MSNBC Mocks A Baby

A black baby. 

"Occasionally my jokes have been known to 'cross the line' and I can assure you that in the future some of my jokes will do that again. My joke on MHP was not intended in any way to mock the Romney family or the baby they adopted. Rather it was a joke about the lack of racial diversity that we see at the Republican National Convention. I apologize to the Romney family and especially the baby if any of them were offended by that joke." 

Glenn, for her part, tweeted her defiance: "Yes, I sang the song. There are many children in the pic & only 1 black child. I don't see that as mocking or attacking the baby." 

Then she doubled down: "If I point out the 1 black person & you translate that as an attack ON HIM, who's racist? I don't personally see anything wrong with being black
." 
She eventually realized the tone-deaf nature of her comments: 
"Adoptive parents giving a child of ANY ethnicity a loving home,I apologize.I absolutely did not intend to harm you but it seems that I have." 

At least she finally got there.

When it takes that long and someone else has to explain your transgressions to you, we should all doubt the sincerity of her regrets.

Syria Likely To Cross Another "Red Line"

Won't deliver chemical weapons on time.

The removal of deadly toxins from Syria under an international effort to rid the nation of its chemical arsenal will likely miss a December 31 deadline, the global chemical arms watchdog said. Bad weather and shifting battlefronts in Syria’s civil war have delayed the delivery of essential supplies to sites where the toxins are being prepared to be sent to Latakia port, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said. ”A delay will probably occur,” Franz Krawinkler, the OPCW’s logistics head told Austrian ORF state television on Saturday. ”Because of various external influences, including the weather… certain logistical supplies that are needed for this transport, could not be delivered in time.” … Damascus agreed to transport the “most critical” chemicals, including around 20 tons of mustard nerve agent, out of the northern port of Latakia by December 31 to be safely destroyed abroad away from the war zone. A Russian diplomat was also quoted as saying on Friday that the deadline would be missed because the toxins that can be used to make sarin, VX gas and other agents still faced a potentially hazardous trip to the port of Latakia. ”The removal has not yet begun,” Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Mikhail Ulyanov as saying after an international meeting on the chemical arms removal effort.

Big Obama Is Listening

To your iPhone. He's reading your tweets, text messages and Facebook posts too.

According to leaked documents, the NSA claims a 100 percent success rate when it comes to implanting iOS devices with spyware. The documents suggest that the NSA needs physical access to a device to install the spyware—something the agency has achieved by rerouting shipments of devices purchased online—but a remote version of the exploit is also in the works.

Appelbaum says that presents one of two possibilities:

“Either [the NSA] have a huge collection of exploits that work against Apple products, meaning they are hoarding information about critical systems that American companies produce, and sabotaging them, or Apple sabotaged it themselves,” Appelbaum said at the Chaos Communication Conference in Hamburg, Germany.

NSA Installed Malware On Mail Order Computers

If your neighbor told you that the Obama regime was doing this, you'd think he was a birther and a black helicopter paranoid too.

Responding to a query from SPIEGEL, NSA officials issued a statement saying, "Tailored Access Operations is a unique national asset that is on the front lines of enabling NSA to defend the nation and its allies." The statement added that TAO's "work is centered on computer network exploitation in support of foreign intelligence collection." The officials said they would not discuss specific allegations regarding TAO's mission. 

Sometimes it appears that the world's most modern spies are just as reliant on conventional methods of reconnaissance as their predecessors. 

Take, for example, when they intercept shipping deliveries. If a target person, agency or company orders a new computer or related accessories, for example, TAO can divert the shipping delivery to its own secret workshops. The NSA calls this method interdiction. At these so-called "load stations," agents carefully open the package in order to load malware onto the electronics, or even install hardware components that can provide backdoor access for the intelligence agencies. All subsequent steps can then be conducted from the comfort of a remote computer. 

These minor disruptions in the parcel shipping business rank among the "most productive operations" conducted by the NSA hackers, one top secret document relates in enthusiastic terms. This method, the presentation continues, allows TAO to obtain access to networks "around the world."

Hilary Clinton's "Moderate Taliban" Play Soccer With Severed Heads

The Professional Left Blames "Pajama Boy" Ridicule On Anti-Semitism

I thought it was anti-wussyism.

The Right went apoplectic, calling Pajama Boy “a metrosexual in a plaid onesie,” “an insufferable man-child,” and various other vaguely sexist and homophobic epithets. Apparently, real men don’t wear pajamas.

Or glasses. What’s interesting about the Right’s freakout about men who don’t measure up to the standards of the 1950s is how Pajama Boy’s obvious Jewishness has been subsumed by these other characteristics.

Yes, Virginia, Pajama Boy is a member of the tribe. Look at him. Pale Ashkenazic skin, Jew-fro’d black curls, Woody Allen specs. Even the smart-ass expression on his face screams of the Wise Son from the Passover Seder.

This must be one of those leftist dog whistle things. I have yet to hear anybody mention that pajama boy was a Jew.

Dave Barry's Year in Review

As always, a good read.

It was the Year of the Zombies. Not in the sense of most of humanity dying from a horrible plague and then reanimating as mindless flesh-eating ghouls. No, it was much worse than that. Because as bad as a zombie apocalypse would be, at least it wouldn’t involve the resurrection of Anthony Weiner’s most private part.

The New York Times Blames Crappy Video Maker For Benghazi Attack

Prepare ye the way of Hilary Clinton. The Times revives Hilary Clinton's thoroughly discredited, lame-assed excuse.

Then, on Sept. 8, a popular Islamist preacher lit the fuse by screening a clip of the video on the ultraconservative Egyptian satellite channel El Nas. American diplomats in Cairo raised the alarm in Washington about a growing backlash, including calls for a protest outside their embassy.

No one mentioned it to the American diplomats in Libya. But Islamists in Benghazi were watching. Egyptian satellite networks like El Nas and El Rahma were widely available in Benghazi. “It is Friday morning viewing,” popular on the day of prayer, said one young Benghazi Islamist who turned up at the compound during the attack, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

By Sept. 9, a popular eastern Libyan Facebook page had denounced the film. On the morning of Sept. 11, even some secular political activists were posting calls online for a protest that Friday, three days away.

