{"id":23575,"date":"2013-11-11T19:58:42","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T00:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=23575"},"modified":"2013-11-11T19:59:09","modified_gmt":"2013-11-12T00:59:09","slug":"the-daily-gouge-tuesday-november-12th-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thedailygouge.com\/?p=23575","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Gouge, Tuesday, November 12th, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s Tuesday, November 12th, 2013…and here’s The Gouge!<\/strong><\/p>\n

First up, in the “Speak for Yourself, Lurch!” segment, the densest cloud ever to envelop Foggy Bottom assures the world… <\/strong><\/p>\n

Kerry: United States not ‘blind’ or ‘stupid’ in Iran talks<\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Presentation1-e13777009357541\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For once, Kerry is right<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0 It’s not<\/em><\/span> the United States<\/em><\/span> which is blind or stupid in its interactions with Iran; just the idiots…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"130826_obama_kerry_hagel_power_rice_mcdonough_ap_605\"<\/a><\/p>\n

…conducting the conversation!\u00a0 Whooda thunk we’d ever be thanking the French, at least for now, for riding to our rescue for the first time since the Battle of the Virginia Capes?!?
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of the most inept foreign policy team to threaten American security since the Carter years… <\/strong><\/p>\n

America’s top UN diplomat has high praise for ‘Hanoi Jane’<\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"2CF31416FCBE98EE790E116ADA213_h316_w628_m5_caWFxAAHD\"<\/a><\/p>\n

New U.S. ambassador to the UN Samantha Power didn’t waste her diplomatic skills on Vietnam veterans at a New York speech, praising actress Jane Fonda for “being outspoken on behalf” of her convictions. \u00a0 \u201cHi everybody,\u201d Power said, according to a transcript. \u201cYou know life has changed when you\u2019re hanging out with Jane Fonda backstage. There is no greater embodiment of being outspoken on behalf of what you believe in \u2014 and being ‘all in’ in every way \u2014 than Jane Fonda. And it\u2019s a huge honor just to even briefly have shared the stage with her<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Further proof birds of a feather…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jane<\/a>\"intel130624_samantha_power_560\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

…really do<\/em><\/span>…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jane_Fonda_Kerry_1970_25\"<\/a>\"dt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls\"<\/a><\/p>\n

…flock together!\u00a0 That she’s married to Cass Sunstein should come as no surprise.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more on The Dear Misleader and the liars he hires, we turn to\u00a0Commentary Magazine<\/em>, where Jonathan Tobin details how and why…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Obama Is Lying About Iran Sanctions<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"obama_iran_crossing_fingers_big_11-7-13-2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

…Like the clandestine manner with which the administration has already weakened the existing sanctions, this<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0(which France, thankfully, rejected)<\/strong><\/span> deal breaks a promise the president made to the American people as well as to our allies<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong> <\/span>All Americans as well as Israelis and moderate Arabs worried about the Iranian threat have to hold on to now are more of Obama\u2019s promises. But with a presidential credibility gap that is currently as big as the Grand Canyon, anyone who takes him at his word without a look at the fine print is making a colossal error.<\/span> <\/strong><\/span> \u00a0 http:\/\/www.commentarymagazine.com\/2013\/11\/08\/obama-is-lying-about-iran-sanctions\/ <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Turning now to the domestic front, Seth Mandel offers his thoughts on The Apology That Wasn’t, aka, The Great Prevaricator’s most recent lie straight in the face of the American public:<\/strong><\/p>\n

His Excellency Regrets<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"ObamaCare_Lies_Left_Silence_01_320x275\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There have been several pithy reactions to President Obama\u2019s \u201capology\u201d for having misled the American people on the basic promises of ObamaCare. But the one that gets closest, I think, to the public mood is Dennis Miller\u2019s take: \u201cMr. President, if you liked your apology you can keep it.\u201d In the wake of the disastrous ObamaCare rollout and the confirmation that Obama made false promises in order to pass legislation that would negatively impact millions, some liberals tried to argue that the promises don\u2019t matter: the policy\u2019s legacy will rest on whether it works. That\u2019s true enough in the long term, though it\u2019s worth pointing out that the policy \u201cworking\u201d is actually quite harmful to a broad swath of the country, so defining its success won\u2019t be so simple for the administration\u2019s defenders.<\/p>\n

In the near term, this defense misses the impact on Obama\u2019s approval numbers and those of his party\u2019s congressional delegation, and thus on his and their political capital. Americans have no good reason to trust what Obama says anymore, and I think that has some practical implications.<\/strong><\/span> But it\u2019s true that in the long run the popularity of the policy will depend less on the arguments employed to enact it. And that is where Miller\u2019s response comes in. The American people are due far more than an apology (though, as apologies go, this one was lawyered into the ground). They deserve a change in the policy.<\/strong> Will they get it?<\/span> Perhaps we can look for clues as to whether the president intends on righting this wrong in his \u201capology\u201d statement, in response to a question from NBC\u2019s Chuck Todd:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"obamasellingwhoppersandlies\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

