Political Pistachio: November 2015

Monday, November 30, 2015

Ben Carson Blows His SoCon Cred On Colorado Springs Shooting

by JASmius

For reasons known only by him and God, Dr. C. went the Rodney King "Can't we all just get along?" route on an issue so emotionally-charged that anybody who knows the first thing about politics would know better than to try to play neutral mediator and cast both sides as moral equivalents. Particularly if you're a Republican presidential candidate who has made one side of that emotionally-charged issue a core plank of your campaign and whose votes you pretty much have to have to win Iowa.

This is why rookies don't make it to the White House.

Or, "Stick a fork in Gentle Ben, he's done":

Pro-Life leaders are furious with presidential hopeful Dr. Ben Carson for his comments yesterday that pro-life rhetoric is partially responsible for the shootings that took place in Colorado last week.

On CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday morning, Carson said, “Hateful rhetoric exacerbates the situation…You don’t ever solve them [problems] with hateful rhetoric. Both sides should tone down the rhetoric and engage in civil discussion.”

On ABC’s This Week Carson said, “There’s a lot of extremism coming from all areas. We get into our separate corners and we hate each other, we want to destroy those with whom we disagree.”

I don't think a presidential candidate has self-destructed in real time on live national television like this since Barry Goldwater said, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" in his 1964 GOP convention acceptance speech. It displayed an utter tone-deafness and inability to hear how his words would sound to his core supporters without making any inroads with his detractors. Millard Fillmore didn't botch the slavery issue this badly with the Compromise of 1850.

Listen and weep, Carsonites:

In exclusive interviews with Breitbart News, a number of national pro-life leaders condemned Carson’s statements.

Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue and a board member at the Center for Medical Progress, said, “Doctor Carson just ended his presidential candidacy.”

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of American, that has seven hundred chapters on college campuses around the country, says:

Did Carson take his talking points from Planned Parenthood? He completely missed the mark, casting suspicion on pro-lifers who had nothing to do with this tragedy and only furthering the deceitful narrative that the abortion industry has already laid out in the media. Compassion and love, not violence, are at the heart of the pro-life movement and motivate us to protect life in its stages and we extend that same love and compassion to the victims and their families of this horrible tragedy.

The Grande Dame of the pro-life movement, Judie Brown of American Life Leagues, said, “Outrageous. What is Carson missing in all this other than a known dysfunctional man with a history of undependable behavior. What did any of us say to provoke that? Carson is dead wrong, period.”... [emphasis added]

Anybody who knows the first thing about politics should also be acutely aware that no branch of "true conservatism" EVER forgives betrayal, either real or perceived. You're either with them or you're against them, and mistakes are neither tolerated nor believed as being mistakes.

I agree with Eeyore that this was almost certainly the grand bull moose gold medal winner of brain farts by the Doc in trying torturedly to keep with his "national healing" campaign theme instead of standing by one of his core constituencies in its time of need. Some issues cannot be bridged, nor its antagonists reconciled, there being no other choice but to fight for what's right. We can quibble and quarrel over strategies <AHEM> but the need to battle on is a settled question.

That is the line across which Ben Carson stumbled yesterday, and would not have had he not been the amateur and greenhorn he is. Imagine the unforced errors he'd make if he became president.

THIS is why we need experienced, professional politicians, my Tea Party friends. Because our all-hallowed principles don't mean a damn thing if we can't get our candidates elected to put them into public policy. It really is as simple as that.

Or at least, it ought to be.

Still No Governmant Shutdown Likely Over Planned Parenthood Funding

by JASmius

Which, just as a reminder, is mostly via Medicaid, which isn't discretionary spending and would require major Medicaid privatization, something so DOA in the current divided government situation that it would never be attempted anyway. What small fraction of Planned Parenthood subsidies that are discretionary would make any such "defunding" almost entirely symbolic and largely pointless as a practical matter.

That, I suspect, is much more why most House Republicans aren't eager to launch another government shutdown effort over an issue on which they cannot win in terms of either policy or public relations. It's not like the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting dramatically changed anything in that regard.

But it's not helping, either:

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Monday said he expects lawmakers to have a "healthy debate" over Planned Parenthood this month as they consider spending legislation for the current fiscal year, but he did not expect a government shutdown over financing for the women's health group.

McCarthy, responding to questions about whether the deadly shooting at a Planned Parenthood [abortuary] in Colorado would affect Republican opposition to funding the group, said the top focus of many lawmakers had moved to homeland security in the wake of the November 13th attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.

Planned Parenthood critics in Congress want the government to stop providing funding for the group because it [murders unborn babies]. But, "I do not hear people shutting the government down over it right now," said McCarthy, a Republican from California-23.

"I think security is becoming the top issue that I'm hearing (from lawmakers), especially in the last two weeks," McCarthy added.

An issue realm which I have no doubt grounds can be found for another shutdown showdown that will have much more favorable PR grounds than Planned Parenthood Funding. So keep the faith, Tea Partiers, keep the faith.

Exit note: Notice how McCarthy phrased his government shutdown demurral: not as a top-down leadership declaration - "There will be another shutdown over Speaker Ryan's dead body!" - but a bottom-up, ear-to-the-ground, "This is what our members are saying" relayed report. An indication that Paul Ryan is delivering on changing the way the House is run, yes?

No government shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding will probably deny him credit for it from TPers, but it's been noted and logged here, at least.

Hard Starboard Radio: The World Under The Green Thumb

Number of Americans supporting Muslim monitoring growing; Obama White House hindering all investigations, withholding all records; France arrests twenty-four Greenstremists in advance of Greenapalooza; Putin 'fully mobilized' to tackle threat from Turkey; Chicago police union stands with Jason Van Dyke; Greenstremists demand "meat tax"; More British believing in actual climate science; and greenstremists riot in Paris anyway.

No wonder, November, it's gone at 6PM Eastern/3PM Pacific.

Obama Caves on Key Elements Of Iran Nuclear Capitulation

by JASmius

Is this even possible? How can one cave on key elements of a deal that is a total cave already? Does that mean O is reneging on his surrender to the mullahs and is moving toward denying them their nuclear weapons ambitions? Because otherwise I think we're entering the realm of creating huge rips in the fabric of spacetime.

Of course so would President Hussein denying the mullahs their means of igniting Armageddon:

Next month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is scheduled to address one of the most important elements of the July 2015 Iran nuclear deal: Iran’s possible past nuclear weapons work, which the IAEA refers to as the “possible military dimensions” or the PMD of Iran’s nuclear program.

Although Obama officials had said Iran’s full cooperation with the PMD investigation was a prerequisite for the lifting of sanctions, this is no longer the case.

Naturally.

Remember these good old days?:

Resolving the PMD issue is important because this information is necessary to set a baseline for verifying the nuclear agreement. Secretary of State John Kerry made this clear in a July 24th, 2015 speech when he said: “PMD has to be resolved before they get one ounce of sanctions relief. Now that could take six months, it could take a year. I don’t know how long. But the IAEA has to certify that all of that has been done and we have received our one-year breakout before they get a dime.”

