[Forbes] When you analyze the public response to the State of the Union and the latest polling data, it's clear that the President has lost a tremendous amount of credibility with the American public. I scarcely think he cares at this point. A tired, graying Barack Obama stood before Congress this week as a political figure, party leader, and progressive activist to make sure the Members understood one thing -- he doesn't need them. In fact, he hasn't needed them in quite some time. After all, in his mind, it's his government. True, the speech wasn't as "in your face" as conservative pundits predicted. To have done so would have been even less Presidential than we are used to from this White House.
Everyone in the House Chamber knew something that the American people have yet to fully grasp and Republicans have yet to demonstrate an ability to combat -- that their government has grown so large, so complex, so involved in virtually every aspect of their lives, that it is now being used as a weapon to by a small segment of the ruling political class.
The weaponization of government is happening and it's time Americans took notice. For all the folks -- primarily on the left -- who screamed and yelled that the Patriot Act was shredding the Constitution, far more intrusive tactics that have nothing to do with the NSA or Homeland Security are being deployed right under our noses during this Administration. Those tactics reduce every Americans' personal and economic freedom.
There is a dangerous arrogance of power among the President and senior-level Democrats that should concern every American.
Last week a senior United States Senator gave a speech stating that the IRS should be used to target and punish groups that disagree with the Democratic Party's political agenda. Sen. Chuck Schumer stated, "...there are many things that can be done administratively by the IRS and other government agencies -- we must redouble those efforts immediately."
Schumer was also one of a number of Democrat Senators who signed a 2012 letter to the IRS demanding they be more aggressive against conservative organizations. Sure, it was a story in primarily conservative media for a couple of days but no coordinated action between Republican elected officials and the conservative grassroots against Chuck Schumer is being contemplated. The Senate should be censuring him for suggesting that the IRS be used as a political weapon against conservative organizations. Americans, however, should be calling for his head. RTWT
#1
...I'll, once again, vote Conservative and, if one is not available, Republican. All I'll be doing, however, is offsetting one of my "Progressively Convinced" co-workers.
Discouraging, and I'm truly concerned about the unstated State of the Union. It may only take a few weeks for concerted and "revolutionary" change to steam-roll a society. We'll see how our "Laboratory of Democracy" takes Mr. Obamas new and improved approach...
#3
In the what difference will it make File - Even if the Trunks get back power, because the leadership is afraid of MSM (the bigoted propaganda arm of the Party), they'll go back to playing nice rather than unleashing the beast the Party created against them so they will remember for generations not to do that again. Make it so they cry loudly and demand reform which ultimately is to reduce the size, reach, and scope of government. Once again, the Trunks, like the Paleos, will miss the opportunity to make any serious advances.
#4
There was a piece on tube this a.m. regarding an update on Gibson Guitar in Nashville. Gibson is suing the federal government to recover over $1 million worth of exotic wood which was confiscated during a raid. During the raid 30 some SWAT officers raided three plants of the guitar manufacturer. The claim is that the feds shut off the company surveillance systems during the raid. Turns out the company did not violate any laws. I wonder if the CEO of the company backed the wrong horse or was critical of D.C. This use of the federal government to punish opponents or those who criticize the current regime has got to stop or they are going to bring about a revolt. There are not enough federal employees or police to bring about martial law and what comes with that. Why does anyone in the federal government think that all those in the police force or military go along with such nonsense and violation of our Constitution. I swore an oath to our Constitution and not some tin-horn 3rd world wanna bee dictator.
[Ynet] If peace talks fail, EU is threatening to impose sanctions on Israel similar to those used against South Africa during apartheid regime
In other words, the fix is in.
US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... arrived at the Munich Security Conference with good news and bad news: The good news is that the United States is not punishing Defense Minister Ya'alon for calling him "messianic." The bad news is that it won't help us if the world decides that we are to blame for the failure of the negotiations with the Paleostinians and responds with an aggressive boycott.
The Munich Security Conference convenes every year for the past 50 years, bringing together hundreds of leaders from around the world who discuss policy and security issues in open and closed forum. In recent years it is considered one of the most important diplomatic and security events in the world, because among other things it provides a rare opportunity for leaders from enemy countries to consult secretly in the corridor of the hotel it takes place in.
