Another Obama-Funded Green Company Failing

Surely we could eliminate crap like this in the sequester.

Oregon and Portland, where the factory sits, approved nearly $58 million in incentives — loans, tax credit and other tax breaks — to attract SoloPower a few years ago, when the company was looking for a place to build its first factory. Before that, the company had a pilot production line at its headquarters.

SoloPower also snagged a $197 million federal loan guarantee in a program designed to promote clean power generation and job creation. The company wouldn’t be able to make use of that loan guarantee unless it could get its first production line at the new factory up and running, however.

The company’s CEO, Tim Harris, was full of optimism when I spoke with him last September. The company was about to mark the official start of the 100-megawatt factory, and Harris told me that he had a good number of orders waiting to be filled and expected the company to be profitable in 2013.

And another one bites the dust.

Janet Napolitano Denies Any Role In Releasing Illegal Alien

Just how much bullshit do they think we'll swallow? Does anyone (other than a mainstream journalist) believe that low level Homeland Security officials would do this on their own?

“Detainee populations and how that is managed back and forth is really handled by career officials in the field,” Napolitano said.

Napolitano added that the release, which has been criticized by congressional Republicans, was poorly timed. (No shit?)

"Do I wish that it had not been done all of a sudden and so that people weren't surprised by it? Of course," she said.

When asked why the detainees were in jail in the first place, Napolitano replied, “That’s a good question. I’ve asked the same question myself … so we’re looking into it.”

I didn't see the interview, but I have every confidence that ABC believed that low level, career employees would release thousands of illegal aliens without even asking about it.

Michelle Obama Claims Credit For Reducing Mississippi Childhohod Obesity

But most of the decline started before she started hectoring people. These people believe that we lift up a prayer of thanks to them when the sun rises.

While Mrs. Obama credits “Let's Move” for these recent advances, the report from Robert Wood Johnson does not back up that assertion.  Here is a chart from the report that the White House refers to in its press release and from which Mrs. Obama took Mississippi's 13 percent decline:

The 13 percent decrease that Mrs. Obama touted is measured from Spring 2005 through Spring 2011. “Let's Move” was launched in February 2010, so the first five years of the time period in question were prior to Let's Move's existence.  The time period for New York City is similar, but the Philadelphia and California figures only extend through 2010, ending just as “Let's Move” got moving.

While the Robert Wood Johnson report demonstrates progress has been made in the struggle against childhood obesity, there's no proof yet that “Let's Move” has played a role, and the report does not mention the program.  While “Let's Move” has undoubtedly raised the profile of the issue, the White House will have to wait for the studies to catch up to its claims.  Even then, a direct correlation between any change in obesity rates and “Let's Move” will be difficult to verify.  But if the White House continues to cite outdated statistics to promote the success of “Let's Move,” Mrs. Obama's credibility may be diminished before current figures on childhood obesity become available.

 

While Mrs. Obama credits “Let's Move” for these recent advances, the report from Robert Wood Johnson does not back up that assertion.  Here is a chart from the report that the White House refers to in its press release and from which Mrs. Obama took Mississippi's 13 percent decline:

The 13 percent decrease that Mrs. Obama touted is measured from Spring 2005 through Spring 2011. “Let's Move” was launched in February 2010, so the first five years of the time period in question were prior to Let's Move's existence.  The time period for New York City is similar, but the Philadelphia and California figures only extend through 2010, ending just as “Let's Move” got moving.

While the Robert Wood Johnson report demonstrates progress has been made in the struggle against childhood obesity, there's no proof yet that “Let's Move” has played a role, and the report does not mention the program.  While “Let's Move” has undoubtedly raised the profile of the issue, the White House will have to wait for the studies to catch up to its claims.  Even then, a direct correlation between any change in obesity rates and “Let's Move” will be difficult to verify.  But if the White House continues to cite outdated statistics to promote the success of “Let's Move,” Mrs. Obama's credibility may be diminished before current figures on childhood obesity become available.

- See more at: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/white-house-stats-childhood-obesity-decline-pre-date-lets-move_704845.html#sthash.GDFlLoMl.dpuf

While Mrs. Obama credits “Let's Move” for these recent advances, the report from Robert Wood Johnson does not back up that assertion.  Here is a chart from the report that the White House refers to in its press release and from which Mrs. Obama took Mississippi's 13 percent decline: - See more at: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/white-house-stats-childhood-obesity-decline-pre-date-lets-move_704845.html#sthash.GDFlLoMl.dpuf

While Mrs. Obama credits “Let's Move” for these recent advances, the report from Robert Wood Johnson does not back up that assertion.  Here is a chart from the report that the White House refers to in its press release and from which Mrs. Obama took Mississippi's 13 percent decline:

The 13 percent decrease that Mrs. Obama touted is measured from Spring 2005 through Spring 2011. “Let's Move” was launched in February 2010, so the first five years of the time period in question were prior to Let's Move's existence.  The time period for New York City is similar, but the Philadelphia and California figures only extend through 2010, ending just as “Let's Move” got moving.

