It takes a psycho to know a psycho

Jeb! Bush, 4.2% in the polls, challenges Donald Trump, 36.5% in the polls, to one-on-one debate

Obama ties military's hands with stricter rules of engagement than the law of war requires or even France follows, leaflets the enemy before attacking

From the story here on Christmas Eve:

"We will do everything we can to prevent civilian casualties," said Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren on Wednesday. ... Donatella Rovera, senior crisis response adviser at Amnesty International, said the leaflet drops actually started last week, but it has been difficult for people to leave.  ... The Obama administration has come under fire from critics for adhering to restrictive rules of engagement and trying to avoid any civilian casualties in the fight against ISIS. Some say the rules are allowing ISIS fighters to escape.  ... A U.S. defense official said the current U.S. rules of engagement for airstrikes, which are more restrictive than what the law of war requires, would remain the same as Iraqi forces push into Ramadi. Other coalition members — such as France — adhere to looser rules of engagement, however, and it's not clear who will be doing the striking in Ramadi.

In 7 years Obama more than doubled a debt it took all other presidents combinded 233 years to pile up

The debt when Obama took office

The debt after 7 years of Obama in office

The debt held by the public is up 116% in just 7 years of Obama, going from $6.3 trillion to $13.6 trillion.

George W. Bush is silently helping Democrat campaigns in their run against Trump

From AP Obama, here, in "Democrats find an unlikely ally on Muslims: George W Bush":

'As Hillary Clinton put it, "George W. Bush was right." Laying out her plan to fight domestic terrorism, Clinton reminded voters in Minneapolis earlier this month of Bush's visit to a Muslim center six days after the Sept. 11 attacks. She even quoted his words from that day about those who intimidate Muslim-Americans: "They represent the worst of humankind, and they should be ashamed of that kind of behavior." ...

'Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton's top challenger for the Democratic nomination, visited a mosque this month in a show of solidarity that evoked Bush's after 9/11. And the Democratic National Committee released an ad contrasting comments by the 2016 GOP contenders with footage of Bush declaring that "Islam is peace." ...

'The former president has stayed mostly silent throughout the recent debate. His spokesman, Freddy Ford, recently said Bush wouldn't comment on "Trump's bluster" but repeated Bush's insistence that "true Islam is peaceful." Ford declined to discuss what Bush thinks about Democrats quoting him now.'

Is English a second language for Marco Rubio?

Recently Rubio flubbed "more" and "fewer", saying "more plumbers welders and less philosophers".

But now he also shows his ignorance of "between you and me":

"The bottom line is there isn't that big a difference between [Cruz] and I on how to approach immigration," Rubio told CBS News on Sunday.

I expect rednecks from Michigan to say "between you and I" but not US Senators, but then again neither Barack Obama nor Donald Trump seems to know it's "secretaries of state", not "secretary of states".

Meanwhile Byron York above shows rather convincingly that it was Ted Cruz voting for stronger border amendments to the Gang of Eight bill in 2013 and Rubio voting against them.

Conrad Black defends Donald Trump against the hysterics, and tells you what he's for

Here:

"What Donald actually advocates is the deportation of 351,000 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes and now imprisoned; the end of illegal immigration by building an Israeli-like wall along the Mexican border; an (as yet unspecified) screening process to justify the deportation of some of the illegals and the normalization of the others; and although he advocates the suspension already mentioned of Muslim immigration (not the Christians who are almost half of the refugees), he at least acknowledges that the United States is partly responsible for the political chaos that generated this humanitarian tragedy in the first place. He wants only a small increase in defence spending, reallocated to more effective anti-terrorism; and universal health care through health savings accounts and by smashing the insurance cartel. He is for the gradual legalization of most drugs; is a militant anti-polluter, but correctly (on present evidence) regards climate change and cap-and-trade as hoaxes. He wants to leave education (and same-sex marriage) to the states and to give them the money now wasted in the federal Department of Education. He would ban only late-term abortions, and not when there were overriding circumstances. He would reform the corrupt shambles of campaign financing by abolishing super-PACs and soft money, and lift limits on individual contributions to political candidates. He is a moderate protectionist opposite cheap labour countries, and advocates marginal income tax reductions and the reconstitution of the bloated national debt as a sinking fund to be gradually reduced by spending restraint, implicitly involving an imprecise level of entitlement-reform. Trump opposes foreign intervention in areas where the U.S. has no natural interest, including Ukraine and Syria, but wants a redefinition of the national security interest of the country, and wants to protect that interest, unlike Obama, but not over-extend it, unlike George W. Bush. This is not a radical program."