Israel sent to the conference, which opened over the weekend, a delegation including Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya'alon, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and the national security advisor at the Prime Minister's Office, Yossi Cohen. They were joined in Munich by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, former National Security Advisor Dr. Uzi Arad and many from the intelligence community.
Contrary to estimates voiced about two weeks ago, after Ya'alon harshly attacked Kerry and claimed that he was "obsessive and messianic," the Americans are not punishing him. Why on Saturday he met for a long conversation in Munich with US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Ya'alon's associates said after the meeting that "the interests and cooperation between the American defense establishment and the Israeli one are immeasurable, and there was no room for any fear in regards to the continuation of the tight relations between Bogie and Chuck. They have a lot in common: Both share a sharp language, don't fudge or conceal their opinions."
Bad news from Munich
Other fascinating meetings were held as part of the conference between National Security Advisor Yossi Cohen and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who discussed the Iranian issue; between a senior Israeli defense establishment official and a prince from the Jordanian royal family, who sought to guarantee that Israel would maintain Jordan's interests in any agreement with the Paleostinians; and between an Israeli official and Fred Hoff, who is in charge of the Syrian issue in the American administration, who revealed to his colleague that if the Druze in the Golan Heights preferred to stay under Israeli illusory sovereignty -- there was chance that in a future agreement the Golan would be able to remain ours.
But that's it for the good news from Munich. Let's move on to the bad news: Senior European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... officials said they had agreed to freeze the proposal to boycott products from the settlements for now, in order to allow Kerry to try to an Israeli and Paleostinian consent for the agreement on principles, but -- and it's a very important but -- if the Israeli side is blamed for the talk's failure, the EU will renew the initiative with all its energy.
If that were not enough, according to EU officials there is a much more acute initiative on the table: Imposing sanctions on Israel, similar to the sanctions the international community imposed on South Africa during the apartheid regime, no less. Those officials stress that they will use the "carrot and stick" method against Israel: If the talks succeed, it will gain the status if an EU member from outside Europe, with all the economic advantages involved (ministers and princes from Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... also promised normalization in the relations immediately after an agreement is signed with the Paleostinians). But if the talks fail and Israel is perceived as responsible -- it will turn into a leprous country which everyone stays away from.
According to Israelis participating in the conference, we have already lost this war, and we will be blamed in any event, as the Paleostinians are considered the victim side, the underdog. Even if that's not exactly the situation and there is a lot of hypocrisy in the European stance, we should start internalizing this situation and that it's better to be wise than to be right.
The outcome will likely be that Kerry will fail in completing the permanent agreement, but he will leave behind an outline which most Israelis find unacceptable -- a return to the 1967 borders and east Jerusalem as the capital of the Paleostinian state, in return for vague promises about security arrangements. If Israel refuses, it will pay in hard currency.
In recent days, former US officials estimated that Kerry's chances of succeeding were "around 10%." Tzipi Livni is unimpressed by the numbers: "It's not a matter of percentages," she says. "Either there will be an agreement or there won't be."
#1
The bad news is that it won't help us if the world decides that we are to blame for the failure of the negotiations with the Paleostinians and responds with an aggressive boycott.
Author: Ranger Ron " May 25th, 2010, 10:59 am
A bit dated, but still funny.
Muslim suicide bombers in Britain are set to begin a three-day strike on Monday in a dispute over the number of virgins they are entitled to in the afterlife. Emergency talks with Al Qaeda have so far failed to produce an agreement.
The unrest began last Tuesday when Al Qaeda announced that the number of virgins a suicide bomberwould receive after his death will be cut by 25% this May from 72 to only 54. The rationale for the cut was the increase in recent years of the number of suicide bombings and a subsequent shortage of virgins in the afterlife.
The suicide bombers' union, the British Organization of Occupational Martyrs, (B.O.O.M.), responded with a statement that this was unacceptable to its members and immediately balloted for strike action. General Secretary Abdullah Amir told the press, "Our members are literally working themselves to death in the cause of Jihad. We don't ask for much in return but to be treated like this is like a kick in the teeth."
