Pretending the October 2013 shutdown hurt Republicans in the face of the recent election victories that wiped out a Democrat Senate majority is simply ludicrous.

Suggesting Romney wouldn’t have won in 2012, even if Republicans who stayed home did turn out to vote (but wouldn’t have voted Republican), is a laugher as well.

Referring to a poll that 53% of respondents ‘blamed’ the GOP for the 2013 shutdown, but fails to consider part of that percentage may have been Americans who gave credit to the Republicans for doing what was right, is short-sighted at best.

Elections, by definition, represent the FINAL poll on pressing issues.

Still in doubt? Ask the 9 Democrat Senators who just lost their jobs.

(Updated: changed month of 2013 shutdown to October)

Senate Democrats are planning to release a partisan report condemning interrogation techniques conducted by our intelligence community during questioning of terrorists.

Never mind that the report was produced by the STAFF of Democrat Senators, not the Senators themselves. Never mind that not a single Republican Senator participated.

Just know this: Former CIA directors and deputy directors…

• were forced to sign nondisclosure agreements just to see the accusations against them…
• were severely restricted on what they could say to defend themselves…

…despite the fact that the ‘report’ has been declassified for release! 

If the report is declassified, why restrict those accused from defending themselves?

Democrats will lose their Senate majority in January – the release of this report is all about damaging the incoming Republican majority, and forcing them to play defense.

At the expense, we might add, of our global image, our overseas intelligence efforts will suffer, our American forces and diplomats will face greater risk. All for partisan spite.

Because – somehow – we’re to feel sympathy for terrorist evil that beheads Americans?

Talk about Un-American.

Enhanced techniques work. If they protect our sons and daughters, we must use them.

Besides, at the end of an enhanced CIA interrogation, and despite all the faux angst and hand-wringing of politically contriving, advantage-seeking Democrats…

…the terrorist still has his head on his shoulders.

The REAL torture here? Knowing Senate Democrats are still in power until January.

If government shutdowns give us results like November, we need more of them.

Congressional Republicans and conservative analysts are doing a lot of handwringing over how to deal with funding the government while NOT funding Obama’s executive actions that will provide amnesty to (potentially 5 million) illegal aliens.

Democrats and their media lapdogs invoke the terrible consequences Republicans will face if a government funding impasse occurs, and Obama refuses to sign GOP bills.

Rush Limbaugh leads critical conservative voices that point out Republicans just won huge in an election less than a year after the last ‘shutdown’ occurred. Consequences?

So, how is it, if polling indicates Republicans always get blamed when a government shutdown occurs, November midterm election results benefited them so significantly?

We suggest misinterpretation of the polling data is a factor, combined with another phenomenon pointed out by Jay Cost of The Weekly Standard…GOP honesty.

First, for those polled as ‘disapproving’ of how issues are being handled between Parties, pollsters invariably consider ‘disapprove’ as a negative consequence.

But, what if that answer includes those who think their Party isn’t going far enough? In such an instance, ‘disapprove’ numbers don’t necessarily correlate to lost votes.

Which brings us to Jay Cost’s article: he noted that polled Republicans have a hugely disproportionate degree of negatively self-critiquing their own GOP political leaders.

Which could indicate voter disgust (for not going the extra mile), or dismay…that not having the power to go the extra mile motivates higher GOP voter turnout.

(We think Mr. Cost made the same mistake though, confusing a high ‘disapproval’ rate of GOP as voters disliking their Party…rather than frustration of not doing enough).

Once again, just because polled GOPers disapprove, it doesn’t mean lost votes.

Democrats, especially Obama, do things for 2 reasons: vote-pandering or money.

In off-years, votes don’t mean squat…so, you can bet Obama’s ploy is about money.

Republicans control the House of Representatives, where budgets are created…and as it happens, the current budget deal expires in a couple of days. Many were suggesting that a short-term budget should be sent to the Senate, funding the government for only a month or so until the GOP takes Senate control this coming January.

Obama and cohort want a budget resolution that takes them to the end of September, but don’t want to be seen as causing the inevitable shutdown if vetoing a short-term bill.

An executive action amnesty threat creates sound-&-fury amongst the Republicans, and their typical threat of defunding certain aspects of any budget that covers the amnesty.

Cue the media, who predict the knee-jerk ‘government shutdown’ mania and doom for Republicans who will be held responsible by the voting public…and GOP panic ensues.

Result: the GOP-led House is buffaloed into giving Obama what he wants…a Democrat cash-stuffed budget through September 2015, not a GOP-budget created in January.

Sadly, it sounds like Republicans are going to fall for it again.

“He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union…”

(U. S. Constitution, Article II, section 3.)

The new Congress convening in January shouldn’t continue to give Obama the stage he’s had in the past to spew his perception of what he considers the state of the union.

Without fail, he has used past S-O-T-U addresses to vilify Republicans and sow seeds of discontent. If there’s one guarantee in life, that is he’ll do it again if given the chance.

Republicans should not give him that chance. They should not convene a joint session of Congress, and certainly need not worry that they will be labeled racist by that act…

…they’re already being tarred with that brush.

He’s shown no civility or respect for Republicans, and deserves none himself. Lest we forget…he used a S-O-T-U soapbox to push his huge lie on Americans – Obamacare.