Hussein Abu Hamida, the acting chief of Benghazi’s informal police force, saw the growing furor and feared new violence against Western interests. He conferred with Abdul Salam Bargathi of the Preventive Security Brigade, an Islamist militia with a grandiose name, each recalled separately, and they increased security outside a United Nations office. But they said nothing to the Americans.

Obamacare Success Story

Obama fires an arrow. Draws a circle around it, then claims that he hit the bulls eye.

More than 1.1 million people enrolled in ObamaCare before a December 24 deadline for consumers seeking healthcare plans that begin Jan. 1, the Obama administration said early Sunday.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner said in a blog post that more than 975,000 people enrolled in a qualified health plan through the federal marketplace in December, following a rocky rollout in October.

Detailed demographics were not released.

Tavenner called the late surge “welcome.”

“Our HealthCare.gov enrollment nearly doubled in the days before the January 1 coverage deadline compared to the first few weeks of the month,” she said. “December enrollment so far is over 7 times that of October and November. In part, this was because we met our marks on improving HealthCare.gov: the site supported 83,000 concurrent users on December 23rd alone.”

"Detailed demographics not released?" Of course they weren't. They'll show that all Obamcare accomplished is that Medicaid enrollments have in increased. The young and the healthy who are needed to subsidize the Medicaid surge are not enrolling.

The New York Times Challenges The Onion

"At American colleges, few values are as sacred as open debate."

Chicago's South Side Blacks Sick Of Being Taken For Granted

No Bailout For The Insurance Industry

Health insurers loved Obamacare. They saw tens of millions of new customers being forced to purchase their product. Who wouldn't want that?

But as things appear to be shaking out, the customers they need, the young and the healthy, are not cooperating, leaving the insurance companies stuck with the old and the sick, whose premiums will not cover their expenses.

The insurance companies will soon be presenting the federal government with a huge bill. Should we pay it?

No.

The Affordable Care Act will push the over 45 million uninsured in the United States to find health care coverage. The largest portion of this group will find coverage through the health insurance marketplaces set up by the state and federal exchanges. Consumers purchasing through the exchanges will receive coverage through private insurance companies, with many receiving federal tax credits to help pay for policies. While the consumer may not be paying the full price of the policy, the insurance companies will still receive the full premium. With millions mandated to receive coverage, how much are the currently uninsured worth to the health insurance industry?
To answer this question we looked at what the uninsured would pay in monthly premiums for coverage with private insurers. (See our methodology below) Based on our estimates the uninsured are worth a potential 92+ billion dollars in annual premiums to the insurance companies. The Affordable Care Act requires that 80% of the value of the premiums be used to service health care costs, leaving a little over 18.4 billion dollars to be spread accross employees, marketing, overhead and profits. Insurance companies we've looked at could expect anywhere from 2-4% of all premiums to come in the form of profits. This would amount to $1.8 - $3.6 billion dollars annually. 
- See more at: http://www.valuepenguin.com/2013/12/how-much-obamacare-worth-insurance-companies#sthash.WDA4Gd5i.dpuf

The Affordable Care Act will push the over 45 million uninsured in the United States to find health care coverage. The largest portion of this group will find coverage through the health insurance marketplaces set up by the state and federal exchanges. Consumers purchasing through the exchanges will receive coverage through private insurance companies, with many receiving federal tax credits to help pay for policies. While the consumer may not be paying the full price of the policy, the insurance companies will still receive the full premium. With millions mandated to receive coverage, how much are the currently uninsured worth to the health insurance industry?
To answer this question we looked at what the uninsured would pay in monthly premiums for coverage with private insurers. (See our methodology below) Based on our estimates the uninsured are worth a potential 92+ billion dollars in annual premiums to the insurance companies. The Affordable Care Act requires that 80% of the value of the premiums be used to service health care costs, leaving a little over 18.4 billion dollars to be spread accross employees, marketing, overhead and profits. Insurance companies we've looked at could expect anywhere from 2-4% of all premiums to come in the form of profits. This would amount to $1.8 - $3.6 billion dollars annually. 
- See more at: http://www.valuepenguin.com/2013/12/how-much-obamacare-worth-insurance-companies#sthash.WDA4Gd5i.dpuf

The Affordable Care Act will push the over 45 million uninsured in the United States to find health care coverage. The largest portion of this group will find coverage through the health insurance marketplaces set up by the state and federal exchanges. Consumers purchasing through the exchanges will receive coverage through private insurance companies, with many receiving federal tax credits to help pay for policies. While the consumer may not be paying the full price of the policy, the insurance companies will still receive the full premium. With millions mandated to receive coverage, how much are the currently uninsured worth to the health insurance industry?

To answer this question we looked at what the uninsured would pay in monthly premiums for coverage with private insurers. (See our methodology below) Based on our estimates the uninsured are worth a potential 92+ billion dollars in annual premiums to the insurance companies. The Affordable Care Act requires that 80% of the value of the premiums be used to service health care costs, leaving a little over 18.4 billion dollars to be spread accross employees, marketing, overhead and profits. Insurance companies we've looked at could expect anywhere from 2-4% of all premiums to come in the form of profits. This would amount to $1.8 - $3.6 billion dollars annually. 

The Affordable Care Act will push the over 45 million uninsured in the United States to find health care coverage. The largest portion of this group will find coverage through the health insurance marketplaces set up by the state and federal exchanges. Consumers purchasing through the exchanges will receive coverage through private insurance companies, with many receiving federal tax credits to help pay for policies. While the consumer may not be paying the full price of the policy, the insurance companies will still receive the full premium. With millions mandated to receive coverage, how much are the currently uninsured worth to the health insurance industry?
To answer this question we looked at what the uninsured would pay in monthly premiums for coverage with private insurers. (See our methodology below) Based on our estimates the uninsured are worth a potential 92+ billion dollars in annual premiums to the insurance companies. The Affordable Care Act requires that 80% of the value of the premiums be used to service health care costs, leaving a little over 18.4 billion dollars to be spread accross employees, marketing, overhead and profits. Insurance companies we've looked at could expect anywhere from 2-4% of all premiums to come in the form of profits. This would amount to $1.8 - $3.6 billion dollars annually. 
- See more at: http://www.valuepenguin.com/2013/12/how-much-obamacare-worth-insurance-companies#sthash.WDA4Gd5i.dpuf

