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11/7/09
Obama's Frightening Insensitivity
Robert George
says Obama didn't wait long after Tuesday's devastating elections to
give critics another reason to question his leadership, but this time
the subject matter was more grim than a pair of governorships.
After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in
Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured
climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late
afternoon, word went out that Obama would speak about the incident prior
to a previously scheduled appearance. At about 5 p.m., cable
stations went to Obama. The situation called for not only his
trademark eloquence, but also grace and perspective.
But instead
of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of
sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and
inappropriately light Obama making introductory remarks. At the
event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of
Interior's Bureau of Indian affairs, he thanked various staffers and
offered a "shout-out" to "Dr. Joe Medicine Crow -- that Congressional
Medal of Honor winner." Three minutes in, Obama spoke about the
shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?
Anyone at home aware of the major news story of the previous hours
had to have been stunned. An incident like this requires a
scrapping of the early light banter. Obama should apologize for
the tone of his remarks, explain what has happened, express sympathy for
those slain and appeal for calm and patience until all the facts are in.
That's the least that should occur.
Indeed, an argument could be
made that Obama should have canceled the Indian event, out of respect
for people having been murdered at an Army post a few hours before.
That would have prevented any sort of jarring emotional switch at the
event.
Did Obama's team not realize what sort of image they were
presenting to the country at this moment? The disconnect between
what Americans at home knew had been going on -- and the initial words
coming out of his mouth was jolting, if not disturbing.
It must
have been disappointing for many politically aware Democrats, still
reeling from the election two days before. The New Jersey
gubernatorial vote had already demonstrated that Obama and his political
team couldn't produce a winning outcome in a state very friendly to
Democrats (and where he won by 15 points one year ago). And now
this? Congressional Democrats must wonder if a White House that
has burdened them with a too-heavy policy agenda over the last year has
a strong enough political operation to help push that agenda through.
If Obama's communications apparatus can't inform -- and protect
-- their boss during tense moments when the country needs to see a
focused and compassionate leader, it has disastrous consequences for his
party and supporters.
All of Obama's men (and women) fell down
on the job Thursday. And Democrats across the country have real
reason to panic.
Obama's TV
appearance was actually worse than the above description.
He was
cold, and read his statement as though he were describing how the White
House budget is prepared -- it was a shocking display of detachment --
but as a person that loathes all things military, not surprising.
By the way, Joe Medicine Crow is not a recipient of the Medal of
Honor. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- and from
Obama.
Obama is so clueless he doesn't know the difference
between the nation's highest award that recognizes "conspicuously by
gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his [or her] life above and
beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of
the United States," and an award made for "an especially meritorious
contribution to the security or national interests of the United States,
world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."
Smarty-pants Obama should know the difference between the Medal of
Honor and the Medal of Freedom -- especially since he personally awarded
the latter to Crow.
Don't expect this blunder to receive wide
coverage. It's not something he can blame George Bush for.
Gaffes
11/6/09
The Firing Squad For Him
The
excuses for this jihadii are already coming from the sympathetic
left. Then, there's the Obama-Left:
"Behavior of this sort is a regular
occurrence in the US Armed Forces. However killing themselves,
although it happens from time to time, is unusual. It is
normally friendly troops, villages of indigenous peoples or schools,
and wedding parties!
All over the Net sympathetic words provide a rationale
for the murderer -- it was the wartime horror stories he heard from his
patients that set him off -- someone keyed "Allah" into his car (not
this bogus trick again?) -- because of his ethnicity -- because someone
called him a "camel jockey." Everything but poor potty training.
All this stuff comes from a phone call from an alleged cousin, and
none of it is a defense for his atrocities.
According to
his aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Va, Hasan was a devout Muslim
who prayed every day at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring,
Md. Hasan "did not make many friends" and "did not make friends
fast," his aunt said. "He had no girlfriend and was not married.
He steered clear of female colleagues."
Faizul Khan, the former
imam at the center said, "He came to mosque one or two times to see if
there were any suitable girls to marry." Khan said. "I don't think
he ever had a match, because he had too many conditions. He wanted
a girl who was very religious, prays five times a day.
Ironically, Hasan was brought down by a female police sergeant, Kim Munley. She
was wounded by Hasan in an exchange of gunfire, but she got the bastard.
(more Munley stuff,
with photos her two daughters)
Atlas Shrugs is
reporting that civilian police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and her partner
responded within three minutes of reported gunfire Thursday afternoon,
Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said Friday.
Munley, who had been trained in
active-response tactics, rushed into the building and confronted the
shooter as he was turning a corner, Cone said. (Fox News says
Hasan was shot him 4 times)
"It was an amazing and an aggressive
performance by this police officer," Cone said.
Munley was only a
few feet from crazed Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan when she
opened fire.
Ft. Hood hero -- Kim Munley
On the other hand, Col. Terry Lee (ret) who worked
with Hasan quoted Hasan as saying, "Muslims should stand up against the
aggressor," and also said Hasan often verbalized his opposition to
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Lee told Fox News that Hasan,
"was hoping that President Obama would pull troops out. ... When things
weren't going that way, he became more agitated, more frustrated with
the conflicts over there ... he made his views well known about how he
felt about the U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan."
"He
said Muslims shouldn't be fighting Muslims," he added. "He was very
clear on that."
This
guy has a history. The AP is
reporting that federal law enforcement officials say Hasanhad come to their attention at least six months ago because of
Internet postings he made. These
postings related to suicide bombings and other threats.
The Feds say an official investigation was not opened.
Hasan was
listed as a participant in a Homeland Security Policy Institute's
Presidential Transition Task Force last year. Hasan applied on the
institute's website to attend the meeting and was accepted because of
his professional credentials. He participated in
disaster preparation -- he knew the drill.
Here, he's listed on a
page with the ironic title, "Thinking Anew -- Security Priorities For
The Next Administration."
I have a security priority -- keep Muslims
out of the military. There's plenty of Arab-speaking Christians in
the country that can serve as translators. This episode is
unsettling for a number of reasons, but most of all because it exposes the fact that
political correctness
has forced military commanders to ignore the presence of radical,
anti-American Muslims in the ranks.
Hasan was a psychiatrist.
The United States Army provided him that education. He gladly took
that education, but when it came time for him to do his duty he murdered
13 human beings and wounded 30 more.
The above is a snapshot from a
video obtained from the owner of a 7-Eleven at Fort Hood. He
said Hasan -- whom he knows as "Major Nidal" -- came in for coffee and
hash browns most mornings, including the morning of the shootings.
The surveillance video shows Hasan at the cashier's counter at about
6:20 a.m. -- on his way home from morning prayers. He was carrying
a beverage and dressed in traditional Arab garb.
He went home,
prepared his weapons, changed into his Army uniform, and about seven
hours later, began his assault on the unarmed and defenseless soldiers
-- several of whom he shot in the back.
This was premeditated,
up-close murder. He took the time to load several magazines.
The weapons he used accommodated 13 rounds -- he had two of them.
He would have to reload. He gave his furniture to his
neighbors. He handed out copies of the Quran. He took the time to put on his
uniform. He took the time to drive, with his personal weapons to
Ft. Hood. He had time to make a U-turn. He murdered those
poor souls up close, and personal, inside buildings where they had
nowhere to go. Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort
Hood that left 13 people dead
reported
that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" -- Arabic for "God is great!" --
before opening fire, the base commander said Friday. Fox News is
reporting that Hasan jumped up on a table and was shooting down at his
victims -- some he shot multiple times. One of the soldiers said he was laying on
the floor for cover, when Hasan shot him from 5 feet away.
This
is treason. It was a slaughter. It was jihad, plain and
simple -- just another example of
Sudden Jihad Syndrome.
Right now Hasan is on a ventilator in a local civilian hospital
under military and civilian guard. I sure hope they are
withholding any and all pain medication.
The
only logical and reasonable end to this horrible incident, the largest
act of terror since 9/11, is to put this
son-of-a-bitch up against the wall, and give him what he gave.
But you watch all
the apologists from the Left -- they'll plead for mercy -- we will be
told that this was the act of a lone gunman. It says nothing about
any religion. We will be told about thousands of Muslims who do
not believe that randomly killing innocent people leads to paradise.
And this morning, the military-loathing Obama, showing no emotion, said, "blah,
blah, blah, . . . don't jump to conclusions . . . blah, blah, blah,"
and ran and hid in the White House, taking no questions from the press.
The NBC affiliate in Obama's home town of Chicago even
commented on the Obamamessiah's indifference, with a headline that
roared, "Obama's Frightening Insensitivity Following Shooting."
Sudden Jihad Syndrome -- Major Malik Nadal Hasan
Kills 13 And Wounds 30
The
shooter, who was wounded, was a major in the US Army from Virginia --
reportedly a
convert to Islam.
Army Times reports that Hasan was an Army
psychiatrist.
Received a "Poor Performance" evaluation at Walter
Reed Hospital.
Here is his
Practitioner Info from Virginia Board of Medicine -- less than 1
year.
Here is Hasan's Officer Record Brief -- "No religious preference"
His cousin called into Fox News -- "always a Muslim" -- "a good
American"
Col. Terry Lee (ret) who worked with Hasan quoted Hasan as
saying, "Muslims should stand up against the aggressor."
Maj. General Robert Scales (ret) is reporting
that his sources inside the military say this was a deliberate act.
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchison said the people killed were specifically targeted by the
murderer.