While the Robert Wood Johnson report demonstrates progress has been made in the struggle against childhood obesity, there's no proof yet that “Let's Move” has played a role, and the report does not mention the program.  While “Let's Move” has undoubtedly raised the profile of the issue, the White House will have to wait for the studies to catch up to its claims.  Even then, a direct correlation between any change in obesity rates and “Let's Move” will be difficult to verify.  But if the White House continues to cite outdated statistics to promote the success of “Let's Move,” Mrs. Obama's credibility may be diminished before current figures on childhood obesity become available.

- See more at: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/white-house-stats-childhood-obesity-decline-pre-date-lets-move_704845.html#sthash.GDFlLoMl.dpuf

While Mrs. Obama credits “Let's Move” for these recent advances, the report from Robert Wood Johnson does not back up that assertion.  Here is a chart from the report that the White House refers to in its press release and from which Mrs. Obama took Mississippi's 13 percent decline:

The 13 percent decrease that Mrs. Obama touted is measured from Spring 2005 through Spring 2011. “Let's Move” was launched in February 2010, so the first five years of the time period in question were prior to Let's Move's existence.  The time period for New York City is similar, but the Philadelphia and California figures only extend through 2010, ending just as “Let's Move” got moving.

While the Robert Wood Johnson report demonstrates progress has been made in the struggle against childhood obesity, there's no proof yet that “Let's Move” has played a role, and the report does not mention the program.  While “Let's Move” has undoubtedly raised the profile of the issue, the White House will have to wait for the studies to catch up to its claims.  Even then, a direct correlation between any change in obesity rates and “Let's Move” will be difficult to verify.  But if the White House continues to cite outdated statistics to promote the success of “Let's Move,” Mrs. Obama's credibility may be diminished before current figures on childhood obesity become available.

- See more at: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/white-house-stats-childhood-obesity-decline-pre-date-lets-move_704845.html#sthash.GDFlLoMl.dpuf

While Mrs. Obama credits “Let's Move” for these recent advances, the report from Robert Wood Johnson does not back up that assertion.  Here is a chart from the report that the White House refers to in its press release and from which Mrs. Obama took Mississippi's 13 percent decline:

The 13 percent decrease that Mrs. Obama touted is measured from Spring 2005 through Spring 2011. “Let's Move” was launched in February 2010, so the first five years of the time period in question were prior to Let's Move's existence.  The time period for New York City is similar, but the Philadelphia and California figures only extend through 2010, ending just as “Let's Move” got moving.

While the Robert Wood Johnson report demonstrates progress has been made in the struggle against childhood obesity, there's no proof yet that “Let's Move” has played a role, and the report does not mention the program.  While “Let's Move” has undoubtedly raised the profile of the issue, the White House will have to wait for the studies to catch up to its claims.  Even then, a direct correlation between any change in obesity rates and “Let's Move” will be difficult to verify.  But if the White House continues to cite outdated statistics to promote the success of “Let's Move,” Mrs. Obama's credibility may be diminished before current figures on childhood obesity become available.

- See more at: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/white-house-stats-childhood-obesity-decline-pre-date-lets-move_704845.html#sthash.GDFlLoMl.dpuf

Savage Sequester Not So Savage

What Rights Would You Sell Out For Security?

Last week Barack Obama visited his violent, crime-ridden home town of Chicago. He was there to promote gun control. 

Coincidentally Chicago named its first “Public Enemy Number One” since Al Capone. The latest Numero Uno is Sinoloa drug cartel chief Joaquin Guzman. Guzman’s notoriety descends from the fact that his cartel finances much of the violence tormenting America’s Second City. Chicago gangs market his merchandise, and Guzman uses Chicago as a distribution hub for the entire Great Lakes area.

Chicago has America’s strictest gun laws and yet remains this nation’s most deadly war zone. For Americans, not even Afghanistan can match Chicago’s body count.

Roughly 80% of Chicagoland’s shootings are gang related. So it’s no wonder that, for the first time since 1929, the Chicago Crime Commission saw fit to designate a new Public Enemy, especially considering that, compared to Guzman, Capone was a piker.

The only surprise is that the crime commission pointed the finger at an actual criminal. The politically correct choice would have been to name firearms manufacturers or law-abiding gun owners as enemies.

And this brings me to my point. Obama’s remedy for violence is to subvert the Constitution. His own Vice President admits that Obama’s proposed gun laws would not have prevented the Sandy Hook tragedy. Obama’s own Justice Department foresees no effect.

Immediately after the Newtown, Connecticut massacre, Barack Obama leapt at the opportunity to attack our Constitutional rights.

At the memorial service, Obama argued that our Constitutional rights were too expensive. “Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?" he asked.

Chronic campaigner Obama knows better than to let a tragedy go to waste.

But if we are going to be asked to surrender our Constitutional rights in order to make America a safer place for our children, then shouldn’t we enact police state tactics that might actually work?