Speaking from his shed in Tipton in the West Midlands in which he currently resides, Al Qaeda chief executive Osama bin Laden explained, "We sympathize with our workers' concerns but Al Qaeda is simply not in a position to meet their demands. They are not accepting the realities of modern-day Jihadin a competitive marketplace".
"Thanks to Western depravity, there is now a chronic shortage of virgins in the afterlife. It's a straight choice between reducing expenditure and laying people off. I don't like cutting pension benefits, but I'd hate to have to tell 3,000 of my staff that they won't be able to blow themselves up."
Spokespersons for the union in the Northeast of England, Ireland, Wales and the entire Australian continent stated that the strike would not affect their operations as "There are no virgins in our areas anyway".
A strike may not be necessary, however, as the number of suicide bombings has been decreasing lately. This has been attributed to the emergence of the Scottish singing star, Susan Boyle. Now that Muslims know what a virgin looks like, they are not so keen on going to paradise.
The Democrat plan to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in the U.S. can be thwarted, despite apparent wavering by House Republican leadership, contends a Texas congressman.
In an interview with Michael Savage on his Savage Nation nationally syndicated show Friday, Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, insisted, furthermore, that if President Obama tries to advance amnesty or any other initiative through illegal executive orders, he can be stopped, because the House holds the purse strings and can cut off funding for actions that cant be justified legally.
The power of the purse is the secret to this guy the most illegal, unlawful president in American history, said Culberson, who had just returned from a GOP retreat in Cambridge, Md., where House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, distributed a two-page list of broad principles on immigration.
Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas Seven months after the Senate passed a bipartisan bill with a path to citizenship, House Republican leaders Thursday said for the first time they would be open to allowing illegal aliens to live and work legally in the U.S. but would not offer a special path to citizenship.
That step in the direction of the Senate plan has many border-security-first advocates, including Savage, worried.
But Culberson emphasized that Boehner told his Republican colleagues in the House that he wouldnt allow a bill go to the floor unless a majority of the Republican-controlled House is in favor.
Boehner, according to Culberson, told Republican House members that the outline they were handed, which was issued to the press, was simply for discussion purposes.
Savage pointed out that along with Boehner, Republican House leaders support giving legal status to illegals, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan.
But Culberson insisted there is hope if citizens contact their representatives and express their opposition to amnesty.
Culberson explained that a majority of the House Republican majority is very conservative, committed to the Constitution, free markets and limited government get the government out of our lives and leave us the heck alone.
The country doesnt want it. The Hispanic community doesnt want it. The Hispanic community wants law and order, safe streets and good schools and a good economy and good jobs like everyone else. It isnt complicated, said Culberson.
#2
Barack Obama's first known contact with Chicago Democratic Socialists of America occurred in 1992, shortly after he returned to Chicago, from his studies at Harvard.
Chicago City Clerk Miguel Del Valle, a long time DSA associate, told the 2008 Democratic Party convention of his first meeting with Barack Obama;
I first heard of Barack back in 1992. The year 1992 was a little like 2008. Then, as now, we needed to save the country from the misguided policies of a president named Bush. I was working with my old friend, Lou Pardo, a retired machinist, on an effort to register Latino voters in Chicago. One day, we were talking about how we could reach more voters and cover more ground, but we needed more resources. Lou told me we should go see Barack Obama, who was directing a voter-registration drive called Project Vote. So Lou met with Barack and, without missing a beat, Barack Obama helped us out. Barack Obama made sure that the thousands of Latinos in Chicago were registered to vote. He helped empower the Latino community and ensure that we were full participants in our democracy.
Lou Pardo was a confirmed member of Democratic Socialists of America - Key Wiki (Link)
#3
As long as the illegal path to citizenship is at least twice as long as the average legal path, I'm OK.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/02/2014 8:27 Comments ||
Top||
#4
the House holds the purse strings and can cut off funding for actions that can't be justified legally.
Nah, the AG said the payment of debt is Constitutionally required and Congress has to fund it, and most of the spending is in self-perpetuating categories that can't be unfunded without passing new laws, thus automatically incurring new debt that must be paid. Hence Congress is irrelevant.
#6
Texas really needs to be its own country. With so many people who now feel the US is no longer their country, many Americans long for their own country. Maybe Texas could be that country's first state.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