The mullahs are not cooperating:

Although Iran complied with an October 15th, 2015, deadline to reply to the IAEA’s PMD investigation questions, IAEA Director Genera Yukiya Amano indicated in a November 26th speech that Iran did not adequately answer all outstanding questions about possible past nuclear weapons-related work.

Amano said: “As my latest report on safeguards implementation in Iran shows, the agency continues to verify the non-diversion of nuclear material declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement. But we are not in a position to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities.”

And the IAEA is, at best, incompetent, and at worst, complicit:

Moreover, the reliability of the IAEA’s investigation also has been called into question since it partly relied on Iranians collecting samples on possible nuclear weapons-related work for the IAEA under secret agreements between the IAEA and Iran.

So with clear evidence that the Iranians are not keeping up their end of a "deal" that is already hilariously lopsided in their favor, the Obama Regime is going to keep the economic sanctions stoutly and resolutely in place, right?

Nope:

Based on statements made by U.S. official a few months ago, an inconclusive IAEA PMD report should prevent the lifting of sanctions against Iran until it provides answers to outstanding PMD questions. However, in October the Obama administration began to downplay the significance of the PMD investigation.

An unnamed senior U.S. official said during a State Department briefing on October 17th, 2015 that Iran only had to perform a series of procedural steps to demonstrate its cooperation with the PMD investigation.

The official said that the quality of the data Iran provides to the IAEA was not important because “the U.S. government has already made its assessment on Iran’s past [nuclear] programs.”

This official also said the PMD investigation is not part of the nuclear agreement text and thus has no bearing on whether sanctions against Iran will be lifted. [emphasis added]

Fred Fleitz put it this way:

What this means [is], one — that Obama administration officials have backtracked on the statements they made before Congress voted on the nuclear deal that Iran would be required to conclusively answer questions about its past nuclear weapons-related work, and two — the Obama administration is prepared to ignore an inconclusive or negative IAEA report on the PMD issue.

Whereas I put it this way: Nothing - AND RED BARRY MEANS NOTHING - is going to be allowed to spoil his Neville Chamberlain moment. And, you know, the annihilation of Israel that is his and the mullahs' common dream.

And they've got the stick that The One gave them to ensure it:

Iran’s position on the PMD investigation is that it will cease implementing the nuclear agreement unless the IAEA closes the book on all PMD questions in its December report.

It won't matter whether or not the IAEA closes that book, because O will do it for them.

It's a good thing that SOB doesn't play poker, or he really would be the Emperor With No Clothes.

WaPo Smears Pro-Life Community With Blame For Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood Shootings

by JASmius

Nah; the planet would run out of water first.

I see that Captain Ed has a question, prompted by this Washington Post lede:

To many abortion rights [extremist]s, it seemed only a matter of time before something like this happened.

Ever since the summer, when a[ pro-life] group accused Planned Parenthood of illegally selling fetal tissue, threats against the organization had escalated to unprecedented levels, abortion providers say. They stepped up collaboration with the FBI and local police and stiffened security at clinics. But on Friday, their worst fears came true: A man walked into a health center in Colorado Springs and opened fire.

Police have not yet identified a clear motive for the shooting …

Mr. Morrissey asks....:

So let’s get this straight. When a lunatic shoots up a Family Research Council office, it has nothing to do with its political opposition. When an abortionist runs loose because public officials are too intimidated to enforce the laws that do exist, it has nothing to do with political support for abortion. But when a lunatic shoots up an abort[uary], it’s the fault of millions of Americans who oppose abortion, and who argue peacefully for limits on the practice and better oversight of those who operate in the industry?

Even when “police have not yet identified a clear motive for the shooting”?

Yep, Ed, that's correct.

The lede is even more nonsensical than it is despicable, as the last sentence completely negates the three that preceded it. But the WaPo had to get its ball-shot in at its enemies - aka us. Something that's much easier to do once they dispense with the always-was fiction that they're "objective" and not hardcore partisan leftwingnuts.

"Shame on them," Ed? That's weak tea. I prefer a more direct admonition....

UPDATE: And you, too, Planned Parenthood (an organization whose business is industrial assembly line mass murder, and whose responsible, rational restraint lasted an amazing seventy-two hours) and Colorado Democrat Governor John Hickenlooper....

....who is simply a stuttering clusterfark.

Pope Francis Calls Christians & Muslims "Brothers"

by JASmius

Suuuuuure, your Unholiness; they're Cain and we're Abel:

Pope Francis said on Monday that Christians and Muslims were "brothers", urging them to reject hatred and violence while visiting a mosque in the Central African Republic's capital which has been ravaged by sectarian conflict.

On the last leg of a three-nation tour of Africa, the [titular figurehead] of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics visited a flashpoint Muslim neighborhood in Bangui on what was the most dangerous part of his twenty-four-hour visit....

"Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters," he said after meeting Muslim leaders at the Koudoukou mosque in the PK5 district, the last Muslim enclave in Bangui where tensions remain high after months of violence.

"Together, we must say no to hatred, to revenge and to violence, particularly that violence which is perpetrated in the name of a religion or of God Himself," he said.

More of that ecumenical/unitarian/one-world-kumbayah bovine scatology. Which ought to tell you everything you need to know about this wolf in sheep's clothing false prophet.

First of all, Christians and Muslims are NOT "brothers and sisters"; Christians are redeemed sinners saved by the blood of Messiah Jesus shed in their, and everybody else's, place; Muslims (and every other non-Christian) have rejected Messiah Jesus and are still dead in their sins and hell-bound. And Muslims are in particular thrall to Satan, as clearly evidenced by their religion's violent hatred for and war against Jews and Christians (God's chosen and adopted peoples, respectively).

Second, the only way that Christians and Muslims can become siblings is for Muslims to become Christians by repenting of their sins and accepting Messiah Jesus's forgiveness by way of His Calvary blood sacrifice, just like every other non-believer. "Just say no" to hatred, revenge, and violence is no way to anything except more hatred, revenge, and violence accompanied by an avalanche of sardonic, sneering ridicule.

Third, what of the Great Commission, Francis? Instead of burbling out your own version of a Coca Cola commercial....

....why aren't you preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of central Africa? Isn't that supposed to be your primary job description, if you're really in the line of succession to the Apostle Peter himself? Or is it because doing what Christ commanded His followers to do would bring about more "hatred, revenge, and violence"? Even though Jesus Himself said that that would be the result of carrying out that command. Heck, look what happened to Him.

Or perhaps you just don't believe in it yourself, your Popeiness. Which would go a long way towards explaining how you could possibly say something so idiotic as calling Christians and Muslims "brothers and sisters" in the absence of the confession and repentance of the latter.

Cain murdered Abel, incidentally. Very symbolic of this contemporary, one-sided "sibling rivalry".

UPDATE: I'm telling you, Francis is not the AntiChrist, but he's no Christian if he can utter such nonsense as this:

Pope Francis said Monday that fundamentalism was "a disease of all religions", including the Roman Catholic Church, but had nothing to do with God.

