Dagny was taken to the hospital to see her baby brother and out of the mouths of babes came this - "he did come out."
When we return from our conference Tuesday we leave for Orlando on Wednesday.
Lynn is not a happy camper but she is going to D.C with me.
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This from our dearest friend who just returned from Israel:
"We just returned form our annual trip to Israel and last night heard Ben Shapiro speak about this absurdity of what happened at UCLA on the news. So many frustrations we feel as we witnessed first hand an open society in Israel and the liberties that the Israeli Arabs and Palestinians enjoy while living there. Of course no place is perfect, but talking to our waiters at the Hotel whose names were Ibraham, Farzad, and Osama told us their lives are so much better under Israeli control then otherwise in Palestine control. Friday night walking to dear friends house for a Shabbat meal Arab Israeli and Palestinians were picnicking in the park and having a beautiful evening...no guards, no soldiers around. Our friends lost electricity during dinner and one of the children went to find someone not Jewish to help with the situation as Jews are not to turn on electricity during Shabbat. She asked one of the Arab Israelis from the park to help...he came in and helped turn on the electricity...he wouldn't take food or money as a thank you...he said he only wanted Peace among everyone...he even said...Shabbat Shalom! We were all crying and realized there are so many that have been made pawns in this situation for so many years!!!!
WE all want Peace to come from this tiny ., unbelievable country!!!
We all need to stand up for what is right and fight these ignorant accusations...take a trip to Israel to see for yourself what is really happening there and be proud of Israel! I wonder how many who want divestiture have visited Israel and talked to people who really know what happens there? I agree with Ben Shapiro..it is all about hating the Jews...and many are Jews who are part of this!
Sincerely.,
M----"
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Kim Strassel discusses Obama and his IRS gumshoes. Shades of the Gestapo? (See 1 below,)
I know Tom Price. He is a fine public servant, measured in his viewpoints, a perfect mild courtly gentleman and reputedly and excellent doctor. He is not given to rash accusations. (See 1a below.)
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Sen. Boxer gets her ears boxed in this satirical video:
Meanwhile Politico suggests Biden has also received a slap down. (See 2 below.)
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Rationale for why oil prices will remain high. (See 3 below.)
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As I noted earlier Netanyahu and Kerry will be speaking at the conference we are attending. Kerry will tell the audience what they want to hear and if those attending believe him they have only themselves to blame for their cupidity. (See 4 below.)
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Russia has challenged Obama vis a vis Hillary's 'reset button wet noodle' foreign policy in Ukraine.
Netanyahu do not trust Obama. He is a weakling!
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Dick.
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1) Strassel: All the President's IRS Agents
The targeting of groups opposed to the Democratic agenda has not ended—it's gotten worse.
Few presidents understand the power of speech better than Barack Obama, and even fewer the power of denying it to others. That's the context for understanding the White House's unprecedented co-option of the Internal Revenue Service to implement a political campaign to shut up its critics and its opponents.
Perhaps the biggest fiction of this past year was that the IRS's targeting of conservative groups has been confronted, addressed and fixed. The opposite is true. The White House has used the scandal as an excuse to expand and formalize the abuse.
About a month after the IRS inspector general released his bombshell report about IRS targeting of conservative groups last May, Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel unveiled a "plan of action" for correcting the mess. One highlight was that targeted groups would be offered a new optional "expedited" process for getting 501(c)(4) status.
The deal, which received little public attention, boiled down to this: We'll do our job, the IRS said, if you give up your rights. Those taking part in the "expedited" process had to agree to limit to 40% the amount of spending and time (calculated by employee and volunteers hours) they spend on political activity. Current 501(c)(4) rules allow political spending up to 49%, and have no "time" component. The clear point of the "deal" was to use the lure of 501(c)(4) approval to significantly reduce the political activity of targeted conservative groups going forward.
Getty Images
Some groups, desperate to get their tax exemption, took the deal. Others refused to be victimized twice. One of them is the Tea Party Patriots, run by Jenny Beth Martin, who told me that she didn't feel it was right that"every other 501(c)(4) would get to live under a different standard than those of us who had been targeted, and had been waiting for a determination for years." She let the deadline for using the expedited process pass.
Not long after, the IRS was back hounding the Tea Party Patriots with new requirements. In addition to re-demanding information that Ms. Martin's group had already supplied, the IRS insisted on new details, like the groups' fundraising letters from 2012. Cleta Mitchell, an attorney representing targeted groups, tells me one of her clients suffered the same fate. The IRS called to ask if the group would take part in its expedited process. When it turned down the IRS, the government agency hit the group with new questions about its activities. This all happened last summer.
