Brandon

Friday, January 31, 2014

Obama's "16 Words:" Syria Cheats on Chemical Weapons Agreement and Everyone But Obama Knows About It!

If George Bush had said something as patently false as this latest Obama whooper in a State of the Union Address the whole country would have heard about it!

Remember in 2003 President George Bush said these famous 16 words in his State of the Union Address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Liberals pounced and accused Bush of lying. Next they ginned up the whole Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson affair which went on for years and involved a Special Prosecutor and Grand Jury crippling the Bush White House. Never mind that Plame and Wilson were discredited as partisan hacks or that Bush's statement was actually true. (1,2,3)

Well that was then and this is now. No one seems to care when Obama tells a real whopper or when his Administration is accused of misdeeds. There is no Special Prosecutor and Obama's Department of Justice simply ignores calls for any investigation.

For example, here's what Obama said in his 2014 State of the Union Address: "American diplomacy, backed by the threat of force, is why Syria’s chemical weapons are being eliminated." 16 words. The only problem is that everyone in Obama's Administration knew the words were not true the moment Obama said them. From the New York Times (not Fox News, not Rush Limbaugh):
The United States sharply criticized Syria on Thursday over delays in the timetable for eliminating its chemical weapons, accusing the Syrian government of deliberately stalling their removal from the country to gain bargaining leverage and — in a new complaint — reneging on a pledge to destroy the 12 facilities that produced them.
It turns out that only 4% of Syria's declared stocks of chemical weapons (how much they have not declared is not clear but the weapons are not hard to hide) have been shipped out of the country for destruction at sea. Both the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense have been sounding the warning. Certainly both would have told the White House the statement Obama made on Tuesday was false before he said it. Both State and Defense review relevant portions of the address and provide feedback. How did these 16 words get in?

Then there's this claim about Iran: "As we gather here tonight, Iran has begun to eliminate its stockpile of higher levels of enriched uranium." 18 words. Again, not at all true. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and other top Iranian officials have denied any such concession. Again, the New York Times admits that "Iran retains the technology and material to produce fuel for a weapon for now."

Is Obama so isolated that he believes what he said in the State of the Union speech? Or, is he just lying again? Either way, it's not good news. It means he is as likely to pay the necessary attention to these issues of war and peace as he did to the implementation of ObamaCare. If he lives in a world of fantasy where he believes his words translate into action then we are in for a very bumpy ride these next three years!

Q: What's Wrong with V.P. Joe Biden

A: Quite a lot but this new twist is more bizarre than usual for Joe!

By now, we're used to Vice President Biden saying stupid things. But during the State of the Union speech Joe had to remain silent and sit behind the President with House Speaker John Boehner. Still, Joe found a way to get into the act:



If I didn't know better I might think he snorted a bunch of cocaine before coming out. Heck, that might explain a lot of what Joe does!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Some Things You Won't Hear at the State of the Union Address

You'll hear a LOT of talk about action but you won't hear much about all the previous promises to get something done!

At Bloomberg News writer Julianna Goldman interviewed a number of the people Obama has used as "props" for photo ops to show how much he cares about the problems of ordinary people. For many, the "thrill" of an Obama visit has long faded and yet the problems he sought to address and in many cases have gotten worse.

But Tuesday night Obama will once again tell the American people how much he cares and make another solemn pledge to do something to help. We've heard it all before.

Meanwhile, here's the reality of Obama's lack ability to actually fix problems:

As Obama Prepares To Make New Promises, Old Ones Don’t Hold Up

$17.3 Trillion:
 The Current National Debt After Five Years Of State Of The Union Promises To Tackle The Problem. (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/24/14)
$6.6 Trillion:
 Added To The National Debt Despite Obama’s Declaration In His 2009 Address To Congress That He Didn’t Want To Leave “A Mountain Of Debt.” (U.S. Treasury Department, Accessed 1/24/14; President Barack Obama, Remarks by The President In State Of The Union Address , Washington, D.C., 1/27/10)
$4 Trillion:
 The Amount Of Debt That Obama Once Called “Irresponsible” And “Unpatriotic.” (Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At A Campaign Event, Fargo, ND, 7/3/08)
$1.8 Trillion:
 Cost Of ObamaCare’s Coverage Provisions From 2014 To 2023. (CBO, 7/30/13)
$1 Trillion:
 The Total Student Debt Held By Americans. (Josh Mitchell, “Student-Loan Debt Slows Recovery,” The Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics, 12/30/13)
$819.3 Billion:
 Total Taxes In ObamaCare. (CBO, 3/12;JCT, 6/15/12; CBO, 5/14/13; CBO, 7/30/13)
$494 Billion:
 Amount Of Regulatory Burden Since Obama Took Office. (American Action Forum, 1/8/14)

Monday, January 27, 2014

Lesson to Obama: A Tale of Two States. Conservative Policies Saved Wisconsin, Democrat Policies Destroyed Neighboring Illinois

And what do Democrats in Wisconsin want to do with their new-found prosperity? Copy Illinois' big spending/high tax failure!

