Read more at The Blaze
Author: Papa Giorgio
Democratic Money Grubbing Hypocrites Kowtowing to Billionaires
This bugs me to no end, I will post at the end of this a oft posted comparison to progressive billionaires versus more conservative billionaires and the impact this money has for-or-against our freedoms.
Michael Medved shows how Democrats and rational libertarians (the Koch Brothers) diverge on the issues most important to voters. Not to mention the hypocrisy of the left in all this. So much so that Washington Post’s Dana Milbank said:
✂ “Democrats’ climate-change filibuster is nothing but a lot of hot air”…. “This may be the first time in history that a group of senators filibustered themselves.”
The Washington Examiner’s Zack Colman points out some of the hypocrisy when he writes,
✂ “While Reid has grown more boisterous when it comes to the Koch brothers, Republicans have shot back that Democratic-aligned outsiders are starting to play the big money game as well. They have pointed to Tom Steyer, the billionaire former hedge fund manager, who has pledged to spend $100 million through his NextGen Climate PAC on climate and environmental issues ahead of the 2014 midterm elections.”
Powerline goes on to explain the reason behind a bunch of old, outdated politicians doing an all-nighter:
…Tom Steyer, a billionaire who has made a great deal of money on government-subsidized “green” energy projects, has become one of the Democratic Party’s most important donors. On February 18, he hosted a fundraiser at his home that netted $400,000. Harry Reid and six other Senators attended, along with Al Gore and a number of rich environmentalists. At that meeting, plans for last night’s talk-a-thon were already being laid.
The connection is simple: Steyer has pledged to contribute $50 million and raise another $50 million to help Democrats in the 2014 elections. The catch is that they have to emphasize global warming as an issue:
✦ Steyer’s advocacy group, NextGen Political Action, plans to spend at least $50 million of the former hedge-fund manager’s money, plus another $50 million raised from other donors. The group will refuse to spend money on behalf of Democrats who oppose climate regulation, but will not spend money against them either, according to Chris Lehane, a Steyer consultant.
So the Democrats are trying to walk a narrow line. They need to make noise about global warming to keep the cash flowing from Tom Steyer and other deep-pocketed environmental activists (some of whom, of course, are also “green” energy cronies)….
Plus, the comparison to these leftist radicals shrinking human freedom (growing government) versus allowing the proverbial us to make more choices in the individual sense (smaller government) is legend:
…First, the government needs to issue a mandate that all households must own at least one firearm. We will need a federal agency to ensure that people aren’t just buying cheap BB guns or .22 pistols, even though that may be all they need or want. It has to be 9mm or above, with .44 magnums getting a one-time tax credit on their own. Let’s pick an agency known for its aptitude on firearms and home protection to issue required annual certifications each year, without which the government will have to levy hefty fines. Which agency would do the best job? Hmmmm … I know! How about TSA? With their track record of excellence, we should have no problems implementing this mandate.
Don’t want to own a gun? Hey, no worries. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts says citizens have the right to refuse to comply with mandates. The government will just seize some of your cash in fines, that’s all. Isn’t choice great? Those fines will go toward federal credits that will fund firearm purchases for the less well off, so that they can protect their homes as adequately as those who can afford guns on their own. Since they generally live in neighborhoods where police response is appreciably worse than their higher-earning fellow Americans, they need them more anyway. Besides — gun ownership is actually mentioned in the Constitution, unlike health care, which isn’t. Obviously, that means that the federal government should be funding gun ownership….
This is why people fear government, to answer John’s question.
Back to the excellent NewsBusters response to “Krystal Ball” on MSNBC:
Honestly, how does this woman have a job in a news division?
Oh. That’s right. MSNBC isn’t a news organization. How could I have forgotten?
Saying Republicans don’t want young people to buy health insurance is preposterous.
What conservatives don’t want is the government to force young people to purchase something that morbidity tables show will likely have absolutely no benefit for them until the distant future so that others who likely will benefit much sooner can get it either for free or far more cheaply.
Irrespective of what Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts foolishly ruled last year, this is neither Constitutional nor ethical.
