Um, toldyaso…   The architect of the Oval Office defense behind Fast and Furious, AND the architect of the Benghazi defense, Denis McDonough, is going to be rewarded with the office overlooking the Don Regan patio.

(Via The Hill) President Obama is leaning toward choosing Denis McDonough, currently a deputy national security adviser, as his next chief of staff, sources told Bloomberg.

McDonough, who worked on Obama’s 2008 campaign, is considered deeply loyal to the president. He was a longtime congressional aide who worked for Obama when he was a freshman senator. McDonough also served as foreign policy adviser to then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle (S.D.) and legislative director to then-Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), who is now the secretary of the Interior. (more…)

Someone help me out with something. What is the difference between “universal background checks” and “a national gun registry”?

(Via HuffPo WASHINGTON)  — Just days before Vice President Joe Biden issues a sweeping series of recommendations on gun policy Tuesday, the outline of his suggestions is coming into focus.

Multiple sources close to the talks tell The Huffington Post that the vice president will make universal background checks for all gun purchases the “top priority” of his suggestions. The idea has broad support among politicians in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, as well as backing from some traditionally pro-gun rights voices. The clearest sign that background checks will be the centerpiece of the Biden recommendations, however, is that a number of gun control advocacy groups have also deemed it such, as opposed to focusing their efforts on higher-profile measures, such as those that would limit the types of guns available for purchase. (more…)

Considering John O Brennan is nominated to head the CIA, Chuck Hagel is nominated to head the Department of Defense and John Kerry is nominated to be the next Secretary of State.   It may seem odd to align the Treasury Secretary pick with them.   Odd that is, until you remember:

Prior to his position as President Obama’s Chief of Staff, and prior to him being Obama’s Budget Director (comical considering Obama has never had a budget) Jack Lew served as State Department Director under Hillary Clinton.    It was Lew’s influence that shaped and positioned the failed Obama foreign policy toward the Middle East.   Specifically toward Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya during their upheavel, the Arab Spring.   How has that worked out for our interests ?

President Obama has presented his Chief of Staff, Jack Lew, as his nominee for Treasury Secretary.   Make no mistake, this is not a decision made with the economic interests of the United States in mind, this is a highly partisan decision made with the specific intent of finding methonds of spending that will work AROUND congress.

Senator Jeff Sessions is right when he calls Jack Lew a “liar”, but the issues with Lew are far larger than his intentional propensity to mislead:

As the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Lew has spent an inordinate amount of time honing one specific aspect of federal spending. (more…)

You keep hearing *them* in the gun control movement use the term “no-one is saying that” in regard to complete gun confiscation.   Why?  Because they need to seem more moderate than the argument they support.   Yes, indeed people are saying that…. yes.

Essentially… The Last Refuge (Treehouse) position has been sharing information, and connecting dots about gun control, based on historical research references into the ideological goals of the progressive left surrounding President Obama.

While we each have individual opinions on all the various aspects of gun ownership, that point, meaning our opinion, is essentially moot in regard to sharing this information.   The aspect we share is predictive in nature – meaning:

• ‘who are they’
• ‘what are they doing’
• ‘why are they doing it’, and…
• ‘what they will do’.

The economy, jobs, homelessness, hunger, inflationary impact of a diminished dollar, housing, energy costs, the price of gasoline, burdensome tax rates and a nation in financial crisis are irrelevant to President Obama.   FIRST, ACCEPT THAT.   They do not care about that stuff – it is an annoyance and irrelevant to the “why” behind their goals. (more…)

“The president is going to act,” said Biden, giving some comments to the press before a meeting with victims of gun violence. “There are executives orders, there’s executive action that can be taken. We haven’t decided what that is yet. But we’re compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and the rest of the cabinet members as well as legislative action that we believe is required.”

But you need a more heavy leverage to justify Executive Orders which circumvent legislation. Enter Joe Biden: Washington (CNN) – Vice President Joe Biden described his gun control effort as a “moral issue” when meeting with gun safety advocates and mass shooting victims on Wednesday morning.

“When I think of all the tragedies that we have endured, I don’t think anything has touched the heart of the American people so profoundly as seeing those and learning of those young children not only being shot but riddled with bullets,” he said, referring to the December 14 shooting at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.  (more)

Written by Matt Bracken

Dear Mr. Security Agent, Federal, state, or local. You, the man or woman with the badge, the sworn LEO or FLEA and those who inhabit the many law enforcement niches in between and on all sides. This essay is directed to you, because in the end, how this turmoil about gun control turns out will depend largely upon your decisions and actions over the coming months and years.