Obama is all set to deliver another tedious State of the Union Address Tuesday night. Once again he'll promise to change the world for the better but after five years of Obama policies resulting in the weakest economic performance since World War II  with millions remaining out of work and real incomes for the middle class falling, people might want to consider whether there is a better way.

Democrats in are always demanding that Republicans show alternatives to  failed Democrat policies yet when Republicans comply the Democrats scream bloody murder. Wisconsin is an excellent case in point.

In Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's State of the State Address the Governor touted Wisconsin's reform success story:

  • $911 million surplus. Much of it to be rebated back to the taxpayers.
  • Unemployment the lowest since 2008. New unemployment claims at 12 year low.
  • Private sector job creation higher than neighboring Minnesota, Iowa or Illinois.
  • Personal incomes up 4.4%. 4th best in the nation.
Democrats did all they could to stop Walker from implementing his reforms. Angry mobs filled the state capitol and launched a recall of the governor and GOP members of the state senate. The recalls failed to stop Walker. To punish Walker allies Democrat county prosecutors have targeted them in an attempt to intimidate and silence support.

The only Democrat alternative to Walker's successful reforms is more spending and when that money runs out, a demand for higher taxes. All for "the children" don't you know?

Meanwhile, neighboring Illinois, Obama's home state and long run by Democrats is ranked by USA Today as the 3rd worst run state in the country with out of control spending and deficits.

The Democrat model for government is a failure on the state level and a failure on the national level. The GOP alternative works and creates the conditions which foster greater opportunity and prosperity for all Americans. Yet in his State of the Union speech Obama will once again endorse policies which only seek to benefit  Big Labor special interests. All at the expense of the Middle Class.

The good news for America is that no one listens to Obama anymore. We've learned the hard way it's all empty words and promises!

Thursday, January 23, 2014

HHS Document Warns ObamaCare Web Site Failure Puts "Entire Health Insurance Industry at Risk."

So why did the smartest people ever to hold high office (they say) leave the most critical part of ObamaCare undone after three years?

Hundreds of millions of dollars and three years effort and the company represented by a Michelle Obama pal never built the most important part of the ObamaCare web site. The part that actually went beyond enrollment to payment is missing. Well, team Obama fired that company (not to worry, they still have millions in other government contracts so Michelle's buddies won't go hungry.

Team Obama replaced CGI with Accenture, a Chicago based company where a former Obama campaign operative now works. And they did so with another no bid contract.

Justifying this latest bit of crony capitalism meant using some pretty strong language to describe the problem. Here is an excerpt from the HHS Document:
[T]here is limited time to build this functionality and failure to deliver the functionality above by mid-March 2014 will result in financial harm to the Government. If this functionality is not complete by mid- March 2014, the Government could make erroneous payments to providers and insurers. Additionally, without a Financial Management platform that accounts for enrollments and associated program costs (i.e. Advance Premium Tax Credits (APTC), Cost Sharing Reductions (CSR), payments to insurance plans, etc.), that integrates with the existing CMS Accounting platform (HIGLAS), the entire healthcare reform program is jeopardized by significantly increasing the following risks:
• Creating erroneous estimates of budgeted and projected payments associated with operating the FFM;
• Inaccurate issuance of payments to health plans which could seriously put them at financial risk; potentially leading to their default and disrupting continued services and coverage to consumers;
• Inaccurate forecasting of Risk Adjustment, Reinsurance, and Risk Corridor; potentially putting the entire health insurance industry at risk; and
• Failing to support the end of the year reconciliation with IRS; leading to greater program costs for workarounds.
Question: If three years and hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars wasn't enough to build this right the first time what's the chance that less than two months and $91 million more will get it done right this time? The collapse of ObamaCare may happen sooner than we think!

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Despite Record Cold and Snow, the Blizzard of Lies on Global Warming Continues

How ridiculous does the weather have to get before the alarmists stop trying to scare us with global warming fears?

The week after the biggest freeze to hit North America in 20 years, Democrats in Washington began a campaign to demand that news outlets do more stories to scare people into believing global warming is real. It seems that after more than thirty years of telling us the world was about to end if we didn't act now by raising taxes on energy (as if that would have the slightest effect on the climate) polls show fewer and fewer Americans are buying the "sky is falling" scaremongering.

So, after receiving instructions from their Democrat masters news media outlets obeyed by ramping up the scaremachine (1,2) just as another record blizzard and cold machine grips an area from the Midwest to the mid-Atlantic and northeast (1,2). Despite telling us for years that lack of snow was proof of global warming the warmongers turn on a dime and tell us exactly the opposite (2), none of which was predicted by the models they claim as proof of their theory.

Anyone up for sledding on the Nile?
Spinx and Pyramids in snow December 2014
And it's not just the United States. When was the last time you saw snow on the Spinx and Pyramids in Egypt? Try, NEVER, as it hasn't happened in more than 100 years. But it did happen in December.

