Feminist Whackjobs React to Hillary Clinton Time Cover in Pantsuit and Pointy Heels

It's an interesting magazine cover. At this point I'm just fascinated by the reaction.

From Amanda Hess, at Slate, "Time Magazine Turns Hillary Clinton Into a Pointy Heel Trampling an Emasculated Dude."

And from Melissa McEwan, at Shakesville, "This is a real thing in the world."

More from leftist Nia-Malika Henderson, at WaPo, "About that Time magazine cover on Hillary Clinton."

And from Taylor Marsh, "Who Can Stop Hillary? It’s Not Chris Christie":

There is no Benghazi smoking gun to indict Clinton, though Fox News channel continues to attempt to make partisan gains, as do Republicans who hope to get their party’s nomination, starting with Sen. Marco Rubio. It’s important to remember that the people using Benghazi against Clinton were never going to support her in the first place.

So, the truth is that only Hillary can stop the possibility of making history for Democrats, this nation and women.

For a woman who is always talking about women and our responsibility to keep working for each other and the world, to bow out of seeking the presidency, especially when the entire Democratic party is waiting for her to lead, it would be a breach of duty, an abdication of an opportunity that American women have waited to see for over two centuries. I don’t see this happening.

The trick is to stay out of the limelight until the very last minute. The spotlight will be waiting when she walks into it and it’s looking very unlikely that Chris Christie will be anywhere in sight.

No smoking gun? Okay. Let's just wait until the 2016 Benghazi attack ads. I admit though, Christie's looking like toast. Whether the country's ready for (and welcoming) another Clinton presidency is a whole 'nother story.

Here's the Time piece, from David Von Drehle, "Can Anyone Stop Hillary?" (via Memeorandum).

Hillary will run. I've said it since 2008. She'll be 69 in November 2016, roughly 8 months younger than Ronald Reagan when he was elected. She'll run. Her whole life has been geared to (and prepped for) this moment. It's her last hill to climb and she's gonna climb it. Stay tuned. It's going to be interesting.

My bet is that Hillary will announce in January 2015, about a year from now, so she can get fully registered in federal campaign finance rules and start raking in political contributions. We could see other Democrats announce even before then, but if Hillary announces next January it'll be early enough to deter many a would-be challenger. And I think it's pretty interesting that the left would mercilessly shame a woman who entered the race to challenge a Clinton coronation. It's corrupt. The political cycle is not favoring the Democrats in 2016, in any case. The left's venom toward anything or anyone resisting Hillary is going to make the Obama cult looking like a kindergarten club.

The Hard Truth of Racial Politics: Blacks Hate White People

Here's a must read piece at Angry White Dude, "WHY DO BLACK PEOPLE LIKE MURDERER JAMES BROADNAX BUT HATE AWD?":

For years, I have labeled myself a ‘trashist’ as I do not care for trashy people of any race. But experience has taught me that I am hated by the vast majority of black people just because I am white. It is the truth so why should I be afraid to state it? Oh, because the truth makes me a racist! Well, I got over being called names in kindergarten.

It’s time America has a discussion on race relations. This time we should tell the truth!

Word bro.

If You Ain't Black, You Ain't No 'Foremost Public Intellectual'

I don't take Ta-Nehisi Coates all that seriously. Reading him, fifty years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, you'd think Martin Luther King Jr. never lived. Shoot, "12 Years a Slave" might as well have taken place during the Reagan administration.

So, his recent self-loathing rant about how Melissa-Harris Perry's the country's "foremost public intellectual" was just one more unintentional parody from the left's Wonderland of racist recrimination. (It's here, for what it's worth, "What It Means to Be a Public Intellectual.")

The piece caused a Twitter war when Politico's Dylan Byers slammed Coates idiocy. And ding! Byers was promptly attacked as racist. Byers' response is here, "What it means to be a public intellectual."

I saw this as it was developing, but didn't blog it at the time. But the controversy caught the attention of AoSHQ, "Ta-Nehisi Coates: Melissa Harris Perry Is The Country's Foremost Public Intellectual, And If You Disagree, You're Racist."

Yet, it's funny that for the left the country's "foremost public intellectuals" have to be black. Almost 20 years ago, at the Atlantic (ironically, the same outlet now employing Coates) published Robert Boynton's, "The New Intellectuals." You can see where the piece is headed by the cover artwork.

And from the essay (the Atlantic, March 1995):

ONE of the few things most intellectuals will agree on in public is that the age of the public intellectual is over. By and large, American intellectuals are private figures, their difficult books written for colleagues only, their critical judgments constrained by the boundaries of well-defined disciplines. Think of an intellectual today, and chances are he is a college professor whose "public" barely extends beyond the campus walls.

This was not always the case. Originally an intellectual was someone who was very much engaged in the public realm; the term itself was coined to describe those who waged the campaign in defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in 1898, Emile Zola among them. Further designating an intellectual as "public" would have struck a late-nineteenth-century listener as tautological, if not absurd. By then the core elements of a definition of the public intellectual were already in place: he was a writer, informed by a strong moral impulse, who addressed a general, educated audience in accessible language about the most important issues of the day.

That the charges against Dreyfus stemmed from anti-Semitism lent those intellectuals defending him an aura of Jewishness, and this association with the word was strengthened when the Jewish immigrants on New York's Lower East Side who gathered together in the early 1900s to study American literature also called themselves intellectuals.

Today our image of the public intellectual is locked safely in the past, associated almost exclusively with the literary and social critics who gathered around the Partisan Review in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Such writers as Philip Rahv, Edmund Wilson, Lionel Trilling, Alfred Kazin, Irving Howe, and Daniel Bell formed the core of the New York Intellectuals, a group famous for its brazen style, which Howe once described as a combination of "free-lance dash, peacock strut [and] knockout synthesis."

The world of the Partisan Review was one in which ideas mattered and battles were waged in small, well-read journals–the historian Richard Hofstadter called the Partisan Review the "house organ of the American intellectual community." The favored form of expression was the literary essay; although wide-ranging and often demanding, it was free of technical jargon. Composed with the care of the expert and the passion of the anti-specialist, these essays moved easily between literary and political judgments before bringing them together in a larger moral conclusion. As cultural radicals, the New Yorkers synthesized socialist politics and literary modernism, internationalizing the culture of America by bringing the best of European arts and letters to its shores. They also held convictions about the primacy of high culture and the special role of the intellectual in society.

Their seemingly endless debates–over communism and the viability of an anti-Stalinist left, and, later, over competing forms of anti-communism–echoed the succession of political challenges confronting America, a sympathetic resonance that in turn gave these writers an influence far exceeding their numbers. Oppositional figures who prized their place on the margins, dissenting from conventional wisdom ("even when they agreed with it," Kazin noted), they believed that being seduced by mainstream culture was the greatest evil that could befall a true intellectual. "Alienation," Howe recalled, "was a badge we carried with pride."

Chronicled and romanticized in a flood of biographies and memoirs, the New York clan has become a veritable gold standard for public intellectuals. Now more praised than read, its members are literary curiosities in the museum of culture; even their most important works-Wilson's To the Finland Station, Trilling's Liberal Imagination, Kazin's On Native Grounds, Bell's The End of Ideology, Rahv's Image and Idea–are largely ignored or out of print.

The public intellectual's death knell was sounded by Russell Jacoby in his book The Last Intellectuals (1987), an indictment of contemporary academic irrelevance which argued that the New Yorkers were not only America's greatest public thinkers but also its last. Academic specialists, rather than sophisticated generalists, now dominated intellectual life, leaving us duller for the loss. "One thousand radical sociologists, but no [C. Wright] Mills; three hundred critical literary theorists but no Wilson," Jacoby lamented. "If the western frontier closed in the 1890s, the cultural frontier closed in the 1950s." With its fashionably apocalyptic title and nostalgic tone, Jacoby's book was a hit, sparking a heated debate ("Hey, what about us?" cried an army of radical academics of every political stripe). Yet even though individual thinkers here and there were cited against Jacoby's thesis, a consensus soon formed that the era of the public intellectual was indeed over.