AP is reporting there were "dual shootings"
-- more than one shooter -- possibly three.
Texas Governor Rick
Perry said there were three shooters.
Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone
said there were "eyewitness accounts of more than one shooter."
Military authorities are still hunting for others -- latest report --
one in custody.
Military personnel reported rifle fire, as well
as handgun.
Military press conference at 9 PM -- "a single
shooter."
It will be
interesting to see how the mainstream media, and the Obama
administration will spin this.
As usual, and before any
investigation, the FBI said the shootings have nothing
to do with terrorism.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama, reacting to
the terror attack, said "blah, blah, blah, blah and blah."
Military
11/5/09
Andy Stern: Comrade Obama’s #1 Visitor
Stop the ACLU
reports that two recent court rulings have resulted in the Moonbat
Messiah "voluntarily" disclosing his White House visitor’s list.
General Stanley McCrystal -- commander of our forsaken troops in
Afghanistan -- has met with ObaMao twice. In stark contrast, Andy
Stern -- head of the ACORN-affiliated
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
-- has visited the White House 22 times, leading the list.
SEIU
has earned its face time with the POTUS by
donating $60 million and 100,000 volunteers to Obama’s campaign.
Although Stern has made it clear that every single member of SEIU is to
devote time to helping elect Democrats, the union is designated a 527,
meaning that it is supposedly apolitical and therefore is not limited in
the soft money it can shovel at sleazy politicians, unlike honest
institutions.
Given Stern’s
radical background, it’s unsurprising that his tactics are thuggish:
Under Stern’s leadership, SEIU commonly
bullies and pressures companies into signing agreements to make SEIU
the representative of their employees. If a company resists
joining the union, Stern and his political, media and activist
allies conspire to launch "corporate campaigns" aimed at breaking
down that resistance through what they term the "death of a thousand
cuts." In such campaigns, the cabal of attackers harasses and
disrupts company activities, sends vicious emails and letters to
stockholders, intimidates customers, stalks and frightens employees,
files baseless lawsuits, and plants false stories with media allies
to smear the company’s reputation.
These pressure tactics are
often successful in bringing companies into SEIU’s fold. When
this occurs, all of their employees are required to join the union.
SEIU prefers this arrangement (which Stern calls "Union Democracy")
because, in times past, a large percentage of workers who were given
a choice voted against joining the union.
This is also why Chairman Zero & friends favor
Card Check.
SEIU stands to make out big from healthcare
nationalization, so when patriots spoke out against it at town hall
meetings, even
high-level SEIU
thugs turned out to
rough them up.
Another favored White House visitor is the
radical financier George Soros, who only has to snap his fingers for
a sit-down with the Manchurian Teleprompter. Investor.com
reports:
Like the sociable Stern, administration
records show Soros’ appointments were officially scheduled within
hours of his actual visit. It looks like fast service.
Soros
not only has made statements critical of free-market capitalism,
he’s also a philanthropist whose hobbyhorse MoveOn.org tried to
smear Iraq war commander Gen. David Petraeus as "Gen. Betray-us" in
a full-page ad in the New York Times.
Both Soros and Stern are prominent partisans in the
Shadow Party, a network of ultra-left activist groups working
feverishly toward the destruction of liberty in favor of collectivist
statism. They have a comrade at the top.
ACORN
11/5/09
Not Archived
11/5/09
Community Organizer For The World
Byron York
says a lot of observers are having trouble figuring out the
philosophical underpinnings of Barack Obama's foreign policy. How
does Obama see America's place in the world? How will he use
American power? How much does he care about such things?
There are no good answers at the moment, but there is a new theory going
around: Obama approaches foreign affairs as he would neighborhood
issues.
"President Obama is applying the same tools to
international diplomacy that he once used as a community organizer on
Chicago's South Side," claims a new analysis in The Washington Post.
As such, Obama is "constructing appeals to shared interests and
attempting to bring the government's conduct in line with its ideals."
When he was a community organizer, the Post notes, Obama "worked to
identify the common interests" of neighborhoods that had been hit by
hard economic times. That required a lot of patience, and today he
is showing that same patience "in regard to reviving Middle East peace
talks or reaching out to Iran." He's also "cultivating a lower
profile than the other parties involved," as he did in Chicago.
Perhaps Obama is, in fact, drawing on his organizing experience in
approaching foreign affairs. But what's lost in the theorizing is
this: What does that experience tell us about Obama himself? And
is there anything in his time as a community organizer that could
possibly provide a useful model for conducting foreign policy?
During last year's campaign, I spent some time in Chicago looking into
Obama's career as an organizer. A number of the people he worked
with back then -- he was on the job for all of three years, from 1985 to
1988 -- are still in the field today, and they have vivid memories of
their time with Obama. Talking to them, and looking back over his
record, it was hard to avoid the conclusion that as an organizer, Obama
started a lot of projects, gave a lot of inspirational talks, but
accomplished very little.
Among other things, Obama tried to find
new jobs for displaced steelworkers, to create after-school programs,
and to bring new political power to public housing residents. But
he truly succeeded at just two things. One, he pushed the city of
Chicago to open up a summer-jobs office on the far South Side, where
there had not previously been an office, and two, he helped force the
city to clean up asbestos in a 1940s-era housing project in the same
neighborhood.
That was it.
Obama the organizer spent most
of his time teaching community members how to put pressure on the city
government, or on various wealthy corporations, to give them money.
Obama's organizers could be confrontational, or they could be
conciliatory -- Obama favored the latter -- but the whole idea was to
make powerful people feel guilty, or embarrassed, or annoyed enough to
give them things.
Obama, born in 1961, felt that he missed the
great days of the civil rights movement. Becoming an organizer was
the next-best thing he could find. But his successes were small;
he wanted to redistribute wealth and resources on a large scale, and he
could only accomplish so much by protesting outside the housing project
management office. That was the reason he ultimately left
organizing to go to law school and run for public office.
That's
not to say that Obama left no legacy as an organizer. The
colleagues I talked with all remembered him fondly. Several said
he inspired them to improve their lives. But these were all people
who shared his goals. They wanted to believe in him and in their
shared enterprise.
Does Mahmoud Ahmedinejad fit into that
category? The Taliban? Kim Jong-il?
Now, Obama is the
power figure, not the supplicant or the protester. Certainly he
still needs to convince foreign leaders to give him what he wants, but
when it comes to dealing with the rest of the world, Obama isn't the
underdog. His years on the South Side are little help.
You
can see Obama's community organizing approach at the White House every
day, in the attempts to marginalize Republican opponents, or in the
attacks on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. But handling the
life-or-death issues of America's relations with the world -- that's a
new job entirely.
And Obama has no experience that prepares him
for it.
Not Archived
11/5/09
Brainwashing Epidemic
Big Hollywood has uncovered 11 videos that show school children
performing praises to Obama.
Previously, a couple of disturbing
videos of young school children singing/speaking praises to Obama have
surfaced on the Internet, but when eleven more popped up, it came as
quite a shock. What seemed like an aberration now appears to be a
troubling pattern.
Each one of the videos below is creepier than the last
because the further down you go, the younger the children -- brace
yourself for kindergartners -- except for the last and most disturbing
video, which you have to see to believe.
Here's a taste:
Barack Obama there is none higher Other
politicians should call me sire To burn my kingdom you must use
fire I create change till I retire!
WashingtonExaminer.com
reports that buried in the interior appropriations bill headed to
Obama's desk is a big spending increase for a controversial agency that
his White House staff aims to use as artistic cover for creating
political propaganda. The National Endowment for the Arts's annual
spending goes from $155 million to $167.5 million, the most since the
Clinton administration. A mere $12 million in a budget with $1.4
trillion in deficits might seem trifling. But documents obtained
by Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act request leave no
doubt that Obama aides meant to put those tax dollars to work paying
"artists" to create posters and other propaganda paraphernalia
supporting the Obama agenda.
As The Examiner reported Friday, the
documents made public by Judicial Watch include a series of e-mails from
White House associate director of public engagement Kalpen Modi, whose
boss is Valerie Jarrett, director of the Office of Public Engagement and
a close Obama confidant. Modi worked with then-NEA communications
director Yosif Sergant planning an Aug. 10 telephone conference call
hosted by Sergant. The purpose of the call, moderator Michael
Skolnik explained at the outset, was to encourage participants "to get
involved in things that we're passionate about as we did during the
campaign but continue to get involved in those things, to support the
president's initiatives ..." Skolnik, political director for
hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, told conference participants that he was
asked "by people in the White House and folks in the NEA" to organize
the call, which was joined by officials representing 21 arts groups
around the country.
Judicial Watch unearthed e-mail between
Sergant, Modi and Buffy Wicks, deputy director of the White House public
engagement office. Wicks campaigned for Obama in Missouri in 2008,
and before that worked for an ACORN-like activist group known as Wake-Up
Wal-Mart that was funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union. Use of government time, equipment and facilities in
planning the conference call may violate the Anti-Lobbying Act, which
says "no part of the money appropriated by any enactment of Congress
shall, in the absence of express authorization by Congress, be used
directly or indirectly to pay for any personal service, advertisement,
telegram, telephone, letter, printed or written matter, or other device,
intended or designed to influence in any manner a Member of Congress, a
jurisdiction, or an official of any government, to favor, adopt, or
oppose by vote or otherwise, any legislation, law, ratification, policy,
or appropriation. ..." Sergant resigned from the NEA following
disclosure of the Aug. 10 conference call. Why are Modi and Wicks
still on the White House payroll?