Still, if the numbers of cold and snow events were not so numerous and record breaking you might have to concede they are just weather events. As the L.A. Times editorial which demands action on climate change before it's too late (haven't we heard that one before?) says: "Underlying many of the misperceptions about global warming is the myth that climate — a long-term trend — is the same thing as isolated weather events. " Yet don't the scaremongers trot out every example of  extreme weather to suggest global warming theory is right, even if they predicted just the opposite earlier?

A good example comes from the wildfire started around Los Angeles last week by some homeless men trying to keep warm (it was cold don't you know?). Reporting on the fire, KTTV Meteorologist Rick Dickert said:
DICKERT: We see wildfires every month now in Southern California. With global climate change, all the atmospheric scientists agree that our summers long longer, hotter, and dryer with shorter windows of rain and snow.
Let's put aside the big fib that "all atmospheric scientists agree because they don't. But while there is a severe drought in California, droughts come and go. A recent study in the peer reviewed journal "Nature" concludes there has been "little change in global drought over the past 60 years." And in the United States, droughts are actually less severe than they were during the 30's and 50's. I have to point out that this information comes from the U.S. government, not Fox News or Rush Limbaugh. According to the study in Nature, if anything, drought has been "overestimated." The number of wildfires in the U.S. and the acerage burned is "far below average" as reported in the same L.A. Times whose editorial board wants to scare us into higher taxes on energy. Do the editors not read their own paper?

As I've said before, it's not just wildfires or droughts that are in abeyance. It's all extreme weather events from hurricanes to tornadoes to days over 100 degrees. All exactly the opposite of what warmongers predicted.

Expect the baloney mobile of global warmongering to continue as long as governments and green investors can raise taxes or make a profit from the big scare. The fact that we're freezing and shoveling more snow than ever won't make a dent in their delusion!

Thursday, January 16, 2014

On Benghazi, Senate Panel, Dem Majority, Concludes: Al Queda Did It, Could Have Been Prevented, Still Unanswered Questions

Politics kept the truth from the American people before 2012 election!

The Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) produced a remarkable report on the Benghazi attack. The report (PDF) described in detail the Obama Administration failures that led to the attack and described how inaccurate information (lies) was given to the American people in the aftermath. The summary of key findings document how "significant" warnings prior to the attack were ignored, the State Department failed to provide increased security, the military had no assets available for protection and the inaccuracy of talking points used by the Obama Administration to explain the attack. Finally, the report points out that despite Obama's promises, none of the perpetrators have been brought to justice.

Here's the summary:
"The Attacks were Preventable"
  • Significant Strategic Warning Provided by the Intelligence Community—In the months before the attacks on September 11, 2012, the IC provided strategic warning through numerous intelligence reports that the security situation in eastern Libya was deteriorating and that U.S. facilities and personnel were at risk in Benghazi.
  • State Department Failed to Increase Security Enough to Address the Threat—The State Department should have increased its security posture more significantly in Benghazi based on the deteriorating security situation on the ground and IC threat reporting on the prior attacks against Westerners in Benghazi—including two previous incidents at the Temporary Mission Facility on April 6, and June 6, 2012.
  • “Tripwires” Were Crossed, But Other Nations Kept Their Facilities Open Along with the U.S.—There were “tripwires” designed to prompt a reduction in personnel or a suspension of operations at the Mission facility in Benghazi and although there is evidence that some of them had been crossed, operations continued with minimal change. Some nations closed their diplomatic facilities in Benghazi as the security conditions deteriorated during the summer of 2012, but other nations stayed along with the United States, contrary to some public reports and statements that the U.S. was the last country represented in Benghazi.
  • U.S. Military Assets Were Not Positioned to Respond in Time to Save the Four Americans Killed—There were no U.S. military resources in position to intervene in short order in Benghazi to help defend the Temporary Mission Facility and its Annex. Unarmed U.S. military surveillance assets were not delayed when responding to the attack, and they provided important situational awareness for those under siege during the attacks.
  • The Intelligence Picture After the Attacks Contributed to the Controversial CIA Talking Points—In intelligence reports after September 11, 2012, intelligence analysts inaccurately referred to the presence of a protest at the U.S. mission facility before the attack based on open source information and limited intelligence, but without sufficient intelligence or eyewitness statements to corroborate that assertion. The IC took too long to correct these erroneous reports, which caused confusion and influenced the public statements of policymakers.
  • Failure to Bring the Attackers to Justice—More than a year after the Benghazi attacks, the terrorists who perpetrated the attack have still not been brought to justice. The IC has identified several individuals responsible for the attacks. Some of the individuals have been identified with a strong level of confidence. However, insight into the current whereabouts and links between these individuals in some cases is limited due in part to the nascent intelligence capabilities in the region.
Also:

“Individuals affiliated with terrorist groups, including AQIM, Ansar al-Sharia, AQAP, and the Mohammad Jamal Network, participated in the September 11, 2012, attacks.” The idea that Al Queda was not involved is FALSE along with Obama's claim that "Al Queda is on the run."

