PrairiePundit

NY Times: Hillary Clinton Unveils Far-Reaching Climate Change Plan Promising more than a half-billion solar panels by the end of a first term and a target of clean energy for every home in a decade, Hillary Rodham Clinton unveiled goals on Sunday evening to reduce the threat of climate change. At this point in its development solar energy is still an inefficient niche product.  It gives less bang for the buck than natural gas and is less dependable.  The higher cost of solar energy represents a regressive tax on the poor and middle class.  If the US is going to push alternative energy it needs to do more research to find products that are competitive and dependable.  Democrats try to solve this problem by engage in artificial scarcity policies in hopes of driving up the cost of fossil fuels.  This is a wrong approach.

NY Times: Republicans Alter Script on Abortion, Seeking to Shift Debate Alex Wong/Getty Images Anti-abortion activists and abortion rights supporters demonstrated at the March for Life in Washington in January. Republican politicians have refined the way they are talking about pregnancy and abortion rights, crafting their words in a way they hope puts Democrats on the defensive. Democrats are more out of touch with voters on this issue than any main stream Republican.  The Democrats resist any limits on access to abortion whether it is safe or not or whether the baby could survive outside the womb.   Carly Fiorina has been especially effective in handling this issue and has effective painted Hillary Clinton as an abortion extremist who wants the procedure right up until the baby leaves the hospital.  Democrats oppose restrictions that most civilized countries readily accept on the procedure. The Democrats response to the revelations that Planned Parenthoo...

Daily Mail: 'I think there's so much confusion': Hillary Clinton reiterates she didn't 'knowingly' send or receive classified information using her private email server Clinton maintained the claims she made earlier this year about using her private email server at her home She says she's confident about the proper handling of the emails Clinton suggested there was 'confusion' over the issue The State Department is reviewing 55,000 pages of her emails When handling classified information this kind of excuse will not cut it.  It is like saying you forgot to pay your income taxes.  A person who has been given access to classified material is to safeguard it at all times. That means you can't leave on top of your desk while you go to lunch or overnight.  It has to be locked away in a classified storage vault or area.  When it is transmitted certain protocols are required to be followed to make sure it does not fall into the wrong hands.  ...

CNN: Garissa's Christians told 'worship here and you'll die' What is missing is that there was not one word about Obama standing up for his fellow Christian's right to worship in his father's homeland.  If he said anything about it while in Kenya it did not make it into the CNN story which is remarkable in itself. Obama is a President who would rather do business with the homicidal religious bigots who rule Iran than strand up for Christians in his ancestral homeland.  Obama will make make a case for homosexuals while in Kenya, but not for Christians?

Tom Campbell: Why Israel will hit Iran after Obama's gone He gives several reasons why Israel will wait until a new President is in office.  I think another reason, that is not mentioned is that Iran's ability to counter attack is being attrited  because of Hezballah's casualties and loss of morale because of its fighting in Syria, where the government is still losing ground to various factions.  There have been reports of Hezballah fighters refusing to participate.  This is a sign of battle fatigue.

Michael Goodwin: If Hillary Clinton were a cartoon character, she’d be Snidely Whiplash, forever muttering to herself, “Curses, foiled again.” And she’d be right. The lady in waiting will have to keep waiting. Probably forever. Fate has spoken. Already threatened by a growing trust deficit with voters, her would-be majesty now faces an even more lethal adversary. It’s called the truth, though she probably sees it as a vast, left-wing conspiracy. The news that two inspectors general from the Obama administration want the Justice Department to investigate her handling of classified material is a potential game changer. For many Democrats, it will serve as final proof she is ­fatally flawed. Her standing will further erode, turning her coronation plans into a long, hot summer. The drip, drip, drip of details will produce new polls showing a bleeding of support, which will entice other candidates into the race. Look for Vice President Joe Biden to jump in soon, and lefty Sen. Elizabeth ...

Reuters: Despite tensions between the United States and China over the South China Sea , the two nations’ militaries train together at a very high level. Current “mil-mil” engagements are robust, with China participating in the world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC 2014, which is hosted biannually by the U.S. Pacific Command . The drills allowed China to learn a great deal about U.S. tactics, techniques and procedures (in military shorthand, “TTPs”). But even as the United States provided China with its highest-level access to military drills, the U.S. military leadership consistently ratcheted up the level of confrontation in the South China Sea. Most recently, a top U.S. Navy admiral participated in a surveillance flight in the region. The United States is at once inching closer to armed confrontation, while at the same time training Chinese forces in the American way of war. RIMPAC is one of many occasions when U.S. forces have trained their Chinese counterpart...

Mike Flynn: At the annual NetRoots Nation gathering, two leading progressive candidates for the Democrat nomination were booed and heckled by protesters. The event could easily be remembered as a water-shed moment that confines the Democrat Party, at least in the near-term, to a weak national party that is only competitive in certain regions of the country. NetRoots Nation is a conference of the Democrat Party’s most progressive and left-wing activists and bloggers. As part of its meeting, NetRoots hosted a “Presidential Town Hall” featuring socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)16% and progressive former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley. Few national political figures have embraced the full kaleidoscope of leftist policy proposals as eagerly as Sanders and O’Malley. The panel was even moderated by a celebrated leftist journalist who is also famously an illegal immigrant. Only a drum-circle and piped-in scents of patchouli were missing from what ought to have been a leftist dr...