As for these young people dying if ObamaCare is not enacted, that asininely assumes that people won’t have the money to pay for their care if they get sick or won’t purchase health insurance when they reach an age when they believe they need it.
For example, Ball mentioned prenatal care and tetanus shots. As a person that owns an insurance agency, I certainly would be telling a client looking to have children to purchase health insurance.
As for Pap smears, the Mayo Clinic recommends women over 21 do them every two to three years.
The cost varies state by state. In New York City, you can get one for as little as $150.
As such, a woman in that city doing it even once every two years would save thousands of dollars paying for it herself rather than buying health insurance.
As for cholesterol tests, these are now available online for as little as $40.
This great, short, update comes via The Lonely Conservative:
The short answer to the question posed above is “Not even close.” It’s not the Koch Brothers or ALEC. Nope. The biggest spender in the dark money game is the Tides Foundation. Oh and by the way, Tides is a big liberal group.
Whenever “ALEC” and “dark money” are mentioned in the media, however, there ought to be a third name given at least equal attention – the Tides Foundation. That’s because Tides, the San Francisco-based funder of virtually every liberal activist group in existence since the mid-1970s, pioneered the concept of providing a cut-out for donors who don’t wish to be associated in public with a particular cause. It is instructive to compare the funding totals for Tides and ALEC.
A search of non-profit grant databases reveals 139 grants worth a total of $5.6 million to ALEC since 1998. By comparison, Tides is the Mega-Goliath of dark money cash flows. Tides received 1,976 grants worth a total of $451 million during the same period, or nearly 100 times as much money as ALEC. But even that’s not the whole story with Tides, which unlike ALEC, has divided and multiplied over the years. Add to the Tides Foundation total the directly linked Tides Center’s 465 grants with a combined worth of $62 million, and the total is well over half a billion dollars. (Read More)
So there.
READ MORE
Two ARMY Veterans Call Out Fellow Student “Soldier”
Two Veterans call out fake soldier wearing Ranger, E.O.D., and 101st airborne tab. While wearing an E-8 rank.
72 Killed Resisting Massachusetts State Gun Confiscation
This comes via UFP, enjoy, the title caught my attention as well, “72 Patriots Killed Resisting Massachusetts State Gun Confiscation“:
Boston – National Guard units seeking to confiscate a cache of recently banned assault weapons were ambushed by elements of a Para-military extremist faction. Military and law enforcement sources estimate that 72 were killed and more than 200 injured before government forces were compelled to withdraw.
Speaking after the clash, Massachusetts Governor Thomas Gage declared that the extremist faction, which was made up of local citizens, has links to the radical right-wing tax protest movement.
Gage blamed the extremists for recent incidents of vandalism directed against internal revenue offices. The governor, who described the group’s organizers as “criminals,” issued an executive order authorizing the summary arrest of any individual who has interfered with the government’s efforts to secure law and order.
The military raid on the extremist arsenal followed wide-spread refusal by the local citizenry to turn over recently outlawed assault weapons.
Gage issued a ban on military-style assault weapons and ammunition earlier in the week. This decision followed a meeting early this month between government and military leaders at which the governor authorized the forcible confiscation of illegal arms.
One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that “none of these people would have been killed had the extremists obeyed the law and turned over their weapons voluntarily.”
Government troops initially succeeded in confiscating a large supply of outlawed weapons and ammunition. However, troops attempting to seize arms and ammunition in Lexington met with resistance from heavily-armed extremists who had been tipped off regarding the government’s plans.
During a tense standoff in the Lexington town park, National Guard Colonel Francis Smith, commander of the government operation, ordered the armed group to surrender and return to their homes. The impasse was broken by a single shot, which was reportedly fired by one of the right-wing extremists.
Eight civilians were killed in the ensuing exchange.
Ironically, the local citizenry blamed government forces rather than the extremists for the civilian deaths. Before order could be restored, armed citizens from surrounding areas had descended upon the guard units. Colonel Smith, finding his forces over matched by the armed mob, ordered a retreat.
Governor Gage has called upon citizens to support the state/national joint task force in its effort to restore law and order. The governor also demanded the surrender of those responsible for planning and leading the attack against the government troops.
Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, who have been identified as “ringleaders” of the extremist faction, remain at large.
And this fellow Americans, is how the American Revolution began, April 20, 1775.
On July 4th, 1776 these same “right wing anti-tax extremists” signed the Declaration of Independence, pledging to each other and their countrymen their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor. Many of them lost everything, including their families and their lives over the course of the next few years.
This is a powerful reminder of how far we have come as a nation. In many regards we have come full circle and find ourselves in a situation not unlike that of our founding fathers.
It does seem like a full circle. Read more.
Ex-Atheist Police Detective Examines the Gospels (Serious Saturday)
(First “Serious Saturday” in over a month! … No one better than Det. Wallace to fill the spot.) Video Description:
Emmanuel Faith Community Church (February 2014) – Homicide detective J. Warner Wallace presented an apologetics seminar on the subject of “Cold Case Christianity”. Wallace investigates the Gospels as a police homicide detective would and finds Christianity credible. Wallace was once a hard-core atheist. This is part of the “Ex-Atheists Who Converted to Christianity“ playlist.
Buy J. Warner Wallace’s book: Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels.
Couple of places to go mentioned in the presentation:
Arnold Swartzenegger’s 79,000 Calorie Sandwich (Kevin & Bean)
Kevin & Bean talk to Harley Morenstein from Epic Meal Time about cooking with Arnold Swartzenegger. Funny interview, small portion of video included.
(LA Times) An almost 80,000-calorie sandwich made by Arnold Schwarzenegger? We must be talking about Epic Meal Time, the popular YouTube show with the sole mission of making the most epic meals ever.
The Governator teamed up with the show’s Harley Morenstein to create what they’re calling the steak and egger sandwich. And the best part? They cook parts of the sandwich on Schwarzenegger’s M47 Patton tank.
Yes, it’s an actual tank, with Schwarzenegger’s name written across the side.
“What more do you want, Internet?” asks Morenstein in the video.
The two men layer slices of cheese, a loaf of baked ground meat, bacon and ostrich eggs on two giant buns.
“This section alone will build huge biceps,” says Schwarzenegger, pointing out different areas of the sandwich. “This section here, the calves.”
Before putting on the top bun, Schwarzenegger does some push-ups on top of the sandwich. So we can now add “The Terminator” star’s sweat to the list of growing ingredients.
According to an Epic Meal Time calorie counter in the video, the sandwich contains 78,583 calories and 4,172 grams of fat.
And would you believe us if we told you this monster sandwich is really for the kids? Schwarzenegger and Morenstein are using the sandwich video to promote the charity After-School All-Stars that creates after-school programs for kids. You can donate $10 for a chance to make a meal and video with Schwarzenegger and Morenstein, then ride with the two in his tank.
Rep. Gowdy’s Floor Speech In Favor Of ENFORCE The Law Act
This first video is another wonderful Trey Gowdy anthem. Click his name in the “TAGS” to see other “music to your ears” speeches:
Video description: Rep. Gowdy’s floor speech in favor of H.R. 4138 the ENFORCE the Law Act.
And this is a recent Jonathan Turley statement before Congress (do the same, check out Turley in the “TAGS”):
Video description:
Via The Blaze ~ I did turn the volume up from the original file… so prep your volume control.
A constitutional law expert warned Congress during a hearing Wednesday that America has reached a “constitutional tipping point” under the watch of President Barack Obama.
Jonathan Turley, professor of public interest law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said the legislative branch of the U.S. government is in danger of becoming irrelevant in the face of continued executive overreach.
“My view [is] that the president, has in fact, exceeded his authority in a way that is creating a destabilizing influence in a three branch system,” Turley said. “I want to emphasize, of course, this problem didn’t begin with President Obama, I was critical of his predecessor President Bush as well, but the rate at which executive power has been concentrated in our system is accelerating. And frankly, I am very alarmed by the implications of that aggregation of power.”
“What also alarms me, however, is that the two other branches appear not just simply passive, but inert in the face of this concentration of authority,” he added….