But no sooner had the last opinion piece about Jacoby's book been written than another group of intellectuals began getting quite a bit of attention. If they didn't conform precisely to Jacoby's ideal of the public intellectual–which bears so close a resemblance to the New Yorkers that it is difficult to use as a general definition–they were at the very least developing a significant presence by consistently and publicly addressing some of the most heavily contested issues of the day. The differences were striking, though: Whereas Jacoby's intellectuals were freelance writers based in New York, most of this group is ensconced in elite universities across the country. Whereas the New Yorkers were predominantly male and Jewish, this group includes women and is entirely gentile. In contrast to the New Yorkers, who were formed by their encounters with socialism and European culture, these intellectuals work solidly within the American grain, and are products of the political upheaval of the 1950s and 1960s. And, most significant, they are black.

A COMPLEX FATE

WHEN the best-selling author Cornel West, now a Harvard professor, and the critic Stanley Crouch appeared on The Charlie Rose Show to discuss the connection between race and cities during the Los Angeles riots, they contributed to a tradition of urban social philosophy which originated with Lewis Mumford. When Henry Louis Gates Jr., also of Harvard, denounced black anti-Semitism on the New York Times op-ed page, he no doubt reached a wider audience than Norman Podhoretz ever did with similar pieces on black-Jewish relations. When Stephen Carter, of Yale, appeared on the Today show to talk about the intricacies of competing affirmative-action policies in the wake of Justice Clarence Thomas's nomination, he took his place alongside Lionel Trilling and Alfred Kazin in explaining the travails of a successful minority figure in a WASP-dominated culture.

Toni Morrison, whose fiction and criticism regularly (and simultaneously) sit on best-seller lists, wins both Nobel and Pulitzer prizes; the Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson's study of freedom wins the National Book Award; Shelby Steele receives the National Book Critics Circle Award for his best-selling meditation on race; David Levering Lewis wins a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of W.E.B. Du Bois; the essayist Stanley Crouch receives a MacArthur "genius" grant; West, Gates, Morrison, and Steele all get six-figure offers for their next books. Add to these names thinkers such as Patricia Williams, William Julius Wilson, bell hooks, Houston Baker, Randall Kennedy, Michael Eric Dyson, Gerald Early, Jerry Watts, Robert Gooding-Williams, Nell Painter, Thomas Sowell, Ellis Cose, Juan Williams, Lani Guinier, Glenn Loury, Michelle Wallace, Manning Marable, Adolph Reed, June Jordan, Walter Williams, and Derrick Bell, among others, who appear in magazines and newspapers and on television programs around the country, and one begins to suspect that we are witnessing something bigger than a random blip on the screen of public intellectual culture.

In addressing a large and attentive audience about today's most pressing issues, these thinkers have begun taking their places as the legitimate inheritors of the mantle of the New York Intellectuals. Street-smart, often combative, and equipped with a strong moral sense, they, too, have a talent for shaking things up. This is not at all to say that the current constellation represents America's first black public intellectuals, which would be to ignore the tremendous contributions of such figures as Alain Locke, W.E.B. Du Bois, St. Clair Drake, E. Franklin Frazier, John Hope Franklin, and many others. Rather, the claim is that although opinions may differ about the work of individual contemporary authors, as a group they are indisputably receiving extraordinary attention, especially considering the marginal role of the intellectual in America. Nearly all between the ages of roughly thirty-five and fifty-five, the new black intellectuals have achieved a level of recognition usually reserved for near-emeritus figures with numerous books behind them and few years ahead.

There's lots more at the link, but there's a vast chasm in the quality of the intellectuals mentioned.

Who'd be your pick for the country's "foremost intellectual"? Or, who'd have been been your pick back in 1995? We hardly recognize half of those names nowadays, and Michael Eric Dyson's no match for the genuine intellectual giant Walter Williams. (Derrick Bell, who passed away, was Obama's Marxist mentor at Harvard, if you recall.)

Whatever. I still think it's impossible Ta-Nehisi didn't pick Soledad O'Brien as the nation's foremost public intellectual. Stop dissing Soledad!

Czech Fashion Model Karolina Kurkova Seems to Be Everywhere

At the New York Times, "Walking on a Bigger Runway":

The crowd in Central Park had swelled to 60,000 as Karolina Kurkova, the Czech fashion model and former Victoria’s Secret Angel, waited backstage at the second Global Citizens Festival, a star-studded concert last September. Scheduled to go on after Alicia Keys and her performance of “Girl on Fire,” Ms. Kurkova sang along with gusto from the wings.

After the applause died down, she stepped out in front, statuesque in a white Proenza Schouler leather skirt and Manolo Blahnik stilettos. Her blond hair whipped as she leaned into the microphone and spoke with the brio of a cheerleader and the confidence of a politician.

“Hello global citizens, the world is on our shoulders,” she called out.

After introducing Janelle Monáe, she hit the V.I.P. tent with Archie Drury, her husband, and their 4-year-old son. She yelled hello to Russell Simmons and Amy Sacco, and hugged Gayle King. She goofed around with fans, stealing their caps and mugging for selfies with them. Then it was on to Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, whose office had arranged a photo op. She greeted him like family.

“You’re so tall,” he said.

“And I’m not even wearing my heels,” she replied.

Perhaps not, but she is definitely flying high these days. Ms. Kurkova wants to be more than just another pretty face who has graced countless magazine covers. With a budding TV career and a regular presence on the charity circuit, her fame now extends beyond the runway, and she is poised, as Anna Wintour once said, to be the “next supermodel” and a bigger celebrity.

In an industry with looming expiration dates, Ms. Kurkova, who turns 30 in February, appears here to stay. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, has worked on sitcoms and reality shows, lunches with royals, walks runways and red carpets, and was on People magazine’s “Most Beautiful” list in 2004. Even those who don’t know the difference between Prada and Pucci may recognize her from NBC’s “Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” where she is a playful and regular guest. “Jay knows I’m fun,” she said. “I always want people to have a good time.”

Clearly word has gotten around. As Ms. Kurkova said, “I’m the girl who gets asked to do things.”

Keep reading.

As I always say, if you've got it flaunt it.

Israel Strikes in Gaza After Rocket Attack on Ashkelon

At Arutz Sheva, "IAF aircraft hit terror-related sites in Gaza, several hours after a rocket barrage targeted the city of Ashkelon."

And at JPost, "Iron Dome intercepts 5 rockets fired at Ashkelon from Gaza."

9/11 Survivor Lauren Manning Slams Terrorist 'Coward' Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Megyn Kelly's been hammering on this story, bless her heart. At Twitchy, "Megyn Kelly blasts release of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed manifesto [video]."

More at the Los Angeles Times, "Khalid Shaikh Mohammed issues 'nonviolence' manifesto."

Bullshit propaganda, published in full at the Puffington Host. See Robert Spencer, "He is doing this in accord with Islamic teaching, but the "people in the court" should take note that if the "invitation" is refused, then comes jihad." In other words, convert or die.

Afghanistan Veteran: 'Bridge to Terabithia' Changed My Life

A truly heartwarming story, "Children's Novel a Lifeline for American Soldier at War."

#Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw Agrees to Seven-Year, $215-Million Contract

That's good money.

At LAT, "Clayton Kershaw agrees to seven-year, $215-million deal with Dodgers."

The 25-year-old left-hander, who has won two Cy Young Awards, will become the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history. Kershaw could have become a free agent at the end of upcoming season.

Here's hoping they make it to the World Series. The Dodgers had a great run in 2013. And I'm glad they kept Mattingly.

Devil Baby

At BCF, "Devil Baby Attack (VIDEO)."