As of last week, Ms. Martin's group had been waiting three years and three months for its 501(c)(4) letter. (Before Mr. Obama was president, the average time was three weeks.) The targeting has had its intended effect: Ms. Martin notes that supporters of her group have asked to be dissociated, for fear of their own IRS audit.
Now comes the fitting end to this spectacle. Late last week Ms. Martin's name appeared among those scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee this Thursday. On Wednesday, she got a call from the supposedly apolitical IRS. Her group's application for 501(c)(4) status? Suddenly, miraculously approved.
Politics is also guiding the Justice Department's alleged investigation of IRS abuses. The Oversight Committee held a separate hearing on Wednesday, at which legal experts laid out the ludicrously partisan nature of Justice's probe—including the choice of Barbara Bosserman, an Obama donor in the liberal civil-rights division, to handle it.
Ms. Mitchell, the attorney, was due to testify before the Oversight Committee Feb. 6. On Feb. 4, she filed her written testimony, which explained that nine months after this scandal broke, neither she nor her clients had yet to receive a phone call from the FBI or Justice. Three hours after filing, she told me, a Justice representative called, wanting to check on this targeting thing.
And now we have new IRS regulations, which will formalize the crackdown on 501(c)(4) political speech. The IRS has no business here—there is a bipartisan Federal Election Commission to enforce laws about political speech. But the FEC can't be controlled by the White House, and Democrats have been unable to pass new speech restrictions through Congress.
Democrats are instead fully vested now in using the IRS to shut down criticism by outside groups of ObamaCare, overspending or (ironically) the IRS targeting. Even liberal groups are howling about the White House's use of the IRS to silence political speech, and the House on Wednesday passed a bill to delay the regulations. The White House's response? A veto threat.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee markup Thursday morning, Texas's Ted Cruz offered an amendment to prohibit IRS employees from deliberately targeting individuals or groups based on political views. It was unanimously rejected by every member of the Democratic majority.
The IRS targeting was shocking because Americans expect that agency to be free of politics. In the age of Obama, that era is over. Only when Washington recognizes the IRS for the political tool it has become can it start to fix the problem
1a) Rep. Tom Price: IRS Scandal 'Goes Straight to Lois Lerner'
Speaking to host J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV two days after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ordered former IRS official Lois Lerner to reappear at a hearing next week, Price said, "Darrell Issa and Dave Camp and [those of] us on Ways and Means are working through trying to get the information. The administration hasn't even provided the information that we have subpoenaed, that we've asked for from the IRS to see where this trail leads. I don't presume that the president was involved with this, but I do know that it wasn't a rogue element in an Ohio IRS office that made these decisions."
Lerner's lawyer said Wednesday that she will testify only in exchange for an immunity agreement. When she appeared before the committee last May, Lerner asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
"We know it goes straight to Lois Lerner, which is why I presume that she took the Fifth Amendment. But we're going to continue to, whether it's through a select committee or a special committee, whether it's through the committees of jurisdiction right now that the American people finally get the explanation for why the IRS was used in such a political manner. And it was and it's egregious and it's chilling and it absolutely must stop," Price said.
Price has represented Georgia's 6th congressional district, based in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, since 2005. He previously served as chairman of the Republican Study Committee and the Republican Policy Committee, and he is currently vice chairman of the House Budget Committee.
The five-term congressman is also a medical doctor and staunchly opposes the IRS's role in the enforcement of Obamacare.
"Look, the American people, as you well know, understand and appreciate that the Internal Revenue Service ought not have anything to do with our healthcare, and the fact is that they are expanding their role as we speak. Sarah Hall Ingram is a gal who is employed by the IRS and was in charge of the entity within the IRS that actually targeted conservative groups for further scrutiny under the 501(c)(4) issue. She's been transferred over the last year to be the enforcer for Obamacare within the IRS. So it's all intermingled. It's all the same thing. It's a huge overreach by the administration and we're not going to let up," Price said.
"And, remember, it's important for folks out there to appreciate that the only reason that we know about the 501(c)(4), the non-profit targeting by this administration through the IRS, is because of Republican oversight. If that hadn't happened, we, as a nation, would never know about it. Now, it takes too long, but we're going to continue to work at it."
