Not one lick…
Has there been a more incompetent man to occupy such a position of power? I submit that Obama has gone to the head of the class surpassing Jimmy Carter. Glorious Leader claims the government is too big for one man to monitor what is going on; his lackeys claim it's Bush's fault for the economic bad times, the IRS scandal and so on. But how is it Bush's fault if the government is too big for one man to handle?
The corruption and abuse of power this administration has demonstrated is no surprise to those of us that have been paying attention; this is the Chicago way, using the power of one's position/office to investigate and destroy your political enemies, lying about what is going on convincing the low information voter that what they are seeing is not true. Plus Obama is a community organizer, no experience in leading anything so he does what he knows, sits aloofly by and complains, agitates and blames others for the problems.
While the MSM concentrates on the IRS, gun control and all the other domestic scandals, now including Obama's unilateral decision to decrease our nuclear arsenal even further, the rest of the world is worrying about the Middle East.
Obama is doing something there as well, he has again told the Turkish President that despite the evidence presented again to Obama by Turkey, the U.S. is not convinced that the Syrian army is the one using chemical weapons. President Erdogan was at the White House this week and presented Obama with eye witness testimony from Turkish doctors treating patients; video evidence that Syrian Army units were firing the chemical weapons but Obama said the U.S. wants more specific details...
Israeli P.M. Netanyahu visited Russia and was told by Vladimir Putin that they should keep their hands off of Syria or else. Russia not only shipped the S-300 batteries to Syria but also sent anti-ship cruise missiles to Assad so they can fire upon the Israeli navy. Putin also told Netanyahu that Syria and Hezbollah would be supported by Russia and possibly not just by the supplying of arms, in their threatened war of attrition from the Golan. Hezbollah and related Palestinian military groups have already increased their attacks on Israeli territory from Syrian military controlled sites and Russia is hell bent on supporting them.
Meanwhile Saudi Arabia is turning to Iran of all countries to help 'stabilize' the region. Saudi officials meeting with their counterparts from Iran said they have given up on the U.S. as a partner in seeking peace; Obama is all talk and no action according to one high ranking Saudi foreign ministry official. Saudi Arabia and many in the area have seen the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah coalition forces taking control in the civil war and realize that Lebanon could be next if Hezbollah is victorious in Syria, which appears to be the case. Saudi officials want to ensure the safety of the Sunni government in Lebanon and are negotiating with Iran to that end.
Quite simply, Obama doesn't know how to take action, how to engage and lead and the rest of the world sees it; they've lost faith in the United States and are seeking 'peace' with enemies, a peace which history tells us won't be real and won't last, but will only postpone what seems to be more inevitable by the moment, war with Israel.
It’s your money…
Our government has become very good at one thing, spending your money in idiotic ways. The Department of the Interior is providing a grant to the Bureau of Reclamation in Arizona to assist in training two endangered species of fish to recognize and avoid predators.
From the Grant.com website: “The objective of the proposed project is to determine if training increases Bonytail and Razorback Sucker survival when exposed to predators,” the grant abstract states. “This proposal builds upon the 2012 Bureau of Reclamation assistance agreement with the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) tasked with investigating the potential for training Bonytail and Razorback Suckers to recognize and avoid predators.
“One of the early conclusions of the prior work is that the schooling behavior of Bonytail may allow untrained fish to show improved survival because they recognize predator avoidance behaviors exhibited by trained individuals,” the abstract states.
Let's see, if a species can't recognize predators and get away from them or develop some type of defense mechanism, then the laws of nature say they should die. The people coming up with this program are probably the same that worship at the altar of Darwinism and natural selection... really, we've solved all other problems to the point that we believe training fish at the Valle Vista Golf Course in Kingman AZ is the best way to spend $472K? I'm sure some unemployed American will get those jobs...
Quick hits
The IRS scandal continues to get worse as it's now clear that not only were agents in the Cincinnati office involved but their superiors in Washington D.C. also knew what was going on and encouraged or even initiated the probes. This is the worst kind of political chicanery and people not only need to lose their jobs over this but there should be criminal prosecutions. To that end the FBI will be investigating. What we've also found out is that IRS staffers also released confidential documents on conservative groups to a reporters/bloggers from a liberal website. Several of the groups about which ProPublica requested information had not yet been approved for non-profit status and releasing any information about unapproved applications is against the IRS rules and thus against the law.