The Affordable Care Act will push the over 45 million uninsured in the United States to find health care coverage. The largest portion of this group will find coverage through the health insurance marketplaces set up by the state and federal exchanges. Consumers purchasing through the exchanges will receive coverage through private insurance companies, with many receiving federal tax credits to help pay for policies. While the consumer may not be paying the full price of the policy, the insurance companies will still receive the full premium. With millions mandated to receive coverage, how much are the currently uninsured worth to the health insurance industry?
To answer this question we looked at what the uninsured would pay in monthly premiums for coverage with private insurers. (See our methodology below) Based on our estimates the uninsured are worth a potential 92+ billion dollars in annual premiums to the insurance companies. The Affordable Care Act requires that 80% of the value of the premiums be used to service health care costs, leaving a little over 18.4 billion dollars to be spread accross employees, marketing, overhead and profits. Insurance companies we've looked at could expect anywhere from 2-4% of all premiums to come in the form of profits. This would amount to $1.8 - $3.6 billion dollars annually. 
- See more at: http://www.valuepenguin.com/2013/12/how-much-obamacare-worth-insurance-companies#sthash.WDA4Gd5i.dpuf

The Affordable Care Act will push the over 45 million uninsured in the United States to find health care coverage. The largest portion of this group will find coverage through the health insurance marketplaces set up by the state and federal exchanges. Consumers purchasing through the exchanges will receive coverage through private insurance companies, with many receiving federal tax credits to help pay for policies. While the consumer may not be paying the full price of the policy, the insurance companies will still receive the full premium. With millions mandated to receive coverage, how much are the currently uninsured worth to the health insurance industry?
To answer this question we looked at what the uninsured would pay in monthly premiums for coverage with private insurers. (See our methodology below) Based on our estimates the uninsured are worth a potential 92+ billion dollars in annual premiums to the insurance companies. The Affordable Care Act requires that 80% of the value of the premiums be used to service health care costs, leaving a little over 18.4 billion dollars to be spread accross employees, marketing, overhead and profits. Insurance companies we've looked at could expect anywhere from 2-4% of all premiums to come in the form of profits. This would amount to $1.8 - $3.6 billion dollars annually. 
- See more at: http://www.valuepenguin.com/2013/12/how-much-obamacare-worth-insurance-companies#sthash.WDA4Gd5i.dpuf

Obama Wishes His Acolytes A Joyous Fake Holiday

Kwanzaa.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are sending those celebrating Kwanzaa their hopes for a prosperous and healthy new year.
The Obamas are calling attention to Kwanzaa's seven principles, which include unity, creativity, faith and self-determination. They say each principle represents the essence of the holiday, but also represents shared values that draw Americans together.
They're sending their best wishes to families and communities in the U.S. who are coming together to light the candle holder, called a Kinara, that's used to celebrate Kwanzaa.
The seven-day African-American holiday starts Thursday.
- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-sends-wishes-those-celebrating-kwanzaa#sthash.MoZRsxky.dpuf

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are sending those celebrating Kwanzaa their hopes for a prosperous and healthy new year.
The Obamas are calling attention to Kwanzaa's seven principles, which include unity, creativity, faith and self-determination. They say each principle represents the essence of the holiday, but also represents shared values that draw Americans together.
They're sending their best wishes to families and communities in the U.S. who are coming together to light the candle holder, called a Kinara, that's used to celebrate Kwanzaa.
The seven-day African-American holiday starts Thursday.
- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-sends-wishes-those-celebrating-kwanzaa#sthash.MoZRsxky.dpuf

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are sending those celebrating Kwanzaa their hopes for a prosperous and healthy new year.

The Obamas are calling attention to Kwanzaa's seven principles, which include unity, creativity, faith and self-determination. They say each principle represents the essence of the holiday, but also represents shared values that draw Americans together.

They're sending their best wishes to families and communities in the U.S. who are coming together to light the candle holder, called a Kinara, that's used to celebrate Kwanzaa.

The seven-day African-American holiday starts Thursday.

If you're interested in the true origins of Kwanzaa, here it is.

While taking the "best of early Chinese and Cuban socialism" -- excluding, one hopes, forced abortions, imprisonment of homosexuals and forced labor -- Karenga said Kawaida practitioners believe one's racial identity "determines life conditions, life chances and self-understanding." There's an inclusive philosophy for you.

Kwanzaa was the result of a '60s psychosis grafted onto the black community. Liberals have become so mesmerized by multicultural nonsense that they have forgotten the real history of Kwanzaa and Karenga's United Slaves -- the violence, the Marxism, the insanity.

Most absurdly, for leftists anyway, they have forgotten the FBI's tacit encouragement of this murderous black nationalist cult founded by the father of Kwanzaa.

Kwanzaa emerged not from Africa, but from the FBI's COINTELPRO. It is a holiday celebrated exclusively by idiot white liberals. Black people celebrate Christmas. (Merry Christmas, fellow Christians!)

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are sending those celebrating Kwanzaa their hopes for a prosperous and healthy new year.
The Obamas are calling attention to Kwanzaa's seven principles, which include unity, creativity, faith and self-determination. They say each principle represents the essence of the holiday, but also represents shared values that draw Americans together.
They're sending their best wishes to families and communities in the U.S. who are coming together to light the candle holder, called a Kinara, that's used to celebrate Kwanzaa.
The seven-day African-American holiday starts Thursday.
- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-sends-wishes-those-celebrating-kwanzaa#sthash.MoZRsxky.dpuf

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are sending those celebrating Kwanzaa their hopes for a prosperous and healthy new year.
The Obamas are calling attention to Kwanzaa's seven principles, which include unity, creativity, faith and self-determination. They say each principle represents the essence of the holiday, but also represents shared values that draw Americans together.
They're sending their best wishes to families and communities in the U.S. who are coming together to light the candle holder, called a Kinara, that's used to celebrate Kwanzaa.
The seven-day African-American holiday starts Thursday.
- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-sends-wishes-those-celebrating-kwanzaa#sthash.MoZRsxky.dpuf

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are sending those celebrating Kwanzaa their hopes for a prosperous and healthy new year.
The Obamas are calling attention to Kwanzaa's seven principles, which include unity, creativity, faith and self-determination. They say each principle represents the essence of the holiday, but also represents shared values that draw Americans together.
They're sending their best wishes to families and communities in the U.S. who are coming together to light the candle holder, called a Kinara, that's used to celebrate Kwanzaa.
The seven-day African-American holiday starts Thursday.
- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-sends-wishes-those-celebrating-kwanzaa#sthash.MoZRsxky.dpuf

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are sending those celebrating Kwanzaa their hopes for a prosperous and healthy new year.
The Obamas are calling attention to Kwanzaa's seven principles, which include unity, creativity, faith and self-determination. They say each principle represents the essence of the holiday, but also represents shared values that draw Americans together.
They're sending their best wishes to families and communities in the U.S. who are coming together to light the candle holder, called a Kinara, that's used to celebrate Kwanzaa.
The seven-day African-American holiday starts Thursday.
- See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-sends-wishes-those-celebrating-kwanzaa#sthash.MoZRsxky.dpuf

Have A Joyous Kwanzaa!

