October 5th, 2015
This didn’t seem to get much national play, but the murderers of border patrol agent Brian Terry were convicted:
Two men were convicted of murder charges Thursday in the killing of a Border Patrol agent whose death brought to light the bungled federal gun-tracking operation known as Fast and Furious.
The jury found Jesus Leonel Sanchez-Meza, also known as Lionel Portillo-Meza, and Ivan Soto-Barraza, guilty of all counts. They face a sentence of life in prison.
The 2010 killing of agent Brian Terry exposed the Fast and Furious operation in which agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed criminals to buy guns with the intention of tracking the weapons. But the agency lost most of the guns, including two that were found at scene of Terry’s death.
It is my understanding that both Sanchez-Meza and Soto-Barraza are illegal aliens. It is also my understanding that no one in the BATF has been fired over Fast and Furious…
Tags: Border Controls, Brian Terry, Crime, Fast and Furious, Guns, Obama Scandals
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Guns | No Comments »
October 2nd, 2015
How about a short LinkSwarm to get the Friday LinkSwarm back on Friday?
Bernie Sanders roughly matches Hillary’s fundraising total. Man, she’s going to need to start raking in a lot more foreign bribes…
This just in: Jeb Bush’s poll numbers suck.
“So we know that 99% of the data has been adjusted, and we know that over 80% of the reported warming in the lower 48 States over the entire 20th Century was due to adjustments – the raw data simply do not show this warming.”
Mark Steyn offers another dispatch from post-Jewish Europe. Bonus: Facebook is going to “do more” to suppress anti-“refugee” posts.
Islamic State fighters start defecting because ISIS can’t make payroll. Time to consider marrying Len Trexler…
Obama Administration grants asylum to 1,519 foreigners with terrorist ties.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says he’s no longer bound by Oslo Accords. Because why should you let a little piece of paper get in the way of the all-important task of exterminating the Jews?
Dear Brookings Institute scholars: Please note that you’re not allowed to have opinions different from those of Elizabeth Warren. (Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
The Oregon shooter was a mixed race skinhead who targeted Christians. By the time the media gets done, he’ll be an “angry white man.”
Five benefits from owning guns. (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll on Instapundit.
Eight members of Iran’s women’s soccer team are actually men.
Tags: 2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Bernie Sanders, Brookings Institute, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Elizabeth Warren, Facebook, Foreign Policy, Germany, Guns, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Scandals, Illegal Aliens, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Israel, Jeb Bush, Jihad, Mahmoud Abbas, Media Watch, Military, Oslo Accords, Palestinians
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, Military | No Comments »
October 1st, 2015
Ah, that October chill…is not evident yet here in Austin. It’s supposed to hit 94° today.
Time for another Texas vs. California roundup:
The joys of working in Los Angeles: a $30,000 tax bill on $500 worth of freelance income.
California nears passage of another trial lawyer full employment act.
Texas had five of the ten fastest growing metropolitan areas in 2014. Austin isn’t on this list, but Midland and San Angelo are numbers one and two. (San Jose, California’s lone entry, checks in at eight.)
72% of Californians polled thinks the state has a pension crisis. Too bad this thinking doesn’t seem to influence their voting patterns yet… (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
And yet a new bill would exempt some new hires from paying their fair share of pension costs. (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
New pension accounting rules are about to show that a lot more California municipalities are insolvent.
“Instead of building freeways, expanding ports, restoring bridges and aqueducts, and constructing dams, desalination plants, and power stations, California’s taxpayers are pouring tens of billions each year into public sector pension funds.” (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
Stockton’s bankruptcy didn’t solve it’s pension crisis.
Texas had a net gain of 103,465 people in 2014, the largest number of which came from California.
San Francisco wants to keep housing affordable…by restricting supply. Looks like somebody failed Economics 101…
Pension reform initiative to be refiled?
Unions are trying to undo San Diego’s voter-approved pension reforms. Because of course they are.
“Texas is like Australia with the handbrake off. There is no individual income tax and no corporate income tax, which explains the state’s rapid economic and population growth. A recent downturn has sparked some concern, however. Apparently Texas will only create another 150,000 jobs during 2015 – about the same number as Australia, from a population only a few million larger. In a good year, that number of jobs is easily generated by a single Texan city.” Also: IowaHawk’s illegal human organ trafficking!
Texas ranks 13th in budget transparency. California? Dead last.
Even some California Democrats balked at increasing the state’s already high gas prices.
As part of the bankruptcy of northwest supermarket chain Haggen (which bought a bunch of Albertson’s stores just six months ago), they’ll be closing all their California stores. And if you guessed that Haggen is unionized, you would be correct.