And at LAT, "Devil's Due' evil baby stunt in N.Y.: Funny as a heart attack?"

BBC's Winter Olympics Trailer Is Totally Over the Top

Heh.

From Caleb Howe on Twitter.

Someone ate a LOT of York Peppermint Patties. RT @mashable BBC's Winter Olympics Trailer Is Totally Over the Top http://t.co/2LPFBQcuXj

— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) January 16, 2014

MIT Professor Urging Climate Change Activists to 'Slow Down'

It's Richard Lindzen, discussed at Weazel Zippers, "MIT Professor: Changes From Global Warming “Too Small to Account For”…"

The warmists hate Lindzen. See Watts Up With That?, "Lindzen libeled by Nuccitelli."

PREVIOUSLY: "MIT's Richard Lindzen: The Unalarmed Climate Scientist."

Shocking Evidence Suggests Hitler Could Have Escaped Germany

From Jerome Corsi, at WND, "SHOCKING EVIDENCE HITLER ESCAPED GERMANY."

He's got a new book out, from which the article is based, Hunting Hitler: New Scientific Evidence That Hitler Escaped Nazi Germany.

RELATED: From Traces of Evil, "Inside Hitler's Bunker and Reich Chancellery."

Sam Woolf Shreds 'American Idol'

I guess the show's been significantly revamped, according to billboard, "'American Idol' Returns With New Judges, New Attitude in Premiere."

And here's Twitchy, "‘That kid was amazing’: 17-year-old singer Sam Woolf wins rave reviews on #AmericanIdol [video]."

Big shout out to Sam Woolf who is from bradenton & is following his dreams! You got my vote!! http://t.co/YbZeJXo2V8

— Tessa Ummel (@tessaislove) January 16, 2014

Also at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, "Bradenton student Sam Woolf advances to Hollywood Week on 'American Idol'."

The EU's Reputation As a Model of Environmental Responsibility May Soon Be History

And not a moment too soon, no doubt.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Der Spiegel - Green Fade-Out: Europe to Ditch Climate Protection Goals."

Please Take Me off Your List of Hate

Dr. Helen Smith, Glenn Reynolds' "Insta-wife," destroys the disgusting hate-addled pseudo-science psychologist Kirk J. Schneider Ph.D., who published a book smearing the tea party as "extremist":

How DARE YOU send me this trash associating law abiding American citizens with Nazi Germany and Maoist China. I am a psychologist who has sympathy for my fellow Americans who are so “extremist” that they believe in lower taxes and the Second Amendment. Horrors!

What is “killing us” are polarized minds like Kirk J. Schneider Ph.D who is so narrow-minded that he thinks those who have different political beliefs than himself are the enemy and seeks to assign them with a “diagnosis.” What is truly extremist and scary to those of a more conservative or libertarian persuasion is that so many psychologists such as the one below are such political hacks for the Democratic Party. Please take me off your list of hate.

Helen Smith, Ph.D.

I get these idiotic far left-wing solicitations, and sometimes I'm almost as pissed off as Dr. Helen. I don't think I could express my disinterest which such exquisite contempt, but that's a template for the ages. Kudos. (And be sure to read Dr. Schneider's pathetic solicitation at the link.)

Pentagon Investigates Photos of Marines Burning Bodies in Fallujah, Iraq

At London's Daily Mail, "Shocking photos emerge showing U.S. Marines burning bodies of Iraqi insurgents, posing for pictures with skeletons and even an enemy soldier's remains being eaten by a dog as Pentagon launches probe."

And at Memeorandum, "Pics of Marines Burning Bodies Trigger U.S. Military Investigation [PHOTOS]."

Hilarious Jimmy Kimmel Ad Rips #ObamaCare

At NewsBusters, "Jimmy Kimmel Savages ObamaCare and Uninformed Young People Who Support It."

Also at AoSHQ, "Jimmy Kimmel Rips Obamacare and Young Voters" (via Hot Air):

I like everything about this except the part where he encourages young people to vote. Then he suggests they pick up a newspaper once in a while.

I'd reverse that sequence. Pick up a newspaper, and then, after reading it for a year or two, then start voting.

I'm not sure if anyone besides the gasbags of the Sunday show has explained Obamacare's generational cost-shifting to the country. Kimmel manages it a couple of sentences.

'If you’re not into me, that’s your problem and you’re going to have to work that out with professionals...'

The quote's from Lena Dunham of "Girls," in response to a question from Wrap reporter Tim Malloy on why he had to see Dunham nude all the time.

Read the full report at the Other McCain, "Lena Dunham: ‘If You’re Not Into Me, That’s Your Problem’."

@MelissaTweets Want to see Kate Upton nude? Sexist. Don't want to see Lena Dunham nude? Sexist.

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 14, 2014

Government Itself Still Cited as Top U.S. Problem

At Gallup (via Memeorandum):

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans start the new year with a variety of national concerns on their minds. Although none is dominant, the government, at 21%, leads the list of what Americans consider the most important problem facing the country. The economy closely follows at 18%, and then unemployment/jobs and healthcare, each at 16%. No other issue is mentioned by as much as 10% of the public; however, the federal budget deficit or debt comes close, at 8%.

Time to get government off our backs.

Asiana Airlines Crash Video Shows Body of Victim Before She Was Run Over by Firetrucks

At CBS News, "New video shows chaos, miscues before injured passenger was run over - twice."

They should have checked to see if the girl was alive. Apparently at least five firefighters saw the body but no one checked her vital signs. Check the link for the full report.

Kate Upton at Sports Illustrated 50th Anniversary Swimsuit Party

Well, the 2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition is coming out in just a couple of weeks. It's gonna be great!

At London's Daily Mail, "Here come the girls: Kate Upton takes the plunge as Heidi Klum and Chrissy Teigen lead a model parade at Sports Illustrated party."

And Egotastic!, "Ireland Baldwin and Kate Upton Cleavage Battle at S.I. Swimsuit Party (While Christie Brinkley Just Looks Amazing)."

Kristen Stewart to Star in Romantic Adaptation of Orwell's '1984'

Oh my! You gotta love Twitchy, "‘Oh dear God’: Kristen Stewart set to butcher ‘1984’ into ‘epic’ love story."

Wtf! My fav book to be ruined by Bella!? Gah!! @guardian: 1984 as a romantic film starring Kristen Stewart http://t.co/FPSSZo1kS4

— Grace Davey (@GraceMDavey) January 15, 2014

Los Angeles Times Editorial on the Kelly Thomas Verdict

We were not in the courtroom, so it's unwise to second-guess the jury, but watching that CNN clip I posted yesterday will get you emotional about the case. See, "Not-Gulity Verdict in Kelly Thomas Police Murder Case."

And FWIW, from the editors at LAT, "Learning from the Kelly Thomas case":

The death of homeless, schizophrenic Kelly Thomas after a beating by two Fullerton police officers was shocking. Anyone who has seen the grainy but graphic 33-minute video of the incident must acknowledge that it is hard to square with the jury's conclusion that the two officers were not guilty of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter or even of using excessive force.

The verdict is a reminder of how difficult it is to convict police officers in such cases, because the law explicitly allows them to use deadly force to protect themselves, if necessary, in the line of duty. What's more, even the most horrific video tells only part of the story, and the jury, which had the final say, ultimately concluded after watching it and listening to testimony and sifting through evidence that the officers should go free.

But no one should conclude from the acquittal that nothing went wrong that night in Fullerton, or that the high legal bar for convicting police officers means that violence is an acceptable way for police to handle a mentally ill suspect...

RTWT.

Emily Ratajkowski at the #GoldenGlobes

She's amazing.

At Now Magazine, "Wow! Mind-blowing Blurred Lines model Emily Ratajkowski shows off amazing boobs in backless Golden Globes dress."

More, at Contact Music, "Picture - Emily Ratajkowski at Oasis Courtyard at the Beverly Hilton Hotel Golden Globe Awards Beverly Hilton Hotel."