Turning to the rollout of the healthcare law, Price warned it will not improve with time.
"Oh, no, the worst is yet to come and this will continue to roll out and it really is sad because, at this point, real people are getting harmed and not just in the healthcare arena, but from an economic standpoint as well," he said.
"As a physician, my former colleagues are just suffering under this and, now, not being able to provide the kind of care, in many instances, for the patients that they're charged with caring for and many, many patients across this land are now seeing that the networks of the physicians that they're able to see, the hospitals where they're able to be treated aren't eligible if they're on one of these exchanges, either a state or the federal exchange."
Asked how he addresses his constituents' frustration over Obamacare, Price replied, "Well, they understand. The American people understand that they've been lied to by the president. They can't keep the kind of coverage that they like in spite of the president's promise and the American people also understand that Harry Reid and the Democrats in the Senate won't allow the kind of positive reforms that need to be put into place to even come to the floor of the Senate."
But that won't stop Price and his fellow Republican lawmakers from trying, he vowed. "Now, we've got to keep harping on that and we've got to keep making certain that we're providing that positive contrast, which is why I, and many of my colleagues in the House, have put forward common sense solutions to the healthcare challenges that we face. In fact, we've got over 160 pieces of Republican legislation that address healthcare, some of them soup to nuts variety, some of them very targeted, but there are positive solutions that don't require putting Washington in charge," Price said.
"We believe in patient-centered healthcare which means patients and families and doctors making medical decisions, not Washington, D.C."
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2) Obama Froze Biden Out After Gay-Marriage Gaffe
By Melanie Batley
Vice President Joe Biden's role in the administration was virtually frozen after he angered President Barack Obama in 2012 by announcing his support of gay marriage while the president was still on record opposing it.
In a profile of the 71-year-old in Politico Magazine, the presumed 2016 presidential hopeful talked about how he had been given "every s*** job in the world" from the start of the Obama presidency, but detailed how relations with the president came to a virtual standstill after the gaffe-prone politician pre-empted Obama's announcement that he had "evolved" on the issue.
"When the president asked me what portfolio did I want, I said, 'Base it on what you want of me to help you govern,'" Biden said he told Obama.
"'But I want to be the last guy in the room on every major decision … You're the president, I'm not, but if it's my experience you're lookin' for, I want to be the last guy to make the case."
But everything changed in 2012, after Biden announced his approval of gay marriage before the president took a public stand, the Politico report says.
Biden's announcement forced Obama to make his own public statement about gay marriage earlier than he would have liked.
Despite attempts to apologize to Obama that he did not intend to upstage the president on the issue, the president's inner circle suspected otherwise and became increasingly hostile toward him.
Biden started to be excluded from strategic planning meetings, while his schedule of public events was curtailed and in some cases canceled. Aides went so far as to interfere with Biden's staffing decisions, blocking two of his selections for chief of staff, according to the magazine.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Biden's top possible rival for the presidential race, appeared to step into the breach. Clinton, for example, appeared alongside Obama during the president's first television interview of his second term. The Biden team was also disgruntled that the White House didn't strongly refute the rumors that Clinton would be selected to replace Biden.
As Biden considers a bid for the presidency, Clinton's lead is the widest ever recorded for a presidential frontrunner. The latest Washington Post/ABC Poll showed Clinton leading Biden by 73 percent to 12 percent.
Biden, however, continues to be coy about whether he has made a decision to throw his hat into the ring, but according to Politico, every one of the dozen friends interviewed by the magazine predicted he would not decide to run in 2016.
"He's driven, that's the best way to put it," Bruce Reed, Biden's former chief of staff, told Politico. "He wants to be part of it all … It's not really ambition in the traditional sense. It's a restless energy, the desire to keep going … You never know what you are going to get."
"I honestly don't know what I'm going to do," Biden told Politico. "I'll make the decision after the [2014] midterms. I've got a lot on my plate."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3) Stock Volatility Seen Rising in Coming Sessions
By Dan Weil
While last year's torrid stock-market rally transpired amid very smooth trading, many experts expect more volatility this year.
Indeed, volatility spiked in January thanks to emerging market turmoil and tumbling U.S. stock prices. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) peaked at 21.48 Feb. 3. It has since fallen back to 14.04, but many financial market participants expect it to rise.
