Let's keep our fingers crossed. In my opinion Rep. Marlin Stutzman of Indiana's 3rd congressional district (mostly Fort Wayne) is the best candidate in the Indiana delegation to replace Sen. Dan Coats who will not be seeking reelection. A farmer by vocation Stutzman was elected to the Indiana General Assembly at the age of 26. In 2008 he declared his intention to seek the Republican nomination for the US Senate before Evan Bayh announced he would not run. Were it not for the meddling of the national Republican Party he would likely be in the senate now but national party leaders and busy bodies such as Dick Morris prevailed on Coats to run again for a job he had retired from once. He finished second to Coats in a 5 candidate field.
Following the resignation Rep. Mark Souder in 2010 over some hanky panky with a staffer Stutzman was elected to congress in a special election where he has been a credit to the Tea Party movement and a pain in Speaker Boehner's ass. He supported the government shutdown in 2013 and very recently presided over the creation of a budget that balanced in 6 years. As head of the Republican Study Committee Budget and Spending Task Force Stutzman produced a budget that reformed Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and added to defense spending. It took a parliamentary maneuver on the part of Speaker Boehner who invoked the "Queen of the Hill" rule to defeat it but it did get 132 Republican votes which is more than any of the 5 alternative budgets.
This guy is worth getting excited over. Come on, Mr. Stutzman your country needs you!
Thank you Mike Pence for demonstrating once again how spineless politicians can be.
When the going get tough Pence goes. The governor signed the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act with little fanfare but he was good enough to invite representative from the American Family Association and the Indiana Family Institute and now presumably will tell them he didn't mean what he said. The governor would rather please WSPN's Charles Barkley and Apple's Tim Cook than the voters who elected him.
From the Associated Press, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said Tuesday that he wants legislation on his desk by the end of the week to clarify that the state’s new religious-freedom law does not allow discrimination against gays and lesbians.
Oh really? In is dreams. The bill passed the Indiana House by a vote of 61 to 30 and the Senate by a 40 to 10 margin. Not every Hoosier is as spineless as Pence. Those men and women believed in the action they took and they are not subject to the pressure he is. Their phones are probably jammed with angry voters promising to retire them next election if they dare even think of accommodating the phlegmatic governor. What ever happened to popular sovereignty? A law is passed by a 2 to 1 margin in one body and a 4 to 1 margin in the other but it's more important what the NCAA thinks than elected representative?. The state legislators should call the attorney general and suggest that he pursue a federal anti trust lawsuit against the NCAA or any professional sports league that even hints at a boycott.
If nothing else Pence has shortened the list of potential GOP presidential candidates.
Well, well, well. This could get interesting. Michelle Obama has redecorated the family dining room in the White House, which is obviously an historic building, last decorated by the Kennedys. What designs did she choose? Is there a style called hideous? Note the modern painting on the left. Note the target painting in the middle. Note the absolutely hideous carpet designed by somebody really really talented. Nothing screams taste like a brown and wheat weave.
See how that target painting goes so well with the design of the room? And how the rug enhances the majestic windows and elegant table? No? Well, anyway, all this redecorating coincided with the firing of the White House florist who worked there the entirety of the Obamas' rule. Somehow she managed to get escorted off the premises by security a few months ago, but now she is promising to tell all. Got a lawyer and all. Oddly Michelle Obama made no exit announcement for the woman with whom she worked for so many years. Interesting. Daily Mail:
'But they've said that when the time comes they will reveal what really happened.'
Ms
Dowling's muted departure was in stark contrast to tributes afforded to
other departing White House fixtures such as the Obamas' personal chef,
Sam Kass, who was praised for his 'extraordinary legacy' when he left
last December.
Her celebrated predecessor, Nancy Clarke, lasted more than 30 years as chief florist, serving six presidential administrations.
I'm betting the florist gets audited this year. Yes?
I'm trying to understand how the Germans cannot seem to affix the term" terrorism" to an intentional downing of a plane with 150 people on board. If that's not terrorism, what is? In fact, the prosecutor on screen today took umbrage when a reporter asked the background and religion of the pilot who intentionally crashed his plane. So. Just wondering.
Well, now the news is out that Bergdahl is being prosecuted for desertion and is responsible for the deaths of at least 4 soldiers who died looking for him. I have another question which I don't think has been queried or answered in the press. You'll recall in an unprecedented move in which we the armyObama traded 5 Taliban commanders for the deserter, influential high command terrorists who have gone immediately back into the field killing Westerners. In a time of war. Now that those two inextricably intertwined deeds are being exposed for what they are, another question needs to be asked. How many soldiers died capturing the five terrorists Obama released back on to the battlefield? What did it cost our country--in terms first of lives and then in dollars--when Obama committed this unprecedented act? I keep hearing the profound words of Susan Rice, over and over: He served with honor and distinction. Those soldiers did serve with honor and distinction. Not that Rice or Obama would know what that means.
I've been disappointed in Ben Carson's presumptive candidacy for the presidency. Politics is so corrupt at this point (not that it hasn't always been) and so divisive in a way it has never been before because of social media, that any good candidate can be easily discredited with a few dollars and Gloria Allred's mentorship. Scott Walker is a good candidate, mild mannered but somehow able to quell the most vicious unionists' tactics. I assumed Ted Cruz couldn't win because he is so principled and appears to do what he says he'll do. But after hearing his speech today, I'm wondering if perhaps he can win. Beck ran down an impressive list of accomplishments Cruz has achieved. Naturally critics, including Fox, have leaped to their keyboards to discredit Cruz on several levels: he wasn't born in the US, his mother being an American citizen who gave birth to him in Canada, and he's only been a Senator for three years, as if his "inexperience" is a detraction rather than an enhancement. We don't even want to mention the qualifications of Barack Hussein Obama, who served a couple years in the Senate before assuming his glorious role as Dear Leader. From Wikipedia, here are some of Cruz's achievements:
This man is smart and politically savvy, proven by his track record (unlike Barack Obama's missing track record); let's hope he gets the support he needs and doesn't make some of the typical stupid mistakes Republicans often make. It's not that Democrats don't make stupid mistakes: they do, some horrendous. It's just a matter of who gets the attention about their stupid mistakes, whether made in one of the 57 states in the USor abroad. Go, Ted!