And the Daily Caller shamelessly trolls for some Rule 5 traffic, "Emily Ratajkowski topless [PHOTOS]."

Senate Intelligence Committee Finds Benghazi Attack Was Preventable

At the New York Times, "Senate Report Finds Benghazi Attack Was Preventable":

WASHINGTON — A stinging report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released Wednesday concluded that the attack 16 months ago that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, could have been prevented, and blames both American diplomats and the C.I.A. for poor communication and lax security during the weeks leading up to the deadly episode.

The report is broadly consistent with the findings of previous inquiries into the September 2012 attack, which has become the subject of a fiercely partisan debate, with Republicans charging that Obama administration officials made misleading statements about connections between the attackers and Al Qaeda.

The report, at first blush, does not break significant new ground on this issue. But it is unsparing in its criticism of the State Department for failing to provide adequate security at the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, first American facility to be attacked that night and where J. Christopher Stevens, the American ambassador, died.

“The committee found the attacks were preventable, based on extensive intelligence reporting on the terrorist activity in Libya — to include prior threats and attacks against Western targets — and given the known security shortfalls at the U.S. Mission,” the Senate committee said in a press release.

More at that top link. And again, this is the New York Times debunking its own covering fire for Hillary. Like I said when I first saw that, it's sometimes impossible to know what to believe these days.

FLASHBACK: "The New York Times' Benghazi Whitewash."

BONUS: More coverage at Memeorandum, where WaPo is reporting as well.

Democrats Hammered Relentlessly by Americans for Prosperity Advertising Campaign

At the New York Times, "Ads Attacking Health Law Stagger Outspent Democrats":

WASHINGTON — Democrats are increasingly anxious about an onslaught of television ads hitting vulnerable Senate and House candidates for their support of the new health law, since many lack the resources to fight back in the early stages of the midterm campaign.

Since September, Americans for Prosperity, a group financed in part by the billionaire Koch brothers, has spent an estimated $20 million on television advertising that calls out House and Senate Democrats by name for their support of the Affordable Care Act.

The unusually aggressive early run of television ads, which has been supplemented by other conservative initiatives, has gone largely unanswered, and strategists in both parties agree it is taking a toll on its targets.

Building on the success, the deep-pocketed organization disclosed on Tuesday that it was expanding its Senate efforts with $1.8 million in airtime to attack Democratic House members running for the Senate in Iowa and Michigan, where Democrats are viewed as holding an early advantage. The group was also moving into Montana, a state where Democrats may struggle to defend a seat, on behalf of a Republican House member running for the Senate.

Campaign experts said they believe that the early advertising blitz has driven down the support for Senate incumbents in highly competitive states such as Louisiana and North Carolina that are critical to the Democratic Party’s push to hold its majority.

Some House Democrats in competitive districts find themselves under steady assault with little ability to respond unless they want to dip into money they will need later in the campaign.

Keep reading.

North Carolina's Kay Hagen tops the list, with over 3,500 ad buys since June 1st of last year.

And she's feeling it, at WaPo, "Hagan won’t attend Obama N.C. event."

More at the Other McCain, "New York Times Plays the Koch Card, Reporting Democrat ObamaCare Panic." (At Memeorandum.)

Photos Show Chris Christie With Port Authority's David Wildstein During Bridge-Closure Fiasco

The photos raised questions about Christie's veracity, and could be the other shoe dropping.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Christie, Official Who Arranged Bridge Closures Were Together During Fiasco":

Gov. Chris Christie was with the official who arranged the closure of local lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 11, 2013 — the third day of the closures, and well after they had triggered outrage from local officials beset by heavy traffic.

It isn’t known what, if anything, Mr. Christie discussed with David Wildstein that day, when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official was among the delegation of Mr. Christie’s representatives who welcomed him to the site of the World Trade Center for the commemoration of the 12th anniversary of the terrorist attacks there....

The photograph of the men together raised new questions about what the Christie administration knew about the lane closures and when, said Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the Democratic chair of the transportation committee that issued subpoenas over the lane closures.

“It buttressed the skepticism that many have had about his statement,” said Mr. Wisniewski, about when Mr. Christie learned of his aides’ involvement in the closures. “I can’t help but wonder what conversation took place between them.”

Continue reading.

U.K.'s Lost Girls: Sex-Selective Abortion Industry Leaves Thousands of Missing Girls

I can hardly stand reading about this, but it's so vital. This gendercide must stop.

At the Independent UK, "The lost girls: Illegal abortion widely used by some UK ethnic groups to avoid daughters 'has reduced female population by between 1,500 and 4,700'":

The illegal abortion of female foetuses solely to ensure that families have sons is widely practised within some ethnic communities in Britain and has resulted in significant shortfalls in the proportion of girls, according to an investigation by The Independent.

The practice of sex-selective abortion is now so commonplace that it has affected the natural 50:50 balance of boys to girls within some immigrant groups and has led to the “disappearance” of between 1,400 and 4,700 females from the national census records of England and Wales, we can reveal.

A government investigation last year found no evidence that women living in the UK, but born abroad, were preferentially aborting girls. However, our deeper statistical analysis of data from the 2011 National Census has shown widespread discrepancies in the sex ratio of children in some immigrant families, which can only be easily explained by women choosing to abort female foetuses in the hope of becoming quickly pregnant again with a boy. The findings will reignite the debate over whether pregnant women should be legally allowed to know the sex of their babies following ultrasound scans at 13 weeks.

Some experts have argued that the baby’s sex should be withheld automatically until much later in pregnancy, when abortions are more difficult to obtain – as some NHS hospitals have already started to do.

About 10 per cent of the 190,000 abortions carried out in England and Wales in 2011 took place after 13 weeks of pregnancy, when the sex organs of the foetus are clearly visible from ultrasound scans – which are available privately – and doctors can predict gender with an accuracy of more than 99 per cent.

Abortions based solely on gender are illegal in Britain and in many other countries, even those where the practice is widespread. In parts of India and China there are now as many as 120 or 140 boys for every 100 girls despite a ban on sex-selective abortion.

Amartya Sen, the Indian-born economist and Nobel laureate who warned 25 years ago about the tens of millions of “missing women” in the world, said gender-based abortions are a new form of sex discrimination. “Selective abortion of female foetuses – what can be called ‘natality discrimination’ – is a kind of high-tech manifestation of preference for boys,” Professor Sen said.

More at the link.

Plus, "The lost girls: Thousands of 'missing' girls revealed by analysis of UK's 2011 census results."

The families with the highest ratios favoring boys are from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangledesh. The widespread availability of abortion and gender testing means that immigrant populations can easily sex-select their children, wreaking horrific gendercide on a generation of the unborn.

More, "The lost girls: It seems that the global war on girls has arrived in Britain." The piece estimates that in India alone probably 10 million baby girls have been aborted in the last two decades.

The Rural Way

From Victor Davis Hanson, at PJ Media:

Rural life reminds us that we are mere custodians who don’t really own anything, given that the land endures as we turn to dust.

I like the people who reside in these environs — the 85-year-old woman who lives alone with her shotgun; my closest friend around the corner, Bus Barzagus of Fields Without Dreams, going strong at 73. None want to go to L.A. or San Francisco. Another neighbor who is a mechanical genius, and so on. One guy told me the other day, “What am I going to do, put my 150 acres on my back and pack it over to Nevada?”

Otherwise, all the farm families I grew up with but one are gone. There are no 40-acre or 100-acre autonomous farms left. Everything is rented out, small tesserae of much larger corporate mosaics. Looking out the window reminds me it didn’t have to end this way, but how and why not is well beyond my intelligence. (Count up the cost of tractors, implements, labor, chemicals, liability insurance, taxes, etc. — and anything less than 150 acres does not pencil out.)