Buffy Wicks ran
Obama’s Missouri campaign and the "Obama Truth Squad." Along with
two of St. Louis' high-profile prosecuting attorneys, Wicks'
Truth Squad threatened anyone who dared to disseminate
information that they didn't like about the then-candidate Obama.
One year ago on September 23rd, KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis reported
that St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullough and St. Louis Circuit
attorney Jennifer Joyce joined a high-profile group of law enforcement
officials (including Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer) threatening
to invoke "Missouri ethics laws" against anyone the prosecutors
determined had spread misleading information about Obama.
Obama
has shown that he has no problem using goon squad tactics, whether the
goons come from the SEIU or the halls of justice.
Propaganda
11/4/09
A Gentle Reminder
Help expose
the fraud that is Obama
Not Archived
11/4/09
The Top Five Lessons From Yesterday
Paul Mirengoff
says,
as readers know, I'm reluctant to infer too much from an off-off-year
election in a handful of states. However, my friend Bill Otis is
not. Here are his top five lessons all of which, I think, are
probably valid to one degree or another:
1. The "independents" or
"moderates" get it. That is, they seem to understand that the
Obama agenda and those allied with it are bad news for the economy.
Whether they understand HOW bad Obama is for the economy, and how much
of a danger he poses to other things like, say, freedom, cannot be
determined from last night's results. But the independents are no
longer nearly as taken in by the smooth talk as they were a year ago.
2. The era of succeeding by running against George Bush is over.
3. Intensity counts.
4. Far from being a post-racial figure,
Obama is the most racially polarizing politician since George Wallace.
The white vote shifted dramatically against the Dems. On the other
hand, what did they expect after Van Jones, ACORN, and the rest of Dear
Leader's fellow "community organizers?"
5. Goldwater 2.0 is
underway. That is, the Republican Party, which, in domestic
policy, had been all but emasculated by Bush's playing kissy-face with
welfare state and corporate liberalism (No Child Left Behind,
prescription drug benefit, cheap and easy money, bank bailouts, and
more), is into the process of discovering that conservatism is its heart
and its salvation.
Not Archived
11/4/09
The Obama Revolution Is Over
Psst! Don't tell anybody, but Republicans would win control of
Congress if the election were now, instead of next year.
It's
sure to remain the biggest political secret not in the news.
Naturally, the media will ignore it; the polling company that
produced the survey, Gallup, even buried it under a misleading
headline.
Maybe, to get some coverage, the Republicans could
claim to have hidden somebody in a weather balloon, or something.
The congressional election prediction is part of a one-two punch
Gallup delivered Barack Obama's Chicago mob on Tuesday, albeit
reluctantly.
Gallup's daily tracking shows that the spike in
the polls from Obama's photo-op saluting fallen soldiers returned
from Afghanistan was apparently short-lived. The cynically
orchestrated visuals of Obama saluting fallen troops at Dover Air
Force Base helped Obama climb briefly to 55%, but Gallup says
Obama's job approval rating has quickly slid back to its lowest
level, 50% -- one point lower than it was last week.
Perhaps
more importantly, one year before the public heads to the polls to
elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives, Gallup says
their generic congressional numbers are at levels which would give
Republicans a majority in the House if the election were held today.
Senior Congressional Democrats
told
ABC News today it is highly unlikely that a health care reform bill will
be completed this year, just a week after Barack Obama declared he was
"absolutely confident" he'll be able to sign one by then.
"Getting this done by the by the end of the year is a no-go," a senior
Democratic leadership aide told ABC News. Two other key
Congressional Democrats also told ABC News the same thing.
This
may come as an unwelcome surprise for the White House, where officials
from Obama on down have repeatedly said the health care bill would be
signed into law by the end of the year.
"I am absolutely
confident that we are going to get health care done by the end of this
year, and Nancy Pelosi is just as confident," Obama said Oct. 27 at a
fundraiser for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
ObamaCare
11/4/09
Related: A senior White House adviser says Obama would
announce an Afghanistan war strategy "within weeks," while a U.S.
official told The Associated Press that Obama still has not
yet decided what to do, and it remains unclear whether he
will decide before he goes to Asia on Nov. 11.
Military
11/4/09
Gag!
Who writes this crap?
Michelle Obama has become the
mistress to American fashion. "The first lady the world's been
waiting for," blazes the March cover of Vogue (slide
show), where Mrs. Obama appears
in a fuchsia dress by Jason Wu, the young talent she helped turn into an
overnight star. No first lady since Jacqueline Kennedy has had a
more instantaneous impact on fashion. Whatever Mrs. Obama wears,
people notice and very often buy.
Despite the close study that
people have made of Mrs. Obama's style, it is not known that her
wardrobe is being managed largely by a boutique owner in Chicago. Ikram
Goldman, whose store is called Ikram, has played an unprecedented role
since the election, serving as gatekeeper between the fashion industry
and the first lady.
You've
all been wondering who dresses Michelle -- well, here she/he/it is:
Explains a lot . . .
The Wife
11/4/09
"V" Aims At Obamamania
Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic,
telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a
message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to
marshal technology for a better future that will include universal
health care.
The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering
anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: "Why
don't you show some respect?!" The public is likewise smitten,
except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet
about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed,
offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit
condescending: "Embracing change is never easy."
So, does that
sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait -- did I mention the leader
is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who's come here to eat us?
Welcome to ABC's "V," the most fascinating and bound to be the most
controversial new show of the fall television season. Nominally a
rousing sci-fi space opera about alien invaders bent on the conquest
(and digestion) of all humanity, it's also a barbed commentary on
Obamamania that will infuriate Obama's supporters and delight his
detractors.
The Lid blog
reports on a new set of National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) emails that have been released, linking
the White House directly to the NEA scandal.
Four weeks ago, Big
Hollywood posted an
audio of a conference call in which Obama administration officials
asked "grant recipients to plug Barack Obama’s domestic agenda."
At least six federal laws and regulations were violated when then–NEA
communications director Yosi Sergant and White House Office of Public
Engagement deputy director Buffy Wicks tried twisting the arms of
artists and arts groups interested in getting federal arts grants to
produce government propaganda.
To protect the scandal from
expanding further, the White House threw Sergant under the bus, denied
that they were involved issued new guidelines for the NEA and promised
that it will never, ever, cross my heart, ever happen again.
Last
week, Judicial Watch, announced it had obtained
documents from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) through the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) related to the NEA's controversial
August 10 conference call encouraging artists to create work that
promotes the Obama agenda. The first set of documents were
internal NEA correspondence involving disgraced former NEA
Communications Director Yosi Sergant, who resigned over the scandal, and
former actor, star of House and current Associate Director of the White
House Office of Public Engagement, Kalpen Modi.
They indicate
that the call was part of a specific White House Arts Policy to use the
NEA as propaganda tool.
The following are
excerpts from the email correspondence:
Propaganda
11/3/09
Not Archived
11/3/09
Obama Doctrine "Coup"
Frank Gaffney says Obama is working against our friends and for our
foes. He undermines our allies. Emboldens our enemies.
Diminishes our country. If anyone doubts these words summed up the
Obama Doctrine, look at what Obama's team perpetrated last week in
Honduras.
Assistant Secretary of State Thomas A. Shannon and the
National Security Council's Senior Director for Western Hemisphere
Affairs Dan Restrepo visited the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, on
Wednesday to compel the country's recalcitrant democrats to make a deal
with the man the latter had lawfully removed from the presidency on June
28.
It remains to be seen whether, pursuant to this deal, former
President Manuel Zelaya will now be -- as he claims -- restored to
power. What is already unmistakable, though, is that it is better
to be a foe of America than its friend.
The Obama administration
has been on the wrong side in this affair from the moment the Honduran
supreme court and congress acted as required by their nation's
constitution in the face of Mr. Zelaya's effort to engineer an illegal
second term.
Instead of standing with those who lawfully
protected democracy, Obama and his minions immediately joined the
region's authoritarians -- including notably Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and
Cuba's Castro brothers -- in declaring Mr. Zelaya a victim of a "coup."
When the interim Honduran president, Roberto Micheletti, a
member of Mr. Zelaya's own party, and his countrymen refused to
reinstall the latter, Team Obama unleashed their full "soft power"
arsenal upon America's impoverished ally.
Drawing upon an
opinion authored by notorious transnationalist Harold Koh, the State
Department's legal adviser, who found that the Hondurans' action was
indeed a "coup" and must be reversed, the U.S. administration and/or its
allies on Capitol Hill cut off most aid to Honduras; issued travel
warnings to discourage tourism; blocked visas for officials of the
interim government; tried to preclude fact-finding missions to
Tegucigalpa by Republican legislators; and promoted the heavy-handed,
pro-Zelaya "diplomacy" of the Organization of American States' leftist
Chilean secretary general, Jose Miguel Insulza.
As the Honduran
democrats refused to bend to such coercion, Mr. Obama's team dropped the
big one: The United States would join the hemisphere's large and growing
block of authoritarian nations in refusing to recognize the legitimacy
of the election scheduled for the end of this month.
The effect
of this power play would be to deny the people of Honduras the one
peaceful means they would have to end the nightmare Mr. Zelaya
unleashed.
Paul Mirengoff
says
the author, Scott Wilson, is pretty clear that Obama's approach to
dealing with our allies and our adversaries has come up empty so far,
whether in enlisting allies to help us in Afghanistan, persuading them
to stimulate their economies, or causing Iran to change its behavior.
