RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/ben-shapiro/the-faculty-lounge-administration/

On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” to respond to Russia’s invasion of the Crimea region of Ukraine. “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext,” Kerry stated. He added, “It’s an incredible act of aggression. It is really a stunning, willful choice by President (Vladimir) Putin to invade another country.”

So, what would the United States do about Russian aggression? America would consider dropping its scheduled attendance at the G8 meeting in Sochi, Kerry said: “He is not going to have a Sochi G8, he may not even remain in the G8 if this continues.” And on Monday, the Obama administration got truly tough: It announced that it would not send a presidential delegation to the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi.

Which, of course, had Putin quaking in his boots. Because if there’s one thing a Russian autocrat fears, it’s faculty lounge-style sneering about his unsophistication followed by symbolic withdrawals from meaningless events.

But this sums up the Obama administration in its entirety: When it comes to dealing with America’s enemies, the Obama White House simply assumes that there is no true conflict. After all, who could disagree with an America that has spent five years on bended knee to the rest of the world, that has minimized its influence in the world, and that is planning to slash its military by 30 percent over the next several years? Who could oppose an administration so dedicated to harmony that it is willing to undercut its own allies for the sake of a humbler America on the global stage?

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/372686/print Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula is an event of momentous significance. It is significant for Ukraine, for the people of Crimea, and for Russia. But its greatest significance is for what it says about the world order the U.S. has mostly succeeded in nourishing, growing, and maintaining since 1945. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/372659/print

President Obama entered office promising to restore the sanctity of science. Instead, a fresh war against science, statistics, and reason is being waged on behalf of politically correct politics.

After the Sandy Hook tragedy, the president attempted to convert national outrage into new gun-control legislation. Specifically, he focused on curtailing semi-automatic “assault” rifles. But there is no statistical evidence that such guns — semi-automatic rifles that have mostly cosmetic changes to appear similar to banned military-style fully automatic assault weapons — lead to increased gun-related crimes.

The promiscuous availability of illegal handguns does. Handguns are used in the vast majority of all gun related violent crime — and in such cases they are often obtained illegally. Yet the day-to-day enforcement of existing handgun statutes is far more difficult than the widely publicized passing of new laws.

Late-term abortions used to be justified in part by an argument dating back to the 1970s that fetuses were not yet “human.” But emerging science has allowed premature babies five months old or younger to survive outside the womb. Brain waves of fetuses can be monitored at just six weeks after conception. Such facts may be unwelcome to many, given the political controversy over abortion. Yet the idea that fetuses are not viable humans until birth is simply unscientific.

The president still talks of “settled science” in the global-warming debate. He recently flew to California to attribute the near-record drought there to human-induced global warming.

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/372669/print

Give Obama this: When he wants something, no one moves more quickly and decisively. From unilaterally rewriting Obamacare at least 18 times to bypassing Congress and implementing the DREAM Act’s immigration policies by fiat, Obama rules by decree. His executive orders recall the late Yul Brynner’s portrayal of Pharaoh Ramses II in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956). As the maximum leader of Egypt said: “So let it be written. So let it be done.”

Now that’s leadership.

“America does not stand still,” Obama likewise declared in his January 28 State of the Union address. “And neither will I.”

Obama has kept this promise. Regarding the Keystone XL (KXL) Pipeline, Obama has not stood still. Instead, he has sat on his rump and wallowed in relentless indecision.

Indeed, Obama has studied KXL as if it were a pathogen squirming beneath an electron microscope. En route to his life-saving vaccine, Jonas Salk probably didn’t scrutinize the polio virus as intensely.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/372652/obama-denial-russia-jonah-goldberg

Things are moving far too fast in Kiev, Moscow, and Crimea to write about events there. But the past isn’t going anywhere. Though you wouldn’t know that from the way the Obama administration talks about it.

Throughout this crisis — indeed, throughout all of Barack Obama’s presidency — the White House has been eager to insist that our long, unpleasant history with the Russians is behind us.

Obviously, every administration wants a fresh start with long-time rivals. That’s why there have been four “resets” with the Russians since 1991, including George W. Bush’s famous soul-searching gaze into Vladimir Putin’s eyes and Hillary Clinton’s comic effort to give the Russians a “reset” button (that actually said “overcharge” on it).

Fresh starts are fine. But when Obama came into office, his administration implicitly blamed our poor relationship with Russia on Bush, as if Russia’s misdeeds were provoked by America.

