The Establishment is Now Attempting to Make Jeb Bush Seem Inevitable

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Photo Credit: APThis time it’s the media’s attempt to get Jeb Bush the Republican nomination for President in 2016. Articles that fawn over Jeb, either from a formidability standpoint or in the vein that he’s a “reasonable” conservative are everywhere. There has also been a release of meaningless polls touting Jeb’s strength atop the potential Republican field. These have all surfaced from many of the same quarters that tried to sell the country similar notions about John McCain in 2007-08, Mitt Romney in 2011-12, and to some extent even Jon Huntsman.

Naturally, the GOP establishment was all in for McCain in ’08 and Mitt in 2012 as the two “most electable” Republicans, because they would appeal to the independents. They were not and did not. The establishment was wrong again. They always are.

From the Jurassic media standpoint, this is a fairly transparent attempt to soften the battlefield of ideas with shallow psy-ops by warning Republicans and conservatives what they must do to keep their party from becoming extinct. Consider some history: this is the same media that told us Romney was actually “too Republican and too conservative” in 2007-08. Some tried to assure us the Democrats really feared Huntsman more than anyone else in 2011-12. Later, we were told Romney was inevitable and that Newt Gingrich only appealed to “fans of cock fights,” racists, and “Tea Party extremists.” We were told soccer moms in Ohio didn’t want us to criticize Obama because he was so personally popular.

The establishment agreed with all of it. They savaged Newt, Sarah Palin’s pick, as the devil for six months—and then turned around and assured us “Obama is a nice guy who is just over his head.” Setting your opinion of Newt aside for a second, how well did this strategy work out? The establishment is so out of touch they failed to realize that Obama was “personally popular” because they were too frightened of the charge of racism to criticize him.

We’ve also been warned not to oppose amnesty, not to repeal ObamaCare, not to read anything into the 2010 election results, that the 2014 election means only that Republicans had better work with Obama to get things done, and that we better not support Ted Cruz and any more government shutdowns. Taking a look further back, this is the same media that warned Republicans not to nominate Reagan in 1980 and not to push the Contract with America in 1994. All of this based on the idea that Republicans must moderate to survive. (Read more about the attempt to make Bush seem inevitable HERE)

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NYPD Officers Turn Backs on de Blasio, Again

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By Peter Holley. Police, public officials and mourners from across the country gathered Sunday to honor a detective killed last month in an act of violence that has roiled New York City, with a large number of officers again making their frustrations with the city’s mayor apparent by turning their backs on him as he paid tribute to the slain officer.

Defying a request from Police Commissioner William Bratton, the strident display of protest began as Mayor Bill de Blasio took the podium at the Aievoli Funeral Home in Brooklyn to eulogize Detective Wenjian Liu, reinforcing entrenched feelings of hostility that have gripped the department in the weeks since Liu and Detective Rafael Ramos were fatally shot without warning on a Brooklyn street.

In highly controversial remarks, union leaders have criticized the mayor for expressing support for demonstrations against police brutality and accused him of fostering an environment that encourages attacks on police officers. (Read more about the officers turn backs on de Blasio HERE)

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Atrocious Anti-Cop Editorial: Still No Apology from New York Times

By David Asman. The New York Times is clearly feeling the heat over an atrocious editorial they published on Tuesday blaming New York City cops for feelings of “self-pity” and “victimhood” after two of New York’s finest were gunned down in cold blood as they sat in their patrol car.

The editorial, published just three days after the funeral of one of those cops, was not only offensive to the sensibilities of New Yorkers who are grateful to our “men in blue,” it was absolutely heartless in its timing. This was an editorial venal enough to rankle even liberal New Yorkers. . .

While I obviously don’t have access to phone records or emails between the mayor’s office and the Times’ editorial board, the mayor’s push with allies on Sunday and Monday and the editorial’s appearance on Tuesday seems more than coincidental. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Half of Obamacare Subsidy Recipients Owe the IRS

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Photo Credit: (AP / Susan WalshBy Justin Green. As many as 3.4 million people who received Obamacare subsidies may owe refunds to the federal government, according to an estimate by a tax preparation firm.

H&R Block is estimating that as many as half of the 6.8 million people who received insurance premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act benefited from subsidies that were too large, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

“The ACA is going to result in more confusion for existing clients, and many taxpayers may well be very disappointed by getting less money and possibly even owing money,” the president of a tax preparation and education school told the Journal. (Read more about the Obamacare subsidy recipients HERE)

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Feds Looking for Company to Run its Obamacare Computers

By Jeryl Bier. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is looking for vendors to run its “National Data Warehouse,” a database for “capturing, aggregating, and analyzing information” related to beneficiary and customer experiences with Medicare and the federal Obamacare marketplaces. Although the database primarily consists of quality control metrics related to individuals’ interactions with customer service, potential contractors are to “[d]emonstrate … experience with scalability and security in protecting data and information with customer, person-sensitive information including Personal Health Information and Personally Identifiable information (personal health records, etc.).” Vendors are also instructed that one of the requirements of a possible future contract would be “[e]nsuring that all products developed and delivered adhere to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance standards.”