I sincerely wish that members of Congress—who may soon be voting on new gun control measures—would read this essay, but I realize that’s a pipe dream, considering the impenetrable bubbles around those exalted entities. So I’ll settle for you, Mr. (or Ms.) Security Agent, since you already gobble up everything on the internet, and I don’t have to seek you out.

A decade ago I wrote the novel Enemies Foreign and Domestic, a tale about how tragic events involving the misuse of firearms can be used by an evil administration to misinform and mold public opinion to support its malign anti-freedom policies. (more…)

If anyone wants to go back and look at historical references to Germany circa 1933/1934 this is profoundly similar in ideology.    Jewish Mayor Ed Koch supported, and endorsed, candidate Obama even though he knew Obama was hateful toward Israel.   Koch, says he figured Obama would win, so it would be better to support him and maybe Obama would go easier ‘on his’ people after the endorsement.

It’s like we’ve entered a time-warp back to the time of Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

Hitler knew his opponents were divided and couldn’t unite against him.  He would play them off each other brilliantly and would consolidate his power with breathtaking speed and a calculating ruthlesses for which no one was prepared.  On February 3 (still 1933) Goebbels wrote in his diary: “Now it will be easy to carry on the fight, for we can call on all the resources of the State.  Radio and press are at our disposal.  We shall stage a masterpiece of propaganda.  And this time, naturally, there is no lack of money.”  [ p. 145 of Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas]

In Discussing HAGEL – I admire former Mayor Ed Koch’s willingness to break with his own party on issues of principle, but his comments to the Algemeiner today are mind-boggling. In between some very strong denunciations of the Chuck Hagel nomination, Koch casually let it drop that he suspected Obama would abandon his pro-Israel positions after the election. The former mayor, of course, endorsed Obama’s reelection and served as one of his surrogates to the pro-Israel community: (more…)

The singular constants in an ever-changing universe…

….”revenue – taxes – investment, spend, revenue – taxes  – investment, spend, revenue – taxes – investment, spend, revenue – taxes – investment, spend, revenue – taxes investment, spend, revenue – taxes – investment, spend, revenue – taxes – investment, spend,”….

Sadly hilarious, in a predictable way…. we are only four days into the new year and already it appears five of our ten predictions for 2013 will come to fruition....

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has privately told other Democrats, including President Obama, that if the administration used its constitutional and executive authority to continue paying its debts in the face of House Republican opposition, he would support the approach, according to a source familiar with Reid’s message to the president.

The simplest escape route out of the debt ceiling impasse is for the president to direct the Treasury to find a legal way to pay its debts. The Treasury then has a variety of options. One gaining particular attention relies on a law that allows the Treasury to mint a coin of unspecified value and deposit it with the Federal Reserve. Those funds could then be used legally to pay debts. (more…)

Here is my best non-physician explanation, that reconciles the conflicting reports.   Hugo Chavez appears to have spinal metastases of the cancer.  This is the VERY end stage, like “very”, as in essentially immediate death without mechanical intervention to prolong life.   

The base of the brain (top of the spine) is where the respiratory functions are located.   With cancer in the spine there is no way to reverse the effect, and rapid tumor growth occurs.   Breathing ceases.  

Using a mechanical respirator prolongs the physical life, but it is a place from no return.   In essence he is dead, but heart function continues with blood flow supported by breathing from mechanical means.   So reports of his death are semi-accurate and simultaneously the reports of him being comatose are also accurate.   Why prolong his physical death? (see below).

(summary) He is Clinically Dead , and will not be officially announced till after the 10th because in Venezuela’s constitution it requires an election in the event the elected official is not able to be inaugurated in Jan 10th.

Sorry for weak translation but the original article is in Spanish  (link)

VENEZULA –  Hugo Chavez entered in recent days in an induced coma , with very weak vital   signs, maintained through the artificial[..]instance procured the Havana hospital where he was admitted.  Sources consulted by ABC said Monday that it had scheduled a next power of artificial support extending the life of the Venezuelan president . That disconnect, with results expected to die, could occur at any time. (more…)