With her support fading by the hour, the Republican establishment candidate Dede Scozzafava (pro abortion, pro union, pro gay marriage, ACORN endorsed) dropped out of the special election in NY 23, leaving the race to Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, and liberal Democrat Bill Owens.
Hoffman was endorsed by Sarah Palin, Fred Thompson and other Conservative Republican stalwarts. Scozzafava was endorsed by Newt Gingrich, who backed the Republican Party machine.
With Hoffman pulling away Scozzafava’s support in the remaining days of the campaign and Scozzafava’s support dropping by the hour, the race is now set to be a referendum on more big government spending and sending Owens to Congress, or the country learning to live within its means via Hoffman.
As of this morning, Owens and Hoffman were in a statistical dead heat at 35% with Scozzafava polling at 20 after having led the race as recently as 3 weeks ago.
Ken Spain, the campaign spokesman for the NRCC said Scozzafava will now ‘release her supporters’ to vote for Hoffman this Tuesday.
Voters in NY-23 now have a clear choice on Tuesday: they can elect to continue big government spending under Barack Obama, or they can opt to return the country to some semblance of fiscal responsibility and vote for Doug Hoffman.
We wait with baited breath for the results Tuesday night.
Democrat James Clyburn Reveals Democrat Plan to Use Nuclear Option to Pass ObamaCare
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- Three shots fired at a federal courthouse in Oregon late Wednesday or early Thursday hit windows in U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio's office, while a fourth shot hit a wall above the office, the FBI said.
No one was in the second-floor office at the time, and the Democratic congressman's staffers in Eugene found the damage when they arrived for work Thursday morning.
Investigators believe the shots were fired between 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday, FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said, adding they're not certain that DeFazio's office was the intended target.
''Right now, our biggest concern is determining why this happened,'' Steele said, adding the FBI doesn't know whether the shooter or shooters were trying to hurt anyone. ''We're obviously taking this very seriously.''
DeFazio spokeswoman Molly Simmons confirmed the congressman was in Washington, D.C., at the time.
Editors Note: No idea why shots would be fired at a Liberal Democrat Congressman’s office, who consistently votes to take away the rights of American’s via “health care reform”, “cap and trade” and the takeovers of the automobile and banking industry. Nope, no clues there as to why someone would be shooting at a Congressman’s office. Nah, American’s across the country aren’t mad as hell at this Congress and “President” that some lunatic would pick up a gun and shoot at the windows of a Congressman who’s directly threatening their livelihood and rights by passing all these new taxes and government takeovers of their daily lives.
In related news …..
Democrat Plan To Kill Private Insurance Alive & Well ….
Just when the Tea Parties ended and America thought the “public option” and government run health care seemed to be dead, along comes a 1,990 page monstrosity called “Health Care Reform” which includes all the things the Democrats said it wouldn’t. Public Option. Death Panels. Taxpayer funded abortions. $500,000,000 in cuts to Medicare, and more.
The Democrats plan has always been to kill private health insurance and control the American public via the health care delivery system. Just look at the ‘great job’ the Federal Government is doing in delivering H1N1 flu shots. The Obama Administration said in August that more than 120,000,000 flu shots would be available by this time.
To date, less than 10,000,000 have been delivered. With each passing day and new government initiative (think: Cash for Clunkers) the Federal Government demonstrates how it mismanages our hard earned taxpayer dollars, then simply turns around and demands more to “fix the problem.” Now the Federal Government says that flu shots will be available by “mid November” about the time the virus will reach its peak, and that’s too late.
Yet, there are still those in this country who advocate for a Government run health care program. Are these people completely stupid? (Rhetorical question.)
It has always been Obama’s and the Democrats plan to seize control of health care. They’ve wanted control since 1939 to complete FDR’s “great mission.” Obama and the Democrats can deny all they want that their intent isn’t to take over health care, the proof is in the pudding, and here it is.
Pelosi Denies Public Access To “Health Care Reform Announcement”
First, the American Public has every God Given Right to be on public property when a monstrosity called “health care reform” is being announced by the very people who SERVE US.
Second, these MORONS in Congress think we exist to serve THEM. They have it backwards. No wonder people are getting upset and shooting out windows (see story above.)
Third, this monstrosity of “health care reform” is over 1,990 pages in length and cost us, the U.S. Taxpayer almost $2 million dollars per word to produce. (Again, see story #1 above as to why people are so angry at this congress!)
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are conspiring to turn each and every one of us into their own personal tax slaves, subjugating us to the will of the Federal Government. Thankfully people are beginning to wake up, which is demonstrated in both their personal approval ratings, well below 30% in every major poll. Congress’ ratings aren’t so great either, less than 25% approve, more than 60% disapprove of this Congress.
Is the revolution finally beginning? (For clues, see story #1) The FBI however seems to be clueless.
Think We’re Finally Pulling Out of Recession?
Think Again! 3.3% GDP Growth in Q3 Was An Aberration
The Federal Government reported yesterday that the economy actually grew in the third quarter of this year at 3.3%, thus ending the recession.
Ahhh, but wait. What grew and where? The clues are as obvious as the nose on your face: Automobiles and Housing.
Now why did Automobiles and Housing grow?
Cash for Clunkers, which the government thinks was a wild success actually cost the American Taxpayer about $24,000 per car, not the $4,500 the Federal Government said, according to Edmunds.Com’s CEO Jeremy Anwell.
For this revelation, the Obama White House decides to pick a fight with the best, most used car site on the Internet. Once again, Obama tries to destroy those that disagree with him, or prove him and his policies wrong.
On the housing front, there’s been a major influx of new buyers in the market once again in large part “thanks” to a government program that gives $8,000 of taxpayer money to “first time homebuyers.”
Now the problem: Who were many of these first time homebuyers? Few of them were actually “first timers”, many of them were people purchasing second or third homes – in their children’s names, in their Trust’s names, in their Estate’s names and in some cases – in their PETS NAMES! Here we have another Government program fraught with fraud with no checks and balances to make sure the program is actually working the way it’s intended.
Yesterday Obama trumpted “the recession is over!” citing GDP growth in the third quarter of this year. The problem is, the “growth” came at huge expense to the American Taxpayers and is not sustainable absent true economic growth driven by consumer and business spending – not Government spending!
That won’t happen until the Obama Administration turns off the money presses and stops deflating the value of the American dollar. Everyone but Obama sees the hyper-inflation on the horizon which is why people are hoarding dollars. The savings rate in this country has hit a historically high 8% which is more than any European country.
The reason the savings rate is so high is driven by the Obama money presses and the fact that the American People remember the hyper-inflation of the 70’s under Jimmy Carter.
The economy isn’t getting better, it’s about to get a whole lot worse under this, the Worst President in the History of the Country.
Unemployment & Underemployment Near 18%
Once again, proof the economy isn’t getting better. The Bureau of Labor & Statistics now shows the actual unemployment and under-employment rate near 18% across much of the country, HIGHER in some places such as Detroit, much of Michigan, parts of Ohio, Indiana and California.
THESE ARE DEPRESSION ERA UNEMPLOYMENT RATES!!!!!!
This despite a “drop” in the number of “new claims” for unemployment which is nothing more than a statistical aberration driven by the number of people falling off the unemployment roles because they’ve exhausted their benefits.
Don’t look for the Obama Administration or the Democrats to extend benefits anytime soon, they need to drive the unemployment rate down by any means necessary to make the economy look better than it actually is.
Think anyone in the “mainstream” media is going to catch onto that fact? Don’t hold your breath.
Higher Taxes, lower wages, fewer jobs, lower standard of living, and less freedom.
While I’ve said these things repeatedly here on the blog and elsewhere (ie: chat) the above are the conclusions of a study by the National Center for Public Policy Research, policy analyst Matt Peterson.