Governor John Kasich hardly seems like a radical and one can dismiss his 6 state tour to urge state legislators to call for a article 5 constitutional convention as ploy to curry favor with conservative voters in his quest for his party's nomination but looking past the messenger the message is not that far fetched. If 2016 proves to be an abject rejection of Obama's dismal governance and lamentable disregard for the constitution a convention is probably assured.
Only a few more legislative seats need to drift into the Republican camp and a convention could pass about any measure it desired. The establishment's grip is very tenuous and getting weaker by the year. One more election like the last and there will be 38 states that will ratify a balanced budget amendment if they stop at that. Would they really do that? Damn straight they would. In a heart beat. Keep in mind the states legislatures would appoint the delegates and they would not look like the Washington crowd. State legislators tend to be far more conservative than national politicians. Recently elected Senators Bill Cassidy, Joni Ernst, Cory Gardner, Thom Tillis, Governor Nikki Haley and Congressman Jim Jordan are all products of the state legislatures.
At present the GOP controls the governor's office and both legislative chambers in 24 states. In 9 more states it controls both legislative chambers. Nebraska has a unicameral, nonpartisan legislature with a pronounced conservative bent. That's a total of 34 states that could call for a convention. It would take 38 states to amend the constitution. If one assumes that vote was along straight party lines the amendment would come up short by 4 states but the 2016 elections could bring drastic change with just the shifting of a very few seats.
In Colorado Republicans have a 1 vote majority in the senate and only need to pick up 4 seats in the house to ratify an amendment. In Iowa the Republicans control the lower chamber but need 3 seats to control the senate. Kentucky needs to flip 8 seats to give the GOP control of its house as it controls the senate. Maine's house is controlled by the Democrats 78 to 68 with 4 independents making it a long shot but a 7 seat swing in New Mexico's senate would put it under Republican control. Deep blue Washington may not be as blue as it once was. Republicans control the senate while the Democrats have a 51 to 47 advantage in the house.
One can see that only a few dozen legislator stand between the status quo and radical reform. One more wave election and the lights on the Potomac will be a lot dimmer.
I'll admit I didn't have such a great week so far, which pretty much put me in a bad mood. Then I woke up yesterday morning to the news that Bibi had won reelection, which pretty much canceled out all the bad stuff. If you haven't been following the petty snottiness of Obama's heartbreak that Bibi won a landslide, it's been most enjoyable. After all, Obama has invested greatly in this election. First Obama snubbed Bibi for giving a speech to Congress in which he declared Iran even more dangerous when/if they get nukes (who knew?), but the excuse for the snubbing was that Obama didn't want to interfere in Bibi's election. It was too close to the Israeli election, Obama declared, for this world leader to be seen in DC as if the world might mistakenly believe that the Obama administration endorsed Bibi's reelection. But once again, Obama's best jabs are saved for Israel. Obama sent a team of his best liars political operatives accompanied by millions of taxpayer dollars to gin up hate and racial animosity against Bibi's Likud party. The Likud party hates Arabs, Obama's people claimed, so they should vote for the Leftist opposition. Just as he and his people try to increase racial unrest in the US, his people used this same despicable wedge in Israel. This is typical Obama tactical rhetoric: say one thing and do another. Never mind that 10% of the Arab population lives peaceably within Israeli borders and that they have the right to vote, unlike many Arab countries where Jews are persecuted. Anyway all that American money didn't pay off for Obama, cheater that he is, and now he's refusing to congratulate Bibi on his win, even though he's same day Sam when it comes to congratulating winners in other countries like, say, the leaders of Islamist nations. Does anyone wonder why Obama's sympathies are always pro-Islamist, pro-Iranian? Why he's pushing nukes in Iran? Why? Yes, Obama's smallness is getting more screen time every day. Even while Jen Psaki, Marie Harf and AlGore are getting beefier every day. Those public appearances sure can screw up a good scam.
Does anyone remember the repellent, repugnant, pretentious Mr. Blackwell? He was a mediocre fashion designer whose chief claim to fame was his 10 worst dressed women list. He was oh so funny and oh so clever and he was also a first rate son-of-a-bitch. I took notice of this reptile sometime in the 1970's after Helen Reddy topped his worst dressed list two years running. I can't say that I was ever a great Helen Reddy fan. Her music was so so but I liked her personality when I saw her on the Tonight Show or the Carol Burnett Show. She was as genuine as Blackwell was phony. Phony? Nothing was real about him including his moniker which always omitted his first name. He was Richard
Selzer from the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, the same cultural mecca that gave the world Larry King. Phony? Ms Reddy ranked worse than Fannie Foxx, the strip teaser paramour of drunken Democratic Congressman Wilbur Mills of Tidal Basin fame and ranked worse than the ugliest woman ever elected to congress, Bella Abzug but unlike those two was wealthy enough to but would not buy his dresses. The contemptible bastard made a good living by saying unkind things about women who were infinitely superior to him in every respect.
Since then I have had a jaundiced view of fashion critics so when the incident involving Michelle Obama and Univision host and fashion critic Rodner Figueroa was reported I found myself cheering my gal Michelle. Mr. Figueroa was fired after he commented, "Michelle Obama looks like she's part of the cast of Planet of the Apes." Well maybe she does but she is the First Lady and Figueroa ran the chance of screwing up the immigration plans of countless illegals if the White House was offended. I think it was Gilda Radner who attributed the nation's economic woes not just to people being out of work but rather the wrong people being out of work. All fashion critics should be out of work.
Had he just said that Michelle looked a little on the trashy side, which at times she does, he would probably be working today but no Figueroa had to go for the show stopping line and thank God Univision canned his sorry ass. Good riddance to bad rubbish!