How to explain Obama's embrace of an approach that seems so ineffectual?
Wilson does so by claiming that Obama's approach to dealing with
nations is an outgrowth of his days as a "community organizer." He
argues that Obama sees foreign countries, including our adversaries, as
part of a community to be organized. Wilson writes:
President Obama is applying the same tools to
international diplomacy that he once used as a community organizer
on Chicago's South Side, constructing appeals to shared interests
and attempting to bring the government's conduct in line with its
ideals. . . .
As a community organizer, Obama worked to
identify the common interests of neighborhoods suffering through the
economic aftermath of plant closings and of the politicians elected
to represent them. The role requires patience -- a word used
consistently by his advisers in regard to reviving Middle East peace
talks or reaching out to Iran -- and cultivating a lower profile
than the other parties involved.
Whether Obama is actually cultivating a lower profile
than the other parties involved in his foreign dealings -- and, indeed,
whether he did so during his ascension through Chicago politics -- is
open to question. But let's put that issue to one side. Does
Obama really believe that the relationship between the U.S. and its
allies to the likes of China, Russia, and Iran is comparable to the
relationship between aggrieved constituents and their elected
representatives? If so, then he certainly is a fool.
But
the evidence is that Obama believes no such thing. Obama has not
treated Israel and Honduras with the same "patience" he has treated our
adversaries. They have not been the beneficiaries of his "I come
here to listen, not to lecture" approach to activism.
Thus,
Obama's selective use of what Wilson calls a "cool, interests-based"
approach to foreign policy should be viewed as a matter of ideology, not
one of style. After all, Jimmy Carter was never a community
organizer; yet his approach to the world was an awful lot like Obama's.
In sum, the only relationship between Obama's diplomacy and his
community activism is the left-wing ideology behind both.
Not Archived
11/3/09
Only Rugged Men Should Be President
Not Archived
11/2/09
Obama's New Afghan Strategy -- Surrender!
Kristinn, at FreeRepublic.com,
says
Obama is considering an almost complete surrender in Afghanistan, if the
report this weekend by the BBC's Katty Kay is accurate.
Speaking as a panelist on the Chris Matthews Show, a
weekend public affairs broadcast, Kay reported on the internal debate at
the White House -- "There are real questions being asked, I think, about
whether even with a big injection of troops this is a real country, a
real war that you can win.
"And there's a new phrase which is floating around the
White House which is 'minimum security'. That we're not actually
aiming for a country which is stable that we are in control of, but we
are aiming for a minimum amount of security and perhaps even a
negotiated settlement with the Taliban."
This would tie in with reports that Obama has
concluded the U.S. cannot beat the Taliban and that he has requested two
new studies. The first study is to determine which provinces may
be ceded to the Taliban. The second, is to determine
troop levels other than those
requested by Gen. McChrystal over two months ago.
Kay's remarks start at the 19:10 minute in the
backward clock on the
video.
She describes the three different views on the situation in Afghanistan
that have been presented to Obama: the military needs a large
injection of troops to execute the McChrystal's strategy; even
with more troops, Afghanistan will never be winnable; and "'we
have no choice but to win this war' and that is what Obama said back in
March."
Obama has delayed making his decision. It will
not be announced until the end of November. That's three months
into the twelve month window left to win the war.
Troop casualties in Afghanistan have
skyrocketed in the past three
months, with over 1000 being wounded. 58 service members have been
killed in the last month, making it the deadliest month of the
eight-year long war.
On Friday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
bragged that Obama has spent almost twenty hours
in meetings on Afghanistan since August.
Military
10/2/09
Commander In Least
Noah Steele Kline says that as a Marine, Operation Iraqi Freedom
veteran, and Honorably Discharged Sergeant, he knows a thing or two
about mission accomplishment versus troop welfare. As a matter of
fact, any Marine can tell you the clearly stated objective of the Marine
Corps is mission accomplishment. Troop welfare comes secondary.
Commanders and military leaders learned long ago that success on
any battlefront depends chiefly upon mission accomplishment. Troop
welfare, while important, does not trump mission accomplishment.
For the enlisted Marine on the ground, this is sometimes a hard pill to
swallow, but we understand. And actually, this is one of the
reasons why the Marine Corps is one of the finest and most effective
fighting forces in the world.
Our current Commander in Chief
(who never served in the military) has not demonstrated that he
comprehends the concept of mission accomplishment before troop welfare.
Disappointingly, Obama has not demonstrated that he comprehends the
concept of mission accomplishment at all. We have no clear mission
in Afghanistan. We have no concise finalization strategy for Iraq.
Obama has yet to establish just what we are supposed to be doing in
either of these theaters.
Furthermore, Obama seems to be
thwarting any forward momentum with regard to mission accomplishment by
manifesting an attitude that troop welfare is paramount. He has
also hastily portrayed an apologetic attitude for American strength.
This destructive attitude breeds not only optimism in our enemies, but
despair in those in uniform who are genuinely proud to serve the country
they love.
Not only that, Obama is arguing with the very
commander he appointed to do what needs to be done. Consequently,
his indecisiveness, or "dithering" as Cheney put it, is costing American
lives and wasting precious time needed to gain momentum toward mission
accomplishment -- for whatever the mission may be.
For someone
who neither served in the military nor had any executive leadership,
Obama has yet to do anything to assuage the collective apprehensions
from those of us who feel he is too green for the job of Commander in
Chief. The presidency is not the place for on-the-job training,
especially in a time of war. Although Obama has probably learned a
lot in his first nine months in office, he has not asserted to Americans
or our enemies that the new administration has any idea how to handle a
war, let alone two.
3 Million Registered Voters Are Dead, 12 Million More
Ineligible
And 98% of them voted for
Obama.
Regardless of how lively an election season
might be, a new study shows that more 3.3 million voters on current
registration rolls across the country are dead.
Another 12.9
million remain on voter registration lists in an area where they no
longer live.
The analysis was conducted by the Aristotle
International Inc., a technology company specializing in political
campaigns, developing software and databases for politicians.
In
total that means about 8.9 percent of all registered voters fall under
the category of "deadwood" voters on the rolls, the term for voters who
should no longer be eligible to vote in a precinct.
A pro-family organization is reporting that a publisher of "gay
erotica" sought out Kevin Jennings, who heads Obama's Office of Safe
Schools in the Department of Education, to write a book aimed at
encouraging homosexuality in high schools and colleges.
The
result was "Becoming Visible," which opens with, "Why teach gay and
lesbian history?… Indeed, as lesbian and gay studies has emerged
as a discipline over the last two decades, its dramatic discoveries have
shown it to be one of the most exciting fields in contemporary
historical scholarship."
Researchers at
Mass Resistance reported
Sasha Alyson of Alyson Publications sought out Jennings to do the book.
In Jennings' acknowledgements for the book, he writes, "Writing
this part of the book has caused me more anxiety than any other.
It simply is not possible to express my gratitude to the many people who
have helped make this book possible... With apologies to anyone
omitted, here we go! The obvious place to begin is with Alyson
Publications. First, Sasha Alyson had the vision to conceive of
this project, and I had the good luck to be the person he sought out to
complete it. I am deeply appreciative of being afforded this
opportunity."
"It's outrageous that the same company that markets
books that condition children to accept homosexuality also peddles
instructions on how pedophiles can have sex with children without
getting caught," said Lambda Report editor Peter LaBarbera.
Usually it's considered common courtesy to give up your seat to a
woman -- but Rudy Giualiani was reportedly none too pleased when he had
to
vacate his prized spot at Yankee Stadium ... to the First Lady.
The former mayor of New York City always sits near the Yankee
dugout, but according to Page Six he was relegated to behind the
photographers' box for Game 1 of the World Series because Michelle Obama
was given the seats instead.
The paper says it was the White
House that didn't want Giuliani near Michelle, but get this: she didn't
even sit in the seats because of the weather and they remained
unoccupied for the whole game.
Giuliani got his seat back for
Game 2, which the Yankees won.
Just symptomatic of the Obama's general sense of entitlement.
The Wife
11/1/09
The Price Of Those Seminars
Jennifer Rubin
draws our attention to this sobering
report from the Washington Post:
More than 1,000 American troops have been
wounded in battle over the past three months in Afghanistan,
accounting for one-fourth of all those injured in combat since the
U.S.-led invasion in 2001. The dramatic increase has filled
military hospitals with more amputees and other seriously injured
service members and comes as October marks the deadliest month for
American troops in Afghanistan.
How many were killed or lost a limb, I wonder, while
Obama dithered and delayed implementing the recommendations of his
hand-picked general? It is not an inconsequential question.
Obama acts as though there were no downside to the lethargic pace of his
decision-making. He would have us believe that there is no price
to be paid as he micromanages, province-by-province, the number of
troops he’ll dispense. He seems content to entertain the
recommendations of Gens. Joe Biden and John Kerry -- drawing on their
years of experience (in assessing nearly every national-security
challenge incorrectly) while discarding that of the real experts.
What’s a few more weeks? Or months? Well, we know there
is indeed a price to allowing our current approach to languish.
There is a very real cost to delaying implementation of the new plan
that is the best available to achieve victory as quickly as possible.
The enemy is emboldened. More civilians die. The political
and security situation in Pakistan worsens. And more brave
Americans are asked to sacrifice themselves while Obama considers and
reconsiders whether there isn’t any way to shave some money off the tab
and reduce the number of troops his commanders say are needed.