As mentioned earlier, we know that most of Chicago’s murders are gang related. And for the most part, police know who these gang members are. Because gang membership is not itself illegal, police can only jail those whom they can actually convict of crimes. And few are ever convicted. Only 18% of the murders committed in Chicago in 2010 were ever punished. In many cases, the killers are known to all, but needn’t fear justice because witnesses are afraid to testify. Willing witnesses probably won’t live long enough to see the courtroom. Those who do would face the wrath of the accused’s fellow gangsters.

Just imagine all the lives that could be saved if our criminal justice system were not so encumbered with all those protections for the rights of the accused. If we know who the gang members are, then the police could simply round them all up and imprison them all indefinitely. This would save far more lives that gun control.

Or perhaps we could take a cue from Hollywood and create a “Department of Precrime.” In the movie “Minority Report,” clairvoyants were used to predict those who were about to commit a crime so that the government could preemptively incarcerate them.

We don’t have clairvoyants yet, but we do have psychological studies that allow us to predict with a fair degree of accuracy which children will grow up to become violent criminals. One study published by the U. S. Department of Justice identified risk factors that emerge in children as young as six years old. Another paper in the British Journal of Psychiatry claimed that potential violent criminals could be identified as preschoolers.

But we’re not going to do that are we? The very same people who believe that we need to ban cosmetically offensive semi-automatic rifles “for the children” would be among those protesting the loudest.

So we have tools at our disposal that would make ours a safer society. But they’re just as unconstitutional and immoral as Obama’s remedies. Gun bans don’t make us safer and we should fear any erosion of the Constitution. If guns can go, then so can habeas corpus.

And it’s worth noting that Obama was given a quintessential Chicago send off. Within minutes of Air Force One’s departure, there were four shootings.

Gun Control For Dummies

You could learn a lot from a dummy. Unfortunately, most people aren't as smart as a dummy. 

New York Times Suddenly Discovers That Obama's Foreign Policy Stinks

That's funny. Before the election, the New York Times was promoting the idea that Obama's foreign policy was his greatest strength. Yeah, I know. Faint praise. But still...

President Obama and his allies made the case for him as commander in chief Thursday night, saying he was a steady hand in a dangerous world, while accusing Mitt Romney of outsourcing his policy to “neocon advisers” who would lead a return to the reckless adventurism of the Bush administration. 

Well now that that pesky election is behind us, it's okay for the Times to cast a jaundiced eye on Obama's record. 

The New York Times suggests this morning that the White House is taking another look at whether to arm the Syrian rebel groups. The trouble is, all the choices are uglier now than they were when the president overruled his top national security officials to block this kind of aid last year. The good guys are weaker, the bad guys are worse, and America has less influence over anybody in Syria as a result of the delay.

It’s a bad week at the Gray Lady for discussions of administration foreign policy. Elsewhere in today’s paper, Roger Cohen sides with Vali Nasr’s sharp criticism of an administration he sees as sacrificing the national interest overseas to short term domestic politics at home and as needlessly contributing to American decline through weakness.

With the election safely over, the foreign policy establishment is taking a long hard look at the administration’s policy mix overseas and the chorus of critics is growing.

Democrats Fleeing From Obamacare

Sorry guys and gals, it's your albatross. You have to wear it.

The about-face of these Democrats is a phenomenon worth pausing over. Many formerly supportive constituencies have grown wary of Obamacare in recent weeks as we’ve learned more about the effects it will have on the health care system. But these Senators’ 180-degree turns are something more severe.

The fate of the Democratic party in America over the next decade is tied to Obama’s healthcare reform. If it is seen to be a success, America could trend Democratic for the foreseeable future. If it fails, liberalism as we’ve known it will take a massive hit. But, so far, support for Obamacare has been waning instead of waxing. Even a recent piece by Talking Points Memo that placed the blame for Obamacare’s potential failure on Republicans noted that the law’s unpopularity with the public at large was the number one threat to its success. Democrats are getting nervous and consequently are trying to put some distance between themselves and the ACA.

We don’t blame them for trying, but it may be a futile effort. For better or worse, their fates are now tied to that of Obamacare.

Al Gore Defends Selling His Network To Al Jazeera

"The Pilgrims Were Illegal Aliens"

Federal employees forced to recite mantra. 

Footage of the United States Department of Agriculture’s compulsory “Cultural Sensitivity Training” program reveals USDA employees being instructed to refer to the Pilgrims as “illegal aliens” and minorities as “emerging majorities” — at “a huge expense” to taxpayers.

The video clips were made public Thursday evening by the conservative government accountability group Judicial Watch, which obtained them through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made on May 18, 2012.

The clips star Samuel Betances — a diversity instructor with Souder, Betances and Associates — who says in the video that he got his diversity training start under former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. In the clips, Betances instructed USDA employees on the proper thinking about diversity and minorities — or, as he called them, “emerging majorities.”

Legacy Media No Longer Investigate

And criticize those who do.

For the last several weeks, as you are no doubt aware, the Washington Free Beacon and other news outlets—most of them conservative—have been investigating secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel’s positions, finances, associations, career history, and utterances. Which seems to us to be precisely what you would expect an intrepid and creative and entrepreneurial press to do when the president of the United States nominates a controversial former senator to one of the most important cabinet posts in the land.

