boldly tackling much stickier issues: drug legalization, police reform and single-parent families.

In the week following the Newtown massacre, there were more than a dozen gun homicides in Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore and St. Louis. In 2012, 52 people were slain for every 100,000 Detroiters. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, large cities account for two-thirds of gun-related deaths.

President Obama is on an emotional crusade that is almost entirely devoid of meaning. Had the legislation passed today, he could have claimed victory, satisfied his enormous ego then gone to bed well protected by heavily armed men while those he was pretending to protect wouldn’t have been any safer. He’s operating with so much disconnect that he trotted out Gabby Giffords for his temper tantrum today-a woman who was shot by a man who passed a background check.

The problems in the places where gun violence is rampant (Chicago, Detroit, etc) are not, as this article says, simply plagued by the availability of weapons but by far deeper sociological issues.

And those don’t make for good photo ops.

SURPRISE! ‘Revenue’ Increases From Beginning Of The Year Dragging Down Retail

A tax by any other name…

Retail sales contracted in March for the second time in three months and consumer confidence tumbled in April, a sign tax hikes early this year stole momentum from the economy.

Sales fell 0.4 percent in March, missing analysts’ expectations for a flat reading, Commerce Department data showed on Friday.

The data suggests consumer spending was considerably weaker in the first quarter than analysts previously believed, and many cut economic growth forecasts for the period.

The most pathetically amusing thing about this post is the headline: Retail sales point to flagging economic momentum.

I monitor the Reuters feed every day and although it’s an international news organization it has still be a big cheerleader for the Obama administration. Every less-than-depressing bit of economic news is trumpeted as a sign that all is well again. In fact, its reporting can be all over the emotional spectrum in just one news cycle. To any rational observer, this economy hasn’t had anything resembling momentum since Karl Rove was still a thing.

Yes, Virginia, elections do have consequences. So do tax hikes, no matter what you call them.

Of Government Giveaways And Consequences-Venezuelan Edition

So, how’s that working out for you?

Under 14 years of rule by the late President Hugo Chávez, Venezuela kept gasoline prices frozen even as rising government spending spurred robust overall inflation. Gasoline went from being cheap to seeming almost free.

The subsidy is emblematic of Mr. Chávez’s economic policy of populism. Through policies that included virtually giving away gasoline and diesel fuel, he made himself enormously popular but damaged long-term prospects for Venezuela’s economy and set it up for troubled times in years to come.

Now Venezuela is about to elect a new president. Economic distortions caused by giveaway gas loom large among the crises the winner of an election on Sunday will face.

It’s the old story, government gives away things to keep the people happy, economic reality rears its ugly head and then the politicians are eventually forced to deal with it, right?

Though some government officials are critical of the policy, neither of the candidates in the election to succeed Mr. Chávez—acting president Nicolás Maduro and opponent Henrique Capriles—is talking about tampering with the fuel giveaway.

“It’s become the third rail of Venezuelan politics,” said Russ Dallen, a partner at Caracas Capital Markets, an investment bank.

Rather than take away something the public is now used to getting from the government, Venezuela is taking on more debt to keep the goodies coming.

Sound familiar?

But, hey, fairness, or something.

Gov. Moonbeam Tries To Sell Bullet Train In China

Because nobody here is buying it.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s trade mission to China this week is intersecting with one of the most controversial issues of his governorship: California’s $68-billion bullet train.

The governor has staked part of his legacy on the rail network, a centerpiece of his vision for California. He is hoping that China, which is enjoying an economic boom and spent $77.6 billion on overseas investments last year, according to official figures, will pump some of its cash into the troubled project.

There’s the key: “troubled project”. It’s troubled because-get this-it costs more than was originally planned. So when your Big State “investment” project isn’t working out well why not hit up the biggest of the big state purses? After all, it only means getting an infrastructure investment here from the area of the world that our own military is looking at as the greatest looming trouble spot.

What could possibly go wrong?

When Entertainment Was Entertaining: RIP Jonathan Winters

Farewell to another legend.

Comedian Jonathan Winters, whose breakneck improvisations inspired Robin Williams, Jim Carrey and many others, has died at age 87.

Winters died Wednesday night in Montecito, Calif., of natural causes, his agent Richard Lawrence of Rebel Entertainment Partners confirmed to CBS News. He was surrounded by family and friends.