The index measures expectations for fluctuation in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
"Given the prevailing economic uncertainty, the likelihood of continued Fed tapering and a still-fragile environment in emerging markets, we expect the relatively higher levels of equity market volatility to persist,” Russ Koesterich, global chief investment strategist at Blackrock, wrote in a recent commentary obtained by MarketWatch.
"To be clear, we are not forecasting unusually high levels of volatility. Rather, we anticipate volatility will continue to rise from what have been unusually low levels." Koesterich expects the VIX to return toward its long-term average of around 20.
Other factors that could boost volatility are China's economic deceleration and the potential for more trouble in emerging markets, strategists tell MarketWatch.
Gary Thayer, chief macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors, sees the potential for heightened volatility in stocks too.
"Investors now appear to favor defensive sectors rather than cyclical sectors," he writes in Barron's. "This suggests that investors are cautious. Consequently, sentiment is still probably fragile, and the risk of an increase in market volatility persists."
David Bianco, chief U.S. equity strategist at Deutsche Bank, also warns that volatility will return to the stock market this year after virtually a one-way market in 2013.
"The point is, we have a normalizing economy, [we're] returning to normalized earnings growth and we've returned to normal valuations," Bianco said in a briefing to journalists, CNBC reported.
"That's not a big deal or a reason to be bearish. But I think you should be mindful that when you've got normal earnings growth and normal valuations, you're probably going to get normal volatility, and normal volatility is higher than what we've seen in 2013."
Bianco believes the S&P 500 may well break 2,000 this year and then come back down to 1,850. The S&P 500 rose 9.13 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,854.29. Its previous record high close was 1,848.38, set on Jan. 15.
Others anticipate increased volatility in 2014 too. "Although history doesn't demand that we have a 10 percent correction this year, I wouldn't be surprised to see one," Norman Conley, chief investment officer at JAG Capital Management in St. Louis, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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Indeed, volatility spiked in January thanks to emerging market turmoil and tumbling U.S. stock prices. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) peaked at 21.48 Feb. 3. It has since fallen back to 14.04, but many financial market participants expect it to rise.
The index measures expectations for fluctuation in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.
"Given the prevailing economic uncertainty, the likelihood of continued Fed tapering and a still-fragile environment in emerging markets, we expect the relatively higher levels of equity market volatility to persist,” Russ Koesterich, global chief investment strategist at Blackrock, wrote in a recent commentary obtained by MarketWatch.
"To be clear, we are not forecasting unusually high levels of volatility. Rather, we anticipate volatility will continue to rise from what have been unusually low levels." Koesterich expects the VIX to return toward its long-term average of around 20.
Other factors that could boost volatility are China's economic deceleration and the potential for more trouble in emerging markets, strategists tell MarketWatch.
Gary Thayer, chief macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors, sees the potential for heightened volatility in stocks too.
"Investors now appear to favor defensive sectors rather than cyclical sectors," he writes in Barron's. "This suggests that investors are cautious. Consequently, sentiment is still probably fragile, and the risk of an increase in market volatility persists."
David Bianco, chief U.S. equity strategist at Deutsche Bank, also warns that volatility will return to the stock market this year after virtually a one-way market in 2013.
"The point is, we have a normalizing economy, [we're] returning to normalized earnings growth and we've returned to normal valuations," Bianco said in a briefing to journalists, CNBC reported.
"That's not a big deal or a reason to be bearish. But I think you should be mindful that when you've got normal earnings growth and normal valuations, you're probably going to get normal volatility, and normal volatility is higher than what we've seen in 2013."
Bianco believes the S&P 500 may well break 2,000 this year and then come back down to 1,850. The S&P 500 rose 9.13 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,854.29. Its previous record high close was 1,848.38, set on Jan. 15.