Add to the ever growing list of privacy rights violations another bombshell from the Holder Department of Justice: the DOJ secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors at the Associated Press. The records obtained included personal and professional phones for potentially over 100 reporters. The DOJ can issue subpoenas to obtain phone records for investigative purposes but must have tried to obtain the sought after information form alternative means first and must notify the targeted organization unless doing so would pose a 'substantial threat' to the integrity of the investigation. The DOJ confirmed those limitations in a letter responding to the AP's president. Yet, DOJ officials have not said there was an investigation of any type being conducted, which since they've been found out would be the simplest thing to claim, wouldn't it? Maybe they were just looking for whistleblowers or leaks... simple fact is, this scandal also takes some heat off of the Benghazi mess because conservatives don't like the media, it doesn't seem as bad as Benghazi.
Obama talks a good game about cooperation and bipartisanship but we know he never puts his words into action, at least not with sincere intent. Two weeks ago during a speaking engagement Glorious Leader told reporters that Rush Limbaugh was irrelevant and would likely soon be of the airwaves because no one was listening to him any more. This week, Obama pointed the finger of blame at Limbaugh claiming Republicans in Congress wanted to work with GL on gun control and other issues but were afraid of what Limbaugh might say about them. So which is it Mr. President, is he irrelevant or is he an influential member of the right wing? Can't be both. But Limbaugh has offered to sit down with GL at a place of the President's choosing, a time of his choosing and discuss the issues in a genuine effort to move things forward and break gridlock. You know how that will end.
17 companies have provided the House Energy and Commerce Committee reports on their estimations of the cost of health insurance once Obamacare kicks in full bore. The average increase, average folks, is 100%. Aetna, Blue Cross-Blue Shield and Kaiser say the increases will be as high as 400%. The average yearly cost of an individual grows from $1896 to $3709. This is due to several factors including requirements to cover a wider array of services and those in poor health being added to the rolls. Think about what that means for those of you that get insurance through your employer. Those costs are prohibitive and can't be absorbed by the company; you will likely be without insurance soon; and those in a union, it's even worse since a contract specifies how much the company will pay for benefits and can't be modified without negotiations and a revision to the contract. Since the pools designed to underwrite the cost of insurance for those that can't afford it have already gone broke, that's not going to be a viable option for you... all part of the grand design mind you, so a single payer system can be adopted.
While the Emperor fiddles
Obama's waffling and empty threats regarding Syria is pushing the region closer to all out war according to several experts around the world. The latest 'reason' for Obama not to confirm that Syria's army violated international warnings by using chemical weapons is that some political hack from the U.N. said he thinks it's possible the rebels used the chemical weapons. Of course that 'revelation' came a week and half after everyone else in the world confirmed Syria's army was the only entity in possession of chemical weapons and using them. It was a bail out by the U.N. specifically for Obama.
But his waffling on his red line has emboldened not only Hezbollah and Iran but also Syrian President Assad. Russia is also now moving forward with the sale of S-300 air defense missiles to Syria; despite U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to Russia to ask Putin not to make the move. Just as an aside and demonstrative of our reduced standing in the world, Putin kept Kerry waiting for over 3 1/2 hours and reduced their meeting time to just 20 minutes. You might have heard that Kerry obtained Russia's commitment to help broker peace talks in Syria and the region. How's that working out now?
There is only one reason to sell the missiles to Syria, that is to stop Israeli planes from attacking weapons caches meant for Hezbollah. Syrian troops have also reportedly been supporting Hezbollah and Palestinian forces in the Golan area; that's where many attacks on Israel have been staged. The situation in Syria has turned with the help of Hezbollah and Iranian troops. The only formidable rebel force holding their ground is Jabhat al-Nusra, an al Qaeda terror group. Both Russia and the U.S. want them out of Syria but for different reasons; us because they are al-Qaeda and giving terrorists access to chemical weapons and control of another country is bad, really bad; Russia because they want Assad to remain in power and Jabhat is the best force to take him down.
If things progress the way it seems to be, the rebels will be defeated soon. Hezbollah will get missiles and other advanced weapons from Syria; with no credibility left, Syria's government will make good on it's threat to retaliate against Israel for the attacks and at the very least will support Hezbollah and Palestinian forces in attacking Israel. The S-300 missile systems can be used to fire against IDF planes in Northern Israel as well as over the Golan and Lebanon. Iran will likely allow their troops to participate in some fashion in an attack on Israel; all because the U.S. has clearly failed to act after Syria crossed Obama's red line. Those countries are beginning to believe that any statements from our government about protecting Israel are just a bunch of words that will be followed by more words. Not only because of the Syrian situation but because the Obama administration is dismantling our military presence in the Middle East and Europe reducing our ability to react quickly if Israel is attacked.
