Alternate headline to replace: “The Obama White House Requests Cabinet Members Lie to Create False Narrative”; would be something like:

…”Shock Study – Water is wet and fire burns“.

(Via Daily Mail)   The White House wanted Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to lie on Sunday talk shows to downplay the part Social Security played in driving the deficit, it was revealed today.

Geithner writes in his memoir Stress Test, out today, that the White House communications director asked him to downplay the long term cost of Social Security spending to mollify the Democratic Party’s base.

‘I remember during one Roosevelt Room prep session before I appeared on the Sunday shows, I objected when Dan Pfeiffer wanted me to say Social Security didn’t contribute to the deficit. It wasn’t a main driver of our future deficits, but it did contribute,’ he says.

‘Pfeiffer said the line was a ‘dog whistle’ to the left, a phrase I had never heard before. He had to explain that the phrase was code to the Democratic base, signaling that we intended to protect Social Security.’ (more…)

There’s a strong case to be made for a fiscal comparison between loud Chris Christie, and less boisterous, but ultimately more effective, Scott Walker.   Christie might be louder and more visible, but “conservative”, not so much.  

While Wisconsin has a budget surplus and improving bond rating, New Jersey, via Christie, is going in the exact opposite direction.

NEW JERSEY – Here’s how drastically Chris Christie’s political fortunes have turned: Bridgegate might not be his biggest problem.

Just as the New Jersey governor is trying to turn the corner on the traffic scandal and restore his national luster, now he’s getting blamed for a yawning budget deficit and recent downgrade of the state’s debt.

Christie and state lawmakers have less than two months to close a sudden budget hole. Analysts say the governor’s administration brought on the problem by projecting the state would collect much more in tax revenue than it did; Christie’s aides insist the Legislature bears some of the blame. (more…)

Remember all of the doomsday pontifications from Democrats about the massive layoffs from the sequestration and mandatory budget spending cuts ?    Yeah, not so much…

WASHINGTON DC – A new government report has found that last year’s sequester led to only one federal layoff, a conclusion that Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said Wednesday was an outrage.

Coburn said the finding from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is more proof that the Obama administration and its allies overhyped the effects of the automatic budget cuts, and in a letter to Obama budget director Sylvia Burwell, he demanded an official report on the government’s sequestration response.

“The Budget Control Act is the law of the land until Fiscal Year 2021, so it is essential to have a complete understanding of how agencies manage their workforces and operations in this constrained fiscal environment,” Coburn wrote. (more…)

As you read this report from the Energy and Commerce Committee it’s important to remember that today –TODAY– Kathleen Sebelius announced she was refusing to testify to a Senate Budget Panel (<— Democrats) about the costs and financial budget demands from HHS to pay for Obamacare.

Outgoing Health and Human Services Sec. Kathleen Sebelius is now refusing to testify before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.    (link)

Here’s a probable reason she does not want to stand before the budget committee.

WASHINGTON, DC – Data provided to the committee by every insurance provider in the health care law’s Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM) shows that, as of April 15, 2014, only 67 percent of individuals and families that had selected a health plan in the federally facilitated marketplace had paid their first month’s premium and therefore completed the enrollment process.

Nationwide, only 25 percent of paid enrollees are ages 18 to 34.

The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations today invited the leaders of some of the nation’s largest insurance providers and their trade groups to testify at a hearing, “PPACA Enrollment and the Insurance Industry,” on Wednesday, May 7, 2014, at 10:15 a.m. in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building.

House Energy and Commerce Committee members sent letters requesting specific enrollment data, including the number of individuals who have paid their first month’s premium and demographic breakdowns. (more…)

BLS STUDY 2014 – 20% of U.S. Families Have No Family Member Employed –  25% Of Black Families Have No-One Working at all –  and less than 8% of Black Families have a FT Worker within the family unit.

(CNSNews.com) – In 20 percent of American families in 2013, according to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), not one member of the family worked.
[scribd id=220859109 key=key-2emjj9438coqh93ci3na mode=scroll]
A family, as defined by the BLS, is a group of two or more people who live together and who are related by birth, adoption or marriage. In 2013, there were 80,445,000 families in the United States and in 16,127,000—or 20 percent–no one had a job. (more…)

Back in 2011 the Obama administration and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner were furious that S&P downgraded the U.S. bond rating based on debt and inability to confront through budgetary reforms. A few months after the downgrading announcement the DOJ announced a $5 Billion lawsuit against S&P.
Last week a federal judge, David Carter, ordered the Justice Department to provide documents relevant to S&P’s contention of retaliation.   Not surprisingly this inconvenient legal matter skipped the nightly news cycle.
[Judge] Carter ruled that S&P was entitled to find out whether the administration’s angry reaction to the downgrade contributed to the decision to sue only S&P. The judge cited an August 2011 phone call allegedly placed by then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to Harold McGraw III, the chairman and chief executive officer of McGraw-Hill, S&P’s parent company.
In a sworn affidavit, McGraw said that Geithner deplored the downgrade as wrongheaded and unpatriotic. Carter said S&P deserved access to documents that might shed light on whether Geithner’s pique, as McGraw has described it, had any connection to the subsequent decision to sue S&P. (more…)

Answer for yourself what’s wrong with this story. 

Something about riots to gain $250 sneakers – contrast against the continual protestations of downtrodden and impoverished minority groups that need additional government assistance to survive – just seems to belay common sense.

(New York)  Police say a large crowd gathered outside a SoHo store for the release of a pricey new sneaker had to be dispersed when it spilled into the street.

Police say about 300 people lined up in front of the Supreme New York on Lafayette Street around 5 p.m. Wednesday. By 8 p.m., the crowd had nearly doubled. Police say they dispersed the crowd due to safety concerns. The store was closed at the time. (more…)

The official narrative, of course, is that “violence”, and especially “gun violence” is the provence of  “Angry White Male Conservative Christians”.  This is a meme the Prog-enthralled media repeat over and over again. Wash, lather, rinse, repeat.
So, let’s do a little recap, shall we?
In March of 2008, conservative columnist and commenter Michelle Malkin did an admirable job highlighting the long history of “anti-War”, “anti-Military” acts of violence (in most examples, specifically targeting military recruiters working in the civilian community) intended to inflict terror which specifically had its genesis in the far Left.
(more…)

A rash of banking suicides has people concerned.

NEW YORK – A 28-year old Manhattan investment banker has died in an apparent suicide, police sources said.

Kenneth Bellando, who worked at Levy Capital since January, was found dead on the sidewalk outside his East Side building on March 12 after allegedly jumping from the sixth-story roof, sources said.
Bellando, a former investment bank analyst at JPMorgan, is the son of John Bellando, chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Condé Nast. His brother, John, a top chief investment officer with JPMorgan, works on risk exposure valuations. (more…)