Current Events - October 7, 2013

How We Got Here: A (Very) Brief History of Recent Fiscal Negotiations

Here's how we got to the present shutdown/debt ceiling impasse. Keep in mind that the Senate failed to pass a budget throughout this period, and the president was content to govern from crisis to crisis.

The Budget and Debt-Limit Endgames

Big Lie 3: Not raising the debt limit causes a default on the debt, threatening catastrophe. 

Big Truth 3: This lie is so big, so monstrous, and so often repeated, that it calls into question either the mental ability or (more likely) the integrity of everyone who repeats it.   Sadly, even many conservative pundits seem to think that failure to raise the debt limit is tantamount to default.   Even Fox news reporters carelessly conflate raising the debt limit and not defaulting.   Somebody should point that out to them.   They ignore ordinary folks, so maybe some celebrity reader of AT could do it.   The truth is that default can only occur if the President orders the Secretary of the Treasury to refuse to make interest and principal payments from current revenue.  

Now Obama Rescues the GOP

By Peggy Noonan
The White House thought they’d cause pain with their strategy and the pain would redound on the Republicans. They have caused pain, but it looks to me very likely it will redound on themselves.
Add to this the seemingly incoherent but probably clever Republican move to force a shutdown and then pass bill after bill restoring funding to various government agencies and departments—which allows them to argue they’re trying to keep from hurting the people. They’re trying to lighten any pain.
They’re trying to get a shutdown with nothing shut. That way they rouse their base without riling all the American people.
This story has shifted, in just a matter of days.

Can You Feel the Fear in DC? Now Let’s Increase It.

 What if they gave a shutdown and no one cared? The only people terrified, horrified and mortified by the so-called “government shutdown” seem to be hack politicians and whiny little trolls writing in the Beltway-Manhattan pinkosphere. 
D.C. is scared, and that’s good. It’s about time that the regulatory Boomtown felt the same boom lowered upon it as its tyranny has lowered upon the rest of the country. 

AmberAlert.gov Shutdown, Michelle Obama's Letsmove.gov Up and Running

Yesterday the AMBER alert system website, which spreads information about missing and kidnapped children, was taken down. The federal government shutdown was cited as the reason.

First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign and website, whose latest effort is to teach people how to drink water, is still up and running.  

Big Government Zombie Survives Shutdown

...Indeed for true believers in limited government, while this pseudo-shutdown is long overdue and should be a precursor of more budget slashing, its effects so far should be frightening. How is it possible that the vast majority of government functions are still open?

Who's afraid of a government shutdown? Indeed, fears of a government shutdown are misplaced.  Be afraid of the Big Government Zombie, immune from flame- throwers and anti-submarine nets chained across the Potomac.

Big government is on autopilot with no means for anyone to pull a kill-switch.

America Will Self-Correct from the Mistake of Obama

...America is one of the only countries that self-corrects.  When America decided that slavery was wrong -- which occurred at the founding of our nation -- the Founding Fathers, some slave owners, wrote it out of the Constitution.  The American Spirit prevailed over self-indulgence....

...Under decades of Liberalism, America has fallen into decay.  Obama's administration showcases the effects of unchecked Liberalism better than any other, with things like the big powerful malevolent government, reverse discrimination, rampant poverty, and the list goes on.  However, America will self-correct.  That is what the American Spirit is all about.

The Cold Hard Facts of Obama's Economy

There's an old adage, "Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story."
That could be the battle cry within the Obama administration when it comes to Obama's work on the economy through his five plus years as president. But a close and objective look at the facts shows that the Obama-led and Obama-owned economy tells one and only one story -- FAILURE.

Washington Fences: Metaphor and Reality

....Republicans are not holding the country hostage. On the contrary, President Obama is holding that which is most dear to Americans hostage, cutting Americans off from Washington's sublime Americana, depriving us of that which we love in order to protect that which he loves: ObamaCare.
President Obama has taken to referring to the Patient Affordable Care Act as "ObamaCare." Has any President ever been so brazenly self-aggrandizing? Maybe some have in private, but in public? The proud narcissistic displays are deeply troubling.
The majority of Americans view ObamaCare as a threat, shrinking our religious freedom, our health care options and access, and unnecessarily encumbering our economy with a concrete overcoat of massive regulations.

ObamaCare: 'I was Laughing at Boehner, Until the Mail Came Today'

It's finally dawning on liberals, leftists, and progressives that conservatives were telling the truth when they warned about the fundamental problems and dangers of The 'Affordable' Care Act (ObamaCare).  As reported in the San Jose Mercury News, reality came knocking for Obama voters and ObamaCare supporters last week.  And many of them wish they had not answered the door.

"I really don't like the Republican tactics, but at least now I can understand why they are so pissed about this. When you take $10,000 out of my family's pocket each year, that's otherwise disposable income or retirement savings that will not be going into our local economy." 