In a just released report titled: No Free Lunch: The True Cost of ObamaCare”, Peterson concludes “Instead of providing ‘affordable’ health care for everybody, ObamaCare will in fact lead to dramatically higher health insurance premiums, higher taxes, reduced Medicare benefits, lower wages and fewer jobs for low and middle-income Americans.”
Higher Taxes - ObamaCare would be paid for with massive tax increases, amounting to an estimated increased tax burden of $2.3 trillion in the coming decades.
Lower Wages/Fewer Jobs - New taxes and fees imposed on businesses by ObamaCare would result in fewer jobs and lower wages for low- and middle-income workers.
Standard of Living - The massive government spending required would explode the federal deficit with ruinous consequences for every American's standard of living.
Medicare Benefits - ObamaCare aims to pay for itself, in part, with hundreds of billions in devastating cuts to Medicare and Medicare Advantage.
Privacy - ObamaCare regulations would result in a larger, more powerful IRS and ensure that more personal information is shared with more people.
Your Freedom - ObamaCare would require, under threat of penalty, every American to have insurance whether they want or need it.
Peterson’s report confirms what the Congressional Budget Office’s findings last month which estimated that ObamaCare would explode the Federal Deficit by another $1.5 TRILLION dollars a year, continuing as far as the eye can see.
For those who advocate for a ‘single payer’ system or ‘government option’ I have a question for you: The Obama Administration promised last month that there would be 120,000,000 doses of H1N1 flu shots available by this time. This morning, CNN and MSNBC (both “Obama Approved” media outlets) reported that less than 3,000,000 shots were available for the general public. Given the Federal Government’s “stellar” job in getting less than 3,000,000 shots available to the public, what in the blue hell makes you think they can deliver health care effectively?
You who have eyes, do not see that the Federal Government is oft the problem, and never the solution. Reagan was right – again.
Gallup: 61% of American’s Think Obama Nobel Undeserved
Why those RACISTS! How *DARE* they think Obama didn’t deserve his Nobel Peace Prize! Obama worked very hard his first 11 days in office to earn the nomination, and just look at the results he’s delivered since his time in office.
You wouldn’t know from the approved Obama Media, but Government takeover of Health-Care is going down in flames.
From yesterday’s New York Times, p. 25:
"You have to read all the way to page A-25 in today’s New York Times to learn about it, but the Senate took its first floor vote on Obamacare yesterday and the White House lost. Big. The NYT reports: “Democrats lost a big test vote on health care legislation on Wednesday as the Senate blocked action on a bill to increase Medicare payments to doctors at a cost of $247 billion over 10 years. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, needed 60 votes to proceed. He won only 47. And he could not blame Republicans. A dozen Democrats and one independent crossed party lines and voted with Republicans on the 53 to 47 roll call.”
As we reported on Monday and Tuesday, yesterday’s “doc fix” (a $247 billion “payout” to doctors) vote was part of a White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel strategy to smooth passage of President Barack Obama’s $1 trillion-plus health care overhaul by transferring a quarter of its cost into a separate, and completely unpaid for, bill. This transparently dishonest shell game was too much for honest Democratic Senators like Evan Bayh (D-IN), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Ron Wyden (D-OR). Wyden told the NYT: “On the eve of a historic debate on health care, it’s essential to show a commitment to real reform,” which includes fiscal responsibility.
Yesterday’s vote marks a significant failure of the Left’s special interest approach to passing Obamacare. From the beginning, the White House thought that if it bought off all of the business interests involved (the American Medical Association, the drug industry, health insurers, hospitals, etc.) opposition to the plan would whither. In one sense, the plan worked. USA Today reports PhRMA, Pfizer, America’s Health Insurance Plans, and the Federation of American Hospitals have all ponied up millions of dollars for lobbying and television ads in support of Obamacare.
But all these special interest television ads failed to rid Americans of their common sense objections to Obamacare’s government takeover of health care. Gallup reports today that Americans now more than ever believe the costs their family pays for health care will get worse if Obamacare passes. And more Americans now believe that Obamacare will lower the quality of care they receive, reduce their health care coverage, and complicate the insurance company requirements they have to meet to get certain treatments covered.
Instead of the massive overhaul being pursued by the White House, a solid majority of Americans tell Gallup they want to see Congress move in the opposite direction. By 58% to 38%, Americans would generally prefer to see Congress deal with health care reform “on a gradual basis over several years” rather than “try to pass a comprehensive health care reform plan this year.” Bipartisan, fiscally responsible, reform such as equalizing the tax treatment of health insurance purchases, freeing customers to purchase health insurance across state lines, and allowing states more flexibility on Medicaid spending are readily doable. And that is what the people want.
At the end of the day, all Republican’s and 13 Democrats led by Senator Bobby Byrd (D. W. VA) voted against cloture which would’ve ended debate on the Senate floor and forced a vote.
Byrd was also the first Senator (of either party) to question the Constitutionality of Obama’s “Czars.” As Obama looks to consolidate power in the White House, the Senate’s most senior member, and fellow Democrat Byrd stands in Obama’s way of elevating executive power above the Senate Chamber. In short, Byrd is protecting the Senate’s power against the White House and this is as it should be.
If Obama thinks he can get in a pissing match with Byrd and win, he’s got another thing coming. Constitutionally speaking, Bobby Byrd will kick Obama’s ass up and down Pennsylvania avenue.
The Doctors Are Out …
66% Oppose “ObamaCare”
A recent IBD/TIPP Poll showed two-thirds of physicians opposing Congress' proposed reforms, and warning of dire consequences. Now, a forum of prominent doctors has amplified those concerns.
Of 1,376 doctors responding in late August, 65% opposed Congress' reform plans; 45% said enactment would make them consider leaving their practice or take early retirement; and 67% expected fewer students to apply to medical schools.
Some 65% also felt seniors would end up with lower-quality care under a government plan; 71% didn't think it possible for the government to cover 47 million more people and cut costs while also delivering better quality care; finally, 60% of physicians didn't think that under a government plan, drug companies would have incentives to continue developing as many lifesaving new medicines.
America's doctors know their patients better than politicians do. And the hostility seen in these poll results was mirrored by virtually all of the 15 esteemed physicians from the New York metropolitan area gathered by former New York state Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey for a Forum on Medical Excellence Monday evening.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was vilified by Washington politicians for coining the term "death panels" to describe the government bureaucracies that would intrude in life-and-death decisions regarding the allocation of resources under the proposed government takeover of our health system.
Editors Note: Printed in Obama's Hometown Newspaper, The Chicago Sun Times Today, October 20th.
BY STEVE HUNTLEY
Have you heard the news? President Obama inherited an economic mess from the Bush administration.
You say that's hardly news? But it's been the message sounded over and over by the White House. Top Obama adviser David Axelrod said on one of the Sunday news shows, "He walked in the door, we had the worst economy since the Great Depression." In San Francisco, Obama talked of being "busy with our mop." White House heavy hitter Rahm Emanuel used the worst-economy-since-the-Depression line on a public TV news show.
You'd think it's October 2008, the final month in the Obama presidential candidacy, rather than October 2009, nine months into the Obama presidency. Yet the Obama White House is in full campaign mode -- maybe because it needs to mask the shortcomings of the Obama presidency.
Take, for example, all the talk of inheriting the worst economy since the 1930s crisis. That came in response to the news that the federal deficit hit $1.4 trillion.
Yet just a few months ago, the Obama camp was singing a little different tune. It was under criticism for the $787 billion stimulus package it bulldozed through Congress on grounds that massive spending was needed to keep the unemployment rate from breaching 8 percent. When joblessness hit 9.5 percent in June, Vice President Joe Biden said, "We misread how bad the economy was."