Apparently, though, and without our knowing it, you and I have passed through an inter-dimensional portal and have entered a black-is-white, up-is-down twilight zone in which asking for information pertaining to a public figure constitutes participation not only in a McCarthyite “smear machine,” but also in a “campaign, orchestrated by controversial anti-Arab figures,” with the goal of “smearing and intimidating the Arab-American community.” And “this demonizing of the Arab community is very troubling,” a spokesman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) tells Dylan Byers, a cub reporter for Politico. “The FBI was in here last week because of those types of threats.” The line separating inquiry and bigotry is, it would seem, rather thin. The ADC sees “the right-wing’s attacks in racial terms,” Byers writes. So the right wing better shut up. After all: Their witch-hunt has “come up empty.”

US Industrial Production Falls

Unexpectedly of course. 

Economists polled by Briefing.com had predicted that industrial production would rise by 0.2 percent in January, following a 0.3-percent increase in December.

Selective Outrage

Nancy Pelosi doesn't think that you even need to know when Barack Obama kills an American.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is not sure whether the public should be told when the federal government kills an American citizen.

"Maybe. It just depends," she said in an interview with The Huffington Post this week, when asked whether the administration should acknowledge when it targets a U.S. citizen in a drone strike.

Pelosi disputed the assertion that Democrats are less critical of the drone program than they would have been if George W. Bush were still president, arguing, "Those opposed are pretty critical, and other people are just listening to see what this is and why this is necessary, because we're in a different world."

But she also hinted at another reason that the administration may be getting the benefit of the doubt from some lawmakers: Polls.

"It's interesting how popular it is in the public," she said, recalling that the same polling dynamic prevailed during the fight over warrantless wiretaps. "People just want to be protected. And I saw that when we were fighting them on surveillance, the domestic surveillance. People just want to be protected: 'You go out there and do it. I'll criticize you, but I want to be protected.'"

Nancy Pelosi is precisely the sort of Democrat that Glenn Greenwald had in mind when he wrote this. 

Progressive willingness to acquiesce to or even outright support Obama's radical policies - in the name of partisan loyalty - is precisely what ensures the continuation of those policies. Obama gets away with all of this because so many progressives venerate leader loyalty and partisan gain above all else.

Robert Menendez Scandal Just "A Withered Boob"

Milked too much. Now Marco Rubio drinking water? Now that's a scandal!

A former campaign spokesman for President Barack Obama said Thursday that there has been too much news coverage of several scandals surrounding New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez.

“There’s a point at which you’ve milked a story so much you look like withered boob. Move on,” Hari Sevugan tweeted Thursday morning, reacting to news that Menendez is still welcome at White House negotiations regarding immigration reform.

There’s a point at which you’ve milked a story so much you look like withered boob. Move on. MT@DailyCaller: Menendez still welcome at WH
— Hari Sevugan (@HariSevugan) February 14, 2013

92% Of Pakistanis Dislike America

Does anybody else remember when Obama boasted that his inauguration would raise America's esteem in the Muslim world? Surprisingly (if you're easily surprised) it didn't quite work out that way.

After four years of Barack Obama's diplomatic 'leadership' and billions of dollars in attempted friendship aid, a new public opinion poll reveals that 92% of Pakistanis now disapprove of the United States.

The results could have been worse. Not much. But a little. Fully four Pakistanis out of 100 do approve of the United States, President Obama and his policies. They, however, seem to keep kind of quiet about their views in that rowdy land. That's the lowest favorable rating Pakistan's citizens have ever given their ostensible North American ally.

The Fate America Turns On Marco Rubio Drinking Water

Unemployment and underemployment is hovering around 20%. Household incomes are down by about 12%. Gasoline prices have doubled. Grocery prices are soaring.

Obama Says The Border Has Never Been More Secure

Who are you gonna believe, Barack Obama or your own lying eyes?

New York Times reporter Damien Cave: "Interviewing a homeowner at the border, I just saw four border crossers sprint by, jump in a white sedan and drive away."

Christopher Dorner Worship Part Of Leftist Mainstream

How Can You Tell That Liberals Fear Marco Rubio?

Actual screen shot from CNN.

Are There Any Blacks Living In Big Bear?

In the midst of the Christopher Dorner denouement, the reliably imbecilic Chris Matthews asks the important question: "Are there any blacks living in Big Bear?"

The best answer is that there are probably at least as many as live in Matthews' Chevy Chase neighborhood. 

As of the 2010 census, the town of Chevy Chase had a population that is 95.9% white, 1.6% Asian, and 0.6% black or African American. The township also had over 65% of households making more than $200,000 a year. So like many other high profile liberals/progressives, Chris Matthews is not residing in a very diverse neighborhood.

So besides the fact that it’s a fairly plush neighborhood,  what does Chris Matthews’ residence tell us?