Winters was a master of improvisational comedy, with a grab bag of eccentric personalities and facial expressions. Characters such as the dirty old lady Maude Frickert were based on people Winters knew growing up in Ohio.

There were few things more enjoyable than watching Winters on the old Tonight Show, cracking Carson up while improving about something seemingly without any entertainment value. He could grab almost any inanimate object and turn it into ten minutes of solid comedy. Here’s a quickie:

The New Republic: Senators Should Stop Listening To Constituents

Stupid voters.

I find these sorts of rationalizations genuinely bewildering. The ability of the NRA and smaller gun-rights groups to mobilize their members to lobby elected officials has been an established fact for years—this is the “intensity gap” that gun-control advocates have long bemoaned, whereby an ardent minority has been able to make its presence felt more strongly on the issue than a silent majority that may support sensible gun control but doesn’t necessarily lobby on the issue or prioritize it on Election Day.

The title of the article is indicative that the author is a bit out of touch, but the above paragraph confirms it.

There are a couple of recurring and inaccurate themes going on here. The first is the notion that those who oppose sweeping gun legislation are a small but fervent minority. They may not use the words “crazy” and “fringe” but they are most definitely trying to imply it. This is, of course, an easy assumption to make when one is surrounded solely by the real fervent minority: the coastal elitists who would prefer that none of the common folk avail themselves of their Second Amendment rights.

The second is the horrible misuse of the word “sensible,” which in this case means “agrees with a whack job overreach precursor to a total gun grab.” Most of the rhetoric from the anti-gun fringe in the past few months is coming from babbling idiots who don’t know the difference between a rifle stock and a penny stock. It is impossible to craft “sensible” legislation regarding a topic about which one has no knowledge whatsoever. Those of you who have been following the false narrative identification guidelines here the past few months will recognize that the implication that one’s opponents are not sensible also reinforces the “crazy fringe” garbage.

The senators who are paying attention to their pro-gun constituents are from all over America, just like sensible (see what I did there?) gun owners. And that doesn’t fit the narrative.

So they’re making things up.

Tweets Of The Day-No Particular Edition Edition

I spent half the day thinking it was Tuesday, so I’m good.

America needs more guns.You need more guns. #caring

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) March 15, 2013

A lot of white liberals like @juliaoffe and @chrislhayes spend half their day decrying White Skin Privilege and the other half enjoying it

— DepressiveBlogger69 (@AceofSpadesHQ) March 14, 2013

Seen in the ladies’ room at #cpac2013 – pretty sure this is more practical in the men’s room #standwithrand twitter.com/Bridget_PJM/st…

— Bridget Johnson (@Bridget_PJM) March 14, 2013

Another Hidden Obamacare Nugget About To Whack Big Employers

The “Affordable” Care Act strikes again.

Employers are bracing for a little-noticed fee in the federal health-care law that will charge them $63 for each person they insure next year, one of the clearest cost increases companies face when the law takes full effect.

Companies and other plan providers will together pay $25 billion over three years to create a fund for insurance companies to offset the cost of covering people with high medical bills.

The fees will hit most large U.S. employers, and several have been lobbying to change the program, contending the levy is unfair because it subsidizes individually purchased plans that won’t cover their workers. Boeing Co. and a union health plan covering retirees of General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler, among other groups, have asked federal regulators to exclude or shield their insurance recipients from the fee.

Insurance companies, which helped put the fee in the law, say the fee is essential to prevent rates from skyrocketing when insurers get an influx of unhealthy customers next year. The fee is part of a new insurance landscape created by the health law that will forbid insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Boeing figures the fee will cost them $25 million in 2014.

This was one of those “have to pass the law to find out what’s in it” surprises that was buried so deep in this monstrosity that most of the companies that will be affected by it didn’t notice it at first. It’s not too hard to figure out where large companies that are going to be forced to spend tens of millions extra next year are going to get that money. OK, it is hard to figure out for those in Progressive fantasy land, where all money falls from a magic tree in space.

One thing I will say about the ACA: it doesn’t discriminate. It wants everyone in business to go broke, big or small.

Four more years.

Is Obama Becoming Slightly Less Willing To Hug It Out With Iran Now?