After all, health care is going to cost an awful lot.
The horrid
reality of war is that parents send their children to die or to return
in a condition they could not possibly have envisioned. But to
sacrifice even a single American who was engaged in a fruitless exercise
or an understaffed operation so Obama can conduct a
seminar and postpone a confrontation with his own party (that no
longer can stomach the "good war") is reprehensible.
Military
11/1/09
Fewer Than Half Of Arkansans Think Obama Is Natural Born
An October 23rd item
reported that three-in-ten Americans think their current head of
state was not born in the United States, according to a poll by Angus
Reid Strategies. 70 per cent of respondents believe Barack Obama
was born in the U.S., while 30 per cent do not.
Now, Goddard's
Political Wire
points to a new Public Policy Polling
survey in Arkansas shows that only 45% of voters in the state say
they believe Obama was born in this country, while 31% say they think he
was not and 24% are unsure.
"Arkansas is the first of four states
where we've polled the birther issue (Virginia, North Carolina, and
Colorado were the others) and found less than half of respondents
confident that Obama is a natural born citizen. The numbers are
particularly dramatic among Republicans with 49% saying Obama was not
born here to just 23% who grant that he was."
Natural Born
11/1/09
Obama Surrounds Himself With The Most Extreme Appointees
In American History
Steve Baldwin says much has been written about Obama’s controversial
appointments, not only to the federal bench, but to key cabinet
positions, as well as to the unaccountable (and probably
unconstitutional) "Czar" positions. Much of the criticism has
dwelled on the Obama administration’s lack of vetting when filling these
rolls -- but that’s not the issue.
To the contrary, the Obama
team did investigate thoroughly and they choose precisely. When an
administration repeatedly nominates hard-left individuals, it’s not a
vetting error -- it’s a pattern. We should not allow the media to
portray these appointments as a series of errors; but rather, we need to
realize that Team Obama is simply nominating those who share their goal
of radically changing America.
Most Americans have a hard time
understanding this because they refuse to believe Obama is this extreme.
But he is. For a year prior to his election conservatives warned
voters that everything we knew about Obama indicated that his views were
far from the mainstream. This was obvious when one analyzed his
friends, which groups he funded while a "community activist," his
Illinois State Senate record, his United States Senate record and even
what he wrote in his own books.
The reality, of course, is that
Obama’s views are far from the mainstream and it is embarrassing so many
Americans fell for his leftist candy-coated lies. Indeed, it
appears that Obama is the most far left president in American history.
His appointees only confirm this. These appointees hail from the
crowd who regard their pedigree as the 60’s activists who cheered on the
Vietcong, while American boys were slaughtered in the jungles of
Vietnam. They hate America, or more precisely, they hate America’s
heritage; American institutions, and the American Constitution.
Many of these extremists nominated by Obama hail from academia, where
they were shielded from outside scrutiny while they quietly
indoctrinated our youth. But don’t let the cloak of academia fool
you; they are out to change America in ways most Americans oppose.
More importantly, Americans need to realize their views are Obama’s
views.
The American media is partly responsible for bringing such
extremists to power. There is little doubt the media engaged in a
massive propaganda effort to convince Americans that Obama was some kind
of hip moderate; a breath of fresh air, a reformer, and someone who
would fight the corrupt ways of Washington. Until Americans wake
up and stop relying on the mainstream media for their source of news,
they will continue to pay a heavy price for their ignorance.
Unfortunately, this report covers just a few of Obama’s policy-makers,
but there are many more such extremists within his administration.
The Morning Journal's editor, Tom Skoch,
reminds us that Tuesday is Election Day 2009. Already, it has
been a year since Barack Obama rode the "hope and change" bandwagon to
victory in the 2008 presidential election. Today, we can look back
over what Obama has brought to us in that year.
In Lorain, Ohio,
Obama has brought... well, maybe that's not such a good example.
Not much change here, but we can hope for more jobs and business,
eventually.
Let's take a wider look at a checklist of big Obama &
Company plans and their progress:
• "Get
out of Iraq." -- Not yet.
• "Fight
the real war in Afghanistan." -- Needs more study.
• Close down Gitmo." -- Not yet.
• "Health care for all." -- Not
yet; but so far they're up to 1,900 pages of baffle-gab proposals that
would dictate about 3,000 things we "shall" (read that "must") do to
follow those dance steps, whatever they are. Nobody is sure.
Not to worry; they can move quickly since they've learned to approve
laws without actually reading them.
• "Transparency
in government." -- Sorry, they're all locked in a closed-door meeting.
Check back someday.
• "Re-set"
relations with Russia and charm the world. -- Had a whole row of Putin
flunkies refuse to shake his hand. Then he dumped our allies' date
with a missile defense in Eastern Europe to dance to Russia's tune, but
Putin still won't respect him. Not to worry, dirt bag dictators
are warming up to us, and the King of Saudi Arabia thinks of Obama every
time he needs a world leader to bow before him. Most amazingly,
Obama has made France look tougher than the United States. That's
an achievement.
• Fix the mess
"Bush made" of the economy -- Easy. Obama just borrowed an immense
mountain of money and dumped it on top of Bush's spending molehill.
Pretty soon Obama will have spent all the money anyone will lend us,
then our dollars will be worthless and we'll all be carefree because who
needs to worry about not having enough worthless money?
• Move America into a post-racial era.
-- Easy. Now anyone who disagrees with Obama's ideas is a racist.
No more guesswork. Just spot them; isolate them; destroy their
reputations and livelihoods. He's a chip off the old Alinsky.
• "Stop global warming; save the
environment" -- A work in progress, sort of, maybe. Poured out $3
billion or so in cash for clunkers. Doesn't the air smell much
sweeter since then?
• Obama
also has inspired millions of Americans to get worthwhile exercise by
marching to Tea Parties.
• He
and his friends have given the Second Amendment newfound respect.
In the past year, millions of Americans have bought up firearms and
ammunition at a blazing pace before some czar can stop them.
• All joking aside, Obama does have
one huge achievement: He has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Oh,
wait. That's a joke, too.
Not Archived
10/31/09
20 Hours
Kristinn, at FreeRepublic.com
reports
that at Friday's
White House briefing, Press
Secretary Robert
Gibbels said Barack Obama has spent "close to 20 direct hours" in
meetings on Afghanistan since Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for tens
of thousands of reinforcements was submitted over two months ago with a
warning the war would be lost in twelve months without more troops.
Gibbels says Obama also spends "quite a bit of time"
thinking about the war in Afghanistan.
Gibbels was asked about a statement by the mother of
one of the fallen soldiers, Sgt. Dale Griffin, killed in Afghanistan
this week whom Obama met with at Dover early Thursday morning. The
mother, Dona Griffin, said she told Obama,
Don't leave our troops hanging,"
when he asked the families if there was anything he could do for them.
Gibbels was asked if Obama feels like he is leaving the troops hanging.
He responded that Obama is trying to "understand the
full cost of the war."
MR. GIBBS: Again, we haven't gotten into broad
specifics on that yet.
On the first part, Jeff, you know, look, I think --
I don't -- I used to have it calculated, I should just go back and do
it, the number of hours that he has spent in
these meetings is probably now -- well, at the end of today will
probably be getting close to 20 direct hours of his time.
The group -- the principals that meet with the President additionally
take time to get the material ready, and are prepared to answer
questions for the President, probably at least twice as much of that of
the President's time the principals have spent.
So obviously we -- the President and his team have
spent a pretty big chunk of time evaluating very, very closely each of
these individual countries, their relationship together and their impact
on the region.
At the conclusion of these meetings, he generally
is off to the next thing. I think he has
spent quite a bit of time after the meetings back in the office -- back
in his office, probably primarily in the Residence at night, going back
and reading through his notes, as well as -- notes that he's taken on
the meetings, and oftentimes will come out with questions that the team
will prepare the answers for, for the next meeting.
SNIPQ -- Early yesterday
morning when he was in Dover and met with the families, the families
said that he asked, is there anything we can do for the families. And
the mother of -- Dona Griffin, a mother of the last of the dignified
transfers, said that she told Obama, "Don't leave our troops hanging."
When he walks into the Situation Room right about now, does he have any
sense that the time he's taking to make these decisions is leaving those
troops hanging?
MR. GIBBS: Again, to go back through what's
happened, the President believed that additional forces were needed in
March and he added them to get us to a point where we could evaluate the
outcome of the election. That obviously has been delayed a little
bit, but he believes this is a point in which it's necessary to fully
assess where we are. I don't believe the President thinks -- I
know he doesn't believe that this assessment is in any way doing that.
I think he understands and I think, as you heard him say yesterday in
the Oval Office, I think his commitment,
particularly after going to a place like
Dover, is to understand the full cost of the war.
"Close to 20 direct hours" -- twenty
whole hours in nine months -- that's less than 30 minutes a week.
Obama's spent more time on the golf links, choosing a dog, and flying
the bride to NY for her birthday.
FReeper Windflier makes the
observation that Obama's booked solid with World Apology Tours, bowing
and kowtowing engagements with Saudi kings, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance
speeches, traveling around the world pimping Chicago to the Olympics
Committee, fighting a war with Fox News, throwing his closest associates
under the bus when their radical agendas are exposed, hiding his birth
certificate, taking over private enterprises, bailing out Wall Street
and the banks, putting generations into debt with his Stimulus bill, and
working overtime to take control of the health care sector of our
economy.