My father had a unique repertoire of descriptive adjectives. He would say matter of factly that the woman who sold cigarettes and candy at the gas station looked primitive. He never really explained why some woman looked primitive but when I would see the object of his description I usually agreed that she did indeed look primitive. He wasn't being judgmental; just factual. I don't recall Dad meeting any primitive looking men so maybe primitiveness is a female attribute. To stretch the point a bit further, if men can have "ruggedly handsome good looks" could not women have "pretty primitive looks"?
In any event if my worse complaint about the First Family was Michelle's jaw line I would never say a word.
And the plot thickens! Ed Klein, writing in the New York Post, reports that Obama consigliere Valerie Jarrett leaked Hillary's email antics to the New York Times. According to Klein Obama and company fear that Hillary is too moderate to lead the country further down the path of decline. Klein adds, “With Obama’s approval,” this source continued, “Valerie has been holding secret meetings with Martin O’Malley [the former Democratic governor of Maryland] and [Massachusetts Sen.] Elizabeth Warren. She’s promised O’Malley and Warren the full support of the White House if they will challenge Hillary for the presidential nomination.”
The email leak may be but the opening shot. Supposedly there is more to come, including the sainted former First Lady's use of her expense account, the disbursement of funds, her contact with foreign leaders, and promotion of State Department personnel friendly to the Clinton Foundation.
It remains to be seen which faction, Obama or Clinton, will get the credit for interfering with the Israeli election. Fox News reports that the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is investigating allegations that American tax dollars were spent to unseat Bibi Netanyahu. According to Fox the State Dept donated $350,000 to OneVoice Movement – a Washington-based not for profit that agitates for a two state solution for Israel. OneVoice has a subsidiary in Israel, Victory 15. Fox reports the investigation is very bipartisan in its effort to get to the bottom of this. That is not surprising considering that Clinton loyalist Claire McCaskill is the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee.
Evidently a Clinton diplomat oversaw the disbursement of grants until November but the matter is complicated by the fact that Obama honcho, Jeremy Bird, who served as Obama’s deputy national campaign director in 2008, and his national campaign director in 2012, arrived in Israel to help direct V15. Bird took with him additional former Obama campaign operatives to help V15 achieve its goal of knocking on one million doors to make the case for a change in Israel’s leadership.
One suspects that Clinton Democrats are about to go to the mattresses in this power struggle. It could be that Senator Bob Menendez will be the first causality when he is indicted by Eric Holder's DOJ. After all the Senator is a Clinton loyalist and a staunch friend of Israel. Republicans have fights. Democrats have jihads. Pop the corn and sit back and enjoy the bloodletting.
The country has not elected a frost belt liberal since JFK and neither Warren nor O' Malley is apt to reverse that trend. Like it or not Hillary is all the Democrats have.
.
It became apparent a year or so into the Obama presidency that, though early on he felt somewhat constrained by law, he made a decision to shred our Constitution. By his second term, it became obvious that his pen and phone were going to be superceding the Constitution altogether. I asked then, "Who will stop Obama?" for many reasons. Looking at it from his point of view, one could see how a rogue president could get away with just about anything, at least if the rogue president is 1) black and has broken the color barrier by virtue of his skin and not his ideology, as few knew much about him 2) followed a Democrat president who had been impeached for lying, lost his law license and yet boldly remained in office 3) surrounded himself by toadies and floorscrapers who said nothing ever negative to him or about him 4) a "leader" of a people who have learned to scam the system and yet still know nothing about it, such as what the 3 branches of government are. There was a slow dawning as we watched events unfold that Obama saw himself as more an emperor than president, that he "can do anything" he wants, particularly when your followers chant your name in adoration, staring blankly into cameras and vowing allegiance regardless your actions. So it's no surprise that the woman who anticipates being the next POTUS by virtue of her gender and her place in line in the messy process of electing leaders feels she also can ignore any laws, guidelines or protocol that she chooses to ignore. What's interesting is the Democrat response to Hillary's disastrous press conference, in which she revealed that Obama's presidential lawlessness has rubbed off on her as an underling on her way to the Oval Office. There's a lot of consternation in the loyal ranks, it seems, as it was pretty obvious that Hillary's imperious habit of lying to the public has gotten worse, especially when she won't even make eye contact with anyone in the room, even though she faced dozens of cameras and shouting reporters. They've suddenly woken to the fact that she's a terrible candidate, even though she's a woman which should make her better than any male as a leader, n'est ce pas? You know, Hillary got unceremoniously dumped by her party from the presidency track for a more appealing male unknown who ran circles around her sour sagging face. You'd think she'd understand that the party comes first, not Hillary, and there are always other women out there, not to mention more appealing handsome men with good hair and distinguished wrinkles in contrast to sagging female necks. Though I'm pretty sure Republican leadership doesn't give a crap what conservatives think, it'll be interesting to see if Democrat leadership gives a crap about what their minions think. Be aware, Americans, that if Hillary gets away with her email scam, she'll see that she can get away with anything. Although there are rumors that the Obama camp despises the Clinton camp because she's not Leftist enough, I believe Hillary is far more Leftist than her husband was and would govern rule similar to Obama's left wing, dictatorial presidency. So who will stop Hillary, I ask? Because this is just the beginning if she wins the nomination. Obama has set the precedent, collecting illegal unvetted non-eVerified funds for his campaign from around the world including our enemies. She has followed that pattern by collecting funds for her benevolent foundation from around the world in anticipation of quid pro quo. I"m thinking the heavy hand of real politick may be descending on her wrinkled bobbling head. That's what I'm thinking.
Oh, please, please, PLEASE keep Hillary as the Dem candidate. H/T White House Dossier. And BOOM! She repeatedly demanded to use iPhone and iPad and admitted carrying FOUR devices. From Hot Air via Judicial Watch:
On at least half a dozen occasions Clinton’s top aides
asked the State Department’s Office of Security Technology to approve
the use of an iPad and iPhone, according to JW’s inside source. Each
time the request was rejected for security reasons, the source confirms.
The only mobile device that meets the agency’s security standards is
the BlackBerry, JW’s source said, adding that the Office of Security
Technology—Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s Directorate of
Countermeasures must approve all equipment such as cameras, phones and
communication devices for all officials.