Hmmmm.

President Barack Obama told Israelis Iran is still more than year away from developing a nuclear weapon and sought to reassure them that military force remains a U.S. option if sanctions and diplomacy fail to thwart its nuclear ambitions.

In an interview with Israeli television broadcast on Thursday, just six days before his visit to the country, Obama appeared to send a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the need for patience with Washington’s Iran strategy while also showing U.S. resolve to confront Tehran if necessary.

Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West will be high on the agenda during Obama’s first presidential trip to the Jewish state, where he faces a tough challenge trying to narrow his differences on the matter with the right-wing prime minister.

Laying the groundwork for his talks with Netanyahu, Obama took the rare step of offering a U.S. assessment of how long it would take Iran to build a nuclear bomb should it make the final decision to pursue one. Tehran denies that is its aim.

“We think that it would take over a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon, but obviously we don’t want to cut it too close,” Obama said.

Netanyahu, at the United Nations in September, set a “red line” of spring or summer for when Iran would be close to weapons capability, suggesting prospects for an Israeli attack around that time. But Iran’s latest talks with world powers plus adjustments in Tehran’s uranium enrichment processes are widely thought to have pushed back that deadline.

Asked if he would order an attack on Iran should diplomacy fail, Obama said: “When I say that all options are on the table, all options are on the table.”

That’s a classic politician’s response to the attack question, as “all options” could mean only those that have been seriously considered and it still isn’t quite clear if the administration has spent a lot of time doing that when it comes to military action against Iran. Iran seems to have been budging a bit in recent talks but what little progress that seemed to have been made was quickly undone when the unhinged Ayatollah Khamenei immediately dismissed, well, all of it.

Obama Seeks Wiggle Room From Dems On Entitlements

Bizarro World.

President Obama asked House Democrats on Thursday to give him the political room to make concessions to Republicans on entitlements as part of a deficit-reduction deal.

In a meeting with the House Democratic Caucus in the Capitol Visitor Center, Obama said he won’t accept anything less than a balanced approach to deficit reduction that includes new tax revenues, according to numerous lawmakers in the room.

But he also reminded his troops that, with Republicans in control of the lower chamber, no deal is possible unless Democrats are willing to sacrifice some of their sacred cows.

He’s so desperate to squeeze some new taxes out of the Republicans that he is finally willing to budge on the Democrats’ entitlement holy grail. He is going to get some resistance from the Progressive Caucus but don’t hold your breath waiting for any lapdog media reports about the economy being held hostage by the extremists in the Democrat party.

Even if it is and has been for a while now.

Four more years.

Detroit Gets Its Overseer, May Still File Bankruptcy

Finally, there’s an adult in the room.

Michigan’s governor on Thursday named a financial overseer of Detroit, who said his turnaround work could be completed in as little as six months if all the stakeholders in the troubled city work together.

Kevyn Orr, a bankruptcy attorney and partner at the law firm Jones Day in Washington, D.C., was named Detroit’s emergency financial manager, a role that will give him sole, sweeping power to map the future of the city of roughly 700,000 residents. Republican Gov. Rick Snyder said he picked Mr. Orr for his interpersonal skills, legal and financial acumen and a 30-year track record of work on complex corporate restructuring efforts, including the 2009 bankruptcy of Chrysler Group LLC.

“He’s one of the leading experts in the country,” the governor said during a press conference in Detroit, flanked by Mr. Orr and Detroit Mayor David Bing. “I think we should be very pleased that we got someone of his high caliber to come take this position.”

Mr. Orr’s selection was approved later Thursday by a state board that oversees emergency municipal financial managers.

Mr. Orr said he wouldn’t rule out a municipal-bankruptcy filing by the city—which would be the largest such filing in U.S. history—but that he thought the restructuring could be done without one.

Orr will have some newly minted legal authority to offer a little encouragement for them all to play nice and make the turnaround move along. He can effectively neuter many of the city’s officials but has already hinted that they can avoid that by not resisting him much. He’s also not getting an open checkbook from the state, as Gov. Snyder has stated throwing a lot of money at Detroit “doesn’t make a whole lot of sense right now”.