It could be you…
There isn't a big outcry amongst the media or the left wing for that matter but their should be, if they had any principles. A big "if" I know. Senior IRS officials issued an apology Friday for what they acknowledged was inappropriate targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election. The probes were designed to see if they groups were somehow violating their tax-exempt status.
What had these conservative political groups done to attract the attention of the IRS? Had there been a discrepancy on their tax filings or maybe someone had complained about donations or the way they were spending their money. Nothing of the sort. The AP has obtained part of a investigative report in which staffers had put in writing the criteria for flagging suspect groups was "political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of rights, social economic reform/movement."
At a meeting on June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, the department head in charge of overseeing tax exempt organizations learned that groups with "Tea Party", "Patriot", or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional scrutiny. Just as an aside, in the IRS apology, the top officials claimed the inappropriate behavior was limited to low level employees. Lois Lerner is not a low level employee. At a later meeting in Aug. 2011, the IRS chief counsel's office held a meeting in order to get everyone the latest information on the issue. Funny that no behavior was changed as a result of these meetings.
IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman was testifying in front of Congress or answering inquiries from Congressional committee members; in each response he adamantly denied that any groups were being singles out for their political bent. Either he is lying or his staffers and department heads were lying to him.
Even if you are liberal and enjoy the idea that conservative groups are being targeted think about this: Shulman was a George Bush appointee to the IRS. You would think he'd have conservative leanings and would be outraged at the targeting of the Tea Party or other groups. Maybe that's why his staffers lied to him, if they did. But if the current administration can allow their political foes to be harassed by the IRS or any government agency, then a conservative president or staff at the IRS could do the same to a liberal political action group. That should bother you to no end but it won't...
The government has become too powerful and the American people have become too accepting, ignorant and lazy.
Quick hits
I don't care who they are, what political party, conservative or liberal, politicians will lie to you straight in the face or they are as ignorant of what they are doing... Sen. Chuck Grassley submitted an amendment to the immigration reform bill put forth by the bipartisan Gang of Eight. The amendment purpose: To prohibit the granting of registered provisional immigrant status until the Secretary has maintained effective control of the borders for 6 months and to apply border security strategies to all border sectors. The amendment was defeated in committee by a vote of 12 to 6. All the Democrats voted against the amendment. So did four of the Gang of Eight, Republicans Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham and Democrats Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer. All four had said unequivocally that border security was a must before amnesty would be granted. Their bill was vague and not so exact so Grassley pushed them to put their money where their mouths were; they balked.
The FDA director is worried about all the caffeinated products being sold to you; the vast number of products that are having caffeine added to help you make it through the day. So they are looking into regulating caffeine; in fact they are so serious about it, they are considering fining companies that add caffeine to products "not traditionally associated with energy enhancement." That would also create a significant liability exposure for those companies in civil suits. Wrigley has already reacted by taking their new caffeinated gum off the market rather than face the exposure and costs of potentially having to submit to FDA approval and control. Would you people quit making bad decisions so the nanny state would stop over regulating us?!
The revelations being 'revealed' in the Benghazi hearings are being touted by some as the death knell for Hillary's chances to run for President in 2016; some even believe it may cost Glorious Leader his job. Both statements should be true but don't get your hopes up, the MSM and low information voter are here to help. The MSM is focusing their coverage on this being a political witch hunt rather than exposing the truth; the low information voter won't know enough about the truth to hold Hillary or GL responsible now or in the future. Thick Ankles will be the top Democrat and it won't make a whit of a difference in 12 months. Think I'm wrong: Cheryl Attkisson at CBS has been dogged in her investigation of Benghazi but CBS execs won't air her stories, which are proving to have been very accurate. The execs say she is "advocating" in her stories, translated that means she's telling the truth that is damaging to their favorite President.
Why did NJ Governor Chris Christie get lap band surgery and start losing weight? He wants to run for President in 2016. Simple as that; he knows that the average American won't vote for him because he's fat. Democrat media strategist says we don't vote for fat or unhealthy looking candidates for President but do make them governors because Presidents have their fingers on the nuclear button. I disagree. In state-wide elections, the candidate has a much better opportunity to directly address the voters and get his or her message out; thus they can overcome the biases against unattractive people. In a national election, the media has a much larger voice than any candidate and just on shear numbers, it's harder for a candidate to directly address the constituency; thus physical appearance plays a much larger role in the decision making process for the low information voter. I think that's also why Christie has embraced Obama, he is currying favor with the left leaning national media so he can soften their coverage.