"Fundamentalism is always a tragedy. It is not religious, it lacks God, it is idolatrous," the Argentine pontiff told journalists on the plane during his return from a trip to Africa.

Wrong, your Popeiness. "Fundamentalism" is neutral. The root of the word is "fundamental," and simply means getting back to the basics of whatever worldview one holds. For Christians, that is a positive; it was, in fact, what Martin Luther's Reformation was all about: doing away with the corrupt, extra-biblical ritual and priestcraft of Roman Catholicism that put church officials between the congregation, the laity, and God's Word and Messiah, and making up fables about Mary being some mystical additional intermediary when she was simply the chosen human mother of Christ's humanity. The LORD meant for His children, His followers, to fellowship with Him directly through prayer and His revealed Word, not following the directions of priests and bishops and cardinals and popes, mere men, like their words were holy writ.

Hmmm; no wonder Francis doesn't like "fundamentalism".

Christian fundamentalism is the Great Commission: "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and behold, I am with you, even unto the end of the age." Islamic Fundamentalism is the Global Jihad. "Fundamentalism" in the first instance is good; in the second, it's bad. There is no moral equivalency to be drawn between the two. That's why those who say that Islam needs its own Reformation have it completely backwards, because the Global Jihad IS the Islamic Reformation - it's "back to basics" of what the Qu'ran actually teaches. What's needed is Islamic apostasy. And, ultimately, its adherents abandonment of it and mass conversion to Christianity.

But I'm sure a false prophet like Francis would denounce what amounts to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as "Islamophobic". Case in point:

"We Catholics, we have a few, even many fundamentalists. They believe they know absolute truth and corrupt others," he said, adding: "I can say this because this is my Church". [emphasis added]

No, Francis, it's Jesus Christ's church. He is the Author of absolute truth. And you show yourself quite clearly to have no part in it, or Him.

If you come to realize your need to change that, I trust you'll know what to do.

Obama: Economic Self-Destruction Would Save Terrorists The Trouble

by JASmius

I will admit that this is not a bad propaganda linkage to attempt, even if it does reek of political desperation. Note that the White House didn't roll out the usual "Islam is not Islamic"/"Christians do the same thing!"/etc. garbage after ISIS shot up most of Paris. It was all they could do to hold down the public's disgust at O's phony war fraud that has let the Islamic State rise to effective world power status.

So instead of continuing to fight that losing battle, why not jiu-jitsu it by portraying his other phony war against "global warming" (in that case, waging genuine economic war against his own country and allies against a fictitious "enemy") as striking a "defiant blow" against the Global Jihad at the same time?

Sure, it's silly; but it's all he's got:

Barack Obama told world leaders that the climate talks that opened Monday in Paris mark a turning point for collective action on global warming and stand as a rejection of the terrorists who struck the French capital a little more than two weeks ago.

The threat posed by climate change is the defining challenge of the century, Obama told the United Nations- sponsored summit organized to reach the first truly global agreement to curb greenhouse gases. Linking the meeting to the battle against [jihad]ism, Obama said a deal on emissions limits would be “an act of defiance” that proves nothing will deter nations from “building the future we want for our children.”

“Here in Paris we can show the world what is possible when we come together, united by a common effort and a common purpose,” Obama said.

I can only imagine the snickering in which al-Baghdadi's boys engage when they hear twaddle like this, if they bother paying attention to it at all. If the "Crusaders" want to lay waste to their own economies on false pagan pretenses, what's that to ISIS, al Qaeda, et al, other than to make their unholy war against the West easier? The only thing these enemies are likely to do with such nonsensical bloviations is to add it to their list of grievances against us and use it as further justification and motivation to wipe us out.

To employ a boxing metaphor, we can't "put up our dukes" if both of our collective hands are too busy strangling ourselves to death.

The president told the assembled dignitaries that no nation was immune from the effects of climate change. He said the U.S., the world’s [second-]biggest economy and its second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, accepted its role for contributing to the problem and shares the responsibility to fix it.

Except we can't "fix it," because "greenhouse gas emissions" are so tiny a factor in global climatology as to be irrelevant. The Euros preceded us down this ridiculous path, making grandiose promises to draconioanly slash their "greenhouse gas" emissions, and have never come anywhere near their targets because - guess what? - it would have been violent-revolution-causing economic suicide to do so. What other compelling definition is there for reductions of average global temperatures by miniscule fractions of a degree at the cost of hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars in costs and forfeited economic output? This Greenapalooza foolishness won't produce results any different from all the pagan "Gaia-"worshpping festivals that came before it. But if it does, there WILL be violent revolution against it. Which animals like Barack Obama and his hosts will doubtless exploit to their own despotic ends.

Don't believe me? Remember our periodic discussions about how environmentalism is, to the general public, a feel-good abstraction of a boutique issue, something with which to bolster our self-esteem - "I recycle, so I'm a good person" (even though recycling wastes more energy than it saves in natural resources, but I digress....), but which is popular in inverse proportion, like most every other leftwingnut scheme, to the degree that it inflicts actual, real-world, kitchen-table costs on us. Keep it in the realm of "jaw-jaw" and we're cool, in other words; start syphoning my wallet to pay for it and then we have a problem.

Which brings us to this CBS News/New York Times poll undoubtedly scheduled and skewed to prop up The One's emerald sortie againt the "climate change" leprechaun:

Two-thirds of Americans think the United States should join a legally binding global climate change agreement, a poll by CBS News and the New York Times released on Monday said.

But the poll, conducted between November 18th and....22nd, showed Americans were divided on what domestic measures the United States should take to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Here we go....again.

Allow me to translate:

The poll showed 63% of Americans favored regulations to cut carbon emissions from power plants, while 31% opposed them.

We recycle, so if we also cut "carbon emissions," we'll be even BETTER people. Yay!

But our electricity bills better not skyrocket.

The public was split on whether the United States should restrict drilling for oil and gas on public lands, with 49% in favor and 45% opposed.

Our gas prices at the pump better not skyrocket.

Far fewer of those polled supported any new taxes on electricity or gasoline use.

Our electricity bills and gas prices at the pump better not go into quantum slipstream drive.

Basically, "Two-thirds of Americans Want Global Climate Deal If They Don't Have To Pay For It". And if they do, then, "100% of Americans Don't Want Global Climate Deal".

And the truth? Even if humanity disappeared off this planet tomorrow....

....it would have precisely zero effect on Earth's climate.

But greenstremists would jizz themselves. If, you know, they were still around in this scenario to do so.

UPDATE: Red China is, according to Red Barry, the global exemplar of "fighting global warming":

Barack Obama on Monday touted close U.S. cooperation with [Red] China on climate change as vital to world efforts to slow [mythical] global warming, even as he acknowledged persistent differences with [Red] China’s [dictator] Xi Jinping over cybersecurity and maritime security.

Huddling with Xi on the sidelines of the Paris climate conference, Obama said nowhere had coordination with Beijing been more critical or fruitful than on climate change. He credited U.S. and Chi[Comm] leadership with leading 180 nations to make their own pledges to curb emissions in the run-up to the Paris talks.