They inherited the worst economy since the Great Depression, or the economy turned out to be worse than they thought. Which is it? It can't be both -- unless your brain is completely addled by the Obama charisma.
Obama is still popular, but polls show the public losing faith in his policies. Another indicator was a ''Saturday Night Live'' skit lampooning Obama for the major accomplishments of his administration -- "jack and squat." If the honeymoon is ending with the American voter, it isn't for obsequious elements of the mainstream media. CNN prostrated itself by fact-checking the ''SNL'' comedy skit.
But that's harmless compared to the virulent campaign against Obama critics carried out by the denizens of MSNBC. Its Obama acolytes seek to demonize opponents of Obama's policies by focusing on most marginal corners of right-wing politics like, for example, the "birthers" who deny Obama is a natural born citizen. The larger scheme is to imply Obama critics are racists.
That's the backdrop to the story of Rush Limbaugh getting booted from a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams. He was smeared on CNN and MSNBC with false accusations of making two racist comments. He is an abrasive critic of Obama, so he must be racist, or so goes the left-wing story line. I wouldn't defend everything Limbaugh has ever said, but lies were used to blacklist him from professional football for his political views.
Recently an MSNBC personality accused the U.S. Chamber of Commerce of lobbying for policies that amount to being "treasonous to this country." Remember how liberals roared in outrage at any hint of their patriotism being questioned for criticizing the Iraq War? Well, it's the left that doesn't shy from attacking the patriotism of those it dislikes. Recall the repulsive Moveon.org "General Betray-us" ad against Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus. Recent opposition to Chicago's Olympic bid was cast as a sign of a lack of patriotism among Obama critics.
The MSNBC blast against the chamber appears to dovetail with what the Politico newspaper reports is a White House and Democratic effort "to marginalize" the business organization. That echoes the administration assault on the Fox News Channel: It says Fox isn't a news organization.
The White House trying to dictate who's a news organization. Democrats out to gut a business group. Obama media allies damning Americans as racist, unpatriotic and treasonous. Is this the America Obama promised when he campaigned to end the cynical and divisive politics of the past?
Editor: I'd given up on buying much less reading the Chicago newspapers because they've been so far in the tank for Obama it's been sickening. So imagine my surpise today when I pick up a leftover newspaper on the commuter train home from the City this evening and see the above article in the Sun Times. I wonder if the Obama Administration is now going to tell the rest of the newspapers around the country to ignore the Chicago Sun-Times because it isn't "real" journalism (read that: So far up Obama's ass they can't see daylight anymore.) If I were Steve Huntley, I'd hire someone to start my car in the morning. Surely the Obama Chicago style political thugs aren't going to like this article ...
Glenn Beck reported today that the Federal Communications Commission is set to give Obama control of the Internet.
The "rationale" behind these new FCC Regulations will be to "protect consumers from false or misleading information." In passing the regulations, the FCC is not permitting any public comment or input.
In related news, the Obama Administration is now backing a Newspaper Industry bailout, to prevent long time publishers from going under as a result of the recession. Wait, is it a recession, or is it simply that the general public recognizes a White House Driven propaganda machine and has chosen not to support it? Either way, the Obama Administration has decided to financially burden we taxpayers on the progressive media's behalf so that we get "the real news", or that is to say, the news the Obama Administration wants us to get.
I report, you decide.
In more related news, the White House admitted the other day that the American Media (save for Fox News) is in the pocket of the Obama Administration and is directly following the administrations orders.
Here we have Anita Dunn speaking via videotape to a Dominican Republic government conference.
"Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control," said Dunn.
"One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters," said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama's chief campaign manager.
"We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it," Dunn said.
Dunn has been under fire since she led a White House campaign last week against Fox News, claiming the top-rated news network (which beats CNN, CNN Headline News, MSNBC, CNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS nightly newscasts combined) was an "arm of the Republican Party" and "opinion journalism masquerading as news."
Fox News' response? You can see for yourself, in her own words, where Anita Dunn says Mao Tse-tung was her idol:
So why is the Obama Administration working so hard to get the "keys to the Internet" so they can shut it down and to squelch Fox News? Rule #1 in a Socialist take-over is to squelch all opposition. Once the media is controlled feeding the people only what the Administration wants it to hear, then they can do anything un-checked.
All I can say at this point is Joseph Goebbels would be proud of Obama, Anita Dunn, and the willing co-whores in the Media at CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC.
Thankfully Fox News isn't folding, and American's who desire true journalism have turned to Fox for the truth they can't find anywhere else.
Speaking Of The Only True News Source ...
How'd the mainstream media miss this one? Oh, that's right - the Obama Administration didn't think this was real news coming from their own Vice President, none other than the buffoon Joe Biden. Did you all know we're in a Depression? Yes, the Vice President said it:
It's official folks - we knew it all along, but it's high time someone from the Administration comes out and admits it - WE'RE IN A DEPRESSION!!!
Weakness in American foreign policy in one region often invites challenges elsewhere, because our adversaries carefully follow diminished American resolve. Similarly, presidential indecisiveness, whether because of uncertainty or internal political struggles, signals that the United States may not respond to international challenges in clear and coherent ways.
Taken together, weakness and indecisiveness have proved historically to be a toxic combination for America's global interests. That is exactly the combination we now see under President Obama. If anything, his receiving the Nobel Peace Prize only underlines the problem.
All of Obama's campaign and inaugural talk about "extending an open hand" and "engagement," especially the multilateral variety, isn't exactly unfolding according to plan. Entirely predictably, we see more clearly every day that diplomacy is not a policy but only a technique. Absent presidential leadership, which at a minimum means clear policy direction and persistence in the face of criticism and adversity, engagement simply embodies weakness and indecision.
Obama is no Harry Truman. At best, he is reprising Jimmy Carter. At worst, the real precedent may be Ethelred the Unready, the turn-of the-first-millennium Anglo-Saxon king whose reputation for indecisiveness and his unsuccessful paying of Danegeld -- literally, "Danish tax" -- to buy off Viking raiders made him history's paradigmatic weak leader.
Beyond the disquiet (or outrage for some) prompted by the president's propensity to apologize for his country's pre-Obama history, Americans increasingly sense that his administration is drifting from one foreign policy mistake to another. Worse, the current is growing swifter, and the threats more pronounced, even as the administration tries to turn its face away from the world and toward its domestic priorities. Foreign observers, friend and foe alike, sense the same aimlessness and drift. French President Nicolas Sarkozy had to remind Obama at a Sept. 24 U.N. Security Council meeting that "we live in the real world, not a virtual one." Examples of weakness abound, and the consequences are readily foreseeable.
Canceling the Polish and Czech missile defense bases is understood in Moscow and Eastern European capitals as backing down in the face of Russian bluster and belligerence. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened the day after our 2008 election to deploy missiles targeting these assets unless they were canceled, a threat duly noted by the Russian media when Obama canceled the sites.
Given candidate Obama's reaction to the 2008 Russia-Georgia war -- calling on both sides to exercise restraint -- there is little doubt that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's project to re-extend Russian hegemony over as much of the former Soviet Union as he can will continue apace. Why should he worry about Washington?
Obama's Middle East peace process has stalled, most recently because he set a target for an end to Israeli settlement expansion, couldn't meet it and then proceeded as though he hadn't meant what he said originally. By insisting that Israel freeze settlements as a precondition to renewing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Obama drew a clear line. But when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu withstood Obama's pressure, Obama caved, hosting a photo-op with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that strengthened Netanyahu and weakened Abbas just when Obama wanted to achieve exactly the opposite. However one views the substantive outcome of this vignette, Obama himself looked the weakest of all. It could well be years before his Middle East policy gets back up off the ground.