Tweets Of The Day-Habemus Papam Edition

It was quite the day not just for Roman Catholics, but for social media as well. It was fun watching the goings-on with people of all faiths on Twitter, most of whom seemed to be enjoying the spectacle. Even though you should already be paying attention to everything I tweet, I’ll begin with one of my own.

The 1st thing a Jesuit pope will do is assign homework. #TeamRC #KruiserFeelings

— The Roman Catholic (@stephenkruiser) March 13, 2013

Hey Catholic bashing leftist bigots, I can block you as fast as you keep the hate tweets all the while making dinner so bring it #multitask

— Katie O’Malley (@katieomalley) March 13, 2013

Now I get to hear on cable news how the Pope needs to “liberalize” the church. Listen, I’m liberal. Catholicism is not. I can deal with this

— Remi(@RemNoSleep) March 13, 2013

If your beef with the Catholic Church is the role it gives women, there’s another global faith of about a billion you may want to address.

— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) March 13, 2013

Did Boehner Have His Gutlessness Sequestered On March 1st?

We can only hope.

House Speaker John Boehner, the top elected Republican in the United States, agreed that wide differences remain, even after Obama’s strong re-election victory last November.

Boehner did not restrain his criticism following Wednesday’s meeting, telling reporters: “Republicans want to balance the budget. The president doesn’t. Republicans want to solve our long-term debt problem. The president doesn’t. We want to unlock our energy resources to put more Americans back to work. The president doesn’t.”

Gotta love the thoroughly brain-dead implication that because Obama won the presidency, the members of the House should capitulate. All of those Republicans winning House races to maintain control must not have counted has being part of a real election.

I remain as surprised as anyone that Boehner didn’t blink in the face of Sequester Scare Theater. It just takes one time and, having gotten through his first exhibition of evidence of a spine without having the world crumble around him, Boehner seems emboldened. This may (MAY) be why the president is suddenly fond of having dinner with everyone rather than hitting the trail to tell horror stories around the ideological campfire.

It’s far too early to tell if the Spinate Boehner is a real thing or if the next “crisis” will catch him on a bad tanning day but at this point all many of us can afford is some weak hope for the best.

Campaign Addict POTUS Meets With OFA To Issue Marching Orders

He can’t quit you.

Reuniting with supporters and top-tier donors who fueled his re-election victory, President Barack Obama on Wednesday told a grass-roots group springing out of his campaign that they can play an equally powerful role in helping his ambitious second-term agenda come to fruition.

Addressing the fledgling group Organizing for Action for the first time, Obama sought to temper concerns among Republicans and good-governance groups that questioned whether the group was really seeking to help Democrats recapture the House in 2014.

“I actually just want to govern — at least for a couple of years,” Obama said.

Let’s clarify a couple of things. First, it’s not a “fledgling group” it’s a fledgling name. It’s the same old people using the same old campaign email list to push the same old Obama agenda. They didn’t even bother to change the logo

Second, this president has no interest whatsoever in governing. He wants to hit the road, be the Demagogue in-chief and golf.

Here’s the best part of the moving OFA saga. The group made up of Obama volunteers and donors, using the Obama campaign logo, flooding my in box with Obama agenda emails and who just had dinner with President Obama says it isn’t partisan.

Um, Maybe We Shouldn’t Have Been Complaining About The Lack Of A Senate Budget

Via The Weekly Standard.

Senator Patty Murray, the Democratic chair of the Senate Budget Committee, finally released a budget today. Year over year, in this proposed budget, spending jumps dramatically.

For instance, from this year’s budget to next year’s proposed budget, spending would increase by $162 billion. This year, the federal government will spend $3.599 trillion; under Murray’s budget, the federal government would be on track to spend even more.

Naturally, any Republican counter suggestions to reduce the numbers in this logic-free nightmare of a proposal will be discussed in the lapdog media as being ” drastic cuts” or “draconian”.

This is the kind of problem you run into when you let people who don’t live on your planet try to run things.

New Pope, Old Media

As a lifelong, practicing Roman Catholic, there are few things I find more enjoyable than a papal conclave. Love us or hate us, we do ritual and pageantry better than anyone. As a conservative who writes often about media bias, I knew there would be some ridiculous coverage of this one, especially in the social-media era.