For a number of years, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the division of HHS responsible for Medicare and now Obamacare also, has maintained a “national data warehouse” (NDW) related to the 1-800-MEDICARE helpline. The passage of the Affordable Care Act and subsequent establishment of the Marketplaces has expanded the scope of the NDW. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Huckabee Leaves Fox News for Likely 2016 Run (+video)

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreFox News host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announced Saturday that he is leaving the network after six and a half years as the host of “Huckabee,” and will make a decision on a possible 2016 presidential run by late spring.

In the Saturday edition of “Huckabee,” the former governor expressed thanks for what he called “the ride of a lifetime”. . .

Huckabee said that he would not rule out running for president in 2016, and that it is not possible for him to openly determine political and financial support to justify a race while doing the show. (Read more on Huckabee leaves Fox News HERE)

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60 Percent of GOP Voters Want John Boehner Replaced NOW!

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Photo Credit: APBy Alex Pappas. Sixty percent of Republican voters would prefer that John Boehner not be elected speaker of the House next week, according to a new poll moving around conservative circles Friday.

The poll — conducted by Caddell Associates and commissioned by the People’s Poll — shows just 25 percent of Republicans supporting Boehner’s re-election in the formal vote on the House floor.

Fifteen-percent of those polled said they don’t know or are undecided about Boehner. The poll surveyed 602 Republican voters and independents who lean Republican and voted GOP in 2014.

The official speaker’s election is set for Jan. 6, when the House will convene for a public floor vote to open the new Congress. (Read more on why voters want John Boehner replaced HERE)

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Too Little, Too Late? John Boehner Tries to Regain Some Support, Criticizes Obama’s Afghanistan Strategy

By Philip Ewing. Early warning signs in Afghanistan show that President Barack Obama’s withdrawal strategy there is already foundering, House Speaker John Boehner charged on Tuesday.

“Has President Obama not learned from his mistakes in Iraq?” the Ohio Republican asked in a statement.

The speaker’s office released a number of excerpts from news reports describing an increase in combat deaths in Afghanistan, areas of territory lost to the Taliban and the comparative weakness of the Afghan National Security Forces without American help. The U.S. troop pullout is premature, Boehner charged, and a “formal” end to the conflict does not mean it’s actually over. (Read more from this story HERE)

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California in Now Beginning to Issue Driver’s Licenses to Illegal Aliens

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By Jazz Shaw. Welcome to 2015, with the usual hopes for new beginnings and fresh starts. Along with that, there is the expected flood of new laws going into effect all across the nation as proof of the various legislative bodies getting the work of the people done. The people of California in particular will see the fruits of their elected officials’ labors if they show up at the DMV. (As if the lines weren’t long enough already.) Millions of illegal immigrants will now be able to show up without fear of arrest or deportation and get themselves a shiny new driver’s license.

If you needed any further proof of exactly how far the immigration situation in the country has deteriorated, California has joined several other states in completely throwing in the towel here. It’s long been established that driving is a privilege, not a right, and that privilege can be taken away for any of a number of offenses which include driving while impaired, failing to obtain proper registration, inspection and insurance documents or just running too many stop signs. But not, it seems, for violating the nation’s borders, entering illegally, failing to pay taxes or the rest of the fundamental rules under our system of laws which are broken daily by illegal aliens.

There are some minor arguments in favor of of the plan, I admit. Foreign visitors don’t always know the rules of the road in America, so teaching them the proper driving practices might cut down slightly on accidents. But does that advantage come anywhere near overriding the obvious arguments against this? Also, in addition to legitimizing the activities of those who are not legitimate citizens, a piece of identification such as a license if a powerful talisman. True, these new, “special” licenses have a disclaimer on them which indicates that they are not valid as federal identification, but how many people will initially be trained to be aware of the distinction? (Read more about the driver’s licenses to illegal aliens HERE)

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More than 90 Percent of a Illegal Aliens Group Never Showed Up to Their Immigration Hearings

By Mark Krikorian. Once again, local-TV investigative reporters are showing up their national counterparts.

Recall that this summer the administration insisted the thousands of Central American illegal immigrants it was waving across the border would be put into deportation proceedings and those who did not qualify for asylum would be removed. You’d think, then, that there’d be bigshot D.C. journalists interested in finding out how many actually bothered to attend their immigration hearings.

You’d be wrong. . .

Looking at the completed cases of people who snuck over the border and were released over a three-month period, the reporter found that more than 90 percent of them didn’t show up for their immigration hearings and joined the illegal population. Surprise! (Read more from this story HERE)

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Jeb Bush (Thankfully) has Only a 25 Percent Chance of Winning the Nomination

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Photo Credit: APBy Matt Vespa. As Jeb Bush makes moves that could signal a 2016 presidential run, he has the conservative wing of the Republican Party either rolling their eyes or seething in anger. Besides policy, I can see why some voters think that it’s getting a bit old that only a Bush or a Clinton are seen as the only options to win the presidency. Moreover, both of their respective political parties have moved either more conservative or progressive since the last time a member of their families occupied the White House. Right now, Bush has a 25 percent chance of winning the GOP nomination.