On nuclear nonproliferation, North Korea responded to the "open hand" of engagement by testing its second nuclear device, continuing an aggressive ballistic missile testing program, cooperating with other rogue states and kidnapping and holding hostage two American reporters. Obama's reaction is to press for more negotiations, which simply encourages Pyongyang to up the ante.
Iran is revealed to have been long constructing an undeclared, uninspected nuclear facility that makes a mockery of almost seven years of European Union negotiation efforts. Forced to deal publicly with this deeply worrying threat, Obama proposes the equivalent of money-laundering for nuclear threats: Iranian uranium enriched in open, unambiguous defiance of four Security Council resolutions will be enriched to higher levels in Russia, and then returned to be burned in a Tehran reactor -- ostensibly for peaceful purposes. Sarkozy again captured the growing international incredulity in his noteworthy Security Council speech: "I support America's 'extended hand.' But what have these proposals for dialogue produced for the international community? Nothing but more enriched uranium and more centrifuges."
Finally, Obama's agonizing, very public reappraisal of his own 7-month-old Afghanistan policy epitomizes indecisiveness. While there is no virtue in sustaining policy merely for continuity's sake, neither is credit due for too-quickly adopting policies without appreciating the risks entailed and then fleeing precipitously when the risks become manifest. The administration's stated reason for its policy re-evaluation was widespread fraud in Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential election. But this explanation is simply not credible. Did not the administration's generals and diplomats on the ground, not to mention United Nations observers, see the election mess coming? Was the Hamid Karzai administration's cupidity and corruption overlooked or ignored during Obama's original review and revision of his predecessor's policy?
The unmistakable inference is that Obama did not carefully think through his March Afghan policy, or did not have full confidence then or now in Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal or Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, or that it is now politically inconvenient among increasingly antiwar Democrats to follow through on that policy. None of these explanations reflect credit on the president. He is dithering. Whatever decision Obama reaches on Afghanistan, his credibility and leadership have been badly wounded by his continuing public display of indecisiveness.
Our international adversaries undoubtedly welcome all of these "resets" in U.S. foreign policy, but Americans should be appalled at how much of our posture in the world has already been given away. If Obama's first nine months indicate the direction of the next 39, we still have a long way to fall. John R. Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of "Surrender Is Not an Option."
Editors Note: Can you believe this was published in the leftist LA Times? They were so far up Obama’s arse during the campaign, have they finally turned on him too?
Confirming yesterday’s column on Human Events by Connie Hair (a friend of this writer…) here’s Karl Rove describing how Obama is going to move forward with ObamaCare, the original House Bill H.R. 3200 which implements “death panels” and taxpayer funded abortions as “reproductive health care.”
The Democrats know they’re in trouble, and time is not on their side. They know if they lose key Governor’s races in New Jersey and elsewhere this November, that the jig is up on their socialist agenda. That’s why they’re going to try and “race this through” the voters of this country be damned.
Do we need anymore proof that the Democrats hate America as well as you and I, the citizens of this country? Obama, Reid, Pelosi certainly know what’s best for us and they’re upset that we don’t just bend to their will!
That’s right, Health Care “Reform”, Cap & Tax, Climate Change .. hang onto your wallets, the Democrats are coming for all our money!
Obama To Cede U.S. Sovereignty
All in the name of “climate change” the Western countries of the world are about to cede their national sovereignty to the United Nations and transfer trillions of dollars of wealth to third-world countries as a ‘debt payment’ for their not having contributed to so-called “global warming.”
House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) held a hearing this morning to certify that H.R. 3200 -- the main House Obamacare bill which was the subject of all the town hall rage in August -- has met all requirements to pass as a “budget reconciliation” measure.
Under reconciliation, the bill can be passed by a simple majority vote in the Senate -- just 51 votes -- and will be given preferential treatment on the House floor as well. The Dems have apparently invoked the “nuclear option” to shut out Republicans and ensure the bill is passed before the end of the year.
The bill certified for “reconciliation” is the Ways & Means version of H.R. 3200 that was passed out of committee before the August break, and before it was read aloud at town hall meetings across the country and blasted by voters across the country.
It contains all of the horrors previously exposed: federal funding of abortion, coverage for illegal aliens, comparative effectiveness, healthcare rationing, deep cuts to Medicare. Everything the American people overwhelmingly reject.
No amendments were allowed at the hearing and no debate. Rangel told Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the ranking Republican on the committee, that he would not have preferred to do it this way, but leadership -- i.e., Speaker Pelosi -- forced his hand.
While the media cameras are focused on Harry Reid’s office door, the House of Representatives has made it possible for H.R. 3200 to pass the Senate with 51 votes. It is still possible that Senator Reid won’t choose to use reconciliation in the Senate, but the odds against it are infinitesimal.
Since it has now cleared the Ways and Means Committee (fulfilling the $1 billion reconciliation requirement), H.R. 3200 will go to the Budget Committee where they will do the same thing that was done today in Ways & Means. They will agree that the bill has met the reconciliation requirements on a straight party line vote.
The bill then goes to Pelosi and the Rules Committee where Pelosi will do the same thing Reid is doing right now: merge the three House versions of H.R. 3200 together into whatever she wants it to be, then she will schedule it for a floor vote.
H.R. 3200 could see a floor vote in the next two weeks, or the first week of November. If it passes, the House it goes to the Senate and can pass there with 51 votes.
More evidence of the economy having “improved” since Obama took office? Hardly.
Obama said yesterday that the economy has improved since he took office in January of this year. Yesterday we posted that the unemployment rate is nearly 3% higher on a national average since he took office, and in some states more than 5% – 7% higher than when Obama seized the White House.
We also posted yesterday that according to the Department of Labor, an additional 5,500,000 (an average of 550,000 a month) have lost their jobs since Obama seized the White House in January of this year.
Today, we hear that home foreclosures went up an additional 5% in the Summer to Fall quarter of 2009, for a grand total of 15% over 2008’s record foreclosure rate, the last year of the Bush Administration.
Only in a liberal democrat panty waste land does rising unemployment, more unemployed, and more homeless mean a “better” economy.
Now the question is: Better for WHO? If you’re Barack Hussein Obama and you’ve already seized control of Wall Street, the Banking System, the Automobile Industry and are now seeking to gain control of the National Health Care system, the news couldn’t better for you!
Unfortunately for the rest of us who live in the real world outside the Washington D.C. bubble, we’re witnessing an abysmal failure of this Presidency at record speed, faster than the demonstrably failed Jimmy Carter Administration.
When Barack Obama took over the White House, the unemployment rate was just over 7.5%. Today, in many states the unemployment rate is over 10%, exceeding 12% – 14% in some urban areas such as Detroit, Chicago and elsewhere.
Since January 2009, an average of 550,000 jobs have been lost since the Obama Administration seized power. That’s 5,500,000 jobs lost since Obama took office.
Yet, the economy is better today than it was when he took office? Only a liberal, socialist democrat can claim job losses and higher unemployment equals a better economy!
Source: US Department of Labor Statistics
But you know, the sad thing is there are still plenty of stupid people left who voted for and support this moron of a President of ours.
Is it 2010 yet? Time to do what Jesse Jackson suggested during the summer of 2008 during the campaign and “cut Obama’s balls off” which to me means taking back the House and Senate, and getting rid of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid!
In the wake of the ACORN Pimp-Prostitution scandals last month, I wrote that Congress’ vote to de-fund ACORN was a joke, mostly because ACORN has some 300+ shell organizations, each of which gets their own funding from the Federal Government.
As Congress voted to de-fund ACORN, they did absolutely nothing about all the shell organizations under ACORN. Since I wrote that blog entry, time has born my statement to be true.