And why wouldn't Xi do so? If the POTUS is ready, willing, and eager to lay waste to what remains of the U.S. economy that Obamanomics hasn't eradicated before now, it all redounds to Beijing's benefit. You know what they say about when your enemy is self-destructing.

By the way, this is a pic of the capital of the country that The One lauds as being such a "leader" in the "fight against global warming":

The capitals of the world’s two most populous nations, [Red] China and India, were blanketed in hazardous, choking smog on Monday as climate change talks began in Paris, where leaders of both countries are among the participants.

[Red] China’s capital Beijing maintained an “orange” pollution alert, the second-highest level, on Monday, closing highways, halting or suspending construction and prompting a warning to residents to stay indoors.

Smart <cough, hack, gag> Power!

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Greenstremists Riot In Paris Anyway

by JASmius

Defiant SOBs, aren't they? But also redundant, it seems to me. Consider: Greenapalooza is going to happen this week. "Leaders" from all over the planet are gathering to inflict collective global economic hari-kari on their citizens under false pretenses in the greatest political fraud in world history. About what do hundreds of thousands of extreme leftwingnut lunatics have to rally, much less protest, still less riot?

I guess it's just what they do:

Hundreds of thousands of people rallied around the world Sunday on the eve of a Paris summit aimed at averting catastrophic climate change, but violent clashes in the French capital soured the show of people power.

The global protests, including an emotional linking of hands near the heart of this month's terror attacks in Paris, were aimed at building grassroots pressure for a "historic" [grrrr] deal at the UN talks to limit global warming.

That IS NOT HAPPENING.

But a band of anti-capitalist militants infiltrated the protests, leading to clashes with riot police in the late afternoon and the detention of more than two hundred people.

Police fired teargas at protesters, who pelted them with bottles and candles in Place de la Republique and chanted: "State of emergency, police state", referring to the post-attack protest restrictions.

French President Francois Hollande condemned the "scandalous" behaviour of the far-left [extrem]ists.

"These disruptive elements have nothing to do with defenders of the environment," Hollande said at an EU-Turkey summit in Brussels. [emphasis added]

The hell they didn't. Hollande wishes, and wants everybody to believe, that they don't. But they're ALL anti-capitalist militants, protesters and "world leaders" alike. The former are just less overtly indiscrete about it.

But from a propaganda standpoint, the "militants" are serving their purpose by making their suited & tied fellow-travelers look reasonable by comparison. But the former have absolutely nothing to worry about.

More British Believing In Actual Climate Science

by JASmius

Which is to say, they're no longer buying the anthropogenic global warming poppycock:

The British public has begun to doubt that human activity is the cause of global warming, according to a Sky News poll.

The poll shows almost 20% of those surveyed think natural processes are the cause of climate change. Just two years ago, [93% of] Brits believed climate change was caused by humans, Sky News notes.

Sooner or later, after you push and fearmonger a fraud long enough, you just can't keep your suckers distracted forever. Eventually they look around and see that the emperor has no clothes, that all the apocalyptic predictions of imminent, cataclysmic doom have not and continue to not materialize, that there's no actual scientific evidence for any of it, and start realizing that they're being taken for a ride, bilked, swindled, deceived. Why should they consent to having their standard of living crashed, be herded into caves, give up modern lifestyles for a fictional scenario that doesn't exist and is not going to happen? To say nothing of so corrupting and politicizing science itself that it will be unwilling to warn us of genuine, non-anthropogenic climate changes to come over the next generation.

20% is still a tiny minority, but if this scientific awakening continues in the U.K., it'll be a majority by 2020. And, heck, the British are already seeing the light on "green energy", and fiscal matters in general:

[British Prime Minister David] Camerson may have a hard time convincing his own countrymen to join the effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions since 54% oppose taxes on gasoline, electricity and imported food. Slightly more than one third support such taxes.

Take the advice I gave you a week ago, Mr. Prime Minister: Stay home in your nice, warm, toasty isles this week, stoke the resurrection of science in your country, and send a much-needed, overdue message to the greenstremists that their time is up. You'll be doing all of humanity a bigger service than you realize.

NFL Week 12 Predictions

by JASmius

LAST WEEK STRAIGHT UP: 9-5
LAST WEEK vs. SPREAD: 13-1

SEASON STRAIGHT UP: 101-59
SEASON vs. SPREAD: 86-74

No, last week's vs. spread number is not a misprint. Imagine my own astonishment. Not to mention my complete lack of surprise when it plummets to 1-15 this week, more than likely.

Anyway, this week's tale of the tape for the Steelers-Seahawks string-playing-out tilt at the Clink today:

TOTAL OFFENSE: Steelers #6, Seahawks #9
RUSHING OFFENSE: Seahawks #1, Steelers #6
PASSING OFFENSE: Steelers #13, Seahawks #26

TOTAL DEFENSE: Seahawks #2, Steelers #23
RUSHING DEFENSE: Steelers #6, Seahawks #10
PASSING DEFENSE: Seahawks #2, Steelers #28

Translations: We can't run on Pittsburgh, and with Russell Wilson still running for his life every week behind the worst offensive line in galactic history, he's going to have to hit some big passing plays on the run out of the pocket for the 'hawks to put any serious points on the board.

Meanwhile, DeAngelo Williams will run long and free, providing plenty of time for elite quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to sit back in the pocket and pick the Legion of Boom apart, especially in the fourth quarter.

This just in: Seattle can't beat teams with elite quarterbacks.

I'm a system prognosticator, the numbers below say what they say, and I do pretty well with that system, as you can see above. But disregard my pick below for our game. We're going to lose. Again.

Straight up picks indicated by asterisk (*); picks against the spread in parentheses (x). And no, don't bet the farm on these picks; they're just for my amusement and your aggravation. Or vice versa. We'll see how it turns out, now, won't we?

Arizona* (-10)
San Francisco

Buffalo
Kansas City* (-4)

Miami
N.Y. Jets* (-3.5)

Minnesota* (+2)
Atlanta

New England* (-3)
Denver

N.Y. Giants* (-2)
Washington

New Orleans
Houston* (-3)

Oakland* (-2)
Tennessee

Pittsburgh (+4.5)
Seattle*

St. Louis
Cincinnati* (-9.5)

San Diego
Jacksonville* (-4)

Tampa
Indianapolis* (-3)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Baltimore* (+2.5)
Cleveland

Tulsi Gabbard Is In The Wrong Party

by JASmius

At the very least, she's a "politics stops at the water's edge" Democrat, a breed of Jackassery not commonly seen in this country in half a century, and presumed to have become extinct with Joe Lieberman's retirement from the Senate.

Which is to say.....Tulsi Gabbard is in the wrong party:

Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii-2 is a rising star in the Democrat Party, but she has increasingly been at odds with Barack Obama on Syria and national security.

The New York Times, in a feature published Saturday, notes that since the November 13th terrorist attacks in Paris, Gabbard has become more of a critic of Obama's policies.

The thirty-four-year-old combat veteran has ramped up her argument that Syrian President Bashar Assad should be left in power to help tamp down the Islamic State (ISIS). She has introduced legislation to defund efforts by the United States to overthrow Assad.

