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Here it is from the Free Beacon:

Pentagon: Islamic State Burning Hostage Alive ‘Not The Act of a Winner’

The Islamic State released a barbaric video of the Jordanian pilot that was being held prisoner and was used as bargaining chip, burned alive. Rear Adm. John Kirby held a press conference to address the situation and how the United States plans to respond. Kirby said that the plan was to degrade and destroy IS capabilities and continue to put them on the defensive. When asked about the seriousness of the murders, Kirby couldn’t put it into words.

“I can’t–there’s no way I could possibly figure out how to justify it in your brain because it’s so twisted,” Kirby said. “These aren’t the acts of a winner. They’re not winning.”

I would have expected more from the Pentagon representative – seriously “…acts of a winner”?  When one engages in military action against an enemy (and make no mistake

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Yep – the Obama picture is from the video clip where he announced that under his regime, electricity prices will necessarily soar.  Yep – I am not surprised at that headline in the UL yesterday (reformatted, emphasis mine):

New plants on way, power needs still unmet

Three new power plants — two in Connecticut and one in southeastern Massachusetts — will add more than 1,000 megawatts to the New England power grid by 2018, thanks largely to rising prices in the regional energy market, the operator of the New England power grid announced on Wednesday. But that still won’t be enough to address a predicted supply shortage in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, according to ISO-New England.

Heck, I would NOT be very surprised if, however, that “predicted supply shortage” (and unexpectedly, as Glen Reynolds writes all the time) spill up to NH.  Dave Soloman continues:

The grid operator needs to know well ahead of time how much power will be available from power plants in the six-state region, whatever the fuel source. So every year it holds what is called a forward capacity auction to see who is willing to commit to producing electricity three years down the road.  The results of last year’s auction, for delivery of power in 2017, set off alarms.

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Even as Obama crows about the deficit (annual) being cut in half (like that’s supposed to be hard, given he started at over a Trillion), the National Debt keeps going up. And that debt requires debt servicing – and that is real money too.

Currently, the government’s interest costs are around $200 billion a year, a sum that’s low due to the era of low interest rates. Forecasters at the White House and Congressional Budget Office believe interest rates will gradually rise, and when that happens, the interest costs of the U.S. government are set to soar, from just over $200 billion to nearly $800 billion a year by decade’s end.

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Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure!  I am getting to the point where I hate the word.  Why?  I have come to realize that it’s only a political talking point and that for all the talk and all that money, it’s simply about political posturing (at best) and cronyism (at worst).  We were promised an ROI on that Trillion Stimulus that turned out to be spent on, pretty much, boosting the size of government and not so much on asphalt, concrete, steel and…..wait for it……finished USABLE product.  You know, like the Hoover Dam and other public works stuff done in the 1930s?

And I’m not the only one asking this question – it did nothing before so why does Obama believe that we’ll believe him this time?

YEAH, HOW ABOUT THAT? “Quite aside from the problem of new taxes on business, what bothers me here is that Obama’s old and extremely expensive ‘stimulus’ package — back in ’09 — was presented as a transformation of the ‘infrastructure’ — with lots of talk of roads and bridges — but where are all those improvements we were gulled into thinking we were getting for our money?”

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The Youngest received his paperwork and card for this program (born out of such ire created by the VA scandal (whereby vets were refused timely service of their health needs) rose to heights that it coalesced both Dems and Repubs) a little while ago.  It allows him, in certain circumstances, to go to a civilian healthcare provider when needed.  As it turned out, he has had the unfortunate experience of having to have taken advantage of it; happy it was available but not that he was ill.  Now, Obama wants to kill it and his just released 2016 Budget:

The Obama administration outraged members of Congress on Monday by proposing to scale back a new program aimed at letting veterans access health care outside the VA system.

Last August, Congress passed a VA reform bill that created the Veterans Choice Program, which was supposed to be a way to speed up access to health care given the breakdown within the VA itself. President Barack Obama quickly signed it into law.

Of course he did – dead vets kinda spoils the Narrative that all Government has only our best interests at heart.  Until it doesn’t (remember, the scandal was all about “hiding the numbers” so the VA managers could get their bonuses; dead vets spoils that as well.

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Ah yes, the Progressives have their panties in a bunch in that SB116 would have NH’s streets and byways become an ocean of blood when it would turn us into the equivalent of Vermont in terms of no longer needed permission from the Government to keep a firearm and bear it either in an open or concealed carry.  Remember, the four “tells” of a Progressive that hates your Freedom:

• You don’t need that
• I don’t know of anyone who says they need that
• It’s about the quality of life“
• It is the cost of civilization

Shall we judge how to tell that Carla Breton is a Progressive?

Jan. 24 — To the Editor:

I have just been informed of a bill introduced by Sen. Jeb Bradley which challenges the reasonable requirement to obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon. I cannot believe there is opposition to requiring a license to carry a gun, concealed or otherwise.

Yup, “I don’t know of anyone who says they need that” applies here; shades of Pauline Kael:

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Yes, a side effect of the Stupid Party when they try to out Democrat the Democrats and grow Government using other peoples’ money – and may run out in 1 year.  Why am I not surprised that Ohio Governor John Kasich (and rumored Prez Wannabee):

Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s Obamacare expansion blew past projections in its first year, putting 471,452 Ohioans on Medicaid and costing taxpayers $2.1 billion.

Because enrollment has so dramatically exceeded Kasich administration estimates—the governor expected 366,00 to enroll by July 2015—the Obamacare money appropriated to pay for program benefits will be exhausted months early.  If recent enrollment and cost trends persist, Kasich’s Obamacare expansion will be more than $1 billion over budget by the time Ohio’s 2015 fiscal year ends on June 30. Actual Obamacare expansion claim expenditures reported by the Ohio Department of Medicaid are shown in the chart below.

NH is having the same problem:

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From the UL a couple of days ago (reformatted, emphasis):

<snip>

As for his personal efforts, Guinta discussed his newly introduced Operation TAXPAYER (To Ax Persistent Abuse of Your Earned Revenue) initiative, which includes legislation designed to reduce federal offices, initiatives and programs.

…Guinta said the initiative would change House rules to require any bill that comes to the floor to be reviewed by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, which would review the bill to make sure it is not redundant of an existing federal program, initiative or office. “The bill would have a score on it that says, ‘This bill duplicates X amount of resources or dollars,’” Guinta said following the event. For example, many existing jobs programs serve the same purpose, he said.

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