A holiday brought to you by a psychopathic FBI stooge.

I had hoped to write about "Duck Dynasty" this week, but that will have to wait. I have too much Kwanzaa shopping left to do. (Is it just me, or is Kwanzaa getting way too commercialized?)

Contrary to pundits sniping about Ted Cruz's campaign to repeal Obamacare, even the most boneheaded liberal ideas never "collapse on their own," which is why we still have public schools and President Obama. If nothing is done, Kwanza will join these horrors in the firmament of American life.

It is a fact that Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by a black radical FBI stooge, Ron Karenga -- aka Dr. Maulana Karenga -- founder of United Slaves, a violent nationalist rival to the Black Panthers. He was also a dupe of the FBI.

Obama's Spying Lies Unraveling

He knows if you've been sleeping. He knows when you're awake.

In a three-day span, those rationales were upended by a federal judge who declared that the program was probably unconstitutional and the release of a report by a White House panel utterly unconvinced that stockpiling such data had played any meaningful role in preventing terrorist attacks.

Either of those developments would have been enough to ratchet up the pressure on President Obama, who must decide whether to stand behind the sweeping collection or dismantle it and risk blame if there is a terrorist attack.

Beyond that dilemma for the president, the decision by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon and the recommendations from the review panel shifted the footing of almost every major player in the surveillance debate.

NSA officials, who rarely miss a chance to cite Snowden’s status as a fugitive from the law, now stand accused of presiding over a program whose capabilities were deemed by the judge to be “Orwellian" and likely illegal. Snowden’s defenders, on the other hand, have new ammunition to argue that he is more whistleblower than traitor.

Dismantling Obamacare

Obama is being forced to destroy his signature, legacy-building initiative in order to save it.

The wrecking ball swung again toward the crumbling Obamacare edifice yesterday. Ironically, it continues to be the Obama administration that is operating the heavy machinery.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced, in the form of a letter to Democratic senators, that Obamacare’s individual mandate tax will be waived in 2014 for persons who had their policies canceled in 2013 due to Obamacare.

At this point, after months of on-the-fly pronouncements, delays, and exemptions (often announced, not coincidentally, in the days just before a major national holiday), perhaps nothing should surprise us anymore about Obamacare’s disastrous rollout.  But yesterday’s announcement is still startling because of what it says about the state of the president’s signature domestic legislation. The law is falling apart before our eyes.

No doubt the administration’s defenders will argue that this is simply a tactical retreat, executed with surgical precision, and intended to protect the law from more serious legislative threats in 2014.  Better to give a little by executive action now than to invite an impossible-to-control revolt by Democrats in the Senate later, the thinking goes. And by orchestrating the tactical retreat in conjunction with political allies (the Sebelius letter followed by one day a letter requesting the change from six Senate Democrats), the administration is hoping its party will get credit with voters for “smoothing the transition” to Obamacare.

But by conceding that the individual mandate can and should be delayed for one group, the administration has opened a major can of worms.  For starters, this exemption is going to strike many Americans as blatantly unfair and arbitrary.  It comes at the 11^th hour, after millions of people, including those with canceled plans, have already made their choices based on the rules they thought would be in effect.  The administration said for months that the mandate would not be waived for anyone, even those with canceled policies, and it vowed a veto of any delay legislation coming out of Congress. Now the rules

Barack Obama' Coal In Your Stocking

Yes, Obamacare is destroying jobs.

My firm, which has fewer than 20 employees, recently received our renewal package for next year's health insurance plan. It read: "Your current coverage is no longer being offered, but we've provided you with a great alternative" -- an estimated 48% increase in premiums. That translates into approximately $1,676 in added costs per year for every individual covered on our plan ($6,704 for a family of four). That's approximately $44,000 in added annual costs that could otherwise be used to hire a college graduate.

The only good news is that most small businesses, including mine, were able to avoid these cost increases for a year by renewing their 2014 policies prior to Dec. 1. But come 2015, we'll face those increases regardless.

The response to our plight is that we are getting much better coverage. But that isn't true, either. We have historically provided our employees with a generous plan with 100% coverage for in-network preventative care and low out of pocket maximums. Conversely, our new "great alternative" plan offers comparable benefits with much higher out of pocket maximums.

The only obvious benefit of the new plan is a $5 reduction in office co-pays. Never mind that it would take 335 visits to the doctor each year for this to equal the premium increase.

But, of course, the good news is that Sandra Fluke doesn't have to pay for her own birth control pills. 

Eleven Tough Questions Obama Didn't Have To Answer

The mainstream news media's Christmas gift to Barack Hussein Obama.

Question number one:

Thank you, Mr. President. It's been 467 days now since you vowed to bring swift, sure justice to the terrorists who killed four Americans in Benghazi. Since you've been able to find and kill hundreds of other terrorists with drone strikes and since American news media have been able to find the alleged ringleaders and interview them, can you explain the delay in imposing your version of justice?

Piers Morgan Knows As Much About the Bible as He Does About Guns

But he's just as arrogant.

No, Barack Hussein Obama Did Not Enroll In Obamacare Using The Website

His drones bypassed the website. And apparently Obama had a little trouble verifying his identity. Was there a problem with the birth certificate or something?

Obama “was pleased to participate in a plan as a show of support for these marketplaces which are providing quality, affordable health care options to more than a million people,” the official added.

But Obama did not directly sign up for insurance. Rather, his staff went in person to sign him up, an official told POLITICO.

“Like some Americans, the complicated nature of the president’s case required an in-person sign-up,” the official said. “As you’d expect, the president’s personal information is not readily available in the variety of government databases HealthCare.gov uses to verify identities.”