“Liberals WIll Use Carbon Tax to Make Government Bigger” ~ Hansen
James Hansen, although I disagree with him vehemently… on almost everything… he at least got one thing right: liberal Democrats steal public funds to grow government. (The whole “broken clock” thingy.)
White House Starts War on Disclosure of Pay Privacy
I deal with this “disparity” in full here.
The first bill President Obama signed into law was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, but five years later, the White House is still talking about the gender wage-gap.
At a White House briefing on Wednesday, Betsey Stevenson, one of President Obama’s economic advisers, said female employees need to know how much their male colleagues earn, so they can tell if they’re being paid equally.
Russian Roulette: Troops In Ukraine-Not Just Crimea
See more at The Interpreter Magazine
(From Video Description) In dispatch six, VICE News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky travels to the Kherson region of mainland Ukraine to both the Ukrainian and Russian checkpoints. At the Ukrainian checkpoint, Simon goes inside one of their tanks, and speaks to the commander, who says that despite his Russian blood he will defend all invaders. But at the Russian checkpoint, the exchange isn’t quite as cordial.
The New York Times points to the amassing of troops on the border as counter to earlier Russian press releases:
MOSCOW — Russia’s Defense Ministry announced new military operations in several regions near the Ukrainian border on Thursday, even as Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany warned the Kremlin to abandon the politics of the 19th and 20th centuries or face diplomatic and economic retaliation from a united Europe.
In Moscow, the military acknowledged significant operations involving armored and airborne troops in the Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions abutting eastern Ukraine, where many ethnic Russians have protested against the new interim government in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, and appealed to Moscow for protection.
A day after a deputy minister denied any military buildup on the border, the Defense Ministry released a series of statements beginning early Thursday that appeared to contradict that. They outlined what was described as intensive training of units involving artillery batteries, assault helicopters and at least 10,000 soldiers….
Gay Patriot Touches on the Failures of Feminism
Yes, I am stealing pretty much the entire post… it is GREAT commentary. But PLEASE at least click through to their LINK [link is still good even though there is a line through it] and to let GP know I love their work (minus the many spelling errors, which I fixed):
(V the K) So, aside from lowering standards to the point where Lena Dunham is considered smart and pretty, what has Feminism achieved?
The feminization of our politics has brought about the unsustainable welfare state; whose crowning achievement is Obamacare, a program championed by a Feminist Speaker of the House and implemented by a Feminist Secretary of Health and Human Services.
American Colleges are well on the way to becoming puritanical matriarchies. Already overwhelmingly female, new laws are being worked that will define virtually all sex as rape, and there are efforts underway to make it mandatory to expel males who are merely accused of rape. Rape itself is being redefined to include the circumstance of a woman changing her mind after consenting to sex with a man, with no statute of limitations.
The foregoing may be an effort for women to reclaim through legalism what they lost in the sexual revolution; control over sex. The culture of single parenthood and permanently single women is a consequence of men no longer needing to commit to a woman in order to receive sex….
At one point, Feminists assailed pornography as demeaning to women. Now, it’s hailed as empowerment when a Womyn’s Studies Major at Duke University (Annual Tuition: $40,000) makes porn. [The coed in question claims it’s the Patriarchy’s fault because she doesn’t get enough financial aid; never mind she was offered a full-ride (no pun intended) at another university.]
Social Conservatives get knocked around a lot for believing that motherhood and family give women more dignity than porn careers, for believing that men should commit to their women and women to their men and both should commit to their families; for believing that empowerment comes through strength of character and self-reliance, not by performing lewd acts for the sexual gratification of strangers. Given the alternative, it should be conceded that social conservatives have a point.
U.S. Timetable According to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (1589)
1789? 1589? or 1614?
Via HotAir:
I don’t typically like to give anyone too much grief for what could easily be an innocent mental-to-verbal lapse, but… c’mon, now. Given that she took to the House floor to explicitly argue against the constitutionality of the GOP’s proposed Enforce The Law Act, I must say that her argument might have been a teeny bit more convincing if she was a little more firm in her background knowledge of the actual Constitution. Yikes.
Huh. I didn’t know.