Evidently set on using the popular Apple devices, Clinton repeatedly
challenged the ban and asked management in the Office of Security
Technology to allow their use. The executive secretariat responsible for
all communications and information technology always rejected the
requests, JW’s source affirms. “From day one Hillary was trying to get
the iPhone and the iPad approved,” the State Department official told
JW. “She kept trying and trying to get us to approve the iPhone and the
iPad, but we wouldn’t do it. Technology security experts tested the
iPhone and the iPad several times because she constantly wanted them
approved, but it never happened.”
Even Leftist Bruni at the NYT is sarcastic about Hillary's email clarification but what's most interesting over there is the comments section, which is usually soaked with Leftist tears about various world problems their ideology has advanced. THIS time, many of the comments are heartlessly abandoning the defense of Madame, which is pretty astounding. Of course, they're desperately seeking another woman to lead their party into the next election, because, hey. Ideology first, leadership second. Let's just try to think outside our ideological box this time, shall we? I mean, why would the US and the world be weary of a Clinton/Bush matchup. It's also pretty obvious at this point that the Obama machine is going after the Clinton machine. Which machine will win, we wonder?
I guess the only adjective to described Sydney Leathers is irrepressible, at least in front of the children. You just can't keep a good woman down. The former cyber paramour of Anthony Weiner has just taken a second Democrat's scalp. Indiana State Representative Justin Moed, who is younger and even creepier than Weiner, was an up and coming Democrat, a persuasion that is quickly vanishing in the Hoosier State. He won an endorsement from the Indianapolis Star and according to his campaign website had received "unprecedented support from Indiana education and children's groups".
According to Leathers the errant legislator's sexual propensities ran to the submissive.
“This guy is into some really freaky stuff. He wanted to be forced to wear a French maid outfit and clean my house while I degraded him. He wanted to be tied up and left in a closet to watch me have sex with my boyfriend.”
When Ms Leathers thinks you're kinky you're probably ready to be House Minority Leader. Moed posted graphic sexual texts to Leathers on Twitter using the handle “Bitch Boy” and sent her gifts including a “Fetish Fantasy Series Pink Leash & Collar." Now there is a man with refined taste.
I tuned in to a portion of the Hillary Clinton press conference today, which is being picked apart by everyone tonight. Apparently she had American flags removed from behind her podium and had her staff hand pick questions, the first of which was from a Turkish reporter: Would this be happening to you if you were a man? Um, yeah, you'd already have charges filed against you if you were a man. Many flaws have surfaced in Madame's argument today: she said her server has personal emails to Bill so she won't be letting anyone else see it but Bill's office says he's only sent 2 emails in his lifetime. She claims the server was set up when Clinton was president. Didn't they buy this house when he left office even though they were "broke"? (And, on a side note, they had to return furniture they stole from the White House.) And just two weeks ago, Madame said she carries both an iPhone and a Blackberry. The server was never compromised, Madame claims, yet even leftist IT guys are extremely worried about national security with this setup. From GeekWire:
...if the best of the best are after your information, you need the best
of your best protecting it. And there is simply no way that a
“homebrew” server is EVER going to have the security and resources
appropriate to defend it adequately.
Looking at it this way, a “homebrew” server was the worst possible
choice. Even using a webmail system like Gmail, Outlook or Yahoo would
have been better because those companies have the expertise and
capability to meet at least some of the threat this class of information
would face.
Hillary claims it was too inconvenient to have 2 email accounts because she had Yoga stuff, Chelsea wedding stuff, Bill stuff (bleh) that the public has no right to see. Now THAT's a ridiculous point. EVERYONE in any capacity knows you don't commingle work and home email accounts. Simply for CONVENIENCE, I have 3 email accounts on my phone. I would never consider~even in my personal accounts~of mixing that information up from one account to another. Let's be honest. How CONVENIENT is it to go through all your email and sort out what's government work and what's personal? In fact, it's suggested that it will cost taxpayers millions to have her emails sorted. It's a lot more CONVENIENT to keep them separate. And how interesting she chose to open this news conference at the UN, excoriating the Republicans for disparaging a NUKE deal with IRAN, who I might remind my reader/s HATES America with an irrational passion and would do anything to kill and/or subjugate as many Americans as possible. Why did Madame open this way? I suspect she's trying to support Obama publicly because she expects that support to be returned. Fat chance on the narcissist returningthe love. On a personal level, I have to say there were more interesting elements than even the above complaints and arguments. What we saw today was a real feeding frenzy by the press. I haven't seen that since a Republican president was in office. Reporters were screaming questions, practically climbing on top of one another to get their questions answered, some of which were actually bold in nature. Madame responded as she always does: absolutely contemptuous of the public and press. No, you won't be getting my server. I've already done more than I should have had to do. She read her answers, made very little eye contact and threw her head back to look down her nose when she did look up. Her behavior and demeanor very much reminded me of her Whitewater "vast right wing conspiracy" days. She was wooden, imperious and unaccommodating. It was quite enjoyable, actually, especially considering her party has invested their future in this sneering, haughty elitist one percenter who has spent a lifetime covering for a philanderer and lying to get what she wants. Heck, she was even booted from the Watergate investigation of Nixon for "unethical, lying" behavior. She's sort of the doppelganger of Obama: the same Leftist beliefs, the same narcissism, the same belief that YOU have no right to determine your own life direction. She's all that but without the charming smile. PLUS: Who believes that server is actually the same one she's had during her career as head of State? Come on.
For some reason this post at Instapundit caught my attention.
FRONTIERS IN GENDER FLUIDITY: Planet Fitness cancels woman’s membership after her complaints of transgender woman in locker room.
Read it if you have not. The woman's membership was cancelled because she complained to other women after management refused to act as Planet Fitness is, by its motto, a
"Judgement Free Zone". Rather than stop with that post I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of company boasts of being judgment free. To be charitable the corporate website looks like a throwback to the 90's with its lavender text on white or white text on lavender. Another relic from the 90's was the warning that everything on the site including the text was copyrighted which I found under Terms of Use. In the early 90's there was no such thing as a web designer as practically everyone built his own site. These people were rather proud of their work and it was easy to steal graphics. One woman I remember made a big to do about her java butterflies that wafted across the page claiming they were her intellectual property. Petty I know, but Planet Fitness treats its mundane prose as if it was the The Rubaiyát of Omar Khayyám.