The old farmhouses are all rented out to foremen, 100% of them first-generation immigrants from Mexico. The Punjabi farming class has become a sort of new aristocracy, if their huge three-story mansions that pop up every couple of miles are any indication.

I worry though not about the way we look or talk, but rather about the use of the land. It no longer grows people, or produces for the nation a 5% minority of self-reliant, cranky and autonomous citizens, who do not worry much about things like tanning booths, plastic surgery, Botox, male jewelry, tattoos, rap music, waxed-off body hair, or social media. I think our impoverished society reflects that fact of agrarian loss, in the sense that never have so many had so much and complained that they had so little while being so dependent on government — and yet they are so whiney and angry over their lack of independence. The entitlement state is the flame, the recipients the moths. The latter zero in on the glow and then, transfixed by the buzz, are consumed by acquiring what they were hypnotized by.

Out here is the antithesis of where I work in Silicon Valley. Each week I leave at sunbreak, and slowly enter a world of Pajama boys in BMWs and Lexuses, with $500 shades and rolling stops at intersections as they frown and speed off to the next deal. Somehow these techies assume voting for Barack Obama means that they are liberal. They are not. By proclaiming that they are progressive, they feel good about themselves and do not have to worry about why their janitorial staffs are not unionized, or why no one but they can buy a house, or why they oppose affordable housing construction along the 280 corridor, or why they fear the public schools as if they were the bubonic plague. Their businesses don’t create many jobs in the area; they don’t live among the Other; they seek to get out of paying income tax as they praise higher taxes; and they use money to ensure their own apartheid. And so they are “liberal.”

No wonder millionaires like Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, and Barbara Boxer represent such a culture. How odd that the power, the water, the food, the lumber, and the minerals that fuel Silicon Valley all come from distant invisible people, the uncool who are overregulated, overtaxed, and over-blamed by those they never see.

Every six months or so I crawl under the house to check the wiring, plumbing, foundation, and assorted repair work. I did it last week. In the dirt is the weird detritus of 140 years: some square nails, a strange, ancient rusted pipe wrench, 1930s newspaper stuffed into some sort of mouse hole, penciled-in runes of weird numbers and notes scrawled on the redwood beams by some unknown carpenter, a fossilized carcass of a long dead cat, a few rat skulls and ribs. It is also sort of like archaeology, trying to sort out the layers of improvements per good farming years: the foundation raised on redwood beams after the boom of World War I, the metal conduit wiring installed in the 1940s when raisins were again high, the heating ducts put in during the brief boom of the early 1980s, and so on.

Is there a future to any of this?

Continue reading.

Having gone to Fresno State (and to live in the Central Valley) after having been raised in South California, away from all the rural things he talks about, I always have a personal reaction to his writings. Yet I've never met VDH. He was at the Horowitz West Coast Retreat a couple of years back, especially on the first night, when there was an ice-breaking party. But he was surrounded by fans so I never did get a chance to speak with him. I figured I'll meet him one of the days, and then I can tell him about living in Fresno and attending Fresno State while he was still on the faculty there. That will be nice.

Race-Baiting Leftists Attack Fox News' Adam Housley and Wife Tamera Mowry, Actress of 'Sister, Sister' Fame

My wife is white and I'm just not around that kind of abuse. Once we were married the novelty wore off (on her side of the family), and frankly I'm not often around the kind of leftist black race-baiters who would attack my wife for "stealing" a black man. But Tamera Mowry's long been abused by that kind of leftist racism.

At London's Daily Mail, "'I was called a white man's w***e': Child star of Sister Sister tearfully reveals years of sickening online abuse for mixed-race marriage to Fox News reporter."

Ms. Mowry spoke out about the attacks on Oprah's show, "Tamera Mowry Responds to Critics of Her Interracial Marriage - Oprah: Where Are They Now? - OWN."

Hat Tip: National Review.

Supreme Court Likely to Rein In President's Recess Appointments Power

I had this earlier, "Obama Threatens Dictatorial Action."

And now at WSJ, "Justices Suggest Executive Practice Under Both Parties Has Exceeded Constitutional Limits" (via Google):

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court seemed inclined to rein in the president's power to make "recess appointments" when the Senate is out of town, as justices on Monday suggested the practice under both parties had exceeded constitutional limits.

The Constitution grants the president power "to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate," allowing appointees to serve temporarily without confirmation—including some whose prospects for Senate approval were unlikely.

But justices of all ideological stripes suggested Monday that a tool intended to keep the government running during the republic's early days had morphed over the centuries into a weapon to be wielded in power struggles between Congress and the White House.

"This is not the horse-and-buggy era anymore," said Justice Elena Kagan. "And that makes me wonder whether we're dealing here with what's essentially an historic relic, something whose original purpose has disappeared and has assumed a new purpose that nobody ever intended."

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, representing President Barack Obama's administration, acknowledged as much. Presidents no longer use the power to make recess appointments because senators are unreachable, he said, but rather as a "safety valve" to counteract Senate "intransigence" in refusing to confirm nominees.

Before the 1940s, the Senate rarely took recesses within its formal "sessions," which typically last about a year. After that practice began, Mr. Verrilli said, presidents began making such "intrasession" recess appointments, and a "stable equilibrium" between Senate and White House developed. The administration asks only that the court restore the "status quo," he said.

That was upended in January 2013, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the constitutional text must be read far more strictly, with "the Recess" meaning only the period between formal "sessions" of the Senate, rather than whenever the body takes a break.

Moreover, the appeals court found the president could use this limited power only when a vacancy occurred during the intersession recess itself—not to fill a job that was open before the Senate left town.

The case came from a Pepsi bottler in Yakima, Wash., the Noel Canning unit of Noel Corp., which contested a National Labor Relations Board ruling against it on grounds that three of five NLRB members held invalid recess appointments.

Justice Samuel Alito asked Noel Canning's lawyer, Noel J. Francisco, if 200 years of practice, even if unsupported by the constitutional text, should carry weight with the court.

No, Mr. Francisco replied.

An attorney representing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), Miguel Estrada, argued in support of Noel Canning's position. He said the case boiled down to "who gets to decide whether the Senate is in recess, the Senate or the president?"

Recess appointments have grown increasingly contentious since the administration of George W. Bush, with opposition lawmakers taking steps during vacations to keep the Senate technically in session, such as by calling an empty chamber to order and immediately adjourning. A flashpoint came in January 2012, when Mr. Obama recess-appointed three members to the labor board, which otherwise couldn't function for lack of a quorum.

As of last week, there were 108 pending cases in federal appeals courts challenging NLRB decisions by questioning the validity of the January 2012 recess appointments. An additional 35 pending cases challenge decisions made during the tenure of a previous Obama recess appointee in early 2010.

Also in question are hundreds of decisions made by the NLRB recess appointees that haven't risen to federal appeals courts, including rulings that protect workers from being fired for complaining about workplace conditions on websites like Facebook.

Life-Shaming

A follow-up to this story, "Lisa Bonchek Adams and the Politics of Blogging About Cancer."

From John Nolte, at Big Journalism, "Ex-NY Times Editor Keller to Cancer Patient: 'Going Gently' Saves Money":

The Kellers are engaging in life-shaming, which like fat-shaming, is an excuse to tell someone else what to do while couching it in a "greater good" argument. To hell with personal freedom, let's force people to be healthy because obesity costs our beloved State money.  And now this brave woman, who is understandably desperate to see her children grow up, and who believes sharing her story will help others, is being life-shamed on the pages of the Guardian and New York Times because the Kellers are made uncomfortable by the idea of someone making the personal choice to stay alive for every possible day and minute she can.

What the Kellers appear to be doing is worse than lobbying for euthanasia, which at the very least is a personal decision. From their elite perches, the Kellers are tag-teaming a woman hospitalized with Stage IV cancer as a selfish and narcissistic financial drain over the twin sins of aggressively fighting for her life and, through her example, possibly encouraging others to do the same.