She also voted with Republicans to toughen screening of Syrian refugees – despite a veto threat from Obama.

"My responsibility is to the people of Hawaii and the American people to stand up and fight for what is right and what is in the best interest of our country," she told the Times. "That has nothing to do with party politics." [emphasis added]

And she's the vice-chair of the Democrat National Committee, too - although doubtless not for long at the rate she's going, and given her increasing clashes with her boss, Debbie Schultz.

My advice to Mrs. Gabbard? Stop wasting your time in that den of traitors and c'mon on over to the Light Side. There's plenty of room in the McCain/Graham RINO-hawk wing of the GOP, I'm sure.

Preppers bug out, give gift of Constitution

Books by Douglas V. Gibbs

-- 25 Myths of the United States Constitution: A great starter book for learning the United States Constitution . A hostility against the United States Constitution exists in America. Myths have emerged to desconstruct the original intent of the Document. 25 Myths of the United States Constitution exposes these myths by presenting a defense based on the original intent of the Founding Fathers as revealed by the debates during the Constitutional Convention, and the writings of the men of that era.

-- The Basic Constitution: An Examination of the Principles and Philosophies of the United States Constitution: The Basic Constitution takes a detailed journey through the text of the document that created the American System of Government, revealing that the United States Constitution is the context of conservatism. During the Summer of 1787, a brilliant assembly of American Patriots created the Constitution of the United States. After a tumultuous start, the elder statesman, Benjamin

Franklin, reminded the delegates in attendance of the need to seek a firm reliance on divine Providence. The stormy convention birthed dramatic debate, unexpected compromises, and incredible changes of minds. Ideas clashed, and tempers flared. And during it all, James Madison took notes as the conciliatory Benjamin Franklin added his wisdom here and there, and George Washington often sat silent while James Wilson argued that liberty can only survive if the government of the United States is limited in its scope and power. Despite the heat and the political clashes, what emerged was a masterpiece - the greatest document ever conceived in history, save for the Holy Bible. They created a working government that would be a powerful lion to external issues, yet caged and restrained regarding the internal issues... creating a federal government given the task of promoting, preserving, and protecting the union of States, and the autonomous sovereignty of the individual States.

The Basic Constitution is written like a textbook, but in a manner that is comprehensible to every person who journeys through its pages. The book includes a glossary of terms, index, bibliography listing the resources used, The Declaration of Independence, and The Constitution of the United States.

-- Silenced Screams: Abortion in a Virtuous Society: In 1967 a young woman, alone in a small motel room, clung to life because of the sweet baby boy in her life.

In a rocky relationship, a woman turned her back on her husband so that she could abort their child. . . losing him forever.

Lying in a clinic, watching an ultrasound of her unborn baby, a young woman decided to change her mind about aborting her baby.

An old man, haunted by the roar of a train barreling down the tracks, remembers the horror of genocide.

Our rights are natural, God-given; so is it possible for abortion to be a right?

Douglas V. Gibbs, Constitutionalist, Christian, and Political Advocate, provides arguments in "Silenced Screams" that reveal the truth behind the numbers, the lies behind the veil, and the reality of the culture of death that will make even the most ardent supporter of abortion stop for a moment, and seriously reconsider their position on the issue.

The book, "Silenced Screams: Abortion in a Virtuous Society," is a Pro-Life examination of the issue of abortion, seeking understanding of the age old issue by examining history, the United States Constitution, Christianity, and our sacred humanity.

Satan's greatest trick has been to convince an entire civilization that he doesn't exist. His second greatest trick has been to convince civilization that killing their own children is not evil.

-- Once Upon a Promise: by David N. Brodmann

-- Constitution Quest Game: Constitution Quest is the fun way to learn the Constitution, and provides a great opportunity to get the whole family together for a little competition. The creators are school teachers, and designed The Constitution Quest Game to be the most fun and easy way to LEARN and REMEMBER the U.S. Constitution. It’s perfect for anyone who wants to teach the text of the U.S. Constitution in a highly-engaging and very effective way.

This beautiful, eye-catching, American-made game, is high-quality and nonpartisan.

It covers ALL the articles and amendments in the U.S. Constitution, with attention to all three branches of government, separation of powers, checks and balances, as well as key facts, dates and vocabulary.

You can play Constitution Quest without any prior knowledge, because the game was designed for children and adults to learn the Constitution as they play.

Constitution Quest is helping people of all ages to learn the U.S. Constitution at home or in the classroom. Constitutional scholars have endorsed the game and Students claim Constitution Quest has helped them to confidently pass their government exams!

Kids who might not sit still to read the Constitution do sit down to play the Constitution Quest Game with Grandpa and Grandma...because it's a game! What better way to pass along your love for the U.S. Constitution to the next generation?

Freedom is only one generation away from extinction, but you can save it with the most fun and easy way to rediscover the U.S. Constitution: Constitution Quest.

What’s YOUR Constitutional IQ?

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Greenstremists Demand "Meat Tax"

by JASmius

Looks like the food Nazis are joining the "climate change" tag team:

A London-based think tank that supports slashing meat consumption is calling for the radical diet change to be "high on the list" of strategies studied by world leaders gathering in Paris next week to discuss global warming.

In its report, Chatham House says cutting down on meat-eating can prevent global warming by two degrees by the end of the century, declaring that the cultivation of animals is responsible for about 15% of the world's carbon emissions.

No pun intended, but bullshit! Two bleeping degrees from cow farts? Seriously? Not to mention that it's global cooling we have to worry about.

And they're not going to take "BLEEP YOU!" for an answer, it seems:

The think tank is also recommending government interventions and initiatives to make meat eating less attractive....

That is not possible. Not physically, not psychologically. Just ask Arby's.....

....or Planned Parenthood.

....and Americans, who eat more meat than most people in other countries, will likely be a top target, Libertarian Republic reports.

Why do you think that is, by the way? I'll tell you the overarching reason: because Americans have, until recent years, been the most affluent people on the planet, that's why, before the Obamunist onslaught of economic domestic terrorism that is culminating in Paris this next week.

Among the recommendations is a so-called carbon tax.

Of course. Even though methane is one atom of carbon and FOUR atoms of hydrogen. Why don't they call it a hydrogen tax? After all, it worked out so well for the Hindenburg....,

“Interventions to change the relative prices of foods are likely to be among the most effective in changing consumption patterns,” the report notes, adding countries should aim "to increase the price of meat and other unsustainable products" through a carbon tax.

They're perfectly sustainable if you cultivate the animals you eat. Have been for thousands of years. What have these lunatics got against protein, for heaven's sake?

But they're not just proteinophobes; they also hate the poor:

“Which will be the first group of people to be harmed by these taxes?” asks Marlo Lewis Jr., a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Libertarian Republic reports. "It’s the poor obviously."

“A better-fed population is more productive, and a more productive population makes food more abundant and secure. The Chatham House proposal would break this virtuous cycle of progress at both ends."

And don't think that's any accident. Because like all leftwingnuts, what the filthbags at Chatham House really hate is humanity itself - except for themselves, of course - and want modern human civilization wiped out entirely.