Others anticipate increased volatility in 2014 too. "Although history doesn't demand that we have a 10 percent correction this year, I wouldn't be surprised to see one," Norman Conley, chief investment officer at JAG Capital Management in St. Louis, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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| If you believe oil prices are due for a correction, you may want to read this first… Crude oil has had an amazing start to the year. Prices are up 8% and are now trading above the $100-a-barrel mark. Analysts in the media are talking about colder weather and political unrest in the Middle East as temporary reasons for the recent push higher. But if you take a closer look at oil's global supply and demand, you'll see these triple-digit prices are here to stay. Let me explain… ----------Recommended Link---------
Over the past few years, we've seen a massive boom in U.S. oil production. New technologies, like horizontal drilling and fracking, have allowed the U.S. to tap into incredible oil reserves that were unreachable less than a decade ago. I have gotten a close look at these technologies over the last 18 months in the Permian Basin,Eagle Ford, and the Bakken Shale. These technologies have allowed the U.S. to produce more than 8 million barrels of oil a day. That's the most oil America has produced in over 25 years. But despite this massive boom, the U.S. isn't even close to producing enough oil to meet current global demand. The world consumes over 92 million barrels of oil per day. The U.S. only produces about 11.5% of global consumption. This is a big deal. You see, most of the world (outside the U.S.) is having a tough time finding oil. I'm not suggesting the world is running out of crude. But the cost to produce a barrel of oil outside America is surging. For example, according to the International Monetary Fund, the breakeven point to produce a barrel of oil in Russia is $110. The breakeven point to produce oil in Iraq, Iran, Algeria, and the United Arab Emirates is $90. In short, if oil prices fall below $90 a barrel, these countries will not make money producing oil. That could result in a massive amount of supply coming off the market. And if oil prices fall below $80 a barrel, we could see production go offline in places like the Permian Basin and the Bakken Shale – which would further weaken supply. And contrary to popular opinion, demand for oil is increasing. Many thought the economic slowdown in developed nations and China (the second-largest oil consumer in the world) would cut demand. But the data tell a different story. China's imports for crude oil jumped 12% in January. That amounts to 6.6 million barrels a day – a record high. Meanwhile, most of the developed nations are growing again. The U.S. economy is growing at its fastest pace since 2011. Manufacturing in Europe and Japan has been strong over the past few months. And we're seeing record global airplane and car sales. Airbus and Boeing, the two largest airplane manufacturers in the world, said orders are at record highs. And global car sales recently topped 80 million for the first time ever. Oil prices are moving higher not because of temporary factors like weather and political concerns, but because of rising demand and supply concerns as oil companies have difficulty finding crude oil that's economical. Unless these trends reverse, oil is likely to average triple-digit prices over the next few years. In other words, I would think twice before betting on a huge correction in oil prices. Good investing, Frank Curzio ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4)What Kerry needs to explain at AIPAC By Jennifer Rubin
The American-Israeli Political Affairs Committee has once again tripped over itself, inviting to speak Secretary of State John Kerry to speak at its annual conference. (Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, whose department has actually been diligent in enforcing sanctions, was an understandable choice.
Kerry, of course, has bludgeoned Israel on settlements, talked cavalierly about boycotts should Israel not reach a peace deal with the Palestinians and made a perfectly awful interim agreement with Iran. But, but he’s secretary of State! Exactly why the person enabling a failing approach to Iran, Syria and the Middle East more generally shouldn’t be feted. AIPAC may be trying to butter up the administration, but the spectacle of Kerry presenting himself as a great defender of the Jewish state is gag-worthy.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry (Alastair Grant/Associated Press)
If he is to come, AIPAC executives and/or other speakers should address a number of Kerry’s disastrous decisions, making clear that he is there because he occupies an important post, not because he is doing it well. They might ask him to explain:
Is our Syria policy a failure?
Was it a mistake to set a “red line” for the use of WMDs or a mistake to rub it out?
Was it smart to invite Russia into the WMD issue, given Vladimir Putin’s international aggression and support for Assad?
Is it a genocide? (Susan Rice said on Sunday it’s just a situation where a lot of people died.)
Do Kerry and his wife regret going to Syria to wine and dine the bloody dictator and his wife?
Why would you think Assad would come to Geneva and agree to give up power?
Was the president wrong when he said the fighting is someone else’s civil war?
Was it a mistake not to support Iran’s Green Revolution?
Is Iran’s economy recovering? Is it making more commercial deals, and will the value of the sanctions relief exceed what the administration projected?
Iran says — and the language of the deal suggests — that it will get to maintain the right to enrich. Is this wrong? And if so, how can a deal this important be so misunderstood?
Why did you agree to allow Iran to proceed with ballistic-missile development and advanced centrifuge research?
Iran says it won’t dismantle anything, so isn’t the interim deal a failure?
With fewer sanctions, why would Iran be more compliant?
If there is no deal within the six-month period, will you consider the talks a failure? Would you then support sanctions?
Are settlements the central issue in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute?
If the Palestinian Authority won’t recognize Israel as the Jewish state, what is the point of further talks?
Kerry should hear a loud and defiant response from the American Jewish community. The Obama policy, to the extent that he has one, is a failure. Guest or not, Kerry should hear so.
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