It's the thought that counts, and Obama thinks that you're a fool.

Jackass Joe Fitzgibbons

Westside Washington Democrat shows just how carelessly his ilk throws words like "racist" around.

The Cardinals’ 17-10 win in Seattle on Sunday kept their postseason hopes alive while snapping the Seahawks’ 14-game home win streak. Fitzgibbon’s comment was posted shortly after the game.

“Losing a football game sucks,” Fitzgibbon wrote. “Losing to a desert racist wasteland sucks a lot.”

Hope Still Triumphs Over Experience With Thomas Friedman

He's out of ideas on how to bring peace to the Middle East. But he's still willing to give Obamacare more time.

Boeing Gives Machinists Another Chance To Save Their Jobs

But they're probably too stupid to accept it. 

Despite the vehement opposition of local union leaders, the national headquarters of the Machinists union has ordered a vote on Boeing’s revised offer to extend their contract, setting the stage for a divisive battle that could decide whether the company’s 777X plane is built here.

International Association of Machinists (IAM) headquarters representative Rich Michalski said the vote is set for Jan 3.

But the local leadership of Puget Sound-area IAM District 751, which declined to put the new offer to a membership vote, made clear Saturday it will continue to oppose the new offer. 

“Because of the massive take-aways, the Union is adamantly recommending members reject this offer,” a message on the District 751 website said.

Terry Bradshaw and Jay Leno Discuss Phil Robertson

Does America Owe Rick Santorum An Apology?

He predicted this back in 2003. America's elites laughed at him. He was right.

In his 91-page opinion in Brown v. Buhman, on Dec. 13, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups struck down Utah’s law making polygamy a crime. In so doing, he may have opened Pandora’s Box. 

As a condition for becoming a state in 1896, Congress required Utah to outlaw polygamy, which is marriage between three or more persons. This case involved a family of fundamentalist offshoots of nineteenth-century Mormonism. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints disavowed polygamy in 1890, and again in 1904, but some splinter groups continue the practice. 

Waddoups’ opinion would not only cover such groups, however, but also Muslims or anyone else who claims a right—religious or otherwise—to have multiple-person marriages. He notes that the Supreme Court ruled against polygamy in its 1878 case Reynolds v. U.S., but said he cannot simply rest upon that decision “without seriously addressing the much developed constitutional jurisprudence that now protects individuals from the criminal consequences intended by legislatures to apply to certain personal choices.”

Obama Pivots To The Economy

For the 387th time. He promises to do as much for the economy in 2014 as he did for health care in 2013.

That’s what I’ll be focused on next year, and every day I have the privilege of being your President. Growing the economy. Expanding opportunity. Building an America that offers everyone who works hard the chance to get ahead, and every child a fair shot at success.

And if Congress continues to act in the spirit of cooperation we’ve seen in recent weeks, I’m confident we can make much more progress together in the year to come. Thank you. Have a great weekend and a very Merry Christmas. ####

Even the New York Times Understands That Obamacare Is A Mess

"An insane amount of money!"

The cheapest insurance plan they can find through the new federal marketplace in New Hampshire will cost their family of four about $1,000 a month, 12 percent of their annual income of around $100,000 and more than they have ever paid before.

Even more striking, for the Chapmans, is this fact: If they made just a few thousand dollars less a year — below $94,200 — their costs would be cut in half, because a family like theirs could qualify for federal subsidies. 

The Chapmans acknowledge that they are better off than many people, but they represent a little-understood reality of the Affordable Care Act. While the act clearly benefits those at the low end of the income scale — and rich people can continue to afford even the most generous plans — people like the Chapmans are caught in the uncomfortable middle: not poor enough for help, but not rich enough to be indifferent to cost. 

“We are just right over that line,” said Ms. Chapman, who is 54 and does administrative work for a small wealth management firm. Because their plan is being canceled, she is looking for new coverage for her family, which includes Mr. Chapman, 55, a retired fireman who works on a friend’s farm, and her two sons. “That’s an insane amount of money,” she said of their new premium. “How are you supposed to pay that?”

. 

General Motors Deal Taketh From The Taxpayers

And giveth to Obama cronies.

The Treasury Department has sold the last of its stock in General Motors Co. Even though taxpayers lost $15 billion on the auto bailout (including losses at Chrysler Group LLC and Ally Financial Inc., which offers financing for GM vehicles), the Barack Obama administration put out a statement taking credit for its handling of tax dollars and the Detroit automakers’ success. 

Yet the administration shouldn’t be so quick to toot its own horn. The government didn’t need to lose any money on the auto bailout. Had the United Auto Workers not gotten special treatment, taxpayers would have come out ahead.

I Want Obamacare To Fail - Miserably

I’m beginning to like Obamacare. Oh, I still hope Obamacare fails. I hope that it fails so catastrophically that the news media cannot cover it up. I want it to fail because it is bad law. And I want it to fail for the same reason that Democrats fear its failure. Obamacare’s failure could drive a stake through the heart of big government liberalism.

Obamacare will not be the first big government initiative to fail, but it’s likely to be the one that Democrats cannot escape from.

The website failure only exposes the incompetence of the people who have granted themselves the power to administer this fraud. Obamacare’s ultimate failure will come because of the inherently impossible assumptions it makes. But the website hides Obamacare’s real weakness. For it to work, young healthy people have to take decisions that are in Obama’s best interests, but contrary to their own. Polls show that only about a quarter of those whom Obama needs to sign up are planning to.

Let’s look at another colossal failure of liberalism – public housing. Starting with Harry Truman, Democrats decided to herd low income African-Americans into slums. How has that worked out?

If you’re a Democrat, this human catastrophe worked out pretty well for your party. Even though public housing condemned generations of blacks to poverty, crime and other social dysfunction, the denizens of these hell holes vote almost unanimously for Democrats in every election. Life on public assistance may be miserable, but at least it’s predictable and there is comfort in predictability. And there is also fear that evil Republicans will take away what little the Democrats have permitted you.

And even though federally subsidized public housing stands as one of the greatest tragedies in US history, the disaster unfolded so gradually that its architects have escaped responsibility and have even manage to sustain their facade of compassion.