Some supporters of Obama may continue to insist that Benghazi is a "phony scandal," nothing to see here, time to move on. Their media supporters may prefer to spend ten times more time on the Chris Christie bridge scandal than the deaths of our Ambassador in Libya and three other Americans. But it's nice to see that  Democrat adults are still in charge when it comes to the Senate Intelligence Committee!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Iran Laughs at Obama as He Says "Give Peace a Chance"

Iranians honor man who killed hundreds of Americans and say full steam ahead on nuclear weapons despite Obama claim!

So, Obama's bragging about the deal with Iran on Tuesday and said "give peace a chance." Perhaps Obama remembers the John Lennon song of the same name during his pot smoking days in that stoner choom gang he belonged to in Hawaii.

But as details emerge, it now appears that the deal with Iran is even worse than first thought. It now appears that Obama, who claimed that his Administration would be the most transparent in history, inked a secret side deal with the Iranians. In public, the deal looks like it puts the brakes on Iran's development of nuclear weapons. In private, it's just the opposite.

Iran’s chief negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, described the document thus: “No facility will be closed; enrichment will continue, and qualitative and nuclear research will be expanded,” he said. “All research into a new generation of centrifuges will continue.”

Basically business as usual.

But that's not the end of the story. Iranian president Hassan Rouhani celebrated a propaganda victory over the United States and declared: "In Geneva agreement world powers surrendered to Iranian nation's will."

Surrender may be Obama's idea of peace!

Worse still, Iran's Foreign Minister celebrated by laying a wreath at the grave of assassinated Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh who was the mastermind behind the killing of hundreds of Americans, including the 1983 attacks on the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut. Mughniyeh is second only to Osama bin Laden for the number of Americans killed.

Mugniyeh also orchestrated the horrific torture and slow killing of U.S. citizen William Buckley in Beirut and sent videos showing the crime in progress.

The Iranians spit in our face, laugh at us and celebrate terrorists guilty of mass murder. But Obama wants to give surrender a chance!

Monday, January 13, 2014

25th Anniversary of Reagan Farewell Address a Road Map for Cleaning Up the Obama Mess

3 years from now we'll need a president with vision and a keen sense of American exceptionalism to put the country back together again!

Saturday marked the 25th anniversary of President Reagan's farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office. Ten days after delivering the address he left office when George H.W. Bush was inaugurated.

The full text of the address is here but I really recommend watching the entire 20 minute speech. It's a walk down memory lane for those who remember and a good lesson for the young in what a real leader looks like and sounds like.

If you really can't spare the time, I took the last few minutes from the closing of the speech and posted it here:


In eight years Reagan led a country that had been mired in self doubt and what Jimmy Carter called "malaise" and restored not only the economy but the American spirit as well. And Reagan reminds us in this address that it wasn't all about him, it was about us; "we the people," Americans working together. Contrast that with Obama and how many times the word "I" appears on his teleprompter.

In closing, Reagan talks about what it means to be an American and how important it is that we never forget who we are. Sadly, that's exactly what has happened. We now have a President who grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia with little or no tie to the culture of American patriotism. Hollywood has stopped making films that extol the greatness of American virtues and the left prefers to concentrate on what's wrong with this country and ignore what is right. In schools today, if they teach history at all it's concentrated more on the wrongs of the past. I doubt kids today even know we landed on the moon.

Three years from now in January 2017 we will inaugurate a new President. Hopefully it will be one who understands what makes this country great and can lead us back to those ideals. Reagan provides the road map. Are we willing to follow?

Obama Adds Failed and Incompetent Foreign Policy to His List of Failures

Failure in domestic policy costs jobs and ruins lives. Failure in foreign policy costs lives and threatens war!

Obama was relieved that the news media found a new toy to play with in the Chris Christie bridge scandal. It took the spotlight off the failure of ObamaCare and the abysmal jobs report. As bad as both these domestic policy failures are, they have protected Obama from media scrutiny for a failure in foreign policy that is potentially far worse and potentially deadly.

The revelation in the Bob Gates book touched on the problem by revealing that Obama's decisions in foreign policy were largely driven by political concerns. But the problem goes much deeper than that. After years of saying Al Queda is "on the run" it's become clear that they are on the run to take over as much territory as possible because of a power vacuum resulting from Obama's weak foreign policy. Even the New York Times recognized this in a recent column titled "Power Vacuum in Middle East Lifts Militants."Following the same theme, Peter Bergen writing for CNN says "Al Qaeda controls more territory than ever in Middle East."