It began with the conclave in 2005, the first in the 24/7 cable news era. Then and now, the MSM weighed in with what it thought the Church needed to do to be more like a modern church, which, thankfully, the cardinals blissfully paid no attention to whatsoever. Listening to and reading the media coverage of this current conclave in the days leading up to it made it seem to me as if the average American journalist thought the pope would be chosen from a fraternity during rush week and not the College of Cardinals.

Because it’s the MSM and it can’t help itself, identity politics also had to come into play.

Immediately after Pope Francis gave his first blessing, even Matthew Dowd, a former Bush-Cheney consultant, wandered far afield by unequivocally stating that by choosing the name “Francis” this pope would be all about social justice. At that point it hadn’t even been made clear whether Francis Xavier or Francis of Assisi had been the inspiration for the historical choice. This was lazy not only for that reason, but also for the fact that “social justice” as the Church means it is very different from the American interpretation, as stated by one of the most talked-about favorites of this conclave, Cardinal Peter Turkson.

The press reaction was mind-numbingly awful, full of “reporting” that the man chosen to lead more than a billion Roman Catholics was–SHOCKER!–against abortion and same-sex marriage (here is a link to the Google results for “new pope abortion same sex marriage”). It’s as if they’re living in an alternate reality where, because they really, really want it to happen, they think the pontiff of their dreams will appear on the balcony and declare that his first order of business will be to invalidate Canon law, all the while tossing condoms to the crowd.

The Church endures because the Church isn’t whimsical or a slave to the social quirks of a given era. This frustrates many. Yes, it has had some less-than-savory episodes in its history, most recently with the pedophile-priest scandal. It survives the darker periods because it will often make institutional adjustments to address serious issues like that. It doesn’t, however, take the pulse of those in society who have largely forsaken God to find out what it needs to do to be more popular.

And that is why it will be here long after the New York Times and its ilk are forgotten.

Related: Tweets Of The Day — Habemus Papam Edition

Video Open Thread: How To Pick Up A Girl At The Gym

Who says there’s no romance left? Also, the guy is totally juicing.

REJECTED: FL Senate Panel Says No To Governor Scott And Medicaid Expansion

Not playing nice.

Rebuffing Gov. Rick Scott’s support of Medicaid expansion, a Florida Senate committee on Monday rejected the idea, all but ending the possibility that the state would add more poor people to Medicaid rolls.

But the Senate panel debating the expansion proposed a compromise: to accept the federal money but use it to put low-income people into private insurance plans. Accepting the money would please the governor and a number of Floridians, while steering people away from Medicaid, which many lawmakers and residents view as troubled.

The committee vote to reject a Medicaid expansion under President Obama’s health care overhaul was 7 to 4, with Democrats voting for the expansion.

Last week, a Florida House committee voted to reject Medicaid expansion altogether, saying that the system was broken and that adding people to the rolls would cost taxpayers too much money in the long run. The House speaker, Will Weatherford, a Republican, said it was the wrong approach, calling it a “dangerous path.”

It’s commendable that the Florida Senate checked the governor’s bad idea, but the House seems to have a better grasp of the truth. The states that wholeheartedly embrace the expansion (“Present”) are going to experience some brutal buyer’s remorse in the none-too-distant future.

Four more years.

Congressional Black Caucus Still Not Impressed With Cabinet Appointments

The party of diversity.

The Congressional Black Caucus renewed calls Monday for President Obama to nominate more blacks to Cabinet posts.

“You have moved forward with new Cabinet appointments and yet, to date, none of them have been African American,” the group’s chairwoman, Democratic Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, told Obama in a letter. “You have publicly expressed your commitment to retaining diversity within your Cabinet. However, the people you have chosen to appoint in this new term have hardly been reflective of this country’s diversity.”

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who is black, was said to be in the running for for secretary of state, however, Rice withdrew her name because of wavering congressional support, following her misstatements last year in the aftermath of the fatal Sept. 11 terror attacks in Libya.

The caucus’ criticism of Obama follows similar concerns about a lack of diversity at the highest levels of the administration.

“It’s embarrassing as hell,” Democratic New York Rep. Charlie Rangel, a founding black caucus member, said in early January.

Let’s play the “What If This Were A Republican President?” game. You wouldn’t be able to go anywhere near a television or news site without being bombarded with outrage. If Reagan was “The Teflon President”, Obama is “The President Who Makes Teflon Look Sticky”.