But now comes word that Congress pulled a complete “CYA” (Cover Your Arse) move when they “de-funded” acorn. Michelle Bachmann recently spoke out on KTLK in Minnesota and blew the lid off that Congress’ moratorium on funding ACORN expires on … Halloween.
Do we need more proof that it’s time to drain the swamp? Both Democrats AND Republicans voted to ‘de-fund’ ACORN temporarily, until American’s took their eyes off them, only to re-instate funding beginning November 1st.
If we the American Electorate are dumb enough to return any House or Senate member (save for Michelle Bachman) to Congress in the 2010 elections, we truly will get the government we deserve.
Is Barack Obama Really Jesus Christ?
As we’ve seen the past few weeks, the Government-run media and public schools have gone out of their way to promote Obama as a Christ-like figure.
So what’s behind the liberal left agenda in promoting Obama as “the messiah?” Andrew Klavan has that answer.
Earlier this week, a promise of “federal cash assistance” (read that: free money) brought some 60,000 residents of Detroit flocking to Cobo Hall creating sheer pandemonium.
These pictures speak volumes about the desperation in arguably this country’s poorest city – Detroit where one in three people live in complete poverty, and nearly 30% are unemployed.
150 police were called to the scene after rumors that “free cash” was being given out.
The line stretched for blocks causing the crowd to press forward to get to the building before the “free cash” ran out. Six people were taken to the hospital for injuries incurred as a result of the pandemonium that occurred.
Once inside, applications were given out to “apply for assistance.” Only 5,000 applications were available and only 3,400 people would actually receive some form of assistance from the Federal Government.
By the second day, more than 60,000 Detroit residents applied for federal assistance. Those who applied were never told that aid would be available to those making less than $35,000 per year, and only for about 3,400 families.
This is Obama’s America. Where you and I are desperate and dependent on the Federal Government for our daily sustenance.
The same Obama Administration that couldn’t run “cash for clunkers” or this “federal aid giveaway” properly wants to control our healthcare. Imagine, waiting in a mob like setting such as the above to see a doctor.
Yep, Obama’s America alright.
Related Links Decline Is A Choice The New Liberalism and the end of American ascendancy. Charles Krauthammer, The Weekly Standard
Just curious, is CNN going to “fact check” the Nobel Prize Committee, or have they figured out like the rest of us that it’s a joke that Obama gets the “peace prize” having done nothing but financially run the United States of America into the ground since he took office?
And who was the competition for the “Nobel Peace Prize” anyway?
1. Mahmoud Ahminedjad
2. Mohamar Khadafi
3. Kim Jung Il
With competition like that, no wonder Obama won!
In all seriousness, meet the six people who were passed over for Obama, thanks to the Weekly Standard for publishing the list:
Sima Samar, women's rights activist in Afghanistan: "With dogged persistence and at great personal risk, she kept her schools and clinics open in Afghanistan even during the most repressive days of the Taliban regime, whose laws prohibited the education of girls past the age of eight. When the Taliban fell, Samar returned to Kabul and accepted the post of Minister for Women's Affairs."
"Dr. Denis Mukwege: Doctor, founder and head of Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo. He has dedicated his life to helping Congolese women and girls who are victims of gang rape and brutal sexual violence."
Handicap International and Cluster Munition Coalition: "These organizations are recognized for their consistently serious efforts to clean up cluster bombs, also known as land mines. Innocent civilians are regularly killed worldwide because the unseen bombs explode when stepped upon."
"Hu Jia, a human rights activist and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, who was sentenced last year to a three-and-a-half-year prison term for 'inciting subversion of state power.'" "Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China's communist system. He now lives in the United States."
At this point I can only conclude that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee played a very bad joke on Obama and that the narcissistic jerk hasn’t figured it out yet. Fortunately, much of the rest of the world has:
London Times: "Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent. It was clearly seen by the Norwegian Nobel committee as a way of expressing European gratitude for an end to the Bush Administration.’
The 1983 Laureate, Lech Walesa: "Who, Obama? So fast? Too fast - he hasn't had the time to do anything yet," Walesa told reporters in Warsaw.
Associated Press finally writing about how Obama's more hope than accomplishment: "The Nobel committee, it seems, had the audacity to hope that he'll eventually produce a record worthy of its prize."
Marc Haines of CNBC: "Despite bombing the MOON, President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize."
Andrew Moylan: "Today's Nobel Prize announcement: clear evidence that the Nobel committee is a strong believer in the doctrine of pre-emptive action."
"Former President Jimmy Carter says the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Barack Obama is a 'bold statement of international support for his vision and commitment.'"
Well at least he didn’t call them a bunch of racists.
Are we being watched by big brother in cyberspace? Yes we are, according to two other blogs, The Muffled Oar which broke the story that the Washington Post reported just today.
The Dept. of Justice has hired a team of left-wing bloggers to "influence the blogsphere and online media" by posting positive comments about the Community Organizer in Chief whenever they find "negative" (or should we say "fishy") tories about Obama.
Who are these professional left-wing bloggers? One is none other than Tracy Russo, the former campaign blogger for John Edwards, the DNC and finally the Obama Campaign before taking an "official" position with the Department of Justice under Eric Holder.
This is a government run propaganda machine, attempting to propagandize the blogosphere on behalf of the Obama Administration, of this there can be no doubt. Using left-wing bloggers allows the Obama administration to preserve the left leaning blog community as an activist base to support Obama policies. Engagement with the centrist media and right wing online community allows government officials to rebut stories they disagree with directly. Who is paying for this government-wide effort?: You and I are, and the Obama Adminsitration is about to make a serious attempt to fully infiltrate anti-Obama blogs and social networks. Here's the most important part of the Washington Post story:
White House New Media Director Macon Phillips has coordinated the hiring of online and social media experts like Roberts to redesign or launch Web 2.0 offerings across the government and update and maintain the pages for their respective agencies. Phillips' office also keeps a list of potential candidates to hire once other agencies are ready to make the jump, according to an applicant familiar with the process.
So once again we have the lamestream media in this country failing to do their jobs. Any news organization worth their salt would be issuing Freedom Of Information Act requests for all communications between these left wing (government hired) bloggers and all Federal Agencies they spoke to. Additionally, they would obtain the names, salaries and staffing numbers of any so called "blogging team" for the Justice Department.
By the way, whoever the "Czar" is over the "blogosphere" should also be FIRED summarily with extreme prejudice.
Today's entry comes from an opinion piece I read in today's Wall Street Journal by Bret Stephens. The original title of the article is "How Israel Was Disarmed."
Given Barack Hussein Obama's penchant for buddying up to the worlds dictators and tyrants specifically Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Libya, Cuba and others this opinion piece wrapped in analysis presented what I think may actually be Obama's end game towards Israel and "peace in the middle east."
How Israel Was Disarmed Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal Published October 5th, 2009
Jan. 20, 2010 (Three months from now .....)
NEW YORK—When American diplomats sat down for the first in a series of face-to-face talks with their Iranian counterparts last October in Geneva, few would have predicted that what began as a negotiation over Tehran's nuclear programs would wind up in a stunning demand by the Security Council that Israel give up its atomic weapons.
Yet that's just what the U.N. body did this morning, in a resolution that was as striking for the way member states voted as it was for its substance. All 10 nonpermanent members voted for the resolution, along with permanent members Russia, China and the United Kingdom. France and the United States abstained. By U.N. rules, that means the resolution passes.
The U.S. abstention is sending shock waves through the international community, which has long been accustomed to the U.S. acting as Israel's de facto protector on the Council. It also appears to reverse a decades-old understanding between Washington and Tel Aviv that the U.S. would acquiesce in Israel's nuclear arsenal as long as that arsenal remained undeclared. The Jewish state is believed to possess as many as 200 weapons.