Jerry Brown revives the state’s redevelopment agency…and its potential for eminent domain abuse.
Reminder: Texas is enormous.
A scourge spreads out upon California. Crack gangs? Illegal aliens? Try “short term rentals.”
Historical note: 105 years ago today, three union guys bombed the Los Angeles Times, killing 21 people.
Tags: Albertson's, Australia, California, Crime, Democrats, Haggen, Jerry Brown, Los Angeles, Midland, pension crisis, San Angelo, San Jose, Stockton, Texas, unions, Welfare State
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Regulation, Uncategorized, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
September 30th, 2015
Former Lt. Governor David Dewhurst has settled his lawsuit against Houston oilman Michael Looney, who evidently received money embezzled by Dewhurst campaign adviser Kenneth “Buddy” Barfield:
Former Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the once powerful Republican who was bilked by an adviser for at least $2.8 million, has settled a lawsuit against a Houston oilman who used a chunk of the stolen money to invest in a new business.
The out-of-court settlement ends years of litigation by the three-term ex-lieutenant governor aimed at recouping funds embezzled from two campaign accounts by former adviser Kenneth “Buddy” Barfield, a Dewhurst spokesman said.
Once a trusted consultant to one of Texas’ wealthiest politicians, Barfield was sentenced in February to more than seven years in federal prison for orchestrating a complex money funneling scheme in which he falsified records, bank statements, invoices and campaign finance reports.
Dewhurst filed a civil lawsuit against Barfield in 2013 to get some of the money back. That lawsuit was settled when Barfield signed over his multi-million dollar West Austin home as part of the agreement.
However, Dewhurst’s lawyers also set their sights on Houston businessman Michael Looney, who partnered with Barfield and, according to court documents, received “several hundred thousand dollars” of stolen Dewhurst money.
The funds, according to the lawsuit, were used to start a new oil and gas business co-owned by Looney and Barfield that would make use of valuable seismic data under license from ExxonMobil.
Dewhurst’s lawsuit was asking for an award of one-half interest in the seismic data and the new company. The exact value of the data was not released, but Looney’s lawyers said in a filing that Barfield “stood to make millions and millions of dollars” if the deal went through.
The terms of the lawsuit settlement were not disclosed.
Previously.
Tags: 2012 Election, Crime, David Dewhurst, Kenneth Barfield, Lawsuit, Michael Looney, Texas, Texas Senate Race
Posted in Crime, Texas | No Comments »
September 30th, 2015
So NBC/WSJ/Telemundo Polls Latinos did a POLL on Presidential candidates, and just happened to leave off Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
Funny how that could happen.
It’s less a case of the mask slipping than of NBC not even trying to hide the fact it’s an extension of the Democratic Party…
Tags: 2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Elections, Hispanics, Marco Rubio, Media Watch, NBC, polls, Republicans, Ted Cruz, Telemundo
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, Republicans | No Comments »
September 29th, 2015
Another LinkSwarm. And if you’re live in Austin, don’t forget the meetup/blogshoot on October 10th.
Theory: The people flooding into Europe are innocent families of refugees fleeing war. Reality: “young men [heaving] rocks at the authorities and showing up on YouTube videos shouting Allahu Akbar.”
“There is something shallow and decadent about a pontiff who prioritizes “climate change” even as every last Christian is driven from the Archeparchy of Mosul. What will they say of such a pope? That he fiddled with the thermostat while Rome burned?”
If the illegal alien crisis threatens to collapse the EU, it wasn’t very strong to begin with, was it?
Why are liberals in love with radical Islam?
One theory:
I increasingly think the Democrat/Muslim union has to do with old-fashioned relativism. Democrats don’t actually believe that women’s rights and gay rights apply to everyone; white people: sure. Arabs? Well, who am I to judge? And Muslims know this.
When Robby George is just dumbfounded as to why all these Muslims support the party of abortion on demand and gay marriage, the answer seems pretty clear to me: They’re supporting the party of abortion on demand and gay marriage for infidels
Another:
I think the issue is more that they see Muslims as a new potential mascot group that they can champion and therefore obtain that cheap sense of moral superiority that comes with riding in like a white knight. I think a lot of liberal attitudes towards minorities aren’t actually based on the good of the minorities, but how good it makes the liberals feel to champion them. Muslims are (as of now) a tiny, insignificant minority. They’re mostly kinda swarthy, so the “it’s racism” meme is easily transferable, and a significant chunk of liberals loathe Christianity.
A map of worldwide Islamic State attacks.
