It’s Sunday, December 30th, 2012….and here’s The Gouge, coming to you from Virginia Beach, where we’ll be ringing in the New Year.

First up, courtesy of Townhall.com, it’s the “NOW He Tells Us!” segment, courtesy of a misleader who burned 600,000 lbs. of JP-5 to interrupt his 75th vacation in 4 years and advise the country on a course of action his own intransigence had already rendered impossible:

Obama to Congress: The Time For Immediate Action on Fiscal Cliff is Now

 Obama demonstrates the amount of actual effort he’s expended to avoid the “fiscal cliff” he helped create. 

Yeah….NOW’S the time for immediate action; not back when the Dimocratic-controlled Senate failed to pass a budget for almost four years; not when The Obamao and Congress last kicked the can down the road and created the “fiscal cliff” in the first place….but NOW!

We must have imagined the Republican-led House passing two bills, the first extending the Bush tax cuts for everyone, the second reallocating the sequestration cuts, whilst Hairball Harry and Senate Dimocrats were, as Hope n’ Change put it:

Sitting On Their Asteroids

It increasingly seems like it’s all over but the screaming with regards to Americans’ hopes of not going over the so-called fiscal cliff. But there’s plenty of screaming.

After failing to pass a budget since, roughly speaking, the Lincoln administration (which is largely how we got into this current mess) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid complained that the Republicans weren’t doing their jobs…and, apparently forgetting to use Obama’s “words that heal instead of wound,” accused House Speaker John Boehner of being a “dictator.”

Perhaps because, much like Hitler, Boehner allowed Representatives to go home for Christmas where they’re “out watching movies and watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things” while waiting for any Democrat to make even a marginally serious offer to address our nation’s fiscal woes.

Meanwhile, the mainstream media is doing its best to put pressure on the Republicans. Only the Republicans. The NY Post, for instance, suggests that raising taxes on all Americans and implementing forced spending cuts will result in “financial Hell for every American,” a new recession, and a “criminal jump in unemployment.” We’re not sure if rivers will also run with blood and the skies fill with locusts, but it’s certainly possible if Republicans keep watching their kids play soccer and basketball instead of handing those same kids a few more trillion dollars in debt. (Note: the GOP is expected to return to Washington on Sunday, assuming there are no good football games on TV or gun shows to attend.)

With consequences so horrorific, you’d think the NY Post might take the advice of a financial expert like, oh, Barack Obama who said in 2009 that “the last thing you want to do is to raise taxes in the middle of a recession” – especially on those job creators with incomes of  $200,000 or more.

Because this is the one thing that the president insists is a non-negotiable issue, despite the fact that experts predict that this, too, will cause recession and job loss – while making no impact on our deficit whatsoever.

Indeed, Barack Hussein Obama’s only goal with his kamikaze fiscal cliff policy is to punish the evil rich and cripple their ability to do business. The fact that it will also create financial Hell for everyone else is simply a bonus in his pea-sized, Socialist brain.

Meanwhile, courtesy of Daniel Halper, The Weekly Standard and Drudge Report notes, as America sinks ever lower into the fiscal abyss….

Obama Orders Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers

“Not much of an increase, but an increase all the same,” Bier notes.

And the timing isn’t great either: Just as President Obama and Congress try to avert going over the “fiscal cliff,” he doles out pay increases to federal workers.

This is like the White Star Line giving Captain Smith a raise….albeit posthumously!

Next up, courtesy of Townhall.com, Katie Pavlich offers us the facts….just the facts….behind Feinstein’s gun-control fiction:

Feinstein Assault Weapons Ban Covers Rifles, Pistols and Shotguns

The New Year is just around the corner and although the Senate still hasn’t made a fiscal cliff deal, Senator Diane Feinstein already has parts of new gun control legislation ready to go. Two Sunday’s ago on NBC’s Meet the Press, Feinstein talked about giving President Obama a bill he can “lead on” and used the term assault weapon loosely.

That was then….

….THIS is now!

Feinstein has posted a summary of what the legislation will cover, which inculdes a ban on semi-automatic handguns and shotguns in addition to rifles. The legislation also requires registration of previously purchased guns. If passed, ATF would be in charge of enforcement which should be a huge concern to gun owners.