Matthew Lee, State Department correspondent for the Associated Press lays it all on Obama's doorstep:

Obama's Grand Plan for the Middle East Fails

Five years after pledging to remake the U.S. relationship with the broader Middle East and improve America's image in the Muslim world, the Obama administration's regional strategy appears to have come unhinged.
...
[T]here are growing fears that the U.S.'s Mideast policy has become rudderless and reactive, and may be contributing to worsening conditions and a rise of Islamic extremism, notably in Syria and Iraq.
Whether it's Iran, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Egypt or elsewhere in North Africa there is trouble and lots of it. Our allies like the Saudis are openly breaking with the U.S. and our enemies no longer fear us. That's a recipe for disaster and anyone with the slightest knowledge of history knows it. Everyone except Obama and the team of inexperienced academics with which he is surrounded.

Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing and now we are on the verge of Al Queda overrunning the Middle East and our friends abandoning us because Obama continues to do nothing. But no matter. In three years Obama will dump the mess into the lap of a Republican President and blame him or her when the inevitable war breaks out!

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Why Does Unemployment Rate Go Down When 5 Times as Many People Gave Up Looking as Found Jobs?

Did the same bunch who try and cook the global warming numbers fudge employment numbers too?

The December jobs report was a real wake up call. 347,000 Americans gave up looking for work and only 74,000 new jobs were created. Yet somehow, the unemployment rate dropped from 7% to 6.7%.  More and more Americans simply gave up looking for work (hardest hit are blacks and women) and so, they are no longer counted in the employment survey. Meanwhile, the jobs that are created are mostly low paid temporary positions as we continue to lose better paid manufacturing jobs. Approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline and permitting more drilling for oil and gas could solve much of this but Democrats refuse to consider it.

Here's a few quick numbers that highlight how bad the jobs situation is:
January 11, 2014

How Bad Is Obama's Jobs Record? Let's Count The Ways

By Investor's Business Daily

for some badly needed perspective, we've created Obama's Jobs Index to show how Obama's policies have failed to create adequate job growth.

6.3 million: Net new jobs created since Obama's recovery started in June 2009
13.8 million: New jobs that would have been created had Obama's kept pace with the average of the previous 10 recoveries.

* * * * * * *

3.6%: Growth in private jobs since Obama took office.
43%: Growth in the number of temp jobs.

* * * * * * *

91.8 million: Number of people not in the labor force as of December.
525,000: Increase since November.
11.2 million: Increase since Obama took office.

* * * * * * *

6.7%: Jobless rate 54 months into Obama's recovery.
5.1%: Unemployment rate 54 months into George W. Bush's "jobless" recovery.

* * * * * * *

13.1%: Jobless rate in Dec. using a broader measure - U6 - which includes people marginally attached to labor force or working part time for economic reasons.
9.2%: Average U6 rate in Bush's eight years in office.

* * * * * * *

26%: Share of adults who say at least one household member is unemployed, based on IBD/TIPP Poll data.
10%: Share who say a household member had work hours cut because of ObamaCare.

* * * * * * *

3.9 million: Number of people who've been jobless 27 weeks or more in December.
2.7 million: That number when Obama took office.

* * * * * * *

37 weeks: Average length of unemployment in Dec.
20 weeks: Average length when Obama took office.

* * * * * * *

861,000: Number of discouraged workers in Dec.
734,000: Number when Obama took office.

* * * * * * *

58.6%: Current employment-to-population ratio.
61%: Ratio when Obama took office.
62%: Average employment-to-population ratio in the 30 years before Obama took office.

* * * * * * *

$1,006: Drop in median household income during the 2007-09 recession.
$2,535: Drop in median income after the recession ended in June 2009, according to Sentier Research.
White House: Don't Blame Obama!

On Friday, ABC News' Jonathon Karl pointed out that Obama claimed credit when jobs numbers were good and asked WH Spokesman Jay Carney if Obama was to blame for this bad report. Short answer? NO! But you can bet the next good report Obama will claim credit again.

And if things remain bad, Obama can always fall back on his tried and true solution: give another speech. Thus far, he's "pivoted to the economy" 14 times and the results speak for themselves!

What Obama will never do is acknowledge what so many of us have known for years. It's Obama's policies on taxes, regulation, ObamaCare and energy that are largely to blame for the inability for more Americans to find good paying jobs. This is the weakest jobs recovery in modern history and there's only one man to blame and it's not George Bush.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Baby Thug Video: How the Cycle of Violence Gripping Black Community Gets It's Start

And liberals have the nerve to criticize the police for pointing this out?

You might have seen the video of a young black toddler being verbally abused by his mother and another male. The uncensored video is here. Repeatedly calling the toddler the "n" word as well as profanity, sexual and gang references is appalling. If you want to know how so many young black males become trapped in a world of meaningless violence this helps to explain it. What kind of life would a child brought up in these conditions have?

 The video, posted by family members because they thought it was cute was picked up by the Omaha, Nebraska Police in an attempt to shame those who would do this to a child. But now, the Police are under attack, even being called "racists" for bringing this shocking video to public attention.