For starters, it shows that Chris Matthews and others like him have no intention of living in those neighborhoods where real diversity and poverty actually exist. It’s much easier to beat the drum of diversity and drape your car in “COEXIST!”-stickers when you don’t have to be worried about the Prius getting stolen. So they stay in their plush neighborhoods where the residents only have come in contact with “diversity” in college courses taught by white, liberal, social science feminists.

And they’re not very likely to ever move to a diverse neighborhood. Let’s for a moment assume that the policies promoted by the left actually are intended to benefit the poor, and perhaps especially poor minorities. While these policies might be well-intended, they actually succeed in the opposite by locking poor Americans into dependency and destroying their self-reliance. As an example, consider the case of the minimum wage that I’ve mentioned before. Milton Friedman argued that the minimum wage was one of the most harmful policies for poor Americans, especially blacks, which have been imposed on the population of the United States.

Obama Forces Military To Purchase Electric Vehicles

And justifies using unicorn farm economics. 

The Department of Defense quietly announced in January that the next step in making the military more eco-friendly would entail spending $20 million to purchase electric vehicles to help offset power usage at Defense Department installations.

The Pentagon expects to lease up to 500 electric vehicles at six different installations later this year, with each vehicle costing between $30,000 to $100,000. When idle, these vehicles would deliver power back to a grid in order to help offset the military’s power usage.

Some projections show that revenue from power that is returned from the grid could completely offset the cost of the vehicles.

Al Gore Silent As Al Jazeera Broadcasts Death Sentence For Apostates

Petrodollars speak louder than Al Gore's conscience.

Aides to former Democratic Vice President Al Gore have failed to respond to a recent Al-Jazeera TV broadcast, in which a top imam affirmed the death penalty for anyone who quits Islam.

Gore sold his Current TV network to Al-Jazeera, which now plans to extend its broadcast into the United States this summer, according to Ashok Sinha, vice president of corporate communications at Current TV/Al-Jazeera America.

Businesses Fleeing California

When it comes to companies leaving California it's no longer a matter of if, or even when, but where. 

The firms interested in making the move include software, tech, aerospace defense, engine technology, and life-science companies—in other words, the industries (apart from Hollywood and agriculture) that made California rich.

The motivating factor in these cases isn’t so much that cities like Fort Worth and Phoenix have suddenly found the perfect formula for luring away coastal business elites. Rather, it’s that California’s business climate is so toxic that regions hitherto considered commercial backwaters now seem perfectly acceptable, if not preferable. (As far as we know there’s no rush for Vermont CEOs to relocate to Arizona, after all.)

California’s severe tax and regulatory system is the result of decades of legislation, but November’s Proposition 30 continues to look like the straw that broke the CEOs’ backs. The unintended consequences of that tax increase continue to be a bane to California and a boon to its neighbors.

If You Ever Doubted That James McDermitt Was An Asshole...

Biden Counts On Liberal Media To Lie For Him

The "legitimate news media?" Who grants that license?

During a press conference on new gun laws in Philadelphia on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden spoke extemporaneously about what President Barack Obama’s administration hopes will be a push by the media to advance new gun safety measures. He said that, in an era when a variety of new and social media outlets can disseminate misinformation, it is the job of the “legitimate news media” to cover the gun control debate and identify inaccuracies. 

The liberal news media are less and less inclined to propagandize for these frauds. 

Obama said that the sequester -- and the defense cuts that would result from it -- was not his proposition. "It is something that Congress has proposed," he said in the debate.
But it was Obama’s negotiating team that came up with the idea for defense cuts in 2011, though they were intended to prod Congress to come up with a better deal for reining in the deficit, not as an effort to make those cuts reality.
  
Meanwhile, members of both parties in Congress voted for the legislation that set up the possibility of sequestration. Obama’s position is that Congress should now act to avoid those across-the-board cuts.
  
Obama can’t rightly say the sequester isn’t his, but he did need cooperation from Congress to get to this point. We rate the statement Mostly False.

Glenn Greenwald Calls Democrats "Overtly Unpricipled Hacks"

And, what was your first clue Glenn? Drone attacks? Were you not paying attention before that?

This past week has been a strangely clarifying political moment. It was caused by two related events: the leak of the Justice Department's "white paper" justifying Obama's claimed power to execute Americans without charges, followed by John Brennan's alarming confirmation hearing (as Charles Pierce wrote: "the man whom the administration has put up to head the CIA would not say whether or not the president of the United States has the power to order the extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen within the borders of the United States"). I describe last week's process as "strange" because, for some reason, those events caused large numbers of people for the first time to recognize, accept and begin to confront truths that have long been readily apparent.

Illustrating this odd phenomenon was a much-discussed New York Times article on Sunday by Peter Baker which explained that these events "underscored the degree to which Mr. Obama has embraced some of Mr. Bush's approach to counterterrorism, right down to a secret legal memo authorizing presidential action unfettered by outside forces."

SooperMexican's Call To The US Department Of Justice

Rick Perry Prick Nerves In California

And lives rent-free in Jerry Brown's head.