Bans the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacturing of:       

120 specifically-named firearms;       

-Certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one or     more military characteristics; and       

-Semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds.
-Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by:
-Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test;
-Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test; and
-Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans.
-Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds.

Protects legitimate hunters and the rights of existing gun owners by:

-Grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment;
-Exempting over 900 specifically-named weapons used for hunting or sporting purposes; and
-Exempting antique, manually-operated, and permanently disabled weapons

Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include:

-Background check of owner and any transferee;
-Type and serial number of the firearm;
-Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint;
-Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that possession would not violate State or local law; and
-Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration.

The key here is that Feinstein made sure to throw a clause in about “protecting legitimate hunters and the rights of existing gun owners,” yet wants them treated as if they are guilty by requiring massive gun registration and fingerprinting for firearms that have been lawfully purchased. The legislation covers a ton of ground. Nearly every semi-automatic handgun in the United States has a detachable magazine. It is important to keep in mind the term “assault weapon” is a made up political term that doesn’t belong to any specific weapon. The term is typically used in reference to semi-automatic rifles however, any weapon can be used to assault someone, which is why Feinstein has been able to throw handguns and shotguns into her new assault weapons ban.

On another note, who decides what a “legitimate hunter” is? This could become a dangerous gray area considering many people do not hunt every year but only on occasion. What will the qualifications be in order to be considered a legitimate hunter? The hunting argument is often used by pro-gun control advocates as their way of “coming to the middle” on the issue, but in reality the Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting.

Feinstein’s legislation will be introduced in January at the beginning of the New Congress. The wolves are at the door.

Confiscation is just around the corner.

And in the “MSM Bias….WHAT Bias?!?” segment, Balls Cotton forwarded yet another story you’ll never get from the Fourth Estate:….

Deputy awarded Medal of Valor for shooting movie theater gunman

No offense to Sgt. Castellano, but we’d be willing to bet were we in her place, we wouldn’t have required another officer’s help in “apprehending” the suspect after shooting him “multiple times”.  So if off-duty cops of no particular skill or abilities receive medals of valor for taking down homicidal maniacs, would someone please explain why ordinary citizens possessed of equal if not superior skills should be prohibited from acting in similar fashion?

In a related item, the latest bit of International News of Note….

China requires Internet users to register names

Can the banning of internet access and computers be far behind….particularly as they already have all the guns?!?

Speaking of things needing to be banned, here’s another everyday item which can be added to Mayor Booberg’s list of items banned for New Yorkers’ own good:

‘Mumbling woman’ pushes man to his death in front of NYC subway train

For New York City, it wasn’t an unusual sight: a possibly mentally ill woman pacing and mumbling to herself on an elevated subway station platform. The woman eventually took a seat on a bench Thursday night, witnesses later said. Then, without any warning or provocation, she sprang up and used both hands to shove a man into the path of an oncoming train.

As police sought on Friday to locate the unidentified woman, Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged residents to keep the second fatal subway shove in the city this month in perspective. The news of the horrific death of a 46-year-old man from India came as the mayor touted drops in the city’s annual homicide and shooting totals. “It’s a very tragic case, but what we want to focus on today is the overall safety in New York,” Bloomberg told reporters following a police academy graduation.

The New York Police Department released a sketch of the woman and surveillance video of her fleeing the area and interviewed witnesses, including some who described her as acting agitated before the attack.

Some witnesses said the man had been shielding himself from the cold by waiting in a stairwell before he ventured out onto the platform to see if the train was coming. They also said he had no interaction with the woman, who immediately darted down a stairway after she pushed him.

….Bloomberg, asked earlier Friday about the episode at a station on Queens Boulevard in the Sunnyside neighborhood, pointed to legal and policy changes that led to the release of many mentally ill people from psychiatric institutions from the 1960s through 1990s. “The courts or the law have changed and said, no, you can’t do that unless they’re a danger to society; our laws protect you. That’s fair enough,” Bloomberg said on “The John Gambling Show with Mayor Mike” on WOR-AM.

There are no barriers separating the trains from the people on the city’s subway platforms, and many people fall or jump to their deaths in front of rushing trains each year. Though shoving deaths are rare, Thursday night’s killing came just weeks after a man was pushed in front of a train in Times Square. A homeless man was charged with murder and is awaiting trial.