In the little town of Bethlehem/Things have gotten quite scary/Islamists have gotten out and torched/the local monastery.
You might want to hold onto your hate for this shocking revelation: Hillary Clinton lied under oath about her secret e-mail server.
And polls show that Vice President Joe Biden is way, way more popular than Clinton.
Reminder: Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign started the “birther” movement.
Ten times John Boehner caved into liberals.
Pacifica radio station institutes socialist democracy and promptly starts to spiral down toward bankruptcy. (Hat tip: Powerline.)
Dealing drugs while on the DEA payroll? Automatic firing? Ha! Remember: Obama Administration. 14 day suspension.
“Cobynite solutions belong in the realm of fantasy.” Keep in mind that I disagree with possibly three-quarters of the writer’s analysis, but still share his conclusion….
The World According to Xi Jinping. Sounds like a whole lot of vague platitudes…
“German Rheinmetall shows off 80 kilowatt naval combat laser with four 20 kw laser barrels.” Though until they can demonstrate the system through actual field testing, I wouldn’t get too excited.
How did I miss the fact that McGruff The Crime Dog is currently doing 16 years for possessing a marijuana grow operation and a grenade launcher?
Tags: 2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Bethlehem, China, Christianity, Communism, Crime, DEA, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Germany, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton Scandals, Islam, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jeremy Corbyn, Jihad, John Boehner, Labour, McGruff The Crime Dog, Military, Pacifica, Texas, Xi Jinping
Posted in Border Control, Communism, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Military, Texas | No Comments »
September 28th, 2015
The opaque, dishonest nature by which ObamaCare was passed ensured that the full brunt of many provisions wouldn’t be felt before Obama’s 2012 reelection bid. While that stratagem worked for Obama, it also ensured that ObamaCare would turn into an unending supply of timebomb policies with unpleasant consequences which would continue to plague Democrats (and America) long after the bill’s passage.
And those bombs continue continue to explode:
“The more time Americans have had to experience the health care reform legislation first-hand, the more obvious it has become that, like virtually all government-controlled social experiments, Obamacare’s waste of taxpayers’ money has grown to epic levels. And there’s no sign the poorly managed program is improving.”
ObamaCare deductibles are now rising seven times faster than inflation. “Premiums have risen nearly $5,000 since Obama promised to cut them.”
Even Democrat’s own direct-mail advertising admits that “fewer than half of all U.S. doctors accept Medicaid,” a direct consequence of ObamaCare’s “cost control” features while dumping millions more patients into Medicaid.
All of which explains why ObamaCare remains deeply unpopular with voters, with 52% viewing it unfavorably, and 36% very unfavorably.
All of which explains why American consumers are still staying away from ObamaCare in droves.
Despite all that, Hillary Clinton is vigorously defending ObamaCare. In fact, what Hillary is actually doing is propising ObamaCare 2.0:
The solution is obvious: Reduce federal coverage mandates to reduce premiums and deductibles. Instead, Mrs. Clinton wants even more mandates that are guaranteed to make premiums and deductibles rise even higher.
First, on Tuesday in Iowa, Mrs. Clinton released her plan to make prescription drugs more “affordable.” (Sound familiar?) She proposes capping patients’ monthly out-of-pocket prescription costs at $250. Making insurers pay more toward retail drug costs ensures those costs will be passed on to employers and policy holders through premium increases, forcing the young and healthy to further subsidize the old and the sick. And Mrs. Clinton wants to stick it to drug makers by prohibiting them from deducting the cost of advertising on their taxes (as other kinds of businesses can) and shortening their patents, which will give them shorter horizons to recover their sizable investments. Making it more expensive for pharmaceutical companies to do business will either increase the costs of drugs or prevent their development in the first place.
Then, on Wednesday, Mrs. Clinton said she wants to expand the “free” services mandated under Obamacare to include three doctor visits per year, on top of preventive care such as vaccines and screenings. When Democrats were selling Obamacare to taxpayers, they said fully covered preventive care would help reduce overall health care spending by giving Americans an incentive to take better care of themselves and not avoid seeking care because of cost concerns. But the law of supply and demand can’t be suspended by Congress; increasing demand for health care increases costs. Now Mrs. Clinton wants sick care to be fully covered as well, which will — wait for it — increase demand for a limited supply of doctors and providers, and increase costs through higher premiums and deductibles. She also wants to deny insurers the ability to charge higher out-of-network costs for hospital care when those very networks help insurers keep costs down.