“Perry’s getting exactly what he wanted,” Gavin Newsom, the former Democratic mayor of San Francisco and now the state’s lieutenant governor, told radio station KQED. “He’s getting all kinds of press up and down the state, and why? Well, because he’s leaning in. He’s in the game. He’s getting in our heads.” Newsom ought to know. In 2011, he accompanied a group of state legislators on a fact-finding trip to Texas to interview former California business owners about their reasons for moving. Newsom told me at the time: “I am impressed with the focus on job creation I’ve seen here. We need to have a more balanced business climate in California.”

Indeed, in the last five years Texas has gained 400,000 new jobs while California has lost 640,000. The Lone Star State’s rate of job growth was 33 percent higher than California’s last year, even as the Golden State finally pulled out of the recession.

Joseph Vranich, a California business-relocation expert, agrees that California has a systemic job-creation problem and says it needs to worry about more than just Texas. He says that 15 states are sending delegations to California and seeking to convince firms to relocate or, if they stay in California, to expand their operations out of state. Wealthy individuals such as golfer Phil Mickelson are  openly talking about following Tiger Woods and moving to low-tax states such as Florida. EBay, Facebook, and Visa, among others, have recently made major expansions in Texas. “That kind of talk will only intensify now that top earners in California face a 13.3 percent income-tax hit on earnings over $1 million,” says Jon Fleischman, editor of the political blog FlashReport.com. “That’s not only the highest rate in the U.S. It’s the highest rate any state has had since World War II.”

Girls Just Wanna Have Guns

The New York Times discovers (and surprisingly reports) that guns are for girls too.

In the debate over firearms regulations, the voices of gun owners have largely been those of men. But at firing ranges across the country, a growing number of women are learning to use firearms and honing their skills. 

Women’s participation in shooting sports has surged over the last decade, increasing by 51.5 percent for target shooting from 2001 to 2011, to just over 5 million women, and by 41.8 percent for hunting, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. 

Gun sales to women have risen in concert. In a survey last year by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, 73 percent of gun dealers said the number of female customers had gone up in 2011, as had a majority of retailers surveyed in the two previous years.

Christopher Dorner, Liberal Hero

The left is rallying to the cop killer's side.

It’s hard to believe but there are those out there who sympathize with the man targeting police officers.

One Facebook page is proclaiming Dorner for president. “We propose electing a man who could no longer sit idly by and watch as malicious tyrants abuse the innocent.”

The description on “We Are All Chris Dorner” chillingly says, “Yes, this is war.”

Nearly 3,000 people like the page “I Support Christopher Jordan Dorner.”

The Imperial President

The New York Times Discovers That Obama's A Hypcrit

Duh!

If President Obama tuned in to the past week’s bracing debate on Capitol Hill about terrorism, executive power, secrecy and due process, he might have recognized the arguments his critics were making: He once made some of them himself. 

Four years into his tenure, the onetime critic of President George W. Bush finds himself cast as a present-day Mr. Bush, justifying the muscular application of force in the defense of the nation while detractors complain that he has sacrificed the country’s core values in the name of security. 

The debate is not an exact parallel to those of the Bush era, and Mr. Obama can point to ways he has tried to exorcise what he sees as the excesses of the last administration. But in broad terms, the conversation generated by the confirmation hearing of John O. Brennan, his nominee for C.I.A. director, underscored the degree to which Mr. Obama has embraced some of Mr. Bush’s approach to counterterrorism, right down to a secret legal memo authorizing presidential action unfettered by outside forces.

The New York Times Takes On Toy Guns

And sets down a new standard for shark jumping.

Walk into Walmart and you can usually find it: an aisle of weaponry, with names like the Firestrike, Rampage and Hail-Fire, advertising quick firing, ammunition clips and “semi-auto” capability. “Build your arsenal!” read the box for one, sitting next to a “tactical vest” meant to repel barrages of ... foam darts. 

The New York Times sees this a a danger

Those products, you see, are not actual guns but “blasters” made by Nerf, a brand of Hasbro and meant for children ages 8 and up. But in light of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, such toys — and their seemingly quasi-militaristic marketing — have some parents mulling what to say when their children reach for the toy holster. 

Nancy Pelosi: Is She Suffering From Alzheimer's Or Waldheimer's?

The federal government does not have a spending problem.



By the way, it's worth noting that the government is on pace to break its all-time record for revenues, and it's still running a deficit in excess of a billion dollars annually.

Rahm Emanuel Was Born A Poor, Black Child

According to his brother.

After a few days in the sun Ari and Rahm could pass for African-Americans, which led to the occasional dustup on a beach that was segregated in custom and practice. “Certain people—mostly white males between the ages of 10 and 15—made it their business to enforce the unwritten whites-only rule,” Ezekiel writes. “When they called my brothers niggers and tried to bully us off the beach, we—naturally—refused to move. Instead, one of us would answer, ‘You can’t make me leave.’” If shouting didn’t work, the Emanuel boys had no qualms about throwing punches. “We were city kids, not anti-war activists.”