They're like a Michael Bloombergized version of the ecoterrorists in the late Tom Clancy's first Rainbow Six novel.

I thought hunger was supposed to be a serious problem around the world. I also thought that meat was one of the four - or is it five now? - food groups. Part of a balanced diet. What are we all supposed to eat in meat's place? Dirt? Ramen? Tofu? Endless vats of Plomeek soup? The Chatham House's shorts?

Ain't happening, "mates". I want a nice, warm globe, piles of bacon for breakfast, quadruple Whoppers for lunch, and a nice, thick, juicy, teriyaki porterhouse for dinner each day, every day, for the rest of my mouth-watering life. And a large majority of the "species" agrees with me.

Now hold still, assholes....

Chicago Police Union Stands With Jason Van Dyke

by JASmius

And why are they doing so on behalf of a cop that at best got carried away in the performance of his law enforcement duties? Because they don't want to end up gelded, blooded, gutted, and hung for #BlackLivesMatter butchering like the Baltimore PD was last spring:

The main Chicago police union is standing behind the white officer who was charged this week with first-degree murder for gunning down a black teenager. It is facing a backlash from leaders of the city's black community as a result....

Because Van Dyke is (1) white and (2) a cop and therefore deserves no due process or trial by jury or any other unalienable right as set forth in the United States Constitution, but must be sacrificed on the alter of Black Power.

The FOP's support for Van Dyke appears to have support within the union, according to email and phone interviews Reuters conducted with a number of white and black active-duty and retired cops, as well as union and black police association officials.

They stopped short of defending Van Dyke's actions - which were caught in a graphic video made public this week - but did say it was important to place them in the context of a racially divided city beset by violence.

Obviously DA Alvarez didn't bother to do that when she selected the charges she would file.

Some of the officers say they are concerned the city's police force has become a political football and is not getting enough support from Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police chief Garry McCarthy. These officers also say the decision by Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez to charge Van Dyke with first-degree murder, rather than the lesser charge of second-degree murder, was a politically motivated effort to head off outrage about the video.

"First degree is a high bar to set, and of course it's political," said one active duty police officer who asked not to be named, and who responded to written questions from Reuters by email.

Seems pretty obvious. First degree murder is deliberate and premeditated, which hardly seems likely from the description of the incident. Second degree murder or manslaughter appears to better fit the facts.

But this isn't about the facts or about justice, this is about appeasing the mob by making Jason Van Dyke an example and warning against cops doing what's necessary to enforce the law and protect the public if doing so requires actions that are no longer politically permitted.

And, thus, the erosion of local law enforcement towards its inevitable federalization continues. Because once the feds are running something, it ALWAYS works better, right?

Putin 'Fully Mobilized' To Tackle Threat From Turkey

by JASmius

Sounds like an awful lot of saber-rattling for retaliatory deeds that aren't rising above the minor economic level so far. Besides which is that the "threat" from Turkey amounts to shooting down Russian combat aircraft that have been invading Turkish airspace continually for the past two-plus months. It seems like that's more of a Russian threat, intended to provoke just such incidents as have now occurred in order to provide Czar Vlad with a pretext for a full-scale attack on Turkey. To which the Turkish retort is simple: Stop invading our airspace and we'll stop shooting down your warplanes.

I also get the feeling that the Turks aren't taking Vlad's bait, and that's causing him and his minions to up the rhetorical ante in the war of words:

President Vladimir Putin is "fully mobilized" to tackle what the Kremlin regards as an unprecedented threat from Turkey following the shooting down of one of its warplanes by a Turkish F-16 Falcon, the Russian leader's spokesman said on Saturday.

Putin is "fully mobilized"? Sounds like a sexual double entendre, doesn't it?

In comments which underscore how angry the Kremlin still is over the incident, Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, called the behavior of the Turkish air force "absolute madness" and said Ankara's subsequent handling of the crisis had reminded him of the "theatre of the absurd."

"Madness," perhaps; "theater of the absurd"? Hardly. Otherwise how would the Turks have managed to shoot down the Flanker and Fencer? You'd think, under that circumstance, that they'd have missed, or perhaps fired silly string instead.

"Nobody has the right to traitorously shoot down a Russian plane from behind," Peskov told Russia's News on Saturday TV program, calling Turkish evidence purporting to show the Russian Su-24 Fencer jet had violated Turkish air space "cartoons".

"Traitorously"? Wouldn't that have required another Russian plane to have done the shooting? I know Peskov is trying to talk tough here, but it's still important to talk coherently as well.

Peskov said the crisis had prompted Putin, whose ministers are preparing retaliatory economic measures against Turkey, to "mobilize" in the way an army does in tense times.

"The president is mobilized, fully mobilized, mobilized to the extent that circumstances demand," said Peskov.

He said "mobilized" three times in four words. I hope he doesn't stay that way for longer than four hours, or he'll have to go to the hospital.

"The circumstances are unprecedented. The gauntlet thrown down to Russia is unprecedented. So naturally the reaction is in line with this threat."

He only said "unprecedented" twice, which I guess means that the circumstances are less "unprecedented" than Vladimir Putin is "fully mobilized". When, of course, the circumstances are nowhere near "unprecedented," and I can tell you all that without having the faintest idea what context he's using for that hyperventilating phrase.

Whether Vladimir Putin is "fully mobilized" at this particular moment in time I have no way of directly determining, and I am totally okay with that.

But all this blustering tells me that the Russians are not militarily mobilizing against the Turks, but at most attempting to goad them into further provocations in order to have sufficient PR cover for genuinely retaliating.

Turkey is, bottom line, a distraction for Putin, but one he's willing to exploit if doing so can hasten the disintegration of NATO. Otherwise, as Loki said to the Chitauri leader, he "is but words".

Hard not to notice that Russian planes were conducting airstrikes right on the Turkish-Syrian border yesterday without a peep coming from the Turks. Looks like those words might just be sufficing - for now.

Saturday Afternoon Radio Extravaganza: JASmius Walks Alone

Gun Show and the Constitution

Douglas V. Gibbs is at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show today... visit his booth, buy a book, and get a great discount on the Constitution Quest Game! 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Orange County Fairgrounds, in Costa Mesa. See you there!

Friday, November 27, 2015

France Arrests Twenty-Four Greenstremists In Advance Of Greenapalooza

by JASmius

Finally, a president boldly and courageously does what should have been done years ago and takes into police custody members of the Marxist-Leninist fifth column criminal conspiracy that is trying to destroy the global economy, leading to mass worldwide poverty, starvation, and death under the demonstrably false pretenses of the biggest fraud in human history, and it has to be....a French communist. It's just not fair.

Parler d'un buzzkill.

But I suppose, as then-Captain Spock once said, that only Nixon could go to China:

French authorities have placed twenty-four [extrem]ists under house arrest ahead of major UN climate warming talks starting near Paris next week, using the state of emergency powers declared after the Paris attacks.

The interior ministry said Friday the measures had been taken to prevent the [extrem]ists from demonstrating ahead of the COP21 conference, but their lawyers and Amnesty International accused the government of abusing the state of emergency.