And there’s plenty more time for more ObamaCare-fueled rate and deductible explosions between now and the 2016 election…
Tags: 2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare
Posted in Democrats, ObamaCare, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
September 26th, 2015
Once again Ted Cruz has articulated the problems the Republican grassroots has with Republican congressional leadership:
Sen. Ted Cruz delivered a blistering critique of Republican leadership Thursday, just hours before lawmakers held what he described as a “show vote” attempting to end Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding.
The Texas Republican summoned a handful of reporters, including The Daily Signal, to his Senate office to blast his own party for surrendering on the issue before even attempting to fight President Barack Obama and Democrats.
“The reason why Republicans always lose these fights is because Republicans assume Barack Obama is the Terminator—he will never stop, he will never give up—and Republicans surrender at the outset,” Cruz said.
Snip.
This isn’t the first time Cruz finds himself amid a fight with leadership over a government shutdown. Two years ago, he rallied conservatives in their quest to defund Obamacare. The government closed for 16 days.
Cruz said Republicans failed to learn from that experience. The following year, he noted, many Republicans campaigned against Obamacare, and the GOP won a landslide election to take control of the Senate and expand its majority in the House.
“In 2013, when we were fighting against Obamacare, all the Washington graybeards went on television and said over and over again, ‘This is a catastrophic mistake. This will hurt Republicans.’ The Wall Street Journal opined that Cruz is the minority maker,” he told reporters.
“Not only did it not happen, it was exactly the opposite. It was one of the most overwhelming tidal-wave victories in history. And the No. 1 issue … was Obamacare,” Cruz said. “And it does not occur to Republican leadership there is any possible connection between energizing and mobilizing millions of Americans across this country and then winning a tidal-wave election on that exact issue in the very next election.”
Republicans want representatives that will fight for conservative principles and stop the reckless growth of big government liberalism, not preemptively surrender to Democrats so they can stay in office as tax collectors for the welfare state. That’s why Boehner was pushed out as speaker, and that’s the Tea Party will keep primarying incumbents until they start voting like Republicans when it actually counts.
(Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Tags: John Boehner, Planned Parenthood, Republicans, Tea Party, Ted Cruz
Posted in Republicans, Welfare State | No Comments »
September 25th, 2015
Under pressure from conservatives, U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner will resign from his position and congress effective at the end of October.
This need not have come to pass if Boehner, who campaigned as a conservative, had actually governed as a conservative rather than a dish rag willing to give in to Obama on just about anything over fears Republicans might hurt their poll numbers.
After having Boehner betray them on issues various issues great and small, it turns out that House Republicans were finally willing to draw the line at continued taxpayer funded infanticide.
For all the talk of the Tea Party being a spent force, they’re he ones who took Boehner’s scalp, and the Senate Conservatives Fund just sent out an email crowing over Boehner stepping down.
The Center for Medical Progress also deserves congratulations as well. Without their activism and sting videos, Boehner would still be speaker.
All this could have been avoided if John Boehner had actually obeyed the wishes of his caucus rather than the Washington establishment. Having the majority is worthless unless you actually use it instead of rolling over for Obama at every opportunity. The next Speaker is up in the air right now (though House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California is reportedly Boehner’s choice to succeed him), but whoever it is must take seriously both Republican wishes and the coequal role of the legislature the writers of the Constitution intended.
And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should consider himself on notice.
Tags: Center for Medical Progress, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Planned Parenthood, Senate Conservative Fund
Posted in Republicans | 1 Comment »
September 24th, 2015
You may have heard that Angela Merkel has performed a 180 degree flip on allowing those 800,000 “refugees” (read: Muslim illegal aliens, most from outside Syria) to settle in Germany.
Idiocy like this certainly isn’t going to convince Germans to let more Muslims in:
Muslims in Germany Demand End to “Un-Islamic” Oktoberfest
Dear City council of Munich,
I am writing this letter to bring to your attention something that I
and many Muslims believe is unfair and requires attention. I would like to inform you that the Oktoberfest is an Intolerant and Anti-Islamic event. We tried to ignore the event, but there too many Un-Islamic acts done at the Oktoberfest. Such as alcohol consumption, public nudity etc.
We understand that the Oktoberfest is a yearly German tradition, but we, Muslims, can not tolerate this Un-Islamic event, because it offends us and all Muslims on the earth. We are requesting the immediate cancellation of the upcoming Oktoberfest event.
Yeah, you go ahead and try to prevent Germans from celebrating Oktoberfest or drinking beer. Because pissing off Germans is such a proven route to happiness…
Tags: Alcohol, Foreign Policy, Germany, Islam, Oktoberfest
Posted in Foreign Policy, Jihad | 1 Comment »