Global Warming Influences The Orbits Of Asteroids?

Settled science: Global warming makes journalists stupid.

A Lesson For The Gun Controllers

That they probably won't learn.

Chicago, Ill., a city surrounded by the rural midwest, has tight gun laws. El Paso, Texas, has lax gun laws and neighbors one of the most violent cities in the world. Yet, El Paso is the safest big city in the U.S., whereas President Obama cites the murder rate in his hometown as a reason to implement his gun control agenda.

Gun violence isn’t much of an issue in El Paso, Texas, which is the safest city of its size in the country.  “[T]his week, for the third year in a row, El Paso was ranked as the safest U.S. city with a population greater that 500,000 by CQ Press, which compiled FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports,” per Fox.El Paso has minimal gun control — “mostly due to gun-friendly state law,” Reason observes.  It also neighbors one of the most dangerous cities in the world

CNN Panels Finds Speaking Truth To Power "Inappropriate"

The pitiful state of modern "journalism."

Dr. Benjamin Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, raised a number of political eyebrows in Washington this week when he took to a stage he shared with President Barack Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast and advocated a number of conservative reforms. On Sunday, the panel guests on CNN’s State of the Union weighed in on whether it was appropriate for Carson to use the forum of the prayer breakfast to advocate for free market reforms to healthcare and a flat tax code.

It's Not Just The Hypocrisy - It's The Illegality

It's clear that Barack Obama's drone warfare policy isn't just flagrantly hypocritical, it exceeds his legal mandate to make war.

Holder wanted terrorism relegated to the criminal-justice system, as it had been before Bush pivoted to a law-of-war paradigm. According to the pre-2009 Holder, if an enemy-combatant terrorist, particularly an American citizen, is encountered away from a traditional battlefield, the Constitution demands that he be given the rights of a criminal defendant. Executive action against him may be taken only under judicial supervision. Yes, Holder conceded, this might mean that the government will be barred from detaining and interrogating many a “dangerous terrorist.” And yes, it risks the reprise of 9/11’s slaughter of nearly 3,000 Americans. “But,” he blithely concluded, “our Nation has always been prepared to accept some risk as the price of guaranteeing that the Executive does not have arbitrary power to imprison citizens.

Ah, but arbitrary power to kill citizens — now, that’s a different story.

We could go on all day about chutzpah. Holder and Obama used to sneer that Bush/Cheney counterterrorism posed a “false choice” between our security and “our values.” Now, they’ve decided not only that the commander-in-chief’s war powers extend beyond “hot battlefields” to anyplace on the planet the president chooses, but also that the last thing we need is judicial oversight. After all, the white paper declaims, “matters intimately related to foreign policy and national security are rarely proper subjects for judicial intervention” and “turn on standards that defy judicial application.”

Nigerian Musllims Murder Polio Vaccinators

Life and death among the barbarians.

In the first attack in Kano the polio vaccinators were shot dead by gunmen who drove up on a motor tricycle.

Thirty minutes later gunmen targeted a clinic outside Kano city as the vaccinators prepared to start work.

Some Nigerian Muslim leaders have previously opposed polio vaccinations, claiming they could cause infertility. 

On Thursday, a controversial Islamic cleric spoke out against the polio vaccination campaign, telling people that new cases of polio were caused by contaminated medicine. 

Such opposition is a major reason why Nigeria is one of just three countries where polio is still endemic.

Beer: Better For You Than Water

You were right all along.

Forget water or Gatorade. The drink of choice to rehydrate after a workout is beer.

Researchers at Granada University in Spain found beer can help retain liquid better than water alone.

Iran's Newest Fighter Jet

Stan Lee - aerospace engineer. 

First it was monkeys in space (or not) and now it’s “GI Joe” fighter jets. Not the best of times for Iran’s aviation and aerospace programs, at least if you listen to the skeptics.

First there were doubts about Tehran’s claim it sent a monkey into space in late January.  After photos of two different monkeys that were aboard the alleged one-monkey space shot surfaced, Iran media said there was a photo mix-up and, yes, there was just one Iranian monkey in space.

Then this week Iran unveiled what it said was its new high-tech stealth fighter plane. The jet shown in pictures on the website of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been the butt of jokes all week from aviation bloggers.

“This aircraft looks a lot like an old GI Joe toy,” wrote one blogger.

And from another, “This has to be a joke, right?”

Suddenly, Obama Discovers Bush Mental Health Proposals

In 2007, the Democrat congress ignored Bush's proposals. Obama picks them out of the waste bin and calls them his own.

Some of the measures proposed by President Obama following December’s Newtown massacre bear a striking resemblance to recommendations made after the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting spree, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers said Thursday.

The group of six members of the Energy and Commerce Committee wants to know what became of the George W. Bush-era proposals to better identify and treat people with mental health problems.

“Despite evidence that prevention and treatment services can be effective, fewer than 40 percent of Americans experiencing mental illness receive treatment in a given year,” the group wrote in a letter sent Thursday to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Following Seung-Hui Cho’s rampage at Virginia Tech, which left 32 people dead, Bush directed HHS and the Justice Department to issue recommendations for steps the federal government could take to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.