If you want to know why the cycle of devastating violence and despair gripping large sectors of the black community continues to be a chronic problem you can trace the reason back to those who would rather criticize the police for bringing this matter to public attention than condemn this outrageous abuse and work to stop it!

Some good to come out of this story is that the children in the home have been removed by Police. But how many more children are being subjected to the same abuse?

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Niagra Falls Frozen Solid on U.S. Side

Another example of global warming!


More photos at the Daily Mail.

We Need a Federal Investigation of NJ Gov. Chris Christie's Traffic Tie Up; BUT

Just as soon as a special prosecutor is appointed to investigate the Obama Administration Benghazi, Fast and Furious, IRS and Wiretapping reporters scandals!

When I was a student at Columbia University in New York I lived in New Jersey and traveled frequently across the George Washington Bridge between Manhattan and New Jersey. At times, the traffic tie ups could be a nightmare. So, when I learned that high officials within the administration of NJ Governor Chris Christie actually ordered that traffic be snarled on purpose for political retaliation it set off an instinctive reaction. Get to the bottom of the matter and hold those responsible accountable. Ultimately, that means Governor Christie, a Republican with ambitions to run for President in 2016.

At least one New Jersey Democrat is calling for a federal Grand Jury probe into the scandal. And I agree. And as soon as President Obama appoints Special Prosecutors to investigate far worse scandals in his Administration, a special panel should be convened in the Christie scandal.

Four Americans, including our Ambassador to Libya died in the Benghazi attack. Yet we still do not know what the Ambassador was doing there, why repeated pleas for more security were ignored and why none of the terrorists responsible have been apprehended. In Fast and Furious Border Agent Brian Terry was killed with guns allowed to pass through to Mexican criminals by the Obama Department of Justice. Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt for lying to Congress about the matter. The Attorney General also lied about obtaining the phone records of reporters. And FBI agents have never even interviewed the victims in the IRS Tea Party scandal.

I fully support holding NJ Gov. Chris Christie accountable for the actions that took place during his time in office. I just wonder why far worse scandals are so quickly swept under the rug by the Obama Administration. Appoint Special Prosecutors to investigate ALL wrongdoing or justice itself becomes corrupted!

UPDATE: DOJ IRS Scandal Investigator a big Obama donor!

We've waited months for a sign that the Department of Justice takes the Tea Party IRS scandal seriously. DOJ finally appointed a lead investigator for the 8 month old scandal. BUT, the lead investigator is a big Obama campaign donor.  Once again, in Obama land,the fox guards the hen house!

Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Sec. Gates Tell All Book Confirms Worst Suspicions About Obama National Security Policy

Corrupted by political considerations, hindered by inexperience and hampered by personality clashes!

The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal set off a political bomb on Monday with reporting and excerpts of former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates new book "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.” Passages that were highly critical of Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden won't surprise anyone who has been paying attention these past five years. What is surprising is that the stinging criticism comes from Gates, highly respected and not one with a partisan axe to grind. Gates has served every President since Nixon, except for Bill Clinton. The Post report by Bob Woodward describes the critique:
It is rare for a former Cabinet member, let alone a defense secretary occupying a central position in the chain of command, to publish such an antagonistic portrait of a sitting president.
...
The sometimes bitter tone in Gates’s 594-page account contrasts sharply with the even-tempered image that he cultivated during his many years of government service, including stints at the CIA and National Security Council. That image endured through his nearly five years in the Pentagon’s top job, beginning in President George W. Bush’s second term and continuing after Obama asked him to remain in the post. In “Duty,” Gates describes his outwardly calm demeanor as a facade. Underneath, he writes, he was frequently “seething” and “running out of patience on multiple fronts.”
It's the contrast between Bush and Obama that Gates, who served both as Secretary of Defense, found striking as this excerpt from the book shows:
It is difficult to imagine two more different men than George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Clearly, I had fewer issues with Bush. Partly that is because I worked for him in the last two years of his presidency, when, with the exception of the Iraq surge, nearly all the big national security decisions had been made. He had made his historical bed and would have to lie in it. I don't recall Bush ever discussing domestic politics—apart from congressional opposition—as a consideration in decisions he made during my time with him (although, in fairness, his sharp-elbowed political gurus were nearly all gone by the time I arrived). By early 2007, Vice President Dick Cheney was the hawkish outlier on the team, with Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and me in broad agreement.

With Obama, however, I joined a new, inexperienced president determined to change course—and equally determined from day one to win re-election. Domestic political considerations would therefore be a factor, though I believe never a decisive one, in virtually every major national security problem we tackled. The White House staff—including Chiefs of Staff Rahm Emanuel and then Bill Daley as well as such core political advisers as Valerie Jarrett, David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs —would have a role in national security decision making that I had not previously experienced[.]
That politics was central to every decision Obama makes isn't a surprise. What's stunning is that both Hillary Clinton and Obama admitted as much in Gates' presence. From Bob Woodward's report:
“Hillary told the president that her opposition to the [2007] surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing him in the Iowa primary. . . . The president conceded vaguely that opposition to the Iraq surge had been political. To hear the two of them making these admissions, and in front of me, was as surprising as it was dismaying.”
Gates goes on to describe White House meddling in the usual business of national security affairs that hasn't been seen since the Nixon Administration. If Obama had a Kissigner, as Nixon did, that might not be such a problem but Gates describes the Obama National Security team as "former Hill staffers, academics and political operatives" and key player Vice President Joe Biden as "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades." The Obama team ignored Department of Defense input on important decisions like Libya. No wonder North Africa is such a mess.