The site also boasts of 900 fitness centers and a membership of 5 million is frequently cited on the web but not on the company site. Do the math. Are we to believe that each center services 5,500 customers on average? That would be 183 unique visitors everyday for a month. The reason I'm hung up on numbers is the astounding number of complaints this outfit generates. At pissedconsumer.com it generated 717 complaints with 1 resolution. At consumeraffairs.com it racked up 335. It has been pilloried by the Huffington Post, Gawker and the New York Times.
Huffington Post:
A woman says she was told her "toned body" was too "intimidating" for other gym members to handle, but the gym in question contends that's not exactly true. Tiffany Austin told KTVU that she was working out at a Planet Fitness Gym in Richmond, Calif. on Monday when an employee approached her.
According to Austin, the staff member told her "excuse me we've had some complaints you're intimidating people with your toned body. So can you put on a shirt?”
Austin agreed, but as the first staff member went to go get her a free shirt, another staff member again told her that her body was too fit to be shown. It was at that point that Austin said she asked for a refund for her gym membership and bolted.
Gawker:
Planet Fitness, a shitty gym which no one should ever join, would have its customers believe that all of this anti-strenuous-workout propaganda is for the benefit of its own patrons—all part of their "Judgement [SIC] Free Zone® philosophy, which means members can relax, get in shape, and have fun without being subjected to the hard-core, look-at-me attitude that exists in too many gyms." In fact, the opposite is true. Planet Fitness would like to cultivate a membership full of people who despise exercise and are unlikely to become committed regular users of their gym facilities, while continuing to pay them membership fees. Planet Fitness can do this quite effectively by recruiting people who fear the concept of exercise, soothing them with assurances that no real exercise will be taking place in the gym that they join.
New York Times:
Albert Argibay, a bodybuilder and a state correction officer, was at a Planet Fitness gym with 500 pounds of weight on his shoulders one afternoon this month when the club manager walked over and told him it was time to leave. Mr. Argibay, the manager explained, had violated one of the club’s most sacred and strictly enforced rules: He was grunting....
At Planet Fitness gyms, grunters and other rule-breakers are treated to an ear-rattling siren with flashing blue lights and a public scolding. The “lunk alarm,” as the club calls it, is so jarring it can bring the entire floor to a standstill. (A lunk is defined, on a poster, as “one who grunts, drops weights, or judges.”)
What amazes me is the arrogance demonstrated by a company that thinks it can do business on its own terms; that it can treat its paying customers with contempt when they show too much enjoyment form their workouts. From where do they recruit their help? From the application pool of people who couldn't get hired as crossing guards? I had more freedom in grade school recesses and that was with Catholic nuns!
Do a Google search of gyms in your town. They have sprung up like video arcades and miniature golf course did years ago and most of them will meet the same fate. My own preference is Anytime Fitness which gives you a key leaves you alone. It has 2700 gyms and is accessible 24/7.
Cushing, Oklahoma, population 7, 826, has an over sized footprint in American energy production and soon in energy price. The town is home to the world's largest tank farm. If as the ancients said "All roads lead to Rome" then Cushing can boast that all pipelines lead to it. It is the price settlement point for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude. The town once boasted of 2 refineries but as local oil production declined its storage capacity became a convenient place to store crude in a soft market while waiting for the price to rise. From then, like Topsy, it just grew up. Today 12 pipelines bring oil into Cushing and two move it out. It has the capacity to hold about 70 million barrels of crude and soon, sometime between mid April and mid May, it will be full. No one knows what will happen. Definitely gasoline prices will drop again. A few producers will lose their shirts, congressmen will bitch that no one told them this would happen and Obama will read about it in the Washington Post. If history repeats itself you will probably learn just as much by seeking counsel from Dionne Warwick and Shirley MacLaine than listening to the talking heads on Fox Business or CNBC. Politicians and industry insiders always seem to be the last to know.
There is historical precedent for an oil bust. Following the OPEC embargo of 1973 and the "oil shock" of 1979 new production was brought on stream in the North Sea, Alaska's Northern Slope the Caspian Sea and Siberia resulting in declining oil prices throughout the 80's. The downward trend continued another decade culminating in a low of about $17 per barrel in early 1999. In just 9 short years it spiked at $142. per barrel bringing on a stock market crash, a bank liquidity crisis, and Barack Obama, a trifecta of bad happenstances.
No one can read the minds of the Saudi monarchy but it is apparent they have eschewed their traditional market strategy of defending price to maximizing sales. Some view it as a war on US fracking. Others say it's aimed at Iran and still others say it's the Russians they are out to get. In any case once the tanks at Cushing are full it will, barring the disappearance of a major producing country, take years to work off the glut. RBN has posited 3 scenarios going forward. They are rather broad brushed and by necessity highly speculative but probably as good at least as anything MacLaine is apt to dream up. Scenario One; If by chance Obama, Yellen, and their EU partners could get their acts together and robust global economic growth would resume instead of an endless series of Summers of Economic Recovery and 2% GDP growth we are looking at WTI crude in the $80 range by 2017. If you are inclined to bet the farm on the good works and sound judgments of Obama and Super Mario Draghi this is the deal for you. Scenario Two; They call it the cutback scenario. Obama and Yellen run to form and GDP growth remains tepid. Oil production remains flat in most basins but a few increase production by drilling only the sweet spots. This gets the WTI to $70 by 2020. Scenario Three; The contraction scenario. GDP growth remains anemic and oil production peaks in 2015 and declines to 2014 levels. This keeps the WTI price in the $50 to $60 range through 2020.