Obama and the Democrats have assembled an almost uninterrupted record of failure since Obama took office in 2009. According to Obama’s own forecasts, by this date his economic stimulus package was supposed to have brought the unemployment rate below 5%. It stands at 7%. And, it’s only that low because so many American have given up looking for work. If the labor force were the same as it was when Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 11%. In fact, there are more able bodied adults not working today than at any time in US history. Just last month, another two-thirds of a million Americans dropped out of the workforce.

“Cash for Clunkers” was supposedly a job creation plan. But according to the left leaning Brookings Institution, each job ended up costing 1.4 million dollars. The General Motors bailout was supposed to be a break even deal at the very least. The final cost to taxpayers reached over $10 billion. Efforts at creating a “green” economy have failed. Obama promised to put a million electric cars on road. The actual number is about 40,000. And even that has required a $10,000 per car subsidy. The failure solar energy subsidies are too numerous to list here.

But Democrats have managed to escape all responsibility for these failures. But that will not be the case with Obamacare. The Obamacare fiasco has come crashing down with such violence that nobody can apply patches fast enough to conceal the underlying flaws.

Obamacare has been so bad, that it might qualify for Janet Napolitano’s redefinition of terrorism as a “man-caused disaster.”

We have documentary evidence in the Federal Register and on videotape proving that, contrary to Obama apologists’ euphemisms of choice, Obama and the Democratic Party consciously, knowingly and intentionally lied when they claimed that: “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor,. Period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”  That is a direct quote from Barack Obama, June 15, 2010.

It was all a lie. And he knew it was a lie. He lied because he needed to win an election. You can’t keep your health plan or your doctor. Even employer provided health insurance is likely to be cancelled. As many as 93 million policies will be cancelled once the employer mandate kicks in.

Is it any wonder that Obama has illegally postponed the employer mandate until after the 2014 elections?

Obamacare Officially Enters Its Death Spiral

The built-in fatal flaw in Obamacare was the requirement that young, prosperous and healthy enroll and overpay and fund the subsidies that would drive down the price for everyone else. It isn't happening. 

As problems continue to plague the rollout of President Obama's health care law despite improvements to the federal healthcare.gov website, one issue that continues to loom is the possibility of the dreaded “death spiral.”

The term “death spiral” refers to an unraveling of the individual market if insurers are stuck with a disproportionate number of older and sicker enrollees with high medical claims without a sufficient number of younger and healthier participants to offset the costs.

Though the Department of Health and Human Services hasn't yet released a demographic breakdown of those who have picked a plan through Obamacare, early data from a handful of states has suggested that the risk pool has been disproportionately older.

Obama has now taken the short term, politically less unpopular step of postponing the individual mandate. By postponing the individual mandate he has pushed Obamacare into the death spiral. 

1. The individual mandate includes a "hardship exemption." People who qualify can either ignore the individual mandate altogether or purchase a cheap, bare-bones catastrophic insurance plan that's typically only available to people under 30.

2. According to HHS, the exemption covers people who "experienced financial or domestic circumstances, including an unexpected natural or human-caused event, such that he or she had a significant, unexpected increase in essential expenses that prevented him or her from obtaining coverage under a qualified health plan."

3. Today, the administration agreed with a group of senators, led by Mark Warner of Virginia, who argued that having your insurance plan canceled counted as "an unexpected natural or human-caused event." For these people, in other words, Obamacare itself is the hardship. You can read HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' full letter here. HHS's formal guidance is here.

In summary, Obama has declared Obamacare a "hardship."

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That

Obama markets his shitty health care plan to gays. 

The Real Hunger Games

The economy in and around Washington, DC is booming. #TwoAmericas

D.C. residents are enjoying a personal income boom.

The District’s total personal income in 2012 was $47.28 billion, or $74,733 for each of its 632,323 residents, according to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s Economic and Revenue Trends report for November.

The U.S. average per capita personal income was $43,725. The highest of the 50 states, Connecticut, fell 25 percent short of D.C.

If You Like Your Lying Senator, You Can Keep Her. Otherwise...

Jameis Winston, Joshua Strange And Obama's Thumb On The Scales Of Justice

It will be interesting to watch how Florida State University handles the case of Jameis Winston. Freshman quarterback Jameis Winston is the likely winner of this year’s Heisman Trophy. He was also a recent target of a criminal investigation resulting from an accusation of sexual assault dating back to last year.

After viewing all of the evidence and interviewing witnesses, the Florida State Attorney judged that there was not enough evidence to win a conviction. Jameis Winston is now free to compete for the BCS college football championship and to take home the sport’s most prestigious individual honor.

But according to Barack Obama’s Department of Justice, he should be expelled from school and his college football career should be over.

In a bow to radical feminism and with an obscene gesture toward our traditional notions of justice, the Obama Administration has imposed rules on higher education that threatens their federal funding unless due process rules are suspended.

Recently, Auburn University undergraduate Joshua Strange was expelled for sexual misconduct under Obama’s new justice codes. The evidence against him included a complaint lodged by his ex-girlfriend. She was voluntarily spending the night in his bedroom when she abruptly called police and claimed to be the victim of sexual assault.  After the police arrived, she changed her mind about the complaint and returned to his bedroom.

Months later, after the two had broken up, she filed another complaint, alleging that this time he had struck her in the face. The biggest problem with this complaint was that Joshua Strange credibly claimed that he was many miles away. She then renewed her earlier complaint.

A grand jury found no probable cause for prosecution.

Pre-Obama, that would have been the end of it. But Auburn University saw its federal funding threatened. Pre-Obama, Auburn University’s standard for finding a student guilty of sexual misconduct required that the accuser provide "clear and convincing evidence" of a crime. The standard imposed by the Obama Administration lowered that standard to a “preponderance of evidence.” Auburn interprets this as 50.01%. And weighing the evidence is entirely subjective. It also forces the accused to present evidence of his innocence. This is a novel legal standard to say the least.

The Obama Administration has also made federal funding contingent upon colleges and universities providing an environment where "all students feel safe in their school."

To win Joshua Strange’s  expulsion, his accuser only had to claim that his continued presence on campus made her feel unsafe.

Auburn revived the original sexual assault accusation against Joshua Strange and the accused could produce no evidence to prove his innocence. It did not matter that his accuser’s post-complaint behavior was inconsistent with that of a sexual assault victim. Most victims do not return to their attacker’s bedroom the same night, for example.