Cruz to Hannity in April 2013: Citizenship is designed to be a poison pill to scuttle the whole Gang of Eight bill

The Hill reported on it here at the time:

"The part that I’ve got deep concerns about is any path to citizenship for those who are here illegally," Cruz said during an interview with Sean Hannity. "I think that is profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who have followed the rules, who have waited in line.

"I think the reason that President Obama is insisting on a path to citizenship is that it is designed to be a poison pill to scuttle the whole bill, so he can have a political issue in 2014 and 2016. I think that's really unfortunate," continued Cruz. ...

"If he actually really wanted to get something passed, he wouldn't be rolling this out as a partisan attack issue," Cruz said. "You look at the State of the Union, that was a divisive speech, that was in your face. And he knows full well that a path to citizenship won't pass the House."

"He knows that it's a partisan, divisive issue and he holds everything else hostage to that wedge issue," Cruz added. ...

"I think that it is likely that there could be some bipartisan solution to those who are here illegally if a path to citizenship were taken off the table," Cruz continued. "But as long as the president and [Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)] insist on a path to citizenship they know full well it will never pass the House of Representatives and then it's just a political football rather than actually trying to fix the problem." ...

"Look, they have the votes to force something through the Senate. I think whatever mess comes out of the so-called Gang of Eight, all or virtually all of the Democrats will vote for it and it's likely they'll get a fair number of Republicans to vote for it to so they can probably get it through the Senate," Cruz added. "If it includes a path to citizenship, I don't think it'll pass the House, and I think that's exactly what the Obama White House wants."

Cruz is crazy now to characterize his amendment to the bill at the time as "the poison pill" when he was calling the citizenship provisions of the Gang of Eight bill the poison pill.

If anyone has become unhinged in this race Jeb, it's Ted Cruz. Even Mona Charen thinks Ted Cruz meant to come off as sincere in 2013. We aren't left wondering only what Marco Rubio believes about the issue, but also what Ted Cruz really believes.

Safe to say few wonder what Donald Trump really believes about illegal immigration.

New York Times Magazine discusses the history of "radical" in America without mentioning Obama's and Hillary Clinton's devotion to Alinsky's Rules for Radicals

Here in "Who’s Really ‘Radical’?" by Emily Bazelon, who does discuss the pair:

"President Obama and Hillary Clinton live in the world of politics, where rhetoric is often more heated, but they avoid using ‘‘radical Islam’’ or ‘‘jihad’’ to describe the terror driven by ISIS."

What else do you call wanting to fundamentally transform America if not radical?

DHS missed San Bernardino terrorist's social media posts threatening attacks because it was official policy not to look

The fault lies with Obama and Jeh Johnson, total incompetents, or worse.

Of course our crack media at ABC here don't tell us when the policy not to look was implemented, but you can infer from the story that the Obama Administration made it official policy not to look in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations in the summer of 2013 in order to make the regime look respectful of privacy rights.

Too bad it's the privacy of foreigners Obama cares about instead of ours.

The guards of a tyrant are foreigners.

World leaders agree to totally toothless climate accord

Story here.

Coal for Christmas everybody!

Blue state Republicans contribute a majority of convention delegates but only 37% of the primary vote

Which is why Republican presidential nominees tend to be more moderate than rank and file Republicans.

From the story here:

"Blue-state Republicans have already propelled moderates in the 2016 money chase. According to Federal Election Commission filings, donors in the 18 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1992 have accounted for 45 percent of Rubio’s total itemized contributions, 45 percent of Bush’s, 53 percent of Fiorina’s and 85 percent of Chris Christie’s. By contrast, they’ve provided just 20 percent of Cruz’s contributions and 36 percent of Carson’s. For comparison, blue-state Republicans cast just 37 percent of all votes in the 2012 GOP primaries. But their real mojo lurks in the delegate chase. ... there are 1,247 delegates at stake in Obama-won states, compared with just 1,166 in Romney states."