“Some of the recommendations made in the Report following Virginia Tech appear to be similar to proposals that were presented by the President on January 16, 2013, after the Newtown tragedy, to address concerns about access to mental health treatment,” the lawmakers wrote.

They submitted a list of 11 2007 recommendations that dealt with mental health issues and asked Sebelius to provide status updates on each by Feb. 21.

No, Guns Are Not That Dangerous

Your medicine cabinet and your swimming pool are far more deadly.

Contrary to what you might expect from all the news about gun violence, accidental deaths from guns in the home are relatively uncommon, and have actually gone down slightly in recent years, according to a new study. But other deadly accidents at home, including poisonings, falls, and burns, are far more common, and on the rise. The good news: some simple measures can help prevent most of them.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, looked at data from 2000 to 2008. More than 30,000 people die from accidents in the home each year, the study found. The three leading causes of accidental deaths were poisonings (43 percent), falls (34 percent), and fire or burn injuries (9 percent). Firearm mishaps accounted for just 1 percent of all accidental deaths in the home.

Who Is "Entitled" To Constitutional Rights?

More Evidence That Michael Bloomberg Is America's Worst Mayor

That last time that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg exercised his formidable weather forecasting skills, he was dismissing the peril presented by Superstorm Sandy. 

How'd that work out?

Once again he is contradicting the opinion of people who actually know what they're talking about and insisting that today's blizzard is nothing to be concerned about.

“We don’t think that people are going to be that inconvenienced,” the mayor said in a radio interview with John Gambling this morning.

Irrefutable Proof That Dan Rather Was The World's Worst Journalist

He still refuses to believe that his National Guard memos were forgeries.

Dan Rather: "No one had ever established that the documents were forged (those who attack them argued that we didn’t do enough to demonstrate that they were not forged) The whole documents argument was a camouflage – what was described in the documents was factual. As for the trap argument — could have been, might have been but nobody has ever proven that. What I know, all I know, is we reported a true story. Whatever you think of the documents, facts are facts."

No need here to review that preponderance of evidence that proved the memos were fakes. Let's just say that Dan Rather is the only person on Earth who does not believe they were.

Friday Funnies: Our New Armed Forces

Friday Funnies: Our New Armed Forces

So, God Made A Liberal

Dr. Benjamin Carson Gives Obama A Lecture

On Benghazi, Obama Votes Not Present And Not Interested

Panetta's final shot? 

Jug Time For Jesse

Jesse Jackson Jr's. plea deal with federal prosecutors includes "significant jail time."

Former Illinois Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is reportedly facing “significant jail time” as a part of a plea deal related to a federal investigation into Jackson’s alleged misuse of campaign funds.

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Michael Sneed published a report Wednesday evening claiming a source had revealed that Jackson will likely serve time in a federal prison:

Obama Didn't Give A Shit About Benghazi Victims

According to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Obama had only one very brief conversation with him regarding the Benghazi terrorist attack, that he never followed up on . And why should he? He had a fundraiser in Vegas baby!

It's about priorities!

In today’s hearing on Benghazi at the Senate Armed Forces Committee, New Hampshire Republican Kelly Ayotte asked about the president’s personal involvement, finding out that the president only had one conversation with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta or General Martin Dempsey on 9/11, the day of the Benghazi attack. In that conversation, according to Panetta, President Obama told them to “do whatever you need to do to be able to protect our people”. The president didn’t, according to Panetta, ask for any specifics on what kind of response was possible. And, as Ayotte found out, the president never called to follow up.

Harry Reid Is A Liar

No, Democrats have not cut $2.6 trillion from the federal budget. 

FactCheck.org called out Senator Harry Reid for being doubly wrong in his claim that Congress has already cut $2.6 trillion from projected future deficits by reducing non-defense programs alone.

The site explained that not only did the legislation he referred to applied to both security and non-security spending, but that a considerable part of the deficit reduction came from tax increases and not spending cuts. 

The worst part? The senator made the same erroneous statement twice. Reid made the affirmations on ABC's "This Week" on Feb. 3rd, were he also added that further deficit reduction should include more tax increases and cuts in military spending.

New Black Panther Leader Plans To Hunt And Kill White People

And you expect me to surrender my guns? No way Jose. Especially not when Barack Obama's Brown Shirts are on the loose.

On Sunday, a New Black Panther Party leader using the name "General Taco" said members of the New Black Panther Party will hunt down and kill white people, The Blaze reported Wednesday.

Saying that the future of the organization is "absolute total destruction" of what he called "white supremacy" and capitalism on the planet, General Taco said the group would hunt their "pink a**es down."

Taco, whose name stands for "taking all capitalists out," wasn't finished.

“Once [white people] die, we should dig ‘em up, and kill ‘em again, bury ‘em, dig ‘em up, and kill ‘em again, and again, and again!” he exclaimed, getting more agitated as he spoke.