Syria using chemical weapons, meh. Russia invading Crimea, eh, oh well. Iran developing nuclear weapons, meh2.0. But a faux controversy about a possible cyber attack in Hollywood, which has controversial footprints looing more like an inside job at Sony, and watch out, here comes the xo pen – now things are serious…
WASHINGTON DC – The Obama administration on Friday imposed a wave of sanctions against members of the North Korean government, amounting to the U.S. government’s first official response to the cyber-attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Despite lingering questions from private security analysts over whether North Korea was responsible for the hack — as the FBI has alleged — the White House described the new sanctions as retaliation against Pyongyang.
“We take seriously North Korea’s attack that aimed to create destructive financial effects on a U.S. company and to threaten artists and other individuals with the goal of restricting their right to free expression,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement. “As the president has said, our response to North Korea’s attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment will be proportional, and will take place at a time and in a manner of our choosing. Today’s actions are the first aspect of our response.” (more…)

This next step continues the previously outlined Nine Stages Of Outrage – Obamacare 

(Via CNN )The next Obamacare controversy is right around the corner.
Obamacare enrollees who received subsidies to help pay for coverage will soon have to reconcile how much they actually earned in 2014 with how much they estimated when they applied many, many months ago.
This will likely lead to some very unhappy Americans. Those who underestimated their income either will receive smaller tax refunds or will owe the IRS money.
That’s because subsidies are actually tax credits and are based on annual income, but folks got their 2014 subsidy before knowing exactly what they’d make in 2014. So you’ll have to reconcile the two with the IRS during the upcoming tax filing season.
It won’t be surprising if many enrollees guessed wrong. The sign up period began in October 2013 and many people did not know what they’d earn in 2014. Some went off what they earned in 2012.  (read more)

(Via Truth Revolt) The outgoing Governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley (D)—who also happens to be a possible 2016 presidential candidate—has commuted the sentences of the state’s remaining death row inmates.
Last year, Maryland’s death penalty was repealed, which O’Malley cited in a statement Wednesday as the basis for his decision:
“Recent appeals and the latest opinion on this matter by Maryland’s Attorney General have called into question the legality of carrying out earlier death sentences — sentences imposed prior to abolition,” O’Malley said. “In fact, the Attorney General has opined that the carrying out of prior sentences is now illegal in the absence of an existing statute. The question at hand is whether any public good is served by allowing these essentially un-executable sentences to stand.” (read more)

Wringing out 2014 – This is the second time this month that Democrat Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane has appeared in the headlines. In the first example she was the cause of shutting down a bribery and corruption sting operation in Philadelphia because only Black Politicians were taking the bribes. In this example Kane is blaming the victim of workplace rape for not locking her door, the only problem is there were no door locks.

PENNSYLVANIA – The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office is blaming a woman for getting raped by an inmate while at work at a state prison, saying she should have locked the door to her office. The prisoner has a history of rape, including of a woman at another jail.
The 24-year-old state prison clerk is suing over her rape at a central Pennsylvania prison. The defendants include the state Department of Corrections and three employees. The woman worked at the Rockview prison near Bellefonte in 2013 when she was attacked by inmate Omar Best, a criminal with three prior convictions for sex-related crimes. Best had been transferred to Rockview after committing a felony assault on a female prison worker at a different facility. (more…)

If you are going out, be careful.  Apparently there are numerous locations where FTP riots/protests and events are planned for tonight.  My recommendation would be to stay home and be safe this year.

(Via BizPac) Cops are going to have to watch out for more than drunk drivers New Year’s Eve celebrations around the country promise to be even more raucous – and potentially dangerous — than usual this year, with race-mongering radicals planning mass disruptions to protest what they call routine police abuse of blacks. The group behind the website Stop Mass Incarceration has helpfully put together a listing of planned “actions” nationwide under the heading, “Rock in the New Year with Resistance to Police Murder.” There’s a whole nonsensical bill of particulars about the reasons for protesting, starting with “business as usual in Amerikkka includes wanton police murder of Black people.” (more…)

It appears the New York Police are taking “safety first” seriously.

NEW YORK – It’s not a slowdown — it’s a virtual work stoppage.
NYPD traffic tickets and summonses for minor offenses have dropped off by a staggering 94 percent following the execution of two cops — as officers feel betrayed by the mayor and fear for their safety, The Post has learned.
The dramatic drop comes as Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio plan to hold an emergency summit on Tuesday with the heads of the five police unions to try to close the widening rift between cops and the administration.
The unprecedented meeting is being held at the new Police Academy in Queens at 2 p.m., sources said.
Angry union leaders have ordered drastic measures for their members since the Dec. 20 assassination of two NYPD cops in a patrol car, including that two units respond to every call. (more…)

Typical progressive.  When faced with blistering criticism -of his own creation- from the New York Police Department, team De Blasio works feverishly to get people to stand up attack the police and defend him publicly.
NEW YORK CITY – While Mayor Bill de Blasio was personally coaxing the city’s police union presidents to meet with him, his top aides were on the phones with lawmakers urging them to blast PBA President Patrick Lynch and other officers for turning their backs on the mayor following the assassinations of two of New York’s Finest, DNAinfo New York has learned.
As late as Monday afternoon — the same time de Blasio was speaking with police union leaders to set up Tuesday’s détente to possibly mend their fractured relationship — the mayor’s government affairs honchos were privately cold-calling the city’s Democratic delegation of city and state elected officials, asking them to publicly criticize Lynch and those officers who dissed the mayor. (more…)

Given the contrast evident amid the racial grievance industry, and the more recent violent tendencies exhibited, it should come as no surprise that Lesley McSpadden would be heralded as a representative for hatred, violence and poor decision making.
Strange, strange times…...
SAINT LOUIS – The St. Louis County NAACP recognized Lesley McSpadden, mother of Michael Brown Jr., during the branch’s fifth annual Jazz Brunch on Saturday, December 20. McSpadden, joined at the event by several members of the Brown family, was privately presented with a check for an undisclosed amount.
It was a small “love token” of their appreciation, said John Gaskin III, local NAACP youth leader and national NAACP board member, “to let her know that she’s loved and that the county civil rights organization is remaining true to the fight for justice for her and her family.”
The event was held at the Ritz-Carlton in Clayton – a short distance away from where a St. Louis County grand jury chose not to indict then Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in Brown’s fatal shooting on August 9. (more…)

It would appear the teddy bear and soccer ball crowd grabbed their goodies and disappeared into the 57 forests.

(Via National Review Online) Once again, local-TV investigative reporters are showing up their national counterparts.
Recall that this summer the administration insisted the thousands of Central American illegal immigrants it was waving across the border would be put into deportation proceedings and those who did not qualify for asylum would be removed. You’d think, then, that there’d be bigshot D.C. journalists interested in finding out how many actually bothered to attend their immigration hearings.
You’d be wrong. (more…)

(New York Daily News) President Obama said he was left in the dark about pushing an Army couple from their wedding venue when he took over a Hawaii golf course Sunday.
“I feel terrible. Nobody told us,” Obama told the newlyweds, Army captains Natalie Heimel and Edward Mallue Jr., about forcing them to relocate their nuptials at the Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course, located on Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
Heimel and Mallue, an avid golfer, had planned to say “I do” on the 16th hole Sunday — until Obama decided to stop by the links.
In 24 hours, the ceremony was moved to another grassy section on base that overlooked the coast.
“We knew there were two things that could mess up the wedding. One was weather and the other was the President,” the bride told NBC News. (read more)