Nate Silver asked if Bush was too liberal to win. In short, he found that Jeb’s more conservative than Jon Huntsman, but not as conservative as his brother, former President George W. Bush; he’s more like Bush 41. (Read more about Jeb Bush’s chances of winning the nomination HERE)

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A Tricky Problem for Jeb Bush

By Philip Klein. In 2007, during a Democratic presidential debate in Iowa, candidate Barack Obama was asked how he would be able to deliver change when so many of his former advisers came from the Clinton administration. The moment became famous because the question prompted a loud and sustained cackle from his rival for the nomination, Hillary Clinton, who teased, “I wanna hear that.”

In the end, Obama got the best of the exchange, by quickly shooting back, “Hillary, I’m looking forward to you advising me as well.” The clip, which went viral at the time, enjoyed new life when Clinton was named as Obama’s secretary of state.

I was reminded of the moment when reflecting on how former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush could confront a tricky problem should he run for president (which is looking increasingly likely).

The issue that Obama faced when he was running for president was that if he wanted experienced advisers, especially on foreign policy, it was only natural that he’d have to dip into the talent pool of seasoned veterans who served in a prior Democratic administration — and Bill Clinton was the only Democratic president since Jimmy Carter left office in 1981.

Similarly, on the Republican side heading into the next presidential election, candidates will look to former staffers in the George W. Bush administration to fill out their teams. But this creates an especially thorny issue for Jeb. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Grandpa of Toddler Who Shot Mother Says to Quit Using Accident to Push Gun Control

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Veronica Rutledge and her husband loved everything about guns. They practiced at shooting ranges. They hunted. And both of them, relatives and friends say, had permits to carry concealed firearms. Veronica typically left her Blackfoot, Idaho, home with her gun nestled at her side. So on Christmas morning last week, her husband gave her a present he hoped would make her life more comfortable: a purse with a special pocket for a concealed weapon. . .

On Tuesday morning . . . Veronica, 29, arrived at a nearby Wal-Mart in Hayden with her three nieces and son, her gun “zippered closed” inside her new purse, her father-in-law said. Then, in the back of the store, near the electronics section, the purse was left unattended for a moment.

“An inquisitive 2-year-old boy reached into the purse, unzipped the compartment, found the gun and shot his mother in the head,” Rutledge said. “It’s a terrible, terrible incident.”

The aftermath has been crushing, he said. His son went to the Wal-Mart to collect his nieces and son, and no one now is sure what to say to the boy, who is not doing well. . .

Rutledge isn’t just sad — he’s angry. Not at his grandson. Nor at his dead daughter-in-law, “who didn’t have a malicious fiber in her body,” he said. He’s angry at the observers already using the accident as an excuse to grandstand on gun rights. (Read more about how this tragedy is beings used to push gun control HERE).

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Ben Carson says He’ll have a ‘Big Surprise’ for 2016

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesBen Carson plans to announce his presidential intentions this spring.

“I will announce before March, before May 1,” Carson said in an interview on NewsMaxTV’s America’s Forum on Friday. “I would just say that I am listening extremely carefully. I don’t want to do something that the American people do not want me to do.”

Cason, a retired neurosurgeon and Tea Party darling who has never held political office, said he is studying the issues plaguing the country — much like he does with medicine.

“You have to know a lot of stuff,” he said. “I’m rapidly acquiring that knowledge, listening to people and really finding a tremendous amount of frustration with the status quo, politics as usual, be it Republican or Democrat. Our system was designed for the people. It wasn’t designed for professional politicians. I’m thinking very seriously, listening to people and we’ll make a decision in a few months.” (Read more about what Ben Carson says HERE)

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The Politics that Died With Mario Cuomo

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More than any other politician in recent memory, Mario Cuomo spent a lot of time talking publicly about death, particularly his own. In 1987, Cuomo, who’d been a minor league baseball player in the early ‘50s, fantasized about dying while sliding into home plate, to culminate an inside-the-park home run. “That’s it!” he said, in a conversation captured by Joe Klein. “That would be the way to go.”

The gap between that poetic demise and the prosaic home setting where he died yesterday was emblematic for Mario Cuomo. His ability to inspire liberals (especially white ones) with a New Deal, working-class vision of government was unparalleled for at least a generation. At the same time, his incomplete delivery meant that most conversations about him were about degrees of disappointment.

His landmark speech at the 1984 Democratic convention galvanized millions, with its call for a government that “ought to be able to find work for all who can do it, room at the table, shelter for the homeless, care for the elderly and infirm, and hope for the destitute.” Yet it set voters up for the ultimate disappointment when, in late 1991, he passed up the opportunity to run for president.

Many have offered explanations for that infamous refusal, since the official version – he needed to work on the state budget – was so unsatisfying. There were multiple reasons, but it’s a sure bet that his opponents – even in the primaries – would have sensationalized his Mafia connections. . . (Read more from the story, “New York Governor Dies” HERE)

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