While the WTI is a convenient focal point it is only a reflection of world market prices.The glut is worldwide. Crude is being stored in tankers anchored in Singapore. China’s coastline storage facilities ran out of space as the country filled up strategic oil reserves last year. Put off installing solar panel for a decade and take your dad's old 409 Chevy on vacation next summer.
So what about the Utica? By now it's apparent it's a gas play. Yes, it produces some oil but gas is what pays the bills and the price of natural is still well above its break even point. This is especially true where the Marcellus and Utica formations overlap. Magnum Hunter Resources is drilling 18 wells on its Stadler Pad in Monroe County; 10 in the Marcellus and 8 in the Utica. It can walk the rig from well to well with no need to disassemble. Drilling equipment such as the Schramm T500XD have cut drilling times by as much as two thirds since the inception of horizontal drilling.
Bwahahaha! Hawhawhawhaw! He's not even trying anymore! He heard it on the news! Headline:Obama: I First Learned About Hillary Clinton’s Emails From News Reports
President Obama said Saturday that he’s “glad”
Hillary Clinton has asked the State Department to publicly release
emails she sent during her time as secretary of state.
In the interview with CBS News, the president said he first learned
about Clinton’s use of a personal email address to conduct official
business the “same time everybody else learned it through news reports.”
There are but two ways Hillary can quell the uproar over her personal email scandal. She must turn over her server and any back up accessories she may have to an independent entity that can verify all emails have been preserved. Such an entity could be a court appointed special counsel or a bipartisan blue ribbon congressional committee or any other entity that the media and public trust. The other alternative is to announce she will not seek her party's nomination. The public and the media will accept nothing less. People who have nothing to hide do not keep a server registered under the name of a nonexistent person in their homes. This modus operandi looks like something from a Mexican drug cartel's playbook.
It could be the courts might assist her in her effort to come clean. In 2009 U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy ordered the Bush White House " to collect and preserve all e-mails sent or received between March 2003 and October 2005." He did not, but he could have appointed a special counsel to see the emails were preserved. In Hillary's case the emails are in her home but by law the emails belong to the government so it's not too much of a stretch to imagine a federal judge who may have been played by State Department lawyers in a FOIA suit to send a independent counsel and a team of U.S. marshals to Long Island to help Hillary comply.
Depending on the courts is an iffy proposition. Why not insist as the price for raising the debt limit the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the former First Lady for criminal wrong doing? I'm sure there are scores of loyal Hillary senators and representative who would happily endanger their careers by voting against such language. It's sort of like giving that last full measure of devotion and if a few should lose their seats- C'est la guerre. It's for the greater good.
If you were listening to the Selma speech by Our Imperial President today on Fox News (which Democrats claimed didn't cover the speech, Jesse Jackson's barely intelligible commentary or Alveda King's lament that Democrats are aborting a huge percentage of the black population), you might have heard the "Reverend" and the "POTUS" claim that there are "new voter suppression laws on the horizon. Translated, what this means is that Democrats will be finding it harder to cheat if some sort of identification is required at the polling booth. Apparently they're running scared. From my viewpoint, I'm wondering where the Republicans are and where they were today. What a great opportunity today would have been for the party who stopped slavery in this country. But no. John Boehner doesn't like "messy." And the turtle Mitch McConnell decided to hide in his shell behind the power handed to him by the people of this country last November. Get out. Get even or get out, weak Republicans. Get even or get out.
Now that the Ferguson DOJ report has been released, one wonders how many people in the media have actually read the dang thing. First we know that saint Michael Brown's judgment was impaired before he died:
Brown tested positive for the presence of cannabinoids, the hallucinogenic substances associated with marijuana use. The SLU Toxicology Laboratory. The SLU Toxicology Laboratory found 12 nanograms per milliliter of Delta-9-THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, where AFMES found 11 nanograms per milliliter of Delta-9-THC in Brown’s blood. According to both laboratories, these levels of Delta-9-THC are consistent with Brown having ingested THC within a few hours before his death. This concentration of THC would have rendered Brown impaired at the time of his death. As a general matter, this level of impairment can alter one’s perception of time and space, but the extent to which this was true in Brown’s case cannot be determined. THC affects individuals differently depending on unknown variables such as whether Brown was a chronic user and the concentration of the THC ingested.
Testimony of the witnesses begins around page 27, much of which is very interesting. I actually spent hours reading the testimony; suffice it to say that numerous witnesses were willing to tell the truth, notwithstanding pressure from the FBI that often their testimonies were necessary (despite public pressure) and that forensic evidence verified Wilson's account. Included in the report are the testimonies of many discredited witnesses, many of whom were willing to lie, exaggerate or completely fabricate their testimonies based on media reports. I might add at this point that the witnesses in primarily black neighborhoods repeatedly expressed their fear that by telling the truth, they were worried that "snitches get stitches." Imagine living in such a neighborhood, where telling the truth could get you killed. It appears that immediately after the incident, people milling around the scene attempted to make trouble, to lie and turn the shooting into murder, plain and simple. Several things are clear, not just from this report but through public knowledge. Brown assaulted Wilson in his vehicle. Brown ran away, turned and began to advance on Wilson in a threatening manner, as attested by many witnesses. Brown did not try to surrender. He did not throw his hands up. He did not say, "Don't shoot." In fact, he assaulted Officer Wilson, even attempting to shoot him. Brown was physically huge, knew it and took advantage of it, repeating the phrase "What you gonna do about it"" at the Ferguson market and to Wilson, as if he understood that because of his size few could resist his movements. Neighborhood "witnesses" were willing to lie based on stirring the racist pots, which were kept heated by outside entities, including the DOJ itself, the Sharpton types and Obama, who met with the agitators and encouraged them because he was"concerned about Ferguson staying on course in terms of pursuing what it was that he knew we were advocating." My current favorite comedy duo is Key and Peele, who often skewer both political sides. They are also unafraid to address race issues. I have to say this video pretty much addresses the Ferguson exaggerations and the gullibility of the populace; this video could apply to all races, btw, though Key and Peele direct it at the "hood." The "pegasus," in the Ferguson situation, is the false "Hands up don't shoot" meme repeated by celebrities, athletes, politicians and agitators alike. UPDATE from the WSJ.