Am I on Candid Camera on this? Or Bizarro World? A communist regime is cracking down on its fellow-travelers in the run-up to a "climate summit" that will, one would think, given them all what they want, and this "Gang of Twenty-Four" want to shut it down because it doesn't go far enough?

Evidently so:

Three of those concerned, who are in their late twenties, are suspected of belonging to the "radical opposition movement", according to information obtained by AFP.

As I understand the lay of the ideological landscape, that is a refinement of the adjective "radical" that has to be employing additional etymological dimensions to accommodate the updated definition.

They are banned from leaving their home town in western France without special police permission, they must report to a local police station three times a day and remain at their homes between 8:00 pm and 6:00 am until December 12th, the day after the talks are due to end.

The interior ministry says the three individuals have caused "serious disturbances to public order" in the past.

Probably not to the level that ISIS did a couple of weeks ago in Paris, though, I'd imagine. And wouldn't jihadists have a bit more difficulty of a time infiltrating them, presuming there's no ethnic overlap?

I don't think that's President Hollande's primary concern, though; he's most likely attempting to ensure that all the "credit" and "glory" for Greenapalooza doesn't get spoiled or stolen from him by these two dozen "radical oppositionists" who consider him to be too gosh darn "rightwing".

Idiot Francios; doesn't he know that Barack Obama is going to do that? Maybe "French authorities" should take him into custody as soon as he debarks from Air Force One.

The [extrem]ists' lawyer, Marie Dose, said the state of emergency was being "misused" in their cases.

"This is an attack on the right to demonstrate," she said.

Well, they can always try the Sheldonbot gambit....

....as long as they don't mind the difficulties with opening doorknobs, holding placards, pushing buttons, or pulling triggers.

At least their shirts would be green.

Obama White House Hindering All Investigations, Withholding All Records

by JASmius

The most royally opaque administration in American history:

The Obama administration is threatening to roll back more than thirty years of policy that has allowed government watchdogs access to records in order to conduct internal investigations, the New York Times reports.

"It’s the complete evisceration of the concept. You might as well fold them down," Paul Light, a New York University professor who has studied the system told the Times. "They’ve become defanged."

At least two government investigations have either been slowed or shut down because the White House has withheld records, the Times reports. “This is by far the most aggressive assault on the inspector general concept since the beginning,” said Light, and Peace Corps inspector general Kathy Buller said it "runs against transparency."

Basically, this is The One's penchant for stonewalling and obstruction of justice writ large. It's no longer about a particular scandal; it's about EVERY scandal, EVERY investigation, EVERY probe. It's universal. It's royal privilege. "You don't need to know, because a god is not accountable to his subjects." Try to hold him accountable anyway, and that's "blasphemy," "sedition," "treason". After seven years of this tiresome, tyrannical twaddle, we all should have grown accustomed to it by now.

But there's no shortage of irony to it either; it is, in fact, the logical terminus of leftwingnut "government reform":

The 1978 system was created after Watergate and now includes watchdogs from some seventy-two federal agencies, reports the Times. They have published thousands of reports on government abuse, and tension has grown between the[m and the] Obama administration.

Of course; because inspector-generals are for overwhelming Republican administrations with blitzkriegs of frivolous partisan investigations and criminalizations of policy differences, not holding Democrat administrations to the same ethical standards. Republicans are inherently evil, Democrats are inherently divine. Everybody's supposed to know that by now.

Everybody except the inspectors-general, evidently, who are all now jointly and severally obstacles to The One's royal prerogatives. So they must be hindered and obstructed and stonewalled and thwarted at minimum. The next step will be firing them all and eliminating their positions for their seditious effrontery. And after that....well, I think we know what would come next.

It's as I've been saying for years: Right tribe, wrong tribe; penthouse, outhouse. They are entitled to lawlessness, we must be held hostage to "Cardassian justice" (i.e. guilty with no possibility of innocence). A maze of intractable one-way streets. And it will never change.

In still other words, welcome to "social/racial/economic/etc. justice".

I don't call it the Commissariat of Injustice, Revenge & Coverups for nothing.

Number Of Americans Supporting Muslim Monitoring Growing

by JASmius

Not anywhere near a majority yet, but the percentage is on the rise. Which ought to tell you all you need to know about where public sentiment on the question will head after the next 9/11 or worse-magnitude jihadist attack:

More Americans now think Muslims should be monitored by the government as potential terrorists, a new poll shows.

According to a Rasmussen Reports survey released Friday, 32% of respondents support the idea of tracking most individual Muslims – up ten points from a July 2013 poll after the Boston Marathon bombing – though 52% oppose the idea. Sixteen percent are undecided.

In a partisan breakdown, Republicans are far more receptive to the near-blanket surveillance of Muslims, with 43% in favor of such tracking; only 24% of Democrats and 29% of independent voters are supportive.

"Even prior to the recent killings in Paris by Islamic terrorists, 49% of all voters felt the federal government is not devoting attention to the potential threat of domestic Islamic terrorism," the pollster noted, citing its survey from October 7th.

Republican and independent support will skyrocket after the next jihadist strike here at home, although depending upon its magnitude, I wonder if just surveiling Muslims will be considered a sufficient countermeasure. But then at that point you run into all the downsides of taking eight million-plus potentially violent hostiles into our very midst. Try to require them to register themselves and their whereabouts with the government and you'll just drive them underground, broadening the pool of jihadist recruits. Rounding up and deporting eight million Muzzies is as impractical as doing the same with the thirty million illegal aliens squatting on our territory and leeching off our economy and welfare state. And unlike with the latter, we can't get Muslims to "self-deport" using economic incentives, as they aren't here to get rich or "build a better life" for themselves, but rather to conquer us from within.

The damage, in effect, is already done. And to keep any more from happening, we should be tracking Muslims in this country already. After Times Square gets truck-bombed or Miami gets shot up or Chicago "dusted" or Manhattan nerve-gassed or LA nuked or whatever, it'll be too late.

There was a particularly annoying line in this past summer's Avengers II: Age Of Ultron flick. It was in the wood-chopping scene at Hawkeye's country hideaway between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. They're arguing over what the Avengers' purpose is supposed to be and Cap snaps, "Whenever someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die - every time." The first words out of my brain were, "But don't a helluva lot more innocent people die if you wait to try to win said war until AFTER it starts, because that means by definition that you're allowing the enemy to strike you first?" Do unto them before they can do it unto you? In this case of the Global Jihad, it's not like they're remotely subtle or coy about their intentions, after all. Why not hit them first, hard, decisively, and take whatever measures we have to take at home preemptively to minimize their chances of successfully landing a crippling blow on us?

Most Americans are still, metaphorically speaking, with Captain America. I'm with Tony Stark (as I always am), because I'd prefer that we only have to learn hard lessons once. A truly great power and world leader would understand that and do what was necessary to safeguard its citizens. Obamerikastan is no longer such a country.

We can only pray that it takes the opportunity to regain that "eye of the tiger" before it's too late.