The harsh treatment and disrespect shown to generals in the military was nothing compared to Obama's lack of faith in his own policy:
At a pivotal meeting in the situation room in March 2011, called to discuss the withdrawal timetable, Mr. Obama opened with a blast of frustration — expressing doubts about Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander he had chosen, and questioning whether he could do business with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

“As I sat there, I thought: The president doesn’t trust his commander, can’t stand Karzai, doesn’t believe in his own strategy and doesn’t consider the war to be his,” Mr. Gates wrote. “For him, it’s all about getting out.”
Gates also discovered what so many of us have found to be true over the past five years: "agreements with the Obama White House were good for only as long as they were politically convenient."

Some say Gates should have resigned earlier and told his story when it might have made a difference in the 2012 election. I doubt it would have. The press then would have swept the story under the same rug as they did Benghazi, the IRS scandal, Fast and Furious and so much else. By now, that's one bumpy rug. Eventually, we're going to trip on it. 

With the rise of Al Queda in Iraq, Syria and North Africa we are seeing the negative consequences of a policy that is based solely on the politics of the moment. The problem is that political gains are short lived and as the moment passes the consequences begin to rear their ugly heads.

Monday, January 06, 2014

Obama: How Will Carbon Tax Stop Global Freezing?

The Dems have told the big lie on climate change so many times they actually believe the lie. Period!

Last November, Obama signed an Executive Order in which he declared:
"The impacts of climate change -- including an increase in prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures, more heavy downpours, an increase in wildfires, more severe droughts, permafrost thawing, ocean acidification, and sea-level rise -- are already affecting communities, natural resources, ecosystems, economies, and public health across the Nation.
Just one problem, none of that is true.

2013 was the year which saw the fewest days with temps of 100 degrees or above in more than 100 years. It was the year in which there were more record cold temperatures than record high temps. That hasn't happened since 1993. Increase in wildfires? No again. Same with tornadoes, hurricanes and all the rest. [Note: the statistics cited are from U.S. government reports. Not Fox News. Not Rush Limbaugh]

But these inconvenient facts won't stop Obama and the global warming alarmists who insist that the only way to save the planet is to raise taxes on energy (though they never really explain how this would work). Obama's media allies are already laying the groundwork for global warming alarmism to be the centerpiece of Obama's agenda for the remaining three years of his last term in office. And if Obama and fellow alarmists have to lie about the dangers of climate change to get people's attention they have lots of practice. PERIOD!

The Big Freeze



North America is locked in a record big freeze. This is an example of extreme weather, but it's an extremely COLD, not warm. These types of events were not predicted by global warming theory. But that hasn't stopped the alarmists. Once again, their media accomplices have sprung into action blaming it all on global warming (1,2). It doesn't matter that this event lies outside any of their previous doom and gloom predictions. If the Sun comes up in the morning it must be global warming and man is to blame and the only remedy is to tax energy. PERIOD!

In testimony before a congressional committee last December, John R. Christy, a prominent climate scientist presented the following chart. It shows the various climate models on which global warming is based. These models assume that CO2 is the primary driver for global temperature. Underneath the models projections for temperature increase are the actual observations:


If after nearly 30 years the actual temperature has not increased markedly as the models all suggest it would, should it not be safe to assume the underlying theory is incorrect? If trillions in new taxes, government research grants and green investments were not at stake the answer would be a resounding YES. But all that money is on the line so the fraud continues.

There are real problems of poverty, disease and hunger gripping the world that are going largely ignored because of the time and resources devoted to a problem that does not exist. There is a greater danger of a planetary disaster due to super volcano eruptions in Iceland than there is from global warming now or in the future. But I guess there's not enough money to be made playing on those fears for the global warming crowd to pay attention.

On a closing note, an expedition of environmental activists traveled to the Antarctic a few weeks ago hoping to find signs of climate change. They found the signs all right, just not the ones they wanted. Even in Antarctic summer the ship they were on become locked in ice and three icebreakers have been called in to rescue them and some of those ships have been frozen in as well. The irony of people claiming the ice is disappearing needing three icebreakers for a rescue seems lost on them.

North or south there is ice everywhere. The very opposite of what the global warming crowd predicted for years. But that won't stop them from repeating the big lie. There is just too much money at stake to give up. Period!

Saturday, January 04, 2014

While He Watches, North Korean Leader Has Uncle Executed by Pack of Hungry Dogs

Does anyone really think you can deal rationally with people like this?