Tehran reacted positively to the U.S. abstention. "For a long time we have said about Mr. Obama that we see change but no improvement," said Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. "Now we can say there has been an improvement."
The resolution calls for a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East. It also demands that Israel sign the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and submit its nuclear facilities to international inspection. Two similar, albeit nonbinding, resolutions were approved last September by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
At the time, the U.S. opposed a resolution focused on Israel but abstained from a more general motion calling for regional disarmament. "We are very pleased with the agreed approach reflected here today," said then-U.S. Ambassador to the IAEA Glyn Davies.
Since then, however, relations between the Obama administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, never warm to begin with, have cooled dramatically. The administration accused Tel Aviv of using "disproportionate force" following a Nov. 13 Israeli aerial attack on an apparent munitions depot in Gaza City, in which more than a dozen young children were killed.
Mr. Netanyahu also provoked the administration's ire after he was inadvertently caught on an open microphone calling Mr. Obama "worse than Chamberlain." The comment followed the president's historic Dec. 21 summit meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Geneva, the first time leaders of the two countries have met since the Carter administration.
But the factors that chiefly seemed to drive the administration's decision to abstain from this morning's vote were more strategic than personal. Western negotiators have been pressing Iran to make good on its previous agreement in principle to ship its nuclear fuel to third countries so it could be rendered usable in Iran's civilian nuclear facilities. The Iranians, in turn, have been adamant that they would not do so unless progress were made on international disarmament.
"The Iranians have a point," said one senior administration official. "The U.S. can't forever be the enforcer of a double standard where Israel gets a nuclear free ride but Iran has to abide by every letter in the NPT. President Obama has put the issue of nuclear disarmament at the center of his foreign policy agenda. His credibility is at stake and so is U.S. credibility in the Muslim world. How can we tell Tehran that they're better off without nukes if we won't make the same point to our Israeli friends?"
Also factoring into the administration's thinking are reports that the Israelis are in the final stages of planning an attack on Iran's nuclear installations. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who met with his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak in Paris last week, has been outspoken in his opposition to such a strike. The Jerusalem Post has reported that Mr. Gates warned Mr. Barak that the U.S. would "actively stand in the way" of any Israeli strike.
"The Israelis need to look at this U.N. vote as a shot across their bow," said a senior Pentagon official. "If they want to start a shooting war with Iran, we won't have their backs on the Security Council."
An Israeli diplomat observed bitterly that Jan. 20 was the 68th anniversary of the Wannsee conference, which historians believe is where Nazi Germany planned the extermination of European Jewry. An administration spokesman said the timing of the vote was "purely coincidental."
Now that Chicago has thankfully lost it’s Olympic bid and the taxpayers of Chicago and Illinois (of which this writer is a resident) have been spared the local and state governments reaching into our pockets for billions of dollars of cost overruns via union contracts to build Olympic facilities, it’s a good time to sit back and watch the blame game begin.
My first thought after Chicago lost in the first round was “When will the cries of RACISM! begin?” It didn’t take but 30 minutes for the “good Reverend Jesse Jackson” to question the “politics” of the Olympic Committee with Jackson stopping just short of calling the site selection committee a bunch of racists.
Then I thought “how many lies did the Obama’s both tell trying to sway the site selection committee to choose Chicago?” I knew there was something wrong with Michelle Obama’s statement in which she said “Some of my best memories are sitting on my dad’s lap, cheering on Olga and Nadia, Carl Lewis, and others for their brilliance and perfection.”
Then there was Barack Hussein Obama’s apology tour which continued in the wee hours of yesterday morning in front of the Olympic Committee in which he turned the Olympics being in Chicago all about him as he referenced his own election as a moment when “people from around the world gathered in Chicago to see the results of last November and to celebrate our diversity as a source of our strength.
There is nothing I would like more than to step just a few blocks from my family's home and with Michelle and our two girls welcome the world back to our neighborhood. There is nothing more I would like more than to step just a few blocks from my family’s home and with Michelle and our two girls welcome the world back to our neighborhood."
There is no doubt in my mind that the Olympic Committee saw the smarmy arrogance of Obama and decided then and there to reject Obama (and therefore Chicago) altogether but it gets worse.
After Obama’s speech, the U.S. delegation took questions from Olympic Committee members and at one point Obama jumped in to answer a question. He stated that he “envisioned that the Chicago games would allow the United States to restore its image as a place that at its best, is open to the world.”
Yet another apology by Obama for what he views as an evil America, and blaming George W. Bush for Obama’s own failures in office thus far, rather than standing up for all that is good about this great country.
No doubt that the Olympic Committee was reminded by Obama’s apology of the recent crime wave in Chicago in which two young school children were brutally beaten and murdered in the past two weeks. As we heard from contacts in Denmark and the rest of Europe, those clips were played repeatedly in the European news media.
No doubt also that the Olympic Committee is well aware of the shenanigans surrounding the locations of the proposed Olympic sites in Chicago in which much of the land is owned by friends of Mayor Daley through a bunch of Tony Rezko like back room deals, which also no doubt reminded them of the political corruption surrounding Chicago, Illinois and Illinois politicians – including Obama. Chicago’s political corruption is legendary, the stuff jokes are made of. “Even the dead vote in Chicago.”
The backlash against Obama is growing by the day. The more the country and the world hears about Chicago style politics, the more it hurts Obama to be identified with Chicago and in fact Illinois and all the political corruption here. We remind you that five of this states last six governors have either served time in jail, are in jail, or soon will be in jail (once Blagojevich is convicted next year.)
As a resident of Illinois, I couldn’t be happier that Chicago lost in the first round. Not only is it a strong rebuttal of Obama, it’s a rebuttal of Chicago’s mayor Daley, Illinois’ corrupt politicians, and a blessing to the taxpayers of this once great state that our taxes won’t be raised higher still to pay for the cost overruns driven by politically connected union labor to build the Olympic sites.
Thank you Olympic Committee for saving us, the taxpayers of Illinois from financial ruin and becoming like Detroit.
On behalf of the Citizens of Chicago and the State of Illinois that DID NOT WANT the Olympics to come here, we say THANK YOU OLYMPIC COMMITTEE!! for giving the Olympics to Rio! We did not want our taxpayer dollars going into the corrupt pockets of Chicago's Mayor Daley or the corrupt Unions that run the city!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank YOU!
Perhaps now Obama can get back to the REAL sacrifice that’s going on in Iraq and Afghanistan and listen to General McChrystal’s pleas for additional troops in Afghanistan to turn back the Taliban surge…..
Contrary to what’s being reported around the country, there is no “overwhelming support” in Chicago or Illinois for that matter to host the Olympics. 47% of Chicago residents support having the Olympics, 47% oppose it. For the Olympic Committee’s benefit, here are some key reasons to NOT have the Olympics in Chicago:
1. Chicago is broke. The budget deficit for the city stands at nearly a half billion dollars. Mayor Daley of Chicago has put the taxpayers of the city “on the hook” to pay for any budget shortfalls as a result of hosting the olympics. Before he was thrown out of office, former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich wanted to put all the taxpayers of Illinois on the hook to pay for the Olympics in Chicago.
2. Chicago is the murder capital of the country. Even with the strictest anti-gun laws in America, an average of 10 murders are committed a weekend in the city. It is not a safe place to live.
3. Mass Transit in Chicago is a joke. The “El” in Chicago suffers frequent breakdowns stranding thousands of passengers. It’s dirty, filthy, noisy and the system is undersized, understaffed, underfunded and frankly is a cesspool on rails. Metra Rail, the commuter system that brings thousands of people into the city to work daily will be depended on to bring two-thirds of Olympics attendees into the city daily. Metra by its own admission doesn’t have the capacity to scale to handle Olympic crowds and has also be under-funded for years. The Metra train that this writer rides daily suffers from frequent delays due to equipment failures.