You know\u2013 I regret very much that\u2013 what we intended to do, which is to make sure that everybody is moving into better plans because they want \u2019em, as opposed to because they\u2019re forced into it. That, you know, we weren\u2019t as clear as we needed to be\u2013 in terms of the changes that were taking place. And I want to do everything we can to make sure that people are finding themselves in a good position\u2013 a better position than they were before this law happened.<\/em><\/p>\n

Keep in mind that most of the folks who are going to\u2013 who got these c\u2013 cancellation letters, they\u2019ll be able to get better care at the same cost or cheaper in these new marketplaces.<\/span><\/em>\u00a0 Because they\u2019ll have more choice. <\/em><\/strong><\/span> They\u2019ll have more competition. <\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/em> So\u2013 the majority of folks will end up being better off, of course, because the website\u2019s not working right.<\/strong><\/span> <\/em><\/p>\n

\"The-ObamaCare-Rollout\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not going to be very reassuring. Part of the problem with ObamaCare is that it\u2019s quite difficult for the president to be truthful about any part of it, because he sold the (shoddy) reform on false premises.<\/strong><\/span> So Todd asks Obama if the people deserve an apology from him, and his response begins immediately with another baldly false claim<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/strong><\/span> The intention, he says, was for people to be shifted onto different plans\u2013an acknowledgement that he intended for people to lose their insurance from the beginning\u2013by their own choice, not \u201cbecause they\u2019re forced into it.\u201d<\/strong><\/span> This is, as we know, completely untrue<\/span>.<\/span><\/strong> <\/span><\/em>Between all the mandates and the new requirements, the entire structure of ObamaCare is built on coercion. You are \u201cforced\u201d by law to buy a policy whether you want to or not, and you are \u201cforced\u201d by law to abandon your old plan if Obama doesn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n

But words can mean whatever Obama wants them to mean in the brave new world of the liberal welfare state.<\/strong><\/span> So it may seem like people are being \u201cforced\u201d into the uncharted waters of the health-insurance exchanges, but that\u2019s because they don\u2019t see it the way the president does. Obama says they\u2019ll have more choice once they do what the government forces them to do against their will.<\/span> True choice<\/em><\/span>, to the statist<\/em>, begins once the government has control<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"obamacare-website-pay-the-fine-political-cartoon\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And in the last part, just before his \u201capology,\u201d the president dishonestly downplays the number of people who will be affected by this and then explains that the people who are upset\u2013and he\u2019s sorry they\u2019re in this situation, which he painstakingly planned\u2013just don\u2019t know how much better off they\u2019ll be when (if?) the website ever starts working. So we\u2019re back to the argument that, according to Obama, it\u2019s for their own good<\/em><\/span>.<\/strong><\/span> It\u2019s unclear whether, at this point, even the president believes that, but it\u2019s doubtful ObamaCare\u2019s victims do.<\/p>\n

But as James Taranto reports, the bigger the lies, the greater the effort of Der Obafuhrer’s disciples to convince us up is down:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"perfect-disguise-100\"<\/a><\/p>\n

…Then there’s an op-ed from New York’s Daily News by Michael Cohen of the Century Foundation:<\/p>\n

In selling the health-care plan that bears his name, President Obama has, according to the fact-checking website Politifact, said at least 34 times that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” That statement was not completely true, and it’s a lie that is today causing the President no end of political headaches.<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Oddly, in one sentence, he goes from the “not completely true” equivocation to the straight-up acknowledgment it was a “lie”.\u00a0 But then he tries to justify the lie as follows:<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Still, before we fully castigate the President for his rhetorical flights of fancy, it’s important to keep in mind that Obama was–to a large degree–telling Americans what they wanted to hear.<\/strong><\/span> In fact, he was giving them the type of comforting assurances they insist upon getting before backing any major policy change from Washington.<\/em><\/p>\n

So we’re right back to equivocation with “rhetorical flights of fancy.” But we mustn’t “fully castigate the president because he was “telling Americans what they wanted to hear” and “giving them…comforting assurances.”<\/p>\n

Surely Bernie Madoff, when he was swindling his clients, also gave them<\/em><\/span> the comforting assurances they wanted to hear.\u00a0 That is the nature<\/em><\/span> of a swindle — yet Cohen asks us to accept it as a mitigating factor<\/em><\/span>?<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course; as that is the nature of propaganda…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"lenin-lie-told-often\"<\/a><\/p>\n

…propagated to pettifog purposeful prevarication!<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the Lighter Side…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"mrz111013dAPC20131109094514\"<\/a>\"image003\"<\/a>\"131107justwordsRGB20131107075051\"<\/a>\"kn110913dAPR20131108024513\"<\/a>\"sk110813dAPR20131107094539\"<\/a>\"kn111013dAPR20131108064530\"<\/a>\"aria_c11349620131108120100\"\"h7A14C324\"<\/a> \"h50FB3EC1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And in <\/span>Tales From the Darkside, courtesy of the New York Post<\/em> and George Lawlor, we learn an enterprising…<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Politician wins election by pretending to be\u00a0black<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n