Other high-profile cases including the 1999 fatal shoving of Kendra Webdale, an aspiring screenwriter, by a former psychiatric patient. That case led to a state law allowing for more supervision of mentally ill people living outside institutions.

One of who just happens to be occupying Gracie Mansion.

And in Tales From the Darkside, another Lower Moment in Higher Education, courtesy of a….

Clemson student’s turtle project takes dark twist

Clemson University student Nathan Weaver just wanted to put together a project to help figure out the best way to assist turtles in crossing the road. But he also ended up with a peek into the dark souls of some human beings.

Weaver put realistic-looking rubber turtles, no bigger than a saucer, in the middle of a lane on a busy road near campus. Then he got out of the way and watched as over the next hour, seven drivers intentionally ran over the turtle, and several more appeared to try to hit the defenseless animal, but missed.

“It was a bit surprising. I’ve heard of people and from friends who knew people that ran over turtles. But to see it out here like this was a bit shocking,” said Weaver, a 22-year-old senior in Clemson’s School of Agricultural, Forest and Environmental Sciences. But to seasoned researchers, the targeting of turtles and other reptiles isn’t surprising. The number of box turtles is on a slow decline, with one prominent reason being the riskiness of crossing the road because the trip takes several minutes.

And even in today’s more enlightened, modern world, sometimes humans feel a need to prove they are the dominant species on this planet by taking a two-ton metal vehicle and squishing a defenseless animal under the tires, said Hal Herzog, a Western Carolina University psychology professor.

“They aren’t thinking, really. It is not something people think about. It just seems fun at the time,” Herzog said. “It is the dark side of human nature.”

Welcome to reality, Mr. Weaver.

On the Lighter Side….

And in the Sports Section….

Rex Ryan: I want to be Jets coach for ‘next 15 years’

Yeah….and we want to play point guard for the Lakers through 2020, start in the pole position at Daytona and be the first man on Mars.

Finally, we’ll call it a year with another titillating tale ripped from the pages of the Crime Blotter:

College Student Granted Restraining Order Against Own Parents

Are you a parent? Has your child ever accused you of meddling? While such accusations are many times levied on a whim, you may want to pay attention to this story and weigh in.

There’s a term out there called “helicopter parents” — moms and dads who do more than just take an interest in their kids, but try to dictate their every move, take an interest in every detail, and even live vicariously through their sons and daughters. Twenty-one year old Aubrey Ireland knows the type full well. That’s because she just won a restraining order case against her parents who have taken the idea of being involved to a whole new extreme.

Aubrey is a senior actress at the University of Cincinnati’s prestigious College-Conservatory of Music. This fall, she finally had it with her overbearing parents. The school was tired of it, too, having witnessed the odd behavior for years. After Aubrey filed a civil stalking case against them and the judge heard the details, he agreed to order Aubrey’s parent to stay away.

So what were they doing? The Cincinnati Inquirer has the surprising accusations, which include the parents installing tracking software on Aubrey’s electronics (emphasis added):

Despite her good grades and success in musical shows, David and Julie Ireland often drove 600 miles from Leawood, Kan., to visit their daughter unannounced. They accused her of using illegal drugs, promiscuity and suffering from mental woes. She insisted none of that was true and asked them to stop, but their accusations escalated. They informed her department head she had mental issues that could force them to go to court to have her treated.

The parents knew about what they saw as their daughter’s problems because, they admit, they installed monitoring software on her laptop and cellphone, allowing them to see her every keystroke and phone number dialed or received. It was “like I was a dog with a collar on,” said the daughter, a dean’s list student every quarter.

The parents became such an issue that the school hired security guards to keep them out of their daughter’s performances. When the parents stopped paying her tuition because she’d cut off all contact with them, the school gave her a full scholarship for her final year.

“It’s just been really embarrassing and upsetting to have my parents come to my university when I’m a grown adult and just basically slander my name and follow me around,” the accomplished young actress said in court.

Her mother responded: “She’s an only child who was catered to all her life by loving parents. We’re not bothering her. We’re not a problem.”

Welcome to the club; The Obamao doesn’t think he’s the problem either!

Magoo