It’s all about controlling information
If you can control the dissemination of information, facts especially, then you can convince the people to believe anything. Look at two of the topics dominating media coverage right now; gun control and Benghazi. The liberals are trying to convince us that we must give up our guns in order to make our society safer and to save children's lives. Michelle talks about kids in Chicago being scared of death every day; we don't need assault weapons to hunt deer and so on, you know the arguments.
In fact Americans believe that we live in a more violent society with guns crimes on the rise. Pew Research did a poll this past week and found that only 12% of us believe violent crimes involving the use of a gun have dropped compared to 20 years ago. 26% thought the level had stayed the same and 56% thought crimes involving guns had increased over the last 2 decades. Listening to Pelosi, Obama, Matthews and the rest, you would believe that because that's what they are telling you.
Federal statistics tell a different story however. The number of gun killings has dropped by 39% between 1993 and 2011. Gun crimes that did not involve a fatality dropped by 69% over the same time frame. Violent crime in Washington D.C., one of the most violent and dangerous cities in America, dropped by similarly significant percentages when the ban on handguns was overturned. This isn't just a small difference between perception and reality, it's huge. It has to be in large part because of the message being parroted by the MSM in their efforts to support gun control.
Benghazi is also a great example of media bias and the outcome of misinformation campaigns. The administration spokesmen are telling us Benghazi is old news and should be ignored. Hillary Thick Ankles' comments about "what difference does it make" are being played up by the left and the media. Yet in that very same statement she said "we want to find out why this happened so we can prevent it from happening again." Saying it doesn't make a difference if it was a terror attack or a spontaneous demonstration but in the same breath saying we want to know what happened to prevent another incident is one of the most inane, incongruous statements anyone has made yet it's being completely ignored.
The testimony from people on the ground in Benghazi and those involved in the talking points memo process clearly show that Hillary lied; Obama lied or is completely incompetent; that the story we were told about the cause of the attack and the inability to put military assets in play were complete fabrications. Yet the media is almost completely ignoring the facts and telling us this is a Republican witch hunt bent on embarrassing the President. Most 'news' coverage doesn't even go into the testimony but into the political side and that's why so many Americans don't realize they were lied to so badly...
You know how bad it's gotten? The American people are being bent over and feel two hands on their shoulders but are being told they are getting a prostrate exam. Control the flow of information and you control the people...
It’s your money, is this how you want to spend it?
The National Institute of Health has awarded just over $400K to the University of Alabama so they can create underwear that monitors how often a person smokes. With that money, they have created what they call a very early prototype of the monitoring undies, which translated means "we're going to need another million tax dollars to finish the project."
The goal of the three year study is to "develop a wearable sensor system compromised of a breathing sensor integrated into conventional underwear." The Personal Automatic Cigarette Tracker (PACT) will accurately measure when and how often people smoke along with how deeply they inhale. The information will be used to design strategies for smoking cessation. Because gathering the data from people, based upon self-reporting, might not be accurate enough. Because we apparently don't have a smoking cessation program that works for everybody, 100% of the time.
Seriously, if someone wanted to invest their money to finance this scheme, then develop a smoking cessation program they could sell to the public, great. But why is this a 'responsibility' of our government? It's not an enumerated power that was given to them that I can see. But think about it this way, in these difficult economic times: Nancy Pelosi said the government has to take $1.73 out of the private sector in order to put $1 back in benefits. In order to give away $400 grand, the Feds had to take $692K out of our pockets.
To put that into perspective, if we wanted to pay people a salary of $50,000 a year, 13.84 people would have had a job right now. I guess one poor schlub would have only received $42k but we could have given him/her food stamps. With almost $700K someone could have started a business and hired several people. Think about what the private sector, you, would have done with that money? Buy a car, a house, pay for college; something that would have really stimulated the economy. Instead we're going to get underwear that tells researchers if someone is lying about their smoking... what a bargain.
Quick hits
Racism hits the national airwaves again and once again the MSM ignores it. This time it's one of NM's 'own' espousing his racist opinion. Bill Richardson, former governor of this state and supposed NM resident, although he never really lived here prior to running for the office, said that he disagrees with Ted Cruz' opinions. In fact, Ted Cruz is not really Hispanic because he espouses opinions that are in direct conflict with Hispanics in America. Really?! He even inferred that being from Texas made Cruz less Hispanic. So holding a different opinion on immigration reform disqualifies you from being Hispanic? That's what he said. I thought stereotyping people based upon race, creed, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation was wrong. But as we know, it's OK if you're liberal and are attacking a conservative.