Obama Friday signed stop-gap funding expiring December 16, but why hasn't this been an issue in the Republican debates?

The giant spending bill betrayal which gave us Paul Ryan as Speaker has been stoppable all during the presidential debating season, but we have heard narry a word about it.

If Republicans in the Congress wanted to, they could already have returned to "regular order" and debated every dollar of outlays, one by one, but NO. These cowards push on with one giant bill under Paul Ryan's "leadership", an omnibus spending package, which will take spending off the political calendar and put it into the nebulous never-never land of the indeterminate future, safely out of reach of "politics", fleecing the taxpayers as usual.

Meanwhile the candidates for president say nothing about spending in any way critical of the current Congress. They apply no pressure. They throw down no gauntlet to House and Senate leadership. But Donald Trump must endure a rare rebuke from a comedy lookalike.

A bunch of losers. Hollow men. And cowards.

And conservatism lies decomposing.

Police in Colorado Springs won't investigate ACLUer who called for Trump supporters to be killed, citing freedom of speech

Reported here by CBS Denver:

'The post states, “The thing is, we have to really reach out to those who might consider voting for Trump and say, ‘This is Goebbels. This is the final solution. If you are voting for him I will have to shoot you before Election Day.’ They’re not going to listen to reason, so when justice is gone, there’s always force…” ... Wirbel did not respond to a request for comment. He is from Colorado Springs and police there say his post is covered by free speech and they do not intend to investigate.'

Evidently as long as you don't threaten a specific individual it's permitted to advocate killing the followers of Obama, or Clinton or Madonna or the Pope and so on.

Whatever happened to incitement laws? to law and order?

Colorado Springs has bigger problems than Planned Parenthood shootings.

First GAO and now House Armed Services Committee finds Obama broke law in Bergdahl swap, and Democrats agree

Impeach the bastard.

From the story at The Hill, here:

"A yearlong investigation by the House Armed Services Committee has concluded that the Obama administration broke the law in swapping five Taliban members for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl — and went out of its way to hide the negotiations as they were happening. ... Last year, the non-partisan Government Accountability Office also found that the Obama administration violated the law on the Bergdahl swap. While Democrats on the committee agreed that the administration broke the law, they strongly objected in a dissenting report to the broader conclusions that the administration kept the swap secret for a political motive." 

Mollie Hemingway doesn't get it that Donald Trump IS the balance

If you can get through all the emoting, you reach this at the end, here:

"Yes, the media industry is just a way to make money via entertaining presentation of the news, and, yes, Trump is getting the media clicks we only dream about. But if there is any sense of gratitude for the role we’re allowed to play in the project of maintaining a civil society, could we just work to achieve a bit more balance? Neither self-abasing freakouts nor servile accommodations regarding Trump?"

When Barack Obama promised he'd transform America, no one knew that he meant with Donald Trump. The Donald is the Yang to Obama's Yin. When Trump is finished, the country might be ready to move along again after the male point of view has had its way with the country for a few years. Like Melania, I'm sure she'll enjoy it.

I'm not criticizing the girl for missing it. She's just a girl.

Obama's middle class economics at work: Middle class adults outnumbered by upper and lower classes for the first time in 2015

Pew reports here:

80.0 million middle income vs. 51.6 million lower and upper income in 1971, but 120.8 million middle income vs. 121.3 million lower and upper income in 2015.

The middle still outnumbered the lower and the upper by 3 million in 2011, but not anymore. This is what Obama meant by "Forward!" in 2012. Reducing the size of the middle class is the long-stated objective of the communists.

"[T]he lower middle-class masses are the most dangerous enemies of the dictatorship of the proletariat. ... Their special interests are absolutely incompatible with the economic disturbances which are the inevitable accompaniment of transitional periods."

-- Bela Kun

Piss off Obama: Buy a gun

wncn.com North Carolina

Rand Paul focuses on why Obama is unqualified for office, not Trump

Here.

Lincoln lover Ralph Peters wants to level Raqqa, just like Trump

Here:

'Obama wouldn’t go to Raqqa. So the jihadis went to Paris. ... The generals who won World War II would start by leveling Raqqa, the ISIS caliphate’s capital. Civilians would die, but those remaining in Raqqa have embraced ISIS, as Germans did Hitler. The jihadis must be crushed. Start with their “Berlin.”'