A poll from YouGov shows Democrats view climate change as more apocalyptic than nuclear war. Overall 28% of Americans answered nuclear war when asked the question " What do you think will be the most likely cause the apocalypse?" but among Democrats 27% view climate change as the greater threat. Ironically this view is held most strongly in the Northeast which has been buried under as much as 8 feet of snow for a month. The only ethnic demographic to mimic the Democratic phobia are Hispanics who view climate change to be more of a threat than nuclear war by 4 points, 23% to 19%. Go figure.
Scott Walker may be the dream candidate, a conservative who can sell his message to moderate swing voters. He has, after all, won three elections in a purple state but he has done that while being the most conservative governor to seek reelection in 2014. In a post, Scott Walker’s Electoral Record Is Just As Impressive As It Looks, at 538.com Harry Enten argues that Walker is the real deal. According to Enten Walker's conservatism is at a level one would expect to find in the governor of conservative Montana not liberal Wisconsin. Walker was the most conservative incumbent governor to run in 2014 and he bested Democrat Mary Burke by 6 points. The same electorate gave Obama a 4 point edge over Romney in 2012 and remember Wisconsin's own Paul Ryan was on the Republican ticket!
As we eagerly anticipate our sixth annual summer of recover it appears that public has at last begun to develop a healthy cynicism about the future of the nation and the benefits of crony capitalism. In a recent Pew poll the public sounds like Elizabeth Warren in that government is good for corporation but not the middle class. The bitch is, Warren's party has controlled the White House and the Senate up until now.
The public makes sharp distinctions about which groups have benefited – and which have not – from the economic policies the government has put in place since the start of the recession. Majorities say that large banks, large corporations and the wealthy have been helped a great deal or a fair amount by government policies. By contrast, 72% say that, in general, the government’s policies since the recession have done little or nothing to help middle class people, and nearly as many say they have provided little or no help for small businesses (68%) and the poor (65%). Banks, Corporations, the Wealthy Widely Viewed as Benefiting from Gov't Policies Since Recession These opinions have changed little in recent years, and differ only modestly across demographic and income categories. There are significant partisan differences in these views, though majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents say that government policies following the start of the recession have done little or nothing for the poor and the middle class.
Notice in the graphic below that 72% of respondents do not think government policies help the middle class. Just because Obama has opposed the Keystone pipeline for 6 years, waged war on coal and imposed a drilling moratorium in the Gulf that cost thousand of jobs while smearing literally billions of tax dollars to large corporations in the form of tax credits, DOE grants and loan guarantees the public is jaundiced. Turning to monetary policy, quantitative easing has deprived retirees of a traditional source of income, namely interest.
A finding that may surprise many is the opinion the public has of assistance to the poor. 49% think government assistance does more harm than good but 44% think the inverse is true.
If you speak properly it is because you are privileged. At least that is the assessment of Melissa A. Fabello writing for Everyday Feminism. It's not just white privilege but rather a seemingly endless list of unearned advantages very subtly placed in women's way by heterosexual white supremacists. There is Educational Privilege, Class Privilege, Race Privilege, Native Language Privilege, and Ability Privilege. The title of the post, Why Grammar Snobbery Has No Place in the Movement, tips off the reader how Ms Fabello feels about this hegemony and she will suffer none of it. Not in my movement! One can almost picture Doctor Johnson or Noah Webster lying awake at night conjuring up these traps to trip up feminists a few hundred years down the road.
British author and playwright George Bernard Shaw knew a little about language and socialism too. He was a member of the Fabian Society, a socialist middle class movement not much different from our own green movement which is populated mostly by white upper middle class yuppies. Being a heterosexual white male Shaw was blind to his white privilege, his race privilege, his white beard privilege and all the other privileges that make earning a living in contemporary America possible and he found humor in verbal class privilege. He of course wrote Pygmalion which was rewritten a generation later into My Fair Lady. His lesson; if you want to be treated as serious person speak like one.
Where is Edwin Newman when we really need him? Sadly, Mr Newman left this world in 2010 at the age of 91 but his Strictly Speaking and A Civil Tongue were best sellers. I remember one passage where he remarked that while the New York Times's motto was "all the news that's fit to print" the English certainly was not. One could argue that he had privilege, at least by Ms Fabello's definition but so did the writers he critiqued. He riddled the best publications of his time not idiotic feminist blogs.
Let's see what makes grammar oppressive.
Plainly and simply, from a linguistics perspective, grammar is a set of rules that governs a language. There are many parts that make up a language – including morphology, phonology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics – and grammar is the one that tells us how to compose sentences so that they make sense.
Grammar is what tells us that “In woman’s a the is place revolution” doesn’t make sense, but “A woman’s place is in the revolution” does. It lets us know how to string our words together so that we can successfully communicate.
The debate is in the question of what entails “successful communication.” And there are two schools of thought on this. Prescriptive grammar – which is what “grammar snobs” champion – says that there’s such a thing as one true, honest, pure form of a language and that only that version is correct or acceptable.
Descriptive grammar, on the other hand, argues that however a language is being used to communicate effectively is correct – because that is the basic purpose of language.
So, if a person wrote a Facebook comment that said “That their was an example of cissexism,” a prescriptive grammarian might comment back, “I think you mean ‘there,’” and a descriptive grammarian might respond, “You understood what they meant.”
And while both schools are accepted forms of linguistic thought, it’s important to note thatany time we create a hierarchy by positioning one thing as “better” than another, we’re being oppressive.
Maybe she has a future at HHS were the meaning of "state healthcare exchange" seems to reside in the mind of the reader. Not very precise but at least it's not oppressive. How about, "Its two cold to sit around in hour underwhere?" That's not oppressive but I would never hire anyone who wrote like that.