This is yet another glimpse into those I call "Soylent Green Liberals." The left's mask of compassion slipped late last year as they attempted to dismiss millions losing their health insurance as an overall positive.  And now the Kellers have given us another chilling example of those who are all too eager to sacrifice a few to serve some cold robotic vision of a cold robotic Utopia.

Hey, I'd be fighting for life just like Ms. Adams.

Shame on the Kellers.

Appeals Court Rejects FCC Rules on Net Neutrality

At WSJ, "Court Tosses FCC's 'Net Neutrality' Rules: Decision Clears Way for New Fees on Web's Heavy Bandwidth Users":

Though the FCC said it might appeal, the ruling for now means Internet-service providers are free to experiment with new types of pricing arrangements, such as charging content companies like Google Inc. or Netflix higher fees to deliver Internet traffic faster. Or, they could choose to degrade the quality of certain online content unless its creators were willing to pay up.

And a must read piece at Gigaom, "What you need to know about the court decision that just struck down net neutrality."

How Effective is NSA's Massive Data Surveillance?

The Los Angeles Times raised some questions yesterday, "Could data collection have stopped 9/11? White House thinks so":

WASHINGTON — Many of President Obama's closest advisors have embraced a controversial assessment of one of the National Security Agency's major data collection programs — the belief that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks could have been prevented had government then possessed the sort of vast trove of Americans' telephone records it holds now.

Critics of the NSA program, and some scholars of America's deadliest terrorist attack, strenuously dispute the view that the collection of phone data would necessarily have made a difference or that the possibility justifies the program now. The presidential task force that reviewed surveillance operations concluded last month that the program "was not essential" to preventing terrorist attacks.

But as the president finalizes plans for a speech on Friday announcing his proposals to change intelligence operations and oversight, the widespread agreement at the most senior levels of the White House about the program's value appears to be driving policy. As a result, the administration seems likely to modify, but not stop, the gathering of billions of phone call logs.

In recent White House meetings, Obama has accepted the "9/11" justification, aides say, expressing the belief that domestic phone records might have helped authorities identify some of the skyjackers who later crashed passenger jets in New York, the Washington area and Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.

He believes the main problem with the program is one of perception: Many Americans don't trust the NSA, one of the most secretive of spy agencies, to respect civil liberties.

Keep reading.

And then check Peter Bergen et al., at the New America Foundation, "Do NSA's Bulk Surveillance Programs Stop Terrorists?":

On June 5, 2013, the Guardian broke the first story in what would become a flood of revelations regarding the extent and nature of the NSA’s surveillance programs. Facing an uproar over the threat such programs posed to privacy, the Obama administration scrambled to defend them as legal and essential to U.S. national security and counterterrorism. Two weeks after the first leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden were published, President Obama defended the NSA surveillance programs during a visit to Berlin, saying: “We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information not just in the United States, but, in some cases, threats here in Germany. So lives have been saved.” Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, testified before Congress that: “the information gathered from these programs provided the U.S. government with critical leads to help prevent over 50 potential terrorist events in more than 20 countries around the world.” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on the House floor in July that “54 times [the NSA programs] stopped and thwarted terrorist attacks both here and in Europe – saving real lives.”

However, our review of the government’s claims about the role that NSA “bulk” surveillance of phone and email communications records has had in keeping the United States safe from terrorism shows that these claims are overblown and even misleading. An in-depth analysis of 225 individuals recruited by al-Qaeda or a like-minded group or inspired by al-Qaeda’s ideology, and charged in the United States with an act of terrorism since 9/11, demonstrates that traditional investigative methods, such as the use of informants, tips from local communities, and targeted intelligence operations, provided the initial impetus for investigations in the majority of cases, while the contribution of NSA’s bulk surveillance programs to these cases was minimal. Indeed, the controversial bulk collection of American telephone metadata, which includes the telephone numbers that originate and receive calls, as well as the time and date of those calls but not their content, under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, appears to have played an identifiable role in initiating, at most, 1.8 percent of these cases. NSA programs involving the surveillance of non-U.S. persons outside of the United States under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act played a role in 4.4 percent of the terrorism cases we examined, and NSA surveillance under an unidentified authority played a role in 1.3 percent of the cases we examined.

Keep reading.

Well, I love how this whole thing's gotten the administration all jammed up. And personally, I'd lean on the greater security side (rather than the greater liberty side). Most of all, though, screw the so-called "whistleblowers" and their enablers, who are cyberterrorists and traitors. People will die because of their actions, no doubt.

Police Shoot Suspect in Denver 7-11 Hostage Standoff

At ABC News, "Wounded Suspect in Denver 7-11 Hostage Standoff Identified."

Not-Gulity Verdict in Kelly Thomas Police Murder Case

I blogged about this story some time back. This is the Fullerton PD, in Orange County.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Two former Fullerton police officers have been found not guilty in the death of Kelly Thomas":

An Orange County jury Monday found two former Fullerton police officers accused of killing a schizophrenic homeless man, Kelly Thomas, not guilty.

Manuel Ramos and Jay Cicinelli were charged with striking Kelly Thomas with a baton and a stun gun in a beating that left him comatose. He died five days later.

Ron Thomas, Kelly Thomas' father, said he was stunned by the verdict, saying he'd never seen such a miscarriage of justice. Thomas also suggested that federal authorities should look into the case.

Ramos' attorney, John Barnett, told reporters: "These peace officers were doing their jobs...they did what they were trained to do."

Continue reading.

ADDED: "Kelly Thomas trial verdict a blow to Orange County D.A. Rackauckas."

Volkswagen Microbus 2014

The old VW Microbus, last made in Brazil, was scheduled for an end to production in December, although the line may continue, it turns out. At Digital Trends, "Unlike Jerry Garcia, Volkswagen’s Kombi Microbus isn’t dead … yet." And BoldRide, "The Volkswagen Bus Isn’t Dead Just Yet."

Here's the new concept Microbus, at Road and Track, "2014 Volkswagen Microbus."

Dana Loesch Back at Piers Morgan's Show

Piers wanted to start the new year on a fresh notr and invited Dana back on. Here's a clip from last night:



The entire segment is here: "Jumping Off the Christie Bandwagon." Piers gives Dana a warm welcome back.

BONUS: See also Dana's premier on Glenn Beck's show, "SIMPLY DANA: Dana Loesch explains how she became a conservative on her new show on The Blaze TV."

Lisa Bloom Responds on Twitter: And She's Lesbian?

I just watched NBC legal analyst Lisa Bloom on Piers Morgan's show talking about gun control. After all the debate and discussion over the last two years about guns and this lady hasn't learned a thing. So I took to Twitter, with surprising results:

.@LisaBloom Seriously, you should move to another one of those "civilized" countries that are so "safe." Hate guns? Too bad. Leave the U.S.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 15, 2014

.@LisaBloom And you're vegan? Perhaps there are some other more "civilized" countries where citizens don't eat meat. Perhaps move there.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 15, 2014

.@DLoesch I so badly wished you were on @PiersMorgan's show right now to smack down gun-grabber @LisaBloom. Pathetic leftists. And sad.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 15, 2014

Thx. In my house they go together swimmingly! MT “@AmPowerBlog: .@LisaBloom Wow. Vegans and homosexuals go together? Very rigorous thinking.
— Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) January 15, 2014

.@LisaBloom Thanks for responding. Just sounded very simplistic actually.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 15, 2014

.@LisaBloom I wouldn't have known your sexual orientation had you not mentioned it. Now I see: http://t.co/wzroa1Txpr
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 15, 2014

I have no clue if the lady's lesbian. I know she's a divorced mother of two and a radical leftist. And apparently, homosexuality and veganism "go together swimmingly" in her house. Okay. Whatever floats your boat. Just don't ram your stuff down my throat.