Obama has easily spent more time this month fundraising
and campaigning for the Democratic party and Democratic candidates than
he has on Afghanistan.
This is what you get when you elect a
community organizer for CIC.
Military
10/31/09
Who's Pulling Obama's Strings?
Liz Peek says Obama fans are in a tight spot. As the
White House turns ever harsher and more divisive, supporters are
scrambling to explain why Resident Obama sounds so very different from
Campaigner Obama. There are two possible explanations, neither of
which is flattering. The first is that Obama was insincere on the
campaign trail. The second is that his advisors -- David Axelrod
and Rahm Emanuel -- are in control. The latter view is bound to
take hold and it will not boost Obama’s flagging popularity ratings.
Many who voted for Obama feel deceived. When he
said in Florida last year "we cannot afford the same political games and
tactics that are being used to pit us against one another," people
believed him. When he extolled "rejecting fear and division for
unity of purpose," people believed him. When he said on election
night "I will listen to you, especially when we disagree," people
believed him.
Why has Obama left those admirable promises behind?
Why is his administration going after Fox News, the Chamber of Commerce,
insurance executives, AIG management, the drug industry, the Chrysler
bondholders and any and all who oppose his policies?
Many believe
that Obama is being manipulated by his political adviser David Axelrod
and his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. The aura of Chicago politics
drifts over the capital like a smog. Ironically, the nasty
assaults may be calculated to offset a growing view that Obama is not
tough enough to stand up to his detractors. He already looks weak
as he "dithers" on Afghanistan, repeatedly blames George Bush for his
problems and kow-tows to foreign leaders while apologizing for our
nation’s past. Surely, though, it will not help Obama if the
country begins to suspect he is not his own man. Being seen as a
follower in his own White House will surely magnify an unhealthy aura of
inconsequence.
Jonah Goldberg says that Rocco Landesman, the head of the National
Endowment for the Arts, didn’t get the memo, literally.
On
September 22, stung by controversy over the administration’s effort to
turn the arts community into proselytizers of its very special brand of
hope and change, the White House issued a stern warning to all
government agencies: Keep politics out of the arts.
The
White House denied that was ever the intent. Many in the media, as
is their wont, took the Obama administration at their word.
But
not the website Big Government (which broke the story) and the
Washington Times. They demonstrated that from the earliest days of
the presidential transition, Barack Obama’s political operation sought
to entrench the arts community in its "outreach" operations. Bill
Ivey, Obama’s transition adviser on the arts, admitted in June: "I
wanted to see some real connection between administration objectives and
the capacity of all the cultural actors in government. I made some
progress. I got some agreement."
That "progress" mostly
came in the form of enlisting arts groups -- groups that received
stimulus money -- in Obama’s national-service agenda.
Three days
after Landesman was confirmed as the head of the NEA, his communications
director, Yosi Sergant, told NEA grantees in a conference call: "I
would encourage you to pick something, whether it’s health care,
education, the environment -- you know, there’s four key areas that the
corporation has identified as the areas of service."
Two days
later, a host of arts organizations endorsed Obama’s health-care plan:
"We call on Congress to pass: A health-care reform bill that will
create a public-health option.... There is little time to
waste...." Of the 21 groups signing the statement, 16 had recently
received grants from the NEA or were affiliated with organizations that
had.
Sergant was thrown under the bus, and the September 22 memo
put an end to the story for the supportive media.
David Patten says that several studies indicate consumers' premiums
could more than double next year if healthcare reform takes effect.
The rate hikes stem from the hundreds of billions in proposed fees and
taxes levied on providers.
Skyrocketing insurance premiums will
slam millions of consumers next year because of "indirect taxes"
contained in both the House and Senate versions of healthcare reform,
according to various medical and insurance industry experts.
Healthcare reforms that were supposed to contain costs actually will
cause a sharp hike in premiums, they add. In fact, several studies
indicate consumers' premiums could more than double next year if
healthcare reform takes effect.
"So even though this bill tries
to hide these costs as indirect taxes," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah,
recently told a business symposium, "average Americans who purchase
health plans, take prescription drugs, or use medical devices will end
up footing the bill."
The rate hikes stem from the hundreds of
billions in proposed fees and taxes levied on providers.
Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) has reviewed
H.R. 3962,
the "Affordable Health Care for America Act" that has been introduced by
Nancy Pelosi --all 1990 pages of it. ATR
points out that this gargantuan beast contains thirteen new tax
hikes. Here they all are, with description and page number:
• Employer Mandate Excise Tax
(Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single
employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the
employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages.
Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax
rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent
($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).
• Individual Mandate Surtax (Page
296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay
an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted
gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the
foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.
• Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324):
Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased
from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs),
or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.
• Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would
face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).
• Increased Additional Tax on
Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions
from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10
percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts
(e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)
•
Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating
with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector
participation in delivery of Medicare services.
• Surtax on Individuals and Small
Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI
over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the
itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top
marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45
percent -- a new effective top rate.
•
Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise
tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the
wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical
devices sold to the general public.
•
Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires
that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for
trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small
business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to
exchanges of property.
• Delay
in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years
the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision
from the American Jobs Creation Act
•
Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page
346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking
to avoid double taxation of earnings.
•
Codification of the "Economic Substance Doctrine" (Page 349):
Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other
tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer
was not primarily business-related.
•
Application of "More Likely Than Not" Rule (Page 357):
Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts
in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there
is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove
that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been
sufficient to cover final tax liability.
ObamaCare
10/30/09
It Took Just Minutes
Cornell Law School professor, William A. Jacobson,
says he's had only a few minutes to look at the bill, but one
fundamental and profound stupidity jumped out at him.
The bill
defines which businesses are subject to the health care tax based upon
the dollar amount of employee payroll. There even is a sliding
scale right in the bill (section 501, at page 276) which tops out at 8%
for businesses with $750,000 of annual payroll. Annual payroll is
defined as the "aggregate wages" paid by the employer.
This
provision creates incentives for businesses to keep down payroll.
One way would be not to hire anyone whose compensation would fall under
the definition of payroll under the bill.
In other words,
outsource whatever you can. Hire a software engineer in India, or
ship manufacturing to China, or structure your business in such a way
that you send 1099s not W-2s to the people who work for you (and hire an
accountant and tax lawyer to navigate IRS rules on independent
contractors).
The message of the bill is that whatever you do, if
you want to grow your business without paying the health care tax, do
not add employees.
Obama does not understand these provisions.
Obama gave a speech this morning in which he stated that these
provisions are directed at small businesses operating on thin margins.
But these provisions have nothing to do with profit margins. This
is a wage-based tax.
Obama does not understand the difference
between profit margins and wages. This is exactly what you would
expect from someone who always has been on the receiving end of wages,
and never had to meet a payroll. Wages are not profits and have
nothing to do with the success of a business. Just ask the auto
companies.
Jacobson doesn't think Obama and the other Democrats
are lying about this aspect of the health care tax. They truly do
not understand how the private economy works. In their blissful
ignorance they are designing job-killings provisions which they do not
understand.
Jacobson says that it is not an overstatement to say
"be afraid, be very afraid" of this monstrosity.
ObamaCare
10/30/09
The Power And Danger Of Iconography
This is good -- Bill Whittle explains Obama's "packaging" (08:10)
Iconography
10/30/09
Shut Up And Sing, Sting!
Sting isn't a religious man, but he
says Barack Obama might be a divine answer to the world's problems.
"In many ways, he's sent from God," he said in an interview,
"because the world's a mess."
But Sting, who has
performed at
several Free
Mumia benefit concerts, and has called for a new trial, is serious in his belief
that Obama is the best leader to navigate the world's problems. In
an interview on Wednesday, the former Police front-man said that he
spent some time with Obama and "found him to be very genuine, very
present, clearly super-smart, and exactly what we need in the world."
"I can't think of any be better qualified because of his
background, his education, particularly in regard to Islam," he said.
Audacity of Hypocrisy blog reports that Glamour magazine says U.S.
first lady Michelle Obama is fashion’s star, but that’s not why
she’s one of Glamour’s December cover models.
Mrs. Obama’s
work in mentoring earned her the spot, which will be rotated with
four other covers. She’ll receive a special recognition in the
annual Women of the Year issue that goes on newsstands Nov. 10.
In an interview with new Glamour columnist and CBS anchor Katie
Couric, Mrs. Obama said being a role model is one of the most
potentially powerful things she can do at the White House.
"I
see how little bits of exposure and big bits of exposure really
change my girls significantly, and I want that for more girls around
the country and the world," she said.
What are the chances that
Michelle Obama would be on the cover of Glamour magazine if she were
still steering
patients with non-urgent complaints away from the University of
Chicago Medical Center's emergency room to local clinics.
The
artist that did the airbrush work on that cover deserves an
invitation to the white house.
The Wife
10/29/09
Carter Caves
"Therefore, for the reasons stated
above, Defendants' Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED. IT IS SO
ORDERED. DATED: October 29, 2009"
It looks like the Judge has been
had. He granted the motion to dismiss the suit against Obama,
stating that over 69 million people wanted the Obamamessiah and he
wouldn’t overthrow him. In saying so, he is also saying that The
Constitution is no longer in effect -- and he used a bogus
Constitutional argument to do it.
"Plaintiffs request
asking this Court to sweep away the votes of over sixty-nine million
Americans with the stroke of a pen and order a new election during which
the country would be in a state of turmoil, ignores the Constitution's
processes and separation of powers that were developed by the founders."
