HotAir Daily Express 03/15/2013



Video: Former Secret Service agent accuses WH of throwing agents under the bus on tour cancellations 3/15/2013 10:01:12 AM  Ed Morrissey 3 Comments The White House’s public-relations campaign on the sequester keeps on paying dividends … to their opponents.  Yesterday, Neil Cavuto interviewed former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, who explained that the Secret Service has no More... China to Pope Francis: You’re not running things here, pal 3/15/2013 9:21:28 AM  Ed Morrissey 17 Comments George Weigel notes in his book Evangelical Catholicism that the popes of this era have more control over the episcopate than ever before.  Whereas entanglements with monarchies in the past limited the power of the Holy See to appoint bishops as it More... Ben Affleck … secret agent? 3/15/2013 8:41:47 AM  Ed Morrissey 21 Comments This is worth highlighting, if not for the story itself, then for an exposure of the nonsense behind the October-surprise conspiracy theory of the election of 1980.  The same “expert” who floated that theory now says that actor/director Ben More... WaPo: Federal grand jury has opened probe of Menendez 3/15/2013 8:01:14 AM  Ed Morrissey 17 Comments Looks like that pushback on the prostitution angle of the Robert Menendez scandal didn’t cut him any slack with federal prosecutors.  The Washington Post reported early this morning that a federal grand jury in Miami has begun a probe of the new More... Quotes of the day 3/14/2013 10:08:18 PM  Allahpundit 318 Comments The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a ban on the sale and manufacture of more than 150 types of semi-automatic weapons with military-style features Thursday in a party-line vote. The 10-8 vote came after a heated exchange between Sen. Dianne More... Pelosi: George Washington warned us about schemers like Paul Ryan 3/14/2013 9:28:30 PM  Mary Katharine Ham 91 Comments You know, men who would dare to balance the federal budget within 10-28 years, who would ravage federal programs with modest slow-downs in their increased spending, who would bend cost curves to the breaking point…like, four degrees or so. Joel More... Rick Perry at CPAC: How can the last two elections be a rejection of conservatism when we didn’t nominate conservatives? 3/14/2013 8:48:18 PM  Allahpundit 176 Comments Via Ace, skip to 17:00 for the money line. Judging from Drudge, against all odds on a day when both Rubio and Paul spoke, Perry seems to have walked away with the killer soundbite from CPAC. I don’t buy his argument, though. Obama won in 2008 More... Tim Scott at CPAC: “Having a job is a good thing, but creating jobs is a far better thing” 3/14/2013 8:08:31 PM  Erika Johnsen 23 Comments How’s the brand-new senator from South Carolina getting along? He made his first stand on the Senate floor in support of Rand Paul’s filibuster last week, and I challenge you to watch his CPAC speech from today and not A) laugh out loud, and More... Obama to Israeli TV: Iran’s a “year or so” away from having a bomb 3/14/2013 7:28:32 PM  Allahpundit 24 Comments The AP headlines this story, “Obama says Iran a year away from nuclear weapon.” Read the excerpt below. Is that what he’s saying, or is he saying that it would take them a year to build one if/when they get eventually cracking full-bore More... Andrea Mitchell: Let’s face it, Dianne Feinstein pwn3d Ted Cruz in that exchange on the Second Amendment 3/14/2013 6:48:48 PM  Allahpundit 192 Comments A little red meat to cleanse the palate via Mediaite. Given the network she’s on, there’s no other line Mitchell realistically could have taken on this. But even so, does it matter not at all that Feinstein couldn’t answer a very basic More... Jindal: No more income taxes for Louisiana 3/14/2013 6:08:02 PM  Erika Johnsen 59 Comments President Obama and the Democrats have been talking a big game about closing loopholes on “the wealthy,” “big oil companies,” “corporate jet owners” and all manner of greedy societal bottom-feeders (or something) as an More... Dick Morris at CPAC: It’s time for the GOP to give up on overturning Roe v. Wade 3/14/2013 5:28:02 PM  Allahpundit 103 Comments Dick Morris would never steer you wrong, would he? I’m going to trust that TPM has relayed his comments accurately, but if anyone has a transcript please send it along. The harder sell came in his next prescription: Give up on Roe v. Wade. In order More... Video: Vatican Dispatch 3/14/2013 4:48:23 PM  Ed Morrissey 34 Comments (VATICAN CITY) It’s been three days since I’ve been able to tape a Vatican Dispatch, thanks to enhanced security measures at the Vatican during the conclave and the election of Pope Francis last night.  The only video update I have been able More... Rubio at CPAC: “There is no tax increase in the world that will solve our long-term debt crisis” 3/14/2013 4:08:37 PM  Erika Johnsen 104 Comments There have been reports that the bipartisan group of senators working on an immigration plan have reached an agreement on a pathway to legal status to the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants, but Republicans dodged the issue earlier this week, More... Rand Paul at CPAC: “The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered” 3/14/2013 3:28:17 PM  Allahpundit 90 Comments If you can’t watch it all, pick it up at 16:00 as the big call for a new Republican Party begins. Very rarely do CPAC speeches surprise but Paul’s had a chance just because one never knows where his ongoing libertarian/conservative straddle More... Most transparent administration evah sorry for making journo delete photos 3/14/2013 2:48:45 PM  Mary Katharine Ham 28 Comments It was a college student journalist. You know how dangerous they can be. A staffer for Vice President Joe Biden demanded that a reporter delete photos he’d taken at an event in Rockville, Md., Tuesday. The vice president’s office later apologized to More... Jeb Bush: Take me off the CPAC presidential straw poll ballot 3/14/2013 2:08:13 PM  Allahpundit 49 Comments Supposedly he wants out because he’s uncomfortable with all the 2016 talk lately, but c’mon. He appeared on six Sunday shows last week to hawk his book, knowing full well that 95 percent of the interest in it is because he might be the More... Video: Dianne Feinstein not happy with Ted Cruz’s question on the Second Amendment 3/14/2013 1:21:08 PM  Allahpundit 316 Comments Via the Weekly Standard, this is worth watching less for the nuts and bolts of the constitutional dialogue than as evidence of how far Cruz has already gotten under Senate Democrats’ skin. Doesn’t take much here for Feinstein to get awfully More... Ed Schultz: I couldn’t be more excited to be exiled to weekend Siberia on MSNBC 3/14/2013 12:41:13 PM  Allahpundit 53 Comments Credit where it’s due: Rarely will you see a crap sandwich devoured with the sort of gusto displayed in the video below. If prior media reports are accurate, this is not a guy who’s reacted well in the past to seeing his profile at MSNBC More... Obama: Meh, the Keystone pipeline won’t really create jobs, you know 3/14/2013 12:01:15 PM  Erika Johnsen 93 Comments House Republicans’ big meeting with President Obama on the Hill yesterday didn’t yield any sudden changes of heart on reaching some kind of big deficit bargain (shocking, considering how pure and straightforward I’m sure the More... The Hill: That WH tour-canceling gambit sure is flopping, huh? 3/14/2013 11:21:59 AM  Ed Morrissey 63 Comments It’s not too difficult to come to that conclusion.  The Obama administration has gone from blaming Congress for the cancellation of tours, to blaming the Secret Service, to exonerating the Secret Service and griping about Congress again, without More... CPAC, Day 1: Marco Rubio, Rand Paul 3/14/2013 10:41:24 AM  Erika Johnsen 55 Comments SPRING BREAK! Well, you know, if you can call conservative politicians, leaders, reporters, and grassroots activists taking a few days to share their thoughts and visions for the Republican party, and more specifically this year, to review the dagger to More...