4. The political corruption in Chicago and Illinois will simply bleed the money intended to fund the Olympics and building projects required to host them here into the politicians and their favored constituents pockets. Considering the political corruption here in Illinois, do you really trust Major Daley and the Governor of Illinois to complete the building projects required to host the games on time, within budget without hammering the taxpayers of Chicago, Illinois or the country? Face it, when Daley runs out of Illinois Taxpayers money, he’s going to call his good friend Obama and rape the taxpayers of the United States who’ve already been hammered by bailout after bailout.
5. Finally, unlike the lies that Obama told the Olympic Committee overnight during the final pitch, Chicago is not a “united” city by any stretch of the imagination. Had you the olympic committee toured Chicago’s North, West and South sides you’d have seen the housing and economic disparities of these area’s.
In closing, we’d like the Olympic Committee to say “NO!” to Obama and host the Olympic Games elsewhere. Obama is used to hearing the word “NO!” Just ask Iran, North Korea, the EU, the World Trade Commission and more than 2,000,000 American’s who protested Obama’s socialist policies on September 12th.
While Michelle Obama “sacrifices” her time in Copenhagen to secure the Olympics “for the children” in Chicago, America’s Best die on teh battlefields of Afghanistan while the President’s priorities are elsewhere.
On August 30th, General Stanley McChrystal sent Defense Secretary Robert Gates an assessment on the war in Afghanistan calling for more U.S. troops to stem the tide of the Taliban insurgence and to reduce combat losses (read that: CASUALTIES.)
Since that date, 43 U.S. Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines have died in Obama’s War.
The War in Afghanistan was the “politically correct” war during the 2008 Presidential Campaign, this was the war that Obama said needed to be won as losing in Afghanistan would carry grave consequences for the United States.
As president – in March 2009 – Obama announced a “comprehensive new strategy” for Afghanistan: “I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan and to prevent their return to either country in the future,” he said.
We are now losing the war in Afghanistan.
In his confidential report which was leaked to the Washington Post just last week, General McChrystal told both Gates and Obama that turning back and defeating the Taliban insurgency “will not be possible if the United States fails to gain the initiative and reverse the insurgent momentum” in the next year.
Obama followed the leak to the Washington Post with his own rebuttal that troops “beyond what we already have” will not be deployed to Afghanistan until the “strategy is right.”
This past Sunday, General McChrystal said on CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he had met with Obama only once in the last 70 days to discuss the War in Iraq. McChrystal was hand selected by Obama earlier this year as the “right leader to win the War in Afghanistan.”
As our troops die at a record pace in Afghanistan (rivaling troop losses at the height of the Iraqi war) what is Obama doing?
Well, he’s off to Copenhagen to try and get the Olympics for Chicago. Then he greets Arnold Palmer in the Oval office to bestow the Congressional Medal of Honor on him.
Obama’s own Generals and military advisors are telling him that time is not on our side, and McChrystal needs 45,000 – 60,000 troops he’s requested immediately.
On the other side is Senator John Kerry (D. Mass) telling Obama to take weeks to months to review the mission in Afghanistan, the Boston Globe reported just today. Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee has said he’s not sure more troops are needed in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, 43 of America’s best have died and their blood is on Obama’s hands due to his inept inaction. Here are their names:
Lance Cpl. Jordan L. Chrobot, 24, of Frederick, Md., died Sept. 26 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.)
Spc. Kevin J. Graham, 27, of Benton, Ky., died Sept. 26 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
Sgt. Titus R. Reynolds, 23, of Columbus, Ohio; Sgt. Edward B. Smith, 30, of Homestead, Fla.; and Spc. Joseph V. White, 21, of Bellevue, Wash., died Sept. 24 in Omar Zai, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
Lance Cpl. John J. Malone, 24, of Yonkers, N.Y., died Sept. 24 while supporting combat operations in Farah province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Fore, based out of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay.
Pfc. William L. Meredith, 26, of Virginia Beach, Va., died Sept. 21 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 569th Engineer Company, 4th Engineer Battalion, Fort Carson, Colo.
Tech Sgt. James R Hornbarger, 33, of Castle Rock, Wash., died Sept. 12 as a result of a non-hostile incident in the Mediterranean. He was assigned to the 9th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Beale Air Force Base, Calif.
Sgt. David A. Davis, 28, of Dalhart, Texas, died Sept. 19 at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked Bagram Airfield using indirect fire. He was assigned to the 32nd Transportation Company, 68th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 43rd Sustainment Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
Spc. Corey J. Kowall, 20, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Spc. Damon G. Winkleman, 23, of Lakeville, Ohio, died Sept. 20 in Zabul province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained during a vehicle rollover. The soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Iraq: Spc. Michael S. Cote Jr., 20, of Denham Springs, La., died Sept. 19 in Balad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when the Blackhawk helicopter he was in crashed. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, Task Force 49, Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
Senior Airman Matthew R. Courtois, 22, of Lucas, Texas, died Sep 20 as a result of a non-hostile incident on Abdullah Al Mubarak Airbase, Kuwait. He was assigned to the 366th Security Forces Squadron, Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho.
Pfc. Jeremiah J. Monroe, 31, of Niskayuna, N.Y., died Sept. 17 in Kandahar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 7th Engineer Battalion, 10th Sustainment Brigade, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.
Sgt. 1st Class Bradley S. Bohle, 29, of Glen Burnie, Md.; Sgt. 1st Class Shawn P. McCloskey, 33, of Peachtree City, Ga.; and Staff Sgt. Joshua M. Mills, 24, of El Paso, Texas, died Sept. 16 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their vehicle Sept. 15 with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Sgt. Robert D. Gordon II, 22, of River Falls, Ala., died Sept. 16 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, from a non-combat related illness, after becoming ill Sept. 11 in southern Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
1st Lt. David T. Wright II, 26, of Moore, Okla.; and Sgt. Andrew H. McConnell, 24, of Carlisle, Pa., died of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive device Sept. 14 in southern Afghanistan. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
Spc. Demetrius L. Void, 20, of Orangeburg, S.C., died Sept. 15 at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when a military vehicle struck him while conducting physical training. He was assigned to the 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 11th Signal Brigade, III Corps, Fort Hood, Texas.
Staff Sgt. Bryan D. Berky, 25, of Melrose, Fla., died Sept. 12 near Bala Baluk, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained from enemy fire while supporting combat operations. He was assigned to the 28th Civil Engineer Squadron, Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.
Staff Sgt. Nekl B. Allen, 29, of Rochester N.Y., and Spc. Daniel L. Cox, 23, of Parsons, Kan., died Sept. 12 in Wardak province, Afghanistan, of injuries sustained when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with an improvised-explosive device and small arms fire. The soldiers were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.
Pfc. Matthew M. Martinek, 20, of DeKalb, Ill., died Sept. 11 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds suffered in Paktika province, Afghanistan, Sept. 4 when enemy attacked his vehicle with an improvised-explosive device followed by a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.
Iraq: Sgt. 1st Class Duane A. Thornsbury, 30, of Bridgeport, W. Va., died Sept.12 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, Fort Carson, Colo.
Sgt. Tyler A. Juden, 23, of Winfield, Kan., died Sept. 12 in Turan, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fires. He was assigned to the 4th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
1st Lt. Tyler E. Parten, 24, of Arkansas, died Sept. 10 in Konar province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. He was assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
Lance Cpl. Christopher S. Fowlkes, 20, of Gaffney, S.C., died Sept. 10 from wounds sustained Sept. 3 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Iraq: Staff Sgt. Shannon M. Smith, 31, of Marion, Ohio; Pfc. Thomas F. Lyons, 20, of Fernley, Nev.; and Pfc. Zachary T. Myers, 21, of Delaware, Ohio, died of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with an explosive device Sept. 8 in Baji, Iraq. They were assigned to the 545th Military Police Company, Arctic Military Police Battalion, U.S. Army, Alaska, Fort Richardson, Alaska.