The point is feminism is no longer a movement it's a career choice. It's an occupation and in Ms Fabello's case one that requires three degrees which according to her came at considerable expense. It's not learning; it's merely academic whoring. It is a workfare program for those to vain to work. It's sole mission seems to be to make sophistry a virtue. The grammar grievance is contrived to keep the devoted from drifting into organic gardening or careers inveighing against gmo's, childhood vaccinations, or the World Trade Organization. A new diet of grievances must be served up almost weekly (weakly ?) lest they lose interest. Maybe the next generation of feminist will go into carpentry or plumbing or something that actually benefits society but until then I'm afraid we are reading one of the best and the brightest.
Oh, wait. I'm confusing my scandals. No one used email the last time Hillary's legal records went publicly missing. When you're old, your memory gets jumbled, at least with regard to the Clintons, who have more scandals hidden in their dresses than most young people have ever heard. When they were in office, the Clintons' behavior came under scrutiny for numerous reasons, but somehow miraculously both people and documents went poof into the night. From the NYT, 1996;
The release of the records is the latest of several
instances in which the Clinton White House has declared a document
search to be exhaustive, only to later stumble on important material.
For example, White House officials initially said that Vincent W. Foster
Jr., the deputy White House counsel, left no indication of why he
committed suicide on July 20, 1993. But later, an aide found the
remnants of a note describing Mr. Foster's disenchantment with
Washington.
Mr. Kendall said the Rose billing records were
discovered in the White House on Thursday night by Carolyn Huber, a
White House aide and former office manager of the Rose firm. He also
said Mrs. Clinton was not aware until today that the records had been in
the White House.
Now, again, we find that Hillary was keeping all email--in defiance of law--in a personal account, both hackable and not accountable to government documents. Smoking Gun:
While Blumenthal, a longtime Hillary Clinton confidant, used her private e-mail to send personal messages (like a get well note
after she fell at home and suffered a concussion in December 2012), he
also forwarded the Cabinet member a series of “Confidential” memos about
foreign policy matters.
The “For: Hillary, From: Sid” memos, provided to TSG by “Guccifer,”
address a wide range of topics in global flashpoints like Algeria,
Turkey, Mali, and Libya. Blumenthal also provided Clinton with
information about the European Central Bank, the Georgia elections, and
German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Decorated war veteran and former CIA director David Petraeus
has entered into an agreement with federal prosecutors in which he
would plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge for mishandling classified
information.
The charge, unauthorized removal and retention of classified material,
stems, in part, from documents the former director allegedly provided to
his mistress.
[SNIP] Though Broadwell had a security clearance of her own, the affair raised
some national security concerns. Federal authorities wondered whether
Petraeus had given her access to information she wasn’t authorized to
see, and they wanted to know if she had stored classified material at
her home.
Even the WaPo has allowed a writer to discuss Hillary's behavior in this matter in an article entitled"Hillary Clinton’s private e-mail address at State reinforces everything people don’t like about her" including the following reasons:
"They don't think the rules apply to them.": "They are surrounded by enablers.": "They're always hiding something." "They only think about politics." "They never own up to anything."
One of Hillary's "official" email accounts was hdr22@clintonemail.com. We have a few suggestions for email addresses for Hillary. How about cankles67@clintonemail.com Ok ,that was mean. So how about whitewaterhotbabeNOT!@yahoo.com Or in memory of the famous dragon coat she wore to testify at the Whitewater hearings.....thedragonlady@whitewater.com Well, then, what about imarriedtogetahead@clintonemail.com. Heh. I might add that anyone who's ever worked in state or local government--including schools--knows that your correspondence is public record. She knew. She just thinks the rules don't apply to her, she's surrounded by enablers, is always hiding something, thinks of nothing but politics and will never, ever, ever own up to her sins.
Did you ever wonder what happens to CIA spooks who don't end up as talking heads on cable TV? Some of them get elected to congress. William Ballard "Will" Hurd was elected to congress in 2014 without much media attention but he is a man to watch. Hurd was among the 100 CIA operatives who together with 400 Army Rangers drove Osama Bin Laden out of Afghanistan. He served 9 years in the CIA as an undercover op in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
The former Texas A&M student body president defeated incumbent Democrat Pete Gallego in a district that is 70 percent Latino to become the first black congressman elected from Texas. Life News notes that he is one of 3 black pro life Republicans who along with Mia Love and Tim Scott won in 2014. The 23rd congressional district abuts the Mexican border and covers an area that is larger than 29 states. It is also a hard district to hold but fortunately Hurd had a winning issue-the Keystone pipeline.
For those accustomed to thinking in stereotypes Hurd is a real enigma. He's the black guy who beat the Hispanic incumbent by running a pro life, pro energy campaign. Pay attention moderate Republicans!
It seems the masks are off when it comes to the Obama administration. He's federalized health care. He's enabling the change of the definition of marriage. He's amped up racist speech and is working toward expanding the federal definition of "hate speech," with an obvious bias against the middle class white American. He's established the IRS as a political weapon. He's worked to increase the number of abortions in this country. Safe but rare? Hardly. He's working toward establishing a solid base of illegal voters. He's working toward federalizing local police forces. He's working toward using executive orders to tax people further. He's taken over the internet, as we await the consequences of federal meddling in the establishment of internet commerce, innovation, political opinion and availability of access. He's openly working for Iran to acquire nuclear capabilities, as Iranian born Valerie Jarrett helps to craft a "plan" to aid the Iranians. He's desperate for an "agreement," the Iranians boast. And he's taken off the mask regarding his contempt for Israel. Who can deny where Obama's sympathies lie? In one sense, you can say Obama is the most successful president in the history of the United States, though much of what he has done is not moral or even legal. I guess it just depends on the meaning of the word success. We will see if Bibi makes his case: as Obama struggles to give away American sovereignty to Iran and the "jv" team of Isis, Bibi's purpose is to make the case against the threat of Iranian's nuclear capabilities, even as Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel watches. That is why Bibi's speech carries such great weight and significance. Though the administration claims the reason it's protesting Bibi's speech is because of protocol and the imminent Israeli election, Obama himself has made this event political by squawking loudly over a speech not yet given. And politiciizing the Israeli election? Obama himself sent over his election team to help sway the election against Bibi. Go for it, Bibi. Now if only the Republicans would have the courage of Bib.