What Carter said: •
It's OK to ignore Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U. S. Constitution.
• Votes trump the U. S. Constitution.
• The U. S. Constitution does not
allow the judicial branch to interfere in a coup d'etat.
The
fix
was in. Velamoor probably brought Judge Carter's ruling with him
from Perkins Coie.
Lawsuits
10/29/09
Photo Op
(02:57)
If Obama really gave a damn for our guys
he would revoke his insane Rules of Engagement (ROE), and already have McChrystal's
45,000 troops in Afghanistan. I guess this cynical display will
just have to do instead -- he wants you to know -- he cares, he really
cares.
And who's that right next to him -- Holder, the guy that
wants to put our CIA agents in the slammer for keeping America safe.
One puts them in the ground -- the other puts them in prison -- a
Progressive's wet dream.
Update:
kristinn, at FreeRepublic.com reports that Barack Obama was nearly
denied the photo-op he traveled to Dover Air Force Base for early this
morning as all but one of the military and civilian families of the
fallen refused permission for the media to report on the return of their
loved ones.
The sole family to allow media coverage was the
family of Sgt. Dale R. Griffin.
According to media reports,
Griffin's casket was the last to be brought off the C-17 cargo plane
that carried the bodies of 15 soldiers and 3 DEA agents killed this week
in Afghanistan.
Update: I've received several emails from readers that are
upset that I didn't give the Obamamessiah the benefit of the doubt.
This is for them:
Barack Obama brought
twenty-four reporters, photographers and videographers from fourteen
media outlets to Dover Air Force Base to cover his surprise visit there
early Thursday morning.
Bush always went behind the scenes to
hospitals, to see families, to meet with those coming home, WITHOUT the
media.
Military
10/29/09
Kerchner Appeal Filed
On Tuesday, October 27, 2009, at 2:19 p.m., attorney Mario Apuzzo
filed a Notice of Appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in
Philadelphia PA of Judge Jerome B. Simandle’s dismissal of the Kerchner
et al. v. Obama & Congress et al. case.
Recently, the Hon. Jerome
B. Simandle decided the Kerchner case, granting the defendants’ motion
to dismiss the case. As Apuzzo explained, through the dismissal,
Judge Simandle avoided having to reach the merits of the question of
whether Obama is an Article II "natural born Citizen" and eligible for
the Office of President and Commander in Chief.
In the Kerchner
complaint/petition, the plaintiffs allege that Obama has not
conclusively proven that he was born in Hawaii. More importantly,
they also allege that he is not an Article II "natural born Citizen"
because when Obama was born his father was a British subject/citizen and
Obama himself was the same, citing E. Vattel’s, The Law of Nations
(1758) and John Jay’s letter of 1787 to then-General George Washington
regarding providing a strong check on keeping foreign influence out of
the Office of Commander in Chief by requiring that only a "natural born
Citizen" occupy that critical and powerful office. As a
naturalized citizen cannot be president because of being born subject to
a foreign power, neither can Obama.
This is an
important step as this case works its way up to the Supreme Court.
Lawsuits
10/29/09
Obama’s COLB Never Accepted By Hawaii Registrar
AXJ-Action For Justice International Forum has a
thread entitled, "Obama’s COLB was never accepted by the Hawaii
Registrar!," that has some very interesting stuff related to the bogus
Obama Certification of Live Birth (COLB) that was provided to the Daily
Kos and others by the Obama Campaign.
Obama’s COLB has only
been "filed" but never "accepted." AXJ contends that if it hasn’t
been accepted, it’s not certified or official according to the State of
Hawaii.
click image for large copy
Notice the lower left hand corner for the wording "Filed"
or "Accepted" in this side by side comparison of two officially
certified "Accepted" Hawaiian COLB’s with Obama’s unofficial "Filed."
One comment says Orly Taitz will be presenting it to Judge
Carter tomorrow morning along with a request for a Subpoena to the
Registrar of Hawaii, but there is no information on
her website to that effect.
This has been pointed out
previously, but is now
popping up on current Google searches.
I will try and track down the Hawaii regulations for the use of the
terms, "Filed" and "Accepted." I'll update this item when/if
found. If any readers have information on the distinction between
"Filed" and "Accepted" shoot me an email.
Notice the
middle COLB. It has "Japanese" as a value of the "Race" field.
Hawaii's bureaucrats evidently are confused about race and nationality.
May help to explain why Obama Sr.'s race is listed as "African."
There were federal
regulations
in place in 1961 that provided the requirements to the states for birth
certificates, including the acceptable values for "Race" -- enter "227" in the "Page" text box and hit "Enter" --
warning
big .pdf file.
Although, I'm not sure any of this matters, since
there are three forensic examiners who have each
declared Obama's COLB is
counterfeit. A big "thank you" to Liz --
Here is
the Hawaii statutes on the "FILED" and "ACCEPTED" on the COLB: -- see
sections 11-1-4(d) and 11-1-28.
The statute specifically states
that the date of filing is the date that a document is "RECEIVED" at the
Department of Health office. Obama’s information was received or
"FILED" on Aug. 8, 1961, according to his COLB. It was never
"ACCEPTED" by the Registrar. Obama’s COLB is still being
"MAINTAINED" -- awaiting acceptance by the Hawaii State Registrar.
Here
is a ton of information about this issue -- this stuff is dynamite! --
the whole process -- check it out.
Birth Certificate
10/29/09
A Study In Obama's Priorities
Monte Kuligowski
says everything you need to know about Barack Obama is being
revealed from his decisiveness and indecisiveness on the respective
topics of health care and war.
On health care, Obama wanted a
bill on his desk before Congress took its break back in August. No
need to even read thousands of pages of bureaucracy-creating madness
that would control people’s lives in a sensitive area, by the force of
government. The health care system involves a large part of the
economy and the numbers vary. But the truth is that government
regulated health care would affect 100 percent of the economy. A
trillion dollar tax burden will not magically pay for itself, as the
Democrats say they believe. No, unintended consequences will
follow and unsustainably burdening the taxpayer will affect every
segment of the economy. Development, production and prosperity
across the board will be stifled.
Obama has clearly stated that
he wants a government run system and that’s all that matters. The
democrats know that any centrally controlled "reform," regardless of a
"public option," will place the camel’s nose under the tent.
Forget about the details -- just sign the damn bill yesterday!
But on the matter of war in Afghanistan we see a "deliberative,"
"reflective," and "contemplative" Obama.
Speaking of August,
that’s when his top general asked for 40 thousand more troops.
McChrystal’s warning couldn’t have been made any clearer. In order
to be effective in Obama’s "plan" of counter insurgency more troops were
required pronto. Maybe McChrystal should have used Obama’s famous
line: "Let me be clear," unless we get more troops our service people
will die unnecessarily.
But never mind that our young men and
women are dying, Obama has a political dilemma. Even though Obama
campaigned on the rhetoric that Iraq was the wrong war while Afghanistan
was the right war, the Left wants our troops out of the right war.
Obama knows that Afghanistan could be his "Iraq." Even though
the news media will support him no matter what, if he doesn’t secure
victory our military personnel will have died in vain. On the
other hand, if he becomes a full-on war time president, his fellow
leftists will turn on him.
October has been the deadliest month
since the war in Afghanistan began with the deaths of 55 servicemen.
Think it’s just coincidence that the U.S. death toll has increased
severely after McChrystal’s warning to Obama?
I wonder what the
reporting of the "mainstream" press would have looked like if George W.
Bush had played golf and ignored warnings which resulted in an
unprecedented number of American deaths?
Not Archived
10/29/09
Obama Concludes U.S. Can't Beat Taliban
Kristinn at FreeRepublic.com has
begun
a thread based on a Washington Post
report that says Barack Obama and top administration officials have
concluded the Taliban cannot be beaten and that they are looking for
ways to cede parts of Afghanistan to the Taliban without those regions
becoming safe havens for al Qaeda.
The article also reports that
Obama may wait until after he returns from a 10 day visit to Asia that
begins November 11 to decide his policy for Afghanistan.
The Post
article is largely about Obama's request made this week, two months
after he received Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for tens of
thousands more troops to fulfill Obama's counter-insurgency strategy
announced in March, for a province-by-province review of Afghanistan.
Apparently this has not been done before in the administration's
laborious review process.
Obama officials say they will not allow
the Taliban "to threaten the Kabul government or provide sanctuary for
al-Qaeda."
The Post describes Obama's defeatist attitude about
the invincibility of the Taliban:
In reviewing McChrystal's bracing assessment
of the war, the president and his senior advisers have concluded
that the Taliban cannot be eliminated as a military and political
force, regardless of how many more troops are deployed.
Reading between the
lines -- Obama surrenders to Taliban -- with this move, Obama is
signaling his weakness to every enemy on the planet.
Nothing good
will come from this cowardice.
Military
10/29/09
Krauthammer to Obama: Disgusting and Disgraceful
RadioViceOnline.com
says the subject is Afghanistan -- not Obama’s
strategy. Krauthammer makes it very clear in his comments that
Obama has every right to change his strategy -- even pick a strategy.
No, what Krauthammer calls childlike is Obama’s penchant for blaming
everyone for his failures. To paraphrase Allahpundit at HotAir,
hey, you ran on this war "chump," you picked the strategy, this is your
war to win or lose. Stop blaming your big brother.