Hard Starboard Radio: Marco Rubio, Not Ted Cruz, Is the ObamaCare-Slayer

Top ObamaCare official scrambles for new lies as insurer complaints grow; Cornucopia of terror?; American Action Forum lowballs costs of Obama war on coal; Hillary Clinton snubs MoveOn.org; Russian-Turkish confrontation escalating; Marco Rubio, not Ted Cruz, is the ObamaCare-slayer; 2012 U.S. abortions all the way down to 699,000; Obama announces he's illegally closing Gitmo by imperial decree; Girls join homosexuals in destruction of Boy Scouts; The Ferguson Effect hits Chicago; and NSA jihadist surveillance ends Sunday.

Preparing for another crack at the big time on Open Thighs Friday at 6PM Eastern/3PM Pacific.

Active Shooter Barricaded "In, At, Or Near" Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood

by JASmius

Hot Air has plenty of updates, none of them even hinting yet at a motive beyond the gunman "wearing a long coat and a hunting cap". No reports of fatalities as yet, but there are multiple wounded from superficially to critically.

Whatever the actual details, though, the optics of this incident are a devil-send to both the baby-killers and the gun-grabbers. I find myself dreading the who and why details to come, if we're even allowed to know the facts instead of the predictably triumphalist leftwingnut Narrative already in the works.

UPDATE: A bank robbery gone awry and the PP happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Jennifer Mascia @JenniferMascia

"All the shooting went down at the Chase bank," which is next door to Planned Parenthood, a witness said on #MSNBC

1:17 PM - 27 Nov 2015

UPDATE: They took him alive:

Officers eventually moved in, shouted at the gunman and persuaded him to surrender, police said. About five hours after the attack started, authorities led away a man wearing a white T-shirt.

A law enforcement official identified the gunman as Robert Lewis Dear of North Carolina. The official, who had direct knowledge of the case, was not authorized to speak to the media about the ongoing investigation and spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. Dear is fifty-seven years old, according to jail booking records.

No other details about the gunman were immediately available, including whether he had any connection to Planned Parenthood.

There is now a death toll of three, including University of Colorado in Colorado Springs police officer Garrett Swasey, who leaves behind a wife, son, and daughter.

NSA Jihadist Surveillance Ends Sunday

by JASmius

Well, THIS is about to get a whole lot easier in under forty-eight hours:

The U.S. National Security Agency will end its daily vacuuming of millions of Americans' phone records by Sunday and replace the practice with more tightly targeted surveillance methods, the Obama administration said on Friday.

i.e. Far less effective.

As required by law, the NSA will end its wide-ranging surveillance program by 11:59 p.m. EST Saturday (4:59 a.m. GMT Sunday) and expects to have the new, scaled-back system in place by then, the White House said.

The transition is a long-awaited victory for privacy advocates and tech companies wary of broad government surveillance at a time when national security concerns are heightened in the wake of the Paris attacks earlier this month.

The transition is a long-awaited victory of the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and every other jihadist network on the planet.

I'd include all our other enemies (Russia, Red China, North Korea, Iran) but they already have all our secrets as well as military superiority over us, also thanks to Mr. Snowden and the anti-American POTUS who made his "historic" caper possible.

It comes two and a half years after the controversial program was exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The move, mandated by a law passed six months ago, represents the greatest reduction of U.S. spying capabilities since they expanded dramatically after the September 11th, 2001 attacks. [emphasis added]

And after the next, bigger, new and improved 9/11, they'll expand once again. For awhile. Until we forget the self same lesson yet again.

Exit thought: Screw you, Rand Paul, screw you.

The Ferguson Effect Hits Chicago

by JASmius

It hasn't reached riot/insurrection/uprising level yet, but just give it time:

On one of the busiest retail shopping days, thousands of people took to Chicago's most prestigious downtown shopping district on Friday to protest last year's shooting death of a black teenager by a white policeman and the city's handling of the case.

Does it strike anybody else as odd that they waited a full year before launching into these protests? Why the delay? Why not rise up back then? The only new development I can see is that film footage has emerged of the shooting incident in question. Which tells me that even though it was established fact that the requisite white cop had shot the requisite black teen, what the mob really was after was the film footage in order to re-stir the embers of last fall's cross-country race riots and fan them back into raging flames.

It, in short, has nothing whatsoever to do with the young and late Mr. McDonald and everything to do with the latest hard-left/racist attempt at violent revolution.

About two thousand people with signs reading "Stop Police Terror"....

<sigh>

....gathered in a cold drizzle for the march on Chicago's "Magnificent Mile" on the Black Friday....

Don't tell me they don't have a flair for puns.

....shopping day, which closed the major city street of Michigan Avenue to traffic.

Organizers said the rally, led by [extrem]ist-politician Jesse Jackson [aka The Sinister Minister] and several State elected officials, is a show of outrage over the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, seventeen, and what they see as racial bias in U.S. policing.

Which doesn't exist, as has been repeatedly statistically and documentedly proven, but they have an Agenda to push.

Protesters also called for the resignation of the police superintendent and a top prosecutor for what they see as foot-dragging and stonewalling in the case.

Which ain't happening, as Mayor Raum Emanuel - who, this just in, is black - is fully supporting both, at least for now.

The police officer who shot McDonald sixteen times, Jason Van Dyke, thirty-seven, was charged with first-degree murder hours before a graphic video of the shooting was made public on Tuesday.

And why was he not charged before now? Most likely because there wasn't sufficient evidence to do so before that graphic video surfaced. That IS the purpose of a proper investigation, after all. Is it overcharging? Could be, in order to placate the racist mob, or perhaps it's justified. That's the purpose of a public trial, which the aforementioned racist mob will never permit to unfold objectively in their maniacal pursuit of "outcome-based 'justice'".

In essence, if Officer Van Dyke, Police Chief McCarthy, and DA Anita Alvarez are not strung up from the nearest lampposts, the Windy City is gonna burn. Nothing we haven't depressingly seen before.

And in case you have any remaining doubts about what these protests are really all about, feast on this revealing quote:

Organizers also called for the ouster of anyone else found to be involved in misconduct surrounding the case, and the "demilitarization" of the Chicago Police Department. [emphasis added]

So the police have to be disarmed? Like their counterparts in Paris who were helpless to stop the Charlie Hebdo massacre back in January and had to peddle away in REAL terror? Gee, whose Agenda would THAT serve?

And your first two guesses don't count.

UPDATE: Video added.

UPDATE II: Here's the context of the shooting:

[A]fter [a] taser was requested but not available, facing down a suspect high on PCP and armed with a knife who had vandalized some vehicles and was staggering away from the scene, if Van Dyke had stopped after the first shot or two he might have had a case to defend himself. But firing more than a dozen rounds into a suspect who was already down on the ground means he has to face the music over his actions.

So enough shots to put young Mr. McDonald down but not out were sufficient, and Officer Van Dyke went way beyond that. Was he overtly panicky in the heat of the moment? Did adrenaline carry him away? Was he shouting anything racially-tinged? It doesn't help that the suspect was "staggering away" from him instead of towards him. Was Van Dyke the only policeman on the scene or did he have backup that could have cut off McDonald's escape route?