NY Times: Spy’s Release Is Unlikely to Assuage Israel on Iran Nuclear Deal Attempts in Washington to highlight the likely parole of Jonathan J. Pollard in hopes of quieting a campaign against the Iran deal could provoke a backlash, analysts say. This seems to show a lack of understanding how dangerous the Iran deal is to Israel's very existence.  The Obama administration is treating that threat as if it could be the subject of a Chicago style bargain.  Threats to the existence of Israel are unlikely to be the subject of any bargain within Israel.

NY Times: Hillary Clinton Eyes Corporations in Proposals for Economy In the second major address of her campaign focusing on economic issues, Mrs. Clinton discussed a plan to adjust capital gains rates for the highest earners. Liberal greed on capital gains is also counter productive.  Raising the taxes produces less revenue and also harms the economy.  Even Bill Clinton knew this and accepted decreases in the rate which result in a boon to the treasury.   She is apparently laboring under the false premise that Corporations actual pay taxes, when in fact they only collect taxes that individuals in the end must pay.

Ed Morrissey: Sailor faces 30 years in prison for keeping pics of classified submarine equipment When he threw away his cell phone with the pictures it was recovered and the pictures were found by accident.   This guy should have taken lessons from Lois Lerner and Hilary Clinton when it comes to wiping out data they find to be inconvenient.

USA Today: Iranian leader tweets graphic of Obama with gun to head   He picked such a classy group to do business with. At least Bahrain is fighting back against the Iranian insults: Bahrain recalls its Iran envoy over 'hostile comments' Oh well, Obama does not have an envoy to recall, although he should consder sacking John Kerry for producing this mess.

Newsmax: Report: Obamacare Plans Have 34 Percent Fewer Providers So it turns out that insurance under Obamacare cost more and provides fewer options for care.  That is what Democrats call progress?

Matt Welch: Admit it, Dems: Hillary Could Strangle a Puppy on Live TV, and You’d Still Back Her (UPDATED: It's worse than you think) Even PETA would still back her.  that is how liberals roll these days. ... In sum, the Democratic Party's 2016 presidential frontrunner brazenly violated government transparency policy, made a mockery of the Freedom of Information Act, placed her sensitive communications above the law, and then just lied about it, again and again. Now comes word that, unsurprisingly, two inspectors general are recommending that the Department of Justice open a criminal inquiry into the matter. One of their findings was that the private server, contrary to Clinton's repeated claims, contained "hundreds of potentially classified emails."* So how much do Democrats value basic transparency, accountability, and honesty in their presidential candidates? Not bloody much, if you go by the handy polls over at RealClearPolitics . The six national po...

NY Times: The End of Christianity in the Middle East? ISIS and other extremist movements across the region are enslaving, killing and uprooting Christians, with no aid in sight. I can't recall a single time the Obama administration has said a word on behalf of the Christians who are suffering under a Muslim genocide in the Middle East.  In Iraq, the government is so desperate for fighters it has enlisted Christians in the militias fighting ISIL, but the Obama administration has been eerily silent on the genocide, and its relief efforts have been mainly directed at displaced Muslims.  In an administration that has opened the US borders to people from around the world there is hardly any effort to rescue these Christians.

NY Times: Turkey Attacks Kurdish Militant Camps in Northern Iraq The strikes, which followed Turkish attacks on Islamic State targets in Syria, effectively ended a two-year cease-fire between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. This looks like a schizophrenic war strategy by the Turks.  The Kurds have been one of the few effective forces facing off against  ISIL.  The fighting with the Kurds looks racist to me.  The Turks are trying to hold onto a remnant of the old Ottoman Empire that is long overdue for change.  In the meantime Turkey has been a primary supply line for both fighters and material for ISIL.  Cutting those supplies could be critical to defeating ISIL, so the Turks move is a mixed bag at this point.

Fox News: Group behind Planned Parenthood abortion videos faces review CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL Kamala Harris says she plans to look into the anti-abortion group behind two undercover videos that show Planned Parenthood physicians meeting with people posing as would-be buyers of intact fetal specimens. Rather than go after the people selling aborted baby body parts, the liberals are attacking the messenger.  They appear to be on teh side of a cover up.

Thomas Sowell: Proof the left doesn’t care about the consequences of its policies Black teenage unemployment was in teh single digits before the minimum wage was imposed and each time it is raised the unemployment of black teens goes up sometimes approaching 50 percent.  But liberals don't care that they are killing the opportunity to get work experience for these teens.

Watchdog.org: John Doe horror stories: ‘I felt completely helpless in my own home’ This was liberal fascism that is hard to imagine in the US.  It is not enough that this was shutdown, but the victims should have some forms of redress beyond shutting down the operations.

Colbert King: How Israel may be damaging the alliance between blacks and Jews Israeli politicians have launched racially charged affronts toward Obama over Iran. Obama has cut a deal that is a direct threat to Israel.  He is proving over $100 billion to a country that wants to wipe it off the face of the map, and in doing so is making a dubious claim that this somehow makes Israel safer.  Nothing could be further from the truth and Israel has every right to object to the deal and they would have the same objection if the President making it were white or even Jewish.   Actually, I think religious blacks are much closer to the Israeli position than they are to Obama.