In 2012, Obama mocked Mitt Romney for his claim that the Russians are our “No. 1 geopolitical foe,” and scoffed: “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303369904579421624193271010?mod=Opinion_newsreel_5
The Endangered Senators Rule HHS delays another ObamaCare mandate to rescue Democrats.

Maybe the White House figures that if it rewrites ObamaCare enough times, the media will stop paying attention. On Wednesday it ordered one more delay of the mandates for individuals and small business—in time to give a political reprieve to Senators vulnerable in the midterm election.

The mass insurance cancellations that hit last fall were merely the first wave, and the market is still replete with health plans that have so far managed to evade ObamaCare’s onerous benefit requirements. These policies were due to be terminated starting in October, which has Democratic Senators like Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Udall of Colorado scrambling to avoid the TV ads and political blame they deserve.

When the last ObamaCare tornado destroyed the insurance neighborhood, the Health and Human Services Department suddenly announced an ex post facto delay of the mandates in November, but the political damage was done. HHS learned its lesson and late on Wednesday announced a new pre-emptive rule that extends the mandate suspension until 2016. This may give insurers enough lead time to preserve existing coverage and avert a 2013 reprise at, er, a politically sensitive moment.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303369904579421171476596640?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop&mg=reno64-wsj

Air-dropping himself into Kiev Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the Russian seizure of Crimea is “not 21st-century, G-8, major-nation behavior.” He said Mr. Putin should allow “international observers” to enter Crimea.

International observers?

This calls to mind Humphrey Bogart’s Fred C. Dobbs facing the gang of Mexican bandidos in “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”:

Dobbs: “If you’re the police, where are your badges?”

Chief bandido: “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges!”

We may assume Mr. Putin would say the masked Russians patrolling Ukrainian Crimea are “international observers.”

As of this week, it’s official. Vladimir Putin has turned Barack Obama totally into Jimmy Carter.

We may quibble over the timeline. Some might say it began when Mr. Obama whispered to then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev he’d have “more flexibility” after the 2012 election; others that it set in when the U.S. president took Mr. Putin’s offer to let Bashar Assad escape the bombing of his airfields for using WMD against his own people.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2014/03/05/hilarious-hillary-supporters-cant-name-a-single-worthy-or-interesting-thing-she-has-done/

CNS News captured this video during the DNC’s winter meeting. It speaks for itself: Democrats say they’re ready for Hillary Clinton to be president, despite the fact that none of them can point to anything she has done to deserve the office.

If you listen carefully, a couple of the Democrats who were questioned do come up with reasons to support Hillary: She is married to Bill Clinton, and was picked by Barack Obama. So, her leading qualifications derive from two men, not from her own record.

To no one’s surprise, none of the Democrats mention Benghazi or the failed “reset” with Russia.

Based on this video and the Democrats’ nominating Barack Obama twice, that Democrats don’t really care about candidates’ real qualifications for the U.S. presidency. How’s that working out for the country right now?

URL to article: http://pjmedia.com/blog/dnc-vows-to-increase-voter-rolls-fight-voter-id-in-run-up-to-midterms/

WASHINGTON – Members of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) resolutions committee approved a series of platform points at the annual winter meeting, including a measure on voter ID with an eye to upcoming midterm elections.

Hundreds of members from all around the country converged in D.C. last week to debate resolutions and rules as well as organize their “ground game” ahead of November elections.

Among the resolutions approved were those in support of some of the major issues on the Democrats’ agenda, including women’s rights, immigration reform, and the minimum wage.

The resolutions committee approved a measure to promote and protect what they see as eroded voting rights.

The measure cites language from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent to the Shelby County v. Holder decision in which she defined “second-generation barriers” to the ballot box as indirect efforts to diminish the impact of minority voters.

The DNC resolution defines second-generation barriers as “an ever growing number of restrictive voting laws such as requiring limited photo identification, proof of citizenship, increasing regulation of third party voter registration drives, and limiting early voting and same day registration opportunities.”

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2014/03/05/legal-weed-governor-moonbeam-grows-up/?print=1 I smoked pot in Jerry Brown’s house. I know you’re thinking that’s just a showoff lede (and it is), but it happens to be true. It was back in the 1970s when Jerry had a place in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon. I went to a party there that was pretty wild and virtually everyone was […]