A new study finds that granting illegal immigrants full citizenship or conditional status in this country will cost the American taxpayer $6.3 trillion. Looking at what happened last time we reformed immigration and how many benefits would be given to illegal immigrants it adds up quickly. The typical illegal immigrant is 34 years old, has a 10th grade education, already gets $14K in government benefits and works for minimum wage or less. They aren't going to be paying income taxes so the argument they add to the tax rolls is just dead wrong. Once they become fully eligible for all government benefits, social security, Medicaid, etc and extrapolating the numbers, we'll spend a net $6.3 trillion more in entitlements to add 11 million illegals to the public dole. Where's that money going to come from.
President Barack Obama, speaking in Mexico City on Friday, said the United States is responsible for much of the crime and violence in Mexico because of the demand for drugs and the illegal smuggling of guns across the southern border. He told the crowd, “We understand that the root cause of violence that’s been happening here in Mexico for which so many Mexicans have suffered is the demand for illegal drugs in the United States.” He later added, “We also recognize that most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States. My big fat white buttocks. Yes, we have a drug problem but that doesn't justify the actions of drug cartels. There's so many things wrong with his statements. Has he forgotten about his Fast & Furious program? Screw it, I'm tired of pointing out the inane statements, it's too obvious...
Another President resigned for less
Facing impeachment Richard Nixon resigned from office after it was discovered that he had attempted to cover up a burglary. No one died; national security was not compromised and Nixon did not even know the burglary was going to take place. But he actively tried to cover it up when he found out and that cost him his job. Now as more and more information comes to light about Benghazi we find out that not only did the highest ranking officials screw up the handling of security but they deliberately lied to the American people. When I say high ranking, it's all the way to Hillary and Obama.
Intelligence officials had already concluded, before the attack in Benghazi was even over, intelligence officials had determined that it was a terrorist attack. However, officials from several agencies, including the State Department, National Security Council, CIA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the White House conspired to cleanse the talking points and created a new story. The information was found in emails exchanged by the involved parties which were sent in the 24 hour period just prior to Ambassador Susan Rice being sent on the Sunday talk show circuit to blame a video for creating a spontaneous riot.
The emails show that State Department intelligence staff identified Ansar al Sharia as the group behind the attack just 2 hours after the attack began. A cable sent after the attack was over confirmed eye witness reports identifying know terrorists as being involved in the attacks. These reports were widely circulated throughout the aforementioned departments including the White House. CIA Director David Petraeus briefed members of Congress telling them that it was a terrorist attack conducted by al Qaeda related groups in Libya. Democrat Dutch Ruppersburger asked for talking points for members of Congress and the CIA provided an initial draft report. This initial draft included the assertion that the U.S. government "knows that Islamic extremists with ties to al Qaeda participated in the attack." The draft specifically identified Ansar al Sharia as confirming involvement in the attack and said the consulate facilities had been the subject of surveillance and reminded readers that there had been "at least five other attacks against foreign interests in Benghazi" in the previous six months.
The draft was changed after State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland worried that members of Congress would use the information in the memo to criticize state department staff "for not paying attention to Agency warnings." A second draft was prepared by the CIA which removed all references to Ansar al Sharia but Nuland wrote back the problem still remained and her superiors were not happy. Ben Rhodes, President Obama's advisor on national security and foreign policy, said that the issues would be resolved in a meeting of top administration officials the following morning at the White House.
After that meeting Mike Morrell, deputy direct of the CIA, authored what is essentially a new memo. Gone from the original CIA memo was any reference to "Islamic extremists", any reminders of agency warnings about al Qaeda in Libya, reference to "jihadists" in Cairo, mention of possible surveillance of the facilities in Benghazi, and the report of the five previous attacks on foreign interests including the attack on the British ambassador's motorcade. What remained was a generic memo about investigating facts and a spontaneous demonstration by 'extremists'. The Youtube video would become part of the narrative shortly after this memo was given to members of Congress.
It's clear that this process involved the highest members of our government including Hillary and Obama. They would have been briefed on the situation at the very least and may have had direct involvement in cleansing the facts from the talking point memos used by Susan Rice and other officials in the days following the death of U.S. citizens. This type of cover up is reprehensible; it was deliberate and as shown by the comments of Nuland was done only to protect government agencies and staff from criticism. It was also done with deliberate intentions to mislead the American people. If that is not criminal, I don't know what is...