Sgt. Youvert Loney, 28, of Pohnpei, Micronesia, died Sept. 5 in Abad, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle using small arms and recoilless rifle fires. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
Gunnery Sgt. Edwin W. Johnson Jr., 31, of Columbus, Ga.; 1st Lt. Michael E. Johnson, 25, of Virginia Beach, Va.; and Staff Sgt. Aaron M. Kenefick, 30, of Roswell, Ga., died Sept. 8 while supporting combat operations in Kunar province, Afghanistan. Gunnery Sgt. Johnson and Staff Sgt. Kenefick were assigned to 3rd Combat Assault Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Okinawa, Japan. 1st Lt. Johnson was assigned to 7th Communications Battalion, 3rd Marine Headquarters Group, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Okinawa, Japan.
Petty Officer 3rd Class James R. Layton, 22, of Riverbank, Calif., died Sept. 8 in Kunar province, Afghanistan, while supporting combat operations. He was assigned to an embedded training team with Combined Security Tranisiton Command in Afghanistan.
Capt. Joshua S. Meadows, 30, of Bastrop, Texas, died Sept. 5 while supporting combat operations in Farah province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Iraq: 1st Lt. Joseph D. Helton, 24, of Monroe Ga., died Sept. 8 near Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive devise. He was assigned to the 6th Security Forces Squadron, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.
Staff Sgt. Michael C. Murphrey, 25, of Snyder, Texas, died Sept. 6 in Paktika province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.
Sgt. Randy M. Haney, 27, of Orlando, Fla., died Sept. 6 in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit using small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fires. He was assigned to the 4th Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
2nd Lt. Darryn D. Andrews, 34, of Dallas, Texas, died Sept. 4 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device and a rocket-propelled grenade. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska.
Lance Cpl. Christopher S. Baltazar Jr., 19, of San Antonio, Texas, died Sept. 3 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Benjamin P. Castiglione, 21, of Howell, Mich., died Sept. 3 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Battalion.
Iraq: Staff Sgt. Todd W. Selge, 25, of Burnsville, Minn.; and Spc. Jordan M. Shay, 22, of Salisbury, Mass., died Sept. 3 in Baqubah, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over. The soldiers were assigned to the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
Spc. Tyler R. Walshe, 21, of Shasta Calif., died Aug. 31 in southern Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
Spc. Jonathan D. Welch, 19, of Yorba Linda, Calif., and Pfc. Jordan M. Brochu, 20, of Cumberland, Maine, died Aug. 31 in Shuyene Sufia, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. The soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Lewis, Wash.
Lance Cpl. David R. Hall, 31, of Elyria, Ohio, died Aug. 31 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.
May our loving Almighty Father bless and keep them in his tender care.
Barack Hussein Obama, the Democrat Controlled Congress, the Fed and the Treasury are spending your money like drunken sailors!
CLICK HERE to see the Debt, Deficit and how much you and your children owe! (Updated in real-time, the numbers will spin your head.)
Since the recession began in December of 2008, 9.5 million American's have lost their jobs.
Of those 8.5 million, nearly 8.5 million have occurred under Obama's watch.
During OBama's first two years in office alone, unemployment reached a twenty-six plus year high of 10.2%.
CNN Reports There Are 400,000 fewer people working today, then when Obama took office! Where's the "Recovery?!"
There are now 25 MILLION People in this country who are Unemployed / Under-Employed / Gave Up Looking for work. That's more than any other time in this country's history.
That's more than the entire population of the State of Pennsylvania, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Unemployment Rate remains above 8% for the FOURTH year in a row - longer than any other time in history of this country.
How about Foreign Policy?
North Korea has successfully tested a nuclear weapon for the third timeand has directly threatened the security of the United States of America by declaring the Korean War has resumed.
The response by the Obama Administration? Silence, followed by more 'sanctions' against North Korea. As if that's going to matter.
Iran has accellerated its nuclear program in defiance of the United States and the so-called "United Nations." The Obama Administration's response? Another useless sanction with the United Nations. Iran now has several THOUSAND centrifuges making fissible, nuclear material for BOMBS and is DIRECTLY threatening war against Israel now.
Obama's response: Threaten Israel.
On the Economic Front:
The "Misery Index" is once again being calculated - for the first time since the disastrous Jimmy Carter Presidency.
By printing and adding another $6 TRILLION dollars in DEBT, Obama has set the stage for 1970's style inflation. Welcome to the Obama Economy.
The Federal Budget Deficit, which was $400 billion dollars for 2009 as voted on and approved by Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and yes, Barack Hussein Obama during the last year of the Bush Presidency
Obama Budget Deficits have exceeded $1.5 TRILLION Dollars each year he's been in office. That's a historic first! They can't blame this on Bush, they own this crap sammich!
How about Obama's record on Energy?
Obama is still pushing for Cap and Tax. Once Cap & Tax has been instituted, along with the $1/gallon fuel tax advocated by some Obama Appointees we can expect gas to be $6/gallon or higher, should Cap & Tax go into effect.
Obama's EPA has effectively SHUT DOWN all off-shore drilling, and all drilling on Federal land. The "boom" in drilling is happening on PRIVATE LAND where the EPA cannot stop it.
How about the War on Terror?
Afghanistan is LOST.Obama's failed policies have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The Taliban is resurgent, and the Obama Administration has entered into "negotiations" with the very regime that aided Osama Bin Laden in attacking us on 9-11-01. Why isn't Obama being impeached for TREASON?!
Obama - Change we can all believe in, to be sure (/sarcasm)
Why is Obama So Incompetent? 143 Days ....
That's the sum total of Barak Obama's experience in the United States Senate, prior to announcing his run for the United States Presidency.
Visits To NoBamaNation Since This Blog Was Started
In this video from 2004, Barak Obama says he's not qualified to run for President before ever having served a day in the U.S. Senate. I guess those 143 days have "qualified" him then?
Obama- Flops
Here are our favorite YouTube clips documenting Barak Hussein Obama's flip-flops on key positions.
*** NEW *** Obama Flip-Flops on Missile Defense During 1st Debate:
Obama flip-flopping on his position in Iraq:
Obama Flip-Flopping on Iran (and dangerously underestimating their resolve for Nuclear weapons)
Here, Obama flip-flops on the D.C. Gun Ban:
And here's another clip on the same topic:
Here's Obama flip-flopping on suspending the Federal Gas Tax. (Note: as a Junior Illinois State Legislator he supported suspending the Gas tax, but opposes suspending the Federal Gas Tax as a US Senator.)
Obama flip-flopping on Welfare Reform:
Obama Flip-Flopping on Public Financing for his Campaign:
In this video from 2004, Barak Obama says he's not qualified to run for President before ever having served a day in the U.S. Senate. (Must be those 143 days of experience that made the difference!)
And another clip of Obama admitting he's not ready to be President (this time as as sitting U.S. Senator!)
![4rde04[7]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7JmGMlShU44TTJHl2DREQEohqHUrV3V_xu3mN_SzQDF2Og9uJtfLHac1aAmYEK_f3WcCAWy-UYz0m5uTh6RcDuYMZYGQQlHVbxghyphenhyphenLXgu5S2KJX2IHi7fhSWnE0yaJdGeN_ygt4qgf9U/s1600-h/4rde04%5B7%5D%5B4%5D.jpg "4rde04[7]")
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