So what I’m wondering is, will Jameis Winston be held to this new standard? And while I hope that he isn’t, because that would be unjust, a part of me wishes that Florida State would handle the Jameis Winston case according to the new Obama standard, because only that way will the injustice be exposed.

Nobody cares about Joshua Strange. But Jameis Winston is the best player on the nation’s best college football team. All during the investigation, ESPN analysts insisted that he was innocent until proven guilty. Heisman Trophy voters were begged not to withhold votes based upon the accusation. When the Florida State Attorney decided not to pursue the charges, sports reporters across the nation dropped the subject.

If Jameis Winston were held to the same standard as Auburn’s Little Man on Campus, then he should be brought up on charges by Florida State University. He cannot prove his innocence any more than Joshua Strange could prove his. And in Winston’s case, actual physical, forensic evidence exists. And does anyone doubt that Winston’s accuser finds his continued presence on campus makes her feel less safe?

Will this happen? Of course not. Men of stature are held to very different standards than nobodies like Joshua Strange. Joshua Strange’s head is just the sort of trophy that leftists like to hang on their wall. Sacrificing Jameis Winston on radical feminism’s alter would harm the agenda and not advance it because it would expose their agenda for all to see.

If Joshua Strange wanted justice, then he would have had to have been Auburn’s star quarterback.

Nuclear Power: A Serious Approach to Global Warming

I have often said that I will not take global warming seriously until global warm mongers behave as though they take it seriously. One way that the warm mongers demonstrate their unseriousness about this issue is their intolerance of any solution that does not include higher taxes and a more authoritarian, centralized government.

The warm mongers say flatly "no" to solutions such as hydroelectric dams, nuclear power and remediation, such as tropical ocean fertilization. 

Scientific American makes the case for nuclear. Expect the warm monger empire to strike back. In fact, all you have to do is read the comments at the end of the article to take the measure of these fundamentalists. 

With more money for development of novel designs and public financial support for construction—perhaps as part of a clean energy portfolio standard that lumps in all low-carbon energy sources, not just renewables or a carbon tax—nuclear could be one of the pillars of a three-pronged approach to cutting greenhouse gas emissions: using less energy to do more (or energy efficiency), low-carbon power, and electric cars (as long as they are charged with electricity from clean sources, not coal burning). "The options for large-scale clean electricity are few in number," Sachs noted, including geothermal, hydropower, nuclear, solar and wind. "Each part of the world will have different choices about how to get on a trajectory with most of the energy coming from that list rather than coal."

As long as countries like China or the U.S. employ big grids to deliver electricity, there will be a need for generation from nuclear, coal or gas, the kinds of electricity generation that can be available at all times. A rush to phase out nuclear power privileges natural gas—as is planned under Germany's innovative effort, dubbed the Energiewende (energy transition), to increase solar, wind and other renewable power while also eliminating the country's 17 reactors. In fact, Germany hopes to develop technology to store excess electricity from renewable resources as gas to be burned later, a scheme known as “power to gas,” according to economist and former German politician Rainer Baake, now director of an energy transition think tank Agora Energiewende. Even worse, a nuclear stall can lead to the construction of more coal-fired power plants, as happened in the U.S. after the end of the nuclear power plant construction era in the 1980s.

Cancer Patient "Devastated" By Obamacare

Take a pain pill. 

I had a lot of trouble early on. I didn't expect my insurance to be canceled, had numerous problems getting onto Healthcare.gov and gave up on the website. Since then, I have received assistance from an agent and a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan representative. I have been stressed and scrambling to find an affordable policy that will ensure that I keep my doctors, chemotherapy drugs, etc. that are literally keeping me alive.

Over six years ago, I was in a position where I needed to choose an individual health-insurance policy. After much research I chose a Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO that I anticipated would be short term. My plan was to return to work as a registered nurse and be eligible for a group policy. But, for the first time in my life, I got really sick. I've been battling cancer and fighting for my life for the last six years. So much for my plans. I thank God that I am alive and am eternally grateful to Blue Cross Blue Shield and all my doctors, especially my doctors at University of Michigan (UM), who refer to me as their miracle patient.

New York Times Celebrates Obama's Dead Cat Bounce

Woo hoo! Obama soars to a 42% approval in the polls!

According to the poll, 42 percent of Americans now approve of Mr. Obama’s overall performance, and 50 percent disapprove. That is not exactly good news for the president, but is better than his numbers in mid-November, after he admitted he had fumbled the rollout of the health care law’s website. Then, just 37 percent approved and 57 percent disapproved in a CBS News poll.

The findings suggest that for Mr. Obama, the political fallout from the website’s start-up might be over. The White House says the website, HealthCare.gov, is now functioning smoothly for most users.

The Triumph Of The Vulgarians

Miley Cyrus's "Twerking" isn't edgy anymore. 

Consider one of the Goldberg family’s favorite shows: Bravo’s Top Chef, in which the “cheftestants” compete in various culinary challenges for the title of — duh — top chef. Surely, a cooking show should be safe viewing for all ages. But for ten years running, the cast has cursed nonstop. Worse, the profanity isn’t really bleeped out, merely “bleeped at,” in the words of the New York Times.

In 2008, head judge Tom Colicchio rightly chastised the cast and posted an apology on the show’s website for all the “gutter language.” Nothing’s changed. Defenders of the cursing insist it reflects the reality of culinary culture. I’m sure that’s true. But journalistic accuracy is a pretty hypocritical defense for a show that has chefs making haute cuisine from vending machines amid egregiously staged product placements. (Also, the cursing is utterly gratuitous. I, for one, have never concluded a delicious meal with the exclamation, “Wow, the guy who made this must be really foul-mouthed!”)

And such hypocrisy gets at the core of the problem. Vulgarity has become cultural shorthand for everything from seriousness to rebelliousness to “keeping it real.” But it’s closer to the opposite.

With tramps like Miley Cyrus wiggling her ass against men's crotches on television these days, it's probably hard to imagine that television networks used to block out Elvis Presley's wiggling pelvis.

Obama's IRS Nominee Has Little Experience With Taxes

But plenty of experience with politics.

Reuters reports:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Senate panel hearing on President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Internal Revenue Service was set to resume Wednesday after it was abruptly halted on Tuesday at a Republican senator’s request, committee aides said.

