Dan Calabrese

AP: Darn it, Republican state lawmakers refuse to force people into ObamaCare exchanges

At first glance, given the headline "Obama health law anniversary finds 2 Americas," you might think John Edwards has been hired to write for the AP. And really, what would be the difference between him and Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar? The latter has been pimping for, er, "covering" news related to ObamaCare since the legislative debate over the law. He has always taken a dim view of arguments that the law is not everything its advocates claim it is.

Latest Obama gun control rationale: John Lennon’s bloody glasses

Days after the assault rifle ban died in the Senate, having failed to win the support of even 40 senators, President Obama is proving himself completely devoid of shame in his willingness to exploit emotion on this issue.

Media grudgingly admits people could just cut down on sugary drinks on their own

Their default presumption about everything is that government must do something, which is why the media - in this case, ABC's Katie Moisse - presents the aside as such an afterthought. Oh no! Sugary drinks kill 25,000! What should government do?

Sounds like China spies on us a little

It's a comforting thought when you tell yourself that, in the post-Cold War era, we really don't have any enemies in the world. Delusion feels great for as long as you can sell it to yourself.

Congress to Postal Service: Keep losing billions, we insist

It's hard to find a better example of just how steeped Washington has become in the thinking that brought us to this fiscal nightmare. The U.S. Postal Service is losing $15.9 billion a year. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe proposes to cut back on Saturday home delivery to save $2 billion a year. Of course, Congress can order it to cancel that plan and let the red ink keep flowing. And of course, Congress will do exactly that.

David Gregory serves Dem talking points by obsessing over ‘ratios’

If you watched Meet the Press yesterday (and if not, see the video below), you saw that David Gregory pushed House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy pretty hard over the matter of the "ratio" of spending cuts and tax increases as a way of reducing the deficit.

Tell Vladimir the capitulation is complete

Lest you forget, Obama always intended to cave on European missile defense systems. That's why he reneged on the U.S. commitment to install them in Poland and the Czech Republic as soon as he took office.

Obama: You know, that White House tour decision wasn’t me

As usual: Don't blame him! If you've got White House tour cancellations, he didn't build that. Someone else made that happen:

Big government: The left is winning the argument

A day after Paul Ryan proposed his 10-year budget plan, as I ponder the absurdity of Washington doing the sky-is-falling routine over a budget that increases spending by 3.4 percent a year, it occurs to me that the left is presently wiping the floor with those who advocate limited government.

Why did Obama pardon this drug dealer?

Barack Obama does not have a terrible record when it comes to granting presidential pardons. He has rejected far more requests than he has granted, and in fact he has been more stingy than George W. Bush. So I'm not going to sit here and tell you Obama is using the power of the pardon to let criminals run wild across the country. He isn't.

Carl Levin stops us before we elect him again

After 35 years in the U.S. Senate, Carl Levin has finally done for Michigan what the bumbling Michigan Republican Party could never do, which is to bring about his retirement.

Obama to Ryan: Tell your friends to stop asking for real budgets

Most of the media are focused on the mere fact that President Obama and Paul Ryan are having lunch together at all. (Democrat Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is going to be there too, but where's the intrigue in mentioning that?)

What if Kim Jong Un actually does try to nuke us?

Of course Bowl Cut Jr. is crazy. Of course he blusters all the time. Of course North Korea pulls this crap every time they want relief from economic sanctions, more food aid, whatever. Of course no self-respecting pundit is going to invite ridicule by saying, oh dear, maybe they mean it this time.

Sequester-ravaged federal government: We’re hiring!

One of the available jobs is pressing coins at the Mint. Of course. If you have skills in the money-printing field, you can probably find work in Washington these days. But it doesn't stop there. Office receptionist at the IRS? Recreational aide with the Parks Service?

Markets oddly disinclined to join sequester freakout

These are the people who used to go nuts buying or selling over a bomb blast in Iraq. It's not as if they're lacking in sensitivity. But Wall Street doesn't seem too bothered by the sequester. After closing at a record 14,273, the markets appear more concerned about what China is doing than about those Capitol Hill janitors who might not get as much overtime or something.

Is Time Magazine a collection of journalistic buffoons and propagandists?

The answer? Who knows? What difference does it make? Following the journalistic example of Time Magazine itself, I can put any question I want in a headline. Such as: Did U.S. Special Forces Commit Atrocities in a Key Afghan Province?

Did Bob Woodward invent the President’s supposed ‘threat’?

This morning at 8:00 AM, I ran this piece regarding Bob Woodward's claim that the White House threatened him over his reporting on the sequester. About half an hour later, The Politico ran what it claims are the emails in question and it seems Bob is, at best, hypersensitive. At worst, he's manufactured the supposed "threat" for publicity.

White House: Government careerists are releasing prisoners without telling us

It's hardly a surprise, of course, that Jay Carney now tries to deflect responsibility for ICE's decision to release illegal immigrants in anticipation of the sequester. Obama can't exactly admit he is intentionally inflicting havoc on the country to make a political point. He needs to make it look like it's coming from forces outside his control:

Home Depot’s Bernie Marcus: It’s the NLRB vs. job creators

The Wall Street Journal published a very instructive piece a few days ago from Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus, who along with the boss co-founded Job Creators Network - an organization that seeks to educate Americans about how jobs are really created by risk-takers in the free enterprise system, and how big government almost always acts as an impediment to this.

Media dutifully joins Obama freakout over ‘massive’ cuts

I often say that the biggest problem with the media is not their left-wing bias, although that is certainly a problem. The biggest problem is that they’re dumb. I suppose lazy goes hand-in-hand with dumb, so feel free to attribute any of the above to what they’re doing at the moment with respect to the sequester.