From the Daily Mail:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un executed his uncle by having him stripped naked and eaten alive by starving dogs while he watched, a report claimed yesterday.

Jang Song-Thaek was said to have been thrown into a cage with his five closest aides, after which 120 hounds which had been starved for three days were released, eating the men until there was nothing left. The horrifying details emerged in a report in Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper, which said the gruesome act was known as ‘quan jue’, or ‘execution by dogs’.

In previous executions, political prisoners were killed by firing squads with machine guns, although one aide was tied to a post and a mortar round was fired at him.
The report said the ‘quan jue’ lasted an hour, and Kim was said to have watched the stomach-churning ‘show’ along with 300 senior officials.
Other than a handful of deranged liberals who would do the same to members of the Tea Party in a New York minute I can't think of anyone else in this country that would find this kind of behavior as anything but proof of a deeply rooted psychosis. Do you really think we can trust Kim Jong-Un to fulfill agreements to limit nuclear weapons when this is going on?

The Doctor Can't See You Now: Chaos as Patients Wait or Leave Without Treatment as ObamaCare Kicks In

Is this how ObamaCare was supposed to make health care better?

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse with Obamacare....

A patient surgery scheduled for Thursday in Chicago was delayed because the doctor's office could not get the approval by the insurance company despite two hours on hold with the insurance company. In other reports, patients left hospitals after being told the hospital could not verify their insurance. A pregnant woman in Utah went into labor on New Year's Day did not have the number for her new plan. Other patients are going to drug stores to refill prescriptions only to find out their insurance is missing.

The Chicago doctor whose office could not get approval for surgery described “tremendous uncertainty And anxiety among patients.” No kidding!

This is just the tip of a very large iceberg of bad news we will see as confusion and chaos caused by ObamaCare spreads during the year.

Obama's response to all this? More campaigning. Instead of actually governing and fixing the problems, he's going to wage yet another P.R. offensive to make you think it's OK. Because that's what real leaders do right?

AP Reporter Grills State Department Spokeswoman on Abandoning Iraq

If you want to know why our foreign policy is such a mess, look at how the Obama Administration tries to dismiss the questions from Matt Lee, the Associated Press State Dept. reporter. Cue to the 1:27 mark for the fireworks:


Iraq is going to hell in a handbasket with Al Queda surging once again. All because Obama forced the U.S. to withdraw completely without any agreement that might have cemented an effective security arrangement between our two countries. The sacrifice of thousands of Americans who died is being tossed in the sand by this Administration and the best they can do is send out some snarky, rude hack to try and gloss over their horrendous mistake.

Obama's War on Women: Administration Messes with the Little Sisters for Poor

Even nuns who dedicate their lives to taking care of the poor, elderly and the dying are not exempt from Obama's demands to provide contraception and abortion services in ObamaCare!

Obama had originally promised that there would be a "conscience clause" in ObamaCare where those who object to paying for contraception and abortion services would not be forced to do so. That promise, like so many others Obama made had a big "IF" attached. In order to qualify, organizations like the Little Sisters for the Poor would have to sign "permission" slips for their employees to engage services that the Sisters find morally abhorrent.

The Obama Administration is using the full power of the federal government, including the Department of Justice and an order before the U.S. Supreme Court to force the Little Sisters to comply. Mark Rienzi, Senior Counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and Lead Counsel for the Little Sisters issued the following statement:
“Unfortunately, the federal government has started the new year the same way that it ended the old one: trying to bully nuns into violating their religious beliefs.

“The government demands that the Little Sisters of the Poor sign a permission slip for abortion drugs and contraceptives, or pay of millions in fines. The Sisters believe that doing that violates their faith, and that they shouldn’t be forced to divert funds from the elderly poor they serve to the IRS.

“The government now asks the Supreme Court to believe that the very thing it is forcing the nuns to do—signing the permission slip—is a meaningless act. But why on earth would the government be fighting the Little Sisters all the way to the Supreme Court if it did not think its own form had any effect? The government’s brief offers no explanation for its surprising insistence on making the Little Sisters sign a form the government now says is meaningless.

“And now the government is asking the Supreme Court to look the other way while it coerces the Little Sisters. If the administration believed its contraceptive mandate was valid, it would join the Little Sisters’ request for Supreme Court review because the government has lost almost all of the cases in the lower courts. Instead, its brief today is devoted to trying to keep the Court out of the issue, which would leave hundreds of religious organizations subject to massive fines for following their religion.

“All of this is sad and unnecessary. Our federal government is massive and powerful. It can obviously find ways to distribute contraceptives and abortion pills without forcing nuns to be involved.” 
Meet the Little Sisters




These women devote their entire lives to easing the burden of the elderly and dying poor. Instead of harassing them with the power of the federal government you would think that Obama would embrace their calling and their selfless devotion to serving others. But no. For Obama this is about power and he can't let some nuns escape his edicts or it might encourage others.
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