UPDATE: Bloom posts a photo of her "sweetheart," who is male. So, I don't know? I guess she's just talking about ideological support for homosexuals and veganism. Weird either way.

Megyn Kelly Interviews 'Lone Survivor' Marcus Luttrell

I watched this earlier.

An excellent clip, at the Right Scoop, "Marcus Luttrell: There is nothing glorious about war, it’s the most horrible thing in the world."

Public Approval of Chris Christie Unmoved by Bridgegate Scandal

At Politico, "Poll: Chris Christie opinion unscathed."

And following the links takes us to Pew Research, "Christie Story Attracts Little Public Interest: Recent Opinions of New Jersey Governor Are Largely Unchanged."

New Declassified Docs Expose Obama's Benghazi Lies

From Arnold Ahlert, at Canada Free Press:

Newly declassified documents reveal that high-ranking members of the Obama administration were aware that the September 11, 2012 assault on the American consulate in Benghazi was a “terrorist attack” only minutes after the battle began.

In classified testimony given on June 26, 2013 to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, Gen. Carter Hamm, former head of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) revealed he was the one who broke the news to former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. According to declassified testimony obtained by Fox News, Hamm testified that he learned about the attack only 15 minutes after it began at 9:42 p.m. Libya time. Thus, the administration’s carefully crafted narrative that the attack was based on a video has once again been revealed for the lie it always was.

“My first call was to General Dempsey, General Dempsey’s office, to say, ‘Hey, I am headed down the hall. I need to see him right away,’” the General told lawmakers. “I told him what I knew. We immediately walked upstairs to meet with Secretary Panetta.” Hamm characterized the ability to meet with both men so soon after the attack occurred as a fortunate “happenstance” because “they had the basic information as they headed across for the meeting at the White House.”

RTWT.

It's all about protecting Hillary.

FLASHBACK: "The New York Times' Benghazi Whitewash."

Obama Threatens Dictatorial Action

CNN has the background, "Obama looks to bypass Congress: 'I've got a pen'."

And now at American Glob, "Dear Leader Vows to Continue Expansion of Executive Power."

French President Francois Hollande Admits 'Painful' Problems in 'Private Life'

Here's the lol headline at the New York Post, "French president: Give me a month to sort out who is first lady."

Plus, at Telegraph UK, "Francois Hollande conference: with the greatest respect, there was un éléphant dans la salle."

François Hollande's media conference at the Elysée Palace brought great anticipation, but no satisfaction.

If François Hollande treats his women the way he treats his press conferences, I feel rather sorry for them. He starts slowly. Excitement builds and builds. Steadily, he keeps going. And going. And going. For what feels like ages. Until … hang on a minute. All of a sudden it seems to be over.

And as far as you can see, he is the only one who got anything out of it. You, in fact, nodded off several minutes ago. Over the weekend it emerged that the French president has allegedly been cheating on his girlfriend – Valérie Trierweiler, France’s “First Lady” – with a glamorous actress called Julie Gayet. I say “allegedly” because he still hasn’t either confirmed or denied it.

Indeed by Tuesday, rumours were circulating in Paris that Madamoiselle Gayet is four months pregnant, although their truth or otherwise could not be established.

Also at the Independent UK, "Francois Hollande 'affair' latest: French first lady Valerie Trierweiler demands official statement and 'rapid clarification' of her status as hospital stay extended."

More at London's Daily Mail, "'I'm ready to forgive': 'Fragile' First Lady in hospital for a week as she prepares to give the wayward Hollande another chance after his year-long tryst with actress 7 years her junior in 'mafia apartment'."

Trending: #LiberalWhiteWomanPrivilege

Or, it was trending earlier, and Twitchy picked it up, "#LiberalWhiteWomanPrivilege: Conservatives fire back at self-loathing fembots."

#WhiteWomanPrivilege is believing you can't be oppressive because you're a part of a marginalized group.

— Jessica Savage (@SavageAfro) January 14, 2014

#WhiteWomanPrivilege saying that you worked for everything you got, but in fact you were born with most privileges that gained your status

— C0c0nut Kitten (@bbycoconutfresh) January 14, 2014

As a naive youth I thought it was American privilege; in my late teens class privilege; but now I understand its #WhiteWomanPrivilege

— Rose Maureen Harper (@RoseMaureenH) January 14, 2014

And RTWT for the conservative smackdown.

#liberalwhitewomanprivilege Pale Hollywood starlets telling black #teaparty activists they're racist for supporting life & liberty.

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) January 14, 2014

Hillary Clinton Kept a 'Hit List' in 2008 Presidential Campaign

A dishy piece, at Politico, "Hillary’s Hit List":

As one of the last orders of business for a losing campaign, they [Kris Balderston and Adrienne Elrod] recorded in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet the names and deeds of members of Congress. They carefully noted who had endorsed Hillary, who had backed Obama, and who had stayed on the sidelines—standard operating procedure for any high-end political organization. But the data went into much more nuanced detail. “We wanted to have a record of who endorsed us and who didn’t,” a member of Hillary’s campaign team said, “and of those who endorsed us, who went the extra mile and who was just kind of there. And of those who didn’t endorse us, those who understandably didn’t endorse us because they are [Congressional Black Caucus] members or Illinois members. And then, of course, those who endorsed him but really should have been with her … that burned her.”

For Hillary, whose loss was of course not the end of her political career, the spreadsheet was a necessity of modern political warfare, an improvement on what old-school politicians called a “favor file.” It meant that when asks rolled in, she and Bill would have at their fingertips all the information needed to make a quick decision—including extenuating, mitigating and amplifying factors—so that friends could be rewarded and enemies punished.

Sounds so Nixonian. And frankly, we need more political reporting like this. Real politics. Real villainy.

Keep reading.

The piece is excerpted from Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes' forthcoming book, HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton.

Hillary will turn 69 on October 26, 2016, about 8 months younger than Ronald Reagan was when he was elected in 1980. Age won't be an issue in 2016 campaign, as long as Hillary's doctors give her a clean bill of health. Oh boy, it's going to be yet another doozy of a ride on the Clinton's rollercoaster.

20 New Hotties to Follow on Instagram

A nice roundup, at FHM, "The 20 girls to follow on Instagram in 2014."

Emily Ratajkowski's at the lineup. (She's also on Twitter, so there's that.)

Stoned Citizens Will Further Burden the Dependency Society

More and more folks are speaking out.

And now, don't miss Emily Miller, at the Washington Times, "Obama’s cultural legacy is legal marijuana blowing through America":

You can go into a store in Colorado and buy marijuana to get stoned for kicks, but you cannot purchase a 40- or 60-watt light bulb. This is the state of affairs in America after five years of President Obama’s liberalism, which has misguided the public on what are the actual dangers to society.

On New Year’s Day, Colorado became the first state to allow the purchase of marijuana for recreational use. Anyone over the age of 21 can buy pot over the counter to smoke at home to get high. Washington state also legalized cannabis, and sales will begin there in June.

Colorado is being watched by other loosey-goosey states that may jump on the drug-decriminalizing bandwagon. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia already allow for sales of marijuana for supposedly “medical” use.

Crime-ridden Washington, D.C., is actually considering a ballot initiative to legalize the drug. The Washington Times reported exclusively Tuesday that if the measure is approved by voters — and, most critically, by Congress — residents would be allowed to grow marijuana in their homes and transfer up to an ounce.

This demonstrates how activists are totally uneducated about the severe consequences of smoking pot.
Cully Stimson was a prosecutor in drug court in San Diego and has served as a military trial judge.

“There’s already a significant number of D.C. residents involved in the criminal justice system,” the senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation told me in an interview. “By telling them that marijuana is a medicine and not a drug, then legalizing it, you’re going to have a stoned, dependent community that is even worse than today.”

Mr. Stimson, a former defense attorney, has written extensively on drug policies and the dangers of marijuana. He predicts that Colorado’s social experiment will fail badly.