The first thing Republicans should do when the new Congress convenes…

…take off the gloves.

A recent article says China has just now passed America as the leading economy.

Before anyone cashes in and moves the kids to Peking, it may be wise to note the info is based on International Monetary Fund statistics, using a ‘cost-of-living’ fudge factor.

Investor’s Business Daily, however, advises China’s GDP for this year will be less than half what IMF ‘calculates’, so…someone’s ‘fudge factor’ smells more like raw sewage.

The cause of the over-inflated GDP numbers may lie somewhere in this pull-quote: “China’s recent decision to bring gross domestic product calculations in line with international standards has revealed activity that had previously gone uncounted.”

“…bring (GDP) calculations in line with international standards…”  ?

“…revealed activity that had previously gone uncounted…”  ?

Anytime ‘international standards’ help to find ‘uncounted activity’…reality suffers.

According to IBD’s article, our GDP will be over 2 times greater than China’s this year.

What possible ‘uncounted activity’ by ‘international standards’ could have over-inflated the numbers, making China’s gross domestic product appear to be twice its reality?

China’s population is 4.3 times larger than ours…maybe its leaders decided to count the production of belches and bowel movements, or the recycling of used Pampers?

(Talk about GROSS Domestic Product…!)

Bottom line? Don’t move mom and the kids anytime soon. Question #1 for such stories:

What’s the analyst’s invested position in the nation being hyped?

If Obama can break laws and get away with it, shouldn’t ‘his people’ be able to also?

Newly ‘discovered’ IRS emails that probably show Obama’s involvement in the scandal that bears ‘not a smidgeon of corruption’ are being withheld from scrutiny…by Obama.

Despite unlawful actions, the first black president enjoys a defining ‘hands-off’ policy by the GOP, much like rioters in Ferguson demand thugs like Michael Brown should enjoy.

Evidently, whether on a local or national scale, some think that ‘people of color’ must be immune from prosecution or penalty when the laws of this Nation are broken.

A thug committed theft and assault, defied authority and attacked a police officer trying to maintain order in a Missouri community…but some say his color justified his acts.

Now we hear demands for a new standard, where skin color trumps obeying laws. But isn’t that new standard already on display in DC, set by its White House occupier?

(As GOP politicians race to the cameras, to declare impeachment ‘off the table’…if past presidents were ‘Teflon’, this one’s a ‘Kevlar’ president: impeachment-proof.)

What more could a Black community ask for, you wonder?

Naturally, the same privilege as Obama, who has violated (1) his own new Obamacare law, (2) decades-old immigration law, (3) century-old bankruptcy law…and (4) the very United States Constitution this great Republic of ours was founded upon.

They want immunity just like his…in essence, invoking an ‘Obama Privilege’.

Hey, if skin color protects a Kevlar President who shreds Rule of Law with impunity…

…is it any surprise lawbreakers ‘of color’ now demand the same privilege?

Sorry Liberals, the concept of not being able to profit from an illegal act is centuries old. Entering (or overstaying in) the United States illegally qualifies, by definition.

Imagine your mom burglarized the White House, stealing valuable artifacts.

Months later, you learn of the crime when she gifts you with one of the stolen items. You had no idea of her original intent or act, but now, knowingly, received stolen goods.

That knowledge makes you an Accessory to the theft (and guilty of other crimes).

By conferring ‘executive amnesty’ to relatives of those whose ‘citizenship’ was at first stolen, Barack Obama intends to reward the original lawbreakers and their Accessories.

The more logical, moral, and lawful approach is to deport.

Why no one questions legitimacy of a citizenship earned by unlawful act is a mystery.

For those who protest ‘but the newborn was innocent’, we say…SO WHAT?

If your (White House burglar) mom was pregnant when she stole the items of value, claiming her subsequent newborn had ‘birthright’ to them would be laughed out of court.

American citizenship is a thing of value. How our elected lawmakers can allow such a valuable item to be stolen, then legitimized, is a festering sore in the immigration law.

The GOP-led Congress should make one of its first priorities an amendment to the law, stating American citizenship will not be awarded to newborns of illegal aliens.

Call it the ‘American Citizenship Asset Forfeiture Act.’

Asset Forfeiture’s a very useful FBI tool, according to that organization’s website.

We’re sure AG Eric Holder’s Dept. of Justice will be more than eager to enforce it.

A suggestion has been put forth to cancel the joint-session of Congress in January. Which effectively bars Obama from giving his State-of-the-Union address before it.

(Update: TWT’s link to Mr Hoitsma’s article seems to be malfunctioning – we apologize)

As a means of protesting Obama’s lawlessness, it would be pretty thin soup, and the writer admits it would be largely symbolic, but didn’t midterm voters demonstrate THEIR perception of the state of the union in the November elections, anyway?

Canceling the joint session, and state-of-the-union, is justified for that reason alone.

But hey, if you want symbolism, Obama can give his S-O-T-U in Ferguson Missouri.

With any luck, Sharpton and Farrakhan can keep their rioters going strong ’til then.

A state-of-the-union with a Ferguson backdrop.

Use the location of a riot built on lies, for a state-of-the-union…built the same way.

Now…THAT’S symbolism!