One last thing. This another perfect example of a
generation (or is it liberal ideology) that simply can’t take personal
responsibility for anything. It’s always but always someone else’s
fault.
Video
10/28/09
Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which
people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need
for admiration. They believe that they're superior to others and
have little regard for other people's feelings. But behind this
mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the
slightest criticism.
"As an American I am not so shocked that Obama was given the Nobel
Peace Prize without any accomplishments to his name, but that America
gave him the White House based on the same credentials."
Newt
Gingrich
Not Archived
10/28/09
Obama Not Comfortable With Women
Bonnie Erbe
reminds us that Obama drew heat last week for a story that surfaced
outing his private White House male-only b-ball games. The story
was that even though two female members of his cabinet were members of
their college basketball teams, they were excluded, as were all women,
from this most private of male-only clubs. The story became a
metaphor for how Obama views women generally and threatened to reveal
some inconvenient truths about the man.
Now we see reports that
gender-insensitivity charges have resonated with the Obama White House.
According to
Politics Daily, Obama dragged chief domestic policy adviser Melody
Barnes to the golf course on Sunday, and she became the first female to
join his golf foursome since he took office. The event produced a photo
op of global proportions.
Obama could invite
Chamique
Holdsclaw to the private White House basketball court and Billie
Jean King to play tennis with him. I still wouldn't believe he's
any more comfortable dealing with women or concerned about "women's"
issues than the dearly departed former Sen. Jesse Helms. Obama
talks the talk a lot better and a lot louder than Helms. But Jesse
Helms was so rooted in his atavist traditions, he chose to remain true
to his misogyny rather than pose for cameras with faux female golfing
partners. Obama must hide the side of his personality that is
clearly uncomfortable with women because he needs their votes much more
than Helms ever did.
Whether it was his treatment of Hillary
Clinton on the campaign trail (as in his condescending remark that she
was "likeable enough") or his clearly career-oriented mate who has been
toned down and re-morphed into a Stepford Wife, I just don't get the
impression this man is comfortable with women. Nor do I believe he
cares about them beyond needing women's votes. It's an act and a
thoroughly see-through, amateur one at that.
Seems comfortable here?
Not Archived
10/28/09
Is Obama A Sleaze?
Vanity Fair
says there’s a reason Obama hasn’t wrapped up ObamaCare or Iraq,
figured out Afghanistan, closed Guantanamo, or found anybody a job.
He’s been out raising money.
He’s been schmoozing, and golfing,
and kissing ass.
The Wall Street Journal has
outlined in quite excruciating detail just how Obama has actually
been spending a significant amount of his time and attention. In
nine months he’s done 26 fundraisers. Three a month.
George
Bush, by this point in his presidency, had, according to the Journal,
only done six. George Bush raised $48 million with his six
fundraisers; Obama, so far, has only raised $21 million.
He’s not
just been on his belly, but on his belly for a relative pittance.
Another reason he isn't getting
anything done is that Obama and his trusty TOTUS are on TV 24/7.
We all knew Obama was the most inexperienced person to ever run for the
office. Now that he occupies the Oval Office, he's never there
because he has no idea what the job is about.
So he
does the things
he knows how to do -- he hoodwinks -- he bamboozles -- he does the
okie-dokie -- but he doesn't govern.
While on the subject of
Obama's faux-bro accent -- just how does a prep school, Ivy League
graduate get to talk like a born-and-bred-in-the-hood bro?
It's
the Authentic Obama
Voice Changer. Now you can be the first in your neighborhood
to get the changer and sound like you too have authentic street cred.
Not Archived
10/28/09
Pravda: America Moving To Socialism Slowly But Surely
Obama’s
decision not to build the Missile Defense System in Poland and the
Czech Republic and his Noble Prize have not yet been comprehended from a
philosophical viewpoint. It’s time to do it.
The last turning
point similar to the current one happened approximately 400 years ago.
The Western European society discovered a new hierarchy of values.
Feudalism that valued service and chivalry was replaced with capitalism.
Wealth became the measure of success, and everyone was to care about his
own pocket only. The cult of money replaced all other values,
including religious.
Capitalism turned everything upside down
and made people more excited about stuffing their bank accounts than
anything else. This system turned out to be extremely efficient in
terms of production of goods, services, and comfort. America
benefited from the system the most, and decided that the rest of the
world has to adopt it as well. If some underdeveloped countries
are unable to appreciate the benefits of capitalism, they should be
forced to do it.
Meanwhile, philosophers say that capitalism is
driven not by hard cash, but rather, striving for hard cash. It’s
driven not by the production of goods, but rather, striving for
consumption of these goods.
If everyone had these values, the
"dog-eat-dog" principal would be the major principal in the world
history. But America failed to do it. There are plenty of
"underdeveloped" people in the world who continue to cherish spiritual
values. There are not that many chances left to force them into
worshiping money since these "underdeveloped" people adopt western
technology and become stronger. The appeal to adopt American
values doesn’t work either. Why would we adopt the system if the
system is in crisis? Pragmatic America realized that billions of
people are not willing to live in the kingdom of hard cash and decided
that it would be better off leaving this kingdom itself. Now the
USA is talking about introducing socialism.
What does Obama’s
decision not to build the Eastern European Missile Defense System have
to do with all of this? Well, it means that it’s not capitalism
that’s undergoing the crisis, but the belief in its high efficiency.
And this, in turn, means that America, the bulwark of capitalism, is no
longer the boss of the world. And if it’s not the boss any more,
it has to be friends with everybody, including Russia. And it’s
America’s turn to offer Russia to push the reset button. Or maybe
it’s just tired of imposing its rules on others and felt that friendship
is more valuable than money and power? If this is the case, we
will soon witness another turning point in the world history.
Not Archived
10/28/09
Obama's Priorities
Military
10/28/09
Zinni to Obama: Time’s Up on Afghanistan Decision
August Cole, who reports on U.S. defense policy,
says Anthony Zinni stepped up his call for Obama to quit
dilly-dallying and send more troops to Afghanistan to fight the
insurgency.
A counterinsurgency strategy, he said, would work
better over the long run than continuing narrower counterterrorism
operations that target Taliban and al Qaeda leaders.
The retired
Marine Corps general, who had been the top commander in the Middle East
and Central Asia, said Obama needs more forces in Afghanistan quickly.
Zinni said his own son was among the troops waiting to be deployed,
adding: "I think that we owe them a decision. For the life
of me, I can’t figure out why we’re still waiting for one."
Zinni,
who spent considerable time working with the Pakistani and Indian
governments while he headed Centcom during the Clinton administration,
told the International Peace Operations Association’s annual conference
that a counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan could better resolve
the nettlesome problems with Taliban and al Qaeda fighters and drug
production. The association is a trade group for battlefield
contractors; Zinni is chairman of BAE Systems Inc., the U.K. defense
giant’s U.S. arm.
He offered a bit less-pointed advice earlier
this month on CBS’s Face the Nation.
This time, Zinni had some
specific advice for Barack Obama: Americans need to hear a better
explanation of why the U.S. is in Afghanistan, on the doorstep of
nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India neighbors. "I think the
speech that has been missing… is this talk not only to the American
public but to the world about what the threats are, what the challenges
are and what the concerns should be out there," he said.
Zinni
also urged Obama to get NATO allies to send more troops, and be willing
to engage in combat in Afghanistan. "This cannot be America’s
war," he said
Candidate Obama Pledged No ObamaCare With "Fifty Plus
One Strategy"
Freedom's Lighthouse has published an audio of Barack Obama as a
candidate in 2007 in which he flatly says, "we are not going to pass
universal health care with a fifty plus one strategy." Obama said "you
can't govern" if you go about things in that way.
But
now, of course, the Democrats are planning to use of just such a
"Nuclear Option" to ram ObamaCare through.
What a difference an
election makes.
Before the election, Obama spoke of "governing." After the election, Obama is all about "ruling."
If you don't believe it, watch
this video, and listen to Barney Frank say Democrats are "trying
on every front to increase the role of government..."
These
people have no use for the U. S. Constitution, the rule of law or
capitalism.
Lies
10/27/09
Obama Plays The Liar While Good Men Die
Two fatal helicopter crashes in Afghanistan and large-scale bombings
in Iraq have thrown into stark relief the risks for Barack Obama in
fulfilling his campaign pledge of shifting Washington’s resources from
one conflict to the other.
In the worst day for US casualties in
Afghanistan for several years, 11 USsoldiers and three Drug Enforcement
Administration officials died in the two helicopter failures on Monday,
one of which involved a mid-air collision and the other a crash
following a firefight with insurgents.
The day before, up to 155
people were killed by twin bombings of government buildings in Baghdad,
with possible consequences for US plans to reduce forces in Iraq.
It was the second such bombing in two months.
Kenneth Pollack,
director of the Saban centre at the Brookings Institution, said: "These
events happening simultaneously demonstrates that the situation in
Afghanistan is worsening while the situation in Iraq is not improving
quickly enough."
October is now set to be the fourth consecutive
month in which more than 40 US military personnel have died in
Afghanistan, underlining both the increased fighting since Obama decided
to raise US forces by 21,000 and the prospect of further casualties
should he accede to his commander’s request for a further 40,000.
Obama and his geniuses continued meetings on Monday to
decide on that request and overall strategy on Afghanistan, even as John
Kerry, the influential senator, called for narrower war goals.
But the US is committed to a dramatic switch in resources. Admiral Mike
Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said last week: "We
are shifting the main effort from Iraq to Afghanistan, literally."