“Nothing positive will come out of it,” he stated. “You’re going to have lower test scores and a class of people who are unemployable because they are stoned all the time. People are going to die on ski slopes, on the roads.”

The think tank expert further explained, “Countries that have legalized marijuana have experienced negative social effects. They’ve seen more dependency — marijuana is highly addictive and a gateway to harder drugs — and more crime and a bigger black market because the drug cartels undercut legal sellers and also target youth.”

Bill O'Reilly and Mary Katharine Ham Take the Gloves Off on Pot Legalization

I was watching. It was intense.

O'Reilly can't not come off looking like a bully. It's just his schtick. And Mary Katharine's a strong women, but you know she was stressed out at the badgering, and you can tell she was letting off some steam with her post at Hot Air, "Video: Bill O’Reilly and I yell at each other about weed, Part II."

Click through for the video.

I'm actually with O'Reilly on this, substantly. But again, he's such a prick sometimes.

ADDED: From Twitchy, "Mary Katherine Ham slams Bill O’Reilly for bringing up her child in marijuana debate."

Professor Caroline Heldman on the New Culture of Sexual Objectification

She's a talented lecturer, although she's way out there ideologically.

At Upworthy, "Being A Sex Object Is Empowering. Oh, Wait, No It’s Not. Here’s Why."

I agree with a lot of what she says, especially about the violently sexualized imagery, but when you get down to her solutions to an "objectification culture" it's mostly about boycotting and especially censorship. Note further that because this kind of zeitgeist sociology is at the forefront of "rape culture" feminism, her program forms a particularly pernicious form of misandry (e.g., the vicious "lads mags" boycott in Britain).



And note at the clip, Professor Heldman says, at about 5:10 minutes, "Most women are heterosexuals, and we are sexual beings, so why wouldn't we see half-naked men in advertising everywhere?" Now, besides getting some hoots out of the young women in the audience, Professor Heldman is speaking as though she's heterosexual. However, she recently posted a photo to Twitter of herself with her lesbian "wifey" Professor Danielle Dirks. Perhaps her meaning of "heterosexual" could go either way --- speaking of herself as a proxy for women everywhere --- but technically she's not likely to be attracted to "half-naked" men all the time, no more than I'm attracted to seeing hot men in women's magazines, or fitness magazines, or whatever. In fact, by misrepresenting her sexual orientation she sells her message to young heterosexual women in bad faith. It's not a clear objective fact that photos of sexually desirable women are essentially degrading ("objectifying") and hence violative of women's rights. It's simply a hypothesis of the radical Marxist misandrous paradigm. I mean really, you don't have to go far into the feminist fever swamps to find vile, vindictive and vicious hatred of men, from people like Amanda Marcotte to the even more (surprisingly) extreme Andrea Dworkin knockoff "Witchwind" discussed by Robert Stacy McCain a couple of weeks ago: "Mental Illness and Radical Feminism."

Notice how Professor Heldman's stealth radicalism, and her casually dishonest identification as heterosexual, poses something more dangerous to basic family stability and social decency than the crazed feminists like Marcotte and her ilk. Professor Heldman packages a really radical, totalitarian program in a sort of attractive, pretty-girl-next-door wholesomeness. Notice how she removes her false eyelashes at the end of the talk to great effect, wiping off her eye shade, mascara and lip gloss to reveal her pasty, puffy facial features. She's not so pretty when you take off all the cosmetic preparation, but then again, why put it on in the first place? Professor Heldman wants people to think they can have it both ways: you can reject the culture that puts a high premium on good looks and walk around like a unwashed bag lady, or you can preen around as a hottie, media savvy feminist professor, ramming man-hating cultural Marxism down the throats of generations of young women who fall for Professor Heldman's platinum blond mane and confident, smooth talking delivery.

As shirtless tennis stud Andre Agassi once said, "Image is everything." (Ironic, isn't it?)

Less Than 25 Percent of Crucial Young Adult Demographic in #ObamaCare Sign-Ups

A lot of folks picked up on this story yesterday.

For example, at Legal Insurrection, "Young adults still slow to sign up for Obamacare."

Also at TPNN, "Delusional: Obama Admin. Celebrates Awful Obamacare Enrollment Numbers for Young People."

And see Politico, "Young adults make up one-fourth of Obamacare enrollees":

Just under a quarter of Obamacare sign-ups so far have been in the critical 18-to-35-year-old age range, the Obama administration revealed Monday, the first time officials have given demographic data about health plan enrollees.

The administration had set a goal of around 38 percent to 40 percent of the enrollees in that age bracket by the time the sign-up season ends March 31.

The administration’s monthly enrollment update showed 2.2 million people had picked health plans in the federal or state health exchanges from Oct. 1 through Dec. 28. It’s not yet clear how many have paid their first monthly premium, a requirement before coverage can begin. An additional 3.9 million people have been deemed eligible for Medicaid.

More than half of those who have signed up are between 45 and 64, an age range that tends to be sicker and costlier to cover, according to the enrollment figures released Monday by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Young adults have to sign up in sufficient numbers to keep premiums in check and the health insurance market stable. Administration officials say the trends are going in the right direction at the midway point in enrollment.

“We are confident, based on the results we have now that we’ll have an appropriate mix,” said Mike Hash, director of HHS’s Office of Health Reform.

More at the link.

Plus, Guy Benson breaks down the problem with Gretchen Carlson on Fox News yesterday morning, "Guy Benson joins Fox News, The Real Story to discuss the report of new data showing Obamacare youth signups falling far short."

RELATED: From Carol Platt Liebau, at Town Hall, "Here Comes the ObamaCare Bailout?"

MTV's '16 and Pregnant' Cited as Cause in Reduction of Teen Pregnancy

It's a kinda "scared straight" effect, apparently.

At the New York Times, "MTV’s ‘16 and Pregnant,’ Derided by Some, May Resonate as a Cautionary Tale":

WASHINGTON — Kailyn Lowry, at age 17, decided to let MTV film her pregnancy and the birth of her first child in the hope of persuading other young men and women to wait to start a family.

“I did get two awesome blessings,” said Ms. Lowry, now 21 and married with a second child. “But I still haven’t gotten my bachelor’s degree, because, one, day care is so expensive and, two, how do you balance studying and having little ones at home?”

Ms. Lowry’s cautionary tale seems to have made an impression on at least some viewers. A new economic study of Nielsen television ratings and birth records suggests that the show she appeared in, “16 and Pregnant,” and its spinoffs may have prevented more than 20,000 births to teenage mothers in 2010.

The paper, to be released Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, makes the case that the controversial but popular programs reduced the teenage birthrate by nearly 6 percent, contributing to a long-term decline that accelerated during the recession.

“It’s thrilling,” said Sarah S. Brown, the chief executive of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a nonprofit group in Washington. “People just don’t understand how influential media is in the lives of young people.”

Keep reading.

Notice that the study doesn't "prove" that "16 and Pregnant" caused a drop in teen pregnancy, only that there's a strong correlation between viewership and the decline of teenagers becoming pregnant.

Interesting, though, at the video above, Brian Stelter, CNN's new media analyst, cites Hot Air as a source of commentary on the New York Times piece. Talk about blogs becoming part of the mainstream media discussion these days. See, "Newest way to reduce teen pregnancies: Watching MTV?"

Retired Cop Kills Man Texting in Movie Theater Before Showing of 'Lone Survivor'

I'd say this was senseless.

It happened during the previews, when you're not discouraged from texting (usually the "silence your phones" announcement comes on before the main feature). The shooter must have been off a bit, retired cop or not.

At CNN, "Dad's texting to daughter sparks argument, fatal shooting in movie theater (VIDEO).

And at London's Daily Mail, "'Somebody throws popcorn… and then bang!’: Retired SWAT police captain, 71, shot cinema-goer dead and wounded wife who tried to stop ‘fight over texting’ at Lone Survivor screening."