Issa: ‘There’s a reason to fear’ Obama agencies

Republican California Rep. Darrell Issa, the GOP’s top government watchdog, warns that we have entered a time to “love my country, fear my government.”
“Right now, there’s a reason to fear the IRS and other agencies, including the EPA, who are loaded with people who feel empowered to bend the rules against those they disagree with,” the California Republican explained.

ATF tries to block Fast and Furious whistle-blower from publishing book

The ATF agent who blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious has been denied permission to write a book on the botched anti-gun trafficking sting "because it would have a negative impact on morale," according to the very agency responsible for the scandal....
Dodson's book, titled "The Unarmed Truth," provides the first inside account of how the federal government permitted and helped sell some 2,000 guns to Mexican drug cartels, despite evidence the guns killed innocent people.

Ben Carson's IRS Audit Can't Possibly Be Coincidence

Carson recounted that ultimately the IRS conducted a full audit on him, finding no violations. Before giving his speech critical of Obama, the tax agency had never bothered the 62-year-old doctor.

Asked by O'Reilly if he thought he was targeted because of his politics, Carson said, "Whether that was the case or not, the fundamental issue here is that the freedom of our citizens is being threatened." He called IRS politically driven abuse a "much more serious thing than Watergate or Iran-Contra or Benghazi-gate. Freedom of speech — freedom of expression — is one of the major principles of our country."...

Someone — either within the IRS bureaucracy or above it — saw what Carson did, didn't like it, and decided to make him pay. The American people must know who it was.

41 September Homicides in Rahm's Chicago, Murders Exceed 2011 Total

After Chicago recorded a terrible homicide total of 53 in August, September wasn't much better for Rahm's "world class" city. The city suffered 41 homicides, 30 of which resulted from 184 total shootings. 
September brings more bad news for Chicago residents. While Mayor Rahm Emaunel, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, and the Chicago media have continued to hammer the point that the "crime rate is down," and "murder is down," as of September 22, the homicide total for 2013 now exceeds 2011 by two percent at 350, according to the Chicago Police Crime Data Portal.

White Soldier Killed By Black Thugs

...For the record, the terrorist attack that took his life didn't occur on foreign soil and the terrorists themselves weren't middle-easterners.  Contrarily, the attack happened domestically in Lakewood, Washington and the terrorists were Black.  In short, they were urban terrorists who apparently killed Tevin Geike after he didn't cower in their presence. This authentic soldier didn't yield to the toy soldiers....
Predictably, as with all Black-on-White violent crimes, the cloud of political-correctness will hover above this case and the police will be hesitant to call it a hate crime, even though it's evident.  Arguably, it's more than a hate crime; it's a virtual war crime.  This tragedy is another confirmation that a war of values is occurring in America.

Leftist geography professor at taxpayer-funded university rails at students over shutdown

Last week, a geography professor at the public, taxpayer-funded University of Wisconsin-La Crosse used a required assignment in one of her courses to wage a campaign against Republicans, blaming them entirely for the government shutdown over federal spending.
Rachel Slocum, an assistant professor in the UW–La Crosse geography and earth sciences department, sent the vitriolic email entitled “government websites” on Oct. 1, reports Media Trackers Wisconsin.

Report: Kid Charged with Felony For Storing Knife in Tackle Box on School Grounds

At what point will the American people finally rise up and say ‘enough is enough?’ Seriously.
A Georgia high school senior was reportedly charged with a felony for the supposed crime of keeping a knife in his tackle box on campus during school hours.

As US touts thaw in Iran relations, Iranians spit on Obama image, prepare for ‘Death to America’ day

...Mashregh, the media outlet of the Revolutionary Guards, published a photo of the image of Obama alongside the U.S. flag laid on the ground and radicals walking over them. The picture shows one individual spitting on Obama’s image.
And while the Obama administration and U.S. media have generally portrayed the phone call and Twitter exchange between Obama and Iranian president Hassan Rouhani as evidence of warming relations, in September the website of the Quds cyber officers posted an image of Obama, wearing a Nazi field marshal’s uniform, surrendering with his hands on his head. The caption reads, “In the not too distant future…. One [Gen. Qasem] Soleimani is enough for all the enemies of this country.”

Americans at War in Africa

Two weekend raids show al Qaeda is a long way from defeated.

The tide of war against al Qaeda is expanding, as two weekend raids by U.S. commandos illustrate. The raids show the skill and reach of American special forces, but also the enduring nature of this conflict with Islamists and the need to counter its African expansion....

The Administration has seemed reluctant to act forcefully against al Qaeda in Africa lest it undermine President Obama's claim that the terror network is defeated. The raids are a tacit admission that Mr. Obama has been overselling victory, but we're nonetheless glad to see the U.S. going back on offense.