John Koskinen, a 74-year-old lawyer with little tax experience chosen by Obama to take over the beleaguered IRS, traveled up to Capitol Hill to face the Senate Finance Committee, but the session did not last long.

Well hey – it’s just the IRS. Why should the person who heads it have significant tax experience? What does the IRS have to do with taxes anyway? Why should its leader need to know anything about taxes?

His most obvious credential is generosity to the Democrats. 

Koskinen has been a prolific donor to Democratic political campaigns, giving more than $60,000 since 1999, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Child Abuse Rampant In Illinois

It's the Chicago Way. And they can't even count their dead.

The number of children who died from abuse or neglect over the past five years in Illinois is higher than the state’s child-welfare agency has reported, according to new figures from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

The number of deaths in that time is 455, DCFS officials said — which is 11 more than the agency previously counted.

DCFS officials blamed errors in “the department’s tracking and reporting system,” including counting as a single death some cases in which more than one child died.

Beats Headphone Ad Portrays Seahawks Fan Behaving Like Seahawks Fans

Seahawk fans offended.

A lot of Seahawks fans were heated during Seattle's loss to San Francisco, just not for the reasons you might expect. They weren't mad about the calls going against their team (OK, fans were mad about that too), or about the way their team was playing. No, a lot of fans were and still are upset about they way they were portrayed in a new Beats by Dre commercial staring 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

If Racism Didn't Exist, The Democrats Would Have To Invent It

And they did.

Indeed, the pollsters even confess that they “expected” to find more racism among Republican voters. “We expected that in this comfortable setting or in their private written notes, some would make a racial reference or racist slur when talking about the African American President,” they confess. “None did.”

But this response by the voters they surveyed is viewed by Democracy Corps pollsters more as a clever evolutionary response to a history of predation. The Republican voter, the pollsters declare, harbors racial consciousness that is only masked by an effective camouflage:

They know that is deeply non-PC and are conscious about how they are perceived. But focusing on that misses how central is race to the worldview of Republican voters. They have an acute sense that they are white in a country that is becoming increasingly “minority,” and their party is getting whooped by a Democratic Party that uses big government programs that benefit mostly minorities, create dependency and a new electoral majority. Barack Obama and Obamacare is a racial flashpoint for many Evangelical and Tea Party voters.

The capable naturalists at Democracy Corps are trained to recognize even the latent, recessive racism lingering deep within the Republican genome. Like the human coccyx, the vestigial prejudice in the GOP voter is betrayed when the subject is scrutinized by those with trained eyes.

Looking past the obligatory nods to partisan shibboleths contained within this memo, however, are a series of interesting nuggets that contribute to the political debate. “Evangelicals who feel most threatened by trends embrace the Tea Party because they are the ones who are fighting back,” the memo reads. “They are very in tune politically, but the Tea Party base is very libertarian and not very interested in fighting gay marriage.”

Deaf Interpreter At Mandela Memorial Was A Fake

The Democrat Party Comes To South Africa!

Concerns over the male interpreter had been raised by deaf people watching the service at Johannesburg's FNB Stadium on Tuesday.

Bruno Druchen, national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa, said the unidentified man, who was on stage alongside world leaders including US President Barack Obama, "was moving his hands around but there was no meaning in what he used his hands for".

Millennials Reject Obamacare

Barack Hussein Obama bet that millennials couldn't do math. He was wrong.

Remember all those stories last week about how Millennials were abandoning Obamacare? Well a new survey out this morning comes to a slightly different conclusion: Millennials love Obamacare, just not if they’re the ones signing up for it...

...If you were a 45-year-old making $50,000 per year, the survey asked, would you rather pay $3,000 a year for one of the policies offered on the healthcare exchanges, or pay a $400 fine?

Eric Cantor Uses Typical Democrat Cheap Stunt

Democrats fume.

The “Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act,” named after a 10-year-old girl who died in October following an 11-month battle with an inoperable brain tumor, would end $12.5 million in funding for party nominating conventions and authorize the money for pediatric research grants instead. It’s the latest iteration of a proposal House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., unveiled in April and is sponsored by Rep. Gregg Harper, R-Miss.

“They’re politicizing the death of a child by naming the bill after her,” a Democratic leadership aide told CQ Roll Call on Tuesday. “That’s pretty disingenuous and callous to use a tragedy like hers to advance something partisan.”

Hasidic Jew Street Gangs Rampage In New York

The fake hate crime industry is growing more absurd by the day.

“I’m walking down some block by myself and then the next thing I know, I’m surrounded by a group of Hasidic Jewish men and they’re attacking me,” Patterson said. “I was alone. I was an easy target. I’m black. I’m gay, a whole slew of reasons.”

Immigration Laws Are For Little People

And friends of Harry Reid are not little people.

The Obama administration overruled career Homeland Security officials and expedited visa applications for about two dozen foreign investors for a politically connected Las Vegas casino hotel after repeated pressure from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his staff, according to internal government documents obtained by The Washington Times.

The move to overturn what is normally an non-appealable visa decision came despite concerns about “suspicious financial activity” involving some of the visa applicants from Asia, and it ultimately benefited several companies whose executives have donated heavily in recent years to Democrats, the documents show. It also ensnared Mr. Obama’s current nominee to be the No. 2 Homeland Security official, Alejandro “Ali” Mayorkas, whose appointment is to be reviewed by the Senate on Wednesday.

Obamanomics: The Rich Get Richer. The Poor Get Poorer

Obama blames others.

The wealth gap is even more pronounced among Americans who do not own real estate. According to a new study from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, about 50 percent of renters are paying more than 30 percent of their income on rent. That’s particularly alarming because 35 percent of U.S. households, about 43 million, now rent rather than own — up from 31 percent in 2004.

As housing costs rise, the effects may be showing up in personal savings rates. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ Personal Income and Outlays report, personal saving has not budged above 5 percent since early 2011 (even though this report also received a “comprehensive revision” in May that added a whopping $159 billion in ostensible monthly savings).

Notably, Obama’s inequality speech made no mention of rent at all, and the term “real estate” did not appear once, although there was a vague reference to households that “rack up mortgage debt.” While it is not clear how well the president understands these nuts-and-bolts personal finance challenges, it is clear that his rhetoric about America’s glaring wealth disparity overlooks one key point: Inequality is growing markedly worse, not better, under his management of the economy.